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 MING THE POPE'S BULL 
 WirrtMbERG 9 A M.-IOT" DEC? 1520. 
 
 OOW, EDINBURGH X LONDON . 
 
HISTOEY 
 
 REFORMATION 
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 BY J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, 
 
 VBEKIDKNT OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, GENEVA, AND MEMDER OF THE SOCIKTR EVANGELIQUB. 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 DAVID DUNDAS SCOTT, Esq., 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE "SUrPRSSSlON OF THE REFORMATION IN FRANCE.' 
 
 WITH NOTES 
 
 FROM THE NETHERLANDS EDITION OF THE REV. J. J. LE ROY, OF THE 
 DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 BLACKIE AND SON, QUEEN STREET, GLASGOW; 
 
 SOUTH COLLEGE STREET, EDINBURGH; 
 AND WARWICK SQUARE, LONDON. 
 MDCCCLV. 
 
Oift Of th. Esta , .. ,j .^ 
 
 " 1 call accessory, the state of tluEjs in this frail and fleetinfr life. I call principal, the spirltK&l 
 government in which the providence of God shines forth with sovereign lustre."— Beza. 
 
 
 v.\ 
 
 w. O. BLACRIB AND CO., PRINTER?, OLMQCX, 
 
ENGLISH TRANSLATOirS 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 The work of which a new translation is now presented to British 
 readers, is ah-eady so widely known and highly appreciated, that 
 praise from me is altogether superfluous. An excellent estimate of it 
 will he found in the preface to the Netherlands edition, to which this 
 is indehted for many valuahlc Notes. I may advert, however, to some 
 circumstances which make it desirable that M. Merle d'Aubigne's 
 history should be still more extensively read amongst us, and to some 
 of the objections, also, that have been brought against it. 
 
 .We are manifestly deficient in good Church histories, and feel this 
 the more, from the number and excellence of works of that nature, 
 devoted mainly or exclusively to civil afiuirs. Various causes may be 
 assigned for this defect, but there can be no vahd reason for not endeav- 
 ourinc^ to supply it, by naturalising foreign if we cannot find native 
 works of equal excellence. As protestants, we are not educated by a 
 sacerdotal or monastic caste, ever seeking to enhance their pretensions 
 to respect and authority by pointing to the marvellous and the mag- 
 nificent in the past annals of what they call "the church;" and in 
 our ordinary religious instructions, Scriptural history and doctrines 
 naturally and properly occupy so large a space, that the records 
 of times subsequent to the completion of the sacred canon, are apt to 
 be undervalued and neglccted.i Were authentic church history to 
 occupy an equal space in protestant teaching with the legends of 
 saints in the papal communion, doubtless that department of popular 
 literature would not be so defective as it is. 
 
 A single glance at our previous resources shows how much reason 
 we have to hail the work of JM. Merle d'Aubigne. Fox, Fuller, 
 Burnett and some others of our older church historians, are either 
 quaint or prosaic, and are at the same time both bulky and incomplete. 
 Others, also, who have written more lately, have confined themselves 
 to particular parts only of the ground which they might have traversed, 
 and have superadded the faults of partiality and partizanship. Mo- 
 slieim and Milner stand pre-eminent in respect of the compass they 
 embrace, and the spirit in which they have executed their task; but 
 
 1 Modern church history is iaught, it appears, in the public Bchools of Trussia, 
 to all the youth of that country. 
 
their volumes are not written in a popular style, and extend over too 
 vast a period to admit of sufficient justice being done to all its parts. 
 Not that either of those authors is superficial, for much solid learning 
 and valuable criticism are to be found in both : but they necessarily 
 partake of the nature of epitomes, and so far fall under lord Bacon's 
 censure when he speaks of these as "the moths and corrupters of his- 
 tory." This has also contributed to make them unpopular, particu- 
 larly to the present generation of readers, which, as I sliall afterwards 
 have toremark, considers minuteness of historical delineation as essential 
 to interest, and all but essential to truth. Mere epitomes, such as we 
 have in Bossuet's Universal history, or such as are so often to be found 
 in the periodical literature of the day, may be animated and even 
 captivating, but will always be found to owe these qualities more to 
 the oenius of the writer than to the events he introduces. Genius 
 may place a few detached facts in bold relief, and throw a splendid 
 colouring over them, but this is neither rightly to appreciate past 
 events, nor to learn the proper lessons of history. 
 
 The very charms of our secular historians have done much to throw 
 church history and historians into the shade. In childhood we arc 
 fascinated with the spirit-stirring annals of Greece and Rome, and as 
 we advance in years, Hume, Robertson, Gibbon, &c. tend to con- 
 firm the illusion that while secular events form the staple of history, 
 the memorials of that body to which all worldly things are subordin- 
 ated in the Divine coimsels, and which is destined to surpass all earthly 
 empires in duration and glory, are merely adventitious and episodical. 
 Some of our histories of particular periods and churches, and many 
 of our ecclesiastical biographies, are admirable of their kind. But, 
 neither together nor separately, do they supply the place of more 
 extensive works. No where do we find so long and important a period 
 as the sixteenth century, treated with the fulness which it receives in 
 the pages of this Genevan historian. 
 
 If any be prejudiced against this work because written by a 
 foreigner, be it remembered that this very circumstance is attended 
 with peculiar advantages. Residing at one time in Germany, at an- 
 other in Belgium, settling finally at Geneva, and frequently visiting 
 France, the author has had manifest facilities for collecting his materi- 
 als, and by familiarity with some of the most important scenes of the 
 Reformation, he has been enabled to describe these with much of the 
 animation and graphic power of an eye-witness. 
 
 In the scenic efFect of many of his descriptions, and the dramatic 
 turn which his narrative derives from a frequent use of the present 
 tense,^ the author may ofifend the taste of many of his readers on this 
 side of the Channel, and the same persons will probably complain that 
 
 1 This I liavc ventured very often to alter in tliP tranblation. 
 
PUEFACE. 
 
 his style is occasionally too elaborate and ambitious; nay, they may 
 object to those picturesque descriptions, and that occasionally romantic 
 colouring which with others possibly constitute one of the grand charms 
 of his work. I do not wonder at this. The extreme simplicity of 
 the style of Herodotus has had many readers to admire, and many 
 authors to perpetuate it in Britain. It may even be objected by some, 
 who think they cannot extend the authority of holy Scripture too far, 
 that the history of the Church ought to be written with the same 
 unadorned simplicity that distinguishes the pages of inspiration. 
 Puttino- the Bible out of view, I confess that the author's other writ- 
 infrs, and the familiarity he must have contracted with the simple 
 chroniclers of the sixteenth century, might have led us to expect 
 somewhat more of the soberness of the Genevan style, and of the 
 unclojano- simplicity of the elder annalists of France; qualities which 
 would have secured him, likewise, from the sneer that his work is a 
 romance rather than a history. 
 
 But many valid considerations may have induced him so far to 
 modify the form in which his labours are presented to the public, as 
 to suggest the Idea, that while in substance they are from the hand 
 of a master, imbued with the tastes as well as familiar with the solid 
 learninw of a former age, in point of style they have received the ela- 
 boration of some artist, who, from being chiefly conversant with the 
 literature of the present day, has been able to adapt them to the 
 taste of the living generation, particularly in France. If his history 
 differ in pbint of style from his other productions; if it do not all 
 possess the chasteness and simplicity which unquestionably mark a 
 great part of it; may it not be that by an innocent modification of 
 his style, he has sought to allure to the impartial study of one of the 
 most important eras in the history of the Church, a multitude of 
 readers who might otherwise have treated his labours with contempt? 
 It was of infinite consequence that that host of prejudices, which has 
 hitherto enveloped the ecclesiastical proceedings of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, and disfigured both the men and the measures of that period in 
 the minds of the vast reading population, especially of France, should 
 be removed; but in order to this being done effectually, the historian 
 behoved to consult, and, in point of taste, to make what he himself 
 might deem concessions to the likings and dislikings of the persons 
 who needed to be disabused of their prejudices. This service the 
 late Dr. M'Crie rendered to the cause of the Refoi-mation In his 
 native country, and in Italy and Spain; he was engaged in attempt- 
 ing the same task with regard to Geneva and France, when taken 
 from his labours to his rest: the taste which he needed to consult, he 
 did consult, seeking to gain the public ear by a rare combination of 
 that simple vigour and purity which were then more popular than 
 now with British readers; and he lived to see the men whose prin- 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 ciples and cliaracters he sought to rescue from caUimny and oblivion, 
 occupy a new and honourable place in the judgments of all intelligent 
 and candid men. But other qualities are now thought indispensable 
 to the interest of history both in France and Britain. Our neigh- 
 bours are accustomed to scenic representations from their infancy, 
 and acquire an early relish for dramatic effect. This is not so with 
 us, but a taste for the picturesque and romantic, and for having the 
 scenes and events of history minutely delineated and brightly coloured 
 prevails in both countries; and, accordingly, by some of those very 
 peculiarities of style which have been blamed in the author's pages, 
 there can be no doubt that he has obtained a reading from multi- 
 tudes who would otherwise have slighted them. I do not see that 
 this popularity has been improperly acquired, if the essential truth of 
 history have been preserved, and it in no wise follows that that 
 grand point has been sacrificed. The use of the present tense can 
 mislead no one as to the time when the events related actually took 
 place. There is such a thing, too, as the romance of real life, and 
 this was pre-eminently the case in regard to many, both of tlie 
 greater and lesser actors in the scenes of the Reformation. Many 
 things, moreover, become picturesque, and to the taste of our ago 
 interesting, in the exact proportion that they are minutely and accur- 
 ately described. Truth and fiction are not necessarily associated with 
 certain peculiarities of manner and style. Defoe's fictions, though 
 written with what seems the most artless simplicity, are not the less 
 the pure creations of their authoi-'s fancy, and the truth of the history 
 before us must be tested by the numerous references to authorities 
 scattered throughout its pages, and by the author's faithfulness to 
 those authorities, not by vagaie insinuations grounded on the mere 
 jjeculiarities of his style. 
 
 In these views I am happy to find myself borne out by some very 
 judicious remarks, occurring in a lately published criticism on the 
 Pictorial History of England. 1 In alluding to that alteration in the 
 public taste, mainly referable, the author thinks, to the almost omni- 
 potent influence of Sir Walter Scott, and according to which historians 
 who have written "with a total absence of every thing like historical 
 colour and costume in their portraits," have become so far unpopular, 
 he admits that "in as far as picturesque effect, and the minute particu- 
 larities which give colour to history and fiction are concerned, there 
 is of course no ground for quarrel with this progressive change in the 
 public taste, in as much as it is an advance towards truth." His 
 fears spring from a different source. He dreads, and with reason 
 too, that the minute accuracy of historical painting demanded by the 
 taste of the present day, may lead to those general characteristics 
 which are common to men in all circumstances, being lost sight of in 
 
 ' See Edinburgh Keview, No. CL. 
 
I'UETACR. 
 
 our attention to those that arc distinctive. "Substantial reality," 
 says he, "no longer suffices us, wo must have outward verisimilitude 
 also; and we become apt to mistake the show for the substance;" and 
 thus "history may become rather a gallery of portraits than a series 
 of examples." 
 
 These remarks, it must be confessed, go far to justify those Avho 
 attribute to an express provision of divine wisdom the absence of 
 every thing like the picturesque and romantic in the narratives of 
 the four evangelists, even when, as relating our Lord's temptation in 
 the wilderness, his preaching on the mount, his feeding the multi- 
 tudes, &c., there seemed ample scope for introducing it; and they 
 certainly suggest an important lesson to the readers of the work 
 before us. It cannot be said that in endeavouring to meet in some 
 measure the present taste for minute local colouring and so forth, the 
 author has lost sight of "the substantial realities" of his subject, or 
 of the great lessons and bright examples of the period which he 
 reviews. The reader, however, may be tempted to do so. Fascin- 
 ated by what is adventitious and peculiar to an age, the fashion of 
 which has in so many respects past away, he may gratify bis curi- 
 osity and his imagination while his heart and conscience remain 
 untouched, and thus he may make what is true, and was designed to 
 be instructive, as utterly worthless in point of moral results, as if it 
 really were a mere romance. 
 
 Two objections yet remain to be noticed. 
 
 The reader needs to be on his guard against an Impression which the 
 perusal of the first volume of the original work is likely to create, and 
 which the author seems either not to have observed, or at least does not 
 directly seek to rectify, until he has occasion to speak of Luther's return 
 from the Wartburg to Wittemberg in his third volume. The substi- 
 tution of forms for life, of superstitious ceremonies for the worship of 
 the true God in spirit and in truth, and of domination on the one hand, 
 and abject servility on the other, for the feelings of Christian love and 
 brotlierhood, by all which popery stands out in such decided contrast 
 with primitive Christianity, together with the cold and sceptical for- 
 mality which marks, alas! many of the nominally protestant churches 
 of our day, has led the author to speak too slightly, in the opinion 
 of many excellent persons, of every thing like established ecclesiastical 
 forms, constitution, and discipline. Indeed, one might suppose from 
 some of his expressions, that he considered anything beyond a vague 
 sympathy, loosely connecting persons of one faith and common feelings, 
 as destructive of inward life and spirituality. But to those who give 
 the whole work an attentive perusal, I am convinced it will appear 
 that this in reality is as little the author's opinion as it is certainly far 
 from being scripturally sound, or likely to promote vital godliness and 
 true Christian libertv. 
 
J5 PREFACE. 
 
 The last objection is that to which I advert in a note at page 69, 
 and it appUes to the loose and dangerous employment which some have 
 thought to be occasionally made by the author, of language borrowed 
 from the infidel philosophy of the last century. My criticism having 
 been quoted in a short notice of this translation by the London 
 Record of 2d December last, it thus fell under the eye of M. Merle 
 d'Aubigne himself, and drew from him an explanation to a corres- 
 pondent, which was subsequently inserted in the same paper, and 
 which in fairness at once to the author and myself I think it right to 
 introduce here. As the expressions which have sounded strangely 
 in the ears of some Christian readers, nearly all owe their suspicious 
 aspect to their being supposed to attribute too much to the unaided 
 powers of man, and to favour the idea, so popular with a certain school 
 of philosophers, that mankind are in a progressive state, irrespective 
 altogether of the action of Christianity on their individual and collec- 
 tive characters, this more elaborate development of the author's views 
 wiU be found to apply to nearly all of them. " The Record of 
 December the 2d announces the translation of the first volume of my 
 History of the Reformation by Mr. D. D. Scott, and cites a remark 
 of the translator's. I do not think the words ' the human mind 
 was growing older,' rightly interpret the French expression, '■L' esprit 
 humain croissait! It appears to me that Mr. Scott has rather trans- 
 lated the words as if I had WTitten L' esprit humain vieillissait, which 
 is not the same thing, A youth of eighteen increases in years, but 
 we cannot say that he grows old (vieilless2). From the ruins of 
 ancient humanity God brought out a new one {une nouvelle)!' 
 
 The English reader will at once perceive that M. M. d'A. fails 
 to observe the wide difierence between our use of the word old^ and 
 the French use of vieiix — that to " increase in years," and "to grow 
 older," in English mean precisely the same thing — and that had I 
 translated croissait as if it had been vieillissait, and represented the 
 human mind as growing old or aged, the point of my remark would 
 have been entirely lost. What I objected to was the idea of the 
 human mind advancing by virtue of its own energies ; now old age 
 implies, not advance, but decline. 
 
 In the following paragraph, however, the discussion ceases to be 
 verbal, and brings fully out the view that has been objected to: 
 
 " It is youth which is referred to here rather than age. But as to 
 the remark, I think Mr. Scott has not well imderstood that I dis- 
 tinguish between ajfranchissement and reformation. The work of 
 enfranchisement was rather that of the fifteenth century; the revival 
 of letters and the discovery of printing, and the magnetic compass, 
 are its most marked features. The work of reformation is that of the 
 sixteenth century. There Luther is the first and principal. The 
 v/ork of enfranchisement was negative; it concerned matters of which 
 
I'KEFACE. 9 
 
 the human mind is capable. The work of the Reformation Nvas 
 positive; it was to creatp, and this is what the Spirit of the Lord can 
 alone do. Opposition to Rome often existed among the humanists 
 and men of letters as well as among the Reformers. 13ut the fifteenth 
 century substituted nothing for Rome; the sixteenth century substi- 
 tuted the primitive Church of Jesus Christ. This was tlie work of 
 the Lord. I have also remarked, that with infidelity invading the 
 Church it Avas all over with her, if the Reformation had not come to 
 restore faith to her. JMr. Scott then is, I think, mistaken in his 
 remark, and it appears to me that his is also the opinion of the Record. 
 The Spirit of God, at the time of the Reformation, accomplished the 
 work of enfranchisement much better than the human mind would 
 ever have been able to do. But to deny, in the face of history, that 
 it was begun in the fifteenth century, is a thing Impossible." 
 
 There can be no doubt that the discoveries made in the fifteenth 
 century, as well as the revival of letters, powerfully promoted the 
 Reformation and the subsequent enfranchisement of the human mind. 
 But I apprehend that the state of Italy and Spain down to the pre- 
 sent day, not to speak of Turkey and other Mahometan and idolatrous 
 countries which have long had the benefit of printing, the magnet, 
 &c., fully establishes the point that, even with all these aids and appli- 
 ances, the human mind is positively incapable of reaching any condition 
 to which the word enfranchisement, or deliverance from bondage, can 
 be justly applied. Take from philosophy what she owes to the Gos- 
 pel, and even France will be found to owe little, indeed, to the natural 
 powers of the mind. Vibrating between political bondage and anarchy 
 as a state, and with a population divided between the slaves of Roman 
 superstition or of selfish passions, she may fancy herself enfranchised 
 because she has printing presses, schools of science and art, and a 
 public press, but the enormous sums she pays to support a numerous 
 priesthood whose tenets are vitally inimical to freedom, show that 
 even she has not yet reached what can well be called a state of affran- 
 chisement^ and when she does, I doubt not she will owe It to the 
 Gospel not to " matters of which the human mind Is capable.'"' 
 
 I am happy, however, to find that any remark of mine has brought 
 out so full a statement of the Author's views; for incorrect though I 
 still may deem them, his explanation will show at least, that in none 
 of the expressions which have been objected to in his work, as imply- 
 ing dangerous concessions to the philosophical spirit that would exalt 
 the inherent capabilities of the human mind, has he really lost sight 
 of its utter inability to do, what God alone can do, complete its own 
 enfranchisement. In point of fact, both before and after the fifteenth 
 century, we find attempts made by the human mind, unaided by the 
 faith of the Gospel, to throw off both ecclesiastical and civil bondage. 
 These, however, have generally proceeded from the rude energies of 
 
 b 
 
1 PREFACE. 
 
 an uncultivated vulgar, not from men whose civilization bad been 
 promoted by such aids as the invention of printing and the revival of 
 literature. The unsophisticated instincts of iUiterate mobs have 
 repeatedly produced a devoted and disinterested, though beadlona 
 and ill-dh'ected revulsion against ecclesiastical and civil wrongs, where- 
 as the literate and polite have generally preferred consulting their 
 own ease to the risks attending a courageous opposition to established 
 abuses, however clearly apprehended by them, in church or state. The 
 brunt of the conflict has almost always been borne by the former, while 
 the latter have meanly sheltered themselves by simulating conformity 
 with rites which they despised, and acquiescing in a tyranny which they 
 detested; and, instead of furnishing martyrs to the cause of religious 
 and civil liberty, they have even passively promoted the persecution of 
 those who were so. So much fo;: what man is capable of doing in 
 virtue of any "growth" of which the human mind is susceptible, or 
 of any aids afforded by the discoveries and inventions of past times, 
 irrespective of divine revelation and the grace of God. 
 
 Such are the censures and objections which this work, like every 
 other of similar pretensions and notoriety, has called forth, in so far 
 as they have reached me. Granting that these were more numerous 
 and better founded than they are, the Author's " History of the Refor- 
 mation in the Sixteenth Century" would still remain a magnificent 
 monument to his piety, genius, and industry. May he long be pre- 
 served in health and strength for its progress and completion ! The 
 faithful in old times, as we learn from both Testaments, loved to 
 review God's dealings with their fathers, and to retrace the great 
 events that had marked the history of the Church. This was a 
 divinely-commanded duty with which they rejoiced to comply. Far 
 from isolating the generation to which they themselves might belong, 
 or from forgetting the special responsibilities imposed by their rela- 
 tion to the past and future, they found powerful encouragements to 
 auty in connecting themselves with both. The work before us has 
 invested a peculiarly instructive portion of the past with a fresh 
 interest in the minds of many. May it long both continue to do so 
 and to stimulate them also to pray and labour that the rich inheri- 
 tance of privileges secured to us by the instrumentality of the 
 faithful who have gone before, may be transmitted, increased not 
 diminished, confirmed not weakened, to those who are to follow! 
 
 D. D. S. 
 
CONTENTS-VOL. I. 
 
 Page 
 PllEFACE. 1"!'^ 
 
 BOOK I.— State op the world before the reformation— Two Distinguish- 
 ing Principles — First Encroachment— External Unity cf the Church — Co- 
 operation of the Princes— Secular Power- Disorders at Rome— Hildebrand — 
 Hildebrand's Successor- Coi-ruption of Doctrine — Penances— Indulgences — 
 Jubilees— State of Christendom— Theology— Predestination— Man's Original 
 State— The Popular Religion— Corruption of Morals— Disorderly Lives of the 
 Bishops— Disorderly Lives of the Popes— Ignorance— Eflforts towards Refor- 
 mation — Council of Constance— Christianity Imperishable— Transformation 
 of the Church — Roman Theology— Remains of Spiritual Life — Tho Refor- 
 mation saved Religion — Principles of the Reformation — The Mystics, the 
 Vaudois, Wicliff witnesses within the Church— State of the European 
 Nations— Peace— Servile Subjection of Germany— Opposition to Rome— Pro- 
 vidential Preparations— The Smaller Countries— Italy— Obstacles to the Re- 
 formation — Italy— France—The Netherlands— Scotland— The North— Russia 
 —Poland— Frederick the Wise— Revival of Letters— Reuchlin in Italy- 
 Contest with the Dominicans— Erasmus at Paris — Achievements of Erasmus 
 — A Reformation impossible \^nthout commotion — Indecision of Erasmus — 
 The Nobles of Germany— Hiitten— The Letters of some Obscure Men — 
 Sickingen— Cronberg— Hans Sachs— General Treatment 19-124 
 
 BOOK II.— Early life, conversion, and first labours of luther.— Luther's 
 Birth and Parentage- Luther's Paternal Home— Luther's extreme Poverty 
 — Isenac— The Shunammite— Luther's Studies— Treborius— The University 
 -Luther discovers a Bible— Luther made Master of Arts— The Tlmnder-bolfc 
 —Providence— Luther Enters a Jlonastery— Luther's servile Employments- 
 Luther's Studies in the monastery— The Bible— Asceticism — Luther during 
 Mass at Erfurt— Luther's Sufferings in the Monastery— Staupitz's Visitation 
 at Erfurt— The Grace of Christ— Staupitz's Views of Providence— The Old 
 Monk at Erfurt — Luther receives Priest's Orders — Luther teaches Philosopliy 
 at Wittemberg — Impression made by Luther's Lectures— Luther's Eloquence 
 — He goes to Rome — Memorials of the Past in Rome — Profancness of the 
 Clergy — Disorders in Rome — Inllucncc of tho Bible on Luther's Faith — 
 Luther's Confession — His Return to Wittemberg — Luther made a Doctor — 
 Carlfitadt— Grand Prmeiplc of the Reformation— The Schoolmen— Spalata— 
 
] 2 CONTENTS. 
 
 rage 
 Reuclilin's Affair — Faith — Luther's Popular Declamations — The Monk Spenlein 
 — Justification by Faith — Erasmus — Good Works — Luther's Visitation of the 
 Monasteries — Dresden — Luther's many Occupations — Footing on which 
 Luther stood with the Elector — Duke George — Court Dinner — Emser's 
 Supper Party — Theses — Nature of Man — Eck — Urban Regius — Luther's Mo- 
 desty 125-213 
 
 BOOK IIL — The indulgences and the theses — Procession — Tetzel — Tetzel's 
 Harangues — Confession — How conducted — Sale of Indulgences — Public Pen- 
 ance — Amusements and Debaucheries — Occurrences at Zwickau and Hage- 
 nau — Tetzel at Annaberg — IMyconius — Trick practised upon Tetzel — Leo Tenth 
 — Albert, Arclibishop-elector, &e. — Luther first hears of Tetzel at Grimma — 
 Luther without a Plan — Luther's Sermon against the Indulgences — The 
 Elector's Dream — Feasts of All Saints — Luther's Theses — Their Importance 
 — Moderation of the Theses — Pro\'idence — Letter to Albert — Dissemination 
 of the Theses — Fleck — Bibra — Maximilian — Myconius — Sajdngs of Albert 
 Kranz and an Old Priest — Luther's Reply to objectors at Erfurt — Luther's 
 Troubles — Motives that infiueneed him — Luther's Reply to Tetzel — Good 
 Works — Spalatin — Study of the Scriptures — Sheurl — Luther pleads for 
 the People — Frankfort Disputation — Tetzel's Theses — Wimpina — Knipstrow 
 ■ — Rage of the Dominicans — Tetzel's Theses burnt at Wittcmberg — Visit from 
 the Bishop — Prierias — Dialogue by Prierias — Reply to Pricvias — Hoch- 
 straten— The Obelisks — The Asterisks— On Prayer— Give us this day our 
 daily Bread — Forgiveness comes from Christ — Luther's Journey to Heidel- 
 berg— Bibra — Luther's Paradoxes — MartinBucer—Snepf— Conversations with 
 Luther— Luther returns— The old Professor 214-300 
 
 BOOK IV.— Luther before the legate— The Pope— Leo X.— Luther's Letter 
 to the Pope— Luther's Letter to the Vicar -general— Luther Preaches on Ex- 
 communication — Luther's Influence and Energy — The Emperor writes to the 
 Pope— The University of Wittemberg intercedes— The Pope's Brief— Luther's 
 Indignation— The Ai-mourer Schwarzerd and his Wife— Mclanehthon — Jlelan- 
 chthon's Departure and Journey— Parallel— Luther and Melanchthon— Order 
 to appear at Augsburg — Departure for Augsbm-g — Luther's Journey — Nurem- 
 berg— De Vio— Serra-Longa — Visit from the Augsburg councillors, &c. — 
 Serra-Longa returns— Luther and Serra-Longa— First Appearance before De 
 Vio — Propositions to be retracted— Luther's Reply — Impression left on both 
 Sides— Luther's Second Appearance— His Declaration- The Legate's Volu- 
 bility — Luther's Tliird Appearance — Indulgences— Constitution of Clement VI. 
 — De Vio loses his temper— Luther withdraws— Staupitz and Luther- 
 Luther to Carlstadt— The Lord's Supper— Luther to Cajetan— The Cardinal's 
 Silence— Luther leaves Augsburg by night— Nuremberg— The Pope's Brief 
 — The Legate to the Elector— Luther to the Elector— Luther thinks of leav- 
 ing Germany — Critical Moment — Discontentment with Cajetan at Rome — 
 Appeal to a Comacil 309-392 
 
 BOOK v.— The leipsick disputation— Arrival of Miltitz— Miltitz attacks 
 Tetzel— Luther offers to maintain silence— Miltitz invites Luther to Supper 
 —Luther's Letter to the Pope— -The Nuncio's endeavours to decoy Luther to 
 Treves— Luther's Cause extends beyond Germany— Controversy between Dr. 
 
CONTENTS. 13 
 
 Page 
 Eck and Carlstadt — The Supremacy of the Pope qucstioucd— Luther's 
 Reply — Fears of his Friends— The Bisliop opposes the Disputation — Arrival 
 of the Wittembcrgcrs at Lcipsicli — Carlstadt's Mishap — The liisliop's Placards 
 — Luther objects to there being Judges — Invocation Hymn sung — Dis- 
 putation commences — God gives the power to will and to do — Disputation 
 Interrupted — Victory claimed by each Party — Extent of Party-spirit — 
 Christ the Head of the Church — Christ the only Foundation — Articles held 
 by Huss, &c. — Effects of the Discussion — Subjects of the Disputation — It 
 closes — Doctor Eck's Admissions and Vaunts — George of Anhalt — The Leip- 
 siek Students — Luther's emancipation from Popery — Eck attacks Mclan- 
 chthou — The Bohemian Brethren — Emscr — Infatuation of Luther's opponents 
 — First Ideas on the Holy Supper — Attacks upon Eck 393-4G0 
 
 BOOK VI. — The bull from rome — Competitors for the Empire — Charles 
 crowned Emperor — Tempest gathers round Luther — Luther's Faith waxes 
 stronger — Sehaumburg — H'utten — Luther's Confidence — Faith consists with 
 good Works — Its Source — Luther's Appeal to the Nobles of Germany 
 — All Christians are Priests — Romish Practices for obtaining Money, &c. — 
 Marriage of the Priests — Holidays, &c. — The Emperor should re-possess him- 
 self of Rome — Luther's Modesty — Success of the Address — Rome's reasons 
 for Resistance — Eck at Rome — A Swiss Priest pleads for Luther — Commence- 
 ment of the Bull against Luther — Melanchthon's Popularity — His Marriage 
 — Melanchthon's Writings — Tumult at Wittemberg — Luther's Courage 
 increases — All Vows umiecessary — Luther urged to write to the Pope — 
 Luther promises to write — Luther's Letters to the Pope — Luther Anathem- 
 atized — The Pope's Bull a Bubble — Zwingli defends the Reformer — Luther 
 treats the Bull as a Forgery — Luther repires~to'tKe'^il — Tlie Bun about to 
 be put mto execution — Luther Appeals to a Universal Council — Luther 
 burns the Pope's Bull, &c. — Luther's Discourses on Popery — Melanchthon's 
 Opinion of Reform — Luther justifies his Conduct — The Pope's Nuncio to 
 Charles V. — Frederick and the Pope's Nuncios — Fi-ederick refuses to burn 
 Luther — The Elector sends for Erasmus — Erasmus confirms the Elector— 
 The Confessional is Popery's Prop — The Popedom proved to be Antichrist — 
 Melanchthon and Ulrieh aid Luther — Luther stimulates Staupitz — Nations 
 are roused to Enthusiasm 461-5^3 
 
 BOOK VII. — TuE DIET OP WORMS — Death of Chievi-es at Worms— Luther 
 expected at Worms — Aleander rouses Rome — Luther writes to the 
 Elector — Undermining Schemes attempted — A Jesuitical conversation — 
 Aleandcr's Machinations against Luther — The Nuncio addresses the Diet — 
 Nuncio's Speech to the Diet — Impressions made by the Speech dissipated — 
 Duke George supplicates Reform — The Diet appoints a Commission — Tlie 
 Nuncio tries to frighten Luther — Luther is summoned to Worms — Luther 
 is furnished with a Safe-conduct — Luther's Remarks on his Excommun- 
 ication — A new Friend comes to Luther — Ulrieh of Huttcn writes to the 
 Emperor — Luther leaves Wittemberg for Worms — The Doctor proceeds on 
 his Journey— Luther preaches at Erfurt— Concern manifested for Luther by 
 the People — Alarm of the Papists— Luther enters Worms — Capito and 
 CochlcEus— Luther disquieted in Spirit— Luther proceeds to the Diet — 
 Luther enters the hall of assembly — Luther's first Answer to the Diet — 
 
1 4 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 liUtlier is advised to Retract — Luther Addresses the Diet — Luther neither 
 can nor -will Eetract — The Diet is adjourned till next Day — The Emperor's 
 Message to the Diet — Party-spirit runs high in Worms — Strangers at Worms 
 sympathize with Luther — A Reconciliation attempted — The Conversation 
 soon closes — A Snare and Accident narrated — Iiuther consents to a General 
 Council — Negotiations now brought to an end — Luther departs from Worms 
 — The Reformer preaches at Isenac — The Decree of Charles V. against 
 Luther — The Edict of Worms — Luther way-laid and carried off — Luther's 
 imprisonment 553-654 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 VOLUME FIKST. 
 
 MARTIN LUTHER, ........ Frontispiece. 
 
 LUTHER BURNING THE POPE'S BULL, . . . Engraved Title. 
 
 GEORGE SPALATIN, rage 185 
 
 FREDERICK III., Elecxok op Saxony, , . . . „ 202 
 
 JOHN TETZEL ,,215 
 
 POPE LEO X., ,231 
 
 JOHN BRENTZ, oe BRENTIUS, ,,304 
 
 MAXIMILIAN L, Emperor op Germany, . . . . ,,319 
 
 CHARLE& v., Ejipeeob of Germany, .... ,,402 
 
 PHILIP THE MAGNANIMOUS, MAEGRAirs op Hessk, . . „ 632 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 What I propose to write is the history, not of a party, but of 
 one of the greatest revolutions that have ever been accomplished 
 among men — the history of a mighty impulse, communicated to 
 the world three hundred years ago, yet every where to be seen 
 in its effects at the present day. The history of the Reforma- 
 tion must not be confounded with that of Protestantism. In the 
 former all betokens a new birth in human nature, a religious and 
 social change proceeding from God; whereas we too often per- 
 ceive in the latter, a notable falling away from first principles, 
 the play of parties, the spirit of sect, and the marked influence 
 of petty individualities. Protestants only can be interested in 
 the history of Protestantism, while that of the Reformation 
 addresses itself to every Christian, or rather to every man. 
 
 The historian has a wide field before him. He may exert his 
 descriptive powers on those great events which change the whole 
 aspect of a people, or of the world; or he may delineate that calm 
 onward course in a nation, in the church, or in human nature, 
 which ordinarily follows after some sweeping social change. 
 Highly important as are both these departments of history, most 
 interest seems attached to those epochs which, under the name 
 of revolutions, are the harbingers of new eras, and impart a new 
 life to a particular nation, or to society at large. 
 
 Such was the transformation which with very inadequate 
 powers I essay to describe, hoping that the charms of the subject 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 may supply my insufficiency. The name revolution, which I 
 give to it, has fallen into discredit with many in our days, who 
 all but confound it with revolt. But this is a mistake, for a 
 revolution is a change wrought in the things of the world — some- 
 thing new unfolded (revolvo) from the lap of humanity; and, 
 indeed, previous to the last century, this word was taken oftener 
 in a good than in a bad sense, and people then spoke of a happy — 
 of a fflorious revolution. As the Eeformation involved the 
 re-establishment of the primitive principles of Christianity, it 
 implied the very opposite of a revolt. For all that was worth being 
 revived, its movement was one of regeneration, while for all that 
 ought ever to subsist, it was one of conservation. Both in esta- 
 blishing the grand principle of the equality of souls before God, 
 and in subverting the usurpations of a priesthood which pre- 
 tended to place itself between the Creator and his creature, 
 Christianity and the Reformation assume it as a first principle 
 of social order, that there is no power but of God, and proclaim 
 to all men : ' Love the brotherhood, fear God, honour the king.' 
 The Reformation stands out in marked distinction from the 
 revolutions of antiquity, as well as from most that the world has 
 seen in modern times. In these, the changes that have been 
 wrought are merely political, such as the consolidation, or the 
 overthrow, of the dominion of one man or of many; whereas 
 that which we have now to describe, sprang simply but power- 
 fully from the love of truth, of holiness, and of everlasting life. 
 It showed a forward movement in humanity; for when, ceasing 
 to pursue material, temporal, and earthly interests, and aiming 
 at something higher, man seeks for immaterial and imperishable 
 blessings, then it is that he advances — that he is in progress. 
 Now, the Reformation was one of the brightest days of this 
 glorious march; it was an earnest that the new struggle now 
 going forward, will end at last on the side of truth, in a triumph 
 Btill purer, more spiritual, and more magnificent. 
 
rUEFACK. 
 
 Christianity and the Reformation form the two most impor- 
 tant revolutions on record. Unlike the various political move- 
 ments mentioned in history, their past operation has aflfected 
 not one people but many nations, and the sphere of their future 
 influence must embrace the entire world. 
 
 Christianity and the Reformation are but one revolution, 
 effected at different epochs, and in the midst of different circum- 
 stances. Unlike in their secondary features, in their primary 
 and principal lines they are the same; the one is a repetition of 
 the other: the one winds up the old world, the other opens out 
 the new, and the middle ages lie between. The former is 
 mother to the latter, and if, at some points, the daughter bears 
 marks of inferiority, on the other hand she possesses charac- 
 teristics peculiar to herself. 
 
 Promptitude in action forms one of these characteristics. 
 When great revolutions have subverted a monarchy, and 
 changed an entire political system, or when they have thrown 
 the human mind into a new course of development, they have 
 been slowly and gradually matured; the displaced power has 
 yielded only after a long process of undermining, and after its 
 main props have been seen, one after another, to disappear. 
 This remark applies even to the introduction of Christianity. 
 But the Reformation presents a different aspect at the first 
 glance. The Church of Rome appears in all its vigour and all 
 its glory, under Leo X.; a monk speaks and all that vigour and 
 glor}'- crumbles away throughout the half of Europe. Such a 
 revolution reminds us of the words in which the Son of God 
 speaks of his second coming: 'for as the lightning cometh out 
 of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the 
 coming of the Son of man be.' 
 
 There is no explaining such a revolution to men who see in 
 this great event, nothing more than a reform^ and who would 
 reduce it to a simple act of the judgment, consisting in tlie selec- 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 tion of some, and the rejection of other doctrines, and in such a 
 combination of the latter as formed a new whole. 
 
 How could one people — still more, how could many nations 
 so promptly accomplish so laborious a task? How should this 
 exercise of the judgment have kindled that fire of enthusiasm 
 which is necessary to all great, and especially to all sudden revo- 
 lutions! But the Reformation, as its history will demonstrate, 
 was a very different thing. It was a fresh outpouring of the 
 very life that Christianity had brought into the world. It was 
 the triumph of the greatest of doctrines ; the doctrine that warms 
 its followers with the purest and most powerful enthusiasm, the 
 doctrine of faith, the doctrine of grace. Had the Reformation 
 been what many Roman Catholics, and many Protestants, too, 
 of our day imagine it to have been ; had it been but the nega- 
 tive system of a negative reason, childishly rejecting what dis- 
 pleases it, and disowning the grand ideas and the great truths 
 of universal Christianity ; never would it have passed beyond 
 the bounds of an academy, of a monastery, possibly of a cell. 
 But with Protestantism as understood by most, it had no con- 
 nection; and far from being a worn out and emaciated carcase, 
 it went forth like a man full of force and fire. 
 
 If we would understand how this revolution was so sudden 
 and so extensive, we must consider two things, looking to God 
 for the one, and going to man for the other. The hand that 
 gave the impulse was unseen and almighty ; the change efi'ected 
 was a work of God: and to this conclusion every impartial and 
 attentive observer, who penetrates beyond the surface of things, 
 is necessarily led. But as God acts by second causes, the his- 
 torian has a farther task to execute. Men were gradually and 
 slowly prepared by many, often unforeseen, circumstances, for the 
 great transformation of the sixteenth century, so that the human 
 mind was so far ripe for emancipation at the moment when the 
 hour of its deliverance struck. 
 
PUKFACR. 
 
 The historian having to combine these two grand elements in 
 the picture he exhibits, this has been attempted in the history 
 that follows. While engaged in tracing out the secondary 
 causes that concurred in producing the revolution we have to 
 describe, we shall be easily understood; but many will under- 
 stand us perhaps less easily, and will even be tempted to tax us 
 with superstition, when we attribute the accomplishment of that 
 work to God. And yet this is the idea we particularly cherish. 
 The following history, as the motto which it bears under its 
 title shows, assumes first of all, and in front of all, the plain but 
 pregnant principle: God in history. It is a principle, never- 
 theless, which is for the most part thrown aside, sometimes it is 
 even contested; and we therefore think it fitting that we should 
 present our views on the subject, and justify the plan we have 
 adopted. 
 
 History can no longer in our days remain that dead letter of 
 dry details which most historians have been hitherto content to 
 record. People now comprehend that in history as well as in 
 man, there are two elements — matter and mind. Unable to 
 resign themselves to the task of producing a mere material nar- 
 rative, no better than a barren chronicle, our great writers have 
 sought for some principle of vitality wherewithal to infuse ani- 
 mation into the materials of past ages. 
 
 This principle some have borrowed from art; aiming at sim- 
 plicity, truthfulness, and the picturesque in description; and 
 endeavouring to enliven their narration by the spirit-stirring 
 vivacity of the events themselves which they relate. 
 
 Others have gone to philosophy in quest of the spirit which 
 was to impregnate their labours. These have interwoven their 
 narratives of events with political and philosophical views, lessons 
 and truths ; and they have given animation to their recitals by 
 the meaning they make them suggest, and the ideas they have 
 contrived to attach to them. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Both methods are unquestionably good, and within certain 
 limits, both may be employed. But there remains yet another 
 source to which especially we ought to go in quest of the 
 mind, the spirit, and the life of times gone by; and that 
 source is religion. History must be vivified with its own proper 
 life, and that life is God. God ought to be recognised — God 
 ought to be proclaimed in history — and the history of the world 
 ought to be held forth as comprising the annals of the Supreme 
 Ruler''s government. 
 
 On descending into the arena whither the narratives of our 
 historians have called me, I have gazed on the strenuous exertions 
 and violent conflicts of men and of nations; I have been stunned 
 with the confused din of arms ; but no where has my regard been 
 directed to the majestic figure of the presiding judge. 
 
 And yet in all such movements among the nations, there is a 
 living principle emanating from God. God moves on that vast 
 theatre where the successive generations of mankind are, one 
 after another, tossed to and fro in a course of never-ending agi- 
 tation. No eye, it is true, beholds him there; but although the 
 godless crowd pass before him, without caring whether he be there, 
 seeing that he hides himself; souls that think more deeply, minds 
 that long for the very principle of their existence, only seek him 
 the more ardently, and never rest until prostrate at his feet. 
 And magnificently is their search rewarded. From the elevation 
 to which they must have ascended before they could meet God, 
 far from beholding the confused chaos which presents itself to 
 the ignorant crowd, the history of the world looks to them hke 
 a majestic temple, to the building up of which God applies his 
 own invisible hand, and which rises to his glory from the rock 
 of humanity. 
 
 Shall we refuse to behold God in those grand exhibitions, those 
 great personages, those mighty nations which rise, and, so to 
 speak, come forth from the dust of the earth and impart to human- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ity a new impulse, form, and destiny? Shall wo nut behold him 
 in those heroes who spring from society at set times, and put 
 forth a might and a strenuousness beyond the ordinary reach of 
 human capacity, while men and nations unhesitatingly flix-k 
 around them, as they would around some mysterious hi'dior 
 power. Who was it that launched into the field of time those hu"-o 
 flaming comets which appear but at distant intervals, and shed 
 down on the superstitious crowd of mortals either abundance and 
 joy, or plagues and terror? Who, if not God? Alexander sou'dit 
 his origin in the abodes of the Divinity. And even in the must 
 irreligious age, there is no man, however great the glory he may 
 have acquired, who does not find himself compelled to connect 
 himself, in one way or another, with heaven. 
 
 And those revolutions which hurl into the dust royal races, 
 and even whole nations; those immense remains that arrest the 
 traveller on the sands of the desert, those majestic ruins on the 
 field of humanity — proclaim they not with a sufficiently audible 
 voice, God in history? As Gibbon sat where once had stood the 
 Roman capitol, and contemplated its august fragments, he owned 
 the intervention of a superior destiny. In vain did he turn away 
 his regard from what he saw and felt to be there ; — that 
 shadow of a mysterious power re-appeared behind every ruin, 
 until he conceived the idea of describing its influence in the 
 history of the disorganisation, fall, and corruption of that Roman 
 power which had enslaved the nations. Shall we not discover 
 amid the ruins of the past the same Almighty hand which met 
 the eye of that man of admirable genius, yet who never knelt to 
 Jesus Christ, as he gazed on the rubbish left by the monuments 
 of Romulus, the sculptured marbles of Marcus Aurelius, the 
 busts of Cicero and Virgil, the statues of Osesar and of Augustus, 
 the trophies of Trajan and Pompey's horses, and shall we not 
 acknowledge it to be the hand of our God? 
 
 How astonishing: that this intervention of God in hunum 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 affairs should be regarded as a superstitious notion by men who 
 have been brought up amid the grand ideas of Christianity, while 
 the very pagans acknowledged it. 
 
 The name given to the Supreme Deity by Hellenic antiquity, 
 proves that ancient Greece had received from primaeval revela- 
 tions, the great truth that there is a God to whom we ought to 
 trace the history and the life of nations. Him the ancient Greeks 
 called Zeus,^ that is, he who gives life to all that lives, whether 
 men or nations. At his altars we behold kings and tribes coming 
 to bind themselves by oaths; we find Minos and other legislators 
 pretending, that to mysterious revelations from him they were 
 indebted for their laws; nay more, we perceive this great truth 
 figured forth in one of the most beautiful myths of pagan 
 antiquity. Mythology itself may teach a lesson to the sages of 
 our day ; and we may be allowed to mention it, as there possibly 
 may be some whose prejudices render them more accessible to 
 the instructions of paganism than to those of Christianity. 
 Well then, this Zeus, this Supreme Deity, this eternal Spirit, 
 this principle of life, we discover to be the father of Clio, the 
 muse of history, and that her mother was Mnemosyne, or memory. 
 Thus, if we are to believe antiquity, history has both an heavenly 
 and an earthly nature; and is the daughter both of God and 
 man. But alas! for the purblind wisdom of our self-conceited 
 age; it is far from reaching the heights of that pagan wisdom. 
 By depriving history of her divine father, men make her a 
 bastard child, a saucy vagabond, wandering hither and thither 
 without very well knowing whence she comes, or whither she is 
 going. 
 
 Now, this divinity of the ancient pagans was but a pale reflec- 
 tion, a dim shadow of the Everlasting of days — of Jehovah. 
 The true God worshipped by the Hebrews would have all nations 
 
 ' From (da>, I live. 
 
rilKKACIC. 
 
 convinced that he reigns continually on the eartli; and in order 
 to this, if I may venture the expression, he gives a body to this 
 his reign in the midst of Israel. A visible theocracy behoved 
 to exist on the earth at one time, in order that the invisible the- 
 ocracy which governs the world at all times, might for ever fix 
 itself in the apprehensions of men. 
 
 And how brightly does this great truth, God in history, shine 
 forth in. the Christian economy ! What is Jesus Ciirist, if he 
 be not God in history? It was the discovery of Jesus Christ 
 that enabled the prince of modern historians, John Miiller, to 
 comprehend what history is. " The gospel," says lie, " is the fulfil- 
 ment of all hopes, the point of perfection in all philosophy, the 
 explanation of all revolutions, the key that opens up all apparent 
 contradictions in the physical and moral world; it is life and 
 immortality. From the time of my knowing the Saviour all has 
 been clear to my eyes; with him there is no difficulty I cannot 
 Bolve." 
 
 Thus speaks that great historian, and, in fact, is not the 
 manifestation of God in human nature the key-stone of the 
 arch — the mysterious tie which binds together all earthly things, 
 and connects them with heaven? In the history of the world 
 there occurs a birth of God, and shall God be excluded from 
 history? Jesus Christ is the true God in the history of man- 
 kind, and this is demonstrated by the very insignificance of his 
 appearance. When man would raise upon earth something to 
 shade him or to shelter him, see what preparations, what mate- 
 rials, scaffolding, and workmen, — what hewing, and digging, 
 and heaps of rubbish. But God, when so it pleases him, can 
 take the smallest grain of seed that a new-bom babe could grasp 
 in its tiny hand; he puts it into the bosom of the earth, and 
 from this grain, which lies at first unnoticed, he produces that 
 
 ' Letter to Charles Bonnet. 
 I. B 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 immense tree, beneath whose shade the families ot mankind may 
 find shelter. The doing of great things by imperceptibly small 
 means — such is the rule with God. 
 
 This rule finds its most magnificent accomplishment in Jesus 
 Christ. Look at that Christianity which has now possessed 
 itself of the gates of the nations ; which at this moment reigns, 
 or rather soars, over all earth's tribes from east to west ; which 
 philosophy herself, with all her scepticism, admits to be the 
 spiritual and social law of the universe — that Christianity 
 which is the greatest of all things under heaven''s vault, nay 
 more, of all things throughout the vast immensity of creation 
 — ^yet, what was its commencement? A babe born in the pet- 
 tiest town of the most despised nation in the world; a babe 
 whose mother had not even what the most indigent, what the 
 most wretched woman in any of our cities enjoys, a room 
 in which to bring forth; a babe born in a stable and laid in 
 a manger. God ! thee do I there recognize — thee do I there 
 adore. 
 
 The Reformation acknowledged this divine order of things, 
 and felt that it was destined to accomplish it. The Reformers 
 often spoke of the presence of God in history, and we find the 
 idea once expressed by Luther in particular, in one of those 
 homely and odd, and yet not quite vulgar figures, which he was 
 fond of using, the better to make himself understood by the 
 common people. " The world," saidjie one day, while conversing 
 with his friends at table, " the world is a vast and magnificent 
 game at cards, and among these you find emperors, kings, 
 princes, and so forth. The pope had for several ages beat 
 emperors, princes, and kings. They gave way and fell under 
 him. Then came our Lord' God, distributed the cards anew, 
 took for himself thd very smallest (Luther), and with that he 
 beat the pope — ^the conqueror of the kings of the earth. . . . 
 That was God's ace. ' He has cast down the mighty from 
 
PREFACE. 1 I 
 
 their seats,' says Mary, 'and has exalted tlie humble and tlio 
 meek.'"i 
 
 The epoch whose history I desire to retrace, is important in 
 its bearing on the times in which we live. When oppressed by 
 a consciousness of his weakness, man is generally led to seek 
 help in the institutions by which he is surrounded, or in the 
 bold inventions of his own imagination. We learn from the 
 history of the Reformation that nothing new is made out of 
 things that are old, and that if, according to our Saviour's 
 saying, new vessels must be had for new wine, so must there be 
 new wine for new vessels. It refers men to God as the universal 
 agent in history; it points to that divine word which is ever 
 old in respect of the eternity of the truths it contains, and ever 
 new in the regenerating influence which it puts forth; that 
 influence which purified society three centuries ago, which then 
 restored faith in God to men's souls when enfeebled by super- 
 stition, and which is the fountain of salvation in all epochs of 
 humanity. 
 
 It is strange to see many who are now tossed to and fro by a 
 vague longing to find something fixed to believe in, addressing 
 themselves to ancient Catholicism. This, indeed, in one sense, 
 is a natural movement ; for so little known is religion now -a-days, 
 that no one dreams of finding it unless where advertised in large 
 letters on some sign-post rendered respectable by its age. We 
 say not that all Catholicism is incapable of bestowing on man 
 the object that he longs for. We hold that Catholicism ought 
 to be carefully distinguished from Popery. Popery, in our view, 
 is an erroneous and destructive system, but we are far from 
 confounding Catholicism with it. How many respectable men, 
 how many true Christians has not the Catholic church contained? 
 How vast have been the services rendered by Catholicism to the 
 
 * Table Talk, or CoUoquia. 
 
J 2 PREFACE. 
 
 nations now existing, at their first formation, at a time when it 
 was still strongly impregnated with the gospel, and when the 
 popedom was as yet but hovering over it like an uncertain 
 shadow ! But such times have long since passed away. Efforts 
 are made in our days to re-attach Catholicism to the popedom, 
 and when the Catholic and Christian verities are put forward, it is 
 almost for the sole purpose of making them a bait to allure men 
 into the nets of the hierarchy; so that there is no hope on that 
 side. Has the papacy renounced any one of its practices, of its 
 doctrines, of its pretensions? Can a religion that was felt not 
 to be endurable by other ages, fail to prove even less so now? 
 What re2:eneration was ever found to emanate from Rome ? Is 
 it from the pontifical hierarchy, altogether replete with earthly 
 passions, that there can come forth that spirit of faith, of charity, 
 and of hope, which alone can save us? Can a worn-out system, 
 which is everywhere struggling with* death, and which subsists 
 only by receiving help from extrinsic sources, impart to others 
 the life it has not for itself, and animate Christian society with 
 the celestial breath which itself requires. 
 
 That void in the heart and mind which begins to agitate 
 many of our contemporaries, will send others perhaps to the new 
 Protestantism which, in various places, has superseded the 
 mighty doctrines of the times of the apostles and of the 
 Reformers. In many of those reformed churches whose first 
 fathers sealed with their blood the precise and living faith that 
 animated them, a grievous vagueness of doctrine now predomin- 
 ates. Men remarkable for their intelligence, and who have a 
 taste for all that this earth presents of the beautiful, in these 
 churches find themselves hurried away into strange aberrations. 
 The only standard of faith they would have, is a general credence 
 in the divinity of the gospel. But what is this gospel? Here 
 lies the essential question: yet here each holds his peace, or 
 speaks after his OAvn fashion. What boots it to know that there 
 
is a vase placed by God among the nations for the cure of their 
 maladies, if none care about its contents — if none endeavour to 
 appropriate it to himself. Such a system cannot fill up the 
 void that is now felt, and hence, at the very time that the faith 
 of the apostles and the Reformers is everywhere displaying its 
 active efficacy in converting the world, this vague system effects 
 nothing, enlightens nothing, vivifies nothing. 
 
 But let us not despair. Does not Roman Catholicism confess 
 the grand doctrines of Christianity, even that God — Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost — the Creator, Saviour, and Sanctificr, -who is the 
 truth? And does not vague Protestantism hold in its hand the 
 Book of life, which is profitable for doctrine, for conviction, for 
 instruction according to righteousness. And how many honest 
 souls, noble in the eye of men, and lovely in the eye of God, 
 are to be found among persons ranged under these two systems? 
 Why not love them? Why not ardently desire their complete 
 emancipation from human elements? Charity is vast in its scope; 
 it stretches out its arms to the most remote opinions, that it 
 may bring all to the feet of Jesus Christ. 
 
 We may even now observe symptoms of the approach of these 
 two extreme opinions to Jesus Christ, as the centre of truth. 
 Are there not some Roman Catholic churches where the reading 
 of the bible is recommended and practised? and as for rationalistic 
 Protestantism, what an advance has it not already made? It 
 was no result of the Reformation, for the history of that great 
 revolution will prove that it was an age remarkable for faith ; 
 but may we not hope that it is gradually approaching it? For 
 such Protestantism shall not truth go forth from the word of 
 God; and shall not that word at length exercise on it a trans- 
 forming influence? Already religious feelings may often be per- 
 ceived in it, insufficient no doubt of themselves, but indicating 
 a movement towards sound doctrine, which encourages us to 
 hope for definite results. 
 
1 4< PREFACE. 
 
 But the new Protestantism and the old Catholicism are alike 
 of themselves out of the question, and out of the field. The 
 men of our days must look to something else for saving power; 
 something proceeding, not from man, but from God. "Give me," 
 said Archimedes, "a point beyond the globe, and I will lift it 
 from its poles." This point may be found in true Christianity, 
 which takes off man's heart from the double pivot of selfishness 
 and sensuality, and will one day displace the whole world from 
 its evil course and make it revolve on a new axis of righteous- 
 ness and of peace. 
 
 Every time religion has been in question, men's regards have 
 been directed to three objects: God, man, and the priest; and, 
 indeed, there can be but three religions in the world, according 
 as the originating and governing power belongs to God, to man, 
 or to the priest. I call that the religion of the priest, which 
 has been contrived by the priest and for the priest, and which 
 is governed by a sacerdotal caste. I call the religion of man 
 those various systems and opinions which human reason invents 
 for herself, and which, being created by man in his diseased state, 
 are consequently destitute of all sanatory power. I call the 
 religion of God the truth as it has come from God himself, and 
 which for its object and issue, has God's glory and man's salvation. 
 
 Hierarchism or the priest's rehgion, Christianity or God's 
 religion. Rationalism or man's religion; such are the three doc- 
 trinal systems that now divide Christendom. Now neither in 
 hierarchism nor in rationalism, is there any salvation for man 
 or for society. Christianity alone can give life to the world, 
 and unhappily, of the three now prevailing systems, it is not 
 the one that numbers most proselytes. 
 
 Still it has some. Ciiristianity is now exerting its regenerating 
 influence among many of the Catholics of Germany, and, no 
 doubt, of other countries also. Its influence is purer and stronger 
 still, in our opinion, among the Evangelical Christians of Swit- 
 
PREFACE. 16 
 
 zerland, France, Great JSritain, the United States, &c. Thank 
 God, the instances of regeneration, whether in individuals or 
 communities, which the gospel produces, are now no longer such 
 rarities as we must go to seek in ancient annals. We have had 
 occasion to witness the commencement of a powerful revival of 
 Christianity, amid struggles and trials, in one small republic, 
 whose citizens lead a calm and happy life, embosomed amid the 
 wonders that creation has thrown around them.i It is but the 
 commencement, yet already from the plenitude of gospel blessings, 
 that people is receiving grace to make a noble, a lofty, and a 
 courageous profession of the great truths of God's religion ; an 
 extensive and substantial freedom; an enlightened and devoted 
 government; a reciprocal affection in the magistrates for the 
 people, and in the people for the magistrates, which is too seldom 
 to be found elsewhere; a powerful impulse given to education 
 and to general instruction, such as in that respect will make 
 their territory a model country; a slow but sure improvement 
 in morals ; men of talent, all Christians, rivalling the first writers 
 of our language. All this profusion, pouring itself forth between the 
 gloomy Jura and the sublimities of the Alps, and along the magni- 
 ficent borders of the lake of Geneva, ought to strike the tourist 
 who has been attracted to the spot by the wondrous scenes pre- 
 sented by those mountains and those valleys, and ought to present 
 to him one of the most eloquent pages that the providence of 
 God has ever written in favour of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is the history of the Reformation in general, that I desire 
 to write. I propose to follow its course among the different 
 nations it visited, and to show that the same truths have always 
 produced the same effects, without omitting to point out that 
 diversity of aspect which naturally arose from the different 
 characters of those nations. Notwithstanding, it is in Germany 
 that we shall best recognise, and chiefly study the history of 
 
 • The canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. 
 
1 6 PREFACE, 
 
 the Reformation. We there find its primitive type; there, too, 
 it presents its most extensively organised developments ; and it 
 is there, most of all, that it has the character of a revolution, 
 not confined to such or such a people, but one in which the whole 
 world has an interest. The Reformation in Germany presents 
 the true and fundamental history of the Reformation in general ; 
 it is the main planet round which, like satellites drawn into its 
 movement, all the rest more or less revolve. The Reformation 
 in Switzerland ought, however, to be regarded, as in some respects 
 an exception, whether because it took place contemporaneously 
 with that in Germany, and independently of it, or because, par- 
 ticularly in its later period, it presented some of the grand 
 features which we find in the German Reformation. Although 
 family traditions of flight and shelter, and the thought of combats, 
 and sufferings, and of exile, sustained in the cause of the Refor- 
 mation in France, make the French reform a subject to me of 
 peculiar attraction, I know not if we can place it quite in the 
 same rank with the above. 
 
 I believe the Reformation to have been a work of God; one 
 may see God there. Nevertheless, in tracing its history I hope 
 to be impartial. Of the chief Roman Catholic actors in this 
 grand drama, such as Leo X., Albert of Magdeburg, Charles 
 v., and Doctor Eck, I think I have spoken more favourably 
 than most other historians; while, on the other hand, I have 
 not sought to conceal the faults and defects of the Reformers. 
 
 Ever since the winter of 1831-32, 1 have read public lectures 
 on the age of the Reformation. I then published my opening 
 address.^ Those lectures served as a preparatory labour to the 
 history which I now commit to the public. 
 
 It is a history drawn from sources with which I had become 
 famihar during a long residence in Germany, in the Netherlands, 
 
 ' See Discours sur I'etude de I'histoire du Christianisme, et son utilit6 poui 
 r^poqne actuelle. Taris, 1832, chez J. J. Rislei. 
 
PREFACE. 1 7 
 
 and in Switzerland; and during a course of study devoted to 
 documents in the original tongues, bearing on the religious history 
 of Great Britain and some other countries. These sources of 
 information will be referred to in the notes that accompany tlio 
 work, so that any further notice of them here is unnecessary. 
 
 I could have wished to authenticate various parts of my work 
 by numerous original notes, but was afraid that their number 
 and frequent recurrence might interrupt the narrative, so as to 
 prove irksome to the reader. I have confined myself therefore 
 to certain passages which seemed suitable for the purpose of 
 better initiating him in the history I relate. 
 
 M. M. Michelet and Mignet, men holdinir the first rank 
 among the historians of our day, are now engaged in preparing 
 works that bear upon the Reformation, and have already delivered 
 some fragmentary discourses in the Faculty of Letters, and at a 
 sitting of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. The 
 task taken in hand by these celebrated writers, little resembles 
 mine, which is a mere plain history, not pretending to talent, 
 art, or philosophy, but simply relating events as they happened, 
 and pointing to the principles which gave them birth. Should 
 ISI. M. ^lichelet and Mi2,-net give the results of their labours to 
 the public, we shall have works of a very difierent kind. Their 
 future readers will not be the persons to peruse these pages, for, 
 after being habituated by such writers to the charms of style, to 
 freshness of illustration, or to that powerful organisation of 
 history which so admirably brings out events before the reader''s 
 eyes, what would they find interesting in my unadorned narra- 
 tive? I intend it for those only who love to contemplate past 
 events as they happened, not through the magic glass of genius, 
 which colours and magnifies, but sometimes, also, diuiinishes 
 and alters them.^ 
 
 ' Since the above was written, the Memoirs of Luther by M. Michelet liave 
 appeared. 
 
18 PREFACE. 
 
 Farther, it will be perceived that this history has been com- 
 posed in a very different spirit. The views formed by M. M, 
 Michelet and Mignet on the Reformation, widely differ from 
 each other; and still wider is the difference betwixt theirs and 
 mine. Going neither to the philosophy of the eighteenth century, 
 nor to the romantic tendencies of the nineteenth for the conclu- 
 sions I form, and the colours T employ, I write the history of 
 the Reformation in the spirit of that event itself. The principles 
 of my work, it is said, are not remarkable for modesty. It is 
 their very nature to lord it over all others, and they imperturbably 
 assert this supremacy. No sooner do they encounter other 
 principles which would dispute their claim to empire, than they 
 instantly offer battle, A principle cannot rest till vanquished; 
 nor can it be otherwise, for to reign is its life, and when it ceases 
 to reign, it dies. Hence, while I declare that I have neither the 
 capacity nor the desire to rival the historians I have just men- 
 tioned, I make a reserve for the principles on which this history 
 reposes, and unshrinkingly assert their superiority. 
 
 Down to this hour I am not aware that we possess, in French, 
 any history of the memorable epoch with which I am about to 
 be occupied; and when I began my work, there was nothing that 
 led me to suppose that such a desideratum was about to be 
 supplied. This circumstance alone might have led me to under- 
 take it, and I here put it forward as my justification. This void 
 still exists, and I pray that He from whom all good proceeds, 
 may cause this feeble work not to remain fruitless, for some, at 
 least, among those who shall read it. 
 
HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 BOOK FIRST. 
 
 STATE OF THE WORLD BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The enfeebled world was tottering on its foundations when 
 Christianity appeared upon the scene. It found the then 
 existing generation dissatisfied with national religions which 
 liad contented its sires, and struggling to disengage itself from 
 forms which had become irksome to it. The gods of the various 
 nations had become dumb on being carried off to Rome, losing 
 their oracles where the tribes that had worshipped them lost 
 their freedom. Set up, face to face, in the capitol, they there 
 neutralized each other; their divinity vanished, leaving a huge 
 void in the religion of the world. 
 
 For a time, indeed, a certain deism, without spirit and without 
 life, floated on the surface of the gulph in which the vigorous 
 superstitions of the ancients had disappeared. This, however, 
 like all other negative creeds, could produce nothing firm and 
 solid. Strict nationalities were falling into decay along with 
 their gods; a general fusion was taking place among the nations; 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa, were merged in one empire, and the 
 human race was beginning to feel that it was one family 
 throughout. 
 
 Then was the Word made flesh. 
 
 God appeared among men, and as a man, that he might save 
 that which was lost. In Jesus of Nazareth dwelt all the fuhict-s 
 of the Godhead bodily. 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Hero we behold the greatest event in the annals of the world. 
 Placed in the centre of time, it connects the ages that went 
 before and prepared it, with those that came after and flowed 
 from it, and thus gives continuity and unity to both. 
 
 From that time forth all the popular superstitions became 
 inept and meaningless. What little of them survived the great 
 shipwreck of scepticism, sank before the majestic sun of everlast- 
 ing truth. 
 
 The Son of man lived thirty-three years on the earth, healing 
 the sick, instructing sinners, not having where to lay his head; 
 and amid this humiliation, giving tokens of a grandeur, a holi- 
 ness, a might, a godlike nature, that the world had never known 
 till then. He suffered, died, and rose again; he ascended into 
 the heavens. His disciples, beginning at Jerusalem, traversed 
 the empire and the world, everywhere announcing their Master 
 as "the author of eternal salvation." From the midst of a 
 people that rejected every other people, there went forth the 
 mercy that addressed its invitations to all, and opened its arms 
 to all. Multitudes of Asiatics, Greeks, and Romans, men wha 
 up to that time had blindly followed their priests to the feet of 
 dumb idols, believed the word. " Like a glance of the sun,"" 
 says Eusebius, "it enlightened the earth in a moment."" ^ Life 
 beo-an to breathe over the vast field of death; a new people, a 
 holy nation, began to form itself among men; and the astonished 
 woi-ld beheld in the disciples of the Galilean, a pureness, a self- 
 denial, a charity, a heroism, the very abstract notion of all 
 which it had lost. 
 
 The new religion was distinguished mainly by two principles 
 from all the human systems which it dissipated by its presence; 
 and, of these, the one bore upon the ministers who conducted its 
 worship, the other upon the doctrines it announced. 
 
 The ministers of paganism were all but the gods to whom 
 those human religions were related. The priest led the people 
 blindfold, at least until the eyes of the latter were opened to the 
 light. The world groaned under the pressure of a vast and 
 haughty hierarchy; but Jesus Christ cast down those living 
 idols from their thrones; that proud hierarchy he destroyed; 
 
 ' oU Tii riXiou /Jo>-«. (Hist. EccL iL 3.) 
 
TWO DisTixGuismxa pnI^•cIPI,K5I. 21 
 
 he took from man what man liad taken from God, and restored 
 tJie soul to an immediate contact with the divine source of 
 truth, by proclaiming himself sole Master and sole Mediator. 
 "One is your master, even Christ," says he, "and all ye are 
 brethren." l 
 
 In point of doctrine, religions of human origin sent man to 
 himself for salvation. The salvation offered by earthly religions, 
 was itself earthly. They told man that heaven was to bo given 
 to him as wages; they even fixed the price, and such a price! 
 The religion of God taught that salvation came from God; that 
 it was a gift from heaven, flowing from the amnesty and free 
 pardon of a sovereign: its language was, " God hath given to us 
 eternal life." 2 
 
 In these two points, no doubt, we cannot sum up the whole 
 of Christianity, but they seem to be the two leading features of 
 the subject, particularly when we have to do with history; and 
 as it is impossible for us to follow out the opposition between 
 truth and error into all its ramifications, we must select the 
 most salient. 
 
 Such, then, were two of the constituent principles of the 
 religion which began to take possession of the empire and the 
 world. With these a man is within the true bounds of Chris- 
 tianity; beyond these Christianity vanishes. Its decline or 
 increase depended on their being preserved or lost. Now, of 
 these two principles, one should take the lead in the history 
 of religion, and the other in its doctrines. Both reigned 
 paramount at the commencement; we have to inquire how 
 they came to be lost, and begin by tracing the destinies of the 
 former. 
 
 The church, at its origin, was a people composed of brethren. 
 All, as a body, were taught by God, and each was authorised to 
 go and draw for himself from the divine source of light. -^ The 
 epistles which then decided important questions, did not bear 
 the pompous name of a single man, as chief, but, as the holy 
 scriptures inform us, ran simply thus: "The apostles, ciders, 
 and brethren, to the brethren." ■* 
 
 But even the writings of the apostles inform us that, from 
 
 » Matt, xxiii. 8. « 1 John v. 11. ^ John vi. 45. * Acts sv. 23. 
 
22 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 among these brethren, there should arise a power which would 
 subvert this simple primitive order. ^ 
 
 This power, so foreign to the church, let us now contemplate 
 both in its first formation and in its subsequent developments, 
 
 Paul of Tarsus, one of the greatest apostles of the new religion, 
 having come to Rome, then the capital of the empire and of the 
 world, with the tidings of the salvation that proceeds from God, 
 a church was formed at the side of the throne of the Caesars. 
 Founded by that apostle, 2 it was composed at first of some con- 
 verted Jews, some Greeks, and some Roman citizens. For long 
 it shone like a pure light placed on a hill: its faith was every 
 where spoken of; but at length it deviated from its primitive 
 condition. It was by small beginnings that both Romes went 
 on to usurp the dominion of the world. 
 
 The first pastors, or bishops, of Rome, lost no time in devot- 
 ins: themselves to the conversion of the small towns and cities 
 by which that metropolis was surrounded. The necessity felt 
 by the bishops and pastors of the champaign country encircling 
 Rome, of having recourse, in difficult conjunctures, to an intelli- 
 gent adviser, and the gratitude they owed to the metropolitan 
 church, led them to cultivate the strictest intimacy with it. The 
 result was what has ever been found in like circumstances; that 
 intimacy, so natural in itself, soon degenerated into dependence. 
 The bishops of Rome arrogated as a right, the superiority spon- 
 taneously conceded to them by the neighbouring churches. The 
 greater part of history is made up of such encroachments, as the 
 resistance of the parties whose rights have been invaded, forms 
 the other part; nor could the ecclesiastical power escape the 
 intoxication which urges men, after being already raised above 
 their brethren, to covet still farther elevation. In this respect 
 it merely fell under the common rule of humanity. 
 
 > 2 Thess. ii. 
 2 The author here chiefly refers, no doubt, to the more extended and com- 
 plete establishment of the church at Rome. Otherwise we know that before 
 Paul visited Rome in person, there were already many Christians to be found 
 there ; that these, as a body, composed the church to which the apostle had 
 previously written the epistle, now forming part of the New Testament ; and, 
 also, that some of these brethren, on his reaching the neighbourhood of Rome 
 at the close of his journey thither, went out to meet him, (Acts xxviii. 15.) 
 Yet from what Luke farther tells us in the course of that chapter, as also from 
 what Paul himself wrote from his prison (Phil. i. 12—14.) we may conclude 
 that the church there was greatly augmented and fully established by his 
 labours. — L. R. 
 
rlKST ENCROACHMEXTE'. lo 
 
 Nevertheless, the supremacy of the Roman bishop was then 
 confined to the inspection of churches lying within the territory 
 subject to the civil jurisdiction of the prefect of llomc.^ But a 
 vaster destiny still was presented to the ambition of this imperial 
 city's first pastor, by the rank which it then held in the world. 
 The consideration enjoyed by the various bishops of Christendom, 
 during the second century, was proportioned to the rank of the 
 city in which they resided. Now Rome was the largest, the 
 wealthiest, and the most powerful in the world. It was the 
 seat of the empire, the mother of nations: "All earth's inhabi- 
 tants," says Julian, 2 "belong to her;" and Claudian proclaims 
 her " the fountain of laws-''^ 
 
 Since Rome was queen among the cities of the nniverse, its 
 pastor seemed naturally enough entitled to rank as king among 
 the bishops. Why should they not regard the nations as their 
 children, and their own authority as the supreme law? It was 
 easy for man's ambitious heart to adopt such reasoning, and such 
 was the case with ambitious Rome. 
 
 Thus it was that pagan Rome, at her fall, handed over to a 
 humble minister of the God of peace, while seated in the midst 
 of her ruins, those haughty titles which her unconquerable sword 
 had won for her from the nations of the earth. 
 
 Fascinated by the charm which Rome had for ages exerted 
 over all the nations, the bishops of the various parts of the 
 empire, followed in the wake of the Compagna of Rome, and 
 helped on this work of usurpation. They strove to bestow on 
 the bishop of Rome some part of the honour appertaining to the 
 queen city. At first, indeed, no dependence was implied in the 
 honour thus accorded. Affairs were transacted with the Roman 
 pastor as between equals ; ^ but powers once usurped, swell in 
 bulk like the avalanche. What at first were simple brotherly 
 advices, in the mouth of the pontiff soon became binding com- 
 mands. A first place among equals, was magnified by his eyes 
 into a throne. 
 
 ' Suburbicaria loca. See the sixth canon of the Council of Nice, -which 
 Rufinus, (Hist. Eccles. x. 6.) quotes thus: " Et ut apud Alexandriam et in 
 urbe Roma, vetusta consuetudo servetur, ut vel ille -iEgypti, vel hie suburbi- 
 cariarum ecclcsiarum solicitudinem gerat, etc." 
 
 * Julian, Or. i. ^ Claud, in paneg. stilic. lib. 3. ■* Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 
 
 1. 5. c. 2-i I Socrat. Hist. Eccl. c. 21 ; Cjprian, ep. 69, 12, 75. 
 
24 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 This encroachment of the pastors of Rome, was favoured by 
 the bishops of the West, what from jealousy of the bishops of 
 the East, what from their preferring the supremacy of a Pope 
 to the domination of a temporal government. 
 
 On the other hand, the theological parties that were then 
 rending the East, sought, each for itself, to interest E-ome on its 
 side, and looked for the triumph of its principles in the coun- 
 tenance it might receive from the chief Church of the West. 
 
 The petitions and intercessions that came from that quarter 
 Rome carefully registered, and looked on with a complacent 
 smile, as these nations came and threw themselves into her 
 arms. She neglected no opportunity of augmenting and extend- 
 ing her power, and to her eyes, and in her hands, commendations, 
 flatteries, exaggerated compliments, requests for advice from 
 other churches, all became titles and documentary proofs of her 
 authority. Such is man when placed on a throne; incense 
 intoxicates him and turns his head. What he has, seems to 
 him but a motive for obtaining more. 
 
 Even so early as the third century, the doctrine of tliG 
 church, and of the necessity for her having an external unity, 
 had begun to gain ground, and contributed to favour the pre- 
 tensions of Rome. The grand tie that bound together in one, 
 the members of the primitive church, w-as that living faitli of 
 the heart, by which they all held of Christ, as their common 
 Head. But various circumstances ere long concurred in 
 originating and giving extension to the idea, that there was a 
 necessity for external unity. Men accustomed to the obliga- 
 tions and political forms of an earthly country, transferred some 
 of their views and habitudes into the spiritual and eternal 
 kingdom of Jesus Christ. Powerless as persecution was to 
 destroy, or even to unsettle, this new community, it gave to it 
 a stronger consciousness of its own existence, and led it to form 
 itself into a more compact corporation. The one universal truth 
 received from the apostles, and preserved in the church, was 
 opposed to error as it flowed from the schools of theosophy or 
 from the sects. This was well, as long as the invisible and 
 spiritual church was identified with the church visible and 
 external. But a great divorce ere long began and led to a 
 separation between forms and life. The outAvard show of an 
 
EXTERNAL IMTY Ol' 1 UK (HUHdI. z") 
 
 uniform and external organization, gradually superseded tliat 
 internal and spiritual unity which is the very essence of the 
 religion of God. Men forsook the precious perfume of faith, and 
 prostrated themselves before the empty vessel which had con- 
 tained it. With the decay of faith as a cementing principle, 
 sojne other was sought for, and the members of the church thus 
 came to be bound together by means of bishops, archbishops, 
 popes, mitres, ceremonies, and canons. The living church 
 having gradually retired into the secluded sanctuary of some 
 solitary souls, its place was taken by an external church which 
 thereupon was declared to be of divine institution. Salvation 
 no longer streaming from the now hidden Word, it was held to 
 be transmitted through the medium of humanly invented forms, 
 and that none should possess it, unless received through that 
 conveyance. No man, it was said, can by his own faith attain 
 to everlastins: life. The Christ communicated the anointins: of 
 the Holy Ghost to the apostles, the apostles to the bishops, and 
 the Holy Ghost dwells in that order alone! In primitive times, 
 whoever had the Spirit of Jesus Christ, was a member of the 
 church; but now an inversion of terms took place, and it was 
 pretended that he alone who was a member of the church, 
 received the Spirit of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Once that the error of there being a necessity for the exist- 
 ence of a visible church unity was established, another was seen 
 to follow — that of there being a necessity for having an external 
 representation of this unity. Although we no where find in the 
 gospel, any traces of a pre-eminence in St. Peter above the other 
 apostles; although the very idea of primacy is inconsistent with 
 the brotherly bonds which united the disciples, and jars with 
 the spirit of the gospel dispensation which, on the contrary, calls 
 upon all the children of the Father to serve one another, owning 
 but one Teacher and but one Chief; although Jesus had severely 
 checked his disciples every time that ambitious notions of pre- 
 eminence issued from their carnal hearts, a primacy was invented 
 for St Peter, and made to rest on certain ill understood passages: 
 and forthwith, that apostle and his pretended successor at Rome, 
 were saluted as the visible representatives of the visible unity, 
 and as the chiefs of the church. 
 
 The patriarchal constitution contribntod also, to this exalta- 
 
 1. o 
 
26 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION'. 
 
 tion of the Roman papacy. So early as in tlie course of the 
 three first centuries, metropolitan churches enjoyed particular 
 consideration. The Council of Nice, in its sixth canon, marked 
 out three cities whose churches, according to it, possessed afl 
 ancient authority over those of the surrounding provinces: these 
 were Alexandria, Rome, and Antioch. Now, the political origin 
 of this distinction betrays itself in the very name first given to 
 the bishops of these cities ; for they were called Exarchs, ^ as if 
 political governors. 2 At a later period, they received the more 
 church-like appellation of Patriarch. This title first occurs in 
 the Council of Constantinople, which council created a new 
 patriarchate, that of Constantinople itself — the new Rome, the 
 second capital of the empire. With these three churches Rome 
 then shared the patriarchal supremacy. But when the invasion 
 by Mahomet caused the disappearance of the sees of Alexandria 
 and Antioch, when the see of Constantinople lost its rank, and 
 some time after even separated itself from the West, Rome was 
 left alone, circumstances induced all to rally round its see, and 
 from that time it remained without a rival. 
 
 New and more powerful accomplices than all the rest, came, 
 moreover, to its assistance. These were found in the ignorance 
 and superstition that now took possession of the church, and 
 delivered her over to Rome with blindfolded eyes and shackled 
 hands. 
 
 Meanwhile this bondage was not consummated without a 
 struggle. Often did the churches raise their voices in behalf of 
 their independence, and this courageous tone was chiefly to be 
 heard in proconsular Africa, ^ and in the East. * 
 
 ' The title of exarch was given among the Greeks to the governors of an 
 extensive territory, comprising various smaller provinces. The exarchs of 
 Ravenna, who after the greater part of Italy had been overrun by the bar- 
 barians, governed a considerable part of that country in the name of the Greek 
 emperors but with sovereign powers, are well known. — L. R. 
 
 2 See the eighth and eighteenth canons of the Council of Chalcedon, i 
 'i^oi^^o; rr,s 'hiDixritrias. 
 
 ^ The part of Africa specially bearing that name (a name given afterwards to 
 the whole continent), and lying chieily under the dominion of Rome, which 
 governed it by a proconsul, a man of consular dignity. To it belonged Carthage, 
 whose bishop, Cyprian, opposed the ambition of the Roman bishop, Stephen, 
 and strenuously asserted the equality of bishops ; in like manner as the bishops 
 of Asia Minor in the East scorned to acknowledge the lofty pretensions of the 
 Roman bishop Victor, in the controversy respecting the time of keeping 
 Easter. — L. 11. 
 
 * Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, says of Stephen, bishop of Rome: Magia 
 
CO-OPERATION OF THE PRINCES. 27 
 
 But Rome found new allies to assist her in stifling the cries 
 of the churches. Princes whoso thrones were often made to 
 totter amid the storms of those times, oft'ered her their aid, on 
 condition of her lending them a helping hand in return. Making 
 concessions of spiritual authority in exchange for a due amount 
 of secular power, they allowed her to have a cheap bargain of 
 men's souls in the hope of obtaining, through her assistance, 
 cheap advantages over their enemies; and thus did the hierar- 
 chical power during its rise, and the imperial power during its 
 decline, mutually lean on each other, and by this alliance hasten 
 on their double destiny. 
 
 In this Rome could lose nothing. An edict of Theodosius 
 JL, and of Valentinian III., proclaimed the bishop of Rome 
 " rector of the whole church.*" ^ A like law w'as passed by 
 Justinian. These decrees by no means contained all that the 
 popes pretended that they could see in them; but in times of 
 such ignorance, they found little difficulty in securing that efi'ect 
 should be given to the interpretation most favourable to them; 
 and as the domination of the emperors in Italy daily became 
 more precarious, the bishops of Rome could take advantage of 
 this, in order to reduce them to a state of dependence on that 
 see. 
 
 But already had the true abettors of the papal power gone 
 forth from the forests of the North. To the barbarians who had 
 swept over Western Europe and established themselves in the 
 countries that they had conquered, every thing in Christendom 
 was new. They were ignorant of the spiritual nature of the 
 Church ; they longed for a certain outward apparatus in religion , 
 and threw themselves prostrate before the high priest of Rome 
 ■with a half savage, half pagan adoration. With them for his 
 
 ac magis ejus errnrem denotabis qui hscreticorum causam contra Christianos et 
 contra Ecdesiam Dei asserrere conatur. . . qui unitatem et veritatem de 
 divina lege venientem non tenens. . . Consuetude sine veritate, vetustas 
 erroris est (Epist. 74.) Firmilian, bishop of Cajsarea in Cappadocia says also 
 in the second half of the third century : Eos auteni qui Romaj sunt, non ea in 
 omnibus observare quBO sunt ab origine tradita ct frustra auctoritntcm aposto- 
 lorum prtetendcre. . . Casturum nos (the bishops of tlie churches of Asia, 
 more ancient than those of Rome) veritate et cpnsuetudinem jungimus, et 
 consuetudini Romanorum, consuetudinem sed veritatis opponimus; ab initio 
 hoc tenentes quod a Christo et ab apostolo traditum est (Cypr. Ep. 75.). These 
 testimonies are very strong. 
 
 ' Hector totius ecclesi;r. 
 
28 HISTORY OF THK KEFORMATIOX. 
 
 partisans, lie had the West at his feet. First, the Vaudals; 
 next, the Ostrogoths; at a somewhat later period, the Bur- 
 gundians and the Alani ; then, the Visigoths ; and, finally, the 
 Lombards and the Anglo-Saxons, came and bowed the knee to 
 the sovereign pontiff. It is to the stout shoulders of the sons 
 of the idolatrous North, that one of the pastors on the banks of 
 the Tiber was indebted for being fully established on the loftiest 
 throne of Christendom. 
 
 These things took place in the West about the commencement 
 of the seventh century, precisely at the same epoch that beheld 
 the power of Mahomet advancing in the East, fully prepared, 
 likewise, to make the conquest of a large portion of the globe. 
 
 From that time forth the evil went on gathering force. In 
 the eighth century bishops of Eome were to be seen with one 
 hand repelling their lawful sovereigns, the Greek emperors, and 
 endeavouring to chase them out of Italy, while with the other, 
 they caressed the mayors of the palace ^ in France, and from 
 that new power, then growing into importance in the West, 
 strove to obtain some fragments of the empire. Thus did Rome 
 establish her influence between the East which she repelled, and 
 the West which she courted, so that her throne may be said 
 to have been erected between two revolts. Nevertheless, it was 
 
 ' The dignity of mayor of the palace under the kings of the first Franliish 
 or Merovinliian race, after Clovis, was very high. They wlio held it were the 
 first oflRcersof state, and a sort of viceroys, the government of a whole section 
 of the kingdom being sometimes absolutely committed to them. Under weak 
 and spiritless princes they contrived to engross all authority to themselves, 
 and left the lungs in whose name they governed, the mere shadow of power. 
 Tlie most famous ol these mayors was Pepin of Ilerstal, who under that title 
 absolutely governed France in the early part of the eighth century, and at 
 his death bequeathed his power and dignity to his son, Charles Martel, who 
 became celebrated chiefly for his military expeditions against the Saracens. 
 These had made the conquest of Spain, and hoped to effect tliat of France, 
 but Charles arrested them in their victorious career, and thus rescued France 
 and all Europe. By this his fame and power, as well as those of his family, 
 were extended and confirmed; and consequently his son, Pepin, who suc- 
 ceeded him as mayor of the palace, threw off the mask, and with the consent 
 of Pope Zachary, dethroned Childcric, the last nominal king of the race of 
 Clovis, confined him and his son in a monastery, and assumed the title of 
 king, after being solemnly anointed such at Soissons by the renowned Boniface, 
 bishop of Mentz, who first preached the gospel to the Germans. In this 
 royal dignity Pepin was succeeded by liis son, Charles, afterwards surnamed 
 the Great, who subsequently conquered a great part of Germany, and was 
 crowned emperor by Pope Leo III. Both Pepin and Charlemagne, in return, 
 bestowed extensive power and temporal authority on the popes : the former 
 gave them those territories in Italy, afterwards called the States of the Church, 
 which last cift was by the latter confirmed and augmented. — L. R. 
 
BKCULAK POWICK. 
 
 2Ji 
 
 a throne nut beyond the reach of jeopardy. Affrighted at the 
 cry of the Arabs ^vho, after overmastering Spain, boasted that 
 they might soon reach Italy by the portals of the Pyrenees 
 and the Alps, and proclaim the name of Mahomet on the seven 
 hills; startled at the boldness of Aistolph who led on his Lom- 
 bards with the fierceness of a lion,i and as he brandished his 
 sword at the gates of the eternal city, threatened to cut the 
 throats of all its Romans, Rome, tottering on the brink of 
 destruction, cast her terrified eye around her and threw herself 
 into the arms of the Franks. The usurper, Pepin, demanded 
 from her a pretended sanction for his new royalty; this the 
 popedom granted, and obtained from him, in return, a promise 
 that he would openly avow himself defender of the " Republic 
 of God." Pepin took from the Lombards what they had taken 
 from the emperor, but instead of restoring it to that prince, he 
 laid the keys of the cities he had conquered on the altar of 
 St. Peter, swearing with uplifted hand, that not for the sake 
 of man had he taken up arms, but that he might obtain from 
 God the forgiveness of his offences, and do homage for his con- 
 quests to St. Peter. Thus did France establish the temporal 
 authority of the popes. 
 
 Charlemagne now appears ; he ascends St. Peters church, the 
 first time, devoutly kissing the steps ; a second time he presents 
 himself there as sovereign lord of all the nations included in the 
 empire of the West, and of Rome itself. Thinking himself 
 bound to bestow the title on the man who already had the power, 
 Leo. in. on Christmas day A. D. 800, placed the crown of the 
 Emperors on the head of the son of Pepin.2 From that time the 
 Pope appertained to the empire of the Franks, and his relations 
 with the East were at an end. Detaching himself from a with- 
 ered tree which was about to fall, he grafts himself into a vigor- 
 ous crab; and among the Germanic races to whom he devotes 
 himself, a futurity awaits him to which he never could have 
 dared to pretend. 
 
 To his feeble successors, Charlemagne bequeathed the mere 
 
 1 Fremens iit leo. . . assorcns omnes uno gladio jugulnri, ( Anastasius. 
 Bibl. Vita, Pontif. p. 83.) 
 
 * Visum est et ipsi Apostolico Lconi. . . ut ipsum Carolum, imperatoi'cm 
 nominare debuisset, qui ipsam Romam tenebat ubi semper Cjcsares sedcre 
 Boliti erant et reliquas sedes. (Annalista Lambaeianus, nd an. 801.) 
 
So HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 wreck of his power; ' and, indeed, during the ninth century, 
 civil authority became everywhere unhinged by disunion, a state 
 of things which Rome saw to be favourable to her advancing 
 power. When could the church better make herself independent 
 of the state than during that period of decline, when the crown 
 which had been worn by Charles, was seen scattered in fragments 
 over the territories of his late empire? 
 
 Then it was that the false decretals of Isidore - appeared. In 
 that collection of pretended decrees of the popes, the most ancient 
 bishops, men who lived in the days of Tacitus and Quinctilian, 
 were made to speak the barbarous language of the ninth century ; 
 the legal customs and constitutions of France were gravely 
 attributed to Romans of the times of the emperors; the popes 
 were made to quote the Bible in its translation into Latin by 
 Jerome, who lived one, two, or three centuries after them; and 
 Victor, bishop of Rome, A.D. 192, was represented as wTiting to 
 Theophilus, who was bishop of Alexandria, A.D. 385. The knave 
 who forged this collection endeavoured to prove that all bishops 
 ield their authority from the bishop of Rome, who held his imme- 
 diately from Jesus Christ. Not only did he register all the 
 successive conquests of the pontiffs, but, more than this, he 
 traced these up to the most ancient times. Yet the popes were 
 not ashamed to take advantage of this despicable trick, and even 
 in 865, Nicolas I. drew from it arms for his attacks upon 
 
 1 Charles the Great's successors in no wise shared in his intellectual great- 
 ness. His vast empire, extending over France and Germany, devolved on his 
 death, to his son Louis the Pious, a prince of narrow and weak understanding, 
 who experienced much vexation from his children, among whom during his own 
 life he portioned out his territories, and to whom, after they had alternately 
 dethroned and restored him, he left the whole. They fought against each other 
 and ultimately possessed, one of them the German empire, the other the king- 
 dom of France, so as to make two distinct sovereignties; both which through 
 the weakness of succeeding princes, the one at an earlier, the other at alaterdate 
 in the tenth century, passed from Charles the Great's successors into new 
 dynasties. — L. R. 
 
 ^ These consist of a collection of briefs and decrees, as was pretended, of 
 popes of primitive times, collected and published in the name of Isidore, bishop 
 of Seville, an ecclesiastical chief of reputation and learning, who lived in the sixth 
 century, and all drawn up in such terms as to establish the pretended supremacy 
 of the popes. As early as in the eighth century, some of these brieves 
 appeared, but in the ninth, the entire collection was published and received as 
 genuine without contradiction, owing to the gross ignorance of those times. 
 After doing much to enhance and support the pope's authority during ihe 
 middle ages, yet on the return of more intelligence, even judicious Roman Catho- 
 lics acknowledged them to be a forgery, from the evident impossibility of recon- 
 ciling their style and tenor with the times to which they were ascribed.— L. R. 
 
DiSOKDERS AT nOMI*:. ',]\ 
 
 princes and bishops. ^ This bare-faced imposture Mas, in fact, 
 the arsenal of Home for ages. 
 
 Nevertheless, the vices and the crimes of the pontiffs could 
 not fail to suspend for a time the effect of the decretals. The 
 popedom indicated its accession to the table of kings, by shame- 
 less libations ; it began to bo intoxicated; its head grew dizzy in 
 the midst of debauch. This was about the time when tradition 
 informs us of a girl, called Joan, being placed on the papal 
 throne; of her having sought refuge in Rome with her lover, 
 and of her sex being betrayed by her being seized with the pains 
 of child-birth in the midst of a procession. But why should we 
 needlessly heap shame on the court of the Roman pontiffs? 
 Abandoned women at that time bore sway in Rome, The very 
 throne which aff'ected to overtop the majesty of kings, grovelled 
 in the mire of vice. Theodora and Marozia installed and 
 dismissed at will the pretended masters of the church of Christ, 
 ancf placed their lovers, their children, and grandchildren, on 
 the throne of Peter. These scandals, which were too true, may 
 possibly have given rise to the tradition of the popess Joan. " 
 
 Rome now became a vast theatre of disorders, and the pos- 
 session of it was disputed by the most powerful families in Italy^ 
 in a series of struggles, in which the counts of Tuscany usually 
 came off" the victors. That family, in 103*3, dared to place on 
 the pontifical throne, under the name of Benedict IX., a boy of 
 twelve years of age, who after being tutored in debauchery, con- 
 
 ' See Ep. ad univer. Episc. Gall (Mansi XV.) 
 
 * Although the author seems to think the \vell known story of the popess 
 Joan a mere fable, yet the famous Mosheim is inclined not to withhold credit 
 altogether from the account given of her. After stating that between the 
 popedom of Leo. IV. who died in 856, and that of Benedict III. a certain 
 woman, it was said, who had for long kept her sex concealed, by dint of learning, 
 talent, and dexterity, opened for herself a way to the papal seat ; and being 
 invested with the title and dignity of pope, ruled the Church for the space of two 
 years, and is now known by the name of Pope Joan, he adds, that during the five 
 following centuries, this was generally believed, that many writers have testified 
 to its truth, that nobody before the Reformation considered the thing itself to be 
 incredible, but that after that, in the seventeenth century, it became the subject 
 of a thorny and learned controversy, in which sundry most learned persons, both 
 Romanists and Anti-Romanists, whetted their wits and set their learning to work, 
 to destroy the credibility of that part of history : still, some of the ablest 
 and most learned writers liave judged it most reasonable to hold a middle course, 
 agreeing that many fabulous and imaginary circumstances have been added to 
 the fact, among which we may perhaps reckon what M. Merle relates of her 
 fleeing with her lover to Rome, and giving birth to a child in the midst of a 
 solemn procession, yet denying that the fact itself is destitute of all foundation 
 in truth. And among these last, Mosheim seems to rank himself — I.. R. 
 
32 HrsTonv of thk beformation. 
 
 tinued his horrible turpitudes as pope. ^ One party elected 
 Sylvester III. in his stead, and with a conscience defiled with 
 adulteries, and hands stained with the blood of his murdered 
 victims, 2 Benedict sold the popedom to a Roman clergyman. 3 
 The emperors of Germany were indignant at so many dis- 
 orders, and extirpated them for a time by the sword. The im- 
 perial government, availing itself of its sovereign prerogative, 
 raised the triple crown from the mire in which it lay, and saved 
 the worthless popedom by giving it decent men for its chiefs. 
 In 1046 three popes were dismissed from office by Henry III., 
 who, with the ring of the Roman patricians on his finger, 
 pointed out the bishop to whom were to be delivered the keys 
 of St. Peter's confessional. Four popes followed, all four Ger- 
 mans, and all appointed by the emperor. Indeed, wlien the 
 Roman pontiff happened to die, deputies from that Church 
 appeared at the imperial court, just as did deputies from other 
 dioceses, to ask for a new bishop. The emperor even looked, on 
 with joy as the popes reformed abuses, held councils, and 
 appointed and dismissed prelates, in spite of the opposition of 
 foreign monarchs: and by such pretensions the popedom failed 
 not to enhance the authority of its sovereign lord, the emperor. 
 
 1 Cujus quidem post adeptum sacerdotium, vita quam tui-pis, quam fceda, 
 quam execranda exstiterit, horresco referre. (Desidci'ius, abbot of Cassino, 
 afterwards Pope Victor III. De Miraculis a S. Benedicto, &c. lib. 3. init.) 
 
 ^ Theophylactus. . . cum post multa adulteria et homicida manibus suis 
 perpetrata, &c. (Bonizo, bishop of Sutri, afterwards of Placenza, Liber ad 
 amicum.) 
 
 ^ The times referred to in thi.s and the preceding paragraph, were certainly 
 the darkest and mo.st confused that the Church has ever known The history 
 of the Roman pontiffs that lived in this century is a history of so many monsters 
 and not of men, and exhibits a horrible series of the most flagitious, tremendous 
 and complicated crimes, as all writers, even those of the Roman communion, 
 unanimously confess. In proof of this we may turn to Theodora and IMarozia 
 mentioned by the author, the former of whom lived in open lewdness with Pope 
 John X., farst archbishop of Ravenna, and afterwards advanced to the papacy, 
 on her application the margrave of Tuscany, whose wealth gave him unbounded 
 influence in Rome; w-hilo her daughter lived in the same way with Pope 
 Sergius, and from this illicit connection there was born a son, who afterwards, 
 through his mother's mfluence, attained the papal dignity under the name of 
 John XI. Benedict IX. also here referred to by the author, was excessively 
 dissolute, and was more than once deprived of the papal dignity, or sold it, after 
 being replaced on the papal throne. All was confusion. With the elevation of 
 Leo IX. to the popedom, order was somewhat re est-ablished ; yet he and some 
 of his successors were almost entirely governed by the monk llildebrand. who 
 afterwards reigned as pope, under the name of Gregory VII., and raised the 
 papal power to its highest pinnacle. (See Mosheim's account of these times.) 
 —L. R. 
 
HILDEBRAND. '53 
 
 But this was playing a game which exposed him to great riskn, 
 it being evident that the forces which the popes thus bore down, 
 might, by a sudden rebound, place the emperor himself in 
 jeopardy. The full-grown reptile might turn its teetli against 
 the very bosom that had cherished it, and this, in fact, was 
 the result. 
 
 Here there commences a new epoch in the history of the 
 popedom; springing from its humiliation, it soon trampled under 
 foot the lords of the earth. That whatever raised it, raised the 
 Church along with it, aggrandised religion, and secured to the 
 spirit its conquest over the flesh, and to God his triumph over 
 the world — such were its maxims, and in these ambition found 
 its advantage and fanaticism its excuse. 
 
 The whole of this new tendency was personified in one man, 
 and that man was Hildebrand. This extraordinary person, who 
 has been by turns indiscreetly lauded and unjustly abused, was 
 the very personification of the Roman pontificate, when in all its 
 force and glory. He was one of those pattern apparitions in 
 history, which, singly, comprise a whole new order of things, like 
 those which in other spheres of action, are presented to us in 
 Charlemagne, Luther, and Napoleon. 
 
 Leo IX. took up this monk, in passing, at Clugny, and brought 
 him to Rome; and from that time Hildebrand became the soul 
 of the popedom, until at last he seemed to be the popedom itself. 
 He governed the Church in the name of several pontiffs before 
 reigning himself under that of Gregory. This great genius was 
 completely possessed with one grand idea. He wanted to found 
 a visible theocracy, with the pope at its head, as vicar of Jesus 
 Christ. His imagination was haunted, and his fervour stimul- 
 ated by the recollection of the universal domination of ancient 
 Rome; and he would fain have restored to the Rome of the 
 popes, what had been lost by the Rome of the emperors. 
 "That which Marius and Caesar,"" said his flatterers, "could 
 not effect with torrents of blood, you are effecting with a 
 word."" 
 
 The spirit that guided Gregory was not that of our Lord, for 
 to that spirit of truthfulness, humbleness, and meekness he was 
 a stranger. He scrupled not to sacrifice to his projects what 
 he knew to be truth when he thought they required it, and tliis 
 
34 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 he did, in particular, in the affair of Berenger. i Yet there can 
 be no doubt that he was animated with a spirit far above that 
 of the common herd of pontiffs, as well as by a profound convic- 
 tion of the justice of his cause. Headstrong, ambitious, and 
 unbending in his purposes, he was at the same time adroit and 
 supple in the employment of means calculated to insure success. 
 His first labours were devoted to the establishment of the 
 Church's militia; for before he attacked the empire, it was 
 necessary that he should be strong himself. 
 
 A council, accordingly, was held at Rome, which withdrew 
 pastors from their families and devoted them wholly to the 
 hierarchy. The law binding them to celibacy, was both pro- 
 jected and executed under popes who themselves were monks, 
 and it changed the clergy into a sort of monkish order. Thus 
 Gregory VII. claimed the same authority over all the bishops 
 and priests of Christendom, that an abbot of Clugny maintained 
 in the order over which he presided. Hildebrand's legates, com- 
 paring themselves with the proconsuls of ancient Rome, tra- 
 versed the provinces for the purpose of separating pastors from 
 their lawful spouses, — nay, the pope himself, where the case 
 required it, would excite the populace against married minis- 
 ters. 2 
 
 But Gregory's grand object was the emancipation of Rome 
 from the tutelage of the empire ; a design so bold, that even he 
 
 ' Berenger, canon and regent of the academy at Tours, afterwards arch- 
 deacon of Angers, is known in Church history by his more scriptural views on 
 the doctrine of the Lord's supper, and his impugning of the doctrine of tran- 
 substantiation. Under the compulsion of his enemies he had the weakness, 
 more than once, to recant his opinions, which recantation he latterly revoked. 
 On being summoned to Rome by pope Gregory VII. the latter assisted him in 
 drawing up a confession of faith, set forth in equivocal terms, with which 
 that pope expressed himself satisfied : — and although, at thf. instigation of 
 Berenger's enemies, he consented to a more precise confession being proposed 
 to him at a new council, which confession Berenger accepted under the influ- 
 ence of fear, yet he did not evince the slightest disapprobation of Berenger's 
 vacillation, when the latter, on returning home, again revoked that last confes- 
 sion, nor would he allow himself to be driven to farther persecution by that 
 churchman's enemies. And hence, it appears from the whole conduct of that 
 pope in this matter, as well as from what he himself declared to Berenger on 
 the subject, that he shared with him in the views he entertained on that head, 
 although, from political motives, as pope, he dissembled them. (See Mosheim). 
 _L, R. 
 
 * ITi quocunque prodeunt, clamores insultantium, digitos ostendentium 
 colaphos pulsantium, perferunt. Alii membris mutilati ; alii per longos 
 cruciatus superbe necati, &c. (Martene and Durcand, Thesaurus nov. Anec. I. 
 231.) 
 
llII.DEnUA.\D''d succEssona. 3^ 
 
 would never have dared to conceive it, had not the discords that 
 disquieted the minority of Henry IV. and the revolt of the 
 German princes from that young emperor, promised to facilitate 
 its execution. The Pope ranked then as one of the magnates of 
 the empire. Uniting his cause with that of the other great vas- 
 sals, he drew to his side the aristocratical interest, and proceeded 
 to prohibit all ecclesiastics from receiving the investiture of their 
 benefices from the emperor, under pain of excommunication. 
 Thus he tore asunder the ancient ties that had bound the 
 churches and their pastors to the government of the prince; only, 
 however, to attach them universally to the pontifical throne. He 
 set himself with a strong hand to bind down priests, kings, and 
 nations, and to make the pope universal monarch. Rome alone 
 was to be the object, whether of fear or of hope, to every priest. 
 Earth's kingdoms and principalities were to constitute its domain. 
 All kinas were to tremble with awe at the thunderbolts launched 
 by the Jupiter of modern Rome. Woe be to him who should 
 resist! — subjects loosed from their oaths of allegiance; a whole 
 country smitten with interdict ; places of worship closed ; church- 
 bells mute; the sacraments no longer administered; and the 
 curse pronounced reaching to the very dead, to which the earth 
 itself, at the command of a haughty pontiff, refused even the 
 repose of the grave ! 
 
 Subjected from the very earliest period, first to the Roman 
 emperors, next to the French emperors, and, lastly, to the 
 German emperors, the pope was now emancipated, and for the 
 first time, came forward on an equality with those potentates, 
 if not rather as their master. Yet even Gregory VH. was 
 humbled in his turn; Rome was taken, and Hildebrand obliged 
 to flee. He died at Salerno, uttering these words, " I have 
 loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore is it that I 
 die in exile." ^ Who will venture to charge with hypocrisy 
 words spoken on the verge of the tomb? 
 
 Gregory's successors, with all the eagerness of soldiers follow^- 
 ing up a victory, threw themselves as conquerors on the enslaved 
 churches. Spain on her being snatched from Islamism, equally 
 with Prussia on being delivered from idols, fell into the arms of 
 
 ' Dilexi justitiam et odivi iiiiquitatem, jiroptcroa morior in exilio. 
 
3i) HI8T0RY OF THE REFORM ATIOff. 
 
 the crowned priest. The crusades which had gone forth at his 
 call, every where extended and augmented his authority; the 
 devout pilgrims who thought they saw saints and angels con- 
 ducting their armed expeditions, and who, after meekly passing 
 barefoot within the walls of Jerusalem, burnt the Jews in their 
 synagogue and bedewed with the blood of several thousand 
 Saracens the very ground where they had come in search of the 
 sacred traces of the Prince of peace, these carried the pope's 
 name with them into the East, — a name that had ceased to be 
 known there ever since the supremacy of the Greeks had been 
 abandoned for that of the Franks. 
 
 On the other hand, the power of the Church eflected what 
 the arms of the Koman republic and of the empire, had attempted 
 in vain; the tribute which their forefathers had scorned to yield 
 to the mightiest generals, the Germans now laid at the feet of a 
 bishop. Their princes, indeed, imagined that on becoming 
 emperors, what they received from the popes was a crown, but 
 in reality it was a yoke of bondage, and the kingdoms of Christen- 
 dom, already subject to Rome's spiritual authority, now became 
 her tributaries and her bondsmen. 
 
 Thus did the Church undergo a total change. At its com- 
 mencement it was a nation of brethren, and now an absolute 
 monarchy was established in its very centre. Time was when 
 all Christians were priests of the living God. ^ But a haughty 
 head now towered above the surrounding pastors ; a mysterious 
 mouth uttered a language full of pride; an iron hand compelled 
 all men, small and great, rich and poor, bond and free, to receive 
 the mark of its power. The holy original equality of souls in 
 the sight of God was lost. At the voice of one man Christendom 
 was now divided into two unequal camps; here, an order of priests, 
 having the effrontery to arrogate to themselves the title of 
 Church, and pretending to be invested, in the Saviour's eyes, with 
 mighty privileges; there, servile flocks, reduced to a state of 
 blind and passive subjection, and a people gagged and manacled, 
 delivered over to a supercilious caste. Every tribe, language, and 
 nation of Christendom, submitted to the domination of this 
 spiritual king, to whom power was given to overcome. 
 
 > 1 Pet. ii. 9. 
 
CORRUPTION OF DOCTRINK. 37 
 
 II. But, collateral to the principle which ought to predomiuate 
 in the history of Christianity, we find another which holds a 
 like leading place in the sphere of doctrine. What was the crand 
 idea of Christianity?— that of grace, of forgiveness, of remission, 
 of the gift of eternal life. This assumed that man was in a state of 
 alienation from God: and that he could not of himself return 
 to communion with that infinitely holy Being. True it is, that 
 the whole controversy between true and false doctrine, cannot be 
 quite comprised in the question of salvation by faith, and 
 salvation by works. Still, that question forms its main feature. 
 Nay more; salvation regarded as coming from man, is the 
 creative principle of all errors and of all abuses. By the extra- 
 vagancies that arose from that fundamental error, the Refor- 
 mation was first introduced, and it was consummated by the 
 profession of the contrary principle. Hence this is a feature 
 which ought to be fully brought out and made salient in an 
 introduction to the history of the Reformation. 
 
 Salvation by grace, then, was the second characteristic, essen- 
 tially distinguishing the religion of God from all human religions. 
 What had become of it? Had the Church preserved this grand 
 primordial idea as a precious deposit? Let us follow out its history. 
 The dwellers in Jerusalem, Asia, Greece, and Rome, in the aoe 
 of the first emperors, heard these good tidings: — "By grace are 
 ye saved, through faith; it is the gift of God." l And at this voice 
 of peace, this gospel, this word of power, many guilty souls 
 believed, were reconciled to him who is the fountain of peace, 
 and numerous Christian churches were formed amid the deo-en- 
 erate children of this world. 
 
 But, ere long, a great misapprehension was entertained on 
 the subject of saving faith. Faith, according to St Paul, is the 
 means by which the whole being of the believer, his understand- 
 ing, his heart, and his will, enter into possession of the salvation 
 obtained by the incarnation and death of the Son of God. Jesus 
 Christ is apprehended by faith, and forthwith he becomes all for 
 man, and in man. He communicates a divine life to human 
 nature, and man, thus renewed and disengaged from the power 
 of selfishness and sin, has new aftections and does new works. 
 Faith, says theology, in order to express her meaning, is the 
 
 ' Eph. ii. 
 
38 HISTORY OF THE REJ;X)RMAT10N. 
 
 subjective appropriation of the objective work of Christ. If faith 
 be not the appropriation of salvation, it is nought; the whole 
 Christian economy is deranged, the fountains of eternal life are 
 sealed, Christianity is subverted from its foundation. 
 
 This was just what happened. This practical view of faith 
 was gradually forgotten, and soon ceased to be more than what it 
 still is to many — an act of the understanding, the mere submis- 
 sion of the mind to a superior authority. 
 
 From this primary error there necessarily flowed a second. 
 On faith becoming thus despoiled of its practical character, it 
 could no longer be said that it alone saves; as good works no 
 longer followed it, they had to be made collateral with it, and 
 thus the doctrine that man is justified by faith and works, entered 
 into the Church. To that Christian unity which, under one 
 principle, comprehends both faith and works, grace and law, 
 doctrine and duty, there succeeded this sad duality, which makes 
 of faith and morals two things wholly distinct ; this lamentable 
 'error, which by separating what, in order to live, ought to be 
 united, and by setting the soul on one side and the body on the 
 other, causes death. The words of the apostle proclaim to all 
 ages : "Having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by 
 the fleshr' 
 
 Yet another error came and unsettled the doctrine of grace; 
 this was Pelagianism. Pelagius alleged that human nature is 
 not fallen, that there is no hereditary corruption, and that as 
 man has received the power to do good, the only thing wanting 
 is an exercise of this will.' If this good consisted in some external 
 actions only, Pelagius is in the right. But if we look to the 
 principles whence these external acts proceed, and to the whole 
 course of a man's inward life, then do we everywhere find in man, 
 selfishness, forgetfulness of God, impurity and impotence. It 
 was this that Augustine urged home upon the conscience. He 
 showed that before such or such an act could be approved, it 
 was necessary, not only that it should appear good when viewed 
 externally and by itself, but, above all, that the source from 
 which it issued in the soul, should be holy. After being expelled 
 from the Church by Augustine when directly brought forward, 
 
 ' Velle et esse ad hominem referenda sunt, quia de arbitrii fonte descendunt. 
 (Pelagius in August, de Gratia Pf.i. pcji. 4.) 
 
PENTANCES. ,'59 
 
 the Pelagian doctrine ere long insinuated itself, indirectly, as 
 semi-polagianism, and under the guise of Augustinian formular- 
 ies. In vain did that great doctor still continue his opposition; 
 death removed him from the scene, and error spread throughout 
 Christendom with astonishing rapidity. It passed from the East 
 to the West, and the Church to this day is unsettled and 
 weakened by it. The dangerousness of this system chiefly revealed 
 itself in this, that making good to consist in something without, 
 not in something within, it led people to magnify the importance 
 of outward acts, legal observances, and penances; so that the more 
 a man performed of these things, the holier he became; through 
 such practices lay the way to heaven; and so infatuated did 
 people at last become, as to fancy they could see persons who, in 
 point of sanctity, even exceeded what was required of them. 
 
 Thus would the pride of man's heart refuse to give the glory 
 to that God to whom all glory belongs; thus would it urge the 
 plea of merit to obtain what Cod desired should be a gift; thus 
 did it endeavour to find in itself that salvation which Christi- 
 anity brought to man, fully perfected in heaven. It threw a 
 vail over the saving truth of a salvation coming from God, and 
 not from man ; a salvation which God gives, but does not sell ; 
 and thenceforth, all other truths were thrown into the shade ; 
 the Church was overspread with gloom, and a dark and dreary 
 night ensued, from which numerous errors were successively 
 found to issue. 
 
 Let us first remark, that two grand classes of errors were 
 here combined in one. Pelagianism at once corrupted sound 
 doctrine and strengthened the hierarchy; with the same hand 
 wherewith it depressed grace, it exalted the Church ; for grace — 
 it is God, and the Church — it is man. 
 
 No sooner was salvation taken out of the hand of God, than 
 it fell into that of the priests. These usurped the place of the 
 Lord, and souls panting for forgiveness, dared no longer look 
 to heaven, but only to the Church, and above all, to the Churcirs 
 pretended chief. Men's blinded minds beheld the high priest of 
 Rome occupying the place of God; — hence all the grandeur, 
 and all the authority of the popes ; hence a train of unutterable 
 abuses. 
 
 No doubt the doctrine of salvation by faith was not entirely 
 
40 HISTORY OF THE REFOKMATION. 
 
 swept from the Church, for it is to be found in the most cele- 
 brated of the Fathers both immediately after Constantine, and 
 durinor the middle ao-es. It was not that the doctrine was for- 
 mally denied, and that popes and councils denounced it in bulls 
 and decrees, but that it was conjoined with that which reduced 
 it to a nullity. It continued to subsist in respect of many of the 
 Church"'s doctors, as well as many humble andsimplesouls, but the 
 multitude held something very different. Men had invented a 
 complete system of pardon ; to that ran the multitude, and pre- 
 ferred cleaving to that rather than to the grace of Jesus Christ. 
 Let us now glance at some of the transitions in this sad meta- 
 morphosis. 
 
 In the days of Vespasian and his sons, he who had been the 
 Galilean's closest friend, the son of Zebedee, spoke thus: "If 
 we confess our sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive us 
 our sins." 
 
 About a hundred and twenty years later, under Commodus 
 and Septimius Severus, TertuUian, a famous pastor at Carthage, 
 held a very different language on the subject of forgiveness: 
 "We must change our dress and food," he says, "we must clothe 
 ourselves in sackcloth and ashes ; we must renounce what serves 
 for the body"'s convenience or ornament; we must fall down 
 before the priest, and beseech all our brethren to intercede for 
 us.l Thus had man turned away from God and gone back 
 upon himself. 
 
 Acts of penance, as a substitute for the salvation of God, were 
 multiplied in the Church from the days of TertuUian down to 
 the thirteenth century. Fasting, walking barefoot, giving up 
 the use of linen, and so forth, were enjoined, or perhaps, leaving 
 home and country for some distant land, or, harder still, leaving 
 the world altogether to become a monk. 
 
 To all this there were added, in the eleventh century, volun- 
 tary flagellations, and these at a later period and in Italy, then 
 violently agitated, became quite a frenzy. Nobles and serfs, old 
 and young, even to children of five years, went in pairs, by hun- 
 dreds, by thousands, and by tens of thousands, through the vil- 
 lages, towns, and cities, and with nothing but a napkin about 
 
 ' Tortull. De jiiT-nif. 
 
INDULGENCES. 41 
 
 their loins, made processions to the churches in the depth of 
 winter. Each armed with a whip, they pitilessly flogged one 
 another, so that the streets resounded with cries and groans that 
 drew tears from the eyes of those who lieard them. 
 
 Yet long before this evil had gene thus far, the oj)j)ression 
 that men endured from the priests was such that they sighed 
 for deliverance. The priests themselves perceived that il 
 some remedy were not applied, their usurped power would 
 escape from them. Accordingly, they invented that system 
 of barter which has since become famous under the name of 
 indulgences. It is under John, the fasting man, archbishop of 
 Constantinople, that we perceive their first beginnings. " ^'ou 
 cannot, O penitents," said the priests, "discharge the tasks that 
 are imposed on you. Well then, we, God's priests and your 
 pastors, Avill take this heavy load on our own shoulders. Who 
 can fast better than we can? VVho know better how to take to 
 our knees, or who can more meritoriously recite the psalter?" 
 But the labourer is worthy of his hire. " For a fast of seven 
 weeks,'"* said Regino, abbot of Prum, " a man must pay, if rich, 
 tenpence; if of moderate fortune, fivepence; if poor, three half- 
 pence; and so in proportion for other things."! There were not 
 wanting bold remonstrances against this traffic, but they were 
 made in vain. 
 
 The pope soon discovered what advantages he might derive 
 from these indulgences. Amid his ever-increasing pecuniary 
 exigencies, he saw that they supplied an easy method of filling 
 his coffers under the sliow of voluntary contributions. But so 
 precious a discovery behoved to be placed on a stable foundation, 
 and accordingly to this task the leading men of Rome applied 
 themselves. In the thirteenth century the irrefragable doctor, 
 Alexander of Hales, invented a doctrine which was admirably 
 fitted to secure this vast resource to the popedom, and which 
 by a bull of Clement VII. was declared to be an article of faith. 
 But even doctrines the most sacred were called in to the support 
 of this Roman money-making. It was alleged that Jesus Christ 
 did much more than was required for the reconciliation of man 
 with God; that in order to that, a single drop of his blood was 
 
 ' Liliri rluo de ccclesiastiris disriplini«. 
 I F 
 
42 HISTORY OF THE KEFORMATIO.V. 
 
 sufliclent; but that he had shed much more than that, in order 
 that he might thereby institute a treasury for the Church''s 
 benefit, which not ever eternity itself should exhaust. This 
 treasury had been farther augmented by the supererogatory 
 merits of the saints, arising from good deeds performed over 
 and above what was required of them. To the vicar of Jesus 
 Christ on earth had been entrusted the custody and administra- 
 tion of this treasure, and he applies to every sinner for sins com- 
 mitted after baptism, those merits of Jesus Christ and his saints 
 in the proportion, and according to the amount, that such sins 
 render necessary. And who would dare to attack a custom 
 having thus holy an origin I 
 
 From that time forth, we find this inconceivably revolting 
 traffic increasing in extent and complexity. The tariff imposed 
 say ten or twenty years of penance for such or such a sin; 
 "but," cried the greedy priests, "it is not only for each kind of 
 sin, but for each several act, that so many years must be 
 imposed," so that a poor man found himself overwhelmed with 
 an almost everlasting penance. 
 
 Yet what availed even this lengthened-out penance, since life 
 itself was so short? When was a man to have done with it? 
 Where find time for accomplishing it? You may lay upon him 
 whole ages of severe practices, but lo! death comes and the man 
 laughs at the task, for death relieves him in a moment. Happy 
 death ! This, however, was provided against. The philosophers 
 of Alexandria had spoken of a cleansing fire in which men 
 behoved to be purified; several ancient doctors had admitted the 
 idea, and this dream of philosophy, Rome now declared to be a 
 doctrine of the Church; and, in fine, the pope issued a bull in 
 which purgatory was made part of his domains, and included in 
 his jurisdiction. He decreed that man should there expiate 
 what in this life could not be expiated, but that indulgences 
 could deliver men's souls from this intermediate state in which 
 their sins must otherwise detain them. This dogma Thomas 
 Acquinas sets forth in his famous Summa Theologica. And 
 now nothing was spared that was likely to fill men's minds with 
 terror. Man nat\irally shrinks from the contemplation of an 
 unknown futurity, and of those gloomy abodes which he sees 
 beyond the grave. New means were employed to give intensity 
 
ji:dii,ee8. ia 
 
 to this dread; the torments inflicted by tliis purifying fire on 
 those who wore consigned to it, were pictured forth in the most 
 dismal colours. Even at tlio present day in many Roman 
 Catholic countries, pictures are to bo seen set up in churches 
 and at public crossings, and in these, poor souls are represented 
 amid the glowing flames as calling out in their anguish for some 
 relief. What man could grudge the redemption-money which, 
 by passing into the treasury of Rome, was to rescue the soul 
 from such sufferings i 
 
 A new method was next discovered for augmenting this traffic, 
 by turning to profit, not only the sins of the living but those, 
 also, of the dead. It was announced in the thirteenth century, 
 that at the cost of certain sacrifices, the livins* miirht abrido-e 
 or even terminate the pains which their ancestors and friends 
 were enduring in purgatory. Forthwith the treasury of the 
 priest was enriched with fresh offerings from the compassionate 
 hearts of the fiiithful. 
 
 For the purpose of regulating this trade, the famous and scan- 
 dalous indulgence-tariff was shortly afterwards contrived, pro- 
 bably by John XXII., and more than forty editions of it have 
 since been published. The least delicate ears would be shocked 
 were I to repeat all the horrors to be found in it. Incest, 
 if not known, was to cost five pence, and, if known, six. So 
 much is set down for murder, so much for child-murder, so much 
 for adultery, for perjury, for theft aggravated by house-break- 
 ing, and so on. "O shame to Rome," exclaims Claud of 
 Esperse, a Roman theologian; and we add, "0 shame to human- 
 ity,"" for no reproach can be uttered against Rome which recoils 
 not on man himself, and Rome is but human nature running 
 wild in one of its mischievous propensities. This we say because 
 it is true, and we say it, also, because we ought to be just. 
 
 Boniface VIII., of all the popes after Gregory VII. the most 
 daring and the most ambitious, contrived even to outstrip his pre- 
 decessors. 
 
 In the year 1300, he published a bull, announcing to the 
 Church that every hundred years all who came to Rome should 
 there obtain plenary indulgence. People flocked thither from 
 Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, France, Spain, Germany, Hun- 
 £fary ; in short, from all quarters. Old men of sixti' and seventy 
 
4i UISTOKY OF THE UKFOHMATIO.N. 
 
 took the road, and in one month two hundred thousand pilgrims 
 were counted at Rome. All these strangers brought rich offer- 
 ings along with them, and the pope and his Romans beheld their 
 coffers replenished. 
 
 In course of time, Roman cupidity fixed a jubilee for every 
 fifty, more lately for every thirty-three, and at length, for every 
 twenty-five years. Then, for the greater convenience of tho 
 purchasers, and the more gain to the merchants, both the jubilee 
 and its indulgences were transferred from Rome to all the 
 market-places of Europe. No man needed longer leave home 
 in order to obtain its benefits; for what people formerly had to 
 cross the Alps to obtain, could now be had by each at his own 
 door. 
 
 The evil had reached its utmost height. 
 
 Then the Reformer arose. 
 
 We saw what became of the principle which ought to predo- 
 minate in the history of Christianity; we now se3 what had 
 become of that which ought to predominate in its doctrines: 
 both principles were lost. 
 
 The institution of a caste which was to mediate between man 
 and God, and the bargaining away for works, penances, and 
 value in money, of the salvation given by God, — such is popery. 
 
 The opening up for all men by Jesus Christ, without any 
 human mediator, without that power which calls itself the 
 Church, a free access to the great gift of everlasting life, made 
 by God to man, — such is Christianity, and the Reformation. 
 
 Popery is an immense barrier raised in the course of whole 
 centuries of labour, between man and God. If a man would 
 pass it, he must either pay or suffer. And even thus, he does 
 not surmount it. 
 
 The Reformation is the power that overthrew this wall of 
 separation, restored Christ to man, and thus made a smooth path 
 for him, whereby to draw near to his Creator. 
 
 Popery interposes the Church between God and man. 
 
 Christianity and the Reformation bring God and man together, 
 face to face. 
 
 Popery separates; — the Gospel unites them. 
 After thus tracing the history of the decline and fall of the 
 two grand principles, by which we must ever distinguish the 
 
STATE OK CHUIS^IKNOOM THEOLOGY. 45 
 
 religion of God from all tho religions of men, let us see what 
 were the results of this iunnense transformation. 
 
 But before proceeding, let us render some honour at least to 
 this Church of the middle age, which succeeded that of tho 
 Apostles and the Fathers, and which pi-eceded that of the 
 Eeformers. Fallen, and ever sinking into deeper and deeper 
 bondage as she was, the Church was still the Church. This 
 amounts to saying that she ever most powerfully befriended man. 
 Bound as were her hands, they still could bless. Great servants 
 of Jesus Christ shed for ages a benignant light around them ; and 
 in the lowliest convent, and the obscurest parish, poor monks and 
 poor priests were to be found for the comforting of great sorrows. 
 We must not confound the Catholic church with the popedom. 
 The latter was the oppressor; the former the oppressed. The 
 Reformation, in declaring war against the one, announced deliver- 
 ance to the other. Nay, it must even be admitted that the 
 popedom itself was at times, in the hand of God, who can bring 
 good out of evil, a necessary counterpoise to the might and 
 ambition of princes. 
 
 III. Let us now cast our eye over the state of Christendom. 
 
 Theology and religion were at this time two very distinct 
 things. What was taught by doctors, and what was practised 
 by priests, monks, and people, presented two very different 
 spheres. Yet they exerted a reciprocal influence on each other, 
 and the Reformation had to do with both. Let us briefly 
 examine both, and first take a view of the school of theology. 
 
 Theology still lay under the influence of the middle age. 
 That age had awoke, and given birth to some great doctors. 
 But their learning was directed neither to the interpretation of 
 the holy scriptures, nor to the examination of what had been 
 done by the church. Exegesis and history, those two grand 
 sources of theological science, remained dormant. 
 
 They were superseded by a new science, and this was dialec- 
 tics. The art of reasoning became the productive mine of the 
 new theology. The middle age had made the discovery of 
 Aristotle, and the study of this ancient author was pursued 
 either in old Latin translations, or In the Arabic versions. In 
 this revival of his philosophy, Aristotle rose like a giant in tho 
 West, lording it over men's minds, one might almost say over 
 
4j iiisioitY OK I 111-: ittroKMATiox. 
 
 their consciences. His method of philosophising, strengthened 
 the tendency towards dialectics which already marked that 
 epoch; and, in fact, it was a method well adapted to subtle 
 researches and minute distinctions. This dialectic subtlety 
 tvhieh had taken possession of the western world, was farther 
 promoted by the obscurity of tlie translations of this Greek 
 philosopher. The Church at first took alarm and for some time 
 tried to combat this new tendency, dreading that this reasoning 
 humour might produce heresies. But dialectics gave token of 
 possessing good qualities; monks employed them in attacking 
 heretics, and thenceforward their triumph was secure. 
 
 The distinctive feature of this method, was the invention of 
 a multitude of questions on all sorts of theological subjects, and 
 then deciding them by what was ca'iled a resolution. These 
 questions often turned on the most useless points; as, for 
 example, when it was asked whether all the beasts were in 
 Noah's ark, and if a dead man could say mass ? ' But it is unfair 
 to judge the schoolmen by such instances; for we must often, on 
 the other hand, admire the depth and large reach of their under- 
 standings. 
 
 Many of them drew a distinction between theological and 
 philosophical verities, affirming that such or such a thing might 
 be theologically true, but philosophically false; and in this man- 
 ner would they reconcile unbelief with a cold dead adhesion 
 to the forms of the church. But other doctors, with Thomas 
 Aquinas at their head, maintained that the doctrines of revela- 
 tion were by no means contradictory to enlightened reason, and 
 that just as charity, in the Christian scheme, does not annihilate 
 man's natural affections, but rectifies, sanctifies, ennobles, and 
 controls them; so faith does not annihilate philosophy, but may 
 safely employ it when sanctified and illuminated by her light. 
 
 The doctrine of the Trinity called the dialectics of these theo- 
 logians into strenuous exercise; and what with their distinc- 
 tions and arguments, we find them falling into opposite errors. 
 Some distinguished between the three persons so as to make 
 three Gods : this was the error of Roscelinus of Compiegne and 
 liis adherents; others confounded them in such a manner as to 
 reduce them to a mere distinction of ideas, and such was the 
 ' Hettinger, Hist. Eccl69. V. 
 
PREPESTINATION. MAX 8 ORIGINAL STATR. 47 
 
 error of (Jilbcrt of Poitiers and his followers. Still, the ortlio- 
 dox doctrine found strenuous assertors in other doctors. 
 
 The dialectic subtlety of those times occupied itself no less 
 with the doctrine of the divine will. How shall we make the 
 will of God to accord with his onmipotence and his holiness? 
 Here the schoolmen were beset with difficulties which they 
 endeavoured to remove with the aid of logical distinctions. "No 
 one can say that God wills what is evil,"" said Peter of Lom- 
 bardy, "but no more can any man say that he does not will it."" 
 
 The greater number of these tlieologians sought by their 
 dialectic labour, to weaken the doctrine of predestination, which 
 they found in the Church. To this end, Alexander of Hales 
 made use of tlie following distinction of Aristotle, that every 
 action supposes two agents, to wit, an acting cause, and a some- 
 thing which is acted on by that cause. That divine predestina- 
 tion, says he, exerts an agency in effecting man's salvation, 
 there can be no doubt; but this must be accompanied with a 
 receptibilitij for this grace in the soul of man. Without this 
 latter agent, the former is of no avail; and predestination con- 
 sists in this, that God, in virtue of his foreknowledge, recognis- 
 ing those in whom this latter agent will be found, has resolved 
 to impart to them his grace. 
 
 As for man's primitive state, these theologians distinguished 
 between natural gifts and gifts bestowed by grace. The former 
 consisted in the purity of the human souFs original powers; the 
 latter in those gifts of his grace which God bestows on that soul, 
 to enable it to fulfil what is good. But here these doctors split 
 anew; some alleging that man originally had natural gifts only, 
 and by the use he made of these, must merit those bestowed by 
 grace. Thomas Aquinas, however, who will generally be found 
 on the side of sound doctrine, alleged that there had been from 
 the beginning the closest blending between the gifts of grace and 
 those of nature, since the first man had enjoyed a state of perfect 
 moral health. The fall, said the former, who leant towards free 
 will, deprived man of the gifts of grace, but did not entirely deprive 
 him of the primitive powers of his nature, else all sanctification 
 must have been impossible, had no moral power been any longer 
 found in man; while the stricter theologians thought that the fall 
 had not only taken away grace, but had also corrupted nature 
 
48 HISTORY OF THE REFOHMATION. 
 
 All owned the work of reconciliation which Christ had accom- 
 plislied by his sufferings and death. But one party maintained 
 that redemption could not be wrought out but by virtue of the 
 expiatory satisfaction of the death of Jesus Christ, while others 
 sought to prove that God had to this price simply attached 
 redemption and grace. Others still, and among these Abelard, 
 made the saving effects of redemption to consist in its causing 
 confidence and love towards God to spring up in the heart of 
 man. 
 
 The dialectic subtlety of these theologians discovers itself to 
 us afresh, in all its profusion, in the doctrine of sanctification or 
 of grace. All, admitting the distinction of Aristotle, of which 
 we have spoken, lay down the necessity for there being in man 
 a matter disposed to the reception of grace: materia dlsposita. 
 But this disposition Thomas Aquinas attributes to grace itself. 
 Grace, say they, was the forming power for man before his fall, 
 and now that there is something in him to destroy, it becomes 
 reforming grace. Further, they distinguish between grace 
 bestowed gratuitously, gratia gratis data, and grace that renders 
 man well-pleasing, gratia gratum faciens, and many more. 
 
 The doctrine of penances and indulgences, which we have 
 already discussed, came in as. the crowning error of this system, 
 and spoilt whatever it could possess that was good. Peter, the 
 Lombard, was the first to distinguish three kinds of penance; 
 that of the heart or compunction, that of the mouth or of con- 
 fession, and that of works or outward satisfaction. It is true he 
 distinguished between absolution in the sight of God, and abso- 
 lution before the Church. He even went so far as to say that 
 inward repentance sufficed for procuring the forgiveness of sin. 
 But he contrived, on another side, to return to the Church's 
 error. He admitted that for sins committed after baptism, a 
 man must either suffer the fire of purgatory, or submit to eccle- 
 siastical penance, excepting, however, cases of an inward repent- 
 ance so perfect as to supersede all other inflictions. He then 
 suggests certain questions which he finds it difficult to solve in 
 spite of all his dialectics. Supposing two men, equal in regard to 
 their spiritual condition, but the one poor and the other rich, 
 should die at the same time, the one with no resource beyond 
 the ordinary prayers of the Church, while for the other, on the 
 
THE POl'ULAR RELIGION. 49 
 
 contrary, there might be many masses to bo said, and many 
 good acts to be done; what would be the result 2 Hero the 
 schoolman turns himself from one difficulty to another, and says 
 in the end: They will have the same destiny, but not proceeding 
 from the same causes. The rich will not be delivered more 
 perfectly from purgatory, but his deliverance will be more 
 promptly eftected. 
 
 Such are a few samples of the theology that reigned in the 
 schools at the era of the Reformation. Distinctions, ideas, 
 sometimes just, still mere ideas. Christian doctrine had lost 
 that celestial perfume, that power, that practical utility, which 
 proceed from God, and which mark the times of the apostles. 
 It was necessary that these should come down again from on 
 high. 
 
 IV. Meanwhile the learning of the schools was pure if com- 
 pared with the real state of the Church. The theology of the 
 learned was in a flourishing state compared with the religion, 
 the morals, and the education of the priests, the monks, and the 
 people; so that if learning required renovation, still more did 
 the Church require reform. 
 
 The people of Christendom, in which term we may comprise 
 nearly the entire population, no longer looked to a living and 
 holy God for the free gift of everlasting life; and, accordingly, 
 to obtain this they had recourse to all the means that a super- 
 stitious, timid, and alarmed imagination could invent. Heaven 
 became filled with saints and mediators whose office it was to 
 solicit this favour, and earth was replenished with good deeds, 
 sacrifices, religious practices and ceremonies, whose object it was 
 to deserve it. The following is the picture given to us of this 
 period by one who was for long a monk, and afterwards one of 
 Luther's fellow-labourers, Myconius. 
 
 " Christ''s sufferings and merits were either treated as a piece 
 of idle history, or as no more to be believed than Homer's fables. 
 The faith by which the sinner appropriates the Saviour's righte- 
 ousness and the inheritance of eternal life, was out of the 
 question; Christ was held forth as a stern Judge, ready to con- 
 demn all who did not apply to the intercession of the saints or 
 to papal indulgences; and in our Lord's place there figured as 
 intercessors, first, the Virgin Mary, resembling the Diana "f 
 
 I. u 
 
60 HISTORY OP THE KEFOKMATION. 
 
 paganism, and, after her, the saints, the catalogue of whom the 
 popes were constantly enlarging. These mediators gave the 
 benefit of their prayers to such only as deserved well of the 
 religious orders which they had founded ; and in order to that, 
 it was not what God commands in his word that was required 
 to be done, but a multitude of deeds contrived by the monks 
 and the priests, and which brought them in a deal of money. 
 Such were the Ave-Marias, and the prayers of St Ursula and d" 
 St Bridget; chanting and shouting day and night; and fre 
 quenting particular spots to which pilgrimages were to be made, 
 and which became as numerous as there were mountains, woods, 
 and valleys. Now, all these devout doings might be redeemed 
 with money; and, accordingly, the monasteries and the priests 
 were continually receiving, not only money, but every thing that 
 had a tangible value — fowls, geese, ducks, wax, straw, butter, 
 and cheese. Then would the chanting resound, the bells would 
 be set a-ringing, incense would perfume the sanctuary, sacrifices 
 be offered, the kitchens be filled to overflowing, drinking-glasses 
 would make a din, and the whole of this medley was wound up 
 and retrieved by masses being said. Bishops no longer preached, 
 but they consecrated priests, church-bells, monks, churches, 
 chapels, images, books, and grave-yards, all which brought in 
 large revenues. Bones, arms, and feet, were preserved in gold 
 and silver boxes: they were presented to be kissed during mass, 
 and this, too, was a source of large profit. 
 
 " All these people maintained that as the pope stood in the 
 place of God,l he could not be deceived, and they would not 
 Buffer any contradiction." 2 
 
 In All-saints church at Wittemberg there were to be found a 
 bit of Noah's ark, some soot that had come from the burning 
 fiery furnace into which the three young men were cast, a bit 
 of wood from the manger in which our Lord was laid, hairs from 
 the beard of the great Christopher, and nineteen thousand other 
 relics of more or less value. At Schaffhausen there was shown 
 the breath of St Joseph as caught by Nicodemus in his glove. 
 A seller of indulgences went about Wurtemberg retailing his 
 wares, with his head set off with a large feather taken from one 
 
 ' 2 Thess. ii. 4. 
 
 * Myconius, Iliat.of the Reformation ; and Scckendorf' s Hist. of Lutheranism. 
 
COHRUI'TION OF MOHALS. 5 I 
 
 of the wings of the archangel MichaoL ' But it was not necessary 
 that people should go lar to procure these precious treasures. 
 Dealers in relics traversed tiio country, hawking them through 
 Ihe rural districts as has been more recently done with the 
 scriptures, so that the faithful were saved the expense and 
 trouble of making long pilgrimages, by having them brought to 
 their doors. They were exhibited with great pomp in the 
 churches. These travelling dealers paid a certain sum to the 
 proprietors of the relics, and allowed tiiem a fixed per centage 
 on the profits. . . The kingdom of heaven had disappeared, 
 and men had introduced a shameless market into the place it 
 had occupied on the earth. 
 
 Religion, too, was now invaded by a spirit of profanity; and 
 the Church's most sacred anniversaries, those seasons during 
 which the faithful were specially called to the exercise of self- 
 examination and love, were dishonoured by buffooneries and 
 profanations altogether pagan. The Easter jokes held an emi- 
 nent place in the acts of the Cliurch. As the feast of our Lord's 
 resurrection called for joy, there were studious attempts made 
 to introduce into the sermons preached on that occasion what- 
 ever could make the people laugh. Such a preacher sung like 
 a cuckoo, another hissed like a goose. One dragged to the altar 
 a layman attired in a monk's frock; a second told the most 
 indecent stories; a third related the tricks of the apostle St 
 Peter; among others, how he had once in an alehouse cheated 
 the landlord by not paying his reckoning. ^ The lower clergy 
 took advantage of the occasion to turn their superiors into 
 ridicule; the churches were converted into stages, and the priests 
 into mountebanks. 
 
 If such was religion, what must morals have been I 
 No doubt this corruption was not universal, and candour 
 requires that we should not forget this. The Reformation itself 
 gushed forth in a copious stream of piety, righteousness, and 
 energy. It sprang from the spontaneous action of the power of 
 God, but how can we deny that he had deposited beforehand the 
 germs of this new life in the bosom of the Church ? Were any 
 one, in our own days, to bring together all the immoralities, all 
 
 • Miillor's Rcliauicn, vol. iii. p. 22. ' CEcolam. p. Dp risn paschali. 
 
62 HISTORY OF THE REIOK.M A TIOV, 
 
 the abominations, in course of being committed in a single 
 country, this mass of corruption would, no doubt, even now make 
 us shudder. Nevertheless, moral evil had at that time a peculiar 
 character, and pervaded society to an extent that has never 
 been witnessed since. And, above all, did the abomination 
 desolate the holy places, as it has not been again given to it to 
 do since the days of the Reformation. 
 
 Life had declined along with faith. The news of the gift of eter- 
 nal life, is the power of God for the regeneration of men. Take 
 away the salvation bestowed by God, and you take away sancti- 
 fication and good works. This was verified in what followed. 
 
 An ignorant populace was powerfully stimulated to evil by 
 the doctrine and the sale of indulgences; for albeit it was true, 
 that, according to the Church, indulgences could benefit such 
 only as promised amendment and kept their word, what could 
 be looked for from a doctrine purposely invented with an eye to 
 the money which it was to produce? The indulgence-mongers 
 were naturally tempted, the better to promote the sale of their 
 wares, to represent the matter to the people in the manner best 
 fitted to attract attention and seduce them to buy. The learned 
 themselves did not very well comprehend this doctrine; and as 
 for the multitude, all that they saw was that the indulgences 
 permitted them to sin; while as for the venders, they were by no 
 means urgent in dissipating an error so favourable to their trade. 
 
 How many disorders and crimes must have been committed 
 in those dark ages, when impunity could be had for being paid 
 for! What enormities might not be dreaded, when a small con- 
 tribution for the building of a church was supposed to deliver 
 men from the retributions of the world to come ! What hope 
 of any change for the better, when communication between God 
 and man had ceased, and when man, alienated from God, who is 
 spirit and life, moved only amid a routine of petty ceremonies 
 and stupid practices, in an atmosphere of death. 
 
 The priests were the first to fall under this corrupting influ- 
 ence. In their eagerness to elevate themselves, they had only 
 sunk the lower. They had wished to deprive God of a ray of 
 his glory which they wanted to transfer to their own breast, but 
 their attempt had been vain, for they only concealed there a 
 leaven of corruption, stolen from the power of evil. The annals 
 
UISORDKRI.Y MVE9 OF THE BISHOPS. 63 
 
 of those times teem with scandals. In many j)laces, people 
 liked to see priests living in concubinage with one woman, as 
 married women were the more secure from their^ seductions. 
 What humbling scenes did a pastor's house then present ! 
 From the tithes and alms he received, the wretched man sup- 
 ported the mother and the children she had given him.'- His 
 conscience was troubled; he blushed before the people, at the 
 sight of his »wn servants, and in the presence of God. The 
 mother, fearing that at tlie priest's death she might fall into 
 penury, provided against this beforehand: she stole in his house. 
 Her honour was gone. Her children became an ever-living tes- 
 timony against her. Objects of general contempt, they threw 
 themselves into brawls and debaucheries. Such was the house 
 of a priest. These frightful scenes furnished instructive lessons 
 by which the people knew how to profit.-^ 
 
 The rural districts became the theatres of many excesses. 
 The very abodes of the clergy were often the haunts of the dis- 
 solute. Cornelius Adrian at Bruges,'^ and the abbot Trinkler at 
 Cappel,5 imitated Eastern manners, and had their harems. 
 Priests companied with depraved persons, frequented alehouses, 
 and crowned their orgies with brawls and blasphemy .^ 
 
 The council of Schaffhausen prohibited them from dancing in 
 public except at marriage feasts, and from carrying two kinds of 
 arms; it ordained, also, that all who should be found in houses 
 of ill fame, should be stript of their clerical robes.7 In the arch- 
 bishopric of Maintz, they leapt over the walls under night, 
 and disturbed the neighbourhood with the noise they made 
 while committing all sorts of disorders in the inns and alehouses, 
 breaking the very doors and locks.^ In some parts, the priest 
 paid the bishop a tax for the woman he lived with, and for each 
 child she bore him. A German bishop, happening one day to 
 be present at a great festival, stated publicly, that in a single 
 year, eleven thousand priests had presented themselves to him 
 for that purpose. We have this on the authority of Erasmus.^ 
 
 ' Nicol. De Clemangis, de presuUbus simoniacis. 
 
 « The ^vords of Seb. Stor, pastor at Lichstall in 1524. ^ Fusslin Beytrscge.ll. 224. 
 ♦ Meteren. Ned. Hist. VIII. * Hott. His: Ecc. IX., 305. 
 
 « Mandement of 3d March. 1517, of Hugo, bishop of Constance. 
 7 MviUcr's Reliquien, III.. 251. « Steubing. Gesch. der Nass. Oran-Lando. 
 9 Uno anno ad se delata undecim millia sacerdotum palam concubui- 
 ariorum. (Erasmi 0pp. torn. IX. p. 40]. 
 
5-1- HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 This depravity of manners by no means diminished on ascend- 
 ing the scale of the hierarchy. Church dignitaries preferred the 
 din of camps to the chants of the altars, and one of a bishop's 
 chief qualifications was to know how, lance in hand, to enforce 
 obedience from all around him. Baudouin, archbishop of Treves, 
 maintained an unceasing warfare with his neighbours and vas- 
 sals; he razed their castles to the ground, built forts, and 
 thought only of increasing his territory. A certain bishop of 
 Eichstadt, when administering justice, wore a shirt of mail under 
 his coat and held a huge sword in his hand. He used to say 
 that provided they attacked him in fair fight, he defied any five 
 Bavarians.^ Hostilities between bishops and their episcopal 
 cities prevailed every where; the burgesses calling for liberty, 
 and the bishops being resolved to have nothing sliort of absolute 
 obedience. When the latter had the best of the struggle, they 
 punished revolt by immolating many a victim to their revenge; 
 but the flame of insurrection shot forth at the very moment 
 when it was thought to have been completely put down. 
 
 And what was the spectacle which the pontifical throne pre- 
 sented in the times immediately preceding the reformation! 
 Home, we must say, saw not often so much shamelessness. 
 
 Roderick Borgia, after having lived five years with a Roman 
 lady, continued the same illegitimate commerce with the daugh- 
 ter of that lady, Rosa Vanozza, by whom he had five children. 
 He was residing at Rome as cardinal and archbishop; cohabit- 
 ing with Vanozza and with other women too; and withal 
 attending the churches and hospitals, when by the death of 
 Innocent VIH. the pontifical see became vacant. This he 
 contrived to obtain for himself, by purchasing each cardinal at 
 a certain price. On that occasion, four mules, each laden with 
 money, made a public entrance into the palace of the wealthiest 
 of them all, cardinal Sforza. Borgia became pope under the 
 name of Alexander VI. and was overjoyed at thus reaching 
 what he considered the summit of earthly felicity. 
 
 The very day of his coronation, he made his son, Caesar, a 
 youth of ferocious and dissolute habits, archbishop of Valentia, 
 and bishop of Pampeluna. He next celebrated, in the Vati- 
 
 ' Schmidt, Gesch, der Deutsclipn 
 
U1S0RDER1.Y LIVES OF THE I'OPEH. 55 
 
 can, the nuptials of his dau<;hter, Lucretia, with festivities in 
 which his mistress, Juha Jiolla, took part, and which were enli- 
 vened with indecent plays and songs. " All the ecclesiastics," 
 says an historian, ^ " had mistresses, and all the monasteries 
 and con vents of the capital were houses of had fame." C^sar 
 Borgia espoused the part of the Guelphs; and when with 
 their assistance, h« had annihilated the Gibelines, he turned 
 round on the Gu'lphs themselves, and overwhelmed them in 
 turn. He wished, however, to have the whole of the spoils, 
 thus acquired, at nis entire disposal. In the year 1497, Alex- 
 ander gave his eldest son the duchy of Benevento. The duke 
 disappeared. A dealer in wood on the banks of the Tiber, 
 George Schiavoni, had seen a corpse thrown into the river during 
 the night, but said nothing about it: it was a thing of ordi- 
 nary occurrence. The duke's body was recovered. His brother 
 Caesar had perpetrated this murder.^ But it was not enough; 
 he had a brother-in-law who gave him umbrage; and him Caesar 
 one day caused to be stabbed on the very staircase of the ponti- 
 fical palace. He was carried bleeding into his apartments. His 
 wife and sister unremittingly attended him, and even with their 
 own hands prepared his food, dreading his being poisoned by 
 Caesar. Alexander stationed guards at his gate, but Caesar 
 lauo-hed at these precautions, and as the pope was on his way to 
 see his son-in-law: "what was not done at dinner, will be done at 
 supper,"" said Caesar to him. One day, in fact, he succeeded in 
 reaching the chamber of the convalescent, thrust out his wife 
 and sister, called in his executioner, Michilotto, the only man he 
 treated with any confidence, and caused his brother-in-law to be 
 throttled to death before his eyes.^ Alexander had a favourite, 
 Peroto, his father"'s regard for whom gave offence to the young 
 duke. He attacked him; Peroto threw his arms round the 
 pope, under whose mantle he had sought protection, but Cajsar 
 struck his victim, so that the blood sprang from the wound on 
 tlie pontiff's face.^ "The pope," says the contemporary witness 
 
 ' Infessnra. 
 
 ' Amazzo i fratello ducha di Gandia e lo fa Imtar nol Tevcre. (M. S. C. of 
 Cap^llo, ambassador at R ime in 1500, extracted by Ranke.) 
 
 ■ Intr6 in camera . . . fe ussir la moglie e sorella . . . ostrangolo dito 
 zoveiie. (Ibid.) 
 
 * Adeo il snngne li salto in In fazn dol papa. (Ibid.) 
 
56 HISTORY OF THE REKOKMATIO.V. 
 
 of these scenes, "loves his son, the duke, and stands in great 
 dread of him."" Caesar was the handsomest and strongest man 
 of his age. At a bull-fight he could easily make six wild lulls 
 fall under the blows he struck. Not a morning passed at Rome 
 but some one was found assassinated during the night, and 
 poison consumed those whom the dagger failed to reach. People 
 durst hardly move or breathe in Rome, each trembling lest his 
 turn should be next. Caesar Borgia was the very hero of crime. 
 The spot on earth's surface where iniquity went to such a 
 height, was no other than the throne of the pontiffs; and no 
 wonder, for when man once gives himself up to the powers of 
 evil, the more he affects to rise in the sight of God, the deeper 
 does he plunge himself in the gulph of hell. It is impossible 
 to describe the immoral festivities with which the pope, his son 
 CaBsar, and his daughter Lucretia, indulged themselves; and no 
 one can contemplate them but with horror. The very groves 
 of antiquity perhaps never saw the like. Historians have 
 accused Alexander and Lucretia of incest, but proof of this 
 charge seems wanting. The pope's death was extraordinary. 
 He had ordered poison to be prepared in a box of sweetmeats 
 for one of the cardinals who was to have had it served to him 
 at the close of a sumptuous supper, but this intended victim had 
 gained over the steward, and the drugged comfits were placed 
 before Alexander himself, who ate of them and died. ^ " The whole 
 city ran together, and gloated with delight on this dead viper.*" 2 
 
 Such was the man who filled the papal see at the commence- 
 ment of the century in which the Reformation burst forth. 
 
 Thus had the clergy lowered both the reputation of religion 
 and their own; and thus might a powerful voice well exclaim, 
 "The ecclesiastical state is opposed to God and his glory. This 
 the people well know, and it is too well proved by so many songs, 
 proverbs, and sneers, at the expense of the priests, now passing 
 current among the common people, as well as by the caricatures of 
 monks and priests to be seen on all the walls, and even on play- 
 ing cards; not a man but feels disgust when he sees or hears a 
 clergyman approaching." These are Luther's words. ^ 
 
 * E messe la scutola venenata avante il papa. (Sanuto.) 
 
 * Gordon, Toniasi Infessura, Guicciardini, <tc. 
 
 ^ Da man an alle Wande, auf allerley Zeddcl. zuletzt auch auf den Karten- 
 spielen, Pfaffen und Miinche malete. (L. F>pp. ii. 674.) 
 
IGXORA.NCI!:. 
 
 The evil spread throughout all ranks: an erroneous specific had 
 been sent abroad among men; con-uption of morals answered to 
 the corruption of doctrine; a mystery of iniquity weighed heavily 
 on the enslaved Church of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Yet another consequence necessarily flowed froin the neglect 
 into which the fundamental doctrine of tiie gospel had fallen. 
 Men's minds grew dark as their hearts became depraved. When 
 the priests reserved to themselves the distribution of a salvation 
 which belonged to none but God, they seemed by that alone to 
 have acquired a sufficient title to popular respect. What need 
 liad they to study sacred literature ? Their business now was, 
 not to explain the Scriptures but to grant diplomas of indulgence, 
 and for this, the painful acquisition of much learning was alto- 
 gether unnecessary. 
 
 In the country parts, says Wimpheling, preachers were chosen 
 from among wretched creatures, originally brought up as beggars, 
 and who had been cooks, musicians, gamekeepers, stable boys, and 
 
 even worse. 
 
 Nay, the very higher clergy were often sunk in grievous ignor- 
 ance. A bishop of Dunfield congratulated himself on his never 
 having learned Greek or Hebrew; and the monks pretended tliat 
 these two languages, but especially Greek, were the source of all 
 heresies. "The New Testament," said one of them, " is a book 
 full of snakes and thorns. Greek," he goes on to say, "is a new 
 lano-uaofe, of late invention, and of which a man needs be well on 
 his guard. As for Hebrew, my dear brethren, it is certain that 
 all who learn it become Jews." We have this on the authority 
 of Heresbach, the friend of Erasmus and a respectable writer. 
 Thomas Linacer, though a learned and celebrated clergyman, 
 never had read the New Testament. At the close of his life (in 
 1524) he made a copy be brought to him, but immediately tossed 
 it from him with an oath, because on opening it, his eye had 
 fallen on these words: "But I say unto you. Swear not at all." 
 Now he happened to be a great swearer. "Either," says he, 
 "this is not the gospel, or we are not Christians."" 2 The very 
 theological faculty at Paris was not then afraid to say before the 
 parhament, "It is all over with religion if leave be given to 
 study Greek and Hebrew." 
 
 ' Apologia pro Rep. Christi. " MuUcr's Kclig. vol. iii. p. 2.3-T. 
 
 T H 
 
58 HISTORY OF THE REFORilATION. 
 
 Whatever accomplisliments might here and there be found 
 among the clergy, proficiency in sacred literature was not one of 
 them. The Ciceronians, as the admirers of Cicero were called 
 in Italy, affected to sneer at the Bible on account of its style ; 
 and men who held themselres out as priests of the church of 
 Jesus Christ, translated the writings of holy men, inspired by 
 the Spirit of God, into the style of Virgil and Horace, in order 
 that they might not offend the ears of good society. For example, 
 cardinal Bembo for Holy Ghost writes hreath of the celestial Zephyr; 
 for to remit sins, to hend the manes and the sovereign gods, and instead 
 of Christ, Son of God, Minerva come forth from the forehead of Jupi- 
 ter. Finding that respectable scholar, Sadolet, engaged in trans- 
 lating the epistle to the Romans: "leave off such childish work,"" 
 said he to him, "such fooleries are unbecoming a man of sense." ^ 
 
 Such were some of the consequences of the system under which 
 Christendom lay oppressed. The picture which they present, 
 no doubt, makes -the corruption of the Church and the necessity 
 for a reformation evident, being the conclusion which we intended 
 in sketching it. The vital doctrines of Christianity had entirely 
 disappeared, and with them had departed that life and that light 
 which are the very essence of the religion of God. The Church, 
 as a body, had lost its vital energy, and there it lay, all but 
 lifeless, extended over that part of the globe which had been 
 occupied by the Roman empire. 
 
 Who could be expected to restore its lost animation? Where 
 was there to be found a remedy for such an accumulation of evils? 
 
 V. A reform in the Church had now been the universal cry 
 for ages, and all the powers of humanity had set themselves to 
 make the attempt. But it was what God alone could accomplish. 
 He began, accordingly, by humbling all the powers of men, in 
 order that there might be full proof of their incapacity. He 
 beheld them, one after another, dashing themselves to pieces at 
 the foot of the colossus which they were endeavouring to destroy. 
 
 The princes of this world were the first who began the strug- 
 gle with Rome. All the might of the Hohenstaufen family, 2 
 
 * Felleri, Mon. ined., p. 400. 
 
 2 The German emperors of the house of Hohenstaufen in Swahia. To wit, the 
 emperors of Charlemagne's family who reigned during the ninth century, were 
 succeeded, first, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, by emperors of the ducal 
 houses of Saxony and Franconia alternatively, and thereafter, in the twelfth 
 century, by those here referred to, of the hout^e of Swahia. and tracing their 
 
EKF01U3 TOW Anus HEFOR.M ATIOX. 59 
 
 heroes wiih tlie crown of the cmph-o ciicu-chng their brows, 
 seemed pledged to huinblo and reform Rome, and to rescue the 
 nations, and Germany in particular, from her tyranny. But the 
 petty castle of Canusium discovers to us of what small avail was 
 the power of the empire, when matched with the Church's 
 usurping chief. We there see that redoubtable prince, the 
 emperor Henry IV., after a long and useless struggle with Rome, 
 reduced to spend three whole days and nights in the ditches ot 
 that insignificant Italian fortress, exposed to the winters piercing 
 cold, despoiled of his imperial robes, without shoes, with no better 
 covering than some woollens, imploring with cries interrupted with 
 sobs, the compassion of Hildebrand, before whom he throws 
 himself on his knees, and who deigns at length, after three lament- 
 able nights had past, to allow himself so far to be wrought upon 
 as to grant forgiveness to the suppliant.- Of so small account 
 was the might of the great ones of the earth, of the world's kings 
 and emperors, when matched against Rome. 
 
 These were followed by perhaps yet more formidable adver- 
 saries, the men of genius and learning. The mere revival of 
 literature in Italy involved an energetic protest against the 
 popedom ; but, to mention a few particular instances, Dante, the 
 father of Italian poetry, boldly places the mightiest of the popes 
 
 lineage from the free lords of Ilohensfaufen who were raised to the ducal dignity 
 of Swabia in tlie eleventh century, and afterwards supplied several emperors. 
 Previous to this, of the Franconian princes, Ilonry IV. in particular, had lived 
 on very ill terms with pope Gregory, with whom he quarrelled about the appoint- 
 ment of bishops ; yet being put under the ban by the pope, he had to submit to 
 the disgraceful humiliation alluded to by the author in the text, and also in the 
 3.5th page. This, however, did not so intimidate subsequent emperors of the 
 house of Hohenstaufen, and in particular Frederick Barbarossa and his grand- 
 son, Frederick II. as to deter them from resisting the power of the pope. 
 Frederick II. though repeatedly placed under the pai)al ban, held out by 
 force of arms, at the expense, however, of bequeathing the hatred of the popes to 
 his descendants. Ilis son, Conrad, could with difficulty maintain his power against 
 the revolts excited against him, and was the last emperor of the family, while 
 his grandson Conradin was deprived of his kingdom of Sicily, bestowed by the 
 pope on the duke of Anjou, by whom he was beheaded. — L. R. 
 
 - See how pope Hildebrand himself relates this event : " Tandem rex ad 
 oppidum Canusii in quo morati sumus, cum paucis advenit, ibique per triduum 
 ante portam, deposito omni regie cultu, miserabiliter, utpote discalccatus et 
 laneis inductus, persistens, non prius cum multo fletu apostolica; miserationis 
 auxilium et consolatium implorare dcstitit. quam omnes qui ibi aderant, ad 
 tantam piotatem et compassionis mi-scricordiam niovit, ut pro eo multis prccibus 
 et lacrymis interccdentes, omnes quidcm insolitam nostra; mentis duritiam 
 mirarentur, nonnulli vero non apostolicse sevoritatis gravitatem, sed quas^i 
 tyrannicoe feritatis crudelftatem esse clamaront " (Lib. iv. ep. 12; ad 
 Gei'manos.) 
 
CO HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION-. 
 
 in his hell; he makes the apostle Peter utter the severest and 
 most humiliating language against his unworthy successors, and of 
 the monks and the clergy he gives the most horrible description. 
 
 Another great genius, Petrarch, a man of a mind superior 
 to all the emperors and popes of his time, boldly insisted on a 
 return to the primitive constitution of the Church; and to effect 
 this, calls upon the men of his time and the government of the 
 emperor, Charles IV., to lend their assistance. Laurentius 
 Valla, one of the most illustrious of the literary men of Italy, 
 most energetically assailed both the pretensions of th-e popes and 
 the pretended inheritance they liold from Constantine. These 
 were followed by a whole legion of poets and of men of science 
 and philosophy, and thus the torch of literature being every- 
 where rekindled, threatened to burn down the Roman scaiFolding 
 that obscured it. All these endeavours, however, were useless. 
 Leo. X. took literature into his own service, and made poetry 
 and the arts and sciences, as it were, the ministers and menials 
 of his court, humbly kissing the feet of the very power which in 
 their childish self-conceit they had vaunted that they could 
 destroy. 
 
 At last there appeared an adversary which, more than any 
 ether, seemed capable of reforming the Church, and that was 
 the Church itself. The call for reform now burst from all 
 quarters, and had been sounding for ages, when there met at 
 Constance, in the council that takes its name from that city, 
 the most imposing of ecclesiastical assemblies. Christendom 
 had never, indeed, known a meeting of the kind, that carried 
 with it so much weight and authority; comprising, as it did, 
 an immense number of cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, 
 eighteen hundred priests and doctors of divinity, the emperor 
 with a following of a thousand persons, the elector of Saxony, 
 the elector Palatine, the dukes of Bavaria and Austria, and the 
 ambassadors of all the other powers. Among these distinguished 
 persons the chief place must be assigned to the illustrious and 
 immortal doctors of the university of Paris, the d'Aillys, the 
 Gersons, the Clemangis, men eminent at once for piety, learning, 
 and moral courage, and who communicated an energetic and 
 salutary impulsion to the council by the truths which they pub- 
 lished, and the power with which they spoke. All gave way 
 
COUNCir, OF COXSTANCR. 61 
 
 before this assembly. With cne liaiul it threw down three 
 popes, while, with the other, it dcHvered Jolm lluss to the 
 flames. A commission, in which all nations had their deputies, 
 was appointed to draw up the plan for a fundamental reform. 
 To this measure the emperor Sigismond gave the whole weight 
 of his influence. But one voice prevailed in the council. All 
 the cardinals swore that whoever of them might be elected pope, 
 should not break up the meeting, or leave Constance, until the 
 reform so much called for, should be effected. Colonna was 
 chosen under the name of Martin V. And now had arrived 
 the critical moment which was to decide the reformation of the 
 Church. All the prelates, the emperor, all the princes and all 
 the nations of Christendom, Avcre watching the result with incon- 
 ceivable impatience. 
 
 " The council is closed," exclaimed Martin V. the moment 
 that his head received the tiara. Sigismond and the Church 
 uttered a cry of mingled surprise, indignation, and grief ; but 
 the air closed upon this cry, and on the 16th of May, 1418, the 
 pope appeared in full pontifical array, and mounted on a richly 
 caparisoned mule. The emperor appears on his right and the 
 elector of Brandenburg on his left, each holding the reins of his 
 steed; four counts raise a magnificent canopy over the papal 
 head; several princes flock round and lend their assistance; 
 and a cavalcade, a historian informs us, of forty thousand 
 persons, composed of noblemen, knights, and ecclesiastics of all 
 ranks, in solemn state convoy the pontift' beyond the walls of 
 Constance. And Rome, alone, on his mule, laughs in liis sleeve 
 at Christendom as it surrounds him, and tells him, that the 
 charm he exercises is such, that it must be overcome, if at all, 
 by some power other than emperors, kings, bishops, doctors; 
 ay, than all the learning, and all the might, of that age and of 
 the Church. 
 
 How could that which needed reform become itself the reform- 
 ing power ? How could the sore have found any healing virtue 
 in itself? 
 
 Nevertheless, the means employed for the reformation of the 
 Church, and which the event proved to be impotent, had their 
 share in weakening obstacles, and in smoothing the way for the 
 Reformers. 
 
C)2 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 VI. The ills with which Christendom was now afflicted — 
 superstition, infidelity, ignorance, idle speculations, and corrup- 
 tion of manners — all sprang naturally from man's own heart, 
 and were no new thing on the earth. They had often figured 
 in the history of the nations, and, especially in the East, had 
 attacked various religions in the decline of their glory. To 
 these evils such enervated religions had given way — had perished 
 when thus smitten, and none had ever again raised its head. 
 
 Could it be that Christianity was to undergo the same fate, 
 and that it, too, was to perish like the ancient popular religions' 
 Was the stroke that had dealt death to them, to prove equally 
 deadly to it? Was there no saving power to be found? Was 
 it possible that the unfriendly forces that had begun to over- 
 whelm it, after having crushed so many different kinds of wor- 
 ship, were to be suffered to settle down, unopposed, on the 
 ruined Church of Jesus Christ? 
 
 No — Christianity has that which none of these popular 
 religions possessed. What it presents to man is not, as with 
 them, certain general ideas, mingled with traditions and fables, 
 all fated, sooner or later, to fall before the attacks of human 
 reason. It contains a pure truth, based on facts that are capable 
 of bearing the examination of every honest and intelligent mind. 
 Christianity aims not merely at the excitement in man of 
 certain vague religious feelings, the impression made by which, 
 when once lost, cannot be renewed ; its object is to satisfy, and 
 it does satisfy, all the religious yearnings of human nature, 
 whatever the degree of development it may have reached. It 
 is not man's work, for that is ever transient and evanescent; it 
 is the work of God, who maintains what he creates, and the 
 promises of its divine Author are the pledges of its durability. 
 
 Never can humanity obtain the ascendency over Christianity. 
 And if, for a time, the former has thought that it might dis- 
 pense with the latter, yet soon does it appear again in all the 
 freshness of a new life, as the only medicine that can heal men's 
 souls; then do degenerate nations return with quite fresh eager- 
 ness to the ancient, simple, and yet mighty truths which, in the 
 hour of their besotted folly, they had disdained. 
 
 In fact, Christianity put forth the same regenerating power in 
 the sixtcorith century Avliich it liad exerted in the first. After 
 
CIIUISTIAMTY IMl'KUlSlIAliLK. C3 
 
 the lapse of fifteen hundred years, the same trutlis prochicod 
 the same effects; and in the days of the lleformation, as in those 
 of Paul and of Peter, the gospel overcame immense obstacles, 
 with resistless force. Its sovereign potency manifested itself 
 from north to south, and among nations presenting every variety 
 of manners, character, and intellectual development. Then, as 
 in the time of Stephen and of James, it kindled the flame of 
 enthusiasm and devotedness among extinct nations, and raised 
 them even to the moral elevation of martyrdom. 
 
 Now, let us see how this vivification of the Church and of 
 the world was effected. Here we observe the operation of two 
 laws by which God at all times governs the world. 
 
 First, he makes slow and remote preparation for whatever he 
 means to accomplish, and to effect which, all time is at his 
 disposal. 
 
 Then, when the moment for executing his purposes has 
 arrived, he effects the greatest objects by the most inconsider- 
 able instruments. Thus does he act, both in nature and in 
 history. When he means that a huge tree should extend its 
 branches over the earth, he drops a small seed in the soil; when 
 lie means to renovate his Church, he employs the pettiest instru- 
 ment to effect what has exceeded the capacity of emperors, 
 and of the learned and eminent men of the Church. As we 
 proceed with our research, we shall soon discover this small 
 seed, planted by a divine hand at the time of the Reformation; 
 but at present, we must set ourselves to discern and recognize 
 the various means by which God prepared the way for this great 
 revolutiori. 
 
 First, let us glance at the state of the popedom itself; and 
 then pass under review the several influences which God made 
 to concur in promoting his designs. 
 
 Just as the Reformation was ready to burst forth, Rome 
 seemed to be in peace and safety. One might have said, indeed, 
 that her triumph was now beyond the reach of being shaken; 
 she was reposing, after having gained great victories. Councils 
 general, which might be regarded as the parliamentary cham- 
 bers, the upper and lower houses, of the Church, had been put 
 down; the Vaudois and the Hussites had been repressed; no 
 university, with the exception, porlmps, of tl.at of Paris, wliich 
 
6i HISTORY OF THE KEFORMATION. 
 
 at times would raise its voice on receiving the signal from its 
 kings, disputed the infallibility of the oracles of Rome. Each 
 seemed to accept his own share of her power. The higher 
 clergy thought it better to allow the tenth of their revenues to 
 go to a distant chief, and quietly to consume the other nine 
 parts, rather than risk the whole for the sake of an independence 
 which might cost them dear, and give them little in return. 
 The lower clergy, lured by the prospect of the brilliant places 
 which ambition pictured forth to them in the distance, willingly 
 consented to a little bondage while indulging expectations so 
 flattering to their vanity. They were, moreover, almost every 
 where so oppressed by the chiefs of the hierarchy, that they 
 dared hardly stir their wings under such powerful hands; far 
 less,resolutely throw off the pressure and make head against 
 them. As for the people, they bowed their knees at the 
 Roman altar; and even the kings themselves, although they 
 had begun secretly to despise the bishop of Rome, dared not 
 raise what that age would have called a sacrilegious hand against 
 his power. 
 
 But although when the Reformation broke forth, opposition 
 from without seems to have declined, or even altogether ceased, 
 it had been collecting inward vigour; and on a closer inspection 
 of the edifice, we shall discover that it showed more than one 
 symptom of its approaching ruin. Thus, even in their fall, 
 general councils had diffused their principles throughout the 
 Church, and had carried division into the camp of their oppo- 
 nents. The defenders of the hierarchy split into two parties: 
 those who, on Hildebrand's principles, maintained the absolute 
 domination of the pope, and those who were for a constitutional 
 popedom, reserving securities and franchises to the churches. 
 
 More than this: faith in the Roman bishop's infallibility had 
 received a violent shock; and if no voice was lifted against it, this 
 arose from each rather endeavouring anxiously to retain what- 
 ever small remains of faith he had. The slightest shake caused 
 alarm, because it was thought that it might bring down the 
 whole edifice. Christendom held its breath, but only to prevent 
 a disaster in the midst of which it might have trembled for its 
 existence. But from the moment that man trembles to think 
 of giving up a long revered persuasion, he proves that he no 
 
TRANSFORMATION' Or TIIK CIlUKCll. ().» 
 
 longer really possesses it; nor will ho very long keep up cvon 
 the appearance which lio wants to maintain. 
 
 Let us see how this singular condition of things was brought 
 about. 
 
 Its first cause is to be found in the Church itself. Not that 
 the errors and superstitions which it had introduced into Chris- 
 tianity, were what properly had inflicted a fatal blow. Christen- 
 dom behoved to have been placed above the Church in point 
 of intellectual and religious developement, in order to have the 
 capacity forjudging in this respect. But there was an order of 
 things level to the capacity of the laity, and it was there that 
 the Church was judged. She had become worldly. That sacer- 
 dotal empire which lorded it over the nations, and which sub- 
 sisted only because its subjects were deceived and thought that 
 its crown was a glory, had forgotten its true nature. Leaving 
 heaven and its spheres of light and glory, it had immersed itself 
 in the vulgar concerns of burghers and of princes. Born repre- 
 sentatives of the Spirit, the priests had bartered it for the flesh; 
 and abandoned the treasures of learning, and the spiritual power 
 of preaching, for brute force and the tinsel of this world. 
 
 All this happened very naturally. True, it was the spiritual 
 
 order of things that the Church first stood forth to defend. But 
 
 for its defence against the resistance and the attacks of the 
 
 nations, she had sought the aid of those earthly means, and 
 
 vulgar arms, which a false prudence had induced her to employ. 
 
 Once that the Church set herself to the handling of such arms, 
 
 it was all over with her spirituality. Her arm could not 
 
 become a secular one without her heart becoming so also; and 
 
 forthwith, the original state of things with her was perceived to 
 
 be apparently reversed. Beginning with the intention of calling 
 
 in the earth for the defence of heaven, she ended with making 
 
 use of heaven in defending the earth. The forms of a theocracy 
 
 were no longer anything better in her hands than the means of 
 
 accomplishing worldly undertakings. The offerings which the 
 
 tribes of Christendom laid before the sovereign pontiff", served 
 
 but to pamper his luxurious court and to pay his soldiers. The 
 
 charm was dissipated, and the Church became an impotent thing 
 
 from the moment the men of this world could say, " She has 
 
 become like unto us." 
 
 I. I 
 
66 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The great were the first to scrutinize the titles of this 
 imaginary power. ^ Such an inquest might have sufficed for her 
 exposure and ruin; but happily for her, the education of princes 
 was everywhere in the hands of her adepts. These were sure to 
 instil into their august pupils sentiments of veneration for the 
 Roman pontiff. The chiefs of the nations spent their early years 
 in the sanctuary of the Church; princes of ordinary capacity 
 never knew how to come altogether out of it; not a few desired 
 nothing more than to find themselves there at the moment of 
 their death. They liked better to die under a priest's frock 
 than under a crown. 
 
 No country contributed more than Italy, that apple of discord 
 to the rest of Europe, to open the eyes of kings. With the 
 popes they had to form alliances in which, not the bishop of 
 bishops, but the temporal ruler of the States of the Church, was 
 the person really concerned. In the course of such transactions, 
 they discovered that these pretended organs of the truth, had 
 recourse to all the petty artifices of politics — to deception, to 
 dissimulation, and even to perjury. "2 Then it was that the 
 bandage with which education had hoodwinked the eyes of 
 princes, fell off". Then did the adroit Ferdinand of Aragon^ play 
 off' stratagem against stratagem. Then did the impetuous Louis 
 XII. cause a medal to be struck with this legend: Perdam 
 Bahylonis nomen. ^ And the honest Maximilian of Austria, 
 grieved to the heart on being informed of Leo X.'s treachery, 
 openly declared: " This pope, too, is in my eyes no better than 
 
 ' Adrien Baillet, Ilistoire des demeles de Boniface VIII. avec Philippe le 
 Bel, (Paris, 1708.) 
 
 ^ Guicciardini, History of Italy. 
 
 ^ P'erdinand of Aragon is celebrated in history on various accounts. By his 
 marriage with Isabella, queen of Castile, he united all Spain into one kingdom, 
 absolutely annihilated the dominion which the Moors had held in Spain ever 
 since the eighth century, put down the robberies and oppressions of the great, 
 and introduced a better order of things. He extended his authority into 
 other lands also, became proverbial for craftiness, and showed great apparent 
 zeal in the cause of religion, by persecuting the Jews and introducing the 
 Inquisition. All this procured for him the surname of " the Catholic," yet 
 he not the less fell under the suspicion of the popes, who distrusted his 
 cunning, and thought with others that he aimed at universal empire. Louis 
 XII. of France was a high-spirited monarch. He was occasionally outwitted 
 by Ferdinand, and was not afraid to oppose the pope, having even summoned 
 pope Julius II. to appear before a meeting of cardinals at Pisa: though after- 
 wards, when under the necessity of procuring peace, he humbled himself before 
 the pope. — L. R. 
 
 * I will destroy the name of Babylon. 
 
ROMAN THEOLOGY. 67 
 
 a felon. Now I can say tliat not one pope, during m.y whole 
 life, has kept faith with nic, and been true to his word. . . 
 I hope, if God please, that this will bo the last."" ' 
 
 Such discoveries, though first made by kings, gradually 
 reached and influenced the people under them. But several 
 other causes opened the long- closed eyes of Christendom. The 
 wisest began to accustom themselves to the notion that the 
 bishop of Home was a mere man, and sometimes a very wicked 
 man. The common people began to suspect that he was not a 
 great deal holier than his bishops, and their reputation was very 
 equivocal. The popes themselves, however, did more than all 
 beside, to make themselves dishonoured; for when the Council 
 of, Basel had freed them from all restraint, they gave themselves 
 over to that unbridled license which ordinarily follows a victory. 
 The very Romans, dissolute as they were, felt shocked at this; 
 the scandal caused by these excesses passed from mouth to 
 mouth throughout all Christendom ; and its inhabitants, though 
 incompetent to the task of preventing their treasures being 
 swept off into this deluge of profligacy, sought compensation in 
 hatred. 2 
 
 While many circumstances concurred in undermining what 
 then existed, the tendency of others was to introduce something 
 new. 
 
 The strange theological system then established in the Church, 
 could not fail to contribute powerfully to the opening of the eyes 
 of the new generation. This system, made for an age of dark- 
 ness as if that age were to subsist for ever, must have been left 
 behind and destroyed in all its parts, as society moved forward. 
 Such was actually the case. The popes had made now one, 
 now another, addition to the doctrines of Christianity, but had 
 altered or expunged only what would not square with their 
 hierarchy; while whatever was found not inconsistent with 
 their plan, was suffered to remain until farther orders. True 
 doctrines were to be found in this system, such as that of the 
 redemption, and of the power of the Spirit of God, and with 
 
 ' Scultet. Annal. ad an. 1520. 
 
 8 " Odium llomani nominis pcnitus infixum esse multamin gentium aniniis 
 opinor, ob ea qua3 vulgo dc moribus ejus urbis jactantur," (Erasmi E]>istol. 
 lib. xii.p. 031.) 
 
68 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 these a skilful theoloirian niio;ht attack and subvert all the rest. 
 The pure gold that was mingled with vile lead in the Vatican 
 treasury, could easily make the fraud appear evident; and 
 although it be true that when any one had the courage to notice 
 it, Rome straightway winnowed this good grain out of her 
 threshing-floor, still these very condemnations only increased 
 the chaos. 
 
 Immense, indeed, was that chaos, and pretended unity was 
 but one vast disorder. At Rome itself there were the doctrines 
 of the court and the doctrines of the Church. Then, the creed 
 of the metropolis differed from that of the provinces, and the 
 diversity that prevailed in these went almost to infinity. There 
 was the creed of the princes, the creed of the people, and the 
 creed of the religious orders, among which people distinguished 
 the opinions of such a convent, such a district, such a doctor, or 
 such a monk. 
 
 In order to secure its existence during the period when Rome 
 might have crushed it with her iron mace, truth had done like 
 the insect when it incloses itself in its chrysalis during the wintry 
 season ; and, strange to say, the means which this divine verity 
 had employed in thus shrouding itself from assault, were the 
 very schoolmen who have been so much decried. These indus- 
 trious artificers of thought, had set themselves to the spinning 
 out of all the ideas known in theology, and with the threads thus 
 formed, they had made a network, within which it had been most 
 difficult for their subtlest contemporaries to recognise the truth 
 in its primitive purity. One may complain that an insect, full 
 of life and sometimes sparkling in the brightest colours, should 
 shut itself up, to all appearance dead, in an obscure cone; but 
 to that it owes its preservation. And so it was with truth. 
 Had Rome, with her interested and suspicious policy, encountered 
 it in the days of her might, in its naked state, she would have 
 destroyed, or at least attempted to destroy it. But while dis- 
 guised as it had been by the theologians of that age, in an inter- 
 minable web of subtilties and distinctions, the popes either did 
 not perceive it at all, or thought that in that state it could never 
 hurt them. They even protected both the workmen and their 
 work. But spring-time might come round, and then truth 
 miijht rise from its concealment, and cast off the threads that 
 
REMAINS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 69 
 
 enveloped it. With the fresh energies it had acquired in what 
 was apparently a tomb, its rising again might soon bo followed 
 by a victory over Rome and her errors. This spring-time did 
 come round. And while the absurd wrappings of the schoolmen 
 cave wav, one after another, before the able attacks and the 
 sneering ridicule of the new generation, the truth, in all its fresh- 
 ness and loveliness, escaped and was free. 
 
 But it was not only from the writings of the schoolmen that 
 the truth received powerful testimonies in its favour. Christi- 
 anity, it may be remarked, had everywhere mingled some of her 
 own vitality in that of the nations. The Church of Christ was, 
 indeed, a degraded structure; but when men began to dig into 
 its foundations, they so far discovered the living rock on which 
 it was originally built. Several institutions dating from the 
 good times of the Church, still subsisted, and could not but call 
 forth in many souls such evangelical sentiments as opposed the 
 dominant superstition. Here and there would a solitary voice 
 fall upon the ear from inspired men, and from the Church's 
 ancient teachers ; and we may hope that it was listened to in 
 silence by more than one attentive hearer. Let us not doubt, 
 and it is a delightful reflection, that Christians had many 
 brothers and sisters in those monasteries, where people are too 
 ready to perceive nothing but hypocrisy and dissoluteness. 
 
 Nor was it only things old that smoothed the Avay for this 
 religious awakening; there was something new which must have 
 powerfully favoured it. The human mind was growing older, 
 and this single fact must have brought about its enfranchise- 
 ment. ^ The shrub, as it advances in its growth, overturns the 
 walls near which it was planted, and for their shadow substitutes 
 its own. The Roman pontiff had taken advantage of his 
 superiority in point of intelligence, to reduce the nations to a 
 state of pupilage under him, and while he kept them long in 
 minority, he knew, also, how to keep them obedient to his will. 
 But they were now becoming men, and escaped from his grasp 
 on every side. This venerable guardianship, which had its first 
 cause in the principles of everlasting life and of civilization com- 
 
 i In this and sundry other expressions wo see how difficult it is for a Christian 
 author altonether to escape from tlie philosophical cant of the day. Any such 
 advance of "the human mind is a dream of modern philosophy. Tn. 
 
70 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 municated by Rome to nations of barbarians, could no longer go 
 on unopposed, for a formidable adversary had now placed itself 
 in a position to watch and control it. We find this new power 
 in the natural proneness of the human mind to develope its 
 powers, to examine and to inform itself. Men''s eyes were now 
 opening, and they wanted to have reasons for every step which 
 they took by the direction of this long respected guide, under 
 whom they had been seen for ages, and as long as their eyes 
 were shut, to move without a word of remonstrance. The tribes 
 of a new Europe had now passed the period of their childhood; 
 their adult age was commencing; and the childlike simplicity 
 which had been ready to believe everything, had now given 
 place to an inquiring mind and to a reason which was impatient 
 of all imperfect knowledge. People now inquired what God's 
 object had been in speaking to the world, and if men had any 
 right to place themselves as mediators between God and their 
 brethren. 
 
 The Church had but one means of safety; and this lay in 
 maintaining its ascendency over the nations. It was not enough 
 that it should be on a level with them, yet it found itself greatly 
 overtopped. At the very time these began to mount, it began 
 to go down; as men in general were gradually rising towards 
 the domain of intelligence, the priesthood found themselves 
 absorbed with earthly pursuits and human interests. Such a 
 phenomenon repeatedly meets us in history. The eaglefs wings 
 had grown, and no one could be found with a powerful enough 
 hand to prevent its spreading them for flight. 
 
 While in Europe itself the light was thus bursting from the 
 prison in which it had long remained captive, the East began to 
 shed a new radiance over the West. This was caused by the flight 
 of the learned from Constantinople on the standard of the 
 Osmanlis being planted on the walls of that city, in 1453; and 
 their carrying with them into Italy the literature of Greece. 
 Minds that had been extinct for ages, now caught flame from the 
 torch of the ancients. Printing, then a late invention, multi- 
 plied the energetic protests raised against the corruptions of the 
 Church, as well as those not less potent voices which call^ed the 
 human mind into new paths. It seemed as if errors and vain 
 practices, were exposed to view in one bright jet of light. It 
 
TIIK REFORMATION SAVED KKLIGION. 71 
 
 was a light, however, Avhich though sufficiently adapted to destroy 
 was incapable of building up again. It never could be the voca- 
 tion either of Homer or of Virgil, to save the Church. 
 
 In short, the principle of the Reformation is not at all to be 
 found in the revival of literature, and of the sciences and arts. 
 The paganism of the poets when it re-appeared in Italy, was 
 more likely to bring back the paganism of the heart. When 
 vain superstitions were attacked and gave way, they were suc- 
 ceeded only by inlidelity with its scornful sneers; so that it 
 became the fashion and was thought the mark of a superior 
 mind, to laugh at everything, not excepting things the most 
 sacred. Religion was looked upon merely as a means of gover- 
 ning the people. "I have my fears," exclaimed Erasmus in 
 1516, "that with the study of ancient literature, we may see the 
 return of ancient paganism." 
 
 It is true that then, just as after the sneering age of Augus- 
 tus, and as, in our own days, after the irreligious scoffs of the 
 last century, a new Platonic philosophy was seen to pierce the 
 soil, and attracted attention by attacking this impudent incredu- 
 lity, and endeavouring, like the philosophy of the present day, 
 to produce a certain respect for Christianity and to revive reli- 
 gious feelings in the hearts of men. The Medici family, at 
 Florence, gave their countenance to these eflorts of the Plato- 
 nists, but never will a philosophical religion regenerate the 
 Church or the world. In its haughty contempt for the preach- 
 ing of the cross, and its affectation of seeing nothing but figures 
 and symbols in the doctrines of Christianity, to the greater 
 number of men it becomes incomprehensible, and may evaporate 
 in a mystical enthusiasm, but will ever prove incapable of reform- 
 ing men in this world or of saving them in the next. 
 
 What, then, would have been the result, had true Christian- 
 ity not re-a]ipeared in the w'orld, and had faith failed to replen- 
 ish men''s hoarts with its moral power and purity? The Refor- 
 mation saved religion, and with religion society itself; so that if 
 the Church of Rome had had God's glory and man''s wel- 
 fare really at heart, she would have greeted it with joy. But 
 what cared Leo X. for either? 
 
 Very different from its consequences in Italy and Franco 
 were those that followed the stud}' of ancient literature in Gcr- 
 
72 HISTOKY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 many. In the latter country that study was mingled with faith, 
 and hence what in the one case had only produced a certain 
 refinement of the understanding, minute in effort and barren in 
 results, penetrated and pervaded men''s whole minds in the other 
 case, warming their hearts and preparing them for receiving a 
 yet better illumination. The first restorers of literature in 
 Ital}' and in France, were notorious for the levity, — often even 
 for the downright immorality, of their conduct; whereas the men 
 who succeeded them in Germany, were of a serious turn, and 
 zealously devoted themselves to the search of truth. While 
 oftering her incense to profane literature and science, Italy 
 beheld the rise of an infidel opposition ; Germany, too, while 
 engrossed with a profound theology and thrown back on her- 
 self, beheld the rise of an opposition, but it was one replete Avith 
 faith. There the foundations of the Church were undermined 
 — ^liere they were laid anew and restored. A remarkable union 
 of free, learned, and generous men took place in the empire; — ■ 
 men among whom some princes occupied a conspicuous place, and 
 who endeavoured to make learnin<T the handmaid of relio-ion. 
 Some of these worthies brought to their studies the humble 
 faith of children; the minds of others were intelligent and pene- 
 trating, and disposed, perhaps, to go beyond the legitimate 
 bounds of liberty and criticism; yet both helped to clear away 
 from the entrance to the temple, the obstructions caused by such 
 a mass of superstitions. 
 
 The monkish theologians saw themselves in danger, and raised 
 a clamour against the same studies which in Italy and France 
 they had tolerated, because pursued in these countries in union 
 with levity and immorality. A conspiracy was now formed 
 among them ao;ainst the Ian2:ua2;es and sciences; for behind 
 these, faith arose and scared them. A monk, warning some one 
 against the heresies of Erasmus, was asked in what they con- 
 sisted? He admitted that he had never read the work alluded 
 to, and could say but one thing of it, that it was written in too 
 good Latin. 
 
 VII. All these extrinsic causes, however, would not have 
 sufficed to mature matters for the renovation of the Church. 
 Christianity had declined owing to the abandonment of the two 
 grand doctrines of the new covenant. The former of these, in 
 
rniN'ClPLE 01' TIIIC ItKrOIl.MATlO.V. 73 
 
 opposition to the authority of tlie Church, maintains the direct 
 contact of every soul with the divine source of truth; the hitter, 
 in opposition to the merit of human works, is the doctrine of 
 salvation by grace. Now, which of these two principles — prin- 
 ciples unchangeable and undying, for though disowned and 
 modified thev had never ceased to exist — are we to find taking 
 the initiative and giving the regenerating impulse? Is it the 
 first, — the ecclesiastical idea? Or the second, — the spiritual idea? 
 People pretend, in our days, to go from the social condition to the 
 soul; from humanity to the individual; and, accordingly, we 
 might suppose that the first in order, must be the ecclesiastical 
 idea. But iiistory demonstrates the reverse, for it proves that it is 
 by individual action that we operate upon the collective mass, and 
 that if we would regenerate the social condition, we must, first 
 of all, regenerate the soul. All the attempts at reform pre- 
 sented to us by the middle ages, are associated with some reli- 
 gious view, and the question of authority was never approached 
 except when this was rendered indispensable in order to defend 
 truth, when discovered, against the hierarchy. And thus it was 
 at a later period with Luther himself. Saving truth being per- 
 ceived on the one side, supported by the authority of the word 
 of God, and destroying error on the other side, with the authority 
 of the Roman hierarchy in its favour, there was no room for Ion"' 
 suspense, and the question of authority came soon to be settled, 
 in spite of the most specious sophisms and of proofs apparently 
 the most evident. 
 
 The Church had fallen because deprived of the grand doctrine 
 of justification by faith in the Saviour; and, if she were ever to 
 rise again, it could only be by having that doctrine restored. From 
 the time of the re-establishment in Christendom of that funda- 
 mental truth, all the errors and practices that had usurped its 
 place — that whole multitude of saints, pious works, penances, 
 masses, indulgences, and so forth, necessarily disappeared. No 
 sooner were the one sole Mediator, and his one sole sacrifice, 
 acknowledged, than all other mediators and sacrifices were obliter- 
 ated. "This article of justification," said onewhomwe nmst regard 
 as an enlightened authority on the subject,^ "is that which created 
 the Church, and which nourishes, edifies, preserves, and defends 
 
 ' Luther to Brentius. 
 I. 
 
 K 
 
74 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 it. No man who does not steadfastly hold by this truth, can 
 teach in the Church to any good purpose, or successfully resist 
 an adversary." " It is there," the same writer adds, alluding to 
 the earliest prophecy, "it is there that we find the heel that 
 bruises the serpenfs head." 
 
 God, who was preparing his work, raised up, in the course of 
 centuries, a long succession* of witnesses to the truth; yet, in 
 giving this testimony, these generous men had not a sufficiently 
 clear knowledge of the truth themselves, or, at least, knew not 
 how to exhibit it to others with sufficient clearness. They were 
 fitting harbingers of a work which they could not themselves 
 accomplish ; but let us add, that if they were not ready for the 
 work, neither was the work ready for them. The measure was 
 not yet full; time had not yet fulfilled its prescribed course; 
 there was not as yet by any means a generally enough felt need 
 of the true remedy. 
 
 In fact, instead of hewing down the tree at its root, by preach- 
 ing, mainly and emphatically, the doctrine of salvation by grace, 
 they occupied themselves about ceremonies, church-government, 
 the order of worship, the adoration of saints and their images, 
 transubstantiation, and so forth. Confining themselves to the 
 branches of the tree, they might succeed in pruning it here and 
 there, but still they left it standing. In order to there being a 
 wholesome reformation without, there behoved to be a true refor- 
 mation within, and that was what faith alone could effect. 
 
 Hardly had Rome usurped the government of the Church, 
 than there was formed against her a powerful opposition which 
 ran through the middle ages. 
 
 Claud, archbishop of Turin, in the ninth century; Peter of 
 13ruys, his disciple, Henry, and Arnold of Brescia in the twelfth 
 century, in France and in Italy, sought to re-establish the 
 worship of God in spirit and in truth: this object, however, 
 they confined too much to the mere doing away of the worship 
 of images and of external practices. 
 
 The mystics, who have existed almost in every age, while 
 silently endeavouring after holiness of heart, righteousness of life, 
 and calm communion with God, looked around with sorrow and 
 alarm at the desolations of the Church. Carefully abstaining 
 from the scholastic quarrels and useless discussions beneath 
 
TH!5 MYSTirg, thk vaudois, \vici.iri\ 7o 
 
 which true piety had boon buried, they made it their endeavour 
 to turn away men from the vain mechanism of outward cere- 
 monies, in order to bring them to that deep repose of tlie soul 
 which seeks all its happiness in God; and this they could not 
 do, without impugning- accredited opinions at all points, and 
 lifting oft* the vail that concealed the Cliurch''s sore. But, at 
 the same time, they had no clear view of the doctrine of justifi- 
 cation by faith. 
 
 Much superior to the mystics in point of purity of doctrine, 
 were the Vaudois, who formed a long chain of witnesses to the 
 truth. Men enjoying more freedom than the rest of the Church, 
 seem from ancient times to have inhabited the summits of the 
 Alps of Piedmont, and had their numbers increased, and their 
 doctrines purified, by the disciples of Valdo. For a succession 
 of ao-es the Vaudois, from their mountain heights, protested 
 against the superstitions of Rome. ^ "They struggled for the 
 living hope they had in God by Christ ; for the inward regen- 
 eration and renewing, by faith, hope, and charity; for the merits 
 of Jesus Christ, and the all-sufficiency of his grace and of his 
 rifrhteousness."^ 
 
 Nevertheless, this primary truth of the sinner's justification; 
 this capital doctrine, which ought to have risen from amid all 
 their other doctrines, like Mont-blanc from the bosom of the 
 Alps, does not sufficiently predominate in their system. The 
 peak is not sufficiently elevated. 
 
 Peter Vaud or Valdo, a rich merchant of Lyons (1170), sold 
 all his possessions and gave the produce to the poor. He, and 
 his friends likewise, seemed to have aimed at the restoration in 
 actual life of the perfection of primitive Christianity. He began, 
 then, with the branches; not with the roots. Yet his preach- 
 ino- was powerful, for he appealed to scripture, and it shook the 
 Roman hierarchy to its foundations. 
 
 Wicliff appeared in England in 1860, and made his appeal 
 from the pope to the word of God, but the true inward disease 
 of the Church's body was, in his eyes, only one of the numerous 
 symptoms of its malady. 
 
 ' Nobla Leyjon. 
 
 3 Tract on Antichrist contemporaneous with the Noble T-csson. 
 
76 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 John Huss spoke in Bohemia a century earlier than Luther 
 did in Saxony; and he appears to have gone deeper than all his 
 precursors into the essence of Christian truth. He beseeches 
 Christ to give him grace to glorify him onlj^ in his cross, and in 
 the inappreciable shame of his sufferings. Practically, however, 
 he attacks, not so much the Roman Church's errors, as the 
 scandalous living of the clergy. Still, he was, one may say, the 
 John the Baptist of the Reformation. The flames amid which 
 he expired, kindled a conflagration in the Church which threw 
 an immense blaze of light into the surrounding darkness, and 
 the embers of which could not be extinguished as promptly as 
 they were kindled. 
 
 John Huss did more: prophetic words went forth from the 
 recesses of his dungeon. He had a presentiment that a real 
 reformation of the Church was at hand. Even before this, when, 
 on his expulsion from Prague, he was obliged to wander in the 
 fields of Bohemia, where he was followed by a vast crowd, 
 eagerly devouring his words, he exclaimed: "The wicked have 
 begun by preparing perfidious nets for the goose. ^ But if 
 even the goose, which is but a domestic bird, a peaceable animal, 
 incapable of taking any long fliglit, has nevertheless broken 
 their gins, other birds, boldly soaring towards the heavens, will 
 burst them with yet greater force. Instead of the feeble goose, 
 truth will send forth eagles and falcons with piercing ken."^ The 
 Reformers fulfilled this prediction. 
 
 And when the venerable priest was summoned by Sigisniund's 
 orders to appear before the Council of Constance, when he was 
 thrown into prison, he was more taken up about Bethlehem 
 chapel in which he had preached the gospel and the coming 
 triumphs of Christ, than about his own defence. The holj 
 martyr thought he saw one night as he lay in his cell, the repre- 
 sentations of Jesus Christ which he had caused to be painted on 
 the walls of his oratory, obliterated by the pope and his bishops. 
 The dream made him sad; but next day he saw several painters 
 at work restoring the effaced paintings in greater number, and 
 more brightly than before. When their task was done, these 
 painters, surrounded by a vast concourse of people, exclaimed: 
 
 ' Ilass means goose in the Bohemian tongue. 
 * Epist. J. Iliiss, tempore anathematis scriptro. 
 
WITNESSES WITHIN THE CHIRCH. 77 
 
 " Let popes and bishops come now, but never sliall they ed'ace 
 them more.'" " And many nations rejoiced in IJetldeiiein, and 
 I uith them," adds Jolin Huss. " Attend to your defence rather 
 than to reveries," said his faithful friend, the kniiiht of Clilum, 
 to whom he had toUl his dream. " I am no vain dreamer,"" 
 replied Huss, "but this I hokl for certain, that the imai;c of 
 Clirist never shall be effaced. They would fain have destroyed 
 it, but it shall be painted anew in men's hearts by more worthy 
 preachers than me. The nation that loves Christ shall rejoice 
 at this. And as for me, awaking from among the dead, and 
 being resuscitated, so to speak, from the tomb, 1 shall be trans- 
 ported with exceeding joy." ^ 
 
 A century passed away, and the torch of the gospel, on being 
 rekindled by the Keformers, did, in fact, enlighten many nations 
 which rejoiced in its light. 
 
 But it is not only among such as the Church of Kome regarded 
 as her adversaries that a life-giving word was heard during those 
 ages. Catholicity herself, let us say so for our consolation, 
 counted many witnesses to the truth within her pale. The 
 original building had, indeed, been consumed; but a generous 
 fire still smouldered under the ashes, and from time to time 
 bright sparks might be observed to escape from it. 
 
 Anselm of Canterbury, in a writing on preparation for death, 
 says to the dying: " Look only to the merit of Jesus Christ." 
 
 A monk, called Arnoldi, daily offered up in his quiet cell this 
 fervent prayer: "0 my Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that thou 
 alone art my redemption and my righteousness." '- 
 
 Christopher of Utenheim, a pious bishop of Basel, made his 
 name be inscribed on a picture painted on glass, which is still 
 at Basel, and around it he had this motto inscribed, as what he 
 wished to have ever before his eyes: " My hope is the cross of 
 Christ; I seek for grace and not for works." '^ 
 
 Brother Martin, a poor Chartreux, wrote an affecting con- 
 fession, in which he says: "0 most charitable God! I know 
 that I cannot be saved and satisfy thy justice but by the 
 
 ' Epist. J. Iliiss, sub tempore concilii scriptro. 
 
 * Credo qnofl tn, mi Domine Jesu Christo, solus es mca justitia et rcdcmp- 
 tic. . . (Leibnitz script. Brunsw. iii. 396.) 
 
 ^ Spes mea crux Christi; gratiam, non opera quicro. 
 
78 HISTORY OP THE BEFORMATION. 
 
 merits, the most innocent passion, and the death, of thy well- 
 beloved Son. , . Pious Jesus ! my whole salvation is in thy 
 liands. Thou canst not turn away from me the hands of thy 
 love, for they created, they formed, and they have redeemed 
 me. With a pen of iron, with much mercy, and in a manner 
 not to be effaced, thou hast inscribed my name on thy side, on 
 thy hands, and on thy feet," &c. &c. The good Chartreux 
 then placed this confession in a wooden box, and shut up the 
 box in a hole which he had made in the wall of his cell. ^ 
 
 Never would friar Martin's piety have been known, had not 
 his box been found on the 21st of December, 177f), at the taking 
 down of some old walls, once forming part of a Chartreux 
 monastery at Basel. How many monasteries may have con- 
 cealed such treasures? 
 
 These holy men, however, had this touching faith only for 
 themselves, and they knew not how to communicate it to others. 
 As they lived retired from the world, they could say more or 
 less what the good friar Martin wrote in his box : " Et si hac 
 prwdida confiteri non jwssim lingua, confiteor tamen corde et scripto. 
 Although I cannot confess these things with my tongue, yet I 
 confess them with my heart and in writing." The word of 
 truth was in the sanctuary of some pious souls ; but to use an 
 expression to be found in the gospel, it had no free course in 
 the world. 
 
 Meanwhile, although there might be no open confession of 
 the doctrine of salvation, there were men, even in the very 
 midst of the Church of Rome, who ventured at least openly to 
 denounce the abuses that disgraced that Church; and Italy 
 herself was not without witnesses against the priesthood. The 
 Dominican, Savonarola, at Florence, in 1498, rose against the 
 insupportable vices of Rome. But the torture, the stake, and 
 the inquisition soon put him down. 
 
 Geiler, of Kaisersberg, was for three and thirty years the 
 great preacher of Grermany. He vigorously attacked the clergy. 
 " Searness of leaf in a tree," said he, " shows that it is diseased 
 at the root; and so does an immoral people indicate a corrupt 
 
 1 Sciens posse me non aliter salvari et tibi satisfacere nisi per moritum, etc. 
 CSoe, for these quotations, and others resembling them, Flacius Catal. Test. 
 Veritatis: Wolfii Lectiones memorabiles; Mtiller's Eeliquien, &c. &.c.) 
 
 1 
 
STATE OF THE EUKOl'EAN NATIONS. 79 
 
 priesthood." " If a dissolute man ought not to say mass," said 
 
 he to a bishop, " th(!n banish all tho priests from your diocese."" 
 
 Wiiile listening to this courageous minister, the people became 
 
 accustomed to see even in the very sanctuary itself, tho vail 
 
 withdrawn that covered the turpitudes of their guides. 
 
 It is of importance that we mark this state of things in tho 
 
 Church. On the wisdom that is from above beyinnina- anew to 
 
 * . . . 
 
 present its lessons, there will everywhere be found minds to 
 
 understand and hearts to feel them. On the sower going forth 
 
 anew to sow, he will find the soil prepared to receive the seed. 
 
 On the word of truth coming to be sounded, it will find echoes 
 
 to repeat the sound. On the trumpet giving a certain sound 
 
 in the Church, many of her children will prepare themselves for 
 
 battle. 
 
 VIII. We have now nearly reached the scene on which 
 Luther appeared. But before we begin the history of that great 
 commotion which caused the lone:- smothered lijiht of truth to 
 burst forth in all its lustre; which in renovating the Church, 
 renovated so many nations, called others into existence, and 
 created a new Europe and a new Christendom; let us cast a 
 glance at the state at that time of the various nations in the 
 midst of which this great revolution was effected. 
 
 The empire was a confederation of various states, headed by 
 an emperor, but each exercising sovereignty on its own terri- 
 tory. For the totality of the German confederation, legislative 
 authority was exercised by the imperial diet, composed of all 
 the princes or sovereign states. The laws, decrees, and minutes 
 of this assembly, required the ratification of the emperor, who 
 was charged with the publication and execution of them. The 
 privilege of decreeing who should wear the imperial crown, 
 belonged to the seven most powerful princes, bearing the title 
 of electors. 
 
 Liberty had advanced most in the north of Germany, which 
 was chiefly inhabited by the old Saxon race. Unceasingly 
 attacked in his hereditary possessions by the Turks, the emperor 
 found it necessary to deal gently with those courageous princes 
 and tribes, whose assistance had become indispensable to him. 
 Then there were free cities on the north, the west, and the 
 south of the empire, which by their trade, their manufactures, 
 
80 HISTOEY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 their industry of every kind, had reached a high degree of pros- 
 perity, and by that means even of independence also. Tlie 
 potent house of Austria which then wore the imperial crown, 
 held subject to its beck the greater number of the states of the 
 south of Germany, and was near enough closely to observe all 
 their movements. It was preparing itself for extending its 
 domination over the whole empire, and even beyond that, when 
 the Reformation arrived, opposed a mighty obstacle to its 
 encroachments, and saved the independence of Europe. 
 
 Now, had any one asked, in the times of Paul, or in those of 
 Ambrose, of Augustine, and of Chrysostom, or those even of 
 Anselm and of Bernard, what people God would employ for the 
 reformation of the Church, one would have thought perhaps of 
 the apostolic countries, so illustrious in the history of Chris- 
 tianity, of Asia, Greece, or Rome; perhaps, also, of that Great 
 Britain, or of that France, where mighty doctors had lifted up 
 their voices; but never should any one have guessed that it 
 would be the barbarous Germans. All other Christian coun- 
 tries had shone each in its turn in the Church; Germany alone 
 had remained obscure, and yet it was Germany that was chosen. 
 
 The same God who for four thousand years had prepared for 
 the coming of his Messiah, and who made the people among 
 whom he was destined to be born, to pass through diverse dis- 
 pensations during a course of ages, prepared Germany, also, 
 wdiile other nations knew not of it, and without being in the 
 least aware of it herself, for becoming the cradle of that religious 
 regeneration which was ultimately to re-awaken the several, 
 tribes of Christendom. 
 
 As Judea, the birth-place of Christianity, lay in the middle 
 of the ancient world, thus did Germany lie in the centre of 
 Christendom. It presented itself at once to the Netherlands, 
 England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Bohemia, 
 Poland, Denmark, and the whole of the North. It was in the 
 heart of Europe that the principle of life was to be developed, 
 and its pulsations were to cause the generous blood, destined to 
 vivify every member of that vast body, to circulate through all 
 its arteries. 
 
 The particular constitution which the empire had received, 
 conformably with the dispensations of providence, favoured the 
 
rE.VCE. 
 
 81 
 
 propagation of new ideas. Had Germany, like France or Eng- 
 land, boon a monarchy properly so called, the arbitrary will of 
 the sovereign might have sufficed to lay a long arrest on tlie 
 progress of the gospel. But it was a confederation, and thus 
 the truth though combated in one state, might be favourably 
 received in another. Mighty centres of illumination which 
 might cradually pierce through the darkness, and enlighten the 
 inhabitants all around, were capable of being speedily established 
 at various points in the Empire. 
 
 The internal peace which Maximilian succeeded in securing 
 for the Empire, was no less favourable. For long had the nume- 
 rous members of the Germanic body thought fit to tear one 
 another in pieces, and there had been nothing seen but troubles, 
 discords, perpetually reviving wars of neighbours with neigh- 
 bours, cities with cities, and feudal lords with feudal lords. 
 Maximilian had placed public order upon a solid basis by the 
 institution of the imperial chamber, which was appointed to 
 determine judicially all differences arising among the states. 
 Thus the German tribes beheld the commencement of a new era 
 of security and repose — ^a state of things powerfully tending to 
 soften and to civilize the national spirit. Throughout the now 
 pacificated cities and rural districts of the Germans, one might 
 search out and introduce ameliorations which the continuance of 
 discord would have banished; and, besides, it is in the bosom of 
 peace that the gospel loves to achieve its triumphs. Thus was 
 it that, fifteen centuries before, God desired that Augustus 
 should present the whole world, in a state of peacO; to the benig- 
 nant conquests of the religion of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, 
 the Reformation played a double part in the peace which the 
 empire then began to enjoy. It was at once a cause and an 
 effect. Germany still presented to the observer's eye, at the 
 time of Luther"'s appearance, the heavy swell that continues to 
 agitate the sea after a course of boisterous weather. So uncer- 
 tain, too, was the calm that the first breeze might freshen into 
 a new storm. Of this we shall see more than one example. 
 But in giving an impulse altogether new to the German tribes, 
 the Reformation destroyed for ever the old causes of agitation; 
 put an end to the barbarism that till then had predominated, 
 and gave a new system to Europe. 
 
82 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The relisfion of Jesus Christ had at the saine time exercised 
 over Germany an influence peculiar to itseh". There had been a 
 rapid development of the third estate, or commons; and in the 
 several countries of the empire, and particularly in the free towns, 
 numerous institutions were to be seen, fitted to call forth the 
 capacities of this imposing mass of the people. There the arts 
 were flourishino"; there the bur2:ess class devoted itself in secu- 
 rity, to the calm employments and endearing relationships of 
 social life. Becoming more and more accessible to information, 
 it was rising to more and more respect and influence. The 
 Reformation was to have its foundations laid in Germany, not 
 by magistrates who are often led to bend their conduct to poli- 
 tical exigencies, or by nobles devoted above all things to mili- 
 tary renown, or by a greedy and ambitious clergy, turning reli- 
 gion to their own purposes as if it were their exclusive property, 
 but this great task was to belong to the burgesses, the people, 
 the nation at large. 
 
 The particular character of the Germans must have specially 
 fitted them to be the subject of a religious reform. They had 
 not been diluted by a false civilisation; precious seeds sown by 
 the fear of God, had not been scattered to the winds ; the man- 
 ners of the olden time still subsisted; and there was to be found 
 in Germany that straightforward honesty, that fidelity, that 
 love of toil, that perseverance, that religious disposition which 
 may still be found there, and which augur better for the gospePs 
 success than the levity, and the sneering or gross character of 
 other nations of Europe. 
 
 Another circumstance, too, possibly contributed to make Ger- 
 many a soil more favourable than many other countries for the 
 renovation of Christianity. God had watched over it. He had 
 preserved for it the strength required for the day of bringing 
 forth. It had not been seen to fall away from the faith after an 
 epoch of spiritual vigour, as had been the case with the nations 
 of Asia, Greece, Italy, France, and Great Britain. The gospel 
 had never been introduced into Germany in its original purity, 
 for her earliest missionaries brought to her a religion which in 
 various respects had been vitiated. What Boniface and his 
 successors brought to the Frisians, the Saxons, and other Ger- 
 man tribes, was an ecclesiastical law, a spiritual discipline; and 
 
SERVILE SUIUECTIOX OF GEIIMANY. S3 
 
 they reniiiined almost as ignorant as ever of faith in the pjlad 
 tidinirs; that faith which daddeus man's heart, and makes liim 
 truly free. Instead of becoming corrupt, the rehgion of the 
 Germans had rather become more pure; instead of having back- 
 sUdden, she had rather advanced. We might well look for more 
 life and spiritual vigour in such a people, than among nations 
 which had fallen from Christianity, in which deep darkness had 
 succeeded the illumination of truth, and wdiere an all but uni- 
 versal corruption had taken the place of the sanctity of primi- 
 tive times. 
 
 An analogous remark may be made on the external relations 
 of the German nation with the Church. The Germans had 
 received the faith, that grand element of modern civilization, 
 from Rome; to the priestly city they were indebted for culture 
 of mind and manners, for the various branches of knowledge, 
 for legislation, in short, for everything but their courage and 
 their arms. Hence arose strict ties of intimacy between Ger- 
 many and the popedom. The former was, as it were, a spiritual 
 onquest of the latter, and we know what Rome has ever con- 
 trived to make of her conquests. Other nations having had 
 both faith and civilization before the Roman pontiff so much as 
 existed, they remained with respect to him in a condition of 
 greater independence. Now, this subjugation of the Germans 
 could not fail to make the re-action, when she awoke, more 
 overpowering. On the eyes of Germany being opened, Ave shall 
 find her indignantly tearing off the swaddling bands in which 
 she had been so long held captive; the servitude to which she had 
 so long to submit, will be found to nave given her a more intense 
 iono-ing for deliverance and for liberty, and sturdy champions of 
 truth will be found going forth from the house of restraint and 
 discipline in which her whole people had been detained for 
 ages. 
 
 On a nearer survey of the times of the Reformation, we shall 
 find in the government of Germany, new reasons for admiring 
 the wisdom of Him by whom kings reign and governments are 
 instituted. There then prevailed what had a pretty close 
 resemblance to what, in the political language of France at the 
 present day, is called "the see-saw system." When the empire's 
 chief was a man of strong mind, his influence increased, but 
 
8-t HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 when, on the contrary, he happened to be a weak person, it was 
 the influence and authority of the princes and the electors that 
 increased; and it was chiefly under Charles the V.th's pre- 
 decessor, Maximilian, that this kind of up and down was 
 remarked giving the advantage, sometimes to the one, and some- 
 times to the other of these parties. At that time it was altogether 
 to the disadvantage of the emperor. The princes often formed 
 intimate alliances with one another, and the emperors themselves 
 used to solicit such alliances with them, in the view of having 
 their assistance in combatting some common enemy. Now, the 
 force which the princes drew from such alliances in resisting 
 some transient danger, might, at another time, be turned against 
 the encroachments and the power of the emperor. This was what 
 now took place. Never did the princes feel themselves stronger, 
 as a body opposed to their chief, than at the epoch of the Refor- 
 mation; and as that chief took part against it, we may easily 
 see how favourable this circumstance was to the propagation of 
 the gospel. 
 
 Moreover, Germany was now tired of what Rome used to call 
 in derision "the patience of the Germans." Much patience," 
 indeed, had the Germans shown since the days of Louis of 
 Bavaria; the emperors having, from that time forth, laid down 
 their arms, and allowed the tiara unopposed to take the pre- 
 cedence of the crown of the Osesars. But the struggle still con- 
 tinued, although it had changed its ground. It had come down 
 several stages, the same strivings for the mastery which had 
 been exhibited to the world by emperors and popes, being soon 
 renewed, on a smaller scale, between the bishops and magistrates 
 of all the cities of Germany. The burgess class had taken up 
 the sword which the chiefs of the empire had allowed to slip 
 from their grasp. So early as in 1 329, the burgesses of Franc- 
 fort on the Oder had intrepidly made head against all their 
 ecclesiastical superiors, and when excommunicated for having 
 remained faithful to the margrave, Louis, ^ continued for eight 
 
 ' Tliis prince was elected emperor of Germany in the first part of the four- 
 teenth century, and had for his competitor Frederick the Fair, arch duke of 
 Austria, grandson of Rudolph of Ilapsburg, first arch-duke of Austria, and the 
 first of that house, too, that was raised to the imperial dignity. The contest was 
 decided in favour of Louis of Bavaria by a battle fought at Muhldorf in the 
 country of Saltshurg. The pope afterwards declared Louis's election to be 
 
OPPOSITION TO ROMK. S3 
 
 and twenty years without priests to say mass, baptize, marry, 
 or bury tliem. Nay, on the return of the monks and priests, 
 they had laughed at them as they would have done at a fai-co 
 or comedy. These were sad doings, but tlie clergy were them- 
 selves the cause. At the time of the lleformation, the opposi- 
 tion between the magistrates and the ecclesiastics had increased 
 and become so angry, that the temporal privileges and pretensions 
 of the latter were perpetually producing rubs and collisions 
 between the two bodies. If the magistrates refused to yield, 
 the bishops and priests imprudently ran into extreme measures, 
 the disposal of which was in their own hands. Sometimes the 
 pope would interfere, and then only to present examples of the 
 most astounding partiality, or to submit to the humbling neces- 
 sity of allowing a body of obstinate burgesses, stubbornly bent 
 on asserting their rights, to carry off the victory. These con- 
 tinual struggles had filled the cities with detestation and con- 
 tempt for the pope, as well as for the bishops and priests. 
 
 But Rome had other adversaries besides the burgomasters 
 and municipal councillors and clerks, and these were to be found 
 both above and below the middle ranks of society. From the 
 commencement of the sixteenth century, the imperial diet dis- 
 played the most immovable firmness towards the papal envoys ; 
 and in May, 1510, the States, then convened at Augsbourg, 
 transmitted to the emperor a list of ten capital grievances which 
 they charged against the pope and the clergy of Rome. The 
 populace at the same time began to wax wroth. Their resent - 
 
 null and void, and wished to arrogate to himself the right of inquiry into 
 the elections of the emperors. I.ouis was even dethroned by a most con- 
 temptuous papal bull ; paying no regard to which, he employed some learned 
 men in defending his right, greatly to the damage of the pope, and charged 
 pope John XXII. himself with heresy. Though the latter declared the 
 imperial throne vacant, Louis dismissed the pope in his turn, and made himself 
 be crowned in Italy, another pope under the name of Niclos V. being chosen, 
 who, however, did not long maintain himself on the papal seat. The succeed- 
 ing popes. Benedict XII. and Clement VI., persisted in their pretensions 
 against Louis, and embittered the resentment of the Germans by opposing 
 their emperor in arms, who, however, came off on all sides victorious, and 
 reigned as emperor in the face of papal opposition for three and thirty years. 
 Yet being unexpectedly arrested by death in the midst of his conquests, about 
 the middle of the fourteenth century, papal cunning triumphed in the advance- 
 ment to the imperial throne of Charles, margrave of Moravia, who even before 
 the death of Louis, had been chosen emperor at the instigation of the popes, 
 and whose crouching servility procured him the nickname of the pope's 
 emperor. It was through him too that, as the author says, the triple crown 
 was placed above that of the CoDsars. — L. R. 
 
86 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ment burst forth in the Rhenish countries in 1512, on which 
 occasion the peasantry, in their indignation at the yoke with 
 which their ecclesiastical sovereigns oppressed them, formed 
 among themselves what was called the alliance of the shoes. ^ 
 
 Thus, everywhere, alike above and beneath, a hollow noise 
 seemed to reverberate, and to harbinger the thunder storm that 
 was about to burst forth. Germany seemed ripe for the destined 
 task of the sixteenth century. Providence, ever slow in its 
 march, had made all things ready; and even the passions which 
 God condemns, were to be converted by his almighty hand into 
 instruments for accomplishing his purposes. 
 
 1 Verbond van den Boeren-schoen, (Anglice, league of the boor's-shoes.) 
 Thus we prefer translating, with a little circumlocution, and expressing the 
 thing more accurately, the French Valliance des soldiers. To wit: the writer 
 here refers, to a league formed at the commencement of the sixteenth century, 
 previous to the rise of the Reformation, among the country people bordering 
 on the Rhine, against the oppressions of the ecclesiastics ; and which was a 
 prelude to the great agrarian war that broke out after the rise of the Refor- 
 mation. This league was called in German the Bundschuh, the name given to 
 a large shoe, reaching over the ancles, and bound down the middle with thongs, 
 which was worn by the insurgents in Alsatia at the commencement of hostilities 
 as a military badge; and hence the name was given to the league itself. See 
 Calvish Chronologia, p. 908. The purport of this league will be found in 
 Hettinger's Hist. Eccl. v. p. 33, 34; its chief articles were as follows: "To 
 throw off all subjection to slavery, and following the example of the Swiss, 
 to assert their freedom by force of arms ; to put down all domination, and to 
 slay all who should oppose them ; to surprise the town of Bruchsal in the 
 marquisite of Baden ; to rob chui-ches and monasteries, and divide the spoil 
 among themselves ; never to remain more than four and twenty hours in one 
 place, but to shift about perpetually ; to pay no more taxes or tythes to any 
 man, be he prince, noble, or clergyman, and to hold in common, hunting 
 grounds, fisheries, meadows, and woods." The reader may consult on this 
 subject the small work of 11. Schreiber, published by Wagner of Freiburg in 
 1824, and intituled der JBundesschuh zu LeJin in Breisqau {\5VA)und dcrarme 
 Konrad von BuM (1514), zivei Vorboten des Deutschen Bauernhrieges ; and 
 the Urkundenbuch der Stadt Freiburg of the same writer, with respect to 
 which he states in the preface to vol. li. second series, vii. viii ; " There now 
 lies before the editor no fewer than 683 pieces from the archives of this single 
 place, the copying of which has been done partly by himself, partly under his 
 superintendence. They consist of the correspondences of the towns in the 
 Breisgau and the Black Forest, in Switzerland and in Suabia, with Freiburg, 
 of articles of agreement, memorials and letters from the peasantry and their 
 landlords, accounts of battles, minutes of judicial proceedings, challenges, 
 administrative arrangements, and so forth." Still I have not been so fortunate 
 as myself to see these two publications of Dr Schreiber, and for the above 
 information I am indebted to the Idndness of a friend. It will be seen, from 
 the title of the first mentioned work, that the league in question is referred 
 to the year 1513, differing by a year from our author, who places it in 1512. 
 It is remarkable that a like difference is to be found between Calvisius and 
 llottinger, although between them and the publications just mentioned there 
 is a difference of ten years, Calvisius giving 1502, and Hottinger 1503. The 
 most probable method of reconciling these is to suppose that the confederates 
 renewed their leagues from time to time, and at different places, and that 
 these might have been prolonged from year to year. — L. R. 
 
I'UOVIDEXTIAI, I'KKl'A HAT IONS. §7 
 
 Let US turn our regards to the other nations. 
 
 Wo find a simple and brave people ' parcelled out into thirteen 
 petty republics, and placed with their allies in the centre of 
 Europe, amid mountains which might be regarded as their 
 citadel. Who would have expected to find in these obscure 
 valleys, the men whom God was to choose for the purpose of 
 being associated with the children of the Germans, in the 
 deliverance of the Church? Who would have thought that small 
 unknown towns, hardly emerged from barbarism, hid behind 
 inaccessible mountains and at the extremities of lakes whose 
 names are unknown in history, should in the order of Chris- 
 tianity, take precedence of Jerusalem, Antioch,Ephesus, Corinth, 
 and Rome? Nevertheless so it was. Such was the will of Him 
 who causes it to rain upon one city, and causes it not to rain 
 upon another city, who desires that one piece of land should be 
 rained upon, and another piece whereupon it has not rained, to 
 be withered. 2 
 
 Other circumstances, besides these, seemed to encompass with 
 many perils the advance of the Reformation amid the Helvetic 
 tribes. If, under a monarchy, the encroachments of prerogative 
 are to be dreaded, in a democracy there was room to fear that 
 the people might be precipitate. It is true that the same reform, 
 which could advance but slowly and gradually in the states of 
 
 ' The author here refers to the thirteen Swiss cantons, which, after having 
 been subject in former times to the German emperors and the dukes of Austria, 
 being oppressed by those masters, threw off the yoke and entered into a joint 
 league for the defence of their freedom. The original basis of this was laid 
 two centuries before the Reformation, in 1308, between the three cantons of 
 Schweitz, Uri, and Underwalden, on the Austrian governor, who had con- 
 ducted himself tyrannically, being slain by the famous William Tell, and after 
 they had together driven out the Austrians by executing tlie hold plan of 
 Walther Fm'st of Uri, Werner von Stauffach of Schweitz, and Arnold von 
 Melchthal of Untei'walden. A perpetual league was then entered into by the 
 three cantons in the year 1315, after they had established their independence 
 by the slaughter of a numerous army of Austrians. This league was 
 forthwith extended to other cantons, namely Lucern, Zurich, Zug, Claris, 
 and Bern, all which joined in it. It was farther extended in the end of the 
 fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, by four more cantons 
 being included, namely Freiburg, Solothurn, Basel, and Schaflfhausen ; and 
 finally increased to thirteen in number, by the accession of Appenzell — all 
 before the breaking out of the Reformation. Over and above these, some 
 other allies have joined them from time to time, such as the Grisons, the 
 Valais, the Abbey of St Gall, the cities of Neufchatel and Geneva, <fcc. A 
 simple though little polished people inhabited that country which, in the Lord's 
 counsel, was along with Germany called to be the cradle and nursery of the 
 Reformation. — L. R. 
 
 - Amos, 
 
88 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the empire, might be decided upon in a day in the sovereign 
 councils of the Swiss republics; notwithstanding, it was needful 
 to guard against an imprudent haste, which, from want of having 
 patience to wait for the favourable moment, might introduce 
 innovations, otherwise useful, before matters were yet ripe for 
 them, and thus compromise the public peace, the constitution of 
 the state, and the future prosperity of the Reformation. 
 
 Yet Switzerland, too, had been in course of preparation. It 
 was a tree, wild but generous, which had been preserved in the 
 bosom of those valleys, in order that there might one day be 
 grafted upon it a fruit-bearing branch of inestimable value. 
 Providence had imbued that people with those principles of 
 courage, independence, and freedom, which, when the hour of 
 their struggle with Rome was to sound, would call forth all their 
 energies. The pope had bestowed on them the title of protectors 
 of the Church's freedom, but this honourable appellation they 
 seem to have understood in quite a different sense from that in 
 which it was bestowed. Though their soldiers kept guard 
 around the pope in the precincts of the ancient capitol, their 
 citizens among the Alps sedulously guarded their religious 
 liberties against invasion from the pope and the clergy. They 
 prohibited ecclesiastics from having recourse to foreign jurisdic- 
 tion. The " Letter of the priests,"" (PfafFenbrief, 1370,) was an 
 energetic protest in favour of Swiss freedom against the abuses 
 and the power of the clergy. In this courageous opposition to 
 the pretensions of Rome, Zurich was distinguished above all 
 the other states, while Geneva, at the other extremity of Swit- 
 zerland, wrestled with her bishop for the mastery. Now, although 
 it is not to be doubted that in these cases, the love of political 
 independence made many of the citizens neglect true freedom, 
 yet God desired that that affection should lead others to the 
 embracing of a doctrine which would make the nation free. 
 These two cities acted the most conspicuous part of any, in the 
 struggle which we have undertaken to describe. 
 
 But although the Helvetic cities, as they lay more open to 
 amelioration, naturally fell first into the reforming movement, 
 the same was not to be the case with the inhabitants of the 
 mountains. One might have thought that these tribes, being 
 more simple and energetic than even their confederates in the 
 
THE SMALLEH CANTONS. ITALY. HO 
 
 cities, would have eagerly embraced a doctrine, essentially char- 
 acterised by simplicity and force; but He who lias said '■'■ two 
 men shall be in the field; one shall he taken and the other le/t"^ 
 left the men of the mountains and took those of the plain. An 
 attentive observer might possibly have discovered some previous 
 symptoms of this difterence, which was now to declare itself 
 between the inhabitants of the cities and those of the liighlands. 
 The latter had not been reached by the intelligence of the times. 
 Those cantons with which Swiss hberty had originated, while 
 proud of the part they had acted in the great struggle of inde- 
 pendence, were not disposed hastily to imitate their younger 
 brethren of the lowlands. There seemed no reason for their 
 changing the faith with which they had put Austria to flight, 
 and which had consecrated with its altars every spot that was 
 marked by their triumphs. Their priests were the only intelli- 
 gent persons to whom they could apply for advice. Their wor- 
 ship and its festivals, by diversifying the monotony of still life, 
 agreeably broke in upon the silence of their peaceful retreats. 
 Tn short, they remained inaccessible to religious innovations. 
 
 So much for Switzerland. On passing the Alps, we find 
 ourselves in that Italy, which, to the eyes of many, seemed the 
 very Holy Land of Christendom. And from what quarter 
 might Europe have looked for the Church's good, if not from 
 Italy and from Rome? Could it be that the power which led so 
 many various characters, in rapid succession, to the pontifical 
 see, should not some day place there such an one as would prove 
 an instrument of benedictions for the Lord's heritages? And if 
 the pontiffs were to be despaired of, might there not be bishops 
 and councils to reform the Church? No good thing cometh out 
 of Nazareth — but shall there be the same hopelessness with 
 regard to Jerusalem and Rome? Such might be man's thoughts, 
 but God thought very differently. He said: '■'■Let him that is 
 filthy he filthy still,'''"^ and gave Italy over to her iniquities. 
 Many were the causes which must have contributed to deprive 
 that unhappy country of the light of the gospel. Her several 
 states, always rivals, and often enemies to each other, when 
 shaken by any public commotion, came into violent collision ; 
 so that this land of ancient glory was a prey by turns to intes- 
 
 ' Matt. xxiv. " Rev. xxii. 
 
 X. M 
 
90 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tine disorders and foreign invasions. ^ One would have tliouglit 
 it doomed to be subjected to nothing but political intrigues, 
 furious factions, and the strife of arms ; and these seemed likely 
 long to banish from its territories both the gospel and peace. 
 
 Besides this, the broken and shattered condition of Italy, pre- 
 senting no unity, seemed little fitted for receiving any common 
 impulse. Supposing that the truth had wanted to pass the Alps, 
 or to laud on the smiling Italian shores, it would have found a 
 new barrier to arrest its progress at every frontier. No doubt, 
 the popedom had thoughts at that time of establishing an Italian 
 unity. It could have wished, as Pope Julius said, to expel the 
 barbarians, that is, the foreign princes; and it hovered, like a 
 bird of prey, over the nmtilated and quivering members of the 
 body of ancient Italy. Had it attained its object, we may 
 believe that the Reformation would not have been effected quite 
 so easily. 
 
 And if the truth was to come from the North, how could the 
 Italians have deigned to receive anything from the barbarous 
 Germans, whom with their superior intelligence, their refined 
 taste, and with social manners in their own eyes so exquisite, 
 they despised? Between them and the Reformation, pride inter- 
 posed a barrier higher than the Alps; and yet the cultivation of 
 the understanding was a still greater obstacle than presumption 
 of heart. Men who admired the elegance of a well turned 
 sonnet, more than the simple majesty of the scriptures, were no 
 propitious soil for the seed of the Word of God; and of all con- 
 ditions in which a people can be placed, false civilization is the 
 most repugnant to the gospel 
 
 In fine, be the cause what it might, Rome remained Rome, as 
 regarded Italy. Not only did the temporal power of the popes 
 lead the various Italian parties to court the enjoyment of their 
 alliance and favour, at any price; but, further, the universal 
 domination of Rome presented more than one advantage to the 
 greed and vanity of the other ultramontane states. No sooner 
 could it be proposed that the rest of the world should be eman- 
 
 ^ Italy was divided into various independent states, some principalities, some 
 republics ; often at war with one anotlier, or shaken by internal divisions ; while 
 they had also many a time to suffer from the invasions of German and other 
 foreign forces, in the struggle between the popes and the emperors and other 
 foreign wars. — L. R. 
 
OllSTAfT.KS TO 'IFIE REl'ORMATION. Sl'AIN. 91 
 
 elpated from Rome, than Italy would again bocomo Italy; domes- 
 tic qnnrrels would not prevail in favour of the foreign system; 
 and all that was wanted in order to revive those common affec- 
 tions and common interests which had long been dormant, was 
 that the head of the peninsular family should be attacked. 
 
 On that side, then, there were few chances for the Reforma- 
 tion; and yet, even beyond the Alps, souls were to be found 
 prepared to receive the light of the gospel. Italy was not at 
 that time alto"ether disinherited. 
 
 Spain possessed what Italy did not, a grave and noble-minded 
 people, whose religious spirit has resisted even the decisive test 
 of the eighteenth century and the revolution, and has been pre- 
 served down to our own days. Spain has at all times reckoned 
 men of piety and learning among her clergy, and she lay at a 
 sufficient distance from Rome to enable her o.-^sily to throw off 
 its yoke. Hence there were few nations in which the renova- 
 tion of that primitive Christianity which she possibly may have 
 received from St Paul himself, might liave been more reasonably 
 expected. And yet Spain rose not among the nations, but was 
 doomed to fulfil that saying of the divine wisdom: ^^ The first 
 shall he lastT Various circumstances prepared this sad result. 
 
 From her own isolated position and her remoteness from 
 Germany, Spain could be but slightly affected by the terrible 
 earthquake that so violently agitated the empire. Besides, her 
 attention was engrossed with very different treasures from those 
 which the word of God was then offering to the nations. The 
 eternal world was eclipsed in her regard by the discovery of 
 the new;i and all men's imaginations were inflamed by the 
 acquisition of a country, quite new to them, and which seemed 
 to be made up of silver and gold. No room was left in a Spanish 
 
 ' Columbus having been equipped by Ferdinand, king of Spain, for his voy- 
 age towards the close of the XVth century discovered America, and this first 
 opened the way for the Spaniards making the conquest of that continent, from 
 which Spain drew an incalculable amount of gold and silver. At the same 
 period, like good fortune apparently fell to the lot of Portugal, in whose inte- 
 rests Vasquez do Gaina, by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, opened up a new 
 way to the East Indies and their treasures, as the author briefly mentions. 
 Both these kingdoms were thus at that time so much engrossed with this 
 world's riches, as to be indifferent to the riches of heaven, to which, in other 
 respects, the Reformation pointed out to them a more accessible path. To this 
 we must add, as mentioned in a former note, that the reduction of the Moors 
 some time before, s\icllcd men's hearts with pride, and led to the introduction 
 of the Inquisition, under king Ferdinand, hence called the Catholic. — L. R. 
 
92 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 lieartfor more noble thoughts, fur it was pre-occupiedby the intense 
 desire of enriching itself. A powerful clergy, with scaffolds and 
 inoney at their command, lorded it over the peninsula. The 
 Spaniard willingly paid a servile homage to priests, who by 
 relieving him of all spiritual disquietudes, left him free to give 
 himself up to his passions, and to take to money-making, foreign 
 discovery, and the new continents. Victorious over the Moors, 
 Spain, at the cost of her noblest blood, had pulled down the 
 crescent from the walls of Granada and many other cities, and 
 had planted the cross of Jesus Christ in its place. This burn- 
 ing zeal for Christianity, from which so much might have been 
 expected, turned against the truth. Could it be thought that 
 Catholic Spain, after triumphing over the unbelievers, would fail 
 to oppose heresy? Could they who had expelled Mahomet from 
 their lovely territories, allow Luther to find a footing in themi 
 Their kings did even more than this ; they armed whole fleets 
 against the Eeformation, and in their eagerness to vanquish it, 
 went to attack it in Holland and in England. These attacks, 
 however, served only to aggrandize the nations that were thus 
 assaulted, and their forces eventually overwhelmed Spain. Thus 
 did those Catholic regions, as one of the results of the Reformor 
 tion, lose that very temporal prosperity which had led them, in 
 the first instance, to reject the spiritual liberty of the gospel. 
 Nevertheless, a generous and brave people dwelt beyond the 
 Pyrenees ; and many of their noble children, with a zeal no less 
 ardent, but more enlightened than that of those who had given 
 their blood to the sword of the Arabs, laid down their lives as 
 an oflfering on the martyr-fires of the Inquisition. 
 
 Portugal presents almost the same picture as Spain; Emman- 
 uel, the Fortunate, bestowed on it an age of gold, which must 
 have rendered it ill fitted for the self-denial required by the gos- 
 pel. The Portuguese, as a nation, threw themselves on the then 
 lately discovered routes to the East Indies and to Brazil, and 
 turned their backs on Europe and the Eeformation, 
 
 Few countries could be supposed more likely to receive the 
 doctrines of the gospel than France, for almost all the spiritual 
 and intellectual life of the middle ages seems to have been con- 
 centrated there. One would have said that the pathways were 
 everywhere beaten smooth for a great manifestation of the truth. 
 
ruANcii:. 93 
 
 Men of the most oj)posite characters, and who had exercised the 
 most powerful iniluenco over the French populations, will be 
 found to have had some affinity with the llcforination. Thus 
 St. Hernard had set the example of that cordial faith, and that 
 inward piety, which were the fairest features of that change; and 
 Abelard had introduced into the study of theology that rational 
 principle, which, though incapable of building up what is true, 
 is powerful for the destruction of what is false. Moreover, 
 many alleged heretics had rekindled the flames of the word of 
 Grod throughout the French provinces. The university of Paris 
 had directly confronted the Church, and was not afraid to com- 
 bat her. Bold language was employed at the commencement 
 of the fifteenth century by the Clemangis and the Gersons. 
 The pragmatic sanction ^ was a great act of independence, and 
 seemed as if it ought to have been the palladium of the Galil- 
 ean liberties. The French noblesse, so numerous, so jealous of 
 their pre-eminence, and who at this epoch saw themselves gradu- 
 ally deprived of their privileges, to the enhancement of the royal 
 authority, ought to have been favourably disposed to a religious 
 revolution which might have restored to them somewhat of the 
 independence they had lost; while the people, lively, intelligent, 
 and susceptible of generous emotions, was accessible, as much 
 as, or more than any other, to the truth. One would have 
 thought that in the French territories, the Eeformation must 
 have been the birth which was to crown the long labour of seve- 
 ral centuries. But the car of France which for so many gene- 
 rations seemed to drive hurriedly in that direction, made a sud- 
 den turn, and took quite an opposite course at the period of the 
 Reformation. Such was the will of Him who guides nations 
 and their chiefs. The prince who then occupied the car and 
 held the reins, "^ being a lover of literature, might of all the 
 
 ' Such is the name which has been given to a mandate of Louis IX. in tlie 
 thirteenth century, intended for the defence of the prerogatives and franchises 
 of the Gallican Church against the encroachments and demands of tlie Roman 
 popes; hut, still more, to a later mandate of Charles VII. in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, entirely conformed to the decrees of the Church-council of Basel and 
 calculated to limit the power of the popes, both as respected elections to eccle- 
 siastical offices, which were thereby restored to their ancient freedom, and the 
 abolition of the first-fruits of ecclesiastical revenues, and other pecuniary extor- 
 tions of the popes, together with the recognition of the authority of a general 
 council as above that of the pope. — L. R. 
 
 ' To wit Francis I., mentioned by name a little farther on ; a prince from 
 
94 HISTORY OF THE HEFORMATIOX. 
 
 cliiefs of Catholicity, iiave been thought the most Hkely to second 
 the Reformation. But he threw his people into another course, 
 so that the symptoms of several centuries proved deceptive, and 
 the impulse that had been impressed upon France, died away 
 under the ambition and fanaticism of her kings. The Valois 
 family deprived her of what ought to have belonged to her. 
 Perhaps, had she received the gospel, her power might have 
 become exorbitant. God desired to take the feeblest nations, 
 and nations which as yet were not, to make them the deposi- 
 tories of his truth. France, after being all but reformed, in 
 the end went back and became Roman Catholic. The sword of 
 her princes being thrown into the scale, made her incline towards 
 Rome ; and, alas ! another sword, that of her reformed them- 
 selves, secured the loss of the Reformation. Hands used to the 
 sword, became unused to be held up in prayer. Be it remarked 
 that it is by the blood of its confessors, not by tliat of its adver- 
 saries, that the gospel triumphs, and that the blood that is shed 
 by its defenders extinguishes its flames and smothers it. From 
 the very commenceni'^nt of his reign, Francis I. was in haste to 
 make a sacrifice to the popedom of the pragmatic sanction, and 
 to substitute in its stead a concordat, altogether to the detri- 
 ment of France and to the advantage of the crown and of the 
 Pope. The sword with which he supported the rights of the Ger- 
 man Protestants when at war with his rival, that "father of the 
 sciences" plunged, at the same time, up to the hilt in the hearts 
 of his reformed subjects; and what ambition had made him do, 
 was repeated by his successors from fanaticism, from weakness, 
 or to hush the cry of their guilty consciences. They encoun- 
 tered a strenuous resistance but not always such as that with 
 which the martyrs of the first ages opposed the pagans. Hence . 
 the power of the Protestants constituted their weakness; their 
 triumph led them on to their fall. 
 
 The Netherlands formed, at that time, one of the most 
 flourishing countries of Europe. The people there were indus- 
 trious; the numerous connections they maintained with the 
 various parts of the world, gave them more than ordinary intel- 
 
 whose love of the sciences much good might have been expected for the Refor- 
 mfition, had not his ambition led him to think that it -would prove more for his 
 advantage to oppose it and to range himself with the papal interest. — I.. R. 
 
TIIR XETUlCIiLANDP. 96 
 
 ligence; tliey were brave and passionately attadicd to their inde- 
 pendence, privileges, and freedom. Placed at the very gates of 
 Germany, they were among the first to hear the noise of the 
 Reformation; they were capable of receiving it, but all did not 
 receive it. The truth was bestowed on the poorest. The 
 hungry were filled with good things, while the rich were sent 
 empty away.' After having been always more or less inti- 
 mately connected with the empire, the Netherlands had now for 
 forty years been one of the possessions of Austria; and, on the 
 demise of Charles V., they fell to the share of the Spanish 
 branch, in the person of the ferocious Philip. The princes and 
 governors of that wretched country crushed the gospel there 
 beneath their feet; there they waded in the blood of martyrs. The 
 provinces were at that time divided between two very distinct 
 parties, one of which, that occupying the southern parts, was 
 gorged with wealth, and surrendered. Was it to be expected that 
 a long and bloody contest about points of faith, could be tole- 
 rated by manufacturers of the most exquisite productions, or by 
 merchants who conducted the immense commerce, inland and 
 sea-borne, of Bruges, then the mighty entrepot of the trade of the 
 north, and of Antwerp, then the very queen among commercial 
 cities? The northern provinces, on the contrary, defended by 
 their towns, by the sea, by their internal waters, and still more 
 by the simplicity of their manners, and their determination to 
 peril all for the gospel, not only saved their franchises, their 
 privileges, and their faith, but won for themselves besides, a 
 glorious independence and nationality. 
 
 England hardly seemed to promise then what she has made 
 good since. Driven out of the continent,^ where she had long 
 
 • By the poor, it appears from what follows, that the author means the 
 northern ; by the rich, the southern provinces of the united Netherlands. — 
 L. il. 
 
 * The event to which the author here refers had its commencement in the 
 former half of the fourteenth century, when on the death of Charles IV., a 
 jiore remote relation by blood, Philip of Valois, ascended the throne of 
 France, against which Edward, king of England, as son of Isabella of France, 
 and thus a nearer blood relation, though in the female line, entered his protest. 
 This gave occasion for the English to invade P'rance, of which country, during 
 sundry alternations of fortune, they more than once possessed themselves to a 
 great extent, and repeating their invasions under different kings, part of their 
 conquests ^\ere retained down to the middle of the fifteenth century, until 
 Charles V. at length compelled them first to retire from Faris, to which they 
 had penetrated anew, and then to evacuate all France with tlie single exception 
 
96 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 been obstinately bent on making the conquest of France, she 
 began to turn her regards to the ocean, as the true object of her 
 conquests, and which was reserved to her, as her heritage. 
 Twice liad she been converted to Christianity, once under the 
 ancient Britons, i and a second time under the Anolo- Saxons: 
 and at the time of wliich we speak, she was very devoutly paying 
 Peter's pence. 2 Yet high destinies awaited her. Mistress of 
 the ocean, and present, at the same moment, at all parts of the 
 globe, she was one day with the people she was to bring forth to 
 become, as it were, the hand of God in sowing the seeds of life 
 in the remotest islands and most extensive continents. Even 
 then, one might have guessed from some circumstances what 
 her destinies were to be; great luminaries had irradiated the 
 British islands, and of these some glimmering still was left. 
 Their towns and harbours were inundated with foreigners ; artists, 
 merchants, and mechanics; coming from the Netherlands, Ger- 
 many, and other parts abroad; so that new religious views 
 could be transported thither with great ease and speed. To 
 conclude, the throne of England was then occupied by a capri- 
 cious prince, a man of some learning and much courage, who 
 
 of Calais. That sea-town they held for above a century afterwards, but 
 without even then attempting to renew their encroachments on France or 
 the continent ; choosing rather thenceforward to extend their influence by 
 sea, for which their situation adapted them, and by that way to extend it 
 also, into remote regions. — L. R. 
 
 ' There is no doubt that Christianity penetrated at a very early period into 
 Britain, as England was then called. If we can ti'ust to the authority of 
 Bode, a celebrated English writer of the eighth century, the British king, 
 Lucius, during the reign of the Roman emperor, Marcus Antoninus, in the 
 second century, sent to the Roman bishop, Eleutheros, for instructors in the 
 Christian religion, and having obtained them, embraced the gospel. But 
 thereafter in the fifth century Christianity was again annihilated there by the 
 Anglo-Saxons, a people of German origin, who, being invited by the British 
 king, Vortigern, to assist him against his inland enemies, the Picts and the 
 Scots, possessed themselves of that part of Britain now called England, while 
 themselves were as yet heathens : — yet in the following century, being the sixth, 
 one Augustine, with forty other Benedictine monks, went over to England and 
 introduced Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons, after their king, Ethelbert, 
 had been led into a liking for the Christian religion by his Christian wife. 
 Bertha, daughter of Chercbert, king of Paris. In that same century many of 
 the Picts and Scots who had still retained their heathenism, were converted to 
 Christianity by the labours of the Irish monk, Columbus. — L. R. 
 
 2 Ilence called Peter's pence, consisting of the tax of a penny for every 
 house, first granted in the eighth century to Ina, king of the West Saxons, for 
 the erection and maintenance of an English college at Rome, and afterwards 
 claimed by the popes, confirmed by the laws of difi'erent princes, and not 
 entirely abolished until the reign of Henry Vlll., about the time of the 
 Reformation. — L. R. 
 
SCOTLAND.— THE NOUTII. ItUSSIA. I'Of-AM) i)7 
 
 was perpetually changing- his oj)inions and projects, and turned 
 from side to side according as ho was swayed by the violence of 
 his passions. Now, it was possible that some of Henry the 
 VIIL's inconsistencies might prove one day favourable to the 
 Keforniation. 
 
 Scotland was then agitated by partisanships. A king of five 
 years of age, a queen regent, an ambitious nobility, a clergy 
 possessing much influence, distracted that brave nation by 
 driving it in diilerent directions. Nevertheless, it was one day 
 to appear in the first rank of those that were to receive the 
 Reformation. 
 
 The three kingdoms of the North, Denmark, Sweden, and 
 Norway, were united under one sceptre. Their rough and war- 
 like inhabitants seemed to have little in common with the doc- 
 trine of love and of peace. Still, their very energy made them 
 more disposed perhaps than the people of the South, to receive 
 the power and the teaching of the gospel. Sons of warriors and 
 of pirates, they brought, it would seem, too bellicose a character 
 into the Protestant cause: at a later period they defended it 
 heroically with their swords. 
 
 Russia, retired in the extremities of Europe, had at that time 
 few ties Avith its other states, and, moreover, belonged to the 
 Greek communion. The Reformation effected in the Church of 
 the West had little or no influence on that of the East. 
 
 Poland seemed well prepared for being reformed, for the 
 vicinity of the Christians of Bohemia and Moravia had disposed 
 her to receive that impulsion of the gospel which her near nein-h- 
 l)ourhood to Germany was soon to communicate. So early as 
 in 1500, the nobles of Great Poland had demanded the givinf 
 of the cup to the people, in an appeal to the usages of the primi- 
 tive Church. Christians, persecuted in their own, found a secure 
 retreat in the liberty enjoyed by her cities, and in the inde- 
 pendence of her nobility ; and many of her inhabitants foyfullv 
 received the truth which these refugees brought alono- with them. 
 Yet no country, in our days, has fewer witnesses to the truth 
 than Poland. 
 
 The flame of the Reformation which had lono- glowed in 
 Bohemia, might now be considered as all but extinguished in 
 blood; and yet some few melancholy survivors had escaped 
 
98 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 from carnage, and lived to see the day of ^Yhich Huss had felt 
 a presentiment. 
 
 Hungary was torn by intestine wars, under the government 
 of princes who closed the scene by surrendering the future lot 
 of their people to Austria; that powerful family being placed 
 among the heirs of their crown. 
 
 Such was the state of Europe at the beginning of the century 
 which was to effect so mighty a transformation in Christian 
 society. 
 
 IX. But we have said that it was on the vast platform of 
 Germany, and in particular in the central city of the empire, 
 Wittemberg, that the grand drama of the Eeformation was to 
 open. Let us see, then, who the personages were that appeared 
 in the prologue, ushering in the work of which Luther was to 
 be the hero, or even taking an active part in the first efforts. 
 
 Of all the electors of the empire, the most powerful at that 
 time was Frederick of Saxony, surnamed the Wise. He 
 towered above all his equals in other respects, by the influence 
 he enjoyed, by his wealth, his liberality, and his magnificence;! 
 and God chose him to serve as a tree beneath whose shelter the 
 seed of the truth might put forth its first germ, without being 
 uprooted by the storms that raged around. 
 
 He was born at Torgau, in 1463, and from his youth up 
 showed much love for the sciences, philosophy, and piety. On 
 his coming with his brother, John, to the government of the 
 hereditary estates of his family, which was in 1487, he received 
 the electoral dignity from the emperor, Frederick HL In 
 1493, he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and in that 
 venerated place was armed as " a knight of the Holy Sepulchre"''' 
 by Henry of Schaumburg. In 1502, he founded the university 
 of Wittemberg, which was to be the nursery ground of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 When the light appeared, Frederick was found there ready 
 to defend it, although not attaching himself to any side. No 
 one was better fitted to be its guardian ; for besides being held 
 in general esteem, he possessed, in particular, the emperor's 
 entire confidence, so much so, as even to take his place when 
 
 ' Qui prsc multis poUebat principibus aliis, auctoritate, opibus, potontia, 
 liberalitate et magnificentia, (Cochlajus, Acta Lutheri, p. 3.) 
 
FREDERICK TUB WISE. 99 
 
 Maximilian was absent from the empire. His wisdom was not 
 that of the skilled adept in an artful policy, but it was an 
 enlightened and far-seeing prudence, whose first rule it was, 
 never to allow self-fnterest to infringe the laws of honour and 
 religion. 
 
 He felt, at the same time, the power of the word of God in 
 his heart. One day that the vicar-general, Staupitz, happened 
 to be with him, the conversation fell on those who delivered 
 empty declamations to the people. " All discourses," said the 
 elector, " that are filled with nothing but subtilties and human 
 traditions, are wonderfully cold, nerveless, and powerless; for no 
 subtilty can be advanced Avhich another subtilty may not destroy. 
 Simple scripture is invested with eo much power and majesty, 
 that, destroying all these learned contrivances for reasoning, it 
 comes homo to us and compels us to say: 'Never man spake 
 like this man."' " Staupitz signifying that he was quite of the 
 same opinion, the elector cordially grasped his hand, and said: 
 " Promise me that you will always think thus."^ 
 
 Frederick was precisely the prince that was wanted at the 
 beginning of the Reformation. Too much feebleness on the part 
 of its friends might have suffered it to be stifled, while too much 
 precipitation might dangerously have hastened the outburst of 
 that storm which, from its very commencement, had begun to 
 mutter against it. Frederick was at once moderate and resolute. 
 He possessed that Christian virtue which God looks for at all 
 times in those who adore his ways. He waited upon God. He 
 practised the sage advice of Gamaliel, for if the counsel of this 
 work he of men it will come to nought of itself hut if it he of God 
 ye cannot otertliroic it. ^ " Matters,"" said this prince to one of 
 the most intelligent men of his time, Spengler of Nuremberg, 
 " have come to such a pass, that nothing more can be done in 
 them by man; God alone must be agent. Therefore do we remit 
 these great events, as too difficult for us, into his mighty hands.''' 
 Providence made an admirable choice in the prince whom it- 
 selected for the protection of its own work, at its birth. 
 
 Among those who prepared matters for the Reformation, we 
 may reckon INIaximilian I., who wore the imperial crown from 
 
 * Luther, Epp. * Acts t. according to the French version. 
 
100 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 1493 to 1519. He presented an example of enthusiasm in tiie 
 cause of literature and science, to the other princes of the empire, 
 and to the whole of Germany. Less attached to the popes than 
 any of them, he even for some time entertained the idea of 
 seizing on the popedom for himself; and one may suppose, after 
 this trait, that a power like the Reformation, which rose as a 
 rival to the Pope, would not likely find the emperor of Germany 
 among its most deadly enemies. 
 
 Even among the princes of the Roman Church, venerable men 
 might be found who, by sacred studies and a sincere piety, were 
 prepared for acting a part in the divine work which was about 
 to take place in the world. Christopher of Stadion, bishop of 
 Augsbourg, both knew and loved the truth, but a bold profession 
 of it would have cost him the loss of every thing. Lawrence of 
 Bibra, bishop of Wurzbourg, a man of honesty, piety, and 
 wisdom, and who commanded the respect of the emperor and of 
 the princes, freely reprobated the Church"'s corruptions; but he 
 died in 1519, too early for the Reformation. John VL, bishop 
 of Meissen, used to say: "Every time I read the bible, I find 
 quite a different religion there from what people teach us." 
 John Thurzo, bishop of Breslau, was called by Luther " the best 
 of the bishops of his age,"! But he died in 1520, Guillaume 
 Brigonnet, bishop of Meaux, powerfully contributed to the refor- 
 mation of France. Who can say to v. hat an amount the 
 enlightened piety of those bishops, and of many others, helped 
 to bring about the great work of the Reformation in their own 
 dioceses, and even beyond these ? 
 
 Nevertheless, it was reserved for less powerful men to be the 
 chief instruments employed by God's providence, in preparing 
 the Reformation. These were the men of literature and science, 
 called the humanists; they were men that exercised the greatest 
 influence on their age. 
 
 At that time open war was waged between these disciples of 
 literature and the scholastic theologians. The latter observed 
 with alarm, the movement which was going on in the domain 
 of thought, and denied that the Church's surest safe-guard was 
 to be found in immobility and darkness. In order to save Rome, 
 these now combatted the revival of letters, but instead of that. 
 ' Luth. Epp. i. p. 524. 
 
REVIVAL 01' LETTEKS REIJCIlLm. 101 
 
 they onlv contributed to her downfall. Rome was materially 
 interested in this contest. She had momentarily gone out of 
 her course during the pontificate of Leo X.; when, abandoning 
 her old friends, she clasped her new adversaries to her bosom. 
 The popedom and literature then formed a friendship which 
 seemed likely to break up the ancient alliance between monachism 
 and the popedom. But the popes did not perceive that what 
 they had taken up as a plaything, was a sword which might 
 prove fatal to them ; just as in the last century, princes were 
 seen to welcome to their courts a political philosophy wliich, had 
 all its influence been allowed to it, would have overturned their 
 thrones. The alliance was short-lived. Literature advanced, 
 altogether unconcerned about what damage it might do to the 
 power of its patron. The monks and the schoolmen could per- 
 ceive that to abandon the Pope would be to abandon themselves; 
 and the Pope was not to be prevented by the transient patronage 
 he had given to the fine arts, from taking measures the most 
 opposite to the spirit of the time whenever he should feel so 
 inclined. 
 
 Most animating was the spectacle then presented by the 
 revival of letters. Let us sketch some of the picture's outlines, 
 selecting such as are most intimately connected with the revival 
 of the faith. 
 
 To secure the triumph of the faith, it was, first of all, requisite 
 that the arms wherewith that triumph was to be achieved, should 
 come forth from the arsenal in which they had been buried for 
 ages. These arms were no other than the scriptures of the Old 
 and New Testaments. The love and the study of the Greek 
 and Hebrew sacred literature, had to be revived in Christendom, 
 and the man chosen by God's providence for this task was called 
 John Reuchlin. 
 
 In the choir of the church of Pforzheim, people had remarked 
 a beautiful boy's voice which caught the attention of the mar- 
 grave of Baden. It was the voice of John Reuchlin, a poor 
 boy of pleasing manners and sprightly character, the son of an 
 honest burgess of that place. The margrave was not long of 
 loading him with favours, and selected him in 1473 as the per- 
 son who was to accompany his son, Frederick, to the university 
 of Paris. 
 
102 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Great was the joy of the son of the Pforzheim door-keeper as 
 he arrived with the prince, in that at the time most celebrated 
 school of all the West. There he found the Spartan Hermony- 
 mos, John Weissel, surnamed the light of the icorld, and thus he 
 enjoyed the opportunity of being under the ablest teachers while 
 studying Greek and Hebrew, for neither of which was there 
 any professor then in Germany, and which he was one day to 
 restore in the native country of the Reformation. The poor 
 German lad copied out Homers poems and the orations of Iso- 
 crates for other students, and thus found means for continuing 
 his studies and for purchasing books. 
 
 But from WeisseFs mouth he heard other things besides 
 these, and things that powerfully impressed him: "Popes may 
 be deceived. All human satisfactions involve blasphemy against 
 Christ, who has perfectly reconciled and justified the human 
 race. To God alone belongs the power of granting entire abso- 
 lution. It is unnecessary for a man to confess his sins to 
 priests. There is no purgatory, unless it be God himself who 
 is a consuming fire, and cleanses from all defilement." 
 
 When hardly twenty years old, Reuchlin taught philosophy, 
 Greek, and Latin, at Basel ; and what was then thought a pro- 
 digy, a German was heard speaking Greek. 
 
 The partisans of Rome began to be disquieted at beholding 
 generous minds engaged in burrowing among these ancient 
 treasures. "The Romans," said Reuchlin, "make wry faces, and 
 bitterly complain, pretending that these literary labours are all 
 contrary to Roman piety, in as much as the Greeks are schis- 
 matics. Oh what pains, what suffering, must be endured in 
 bringing back Germany at last to wisdom and learning !" 
 
 Eberhard of Wurtemberg, soon after, sent for Reuchlin to 
 Tubingen, there to be the ornament of that rising university, and 
 in 1487, that prince took him with him into Italy. Chalkonydas, 
 Aurispa, and John Pica of Mirandola, became his companions 
 and friends at Florence; and, at Rome, on a solemn audience 
 being given to Eberhard by the Pope, who was surrounded with 
 his cardinals, Reuchlin delivered a discourse in such pure and 
 elegant latinity, that the persons present, never having looked 
 for any thing of the kind from a barbarous German, were 
 quite amazed; the Pope himself exclaiming: "This man 
 
REUCIILIN IN ITALY. 103 
 
 assuredly deserves a place among the best orators of France and 
 
 Italy." 
 
 Ten years after this, Reuchlin was compelled to shelter him- 
 self from the resentment of Eberhard's successor, in the elector 
 Philip's court, at Heidelberg. Philip was at this time endea- 
 vouring, with the aid of his friend and chancellor, John of Dal- 
 berg, bishop of Worms, to diffuse the illumination now dawning 
 at all points of Germany. Dalberg founded a library, of which 
 all men of learning were allowed the use, and on this new scene 
 Reuchlin vigorously exerted himself in doing away with the 
 barbarism of his countrymen. 
 
 An important mission from the elector took him to Rome, in 
 1498, and there his whole spare time and money were devoted 
 to farther progress in Hebrew under the learned Israelite, Abdias 
 Sphorne, and to the purchase of all the Hebrew and Greek manu- 
 scripts he could find likely to increase the daylight which was 
 now dispelling his countiy's darkness. 
 
 An illustrious Greek, Argyropylos, was then engaged in 
 explaining to a numerous audience in that metropolis, the old 
 wonders of his country's literature. To the hall in which this 
 teacher was giving his instructions, our learned ambassador 
 repaired with his retinue, and greeted him, as he entered, with 
 an address in which he deplored the calamities of Greece as she 
 lay gasping under the blows of the Ottomans. The astonished 
 Greek asked the German stranger where he came from, and 
 whether or no he understood Greek? Reuchlin replied: "I am 
 a German, and am not altogether unacquainted with that tongue." 
 He then, at the request of Argyropylos, read and explained a 
 passage in Thucydides which the professor had at the moment 
 open before him, "Alas! alas!" exclaimed the amazed and 
 afflicted Argyropylos, "poor Greece, like a persecuted fugitive, 
 has gone to hide herself beyond the Alps." 
 
 Thus did the palaces of Rome witness the meeting of the sons 
 of rough Germany with those of old and learned Greece, the 
 east and the west exchanging greetings in that trysting- 
 place^ of the world, and the one handing over to the other, those 
 
 ' In thus translating rendezvous I merely follow the advice of the great Lord 
 Bacon, who thought his country's language might be bettered by a certain 
 amalgamation with that of Scotland. — Translator. 
 
lOrt HISTORY OB^ THE REFORMATION. 
 
 intellectual treasures which she had snatched in haste from the 
 barbarism of the Ottomans. Thus does God, when necessary to 
 the fulfilment of his purposes, bring together in a moment, by 
 some great catastrophe, things which seemed destined to remain 
 for ever apart. 
 
 Wurtemberg was open to Reuchlin on his return to Ger- 
 many, and now it was especially, that he accomplished those 
 tasks which proved so useful to Luther and the Reformation. 
 He translated and explained the penitential psalms, corrected 
 the Vulgate, and, which was his chief merit and glory, was the 
 first in Germany to publish a Hebrew grammar and dictionary. 
 By this work Reuchlin unsealed the long closed books of the 
 Old Testament, and thus, as he himself says, raised for himself 
 a monument more lasting than brass. 
 
 But it was by his life as well as by his writings, that 
 Reuchlin sought to promote the reign of truth. Such was his 
 personal influence with the young, that it is impossible to esti- 
 mate what the Reformation thus owed to him. 
 
 We may mention a single instance. There came to live with 
 his sister EHzabeth, for the purpose of studying under him, a 
 young cousin of his, the son of an artizan of the name of 
 Schwarzerd, who was famous for the manufacture of arms. In 
 his delight at witnessing his youthful disciple's genius and 
 application, Reuchlin adopted him, and grudged nothing, 
 whether it were counsels, presents of books, or examples, that might 
 make his relation an useful man to the Church and his country. 
 He rejoiced to see that none of his pains were lost, and deeming the 
 German name Schwarzerd somewhat barbarous, according to the 
 custom of that time he translated it into Greek, calling the young 
 student Melanclitlion. It was the illustrious friend of Luther. 
 
 The peaceful Reuchlin, ere long, found himself dragged, in 
 spite of himself, into a violent contest, which proved one of the 
 preludes to the Reformation. 
 
 There was then living at Cologne, on intimate terms with the 
 inquisitor Hochstraten, a baptized Jew, called Pfeflerkorn. This 
 man and the Dominicans sought and obtained from the emperor 
 Maximilian, possibly with no bad intentions, an order command- 
 ing the Jews to bring all their Hebrew books, with the excep- 
 tion of the Bible, to the town-house of their places of residence ; 
 
(■o.\Ti!;.sT wnii Tin: Dominicans. 105 
 
 and there these writings were to be burnt. The reason assigned 
 for this, was that they teemed with blasphemies against Jesus 
 Christ. Now it must be confessed that they were at least full 
 of silly things, and that the Jews would not have sustained any 
 great loss by the execution of the order. Still they did not 
 think so, and no one was entitled to deprive them of works 
 much valued at least in their estimation. The Dominicans, too, 
 might well have other reasons besides their zeal for the gospel, 
 and hoped, probably, to extort heavy ransoms from the Jews. 
 
 On these works the emperor invited Reuchlin to give his 
 opinion, and the learned doctor expressly pointed out such of 
 them as were written against Christianity. These he delivered 
 over to their doom, but the rest he wished to preserve. "The 
 best method for converting the Israelites," he added, "would be 
 to establish two masters of Hebrew at each university seat, who 
 miffht teach theologians to read the Hebrew Bible and thus to 
 refute that people's teachers." In consequence of this opinion 
 the Jews had their books restored to them. 
 
 Then it was that like hungry carrion crows on seeing their 
 prey escape, the proselyte and the inquisitor were furious in their 
 indignation. Picking out several pages from what Reuchlin had 
 written, and misrepresenting their meaning, they denounced him 
 as a heretic, accused him of secret leanings to Judaism, and 
 threatened him with the chains of the Inquisition. Reuchlin at 
 first allowed himself to become frightened. But these men 
 growing every day more haughty, and pi'escribing to him 
 shameful conditions, he published, in 1513, a "Defence against 
 the detractors of Cologne," in which he depicts that whole party 
 in the liveliest colours. 
 
 The Dominicans swore that they would be revenged of him. 
 Hochstraten called a court at Maintz to condemn Reuchlin. 
 The writings of this learned man were adjudged to the flames. 
 Reuchlin appealed to Leo X., and that Pope, who had no great 
 liking for ignorant and fanatical monks, remitted the whole 
 affair to the bishop of Spires, who declared Reuchlin innocent, antl 
 condemned the monks to pay the expenses of the process. 
 
 This afiair was of great consequence and made much noise in 
 Germany. It exhibited that numerous class, the monkish 
 theologians, in the most odious light. It drew into closer 
 
 I. 
 
106 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 intimacy all the friends of the learned sciences, who then, after 
 their illustrious chief, were called Reuchlinites. The struggle 
 was a skirmish between advanced posts, which had an influence 
 on the general action soon afterwards fought with error by the 
 heroic courage of Luther. 
 
 The union of literature with faith, forms one of the character- 
 istic traits of the Eeformation, distinguishing it both from the 
 first establishment of Christianity and from the reli«ious renova- 
 tion of the present day. Christians who lived in the days of 
 the apostles, were opposed by the mental cultivation of that age; 
 and, with few exceptions, the same is the case with those of our 
 time. The majority of men of letters sided with the Reformers. 
 Public opinion even favoured them. Here the work gained in 
 point of extent, but it may thereby have lost somewhat in point 
 of depth. 
 
 Luther, acknowledging all that Reuchlin had done, wrote to 
 him as follows, shortly after his victory over the Dominicans: — 
 "•The Lord has wrought in thee, in order that the light of Holy 
 Scripture may again begin to illuminate this Germany where, 
 alas ! for so many ages, it has not only been smothered, but com- 
 pletely extinct."! 
 
 Reuchlin was not yet twelve years old when one of the greatest 
 geniuses of his age was born. His early history is curious. A 
 native of Gouda in the Netherlands, called Gerard, a man of 
 much wit and vivacity, loved a physician's daughter called 
 Margaret. He did not live under the influence of Christian 
 principles, or, at least, passion had silenced them. His parents, 
 and nine brothers, would have compelled him to embrace the 
 ecclesiastical profession, but he fled to Rome, leaving the woman 
 he loved about to become a mother. The guilty Margaret 
 brought forth a son. But Gerard knew nothing of this, and 
 some time afterwards word came to him from his parents, that 
 the object of his aff"ection was no more. Li an agony of grief 
 lie took the vows of a priest, and having consecrated himself 
 entirely to the service of God, returned to Holland, where he 
 found that she was still alive. ^Margaret would marry no one 
 else, and Gerard remained faithful to his sacerdotal vows. Their 
 
 ' Mai vita .1. Rpurhlin. (Trankf. 1687) Maycrhoff. J. Rcuclilin und seine Zeit 
 (Berlin, lfi-'50). 
 
KUASMUS AT PAHIS. lUT 
 
 alTcction naturally concentrated itself on their infant son. liis 
 mother had reared him with the fondest care. His father, after 
 liis return, sent him to school, althougli but four years old. 
 And he was not thirteen when his master, SinthoTnius of Dcven- 
 ter, one day joyfully embracing him, exclaimed, "This child 
 will reach the very highest elevations of learning." It was 
 Erasnms of Rotterdam. 
 
 About this time his mother died, and, soon after, sinking 
 beneath the pressure of his grief, his father followed her to the 
 tomb. 
 
 Thus was the young Erasmus^ left alone in the world. His 
 guardians would have had him enter a monastery, but for the 
 monastic life he had a decided aversion. At length a friend 
 persuaded him to enter a house of canons regular, which he 
 could do Avithout taking orders. We find him ere long at the 
 court of the archbishop of Cambray, and, more lately, at the 
 university of Paris. He there pursued his studies in great 
 want but with indefatigable application. No sooner did he 
 acquire a little money than he laid it out, first in buying Greek 
 authors, and then in clothes. Often did the young Hollander 
 apply in vain to the generosity of his protectors; accordingly, 
 at a later period, it was his great delight to support young 
 men who were studious but poor. Applying himself unremitt- 
 ingly to the investigation of truth and the acquisition of learning, 
 he shrank, nevertheless, fro. a the study of theology, alarmed 
 lest he should discover errors and then be denounced as a heretic. 
 
 The laborious habits v>hich he then acquired remained with 
 him throughout his whole life; even in the course of his travels 
 which were usually performed on horseback, he lost no time. 
 He composed on the road as he ambled across the country, and 
 wrote down his thoughts on arriving at an inn. It was thus 
 that he produced his famous "Praise of Folly 2" as he was 
 travelling from Italy to England. 
 
 Erasmus soon earned a high reputation among the learned. 
 But the monks, stung by his Praise of Folly, in which he had 
 ridiculed theirs, devoted him to intense hatred. When he was 
 
 ' His proper name was Gerhard, as was his father's. This Dutch name he 
 translated into the Latin Dc?idcriiis and the Greek Erasmus. 
 
 ^ Eyxi^fii'jv i^-ji^las. Seven editions were taken off in the course of a few moi.ths. 
 
103 HISTORY or THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 souo-lit for by princes, his excuses, when he wanted them for 
 tlie purpose of avoiding compliance, were exhaustless; for he 
 liked much better to earn his bread as a corrector of books for 
 the printer, Frobenius, than to live surrounded by luxuries and 
 favours at the magnificent courts of Charles V., Henry VIII., 
 and Francis I., or to place on his head the cardinaFs hat that 
 was offered to him. ^ 
 
 From 1509 downwards he taught at Oxford. In 1516 he 
 came to Basel, and established himself there in 1521. 
 
 Now, what influence did he exert on the Reformation? 
 
 That influence has been over-estimated on the one side, and 
 too much depreciated on the other. Erasmus never was, and 
 never could have been, a Reformer; but what he could not do 
 himself, he facilitated the doing of by others. Not only did he 
 diffuse in his own age, that love of learning, and that spirit of 
 research and inquiry which led others much farther than ho 
 went ; but, moreover, under the protection of great prelates and 
 of mighty princes, he contrived to expose and attack the vices 
 of the Church by the most pungent satires. 
 
 Erasmus did more than this: not content with attacking 
 abuses, he endeavoured to recall the clergy from the study of 
 the schoolmen, to the study of holy scripture. " The highest 
 object," said he, " of the revival of philosophical studies, will be 
 to learn to become acquainted with simple and pure Christianity 
 in the bible." Noble saying ! and would that the organs of the 
 philosophy of our days as well understood their calling ! " I am 
 firmly resolved," he farther said, " to die in the study of the 
 Scripture: in it I find my joy and my peace."- "The sum of 
 all Christian philosophy," says he in another place, " is com- 
 prised in this: To place our whole hope in God who, without 
 our merit, by grace, gives us all in Jesus Christ; to know that 
 we are redeemed by the death of his Son ; to die to worldly 
 lusts, and to walk in conformity with his teaching and example, 
 not only without offence to any, but, further, doing good to all; 
 patiently to endure trial in the hope of future recompense; in 
 fine, to take to ourselves no credit for our virtues, but to give 
 
 ' A principibus facile mihi contingeret fortuna, nisi mihi nimium dulcis esset 
 libertas, (Epist. ad Pirck.) 
 2 Ad Scrvatiuni. 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF EHASMUS. 100 
 
 thanks to God for all our powers and all our doings. Such are 
 the convictions with which man ought to bo penetrated, until 
 this has become in him a second nature." ^ 
 
 But Erasmus was not satisfied with this frank confession of 
 evangelical doctrine; his labours were more efficient than his 
 words. In particular, he greatly promoted the truth by the 
 publication of his critical edition of the New Testament, which 
 was the first, and for long the only one; it appeared at Basel in 
 1516, a year before the Reformation began. He accompanied 
 it with a Latin translation in which he boldly corrected the 
 Vulgate, and with justificatory remarks. Erasmus thus did 
 for the New Testament what lleuchlin had done for the Old. 
 
 From that time forth, theologians could read the word of 
 God in the original tongues, and proceeded from that to the 
 acknowledgment of the purity of the doctrine of the Reformers. 
 " Would to God," says Erasmus in publishing his work, " tliat 
 it may bear as much fruit for Christianity as it has cost me 
 pains and application!" and he had his wish fulfilled. The 
 monks exclaimed in vain: " He wants to correct the Holy 
 Spirit!" The New Testament published by Erasmus, opened a 
 fresh flood of light; and this great man farther difl'used a taste 
 for the word of God by his paraphrases on the Epistle to the 
 Romans. The efi'ect of these labours went even beyond his 
 intentions. Reuchlin and Erasmus unsealed the Bible to the 
 learned; Luther restored it to the people. 
 
 Erasmus was to many a kind of bridge of passage. Many 
 who would have taken alarm at the truths of the gospel when 
 presented in all their force and purity, allowed themselves to be 
 allured to them by him, and became afterwards the most zealous 
 abettors of the Reformation. 
 
 But his very fitness for the task of preparation, unfitted him 
 for that of accomplishment. " Erasmus," said Luther, " is 
 admirable in pointing out errors, but he knows not how to teach 
 the truth." Christ's gospel was not the fire that kindled and 
 kept up his life, — the centre from which his activity threw out its 
 rays. He was first a learned, and next only, a Christian man. 
 He was too much influenced by vanity to exercise a decisive 
 
 * Ad Joh Slcchtam. 1519. IIa?c sunt animis hominum inculcanda, sic, ut 
 velut in naturam transcant. (Er Epp i p. 6S0.) 
 
110 HlSTOliV OF THE KKFORMATION. 
 
 influence over his age. He anxiously calculated the consequences 
 which each of his proceedings might have in regard to his repu- 
 tation, and there was nothing lie liked so much to speak of as 
 'himself and his glory. " The Pope," he wrote to an intimate 
 friend with childish vanity, at the time of his declaring himself 
 the adversary of Luther, " the Pope has sent me a diploma full 
 of kindness and testimonies of honour. His secretary swears 
 to me that such a thing was never before heard of, and that the 
 Pope dictated it to him word for word." 
 
 Erasmus and Luther are the representatives of two grand 
 ideas on the subject of reform, and of two great parties in 
 their own age and in all ages. The one is composed of men of 
 a timid prudence; the other comprises the resolute and the bold; 
 both as they existed at that time, were personified in these two 
 illustrious chiefs, "^'our men of prudence trusted to a reforma- 
 tion being brought about in the Church by little and little, and 
 without schism, by the cultivation of theological literature, but 
 the men of action thought that the diffusion of the soundest 
 ideas among the learned, would not dispel popular superstitions, 
 and that the correction of such or such an abuse was a small 
 matter if the entire life of the Church were not renewed. 
 
 " A disadvantageous peace," Erasmus would say, " is to be 
 preferred to the justest war." ^ He thought, and how many 
 Erasmuses have there been since, and are there Hving now ! — 
 he thoudit that a reformation which was to shake the Church 
 might risk overturning it; he was alarmed at the prospect of 
 men's being excited, of evil mingling with the small amount of 
 good that could be effected, of existing institutions being destroyed 
 without being replaced by others, and the vessel of the Church, 
 with the water rushing into it at all parts, being engulphed at 
 last amid the storm. " They who would introduce the sea into 
 new marshes," said he, " often do what they have cause to 
 repent of; for the formidable element, when once let in, does not 
 flow as they would wish it should, but rushes abroad as it 
 pleases, and causes immense devastation," ^ 
 
 But the courageous among his contemporaries had wherewithal 
 
 > Malo hnnc, qualisqnisque ost. rerum humcaiicarum statum quam novos 
 excitari tumultus, ho farther said. (Erasm. Epp. i. p. 953.) 
 
 2 Semcl admissuin non ea fertur, qua destinarat admissor . . . (Erasm. 
 Epp. i. p. 950.) 
 
A UKl'ORMATION UMPOSSlIiLIC \V1T1I0UX COMMOTIONS. HI 
 
 to reply to this. History lias given ample proof that a fi-ank 
 exposition of the truth, and open battle with falsehood, could 
 alone make victory certain. Had mild measures been followed, 
 political artifices and the trickery of the papal court, would 
 have extinguished the light as soon as kindled. And had 
 not mild measures been employed for ages ? Had not councils 
 upon councils been convened for the purpose of reforming the 
 Church? All had been of no avail, and why pretend anew to 
 repeat an experiment which had so often proved abortive? 
 
 No doubt a fundamental reform could not have been effected 
 without schisms. But when did there ever appear anything 
 great or good among men, which did not cause some agitation? 
 This dread of seeing evil mingle with good, may be ever so 
 legitimate, but even then, would it not lay an arrest on what 
 are precisely the noblest and the holiest undertakings? Instead 
 of shrinking from the evil which may arise out of a great agita- 
 tion, we ought to gather up our energies for the task of com- 
 batting and destroying it. 
 
 We ought besides, to consider the total difference between a 
 commotion resulting from human passions, and one emanating 
 from the Spirit of God. The one shakes society to its base — 
 the other strengthens and braces it. How erroneous, then, like 
 Erasmus, to suppose that in the state in which Christendom 
 then was, with that medley of conflicting elements, of truth and 
 falsehood, of death and life, there yet remained any possibility 
 of preventing violent convulsions ! As well might we attempt 
 to shut up the crater of Vesuvius when the angry elements are 
 boiling in its breast ! Already had the middle ages seen several 
 violent commotions under an atmosphere less charged with 
 storms than was that of the times of the Reformation, and what 
 was now to be done was not to suppress and arrest, but to direct 
 and guide. 
 
 Had the Reformation failed to break out, who could have 
 answered for the fearful ruin that might have come in its place? 
 A prey to numberless destructive elements, and without any to 
 regenerate and preserve it, society must have been frightfully 
 convulsed and shattered. Assuredly it would have been just a 
 reform according to the notions of Erasmus, and such as many 
 moderate but timid men of our dav fondlv dream of, that would 
 
112 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 have entirely subverted the social system of Christendom. 
 Without either the intelligence or the piety which the Eeforma- 
 tion caused to descend, even to the obscurest ranks, the people 
 given over to their violent passions, and to the spirit of restless- 
 ness and revolt, would have rushed out like some furious animal, 
 provoked to madness, and incapable of being controlled by any 
 check that could be put upon its wrath. The Reformation was 
 nothing less than an intervention of God's Spirit among men — 
 an arrangement introduced by God himself upon the earth. No 
 doubt, it might cause a fermentation of the elements that lie 
 hid in man's heart; but God overcame these. The doctrines of 
 the gospel, the truth of God, penetrating the mass of the popula- 
 tion in various countries, destroyed what it was well should 
 perish, but strengthened what ought to have been retained. 
 The Reformation has had a conservative influence in the world — 
 prejudice only can say that its tendency has been destructive. 
 "The ploughshare,"" it has been justly said in speaking of the 
 doings of the Reformation, "might as well think that it hurts the 
 earth because it tears it open; whereas it only makes it fruitful." 
 
 The grand principle with Erasmus was: "Enlighten, and the 
 darkness will disperse of itself." It was a sound principle, and 
 Luther put it in practice. But when the enemies of the truth, 
 make eiforts to extinguish it, or to wrest the torch from the 
 hand that bears it, ought we, from love of peace, tamely to look 
 on? Ought we not to resist the wicked? 
 
 Erasmus was wanting in courage; a quality no less requisite 
 in effecting a reformation than in taking a town. Constitutional 
 timidity marked his character. From his early years, the mere 
 mention of death made him tremble. He took infinite pains to 
 preserve his health, and grudged no cost in getting to a distance 
 from a place where a contagious malady prevailed. His very 
 vanity was surpassed by his love of the conveniences of life, and 
 it was this that made him refuse more than one brilliant offer. 
 
 No wonder such a man made no pretence to the part of a 
 reformer. "If the corrupt morals of the court of Rome," said 
 he, "call for some great and speedy remedy, this is neither my 
 affair nor that of men like me."l He had none of that vigorous 
 
 1 Ingens aliquod ct pi-mseiis remedium, certe meum non est. (Er. Ep. i. . 653.) 
 
INDECISION OF EH ASM US. i I 3 
 
 faith which animated Luther. And wliilo the latter was ever 
 ready to lay down his life for the truth, Erasmus would ingenu- 
 ously say: "Let others pretend to martyrdom; as for me, 1 
 do not hold myself worthy of that honour.' 1 fear, were thero 
 to be any tumult, I might imitate Peter when he fell." 
 
 Erasunis, more than any other, had by his discourses and 
 writings prepared the Reformation; then, when he saw the 
 storui he had raised, ho gave way to fear, lie would have 
 given any thing to have had the previous calm brought back, 
 surcharged as it was with heavy vapours. But it was now too 
 late, for the dyke was already broken, and none could stay the 
 flood which was at once to purify and to fertilize the world. 
 Erasums was mighty as an instrument in the hand of God ; 
 ceasing to be that, he was nothinir. 
 
 In the end, he knew not for which party to declare himself. 
 None pleased him, and he feared them all. "It is dangerous 
 to speak," said he, "and it is dangerous to hold one's peace." 
 In all great religious movements we may find such undecided 
 characters, persons respectable in some points of view, but who 
 injure the truth, and who while wishing to give offence to none, 
 displease all. 
 
 What would become of the truth, did not God raise up more 
 courageous champions for its defence? The following is the advice 
 given by Erasmus to Viglius Zuichem, afterwards president of 
 the higher court at Brussels, on the manner in which he ought to 
 conduct himself towards the sectarians, for such was the name 
 he gave the reformers. "My friendship for you, makes me 
 desire that you would keep aloof from the contagion of the sects, 
 and that you would give them no room to say, 'Zuichem is one 
 of us.' Though you may approve their doctrines, at least dis- 
 semble, and above all, dispute not with them. A jurisconsult 
 ought to finesse with these folks, as a dying man once did with 
 the devil. The devil asked him, What is your creed? The dyinij 
 man, being afraid that were he to say what it was, he might be 
 caught in some heresy, replied: 'What the Church believes."" 
 But the other urged him again: 'What does the Church 
 believe?' The man replied: 'What I believe.' The devil rejoins 
 with the question: 'And what then do you believe?' On which 
 ' Ego me non arbitror hoc honore dignus. Ibid. 
 
11-t HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the dying man again replies, 'What the Church believes.'"''' ' 
 Duke George of Saxony, also, a mortal enemy of Luther, having 
 received from Erasmus an equivocal answer to a question he 
 had put to him, said, "Dear Erasmus, wash me my fur cloak, 
 and do not wet it only." Ourius Secundus, in one of his works, 
 describes two heavens, the popish and the Christian. He finds 
 Erasmus in neither, but describes him as incessantly moving 
 between the two, in endless gyrations. 
 
 Such was Erasmus. He had none of that inward deliver- 
 ance from bondage which makes a man truly free. How dif- 
 ferent would he have been, had he but had sufficient self-denial 
 to devote himself unreservedly to the truth ! But after having 
 endeavoured to effect some reforms with the approbation of the 
 Church's chief, after having abandoned the Reformation for 
 Rome when he saw that these two things could not advance 
 together, he lost himself in the esteem of all. On the one side, 
 liis palinodes could not appease the wrath of the fanatical parti- 
 zans of the popedom, who feeling how much mischief he had 
 done them, would not forgive him for it. The monks, with 
 impetuous rage, overwhelmed him with insulting language from 
 their pulpits, calling him a second Lucian; a fox that had laid 
 waste the Lord's vineyard. A certain doctor, at Constance, had 
 a portrait of Erasmus hung up in his study, that he might have 
 the satisfaction of indulging the grudge he bore him, by spit- 
 ting in his face. But on the other hand, Erasmus, having 
 abandoned the cause of the gospel, saw himself deprived of the 
 esteem and affection of the most generous men of his time; 
 and must, no doubt, have forfeited those heavenly consolations 
 which God diff'uses in the hearts of such as conduct themselves 
 as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. At least it would appear that 
 we must infer this from those bitter tears, and painful watchings, 
 that troubled sleep and loathing of food, that distaste for the 
 study of the muses which used to be his only solace, that sor- 
 rowful brow, that pallid face, those downcast melancholy looks, 
 that hatred of a life which he calls cruel, and those sighs for 
 death, of which he speaks to his friends.^ Poor Erasmus! 
 
 » Erasm. Epp. 374. 
 2 Vigilise molestro, somnus iiTcquietus, cibus insipidus omnis, ipsum quoque 
 musarum studium .... ipsa froiitis majstitia, vultus palor, oculorum 
 subtristis dejectio .... (Erasm. Epp. I, p. 1380.) 
 
THE NOHLKS OF GKRMANY miTTKN. 115 
 
 The enemies of Erasmus, we conceive, went a little beyond 
 the truth, when they exclaimed on the appearance of Luther: 
 "Erasmus laid the egg, and Luther has hatched it.* 
 
 XIL The same symptoms of regeneration which were to be 
 found among tlie princes, the bishops, and the learned, appeared, 
 also, among men of the world, noblemen, knights, and tiie 
 military. The nobles of Germany acted an important part in 
 the Reformation. Several of the most illustrious sons of Ger- 
 many, formed an intimate alliance with the chiefs of literature, 
 and under the impulse of an ardent though sometimes excessive 
 zeal, strove to deliver tlieir people from the yoke of Rome. 
 
 Various causes must have concurred to raise up friends to the 
 Reformation from the ranks of the nubility. Some members 
 of that body, while attending the universities, had had their 
 hearts warmed by the ilame that glowed in the breasts of the 
 learned; while others, in the course of a generous education of 
 the feelings, had had their souls opened to the excellencies of 
 gospel doctrine, and to many the Reformation bore a kind of 
 chivalrous aspect, which caught their fancies, and enticed them 
 into its train. And it must be confessed, that there were yet 
 others who had no good will to the clergy, regarding them as a 
 body that, under the reign of Maximilian, had powerfully con- 
 tributed to deprive them of their ancient independence, and to 
 reduce them into subjection to the princes. In the ardour of 
 their enthusiasm, these last thought the Reformation would be 
 found the prelude to a great political renovation; they believed 
 that the empire would come forth from the crisis with quite 
 a new splendour, and that the sword of knights as well as the 
 word of God, was about to establish a better order of things 
 in the world — an order of things radiant with the purest 
 glory.-2 
 
 ' The works of Erasmus were published by John Le Clcrc, at Liege, in lYOS, 
 in ten vols, folio. For his life see Bourigny's Life of Erasmus, Paris, 1757. A. 
 Mliller, Leben des Erasmus, Hamburgh, 1828; and his biography inserted by 
 Le Clerc, in his Bibliotheque choisie. See also the beautiful and conscientious 
 work of M. Nisard, (Revue des deux mondes), who appears to me, however, to 
 have been mistaken in his appreciation of Erasmus and of Luther. 
 
 2 Animus ingons et ferox viribus pollens . . . Nam si concilia ct 
 conatus Ilutteni non defecissent, quasi nervi copiarum, atque potcntiffi, jam 
 mutatio omnium rerum exstitisset et quasi orhis status public! fuisset conver- 
 Bus. (Camer. Vita Melanchthonis.) 
 
116 lUSTOUY Ol' THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Ulricli of iiutten, wlioso philippics against the popedom pro- 
 cured him the name of the German Demosthenes, formed the 
 connecting link which then united men of the sword with men 
 of letters, for he acquired a brilliant distinction among both. 
 Born of an ancient family in Franconia, he was sent, at the 
 age of eleven, to the monastery at Foulda, and there he was to 
 have become a monk. But as he had no liking for that kind of 
 life, Ulrich fled from the monastery at the age of sixteen, and 
 betook himself to Cologne, where he sedulously studied the lan- 
 guages and poetry. At a later period, he led a wandering life, 
 was at the siege of Padua as a common soldier, saw Rome in all 
 its scandals, and there he pointed those shafts which he after- 
 wards launched against her. 
 
 On his return to Germany, Hutten composed an attack upon 
 Eome, under the title of the Roman Trinity. He therein unveils 
 all the disorders of its court, and shows the necessity of putting 
 an end to its tyranny by force. A traveller, called Vadiscus 
 figures in this tract, and is made to say: "There are three things 
 people generally bring back from Rome: an ill conscience, a 
 spoilt stomach, and an empty purse. There are three things that 
 Rome does not believe: the immortality of the soul, the resur- 
 rection of the dead, and hell. There are three things that 
 Rome trades in: the grace of Christ, ecclesiastical dignities, and 
 women.'"' This publication compelled Hutten to quit the court 
 of the archbishop of Maintz, where he was residing when he 
 composed it. 
 
 When Reuchlin's affair with the Dominicans came out, Hut- 
 ten actively exerted himself on the side of the learned doctor, 
 and it was then that Crotus Robianus, one of his university 
 friends, and some other Germans, wrote the famous satire 
 intituled, Letters of obscure men, a year before the theses of Luther 
 appeared. Hutten had the chief credit of the composition, and 
 probably the greater part was his. Reuchlin's opponents among 
 the monks, are supposed to write the letters, and are repre- 
 sented as entertaining one another on the affairs of the day, and 
 on theological subjects, in their own manner and barbarous 
 Latin. They send their correspondent, Eratius of Cologne, the 
 silliest and most useless questions; giving him the most child- 
 
TllIC LETTERS OF SOME OUSCURE MEN. 117 
 
 ishly siniplo proofs of (lioir gross ignorance, of tlioir unbelief of 
 their superstition, of tlicir low vulgarity, and, at the same time, 
 of their haughty spirit, and fanatical and persecuting zeal. 
 They relate several of their queer adventures, their excesses, 
 their dissoluteness, and divers scandalous passages in the livea 
 of Ilochstraten, Pfefferkorn, and other heads of their party. 
 The perusal of these letters is very diverting, from the medley 
 of hypocrisy and absurdity they exhibit, while the whole 
 appears so natural that the Dominicans and Franciscans of 
 England received the work with much approbation, and tliought 
 it had been actually composed in the principles of their order 
 and in its defence. A Brabant prior, with credulous simplicity, 
 even gave orders for the purchase of a great many copies, which 
 he sent as presents to the most distinguished of the Domini- 
 cans. The monks, waxing more and more angry, now asked 
 the Pope for a severe bull against all who should dare to read 
 these epistles, but to this Leo X. would not consent; so that 
 they had to endure the general laugh, and to devour their resent- 
 ment as they best could. No work ever gave so terrible a blow 
 to these pillars of the popedom as this, but it was not to sneers 
 and ridicule that the gospel was to owe its triumph; and had 
 such a method been persisted in, had the Eeformation betaken 
 itself to the shafts of a sneering worldly spirit, instead of 
 attacking error with the arms of God, its cause would have 
 perished. Luther loudly condemned these satires, and on a 
 friend sending him one intituled The tenour of Pasquins Supplica- 
 tion^ he replied: — "The fooleries you have sent me seem to 
 have been written by an unbridled mind. I imparted them to 
 a meeting of my friends, and we all judged alike.'"' Referring 
 to the same work, he writes to another correspondent as follows: 
 " This supplication appears to me to be from the same pen as 
 the letters of some obscure men. I like the author's wishes, but 
 I do not like his work, for he indulges in insults and out- 
 rages." ^ This is a severe judgment, but it shows what mind 
 Luther was of, and how much he rose above his contempo- 
 raries; although, it must be added, that he did not himself 
 always follow such sage maxims. 
 
 > L. Epp. i. p. 37. "Ibid.p. SS. 
 
118 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Compelled to renounce the protection of the archbishop of 
 Maintz, Ulrieh sought that of Charles V., who was then on ill 
 terms with the Pope, and proceeded to Brussels where the 
 emperor then held his court. There, however, far from obtaining 
 what he wanted, he learned that the Pope had required the 
 emperor to send him bound hand and foot to Rome. Hochstraten 
 the inquisitor, Reuchlin"'s persecutor, was one of the persons who 
 received a commission at Rome to prosecute him. Indignant at 
 men having dared to present such a request to the emperor, 
 Ulrieh quitted Brabant. While leaving Brussels, he met Hoch- 
 straten on the highway. The terrified inquisitor falls on his 
 knees and commends his soul to God and the saints. No ! says 
 the knight, I soil not my sabre with thy blood. He then gave 
 him a few blows with the flat of his sword, and let him depart in 
 peace. 
 
 Hutten found shelter in the castle of Ebernburg, where 
 Francis of Sickingen ofiered protection to all who were per- 
 secuted by the Ultramontanes. There it was that his burning 
 zeal for his country ""s deliverance, dictated those remarkable 
 letters which he addressed to Charles V., to the elector Fred- 
 erick of Saxony, to archbishop Albert of Maintz, to the princes 
 and the nobility, and which have placed him in the first rank of 
 writers. There it was that he composed those works which 
 were destined to be read and comprehended by the common 
 people, and which diffused through the whole German territory, 
 horror for Rome, combined with love of liberty. In his devo- 
 tion to the cause of the Reformation, he purposed inducing 
 the nobility to take up arms in favour of the Gospel, and to 
 fall, sword in hand, upon that Rome which Luther Avas fain 
 to destroy only by the Word, and by the invincible force of 
 truth. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this warlike excitement, one loves to find 
 that Hutten was susceptible of feelings of tenderness and delicacy. 
 On the death of his parents, he ceded all the family property to 
 his brothers, although he was the eldest sou, and he begged 
 of them neither to write to him, nor to send him money, 
 lest, in spite of their innocence, they might have to sufl'er from 
 his enemies, and fall with him into the ditch. 
 
 If the truth cannot own Hutten as a child, for with her a holy 
 
SICKINUKN. 119 
 
 life, and a charitable heart, are indispensiblo, she will at least 
 allow him an honourable mention as one of the most formidable 
 foes of error. ^ 
 
 No less may be said of his illustrious friend and protector, 
 Francis of Sickingen; that noble knight who by many of his 
 contemporaries was thought worthy to wear the imperial crown, 
 and who, as a warrior, shines in the foremost rank of those who 
 became the antagonists of Home. Much as he delighted in the 
 din of arms, he ardently admired the learned sciences, and 
 venerated those who possessed them. While connnanding an 
 army that threatened the province of Wurtemburg, ho gave 
 orders that in the event of Stuttgard being taken by assault, 
 the house and property of the great scholar, John Reuchlin, 
 should be spared. He then sent for him to come into his camp, 
 threw his arms around him, and offered to assist him in his 
 quarrel with the monks of Cologne. Knighthood had long 
 gloried in its contempt for literature, but the epoch whose history 
 we are tracing presents us with a spectacle entirely new, and 
 beneath the ponderous cuirasses of such men as Sickingen and 
 Hutten, we may observe that movement of the human intellect 
 which was now everywhere to be felt. The first fruits presented 
 by the Reformation to the world, were men of war enamoured of 
 the arts of peace. 
 
 On his retiring from Brussels as a refugee to the castle of 
 Ebernburg, Hutten invited the brave knight to study the doc- 
 trines of the Gospel, and explained to him its fundamental prin- 
 ciples. "And does any man," cried the astonished Sickingen, 
 " dare venture to overturn such an edifice ! . . . Who could 
 do so!*" . 
 
 Many who were afterwards famous as reformers, found shelter 
 in his castle; among others, Martin Bucer, Aquila, Schwebel, 
 and CEcolampadius, so that it was not without reason that 
 Hutten used to call it "the hostelry of the righteous."" CEco- 
 lampadius had to preach at the castle every day. The warriors 
 however, who had assembled there, began to be tired of hearing 
 BO much said about the gentle virtues of Christianity; short as 
 he tried to make them, they always thought his sermons too 
 
 ' Huttcn's works were published at Berlin, by Munchen, 1822 — 25, in five 
 voluinos 8vo. 
 
120 HISTORY OF THE KEFORMATION. 
 
 long, and though, to be sure, they seldom missed their daily 
 attendance at church, it was hardly to do more than hear the 
 blessing pronounced and repeat a short prayer, so that ffico- 
 lampadius exclaimed : "Alas! the word is sown here on stony 
 ground." 
 
 Ere long, Sickingen, wishing to promote the cause of truth 
 in his own way, declared war against the archbishop of Treves, 
 "for the purpose," he said, "of opening a door for the gospel." 
 In vain did Luther, who was now upon the scene, labour to 
 dissuade him; he attacked Treves with five thousand horse and 
 a thousand foot, was compelled to retire by the valiant arch- 
 bishop, aided by the elector palatine, and the landgrave of 
 Hesse, and in the following spring, was attacked by the allied 
 princes in his castle of Landstein. After a bloody assault, 
 Sickingen was forced to surrendei", having received a mortal 
 wound. The three princes entered the fortress, traversed the 
 interior, and found at length the indomitable knight in an 
 apartment underground, stretched on his dying bed. He held 
 out his hand to the elector palatine, without seeming to notice 
 the princes that accompanied him ; but these overwhelmed him 
 with questions and reproaches-. "Leave me alone,"''' says he, "for 
 I must now prepare to answer to a greater lord than you ! . . ." 
 On hearing of his death, Luther exclaimed: " The Lord is righte- 
 ous but wonderful ! It is not with the sword that he would have 
 his gospel promulgated." 
 
 Such was the melancholy end of a warrior, who, had he been 
 emperor, or elector, might perhaps have raised Germany to a 
 high pitch of glory, but in the narrow sphere to which he was 
 confined, uselessly expended the powerful talents with which he 
 had been endued. It was not in the stirring spirits of such 
 warriors that divine truth had come down from heaven to fix 
 her abode; it was not by arms like theirs that she was to 
 conquer, and in annihilating the insensate projects of Sickingen, 
 God exhibited anew the truth of what St Paul says: — The 
 weapons of our warfare are not carnal^ hut mighty through God. 
 
 More wisdom and knowledge of the truth seems to have been 
 possessed by Harmut of Cronberg, the friend of Hutten and of 
 Sickingen. He sent a very modest letter to Leo. X., inviting 
 him to restore his temporal power to its proper owner, the 
 
CRONBERG.— HANS SACHS. 121 
 
 emperor ; and his languaf^c to his subjects was that of a father, 
 endeavouring to make them understand the gospel, and exhortin"- 
 them to faith, to obedience, and to trust in Jesus Christ, "who," 
 he added, "is sovereign lord of us all." He resigned into the 
 emperor's hands a pension of two hundred ducats, "not being 
 willing," said he, "to serve onewho gave heed to the enemies of the 
 truth." We find somewhere in his writings the following words, 
 which seem to place him much above Hutten and Sickingen: 
 " Our heavenly teacher, the Holy Ghost, can in one hour, when 
 he pleases, teach us more of the faith that is in Christ, than a 
 man could learn during ten years at the university of Paris." 
 
 They who look for the friends of the Reformation only on the 
 steps of thrones,! or in cathedrals and academies, and who pre- 
 tend that none are to be found among the people, are grievously 
 mistaken. The same God who prepared the hearts of so many 
 of the wise and the mighty, prepared, also, many humble and 
 simple persons in the retreats of the people, who were one day 
 to serve as the ministers of his word. The history of the time 
 shows us what a ferment there then was among the lower classes. 
 Not only are young men to be seen passing from these ranks, 
 and at last filling the first places in the Church, but we see men, 
 too, who remained all their lives devoted to the most humble 
 occupations, powerfully contributing to the awakening of 
 Christendom. We shall now give a few traits in the life of 
 one of these. 
 
 On the 5th of November 1494, a tailor of Nuremberg, called 
 Hans Sachs, had a son born to him. This son, called after his 
 father, Hans (John) after giving some time to studies which a 
 severe illness compelled him to relinquish, applied himself to the 
 trade of shoemaker, and took advantage of the scope for thought, 
 which his humble calling allowed him, to soar into that higher 
 sphere in which his soul sought its happiness. The reader must 
 know, that ever since songs had ceased to be chanted in the 
 halls of chivalry, they appear to have sought, and found, an 
 asylum- among the burgesses of the joyous cities of Germany. A 
 singing school used to meet in the church of Nuremberg; and 
 
 ' See Chiteaabriand's Etudes Eistoriques. ^^ 
 
 I. Q " 
 
122 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the practice of music there, in which this young man took part, 
 opened his heart to religious impressions, and helped to give him 
 a taste for music and poetry. The genius of Hans, however, 
 could not remain shut up within the narrow walls of his work- 
 shop. He wanted to see for himself that world of which he 
 had read so many things, which his fellows had told him so 
 much about, and which his imagination had peopled with 
 wonders. Accordingly, in 1511, he bundled up what things he 
 might need, and set oS", directing his steps towards the south. 
 The young tourist was not long of meeting on the road with 
 jovial companions, in the persons of students crossing the country, 
 and with many dangerous attractions, and it was then that he 
 felt the commencement of a fearful struggle within him. The 
 desires of this life, and his holy resolutions, became directly con- 
 fronted, and in his alarm at what might be the issue, he fled and 
 hid himself in the small town of Wels, in Austria (1513), where 
 he lived retired and devoted himself to the fine arts. While he 
 was thus employed, the emperor Maximilian happened to pass 
 through the town, attended by a brilliant retinue. The youthful 
 poet allowed himself to be allured by the splendour of such a 
 court; the prince admitted him into his hunting establishment, 
 and Hans forgot himself anew under the noisy vaults of the 
 palace of Inspruck. But again his conscience loudly remon- 
 strated, and the young huntsman immediately threw ofi" his gay 
 hunting dress, quitted the palace, reached Schwatz, and then 
 came to Munich. It was there, in 1514, that at the age of 
 twenty, he sung his first hymn, " to the honour of God,"" to a 
 remarkable tune. He was loaded with applause. Every 
 where in the course of his travels, he had found occasion to 
 remark the many melancholy proofs of the abuses beneath which 
 religion was well nigh smothered. 
 
 On his return to Nuremberg, Hans set up in business, 
 married, and became the head of a family. When the Refor- 
 mation broke out, he gave heed to it, and the holy scripture 
 which he had cherished as a poet, he now took up, not to look 
 for poetical images and subjects for his songs, but that he might 
 find the light of truth. To that truth he soon consecrated his 
 lyre; and from a lowly workshop, placed at one of the gates of the 
 
GENERAL TIIKATMENT. 123 
 
 imperial city of Nuremberg, went forth those accents which were 
 to resound throughout the whole of Germany, prepare men's 
 minds for a new era, and everywhere endear to the people 
 the grand revolution which was then in course of being accom- 
 plished. Tjic spiritual songs of Hans Sachs, and his versified 
 Bible, powerfully promoted this work, and, indeed, it is not easy 
 to say, which did most for it — the prince elector of Saxony or 
 the Nuremberg shoemaker. 
 
 It appears, then, that there was something in all classes that 
 gave warning of the Keformation. On every side signs might 
 be observed, and events were pressing onward, which threatened 
 to subvert what luid been the work of ages of darkness, and lo 
 usher in amon£j mankind "a new time."" The liijht which the 
 age had discovered, shed a shower of new ideas over all countries 
 with inconceivable rapidity. Men''s minds, after a slumber of st> 
 many centuries, seemed as if they would redeem, by extraordinary 
 activity, the time they had lost. And it would have argued 
 ignorance of human nature, to leave them without occupation or 
 nourishment, or to offer them no better aliment, than that 
 which had long sustained their drooping vitality. Already 
 could the human mind clearly discern between what was, and 
 what should be, and measured, with resolute gaze, the vast abyss 
 that lay between these two worlds. Great princes filled the thrones 
 of Europe ; the antique colossus of Rome, tottered beneath its own 
 weight; the ancient spirit of chivalry had forsaken the earth, 
 and had given place to a new spirit, which breathed at once on 
 the sanctuaries of learning, and on the dwellings of men of no 
 renown. The art of printing had given wings to speech, which 
 bore it, as the wind bears certain seeds, to the most remote 
 places. The discovery of the two Indies had enlarged the world 
 All announced a great revolution. 
 
 But from what quarter are we to look for the blow which is 
 to scatter the ancient edifice to pieces, and bring a new struc- 
 ture forth from its ruins? None then knew. Who more wise 
 than Frederick? who had more learning than Rcuchlin? who 
 more talent than Erasmus? who more mind, and warmth of 
 fancy than Hutten? who more courageous than Sickingen; or 
 more virtuous than Cronberg? And yet it was neither Frederick, 
 
124 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 nor Eeuclilin, nor Erasmus, uor Sickingeu, nor Hutten, nor 
 Cronberg. . . Men of learning, princes, warriors, the Church 
 itself, "all had sapped some of the foundations, but there they 
 had stopped; and no where was there to be seen the mighty hand 
 which was to become the hand of God." 
 
 Meanwhile all felt that it was soon to appear. Some pretended 
 that they could find certain prognostics of it in the stars. One 
 party, contemplating the wretched state of religion, announced 
 the near approach of antichrist, while others presaged an im- 
 pending reformation. The world was in expectation, and 
 Luther appeared. 
 
BOOK SECOND. 
 
 EARLY LIFE, CONVERSION, AND FIRST LABOURS OP 
 LUTHER. 
 
 I. All was now ready. God who exhausts ages in preparation 
 for what He does, accompHshes his purposes when the hour has 
 come, by the feeblest instruments. To effect great ends by 
 small means, may be regarded as the rule with God; and that 
 rule, which we everywhere behold in nature, is to be found in 
 history also. He took the reformers from where He had taken 
 the apostles; choosing them from that poor class which with- 
 out being the lowest, hardly ranks with the burgess class. All 
 was to manifest to the world that the work was not of man but 
 of God. The reformer Zwinglius came from the hut of a 
 shepherd of the Alps ; Melanchthon, the theologian of the Refor- 
 mation, from an armourers workshop; and Luther from the 
 cottage of a poor miner. 
 
 The first epoch of a man's life, the period during which his 
 character is formed and his capacity developed, under the hand 
 of God, is always important. This was especially the case in 
 the career of Luther. In fact, we find the whole Reformation 
 already transacted there; for the several phases which that 
 work assumed, one after the other, successively appeared in the 
 soul of the man who was to be the instrument of its accom- 
 plishment, ere yet it had taken place in the world. The only 
 key to the reformation of the Church is supplied by our know- 
 ledge of the reformation wrought first in Luther's own heart. 
 It is only by studying this work in the individual, that we can 
 come to understand it in its general operations; and they who 
 neglect the one, can know the other only in forms and externals. 
 
126 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Thej may have a knowledge of certain events and results, but 
 they will fail in making themselves acquainted with the intrin- 
 sic nature of that renovation, in as much as the living principle, 
 which was its very soul, will remain hid from them. Let us, 
 then, study the Reformation in Luther, before studying it in 
 the facts that altered the face of Christendom. 
 
 John Luther, son of a peasant of the village of Mora, near 
 Isenac, in the county of Mansfeld, in Thuringia, descended 
 from an old and wide spread family^ of simple burgesses, married 
 Margaret Lindemann, daughter of an inhabitant of Neustadt, 
 in the bishopric of Wurzburg. John and his spouse left the 
 fields of Isenac, and came to settle m the small town of Eisleben 
 in Saxony .2 
 
 Seckendorff relates, on the testimony of Rebhan, superinten- 
 dent at Isenac, in 3 601, that Luther's mother, not expecting to 
 be confined for a considerable time, went to Eisleben fair, and 
 was there unexpectedly brought to bed of a son. Much as 
 Seckendorff deserves our confidence, this story does not seem to 
 be exactly true; in fact, none of Luther's older biographers 
 make any mention of it; moreover, the distance between Mora 
 and Eisleben is about eighty leagues, and in the condition in 
 which his mother then was, one does not so readily decide on 
 such a journey, to he present at a fair; in fine, the testimony of 
 Luther himself, seems quite opposed to this assertion. ^ 
 
 John Luther was a plain honest man, a keen workman, open 
 hearted, and firm even to obstinacy. Having had more mental 
 cultivation than most men of his class, he was a great reader. 
 Books were then rare, but John let slip no opportunity of acquir- 
 
 ' Vetus familia est et late propagata mediocrium hominum. (Melancht. 
 Vita Lutheri.) 
 
 ^ Ego natus sum in Eisleben, baptisatusque apud Sanctum Petrum ibidem. 
 Parentes mei de prope Isenaco illuc migrarunt. (L. Epp. i. p. 390.) 
 
 ^ (23) With respect to this testimony by Luther, it does not appear to me to 
 be directly opposed to the account given by Seckendorf on the authority of the 
 superintendent of Eisenach ; but that the two may easily be reconciled when 
 we A'iew the matter thus, that while Luther was accidentally born at Eisleben 
 in consequence of his mother's journey to that place, it being evident enough 
 that she was mistaken in her reckoning, still the emigration of his parents 
 thither as a family, first took place afterwards, and perhaps was owing to what 
 had happened. Luther's very words, viewed aright, quite agree with this. He 
 does not say, as he might otherwards have said, after mentioning his birth at 
 Eisleben, " illic migrarant, had emigrated thither," in the pluperfect tense ; 
 but in the perfect tense: " migrarunt, emigrated ;" that is, as the immediate 
 connection indicates, "after my birth and baptism there." — L. R. 
 
I.UTIlKR'fc HIKTU AM) I'AHENTACP,, 127 
 
 iui^ thom. Tliey supplied tlio means of recreation during such 
 intervals of repose as were att'orded by a life of hard and assi- 
 duous toil. Margaret possessed the virtues that adorn upright 
 and godly women; was noted for her modesty, her fear of God, 
 and her prayerful spirit; and was regarded by the matrons oi 
 that neighbourhood, as a model of good qualities. ^ 
 
 It is not precisely known how long the spouses had been 
 settled at Eisleben, when, on the 10th of November, at eleven at 
 night, Margaret gave birth to a son. JNIelanchthon often inquired 
 of the mother of his friend in what year the latter was born; 
 " I very well remember the day and the hour," she would reply, 
 "as for the year, 1 cannot certainly say." But James, Luther's 
 brother, an honest and upright man, stated that in the Oj)inion 
 of the whole family, Martin was born in the year of Christ 
 1483, on the 10th. of November, being St. Martin's eve. 2 The 
 first thought of his pious parents, was to consecrate to God by 
 holy baptism, the infant He had bestowed upon them. The 
 very day following, which happened to be a Tuesday, the grate- 
 ful and happy father took his son to St. Peter's Church ; and 
 there he received the seal of consecration to the Lord. He was 
 called Martin, as a memorial of the day. 
 
 When little Martin was not yet six months old, his parents 
 left Eisleben to go to Mansfekl, which is only five leagues dis- 
 tant. The Mansfeld mines were then very famous, and John 
 Luther, a laborious man, thinking that he might possibly have 
 a large family to support, hoped to earn bread for himself and 
 children more easily there. It was in that town that the youth- 
 ful Luther's mental and bodily capacities were first developed; 
 there his activity first displayed itself, and his words and actions 
 bespoke his future character. The plains of Mansfeld and the 
 banks of the Wipper, formed the theatre of his first frolics with 
 the children of the neiohbourhood. 
 
 Honest John and his wife had difficulties to struggle with on 
 their first settlement at Mansfeld, and lived for a time in great 
 poverty. " My parents," says the Keformer, " were very poor. 
 My father was a poor woodman, and my mother often carried 
 
 ' Intueban+urque in earn cretcrse honestcc mulicres ut in exemplar virtiitum 
 (Melancht. Vita Lutheri.) 
 2 Ibid. 
 
128 ' HISTOEY OF THE KEFORMATION. 
 
 his faggots on her back, in order to procure the means of bring- 
 ing up us their children. For our sakes they undertook tasks 
 so rude as even to draw blood." The example of parents whom 
 he thus respected, and the habits he acquired from them, soon 
 inured Luther to toil and frugality. How often may we not 
 fancy him accompanying his mother into the forest, there to 
 gather up his tiny bundle of sticks ! 
 
 Blessings have been promised to the labours of the righteous, 
 and these John Luther lived to experience. Having amassed a 
 little property, he set up two blast furnaces at Mansfeld. It 
 was beside these furnaces that young Martin grew up to boy- 
 hood, and from the produce of such toil, his father, at a later 
 period, provided for his son's studies. " It was from a family of 
 miners,*" says the good Mathesius, " that the spiritual thunder- 
 bolts of Christendom were to come. And this was a figure of 
 what God desired to do in making him the means of cleansing 
 the sons of Levi, and purifying them in his furnaces, likegold.""^ 
 Universally respected for his plain honesty, his unblemished 
 life, and his good sense, John Luther was made a counsellor of 
 Mansfeld, the chief city of the county of that name. Exces- 
 sive wretchedness might have weighed too heavilv on the mind 
 of the child; whereas the easy circumstances of his father"'s 
 household opened his heart and elevated his character. 
 
 John availed himself of his new position in cultivating the 
 society that he preferred, making much of educated men, and 
 often inviting to his table the clergymen and schoolmasters of 
 the neighbourhood. His house presented a spectacle of those 
 social meetings of simple burgesses, which reflected so much 
 honour on Germany at the commencement of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. It was a mirror on which were cast the numerous images 
 successively presented by the agitated scenes of that period. 
 The child was the better for this. We cannot doubt that the 
 very sight of those men to whom he saw so much attention paid 
 in his father's house, must have sometimes made young Martin 
 ambitious of being himself one day a schoolmaster, or a man of 
 learning. 
 
 As soon as he was of an age to be capable of instruction, his 
 
 * Drumb musste dieser geistliche Scnmelzer . . (Mathesius, Historien. 
 1666, p. 3.) 
 
LiiriiKrrs I'ArKitNAj. iio.mi:. 120 
 
 parents endeavoured to brin^,^ him up in the knowledge and tlio 
 fear of God, and in the practice of the Christian virtues. ' They 
 dihgently attended to this iirst domestic education, but tlieir 
 affectionate soHcitude went farther than tliis. His father wanted 
 to see him acquire the elements of all that knowledge which he 
 held in such esteem himself, and after commending him to the 
 divine blessin"-, sent him to school. Martin was still very 
 young. His father, or else a youth of Mansfeld, called Nicolas 
 Emler, used to take him in their arms to the house of George 
 Emilius and come back for him afterwards. Emler subsequently 
 married one of Luther's sisters. Fifty years after, the Reformer 
 reminded old Nicolas of this touching mark of kindness, received 
 from him in early childhood, and noted it down on the fly-leaf 
 of a book given as a present to his old friend. 2 
 
 • The piety, industry, and austere virtue of his parents, had a 
 happy influence on their boy's character, and produced in him 
 an attentive and serious turn of mind. There then prevailed in 
 education a system which sought to operate chiefly by punish- 
 ments and fear; but Margaret, although she sometimes approved 
 of her husband's excessive severity, would often open her 
 motherly arms and soothe little Martin when in tears. Never- 
 theless she, too, went beyond the rules of that wisdom which 
 says : Whoso loveth Ms son chadeneth him betimes. The impetuosity 
 of the child's character led to many corrections and reprimands. 
 " My parents," said Luther afterwards, "treated me harshly, 
 and this made me very timid. One day my mother chastised 
 me so severely about a nut as to draw blood. They most 
 sincerely thought it was for my good, but they were no dis- 
 cerners of spirits, which, however, it is necessary to be, if we 
 would know wdien, upon whom, and how, punishments should 
 be inflicted." 3 
 
 The poor child had no less harsh treatment to endure at school. 
 His master flo£r2;ed him one morning fifteen times runnincf; a 
 fact in relating which, Luther says, " we must whip children, 
 but at the same time we must love them." Such an education 
 
 ' Ad <agnitioncm ot timorom Dei . . . donicsticft institulione diligonter 
 ads uefeccruut. (Mclancht. Vita Liitlicri.) 
 
 * Walther's Nachrichten. 
 
 * Sod non poterant discernere ingenia, secundum qupc essent tempcraiidaj 
 correct ioncs. (Luth. 0pp. W. xxii, p. 1785.) 
 
 I. R 
 
130 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 taught Luther betimes to despise the charms of a life of sen- 
 suality. " Small beginnings ought to mark the commencement 
 of what is destined to be great," is the just observation of one 
 of his earliest biographers, " and if children are brought up with 
 too much delicacy and regard to their humours, they will be the 
 worse for it all their life after." i 
 
 Martin learned something at least while at school. He was 
 taught the chapters of the catechism, the ten commandments, 
 the apostles' creed, the Lord's prayer, some hymns and forms 
 of prayer, the donate a Latin grammar composed by Donatus, 
 St. Jerome's master, in the fourth century, and which after 
 being perfected by a French monk, called Remigius, in the 
 eleventh century, was long in great repute at all the schools ; he 
 studied, also, the Oisio-Janus, a most singular calender, com- 
 posed in the eleventh century" ; in fine, he was taught all that 
 was known at the Latin school at Mansfeld. 
 
 It does not appear, however, that the child was there led to 
 God; for the only religious feeling that could be discovered in 
 him was that of fear. He grew pale with fright at the very 
 mention of Jesus Christ, who had never been represented to 
 him but as an angry Judge. This slavish fear, so far removed 
 from true religion, prepared him, perhaps, for the good news of 
 the gospel, and for the joy he afterwards felt on his coming to 
 know Him who was meek and lowly. 
 
 John Luther wished to make his son a scholar. The new 
 light which was now dawning everywhere, penetrated even to 
 the house of the Mansfeld miner; it excited ambitious imaain- 
 ings there; and John had sanguine hopes of a son whose dis- 
 positions were so remarkable, and his application so persevering. 
 Accordingly, when, in 1497, Martin had reached the age of 
 fourteen, his father made up his mind that they should be separ- 
 ated, by his being sent to a school taught by the Franciscans at 
 Magdeburg. Margaret's reluctance was overcome, and Martin 
 put himself in readiness to leave his father's home. 
 
 Among the youths whom he met at Mansfeld, was the son 
 of an honest burgess, John Reinecke. Martin and John, after 
 being schoolfellows in their childhood, formed an intimacy which 
 lasted as long as they lived. The two boys set off together for 
 
 • Was gross soil werden, muss klein augehen. (Mathcsius, Hist. p. 3.) 
 
I.UTHER^S EXinEMi: I'OVKKTY. 131 
 
 Mao'deburir; and there, at a distance fi'om their families, their 
 mutual attachment naturally increased. 
 
 Magdeburg was quite a new world to Martin. Amid many 
 privations, for he hardly had enough to support life, ho inquired 
 and he listened, Andrew Proles, provincial of the order of 
 Augustinians, was then preaching with much warmth on the 
 necessity of reforming church and state; and it is possible that 
 these discourses may have deposited in the young man's heart 
 the first germ of those ideas which, at a later period, were fully 
 brought out. 
 
 This was the period of a rough apprenticeship to Luther. 
 Thrown on the world at fourteen, without friends or protectors, 
 he trembled in the presence of his masters; and his hours of 
 recreation were spent with boys, poor as himself, in painful 
 endeavours to procure wherewithal to live. " I used to beg," 
 says he, " with my schoolfellows for what little food was required 
 for the supply of our needs. One day at the season when the 
 Church celebrates the festival of the birth of Jesus Christ, we 
 went in a body through the neighbouring villages, passing from 
 house to house, and singing, in four voices, the common hymns 
 on the birth of the babe Jesus, born at Bethlehem. We stop't 
 at a peasant's dwelling that stood apart at the end of a village. 
 On hearing our Christmas hymns, the man came out with some- 
 thing for us to eat, and asked with a gruff voice, and in a rough 
 manner: ' Where do you come from, boysT We were so 
 frightened that we ran off as fast as our legs could carry us. 
 We had no real ground of alarm, for the peasant sincerely meant 
 to give us this assistance; but our hearts, no doubt, had been 
 rendered timid by the threats and the tyranny with which 
 masters at that time overwhelmed their scholars, so that we 
 had been seized with a sudden panic. At length, however, as 
 the peasant continued calling to us, we stop't, threw off our 
 fears, ran towards him, and received at his hand the food he 
 designed for us." " Thus it is," adds Luther, " that we are 
 accustomed to tremble and to fly when our conscience is guilty 
 and alarmed. Then are we afraid even of the help that is offered 
 to us, and of those who are our friends, and who want to do 'is 
 all manner of good." ^ 
 
 ' Lutheri opera (Walch) ii. 2347. 
 
132 HlSXOllY Of IHE KEiOKMATlOX. 
 
 Scarcely had a twelvemonth elapsed, when heariug with what 
 difficulty their son procured a living at Magdeburg, John and 
 Margaret sent him to Isenac, where there was a celebrated 
 school, and where they had a good many relations. The truth 
 is, they had other children to support, and albeit their means had 
 increased, they could not yet afford to maintain their son in a 
 strange place. John Luther''s furnaces and laborious industry 
 barely enabled the family at Mansfeld to live; and he had hopes 
 that on Martin's arriving at Isenac, he should find it easier to 
 procure the means of subsistence. But he was no better off 
 there, for such of the people of the place as were related to him 
 either did not trouble themselves about him, or perhaps were 
 too poor themselves to be able to give him any assistance. ^ 
 
 Here, as when at Magdeburg, the scholar, when pressed by 
 hunger, was compelled to join his schoolfellows, and to sing 
 with them in front of the houses, for the sake of a morsel of 
 bread. This practice of Luther's times is kept up to this day 
 in several towns of Germany, and the voices of the youths some- 
 times produce a delightful concert. Often did the poor and shy 
 Martin get nothing but hard words instead of bread; and then 
 it was, that in the depth of his distress, he would shed bitter 
 tears in secret, and tremble to think of the future. 
 
 One day among others, he happened to have met a repulse 
 from three houses, and thought of going back fasting to his 
 night quarters, when on his way through St. George's place, he 
 made a halt and stood, motionless and melancholy, before the 
 house of an honest burgess. Is it possible that for want of 
 bread, he must give up his studies and return to work with his 
 
 father, in the mines of Mansfeld All at once a 
 
 door opened, a woman appeared on the threshold, and this was 
 the wife of Conrad Cotta, the daughter of the burgomaster of 
 Ilefeld.- Her name was Ursula, and the chronicles of Isenac 
 have called her the pious Shunammite, in remembrance of the 
 woman who so eagerly pressed the prophet Elisha to stay and 
 eat bread with her. This Christian Shunammite had more than 
 once observed young Martin in the assemblies of the faithful, 
 and had been struck by the soft tones of his voice, and by his 
 
 > Isonacum enim pcne totam parentelam meam habct. (L. Epp. p. 390.) 
 • Linjfk's Reisejfescli. Liith. 
 
ISE.NAC Till!; sir; NAM All lie. 1133 
 
 devotion.^ She had overheard the harsh words that had been 
 addressed to the poor scliolar, and seeing him standing at her 
 door, wrapt in sad reflections, she had come to help him, beck- 
 oned him to enter, and put bei'ore him wherewithal to satisfy 
 his hunger. 
 
 Conrad approved of this kindness shown by his wife, and was 
 so taken with young Luther's society that, some days after, he 
 made him an inmate of his house. From that moment there 
 was no cause to fear for his studies ; all necessity for his return- 
 ing to the mines of Mansfeld, and burying the talent which (jod 
 had given him, was removed. When he knew not what was to 
 become of him, God opened to him the heart and the door of a 
 Christian family, and such was the trust in God with which this 
 event inspired his soul, that it was not to be shaken by the 
 wildest storms of his future life. 
 
 Very different from what he had hitherto known, was the life 
 which Luther now led in the family of Cotta. Enjoying a calm 
 existence, with neither cares nor wants to trouble him, his mind 
 became more serene, his character more sprightly, and his heart 
 more open. His whole being seemed to awake to the gentle 
 beams of affection, and began to beat with life, and joy, and 
 happiness. He became more ardent in prayer, his thirst for 
 knowledge increased, and he made rapid progress. 
 
 To literature and the sciences he added the charm of the arts; 
 for these, too, were then rising into importance in Germany. 
 Men when designed by God to influence their contemporaries, 
 are first seized and drawn along by the peculiar tendencies of 
 their age. Luther learnt to play on the flute and on the lute; 
 on the latter instrument he would often play an accompaniment 
 to his fine deep voice; and thus would he cheer his heart in its 
 moments of sadness. It gave him pleasure, too, by this har- 
 mony, to express his lively gratitude to the mother who had 
 adopted him, and who was fond of music. He himself loved the 
 art even to old age, and composed both the tune and words of 
 some of the most beautiful hymns that Germany possesses. 
 Several of these have even been adopted in France. 2 
 
 ' Die weil sie umb seines Singen und herzlichen Gcbets willen .... 
 (Mathesitis, p. 3.) 
 
 " And in Great Britain. — Th. 
 
134 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 This was a happy time for the young man, and Luther ever 
 recurred to it with deep emotion. A son of Conrad having come 
 to study at Wittemberg many years afterwards, and when the 
 poor scliolar of Isenac had become the doctor of his age, he 
 rejoiced to receive him at his table and under his roof. He 
 would fain so far recompense the son for what he owed to the 
 father and mother; and it was in the recollection of this Chris- 
 tian woman who gave him bread when every body else repulsed 
 him, that he uttered these beautiful words: "Earth has nothing 
 more tender than a woman's heart when it is the abode of 
 piety." 
 
 Luther never was ashamed of those days when, under the 
 pressure of hunger, he would mournfully beg for the bread that 
 was required, in order that he might at once study and live ; far 
 from this, he recalled the sore necessities of his younger days 
 with thankfulness, regarding them as among the means employed 
 by God for making him what he afterwards became, and for 
 which he would express his gratitude. His heart felt for poor 
 boys obliged to follow the same mode of life. " Despise not," 
 he would say, " boys who by singing before people's doors, seek 
 panem propter Deum, bread for the love of Grod; I, too, have 
 done the same. It is true that at a later time, my father sup- 
 ported me very lovingly and bountifully at the university of 
 Erfurt, and that with the sweat of his brow; nevertheless, I 
 was once a poor applicant for alms. And now, with the help of 
 my pen, I would not exchange fortunes with the grand Turk. 
 Still more, were all this world's wealth to be piled up in a heap, I 
 would not take it in exchange for what I possess. And yet I 
 never should have reached the place I now occupy, had I never 
 been at school and never been taught to write." Thus does the 
 great man find the origin of his glory, in these first humble 
 beginnings. He does not scruple to recall the fact, that that 
 voice of his which startled the empire and the world, used at 
 one time to sue for a bit of bread in the streets of a poor city. 
 The Christian delights to contemplate these memorials, in 
 as much as they remind him that he ought to glory in God 
 alone. 
 
 The vigour of Luther's intellect, the liveliness of his imagi- 
 nation and his excellent memory, enabled him speedily to out- 
 
LUTlli;il.S STUDIES. TUEFJONIUS. THE UNIVEllSITY. 135 
 
 strip all his fullow students;^ and he made rapid progress parti- 
 cularly in the ancient languages, in eloquence, and in poetry. 
 He wrote discourses and made verses. Oiay, obliging, and 
 what is called good-hearted, he endeared himself to his masters 
 and his comrades. 
 
 Among the professors, he attached himself particularly to 
 John Trebonius, a learned man, of pleasant address, and who in 
 Jiis behaviour to the young, had that kindly manner which does 
 so much to encourage them. Martin observed that on enterinir 
 the class-room, Trebonius uncovered his head and saluted his 
 scholars — a piece of great condescension in those pedantic times! 
 This pleased the young man. He saw, too, that it was of some 
 consequence. The respect shown to him by his master, raised 
 the student in his own eyes. The colleagues of Trebonius who 
 did not follow the same practice, expressing to him one day their 
 astonishment at such extreme condescension, he gave the follow- 
 ing reply, which struck young Luther no less; "Among these 
 boys there are men whom God will one day make burgomasters, 
 chancellors, doctors, and magistrates. Though you do not see 
 them yet invested with the badges of their dignities, it is but 
 fair that you should show them respect." Without doubt, the 
 young scholar listened with pleasure to these words, and perhaps 
 fancied himself already decked with a doctor's bonnet. 
 
 II. Luther had now reached his eighteenth year, had tasted 
 the sweets of literature, and in his burning desire for farther 
 attainments, sighed for an university. Fain would he quench 
 his thirst for knowledge at one of those fountain-heads of all 
 the sciences.2 His father insisted on his studying law. In the 
 confidence of his expectations from the talents of his son, he 
 wished him to cultivate them so as to exhibit them to advan- 
 tage before the world. Already he saw his son filling posts of 
 honour among his fellow-citizens, gaining the favour of princes, 
 and shining on the public scene. In short, it was resolved that 
 the young man should go to Erfurt. 
 
 Luther entered that university in 1501, while Jodicus, sur- 
 
 ' Cumque et vis ingenii acerrima essct, ct imprimis ad eloqnenti.im idono.i, 
 celeriter equalibus suis praecurrit. (Melancht. Vita Lutheri.) 
 
 ^ Degustata igitur litterarum dulcedino, natura flagi-ans cupiditate aisccndi, 
 appetit academiam. (Melan., Vit. Luth.) 
 
136 HISTORY OF THE REFORM ATIOX. 
 
 named the doctor of Isenac,was teaching the scholastic philosophy 
 there with much success, Melanchthon expresses his regret that 
 nothing was then taught at Erfurt, but a system of dialectics 
 hedged about with difficulties; aud thinks that had Luther found 
 other professors, — that had he been instructed in the milder and 
 calmer methods of true philosophy, it might have tempered and 
 softened his natural vehemence.^ Here, then, the new disciple 
 gave himself to the study of the philosophy of the middle ages, 
 in the writings of Occam, Scot, Bonaventura and Thomas 
 Acquinas. The whole of this scholastic philosophy he after- 
 wards regarded with horror. He would tremble with indigna- 
 tion were the name of Aristotle uttered in his presence, and 
 went so far as to say that had Aristotle not been a man, he 
 would not have scrupled to take him for the devil. But even 
 now his mind's appetite for learning was looking out for better 
 food; he began to study the beautiful monuments of antiquity, 
 — the writings of Cicero, Virgil, and the other classics. Not 
 content, like the common herd of students, with learning the pro- 
 ductions of such authors by heart, his grand object was to 
 render himself thoroughly master of their thoughts, make their 
 wisdom his own, comprehend the design with which they wrote, 
 and enrich his mind with their weighty sentences, and glowing 
 images. He put numerous questions to the professors, and 
 soon surpassed many of his equals.^ Endued with a strong 
 memory and fine imagination, his mind seemed able, at any 
 time, to recall what he had read or heard, as if he beheld it with 
 his own eyes. "Thus did Luther shine in his youth. The 
 whole university," says Melanchthon, "admired his genius."^ 
 
 But even at this early period our young man of eighteen had 
 more to occupy him than the mere cultivation of his under- 
 standing; he had that seriousness and thoughtfulness, that 
 upward tendency of the heart, which God bestows on such as he 
 intends to make his most zealous servants. Luther felt that 
 he depended on God; a simple but powerful feeling, and the 
 
 ' Et fortassis ad leniandum vehementiani naturae mitiora stmlia verap philoso- 
 phis9. — (Ibid) 
 
 ^ Et quidcm inter primos, ingenio studioqno niultos co-tequaliuin antecello- 
 bat. (Cochlteus, Acta Lutheri, p. 1.) 
 
 * Sic igitur in juventute eminebat, ut toti academiix; I.iiHif>ri inijonium 
 idmirationi esset. (Vita Lutlt^n.) 
 
LUTHER DI3C0VEKS A IIIHI.E. 137 
 
 sonrce at once of deep humility, and of great actions. lie fer- 
 vently implored God to bless his labours; beginning the day 
 with prayer, then going to church ; after that, sitting down to 
 study, and not losing a moment during the whole course of the 
 day. "Earnest prayer,"" he used to say, "is more than the half 
 of study." ^ 
 
 Every moment that could be spared from his academical 
 labours, the young student now spent in the university library. 
 Books were as yet ill to be had, and access to the treasures 
 brought together in that vast collection, was to him a great 
 privilege. After having been two years at Erfurt, and being 
 then about twenty, he happened one day to be turning over a 
 number of books in the library, to see who their authors were ; 
 a volume which he opened in its turn, struck his attention; until 
 that hour he had seen nothing resembling it; he reads the 
 title — it was a Bible! a book which was at that time seldom 
 to be met with and unknown.- It excited his liveliest interest; 
 he was utterly astonished to find that the book contained some- 
 thing beyond the fragments taken from the gospels and epistles, 
 and selected by the Church, for people to read at public worship 
 for each successive Sunday in the year. He had always thought 
 that in these was comprised the whole word of God; but here 
 he found pages, chapters, entire books, of which he never had 
 had an idea before! His heart beat high as he held in his 
 hands the whole of that Scripture which is divinely inspired. 
 With an eagerness and interest that no words could express, he 
 ran over all those leaves of the Book of God.^ The first page 
 that caught his attention, told him the story of Hannah and 
 the boy Samuel, and in reading it he could hardly contain him- 
 self with delight. That child, lent by his parents to the Lord 
 for the whole of his life; the song of Hannah in which she 
 declares that the Lord raiseth up the poor out of the; dust, and 
 lifteth up the beggar out of the dunghill, to set him among 
 princes; the boy Samuel growing up in the temple before the 
 Lord — that whole history — that whole word then discovered, 
 
 ' Flcissig jrebet, ist uber die helfft stadirt. (Mathcs. .3.) 
 
 ■ Auf ein Zeyt, vrie er die Biicher fcin nacheinander besieht. . . kombt cr 
 fiber die lateinischc Biblia. . . (Matbcs. 3.) 
 
 ^ Avide percurrit, coepitque optaro ut olim talcm librum et ipse nancisci 
 posset. . . (M. Adami. Vit. Luth. p. 103.) 
 I. S 
 
138 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 made him experience feelings till then unknown to him. He 
 went home with a full heart, thinking: "0 that God would 
 give me such a book to be my own ! "" Luther did not yet know 
 Greek or Hebrew. There is little probability of his having 
 studied those tongues during the two or three first years of his 
 university course, and it was a Latin Bible that had thrown 
 him into such a transport of joy. He was not long of 
 returning to his treasure in the library; he read, and read again; 
 and with mingled surprise and delight, he still returned to read. 
 It was then that the first dawn of a truth, entirely new to him, 
 gleamed upon his mind. 
 
 Thus did God put his word into his hands. Thus did he dis- 
 cover the book, of which he was one day to present his country 
 with that admirable translation in which Germany has now, for 
 three centuries, read the oracles of God. Perhaps for the first 
 time, a hand takes down this precious volume from its place in the 
 library at Erfurt; and the book, thus deposited on the unknown 
 shelves of an obscure hall, is destined to become a book of life 
 to a whole people. The Reformation lay hid in that Bible. 
 
 That same year Luther obtained his first academical step, 
 that of bachelor. 
 
 The excessive exertions he had made in preparing for his exami- 
 nations, threw him into a dangerous illness. Death seemed to 
 be at hand. His mind was absorbed with grave reflections, and 
 he thought his earthly career was about to close. People felt 
 sorry for the youth ; it was thought a pity that such high hopes 
 should be so speedily extinguished. Several friends came to see 
 him on his sick-bed, and among these was a venerable old priest 
 who had watched with interest the academical life and labour 
 of the student from Mansfeld. Luther couM not conceal his 
 thoughts from him: "Soon," said he, "I shall be called away 
 from this world." But the old man kindly replied: "Don't 
 lose heart, my good bachelor; you will not die of this illness. 
 Our God will yet make of you a man who in his turn will 
 console many.^ For God makes his cross to be borne by those 
 whom he loves, and they who bear it with patience learn much 
 wisdom thereby." The young patient was much struck with 
 
 • Deus te virum faciei qui alios multos iterum consolabitur. (M. Adami 
 Vita Luth. p. 103.) 
 
I.UTHER MADE MASTEU OF AKT3. 139 
 
 these words. It was while tlius at the point of death, ho hoard 
 from the mouth of a priest that God, as the mother of Samuel 
 had said, raiseth up the wretehed. The ohl man shed sweet 
 comfort over his heart, revived liis drooping spirits, and 
 made an impression that was never to be effaced. " This was 
 the first prediction the doctor had over heard," says Mathesius, 
 the friend of Luther, in relating this incident, "and he used 
 to recall it."" We need not say in what sense Mathesius calls 
 the saying a prediction. 
 
 On Luther's recovery, he was no longer quite the same man. 
 The Bible, his illness, and the words addressed to him by the 
 old priest, seemed to present a new call to him. Yet his mind 
 was incapable of forming any fixed resolution; he returned to 
 his studies, and in 1505, was made master of arts or doctor in 
 philosophy. The university of Erfurt was then the most famed 
 in Germany; the others were but like inferior schools in com- 
 parison; the ceremonial, as was customary, was pompously con- 
 ducted, and Luther had homage paid to him by a procession 
 accompanied with flambeaux. ^ The festival was superb. All 
 were rejoicing, and Luther may have been so far cheered by these 
 honours as to think of complying with his father's Avishes, and 
 devoting himself entirely to jurisprudence. 
 
 But such was not the will of God. While Luther was 
 engaged with a variety of studies, and beginning to teach the 
 physics and ethics of Aristotle and other branches of philoso- 
 phy, his heart never ceased to urge upon him that godliness 
 was the one thing needful, and that before all things else he 
 ought to be assured of his salvation. He knew that God had 
 testified his anger against sin; he recollected the punishments 
 which his word denounces against the sinner; and he asked 
 himself with alarm, whether he was sure of possessing the divine 
 favour. His conscience tells him: No. The promptitude and 
 decision of his character made him resolve to do his utmost to 
 assure himself of a firm hope of immortality, and, while in this 
 state, two events successively contributed to shake his soul and 
 precipitate his purpose. 
 
 Among his university friends he was very intimate with 
 
 ' L. 0pp. W. xxii. p 2229. 
 
140 HISTORY OF THE KEFORMATIO.V, 
 
 one named Alexis. One morning it was rumoured in Erfurt 
 that Alexis had been assassinated. Luther ascertains the fact, 
 and is much agitated by this sudden loss of his friend. He 
 asks himself: " What would become of me on receiving as 
 sudden a call?" and is terror-struck. ^ 
 
 In the course of the summer of 1505, Luther availed himself 
 of the usual university vacation to make a journey to Mansfeld, 
 with the view of revisiting the cherished scenes of his childhood, 
 and again embracing his beloved parents. Possibly, too, he may 
 have wished to open his heart to his dear father, to sound him 
 on the subject of the design that now began to form itself in his 
 mind, and to obtain his consent to follow another calling. He 
 foresaw all the difficulties that would attend it. The bustling 
 miner of Mansfeld despised the lazy life of most of the priests; 
 besides, ecclesiastics were little esteemed by the world; most 
 had a paltry income, and a father who, after many sacrifices to 
 support his son at the university, saw him commence as a public 
 teacher in a celebrated school, when only in his twentieth year, 
 was not at all disposed to relinquish hopes so flattering to his 
 pride. 
 
 We have no means of knowingwhat transpired during Luther's 
 stay at Mansfeld. The decided manner in which his father 
 had expressed his wishes, may have made him a/raid to open his 
 heart to him. We only know that he again left his father's home 
 to resume his place on the benches of the academy. He was at but 
 a short distance from Erfurt when a violent storm overtook him. 
 The thunder rolled and the lightning fell at his sides. Luther 
 threw himself on his knees. He seemed to think that his last hour 
 might be come. Death, judgment, and eternity, stood in dread 
 array around him, and addressed him in a voice which it was 
 impossible for him to resist. "Overwhelmed with anguish and the 
 dread of death," 2 as he himself tells us, he makes a vow that if the 
 Lord will deliver him from his danger, he will abandon the world, 
 and devote himself entirely to God. On rising from the ground, 
 he cannot dismiss from his thoughts that death which must one 
 day overtake him; he seriously examines himself and inquires 
 
 ' Intcritu sodalis sui contristatus. (Cochlajns, p. i.) 
 
 * Mit Erschreckcn und Angst des Todes umgeben. (L. Epp. ii. 101.) 
 
 8 Cum esset in campo, fulminis ictu territus. (Cochlseus, I.) 
 
THK THUNDER-BOLT — PROVIDENCE. 141 
 
 what lip must do, l He feels morethan ever the urgency of his nro- 
 vious reflections. True, he has endeavoured to discharge all iiis 
 duties; but how does it stand with his soul? Can he dare with a 
 polluted heart to appear before the tribunal of so terrible a Grxl ? 
 He must become holy; and he now thirsts after holiness as he 
 had thirsted after knowledge. But where is he to find itil How 
 shall he acquire it? The university has supplied means 
 for satisfying his first desires; but who sliall slake the burniu" 
 thirst that now consumes him? To what school of liolincss 
 shall he now direct his steps? He must go to a cloister; he 
 must find his salvation in a monastic life. How often h;is lie 
 been told of its power in transforming the heart, sanctifvini:- tiie 
 sinner, and making man perfect! He resolves to enter into one 
 of the monastic orders, there to become holy, and thus make 
 sure of everlasting salvation. 2 
 
 Such was the incident that altered the vocation and whole 
 destiny of Luther, and we must recognise in it the finger of (iod. 
 It was his mighty hand that brought to his knees on the higli- 
 way the young master of arts, the aspirant to the bar, the future 
 jurisconsult, for the purpose of entirely altering his whole pliin 
 of life. Rubianus, one of Luther's university friends, afterwards 
 wrote to him: "Divine Providence had an eye to what you was 
 one day to become, when, on your way back from your parents, 
 the bolts of heaven struck you to the ground like another Paul, 
 near the town of Erfurt, and removing you from our society, 
 thrust you among the followers of Augustine.^' Analogous circum- 
 stances marked the conversion of the two greatest organs employed 
 bv divine Providence in the two greatest revolutions it has ever 
 wroudit on the earth : St Paul and Luther. 3 
 
 ' Occasio aiitem fuit ingrediendi illud vitsD genus, quod pietati et studiis 
 Joctrinai de Deo, cxistimavit esse convenientius. (Mel., Vit. Luth.) 
 
 * Some historians say that Alexis was killed by the stroke of lightning that 
 terrified Luther ; but two contemporaries, Mathesius (p. 4.) and Selneccei- ( in 
 Orat. de Luth.). distinguish between these two events; to whose testimony we 
 may even add tli.at of Mclanchthon, who says; "a companion slain I know not 
 how." (Vita Luth.) 
 
 3 The comjiarison here adopted by the worthy author from the reported 
 savin"- of Luther's fiiend Rubianus, between what befell Paul and the incident 
 related of Luther, may be so far justified, in as much as both were overwlit-huod 
 by something unconmion and powerfully atfecting the senses, wliich in both 
 cases o-rcatly influenced the subsequent lives, sentiments, and vocations of the 
 persons afiected. Still, 1 conceive, that the ])ni-all('l iiad better be avoided, at least 
 that it should not be carried beyond a metaphorical sense, as Uubiamis .seems to 
 have meant. In the case of Paul, the incident was not merely extraordinary — • 
 
142 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Luther returned to Erfurt with a resolution that nothing 
 could shake, and yet it was not without pain that he proceeded 
 to cut ties which were so dear to him. Imparting his purpose 
 to no one, he one evening invited his university friends to a 
 cheerful though frugal repast. This meeting of intimate friends 
 was once more enlivened with music. It was to be Luther's 
 last farewell to the world. Henceforth monks were to take the 
 place of the amiable companions of his pleasures and his toils; 
 the stillness of the cloister was to succeed to this gay and witty 
 talk ; and instead of these lively airs, he was to hear but the 
 solemn tones of a quiet chapel. At what he considered to be 
 the call of God, all was to be immolated. In the mean while, once 
 more, and for the last time, he would indulge in the joys of his 
 youth I The entertainment put his friends into good spirits, and 
 Luther himself enlivened the party. But just as they began to 
 give free scope to their gaiety, the youth could no longer keep 
 down the serious reflections that filled his heart. He speaks. . . 
 he opens his design to his astonished friends. These attempt to 
 combat it, but in vain. And that very night, dreading perhaps 
 what the effect of such solicitations might be, Luther quits his 
 apartment. There he leaves his whole effects, including all his 
 books, and taking with him only Virgil and Plautus, for as yet 
 he had no Bible. Virgil and Plautus ! epic poetry and comedy ! 
 singular picture of Lutlier''s own mind ! In fact, a whole epic was 
 
 it ■was supernatural ; a divine light appearing suddenly, and for that one purpose ; 
 in that of Luther it was only a natural event, overruled by Providence. The 
 light that shone upon Paul was literally to work towards his conversion, while 
 he was an enemy and persecutor of Jesus and his people. This was not so with 
 Luther, for, according to the preceding narrative, he was already the subject of 
 serious thoughts, which were only strengthened by the incident, while all of an 
 opposite tendency were set aside by it. By the light that shone upon Paul, he 
 was turned immediately from a wrong path into the right one, so as to repudiate 
 all self-righteousness, and to look for righteousness thenceforth only in Christ. 
 With Luther, on the contrary, the first result of the incident that had befallen 
 him was the choice of what was really a perverted way, in which he still sought 
 to establish his own righteousness, and that even more than ever : and it was 
 only by the farther divine guidance which he experienced, that he at length 
 entered on the right way; and then it afterwards appeared that that very incident 
 was to serve, not immediately to discover to him the right way, but, on the 
 contrary, to co-operate with subsequent leadings, in convincing him experi- 
 mentally of the insuificiency of the way which most people at that time chose for 
 procuring peace to an unquiet conscience. Such, I believe, was Luther's own 
 view of the matter in after life ; regarding that incident not as the commence- 
 ment of his conversion, but as one of those remarkable divine leadings, whose 
 mutual co-operation, after manifold struggles and vain efforts, was finally to 
 reveal to him the true consolations of the gospel, and thus to fit him for 
 declaring these to others. — L. R. 
 
LUTHER ENTERS A MONASTEUV. 143 
 
 comprised in liim ; a beautiful, a grand, a sublime poem ; but wl< h 
 a natural tendency to gaiety, pleasantry, and drullery, he mingled 
 more than one familiar thread with the grave and magnificent 
 staple of his character. 
 
 Carrying those two books with him, he went alone, and in the 
 dark, to the monastery of the hermits of St. Augustine, and 
 craved admission. The door opens and shuts him in. And 
 now behold him for ever separated from his parents, from the 
 companions of his studies, and from the world ! This happened 
 on the 17th of August, 1505. Luther at the time was twenty- 
 one years and nine months old. 
 
 Ill, And now he thought himself to bo with God, and that 
 all was safe with his soul. Now was he about to find the sanc- 
 tity he had so earnestly been desiring. The monks were filled 
 with admiration at the sight of this young doctor, and spoke m 
 loud praise of his courage and contempt for earthly things. ' 
 Luther did not, however, forget his friends, but wrote them 
 farewell letters, in which he took leave of them and of the 
 world; and, next day, sent these ofi", together with the clothes 
 he had previously worn, and his master of arts' ring, which he 
 restored to the university, that there might be nothing to tempt 
 his thoughts to return to the world which he abandoned. 
 
 His Erfurt friends were confounded. Should so eminent a 
 genius go to shut himself up in the half-death of the monastic 
 life? 2 In the intensity of their grief they hasted to the monas- 
 tery, hoping to prevail on Luther to retrace so afflicting a step, 
 but all was to no purpose. The gates were shut upon them, 
 and a whole month passed without any one being able to see the 
 new monk, or to exchange a woi-d with him. 
 
 To his parents, also, Luther was in haste to communicate the 
 great change that had taken place in his life. His father was 
 in consternation at the news. Luther himself tells us, in the 
 dedication of his work on the monastic vows, addressed to his 
 father, that the latter trembled for his son. His weakness, his 
 youth, the violence of his passions, all made him fear that when 
 the first moments of enthusiasm were over, want of occupation 
 
 ' Hujus mundi contemptu, ingressus est repente, multis admirantibus, monas- 
 terium . . . (Cochlseus. i.) 
 
 ^ In vita semi-mortua. (Melch. Adami. Vit. Luth. p. 102.) 
 
14;4 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 in a cloister might drive the youth to despair, or make him fall 
 into worse faults. He knew that that kind of life had been the 
 destruction of many, and, besides, the councillor of Mansfeld 
 had other plans for his son to follow. He had had an eye to 
 his making a rich and honourable marriage, but now this impru- 
 dent step had, in one night, upset all his schemes. 
 
 John wrote to his son a very angry letter, in which, Luther 
 farther tells us, his father theed and thoud him, whereas he had 
 yoad him ever since he had taktn his degree of master of arts. 
 He withdrew his whole favour from him, and declared him 
 disinherited of his paternal affection. In vain did the friends of 
 Luther, and his mother in particular, endeavour to soften him; 
 in vain did they say: " If you would sacrifice anything to God, 
 what better or dearer to you than your son, — your Isaac \ " the 
 inexorable councillor would listen to nothing. 
 
 Some time afterwards, however, and this, too, we have from 
 Luther, who relates it in a sermon delivered at Wittemberg 
 on the 20th of January, 1544, the plague broke out and carried 
 off two of John Luther's other sons. On this occasion, some 
 one told the almost heart-broken father that the monk of Erfurt 
 was dead also! . . . This opportunity was taken advan- 
 tage of to restore the novice to his place in his father's affections. 
 " If the alarm prove false," said his friends, " sanctify at least 
 your affliction by heartily consenting to your son's becoming a 
 monk." . . . "Agreed," was the reply of John Luther, 
 with a crushed though still half-rebellious heart, "and God 
 grant he may succeed!" Some time after, when Luther, who 
 had been reconciled with his father, related to him the incident 
 which had induced him to throw himself into monastic orders : 
 " God grant," said the honest miner, " that you did not take to 
 be a sian from heaven what was but a delusion of the devil ! " ^ 
 
 There was not then to be found in Luther what was afterwards 
 to make him the Reformer of the Church, and this is proved by 
 his going into a monastery; an action in which he followed the 
 tendency of that order of things from which he wns ere long to 
 assist in delivering the Church. The man who was to become 
 the teacher of the world, was as yet but its slavish imitator; 
 
 ' Gott geb dass es nicht oin Betrng und teuflisch Gespenst sev I (I.. 10i)p. ii. 
 p. 101.) 
 
LUTHER 8 SERVILE EMPLOYMENTS. 1 45 
 
 and tlio edifice of superstitions had a stono added to it by him 
 wlio was soon to overturn it. Luther sought for salvation in 
 himself — in human practices and observances; — ho knew not as 
 yet that salvation camo wholly from God. He would have hia 
 own righteousness, and his own glory, without owning the 
 righteousness and the glory of the Lord. But what as yet he 
 knew not, he was soon to learn, and it was in the cloister of 
 Erfurt that that immense change was etFected wliich gave to 
 God and his glory the place in his heart previously occupied 
 by the world and its traditions; thus preparing that mighty 
 revolution of which ho was the most illustrious instrument. 
 
 On his entering the monastery, Martin Luther changed his 
 name, and took that of Augustine. '• What more insensate or 
 more impious," he would say, mentioning this circumstance, 
 *'tlian to reject a baptismal name out of love for a monk'^s hood! 
 It is thus that the Popes are ashamed of the names they received 
 at their baptism, and in this manner show that they are deserters 
 from Jesus Christ." ^ 
 
 The monks had given him a joyful welcome; and, indeed, it 
 was no small gratification to their self-conceit, to see the univer- 
 sity abandoned by one of its most esteemed doctors, for a house 
 of their order. Nevertheless, they gave him harsh enough 
 treatment, and imposed on him the lowest labours. They would 
 fain humble the doctor in philosophy, and teach him that his 
 learning did not set him above his fellow -friars. They thought, 
 likewise, thereby to prevent him from engaging in what could 
 bring so little profit to the monastery as his studies. The late 
 master of arts had to act as porter, had to open and shut the 
 gates, wind up the clock, sweep out the church, and clean the 
 rooms. '2 Then, when the poor monk who was at once door- 
 keeper, sacristan, and household servant to the cloister, was done 
 with his work. Cum sacco per civitatem! Through the town 
 with the bag! cried the friars; and he had to go through the 
 streets of Erfurt with his bread sack, begging from house to 
 house, and obliged perhaps to present himself at the doors of 
 those who had been his friends or his inferiors. But he sub- 
 mitted to it all. Led by his character to consecrate himself 
 
 ' On Gen. xxxiv. -3. 
 
 " Loca immunda piirgare coactus fuit. (Mclch. A'l. Vit. Luth. p. 103.) 
 I T 
 
146 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 without reserve to whatever he might undertake, it was with 
 his whole soul tliat he had become a monk. How, besides, could 
 he dream of sparing his body, or pay any regard to the satisfac- 
 tion of the flesh? It was not thus that he was to acquire the 
 humility and the sanctity which he had come to seek within 
 the walls of a cloister ! 
 
 Weighed down by his sufferings, the poor monk eagerly 
 availed himself of every moment he could spare from his base 
 occupations to bestow upon learning. He would gladly retire 
 in order to devote himself to his favourite studies, but the 
 monks would soon find him out, would come about him, grumble 
 at him, and take him away from his lal)ours, saying to him: 
 " Come, come, it is not by study that people make themselves 
 useful to a monastery, but by begging for bread, wheat, eggs, 
 fish, meat, and money. ^ Luther would submit, put aside his 
 books, and resume his bag. Yet far from repenting his having 
 brought such a yoke on himself, he wanted only to carry out 
 his purpose to the utmost; and then it was that he showed the 
 inflexible perseverance wherewith he ever followed out the reso- 
 lutions he had once formed. The resistance he opposed to rude 
 assaults gave a powerful tone to his will. God was now exer- 
 cising him in small things, that he might acquire stedfastnoss 
 in things that were great. Besides, in order to become fit for 
 delivering the age in which he lived from the wretched supersti- 
 tions beneath which it lay groaning, he behoved first to bear 
 the burden himself. He had to drink out the dregs of the cup 
 before it could be emptied. 
 
 Yet this rough apprenticeship did not last so long as Luther 
 might have feared ; for at the intercession of the university cf 
 which he was a member, the prior of the monastery relieved 
 him of the base offices with which he had been charged. The 
 young monk then devoted himself to study with fresh zeal. 
 His attention was drawn to the works of the fathers of the 
 Church, particularly to those of St. Augustine. That illustrious 
 doctor's exposition of the Psalms, and his work On the Letter 
 and the Spirit, were his favourite compositions. Nothing struck 
 him more than that father"'s views on the corruption of man's 
 will, and on divine grace; he felt in his own experience the 
 * Selnecceri Orat. de Luth. (Mathesius, p. 5.) 
 
..utheh's studies in the MONAHIKUY. 147 
 
 reality of tliat corruption, and the necessity i'or that grace; 
 the words of St. Augustine wore an echo to his own heart 
 and could he have been of any school but that of Josus Christ, 
 it would undoubtedly have been that of the doctor of Hippo. 
 He could almost repeat by heart the works of Peter d'Ailly and 
 Gabriel Bicl.^ He was struck with a saving of the former, that 
 had not the Church decided the contrary way, it were much to 
 be preferred that we should really receive bread and wine, and 
 not their mere appearances, in the Holy Supper. 2 
 
 He carefully studied, also, the theologians Occam 3 and Ger- 
 
 ' Peter d'Ailly and G.al>ricl Uiel were two famons pchoolmen of the four- 
 teenth and fifteenth centurie?, both of the sect of the so-eallcd Ndininalists 
 — hotti clear-thinking men, who did much to discredit the hair-Kfilittiii!» 
 scholasticism of that period. Peter d'Ailly, or de Ailiaco, was cliancelUir of 
 the university of Pans, afterwards bishop of Pwy and C'am1)ray, and finally a 
 cardinal, in which dignity he died in 142/i. lie belonged to that y)arty among 
 the philosophers and theologians who endeavoured to combine the ac\iteness 
 of the Schoolmen with the simplicity of the Mystics. Gabriel Hiel was 
 provost of Aurach, and professor of theology and philosophy at Tubingen, 
 where he died in 1495. — L. R. 
 
 2 This refers to one of those subtleties by which the scholastic theologians 
 of that time sought to u])hold and demonstrate the doctrine of transubstantia- 
 tion against the plain evidence of the senses. These ever plainly witness, 
 that even after the supposed change of the bread and wine in the Supper, 
 into the body and blood of Christ, yet nothirg but the a|)pearance. smell, 
 taste, and otjier qualities of bread and wine are received. In opposition to 
 this, a distinction is made between substance and qualities, it being maintained 
 that the former has undergone a change, while the latter remain as before ; 
 however much this ran contrary to simple comprehension, which plainly teaches 
 us that substance and qualities cannot be separated, since the former is known 
 by the latter, and the latter are determined l)y the former. Peter dWiily 
 was fully sensible of this. It would, however, have been dangerous for him 
 at that time to have spoken it fully out. He therefore dissembled it under the 
 cautious limitation : " provided the Church shall have declared nothing to the 
 contrary." Meanwhile he clearly enough showed by this what he really 
 thought.— L. R. 
 
 ^ William Occam, a Franciscan monk, born in England, but aftenvards pro- 
 fessor of theology at Paris in the fonrteenth century, was the chief Nominalist 
 of his time, and brought that doctrine intj fresh and great re])ute. It con- 
 sisted in this, that general ideas serve only as certain general names for par- 
 ticular things, and have thus no existence beyond the un<lerstanding that 
 conceives them. Opposed to this were the sentiments of the Realists, who 
 ascribed a certain independent existence to generals, and held them to be 
 actual things. Thus the sentiments of the Nominalists answered better to the 
 dictates of common sense; while those of the Realists formed a better weapon 
 for subtile theologians to employ in maintaining the .absurdities of their hj^po- 
 thesis. No wonder, then, that the Nominalists, and with them Occam, incurred 
 the hatred of the clergy and of the popes, against whose pretensions, and par- 
 ticularly those of pope John XXII., Occam so vigorously opposed himself, that 
 he was persecuted ; but being taken under the protection of the emperor, Louis 
 of Bavaria, whose cause he had defended against the Pope, he took up his 
 residence at Munich, and died there betwixt 1343 and 1347. He by no means 
 allowed himself to be silenced by persecution, but even while it lasted, gave a 
 ( eadly blow by his spirited satires to papal ambition, and to the consideration 
 enjoyed by the popes. — L. R. 
 
148 HISTORY OF TIIK REFORMATION. 
 
 sor., ^ who both express themselves so freely on the authority of 
 the Popes ; and to this course of reading he added other engage- 
 ments. In public disputations he would disentangle the most 
 complex reasonings, and thread his way out of labyrinths where 
 others could find no outlet. On such occasions he would keep 
 all who heard him fixt with admiration as he spoke. '^ 
 
 But it was not with the view of earning the reputation of a 
 great genius that he had entered a monastery; it was that he 
 might there look for wherewithal to nourish piety, and accord- 
 ingly he regarded these as merely by-works. 3 
 
 He was fond, above all things, of drawing wisdom from the 
 pure fountain-head of the Word of God. Finding in the monas- 
 tery a Bible attached to a chain, he was perpetually returning to 
 that chained Bible ; and little as he understood the Word, still it 
 formed his most delightful reading. He would pass a whole day 
 at times, in meditating on a single passage; at other times, he 
 would commit to memory fragments of the prophets. His chief 
 desire was that the writings of the apostles and the prophets, 
 might serve to give him a thorough knowledge of the will of God, 
 might increase his fear of God's name, and nourish his faith by 
 the sure testimonies of the Word. ^ 
 
 It would appear that it was at this period that he began to 
 study the Scriptures in the original tongues, thus laying the 
 foundation of the most perfect and the most useful of all his 
 works, his translation of the Bible. He availed himself of a 
 Hebrew lexicon which had been given to the world by Reuchlin ; 
 
 ' John Gcrson vras another great leader of the Nominalists in the fifteenth 
 century, a pupil of the above-mentioned Peter d'Ailly, and his successor as 
 chancellor of the university of Paris. lie, in some measure, combined Mysti- 
 cism with Scholasticism, and chiefly insisted on practical Chrititianity. lie 
 ■was a vigorous assertor of the liberties of the Church against the tyranny of 
 the pcpes, and particularly shone in that character at the famous Council of 
 Constance, at -which he had not a little to do with the decrees to the prejudice 
 of the pope's supremacy, passed at that council, besides showing no respect in 
 his writings for the corruptions of the Church. Nevcrtlieless, it is to ho 
 lamented that from the personal ill-will he bore, as a Nominalist, to John lluss, 
 who belonged to the Realists, he tarnished his good name Oy taking part in 
 the condeinnation and death of that witness to tlie truth. lie was himself in 
 turn persecuted by the clergy who opposed his sentiments, and being banished 
 from the university of Paris, died at Lyons in 1429. — L. R. 
 
 2 In disputationibus publicis labyrinthos aliis inextricablies, discrte, multis 
 admirantilius, explicabat. (Mclancht. Vita Lutheri.) 
 
 ^ In eo vita; gencre non famam ingenii, sed alimenta pictatisquserebat (Ibid.) 
 
 * Et firmis testimoniis aleret timorem et fidem. (Ibid.) 
 
THE BIULE. ASCETICTSM, 1 tj 
 
 and it is probable tiiat John Lange, a friar in the same mon- 
 astery, who was versed in Greek and Hebrew, and with whom 
 he ever maintained a strict intimacy, gave him his first <lii-cc- 
 tions. * He made ample use, also, of the learned commentaries 
 of Nicolas Lyra, ^ who died in 1340; a fact which led Pflug, 
 afterwards bishop of Naumburg, to say, that if Lyra had not 
 played on his lyre, Luther would never have danced: Si Lyra 
 non /tfrassct, Luther us non saltasset. 
 
 Such was the young nionk''s application and zeal in study, that 
 he would often for two or three weeks together omit his hours. 
 J3ut by and by, he felt alarmed at the idea of having transgressed 
 the rules of his order, and thei-eupon would shut himself up for 
 the purpose of compensating for such neglect. He then set 
 himself conscientiously to repeat all his omitted hours, without 
 thinkins: either of eatinrr or drinkinfr; and once ho even lost his 
 sleep for seven weeks. 
 
 liurnino- with the desire of attainin2; to the sanctitv he had 
 come in search of to the monastery, Luther gave himself over 
 to the most rigid practices of the ascetic life. ^ He sought to 
 crucify his flesh by fasting, maceration and watching. Siiut up 
 in his cell, as if in a prison, he struggled unremittingly with the 
 bad thoughts and evil propensities of his heart. A little bread 
 and a lean herring, were often his only food. We must add that 
 he was naturally very sober; * so that even when he no longer 
 thought of purchasing heaven by his abstinences, his fi-icnds 
 would see him often content himself Avith the meanest fare, and 
 remain even four successive days without meat or drink. The 
 witness who relates this is well worthy of credit, for it is no other 
 than Melanchthon; and it enables us to judge of those fables 
 which have been spread abroad by ignorance and prejudice, 
 as to Luther's intemperance. At the time of which we are 
 
 * Gcsch. d. cicntsch. BibcUibcrsctzun^. 
 
 2 A distingiiishod commentator on Scripture in the fourteenth century, who 
 \)(i\n" deeply-' versed in the .incicnt tongue?, (less, some say, in Greek than in 
 Hebrew) ex])Oundcd all the books oftho\)ld and New Testament, in a nianner 
 for above tlic taste of that age, and in this respect, was a most useful fore- 
 runner to Luther — L. K. . . 
 
 3 Stimnia discipline severit.atc se ipse regit, et omnibus cxcrcitiis lectionum. 
 disputationum, jeiuniorum, precum, omncs longo superat. (Melanclit. \ ita 
 Lutlieri.) 
 
 * Erat enim natura, valde modici cibi ct potus; vidi continuis quatuor dicl/Vij 
 cum qiiidom recto valeret. prorsus nihil edentem aut bibentcm. (Ibid.) 
 
150 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 now treating, lie spared no cost that he might become a saint, 
 and obtain heaven. Never did the church of Eome possess a 
 more pious monk. Never did a monastery see a man toil more 
 sincerely or indefatigably, in order to purchase for himself ever- 
 lasting happiness. When Luther, after he had become a Refor- 
 mer, said that heaven was not to be bought, he well knew what 
 that implied. "Verily," he wrote to duke George of Saxony, 
 "I was a pious monk, and followed the rules of my order more 
 strictly than I can express. If ever monk entered heaven in 
 virtue of his monkery, assuredly I should have gone there. This 
 all the monks who have known me can testify. A much longer 
 time of it must have made me a martyr, even to death, what 
 with watchings, prayers, reading, and other labours!" ^ 
 
 We now touch upon the epoch which made Luther a new man, 
 and which, by revealing to him the immensity of the love of 
 God, put him into a condition to announce it to the world. 
 
 Luther by no means found in the quiet of the cloister, and in 
 monkish perfection, the peace which he had come to seek. He 
 wanted to be assured of his salvation : this was the grand desi- 
 deratum in his soul. Without this, there was no rest there. 
 Now, the same fears which had troubled him in the world, 
 followed him into his cell. Still worse, they became aggravated 
 there; and it seemed as if the feeblest cry of his heart was 
 loudly re-echoed by the still and silent vaults of the monastery. 
 God had led him thither that he might there learn self-know- 
 ledge, and to despair of his own powers and his own virtues. His 
 conscience, enlightened by the divine Word, told him what was 
 implied in being holy ; but he was seized with dread on failing 
 to discover, either in his heart or in his life, that image of holiness 
 which he contemplated with admiration in the Word of God, 
 Sad discovery which every sincere person must make. No 
 righteousness within — no righteousness without; every where 
 omission, sin, defilement. . . . The more ardent Luther's 
 natural character, the stronger in him was that secret and 
 constant resistance, which man's nature opposes to what is good, 
 and the more did it throw him into despair. 
 
 The monks, and the theologians of the time, invited him 
 to satisfy the divine justice by the practice of good works. But 
 ' L. 0pp. (W.) xix. 2299. 
 
LUTHER DURING MASS AT ERFURT. 151 
 
 what works, thought ho, can proceed from a heart Hke mine? 
 How can I, with works dclUcd in their very principle, stand 
 before ui}-^ judge? "I found myself a great sinner before Cod," 
 said he, " and I did not think it possible for mo to appease IJiiu 
 by my works." 
 
 He was agitated and yet silent, shunning the idle and gross 
 conversation of the monks, who in their inability to comprehend 
 those storms which moved his inmost soul, looked at him with 
 amazement, 1 and reproached liim for his sombre looks and hi> 
 silence. CocIiLtus relates that one day while they were saying 
 mass in the chapel, Luther had brought thither his sighs, and had 
 joined the friars in the choir, dejected and in anguish. Already 
 the priest had thrown himself on the ground, the altar had been 
 incensed, the Gloria chanted, and they were reading the Gospel 
 for the day, when the poor monk, unable to restrain his agony, 
 exclaimed in dtJeful accents and throwing himself on his knocs : 
 "It is not I! It is not I."- The rest were confounded, and the 
 solemnity was for a moment interrupted. Possibly, Luther may 
 have thought that he was reproached with something of which 
 he knew himself to be innocent; possibly, he might wish to 
 declare himself unworthy to be one of those to whom the death 
 of Christ had brought everlasting life. Cochlasus says that the 
 passage they were then reading, was that which relates the 
 history of the dumb man, from whom our lord cast out a devil. 
 If this were so, it is possible that Luther's exclamation may have 
 had a reference to that circumstance, and that, dumb as that 
 man, he protested by his cry, that his silence arose from another 
 cause than possession by the devil. In fact, Cochlaeus informs 
 us that the monks sometimes attributed their fellow friar's suf- 
 ferings to secret commerce with the devil, and that writer him- 
 self is of the same opinion. ^ 
 
 The tenderness of Luther's conscience made him regard the 
 smallest fault as a great sin; and hardly had he discovered such 
 an oftence in himself, than he would make an effort to expiate 
 it by the severest mortifications; a course which only opened 
 his eyes to. the uselessness of all such human remedies. " I 
 
 • Visu3 est fratribus nonnihil singularitatis habere (Cochlaeus, i.) 
 
 * Cum. . . . reponte ceciderit vociferans : Nonsum! n on sum! (Ibid.) 
 ^ Kx occulto .iliquo cum sermone < omminario (Cochlicus, i.) 
 
152 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tormented myself to death," says he, " in order that 1 niiglit 
 procure the peace of God for my troubled heart and agitated 
 conscience; but being surrounded with horrible darkness I 
 groped for peace in vain." 
 
 The practices of monastic sanctity which lull so many con- 
 sciences asleep, and to which, in his anguish, he had recourse 
 himself, soon appeared to Luther but the useless remedies of an 
 empirical and knavish religion. " In my state of monkhood, on 
 finding myself assaulted by some temptation: I am lost! I 
 would say to myself. Straightway I would fly to a thousand 
 means of appeasing the cries of my lieart. I confessed myself 
 daily, but this availed me nothing. Then, weighed down with 
 grief, I allowed myself to be tormented by the multitude of 
 my thoughts. See, I cried to myself, see how envious, impatient 
 and irascible you still are ! . . . It is of no use to you, 
 then, wretched man, that you have entered this sacred 
 order." ... 
 
 Yet Luther was so imbued with the prejudices of his time, 
 as from his youth up, to have considered those practices, the 
 impotency of which he was now experiencing, to be the grand 
 specifics for sickly souls. What was he to think of tlie strange 
 discovery he had made in the solitude of the cloister? Can it 
 be, then, that one may dwell in the sanctuary and yet bear about 
 within him a man of sin ! . . . He had put on another 
 dress, but his heart remained the same. His hopes were 
 blasted. Where was he to stop? Might not all these rules 
 and observances be mere human inventions? Such a supposi- 
 tion appeared to him, at times, to be a temptation of the devil, 
 and at times, too, an irresistible truth. Struggling by turns 
 with the holy voice that was addressing itself to his heart, and 
 with the venerable institutions sanctioned by the age in which 
 he lived, Luther passed his life in unintermitted warfare. 
 Meagre as a shadow, the young monk would pace the long pas- 
 sages of the monastery, making them answer in hollow echoes 
 to his groans. His body was wearing itself out; vital energy 
 seemed ready to leave it altogether, and it sometimes happened 
 that he lay to appearance dead. ^ 
 
 > Saepeeum cogitantem attentius de ira Deiautdemirandispajnarumexemplis, 
 Bubito tanti tcrrores concutiebant, ut pcne exanimaretur. (Melan. Vit. Lutii.) 
 
LUTI1KU\S SUFFERINGS l.\ I HE AIONA.STKUY. 1 5o 
 
 In tho depth of his grief ho one day shut himself up in liis 
 cell, and for several days and nights would sutter no one to conio 
 near him. On this, ono of his friends, called Luke Edemberger, 
 felt so disquieted about the unhappy monk, and had such a pre- 
 sentiment of his condition, that taking some boys with him 
 who used to sing in the choirs, ho went to the cell door and 
 knocked. No one opened or answered. This frightened good 
 Edemberger still more, so that he drove in the door; and there 
 found Luther stretched out on the planks quite insensible and 
 apparently lifeless. His friend endeavoured in vain to recall 
 him to his senses: he lay motionless as ever. The boys then 
 began to sing an hymn, to a low sweet air. Their clear voices 
 acted like a charm on the poor monk, to whom music had ever 
 been one of the highest enjoyments, and by little and little he 
 recovered strength, self-recollection and vitality.^ But although 
 music for a few short moments, might restore some calm to his 
 mind, another, and a more powerful remedy was required for 
 his effectual cure. To effect that, he required the mild and 
 insinuating tones of the gospel, which is the very voice of God. 
 He well understood this, and, accordingly, his sorrows and his 
 fears led him to study the writings of the apostles and the pro- 
 phets with fresh zeal.^ 
 
 IV. Luther was not the only monk who had passed through 
 such struggles. Monasteries often screened in the obscurity of 
 their walls, vices so abominable, as if discovered, would make a 
 virtuous man shudder; but often, too, they concealed Christian 
 virtues which grew up in silence and would have been admired, 
 had they been known. The possessors of these virtues, living 
 only with themselves and with their God, attracted no notice, 
 and were often even unperceived by the modest monastery, or 
 convent, tliat enclosed them. These humble solitaries sometimes 
 fell into that mystic theology, sad malady of the noblest minds, 
 which in by-gone times, was the delight of the monks on the 
 borders of the Nile, and which uselessly consumes the souls of 
 which it once gains possession. 
 
 Notwithstanding, if one of these happened to be called to a 
 
 ' Seckendorf. p. o3, 
 
 • Hoc studinm ut magis expetcrct, illis suis doloribus ct pavoribiis rnovclia- 
 tur. (Melancht. Vita. Luth.) 
 
 ^ V 
 
154 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 place of eminence, there he would find practical scope for good 
 qualities, the healthful influence of which made itself long and 
 widely felt. The candle was then put upon a candlestick, so as 
 to give light to all who were in the house. Many were 
 awakened by that light. Thus were such pious souls continued 
 from generation to generation; and seen to blaze like torches 
 held apart, even at times when monasteries were often but 
 the impure receptacles of the thickest darkness. 
 
 A young man had distinguished himself in this manner, as 
 an inmate of one of the monasteries of Germany. His name 
 was John Staupitz, the descendant of a noble family in Misnia. 
 From his earliest youth he had been marked by a taste for learn- 
 in «• and by love of virtue ;i had felt retirement necessary in order 
 to the cultivation of literature; but soon found that philosophy, 
 and the study of nature, could do little to secure everlasting 
 salvation. But he sought chiefly to combine practice with 
 learning; for, says one of his biographers, it is idle for one to 
 have the name of theologian, if not confirmed by his life.2 The 
 study of the Bible and of the theology of St. Augustine, the 
 knowled"-e of himself, the warfare which, like Luther, he had to 
 wage with the deceits and evil desires of his heart, led him to 
 the Redeemer. Faith in Christ brought peace to his soul. The 
 doctrine of election by grace, particularly laid hold of his mind. 
 He was recommended to his contemporaries by the uprightness 
 of his hfe, the depth of his learning and his eloquence of speech, 
 not less than by a stately figure, and by manners remarkable 
 for their dignity. ^ The elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, 
 made him his friend; he employed him in various embassies, 
 and under his direction founded the university of Wittemberg. 
 This disciple of St. Paul and St. Augustine, was the first dean 
 of the theological faculty of that school, which was soon to become 
 a source of illumination to the schools and the churches of many 
 nations. He represented the archbishop of Salzburg in the 
 council of Lateran, became provincial of his order in Thuringia 
 and Saxony, and afterwards, its vicar-general for all Germany. 
 Staupitz groaned under the corruption of manners, and the 
 
 • A teneris unguiculis, generoso animi impetu, ad virtutom ct cruditam doc- 
 trinam contendit. (Melch. Adam. Vita Staupitzii.) 
 
 - Ibid. ^ Corporis forma atque statura conspicuus. (Cochl. 3.) 
 
STATIPITZS VISITATION AT KUFUKT. \l)i> 
 
 errors in doctrine, which desolated the Churcli, as may be seen 
 from his writings on the love of God, on Christian faith, on 
 conformity to the death of Christ, and from the testimony of 
 Luther. But of these evils, he looked upon the former as by far 
 the greater; and, besides, the gentleness and indecision of his 
 character, and his reluctance to quit the sphere which he con- 
 sidered to be assigned to him, made him far more fit to restore a 
 monastery than to reform the Church. He wished to fill impor- 
 tant offices with none but distinguished men; sucli, however, 
 being not to be found, he had of necessity to employ others. 
 " One must till the ground," said he, " with the best cattle we 
 can find, and if we cannot have horses, we must use oxen."" ^ 
 
 We have remarked the anguish and inward struggles to which 
 Luther was a prey in the monastery at Erfurt, and while he was 
 in this condition, the visitation of the vicar-general was 
 announced. Staupitz had arrived to make his ordinary inspec- 
 tion. This friend of Frederick, this founder of the university 
 of Wittemberg, this chief of the Angus ns, was full of kindly 
 feeling to the monks subject to his authority, but his attention 
 was particularly attracted by one of the friars — a young 
 man of middle stature, made thin by study, abstinence, and 
 watching, so that all his bones might have been counted. 2 His 
 eyes, which were afterwards thought like those of a hawk, were 
 cast down ; his bearing was sorrowful, his looks discovered the 
 agitation of a soul tossed by a thousand struggles, yet retaining 
 its strength and unwilling to succumb. His general aspect 
 bespoke seriousness, melancholy, and solemnity. Long experi- 
 ence had sharpened the discernment of Staupitz; he found no 
 difficulty in discovering what was passing in that soul, and 
 signaled out this young man from among all who surrounded him. 
 He felt himself drawn towards him, had a presentiment of his 
 high destinies, and took quite a fatherly interest in this sub- 
 ordinate friar. He, too, like Luther, had liad his own struggles. 
 and therefore could comprehend his case; and, in particular, he 
 could point out to him that path of peace which he himself had 
 found. This fellow-feeling was farther augmented by what he 
 learned of the circumstances which had brought the young 
 Augustinian to the monastery. He suggested to the prior tliat 
 ' L. 0pp. (W.) V. 2189. " P. Mosellaiii Epist. 
 
156 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 he should deal with him more gently, and he availed himself of 
 the opportunities which his office afforded of gaining- this young 
 brother's confidence. Affectionately approaching him, he sought 
 by every means to dissipate that timidity of his, which must 
 have been farther augmented by the respect and awe inspired 
 by a man of Staupitz's exalted rank. 
 
 At length did Luther's heart, hitherto closed by harsh treat- 
 ment, open and dilate itself before the kindly rays of Christian 
 affection. As in water face answereth toface^ so the heart of man 
 to man. ^ The heart of Staupitz answered to that of Luther. 
 The vicar-general understood him, and the monk felt a confidence 
 in his new friend which he had never felt in any one else. He 
 opened to him the cause of his distress of mind, laid before him 
 the horrible thoughts that agitated him, and thus did there com- 
 mence within the cloisters of Erfurt conversations replete with 
 wisdom and instruction. 
 
 " In vain," said the dejected Luther to Staupitz, " do I make 
 promises to God ; sin is ever the stronger of the two." 
 
 " my friend," replied the vicar-general, returning to his 
 own case, " I have vowed more than a thousand times to the 
 holy God to live piously, but never have I kept my vow. Now, 
 I have no wish to swear thus any more, for I know that I shall 
 not keep to it. If God refuse to be gracious to me for the love 
 of Christ, and to give me a happy exit when called to leave this 
 world, I could not, with all my vows and all my good works, 
 stand before him. I must perish." ^ 
 
 The young monk, terrified at the thought of divine justice, 
 lays open all his fears to tlie vicar-general. God's unspeakable 
 holiness and sovereign majesty alarm him. Who can abide the 
 day of his coming? Who can stand when he shall appear? 
 
 Staupitz resumes. Knowing where he has found peace him- 
 self, he proceeds to point it out to the young man. " Why," 
 he says to him, " will you torment yourself with these high 
 thoughts and speculations? . . . Look to the wounds of 
 Jesus Christ; to the blood which he has shed for thee: it is 
 there that thou wilt discover the grace of God. Instead of making 
 thyself a martyr for thine offences, cast thyself into thy 
 Redeemer's arms. Trust thyself to him; to the righteousness 
 » Proverbs xxvii. 19. * L. 0pp. (W) vii, 2725 
 
TIIK GRACK. OF CHRIST. 
 
 157 
 
 of his life; to the expiation of his death. Shrink not from cloiii<,' 
 this. God is not angry with thee ; it is thou that art angry with 
 God. Listen to the Son of God. He became man that ho might 
 give thee assurance of the divine favour. IIo says to thee: 
 Thou art my sheep; thou hearest my voice; none shall ever 
 pluck thee out of my hand." ^ 
 
 But Luther could not find in himself the repentance whicli he 
 thought necessary to salvation: he replied, and it is the common 
 reply of anguished and fearful souls: "How sliall I dare to 
 believe in the fiivour of God, as long as there is no true conver- 
 sion in me? I must be changed before He accepts me."" 
 
 His venerable guide showed him that tliere can be no true con- 
 version, so long as man dreads God as a severe judge. " What 
 say you, then," exclaimed Luther, "of so many consciences 
 having a thousand intolerable ordinances prescribed to them, in 
 order that they may gain heaven?" 
 
 Then it was that he heard the following reply from the vicar- 
 general, or rather he does not believe that it comes from a man; 
 it seems as if it were a voice resounding from heaven:- " There 
 is no true repentance," says Staupitz, " but that which begins 
 with the love of God and of righteousness. 3 What others imagine 
 to be the end and the completion of repentance, is no more, on 
 the contrary, than its commencement. If thou wouldst be replen- 
 ished with love for what is good, thou must first of all be replen- 
 ished with love for God. If thou wouldst be converted, endeavour 
 not after all these macerations and all these martyrdoms. Love 
 Him who first loved thee." 
 
 Luther listened, and listened still. These words of comfort 
 filled him with a joy till then unknown, and introduced a new 
 light into his soul. " It is Jesus Christ," thought he in his 
 lieai't, " yes, it is Jesus Christ himself who so admirably consoles 
 me w'ith his mild and health-giving words." ^ 
 
 These words, in fact, pierced the young monk's inmost soul 
 like the sharpened arrow of a mighty man.-^ In order to repent- 
 
 » L. 0pp. (W) ii. 264. 
 
 * Te velut e ca?lo soncantem accepimus. (L. Epp. i. 115, ad St.aiipitziuni, 
 SOth May, 1518.) 
 
 ^ Pcenitentia vero non est, nisi ouse ab amore justitia; et Dei incipit, etc. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 * Memini inter jucundissimas et salutares fabnlns tuas, quibus me solet Dom- 
 inus Jesus mirifice consolari. (L. Epp. i. 115, ad Staupitzium, 30 Mnf, 151S.) 
 
 * Ilffisit hoc verbiiin tuiiin in nio, sirnt sngitta potontis aoita (Ibid.l 
 
158 niSTOUY OK THE KEFORAIATION. 
 
 anee, we must love God. Struck by this new light, he began 
 to compare scripture with scripture. He looked for all the pas- 
 sages in which repentance and conversion are mentioned; and 
 these, till then so much dreaded, to use his own expressions, 
 became a most pleasant game to him, and the most delightful 
 of recreations. All the passages of scripture which had fright- 
 ened him, now seemed as if coming up to him from all parts, 
 smiling and leaping around him, and playing with him." ^ 
 
 " Up to this time," he cried, " however carefully I might dis- 
 semble the state of my heart before God, and compel myself to 
 express a love for him which was but constrained and fictitious, 
 there was no word in scripture more bitter than that of repentance. 
 But now there is not one sweeter or more agreeable. ^ Oh ! how 
 sweet are God's precepts, when we read them not only in books, 
 but also in the precious wounds of the Saviour ."3 
 
 Comforted, however, as Luther was by the words of Staupitz, 
 he sometimes relapsed into low spirits. Sin made itself felt 
 anew by his timid conscience, and then to the joy of salvation 
 there succeeded all his former despair. O my sin ! my sin ! my 
 sin! exclaimed the young monk one day in presence of the 
 vicar-fjeneral, and in a tone of the most intense sorrow. "What ! " 
 replied the latter, " would you be but the painted image of a 
 sinner, and have likewise but the painted image of a Saviour?" 
 Then added Staupitz in a tone of authority: " Know that Jesus 
 Christ is Saviour even of those who are great and real sinners, 
 and who deserve utter condemnation." 
 
 What agitated Luther was not only the sin that he found in 
 his heart, for to his troubles of conscience were added such as 
 perplexed his understanding. If the holy precepts of the Bible 
 inspired him with dread, one or other of that divine book''s doc- 
 trines added to his torment. The truth, though employed by 
 God as the grand means of giving peace to a sinner, necessarily 
 commences by depriving him of that fallacious security which is 
 his destruction. The doctrine of election, in particular, per- 
 plexed the young man, and launched him into a field which it 
 was difficult for him to traverse. Was he to believe that it was 
 
 ' Ecce jucundissimum ludum, verba undique mihi colludeoant, planeque huic 
 
 sententisc arridebant et assultabant. (L. Epp. i. 115.) 
 
 2 Nunc nihil diilcius aut gratius mihi sonct qnam poenitentia, etc. (Ibid.) 
 * Ita enim dulcescunt precepta Dei, quando non in libris tantum, sed in viil- 
 
 neriljiis dulcissimi Salvatoris iegenda intelligimns. (Ibid.) 
 
STAUPITz's VIKWS Ol' 1'I10VIDKN( K. 150 
 
 man who should .first chooso God for his porlii^n? or if it wero 
 God who should first choose man? The ]3il)lo history, daily 
 experience, the writings of St. Augustine, all showed him that, 
 always and in everything, we must ascend at last to the sove- 
 reign will by which all things exist, and on which they all 
 depend. But his ardent mind would fain have gone farther 
 still. He could have wished to scan the secret counsel of God, 
 to unveil its mysteries, to view the invisible, and to comprehend 
 the incomprehensible. Staupitz stopped liim. He urged him 
 not to pretend to sound the hidden Godhead, but to keep to 
 what of it is manifested to us in Christ. *' Behold the wounds 
 of Christ," said he to him, " and there thou shalt see God's 
 counsel towards man clearly shining forth. We cannot com- 
 prehend God out of Jesus Christ. In Christ thou shalt find 
 what I am, and what I require, saith the Lord. "Sou will find 
 him no where else, whether in heaven or on earth." i 2 
 
 The vicar-creneral did more than this. He made Luther 
 recognise the fatherly design of God's providence in permitting 
 the various temptations and conflicts which his soul had to sus- 
 tain. These, he taught him to view in a light well calculated 
 to re-animate his courage. It is by such trials that God pre- 
 pares for himself the souls which he destines for some important 
 work. The vessel must be proved before it is launched into the 
 mighty ocean. If some education be necessary for every man, 
 a particular education is required for those who have to act on 
 their generation. This was what Staupitz represented to the 
 monk of Erfurt. " It is not in vain," he told him, " that God 
 
 » L. 0pp. (W.)xxii, p. 489. 
 
 * Here we have the true gospel of Christ stated by Staupitz, as Luther under- 
 stood it, and had been instructed in it by God himself. It engrossed liis whole 
 soul, and was gradually made clearer and clearer to him. We perceive it in all 
 those disclosures of his inmost feelings, quoted, so much to the pur])ose, in 
 various parts of the worthy .author's account of Luther's adaptation and pre- 
 paration for the great work to which he was called ; as, for example, when here, 
 and a little before, he introduces what Luther says oi repentance, and afterwards 
 of the righteousness of God, expressions than which none had been more bitter 
 or hateful to him hitherto; but which, afterwards, when he came to know their 
 true meaning in Christ, sounded most sweetly in his ears. Yes, this is the true 
 spirit of the gosj)cl : and it is the true spirit of the Reformation also ; not 
 Luther's only, but as originally professed in our own, so-called Reformed 
 Church. Would not many, who withal zealously atiect orthodoxy, cover these 
 views again as with a vail, so that the words repentance, God's righteousness, 
 and such like, are anew employed rather to the oppression than the relief ot 
 the mind; and this even thought necessary in order that men may not be care- 
 less and at their ease. — T, R. 
 
IGO HISTORY OF THE UEFORMATIOX. 
 
 exercises thee by so many conflicts: tliou wilt see that He v\ill 
 make use of thee as his minister in great afiairs." 
 
 These words, heard by Luther with mingled astonishment 
 and humility, filled him with courage, and gave him the conscious- 
 ness of a moral energy which he had not even suspected that he 
 possessed. The wisdom and the prudence of an enlightened 
 friend reveal, by degrees, the strong man to himself. Nor does 
 Staupitz rest at this point. He gives him precious directions 
 for his studies, and exhorts him from thenceforth to throw aside 
 the scholastic systems, and to find all his theology in the Bible. 
 " Let the study of the Scriptures," said he, " be your favourite 
 occupation."" And never was the best counsel better followed. 
 But what more than all gladdened Luther, was the present of a 
 Bible made to him by Staupitz. At length he himself possessed 
 the treasure which up to that hour he had been obliged to look 
 for, either in the university library, or at the chain of the monas- 
 tery, or in the cell of a friend. Forthwith he studied the Scrip- 
 tures, and especially St. Paul's epistles, with an ever-growing 
 zeal. To the study of the Bible he now united no other but 
 that of St. Augustine. All that he reads now comes powerfully 
 home to his soul. Conflicts have prepared his heart to under- 
 stand the Word. The incorruptible seed powerfully penetrates 
 the soil into which the ploughshare has been deeply driven. 
 When Staupitz quitted Erfurt, a new day had dawned upon 
 Luther. 
 
 Nevertheless, the work was not yet complete. The vicar- 
 general began it, but God had reserved its completion for a 
 humbler instrument. The conscience of the young Augustinian 
 had not yet found repose, and his body began, at length, to sink 
 under efibrts which kept his soul at its utmost stretch. He was 
 attacked by a grievous illness which brought him to the gates of 
 death. It was now the second year of his abode in the monas- 
 tery. All his anguish and his terrors returned on the approach 
 of death ; his own defilement, and the holiness of God, troubled 
 his soul anew; when one day, as he was well nigh overwhelmed 
 with despair,! ^n old monk entered his cell, and addressed to 
 
 > Thus was Luther exercised and prei>ared by much anguish of soul for 
 relishing, and knowing how to teach, the true consolation of the gospel. It 
 were, however, a false view, did we thence infer that whoever is to enjoy that 
 
TIIK OLD MONK AT KRl'l-KT. 1()1 
 
 him some words of comfort. Luther opened liis heart to liim, 
 and told him the fears by which his rest was taken from him. 
 The wox-thy okl man had not the capacity to follow tliat soul 
 through all its doubts, as Staupitz had dune; but ho knew his 
 Credo^ and there he had found wherewithal to solace his heart. 
 He thought, then, that he would apply the same cure to this 
 young friar. Taking him back to that symbol of the apostles 
 which Luther had learned in his early childhood, the old monk 
 in a kind tone pronounced the article, / believe in the forgiveness 
 of sim. These simple words, which the pious friar candidly 
 recited, at that decisive moment, shed great comfort over Luther's 
 soul. " I believe," he soon repeated to himself on his bed of 
 suffering, " I believe in the forgiveness of sins ! " " Ah ! " says 
 the monk, " we must not only believe that the sins of David or 
 Peter are forgiven : for that is no more than the devils believe. 
 God's command is, that we should believe that our own are for- 
 given." 1 How sweet did this command appear to poor Luther ! 
 " See what St. Bernard says in his discourse on the annuncia- 
 tion," added the old friar, " the testimony given by the Holy 
 Ghost in thy heart is this : ' Thy sins are forgiven thee.' " 
 
 From that moment light broke upon the heart of the young 
 monk of Erfurt. The word of grace had been spoken, and he 
 has believed it. He renounces meriting salvation, and gives 
 himself up with confidence to the grace of God in Jesus Christ. 
 Not, that in admitting this principle, he apprehended its conse- 
 quences ; he remained sincerely attached to the Church, although 
 he had no more need of her; for having received salvation inime- 
 
 oonsolation must pass tlirough the same process ; still worse were it to view 
 this as communicating to the soul a certain worthiness, or right, to ohtain that 
 consolation, or as it were a condition ordained by God for obtaining it. This 
 latter notion is quite subversive of the gospel, and is exactly what it was requi- 
 site that Luther should utterly banish. Alas ! has it not regained too much 
 ground in the very church that Luther reformed ? The bare idea, too, of its 
 being required as a preparative for the consolations of the gospel, without 
 which these cannot be rightly enjoyed, obscures the true gospel. By that 
 course, Luther was led just to renounce all those things in which he had been 
 seeking for peace, and to perceive how vain they all were. Happy the mind of 
 him for whom so severe a training is not required, and who, at once, with a 
 believing confidence, takes to himself the consolation which God freely and 
 unconditionally bestows. Such a Christian shows that he has best understood 
 Luther, and is penetrated with the true spirit of the doctrine which he reformed 
 ^the doctrine of the genuine gospel. — L. R. 
 
 ' Davidi aut Petro . . . Sod mandatum Dei esse, ut singuli homines 
 nobis remitti peccata crcdamus. (Melancht. Vit.a. L.) 
 
 '• X 
 
162 HISTORY OF THE RETORMATIOX. 
 
 diatoly from God, Roman Catholicism was virtually destroyed 
 in him. But he goes on and searches the writings of the 
 apostles and prophets, for all that can strengthen the hope that 
 now fills his heart. He daily seeks aid from on high, and daily, 
 too, the light brightens in his soul. 
 
 Recovered health of mind brought with it the recovery of his 
 bodily health, and he speedily rose from his sick-bed. He had 
 received a new life in a double sense. The festival of Christ- 
 mas which came on soon after, enabled him to taste in abund- 
 ance all the consolations of faith. He participated in the solem- 
 nities of that season with delightful feelings; and when, amidst 
 the pomps of Christmas day, he had to sing these words : heata 
 culpa quce talem meruisti Bedemptorem ; i his whole man said 
 Amen, and leapt for joy. 
 
 Luther had now been two years in the monastery, and the 
 time was come for his being ordained a priest. He had received 
 much, and he joyfully surveyed the prospect which the priest- 
 hood presented to him, of freely giving what he had freely 
 received. He wished to take the advantage of the ceremony of 
 consecration, as a means of being fully restored to his father's 
 aflFections, and accordingly he invited him to be present and even 
 asked him to fix the day. John Luther, never yet fully recon- 
 ciled to his son, accepted this invitation notwithstanding, and 
 appointed Sunday, May 2d. 1607, as the day. 
 
 Among Luthers friends was the vicar of Isenac, John Braun, 
 who had been a faithful adviser to him during his stay there. 
 Luther wrote to him on the 22d. of April, and this letter is the 
 oldest that remains to us of the Reformer's writing. It has the 
 following address : " To John Braun, holy and venerable priest 
 of Christ, and of Mary." The name of Mary occurs in the two 
 first of Luther's letters only. 
 
 "God who is glorious and holy in all his works," says the 
 candidate for priest's orders, "having deigned to give me a mag- 
 nificent education ; me, a wretched and in every way worthless 
 sinner, and to call me by his sole and most bountiful mercy, to 
 his sublime ministry, I ought, in testimony of my gratitude for 
 so magnificent, and so divine a bounty (in so far as dust can do 
 
 ' O happy fault which has deserved such a Redeemer ! ( Mathesius p, 6.) 
 
LUTHER RECEIVES PRlESx's OKDEUfl. 1G3 
 
 this), to discharge with my whole heart the office entrusted 
 to mc. 
 
 "Therefore it is, most dear father, lord, and brother, that 1 
 would request, should time, and your church and family affairs 
 admit of it, that you will condescend to aid me with your presence 
 and your prayers, to the end that my sacrifice may, in God's 
 sight, be acceptable. 
 
 "But I must tell you, that you must come directly to our 
 monastery, and stay there with us for a time, without going 
 about the streets to look for any other hostelry. You must 
 become an inhabitant of our cells." 
 
 The day at last arrived. The miner of Mansfeld did not fail 
 to be present at the consecration of his son ; nay, he even gave 
 him a mark of his affection and generosity which was not to be 
 mistaken, by presenting him on this occasion with a gift of 
 twenty florins. 
 
 The ceremony took place, Jerome, bishop of Brandenburg, 
 officiating. In conferring on Luther the power of celebrating 
 mass, he put a chalice into his hand, and uttered these solemn 
 words: '•'•Accipe potestatem sacrificandi pro mms and mortuis. 
 Receive power to sacrifice for the living and for the dead." 
 Luther calmly listened at the time to these words, conferring 
 upon him the power of doing the very work of the Son of God; 
 but at a later period, they made him shudder. "If the earth," 
 said he, "did not then swallow us both up, it could only be 
 ascribed to the great patience and long suffering of the Lord." ^ 
 
 Thereafter, the father joined his son at dinner in the monas- 
 tery, with other friends of the young priest, and with the monks. 
 The conversation fell on Luther's entering that establishment. 
 The friars applauded his having done so, as a most meritorious 
 act. Hearing this, the inflexible John, turning to his son, said 
 to him: "Hast thou not read in Scripture that a man ought to 
 obey his father and his mother?'" These words struck Luther: 
 they presented the act which had introduced him to the monas- 
 tery, in quite a new light, and made a lasting impression on his 
 heart. 
 
 Following an advice given him by Staupitz, Luther, after his 
 
 » L. Opp. xvi. (W.) 1144. 
 
164 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORilATIO:^. 
 
 ordination, made short excursions on foot among the parishes 
 and monasteries of the neighbourhood, with the view both of 
 enjoying mental relaxation and giving his body its necessary 
 exercise, and of practise in preaching. 
 
 The feast called God's festival, was about to be celebrated with 
 great pomp at Eisleben. ^ The vicar-general behoved to be there. 
 Luther failed not to attend ; he still stood in need of Staupitz, 
 and sought all opportunities of meeting with that enlightened 
 adviser, who was now guiding his soul into the paths of life. In 
 the procession, which was numerous and brilliant, Staupitz 
 himself carried the host; Luther followed in his priest''s robes, 
 and so much did the idea all at once strike his imagination and 
 alarm him, of Jesus Christ himself being borne by the vicar- 
 general, and our Lord's being presented in person before him, 
 that he could hardly move forward; the sweat fell from him in 
 drops ; he staggered and thought he must die with distress and 
 terror. The procession came, at last, to a close. The host which 
 had thus awakened all the monk's alarms, was solemnly deposited 
 in the sanctuary, and Luther, finding himself alone with 
 Staupitz, threw himself into his arms and confessed how much 
 he had been afraid. On this the good vicar -general, who had 
 long known that kind Saviour who doth not break the bruised 
 reed, mildly said to him; "It was not Jesus Christ, my brother; 
 Jesus Christ does not frighten ; he only comforts." ^ 
 
 Luther was not doomed to remain hid in one obscure monas- 
 tery, and the time was now come for his being transferred to a 
 wider theatre. Staupitz, with whom he lived in uninterrupted 
 correspondence, was well aware that the young monk possessed 
 too stirring a soul, to be long shut up within so narrow a sphere. 
 He spoke of him to Frederick, elector of Saxony; and in 1508, 
 probably towards the close of the year, that enlightened prince 
 called Luther to be a professor in the university of Wittemberg. 
 Wittemberg was a field on which he had many a hard battle to 
 fight; but Luther felt that there it was his vocation to be. He 
 was asked to betake himself speedily to his new post, and 
 
 ' Ei, hast du nicht auch gehbrt das man Eltern soil gehorsam seyn (L. Epp. 
 ii. 101.) 
 
 2 Es ist nicht Christus, denn Christus schrecht nicht, sondern trbstet nur, 
 f L. 0pp. (W.) xxii. p. 613. and 724.) 
 
1,'jrHKR TEACHKS I'llILOSOPIIY AT WirrEMIiKlia. 1(15 
 
 answered this cappeal without delay; hurrying off with such pre- 
 cipitation as not even to write to the man whom ho used to call 
 his much beloved master and father, John Braun, parish priest 
 of Isenac. Some months after, ho did write to him, saying: 
 "So sudden was my departure that the very people I lived with, 
 hardly knew of it. I am gone to a distance, I admit, but the 
 better part of me remains near thee." ^ Luther had spent three 
 years in the monastery at Erfurt. 
 
 V. On arriving at Wittemberg, Luther repaired to the mon- 
 astery of the Augustinians, where he had a cell allotted to him; 
 for although a professor, he ceased not to be a monk. He was 
 called to teach physics and logic, an arrangement in which 
 regard was doubtless had to the philosophical studies he had 
 pursued at Erfurt, and the degree he had obtained of master of 
 arts. Thus did he find himself, while hungering and thirsting 
 for the Word of God, compelled to attend, almost exclusively, to 
 the study of Aristotle''s scholastic philosophy. He needed the 
 bread of life which God gives to the world, yet was obliged to 
 occupy himself with human subtilties. What a constraint this, 
 and how must it have afflicted him ! " I am well, by the grace 
 of God," wi'ites he to John Braun, "were it not that I have to 
 devote my whole energies to the study of philosophy. I have 
 greatly desired, ever since my coming to Wittemberg, to 
 exchange this branch for that of theology, but," adds he, that it 
 might not be supposed that he meant the theology of that time, 
 "the theology I mean, is that which looks for the kernel of the 
 nut, the marrow of the wheat, and the marrow of the bones. ^ 
 Be it as it may, God is good," he goes on to say with the con- 
 fidence which was his life's very soul, "man is almost always 
 deceived in the judgments he pronounces ; but he is our God. He 
 will kindly conduct us evermore." The labours in which Luther 
 had then to engage, were of the utmost service to him afterwards, 
 when he had to combat the errors of the schoolmen.^ 
 
 > L. Epp. i. p. 5. (17th March, 1509.) 
 ^ Theologia quae nucleum nucis et medullam tritici et medullam ossium 
 scrutatur. (L. Epp. i. 6.) 
 
 ^ While here, and in what follows, we observe how Luther was gradu.ally pre- 
 pared by God, and constrained, as it were, at every turn, involuntarily to 
 undertake the enterprize that he accomplished ; what shall we say of those spiteful 
 and little-minded slanderers who impute what he did to dishonourable motives ; 
 alleging that it was an achievment in which he had sought to be engaged, for the 
 
166" HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION". 
 
 It was impossible that he could keep to this; his heart's 
 desire behoved to be fulfilled. That same power which, some 
 years before, had driven Luther from the bar to the monastic 
 life, now drove him from philosophy to the Bible. He zealously 
 applied himself to the study of the ancient tongues, chiefly 
 Greek and Hebrew, that thus he might derive learning and 
 divinity from their proper sources; and in such labours, his 
 mental and physical constitution enabled him to be indefatigable.' 
 Some months after arriving at the university, he applied for the 
 degree of bachelor in theology, and obtained it about the end of 
 March, 1509, with the particular vocation of devoting himself 
 to biblical theology, ad Biblia. 
 
 And now every day at one o'clock, Luther had to speak upon 
 the Bible ; precious hour alike for the professor and the disciples, 
 and one that enabled them to enter, ever more and more deeply, 
 into the divine sense of those revelations, so long lost both to 
 the learned and the common people. 
 
 He began his lectures with an explanation of the psalms, and 
 passed from that to the epistle to the Eomans ; to his medita- 
 tions on which, he was chiefly indebted for the light of truth 
 that broke upon his heart. In the retirement of his quiet cell, 
 with the epistle of St. Paul open before him, he devoted hours 
 of study to the divine Word. Having one day come to the 
 17th verse of the first chapter, he there read the passage of the 
 prophet Habakkuk : The just shall live by faith. He was struck 
 with these words. For the just, then, there is a diff"erent life from 
 that of the rest of men, and this life is bestowed by faith. This 
 word which ho received into his heart as if God had deposited 
 it there, unveiled to him the mystery of the Christian life, and 
 gave farther growth to that life in himself. Long after, amid 
 his many labours, he would think that he still heard a voice 
 saying to him: "The just shall live by faith." ^ 
 
 sake of worldly fame, or to satisfy the cravings of ambition or of envy? They 
 can have no eyes to see, or heart to comprehend, or they must be totally unac- 
 quainted with the true state of the case. Hence the work of M. Merle is 
 admirably fitted to place it before us in its true light. It makes us thoroughly 
 acquainted with the man as he really was, and with the work of the Reforma- 
 tion, to which he was destined, and for which he was prepared, by God himself. 
 No amendment can be looked for in the man who is not convinced of this. 
 We must leave him to indulge his malice, as a hopeless slanderer of the truth. 
 L. R. See, Dr. M'Laine's note in refutation of Hume. M'Laine's Mosheim, 
 vol. iv. p. 31. Also, Milner's Hist, of the Church of Christ, vol. iv. p. 321. Tr. 
 
 ' In studiis litterarum corpore ac mente indefessus. (Pallavicini Hist. Cone. 
 Trid. I. 16.) 
 
 * Seckend, p. 55. 
 
IMl'RKSSlON MADE IIY LUTHER S l.ECTUIirS. 1G7 
 
 Luther's lectures, thus prepared, were little like any thing 
 that had been heard up to that time. It was no fine-worded 
 rhetorician, or pedantic schoolman, that now spoke; it was a 
 Christian who had experienced the power of divine truths, who 
 drew them from the Bible, brought them forth again from the 
 treasury of his own heart, and presented them, all full of life, 
 to his astonished auditors. Is was not man's teaching; it was 
 the teaching of God. 
 
 This altogether novel exposition of the truth made a noise; 
 the news of it spread far and wide, and attracted a crowd of 
 young foreign students to the recently founded university. 
 Several even of the professors attended Luther's lectures; 
 among others the famous Martin PoUich, of Mellerstadt, doctor 
 of medicine, law, and philosphy, who together with Staupitz, 
 had organised the university of Wittemberg, and was its first 
 rector. Mellerstadt, often called the light of the world, had the 
 modesty to take his place among the disciples of the new pro- 
 fessor. "This monk," said he, "will put to rout all the doctors; 
 he will introduce a new doctrine, and reform the whole Church; 
 for he takes his post on the Word of Christ, and no man can 
 impugn or overthrow that Word, even were he to attack it with 
 all the arms of philosophy, of the sophists, the Scotists, Albertists, 
 the Thomists,! and with all the Tartarus !"2 
 
 Staupitz who was the hand employed by providence to draw 
 forth the gifts and treasures that lay hid in Luther, now invited 
 him to preach in the Church of the Augustinians. But the 
 young professor recoiled from this proposal. He wished to 
 confine himself to academical functions, and trembled to think 
 of undertaking to preach also. Staupitz urged him in vain. 
 "No, no,"" he replied, "it is no small matter to speak to men in 
 the place of God."^ How touching is this humility in the great 
 
 ' Melch. Adam. Vita Lutheri, p. 104. 
 
 2 These were so many different adherents among the learned, of the 
 three chief doctors of the thirteenth century, and who taught their doctrines. 
 The Scotists were the followers of John Duns, Scotus, an English Franciscan 
 fi'iar who taught at Oxford and Paris; the Albertists of Albertus Magnus, a 
 German Dominican, who after having studied at Padua, and been bishop of 
 Regensburg, resigned his honours, in order that he might devote himself 
 entirely to study, being regarded as the wonder of his age ; and the Thomists 
 of Thomas Acquinas, an Italian Dominican, one of Albert's pulpils, and known 
 as the greatest theologue and philosopher of his time. These though all great 
 men for that age, had by their abstruse subtilties, done more to obscure than to 
 explain the gospel. — L. R. 
 
 3 Frabrioius centifol. l^uthcri. p. 33. — Mathesius. p. 6. 
 
168 HISTORY OF THE KEFORAIATIOX. 
 
 reformer of the Church ! Staupitz insisted. But the ingenious 
 Luther, says one of his historians, found fifteen arguments, pre- 
 texts, and pretences to defend himself against this call. In the 
 end, as the chief of the Augustinians continued his attack: "Ah, 
 Mr. Doctor," said Luther, "in doing this you are killing me. I 
 could not last three months at it." — "Agreed," said the vicar- 
 general, "and be it so in God's name! For our Lord God has 
 need of devoted and humble men in the upper world also." 
 Luther had at last to yield. 
 
 In the middle of Wittemberg market-place there stood an 
 old wooden chapel, thirty feet long by twenty broad, with its 
 partitions propped on all sides, and ready to fall to ruins. An 
 old pulpit, made of boards and three feet high, received the 
 preacher, and in this wretched chapel began the preaching of 
 the Reformation. God desired that what was to re-establish 
 his glory should have the most lowly beginnings. The founda- 
 tions of the Church of the Augustinians had just been laid, and 
 in the meantime, while waiting for its being finished, this paltry 
 place of worship was used. "That building," adds the contem- 
 porary of Luther who relates these circumstances,' "might well 
 be compared to the stable in which Christ was born. It was in 
 that miserable enclosure that God desired, so to speak, that 
 his beloved Son should be born for a second time. Among the 
 thousands of cathedrals and parish churches that crowd the 
 world, God chose not one for the preaching of everlasting life." 
 
 Luther preached, and all were struck with the new preacher; 
 his hearers were captivated with his expressive face, noble air, 
 and clear and sonorous voice. Before his time, most preachers 
 had sought rather for what might amuse their auditors, than for 
 what might convert them. But the deep seriousness that pre- 
 dominated in Luther s sermons, the joy wherewith his know- 
 ledge of the gospel had filled his heart, gave to his eloquence an 
 authority, a fervour, and an unction, which not one of his pre- 
 decessors had possessed. "Endued with a mind remarkable for 
 promptness and vivacity," says one of his adversaries,^ " of a 
 strong memory, and singularly happy in the use he made of his 
 mother tongue, Luther yielded to no one of his age in eloquence. 
 Discoursing from the elevation of the pulpit, like a man under 
 ' Myconius. ' Florimond Raymond. Hist, heres. cap. 5. 
 
Lt'THEU'.S Kf.OQUKXCE. HE GOES 10 KO.ME. I C)[) 
 
 tlio inllut'uce of some strong passion, he suited his action to his 
 words, struck the minds of his hearers in the most extraordinary 
 manner, and hurried them Hke a torrent, wliithersoever he would. 
 So much force, grace, and eloquence, are seldom found among 
 the northern nations." "He had an eloquence,"" says Bossuet, 
 "full of life and impetuosity, which drew along M'itli it and 
 ravished the people."' 
 
 Soon the little chapel was found too small to contain the 
 hearers that pressed into it in crowds. I'pon this, the town- 
 council of Wittemberg, chose Luther as their preacher, and 
 invited him to preach in the town church. He made a still 
 greater impression there. The force of his genius, the eloquence 
 of his diction, and the excellence of the doctrines he announced, 
 ahke astonished his auditors. His fame became widely diffused, 
 and Frederick the Wise himself, on one occasion, came to Wit- 
 temberg to hear him. 
 
 A new era now commenced for Luther. His unprofitable life 
 in the monastery was succeeded by great activity. The free- 
 dom, the labour, the energetic and uninterrupted exertions to 
 which he could devote himself at Wittemberg, completed the 
 re- establishment of harmony and peace in his soul. He was 
 now at his post, and the work of God was soon about to devclope 
 its majestic march. 
 
 VI. Luther was now giving instructions both in the academi- 
 cal hall and in the church, when his labours met with the fol- 
 lowing interruption. In 1510, according to some not until ]511 
 or 1512, he was sent to Rome, in consequence of a disagreement 
 having arisen on some points, between seven monasteries of his 
 order and the vicar-general,- and Luther's mental vivacity, his 
 power of expressing himself, and his talents for discussion, hav- 
 ing; led these seven monasteries to select him as ajjent in con- 
 ducting their case before the Pope. 3 This divine dispensation 
 was necessary to Luther. It was of consequence that he should 
 know Eome, for monastic prejudices and illusions still influenced 
 him, so much as to make him regard it as the head quarters of 
 holiness. 
 
 ' Hist, fles variat. hook i. 
 
 * Quod soptem coiiventus a vicario in quihnsflani dissrntircnt. (Coch!a?us. 2.) 
 
 * Quod essct accr ingenio et ad contradiccndum audax ot volicmens. (Tliid,) 
 1. V 
 
170 HISTORY OF THE RErORMATIOX. 
 
 Commencing his journey, Luther crossed the Alps, but hardly 
 had he descended into the plains of rich and voluptuous Italy, 
 than he found, at every step, new subjects of astonishment and 
 of scandal. The poor German monk was received by a rich 
 monastery of Benedictines, situate on the Po, in Lombardy. 
 The rent-roll of this religious house amounted to thirty-six 
 thousand ducats; whereof twelve thousand were spent on eat- 
 ing and drinking, another twelve thousand on buildings, and the 
 remaining twelve thousand on the other needs of the monks.^ 
 The richly furnished rooms, beautiful dresses, and exquisite 
 viands, all confounded Luther. Marble, silk, luxury in all its 
 forms; what a new spectacle to the humble friar of the poor 
 monastery of Wittemberg! Ho was astonished, but held his 
 peace; however, when Friday came, what was his surprise, for 
 the table of the Benedictines continued to be covered with abun- 
 dance of animal food! On this he resolved to speak out. 
 
 " The Church,'" said he to them, " and the Pope forbid such 
 things."' The Benedictines were indignant at being thus repri- 
 manded by a coarse German. But Luther having insisted, and 
 having threatened them, perhaps, that he would make their dis- 
 orders known, some thought that the simplest plan would be to 
 make away with their troublesome guest. The porter of the 
 monastery warned him that he ran some risk in staying longer 
 where he was. Accordingly, taking the hint, he escaped from 
 this Epicurean monastery and arrived at Bologna, where he fell 
 dangerously ill.^ Some have considered this illness as the result 
 of an attempt at poisoning; but, it is more natural to suppose 
 that change of diet had affected the frugal monk of Wittem- 
 berg, who had been accustomed to live chiefly on herrings and 
 bread. This illness was not to be unto death but for the glory 
 of God. The low spirits and oppression to which he was natu- 
 rally subject, now laid hold of him. To die thus far from Ger- 
 many, under that burning sky, and in a foreign land — how sad 
 a lot! The anguish he had endured at Erfurt was intensely 
 revived. He was troubled with a sense of his sins, and terri- 
 fied on looking forward to the divine judgment. But just as 
 those terrors had reached their utmost pitch, the words of St. 
 Paul that had struck him at Wittemberg: The just shall lite by 
 faiih, forcibly presented themselves to his mind, and like a ray 
 
 1 L. 0pp. ( W). XXII, p. MGS. ^ Matth. Dresser, Hist. Luthcri. 
 
MliMORlAI.S 01' TIIK PAST IN llOMIC. 171 
 
 from heaven, threw hf^ht into liis souL Refreshed and com- 
 forted, he soon recovered his health and resumed his journey to 
 Rome; expecting to find there quite a diiferent Hfe from that of 
 the Lombardy monasteries, and eager to efface by what he sliould 
 behold of Roman sanctity, the mournful impression left on his 
 mind by his visit to the banks of the Po. 
 
 At last, at the close of a disagreeable journey, performed 
 beneath the scorching sky of Italy, about the beginning of summer, 
 he drew near to the city placed on seven hills. His heart beat 
 with emotion ; liis eyes eagerly looked out for the queen of the 
 world and of the Church. No sooner did he descry, at a dis- 
 tance, the eternal city, the residence of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
 the metropolis of catholicity, than he threw himself on the 
 ground and exclaimed: "Holy Rome, I salute thee!" 
 
 We now find Luther in Rome. The Wittemberg professor 
 stands amid the eloquent ruins of consular and imperial Rome, 
 the Rome of the confessors of Jesus Christ and of the martyrs. 
 There once lived that Plautus and that Virgil, whose works 
 he had taken with liim into the monastery, together with all 
 those great men whose history had often made his heart throb 
 with interest. He finds their statues and the ruins of monu- 
 ments that attest their glory. But all this glory, all this 
 might, had passed away: and he trode the dust of it under his 
 feet. Every step recalls the melancholy presentiment of Scipio, 
 as he wept on beholding the ruins of Carthage, its burnt down 
 palaces and demolished walls, and exclaimed: "Thus shall it be 
 with Rome !" " And in fact," said Luther, " The Rome of the 
 Scipios and the Caesars has been changed into a carcase. Such 
 is the mass of ruins that the foundations of the houses at this 
 day, rest where the roofs formerly were." "And there," he adds 
 casting a sorrowful look over these ruins, "there were piled up 
 the wealth and the treasures of the Avorld!"i All these heaps of 
 rubbish, over which he stumbles at every step, proclaim to 
 Luther, within the very walls of Rome, that what is most 
 mighty in the eyes of man, may be destroyed with the utmost 
 ease by the breath of the Lord. 
 
 But with the ashes of the profane were mingled the ashes of 
 saints, and of this he is not forgetful. The burying place of the 
 martyrs does not lie far from that of the Roman generals and 
 
 1 L. 0pp. (W.) XXII, p. 2374 and 2377. 
 
172 HISTORY OF THK REI-OllMATIOX. 
 
 conquerors, and we may well believe that the sorrows of Chris- 
 tian Rome affected the heart of the Saxon monk, more powerfully 
 than did pagan Rome with all her glory. Here it was that the 
 letter came, in which St. Paul M'rote: The just is justified hy faith. 
 He is not far from Appii Forum and the Three Taverns. There 
 stood the house of Narcissus, here was Caesar's palace, where the 
 Lord delivered the apostle from the jaws of the lion. How 
 many memorials were there, to fortify the heart of the monk of 
 Wittemberg ! 
 
 Rome at that time presented quite a different aspect. The 
 papal see was then filled by Julius H., not by Leo X., as has 
 been said, no doubt from inattention, by some eminent German 
 historians. Luther often related the following anecdote of this 
 Pope. When informed of his armies being defeated by the 
 French before Ravenna, he was engaged in repeating his 
 hours: on hearing the news, he threw down the book, and said 
 with a horrible oath. "Well now ! so thou art become French. Is 
 it thus that thou dost protect thy ChurchT' Then turning him- 
 self in the direction of the country, to the arms of which he 
 thought of applying for succour: "Holy Switzer i pray for us," 
 he added. The spectacle presented by that wretched city, formed 
 a medley of ignorance, frivolity, and dissoluteness ; a profane 
 spirit, contempt of every thing sacred, and a disgraceful traffic 
 in holy things, were every where perceptible ; notwithstanding 
 all which, the pious monk remained for some time influenced by 
 
 its spell. 
 
 When the feast of St. John came round, he heard the Romans 
 about him repeating a proverb which had spread among the 
 common people. "Happy,"" it was said, "is the mother whose 
 son says a mass on St. John's eve.'' "Oh," said Luther to him- 
 self, "how much do I wish I could make my mother happy;" 
 and, accordingly, this pious son of Margaret, wanted to say a 
 mass on that day, but was prevented by the pressure of the 
 
 crowd. ^ 
 
 At once fervent and meek, he made the circuit of all the 
 churches and chapels ; he believed all the lying tales that were 
 told there; he devoutly acquitted himself of all the religious 
 
 ' Sancte Swizere ! ora pro nobis. (L. 0pp. (W.) xxii. p. 1314. and 1332. 
 8 L. 0pp. (W.) Dedication of the 117. psalm. Vlth. Voi,. L. g. 
 
rKOlANKMCSS Ol lllli CJ.LIU.Y. J 7.') 
 
 practices that were there required of him; and was delighted at 
 being able to do so many pious acts which his countrymen liad 
 no opportunity of performing. "Ah how much do I regret," the 
 pious German would say to himself, "that my father and mother 
 are still alive! How delighted should I be to deliver them from 
 the fires of purgatory, by my masses, my prayers, and so many 
 other admirably good deeds." ^ He had found the light; but 
 darkness was still far from being quite expelled from his under- 
 standing. His heart was converted ; still his mind was not yet 
 enlightened; he had faith and love, but he was wanting in 
 knowledge. It was no small matter to come out altogether from 
 that thick darkness which for so many ages had covered the 
 earth. - 
 
 Luther repeatedly said mass at Home, and did it with all the 
 dignity and unction that such an action seemed to require. But 
 what was the sorrow that seized the heart of the Saxon monk, 
 on beholding the sadly profane and mechanical devotion of the 
 Roman priests, while celebrating the sacrament of the altar. 
 One day when he happened to be officiating, seven masses had 
 been read at an adjacent altar before he had read one. " Get on, 
 get on," cried one of the priests, " and let our Lady soon have her 
 Son again," thus impiously alluding to the transubstantiation of 
 bread into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. On another 
 occasion, Luther was only at the gospel when the priest next to 
 him had already finished his mass. "Passa, passa! " cried the 
 latter, "haste you, haste, now do be done with it! 3"" 
 
 Still greater was his astonishment at finding in the dignitaries 
 of the popedom, what he had observed in the common priests. 
 He had hoped better things of the former. 
 
 It was the fashion of the papal court to attack Christianity, 
 and no man could pass for a well bred person who did not hold 
 some wrong, or heretical notion on the doctrines of the Church. 
 An attempt had been made to prove to Erasmus, by passages 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (W.) Dedication of the 117. psalm. VI. Vol. L. g. 
 ' Here, too, we see how all went on gradually and without Luther's seeking. 
 It was God's work ; not his. L. R. 
 
 ^ L. 0pp. (W.) xix. von der Winkelmesse, Mathesius, 6. 
 
 * In quel tempo non pareva fosse galartuomo e buon cortcgiano colui che de 
 dogmi della chiesa non aveva qualche opinion erronea cd heretica. (Carraciola, 
 Vit. msc. Paul. IV., quoted by Ranke. 
 
174 HISTORY OF THE REFORM ATIO.V. 
 
 from Pliny, that there is no difference betwixt the souls of men 
 and beasts; ^ and some of the pope's young courtiers, pretended 
 that the orthodox faith was the produce of the astute inventions 
 of certain Saints.- 
 
 His quality of envoy from the Augustine monks of Germany, 
 brought Luther many invitations to meetings of distinguished 
 ecclesiastics. One day, in particular, he found himself seated 
 at table with several prelates, when these ingenuously shewed 
 themselves off to him in their true character, as men of ribald 
 manners and impious conversation; not scrupling to pass a 
 thousand jokes in his presence; and they, no doubt, judged him 
 to be such an one as themselves. Among other ludicrous stories 
 which they told in the monk's hearing, they related with laughter 
 and gloriation, how in saying mass, at the altar, instead of the 
 sacramental words which were to transubstantiate the bread and 
 the wine into the Saviour's body and blood, they pronounced over 
 the bread and wine, the following words in derision : Panis es et 
 panismanehis^mnum eset vinum manebis, (bread thou art, and bread 
 thou shalt remain; wine thou art, and wine thou shalt remain). 
 Then, continued they, we raise the ostensory and all the people 
 worship. Luther on hearing this could hardly believe his ears. 
 Notwithstanding the remarkable vivacity, and even gaiety he 
 shewed in the company of his friends, his mind was full of serious- 
 ness when sacred things were in question. He was shocked at the 
 pleasantries of Rome. '* I was a grave and pious young monk,"" says 
 he, "and words like these gave me much pain. If at Rome, people 
 talk at table thus freely and publicly, thought I to myself, what 
 if their actions correspond to their words ; and if all, pope, cardi- 
 nals, and courtiers, say mass thus ! And I who have heard them 
 read devoutly so very many, how they must have deceived me ! " 3 
 
 Luther minaled much with the monks and the citizens of Rome; 
 among whom, some might cry up the pope and his party, the 
 greater number gave free vent to their complaints and sarcasms, 
 what had they not to relate of the pope then reigning, of Alex- 
 ander VI., and of so many others ! His Roman friends told him 
 one day how Csesar Borgia, after having fled from Rome, was 
 
 ' Burigny's life of Erasmus, i. 139. 
 
 2 E medio Romanje curia?, sectam juvenum. . qui asserebant nostram 
 
 fidem orthodoxam potius quibusdam sanctorum astutiis subsistere (Paul Caa- 
 ensius. Vita Pauli. II.) 
 
 ^ L. 0pp. (W.) xix. von der Winkelmesse. 
 
DISORDERS IN HOME. ] 73 
 
 taken prisoner in Spain ; that when al)out to be brought to trial, 
 he cried for mercy while in prison, and asked for a confessor. A 
 monk was sent to him. This monk he murdered, disguised 
 himself under his hood, and escaped. "This have I heard in 
 Rome for certain," ^ says Luther. Another day, as he happened 
 to be passing along the great street that leads to St. Peter's 
 church, he stop't in amazement before a statue in stone, repre- 
 senting a pope in the form of a woman, holding a sceptre in 
 her hand, attired in the papal mantle, and with an infant in her 
 arms. It is a girl from Maintz, he is told, whom the cardinals 
 elected pope, and who was brought to bed of a child at this spot- 
 Accordingly never does a pope pass along this street. " I am 
 amazed," says Luther, "that the popes should tolerate such a 
 statue." - 
 
 Luther had expected to find the edifice of the Church encircled 
 with might and splendour; but he found her doors driven in 
 and her walls consumed with fire. He looked round on the 
 desolations of the sanctuary, and recoiled with horror from the 
 sight. He had dreamed of nothing but holiness, and discovered 
 nothing but profanation. 
 
 Nor was he less struck with the disorders that prevailed 
 outside the churches. "The police of Rome," he used to say, 
 *' is harsh and severe. The magistrate, or captain, traverses the 
 city every night on horse-back, with a train of three hundred 
 servitors; he stops all persons whom he meets in the streets, 
 and should he find an armed man there, he hangs him or throws 
 him into the Tiber. And yet the city is full of disorders and 
 murders; whereas, wherever the Word of God is purely and 
 honestly preached, order and peace are found to reign, without 
 any need for the law and its rigours.""^ — 'It is not to be believed 
 how many sins and infamous actions are committed in Rome," 
 he says farther ; " one must see and hear, if he would believe 
 this." He was wont to say likewise; " If there be a hell, Rome 
 is built over above it; it is an abyss whence all sins proceed." '* 
 
 Even at that time, Luther''s mind was deeply impressed with 
 
 ' Das lialie Teh zu Rome fiir gewiss gehbrt. (L. Opp. (W.)xxii. p. 1322., 
 
 * Es niinint mich Wunder dass die Pabste solclics Bild leiden kbiinen. (Ibid 
 p. 1320.) 
 
 « L. Opp. (W.) xxii. p. 2376. 
 
 * 1st irgend cine llopllc, so niu.'ss Rome daraxif gebaut seyn. (Ibid p. 23T7.) 
 
176 
 
 HISTORY OF TIJfc; IlEFOUMATIOX. 
 
 what he saw, and at a later period the impression became still 
 stronger. " The nearer one gets to Rome, the more bad Chris- 
 tians does he find," said he, many years afterwards. "It is 
 commonly said, that he who goes to Rome, for the first time, 
 seeks for a knave ; that the second time he finds him ; and that 
 the third time, he takes him with him, at the moment of his 
 leaving the place. But people have become so clever now, that 
 all three journeys are made in one." ^ On'e of the most sadly 
 celebrated, but one too, of the most profound geniuses of Italy, 
 Machiavel, who was living at Florence when Luther passed 
 through that city, on his way to Rome, makes the same remark: 
 " The greatest symptom," said he, " of the approaching ruin of 
 Christianity (meaning thereby Roman Catholicism) is, that the 
 nearer the nations are to the capital of Christendom, the less do 
 we find in them of a Christian spirit. The scandalous examples 
 and the crimes of the court of Rome, are the cause of Italy having 
 lost all principles of piety and all religious feelings." "We 
 Italians," this great historian goes on to say, "have chiefly to thank 
 the Church and the priests, for having become impious persons 
 and cut-throats." 2 Luther, at a later date, could fully appreciate 
 the advantages of this journey: " Not for an hundred thousand 
 florins," he would say, " would I have missed seeing Rome." ^ 
 
 In relation to learning, also, this journey proved of the greatest 
 advantage to him. Like Reuchlin, he contrived to make his 
 stay in Italy subservient to his obtaining a deeper insight 
 into holy Scripture ; taking lessons in Hebrew, from a celebrated 
 Rabbin, called Elias Levita, and acquiring in part at Rome his 
 knowledge of that divine Word, under whose blows Rome was 
 destined to fall. ^ 
 
 But it was chiefly in another respect, that this journey to Rome 
 was of great importance to Luther. Not only was the veil 
 withdrawn so as to reveal to the future reformer the sneering 
 laugh, and the ribald infidelity that lay concealed behind the 
 Roman superstitions; but, more than this, the living faith which 
 God had implanted in him, was then mightily strengthened. 
 
 1 Address to the cLristian nobility of the German nation. 
 
 ' Dissertation on the first Decad of Livv. 
 
 a 100,000 Gulden. (L. 0pp. (W.) xxii, p.*23T't.) 
 
 * Even the blind, but not the willfully blind, may recognise in this journey of 
 Luther to Rome, the superintendence of God in forming, and fitting liim for tha 
 grand work of the Reformation. — L. R. 
 
INl'LUENCE 01' illK UlULE ON KUTllKKS lAllH. 177 
 
 We have seen how he gave himself up at fust to all the vain 
 praetices which the Church had established, as the price to bo 
 paid for the expiation of sins. Now, it happened that one day 
 amon"- others, he wanted to gain an indulgence which had been 
 promised by the Pope, to whoever should go up what is called 
 Pilate's stair-case, on his knees ; and the poor Saxon monk was 
 meekly crawling up the steps which he was told had been trans- 
 ported from Jerusalem to Rome by a miracle. But while 
 acquitting himself of this meritorious act, he thought that he 
 heard a voice loud as thunder, which cried to his inmost soul, as 
 at Wittemberg and Bologna: the just shall live bt/ faith! These 
 w ords, which had already twice come upon him, as if spoken by 
 an angel of God, resounded incessantly and powerfully within 
 him. He rose, in great alarm, from the steps up which he had been 
 drairging his body ; he was horrified at himself, and mortified to 
 see to what a pitch superstition had degraded him. He then 
 fled to a distance from the scene of his folly. ^ 
 
 That strong expression had a mysterious influence on the life 
 of Luther. It was a creative word in regard both to the 
 reformer and the Reformation. By it God then said: " Let 
 there be light and there was light." 
 
 It often happens that before a truth can produce the effect 
 which it ought to have on our minds, it must be repeatedly 
 pressed upon us. Luther had bestowed much study on the 
 Epistle to the Romans, yet never had he seen justification by 
 faith, as taught there, in so clear a light. Now it is that he 
 comprehends that righteousness which alone can stand before 
 God; now it is, that he receives for himself from the hand of 
 Christ, that obedience which God gratuitously imputes to the 
 sinner, from the time that he humbly looks to the God-man 
 crucified. Here we find the decisive epoch in the inward life 
 of Luther. That faith which had delivered him from the terrors 
 of death, becomes the soul of his theology, his fortress in all 
 dangers, the weight of his words, the force of his charity, the 
 foundation of his peace, the spur that urged him on in labour, 
 his consolation in life and in death. 
 
 Now, this great doctrine of a salvation flowing from God, and 
 
 ' Seckciidorff, p. 5<}. 
 
178 HISTORY OF THE REFORJiATION, 
 
 not from man, was not only the power of God in saving Luther''s 
 own soul; but it became likewise the power of God for the 
 reformation of the Church. It was the effective weapon wielded 
 by the apostles; a weapon too long neglected, but taken out at 
 length, in all its original brightness, from the arsenal of the 
 mighty God. The moment that Luther rose up at Rome, deeply 
 affected and overwhelmed by the word which had been addressed 
 by Paul to the inhabitants of that metropolis, fifteen centuries 
 before, truth, which till then had lain sadly captive and bound 
 in the Church, rose up too, never to fall any more. 
 
 Here we must mark his own words. " Holy and blameless 
 as I might be, as a monk," said he, " my conscience, neverthe- 
 less, was full of trouble and anguish. I could not endure that 
 expression, the righteousness of God. I had no love for that 
 righteous and holy God who punishes sinners. I was secretly 
 incensed against Him; I hated Him, inasmuch as, not content 
 with bringing the law and the miseries of this life, to intimidate 
 us poor creatures, when already lost by original sin, He still 
 farther augmented our torment by the gospel. . . . But 
 when, by the Spirit of God, I understood those words, when I 
 learned how the justification of the sinner proceeds from the 
 Lord's mere mercy through the medium of faith, l . . . then 
 I felt myself born again, like a new man; then the gates were 
 thrown open, and I entered into the very paradise of God. 2 
 From that time, too, I saw dear holy scripture with eyes alto- 
 gether new. I went through the whole Bible, and collected a 
 great many passages which taught me in what the work of God 
 consisted. And whereas, before that, I most cordially hated that 
 expression, righteousness of God, I began thenceforth to appreci- 
 ate it, and to love it, as the sweetest and most consolatory. 
 Truly, those words of Paul were to me the very gate of para- 
 dise." 
 
 When called, too, on solemn occasions to confess this doc- 
 trine, Luther's enthusiasm and rude energy never failed him. 
 " I see," said he at an important moment,^ " that by the agency 
 
 ' Qua V08 Deus misericors justificat per fidem. . . . (L. 0pp. lat. in 
 praif. ) 
 
 ^ Hie me prorsas rcn.atum esse sensi et apertis portis in ipsum paradisum 
 intrasse. (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ Gloss on the Imperial Edict, ir.fll. (L. 0pp. (L) vol. xx.) 
 
Luther's confession. — ins uetukn to wriTEMitEiiG. 171i 
 
 of his doctors, the devil is unceasing in his attacks on this fun- 
 damental article, and that with regard to it, he can neither cease 
 nor take repose. Well then, I, doctor Martin Luther, unworthy 
 evangelist of our Lord Jesus Christ, confess this article, that faith 
 alone justifies before God., without works, and I declare that the 
 emperor of the Romans, the emperor of the Turks, the emperor 
 of the Tartars, the emperor of the Persians, the Pope, all the 
 cardinals, the bisho{)s, priests, monks, nuns, kings, princes, lords, 
 all the world and all devils, ought to leave it standing, and allow 
 it so to remain for ever. That if they will take in hand to 
 impugn this truth, they will draw upon them the flames of hell. 
 It is there that we find the true and holy gospel, and my declara- 
 tion, that of me doctor Luther, according to the light of the Holy 
 Ghost." . . . "No one," he continues, " has died for our 
 sins, if it be not Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I say it once 
 more, were the whole world, and all the devils, to rend each 
 other, and to burst with rage, this is not the less true for all 
 that. And if it be he alone who takes away our sins, it cannot 
 be we, with our works. But good works follow redemption, as 
 the fruit appears upon the tree. Such is our doctrine ; it is that 
 which the Holy Ghost, and with it, all holy Christendom, teach. 
 We shall maintain it in the name of God. Amen." 
 
 Thus did Luther find what had been wanting, in a certain 
 degree at least, to all the doctors and reformers, even the most 
 illustrious. It was in Rome that God gave him this clear view 
 of the fundamental doctrine of Christianity. He had come to 
 the city of the pontiffs in search of the solution of certain diffi- 
 culties respecting an order of monkhood, he took away with him, 
 in his heart, the salvation of the Church. 
 
 VII. Luther left Rome and returned to Wittemberg, with a 
 heart swelling with grief and indignation. Turning with disgust 
 from the contemplation of the pontifical city, he looked with hope 
 to the Holy Scriptures, and to that new life which the Word of 
 God seemed to promise to the world. That Word gained in his 
 heart all that the Church had lost there; and when, setting 
 himself loose from the one, he turned towards the other, the 
 whole Reformation was involved in that movement, for it placed 
 God where the priest had been. 
 
 Staupitz, and the emperor, did not lose sight of the monk 
 
IgQ HISTORY or THE REl-ORMATION'. 
 
 whom tliey had called to the university of Wittemberg. It 
 would appear that the vicar-general had a presentiment of the 
 work which was about to be accomplished in the world ; and that 
 in the consciousness that it was too much for him to undertake, 
 he wished to urjre Luther to do so. Nothino: is more remark- 
 able, nothing perhaps more mysterious, than this personage, 
 whom we find at every turn hurrying the monk into the course 
 to which God was calling him, and who then goes himself and 
 ruefully ends his days in a monastery. The young professor''s 
 preaching had made a deep impression on the prince; he 
 admired the powers of his genius, his nervous eloquence, and the 
 excellence of his matter. ^ The elector and his friend, wishing to 
 promote a man who was the subject of such high hopes, resolved 
 to make him take the elevated degree of doctor in theology. 
 Staupitz went to the monastery, took Luther with him into the 
 cloister garden ; and there, while alone with him, under 2 a tree 
 which Luther was fond of showing to his disciples, the venerable 
 father said to him: " You must now, ni}' friend, become a doctor 
 of Holy Scripture." Luther shrank from the idea; it was an 
 honour that frightened him. " Look about for some worthier 
 person," he replied, " as for me, I cannot consent to it."" The 
 vicar-general insisted. " The Lord God has much to do in the 
 Church; he now needs young and vigorous doctors." "This 
 may have been said in raillery," adds Melanchthon, " yet it was 
 confirmed by the event; for many presages ordinarily precede 
 great rerolutions."^ It is not necessary to suppose that Melanch- 
 thon here means miraculous prophecies. Even the most unbe- 
 lieving age, such as that preceding our own, has seen this opinion 
 verified ; for how many presages, without there being any mira- 
 cle, preceded the revolution that brought it to a close ! 
 
 "But I am weak and sickly," replied Luther; "I have no 
 long time to live. Look about for a strong man." " The Lord," 
 replied the vicar-general, " has work to do in heaven as well 
 as upon earth; dead or alive, God requires you to be in his 
 council." ^ 
 
 ' Vim ingenii, nervos orationis, ac rerum bonitatem expositarum in concioni- 
 bus admiratus fuerat. (Melancht. Vita Luth.) 
 
 ^ Unter einem Baum, den er mir und andern gezcigt. (Math. 6.) 
 
 ^ Multa precedunt mutationes prscsagia. (Vita Lutheri.) 
 
 * Ihr lebet nun odersterbet, so darff cuch Gott in seinem Rathe. (Mathcs. 6.) 
 
IX'llIKH MAUK A HOI TOK. — CAKI.STADT. 181 
 
 " None but the Holy Cliost can create a doctor in tlicology," ' 
 exclaimed the monk, with ever-increasing alarm. "Do what 
 vour monastery calls on you to do," said Staui)itz, " and what I 
 myself, your vicar-general, command; for you have come under 
 a promise to obey us." " But my poverty T' replied the friar, 
 " for I have nothing out of which to pay the expenses which 
 such a promotion involves." " You need not disquiet yourself 
 about that," said his friend ; " the prince has been so gracious 
 as to charge himself with all the expenses." Thus pressed on 
 every side, Luther thought himself obliged to yield. 
 
 It was towards the close of the summer, 1512, that Luther 
 went to Leipzic to receive from the elector's treasurers, the 
 money required for his promotion. According to what is common 
 in courts, the money was not to be had. The friar grew impatient 
 and wanted to go away, but was withheld by his vow of obedi- 
 ence. At length, on the fourth of October, he received from 
 Pfeflfinger and from John Doltzig, fifty florins ; giving them a 
 discharge for this sum, in which he assumes no higher quality 
 than that of monk. " I Martin," says he, " friar of the Order of 
 Hermits." - Luther lost no time in returning to Wittemberg. 
 
 Andrew Bodenstein, of the city of Oarlstadt, was then Dean 
 of the faculty of theology, and by the name of Oarlstadt that 
 doctor is chiefly known. He was, also, called the A, B, 0; 
 a name first given him by Melanchthon, and suggested by the 
 three initials of his name. Bodenstein acquired the first 
 elements of literature in his native country. He was of a grave 
 and demure character, apt perhaps to be jealous, and of a rest- 
 less temper; but eagerly desirous of learning, and gifted with a 
 large capacity. He went through several universities with a view 
 of augmenting his knowledge, and studied theology even at 
 Rome. On his return from Italy into Germany, he fixed him- 
 self at Wittemberg, and there became doctor of theology. " At 
 this period," he says of himself, at a later date, "I had not yet 
 read Holy Scripture;" ^ a fact which gives us a most correct 
 idea of the theology of that time. In addition to his functions 
 
 ' Neminem nisi Spiritum Sanctum crearo posse doc toremthcologia". ("Wcis- 
 manni Ilistoria. Eccl. i. p. 1404.) 
 ■' L. Epp. i. p. 11. 
 ^ Weismanni, Hist. Eccl. d. 141C. 
 
1S2 HISTORY OF THE RKI'OUMATION. 
 
 as professor he was a canon and arch-deacon. Such is the man 
 who was afterwards to divide the Reformation. At that time he 
 regarded Luther merely as an inferior ; but the Augustinian friar 
 soon became an object that excited his jealousy. " I do not wish 
 to be less great than Luther," ^ said he one day. Very far from 
 then foreseeing the greatness to which the young professor was 
 destined, Carlstadt conferred on his future rival the highest 
 university dignity. 
 
 On the 18th of October, 1512, Luther was received licentiate in 
 theology, and took this oath: "T swear that I will defend evan- 
 gelical truth with all my power.""- On the following day, Boden- 
 stein, in the midst of a numerous assembly, invested him with 
 the insignia of doctor of theology. He was made biblical doc- 
 tor, and not doctor of sentences, ^ and thus was called on to 
 devote himself to the study of the Bible, and not to that of 
 human traditions. He, then, as he tells us, swore fealty to his 
 beloved holy Scripture. ^ He engaged to preach it faithfully, to 
 teach it purely, to study it during his whole life, and to defend it, 
 by his disputations and Avritings, against all false doctors, so far 
 as God should enable him. 
 
 This solemn oath was, for Luther, his call to be a reformer. 
 By laying his conscience under the sacred obligation of freely 
 investigating, and boldly announcing Christian truth, this oath 
 raised the new doctor above the narrow limits within which he 
 might have been confined by his monastic vow. Called by the 
 university and by his sovereign, in the name of the imperial 
 majesty and of the see of Rome itself, engaged in the sight of 
 God by the most sacred oath, he was, thenceforth, the intrepid 
 herald of the Word of life. On that memorable day, Luther 
 was armed knight of the Bible. 
 
 We may add, that this oath of allegiance to Holy Scripture, 
 may perhaps be regarded as one of the causes that led to the 
 renovation of the Church. For the first and fundamental prin- 
 ciple of the Reformation lay in the sole infallible authority of 
 the Word of God; and all the reformations in detail, subse- 
 
 ' "Weismann, Ilist. Eccl. p. 1416. 
 
 * Juro mo veritatcni evangelicam virilitcr defensurum. 
 3 Doctor biblicus, not sententiarius. (Melanchton,) 
 
 * L. Oi>i). (W.) xvi. p. 20t31. (Matbosius. p. 7.) 
 
GllAN!) rUINCUM.E Ol" TllK KKIOHAIATIO.V. 183 
 
 quently effected in the doctrines, morals, and goverunicut of tlio 
 Church, and in public worship, were but the following out of that 
 first principle. It is hardly possible, at this day, to iuiagiue 
 the sensation that must have been produced by this elementary 
 truth; a truth so simple, and yet for so many ages unknown. 
 A few men only, of larger views than the common herd, foresaw 
 its inmiense consequences. Soon did the bold voices of all the 
 Reformers proclaim this mighty principle, the reverberation of 
 which was to make Rome crumble into dust: "Let not Christians 
 receive any doctrines but such as rest on the express words of 
 Jesus Christ, of the apostles, and of the prophets. No man, no 
 assembly of doctors, has any right to innovate upon these." 
 
 Luther's situation now underwent a change. The vocation 
 he had received, was to the Reformer, like one of those extra- 
 ordinary calls which the Lord addressed to the prophets under 
 the old dispensation, and to the apostles under the new. ^ The 
 solemn engagements which he had undertaken made so profound 
 an impression on his soul, that the remembrance of that oath, 
 in the sequel, sufficed to console him amid the utmost dangers, 
 and the rudest struggles. Even when he beheld all Europe 
 upheaved and shaken by the doctrine he had announced; 
 when the accusations of Rome, the reproaches of many pious 
 men, the doubts and alarms of his own heart, at all times so 
 easily agitated, seemed likely to make him waver, lose heart, 
 and sink into despair, he called to mind the oath he had sworn, 
 and remained calm, stedfast, and full of joy. "I have gone 
 forward in the name of the Lord,"" said he at a critical conjunc- 
 
 • We must correctly understand what is here said by the worthy author, that 
 it may not be made a pretext for renewing the charge that we ascribe an extr<i~ 
 ordinary call to the Reformers. It might well be compared to the extraordi- 
 nary call addressed to the prophets and apostles, in so far as respects the 
 privilege and the duty of again bringing to light the truths of scripture wlica 
 these were consigned to darkness, and vigorously maintaining them against the 
 errors that had crept into their place. For this there was ample ground, 
 looking to the solemn oath taken by Luther, and his right to interfere becomes 
 the stronger as we observe how, in a legitimate way indeed, yet by God's 
 special appointment, he was raised to the degree of doctor against his own 
 wishes, called on that occasion to take the oath, and at the same time gifted 
 with true light for understanding the Holy Scriptures. Truly it was God who 
 culled him in a special and impicssive manner, and yet everytliing went on in 
 its ordinary course, so that there was no need for his call being confirmed by 
 miracles. Tlius was it with all the retormers, as the sequel of tlieir history wiil 
 show. None engngcd in the work M-ithout a call, yet none pretended to any, 
 properly speaking, extraordinary call. — L. R. 
 
184 HISTORY OF THE REFOUMA'l'lOX. 
 
 ture, "and I have committed myself into his hands. His will 
 be done! Who asked Him to create me a doctor? ... If 
 it be He who has created me one, let him sustain me ! or if He 
 repent of having done so, let Him supersede me ! Hence this 
 tribulation frightens me not. I seek but one thing, and that 
 is, that I may continue to enjoy the Lord's favour in all that 
 he calls on me to do, as a fellow-worker with Him." Another 
 time he said: "He who undertakes any thing without a divine 
 call, seeks his own glory. Now I, doctor Martin Luther, was 
 constrained to become a doctor. The popedom would fain stop 
 me in the discharge of my duty, but you see what has happened, 
 and much worse will yet take place: they cannot defend them- 
 selves against me. 1 would, in God's name, march against lions, 
 and tread under foot dragons and serpents. This will be begun 
 in my life-time, and will be accomplished after my death." ^ 
 
 From the hour in which he took his oath Luther no longer 
 sought out the truth for his own sake only ; he sought it for the 
 sake of the Church. Still full of his recollections of Rome, he 
 but dimly perceived a career lying before him, in which he pro- 
 mised to himself to advance with the whole energy of his soul. 
 The spiritual life which hitherto had been manifesting itself 
 within him, now began to extend itself without, so that this was 
 the third period of his development. His entering the monas- 
 tery had directed his thoughts towards God; his becoming 
 acquainted with the remission of sins, and with the righteous- 
 ness of faith, had set his soul at liberty; his oath as doctor had 
 given him that baptism of fire by which he w^as to become the 
 reformer of the Church.- 
 
 The first adversaries he attacked were those famous schoolmen 
 whom he himself had so much studied, and who then reigned as 
 lords paramount, in all the academies. He charged them with 
 Pelagianism; and strenuously opposing Aristotle, the father of 
 the school, and Thomas Acquinas, he undertook to cast both 
 these from the throne from which they gave the law% the former 
 in philosophy, and the latter in theology.^ 
 
 1 L. 0pp. (W.) xxi. 2061. 
 
 ' Here we find what was precisely the course of Luther's forming and fitting 
 for his work, sketched and summed up in a few words. — L. R. 
 
 2 Aristotelem in philosophicis, San^'tum Thomain in theologicis, evertcndos 
 suscci-erat. (Pallavicini i. IG.) 
 
THE SCHOOLMEN-— SPALAIA. 
 
 Ibo 
 
 He wrote to L;inge that "Aristotle, I'orpliyry, tlio theologians 
 of sentences (the schoohnen) ai'e the barren studies of our ' agt;. 
 I desire nothing more ardently than to unmask to many tliis 
 play-actor who has duped the Church by putting on a Greek 
 mask, and to show his ignominy to all."-^ In all j)ublic disputa- 
 tions he was heard to say: "the writings of the apostles and of 
 the prophets, are more certain, and more sublime, than all the 
 sophisms and all the theology of the school." Such words 
 sounded strange at first, but people gradually became accustomed 
 to them, and about a year later he could triumphantly say: " God 
 is at work. Our theology and Saint Augustine succeed to 
 admiration, and carry all before them at our university. Aris- 
 totle is losing ground; he is already tottering to his near and 
 everlasting fall. The lectures on the sentences are admirably 
 wearisome, and, indeed, no one can hope to have hearers who 
 does not possess the theology of the Bible." Happy the 
 university which can have such testimony in its favour ! 
 
 Luther, while attacking Aristotle, at the same time took part 
 with Erasmus and Reuchlin against their enemies. With these 
 great men, and with others among the learned, such as Pirck- 
 heimer, Mutian, Hutten, all belonging more or less to the same 
 party, he entered into intimate ties; at this time, likewise, he 
 formed another friendship which proved of the utmost impor- 
 tance to him during the rest of his life. 
 
 There then lived at the elector's court, George Spalatin, a 
 man of remarkable wisdom and candour. He was a native ot 
 Spalatus, or Spalt, in the bishoprick of Eichstadt ; and began 
 life as parish priest of the village of Hohenkirch, near the 
 forests of Thuringia. He was afterwards selected by Frederick 
 the Wise, as his secretary, his chaplain, and preceptor to his 
 nephew, John Frederick, who was subsequently to wear the 
 electoral crown. Retaining his simplicity even in the midst oi 
 a court, Spalatin nevertheless appeared faint-hearted in the pre- 
 sence of great events; and when compared with the ardent 
 Luther, with whom he maintained a daily correspondence, ho 
 was like his master, circumspect and prudent.3 He resembled 
 
 ' Perdita studi.i nostri spdcuU. Epp. i. 15. (8th Fel). 151 G.) 
 
 » Ep. i. 57. (dated 18th May, 1517.) 
 
 ^ ftccunduni gonium hcri sui. ( Weismami, Hist. Eccl. i. p. ! 131.) 
 
 1. ' 'I A 
 
18G HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 Staupitz, in being made for peaceful rather than for troubled 
 times. Such men are necessary: they are like the soft sub- 
 stances in which jewels and crystals are wrapt for the purpose of 
 protecting them from injury on a journey; apparently useless, 
 yet without which such valuables would be broken and destroyed. 
 Spalatin was not a man fitted for great undertakings; but he 
 acquitted himself faithfully and without noise, of the task 
 assigned to him.^ He began by being one of his master's chief 
 helpers, in collecting those relics of saints of which Frederick 
 was long an amateur; but with that prince he inclined gradually 
 to the side of truth. Not that the faith which was then re-ap- 
 pearing in the Church, made the vivid impression upon him that 
 it did upon Luther; he was led on by slower methods. He 
 became Luther's friend at court, the minister through whose 
 hands all matters between the reformer and the princes, passed, 
 and the mediator between the Church and the State, The 
 elector honoured Spalatin with great intimacy ; so much so, that 
 in travelling they were always in the same carriage?'^ We have 
 to add that the air of the court was often oppressive to the 
 good chaplain; he was subject to fits of profound melancholy; 
 he would fain have relinquished all these honours and returned, 
 as simple pastor, to the woods of Thuringia. But Luther 
 exhorted him to remain firm at his post. Spalatin was generally 
 esteemed, and had testimonies of the most sincere regard given 
 him both by the princes and the learned men of that time. Eras- 
 mus said: "I inscribe the name of Spalatin not only among my 
 chief friends, but, still more, among those of my most vene- 
 rated protectors ; and that, not on paper but on my heart. ^ 
 
 The afiair of Reuchlin and the monks was then making a 
 great noise in Germany; and it was one in which even the most 
 pious men were often at a loss which part to take, for the monks 
 wanted to destroy Jewish books containing blasphemies against 
 Christ. The elector instructed his chaplain on this point to 
 consult the Wittemberg doctor, whose reputation already stood 
 high. The following is the answer sent by Luther, and it is the 
 first letter that he addressed to the court preacher. 
 
 1 Fideliter et sine strepitu fungens. (Ibid.) 
 
 * Qui cum principe in rheda sive lectico soliius est fcrri. (Corpus Kclbrnia- 
 torum, i. 33.) 
 ^ Melch. Ad. Vita Spalat., p. 100. 
 
REUCIILIn's AFrAU!. I'M III. 187 
 
 »' What shall 1 say ? These monks say they want to expel 
 Beelzebub, — not however by the finger of God. I cease not to 
 lament and groan over this. We Christians— we would begin 
 with being wise abroad, and at home wo are fools ?^ There are 
 blasphemies, a hundred times worse than those of the Jews, in 
 all the public places of Jerusalem; and everything there teems 
 with spiritual idols. These enemies at home we ought to set 
 ourselves with a noble zeal to remove and destroy. But what is 
 urgent we leave untouched, and the devil himself persuades us 
 to abandon what concerns ourselves, at the same time that he 
 thwarts our attempts to correct what concerns others.' 
 
 VIII. Luther did not lose himself in this quarrel. His heart 
 and life were engrossed by a living faith in Christ. " In my 
 heart," says he, " reigns alone, and alone likewise ought there to 
 reign, faith in my Saviour Jesus Christ, who alone is the begin- 
 ning, the middle, and the end of all the thoughts that occupy 
 my mind, night and day."'^ 
 
 All his hearers listened to him with admiration, while he spoke 
 of this faith in Jesus Christ, whether from the professor's chair 
 or from the pulpit. Light flowed from his instructions. People 
 were astonished at not having sooner acknowledged truths which 
 in his mouth seemed so evident. " The desire of self-justifica- 
 tion," he used to say, " is the source of all the pangs that are 
 felt by mans heart. But he that receives Jesus Christ as a 
 Saviour, has peace ; and not only peace, but pureness of heart. 
 All sanctification of heart is a fruit of faith. For faith is in 
 us a divine operation which changes us, and gives us a new 
 birth, derived from God himself. It slays Adam in us; and 
 by the Holy Spirit, which it communicates to us, it gives 
 us a new heart, and makes us new men." " It is not by 
 crude speculations," he farther asserts, " but it is in this prac- 
 tical way3 that a man can obtain a saving knowledge of Jesus 
 Christ. 4 
 
 It was then that Luther preached those discourses on the ten 
 
 ' Foris sapere et domi desipere. (L. Epp. i. p. 8.) 
 
 * Pra3f. ad Gal. 
 
 ^ Non per speculationem, sed per banc viam practicam. 
 
 * Thus it was not any desire to procure fame to himself as the author of new 
 doctrine, but it was the workings of his own conscience that made Luther 
 acquainted with the truth, and made him so ardently desirous that it should 
 be preached anew. — L. R. 
 
138 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIO.V. 
 
 commandments, which have come down to ms under the title of 
 popular declamations. Errors, no doubt, occur in these dis- 
 courses; Luther himseh* was enlightened but by little and little; 
 the path of the just is like the shining light, which shineth more 
 and more unto the perfect day ; yet how much truth do we find 
 in them; how much simplicity; how much eloquence! It is 
 well that we should thoroughly comprehend the effect which 
 such a preacher must have produced on his auditory, and on 
 his age ! We shall quote but one passage, taken from the com- 
 mencement. 
 
 Luther entered the pulpit at Wittemberg and read these 
 words: Thou shalt have no other gods. Addressing himself then 
 to the people who filled the sanctuary, he said: "All the sons 
 of Adam are idolaters, and guilty of transgressing this first 
 commandment." ^ 
 
 No doubt, this strange assertion surprised the auditory. It 
 was necessary to justify it, and the speaker went on as follows-: 
 "There are two kinds of idolatry; the one external, and the 
 other internal. 
 
 "There is outward idolatry, in which man worships wood, 
 stone, beasts, the stars. 
 
 " There is inward idolatry, in which man, dreading punisli- 
 ment, or consulting his own ease, does not, indeed, perform acts 
 of worship to the creature, but inwardly loves it and confides 
 in it. . . 
 
 " What a religion is this ! You do not bow the knee before 
 riches and honours, but you make them an oftering of your 
 hearts, the most noble part of yourselves. . . . Ah, you 
 worship God with your bodies, and the creature with your souls. 
 
 " This idolatry reigns in every man, until freely healed by 
 the faith which is in Jesus Christ. 
 
 " And how is this healing effected? 2 
 
 " As follows. Faith in Christ takes from you all confidence 
 in your own wisdom, in your own righteousness, in your own 
 strength ; it teaches you that if Christ had not died for you, and 
 
 1 Omnes filii Adto sunt idololatras. (Decern pro3cepta Wittcmliergensi populo 
 prsedicata per R. P. D. Martinum Lutherum Aug. anno 151G.) These dis- 
 courses were delivered in German: we quote the Latin edition, i. p. 1. 
 
 2 Nisi ipse pro te mortuus esset, teque servaret, nee tu, nee omnis crcatur 
 tihi posset prodesse. (Ibid.) 
 
LITIlKllS 1'01'ULAll DECLAMATION'S. 181) 
 
 had not thus saved you, neither you, nor any creature, could 
 have henefittcd you. ^ ou then learn to despise all these things, 
 for to you they remain useless. 
 
 "• There remains nothing for you hut Jesus, none but Jesus, 
 Jesus alone, Jesus fully sufficing for your soul. No longer 
 hoping any thing from all creatures, you have nothing but Christ, 
 from whom you hope all, and whom you love above all. 
 
 "Now, Jesus is the true, one, only God, whom having, none 
 other God do you have." • 
 
 Thus does Luther show how the soul is brought back to Gud, 
 its chief goo<l, by the gospel; following that word of Christ: / 
 am the icay: no man cometh unto the Father but by me. The man 
 who thus addresses his age, would do more than merely subvert 
 some abuses; his grand aim is to establish true religion. His 
 work is not merely negative; in the first instance it is positive, 
 
 Luther next directs his discourse against the superstitions with 
 which Christendom was then over-run ; mysterious signs and 
 characters, the observance of certain days and certain months, 
 familiar demons, ghosts, the influence of the stars, witches, 
 metamorphoses, incubuses and succubuses, the patronage of 
 saints, &c. &c. &c., he attacks these idols one after another, and 
 vigorously assails these false gods. 
 
 But it was at the academy chiefly, and in the presence of 
 young men of intelligent minds, and thirsting for truth, that 
 Luther opened out the treasures of the Word of God. His 
 illustrious friend Melanchthon tells us, that " his manner of 
 expounding the scriptures was such, that in the judgment of all 
 enlightened and pious men, it was as if a new day were dawning 
 on doctrine, after a long deep night. He showed the difterenco 
 between law and gospel. He refuted the error, then predominant 
 in the churches and the schools, which held that men merited 
 the forgiveness of sins by their own works, and are made righte- 
 ous before God, by an external discipline. He thus recalled 
 men s minds to the Son of God. 2 Like John the Baptist, he 
 pointed to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the 
 
 ' At Jesus est verus, unus, solus Deus, quern cum liabes, non habes alicn\iiu 
 ileum. (Ibiil.) 
 
 ^ Revocavit igitur Lutherus hominum mentes ad Filium Dei. (Melanchton 
 Vit. Lutli.) 
 
]^oy msTOUY or tiik i;ki-uumaiiOx\. 
 
 world; lie made people comprehend that men's sins are freely 
 pardoned for the sake of the Son of God, and that man receives 
 this benefit by faith. He made no change in ceremonies; on . 
 the contrary, no man in all his order, more faithfully observed 
 and defended established discipline. But he strove more and 
 more to make all comprehend those great and essential doc- 
 trines, that of conversion, that of the forgiveness of sins, faith, 
 and the true consolations that are to be found in the cross. All 
 godly persons were greatly taken with the sweetness of this 
 doctrine; it was grateful even to the learned. ^ It might have 
 been said that Christ, and the apostles, and prophets, had come 
 forth out of darkness, and from a loathsome dungeon.'' 2 
 
 Luther's teaching derived great authority from the firmness 
 with which he rested on Scripture, but other circumstances added 
 farther to his weight. His life corresponded to his words, and 
 all knew that his discourses had a deeper origin than the lips 
 from which they fell.3 They came from the heart, and were exem- 
 plified in all that he did. And when, subsequently, the Refor- 
 mation burst forth, many influential men, who looked on with 
 "•reat irrief at the rendings of the Church, had been already so 
 much pre-possessed in the Reformer's favour, by the sanctity of 
 his manners and the charms of his genius, that not only did 
 they not oppose him, but even embraced the doctrine to which 
 his works rendered such a testimony. ^ 
 
 The more a man loved the Christian virtues, the more did he 
 lean to the Reformer. All honest divines were in his favour. ^ 
 This is what is said by such as knew him; in particular, by 
 Melanchthon, the wisest man of his age, and by Erasmus, 
 Luther's illustrious adversary. Envy and prejudice alone have 
 dared to speak of his debaucheries. Wittemberg was changed 
 by that preaching of faith, and became the focus of an illu- 
 mination which was soon to enlighten Germany, and to diffuse 
 itself over all the Church. 
 
 ' Hujus doctrinse dulcedine pii omnes v.alde capiebantiu-, et eruditis grata erat. 
 (Melanth. Vit. Luth.) 
 
 2 Quasi ex tenebris, carcere, squalore cduci Christum, prophotas, apostolos. 
 abid.) 
 
 ^ Oratio non in labris nasci, sed in pectore. (Ibid.) 
 
 * Eique propter auctoritatem, quam sanctitatemorumantea pepererat, adsen- 
 fcerunt. (Melanch. Vit. Luth.) 
 
 * Puto et hodie theologos omnes probos favcre Luthero. (Erasmus Epp. i. 662.) 
 
Till': MOMC Sl'ENLKlN. Vj i 
 
 Luther's tenderly aftectionate heart wished to sec ail whom 
 he loved, in the possession of that light which had guided his 
 own feet into the paths of peace. Ho availed himself of all the 
 opportunities that fell in his w^ay, as professor, as preacher, as 
 monk, as well as in the course of his extensive correspondence, 
 to make others share in this treasure. An old brother monk of 
 the monastery at Erfurt, George Spenlein, happened then to be 
 in that of Memmingen, possibly after having spent some time 
 at Wittemberg. Spenlein had commissioned the doctor to sell 
 several articles which he had left with him ; a jacket of Brussels 
 cloth, a work written by an Isenac doctor, and a monk's hood. 
 Luther carefully complied with his friend's request. He tells 
 Spenlein, in a letter dated 7th April, 1516, that he had got a 
 florin for the jacket, half that for the book, and a florin for the 
 hood; all which he had paid over to the father- vicar, to Avhom 
 Spenlein owed three florins. Luther, however, soon passes from 
 accounting for these monkish leavings, to a more important 
 subject. 
 
 " I could wish to know," says h« to friar George, " how it 
 fares with your soul. Is it not tired of its own righteousness? 
 In fine, does it not pant after — does it not place all its trust in 
 the righteousness of Christ? In our days, many are seduced from 
 it by pride; those especially who give their whole endeavours to 
 being righteous. Not understanding the righteousness of God 
 which is freely given to us in Jesus Christ, they would stand 
 before him on the strength of their deservings. But that cannot be. 
 You, when you were staying with us, were in that error; and I 
 too, was misled by it. I am still struggling against it, and have 
 not yet completely triumphed. 
 
 "0 my dear brother, learn to know Christ and Christ cruci- 
 fied. Learn to sing to him a new song, to despair of thyself, and 
 to say to him: Thou, Lord Jesus, thou art my righteousness, 
 and I, I am thy sin. Thou hast taken what was mine and thou 
 hast given me what is thine.l What thou wast not, that thou 
 nast become, in order that I may become what I was not! — 
 Beware, my dear George, of pretending to such a degree of 
 purity, as to cease regarding thyself a sinner. For it is only in 
 
 ' Tu, Domine Josu, es justitia mea; ego autem sum pcccaturn tu'.im: tu 
 assumpsisti mcuni, ct dcdisti mihi tuum. (Ij. Epp. i. p. 17.) 
 
192 HISTORY OF THK ItEfORilATlOX. 
 
 sinners that Christ dwells. He came down from heaven where 
 he dwelt in the righteous, in order that he might dwell also in 
 sinners. Carefully meditate on this love of Christ, and thou 
 shalt then derive from it the sweets of ineffable consolation. 
 Could our works, and our afflictions, procure for us peace of con- 
 science, why should Christ have died? Thou shalt find peace 
 only in him, by despairing of thyself and thy works, and by 
 learning with what love he opens his arms to receive thee, 
 taking thy sins upon him and giving thee all his righteousness.'" 
 
 Thus that mighty doctrine which had already saved the world 
 in the days of the apostles, and which was about to save it a 
 second time in those of the reformers, was clearly and power- 
 fully held forth by Luther. In this he passed over numerous 
 ages of ignorance and superstition, and ^'oined hands with St. 
 Paul. 
 
 Spenlein w\as not the only person whom he thus endeavoured 
 to instruct on this fundamental doctrine. He was disquieted at 
 the scanty amount of truth which, under that head, he found in 
 the writings of Erasmus; but although it was important that a 
 man of so much weight, and such admirable genius, should be 
 enlightened, it was not easy to determine how it should be done. 
 His court friend, the elector s chaplain, enjoyed the respect of 
 Erasmus: to him, therefore, Luther addressed himself, writing 
 as follows; "What pains me in Erasmus, that most learned 
 man, my dear Spalatin, is that by the righteousness of works or 
 of the law, of which the apostle speaks, he understands the ful- 
 filling of the ceremonial law. Now, the righteousness of the law 
 consists not only in ceremonies but in all the works of the 
 Decalogue. ^ When these works are done without faith in Christ, 
 
 ' It was therefore no mere expository difference, of little or no importance 
 in Luther's view, as some would now have it to appear. Either the law, spoken 
 ef in Holy Sci'ipture in the matter of our justiiicatio-n, is the ceremonial law 
 only, or the moral too; hut this is a capital distinction, which Luther could not 
 allow to pass vmohserved in Erasmus. True, indeed, it helongs also to the expo- 
 sition, or rather to the right understanding of Scripture: hut it is so clear, and 
 so completely interwoven with the entire spirit of the doctrine contained in 
 Scripture, as on the one hand, to be self-evident to the man who reads with 
 simplicity, without prejudice, and, above all, with an eager desire for personal 
 consolation ; while, on the other hand, the whole scheme of doctrine after this 
 srticle is admitted, is reversed and changes its aspect; so that, indeed, a new 
 Holy Scripture seems to shine forth. Thus did it appear quite in a new aspect 
 by means of the light thrown upon it by Luther and by the plain demonstration 
 thnt all works, even those of a moral description, were referred to : and no 
 
JUSTIFICATION BY I-AITII. ERASMUS. 193 
 
 tliey may, it is true, make iiicn such as Fabrioius, llcgulus, and 
 otliers, of perfect integrity in the eyes of men; but in that 
 case they deserve as Httlo to be called righteousness as tlie fruit 
 of a medlar to be called a fig. For we do not become righteous, 
 as Aristotle pretends, by doing works of righteousness; but 
 having become righteous, we do such works. ^ The man must 
 first be changed and then the works. Abel was first righteous 
 before God and then his sacrifice." Luther continues: "I be<r 
 of you herein to do the part of a friend and a Christian, by 
 pointing out these things to Erasmus." This letter is dated 
 thus; "In haste, from our monastery corner, 19th October, 151G.'" 
 It places the relations between Luther and Erasmus in their 
 true light. It shows the sincere interest he felt in what he 
 believed to be really useful to that illustrious writer. It is true 
 that at a later period, the opposition made by Erasmus to tlie 
 truth, compelled Luther to attack him openly, but this was not 
 until he had first endeavoured to enlio-hten his autao-onist. 
 
 Now at length, ideas, at once clear and profound, were set 
 forth on the nature of good; and it was proclaimed as a prin- 
 ciple, that the real goodness of an action consists, not in its 
 outward form, but in the spirit in which it is done, and thus a 
 death-blow was given to all those superstitious observances which 
 for a series of centuries had been stifling the Church, and pre- 
 venting the Christian virtues from growing and flourishing in it, 
 Luther farther writes; " I read Erasmus, but he is daily losing 
 credit in my eyes. I love to see him reprove, with so much 
 learning and firmness, the priests and monks for their dogged 
 ignorance; but I fear that it is but small service he does to the 
 doctrine of Jesus Christ. He has more at heart what depends 
 on man than what depends on God.^ We live in perilous times. 
 A man is not a good or judicious Christian because he under- 
 stands Greek and Hebrew. Jerome who was versed in five lan- 
 guages, is inferior to Augustine who understood only one; 
 although Erasmus may think the contrary. I carefully conceal 
 
 sooner do we limit the doings, whereby we cannot be justified, to ceremonial 
 acts, than we return to the old and long-enduring darluiess from which Luther 
 delivered us. — L. R. 
 
 * Non enim justa agendo justi efficimur, sod justi fiendo et essendo, operamur 
 justa. (L. Epp. i. p. 22.) 
 
 - Humana prajvalent in eo plusqnam divina. 
 
 I. 2 u 
 
194) HISTORY OF THE REFORM ATIOX. 
 
 what 1 think of Erasmus, in the dread of strengthening the cause 
 of his opponents. Perhaps the Lord will give him understand- 
 ing in his own time"! 
 
 Man's inipotency, God's omnipotence, — such were the two 
 truths which Luther sought to restore. It is a poor religion, 
 and a poor philosophy, that throws man on his natural strength. 
 That so much vaunted strength of his, has been tried for ages; 
 yet, while man of himself has been enabled to make wonderful 
 attainments in what relates to his earthly existence, he has 
 never been able either to dispel the darkness that hides the 
 knowledge of God from his mind, or to change a single leaning 
 of his heart. The highest degree of wisdom ever attained by 
 ambitious minds or by souls burning with the desire of perfec- 
 tion, has been to despair of themselves. 2 The doctrine, then, 
 which discovers to us our own powerlessness, while it tells us of 
 a power from God, by which we may do all things, is a gene- 
 rous, a consolatory, and an absolutely true doctrine ; and great 
 was that reformation which re-asserted the glory of heaven 
 upon earth, and which pleads with man for the prerogatives of 
 the might}'' God. 
 
 No man, however, knew better than Luther, that close and 
 indissoluble bond which unites the free salvation of God with 
 the liberty of human actions; and no man showed better than 
 he did, that it is only by receiving all from Christ, that man 
 can give much to his brethren. He ever presented these two 
 operations, the works of God, and the works of man, in one pic- 
 ture. Thus, after having laid before friar Spenlein the nature 
 of saving righteousness, he adds: " If thou dost firmly believe 
 these things as thou oughtest to do, (for cursed is whoeverbelieves 
 them not) welcome thy still ignorant and erring brethren as 
 Jesus Christ hath welcomed thee. Patiently bear with them ; 
 make their sins thine own, and if thou hast any thing good, 
 communicate it to them. Receive one another, says the apostle, 
 as Christ hath received us, for the glory of God. That is a 
 miserable righteousness which will not bear with others because 
 it finds them bad, and thinks only of seeking the solitude of the 
 
 ' Pabit ei dominus intellectum suo foi'te tempore. (L. Epp. i. p. 52.) 
 
 " Ti' ouv, 'Suvarov ivafii^Tr^Tov ilvm »)S)J. What! is it possible Tiot tO sif: • ^'^'^ 
 
 Epictetns, fiv. 12, 19.) 'A|;';r<;avjv. Impossible! he rei)lies. 
 
GOOD WOHKS. 
 
 195 
 
 wilderness, instead of doing them good by patience, by prayer, 
 and by example. If thou be-est the lily and the rose of Christ, 
 know that thy dwelling is among thorns. Only beware lest, by 
 thine impatience, thy rash judgments, and thy secret pride, 
 thou dost thyself become a thorn. Christ reigns in the midst 
 of his enemies. Had he desired to dwell only among the good 
 and to die for those only who loved him, for whom, I pray you. 
 would he have died, and among whom would he have dwelt T ^ 
 
 It is affecting to see how well Luther sets himself to practise 
 these charitable precepts. An Erfurt Augustinian, George 
 Leiffer by name, was struggling with several trials; Luther was 
 apprized of this, and eight days after writing to Spenlein, he com- 
 passionately went to him: "I learn," said he, "that you are 
 tossed by many storms and that your mind is driven to and fro 
 by the waves. . . The cross of Christ has been portioned 
 out over all the earth, and each has his part. Reject not then 
 what has fallen to thy share. Rather receive it as a sacred 
 relic, not into a vessel of gold or silver, but which is much better, 
 into a golden heart ; a heart full of meekness. If the wood of the 
 cross has been so sanctified by the blood and the flesh of Christ, 
 that we regard it as the most august of relics, how much more 
 ought insults, persecutions, sufferings, and the hatred of men, 
 to be to us holy relics, seeing that these have not only been 
 touched by the flesh of Christ, but that they were embraced, 
 kissed, blessed by his boundless love." 2 
 
 IX. Luther's teaching was not without fruit. Several of his 
 disciples now felt themselves urged to make a public profession 
 of the truths which their master's lectures had opened up to 
 
 ' Hence it clearly appears that the true reformed doctrine, as come down 
 from Luther and deduced anew from Holy Scripture, cannot consist with the 
 doctrines of Erasmus, however learned the latter might he, particularly in the 
 article of justification by grace. "With the views of Erasmus men may remain 
 in the Roman Church, as ho remained in it, or may return to it. With the doc- 
 trine of Luther, no permanent union with that church is possible, or with a 
 church which while it calls itself reformed, under that head holds the view 
 entertained by Erasmus. The diifcrences between the remonstrants, Erasmus's 
 successors, and the contra-remonstrants who followed Luther, (I say designedly 
 Luther, not Calvin) on the other side, have shown this to be the case, and those 
 between the Old and New reformed in our day demonstrate it anew. Never 
 can men — for in spite of every effort it is completely impossible— keep the two 
 united in lasting Church fellowship. The difference existing on this single 
 question, although it may be called expository only, involves that of life and 
 death, namely, the true life or death of the soul. — L. R. 
 
 2 Sanctissima; reliquia?. . . . dcific[c voluntatis suae cliaritatc amplcxa), 
 osculatffi. (L. Epp. i. 18.) 
 
196 HISTORY OF THE RKFOEMATION. 
 
 tliem. Among his hearers there was a young man of learning, 
 called Bernard of Feldkirchen, university professor of Aristotle's 
 physics, and, five years afterwards, the first of the evangelical 
 ecclesiastics who entered into the bonds of matrimony. 
 
 It was Luther's wish that Feldkirchen should, under his pre- 
 sidence, maintain certain theses, comprising an exposition of his 
 principles. This gave the doctrines he professed a new publicity 
 The disputation was held in ]516. 
 
 This was the first assault made by Luther on the kingdom of 
 the sophists and on the popedom, as he himself tells us; and 
 feeble as it was, it cost him much uneasiness. " I permit the 
 printing of these propositions," says he many years after, when 
 he gave them a place in his works, " chiefly in order that I may 
 not be pufied up by the greatness of my cause and the success 
 wherewith God has crowned it. For they fully manifest my 
 shame, that is to say, the weakness and the ignorance, the fear 
 and trembling, with which I began this struggle. I stood alone; 
 I threw myself imprudently into that affair. Unable to retreat, 
 I yielded many important points to the Pope, and even adored 
 him." 1 
 
 The following are some of these propositions: ^ 
 
 " The old man is vanity of vanities; he is altogether vanity; 
 and he makes the other creatures vain, however good they 
 may be. 
 
 " The old man is called the fleshy not only because he is led 
 by the lust of the sense, but farther because granting him to be 
 chaste, prudent, and righteous, he is not born anew, of God, by 
 the Spirit, 
 
 " A man who is without the grace of God, cannot keep God's 
 commandments, nor prepare himself, either in whole or in part, 
 for receiving grace, but he necessarily remains under sin. 
 
 " Man's will without grace, is not free, but is in bondage, and 
 that of its own accord. 
 
 "Jesus Christ, our strength, our righteousness, he who tries 
 the heart and the reins, is the only searcher and judge of our 
 merits. 
 
 " Since all is possible by Christ to him who believes, it is 
 
 ' Sed etiam ultro adorabam. (L. 0pp. lat. i. p. 50) 
 
 " L. 0pp. (L) xvii. p. 142 ; and in vol. i. p. 51. -of his Latin works. 
 
LUTHKird VISITATION OF THE MONAaTEUIES. IMIESDEN. 197 
 
 superstitious to seek for other aid, whether in tlio human will or 
 in the saints." ^ 
 
 This disputation made much noise, and has been considered 
 as the commencement of the lleformation. 
 
 The moment now drew near for that Reformation breaicing 
 forth. God liasted to make ready the mstrument which he 
 wished to cmpkiy. The ek^ctor, having built a new church at 
 Wittemberg, and given it the name of All Saints church, sent 
 Staupitz into the Low Countries to make up a collection of relics, 
 with which he wanted to adorn this new place of worship. The 
 vicar-general engaged Luther to supply his place during his 
 absence, and, in particular, to make a visitation through forty 
 monasteries in Misnia and Thuringia. 
 
 Luther went first to Grimma and then to Dresden. He 
 ev^ery where sought to establish the truths of which he had been 
 convinced, and to enlighten the members of his order. . . . 
 " Do not attach yourselves to Aristotle or to other teachers of 
 a deceptive philosophy,"" said he to the monks, " but read the 
 Word of God assiduously. Seek not your salvation in your 
 own strength and your good works, but in Christ*'s merits and 
 in divine grace." 2 
 
 An Augustinian friar of Dresden had deserted his monastery, 
 and was found at Maintz, where the prior of that order had 
 received him. Luther wrote to this prior, asking back this stray 
 sheep, and added the following very true and very charitable 
 expressions : " I know, I do know that ofiences will come. It 
 is no miracle that a man falls, but it is one that he should rise 
 again and stand upright. Peter fell that he might know that 
 he Avas but a man. At this day do we still see the very cedars 
 of Lebanon falling. Even the angels, which passes all compre- 
 hension, fell in heaven, and Adam fell in paradise. Why, then, 
 be amazed if a reed is shaken by the whirlwind, or if the smoking 
 flax go out 1 " 
 
 From Dresden Luther passed on to Erfurt, and re-appeared 
 discharging the functions of vicar-general in the same monastery 
 where, eleven years before, he had w'ound up the clock, opened 
 
 • Cum crcdcnii omnia sint, auctore Cliristo, possiMlia, supcrstitiosum est, 
 htimano arbitrio, aliis Sanctis, alia dcputari auxilia. (Ibid.) 
 " Ilikcher's Luther's Anwcsenlieit in Alt. Dresden, 1728. 
 
198 HISTORY OF THE REFOR.MATIOX. 
 
 the gate, and swept the church. His friend the bachelor, John 
 Lange, a learned and godly man, but severe, he made prior of 
 the monastery. He exhorted him to affability and patience. 
 " Adopt," said he, " a mild spirit towards the prior of Nurem- 
 berg; this is but fit, for the prior has adopted a rough and bitter 
 spirit. Bitterness is not expelled by bitterness, the devil by 
 the devil; but the sweet dissipates the bitter, that is to say, the 
 finger of God expels the demons." ^ There is room, perhaps, to 
 reo-ret that Luther did not, on divers occasions, bear these 
 excellent counsels in mind himself. 
 
 At Neustadt on Orla, there was nothing but divisions. Trou- 
 bles and quarrels reigned in the monastery, and all the monks 
 were at war with their prior. They assailed Luther with their 
 complaints, while the prior, Michael Dressel, or Tornator, as 
 Luther calls him, translating his name into Latin, on his side, 
 laid all his griefs before the doctor. "Peace, peace!" said he: 
 "You want peace," said Luther, "but it is the peace of the 
 world, not that of Christ. Know you net then, that our God 
 has placed his peace in the midst of war? That man has not 
 peace whom nobody troubles. But he wlio, though molested by 
 all men and by all things belonging to this life, endures all 
 calmly and joyfully, that man possesses true peace. You say 
 with Israel; Peace, peace! and there is no peace. Say rather 
 with Christ; The cross, the cross! and there will be no cross. 
 For the cross ceases to be the cross as soon as one can afi'ection- 
 ately say, No wood like thine! "2 In his anxiety to put an end 
 to these divisions, Luther, on his return to Wittemberg, allowed 
 the monks to elect another prior. 
 
 Luther returned to Wittemberg, after an absence of six 
 months. He had been afflicted at all he had seen; but this 
 journey increased his knowledge of the Church and of the world; 
 it gave him more confidence in his dealings with mankind; it 
 afforded him many occasions for founding schools, for urging that 
 fundamental truth— that Holy Scripture alone points out the 
 way to heaven, and for exhorting the friars to live together in 
 
 ^ L. Epp. i. p. 36. Non enim asper asperum, id est non diabolus diabolum, 
 sed suavis asperum, id est digitus Dei ejicit daemonia. 
 
 ^ Tarn cito enim crux cessat esse crux, quam cito Isctus dixoris: Crux bciic- 
 dicta! inter ligna nullum tale. (Epp. i. 27.) 
 
LUTIIEirs MANY OCCUI'ATIONH. 199 
 
 holiness, peaceablciiess, and cliastity. ^ No duiibt an abundant 
 scattering of the good seed took place throughout tho various 
 monasteries of Augustinians, in the course of this journey 
 made by the llcfornicr. The monastic orders, long as they had 
 been the props of Home, did more perhaps for the Reformation 
 than they did against it; and this may be said particularly of 
 the Augustinians. Almost all godly men of liberal and elevated 
 minds then residing in cloisters, turned towards the Gospel. 
 New and pcnerous blood soon flowed in those orders which were, 
 as it were, tho arteries of German catholicity. Nothing was 
 known in the world at large of the views entertained by tho 
 Auirustinian monk of Wittemberg; these, however, had become 
 the chief topic of conversations in the chapters and monasteries; 
 and more than one cloister became a nursery of the Eeforma- 
 tion. At the very moment when the grand blows were struck, 
 o-odly and powerful men came forth from obscurity, and 
 exchan<red tlie retirement of the monastic life for the active 
 career of ministers of the Word of God. Even so early as in 
 ihat tour of inspection in 1516, Luther's eloquence aroused 
 manv slumbering souls; hence that year has been called the 
 morning-star of the Reformation. 
 
 Luther now resumed his ordinary occupations. He was over- 
 whelmed with w^ork: not only was he professor, preacher, and 
 confessor; he was farther charged with a great many secular 
 occupations relating to his own order and monastery. " I almost 
 always require two secretaries," he says in a letter, "for I 
 scarcely do anything else during the whole day but write letters. 
 I am preacher to the monastery, speaker at the table, parish 
 pastor and preacher, director of studies, vicar of the prior, (that 
 is to say, eleven times priori) inspector of the ponds of Litzkau, 
 advocate of the inns of Herzberg at Torgau, reader of St. Paul, 
 and commentator on the Psalms. . . . Seldom have I time 
 to repeat ray hours or to sing; not to speak of the struggle 
 with flesh and blood, with the devil and wdth the world. 
 
 . . You may see hoAv leisurely I have become ! " - . . 
 
 About this time the plague appeared at Wittemberg, on 
 which occasion many of the students and doctors quitted that 
 
 ' lleiliglich, friedlich nnd ziichtig. (IMatli. p. 10.) 
 2 Epp. i. p. -il, to Lango, 2Gth Oct. 1510. 
 
200 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 city. Luther remained. " I know not,"^ he writes to a friend 
 at Erfurt, "if the plague will let me finish the Epistle to the 
 Galatians. Prompt and blunt, it makes great ravages, especially 
 among the young. You advise me to fly. Whither would you 
 have me go? I hope the world is not to fall, though friar ISIartin 
 were to do so. ^ Should the plague continue on the increase, J 
 shall send the friars away in all directions; but for myself, hero 
 I am placed; obedience will not allow me to fly, until recalled 
 by him who called me. Not that I do not dread death, (for 1 
 am not the apostle Paul, but his commentator only;) but I 
 trust that the Lord will deliver me from fear."" Such was the 
 firmness of the doctor of Wittemberg. And can we suppose 
 that the man who would not fall back one step from the plague, 
 would fall back in the presence of Home? Or that the dread of 
 a public execution could make him yield? 
 
 X. Luther evinced the same courage in regard to the mighty 
 of this world, that he displayed in presence of the most formid- 
 able calamities. The Elector was highly satisfied with the vicar- 
 general. He had made a good collection of relics in the Low 
 Countries. Luther gives an account of these to Spalatin, and it 
 is curious to find such an affair as this of the relics gravely 
 spoken of, just as the Eeformation was commencing. Little, 
 assuredly, were the reformers aware, to what an extent they were 
 about to carry it. The Elector considered a bishopric as the 
 least return he could make to the vicar-general, but Luther, who 
 had received a letter from Spalatin on the subject, quite disap- 
 proved of such an idea. " There are many things," says he, 
 "which please your prince, but which, nevertheless, are dis- 
 pleasing to God. 2 1 deny not that he is an able man in worldly 
 matters; but in what relates to God, and the salvation of souls, 
 I regard him as seven-fold blind; as is, also, Pfeffinger, his 
 councillor. I say not this behind their backs as a calumniator: 
 I do not conceal it from them, for I am ready myself, and on all 
 occasions, to tell both as much to their face. "Why would you,'' 
 he continues, " surround this man (Staupitz) with all the squalls 
 and storms of episcopal cares V 
 
 1 Quo fuginm? spcro quod non corruet orLis, lucnte fratrc Martino. (Kpp. 
 i. p. 42, 2(Jtli Oct. 1516.) 
 
 - Multa placcnt principi tuo, quae Deo displicent. (L. Epp. i. 25.) 
 
FOOTING OX AVmCII M'TIIF.R .STOCK Willi I UK i:i.i:( TCI!. '.^01 
 
 The Elector was not ofteiulod at Luther's fraiikne.s.s. Spalatiii 
 wrote to him: " the prince often speaks of you, and very honour- 
 ably." Frederick had sent tlio monk, materials for makin"- a 
 frock of the finest cloth. "It would be too beautiful," said 
 Luther, "but that it was the gift of a prince. I am unworthy 
 of being remembered by any man, far le.?s by a prince, and so 
 great a prince. Those are my best friends who think the worst 
 of me. 1 Thank our prince for this favour; yet be assured, 
 that I have no wish to be praised, either by you, or by any 
 man, all praise of man being vain, and the praise that cometh 
 from God being that which alone is true." 
 
 The excellent chaplain did not wish to confine himself to his 
 court functions. He wanted to make himself useful to the 
 people; but like most persons in all ages, this he wished to do 
 without giving offence or irritating any, and so as to conciliate 
 general favour. " Point out to me," he wrote to Luther, "some- 
 thing to translate into the vulgar tongue, but let it be something 
 generally pleasing, and Avhich may at the same time do good."— 
 "Pleasing and useful," replied Luther, "this request exceeds 
 my utmost power. The more salutary things are, the less they 
 please. ^ "What more salutary than Jesus Christ? Nevertheless, 
 to most persons, he is a savour of death. You tell me that vou 
 would be useful to those only who love what is good. You have 
 then but to make the voice of Jesus Christ to be heard ; you 
 will then be at once pleasing and useful, doubt it not, but 
 only to the small minority ; for few are the sheep in this sad 
 region of wolves."^ 
 
 Luther, nevertheless, recommended to his friend the sermons 
 of the Dominican Tauler. " I have never seen," says he, 
 " either in Latin, or in our own tongue, a theology more sound 
 or more accordant with the gospel. Taste then, and see how 
 good the Lord is, but after having tasted and seen this, how 
 bitter is all that we ourselves are." '^ 
 
 It was in the course of the year 1517, that Luther entered 
 
 ' li mihi maxime prosunt, qui mci pessimc mcminerint. (L. Epp. i. p. 45.) 
 
 ^ Quo sunt aliqua salubriora, co minus placent. (Ibid. 4G.) 
 
 * How nobly does the spirit of Luther shine out here ! No, such a man had 
 no personal ends to serve. It was the cause of truth, of the Lord's honour, 
 and the salvation of souls that urged him on. — L. R. 
 
 •» Quam amarum est, quicquid nos sumus. (L. Epp. i. p. 40 ^, 
 
 I. 2c 
 
202 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 into relations with duke George of Saxony. The house of 
 Saxony had then two chiefs. Two princes, Ernest and Albert, 
 after being taken by force, when young, from the castle of Alten- 
 burg, by Kunz of Kaufungen, had, by the treaty of Leipsick, 
 become the founders of the two houses that still bear their name. 
 Elector Frederick, son of Ernest, was at the time of which we 
 are writing, chief of the Ernestine branch, while his cousin, duke 
 Georffe, was chief of the Albertine branch, Dresden and 
 Leipsick were in the duke's territories, and the former was his 
 place of residence. His mother Sidonia, was a daughter of the 
 king of Bohemia, George Podiebrad; and the long struggle 
 between that country and Rome, from the times of John Huss 
 downwards, had exerted some influence on the prince of Saxony. 
 He had often shown himself desirous of effecting a reformation, 
 a desire which it was said, " he had imbibed with his mother's 
 milk," and that "he was from his very nature an enemy to the 
 clergy." In various ways he was perpetually annoying the 
 bishops, abbots, canons, and monks; so that his cousin, Freder- 
 ick, had more than once to interfere in their favour. One would 
 have expected duke George to be the warmest partisan of a 
 reformation, while the ultra-devout Frederick, on the contrary, 
 who had erewhile donned the spurs of Godfrey at the holy 
 sepulchre, who had girded himself with the huge heavy sword 
 of the conqueror of Jerusalem, and sworn that like the gallant 
 knight of other days, he would fight for the Church, seemed 
 likely to become the most ardent champion of Rome. But in 
 all that relates to the gospel, the anticipations of human wisdom 
 often prove deceptive; the reverse of what might have been 
 expected took place. The duke would have been delighted to 
 humble the Church and the men of the Church, to mortify 
 bishops whose train of princes far surpassed his own; but it was 
 quite another thing for him to receive into his heart that gospel 
 truth which must have humbled him, to own himself a sinner, 
 guilty, and incapable of being saved but by grace. He Avould 
 willingly have reformed others, but had no wish to reform him- 
 self. He might possibly have put his hand to the work of obliging 
 the bishop of Maintz to be content with a single see, and to 
 have no more than fourteen horses in his stables, l as he repeat- 
 1 L. 0pp. (W.) xxli.p. 1S49. 
 

DUKE GEORGE. COUllT DINNEll. 203 
 
 cdly said, but when he saw anotliur, and ho a more nionlc, appear 
 as a reformer and the reformation gaining numerous partisans 
 among the common people, the Hussite king s haughty grandson 
 became the most violent adversary of the very reform whose 
 cause he had showed himself dispo-cd to espouse. 
 
 In July, 1517, duke George applied to Staupitz for a learned 
 and eloquent preacher. The latter sent Luther, recommending 
 him as a man of great acquirements and irreproachable conduct. 
 The prince invited him to preach in the castle chapel at Dresden 
 on St. James the greater's day. 
 
 On the appointed day, the duke and his court went to chapel 
 to hear the Wittemberg preacher; and Luther joyfully took 
 advantage of the occasion, to bear testimony to the truth before 
 such an auditory. He took his text from the gospel for that day: 
 "■then came to Mm the mother of Zehede^s children with her sotis,"" &c. 
 (St. JNLat. chap. XX. 20—23.) He discoursed on men's senseless 
 desires and prayers; and next spoke forcibly on the assurance of 
 salvation, making it repose on this foundation, that those who 
 hear the Word of God with faith are the true disciples of Jesus 
 Christ, elected to everlasting Ufe. He then spoke of election by 
 grace ; showing that this doctrine, if it be urged in its union 
 with the work of Christ, is powerfully fitted to dissipate terrors 
 of conscience, in such sort, that instead of men fleeing from 
 the holy God in the view of their unworthiness, they are gently 
 drawn to look for their refuge in him. In conclusion, he told 
 a parable respecting three virgins, and drew from it some edify- 
 ing instructions. 
 
 The Word of truth made a deep impression on the hearers, of 
 whom there were two, in particular, who seemed to listen with 
 fixed attention to the discourse of the monk from Wittemberg. 
 The one was a lady of respectable appearance, seated on the court 
 benches, and the expression of whose features betokened pro- 
 found emotion. Madam de la Sale was her name; grand mistress 
 to the duchess. The other was Jerome Emser, a licentiate in 
 canon law, the duke's secretary and counsellor. Emser was a man 
 of talent and extensive information. Uniting the suppleness of a 
 courtier with the ability of a politician, he wished to stand well 
 with two opposite parties at once; passing himself off at Eome 
 as a defender of the popedom and, at the same time, shining 
 
201 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 in Germany apiong the learned of his age. But under this flex- 
 ibility of character he concealed violent passions ; Luther and 
 he were destined to break more than one lance with each other, 
 and they now met, for the first time, in the castle-chapel at 
 Dresden. 
 
 The dinner bell had rung for the inmates of the castle, and 
 soon the ducal family and persons attached to the court were 
 met at table. The preacher of that morning naturally became 
 the topic of conversation. " How liked you the sermon?" said the 
 Duke to IMadam de la Sale. — "Could I but hear one more such 
 discourse,'" she replied, "I should die in peace." — "And I," said 
 George passionately, "1 would give a great deal not to have 
 heard it; for such sermons are good for nothing but to make 
 people sin with assurance." 
 
 It needed only that the master should thus intimate his 
 opinion, for the courtiers to speak out their discontentment with- 
 out restraint. Each was prepared to make his remarks. Some 
 pretended that in his parable of the three virgins, Luther had 
 three of the ladies of the court in his eye ; whereupon there was 
 talking without end. A little raillery began to be indulged with 
 regard to the three ladies, who were assured that they had been 
 pointed out to public notice by the Wittemberg monk.l He is 
 an ignoramus, said some; he is a haughty monk, said others. 
 Each commented on the sermon in his own manner, and put 
 what he pleased into the preacher's mouth. Truth had been 
 dropped in the midst of a court but little prepared to receive it. 
 And now it was rent in pieces among them at will. But while 
 the word of God was thus an occasion of fall to many, it was a 
 helping-stone that enabled the grand mistress to rise. A month 
 after this she fell sick, confidently embraced the grace of the 
 Saviour, and departed this life in joy .2 
 
 As for the Duke, perhaps it was not in vain that he heard this 
 testimony to the truth; for whatever might have been his 
 opposition to the Reformation during life, it is known that on 
 his death-bed he declared that he had hope in the merits of 
 Jesus Christ alone. 
 
 It was natural for Emser to do the honours to Luther in his 
 
 1 lias tres postea in aula principis a me notatas garrienint. (L. Epp. i. So.) 
 
 2 Keith, I.eb. Luth. p. 32. 
 
EMSEk's supper rAKTY 205 
 
 master's name. He invited him to supper; Luther declined ; but 
 Emser insisted and constrained liim to come. Luther expected 
 to find a few friends met, but soon discovered that a snare liad 
 been laid for him,' for in the house of the prince's secretary, he 
 encountered a master of arts from Leipsick and several Domin- 
 icans. The master of arts, puffed up -with a conceited notion 
 of himself, and heartily hating Luther, first addressed him 
 in a friendly and insinuating air; but soon after lost his temper, 
 and inveighed against him with loud-tongued acrimony."-^ A 
 regular controversy soon commenced, the dispute turning, says 
 Luther, on the tritiing things of Aristotle and St. Thomas.^ In 
 the end, Luther defied the master of arts, with all the erudition 
 of the Thomists, to define what was meant by keeping God's 
 commandments. The master of arts, though embarrassed, was 
 not to be put out of countenance. " Pay me my dues,"" said he, 
 holding out his hand, '•'■da fastumT One would have said that 
 he wished to commence giving a lecture in the forms, taking his 
 guests for scholars. " At this foolish reply," adds the reformer, 
 "we took to laughing and then separated." 
 
 During this conversation, a Dominican had been listening at 
 the door. He had wished to go in and spit in Luther's face, ^ 
 and though at the time he restrained himself, yet he bragged of 
 his intention afterwards. Emser, overjoyed to see his guest grow 
 warm in dispute, and to appear himself to observe the happy 
 mean, was at great pains to apologise to Luther for tlie manner 
 in which the evening had passed. ■^ The latter returned to 
 Wittemberg. 
 
 XI. He zealously resumed his labours. He was now bringing 
 forward six or seven young theologians who were soon to be 
 examined previous to their obtaining licence to preach; and 
 what most delighted him was that this promotion was to be to 
 the discredit of Aristotle. " I would fain multiply his enemies 
 as fast as possible " ^ he would say, and for that purpose he pub- 
 lished certain theses which deserve our attention. 
 
 The freedom of the will was the grand subject of which he 
 
 ' Inter medias me insidias conjectum. (L. Epp. i. 86.) 
 
 2 In me acriter et clamose invectus est. (L. Epp. i. %Z.') 
 
 ^ Super Aristotelis et ThomfC nugis. (Ibid.) 
 
 * Ne prodiret et in faciem meam spueret. (Ibid.) 
 
 ' Enixe sese excusavit. (Ibid.) 
 
 " Cujus vellem hostes cito quamplurimos fieri. (L. Epp. i. 59.) 
 
20G HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 treated. He had touched upon it ah'eady in the Feldkirchen 
 theses; and now he went into it more deeply. From the very 
 commencement of Christianity there had been a controversy, 
 more or less keen, between the two doctrines of mans freedom 
 and subjection. Some of the schoolmen, such as Pelagius and 
 other doctors, had taught that man possesses liberty of himself, 
 or the capacity of loving God and doing good; this liberty 
 Luther denied, not because he would deprive man of it, but on the 
 contrary because he wanted to obtain it for him. The contest, 
 then, in this great question, is not, as is commonly said, between 
 freedom and bondage: it is between freedom coming from man and 
 freedom coming from God. The one party, calling themselves the 
 partisans of freedom, say to man: " You have the power to do good; 
 you have no need for any farther freedom." The other, who are 
 called the partisans of bondage, say to him on the contrary; 
 "True freedom is wanting to thee, and God oflfers it to thee in the 
 gospel."" On the one side, freedom is spoken of, but only to pre- 
 petuate bondage ; on the other, bondage is spoken of, but in order 
 that freedom may be bestowed: such was the controversy in the 
 time of St. Paul; in that of St. Augustine; and in that of Luther. 
 The one party which says, "Change nothing," are the champions 
 of bondage. The other which says, "Let your fetters fall off!" are 
 the champions of freedom. 
 
 We should, however, deceive ourselves were we to suppose 
 that the whole Reformation might be summed up in this 
 important question. It is one of many doctrines which were 
 maintained by the Wittemberg doctor — that is the whole. Above 
 all would it be a strange illusion to suppose, that the Refor- 
 mation was a fatalism — an opposition to liberty. It was a 
 magnificent emancipation of the human mind. Bursting the 
 numerous bonds wherewith the hierarchy had tied down man's 
 thoughts ; restoring to their due place the ideas of liberty, right, 
 and inquiry, it set free its own age, ourselves, and our remotest 
 posterity. Nor let it be said that although the Reformation, it 
 is true, set man free from all human despotism, still it enslaved 
 him by proclaiming the sovereignty of grace, i No doubt, it 
 wished to bring the human will back to the divine will, fully to 
 
 J Optima et infallibilis ad gratram praoparatio et unica dispositio, est aeterna 
 Dei clectio et prscdestinatio. (L. 0pp. lat. i. 50 ) 
 
THESES. 
 
 207 
 
 subject tho former to the latter, and to merge the former in the 
 latter; but where is tho philosopher wiio is ignorant that a full 
 conformity to the will of God is the only, and supreme, and per- 
 fect liberty, and that man never can bo truly free, until absolute 
 righteousness and eternal truth reign in him without a rival? ^ 
 
 The following are some of the ninety-nine propositions which 
 Luther launched into the Church, in opposition to the Pelagian 
 rationalism of the scholastic theology : 
 
 " It is true that man, who has become a corrupt tree, cannot 
 but desire and do what is evil. 
 
 " It is false that the will, left to itself, can do good as well as 
 evil; for it is not free but in bondage. 
 
 " It is not in the power of man's will, to will or not to will 
 whatever is offered to its choice. 
 
 "Man cannot of his own nature will that God should be God. 
 He would choose rather that himself should be God, and that 
 Grod should not be God. 
 
 " The best and infallible preparation, and sole disposition for 
 grace, lies in God's eternal election and predestination. 
 
 " It is false to say that if man does all that he can, he does 
 away with the obstacles to grace. 
 
 " In one word, nature possesses neither right reason nor a 
 good will. 
 
 " On the side of man there is nothing that precedes grace, 
 unless it be impotency and rebellion. 
 
 " There is no moral virtue without pride, or without sadness, 
 that is to say, without sin. 
 
 " From beginning to end we are not the masters of our 
 actions, but we are their slaves. 
 
 " We do not become righteous by doing what is righteous ; 
 but having become righteous, we do what is righteous. 
 
 " He that says that a theologian who is not a logician, is an 
 heretic and an adventurer, holds a proposition that is rash and 
 heretical. 
 
 " There is no form of reasoning (of syllogism) that agrees 
 with the things of God.^ 
 
 ' Breviter nee rectum dictamen habet natura nee bonam voluutatem. (L. 
 0pp. lat. i. 5G.) 
 
 - Nulla forma syllogistica tenet in terminis divinis. (Ibid.) 
 
2u8 HISTORY OF THE KEFORAIATION. 
 
 " Could the syllogistic form be applicable to divine things, one 
 might know the article of the Holy Trinity, and should not 
 believe it. 
 
 " In one word, Aristotle is to theology what darkness is to 
 light. 
 
 " Man is more the enemy of the grace of God than he is of 
 the law itself. 
 
 " He who is without the grace of God, sins unceasingly, even 
 although he may not kill, or steal, or commit adultery. 
 
 " He sins, for he does not keep the law spiritually. 
 
 " Not to kill, not to commit adultery, externally, and in so 
 far as concerns actions only, is the hypocrite"'s righteousness. 
 
 " God's law and man"'s will are two adversaries which cannot 
 be brought into concord without the grace of God. ' 
 
 " What the law wills, the will of man never wills, notwith- 
 standing that fear or affection may make it assume the sem- 
 blance of willing it. 
 
 " The law is the taskmaster of the will, overcome only by the 
 Child which is born to us."^ (Isa. ix. 6.) 
 
 " The law makes sin to abound, for it irritates and repels the 
 will. 
 
 ' But the grace of God makes righteousness to abound b}' 
 Jesus Christ, who makes the law to be loved. 
 
 "All the works of the law appear good outwardly, but 
 inwardly they are sin. 
 
 " The will, when it turns towards the law without the grace 
 of God, does this only for the sake of its own advantage. 
 
 " Cursed are all those who do the works of the law. 
 
 " Blessed are all those who do the works of the grace of God. 
 
 " The law which is good, and in which a man has life, is the 
 love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy 
 Ghost. (Rom. v. 5.) 
 
 " Grace is not bestowed in order that work may be done 
 oftener, and more easily, but because without grace no work can 
 be done from love. 
 
 1 Lexet voluntas sunt adversarii duo, sine gratia Dei implacabiles. (Ibid. 57.) 
 " Lex est exactor voluntatis, qui non superatur nisi per Parvulum qui natus 
 est nobis. (Ibid.) Rendered by M. M. D'A. as if it were quce non, Ac., and as 
 if it were the will that was overcome. Superatur perhaps might best bo ren- 
 dered superseded. — Tr, 
 
NATURE OF iMAX. 
 
 209 
 
 "To lovo God coiisisits in hating ourselves, and in knowing 
 nothing out of God."" ^ 
 
 Thus all the good that man can do, Luther attributes to God. 
 The thing to bo done is not to repair, or, so to speak, to patch 
 up again, the will of man; it is necessary that there should be 
 given to him a will altogether new. God alone could say this, 
 for God alone is capable of accomplishing it. Such is one of the 
 greatest and most important truths of which the human mind 
 can be convinced. 
 
 Now, although Luther proclaimed man's impotency, he did 
 not fall into the other extreme, for he says in the eighth thesis: 
 " It does not thence follow that the will is of its own nature 
 wicked, that is to say, that its nature is that of evil itself, as 
 the INIanichfeans have taught.^ Man's nature was at its origin 
 essentially good: it turned away from good, which is God, and 
 inclined towards evil. Still, its holy and glorious origin remains, 
 and it is capable, by the power of God, of recovering that origin. 
 It is the business of Christianity to give it again to him. The 
 Gospel, it is true, shows us man in a state of humiliation and 
 impotency, but even thus he is placed between two glorious and 
 elevated states; that which is past from which he is fallen, and 
 that which is future to which he is called. Such is the truth : 
 man knows it, and, little as he may reflect upon it, he easily 
 discovers that all that is told him about his present purity, 
 power, and glory, is but a lie in which one would cradle and lull 
 asleep his pride." 
 
 It was not only against the pretended goodness of the human 
 will that in these theses Luther protested, but, farther, he aimed 
 at putting down the pretended illumination of natural reason in 
 respect of things divine. The doctrines of the schoolmen had, 
 in fact, exalted man's reason as well as his will, and, as a system 
 of theology, had in the hands of some of its doctors become 
 nothing better fundamentally than a sort of rationalism. This 
 may be perceived from the propositions we have quoted, and 
 M'hich, one might imagine, must have been aimed at the ration- 
 alism of our own days. In the theses which became the signal 
 
 ' L. Opp. L. xvii. p. 143. et 0pp. lat. i. 
 
 " Ncc ideo semiitur quod sit iiaturaliter mala, id est natura mail, Gocundum 
 .Manichccos. (lb.) 
 
 I. 2 I) 
 
210 IIISTOR'^ OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 for the Reformation, Luther assailed the Church and those 
 popular superstitions which had added indulgences, purgatory, 
 and so many other abuses, to the Gospel; in those which we 
 have presented to the reader, he assailed the schoolmen and the 
 rationalism which had deprived that same Gospel of the doc- 
 trine of God's sovereignty, of his revelation, and of his grace. 
 The Reformation attacked first rationalism, then superstition. 
 It proclaimed what were God's prerogatives before it pruned off 
 the excrescences that had sprung from man. It was first posi- 
 tive; then negative. This is what has not been sufiiciently 
 understood and acknowledged; and yet, without this, we cannot 
 arrive at a right appreciation of that rehgious revolution, or duly 
 comprehend its nature. 
 
 Be this as it may, they were very novel truths which Luther 
 had thus energetically expressed. It would have been easy to 
 maintain them at Wittemberg, for there his influence was pre- 
 dominant. But it would have been said that he had chosen an 
 arena on which nobody could appear as his opponent, while by 
 offering battle at another university, he would procure for them 
 more publicity, and it was by such publicity that the Reformor- 
 tion was effected. He turned his eyes to Erfurt, where he had 
 excited so much angry feeling among its divines. 
 
 Accordingly, he sent these theses to John Lange, the prior of 
 Erfurt, writing to him as follows: " My suspense, while waiting 
 for your decision on the paradoxes, is great, — extreme, — too 
 great perhaps, — and full of anxiety. I strongly suspect that 
 your theologians will consider as paradoxical, and even kaho- 
 doxical, ^ what can only be to me most orthodox. Tell me then, 
 with the least possible delay, how matters stand. Pray, declare 
 to the theological faculty, and to all, that I am ready to come 
 to you and publicly to defend these propositions, either in the 
 university or in the monastery." It does not appear that this 
 challenge was accepted, the monks of Erfurt contenting them- 
 selves with letting him know that his theses had exceedingly 
 displeased them. 
 
 But he wished to send them to another part of Germany also; 
 and, with this view, cast his eyes on a young man who acts a 
 
 ^ lino cacodoxa (bad doctrine) videri suspicor. (L. Epp. i. C0.~1 
 
KCK. UUBAN HKGIt'S. 
 
 211 
 
 great part in the history of tlie Reformation, and whom it is time 
 to introduce to the reader. 
 
 A distinguished professor, called John Mayer, was teaching 
 at that time at the university of Ingolstadt, in IJavaria. Ho 
 was born at Eck, a village of Swabia, and was commonly ealled 
 doctor Eck. Luther valued his talents and acquirements, and 
 regarded him as a friend. He was remarkably intelligent, had 
 read a great deal, possessed an excellent memory, and adding 
 eloquence to learning, gave proofs of the vivacity of his genius 
 by his irestures and his voice. In short, Eck held the same 
 place in the south of Germany that Luther held in the north; 
 with very different tendencies they were the two most distinc- 
 tive theologians of the epoch which they characterised. Ingol- 
 stadt was almost the rival of Wittemberg, and such was the 
 reputation of both doctors, that students flocked from all quarters 
 to the universities where they taught, greedy to devour their 
 lectures. They were endeared to their disciples not less by per- 
 sonal qualities than by learning; and as Dr. Eck's character has 
 been assailed, we may relate the following anecdote as showing 
 that, at least at this period of his life, his heart was not shut to 
 generous impulses. 
 
 Among the students who had been attracted by his high 
 reputation to Ingolstadt, there was a young man, named Urban 
 Regius, who had been born on the borders of an Alpine lake, 
 and whose first place of study was the university of Fribourg, in 
 Brisgau. On arriving at Ingolstadt, to which Dr. Eck's fame 
 had brought him. Urban attended his course of philosophy and 
 gained his good will. As he had to procure for himself the 
 means of subsistence, he was under the necessity of taking charge 
 of some young noblemen, who proved so expensive in their fond- 
 ness for costly dresses and good cheer, that Regius was thrown 
 into embarrassments which led him to beseech their parents to 
 recall them. " Do not be afraid," was the reply; but still his 
 debts increased, his creditors pressed him, and he knew not how 
 to act. The emperor was then assembling an army against the 
 Turks, a recruiting party had reached Ingolstadt, and while 
 thus at his wits end. Urban enlisted. At the final review, 
 previous to their leaving the place, he appeared in the ranks in 
 his new soldier's uniform. At that moment Dr. Eck appeared 
 
212 IIISTOKY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 on the spot with several of his colleagues, and was surprised to 
 recognize his student in the ranks of the recruits. " Urban 
 Kegius!" said he to him, eyeing him at the same time witli a 
 keen glance. " Here I am," replied the recruit. " Pray, how 
 comes this change about?" The youth told his story. " Leave 
 that matter to me," replied Eck; at the same time takmg his 
 pike from the young soldier, and procuring his discharge. The 
 parents of the young spendthrifts, on being threatened by the 
 doctor with the prince's disfavour, sent the money required to 
 pay their children's expenses, and Urban was delivered in order 
 to become, at a subsequent period, one of the props of the Refor- 
 mation. 
 
 It was upon Eck that Luther turned his thoughts, as the 
 person through whom he might make known his theses on 
 Pelagianism and scholastic Rationalism, in the south of the 
 empire. Instead, however, of sending them directly to the 
 Ingolstadt professor, he addressed them to their worthy com- 
 mon friend, Christopher Scheurl, secretary of Nuremburg. " I 
 send you," says he, " my propositions, wholly paradoxical and 
 even kakistodoxical (/ca/cKrrtJoo^ae) according to many, as thoy 
 are. Show them to that most erudite and ingenious person, our 
 dear Eck, that I may hear and see what he thinks of them." i 
 Thus it was that Luther spoke at that time of Dr. Eck; such 
 was the friendship that then united them — a friendship which 
 it was not Luther that dissolved. 
 
 But this was not the arena on which the battle was to be 
 fought. These theses turned perhaps on points of greater doc- 
 trinal importance than those which two years afterwards threw 
 the Church into aflame; nevertheless, in spite of Luther's chal- 
 leno-es, they passed off unnoticed. At the very most, they were 
 read only within the limits of the Church, and beyond these 
 made no sensation whatever. This was because they were 
 regarded as nothing more than university propositions and doc- 
 trines in theology; while the theses which followed, bore upon 
 an evil that had grown into bulk in tlie midst of the people, and 
 was at that time forcing its way into all parts of Germany. As 
 long as Luther only revived forgotten doctrines, none seemed to 
 
 ' Eccio nostro, eruditissinio ct ingeniosissiino riro exhibete, ut audiam et 
 videam qnid vocet illas. (L. Epp. i. p. 63.) 
 
LUTHEK8 JVlODESiTY. ill '6 
 
 care. ^Vhen ho signalfd out abuses wliicli gave olicnco to the 
 whole world, all gave heed. 
 
 Nevertheless, in neither case did Luther propose to himself 
 anything beyond merely exciting one of those theological dis- 
 cussions which were at that time so frequent at university seats. 
 Within this circle his thoughts were confined, and he had no 
 idea of becoming a reformer. He was humble, and his humility 
 went the length of diffidence and anxiety. " Considering my 
 ignorance," he would say, " I deserve only to be hid in a corner, 
 unknown to all men under the sun."l But from this corner in 
 which he would fain have remained unknown to the world, a 
 powerful hand withdrew him. An incident altogether indepen- 
 dent of Luther'^s own will, threw him into the battle-field, and 
 war commenced. It is this providential incident which, fol- 
 lowing the order of events, we have now to relate. 
 
 1 L 0pp. (W.) xviii. I Oil. 
 
BOOK THIRD. 
 
 TUE INDULGENCES AND THE THESES. 
 1517. Mat, 1518. 
 
 I. People throughout Germany were at this time in a state of 
 great agitation. The Church had opened a vast market on the 
 earth; and what with the crowds of customers, and the cries 
 and jests of the salesmen, it might have been called a fair, but 
 a fair held by monks. The merchandize which they cried up 
 and offered at reduced prices, was no less, they said, than the 
 salvation of souls. 
 
 The merchants traversed the country in a handsome equipage, 
 accompanied by three troopers, at a rapid pace, and living very 
 expensively. One would have said that it was some lord cardi- 
 nal on an inspection tour, with his attendants and officers, and 
 not a vulgar huckster or begging friar. On the train approach- 
 ing a city, a deputation was sent to the chief magistrate with 
 this message: " The grace of God and of the holy Father is at 
 your gates." Forthwith the whole place was put in movement. 
 Clergy, priests, nuns, the council, schoolmasters, scholars, trades'" 
 corporations, men and women, young and old, went to meet the 
 merchants, with lighted tapers in their hands, marching to the 
 sound of music, and with all the steeple bells in full swing, in 
 such a manner,'' says an historian, " that a grander reception 
 could not have been given to God himself."" When the greet- 
 ings were over, the whole train proceeded towards the church, 
 headed by the pope's bull of grace, which was borne on a cushion 
 of velvet or of cloth of gold. Next followed the leader of the 
 traders in indulgences, with a large wooden cross in his hands. 
 Thus did the whole procession pace along, amid chanting, and 
 
■^g'J7H-B-»6'"^°°' 
 
 ^=T^ 
 
PROCESSIOX. TETZEL. 2 15 
 
 prayers, and the smoke of sweet perfumes. The salesman monk 
 and his party were saluted as they entered the cliurch, witli a 
 storm of music from the organ and human voices ; the large 
 red cross was placed before the altar, with the pope's arms sus- 
 pended from it ; and during the whole time of its being there, the 
 clergy of the place, the penitenciai'ies, and the sub-commission- 
 ers, came daily, after vespers or before the salute, to pay their 
 respects to it, each with a white wand in his liand. l This great 
 affair created a vast sensation among the quiet cities of Germany. 
 One personage, in particular, drew all eyes upon him at these 
 sales ; the man who carried the red cross, and wlio was charged 
 with the principal part of the business. He put himself arro- 
 gantly forward in the dress of the Dominicans, and albeit he 
 had reached the age of seventy-three, his voice was remarkably 
 powerful, and he seemed strong and vigorous. ^ This person waa 
 the son of a Leipsick goldsmith, called Diez, and was himself 
 called John Diezel or Tetzel. He had studied in his native 
 town, was created a bachelor in 1487, and two years after 
 entered the order of Dominicans. Numerous honours had 
 accumulated upon him. Bachelor in theology, prior of the 
 Dominicans, apostolic commissioner, inquisitor, hceretlcce pravi- 
 tatis inquisitor, and since 1502, uninterruptedly employed in the 
 functions of merchant of indulgences, he had acquired so mucli 
 expertncss in subordinate departments, as at last to have been 
 appointed chief commissioner. He had a monthly allowance of 
 eighty florins, all his expenses were paid, and he Avas provided 
 with a carriage and three horses ; but we may well believe that 
 his by -gains far exceeded his regular emoluments. At Freiberg, 
 in 1507, he made two thousand florins in two days. And if 
 his occupation was that of a knave, no less was he one in his 
 manners. Convicted of adultery and other infamous conduct, 
 he was about to expiate his crimes by death; the emperor Maxi- 
 milian had given orders for his being put into a sack and thrown 
 into the river, and from this fate he was saved only through the 
 intervention of the elector Frederick of Saxony. 3 But the 
 
 ' Mit weissen Staeblein. (Archbishop of Maintz's instructions to the sub- 
 commissioners of the indulgence, «fec. art. 8.) 
 
 * Ingenio feros et corporo robustus. (Cochl. 5.) 
 
 ^ Welchcn Churfurst Fricderich vom Sack zu Inspruck crbeten hatte. 
 OTathes. 10.) 
 
216 HISTORY OF THE RF.l-ORMATlON. 
 
 lesson lie thus received was far from teaching him modesty. 
 He took two of his children alono; with him — a fact mentioned 
 by Miltitz, the papal legate, in one of his letters, l It would 
 have been difficult to lind in all the monasteries of Germany, a 
 inan better fitted for the trade with which he was entrusted. 
 To the theology of a monk, and the zeal and sharp wits of an 
 inquisitor, he added consummate effrontery; and what particu- 
 larly facilitated the task he had in hand, he possessed the art of 
 inventing those odd stories which take the fancies of the people. 
 All methods were held to be good, provided they went to fill 
 his money chest. Raising his voice to its loudest pitch and 
 indulging in the eloquence of a mountebank's stage, he oflfered 
 his indulgences to all, and could beat any huckster at a fair in 
 crying up his merchandize.- 
 
 On the cross being set up and the pope's arms suspended 
 from it, Tetzel mounted the pulpit, and, with an air of the utmost 
 assurance, began to exalt the value of the indulgence, in pre- 
 sence of the crowd that had been attracted to tlie church by the 
 ceremony. The people listened and stared at hearing the won- 
 derful virtues he announced."^' Speaking of the Dominican friars 
 with whom Tetzel was associated, a Jesuit historian says: 
 " Some of these preachers scrupled not, as an ordinary prac- 
 tice, to outrage the subject of their discourses and to exag- 
 gerate the value of the indulgences, in such sort as to lead 
 the people to believe that no sooner was the money paid than 
 salvation, and the deliverance of souls from purgatory, might 
 safely be reckoned upon." 3 If such were the disciples, we may 
 imao-ine what the master must have been. Let us turn to one of 
 the harangues he delivered after the setting up of the cross. 
 
 " Indulgences," says he, " are the most precious and the 
 Bublimest gift of God. 
 
 " That cross (pointing to the red cross) has no less efficacy 
 than the very cross of Jesus Christ. ^ 
 
 " Come forward and I will give you sealed letters, in virtue 
 
 1 L. 0pp. (W.) XV., 862. 
 
 * Circumfcruntur vcnales indulgenticc in his regionibus a Tecelio Domini- 
 cano impudentissimo Sycophanta. (Melanclit. Vita Luth.) 
 
 ^ History of Lutheranism by Father Maimbourg, of the company of Jesus, 
 1681. p. 21. 
 
 « L. 0pp. (W.) xxii. p. 1393. 
 
tkt/j!:l*'s harangues. 217 
 
 of wliicli even the sins which you may have a wish to conmiit 
 in future, will all bo forgiven you. 
 
 " I would not oxcliango privileges with St. Peter in heaven : 
 for I have saved more souls by my indulgences than the apos- 
 tle ever did by his preaching. 
 
 " There is no sin so great but that the indulgence may pro- 
 cure its remission ; nay, should any one, an impossibility no 
 doubt, have done violence to the holy Virgin Mary, mother of 
 God, let him but pay and it will be forgiven him.i 
 
 " Even repentance is unnecessary. 
 
 "But more than this: the indulgences save not only the living; 
 they save also the dead. 
 
 "Priest! nobleman! merchant! woman! youths of both 
 sexes! hark how your parents and other friends who have died, 
 call to you from the depth of the abyss: ' We are suffering a 
 horrible martyrdom! A small sum, given us as ahns, will deliver 
 us ; it is in your power to bestow this, and yet you will not!' " 
 
 People shuddered at hearing these words uttered by this 
 swindling monk. 
 
 " The very instant," continued Tetzel, "that the money chinks 
 at the bottom of the strong box, the soul escapes from purgatory 
 and soars to heaven. ^ 
 
 " w^eak people, and little better than the beasts, who do not 
 comprehend the grace richly offered you! , . . Now is 
 heaven everywhere open? . . . Dost thou hesitate to enter 
 forthwith? . . . When wilt thou then enter ? . . . 
 Thou hast it now in thy power to deliver so many souls! 
 Hard-hearted and neglectful man! For twelve groschen thou 
 canst deliver thy father out of purgatory, and thou art ungrate- 
 ful enough not to save him! I shall be justified at the day of 
 judgment ; but as for you, you shall be punished so much the 
 more severely for having neglected so great a salvation. — I tell 
 you, that liad you but one coat, you ought to take it off and sell 
 
 ' Tetzel defends and maintains this assertion in his anti-theses, published that 
 same yeai' ; Th. 99, 100 and 101. Sub commissariis insuper ac prDidicatoribus 
 veniarum imponcre, at si qnis per impossibile Dei genetricem semper virginem 
 violasset, quod eumdem indulgcntiarum vigorc ahsolvcre possent, luce clarius 
 est. (Positiones fratris J. Tetzelii quibus defendit indulgcntias contra 
 Lutherum.) 
 
 - These 5G. (Positiones, A-c. ut supra.) 
 
218 HISTORY OF THE RKFORMATION. 
 
 it, in order that you may obtain this favour. . . . The 
 Lord our God is no longer God, He has committed all power 
 to the Pope." 
 
 Then, endeavouring to make use of yet other Aveapons, he 
 would add : " Know you wherefore our most holy Lord distri- 
 butes this grace among you 1 It is intended that the ruined 
 church of St. Peter and St. Paul should be rebuilt, in such 
 fashion that there shall be nothing like it in the universe. That 
 church contains the bodies of the holy apostles, Feterand Paul, 
 and of a multitude of martyrs. These holy bodies, in conse- 
 quence of the present state of the building, are now, alas ! 
 . . . continually knocked about, put under water, soiled, 
 dishonoured, and reduced to rottenness by the rain and by the 
 hail. . . . Ah, shall these sacred ashes remain any longer 
 in mud and in disgrace."' 
 
 This representation failed not to impress many. People felt 
 a burning eagerness to come to the help of poor Leo X. who had 
 not wherewithal to shelter from the rain, the bodies of St. 
 Peter and St. Paul. 
 
 The speaker then declaimed against those cavillers and 
 traitors who opposed his work. " I declare them excommuni- 
 cated," said he. 
 
 Next, addressing himself to docile souls, and impiously quot- 
 ing Scripture, he said : " Blessed are the eyes that see what you 
 see; for I tell you, that many prophets, and many kings, have 
 desired to see the things you see, and have not seen them, and 
 to hear the things that you hear, and have not heard them." 
 And at the close, showing the strong box in Avhicli he received 
 the money, he usually concluded his pathetic discourse by repeat- 
 ing the following appeal to the people thrice: "Bring! bring! 
 bring!" " uttering these words," says Lutliei-, "with such a horri- 
 ble bellowing that one would have said it was an infuriated ox 
 which had broken in among the people and was butting at them 
 with its horns."" When his discourse v/as finished, he left the 
 pulpit, ran towards the box, and in the sight of all the people, 
 threw in a piece of money, which he took care should sound loud.^ 
 
 1 Instruction by the archbishop of M.iyence, &c. 
 * Resolut. on the 32d Thesis. 
 
 3 Tentzel, Reformation sgesch. — Myconii Rcf. His. — Archbishop of ]\Iaintz'8 
 Instruction to the Subcommissaries of Indulgences. — Luther's Theses. 
 
CONFESSION now CONDUCTKD. 219 
 
 Such wcro tlic pulpit addresses Mliicli astonished (rcrmany 
 was in course of hearing, in the days when God was preparing 
 Luther lor his task. ^ 
 
 As soon as the discourse was finished, tlic indulgence was 
 considered as " having solemnly established its throne in the 
 place." Confessionals, ornamented with the pope's arms, were 
 disposed in order. The subcommissioners, and the confessors 
 whom they selected, were regarded as representing the apostolic 
 penitenciaries of Rome during the season of a grand jubilee; 
 and on each of their confession boxes were inscribed, in large 
 characters, their names. Christian names, and titles. 2 
 
 The people then pressed in crowds to these confessionals and 
 entered them, not with contrite hearts, but with a piece of 
 money in their hand. Men and women, children, poor people 
 even down to such as lived upon alms, every one found his piece 
 of money. After explaining the greatness of the indulgence to 
 each in particular, the penitenciaries put this question to the 
 penitents: " Tell me, on your conscience, how much money you 
 can give away, in order that you may obtain so complete a par- 
 don?'" "This question,"" says the archbishop of Maiutz's instruc- 
 tions to the commissioners, " ouglit to be put at that moment, so 
 that the penitents may bo the better disposed to contribute." 
 
 As for the rest, this was all the good disposition that was 
 required. Mention at least was made in the pope's bull of repent- 
 ance of heart and confession by the mouth; but Tetzel and his 
 gang took good care not to speak of these, as otherwise their 
 money-bank would have remained empty. The archi-episcopal 
 instructions forbade them so much as to speak of conversion or 
 contrition. Three grand favours were promised, of which we need 
 mention only the first. " The first favour we have to announce 
 to you," said the commissioners according to the letter of their 
 instructions, "is the complete pardon of all sins, and a greater 
 favour than this cannot be named, in as much as a man who lives 
 in sin forfeits the divine favour, and as by this complete forgive- 
 
 ' And these discourses, nay, this whole impious traffic, were matters of public 
 notoriety ; and the traffic was earned on by a commission from the archbishop 
 and in the name of the pope? Where now the papal infallibility which at least 
 tacitly approves of all this? Must not every one who uses his reason hero side 
 with Luther, yea, with the first as the best, wlio showed courage enough to 
 oppose such ungodly presumption? — L. R. 
 
 ■^ Instruction, etc. 5, CD. 
 
220 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ness, he obtains anew the grace of God.i Now, we declare, that 
 in order to the obtaining of these excellent favours, all that is 
 required is the purchase of an indulgence. ^ And as for those 
 who would deliver souls from purgatory, and procure the forgive- 
 ness of all their offences, let them but put the money into the 
 box; but neither repentance of heart nor confession of mouth is 
 required of them.3 Let them only make haste and bring their 
 money, for thereby they will do what is most beneficial to the 
 souls of the defunct and to the building of St. Peter's Church." 
 Greater benefits could not be purchased at a lower price. 
 
 When the confession was over, and it was soon made, the faith- 
 ful hasted to the salesman. The sale was commited to a single per- 
 son who kept his counter near the cross. He keenly scrutinized 
 all who came to him, marking their expression, their bearing, and 
 their clothes ; and from each he asked a sum corresponding to their 
 respective appearances as they presented themselves. Kings, 
 queens, princes, archbishops, and bishops, were bound, according 
 to the regulations, to pay five and twenty ducats for one ordinary 
 indulgence. Abbots, counts, and barons, had to pay ten. Other 
 nobles, rectors, and all persons having an income of five hundred 
 florins, paid six ducats. Those who had two hundred florins a 
 year, paid one ; others only a half. Further, if the tax could not 
 be literally complied with, ample discretionary powers were given 
 to the apostolic commissioner, and the whole was to be arranged 
 according to the dictates "of sound reason" and the donor's gener- 
 osity. ^ For particular sins Tetzel had a particular tariff. Thus 
 polygamy paid six ducats; stealingfrom achurch and perjury, nine 
 ducats; murder, eight ducats; magic, two ducats. Samson who 
 carried on the same trade in Switzerland as Tetzel in Germany, 
 had a somewhat different tax. For child-murder he exacted four 
 livres tournois; for the murder of a father or brother, one ducat. 5 
 The apostolic commissioners had difficulties occasionally to 
 encounter in carrying on their business. It often happened, 
 both in cities and in the villages, that married men were opposed 
 to this whole traffic, and forbade their wives taking anything to 
 
 ' Die erstc Gnade ist die Vollkommene Vergcbung aller Sundcn, &c. (Instruc- 
 tion, 19.) ^ Nur den Beichtbrief zu kaufen. (Ibid., 36.) 
 
 3 Anch ist nicht nbthig dass sie in dem Herzen Zerknirscht sind, undjnit dem 
 Mund gcbcichtet haben. (Ibid. 38.) 
 
 * Nach den Satzen der gesunden Vernntift, nach ihrer Magnificcnz und 
 FreigcMgkeit. (Ibid., etc. 2G.) * MUUer's Reliquicn, iii. p. 264. 
 
SALIC OF INDULGENCES. PUnLtC PENANCE. 22 1 
 
 these merchants. AVliat course could their devout spouses 
 follow? " Have you not your dowry, or some other means at 
 your disposal?" said the salesmen. "In that case, you may 
 dispose of them for so holy a work, oven against the wishes of 
 your husbands." i 
 
 The hand that grant(Hl the indulgence could not receive the 
 money, this being forbidden under the heaviest penalties; and, 
 indeed, there Avas too much reason to fear that that hand might 
 prove unfaithful. The penitent was himself to drop the price 
 of his forgiveness into the chest. "^ Those who audaciously kept 
 their purses closed, Avere wrathfully frowned upon. 3 
 
 If, among those who crowded to the confessionals, any one 
 were found whose crime, though public, had not fallen under the 
 cognizance of the laws of the state, he was bound, first of all. to 
 do public penance. He was conducted to a chapel or sacristy; 
 there he was stripped of his clothes; his shoes were taken from 
 his feet, and he was left naked to the shirt. His arms were 
 placed across his breast; a light was put into one hand, and a 
 taper into the other. The penitent was then marchea off at the 
 head of the procession that advanced to the red cross. He threw 
 himself on his knees, and remained thus until the chanting and 
 the collect were over. The commissioner then thundered out the 
 psalm, Miserere met! Straightway the confessor approached the 
 penitent, and led him across the station to the commissioner, 
 who, taking the rod in his hand, struck him with it softly three 
 several times on the back, -^ uttering these words: " May God 
 have pity on thee and forgive thy sin!" He next thundered 
 forth the Kyrie eleison. The penitent was then led up to the 
 cross, and the confessor pronounced the apostolic absolution over 
 him, and declared hira restored to his place among the faithful. 
 Sad mummeries wound up by holy words, Avhich at such a 
 moment, involved a profanation. •S 
 
 * Instr. 27. Wiodcr den Willen inres IMannes. 
 2 Ibid, 87, 00 cand 91. 
 
 * Luth. 0pp. Leipz. xvii. 70. 
 
 * Dreimal golind auf den Riickcn. (Instrnction.) 
 
 * Yes, blasphemous words! Sliame, nicthinks, must cover the face of any 
 one wlio would allege aught as an apology for such a traffic in indnlirences ; 
 and who does not ]>erceive that a Church which, for a moment, could tolerate 
 such traffic, must have long since lost the sjiirit of infallibility, if it ever could 
 have possessed it? — L. R. 
 
222 HISTORY OF the reformation. 
 
 The following is one of the letters of absolution ; and it ia 
 well worth our while to know the contents of these diplomas, for 
 they were the occasion of the reform of the Church. 
 
 " May our Lord Jesus Christ have pity upon thee N. N**** 
 and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion ! And 
 I, in virtue of the apostolic commission which has been com- 
 mitted to me, absolve thee from all ecclesiastical censures, judg- 
 ments, and penalties, which thou mayest have deserved ; further, 
 from all the excesses, sins, and crimes, which thou mayest have 
 committed, however great or enormous they may be, and extend- 
 ing to all cases whatever, even were they reserved to our most 
 holy Father, the Pope, and to the apostolic see. I wipe out all 
 the stains of inability, and all the marks of infamy, which thou 
 mayest in that respect have drawn upon thee. I remit for thee 
 the pains thou mightest have had to endure in purgatory. I 
 restore thee to participation in the sacraments of the Church. 
 I incorporate thee afresh into the communion of the saints, and 
 I re-establish thee in the innocence and the purity in which 
 thou wast at the time of thy baptism. So that at the moment 
 of thy death, the gate by which souls pass into the place of 
 pains and torments, will be shut upon thee, while, on the con- 
 trary, that which leads to the paradise of joy, will be open to 
 thee. And if thou art not called upon to die soon, this grace 
 will remain unalterable for the time of thy latter end. 
 
 " In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost. Amen. 
 
 "Friar John Tetzel, commissary, has signed it with his 
 own hand." 
 
 How cleverly do we find presumptuous and lying words 
 intercalated in this document, amid others that are holy and 
 Christian ! The faithful were all to come and confess themselves 
 in the very place where the red cross was set up. To this there 
 was no exception, save in the case of the sick, the aged, and 
 women with child. If, however, there happened to be any 
 nobleman residing at his castle in the neighbourhood, or some 
 great personage in his palace, exceptions were also made for 
 such; ^ for he miiiht not care to mingle with the vulgar crowd, 
 
 * Instruction, 0. 
 
AMCSEMENTS AND DEnAUCHKIMFS. ^2.3 
 
 and yet his money was well -vvortli the trouble of going in quest 
 of it to his house. 
 
 If there happened to be any monastery, the superiors of 
 which, in their opposition to Tetzel's trallic, prohibited their 
 monks from paying visits to the places where the indulgence 
 had set up its throne, a renu>dy was found for this by sending 
 them confessors, empowered to absolve them in the face of tho 
 rules of their order, and the will of their superiors, l Not a 
 single vein of ore Avas left in the mine without something being 
 done to work it to advantage. 
 
 Then came what was the aim and end of the whole affair: 
 the reckoning up of the coin. To ensure its safety, the chest 
 had three keys; one remained in the hands of Tetzel; another 
 in those of a treasurer delegated by the house of Fugger of 
 Augsburg, which had been charged wdth the agency of this 
 stupendous enterprise; the third was confided to the civil 
 authority. When the time for doing so had arrived, the chests 
 were opened in presence of a public notary, and -the contents 
 duly counted over and recorded. Might not Christ have been 
 expected to return for the purpose of driving out these profane 
 traffickers from the sanctuary? 
 
 When tho mission was closed, the merchants relieved them- 
 fielves of their fatigues. They were forbidden, it is true, by the 
 instructions delivered by the commissary general, to frequent 
 taverns and suspicious places; - but they cared little for any such 
 interdictions. Sins must have seemed very little to be dreaded 
 by persons who made so easy a trade in them. "The collectors," 
 says a Koman Catholic historian,"'ledabad life; they expended in 
 taverns, at card tables, and in infamous places, all that the people 
 had saved from their necessities." 3 It was even positively 
 asserted that when carousing in taverns, they would even stake 
 the salvation of men's souls at dice.^ 
 
 II. Let us now see what scenes resulted from this traffic in 
 the forgiveness of sins, as carried on in Germany. Some of its 
 features are sufficient of themselves to give us a picture of those 
 times, and, in describing these, we like to allow the men whose 
 history we are relating, to speak for themselves. 
 
 1 Instruction 69. - Instruction 4. 
 
 " Sarpi. Concil.of Trent, p. 5. * Shrock, R. G v. il. K. I, IIG. 
 
224 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 At Magdeburg, Tetzel refused to absolve a wealthy woman, 
 unless, as he told her, she would pay him in advance an hundred 
 florins. She sought the advice of her ordinary confessor, who 
 was a Franciscan, "God grants the remission of sins gratuit- 
 ously," was the confessor's reply; "he never sells it."" Meanwhile 
 he begged her not to inform Tetzel of the counsel that he had 
 given her. The report of it, however, reached the nierchant"'s 
 ears, and in his rage at an advice so opposed to his interests, 
 he exclaimed: "Such an adviser, people ought to banish or 
 burn." 1 
 
 Tetzel rarel}^ found persons enlightened enough, and, more 
 rarely still, persons courageous enough to resist him. Generally 
 speaking, he made large gains of the superstitious crowd. He 
 had put up the cross of the indulgences at Zwickau, and the good 
 folks of the parish had hastened with all speed, to make the 
 money which was to save their souls, chink at the bottom of 
 the chest. He was about to leave the place with a well-filled 
 purse, but the night before his departure, the chaplains and their 
 acolytes came to request that he would give them a farewell 
 entertainment. Nothing was more reasonable, but Avhat could 
 he do, for the money had already been counted over and put 
 under lock and seal. The following morning he ordered the 
 large steeple bell to be tolled; a crowd rushed to church; all 
 thinking that something strange must have happened, as the 
 station was over. " I had made up my mind," said he, " to 
 leave you this morning, but I was awakened last night by 
 groans ; I listened. . . . they came from the church-yard. 
 . Alas ! it was a poor soul that called on me, and besought 
 me instantly to deliver it from the torment that was consuming 
 it ! Accordingly I have staid one day longer, that I might move 
 Christian hearts to have compassion on this miserable soul. I 
 desire myself to be the first to give; but whoever follows not my 
 example will deserve condemnation." What heart could refuse 
 to reply to such an appeal? And, besides, who was to know what 
 soul it might be which complained from the church-yard? A 
 liberal amount was collected, and Tetzel gave the chaplains and 
 their acolytes a festive entertainment, the expenses of which were 
 
 ' Scultet Aflnal. evangel., p. iv. 
 
OCCURRENCES AT ZWICKAU AN'D IIAGKNAU. 22''> 
 
 defrayed from the offerings made in bulialf of the toul of the 
 Zwickau corpse. ' - 
 
 Tlie indulgence merchants established themselves at Ilagenau 
 in 1517, and the wife of a shoemaker thei^, availing herself of 
 the sanction given in the commissary general's instructions, had, 
 in opposition to her husbancTs wishes, procured a letter of indul- 
 gence, for which she gave a golden llorin. She died soon alter, 
 and as her husband took no measures to have mass said for the 
 repose of her soul, the parish priest charged him before a magis- 
 trate with contempt for religion. The shoemaker was summoned 
 to appear in court but took care to put his wife's indulgence in his 
 pocket, before going to be examined. " Is not your wife dead V 
 said the magistrate. " Ves," he replied. "What have you done 
 for her?"" "I have buried her body and recommended her soul 
 to God." "Jjut have you seen to a mass being said for her 
 souFs health V "I have not done so. It could be of no use; she 
 passed into heaven the moment that she died." " How came you 
 to know that?" " Why here is the proof," on which, he drew the 
 indulgence from his pocket, and there, in presence of the priest, 
 the magistrate read, in so many words, that at the moment of 
 her death the woman who had received it was to go, not into 
 purgatory, but directly to heaven. " If the priest," he added, 
 "pretend that a mass is still necessary, my wife has been deceived 
 by our most Holy Father the Pope; if she has not been so 
 deceived, it is the priest then that deceives me." To this there 
 was no reply, and the accused was acquitted. Thus did the 
 good sense of the people treat these pious frauds as they 
 deserved. 3 
 
 ' Lbschers Ref. Acta. i. 404. L. 0pp. xv. 443, <fcc. 
 
 - IIow can any man of sound mind, take in hand to defend a church, and that 
 too as the sole infallible one, where such scandalous practices have ever been 
 admitted; and these, not occurring liero and there, and committed by obscilre 
 people, but by persons commissioned by the Popes? And should it be insisted 
 that such things liave now disappeared, yet to the charge of how much ingrati- 
 tude does that Church not render herself obnoxious, for perpetuating prejudices 
 against those to whom alone she is indebted for her improvement in this respect? 
 Much is said about impartiality, and the mutual approach of Roman Catholics 
 and Protestants. So far well ; but, first, let justice be done to thoso worthies 
 who purified the R. C. Church from such acts of impiety, aiid who saw, and 
 proclaimed, how far that Church stood from the infallibility that was ascribed to 
 lier. Then we shall see whether these men were led by the fervour of a holy 
 zeal, in any respect to exceed the bounds of duty in abolishing this or that 
 (doctrine or practice), it being good in itself, altliough abused. — L. R. 
 
 ^ Musculi loci commuues, p. 302. 
 I. . 2 F 
 
226 HISTORY OF THE REFORMAXrON. 
 
 One day as Tetzel was preaching at Leipsick, and was inter- 
 lardins; his sermon with some of the fables of which we have 
 given a specimen, two students left the church with indignation, 
 exclaiming: " We c!in no longer listen to this monk's jests and 
 puerilities.""! One of the two, we are assured, was the joung 
 Camerarius, afterwards the intimate friend of Melanchthon, and 
 who wrote his life. 
 
 But of all the young men of that time, the one on whom Tet- 
 zel made the deepest impression was undoubtedly Myconius, 
 who subsequently became famous as a Reformer, and as the his- 
 torian of the Reformation. He had received a Christian educa- 
 tion. " My son," his father, a pious Franconian, would often 
 Bay to him, " pray often, for all things are freely given to us by 
 God alone. The blood of Christ," he would add, " is the sole 
 ransom for the sins of the whole world. O my son, though 
 there were but three men destined to be saved by the blood of 
 Christ, believe, and believe with assurance, that thou art one of 
 the three." It is to put an affront on the Saviour's blood to 
 doubt that it saves."^ Then putting his son on his guard 
 against the traffic that was then beginning to establish itself in 
 Germany: " the Roman indulgences," he farther said, "are nets 
 for catching money, which serve to deceive the simple. Remis- 
 sion of sins and eternal life are not things to be bought." 
 
 At the age of thirteen, Frederick was sent to Annaberg 
 
 ' Tloffinan's Reformationsgesch. v. Leipz. p. 32. 
 
 2 Si tantum tres homines essent salvandi per sanguinem Christi, certo statu- 
 eret unum se esse ex tribus illis. (Melch. Adam. Vita Mycon.) 
 
 ^ Here, likewise, those Protestants have somewhat to learn, wlio from pnre 
 orthodoxy would take occasion to keep men's minds in doubt how far Christ 
 has died for them; grounding this on the dogma which they ascribe to the 
 Reformers, that Christ died fur a limited number only. This may be found in 
 their doctrines as an abstract proposition, but far different was their practice; 
 for supposing it were known that Christ had died for three persons only, they 
 would have had every one, be he who he might, to believe that he was one of the 
 three. And not only was this the language of Myconius, who was one of Luther's 
 followers, but Olevianus to wliom we (the Dutch) are so far indebted for our 
 catechetical instructions, went still farther, and in speaking of Christ's death, 
 has said : " Thou oughtest to be so assured and certain of this, as that wcrt 
 thou, poor sinner, alone in the world, as one solitary sheep, yet should Christ 
 have left the ninety and nine, already glorified in heaven, and have come down 
 from the heavenly glory to this nether world, to seek for thee, to bear thee on 
 his shoulders, and to rescue thee, as he himself testifies in the gospel." See 
 Olevianus Over do (leloofmrtikelen ; uitgegeven door G. Zeyhnans van Schn, 
 bl. 15. In the same spirit speak all the Reformers. How far, alas, have 
 people declined from this, by placing orthodoxy, nay even the distinguishing 
 characteristic of true piety, in sentiments directly opposite, deterring the mind, 
 as much as they can, from freely appropriating the death of Christ. — L. R. 
 
TETZEI, AT ANNAHKRG. MYCONIUS. 227 
 
 school for tlio completion of his studies. Tetzel soon after 
 arrived in that city and remained there two years. People 
 ilockcd in crowds to his preachings. " There Is no other 
 method," cried Tetzel with a voice of thunder, " there is no other 
 method of obtaining everlasting life but that of works. But 
 for man, this method of giving satisfaction is impossible. He 
 can only purchase it, then, from the Roman pontiff."" • 
 
 When Tetzel was about to leave Annaberg, his harangues 
 became still more urgent. Ere long he exclaimed in a threaten- 
 ing tone: " T will take down the cross, I will close the gate of 
 heaven,2 I will extinguish the radiance of this sun of grace which 
 is now beaming npon you." Resuming, then, the soft tones of 
 exhortation: "iJchold," said he, "the day of salvation; behold 
 the favourable time!" I'aising his voice anew, this pontifical 
 Stentor,3 who was addressing the inhabitants of a country the 
 source of whose riches lay in mines, roared out, " Bring, ye 
 burgesses of Annaberg, bring ample contributions for the indul- 
 gences, and your mines and mountains shall be filled with pur 
 silver!" Finally, Avhen Whitsuntide came, he declared that he 
 would distribute his letters to the poor gratuitously and for the 
 love of God. 
 
 Young Myconius was of the number of TetzePs hearers, and 
 felt much inclined to take advantaije of this offer. Addressino' 
 himself in Latin to the commissioners to whom he had gone to 
 make a personal application; " I am a poor sinner," said he, "and 
 I require a free pardon." — " Those only," replied the merchants, 
 "can share in Chrisfs merits who hold out helping hands to the 
 church, that is to say, who give money." — " What mean then," 
 said Myconius, " those promises of free pardon, placarded on 
 the doors and the walls of the churches?" — "Give a croschen 
 at least," said TetzeFs people after having vainly interceded for 
 the young man with their master. — " No, I cannot." — " Six- 
 pence then?" — " I have not even that." — On this the Domini- 
 cans began to suspect that he had come to entrap them. "Hark 
 now," they said, "we will make you a present of sixpence." — 
 Indignant at this, the young man, raising his voice, replied, 
 
 ' Si nummis rcdimatur a pontifice roniano. (Mclch. Adam.) 
 * Clausurum januam ccoli. (lb.) 
 ■ Stentor pontificius. (lb.) 
 
228 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " T have no desire for indulgences that must be bought. Did I 
 want to buy them, I should only have to sell one of my school 
 books. What I want is a pardon given gratuitously and for 
 the love of God alone. You have now to answer to God for 
 having allowed a souFs salvation to be lost for want of sixpence." 
 — "Who has sent you to entrap us,"" said the merchants. — 
 " Nothing; but the desire of receivins; God's favour has led me 
 to appear in the presence of such great lords," replied the youth 
 and withdrew. 
 
 " I was much cast down," says he, " at being thus pitilessly 
 dismissed. Still I felt within me a comforter who told me that 
 there was a God in heaven who forgave sins, without money and 
 without price, to penitent souls, for the love of his Son Jesus 
 Christ. As I was taking leave of these people the Holy Ghost 
 touched my heart. I burst into tears and besought the Lord 
 with sobs. " God," I cried, " since men have refused me the 
 remission of my sins because I have no money to pay for it, do 
 thou. Lord, take pity upon me, and grant me remission out of 
 pure favour. I betook myself to my room, laid hold of my 
 crucifix as it lay on my desk, placed it on a chair, and fell on 
 my knees before it. I cannot tell you what v/ere my feelings. I 
 besought God to be a Father to me, and to do with me what- 
 ever he chose. I felt that my nature was changed, converted, 
 and transformed. ^Vhat before had delighted me, thenceforth 
 became an object of disgust. To live with God, and to please 
 him, was thenceforth my most ardent, my only desire."^ 
 
 Thus did Tetzel pave the way for the Reformation. By cry- 
 ing abuses he cleared a path towards a purer doctrine, and the 
 indignation he roused among generous youths was one day to 
 be powerfully manifested. One may judge of this by the follow- 
 ing anecdote. 
 
 A Saxon gentleman who had heard Tetzel at Leipsick, had 
 felt this indignation at his falsehoods. Going to the monk, he 
 asked him if he were empowered to forgive the sins which a man 
 might intend to commit. " Assuredly yes," replied Tetzel, "I 
 have received full powers to that effect from the Pope." "Very 
 well," answered the knight," I have a mind to indulge myself in 
 
 ' Letter from Myconius to Eberus in Hechtii Vita Tetzolii Wittemb. p. 114, 
 
TKICIC I'KACTISKD I'l'O.V TETZKr,. 229 
 
 a little revenge at the expense of one of my enemies without 
 attacking his life. 1 will give you ten crowns, if you will give 
 me in return a letter of indulgence fully justifying me in doing 
 so." Tetzel started some dilKcultics: but they came to an 
 understanding at last, that the thing should be done for thirty 
 crowns. Not long after the monk left Lcipsick, the gentleman 
 attended by his servants, lies in wait for him in a wood between 
 Juterbock and Treblin; falls upon him, gives him a slight drub- 
 bing with his cane, and makes off with the rich indulgence box 
 which the inquisitor was taking along with him. Tetzel raised 
 the hue and cry that he had been robbed, and complained to the 
 courts of justice. But tlie gentleman produced the letter signed 
 by Tetzel himself, and by anticipation exempting him from all 
 punishment. Duke George, though at first very angry at what 
 had been done, as soon as he saw the document, gave orders for 
 the accused to be discharged as innocent. ^ 
 
 This traffic now set all men'^s minds in motion and was talked 
 of every where. It became the topic of conversation at the 
 residences of the nobility, in the academies, in the burghers 
 houses, in inns, in ale houses, and, in short, wherever the people 
 chanced to meet. 2 Opinions were divided about it ; some 
 believed; others were indignant; but the sound part of the 
 nation rejected this system of indulgences with disgust. So 
 contrary was that doctrine to Holy Scripture and good morals, 
 that all who had any acquaintance with the Bible, or any 
 natural light in them, in their own minds condemned it, and but 
 waited the signal for opposing it. On the other hand, scorners 
 found ample matter for raillery. The common people, after long 
 years of ii-ritation at the bad conduct of the priests, and induced 
 by the dread of punishment alone to show them any measure of 
 respect, now gave free vent to their hatred. Every where com- 
 plaints and sneers were heard on the love of money by which the 
 clei'gy were eaten up. 
 
 Not confining themselves to this, people attacked the power 
 of the keys and the authority of the sovereign pontiff. "Why 
 does not the pope," it was said, "deliver all souls from purgatory 
 
 * Albinus. Meissn. Chronik. L. W. (W.) xv. 440; &c, Ilechtius in Yit. 
 Tetzelii. 
 - Luth. 0pp. (Leipz.) xvii. p. Ill and 110. 
 
230 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 at once, from a principle of sacred charity, and because of the 
 great misery of these souls, since he delivers so many for the 
 sake of the money that perishes, and for St. Peter"'s cathedral I 
 Why is there a continual celebration of feasts and anniversaries 
 for the dead ? Why does the pope not restore, or allow to be 
 taken back, the church livings and prebends that have been 
 founded for the dead, since it is now useless, and even repre- 
 hensible, to pray for those who have been delivered for all time 
 coming by the indulgences? What, then, is this new holiness of 
 God and the pope, bestowed for the sake of money on a man 
 who is impious and God's enemy, so that he delivers from pur- 
 gatory a soul that is pious and beloved of the Lord, instead of 
 themselves delivering such a soul gratuitously, from love, and 
 because of its great misery. ^ 
 
 Stories were told of the gross and immoral conduct of those 
 who conducted the trade in indulgences. It was said that in 
 paying the postmasters who conveyed them and their wares, 
 the innkeepers at whose houses they lodged, in short, all who 
 rendered them any service, they gave a letter of indulgence for 
 four souls, five souls, or so many more souls, as the case might 
 be. Thus certificates of salvation began to circulate in the 
 hostelries and at markets, like bank notes or like paper money. 
 "Bring, bring," said the common people, "such is the head, 
 belly, tail, and entire contents of their sermons." ^ 
 
 A Schneeberg miner happened to meet with one of the sellers 
 of indulgences. • " Are we to put faith," said he, " in what you 
 have so often told us of the efficacy of indulgences and of the 
 authority of the pope, and to believe that by throwing a penny 
 into the chest, we may rescue a soul from purgatory?" The 
 indulgence-monger said that such was the case. " Ah," replied 
 the miner, "what a pitiless man must the pope then be, in that 
 for the sake of a wretched penny, he should suffer a poor soul to 
 lament so long in the flames ! If he have no ready money, let 
 him collect some hundred thousand crowns and deliver all the 
 souls at once. We poor people will willingly pay both interest 
 and capital." 
 
 Thus Germany was tired of the shameless traffic tbat was 
 
 ' Luther theses on the indulgences. Th. 82, 83, and 84. 
 * L. 0pp. (Leipz.) svii. 79. 
 
S^^V" 
 
 ?®PE tl® ?is 
 
LEO TF.NTH. 231 
 
 going on in its territories, and people could no longer tolerate 
 the impostures of these adepts in knavery from Home, ^ as Luther 
 says. Nevertheless, no bishop, no theologian, dared to opposo 
 their knavery and their frauds. JMeifs minds remained in sus- 
 pense, wondering if God would raise uj) any man of sufficient 
 might for tlie work that he had to accomplish; but no such 
 person was to be seen. 
 
 III. The pontiffs throne was now filled, not by a Eorgia, but 
 by Leo X., of the illustrious family of the INIedicis. As a man, 
 Leo was able, candid, remarkably good natured, and of a mild 
 disposition. In his intercourse with other men he was affable, 
 in his liberality unbounded; but his ])riv<atc nu)raLs, though 
 superior to those of his court, are admitted by Pallavicini to have 
 been not altogether without reproach. To this amiable char- 
 acter he added several of the qualities of a great prince. He 
 was the friend of the sciences and arts ; he had the earliest 
 Italian comedies acted in his presence ; and, indeed, there were 
 few in existence at that time which he had not seen acted. He 
 was passionately fond of music also, so that his palace daily 
 resounded with the playing of instruments, and he was often 
 heard humming over tunes that had been performed in his 
 presence. He was fond of magnificence, and spared no expense 
 when required for festivities, games, theatricals, and rewards, and 
 presents. The supreme pontiffs court was exceeded by none, 
 either in splendour or in pleasure. Nay, on its being understood 
 that Julian Medicis thought of establishing his residence at 
 Rome with his young wife : " praise be to God,"" exclaimed 
 Cardinal Bibliona, Leo X's. most influential counsellor, " for 
 we were in want of nothing but a court of ladies." ^ The court 
 of the pope was not considered as complete, until one in which 
 ladies could appear was superadded. To religious feelings Leo 
 X. was an utter stranger. Sarpi says of him, that his manners 
 were so pleasing that he would have been quite an accomplished 
 person, had he but possessed some knowledge of religious matters 
 
 1 Fessi Grant Germani omnos, forendis explieationilnis, nundinationibus, et 
 infinitis imposturis llomanensium ncbulonum. (L. 0pp. lat. in praof.) 
 
 * Ranke Rwrnische Pscbste, i. 71. 
 
 ^ Concile de Trcnte, p. 4. Pallavicini, while pretending to refute Sarpi, con- 
 firms and even aggravates bis testimony. Suo plane officio defuit. (Leo). . . . 
 venationes, facctias, ponipas adeo freqiientes. . . . (Concil. Trid. Uist. 
 i. p. 8, 9.) 
 
232 HISTORY OF THE REFOKMATION. 
 
 and a little more inclination to piety, about which he never much 
 troubled himself. 
 
 Leo required a great deal of money. He had to provide for 
 his vast ordinary expenditure, to find means for indulging all 
 liis liberalities, to fill the purse of golden pieces which he daily 
 threw among the people, to keep up the licentious shows of the 
 Vatican, to satisfy the many calls of his relations and of his 
 courtiers, persons devoted to voluptuousness, to endow his 
 sister, who had been married to prince Oibo, natural son of Pope 
 Innocent VIII. , and to meet the expenses occasioned by his taste 
 for literature, the arts, and other personal gratifications. His 
 cousin. Cardinal Pulchi, who was no less expert in amassing 
 wealth than Leo was in lavishing it away, recommended him to 
 avail himself of the resource to be found in indulgences. The 
 pope, accordingly, published a bull announcing a general indul- 
 gence, the produce of which was destined, he said, to the building 
 of that monument of priestly magnificence, (St. Peter's church.) 
 In a letter given at Rome, under the fisherman''s ring, in Nov., 
 1517, Leo requires 147 golden ducats from his commissioner 
 for indulgences, this sum being to pay for a manuscript of the 
 thirty-third book of Livy. No doubt, of all the purposes to 
 which he applied the money he obtained from the Germans, this 
 was the best; still it was strange that souls should be rescued 
 (Vom purgatory, in order that a purchase might be made of the 
 history of the lloman people's wars. 
 
 There was at that time in Germany a young prince who in 
 many respects was the living image of Leo X. This was 
 Albert, a younger brother of the elector Joachim of Branden- . 
 burg, and who first, at the age of four and twenty, had been 
 created archbishop and elector of Maintz and Magdeburg, and, 
 two years after, was appointed a cardinal. Albert had neither 
 the virtues nor the vices often met with amono- the hiiih diiini- 
 taries of the Church. Young, volatile, and worldly, but not 
 without some generous feelings, he very clearly perceived several 
 of the abuses of catholicity, and cared little for the fanatical 
 monks that surrounded him. His candour led him to acknow- 
 ledge, in part at least, the justice of the claims made by the 
 friends of the Gospel. In his own secret heart he was not very 
 nnich opposed to Lutliei\ One of the most distinguished among 
 
Al.UEKl', AllCUUISIIOP-ELIiCTOR, KTC. 233 
 
 the Reformers, Capito, was lung his chaplain, adviser, aud most 
 intimate friend. Albert regularly attended when he preached. 
 He did not desjjise the Gospel,"" says Cnpito; "on the other hand 
 he had a great esteem for it, and for long he prevented the 
 monks from attackino- Luther." But he had wished that the 
 latter should not compromise him, and that while he pointed 
 out errors in doctrine, and exposed the vices of the lower orders 
 of the ck^rgy, he should be careful not to throw light on the 
 faults of bishops and princes. He dreaded above all things, 
 seeing his name mixed up with that aflair. 'J'lie confiding 
 Capito, apt to be deluded, as people often allow themselves to 
 be when placed in a like position, some time after this bade 
 Luther " look to the example of Jesus Christ and of his apostles; 
 they reprehended the pharisees, and the incestuous person at 
 Corinth; but they never named the guilty. You know not 
 what pusses in the heart of bishops. There is more good to be 
 found in these than you imagine." But Albert's volatile and 
 profane spirit did even more to estrange him from the lleforma- 
 tion than was done by the susceptibilities and the fears of his 
 selfishness. Affable, witty, handsome, sumptuous, dissipated, 
 delighting in the gratifications of the table, in rich equipages, in 
 the magnificence of fine buildings, in licentious pleasures, and in 
 the society of men of letters, this archbishop-elector was in Ger- 
 many what Leo X. was in Rome. His court was one of the 
 most magnificent in the empire. To his passion for whatever 
 was pleasing or grand, he Mas ready to sacrifice all the pre- 
 sentiments of truth that might have found their way into his 
 heart. Nevertheless to the last, there might be seen in him, a 
 certain resistance arising from his better convictions, and on 
 more than one occasion he gave proofs of his moderation and 
 his candour. 
 
 Albert, as well as Leo, was in want of money, and he had 
 obtained advances from those rich Augsburg merchants, the 
 Fuggers. These debts he behoved to pay, and notwithstanding 
 that he had accumulated in his own person two archbishopricks 
 and a bishoprick, he had not wherewithal to pay for his pallium. 
 That ornament of white wool, spotted with black crosses and 
 blessed by the Pope, was sent to the archbishops as a mark of 
 
 their dignity, and cost them 2().00O, some say 80,000 florins. 
 1. 20 
 
234 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Albert, in liis endeavours to obtain mone}', very naturally 
 thought of having recourse to the same means as those employed 
 by the pope. He craved of him the general farming of the 
 indulgences, or, as was said at Rome, of the sins of the 
 Germans. 
 
 These the popes sometimes managed themselves; at other 
 times they farmed them as, at this day, certain governments 
 farm out gambling houses. Albert made an offer to Leo to 
 share with him in the profits of the speculation; and in accept- 
 ing it, Leo insisted that the price of the pallium should be 
 immediately paid. Albert, who reckoned precisely on the 
 indulgences as a means of payment, applied anew to the 
 Fuggers, who thinking it might turn out a good job, advanced 
 what was required on certain conditions, and were appointed 
 treasurers to the scheme. At that time they were the bankers 
 of the princes, and in reward of their services were subsequently 
 made counts. 
 
 The Pope and the archbishop having thus shared between 
 them the anticipated spoils of the good souls of Germany, per- 
 sons were next to be found to whom they might commit the 
 management of the concern. It was first offered to the order of 
 the monks of St. Francis, and their guardian was conjoined with 
 Albert. But those monks did not like to meddle with it, as it was 
 already in bad odour with all honest people. The Augustinian 
 friars, among whom there was more enlightened sentiment than 
 in any other of the religious orders, cared still less about having 
 anything to do with it. Meanwhile the Franciscans dreaded 
 the pope's displeasure, after his having sent their general, de 
 Forli, a cardinal's hat; a hat which cost that poor begging- 
 order 30,000 florins. Their guardian did not deem a direct 
 refusal prudent, but he threw all sorts of difficulties in Albert's 
 way. Never being able to come to a mutual understanding, the 
 elector eagerly accepted the proposal made to him that he should 
 have the entire management. The Dominican friars, on their 
 side, coveted a share in the general system of trading that was 
 about to commence. Tetzel, who had already gained reputation 
 in the craft, flew to Maintz with an offer of his services to the 
 elector. The talents he had displayed in publishing indulgences 
 for the knights of the Teutonic order of Prussia and Livonia, 
 
LUTIIEn FIRST IIRARS OF TKTZEL AT GIIIMMA. 235 
 
 were now remembered; liis proposals were accepted, and this 
 whole traffic accordingly passed into the hands of his order. ^ 
 
 IV. In so far Jis can now be ascertained, Luther heard Tetzel 
 spoken of Ih'st at Griinma, in 1516, just as ho had commenced 
 his visitation of the churches. Word was brought to Staupitz, 
 who was still with Luther, that there was at Wiirzen a merchant 
 of indulgences called Tetzcl, and that he was making a great 
 noise. Some even of his extravagant assertions were reported, 
 on hearing which, Luther, in great indignation, exclaimed: "If 
 God peruiit, T will knock a hole in his drum."- 
 
 It was on returning from Berlin, where he had met with the 
 most friendly reception from the elector Joachim, the farm'er- 
 general's brother, that Tetzel established himself at Jl'iterbock. 
 Staupitz, availing himself of the confidence with which the 
 elector Frederick always treated him, had often represented to 
 him the abuses of the indulgences, ^ and the scandals committed 
 by those who sought money for them. The princes of Saxony, 
 in their indignation at this shameless traffic, had interdicted the 
 man who conducted it from entering their provinces, so that he 
 had to confine himself to the territories of his patron the arch- 
 bishop of Magdeburg; still, however, approaching as near as 
 possible to Saxony. Jiiterbock was, indeed, only four miles 
 from Wittemberg. " This grand purse-thrasher,"" ■^ said Lutlicr, 
 " set himself bravely to beat the country, so that money began 
 to jump and drop again with a chinking sound to the bottom of 
 the money chests." The people ran in crowds from Wittemberg 
 to the indulgence market at Jiiterbock. 
 
 Luther, at this period, was still abundantly given to pay 
 respect to the Church and the pope. " I was then," says he, 
 " both as a monk and a papist, one of the most insensate of 
 men; so intoxicated with the doctrines of Rome, and even so 
 drowned in them, that I would have willingly assisted, had I 
 had it in my power, in killing any one who had the audacity to 
 refuse in the smallest matter to obey the pope.^ I was truly a 
 
 ' ScckonJorf, 42. 
 
 2 Lingke, Reisegesch. Luther's, p. 27. 
 
 3 Instillans ejus pectori froquentes indulgcntiarnm abusus. (Cochlaons, 4.) 
 
 * In German, to thresh, drcschen. (Lutlier's 0pp. xvii.) 
 
 * Monachum, et papistam insanissiiiinm, ita cbriuni, iiuo siihinersuni in dog- 
 iiiatibus papao, etc. In prjcf. 0pp. Witt. i. 
 
236 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Saul, as many still be." His heart, nevertheless, was ready to 
 consume itself with its zeal for whatever he saw to be the truth, 
 and against whatever he believed to be error. " I was a young 
 doctor who had just come glowing from the forge, and was ardent 
 and rejoicing in the Word of the Lord.''' ^ 
 
 Luther was seated one day in the confessional at Wittemberg, 
 when several of the burgesses of that city came, one after another, 
 confessing themselves guilty of great disorders. Adultery, loose 
 living, usury, ill-gotten gains, — such were the oflences with 
 Avhich the minister of the Word was informed by souls of which 
 he was one day to render an account. He reproved, and cor- 
 rected, and instructed. But what was his astonishment to find 
 the people reply, tliat they had no wish to give up their sins! 
 . . . The pious monk was horrified. He told them that as 
 they would not promise conversion, he could not grant absolution. 
 The wretched creatures, on this, appealed to their letters of 
 indulgences; these they exhibited, and insisted that they were 
 entitled to take the benefit of them. But Luther replied that 
 he made little account of the bits of paper they showed him, and 
 added: If ye repent not, ye shall all perish. The people exclaim 
 against this and protest, but the doctor is not to be shaken: 
 they must cease to do evil, they must learn to do well, other- 
 wise there can be no absolution. " Beware," he adds, " of the 
 clamours of those who sell indulgences: you have better things 
 to attend to than to be. buying these licenses which they sell to 
 you for the vilest price." 2 
 
 In great alarm at this reception, these inhabitants of Wittem- 
 berg hastened back to Tetzel, and told him that an Augustinian 
 monk made no account of his letters. On hearing this, Tetzel 
 Sfrew red with rajre. He thundered forth insults and curses ^ 
 from the pulpit, and the better to strike terror into the people, 
 he repeatedly had a fire kindled on the market place, declaring 
 that he had the pope"'s orders to burn all heretics who should 
 dare to say a word against the most holy indulgences. 
 
 Such were the circumstances which were the first occasion, 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (W.) xxii. 
 
 * Coepi dissuadere populis et eos dehortari ne indulgentiariorum cIamoribu3 
 aurem prscberent. . . . (L. 0pp. lat. in prsnf.) 
 
 ^ Wlitet, schilt und maledeit graeulich auf dcm Predigtstuhl. (Myconius 
 Reformationgesch.) 
 
I.l.TMKR WITHOUT A I'l.AX. 2')7 
 
 though not the original cause, of the Reforniatiuii. ^V^e heiiold 
 a pastor endeavouring to withdraw the sheep of his flock from 
 a path which was loading them to destruction^ As yet lie has 
 no thoughts of reforming the Church or the world; and thougji 
 lie had seen Rome, and been an eye-witness of its corruptions, 
 he makes no attack upon Rome. Some of the abuses under 
 which Christendom was groaning have begun to affect his senti- 
 ments, yet these abuses he has no thoughts of correcting. He 
 has no wish to make himself a reformer, and has no more any 
 plan for a reformation of the Church than he has one for himself. 
 It was God's will that there should be reform, and Luther for that 
 reform. The same remedy that had been found so efficacious 
 for the cure of Luther's woes, the hand of God was to administer 
 to the woes of Christendom. Luther calmly remains witliin the 
 sphere assigned to him, simply following where his Master calls. 
 We see him now at Wittemberg, discharging the duties of pro- 
 fessor, preacher, and pastor; we behold him seated in church, 
 while the members of his flock come to open their hearts to him. 
 It is there — it is on that field, that evil makes its attack on him, 
 and that error comes to seek him out. An attempt is made to 
 hinder him from discharging his duty ; his conscience, bound to 
 the Word of God, is aroused, and he feels that it is God who 
 addresses him. To resist he sees to be his duty, and it must 
 therefore be likewise his right. He ought to speak out. Thus 
 were events ordained by that God who desired to restore Chris- 
 tendom by the instrumentality of a forge-master's son; whose 
 will it was, as Mathesius says, that the impure doctrine of the 
 Church should pass through his furnaces, in order that it might 
 be purified. " 
 
 After having said thus much, it will no doubt seem unneces- 
 sary to refute a mendacious imputation, invented by some of 
 Luther's enemies, but not until after his death. Jealousy for 
 his order, it has been said, and vexation at finding a shameless 
 and reprobate traffic confided to the Dominicans, rather than to 
 the AugustinianSj3 who up to that time had been in possession 
 
 ' Ilmc initia fiicrunt hnjns controvorsijc, in qua Liitherus, nihil adhuc sus- 
 picans aut somniens de fufiira mutatione rituum. (Melancht. Vita Luth.) 
 
 - Die verseurte Lehr durch den Ofen gehcn. (p. 10.) 
 
 ^ Falsum est consuevisse hoc munus iniantri Eremitanis S. Augustini. . . . 
 (p.14.) 
 
233 HISTORY OF THE REFORM ATION. 
 
 of it, led the Wittembers doctor to attack Tetzel and his doc- 
 trines. The fact once established, that the trade had been 
 offered to the Franciscans first, who would have nothing to do 
 with it, sufficiently refutes this fable, which has been often 
 repeated by authors copying from each other. Besides, we have 
 seen what had been the workings of Luther's soul, and they 
 fully explain his conduct. He felt bound frankly to confess 
 the doctrine to which he owed his happiness. In Christianity 
 whatever irood a man has found for himself, he desires to com- 
 municate to others. Such explanations are abandoned by the 
 men of our days, as childish and unworthy of the grand revolu- 
 tion of the sixteenth century. It is pretended that we must try 
 to discover some more powerful lever than that which then moved 
 the world, and it is maintained that the Reformation must not 
 be referred to Luther alone, but that the age in which he lived 
 must necessarily have produced it. 
 
 Induced at once by the obedience which he owed to the truth 
 of God, and by chai'ity towards men, Luther went up into the 
 pulpit, forewarning his hearers, as he himself says. ^ His 
 prince had received from the pope private indulgences for the 
 church of Wittemberg castle, so that some of the blows aimed 
 at those of the inquisitor, could hardly avoid falling on these of 
 the elector. He cared not ! and was content to risk disgrace. 
 Had he sought to please men, he never could have been the 
 servant of Christ. 
 
 " No man can prove by Scripture that God's justice requires 
 any penalty or any satisfaction from the sinner," said the faith- 
 ful minister of the Word to the people of Wittemberg. " The 
 only duty it lays upon him is true repentance, sincere conver' 
 sion, resolution to bear the cross of Jesus Christ, and to apply 
 himself to good works. It is a great error for him to pretend 
 himself to render satisfaction for his sins to the justice of God, 
 for God forgives these always gratuitously, by an inestimable 
 grace. 
 
 " The Christian church, it is true, requires something from 
 the sinner, and this of course she may remit. ' But that is all. 
 . . And farther, these indulgences of the Church are 
 
 ' Sauberlich. 
 
I.UTIIEr's SURMON against THK IXPLM.GKN'CKS. 239 
 
 tolerated only lor the sake of indL-lent and imperfect Christians, 
 ■who have no desire to exercise tiiemselves zealously in good 
 works; for they excite no one to sanctificatiun, but leave every 
 man in imperfection.'"' ^ 
 
 Next, addressing himself to the pretext under which the 
 indulgences were published : " It were far better," he con- 
 tinued, " to contribute from love to God to the building of St. 
 Peter's church, than to purchase indulgences with that view. 
 . . . But, say you, shall we not buy them then? I have 
 told you already, and I now repeat, my advice is that nobody 
 should buy them. Leave them to Christians who are asleep: 
 but you, do you advance apart and for yourselves! We must 
 divert the faithful from indulgences, and urge them to the good 
 NYorks which th«y now neglect." 
 
 At last, darting a look upon his opponents, Luther wound up by 
 saying: "And should any one exclaim that I am a heretic (for 
 the truth I preach is very hurtful to the strong-box) I trouble 
 myself very little about their croaking. Such are men of 
 gloomy and sickly brains, who have never been impressed by the 
 Bible, never have read Christiaii doctrine, never have under- 
 stood their own doctors, and who lie rotting among the tattered 
 rao-s of their vain opinions!'^ . . . Islay God grant both to 
 them and us a sound judgment! Amen." With these words 
 the doctor came down from the pulpit, leaving his hearers greatly 
 excited by the boldness of his language. 
 
 This sermon was printed and made a profound impression on 
 all who read it. Tetzel answered it and Luther rejoined; that 
 discussion took place, however, somewhat later, in 1518. 
 
 The feast of All Saints was now approaching, and Iiere it is 
 
 1 Thus do men wrest or misapprehend the doctrine of Luther and the Refor- 
 mei-s when they charge it with maintaining good works to be unnecessary, and 
 with being an obstacle to their performance. Sucii, indeed was the case with 
 the doctrine of indulgences purchasable with money, as is felt by all virtuously 
 disposed men. It was one of the reasons that made Luther not less indignant 
 at the indulgences than because of their subverting the doctrine of justification 
 by grace. This, on a careful comparison, wili be seen from tlic import of his 
 propositions against the indulgences which appear a little farther on. Although, 
 therefore, he seems to express himself occasionally in rather severe terms 
 against good works, he was no enemy to really good works, or inconsistent with 
 himself. He had in his eye the useless works of individual caprice or human 
 institution, or opposed the merit only of good works as what cannot, truly, go 
 hand in hand with true Christian sanctification. — L. R. 
 
 - Sondcrn in ihreu Ibchcrichca und zerrisseuen Opiiiien, yiel n.ahc verwcsen, 
 (L. 0pp. (L.) .wii. p. liy. 
 
2-iO HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 that the chronicles of that time relate a circumstance which, 
 though of httle importance as regards the history of that epoch, 
 may serve nevertheless to mark its character. I refer to a 
 dream of the Elector, which there can be no doubt was true in 
 the main, although several circumstances may have been added by 
 those who have related it. It is mentioned by Seckendorf, and 
 according to the remark of that respectable writer, the dread of 
 putting it into the power of adversaries to say that Luther's 
 doctrines were founded on dreams, may possibly have deterred 
 several historians from saying anything about it.^ 
 
 The Elector Frederick of Saxony w^as at his castle of 
 Schweinitz, six leagues from Wittemberg, say the chronicles of 
 that time. On the 21st of October towards morning, being 
 with his brother, Duke John, who was then conjoined with him 
 in the government and wJio reigned alone at his death, his 
 chancellor also being present, the Elector said to the Duke: 
 
 " I must tell you, brother, a dream which I had last night, 
 and of which I should like to know the meaning. It has fixed 
 itself so deeply in my mind that were I to live a thousand years, 
 I should never forget it; for I dreamed it thrice, and each time 
 it recurred with new circumstances. 
 
 Duke Johx. — "Was it a good or a bad dream T 
 
 The Elector. — "I know not: God knows." 
 
 Duke John. — "Don't you disquiet yourself; but be so good 
 as tell it me.''' 
 
 The Elector. — " Having gone to bed yester-evening, fatigued 
 and depressed, I fell asleep soon after my prayer, and slept 
 soundly for two hours and a half. Having then awoke, I had 
 all sorts of thoughts thronging in my head till midnight. I 
 mused about how I should like to keep the festival of all the 
 saints; I prayed for the poor souls in purgatory, and besought 
 God to conduct me, myself, my counsels, and my people, accord- 
 ing to the truth. I again fell asleep ; and then I dreamed 
 that Almighty God sent me a monk who was the real son of the 
 apostle St. Paul. All the saints accompanied him, by an order 
 
 ' It is to \ye found, also, in I;bscher, i. 40. <tc., Tcnzers Anf. und Fortg. dor 
 Ref. — Jiiriker s Erenged.p. 148. Lehmann's Beseh.d. Meis-sn. Erzgeb. &c. and 
 in a manuscript of the Weimar Archives, -written from the relation of the story 
 by Spalatin. We relate this dream according to that manuscript, as published 
 at the last jubilee of the Reformation, (181 Y.) 
 
Tdt: liI.ECTOu's DUKAM. 2tl 
 
 from God, lor tlie purpose of testifying before mo in liis favour, 
 aiul (leclariiig that ho did not como to ph)t any deception, 
 but that all lie did was according to tho will of God. They 
 begged of me that I would bo so good as graciously permit him 
 to write something on tho door of Wittemberg castle church, 
 which I granted through tho chancellor. Thereupon the monk 
 went to the church dot)r and began to write; he did so in letters 
 of such size, that I could read what he wrote all the way from 
 Schweinitz. The pen he used was so large that the end of it 
 reached to Home; it tickled the ear of a lion that was lying 
 there; ^ and shook the triple crown on the head of the pope. 
 All the cardinals and the princes ran up in haste and tried to 
 keep it steady. Even I, and you, too, brother, would have lent 
 our aid; I stretched out my arm . . . but at that moment 
 I awoke, with my arm held out, at once frightened and very 
 angry with the monk for not being able to hold his pen better 
 
 . . . . 1 recovered myself a httle . . . it was but 
 a dream. 
 
 "I again shut my eyes and lay half asleep. The same 
 dream returned. The lion, continuing to be annoyed by the pen, 
 began to roar with all his might, so that all Rome, and all tlu 
 states of the holy empire, ran to see what was the matter. 
 The pope besought them to oppose the monk, and addressed him- 
 self chiefly to me, as he was in my territory. Again I awoke, 
 repeated the Lord's prayer, besought God to preserve his holi- 
 ness, and again fell asleep. 
 
 " I then dreamed that all the princes of the Empire, including 
 ourselves, hastened to Home, and one after another tried to 
 break the pen; but the more we attempted this, the stifter it 
 became; it rattled as if made of iron; at last we grew tired. I 
 then made the monk be asked (for I was sometimes at Rome; 
 sometimes at Wittemberg), where he got that pen and how it 
 was so strong. " The pen," he replied "belonged to an old 
 Bohemian goose, 2 a hundred years old; I got it from or.e of my 
 old school-masters. As for its strength, it is owing to this that 
 no one can deprive it of its soul and marrow; I myself am 
 
 1 I,co X. 
 
 * John IIuss. This cirounistaiioe m.ny have been added afterwards, that 
 there might be an allusion to what Joliu IIuss said as quoted above in the 
 first book. 
 
 I. 2 H 
 
242 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 astonished at it." . . All at oiice I heard a loud cry: from 
 the monk's long pen a great many other pens had gone forth. 
 
 . . I awoke for the third time, and found it was day. . ." 
 
 Duke John. — "Mr. Chancellor, what think you of it? Have 
 we not here a Joseph or a Daniel receiving light from God? . .'" 
 
 The Chancellor. — " ^ our Highness knows the common pro- 
 verb that the dreams of maidens, learned men, and great lords, 
 have usually some hidden meaning. But what this dream 
 may signify we shall only know when the times to which it 
 relates, shall have arrived. Wherefore trust its fulfilment to 
 God and commit all to his hands." 
 
 Duke John. — "I think with you, Mr. Chancellor; there is 
 no need of boring into our heads to discover what this may 
 betoken. God will know how to direct all things for his glory." 
 
 The Elector. — "May our faithful God do so! Yet never 
 shall I forget that dream. I have thought, indeed, of an inter- 
 pretation. . . But shall keep it to myself. Time perhapf^ 
 will show whether I have guessed aright." 
 
 Thus passed, according to the Weimar manuscript, the morn- 
 ing of the 31st of October at Schweinitz: let us see what was 
 doing that evening at Wittemberg. We now return to tlie 
 proper sphere of history. 
 
 V. Luther''s words produced little effect, and Tetzel, without 
 giving himself any uneasiness, continued his impious traffic and 
 discourses. 1 Can we suppose that Luther would resign himself 
 to these crying abuses, and hold his peace with regard to them? 
 As apastorhe had earnestly exhorted those whoavailed themselves 
 of his ministry ; as a preacher, he had sounded a note of 
 warning from the pulpit ; and now it remained for him to speak 
 as a theologian; to address himself no longer to a few souls in 
 a confession box, or to the congregation that met in the church 
 at Wittemberg, but to all who, like him, were doctors of the 
 Word of God. He took his resolution accordingly. 
 
 Not that he thought of attacking the Church ; it was not the 
 pope that he was to bring into court: far otherwise, it was 
 his very respect for the pope that would not allow him to be 
 silent any longer on the subject of the pretensions by which 
 
 ' Cujus impiis et nefariis concionibus incitatus Lutherus, studio pietatis 
 ardens, edidit propositiones de indulgentiis. (Melaneht. Vit. Luth.) 
 
FEAST or ALL SAINTS. 2 t3 
 
 oflenco was clone to him. llo thought himself bijund to take 
 part with the pope against audacious men, who were bold 
 enough to mix up his venerable name with their shameful trafKc. 
 Far from contemplating a revolution which was to subvert the 
 supremacy of Kome, Luther counted on having the pope and 
 catholicity as his allies against these impudent monks. ' 
 
 The feast of all saints was a most important day for AVittem- 
 berg, and still more so for the chundi which the Elector had 
 built there and stored with relics. On that occasion these relics 
 were taken out, ornamented with silver, gold, and precious stones; 
 and in that state were displayed to the people, whom they 
 astonished and dazzled by their magnificence.'^ Whoever on 
 that day visited tie church and confessed there, obtained a rich 
 indulgence; and accordingly, it was a time when crowds of 
 pilgrims flocked to Wittemberg. 
 
 Luther, fully resolved what to do, boldly walked forth on the 
 evening of the 31st October, 1517, towards the church whither 
 the superstitious pilgrims were advancing in crowds; and to the 
 church door he attached ninety-five theses, or propositions, 
 against the doctrine of the indulgences. Neither the elector, nor 
 Staupitz, nor Spalatin, nor any one even of his most intimate 
 friends, had been informed of this procedure. ^ 
 
 In a kind of preamble Luther first declared, that he had 
 written these theses in a spirit of true charity, and from the 
 express desire of exhibiting the truth to the light of day. He 
 farther announced his being ready to defend them on the day 
 following, at the university itself, before and against all impugn- 
 ers. They excited general attention: people read them and 
 repeated them, and forthwith the pilgrims, the university, and 
 the whole city, were in a stir. 
 
 The following are some of these propositions as written out by 
 the monk's pen and attached to the church-door at Wittemberg. 
 
 1. " When our master and Lord, Jesus Christ, says: Eepent, 
 he desires that the entire life of believers on this earth should be 
 one constant and continual repentance. 
 
 1 Et in iis certus mihi vidclinr, me habiturum patronum papam, cujus fiducia 
 
 tunc fortitcr nitobar. (L. 0pp. lat. in prsef.) 
 
 - Q,uas magnifico apparatii publice populis ostcndl curavit. (Cochlceus, 4.) 
 ^ Cum hujus disputationi? iiuUus etiam intimorum amicoruin fuerit conscius 
 
 (L. Epp. i. p. 186.) 
 
24-1 HlSTOllY OF THE REFOKMATION. 
 
 2. " That saying cannot be understood as applying to tlie 
 sacrament of penance, (that is to say, to confession and satis- 
 faction), as administered by the priest. 
 
 3. " Nevertheless, tlie Lord means not hero to speak oi 
 inward repentance only: inward repentance is nought, if it be 
 not followed outwardly by all sorts of mortifications of the flesh. 
 
 4. " Repentance and sorrow, that is to say, true repentance, 
 last as long as a man is displeased with himself, that is, until he 
 passes out of this life into life everlasting. 
 
 5. " The pope neither can remit, nor does he wish to remit, 
 any penalty but what he has imposed of his good pleasure, or 
 in conformity with the canons, that is to say, with the papal 
 ordinances. 
 
 6. " The pope cannot remit any condemnation, but can only 
 declare and confirm the remission of it made by God himself ; 
 unless it be in cases appertaining to him. Should he do other- 
 wise, the condemnation remains entirely the same. 
 
 8. " The law^s of ecclesiastical penance ought to be imposed on 
 the living only, and do not at all affect the dead. 
 
 21. "The commissioners of indulgences are mistaken when 
 they say, that by the pope's indulgence, man is delivered from all 
 punishment and saved. 
 
 25. " Each bishop in his own diocese, and each priest in his 
 own parish, have the same power over purgatory that the pope 
 has over it in the church at large. 
 
 27. " Those men preach human follies, who pretend that the 
 moment that money chinks in the strong box the soul soars out 
 of purgatory. 
 
 28. " This is certain, that as soon as the money chinks, 
 avarice and covetousness arrive, increase, and multiply. Bui 
 the succours and the prayers of the Church depend solely on 
 the will and good pleasure of God. 
 
 32. " Those who imagine themselves secure of th'eir salvation 
 by indulgences, will go to the devil with those who teach 
 them. 
 
 85. " Those men teach anti-christian doctrines, who pretend 
 that in order to deliver a soul from purgatory, or to purchase 
 an indulgence, there is no need for either grief or repentance. 
 
 36. " Every Christian who feels true repentance for his sins, 
 
I.UTHEU'S THESES. 245 
 
 lias complete remission of penalty and fault, without requiring 
 any indulgence to that efi'ect. 
 
 37. " Every true Christian, dead or living, participates in the 
 benefits of Christ or of the Church, by the bestowment of Cod 
 and without a letter of indulgence. 
 
 38. " Nevertheless, we must not despise the distribution and 
 the pardon of the pope; for his pardon is a declaration of the 
 pardon of God. 
 
 40. " True repentance and sorrow seek and love punishment ; 
 but the gentleness of the indulgence looses from punishment 
 and causes people to conceive hatred against it. 
 
 42. " Christians must be taught, that the pope has neither 
 thought nor wish for comparisons being anywise instituted 
 between the action of purchasing indulgences and any work of 
 mercy. 
 
 43. " Christians must be taught that he who gives to the 
 poor, and lends to the necessitous, does better than he who 
 purchases an indulgence. 
 
 44. " For the ■\^ ork of charity makes charity increase and 
 makes man more pious; whereas the indulgence makes him no 
 better, but only more self-confident, and more secure from dread 
 of punishment. 
 
 45. " Christians must be taught that he who sees his neigh- 
 bour in want, and notwithstanding his doing so, buys an indul- 
 gence, does not purchase an indulgence from the pope but 
 brings on himself the anocr of God. 
 
 46. "Christians must be taught that if they have ;io super- 
 fluities, they are bound to keep for their own families whatever 
 is required for necessaries, and ought not to lavish it on indul- 
 gences. 
 
 47. " Christians must be taught that to buy an indulgence 
 is what they are free to do or not, and is not a commanded duty. 
 
 48. " Christians must be taught that the pope being more in 
 want of the prayer of faith than of money, desires to have the 
 prayer more than the money, however he may distribute indul- 
 gences. 
 
 49. " Christians must be taught that the pope's indulgence is 
 good, if people do not trust to it, but that nothing is more 
 hurtful, if it cause the loss of piety. 
 
246 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 50. "Cliristiaus must be taught that were the pope aware of 
 the exactions of the preachers of indulgences, he would ratlier 
 have the metropolitan church of St. Peter burnt to ashes than 
 see it built with the fleece, flesh, and bones of his sheep. 
 
 51. "Christians should be taught that the pope, as in duty 
 bound, would give away his own money to the poor folks who 
 are now despoiled of their last mite by the preachers of indul- 
 gences, were he even to sell the metropolitan Church of St. Peter 
 for that purpose. 
 
 52. " To hope to be saved by indulgences is a lying and 
 empty hope, even though the commissioner of indulgences — nay, 
 more, were the pope himself willing to pledge his own soul to 
 make it good. 
 
 5.3. " Those are enemies of the pope and of Jesus Christ, 
 who for the sake of the preaching of indulgences, forbid the 
 preaching of the word of God. 
 
 55. " The pope can have no other idea but this: If the indul- 
 gence, which is the less affair, be celebrated with a bell, pro- 
 cession, and ceremony, much more ought the gospel, which is the 
 greater, be honoured and celebrated with a hundred bells, a 
 hundred processions, and a hundred ceremonies. 
 
 62. Tlie true and precious treasure of the Church is the holy 
 gospel of the glory and the grace of God. 
 
 65. " The treasures of the gospel are the nets in which the 
 rich, who are now living at their ease, used in former times to 
 be cauglit. 
 
 66. "But the treasures of the indulgence are the nets with 
 which, at this day, the riches of the people are fished out of 
 them. 
 
 67. "Bishops and pastors are in duty bound to receive the 
 commissioners of indulgences with all respect. 
 
 68. " But much more is it their duty to assure themselves, 
 with their eyes and ears, that the said commissioners do not 
 preach the reveries of their own imaginations instead of the 
 orders of the pope. 
 
 71. " Cursed be he that speaks against the pope's indul- 
 gence. 
 
 72. " But blessed be he that speaks against the foolish and 
 imprudent words of the preachers of indulgences. 
 
I.nTIIHu's TIIESKS TIIEIU IMPOIITAN* E. 247 
 
 76. " The pope's indulgence cannot take away the smallest 
 daily sin, in so far as regards the ^uilt incurred and the ollVnco 
 done. 
 
 79. " To say that a cross ornamented with the pope's arms is 
 more effectual than the cross of Christ, is blasphemy. 
 
 80. " Bishops, pastors, and teachers who permit such things 
 to bo said to the people, ought to be called to account for doing 
 so. 
 
 81. "Such shameless preaching, sucli impudent praise of indul- 
 gences, make it ditlicult for the learned to defend the dignity and 
 the honour of the pope against the calumnies of preachers, and 
 the subtle and artful questions of the common people. 
 
 86. "Why, say they, does not the pope build tlie metropoli- 
 tan church of St. Peter with his own money rather than with 
 that of poor Christians; he whose fortune exceeds that of the 
 richest Cra'sus? 
 
 92. " May we, therefore, be disembarrassed of all preachers 
 that say to the Church of Christ: Peace! peace! when there is 
 no peace. 
 
 94. " Christians should be exhorted sedulously to follow 
 Christ as their chief, through crosses, death, and hell. 
 
 95. "For much bettor that they should through many tribu- 
 lations enter the kingdom of heaven, than obtain a carnal 
 security from the consolations of a false peace."" 
 
 Such was the commencement of the work, for in these theses 
 of Luther we behold the germs of the Iveformation. Here the 
 abuses of the indulgences were attacked, and it was this that 
 struck people most; but under these attacks, moreover, there lay 
 a principle which, although it ftir less caught the attention of the 
 multitude, was yet to overturn the entire fabric of the pope- 
 dom. Here the gospel doctrine of a free and gratuitous remis- 
 sion of sins was for the first time publicly professed. Mean- 
 while the work could not fail to advance. In fact it was evi- 
 dent that whoever should have this faith in the remission of 
 sins announced by the Wittemberg doctor, whoever should have 
 that conversion and that sanctification of which he inculcated 
 the necessity, would care no more about human ordinances, 
 w'ould escape from the swaddling bands and shackles of Eome, 
 and would acquire the liberty of the sons of God. All errors 
 
248 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 must inevitably give away to this truth. It was through it 
 that light first began to dawn on Luther's soul ; it was through it 
 also, that light was to diffuse itself in the Church. A clear know- 
 ledge of this truth was what was wantins; in the reformers that 
 preceded him ; hence their efforts were followed with little fruit. 
 Luther himself owns, at a later date, that in proclaiming justi- 
 fication by faith, he had laid the axe to the root of the tree. 
 " What we attack," says he, " in the adherents of the popedom, 
 is doctrine. Huss and Wickliff attacked their way of living 
 only; but in assailing their doctrine, the goose is seized by the 
 neck. All hangs on the Word which the pope has taken from 
 us and has falsified. I have overcome the pope, because my doc- 
 trine is according to God, and his according to the devil."'^ 
 
 In our own day, likewise, we have forgotten this capital doc- 
 trine of justification, although in an opposite sense from our 
 fathers. "Li the times of Luther," says one of our cotempo- 
 raries,^ "the remission of sins at least cost money; but in our 
 days, every man administers it gratis to himself." These two 
 deviations from the truth are much alike, and perhaps there is 
 even more forgetfulness of God in ours than in that of the six- 
 teenth century. The principle of justification by the grace of 
 God, which drew the Church forth from so much darkness at 
 the time of the Reformation, is the only one that can renew 
 this generation also, put an end to its doubts and its oscilla- 
 tions, destroy the selfishness which corrodes it, establish moral- 
 ity and justice among the nations; in a word, le-attach to God 
 the world which has gone away from him. 
 
 But if the theses of Luther were strong in the force of the 
 truth which they proclaim, they were no less so in the faith of 
 the man who stood forth ready to defend them. He had now 
 courageously unsheathed the sword of the Word, and this he did 
 fully believing in the might of the truth. He felt that when a 
 man casts himself on the promises of God, he may, in the lan- 
 guage of the world, hazard something. " Let him who would 
 commence any good undertaking," says he, in speaking of this 
 bold enterprise, "do so, confiding in the goodness of the task lie 
 
 ' Wenn mnn die T.olire angreifft, so wjixl die Cans am Krage gogriffcn, (L. 
 Opp. (W.) xxii., p. m>d.) 
 - IJanns (]o Kiol. 
 
MODEIIATIO.V OP TIIK THESES. I'HOVIDKNCE. 249 
 
 attempts, but li-t him beware of counting on assistance or 
 consolation from men. For that word will not lie; It is good 
 to trust in the Lord. And Tcrili/, none that trust in thee shall be 
 confounded. ]Jut let him who neither will, nor can hazard any- 
 thing while trusting in God, be well on his guard against under- 
 taking anything."' After attaching those theses to the door of 
 All Saints Church, Luther, no doubt, went back to his quiet 
 cell, fdled with that peace and joy which flow from having 
 done an action in the Lord's name, and in the interest of ever- 
 lasting truth. 
 
 Great as is the hardihood that pervades these theses, they still 
 exhibit the monk who refused to admit a single doubt as to the 
 authority of the Roman see. But while attacking the doctrine 
 of indulgences, Luther, without being aware of it, had fallen 
 foul of many errors, the discovery of which could not be agree- 
 able to the pope, in as much as it must have led, sooner or later, 
 to his supremacy being brought into question. Luther did not 
 as yet see so far; still he felt the boldness of the step he had 
 taken, and consequently thouglit it was his duty to temper its 
 audacity as far as the respect he owed to truth would permit. 
 Accordingly, he set forth these theses only as doubtful proposi- 
 tions, on which he craved to be enlightened by the learned; and 
 following the then established practice, he added to them a 
 solemn protestation, in which he declared that he desired to say 
 or afErm nothing that was not founded on holy Scripture, the 
 fathers of the Church, and the rights and decretals of the see 
 of Rome. 
 
 On beholding the measureless and unlooked-for consequences 
 of this coui-ageous attack, Luther, in the issue, was often aston- 
 ished at himself, and could not understand how he had dared to 
 do such a thing. An unseen, and a mightier hand than his, 
 held the guiding threads, and urged the herald of the truth into 
 a path which it concealed from him as yet, and the difficulties 
 presented by which would have deterred him perhaps from 
 entering it, had he foreseen them, and had he advanced alone 
 and of himself. " I entered into that dispute," said he, " with- 
 
 • L. Opp. Loip. V). p. 518. 
 
 2 I 
 
250 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 out any settled purpose, and without either knowing- it or wish- 
 ing it; God is ray witness." ' - 
 
 Luther had been able to trace these abuses to their source. A 
 small book had been brought to him ornamented with the anna 
 of the archbishop of Maintz and of Magdeburg, and containing 
 the rules to be observed in the sale of the indulgences; so that 
 it was that young prelate, that elegant prince, who had enjoined, 
 or at least sanctioned, all this knavery, Luther saw in him 
 only a superior whom he was bound to regard with awe and 
 veneratioii ; 3 but not wishing to beat the air at a venture, and 
 tliinking he ought to address himself to those who were charged 
 with the government of the Church, he sent him a letter replete 
 at once with frankness and humility. It was on the very day 
 that he attached the theses to the church -doors that Luther 
 wrote to Albert. 
 
 "Pardon me, most reverend Father in Christ, and most illustri- 
 ous Prince,""* he says to him, " if I, who am but the dregs of men,4 
 have the rashness to write to your sublime grandeur. The Lord 
 Jesus is my witness, that feeling how small and despicable I am, 
 I have long delayed doing so. . . . May your Highness, 
 meanwhile, allow a look to fall on a grain of dust, and in the 
 spirit of episcopal gentleness, graciously receive my request. 
 
 " The papal indulgence is carried hither and thither through 
 the country in your Grace's name. I wish not to accuse the 
 vociferations of the preachers, not having heard them, so much 
 as the false ideas of simple and gross-minded persons among the 
 people, who, in purchasing indulgences, think themselves sure 
 of their salvation. . . . 
 
 ' Casu enim, non voluntate nee studio, in has turtas inciJi ; Deum ipsum 
 tester. (Luth. 0pp. lat. in prajf.) 
 
 2 These words, flowing spontaneously from the heart, are of themselves suf- 
 ficient to do away with the slanderous imputation that Luther had other objects 
 in view besides those he professed, and was influenced by dishonourable motives. 
 And truly, the whole history of his life and labours demonstrates that, before 
 all things else, he had been impelled by his own conscience to begin the work, 
 without having reckoned beforehand upon all its results ; that he was often 
 urged to proceed with it against his own inclination; was prepared, and more 
 and more adapted to it, by God himself; and was purified from the misconcep- 
 tions that at first adhered to him partly by means of the very perverse proceed- 
 ings of his opponents. — L. R. 
 
 2 Domino suo et pastori in Christo venerabiliter metuendo. Address on tho 
 Letter. (Epp. i. p. 68.) 
 
 * Fex hominum. (Epp. i. p. 68.) 
 
I.KITEU TO AMiKirr. 2o 1 
 
 "(Jreat ilodl the souls ontrusted to you, arc prcjuirod by 
 their instructions, not for life but for death. The just account 
 that will one day bo demanded from you, bcconics larger and 
 larger fi-om day to day. ... I can no longer hold my peace. 
 No ! man is not saved by the work or by the ofBce of his bishop. 
 . . Even the righteous is hardly saved, and the way that 
 leads to life is a narrow one. Why, then, do the preachers of 
 indulgences, with their idle fables, fill the people with carnal 
 security? 
 
 " The indulgence alone, if we are to believe them, ought to be 
 proclaimed and exalted. . . . What now! . . . is it 
 not tiie chief, and the sole duty of bishops, to teach the people 
 the Gospel and the love of Jesus Christ.^ ^ Jesus Christ himself 
 has no where ordained the preaching of the indulgence, but he 
 has vehemently enjoined the preaching of the Gospel. ^ How 
 horrible, then, and how dangerous for a bishop, should he permit 
 silence to be maintained as to the Gospel, and the noise of the 
 indulgences to be sounded alone and unceasingly in the ears of 
 the people! 
 
 " Most worthy Father in God, in the instruction of the com- 
 missioners, which has been published in your Grace"'s name 
 (doubtless without jour knowledge), it is said that the indulgence 
 is the most precious of treasures, that by it man is reconciled 
 with God, and that repentance is not requisite in those who 
 purchase it. 
 
 " What can I, and what ought I, then, to do, most worthy 
 Bishop, — most serene Prince? Ah, I supplicate your Highness, 
 by the Lord Jesus Christ, to bestow a look of fatherly watchful- 
 ness on this affair, to suppress this book entirely, and to enjoin 
 the preachers to hold a different language to the people. If you 
 do not this, beware lest a voice be some day raised in refutation 
 of those preachers, to the great disgrace of your most serene 
 Highness.'" 
 
 Luther at the same time sent his theses to the archbishoj), 
 and, in a postscript, invited him to peruse them, that he might 
 be convinced of the small degree of certainty to be found in tlie 
 doctrine of indulgences. 
 
 ' Ut pojmlus Ev.angclium discat atque chai itatom Christi (Ibid.) 
 * Vehemcntcr prajcipit. (Ibid.) 
 
252 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Thus, all that Luther desired was that the sentinels of the 
 Church should awake, and bethink themselves at last of puttinc^ 
 an end to the evils which were desolating it; nor could any 
 thing be more noble, or respectful, than this letter, addressed by 
 a monk to one of the greatest princes both of the Church and 
 the empire. Never did man act more in the spirit of Jesus 
 Christ's injunction: "Render unto Ccesar the things that are 
 Csesar's, and unto God the things that are Grod's." This is not 
 the procedure of fierce revolutionists, who despise dominions and 
 speak evil of dignities; it is the cry of a Christian's and of a 
 priest's conscience, honouring all men, but mainly marked by 
 the fear of God. All prayers and entreaties, however, were 
 vain. The youthful Albert, engrossed with his pleasures and 
 with the projects of his ambition, made no reply to so solemn an 
 appeal. The bishop of Brandenburg, also, Luther's ordinary, 
 and a learned and pious man, received from him a copy of his 
 theses, and replied that he was attacking the power of the 
 Church; that he would bring upon himself much annoyance and 
 disappointment; that it was a matter above his powers, Jtnd that 
 he would strongly advise him to remain quiet, l The princes of 
 the Church closed their ears to the voice of God, while it spoke 
 to them in so energetic and so afiecting a tone in the person of 
 Luther. They would not understand the signs of the times; 
 they were stricken with that blindness which already had 
 brought ruin on so many powers and dignities. " Both then 
 thought," said Luther subsequently, " that the pope would be 
 found too strong for a wretched mendicant like me." 
 
 But Luther could judge better than these bishops could do, 
 of the disastrous effects of the indulgences on the morals and 
 lives of the people; for with that part of society he lived in 
 direct intercourse. He saw constantly, and before his eyes, 
 what the bishops knew only from faithless reports. But if the 
 bishops failed him, God did not fail him. The Head of the 
 Church, who has gone into^the heavens, and to whom alone all 
 power has been given upon earth, had himself prepared the soil 
 and placed the seed in his servant's hand; he had given wings 
 to the seed of truth, and forthwith he scattered it abroad over 
 the whole extent of the Church. 
 
 ' Er sollte still halteii, cs ware eice gvosse Sache. (Matlh. 13.) 
 
DISSKMINATION OF THK TIIESKS. 2.'3 
 
 No ono presented himself on the day following at tlie uni- 
 versity to attack Luther''s propositions; and, indeed, Tctzel's 
 traffic was too much cried down, and too shameless, for any one 
 but himself or ono of his people, to dare to take up the gauntlet. 
 Jiut these theses were destined to make an impression elsewhere 
 besides the vaulted roofs of an academy. Hardly had they 
 been' nailed to the church-door at Wittemberg castle than the 
 feeble strokes of the hammer were succeeded, throughout all 
 Germany, by a stroke that vibrated to the very foundations of 
 Rome in her pride, threatening with sudden downfall the walls, 
 and gates, and main beams of the popedom, stunning and fright- 
 ening ils men of might, and awakening at the same time many 
 thousands of human beings from the sleep of error in which 
 they long had lain.^ 
 
 The theses spread with the fleetness of lightning, and in less 
 than a month they appeared in Rome. " In the course of a 
 fortnight,"" says a contemporary historian, " they were found 
 throughout all Germany, and in twice that time, had traversed 
 nearly the whole of Christendom, as if the very angels had been 
 employed as messengers, and had carried them before all men's 
 eyes. No one could believe what a noise they made. "" They 
 were subsequently translated into Dutch and Spanish, and a 
 traveller sold them at Jerusalem. " Every body," said Luther, 
 " was complaining of the indulgences, and as the bishops and 
 doctors had all held their peace, and nobody had hked to bell the 
 cat, 2 poor Luther became a famous doctor, because at last, as 
 they said, one of them had been found bold enough to do the 
 deed. But I liked not this glory, and to me the song seemed too 
 high for my voice." ^ 
 
 Part of the pilgrims who flocked from all countries to Wittem- 
 berg, to attend the feast of All Saints, instead of indulgences^ 
 took the famous theses of the Augustine monk home with them, 
 and thus helped towards their being disseminated. Every body 
 read, pondered, and commented upon them. They engrossed 
 
 ' Walthcr, Nachr. v. Luther, p. 45. 
 
 2 Myconius, hist. ret". . . p. 23. a altacher le grelot {au chat.) This old 
 expression, meaning to undertake some hazardous responsibility, gave the nick- 
 name of "Bell the cat "to one of the ancient Douglases in Scotland.— Tr. 
 
 "^ Da9 lied wollte meiner Stimnic zu hoch wcrden. (L. 0pp.) 
 
254 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 attention in all the monasteries and universities. • All pious 
 monks who had gone into monasteries for the purpose of saving 
 their souls, all right-hearted and honest men, were delighted with 
 such a simple and striking confession of the truth, and heartily 
 wished that Luther would go on with the work which he had 
 begun. " I have observed," says a most trust- worthy witness 
 and one of the reformer''s great rivals, Erasmus, writing- to a 
 cardinal, " that the purer a man's morals are, and the more 
 evangelical his piety, the less is he opposed to Luther. His life 
 is lauded even by those who cannot endure his creed. The world 
 was growing tired of a doctrine replete with so many childish 
 fables and human ordinances, and thirsted for that living water, 
 pure and hidden, which streams from the veins of the evangelists 
 and the apostles. Luther''s genius seemed to me to fit him, and 
 his zeal must have inflamed him, for so glorious an enterprise." 2 
 
 VI. If we would form any just idea of the various, yet pro- 
 digious, eS"ects resulting from these propositions in Germany, 
 we must follow them wherever they penetrated, into the closets 
 of the learned, the cells of monks, and the palaces of princes. 
 
 Reuchlin received them when wearied with the rude combat 
 Avhich he had to maintain with the monks, and the vigour which 
 this new wrestler displayed in them, revived the depressed spirits 
 of the old champion of literature, and restored joy to his afflicted 
 heart. " Tlianks be to God," he exclaimed after reading them, 
 " they have found a man now, who will give them so much 
 to do as to compel them to allow my old age to wear itself out 
 in peace." 
 
 The prudent Erasmus was in the Netherlands when these 
 theses reached him. He felt an inward joy at seeing his secret 
 wishes for the redress of abuses so courageously expressed; and 
 he gave the author his approbation, only exhorting him to more 
 moderation and prudence. Notwithstanding, on the occasion of 
 some persons violently reproaching Luther in his presence, 
 " God," he said, " has given men a physician who cuts deep into 
 the flesh, because without such an one, the disease would have 
 proved past cure." And M'hen the elector of Saxony, some time 
 
 1 In alle hoche Schulen und Kloster. (Matlh. 13.) 
 
 2 Ad hoc prsestandum mihi videbatur ille, et natura compositus et acccnsus 
 studio. (Erasm. Epp. Campegio Cardinali. i. p. 650.) 
 
Fr.rx'K. — niitUA. — Maximilian. 255 
 
 afterwards, sought his advice in regard to Luther's afhiir; "■ 1 :nu 
 not at all suri)rised," he replied with a smile, " tluit he has 
 occasioned so much noise, for he has connnitted two unpardon- 
 able faults— he has attacked the tiara of the pope and the belly 
 of the monks." ^ 
 
 Doctor Fleck, prior of the monastery of Steinlausitz, had for 
 a long while ceased reading the mass, but liad told no one the 
 true cause. Ho one day found the theses of Luther stuck up in 
 the refectory of his monastery, went up to them, began to read 
 them, and after reading only a few, unable to contain himself 
 any longer for joy, he exclaimed: " Ho! Ho! the man is come 
 at last whom we have so long expected, and who will make you 
 see it, you monks! . . ." Then reading into the future, 
 says Mathesius, and playing on the meaning of the word 
 Wittemberg : "The whole world," said he, " will go to look for 
 wisdom at that mountain and will find it there."- He wrote 
 to the doctor, urging him boldly to persevere in this glorious 
 struggle. Luther calls him a man full of joy and consolation. 
 
 The ancient and celebrated episcopal see of Wurzburg was 
 then occupied by one who, according to the testimony of his co- 
 temporaries, was remarkable for his piety, integrity, and wisdom. 
 This was Laurence of Bibra, whom we have already mentioned. 
 When a gentleman came to inform him that he intended to 
 send his daughter to a nunnery : " Rather give her a husband," 
 said he, and then added; " Do you require money for that pur- 
 pose? I will lend it to you." He was held in the highest 
 esteem by the emperor and all the princes. He mourned over 
 the abuses that prevailed in the church, and especially those of 
 the monasteries. The theses reached his palace; he read them 
 with great satisfaction, and publicly expressed his approbation 
 of Luther. He afterwards wrote to the elector Frederick: " Do 
 not allow godly doctor Luther to go away, for he is ill-used." 
 Delighted with this testimony, the elector wrote with his own 
 hand to the Reformer, to let him know of it. 
 
 Even the emperor Maximilian, the predecessor of Charles V., 
 read the monk of Wittemberg's theses with admiration; he 
 discovered the author's importance, and foresaw that that obscure 
 
 ' Mullen's Denkw. iv. 256. 
 
 » AUe Welt von diesem Weissenbcrg, Weisslicit Imlcn uiul bckoimnen, (p. I'ri) 
 
256 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIO.V. 
 
 Augustinian might become a powerful ally on the side of 
 Germany in its struggle with Rome. He likewise instructed an 
 envoy to say to the elector of Saxony : " Carefully see to the 
 safety of the monk Luther, for the time may come when we 
 may have need of him."'' l And shortly afterwards, being at the 
 diet with the Elector's intimate councillor, Pfefhno-er; "Well 
 now," says he to him, "what is our Augustinian about? Truly 
 his propositions are not to be despised! He will make a fine 
 exposure of the monks ! *" ^ 
 
 At Rome itself, and in the Vatican, the theses were not so ill 
 received as one might suppose. Leo X. judged them rather in 
 the spirit of a friend to literature than in that of a pope. The 
 diversion they afforded him made him forget the severe truths 
 they contained; and when the master of the sacred palace, 
 Sylvester Prierias, who was charged with the examination of 
 books, proposed that Luther should be treated as a heretic: 
 " This friar Martin Luther," he replied, " is a very fine genius, 
 and all that is said against him is mere monkish jealousy?" 3 
 
 There were few on whom the theses of Luther had more 
 influence than upon the Annaberg scholar who had been pitilessly 
 repulsed by Tetzel. Myconius had gone into a monastery. 
 The very night of his arrival, he thought he saw in a dream an 
 immense field covered all over with ripe grain. " Reap, " said 
 the voice of the person that conducted him ; and while he excused 
 himself on the ground of his want of skill, his guide showed him 
 a reaper who toiled with inconceivable activity. " Follow him 
 and do as he does," -^ said the guide. With all Luthers avidity 
 for holiness, Myconius devoted himself while in the monasteiy to 
 watching, to fasting, to bodily macei'ations, and to all the works, 
 in short, of man's invention. But he despaired at length of ever 
 reaching the object of his efforts. Relinquishing his studies, he 
 devoted himself entirely to manual labour; employing himself by 
 turns in binding books, at the turning-lathe, or at some other 
 handicraft. Yet this outward activity failed to appease his troubled 
 
 I Dass er uns den Munch Luther fleissig beware. (Matth. 15.) 
 
 * Schmidt, Brand. Reformationsgesch. p. 124. 
 
 3 Che fratre IMartino Luthero haveva un bellissimo ingegno, e che coteste 
 crano invidie fratcsche. (Brandelli, a contemporary of Leo and Dominicano, 
 Hist, trag, pars. 3.) 
 
 * Melch. Adami Vita Myconii. 
 
MYCONIUS. 
 
 25' 
 
 conscience. God had spoken to liini; lie could never more relapse 
 into his former sleep, and this state of anguish histed for some 
 years. People sometimes imagine tliat the paths trodden hy the 
 Reformers were all very smooth, and that in rejecting the j)racticc3 
 of tlie Church, there remained nothing for them hut what was 
 pleasant and agreeahle ; but people are not aware that they 
 reached the truth only through the endurance of inward struggles, 
 a thousand times more painful than the observances to which 
 slavish minds can easily reconcile themselves.^ 
 
 At length arrived the year 1517; the theses of Luther were 
 published; they were circulated throughout all Christendom, 
 and at last reached the monastery of which the poor Annaberg 
 scholar was then an inmate. He hid himself in a corner of 
 the house with JohnVoit, another monk, that they might peruse 
 them undisturbed.- There, to be sure, he found the very truth 
 which he had learned from his father; his eyes were opened; 
 he felt a voice within him responding to that which was now 
 resounding through all Germany, and great was the comfort that 
 filled his heart. " I see well, said he, that Martin Luther was 
 the reaper whom I beheld in my dream, and who taught me to 
 gather up the sheaves." Forthwith he set himself to profess 
 the doctrine proclaimed by Luther. The monks heard him 
 with alarm; they contested his views, and loudly opposed 
 Luther and his monastery. "That monastery," said Myconius, 
 " is like our Lord's sepulchre. Men would prevent Christ from 
 rising again from it, but they will not succeed." At length, 
 seeing that they could not convince him, his superiors inter- 
 
 ' This is an original and just remark of the author, placing the matter in its 
 true light. It is possible that, even now, the defenilcrs of the Romish church 
 may appeal to manifold mortifications of the flesh, and acts of self-denial, as 
 something very excellent, and proofs of tlie piety of their people, particularly 
 their monks. But be it well remarked that these thereby seek to obtain for 
 themselves carnal rest, and thus, at bottom, seek themselves ; while those who 
 are not loss in earnest among us, (for no regard is to be paid to the thoughtless 
 multitude on either side), do not so readily suppose that peace is to be found 
 in any performance, however difficult and painful, but experience much inward 
 struggling and vexation while they endeavour, although it be only in tlie com- 
 mon business of their lives, to keep a conscience void of offence towards God 
 and man, and, above all, they anxiously search out the path of truth and righte- 
 ousness, according to the will and counsel, not of themselves, or of men, but of 
 God, and steadfastly seek to walk therein, without turning either to the right 
 hand or to the left. — L. R. 
 
 ^ Legit tunc cum Joanne Voito, in angulum abditus, libellos Lutheri. 
 (Melch. Adam.) 
 
 I. 2 k 
 
^58 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 dieted him for a year and a half from all communication beyond 
 the monastery; allowing him neither to write nor to receive 
 letters, and threatening him with perpetual imprisonment. 
 Nevertheless, his hour of deliverance also arrived. Being sub- 
 sequently appointed pastor of Zwickau, he was the first that 
 openly expressed himself against the popedom in Thuringia. 
 " Then," said he, " I could labour with my venerable father 
 Luther, in the gospel harvest." Jonas has called him a man 
 who could do what he would, ^ 
 
 No doubt there were other souls, besides, for whom the theses 
 of Luther were the signal of life. They kindled a new light 
 in many cells, cabins, and palaces; and while those, says 
 Mathesius, who came to monasteries looking for a good table, a 
 life of nothingness, or of consideration and honours, loaded the 
 name of Luther with insults, the religious who lived in prayer, 
 fasting, and macerations, gave thanks to God for their having 
 heard the cry of that eagle which John Huss had announced a 
 century before.'^ Even the common people, although they did 
 not very Avell understand the theological part of the question, 
 and knew only that this person rose against the empire of use- 
 less alms-beggars and monks, greeted him with bursts of joy. 
 The sensation produced by these bold propositions was immense. 
 Some few of the Reformer's cotemporaries nevertheless, fore- 
 saw to what serious results they might lead, and what numerous 
 obstacles they were sure to encounter. These made no secret 
 of their fears, and rejoiced with trembling. 
 
 " I am much afraid," wrote the excellent canon of Auasburs:, 
 Bernard Adelman, to his friend Pirkheimer, " that this worthy 
 man may yet be compelled to yield to the avarice and the power 
 of the partizans of the indulgences. His representations have 
 Had so little effect, that the bishop of Augsburg, our primate 
 and metropolitan, 3 has just given orders, in the pope"'s name, 
 for new indulgences for behoof of St. Peter's church at Rome. 
 Let him lose no time in procuring the aid of the princes ; let 
 him beware of tempting God; for a man must be wanting in 
 common sense, not to perceive the imminent danger in which he 
 
 ' Qui potuit quod voluit. 
 
 " Davon Magistcr Johann Huss geweissaget. (Math. 13.) 
 
 " Totque uxorum vir, he adds. (Ileumani Documcnta litt. p. 1G7.) 
 
SAA'IXGS OF ALBERT KllANZ AND AN OLD I'lUE.ST. 259 
 
 is placed." Adelman was delighted when the report went 
 abroad, that Henry VIII. had sent for Luther to come to Eng- 
 land. "There," thought he, "he might teach the truth in 
 peace." Many thus imagined that the doctrine of the gospel 
 was about to be aided by the powers of the civil governments. 
 They knew not that it advances independently of that power, 
 and that when it is on its side, it often obstructs and enfeebles it. 
 
 The famous historian, Albert Kranz, happened to be at Ham- 
 burgh on his death-bed, when Luther's theses were brought to 
 him. " You are in the right, brother Martin!" cried the dying 
 man, " but you won''t attain your object. . . Poor monk! go 
 to your cell and cry: Have mercy upon me, God!"' 
 
 An old priest at Hexter in Westphalia, having received and 
 read the theses in his parsonage, shaking his head, said in low 
 Dutch, " Dear brother Martin, should you succeed in subverting 
 that purgatory and all these paper-mongers, truly you are a 
 great gentleman;" under which words, Erbenius, who lived a 
 century later, wrote this rhyme: 
 
 Quid vero nunc si viverct 
 Bonus iste clericus diceret? 2 
 
 Not only did many of Luther''s friends entertain great appre- 
 hensions as to the course he was taking, but moreover, several 
 signified to him their disapprobation. 
 
 Grieved at the thought of a quarrel of such consequence com- 
 mencing in his diocese, the bishop of Brandenburg wished to 
 smother it; and resolved to attempt this by gentle methods. Ho 
 sent word to Luther by the Abbot of Lenin, saying: " In these 
 theses upon the indulgences, I find nothing that is contrary to 
 the catholic verity; I myself condemn these indiscreet procla- 
 mations; but for the love of peace, and out of regard for your 
 bishop, ^vrite no more on the subject." Luther was confounded 
 at finding so great an abbot, and so great a bishop, addressing 
 him with so much humility, and so deeply was he affected by 
 it, and so hurried away by his first emotions, as to reply. 
 
 ' Fratcr, abi in cellam ct die: Miserere mci. (Lindher in Luther's Lebon, 
 p. 93.) 
 
 ^ What, were he living at this day, 
 Would the good German parson say ? 
 
260 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 *' I consent to this : I would choose rather to obey than to work 
 miracles, even were it in ray power to work them."l 
 
 The elector beheld with pain the commencement of a struggle, 
 legitimate no doubt, but of which it was impossible to foresee the 
 end. No prince more than Frederick desired the maintenance 
 of the public peace. Now, how immense the conflagration that 
 this small fire might kindle ? What disorders, what national 
 convulsions, might not this quarrel among monks produce ? The 
 elector, accordingly, again and again sent word to Luther of the 
 vexation it was costing him.- 
 
 Even in his own order, and in the very monastery at Wit- 
 temberg, Luther found persons who disapproved. The prior and 
 subprior were intimidated by the loud tone in which Tetzel and 
 his companions gave utterance to their wrath. Panic-struck and 
 trembling, they repaired to friar Martin''s little cell: "Mercy 
 on us," said they, " do not bring disgrace upon our order ! 
 Already are the other orders, and especially the Dominicans, 
 in a transport of joy, on finding that they no longer stand alone 
 in bearing reproach." Luther was at first aflected by this 
 appeal, but soon recovering himself, he replied: "Dear Fathers, 
 if the thing be not done in the name of God, it will come to 
 nought; if otherwise, let it go on." The prior and subprioi- 
 were silent. " It continues to advance," continued Luther, after 
 relating this, " and if it please God, it will go on better and 
 better to the end. Amen."^ 
 
 This, however, was far from being the only attack that Luther 
 had to sustain. He was accused at Erfurt of pride and violence 
 in his manner of condemning the opinions of others; the com- 
 mon reproach brought against men who have the strong con- 
 victions inspired by the Word of God. He was charged, also, 
 with being hasty and inconsiderate. 
 
 "They require me to show modesty," replied Luther, "and 
 they themselves trample modesty under foot in the judgment 
 they pass upon me ! . . . We are ever beholding the mote 
 that is in another's eye, and consider not the beam that is in 
 
 ' Bene sum contentus: malo obedire quam miracula facere, etiam si possein. 
 (Epp.i.71.) 
 
 - Suumque dolorem saepe significavit, motuens discordias majoreSo (Melancht. 
 Vita. Luth.) 
 
 ^ L. 0pp. (L.) vi. p. 51S. 
 
LUTIIEirs REI'l.Y TO OIUIXTOUS AT EKIUHT. 2G1 
 
 our own. . . . Tlio truth will not gain more by my modesty 
 than it will lose by my rashness." " I should like to know," ho 
 continues, addressing- himself to Lange, "what errors you and 
 your theologians have discovered iu my theses? Who knows 
 not that a man can seldom put forth a new idea, without appear- 
 ing proud and being accused of seeking a quarrel? Were 
 Immility itself to undertake something new, she would instantly 
 be subjected to the charge of pride by men thinking differently ! l 
 Why was it that Christ, and all the martyrs, were put to death? 
 Because they seemed to be proud despisers of the wisdom of 
 their day, and put forth novelties, without first humbly taking 
 counsel from the organs of old opinions. 
 
 " Let not, then, the sages of the present day look for so much 
 liumility from me, or rather for so much hypocrisy, as to ask 
 their advice before publishing- v/hat duty requires me to say. 
 What I do, is not to be done by the prudence of men but by 
 the counsel of God. If the work be from God, who shall hinder 
 it? if it be not from God, who can make it go on? . . . 
 Neither my will, nor theirs; not ours, but thy will, O holy 
 Father, who art in heaven!" What courage, what a noble 
 enthusiasm, what confidence in God, and, above all, what truth 
 in these words, and what truth for all times! - 
 
 Nevertheless, the reproaches and accusations now showered 
 upon Luther from all quarters, failed not so far to affect his 
 mind. He was baulked in his expectations. He had hoped 
 for the public adhesion of the heads of the Church, and of the 
 most distinguished men of learning in the nation ; but it turned 
 out otherwise. A single word of approval which escaped their 
 lips at the first moment of excitement, was all that he received 
 from the best disposed; and many, on the contrary, of those 
 
 ' Finge enim ipsam humilitatcm nova conari, statim superbiai subjicietur ab 
 iis qui aliter sapiunt. (L. Epp. i. p. 73.) 
 
 2 So it is ! Yet nothing is more usual than to charge a man with pride when 
 he refuses to submit to the common opinion. And no accusation is more likely 
 to unnerve the courage of those whose only object it is to defend the truth and 
 to place it in a clearer light, being worse even than the dread of persecution, 
 were it unto death, in as much as in proportion as humility is felt to be the 
 highest of the virtues, are men deterred from pursuing a particular course by 
 the dread of being thought proud. Thank God, Luther saw through the 
 cunning of this artifice, intended as it was to embarrass the resolute mainten- 
 ance of the truth, and would not allow it by any means to deter him from doing 
 his duty. — L. K. 
 
262 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 whom he had previously venerated the most, now loudly blamed 
 him. He felt that he stood absolutely alone in the Church; 
 alone against Rome; alone at the base of that ancient and for- 
 midable edifice whose foundation went deep into the bowels of 
 the earth, whose walls lifted themselves to the clouds, yet to 
 which he had dealt so audacious a blow J This at once per- 
 plexed and distressed him. Doubts which he thought he had 
 overcome, returned upon him with augmented force. He trem- 
 bled at the thought of being opposed by the authority of the 
 whole Church: to withdraw from under that authority, to turn 
 away from that voice which nations had for ages humbly obeyed, 
 to place himself in opposition to that Church which he had been 
 wont, from very infancy, to venerate as the mother of the faith- 
 ful ., . he, a paltry monk ... it was an effort 
 beyond human power. ^ No step cost him more than this, and 
 it was this, also, which decided the Reformation. 
 
 None could describe better than himself the struggle that now 
 commenced in his soul: "I entered on this affair," he says, 
 ' with great fear and great trembling. Who was I at that 
 time — me, a poor, wretched, despicable friarling, liker to a 
 dead body than a man, — who was 1 to oppose the majesty 
 of the pope, in whose presence not only the kings of the earth 
 and the entire world,— but farther, if I may so speak, heaven 
 and earth trembled, and were constrained to obey his nod? 
 None can know what my heart suffered during those 
 two first years, and in what depression, I might say, in what 
 despair, I was often plunged. No idea can be formed of it 
 by those haughty spirits who have attacked the pope with such 
 hardihood since; although, with all their ability, they could 
 not have done him the smallest harm, had not Jesus Christ 
 already inflicted on him, through me, his weak unworthy instru- 
 ment, a wound from which he will never recover. 
 But while they were content to look on, and left me to meet 
 the danger singly, I was not so joyous, so much at my ease, 
 and so confident of the affair succeeding; for I was not then 
 aware of many things which, thanks be to God, I now know. 
 There were, it is true, many pious Christians who were greatly 
 
 ' Solus primo cram. (L. 0pp. lat. in prncf.) 
 
 ^ Concilium immanis audacise plenum. (I'allavicini, 1, 17.) 
 
r.L'Tiii'irs TnounLEs — motives that influenced iiim. 203 
 
 pleased with my propositions, and niado much account of them; 
 but I couki not recognize or consider them as organs of the 
 Holy Ghost; I looked only to the pope, to the cardinals, to the 
 bishops, jurisconsults, monks, and priests- ... It was 
 from that quarter that I expected the breathings of the Spirit. 
 However, the Scripture having made me come off victorious 
 over all contrary arguments, at last, by the grace of Christ, with 
 much anguish, toil, and difficulty, I got the better of the only 
 argument that remained in my way, to wit, 'that we ought to 
 hear the Church ;"'l for from the bottom of my heart I honoured 
 the church of the pope as the true Church; and did so with 
 very much more sincerity and veneration than those shameless 
 and infamous corrupters who, merely to oppose me, are now 
 crying it up so loudly. Had I despised the pope as they do in 
 their heart who praise him so much with their lips, I should 
 have trembled lest the earth should instantly open and swallow 
 me up alive, as it did Korah and all who were with him." 
 
 How much honour do these struggles reflect upon Luther, 
 how much sincerity and integrity do they open up to our vievs 
 in his soul! and how much more worthy of our respect does he 
 become in consequence of these painful assaults which he had to 
 sustain both from without and from within, than an intrepidity 
 unaccompanied with any such struggles could have made him. 
 This travail of his soul clearly shows us the truth and the 
 divinity of his work; we see that for its cause and for its prin- 
 ciple we must go to heaven ; and who will venture to say, after 
 all the traits we have set before the reader, that the Reformation 
 was a matter of policy? No, indeed, it was not the effect of the 
 policy of men, but that of the power of God. Had Luther been 
 actuated by human passions only, he would have given way to 
 his fears; his mistaken calculations and his scruples would have 
 quenched the flame that had been kindled in his soul, so that it 
 could only have cast a passing gleam upon the Church, as had 
 been the case with so many men of zeal and piety whose names 
 have come down to us. But now God's time was come; the 
 work was not to be stopped. The deliverance of the Church 
 
 ' Et cum omnia argumenta superassem per scripturas.hoc iinum cum summa 
 difficultate et angustia, tandem Christo favcnte, vix sui)eravi, Ecclcsiam scilicet 
 esse audicndam. (L. 0pp. lat. i. p. 40.) 
 
^C^ HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 from bondage was about to be accomplished. Lutber was at 
 least to prepare this complete alFrancliisement, and those vast 
 developments promised to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Accord- 
 ingly he experienced the truth of that magnificent promise: 
 Even the youths shall faint and he weary, and the young men shall 
 utterly fail. But they that wait on the Lord shall renew their 
 strength ; they shall mount up icith wings as eagles ; they shall run 
 and not he weary; and they shall zcalk and not faint. That same 
 divine power which filled the heart of the doctor of Wittemberg, 
 and which had thrown him into the conflict, soon restored to 
 him all his first resolution. 
 
 VII. Luther had been discouraged by the fearfulness or the 
 silence of his friends, but, as often happens, the attacks of his 
 enemies produced on him an opposite efi'ect. The adversaries of 
 the truth, while believing that by their violence they were doing 
 their own work, were doing in fact the work of God.^ Tetzel took 
 up, though with a feeble hand, the gauntlet that had been thrown 
 down to him, and, in his first reply, attacked the sermon preached 
 by Luther, and which was meant for the people, just as the 
 theses had been meant for the learned. That discourse he 
 attempted to refute point by point, and in his own manner; he 
 then announced that he was preparing to give ampler battle to 
 his adversary in certain theses which he was to maintain at 
 Frankfort on the Oder. " Then,"" said he, replying by these 
 words to the conclusion of Luther"'s sermon, " then every one 
 will be able to recognise which is the heresiarch, the heretic, 
 the schismatic, the man guilty of error, rashness, and calumny. 
 Then will it appear to the eyes of all, who it is that has a gloomy 
 brain, who it is that has never felt the force of the Bible, or read 
 Christian doctrines, or understood his own doctors. In main- 
 taining the positions I advance, I am ready to sufi'er all things, 
 imprisonment, beating, water, and fire. . . ." 
 
 One thing strikes us in reading this writing of TetzePs, and 
 that is, the difference between the German he employs and 
 that of Luther. One would say that they were separated by an 
 interval of ages. A foreigner, in particular, finds it difficult at 
 times to make out TetzeVs meaning, while the language of 
 
 ' Tli furores Tetzelii et ejus satellitum imponunt iiecessitatem Lutbero de rebus 
 iisdem copiosius disserendi et tuendse veritatis. (Melancht. "Vita. Luth.) 
 
LlITHEIl'rf IlEPLY TO TETZKI,. 265 
 
 Luther is throughout iihnost entirely that of our own days. We 
 have only to compare their writings together to bo convinced 
 that Luther is the latlier of the German tongue; doubtless one 
 of his least merits, still it is one. 
 
 Luther replied without naming Tetzel, Tetzel not having 
 named him. J3ut not a reader in Germany but knew well what 
 names should have appeared on the title of these publications, 
 however they might think proper not to mention them. Tetzel 
 endeavoured to confound the repentance required by God with 
 the penance imposed by the church, for the purpose of enhancing 
 the value of his indulgences. Luther strove to throw light on 
 this point. 
 
 " To avoid many words," says he in his picturesque lan- 
 guage, " I give to the wind, which by the bye has more spare 
 time than I have, his other words, which are mere paper flowers 
 and withered leaves, and confine myself to the examination of 
 the bases of his edifice of burs. 
 
 "• The penance imposed by the holy father cannot be the 
 repentance required by Jesus Christ, for what the holy father 
 imposes, he may dispense with exacting ; and if these two peni- 
 tences were one and the same thing, it would follow that the holy 
 father removes what Jesus Christ requires, and that he violates 
 God's commandments." . . . "Ah, if he think proper, let 
 him treat me ill,"" continues Luther, after having quoted other 
 false interpretations of Tetzel, " let him call me heretic, schis- 
 matic, calumniator, in short, whatever he pleases; I shall not on 
 that account be his enemy, and I shall pray for him as for a friend. 
 
 . . . But it is not possible that he should be suffered to 
 treat Holy Scripture, our consolation, (Rom. xv. 4.) as a sow 
 would treat a sack of oats." ^ 
 
 We must accustom ourselves to Luther's occasional employ- 
 ment of expressions which are harsh and too Jiomely to suit the 
 taste of our age: it was the usual practice of that time, and we 
 commonly find under those expressions, however tliey may 
 shock the proprieties of language in our days, a force and a just- 
 ness that make us forgive their tartness.- 
 
 ' Dass er die Schrift, unsern Trost, nicht anders bcliandelt wie die Sau einen 
 Ilabcrsack. 
 
 ' Add to this coarseness in his expressions, occasioniil -want of consideration 
 1. 2 L 
 
266 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " He who buys indulgences, our adversaries farther saj, does 
 better than he who gives alms to a poor man, not reduced to 
 absolute want. Now, supposing word were brought that the 
 Turks are profaning our churches and our crosses; we might 
 learn this without shuddering at the thought, for we have Turks 
 among us who are a hundred times worse, who profane and 
 annihilate the only true sanctuary, the Word of God, which 
 sanctifies all things. . . . Let him who would follow this 
 precept, take care not to give to eat to him who is hungry, or to 
 clothe him who is naked, until they give up the ghost, and con- 
 sequently have no farther need of his assistance." 
 
 It is well that we should compare this zeal on Luther's part 
 for good works, with what he says on justification by faith. We 
 shall only add that whoever has had any experience, and any 
 knowledge of Christianity, has no need of tins new proof of a 
 truth, the evidence of which he already acknowledges: namely, 
 that the more a man cleaves to justification by faith, the more, 
 likewise, does he own the necessity of good works, and the more 
 does he practise them; while loose views of the doctrine of 
 faith are necessarily followed by a relaxation in the practice of 
 "•ood works. Luther, before him St. Paul, after him Howard, 
 are proofs of the former assertion. All men without faith, and 
 the world is full of them, are proofs of the latter. 
 
 Coming then to the subject of Tetzel's insult, Luther repays 
 him, in his own manner, in kind. " When hearing these invect- 
 ives," says he, " I seem to be listening to some great ass braying 
 at me. I am delighted with them and should feel very sad, 
 were such people to say, I was a good Christian." .... 
 
 in what he wrote, giving rise to apparent inconsistencies in some parts of his 
 writings. These though apparent only, when comhined with that really gradual 
 illumination of Luther's mind which led him, on receiving farther light, to 
 reject altogether what he had held in earlier life, might supply matter for that 
 well known satire, the Gospel Weathercock, in which various examples of 
 Luther's self-contradictions are sneeringly exhihited. It is scandalous beyond 
 measure that in these days of so much general intelligence, this work should be 
 reproduced by ignorant persons, who are encouraged in nothing else, nay, who 
 are not allowed to say a word when people think they can receive better 
 instruction elsewhere, and that the coarseness and inconsistency of Luther's 
 sayings and writings should alone be mentioned, while not a word is introduced 
 of those glowing and splendid expressions of his, which reveal to us the inmost 
 feelings of his heart, and with these its thorough honesty and high-toned prin- 
 ciple. Of these, however, many examples are most appropriately introduced in 
 tiiis work of M. Merle. — L. R. 
 
GOOD WORKS. SPALATIX. 267 
 
 Wo must jrive Luther as lie is, with all his weaknesses. This 
 turn for pleasantry, and gross pleasantry too, was one of these. 
 The Reformer was undoubtedly a great man, a man of God, still 
 he was a man, not an angel, nor was he even a perfect man. 
 Who has any right to demand that he should bo perfect? 
 
 *' As for what remains,"" he adds, provoking his adversaries 
 to give him battle, " albeit that for such points it is not usual 
 to burn people, here I am at Wittemberg, I doctor Martin 
 Luther! Is there any inquisitor that pretends to eat iron and to 
 toss rocks into the air? I give him to wit, that he has a safe- 
 conduct to come hither, the gates open, and bed and board pro- 
 vided for him, and all by the gracious care of the praise-wortliy 
 prince, duke Frederick, elector of Saxony, who never will pro- 
 tect heresy. . . . ^ " 
 
 It will be seen that Luther was never wanting in point of 
 courage. He stayed himself on the Word of God, and that is 
 a rock which a man may reckon upon never giving way in a storm. 
 Eut God, in his faithfulness, brought him other aids besides, in 
 circumstances which made them peculiarly needful. To the 
 bursts of joy with which the multitude had welcomed the theses, 
 there soon succeeded a moody silence; the learned had timidly 
 retired on hearing: the calumnies and insults of Tetzel and the 
 Dominicans ; the bishops, loud as had been their previous con- 
 demnation of the abuses of indulgences, seeing them at last 
 assailed, failed not by a contradiction of which there are too many 
 examples, to find the attack unseasonable at that time. The 
 greater number of the Eefornier*'s friends became alarmed; 
 several had even fled; but when the first panic was over, men's 
 minds took another direction; and the Wittemberg monk after 
 having for some time stood alone in the Church, soon found 
 himself again surrounded with many friends and approvers. 
 
 Among these there was one who, though timid, remained 
 faithful to him throughout this crisis, and whose friendship was 
 his comfort and stay. This friend was Spalatin. Their corres- 
 pondence was not discontinued. " I thank you,"" he says to him, 
 referring to a particular mark of friendship which he had just 
 received from him; "but what do I not owe you?"'"'- It was on 
 
 ' Lutheri Opera Lcips. xvii. 132. 
 
 ^ Tibi gratias ago : imo quid tibi non debeo? (L. Epp. i. p. 74.) 
 
268 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 11th Nov. 1517, eleven days after the publication of the theses; 
 and hence, no doubt, at the very moment when the ferment of 
 mens minds was at the greatest, that Luther loved thus to pour 
 forth his gratitude into the heart of his friend. It is interesting 
 to see how in this same letter to Spalatin, the sturdy man who 
 had just done a deed that required the greatest courage, declares 
 what the source was whence he derived his strength. " We can 
 do nothing of ourselves; we can do all things by the grace of 
 Ood. All ignorance is such as we can never overcome ; there is 
 no ignorance but what may be overcome by the grace of God. 
 The more we struggle in our own strength to attain to wisdom, 
 the more do we run into folly. I It is not true that this invin- 
 cible ignorance excuses the sinner; for otherwise there would be 
 no sin in the world." 
 
 Luther had not sent his propositions either to the prince or 
 to any of his courtiers; an omission at which it appears that 
 the chaplain had expressed to his friend some surprise. " I did 
 not wish," replied Luther, " that my theses should reach our 
 most illustrious prince, or any of his people, until those who 
 think themselves pointed out in them should first have received 
 them, lest they might think that I had pubHshed them by the 
 prince"'s orders, or with the view of conciliating his favour, and 
 out of opposition to the bishop of Maintz. I learn that there 
 are several already who imagine such things. But I can now 
 safely swear, that my theses were published without the know- 
 ledge of duke Frederick."''"^ 
 
 And if Spalatin comforted his friend and aided him with his 
 influence, Luther, on his side, endeavoured to answer the 
 inquiries addressed to him by the modest chaplain. Among 
 other questions, the latter put one which is often asked at the 
 present day: "Which is the best method of studying Holy 
 Scripture." 
 
 "Hitherto," replied Luther, "you have asked me, most 
 excellent Spalatin, such things only as were in my power. But 
 to direct you in the study of the Holy Scriptures, is above my 
 
 ' Quanto magis conamur ex nobis ad sapiontiam, tanto amplius appropin- 
 quamus insipientiaj. (L. Epp. i. p. 74.) 
 
 2 Sed salvum est nunc etiam jurare, quod sine scitu ducis Frederici exierint. 
 (Ibid. p. 76.) 
 
STUDY OK THE SCRIPTURES. SCIIEUHF.. 269 
 
 capucUy If, however, you would like to know my own inuLliod 
 I will not conceal it from you, 
 
 " First, it is most certain that no man can obtain a thorougli 
 knowledge of the Scriptures by mere force of study or of genius. 
 What you have first to do, then, is to commence with prayer.' 
 Entreat of God, that of his great n)ercy he would give you the 
 true understanding of his word. There is no interpreter of tho 
 word of God other than the author himself of that word, 
 according as it is written : They shall all be taught of God. Hope 
 nothing from your labours, nothing from your understanding, 
 but trust wholly to God, and to the influences of his Spirit. 
 Believe a man who has made the trial."- We here see how it 
 was that Luther arrived at the possession of that truth of which 
 he was the preacher. Tt was not, as some pretend, by trusting 
 to the pride of reason; nor was it, as others insist, by deliver- 
 ing himself up to resentful passions. The purest, the holiest, 
 the sublimest source of all, even God himself, applied to with 
 humility, confidence, and prayer, was that from which he dreAV 
 his knowledge. But few there be in our age who imitate him, 
 and hence it is that few there be who comprehend him. 
 These words of Luther in the view of a serious mind, are in 
 themselves a justification of the Reformation. 
 
 Luther found consolation, likewise, in the friendship of some 
 worthy laymen. Among these, Christopher Scheurl, the excel- 
 lent secretary of the imperial city of Nuremberg, gave him 
 affecting tokens of friendship. ^ We all know how soothing to 
 man's heart, when he sees himself attacked on all sides, are tes- 
 timonies of interest in his welfare ; but not satisfied with giving 
 him these, the Nuremberg secretary desired to gain for his 
 friend a laro-e accession of friends. He invited him to dedicate 
 one of his works to a then celebrated lawyer of Nuremberg, 
 called Jerome Ebner: " Thou hast a high idea of my studies,'"' 
 Luther modestly replies; " but I have the very lowest. Never- 
 
 * Primum id certissimum est, sacras litteras ron posse vel studio, vol ingenio 
 penetrari. Ideo primum officium est ut ab orationo ineipias. 
 
 ^ Igitur de tuo studio dcsperes oportet omnino, simul et ingenio. Deo autem 
 soli confidas et influxui spiritus. Experto crede ista. (L. Epp. i. p. 88, of 
 18th January.) 
 
 ^ Littera) tui3D, Luther writes on the 11th December 1517, animum tuum 
 orga meam parvitatem candidum et longe ultra merita benevolentissimum 
 probaverunt. (L. Epp. i. p. 70.) 
 
270 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 theless it has been my wish to comply with your desire. I have 
 souo-ht out. . . . But in all my store which I never found 
 so paltry, nothing has turned up that has not appeared to me 
 altogether unworthy of being dedicated to so great a man by 
 one so little as myself." How affecting is this humility! It 
 is no other than Luther that speaks, and it is with the 
 doctor Ebner, whose very name is unknown to us, that he 
 thus compares himself. Posterity has not confirmed this 
 iudjxment. 
 
 Without having done anything in the way of giving general 
 circulation to the theses, Luther had thought as little of send- 
 ino- them to Scheurl, as to the electors and his courtiers. The 
 Nuremberg secretary expressed his surprise at this. " I did not 
 at all design," he replied," " to give my theses any such publi- 
 city. All I wanted was to confer upon their contents with 
 some of those who dwell with us or near us.^ Had these con- 
 demned them, I would have destroyed them. Had they been 
 approved of, I thought 1 might have them published. Now, 
 however, they have been printed, reprinted, and disseminated, 
 far beyond my hopes; so that I repent of that production; - 
 not that I fear the truth being known to the people, for that 
 was my sole object; but such is not the best method of giving 
 people instruction. There are questions to be found in them 
 which even to myself admit of doubt; and had I thought that 
 my theses were to make such a sensation, some things I might 
 have left out, and others I might have affirmed with a more 
 entire assurance." Luther thought otherwise afterwards, when, 
 far from thinking that he had said too much, he declared that he 
 ouo-ht to have said a great deal more. Still, the apprehensions he 
 expresses to Scheurl do honour to his sincerity; showing that 
 he had not had any preconceived plan, was not influenced by 
 party spirit, was by no means prepossessed in favour of his own 
 opinions, and only sought for truth. When he had fully found 
 it, he changed his language: " You will find in my first writ- 
 ings," says he many years afterwards, " that I most humbly 
 yielded many things to the pope, and these, too, things of impor- 
 
 1 Non fuit consilium neque votumeas evulgari, sed cum p.auois apudet circum 
 nos habitantiljus primum super ipsis conferri. (L. Epp. i. p. 05.) 
 - Ut me poeniteat hujus fouturaj. (L. Ejip. i. p. 95.) 
 
I.UTIIEU PLEADS i-OIl THE TEOI'LE. 271 
 
 tance, wliicli I now regard and detest as abominable and blas- 
 phemous." * 
 
 Scheurl was not the only layman of consideration who then 
 "•ave Luther marks of friendship. The famous painter Albert 
 Durer, sent him a present, one of his paintings perhaps, and the 
 doctor warmly expresses his gratitude upon the occasion.^ 
 
 Thus did Luther realize in his own experience the truth of 
 that word of the divine wisdom: A friend loveth at all times, and 
 a brother is horn for adversiti/. But he was not forgetful of it 
 with respect to others, and, indeed, pleaded the cause of his 
 whole people. The elector had imposed one tax, and it was posi- 
 tively said that he was about to add another, probably as advised 
 by Pfeffinger, the prince's councillor, against whom Luther often 
 launches expressions of great pungency. The doctor threw 
 himself resolutely into the breach: ''Let not your highness," 
 said he, " despise the prayer of a poor mendicant. I beseech 
 of you in the name of God, not to appoint anew tax. 1 myself, 
 as well as many of your most devoted subjects, have had our 
 hearts crushed on seeing how much injury was done by the last, 
 to the good nanie and popularity enjoyed by your highness. It 
 is true that God has endowed you with a high order of under- 
 standing, so that in such matters you see farther than I can do, 
 and, no doubt, farther than any of your subjects. But it may per- 
 haps be God's will that a small capacity should instruct one that 
 is irreat, in order that no one mav confide in himself, but only 
 in God our Saviour, and may He preserve your body in health 
 for our good, and your soul for everlasting bliss. Amen." Thus 
 does the gospel, while it enjoins honour to be paid to kings, make 
 the cause of the people to be pleaded also. It at once preaches 
 its duties to the nation; and recalls the rights it possesses to 
 the remembrance of the prince. The voice of a Christian, like 
 Luther, causing itself to be heard in a sovereign's cabinet, might 
 often take the place of a whole assembly of legislators. 
 
 In that same letter in which Luther addresses so severe a 
 lesson to the elector, he is not afraid to prefer the request, or 
 rather to recall the promise, of being presented with a new dress; 
 
 ' Quae istis tcmporibus pro summa blaspliemia et abominatione habeo ct 
 execror. ( L. 0pp. lat Wit. in pra;f. ) 
 
 ^ Accepi . . . simul et donum insignis viri Alberti Durcr. (L. Epp. i. 
 p. 95.) 
 
272 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 a freedom on Luther's part which at a moment when he might 
 dread liaving offended Frederick, is no less honourable to the 
 prince than to the reformer. " But if it be Pfeffinger that is 
 charged with it,"" he adds, " let him give it me in reality, and 
 not in protestations of friendship. For he right well knows 
 how to weave fine words, but no good cloth comes out of them." 
 Luther thought that the good counsels he had given his prince 
 well deserved his court dress. ^ Be that as it may, two years 
 after, as it had never come, he was still petitioning for it;'^ a fact 
 from which apparently we may infer that Frederick was not so 
 much at Luther''s disposal as has been said. 
 
 Vin. Thus had men''s minds gradually recovered from their 
 first consternation. Luther himself was disposed to declare 
 that his words had not the bearing that was attributed to them. 
 New circumstances might divert the general attention, and the 
 stroke that had been aimed at the Roman doctrines might finally 
 lose itself in the air, as so many had done before. But the 
 partisans of Rome prevented the matter from having such an 
 issue, and fanned the flame instead of smothering it. 
 
 Tetzel and the Dominicans made a fierce reply to the attack 
 made upon them. Eagerly bent on crushing the audacious 
 monk who had thus disconcerted their trafiic, and conciliated the 
 favour of the Roman pontiff, they gave furious vent to their 
 resentment; pretended that to attack the indulgence ordained 
 by the pope, was to attack the pope himself; and called to their 
 aid all the monks and theologians of their schooh ^ Tetzel was 
 quite aware that an adversary like Luther was too much for 
 him alone. So stunned was he by the doctor's attack, and, 
 above all, so angry was he, that he left the environs of Wittem- 
 berg, and repaired to Frankfort on the Oder, where he had 
 arrived so early as November 1517. Among the professors at 
 the university of that city, was Conrad Wimpina, a man of much 
 eloquence, and one of the most distinguished theologians of his 
 time. Wimpina felt that his reputation was eclipsed by the 
 doctor and university of Wittemberg, and regarded both with 
 
 1 Mein Ilofklcid verdienen. (Epp. L. i. p. T7, 78.) 
 - Ibid. p. 283. 
 
 ^ Suum senatum convocat; monachos aliquot et theologos sua sophistica 
 utcunque tinctos. (Melancht. Vita Lutheri ) 
 
fhaxkfout disputatiox. — tetzel''3 theses. 273 
 
 feelings of envy, when he was applied to by Tetzel to funiisli 
 an answer to the theses of Luther; and thereupon he wrote two 
 series of anti-theses, of wliich one was meant as a defence of 
 the doctrine of indulgences, and the other as a 2)leading for the 
 authority of the pope. 
 
 On the 20th of January 1518, this disputation took place, 
 after long previous preparation and much noisy announcement. 
 Tetzel built the highest expectations upon it, and had beaten the 
 alarm drum. Monks had been sent for from all the surrounding 
 monasteries, and obeyed the summons by meeting to the num- 
 ber of above three hundred. Tetzel read aloud his theses, and 
 so extravagant were they as even to contain the following words, 
 " that whoever says that the soul does not soar out of purgatory 
 the moment the money chinks at the bottom of the strong box, 
 is in error." ^ 
 
 But what he chiefly sought was to establish propositions 
 according to which the pope truly appeared to sit as God in the 
 temple of God, as the apostle says. It well suited this bare-faced 
 trafficker to fly for shelter with all his disorders, and all his 
 scandals, under the mantle of the pope. 
 
 The following are some of the points which he declared him- 
 self ready to defend in presence of the numerous assembly by 
 which he was surrounded: 
 
 3. " Christians should be taught that the pope, in virtue of his 
 prerogative, is above the whole Church universal and the coun- 
 cils, and that people ought to obey his ordinances with all sub- 
 mission. 
 
 4. " Christians should be taught that the pope alone has right 
 to decide in matters of Christian faith; that he alone has the 
 power, and none but he, to explain the meaning of Holy Scrip- 
 ture according to the sense he attaches to it, and to approve or 
 condemn all the words or works of others. 
 
 5. " Christians should be taught that the judgment of the pope 
 in matters concerning the Christian faith, and which are neces- 
 sary to the salvation of the human race, can nowise err. 
 
 6. " Christians should be taught that in matters relating to the 
 
 ' Quisquis erg6 dicit, non citius posse animam volare, quam in fundo cistaj 
 denarius possit tinnire, errat. (Positiones fratris Joii. Tezelii, pos. 56. L. 
 0pp. i. p. 91.) 
 
 I. 2 M 
 
274 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 faith, one ought to stay himself and repose on the sentiments 
 entertained by the pope, as set forth in his judgments, more 
 than on the sentiments of all wise men, as deduced by them 
 from Scripture. 
 
 8. " Christians should be taught that those who assail the 
 pope's honour or dignity, render themselves guilty of the crime 
 of leze-majesty and merit malediction. 
 
 17. " Christians should be taught that there are many things 
 which the Church regards as sure articles of universal truth, 
 although to be found neither in the canon of Scripture nor in 
 the ancient doctors. 
 
 44. "Christians should be taught that those ought to be 
 accounted obstinate heretics who declare by their words, actions, 
 or writings, that they would not retract their heretical proposi- 
 tions, were excommunications upon excommunications to be 
 rained or hailed down upon them. 
 
 4-^. "Christians should be taught that those who protect the 
 error of heretics, and who interpose their authority to prevent 
 their being taken before the judge to whose jurisdiction they are 
 amenable, are excommunicated; that if within the space of a 
 year they abstain not from this course, they shall be declared 
 infamous, and cruelly punished with many punishments accord- 
 inir to the rules of law, and to the terror of all men. ^ 
 
 50. " Christians should be taught that those who scribble over 
 so many books and so much paper, who preach and dispute, 
 publicly and mischievously, on the confession of the mouth, on 
 the satisfaction of works, on the rich and great indulgences of 
 the bishop of Rome, and on his power; that those Avho side Avith 
 the men who preach or write such things, who delight in such 
 writings, and who disseminate them among the people and in 
 the world; that those, in fine, who secretly utter such things 
 in a contemptible and shameless manner, ought all to tremble 
 lest they should incur the penalties we have mentioned, and 
 precipitate themselves and others with them, for the time 
 coming, into everlasting damnation, and even in this world into 
 deep disgrace. For if a beast touch the mountain, it shall be 
 stoned." 
 
 ' Pro infamibus sunt tenendi, qui etiam per juris capitula terribiliter multis 
 ;)lectentur pcenis in omnium hominum terrorem. (L. 0pp. i. p. 94.) 
 
WIMI'I.NA. KNIPSTROW. Z,0 
 
 It will be perceived that Luther was not the solo oI)ject of 
 Tetzel's attack. In the 48th thesis he probably had the elector 
 of Saxony in his eye. As for the rest, these propositions 
 savoured strongly of the Dominicans; and to threaten all who 
 niioht gainsay them with cruel punishments, was truly an 
 inquisitor's argument, to which there could not well be any 
 means of replying. The three hundred monks that Tetzel had 
 gathered round him, stared with admiration at all that he said, 
 and the university theologians were too much afraid of being 
 ranked among the favourers of heresy, or were too nmch attached 
 to Wimpina's principles, frankly to attack the astounding theses 
 thus announced to them. 
 
 After all the noise it had created, the whole affair accordingly 
 seemed about to end in a mere sham fight; but among the 
 crowd of students who stood by, there was a youth about twenty 
 years old, called John Knipstrow, who had read Luther's theses, 
 and had found that they accorded with the doctrines of Scrip- 
 ture. Indignant at seeing the truth publicly trampled under 
 foot, without any to stand up in its defence, this young man 
 raised his voice, to the astonishment of the whole meeting, and 
 attacked the presumptuous Tetzel. Little reckoning on any 
 such opposition, the crest-fallen Dominican was sadly discon- 
 certed, and after some efforts of his own, quitted the field, leaving 
 Wimpina to take his place. The latter showed a more vigorous 
 resistance, but was at length so closely pressed by Knipstrow, 
 that to put an end to a contest in his eyes so inconvenient, 
 Wimpina, as president, declared the discussion closed; and 
 without farther debate, proceeded to confer the degree of doctor 
 on Tetzel, as his recompense for so glorious a contest. That he 
 might rid himself of the young orator, Wimpina had him sent 
 off to the monastery of Pyritz in Pomerania, with orders that 
 he should be strictly watched. But this rising light was 
 removed from the banks of the Oder, only that he might after- 
 wards diffuse a great degree of illumination in Pomerania.^ God 
 when he sees fit, employs scholars to confound doctors. 
 
 Anxious to repair the check he had received, Tetzel had 
 recourse to the ultima ratio of Rome and the inquisitors — fire. 
 
 ' Spieker, Gesch. Dr. M. Luther's Bcckmani Notitia Uni. Francofurti. 
 viii. Ac. 
 
276 HISTORY OF THE EEFORMATIOX. 
 
 On one of the public walks in the suburbs of Frankfort, he had 
 a pulpit and a bonfire prepared, and went in solemn procession 
 to the spot, with the insignia of the inquisitors of the faith. 
 From the pulpit thus prepared, he gave full vent to his fury, 
 thundering forth his denunciations, and calling out at the top of 
 his powerful voice, that the heretic Luther should be consigned 
 to the flames, into which he forthwith threw the doctor's pro- 
 positions and sermon. 1 It was far easier to do thus than to 
 defend his own theses, and this time he found no one to gainsay 
 him or to dispute his victory. The impudent Dominican 
 re-entered Frankfort in triumph. When powerful parties 
 sustain a defeat, they have recourse to certain demonstrations 
 with which we must allow them to indulge themselves, as their 
 sole consolation for disgrace. 
 
 TetzePs second theses form an important epoch of the Refor- 
 mation. They changed the ground of discussion by transfer- 
 ring it from the indulgence market into the halls of the Vatican, 
 and by turning it from Tetzel against the pope. In fact, they 
 substituted the sacred person of the chief of the Church, for the 
 despicable money-broker, with whom Luther had engaged in 
 close personal conflict. Luther was amazed at this. He might 
 probably have taken this step of his own accord some time later, 
 but his enemies had saved him the trouble; and from that time 
 forth, it was no longer a decried traffic that was called in ques- 
 tion, but Rome itself. The blow aimed by a bold hand at Tet- 
 zeFs money-shop, now shook to its foundations the very throne 
 of the pontiff- king. 
 
 As for the rest, TetzePs theses were a mere signal for the 
 rising of the whole troop of Rome. A shout against Luther 
 arose from among the monks, who were maddened to fury at 
 the sight of a still more formidable adversary than ever Erasmus 
 or Reuchlin had been. Luther''s name resounded from the 
 pulpits of the Dominicans, and from these, addressing them- 
 selves to the passions of the people, they denounced the brave 
 doctor as an insensate person, a seducing spirit, and one pos- 
 sessed by the devil. They decried his doctrine as the most 
 
 • Fulmina in Lutherum torquet ; vocifcratur ubique hunc hcrcticum igni 
 perdendum esse: propositiones etiam Luthcri et concioncin de indulgentiis 
 publice coiijicit in flammas. (Melanclit. Vita Lutheri.) 
 
RAGE OF THE DOMINICAN'S. 277 
 
 horrible licrcsy. "Wait but a fortnight, or a month at the; 
 most,'" said they, " and this noted heretic will be burnt." And, 
 sure enougli, had it depended on the Dominicans, the lot of 
 Huss and of Jerome would soon have been that of the Saxon 
 doctor. But God watched over him. His life was destined to 
 accomplish that which the ashes of Huss had commenced; for 
 each had his part in the work of God, — the one by his life, the 
 other by his death. Many exclaimed that the entire university 
 of Wittemberg was tainted with heresy, and pronounced it 
 infamous. ^ " Let us prosecute this wicked wretch," they con- 
 tinued, " and all his followers." Nor did such a hubbub fail in 
 many places to rouse the passions of the people; all who shared 
 in the Keformer''s opinions were pointed out to public notice; 
 and wherever the monks formed the stronger party, the friends 
 of the Gospel experienced the effects of their hatred. Then 
 began to be accomplished for the Reformation that prophecy of 
 the Saviour: Men shall revile you^ and persecute you^ and say all 
 manner of eml against you, falsely for my sake. That retribu- 
 tion is never wanting in this world to the decided disciples of 
 the Gospel. 
 
 No sooner was Luther aware of these theses of TetzeFs, and 
 of the general attack of which they were the signal, than his 
 courage rose; in the full conviction that such adversaries ought 
 to be met, face to face, his intrepid soul felt no difficulty in 
 resolvins: that this should be done. But at the same time their 
 weakness revealed to him his strength, and made him conscious 
 of his powers. 
 
 Yet he was far from giving way to those movements of pride 
 which are so natural to the heart of man. " I find it more 
 difficult," says he in writing to Spalatin at this period, " to keep 
 myself from despising my opponents, and thus sinning against 
 Jesus Christ, than I should find it to vanquish them. So 
 ignorant are they of things human and divine, that it is a dis- 
 grace to have such persons to contend with. And yet it is this 
 very ignorance that gives them their inconceivable audacity and 
 their brow of brass." - But what more than anything else put 
 
 1 Eo furunt usque, ut Universitatem Wittembergensem propter me infanicm 
 conantur facore et hereticam. (L. Epp. i. p. 92.) 
 
 2 Epp. Luth. i. p, 92. 
 
278 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 coura2;e into his heart amid this universal outburst of angrv 
 feeling, was his profound conviction that his cause was that of 
 truth. We find him writing to Spalatin at the beginning of 
 the year 1518 1 "Be not at all amazed at my being so insulted. 
 Were it not that people cursed me, we could not be so firmly 
 assured that the cause I have undertaken is that of God him- 
 self, l Christ has been set for a sign to be spoken against."" " I 
 know," he adds, " that the Word of God from the very begin- 
 ninjj, has been of such a nature that whoever has chosen to bear 
 it in the world, has been necessitated, like the apostles, to for- 
 sake all things and look for death. Were it not so, it would 
 not be the Word of Jesus Christ." ^ This peace in the midst 
 of trouble, is a thing unknown to the heroes of the world. We 
 see men placed at the head of a government, or of a political 
 party, sinking under their labours and fatigues. But the 
 Christian ordinarily acquires new strength in the struggle ; and 
 this, because he knows of a mysterious source of repose and 
 courage, of wiiich the man whose eyes are shut to the Gospel, 
 is altogether ignorant. 
 
 One thing, however, sometimes disquieted Luther: it was 
 the thought of the disagreements in sentiment which his cour- 
 ageous opposition might produce. He knew that a word might 
 set the world in a flame. He sometimes saw prince opposed to 
 prince, and nation to nation; his German heart grew sad at the 
 prospect, and his Christian charity took alarm at it. He could 
 have wished for peace; but it behoved him to speak out, for 
 such was the Lord's will. " I tremble," said he, " I shudder at 
 the thought of my causing discord among such great princes." ^ 
 
 He still maintained silence on Tetzel's propositions concern- 
 ing the pope. Had he been hurried away by passion, doubtless 
 he would have thrown himself without hesitation, and with all 
 his force, on the confounding doctrine under shelter of which 
 his opponent had endeavoured to screen himself. He refrained 
 from doing so; and there is in his delay, his reserve, his silence, 
 
 1 Nisi maledicerer, non crederem ex Deo esse quae tracto. (Luth. Epp. i. 
 p. 85.) 
 
 2 Morte emptum est (Verbum Dei), he continues in words full of energy, 
 mortibus vulgatum, mortibus servatum, mortibus quoque servandum aut refer- 
 endum est. 
 
 ^ Inter tantos principes dissidii origo esse, valde horreo et timeo. (L. Epp. 
 i. p. 93.) 
 
TETZELS THESES BUKNT AT WITTEMBICnr:. 
 
 270 
 
 something grave and solemn which sufficiently reveals the spirit 
 that animated him. He waited, but not from Aveakness; for 
 the blow, when given, was only the more vigorous. 
 
 After his auto-da-fe of Frankfort on the Oder, Tetzel lost no 
 time in sending his theses into Saxony, where he hoped they 
 would serve as an antidote to those of Luther. An agent was 
 despatched from Halle to VVittemberg, with instructions from 
 the inquisitor as to the distribution of his propositions. But the 
 university students, still indignant at TetzeFs having burnt 
 their master's theses, no sooner heard of the man's arrival than 
 they sought him out, surrounded him, pushed him about, and 
 frightened him: "How dare you bring such things here?" said 
 they; some, meanwhile, bought part of the copies; others laid 
 violent hands on the remainder, thus dispossessing him of his 
 entire stock, which consisted of eight hundred copies. Next, 
 without the knowledge of the elector, senate, rector, Luther, or 
 of any of the professors, ^ they placarded these words on the 
 most conspicuous parts of the university buildings: "Whoever 
 desires to be present at the burning and funeral ceremony of 
 TetzePs theses, may come to the market place at two o'clock." 
 
 At that hour and place they met in a crowd, and, amid the 
 loudest acclamations, delivered the Dominican's propositions to 
 the flames. One copy escaped, which falling into Luther's hands, 
 he afterwards sent to his friend Lange, at Erfurt. These 
 generous but imprudent youths had followed the precept of 
 those of the old time who said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth 
 for a tooth, not that of Jesus Christ. But after the example 
 set by the doctors and professors of Frankfort, can we wonder 
 at its being followed by the juvenile students at Wittemberg? 
 The news of this academical execution spread throughout Ger- 
 many, and made a great noise there. ^ To Luther it was a 
 subject of much distress. 
 
 " I am amazed," he wrote to his old master Jodocus, at Erfurt, 
 " that you could have believed that it was I that ordered the 
 burning of Tetzel's theses. Think you, then, that I am thus 
 far out of my mind? But what could I do in that matter? 
 
 ' Haec inscio principe, senatu, rectore, denique omnibus nobis. (L. Epp. i. 
 p. 99.) 
 ^ Fit ex ea re ingens undique fabula. (L. Epp. i. p. 90.) 
 
280 HISTOUY OF THE REfOnMAllON. 
 
 When I am in question, all believe everybody in everything. ^ 
 Can I tie the tonnes of the whole world? Well then! let 
 them say, hear, see, and pretend what they please. I will act 
 to the utmost of the strength that the Lord shall give me, and 
 with God's help never will I fear anything." " What is to be 
 the issue," says he to Lange, " I know not, unless it be that the 
 danger to which I am exposed thereby becomes much greater." 2 
 From the above incident we may perceive how much the hearts 
 of the young were already inflamed in favour of the cause which 
 was defended by Luther — a token this of the utmost importance; 
 for a movement that takes place in the youth of a country, is 
 sure to pass ere long into the entire nation. 
 
 Slight as was the estimation in which the theses of Tetzel 
 and Wimpina were held, still they produced a certain effect. 
 They enlarged the ground of dispute, they farther widened the 
 rent that had been made in the Church"'s mantle, they launched 
 into the quarrel questions of the very highest importance, so 
 that the chiefs of the Church began to look more closely into 
 the matter, and to pronounce themselves strongly against the 
 Reformer. " Truly, I know not who it is that Luther trusts 
 to," said the bishop of Brandenburg, " that he dares thus to 
 attack the power of the bishops." As he thought that this new 
 circumstance called for new proceedings on his part, the bishop 
 went himself to Wittemberg, and there found Luther animated 
 with that inward joy which a good conscience imparts, and fully 
 resolved to enter into the controversy. Perceiving that the 
 Augustinian monk was obeying a higher authority than he 
 could pretend to, he went back, not a little angry, to Branden- 
 burg. As he sat one day at the fireside, during the winter of 
 1518, turning to those about him, he said: " I cannot lay my 
 head down in peace until I have thrown Martin into the fire, 
 as I throw this brand," on which he tossed into the grate the 
 faggot he had in his hand. The revolution of the sixteenth 
 century was no more to be accomplished by the chiefs of the 
 Church, than that of the first century had been accomplished 
 by the sanhedrim and the synagogue. In the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, the chiefs of the clergy opposed Luther, and the Reforma- 
 
 ' Omnes omnibus omnia crcdunt de me. (L. Epp. i. p. 109.) 
 • L. Epp. i. D 98. 
 
VISIT FROM THE niSIIOP. PIUEniAS. 281 
 
 t'lon and its ministers, as they had opposed Jesus Christ tlio 
 Gospel and its apostles, and as they have too often at all times 
 opposed the truth. " Tlie bishops,"" says Luther, speaking of 
 the visit he had received from the Brandenburg prelate, " begin 
 to perceive that they ought to have done what I am now doing, 
 and hence tliey are ashamed. They call me proud and audacious, 
 nor do I deny that I am so. But they are not the people to 
 know what God is, and what we are." ^ 
 
 IX. A more serious resistance than that of Tetzel was now 
 opposed to Luther. Rome herself replied, and it was from the 
 walls of the sacred palace that this answer went forth. Not 
 that Leo X. had taken it into his head to speak on points of 
 theology: "A squabble among monks," said he one day; " the 
 best way is to let it alone." And at another time: " Some 
 drunken German has written these theses ; when the effects of the 
 wine are over, he will speak very differently."^ A Roman 
 Dominican, Sylvester Prierias, master of the sacred palace, 
 exercised the functions of censor, and in virtue of his office, was 
 the first in Italy to become acquainted with the theses of the 
 Saxon monk. 
 
 A Roman censor and the theses of Luther — what ameetinfr! 
 Freedom of speech, free inquiry, and religious liberty thus came 
 into collision, in the city of Rome, with the power which pre- 
 tends to hold in its own hands the monopoly of mind, and to 
 open or shut at will the mouth of Christendom. The struggle 
 of Christian liberty which produces the children of God, with 
 the pontifical despotism which produces the slaves of Rome, is 
 symbolised, as it were, from the very dawn of the Reformation, 
 in this meetino; of Luther and Prierias. 
 
 The Roman censor, prior-general of the Dominicans, charged 
 with the power of deciding what Christendom ought to say or to 
 suppress, what it ought to know and of what it ought to remain 
 ignorant, hastened to reply. He published a piece of writing, 
 which he dedicated to Leo X., and in which he speaks contemp- 
 tuously of the German monk, declaring with a self-sufficiency 
 altogether Roman, that he felt curious to know whether this 
 Luther had an iron nose or a brazen head, so that it could not 
 
 ' Quid vel Dous vel ipsi sumua. (L. Epp. i. 224.) 
 ^ Ein voLler trunkener Deutscher. (L. 0pp. (W.) xxii. p. 1337.) 
 I. 2 N 
 
282 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 be broken !i . . . He then attacked Luther's theses in 
 the form of a dialogue, employing by turns, sneers, insults, and 
 
 threats. 
 
 This contest between the Wittemberg Augustinian and the 
 Eoman Dominican, involved the very question which is the 
 principle of the Reformation, to wit: What is the Christian's 
 sole infallible authority? The following is the system of the 
 Church as set forth by one of its most independent organs.2 
 
 The letter of the written word is dead, without the spirit of 
 interpretation which alone can give the knowledge of its hidden 
 meaning. Now, this spirit is not given to every Christian, but 
 to the Church, that is, to the priests. It shows great rashness 
 to pretend that He who has promised to the Church to be with 
 it always even to the end of the world, could have abandoned it 
 to the power of error. It will perhaps be said, that the doctrine 
 and the constitution of the Church, are not such as are found in 
 the sacred oracles. No doubt this is true ; but the change is 
 apparent only; formal, not fundamental. Still more; it is a 
 change that denotes progression. The life-giving power of the 
 divine Spirit has given a reality to that which in Scripture is 
 merely ideal; it has given a body to what the Word had only 
 sketched; it has given the last touch to its rough attempts; it 
 has finished the work of which the Bible furnished the first 
 rudiments only. We must therefore take the meaning of Holy 
 Scripture as it has been determined by the Church under the 
 o-uidance of the Holy Spirit. 3 Here catholic doctors are divided. 
 
 1 An ferreum nasum aut caput seneum gerat iste Lutherus, ut effi-ingi non 
 possit. (Sylv. Prieratis Dialogus.) 
 
 2 See Joh. Gersonis Propositiones de sensu litterali S. Scripturrc. (0pp. 
 torn, i.) 
 
 3 Such is the old song which the advocates of Rome are now repeating : 
 " Christ can never have allowed his Church to fall under the power of error. 
 Hence he has established a visible supremacy in his Church, farther to explain 
 and to complete his words, and which, in doing this, is infallibly directed by the 
 Holy Ghost." And if proof be required, all we can find is, that thus men in 
 their wisdom have thought fit that it should be, and imagine they can prove 
 that thus it was, and that in such-wise Jesus must have acted, without, how- 
 ever, being able to produce a particle of historical evidence that he really found 
 it good so^to do ; which evidence, meanwhile, is essentially requisite in order to 
 our being assured of the fact. Hence, as happens when men more narrowly 
 inquire with whom that supremacy resides, they split into opposing parties, 
 some looking for that supremacy in church-councils and others in the pope. 
 The truth is, it is to be found no where, but is a pure invention of human wis- 
 dom, whereas Jesus knows how to provide for the preservation of the truth in a 
 totally different manner. — L. R. 
 
DIALOGUE BY PllIElirAS. 283 
 
 Councils general, say some, and Gerson was of the nunil)or, 
 represent the Church. The pope, said others, is the depository 
 of tlie spirit of interpretation, and nobody is entitled to put a 
 dillercnt sense on Scripture from that fixed by the lloman high- 
 [)riest. This was the view taken by Prierias. 
 
 Such was the doctrine with which the master of the sacred 
 palace opposed the rising Reformation; advancing propositions 
 on the power of the Church and of the pope, such as might 
 have put the most shameless flatterers of the court of Rome to 
 the blush. Among other points he lays down the following at 
 the head of his publication : " Whoever rests not on the doc- 
 trine of the Roman Church, and the Roman pontiff, as the infal- 
 lible rule of faith, from which Holy Scripture itself derives its 
 force and its authority, is an heretic.""^ 
 
 Next, an attempt is made to refute the doctor''s propositions, 
 in a dialogue in which Luther and Sylvester are the interlo- 
 cutors. The Saxon monk*'s opinions were quite a new thing to a 
 Roman censor, and here, accordingly, Prierias shows equal igno- 
 rance of the emotions of Luther's heart and of the motives of 
 his conduct. He measures the teacher of the truth by the 
 petty standard of the valets of Rome. " Ah, my dear Luther," 
 he says to him, " should you receive from our Lord the pope, a 
 good bishoprick and a plenary indulgence for the reparation of 
 your church, you would spin more softly and even preach up 
 the indulgence which you are now pleased to blacken !" With 
 all his pride in the elegance of his manners, the Italian at times 
 adopts the coarsest tone: " If it be natural for dogs to bite," says 
 he to Luther, " I much fear you must have had a dog for 3'our 
 father."^ The Dominican is at last almost astonished at his 
 own condescension in having addressed a rebel monk, and winds 
 up by showing his adversary the savage teeth of an inquisitor. 
 "The Roman Church," says he, "which in the person of the pope 
 has the keystone of her spiritual and temporal power, can 
 employ the secular arm in constraining those who having 
 first received the faith, afterwards depart from it. She is under 
 
 I A qua etiam sacra Scriptura robur trahit et auctoritatem, hajreticus est. 
 (fiindamentum tertium.) 
 
 - Si morrlere canum est proprium, vercor ne tibi pater canis fucrit. (Sylvestri 
 Prieratis Dialog.) 
 
284 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 no obligation to employ argument in combatting and vanquish- 
 Inji rebels.^' 1 
 
 These words, traced by the pen of one of the dignitaries of the 
 Roman court, bore a meaning that no one could mistake, but 
 they were far from intimidating Luther. He believed, or feigned 
 to believe, that the dialogue was the production, not of Prierias, 
 but of Ulrich of Hiitten, or of one of the authors of the Letters of 
 some obscure men^ who, said he, in his turn for satire and to 
 excite Luther against Prierias, must have compiled such a par- 
 cel of absurdities ! Nevertheless, after remaining silent for some 
 time, his doubts, if he ever had any, were removed: he set 
 himself to work, and in two days his answer was ready. ^ 
 
 The Bible formed the Reformer and originated the Refor- 
 mation. Luther had no need of the Church's testimony in 
 order to his believing, for his faith flowed from the Bible itself, 
 — from within, not from without. So profoundly convinced 
 was he that the evangelical doctrines were immovably founded 
 on the Word of God, that all external authority was in his eyes 
 useless. Luther''s experience in this respect opened up a new 
 prospect to the church, and the fountain of living water which 
 had gushed forth for the revival of the monk of Wittemberg, 
 was about to become a stream which should quench the thirst 
 of whole nations. 3 
 
 In order to the understanding of the Word, said the Church, 
 the Spirit of God must enable us to comprehend its meaning; and so 
 far shewas in the right. But her error layin considering the Holy 
 Spirit as a monopoly granted to a certain caste, and in imagin- 
 ing that the Spirit could be confined exclusively to assemblies, 
 colleges, a city, or a conclave. The wind hloweth xchere it listeth, 
 said the Son of God in speaking of the Spirit of God ; and on 
 another occasion, they shall all he taught of God. The cor- 
 ruption of the Church, the ambition of the pontiffs, the passions 
 of the councils, the quarrels of the clergy, the pomp of the pre- 
 lates, had banished far from sacerdotal dwellings that Holy Spirit, 
 
 * Secular! brachio potest eos compescere, nee tenetur rationibus certare ad 
 vincendos protervientes. (Sylvestri Prieratis Dialog.) 
 
 - Convenit inter nos, esse personatum aliquem Sylvestrem ex obscuris viris. 
 qui tantas ineptias in hominem luserit ad provocandum me adversus eum. (Epp. 
 i. p. 87, of 14th Jan.) 
 
 3 T. I. Witt.lat. p. 170. 
 
RFl'LY TO I'UIEIUAS. 285 
 
 that breath of luunility and of peace. He had forsaken tlic 
 assemblies of the proud and the palaces of the princes of the 
 Church, and had retired among simple Christians and modest 
 priests. He had shunned a lordly hierarchy which often shed 
 the blood of the poor while trampling them under foot ; he 
 had shunned, too, a haughty and ignorant clergy whose chiefs 
 knew how to use, not the Bible, but the sword; and he was to 
 be found sometimes in despised sects, sometimes in men of 
 mind and learning. The holy cloud which had departed from 
 sumptuous temples and proud cathedrals, had descended upon 
 the obscure abodes of the humble, or upon closets for study, 
 — the calm witnesses of conscientious toil. ^ Degraded by her 
 fondness for power and wealth, and dishonoured in the people's 
 eyes by the venal use she made of the doctrine of life, the Church 
 that sold salvation for treasures that were speedily squandered 
 on her idle shows and her debaucheries, had lost all respect, and 
 sensible men no longer attached any value to her testimony. In 
 their contempt for an authority which had become so vile, they 
 gladly turned towards the divine Word and its infallible authority, 
 as towards the sole refuge that remained to them amid the 
 general disorder. 
 
 The age, then, was in a state of preparation. The bold 
 movement by which Luther changed the resting-place of the 
 greatest hopes of man's heart, and with a mighty hand trans- 
 ferred these from the walls of the Vatican to the rock of the 
 Word of God, was greeted with enthusiasm. This was the 
 task which Luther proposed to himself in his reply to Prierias. 
 
 He paid no attention to the fundamental points which the 
 Dominican had placed at the head of his work; "But," said he, 
 " following your example, I too desire to lay down some funda- 
 mental principles." 
 
 " The first is the word of St. Paul:" " Though an angel from 
 heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have 
 preached unto you, let him he accursed!" 
 
 1 Tes, it is even so. It is most true that an infallible guidance on the part of 
 the Holy Spirit is necessary to the right understanding of the Word of Jesus 
 and to the thorough distinguishing betwixt truth and error. It is, also, plainly 
 promised by him to his Church. But to what Church? To those who truly 
 constitute the Church, who attach themselves in all sincerity to Ilim as the 
 only Head, the lowly and often the despised; these may be assured of bein^ 
 guided in the truth. — L. K. 
 
286 HISTORY OF THE REFORxMATlON. 
 
 "The second is that passage of St. Augastme to St. Jerome;" 
 " I have learned to render to the canonical books alone the 
 honour of most firmly believing that none of them has erred: as 
 for others, I do not believe what they say merely because they 
 say it." 
 
 Here, then, Luther lays down, with a firm hand, the essential 
 doctrine of the Reformation: the Word of God, the whole 
 Word of God, nothing but the Word of God. " If you well 
 understand these points," he continues, " you will at the same 
 time perceive that the whole of your Dialogue is subverted from 
 top to bottom ; for you have done nothing but put forward the 
 opinions of St. Thomas," (Acquinas). Then, attacking his 
 adversary's axioms, he frankly declares that in his opinion popes 
 and councils may err. He complains of the flatteries of the 
 Homan courtiers, who attributed both powers to the pope. He 
 declares that the Church exists viitually in Christ only, and 
 representatively only in a council. ^ Coming then to the 
 motives Prierias had imputed, to him: "No doubt, (says he,) 
 you judge of me according to yourself; but were it so that I 
 aspired to being a bishop, certainly I should not hold the language 
 that sounds so ill in your ears. Think you I am ignorant how 
 bishoprics and the priesthood are obtained at Rome? Don't the 
 very children sing out in all parts of that city the well known 
 words : 
 
 •' ' Bad though the place from which you come, 
 You'll something filthier find at Rome.' "^ 
 
 Such was one of the rhymes sung at Rome, previous to the 
 election of one of the last of the popes. Yet Luther speaks of 
 Leo with expressions of esteem, " I know," says he, "that in him 
 we have, as it were, a Daniel in Babylon ; his innocence has 
 often put his life in danger." He ends by saying some words 
 in reply to the threats of Prierias: " Finally, you say that the 
 pope is at once pontiff and emperor, and that he is mighty for 
 suppression by the secular arm. Do you thirst for murder? 
 Let me tell you; you will not intimidate me, either by your 
 
 ^ Ego ecclesiam virtualiter non Bcio nisi in Christo, representative non nisi 
 in concilio. (L. 0pp. lat, p. 174.) 
 
 2 Quando hanc pueri in omnibus plateis urbis cantant • I»ci}ique nunc facta 
 est. . . . fcedissima Roma. (L. 0pp. lat., p. 174.) 
 
HOCIlSTRATEX. 287 
 
 rliodoniontcaclcs or by tlio menacing tone of your words. Were T 
 to be slain, Christ still lives, Christ my Lord and the Lord of 
 all, blessed for evermore. Amen." ' 
 
 Thus did Luther, with unfaltering hand, set over against the 
 infidel altar of the popedom, the altar of the Word of God, that 
 Word Avhich alone is holy, alone infallible, before which he 
 would have every one bow the knee, and upon which lie declares 
 his willingness to immolate his life. 
 
 Soon a new adversary presented himself in the lists, and he, 
 too, was a Dominican. This was James Hochstraten, the Cologne 
 Inquisitor, whom we have already seen opposing Keuchlin and the 
 friends of literature, and who now gnashed his teeth at the 
 liardihood displayed by Luther. Indeed the skulking fanaticism 
 of the monkish orders, could not fail to come into collision with 
 the man who was destined to give them their death blow. Mon- 
 achism arose as primitive truth was beginning to decline; ever 
 since which time, monks and errors had alike increased. The 
 man who was to hasten their downfall had appeared; but these 
 stout champions could not abandon the field without engaging 
 with him in a stubborn contest. The struggle ceased only with 
 his life; but it is in Hochstraten that that struggle is particu- 
 larly personified. Hochstraten and Luther: the Christian free 
 and strong, and the fierce and sullen slave of monkish supersti- 
 tions ! Hochstraten waxes angry and impetuous, loudly insisting 
 that the heretic should die. . . . It is by the flames that 
 he will have Home to triumph. " It is a crime of high treason 
 ajrainst the Church," he exclaims, " to allow so horrible a heretic 
 to live an hour longer. Let a stake be made ready for him im- 
 mediately!" This bloody counsel was, alas! but too well followed 
 in many countries; the voice of numerous martyrs, as in the 
 early times of the church, bore witness to the truth in the 
 midst of the flames. But sword and flame were called for in 
 vain against Luther. The angel of the Lord encamped about 
 him and guarded him continually. 
 
 In replying to Hochstraten Luther's words, though few, were 
 full of energy: " Go to," says he at the close, " thou murderous 
 dotard, whose thirst for the blood of thy brethren is insatiable; 
 ray sincere desire is that thou beware of calling me a Christian, 
 
 ' Si occidor, vivit Christus, Dominus meus et omnium. (L. 0pp. lat., p. 18G.) 
 
288 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 or one of the faithful, and that thou cease not, on the contrary, 
 to call me a heretic. Understand these things well, bloody 
 man ! enemy of the truth ! and if in the madness of thy rage, 
 thou shalt attempt anything against me, take care that thou 
 doest act circumspectly and choose well thy time. God knows 
 what I propose to myself if he grant me life. ... My 
 hope and expectation, if God please, will not disappoint me.''"'! 
 Hochstraten held his peace. 
 
 A more painful attack awaited the Reformer. The famed 
 theses had found their way into the hands of Dr. Eck, the cele- 
 brated professor at Ingoldstadt, the liberator of Urban Regius and 
 Luther's friend. Now, although Eck was not the man to defend 
 the abuses of the indulgences, still he was a doctor of the school 
 not of the Bible ; he was deeply read in the scholastic writers, 
 not in the Word of God. If Prierias represented Rome and 
 Hochstraten the monks, Eck represented the School ;^ and that, 
 after lording it over Christendom for about five centuries, far 
 from succumbing under the first blows given by the Reformer, 
 proudly rose with the intention of crushing the man who had dared 
 to overwhelm it with contempt. Eck and Luther, the School 
 and the Word, more than once came into collision, but now it 
 was that the struggle commenced in earnest. 
 
 Eck could not fail to find many of Luther's assertions erro- 
 neous, nor are we obliged to doubt the sincerity of his convic- 
 tions when he did so. He enthusiastically defended the opinions 
 of the schoolmen as Luther had defended the declarations of the 
 Word of God. We may even suppose that he was somewhat 
 pained to feel himself obliged to oppose his old friend; yet, 
 looking to the style of his attack, it would seem that passion 
 and jealousy were no strangers to his determination. 
 
 He gave the name of Obelisks to his remarks on Luther's 
 thesefe, and wishing at first to save appearances, instead of pub- 
 lishing his work, he thought it might suffice to communicate it 
 confidentially to his ordinary, the bishop of Eichstadt. But 
 
 > L. 0pp. (Leips.) XTU. 140. 
 
 2 By " the School " we must understand the learned of that time, not those 
 of whom Reuchlin and Erasmus were the harbingers, hut those who remained 
 attached to the old scholastic philosophy of the middle ages, and who expounded 
 theology on its principles. They were called schoolmen, and their system that 
 of the school. — L. R. 
 
THE OnELISKS. 289 
 
 the Obelisks, whether from the indiscretion of the bisliop, or 
 from tliat of the doctor, were soon circuhited everj'where, and a 
 copy fell into the hands of Lathers friend. Link, preaclier at 
 Nuremberg. Link lost no time in sending it to the Reformer. 
 As a formidable antagonist Eck was a very different person from 
 Tetzel, Pricvias, and Hochstratcn, and the more his attack excel- 
 led tlu'irs in learning and subtility, the more was he dangerous. 
 He adopted a compassionate tone towards his " feeble adver- 
 sary," knowing well that pity is more miscliievous than anger. 
 He insinuated tliat Luther''s propositions diffused tlie Bohemian 
 poison, that they smelt of Bohemia, and by his malignant allu- 
 sions he endeavoured to involve their author in all the ill will 
 and haired, then attached in Germany to the name of Huss and 
 his country's schismatics. 
 
 Luther felt indignant at the mischievous spirit displayed in 
 this production; but still more keenly did he feel the blow, as 
 coming from an old friend. It thus appeared that in defending 
 the truth, he must be content to lose the affection of those who 
 were attached to him. Luther gave vent to his vexation and 
 sorrow in a letter to Egranus, pastor at Zwickau. " Li the 
 Obelisks," saA's he, "T am called a venomous person, a Bohemian, 
 a heretic, a seditious person, an insolent, a rash * * * I omit 
 milder insults, such as, a sleepy fellow, an imbecile, an ignora- 
 mus, a despiser of the sovereign pontiff, and so forth. The 
 book teems with the grossest insults. The man, meanwhile, 
 "vvho has written it, is a distinguished person, of a mind replete 
 with learning, and of learning replete with mind, and what 
 pains me most, a man who was previously connected with me by 
 a close and recent friendship, ' no less than John Eck, doctor in 
 theology, chancellor of Ligoldstiidt, a man who has acquired 
 lustre and celebrity by his writings. Were I not aware of 
 Satan's thoughts, I should feel astonished at the frenzy that has 
 led this person to break up a friendship so very pleasant and so 
 new;- and that without warning, without writing, without say- 
 ing a word." 
 
 But crushed as was Luther's heart, his courage was by no 
 
 ' Et quod mairis urit, antca milii magna rcceiitcrque contracta amicitia 
 conjunctus. (L. Epp. i. p. 100.) 
 
 ^ Quo furore ille amicitias recentissimas et jucnndissimas solveret. (Ibid.) 
 
 I. 2o 
 
290 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 means sliakcn. On the contrary lie nerved himself for the com- 
 bat. " Rejoice thou my brother," says he to Egranus, who 
 also had been attacked by a violent enemy, " rejoice thon. 
 and let not these leaves that fly about frighten you ! The more 
 my opponents indulge their fury, with the more alacrity I 
 advance. I leave the things that are behind me for them to 
 bark at, and follow those that are before me that they may have 
 them also to bark at in their turn."" 
 
 Eck felt how very shameful his conduct had been, and made 
 an effort to justify himself in a letter to Carlstadt, in which he 
 calls Luther " their common friend." He threw the whole blame 
 on the bishop of Eichstadt, at whose instance he professed to 
 have written the work. He had had no intention of publishing 
 his work; otherwise he would have paid more regard to the 
 bonds of friendship between him and Luther. Li fine, he 
 begged that instead of waging a public controversy with him, 
 Luther would rather turn his arms against the theologians of 
 Frankfort. The Ingoldstiidt professor, although he had not 
 feared to strike the first blow, began to take alarm when he 
 thought of the powers of the opponent whom he had been foolish 
 enough to attack. He would willingly have shunned the conflict, 
 but it was now too late. 
 
 All these fine words did not prevail with Luther; yet he felt 
 disposed to remain silent: " I shall swallow patiently," says he, 
 "this morsel so worthy of Cerberus." ^ But his friends thought 
 otherwise; they solicited, they even constrained him. Accord- 
 ingly, he replied to the Obelisks by his Asterisks, " confronting," 
 said he, with a play on the words, "the rust and livid colour of the 
 Ligoldstiidt doctor's Obelisks, with the light and radiant white- 
 ness of the stars of heaven." In this work he bore less hard on 
 his opponent, than he did on those he had previously to struggle 
 with; still his indignation revealed itself in his words. 
 
 He showed that in the chaos presented by the Obelisks^ there 
 was nothing to be found of the Holy Scriptures, nothing of the 
 fathers of the Church, nothing of the ecclesiastical canons; 
 that all was most scholastic, most opinionative, and mere dreams;^ 
 
 ' Volui tamen hare offam Cerbero dignam absorbcre patientia. (Ibid.) 
 ' Omnia scholasticissinia, opinionissima, mcraque somnia. (Asterisci 0pp. 
 L. lat. i. 145.) 
 
THK ASTKItlSKS. 
 
 291 
 
 ill a word, it consisted of tlio very things that Luther had 
 attacked. The Asterisks are full of life and energy. The author 
 is indir-nant at the errors contained in his friend's book, but he 
 compassionates tlic man J lie professes anew the fundamental 
 principle which he had laid down in his reply to Prierias. "The 
 supreme pontiff is a man and may err; but God is truth and 
 cannot be deceived.'""- Farther on, employing towards the scho- 
 lastic doctor an aiymnentum ad hominem, he says to him: "• It 
 would certainly be a piece of great impudence were any one, in 
 the philosophy of Aristotle, to put forward what could not be 
 proved by the authority of that ancient writer — You grant this 
 — "Well then, by much stronger reason, is it the most impudent 
 of all effronteries, to affirm in the Church, and among Chris- 
 tians, what Jesus Christ has not taught.^ Now, where find we 
 in the Bible that the treasury of Christ's merits is in the hands 
 of the pope V 
 
 He farther adds: "As for the mahcious reproach of Bohe- 
 mian heresy, I bear that reproach patiently, for the love of 
 Jesus Christ. I live in a celebrated university, in a city which 
 is well esteemed, in a bishoprick of some consideration, in a 
 powerful duchy, where all are orthodox, and where, doubtless, 
 people would not tolerate so mischievous an heretic.'" 
 
 Luther did not publish his Asterisks; he merely communi- 
 cated them to his friends. They were not given to the Avorld 
 till afterwards.'* 
 
 This breach betwixt the doctors of Ingoldstiidt and Wittem- 
 berg, created a sensation throughout Germany. They had com- 
 mon friends, and among these Scheurl, in particular, through 
 whom probably the two doctors had become friendly, became 
 alarmed. He was of those who wished to see reform diffused 
 throughout the entire extent of the German church, by means 
 of its most distinguished organs. I^ut if, from the very com- 
 mencement, the most eminent theologians of the day were to 
 quarrel; if, while Luther advanced as the bearer of things new, 
 
 ' Indisnor rei et miscrcor hominis. (Ibid. p. 150.) 
 
 2 Homo est snmnius pontifcx, falli potest. Sed Veritas est Deus, qui falli 
 non potest. (Ibid. p. 155.) 
 
 3 Longe ergo impudentissima omnium temcritas est, aliquid in ecclesia 
 asserere et inter Cbristianos. quod non doeult Cbristus. (Ibid. p. 15C.) 
 
 * Cum privatim dederim Asteriscos nieos non fit ei rcspondeiidi nceessitaB. 
 (L. Epp. 126.) 
 
292 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Eck was to constitute himself the representative of things old, 
 what schisms might there not be apprehended? Would not 
 each of the two chiefs draw numerous adherents around him, 
 and two hostile camps thus be formed in the midst of the 
 empire? 
 
 Scheurl, accordingly, strenuously endeavoured to effect a 
 reconciliation. Luther declared that he was ready to forget all, 
 — that he loved the genius, and admired the learning of Dr. 
 Eck, 1 and that what his former friend had done, had made him 
 rather sorrowful than angry. "I am prepared," said he to 
 Scheurl, " for either peace or war; but I would rather that it 
 should be peace. Set yourself then to work; share with us in 
 our distress at the devil having sown these seeds of discord 
 amongst us, and then rejoice that Christ, in his mercy, has 
 destroyed them." He at the same time wrote to Eck in terms 
 of the greatest affection ;2 but Eck made no reply to Luther's 
 letter; he did not even so much as send him a message. 3 It 
 was now too late for a reconciliation. The conflict went on 
 increasing, until Eck's proud and implacable spirit snapt ere 
 long the last remaining threads of this gradually relaxing 
 friendship. 
 
 X. Such were the struggles which the champion of the Word 
 of God had to sustain from his first entering on his career. 
 But these combats with the distinguished personages of society, 
 these academical disputes, are of small account in the eyes of a 
 Christian. The doctors of this world fancy themselves to have 
 gained the noblest triumphs should they succeed in filling a few 
 newspapers and drawing-rooms with the noise of their systems. 
 It being with them a matter of mere selfish or party interest, 
 more tlian of the welfare of humanity, these worldly successes 
 are all that they want; and thus their labours are but smoke 
 which first blinds them, and then vanishes away. They have 
 neglected to enkindle the mass of men, and have merely touched 
 the surface of the human race. 
 
 It is much otherwise with the Christian; what interests him 
 
 ' Diligimus hominis ingenium et admiramur eruditionem. (L. Epp. ad 
 Scheurlum, 15th June, 1518, i. p. 125.) 
 
 ^ Quod ad me attinet, scrips! ad eum ipsum has, ut Tides, amicissimas et 
 plenas litteras hurnanitate erga eum. (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ Neque enim litterarum, neque verborum me participem fecit. (Ibid ) 
 
ON I'RAYER, 
 
 293 
 
 is not any mere social or academical success, but tlio salvation 
 of souls. Willingly, therefore, does he neglect tlie brilliant 
 skirmish in which he might engage at his ease with this world's 
 champions, and devotes himself to the obscure labours by which 
 light and life are conveyed to rural cottages and the lowly 
 retreats of the people. These tilings did Luther, or rather, 
 according to his Master''s injunction, these things he did and left 
 not the others undone. Even while combating inquisitors, chan- 
 cellors of universities, and masters of the sacred palace, he 
 endeavoured to diffuse sound religious views throughout the 
 multitude. This was his aim in various popular productions 
 which he published at this time, such as his Discourses on the 
 Ten Commandments^ delivered in Wittemberg church two years 
 before, and of which we have already made mention, and his 
 Exposition of the Lord''s Prayer for simple and unlearned laijmen.\ 
 Who can but wish to know how the lleformer at that time 
 addressed himself to the people? We shall therefore quote 
 some of the words which he sent forth " to run over the coun- 
 try," as he says in the preface to the second of these productions. 
 
 Prayer, being an act which flows peculiarly from the heart, 
 will unquestionably ever be one of those points from which a 
 true and vital reformation must commence; and it was one, 
 accordingly, to which Luther gave his earliest attention. It is 
 impossible to translate his energetic style, or the force of that 
 language which may be said to have been created by his pen as 
 he wrote; yet we will make the attempt. 
 
 " When thou prayest," says he, "let thy words be few, thy 
 thoughts and feelings many, and, above all, let them be deep. 
 The less thou speakest the better thou doest pray. Few words 
 and many thoughts bespeak the Christian. Many words and 
 few thoughts, bespeak the pagan 
 
 " Merely apparent and corporeal prayer is that murmuring of 
 the lips, that outward babbling, performed without attention, and 
 which strikes the eyes and the ears of men; but prayer in spirit 
 and in truth, is the inward longing, the motion and the sighs, 
 which proceed from the depths of the heart. The former is the 
 prayer of hypocrites, and of all who trust in themselves. The 
 
 ^ L. 0pp. Leips. vii. 1086. 
 
294 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 lattei' is the prayer of the children of God, who walk in his 
 fear." . . . 
 
 Coming then to the first words of the Lord's prayer, Our 
 Father, he thus expresses himself: " Among all titles there is 
 none that disposes us better with regard to God than the title 
 of father. Less satisfaction and comfort would it give us to call 
 him Lord, or God, or Judge. . . . By this title of Father, 
 the Lord''s bowels are moved towards us; for no voice is so likely 
 to move love and affection, as that of a child addressing its 
 father. 
 
 " Which art in Jieaten. He that acknowledges that he has a 
 Father who is in heaven, owns that he is like an orphan on the 
 earth. Hence his heart feels an ardent longing, like that of a 
 child living away from his father's country, among strangers, 
 wretched and forlorn. It is as if he said: " Alas! my Father ! 
 Thou art in heaven, and I, thy miserable child, am on the earth, 
 far from thee, amid every kind of danger, necessity, and sorrow. 
 
 " Hallowed be thy name. He who is angry or envious, who 
 curses, or who slanders another, dishonours the name of that 
 God in whose name he was baptized. Putting to impious uses 
 the vessel which God has consecrated to himself, he is like a 
 priest who would use the sacramental cup in giving di-ink to a 
 sow, or in collecting manure. 
 
 " Thy kingdom come. They who amass wealth, who build 
 magnificent houses, who seek after all that this world can give, 
 yet pronounce this prayer with their lips, are but like those huge 
 organ pipes which make a prodigious noise in the churches but 
 have no words, feeling, or reason."" . . . 
 
 Farther on, Luther attacks the error of attributing virtue to 
 pilgrimages, at tliat time so prevalent: "One goes to Rome, 
 the other to St. James's, this man builds a chapel, that founds 
 an endowment, and all that they may find their way to the 
 kingdom of God; but all neglect the essential point, which is 
 for themselves to become his kingdom. Why goest thou beyond 
 seas in search of the kingdom of God ? ... It is within 
 thy heart that it ought to be established. 
 
 " It is a terrible thing," he goes on to say, " to hear us uttering 
 that petition: Thy tcill he done! Where in all the Church do 
 we see that will of God done? . . . Bishop rises against 
 
GIVE L'S Tins DAY OVU DAILY BREAD. 295 
 
 bisliop, one church against another church. Priests, monks, 
 nuns, quarrel, fight and wage war; there is nought but discord 
 to be found everywhere. And yet each of the parties exclaims 
 that he means well and has honest intentions ; and thus for the 
 honour and glory of God, they, one and all, do the work of the 
 devil. . . . 
 
 " Why say we, our bread?'''' he continues, explaining tlie words, 
 Give tts this daij our daily bread. " Because we pray, not that 
 we may have the common bread that the heathen cat and 
 that God bestows on all men, but for our bread, given to us as 
 children of the heavenly Father. 
 
 " And what then is this bread of God? — It is Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. / a7n the living bread which came down from heaven., 
 and which gives life unto the woi'ld. And therefore, let no one be 
 deceived, all the sermons and all the instructions which do not 
 represent to us Jesus Christ, and do not lead us to the know- 
 ledge of him, cannot be our daily bread and the nourishment of 
 our souls. . . . 
 
 " To what purpose has such bread been prepared, if it be not 
 set before us, and so we cannot taste it. . . . It is as if a 
 man had prepared a magnificent feast, without there being any 
 one to distribute the bread, bring in the dishes, and pour out 
 drink, so that the guests are left to nourish themselves on what 
 they can see or smell. . . . Therefore it is that we ought 
 to preach Jesus Christ alone. 
 
 " But, sayest thou, what then is meant by knowing Jesus 
 Christ and what advantage conies of it? . . . Reply: To 
 know Jesus Christ, is to comprehend what the apostle says, 
 Christ has of God been made unto us wisdom^ and righteousness., and 
 sanctification, and redemption. Kow, thou understandest this, if 
 thou doest own that all thy wisdom is a condemnable folly, thy 
 righteousness condemnable iniquity, thy sanctification condemn- 
 able defilement, thy redemption a miserable condemnation ; if 
 thou doest feel that verily in the sight of God and of all creatures, 
 thou art a fool, a sinner, an impure person, a condemned man, 
 and if thou doest show, not only by words but also from the 
 bottom of thine heart, and by thy works, that there remaineth 
 no solace for thee, and no salvation, unless in Jesus Christ. To 
 believe is nothing but to cat this bread from heaven."" 
 
296 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Thus did Luther faithfully adhere to his resolution of opening 
 the eyes of a people, so blinded as to be led by the priests at 
 their will; and as his writings were speedily disseminated 
 throughout Germany, they threw a new light into men s minds 
 and abundantly scattered the seeds of truth over a soil well 
 prepared to receive them. But in turning his regards to those 
 at a distance, he did not forget such as were near. 
 
 From all their pulpits the Dominicans consigned the infamous 
 heretic to condemnation. Luther, the people's favourite, and 
 who, had he wished it, might with a few words addressed to 
 their passions, have excited them into a tempest, ever disdained 
 such triumphs, and thought only of instructing them. 
 
 His continually advancing reputation and the courage with 
 which he lifted up the banner of Christ in the midst of an 
 enslaved church, made people flock to hear him preach with a 
 constantly increasing interest. Never was he attended by 
 greater crowds. Luther was a man who went directly to his 
 point. One day being in the pulpit at Wittemberg, he under- 
 took to establish the doctrine of repentance, and on that occasion 
 pronounced a discourse which became very famous, and in whicli 
 he stated many of the fundamental points of evangelical doctrine. 
 
 First, he contrasts the pardon of men with the pardon of 
 heaven: " There are two remissions," says he, " the remission of 
 the penalty, and the remission of the guilt. The former recon- 
 ciles man outwardly with the Christian Church. The latter, 
 which is the celestial indulgence, reconciles man with God. If 
 man finds not in himself that calm of the conscience -that joy 
 of heart — which flow from the remission granted by God, no 
 other indulgence can avail him, were he to buy up all that were 
 ever to be had in the world."" 
 
 He then continues thus: " They would do good works before 
 their sins are forgiven, whereas sins must be forgiven, before good 
 works can be done. It is not good works that expel sin; but 
 expel thou sin, and thou shalt have the works ! ^ For good works 
 ought to be done with a joyful heart and a good conscience 
 towards God, that is to say, with our sins remitted." 
 
 He then comes to the main object of his sermon, which was 
 
 ' Niclit die Wcrke treibcn die Siindc aus : sonJcrn die Austreibung der Siinde 
 thut gute Werke. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 162.) 
 
FORGIVENESS COMES FROM CHRIST. 
 
 297 
 
 that, also, of the Reformation, The Church had put herself in 
 the room of God and of his Word; against this he protests, and 
 makes all to depend on faith in the Word of God. 
 
 " The remission of sin,'" says he, " is not in the power of 
 the pope, or of the bishop, or of the priest, or of any man 
 whomsoever, but depends solely on the Word of Christ and 
 on thine own faith. For Christ is not willing that we should 
 found our consolation, or our salvation, on the word or work of 
 man, but solely on himself, his own work and liis own Word. 
 
 . . . Thy repentance and thy works may deceive thee; 
 but Christ, thy God, will not deceive thee. He stumbles not, 
 and the devil shall never reverse his words.^ 
 
 " A pope, a bishop, have no more power than the pettiest 
 priest, w'lien the remission of a sin is in question. And should 
 there even be no priest, any Christian, be it a woman, or a 
 child, 2 may do the same thing. For should a simple Christian 
 say to thee; "God forgives sin in the name of Jesus Christ;''^ 
 and if thou doest believe that saying with a firm faith, and as if 
 God himself addressed it to thee, thou art absolved. 
 
 " If thou believest not that thy sins are forgiven thee, thou 
 makest God a liar, and thou doest declare that thou art more, 
 sure of thy vain thoughts than of God and his Word. . . 
 
 " Under the Old Testament, neither priest, nor king, nor 
 prophet, was empowered to announce the forgiveness of sins. But 
 under the New, this is in the power of every believer. Thus 
 thou seest that the whole Church is full of the forgiveness of 
 sins ! 3 Should a godly Christian relieve thy conscience by the 
 Word of the cross, be it man or woman, old or young, receive 
 that consolation with such a faith that you would rather 
 die repeated deaths than doubt that it should be thus before 
 God. . . . Ilepent, do all the good works that thou canst; 
 but let the faith thou hast in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, 
 hold the first place and remain as chief upon the field."'* 
 
 Thus spoke Luther to his astonished and delighted heai-ers. 
 All that scaffolding which impudent priests, for their own ends, 
 
 ' ChristusdeinGottwirddirnichtlugcn,nochwaukon. (L. Epp. (L.)vii.r- 1^--) 
 * Ob cs schon ein Woib oder cin Kind w.-irc. (lliid.) 
 
 ^ Also siohst dudass dieg.inze Kirchevoll von VcrgobungderSlindenist. (Ibid.) 
 ^ Und hauptman im Felde bleibe. (Ibid.) 
 
 r. 2p 
 
298 HISTORY OF THE BEFORMATION. 
 
 had erected between God and the soul of man, was thrown 
 down, and man was brought into immediate communication with 
 his God. The word of pardon came down pure from above, 
 without passing through a thousand corrupting channels. There 
 was no farther need for men putting their deceptive seal on the 
 testimony of Cod, in order to make that testimony available; 
 the monopoly of the priestly caste was abolished, and the Church 
 set free. 
 
 XI. Meanwhile Luther felt that the fire which had been lighted 
 at Wittemberg, must be carried elsewhere, and, not content with 
 proclaiming the Gospel at the place of his residence, whether 
 among the youths of the academy or among the people, wished 
 to disseminate sound doctrine in other places. In the spring 
 of 1518, the Augustinian order was to hold its grand chapter at 
 Heidelberg, and Luther, as one of the distinguished members of 
 that order, was invited to attend. His friends used their utmost 
 efforts to dissuade him from going; for, in fact, the monks had 
 done their utmost to make his very name detested in all the 
 places through which he would have to pass. Adding threats 
 to insults, they might easily have raised a popular tumult, to 
 whose violence he might have fallen a victim on his way. "Or, 
 failing that," said his friends, " what they dare not do by open 
 violence, they will do by ambuscade and fraud."" ^ But Luther 
 never would suffer himself to be stopt in the discharge of a 
 duty by dread of danger, however imminent. Shutting his 
 ears, accordingly, to the timid discourses of his friends, he 
 pointed to Him in whom he trusted, and under whose safeguard 
 he desired to undertake this so much dreaded journey. At the 
 close of the Easter holidays he quietly set out on foot,- on the 
 13th of April, 1518. 
 
 He took with him a guide, called Urban, who was to carry 
 his little bundle and to convoy him as far as Wurzburg. 
 What a crowd of thoughts must have rushed upon the heart of 
 the servant of the Lord during this journey! At Weissenfels, 
 the pastor of the place, although unknown to him, recognised 
 him instantly as the Wittemberg doctor, and welcomed him as 
 such. 3 At Erfurt, he was joined by two other brothers of the 
 
 ' L. Epp. i. p. 08. 2 Pedester yenrnm. (Ibid.) ^ Ibid. p. 105. 
 
LUTIIERS JOURNEY TO HEIDELUERG. BIBRA. 299 
 
 Augustinian order. At Judenbach, all three met the elector's 
 intimate adviser, Degenhard Pfeffinger, who did for them the 
 lionours of tiie inn in which they found him, " I have had the 
 satisfaction,'''' writes Luther to Spalatin, "to make a small 
 inroad on the purse of this rich nobleman ; you know how I like 
 on all occasions that oflTor, to make a breach upon the rich to 
 the advantage of the poor, particularly whon the former are my 
 friends."" ' He reached Cobourg overwhelmed with fatigue. 
 "All goes well by the grace of God,"" he writes, "if it be not 
 that I must admit having sinned in undertaking this journey 
 on foot. But for this sin, I apprehend I have no need of the 
 remission granted by the indulgences; for the contrition is per- 
 fect, and the satisfaction ample. I am quite spent with fatigue, 
 and all the means of conveyance are occupied. Is not this 
 enough, and more than enough, of penance, contrition, and satis- 
 faction?'' 2 
 
 Finding neither room in the public conveyances, nor any one 
 willing to resign his place to him, the Reformer of Germany, 
 notwithstanding his fatigue, was obliged to set off next morning 
 from Cobourg as a modest traveller on foot. He arrived at 
 Wurzburg on the second Sunday after Easter, as the day was 
 declining, and there he dismissed his guide. 
 
 It was in this city that the bishop of Bibra, who had wel- 
 comed his theses with so warm an approval, was to be found, 
 and Luther had been commissioned to deliver a letter to him 
 from the elector of Saxony. Glad to have an opportunity of 
 personal acquaintance with this bold champion of the truth, the 
 bishop lost no time in inviting him to the episcopal palace; nay, 
 even went out to meet him, spoke to him with much affection, 
 and offered to supply him with a guide to Heidelberg. But at 
 Wurzburg Luther had met his two friends, the vicar-general 
 Staupitz, and Lange, the prior of Erfurt, and they had offered 
 him a place in their carriage. Accordingly, he thanked the 
 bishop for his offer, and the three friends set off next day from 
 Wurzburg. After three days' travelling and conversation 
 together, they reached Heidelberg on the 21st of April, and 
 there Luther went to lodge at the monastery of the Augus- 
 tinians. 
 
 ' L. Epp. i. p. lOi. » Ibid. p. lOG. 
 
SOO HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The elector of Saxony had given him a letter for count pala- 
 tine AVolfgang, duke of Bavaria, and this led Luther to that 
 superb castle, which to the present day is the admiration of 
 strangers. Though a monk from the plains of Saxony, he had 
 an eye which could admire the noble site of Heidelberg, placed 
 at the angle formed by the meeting of the two noble valleys of 
 the Neckar and the Rhine. Presenting the letter he had 
 brought to James Simlar, the court intendant, the latter, after 
 glancing it over, told him that truly he had come with precious 
 credentials. ^ The count palatine gave Luther a hearty recep- 
 tion, and often invited him, as well as Lange and Staupitz, to 
 his table. So friendly a welcome could not fail greatly to solace 
 Luther, whose feelings on this occasion we may learn from one 
 of his letters : " We mutually gladdened and amused each other," 
 says he, " with pleasant and quiet talk, eating and drinking, 
 going over all the magnificent decorations of the palatine palace, 
 admiring the ornaments, the armories, the coats of mail, in 
 short, everything worth note in that illustrious and truly royal 
 castle." 2 
 
 Meanwhile Luther had something else in hand, and felt that 
 he must work while it was day. Having come into an university 
 which exercised a irreat influence over western and southern 
 Germany, he had to strike a blow which would shake the 
 churches of those countries; and he applied himself, accordingly, 
 to the drawing up of certain theses which he proposed to defend 
 at a public disputation. Such discussions were the fashion of 
 the day; but this was to be one whose usefulness Luther saw 
 must depend on its warmly engrossing men's minds. His own 
 character, moreover, led him to present the truth in a paradoxi- 
 cal point of view. The university professors were unwilling to 
 grant the use of their grand audience-hall for the disputation, 
 which, accordingly, had to take place in a hall attached to the 
 Augustinian monastery, and the day fixed for it was the 26th 
 of April. 
 
 Heidelberg received the Gospel at a later date; but any one 
 present at the conference in the monastery, might even then 
 foresee the fruits which it was ultimately to produce. 
 
 1 Ihr habt bei Gott einen kostlichen Credenz. (L. Epp. i. 111.) " Ibid. 
 
lutiier''3 paradoxes. 301 
 
 Luther's reputation attracted a large concourse of auditors, 
 and among these were professors, courtiers, burgesses, and stu- 
 dents. The following are some of the doctor's Paradoxes; for 
 such is the name he gave to these theses; and although some 
 persons might give them the same name at this day, it were 
 easy, nevertheless, to translate them into plain propositions: 
 
 1. "God's law is a saving doctrine of life. Nevertheless, it 
 cannot help man in seeking after righteousness; on the contrary, 
 it thwarts him in that search. 
 
 3. " Man's works, fair and good as they may be, are no more 
 however, according to all appearance, than mortal sins. 
 
 4 " God's works, however unsightly or evil they may appear, 
 have nevertheless an immortal merit. 
 
 7 " The works of the righteous themselves would be mortal 
 sins, unless, filled with a holy reverence for the Lord, they feared 
 lest their works should prove to be mortal sins. ^ 
 
 9 "■ To say that works done without Christ are dead, indeed, 
 but not mortal, shows a dangerous forgetfulness of the fear of 
 God. 
 
 13. "Free will, since man's fall, is but a mere word; and if 
 man do what it is possible for him to do, he sins mortally. 
 
 16". "A man who imagines that he can attain to grace by 
 doing all that is possible for him to do, adds one sin to another, 
 and is twice guilty. 
 
 18. "It is certain that man ought wholly to despair of him- 
 self, in order to his becoming capable of receiving the grace of 
 Christ. 
 
 21. "A theologian by title calls good evil, and evil good; 
 but a theologian of the cross treats the matter properly. 
 
 22. " That wisdom which pretends to the knowledge of the 
 invisible perfections of God, in his works, inflates a man, blinds 
 and hardens him.^ 
 
 ' Jnstorum opera essent mort.alia nisi pio Dei timore, ab ipsismet justis, ut 
 mortalia timerentur. (L. 0pp. lat. i. 55.) 
 
 2 What Luther means here is not the effects naturally resulting from this 
 wisdom, but only the perverted use men make of it, and the effects which in 
 that case alone it produces, accidentally not essentially, in consequence of 
 the perverseness of the human heart, on minds not enlightened by faith in 
 Christ. Hence he by no means intends to depreciate wisdom, provided it 
 be rightly used and in its own place, as little as he would disparage the law 
 of God, as clearly appears from the 24th proposition. Be it remembered ia 
 
802 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 23. "The law moves God's wrath, slays, curses, accuses, 
 judges, and condemns all that is not in Christ.^ 
 
 24. "Yet that wisdom (§ 22.) is not bad, and the law 
 (§ 23.) is not to be rejected, but the man who does not study 
 the knowledge of God under the cross, changes all that is good 
 into evil. 
 
 25. " It is not the man who does many works that is justi- 
 fied, but the man who, without works, has much faith in Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 26. "The law saith: 'Do this!' and what it commands is 
 never done. Grace saith : ' Believe in this person ! ^ and already 
 all things are done.- 
 
 28. " The love of God does not find, but creates in man what 
 it loves; the love of man springs from what he contemplates 
 with love.*" 2 
 
 These theses were attacked by five doctors in theology, after 
 having read them with the astonishment naturally excited by 
 their novelty. Such theology to them seemed very strange, 
 and yet Luther himself acknowledges that they discussed its 
 merits with an affability which led him to regard them with 
 much esteem, and, at the same time, with vigour and discern- 
 ment. Luther, on his side, displayed an admirable mildness in 
 reply, incomparable patience in hstening to the objections of his 
 opponents, and all the vivacity of St. Paul in resolving the diffi- 
 culties presented to him. His answers, which were short but 
 replete with Scripture, filled with admiration all who heard him. 
 " He is on the whole like Erasmus," said several; " but in one 
 respect is his superior: he openly speaks out what Erasmus is 
 content to insinuate." * 
 
 The disputation was drawing to a close, and of Luther's oppo- 
 nents all had honourably withdrawn from the scene, except the 
 
 general that Luther's object here, as in other places, is to express himself 
 paradoxically, and in a manner that startles by its strangeness, in order the 
 better to awaken attention and attract it to the positions he seeks to establish. 
 — L. R. 
 
 1 Lex iram Dei operatur, occidit, maledicit, reum' facit, judicat, damnat 
 quicquid non est in Christo. (L. 0pp. lat. i. 55.) 
 
 2 Lex dicit : Fac hoc ! et nunquam fit. Gratia dicit : Crede in hunc ! et jam 
 facta sunt omnia. (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ Amor Dei non invenit, scd creat suum diligibile; amor hominis fit a suo 
 diligibili. (Ibid.) 
 
 * Bucer, in Scultet. Annal. evangel, renovat. d. 22. 
 
MAKTIN BUCEB. SOS 
 
 youngest among them, Dr. George Niger, who now maintained 
 a single contest with his powerful antagonist. Frightened at 
 last by the bold propositions of the Augustinian friar, and at a 
 loss what arguments to employ, he exclaimed in a tone that 
 betrayed his fear: " Were our peasants to hear such things, 
 they would stone you to death!'" ' — words which called forth 
 no little hilarity from the meeting. 
 
 Yet never had an auditory listened with deeper attention to 
 a theological dispute. The Reformer's first words had roused 
 the minds of all present, so that questions which a short time 
 before would have been met with indifTerence, now seemed 
 replete with interest, and on the countenances of many might 
 be read the new ideas suggested to their minds by the bold 
 assertions of the Saxon doctor. 
 
 Three youths were particularly affected on this occasion. 
 One, called Martin Bucer, was a Dominican, twenty-seven years 
 old, who, notwithstanding the prejudices of his order, seemed 
 resolved not to lose a word that fell from the doctors lips 
 Bucer was born in a small town of Alsace, entered a monastery 
 at the age of sixteen, and there gave token of talents wliich led 
 the most enlightened of the monks to be sanguine in their hopes 
 with regard to him.- " He will one day," they said, "be the 
 ornament of our order." His superiors having sent him to 
 Heidelberg that he might devote himself to the study of philo- 
 sophy, theology, Greek, and Hebrew, there he met with several 
 of the works that Erasmus was then publishing, and read them 
 with avidity. 
 
 Luther's first writings soon appeared, on which the young 
 Alsatian student lost no time in comparing the doctrines of the 
 Reformer with the Holy Scriptures, and then it was that there 
 arose in his mind doubts as to some parts of the pope's religion. 3 
 Thus used the light to be diffused in those days. The elector 
 palatine took notice of the young friar, whose powerful and 
 sonorous voice, engaging manners, eloquence, and frankness in 
 
 ' Si rustici haec audirent, certe lapidibus vos obruerent et interficereiit. (L. 
 Epp. i. p. 111.) 
 
 ^ Prudentioribus monacbis spem de se praoclaram excitavit. (Melch. Adam. 
 Vit. Buceri, p. 211.) 
 
 ^ Cum doctrinam in cis traditam cum sacris littoris contuusset, qusedam in 
 pontificia religione suspecta habere coepit. (Ibid.) 
 
SOi HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 attacking the then prevailing vices, made him a distinguished 
 preacher. He was appointed chaplain to the court, and it was 
 during his discharge of that office, that he heard of Luthei*"'s 
 journey to Heidelberg. What delightful tidings for Bucer! 
 No one repaired more eagerly to the Augustinian monastery, 
 and he went provided with papers, pen, and ink, that he might 
 take down in writing all that the doctor was to say. But while 
 his own hand was engaged in rapidly tracing Luther's words, 
 the hand of God was writing, in more durable characters, the 
 great truths to which he was listening, on the tablets of his 
 heart. It was in the course of that ever-memorable hour that 
 the dawn of the doctrine of grace began to diffuse itself over 
 Bucer's soul, ^ and the Dominican was gained to Christ. 
 
 Not far from Bucer was John Brenz, or Brentius, then at the 
 age of nineteen. The son of a magistrate in a town of Swabia, 
 he had been entered as student at Heidelberg at thirteen. 
 Brenz was unrivalled in his powers of application. No sooner 
 had midnight sounded than he rose and applied himself to work; 
 and this became so much a matter of habit with him, that 
 during all his life after, he could not sleep beyond that hour. 
 He afterwards devoted the silent moments he thus obtained, to 
 meditation on the Scriptures. Brenz was one of the first in 
 Germany to perceive the light which was then appearing there, 
 and welcomed it with a soul susceptible of the warmest affec- 
 tions.- He had greedily devoured Luther's writings, but what 
 was his joy on being able to listen to the doctor himself at 
 Heidelberg ! One of the latter's propositions particularly struck 
 the youthful Brenz; it was this: "It is not he who performs 
 many works who is justified before God, but he who, without 
 works, believes much in Jesus Christ."'* 
 
 A godly woman at Heilbronn on the Neckar, the wife of a 
 senator of that city, called Snepf, had, like another Anna, con- 
 secrated her first-born son, with a strong desire that she might 
 live to see him devote himself to theology. This youth, born 
 in 1492, made rapid progress in literature; but whether from 
 
 ' Primam lucem purioris sententia; de justificatione in suo pectore sensit. 
 Melch. Adam. Vit. Buceri, p. 211. 
 
 ^ Ingcns Dei beneficium Isetus Brentius agnovit, et grata, mente amplexus 
 est. (Ibid.) 
 
J © .IKl ^J ^ li^ :», N y u M § 
 
8VRPP. C0NVEnaAT[0.V3 WITH LUTIlF.n. 305 
 
 taste and ambition, or from a desire to comply with his father''8 
 wishes, he devoted himself to the study of jurisprudence. ^ The 
 godly mother saw with grief her son, her Ehrhard, following a 
 different course from that to which she had devoted him. She 
 unceasingly warned, urged, and solemnly enjoined him to 
 remember the vow she had made on the day of his birth. Over- 
 come at length by his niother"'s perseverance, Ehrhard Snepf 
 acquiesced, and soon experienced so keen a relish for his new 
 studies that nothing in the world could divert him from them. 
 
 He was an intimate associate of Bucer and Brenz, and their 
 friendship continued during life; "for," says one of their his- 
 torians, " friendships that are based on the love of letters and 
 of virtue, never die out." He was present along with his two 
 friends at the disputation at Heidelberg, where the Wittemberg 
 doctor's paradoxes, and the contest he so courageously main- 
 tained, gave a new spring to his energies. Rejecting the idle 
 notion of human merits, he embraced the doctrine of the free 
 justification of the sinner. 
 
 The day following Bucer paid Luther a visit. " He con- 
 versed," says he, " familiarly, and with none present but our- 
 selves; the repast was most exquisite, not in regard to the 
 viands, but from the truths that were proposed to me. What- 
 ever were the objections I might state, the doctor had replies 
 for all, and explained everything with the most perfect clear- 
 ness. Oh, would to God that I had time to write to you more 
 fully about it ! " 2 . . . Luther himself was touched at the 
 feelings displayed by Bucer: " He is the only friar of his order," 
 he wrote to Spalatin, " that shows sincerity; he is a most hope- 
 ful young man. He received me with simplicity, and eagerly 
 conversed with me. He deserves our confidence and our love."3 
 
 Urged by the new truths that began to dawn upon their 
 minds, Brenz, Snepf, and others, came likewise to converse and 
 confer with Luther, and to ask for farther explanations on points 
 which they did not clearly comprehend. With the help of the 
 Bible, the Reformer had an answer for all; every word he 
 
 * Crebris intcrpcllationibus eum voti quod do nato ipso fecerat, admoneret ; 
 ot a studio juris ad theologiam quasi conviciis avocaret. (Melch, Adami 
 Snepfii Vita.) 
 
 * Gerdcsius, Monumenta. antiq., etc. 
 3 L. Epp. 1. p. 412, 
 
 ^- 2 Q 
 
306 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 uttered seemed to shed fresh light on their souls ; it was as if a 
 new world were opening before them. 
 
 But it was requisite that what the man of God had begun 
 should be followed up by others, lest the torch which had just 
 been lighted, should go out; and these generous men, accord- 
 ingly, on Luther's leaving Heidelberg, began to teach in their 
 turn. When teachers are silent, scholars will speak. Young 
 as Brenz still was, he began to lecture on St. Matthew's gospel, 
 first in his own room, and when that was found too small, in 
 the philosophy lecture-room. Envious at the sight of so many 
 crowding to hear this youth's prelections, the theologians began 
 to lose their temper, whereupon Brenz took orders and trans- 
 ferred his labours to the college of the canons of the Holy 
 Spirit. Thus did the flame which had been kindled in Saxony, 
 extend to Heidelberg; the light began to multiply itself at dif- 
 ferent points, and, as has been said, it was now seed time in the 
 palatinate. 
 
 But more than the Palatinate was benefitted by the disputa- 
 tion at Heidelberg, for these courageous friends of the truth, 
 soon exerted a powerful influence beyond the sphere they then 
 occupied. Advancing to the most eminent positions, they took 
 part in many of the discussions to which the Reformation led ; 
 first Strasburg, and afterwards England, were indebted to Bucer's 
 labours for a purer knowledge of the truth ; Snepf taught it 
 first at Marburg, then at Stuttgard, Tubingen, and Jena; Brenz 
 after teaching it at Heidelberg, was long engaged in doing so at 
 Halle, in Swabia, and at Tubingen; so that we shall often meet 
 airain with these three worthies. 
 
 The Heidelberg disputation was beneficial to Luther himself, 
 now making daily progress in his knowledge of the truth. " I 
 am one of those," says he, " who have advanced themselves 
 while writing and instructing others ; not one of those who all 
 at once emerge from nothing, and become great and learned 
 doctors." 
 
 Great was his delight at witnessing the avidity with which 
 the youths attending the schools of learning, received the truth 
 as it was anew presented to them; and this solaced him while 
 deploring the obstinate attachment to their obsolete notions 
 shown by the old doctors. " I entertain the magnificent hope," 
 
LUTHER RETURNS THE OLD PROFESSOR. 307 
 
 he would say, " tliat just as Clirist, when rejected by the Jews, 
 turned to the Gentiles, we shall now likewise see the true the- 
 oloo-y, though rejected by dotards who arc devoted to vain fan- 
 tastic opinions, Avelcomcd by the new generation. ^ " 
 
 The chai)ter being closed, Luther proposed to return to Wit- 
 temberg, upon which the count palatine gave him a letter 
 to convey to the elector, dated May 1 st, in which he said, that 
 Luther had shown so much skill in the disputation as could not 
 fail greatly to redound to the glory of Wittemberg ? They would 
 by no means allow him to return on foot. 2 The Augustinians 
 of Nuremberg conducted him as far as Wurzburg ; and from 
 that he proceeded to Erfurt, accompanied by the friars of that 
 city. No sooner did he arrive there than he went to the house 
 of his old master, lodocus. That old professor had been much 
 grieved and scandalised at the course which his former disciple 
 had taken, and used to mark all Luther's sentences with the 
 theta, employed by the Greeks to indicate condemnation.^ He 
 had written to the young doctor in a tone of reprimand, and the 
 latter wished to reply by word of mouth to the charges of his 
 correspondent. But not being received, he wrote to Jodocus as 
 follows : " The whole university, with the exception of a single 
 licentiate, thinks as I do. Nay more : the prince, the bishop, 
 several other prelates, and the entire body of our enlightened 
 citizens, declare with one voice that until now they never knew, 
 nor had heard of Jesus Christ and his gospel. I am ready to 
 receive your corrections; and even when really very harsh, to 
 me they will seem very mild. Fear not then to give full vent 
 to your feelings; discharge your wrath. I neither wish to be 
 nor find myself capable of being angry with you. God and my 
 conscience are witnesses that it is so!"'^ 
 
 The old doctor was affected at the sentiments of his former 
 pupil ; and wished to see whether no way might be found for 
 removing the condemnatory theta. They entered upon an 
 explanation, but it came to no result. " 1 have at least made 
 him understand," said Luther, " that all their sentences were 
 
 ' L. Epp. i. p. 112. 
 
 * Veni autem curru qui ieram pedester. (L Epp. i. p. 110.) 
 ^ Omnibus placitis meis nigrum theta prsefigit. (lb. p. 111.) 
 ■* L. Epp. i. ibid. 
 
308 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 like the beast whicli, report says, eats itself. But it is vain to 
 speak to a deaf man. These doctors are doggedly attached to 
 their minute distinctions, even although they admit that for 
 maintaining them they have only the light of natural reason, 
 as they say, and that is a dark chaos to us who proclaim no 
 light but Jesus Christ, who is the only true light."' ^ 
 
 Luther left Erfurt in the carriage belongino; to the monas- 
 tery which conducted him to Eisleben, and from thence the 
 Augartinian friars of the place, feeling proud of a doctor who 
 reflected so much lustre on heir order and city, being that also 
 where he was born, sent him on to Wittemberg by their own 
 horses, and at their expense. Every one wished to show marks 
 of affection and esteem for this extraordinary person, who 
 was now becoming greater and greater every step he took.^ 
 
 He arrived on the Saturday following Ascension day. The 
 ourney had improved his health, and his friends found him 
 stronger and looking better than when he left them. They joy- 
 fully listened to all that he had to tell them. Luther now 
 reposed for some time after the fatigues he had undergone by the 
 way, and at the Heidelberg disputation; but this interval of 
 ease was only the preparation for still severer labours. 
 
 ' Nisi dictamine rationis naturalis, quod apud nos idem est, quod chaos iene- 
 bratum, qui non prsedicamtfs aliam lucem, quam Christum Jesum lucem veram 
 of solam. (L. Epp. i. p. 111.) 
 
 2 Ita ut nonnullis videar factus habitior et corpulentior. (Ibid.) 
 
BOOK FOURTH. 
 
 LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 May — December, 1618. 
 
 I. The truth at last had raised its head in the midst of Chris- 
 tendom, and having overcome the inferior organs of the popedom, 
 was about to en2;ao;e in a mortal struo-gle with its chief. We 
 have now to contemplate Luther as the direct antagonist of 
 Rome. 
 
 It was after his return from Heidelberg that he sprang into 
 this new arena. His first theses on the indulgences having been 
 misunderstood, he resolved to state their true meaning Avith 
 greater clearness; and as the fierce outcry he had called forth 
 from the blind resentment of his enemies, had taught him the 
 importance of gaining over the most enlightened part of the 
 nation in favour of the truth, he resolved to appeal in this matter 
 to their judgment, by laying before them the grounds of his new 
 convictions. He could not fail, for once at least, to provoke the 
 judicial interference of Rome; nor did he hesitate to transmit his 
 explanations thither. With one hand he presented them to the 
 impartial and enlightened among his own countrymen, while, with 
 the other, he laid them before the throne of the sovereign pontifi". 
 
 These explanations of his theses, to which he gave the title of 
 Besolutions, ^ were written with much moderation ; their author 
 endeavouring to soften down the passages which had caused 
 most irritation, and giving proofs of true modesty. At the same 
 time, however, he showed that_ he was not to be shaken in his 
 convictions, and he courageously defended all the propositions 
 
 ' L. 0pp. Leips. xvii. p. 29. to p. 113. 
 
310 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 which regard for the truth compelled him to maintain. Anew 
 he repeated that every Christian who truly repents, does not 
 need the indulgence in order to his sins being forgiven ; that the 
 pope, equally with the least among the priests, can but simply 
 declare that God has already pardoned; that the treasury of the 
 merits of saints was a mere chimera, and that Holy Scripture 
 was the sole rule of faith. But on some of these points let us 
 listen to himself. 
 
 He sets out by fixing the nature of true repentance, and 
 opposes that act of God whereby he renews man, to the mummer- 
 ies of the Roman Church. " The Greek word /xe-aioflrc," say«! 
 he, "means: put on a new spirit, new feelings, have a new 
 nature, so that no longer being earthly, you shall become heavenly 
 men. . . . Christ is a teacher of the spirit and not of the 
 letter; his words are spirit and they are life. He therefore 
 teaches a repentance according to the spirit and the truth, not 
 those outward penances of which the proudest sinners may with- 
 out any self-abasement acquit themselves; the repentance he 
 would have, is such as is compatible with every condition of life, 
 whether it be under the purple of royalty, or the robes of the 
 priesthood, or the hat that distinguishes the prince — and amid 
 the pomps of Babylon where a Daniel was to be found, as well 
 as under the monk's frock and the beggar''s rags." ^ 
 
 Farther on, we find these bold expressions: " I do not trouble 
 myself about what may please or displease the pope. He is but 
 a man as others are. There have been many popes who have 
 liked, not errors and vices only, but things more extraordinary 
 still. I listen to the pope as pope, that is to say, when he speaks 
 in the canons, according to the canons, or when he determines 
 some point with the concurrence of a council, but not when he 
 speaks his own mere notions. Were I to do otherwise, might 
 1 not say with' those who know not Jesus Christ, that those 
 horrible massacres of Christians wherewith Julius II. is stained, 
 were the kind deeds of a godly pastor towards the sheep of the 
 Lordr'-2 
 
 "I cannot but be astonished," he goes on to say, "at the sim- 
 plicity of those who have said that the two swords of the gospel 
 represented, the one the spiritual, the other the temporal power. 
 > On the first thesis. « Thesis 26. 
 
THE POJ'E. I.EO X. 31 1 
 
 True, the pope wielJs an iron sword, and presents himself to 
 Christendom, not as a tender father but as a dreadful tyrant. 
 Ah ! God in his anger has given us the sword we longed to have, 
 and has deprived us of the one that wo disdained. No part of 
 the world has witnessed more terrible wars than those waged 
 among Christians. . . . How is it that the subtile spirit 
 which discovered this fine commentary, has not interpreted, in 
 the same subtile manner, the history of the two keys delivered to 
 St. Peter, and established it as one of the Church's dogmas that 
 the one serves for opening the treasures of heaven, and the other 
 those of the world?" ' 
 
 " It is impossible,"'' he further says, " that a man can be a 
 Christian witliout having Christ; and if he have Christ, he has 
 at the same time all that is Christ's. What gives peace to our 
 conscience is, that through faith our sins are no longer ours, 
 but Christ's, on whom God has laid them all; and that, on the 
 other hand, all Christ's righteousness is ours, God having 
 bestowed it on us. Christ lays his hand on us and we are healed. 
 He casts his mantle over us and we are covered; for he is the 
 glorious Saviour, blessed evermore."- 
 
 With such views of the richness of the salvation wrought by 
 Jesus Christ, there could no longer be any need for indul- 
 gences. 
 
 Even while he attacks the popedom, Luther speaks honourably 
 of Leo X. " The times we live in," says he, " are so bad that 
 even the greatest personages find they cannot come to the help 
 of the Church. We have a very good pope at present in Leo X. 
 We are gladdened by his sincerity and his learning. But ami- 
 able and agreeable as he may be, what can the man do alone? 
 Assuredly he deserved being pope in better times. In our days 
 we deserve only such men as were Julius II. and Alexander VI." 
 
 He then proceeds to the main fact: "I desire to speak out 
 briefly and boldly: the Church needs to be Reformed. And this 
 cannot be the work of a single man, like the pope, or of many 
 men, like the cardinals and the fathers of councils; but it must 
 be the work of the whole world, or, rather, it is a work which it 
 belongs to God alone to accomplish. As for the time for such a 
 refonnation to commence, he alone who has created time can 
 ' Thesis 80. « Thesis 37. 
 
312 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 know, . . . The dyke is broken, and to restrain the flood, 
 now fiercely pouring in, is no longer in our power.*" 
 
 Such are some of the statements and sentiments addressed by 
 Luther to his more enlightened countrymen. The feast of 
 Whitsunday was now drawing near, and it was at the season 
 when the apostles first bore witness to their faith in the risen 
 Jesus, that Luther, like another apostle, published that volume, 
 so full of life, in which he breathes forth the desires of his whole 
 heart for the resurrection of the Church. On Saturday, May 
 22d, 1518, being Whitsunday eve, he sent his work to the 
 bishop of Brandenburg, his ordinary, together with a letter to 
 the following efiect: 
 
 " Most worthy father in God! some time ago a new and hither- 
 to unheard of doctrine, touching apostolic indulgences, began 
 to resound in these lands. Both the learned and the simple were 
 put into commotion by it, and several, some personally known to 
 me, while others I had never seen, besought me to declare by word 
 of mouth or by writing, what I thought of the novelty, not to say 
 the impudence of such a doctrine. I first held my peace and 
 declined the task. But at length things came to such a point, 
 that the sanctity of the pope was compromised. 
 
 " What was I to do? I thought it my duty neither to approve nor 
 disapprove, but to start a controversy on this important point, 
 until holy Church should pronounce upon it. 
 
 ""No one appearing at the debate to Avhich I had invited all 
 men, and my theses being considered not as points left open for 
 discussion, but as asserted propositions, ' I found myself 
 compelled to publish an explanation of them. Deign then to 
 receive these trifles ^ which I now ofi'er to you, most clement 
 bishop. And that the whole world may perceive that I do not 
 act audaciously, I supplicate your Reverence to take pen and 
 ink, and blot out, or even throw into the fire and burn whatever 
 displeases you in what I send. I am aware that Jesus Christ 
 needs not my labours or services, and can well, without me, 
 preach good tidings to his Church. Not that the bulls and the 
 threats of my enemies frighten me; quite the contrary. But 
 
 ' Non ut disputabilia sed asserta acciperentur. (L. Epp. i. 114.) 
 * Ineptias. 
 
LUTlIKu'd LETTKIl TO THE I'OI'E. ol'? 
 
 for their effrontcrj and shamelessness, never should my name 
 be mentioned. I should shut myself up in a corner and study 
 for myself alone. If this be not God's affair, it is certainly not 
 mine, or any man's, but a mere thing of nought. Let the 
 honour and glory be his alone to whom thoy appertain!" 
 
 Luther was still imbued with respect for the head of the 
 Church; he gave Leo credit for being a just man and a sincere 
 lover of the truth, and to him therefore he wished to address 
 himself. Eight days thereafter, on Trinity Sunday. 30th May, 
 1518, he wrote the letter from which the following fragments 
 are taken. 
 
 " To the most blessed father Leo X., sovereign bishop, friar 
 Martin Luther, Augustinian, wishes eternal salvation! 
 
 " I understand. Most holy Father, that ill reports circulate 
 with regard to me, and that my name has been brought into bad 
 odour with your holiness. I am called heretic, apostate, treach- 
 erous, and a thousand other hard names. I am amazed at what 
 I see, and alarmed at wiiat I hear. Yet the sole foundation of 
 my peace remains intact, and that is an undefiled and quiet 
 conscience. Be pleased to attend to me, most holy Father, even 
 to me who am but a child and an ignoramus." 
 
 Luther then relates how the affair began and proceeds : 
 
 " In all the alehouses there was nothing to be heard but com- 
 plaints about the avarice of the priests, and attacks on the 
 power of the keys and of the sovereign pontiff. All Germany 
 can witness to this. On hearing of it, my zeal was moved for 
 the glory of Christ, as it appears to me, or, if we must in 
 some other way account for it, my young boiling blood took fire. 
 
 " I gave warning to several of the princes of the Church. 
 But some mocked at me, and others closed their ears. All 
 seemed overawed by the terror of your name. I then pub- 
 lished the disputation. 
 
 " You now see, most holy Father, the act of incendiarism 
 which, it is said, has set the-^vhole world in a blaze. 
 
 "What course ought I now to pursue? I cannot retract, and 
 I perceive that this publication draws on me inconceivable hatred 
 from all quarters. ^ I have no wish to make a figure of myself 
 
 * Sed cogit necessitas me ansercm strepcre inter olores, lie adds. (J.. Epp. 
 i.p. 121.) 
 
 2 K 
 
314 HISTORY OF THE EEFOUMATION. 
 
 before the world, for I am without learning, without talent, and 
 far too inconsiderable a person to attempt great matters; espe- 
 cially in this illustrious age, when Cicero himself, were he alive, 
 would be compelled to hide himself in some obscure corner. 
 
 " Eut in order to appease my opponents, and to reply to the 
 solicitations which many have addressed to me, you see I have 
 published my views. I have published them, holy Father, that 
 thereby I may be the safer under the shadow of your wings. 
 All who wish to do so, may thus understand with what sinv 
 plicity of heart I besought the ecclesiastical authority to 
 instruct me, and with what respect I have acknowledged the 
 power of the keys.l Had I not conducted my affair in a pro- 
 per manner, it would have been impossible for the most serene 
 Lord Frederick, duke and elector of Saxony, that conspicuous 
 friend of the apostolic and Christian truth, to have suffered a 
 person so dangerous as people would have me to be, to remain 
 in his university of Wittemberg. 
 
 " Therefore it is, most holy Father, that I fall at the feet of 
 your holiness, and submit to you all that I have and am. 
 Ruin my cause or embrace it; do me justice or injustice; take 
 my life or restore it to me, as you please. I shall own your 
 voice as the voice of Jesus Christ, who presides and speaks by 
 you. If I have deserved death I refuse not to die ;- the earth 
 belongs to the Lord with all that it contains. May he be 
 praised unto all eternity! May he preserve you for evermore! 
 Amen. 
 
 "Given on the day of the Holy Trinity, the year 1518. 
 
 Friar Martin Luther, Augustinian." 
 
 "What humility and what truth in tliis fearfulness on Luther's 
 part, or rather in the avowal he makes, that his boiling young 
 blood may possibly have caught fire too soon ! We see here the 
 man of sincerity who, not presuming on himself, dreads the 
 influence of his passions, even in those actions of his which are 
 most conformed to the Word of God. There is a wide differ- 
 
 1 Qiiam pure simplieiterque ecclesiasticam potestatem et reverentiam clavium 
 quaesierim et coluerim. (L. Epp. i. p. 121.) 
 
 2 Quare beatissiroe Pator, prostratum me pedibus iuvc Beatitudinis offero, cum 
 omnibus quae sum et habeo : vivifica, occide; voca, revoca ; approba, reprolia, 
 ut placuerit. Voccm tuam, vocem Christi in to pr?csidcntis et loquentis agnos- 
 cam. Si mortem merui, mori non recusabo. (Ibid.) 
 
Luther's letter to the vicar-gexeral. 815 
 
 ence between such language and that of a proud fanatic. We 
 see working in Luther's mind the desire to gain over Leo to 
 the cause of the trutli, to prevent all schism, and to make the 
 reformation, of which he proclaims the necessity, proceed from 
 the highest dignitary of the Church. Certainly it is not he 
 whom Ave nmst charge with the destruction in the West of that 
 unity, the loss of which was deplored by so many men of all 
 parties afterwards. He sacrificed everything for the sake of 
 preserving it: everything but the truth. It was his opponents 
 and not he, who by refusing to acknowledge the fulness and the 
 sufliciency of the salvation wrought by Jesus Christ, rent 
 asunder our Lord's coat at the foot of the cross. 
 
 After writing this letter, Luther the same day addressed one 
 to his friend Staupitz, the vicar-general of his order. It was 
 through his intervention that he desired to transmit his Resolu- 
 tions and accompanying epistle to Leo. 
 
 " I pray you," says he, " kindly to accept the wretched 
 pieces^ which I send you, and to see to their being transmitted 
 to the excellent pope Leo X. Not that I would thereby drag 
 vou into the same peril in which I am involved myself; I 
 wish to run this risk alone. Jesus Christ will see whether what 
 I have said, comes from him or from me ; Jesus Christ, with- 
 out whose will the tongue of the pope cannot move and the hearts 
 of kings resolve nothing. 
 
 " As for those Avho threaten me, I have nothing to say to 
 them in reply, unless it be the words of Reuchlin: ' The poor 
 man has nothing to fear, for he has nothing to lose.'^ I have no 
 property and no money, and I ask for none. If I at one time 
 was held in some degree of honour and had some good reputa- 
 tion, he Avho began to deprive me of these, is completing his 
 work. There remains nothing to me but this wretched body, 
 weakened by so many trials : let them destroy it, by foul means 
 or by fair, for the glory of God! They may thus abridge by a 
 few hours the natural term of my life. Enough for me to have 
 a precious Redeemer, a mighty High priest, Jesus Christ, my 
 Lord. I will praise him as long as I have a breath of life. If 
 none choose to praise him along with me, what matters it to mef 
 
 ' His Resolutions. 
 
 * O.ui pauper est nihil timet, nihil potest perdere. (L. Epp. i. p. IIS.) 
 
316 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 These words enable us to read deep into Lutlier''s heart !^ 
 
 While he was thus looking towards Rome with confidence, 
 Rome was already nursing thoughts of being revenged on him. 
 As early as the 3d of April, cardinal Raphael de Rovere had 
 written in the pope's name to the elector Frederick, that sus- 
 picions were entertained with respect to the soundness of his 
 faith, and that he ought to beware of protecting Luther. " Cardi- 
 nal Raphael," says the latter, "would delight to see me burned 
 b}' duke Frederick."- Thus did Rome begin to whet her weapons 
 against Luther. The first blow she aimed was to alienate his 
 protector from him, knowing that could she succeed in destroy- 
 ing the shelter behind which the Wittemberg monk lay secure, 
 he would soon become an easy prey. 
 
 The German princes were very jealous of their reputation as 
 Christian princes, so much so that the slightest suspicion of heresv 
 alarmed them; a disposition of mind of which the court of Rome 
 had ably taken advantage. Frederick had ever felt attached to 
 the religion of his fathers; hence Raphael's letter could not fail 
 to make a deep impression upon him. Still, it was a principle 
 with the elector, in nothing to be precipitate. He knew that 
 truth was not always on the side of the strongest; the transac- 
 tions of the empire with Rome, had taught him to distrust that 
 court's interested views; and he had discovered that in order 
 to be a Christian, there was no need for his being the slave of 
 the pope. 
 
 " He was not a man," says Melanchthon, " of that profane 
 spirit which would instantly crush the germs of all changes. 3 
 Frederick submitted himself to God. He carefully perused the 
 
 ' Yea — they leave no doubt of the honesty of his purposes! How could envy 
 or ambition fill the heart with such peace? It is enough for us to read such 
 disclosures of Luther's inmost feelings, poured so spontaneously into the bosom 
 of a friend, to enable us to appreciate the scandalous falsehood of the imputa- 
 tion, that the offended honour of his order must have been the cause of his act- 
 ing as he did. Where is the fool who for that cause would have exposed his 
 life to danger, and have thus persevered in his purpose without wavcrinf; — • 
 where the man so rash as while conscious of such motives, to have dared to 
 repose in the certainty of his Saviour's approbation? He that can believe, and 
 after reading these and such like extracts from Luther's letters, can continue to 
 maintain, tliat accusation, — is either wholly blinded by prejudice, or is a con- 
 temptible dissembler, in asserting that such hypocrisy, as Luther's mind was 
 altogether incapable of was possible. — L. R. 
 
 2 L. 0pp. (W.)xv. p. 339. 
 
 ^ Necprofanajudiciasequensqurctcnera initia omnium mutationum colerrimo 
 opprimi jubent. (Melancht. Vit. L.) 
 
LUTHER PREACHES OX EXCOMMUNICATIOX. 317 
 
 writings which were then appearing, and would not permit tlie 
 suppression of what he judged to be true,'' 1 And this was what 
 he had it in liis power to do; for while master in his own states, 
 he, at the same time, enjoyed a degree of consideration in the 
 empire, equal at least to that which was bestowed on the emperor 
 himself. 
 
 It is likely that Luther had some intimation of this letter 
 from cardinal Eaphael, which was received by the elector en the 
 11th of July; and possibly it may have been the prospect of 
 the excommunication which this missive from Rome seemed to 
 presage, that induced hira to enter the pulpit at Wittemberg 
 on the 15th of that month, and to deliver upon the subject 
 a discourse that made a profound impression. He therein 
 drew a distinction between internal and external excom- 
 munication; the former excluding from communion with God, 
 the latter only from the outward ceremonies of the Church 
 " No one," said he, " can reconcile the fallen soul with God but 
 the Almighty himself. No one can separate a man from com- 
 munion with God, unless it be the man himself by his own sins. 
 Blessed is the man who dies in an unjust excommunication! 
 While he sufters a severe chastisement at the hands of men, 
 because of his love of righteousness, he receives the crown of 
 everlasting blessedness from the hand of God." . . . 
 
 Some openly approved of this bold language; others were 
 more incensed by it than ever. 
 
 But Luther no longer stood alone, and albeit his faith required 
 no other stay than that of God, a phalanx had now been formed 
 around hirn, and Avas ready to defend him from his enemies. 
 The people of Germany had heard the Reformer's voice. His 
 discourses from the pulpit, and his writings, seemed to dart 
 lightning among his contemporaries, so as at once to awaken 
 and to illuminate them. The fervour of his faith rushed forth 
 in torrents of fire on men's besotted hearts. The life with 
 which God had animated that extraordinary soul, passed into 
 the breathless carcase of the Church. Christendom, after having 
 lain dormant for ages, now glowed with religious enthusiasm. 
 The devotion of the people to the superstitions of Rome under- 
 
 ' Deo cessit, ct ea quae vera esse jadicavit, dcleri non voluit. ( Melancht. 
 Vit. L.) 
 
318 mSTOKY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 went a daily diminution; from day to day fewer hands were 
 found offering money as the price of forgiveness of sins,! and 
 the reputation of Luther at the same time was ever increasing. 
 People looked to him, and greeted him affectionately and 
 respectfully, as the dauntless defender of truth and liberty. - 
 Doubtless all could not sound the depth of the doctrines he pro- 
 claimed; it was enough for the greater number to know that 
 the new doctor had lifted himself against the pope, and, by the 
 might of his eloquence, had shaken to its foundations the empire 
 of the priests and the monks. Luther's assault was to them 
 like one of the beacon fires kindled on the mountain tops, to 
 give notice to a \vhole nation that the time for bursting from its 
 chains has arrived. The Eeformer did not doubt that from the 
 part he had acted, already all that was generous among the 
 people, by acclamation owned him as their chief. But, with 
 respect to very many, the appearance of Luther amounted to 
 more than this. The Word of God, which he handled so power- 
 fully, cut into men's minds like a two-edged sword; and in many 
 hearts ardent desires were enkindled for obtaining the assurance 
 of pardon and of eternal life; so much so, that from the earliest 
 ages, never had the Church experienced such a hungering and 
 thirstin"; after rifrhteousness. If the voice of Peter the hermit, 
 and that of Bernard, had such an influence on the tribes of the 
 middle ages, as to make them take up a perishable cross, 
 Luther's voice led the men of his time to embrace the true 
 cross — the cross that saves men's souls. The scaffolding that 
 then oppressed the Church, had smothered everything under it; 
 forms had destroyed life; and it was in this state of things, that 
 the mighty voice with which the Reformer was gifted, diffused 
 a life-jrivins; breath over the soil of Christendom. On their 
 first appearance Luther's writings carried along with them the 
 believins: and the unbelievino; alike; the unbelievin<r because 
 those positive doctrines which were afterwards to become fixed, 
 were not as yet fully brought out, and the believing, because 
 these doctrines were to be found in their germ in that living 
 faith to which utterance was therein given with such overwhelm- 
 
 • Rarescebant manus largentium. (Cochlocus, 7.) 
 
 ^ Luthero autem contra aug'ebatur auctoritas, favor, fides, existimatio, fama; 
 quod tarn liber acerque videretur veritatis assertor. (lb.) 
 
LUTIlEn''s INFLUENCE AND ENERGY. 319 
 
 ing- energy. Hence tlio influence of those writings was immense; 
 in an instant they pervaded Germany and tlie world. People 
 everywhere felt a profound conviction that they were looking on, 
 not at the establiif.hnient of a sect, but at the regeneration of 
 the Church and of society. Those who then were born again 
 by the breath of the Spirit of God, ranged themselves around 
 the man who was its organ. Christendom became divided into 
 two camps; the one combatting with the spirit against forms, 
 the other with form against the spirit. Now, although it be 
 true that all the appearances of force and grandeur were on the 
 side of form, while that of the spirit bore tokens of impotency 
 and littleness, form without spirit is but a liollow thing which 
 must fall before the first breath, and any semblance of ])0\ver it 
 may have, serves but to incense men against it and to hasten 
 its fall. Thus the simple word of truth created a mighty army 
 for Luther. 
 
 II. There was need for this, for the great began to bestir 
 themselves, and the empire and the Church were already com- 
 binin"" their efforts for the removal of this troublesome jnouk. 
 The emperor Maximilian was then holding an imperial diet at 
 Augsburg. Six electors came to it in person at his call; all the 
 states of Germany were represented at it; the kings of France, 
 Poland, and Hungary, sent thither their ambassadors. These, 
 both princes and envoys, all displayed the utmost magnificence. 
 One object for which the diet had been summoned was the war 
 with the Turks. It was feared that the sultan Selim, after 
 having poisoned his father, rid himself of his brothers and their 
 children, and carried his victorious arms into Armenia, Egypt, 
 and Syria, not stopping there, might threaten Italy and Hun- 
 gary; but death soon laid an arrest on his victories. jVot the 
 less did Leo X. pursue the project of a new crusade, and his 
 legate keenly urged the German states to prepare themselves 
 for war, " Let the ecclesiastics," said he, " pay the tenth and 
 laymen the fiftieth part of their property ; let each house furnish 
 pay for a soldier; let the rich send in their yearly contributions; 
 then all will go on well." The states, however had got a lesson 
 from the bad use that had been made of such contributions on 
 former occasions, and following the prudent advice of the elector 
 Frederick, said they would think over the matter, at the same 
 
320 HISTORY OF THE REl'ORMATION. 
 
 time bringing forward new complaints against Rome. A dis- 
 course in Latin, published during the sitting of the diet, boldly 
 pointed out the true source of danger to the German princes. 
 " You would put the Turk to flight," said the author; "all 
 well, but I fear much you are deceived as to who he is. He 
 must be sought for in Italy, not in Asia. Each of our princes 
 is powerful enough to defend his territories from the Turk of 
 Asia: but as for the Turk at Rome, the whole Christian world 
 is hardly capable of overcoming him. The one has never done 
 us any harm; the other prowls about everywhere, slaking his 
 thirst with the blood of the wretched.'" ^ 
 
 The diet was called to attend to another matter of no less 
 consequence. JNIaximilian wanted his grandson, Charles, who 
 was already king of Spain and Naples, to be proclaimed king of 
 the Romans, and his successor in the imperial dignity. But 
 the pope knew his own interests too well, to have any wish to 
 see the imperial throne occupied by a prince whose power in 
 Italy might become formidable to him. The emperor thought 
 that he had already gained over to his interests the greater 
 number of the electors and of the states; but he found an ener- 
 getic opponent in Frederick. In vain did he solicit him; in 
 vain did the elector's ministers and best friends unite their 
 prayers to those of the emperor; he was not to be shaken, and 
 showed on that occasion, as was said of him, that he had suf- 
 ficient firmness of soul never to depart from a resolution once 
 adopted, after having acknowledged its being just. The emperors 
 design fell to the ground. 
 
 Thenceforth that prince sought to secure the goodwill of the 
 pope in order that he might gain him over to his plans; and as a 
 special proof of his devotedness, he wrote to him as follows, on 
 the 5th of AuiTUst : " Most holv father, we learned some days 
 ago that a friar of the order of St. Augustine, called Martin 
 Luther, has set himself to maintain sundry propositions on the 
 trade in indulgences; the which so much the more displeases us 
 as the said friar finds many protectors, among whom there are 
 some powerful personages. ^ If your Holiness and the very 
 
 » Sohrbck, K. Gesch. n. d. R. I. p. 156. 
 
 ^ Defcnsores et patronos etiam potentes quos dictus frater cnnsocutus est 
 (Raynald, ad ann. 1518.) 
 
THE EMPEROR WRITES TO THE POPE. 321 
 
 worthy fathers of the Church (the cardinals) do not speedily 
 exert their authority in putting- a stop to these scandals, not 
 only will these pernicious teachers seduce the simple, but they 
 will lead on groat princes to their ruin. We will take care that 
 whatever your Koliness may determine in this respect for the 
 glory of Almighty God, shall be observed by all in our empire.'" 
 
 This letter must have been written in consequence of a some- 
 what warm discussion between Maximilian and Frederick.^ On 
 the same day the elector wrote to Raphael do Rovere. He had 
 been informed, no doubt, of the Emperor's having addressed 
 himself to the Roman pontiff, and to parry the blow, put him- 
 self in communication with Rome. 
 
 " I never should wish otherwise," says he, " than to signify 
 my submission to the universal Church. 
 
 "Accordingly, never have I defended the writings and sermons 
 of doctor Martin Luther. Besides, I learn that he has always 
 been willing to appear, with a safe-conduct, before impartial, 
 learned, and Christian judges, to defend his doctrines, and to 
 submit himself, in the event of his being convicted of error by 
 the Scripture itself."-^ 
 
 Up to that hour Leo X. had allowed the matter to take its own 
 course, but now, roused by the cries of theologians and of monks, 
 he instituted an ecclesiastical court at Rome which Avas charged 
 to try Luther, and in which the Reformer's great enemy, 
 Sylvester Prierias, was at once prosecutor and judge. The 
 
 • From this example vre perceive what principles determine the policy of those 
 ■who have actual power in their hands with respect to their religion. Maxi- 
 milian, who was in other respects very far from being a ft'iend of papal domination, 
 who was even reported to have projected uniting the papal dignity, that is to 
 say, the ecclesiastical supremacy, with the imperial, warns the pope to be on liis 
 guard against the dangers that might arise from Luther's doctrines, only in 
 order that the elector Frederick, who favoured Luther, might not obtain his 
 wishes. How speedily are there not found pretexts for describing those, who 
 have been compelled by their consciences to withstand any abuses that have 
 crept into religion, as persons who endanger the peace and good order of the 
 state, wheu men have other groimds for disliking them? And how, then, sliould 
 they allow, on any such perilous condition, freedom of conscience with regard to 
 the full exercise of the religion to which they feel bound in duty, as before God 
 to attach themselves, absolutely to depend on the antecedent judgment formed 
 of them by the state? Luther and the bold-hearted Reformers never, assm-edly, 
 would nave consented to this. Now too, it is unreasonable and tends to deprive 
 religion of all its energy, when the state chooses to exercise any such absolute 
 supremacy, although in this respect every right-minded Christian stands already 
 prepared, as Luther did, to give a reasonable account of his conduct. More 
 cannot and ought not to be exacted. — L. R. 
 
 2 L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 1C9. 
 
 I. 2 s 
 
322 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 cause was speedily put into proper form, and the court sum- 
 moned Luther to appear before it in person within sixty days. 
 
 Luther was quietly waiting at Wittemberg for the result 
 which he thought could not fail to be produced by the very 
 submissive letter he had addressed to the pope, when on the 7th 
 of August, only two days after the sending oflf of the letters of 
 Maximilian and of Frederick, the summons from the Roman 
 tribunal was placed in his hands. " Just as I was looking for 
 a benediction," said he, "I beheld the thunderbolt descend upon 
 me. I was the sheep that troubled the water to the wolf. 
 Tetzel escaped, and I had nothing for it but to allow myself to 
 be devoured."" 
 
 This summons threw Wittemberg into consternation, for 
 whatever course Luther might pursue, danger was inevitable. 
 Were he to appear at Rome, he must undoubtedly fall a victim 
 to his enemies. Were he to refuse to appear, he must, accord- 
 ing to custom, be condemned as contumacious, without any 
 possibility of escape; it being known that the legate had received 
 orders from the pope, to do his utmost to incense the Emperor and 
 the German princes against him. His friends were in the greatest 
 alarm. Shall the teacher of the truth go with his life in his hand 
 to that great city, drunk with the blood of God's saints and tcith 
 the blood of the witnesses of Jesus? Shall it be endured that, let 
 but one head lift itself from the midst of enslaved Christendom, 
 and it must immediately fall? Shall the man whom God seems 
 to have formed for resisting a power which nothing hitherto has 
 been able to resist, be overthrown in his turn? Luther himself 
 saw none but the elector that could save him ; but he would 
 rather die than compromise his prince. His friends fell at 
 length upon a device which would not expose Frederick. Let 
 him refuse to give Luther a safe-conduct, and the latter would 
 then have a legitimate pretext for not appearing at Rome. 
 
 On the 8th of August, Luther wrote to Spalatin requesting 
 him to use his influence with the elector in order to have him 
 summoned to appear in Germany. "See," he farther adds in 
 writing to Staupitz, "what snares are laid in order to get me 
 near them, and how I am hedged round with thorns. But Christ 
 lives and reigns yesterday, to day, and for ever. My conscience 
 assures me that it is the truth that I have been teaching, 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF WITTEMBEUQ INTERCEDES. 323 
 
 although its being taught by me makes it still more unpalatable. 
 The Church is like Rebecca's womb; the little ones that are in 
 it, must needs struggle with each other, so as even to risk the 
 mother's life.' As for the rest, pray to God that my joy in 
 this trial may not be excessive. May God not lay this evil to 
 their charge!" 
 
 Luther's friends did not confine themselves to consultations 
 and complaints. Spalatin, on the elector's part, wrote to Renner, 
 the emperor's secretary: "Doctor Martin Luther willingly 
 consents to have, for his judges, all the universities of Germany, 
 except those of Erfurt, Leipsick, and Frankfort on the Oder, 
 which have made themselves suspected. It is impossible for him 
 to go in person to Romef- 
 
 The university of Wittemberg, on this occasion, sent a letter 
 of intercession to the pope. " His bodily weakness," it says in 
 speaking of Luther, " and the perils of the journey, would render 
 it difficult, nay even impossible for him to comply with the order 
 of your holiness. His sufferings and his prayers make us com- 
 passionate him. We therefore beseech you, holy father, as your 
 obedient sons, to be pleased to regard him as a man who has 
 aever been contaminated with doctrines opposed to the senti- 
 ments of the Roman Church." 
 
 In the eagerness of its solicitude, the university addressed 
 itself on the same day to Charles of Miltitz, a Saxon gentleman 
 and chamberlain to the pope, who was much loved by Leo X. 
 and in that letter bore still stronger testimony to Luther than it 
 had ventured upon in the other. " Worthy father Martin 
 Luther, Augustinian," it says, " is the noblest and most hon- 
 ourable member of our university. We have for several years 
 witnessed and known his abilities, his learning, his extensive know- 
 ledge of the arts and literature, his blameless morals, and his 
 entirely Christian conduct." 3 
 
 This active exercise of love toward Luther on the part of those 
 by whom he was surrounded, forms his highest eulogium. 
 
 While the issue of this affair was anxiously looked for, it 
 
 ' Uterus Rebeccse est : parrulos in eo collidi necesse est, etiam usque ad per- 
 iculum matris. (L. Epp. i. p. 138.) 
 
 2 L. 0pp. (L.)xvii. p. 1T3. 
 
 3 L. 0pp. (lat.) i. 183, 184 L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 171, 172. 
 
*^i24! HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ended far more easily than any could have anticipated. The 
 legate, de Vio, mortified at having failed in the commission he 
 had received, to prepare Germany for a general war against the 
 Turks, wished to give an importance and lustre to his emhassy 
 to that country by some other striking act, and thought that 
 could he but extinguish heresy, he might make his appearance 
 again in Rome with glory. Accordingly, he besought the pope 
 to remit this affair to him. Leo, on his side, was pleased with 
 Frederick for having stoutly opposed the election of the youthful 
 Charles, and he felt that he might again require his assistance. 
 Without farther mention of the summons, he charged his legate, 
 by a brief dated August 2Sd, to examine the affair in Germany. 
 By this course the pope lost nothing; and even in the event of 
 being able to induce Luther to give in a retractation, the excite- 
 ment and scandal which his appearance at Rome must have occas- 
 ioned, were thus avoided. 
 
 " We charge you," said he, " to cause to appear personally 
 before you, to prosecute, and to constrain, without delay, and 
 as soon as you shall have received this writing from us, the 
 said Luther, who has already been declared a heretic by our 
 dear brother, Jerome, bishop of Asculum.''! 
 
 The pope then prescribes the severest measures against Luther. 
 
 " Invoke to this effect the secular arm and aid of our 
 dearest son in Christ, Maximilian, and of the other princes of 
 Germany, and all the communities, universities, and potentates, 
 ecclesiastical or secular. And should you apprehend him, see 
 to his being strictly guarded, in order that he may be led before 
 us." 2 
 
 It will be perceived that this indulgent concession of the pope 
 was little better than a surer method of dragging Luther to 
 Rome. Next come the milder measures: 
 
 " If he return to himself and crave pardon for such an offence, 
 of himself, and without being invited thereto, we grant you 
 power to receive him into the unity of the holy mother, the 
 Church." 
 
 The pope soon returns to maledictions: 
 
 1 Dictnm Lutlierum hacreticum per prsedictum auditorem jam declaratum. 
 (Breve Leonis X. ad Thomam ) 
 
 - Brachio cogas atque compellas, et eo in potestate tua redacto cum sub fidcli 
 custodia retineas, ut coram nobis sistatur. (Ibid.) 
 
THE pope's DRIE1\ 325 
 
 "If he persist in his obstinacy, and should you fail to briu"- 
 him into your power, we authorise you to proscribe him in all 
 parts of Germany, to banish, and curse, and excommunicate all 
 who adhere to him, and to command all Christians to shun their 
 presence." 
 
 " And to the end," continues the pope, " that this plague may 
 be more easily extirpated, you shall excommunicate all prelates, 
 religious orders, universities, communities, counts, dukes, and 
 potentates, except the emperor Maximilian, who fail to seize the 
 said Martin Lutlier and his adherents, and to send them to you 
 under due and good guard. And if, which may God forefend, the 
 said princes, communities, universities, and potentates, or anyone 
 belonging to them, ofter an asylum in any wise to the said Martin 
 and his adherents, by giving him, overtly or covertly, by them- 
 selves or by means of others, aid and advice, we place under 
 interdict those princes, communities, universities, and potentates, 
 with their cities, towns, rural districts, and villages, as also the 
 cities, towns, rural districts, and villages to which the said 
 Martin may have fled, as long as he shall abide therein and 
 three days after he shall have quitted them." 
 
 This audacious chair, which pretends to represent on earth 
 Him who said : " God hath sent his Son into the world., not to con- 
 demn the icoi'ld, but that the world through him might he saved., 
 then continues its anathemas, and after having pronounced what 
 penalties should be imposed on ecclesiastics, it says: 
 
 " As for what regards the laity, if they do not instantly obey 
 your orders, without any demur or opposition, we declare them 
 infamous, with the exception of the most worthy emperor, 
 incapable of acquitting themselves of any suitable action, 
 deprived of Christian sepulture, and despoiled of all fiefs they 
 may hold either from the apostolic see, or from any other lord 
 whomsoever." 1 " 
 
 J Infamise et inhabilitatis ad omncs actus legitimes, ecclesiasticse sepulturic, 
 privationis quoque feudonmi. (Breve Leonis X. ad Thomam.) 
 
 ^ We see here the precise marks of Anti-clirist, the Beast of the Revela- 
 tions, which was to forbid all from buying or selling, save such as had his mark 
 and subjected themselves to him, (Rev, xiii. 17.) And how then should we 
 hesitate to declare the popes of Rome, at some periods of their existence, to bo 
 such Anti-christs. Granting that they may not have been the proper Anti- 
 christ, which we have yet to look for, they were his forerunners. Still ought wo 
 to be on our guard against their craftiness : — and, indeed, it is in lilce manner thn 
 
326 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Such was the fate that awaited Luther. The monarch of 
 Rome conjured all things to conspire towards his ruin, allowing 
 nothing to escape him, not even the repose of the grave. Luther's 
 ruin seemed inevitable, for how possibly could he escape from 
 such an immense combination against him ? But here Rome 
 deceived herself; a movement which had been originated by the 
 Spirit of God, could not be arrested by the decrees of her 
 chancellorship. 
 
 Not even the semblance of a fair and impartial inquest was 
 in this case observed. Luther was declared a heretic, not only 
 before being heard, but, further, long before the expiry of the 
 term allowed for his appearance. The passions, never more 
 imperious than in religious controversies, overleap all the forms 
 of justice; and this not only in the Roman Church but in those 
 Protestant Churches, also, which have declined from the gospel, 
 and in short, wherever the truth has disappeared. All is 
 thought fair, if it be against the gospel. Men who in any other 
 case would scruple to commit the slightest injustice, are often 
 seen not afraid to trample under foot all rules and all rights, 
 from the moment that Christianity, and the testimony that is 
 borne to it, are in question. ^ 
 
 interests of all nations and princes, not to permit their influence to extend into 
 territories which are foreign to them. It is likewise a thing quite_ unheard 
 of, for the chief of a particular temporal state, or even a superior priest esta- 
 blished in any particular country, to exercise the powers of government in other 
 lands besides, even supposing these to be purely religious. The history of the 
 Reformation exhibits the consequences. As long as the popes show their reli- 
 gious supi-emacy by other than religious testimonies, their authority over other 
 countries must not be acknowledged as lawful, especially not where Protestants 
 are to be found among the population. It is unbefitting even to enter into con- 
 cordats with them. 
 
 They ought to be treated as persons whose presence is not to be presumed, 
 and no oaths of allegiance to them ought to be permitted. Resistance to their 
 influence is no oppression of conscience done to persons of the Romish persua- 
 sion, but it is luerely to ward ofi' that oppression of the conscience which other- 
 wise threatens all other persuasions; it is merely the resistance to an encroach- 
 ment which never can be proved to rest on grounds which the conscience can 
 acknowledge. The man who cannot agree to this, ought to go to some other 
 country, where he may have his co-religionists only to live with, or live under 
 the immediate government of the pope. It is something different to give per- 
 mission to the people of the Romish Church, to receive certain spiritual advices 
 respecting religious exercises into their churches or houses, from their supreme 
 pontiff'. This may be done without risk or offence to others. Reasonable 
 Roman Catholics would be satisfied with it, and would not arrogate to themselves 
 or desire any political privileges beyond other persuasions. — L. R. 
 
 ' This has been seen not long since in Geneva, and Switzerland. And now 
 that people there have come to see their error, and have returned to a fair and 
 just toleration, it seems as if the Netherlanders, so sedate a people in other 
 
LUTHER'a INDIGNATION. 327 
 
 Wlicn Luther was inibrmed of this brief afterwards, lie 
 expressed his indignation at it : " See," said he, " the most 
 remarkable part of the affair: the brief was issued on August 
 28d, and I was summoned on the 7th of that month, so that 
 between the summons and the brief, there was an interval of six- 
 teen days. Now, reckon up and you will find that my Lord 
 Jerome, bishop of Askclum, has proceeded against me, has 
 passed sentence, has condemned me, and declared me to be a 
 heretic, before the summons could have reached me, or, at the 
 most, sixteen days after having sent it off. I now ask, where 
 then are the sixty days allowed me in my summons? They 
 began on the 7th of August, and ought to have ended on the 
 7tli of October. ... Is this the style and the method of 
 the court of Rome, that in one day it calls a man before it, 
 exhorts, accuses, judges, condemns, and declares to be condemned, 
 a man at such a distance from Rome, and who meanwhile is in 
 absolute ignorance of such proceedings? What will they reply 
 to this? No doubt, that they had forgotten to purge their brain 
 with hellebore before proceeding with such a farce."^ 
 
 But at the same time that Rome secretly deposited her thun- 
 derbolts in the hands of her legate, she sought, by mild and 
 flattering speeches, to detach from the cause of Luther the 
 prince whose power she most dreaded. That same day, 23d 
 August, 1518, the pope wrote a letter to the elector of Saxony, 
 in which he again had recourse to the artifices of the old policy 
 which we have noticed, and set himself to flatter the prince's 
 vanity. 
 
 " Dear Son," said the Roman pontiff, " when we think of 
 your noble and praise-worthy race, and of you who are its chief 
 and ornament; when we recall to mind how you and your ances- 
 tors have ever sought to maintain the Christian faith, together 
 with the honour and the dignity of the holy see, we cannot 
 believe that a man who forsakes the faith can throw himself on 
 your Highnesses favour, and boldly give the reins to his mis- 
 chievous spirit. Nevertheless, it is reported to us from all parts 
 that a certain friar, Martin Luther, hermit of the Order of St. 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 176. 
 respects, made it a point of honour to give themselves over to this insanity, and 
 oven to defend it ■with all apparent show of reasoning. — L. R. 
 
328 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Augustine, as a child of malice and a despiser of God, has for- 
 gotten his dress and his order, which consist in humility and in 
 obedience, and boasts that he fears not either any man's author- 
 ity or punishment from any man, in as much as he is assured of 
 your favour and protection. 
 
 " But as we know that he deceives himself, we have thought 
 it good to write to your highness and to exhort you, according 
 to the Lord, to look to the honour of the name of a prince so 
 Christian as you are, to defend yourself from these calumnies, 
 you, who are the ornament, the glory, and the good odour of 
 your noble race, and to beware not only of so grave a fault as 
 that imputed to you, but of the very suspicion which the insen- 
 sate hardihood of that friar has brought upon you." 
 
 Leo X. at the same time announced to Frederick that he had 
 commissioned the cardinal Saint Sixtus to examine the matter, 
 and enjoined him to deliver Luther into the legate's hands, "for 
 fear," he adds, reverting again to his favourite argument, " lest 
 the godly of the present or of future times should come to 
 lament and say: "The most pernicious heresy that ever afflicted 
 the Church of God, owed its rise to the assistance and the favour 
 accorded by that high and praise-worthy house." ^ 
 
 Thus had Rome taken all her measures. With the one hand, 
 she diflFused the ever intoxicating incense of flattery, while she 
 kept her vengeance and her terrors concealed in the other.2 
 
 All the powers of this world, the emperor, the pope, princes 
 and legates, now began to bestir themselves against the lowly 
 Erfurt friar, whose inward struggles we have been following. 
 The kings of the earth set themsehes, and the rulers take counsel 
 together^ against the Lord and against his anointed. 
 
 in. The letter and brief had not yet reached Germany, and 
 Luther was still in dread of seeing himself obliged to appear 
 at Rome, when a happy event brought him comfort in his 
 anxiety. He needed a friend into whose bosom he might pour 
 his sorrows, and from whose faithful affection he might receive 
 
 1 L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 1T3. 
 
 ^ Thus had Rome ever known how to flatter princes, in order that she might 
 avail herself of their power for the oppression of the truth. Nor has she for- 
 gotten this artifice in our own days ; as long as she has any hope of bringing 
 princes over to her interests, slie recommends and urges the people to subjec- 
 tion, yet favours revolts and excites to rebellion when these promise to extend 
 her power. — L, R. 
 
THE ARMOURER SCHWABZEBD AND HIS WIFE. 329 
 
 consolation in his hours of sadness; all this God supplied in the 
 person of Melanchthon. 
 
 George Scliwarzerd was a skilful armourer at JBrctten, a small 
 town in the palatinate. On the 14th of February 1497, there 
 was born to him a son called Philip, and who afterwards became 
 illustrious under the name of Melanchthon. Georoe was much 
 liked by the palatinate princes and those of Bavaria and Saxony, 
 and was a man of the most thorough honesty. He often refused 
 the price offered him by purchasers, and if ho discovered that they 
 were poor, would oblige them to take back their money. It was his 
 habit to rise at midnight, when he would kneel down and pray. 
 If the light broke without his having done so, he was displeased 
 with himself the whole day after. Barbara, Schwarzerd's wife, 
 was the daughter of an honourable magistrate, called John 
 Keuter. She was of a mild temper, somewhat prone to super- 
 stition, but otherwise remarkable for wisdom and prudence. She 
 is the author of the well known old German lines: — 
 
 " No money's lost in giving alms, 
 Nor time, at church, in pray'rs and psalms, 
 To grease the wheels dispatch procures, 
 Ill-gotten wealth but loss secures ; 
 God's Word to error never lures." 
 
 And those other rhymes : — 
 
 " He that money throws away 
 Faster than his fields repay, 
 Though no rope be his undoing, 
 Not the less will come to ruin."' 
 
 Philip was not eleven years old when his father died. Two 
 days before he breathed his last, George called his son to his 
 bed-side, and exhorted him to have the thought of God ever 
 present to his mind: " I foresee," said the dying armourer, "that 
 the world is about to be convulsed by terrible tempests. 1 have 
 witnessed great things, but still greater are now preparing. May 
 God guide and guard you !" After receiving this paternal bene- 
 diction, Philip was sent to Spires, that he might be saved the 
 sight of his father's death. He left the spot in tears. 
 
 The boy's grandfather, worthy baillie Renter, although he had 
 
 ' Almosen geben arm nicht, &c. Wer mehr will verzehren, Ac. (Miiller's 
 Reliquien.) 
 
 I. 2t 
 
S30 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 a son of his own, became a father to Philip, and took him with 
 liis brother George into his house. Shortly after, he gave the 
 three boys for their preceptor John Hungarus, an excellent man, 
 who afterwards, and to a very advanced age, preached the gos- 
 pel very powerfully. He would allow nothing to pass with the 
 young man, but punished him, though judiciously, for every 
 fault: " Thus," says Melanchthon in 1554, "did he make me a 
 grammarian. He loved me as a son, and I him as a father: 
 and we shall meet, I hope, in eternal life."^ 
 
 Philip distinguished himself by his mental excellence and by 
 the ease with which he both acquired knowledge and could com- 
 municate what he had acquired. He could not live idle, and 
 was ever looking about for some one to hold a discussion with 
 on what he had heard. 2 It often happened that well informed 
 strangers passed through Bretten and called on Eeuter; on those 
 occasions the baiUie's grandson would go up to them, enter into 
 conversation with them, and bear so hard upon them in argu- 
 ment, as to be the wonder of all who heard him. To the vigour 
 of genius he united remarkable gentleness, so that he soon 
 became a general favourite. He had a stutter in his speech, but 
 like the illustrious Greek orator, so carefully did he set himself 
 to correct that fault, that at length no trace of it could be 
 discovered. 
 
 His grandfather dying, young Philip was sent with his bro- 
 ther and young uncle, John, to the school at Pforzheim; the 
 three youths residing, while there, in the house of a female rela- 
 tive, sister of the famous Eeuchlin. His eagerness in the 
 acquisition of knowledge enabled Philip to make rapid progress 
 in its various branches, and particularly in the study of Greek, 
 of which he became passionately fond. Reuchlin often visited 
 Pforzheim, became acquainted in his sister's house with her 
 three young boarders, and was soon struck with Philip's replies 
 to the questions he put. He gave him a Greek grammar and a 
 Bible, two books which were to be the study of his v/hole life. 
 
 On Reuchlin''s return from his second journey into Italy, his 
 
 » Dilexit me ut filium et ego ilium nt patrem : et conveniemus, spero, in vit.i 
 eterna. Melancht. Explicat. Evange. 
 
 ^ Quicsccre not poterat, sed quajrebat ubique aliquem com quo do auditii* 
 disputaret. (Camerarius, Vit. Melancht. p. 7.) 
 
MELANCHTHON. 331 
 
 young relative, then at the age of twelve, celebrated the day of 
 his arrival by acting in his presence, along with some friends, a 
 Latin comedy of his own composition. Ravished with the talent 
 displayed by this mere boy, lleuchlin clasped him in his arms, 
 called him his dear son, and laiiglnngly presented him with the 
 red hat he had received on being made a doctor. It was on this 
 occasion that Kcuclilin changed his name of Schwarzerd into 
 Melanchthon, both signifying blach earthy the one in German 
 and the other in Greek. The greater number of the learned of 
 that time thus translated their names into Greek or Latin. 
 
 At the age of twelve Melanchthon went to the university of 
 Heidelberg, and there he began to slake that thirst for know- 
 ledire which was then consuming- him. He was admitted a 
 bachelor at the age of fourteen. In 1512 lieuchlin sent for him 
 to come to Tubingen, where many of the most distinguished men 
 of learning were at that time to be found. There being no 
 department of knowledge that he did not think it his duty to 
 investigate, he attended, at one and the same time, the lectures on 
 theology, medicine, and jurisprudence; not that he cared for 
 praise, but that he wanted to possess hiuiself of learning and 
 its fruits. 
 
 Holy Scripture chiefly occupied him. Persons who attended 
 the church at Tubingen remarked that he had often a book in 
 his hands, with which he occupied himself between the services. 
 This unknown book looked larger than the prayer books, and 
 thereupon it was reported that Philip, during those intervals, 
 read profane books. But it was found that the object of their 
 suspicions was a copy of the Holy Scriptures, printed a short 
 while before by John Frobenius. He continued that course of 
 reading for the rest of his life, with the most assiduous applica- 
 tion. He had that precious volume always about him, and took 
 it with him to all the public meetings to which he was called. ^ 
 Rejecting the idle system of the schoolmen, he attached himself 
 to the simple language of the gospel. ^ "Of Melanchthon,"" 
 
 ' Camerar. Vita Philip. Melanchthonis, p. 16. 
 
 - Here wc have a genuine mark of true old Protestantism, or of well-grounded 
 longings after better views, and a thorough restoration of obscured truth. This 
 lay in the high appreciation in which he hold the Bible ; the absolute surrender 
 of his heart to that divine teaching ; the sincerity of his willingness steadfastly 
 to adhere to the clear and plain sense of that word, and not to allow himself to 
 be guided by his own conceptions or by human philosophy. Plow far removed 
 
332 HISTOEY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 wrote at that time Erasmus to CEcolampadius, "I entertain the 
 most favourable sentiments and magnificent hopes. Let but 
 Christ vouchsafe that that young man may long survive us. He 
 will quite eclipse Erasmus." ^ Melanchthon, nevertheless, shared 
 in the errors of his age. " I shudder,"" said he, at a later period 
 of his life, "when I think of the honour I paid to statues, while 
 I was as yet a Papist." 2 
 
 In 1514 he was made doctor in philosophy, and became a 
 public teacher. He was then only seventeen. The grace and 
 other attractions that marked his teaching, formed a most strik- 
 ing contrast to the insipid methods pursued at that time by the 
 doctors, and, above all, by the monks. He warmly interested 
 himself in the controversy in which Reuchlin was engaged with 
 the obscurantes of his age. The charms of his conversation, his 
 gentle and elegant manners, and the affection with which he 
 was regarded by all who knew him, soon earned for him great 
 influence and a solid reputation in the learned world. 
 
 It was now that Frederick conceived the idea of inviting some 
 distingTiished scholar to profess the ancient tongues at his uni- 
 versity of Wittemberg, and applied to Reuchlin, who recom- 
 mended Melanchthon. Frederick perceived what lustre that 
 young Hellenist must shed upon the university he so fondly 
 cherished, while Reuchlin, in his ecstacy at beholding so noble 
 a field opening up before his young friend, sent him the words 
 addressed by the Lord to Abraham: '■'■Get thee out of thy country, 
 and from thy kindred, and from thy father'' s house, and I icill make 
 thy name great, and thou shalt he blessed. Yea," continues the 
 old man, " I trust it shall be so with thee, my dear Philip, my 
 handiwork, and my solace." 3 In this vocation Melanchthon 
 owned a call from God. The university was grieved at his 
 
 from this is the spirit of that new Protestantism which follows its own imagina- 
 tions only, twists and wrests the Bible according to these, and while it appeals, 
 forsooth, to the example of the reformers, in so far as they stood up for the 
 liberty of private inquiry, altogether departs from the sincerity of intention 
 with which they availed themselves of that liberty, and from the course which 
 they steadily pursued. How unreasonable and unjust is it, in the face of mani- 
 fest truth, to accuse and render hateful the old and genuine Protestantism 
 because of the conduct and spirit of the new, to which the old is directly 
 opposed? — L. R. 
 
 ' Is prorsus obscarabit Erasmum. (Er. Epp. i. p. 405.) 
 
 2 Cohorresco quando cogito quomodo ipse accesserim ad statuas in papatu. 
 (Explicat. Evangel.) 
 
 ^ Meum opus et meum consolatium. (Corp. Ref. i. 33.) 
 
iiklanchthon's departdre and journicy. 333 
 
 departure; and yet it had some members who were jealous of 
 liim; nay, who were even his enemies. Ho left his native 
 country exclaiming: " The will of the Lord be done!" He was 
 at this time one and twenty, 
 
 Melanchthon performed the journey on horseback, in the 
 company of some Saxon merchants, as if he had joined a caravan 
 on the desert, for, says Reuchlin, he knew neither the places nor 
 the roads. ^ He presented his respects to the elector, whom he 
 found at Au"sbur<r. At Nurember": he formed ties with the 
 excellent Pirckheimer; at Leipsick with the learned Hellenist, 
 Mosellanus. In the last of these cities, the university honoured 
 him with a public entertainment. The feast was truly academ- 
 ical; the dishes followed each other in rapid succession, and as 
 each new dish was brought in, one of the professors rose and 
 addressed IVIelanchthon in a Latin discourse which had been 
 prepared before hand ; upon which he immediately pronounced 
 an unpremeditated reply. Wearied out at length with such a 
 surfeit of eloquence: " Most illustrious men," said he, " allow me 
 to reply once for all to your harangues ; for, being unprepared, I 
 cannot introduce the same variety into my answers that you 
 have in your addresses." After that, the dishes were introduced 
 without the accompaniment of a speech. ^ 
 
 Reuchlin's young relative arrived at Wittemberg on the 25th 
 of August 1518, two days after Leo X. had subscribed the brief 
 addressed to Cajetan and the letter to the elector. 
 
 The professors at Wittemberg were not so warm in their 
 reception of Melanchthon as those at Leipsick had been; nor 
 did the impression he made correspond at first with their 
 expectations. They saw a young man, in appearance younger 
 even that he really was, of inconsiderable stature, and having an 
 aspect of feebleness and timidity. " And is this the illustrious 
 doctor," said they, "whom the greatest men of the time, 
 Erasmus and Reuchlin, so highly speak of?" . . . Neither 
 Luther, whose acquaintance he made first, nor his colleagues, 
 conceived any high hopes of him, on ooserving his youthfulness, 
 his embarrassment, and his manners. 
 
 Four days after his arrival, he delivered his inaugural dis- 
 
 ' Des wegs und der Orte unbekannt. (Corp. Ref. i. 33.) 
 * Camer. Vit. Mel. 20. 
 
334 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 course. The whole university was assembled. The boy grow- 
 ing into manhood, i as Luther calls him, spoke in such elegant 
 Latin, and displayed so much learning, so cultivated a mind, 
 and so sound a judgment, that all his auditors were filled with 
 admiration. 
 
 On concluding his discourse, all pressed forward to present 
 him with their congratulations; but no one felt so happy as did 
 Luther. He hastened to communicate to his friends the feelings 
 that overflowed his heart. " Melanchthon," he writes to Spal- 
 atin on the 21st of August, " four days after his arrival, pro- 
 nounced a harangue of such beauty and learning, as to be heard 
 with universal approbation and with astonishment. We soon 
 recovered from the prejudices created by his stature and personal 
 appearance; we now praise and admire his words; we return 
 thanks to the prince and to you for the service you have done 
 to us. I ask for no other master of Greek. But I fear his 
 delicate body may not be able to bear up under our mode of living, 
 and that we shall not keep him long, because of the smallness of his 
 salary. I understand that the Leipsick folks are already boasting 
 that they can deprive us of him. my dear Spalatin, see that 
 you do not despise his age and person. The man is worthy of 
 all honour.""- 
 
 Melanchthon set himself immediately to explain Homer and 
 St. PauFs epistle to Titus. He was full of energy. "I do my 
 very utmost,'^ he writes to Spalatin, "to gain for myself at 
 Wittemberg the good will of all who love letters and virtue." ^ 
 Four days after his inaugration, Luther wrote further to 
 Spalatin : " I most particularly recommend to you the most 
 learned, and most amiable Greek, Philip. His class room is 
 always full. All the theologians, in particular, attend his 
 lectures. He succeeds in making all, whether of the highest, 
 the middle, or the lowest form, fond of the study of Greek." ^ 
 
 Melanchthon could respond to the affection which Luther 
 bore to him. He soon discovered in his Saxon friend a kindliness 
 of character, a force of mind, a courage and a wisdom, such as 
 he never had seen the like of in any other man. Ho became 
 
 1 Puer et adolescentulus, si ajtatem consideres. (L. Epp. i. 141.) 
 
 2 L. Epp. i. 135. 
 
 3 Ut Wittembergam litteratis ac bonis omnibus conciliem. (Corp. Ref. i. 51.) 
 * Summos cum mediis et infimis, studiosos facit crrspcif,if is. (L. Epp. i. 140.) 
 
PARALLEL. LUTHER AND MELANCHTHON. 335 
 
 the object at once of veneration and of love. " If there be any 
 one," lie would say, " whom I very strongly love, and whom my 
 whole soul embraces, it is Martin Luther.'" ^ 
 
 Thus met Luther and Melanchthon, and their friendship 
 ended only with their lives. We can never sufficiently admire 
 the wisdom and the goodness of God in thus bringing together 
 two men, so different, and yet so necessary the one to the other. 
 What Luther had in ardour, impetuosity, and force, Melanch- 
 thon bad in the clearness of his views, in wisdom, and in gentle- 
 ness. Luther stimulated Melanchthon; Melanchthon moder- 
 ated Luther. They were like the positive and negative poles 
 in electrical bodies which mutually temper each other. Had 
 Melanchthon been wanting to Luther, the stream might possibly 
 have burst its banks. When Luther was wanting to Melanch- 
 thon, the latter hesitated, nay even gave way, wl:ere he ought 
 not to have done so. ^ Luther effected much by energy of 
 conduct; Melanchthon accomplished no less perhaps, while pur- 
 suing a gentler and more tranquil course. Both were honest, 
 open, and generous; both were full of love for the Word of 
 eternal life, and both served it with a fidelity and a devotedness 
 which formed the master influence of their whole lives. 
 
 Moreover, Melanchthon's arrival accomplished a revolution 
 not only at Wittemberg,but throughout all Germany, and indeed 
 in the whole learned world. The attention he had bestowed on 
 the Greek and Latin classics, and on philosophy, had given a 
 regularity, a clearness, and a precision to his ideas, that threw a 
 flood of new light on every subject he was called to treat, and 
 gave it an indescribable charm in his hands. The gentle spirit 
 of the Gospel imparted a teeming richness and a glow to his 
 meditations, and the dryest departments of knowledge were 
 invested in the expositions he gave of them, with a grace that 
 captivated all his hearers. The barrenness communicated by the 
 scholastic system to the art of teaching, ceased, and a new 
 method, both of instruction and of study, commenced with 
 Melanchthon. " We owe it to him," says an illustrious Ger- 
 
 ' Martimim si omnino in rebus humanis quidqnam, vehementissime diligo et 
 animo intcgerrimo comflcctor. (Melancht. Epp. i. 411.) 
 
 ' Calvin wrote to Sleidan : Dominus eum fortiore spiritu instruat, no gravem 
 ex ejus timiditate jacturam scntiat posteritas. 
 
336 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 man historian " that Wittemberg became the school of Ger- 
 many." ^ 
 
 One of the most remarkable circumstances attending the 
 friendship now formed between Melanchthon and Luther, was 
 the impulse towards the translation of the whole Bible com- 
 municated by the former to the latter. As early as in 1517, 
 Luther had made some essays in translation. He procured all the 
 Greekand Latin works he could obtain. But now, with thehelp of 
 his dear Philip, his labours took a new spring; Luther constrained 
 Melanchthon to share in his researches; he consulted him on 
 difficult passages; and hence the work which was to become one 
 of the greatest of the Ileformer''s undertakings, advanced at once 
 more surely, and with more expedition. 
 
 IV. There can be no doubt that Melanchthon's arrival had a 
 soothing effect on Luther's mind, by giving a pleasing distraction 
 to his thoughts at a very critical moment; no doubt, amid the 
 delightful reciprocities of a new-born friendship, and the biblical 
 labours to which he now with fresh zeal devoted himself, he could 
 at times forget Rome, Prierias, Leo, and the ecclesiastical court 
 before which he was called to appear. These, however, were but 
 transient intervals of ease, for his thoughts continually recurred 
 to the dread tribunal before whose bar his implacable enemies 
 had caused him to be summoned. And with what terror must 
 not such thoughts have overwhelmed the soul that had any 
 object in view but truth ! Yet Luther felt no such dread; full 
 of trust in the faithfulness and in the power of God, he stood 
 firm, and was ready to expose himself singly to the wrath of 
 enemies, more terrible than those that had consigned John Huss 
 to the flames. 
 
 A few days after Melanchthon''s arrival, and before it could be 
 known that the pope had resolved to cite Luther to appear at 
 Augsburg instead of Rome, the latter wrote to Spalatin: " I 
 ask not our sovereign to make the smallest effort in defence of 
 my theses; my wish is to be delivered over, and thrown alone 
 into the hands of my adversaries. Let him allow the whole 
 storm to burst upon me. What I have taken in hand to defend, 
 I hope, by the help of Christ, to be able to maintain; and as for 
 
 » Plank. 
 
OUOKR TO APPKAR AT AUGSBURG. 
 
 33f 
 
 violence, wo must indeed submit to it; nevertheless, witliout 
 abandoning the truth." ^ 
 
 Luther's courage proved contagious, so that even the gentlest 
 and most timid, when they saw the imminent danger that 
 threatened the witness to the truth, gave utterance to their 
 feelintjs in lanouaoo the most forcible and indi^rnant. The 
 cautious and pacific Staupitz wrote to Spalatin on September 
 7th : " Cease not to urge the prince, your master and mine, not 
 to allow himself to be frightened by the roaring of the lions. 
 Let him defend the truth, without disquieting himself about 
 Luther or Spalatin, or the order. Let there be but a place in 
 Avhicli one may speak out, freely and without fear, I know that 
 the plague of Babylon, I was almost going to say of Rome, 
 breaks out against whoever may attack the abuses of those who 
 sell Jesus Christ. I have myself seen a preacher who taught 
 the truth precipitated from the pulpit ; 1 have seen him, even 
 on a festival, bound and dragged to prison. Others have wit- 
 nessed things even more cruel. Therefore, dearest friend, do 
 you act so as to get His Highness to continue firm to his 
 opinions." 2 
 
 The order for his appearance before the cardinal legate at 
 Auofsburo;, at last arrived, and Luther had now to do with one 
 of the princes of the Church of Rome. All his friends were 
 urgent with him not to go. 3 They were afraid that snares might 
 be laid for him, and attempts made on his life, even before his 
 iourney was over. Some set themselves to procure for him an 
 asylum to flee to. Staupitz himself, the timid Staupitz, felt 
 agitated at the sio'ht of the dangers that awaited that friar Mar- 
 tin, whom he had drawn forth from the obscurity of a cloister, 
 and launched upon the stormy scene where his life was now in 
 jeopardy. Ah ! had it not been better for the poor friar to have 
 remained for ever unknown? It was now too late. He desired 
 at least to do all in his power to save him, and he wrote to him 
 accordingly from his monastery at Salzburg, on September loth, 
 urging him to fly and to take advantage of an asylum near him. 
 " To me it appears," he told him, " that the whole world is 
 
 ' L. Epp. 1. p. 139. 
 ^ Jen. Aug. i. p. 384. 
 
 ' Contra omnium amicorum consilium oompnrui. 
 T. 2 u 
 
33S HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 incensed, and has coalesced against the truth. Jesus crucified 
 was hated, all the same. I do not see that you have anything 
 but persecution to look for. Soon no one will be able, without 
 the pope's permission, to search the Scriptures and seek Jesus 
 Christ there, that nevertheless being what Christ enjoins. You 
 have but few friends, and God grant that the dread of your 
 adversaries may not hinder those few from declaring in your 
 favour! The wisest thing you can do, is to leave Wittemberg 
 for a time, and to come to me. We shall then live and die 
 together." " This, too," Staupitz adds, " is the advice of the 
 prince." ^ 
 
 Luther now received the most alarming intimations from 
 various quarters. Count Albert of Mansfeld sent him notice 
 that he must beware of setting out on his journey, as several 
 great lords had pledged themselves by an oath to seize his per- 
 son, and strangle or drown him. 2 But nothing could daunt him. 
 He had no idea of taking advantage of the vicar-generars offer. 
 He would not conceal himself in the obscurity of the monastery 
 at Salzburg; he would faithfully remain upon the stormy scene 
 where the hand of God had placed him. It was by persevering 
 in spite of his enemies, and proclaiming the truth aloud before 
 the world, that the reign of that truth was advanced. Why 
 then should he fly? He was not of those who draw back unto 
 perdition, but of those who keep the faith, to the saving of their 
 souls. Unceasingly did there resound in his heart that saying 
 of the Master whom he desired to serve, and whom he loved 
 more dearly tlian his life: Whosoever shall confess me before 
 men, Mm will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. 
 Everywhere do we find in Luther and the Reformation, the recur- 
 rence of that dauntless courage, that high-toned morality, that 
 boundless charity, which had been exhibited to the world at the 
 first advent of Christianity. "I am like Jeremiah," said Luther 
 at the time of which we now treat, " a man of contention and 
 strife; but the more they multiply their threats, the more do 
 they augment my joy. My wife and children are fully provided 
 i'or; my houses and possessions are in excellent order. ^ They 
 
 ' Epp. i. 01. 
 
 ' Ut vel stranguler, vol baptiser ad mortem. (L. Epp. i. 129.) 
 ^ Uxor men ct libcri mei provisi sunt. (L. Epp. i. 129.) He had none of 
 these. 
 
DEl'AKTUKIC 1011 AUGsnUKO. 339 
 
 have already torn to pieces my honour and reputation. One 
 thing only remains to me; it is this miserable body: let them 
 take it; they may thus abridge my life by a few hours. But as 
 for my soul — that they can never take. He who would bear 
 Christ's Word in the world, ought to look for death every hour ; 
 for our husband is a bloody husband." ^ 
 
 The Elector was now at Augsburg, and shortly before leaving 
 that city and the diet, he gave the legate his promise that 
 Luther should appear before him. Spalatin wrote to his friend, 
 on the part of the prince, that the pope had appointed a com- 
 mission to give him a hearing in Germany, that the elector 
 would not allow him to be dragged to Rome, and that he should 
 be preparing to set otit for Augsburg. Luther resolved to obey. 
 The intimation transmitted to him by the count of Mansfeld, 
 induced him to ask a safe-conduct from Frederick, who replied 
 that it was not necessary, and sent him only recommendations 
 to some of the most distinguished counsellors of Augsburg 
 He saw, also, to his being supplied with some money for his 
 travelling expenses; and thus did the Reformer, poor and 
 defenceless, set off on foot, to put himself into the hands of his 
 adversaries.- 
 
 But what must have been his feelings as he left Wittemberg 
 and took the road for Augsburg, where the pope's legate was 
 awaiting him ! The object of this journey was not like that 
 which took him to Heidelberg, an amicable meeting; he was 
 about to appear before the delegate of Rome without a safe 
 conduct, and was perhaps going to encounter death. But his 
 faith was not a faith of mere show; faith was with him a reality. 
 Hence it gave him inward peace, and he could go forward unap- 
 palled, in the name of the Lord of Hosts, to give his testimony 
 to the gospel. 
 
 He reached Weimar on the 28th of September, and lodged 
 in the monastery of the Cordeliers. One of the monks could 
 not turn his eyes away from him ; this was Myconius, who now 
 beholding Luther for the first time, wished to go up to him, and 
 to say that he was indebted to him for peace of soul, and that 
 
 * Sic enim sponsus noster, sponsus sanguinuni nobis est. (L. Epp. i. 129.) 
 See Exod. iv. 25. 
 
 * Veni igitur pedcster ct pauper Augustam (L. 0pp. lat. in praef.) 
 
340 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 it was his whole heart's desire to labour along with him, But 
 Myconius was strictly watched by his superiors, and was not 
 allowed to speak to Luther. ^ 
 
 The elector of Saxony was then holding his court at Weimar, 
 on which account probably the CordeUers gave the doctor a 
 welcome. The feast of St. Michael fell on the day after his 
 arrival. Luther said mass, and was even invited to preach in 
 the castle Church— a mark of favour which the prince was fond 
 of bestowing on him. He preached with much fulness in presence 
 of the court, upon the text of the day, being the 1st and 2d verses 
 of the xviii. chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. He 
 spoke forcibly against hypocrites and those who boasted of their 
 own righteousness, but said nothing about the angels, although 
 such was the custom on St. MichaeFs day. 
 
 This fearlessness on the part of the Wittemberg doctor, 
 as he was repairing, calmly and on foot, to answer to a citation 
 which in the case of so many of his predecessors, had been the 
 prelude to their death, astonished those who witnessed it. They 
 first felt an interest in him, then admired, and at length sym 
 pathised with him. John Kestner, purveyor to the Cordehers, 
 was alarmed at the thought of the dangers that awaited his guest, 
 and said to him: " Brother, you will find Italians at Augsburg, 
 who are knowing men, subtile antagonists, and who will give you 
 much to do. I fear you will not be able to defend your cause 
 against them. They will toss you into the fire, and their flames 
 will consume you." 2 Luther gravely replied: "Dear friend, 
 pray to our Lord God, who is in heaven, and present to him a 
 Paternoster for me and for his dear child Jesus, whose cause is my 
 cause, in order that he may be gracious to him. If he maintain 
 his cause, mine is maintained. But if he desires not to maintain 
 it, certainly it is not I that will maintain it, and it is he who 
 will bear the disgrace of losing it." ^ 
 
 1 Ibi Myconius primum vidit Lutherum: sed ab accessu et colloquio ejus tunc 
 est pi'ohibitus. (Melch. Adami, Vit. Myc. p. 176.) 
 
 2 Profecto in iguem te conjicient et flammis exurent. (Ibid. p. 170. Myconia 
 ref. hist. p. 3(i.) 
 
 3 When we follow Luther, step by step, in this journey, and attentively watch 
 his proceedings, wo are more and more filled with admiration, and feel that a 
 sincere love for the truth, and the perfect assurance which from his inmost soul ho 
 entertained with respect to it, and not ambition or any other unjustifiable motive, 
 could have enabled him thus resolutely to encounter the greatest danger. We 
 
LUTHEirs JOURNEY. NUREMBERG. 341 
 
 Luther continued Ins journey and arrived at Nuremberg. 
 There he went to pay his respects to a prince of the Church, and 
 wished to appear in a decent dress. The coat he wore was old 
 when he began his journey, and it had suflered much by the way, 
 so that he borrowed a frock from his faithful friend Wenceslas 
 Link, preacher at Nuremberg. 
 
 Link, of course, was not the only friend he saw; he must have 
 met with others at Nuremberg, including Scheurl, the town 
 secretary, the illustrious painter, Albert Durer, to whose memory 
 Nuremberg is now erecting a statue, and others besides. He 
 strengthened himself by his intercourse with these excellent men 
 of the earth, while many monks and laymen took alarm at his 
 journey and endeavoured to shake his resolution by conjuring him 
 to turn back. The letters he wrote from that city show the 
 spirit by Avhich he then was animated; "I have met," says he, 
 " with pusillanimous persons, who would persuade me not to 
 repair to Augsburg, but I am resolved to go there. May the Lord's 
 will be done ! Jesus reigns even at Augsburg and in the midst of 
 his enemies. Let Christ live; let Luther die and every sinner, 
 according as it is written ! Let the God of my salvation be 
 exalted! Comport yourself well, persevere, be steadfast; for we 
 must be reproved either by men or by God: but God is true and 
 man a liar." i 
 
 Link and an Augustinian monk, called Leonard, could not 
 make up their minds to suffer Luther to advance alone in the 
 face of the dangers that threatened him. They were acquainted 
 with his character, they knew that with his disregard of 
 self, and with his personal courage, he might be wanting in 
 prudence, and accordingly they accompanied him. When about 
 five leagues from Augsburg, Luther, who was no doubt exhausted 
 by the fatigues of his journey and the various agitations of his 
 heart, was seized with a violent pain in his stomach, and thought 
 himself dying. His two friends were greatly distressed, and 
 hired a car on which they conveyed the doctor to Augsburg. 
 They arrived there on the evening of Friday, the seventh of 
 
 shall have the same observation to make on his whole conduct with regard to 
 Cajetan. — L. R. 
 
 1 Vivat Christus, moriatur Martinus. . . . (Weismanni Historia sacr. 
 iiovi. Test., p. 1465.) Weismann had read thia letter in manuscript. It is not 
 tu be found in M. de Wetto's collection. 
 
342 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 October, and drew up at the monastery of the Augustinians. 
 Luther was much fatigued, but soon regained his strength ; his 
 enfeebled body no doubt owing its speedy recovery to his strong 
 faith and constitutional vivacity. 
 
 V. Hardly had Luther arrived in Augsburg and he had as 
 yet seen no one there, when he begged Wenceslas Link to go and 
 announce his arrival to the legate, to whom he desired to show all 
 proper respect. Link did this, and submissively told the cardinal, 
 on the part of the Wittemberg doctor, that the latter was ready 
 to appear before him whenever he chose to send for him. De 
 Vio rejoiced at this news. He had the fiery heretic at length 
 in his grasp; and he promised himself that his victim should not 
 quit the walls of Augsburg, now that he was once within them. 
 At the same time that Link went to see the legate, the monk 
 Leonard set off to announce Luther's arrival at Augsburg to 
 Staupitz. The vicar-general had written to the doctor, that he 
 would certainly come to him the moment ho knew him to be 
 there, and Luther was anxious that no time should be lost in 
 apprising him of his arrival. ^ 
 
 The Diet had now come to a close; the emperor and the 
 electors had separated in various directions; and though the 
 former had not, indeed, finally left the place, he was gone to 
 hunt in the neighbourhood. Thus the ambassador of Rome 
 alone remained at Augsburg. Had Luther arrived during the 
 sitting of the Diet, he would have found powerful defenders 
 there; but now all seemed likely to bend under the weight of 
 the papal authority. The name of the judge before whom 
 Luther was to appear, was not calculated to re-assure him. 
 Thomas de Vio, surnamed Cajetan, from the town of Gaeta, in 
 the kingdom of Naples, where he was born in 1469, had given 
 rise to great expectations of future eminence from his youth up. 
 At the age of sixteen, he entered the order of Dominicans, 
 against the express will of his relations. He afterwards became 
 general of that order and cardinal of the Eoman Church. But 
 what was worse for Luther, this learned doctor was one of the 
 most zealous defenders of that scholastic theology which the 
 Reformer had all along pitilessly assailed. Moreover, his learii- 
 
 ' Epp. i. p. 144. 
 
DE VIO.— SERRA-LONGA. 343 
 
 ing, the severity of his character, and the pureness of his morals, 
 secured for him in Germany a degree of authok'ty and influence 
 which no other Roman courtier could have readily obtained, 
 and to this reputation for sanctity, he no doubt owed his being 
 sent thither. Rome saw that he would admirably serve her 
 purposes. Thus even the personal virtues of Cajetan rendered 
 him still more formidable. As for the rest, there was little com- 
 plication in the task committed to him. Luther had already 
 been declared a heretic ; if he did not choose to retract, it was 
 the legate's duty to commit him to prison ; and should he escape 
 from his grasp, to smite with excommunication whoever should 
 afford him shelter. Such was the course to be pursued on the 
 part of Rome, by the prince of the Church into whose presence 
 Luther was now summoned, i 
 
 Refreshed and re-invigorated by a night's rest, Luther, on the 
 morning of Saturday, the 8th of October, began to review the 
 singular position in which he was placed. He was submissive, 
 and waited until God should make known his will by events; 
 nor had he long to wait. He received a message from a person 
 quite unknown to him, but who professed being wholly devoted 
 to his interests, saying that he was about to pay him a visit, and 
 that Luther should take care not to appear before the legate 
 until they should first have an interview. This message came 
 from an Italian courtier, called Urban of Serra-Longa, who had 
 often been in Germany as envoy of the margrave of Montferrat. 
 He knew the elector of Saxony, to whom he had presented 
 credentials, and after the margrave's death had attached himself 
 to the cardinal de Vio. 
 
 This man's finesse and manners formed the most striking con- 
 trast with Luther's noble frankness and generous candour. The 
 Italian speedily arrived at the monastery of the Augustinians. 
 The cardinal had sent him to sound the Reformer, and to pre- 
 pare him for the retractation he expected him to make. Serrar 
 Longa thought that the time he had spent in Italy, must give 
 him great advantages over the other courtiers in the cardinal's 
 train, and these he hoped to play off with much effect upon this 
 German monk. He appeared attended by two domestics, and 
 
 1 Tlie Pope's Bull. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 174.) 
 
344 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 professed having come at his own suggestion, wishing to act the 
 part of a friend to a favourite of the elector of Saxony, and to 
 show his attachment to holy Church. After giving Luther the 
 most affectionate greeting, the diplomatist added in a tone o5 
 apparent affection : 
 
 " I come to offer you good and wholesome counsel. Re-attach 
 vourself to the Church. Yield to the cardinal without reserve. 
 Retract your insults. Recollect the abbe Joachim of Florence: 
 you know he said heretical things, and yet was declared not to 
 be a heretic, because he retracted his errors.""^ 
 
 Luther then offered to justify himself. 
 
 Serra-Longa. — "Beware of doing that! . . would you 
 pretend to enter the lists, as at a tournament, with the legate 
 of his Holiness V . . . 
 
 Luther. — " If it can be proved that I have taught anything 
 contrary to the Roman church, I shall be my own judge and 
 will immediately retract. The whole question will be to know 
 whether the legate does not rest more upon St. Thomas than 
 the faith will warrant. If he does so, I won't yield to him." 
 
 Serra-Longa. — "What! what! so you pretend to break 
 lances!" . . 
 
 The Italian then began to utter things which Luther calls 
 horrible. He argued that a man might maintain false pro- 
 positions provided they brought in money and filled the strong- 
 boxes; that people would do well to beware of disputing, at the 
 universities, about the power of the pope; that they ought to 
 maintain, on the contrary, that the pontiff had the power by a 
 wink to alter or suppress articles of faith; and other such 
 things. 2 But the cunning Italian soon saw he was forgetting 
 himself ; he returned to milder language and endeavoured to 
 
 • This abbot Joachim is apparently the same person otherwise known by the 
 name of Joachim, abbot of Flora, who lived in the time of the crusades, 
 uttered many presages with respect to a reformation which he said was prepar- 
 ing, declared that Antichrist would be a pope, and was already born at Rome, 
 and, moreover, entertained some erroneous views with regard to the Trinity. 
 As he had many adherents, particularly among the Franciscans of the times that 
 followed, his sentiments were condemned by pope Innocent III. at the second 
 I.ateran council, as will be found where botli are mentioned by Mosheim in his 
 Church History, and by Maimbourg in his History of the Crusades. Yet 
 neither speaks of his recantation ; the former merely stating that his person 
 was not condemned. — L. R. 
 
 ^ Et nutu solo omnia abrogare, etiam ea quae fidei essent. (L. Epp. i. 144.) 
 
VISIT FROM THE AUGSBURG COUNCILLORS, ETC. 345 
 
 persuade Luther that lie ought in all things to submit himself 
 to the legate, and to retract his doctrine, his oati'S, and his theses. 
 
 The doctor, who was at first disposed to put some trust in the 
 fair protestations of the orator Urban (as he calls him in the 
 accounts he has given of what passed), was now convinced that 
 they were little worth, and that he was far more inclined to side 
 with the legate than with him. Accordingly, he became somewhat 
 less communicative, and confined himself to saying, that he was 
 quite disposed to show humility, to give proofs of obedience, and to 
 render satisfaction in the things on which he may have been mis- 
 taken. At these words Serra-Longa joyfully exclaimed: "I 
 shall hasten to the legate; you will follow me. All will soon 
 go on as well as possible, and there will be an end of it." ' . . . 
 
 He walked out. The Saxon monk, with more discernment 
 than the Roman courtier, thought within himself: " This cun- 
 ning Sinon has been ill instructed in his Greek art. 2 Luther 
 was in suspense betwixt hope and fear. Meanwhile hope had 
 the ascendency. The visit and strange assertions of Serra- 
 Longa, whom he afterwards calls an untoward mediator, ^ revived 
 his courage. 
 
 The councillors and other inhabitants of Augsburg, to whom 
 the elector had recommended Luther, eagerly paid their respects 
 to the monk whose name was now re-echoed throughout Ger- 
 many. Peutinger, a councillor of the empire, and one of the 
 most distinguished of the Augsburg patricians, who often 
 invited Luther to his table, the councillor Langemantel, doctor 
 Auerbach of Leipsick, the two brothers Adelmann, both canons, 
 with many more such, repaired to the monastery of the Augus- 
 tinians, and cordially greeted this extraordinary man who had 
 made a long journey in order to put himself into the power of 
 one of Rome''s underlings. " Have you a safe- conduct," they 
 asked. — "No," replied the dauntless monk. — " How fool-hardy 
 you are," they exclaimed. "It was," said Luther, "a fair term to 
 apply to the rashness of my folly." All unanimously urged him 
 not to go to the legate until he had obtained a safe-conduct from 
 
 1 L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 179. 
 
 * nunc Sinoncm, parum consulte instructum arte Pelasgica. (T.. Epp. i. 
 Hi.) Sec Virgil's yEncid, book ii. 
 
 * Mediator inoptus. (Tj. Epp. i. 144.) 
 
 1. 2 X 
 
346 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the emperor himself. The public had probably heard something 
 of the papal brief of which the legate was the bearer. 
 
 " But," answered Luther, " I came without safe-conduct to 
 Augsburg, and am arrived safe and sound." 
 
 "The elector has recommended you to us; you ought there- 
 fore to obey us, and to comply with our directions," replied 
 Langemantel, affectionately but firmly. 
 
 Doctor Auerbach assented to these representations. " We 
 know," said he, " that from the depths of his soul the cardinal 
 is incensed at you, in the greatest degree.^ Italians are not to 
 be trusted." 2 
 
 Canon Adelmann in like manner insisted: " You have been 
 sent without defence, and it has been forgotten to provide you 
 with the very thing you most need." ^ 
 
 His friends engaged to procure from the emperor the safe-con- 
 duct required. They then told Luther how many persons, even 
 of high rank, had a leaning in his favour. " The minister of 
 France even, who left Augsburg only a few days ago, has been 
 speaking of you in the most honourable manner."'^ This hint 
 struck Luther, and he afterwards called it to mind. Thus all 
 that could most command respect among the burghers of one of 
 the first cities of the empire, was already gained over to the 
 Reformation. 
 
 When they had conversed thus far at the monastery, Serra- 
 Longa re-appeared. " Come," said he to Luther, " the Cardinal 
 is waiting for you. I am going myself to take you to him. You 
 must be taught how to comport yourself in his presence. On 
 entering the hall where you are to find him, you must throw your- 
 self prostrate, with your face on the ground ; when he has told 
 you to rise, you will place yourself on your knees; and before 
 standing upright, you must wait till he bids you. ^ You must 
 remember that it is a prince of the Church before whom you 
 have to appear. ■ As for the rest, fear nothing: all will end soon 
 and easily." 
 
 ' Sciunt enim eum in me exacerbatissimum intus, quicquid sixnulet foris. 
 (L. Epp. i. p. H.3 ) 
 
 ^ L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 201, 
 " Ibid. p. 203. 
 
 Seckend., 144. 
 
 Seckend., p. 130. 
 
SlCUnA-LONGA ItliTUit.NH. 347 
 
 As Luther had promised this Italian that he would follow liini 
 whenever he should invite him to do so, he now telt embarrassed. 
 Notwithstanding, ho made no scruple of telling him the advice 
 tiiat his Augsburg friends had given him, and spoke of a safe- 
 conduct. 
 
 "Beware well of asking for one," said Sornv-Longa; "you 
 have no need of it. The legate is favourably disposed, and (j[uite 
 prepared to settle the matter in a friendly way. Should you 
 ask for a safe-conduct, you will spoil the whole affair." ^ 
 
 " My gracious Lord, the elector of Saxony," said Luther, 
 " has recommended me to several honourable men in this city. 
 They advise me to undertake nothing without a safe-conduct: I 
 ought to follow their advice; for should I fail to do so, and 
 anything untoward happen, they would write to the elector, 
 complaining that I had refused to listen to them." 
 
 Luther persisted in his resolution, and Serra-Longa found 
 himself obliged to return to his master, and to tell him of the 
 difficulty he had encountered in his mission at the very moment 
 he had flattered himself that it was crowned with success. 
 
 Thus terminated the conferences of that day with the orator 
 of Monferrat. Luther received another invitation, which was 
 addressed to him with a very different intention. The prior of 
 the Carmelites, John Frosch, was an old friend of his, and two 
 years before, as licentiate in theology, had defended certain theses 
 under the presidence of Luther. He came to see him, and 
 strongly urged him to come and stay with him; considering 
 himself entitled to the honour of having the doctor of Germany 
 as his guest. Even now men were not afraid to do him homage 
 in the very presence of Rome; even now the weaker had become 
 the stronger. Luther accepted, and left the monastery of the 
 Augustinians for that of the Carmelites. 
 
 The day did not close over him without much serious reflec- 
 tion. The difficulty of his position was evident alike from the 
 eagerness displayed by Serra-Longa and the alarms expressed by 
 the councillors. Nevertheless, he had for his protector God who 
 is in heaven, and guarded by him he could sleep undismayed. 
 
 The day following was a Sunday ;2 and he enjoyed some 
 
 1 L. Opp. (r..) 1Y9. ^ 9t.h October. 
 
S48 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 repose. And yet he had to endure another kind of fatigue. 
 Nothing was spoken of throughout the city but Doctor Luther, 
 and all the world wished to see, as he writes to Melanchthon, 
 " this new Erostratus who had kindled so immense a conflagra- 
 tion."^ People pressed on him as he walked along, and no 
 doubt the good doctor smiled at this singular eagerness. 
 
 But he had yet to undergo a different kind of importunities, 
 for if people were eager to see him, still more did they desire to 
 hear him. On all hands he was requested to preach, and 
 nothing gave him such joy as to announce God's Word. It 
 would have been delightful to him to preach Jesus Christ in 
 that great city and in the solemn circumstances in which he 
 stood, but on this, as on many other occasions, he showed a very 
 just perception of what was proper, and much respect for his 
 superiors. He declined preaching, being afraid that the legate 
 might suppose that he did so, merely to annoy and to brave 
 him. Such moderation and wisdom were, no doubt, well worth 
 a sermon. 
 
 Meanwhile, the cardinal's people gave him no rest. They 
 returned to the charge. " The Cardinal," they told him, "gives you 
 assurances of his unreserved grace and favour: why are you afraid?" 
 They strove, by alledging a thousand reasons, to make him decide 
 upon appearing before him. "He is a very merciful father," said 
 one of these messengers to him. But another went up to him and 
 whispered into his ear: " Don't believe what they tell you. He 
 does not keep his word." 2 Luther remained steady to his purpose. 
 
 On Monday morning, October 10th, Serra-Longa returned 
 to the charge, having made it a point of honour to succeed 
 in his negotiation. Hardly had he arrived when he said in 
 Latin: " Why won't you come to the cardinal? . . . He 
 is waiting for you with the most indulgent disposition. The 
 whole question lies in six letters: Eevoca, retract. Come along ; 
 you have nothing to fear." 
 
 Luther thought within himself that that little word, though 
 consisting but of six letters, had a world of meaning in it, but 
 without entering into the merits of the question, he replied : 
 
 ' Omiies cupiuni videre hominem, tanti inceiidh llerosti-atuni. (L. Ej p. i. p. 
 146.) 
 
 * L. Opn. (L.) xvii. p. 205 
 
LUTHEll AND SEUHA-LONGA. 349 
 
 " As soon as I sliall have obtained the safe-conduct, I will 
 appear." 
 
 Serra-Longa quite lost his temper on hearing these words. 
 He insisted. He made new representations; but he found 
 Luther not to be shaken. Then, still waxing fiercer, he 
 exclaimed : " You no doubt suppose that the elector will take 
 up arms in your behalf, and for your sake will be content to 
 risk the loss of the territories which he has received from his 
 forefathers?" 
 
 Luther. '"God keep mo from doing that!" 
 
 Serra-Longa. " Where then will you find refuge when forsaken 
 by every oneT' 
 
 Luther. — With a smile and turning upwards the look of faith, 
 " Under heaven." ^ 
 
 Serra-Longa was for an instant silent, struck as he was with 
 this sublime and unexpected reply; he then continued. " What 
 would you do, had you the legate, the pope, and all the cardinals 
 in your power, as they now have you in theirs?" 
 
 Luther. — "I would show them all respect and honour. But 
 the Word of God, for me, takes precedence of all else." 
 
 Serra-Longa, smiling and moving his fingers as the Italians 
 do: "-Hem! hem! all honour! ... I believe no such 
 thing." ... He then went out, leapt into the saddle and 
 disappeared. 
 
 Serra-Longa no more came to see Luther; but he long 
 remembered both the resistance he had met with in the Refor- 
 mer, and what his master himself was soon to experience. We 
 shall find him, at a later period, loudly demanding Luther's 
 blood. 
 
 Serra-Longa had not long left the doctor when the safe- 
 conduct which he had solicited arrived, his friends having 
 obtained it from the councillors of the Empire. The latter, it 
 is probable, had consulted the emperor on the subject, he being 
 at no great distance from Augsburg. It would even appear 
 from what fell afterwards from the cardinal, that not wishing to 
 offend him, they had asked his consent. And this perhaps is 
 
 • Et ubi manebis? . . . Respondi : Sub coelo. (L. 0pp. in prscf.) 
 Dean Milner very tamely translates this, " in the open air." I June adopted M, 
 D'Aubigne's version. Tk, 
 
350 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 what led de Vio to work upon Luther by means of Serra-Longa; 
 for openly to have opposed the granting of a safe-conduct, would 
 have revealed intentions which he must have wished to conceal. 
 It was a surer course to induce Luther to desist from his request; 
 but the Saxon monk soon showed that he was not a man to be 
 diverted from his purpose. 
 
 Luther was now to make his appearance. Not that in asking 
 for a safe-conduct he trusted in an arm of flesh, for he well knew 
 that an imperial safe-conduct had failed to save John Huss from 
 the flames; he merely wished to do his duty in complying with 
 the advice of his master's friends. The Lord had the result in 
 his hands. Should He ask back his life, he was ready to resign it 
 with joy. At that solemn crisis, he felt the want of communion 
 with his friends, particularly with Melanchthon, who had become 
 very dear to him, and to whom he took advantage of a few 
 moments of leisure, to write as follows: 
 
 " Comport thyself like a man," says he, " as you have done on 
 other occasions. Teach our youth what is right and according 
 to God. As for me, I am about to be sacrificed for you and for 
 them, if such be the Lord's will. ^ I would rather die, and even, 
 which to me would be the greatest calamity, be deprived for 
 ever of your sweet companionship, than retract what duty 
 requires me to teach, and thus to damage perhaps by my fault the 
 excellent studies to which we devote ourselves. 
 
 " Italy now, like Egypt once, is plunged in darkness so thick 
 that it may be felt. None there knows aught of Christ, or of 
 what relates to him ; meanwhile they are our lords and masters 
 with respect to faith and manners. Hence God's wrath haS 
 gone forth against us, as saith the prophet: I will give them 
 young men for their governors, and children shall rule over them. 
 Comport thyself well according to the Lord, my dear Philip, and 
 avert God's wrath by sincere and fervent prayers." 
 
 On being informed that Luther was to wait upon him on the 
 following day, the legate called a meeting of those Italians and 
 Germans in whom he could best confide, to deliberate with them 
 about the course they ought to pursue with respect to the 
 Saxon monk. Opinions were divided at this meeting. He 
 
 ' Ego pro illis et vobis vado immolari. . . . (L. Epp. i. 146.) 
 
FlllST Al'PEARANCE BEFO ftH DE VIO. Sol 
 
 ought, said one, to be compelled to retract. We ought to appre- 
 hend him, said another, and to throw hiin into prison. A third 
 considered tliat it would be better to put him to death. A 
 fourtli, that they should try to gain him over by gentleness and 
 kindness. The Cardinal seems at first to have resolved to adopt 
 this last course. 1 
 
 VI. The day fixed for the conference at length arrived. -^ 
 Aware that Luther had professed himself ready to retract what- 
 ever might be proved to be opposed to the truth, the legate was 
 sanguine in his hopes, and doubted not that it would be easy 
 for a man of his rank and learning, to bring back this monk to 
 obedience to the Church. 
 
 Luther repaired to the legate's residence, accompanied by his 
 host and friend, the prior of the Carmelites, by two friara of 
 ihat monastery, by doctor Link, and by an Augustinian, pro- 
 bably the same that came with him from Nuremberg. He had 
 no sooner entered the legate's palace than all the Italians form- 
 ing the court of this prince of the Church, ran up, each eager 
 to see the famous doctor, and pressing around him, so that ho 
 could hardly move on. Luther found the apostolic nuncio and 
 Serra-Longa in the hall Avhere the cardinal was waiting for him. 
 The reception was cold but polite, and conducted according to 
 Roman etiquette. In compliance with Serra-Longa's directions, 
 Luther prostrated himself before the cardinal; on the latter 
 bidding him rise, he placed himself on his knees ; and on a new 
 order from the legate, he stood upright. Several of the most 
 distinguished Italians attached to the legate found their way 
 into the hall, in order to be present at the interview; they were 
 particularly anxious to see the German monk humble himself 
 before the pope's representative. 
 
 The legate remained silent, supposing, says a contemporary, 
 that Luther was about to drawl out a recantation. Luther, on 
 his side, meekly waited until the prince should address him, but 
 not perceiving any signs of this, and taking his silence for an 
 invitation to speak first, he did so in these words: 
 
 " Most worthy Father, in compliance with the summons of 
 his papal holiness, and at the request of my gracious lord, the 
 
 •■ L. 0pp. (L.) xvii., p. 183. -" Tuesday the 11th of October. 
 
352 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 elector of Saxony, I appear before you as a submissive and 
 obedient son of the holy Christian Church, and I acknowledge 
 that it is I who have published the propositions and the theses 
 now in question, I am ready to listen with all obedience to the 
 matters whereof I am accused, and should I be in error, to sub- 
 mit to instruction according to the truth." 
 
 The cardinal, being resolved to give himseK the airs of a ten- 
 der father who deeply compassionated a wandering child, on this 
 adopted the most friendly tone; he commended Luther"'s humil- 
 ity, expressed the high satisfaction it gave him, and said: "My 
 dear son, thou hast unsettled all Germany by thy disputation on 
 the indulgences. I understand that, as a doctor, thou art very 
 learned in the Scriptures and hast many disciples. Therefore, 
 if thou desire to be a member of the Church, and to find in the 
 pope a most gracious lord, attend to what I say."" 
 
 After this exordium, the legate did not hesitate to tell him, 
 at once, all that he expected from him, so great was the confi- 
 dence he felt that he would submit: "See," said he to him, "here 
 are three articles which, in obedience to orders from our most 
 holy Father, pope Leo X. I have to present to thee. First of 
 all, thou must return within thyself, own thy faults, and retract 
 thine errors, propositions, and discourses; secondly, thou must 
 abstain in future from disseminating thine opinions, and, thirdly, 
 thou must engage to be more moderate, and avoid all that may 
 grieve or unsettle the Church." 
 
 Luther. — " I crave, most worthy Father, that the brief of 
 the pope, in virtue of which you have received full powers to 
 treat with me, be communicated to me." 
 
 Serra-Longa and the other Italians of the cardinal's train, 
 stared when they heard such a request; and although the Ger- 
 man monk had already appeared to them a very strange person, 
 they could not overcome their amazement at the utterance of so 
 bold a speech. Christians, accustomed to ideas of justice, desire 
 that justice should be observed towards others and towards 
 themselves; but those who act habitually in an arbitrary man- 
 ner, are taken with surprise when asked to proceed according to 
 the regular forms of law. 
 
 De Vio. — " This request, my dearest son, cannot be granted. 
 Thou oughtest to own thine error, to take care of thy words in 
 
PnOPOSITIO\S TO HF, HETHAt-IKn. 353 
 
 future, and not to cat back what thou shalt liave vomited, so 
 that wo may sleep without trouble or" anxiety; in tliat case, 
 according to the orders and authority of our most holy Father, 
 the pope, I shall settle the whole aflair." 
 
 Luther. — " Be so good then as let me know wherein 1 may 
 have erred."" At this new request the Italian courtiers, who 
 expected to see the poor German beg for mercy on his knees, 
 were struck with still greater amazement. Not one of them 
 ■would have lowered himself by replying to so impertinent a 
 question. But de Vio, who saw nothing very generous in over- 
 -^^helming this paltry monk with the sheen- weight of his author- 
 ity, and who trusted, besides, to his leai'niikg for an easy victory, 
 condescended to tell Luther what the charo-es airainst him 
 were, and even to enter into discussion with him. We must do 
 justice to this general of the Dominicans. We must own that 
 he possessed more equity, a nicer perception of what was fit and 
 proper, and less passion, than men have often displayed since in 
 like affairs. Assuming a tone of condescension, he said, 
 
 " Dearest son ! here are two propositions which thou hast 
 advanced, and which thou oughtest, first of all, to retract: 1st, 
 The treasure of indulgences is not composed of the merits and 
 sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2d. The man who receives 
 the holy sacrament, ought to have faith in the grace that is 
 ofi'ered to him." 
 
 Both these propositions, in fact, aimed a deadly thrust at the 
 Roman traffic. If the pope had no power to dispose at will of 
 the Saviour's merits; if, in receiving the promissory notes nego- 
 tiated by the Church's bill brokers, no portion of that infinite 
 righteousness was received, these notes lost all their value, and 
 were to be reckoned as worth no more than so many scraps of 
 paper. It was the same with the sacraments. The indulgences 
 were more or less an extraordinary branch of the commerce of 
 Rome; the sacraments were included in her ordinary trade, and 
 they produced no small amount of revenue. To pretend that 
 faith was requisite in order to their being of any true benefit to 
 the Christian, was to deprive them of all their attraction in the 
 eyes of the people; for faith was beyond what the pope could 
 give ; it was not in his power, but came from G od alone. So 
 that to assert its necessity was, in fact, to take out of the hand-f 
 
 I. 2 Y 
 
354 HISTORY OF THE REFORiMA I lOX, 
 
 of Rome, both the speculation and its profits. In attackmg 
 these two doctrines, Luther imitated Jesus Christ. From the 
 commencement of his ministry he had been overturning the 
 tables of the money-changers, and expelling from the temple 
 those who bought and sold. He had been saying : Make not my 
 Fathers house a market place. 
 
 " I have no desire in combatting these errors,'"' continued 
 Cajetan, "to appeal to the authority of St. Thomrs and the other 
 scholastic doctors; I desire to rest my case on Holy Scripture 
 alone, and to confer with you with all the feelings of a friend.'"' 
 
 But hardly had de Vio begun to develope his proofs than he 
 strayed from the rule which he had just declared it to be his 
 wish to follow. 1 Luther"'s first proposition he combatted with 
 one of the extravagantes'^ of pope Clement, and the second with 
 all sorts of scholastic opinions. The dispute turned first on the 
 constitution of the above pope in favour of the indulgences. 
 Indignant at seeing the authority assigned by the legate to a 
 Roman decretal, Luther exclaimed: — 3 
 
 " I cannot receive such constitutions as adequate proof on 
 which to establish things of so much consequence. For they 
 wrest the Holy Scripture and never quote it to good purpose." 
 
 De Vio.- — "The pope has authority and power over all 
 things."" 
 
 Luther (with vivacity.) — " Saving always the claims of 
 Scripture."^ 
 
 De Vio, (with a sneer.) — " Saving Scripture ! . . . The 
 pope, don"'t you know, is above councils; farther, it was but lately 
 that he condemned and punished the council of Basel." 
 
 LuTHEK. — " The university of Paris has appealed against 
 that." 
 
 De Vio. — " The gentlemen of Paris must pay the penalty for 
 doing so."" 
 
 The dispute between the cardinal and Luther now turned 
 
 i^ L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 180. 
 
 ^ The name given to certain constitutions of the popes, collected together 
 and added to the body of the canon law, 
 
 * Under the title of Extravagantes are chiefly to be reckoned the decrees of 
 John XXII., but there are included the collections of lawFor decrees of other 
 popes, not to be found in other collections, known by the name of Decretals. 
 ^L. R. 
 
 * SalvSl Scriptura. 
 
LUTUHU ti KEl'LY. 
 
 355 
 
 chiefly on the second point, to wit, on the faith which Luther 
 declared to be necessary in order to the sacraments being of any 
 avail. Following his usual method, Luther quoted many pass- 
 ages of Scripture in favour of the opinion he maintained, but 
 these were received by the legate with bursts of laughter. " It 
 is of the general faith that you speak there," said ho. " No !" 
 replied Luther. One of the Italians, master of ceremonies to 
 the legate, losing his patience at Luther's resistance and answers, 
 now burned with eagerness to speak. He would constantly 
 attempt to put in his word, but the legate commanded him to be 
 silent. At length he was obliged to reprimand him so severely 
 that the master of ceremonies left the room in confusion. ^ 
 
 " With respect to the indulgences," said Luther, addressing 
 the legate, " if it can be proved to me that I am mistaken, I 
 am ready to submit to instruction. It is what may be passed 
 over without a man being on that account a bad Christian. But 
 as for the article of faith, were I to yield in the least, I should 
 deny Jesus Christ. I therefore have neither the power nor the 
 will to yield with respect to that ; and by God's grace, never will 
 I yield." 
 
 De Vio, (beginning to be angry.) — " Whatever you will or 
 will not do, you must this very day retract that article, other- 
 wise, on account of that single article, I shall reject and con- 
 demn thy whole doctrine." 
 
 Luther. — " I have no other will but that of the Lord. He 
 will do with me what he pleases. But although 1 had four 
 hundred heads, I would rather lose them all than retract the 
 testimony I have given to the holy faith of Christians." 
 
 X)e Vio. — " I am not come here to dispute with thee. 
 Eetract or prepare thyself for suffering the pains thou hast 
 deserved."2 
 
 Luther saw well that it was impossible to settle the mat- 
 ter in a conversation. His opponent sat before him as if he 
 were the pope himself, and pretended that he listened with 
 meekness and submission to all that was said to him, whereas 
 he received Luther's replies, even while founded on Holy Scrip- 
 ture, only by shrugging his shoulders, and expressing every kind 
 of irony and contempt. He considered that he should act most 
 ' L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 180. ' L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 180, 183, 206, etc. 
 
;J5G HISTORY OF THE KKFORM ATIOX. 
 
 wisely by replying to the cardinal in writing. This method, 
 he thought, left at least one consolation to the oppressed. Others 
 would judge of the case, and the unfair opponent, who by cla- 
 mour has kept the field of contest to himself, might take alarm 
 at this. 1 
 
 Luther having sionified that it was his intention to retire : 
 " Would you like," said the legate to him, " that I should give 
 you a safe-conduct for you to go to Eomef 
 
 Nothing could have been more agreeable to Cajetan than the 
 acceptance of this offer, for he should thus have disembarrassed 
 himself of a task, the difficulties attending which he began to 
 comprehend, and Luther and his heresies would have fallen into 
 hands that knew how to put them in proper order. But the 
 Reformer, beins: aware of the difficulties with which he was 
 surrounded, even in Augsburg, took good care not to accept a 
 proposal which would have delivered him, bound hand and foot, 
 to the vengeance of his enemies. He rejected it every time that 
 It was renewed by de Vio, which was often. The legate dis- 
 sembled the pain he felt at Luther's refusal; he wrapt himself 
 up in his dignity, and took leave of the monk with a compas- 
 sionate smile, beneath which he sought to hide his disappoint- 
 ment, and at the same time with the politeness of a man who 
 hopes for better success at another time. 
 
 Hardly had Luther reached the palace court when that prat- 
 ing Italian, the master of ceremonies, whom his master's repri- 
 mands had compelled to leave the conference hall, delighted at 
 having it now in his power to speak out of reach of the eye of 
 Cajetan, and burning with eagerness to confound this abomin- 
 able heretic with his luminous reasonings, ran after him and 
 commenced retailing his sophisms as he walked along with the 
 party. But Luther, who was tired with this foolish personage, 
 replied to him in one of those sarcastic expressions which he 
 could so readily command, and the poor master of ceremonies, in 
 great confusion, gave up the contest, and returned to hide his 
 blushes in the palace of the cardinal. 
 
 Luther did not carry away with him any high idea of his 
 adversary. He had heard from him, as he wrote afterwards to 
 
 ' L. Opp. (L.) p. 209. 
 
IMPRKSSIOX LErr ON nOTII SIDES. 357 
 
 Spalatin, propositions which were quite coii^-ary to theology, and 
 which, in any other person's mouth, would have been reckoned 
 arch-heretical. And yet de Vio was considered as the most 
 learned of the Dominicans. The next after him was Prierias. 
 "One may hence conclude," said Luther, "what may be expected 
 of those who stand in the tenth or hundredth rank;"i 
 
 On the other hand, the Witteiubcrg doctor's noble and 
 decided manner had greatly surprised the cardinal and his court. 
 Instead of a poor monk imploring forgiveness, they found him a 
 free man, a firm Christian, an enlightened doctor, who demanded 
 that proofs should be produced before admitting unjust accusa- 
 tions, and who victoriously defended his doctrines. Everybody 
 in Cajetan's palace declaimed against the pride, obstinacy, and 
 effrontery of this heretic. Luther and de Vio had become 
 mutually acquainted and both prepared for their second inter- 
 view. 
 
 Luther met with a very agreeable surprise on his return to 
 the monastery of the Carmelites. The vicar-general of the 
 order of Augustinians, his friend, his father, Staupitz, had 
 arrived at Augsburg. Having failed in his endeavours to deter 
 Luther from appearing in that city, Staupitz gave his friend a 
 new and touching proof of his attachment, by going there him- 
 self, in the hope of being of use to him. This excellent man 
 foresaw that the conferences with the legate must lead to the 
 most serious consequences; his alarms, and the friendship he 
 felt for Luther, were giving him perpetual uneasiness; and 
 after so painful a meeting, it was most refreshing to the doctor 
 to clasp in his arms so precious a friend. He related to him 
 how impossible he had found it to obtain an answer of any 
 weight, how the sole thinf; exacted from him was a recantation, 
 without any attempt being made to convince him. " It is 
 absolutely necessary," said Staupitz, " to reply to the legate in 
 writing." 
 
 From what Staupitz had heard of the first interview, he had 
 no hopes of the success of others. Accordingly, he determined 
 to do what he considered as being from that time an act of 
 necessity; to absolve Luther from his vow of obedience to his 
 
 ' L. Epp. i. ITS. "• 
 
358 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 order. By this Staupitz expected to obtain two ends; if, as 
 every thing seemed to presage, Luther were to give way in this 
 affair, he should thus prevent the whole order from being involved 
 in the disgrace of his friend's condemnation; and should the 
 cardinal enjoin him to oblige Luther to silence or to a retracta- 
 tion, he should have an excuse for not doing so. ^ The ceremony 
 took place according to the accustomed rules. Luther felt all 
 that from that time forth he might expect. His soul was keenly 
 affected at witnessing the loosing of those ties which he had 
 formed in the enthusiasm of his youth. The order which he 
 had chosen now rejects him. His natural protectors withdraw. 
 Already he is become a stranger to his brethren. But, sad at 
 heart as he felt, he recovered all his joyful feelings by turning 
 his view to the promises of that faithful God who has said: " I 
 will never leave thee; I will never forsake thee."" 
 
 The emperor's councillors having informed the legate 
 through the bishop of Trent, that Luther was furnished with an 
 imperial safe-conduct, and having caused it to be notified at the 
 same time that he must undertake nothing against the doctor, 
 de Vio lost his temper, and tartly replied in these very Roman 
 words: " Very well; but I shall do what the pope commands." ' 
 We know what the pope commanded. 
 
 Vn. On the day following, 3 preparations were made on both 
 sides for the second interview, and it seemed likely to prove 
 decisive. Luther's friends, having resolved to accompany him 
 to the legate's palace, repaired to the monastery of the Carmel- 
 ites. The dean of Trent, Peutinger, both councillors of the 
 emperor, and Staupitz, successively arrived, shortly after which 
 the doctor had the heartfelt satisfaction of seeing these joined by 
 Philip of Feilitzsch, a knight, and doctor Ruhel, councillors of 
 the elector, who had received their master's orders to be present 
 at the conferences, and to protect Luther's liberty. They had 
 arrived in Augsburg the preceding evening and were to stand 
 by him, says Mathesius, as the knight of Schlum at Constance 
 stood by John Huss. The doctor took a notary also with him, 
 and, accompanied by all his friends, repaired to the legate's 
 palace. 
 
 ' Darinn ilin Dr. Staupitz von dcm Klostcr-Gchorsam absolvirt. (Math. 15.) 
 - L. 0pp. (T..) xvii 201. 3 AVoflncsday, 12th of October. 
 
LCTHEr's SECOm> appearance. HIS DECLARATioN. 351) 
 
 At this moment Staupitz went up to him; ho comprehended 
 the whole situation of Luther; he knew that if his eye were not 
 fixed on the Lord, who is the refuge of his people, he must give 
 way : " My dear brother," he gravely said to him, •' constantly 
 call to mind that you began these things in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ." ^ Thus did God surround his humble servant 
 with consolations and encouragements. 
 
 On arriving at the cardinal's residence Luther found a new 
 adversary there, in the prior of the Augsburg Dominicans, who 
 was seated by the side of his chief. Agreeably to the resolution 
 he had formed, Luther brought his reply written out, and as 
 soon as the customary greetings were over, read the following 
 declaration with a strong voice: 
 
 " I declare that I honour the holy Roman Church and will 
 continue to honour her. I have sought the truth in public dis- 
 putations, and all that I have said I regard, even to this hour, 
 as just, true, and Christian. Nevertheless I am but a man and 
 may be mistaken. Accordingly, I am disposed to submit to 
 instruction and correction in those things in which I may have 
 erred. I declare that I am ready to reply by word of mouth, or 
 by writing, to all the objections, and all the reproaches, which the 
 lord legate may bring against me. I declare myself ready to 
 submit my theses to the four universities of Basel, Fribourg 
 in Brisgau, Louvain, and Paris, and to retract what they shall 
 tind erroneous. In a word, I am ready to comply with all that 
 can be asked from me as a Christian. But I solemnly protest 
 against the course which has been sought to be given to this 
 affair, and against the strange pretension of obliging me to 
 retract without having refuted me.""^ ^ 
 
 Nothing, doubtless, could be more fair than these proposals on 
 the part of Luther, and they must have very much embarassed a 
 judge to whom the judgment he was to pronounce had been 
 prescribed before hand. The legate, who had never expected 
 such a protest, strove to conceal his vexation by affecting to 
 
 I Seckend., p. 137. 
 
 « Lbscher, 2, 463. L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 181, 2( 9. 
 
 8 From this it is very manifest that Luther's aim throughout was not to separate 
 from the Romish Church, or to establish a new sect, but only to direct atten- 
 tion to the abuses prevailing in that Church, being perfectly willing, moreover, 
 to submit himself to reasonable instruction in that respect. — L. U. 
 
860 HISTOBY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 laugh, and by preserving all the outward shows of gentleness. 
 " This protest," said he to Luther with a smile, " is unnecessary; 
 I have no wish to dispute with you, either in pnblic or in pri- 
 vate, but I propose to settle the affair with kindness and as a 
 father."" The whole policy of the cardinal lay in setting aside 
 the severe forms of justice which protect the accused, and in 
 treatins: the affair as a mere matter of administration between 
 a superior and his inferior: a very convenient course for him, 
 in as much as it opened up the widest scope for arbitrary 
 treatment. 
 
 Continuing an air of the utmost affection: " My dear friend," 
 said de Vio, "relinquish, I pray you, so useless a purpose; 
 return as soon as possible into yourself, acknowledge the truth, 
 and I am ready to reconcile you with the Church and with the 
 sovereign bishop. . . . Retract, my friend, retract; such is 
 the will of the pope. Whatever you may or may not wish to 
 do, it matters little ! It will be difficult for you to kick against 
 the pricks." .... 
 
 Luther, who saw himself treated as if he already were a 
 rebellious child and rejected by the Church, exclaimed: " I can- 
 not retract, but I offer myself for the purpose of replying, and 
 that by writing. We had enough of fencing yesterday." ^ 
 
 This expression made de Vio angry, for it reminded him that 
 he had not acted with sufficient prudence; but he recovered 
 himself and said with a smile: "Fencing! my dear son; I 
 have not fenced with thee: nor do I any more wish to fence 
 with thee now; but I am ready, from complaisance to the most 
 serene elector Frederick, to hear thee and to exhort thee as a 
 friend and father." 
 
 Luther did not comprehend the legate's being so very much 
 scandalised at the expression he had employed; "for," said he, 
 "had I not wished to speak politely, I might have said, not fence 
 it out, but dispute and quarrel; for that truly is what we did 
 yesterday." 
 
 Meanwhile, de Vio, feeling that in presence of the respectable 
 witnesses who attended the conference, it was proper that he 
 should at least appear to be desirous to convince Luther, returned 
 
 ' Digladiatiim. (L. Epp. i. p. 181.) 
 
TIIR r,EGATE's VOLUBILITY. 361 
 
 to the two propositions which he had pointed out to him as funda- 
 mental errors, well resolved to allow the reformer to speak as little 
 as possible. Availing himself of his Italian volubility, he heaped 
 objections upon objections without waiting for a reply. Now he 
 jests, now he growls ; he declaims with the utmost vehemence, he 
 mixes things together in the oddest manner; ho quotes St. 
 Thomas, (Acquinas,) and Aristotle; he exclaims against all who 
 do not think as he does ; he apostrophises Luther. The latter 
 about ten times over renews his endeavours to speak ; but the 
 legate as often interrupts him, and overwhelms him with threats. 
 Retractation! retractation! such is his sole demand. He 
 thunders, ho spurns at all resistance as if he were a king, he 
 will suffer none to speak but himself.^ Staupitz undertakes to 
 stop the legate. " Be so good," says he, " as allow Dr. Martin 
 time to reply to you." But the legate begins his discourse 
 anew; quotes the extra vagantes and the opinions of St. Thomas; 
 shows himself resolved to occupy the whole interview with his 
 peroration. If he cannot convince and dares not strike, he does 
 his best at least to confound. 
 
 Luther and Staupitz clearly saw that they must renounce all 
 hope not only of enlightening de Vio by a discussion, but 
 farther, of making a profession of faith to any good purpose. 
 Accordingly, Luther reverted to the request he had made at the 
 commencement of the sitting, and which the cardinal had then 
 eluded. Since it was not permitted him to speak, he craved 
 that at least he might be allowed to write out, and transmit a 
 written reply to the legate. Staupitz supported him in this, 
 several of the bye-standers joined their entreaties to his, and 
 Cajetan, notwithstanding his extreme repugnance to written 
 documents, remembering that writings are permanent things, at 
 last consented. The parties now separated. The hope enter- 
 tained of terminating the affair in this conference, was adjourn • 
 ed; it was necessary to wait for the result of the next interview. 
 
 The permission granted to Luther by the general of the 
 Dominicans to take time for reply, and that by writing, on the two 
 accusations distinctly articulated against him touching the indul- 
 gences and faith, was no more than justice required, and yet we 
 
 I L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 181, 209. Decies fere coepi ut loquerer, tolies rursus 
 tonabat et solus regnabat. 
 
 I. 2 z 
 
362 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 must give de Vic credit for moderation and impartiality in con- 
 ceding it. 
 
 Luther came away, glad at having obtained his request. Both 
 in going to Cajetan and on his way back, he was an object of 
 public attention. All enlightened persons interested themselves 
 in his affair, as if they had been themselves to be tried. Peo- 
 ple felt that it was the cause of the gospel, of righteousness and 
 of liberty, which was now brought to the bar at Augsburg. The 
 rabble alone were on the side of Cajetan, and gave the Reformer 
 some significant proofs of this, for the latter was aware of 
 them. 1 
 
 It became daily more evident that the legate would hear 
 nothing from Luther but these words, " I retract," and Luther 
 was determined not to pronounce them. What was to be the 
 result of so unequal a struggle I Could it be imagined that the 
 whole power of Rome, matched against a single man, could fail 
 to crush him at last ? Luther was aware of this ; he felt the 
 weight of that terrible hand beneath which he had come to place 
 himself; he lost hope of ever returning to Wittemberg, of again 
 beholding his dear Philip, of being again surrounded by those 
 generous youths in whose hearts he so much delighted to sow the 
 seeds of life. He saw excommunication suspended over him, and 
 he had no doubt that it would descend upon him soon. 2 The 
 prospect of these things afflicted his soul, but never overwhelmed 
 it. His trust in God remained unshaken. God might break 
 the instrument which up to that hour he had been pleased to 
 employ; but he would maintain the truth. Whatever may 
 happen, Luther was called upon to defend it to the last. He 
 therefore proceeded to prepare the protest which he wished to 
 lay before the legate. It appears that to this he devoted a part 
 of the 13th of the month. 
 
 VIII. On Friday, October 14th, Luther went again to the 
 legate's, accompanied by the elector's counsellors. The Italians, 
 as before, pressed about him, and attended the conference in 
 great numbers. Luther stept forward and presented his protest, 
 a document which the cardinal's people beheld with amazement, 
 
 > L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 186. 
 2 Ibid. 185. 
 
Luther's third appearance — indulgence 363 
 
 80 audacious did it seem in their eyes. The Wittemberg doc- 
 tor told his mind to their master in it as follows: ^ 
 
 " You attack me on two points. First, you meet me with 
 the constitution of pope Clement VI., in which, it seems, it is said 
 that the treasure of the indulgences consists of the merit of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and of his saints, which in my theses I deny. 
 
 " Panormitanus," (by this name Luther referred to Ives, 
 author of the famous collection of ecclesiastical law intituled 
 Panormia, and bishop of Chartres, towards the close of the 
 eleventh century.) ^ " Panormitanus declares in his first book, 
 that as respects the holy faith, not only a general council, but 
 further, each of the faithful, is above the pope, if he can appeal 
 to declarations of Scripture and to reasons better than those of 
 the pope. 3 The voice of our Lord is far above all the voices ol 
 men, whatever be the names they bear. 
 
 " What causes me most uneasiness and most occupies my 
 thoughts, is that that constitution contains doctrines which are 
 quite opposed to the truth. It declares that the merit of the 
 saints is a treasure, whereas the whole of Scripture testifies that 
 God recompenses far more richly than we have deserved. The 
 prophet cries out: Lord^ enter not into judgment with thy ser- 
 vant, for in thy sight no flesh living shall be justified I '^ Woe to 
 the men, however honourable and praiseworthy their lives may 
 be, says St. Augustine, if on those lives a judgment is to be 
 pronounced from which mercy is excluded !" ^ 
 
 "Thus the saints are not saved by their merits but only by the 
 mercy of God, as I have declared. This I maintain, and by this 
 I will abide. The words of Scripture which declare that the 
 saints have not a sufficiency of merits, ought to rank higher 
 than the words of men who affirm that they have an overplus of 
 merits. For the pope is not above, but below the Word of 
 God." 
 
 Luther did not confine himself to this: he shows that if the 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 187. 
 
 2 A corresponJent says, not Ives, but Nicolas Tudeschi, archbishop^ of 
 Palermo, hence called Panormitanus, who wrote on the Canon law. See 
 Dupin, Eccl. ITist. Cent. xv. p. 87. Tr. 
 
 3 . . . Ostendit in materia fidei, non modo generale concilium esse super 
 papam.sed etiam quemlibet fidelium, si melioribus nitatur auctoritate et ratione 
 quam papa. (L. 0pp. lat. i. p. 209.) 
 
 ■* Psalm cxliii. ver. 2. 
 ' Confess, ix. 
 
HISTORY OF THE REFOKMATION. 
 
 indulgences cannot be the merits of the saints, no more can they 
 be Christ's merits. He demonstrates that the indulgences are 
 barren and fruitless, since their only effect is to exempt men 
 from the performance of good works, such as prayers and alms. 
 " No," he exclaims, " Christ's merits are not a treasure of 
 indulgences exempting men from good, but a treasure of life- 
 giving grace. Christ's merits are applied to the believer with- 
 out indulgences, without keys, by the Holy Ghost alone, and 
 not by the pope. If any one entertain views better founded 
 than mine," he adds in concluding what he says on this first 
 point, " let him declare them, and then I will retract." 
 
 " I have stated," says he, on coming to the second article, 
 " that no man can be justified before God unless by faith, so 
 that man must believe with an entire assurance that he has 
 obtained grace. To doubt this grace, is to reject it. The faith 
 of the righteous man is his righteousness and his life." ^ 
 
 Luther proves this proposition by a multitude of Scriptural 
 declarations. " Be so good then as intercede for me with our 
 most holy lord pope Leo X.," he adds, " in order that he may 
 
 no lons-er treat me with such disfavour My soul 
 
 seeks for the light of truth. I am not so proud, not so covetous 
 of vain glory, as to be ashamed of retracting, if I have taught 
 things that are false. My greatest joy would be to see the 
 triumph of those things that are according to God, Only let 
 me not be compelled to do anything whatsoever against the cry 
 of my conscience.^ 
 
 The legate took the declaration from Luther's hands, and after 
 running over it, coldly said to him: " Thou hast here indulged 
 in useless verbiage; thou hast written many vain words; thou 
 hast foolishly replied to the two articles, and thou hast blackened 
 thy paper with a number of passages of Scripture which have 
 nothing to do with the subject." Saying which, de Vio with a 
 disdainful air, tosses away Luther's protest, as if he made no 
 
 ' Justitia justi et vita ejus, est fides ejus. (L. 0pp. lat. i. p. 211.) 
 2 These and the like declarations of Luther quite confound all the slanders 
 and accusations against Ijuther as stubborn, proud, and obstinate. What a 
 beautiful exhibition we have here of his heartfelt love of the truth and his sincere 
 humility! Or shall we choose to regard all these declarations as pure dissimu- 
 lation ? He that can do this must himself be a hypocrite, or from being beset 
 with prejudices, is incapable of distinguishing between the sincere language of 
 (he heart and that of diss^cmblers. — L. R. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF CLEMENT VT. 365 
 
 account of it, and resuming the same tone which had succeeded 
 so well in the last interview, he begins to roar with all his 
 might, that Luther ought to retract. But Luther is not to be 
 shaken. "Brother! brother!" then exclaims de Vio in Italian, 
 " the last time you were very good, but to-day you are altogether 
 wicked." The cardinal then begins a long discourse taken from 
 the writings of St. Thomas; again with his utmost endeavours 
 he extols the constitution of Clement VL, he persists in main- 
 taining that by that constitution the very merits of Jesus Christ 
 are portioned out among believers through the medium of the 
 indulgences. He believes that he has silenced Luther, who at 
 times attempts to speak, but de Vio growls and thunders on 
 without intermission, and as on the preceding evening, would 
 fain engross the field of battle to himself. 
 
 This procedure might have had so much success for once ; but 
 Luther was not the man to suffer it to be so a second time. 
 His indignation bursts forth at last, and now it was his turn to 
 strike the onlookers with amazement, just as they supposed him 
 to be overcome by the prelate's volubility. He raises his 
 sonorous voice, he seizes the cardinal's favourite objection and 
 makes him pay dear for the rashness he had shown in entering 
 into controversy with him. "Retract! retract!" repeated de 
 Vio, showing him the pope's constitution. "Very well!" said 
 Luther, "if it can be proved by that constitution that the 
 treasure of indulgences is the merit itself of Jesus Christ, I 
 consent to retract, according to your eminence's will and good 
 pleasure." . . . 
 
 The Italians, who looked for nothing like this, stared at these 
 words, and could not represss their delight at seeing their 
 adversary at length taken in the net. As for the cardinal, he 
 was like one beside himself; he laughed outright, still with a 
 laugh that was mingled with indignation and anger; he darts at 
 the book containing the famous constitution; he seeks it out, 
 lays his finger on it, and exulting in the victory of which he 
 thought himself sure, he reads it aloud, gasping with excitement. ^ 
 The Italians now triumph; the elector's counsellors are disquieted 
 and embarrassed ; Luther hears his opponent read. At length on 
 the cardinal coming to those words: "The Lord Jesus Christ 
 ' Legit itervens et aiihclans. (L. Epp. i. p. 115.) 
 
36jS HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 has acquired this treasure by his sufferings," Luther stops him; 
 " Most worthy father," says he, " be so good as carefully weigh 
 and consider that expression: He has acquired.^ Christ has 
 acquired a treasure by his merits ; the merits then are not the 
 treasure; for to speak with the philosophers, the cause and its 
 consequence are two different things. Christ's merits have 
 acquired for the pope the power of giving such and such indul- 
 gences to the people; but they are not the very merits of the 
 Saviour which the pontiff's hand distributes. Thus, then, my 
 conclusion is a sound one, and that constitution to which 
 you appeal with so much ado, witnesses with me to the truth that 
 I proclaim." 
 
 De Vio still holds the book in his hands; his eyes are still 
 fixed on the fatal passage; he has nothing to reply. There he 
 is, taken in the very snare he had laid for another, and there 
 Luther holds him with his potent hand, to the unutterable 
 astonishment of the Italians who encircled him. Fain would the 
 legate evade this difficulty ; but he cannot : he had long ago 
 abandoned both the testimonies of the Scriptures and those of 
 the fathers; he had taken refuge in this extravagant of Clement. 
 VI., and there he is caught. Nevertheless he is too good a 
 dissembler to allow his embarrassment to be observed. Wishing 
 to hide his confusion, the prince of the Church suddenly changes 
 the subject, and throws himself with great vehemence on other 
 points, but this clever manoeuvre is detected by Luther, who does 
 not allow him to escape, but tightens and binds in on all sides 
 the net he has thrown around the cardinal, so that he can no 
 where get out. " Most reverend father," says he, with an 
 irony that bore every appearance of respect, "your reverence 
 must not, however, suppose that we, poor Germans, know noth- 
 ing of grammar ; to be a treasure, and to acquire a treasure, are 
 two very different things." 
 
 " Retract ! " cries de Vio, " retract ! or else I will send you to 
 Rome, there to be tried by judges appointed to take cognisance 
 of your cause. I excommunicate thee — thee and all who now 
 are, or yet shall be, thine abettors, and I cast them out of the 
 Church. Full power to this effect has been bestowed on me, by 
 
 ' Acquii^ivit. (L. Epp. i. p. 145.) 
 
DE VIO LOSRS ins TEMPER. LUTHER WtTllDRAWS. 3G7 
 
 the holy apostolic see. • Thinkest thou that thy protectors will 
 prevent me? Dost thou imagine that the pope cares about Ger- 
 many? Why, the pope's little finger is stronger than all the 
 German princes put together.""- 3 
 
 " Deign," replies Luther, " to send to pope Leo X., with my 
 humblest prayers, the answer I have laid before thee in writing." 
 
 At these words, the legate, not a little pleased to have some 
 moments' respite, wraps himself anew in the consciousness of his 
 dignity, and says to Luther in a haughty and angry tone: 
 
 " Retract, or return no more." ^ 
 
 These words struck Luther, who saw that this time a verbal 
 reply would be out of place. He bowed accordingly and with- 
 drew, followed by the elector's counsellors. The cardinal and 
 his Italians, left by themselves, looked at each other in amaze- 
 ment at this unexpected result of the debate. 
 
 Luther and de Vio never again met. JBut the Reformer left 
 too deep an impression on the legate ever to be entirely eflfaced. 
 What the former had said upon faith, and what de Vio read 
 afterwards in later writings of the Wittemberg doctor, greatly 
 modified the cardinal's views, so that the divines of Rome saw 
 with surprise and displeasure what he stated on the subject of 
 justification, in his commentary on the epistle to the Romans. 
 The Reformer yielded nothing — retracted nothing; but its judge, 
 he who had incessantly exclaimed, Retract ! changed his views 
 and indirectly retracted his errors; and thus was the Reformer's 
 unflinching steadfastness rewarded.^ 
 
 Luther returned to the monastery where he had been hospit- 
 ably received. He had maintained his steadfastness; he had borne 
 testimony to the truth; he had acted the part assigned to him: 
 God would do the rest. His heart was replenished witli peace 
 and joy. 
 
 IX. Meanwhile, the news that reached him were not such as 
 to re-assure his spirits, for it was currently reported in the city 
 
 » L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 197. " L. 0pp. ( W.) xxii. p. 1331. 
 
 * What a piece of arrogance, and all this without any proof that the pope 
 derives his powers from God ! What would he the case were he but once to 
 recover his former influence? How necessary to be ever on our guard with 
 respect to him ! — L. R. 
 
 * Revoca aut non revcrtcre. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 202.) 
 
 " And thus shall it always be with every one that knows how to stand firmly 
 for the truth in hia day.— L. R. 
 
368 HISTORY OF THE RKFORMATION. 
 
 that unless he chose to retract, he must be apprehended and 
 thrown into prison. Nay, it was even alleged that the vicar- 
 general of the order, Staupitz himself, must have given his con- 
 sent to such a step.^ Luther could not believe what people 
 said of his friend. No ! Staupitz will not betray him ! As for 
 the cardinal's designs, to judge of them according to his own 
 words, they could not easily be doubted. Nevertheless he had 
 no wish to fly at the sight of danger; life, like the truth 
 itself, was in powerful hands, and notwithstanding the jeopardy 
 of his situation, he resolved not to leave Augsburg. 
 
 The legate soon repented of his violence, and perceiving that 
 he had wandered from his proper sphere, he wished to make an 
 effort to return to it. Hardly had Staupitz finished dinner, 
 (the interview had taken place in the morning, and the dinner 
 hour was at noon,) when a message arrived from the cardinal^ 
 inviting him to come to him. Staupitz went, accompanied by 
 Wenceslas Link. 2 The vicar-general found the legate alone 
 with Serra-Longa; but the latter immediately went up to 
 Staupitz, and addressed him in the most winning expressions. 
 " Now, do endeavour," said he to him, " to persuade this monk 
 of yours, and to engage him to make a retractation. Truly I am 
 satisfied with him in other respects and he has not a better 
 friend than myself." 3 
 
 Staupitz. "I have done so already, and will yet advise him 
 to submit with all humility to the Church." 
 
 Be Vio. — " You must answer the arguments he adduces from 
 Holy Scripture." 
 
 Staupitz. — "I must confess to you, my lord, that that is 
 beyond my ability; for doctor Martin is my superior, both in 
 intellect and in acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures." 
 
 The cardinal smiled, doubtless, at this frankness on the part of 
 the vicar-general. He knew himself, besides, what caution had 
 to be observed with respect to the diflBculty of convincing 
 Luther. He went on to say to Staupitz and Link: 
 
 " Are you rightly aware that as partizans of an heretical doc- 
 trine, you are yourselves exposed to Church penalties?" 
 
 Staupitz. — "Condescend to resume the conference with 
 
 > L. 0pp. (L.) xvii p. 210. - L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 204. « Thid. p. 185. 
 
STAUPITZ AND LUTHER. 369 
 
 Luther; let tliere be a public disputation on the controverted 
 
 points." 
 
 De Vio, terrified at the very thought of this, 
 
 " I am unwilling to dispute any longer with that brute- For 
 it has deep eyes and wonderful speculations in its head." ^ 
 
 Staupitz at length obtained a promise from the cardinal that 
 he would transmit to Luther, in writing, what he was expected 
 to retract. 
 
 The vicar-general returned to Luther. Shaken by the cardi- 
 nal's representations, he attempted to bring him to some accom- 
 modation. " Refute then," said Luther, " the declarations of 
 Scripture which I have produced." " That is beyond my power," 
 said Staupitz. — " Very well," says Luther, " it is against my 
 conscience to retract, as long as no one shall be able to explain 
 to me these passages of Scripture." "How!" he continued, 
 " the cardinal professes according to what he assures you, that 
 he would fain arrange the matter amicably, without putting me 
 either to discredit or disadvantage. Ah! these are Roman 
 words which, in good German, mean that it will prove my ever- 
 lasting disgrace and ruin. What else can he expect who from 
 fear of man, and against the cry of his own conscience, denies 
 the truth?"2 
 
 Staupitz did not insist; he only gave Luther to know that the 
 cardinal had consented to send him, in writing, the points which 
 he desired he should retract. Next, no doubt, he apprised him 
 of the resolution he had taken to leave Augsburg, where he no 
 longer had any thing to do. Luther communicated to him a 
 design he had formed for comforting and fortifying their souls. 
 Staupitz then left him with a promise to return, and for a short 
 time they were separated. 
 
 On beincT left alone in his cell, Luther turned his thoughts to 
 friends who were dear to his heart, transporting himself in fancy 
 to Weimar and to Wittemberg. He wished to inform the 
 elector of what was taking place, and fearing that there might 
 be some indiscretion in addressing himself directly to the prince, 
 he wrote to Spalatin, requesting the chaplain to make his master 
 
 ' Ego nolo amplius cum hac bestia disputare. Habet enim profundos oculos 
 et mirabiles speculationes in capite suo. (Myconius, p. 33.) 
 ' T-. 0pp. (T,.) xvii. p. 210. 
 I o \ 
 
370 HISTORY OF THE BEFORMATION. 
 
 acquainted with the position of affairs. He related to him ail 
 that had passed, down to tlie promise made him bj the legate to 
 give him the controverted points in writing, and wound up by 
 saying: "Thus stands the fact; but I have neither hope nor 
 confidence in the legate. I have no wish to retract a single 
 syllable. I shall publish the reply that I have sent him, so that 
 if he proceed to violence, he may be disgraced in the eyes of all 
 Christendom.'" ^ 
 
 The doctor next availed himself of some few remaininfr 
 moments to send news to his friends at Wittemberij. 
 
 " Peace and felicity," he wrote to Dr. Carlstadt. " Take these 
 few words as if they were a long letter; for time and events are 
 urgent with me. At another time I shall write to you and 
 others, at greater length. My affair has now occupied three 
 days, and matters are come to such a pass, that I no longer 
 indulge the hope of seeing you again, and have nothing but 
 excommunication to look for. The legate is absolutely opposed 
 to my disputing either in public or in private. He tells me he 
 has no wish to act towards me as a judge, but as a father; yet 
 he desires to hear nothing from me except these words : ' I 
 retract, and own that I have been mistaken.' And, as for me, I 
 have no desire to say them. 
 
 " The dangers attending my case are so much the greater, in 
 that it has persons for judges who are not only implacable 
 enemies, but further, who are quite incapable of comprehending 
 it. Meanwhile, the Lord God lives and reigns: to his safe- 
 keeping I commend myself, and I doubt not that in answer to 
 the prayers of some godly souls, he will send me help: I think 
 I can feel that I am prayed for. 
 
 "Either I shall return to you unscathed; or become the 
 victim of excommunication, and seek an asylum elsewhere. 
 
 " Be this as it may, do you bear yourself valiantly, be stead- 
 fast, and exalt Christ fearlessly and joyfully. 
 
 " The cardinal calls me always his dear son. I know how far I 
 ought to believe this. Nevertheless, I am persuaded that I 
 should be to him the pleasantest and the dearest man on earth, 
 would I but pronounce that single word Revoco, that is to say, 
 
 ' L. Epp. i. 149. 
 
LUTHER TO CARLSTAUT. TIIK I.onD"'s SUPPER. o71 
 
 1 retract. But I will not make myself a heretic by retracting 
 the faith which made me a Christian. Better to be exiled, 
 curst, burnt, put to death. . 
 
 " Fare you well, my dear doctor, and show this letter to our 
 theologians, to Amsdorft", to Philip, to Otten and others, that 
 you may pray for me and for yourselves also; for it is your 
 aifair that is treated hero. It is the cause of faith in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ and of the grace of God." ^ 
 
 Sweet thought which has ever given consolation and peace to 
 those who have borne witness to Jesus Christ, to his divinity, 
 and to his grace, though the world may rain down on them from 
 all parts its sentences of condemnation, its verdicts of exclusion, 
 and its disfavour; "Our cause is that of faith in the Lord!" 
 And how much sweetness in the conviction expressed by the 
 Reformer : " I feel that people are praying for me ! " The Refor- 
 mation was the work of prayer and of godliness. The struggle 
 between Luther and de Vio was that of the religious element 
 which was re-appearing, full of life, with the expiring remains of 
 the middle-age dialectics. 
 
 Thus was Luther enjoying communion with his absent friends 
 when Staupitz returned, and with him came Dr. Ruhel and the 
 chevalier de Feilitzsch, both envoys from the elector, and who 
 had been taking leave of the cardinal. With these certain 
 other friends of the Gospel had joined themselves. Perceiving 
 this generous band assembled, and on the eve of separating, and 
 thinking that possibly he was about to part with them for ever, 
 Luther proposed that they should unite in celebrating the Lord's 
 supper. They agreed to this proposal, and accordingly, that 
 little flock of believers enjoyed the communion of the body and 
 of the blood of Jesus Christ. What must have been the feel- 
 ings of those friends of the Reformer when they reflected that 
 this possibly might be his last opportunity of celebrating the 
 eucharist. What delight and what love must have glowed in 
 Luther's breast, on seeing himself graciously received by his 
 master, at the moment that men were rejecting him! How 
 solemn must the scene have been! How holy that evening 
 entertainment! ^ 
 
 ' 1 . Epp. i. 169. ' L- Opt). (L.) xvii. p. ITS. 
 
372 HISTORY OF THE KEFORMAIIOV. 
 
 Luther waited next day' for the articles that were to have been 
 sent him. Not receiving these, he begged his friend, doctor Wen- 
 ceslas Link, to wait upon the cardinal, who gave him a most affable 
 reception, and assured him of his desire to act the part of a 
 friend, " I no more," said he, " consider Dr. Martin Luther as 
 an heretic. I don"'t wish this time to excommunicate him, at 
 least should no orders to the contrary come from Rome. I 
 have sent his answer to the pope by express."" Then, in proof 
 of his good feeling, he added : " If the doctor would but retract 
 what relates to the indulgences, the affair would soon be finished ; 
 for as regards faith in the sacraments,it is an article which each 
 may interpret and understand in his own manner." Spalatin, 
 who reports these words, adds this sarcastic but just remark : 
 "Hence it is very manifest that money is more an object with 
 Rome than the holy faith and the salvation of souls."' 2 
 
 Link returned to Luther, found Staupitz with him, and 
 related to them the particulars of his visit. On his mentioning 
 the legate's unexpected concession : "It would have been worth 
 the trouble,"" said Staupitz, "for Dr. Wenceslas to have had a 
 notary and witnesses with him, to put that down in writing; for 
 were it known, it would do great prejudice to the Romans."'"' 
 
 Meanwhile, the greater the mildness of expression adopted by 
 the prelate, the less was he trusted by the honest Germans. 
 Many of the worthy men to whom Luther was recommended, 
 held a consultation. '*' The legate,"" they said, " is brewing some 
 mischief by that courier whom he talks of, and it is much to be 
 feared that you all may be seized and thrown into prison.'" 
 
 Staupitz and Wenceslas resolved accordingly to leave the 
 town: they embraced Luther, who persisted in remaining in 
 Aufsburg, and hurriedly set off by two different roads to 
 Nurembero-, not without feeling much uneasiness about what 
 might be awaiting the courageous witness whom they were 
 leaving behind. 
 
 The Lord's day passed quietly enough. Luther waited in 
 vain for a message from the legate: the latter gave no direc- 
 tions for any thing being said to him. At last he resolved to 
 write to him. Staupitz and Link before their departure had 
 
 ' Saturday Octoljcr 15th. " L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 182. 
 
LUTHER TO CAJETAN. 373 
 
 begged liiin to show the cardinal all possible condescension. 
 Luther had not yet had sufficient experience of Rome and her 
 envoys; this was his first trial of them. If his condescension 
 did not succeed, he might regard himself as warned. Now at 
 least he ought to make the attempt. As far as related to him- 
 self, not a day passed without self-condemnation, and without 
 lamenting the ease with which he suffered himself to be hurried 
 into such strong expressions as exceeded the bounds of propriety: 
 and why should he not admit to the cardinal what he daily con- 
 fessed to God? Luther, moreover, had a susceptible and unsus- 
 pecting heart ; accordingly he took up his pen, and in a fit of 
 respectful benevolence, wrote to the cardinal as follows:^ 
 
 " Most worthy father in God, I come once more, not by word 
 of mouth but in writing, to beseech your fatherly goodness to 
 listen to me favourably. The reverend doctor Staupitz, my very 
 dear father in Christ, has called on me to humble myself, to 
 renounce my own sentiments, and to submit my opinions to the 
 judgment of godly and impartial men. He has, also, com- 
 mended your fatherly goodness, and has thoroughly convinced 
 me of the favourable sentiments with which you are animated 
 with respect to me. This news has greatly delighted me. 
 
 " Now, then, most worthy father, I confess, as I have already 
 done, that I have not, as has been said, shown sufficient modesty, 
 sufficient meekness, or sufficient respect for the name of the sove- 
 reign pontiff; and albeit I have been greatly provoked, I am 
 sensible that it had been better for me to have treated the matter 
 with more humility, meekness, and reverence, and not to hate 
 answered a fool according to his folly ^ lest I should be like unto him, 
 (Proverbs xxvi. 4.) 
 
 " This greatly distresses me, and I beg to be forgiven for it. 
 I wish to make it known to the people from the pulpit, as, I 
 may add, I have often done already. I desire by God's grace to 
 set about speaking in a different manner. Nay more ; I am 
 ready to promise, without its being asked of me, not to say a 
 single word more on the subject of the indulgences, if this affair 
 be arranged. But, in like manner, let those who have led me to 
 begin, be compelled, on their side, to be more moderate for the 
 future in what they say or else to hold their peace. 
 ' The letter is dated October 17th, 
 
S74 HISTORY OF THE REFORM ATION. 
 
 " As for what regards the truth of my doctrine, the author- 
 ity of St. Thomas and the other doctors is not sufficient for me. 
 It is necessary that I should hear, if I am worthy of it, the 
 voice of the bride, that is, the Church. For it is certain that 
 she hears the voice of the bridegroom, who is Christ. 
 
 " I pray, therefore, in all humility and submission, of your 
 fatherly love, to refer this whole matter, which up to this hour 
 is so doubtful, to our most holy lord Leo X., in order that the 
 Church may decide, pronounce, and ordain, and so that one 
 may retract with a good conscience or believe with sincerity .'"^ 2 
 
 One farther reflection is suggested on reading this letter. It 
 will be seen that Luther did not act under the influence of any 
 preconceived system, but solely from the convictions that were 
 successively impressed on his mind and heart. So far was he 
 from having adopted any precise system, or any calculated oppo- 
 sition, that sometimes, without being aware of it, he was incon- 
 sistent with himself. Old convictions had not quite ceased to 
 control his understanding, even although opposite ones had 
 already take their place. And yet it is in these marks of sin- 
 cerity and of truth, that some have been at pains to seek for 
 weapons wherewith to attack the Reformation; the history of 
 its variations has been written because it followed this inevitable 
 law of progression, to which, in regard to all things, the human 
 mind must submit; it is in the very moral traits that demon- 
 strate its sincerity, and which consequently reflect honour on 
 that sincerity, that one of the most eminent Christian geniuses 
 has found his most powerful objections .'3 . . . How incon- 
 ceivable are the aberrations of the human mind ! ^ 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (L.) 190. 
 
 2 IIow remarkably the sincerity of Luther appears in this letter. He will 
 by no means dissemble his faults. He is not too proud meekly to confess them 
 and ask forgiveness ; still he does this in such a manner that the truth does not 
 suffer thereby, and that his firm conviction of it is distinctly brought out. 
 With what justice can such a man be blamed in regard to the matter which he 
 had taken in hand, because his over-powering love of the truth sometimes made 
 his zeal outstrip the bounds of moderation ? Well would it be, were all to 
 know and confess their imperfections as Luther did, even when engaged in 
 maintaining some good and righteous cause. — L. R. 
 
 ^ Bossuet's History of the Variations. (Book i. p. 25, etc.) 
 
 * Yet still more inconceivable is it that after these alleged inconsistencies 
 have been so often and so well cleared up, people should nevertheless repeat 
 tiiem ad nauseam, and as in the case of the Gospel Weathercock dress them up 
 anew for the taste of an ignorant multitude which has no means of becoming 
 directly acquainted with the writings of the great Reformer, or with other 
 
TIIR rAROINAT, S SlI.ENCr. 375 
 
 Luther received no answer to liis letter. Oajetan and liis 
 courtiers, after having made such a violent commotion, all at 
 once became perfectly still. What could be the reason for this? 
 Might it not bo tlie calm that precedes a storm? Some are of 
 Pallavicini's opinion: "The cardinal," he remarks, "waited until 
 the haughty monk, who was like a pair of inflated bellows, should 
 gradually lose the wind with which he was puffed up, and become 
 quite a humble man."! Others, who thought themselves better 
 acquainted with the ways of Rome, felt assured that the legate 
 wished to seize Luther, but that not daring liimself to come to 
 such extremities in the face of the imperial safe-conduct, he was 
 waiting for an answer from Rome. A third party could not 
 think that the cardinal meant to wait so long. " The emperor 
 Maximilian," said they, and this might probably be the truth, 
 " will no more scruple to surrender Luther to the judgment of 
 the Church, notwithstanding the safe-conduct, than Sigismond 
 scrupled to deliver John Huss to the council of Constance. The 
 legate is perhaps at this instant negotiating with the emperor, 
 Maximilian''s sanction may at any moment arrive. In propor- 
 tion to the opposition to the pope which he has hitherto shown, 
 will he now, and up to the time that the imperial crown is placed 
 on the head of his grandson, appear to flatter him. There is 
 not a moment to be lost. "Prepare," said the generous men who 
 now surrounded Luther, " prepare an appeal to the pope, and 
 quit Augsburg without delay." 
 
 Luther, whose presence in that city had now for four days 
 been useless, and who by remaining after the departure of the 
 Saxon counsellors sent by the Elector to watch over his safety, 
 had sufficiently shown that he feared nothing, and was ready to 
 answer on every point, yielded at length to the wishes of his 
 friends. But he wanted first to inform de Vio of his design, and 
 did so by a letter written in a tone of greater firmness than the 
 
 works composed in his defence, so as to become better informed on the subject. 
 He who knows better, yet persists in acting thus, ought to feel ashamed of 
 such a dishonourable method of misrepresenting the truth, and of again giving 
 the least appearance of credit to what has long since been acknowledged to be 
 a bad attem]it. May this History of the Reformation, falling into the hands of 
 the candid Roman Catholic, notwithstanding prohibitions to the contrary, eerve 
 to open his eyes to the slanders that have been propagated against tha 
 Reformers. — L. R. 
 
 ' Ut follis ille vontosa elatione distentus. ... (p. 40.) 
 
576 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 former. It would appear that as Luther saw that all his 
 advances were vain, he began to hold up his head in the convic- 
 tion he felt of the righteousness of his cause, and of the injus- 
 tice of his enemies. 
 
 " Most worthy father in God," he writes to de Vio, " your 
 fatherly goodness has seen, yes — has seen, I say, and has suffi- 
 ciently acknowledged my obedience. I have undertaken so dis- 
 tant a journey, amid great perils, in much bodily weakness and 
 in spite of my extreme poverty; in obedience to orders from 
 our most holy lord Leo X.; I have personally appeared before 
 your Eminence; finally, I have thrown myself at the feet of 
 His Holiness, and 1 now wait on his good pleasure, being ready 
 to acknowledge his sentence as just, whether he condemn me or 
 justify me. I have the consciousness, therefore, of having left 
 nothing undone of whatever could be expected from me, as an 
 obedient son of the Church. 
 
 " Consequently, I think it my duty no longer to remain here 
 to no purpose, and besides, this indeed is out of my power. 1 
 am in want of means, and your fatherly goodness told me, in a 
 decided tone, no more to appear before you, if I would not 
 retract. 
 
 " Thus, then, I leave the place in the name of the Lord, 
 desiring to look about me for some spot to which I may retire 
 and live in peace. Sundry personages of more importance than 
 I am, have advised me to appeal from your fatherly goodness, 
 and even from our most holy lord Leo X., now misinformed, to 
 the same Leo when better informed. Well aware as I am that 
 such an appeal would be much more agreeable to our most serene 
 Elector then a retractation, nevertheless, had I wished to consult 
 myself only, I should never have made it. ... 1 have not 
 committed any fault, I ought therefore to fear nothing." 
 
 After writing this letter, which was not transmitted to the 
 legate till after Luthers departure, the latter made himself ready 
 to leave Augsburg. God had preserved him up to that hour, 
 and his heart praised the Lord for it; but he would have done 
 wrong to tempt God. He embraced his friends Peutinger, 
 Langemantel, the Adelmans, Auerbach, and the prior of the 
 Carmelites who had entertained him with so much Christian 
 hospitality. On Wednesday before day-break, he was up and 
 
I.HTHER r-RAVR3 AUGSBUKG HY NIGHT. 377 
 
 ready to set out. His friends liad rccomniendod him to take 
 many precautions, lest, perceiving- his design, his enemies should 
 thwart it, and these counsels of theirs he followed as far as ho 
 could. A ponoy left for him by Staupitz, was brought to the 
 convent gate. Again he bade adieu to his brethren, then 
 mounted and set off, without a bridle, boots, spurs, or arms. 
 The city magistrate had appointed a town officer who knew tho 
 road perfectly, to accompany him on horseback. This attendant 
 conducted him under shade of night through the silent streets 
 of Augsburg. They directed their course to a wicket gate in 
 the city wall. One of the counsellors, Langemantel, had given 
 orders for its being opened. He is still in the power of the 
 legate, the hand of Rome may yet lay hold of him. Doubtless, 
 were the Italians aware that their prey was escaping from them, 
 they would raise a howl of fury. Who knows but that the adver- 
 sary of Rome may yet be seized and thrown into a dungeon ? 
 . . . At length Luther and his guide reach the wicket, pass 
 through, are out of Augsburg, and forthwith put their horses to 
 the gallop and gain some distance with the utmost dispatch. 
 
 Luther at his departure had left his appeal to the pope in the 
 hands of the prior of Pomesaw, his friends not being of opinion 
 that it should be sent to the legate. The prior had instructions 
 to post it up, two or three days after the doctor's departure, at 
 the cathedral door, in presence of a notary and witnesses; this 
 he succeeded in doing. 
 
 In that document Luther declares that he appeals from the 
 most holy father the pope, ill informed, to the most holy lord 
 and father in Christ, Leo X. of that name, by the grace of God, 
 better informed, ^ This address had been drawn up in the requi- 
 site style and forms, in the office of the imperial notary, Gall of 
 Herbrachtiugen, in presence of two Augustinian monks, Bar- 
 tholomew Utzmair, and Wenzel Steinbies. It was dated 16th 
 October. 
 
 On the cardinal being informed of the departure of Luther, 
 he was confounded: nay, as he says himself in a letter to tho 
 Elector, he was frightened and terrified. And, in fact, he had 
 wherewithal to be angry, for by putting an end so abruptly to 
 
 Meliiis informandum. (I>. 0pp. \aiTi. p. 219 ) 
 
 3 u 
 
S78 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 all the negotiations, this result baulked the hopes with which his 
 pride had so Jong been flattered. He had coveted the honoui 
 of healing the wounds of the Church, and of re-establishing the 
 tottering influence of the pope in Germany; and not only had 
 the heretic escaped without punishment, but without his having 
 even succeeded in humbling him. The conference had served 
 only to place in a stronger light, on the one hand, the simpli- 
 city, honesty, and firmness of Luther, and, on the other, the 
 haughty and unreasonable conduct of the pope and his ambas- 
 sador. Since Rome had gained nothing by it, she could not but 
 have lost; her authority having failed to be strengthened, must 
 have sustained a fresh decline. What will people say at the 
 Vatican? What messages may be expected from Rome ? The 
 difiiculties of his position will be forgotten, and the luckless 
 issue of the affair will be set down to his want of capacity. 
 Serra-Longa and the Italians grew furious at seeing themselves, 
 with all their acuteness, outwitted by a German monk. De Vio 
 could hardly conceal his vexation. Such an affront called for 
 vengeance, and we shall soon see him breathe out all his wrath 
 in the letter he addressed to the Elector. 
 
 X. Luther and his guide continued to recede from Augsburg, 
 he urging his horse to the utmost speed that the poor animal's 
 strength would allow. He called to mind the real or supposed 
 flight of John Huss, the manner of his being overtaken, and 
 the assertion of his enemies that as by that flight Huss had 
 annulled the emperor's safe-conduct, they were authorized to 
 commit him to the flames, l Meanwhile these disquietudes could 
 make but a slight impression on Luther's feelings. Escaped 
 from the city in which he had spent ten days in the terrible 
 hand of that Rome which had already crushed so many thou- 
 sands of witnesses to the truth, and had made so much blood to 
 flow around her, now that he is free, now that he breathes the 
 pure country air, and traverses the fields and villages, now that 
 he sees himself so wonderfully delivered by the arm of the Lord, 
 his whole soul blesses the Almighty. Well, indeed, might he 
 now say : Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of tJie 
 fowler. The snaj-e is broken and we are escaped. . . Our help 
 
 » Weissman, Hist. Eccl. 1. p. 12 !7. 
 
NUREMBEKG. THE POPe''s BRIEF. 379 
 
 is in the name of the Lord icho made heaven and earths Thus 
 Luther's heai't was filled with joy. But his thoughts likewise 
 return to de Vio: "The cardinal," says he to himself, "would fain 
 have had me in his hands and have sent me to Rome. No doubt 
 he is vexed at my having escaped from him. He fancied that he 
 had me in his power at Augsburg; he made sure of having me ; 
 but he held the eel by the tail. Is it not a shame that these 
 people should set such a value upon me? They would give many 
 crown pieces to have me, whereas our Lord Jesus Christ was 
 sold for thirty pieces of silver.'"^ 
 
 Luther travelled that first day fourteen leagues. On arriving 
 in the evening at the inn where he was to pass the night, he 
 was so fatigued (his horse, an historian tells us, had a very hara 
 trot) that on coming from the saddle, unable to stand on his feet, 
 he threw himself on the straw. However he enjoyed some rest. 
 On the following day he resumed his journey. At Nuremberg 
 he found Staupitz, engaged in visiting the monasteries of his 
 order, and in that city he first saw the brief sent by the pope tc 
 \jetan respecting him. He was indignant at it, and it is very 
 probable that could he have read that brief before leaving Wit- 
 temberg, he never would have appeared in the cardinal's presence. 
 " It is impossible to believe," says he, " that any thing so 
 monstrous could have emanated from a sovereign pontiff." 3 
 
 Everywhere along the road, Luther was an object of general 
 interest. He had yielded nothing, and such a victory, gained by 
 a begging friar over a representative of Rome, filled all hearts 
 with admiration. Germany seemed now to be revenged on the 
 contempt with which Italy regarded her. The eternal Word 
 had been more honoured than that of the pope. That enormous 
 power, which for so many ages had been lording it over the 
 nations, had received a formidable check. Luther's progress 
 was a triumph. The obstinacy displayed by Rome became a 
 subject of congratulation, it being hoped that it would lead to 
 her fall. Had she been less eager to preserve shameful gains 
 had she been wise enough not to despise the Germans, possibly, 
 in so far as man could foresee, all things might have relapsed 
 into that state of death from which Luther had awoke. 13ut 
 
 ' Pa. cxxiv. " L. 0pp. (I-.) xvli. p. 202. '' Epp. i. p. 166. 
 
380 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the popedom would not yield; and the doctor found himself 
 oblio-ed to bring many more errors to light, and to advance in 
 the knowledge and manifestation of the truth. 
 
 Luther reached Graefenthal, at the extremity of the Thur- 
 ingian forests, on the 26th of October, and there he met count 
 Albert of Mansfeldt, the same who had so strongly dissuaded him 
 from showing himself at Augsburg. The count laughed heartily 
 when he saw his singular equipage. He laid hold of him and 
 compelled him to be his guest. Luther soon resumed his 
 journey. 
 
 He hastened on, wanting to be at Wittemberg on the 31st of 
 October, as he thought that the elector would be there for the 
 purpose of keeping the feast of All Saints, and that he might thus 
 have an opportunity of seeing him. The brief which he had 
 read at Nuremberg, had revealed to him the whole danger of 
 his situation; and in fact, being already condemned at Eome, he 
 had no hope of being allowed to remain at Wittemberg or to 
 obtain an asylum in a monastery, or to live anywhere else in 
 peace and safety. The emperor's protection might possibly 
 defend him; but he was far of being sure of that. He no longer 
 could hope anything from the two friends whom he had hitherto 
 had at that prince's court. Staupitz had lost the favour he had 
 so long enjoyed, and quitted Saxony; and Spalatin, though loved 
 by Frederick, had no great influence with the prince. The 
 elector himself was not sufficiently acquainted with the doctrines 
 of the Gospel, to expose himself, on their account, to manifest 
 perils. Meanwhile, Luther thought that there was no better 
 course for him to follow than to return to Wittemberg, and 
 there to wait for what the everlasting and ever merciful God 
 should determine for him. If, as was thought by many, they 
 would leave him undisturbed, he wished to devote himself entirely 
 to study and to the instruction of youth. ^ 
 
 Luther returned to Wittemberg on the SOth of October; but 
 all this haste proved useless. Neither the elector nor Spalatin 
 had come to the festival. His friends were overjoyed to see him 
 among them again. The very day of his arrival he hastened to 
 inform his friend Spalatin : " I have this day reached Wittem- 
 
 ' L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 183. 
 
TIIK LEGATE TO THE ELECTOH. 381 
 
 berg sate and sound, by the grace of God,'" says he, " but how 
 long I shall remain hero is more than I know. ... I am 
 filled with joy and peace, so much so that 1 am amazed that the 
 trial I endure can appear so great to such a number of great 
 personages." 
 
 De \ io had not waited long after Luther^s departure, before 
 exhaling his utmost indignation to the elector. His letter 
 breathes vengeance throughout. He gives Frederick an account 
 of the conference with an air of confidence: " Since friar Martin," 
 says he in concluding, " cannot be induced by paternal methods 
 to own his being in the wrong, and to continue faithful to the 
 Catholic Church, I have to request that your Highness will send 
 him to Rome, or banish him from your states. Be assured that 
 this piece of business, so difiicult, mischievous, and full of venom, 
 cannot remain longer in suspense ; for the moment I inform 
 our most holy lord of so much craft and maliciousness, it will 
 soon be brought to a close." In a postscript in his own hand- 
 writino-, the cardinal solicits the elector not to cast a shameful 
 slur on his own honour and that of his illustrious ancestoi-s, for 
 the sake of a wretched petty friar.'*'' ^ 
 
 Never, perhaps, was Luther's soul filled with a nobler indig- 
 nation than when reading the copy of this letter sent him by 
 the elector. His heart swelled by turns at the thought of the 
 sufferings he was doomed to endure, of the value of that truth 
 which he was engaged to defend, and of the contemptible con- 
 duct of the Roman legate. His reply, written during the agita- 
 tion into which his soul was thus thrown, is replete with that 
 courage, that elevation, and that faith, which we ever find him 
 exhibit in the most difficult conjunctures of his life. He gives in 
 his turn, an account of the Augsburg conference; he next exposes 
 the cardinal's conduct, and then goes on as follows: 
 
 " I should like to reply to the legate in the place of the 
 elector : 
 
 " Prove that you speak according to knowledge, I should say 
 to him, let the whole matter be committed to writing: I shall 
 then send friar Martin to Rome, or I myself will apprehend him 
 and put him to death. I will take care of my conscienca and 
 
 ' L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 203. 
 
382 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 my honour, and will not allow any stain to soil my glory. But 
 as long as that unhesitating learning of yours flees the light, 
 and reveals itself only by clamours, I can give no credit to 
 darkness. 
 
 " Thus it is that I would reply, most excellent prince ! Let 
 the reverend legate, or let the pope himself, point out my errors, 
 specifically, in writing; let them exhibit their reasons; let them 
 instruct me who am willing to be instructed, who beg instruc- 
 tion, who desire it, who am waiting for it, in such sort that even 
 a Turk would not refuse it me. If I do not retract and con- 
 demn myself, on its being proved to me that the passages J 
 have adduced should be understood otherwise than I have 
 imderstood them, then, most excellent elector, let your high- 
 ness be the first to prosecute and to banish me; let the univer- 
 sity repudiate me and overwhelm me with its wrath. . . . 
 Nay more, and I call heaven and earth to witness, let the Lord 
 Jesus Christ reject and condemn me ! . . . The words that 
 I say, are not dictated by a vain presumption, but by an unalter- 
 able conviction. I am content that the Lord God withdraw his 
 grace from me and that every creature of God refuse me favour, 
 if on being shown better doctrine, I embrace it not. ^ Should 
 they carry their contempt for me too far, on account of the base- 
 ness of my condition, me a poor begging friar, and refuse to 
 instruct me in the way of the truth, your highness might ask the 
 legate to point out to you wherein I have erred; and should they 
 refuse this favour even to your highness, let them write out their 
 views, either for his imperial majesty or for one of the archbishops 
 of Germany. What ought I to say, what can I say farther? 
 
 " Let your highness listen to the voice of honour and of con- 
 science, and not send me to Kome. No man can command this 
 at your hands ; for at Rome it is impossible for me to be safe. 
 The pope himself is not in safety there. It would be to enjoin 
 
 • Here we have the protestations of a sincere regard for truth. Can it be 
 said that men have ever endeavoured in anywise to satisfy these? That ought 
 always first to have been put to proof: and only then could any one be entitled, 
 supposing a man to have had the means and yet have found the endeavour 
 unavailing, to speak of obstinacy. Or could the pope's legate, or the pope him- 
 self, have been less obliged to this than an apostle who notwithstanding his 
 infallible authority, still did his utmost to produce conviction in Christians and 
 said, "I speak to those who understand, judge ye what I say?" Yet the 
 hindrance there was that people aimed at an object which was evil, which could 
 not have been proved out of God's word, but was opposed to it. — L. R. 
 
I UTHEU TO THE ELECTOR. 383 
 
 you to betray a Christian's blood. They have paper, pen and 
 ink; they have also an infinite number of notaries there. They 
 can easily write out in what things and how I have erred. 
 It will cost them less to instruct mo by writing when absent, 
 than to make me die by stratagem while there. 
 
 " I resign myself to exile. My adversaries lay snares for me 
 on every hand, so that I can no where live in security. That no 
 mischief may come upon you on my account, I withdraw from 
 your states in the name of God. I wish to go where the eternal 
 and merciful God would have me to be. Let him do with mo 
 what seemeth to him good! 
 
 " Now then, most serene elector, I salute you with veneration; 
 I recommend you to the eternal God, and I give you everlasting 
 thanks for all your benefits towards me. Whatever people I 
 shall dwell among in future, I shall ever remember you, and will 
 ever pray, unceasingly and gratefully, for you and yours. ^ , . 
 I am still, thank God, full of joy, and I bless him, in that 
 Christ, the Son of God, accounts me worthy to suffer in so holy a 
 cause. May he ever preserve your illustrious Highness! Amen." 
 
 This letter, so full of truth, profoundly impressed the elector. 
 " He was shaken by a most eloquent letter," says Maimbourg.^ 
 Never could he have thought of delivering an innocent person 
 into the power of Home; perhaps he might have invited Luther 
 to keep himself for a time in concealment; but he was averse to 
 seem in any way to yield to the legate's threats. He wrote to 
 his councillor, Pfeffinger, who was then with the emperor, to 
 inform that prince how matters really stood, and to intreat that 
 he would write to Rome that the afi"air must be brought to a 
 close, or at least that instructions should be given for its being 
 tried in Germany by impartial judges. ^ 
 
 • Ego enim ubicunque ero gentium, illustrissimse Dominationis tuse nunquam 
 non ero memor. . . . (L. Epp. i. 187.) 
 
 ^Thus does Mainibourg ascribe to mere eloquence what were genuine effusions of 
 the heart. In the same spirit it will perhaps be maintained that all the cordial 
 protestations, all the outpourings of his soul, to be found in Lutlier's letters, the 
 truthfulness and sincerity of which are plain and palpable, and which are enough 
 of themselves to prove these qualities, are but elaborate tricks of art, arranged 
 perhaps so cunningly, the better to deceive. Here we cannot fail to be 
 reminded of the landlord who judged all his guests by himself. Yet, indeed, we 
 give these false and crafty slanderers somewhat to do, if we would have them as 
 naturally counterfeit the unborrowed language of sincerity and truth. — L. U. 
 
 8 I.. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 244. 
 
384< HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Some days afterwards, the elector replied to the legate. " In 
 as much as Dr. Martin appeared before you at Augsburg, you 
 ought to be satisfied. We did not expect that without having 
 convicted him of error, you should pretend to compel him to 
 retract. None of the learned men who are to be found in our 
 principalities, has told us that Martin's doctrine is impious, 
 anti-christian, and heretical." The prince then refuses to send 
 Luther to Rome and to expel him from his states. 
 
 This letter was communicated to Luther and filled him with 
 gladness. "Good God!"" he wrote to Spalatin, " how joyfully 
 have I perused and re-perused it. I know how amply we can 
 trust his words, so full at once of a force and of a modesty, both 
 so admirable. I fear the Romans may not comprehend their 
 full meaning; but this at least they will comprehend, that what 
 they thought was already finished, is not even begun. Be so 
 good as present my thanks to the prince. It is strange that he 
 (de Vio,) who a short time ago was a mendicant monk like 
 myself, is not afraid to address the most powerful princes with- 
 out respect, to summon them to answer to him, to threaten them, 
 to send them his orders, and to treat them with inconceivable 
 haughtiness. Let him learn that the temporal power is of God, 
 and that it is not lawful for a man to trample its glory under- 
 foot." 1 
 
 Frederick had, no doubt, been encouraged to reply to the legate 
 in a tone which the latter did not expect, by a letter addressed 
 to him on this occasion by the university of Wittemberg. It 
 had good reasons for pronouncing in the doctor's favour; for it 
 was flourishing more and more and was eclipsing all the other 
 schools. A crowd of students flocked to it from all parts of 
 Germany, to hear that extraordinary man whose instructions 
 seemed to open up a new era in religion and learning. These 
 youths as they came up from all the provinces, made a halt as 
 soon as they perceived the Church towers of Wittemberg in the 
 distance; they then raised their hands to heaven, and praised 
 God for having caused the light of truth to beam upon that city 
 as on Zion of old, and for sending it thence to the most dis- 
 tant countries. 2 A life, an activity, hitlierto unknown, animated 
 
 ^ L. Epp. i. p. lOS. 2 Scultet, Anral. i. p. 11. 
 
LUTFIER THINKS OF LKAVING GERMANY. 385 
 
 the university. " We study here with tlie industry of a swarm 
 of ants," said Luther. ^ 
 
 XI. Thinking that he might soon be banished from Germany, 
 Luther occupied himself with the publication of the minutes of 
 the conference at Augsburg. These he wished should be a 
 standing memorial of the struggle between him and Home. Ho 
 saw the storm ready to burst forth, but he feared it not. He 
 was daily expecting the curses of Home; and was so arranging 
 and ordering everything that when they came, they might not 
 find him unprepared. " Having folded up my robe and girded 
 my loins,"" said he, " I am ready to set out like Abraham, with- 
 out knowing whither I shall go, or rather very well knowing 
 that, since God is every where." 2 He intended to leave behind 
 him a farewell letter. " Have the courage then," he wrote to 
 Spalatin, " to read the letter of a cursed and excommunicated 
 man." 
 
 His friends were now alarmed and anxious about him; they 
 besought him to place himself as a prisoner in the hands of the 
 elector, so that the prince might see to his being safely guarded 
 somewhere. 3 
 
 His enemies could not imagine what gave him all this confi- 
 dence. Being the topic of conversation one day at the court of 
 the bishop of Brandenburg, it was asked, what was the assistance 
 on which he could rely. " He looks to Erasmus, said one, to 
 Oapito said another, while others said that it was not to such 
 learned men as those that he looked." — " No, no," replied the 
 bishop, " the pope is not likely to trouble himself much about 
 such people. He trusts to the university of Wittemberg and to 
 the duke of Saxony." . . . Thus none knew to what fortress 
 the Eeformer had betaken himself. Luther's mind was agitated 
 by the thoughts of his departure ; not that this arose from the 
 dread of danger, but because he foresaw an interminable succes- 
 sion of obstacles likely to rise up in Germany to the free profes- 
 sion of the truth. " Should I remain here," said he, " I shall 
 be deprived of the liberty of saying and writing many things; 
 
 'Studium nostrum more formicarum fervet. (L. Epp. i. p. 193.) 
 
 s Quia Dous ubique. (L. Epp. i. p. 188.) 
 
 ^ lit principi me in captivitate darem. (Ibid., p. 189.) 
 
 I. 3 c 
 
S86 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 should 1 go, i shall pour forth my whole heart without restraint 
 and offer my life to Christ."^ 
 
 France was the country in which Luther hoped to have it in 
 his power to preach the truth without let or hindrance. He 
 thought that the freedom then enjoyed by the doctors of the 
 university of Paris might well be envied; and, besides, he was 
 of one mind with them on many points. What would have 
 been the result, had he been transported from Wittemberg into 
 France? Would the Reformation have been established there 
 as it became established in Germany? Would the power of 
 Rome have been disenthroned there, and instead of being des- 
 tined to be the arena on which the hierarchical principles of 
 Rome were long to struggle with the destructive principles of an 
 irreligious philosophy, would France have become a grand focus 
 of evangelical light! It is idle on such a subject to indulge in 
 vain conjectures; yet it is possible that, had he gone to Paris, 
 Luther might have wrought important changes in the destinies 
 of Europe and of France. 
 
 The soul of Luther was now deeply moved. He often 
 preached in Wittemberg church in the place of Simon Heyns 
 Pontanus, pastor of the city, who was almost always an invalid. 
 He thought it his duty, at any risk, to take leave of the people to 
 whom he had so often preached salvation, " I," said he one day 
 in the pulpit, "am a very little fixed and very uncertain preacher. 
 How many times already, have I gone away all at once, with- 
 out so much as bidding you farewell. . . . Should this 
 again occur, and should I never return to you, you may consider 
 this as my farewell." Then after adding some words more, 
 he wound up by saying, calmly and mildly : " Finally, I warn 
 vou not to allow yourselves to be terrified, should the papal 
 censures break forth against me furiously. Impute not this to 
 the pope, and wish no evil either to him or to any person what- 
 soever, but commit the whole afiair to God."" 2 3 
 
 • Si iero totum eiFandam et vitani offeram Christo. (L. Epp. i. p. 180.) 
 
 ^ Deo rem committerent. TL. Epp. i. 191.) 
 
 3 Spalatin having had these concluding words reported to him, supposed that 
 I,uther had made up his mind to go. The words immediately preceding the 
 above, prove, however, that this was not the case. M. Michelet has given 
 them: " You have been misinformed," he wrote to Spalatin, " I have not taken 
 farewell of the people at Wittemberg ; it is true, I spoke nearly as follows : Tou 
 all know me to be a variable and uncertain preacher," <fcc. see Memoires de 
 Luther ecrits par lui-meme, traduits et wis en ordre ; par M. Michelet. Brus- 
 sels edition, vol. 1. p. 45. Tr. 
 
CniTICAL MOMENT. 387 
 
 And now the time seemed at last to have arrived. The prince 
 gave Luther to know that he wished to see him withdraw to a 
 distance from Wittemberg, and the Elector's wishes were too 
 sacred in his eyes for him not to show himself eager to comply 
 with them. Accordingly, he made preparations for his depar- 
 ture without very well knowing in what direction he should go. 
 Meanwhile he wished once more to have his friends together, 
 and with this view prepared for them a farewell entertainment. 
 Seated at the same table with them, he once more enjoyed their 
 pleasant conversation — their fond and fear-foreboding friend- 
 ship. A letter is brought in for him. . . It is from the 
 court. He opens and I'eads it with a fluttering heart; it con- 
 tains fresh orders for his departure. The prince wishes to know 
 "why he delays his departure so long."" He feels overwhelmed 
 with sorrow, yet, resuming his courage and looking up, he says, 
 firmly and rejoicingly, as he looks round the company: "Father 
 and mother forsake me, but the Lord takes me up.""! He now 
 must go — his friends were all in commotion. What was to 
 become of him? If 'Lutlier''s very protector repudiates him, 
 who is to receive him? And the gospel, and the truth, and that 
 admirable work . . . all, doubtless, must now fall to 
 nothing, together with the illustrious witness. The fate of the 
 Reformation seemed to be suspended on a thread, and might not 
 that thread be expected to snap, the moment that Luther left 
 the walls of Wittemberg? Few were the words that passed 
 between Luther and his friends; the blow that had reached 
 their brother, brought a flood of tears to their eyes. But, after 
 a few minutes waiting, there came another letter, which was 
 opened by Luther in full expectation that it must be a fresh 
 summons. But, mighty hand of the Lord ! for the present 
 he is safe. The whole aspect of things was altered. " As the 
 new envoy from the pope is hopeful," it said, " that all may yet 
 be settled by means of a colloquy, remain still where you are.''^ 
 What a momentous hour was this! And what might have 
 been the result if Luther, who was always eager to conform to 
 his prince's will, had left Wittemberg immediately on his 
 receiving his first letter? Never were Luther and the Reforma- 
 
 Vatertind Mutter vei'lasscn micli, aber e'er Ilerr iiimf mich auf. 
 ^ L. 0pp. XV. 824. 
 
388 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tion at so low an ebb as at that moment. It seemed to be all 
 over with their destinies: but these were changed in a twink- 
 ling. After reaching the lowest stage in his career, the Wit- 
 temberg doctor instantly rose again, and from that time forth 
 his influence went on increasing. The Lord commands, in the 
 language of the prophet, and his servants go down into the 
 depths and mount up again to the heavens. ^ 
 
 Spalatin sent for Luther to come to Lichtemberg, that at that 
 place, in compliance with orders from Frederick, he might have 
 an interview with him. There they talked long over the posi- 
 tion of affairs. " Should the censures come from Rome,"" said 
 Luther, " I shall certainly not remain at Wittemberg." — " Take 
 care," rejoined Spalatin, " not to be too precipitate in your 
 journey to France!" 2 .... He parted from him, bidding 
 him wait until he should hear from him. " Only recommend 
 my soul to Christ," said Luther to his friends. " I see that my 
 opponents strengthen themselves in their purpose of destroying 
 me; but Christ at the same time strengthens me in that of not 
 yielding to them." 3 
 
 Luther then published the Acts of the Conference of Augsburg ; 
 Spalatin wrote to him, on the part of the Elector, not to do so, 
 but the letter came too late, and the publication once made, the 
 prince gave it his approbation.^ " Great God!" says Luther in 
 the preface, " what a new, what an astonishing crime, to search 
 for light and truth ! . . . . and especially in the Church, 
 that is to say, in truth's own kingdom." — " I send you my 
 acts," he wrote to Link: "they are more trenchant than the 
 lord legate doubtless looked for; but my pen is ready to give 
 birth to much greater things. I myself know not where my 
 
 ' If ever an intervention of Providence could be regarded as a proof at the 
 same time of the upright and godly intention of any man, and of the soundness 
 of a cause, it is most surely this — so personal — so unlooked for, and so oppor- 
 tune ; so manifest an answer to the confident trust that had just before been 
 expressed, and to the still prayer of men's hearts : in one word, it was a truly 
 wondrous act of the Deity for the rescue of Luther and the Reformation ! 
 — L. R. 
 
 ^ Ne tarn cito in Galliam irem. (L. Epp. i. p. 195.) 
 3 Firmat Christus propositum non cedendi in me. (Ibid.) 
 * According to a letter of Luther's quoted by M. Michelet, the Elector 
 seems to have changed his mind previous to the work being put to press. This 
 hesitation on the Elector's part," says M. Michelet, " appears in a letter of 
 Luther's: " The prince had quite put me oft' publisliing the Acts of the Con^ 
 fcveucc of Augsburg, (hen he permiUedit, and thev arc printing." 'i'u. 
 
DISCONTENTMENT WITH CAJETAN AT HOME. 389 
 
 lliouglits come from. Tn my judgment, that affair has not yet 
 had a commencement,' so far are the great folks of Rome from 
 being able as yet to hope for its being ended. I will send you 
 what I have written, that you may see how far I have guessed 
 aright in believing that the Antichrist spoken of by St. Paul, 
 is now reigning in the court of Home. I believe I shall be able 
 to demonstrate that he is worse at this day than the Turks 
 themselves." 
 
 Untoward rumours now reached Luther from all quarters. 
 One friend wrote to him that the new envoy from Rome had 
 orders to seize him and deliver him over to the pope. Another 
 reported this tale, that being on a journey, he happened to meet 
 somewhere with a courtier, and that the conversation falling on 
 the affairs that were then engrossing all Germany, the latter 
 declared to him tliat lie had come under an engagement to 
 deliver Luther into the hands of the sovereign pontiff. " But 
 the more they rage and affect violent methods," wrote the 
 Reformer, "the less I tremble. "^ 
 
 People were exceedingly displeased with Oajetan at Rome, 
 all the ill humour that was felt at the failure of this affair 
 having vented itself in the first instance on him. The men at 
 court in Rome, thought themselves entitled to reproach him with 
 having been wanting in that prudence and that subtile policy 
 which, if one was to believe them, ought to be the chief qualities 
 of a legate, and for not having known, on so important an 
 occasion, how to relax the stiffness of his scholastic theology. 
 The whole blame lies upon him, it was said. His heavy pedantry 
 has spoilt all. Why have irritated Luther by threats and 
 insults, instead of coaxing him over by the promise of a good 
 bishoprick, or even of a cardinal's hat? 3 4 These mercenary souls 
 
 • Res ista necdum habet initium suum meo judicio. (Ibid. p. 193.) 
 
 2 Quo illi magis furunt, et vi afFectant viam, eo minus ego terreor. (L. Epp 
 i. p. 191.) 
 
 " Sarpi, Coiuacil of Trent, p, 8, 
 
 •* According to M. Michelet in his " Memoirs of Luther," Cajetan's unpopul- 
 arity at Rome preceded his interview with the Reformer. " He " (Cajetan) 
 " had himself," says M. Michelet, " written in favour of the lawfulness of inter- 
 preting Scripture without following the torrent of the fathers (contra torrentem 
 S. S. Patrnm). This bold opinion had made him so far suspected of heresy." 
 See Memoires de Luther, as before, vol. i. p. 38. There is a peculiar interest, 
 if, as, is very possible, de Vio secretly agreed with Luther in some of his 
 opinions, in the providential appointment of the former to be the grand instru- 
 ment tliat was to try the latter's sincerity and steadfastness. May wc noi 
 
390 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 judged of Luther by themselves. Meanwhile, this fault must 
 be repaired. Rome must pronounce her opinion on the one hand; 
 and, on the other, must deal tenderly with the elector, who 
 might come to be of great service in the election of an emperor, 
 which was speedily to take place. It being impossible for the 
 Roman ecclesiastics to have any suspicion of the effects of 
 Luther s strength of mind and courage, they imagined that the 
 elector was much more implicated in the affair than he really 
 was. The pope, therefore, resolved to adopt a different course. 
 He caused a bull to be published in Germany by his legate, 
 confirming the doctrine of indulgences in the precise points 
 which had been impugned, but making no mention either of the 
 elector or of Luther. As the Reformer had said all along, that he 
 would submit to the decision of the Roman Church, the pope 
 thought that he must now either keep his word, or exhibit him- 
 self as a manifest disturber of the Church and despiser of the 
 holy apostolic see. In either case the pope, it appeared, could 
 not fail to be a gainer; but nothing is truly gained by an obstin- 
 ate resistance to the truth. In vain had the pope threatened 
 excommunication against whosoever should teach otherwise than 
 he ordained. It is not by such orders that an arrest can be 
 laid upon the light, and it would have been wiser to temper 
 by certain restrictions the pretensions of the sellers of indul- 
 gences. Hence this decree from Rome was a new blunder. By 
 legalising crying errors, it made all wise men angry, and shut 
 the door against Luther's return. " It was believed," says a 
 Roman Catholic historian, a great enemy to the Reformation, i 
 " that this bull had been drawn up purely in the interest of 
 the pope and of the money-collectors, who were beginning 
 
 ascribe to a secret consciousness of the general soundness of his opponent's 
 views, the cardinal-legate's ■willingness to leave the question open with respect 
 to the doctrine of grace being required in the sacraments — his apparent deter- 
 mination to avoid discussion on some very important points, while he permitted 
 it in othei's — his eagerness to subject Luther to the same absolute and abject 
 submission to the papal system which his conscience may have rebuked him for 
 exhibiting himself, and the evident dread with which Luther had inspired him — 
 a dread in such a case so naturally conjoined with the hatred that led him to 
 call the Reformer a brute of deep eyes and wonderful speculations, with whom 
 he could no longer hold debate. In the order of Divine Providence, we appre- 
 hend that the Augsburg conferences were a sifting time for both Luther and de 
 Vio ; out of which the former came more faithful and courageous, the latter 
 more treacheous and cowardly to certain great truths, so far known to both. Tr. 
 » Maimburg. p. 38. 
 
AVPRAL TO A COUNCir,. 391 
 
 to find that nobody liked to pay anything for these indul- 
 gences." 
 
 Cardinal de Vio published the decree at Lintz, in Austria, on 
 December 1 3th, 1518; but Luther was already safe from his 
 attempts. On the 20th of November he had entered an appeal 
 in the chapel of Corpus Christi at VVittemberg, from the pope 
 to a general council of the Church. He foresaw the storm that 
 was about to be let loose upon him; he knew that God only could 
 conjure it away; but what he himself was called to do, that he 
 did. No doubt ho must leave Wittemberg, were it only on the 
 elector*'s account, as soon as the Roman maledictions should 
 arrive; yet he did not wish to abandon Saxony and Germany 
 without a very public protest. He therefore composed such a 
 protest, and that it might be ready for publication the 
 moment that the furies of Rome should reach him, as he expresses 
 it, he gave it to be printed on the precise condition that the 
 bookseller should deposit all the copies with him. But greed of 
 gain led that person to sell nearly the whole impression, while 
 Luther was quietly waiting for the deposit. Luther was angry; 
 but the thing was done. That bold protest found its way every- 
 where. Luther anew declared in it that he had no intention of 
 saying anything against the Holy Church, or against the autho- 
 rity of the apostolic see, or against the pope when properly 
 counselled. " But," he continues, " in as much as the pope, who 
 is God's vicar on the earth, may like any other man, err, sin, 
 lie, and that the appeal to the general council is the only safe- 
 guard against unjust actions which it is impossible to resist, I find 
 myself obliged to have recourse to it." ^ ^ 
 
 1 Lbscher, Ref. Act. 
 
 ' Luther at this period may be regarded as a Janscnist in regard to the doc- 
 trines of grace, only with views even more scriptural; and as a Galiicjin, in 
 regard to his views of the fallibility and peccability of the pope. 
 
 The doctrine that the pope cannot err in doctrine, or in matters of fact, is 
 too convenient not to have found many abettors .Tniong Roman Catholics down 
 to our own day. It has been maintained in its broadest extent by the Jesuits in 
 particular, who as the pope's own militia, naturally seek to aggrandise their 
 immediate master at the expense of other authorities, bott temporal and spirit- 
 ual, even in their own church. The famous Jansenist, M. Nicole, asserts, that 
 finding they could not directly teach the doctrine of the pope's superiority to 
 kings, in temporal matters, (as laid down in the extravagant Unam sanctam of 
 Boniface VIII.) without incurring an overwhelming opposition from- the p.arlia- 
 ments, &c. in France, they began "to inculcate that of the pope's infallibility as 
 clearly involving the other " For as; they never abandon what they have once under- 
 taken," says M. Nicole in his Pcrmncvses ron sequences de la nouvcUe heresic 
 
392 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Here, theu, we have the Reformation launched into a new 
 sphere. It is no longer made dependent on the pope and his 
 resolutions, but on a general council. Luther addresses himself 
 to the whole Church, and the voice that proceeds from Corpus 
 Ohristi chapel, must pass through all the Lord's flocks. It was 
 not courage in which the Reformer was wanting, for here we 
 have a new proof of that quality. Shall God be wanting to him ? 
 This is what we shall learn from the difiierent periods of the 
 Reformation which remain yet to be unfolded before us. 
 
 (les Jesuites, contre le Roi et centre Vetat, " they have found ways and means of 
 establishing this pernicious doctrine in a more adroit and dangerous manner : 
 for not daring to propose it grossly and in itself, they labour more subtilely to 
 establish the principles on which, by necessary consequence, it depends ; well 
 reckoning that if they can by this artifice elude the vigilance of the Magistrates 
 and of theSorbonne, it will be very easy for them to make the people receive as an 
 indubitable truth what they can easily demonstrate to be a necessary consequence 
 flowing from what they shall have previously made to pass for a Catholic truth." 
 
 The doctrine seems to have fallen and risen, generally speaking, with the 
 credit and influence of the Jesuits. Their suppression by Clement XIV. and the 
 general outcry against them throughout Roman Catholic Europe about eighty 
 years ago, having been followed by the reign of flagrant atheism in France, and 
 the horrors and convulsions that so long desolated the continent thereafter, the 
 opinion began to gain ground, that those calamities were at once the natural 
 consequence and providential punishment of their suppression. Hence their 
 revival by the pope in 1814, followed by the return of their extravagant tenets 
 on the subject of papal infallibility. So boldly were these announced in France, 
 particularly by M. Bonald during the reign of Charles X. that the Paris bar 
 took alai-m, and followed up the famous Memoire d consuUer of the count de 
 Montlosier, by obtaining the execution of the old laws against the Jesuits, so 
 that in 1827 they were anew expelled from France. They are said to have 
 again returned in the face of these laws and to be found at various places, not 
 however, it may well be believed, as the hardy promulgators of any unpopular 
 doctrines. 
 
 In maintaining that the popes could err, Luther held only what popes them- 
 selves have repeatedly confessed. In a law opinion by the king's counsellors of 
 Louis XIV. dated June 1665, this fact is established by the recorded opinions 
 of popes Paul IV., Adrian VI., Gregory XL, John XXII., who retracted a purely 
 theological doctrine on the future blessedness of the redeemed, in consequence 
 of being threatened with being treated as an heretic by king Philip of France ; 
 Clement V., Innocent III., Paschal IL, Leo III., &c. Pope Ilonorius I. was 
 condemned as a Monothclite by the 6th, 7th, and 8th councils ; the story of his 
 error and condemnation used to be the second lesson in the ofiice read on St. 
 Peter and St. Paul's eve, and the popes at one time anathematised him at 
 their consecration. See Diurnus EcclesicB Romance, quoted in the Annales de 
 la Societe des soi-disans Jesuites, tom. v. p. 751. In short, we must attribute 
 the resentment excited by Luther's insubordination to the pope, neither to his 
 denying his infallibility as a principle, nor to his disowning it in fact, but to 
 these being connected with a protest against papal corruptions of Christian 
 doctrine and manners. Tb. 
 
BOOK FIFTH. 
 
 THE LEIPSICK DISPUTATION. 
 
 (1519.) 
 
 I. Dangers were now fast thickening round Luther and the 
 Keformalion. The Wittemberg doctor's appeal to a general 
 council aimed a new thrust at the papal power. By a bull of Pius 
 
 II. the greater excommunication was pronounced against even 
 emperors, should they dare to incur the guilt of such a revolt. 
 Frederick of Saxony, little established as yet in the doctrines 
 of the Gospel, was about to dismiss Luther from his states. ' 
 Thus a new message from Leo X. must have thrown the Eefor- 
 mer among strangers, who would have been afraid to compromise 
 themselves by receiving a monk lying under the malediction of 
 Rome. And even had the sword of some feudal lord been 
 unsheathed in his defence, a few plain knights would have been 
 despised by the powerful princes of Germany, and must have 
 soon given way in so hazardous an undertaking. 
 
 But at the moment when all men at the court of Leo X. 
 were urging him to adopt rigorous measures, and when one final 
 blow would have delivered his adversary into his hands, that 
 pope all at once changed his plans, and entered on a course of 
 conciliation and apparent mildness. ^ It may, no doubt, be said 
 that he mistook the elector's feelings towards Luther, believing 
 them to be far more favourable than they really were ; we may 
 admit that public opinion and the spirit of the age, two new 
 influences at that time, seemed in his eye to throw an inacces- 
 
 1 The elector's letter to his envoy at Rome. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 298.) 
 
 2 Ratiorem ngendi prorsus oppositam inirc statuit. (Cardinal Pallavicini, 
 Hist. Concil. Trid. vol. i. p. 51.) 
 
 1. 3d 
 
394 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 sible rampart around the Keformer; we may suppose, as one of 
 Leo's historians has done, ^ that lie yielded to the suggestions of 
 his judgment and of his heart, both which inclined him to mild- 
 ness and moderation; but this novel course of action at Rome, at 
 such a conjuncture, is too strange for us to refuse to acknowledge 
 in it the presence of a higher and a mightier hand. 
 
 A noble Saxon, chamberlain to the pope and canon of Maintz, 
 Treves, and Meissen, happened to be then at the court of Rome, 
 and had contrived to make himself a person of consequence there. 
 He boasted of relationship with the Saxon princes, so that the 
 Roman courtiers sometimes gave him the title of the duke of 
 Saxony. While in Italy he made an absurd display of his Ger- 
 man nobility, and in Germany he awkwardly imitated the 
 polished manners and elegancies of Italy. Fond of wine, - this 
 passion had grown upon him during his stay at the court of 
 Rome. Yet on this person the men at that court built high 
 expectations. His German origin, insinuating manners, skill in 
 business, every thing, in short, led them to hope that Charles of 
 Miltitz, for that was his name, would by prudent managemen 
 succeed in checking the mighty revolution which now threatened 
 to unsettle the whole world. 
 
 It was of importance that the true object of the Roman cham- 
 berlain's mission should be concealed, and this was done without 
 difficulty. Four years preceding this, the pious elector had sent a 
 request to the pope for a golden rose. That rose, the loveliest of 
 flowers, represented the body of Jesus Christ; it was consecrated 
 every year by the sovereign pontiff, and presented to one of the 
 first princes of Europe. It was resolved to send it this time to 
 the elector. Miltitz set out with instructions to examine how 
 matters stood, and to gain over the elector's counsellors, Spalatin 
 and Pfeffinger. He had procured private letters addressed to 
 them. By this attempt to conciliate those who were about the 
 prince, Rome thought she might soon have her redoubtable 
 enemy in her power. 
 
 Tlie new legate reached Germany in December 1518. 
 Along the road he had been at pains to sound public opinion, 
 
 1 See Roscoe's Life of T.eo X., vol. iv. p. 2. 
 
 - Nee ab usu immodorato vini abstinuit. (Pallavicini, Hist. Concil. Triil. i. 
 p. 6'J.) 
 
AUHIVAL OF MILTIT/. 
 
 39! 
 
 and to his utter amazement had everywhere observed that tlio 
 majority of the inhabitants sided with the lleformation '—that 
 Lutlier was spoken of everywhere with enthusiasm — that Un- 
 one person that favoured the pope, there were three in favour of 
 the Reformer: 2 Luther has preserved a trait of his mission. 
 " What think you of the papal chair at Home?" the legate often 
 asked of the landladies and maid-servants at the inns. One day, 
 one of these poor women replied with great simplicity: " To tell 
 vou the truth, we don't know whether the chairs you have at 
 Rome be made of stone or wood."^ 
 
 Nothinf>- more was wanted to fill the elector's court, the uni- 
 versity, the city of Wittemberg, and all Saxony, with suspicion 
 and distrust, than the mere report that a new legate had arrived. 
 " Thank God, Martin is still alive," wrote the terrified Melan- 
 chthon.4 It was positively asserted, that the Roman chamber- 
 lain had orders to apprehend Luther by fair means or by foul, 
 and the doctor was urged on all sides to be on his guard against 
 the traps set for him by Miltitz. " He has come," people said, 
 " for the purpose of apprehending you and dehvering you overto 
 the pope. Credible witnesses have seen the brieves he brings 
 alono- with him." " I wait on God's will," replied Luther. 5 
 
 Miltitz did, in fact, arrive charged with letters addressed to 
 the elector, his counsellors, the bishops, and the burgo-master of 
 the city of Wittemberg, He was provided with seventy apostoHc 
 brieves, and should the flatteries and favours of Rome attain 
 their object, should Frederick deliver Luther into his hands, 
 these seventy brieves would, in some sort, serve him as passports. 
 He proposed to take out and post up one of them, at each of the 
 towns he had to pass through, and hoped thus to drag his 
 prisoner, without opposition, as far as Rome.^ 
 
 * Supcitatus per viam Mitilius qtianam esset in rpstimatione Lutherus. . . . 
 sensit de eo cum admiratione homines loqui. (Pallavicini, Hist. Concil. Trid. 
 Tom. i. p. 51.) 
 
 ^ Ecce ubi unum pro papa stare inveni, tres pro te contra papam stabant. (L. 
 Opp. Lat. in Prajf ) 
 
 ^ Quid nos scire possumus quales vos Romse habeatis sellas, ligneasne an 
 lapideas? (Ibid.) 
 
 * Martinus noster, Deo gratias, adhuc spirat. (Corpus Reformatorum cdidit 
 Uretschnoider, i. CI.) 
 
 ^ Expecto consilium Dei. (h. Epp. i. p. 191.) 
 
 * Per singula oppida affigcret unum, et ita tutus me perducerct Romam. (I.. 
 Opp. Lat. in Pra;f.) 
 
808 HISTORY OF TH2 REFORMATION. 
 
 The pope seemed to liave taken all his measures, and already 
 at the elector"'s court people were hesitating on which side to range 
 themselves. Violence might be resisted, but who could think of 
 opposing the chief of all Christendom, speaking so mildly and 
 with so much apparent reason? Might it not be well, it was said, 
 to put Luther in some place of concealment until the storm 
 shall blow by? . . It was now that an unforeseen event, extri- 
 cated Luther, the elector, and the Keformation, from this crisis. 
 The whole aspect of the world was in a moment changed. 
 
 On the 12th of January, 151.9, Maximilian, emperor of Ger- 
 many, died; and Frederick of Saxony, in conformity with the 
 German constitution, began to administer the affaire of the 
 empire. From that time forth the elector needed not to fear 
 the projects of the nuncios. New interests began to agitate the 
 court of Rome, obliged it to deal tenderly with Frederick in its 
 negociations with him, and at once arrested the blow which 
 there can be no doubt was meditated bv Miltitz and de Vio. 
 
 The pope was particularly desirous that Charles of Austria, 
 already king of Naples, should not be called to the imperial throne, 
 thinking that he had more reason to dread a king, his neighbour, 
 than a monk in Germany. Wishing to make sure of the 
 elector, whose assistance in this affair might be of the utmost 
 use to him, he resolved to relax in his severity to the monk, the 
 better to oppose the king; but both made progress in spite of 
 him. Such was the change in Leo X. 
 
 Yet another circumstance occurred to avert the storm that now 
 threatened the Reformation. No sooner was the empei-or dead 
 than new political troubles broke out. In the south of the empire, 
 the Suabian confederation wished to punish Ulricli of Wirtem- 
 berg, who had been wanting in his fidelity to it; while, in the 
 north, the bishop of Hildesheim threw himself, in arms, on the 
 bishoprick of Minden and the territories of the Duke of Bruns- 
 wick. Amid such a turmoil as this, how could the great ones 
 of this world attach any importance to a dispute about the 
 remission of sins? But what God made especially serviceable to 
 the progress of the Reformation, was the high repute for wisdom 
 enjoyed by the elector, now become vicar of the empire, and the 
 protection that he gave to the new teachers. " The storm 
 suspended its fury," says Luther; " the papal excommunication 
 
MII/IITZ ATl'ACKS TE'IZ f.. ^QJ 
 
 began to full into contempt. Under the shelter of the elector's 
 vicariat the Gospel difiused itself far and wide, and the result was 
 that great damage was done to the popedom."" ^ 
 
 .Moreover, it was natural that during an interregnum, the 
 severest prohibitions should so far lose their force, and all things 
 become more free and easy. The ray of liberty that beamed 
 upon those beginnings of the Reformation, powerfully promoted 
 the growth of that still delicate plant, and henceforward we can 
 perceive how favourable political liberty would prove to the 
 progress of evangelical Christianity. 
 
 Miltitz, who had reached Saxony before Maximilian's decease, 
 hastened to pay his respects to his old friend, Spalatin; but 
 hardly had he commenced his complaints against Luther, than 
 the chaplain broke out against Tetzel, calling the iiuncio"'3 
 attention to the lies and blasphemies of the dealer in indulgen- 
 ces, and declaring that the schism then rending the Church was 
 ascribed by all Germany to that Dominican. 
 
 Miltitz was in amazement. From being accuser, he had 
 become the accused. Upon Tetzel he now vented all his wrath. 
 He summoned him to repair to Altenburgand to justify himself 
 in his presence. 
 
 The Dominican, no less a coward than a bravado, had, from a 
 dread of the people whom he had irritated by his deceptions, 
 given up passing through the towns and villages, and kept him- 
 self ensconced in the college of St. Paul at Leipsick. He grew 
 pale on receiving Miltitz's letter. Even Rome now abandoned 
 him; she threatened — she condemned him; she would drag him 
 from the only asylum in which he can fancy himself safe, and 
 expose him to the wrath of his enemies. . . Tetzel refused 
 to appear at the nuntio's call. " Assuredly,"" he wrote to Miltitz 
 on the Slst of December 15] 8, " I should not grudge the pains 
 the journey would cost, could 1 leave Leipsick without risking 
 my life; but the Augustinian, Martin Luther, has stirred up 
 and incensed powerful men against me to such a pitch that I am 
 no where safe. Many of Luther's partizans have vowed my death. 
 Thus I cannot go to meet you."'''^ A striking contrast is pre- 
 sented by these two men then immured, the one in St. PauFs 
 
 1 Tunc dcsiit paululum sscvire tempestas. . . . (L. 0pp. L. in Prnif.) 
 ' I.oscher, ii. 507. 
 
J^98 ' HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 college at Leipsick, and the other in the monastery of the Au- 
 gustinians at Wittemberg; the servant of God shows an un- 
 faltering courage in the presence of danger, while the servant of 
 men betrays a despicable cowardice. 
 
 Miltitz's orders were to employ the arms of persuasion first, and 
 only in the event of these proving unsuccessful was he to produce . 
 his seventy brieves, and at the same time to avail himself of 
 all the favours that Rome could bestow, in order to induce the 
 elector to take part in crushing Luther. Accordingly, he signi- 
 fied his desire to have an interview with the Reformer; Ppalatin 
 offered the use of his house for the purpose, and Luther left 
 Wittemberg for Altenburg on the 2d or Sd of January. 
 
 At this interview Miltitz exhausted all the finessing of a 
 diplomatist and of a Roman courtier. No sooner had Luther 
 arrived than the nuntio approached him with strong expressions 
 of friendship. Oh ! thought Luther, " how his violence has been 
 changed into the most admirably dissembled kindness! This 
 modern Saul came into Germany armed with seventy apostolic 
 brieves, to carry me ofi to Rome, like a felon, loaded with chains, 
 but the Lord has overthrown him by the way,"l 
 
 " My dear Martin," said the pope's chamberlain to him in a 
 coaxing tone, " I had thought you an old divine who sat quietly 
 nursing theological whims by your fire side; but I see you 
 are a 3'oung man as yet, and in the prime of life.^ Do you 
 know," says he, assuming a graver tone, " that you have carried 
 off the whole world from the pope, and have attached it to your- 
 self?" 3 Miltitz was well aware that people best succeed in 
 seducing others by flattering their pride; but in this case he 
 little knew the man that he had to deal with. " Had I an army 
 of five and twenty thousand men," he added, " truly I would 
 not undertake to carry you out of this country and convey you 
 to Rome."'* Notwithstanding all her might, Rome felt herself 
 weak in presence of a poor monk; and the monk was conscious 
 
 ' Sod per viam a Domino prostratus. . . . mutavit violentiam in bcne- 
 volentiam fallacissim^ simnlatam. (L. Epp. i. p. 206.) 
 
 2 Martine, ego credebam te esse senem aliquem theologicum, qui post 
 fornacem sedens. . . . (L. 0pp. in Pra;f.) 
 
 ^ Quod orbcm totum mibi conjunxerim et papse abstraxerim. (L. Epp.i. p. 
 231.) 
 
 * Si haberom 25 millia armatorum, non confiderem to posse a mo Romam 
 perduci. (L. 0pp. Lat. in Prcef.) 
 
LUTHER OritRS TO MAINTAIN SILENCE. 
 
 oOO 
 
 of Ills power in the prosenco of Koine. " God stays tlie sen 
 waves on the beach," Lutlior could say, " and ho stays them 
 with sand."^ 
 
 Thinking he had now made the requisite impression on the 
 mind of his opponent, the nuntio proceeded to say: " You your- 
 self ought to staunch the wound that the Church has received, 
 and which you only can heal." " Beware," he added, at the 
 same time allowing a few tears to fall, " beware of raising a storm 
 which may cause the ruin of Christianity."- From that he 
 went on gradually to insinuate that a retractation was what 
 alone could repair the evil that had been done; but immediately 
 softened down the possible harshness of the word, by giving 
 Luther to understand that he held him in the highest esteem, 
 and by inveighing against Tetzel. The net was laid by a skil- 
 ful hand: how was it that it failed of its aim? " Had the arch- 
 bishop of Maintz spoken to me thus from the commencement," 
 said the Reformer afterwards, " this affair would not have made 
 so much noise." 3 
 
 It was now Luther's turn to speak. He stated the just com- 
 plaints of the Church with calm force and dignity; gave full 
 utterance to his indignation at the bishop of Maintz; and com- 
 plained, in a noble spirit, of the unworthy treatment which, 
 notwithstanding the purity of his intentions, he had received 
 from Rome. Little as he expected to be addressed in so firm a 
 tone, Miltitz took care to suppress his anger. 
 
 " I offer," rejoined Luther, to maintain silence in future on 
 these matters and to allow the affair to die out of itself, ^ provided 
 my opponents are silent on their side ; but should they continue 
 to attack me, we shall, ere long, have a serious battle instead of 
 a petty quarrel. My arms are all in readiness. I will do more 
 still," he added an instant after, " I will write to his Holiness, 
 acknowledirins: that I have been rather over violent, and telling 
 him that it has been as a faithful child of the Church that I 
 have attacked discourses delivered from the pulpit, that have 
 incurred the sneers and insults of the people; 1 consent even to 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (W.)xxii. 
 
 ' Profusis lacrymis ipsum oravit, no tarn porniciosam Christiano goncri tern- 
 pestatem cieret. (Pallavicini, i. 52.) 
 
 ^ Non evasisset res in tantnni tuniultum. (L. 0pp. Lat. in Prrci.) 
 * Und die Sache sich zu Tode bluten. (L. Epp. i. 207.) 
 
400 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 publish a docua.ent in which I shall call upon all Vv'ho read mj 
 writings, not to view them as attacking the Roman Church, and 
 urging them to remain subject to that Church. ^ es, I am ready 
 to do all and to endure all; but as for a retractation, never think 
 to get my consent to that." 
 
 Miltitz could perceive from the decided tone of Luther, that 
 his most prudent course was to seem satisfied with what the 
 Reformer had been pleased to promise. He merely proposed 
 that an archbishop should be taken as arbiter in regard to some 
 points which called for discussion. " Be it so,"" said Luther; 
 " but I much fear the pope may not be willing to accept a 
 judge; in which case as little will I accept the judgment of the 
 pope, and then the contest will be begun anew. The pope will 
 compose the text and I shall be commentator." 
 
 Thus closed the first interview between Luther and Miltitz; 
 it was followed by a second in which the truce, or rather the 
 peace, was signed, and Luther lost no time in communicating 
 all that had passed to the elector in these terms: " Most serene 
 prince and most gracious lord, I hasten most humbly to make 
 known to your electoral highness that Charles of Miltitz and I 
 liave at length come to an arrangement, and have brought the 
 matter to a close, by agreeing to the two following articles: 
 
 " First : Both parties are prohibited from all further preaching, 
 writing, or acting, in regard to the dispute that has arisen. 
 
 "Secondly: Miltitz shall immediately inform the Holy Father 
 of the state of matters. His Holiness shall ordain some enligh- 
 tened bisliop to hold an inquest on the affair, and to point out 
 the erroneous articles which I ought to retract. If it be proved 
 to me that I am in error 1 shall willingly retract, and will no 
 longer do anything derogatory to the honour or authority of the 
 Roman Church."! 2 
 
 1 L. Epp. i. p. 2^9. 
 
 ^ A new proof of Luther's unimpeachable integrity. Truth, rot his own 
 honour, was his object. lie had not capriciously entered on a quarrel for the 
 disturbance of the Church. On the contrary, he was even alarmed at seeing 
 the consequences of the steps he had taken. "Willingly would he do all in his 
 power to heal the breach that had been occasioned, and to prevent a total rup- 
 ture. Still he could make no sacrifice of his conscience. Thus he yielded all 
 that he now could yield. Even that at a somewhat later period he found impos- 
 sible, when the truth in all its fulness had completely enlightened liim. All that 
 he had to do with now was but the affair of the indulgences. Should these he 
 held as abolished by Tetzel's traffic being diso\vned, and silence imposed on both 
 parties, he would willingly accommodate matters, and even retract expressions 
 
MILTITZ INVITES LUTIIEIl TO SUPPKU. 401 
 
 On tliis arrangement being made, Miltitz seemed quite over- 
 joyed. " For a liu:idrcd years," he exclaimed, " no aftair has 
 cost the cardinals and Roman courtiers more anxiety tlian this. 
 They would rather have given ten thousand ducats than have 
 consented to its remaining longer unsettled."^ 
 
 The pope's chamberlain spared nothing that could express 
 such feelings in the presence of tlie Wittcmberg monk; at times 
 he appeared overjoyed, at times gave Avay to tears. The Refor- 
 mer was little affected by such exhibitions of sensibility, yet took 
 care to keep his thoughts to himself. " I did not seem to com- 
 prehend what was meant by those crocodile's tears,"" - says he. 
 The crocodile is said to weep when it misses its prey. 
 
 Miltitz invited Luther to sup with him; the doctor accepted 
 the invitation. At supper his host laid aside the stiffness of 
 office, and Luther gave free scope to all the natural mirthfulness 
 of his character. It was a right joyous repast, ^ and when they 
 had at last to separate, the legate embraced and kissed the 
 heretical doctor. 4 "A Judas's kiss," thought Luther. "I 
 seemed like one," he wrote to Spalatin, "who could not under- 
 stand these italicisms."^ 
 
 Could that kiss have possibly sealed a reconciliation betw^een 
 Rome and the rising Reformation? Miltitz thought it might, 
 and rejoiced that it should do so, for he had a closer view than 
 men at the court of Rome could have, of the terrible consequences 
 that the popedom might experience from the Reformation. 
 If Luther and his opponents will but be quiet, he said to 
 himself, the dispute will be at an end, and Rome will be able, 
 by availing herself of favourable circumstances as they occur, 
 to regain all her ancient influence. Hence it would appear 
 that people were likely to see the conflict soon at an end, 
 for Rome had opened her arms and Luther seemed to have 
 thrown himself into them. The work, however, wms that not 
 
 in which a somewhat excessive zeal had carried him too far, and wherever it 
 could be fairly proved that he was in error. How noble does not his character 
 and how pure do not his intentions appear in this, however shamelessly the 
 lovers of slander may venture to cast a slur upon both ! — L. R. 
 
 1 Abintegro jam saccule nullum negotium ecclesise contigisse quod majorem 
 illi sollicitudmcm incussisset. (Pallavicini, Tom. i. 62.) 
 
 ^ Ego dissimulabam has crofcodili Lacrymas a me intelligi. (L. Epo. i. 210.) 
 ^ Atque vcsperi me acce])to, convivio Ijctati sunuis. (Ibid. 231.) 
 
 * Sic amice discossimus ctiam cum osculo. ( JudcD scilicet.) (Ibid. 216.) 
 
 * Has italitatcs. (L. Epp. i. 231.) 
 
 I. He 
 
402 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 of man but of God. Rome's mistake lay in seeing but a monkish 
 quarrel where in reality there was an awakening of the Church. 
 The kisses of a pope's chamberlain could lay no arrest on the 
 renovation of Christendom. 
 
 Faithful to the agreement he had just concluded, Miltitz left 
 Altenburg for Leipsick, where Tetzel was. There was no need 
 to shut his mouth, for rather than speak he would have hid 
 himself in the bowels of the earth; but the nuncio wished to 
 discharge all his wrath upon him. He had hardly arrived at 
 Leipsick when he summoned the wretched Tetzel into his pres- 
 ence, and then loaded him with reproaches, charged him with 
 being the author of all the mischief, and threatened him with 
 the indignation of the pope.^ Not only so, but he confronted 
 him with the agent of the house of Fugger who happened to be 
 in Leipsick at that time. Miltitz laid before the Dominican the 
 accounts of that house, including the papers which he himself 
 had signed, and convicted him of having squandered or embezzled 
 considerable sums of money. . . . The wretched man, who 
 had dreaded nothing in the days of his triumphs, now sank under 
 these just accusations. He fell into despair; his health was 
 affected; he knew not where to hide his shame. Luther 
 became acquainted with the miserable condition of his former 
 adversary, and was the only person affected by it. " I am sorry 
 for Tetzel," ^ he wrote to Spalatin, nor did his sympathy confine 
 itself to Avords. It was not tiie man, it was the man's wicked 
 deeds, that he had hated; and thus, while Ivome was overwhelm- 
 ing him with her wrath, he wrote him a most consolatory letter. 3 
 But it was all in vain; Tetzel, at once pursued by remorse 
 of conscience, frightened at the reproaches of his best frieuds, 
 and trembling under the wrath of the pope, died miserably some 
 
 ' Verbis minisque pontificiis itafregit homincm, hactenus terribilem cunctis et 
 imperterritum Stentorem. (L. 0pp. in Pracif.) 
 
 - Doleo Tetzclium. . . . (L. Epp. i. p. 223.) 
 
 ^ How amiably does the genuine Cliristian's character shine forth here. Ko 
 ignoble love of revenge occupies his heart; no malignant joy at the mental suf- 
 ferings of his enemy, though these sufferings were caused by that enemy's owe 
 perversity, but a sympathetic interest that inclines him to assuage the wound and 
 jn order to that, holds out the fraternal hand of love and consolation. Sucli was 
 Luther's behaviour towards Tetzel, and in this did he show himself to be a 
 penuiiie Christian. Thus did it ajipcar that he had regarded him not so much 
 •Ts a personal antagonist as a foe to the truth, and. indeed, of th.at very truta 
 that contained the only source of consolation for Tetzel himself. — L. R. 
 
LUTnEK''s LETl'ER TO THE POPE. 403 
 
 time after. His death was thought to have been caused by a 
 broken heart. ^ 
 
 Faithful to the promises ho had made to Miltitz, Luther, ou 
 the 3d of March, addressed the following letter to the pope: 
 
 "Most blessed Father! may it please your beatitude to 
 incline your paternal ears, which are like those of Christ himself, 
 towards your poor sheep and to hearken kindly to its bleating. 
 What shall I do, most holy Father? I cannot endure the fierce- 
 ness of your wrath, yet I know not how to escape from it. I 
 am asked to retract. I should hasten to do so, could it effect 
 the end in view. But the persecutions of my adversaries have 
 diffused my writings far and wide, and they are too deeply 
 engraven in mens"* minds to make it possible to remove the 
 impression. A retractation could but serve still futther to dis- 
 honour the Church of Rome, and would fill every mouth with a 
 cry of accusation against her. Most holy Father ! I declare in 
 the presence of God and of all his creatures; that never have I 
 wished, nor do I now wish, to do prejudice, by force or fraud, to 
 the power of the Roman Church, or to that of your holiness. I 
 acknowledge that nothing, either in heaven or in earth, ought 
 (o be ranked above that church, unless it be Jesus Christ, the 
 Lord of all." -' 
 
 These words in the mouth of Luther, may seem strange and 
 even reprehensible, did we not bear in mind that he came to the 
 light, not all at once, but slowly and gradually. They demon- 
 strate the very important fact, that the Reformation was no 
 mere opposition to the popedom; that it was not any hostility 
 to this or that particular form, or any merely negative tendency 
 that produced it ; that the opposition to the pope was a matter 
 of secondary moment; but that its generating principle was a 
 new life — a positive doctrine. " Jesus Christ, Lord of all, and 
 who ought to be preferred to all," even to Rome herself, as says 
 Luther at the close of his letter, such was the essential cause of 
 the revolution of the sixteenth century. 
 
 It is not unlikely that some time before this, the pope would 
 not have suffered to pass unnoticed a letter in which the Wit- 
 temberg monk flatly refused all retractation. Ihit Maximilian 
 
 I Sod conscientia indignitate Papse forte occubuit. (L. 0pp. in Prief.) 
 * IVacter unum Jesum Cliristuni, Dominum omnium. (L. Epp. i. p. 234.) 
 
4(J-t HISTORY OF THE KEFORMATIO.V. 
 
 was now dead; people were occupied about the choice of his 
 successor, and Luther's letter was thrown aside amid the politica) 
 intrigues by which the city of the pontiff was agitated. 
 
 The Kefornier made better use of his time than his powerful 
 adversary. While Leo X, engrossed with matters that con- 
 cerned him as a secular prince, was doing his utmost to prevent 
 a neighbour whom he dreaded, from occupying the imperial 
 throne, Luther was daily advancing in knowledge and in faith. 
 He studied the decretals of the popes, and his ideas became greatly 
 modified in the course of his discoveries. "I am reading the 
 decretals of the pontiffs," he writes to Spalatin, " and (let me 
 whisper in your ear) am not sure whether the pope be Anti- 
 christ himself, or only his apostle; to such a degree has Christ 
 been perverted and sacrificed." ^ 
 
 He continued, notwithstanding, to regard the ancient Church 
 of Eome with esteem, and had no thoughts of separating from it. 
 ''Let the Roman Church,'' he says, in the explanatory state- 
 ment he had promised to Miltitz to publish, " be honoured of 
 God above all the others ; this is what we cannot doubt. St. Peter, 
 St. Paul, forty-six popes, and some hundred thousands of martyrs 
 shed their blood in the midst of her, and triumphed in her ovei 
 hell and the world, so that God has a special regard for her. 
 xllthough all things are now to be found there in a sad enough 
 condition, this is no motive for separation. On the contrary, 
 the worse matters are with her, the more ought we to abide by 
 her, since she never can be improved by separation. God must 
 not be abandoned on account of the devil, nor must we forsake 
 the children of God who are to be found in Rome, because of the 
 multitude of the wicked there. There is no sin or evil which 
 should destroy charity or break unity. For charity can do all 
 things, and nothing is hard to bo accomplished by unity." "-^ ^ 
 
 1 Nescio an Papa sit Antichristus ipse vel apostolus ejus. (L. Epp. i. 239.) 
 
 ^ L. 0pp. L. xvii. 224. 
 
 ^ Such was Luther's own love of unity. He never recklessly infringed it. 
 He infringed it not on account of any external arrangement, such as he either 
 may have thought desirable otherwise, or which did not accord with his views. 
 He did not even depreciate the papal supremacy as long as popes shed their 
 blood in the cause of the truth or in any other way stood in its defence. But he 
 neither could nor should have maintained a mere external and apparent unity 
 at the cost of the truth and to the confirmation of error ; neither can we do so: 
 it is directly contrary to the purpose of Jt;$us, who prayed indeed : " Father that 
 they may be one, even as we are one," but also : " Sanctify them through thy 
 
THE NUNCIOS ENDEAVOIJU TO DECOY LUTHER TO TUEVES. 405 
 
 It was not Lutlior that willulrcw from Ilomo; it was Kome 
 that withdrew from Luther, and, in doing so, rejected the ancient 
 faith of the catholic Church which it then represented. It was 
 not Luther that deprived Homo of her might and tliatiiiado her 
 bishop descend from his usurped throne ; the power that had 
 been enslaving the Church for ages could be overcome by nothing 
 short of the doctrines he preached, — the word of the apostles 
 which God was manifesting anew to the universal Church, with 
 great power and in admirable purity. 
 
 These declarations of Luther, published towards the close of 
 February, did not yet satisfy Miltitz and de Vio. Those two 
 vultures, after having both missed their prey, had retired within 
 the ancient walls of Treves, and there hoped with the aid of the 
 prince arch-bishop, to accomplish together what each singly had 
 failed to effect. The two nuntios perceived that they could 
 expect nothing from Frederick, now that he was invested with 
 the supreme power of the empire. They saw that Luther per- 
 sisted in his resolution to make no retractation. Their only 
 means of success, therefore, lay in inveigling the heretical monk 
 from under the elector''s protection into their own hands, know- 
 ing that, let him once come to Treves, situate in a state subject 
 to a prince of the Church, he would be a clever person, indeed, 
 were he to get away from it without having first fully satisfied the 
 demands of the sovereign pontiff. They forthwith set themselves 
 to work. " Luther," said Miltitz to the elector-arch-bishop of 
 Treves, "has consented to your Grace being arbiter. Summon 
 him then before you." The elector of Treves wrote, accordingly, 
 on the third of May, to the elector of Saxony, begging that he 
 would send Luther to him. De Vio, and after him Miltitz him- 
 self, wrote also to Frederick, to inform him that the golden rose 
 had arrived at Au2;sbur2: and was with the Fuo-oers. Now. 
 thought they, is the moment for striking the decisive blow. 
 
 But the case was now altered; neither Frederick nor Luther 
 allowed themselves to be shaken. The elector understood the 
 advantages of his new position; he no longer dreaded the pope; 
 still less did he dread the pope's servants. On seeing the 
 coalition of Miltitz with de Vio, the lleformer could guess the 
 
 truth ;thv word is truth." ITe, therefore, who departs from the truth, ho it is 
 alone that infringes unity. — L. R. 
 
406 . niSTORT OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 fate that awaited him, should he comply with their call, " I 
 perceive,'''' said he, " that every where, on all sides, and by every 
 means, men would take my life.''''^ Besides, he was waiting for the 
 decision of the pope, and the pope, wholly occupied about crowna 
 and v/ith intrigues, spoke not a v/ord. Luther wrote to Miltitz: 
 " How could I venture to leave this amid the commotions that 
 now agitate the empire, without an order from Rome? How 
 face so many dangers, and involve myself in so much expense: 
 I, who am the poorest among menT"* 
 
 The elector of Treves, a man of wisdom and moderation, and 
 friendly to Frederick, was unwilling to press him hard; and, 
 besides, had no wish to interfere without a special call to that 
 efiect. He arranged, accordingly, with the elector of Saxony, 
 that further inquiry into the subject should be put off till the 
 approaching diet, and that was not convened till two years after, 
 at Worms. 
 
 While the hand of Providence was thus warding off one 
 danger after another that threatened Luther, the Reformer was 
 courageously advancing towards an object unknown as yet to 
 himself. His reputation was increasing; the cause of truth was 
 gaining strength; the number of students at W^ittemberg was 
 augmenting, and among these were to be found some of the most 
 distinguished youths of Germany. " Our city,'"' wrote Luther, 
 "can hardly receive all who arrive here;" and on another occa- 
 sion; "the number of students is increasing beyond measure, like 
 a stream that overflows its banks." '" 
 
 But by this time it was not in Germany alone that the Refer- 
 mers voice was making itself heard. It had passed the frontiers 
 of the empire, and throughout the various nations of Christendom 
 it was beginning to unsettle the very foundations of Roman 
 authority. Frobenius, the famous printer at Basel, had published 
 a collection of Luther'^s Avorks, which began to have a rapid sale. 
 At that city the very bishop himself applauded Luther, and the 
 cardinal of Sion, after perusing his works, somewhat ironically 
 exclaimed with a play upon his name: " Luther, thou art 
 indeed a Luther!" (indeed a purifier, Laiiterer). 
 
 1 Video tib'que, undique, quocumque modo, animam mcam quccri. (L. Epp. i 
 274. IGth May.) 
 
 - Sicut aqua iflUEdans. (I- Epp. i. p. 278 and 270.) 
 
M'TIIEll'd CAUSE EXTKNDS DEYOND GERMANY. 407 
 
 Erasmus was at Louvain wlicn Luther's works reached the 
 Netherlands. They were read with avidity by several Belgians, 
 and, in particular, by the prior of the Augustinian monks at 
 Antwerp, who had been a student at Wittemberg, and who, 
 according to the testimony of Erasmus, was a man of true 
 primitive Christianity. " ]Jut they who looked onl}^ to their own 
 interests," said the Ivotterdam sage, " and who fed the people 
 with old women's talcs, gave utterance to a gloomy fanaticism." 
 " I cannot tell you," writes Erasmus to Luther, " what tragedies 
 have been caused here by your writings." ^ 
 
 Erobenius sent six hundred copies of these works into France 
 and Spain. They were publicly sold in Paris, and the doctors 
 of the Sorbonne read them then, it would appear, with appro- 
 bation; it being high time, as some of them said, that persons 
 occupied with sacred literature should speak out with such free- 
 dom. They were received in England with still greater eagerness. 
 Spanish merchants got them translated into their country's 
 language and sent from Antwerp into Spain. "Those merchants 
 must surely have been of Moorish blood," says Pallavicini. 2 
 
 Calvi, a learned bookseller of Pavia, took many copies into 
 Italy, and dispersed them among all the cities beyond the Alps ; 
 not from a love of gain, but from the desire felt by this learned 
 person to contribute towards the revival of piety. The energy 
 with which Luther maintained the cause of Christ, delighted 
 him. "All the learned men of Italy," he wrote, "will unite 
 ■with me, and we will send you verses composed by our most 
 distinguished writers." 
 
 On sending Luther a copy of this publication, Frobenius 
 related to him all this gladdening intelligence, and added: "1 
 have sold all the copies but ten, and never have had so suc- 
 cessful an undertaking." Other letters besides these, informed 
 Luther of the satisfaction afforded by his works: " I am 
 delighted," says he, "to find that the truth is so gratifying, 
 even when it speaks so barbarously, and with so small an amount 
 of learning." ^ 4 
 
 ' Nullo sermone consequi qucam, quas tragccdias hie cxcitarint tui libelli. 
 
 . . (Erasm. Epp. vi. 4.) 
 8 Maurorum stirpo procnatis. (Pallav. i. 91.) 
 
 3 In his id gaudco, quod Veritas tarn barhare et indocto loquens, adeo placet. 
 (L. Epp. i. v,5.5.) 
 
 * The author's account of the popularity of Luther's puhlications is thus 
 
408 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 Thus did the revival commence in the various countries of 
 Europe. If we except Switzerland, where the preaching of the 
 Gospel had already made some progress, the history of the 
 Reformation may everywhere be said to date from the arrival of 
 the writings of the Wittemberg doctor. A Basel printer was 
 the first to disseminate these first germs of tlie truth. At the 
 very time the Roman pontiff thought to stifle the work in Ger- 
 many, we find it beginning in France, the Netherlands, Italy, 
 Spain, England, and Switzerland. ^Vhat though Rome should 
 crush the parent stem? . . . the seeds are already dispersed 
 far and wide. ^ 
 
 confirmed by M. Michelet. " At Nuremberg, at Strasburg, even at Maintz, 
 his (Luther's) smallest pamphlets were seized with avidity. The sheet, wet 
 from the press, was slipt under the cloak and passed from shop to shop." . . 
 " Nothing seconded Luther more powerfully than the zeal of printers and book- 
 sellers for new ideas." "Books in his favour," says a contemporary, " were 
 printed by the typographers with minute attention, often at their own cost, 
 and in large editions. A crowd of old monks who had returned to the world, 
 lived on Luther's writings, and hawked them about Germany. The (Roman) 
 Catholics could print their books only by paying the cost, and when printed, 
 these were so full of blunders as to seem done by ignoramuses and barbarians. 
 If any printer was conscientious enough to bestow more pains on them, he was 
 teased and ridiculed at all the public markets and at the Frankfort fairs, as a 
 papist and slave of the priests." Michelet. Mem. de Luther, vol. i. p. 64. It is 
 to be regretted that M. Michelet does not name his authorities. Tr. 
 
 ^ The precise period at which Luther's writings first found their way into 
 Scotland, cannot now be well ascertained. In a memoir of the Scotch 
 proto-martyr in the case of the Reformation, dravNii up for " The Apprentices' 
 Sabbath Friend," I had occasion to state as follows : " The mind of Hamil- 
 ton seems first to have been led to suspect that all was not right in the 
 doctrines and practices of the church in which he was to be a minister, at 
 the age of twenty-two. Although no direct evidences exist in proof of 
 the supposition, there seems little doubt that these impressions were made 
 by the perusal of some of Luther's writings. A professor, such as Major, 
 who had lived as a teacher in the learned society of Paris, and was well known 
 and highly esteemed as a logician and divine on the continent, must have felt 
 some curiosity to see the works of an author then making such a commotion in 
 the Church, and had easy opportunities of obtaining them through traders 
 plying between the Scotch and German ports; but supposing that he had obtained 
 any of these for the gratification of his own curiosity, what more natural than 
 that he should have indulged with their perusal a pupil distinguished by high 
 rank, and assiduous and successful attention to his master's instructions? 
 Certain it is that in 1525, an act was passed in the Scotch Parliament prohibit- 
 ing Luther's writings from being brought into the country, as having hither- 
 to been ' clone of all sic filth and vice,' and that in 152G, Hamilton left St. 
 Andrews and went straight to Wittemberg, for the express purpose of visiting the 
 man whose works were thus stigmatized and forbidden admission into the 
 kingdom. The inference, therefore, seems irresistible that these writings had 
 been seen by tliis highly gifted youth, and had produced an effect on one so 
 nearly allied to the royal family and who might one day come to possess the 
 throne, which alarmed the court; that the act just mentioned was but one of 
 several measures taken to prevent farther mischief; resenting which, Hamil- 
 ton resolved to learn from the Reformer's own mouth and library what his real 
 views were, in spite of the opposition of prejudiced and interested persons at 
 home." Tk. 
 
CONTROVERSY BETWEEN DR. ECK AND CAHr.STADT. lOD 
 
 II. Wliilo the conflict was thus commencin": bevond the 
 bounds of the Empire, it seemed almost to cease within them. 
 The Franciscan friars of Juterbock, who were the fiercest of the 
 soldiers of Rome, having imprudently attacked Luther, were 
 reduced to instant silence by a vigorous reply from the Reformer. 
 The pope's partizans held their peace; Totzel was no longer on 
 the field; Luthei'^s friends conjured him not to prolong the 
 struggle and he had promised to comply. The theses were 
 beginning to be forgotten. This treacherous peace palsied the 
 eloquent tongue of the Reformer, and the Reformation itself 
 seemed arrested in its course. " But,'"' said Luther afterwards 
 in speaking of this period, "the people imagined vain things, for 
 the Lord awoke and arose to judge the nations." ' " God does 
 not guide mo," he says elsewhere, " he urges — he drives me 
 along. I am no longer master of myself. I would fain live in 
 peace; but lo, I am hurried into the midst of tumults.*"- ^ 
 
 The contest was resumed by Eck, the schoolman, Luther's for- 
 mer friend, and the author of the Obelish. He was sincere in his 
 attachment to the popedom, but, apparently without any genuine 
 religious feelings, he seems to have belonged to that, at all times 
 too numerous class of men, who regard learning, and even 
 theology and religion, as the means of gaining a reputation in 
 the world. Vain glory can conceal itself beneath the pastor's 
 gown as well as the warrior s armour. Eck had studied the art 
 of disputation according to the rules of the schoolmen, and was 
 considered a master in this kind of wrestlins:. While the knif>hts 
 of the middle ages and the warriors of the Reformation period, 
 sought renown at tournaments, the schoolmen sought it in those 
 syllogistic disputations of which the academies Avere often the 
 scene. Self-confident in the extreme, proud of his talents, of the 
 popularity of his cause and of the triumphs he had won in eight 
 universities of Hungary, Lombardy and Germany, Eck eagerly 
 
 ' Dominus evigilavit et st.at ad juJicandos populos. (L. 0pp. lat. in Prsef.) 
 
 - Deus rapuit, pellit, nedum ducit me; non sum compos niei: volo esse 
 quietus et rapier in medios tumultus. (L. Epp. i. 231.) 
 
 ^ Consequently, the Reformation was not Luther's work but that of God. 
 Luther was urged, against his own inclination and by an invisible power, to 
 undertake that work, yes, and directed in it also. Men may choose to call that 
 iv devilish power by which the career of wickedness was stayed, the deep 
 corruption even of the Romish Church restrained, and the trutli exhibited in 
 a new and a clear light ; but let them beware lest they thereby blaspheme 
 the evident woi-k of a better, even of the Holy Spirit. — L. R. 
 
 I. 3 F 
 
410 HISTORY OF THE EEFORMATIOX. 
 
 coveted an opportunity of displaying his power and address in a 
 contest with the Reformer. This petti/ monh who had grown at once 
 into a giant, tliis Luther whom none as yet could vanquish, offend- 
 ed his pride and excited his jealousy. ^ It is possible that in pur- 
 suing his own glory, Eck may ruin Rome. . . But scholastic 
 vanity does not allow itself to be checked by such considerations, 
 and theologians no less than princes, have contrived to sacrifice, 
 in more than one instance, the general interest to their individual 
 renown. Let us now see what were the circumstances that 
 furnished the Ingolstadt doctor with an opportunity of entering 
 the lists with this rival that so annoyed him. 
 
 The zealous but over-ardent Carlstadt still kept terms with 
 Luther. These two divines found their chief bond of union in 
 iheir common attachment to the doctrine of grace, and admirar 
 tion of St. Augustine. Carlstadt, tinctured with enthusiasm, 
 and gifted with but a moderate share of prudence, was not a 
 person to be checked in his course by the address and the policy of 
 a Miltitz. He had published certain propositions impugning the 
 Obelisks of Dr. Eck, and in these had defended Luther and their 
 common faith. Eck had replied and Carlstadt had not left him 
 the last word. 2 The controversy grew warmer and warmer. 
 Eck, in his eagerness to catch so favourable an opportunity, 
 had thrown down the gauntlet to Carlstadt, and the impetuous 
 Carlstadt had taken it up. God employed the passions of both 
 in accomplishing his purposes. Luther had taken no part in these 
 debates, and yet he was destined to become the hero of the battle. 
 There are men whom the force of circumstances is continually 
 bringing back upon the scene. It was agreed that Leipsick should 
 be the place of discussion. Such was the origin of the Leipsick 
 disputation — afterwards so celebrated. 
 
 Eck cared little enough about a controversy with Carlstadt, or 
 even about overcoming him. Luther being the real object of 
 his aim, he did his utmost to allure him into the field of battle, 
 and with this view published thirteen theses, ^ impugning the 
 main doctrines at that time professed by the Reformer. The 
 thirteenth ran thus: — " We deny that the Roman Church was 
 
 ' Nihil cupiebat ardentius, quam sui specimen prsobere in solemnidisputatione 
 cum semulo. (Pallavicini, torn i. p. 55.) 
 
 2 Defensio adversus Eckii monomachiam. 
 
 3 L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 242. 
 
THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPE QUESTIONED. 41 1 
 
 not 1-aised above other Churches previous to tlie time of pope 
 Sylvester; aud we recognise him who has occupied the see of 
 St. Peter, and who has had liis faith, as in all times the successor 
 of St. Peter aud the vicar of Jesus Christ." Sylvester lived in 
 the days of Constantine, the Great; Eck then, by this thesis, 
 denied tiiat the primacy enjoyed by Rome, had been bestowed 
 upon it by that emperor. 
 
 Luther who had been led to consent, though not without 
 scruple, to remain silent for the future, Avas greatly excited by 
 the perusal of these propositions. He saw that he was himself 
 the real object of attack, and felt that he could not honourably 
 decline the contest. " This man," said he, "says that Carlstadt 
 is his antagonist; meanwhile he falls upon me. But God reigns 
 and He knows what may be the issue of this tragedy. ^ The 
 question is about neither Dr. Eck nor me. God's purpose will 
 be accomplished. Thanks to Eck, this affair which has been 
 hitherto but a fight for amusement, will in the end prove serious, 
 and will deal a fatal blow to the tyranny of Rome and of the 
 Roman pontiftV 
 
 Rome herself broke the agreement. Nay more; in giving the 
 sio-nal for engaging anew, she made the contest turn upon a point 
 not yet directly attacked by Luther. It was the primacy claimed 
 by the pope that Dr. Eck signalled out to his opponents, and in 
 this imitated the perilous example set by Tetzel?^ Rome had called 
 for the gladiator's blows, and if she left wounded limbs quivering 
 on the scene of strife, it was in consequence of her having 
 provoked the descent of his redoubtable arm upon her own head. 
 The papal supremacy once overthrown, the whole Roman 
 scaffolding was sure to give way,, and accordingly, the pope- 
 dom was now very seriously threatened. Yet strange to say, 
 neither Miltitz nor Cajetan interfered to prevent this new con- 
 test. Could they suppose that the Reformation would be van- 
 quished, or were they smitten with the infatuation which so often 
 hurries on the mighty to their destruction? 
 
 After having presented a rare example of moderation by pre- 
 serving silence so long, Luther fearlessly replied to the challenge 
 
 > Sed Deus in medio deorum ; ipse novitquid ex eatragoedia deduccre volucrit 
 (L. Epp. i. 230, 222.) 
 * See page 276. 
 
412 HISTORY OF THE KEFOKMATION. 
 
 of his antagonist, by immediately opposing new theses to those 
 of Dr. Eck. The last ran thus: " ]5y the wretched decretals of 
 the Eoman pontiffs, composed four hundred years ago, or even 
 later, an attempt is made to prove the primacy of the Church 
 of Eome; but arrayed against that primacy we find the authentic 
 history of eleven hundred years, the plain statements of the Holy 
 Scriptures, and the conclusions of the council of Nice — the holiest 
 of all the councils." ^ 
 
 " God knows," he at the same time Avrites to the elector of 
 Saxony, " that it was my settled purpose to hold my peace, and 
 that I was delighted to see this game come at last to a close. 
 So faithfully have I observed the agreement concluded with the 
 pope's commissioner, that I did not even reply to Sylvester 
 Prierias, in spite of the insults of my adversaries and the 
 counsels of my friends. But now Dr. Eck attacks me, and not 
 me only, but the whole university of Wittemberg besides. I 
 cannot suffer the truth to be thus rendered odious."'' - ^ 
 
 Luther wrote at the same time to Carlstadt: " I do not wish, 
 excellent Andrew, that you should take part in this quarrel, for 
 it is I who am the real object of attack. I gladly postpone my 
 more serious occupations to amuse myself with these flatterers 
 of the Eoman pontiff." * Next, apostrophising his opponent: 
 •'Now, then, my dear Eck," he shouts from Wittemberg to 
 Ingolstadt, " be a brave man and gird thy sword on thy thigh, 
 most mighty. ^ Though I could not please thee as a mediator, 1 
 
 1 L. 0pp. (L.) xrii. p. 245. - L. Epp. i. p. 237. 
 
 ^ Thus did the enemies of the truth, by their irrational measures, promote 
 the progress of that truth. Truth's honest abettor, who is concerned only 
 about her, not about his own interests, is scrupulous and cautious. lie is 
 slow in his movements, only following as God leads ; in no case outruns events ; 
 and would rather keep behind them than advance with too forwai-d a zeal. Yet 
 the enemies of the truth, men devoted to their own honour and interest, or pre- 
 possessed with their own ideas, allow themselves to be hurried along by immoderate 
 fear or jealousy : they give themselves no rest in withstanding the so much 
 hated truth in every way. Thus do they stimulate the zeal of the cautious friend 
 of truth, and oblige him to keep his ground, thereby, under God's govern- 
 ment, to make their own downfal the more certain. Such was the case with 
 Eck and Luther. Such will again be the case under the present revival of 
 the truth, the more people oppose and would even seek by violence to suppress 
 it.— L. R. 
 
 * Gaudens et videns posthabeo istorum mea seria ludo. L. Epp. i. p. 251. 
 
 ^ Esto vir fortis ct accingere gladio tuo superfemur tuum,potentissime! (Ibid.) 
 This employment of language borrowed from one of the most sublime of the 
 psalms, must be regarded as a sad instance of Luther's occasional indiscretion. 
 Tu. 
 
LUTIIEu'rf RF,PI,Y. FEARS OF HIS FRIENDS. 4] 3 
 
 may possibly please tliee better as an antagonist. Not that 1 
 have any intention of vanquishing thee, but because after the 
 triumphs thou hast achieved in Hungary, Loiubardy, and 
 ]5avaria, (if, at least, wo are to believe thee) I Nvill give thee an 
 opportunity of obtaining the title of conqueror of Saxony and 
 Misnia, so that thou shalt ever after be greeted by the glorious 
 title of Augustus.'" l 
 
 Luthers friends did not all share in his courage, for up to 
 that hour none had been able to withstand the sophisms of Dr. 
 Eck. But what most of all inspired them Avith tlie liveliest 
 alarm, was the subject of the quarrel: the primacy of the pope ! 
 
 . . . How durst the poor monk of Wittemberg engage 
 with that o-iant who for a^es had overwhelmed all his enemies? 
 The courtiers at the elector's palace were terror-struck; Spalatin, 
 the confidant of the prince and the Reformer's intimate friend, 
 felt extremely anxious ; Frederick was ill at ease, this being a 
 warfare for which even the sword of a knight of the Holy 
 Sepulchre, that he had been armed with at Jerusalem, was 
 all too weak. Luther alone remains unmoved. The Lord, thinks 
 he, u-ill deliver Mm into my hands. And he finds in the faith 
 which animates himself wherewithal to fortify his friends: — " I 
 beseech of you, my dear Spalatin,'' says he, " do not allow your- 
 self to be led away by your fears: you know well that if Christ 
 were not for me, all that I have done down to this hour, must 
 have caused my ruin. Further, has there not lately been a letter 
 written from Italy to the chancellor of the Duke of Pomerania, 
 that I have overthrown Rome, and that none knowing how to 
 appease the tumult, it was proposed that I should be assailed, 
 not according to the rules of justice, but by the Roman finesses 
 (such are the terms that were employed), that is, in my mind, 
 by poison, ambuscade, and assassination. 
 
 " I moderate myself, and from love for the elector and the 
 university, keep many things in reserve which, were I elsewhere, 
 I should employ as arms against Babylon. O my dear Spalatin ! 
 we cannot speak truly of Scripture and of the Church without 
 irritating the beast. Never hope then to see me at peace, at 
 least as long as I meddle with theology. If this matter be from 
 
 1 Ac si Toles semper Augustus saluteris in aeternum. (Ibid. p. 251.) 
 
•il i HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 God, it will not come to a close until all my friends have forsaken 
 me, as all his disciples forsook Christ. The truth will remain 
 alone, and will triumph by its own right arm — not by mine, or 
 by yours, or by that of any man.^ Should I give way, all the 
 world will not perish with me. But, wretch that I am, I fear 
 I may be unworthy to die in such a cause."" "Rome," he further 
 writes about the same time, "Rome is burning with the desire 
 of destroying me, and as for me, I bite my lips with impatience 
 to show how I can laugh at her. I am assured that a paper 
 Martin Luther, after being loaded with execrations, has been 
 publicly burnt at Rome in the field of Flora. I anticipate their 
 being furious."- " The whole world," he continues, " is agitated 
 and convulsed; what will be the result? God knows. As for me 
 I foresee wars and disasters. May God pity us!"^ 
 
 Luther wrote letter after letter to duke George, -^ to induce that 
 prince, as Leipsick lay within his territories, to permit him to 
 go there and take part in the disputation; but he received no 
 reply. The grandson of Podiebrad, ^ king of Bohemia, frightened 
 by Luther's proposition on the authority of the pope, and dread- 
 ing lest Saxony should become the scene of wars, such as had 
 long been waged in Bohemia, would not consent to the doctor's 
 request. The latter resolved, accordingly, to publish explanations 
 on that thirteenth thesis. Far, however, from convincing duke 
 George, these, on the contrary, confirmed him in his resolution. 
 He absolutely refused the Reformer's request, and allowed him 
 to appear at the combat as a simple spectator only. ^ This was 
 a great disappointment to Luther; nevertheless he had but one 
 
 ' Et sola sit Veritas qupe salvet se dextera sua, nor. iLea, non tua, non ullius 
 hominis (L. Epp. i. 2G1.) 
 
 ^ Expecto furorem illorum. (Ibid. 280, dated 30th May, 1519.) 
 
 ^ Totus orbis nutat et movetur, tam corpore quam anima. (Ibid.) 
 Ternis literis, a duce Georgio non potiii certum obtinere responsum. (Ibid, 
 p. 282.) 
 
 * George Podiebrad, called by the Bohemians, first to the administration of 
 that kingdom, and afterwards, on the death of Ladislaus, in 1458, to the crown, 
 was grandfether on the mother's side to duke George of Saxony. Because he 
 favoured the Hussites, pope Paul II. in 146G, put him under the ban, and even 
 preached a crusade against him, by which many were excited to take up arms 
 against him, but having no proper leader, were easily put down. His grandson 
 duke George of Saxony, in Luther's time, foreseeing that he might be exposed 
 to like evils, was the less disposed to make himself suspected of favouring 
 Luther's cause, for which, besides that, he had no liking. — L. R. 
 
 ® Ita ut non disputator sed spectator futurus Lipsiam ingrcdcrer. (L. 0pp. 
 in PiaBf.) 
 
Tllli CISIIOI' OPPOSES THE DISPUTATION'. 415 
 
 %vish, and that wiis to obey (Jod; accordingly lie resolved to 
 go, to look on, and to \vait the result. 
 
 The prince at the same time did every thing in his power to 
 promote the disputation between Eok and Carlstadt. George 
 was devoted to the old doctrine, but ho was honest and sincere; 
 he was a friend also to free inquiry, and did not think that any 
 opinion should be charged with heresy, simply from its dis- 
 pleasing the court of Home. Besides this, the elector strongly 
 pressed the matter upon his cousin, so that, confirmed in his 
 purpose by Frederick's words to him, George gave orders for the 
 disputation taking place. ' 
 
 Bishop Adolphus, of Merseburg, the diocese in which Leipsick 
 was situate, understood better than Miltitz and Cajetan the risk 
 incurred by committing questions of so much importance to the 
 chances of a single combat. Rome, in fact, could not afford to 
 expose the fruit of so many centuries of toil to any such hazard. 
 Sharing their bishop's alarm, the divines of Leipsick besought 
 him to prevent the disputation; he accordingly made the most 
 energetic representations on the subject to duke George. To 
 these the duke with great good sense replied: " I wonder to see 
 a bishop entertain such an abhorrence for the ancient and praise- 
 worthy custom which our forefathers had of examining doubtful 
 points in matters of faith. If your theologians decline the 
 defence of their doctrines, better that the money they get were 
 bestowed in providing for old women and children, who at least 
 can spin and sing." ^ 
 
 This letter made no great impression on the bishop and his 
 divines. Error has a secret conscience which makes her dread 
 being examined, even when she talks loudest about free inquiry. 
 After incautiously advancing, she makes a cowardly retreat. 
 Truth does not challenge, but she keeps her ground. Error 
 challenges and flies. Besides, the prosperous state of the uni- 
 versity of Wittemberg excited the jealousy of that of Leipsick. 
 The monks and priests of Leipsick entreated the people from the 
 pulpits to shun the new heretics, and in their eagerness to inflame 
 tiie fanaticism of the i<rnorant against the doctors of the Jlefor- 
 
 1 Principis nostri verbo firmatns. (L. Epp. i. 255.) 
 * Schneider. Lips. Clir. iv. 108. 
 
416 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 niation, they loaded Luther with abuse, and depicted him and hig 
 friends m the blackest colours, ^ Tetzel, still alive, roused him- 
 self at the news, and exclaimed from his retreat: "It is the devil 
 that is urging people to this conflict ! " - 
 
 All the Leipsick professors, however, did not entertain such 
 sentiments. Some belonged to the class of the indifferent, who 
 are always ready to smile at the faults of both parties, and 
 of this number was the professor of Greek, Peter Mosellanus. 
 He cared little enough about John Eck, Carlstadt, or Martin 
 Luther, but promised himself no small amusement from their 
 encounter. "John Eck, the most illustrious of the gladiators 
 of the pen and of rhodomontades," he wrote to his friend Erasmus, 
 " John Eck who, like Socrates in Aristophanes, despises the 
 very gods themselves, is about to oppose Andrew Carlstadt in a 
 disputation. There will be much noise at the close of the battle. 
 Ten Democrituses would find matter in it to laugh at." ^ 
 
 The fearful Erasmus, on the other hand, was dismayed at the 
 thought of a contest, and his timid prudence would fain have 
 laid an arrest on the disputation. " If you would be persuaded 
 by Erasmus," he wrote to Melanchthon, " you would apply more 
 to the encouragement of good literature than to assailing its 
 enemies. ^ 1 am convinced that it is thus that we shall gain 
 most ground. Above all, let us not forget, amid the battle, that 
 it is not only by eloquence that we must overcome, but also by 
 modesty and gentleness." But neither the alarms of the priests, 
 nor the prudence of peacemakers, could now prevent the collision. 
 Each party put his arms in order for the occasion. ^ 
 
 III. Eck was the first on the field. He entered Leipsick on 
 June 21st, with Poliander, a youth whom he brought with him 
 from Ingolstadt, to write an account of the disputation. All 
 manner of honours was paid to the scholastic doctor. Arrayed 
 in the robes of the priesthood and followed by a numerous pro- 
 cession, he traversed the streets of the city on the day of the 
 
 ' Tlioologi interim mo proscindunt. . . . populum LipsisD inclamant. (L. 
 Epp. i. 255.) 
 
 " Das wait der Teufel ! (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ Seckend. p. 201. 
 
 * Malim to plus operiB sumere in asserendis bonis litteris, qunm in sectandis 
 Larum hostibus. (Corpus Reform, ed. Bretschneider. i. 78, of 22d Apr. 1519.) 
 
 ^ Such prudent persons always injure the cause of truth. Had the counsel of 
 Erasmus been listened to, men would all have remained with the Church of 
 
AURIVAL OF TIIK NYinTMHEItGLUS AT I.EIPSICK. 4J7 
 
 festival in honour of God. ' All pressed to have a glimpse of him. 
 He himself states that the inhahitants were all on his side, "and 
 vet," savs he, " it was rumoured through the whole city, that 1 
 should bo beaten in the contest." 
 
 The Wittembergers made their appearance on the day follow- 
 in"- the festival, beins; Friday, June 24, and also St. John's dav. 
 Carlstadt, who was to oppose doctor Eck, sat alone in his carriage, 
 and preceded all the rest. Then came, in an open chariot, duke 
 ]}arnim of Pomcrania, at that time a student at Wittcmberg, 
 and who had been chosen rector of the university, while, one on 
 each side of him, were seated the two great theologians, the 
 
 Rome, and like him would, from love of peace, Lave renounced or concealed 
 tiieir better views, and mingled them with error. Modesty and meekness are 
 words that sound well. "\Vc ourselves remarked in a previous note (p. 41C.) that 
 "truths honest abettor is scrupulous and cautious :" — yet meekness must not 
 1)0 made a pretence for indulging the fear of man. At the proper season, yet 
 still following the divine guidance, we must both speak and act. Even those 
 who go about solely intent on securing the triumph of their own plans, secretly 
 acknowledge this, and in their own conscience are convinced that their only 
 reason for commending what is called meekness, is that it leaves them to ac f 
 without restraint. — L. R. 
 
 1 Fete Dieu, or Corpus Christi day. This festival is of singular origin. A nun 
 in the thirteenth century dreamt that God Almighty complained to her thar, 
 Avhile all the saints had feast days set apart for them, He was quite neglected. 
 This being communicated to the bishop of the diocese, was made the subject of 
 a representation at Rome, which led pope Urban IV., followed by Clement V.. 
 to appoint a special festival in honour of God. As the worship of God in spirit 
 and in truth, however, was not to be expected from people grossly ignorant and 
 idolatrous, a material and visible deity was found for them in the consecrated 
 wafer, which they are taught to believe is the body, soul, and divinity of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. While the wafer is carried about under a splendid canopy, the 
 streets and houses are expected to be adorned with flowers and hangings, and 
 all persons that meet it, to fall down and worship. Since the Reformation, 
 accordingly, it has been an occasion of hardly less danger to consistent Protest- 
 ants than it is necessarily revolting to them. At Antwerp, in 18^0, I found 
 that most Protestants kept out of the way, confornung, however, in regard to 
 ornamenting their houses. French Protestants have long been subject to par- 
 ticular annoyance and even danger on the occasion, and now view with dread 
 the open return of public processions on the Fete Dieu, although prohibited by 
 law. The Esperance of July 6th, 1841, gives the following account of the cele- 
 bration of the festival at Toulon, from a correspondent writing in June : 
 
 " Toulon saw the processions close on the 20th current, after having lasted 
 eight days. On the thirteenth might be seen a huge ox decked out with ribbons, 
 (tc. &c. Then followed some lambs and sheep covered with ornaments, and 
 to a cross, above the image of Christ, there was attached by the feet with 
 iron wire, a beautiful white pigeon with its head hanging down and its wings 
 expanded. The poor creature, thus tortured, beat its wings violently in its 
 endeavours to escape from the wires by which inhuman wretches had confined 
 it, while persons of more sensibility could not but pity its sufl'crings. The 
 processions were daily accomp.anied with those provincial instrumeiits^ — the lile 
 and tambourin, and for want of sacred music, profane airs were played." 
 
 May it not have been from an incipient dislike for the semi-pagan, or rather 
 purely pagan, ceremonial of the Fete Dicn, that the Wittemberg doctors delayed 
 tlieir'coming till the day following? Eck must have found himself in his element 
 on tliat occasion amid scenes which wotdd have revolted Luther. Tr<. 
 
 1. 3g 
 
418 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 fathers of the Reformation, Melanchthon and Luther. Melanch- 
 thon had felt unwilling to leave his friend. "Martin, the soldier 
 of the Lord," he had said to Spalatin, "has stirred this fetid 
 marsh, l I feel indignant when I think of the shameful conduct 
 of the pope''s divines. Be firm and abide with us." Luther him- 
 self had desired that his Achates, as he has been called, should 
 accompany him. 
 
 John Lang, vicar of the Augustinians, several doctors of law, 
 some masters of arts, two licentiates in theology, and other 
 ecclesiastics, among whom was remarked Nicolas Amsdorf, closed 
 the procession. Born of a noble family in Saxony, Amsdorf 
 made little account of the brilliant career to which his birth 
 might have called him, and consecrated himself to theology. 
 The theses on indulgences had led him to the knowledge of the 
 truth, and he had forthwith made a bold profession of faith. ^ 
 Gifted with much strength of mind and vehemence of character, 
 Amsdorf often urged Luther to acts that were perhaps impru- 
 dent, and into which the latter was prone enough to run, of 
 his own accord. Placed by birth in the higher ranks, this friend 
 of the Reformer was not afraid of the great, and addressed them 
 at times with a freedom bordering on rudeness. " The Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ," said he one day in the presence of a noble assembly, 
 " belongs to the poor and the afflicted, and not to you, princes, 
 lords, and courtiers, who live in the uninterrupted enjoyment of 
 luxuries and delights." ^ 
 
 ]3ut this did not compose the whole of the retinue from Wit- 
 temberg. The students accompanied their masters thither in 
 great numbers, — Eck alleged to the amount of two hundred. 
 These were armed with pikes and halberts, and surrounded the 
 carriages in which the doctors were seated, apparently resolved 
 to defend them, and exulting in their cause. 
 
 Such was the order in which the train of the Reformers arrived 
 at Leipsick. When it had passed the gate of Grimma and was 
 in front of St. PauFs church-yard, one of the wheels of Carl- 
 stadt's carriage gave way, precipitating the arch-deacon into the 
 
 " Martinus, Domini miles, banc camerinam movlt. (Corp. Rof. i. 82.) 
 2 Nee cum carne et sanguine diu contulit, sed statim palam ad alio;?, fiJei 
 confessionem constantcr edidit. (Mel. Adam. Vita Amsdorf.) 
 * Weissman. Hist. Eccl. i. p. 144. 
 
carlstadt's mishap — THE nisiioi'''s I'Lacards. 419 
 
 nmd, just as his vanity was enjoying the gratification of so 
 solemn an entry. Though unhurt, ho luid to repair to his 
 residence on foot, while Luther's carriage, which was immediately 
 behind, shot a head in a moment, and bore the lleformer, safe 
 and sound, to his lodgings. From this accident the people of 
 Leipsick, who had gone in crowds to view the arrival of the Wit- 
 tomberg champions, drew an unfavourable presage for Oarlstadt; 
 and it was soon concluded throughout the whole city that he 
 would give way in the encounter, while Luther was to come off 
 victorious. ^ 
 
 Meanwhile, Adolphus of Merseburg was not idle. As soon 
 as he heard of the approach of Luther and Oarlstadt, and even 
 before they had left their carriages, he caused an injunction 
 against opening the disputation under pain of being excommun- 
 icated, to be affixed to all the church doors; "^ a piece of audacity 
 which amazed duke George, by whose command the town council 
 caused the bishop's placards to be torn down, and threw the per- 
 son who had been so fool-hardy as to execute his order, into 
 prison. 3 In fact, George had himself come to Leipsick, attended 
 by all his court, and among others by the same Jerome Emser 
 with w'hom Luther had spent the famous evening at Dresden. ^ 
 
 George sent the combatants on both sides the usual presents. 
 
 « Seb. Frbschcl rom Priesterthum. Wittcnib. 1585. in Praif. 
 
 * We see, in this instance, how far the bishops carried their pretensions ; 
 publicly prohibiting, under pain of being put to the ban, a disputation permitted 
 by the temporal prince. That they have not yet forgotten this, we learn from 
 the history of our own day : yet what would he the result should they happen 
 to find that they had to do with less resolute princes among Protestants than 
 George of Saxony was among themselves — a man who in other respects wished 
 to be considered an obedient son of their Church? True — as the people's 
 spiritual guides, not bishops only, but all Christian teachers, should be free to 
 exercise proper discipline in conformity with the Word of God, over such as 
 transgress what that Word enjoins, and to make known the will of God unre- 
 servedly to all. But all this must bo confined within the Church. Public 
 measures, excommunications and threats of punishment, as from persons pos- 
 sessed of temporal authority, by no means become them, and must not be con- 
 ceded to them even when fortified by the authority of the temporal prince. 
 Men are apt, in this respect, to fall into one or other extreme. While, on the 
 one hand, they impose excessive restraints on the powers of Protestant ministers, 
 powers without which these cannot properly acquit themselves of their ministry, 
 they strengthen by what are called concordats the powers of the Roman Catho- 
 lic clergy. But seethe unhappy results ; the latter will not remain content 
 with powers in any way limited ; they become more and more bold and presum- 
 ing, and would again as formerly govern all things according to their own views. 
 Here we are reminded of the present archbishop of Cologne. — L. R. For the 
 <-ase of the archbishop of Cologne, see the London Quarterly Review. Tu. 
 * L. 0pp. (L.) xvii p. 245. * See page 205. 
 
4'20 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 "The Duke,''' said Eck with no small exultation, "presented mo 
 with a fine stag, while he gave Carlstadt a roebuck only."! 
 
 Eck had hardly heard of Luther's arrival when he waited 
 upon the doctor/- " What now," says he, " I hear that you 
 refuse to dispute with me ! " 
 
 Luther. — " How can I dispute since the duke forbids meT' 
 
 Eck. — " If I am not to dispute with you, I care little about 
 entering the lists with Carlstadt. It is to meet you that I have 
 come hither." ^ Then, after a moment's pause, he added: " If I 
 procure permission from the duke, will you appear on the field 
 of contest?" 
 
 Luther, joyfully. — "Get me leave, and we shall fight it out." 
 
 Forthwith Eck repaired to the duke, endeavoured to do away 
 with his fears, represented that he was sure of success, and that 
 the pope's authority, far from suffering by the disputation, would 
 come out of it covered with glory; that the leading man must 
 be the object of attack; that should Luther be allowed to stand, 
 all would stand; should he fall, all would fall. George then 
 granted the permission that was sought. 
 
 George had given instructions for preparing a large hall in his 
 palace, called the Pleissenburg. Two pulpits were erected facing 
 each other; tables were arranged for the notaries who were 
 to take down the disputation in writing, and there were benches 
 for the spectators, both pulpits and benches being covered with 
 beautiful tapestry. From the Wittemberg doctor's pulpit 
 there was suspended the portrait of St. Martin, whose name he 
 bore, while from that of Dr. Eck hung the portrait of the knight, 
 St. George. " We shall see," said Eck as he surveyed that 
 emblem, " whether I do not ride down my enemies." Every- 
 thing bespoke the importance that was attached to the struggle. 
 
 A meeting was convened at the palace on June 25th, for the 
 purpose of settling the order that was to be followed; and on 
 this occasion Eck, trusting more to his declamations and his 
 gestures than to his arguments, exclaimed: " We shall dispute 
 freely and copiously; and there must be no taking down in 
 writing by notaries of what is said," 
 
 ' Seek. p. 190. 
 
 ' Milner makes this to have occurred some days later. Tr. 
 ^ Si tecum non licet disputare, neque cum Carlstatio volo ; propter te enim 
 hue veni. (L. 0pp. in Prsef.) 
 
LLTIIER OUJKCrd TO THEUE HEING JUDGES. 421 
 
 Carlstadt. — " It has been agreed that tlio disputation shall 
 be written out, published, and submitted to the judgment of all 
 men," 
 
 EcK. — " To write down all that is spoken is but to take the 
 edo-e oft" the minds of the combatants, and to drag out the con- 
 troversy. It is all over then with the freshness and energy 
 required for an animated disputation. Do not check the torrent 
 of words." 1 
 
 Doctor Eck's friends supported his request, but as Carlstadt 
 persisted in his objections the champion of Home had to yield. 
 
 EcK. — "Be it so; it shall be written out; but at least the 
 disputation, as written out by the notaries, shall not be published 
 until first submitted to the examination of certain judges." 
 
 Luther. — " Then the truth of Dr. Eck and the Eckians, 
 dreads the light?" 
 
 EcK. — " There must be judges ! " 
 
 Luther. — " And what judges?" 
 
 Eck. — " At the close of the disputation we shall come to an 
 understanding on that point."" 
 
 It may clearly be seen what was aimed at by the partisans of 
 Rome. If the Wittemberg theologians accepted judges, they 
 were ruined, their opponents being sure beforehand of those who 
 would be applied to : while, should they refuse, they would be 
 exposed to the disgrace of having it everywhere reported that 
 they dreaded the award of impartial judges. 
 
 The Reformers desired to have for judges, not such or such 
 individuals whose minds were previously made up on the subject, 
 but the whole of Christendom. They appealed to the voices of 
 the world at large, and should these go against them, it was well 
 at least that while pleading in the presence of the general body 
 of Christians, they might lead some souls to the light. " Luther," 
 says an historian, " would submit the case to the judgment 
 of all the faithful, that is, to a court where the votes were so 
 numerous that no urn could be found large enough to contain 
 them all." 2 
 
 The meeting then broke up. " See how cunning they are," 
 
 ^Melancht. 0pp. i. p. 1.3^. (Koethe ed.) 
 
 * Alebat, ad universes mortales pertinere judirium, hoc est ad tribunal cujus 
 coUigendis calculis nulla urna satis capax. (Pallavicini, t. i. p. 55.) 
 
422 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 said Luther and his friends to each other. " They would, no 
 doubt, have the pope or the universities for judges." 
 
 The Roman theologians sent one of their people next morn- 
 ing to Luther, charged to propose to him that the judge should 
 be the pope ! . . . " The pope ! " said Luther, " hov/ can I 
 consent to him 2" . . . 
 
 "Beware," exclaimed all his friends, "of accepting such unfair 
 terms." Eck and his people consulted anew. They gave up 
 the idea of appointing the pope, and proposed some of the uni- 
 versities. " Don't deprive us of the liberty you have hitherto 
 accorded us," replied Luther.- "We cannot yield to you upon 
 this point," they replied. — "Very well!" said Luther, "then I 
 will not dispute." ^ 
 
 They separated, and the whole city now began to talk over 
 what had passed. Luther, cried the Romanists everywhere 
 exultingly, Luther does not wish to accept the challenge! . 
 . . He does not wish to acknowledge any judge ! . . His 
 words were commented upon and twisted, everything being done 
 to put the most unfavourable construction possible upon them. 
 " What! indeed! so he refuses the disputation?" said the Refor- 
 mer's best friends. These went to see him, and told him their 
 alarms. " You refuse the encounter ! " they exclaimed. " Your 
 refusal is sure to reflect everlasting disgrace on your university 
 and your cause." This was to attack Luther in the most 
 tender part, — " Well then," he replied with a heart swelling with 
 indignation, " I accept the conditions imposed on me, but 1 
 reserve the right of appeal, and object to the court of Rome. " "^ 
 
 IV. The 27th of June was fixed for the opening of the dis- 
 putation. Early on the morning of that day the parties began 
 to assemble in the grand college of the university, whence they 
 repaired in procession to St. Thomas''s Church, and there a 
 solemn mass was performed by orders from the duke and at 
 his expense. When the service was over, the parties present 
 went in procession to the ducal castle. At their head appeared 
 duke George and the duke of Pomerania; next came the counts, 
 abbots, knights, and other persons of distinction; last followed 
 fhe doctors of both parties. The train was attended by a guard 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (L.") xvii. p. 2i5. * L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 
 
INVOCATION HYMN SUNG. 423 
 
 composed of seventy-six burgesses, ciniied with luilbords, with 
 tlags flying, and to the sound of martial music. The procession 
 stopt at the castle gate. 
 
 On arriving at the palace, each took his place in the hall ap- 
 pointed for the disputation. Duke Georoe, the hereditary prince 
 John, prince George of Anhalt, a boy of twelve, and the duke of 
 Pomerania, occupied the seats that had been set apart for them. 
 
 Mosellanus entered the pulpit to remind the theologians, by 
 orders from the duke, in what manner the disputation ought to 
 be conducted. " If you run into violent altercations," said the 
 speaker, " what difference will there be between a theologian who 
 disputes and an impudent bully? In what does the victory con- 
 sist here but in recalling a brother from error? . . It would 
 seem that each ought to desire rather to be beaten than to con- 
 quer. ' 
 
 At the close of this address, sacred nmsic resounded from the 
 vaulted roofs of the Pleissenburg; all present knelt down, and the 
 ancient hymn for the invocation of the Holy Spirit, Veni, Sancte 
 Spiritus! was chanted. What a solemn hour was this in the 
 annals of the Reformation ! Thrice was the call repeated, and 
 as that grave melody fell upon their ears, there knelt, in one 
 mingled body, the defendei's of the old doctrine and the cham- 
 pions of the new; the men of the Church of the middle age and 
 they who sought to restore the Church of the Apostles; all with 
 their faces bowed to the ground. The ancient tie of one sole 
 communion still united all these various minds in one fellow- 
 ship: the same prayer went up from all their lips, as if uttered 
 by one heart. 
 
 These were the last moments of the outward unity — of the 
 dead unity; and now a new unity of spirit and of life was about 
 to commence. The Holy Spirit was invoked upon the Church, 
 and the Holy Spirit was to respond to that call, by coming down 
 and renovating Christendom. 
 
 When prayer and singing had concluded, the assembly rose, 
 and the disputation was to have begun; but tiie clock having 
 struck twelve, it was put off till two. 
 
 The duke had invited to his table the chief personages who 
 proposed being present at the debate, and when the repast was 
 
 ' Seckend. p. 209- 
 
424 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 over they all returned to the castle. The hall was full of 
 spectators, for disputations of the kind formed the great public 
 meetings of that age, and it was at tliese tliat the representatives 
 of the opinions of the day discussed such questions as engrossed 
 all men's minds. Ere long the speakers were at their posts, and 
 that the reader may form the better idea of them we shall give 
 their likenesses, as traced by one of the most impartial witnesses 
 of the contest. 
 
 " Martin Luther is of the middle size, and has become so lean 
 from the intensity of his studies that you might almost count 
 his bones. He is in the prime of life and has a clear and 
 sonorous voice. His learning, and his knowledge of tlie Holy 
 Scriptures, are incomparable; so that he has the whole word of 
 God at his finger ends. ^ Besides this, he has a vast fund of 
 arguments and ideas. It is to be desired, perhaps, that he had a 
 little more judgment in putting everything in its proper place. 
 In conversation he is candid and affable; has nothing stoical or 
 haughty ; he knows how to accommodate himself to the peculiar- 
 ities of every one; his talk is pleasant and full of hearty good 
 humour. He displays firmness, and has always the air of a man 
 who is satisfied, whatever be the threats of his opponents; so that 
 one is compelled to believe that it is not without God's help that 
 he accomplishes such great things. He is blamed, nevertheless, 
 for beino; a little more sarcastic in attackino; others than becomes 
 a divine, especially when he has new things to announce in regard 
 to religion. 
 
 " Carlstadt is not so tall; he is of a dark and adust com- 
 plexion; he has a disagreeable voice; his memory is not so exact 
 as Luther's, and he is more apt to lose his temper. We find in 
 him, notwithstanding, though in a less degree, the qualities that 
 distinguish his friend. 
 
 " Eck is a tall man, broad shouldered, and with a strong and 
 thoroughly German voice. He has good witliers, so that he 
 could make himself very well heard on the stage, and might 
 even make an excellent public crier. His accentuation is thick 
 rather than distinct, nor has he the grace so much commended 
 by Fabius and Cicero. His mouth, eyes, and whole counte- 
 
 ' Seine Gelelir?nTnl<eit aber nnd Verstand in heiligor Schrift is nnvergleich- 
 licli, so dass er fast alles im Gritfhat. (Mosellanus in Seckond. 200. J 
 
DISPUTATION COMMKXCES. 425 
 
 nance, give you tlio impression of a soldier, or butcher, more 
 than of a divine. ^ Plis memory is excellent, and were his 
 understanding equal to it, he would indeed be a perfect man. 
 But ho is slow of comprehension and is wanting in judgment, 
 without which all other gifts are useless. Accordingly, in dis- 
 puting, lie heaps together passages upon passages from the 
 Bible, quotations from the Fathers, and proofs of all sorts, 
 without selection and without discernment. Moreover, he is a 
 man of inconceivable impudence. If he fir.d himself embar- 
 rassed, he leaves the point he is treating, pounces on some 
 other, sometimes even lays hold of the opinion of his antagonist, 
 and employing different expressions, attributes to his opponent, 
 with extraordinary address, the very absurdity which he him- 
 self had been defending." 
 
 Such, according to Mosellanus, were the men who then drew 
 the attention of the crowd which was eagerly pressing into the 
 grand hall of the Pleissenburg. The disputation now com- 
 menced between Eck and Carlstadt. 
 
 Eck for some moments fixed his eyes on certain objects laid 
 out on his rival's pulpit-desk, and which seemed to disquiet him : 
 they consisted of the Bible and the holy Fathers. " I refuse to 
 dispute," he exclaimed, " if you are allowed to bring books with 
 you."2 Strange indeed that a theologian should have recourse to 
 his books in controversy ! Eck's astonishment was still more aston- 
 ishing. " It is the fig leaf with which this Adam would conceal 
 his shame," said Luther ; " Did not Augustine consult his books 
 in combatting the Manicheans!"^ '^q matter? Eck's partisans 
 raised a clamour. " This man has no memory," said Eck. It 
 was settled at last, according to the desire of the chancellor of 
 Ingolstadt, that each should avail himself of his powers of mem- 
 ory and speech only. "Thus then," said many, "we shall have 
 to do, not with the investigation of truth in this disputation, but 
 with encomiums on the memories and tongues of the combatants." 
 
 As we cannot relate the entire disputation, for it lasted 
 seventeen days, we must, as an historian says, follow the 
 example of painters, who when they would represent a battle, 
 
 ' Das Maul, Augen und g.tnze Gesicht, presentirt ehe einen Fleischer oder 
 Soldaten als einem Theologum. (Mosellanus in Seckend. 200.) 
 - Milner mentions this objection as made somewhat later. Tk. 
 ^ Praetexit tamen et hie Adam ille folium fici pukherriraum (L. Epp. i. 294.) 
 I. 8 U 
 
426 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 place the most renowned feats of the field on the fore-^round 
 and leave the rest in the distance. ^ 
 
 The subject of the discussion between Eck and Carlstadt 
 was important: "The will of man previous to conversion," said 
 Carlstadt, " can do nothing good: every good work comes entirely 
 and exclusively from God, who gives to man first the will to do 
 it, and then the moral power to accomplish it." This truth had 
 been announced by Holy Scripture which saith: For it is God 
 who icorJceth in you to will and to do according to his good pleasure^- 
 and by St. Augustine who, in his dispute with the Pelagians, 
 had stated it nearly in the same terms. Every act that is want- 
 ing in love and obedience to God, is in his eyes divested of that 
 which alone can render it truly good, however it might have 
 been produced in other respects by the most honourable human 
 motives. Now, there is in man a natural opposition to God 
 which it is beyond man's ability to surmount. For this he has 
 not the power; he has not even the will for this. It is what 
 therefore must be done by divine power. 
 
 Such is the question, so much decried in the world, and yet 
 so simple, of the freedom of the will. Such had been the doc- 
 trine of the Church. But the schoolmen had explained it in a 
 manner that prevented its being recognised. No doubt, said 
 they, the natural will of man can do nothing truly agreeable to 
 God ; but it can do much to render man more capable of receiv- 
 ing the grace of God, and more worthy of obtaining it. They 
 called such preparatives a merit of congruity:^ "because it is 
 congruous,'''' said Thomas Acquinas, " that God should treat with 
 altogether special favour the man who makes a good use of his 
 own will." And as for the conversion which has to be wrought 
 in man, it no doubt proceeded from the grace of God, who, 
 according to the schoolmen, is the person who must accomplish 
 it, yet without excluding man's natural powers. These powers, 
 said they, have not been annihilated by sin : sin merely opposes 
 an obstacle to their development; but as soon as that obstacle 
 is removed (and there it was where, according to them, the 
 grace of God had to intervene) the action of these powers recora- 
 
 1 Pallavicini, i. 65. 
 
 « St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, ii. 13. 
 
 * Meritum congruum. 
 
GOD GIVES THE POWER TO WILL AND TO DO. 427 
 
 mences. To use one of their favourite illustrations, the bird 
 which has been for some time bound has ncitiier lost the power 
 nor forrrottcn the art of flying; but before it can again avail 
 itself of its wings, a stranger hand must remove the bonds that 
 prevent its flight. Thus it is, said they, with man. ^ - 
 
 Such was the question discussed by Eck and Carlstadt. It 
 involved a subject on which the former seemed at first wholly 
 opposed to the propositions held by his opponent, but, aware 
 how difficult ho should find it to maintain the ground he had 
 chosen, he said: "I admit that the will has not the power to do 
 a good work, and that it receives that power from God." — " Do 
 you then acknowledge," asked Carlstadt, delighted at having 
 obtained such a concession, " that a good work proceeds wholly 
 from God?" — " Every good work proceeds, it is true, from God,"" 
 was the subtile reply of the schoolman, " but not entirely so." 
 "There," exclaimed Melanchthon, "there's a windfall well 
 worthy of theological science." " An apple," added Eck, "is all 
 produced by the sun, but not totally and without the concur- 
 ence of the plant." ^ Doubtless it never was maintained that 
 an apple is wholly produced by the sun. 
 
 " Very well," said the opposite party then, with a deeper 
 insight into a question at once so delicate, and so important both 
 in philosophy and in religion, " let us now inquire how God acts 
 in man, and how man comports himself while thus acted upon." 
 " I own," said Eck, " that the first impulse in man's conversion 
 comes from God, and that man's will therein is altogether pass- 
 ive." ■* So far the two disputants were quite of one sentiment. 
 
 1 Planck, i. p. 176. 
 
 * The grand question that meets us here is, whether the power to anything 
 really good be natural or supernatural — that is, whether this can be accom- 
 plished through the ordinary motives suggested by man's self-love, provided 
 only, that that self-love he properly directed, or if, in addition to that, higher 
 and more spiritual incentives be required. According to the former hypothesis, 
 self-love, in so far as it has been disordered by sin, is'the imprisoned bird which 
 has only to be let loose — delivered from that disorder — in order to take its 
 unfettered flight towards some worthy object of desire. But the Reformers were 
 not satisfied with this hypothesis. There is a higher and a nobler aim than the 
 purest self-love will ever point out to us — even God himself— the sole worthy 
 object of all our interest. For that a spiritual ability is required — an ability 
 which has been killed by sin and must be brought to life again. — L. R. 
 
 * Quamquam totum opus Dei sit, non tamen totaliter a Deo esse, quemad- 
 modum totum pomum officitur a sole, sed non a sole totaliter et sine plant39 
 efiBcientia. (Pallavicini, t. i. p. 58.) 
 
 * Motionem seu inspirationem prevcnientem esse a solo Deo ; ct ibi liberum 
 arbitrium habet se passive. 
 
428 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " I admit," said Carlstadt on hia side, " that after this first 
 operation on the part of God, there must follow something on 
 man^s part, called by St. Paul will, and by the Fathers consent." 
 And here again they were agreed, but at that point they diverged 
 from each other, " This consent on man's part," said Eck, 
 " proceeds partly from our natural will, partly from the grace of 
 God." 1 " No," said Carlstadt, "for it must needs be that God 
 wholly creates this will in man." "- Thereupon Eck, astonished 
 and incensed at hearing what was so much fitted to make a man 
 feel his nothingness, exclaimed, " Your doctrine makes man to 
 be a stone, or a log, incapable of any reaction ! " . . . " How 
 now!" replied the Reformers, the "capacity for receiving those 
 powers produced in him by God, that capacity which, according 
 to our view, man possesses, surely distinguishes him sufficiently 
 from a stone or a log." ..." But," rejoined their antag- 
 onists, " you put yourselves in contradiction with experience by 
 refusing man all natural ability." — " We deny not," replied his 
 adversaries, "that man possesses certain powers, and that he 
 has the faculty of reflecting, meditating, and choosing. We 
 consider these powers and faculties only as simple instruments, 
 which can do nothing good until the hand of God puts them in 
 motion. They are like the saw in the hand of the man who is 
 using it." '^ 4 
 
 Here the grand question concerning the freedom of the will 
 was debated, and it was easy to demonstrate that the doctrine 
 of the Reformers did not take from man the freedom of a 
 moral agent, and did not make him a mere passive machine. 
 The freedom of a moral agent consists in having the power to 
 act according to its choice. Every action done without restraint 
 from without, and in consequence of a determination on the 
 part of the soul itself, is a free act. The soul is determined by 
 motives: but it is matter of daily observation, that the same 
 motives act diflferently on different souls; many persons not 
 
 ' Partim a Peo, partim a libero arbitrio. 
 
 ' Consentit homo, sed consensus est donum Dei. Consentire non est agere. 
 
 ^ Ut serra in manu honiinis trahentis. 
 Such is the fact ; not that natural powers are altogether useless; they are, 
 as it were, the instruments employed by the Spirit — the spiritual capacity : yet 
 this spiritual capacity, which through sin is dead, must first be brought to life 
 again by the Spirit of Christ — the Holy Ghost. — L. R. 
 
DISPUTATION INTERRUITED. 429 
 
 acting conformably with motives, the whole force of which they 
 nevertheless acknowledge. This inofiicacy of motives proceeds 
 from obstacles opposed to them by the corruption ot the under- 
 standing and the heart. Now God, by giving man a new heart 
 and mind, removes those obstacles, and in removing them, 
 far from depriving man of his freedom, he, on the contrary, 
 takes away what hindered man from acting freely, and from 
 following the voice of his concience; — according to the expres- 
 sion employed in the Gospel, he makes him "free indeed." (John 
 viii. S6.) 1 
 
 A slight incident led to an interruption of llie disputation. 
 Carlstadt, we are told by Eck, - had prepared sundry arguments 
 beforehand, and like many speakers in our own days, read what 
 he had written. In this Eck saw only a school-boy's trick and 
 objected to it. Carlstadt felt embarrassed, and fearing that 
 without his notes he might fall through his task, he insisted on 
 retaining them. " Ah," said the doctor of the school, exulting 
 in the advantage he thought he had over him, " his memory is 
 not equal to mine." The matter was referred to umpires, who 
 allowed quotations from the Fathers to be read, but beyond that 
 the speaking was to be extemporaneous. 
 
 This first part of the disputation was often interrupted by the 
 bye-standers, among whom there was much confusion and clam- 
 our. No sooner was a proposition announced that offended the 
 ears of the majority than an uproar began, and then, as at the 
 present day, there had to be a call for silence. The disputants 
 themselves at times lost their tempers in the heat of debate. 
 
 Near Luther, and hardly less than him an object of general 
 
 ' Thus are they coupled together. The bird is not only bound — it is wanting, 
 too, in that spiritual strength which by nature it possesses not. On this being 
 again imparted tea man, he lives spiritually, and aims at higher objects than 
 mere self-love ever contemplates. And even then are the bands not altogether 
 loosed ; a second deliverance is still required, that self-love may be guided 
 aright and freed from all the illusions of the senses. This deliverance doth the 
 Son of God likewise provide for all who abide in his word and are thus his dis- 
 ciples indeed. This latter deliverance exclusively had the opponents of the 
 Reformers in view, as if the former, that is, abiding in Jesus' Word, wore in 
 man's own power — whereas a prior, and indeed the grand deliverance, is required 
 in order to that — even the entire restoration of life. Here we have the main 
 difference which had previously distinguished, and still continues to distinguish, 
 the Pelagians and Semi-pelagians from those who hold the pure truth. — h. R. 
 
 « Seckendorf, p. 192. 
 
430 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 notice, sat Melanchthon. The sliglitness of his figure made 
 him look like a youth of eighteen, yet with JLuther, who was a 
 full head taller, he seemed particularly intimate, the two friend:^ 
 coming in and going out together, and accompanying each 
 other in their walks. " To look at Melanchthon," says a Swiss 
 theologian who studied at Wittemberg, ^ " you would call him 
 a boy ; but in mind, learning, and talent, he is a giant ; and it 
 is incomprehensible how such depths of wisdom and genius 
 should be inclosed in so small a body." In the intervals 
 between the sittings, Melanchthon talked with Oarlstadt and 
 Luther, assisting them in their preparations, and suggesting 
 arguments supplied from the resources of his vast erudition; 
 but while the disputation was going on, he took his seat as a 
 silent spectator among the rest, and attentively followed what 
 the divines had to say. ^ Sometimes, however, he would come 
 to Carlstadt's assistance when the latter was about to succumb 
 beneath the powerful declamation of the chancellor of Ingolstadt, 
 by suggesting a word or two in a whisper, or passing a slip of 
 paper into his hands with a reply written out. This having 
 once caught Eck's attention, indignant at this grammarian as 
 he called him, interfering in the dispute, he turned to him and 
 said in a haughty tone : " Hold your peace, you Philip there, 
 mind your studies and don''t annoy me."^ Luther was offended 
 at this gross insult pointed against his friend. " I attach more 
 weight," says he, " to the judgment of Philip, than to that of a 
 thousand Dr. Ecks." 
 
 The calm mind of Melanchthon easily perceived what were 
 the weak points in this discussion. "One can't but wonder," 
 says he with the wisdom and the grace that marked all his 
 words, " when he thinks of the violence that has been shown in 
 treating of all these things. How was any good to be drawn 
 from them? The Spirit of God loves retirement and silence: it 
 is there that he enters into the hearts of men."^ The bride of 
 
 1 John Kessler, afterwards reformer of St. Gall. 
 
 ' Lipsicse pugnse otiosus spectator in reliquo volgo sedi. (Corpus Refor- 
 matorum i. 111.) 
 ^ Tace, tu, Philippe, ac tua studia cura, ne me perturba. (Ibid. i. p. cxlix.) 
 * One might suppose these sentiments to have suggested to Cowper his 
 
TICTOIIY CLAIMED BY EACH PARTV. 431 
 
 Christ docs not remain in the streets and crossings, but she 
 conducts her bridegroom into her mother's house." ^ 
 
 Eacli party claimed the victory, and ]"^ck exerted all his tact 
 to make it appear tliat it lay on his side. As the points of 
 divergence sometimes all but coincided, it often happened that 
 he would loudly exult at having brought liis opponent over to 
 his opinion; or, like another Proteus, says Luther, he would 
 wheel round all at once, would state Carlstadt''s own view in other 
 expressions, and then would ask him in a tone of triumph, if he 
 did not find himself constrained to yield to him. . . . And 
 simple people, who could not see through this sophist's trick, 
 would applaud and ti-iumph along with him! . . . Eck, 
 nevertheless, without being conscious of it, in the course of the 
 disputation conceded much more than he intended. His par- 
 tizans laughed outright at all his clever hits: "but," says 
 Luther, " I am much convinced that their laughter was forced, 
 and that at heart it was a bitter vexation to them to see theii 
 chief, who had commenced the contest with so many bravados, 
 abandon his flag, desert his army, and become a runaway."" '" 
 
 Three or four days after the conference had commenced, the 
 disputation was interrupted by the feast of St. Peter and St. 
 Paul. On this occasion the duke of Pomerania requested that 
 Luther would preach before him in his chapel, and this invi- 
 tation Luther joyfully accepted. When the time, however, 
 came, the chapel was so rapidly filled to overflowing that the 
 congregation, which was constantly increasing, was transferred 
 
 beautiful hymn, beginning: " Far from the -n-orld, Lord, I flee." In fact Mel- 
 anchthon's words are closely paraphrased in the two stanzas : 
 
 " The calm retreat — the silent shade. 
 
 With pray'r and praise agree ; 
 And seem by thy sweet bounty made. 
 
 For those who follow thee. 
 
 There, if thy Spirit touch the soul, 
 
 And grace her mean abode. 
 Oh ! with what peace, and joy, and love. 
 
 She communes with her God ! " 
 
 "We shall see hereafter, from Luther's experience at Wartburg, that retire- 
 ment is not always so desirable, and that for the Christian the post of active 
 duty is generally the safest and best. Tr. 
 
 ' Melancht. 6pp. p. 134. 
 
 * Relictis signis, dcsertorem exercitus et transfugam factum. (L. Epp. L 
 205.) 
 
432 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to the grand hall of the castle where the disputation was ordin- 
 arily held. Luther, adopting the text of the day, preached 
 on the grace of God and the power of Peter, and took occasion, 
 in the presence of a popular auditory, to expound the views he 
 usually maintained before an assemblage consisting of the 
 learned. Christianity pours the light of truth equally into minds 
 of the highest order and into those of the humblest capacity; 
 and in this it stands out in marked contrast with all other 
 systems of religion and philosophy. Of course the Leipsick 
 divines who heard Luther preach on this occasion, eagerly 
 related to Eck the scandalous expressions with which he had 
 offended their ears. " He must be answered," they exclaimed, 
 "these subtile errors must have a public refutation." Eck 
 wanted nothing more. All the churches were open to him, and 
 four successive times he appeared in the pulpit to attack Luther 
 and his sermon. Luther''s friends were indignant; they insisted 
 that the Wittemberg divine should be heard in his turn, but 
 this they urged in vain. The pulpits were opened to the ene- 
 mies of the evangelical doctrines; they were closed to them that 
 preached them. " I held my peace," said Luther, " and had to 
 bear being assailed, insulted, and slandered, without having it in 
 my power to excuse or defend myself." ' 
 
 Nor did the ecclesiastics alone show this opposition to the 
 evangelical doctrines. In this the Leipsick burgesses were at 
 one with their clergy, and were impelled by a blind fanaticism to 
 adopt the misrepresentations and antipathies that were eagerly 
 propagated. Not only did their chief inhabitants refuse to visit 
 Luther and Carlstadt, but they even passed them without notice 
 in the streets, and endeavoured to blacken their characters 
 in the regards of the prince, while with the Ingolstadt doctor, 
 on the contrary, they were daily seen coming and going, and 
 eating and drinking. They thought it enough to offer Luther 
 the present of wine usually given to the combatants. Moreover, 
 such as wished him well concealed their likings from others, 
 several, like Nicodemus, coming to him at night or secretly. 
 Two persons only did themselves honour by publicly declaring 
 themselves his friends. These were Dr. Auerbach, whom we 
 
 ' Mich verklagen, schclten unci schmcohen. . . (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 21"?.) 
 
KXTKNT OF I>\IlTY-SPnUT. 433 
 
 have already liad occasion to speak of as at Augsburg, and Dr. 
 Pistor, the younger. 
 
 Such was the agitation that prevailed throughout the city, 
 that the two parties formed as it were two hostile camps that 
 at times encountered each other and fought. The Leipsiek 
 students on the one side, and those of Wittemberg on the other, 
 were perpetually quarrelling in the inns. It was openly asserted, 
 even at the meetings of the clergy, that Luther carried about 
 with him a devil shut up in a small box. " Whether it be in 
 the box that the devil is to be found, or only under his frock," 
 said Eck maliciously, " I know not; but there is no doubt of its 
 being in one of them." 
 
 Several doctors belonging to the two parties lodged during 
 the disputation in the house of the printer Herbipolis, and there 
 their feuds ran so high that their host was obliged to post a 
 city-officer, armed with a halbert, at the head of the table, to keep 
 the guests, in case of need, from personally attacking each other. 
 One day, the seller of indulgences, Baumgartner, came to blows 
 with a gentleman who befriended Luther, and allowed his pas- 
 sion to get so much the better of him that he expired. " I was 
 one of the party that attended his funeral," says Froschel, who 
 relates the fact. ^ In such wise did the fermentation in men's 
 minds reveal itself, and then, as now, what was spoken in pub- 
 lic meetings found an echo in the drawing-room and on the 
 street.2 
 
 Duke George, strongly predisposed as he was in favour of 
 Eck, did not display the same violent passions as his subjects. 
 He invited Eck, Luther, and Carlstadt, all three, to dine witli 
 him; he even invited Luther to visit him in private, but soon 
 let him see how much imbued he was with all the prejudices 
 that had been studiously instilled into him. "By what you 
 have written on the Lord's prayer," said the duke to him one 
 
 ' Lbscher, iii. 278. 
 
 * But this spirit was then directed to a different ohject from what it now pur- 
 sues : then it appeared in defending superstition ; now, in hailing infidelity, or 
 at least a pretended free-thinking. But by whatever name we designate it, now 
 as then, it is mere prejudice. In neither case have such as row with the stream, 
 been diligent in research, or eager in inquiring after truth. They alone pursue 
 the right course, and know whence they come and whither they are going, wlio 
 in good earnest have besought the Lord to show them what is truth, whether 
 among those who opposed superstition then, or those who are resisting infiilclity 
 and free- thinking now. — L. U. 
 
 I. ^ Si 
 
434 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 day ill-humouredly, "you have led many consciences astray. 
 There are persons who complain that they have been unable to 
 say a single Pater for more than four days." 
 
 V, It was on the 4th of July that the debate commenced 
 between Eck and Luther, and every thing seemed to indicate 
 that it would prove keener and more decisive than that which 
 was just concluded. Both combatants advanced into the field 
 with the determination of laying down their arms only on 
 victory being declared on the side of one or other of them. The 
 whole world anxiously waited the result, for the subject of dis- 
 cussion was no less than the primacy of the pope. Christi- 
 anity has two great opponents: hierarchism and rationalism. 
 E-ationalism in its application to the doctrine of man's moral 
 powers, was attacked by the Reformation in the first part of 
 the discussion at Leipsick. It was hierarchism, regarded in 
 Avhat is at once its crowning point and its foundation, the doc- 
 trine of the pope, which was to be impugned in the second. On 
 the one hand there appeared Eck in defence of the established 
 religion, and glorying in the disputations he had sustained, as 
 a general in the army would boast of the battles he had won. l 
 On the other hand Luther stood forth as a man who could look 
 for nothing but persecutions and ignominy as the fruits he was 
 to derive from the struggle, but who yet presented himself with 
 a good conscience, with a firm resolution to sacrifice all in the 
 cause of the truth, and with a soul that waited upon God in full 
 confidence in his power to deliver him. 
 
 By seven in the morning both antagonists were seated at 
 their posts, surrounded by a numerous and attentive assembly. 
 
 Luther rose, and as a precaution by no means unnecessary, 
 he said in a modest tone, 
 
 " In the name of the Lord, Amen ! I declare that the respect 
 I feel for the sovereign pontifi", would have led me not to main- 
 tain this disputation, had I not been dragged into it by the ex- 
 cellent Dr. Eck." 
 
 Eck. — "In thy name, meek Jesus! before descending into 
 the arena, I protest in your presence, ye magnificent Lords, that 
 
 1 Faciebat hoc Eccius quia certam sibi gloriam profositam cernebat, propter 
 propositionem irieam, in qua negabam Papam esse jure divino caput Ecclesia; : 
 iiic patuit ei campus magnus. ^L. 0pp. in Prrcf.) 
 
CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE CHURCir. 43.") 
 
 all that I have to say I submit to the judgment of the first of 
 all sees, and of the master who is seated there." 
 
 Then, after a momentary pause, Eck continued thus : 
 
 " There is in the Church of God a primacy proceeding from 
 Christ himself. The Clmrcli militant has been settled according 
 to the pattern of the Church triumphant. Now, the latter is a 
 monarchy where all rises hierarchically until we reach the sole 
 chief who is God himself. Therefore is it that Christ hatli 
 established a like order of things on the earth. What a monster 
 were the Church without a head !" ^ . . . 
 
 Luther, turning towards the meeting, 
 
 " In declaring that the Church universal necessarily has a 
 head, Mr. Doctor does well. If any one here present, alleges 
 the contrary, let him rise! As lor me I have nothing to do 
 with it." 
 
 EcK. — " If the Church militant has never been without a 
 monarch, I should very much wish to know who he can be. if 
 not the pontiff of Home ? " 
 
 Luther looks up to heaven and rejoins authoritatively, 
 
 " The head of the Church militant is Jesus Christ himse't 
 and not a man. This I hold in virtue of God's own testimon3^ 
 ' Christ,'' saith the Scripture, '■mmt reign, till Jw hath put all 
 emmies under his feet!' ^ Let us not listen, then, to those who 
 would confine Christ to the Church triumphant in heaven. His 
 reim is a rei<in of faith. We see not our head : vet we have 
 him." 3 
 
 Eck, not admitting that he was beaten, and having recourse 
 to other arguments, replied : 
 
 " The unity of the priesthood, as saith St. Cyprian, is to be 
 traced to Rome." ^ 
 
 Luther. — " As respects the western Church I admit. But 
 does not this Roman Church itself trace its oriuin to that of 
 Jerusalem? It is this last which is properly the mother and the 
 nurse of all the Churches?" ^ 
 
 ' Nam quod monstrum esset, Ecclesiamesseacephalem! L. 0pp. lat. i. p. 243.) 
 
 - 1 Ep. to the Corinthians, xv. 25. 
 
 3 Prorsus audiendi non sunt qui Christum extra Ecclesiam militantem ten- 
 dunt in triumphantem, cum sit regnum fidei. Caput non videmus ; tamcn 
 habomus. (L. 0pp. lat. i. p. 243.) 
 
 * Unde sacerdotalis unitas exorta est. (Ibid. p. 243.) 
 
 * Ilaec est matrix proprie omnium ecclesiarum. (Ibid. p. 244.) 
 
436 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 EcK. — "St. Jerome declares that if an extraordinary and 
 paramount authority be not conceded to the pope, there will be 
 throughout the Churches as many schisms as there are pontiffs."' 
 
 Luther. — " Granted^'' says he, " that is to say, that should 
 all other believers consent, such authority might be lodged with 
 the first pontiff by human right.^ No more do I deny that 
 should all the faithful throughout the world unite in recognising 
 as first and sovereign pontiff, the bishop of Kome, or of Paris, 
 or of Mairdebur":, he ouoht to be acknowled2;ed as such, because 
 of the respect due to such an accord of the whole Church, but 
 this has never been, nor ever will be seen. In our days does 
 not the Greek Church refuse her assent to Kome?" 
 
 Luther was quite prepared at that time to own the pope as 
 the Church's chief magistrate, freely elected by her; but he 
 denied that he was appointed to that office by God. It was not 
 until a somewhat later period that he denied there being any 
 manner of obligation to submit to him. His taking that step 
 was a result of the disputation at Leipsick. But Eck had come 
 i'orward on a field with which Luther was better acquainted than 
 he was. Eck appealed to the Fathers: he beat him by the 
 Fathers. 
 
 " That this which I have stated was St. Jerome's meaning I 
 shall prove by the epistle of Jerome himself to Evagrius : Every 
 bishopi says he, be he at Rome, be he at Eugubium, be he at 
 Constantinople, at Ehegium, at Alexandria, or at Thanis, has 
 the same merit and the same priesthood. 3 Bishops rank high 
 or low according as wealth makes them mighty or as poverty 
 leaves them in a humble position." 
 
 From the writings of the Fathers Luther passed to the 
 decrees of the councils, where the bishop of Rome is found to 
 rank only as first among equals.^ 
 
 " We read," said he, " in the decree of the council of Africa : 
 That the bishop of the first see be called neither prince of the 
 pontiffs nor sovereign pontiff, nor by any other name of the 
 
 ' Cui si non exors qusGflam et ab omnibus eminens detur potestas. (Ti. 0pp. 
 lat. i. 243.) 
 
 ^ Detur, inquit, hoc est jure humano, po.sset fieri, conscntientibus cwteha 
 omnibus fidelibus. (Ibid. p. 244.) 
 
 * Ejusdera meriti et ejusdem sacerdotii est. (Ibid.) 
 
 * Primus inter pares. 
 
CTIRIST THE ONLY FOUNDATION^. 437 
 
 kind, but simply bishop of the first sec. If the mon.archy oi 
 the bishop of Home were of divine right," continues Luther, 
 " would not these words amount to heresy?" 
 
 Eck replied by one of those subtile distinctions which were 
 so familiar to him: 
 
 "The bishop of Rome, if you will have it so, is not universal 
 bishop, but bishop of the universal Churcli."' 
 
 Luther. — " I don't wish to say a word in rojoindcr to such a 
 reply, but leave our hearers to judge for themselves." 
 
 "Assuredly," he continued, "there's a gloss for you, worthy 
 of a theologian, and one very fit to content a disputant who 
 covets glory. It is not for nothing that I am staying here at 
 a heavy cost in Leipsick, seeing I have learnt that the pope 
 is not, indeed, universal bishop, but bishop of the universal 
 Church! "-2 • • ., . 
 
 Eck. — " Well then, I come to the essential point. The ven- 
 erable doctor asks me to prove that the primacy of the Church 
 of Rome is of divine right ; 1 prove it by those words of Christ: 
 ' Thou art Peter^ and on this rock I will build my Church.' St. 
 Augustine in one of his epistles thus explains that passage: 
 " Thou art Peter, and on this stone, that is to say, on Peter, I 
 will build my Church.' It is true that the same Augustine 
 has elsewhere given it as the meaning, that by this stone, Christ 
 himself is to be understood; but he has no where retracted his 
 first exposition." 
 
 Luther. — " If the reverend doctor would impugn what I say, 
 let him first himself reconcile these contradictory expressions of 
 St. Augustine. For certain it is that St. Augustine has very 
 often said that by the stone, Christ is meant, and hardly perhaps 
 has he in one instance said that it means Peter himself. But 
 irrantino; even that St. Augustine and all the Fathers should say 
 that the apostle is the stone spoken of by Christ, I would singly 
 oppose them on the authority of Holy Scripture, that is by divine 
 right,^ for it is written: Other foundation can no man lay than that 
 ichich is laid, which is Jesus Christ.^ Peter himself calls Christ 
 
 ' Non cpiscopus universalis, scd universalis Ecclesiae episcopus. (Ibid. 24G.) 
 ^ Ego glorior me tot expensis non frustra. . . . (L. Epp. i. 299.) 
 ^ llesistara eis ego unus, auctoritato apostoli, id est divino jure. (L. Epp. 
 Lit. i. 237.) 
 
 " 1 Ep. of St. Paul to the Corinthians, iii. 11. 
 
438 HISTOHY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the Iking corner stone, on which we are built up a spiritual 
 house y^ 
 
 EcK. — " I am amazed at the humility and the modesty with 
 which the reverend doctor undertakes singly to oppose so many 
 illustrious Fathers, and pretends to know more on the subject 
 than the supreme pontiffs, councils, doctors, and universities ' 
 
 It were matter of astonishment doubtless that God 
 should conceal the truth from so many saints and martyrs. . . 
 until the coming of the reverend Father." 
 
 Luther. — " The Fathers are not opposed to me. St. Augus- 
 tine, St. Ambrose, the most excellent doctors, speak as I do. 
 Super isto articulo Jidei, fundata est Ecclesiap' says St. Amb- 
 rose, in explaining what we are to understand by the stone on 
 which rests the Church. Let my opponent then check his loqua- 
 city. To speak as he does is to excite hatred, not to discuss a 
 question like a true doctor." 
 
 Eck had not expected to find his opponent so well informed 
 and so well able to extricate himself from the labyrinth in which 
 he had sought to perplex him. " The reverend doctor," said he, 
 " has entered the field after having made himself master of his 
 subject. Your lordships must excuse me if I do not present 
 the fruits of equally accurate research : I came here to discuss a 
 question, not to make a book.'*'' Eck was confounded, but scorned 
 to yield. In default of reasons, he had recourse to a despicable 
 and odious artifice, which though it could not vanquish his 
 opponent, could not fail at least greatly to embarrass him. Let 
 but the charge of being a Bohemian, a heretic, a Hussite, hang 
 over Luther, and he is overcome; and such was the stratagem 
 to which the doctor of Ingolstadt had recourse. " It has been 
 acknowledged," said he, " from primitive times, by all good 
 Christians, that the Church of Rome holds her primacy from 
 Christ himself, and not of human right. I must admit, however, 
 that the Bohemians, in obstinately defending their errors, attack- 
 ed this doctrine. I beg the venerable Father's pardon. If I am 
 an enemy to the Bohemians because they were the Church's 
 enemies, and if the present disputation reminds me of those 
 lieretics; for. , . . according to my weak judgment . . 
 
 ' 1 Ep. of St. Peter, ii. 4, 6. 
 
 * The Church is founded on this article of faith. (L. 0pp. lat. i. p. 245.) 
 
AiJTlCl.ES HKI.D 1!Y IltJSS, ^o!) 
 
 the conclusions at which the doctor has arrived are altogether 
 in favour of those errors. We are even assured that the Huss- 
 ites openly glory in them." 
 
 Eck had calculated aright. All his partisans gave a particu- 
 larly favourable reception to this treacherous insinuation, and 
 could not restrain the feelings of satisfaction which it gave them. 
 
 "These insults,"" said the Reformer afterwards, " gratified them 
 much more sensibly than did the disputation itself." ^ 
 
 Luther. — " I like not, and never shall I like any kind of 
 
 schism. In as much as the Bohemians, at their own pi-oper 
 
 instance, secede from our unity, they do what is wrong, even 
 
 although the divine right should be in favour of their doctrines, 
 
 . . since the divine right is the love and unity of the Spirit. - ■^ 
 
 It was at the forenoon meeting of the 5th of July that Luther 
 spoke thus, shortly before the summons to dinner led to the usual 
 adjournment. Probably one or other of the doctor's friends, pos- 
 sibly one or other of his adversaries, made him sensible that he 
 had ffone too far in condemnins; the Christians of Bohemia as ho 
 had done. Had they not, in fact, maintained what Luther at 
 that very time was defending? Accordingly, when the proceedings 
 recommenced at two o"'clock, Luther began by firmly saying: 
 
 "Among the articles held by John Huss and the Bohemians, 
 some are highly Christian. There is no denying this. Such is 
 the following: that there is but one universal Church; and this 
 other, that it is not necessary to salvation that we believe the 
 Eoman Church to be superior to other churches. Whether it 
 were WicklifF or Huss that said so is of no consequence. . , . 
 the statement is true." 
 
 ' Et, ut fama est, de hoc plurimum gratulantur. (Ibid. 250. ) 
 ^ Nunquam milii placuit, nee in aatornum placebit quodciinquo schisma. 
 Cum supremum jus divinum sit charitas et unitas spiritus. (L. 0pp. lat.i. 250.) 
 I am sensible that the literal is a bad translation of jus divinum, droit 
 divin. Perhaps "law of God" is better. Tr. 
 
 ^ Here •we see that even Luther was not positively inclined to secede from the 
 Church of Rome: in this respect so far condemning the Hussites and Bohemians, 
 as having, in his view, arbitrarily done so. His opinion was that a man ought to 
 ■wait until the last extremity. This dimness, however, in his views, as appears from 
 what immediately follows, began from this very period in some measure to clear 
 away, owing mainly to the resistance opposed to him by Dr. Eck — L. R. It may 
 be observed, also, that the popedom has ever since Luther's times been making it 
 more and more difficult for a Christian holding any correct views of the Gospel to 
 remain in its communion. The decrees of the council of Trent, the bull TJniae- 
 nitus anathematising the doctrines of grace held by the Jansenists, together with 
 a mass of modern superstitions and blasphemies, had not then appeared to placo 
 the Church of Rome universally in flagrant opposition to the Gospel. Tr. 
 
410 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 Luther''s saying this produced an immense sensation among 
 those who heard it. People hardly could believe their ears as 
 the abhorred names of Huss and WicklifF were introduced eulo- 
 gistically by a monk before a catholic assembly ! . . . A 
 murmur of disapprobation ran through nearly the whole meeting 
 and even duke George beiran to feel exceedinjjlv alarmed. The 
 standard of civil war which had so long desolated the states 
 of his maternal ancestors, seemed ready to be unfurled in 
 Saxony. Unable to repress his emotion, he exclaimed aloud, and 
 so as to be heard by all present: "The man is mad!""! Then, 
 shaking his head, he planted his hands on his sides. The 
 whole meeting became violently agitated; people rose and talked 
 with each other, and such as had dropt asleep roused themselves. 
 The adversaries triumphed, and Luther's friends were greatly 
 embarrassed; several persons who till then had heard him with 
 pleasure, began to doubt his orthodoxy. The impression left by 
 what he had said was never weakened in the mind of George; 
 from that moment he regarded him with an evil eye and became 
 li's enemy. 2 
 
 As for Luther, he did not suffer himself to be intimidated by 
 this explosion of murmurs. " Gregory of Nazianzen," he calmly 
 went on to say, " Basil the great, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, 
 together with an immense number of other Greek bishops, have 
 been saved, and they did not believe the Church of Rome to be 
 superior to the other churches. The pontiffs of Rome have no 
 authority to make new articles of faith. Holy Scripture is the 
 sole authority for the faithful Christian. It is. the only divi72e 
 right. I beseech !Mr, Doctor to allow that the pontiffs of Rome 
 have been men, and not to think fit to make them gods." 3 
 
 Eck then betook himself to one of those pleasantries which 
 gratuitously give an air of petty triumph to the person who 
 employs them. 
 
 " The reverend Father,"" says he, " in his ignorance of the 
 art of cookery, mixes up Greek saints with schismatics and 
 
 ' Das wait die Sucht ! 
 
 * Nam adluic erat dux Georgius mihi non inimicus, quod sciebam certo. (L. 
 0pp. in Praef.) 
 
 ^ Nee potest fidelis christianus cogi ultra sacram Scripturam, qure est pro- 
 prie jus divinum. (L. 0pp. lat. i. 252.) 
 
EFFECTS OF THE DISCUSSION. 441 
 
 heretics, so as to defend the perfidy of heretics with the odour 
 of sanctity in the Fathers.""^ 
 
 LuxnER, sharply interrupting Eck, 
 
 " The excellent doctor speaks impudently. For me there is 
 no communion between Christ and Belial."" 
 
 Such were the discussions in which the two doctors engaged. 
 The meeting listened with interest, yet their attention flagged 
 at times, so that they were well enough pleased when something 
 occurred to amuse and divert them. It often happens that the 
 most comical incidents mingle with the gravest matters; such 
 was the case at Leipsick. 
 
 According to the custom of those days, duke George kept a 
 court fool. This jester was told by some who wanted a joke, 
 "that Luther held that a court fool might marry, but that Eck 
 maintained the reverse." Upon this, the jester conceived an 
 utter aversion for Eck, and each time he entered the hall among 
 the duke's attendants, eyed the theologian with a look that por- 
 tended mischief. The chancellor of Ingolstadt, not thinking it 
 beneath him to indulge a joke, shut one eye (the fool had lost 
 one) and with the other looked askance at the little personage, 
 whereupon the latter lost his temper and overwhelmed the 
 grave doctor with abuse. "The whole assemblage,"" says Peifer. 
 ■'laughed heartily, and the diversion thus created gave some 
 relief to the extreme tension of their minds." 2 3 
 
 At the same time scenes were beheld in the city and its 
 churches, sufficiently indicating the horror with which Luthers 
 bold assertions had filled the partizans of Rome. The cry of 
 scandal was heard chiefly in the monasteries attached to the 
 pope. One sabbath the Wittemberg doctor went into the 
 • church of the Dominicans previous to grand mass, and when 
 
 ' At Rev. Pater artis coqinnarice minus instructus, commiscet s.anctoa 
 grrocos cum schismaticis et hareticis, ut fuco sanctitatis Patrum, hcereticorum 
 tueatur pcrfidiam. (L. 0pp. lat. i. 252.) 
 
 2 L. 0pp. (W.) XV. 1440.— 2. Lbschcr. iii. p. 281. 
 
 ^ The importance of such relief in the case of long discussions, may account 
 for many of the gravest divines, who -would have thought it an offence against 
 decency and goo'd taste to venture on the ludicrous in the pulpit, having by no 
 means considered it as out of phace in protracted discussions. It was the advice 
 of a late eminent leader at the Scotch bar to a young advocate there, " always 
 to begin with a I'oke," and Luther, one would sometimes think, must have been 
 of the same opinion. See in particular his De captivilate BahyJonica Ecclesi(J\ 
 The Leipsick disputation was of too grave a nature, not to be begun with 
 peculiar solemnitv. Tr. 
 
 I. ' 3 K 
 
442 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 there was nobody there but some monks who were saying low 
 masses at little altars. Hardly was it known in the monastery 
 that Luther, the heretic, was in church, than the monks ran 
 in all haste, seized the ostensory, took it to the tabernacle and 
 shut it up, taking special care that the most holy sacrament 
 should not be profaned by being exposed to the hereticrA gaze of 
 the Wittemberg Augustinian. Those who were reading mass 
 at the same time hastily gathered up the various articles used 
 in the ceremony, left the altars, ran across the church, and fled 
 into the sacristy, an historian tells us, as if the devil were at 
 their heels. 
 
 The subject in dispute furnished a topic for conversation 
 every where, at the inns and hotels, at the university and the 
 court, every one giving his own views upon it. Angry as he 
 felt, duke George did not obstinately resist all conviction. One 
 day while at dinner with Eck and Luther, he interrupted the 
 conversation by saying: " Whether it be by divine right or by 
 human right, the pope is still the pope.''^ Luther was highly 
 pleased at hearing these words. " The prince," said he, " never 
 would have used them, had he not felt the force of my argu- 
 ments." 
 
 The disputation on the subject of the pope's primacy had 
 now lasted five days, when, on the 8th of July, they came to 
 discuss the doctrine of purgatory, the debate upon which occu- 
 pied two days. Luther still admitted the existence of purga- 
 tory; but he denied that this doctrine formed any part of what 
 was taught by Scripture and the Fathers, in the manner that 
 the schoolmen and his opponent pretended that it was. " Our 
 doctor Eck," said he in alluding to the superficial spirit of his 
 opponent, " has to-day been running over Holy Scripture almost 
 without having touched it, like a spider upon the water." 
 
 On the 11th of July the indulgences fell to be discussed. " It 
 was a mere diversion, and a disputation fit to make people laugh,'' 
 says Luther, "the indulgences fell flat to the ground, and Eck 
 agreed with me at almost every point." 2 Eck himself said: 
 " Had I not had a disputation with doctor Martin on the prirn- 
 
 ' Tta ut ipse dux Georgius inter prandendum, ad Eccium et me dicat : " Sive 
 Eit jure humane, sive sit jure divine, papa ; ipse est papa." (L. 0pp. in Praef.) 
 ^ L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 2'IG. 
 
iurjEci's 01" iiii: disputation. — it closes. 443 
 
 acy ot the pope, I might almost liavo been of one mind with 
 him.'''' ^ 
 
 The next subjects of disputation were repentance, the absolu- 
 tion granted by priests, and satisfactions. Eok, as usual, quoted 
 the schoolmen, the Dominicans, and the pope's canons. Luther 
 wound up the disputation ^Yith these words: 
 
 " Tlie reverend doctor retreats from before the Holy Scrip- 
 tures as tlie devil flies from the cross. As for me, witii all the 
 respect duo to the Fathers, I prefer the authority of scripture, 
 and it is that which I would recommend to our judges-''^ 
 
 Here closed the disputation between Eck and Luther. Two 
 days more were spent by Carlstadt and the Ingolstadt doctor in 
 discussing the merits of man in good works. On the 16th of 
 July, the proceedings were finally concluded after having occu- 
 pied twenty days, by a discourse from the rector of Leipsick. 
 He had hardly pronounced the last word, when a burst of music 
 was heard and the solemmity was terminated by singing the 
 Te Deum. 
 
 But during this solemn hymn, the minds of those present 
 were no longer what they had been when the Vent Spiritiis was 
 sung. Already the presentiments of many seemed to be realized, 
 and the blow struck by the champions of the two doctrines had 
 inflicted a severe wound on the popedom. 
 
 VL These theological disputations, though of such a kind 
 that the people of the world would now grudge devoting a few 
 brief moments to them, had been followed and listened to for 
 twenty whole days with much attention, even laymen, including 
 knights and princes, showing a sustained interest as they pro- 
 ceeded. ^ Duke Barnim of Pomerania and duke George made 
 
 o 
 
 ^ So"wollt, er fast einig mit Tnir gewest seyn. L. Opp. (L.) xvii 24C. 
 
 ■ Videtur fugore a facie Scripturarum, sicut diabolus crucem. Quare, sal vis 
 reverentiis Patrum, prajfero ego auctoritatem Scripturso, quod commendo jiidi- 
 cibus futuris. (I,. Opp. lat. i. i91.) 
 
 ^ This is certainly one of the most extraordinary circumstances attending the 
 disputation, and it shows the rapid success that had attended the establishment 
 of universities by all the German princes, each in his own territories, in the 
 preceding century. The popularity of Luther's reasoning, including also his 
 direct appeals to Holy Scripture and inductions therefrom, prove that the 
 lettered youth of Germany was fast escaping from " those depths of abstruse and 
 metaphysical inquiring" — "that spirit of metaphysical and frivolous subtlety," 
 which Dr. Robertson remarks as distinguishing the first literary cfl'orts of the 
 middle ages. The learning of the studious was evidently becoming of a kind 
 fitted at once to excite and enlarge the minds of the industrious classes, and to 
 
44-i HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 themselves particularly remarkable bj their assiduity, while 
 some of Eck's own friends among the divines of Leipsick " slept 
 very soundly," says an eye witness. Nay, they had even to bo 
 awakened at the close of the sittings to prevent their going 
 without dinner. 
 
 Luther was the first to leave Leipsick; Carlstadt left it next, 
 and Eck remained some days after both were gone. 
 
 At the close of the contest, as usual, no decision was pro- 
 nounced. ^ Each spoke of it in his own way. " At Leipsick," 
 says Luther, " time was lost, truth not investigated. During 
 the two years that we have been canvassing the doctrines of our 
 opponents, so rigorous has been our examination, that we might 
 liave counted all their bones. Eck, on the contrary, has hardly 
 skimmed the surface; '^ but in bawling he has done more in an 
 hour than we in two long years." 
 
 Writing privately to his friends, Eck allowed that he had 
 been beaten at various points ; but he was at no loss for reasons 
 to account for this. " The Wittembergers vanquished me at 
 sundry points," he writes to Hochstraten on July 24th, "first, 
 because they brought books with them; secondly, because the 
 disputation was taken down for them in writing, so that they 
 
 receive a healthy influence from their practical habits and common sense. The 
 universality of Evangelical doctrines may be seen in their finding so many 
 adherents in both these classes. 
 
 "We question whether the learning of the lay aristocracy of Europe was ever 
 so high as at this time, or mental superiority ever so valued by men and some- 
 times even by vromen of that rank. Never since certainly have they been more 
 interested in great religious questions, or more personally religious than in the 
 sixteenth century. Some of the consequences of this state of things are curious 
 and instructive. The nobles lost that inordinate passion for war which till then 
 had distinguished them ; but as wars, chiefly arising from the bigotted determi- 
 nation of Rome to crush all opposition, still continued, soldiers of fortune, like 
 the condottieri of Italy, began to supersede feudal chiefs in the conduct of 
 armies — a change which greatly demoralised the military. This remark I owe 
 to the able and accomplished Mr. Groen Van Prinsterer, editor of the Archives 
 ou correspondance inedite de la Maison d' Orange — Nassau. To this demoral- 
 isation of the military, arising from the religious and civil amelioration of all 
 other classes, we may impute most of the ferocities that attended the religious 
 wars of the sixteenth century, and too often tarnished the reputation of both 
 sides. Protestants soldiers then, as in the case of our own country at the pre- 
 sent day, were often rapacious and insolent, not because the great body of Pro- 
 testants was so, but because Protestantism does not foster a military taste ; it 
 fosters peaceful industry, and hence indirectly leads to the employment of mere 
 mercenaries in war. Tr. 
 
 ' Ad exitum certaminis, uti solet, nulla prodiit decisio. (Pallavicini, i. 65.) 
 * Totam istam conclusionum cohortem multo acrius et validius nostri Wittem- 
 bergenses . . . oppugnaverunt et ita examinaverunt ut ossa eorum numer- 
 are licuerit, quas Eccius vix in facie cutis leviter perstrinxit. (L. Epp. i. 291.) 
 
DOCTOU ECK^S ADMISSIONS AND VAUNTS. 445 
 
 could examino it in their own houses at leisure; thirdly, because 
 there were several of them, two doctors (Carlstadt and Luther,) 
 Lange, vicar of the Augustinians, two licentiates, Amsdorff" and 
 a most arrogant nephew of lleuchlln (Melanchthon,) three 
 doctors in law and several masters of arts; all lent their aid 
 at the disputation, either in public or in private. But as for 
 me, I presented myself alone, having equity for my only 
 companion." Eck forgot Emser, the Bishop, and all the Leip- 
 sick doctors. 1 
 
 But though such admissions escaped from Eck in a familiar 
 correspondence, the case was very different as respected tlie 
 public. A mighty noise about what they called theb' victory/ 
 was raised by the Ingolstadt doctor and the Leipsick divines. 
 They every where spread circulated reports on the subject, and 
 these were sedulously repeated by all the tongues of the party 
 AS most satisfactory statements, " Eck is exulting every where," 
 wrote Luther.- But his laurels were disputed in the camp of 
 Rome. " Had we not come to his assistance," said the men of 
 Leipsick, "the illustrious doctor would have been overthrown. 
 " The Leipsick divines are good enough people," said the Ingol- 
 stadt doctor on his side, " but I expected too much from them ; 
 I alone did everything." " You see," said Luther to Spalatin, 
 " that they are singing a new Iliad and a new iEneid. They 
 are so good as to make me a Hector or a Turnus, while Eck is 
 an Achilles or an iEneas. The only matter of doubt with 
 them is whether it was hy the armies of Eck, or by those of Leip- 
 sick, that the victory was achieved. All I can say in elucida- 
 tion of the subject is, that doctor Eck never ceased bawling, and 
 that the Leipsick folks no less constantly held their peace."^ 
 
 " Eck triumphed in the eyes of those who don't understand 
 the matter, and who have grown old in the study of the school- 
 men;" says the elegant, the witty, and the wise Mosellanus; 
 " but Luther and Carlstadt remained victors in the judgment 
 of all who have learning, mind, and modesty." ^ 
 
 1 Verum in multis me obruerunt. (Corpus Reformat, i. S3.) 
 
 * Eccius triumjihat nbique. (L. Epp. i. 200.) 
 
 ^ Novam quamdam Iliada et .(Eneida illos cantare. (L. Epp. i. p. 305.) 
 
 * Lutheri Sieg sey um so viel wcniger bcriihmt, well der Gelehrten, Verstand- 
 ieen, und derer die sich selbst nicht hoch riihrnen, wenig seyen. (Seckeiidorlf, 
 207.) 
 
416 UISTOUY OF THE REFOUMATIOX. 
 
 Still the Leipsick disputation was not doomed to pass away 
 in smoke, but like every act proceeding from a devoted spirit, it 
 bore fruit. Luther's words had penetrated into the minds of 
 those who had heard him, with a power that nothing could 
 resist; several of those who, day after day, had filled the castle 
 hall were subjugated by the truth; nay, it was among its most 
 decided adversaries that it was chiefly victorious. Doctor Eck's 
 secretary, familiar friend, and disciple, Poliander, was gained 
 over to the lleformation. From the year 1522, he openly 
 preached the Gospel at Leipsick. John Cellarius, professor of 
 Hebrew, one of the most determined opponents of the llefor- 
 mation, had been seized by the words of the powerful doctor, and 
 began to search more deeply into Holy Scripture. He soon 
 resigned his place and, in the depth of his humility, went to 
 study at the feet of Luther at Wittemberg. He was afterwards 
 pastor at Frankfort and at Dresden. 
 
 Among those who took their places on the seats reserved for 
 the court and who sat around duke George, was George of Anhalt, 
 a young prince, twelve years old, descended from a family tliat 
 had become famous in its contests with the Saracens. He was 
 then studying at Leipsick under the superintendence of a tutor. 
 This illustrious youth was already remarkable for his keen pur- 
 suit of learnins: and eager thirst for truth. He was often heard 
 to repeat those words of Solomon: '■'•Lying icords are unfit for a 
 prince.'''' The Leipsick disputation excited serious reflections in 
 this boy, and gave him a decided predilection for Luther.' Some 
 time afterwards he was ofi"ered a bishoprick, and his brothers, 
 joined by all his other relations, urged him to accept of it, as they 
 wanted to push him on to the highest dignities of the Church. 
 But he Avas not to be shaken in his purpose of refusing. On the 
 death of his godly mother, who had been a secret friend of 
 Luther's, he fell into the possession of all the Reformer's writ- 
 ings. He had off'ered up constant and fervent prayers to God, 
 beseeching him to incline his heart to the truth, and often 
 while alone in his closet, he would repeat with tears:- '•'■Deal 
 mercifully with thy servant, and teach me thine ordinancesy Nor 
 
 1 L. 0pp. (W.) XV. 1410. 
 
 * ... A Deo petivit, flecti pectus suuin ad veritatcm, ac lacrymans saepa 
 haec verba rcpetivit. . . . (IMcl. Adanii, Vita Gcor;,'!!, Anlialt. p. 248.) 
 
GEORGE OF ANlIAI/r. THE LEII'SICK STUDENTS. 447 
 
 were lils prayers unheard. Convinced and allured by the Gospel, 
 ho fearlessly ranged himself on its side. In vain did his guard- 
 ians, and duko Georgo in particular, besot him with their 
 entreaties and representations. Ho remained inflexible, and 
 George, half convinced by tho reasons that were urged by his 
 ward, exclaimed, "I can say nothing in reply to him; but will 
 abide notwithstanding in my church, for I am too old a dog to 
 learn new ways."" We shall yet find this most amiable prince 
 one of the brightest stars of the Reformation. He preached the 
 ,vord of life himself to his subjects, and to him might be applied 
 ndiat Dion says of Marcus Antoninus: " His whole life was of 
 a piece; he was a good man and there was no dissimulation in 
 him."i 
 
 What fell from Luther's lips was enthusiastically received 
 chiefly among the students. They felt the difterence between 
 the spirit and life that breathed in the Wittemberg doctor's 
 instructions on tho one hand, and the chancellor of Ingolstadt's 
 sophistical distinctions and idle speculations on the other. They 
 saw that Luther relied on the Word of God, while Eck had 
 nothing to rest upon but human traditions. The natural result 
 speedily followed; the lecture rooms of the university of Leip- 
 sick were almost emptied after the disputation. This result 
 was hastened by the plague appearing to have broken out at 
 Leipsick. But there were many other universities, Erfurt and 
 Ingolstadt for example, to which the students might have gone. 
 The force of truth, however, attracted them to Wittemberg, and 
 the number in attendance there was in consequence doubled. ^ 
 
 Among those who had gone from the one university to the 
 other, there was remarked a youth of sixteen, of a melancholy 
 and reserved disposition, and who in the midst of the conver- 
 sations and amusements of his fellow-students, seemed often 
 absorbed by his own thoughts. 3 Plis relations at first supposed 
 that he was of a weak mind; but ere long they saw in him such 
 quickness of apprehension and such constant application to his 
 studies, that they began to entertain high hopes with regard to 
 
 ^"Ou./m; S;« rrdvrav lyUiro, aya^h ?£ iiv, xocl ou5lv T^oirrsitiTaii fT'\;£v. (See Melch. 
 Adam. p. 255.) 
 
 ^ Peifcr Ilistor. T.ipsionsis, 356. 
 
 ^ Et cogit.-ilmndus ct srojie in mcdios sodalitios quasi percgrinanto animo. 
 (Melch. Adami Vita Crucigeri, p. lOU.) 
 
4-18 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 him. His undeviating integrity, candour, modesty, and piety, 
 made liim beloved by all, and Mosellanus pointed him out as a 
 model to the whole university. His name Avas Gaspard Cru- 
 ciger; his birth-place, Leipsick. This new Wittemberg student 
 was afterwards the friend of Melanchthon and the assistant of 
 Luther in translatins: the Bible. 
 
 The Leipsick disputation was followed by consequences still 
 greater than these. It was there that the great theologian of 
 tiie Reformation received his call. Retiring and taciturn, Mel- 
 anchthon, though present at the discussion, had hardly taken 
 any part in it, having until then been engaged with literature 
 only. But what he witnessed there, had given his thoughts a 
 new impulse, and had launched the eloquent professor into the 
 sphere of theology. Thenceforth he brought the whole of his 
 profound learning into the service of the Word of God. He 
 had received the truth of the Gospel with the simplicity of a 
 little child. His hearers heard him expound the doctrines of 
 salvation with a grace and a perspicuity that ravished all Avho 
 listened to him. He went boldly forward in this to him new 
 career, for, he would say, Christ will never be wanting to his 
 own. i From that moment the two friends went on together, 
 wrestling in behalf of truth and freedom, the one with the 
 energy of St. Paul, the other with the mildness of St. John. 
 Luther has admirably stated the difierence between their voca- 
 tions. " I was born," says he, " to engage in earnest struggles 
 on the field of battle, with parties and with demons. Hence 
 my writings are full of war and storm. It is necessary that I 
 uproot the stocks and trunks, clear away the thorns and brush- 
 wood, fill up the swamps and sloughs. I am the rough wood- 
 man whose office it is to open up the high-ways and to smooth 
 the roads. But the master of arts, Philip, advances with the 
 utmost calmness and gentleness; he tills the ground and plants 
 it out ; he joyously sows and waters according to the gifts that 
 God has so liberally bestowed on him." - 
 
 If Melanchthon, the tranquil sower, was called to work l)y the 
 Leipsick disputation, Luther, the vigorous woodsman, felt his 
 arms strengthened by it, and his courage still further enkindled. 
 
 1 Cliristus suis non deerit. (Corp. Reform, i. 104.) 
 ' J,. 0pp. (W.) XIV. 200. 
 
LUTHEU'S EMANCIPATION FROM POPEUY. 449 
 
 In short, the mijrhtiest result of the discussion was to be seen in 
 Luther himself. "Tlie scholastic tiieolo^'V,''"' says he, "crumbled 
 then into nothing in my eyes, under the triumphant presidenco 
 of Dr. Eck." The veil which the school and the Church had 
 combined to place before the sanctuary, was then rent in twain 
 from top to bottom, for the lleformer. Constrained to engage 
 in new researches, he arrived at unexpected discoveries, and with 
 equal indignation and astonishment beheld the evil in all its 
 extent. On scrutinizing the annals of the Church, he saw that 
 the supremacy of Home had no better origin than ambition on 
 the one hand, and a credulous ignorance on the other. Instead 
 of beinff allowed to remain silent in regard to these lamentable 
 discoveries, his soul was urged into a decided course by the 
 haughty conduct of his opponents in their pretended triumph, 
 and by the efforts they made to extinguish the light. He went 
 forward in the path along which God was conducting him, with- 
 out allowing himself to be disquieted about the issue to which 
 it led. Luther pointed to this as the time of his emancipation 
 from the papal yoke. " Learn from me," he said, " how difficult 
 ft is to shake off errors which the whole world tends to settle 
 down upon us by its example, and which by long habit become 
 in us a second nature. ^ I had at that time been publicly read- 
 ing and explaining the Holy Scriptures with much zeal, so that 
 I knew almost all of it by heart.- I had also all the first-fruits 
 of knowledge and of faith in my Lord Jesus Clu-ist; that is to 
 say, I knew that we are not justified and saved by our works 
 but by faith in Christ; and I even openly maintained that it is 
 not by divine right that the pope is the chief of the Christian 
 Church. And yet I could not perceive the necessary conse- 
 quence of all this, namely, that the pope is necessarily and 
 certainly of the devil. 3 For that which is not of God, must of 
 necessity be of the devil!" Luther adds farther on: "I no 
 longer give free vent to my indignation against those who are 
 attached to the pope, since I who for many years had been 
 
 1 Quam difBcile sit eluctari et emcrgere ex erroribus, totius orbis excmpla 
 fii-matis. . . . (L. 0pp. kit in Prffif.) 
 
 - Per scptom annos, ita ut memoriter pene omnia tencrem. . , (L. 0pp. 
 lat. in Praaf.) 
 
 ' Quod enini ex Deo non est; necesse est es diabolo esse. (Ibid) 
 1. [i L 
 
450 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 reading the Holy Scriptures so carefully, still remained obstin- 
 ately attached to popery."" ^ ^ 
 
 Such were the real consequences of the Leipsick disputation, 
 and they far exceeded in importance that event itself.^ It proved 
 like one of those early successes in a campaign which at once 
 test and stimulate the courage of an army. 
 
 VII. Eck now abandoned himself to all the intoxication of 
 what he would fain have passed off as a victory. He seemed 
 as if he would tear Luther's character to shreds. He heaped 
 accusations upon accusations. ^ He wrote to Frederick, and 
 desired, like an able general, to take advantage of the confusion 
 which ever follows a battle, in order to obtain important conces- 
 sions from that prince. And while he waited for the measures 
 to be taken against his adversary in person, he insisted that his 
 writings, including those even which he had never read, should 
 be committed to the flames. He besought the Elector to con- 
 vene a provincial council: " Let us utterly extirpate the whole 
 
 1 Cum ego tot annis sacra legens diligentissime, tamea ita hffisi tenaciter. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 ' Thus have we from Luther himself the gradual process of his growing 
 enlightenment and also the pure source whence all proceeded. This was, in gen- 
 eral, the Word of God: in particular, and originally derived from that, the doc- 
 trine of justification by grace, which had penetrated his whole soul and made 
 him as it were a new man. The pope's assumed authority had not then occupied 
 his thoughts : he was at first possessed with a feeling of respect for it. In this 
 respect he came at last, though very slowly, to better views, and these might so 
 far be ascribed to the shameless proceedings of his enemies, until the full light of 
 truth streamed upon his mind in that respect also. Thus do we discover the 
 wonderful ways of Providence, and learn too that the Reformation was the work 
 of God and not of men. — L. R. 
 
 3 May we not add as one of the most important consequences of the Leip- 
 sick disputation, the confidence it must have communicated to the laity in 
 their struggles with the clergy of Rome, to see Luther attack the latter so 
 successfully with weapons which all men of plain understanding, with the Scrip- 
 tures in their hands, might use with greater or less effect? This would not have 
 been the result had scholastic arms been employed on both sides. Nor can we 
 doubt that the rage and vexation of Eck and other partisans of the popedom, 
 ■were far more excited by seeing the kind of artillery by which they wei-e van- 
 quished — an artillery at once so popular and so powerful — than by the defeat 
 itself. As it was by the ignorance of the laity that the clergy had risen to so 
 important a political position in the nations of Europe, so by the increased 
 intelligence of that same laity they must have expected to fall. It is interest- 
 ing to contemplate these first symptoms of that fall, in connection with theii 
 early abuse of the means of monopolising power. See Guizot's Essays on the 
 History of France; Essay iv. part 2d. chap. iv. Tr. 
 
 *Proscidit, post abitum nostrum, Martinum inlmmanissime. (Molanch. Corp. 
 Reform, i. p. lOG.) 
 
ECK AITACKS MlfiLANCHTHON. 451 
 
 vermin,"'' said the foul-mouthed doctor, " before it has time to 
 iiiulti[)ly to excess." ^ 
 
 Nor was it against Luther only that ho vented his wrath; li« 
 had the folly to bring Melanchthon into the lists. The fond 
 friendship that connected the latter witli the excellent CEcol- 
 anipadius, led him to send that friend an account of the dispu- 
 tation, in which he speaks in high terms of Dr. Eck. 2 Yet the 
 pride of the chancellor of Ingolstadt was offended, so as forthwith 
 to take up his pen against " that Wittemberg grammarian, a 
 man," says he, " who knows something indeed of Greek and 
 Latin, but who has dared to publish a letter in which he had 
 insultcdhim— Dr. Eck!"3 
 
 Melanchthon replied, and the reply is the earliest of its author's 
 theological works. It is marked by the exquisite urbanity that 
 distinguished that excellent man. Laying down the funda- 
 mental principles of hei'meneutics, ho demonstrates that we 
 must not explain the Holy Scriptures by the Fathers but the 
 Fathers by the Holy Scriptures. " How often is not Jerome 
 mistaken," says he, " how often Augustine ! how often Am- 
 brose! How often do they differ in their opinions! how often 
 do they retract their errors! . . . There is but one Scrip- 
 ture inspired by the Spirit from above, and pure and true in all 
 things. 4 
 
 "Luther, it is said, does not follow certain ambiguous exposi- 
 tions of the ancients ; and wherefore should he follow them ? 
 Tn expounding that passage of Saint Matthew: ' Thou art 
 Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,'' he speaks as 
 Origen did, who alone is worth many; as Augustine in his 
 homily; as Ambrose in his sixth book on St. Luke: I say no- 
 thing of others. — How then, will you say, do the Fathers 
 contradict themselves? And what is there that should sur- 
 prise us if they do?^ I believe the Fathers because I believe 
 Holy Scripture. The meaning of Holy Scripture is one and 
 
 ' Ehe das Ungeziffer uberhand nehme. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 271.) 
 
 * Eccius ob varias et insignes ingenii dotes. . . (L. 0pp. lat. i. p. 337.) 
 
 ^ Ausus est grammaticus Wittembergensis, grsece et latine sane non indoctus, 
 epistolam ederc. . . (Ibid. 338.) 
 
 * Una est Scriptura, caclestis spiritus, pura et per omnia vcrax. (Contra 
 Eckium Defensio. Corp. Reform, i. p. 115.) 
 
 * Quid igitur? Ipsi sccum pugnant ! Quid mirum' (Ibid.) 
 
452 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 simple, as is the truth of heaven itself. We find this meaning 
 by comparing Scripture with Scripture, and it is to be inferred 
 from the thread and connection of what is said. ^ There is a phil- 
 osophy which is enjoined on us in regard to the Scriptures of 
 God; it consists in using them as the touch-stone for testing 
 all the opinions and maxims of men-''^ 3 
 
 It had been long since such mighty truths were set forth with 
 so much elegance. Here the Word of God was restored to its 
 place; and the Fathers to theirs. The simple method by which 
 the sense of Scripture was to be obtained, was firmly traced. 
 The Word emerged and was borne up amid all the difficulties 
 and all the expositions of the School. Melanchthon furnished 
 the means of replying, in all times following, to those who, like 
 Dr. Eck, might perplex the subject. The slender grammarian 
 liad gone forth and made the broad and lusty shoulders of the 
 scholastic gladiator, yield to the first effort of his single arm. 
 
 The more Eck was convicted of weakness, the louder was the 
 tone he assumed. The victory that had failed to follow his dis- 
 putations, he pretended to secure by rhodomontades and accusa- 
 tions, and all that he uttered with such noisy assurance was re- 
 echoed by the monks and other partizans of Rome. Luther was 
 now assailed with reproaches from all parts of Germany; yet he 
 remained passive under them all. " The more I see my name 
 loaded with obloquy," said he at the close of the explanations lie 
 published on the Leipsick propositions, " the more do I glory in 
 it. The truth, that is, Christ, must increase; I must decrease. 
 Tlie voice of the Bridegroom and the Bride, delights me more 
 than all these clamours can alarm me. Men are not the authors 
 of the evils that afflict me, and to them I bear no hatred. It is 
 Satan, the prince of evil, that would frighten me. But he that 
 
 1 Qucm collatis Scripturis e filo iluctuquo orationis licet asseqiii. (Ibid. 114.) 
 ' And this, indeed, is true philosophy. As in natural things, experience and 
 ohservation alone form the elements of philosophical investigation, philosophy 
 merely connecting these according to certain established principles, and as in 
 this experience and investigation, no single individual can personally examine 
 cerything but the testimony of others is often employed, so does the philoso- 
 phical investigation of higher things require a higher kind of experience which 
 the Word of God communicates, and a simple faith in the testimony of the same, 
 as the test to vrhich human opinions must be subjected and by which they must 
 be tried. — L. R. 
 
 ^ Ut hominum sententias, decretaque, ad ipsas, ceu ad Lydium lapidem exig- 
 amuB. (Contra Eckium defensio. Corp. Reform, i. p. 116.) 
 
THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN. EMSER. 453 
 
 is in us, is greater than he that is in tho world. The judgment 
 of our contemporaries is bad; that of posterity will be better." ^ 
 
 If the Leipsick disputation multiplied the enemies of Luther in 
 Germany, it at the same time multiplied his friends. The Bohe- 
 mian brethren wrote to him: " What Huss once was in Bohe- 
 mia, you now are in Saxony; therefore do you pray and bo 
 Btrong in the Lord!" 
 
 Luther had a quarrel about this time with Emscr, who was 
 now a professor at Leipsick. The latter wrote to Dr. Sack, a 
 zealous Roman Catholic at Prague, a letter of which the appar- 
 ent object was to remove from the minds of the Hussites the 
 idea that Luther was one of their way of thinking; but as 
 Luther could not doubt that, though apparently desirous of 
 justifying him, the learned Leipsicker aimed at bringing him 
 under tho suspicion of adhering to the Bohemian heresy, he 
 wished at once to rend the veil wherewith his former host at 
 Dresden sought to conceal his hostility. In order to effect this, 
 he published a letter addressed "to the he-goat Emser," Emser 
 havincr for his arms a he-goat. In the closing words of this 
 publication, he well describes his own character: "to love all 
 men but to fear none."- ^ 
 
 While new friends and new enemies were thus revealing 
 themselves, old friends seemed to betray a decline in their 
 regard for Luther. Staupitz, who had brought the Reformer 
 out of the obscurity of the monastery at Erfurt, now began to 
 show some degree of coldness. Luther had reached an elevation 
 above the level and beyond the reach of Staupitz. " You aban- 
 don me," Luther wrote to him, " I have been all day very sad on 
 your account, like the weaned child that weeps for his mother."^ 
 
 ' Prrcsens male judicat sctas; judicium melius posteritatis erit. (L. Opi», 
 lat. i. 31'>.) 
 
 * L. 0pp. lat. i. 252. 
 
 8 A character this that deserves at once our love and respect : the character 
 of Christ's true disciple, who hates none, not even the most malignant opponents 
 of the truth, yet who scruples not, at the fitting time, to expose their malice 
 and pays no rojjard to thoir fury. Such was the character that displayed itself 
 in Luther. No dread of the rage of his enemies made him falter; yet his mind 
 was free from revenge : what he aimed at was their own real welfare. So con- 
 firmed was he in this pentiment during his whole life-time, that this maxim in 
 his letter to Emser seemed interwoven, as it were, with all his undertakings 
 — L. R. 
 
 * Ego super te, sicut ablactatus super matre sua, tristissimus hac die fui. 
 (L. Epp. i. p. 342.) 
 
454 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " I was dreaming about you last night," continues the Reformer, 
 " You seemed about to leave me, and I was sobbing and shed- 
 ding bitter tears. But you, holding out your hand to me, told 
 me to be calm, and that you would come back to me." 
 
 Miltitz the peace-maker, used fresh efforts to soothe the exas- 
 peration that now prevailed, but what means could produce this 
 effect upon men who were still under all the feverish excitement 
 produced by a violent struggle! His endeavours came to noth- 
 ing. He brought the famous golden rose to the elector, who 
 was now so indifferent with regard to it, as not even to care 
 about receiving it in person. ^ Frederick knew what tricks 
 were practised by Rome and was no longer to be duped by them.2 
 
 Vin. Far from recoiling, Luther was ever on the advance. 
 Now it was that by the publication of his first commentary on 
 the epistle to the Galatians, he derdt one of the rudest blows to 
 error that it had yet received. ^ No doubt the second com- 
 mentary excelled the first; but even in the first, he very power- 
 fully expounded the doctrine of justification by faith. Every 
 word of the new apostle was instinct with life, and God em- 
 ployed him in penetrating rnen"'s hearts with the knowledge of 
 himself: " Christ gave himself for our sins," said Luther to the 
 men of his day. '^ " It was not silver or gold that he gave for 
 us; it was not a man — no — nor all the angels: it was himself, 
 out of whom there is nothing great, that lie gave. And this 
 incomparable treasure he gave ... for our sins ! Where 
 now are they who proudly vaunt the power of their will? Where 
 are the les'sons of moral philosophy? Where are the power and 
 the force of the law? Seeing our sins are so great that nothing 
 can remove them, if it be not this immense ransom, shall we 
 etill pretend to obtain righteousness by the virtue of our will, 
 by tlie power of the law, by the doctrines of men? What would 
 we be at, with all these artifices and all these illusions? Ah, wo 
 would cover our iniquities with a delusive righteousness, and we 
 would make ourselves such hypocrites as nothing in the uni- 
 verse could ever save." 
 
 1 Rosam q-aam vocant auream nullo honore dignatus est ; imo pro (ridiculo) 
 l.abuit. (L. 0pp. lat. in Prtef.) 
 
 * Intellexit princeps artes Ilomante curiae et eos (legatos) digne tractare 
 novit. (Ibid.) 
 
 s September, 1619. ' L. 0pp. (L.) x. 401. 
 
INFATUATION OF LUTIIEr's OPPONENTS. 456 
 
 But while Luther thus establishes the principle that there is 
 no salvation for man out of Christ, ho shows, at the same time, 
 that this salvation chanuos man and makes him to abound in 
 j^ood works. " The man," says he, " who has really heard the 
 Word of Christ and who keeps it, is forthwith clothed with the 
 spirit of love. If thou lovest him who hath made thee a present 
 of twenty Horins, or done thee some service, or in some manner 
 signified his affection for thee, how much more oughtcst thou to 
 love Him who has not given for thee gold or silver, but who has 
 given himself, who has received for thee so many wounds, who 
 for thee has sweated blood, who died for thee; in a word, who 
 in paying the ransom for all thy sins, swallowed up death and 
 obtained a Father for thee in heaven who is full of love. . . 
 If thou lovest him not, thou hast not understood in thy heart 
 what things he hath done for thee; thou hast not believed them; 
 for faith works by love." " This epistle is my epistle,''' Luther 
 would say in speaking of the epistle to the Galatians; " I have 
 mari'ied it." 
 
 His adversaries made him go faster forward than he would 
 have done without them. It was at this period that Eck brought 
 upon him a new attack from the Franciscans of Juterbock. In 
 his reply, ^ Luther, not satisfied with repeating what he had 
 already taught, attacked the errors he had more lately discover- 
 ed: "I should like to know," says he, " in what part of Scrip- 
 ture power is given to the popes to canonize saints ; and, also, 
 where is the necessity, where even the utility of canonizing them.?2 
 
 . . As for the rest," says he ironically, " let people canon- 
 ize as many as they please!" 
 
 These new attacks of Luther remained unanswered, and in 
 this respect the infatuation of his enemies was no less favour- 
 able to him than his own courage. They passionately defended 
 things that were only accessory, yet when Luther assailed the 
 foundations of the Roman doctrine, they looked on as these 
 were shaken without saying a word. While they were busying 
 themselves in defendinjj some of the distant outworks, their 
 dauntless adversary penetrated into the citadel itself, and there 
 boldly planted the standard of truth. Accordingly, they were 
 
 1 Defensio contra malignum Eccii judicium. (L. 0pp. Lat. i. p. 056.) 
 * Canoniset quisque quantum volet. (Ibid. p. 307.) 
 
456 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOTT. 
 
 not a little astonished afterwards, to see the fortress which they 
 had set themselves to defend, undermined, fired, and falling to 
 ruins amid the flames, at the very time they supposed it to be 
 impregnable, and were still braving the assailants. Thus it is 
 that great subversions ever take place. 
 
 Luthers thoughts now began to be occupied about the sacra- 
 ment of our Lord's supper — a holy supper which he looked for 
 in vain in the mass. One day, some time after his return from 
 Leipsick, he entered the pulpit, and there dehvered his meaning 
 in words which require our particular attention, as they were 
 the first he uttered on a subject which has since divided the 
 Church of the Reformation into two parts. " In the sacrament of 
 the altar," says, he, "there are three things that we must know- 
 the sign, which ought to be outward and visible, and to have a 
 corporal form; the thing signified, which is inward, spiritual, 
 and apprehended by the mind of man; faith, which makes use 
 of both."^^ Had definitions been pushed no farther than this, 
 unity would not have been destroyed. 2 Luther goes on to say: 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 2T2. 
 
 2 This would certainly, according to all human calculation, have proved a 
 great advantage to the Reformation. The contention that sprang up on the 
 subject of the Supper, has been the only proof with the least apparent ground 
 to rest upon, that the Reformation destroyed the Church's unity and divided it 
 into separate fragments. Not the separation from the Roman Church itself; 
 not the separation from Socinians and Anabaptists, although these were 
 accounted Protestants and partners in the Reformation, not the present 
 divisions which seem to tear the Protestant Church to pieces, can even 
 i-emotely establish this charge; for in all these separations there is no schism 
 in the true church, but only a solemn separation from a spurious church or from 
 erring sects and teachers ; whereas, in consequence of the controversy relating 
 to the Holy Supper, the true and pure Church of Christ was actually rent 
 asunder. Yet the cause of this must be sought, not in the Reformation, but in 
 the perversity of human nature. The Reformers were not absolutely saints : 
 and at all events the schism was no worse than what had previously taken place 
 between the Greek and Latin Churches. It was no doubt contrary to what 
 Jesus had commanded, but not contrary to what lie had foreseen : on which very 
 account he forewarned and prayed agamst it, as a thing of which he foresaw and 
 predicted the possibility. This we know that that prayer will one day receive 
 its complete accomplishment; and we ought even now to congratulate ourselves 
 that genuine Protestants no longer allow this point of doctrine to prevent them 
 from being more and more united in spirit. That object will be attained just by 
 means of the present common conflict with infidelity and superstition, whatever 
 slanderous assertions to the contrary may proceed from the vio lent adherents of 
 the latter, and however many apparent reasons in support of that calumny are 
 furnished by the abettors of an unbelieving Christianity among Protestants of 
 Socinian, Arian, Ncologian, &c., opinions, in the divisions of which, under an 
 outward show of toleration, they are the cause. The true Church, from being 
 composed of distinct parties, is fast becoming one, and by so doing refut«s this 
 charge. — L. R. 
 
FIRST IDEAS ON THE HOLY SUPPEH. 457 
 
 " It were well that tlie Church, in a general council, should 
 ordain the distribution of the two kinds (both elements) to all 
 believers; not, however, that one kind only is insufficient, for 
 faith of itself were already sufficient." These bold words pleased 
 the concreiration, althou"h there were some anionjr the hearers 
 who were amazed and became angry. " It is false,*" said they, 
 " and scandaloMs." ' 
 
 The preacher continued: "There is no union," said he, "more 
 intimate, more jn-otbund, more indissoluble, than that which takes 
 place between food and the body that the food sustains. Christ 
 unites himself to us in the sacrament, in such a manner, that he 
 acts as if he were ourselves. Our sins assail him. His righte- 
 ousness defends us."""-^ 
 
 But Luther was not content with expounding the truth: he 
 attacked one of the most radical errors of Rome.^ "The Church 
 of Rome pretends that the sacrament operates by itself and 
 independently of the disposition of the person receiving it, and 
 nothing more convenient than such an opinion. Hence the 
 avidity with which the sacrament is sought for; hence too, the 
 profits of the Romish clergy.'"'* Luther attacked that doctrine 5 
 
 1 L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 281. 
 
 ^ This is also the pure sentiment of the genuine Reformed — of tlie followers 
 of Calvin. And although Zwingle's views were not perhaps so clear: although 
 perhaps he attached the whole person of Christ more to the soul than to the 
 body; still proofs may be found in his writings that his views were fundament- 
 ally tlie same. In regard to all in which the true Protestant Church, whether 
 Lutheran or Reformed, has determined on this point contrary to the Church of 
 Rome, namely, that not the act performed, not tlie outward observance, but faith 
 in the soul alone, can avail, they are all agreed, as we know in the case of the 
 Reformed Church, and as we learn from Luther, in what immediately follows. — 
 L. R. The Calvinistic churches of the continent, all readers may not be aware, 
 have generally been called Reformed churches, to distinguish them from the 
 Lutheran or Protestant churches as well as from the Romish communion. Te. 
 
 3 Si quis dixcrit per ipsa nova3 legis sacramenta exopere operato non conferri 
 gratiam, sed solam fidem divinrc promissionis,ad gratiam conscquendam sufficere, 
 anathema sit. (Council of Trent, Sess. 7. canon 8.) 
 
 * Add the doctrine emjdoycd as a fearful means of persecution in France 
 under Louis XIV., that Protestants may be compelled to participate in the mass, 
 though they not only have no faith in it as a sacrament, but detest it as idol- 
 atrous and abominable. The Jansenists, too spiritual and scriptural in their 
 views to be tolerated by the popedom, though not protestants, regarded such 
 forced communion as a horrible profanation. See I)e Rulhiere in " The Sup- 
 ])ression of the Reformation in France," pp. 85, 118, and 184. A superstitious 
 belief in the efficacy of the sacraments without faith in the recipient, is too apt 
 to creep into Protestant churches, and demands the utmost vigilance on the part 
 of ministers. Tr. 
 
 * Known under the name of opus operaium. 
 
458 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 and confronted it with its opposite, ^ in virtue of which, faith 
 and right dispositions of the heart are necessary. 
 
 This energetic protest was fitted to bring down the whole 
 fabric of ancient superstition; yet, most strange to say! it 
 passed without notice. Yes — Rome, while she left unheeded 
 what might well have wrung from her a cry of distress, rushed 
 impetuously on the unimportant remark that fell from Luther 
 as he began his discourse, on communicating in both kinds. On 
 this discourse being published in December, a cry of heresy 
 arose from all sides. "It is nothing more or less than the Prague 
 doctrine," said the court of Dresden, where the sermon came to 
 hand during the Christmas holidays; and what is worse, the 
 work is in German, in order that it may be understood by the 
 unlearned.'" The prince was disquieted by it in his devotions, 
 and the third Christmas holiday he wrote to his cousin Fre- 
 derick: "Since this sermon was pubhshed, the number of those 
 who receive the Supper under both kinds in Bohemia, has increas- 
 ed to six thousand persons. Your Luther, from being professor 
 at Wittemberg, is about to be made bishop of Prague and arch- 
 heretic ! ■" . . . "He was born in Bohemia ! " people ex- 
 claimed, " and of Bohemian parents, and instructed in WicklifF's 
 writings ! " 
 
 These reports Luther thought it right to contradict in a pub- 
 lication, in which he gravely gives an account of his origin. " I was 
 born at Eisleben,"" says he, " and baptized in St. Peters Church 
 there. Dresden is the nearest point to Bohemia that I have 
 ever been at since I was born." 3 
 
 Duke George^s letter did not change the elector's feelings with 
 respect to Luther ; for, some days after, that prince invited the 
 doctor to a splendid entertainment given to the Spanish ambas- 
 sador. There Luther engaged in controversy with Charles's 
 minister.4 The elector had previously told his chaplain to beg 
 Luther to defend his cause with moderation. "Too much folly 
 displeases men," was Luther's reply to Spalatin, " but too much 
 wisdom displeases God. The Gospel cannot be defended with- 
 out creatins: tumults and scandals. The word of God is a sword, 
 
 1 Known under that of opus operantis. 
 
 '' L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 281. 
 
 ^ Cscterum ego natus sum in Eisleben. . . . (Lutli. Epp. i. p. 389. J 
 
 * Cum quo heri ego et Philippus certavimus, splendide invitati. ^Ibid. p. 395.J 
 
ATTACKS UPON ECK. 459 
 
 it is a war, it is a ruin, it is a stumbling-block, it is perdition, it 
 is poison,' and as Amos has said, it is like a bear in the way and 
 like a lioness in the forest. I seek for nothing. I ask for nothinjr. 
 There is one greater than me who seeks and who asks. 
 Whether he stand or fall therefore, I am neither benefitted, nor 
 do I suffer loss."'^ 
 
 Every thing seemed now to indicate that Luther was to have 
 more demands than ever on his faith and courage. Eck was 
 plotting schemes of revenge. Instead of the laurels he had 
 reckoned upon gathering, the Leipsick gladiator had become the 
 laughter of all his countrymen who possessed any spirit. He 
 was publicly attacked in pungent satires. There was the epistle 
 of the ignorant Canons^ written by CEcolampadius, and which cut 
 Eck to the quick, and a complaint against Eck, probably from 
 the pen of the excellent Pirckheimer of Nuremberg; a piece 
 replete with a sarcastic point, and a dignity, of which Pascal's 
 Provincial Letters alone can enable those who have not read it to 
 form any idea.^ 
 
 Luther expressed his dissatisfaction with several of these 
 writings. " Better attack a man openly,"" said he, " than sting 
 him from behind a hedge."'* 
 
 * Verbum Dei gladius est, bellum est, ruina est, scandalum est, perditio est, 
 Tcncnum est. . . . (Ibid. 417.) 
 
 ^ Ego nihil qurcro : est qui quaDrat. Stct ergo, sive cadat : ego nihil lucror, 
 aut amitto. (Luth. Epp. i. 418.) 
 
 3 A work of the renowned advocate of the Jansenists, Blaise P.^scal, bearing 
 the title of" The Provincials, or Letters addressed by Louis of Montalto, to a 
 friend in the provinces and to the Jesuits, on the Morality and Politics of those 
 Fathers. In two parts." Under the name assumed on the title page, the author 
 exposes, in an extremely pungent and often facetious manner, the abominable 
 moral principles of.thc Jesuits. So much did this work excite their hatred (for 
 after sundry fruitless attempts, they found it impossible to refute it) that they 
 never rested until they had obtained from the civil power a sentence condemn- 
 ing it to be publicly burnt. — L. R. Sir James Mackintosh, in his History of 
 England, seems to insinuate that Pascal's Provincials present a caricature of 
 the party and its principles against which they were levelled, and he recommends 
 the perusal of Father Daniel's Entretiens de Cleantlie et dEudoxe, a work 
 intended to discredit Pascal by attacking his sincerity. Sir James might have 
 corrected this terror at the idea of being thought illiberal towards the Jesuits, 
 by himself reading the Apologie des Lcttres Frovincia/cs and Dissertation snr la 
 foi qui est due au temoiijnage de Pasccd dans ses Lcttres Provinciales — a work 
 which confirms Pascal's charges not only by an examination of the evidence 
 that existed in liis day, but by referring to the doctrines and instructions of the 
 Jesuits since their restoration by pope Pius VII., (7th Aug. 1814.) Home, in 
 fact, has in the 19th, as well as 16th and 17tii centuries, her subtile and soph- 
 istical disputants ready to bewilder and perplex wiicrc they cannot refute, aii(i to 
 reason away Scripture, conscience, and common sense, by plausible refinementa 
 and distinctions. Tk. 
 
 * Melior est aperta criminatio, quam iste sub sepe morsus. (Ibid. 42G.) 
 
460 niSTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 What a misreckoning was there here for the chancellor of 
 Ingolstadt! Abandoned bj his fellow-countrymen, he prepared 
 to pass beyond the Alps and invoke foreign aid. All along the 
 road he breathed forth threatenin^s against Luther, Melan- 
 chthon, Carlstadt, and even the elector himself. " From the 
 magniloquence of his language," says the Wittemberg doctor, 
 " you would say that he fancies himself to be God Almighty." l 
 Maddened with rasre and thirstinfj for revenire, Eck sets off for 
 Italy, there to reap the reward of his pretended triumphs, and to 
 forge at Rome, near the papal capitol, thunderbolts more potent 
 than the frail scholastic arms which had fallen to pieces in his 
 hands. 
 
 Luther was aware how much he had to apprehend from this 
 journey of his antagonist, but he viewed it without alarm. Spa- 
 latin, in dismay, urged him to make offers of peace. " No," 
 replied Luther, " for as much noise as he makes, I cannot retii-e 
 from the contest. I commit the whole affair to God, giving my 
 bark to tlie winds and waves. It is the Lord's war. 4 Why should 
 you imagine that it is by peace that Christ will promote hii3 
 cause? Did he not engage in a warfare, even to the shedding of 
 his own blood, and all the martyrs after him ?" 
 
 Such was the position of the two Leipsick combatants at the 
 commencement of the year 1520. The one was stirring up the 
 entire popedom to attack his rival. The other was looking for 
 war with all the composure with which one naturally looks for 
 peace. The year that followed saw the storm burst forth. 
 
 1 Deum crederes omnipotentem loqui. (L. Epp. i. 380.) 
 
 2 Cogor rem Deo committere, data flatibus et fluctibus nave. Bellum Domini 
 est. (Ibid. 425.) 
 
BOOK SIXTH. 
 
 THE BULL FROM ROME. 
 (1520.) 
 
 1. A NEW personage was now to appear upon the scene. It was 
 the will of God that the Wittember"- monk should be confronted 
 with the mightiest monarch that Christendom had witnessed 
 since the days of Charlemagne. He chose out a prince in the 
 prime of youth, and to whom all things seemed to promise a long 
 reign — a prince whose sceptre extended over a considerable pax't 
 of the old world and over a world altogether new, so that, to use 
 a celebrated expression, the sun never set on his vast dominions; 
 and this potent prince He opposed to the humble Reformation, 
 whoso commencement we have watched in the anguish and the 
 sighs of a poor monk, in one of the obscure cells of a monastery 
 at Erfurt. The history of that monarch and of his reign was 
 destined, it would seem, to teach a great lesson to the world. 
 
 It was to show the nothingness of " the power of man" when 
 it presumes to enter into conflict with " the weakness of God.''' 
 Had a prince, animated with friendly regards for Luther, been 
 called to the empire, the success of the Reformation would have 
 been ascribed to his protection. Had the throne been filled even 
 by an emperor opposed to the new doctrine, yet weak withal, its 
 triumphs would have been explained by referring them to that 
 weakness. But it was the haughty conqueror of Pavia^ whose 
 
 * It was in a battle fought at Pavia. in Italy, that Francis I. king of France, 
 after many previous losses, was utterly defeated by his competitor for the gen- 
 eral supremacy, Charles V., he himself made prisoner, and taken into Spain; 
 from which imprisonment he was not delivered until he had concluded and signed 
 a most humiliating treaty, imposed on him by Charles who, in consequence 
 thereof, acquired the greatest renown. — L. R. 
 
462 HISTORY OF THE RKFORMATION. 
 
 pride was to be humbled before the might of the divine Word; 
 and all the world could see that the man who had found no 
 difficulty in dragging Francis I. into the dungeons of Madrid, 
 ■was obliged to lower his sword to the son of a poor miner. 
 
 The emperor Maximilian was now dead, and the electors had 
 assembled at Frankfort for the purpose of naming his successor. 
 This was an affair of the utmost importance to Europe in the 
 circumstances in which it then stood, and all Christendom 
 naturally felt an interest in the election. Though Maximilian 
 had not been a great prince, still his memory was dear to the 
 people, who loved to recall his ready wit and affability. Being 
 often the subject of conversation with Luther and his friends, 
 to these the Reformer one day related the following anecdote 
 respecting him. 
 
 He was followed one day by a beggar, who in asking alms 
 from him, called him his brother, " for,'' said he, " we are both 
 descended from our common father, Adam. I am. poor," he con- 
 tinued, " but you are rich, you ought therefore to assist me." 
 At these words the emperor turned to him and said, " Hold 
 now, here's a penny, and if all your other brothers will but give 
 you as much, you will be a richer man than me.""^ 
 
 No kind-hearted Maximihan was on this occasion to be called 
 to wear the imperial crown. Times were altered; the mighty 
 and the ambitious were about to dispute the throne of the 
 emperors of the West; a powerful hand was about to grasp the 
 reins of empire, and a long peace was on the eve of being suc- 
 ceeded by tedious and bloody wars. 
 
 On the meetinir bein"; convened at Frankfort, it was found 
 that three kings had put in their claims for the crown of the 
 Cyssars. First, there presented himself a youthful prince, grand- 
 son of the late emperor, born with the century, and hence nine- 
 teen years of age. His name was Charles; Ghent was his 
 birthplace. His grandmother by the father's side, IMary, daugh- 
 ter of Charles the Bold, had left him Flanders and the rich states 
 of Burgundy. His mother, Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand of 
 Arragon, and Isabella of Castile, and the wife of Philip, son of 
 the emperor Maximilian, had transmitted to him the united 
 
 * L. Oppi (W.) xxii. 18C0. 
 
COMPETITORS FOR THE KMPIIJF. 4f)3 
 
 crowns of the Spains, Naples, and Sicily, to which Christopher 
 Columbus had added a new world. The demise of his <^rand- 
 fiither had put him at once into possession of the hereditary 
 states of Austria. This young prince, wlio was naturally endued 
 with much mind, and who could bo amiable when he liked, com- 
 bined that taste for the exercises of war, in which the brilliant 
 dukes of Burgundy had so long distinguished themselves, with 
 the finesse and penetration of the Italians, with the respect for 
 existing institutions which still characterises the house of Aus- 
 tria, and which promised the popedom a steady defender, and 
 with an extensive knowledge of public affairs, for which he was 
 indebted to the instructions of Chievres, From the age of 
 fifteen he had attended all the deliberations of his councils.l 
 These various qualities seemed as it were covered and veiled by 
 the abstraction and taciturnity of a Spaniard. His long face 
 bore an expression of melancholy. " lie is a godly quiet man," 
 said Luther; " FU vouch for it that he does not speak so much 
 in a year as I do in a day.''^ Had the character of Charles been 
 developed under liberal and Christian iniluences, he might per- 
 haps have proved one of the most truly admirable princes to be 
 found in history; but politics absorbed his life, ai.d spoilt his 
 hopeful dispositions. 
 
 Not satisfied with the multiplicity of sceptres he already 
 wielded, the youthful Charles was ambitious of the dignity of 
 emperor. " It is but a sunbeam that sheds a brightness on the 
 house it shines- upon,"" said some, " but put forth your hand to 
 seize it, and you find nothing." Charles, on the contrar}'-, con- 
 sidered it as the crowning point of all earthly grandeur, and 
 the means of acquiring a magical influence over the minds of the 
 nations. 
 
 The second of the three competitors was Francis I., king of 
 France. The young paladins at the court of this king-knight, 
 were perpetually telling him that he ought, like Charlemagne, to 
 be emperor of all the West, and that, reviving the exploits of the 
 ancient preux, he should attack the Crescent, which was threat- 
 ening the empire, crush the infidels, and recover the Holy 
 Sepulchre. 
 
 1 Memoircs dc Ju Bellay, i. 45. * L. 0pp. ( W.) xxii. p. lS7i. 
 
464 HISTOKY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " The dukes of Austria must be made to feel that the crown 
 of the empire is not hereditary,*' said tlie ambassadors of Francis 
 to the electors. " Besides this, Germany requires in her present 
 circumstances, not a youth of nineteen, but a prince combining 
 acknowledged abilities with tried judgment. Francis will unite 
 the arms of France and Lombardy with those of Germany in 
 waging war with the Musulmans. Moreover, 'as liege lord of 
 Milan he is already a member of the empire." These reasons the 
 French ambassadors confirmed by distributing four hundred 
 thousand crowns in the purchase of votes, and by festivities con- 
 trived for the purpose of gaining over the guests. 
 
 Finally, Henry VIII, king of England, jealous of the influ- 
 ence which Francis or Charles would derive from the choice of 
 the electors falling on either of them, appeared himself, also, as a 
 candidate, but soon left those two powerful rivals to compete the 
 crown by themselves. 
 
 The electors were little inclined to favour either. Their people, 
 tliey thought, would regard the king of France as a foreign 
 master, and such a master might well be expected to take from 
 them that independence of which the aristocracy of his own 
 states had seen themselves lately deprived. As for Charles, it 
 was an ancient principle with the electors not to make choice of 
 any prince that already acted an important part in the empire. 
 The pope shared in these fears, and had no wish that either the 
 king of Naples, his neighbour, or the king of France, whose 
 enterprising genius he dreaded, should succeed. " Choose one of 
 yourselves rather,"" was the advice he sent to the electors. The 
 elector of Treves proposed that Frederick of Saxony should be 
 appointed, and the imperial crown was actually laid at the feet 
 of that friend of Luther. 
 
 So widely known were Frederick's wisdom and love for the 
 people, that such a choice would have had the approval of all 
 Germany. On the occasion of the revolt of Erfurt, he was 
 urged to take that city by assault, yet he refused, because of his 
 unwillingness that blood should be shed. " But," it was said in 
 reply, " it won't cost five men." " A single man would be too 
 much rejoined the prince."' It looked as if the election of the 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (W.) xxii. p. 1858 
 
CHARLES CROWNED EMPEROR. 465 
 
 protector of the Reformation, would secure the triumph of that 
 great work. Ought not Frederick to have regarded tlie ex- 
 pressed desire of the ch;ctors as a call from God himself? Wlio 
 could have j)residcd better over the empire''s destinies than so 
 Bage a prince? Who could have proved a more powerful oppon- 
 ent to the Turks than an emperor who was strong in point of 
 faith? Perhaps the refusal by the elector of Saxony, much as he 
 has been commended for it by historians, may have been a fault 
 on the part of that prince; and one to which we may so far 
 ascribe the struggles that afterwards tore Germany asunder. 
 But it is not easy to say whether Frederick deserved most to be 
 blamed for his want of faith or praised for his humility, for he 
 was possessed with the idea that the very salvation of Germany 
 demanded his refusal of the crown. ^ " Germany,"" said this 
 modest and disinterested prince, " requires a more powerful 
 emperor than I could make, to secure her safety. The Turk is 
 at our gates. The king of Spain, whose hereditary possessions 
 in Austria border upon the threatened frontier, is her natural 
 defender." 
 
 On perceiving that the choice was to fall upon Charles, the 
 Roman legate declared that the pope would withdraw his objec- 
 tions; and on the 2Sth of June, Maximilian's grandson was 
 elected. " God," said Frederick afterwards, " gave him to us in 
 kindness and in anger-''^ The Spanish deputies presented Fre- 
 derick with thirty thousand golden florins as a mark of their 
 master's gratitude; but this was refused by the prince, who 
 also forbade his ministers to accept any present.*^ He at the same 
 time secured the liberties of Germany by a convention, which 
 was sworn to by Charles's envoys in their master's name. The 
 circumstances under which the latter became emperor, seemed 
 likely, in other respects, to secure the liberties of Germany and 
 the work of the Reformation, better than any oaths could do. 
 This young prince had taken umbrage at the laurels won by his 
 
 ' Is vero heroica plane modcratione animi magnifice rcpudiavit. .... 
 (Pallavicini, i. p. 79.) 
 
 * L. 0pp. (W.) xxii. p. 1880. 
 
 * The above account of Frederick's conduct, which is the same as that given 
 more fully by Dr. Robertson, is called in question by Father Daniel, but were 
 even the overwhelming authorities adduced by the Scotch historian thought 
 insufficient, that of Pallavicini in the preceding note, omitted by Dr. R., seems 
 to set the matter at rest. Tr. 
 
 I 3n 
 
466 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 rival, Francis I., at Marignan;! tlie struggle between them was 
 about to be carrie<l on in Italy, and the time it occupied might 
 be expected to suffice for giving a firm establishment to the 
 Eeformation. Charles left Spain in May, and was crowned 
 emperor, at Aix-la-Chapelle, on the 22d of October, 1520. 
 
 II. Foreseeing that the cause of the Eeformation would soon 
 be brought before tlie new emperor, Luther wrote to Charles 
 before that prince had left Madrid. " If the cause I defend," 
 said he, " is worthy of being brought before the throne of the 
 heavenly majesty, it cannot be supposed beneath the considera- 
 tion of a prince of this world. Charles, prince of the kings 
 of the earth, I cast myself as a suppliant at the feet of your 
 most serene majesty, and conjure you to deign to take under 
 the shadow of your wings, not me, but the cause itself of that 
 eternal truth, for the defence of which God has intrusted you 
 with the sword.""2 The young king put aside this strange letter 
 from a German monk, without deigning to answer it. 
 
 While Luther had his eyes thus turned to Madrid, the storm 
 seemed to be increasing around him. Fanaticism burst forth 
 like a flame in Germany. Indefatigable in his efforts at perse- 
 cution, Hochstraten had extracted sundry propositions from 
 Luther's writings; these, at his request, the universities of 
 Cologne and Louvain had condemned; and that of Erfurt, 
 which slill bore a grudge against Luther for having preferred 
 Wittemberg to it, was about to follow their example. But this 
 coming to the doctor's knowledge, he wrote so powerful a letter 
 to Lange, that the Erfurt divines quailed under it and held 
 their peace. Still, the condemnatory sentence pronounced by 
 Coloirne and Louvain was enoujrh to inflame men's minds; and 
 more than this, the priests of Misnia, espousing Emser's quarrel, 
 openly asserted, as Melanchthon relates, that the man who should 
 slay Luther would be without sin.^ " Now is the time come," 
 said Luther " when men will think they do service to Jesus 
 
 ' The battle at Marignan, between Francis I. and the Swiss, was fought several 
 years before that of Pavia, in the days of his prosperity, when Charles was still 
 young and his grandfather Maximilian still reigning as emperor. Francis on 
 that occasion gained a decisive victory, which he followed up by penetrating 
 into Italy and by the conquest of Milan. — L. R. 
 
 * Causam ipsam vcritatis. . . . (L. Epp. i. 392, 15th January, 1520.) 
 " Ut sine peccato esse cum censebant qui me interfecerit. (L. Epp i. 383.) 
 
TKMPEST GATHERS ROUND I.UTIIER, 467 
 
 Christ, by putting ua to death." Nor were these homicidal words 
 to remain without effect. 
 
 " One day," says a biographer, " that Luther happened to be 
 in front of the Augustinian monastery, a stranger holding a 
 pistol concealed in his sleeve, came up to him and said, " Why 
 do you thus go abroad quite alone?" — " I am in the hands of 
 God," replied Luther, " he is my strength and my shield. What 
 can mortal man do unto me?" "Whereupon," says the his- 
 torian, " the unknown person grew pale and fled trembling.''^ 
 Serra-Longa, the orator of the conference at Augsburg, wrote 
 to the elector about the same time: " Let not Luther find any 
 asylum in your highness's states; shunned by all, let him be 
 stoned in the face of heaven; this will please me more than 
 your sending me ten thousand crowns."^ 
 
 But it was on the side of Rome chiefly that the mutterings of 
 the tempest were to be heard. Valentine Teutleben, a Thur- 
 ingian noble, vicar to the archbishop of Maintz and a zealous 
 partisan of the popedom, now represented the elector of Saxony 
 at Rome. Ashamed of the protection that the heretical monk 
 received from his master, Teutleben perceived with impatience 
 that by this imprudent conduct his mission was paralysed, and 
 imagined that by working on the elector's fears he might induce 
 him to abandon the rebellious divine. " People won't listen to 
 me," he wrote to his master, " because of the protection you 
 grant to Luther." But the Romans were mistaken when they 
 thought they could alarm the wise Frederick. That prince knew 
 that the will of God, and national commotions, were less easily 
 resisted than the decrees of the papal chancery. He instructed 
 his envoy to insinuate to the pope that, far from defending 
 Luther, he had all along left him to defend himself; but besides 
 this, that he had already asked him to leave Saxony and the 
 university ; that the doctor had declared himself ready to go, 
 and that he would not have been then in the electoral states, had 
 not the legate himself, Charles of Miltitz, besought the prince 
 to keep Luther near him, under the apprehension that were he 
 to escape into other countries, he might act with even less 
 
 » Was knn mir ein Mensch thun? (Keith, L. Umstande, p. ?9.) 
 « Tenzcl hist. Ber. ii. p. 1G8. 
 
HISTORY OF THE BEFOHMATION. 
 
 restraint than in Saxony "^ Frederick did more than this: he 
 wished to enlighten Rome. " Germany," he continues in his 
 letter, " now possesses very many learned men, adepts in the 
 various languages and sciences ; the very laity begin to be 
 intelligent and to hke Holy Scripture; accordingly, should Dr. 
 Luther be refused fair terms, it is much to be feared that peace 
 may never be restored, Luther's doctrine has struck deep root 
 in a great many hearts. If, instead of refuting it by the testi- 
 monies of the Bible, an attempt shall be made to annihilate it with 
 the thunderbolts of ecclesiastical authority, grievous scandals 
 and the most destructive and terrible revolts, will be the result."^ 
 As the elector had the fullest confidence in Luther, he made 
 Teutleben's letter be communicated to him, together with 
 another that he had received from the cardinal St. George. 
 The perusal of these could not fail to affect the Reformer, who 
 instantly perceived the jeopardy of his position, and his soul 
 was momentarily overwhelmed at the prospect. But such were 
 the very moments in which his faith revealed itself in all its 
 vigour. Weak as he often felt himself, and ready to despond, it 
 was in the midst of the tempest that he seemed to rise and 
 appear greater than ever. Much did he desire to be delivered 
 from such trials, but he fully understood the price at which 
 repose was offered to him. . . . and he spurned it from him 
 with indignation. " Hold my peace," said he; " I am disposed 
 to do so, if men would let me, that is, if others were enjoined to 
 remain silent too. If any man envy the offices I hold, let him 
 take them. If any man want to destroy my writings, let him 
 burn them. I am ready to keep myself quiet, provided it do not 
 imperatively follow, that the truths of the Gospel be consigned 
 to silence too.3 I ask not for the hat of a cardinal; I ask not 
 for gold or for anything that Rome accounts of value. There 
 is nothing whatever which may not be obtained from me, pro- 
 vided they leave the way of salvation open to Christians.^ All 
 
 ' Da er viel freyer und eicherer schreibcn und handel mbchte was er woUte. 
 . . . (L. 0pp. (L.)xvii. p. 298.) 
 
 2 Schrcckliche, grausame, schadliche und verderbliche Empbrungen erregen. 
 (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 29S.) 
 
 3 Semper quiescereparatus,modoveritatemevangelicamnoiijubeantquiescere. 
 (L. Epp. i. p. 402.) 
 
 * Si salutis viam christianis pormittant esse liberam, hoc unum peto ab illis, 
 ac prreterea nihil. . . . (Ibid.) 
 
LUTHER S FAITH WAXES STRONGER. 469 
 
 their threats terrify mo not, nor shcall all tlieir promises seduce 
 ine. 
 
 Animated with such sentiments Luther soon recovered all his 
 warlike ardour, and preferred the Christian warfare to the still- 
 ness of solitude. A sinirle night suffices to re-awaken in him his 
 desire for the subversion of Home. " 1 have taken my stand,"" 
 he wrote the day following, " I despise the fury of Rome, I des- 
 pise her favour, and have no wish for reconciliation or commun- 
 ion with her for ever.^ Let her condemn and burn what I have 
 written! I, in my turn, will publicly condemn and burn the 
 pontifical law, that nest of all heresies. The moderation which 
 to this hour I have shown, has been useless; I renounce it!"^ 
 
 His friends were far from being equally tranquil. Great was 
 the consternation at Wittemberg. " We are in a state of extra- 
 ordinary expectancy," said Melanchthon. " I would rather die 
 than part from Luther. 3 If God help us not, we perish." "Our 
 Luther is still alive," he writes a month later, in his anxiety ; 
 " may it please God that he live a long while yet, for the Roman 
 sycophants are doing everything they can to secure his destruc- 
 tion. Pray for the life of this sole avenger of holy theology." ^ 
 
 These prayers were not to remain unheeded. The warnings 
 which the elector had instructed his agent to give to Rome, were 
 not without foundation. Luther's voice had found an echo in all 
 quarters, in the cabins of the poor, in the monasteries, in the bur- 
 gesses** houses, the castles of the nobility, the academies, and 
 even in kings'* palaces. He had told duke John: "Let my life 
 have availed for the conversion of but a single sinner, and I shall 
 willingly consent to the destruction of all my books." ^ It was 
 not a single man, it was a mighty multitude that had found the 
 light in the writings of the humble doctor; hence everywhere, 
 also, you could find men ready to protect him. The sword that 
 was to smite him was forging at the Vatican, but heroes were 
 
 1 Nolo eis reconciliari ncc communicare in perpetuum. . . (Ibid. p. 4G6, 
 10th July, 1520.) 
 
 2 Here we see how every thing in this great work came unsought and without 
 any preconcerted plan. Luther himself could at times be faint-hearted in the 
 prospect of the hardships to which he was exposed. What had his enemies 
 known how to take advantage of this ! But tliat was not to be. Providence 
 willed it otherwise. And his courage soon revived. — L. R. 
 
 ^ Emori mallim, quam ab hoc viro cvelli. (Corp. Reform, p. 160, 1G3.) 
 
 * Martinus nostor spirat, atque utinani diu. . . . (Ibid. p. IwO, 208.) 
 
 * L. 0pp. (Leipz.) xrii. p. 392. 
 
470 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 rising in Germany for the purpose of making a buckler of their 
 bodies in his defence. At the moment when bishops were cha- 
 fing with rage, when princes shut their mouths, when the people 
 looked on in suspense, and when the thunder was muttering on 
 the seven hills of Rome, God aroused the German nobility, and 
 made them a bulwark for the protection of his servant. 
 
 Sylvester of Schaumburg, one of the most powerful knights of 
 Franconia, sent his son at this period to Wittemberg with a 
 letter for the Reformer. " You are in danger of losing your life," 
 wrote Schaumburg. " Should the electors, princes, and magis- 
 trates, fail to protect you, I beseech you beware of betaking 
 yourself to Bohemia, where very learned men have already had 
 much to suffer. Come rather to me; I shall soon, if it please 
 God, have gathered a force of more than a hundred gentlemen, 
 and with their assistance, will be in a condition to preserve you 
 from all danger." ^ 
 
 Francis of Sickengen, that hero of his age,- whose dauntless 
 courage we have already contemplated, loved the Reformer 
 because he found him worthy of his love, and also because he 
 was hated by the monks.3 " My services, my property, and mj 
 body, all, in short, that I possess," he Avrote to him, "is at 
 your disposal. You wish to uphold Christian truth; in that I 
 am ready to assist you," Harmuth of Cronberg held the same 
 language.'* In fine, Ulric of Ilutten, at once the poet and the 
 gallant knight of the sixteenth centur^^, ceased not to speak in 
 favour of Luther. But what a contrast did these two men pre- 
 sent ! Hutten wrote to the Reformer : " It is with swords, and 
 bows, and javelins, and bombs, ^ that we must put down the 
 devil's fury." On receiving such letters Luther exclaimed: " I 
 would not that people should have recourse to arms and carnage 
 in defending the Gospel. The world was vanquished by the 
 AVord ; by the Word the Church was saved, and by the Word 
 also she will be restored." " I do not slight his offers," said he 
 
 » Denn Ich, und hundert von Adel, die Ich (ob Gott will) aufbringen will, euch 
 redlich anhalten. . . . (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 381.) 
 
 2 Equitum Germanise rarum decus, says INIelanchthon on this occasion. (Corp. 
 Reform, i. p. 201.) 
 
 3 Et ob id invisus illis. (Ibid. p. 132.) ^ Ibid. 
 
 ' This must be a mistranslation on the part of the author, if, as Dr. "Watson 
 relates in liis History of the reign of Philip II., bombs were invented only in 
 the reign of that prince. Seo Watson's Philip II. vol. iii. p. 149. Ta. 
 
SniAUMimnG TIUTTK?^ LUTIIKir.S CONFIDENCE. 471 
 
 further, on receiving the letter from Scliauniburg which we liave 
 mentioned, but I would not lean on any protector but Christ."' 
 It was not thus tliat the pontiffs of Rome spoke when tliey 
 waded tlirou"h the blood of the Vaudois and Albi<ronsc3. Hiitten 
 saw the difference between Luther's cause and his, and accord- 
 ingly he wrote to him with a noble candour: " As for me, my 
 concern is with the things of men; but thou, towering far higher, 
 art wholly given to the things of (jiod;"- he then sets out to 
 gain over to the truth, if it were possible, Ferdinand and 
 Charles V/ 
 
 Thus as often as Luther's enemies threatened to overwhelm 
 him, as often did his friends rise in his defence.^ " My bark," 
 says he, " floats hither and thither at the mercy of the winds 
 and waves; . . . hope and fear prevail by turns; but what 
 does it matter. "5 Nevertheless, his mind was not unaffected by 
 the testimonies of friendship which he received. " The Lord 
 reigns," says he, "so evidently that he may be felt."^ Luther 
 saw that he was no longer alone; his words had borne fruit and 
 the thought of this gave him fresh courage. Now that he had 
 other defenders willing to brave the wrath of Rome, he needed 
 not allow himself to be checked by a dread of compromising the 
 elector, and while this gave him greater freedom of action, it 
 made him more decided also. This was an important epoch in 
 the development of Luther's character. " Rome must be made 
 to know," he writes to the elector's chaplain, "that although she 
 might succeed by her threats in banishing me from Wittemberg, 
 she would thus only make her case worse than it is. It is not 
 in Bohemia — it is in the midst of Germany — that those are to 
 be found who are ready to shield me from the papal thunders. 
 
 ' Nolo nisi Christo protectorc niti. (L. Epp. i. p. 14S.) 
 
 ^ Mea humana sunt: tu perfectior, jam totus ex diviuis pendes. (L. 0pp. 
 lat. ii. p. Ho.) 
 
 3 Viam facturus libertati (cod. Barar. veritati) per maximos principes. 
 (Corp. Ref. i. p. 201.) 
 
 * Milncr mentions among the circumstances which tended greatly to encourage 
 Luther about the commencement of 1520 : 1. Melanchthon's appearance againsf 
 the papal advocates. 2. Several elaborate epistles of Erasmus, written about the 
 same period, to persons of learning and eminence, representing liUther in the 
 most respectful terms, and the substance of which may be found in Milner, vol. 
 iv. pp. 344,345. Tr. 
 
 * Ita fluctuat navis mea : nunc spes nunc timor regnat. . . (L. Epp. i. p. 
 443.) 
 
 * Dominus regnat ut palparc possimus. (Ibid. 451.) 
 
47^ HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIO!^. 
 
 If I have not jet done to my enemies all I am preparing for 
 them, they must attribute it neither to my modesty nor to their 
 tyranny, but to the name of the elector and to the prosperity of 
 the university of Wittemberg, which I have been afraid to com- 
 promise: now that I have no such apprehension, it will be seen 
 that I will throw myself with fresh vigour on Rome and her 
 courtiers/'^ 
 
 And yet it was not on the great that Luther founded his 
 hopes. After being often solicited to dedicate a book to duke 
 John, the elector's brother, he had done nothing of the kind. 
 " I am afraid," said he, " that this suggestion may have come 
 from himself. Holy Scripture ought to be made to promote the 
 glory of the name of Grod alone."- Luther got the better of these 
 fears, and dedicated to duke John his discourse on good works ; 
 one of his writings in which the Reformer very forcibly expounds 
 the doctrine of justification by faith; that mighty truth, whose 
 potency he valued above the sword of Hutten, the army of Sick- 
 ingen, and the protection of the dukes and electors. 
 
 " The first, the noblest, the most sublime of all good works,'* 
 says he, " is faith in Jesus Christ.^ From this work all others 
 ought to proceed: they are all the vassals of faith, and receive 
 their efiicacy from it alone. 
 
 *' If a man find in his heart the assurance that what he does 
 is agreeable to God, the work is good, were it no more than the 
 lifting of a single straw; but if he have no such assurance, his 
 work is not good, even although he should raise the dead. A 
 pagan, a Jew, a Turk, a sinner, may do all other works; but to 
 trust firmly in God, and to have the assurance of being pleasing 
 to him — this is what the Christian confirmed in grace alone is 
 capable of doing. 
 
 " A Christian who has faith in God, does all this with a free 
 and joyful spirit; whereas the man who is not one with God, is 
 full of anxieties and still in bondage; he asks himself in his 
 anguish how many good deeds are required of him; he runs 
 hither and thither; he questions this man and that man; he 
 
 1 SpDvius in Romanenses grassaturus. . . . (L. Epp. i. p. 4G5.) 
 
 * Scripturam sacram nolim alicuius nomini nisi Dei servire. (L. Edd. i. p. 
 
 431.) 
 
 3 Das erste und hochste, alleredelste. . . gute Werck ist der Glaube in 
 
 Christum. , . . (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 394.) 
 
FAITH CONSISTS WITH GOOD WOUKS ITS SOURCE. 473 
 
 no where finds peace, and does every thing against the grain and 
 under the influence of fear. 
 
 " Consequently I have ever extolled faith. But in the world 
 it is not SO. There the essential matter is to have many works, 
 works oreat, and high, and of all dimensions, without the least 
 reo-ard being had to their being animated by faith. People thus 
 found their peace, not on God's good pleasure, but on tlicir own 
 merits, that is, on sand. . • • (Matthew, vii. p. 27.) 
 
 " To preach faith, we arc told, is to throw an obstacle in the 
 way of good works; but although a man should of himself pos- 
 sess the strength of all men, or of all creatures,^ this one obli- 
 gation to live in the faith, would be too great a task for him ever 
 to be able to accomplish. Were I to say to a sick person: Be 
 restored to health and you will then have the use of your limbs, 
 would any one say that I was forbidding him the use of his 
 limbs? Ought not the return of health to precede his resuming 
 his labours? So it is when we preach faith: it ought to precede 
 works, in order that those works themselves may have any 
 existence. 
 
 " Where is this faith to be found, say you, and how can a 
 man receive it? This, in fact, is what it is of the utmost im- 
 portance to know. Faith comes from Jesus Christ alone, freely 
 promised and bestowed. 
 
 " man, place Christ before thee, and contemplate the dis- 
 play which God makes of his mercy in him, without being 
 anticipated by any merit on thy part.^ From this display of 
 his grace, draw forth the belief and assurance that all thy sins 
 are forgiven thee. Works cannot produce it. It flows from 
 the blood, from the wounds, from the death of Christ ; from these 
 it o-ushes forth in the hearts of believers. Christ is the rock 
 whence flow milk and honey." (Deut. xxxii.) 
 
 As we cannot make the reader acquainted with all the writ- 
 ings of Luther,^ we have extracted some short fragments from 
 
 ' Wenn cin Menscli tansend, oder alle Menschen, oder alle Creaturcn ware. 
 (L. 0pp. (L.)xvii. p. 398.) 
 
 ''■ Siche, also muist du Christum in dich bildcn, und sehen wie in Ihm Gott 
 Rcine Barmherzigkeit dir fiirhalt und anbeut. . . . (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 
 401.) 
 
 ^ " If the least douht could be entertained," says Milner, " whether the Saxon 
 Reformer was a man of acute understanding and of indefatigable industry, it 
 would be easy to particularize some of his excellent productions during the 
 
 I. 3 o 
 
474 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 that on Good Works, because of the Eeformer's own opinion of it. 
 " It is in my judgment," says he, " the best of my published 
 writings." And he then adds the following profound observation : 
 " But I know that when I please myself in what I write, the 
 infection of this bad leaven prevents it from pleasing others." 1 
 In sendin"" this discourse to a friend, Melanchthon accompanied 
 it with these words: "Not one of all the Greek and Latin 
 writers has come nearer to the spirit of St. Paul than Luther 
 has done." 2 
 
 III. Now there had grown up in the Church another evil 
 besides the substitution of a system of meritorious works for the 
 idea of grace and amnesty.3 A haughty power had arisen from 
 amid the humble pastors of the flocks of Jesus Christ, and this 
 usurped authority Luther was destined to attack. Amid all his 
 disquietudes, he had found time in his retreat for studying the 
 origin, the progress, and the usurpations of the popedom, and 
 was confounded at the discoveries to which he was led. These 
 he no lono-er hesitated to make known, and thus struck a blow 
 which, like that of the rod of Moses of old, was to arouse a whole 
 nation that had fallen asleep in the course of a long captivity. 
 Even before Rome had time to publish her redoubtable bull, he 
 hurled against her his declaration of war. " The time for remain- 
 ing quiet is passed," said he, " the time to speak out is come!" 
 On the 23d of June, 1520, he published his famous Appeal to his 
 Imperial Majesty and to the Christian nobility of the German 
 nation, on the reformation of Christendom.^ 
 
 " It is not rashly,"" says he at the commencement, " that I 
 undertake, I, a man of the people, to address myself to your 
 lordships.5 The wretchedness and oppression that now overwhelm 
 
 years 1519, 1520, &c. which have not been mentioned. The established hier- 
 archy had, as it could not fail to have, many supporters. The heretical innovator 
 was attacked from all quarters, and it may be sufficient to add that Lutiier always 
 answered his enemies with perspicuity and vigour, and in several instances with 
 great brilliancy of wit and poignant sarcasm : never was it more truly said of 
 any man, That he was himself a Aos<. "(Milner, vol. iv. p. 458.) 
 
 1 Erit meo judicio omnium quae ediderim, optimum : quamquam scio quse 
 mihi mca placent, hoc ipso fermento infecta, non solere aliis placere. (L. Epp. 
 i. p. 431.) 
 
 ^ Quo ad Pauli spiritum nemo propius acces, it. Corp. Ref. i. p. 202.) 
 » See p 20— .36. « L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 457—502. 
 
 * " Some there were, and those the friends of Luther, who were startled at 
 the boldness of the publication and considered it as the signal for war ; but the 
 more thinking and judicious part of mankind looked on this measure as the wisest 
 
Luther's appeal to the nobles op gehmany. 475 
 
 all tlie states of Christendom, and Germany in particular, force 
 from me a cry of distress. I am constrained to call for help; I 
 must see whether God will not bestow his Spirit on some man 
 belonging to our country, and stretch forth his hand to our 
 unhappy nation. God has given us a young and generous chief 
 (the emperor Charles V.' ) and has thus filled our hearts with 
 great expectations. But we must on our side do all that we 
 can. 
 
 "Now, the first thing necessary is that we do not trust in our 
 great strength or our profound wisdom. When a great work is 
 begun in self-confidence, God subverts and destroys it. Frede- 
 rick I., Frederick II., and many more emperors in whose presence 
 the world trembled, have been trodden under foot by the popes, 
 because they trusted more in their own might than in God. 
 Their fall followed as a matter of course. In this war we have to 
 fight against the powers of hell. To look for nothing from the 
 force of arms, and humbly to trust in the Lord — to look to the 
 distress of Christendom still more than to the crimes of the wicked 
 • — such is the manne • in which it should be set about. In any 
 other way the work may commence perhaps with fair appear- 
 ances; but all at once, in the midst of the conflict, confusion 
 will break in; mischievous spirits will cause immense disasters, 
 and the whole world will swim in blood. . . . The more 
 power people have, the more do they expose themselves, if they 
 go not forward in the fear of the Lord." 
 
 After this opening, Luther goes on thus: 
 
 " The Romans have raised around them three ramparts to 
 secure them against every kind of reformation. Have they been 
 attacked by the temporal power? they have asserted that it had 
 no jurisdiction over them, and that the spiritual power was 
 superior to it. Have endeavours been r^ade to bring them 
 under the reprehension of Holy Scriptury? they have replied 
 that nobody could interpret it but the pope. Have they been 
 threatened with a council? none but the Roman pontiff, thev 
 have said, can convoke one. 
 
 step, wliich, even in a mere worldly and prudential light, could possibly have been 
 taken to render contemptible and abortive the expected fulminations of the 
 Roman court." (Milner, vol. iv. p. 471.) 
 
 ' Gott hat uns ein junges edles Blut zum Haupt gegcben. . . (L. 0pp. 
 xvii. p. 457.) 
 
476 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " Thus have they put aside the three rods that should have 
 corrected them, and have given themselves up to all wickedness. 
 But now may God be our helper and give us one of the trumpets 
 that will overturn the walls of Jericho ! Let us beat down with 
 our blast, those walls of paper and of straw with which the 
 Eomans have surrounded themselves, and let us take up rods for 
 the punishment of the wicked by exposing the cunning devices 
 of the devil to the light of day/" 
 
 Luther then begins his attack. He shakes to its foundations 
 that papal monarchy which for ages had united in one body all 
 the nations of the West under the sceptre of the Roman bishop. 
 There is no separate caste of priests in Christianity — this was a 
 truth of which the Church had been kept in ignorance for ages, 
 and this is what ho first powerfully demonstrates. 
 
 " It has been alleged," thus speaks Luther, " that the pope, 
 the bishops, the priests, and all who people the monasteries, form 
 the estate spiritual or ecclesiastical; while the princes, nobles, 
 burgesses, and peasantry, form the secular estate or laity, A 
 very pretty account of things this ! Let no man, however, be 
 alarmed at it. All Christians constitute the spiritual estate, 
 and the only difference among them, is that of the functions 
 which they discharge. We have all one baptism, one faith, and 
 it is this that constitutes the spiritual man. Unction, the ton- 
 sure, ordination, consecration by the pope or a bishop, may make 
 a hypocrite but never can make a spiritual man. All of us are 
 consecrated priests by baptism, as St. Peter says, ye are priests 
 and Icings I albeit that it appertaineth not to all to exercise such 
 offices, inasmuch as none can appropriate what is common to 
 all without the will of the community. Now, were it not that 
 this consecration of God is upon us, the anointing by the pope 
 never could make a priest. Were ten brothers, all king's sons, 
 and having equal rights of succession, to choose one from among 
 them, to administer their common inheritance for the rest, all 
 would be kings, though one only could be the administrator of 
 their common power. Were some godly laymen to be banished 
 into a desert, and, having no priest among them who had received 
 consecration by a bishop, did they agree to choose out one from 
 among themselves, married or single, for that office, that person 
 would be as truly a priest as if all the bishops in the world had 
 
ALT, CIIUISTIANS AUE PUIESTS. 477 
 
 consecrated him Thus were chosen Augustine, Ambrose, and 
 Cjprian. 
 
 " Hence it follows that laymen and priests, princes and 
 bishops, or, as it is said, ecclesiastics and laity, have nothing 
 but their functions to distinguish them. They have all the 
 same status, but all have not the same work to perform. 
 
 " If this be the case, then, why does not the magistrate cor- 
 rect the clergy? . . . The secular power has been ordained 
 by God for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the protection 
 of the o-ood. It ought to be allowed, throughout all Christen- 
 dom, to do its duty, whosoever it be that falls under its cog- 
 nisance, pope, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, &c.: 'Let every 
 soul be subject i (consequently the pope among others) unto the 
 Mgher poicers, for tliey bear not the sicord in vain.'' " 2 
 
 Havlno- in like manner overthrown the other two walls, 
 Luther reviews in succession all the abuses of Rome, exposing 
 evils that had been notorious for ages, in a strain of eloquence 
 altogether popular. Never did the language of opposition 
 assume a nobler tone. The assembly to which Luther addressed 
 himself was the church; the power whose abuses he attacked 
 was the popedom, which had been pressing heavily for ages on 
 the people of all lands; and the reformation which he loudly 
 insisted for, could not fail to exert a mighty influence on all 
 Christendom, and the whole world, as long as humanity itself 
 should endure. 
 
 He begins with the pope. "It is horrible,"" says he, "to see 
 a man calling himself the vicar of Jesus Christ, displaying a 
 
 ' nSa-« -^ux,^. Romans xiii. 1, 4. 
 
 * All that Luther says in this argument of the equality of Christians as 
 spiritual priests and kings, and of the priesthood in particular as a ministry, 
 exercised in the name of the whole community, accords with the truth, provided 
 we keep in view that Christ is the head of that community, and that all be 
 done on commission from him. Nor is it to be gainsayed that pope, priest, and 
 all persons whosoever, in respect to temporal things, are subject to the secular 
 powers : yet that those secular powers should overrule them in regard to their 
 spiritual ministry, is contrary to the presupposed truth, that they exorcise their 
 ministry in the name of that whole community, of which princes and governors 
 are only particular members, and that in the name of Christ; and thus as little 
 as the priests can lord it over the magistrates, can the latter lord it over the 
 priests or over the general body (of the church). Men easily go from one 
 extreme into another in this respect, and it is not to be denied, that good as 
 Luther's intention was in what he has said here, still he furnished too much 
 ground for that political church-governing which is in our times doing so 
 much mischief among Protestants. L. R. 
 
478 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 magnificence such as no emperor even equals. Is this being 
 like the poor Jesus or the humble St. Peter? We are told he 
 IS the h>rd of the world! But Christ, whose vicar he boasts of 
 being, hath said, ' My kinadom is not of tins world.'' And shall 
 the kingdom of a vicar extend beyond that of his Lordr"" . . . 
 
 Luther then goes on to depict the effects of papal domination. 
 " Know you," says he, " what the cardinals are for? I would 
 fain let you know. Italy and German}'- have a great many 
 religious foundations, and richly endowed ecclesiastical benefices. 
 Now, how is this wealth to be brought to Rome? . . . 
 Cardinals have been created ; they have been appointed over 
 religious liouses, an ! to pvelatures ; and at this moment . . . 
 Italy is all but a desert ; the monasteries are ruined, the 
 bishopricks devoured, the cities are decayed, their inhabitants 
 are corrupted, religious worship is dying out, and preaching is 
 abolished ! . . . Why all this ? Because all the wealth of 
 the Church must go to Rome. Never could the Turk himself 
 have so ruined Italy !" 
 
 Luther next addre-^ses his own countrymen. 
 
 " And now that they have sucked the life''s blood from their 
 own nation they come into Germany ; they begin mildly ; but 
 beware ! Germany will soon become another Italy. Already 
 we have some cardinals. Before these thick-headed Germans 
 can comprehend what our object is, think they, neither bishop- 
 rick, monastery, parish-living, penny or farthing, will remain 
 to them. Antichrist must possess the treasures of this world. 
 Thirty or forty cardinals will be created in a day : Bamberg 
 will be given to this one, the bishoprick of Wurzburg will be 
 bestowed upon that; rich livings will be attached to them, until 
 at leno-th the churches and cities will be left desolate. And 
 then the pope will say: I am the vicar of Jesus Christ, and 
 pastor of his flocks. Let the Germans, therefore, be resigned!"" 
 
 Here Luther kindles into indignation. 
 
 "How! we Germans, shall we submit to such robberies and 
 extortions at the hands of the pope? If the kingdom of France 
 has known how to defend itself,' wherefore should we allow our- 
 selves to be thus outwitted and befooled? Ah! if it were but 
 
 1 See note by Mr. Le Roy, p. 03. 
 
ROMISH PRACTICES FOR ORTAINING MONKY, FTC. 479 
 
 our goods that thoy took from us! But they ravage the 
 churches; they make spoil of Christ's siieep; they aboUsh (jod'a 
 worship, and render his word of none effect." 
 
 Here Luther nuikes an ex[)osure of " the practices of Rome," 
 which were employed for obtaining money and other returns from 
 Germany. Annates, palliunis, commendams, administrations, 
 reversionary favours, incorporations, reservations, &c., he passes 
 all under review, and then he says, " Let us make an effort to 
 put a stop to so many desolations and hardships. If we would 
 march against the Turks, let us begin with those Turks which 
 are the worst of all! If we hang rogues and behead robbers, let 
 us not allow Roman avarice to escape, which is the greatest of all 
 rogues and robbers, and that, too, in the name of Jesus Christ! 
 Who can bear it? Who can hold his peace? Has not everything 
 the pope has, been stolen? For he neither has bought it nor has 
 inherited it from St. Peter, nor earned it by the sweat of his 
 brovsr. Whence, then, has it all come from?"" . 
 
 For all these evils Luther suggests a cure. After an ener- 
 getic exliortation to the nobles of Germany to put a stop to the 
 depredations of Rome, he comes to the reformation of the pope 
 himself. " Is it not laughable for the pope to pretend to be law- 
 ful heir of the empire? Who ever gave it him ? Was it Jesus 
 Christ when he said: The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship 
 over tliem; but ye shall not be so (Luke xxii. 25, 26.) How govern 
 an empire and at the same time preach, pray, study, and take 
 care of the poor? Jesus Christ forbade his ministers to take with 
 them money or garments, because no man can discharge the min- 
 istry, unless exempt from other cares; and the poj)e, forsooth, 
 would govern the empire and at the same time remain pope!" . . 
 
 Luther is not done with stripping the supreme pontiff of his 
 pretensions: "Let the pope," says he, "renounce all kind of title 
 to the kingdom of Naples and Sicily. He has no more right to 
 it than I have. His possession of Bologna, Imola, Ravenna, the 
 Romagna, the March of Ancona, &;c. is unjust, and opposed to all 
 the commandments of Jesus Christ. No man, says St. Paul, that 
 warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life (2 Tim. ii. 4). 
 Yet the pope, who puts himself forth as chief in the gospel war, 
 oilangles himself more with the affairs of this life than any 
 emperor or king does. We must disentangle him from all his 
 
480 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 toil. Let the emperor place a Bible and a prayer book in tlie hands 
 of the pope, so that the pope may leave kings to govern, while he 
 betakes himself to preaching and prayer."! 
 
 Luther is as little a friend to the pope's ecclesiastical power 
 in Germany as he is to his temporal dominion in Italy. "Before 
 all things else," says he, "the pope's legates, together with the 
 pretended advantages they sell us for weighed out gold, and which 
 are mere cheats, must be banished from all the countries of 
 Germany. They take our money, and for what? For giving legal 
 titles to ill gotten goods, for absolving from oaths, for teaching us 
 disloyalty, for giving us lessons in sin, and leading us straight to 
 hell. . . . Hearest thou that, pope, not most holy but 
 most sinful ! . . . May God from the heights of his heaven, 
 soon hurl thy throne into the infernal abyss!" 
 
 The Christian tribune goes on as he began. After having 
 summoned the pope to his bar he points to all the abuses that 
 follow in the train of the popedom, and ofifers to clear the Church 
 floor of the sweepings that incumber it. He begins with the 
 monks. 
 
 " And now I come to that heavy crew which promises so 
 much and does so little. Now, don't be angry, my good sirs ! 
 I mean well, and what I have to say is a truth at once sweet 
 and bitter, to wit, that no more monasteries should be built for 
 begging friars. Great God, we have but too many such, and 
 would to God they were all levelled with the ground. . . . 
 No good has ever come, or is ever likely to come, from vag- 
 rancy." 
 
 The marriage of the clergy comes next in turn, and it is for 
 the first time that Luther speaks of it. 
 
 " Into what a state have the clergy fallen, and how many 
 priests are to be found burdened with wives, with children, and 
 with remorse, while no one comes to their help ! Let the pope 
 and the bishops let pass what passes, and let go to ruin what is 
 running to ruin, all well for them; but as for me, I would fain 
 save my conscience, and desire to open my mouth without re- 
 straint: let pope, bishop, and who will, take offence if they will. 
 • • . I say then that according to the institution of Jesus 
 
 ' Ihm die Biblien und Bctbiicher dafiir anzeigen . . und erpredigeund 
 
 bete. (L, 0pp. xvii. p. 4Y'2.) 
 
MARRIAGE OF THE PRIESTS. HOLIDAYS, EIC. 481 
 
 Christ and his apostles, every town sliouU liave a pastor, or 
 bishop, and tliis pastor may have a wif(^ as St. Paul writes to 
 Timothy: Let the bishop be the husband of one wife, (1 Tim. iii. 2), 
 and as is still the practice in the Greek Church. IJut the devil 
 has persuaded the pope, as St. Paul says to Timothy, (I Tim. 
 iv. 1 — 3) to forbid the clergy to marry. And hence have 
 flowed woes in such number that to mention thom all would 
 be impossible. What then must we do? How save so many 
 pastors against whom we can bring no charge but that they live 
 with a woman to whom, with their whole heart, they desire to be 
 lawfully united? Ah! let them save their consciences! let them 
 take this Avoman as their lawful spouse, and live honestly with 
 her, without disquieting themselves about the pope being pleased 
 or displeased at it. Thy soul's salvation concerns thee more than 
 tyrannical and arbitrary laws that never came from the Lord." 
 
 Thus did the Reformation propose to restore to the Church the 
 purity of morals which she had lost. The Reformer continues : 
 
 "Let holidays be abolished and Sunday only be kept, or if you 
 would keep the great Christian feasts, let it be but during the 
 morning and let what remains be considered as working time. 
 For as nothing has been done then but drinking, gambling, com- 
 mitting all sorts of sins, or remaining idle, God is much more 
 sinned against on holidays than on tlie other days." 
 
 He next attacks the dedications of churches which, says he, 
 are truly tavern affiiirs ; then he censures fasts and confraterni- 
 ties. Nor would he only extirpate abuses, he would also put an 
 end to schisms: "It is time," says he, "that we were seriously 
 considering the case of the Bohemians, that we were doing some- 
 thing for the suppression of hatred and envy, and that we were re- 
 uniting ourselves to them."" He suggests some excellent methods 
 of conciliation, and adds: " Thus ought we to convince heretics 
 by Scripture, as the ancient Fathers did — not vanquish them 
 by fire, ('n the opposite system, public executioners would 
 prove the most learned doctors in the universe. . . . Oh, 
 would to God that, on both sides, we held out to each other the 
 hand of fraternal humility rather than draw ourselves up in the 
 feeling that we have rights and can assert them. Charity is 
 more necessary than the popedom of Rome. I have now done 
 all that T have been able to do. Should the pope or his people 
 
 1. 3 p 
 
482 HISTOEY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 oppose my suggestions, they shall be accountable for doing so. 
 The pope ought to be ready to renounce the popedom with all 
 his possessions and all his honours, could he thereby save a 
 single soul. But he would rather see the universe go to wreck 
 than allow a hairbreadth of his usurped power to be taken from 
 him.l ... I wash my hands from these things." 
 
 Luther next comes to the universities and the schools: 
 
 " I fear much," says he," that the universities may prove but 
 great gates to hell, if sedulous attention be not given to the 
 explaining of Holy Scripture and engraving it on the hearts of 
 the youths who attend them. I would advise no one to send 
 his child where Holy Scripture does not hold the chief place. 
 All must become corrupt where unceasing attention is not paid 
 to the Word of God.''^ 3 Weighty words, which governments, the 
 learned, and fathers, in all ages, should ponder well. 
 
 Towards the close of his harangue, he reverts to the empire 
 and the emperor. 
 
 " The pope," says he, "being unable to lead about at will the 
 ancient masters of the Roman empire, fancied he might despoil 
 them of their title and authority, and give these to us Germans. 
 Thus has it been done and we are become the pope's servants. 
 For the pope has made himself master of Rome, and has com- 
 pelled the emperor on oath never to reside there; hence the 
 result is, that the emperor is emperor of Rome without Rome. 
 We have the name, the pope has the cities and territories. We 
 bear the title and the arms of the empire ; the pope has the 
 treasure, authority, privileges, and independence. The pope eats 
 the fruit, while we amuse ourselves with the shell. Thus is it 
 that the pride and tyranny of the Romans have ever abused our 
 simplicity. 
 
 " But now, may God, who has given us such an empire, come 
 to our aid. Let us act as may be expected from our name, our 
 title, and our arms; let us guard our liberty! and let the 
 
 > Nun liess er elie die Welt untergchen, ehe er ein Haarbreit seiner ver- 
 messenen Gewalt liesse abbrechen. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 483.) 
 
 2 Es muss verderben, alles was nicht Gottes Wort ohn Unterlass treibt. (Ibid. 
 ^86.) 
 
 3 These words are no less applicable where the .Scriptures are no longer em- 
 ployed at universities as the Reformers employed them, but where youth is 
 instructed in the art of perverting Scripture and depriving it of its plain and 
 simple meaning;. — L. R. 
 
THE EiMPEROH SHOULD RE-POSSESS HIMSELF OF ROMi:. 483 
 
 Eomans bo taught to understand wliat God has transmitted to 
 us bj their instrumentality. They boast of having given us 
 an empire. Well then, let us take what belongs to us. Let the 
 pope hand over to us Rome and all else that he possesses of the 
 empire. Let him put an end to his taxes and extortions! Let 
 him give us back our independence, our power, our property, our 
 liappiness, our soul, and our body. Let the empire be made all 
 that an empire ought to be, and let not princes be any longer 
 constrained to lower their sword before the hypocritical preten- 
 sions of a popo !" 
 
 These words are more than powerful and vehement — they are 
 fraught with the profoundest reason. Never had orator thus 
 addressed the whole nobility of the empire and the emperor him- 
 self! Far from wondering that so many of the Germanic states 
 withdrew from connection with Rome, may we not much more 
 wonder that the whole of Germany did not rise in arms and 
 \Trest back that imperial power, the attributes of which the popes 
 had imprudently placed on the head of its chief? 
 
 Luther winds up this bold harangue in these words: 
 
 "Metliinks, indeed, I have pitched my voice too high, have pro- 
 posed many things that will appear impossible, and have attacked 
 many errors somewhat over fiercely. But what am I to do in such 
 a case? better that the world should be angry with me than that 
 God should ! ... At the worst, they can but take my life. 
 I have repeatedly made offers of peace to my opponents. But 
 God has compelled me through their instrumentality ever to 
 open my mouth against them. I have still in reserve a song 
 upon Rome. If their ears itch to hear it, I will sing it to them, 
 and loudly too. . . Understandest thou, Rome, what I 
 would wish to tell theeT . . . 
 
 Here there is probably an allusion intended to something that 
 Luther had written on the pope, and which he had proposed to 
 publish, but which never appeared. The rector Burkhard wrote 
 at that time to Spengler : " There is still a little book de exe- 
 cranda Tenere Bomanorum ; but it is kept in reserve." The title 
 promised that it would give the greatest offence, and we ought 
 to rejoice that Luther had the moderation not to publish the 
 work. 
 
 " If my cause be just," he continues, " it must be expected to 
 
'4'S4< HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 be condemned on earth and justified only by Christ in heaven. 
 Let them come on then, pope, bishops, priests, monks, doctors ! 
 let them put forth all their zeal ! let them pour out their utmost 
 fury! Such are the very persons who may be expected to per- 
 secute the truth, as all ages have witnessed." 
 
 Whence could tliis monk have obtained such a clear insight 
 into public affairs, which the states of the empire themselves 
 often found it so difficult to elucidate? Whence did this German 
 derive that courage which enabled him to raise his head from 
 the midst of a nation that had been enslaved for centuries, and 
 deal such rude blovvs to the popedom? What was the mysterious 
 energy that animated him? Would not one say that he had 
 heard the word addressed by God to a man in ancient times: 
 Behold I hate made thy face strong against their faces — as an ada- 
 mant, harder than flint, have I made thy forehead; fear them not, 
 neither be dismayed at their looks} 
 
 Addressed to the German nobility, this exhortation soon 
 reached all for whom it was composed. It spread through Ger- 
 many with inconceivable rapidity. Luther's friends trembled; 
 Staupitz and they who, like him, wished to pursue mild methods, 
 thought the blow too strong. " In our days," replied Luther, 
 " whatever is treated calmly is speedily forgotten and nobody 
 
 ' The reader will be struck with the applicability of these remarks to the 
 character, conduct, and spoken and written addresses of John Knox. To faith 
 and courage both Reformers added an intense conviction of the responsibility of 
 national governments and aristocracies, in regard to the religion of the people 
 and their own. Yet, strange to say, the legitimate consequence and crowning 
 glory of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, in the judgment of many, is 
 a political philosopliy which would make public men, as such, totally indifferent 
 to religion, even when, as in the case of France and Spain, nations have become 
 almost incapable of any steady government, from the weakness or perversion of 
 their religious feelings. Strange, that were a reformer such as Luther to 
 appear now in either of those countries, and call upon the sovereign and cham- 
 bers to put away religious corruptions, he would be told that the Lutheran Refor- 
 mation had shut his mouth, by establishing religious indilferentism as an immut- 
 Jible principle of state, and had put the sole eifectual remedy for national dis- 
 orders quite beyond the reach of the ration's chiefs. Both popish and infidel 
 writers are fond of tracing the sceptical philosophy of the eighteenth century to the 
 Reformation, as if that philosophy had not infected Italy as early as the fifteenth, 
 and France in the seventeenth centuries, though veiled in both countries under 
 a seeming respect for the forms of the Romish Church. The reader maj 
 see to what shifts Romanists are put when they would ascribe an atheistic 
 tendency to the Reformation, and disparage its political results, by consulting a 
 work published in Paris in 1822: De V Influence de la Reformation de Luther 
 sur la croyancc religieuse, la politique et les progres des Imniires, par Mi 
 Hobolot, ancien chanoine de I'eglise cathedrale de Dijon. Tr. 
 
I.UTIIEr's modesty. SUCCESS OF THE ADDRESS. 485 
 
 cares about it."' 2 He at the same time manifested the most 
 amazing simplicity and humility.-* He was ignorant of himself. 
 "I know not what to say of myself," he wrote. "IVrliaps I am 
 the forerunner of Philip (Mclanchthon). Like Elias, I prepare 
 the way for him, in spirit and in power. And it is he who is 
 one (lay to trouble Israel and the house of Ahab."^ 
 
 But there was no need of looking for another besides him who 
 liad already appeared. The house of Ahab was already shaken. 
 The Address to the German Nobilit// made its first appearance 
 on the 2Gth of June, 1520, and in a short while four thousand 
 copies, a number unheard of at that time, had been sold. It com- 
 
 • Qure nostro seculo quiete tractantur, mox cadere in oblivionem. . . . 
 (L. P:pp. p. 479.) 
 
 2 It is no better in our own times, in which nobody possessing either temporal 
 or spiritual power, pays any regard to earnest though modest representations. 
 Now, too, a voice like that of Luther is called for, in order to establish the ame- 
 liorations that are so much needed. — L. 11. Here the learned Hollander refers, 
 no doubt, mainly to the Church to which he belongs, and in which such faithful and 
 orthodox men as he have the double disadvantage of not only being outnumbered 
 by others of a far lower stamp, but also of having no such means as the Church 
 of Scotland enjoys, of testifying against corruptions and abuses in free assem- 
 blies. Tr. 
 
 3 M. Michelet, himself a philosopher, and one of those who ascribe to Luther 
 that intellectual emancipation (affranclnssement inteUectnel) which the Refor- 
 mer would have been the loudest to repudiate, seems struck with the contrast, 
 in point of humility, between those who thought freely in the sixteenth and their 
 alleged legitimate successors, the free-thinkers in the eighteenth and nineteenth 
 centuries ; and it seems almost incredible that this contrast should not have led 
 him to discover their fundamental, essential, and immutable differences. To a 
 sublime passage from Luther's writings, where the Reformer speaks of the awful 
 responsibility of those who raise their voices in the Church of God, and in the 
 anticipationof the final judgment, says that he might well wish nothing but 
 silence and everlasting oblivion for his writings, M. Michelet appends the follow- 
 ing note : 
 
 " It is curious to compare these words with the very different ones of Rousseau 
 in his confessions. 
 
 " Let the trumpet of the last judgment sound when it will; I will come with 
 this book in my hand, and present myself in the presence of my sovereign judge. 
 I will say confidently : Behold what I have done; what I have written, what I 
 have been. . . . And now, let any one say, if he dare : / was better than 
 that man there." — Michelet Metnoires de Luther, vol. i. p. 57. 
 
 The truth is, such contrasts are too natural and general to be very curious 
 in individual instances. Thus we may contrast Luther's boldness to the pope, 
 and frankness to the elector, with Voltaire's obsequiousness to the popedom and 
 to Frederick of Prussia — or Luther's profound humility with David Hume's or 
 Gibbon's self complacency — or the lowly beginnings of the Reformation in con- 
 fessions of sin, and prayers, and tears, followed by such vast and stable results, 
 with the magniloquent vaunts of the revolutionary philosophers, and the drivell- 
 ing imbecillity with which their successors croak and chatter amid the ruins 
 they have made, but can neither replace nor repair. Robert Hall's dissection of 
 sceptical principles in his celebrated Sermon on Modern Infidelity, might show 
 M. Michelet that all these contrasts are perfectly natural, and spring from 
 radical differences of principle. Tr, 
 
 * L. Epp. p. 478. 
 
486 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 municated a mighty impulse to the whole people. The power, the 
 animation, the clearness, the generous hardihood that reigned 
 throughout it, made it quite a popular production. The people 
 came to the conclusion that the man who could speak thus, must 
 love them. The dim perceptions of many wise men were made 
 clearer, and the usurpations of Rome were forced on the convic- 
 tion of every mind. No one at Wittemberg doubted any longer 
 that the pope was antichrist. The very court of the elector, cir- 
 cumspect and timid as it was, did not blame the Reformer; it 
 waited for what would follow. But the noblea and the people 
 could not wait. The nation bestirred itself. Roused by the voice 
 of Luther, it was gained over to his views, and as he lifted his 
 standard it rallied round him. Nothing could have helped on the 
 Reformer more than did that publication. Alike in palaces, in 
 castles, and in the houses of the burgegses, down to the very cot- 
 tages, people were now prepared, and steeled as it were, against 
 the condemnatory sentence which was ready to burst upon the 
 prophet of the people. All Germany was in a flame, and the 
 bull might come when it pleased— it was not by it that the 
 conflagration could be extinguished. 
 
 IV. All was now preparing at Rome for the condemnation of 
 the man who had dared to defend the freedom of the Church. For 
 a long while people had been passing their lives there in proud 
 neglect of danger. Long had Leo X. been charged by the 
 monks of Rome with being indifferent to all things but luxury 
 and pleasure; making the chase, the theatre, and music ^ his 
 grand occupations, while the Church was left to crumble into 
 ruins. Now, however. Dr. Eck had come from Leipsick, to rouse 
 the dormant might of the Vatican, and pope, cardinals, monks, 
 all Rome in short, awoke at his call, and began to bethink them- 
 selves how they might save the popedom. 
 
 Rome, in fact, was now required to adopt the severest mea- 
 sures. The gauntlet had been thrown down to her, and a death- 
 struggle must necessarily follow. Luther no longer attacked the 
 abuses only of the Roman pontificate; he now assaulted the pon- 
 tificate itself; and at his summons the pope behoved meekly 
 to vacate his throne, and re-assume his ancient character of 
 
 ' E sopra tutto musico excellentissimo, c qnando el canta con qualche uno, lo 
 fa donar cento e pin ducati. . . (Zor&i M. S. C.) 
 
home's reasons for resistance. ECK AT ROME 487 
 
 simple pastor, or bishop, of the banks of the Tiber. All the 
 dignitaries of the Konum hierarchy were called to renounce their 
 riches and secular glory, and to sink to the condition of elders 
 and deacons of the churches of Italy. All that gorgeous display, 
 and all that worldly nii^ht, which had now for ages been dazzl- 
 ing the West, must thus have vanished, and been succeeded by 
 the humble and simple worship of the first Ciiristians. God alone 
 was equal to the task of accomplishing such things: one day He 
 will accomplish them ; but they could not be expected to be done 
 by men. And even granting that a pope should have been found 
 so disinterested, and so bold, as to desire the overthrov/ of the 
 ancient and sumptuous edifice of the Roman Church, thousands 
 of priests and bishops would have put forth their hands to pre- 
 vent its fall. The pope received the powers of the popedom only 
 under the express condition of preserving what was entrusted to 
 him. Rome considered herself appointed by God to govern the 
 Church, so that no one could wonder at her now being prepared 
 to strike the most terrible blows. And yet she hesitated at first. 
 Several cardinals, and the pope himself, were not for adopting 
 severe measures. The able Leo had the penetration to see that a 
 sentence, the execution of which depended on the very doubtful 
 goodwill of the civil power, might seriously compromise the autho- 
 rity of the Church. He saw, besides, that the violent measures 
 already employed had only aggravated the evil. Was it not pos- 
 sible that this Saxon monk might be gained over? said the politi- 
 cians of Rome. Shall all the power of the Church, and all the 
 artifices of Italy, go for nought? We must again try negotiation. 
 But powerful as were the obstacles that Eck had to encounter, 
 he neglected nothing that might prevent what he regarded as 
 impious concessions. Traversing Rome in all directions, he 
 breathed out his wrath and called for vengeance. He was 
 promptly joined by the fanatical part of the monks, and on the 
 strength of this new alliance, he renewed his importunities with 
 the pope and cardinals. In his own view all idea of conciliation 
 was impossible. "Any such hope,"" said he, "is a mere reverie with 
 which people would lull themselves asleep." But he knows the 
 danger, for he has personally encountered this audacious monk. 
 He knows that not a moment must be lost in cutting off this 
 gangrened limb, else the disease may infect the whole body. The 
 
488 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 choleric combatant of Leipsick met objection after objection, and 
 found it difficult to persuade the pope.^ He would fain save Rome 
 in spite of itself; he left no means untried; he passed whole 
 hours of deliberation in the pontiff's cabinet,- and strove to rouse 
 to action the court and the monasteries, the people and the 
 Church. " Eck is about to impetrate the abysses of the abyss 
 against me," said Luther, " he will set fire to the forest of Le- 
 banon."'"' In the end he carried his point, and the men of policy 
 were overborne in the pope's councils by fjinatics. Leo gave 
 way, Luther's condemnation was resolved upon, and Eck at 
 length breathed free. His pride was gratified at the thought 
 that he had been the instrument of accomplishing his heretical 
 rival's ruin, and hence of saving the Church, " It was well," says 
 he, " that I came at this time to Rome, for Luther's errors are 
 little known here. It will one day be understood what this 
 cause owes to me.""^ 
 
 Thus did God deliver over the doctors of Rome to a spirit of 
 infatuation. A complete separation now behoved to take place 
 between truth and error, and error was to originate the breach. 
 Had any accommodation of matters taken place, it would only 
 have been at the espense of truth; now, to have taken from her 
 any part of her completeness, would have been to secure her 
 total annihilation. She is like one of those insects whose death 
 is said to follow certainly on their losing a single antenna. She 
 must maintain her integrity if she would put forth all the energy 
 required for her making extensive and saving conquests, and if 
 she would propagate herself in future ages. The mingling of a 
 little error with truth, is like throwing a grain of poison into a 
 large quantity of food; that grain suffices to change the whole 
 nature of the food; and the result will be slow but certain death. 
 They who guard the doctrine taught by Christ against the foes 
 that assault it, watch with a jealous vigilance over the most 
 advanced outworks as well as over the body of the fortification; 
 for the moment the enemy makes himself master of the least of 
 
 ' Sarpi Hist, of the Council of Trent. 
 
 2 Stetimus nnpcr, papa, duo cardinales et ego per quinque horas in Jeliber- 
 atione. . . Eckii Epistola 3 Maii. (L. 0pp. lat. ii. p. 48.) 
 
 ^ Tmpetraturus abysses abyssorum . . . succensurus saltuni Libani. (L. 
 Epp. i. p. 421, 4-:'9.) 
 
 * IJouuin fuit me ver.sise hoc tempore Romam. . . . (Epist. Eckii.) 
 
A SWISS PRIEST PLEADS FOK LUTHER. 489 
 
 these positions, lie is not far from making a conquest of the 
 whole. At the period we have now reached, the Roman pontiflf 
 decided that tliere should be a breach in the Church; and the 
 fragment that fell to his lot, magnificent as it may be, uselessly 
 conceals under its pompous ornaments the deleterious principle 
 that has attacked it. There only is there life, where there is 
 the Word of God. With all his courage Luther would likely 
 have held his peace, had Home consented to be quiet and had 
 she made some apparent concessions. ]Jut God did not abandon 
 the Eeformation to be disposed of by the feeble heart of a man, 
 and Luther was in the hands of a Being who saw more clearly 
 than he could do. Divine Providence employed the pope as the 
 instrument of snapping asunder all those ties that connected the 
 past with the future, and of throwing the Reformer into a career 
 at once new, unknown, and doubtful in his eyes, and the first 
 approaches to M'liich he could not of himself have discovered. 
 The pontifical bull was the writing of divorcement, sent by Rome 
 to the pure Church of Jesus Christ, in the person of one who 
 was at that time her humble but faithful representative ; and 
 that Church accepted it, in order that from that very hour 
 she might hold of no Head but Him who is in heaven. 
 
 While preparations were so fiercely set about at Rome for the 
 condemnation of Luther, a humble priest, residing in one of the 
 simple towns of Switzerland, and who had never had any ties 
 with the Reformer, was deeply moved to think of the stroke that 
 impended over him; and while the friends of the Wittemberg 
 doctor trembled and held their peace, this son of the Swiss 
 mountains resolved to put forth his utmost eff'orts against that 
 formidable bull. His name was Ulrick Zwingli. He had a 
 friend in William des Faucons, secretary to the pope's legate in 
 Switzerland, and in the latter's absence charged with the man- 
 agement of Roman afiairs. The interim nuncio had said to him 
 a few days before: " As long as I shall live you may reckon on 
 my doing for you, all that you could look for from a true friend." 
 Trusting to these words, the Swiss priest repaired to the office of 
 the Roman nuncio, (this we may infer at least from one of his 
 letters). Tn his own case he dreaded not the dangers incurred by 
 those who held the Gospel faith; for he knew that the disciple 
 of Jesus Christ should at all times be prepared to sacrifice his 
 
 1. U Q 
 
490 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION'. 
 
 life. " All that I ask of Christ for myself," said he to a friend 
 whom he had made the confident of his solicitude with respect 
 to Luther, " is that I may be able to support the evils that 
 await me with the courage of a man. I am a vessel of clay in 
 his hands; let Him break me or strengthen me as it pleases Him.""' 
 But the Swiss gospeller was alarmed for the Christian Church, 
 should so formidable a blow descend upon the Eeformer. He 
 strove to persuade the representative of Rome to enlighten the 
 pope, and to use every means in his power to prevent Luther's 
 being smitten with excommunication.2 The very dignity of the 
 holy see itself, he told him, was interested in this; for should 
 matters be carried thus far, Germany, in the warmth of her 
 enthusiasm for the Gospel and for the doctor who is proclaiming 
 it, will despise the pope and his anathemas.^ This step proved 
 unavailinir; it would seem even that it came too late, the blow 
 bein"- already struck. Such was the first occasion on which the 
 paths of the Saxon doctor and the Swiss priest first met. We 
 shall have to return to the latter in the course of this history, 
 and will see him gradually open out and grow up until he 
 becomes of a lofty stature in the Church of the Lord. 
 
 Luther"'s condemnation once determined on, new difficulties 
 were started in the consistory. The divines were for proceeding 
 at once to the launching of the anathema; the jurisconsults, on 
 the contrary, were for beginning with a summons. "Was not 
 Adam," said they to their colleagues, the divines, "first sum- 
 moned? Adam, where art thoul said the Lord. It was the same 
 with regard to Cain. Where is thy brother Ahell was the Lord's 
 demand." To these strange arguments from Holy Scripture, the 
 canonists added motives derived from the law of nature: "The 
 evidence in proof of a crime" said they, " never can deprive a 
 criminal of the right of defence."^ One loves to find these princi- 
 plesof justice in a Roman congregation. But such scruples failed 
 to bring over the divines at the meeting; influenced only by 
 
 ' Hoc unum Christum obtestans ut masculo omnia pectore ferre donet, et me 
 figulinum suum rumpat aut firmet ut illi placitum sit. (Zwinglii Epistola 
 Durante Sclmlero et Schulthessio, p. 144.) 
 
 2 Ut pontificem admoneat, ne excomraunicationem forat. (Zwinglii Epistolaa, 
 curant Schulcro et Schulthessio, p. 144.) 
 
 3 Nam si feratur auguror Germanos cum excommunicatione pontificem quo- 
 que contempturos. (Zwinglii, Epp. curante Schulero et Schulthessio, p. 144.) 
 
 * Sarpi, Hist. Council of Trent, i. p. 12. 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF THE BULL AGAINST LUTHER. 491 
 
 their passions, their sole thought was how to go quickly to work. 
 It was at length agreed to proceed immediately to the condem- 
 nation of Luther's doctrine; but as for him and his adherents, 
 they were allowed a term of sixty days, after which, if they did 
 not retract, they were all ipso facto to be smitten with excommun- 
 ication. De Vio, who had returned from Germany in bad health, 
 made himself be carried into the meeting. He was unwilling to 
 forego this petty triumph, which served as some consolation to 
 him. Though beaten at Augsburg, he put himself forward in 
 Rome at least as condemning this indomitable monk, in dealing 
 with whom he had witnessed the failure at once of his learning, 
 tact, and authority. Luther was no longer there to reply, and 
 De Vio therefore felt himself strong. It was on the 15th of 
 June, that the sacred college passed sentence of condemnation, 
 and approved of the famous bull. 
 
 "Arise, Lord,"" said the Roman pontiff, speaking at that solemn 
 moment as vicar of God and head of the Church, "arise, be judge 
 in thine own cause ; remember the shame with which insensate 
 men overwhelm thee all the day. Arise, Peter! remember 
 thy Holy Roman Church, mother of all the churches, and mis- 
 tress of the faith ! Arise, Paul ! for behold a new Porphyry 
 who attacks thy doctrines and the holy popes, our predecessors. 
 Arise, in fine, assembly of all the saints! Holy Church of God! 
 and intercede with God Almighty." 
 
 The pope then quotes as pernicious, scandalous, and venom- 
 ous, forty-one propositions of Luther's, in which the latter 
 expounds the sound doctrines of the Gospel. Among these we 
 find the following: 
 
 " To deny that sin remains in the infant after baptism, is to 
 trample under foot both St. Paul and our Lord Jesus Christ." ' 
 
 ' Luther's defence of the doctrine he taught on this head, in its direct appeal 
 to scripture and experience, clearly chows what a difference there already was 
 between the theology of the schoolmen and that of the Reformers : Paulus Rom, 
 7. dicit. Concupiscentiam noscieham esse peccatum nisi lex diceret : Non 
 eoncupisces. Ilic sine dubio claret, concupiscentiam esse peccatum, At quis est 
 hominum qui concupiscentiam non sentit, postquam adoleverit, quamvis bap- 
 tisatus, cum hie apostolus, nedum baptisatus, suam concupiscentiam accuset ? 
 Unde ergo hoc peccatum misi ex nativitate carnis. etiam post baptismum 
 renianens? 
 
 " Atque ne quis putet Apostolum in persona aliorum loqui, Gala. 6. ad eos 
 qui spiritu vivebant, generali sententia dicit : Si Spiritu vivinius spiritu ct am- 
 bulemus. Quid erat necesse mandare, ut spiritu ambulent, qui spiritu rivunt, 
 si non superest peccatum carnis, quod crucifigant? &c. See .\ssortio. omui 
 
492 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " A new life is the best and the most sublime penitence."" 
 
 " The burning of heretics is contrary to the will of the Holy 
 Ghost," &;c. &c, 
 
 " From the hour of the publication of this bull," continues the 
 pope, "bishops ought carefully to seek out the writings of Martin 
 Luther that contain errors, and to burn them in a public and 
 solemn manner, in the presence both of clergy and laity. As 
 for Martin himself, good God! what have we not done? Imitat- 
 ing the goodness of Almighty God, we are ready, nevertheless, 
 to receive him again into the bosom of the Church, and we allow 
 him sixty days for him to send us his retractation in a writing 
 signed by two prelates; or, as would indeed be pleasanter for us, 
 for him to come himself to Home, so that no one should enter- 
 tain any doubt of his obedience. Meanwhile, and from this very 
 instant, he ought to relinquish preaching, teaching, and writing, 
 and to deliver his works to the flames. And if he fail to retract 
 within the space of sixty days, we condemn him for the present, 
 both him and his adherents, as public and obstinate heretics.*' 
 The pope then pronounces a great many excommunications, 
 curses, and interdicts against Luther and his abettors, with an 
 order to seize their persons and bring them to Rome.l ^ It is 
 easy to guess what would have become of those generous con- 
 fessors of the Gospel in the dungeons of the popedom. 
 
 Thus was the lightning collecting over Luther''s head; the bull 
 made its appearance, and never for ages had Rome opened her 
 mouth to condemn, without her arm being raised to inflict a 
 death-blow. The murderous message was about to wing its way 
 from the seven hills till it reached the Saxon monk in his cell. 
 The moment was well chosen. It might be presumed that the 
 
 articul. D. M. L. per Bullam Leonis X., damnat. Anno 1520. at page 296 of 
 2d vol. of Luther's Works. Jena 1581. Tr. 
 
 ' For many interesting details -with re.«pcct to what may be called the anti- 
 heretical jurisprudence of tlie ]>opcdom, the reader may consult : " A Discourse 
 concerning the Laws, Ecclesiastical and Civil, made against Ilereticks by Popes, 
 Emperors, and Kings, Provincial and General Councils, approved by the Church 
 of Rome," <fcc. &c. first published, it would appear, in 1CS2, and republished at 
 Dublin in 1723. Happily with regard to heresy in general, according to its 
 views of heresy, weakness now compels the popedom to employ the policy of its 
 brief on the subject of mixed marriages, issued to the clergy of Austria on Ma^ 
 22d 1841, nmla illapatienter solet dissimulare : " these evils it is wont patiently 
 to dissemble." Tr. 
 
 ^ Sub prasdictis poenis, prjcfatum Lutherum, complices adherentes, recep- 
 tatores et fatuatores, personaliter capiant et ad nos mittant. (Bulla Leonis, 
 loc. cit.) 
 
MF,LANCnTnON''3 P0PULAT5ITY. ITIS MARRIAGF. 493 
 
 new emperor, with so many reasons for cultivating the friendship 
 of the pope, would hasten to deserve it hy sacrificing an obscure 
 monk, so that already Leo X., the cardinals, and all Rome 
 doubtless exulted at the thouiiht of sceins: their foe at their feet. 
 V. While the inhabitants of the eternal city were in this 
 state of commotion, more tranquil scenes were taking place at 
 Wittemberg, There Mclanchthon was shedding a soft yet lum- 
 inous radiance over from fifteen hundred to two thousand auditors 
 who had flocked to his prelections from Germany, England, the 
 Lo>v Countries, France, Italy, Hungary, and Greece. He was 
 four and twenty years old and not an ecclesiastic. Not a family 
 in Wittemberg to which the visits of this most amiable and 
 learned professor were not acceptable. Foreign universities, and 
 Ingolstadt in particular, would fain have allured him into their 
 service, and as a means of engaging him to remain with them, 
 his Wittemberg friends wished him to marry. With every 
 wish that his dear Philip should find a suitable companion, 
 Luther openly declared that he would give no advice in such a 
 matter, so that others became his counsellors with regard to it. 
 The young doctor was chiefly in the habit of visiting the house 
 of burgomaster Krapp, who belonged to an ancient family, and 
 whose daughter Catherine was a person of sweet disposition and 
 great sensibility. Melanchthon was encouraged to ask her in 
 marriage, but the young devotee to learning vvas immersed in 
 books and would hear of no other favourite. His Greek authors 
 and his Testament were to him the richest treats. The argu- 
 ments of his friends he met by other arguments. At length a 
 consent was wrung from him. His friends made all the neces- 
 sary arrangements for him, and he received Catherine for his 
 wife. His reception of her was very cold,l and he said with 
 a sigh: "So, such is the will of God! I must relinquish my 
 studies and my joys, to follow the advice of my friends.'^" Yet 
 he appreciated Catlierine''s good qualities. "The young woman," 
 he said, "has such a character, and has had such an education, 
 as I could have asked from God. ^e^ia 6 OtuQ TiKjialpotTo.^ She 
 certainly deserved a better husband." The preliminaries were 
 
 1 Uxor enim datur mihi non dico quam frigenti. (Corp. Eef. i. p. 211.) 
 
 * Ego nieis studiis, mea nie voluptate fraudo. (Ibid. i. p. 205.) 
 
 * May God, by his right arm, make the matter end well ! (Ibid. l.J 
 
494 III3T0RY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 settled in the month of August; the parties were betrothed to 
 each other on the 25th of September, and the marriage was 
 solemnized about the end of November. Old John Luther came 
 to Wittemberg on this occasion with his daughters, i and many 
 learned men and pei'sons of distinction were present at the cere- 
 mony. 
 
 The young wife was as affectionate as the professor seemed 
 cold. Ever anxious about her husband, Catharine took alarm 
 the moment she saw the appearance of danger threaten an object 
 so dear to her; and when Melanchthon proposed to take any 
 step of a nature likely to compromise him, she overwhelmed him 
 with her entreaties to change his purpose. It was on such an 
 occasion that Melanchthon wrote: " I could not but submit to 
 her weakness. . . . Such is our lot." How many instances 
 of unfaithfulness in the Church have had a like origin. Possibly 
 we have to blame Catherine's influence for that timidity and 
 those alarms, for which her husband has so often been reproached. 
 Catherine was no less tender a mother than she was a loving 
 wife. She gave bountifully to the poor. " God, forsake me 
 not when old and grey headed:" such was the ordinary sigh 
 of this godly but timorous soul. Melanchthon was soon gained 
 over by his wife's affection, and needed only to taste the sweets 
 of domestic life in order to enjoy them. He was formed for such 
 endearments, and never felt himself so happy as when with his 
 Catharine and his children. A French traveller, having one day 
 found the " master of Germany" lulling a babe asleep with one 
 hand and holding a book in the other, drew back in amazement. 
 But Melanchthon, without putting himself out of sorts, expatiated 
 so warmly on the value of infants in the eye of God, that the 
 foreigner left the house a wiser man, said he, than he had entered 
 it. 
 
 Melanchthon's marriage gave a domestic fireside to the Refor- 
 mation, and from that time forth Wittemberg contained one 
 family at least, whose house was ever open to all who loved the 
 new life. Immense crowds of foreigners flocked to it.^ People 
 came to Melanchthon about an infinite variety of matters, and 
 
 ' Parentes mei cum sororibus nuptias honorarunt Philippi. ( L. Epp. i. p. 528.") 
 2 Videres in aedibus illis perpetuo accedentes et introeuntes et discedentes 
 atque exeuntes aliquos. (Camerar. Vita Mclancht. p. 40.) 
 
MEr,ANCHTHON*S WRITINGS. 495 
 
 the established rule of the house was, that none should go away 
 unsatisfied. 1 The youthful professor was particularly expert at 
 ])utting himself out of the question when there was any good to 
 be done. If he ran sliort of money, he would quietly take his 
 silver plate and sell it, caring little about losing it, provided he 
 might have wherewithal to relieve the distressed. "Accordingly, 
 it would have been impossible for him to provide for the wants 
 of himself and his family," says his friend Camerarius, "had not 
 a divine and invisible blessing provided him from time to time 
 with the means." He was extremely good natured. Having in 
 his possession some antique gold and silver coins, with figures 
 and inscriptions, he was one day showing these to a foreigner 
 who had come to visit him. "Take," said Melanchthon, "which 
 you like best." " I should like to have them all," said the 
 stranger. " I admit," said Philip, " that this unreasonable re- 
 quest oflfended me at first: nevertheless, I let him have them 
 all."^ 
 
 Melanchthon's writings were redolent of classical antiquity, 
 not however so as that the good odour of Christ did not exhale 
 from all parts of them, giving them a charm that cannot be 
 expressed. There is not a letter of his to his friends that does 
 not contain some allusion, introduced in the most natural man- 
 ner, to the wisdom of Homer, Plato, Cicero, and Pliny, Christ 
 remaining ever his Master and his God. Spalatin having asked 
 him to explain those words of Jesus Christ, Without me ye can 
 do nothing (John xv. 6), Melanchthon referred him to Luther. 
 '"• Cur agam gestum spectante Boscio? to speak with Cicero," ^ 
 says he. He then proceeds thus. " This passage signifies that 
 we ought to be absorbed with Christ, so that we no longer act, 
 but that Christ lives in us. As the divine nature has been incor- 
 porated with men in Christ, so must man be incorporated with 
 Christ by faith."^ 
 
 1 Et domns disciplina erat ut nihil cuiquam negaretur. (Ibid.) 
 
 s Sed dedisse nihilominus illos. (Ibid. p. 43.) 
 
 3 Why should I declaim in the presence of Roscius ? (Corp. Reform. Ep. 
 13th April, 1520.) 
 
 « Union with Christ is the soul of the doctrine of the Reformers, and it was 
 the very soul, also, of their individual lives, as we see in the case of Melanchthon. 
 Therefore, too, was the union of the Godhead with humanity in the person of 
 Christ so momentous a matter in their regard. Hero all intimately hangs 
 together; and it must not bethought surprising that when people think they 
 can suffice for themselves, and declare any such union with Christ to be a piece 
 
496 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 This illustrious man of letters habitually went to bed soon 
 after supper. By two or three o'clock in the morning he was 
 at work,l and it was during those early hours that his best works 
 were written. His manuscripts usually lay exposed on his table 
 within reach of all who came and went, so that several of them 
 were stolen. After inviting some friends to his house, he would 
 request one or other of them, when the cloth was removed, to 
 read some little composition in prose or in verse. In travel- 
 ling- he always took a few young men along with him, and with 
 them he would converse so as to be at once instructive and amus- 
 ing. When tired of talking, each would repeat in his turn 
 passages from the ancient poets. He was often ironical, but it 
 was an irony ever tempered with great mildness. " He pricks 
 and cuts," said he of himself, "yet without doing any harm," 
 
 His ruling passion was learning, and his life's grand object 
 the diffusion of literature and intelligence. Let us not forget 
 that literature for him was, first, the Holy Scriptures, and next 
 only, the learning of the pagans. "I apply myself," said he, "to 
 one thing only, that is, the defence of literature. We ought by 
 our example to inflame the young with admiration for literature, 
 and to make them love it for its own sake and not for the profit 
 that may be derived from it. The ruin of literature brings 
 along with it the desolation of all that is good: both religion and 
 morals — the thin";s of God and the things of man.- The better 
 a man is, the more ardently will he desire to save literature, for 
 he knows that of all plagues ignorance is the most pernicious." 
 
 Some time after his marriage Melanchthon went into the Pala- 
 tinate, to Bretten, that in company with Camerarius and other 
 friends, he might pay a visit to his affectionate mother. As 
 soon as he descried his native town, he dismounted his horse, 
 threw himself on his knees, and thanked God for permitting 
 him to see it again. Margaret, on embracing her son, almost 
 
 of mysticism, they fall into dreadful errors -with respect to his person and work, 
 and bring down everything to the limits of their own petty (Jit. small-spirited) 
 comprehensions. But what good can such men do in a church which has again 
 fallen so low, after having been restored from her former fall by Reformers 
 having Christ and his Spirit in them, and by truths so full of life as these. — L. R. 
 
 ' Surgebat mox aut non longo intervallo post mediam noctem. (Camerar., p 
 66.") 
 
 ^ Religionem, mores, humana divinaque omnia labefactat littcrarum inscitia- 
 (Corp. Ref. i. p. 207. 22d July, 1520.) 
 
TUMULT AT WITTEMHERr.. 
 
 407 
 
 fainted for joy. She vfon\d have liaJ liini remain at Bretten, 
 and urf ently besouf!;lit him not to forsake the faith of his fathers. 
 In this respect Melanchthon excused himself, but took care so 
 to word what he said as not to wound his mother's conscience. 
 He found it very hard to part from her, and whenever a traveller 
 brought him news about his native place, lie felt delighted, "as if 
 he had been taken back," said he, "to the joys of his childhood."" 
 Such, at heart, was one of the greatest organs of the religious 
 revolution of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Meanwhile, the domestic scenes and studious activity of Wit- 
 temberg, were disagreeably interrupted by a tumult. The stu- 
 dents came to blows with the citizens. On this occasion the 
 rector displayed much want of firmness. We may well suppose 
 what must have been Mclanchthon's distress at seeing such 
 excesses committed by the disciples of polite letters. As for 
 Luther, he was indignant. He scorned that false condescension 
 by which some would have sought to influence the rioters, and 
 was cut to the heart ^ at the thought of the disgrace in which 
 such disorders must involve the university. Entering the pul- 
 pit he preached with much force against those seditious doings, 
 and urged both parties to submit to the magistrates.^ His dis- 
 course produced much exasperation. " Satan," said he, " unable 
 to assail us from without, would fain injure us from within. I 
 fear him not; but I fear that God's wrath may strike us, because 
 of our inadequate reception of his Word. During these last 
 three years I have been exposed thrice to great dangers: in 1518 
 at Augsburg, in 1519 at Leipsick, and now in 1520 at Wittem- 
 berf. It is neither by wisdom nor by arms that the work of 
 renewing the Church will be accomplished, but by humble 
 prayers and by an unwavering faith, as by these we obtain 
 Christ to be with us.3 O my friends, join your prayers with 
 mine, that the evil spirit may not make this small spark the 
 means of kindling a vast conflagration." 
 
 VI. But combats still more terrible awaited Luther. Rome 
 now brandished the sword wherewith she was to smite the 
 
 ' Urit me ista confusio academia; nostra;. (L. Epp. i. p. 467.) 
 ' Commendans potestatem magistratuum. (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ . . . Ncc prudentia, nee armis, sed humili oratione et forti fide, quibus 
 obtineamus Christum pro nobis. (Ibid. p. 469.) 
 I. 3 R 
 
498 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Gospel. Yet the Reformer quailed not at the noise of the con- 
 demnation that hung over him ; far from that, his courage rose 
 under it. Parrying the thrusts of that haughty power, cost him 
 little uneasiness; it was by dealing the most terrible ones himself 
 that he best could nullify those of his adversaries. While the 
 transalpine congregations were fulminating their anathemas 
 against him, he wished to transport the sword of the Word into 
 the midst of the tribes of Italy. Letters from Venice spoke of the 
 favour with which Luther's views were received there. He felt 
 a burning desire to send the Gospel across the Alps. Evangelists 
 had to be obtained who might convey it thither. "I could wish" 
 said he, " that we had living books, that is to say, preachers, 1 
 and that we could every where multiply and protect them, so as 
 to make the knowledge of divine things pass among the people. 
 The prince could do nothing more worthy of himself. Were 
 the people of Italy to receive the truth, our cause would then be 
 safe beyond attack." It does not appear that this project of 
 Luther''s was ever realised. At a later period, indeed, evange- 
 lical men, including Calvin himself, spent some time in Italy, but 
 for the present Luther's design remained unaccomplished. He 
 had addressed himself to one of the mighty ones of the earth; 
 the result might have been very different had he made his appeal 
 to men in humble stations but full of zeal for the kingdom of 
 God. At that time people were possessed with the idea that all 
 must be done by governments, and the associating together of 
 simple individuals, a power now working such wonders in Chris- 
 tendom, was almost unknown.^ 
 
 1 Si vivos libros, hoc est concionatores possemus muUiplicare. . . . (L. 
 Epp. i. p. 491.) 
 
 " And may it not be insufficiently understood still? True; great things are 
 now in course of accomplishment by the union of individual persons, not invested 
 ■with either temporal or spiritual powers. This is what the worthy author refers 
 to. But still it is by a combination of powers that they effect this. Persons of rank 
 and influence are eagerly associated with such undertakings, or jilaced at their head. 
 Would such efforts find much countenance if undertaken or promoted by unin- 
 fluential though well meaning persons alone, acting independently of others? Or 
 would they not be considered and condemned as hazardous and rash, just because 
 unsupported by any human power or rank? And yet such efforts would most 
 resemble those of the earliest times of Christianity. — L. R. Courting the patron- 
 age of the wealthy and influential, is certainly a grievous delect in almost all the 
 religious associations to which both the author and his Dutch commentator refer. 
 But a better remedy than that suggested by the latter, seems to lie in Christiana 
 uniting to purify the churches in which their lot is cast, and to engage them in 
 such noble efi'orts as that which occupied Luther's thoughts in regard to Italy, 
 as churches, consisting of persons of all ranks and conditions, and addressing all 
 
hjthek''s courage increases. 499 
 
 Though Luther did not succeed in his projects for dissemin- 
 atinf^ the truth at a distance, he was not the less zealous in 
 preaching it himself. It was now that he pronounced at Wit- 
 temher"- his discourse on the holy mass.l He there attacked the 
 numerous sects of the Roman Church, and with the strongest 
 reason reproached it for its want of unity. " The multiplicity of 
 laws spiritual," says ho, " has filled the world with sects and 
 divisions. Priests, monks, and laity, have come to hate each 
 other more than the Christians and the Turks. What am I 
 saying! Nay, priests among themselves, and monks among them- 
 selves, are deadly enemies. The unity and the love of Christ 
 are things gone by.*" He next attacks the idea that the mass is 
 a sacrifice and has any efficacy of itself. " What is best," says 
 he, "in every sacrament, and consequently in the supper, is 
 God's Word and promises. Without faith in that word and 
 those promises, the sacrament is dead; it is a body without a 
 soul, a vase without wine, a purse without money, a type with- 
 out its accomplishment, a letter without spirit, a jewel-box with- 
 out jewels, a sheath without a sword." 
 
 Luther's voice, however, was not confined within the walls of 
 Wittemberg, and although he found no missionaries to convey 
 his instructions afar, God provided one of a new kind. Print- 
 ing was to take the place of evangelists. The press was to open 
 a breaching battery on the Roman fortress. Luther had made 
 ready a mine which, in exploding, would shake the edifice of 
 Rome to its foundations. This was the publication of his famous 
 work on the Babylonian Captivity of the (7/^Mrc/^, which appeared 
 on the 26th of October, 1520.2 Never did man placed in so 
 critical a situation, display so much courage. 
 
 In that production he first describes, with inimitable irony, all 
 the advantages for which he was indebted to his enemies. 
 
 " Whether I will or not," says he, " I am forced to become a 
 more and more accomplished person every day, with so many 
 and such learned masters striving which shall best urge me and 
 exercise me. I wrote on the indulgences two years ago, but in 
 
 as equal in the eye of God, and therefore courting and flattering none. Things 
 are tending to this result, we rejoice to think, both at Geneva and in Holland- 
 
 T3. 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 400. 
 . * L. 0pp. Lit. ii. 6S, and Leipsick, xvii. p. 511. 
 
500 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 such a manner that I now repent me wonderfully of mj pub- 
 lished book. For at that time I clung with a certain inveterate 
 superstition to the Roman tyranny; I did not then consider 
 that indulgences were altogether to be rejected, approved, as I 
 saw they were, by so general a consent among men. Nor was 
 this wonderful, seeing that I rolled that rock alone." He thanks 
 Prierius, Eck, Emser, and his other adversaries. " I denied," 
 he continues, "that the popedom was of divine but admitted that 
 it was of human right. But having heard and read the most 
 subtile subtilities of these popes in upholding their idol, I now 
 know, and am assured, that the popedom is the kingdom of Ba- 
 bylon and the might of Nimrod, the sturdy hunter. I pray 
 therefore all my friends, and all the booksellers, to burn all that 
 I have written on the subject, and to replace them with this 
 single proposition: The Papacy is a general chase} commanded hy 
 the Roman Bishop, to overtake and destroy souls!'* 
 
 Luther next attacks the errors then prevailing with regard to 
 the sacraments, monastic vows, &c. He reduces the seven sacra- 
 ments of the Church to three — baptism, penance, and the holy 
 supper. He expounds the true nature of the Lord's supper. He 
 next passes to baptism, and it is here in particular that he estab- 
 lishes the excellence of faith, and powerfully attacks Rome. 
 " God," says he, " has preserved to us this sacrament alone 
 unalloyed with human traditions. God has said: Whosoever 
 shall have believed and been baptized, shall be saved. This promise 
 on the part of God, ought to be preferred to all the pomp of good 
 works, all vows, all satisfactions, all the indulgences, to all things, 
 in short, of man's invention. Now, on this promise, if we receive 
 it with faith, hangs our whole salvation. If we believe, our 
 heart is fortified by the divine promise; and although all should 
 forsake the believer, this promise which he believes will not for- 
 sake him. With it he will resist the adversary who rushes upon 
 his soul, and will have wherewithal to answer to pitiless death, 
 and even to the judgment of God. It will be his consolation in 
 every trial to say: God is faithful to his promises; I have 
 received the pledge of them in my baptism; if God be for me, 
 who shall be against me? Oh but the Christian, the baptized 
 
 ' Papains est robusta venatio Romani Episcopi. (L. 0pp. lat. ii. p. 64.) 
 
ALL VOWS UNNECESSARY. 
 
 501 
 
 man, is rich! Nothing can destroy him, provided he refuse not 
 to believo. Possibly what I have said on the necessity of faith, 
 will be met by referring to the baptism of infants. But as tho 
 Word of God is mighty to the changing even of the heart of an 
 impious person, certainly not less inaccessible or less incapable 
 than an infant, so also the prayer of the Church, to which all 
 things are possible, changes the child by the faith wliich Cod 
 is pleased to infuse into its soul, and thus cleanses and renews 
 it."i 
 
 "After explaining the doctrine of baptism, Luther employs it 
 as a weapon in attacking the popedom. In fact, if a Christian 
 find his whole salvation in the renewal of his baptism by faith, 
 what need has he of the prescriptions of Rome? 
 
 " Therefore it is," says Luther, " that I declare that neither 
 pope, nor bishop, nor any man, be he who he may, has power to 
 impose the smallest matter on a Christian unless it should be 
 with his own consent. Everything done otherwise is done 
 tyrannically .2 We are free with regard to all men. The vow 
 made at our baptism is sufficient of itself, and comprehends more 
 than we can ever accomplish. ^ Hence all other vows may be abo- 
 lished. Whosoever enters the priesthood or any religious order, 
 let him well understand that the works of a monk or of a priest, 
 however difficult they may be, differ in no respect, in the sight 
 of God, from those of a countryman who tills the ground, or of a 
 woman who conducts a household.^ God values all things by 
 the standard of faith. And it often happens that the simple 
 labour of a male or female servant is more agreeable to God 
 than the fasts and the works of a monk, because in these faith 
 is wanting. . . . The Christian people is God's true people, 
 carried away captive into Babylon, where they have been robbed 
 of that which they received at their baptism." 
 
 1 Sicut enim verbum Dei potens est dum sonat, etiam impii cor immutare, 
 quod non minus est surdum ot incapax quam uUus parvulus, ita per orationem 
 Ecclesiae offerentis et credentis, parvulus fide infusa mutatur, mundatur et 
 renovatur. (L. 0pp. lat. ii. 77.) 
 
 ^ Dico itaque neque papa, reque episcopus, neque ullu3 hominum habet jus 
 unius syllabce constituenda3 super Christianum hominem, nisi id fiat ejusdem 
 consensu, quidquid aliter fit tyiannico spiritu fit. (Ibid.) 
 
 8 Generali edicto tollere vota . . . abunde enim vovimus in baptism© et 
 plus quam possimus implere. (Tbid. p. 78.) 
 
 * Opera quantum libet sacra et ardua religiosorum et sacerdotum, in oculis 
 D'^i prorsus nihil distare ab operibus rustici in agro laborantis, aut mulieris in 
 dome sua curantis. (Ibid.) 
 
502 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Such were the weapons with which the religious revolution 
 whose history we are tracing was effected. First, the necessity 
 of faith was re-established, and then the Reformers employed it, 
 like a huge mace, for shattering superstition to atoms. It was 
 with this power o! God that can remove mountains, that they 
 attacked so many errors. These words of Luther's, and so 
 many others like them, disseminated in towns, monasteries, and 
 throughout the country villages, were the leaven which soon 
 made the whole lump to rise. 
 
 Luther closes this famous production of his on the Babylonish 
 captivity with these words: 
 
 " I learn that new papal excommunications are about to be 
 fabricated against me. If this be the case, this present book 
 may be regarded as part of my future retractation. The rest 
 will speedily follow as a proof of my obedience, and together, 
 with the help of Christ, they will form such a whole as Rome 
 will never have seen or heard the like of." 
 
 VIL After such a publication, all hope of reconciliation between 
 the pope and Luther might well be considered as at an end; 
 that the faith of the Reformer was incompatible with the doc- 
 trines of the Church, must have struck the dullest observer; 
 yet this was precisely the time when new negotiations were set 
 on foot. Five weeks previous to the publication of the Baby- 
 lonish Captivity, about the close of August 1520, the chapter 
 general of the Augustinians was held at Eisleben. There the 
 venerable Staupitz resigned the vicar-generalship of the order, 
 and was succeeded by Winceslas Link, who accompanied Luther 
 to Augsburg. The indefatigable Miltitz suddenly arrived in 
 the midst of the chapter.^ He felt a burning desire to reconcile 
 the pope and Luther, and in this his vanity, his avarice, — still 
 more, his jealousy and hatred, were all interested. He was 
 annoyed by Eck and his bragging; he was aware that the 
 Ingolstadt doctor decried him at Rome, and he would have 
 sacrificed everything to frustrate the proceedings of this teasing 
 rival, by the speedy conclusion of a peace. For the religious 
 part of the matter he cared nothing. One day, as he himself 
 relates, he was seated at table with the bishop of Meissen. The 
 
 ! Nondum tot pressus diflBcultatibus animum desponderat Miltitius. . . • 
 dignus profecto non inediocri laude. (Pallavicini, i. p. 68.) 
 
LUTIIEK URGED TO WRITE TO THE POPE. 
 
 503 
 
 guests had already indulged in copious libations, when a new 
 production of Luther's was brought in, opened, and read. On 
 hearing it the bishop was in a rage, the olllcial swore, but Mil- 
 titz burst into a hearty laugli.' Miltitz treated the Ivefonnation 
 with the feelings of a man of the world; Eck as a theologian. 
 
 Roused by the arrival of Dr. Eek, JNliltitz made a speech to 
 the chapter of the Augustinians, with a strong Italian accent,2 
 thinking thereby to impose on his honest fellow-countrymen. 
 *' The whole order of the Augustinians," said he, " is comprom- 
 ised in this aftair. You must point out to me some means for 
 putting down Luther.*' — " We have nothing to do with the 
 doctor," said the fathers, " and we know not how best to advise 
 you." They trusted, no doubt, to Staupitz having loosed Luther 
 from the vows of the order at Augsburg. Miltitz insisted. " Let 
 a deputation from this venerable chapter proceed to Luther, and 
 urge hiin to write to the pope, assuring him that he has never 
 attempted anything to the prejudice of his person. 3 That will 
 suffice to put an end to the matter." The chapter yielded to this 
 request of the nuncio and, probably at his suggestion, commis- 
 sioned their vicar-general, Staupitz, and his successor. Link, to 
 confer with Luther. This deputation immediately set ott" for 
 Wittcmberg with a letter from Miltitz to the doctor, full of 
 expressions of the utmost respect. " There is no time to be lost," 
 said he, " the thunderbolt, already suspended over the Refor- 
 mer's head, would soon burst upon it, and then all would be 
 over." 
 
 Neither Luther nor the deputies who shared in his sentiments, 
 hoped anything from a letter to the pope; but even that was a 
 reason for not refusinjr to write one. Such a letter could be but 
 a mere matter of form, and would thus give greater prominence 
 to Luther's right. " This Italian of Saxony," (Miltitz) thought 
 Luther, "no doubt has his own private interest in view in 
 making this request. Be it so. I will write, as is really the 
 fact, that I have never had anything to say against the pope 
 personally.4 j must be on my guard not to attack the see of 
 
 > Der Bischof entriistet, der Official gefluchet, et aber gelachet habe. (Seck- 
 end. p. 266.) . 
 
 » Orationem habuit Italica pronunciatione vestitam. (L. Epp. i. p. ■IbJ.; 
 ' Petens consilium super me compcscendo. (Ibid. p. 483.) 
 * Nihil me in personam suam fuissc molitum. (Ib:d. p. 484.) 
 
504 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Rome too strongly.' I must season it, however, with its own 
 proper salt."-^ 
 
 Soon after this, however, the doctor was apprized of the bull 
 having arrived in Germany; on the 13th of October he declared 
 to Spalatin that he would not write to the pope, and on the 6th 
 of that month he published his book on the Babylonish Captivity. 
 Still Miltitz was not to be discouraged. His eagerness to humble 
 Eck, made him believe impossibilities. On the 2d of October 
 he wrote a letter full of high hope to the elector: " All will go 
 well ; " said he, " but, for God's sake, delay no longer to pay me 
 the pension that you and your brother settled on me some years 
 ao-o. I must have money for the purpose of making myself 
 friends anew at Rome. Write to the pope, do homage to the 
 young cardinals, his holiness's relations, with gold and silver 
 pieces from your electorial highnesses mint, and to these add 
 some for me; for I have been robbed of all that you gave mc^S 
 
 Not even after Luther had been informed of the bull, would 
 the intriguing Miltitz allow himself to be discouraged. He sought 
 to have a conference with Luther at Lichtemberg, and the elector 
 enjoined the latter to repair thither and meet him.* But his 
 friends, and the affectionate Melanchthon in particular, were 
 opposed to this.5 " What ! " thought they, " can anything be so 
 mad, as at the moment of the appearance of a bull, ordaining that 
 Luther should be seized with the view of being conveyed to 
 Rome, to accept of a conference with the pope's nuncio, in a remote 
 place? Is it not clear that as Dr. Eck could not get near enough 
 to the Reformer, in consequence of his having so openly pro- 
 claimed his hatred, the sly chamberlain has been commissioned 
 to take Luther in his nest?" 
 
 The Wittemberg doctor was not to be deterred by these appre- 
 hensions; his prince had commanded, and he would obey. " I 
 leave this for Lichtemberg," he writes to the chaplain on the 11th 
 October; "pray for me."" His friends would not abandon him; 
 hence that same day, towards evening, Luther entered Lichtem- 
 
 1 Quibus omnibus causa mea non displicet. (L. Epp. i. p. 486.) 
 
 2 Aspergetur tamen sale suo. (L. Epp. i. p. 4S6.) 
 
 ^ Den Pabsts Nepoten, 2 oder 3 Churfiirstliche Goldund Silberstucke zu 
 verehren. . . • (Seckend. p. 267.) 
 
 * Sicut princeps ordinavit. (L. Epp. i. p 455.) 
 
 '" Invito praeceptore (Melanchthon) nescio quanta metuente. (Ibid.) 
 
LUTIIEn PROMISES TO WRITE. 505 
 
 berg on horseback, surrounded by thirty horsemen, among whom 
 was Melanchthon, The papal nuncio arrived there about the 
 same time, with a retinue of four persons.^ May not tliis modest 
 escort have been a trick employed to throw Luther and hia 
 friends off their guard? . . . 
 
 Miltitz urged Luther with the most pressing solicitations, as- 
 suring him tliat the blame would be laid on Eck and his absurd 
 boasts,^ and that all would end satisfactorily for both parties. 
 " Very well," replied Luther, " I offer from this time forth 
 to observe silence, provided my opponents do the same. I 
 am willing to do all that I possibly can do, for the sake of 
 peaci^"'^ 
 
 Miltitz was delighted. He accompanied Luther back to Wit- 
 temberg, and the lleformer and the pope's nuncio entered that 
 city side by side, while Dr. Eck was already on his way thither, 
 presenting with a threatening hand the dread bull, which was 
 to crush the Reformation to the ground. "We shall bring the 
 matter to a happy issue," Miltitz wrote straightway to the elector, 
 "thank the pope for the rose, and at the same time send forty or 
 fifty florins to the cardinal Quatuor Sanctorum.''''^ 
 
 Luther had now to perform his promise by writing to the pope. 
 Before he bade Rome an eternal farewell, he desired that she 
 should once more hear from him important and salutary truths. 
 Possibly some will see nothing more in his letter than a piece of 
 caustic writing; a bitter and insulting satire; but this shows 
 they know not the sentiments that really animated him. He 
 ascribed to Rome, witli perfect sincerity, all the woes that 
 then afflicted Christendom; hence all that he says must be 
 regarded, not as insults, but as solemn warnings. The more he 
 loved Leo, so much the more did he love the Church of Christ, 
 he desires, therefore, to expose to view the sore in all its extent. 
 He must make the energy of his expressions the measure of the 
 energy of his affection. It was now the time for striking- vio-orous 
 blows. We might suppose we saw the prophet going his last 
 
 ' Tener von mchr als 30, diser aber kaum mit 4 rferdcn bcn-Icitet. fSeckend 
 p. 2f.8.) 
 
 ^ Totura pondus in Eccium versurus. (L. Epp. i. p. 496.) 
 
 ^ Ut nihil videar omitterc quod in me ad i)accm quoquo mode faccre possit. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 * Seckend. p. 268. 
 
 I." 3 s . 
 
506 
 
 HISTORY OF THE rtEFORMATIOX. 
 
 round, reproaching the citjfor all its abominations, and crying: 
 " Yet some days ! " . . . The letter runs as follows: 
 
 "To the most holy Father in God, Leo X., pope at Rome, be 
 all salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. 
 
 " From amid the fierce warfare in which I have now for 
 three years been engaged with unruly men, I cannot but at 
 times look to you, Leo, most holy father in God! And albeit 
 the folly of your ungodly flatterers have constrained me to 
 appeal from your judgment to a future council, my heart has 
 not turned itself away from your holiness, and I have not ceased 
 to pray to God in constant prayers and profound sighs, ^ for your 
 own welfare and that of your pontificate. 
 
 " I have impugned, indeed, some antichristian doctrines, and 
 have inflicted a deep wound on my adversaries, on account of tlieir 
 ungodliness. I repent not of this, for here I have the example 
 of Jesus Christ. What use is there in salt, if it bite not? What 
 use in the edge of a sword, if it cut noti"- Cursed be he that 
 doth the work of the Lord negligently ! O most excellent 
 Leo, far from having ever conceived an evil thought with regard 
 to you, I wish the most precious of blessings may be yours for 
 eternity. I have done but one thing. I have maintained the 
 Word of truth. I am ready to yield to all in everything; but 
 as for that Word, I neither will nor can abandon it.3 He who 
 thinks not as I do, thinks amiss. 
 
 " True it is that I have attacked the court of Rome, but 
 neither you, nor any man on earth, can deny that the corruption 
 there is greater than that of Sodom and Gomorrha, and that the 
 impiety that reigns there is past hope of cure. Yes, I have 
 been horrified to perceive that under your name Chrisfs poor 
 people have been deceived. This I have resisted and will resist 
 it still; not that I imagine that I shall be able, in spite of the 
 opposition of flatterers, to eff"ect any good end in that Babylon, 
 which is confusion itself, but I owe it to my brethren, in order 
 that some if possible may escape these terrible plagues. 
 
 "You know it, that for many years Rome has been inundat- 
 
 ' Ut non totis viribus, sedulis atque quantum in me fuit gemebundis precibus 
 apud Deum quajsierim. (L. Epp. i. p. 498.) 
 
 - Quid proderlt sal, si non mordeat? Quid os gladii si non csedat? (Ibid. p. 
 499.) 
 
 ' Verbum deserere et nogaro nee possum, noc volo. (Ibid. p. 499.) 
 
LUTHEIl's LETTER TO THE POl'E. 507 
 
 ing the world with all that could destroy both soul and body. 
 The Church of Rome, at one time foremost in holiness, has 
 become a den of thieves, a scene of prostitution, a kingdom of 
 death and hell,l so much so, that were antichrist himself to 
 appear, he could not make his malignity worse. All this ia 
 clearer than the very light of the sun. 
 
 "And yet you, Leo, are like a lamb in the midst of wolves, 
 and like Daniel in the den of lions ! Alone, what can you oppose 
 to these monsters? There may possibly be three or four cardinals 
 who are at once virtuous and learned. But what is that among 
 so many? You would be destroyed before being allowed to 
 attempt any remedy. It is all over with the court of Rome; 
 the wrath of God has reached it and will consume it.2 It hates 
 counsel; it dreads reformation; it has no wish to moderate the 
 fury of its ungodliness, and thus deserves to have said of it, 
 what was said of its mother: We would have healed Babylon, hut 
 slie is not healed: forsake her.^ It was for you and your cardinals 
 to apply the remedy, but the sick man mocks at his physician 
 and the horse spurns the reins. . . • 
 
 " With the full affection I bear to you, most excellent Leo, 
 I have ever regretted that, formed as you are for a better age, 
 you have been raised to the pontificate at such a time as this. 
 Home is not worthy of you, or of those who are like you; she 
 deserves to have no better chief than Satan himself. It is the fact 
 also, that he reigns more than you do, in that Babylon. Would 
 to God that laying aside the glory so much cried up by your 
 enemies, you might exchange it for a modest parish cure, or live 
 on your paternal inheritance; for none but Iscariots are fit for 
 such a glory. ... my dear Leo ! of what use are you 
 then, in that Roman court, if it be not that the most execrable 
 persons make use of your name and your power for ruining men's 
 fortunes, destroying their souls, multiplying crimes, oppressing 
 the faith, the truth, and the whole Church of God? Leo! Leo! 
 vou are the most wretched of men, and you sit on the most 
 dangerous of thrones ! I tell vou the truth, for I wish you well. 
 
 ' Facta est . . . spelunca latronum licentiosissima, lupanar omnium ini- 
 pudentissimum, regnum peccati, mortis et inferni. (L. Epp. i. p. 500.) 
 
 ^ Actum est de Romana curia : pcrvenit in earn ira Dei usque in finem. . 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ Jeremiah, li.' 9. 
 
508 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 "Is it not true, that beneath the vast expanse of heaven, 
 there is nothing more corrupt, more detestable, than the Roman 
 court? It infinitely exceeds the Turks in vices and corruption. 
 Once the gate of heaven, it has now become the mouth of hell; 
 an ample mouth, which God keeps open in his wrath, ^ in such a 
 manner that beholding the wretched beings who cast themselves 
 into it, I must shout, as if in a storm, in order that some at least 
 may be saved from the frightful gulph. 
 
 " Therefore is it, Leo, my Father, that I have broken out 
 against that death-dealing see. Far from rising against you 
 personally, I have thought it my duty to labour for your salva- 
 tion, by valiantly assaulting that prison, or rather that hell, in 
 which you are shut up. A man only does his duty when he 
 does all sorts of mischief to the court of Rome. To load her 
 with shame is to honour Christ; in a word, to be a Christian is 
 not to be a Roman. 
 
 " Meanwhile, seeing that in my endeavours to succour the see 
 of Rome, I had been losing both my cares and labours, I sent it a. 
 letter of divorce; I said to it: Farewell, Rome ! Let him that is 
 unjust be unjust still: let him that is Jilthy he Jilihy still'.- and I 
 gave myself to calm solitary meditations on the Holy Scripture. 
 Then did Satan open his eyes, and rouse his servant John Eck, 
 that great enemy of Jesus Christ, for the purpose of making me 
 go down again into the lists. He wished to establish, not the 
 primacy of Peter, but his own, and in order thereto, to lead the 
 vanquished Luther off in triumph. It is he whom you have to 
 blame for all the opprobrium with which the see of Rome has 
 been covered." Luther then relates what had passed between him 
 and de Vio, Miltitz, and Eck; he proceeds as follows: 
 
 " Now then I come to you, most holy Father, and, prostrate 
 at your feet, beseech you to bridle, if possible, those foes to peace. 
 But my doctrine I cannot retract. I cannot allow people to im- 
 pose rules of interpretation upon Holy Scripture. The Word 
 of God must be left free, it being the very spring whence all 
 liberty gushes forth. ^ ^ 
 
 > Olim janua cceli, nunc patens quoddam os inferni et tale os, quod urgento 
 ira Dei, oljstrui non potest. . . . (L. Epp. i. p. 501.) 
 
 2 Revelations, xxii. 11. 
 
 3 Lo<:i;os interpretandi verbi Dei non patior, cum oporteat vorbum Dei esso 
 non alligatum, quod lihertatcm docet. . . . (I;. Epp. i. p. 604.) 
 
 ■' Notable words of Luther, which may well suggest reflections alike to the 
 
LUTHER S LEITEII TO THE POPR. 509 
 
 " Leo ! my Father ! listen not to those flattering syrens 
 ^vho tell you that you are not a mere man but a denii-god, and 
 that you may command whatsoever you please, "^'ou are the 
 servant of servants, and the seat you occupy is the most dan- 
 gerous and wretched of all. Believe not those who exalt, but 
 those who humble you. I am too bold perhaps in giving lessons 
 to so high a Majosty, which ought to instruct all men. Vmi I 
 see the dangers that encompass you at Rome: I see you tossed 
 hither and thither as it were on the waves of the high sea when 
 lashed into a storm. Charity urges me, and I am bound to 
 utter a cry of warning and of salvation. 
 
 " Not to appear with empty hands before your holiness, I pre- 
 sent to you a little book which has appeared under your name, 
 and which will inform you what subjects may engage my atten- 
 
 scientific expositors of our day, and to the opponents of the unrestricted use of 
 the Bible under the popedom. Both, indeed, speak of the free examination of 
 the Bible, the former to defend it, the latter to declare it dangerous : but both 
 attach a wrong meaning to it, not what the Reformer, not what Luther under- 
 stood by it. Luther's wish was "that God's word should be left free," and this 
 freedom was to consist in its " not being subjected to any rules of interpretation." 
 This the papist did in his time, and this they now do : this same thing do, also, 
 those Protestants who would elucidate the Bible by their so-called principles of 
 exposition. They as well as the papists, lay down certain rules of interpretation, 
 and the whole controversy between these two parties with respect to the so- 
 called free examination (of the Bible) is merely this : whether people must 
 follow the Church s rules of interjiretation, or if every man may invent rules of 
 his own : and in that case, certainly it wore better that we had certain general 
 and firmly established rules approved throughout the Church, than that every 
 man should in this respect be left to his own peculiar views. But the genuine 
 Protestant knows no rule of man's invention by which he must expound the 
 Bible. His first object is not to explain ; it is to read ; and thus is the meaning 
 made plain to him. All the freedom he requires is that of submitting himself 
 to the impression which the words of the Bible, taken in their connection, 
 naturally make as he first reads them, on his own or any man's mind. Would 
 but the advocates of the popedom remark this, they would then see how impro- 
 jterly and unfairly they act, when, dissembling the difference between Protest- 
 ants and Protestants, tliey confound the free examination of the Bible in the 
 genuine spirit of the Reformers, with the free examination of the expositors of 
 our days, and attack the former with wenpons applicable only to the lat'er, and 
 emiiloyed too, with no less earnestness by the genuine Reformed against that 
 examination, which is called indeed free, but which is really subjected to arbit- 
 rary laws. This is one of those artful pieces of dissimulation, by which the pre- 
 sent defenders of the popedom (1 might almost say — against their better judg- 
 ment) try to darken the truth to their fellow religionists. — L. R. This Note 
 happily applies less to the British Churches than to those of the continent, 
 where, under pretence of introducing scientific rules of interpretation, learned 
 men have taken the most unwarranted liberties with the Word of God, and made 
 fearful havoc of the faith of many. But evil men and seducers are now going 
 forth amongst us also. There is a danger of our losing respect for those admir- 
 able commentators who have sought only to bring out the plain meaning of 
 Scripture. Hence we too need to be reminded that we cannot too freely 
 subject ourselves to the plain meaning of the Scriptures, as they lie before us, 
 or are read in our hearing. Tb. 
 
51 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 tion, if your flatterers permit me. Tt is a small affair if we look 
 to the size, but a great one if we look to the contents, for the 
 sura of the Christian life will be found comprised in it. I am 
 poor and have nothing else to offer you; besides, can you need 
 anything but spiritual gifts? I recommend myself to your holi' 
 ness. May the Lord Jesus Christ keep you evermore ! Amen !" 
 
 The small book presented by Luther as a token of respect to 
 the pope, was his discourse on the Christians liberty. In it, 
 without indulging in polemics, the Reformer shows how, without 
 any infraction of the liberty which his faith has given him, the 
 Christian may submit to all external ordinances, in a spirit of 
 freedom and of charity. Two truths form the foundation of all 
 that follows: The Christian is free and master of all things. The 
 Christian is a servant and subject to everybody in everything. 
 He is free and master, in virtue of his faith; he is a subject and 
 servant in virtue of his charity. 
 
 He first shows the power of faith in rendering the Christian 
 free: "Faith unites the soul with Christ, as a wife is united 
 with her husband,""' says Luther to the pope. " All that Christ 
 possesses becomes the property of the believing soul. Christ 
 possesses all things and eternal life; thenceforth they belong to 
 the soul. The soul possesses all sins and vices; these thence- 
 forth become the property of Christ. Then there commences a 
 blessed exchange : Christ who is at once God and man, Christ 
 who has never sinned, Christ whose holiness is invincible, Christ 
 the Almighty and Eternal, appropriating to himself by his mar- 
 riage ring, that is to say, by faith, all the sins of the believing soul, 
 these sins are swallowed up in him, and abolished in him; for 
 no sin can subsist before his infinite righteousness. Thus, by 
 means of faith the soul is delivered from all sins, and clothed 
 with the everlasting righteousness of her husband, Jesus Christ. 
 happy union! the rich, the noble, the Holy Bridegroom, Jesus 
 Christ, takes in marriage, this poor, despised, wicked bride, 1 
 rescues her from all evil, and adorns her with the most exquisite 
 possessions. . . . Christ, king and priest, shares this hon- 
 our, and this glory, with all Christians. The Christian is a 
 
 > Is nun das nicht cine frbhliche Wirtlisrhafft, da dcr rciche, edle, frommo, 
 Brautigam Christus, das arme, verachtete, bbse Iluhrlein zur Eho nimmt, (,L. 
 Oiip. (L.) xvii. p. 385.) 
 
LUTin:R ANATIIEMATIZRn. 
 
 ;n 
 
 kin^, and hence all things are his; he is a priest, hence God is 
 his. And it is faith, not works, that brings him such an hon- 
 our. The Christian is free from all things, above all things, 
 faith giving him all things abundantly.'! 
 
 In the second part of this discourse, Luther presents the 
 other side of the truth. Albeit the Christian has thus become 
 free, he voluntarily becomes a servant, so as to act towards his 
 brethren as God has acted towards himself by Jesus Christ. "I 
 desire,"" says he, "freely, joyously, gratuitously to serve a father 
 who has lavished on me the whole plenitude of his good things : 
 1 desire to become all things for my neiglibour, as Christ has 
 become all things for me." — " From faith," continues Luther, 
 " flows love to God; from love flows a life full of liberty, charity, 
 and joy. Oh but the Christian life is a noble and an elevated life! 
 But alas ! no one knows it, and no one preaches it. By faith 
 the Christian exalts himself to God; by love he descends to man, 
 yet always abiding in God. Such is true liberty, a liberty that 
 surpasses all other liberty, as much as the heavens are high 
 above the earth."" 
 
 Such was the publication with which Luther accompanied his 
 letter to Leo X. 
 
 VIIL While the Reformer was thus addressing himself for the 
 last time to the Roman pontiff", the bull anathematising him 
 was already in the hands of the chiefs of the German Church, 
 and at the doors of Luther's residence. The pope had commis- 
 sioned two high functionaries of his court, Caraccioli and Ale- 
 ander, to convey it to the archbishop of Maintz, with notice for 
 him to see to its being executed. But in Saxony, Eck himself 
 appeared as the herald and executor of this great doing of the 
 pontiff's. The Ingolstadt doctor had understood better than 
 any one else the potency of Luther's blows; he had foreseen the 
 danger, and had stretched out his hand to support the shaken 
 edifice of Rome. He considered himself as the Atlas destined 
 
 ' ITercwe sec the pure Gospel, the glad tidings, precisely adapted to what our 
 hearts require, the saving interchange between Christ and us who believe, 
 M-hercby all that is His becomes ours and all that is ours His : our poverty He 
 takes upon Him, and his riches supply our want. Though hell should rise 
 apainst this : though the unbelieving and the superstitious may revile what they 
 do not understand, the Christian reads the same plainly, without far-fetched 
 expositions, in the Bible, and experiences the saving fruits of it iu his heart. — 
 L. K. 
 
512 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to bear up, on his robust shoulders, the ancient Roman world 
 just as it threatened to fall to pieces. Proud of the success he 
 had had at Home, proud of the commission he had received from 
 the sovereign pontiff, proud of the bull that was in his hand, 
 sealing the condemnation of his indomitable rival, his present 
 mission was for him a more magnificent triumph than all the 
 victories he had won in Hungary, Bavaria, Lombardy, and 
 Saxony, and which had previously furnished him with so much 
 matter for glorying. But this pride of his was doomed to exper- 
 ience a sudden fall. By entrusting Eck with the publication of 
 the bull, the pope had committed a blunder which was sure to 
 destroy its effect; for all minds of any susceptibility were 
 shocked to see so much distinction conferred on a man who held 
 no very high place in the ranks of the Church. Bishops accus- 
 tomed to receive bulls from the pope directly, took it ill that this 
 one should be published in their dioceses by this suddenly 
 appointed nuncio. The same nation that had hissed the pre- 
 tended victory of Leipsick, at the time of his taking flight into 
 Italy, looked on in amazement and indignation as he repassed 
 the Alps, armed with the insignia of papal nuncio, and with the 
 power of crushing her choicest men to the ground. As for 
 Luther, he looked upon the sentence brought by his implacable 
 adversary as an act of personal revenge; that condemnation was 
 in his eyes, says Pallavicini, the treacherous poignard of a deadly 
 foe — not the legitimate axe of a Roman lictor.^ It was no longer 
 considered as the bull of the sovereign pontiff but as the bull of 
 Dr. Eck; and thus the blow was paralysed and weakened before- 
 hand, by the very man who had provoked it. 
 
 The chancellor of Ingolstadt hastened into Saxony — the scene 
 of his late encounter, and that in which he wished to attract 
 notice to his victory. He succeeded in posting up the bull at 
 Meissen, at Merseburg, and at Brandenburg, towards the close 
 of September. But in the first of those cities it was placarded 
 at a place where nobody could read it, and the bishops of the 
 three sees were in no haste to publish it. Even his great pro- 
 tector, duke George, prohibited the council at Leipsick to give 
 it publicity, until they had received an order to that effect from 
 
 1 Non tanquam a securi Icgitimi lictoris, sed e telo infensissimi hostis. . . 
 (Pallavicini, i. p. 7-1.) 
 
Tilt: rorii s hull a uubule. 
 
 613 
 
 the bishop of Mcrsoburg, and that order did not arrive till the 
 year aftei'. " These difficulties are only in matters of form," 
 thought at first John Eck; for everything else seemed to smile 
 upon him. Duke George sent him a gilt cup and some ducats. 
 Miltitz even, posting off to Leipsick, as soon as he heard of his 
 rival being there, invited him to dinner. The two legates were 
 table friends, and Miltitz thought he could in no way feel Dr. 
 Eck's pulse better than with the glass in his hand. " After he 
 had drunk pretty well," says the pope's chamberlain, "he began 
 to brag not a little, he made a display of his bull, and said that 
 he was about to bring this queer fellow Martin to his senses." l 
 i3ut the Inirolstadt doctor soon had cause to remark a change in 
 the wind. A single year had sufficed to effect a mighty change 
 in Leipsick.- Ori St. Michaers day, some students posted pla- 
 cards in ten different places, and in these keenly attacked the 
 new nuncio. This so frightened him, that he fled for shelter to the 
 monastery of St. Paul, where Tetzel had taken refuge; there he 
 declined all visits, and prevailed on the rector to call his young 
 adversaries to account. But poor Eck made little by this. The 
 students composed a song at his expense, and sang it through the 
 streets, so that Eck heard it in his prison. All his courage now 
 forsook him; the once formidable champion shook at every joint. 
 Every day brought him fresh threatening letters. One hundred 
 and fifty students arrived from VVittemberg, uttering bold 
 speeches against the papal envoy. This poor apostolic nuncio 
 was now quite unnerved. "I would not that he were slain," said 
 Luther, "but I should like to see his plans prove abortive.''^ Eck 
 left his retreat by night, made his escape in a clandestine manner 
 from Leipsick, and went to hide himself at Cobourg, Miltitz, in 
 relating this, exults at it more than did the Reformer, but his 
 exultation did not last long. All the chamberlain's projects of 
 reconciliation came to nothing, and he came to a melancholy end, 
 having lost his life by falling into the Rhine at Maints, when 
 drunk. 
 
 Gradually recovering courage, Eck repaired to Erfurt, whose 
 
 1 Naclidem (writes Miltitz) er nun tapfer getrunUcn Iintte, fieng cr gleicli an 
 Irefflich von seiner Ordre zu prahlen, etc. (Seckend. p. 238.) 
 
 * Longe aliam faciem et mentem Lipsiae eum invenire quam sperasset. . . 
 (L. Epp. i. p. 492.) 
 
 ^ Nollem eum occidi, quamqnam optera ejus consilia irrita fieri. (Ibid.) 
 1- 3 T 
 
514 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 divines had given the Witteuiberg doctor more than one proof 
 of their jealousy. He insisted that his bull should be published 
 in that town, but the students laid violent hands on the copies 
 that were sent, tore them to pieces, and threw them into the 
 river, saj'ing: " It is a bull, let it swim!^"" Now," said Luther 
 when he learned this, " the pope's paper is really a bull.''^ 
 
 Eck durst not show himself at Wittemberg ; he sent the bull 
 to the rector, threatening him if it were not obeyed, with the 
 destruction of the university. He wrote at the same time to 
 duke John, brother, and co-regent of Fredei'ick : " Take not in ill 
 part what I am doing," said he, "for I am acting for the faith, 
 and that costs me nmch anxiety, toil, and money."^ ^ The rector 
 declared that as the bull was not accompanied with any letter to 
 him from the pope, he refused to publish it, and had referred the 
 matter to the council of lawyers.'^ Such was the reception given 
 to the condemnation of Luther by men of letters. 
 
 Whilst the bull was thus powerfully agitating men's minds 
 in Germany, a grave voice was commanding attention in another 
 country of Europe. A man who foresaw the immense rendings 
 which the pope's bull was about to produce in the Church, came 
 forward to deliver a serious w^arning and to defend the Reformer. 
 This was the same Swiss priest we have already mentioned, 
 Ulrich Zwingli, who though not connected with Luther by any 
 tie of friendship, now published a production replete with wisdom 
 and dignity, and which forms the first of his numerous works. ^ 
 
 1 A stucliosis discerpta et in aquam projecta, dicentibus : Bulla est, in aqciam 
 natet. (L. Epp. i. p. 520.) 
 
 2 Bulla in Latin, and bullc in French, mean hell or bubble of water. Tk. 
 
 3 Mit viel Miihe, Arbeit und Kosten. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 317.) 
 
 * Eckius all the while pretended to be an involuntary agent in the business, 
 alleging that only the cause of religion could have induced him to submit to so 
 much kibour and expense. One of his private letters, hovpever, sent from Rome, 
 happened to fall into Luther's hands ; who instantly published its contents, and 
 at the same time made pertinent remarks on the hypocritical and interested 
 motives of the writer, which were completely laid open by this accident. (Milner, 
 vol. iv. p. 479.) 
 
 * " He (Eck) sent a copy of the bull to the university of Wittembe'rg, and 
 entreated them to be obedient to the papal injunctions; but that learned body 
 paid no other regard to his solicitations, than to inform the elector of the cir- 
 cumstance, and to intimate to that wise prince, that as Eckius had not ventured 
 to bring the bull himself, they suspected that he had been guilty of some unfair 
 practices in the business." (Milner, vol. iv. p. 479.) 
 
 ^ Consilium cujusdam ex animo cupientis esse consultum et pontificis dignitati 
 et Christiana} religionis tranquillitati. (Zwinglii Opera, curante Schulero et 
 Schulthessio, iii. p. 1 — 5.) 
 
ZWXXGLE DEFENDS THE KErOUMKR. 615 
 
 • 
 
 An affection truly fraternal seems to have drawn him towards 
 the Wittemberg doctor. "The pontiff's piety," says he, "requires 
 that he shoukl chccrl'uUy sacrifice whatever he holds dearest, to the 
 glory of Christ, his king, and to the public peace of the Churcli. 
 Nothing is more prejudicial to his dignity than his defending it 
 only by bribes or terrors. Before Luther's writings had been so 
 much as read, he was denounced among the people as an heretic, 
 a schismatic, and antichrist himself. Nobody warned him; no- 
 body refuted him; he called for discussion, but it was thought 
 enough to condemn him. The bull published against him dis- 
 pleased those even who honoured the papal state; for it is marked 
 throughout with the impotent hatred of certain monks, not by 
 the mildness of a pontiff who, as the vicar of Jesus Christ, ought 
 to be full of charity. That the true doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ has grievously degenerated is what all acknowledge, so 
 that a public and signal restoration of good laws and manners is 
 universally called for.^ Turn to men of learning and virtue, and 
 you will find that in proportion to the purity of their character, 
 is their attachment to the truths of the Gospel, and the less are 
 they scandalized by Luther's books.2 There is not one of them but 
 confesses that these books have made them better,^ even although 
 passages are to be found in them which cannot be approved. 
 Let men of pure doctrine and acknowledged probity be chosen ; 
 let three princes above all suspicion, the emperor Charles, the 
 king of England, and the king of Hungary, themselves appoint 
 the arbiters; let these read Luther's writings, hear what he 
 himself has to say, and let all they shall decide be ratified! 
 Ntk'jjfraro j/ tod X.pirrrov Traidcia /cat dX{]Qeial '* 
 
 This suo-o-estion from Switzerland had no result. The grand 
 divorce behoved to be accomplished; Christendom was doomed 
 to be rent asunder; in her very wounds she was to find the 
 remedy for her woes. 
 
 ' Multum degenerasse ab ilia sincera Christi Evangelica doctrina, adeo ut 
 nemo non fateatur opus esse publica aliqua et insigni legum etmorum instaur- 
 atione. (Zwinglii Opera, curante Schulero et Schulthessio, iii. p. 3.) 
 
 ^ ." But as Father Paul observes, not a word was said by which men could infer 
 whichwere heretical, which false, and which scandalous; and thus matters were left 
 in greater doubt than before the publication of the bull." ( Milner, vol. iv. p. 478.) 
 
 3 Nemo non fatetur se ex illias libris factum esse meliorem. (Zw. 0pp. ut. 
 sup. p. 4.) 
 
 * May the discipline and the truth of Christ prevail! 
 
516 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 IX. In point of fact, what could avail all this resistance on 
 the part of mere students, rectors, and priests? The union of two 
 such mighty hands as those of the emperor Charles V. and the 
 pope, must be sure to crush to the ground these scholars and 
 granmiarians. Shall any man be found so foolhardy as to resist 
 the combined powers of Christendom"'s pontiff, and of the emperor 
 of the West. The blow has been struck; Luther has been cast 
 out; the Gospel seems to be ruined. At this solemn moment 
 the Reformer does not dissemble the amount of peril in which he 
 stood. He looks upward. He prepares to receive as from the 
 hand of the Lord himself, the stroke that threatens to annihilate 
 him. His soul collects its thoughts at the footstool of God's 
 throne. " I know not," says he, " what will be the result, nor 
 do I care to know, assured as I am that He who sitteth in the 
 heavens hath foreseen from all eternity the commencement, the 
 continuation, and the end of this affair. Wherever the blow 
 may reach me, I am without fear. Not a leaf falls from a tree 
 without the will of our Father. How much less can we? . 
 It is a small matter to die for the Word, for that Word which 
 became incarnate for our sake, died itself first. ^ If we die with 
 it, we shall rise again with it; and passing through what it 
 passed through, we shall arrive where it has arrived, and shall 
 dwell with it throughout eternity.""^ At times, however, Luther 
 was unable to repress the scorn he could not but feel at the 
 manoeuvres of his enemies; and we then find him expressing 
 himself in that mixture of sublimity and irony which marked 
 his character. " I know nothing about Eck," says he, " but that 
 he has arrived with a long beard, a long bull, and a long purse. 
 
 . . As for his bull, I shall laugh at it.''^ 
 
 He came to the knowledge of the papal letter on the 3d of 
 
 1 Parum est nos pro verbo mori, cum ipsiim incarnatum pro nobis prius moi- 
 tuum sit. . . . (Epp. i. p. 4.90.) 
 
 2 Let us here contemplate the steady confidence, the full persuasion of the 
 goodness of his cause, with which Luther acted; how completely he was pos- 
 sessed by it, and how ready to suffer all things in maintaining it. . . . "Who 
 can bear the hj'pocrisy of those persons who, although aware of these effusions of 
 Luther's inmost feelings — these proofs of his integrity — yet endeavour by raking 
 np and exaggerating this or that failing, such as no man is exempt from, or even 
 by deliberate calumnies, to prejudice men's minds against the Reformation, and 
 to persevere in maintaining their wicked opposition to it. — L. R. 
 
 •'' Venisse cum barbatum, bullatum, nummatum. . . , Ridebo et ego 
 buUam sive ainpullam. (Ibid, 4SS.) 
 
l.irniF.ll TUEATS THE HULL AS A l-ORGEKY. 517 
 
 October. " Behold at last," says ho, " this Roman lull has 
 arrived. I despise and attack it as impious, false, and worthy of 
 p]ck in all respects. It does not meet me with a single reason; 
 I am summoned to appear, not that 1 may bo heard, but that I 
 may sing my palinode. I will treat it as if it were a forgery, 
 though I believe it to be genuine. Oh, were Charles V, but a 
 man, and would ho but from love to Christ attack these 
 demons!^ I rejoice to have some evils to endure for the best 
 of causes. Already I feel more free at heart; for now at length 
 I know that the pope is antichrist, and that his seat is that of 
 Satan himself."- 
 
 Saxony was not the only country thrown into alarm by the 
 thunderbolts of Rome. They suddenly disturbed the peace of a 
 quiet family in Suabia, a family that stood neuter. Bilibald 
 Pirkheimer of Nuremberg, one of the most distinguished men of 
 his day, having lost at an early age his beloved wife, Crescentia, 
 was united in the bonds of the warmest affection with his two 
 young sisters, Charitas, Abbess of St. Clare, and Clara, a nun of 
 the same convent. These two young women served God in 
 solitude, and divided their time between study, the care of the 
 poor, and thoughts of eternity. Bilibald, himself a statesman, 
 found relief amid his public cares in corresponding with them. 
 They were learned women, read Latin and studied the Fathers, 
 but there was nothing they liked so well as Holy Scripture. 
 They had never had any master but their brother. The letters 
 of Charitas are marked by delicacy and amiability. In the 
 warmth of her affection for Bilibald, she dreaded on his account 
 the slightest danger. For the purpose of re-assuring this timid 
 soul, Pirkheimer composed a dialogue between Charitas and 
 Veritas, (charity and truth) in which Veritas endeavours to 
 
 ' Utinam Carolus vir esset, et pro Clii-isto has Satanas aggrederctur. (Epp. 
 i. p. 404.) 
 
 ^ Thus was Luther enlightened hy degrees. It was thus no preconcerted 
 plan that he sought to carry out. Long did he desire, in opposition to all that 
 he felt in his own hosom to the contrary, to preserve his respect for the pope 
 and the papal dignity. It was not without many scruples that he at length came 
 to cast it off — a plain proof of his unaffected integrity. Yet the papal court 
 would not remain quiet, until it had given the clearest proofs that the pope was 
 to he accounted no better than antichrist : truly its whole doctrines and doinga 
 were opposed to Christ. — L. 11. 
 
518 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 encourage Cliaritas.^ Nothing could be more touching, or better 
 calculated to cheer a tender and agonised heart. 
 
 What must have been the consternation of Charitas, when 
 the report ran that the name of Bilibald was posted up under 
 the pope's bull on the cathedral doors side by side with that of 
 Luther ! In fact, hurried along by blind fury, with Luther, Eck 
 had associated six of the most distinguished men in Germany — 
 Carlstadt, Feldkirchen, Egranus, who cared very little about it, 
 Adelman, Pirkheimer, and his friend Spengler, who were par- 
 ticularly alive to such an insult in consequence of the public 
 functions with which they were invested. Great was the agitation 
 in the convent of Saint Clare. How could the disgrace of Bili- 
 bald be endured? Nothing affects relations so much as such 
 trials. Pirkheimer and Spengler wrote a letter to the pope, in 
 which they declared that they adhered to the doctrines of Luther 
 only in so far as these were conformed to the Christian faith. 
 Wrath and revenge had been evil counsellors to Eck, for the 
 names of Bilibald and his friends proved hurtful to the bull, and 
 the irritation on the subject became more general, on account of 
 the hio-h character of those men and their numerous relations. 
 
 Luther affected to doubt at first whether the bull were genu- 
 ine. "I learn," says he, in the first of his publications on the 
 subject, " that Eck has brought from Eome a new bull, so like 
 himself that it might be called Dr. Eck, so full is it of falsehoods 
 and blunders. He gives out that it is the work of the pope, while 
 it is nothing but a piece of falsehood." After giving the reasons for 
 his doubts, Luther concludes by saying, " I would fain see with 
 my own eyes the lead, the seals, the strings, the contents, the 
 signature of the bull, all of it in a word, or not give the matter 
 of a hair for all this scolding."' 
 
 But nobody doubted, not even Luther, that the bull was from 
 the pope. Germany waited to see what the Reformer was next 
 to do. Was he to continue firm? All eyes were now turned 
 to Wittemberg. Luther did not keep his opponents long in 
 suspense, but replied by a thundering discharge in his publi- 
 
 1 Pircliheimer, 0pp. Frankfort. 
 
 ^ Oder nicht ein Ilaarbreit geben. . . . (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 323. 
 
LIITllEU REPLIES TO THE BULL. 619 
 
 cation of 4tli November 1520, intituled, Against the Bull of Anti- 
 christ. ' 
 
 " What errors, what deceptions,"" says he, " luave found their 
 way among the poor people under the mantle of the Church, and 
 of the pretended infallibility of the pope! how many souls have 
 thus been lost! how much blood has been shed! how many- 
 murders committed! how many kingdoms destroyed! 
 
 " I can very well distinguish," says he ironically, further on 
 " between art and malice, and care little about a piece of malice 
 without art. It is so easy to burn books, that mere children can 
 do so; by howmuch stronger reason may the pope and his doctors? 
 
 ' In the edition of Ijutlier's Latin works, Jena, 1581, I find under date 1st 
 December 16:^0, liis tract entituled Adversus cxecrabilem Anlickristi Bullam, 
 and that in the preface he reiterates the suspicions he had before expressed in 
 German, that Eck was the real author of the bull. 
 
 It is remarkable that in one of the most tremendous passages of this tract — 
 that in which Luther solemnly delivers the pope* the cardinals, Ac, over to 
 Satan, in the terms of the apostolic judgment, he does this, not in virtue of his 
 ordination as .a priest, or his degree as a doctor, or as having received any ' 
 special call like that of the ancient prophets, but simply on the ground of his 
 baptism, making him a child of God and co-heir ivith Christ, and joining with 
 himself simply all who worship Chnst. The whole passage is very striking, and 
 in the noble picture it exhibits of the simple soldier of Christ, offering himsolt 
 and his fellow-soldiers to the slaughter in defence of the insulted doctrines of 
 their Lord, indirectly, yet with a force altogether overwhelming, condemns those 
 «vho seem to think that without being ordained to the ministry, no Cliristian 
 should dare to stand forward in the battles of the faith. The fact of his being 
 tiaptized into Christ, seemed to Luther to warrant, as well as to demand, a zeal 
 and a devotedness which no subsequent fact, such as that of his ordination, 
 could increase, and this is a feeling that every faithful pastor will rejoice to see 
 in his flock, instead of cooling their zeal by arrogating to himself a sort of 
 monopoly of responsibility and of service. The passage referred to may be 
 translated thus : — 
 
 " Thee therefore Leo X., ye lords cardinals at Rome, and whosoever has any 
 weight at Rome, I address and freely tell you to your face, if in your name, and 
 with your knowledge this bull hath gone forth, and you own it to be yours, I, 
 too, will use my power {jwtestate mea) by which in baptism by the mercy of God 
 I was made a son of God and co-heir with Christ, founded on that firm rock 
 which fears not the gates of hell, nor heaven, nor earth, and I say, admonish and 
 exhort you, heartily to return, and that you restrain these diabolical blasphem- 
 ies, and more than excessively audacious impieties, and that soon. The which 
 unless ye do, know ye that I with all who worship Christ, hold your seat, pos- 
 sessed and oppressed by Satan, to be the damned seat of antichrist, which we 
 will not only not obey, nor desire to be subject to or incorporated with, but 
 detest and execrate, as the chief and greatest enemy of Christ, being ready in 
 defence of this our opinion, not only gladly to bear your foolish censures, but 
 even beg that you will never absolve us, or number us among your people, nay 
 more, that you may fill up the measure of your bloody tyranny, we ultroneously 
 offer ourselves to death. And if the Spirit of Christ, and the impetus of our 
 faith avail ought, by these writings, should you persevere in that madness, we 
 condemn you and deliver you, together with that bull, and all the decretals to 
 Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that your spirit may be delivered with us 
 in the day of the Lord. In the name of him whom yo persecute, Jesus Christ 
 our Lord, Amen." Tk 
 
520 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 It were well that they could show more ability than is required 
 for burning- books, . . Besides, lot my books be destroyed, ^ I 
 wish for nothing more; for my only wish has been to lead souls 
 to the Bible, after coming to which they may forsake my writings 
 one and all.- Great God! had we but the knowledge of Scrip- 
 ture, what need would there be for my books? . . . By the 
 grace of God I am free, and bulls neither comfort nor terrify me. 
 My strength and consolation are placed where neither men nor 
 devils can reach them." 
 
 The tenth proposition of Luther''s, condemned by the pope, 
 runs thus: " Sins are forgiven to no man, unless he believes that 
 they are forgiven when the priest absolves him." In condemning 
 this the pope denied that faith was necessary. "They pretend,'" 
 exclaims Luther, "that we ought not to believe that sins are for- 
 given, even should we be absolved by the priest. And what then 
 are we to do? . . . Hearken now, Christians, to a piece of 
 news from Rome. Condemnation has been pronounced against 
 that article of faith which we profess to believe when we say: 
 *I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Christian Church, and the 
 forgiveness of sins.' If I were sure that the pope has really 
 given this bull at Rome,'"' (nnd of this he had no doubt) " and 
 that it is not the invention of Eck, that arch-liar, I should like 
 to call aloud upon all Christiatis to regard it as their duty to 
 hold the pope to be the true antichrist spoken of in Scripture. 
 And should he refuse to cease publicly proscribing the faith of 
 the Church, then ... let the temporal sword itself resist 
 him rather than the Turk! . . . For the Turks permit us 
 to believe, whereas the pope prohibits us." 
 
 While Luther was expressing himself with so much force, 
 dano-ers were thickenino; around him. His enemies were now 
 planning his expulsion from Wittemberg, calculating that could 
 Luther and Wittemberg be separated, both Luther and Wittem- 
 berg would be ruined, and that thus by one stroke they might 
 rid Rome alike of the heretical doctor and of the university. To 
 this task duke George, the bishop of Mersburg, and the Leipsick 
 
 1 So ist Biicher Verbrennen se leicht. dass es auch kinder koiinen, schvveig 
 denn der hcilige Vater Pabst. . . (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 324.) 
 
 ^ ... In Biblien zu fuhren, dass man derselbeu Verstand crlangte, iind 
 den meine Buchlein verscbwinden liess. (Ibid.) 
 
THE BULL ABOUT TO BE I'LT INTO EXECUTION. 521 
 
 divines, secretly applied themselves ;• on hearing of which under- 
 hand attempt, Luther said: "I commit the whole matter into 
 the hands of God."- 3 Tliesc secret doings were not without their 
 eftccts. Adrian, Hebrew professor at AVittemberg, all at once 
 turned against the doctor. No small steadfastness in the faith 
 was required in order to sustain the blow inflicted by the bull of 
 Rome, and certain characters go along witli the truth only to a 
 certain point. Such was Adrian. Terrified by that condem- 
 nation, he quitted Wittemberg to go to meet with doctor Eck 
 at Leipsick. 
 
 The bull now began to be put into execution. The voice that 
 had gone forth from the high-priest of Christendom, was no 
 empty sound. Fire and sword had long been inculcating sub- 
 mission to it. It was the signal for preparing the stakes at 
 which the disobedient were to suffer. All things gave token that 
 a terrible catastrophe was about to put an end to the audacious 
 revolt of the Augustinian monk. The papal nuncios had been 
 besieging the young emperor; Charles declared that he would 
 protect the old religion,-^ and in some of bis hereditary posses- 
 sions fires were seen lighted, at which the writings of the heretic 
 were to be reduced to ashes. Such auto-da-fes were attended by 
 princes of the Church and counsellors of state. Those flames, 
 said Rome, will spread terror everywhere, and so it was with 
 respect to many superstitious and timid minds. Yet, even in 
 Charles's hereditary states, where alone persons were found bold 
 enough to execute the bull, the people, and sometimes the great, 
 would often respond to these pontifical demonstrations only by 
 laughter and signs of indignation. " Luther," said the Louvain 
 doctors, on presenting themselves to Margaret, governante of 
 the Netherlands; " Luther is subverting the Christian faith." 
 "Who is this Luther," asked the princess. "An ignorant monk." 
 " Very well," replied she, " do you who are so learned and so 
 
 1 Ut Wittemberga pellerer. (L. Epp. i. p. 519.) 
 Id quod in manum, Dei refero. (Iliid. p. 520.) 
 
 ® We here see a heart wholly devoted to the cause of God and of truth, true 
 to that cause to the death. Who is the slanderer that would dare to cast sus- 
 picion on this man's designs? This alone seems to me to suffice for making 
 every impartial mind sensible that all accusations to the contrary are to be held 
 as cowardly calumnies. — L. R. 
 
 * A ministris pontificiis mature prae-occupatus, declaravit se veils vetereru 
 fidem tutari. . . . (Pallavicini, i. p. 80.) 
 1. 3 V 
 
522 HISTORY OF TFiE REFORMATION. 
 
 many, write against him. The world will put more faith in 
 many learned men than in one isolated man without learning."" 
 The doctors of Louvain preferred adopting an easier method. 
 They were at the expense of having an immense bonfire made; 
 a vast multitude thronged the place of execution; students and 
 burgesses were seen traversing the crowd in great haste, and 
 carrying bulky volumes under their arms, which they threw into 
 the flames. The monks and doctors were edified by their zeal; 
 but the trick was discovered afterwards; it was the Sermones 
 DlscipuU, Tartaret, and other scholastic and papistical books that 
 were thrown into the fire instead of Luther's writings.^ . . 
 
 The count of Nassau, viceroy of Holland, told the Dominicans 
 who solicited him to allow them to burn the doctor's books: "Go, 
 and preach the Gospel as purely as Luther doec, and you will 
 have nobody to complain of." The Reformer having become the 
 subject of conversation at a festive entertainment, where the chief 
 princes of the empire were met, the lord of Ravenstein said aloud: 
 " In the course of four centuries, a single Christian man has 
 dared to raise his h^d, and the pope would have him be put to 
 death.''^ 
 
 Luther, in the full consciousness of the goodness of his cause, 
 remained unmoved amid the tumult excited by the bull.3 "Did 
 you not urge me so warmly,"" said he to Spalatin, " I would hold 
 my peace, well aware as I am, that this is a work that must be 
 accomplished by the counsel and the power of God."'* Here it 
 was the timid that was for speaking out, and the strong that 
 wished to remain quiet. This arose from Luther''s perceiving 
 the presence of a power which had escaped the eye of his friend. 
 " Don't lose hope,"" continues the Reformer. " It is Christ who 
 has begun these things and it is he who will accomplish them, 
 whether I be obliged to take to flight, or be put to death. Jesus 
 Christ is present here, and he that is in us is mightier than he 
 that is in the world."j 
 
 ^ Seckend. p. 289. 
 
 2 Es ist in 400 Jahren ein christlicber niann aufgestanden, den will der Pabst 
 todt haben. (Seckend. p. 2S8.) 
 
 2 In bullosis istis tumultibus. (L. Epp. i. p. 519.) 
 
 * Rem totam Deo committcrem. (Ibid. p. 621.) 
 
 ' Christus ista coepit, ipse perficiet, etiam mesive extincto, sive fugato. (Ibid 
 p. 526.) 
 
MJTIIKH AlTliALS TO A UNIVEKSAL COUNCIL. 52ij 
 
 X. Hut duty constrained him to speak, in order that the trutli 
 nii"ht bo manifested to the world. Home had smitten him; 
 he behoved to let it be known how he had received her blows. 
 The pope liad put him to the ban of the Church; lie would now 
 himself put the pope to the ban of Christendom. Up to that 
 hour the word of the pontiff had been omnipotent; he would now 
 match word against word, and the world should know which was 
 the more potent of the two. " 1 desire," says he, " to set my con- 
 science at rest by making men aware of the danger to which they 
 are exposed;"' and at the same time, he prepared to renew his 
 appeal to a universal council. To appeal from the pope to a 
 council was a crime, and thus it was by a new invasion of the 
 pontifical prerogative, that Luther sought to justify those he 
 had already committed. 
 
 On the 17th of November, a notary and five witnesses, among 
 whom was Cruciger, met at ten o'clock in the morning in one 
 of the halls of the Augustinian monastery, where the doctor 
 resided. There the public officer, Sarctor of Eisleben, immedi- 
 ately set himself to the task of minuting the Reformer's protest, 
 which he pronounced in presence of the witnesses, with great 
 solemnity, as follows — 
 
 " Whereas a council-general of the Christian Church is above 
 the pope, especially in what concerns the faith; 
 
 " Whereas the pope's authority is not above, but beneath 
 Scripture, and he has no right to slay Christ's sheep, and to 
 throw them into the jaws of the wolf; 
 
 "I, Martin Luther, Augustinian, doctor of the sacred Scrip- 
 tures at Wittemberg, appeal by this written document, for my- 
 self, and for those who are or who shall be with me, from the 
 most holy pope Leo, to a future universal Christian council. 
 
 " I appeal from the said pope Leo, first, as from an iniquitous, 
 rash, and tyrannical judge, who condemns me unheard, and with- 
 out assigning reasons; secondly, as from an heretic and apostate, 
 wandering from the right way, hardened and condemned by the 
 Holy Scriptures, who enjoins me to deny that Christian faith is 
 necessary to the due use of tlie sacraments;- thirdly, as from an 
 
 1 Ut meam conscientiam rcdimain. (L. Epp. i. p. 622.) 
 
 * Ab erroneo, indurato, per Scripturas sanctas daninaio, haeretico et apostata. 
 (T>. 0pp. lat. p. 51). See also L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. .^.'32.) The German contains 
 some paragraphs that are not to be found in the Latin. 
 
524 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 enemy, an antichrist, an adversary, a tyrant of Holy Scripture,' 
 who dares lo oppose his own words to all the words of God; 
 fourthly, as from a contemner, a slanderer, a hlasphemer of the 
 Holy Christian Church and of a free council, who maintains that 
 a council, in itself, is nothing. 
 
 " Therefore do I most humbly beseech the most serene, most 
 illustrious, excellent, generous, noble, powerful, wise, and pru- 
 dent lords, Charles, Homan Emperor, the electors, princes, counts, 
 barons, knights, gentlemen, counsellors, cities, and boroughs of 
 the whole German nation, to adhere to my protestation, and to 
 join me in resisting the antichristian conduct of the pope, for the 
 glory of God, the defence of the Church and Christian doctrine, 
 and for the upholding of the free councils of Christendom; and 
 Christ our Lord will abundantly recompence them with his ever- 
 lasting favour. But should any one despise this my prayer, and 
 continue to obey that impious man, the pope, rarther than God, 2 
 I, by these presents, wash my hands of the responsibility thereof, 
 having faithfully warned their consciences, and I leave them to 
 the supreme judgment of God, together with the pope and all his 
 adherents.^' 
 
 Such was Luther's writing of divorce; such was his reply to 
 the pontiffs bull, and grave, indeed, is the declaration to which 
 he thus committed himself. The charfres he brinos against the 
 pope are of the highest moment, and they were not lightly pre- 
 ferred. This protest was spread over all Germany, and trans- 
 mitted to most of the courts of Christendom. 
 
 Yet although what he had already done, seemed to be the 
 very crowning point of audacity, Luther had in reserve a bolder 
 proceeding still. He would not lag behind Rome. The Wit- 
 teniberg monk was resolved to do all that the sovereign pontiff 
 might dare to do. He would oppose word to word, and set 
 bonfire against bonfire. The son of the Medicis, and the son of 
 the Mansfeld miner, went down into the lists, and in the mortal 
 conflict Avhich shook the world, not a blow was given on the one 
 side, that was not returned on the other. On the 10th of Decem- 
 ber, there was to be seen on the walls of the university at Wit- 
 temberg, a notice inviting the professors and students to attend 
 
 I Oppressore totius sacrsjD Scripturjp. . . . ( 11)1(3. ) 
 Et papsD, impio homini, plus quam Deo obediant. (Ibia.) 
 
LI THEE BfRNS THE POl'E 8 niTI.?.. FTC. 
 
 525 
 
 at nine o'clock in the morning, at the East gate, near tiie holy 
 cross. A hirge concourse both of the doctors and the students 
 met, and Luther, at their head, led them in procession to the 
 appointed spot. How many bonfires has Rome kindled in the 
 course of ages! Luther wished to make a better application of 
 the grand Roman principle. His sole object was to rid himself 
 of some old papers, and fire, thought he, is made for that. A 
 pile was prepared; one of the oldest masters of arts set fire to it; 
 and just as the flames arose Luther was beheld approaching and 
 throwing into it, the canon Law, the Decretals, the Clementines, 
 and the Extravagantes of the popes, together with some of the 
 writings of Eck and Emser. When all these were consumed, 
 Luther laid his hand on the pope"'s bull, held it aloft, and said: 
 " Whereas thou hast grieved the Lord's Holy One, may the 
 everlasting fire grieve and consume thee ! " on which he threw it 
 into the flames. He then quietly took the road back to the city, 
 and re-entered Wittemberg amid bursts of approbation from the 
 crowd of doctors, professors, and students. "Tiie Decretals,"" said 
 Luther, " are like a body with a head mild as a virgin's, but 
 whose members are full of violence like thofbe of a lion, while the 
 tail is cranmied with cunning like a serpent. Li all the laws of 
 the popes, there is not one word to teach us who is Jesus Christ.*"^ 
 "My enemies," he said further, "have been able, by the burning 
 of my books, to prejudice the truth in the minds of the common 
 people, and thus to destroy souls ; therefore have I burnt their 
 books in turn. A serious struggle is now about to commence. 
 Hitherto I have merely jested with the pope. I began this work 
 in the name of God; it will end without me and by aid from him. 
 Should they dare to burn my books, in which more of the Gospel 
 is to be found, I speak without boasting, than in all the books of 
 the pope, I shall have the stronger reasons for burning theirs, in 
 which nothins: good is to be found." 
 
 Had Luther commenced the Reformation thus, such a proced- 
 ure would unquestionably have been followed by Avoful conse- 
 quences. Fanaticism might have taken advantage of it, to throw 
 the Church into a course of disorder and violence. But having 
 preluded to his work by seriously expounding the instructions 
 
 1 L. 0pp. (W.) xxii. p. 1403—1496. 
 
526 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 of Scripture, he had wisely laid the foundation; and a strong 
 measure, such as that which he had taken, not only could be 
 risked without inconvenience, but mioht even hasten the moment 
 when Christendom was to see her chains fall to the ground. 
 
 Luther thus solemnly declared that he had seceded from the 
 pope and his church. After wliat he had written to Leo X., 
 this might seem to him to be necessary. He accepted the excom- 
 munication that E-ome had pronounced, and gave the Christian 
 world to know that mortal war was now waged betwixt him and 
 the pope. He burnt his vessels upon the beach and imposed on 
 himself the necessity of advancing and fighting. 
 
 Luther was now again in Wittemberg. On the day following, 
 the college hall was better filled than usual; men's minds were 
 in a state of excitement; the meeting was marked by peculiar 
 solemnity; an address from the doctor was expected. He 
 delivered a comment on the psalms, a work he had commenced 
 in the March of the preceding year. Pausing for a few moments 
 at the close of his exposition, he then firmly said: " Be on your 
 guard against the laws and statutes of the pope. 1 have burned 
 the Decretals, but that is mere child's play. It were time, and 
 more than time, that we burned the pope; that is to say," he 
 instantly added, " the see of Rome with all its doctrines and 
 abominations." Then, assuming a more solemn tone: "If you 
 do not combat with your whole lieart," said he, " the pope's 
 impious government, you cannot be saved. Whosoever shall 
 please himself with the religion and the worship of the popedom, 
 will be lost for ever in the life to come.'"l 
 
 " If a man reject these," he added, " he must expect to have 
 all manner of risks to encounter, and even to lose his life. But 
 far better face such perils in this world, than hold one's peace ! 
 As long as I shall live I will denounce the wound and the 
 ])lague of Babylon to my brethren, lest many who are now with 
 us should fall back into the gulph of hell." 
 
 One can hardly imagine the effect that an address of such 
 amazing energy must have had on the meeting. " Not one of 
 us," says the candid student who has preserved it for us, "unless 
 it were some senseless log (as are all the papists," says he in a 
 
 ' Muss ewig in jenem Leben verlohrcn seyn. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 333.) 
 
LUTHER S DISCOURSE ON POPERY. 
 
 527 
 
 parenthesis) "not one of us doubted tluit he spoke the pure truth 
 of God. It is evident to all the faithful that doctor Luther is 
 an angel of the living God,i called to feed Christ's straying flock 
 with the word of God." 
 
 That discourse and the act itself which preceded it, mark 
 an important epoch in the lleforniation. Luther had become 
 alienated from the pope at heart by the Leipsick disputation. 
 But the moment of h's burning the bull was that of his declar- 
 ing, in the most express manner, his entire separation from the 
 bishop of Rome and his church, and his adhesion to the universal 
 Church as founded by the apostles of Jesus Christ. The fire 
 he kindled at the East gate has been burning for these three 
 hundred years. 
 
 " The pope," he would say, " has three crowns. I will tell 
 you why: the first is against God, for he condemns religion; the 
 second is against the emperor, for he condemns the power of the 
 civil magistrate; the third is against society, for he condemns 
 marriage.''^ When reproached with excessive violence towards 
 the popedom: " Ah," he would reply, " I wish I had the power 
 to make people hear nothing but claps of thunder, and that my 
 every word were a stroke of lightning."" 
 
 This firmness on Luther's part spread among his friends and 
 fellow-countrymen. A. whole nation rallied around him. 
 Melanchthon about this time addressed to the states of the 
 empire, a writing replete with the elegance and the wisdom that 
 distinguished its amiable author. Replying to a book ascribed 
 to Emser, though published in the name of a Roman divine, 
 Rhodinus, he equals anything that Luther ever wrote in force, 
 while he at the same time expresses himself with a grace that 
 finds admission, for all that he has to say, into the heart. 
 
 After having proved by passages from Scripture that the pope 
 is not superior to other bishops: " What hinders," says he to 
 the states of the empire, " our depriving the pope of the rights 
 we have given to him!-* It matters little to Luther that our 
 
 ' Lutherum esse Dei vivcntis argelum qui palabundas Cliristi oves pascat. 
 (L. 0pp. lat. ii p. 123.) 
 
 2 L. 0pp. (W.) xxii. p. 1313. 
 
 8 Und ein jeglich Wort eine Donncraxt ■ware. (Ibid. p. IS-'^O.) 
 
 ' Quid obstat quominus papae (]uod dedimus j>is adimamns? (Corp. Reform. 
 L p. Sol.) 
 
528 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 riches, that is to say, the wealth of Europe, is sent to Rome. 
 But what grieves him and us, is that the laws of the pontiff and 
 the papal government not only peril men's souls, but absolutely 
 destroy them. Every one may judge for himself whether it be 
 fitting or not to give his money for keeping up Roman luxury, 
 but the common people cannot so judge of the things of religion 
 and of sacred mysteries. Here it is, therefore, that Luther 
 implores your faith and your zeal, and here all godly men unite 
 with him in this prayer, some aloud and others by groans and 
 sighs. Remember that you be Christians, the princes of a 
 Christian people, and rescue the sad remains of Christianity 
 from the tyranny of Antichrist. They mislead you who pre- 
 tend that you have no jurisdiction over priests. Let the same 
 feeling that animated Jehu against the priests of Baal, em- 
 bolden you, by that ancient precedent, to extinguish that Roman 
 superstition which is so much worse than the idolatry of 
 Baal."' Thus spoke the gentle Melanchthon to the princes of 
 Germany. 
 
 Some cries of alarm might be heard among the friends of the 
 Reformation. Timid minds, prone to make extreme concessions, 
 Staupitz in particular, gave expression to the keenest distress. 
 "This whole affair," said Luther to him, "has been hitherto 
 but child's play. You have yourself said that if God do not 
 these thino-s, they can never possibly be done. The tumult 
 becomes so remarkably tumultuous that to me it seems not 
 likely to be calmed down till the last day." 2 Thus did Luther 
 cheer the minds of the alarmed. Three centuries have passed — 
 the tumult has not yet subsided. 
 
 " The popedom," he continues, " is no longer what it was 
 yesterday and before yesterday. Let it excommunicate and 
 burn my writings . . . . let it slay me . . .it shall 
 not lay an arrest on what is advancing. Assuredly there is 
 something portentous at our doors. 3 I burnt the bull at first 
 
 1 . . . Ut extinguaris illam, multo terriorem Baalis idolatria, romanam 
 Buperstitionem. (Corp. Reform, i. p. 33Y.) 
 
 « Tumultus egregie tumultuatur, ut nisi extreme die sedari mihi posse non 
 videatur. (L. Epp. i, p. 641.) 
 
 » Omnino aliquid portenti prsc foribus est. (Ibid. p. 542.) (What a presenti- 
 ment of the futm-e!) 
 
MELANCHTIION's Ol'INlON 01' REIORAI. 529 
 
 with much treniblinq;, but now I experience more joy from that 
 deed than anything I ever did during my whole Hfe has given me.i 
 
 One pauses invohmtarily and finds a pleasure in reading in 
 Luthei-'s great soul, the whole of that future which was then in 
 preparation. "0 my father," says he to Staupitz in coming 
 to a close, " pray for the word of God and for me. I am hurried 
 along and tossed about by these waves/''^ 
 
 Thus the combat declared itself on all sides and the combat- 
 ants threw away the scabbards of their swords. The word of 
 God re-asserted its rights and unseated him who had taken the 
 place of God himself. The whole fabric of society was convulsed. 
 Selfish persons are at all times to be found who would allow 
 human society to sleep on in error and in corruption; but wise 
 men, even admitting that they are timid, think otherwise. 
 " We well know,*' says the mild and moderate Melanchthon, 
 *' that statesmen have a horror for innovations; and it must be 
 confessed that in that sad confusion called human life, discords, 
 such even as arise from the most justifiable causes, are ever con- 
 taminated with more or less of evil. Nevertheless, in the Church, 
 God's command must of necessity be preferred to all things 
 human,3 -^ God threatens with his everlasting wrath, such as 
 strive to make his truth a thing of nought. Therefore was it 
 Luther's duty, a Christian duty, and one which he could not set 
 aside, especially considering that he was a doctor in the Church 
 of God, to reprehend those pernicious errors which disorderly 
 men had disseminated with such inconceivable effrontery. If 
 
 I . . . . Primum trepidus et orans, sed nunc lastior quam ullo totius vitjB 
 mese facto. ( Ibid ) 
 
 * Ego fluctibus his rapior et volvor . . . (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ Sed tamen in Ecclesia necesse est anteferri mandatum Dei omnibus rebus 
 numanis. (Melancht. Vit. Lutheri.) 
 
 * What ^McLanchthon says here is applicable to all times. Now, as then, 
 strenuous opposition to corruptions in the Church awakens suspicion and per- 
 secution among statesmen. Now, as then, are the dissensions, thus excited, 
 alloyed with an admixture of evil, which affords a pretext for justifyinf persecu- 
 tion. Yet now, too, this ought not to make Christians hang back, instead of 
 following God's word and the suggestions of conscience alone. — L. II. — Even 
 Christian statesmen are too apt to forgot that the same reveiation from God bv 
 which the Church happens to exist, must supply the standard of its purity, and 
 that as not even the purest character on earth is without faults, which are apt 
 to prejudice his noblest endeavours by being associated with them, still less, 
 when the opponents of corruption and abuse come to form a party, can they dis- 
 embarrass themselves from adherents whose imprudent zeal, or other personal 
 defects, arc apt to be unjustly confounded with what is excellent in the views of 
 the body at large with which they are associated. Th. 
 
 I. ii X 
 
630 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 discord be the parent of many evils, as to my great sorrow I 
 perceive to be the case," adds the sage Philip, " it is the fault of 
 those who originally diffused those errors, and of those who, in 
 the intensity of their diabolical hatred, now seek to maintain 
 them." 
 
 All, however, did not think thus. Luther was overwhelmed 
 with reproaches; the storm burst upon him from all quarters. 
 "He stands quite alone!" said some; "he is a teacher of 
 novelties!" said others. 
 
 " Who knows," said Luther in the consciousness of the voca- 
 tion addressed to him from on high, " who knows whether God 
 have not chosen me and called me, ^ and whether they ought not 
 to fear, that in despising me they are despising God himself. 
 
 . . . . Moses was alone when Israel went out of Egypt; 
 Elias alone at the time of king Achab; Isaiah alone at Jeru- 
 salem; Ezekiel alone at Babylon .... God has never 
 chosen as a prophet either the high priest or any other great 
 personage, but for the most part low and despised persons, at one 
 time even a shepherd, Amos. Saints have been bound in duty^ 
 at all periods, to reprehend the great, kings, princes, priests, and 
 learned men, at the peril of their lives .... And has it 
 not been so, also, under the New Testament? Ambrose was 
 alone at his time; after him Jerome stood alone; later still, 
 Augustine was alone ... I say not that I am a prophet,- 
 but I do say that they ought to fear, just because I am alone, 
 and because they are many. What I am sure of is this, that 
 the word of God is with me and that it is not with them." 
 
 " It is said likewise," he continues, " that I put forth novel- 
 ties, and that it is not to be believed that all the doctors have 
 been so Ions; deceived. 
 
 " No, I preach no new things. But I say that all Christian 
 doctrines have disappeared among the very persons whose office 
 it was to preserve them, to wit, the men of learning and the 
 bishops. I doubt not, nevertheless, that the truth has remained 
 with some hearts, were it only with infants in the cradle.3 Poor 
 
 ' Werweiss ob mich Gott duzu berufen und erwsehlt hat. Grounds for main- 
 taining the articles condemned by the bull from Rome. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 
 p. .338.) 
 
 2 Ich sage nicht dass Teh ein Prophet sey. (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ Und sollten's eitel Kinder in der "Wiege seyn. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 339.) 
 
I.UTIIER JUSTIFIES HIS CONDUCT. 531 
 
 peasants, siin})lo cliiklrcn, now comprehend Jesus Clnist better 
 than do the pope, bishops, and doctors. 
 
 " I am accused of rejecting the holy doctors of the Church. 
 I do not reject them; but since all these doctors seek to prove 
 their writings by holy Scripture, that must necessarily be clearer 
 and purer than they are. Who would think of proving an 
 obscure discourse by one obscurer still? Thus, then, necessity 
 obliges us to have recourse to the Bible as all doctors do, appeal- 
 ing to it to pronounce on their writings; for the Bible alone is 
 lord and master. 
 
 "But, it is said, powerful men persecute him. And is it not 
 clear, according to scripture, that persecutors are ordinarily in the 
 wrong and the persecuted in the right; that the majority has 
 ever been on the side of falsehood and the small minority on the 
 side of truth? Truth has at all times caused disturbance."' ^ 
 
 Luther then passes under review the propositions which the 
 bull condemned as heretical, and dem.onstrates their truth by 
 proofs taken from holy Scripture. With what force, in particu- 
 lar, does he not maintain the doctrine of grace? 
 
 -'What," says he, "nature is able, forsooth, previous to and 
 without grace, to hate sin, to shun it, to repent of it, while even 
 after grace has come, that nature loves sin, seeks after it, longs 
 for it, and ceases not to combat grace and to be angry with it; 
 a fact which makes the saints groan continually! ... It 
 is as if one were to say, that a huge tree which I could not bend 
 by applying my utmost force to it, bends of itself on my leaving 
 it; or that a torrent, which dykes and walls fail to arrest, stops 
 of itself on simply being let alone . . . No, it is not by 
 reflecting on sin and its consequences that we come to repent; 
 but it is by contemplating Jesus Christ, his wounds, and his 
 infinite love.^ The knowledge of sin must flow from repent- 
 ance and not repentance from the knowledge of sin. Know- 
 ledge is the fruit, repentance is the tree. W^ith us, fruits grow 
 on the trees, but it appears that in the states of the holy father, 
 trees grow on the fruits." 3 
 
 1 Wahrhcit hat allczeit rumort. (Ibid. p. "40.) 
 
 2 IMan soil zuvor Christum in seine Wunden sehen, und aus deselben seino 
 Libe geyen uns. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 351.) 
 
 8 How much is not this doctrine of Luther's, the pure doctrine of the gospel, 
 again perverted by many in the Protestant (LuthcranJ and also in our Reformed 
 
632 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The bold doctor, although protesting, yet retracts some of his 
 propositions. Amazement will cease on learning the manner in 
 Avhich he does it. After quoting the four propositions on the 
 indulgences condemned by the bull,' he simply adds: 
 
 "To the honour of the holy and learned bull, I retract all that 
 I have ever tausiht touchina: the indulfrences. If there has been 
 
 C3 o C? 
 
 any justice in burning my books, this is no doubt because I had 
 conceded somewhat to the pope in the doctrine of the indulgen- 
 ces, and therefore do I myself condemn them to the flames.'''' 
 
 He retracts, also, with respect to John Huss: "I now say, not 
 that some^ but that all the articles of John Huss are wholly 
 Christian. In condemning Huss, the pope condemned the gospel. 
 I have done five times more than he, and yet I much fear I 
 have not done enough. Huss merely says that a wicked pope 
 is not a member of Christendom; but as for me, were St. Peter 
 himself presiding at Rome at this day, I should deny that the 
 pope was of God's appointment." 
 
 XL The Ileformer''s words of power were now penetrating into 
 all men's minds and promoting their emancipation. The whole 
 nation caught fire from the sparks that flew from every one of 
 them. But a grave question remained to be solved. Would 
 the prince, within whose territories Luther resided, favour the 
 execution of the bull, or would he oppose it? The answer seemed 
 doubtful. The elector was then, together with the other princes 
 of the empire, at Aix-la«Chapelle, where the crown that had been 
 worn by Charlemagne, was placed on the head of the youngest, 
 yet the mightiest monarch of Christendom. An unheard-of 
 pomp and magnificence were displayed at the ceremony, which 
 was no sooner over than Charles V, the princes, ministers, and 
 ambassadors went to Cologne. Aix-la-Chapelle, which was 
 afflicted with the plague, seemed on this occasion to empty itself 
 into that ancient city on the banks of the Rhine. 
 
 Anions: ^^be crowd of forei^'ners that throntjed Coloiine, there 
 were two nuncios from the pope, Marino Carracioli and Jerome 
 Aleander. Carracioli, who had previously been employed in a 
 
 Church, who either would hegin by making themselves virtuous by their own 
 efforts, or, while apparently condemning this course, still would first discover 
 the marks of grace in themselves, before they embrace grace by faith. — L. R. 
 ' 10th to 22d. (Ibid. p. 363.) 
 
THE 1>01'k\s nuncio TO CIIAULES V. 5^3 
 
 mission to Maximilian, was charged with felicitations to the new 
 emperor and with powers to treat with him on political afl'air.s; 
 but the suppression of the Reformation was perceived by Rome 
 to require for its satisfactory settlement a nuncio specially 
 charged with that object, and possessing the character, tlie 
 address, and the activity it required. Aleander was selected 
 for the task.' This person, who at a later date was decorated 
 with the purple of the cardinalship, was of rather an ancient 
 family, it would appear, and was not of Jewish parentage, as has 
 been said. The criminal Borgia had called him to Rome to act 
 as secretary to his son — that Caesar whose murderous sword 
 made all Rome tremble.^ "Like master, like man," says an 
 historian who likens Aleander to Alexander VI., but this 
 we think too severe a judgment. On Borgia's death, Aleander 
 devoted himself to study with fresh ardour. His acquaintance 
 with Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic, was such as to pro- 
 cure for him the title of the most learned man of his age. He 
 threw his whole soul into all that he undertook. His zeal in 
 ihe study of languages fell in nothing short of that with which 
 he afterwards set himself to persecute the Reformation. Leo X. 
 took him into his service. Protestant historians speak of his 
 Epicurean morals; Romanist historians of the purity of his 
 manners.3 It would appear that he was fond of luxury, scenic 
 representations, and diversions. "Aleander lived at Venice as 
 a base Epicurean and in high dignities," says of him histoid 
 friend Erasmus. All agree in acknowledging that he was 
 vehement, indefatigable, imperious, and devoted to the pope. 
 Eck appears as the choleric and intrepid champion of the school ; 
 Aleander as the haughty ambassador of the proud court of the 
 pontiffs. 
 
 Rome had made all her preparations for the ruin of the 
 Wittemberg monk. The post of representative of the pope at 
 the emperor's coronation, was a mere secondary mission for 
 
 1 Studium flagrantissimum religionis, ardor indolis .... incredibilo 
 quanta solertia . . . (Pallavicini, i. p. 84.) 
 
 * Capello, Venitian ambassador at Home in 1500, says of him: Tutta Roma 
 trema di esso ducha non li faza amazzar .... (Relatione M S C, 
 Archives of Vienna, extracted by Ranke.) 
 
 3 Er wird Ubel als ein geboiirner Jude und schfcndlicher Epicurer beschriben. 
 (Seckend. 288.)— Integritas Vitse qua prtenoscebatur . . . (Pallavicini, i. 
 p. 84.) 
 
534 .HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Aleander, but it was fitted to facilitate his principal task by the 
 consideration which it secured for him. The essential object of 
 his being there, was to prevail on Charles to crush the rising 
 lleformation.l "The pope," said the nuncio to the emperor, as 
 he delivered to him the bull, "the pope who has carried his point 
 with so many and such great princes, knows very well how to 
 brino- three grammarians to their good behaviour.*' He alluded 
 by this to Luther, Melanchthon, and Erasmus. Erasmus was 
 present at that audience. 
 
 Hardly had Aleander arrived at Cologne, when, in concert 
 with Carracioli, he put everything in movement with the view 
 of procuring orders for the burning of Luther's heretical books 
 throughout the empire, but especially under the eyes of the 
 princes of Germany, while thus convened at Cologne. To this 
 Cliarles V. had already given his consent in as far as concerned 
 his hereditary estates. Great was the agitation that now pre- 
 vailed. It was said to Charles's ministers and to the nuncios 
 themselves, " such measures, far from curing, will only aggravate 
 the evil. Think you that Luther's doctrines are to be found 
 no where but in the books you commit to the flames? They are 
 written where you cannot reach, in the heart of the nation^ . 
 
 . . If you would employ force, it would need to be that of 
 swords innumerable, drawn for the purpose of massacring an 
 infinite multitude. 3 A few faggots brought together for the pur- 
 pose of burning some sheets of paper, will serve no purpose; and 
 such arms are little befitting either the emperor's or the pontiff's 
 dignity." The nuncio defended his bonfires: "These flames," 
 he would say, "are a sentence of condemnation, written in 
 gigantic characters, and understood equally by persons at hand 
 and others at a distance, both by the learned and the ignorant, 
 and those even who cannot read." 
 
 But, in point of fact, it was not books and papers, but Luther, 
 himself, that the nuncio had in his eye. "These flames,'' he 
 rejoined, "are inadequate to the purpose of purifying the infected 
 air of Germany. 4 They may terrify the simple but they do not 
 
 ' Gui tota sollicitudo inniteretur nascentls hseresis evellendae. (Pall. i. p. S3.) 
 2 Altiusque insculptam in mcntibus universac fere German iae. (Ibid. i. p. 88.) 
 
 * In vi innumorabilium gladiorum qui infinitum populum trucidarent. (Ibid). 
 
 * Non satis ad expurgandum aerem Gerraaniae jam tabificum. (Gardinal 
 Pallavicini, i. p. 89.) 
 
FREDERICK AND THE POI'e's NUNCIOB. 535 
 
 correct the wicked. Wo must have an edict from the emperor 
 aimed at Luther's head."" ' 
 
 Aloander did not find the emperor so easily dealt with, when 
 the question was no longer about the books, but about the per- 
 son of the Eeformei*'. 
 
 " Hardly seated on the throne," said he to Aleander, "I can- 
 not, without the advice of my counsellors and the consent of the 
 princes, strike such a blow at an immense faction, surrounded by 
 such powerful defenders. Let us first know what our father, the 
 elector of Saxony, thinks of this affair; we shall then see what 
 reply ought to bo sent to the pope."^ Accordingly, it was the 
 elector upon whom the nuncios went to try their artifices and 
 the power of their eloquence. On the first Sunday of November, 
 Frederick having been present at mass in the monastery of the 
 Cordeliers, Carracioli and Aleander craved au audience of him.3 
 He received them in presence of the bishop of Trent and of 
 several of his counsellors. Carracioli first presented to the 
 elector the pope's brief. Of a milder spirit than Aleander, he 
 thought he might gain over the prince by flatteries, and began 
 to laud both him and his ancestors. " We look to you," said he, 
 " for the salvation of the Roman Church and of the Eoman 
 empire." 
 
 But the impetuous Aleander, eager to come to the point, 
 stepped bluntly forward and interrupted his colleague, who 
 modestly gave way. "It is I and Eck," said he, "who have been 
 entrusted with Martin's affair. See the immense peril into which 
 that man is plunging the Christian commonwealth. If a remedy 
 be not speedily applied, it is all over with the empire. How have 
 the Greeks been ruined but by abandoning the pope? You cannot 
 maintain your connection with Luther without separating from 
 Jesus Christ.^ In the name of his Holiness I require of you two 
 things: first, that you burn Luther's writings; secondly, that. 
 you visit himself with the punishment he deserves, or at least 
 
 1 Caisaris edictum in caput . . . Lutheri. (Ibid.) 
 
 * Audiamus antea hac in re patrem nostrum Fredericum. (L. 0pp. lat. ii. p. 
 117.) 
 
 ^ Cui ita loquenti de improviso sese addit Aleander. . . . (Ibid. 
 
 * Non posse cum Lutbero conjungi, quin sejungcretur a Christo. (Pallivicini, 
 p. 86.) 
 
536 HISTORY OF THE ItEFORMATION. 
 
 that you deliver him up as a prisoner to the pope.' The emperor 
 and all the princes of the empire have declared themselves ready 
 to accede to what we require; you alone still delay/'' . . 
 
 Frederick replied through the medium of the bishop of Trent 
 "This is too weighty an aftair to be decided upon at this moment 
 We will let you know what we may determine with regard to 
 
 it;* 
 
 The position was a difficult one in which Frederick found him- 
 self placed. What part could he well adopt? On the one side 
 were ranged the emperor, the princes of the empire, and the 
 high priest of Christendom, from under whose authority the 
 elector had no thought as yet of withdi-awing himself; on the 
 other, a monk, a feeble monk; for it was no one but him that 
 was asked for. Charles'* reign was just commencing, and shall it 
 be Frederick, the eldest and the wisest of all the princes of Ger- 
 man v, who is to throw disunion into the empire? Besides, that 
 piety of the olden time which had led him even to the tomb of 
 Christ — how can he renounce that? . . . 
 
 Other voices then claimed a hearing. A young prince, who 
 afterwards wore the electoral crown, John Frederick, son of duke 
 John, a nephew of the elector and pupil of Spalatin, then seven- 
 teen years old, and whose reign was marked by heavy calamities, 
 had cordially imbibed a great love for the truth, and was warmly 
 attached to Luther.- On seeing him smitten with anathemas 
 from Rome, he embraced his cause with all the warmth of a 
 young Christian, and of a young prince. He wrote to the doc- 
 tor, he wrote to his uncle, and nobly urged the latter to protect 
 Luther against his enemies. Spalatin, on the other liand, deeply 
 depressed as he often was, Pontanus, and some other counsellors 
 who were then vvitli the elector at Cologne, represented to the 
 prince that he could not abandon the Reformer.^ 
 
 In the midst of this wide-spread agitation, one man alone 
 remained unmoved; and he was Luther. While people were 
 endeavouring to save him through the intervention of the great 
 
 ' Ut de eo supplicium sumeret, vel captum pontifici transmitteret. (L. 0pp. 
 lat. ii. p. 117. 
 
 2 . . . Sonderliche Gunst und Grade zii mir un-wirdiglich, und den grossen 
 Willen und Lust zu der heiligen gottlichcn Wahrheit. . . . (L. Epp. i. p. 
 558, to John Frederick, 30th October, 1520.) 
 
 * Assiduoflabcllo niiiiistrorum, illi jugiter suadentium ne Lutherum dosereret. 
 (I'allavicini, i. p. 86.) 
 
FREDERICK REFUSES TO UIJUN I.trrilKIt. 537 
 
 in his favour, the monk, in liis cloister at Witteniberg, thoui;ht 
 it was rather his part to save those gTeat folks of the world. 
 " Had the gospel," lie wrote to Spalatin, " been of a nature 
 to be propagated or maintained bj the powers of thi? world, God 
 would not have entrusted it to fishermen.' It does not belong 
 
 o 
 
 to this world's princes and high priests to defend the Word 
 of God.' They have enough to do to shelter themselves from 
 the judgments of the Lord and his Anointed. If I speak, it is 
 in order that they may come to know the divine Word and bo 
 saved by it." 
 
 Luther's expectation was not doomed to disappointment. The 
 fiiith which had found a harbour in a monastery at Wittembero-, 
 exercised its power in the palaces of Cologne. Frederick's heart, 
 though it may have wavered for a moment, became more and 
 more resolute. He shuddered at the thouo;ht of deliverinff an 
 innocent man into the cruel hands of his enemies; and justice, 
 rather than the pope, was the motto he adopted. On the 4th of 
 November, his counsellors, in compliance with instructions re- 
 ceived from him, told the Iloman nuncios when met at the 
 elector''s residence, and in presence of the bishop of Trent, that 
 he had seen with much pain Dr. Eck take advantage of his 
 absence, to include in the condemnation divers personages not 
 mentioned in the bull; but since his leaving Saxony an immense 
 number of the learned and of the ignorant, of ecclesiastics and 
 laymen, might have united in adhering to the cause and appeal of 
 
 ' Evangelium si tale esset, quod potentatibus mundi ant propagaretur ant 
 servaretur, non illud piscatorilms Deus demandasset. (L. Epp. i. p. 521.) 
 
 ^ This, too, deserves remark at tlie present day. In the religious contro- 
 versies of our time, truth is not on the side of the party which is defended by 
 the great ones of the earth. Those who stand up for the truth ought not to be 
 jealous of that protection, or to endeavour after it. This strikes me as a 
 remnant of human weakness and fear, discoverable in many who perceive what 
 is wrong in the Church, and would willingly see it corrected, but dare not 
 attempt to do so themselves, and are content to hope that God will ere long 
 work a favourable change in the heart of the government. Yet as the result of 
 this, all remains undone, and matters become daily worse. Let us consider this, 
 that God employed not the mighty of this world, but fishermen, for the propa- 
 gation and defence of his gospel. Do we keep our eye on God alone, and can 
 we dare to venture all upon Ilim.thon is hope not ashamed, but God knows the 
 right time to employ some of the great of this world, as in Luther's case, he 
 employed the elector of Saxony in protecting the cause of truth. Yet we must 
 not wait for this — we must not hand the matter over to them, but, even as 
 Luther did, we must, without trusting to such prospects, take up the cause of 
 truth boldly, and energetically defend it against all ojiposition. — L. R. 
 
538 HISTORY OF THE REFOKMATION. 
 
 Luther;! that neither his imperial majesty, nor any one whoso- 
 ever, had demonstrated to him that Luther''s writings had been 
 refuted, and had only to be cast into the fire; and that he 
 required that Dr. Luther, provided with a safe-conduct, might 
 have an opportunity of appearing before learned, pious, and im- 
 partial judges. 
 
 On hearing this declaration, Aleander, Carracioli, and their 
 followers, withdrew in order to deliberate.- This was the first 
 time that the elector, had given any public intimation of his 
 intentions with regard to the Reformer, and these were very dif- 
 ferent from what the nuncios had expected. They had thought 
 that as the elector by persisting in his course of impartiality, 
 might bring upon himself dangers, the extent of which none could 
 foresee, he would not hesitate to sacrifice the monk. But their 
 machinations were doomed to misgive before a power upon which 
 they had not calculated; the love of justice and of truth. 
 
 On being admitted anew to an interview with the elector's 
 advisers, " I should much like to know," said the imperious 
 Aleander, " what the elector would think, were one of his sub- 
 jects to choose for his judge the king of France, or some other 
 foreign prince."" And perceiving at length that nothing could 
 shake the Saxon counsellors: " We will execute the bull," said 
 he, " we will prosecute and burn Luther's writings. As for his 
 persoHj^'he added, with an afiectation of contemptuous indifference, 
 " the pope does not care to soil his hands with the blood of the 
 wretch." 
 
 On the news of the reply made by the elector to the nuncios 
 reaching Wittemberg, Luthers friends were in a transport of 
 joy, Melanchthon and Amsdorff, in particular, indulged the 
 most flattering hopes on the occasion. "The German nobility," 
 said Melanchthon, " will shape the course they take after the 
 example of that prince whom they follow in all things, as their 
 Nestor. If Homer called his hero the bulwark of the Greeks, 
 why should not Frederick be called the bulwark of the Ger- 
 mans?''''^ 
 
 1 Ut ingcns vis populi doctorum et rudium sacrorum et profanorum seae cou- 
 junxerLnt. . . . (L. 0pp. lat. ii. p. 116.) 
 
 2 Quo audito, Marinus et Aleander seorsim cum suis locuti sunt? . . . 
 (Ibid. p. 117.) 
 
 ^ Ilomerica adpellatione murum Germanic. (Corp. Ref. i. 272.) 
 
THE EI.ECTOn SEXns FOU ERASMUS, 539 
 
 That oracle of courts, torch of the schools, and light of the 
 world, Erasmus, was then in Cologne, having been invited thither 
 by several princes who wanted his advice, l^lrasmus, at the time 
 of the Reformation, was chief of the golden-mean party; at least 
 60 he thought, hut he was mistaken, for when truth and error 
 are opposed to each other, justice is not the mean. He was chief 
 of that philosophical and university party which had been pre- 
 tending to correct Rome for ages, without having ever succeeded 
 in doing so; ho was the representative of human wisdom, but 
 that was too weak a wisdom to pull down the pinnacles of the 
 popedom. For this there was required that wisdom of God, 
 which man often calls foolishness, but at the voice of which the 
 mountains melt. Erasmus did not wish either to throw himself 
 iiito Luther's arms, or to take his place at the feet of the pope. 
 He hesitated, and often halted betwixt those two powers, drawn 
 at times towards Luther, and anon thrown back upon the pope. 
 He had pronounced in favour of Luther in a letter to the arch- 
 bishop of Maintz. " The last spark of Christian piety seems 
 ready to go out," he had said to Albert, " and this is what has 
 moved Luther's heart; he cares nothing either about money or 
 honours." ^ But this letter, published by the imprudent Ulrich 
 von Hutten, brought so many annoyances upon Erasmus that 
 he resolved to act more prudently for the future. Besides, he 
 was charged with being an accomplice of Luthers, and the latter 
 hurt his feelings by indiscreet expressions. " Almost all good 
 people," said he, " side with Luther,^ but I perceive we are 
 marching towards a revolt. . . I would not have any one 
 associate my name with his. This injures me without benefiting 
 him.''''3 "Be it so," replied Luther; "since this annoys you, I 
 promise you never to mention you or any of your friends." Such 
 was the man to whom both the enemies and the friends of the 
 Reformer applied for advice. 
 
 Aware that the opinion of a man so much respected as 
 Erasmus, must carry much w^eight, the elector nivited the 
 
 ' Et futurum erat . . . ut tandem prorsns cxtingueretur ilia scintilla 
 Christianas pictatis ; hwc nioverimt animum Lutlicri . . . qui nee honores 
 ambit, nee pecuniam cupit. (Erasm. Epp. Londoni, 1642, p. 686.) 
 
 - Favent vero ferme boni omnes. (Corp. Rcf. i. p. 205. 
 
 ' Er will von mir ungenennt soyn. (L. Epp. p. 525.) Nam ea res me 
 gravat, et Lutherum non sublevat. (Corp. Ref. i. p. 206.) 
 
540 HISTORY OF THE RKFORMATION. 
 
 illustrious Hollander to come and see Inni. Erasmus complied, 
 and an interview took place on the otli of December, wliicli was 
 not witnessed by Luther's friends without secret misgivings. 
 The elector stood before the fire place, with Spalatin at his side, 
 when Erasmus was introduced. " What is your opinion of 
 Luther,"''' Frederick immediately asked him. The wary Eras- 
 mus, surprised at so direct a question, first sought to elude giv- 
 ing a reply ; and so he twisted his mouth, bit his lips, and said 
 nothing. On this the elector, making large eyes, as Spalatin 
 tells us he usually did to persons whom he wished to answer him 
 precisely, gave Erasmus- a piercing look.l Not well knowing 
 how to escape from his embarrassment, the latter said at length, 
 in a half sportive tone: "Luther has committed two grand faults; 
 he has attacked the crown of the pope and the bellies of the 
 monks. "-^ The elector smiled, yet gave his interlocutor to 
 understand that he spoke seriously ; whereupon, throwing off 
 his reserve, Erasmus said: " The origin of this whole dispute is 
 to be found in the hatred the monks entertain for literature, and 
 their alarm at the prospect of an end being put to their tyranny. 
 What have they not done to ruin Luther? Clamours, cabals, 
 hatred, slanders, have all been employed against him. The 
 more virtuous a man is, and the more he is attached to the doc- 
 trines of the Gospel, the less, likewise, is he opposed to Luther.3 
 The hard terms of the bull have made all good people indignant, 
 and no one can recognise in them the meekness of a vicar of 
 Jesus Christ.4 Of so many universities, two only have con- 
 demned Luther; and, after all, they have condemned, not con- 
 victed him. Let no one deceive himself, the danger is greater 
 than some suppose. Arduous affairs are pressing upon us. ^ 
 . . . To begin the reign of Charles with an act so odious 
 as the imprisonment of Luther, would be a melancholy omen. 
 The world thirsts for Gospel truth,^ let us beware of sinfully 
 
 ' Da spcrret auch wahrlich mein gnadister Herr sein Augen nur wohi auf. 
 
 . . . (Spalatin, Hist. M.S. in Seckend. p. 291.) 
 
 ^ Lutherus peccavit in duobus, nem]>e quodtetigit coronam pontificiset ventres 
 monacliorum. (See book iii. chapter 6.) 
 
 ^ Cum optimus quisque et evangelicEe doctrinse proximus dicatur, minime 
 offensus Luthero. (Axiomata Erasmi in L. 0pp. lat. ii. p. 115.) 
 
 * Bullffi ssGvitia probes omnes oflfendit, ut indigna, mitissimo Christi vicario. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 * Urgent ardua negotia. . . . ( Ibid.) 
 
 " Mundus sitit veritatern evangelicam. . . . (Ibid.) 
 
KllASMUS CONFIRMS TIIK EMOCTOIt. 541 
 
 resisting such a feeling. Let the case be examined b;y men of 
 grave character and sound judgment; this best befits tiie dignity 
 of the pope himself." 
 
 Thus spoke Erasmus to the elector. The reader will perhaps 
 be astonished at such boldness: but Erasmus knew the person 
 to Avhom he spoke. Spalatin was overjoyed at it. He went out 
 with Erasmus, and accompanied him as far as count Nuenar's, 
 the provost of Cologne, where the illustrious scholar was staying. 
 On returning to his own quarters, the latter took up his pen, 
 and, in a fit of frankness, sat down, Avrote out the substance of 
 what he had said to the elector, and handed it to Spalatin. But 
 fear, ere long, resumed its sway over the timid Erasmus; the 
 courage he had acquired from the presence of the elector and his 
 chaplain, deserted him, and dreading lest the rash document 
 should fall into the hands of the terrible nuncio, he besought 
 Spalatin to return it. But it was too late. 
 
 Strcngthcnod by the opinion of Erasmus, the elector spoke in 
 a more decided manner to the emperor. Erasmus hiniself, in 
 the course of certain conferences held, like those of Nicodemus 
 of old, during the night,^ made an effort to persuade Charles's 
 counsellors that the whole case ought to be remitted to impartial 
 judges. Possibly he may have entertained the hope of being 
 himself appointed arbiter in a dispute which threatened to divide 
 the Christian world — a task that would have flattered his vanity. 
 But, at the same time, in order that he might not damage his 
 interests at Rome, he wrote the most submissive letters to Leo 
 X., and Leo sent him kind answers. This put poor Aleander 
 to the torture.^ He would fain, from love to the pope, have 
 warmly reproved the pope; for Erasmus made no secret of these 
 letters from the pontiff, and they still further augmented his 
 credit. The nuncio complained of them at Rome; and was told 
 in reply, that he must wink at the man's mischievous proceed- 
 ings, as the course required by prudence, and that a door ought 
 to be left open for repentance.-^ ^ 
 
 ' Sollicitatis per nocturnos congressus, . . . (Pallavicini, i. p. 87) 
 
 2 Quaj male torquebant Aleandrum. (Ibid.) 
 
 3 Prudentis erat consilii, honiinis pravitatis dissimulare. (Ibid. p. 88.) 
 
 * To the above details respecting the conduct and sentiments of Erasmus, 
 we on this occasion may add the following passages from Milner : 
 
 '• There is however, no doubt, that Erasmus heartly disproved the severe and 
 
542 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 Charles V. himself adopted that see-saw system which -con- 
 sisted in flattering the pope and the elector alternately, and in 
 aj)pearing to incline to one or other by turns, according to the 
 necessities of the moment. His ministers hinted to Aleander 
 what the plan was that their master wished to follow. " The 
 Emperor," said they, "will behave to the pope as the pope would 
 to the emperor; for he has no idea of augmenting the power of his 
 rivals and, in particular, that of the king of France."'''^ At these 
 words the imperious nuncio could not repress his indignation. 
 " What!*" said he, "even were the pope to abandon the emperor, 
 ought the latter, on that account, to abandon religion ?- Should 
 Charles desire thus to avenge himself ... let him tremble ! 
 Such dastardly conduct will turn against himself." But the im- 
 perial diplomatists were not to be shaken by the nuncio's threats, 
 
 XII. If the Roman legates failed in their attempts to gain 
 over the mighty ones of the earth, the inferior agents of the 
 popedom succeeded in disquieting the weak. The militia of 
 Rome had heard their chiefs command. Fanatical priests em- 
 ployed the bull in frightening people's consciences, and well 
 
 despotical proceedings of the Roman court in the condemnation of Luther. 
 The popish historians inform us, that he held the pope's bull to be a forgery, 
 and would not be convinced of the contrary, till Aleander had permitted him to 
 examine it. That after this he went about by night to the princes and their 
 friends, for the purpose of alienating their afifections from the pope and from 
 Aleander, telling them the bull had been extorted, contrary to the pope's real 
 inclination, by the artifices of malevolent persons; and that in a conversation 
 with Aleander, he was very pressing that the resolution to burn Luther's books 
 might be dropped or at least retarded." (Milner, vol. iv. p. 488.) 
 
 " The legates of the pope, in their turn, are said to have plied Erasmus 
 closely with the offer of a rich bishoprick,if he would undertake to write against 
 Luther. But he answered them, ' Luther is too great a man for me to 
 encounter. I do not even always understand him. However, to speak plainly, 
 he is so extraordinary a man that I learn more from a single page in his books, 
 than from all the writings of Thomas Acquinas.' Such was the reputation of 
 Luther for profound knowledge in divinity. 
 
 " From little anecdotes of this kind, we often learn more of the real judg- 
 ment of mankind concerning extraordinary characters, than from long historical 
 details." (Ibid.) Tr. 
 
 ' CiTsarem ita se gesturum erga Pontificem, uti se Pontifex ergo Caesarem 
 gereret. . . . (Pallavicini, i. p. 91.) 
 
 ^ If religion be "the wisdom that is from above, first pure, then peaceable, 
 gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good ft-uits, without parti- 
 ality, and without hypocrisy," (James iii. 17), how well might we apply this 
 language of the nuncio to the popedom itself, which has so often abandoned 
 purity of doctrine and morals, peace, meekness, mercy, charity, impartiality, and 
 sincerity, in attempting to promote its own aggrandisement, and found "such 
 dastardly conduct turn against itself" in the contempt which it has gained for 
 itself even in countries filled with its own professed followers, and into which it 
 has too often brought the Gospel, and indeed all religion, having mischievously 
 associated them, in the popular apprehension, with its own bad qualities. Tr, 
 
THE CONFESSIONAL IS POPKKy's I'ltOl'. 543 
 
 meaning' though Httlo enlightened ecclesiastics, regarded it as a 
 sacred duty to comply with the pope''s instructions. It was in 
 the confessional that Luther commenced his conflict with Rome;' 
 it was in the confessional, too, that Homo carried on her hostili- 
 ties against the adherents of the llcformer. Though outwardly 
 an object of national scorn, the bull became a mighty engine in 
 those solitary tribunals. " Have you read Luther's writings?" 
 asked the confessors ; " have you any of them in your posses- 
 sion? do you consider them as true or as heretical?" And if the 
 penitent hesitated to pronounce the anathema, the priest refused 
 absolution. IMany consciences were disquieted, and people gen- 
 erally were nmch agitated. This clever manoeuvre threatened 
 to bring back under the yoke of Rome whole multitudes that 
 had been already gained over to the Gospel, and Rome congra- 
 tulated herself on having erected, in the thirteenth century, a 
 tribunal which was destined to brine; the free consciences of 
 Christians under bondage to priests.^ As long as that tribunal 
 lasts, her dominion will last too.^ 
 
 Luther became aware of all this, but what could he alone do 
 in order to disconcert this manoeuvre? He could speak, and in 
 speaking boldly out, lay the weapons he had to employ.* He 
 
 1 See book iii. chapter 4th. 
 
 2 In 1215, by the ith Lateran council under Innocent III. 
 
 ^ Never, assuredly, has the cunning of Rome invented, or at least applied to 
 her own purposes, a cleverer instrument than the secret confessional. She 
 thereby rules men's consciences, and keeps her eye upon the slightest indica- 
 tions of better convictions, in order to smother these at their birth, and to 
 remove every means by which they might be produced. Well may people appeal 
 to the invincible security for its permanence which the popedom derives from it. 
 Yet we can hence conclude nothing in favour of its divine origin or excellence, 
 but much in proof of the astuteness of the spirit which still keeps it up as a 
 means of opposing the true kingdom of Christ. — L. R. 
 
 ■* Few things are more worthy of remark in the history of the reformation, 
 than that it owed its conquests over men's hearts and consciences so much to 
 " speaking out" — in this so closely resembling the first preaching of the Gospel 
 by our Lord and his apostles, and differing so widely from the policy by which 
 the disciples of Loyola in particular, subsequently succeeded in stealing back so 
 large a part of Europe, after it had been openly rescued from the papal sway. 
 Our Lord could, and did appeal to the openness of all his proceedings. Nicode- 
 mus, indeed, came to him by night but not because he was sent for, and in the 
 conversation that ensued, there was no insinuation or flattery attempted by our 
 Lord in order to gain over that "ruler of the Jews." On the contrary, nothing 
 could have been more frank or explicit than the Saviour's dealing with him. 
 But what a contrast to such conduct on the part of our Lord and his apostles, 
 is presented by the policy which, on finding that persecution and cruelty only 
 prejudiced its interests, the popedom has employed, and which until this hour 
 its agents are employing, in order to make proselytes — worming themselves as 
 independent laymen into courts and other public circles, while in reality bound 
 by vows of obedience to secret chiefs- — alluring young persons of both sexes by 
 
5-i4 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 could Bpeak; his words would reach those alarmed consciences, 
 those terrified souls, and would strengthen and comfort them. 
 A powerful impulse behoved to be communicated. The voice of 
 Luther, therefore, made itself be heard. He addressed penitents 
 with a courageous warmth, and with a noble disdain of all second- 
 ary considerations. " When asked whether or not you approve of 
 my books," said he, " let your answer be. You are a confessor, 
 not an inquisitor, or a gaoler. It is my duty to confess what my 
 conscience bids me say: it is not yours to probe my heart and 
 discover its secrets. Grant me absolution, and then dispute 
 with Luther, with the pope, with whomsoever you please ; but 
 make not the sacrament of penitence a matter of contention and 
 animosity. And should the confessor refuse to yield, then,"" 
 says Luther, "I would rather dispense with his absolution. Be 
 not disquieted: should man refuse to absolve you, God will 
 absolve you. Rejoice at the thought of being absolved by God 
 himself, and present yourselves without fear at the sacrament of 
 the altar. The priest shall answer at the last judgment, for the 
 absolution which he has refused you. They may indeed refuse 
 us the sacrameait, but they cannot deprive us of the efficacy and 
 the grace which God has attached to it. It is neither in their 
 will nor in their power, but in our faith, that God has placed sal- 
 vation. Leave sacrament, altar, priest, and church; the Word 
 of God which has been condemned in the bull, is greater than 
 all these things. The soul may dispense with the sacrament but 
 it cannot live without the Word. Christ, the trae bishop, will 
 charge himself with your spiritual nourishment."' 
 
 Thus did the voice of Luther penetrate into alarmed families 
 and consciences, to inspire them with courage and with faith. 
 But it was not enough that he should defend himself; he felt 
 that he ought to attack and deal blow after blow. A Roman 
 theologian, called Ambrose Catharin, had written against him. 
 "I will stir the bile of this Italian beast,"2 3 said Luther; and 
 
 specious pretences into their seminaries — and gaining Protestant support to their 
 public measures, by a dextrous concealment of their true object, and of the real 
 intentions of their' abettors. Such weapons may promote the cause of error, 
 but they are alike despised by truth, and dangerous to her interests. Tr. 
 
 • Und wird dich der rechte Bischoff Christus selber speisen (L. 
 
 0pp. Ixvii. p. 565.) 
 
 2 ItalicDD bestia; bilem movebo. (L. Epp. i. p. 570.) 
 
 ^ The author ought to have mentioned that Luther seems first to have been 
 
THE POPEDO.M IS PHOVKD TO RR AXTICITRIST. 545 
 
 he kept his word. In his reply he proved, by the revelations 
 made to Daniel and St. John, hy St. PauPs Epistles, and those 
 of St. Peter and St. Jude, that the kingdom of Antichrist, fore- 
 told and described in the Bible, was the popedom. • ''1 know 
 for certain," says he in conclusion, " that our Lord Jesus Christ 
 lives and reigns. In the strength of this faith I should not fear 
 many thousand popes. May (jlod visit us at last according to 
 his infinite po»\er, and make to shine forth the day of his Son's 
 glorious coming, in which he will destroy that wicked one. 
 And let all the people say, Anien!"^ 
 
 And all the people did say, Amen. Men''s souls were seized 
 with a holy dread. They saw nothing less than Antichrist 
 
 called by his antagonist " beast," "barbarian" and "blockhead," and that from 
 his repeated allusions to this contemptuous language, his feelings, both as a man 
 and as a German, must have been sorely aggrieved. He had besides a special 
 ground for speaking contemptuously of those Italians, who deserved it, inasmuch 
 as he must have wished to counteract the stupid respect which he complains 
 that his countrymen showed for everything coming from Italy. At cum liac- 
 tenus, says he, quidqnid vel Jlalke vel RomcB nomine jactaretur, incredibili 
 siupore loco numinis adoraverimus, idque homines fastuosi et superciHosi sen- 
 tirent, quasi perpctuum illis Germania ludibrium futnra sit. Tmpudenti fronte 
 avdent nobis ad/iuc quotidie fcediora portenta obtrudcrc, cum adliuc Bestias, 
 adhuc Barbaros, adhuc truncos nos esse sine fine somniant. From the follow- 
 ing expressions, too, it would appear that Luther was quite used to be called a 
 beast, but had not yet become very patient under the insult : — " quCi denique 
 liumanitale illi nos sibi Bestias comparaverint." — "Mild uni mortalium, imo 
 Bestir, ne unus quidem error ignoscetur." — Quanto justius erat mihi Besti,*; 
 et Barbaro, &c. — Tamen ut videat homo Italus, et bestias Germanic nonnihil 
 habere humanitatis ■ . . CMWi turn STULXASTOiiiCAQUE Bestia . . . Sic 
 est ingenium Bestiakcm . . . Bestias carere libero arbitrio 
 Dabit et hoc Besti.j3 prwcipiti Catharinus . . . diceret mihi Catharinus, 
 TuB^siiAdoctrinamimpugnarevoluisti . . . ." This harping on the word 
 Bestia, accompanied with such epithets as stidta, stolida, prmcep>s, and all occur- 
 ring within the compass of a single page, sufficiently proves that the term had 
 originated with his adversary, and was keenly resented by Luther. See Ad 
 Librum Exim. Mag. nostri M. Ambrosii Catherini, De/ensoris SyJvestri Prier- 
 atis acerrimi, Responsio Marti. Luthe. Cum exposita Visione Daniel viii. de 
 Antichristo. Tk. 
 
 ' Ostendat ilium diem advcntus gloria; Filii sui, quo destruatur iniquus iste. 
 (L. 0pp. lat. ii. p. 162.) 
 
 - The more men contemplate the popedom, and attend to its turbulent pro- 
 ceedings even in our own days, the more will this idea seem to be well founded. 
 Even although the particular Antichrist which is more strictly referred to in 
 the prophecies, may yet be to be looked for in the future, its spirit at least 
 exhibits itself in the popedom, and who can tell us that that particular Antichrist 
 will not issue from the popedom? Even now the unruly proceedings (woelingen) 
 of the latter warn us in our days to have our eye awake to the subject. In vain 
 do the abettors of the popedom appeal to the recognition of Christ's true God- 
 head in the Romish Church, the disowning of which they consider to be the 
 distinctive mark of Antichrist. Here, however, they are contradicted by some 
 of their own doctors of theology, some of whom are known to have branded at 
 times such and such popes with the name of Antichrist, who, though not deny- 
 ing the Saviour's Godhead, were thought by them to have reached the papal 
 chair by sinister courses. — L. R. 
 
 1. S z 
 
546 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 seated on the pontifical throne. This new idea, an idea that 
 derived intense interest and power from the descriptions of the 
 prophets, thus launched by Luther into the midst of the men of 
 his age, inflicted the most terrible blow upon Rome. Faith in 
 the word superseded that which the Church had till then 
 engrossed; and the pope's authority, after having so long been an 
 object of popular adoration, now became an object of hatred and 
 terror. 
 
 Germany replied to the bull by surrounding Luther with her 
 shouts of approbation. The plague was now in Wittemberg, 
 yet every day witnessed the arrival of new students; and from 
 four to six hundred disciples habitually took their places in the 
 lecture rooms as students under Luther and Melanchthon. The 
 church of the monastery and that of the town, were both too 
 small for the numbers that eagerly flocked to hear the Reformer 
 preach; and the prior of the Augustinians feared, with respect 
 to both churches, that their walls might fall in from the pressure 
 of the crowd. ^ But this movement of public opinion was not 
 confined within the walls of Wittemberg; it pervaded all Ger- 
 many. Princes, lords, and learned men sent to Luther, from all 
 quarters, letters full of comfort and of faith. Of these the 
 Doctor showed the cliaplain more than thirty,- 
 
 The margrave of Brandenburg arrived at Wittemberg one 
 day with several other princes, on a visit to Luther. "They 
 wanted to see the man," 3 gays the latter. Every body, in fact, 
 wished to see the man whose words were agitating whole nations, 
 and making the pontift' of the West to feel that his throne was 
 sinking under him. 
 
 The enthusiasm of Luther''s friends was increasing from day 
 to day. "Oh but it was incredible folly in Emser," exclaimed 
 Melanchthon, "to venture upon measuring himself with our 
 Hercules, and not to own that the finger of God was to be seen 
 in what Luther was doing, * as the king of the Egyptians refused 
 to acknowledge it in what was done by Moses." The mild 
 Melanchthon found he could speak powerfully when he wanted 
 
 • Es mischte noch gar die Kirche und Capelle um der Menge wilLen ein 
 fallen. (Spalatin in Seckend. p. 295.) 
 
 ^ Mehr als 30 Brieve von FUrsten . . . (Spalatin in Seckend. p. 295.) 
 ^ Videre enim hominem voluerunt. (L. Epp. i. p. 644. 16th January, 1521.) 
 
 * Dei digitum esse, quae a Martino fiact. (Corp. Ref. i. p. 282.) 
 
ma.ANCHTUON AND ULKICH AID LUTIIEK. 547 
 
 to stimulate those who seemed to him to retrograde or remain 
 stationary. "Luther has stood up for the trutli," he wrote to 
 John Hesse, "and yet you hold your peace! ... He still 
 lives, he still prospers, although Leo chafes with indignation. 
 Bear in mind that it is impossible that Roman impiety should 
 ever give its approval to the gospel. ^ How should this unhappy 
 age be without its Judases, its Caiaphases, its Pilatcs, its Herods? 
 Arm thyself then with the mighty power of the Word of God 
 against such adversaries."" 
 
 More than this: sarcastic satires directed against the chief 
 iiltra-montanists, circulated through all the provinces of the 
 empire. Ulrich of Hutten was indefatigable. He wrote to 
 Luther, to the legates, to the most considerable persons in Ger- 
 many: "I tell you again and again, Marians," said he to the 
 legate Carracioli in one of his publications, "the darkness where- 
 with you blinded our eyes is dissipated, the gospel is preached, 
 the truth is told us, the silly absurdities of Rome are consigned 
 to contempt, your ordinances languish and expire, there is hope 
 of liberty."-^ .... 
 
 Not content with prose, Hutten had recourse likewise to verse, 
 and published his Shout at the Lutheran Conflagration. ^ Appeal- 
 ing to Jesus Christ, he conjured him to consume with the flame 
 of his looks those who dared to disown his power. But Hutten 
 did not want to confine himself to mere words, — he burned with 
 impatience to introduce his sword into the conflict. Luther 
 opposed his insensate projects: "I have no wish," said he, "that 
 people should contend for the gospel by violence and by blood. 
 I have written thus to Hutten."'^ 
 
 * Non posse Evangelium Romanac impietati probari .... (Ibid. 280.) 
 
 * Ablata ilia est a vobis inducta olim nostris oculis caligo, prsedicatur Evange- 
 lium .... spes est libertatis . . . (Ulrich ab Hutten Eques Mar. 
 Carrac. L. 0pp. lat. ii. p. 1T6.) 
 
 ° . . . Quo tu oculos, pie Christe, tuos, frontisque severaa 
 Tende supercilium, teque esse ostende neganti. 
 Qui te contemnunt igitur, mediumque tonanti 
 Ostendunt digitum, tandem iis te ostende potentcm. 
 Te Tideat ferus ille Leo, te tota malorum 
 Sentiat inluvies, scelerataque Roma trcmiscat, 
 Ultorem scelcrum discant te vivere saltem, 
 
 Qui regnare negant 
 
 (In incendmra Lutheranum Exclamatio Ulrichi Ilutteni Equitis, Ibid.) 
 
 * NoUem vi et caede pro Evangelio certari ; ita scripsi ad hominem. ( L. 
 Epp. i. p. 643.) 
 
H8 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The celebrated painter, Luke Cranach, published under tlia 
 fitle, The Passion of Christ and of Antichrist^ certain engrav- 
 ings, representing on the one side the glory and magnificence of 
 the pope, and on the other, the humiliation and the sufferings 
 of the Redeemer. Luther composed the inscriptions. These 
 engravings produced an unprecedented effect. People withdrew 
 from a church which at every point seemed so opposed to the 
 spirit of its founder. ^ "That is an excellent work for the 
 laity," "^ said Luther. 
 
 Many persons in assailing the popedom empioyed arms that 
 had little connection with the sanctity of the Christian life. 
 Emser had replied to Luther's work entitled, To the Leipsick he- 
 goat^ by a publication under the title. To the bull of Wittemherg; 
 the name was not ill chosen. But at Magdeburg, Emser's book 
 was suspended from the gallows, with this inscription: "This 
 book is worthy of the place," and a rod was put beside it, to 
 intimate the punishment the author deserved.^ At. Doeblin 
 there was written under the pope's bull, in contempt of the 
 impotence of its fulminations : "The nest is here; but the birds 
 are flown." ^ 
 
 At Wittemberg, the students, taking advantage of the carni- 
 val days, decked out one of their number in a costume like that 
 of the pope, and paraded him through the town with much 
 pomp, but somewhat too ludicrously, said Luther.^ On arriving 
 at the great market place, they 'proceeded towards the river, 
 where some of them, making a sudden mock attack, seemed bent 
 on throAving him in. But the pontiff, by no means relishing such 
 a bath, took to flight; his cardinals, bishops, and familiars did the 
 same, dispersing themselves in every direction, and followed 
 through the streets by the students, so that there was hardly 
 
 ' No wonder ! What indeed is more striking than the disconformity with 
 Christ of his pretended vicar? what more repugnant to the first principles of 
 the kingdom of Christ, and the injunctions he gave to his disciples? We have 
 only to contemplate the dress, the court-holding, the pomp and state of the 
 pope and his cardinals and hishops, to make us acknowledge the Church, over 
 which they rule, as a degenerate church, which has wandered far from Christ, 
 and to be on our guard against its seductions. — L. R 
 
 * Bonus et pro laicis liber. (L. Epp. i; p. 571.) 
 
 ■ In publico infamiaB loco aflfixus. (Ibid. p. o6Q.) 
 
 * Das Nest ist hior, die Vogel sind ausgcflogen. (Ibid. p. 570.) 
 
 ^ Nimis ludicre Papam perscnatam circumvenerunt sjublimem et pompaticum 
 .... (Ibid. p. 5GI.) 
 
LUTHKR STIMULATF3 STAUPITZ. 549 
 
 a corner of Witteniberg in which sonio Ivoman dignitary liad 
 not sought shelter, amid the shouts and laughter of an uproarious 
 population.' "The enemy of Christ," said Luther, "who makes 
 a sport of kings and of Christ himself, M'ell deserves being tlius 
 made sport of." Here we think him wrong; for truth is too 
 fair to be made to descend into the mud, and when she con- 
 tends, it ought to be without the aid of satirical songs, carica- 
 tures, and scenes of carnival absurdity. Possibly witlnmt 
 those popular demonstrations her successes may be less ap- 
 parent; but they will be more pure and consequently more 
 lasting. 
 
 Nevertheless, all was not the intoxication of triumph of the 
 lleformer's part. Behind the car in which his fellow-citizens 
 drew him along in the excitement and transport of their admira- 
 tion, there was not wanting the slave whose office it was to 
 remind him of his wretchedness. Some of his friends seemed 
 disposed to retrace their steps. Staupitz, whom he used to call 
 his father, seemed shaken in his views. The pope had accused 
 him, and Staupitz had declared his readiness to submit to the 
 judgment of his holiness. "I am afraid," said Luther to him, 
 "that in accepting the pope as judge, you may appear to desert 
 both me and the doctrines I have maintained. If Christ love 
 you, he will constrain you to withdraw your letter. Christ is 
 condemned, despoiled, blasphemed; this is not the time for timi- 
 dity but for speaking boldly out.^ Therefore is it that while 
 you are exhorting me to be humble, I exhort you to be proud ; 
 for while you have too much humility I have too much pride- 
 I shall be called haughty, avaricious, adulterous, homicidal, anti- 
 papal, a man guilty of every crime .... It matteis 
 not! provided they cannot accuse me of maintaining an im- 
 pious silence at the moment that the Lord was saying with 
 sorrow, 'I look on my right hand, and no man knoweth me, 
 (Ps. cxlii.) The word of Jesus Christ is a word, not of peace, 
 but of the sword. If you do not wish to follow Jesus Christ, 
 
 ' . . . Fugitivum cum cardinalibus, Episcopis, familiisque suis, in diver- 
 gas partes oppidi disperserunt et insecuti sunt . . . (L. P^pp.i. 17th Febru- 
 ary, 1621.) 
 
 * Non enim Mc tempus timendi scd cLimandi . . . (Ibid, p 557.) 
 
550. HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 I will march aloue, I will advance alone, and will storm the 
 place."! 
 
 Thus did Luther, like a commander-in-chief, cast his eye over 
 the whole field of battle; and while his voice urged new soldiers 
 into the fight, he discovered among his troops such as appeared 
 feeble, and called them back to their duty. Everywhere his 
 exhortations might be heard. His letters followed each other 
 in rapid succession. Three printing presses were incessantly 
 occupied in printing his works. 2 His words ran from mouth to 
 mouth among the people, fortifying alarmed consciences in the 
 confessionals, upholding in the monasteries souls that were ready 
 to give way, and maintaining the rights of truth in the palaces 
 of princes. 
 
 "Amid the storms that assail me," he wrote to the elector, 
 "I have ever hoped that I should one day find peace. But I 
 now see that that M'as a mere human imagination. From day 
 to day the flood rises, and already the ocean, with all its billows, 
 surrounds me. The tempest rages with frightful violence. 3 
 "With one hand I hold the sword and with the other I build the 
 walls of Sion.""* His former ties are now loosed: the hand that 
 had launched the thunderbolts of excommunication at him, has 
 now broken these. "Excommunicated by the bull," says he, 
 " I am set free from the authority of the pope and from monastic 
 laws, and I joyfully embrace this deliverance. But I relinquish 
 neither the dress of the order nor the monastery."^ And yet, 
 amid all this turmoil, he did not lose sight of the dangers to 
 which his soul was exposed in the struggle, but felt how neces- 
 sary it was to watch over himself. " Thou dost well to pray for 
 me," he wrote to Pellican, who resided at Basel. "I cannot 
 sufficiently devote myself to holy exercises; life to me is a cross. 
 
 ^ Quod si tu vis sequi, sine me ire et rapi . . . . (L. Epp. i. p. 558.) 
 ^ Cum tria prela solus ego occupare cogar. (Ibid. p. 558.) 
 ^ Videns rem tumultuosissimo tumultu tumultuantcm. (Ibid. p. 546.) Liter- 
 ally therefore, "seeing the thing tumultuating with a most tumultuous tumult." 
 Tb. 
 
 * Una manu gladium apprehendens et altera murum ajdificaturus. (Ibid. p. 
 5Go.) There is an evident allusion to Nehemiah iv. 17. Tr. 
 
 * Ab ordinis et Papae legibus solutus . . . quod guadeo et amplector. 
 (Ibid. p. 568.) 
 
NATIONS ARE ROUSED TO KNTllUWIASM. 5.31 
 
 Thou dost well to exhort me to bo modest; I feel how much 1 
 need to be so ; but I am not master of myself; I know not what 
 spirit hurries me along; I am not conscious of wishing evil to 
 any one. ^ But my enemies press upon me so furiously that I 
 am not sufliciently on my guard against Satan's seductions. 
 Pray then for me."" . . . 
 
 Thus did Luther and the Reformation hasten to fulfil the 
 design towards which God was calling them. The unsettlement 
 of men's minds passed from one to another, so that those even 
 who seemed likely to prove most faithful to the hierarchy began 
 to bestir themselves. "Even those," said Eck ingenuously 
 enough, "who hold from the pope the best benefices and the 
 richest canonries, remain as still as fishes. Many of them even 
 cry up Luther as a man replenished with the Spirit of God, and 
 call the pope's defenders sophists and flatterers."^ The Church 
 vigorous as it still appeared, sustained as it was by this world's 
 treasures, and governments, and armies, yet being really ema- 
 ciated and enfeebled, without love to God, without Christian 
 life, without zealous affection for the truth, found itself in the 
 presence of simple, but courageous men — men who, knowing that 
 God is with those who contend for the truth, had no doubt of 
 victory. We have seen how mighty at all times is the power 
 of an idea in penetrating into the masses of mankind, rousing 
 their inmost feelings, and, should the occasion require, hurrying 
 thousands upon thousands into the battle-field and to death. 
 But if a merely human idea is endued with so much force, what 
 may not be expected when the idea has come from heaven and 
 when God himself opens men's hearts to receive it. The world 
 has not often seen such a power in operation : still, it did see it 
 in the early days of Christianity and in those of the Keforma- 
 tion, and it will see it likewise in days that are yet to come. 
 Men who despised this world's wealth and grandeur, who were 
 content to live a life of hardship and poverty, were beginning to 
 bestir themselves in the holiest of causes ; — the doctrine of faith. 
 
 * . . . Compos mei non sum, rapier nescio quo spiritu, cum ncm'n' me 
 male velle conscius sim . . . (L. Epp. i. p. 5t)5.) 
 
 * Reynaldi Epist. J. Eckii ad Cardinal. Contarirum 
 
552 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 —the doctrine of grace. All the relis'ious elements began to 
 ferment in society while thus unsettled; and the fire of enthusi- 
 asm urged many souls boldly to launch forth into this new 
 life, this epoch of renovation, which now began to open out so 
 magnificently, and into which Providence was precipitating the 
 nations. 
 
BOOK SEVENTH. 
 
 THE DIET OF WORMS. 
 
 1521. (January — May.) 
 
 Originating in the mental conflicts of one humble soul in a cell 
 of a monastery at Erfurt, the Reformation had gone on in a 
 course of perpetual enlargement. An obscure person, with the 
 Word of life in his hands, had stood up in the presence of the 
 great things of this world, and they had reeled and staggered at 
 the sight. That Word he had opposed, first, to Tetzel and his 
 numerous arra}', and the greedy salesman, after a brief struggle, 
 had taken to flight: next, to the Roman legate at Augsburg, 
 and the disconcerted legate had suffered his prey to escape, 
 somewhat latei*, to the champions of literature in the halls of 
 Leipsick, and the theologians had seen with amazement the 
 weapons of the syllogism fall to pieces in their hands; finally, 
 he had with this Word confronted the pope ; the pontiff starting 
 from his slumbers, had stood up from his throne, and would have 
 blasted this troublesome monk with his thunderbolts, but that 
 Word paralyzed all the might of the chief of Christendom. 
 There yet remained another conflict for it to sustain. It had 
 still to triumph over the emperor of the West — over the kings 
 and princes of the earth ; and then victorious over all this world's 
 grandeurs, to establish itself in the Church, and reign there as 
 the very \\"ord of God. 
 
 A solemn diet was about to be opened: being the first general 
 meeting of the empire at which the young Charles was to pre- 
 side. Nuremberg, where, in virtue of the golden bull, it was to 
 have been held, being desolated by the plague, it was summoned 
 
 I. 4 a 
 
.^54 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to meet at Worms, on the 6th of January, 1521.^ Never had 
 so many princes been known to attend the diet, all fain to 
 appear at this first act of the youthful emperor's government, all 
 pleased to have an opportunity of showing off their power. The 
 young landgrave, Philip of Hesse, among others, he who was 
 afterwards to act so important a part in the Reformation, arrived 
 at AVorms in the middle of January with six hundred knights, 
 including some who had become famous for their gallantry. 
 
 A more powerful motive than this, however, had induced the 
 electors, the dukes, the archbishops, the landgraves, the mar- 
 graves, the counts, the bishops, the barons, and the lords of the 
 empire, as well as the deputies from the cities, and the ambas- 
 sadors of the various kings of Christendom, on this particular 
 occasion, to cover the roads leading to Worms with their bril- 
 liant trains of attendants. It had been given out that the diet 
 was to be occupied with the nomination of a council of regency, 
 to govern the empire during Charles's frequent absence, with 
 the subject of the jurisdiction of the imperial chamber, and other 
 weighty questions; but public attention was chiefly directed to 
 another matter, mentioned likewise in the emperor's letters call- 
 ins: the diet: this was the Reformation. The cause of the monk 
 of Wittemberg threw the great interests of the political world 
 into the shade, and formed the grand topic of conversation among 
 the noble personages who were pouring into Worms. 
 
 Every thing portended that the diet would be difficult toman- 
 age and of a stormy character.^ 3 Charles, still very young, had 
 
 1 Slcidan, torn. i. p. 80. 
 
 ^ Es gieng aber auf dicsem Reichstag gar schllipferig zu. . . (Seckend. p. 
 326.) 
 
 2 The anomalous constitution and heterogeneous materials of this deliberative 
 assembly, might well make it difficult to manage, under almost any circum- 
 stances. The emperor, who from his magnificent titles, to which Charles V. 
 had added " Majesty," (see Dr. Robertson,) might have been supposed absolute 
 monarch of Germany, possessed less real power than oven the president of the 
 United States of America over that confederation, and the authorities by which 
 the imperial power was limited and controlled, were extremely diverse. Some 
 were ecclesiastical, some secular : some were of the nature of absolute mon- 
 archies, others aristocratical, others democratical, and all these had been stim- 
 ulated into activity by the revival of learning, the invention of printing, the 
 recent institution of new universities and academies, the importance to which 
 trade, manufactures, and the arts had grown, and, finally, by religious discussions. 
 There was nothing singular in the pact or agreement which Charles had been 
 made to subscribe at his election, it having been the custom of the princes to 
 require some such guarantee from their emperors, but Charles's immense here- 
 ditary possessions made it peculiarly requisite in his case. Tr. 
 
DEATH OF CHIEVKES AT WOUMS. 655 
 
 nolyet adopted any precise political system; the able and active 
 Chievres, his governor and prime minister, died at Worms: per- 
 sons pursuing different objects of ambition appeared upon the 
 scene, many opposing passions met and thwarted each other; 
 Spaniards and Belgians emulously sought to insinuate them- 
 selves into the councils of the young prince, the nuncios 
 multiplied their intrigues, the German princes spoke boldly 
 out. A struggle might be foreseen, the results of which 
 would mainly depend on the secret proceedings of the various 
 parties. 
 
 How was Ciiarlcs to act, placed as he was between the pope's 
 nuncio and the elector to whom he was indebted for his crown.^ 
 How was he to avoid dissatisfying either Aleander or Frederick. 
 The one solicited the emperor to execute the bull of the pope, while 
 the other besought him to undertake nothing against the monk 
 until he had first heard him. Wishing to satisfy both these parties, 
 the young prince, while residing at Oppenheim, had written to 
 the elector, desiring him to bring Luther to the diet; assuring 
 him at the same time, that no injustice should be committed 
 with re<rai*d to him, that no violence should be done to him, and 
 that learned men would confer with him there. 
 
 This letter from Charles, accompanied with letters from 
 Chievres, and the count of Nassau, threw the elector into great 
 perplexity. At any moment, the pope''s alliance might become 
 necessary to the emperor,^ and then it was all over with Luther. 
 AVere Frederick to take the Reformer to Worms, it might pos- 
 sibly be merely to conduct him to the scaffold. Yet Charles''s 
 orders were precise. The elector appointed Spalatin to com- 
 municate the letters he had received to Luther. " The adversar- 
 
 ' In addition to other reasons for courting the pope's friendship, Charles 
 appears to have required it in helping him to tax the Spanish clergy. Speaking 
 of the year 1519, Dr. Robertson says: " The pope having granted the king the 
 tenths of all ecclesiastical benefices in Castile, to assist him in carrying on war 
 with greater vigour against the Turks, a convocation of the clergy unanimously 
 refused to levy that sum, upon pretence that it ought never to be exacted but at 
 those times when Christendom was actually invaded by the infidels; and though 
 Leo, in order to support his authority, laid the kingdom under an interdict, so 
 little regard was paid to a censure which was universally deemed unjust, that 
 Charles himself applied to have it taken ofi'." This fact proves further, that 
 mere resistance to the pope was by no means thought so heinous an oft"cnce in 
 the catholic world, and, as was remarked in a former Note, that the advocacy of 
 the grand doctrines of the Gospel was what mainly brought upon Luther so 
 many enemies, and so much bitter hostility. Tb. 
 
556 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ies," said the chaplain to him, " are doing all in their power to 
 mature this affair.'"'^ 
 
 Luther's friends trembled, but himself did not. His health 
 was very indifferent at the time, but it mattered not! " If I can- 
 not go to Worms in good health," he replied to the elector, 
 »' I will make myself be carried thither as an invalid. For if 
 the emperor call me, I doubt not that it is a call from God. If 
 they have any thoughts of having recourse to violence against 
 me, as is very likely, (for assuredly it is not for the purpose of 
 gaining information that they would have me appear,) I commit 
 the affair into the Lord"";? hands. He still lives and reigns, he 
 who preserved the three young men in the burning fiery furnace. 
 If he does not wish to save me, my life is but a small matter. 
 Let us only do what we can to prevent the Gospel from being 
 exposed to the railings of the ungodly, and let us shed our blood 
 for it, lest they should triumph. Shall it be by living or dying 
 that I shall best serve the salvation of all? This it is not for us 
 to decide. Only let us pray to God that our young emperor 
 may not begin his reigu by staining his hands with my blood. 
 I would rather that I should perish by the sword of the Romans. 
 You know with what chastisements the emperor Sigismond was 
 smitten after the murder of John Huss. You may expect every- 
 thing from me . . . except flight and retractation.- Flee 
 I cannot, and still less can 1 retract-''^ 
 
 Previous to his receiving this letter from Luther, the elector 
 had resolved what to do. In proportion as he advanced in his 
 knowledge of the Gospel, he became more decided in the course 
 he pursued. He saw that the proposed conference at Worms, 
 could lead to no good result. " It seems hard for me to take 
 Luther to Worms with me," he wrote to Charles V.; " relieve 
 me of that difficulty. As for the rest, I have never wished to 
 take his doctrines under my protection, but only to prevent his 
 
 1 Adversaries omnia moliri ad maturandum id negotii. (L. Epp. i, p. 536.) 
 " Omnia de me prsesumas prreter fugam et palinodiam. (L. Epp. i. p. 534.) 
 8 Wliat impartial person can fail to recognise in this the language of sincerity 
 at least? Beyond this people may differ from him in their views of the cause 
 which he considered himself bound to maintain ; it may be thought that he wad 
 mistaken ; but to accuse him of low ends, or perverse purposes, is either blind 
 prejudice or deliberate calumny. Who but the man who is conscious of his sin- 
 cerity durst thus venture to commit himself to confidence in God? Who in doing 
 BO, would thus keep the interests of others in view? Who hold out at once so 
 stedfastly and with so much composure? — L. R. 
 
LUTHER KXPECTKD AT WORMS. 557 
 
 being condemned unheard. The legates, without waiting for 
 your orders, have allowed themselves to be hurried into a course 
 dishonourable both for Luther and for mo, and I much fear that 
 they have thus led Lutiier to commit an imprudent act, which 
 would expose him to imminent danger were he to appear at the 
 Diet." The elector here alludes to the burning of the pope's bull 
 at a bonfire. 
 
 But already had the news of Luther's arrival spread through 
 Worms, to the delight of the lovers of novelty, and to the alarm 
 of the emperor's court, but to no one's indignation so much as 
 that of the pope's legate. Aleander had had opportunities along 
 the road of seeing how far the Gospel, as announced by Luther, 
 had found a response in all classes of society. Men of letters, 
 advocates, nobles, the lower orders of the clergy, the various 
 orders of monks, and the people, had been gained over to the 
 Reformation. 1 These friends of the new doctrine carried their 
 heads high, and spoke out what they thought in bold language, 
 whereas the partisans of Rome were chilled by a terror which 
 they could not overcome. The popedom still maintained its 
 place but its supports were tottering; their ears could discern a 
 noise that portended ruin, a noise like the hollow crackling that 
 precedes a convulsion among the mountains.^ In the course of 
 his journey to Worms, Aleander was often beside himself. Had 
 he occasion to stop for refreshment, or to have a night's rest, 
 neither men of learning, nor the nobility, nor the priests, not 
 even such as ranked among the pope's supposed friends, dared 
 to receive him; and the haughty nuncio was obliged to seek for 
 quarters among inns of the lowest class. ^ This so frightened 
 him that he had no doubt of his life being in constant jeopardy. 
 Thus he arrived at Worms with the feeling of resentment for 
 personal insults added to the fanaticism he had brought from 
 Rome, and forthwith set everything agoing to prevent the much 
 dreaded Luther from having the audacity to make his appear- 
 ance. " Would it not be scandalous" said he, "to see laymen sub- 
 
 ' Multitude. . . turba pauperum nobilium. . . grammatici, causidici, 
 
 . . . inforiores ecclesiastici. . . . factio multorum regularium. . . 
 (Pallavicini, i. p. 93.) 
 
 ^ Use omncs conditiones pctulantcr grassantium. . . . metum cuilibet 
 incutiebant. (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ Neminem nactus qui audoret ipsum excipere, ad vilia serdidaque hospitia 
 segre divertit. (Ibid.) 
 
5o8 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ject to a fresh examination, a case which the pope has ah-eady 
 condemned r Nothing so formidable to a Roman courtier as a 
 sifting scrutiny: and this, moreover, to be conducted, not at 
 Rome but in Germany: what a humiliation! even were Luther 
 to be unanimously condemned — a result in no wise certain. 
 Might not Luther's potent eloquence, after having already 
 proved so mischievous, sweep many of the lords and princes into 
 inevitable ruin? Aleander was urgent with Charles; he suppli- 
 cated; he threatened; he spoke with the authority of a nuncio 
 from the head of the Church. > Charles gave in, and wrote to the 
 elector, that the term granted to Luther having expired, that 
 monk now lay under the pope''s excommunication, so that, if 
 still unwilling to retract what he had written, Frederick ought 
 to leave him at Wittemberg. But the prince had already left 
 Saxony without Luther. " I beseech the Lord to be favourable 
 to our elector," were Melanchthon's words at his departure. 
 " On him hang all our hopes for the restoration of Christendom. 
 His enemies dare any thing icai -iravTa Xidov KiyTjaoidsvovg; '- but 
 God will disappoint the council of Ahitophel. For our part, 
 let us keep up the conflict with the instructions we give, and 
 with our prayers." Luther was much distressed at not having 
 been allowed to appear at Worms. ^ 
 
 But for Aleander it was not enough that Luther should not 
 come to Worms; he wanted him to be condemned there. He 
 returned incessantly to the charge before the princes, prelates, 
 and various other members of the diet; accusinfj the Auirustin- 
 ian friar, not only of disobedience and heresy, but further, of 
 sedition, rebellion, impiety, and blasphemy. But the very tone 
 of his voice revealed the passions that influenced him. " It is 
 hatred and thirst for revenge that are now exciting him," it was 
 said, " more than zeal and piety; "-^ and with all the frequency, 
 and all the vehemence of his appeals, he gained none to his side.5 
 
 1 Legati Romani nolunt ut audiaturhomo hsereticus. Minanturmnlta. (Zw. 
 Epp. p. 157.) 
 
 2 They leave no stone unturned. (Corp. Ref. i. p. 279. 24th January.) 
 
 * Cum dolore legi novissimas Carol! litteras. (L. Epp. i. p. 542.) 
 
 * Magis invidia et vindictaj libidine quam zelo pietatis. (Ilistoria Johannis 
 Cochloei, de actis et scriptis Martini Lutheri. Parisiis, 1565. p. 27. verso. 
 Cochloeus was all his life one of Luther's greatest enemies. (We shall soon see 
 him appear upon the scene.) 
 
 * Vehementibus suis orationibus parum promovit. (Ibid.) 
 
AI.KAXDKK KOISKS UO.ME, 559 
 
 Some romarkcd to liinv that the pope's bull condemned Luther 
 only conditionally; others did not quite conceal their gratifi- 
 cation at the humbling of Roman pride. The ministers of the 
 emperor, on the one hand, and the ecclesiastical electors, on the 
 other, affected great coldness; the former, in order that the pope 
 might have still more pressing reasons for allying himself with 
 their master; the latter, for the purpose of enhancing the return 
 they expected for favouring the pope. On the whole, the feeling 
 that Luther was innocent predominated at the meeting; and 
 Aleander could not restrain his indignation. 
 
 But if the legate felt impatient at the apathy displayed by the 
 diet, still more was he annoyed at that of Home, which had found 
 it so difficult to pay any serious attention to the quarrel of "the 
 drunken German," supposed it impossible that a bull from 
 the sovereign pontiff could fail to make him humble and sub- 
 missive. She had relapsed into all her former neglectful 
 security, 1 and sent no more bulls or purses. But how was such 
 a piece of business to be done without money? " Rome, there- 
 fore, needed to be aroused, and with this view Aleander sounded 
 the alarm. " Germany is moving off from Rome," he wrote to 
 the cardinal de Medicis; " the princes are revolting from the 
 pope. ... A few more delays, a few further concessions, 
 and hope is gone. Money! Money! or Germany is lost.''^ 
 
 Rome roused herself at the cry; the ministers of the pope- 
 dom, recovering from their torpor, proceeded with all haste to 
 forge their dreadful thunderbolts at the Vatican. The pope 
 sent forth a new bull,^ and the excommunication wherewith the 
 heretical doctor had hitherto been menaced only, was now 
 decisively pronounced against him and all his adherents. While 
 she thus cut the last thread that still connected him with her 
 church, Rome extended Luther's liberty, and by so doing, aug- 
 mented his power. Smitten by the thunderbolts of the pope, 
 he fled for refuge to Jesus Christ with a fresh affection. Cast 
 out from the outer temple, he had the fuller consciousness of 
 being himself a temple in which God dwelt. 
 
 ' Negligens qusedam securitas Romam pervaserat (Pallavicini, i. p. 04.) 
 ^ Nee pecunia ad varies pro oadoni sumptus. (Ibid.) 
 
 " Periculum dcnique amittendte GermaiiiiB ex parsimonia monetfe cujusdara. 
 (Pallavicini, i. p. 94.) 
 
 * Decet romanum Pontificem, &c. (Roman. BuUarium.) 
 
560 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 "It is most glorious," he would say, "that we sinners, in 
 believing in Jesus Christ, and in eating his flesh, have him in 
 us, with all his power and might, his wisdom and his righteous- 
 ness, according as it is written : He that helieteth in me^ in Mm 
 do I dwell. Admirable dwelling ! marvellous tabernacle ! far 
 superior to that of Moses, and all ornamented within in a mag- 
 nificent manner with superb carpets, purple hangings and golden 
 furniture, whilst outwardly, as on the tabernacle that God com- 
 manded to be constructed in the desert of Sinai, there is nought 
 to be seen but the rugged aspect of ram's skins and goat skins. • 
 Christians often stumble, and to look at them externally, they 
 seem but shame and weakness. But it matters not ! within this 
 weakness and this foolishness there secretly resides a might 
 which this world cannot know, and which yet overcomes this 
 world; for Christ dwells in them, I have sometimes seen 
 Christians who advanced halting and in much weakness, but 
 when the time had arrived for their entering into the conflict, 
 or for their appearing at the bar of the world, Christ suddenly 
 wrought in them, and they became so strong and so resolute, 
 that the devil was friohtened and fled-''^ 3 
 
 Such a time was fast coming upon Luther, and Christ, in 
 whose communion he remained, was not to prove wanting to 
 him. Rome meanwhile violently rejected him. The Reformer 
 and all his partisans were cursed, whatever might be their rank 
 or their authority, and together with their descendants were 
 dispossessed of all their honours and possessions. Every faithful 
 Christian that valued his souFs salvation, was bound to fly at 
 the sight of this accursed crew. Wherever heresy had found 
 admission, the priests were bound on all Sundays and holidays, 
 just as the people had filled the churches, solemnly to publish 
 the excommunication. The vases and ornaments were to be 
 taken from the altars; the crucifix was to be laid upon the 
 
 1 Exodus sxvi. T, 14. 
 
 ^ So regete sich der Christus, dass sie so fest wurden, dass dcr Teufel fliehen 
 musste. (L. Oppt. ix. p. 613. on John vi. 56.) 
 
 3 The doctrine which Luther a Ivocated was thus his peculiar strength. 
 Christ was his all. He was his righteousness before God and the hope also on 
 which he built. He was likewise his strength before men, through whom and 
 independence on whom he eflFected such great things. It was faith that engaged 
 him to Christ. It was the indwelling of Christ in his inmost heart that coni» 
 inunicated that strength to him. — L. R, 
 
I.I'TIIKK WHITTS I O IIIK KI,K( lol!. 5G1 
 
 /ground; twelve priests with turc-lus in tlieir hands, were to h<;ht 
 these and then to dash them to the ground and extinguish them 
 by tramphng them under foot; after which the bishop was to 
 publish the condemnation of those impious persons; all the 
 church bells were to be tolled; the bishops and the priests were 
 to utter their anathemas and maledictions, and sermons were to 
 be boldly preached against Luther and his adherents. ^ 
 
 Twenty-two days had elapsed since the excommunication was 
 published at Rome, and as yet it may have been unknown in 
 Cermany, when Luther, learning that people talked anew of 
 summoning him to Worms, wrote to the Elector, and drew up 
 what he had to say in such a manner that it might be shown to 
 the Diet. His object was to correct the false impressions enter- 
 tained by the princes, and frankly to explain to that august 
 tribunal the true nature of a case that was so little understood 
 *'I most heartily rejoice, most serene elector," said he, "that 
 his imperial majesty means to take cognisance of this alTair. I 
 call Jesus Christ to w'itness, that it is the cause of the German 
 nation, of the Catholic Church, of the Christian world, of God 
 himself .... not of a mere man, least of all of a man 
 like me.2 I am ready to appear at Worms provided a safe con- 
 duct be given me, as also learned, pious, and impartial judges. 
 I am ready to answer for myself . . . for I was not actuated 
 by any rash spirit, nor was it for the sake of any profit to be 
 derived from it, that I taught the doctrine with which I am now 
 reproached: but because I had to comply with the commands of 
 my conscience and with my oath as doctor of holy Scripture; 
 it was for the glory of God, for the salvation of the Christian 
 Church, for the benefit of the German nation, for the rooting 
 out of so many superstitions, abuses, evils, scandals, tyranny, 
 blasphemies and impieties." 
 
 This declaration, put forth at what was so solemn a moment 
 for Luther, deserves our special attention. Here we behold 
 
 ' Here vre may see wliat Rome is ; how it endoavoTirs to rule solely by fear. 
 Wiat other purpose was all this din to serve, but to fill the superstitious multi- 
 tude with unreasonable terror, and thereby to overcome Luther? How far 
 removed is this fr )m the example of Jesus and his apostles, and from that man- 
 ner of defending the truth which can convince a reasonable man. — L. R. 
 
 ' Causam quse Christo teste, Dei, christiani orbis, ecclesi.Te catholicse, et 
 totius germanicse nationis, et non unius et privati est hominis . . . CL. 
 Vj\j). i. p. 551.) 
 
 /. 4 a 
 
562 HISTOEY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 what were the motives that influenced his conduct and the deep- 
 seated springs that eftected the renovation of Christian societ3\ 
 These were very different from either the jealousy of a monk or 
 the desire of being married. 
 
 11. But all this had no weight with politicians. The papal 
 alliance was daily becoming more necessary to Charles's projects. 
 He could have wished either to detach Frederick from Luther, 
 or to content the pope without wounding Frederick's feelings. 
 Many of the persons about him displayed in this affair of the^ 
 Augustinian friar, that contemptuous coldness which is com- 
 monly aftected by political men when religion is in question. 
 "Let us cast off the extreme parties," said they. "Let us 
 entangle Luther in negotiations, and induce him to hold his peace 
 by making some concessions to him. The true course to pursue 
 is to stifle, not to inflame. If the monk take the bait, we shall 
 win the day. By accepting a compromise, he will have inter- 
 dicted and ruined himself. To keej) up appearances, some out- 
 ward reforms must be decreed; the elector will be satisfied; the 
 pope will be gained over; and all things will return to their 
 wonted course." 
 
 Such was the plan suggested by the emperor's intimate 
 advisers; and it was a new policy which appears to have been 
 guessed at by the Wittemberg doctors. " They are secretly 
 endeavouring to gain people over," said Melanchthon, " and are 
 now working under ground."^ Charles V.'s confessor, John 
 Glapio, a man held in some consideration, able as a courtier, 
 and as a monk, full of finesse, engaged to carry the plan into 
 effect. Glapio had Charles's entire confidence, and that prince, 
 acting in this respect in conformity with Spanish customs, 
 committed almost absolutely to him all affairs that bore upon 
 religion. No sooner had Charles been declared Emperor, than 
 Leo X. eagerly sought to gain Glapio by favours to which the 
 confessor had shown himself extremely sensible,"^ and as he could 
 in no way return the Pontiff's favours better than by silencing 
 heresy, he straightway set to work.^ 
 
 Among the elector's privy councillors, we find Chancellor 
 
 ' CLinculum tentent et experiantur . . . (Corp. Reform, i. p. 281, 3d Feb.) 
 - Benignis officiis recens a Pontifice delinitus. (Pallavicini, i. p. 90.) 
 ^ Et sane in eo toto negotio singulare probitatis ardorisque specimen dedit. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
IJNDEKMIMNG SCHEMES ATTKMPTlCn. 5G.*? 
 
 Gregory J3ruck, or Pontaiius, a man remarkably distinguished 
 by his intelligence, decision, and courage; one who knew mon; 
 of theology th.an all tlio doctors, and whose wisdom and shrewd- 
 ness enabled him to make head against the crafty monks at the 
 court of Charles V. Aware of the chancellor's influence, Gla- 
 ].io sought an interview with him, and going up to him as if 
 he had been a friend of Luther's, " I was delighted," said he, to 
 him with an expression beaming with kindness, "when on reading 
 Luther's earlier publications, I perceived that he was a vigorous 
 stem that had shot forth beautiful branches, and promised the 
 Church the most precious fruits. Many before him, it is true, 
 had owned the same things, nevertheless none but ho has had 
 the noble courage fearlessly to publish the truth. But on my 
 reading his book on the Babylonish Captli'ity, I seemed to be 
 broken upon the wheel, and to be beaten from head to foot. 1 
 do not believe," added the monk, " that friar Martin can own 
 being the author of it; I look in vain in it, for either his style 
 or his learnina:." After some discussion the confessor went on 
 to say, " Pray, introduce me to the elector, and I shall then, in 
 your presence, explain to him what are Luther's errors." The 
 chancellor replied, that engagements connected with the Diet 
 left his Highness no leisure, and that, besides, it was a piece of 
 business with which he did not intermeddle. The monk was 
 annoyed to find that he had failed to carry his point. "As for 
 the rest," said the chancellor to him, " since you yourself say 
 that there is no wrong without a remedy, pray explain your 
 meaning." Upon this, assuming a confidential look, the con- 
 fessor replied : " The emperor ardently desires seeing a monk 
 like Luther reconciled to the Church, for his books (previous to 
 the publication of his treatise on the Bahijlonish Captivity) have 
 not a little pleased his Majesty.^ . . . The angry feelings with 
 which the bull had inspired Luther, were doubtless what alone 
 dictated that last publication of his. Let him declare that he 
 never intended to disturb the repose of the Church, and learned 
 men of all nations will range themselves on his side. - . . Do 
 procure for me an audience from his highness." 
 
 The chancellor straightway waited on his master to relate 
 
 ' Es haben desscn Bucher Ihro Majestat .... urn otwas gcfallcii .... 
 (Weimar Archives, Seckenrl. p. 315.) 
 
664 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 what had passed. "Tell the confessor," he replied, "that I 
 cannot condescend to his request, and do you continue the con- 
 ference." 
 
 This message was received hy Glapio with great demonstra- 
 tions of respect; and changing his tactics, he said: "Let the 
 elector appoint some confidential persons to deliberate on this 
 affa-Ir." 
 
 The Chancellor. " The elector does not put himself forward 
 in defence of Luther's cause." 
 
 The Confessor. " Very well! do you at least treat with me 
 on the subject. Jesus Christ is my witness that I am doing 
 all this from my affection for the Church, and for Luther, who 
 has opened so many hearts to the truth.*"! 
 
 The chancellor having refused to charge himself with a task 
 which was that of the Reformer, seemed disposed to retire. 
 " Don't ffo awav,"" said the monk. 
 The Chancellor. " What then is to be done?" 
 The Confessor. " Let Luther disown the authorship of the 
 Babylonish Captivity." 
 
 The Chancellor. " But the pope's bull condemns all his 
 other writings." 
 
 The Confessor. " That is because of his obstinacy. If he 
 retract his book, the pope, in virtue of his omnipotence, can easily 
 restore him to a state of grace. What hopes may we not enter- 
 tain, now that we have so excellent an emperor!" . . . 
 
 Perceiving that these words were producing some effect upon 
 the chancellor, the monk hastened to add: "Luther would 
 always argue according to the Bible. The Bible — it is like wax 
 which can be drawn out and moulded at pleasure. I make bold 
 to say, that I could find in the Bible even stranger opinions still 
 than any broached by Luther. He is mistaken when he would 
 give the force of commands to all the words of Jesus Christ " 
 " Next," wishing to address himself to the fears of the person 
 with whom he conversed, he added : " What would be the issue 
 were the emperor to-day, or to-morrow, to commence hostilities? 
 . . . Think but of that." Upon this he allowed Pontanus 
 to retire. 
 
 The confessor was contriving new snares. " You might live 
 
 ■ Dor andcrn das Hertz zu viclem Gutom erbffnet . . . (Seckend. p. 315.) 
 
A JESUITICAL CONVERSATION. 
 
 r)65 
 
 ten years with liini," said Erasmus, " and yet be unable to 
 comprehend hiui after all." 
 
 " What an excellent book is that on the Christian's liberty !" 
 said he to the chancellor, on seeing him some days after; "what 
 wisdom! what talent! what wit! It is just as a truly learned 
 man should write. . . . Let men of irreproachable character 
 be selected on botli sides, and then let the Pope and Luther refer 
 the case to their award. There can be no doubt that it will be 
 in Luther's ftivour on several points. > I have told the emperor 
 that God would punish him as Avell as all other princes, if the 
 Church, which is the spouse of Christ, be not cleansed from 
 all the stains that defile her. I added that God himself had 
 raised up Luther, and had commanded him to reprove men 
 sharply, making use of him as a rod for the correction of the sins 
 of the world. "-^ 
 
 On hearing these words, which were a mere repetition of the 
 impressions of the time, and showed what opinion was then 
 entertained respecting Luther even among his adversaries, the 
 chancellor felt prompted to express his astonishment at no more 
 respect being shown to his master. " Deliberations are daily 
 held in the emperor's presence," said he, " and to these the 
 elector is not even invited. It seems strange to him that the 
 emperor, who owes him some gratitude, should exclude him 
 from his councils." 
 
 The Confessor. '^ At these deliberations I have been present 
 only once, and have heard the emperor resist the solicitations of 
 the nuncios. Five years hence it will be seen what Charles V. 
 has done for the reformation of the Church." 
 
 " The elector," replied Pontanus, " is not aware what Luther's 
 intentions are. Let him be sent for, and allowed a hearing." 
 
 To this the Confessor replied by heaving a deep drawn sigh. 3 
 " I call God to witness," said he, " how ardently I desire to 
 see the reform of Christendom effected." 
 
 All that Glapio really proposed to himself was to make the 
 
 ' Es scy nicht zu zwcifeln dass Lutherus in vielen Artickeln werde den Sieg 
 davon tragen. (Scckend. p. oHK) 
 
 2 Dass Gott diesen ]\Ian gcsandt . . . dass or eine Gcisse seye um der Slinden 
 vcilleii. (Weymar. Ardin. — Scckend. p. 320.) 
 
 2 Glapio that hicrauf einen tiefcn Soiif/er, and rufte Gott zum Zougen . . . 
 (Seckend. p. 321.) 
 
566 HISTORY OF THE REIORMATIOX. 
 
 afiair drag on to a tedious length, and meanwhile to close Luther's 
 mouth. At all events, Luther was not to come to Worms. A 
 ghost from the other world, making its appearance in the midst 
 of the assembled Diet, would not have terrified the nuncios, the 
 monks, and the whole papal army, more than would the sight 
 of the Wittemberg doctor there. 
 
 " How lono- does it take to come from Wittemberg to Worms T 
 inquired the monk of the chancellor, at the same time afiecting 
 an air of indifference; after which he begged Pontanus to pre- 
 sent his most humble greetings to the elector, and left him. 
 
 Such were the manoeuvres of the courtiers. They were dis- 
 concerted by the firmness of Pontanus. In all the negociations 
 that followed, that person showed himself firm as a rock. As 
 for the rest, the Roman monks fell themselves into the snares 
 which they had laid for their opponents. " The Christian," said 
 Luther in his figurative language, " is like the bird that people 
 attach to a trap. The wolves and foxes prowl about it, and 
 pounce on it, thinking to devour it, instead of which, they fall 
 into the pit and perish, while the timid bird survives. Thus 
 do the holy angels keep w^atch over us, while those devouring 
 wolves, hypocrites and persecutors, can do us no harm."^ Not 
 only did the confessor's artifices fail of success, but they even 
 strengthened Frederick's impression that Luther was in the 
 right, and that it was his duty to defend him. 
 
 Men's hearts were now inclining ever more and more towards 
 the Gospel. A prior of the Dominicans proposed that the em- 
 peror, the kings of France, of Spain, of England, of Portugal, 
 of Hungary, of Poland, together with the pope and the electors, 
 should appoint representatives to whom it should be left to bring 
 the matter to a decision. " Never," said he, " did any one 
 trust to the pope alone.^ In short, the general feeling became 
 such, that it seemed impossible to condemn Luther without his 
 being first heai'd and convicted.^ 
 
 Aleandcr became alarmed at this, and he now^ displayed an 
 energy that he had never shown before. He saw that it was no 
 
 ' L. 0pp. (AV.) xxii. 1655. 
 
 * TJnd niemals dem Papst allein geglaubt. (Seckend. p. 323.) 
 Spalatinus scribit tantuin favoris evangelic esse istic, ut me inauditum et 
 inconvictum damnari non spcret. (L. Epp. i. p. 550, of the 9th of February.) 
 
AI.KANUKli's MACHINATIONS AGAINST I.UTIIER. 5G7 
 
 longer against Luther and the elector ojily that he had to mako 
 head. lie saw with horror the secret negotiations of the con- 
 fessor, the proposal made by the prior, the consent given by 
 Charles's ministers, the extreme coldness of the Koiiian piety 
 even among the pontiff's most devoted friends, which was such, 
 says Pallavicini, " that one might suppose that a torrent of ice- 
 cold water had passed over it."^ Ho had at last received gold 
 and silver from Rome: and held most energetic brieves addressed 
 to the most powerful men in the empire.- Dreading that his 
 prey miiiht escape, he could perceive that the moment was come 
 for striking a decisive blow. He presented his brieves; ho dis- 
 tributed gold and silver with lavish hands; he added to this the 
 most seductive promises; "and armed with this triple traffick," 
 says the cardinal historian, "he strove to turn the wavering assem- 
 bly of electors anew in favour of the pope.'"-^ But it was the 
 emperor chiefly whom he surrounded with his snares. He took 
 advantage of the dissensions between the Belgians and the 
 Spanish ministers. He beset the prince. All Rome's friends, 
 aroused by his voice, were urgent with the youthful Charles 
 " Every day," wrote the elector to his brother John, " deliber- 
 ations are held aijainst Luther; it is insisted that he shall be 
 put to the ban by the pope and by the emperor; every effort is 
 made to injure him. Those who make a parade of their red 
 hats, the Romans, with all their sect, display indefatigable zeal 
 in this business."-* 
 
 Li fact, Aleander urged the condemnation of the Reformer 
 with a violence that Luther calls a marvellous fury.-^ The apos- 
 tate nuncio,6 as Luther calls him, hurried by passion beyond the 
 bounds of prudence, himself one day exclaimed, " Should you 
 pretend, O Germans, to throw off the yoke of Roman obedience, 
 we will so contrive matters, that lifting an exterminating sword 
 against one another, you shall all perish in your own blood." ' 
 " See how the pope feeds Christ's sheep," adds the Reformer. 
 
 ' nine .iqua manabat, quse succcnsic pietatis jcstum rcstinguebat. (Pallavi- 
 cini, i. p. 9G.) 
 
 2 Mandata pecunifc ac diplomata. (Ibid. p. 95.) 
 a Triplici hac industria nunc Aleander. . . . (Ibid.) 
 ■• Das thun die in rotlien Iliiten prangen. . . . (Seckend. 364.) 
 * "Miro furore papistse moliuntur mihi mala. . . . (L. Epp. i. p. 556.) 
 « Nuntius apostaticus (a play on the word for apostolicus) agit sumniis viribus, 
 (IWd. p. 569.) 
 
 7Ut luutuis cicdibus absumpti, vcstro cruore pereatis. (Ibid. ji. 556.) 
 
568 HISTORY OF THE RErORMATION. 
 
 But it was not thus that he spoke himself. He asked no per- 
 sonal favour. " Luther is ready," said Melanchthon, " to lay 
 down his life in promoting the glory and advancement of the 
 gospel."' Still he shuddered at the thought of the desolations 
 of which his death might be the signal. He beheld a mis- 
 guided people possibly revenging his martyrdom in the blood of 
 his adversaries, and 'in particular, in that of the priests. He 
 revolted at the thought of incurring such a responsibility. " God, ' ' 
 he would say, " lays an arrest on the fury of his enemies; but 
 should it burst forth . . . then will there a storm be seen 
 to discharge itself on the priests like that which ravaged Bohe- 
 mia. ... I am clear of it, for I have pressingly besought 
 the German nobility to lay an arrest on the Romans by wisdom, 
 not by the sword.2 To wage war with the priests — a people 
 that have neither courage nor strength, is no better than fighting 
 with women and children." 
 
 Charles Fifth yielded to the nuncio's solicitations. His Bel- 
 gian and Spanish devotion had been nurtured and brought out 
 by his preceptor Adrian, who afterwards occupied the pontifical 
 throne. But the Diet had still to be gained over. " Convince 
 that assembly," said the youthful monarch to the nuncio. It 
 was all that Aleander desired; he was promised admission into 
 the Diet on the 13th of February. 
 
 in. For this solemn audience the nuncio now prepared him- 
 self. The task was important, but Aleander was worthy of it, 
 for not only as ambassador from the sovereign pontiff was he 
 encircled with all the splendour of his office, but he was also one 
 of the most eloquent men of his age. It was not without impa- 
 tience that the friends of the Reformation looked forward to this 
 meeting. The elector abstained from attending under the pre- 
 text that he was unwell; but he gave orders to some of his coun- 
 sellors to go and to take note of what might be said by the nuncio. 
 
 When the appointed day had come, Aleander proceeded to 
 the assembly of the princes, and such was the excitement called 
 forth on the occasion, that many thought of Annas or Caiaphas 
 going to the pretorium to demand the death of the man who 
 
 ' Libenter etiam morte sua evangelii gloriam et profectum cnierit. (Corp. 
 lief. i. p. 285.) 
 
 * Non ferro sed consiliis et edictis. (L. Epp. i. p. 563.) 
 
TTIK NVNCtn VDl) tKSSKS TJIK IUKP. T'GO 
 
 reduced the nation.^ Just as the nuncio was at the point of 
 passing- tlie threshold, "the usher of tlie Diet," says Pallavi- 
 cini, "going up to liim with great warmth, struck liiin on the 
 hreast and pushed him back.- At heart lie was a Lutheran," 
 adds tlie lioman historian. ]f this account be true, it no doubt 
 shows a strange outbreak of passion; but at the same time, it 
 supplies the measure of that mighty power wherewith Luther's 
 words had moved men's feelings, down to the very door-keepers 
 of the council of the empire. The lofty Aleander, gathering 
 himself up with an air of dignity, walked on and entered the 
 hall. Never had Rome been called to make her apology before 
 so august an assembly. The nuncio laid out before him the 
 documents which he considered necessary in order to make out 
 his case; the„;o we'-e Luther's books and the pope's bulls; the 
 Diet then being called to order, he spoke as follows: — 
 
 " Most august emperor, most mighty princes, most excellent 
 deputies, I appear in behalf of a cause, for which I feel the most 
 vehement affection burning within me. The question is, whe- 
 ther my master is to keep on his head that tiara which all adore; 
 whether that papal throne is to be maintained for which I am 
 ready to give up my body to the flames, provided that along 
 with it the monster of nascent heresy were to be consumed. 3 
 
 "No! the disagreement betwixt Luther and' Rome does not 
 all turn on the interests of the pope. 1 have Luther's books now 
 before me, and a man needs but to have his eyes in his head to 
 see that it is the holy doctrines of the Church that he attacks. 
 He teaches that they only worthily communicate whose con- 
 sciences are surcharged with grief and confusion on account of 
 their sins, and that baptism justifies none, but that what justi- 
 fies is faith in the word of promise, to which baptism is added. 4 
 
 ' St Luke xxiii. 2. 
 
 ^ Pugnis ejus poctori admotls repulerit. (Pallavicini, i. p. 112.) 
 Dummodo mecum una monstrum nascontis ha^resis arderct. (Ibid. i. fiT.) 
 Seckendorff, and after him several Protestant historians, have asserted that Pal- 
 lavicini himself composed the speech he has put into the mouth of Aleander. 
 It is true, the historian-cardinal states that he had given it the form in vhich 
 he presents it ; but he points out the sources whence he derived it, Aloandor's 
 letters, in particular, as deposited in the Archives of the Vatican ( Acta "Wor • 
 matise, folio 66 and 99;) I consider it, therefore, as an act of partiality wholly 
 .0 reject it. I quote a few sketches of this speech from both Protestant and 
 Roman eources. 
 
 * Baptismum ueniinom justificare, sed fidem in vcrbum promissionis, ciii add- 
 it,ur Baptismns. {Cochlaus. Acta Lnth. 28.) 
 
 I- 4 c 
 
570 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 He denies the necessity of our works in order to the obtaining 
 of the heavenly glory. He denies that we have the liberty and 
 the power to observe the laws of nature and of God. He affirms 
 that we sin necessarily in all that we do. Did there ever conie 
 forth from the arsenal of hell, shafts better fitted to cut the reins 
 of shame?' . . . He preaches the abolition of the vows taken 
 by the religious orders. Can any man imagine impiety more 
 sacrilegious than that? . . . What desolations shall we not 
 behold in the world when they who ought to be the leaven of the 
 nations, throw aside their sacred vestments, quit the temples 
 which used to resound with their sacred songs, and plunge into 
 adultery, incest, and dissipation ! . . . 
 
 " Could I enumerate all the crimes of this audacious monk? 
 He sins against the dead, for he denies the existence of pur- 
 gatory ;2 he sins against heaven, for he would not even believe 
 an angel from the heavens; he sins against the Church, for he 
 pretends that all Christians are priests; he sins against the 
 saints, for he despises their venerable writings; he sins against 
 the councils, for he calls that of Constance an assembly of 
 demons; he sins against the world, for he would forbid the put- 
 ting to death of any one who has not committed mortal sin? 
 
 ' In opposition to this it may be asked, was there ever a more shameless 
 attempt to make truth seem error than is to be found in this discourse of the 
 Romish ambassador ? What need we more in order to our thus being able to 
 recognise the Church of Rome from the mouth of her own advocate, as an 
 opponent of the truth ? What he says of the denial of the necessity of our good 
 works, and of the assertion that in all that we do, we sin necessarily, is a mere 
 misrepresentation, or at least partial statement of Luther's doctrines, which dis- 
 owned the necessity of our good works in so far only as we should think of add- 
 ing ought, by means of them, to the merits of Christ, and which imputes sinning 
 of necessity to our corrupt nature alone, but does not understand thereby a 
 natural and absolute necessity. But to hold forth as a weapon from hell, the 
 doctrines that then only we worthily partake of the holy supper, when we are 
 humbled on account of our sins; that baptism does not justify when people do 
 not believe the promise of which it is the pledge ; and that we have lost the 
 freedom and ability to keep the laws of nature and of God, amounts to put- 
 ting ourselves above the plain doctrine of Scripture, above the testimony of 
 conscience, and above all shame. Unhappy state of Christendom, when men 
 could trust so much to the general ignorance, as to undertake to persuade a 
 whole assembly of Christian princes of such things ! No better is it with respect 
 to what Aleander farther on imputes to Luther as offences : — things merely by 
 which the latter placed truth, when disacknowledged, again in the light, or set 
 himself against error. In tliis sense alone was it also that he, even as Paul did, 
 declared that he would not believe even an angel from heaven, were he to preach 
 another Gospel, or impugned the writings of men who were accounted saints, 
 although he did not despise them otherwise. — L. R. 
 
 ^ Weil er verbiete jemand mit Todes Strafe zu belegen, der nicht eine Todt- 
 sunde begangen. (Seckend. p. 333.) 
 
nuncio's Si'KKCII TO THE DIKT. 571 
 
 Some would nuiko him out to be a pious man. . . 1 have no 
 wish to attack his private life, but would merely suggest to this 
 assemblage that the devil deceives the people under the appear- 
 ances of truth.'^ 
 
 Having mentioned purgatory which was condemned by the 
 COUNCIL of Florence, Aleander laid at the emperor's feet the papal 
 bull upon that council. It was taken up by the archbishop of 
 Maintz,- and handed by him to the archbishops of Cologne and 
 of Treves, who gravely received it, and passed it on to the other 
 princes. And having now concluded his charge against Luther, 
 the nuncio proceeded to the next point, which was that of justi- 
 fying Rome. 
 
 "At Rome,"' says Luther, people promise one thing with their 
 mouths, and perform the contrary with their hands. Granting 
 that this is true, ought not the inference deduced from it to be 
 quite the reverse? If the ministers of a religion live conform- 
 ably to its precepts, it is a mark of its being false. Such was 
 the religion of the ancient Romans. . . . Such is that of 
 Mahomet, and that of Luther himself; but not such is the 
 religion that the Roman pontiffs teach us. Yes, the doctrine 
 they profess condemns them all, as having committed offences: 
 many as guilty men, and some (I candidly acknowledge) as 
 great criminals.^ . . . That doctrine delivers over their 
 deeds to the censure of men during lifetime, and to historical 
 infamy after death. "^ Now what gratification, what use, I ask, 
 could the pontiffs have found in inventing such a religion? 
 
 ' It is indeed a strong proof of the purity of Luther's life that even so bitter 
 an enemy as Aleander knows of nothing to allege against it, and must let that 
 matter alone. This is of itself enough to convict of deliberate slander, what 
 malice alleges against him in this respect, in general imputations without distinct 
 proof. — L. R. 
 
 ^ The elector archbishop of Maintz was the second person in the empire, being 
 as high chancellor next to the emperor. lie was moreover president of the 
 electoral college, visitor of the Aulic council of the chamber of Spires, and all 
 the other courts of the emperor, and guardian of the Archives, and matricula. 
 lie crowned the emperor. All foreign princes and states directed to him what 
 ]>ropositions they had to make to the empire, and to liim the princes and states 
 of Germany made their complaints in order to the redress of their grievances. 
 From this it will be seen how carefully the interests of the church of Rome were 
 provided for in the German confederation, and of what importance the personal 
 character of this elector-archbishop was to the progress of the Reformation. Tr. 
 
 ^ . . . Multos ut quadantenus reos, non nullos (dicam ingenue) ut scelestos. 
 (Card. Pall. i. p. 101.) 
 
 * Linguaruni vituj)erationi dum vivunt, historiaruni infamia" post mortem. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
572 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " The Church, shall we be told, was not goverued hy the 
 Roman pontiffs during the first ages of her history. — What 
 would they infer from this? With such argument you might 
 persuade men to live upon acorns, and princesses to wash their 
 own linen."' 
 
 But the grand object of the nuncio's aim was his adversary 
 the Reformer. Filled with indignation at those who said that 
 he ought to be allo^Yed a hearing: " Luther," he exclaimed, 
 " will take lessons from no man. The pope had already sum- 
 moned him to repair to Rome, but thither he never went. The 
 pope then summoned him to appear at Augsburg, before his 
 legate, and he appeared there only after he had obtained a safe- 
 conduct from the emperor, that is to say, after the legate's arms 
 had been tied, and the only thing he was left free to use, was his 
 tongue.2 . . . Ah,'' said Aleander, turning to Charles V., 
 " I supplicate your Majesty, not to do anything which may turn 
 to your disgrace! Let not your Majesty meddle at all with an 
 affair with which laymen have nothing to do. Perform your 
 part. Let Luther's doctrine be interdicted by you throughout 
 the empire; let his writings be everywhere burnt. Fear noth- 
 ing. There are in Luther's errors enough to cause the burning 
 of a hundred thousand heretics .3 . . . And whom have we 
 to fear? , . . The mob? ... Its insolence makes it 
 seem terrible before battle, but its cowardice makes it contempt- 
 ible when the conflict is over. Is it foreign princes? .... 
 But the king of France has prohibited Luther's doctrines from 
 entering his kingdom; while the king of England'* prepares to 
 give him a blow from his royal hand. You know what is thought 
 by Hungary, Italy, and Spain, and none of your neighbours, 
 however he may hate you, wishes you such mischief as that 
 
 ' Tn the two last parts of this envoy's oration, we first of all find an open 
 acknowledgement of the ill behaviour of certain popes ; and a tacit admission 
 that the Church was not governed by the Romish popes in the first centuries. 
 Truly the first was too notorious, and for the last he knew of no proof that he 
 could show. Far-sought and inadequate are the subterfuges to which he has 
 recourse. — L. K. 
 
 2 Q,uod idem erat, ac revinctis legati brachiis, et lingua solum soluta. (Ibid, 
 p. 109.) 
 
 3 Das lOO.OCO Kctzer ihrenthalben verbrannt werden. (Seckcnd. p. 3r-2.) 
 
 * M. Merle a'Aubigne has it " Great Britain," forgetting that the crowns of 
 England and Scotland were not then united, and that the title " king of Great 
 B)-itain" was first assumtd by the prince in whose person they were first united, 
 'iu. 
 
NU\Clo"'s SI'Et;t'II TO TIIK UIKI'. 573 
 
 Iicresy involves. For if our enemy's house he liard by our own, 
 we may wish lie had a lever in it, but not the plague. . . WJiat 
 are all those Lutherans? — a parcel of insolent grannnarians, of 
 depraved priests, disorderly monks, ignorant advocates, degraded 
 nobles, and misguided and perverted comnujn people. How 
 much more numerous, able, and powerful is the catholic party? 
 An unanimous decree from this illustrious assemblage will 
 enlighten the simple, put the imprudent on their guard, give 
 decision to the wavering, and strengthen the feeble. . . But 
 if the axe be not laid to the root of that venomous plant, if a 
 death-blow be not given to it, tlien . . I behold it covering 
 the heritage of Jesus Christ with its branches, changing the 
 Lord's vineyard into a horrible forest, transforming the king- 
 dom of God into a haunt for wild animals, and reducing Ger- 
 many to that frightful state of barbarism and desolation, into 
 which Asia has been brought by the superstition of Mahomet." 
 The nuncio ceased. He had spoken for three hours, and the 
 meeting was captivated by his eloquence.^ " The princes," says 
 
 ' Maimhourg, tlie Jesuit liistorian of Lutheranism, highly commends this 
 extravagant tirade of the nuncio, saying that he spoke " excellently well, ' but his 
 own admissions in regard to Luther's manyvaluable qualities, and the piety of some 
 of his writings, are strikingly inconsistent with any such commendations of Ale- 
 ander, unless this address be considered a piece of mere rhetorical display. That 
 the reader may judge for himself, I subjoin some of Maimbourg's graphic touches 
 in describing the Reformer, and it is the more necessary to introduce these, as 
 the papists of France and possibly of other countries, reckoning on the ignor- 
 ance of the people of our day, have in a widely disseminated work intituled, " The 
 Deaths of the Impious," represented Luther as a monster of immorality. Maim- 
 t)Ourg speaks of him as " enjoying a high reputation at Wittemberg,' and gives 
 ample grounds for this having boon deserved. After referring to his birth-and 
 early studies— to the change of character he experienced on the sudden death of 
 his friend, and the terror he experienced during a thunder-storm — and to his being 
 welcomed into the monastery at Erfurt, he proceeds thus: "In fact he made 
 great progress there in the higher branches of learning, to which he assiduously 
 applied himself, so that as he soon passed for the brightest genius, and ablest 
 man of his order in Germany, the vicar general, who was indefatigable in ])ro- 
 moting the success of the university of Wittemberg, called him to preach, and 
 at the same time to teach philosophy there. Of these employments he acquitte 1 
 himself with great applause, and acquired so much consideration among his 
 brethren that he was sent to Rome for the settlement of certain differences which 
 were then throwing the order into two opposite parties, and showed so much abil- 
 ity and good conduct in that negotiation, in which he succeeded, that at his return 
 to Wittemberg tlie vicar-general absolutely desired that lie should assume tbo 
 bonnet of a doctor of divinity ; which was done with great solemnity, the elector 
 of Saxony, who had heard him preach with much satisfaction, having desired to 
 act magnificently, in furnishing the expenses of the feast on that occasion ; and 
 thereafter the young doctor, who was then at the age of thirty, gave lectures on 
 theology and sacred literature to a great concourse of applauding auditors. 
 
 " lie was a man of lively and subtile spirit, naturally eloquent, of a lucid and 
 polished style, infinitely laborious, and so assiduous in study that he would spend 
 
574 IIISIORY OF THE RKFORM ATIOX. 
 
 CochlcBus, " sliaken in their opinions and terrified, looked at 
 one another, until at length murmurs were to be heard at various 
 points against Luther and his partisans,"^ If the mighty Luther 
 had been there, if he had been allowed to reply to that address, 
 if, taking advantage of the admissions which what he recollected 
 of his former master, the infamous Borgia, had forced from the 
 Roman orator, Luther had shown that the very arguments meant 
 to defend Kome, really condemned her; had he demonstrated 
 
 whole days at it without even allowing himself time to take a morsel of food ; 
 which led to his acquiring a pretty considerable knowledge of the languages and 
 of the fathers, to the reading of which, and particularly of St. Augustine, of 
 whom he made a very bad use, he was much given, contrary to the usual practice 
 of the divines of his time. lie had a powerful and robust constitution for bearing 
 work without loss of health, a bilious and sanguine temperament, a piercing 
 flashing eye ; a pleasing tone of voice, which rose very high when once he was 
 excited, a proud, intrepid, disdainful air, which however he could soften down 
 when he wished to counterfeit humility, modesty, and mortification, which was 
 not too often the case with him ; and, above all, there was in his soul a vast fund 
 of pride and presumption, inspiring him with contempt for whatever did not 
 tally with his own views, and that spirit of brutal insolence with which he out- 
 rageously treated all who opposed his heresy, without respecting king, emperor, 
 pope, or whatever there was most sacred and inviolable on the earth ; incap- 
 able besides of retracting what he had once advanced ; choleric, vindictive, 
 imperious, desiring ever to be master, and ever fond of distinguishing himself by 
 the novelty of what he taught, and which he wished to establish in his school 
 on the ruins of those of the greatest geniuses, to wit, Aristotle, St. Thomas 
 (Acquinas), Scot, St. Bonaventura, and other schoolmen, who he alleged had 
 corrupted true philosophy, and the solid truths of Christian theology. Such was 
 the true character of Martin Luther, in which one may say, there was a great 
 mixture of some good and many bad qualities, and that he was much more 
 debauched in mind than in manners, and in his life, which was spent in suSicient 
 regularity as long as he lived in the cloister with his heresy, which completed 
 the corruption of his mind and heart." 
 
 A careless reader would suppose from this conclusion, that the regularity of 
 Luther's manners and life must have ceased with his leaving the monastery, 
 although, with the caution forced upon Maimbourg by the acute and indefati- 
 gable French Reformed controversalists of that time, he dared not say that 
 Luther's .heresy had completed the corruption of his morals. The reader will 
 be able to judge from M. M. D'Aubigne's text how far the accusations even of 
 the more favourable of the two popish descriptions, were either wholly untrue 
 or arose from personal and constitutional failings, which Luther himself was the 
 tirst to deplore. But in regard to the main charge of pride, presumption, and 
 obstinacy, it is singular that at the head of the catholic authorities which this 
 heretic was led by these qualities to impugn, Maimbourg places the heathen 
 philosopher Aristotle ! and neither says a word of the profound humility with 
 which Luther owned himself the very slave of the Word of God, nor makes the 
 slightest acknowledgment of the immense obligations all Christendom owed to 
 his having done far more to establish the authority of the holy Scriptures, than 
 he ever did to weaken that of Aristotle and the schoolmen. Not only is there 
 no such acknowledgment, but although nothing was better known to the Jesuit 
 than Luther's diligent perusal of the Scriptures, he carefully abstains from 
 mentioning these in stating that he was "much given to the reading of the 
 fathers, contrary to the usual practice of the divines of his time," who certainly 
 as little gave themselves to the study of the Scriptures. Tr. 
 
 I Vehementer exterriti atque commoti, alter alterum intuebantur, atque in 
 Lutherum ejusquc fautores murmurare ccpperunt. (Cochlocus, p. '-'8.) 
 
IMl'RKSSIONS MADK UY IIIIC SI'KICCH DISSIl'ATKU. DiO 
 
 that the doctrines that clearly convicted lier of guilt, wore no 
 invention of his, as the orator had alleged, but were the very 
 religion which Jesus Christ had given to the world, and which 
 the Reformation had restored to its original lustre; had he pre- 
 sented an exact and animated picture of the errors and abuses of 
 the popedom, and pointed to how it had changed the religion 
 of Jesus Christ into an instrument of aggrandisement and of 
 plunder, the effect of the nuncio's harangue would even at that 
 moment have been neutralised; but no one rose to speak. The 
 meeting remained under the impression of that discourse; deeply 
 moved, and hurried away by its feelings, it was prepared to tear 
 Luther''s heresy up by the roots from the soil of the empire, i 
 
 Nevertheless, the victory was apparent only. It was the will 
 of God that Home should have an opportunity of displaying her 
 reasons and her powers. The greatest of her orators had spoken 
 at a meeting of the princes; he had spoken out all that Rome 
 had to say for herself. Hut it proved precisely the popedom's 
 final effort, and with respect to many who heard it, was to be 
 the signal of its defeat. If in order to the triumph of truth it 
 must be openly confessed, so error has only to be proclaimed 
 without reserve, in order to its perishing. Neither the one nor 
 the other in order to complete its course, should be concealed. 
 All things are made manifest by light. 
 
 IV. A few days sufficed to dissipate these first impressions, 
 as ever happens when a speaker would conceal his lack of sound 
 argument beneath a heap of sonorous words. The greater 
 number of the princes were ready to sacrifice Luther; but none 
 wished to immolate the prerogatives of the empire and the 
 grievances of the German nation. They were willing enough to 
 deliver up the insolent monk who had spoken so high, but it was 
 alleged, that the pope might be made to feel more strongly that 
 a reform was justly required when the call for it proceeded from 
 the mouth of the nation's chiefs. It was Luther's greatest per- 
 sonal enemy, also, that spoke with most energy against the 
 encroachments of Rome. The grandson of Podiebrad, king of 
 Bohemia, though repelled by the doctrines of grace as preached 
 by the Reformer, had not yet lost hopes of seeing a moral and 
 
 ' Lutheranum haeresim esse fundituE evellandani. (Pallavii'ini, i. p. 101. 
 llohcoe's Leo X. W. p. 30.) 
 
676 HISTORY OF THE REIORMATION. 
 
 ecclesiastical reform effected. Wliat excited so much irritation 
 against the Wittember^ monk, was his marrins; the whole matter 
 with his despised doctrines. But now that he saw the nuncio 
 affect to confound Luther and Church reform in one common con- 
 demnation, duke George suddenly rose in the midst of the assem- 
 bled princes, to the great amazement of such as were aware how 
 much he hated the Heformer. "The Diet," said he, "ought 
 not to forget its grounds of complaint against the court of Rome. 
 What a multitude of abuses have found their way into our 
 states ! Look at the annates^ which the emperor freely bestowed 
 for the general benefit of Christendom, now exacted as a debt: 
 see the Roman courtiers daily inventing new ordinances with 
 the view of engrossing ecclesiastical benefices, and selling or 
 I'arming them out to others; seethe multitude of allowed trans- 
 gressions, rich transgressors shamefully tolerated, while those 
 that are too poor to redeem themselves, are pitilessly punished ; 
 the popes cease not to bestow reversionary appointments and 
 reservations on the people about their palaces, to the detriment of 
 those to whom the benefices belong; commissions to negotiate 
 the sale of appointments in abbeys and monasteries are handed 
 to cardinals, to bishops, to prelates wdio keep the revenues to 
 themselves, so that where those establishments should be sup- 
 porting from twenty to thirty inmates, they have now none at 
 all; the stations are infinitely multiplied, and indulgence shops 
 are established in all the streets and market places of our cities ; 
 St, Anthony's shops; those of the Holy Ghost; those of St. 
 Hubert; those of St. Cornelius; those of St. Vincent, and 
 many more besides; associations that purchase at Rome the 
 right to hold such sale rooms, then purchasing from their bishops 
 leave to exhibit their wares to advantage, and in order to find 
 money for all this, squeezing and emptying poor people's purses; 
 the indulgences which ought to be granted only for the salvation 
 of souls, and which ought only to be merited by prayers, and fasts, 
 and deeds of charity, sold for money ; bishops'" officials over- 
 powering persons of little consideration with penances to be per- 
 formed for blasphemies, adulteries, debaucheries, violations of 
 such or such a holiday, but not so much as addressing a reprimand 
 
 > A 
 
 other b 
 
 year's revpimc claimed by the popes for bulls granted to bisliops and 
 jcncficiaries. Ti;. 
 
DUICU (;E011GE SUPPLICATEfJ REKOKM. 577 
 
 to ecclesiastics who liiive incurred the guilt of such crimes; pen- 
 alties imposed on the penitent, and so contrived that he may 
 soon relapse into the same fault, and give so much more money ^ 
 . . . such are some of the abuses that cry out against l\ome. 
 All shame has been laid aside, and people pursue but one object 
 . . . money ! more money ! ... so that preachers who 
 ought to be teaching the truth, retail nothing but lies, and that 
 these are not only tolerated, but even recompensed, because the 
 more they lie, the more they gain. It is from these muddy wells 
 that so many corrupt waters proceed. Debauchery goes hand in 
 hand with avarice. Tiie officials get women to come to their 
 houses under various pretexts, and then try to seduce them, 
 sometimes by menaces, sometimes by presents, or if they cannot 
 succeed, they ruin them by attacking their good name.2 Ah, it 
 is the stumbling blocks thrown in their way by the clergy, that 
 liurry so many poor souls into eternal condemnation. A uni- 
 versal reform must be effected. A general council must be con- 
 vened for the accomplishment of such a reform. Therefore is 
 it, most excellent princes and lords, that I supplicate you with 
 all submission, to devote yourselves to this with all diligence."" ^ 
 Duke George handed in a list of the grievances that he reca- 
 pitulated, some days after the delivery of Aleander's speech. 
 This important document is still preserved in the Archives at 
 Weimar. 
 
 Never had even Luther spoken out more forcibly against the 
 abuses of Rome; but he had done something more. The Duke 
 signalled out the evil ; Luther, together with the evil, had sig- 
 nalled out the cause and the remedy. He had demonstrated 
 
 1 Sondern dass er es bald wieder begehe und mehr Geld erlegen miisse. 
 (Weimar Archives. Seckend, p. 328.) 
 
 2 Dass sie Weibesbilder unter mancherly Schein beschicken, selbige sodann 
 mit Drohunsjcn und Geschcnkcn zu fallen suchen, oder in einen biisen Verdacht 
 bringen. (Weimar. Arch. Seek., p. 330.) 
 
 ^ What more is required than this powerful address of duke George, a man 
 otherwise so much preposses.sed against Luther, in order to defend the equity of 
 his cause contrary to the speaker's own purpose, and to show the great necessity 
 that there was for a reformation? In that the prince thus involuntarily pro- 
 moted the cause of the Reformer, so seasonably removed the unfavourable 
 impression made by Aleander's address, and interposed a new obstacle to the 
 accomplishment of the wicked plans formed against Luther, who can fail to 
 acknowledge the very special interposition of Providence, operating just so 
 much the more manifestly and powerfully, in that it was an enemy of Luther's 
 cause that here spoke so much to its advantage, and so precisely at the fitting 
 time?— L. R. 
 
 i. 4 D 
 
578 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 that the sinner receives the true indulgence, that which cornea 
 from God, solely by faith in the grace and merits of Jesus 
 Christ; and that simple yet potent doctrine had subverted all 
 the places of traffic established by the priests. " How become 
 a godly man?" said he one day. "A cordelier will reply: Wear 
 a gray hood and gird yourself with a cord. A Roman will tell 
 you to hear mass and to fast. But a Christian will say: Faith 
 in Christ is what alone justifies and saves. Previous to works 
 we must have eternal life. Now when we are born anew and 
 made children of God by the word of grace, then we do good 
 works." 1 2 
 
 The duke's discourse was such as might have been expected 
 from a secular prince; Luther's, was that of a Reformer. The 
 Church"'s grand malady consisted in her having thrown herself 
 wholly into externals; her having made outward and material 
 things of all her doings and all her graces. The indulgences 
 reached the extreme point in this course, and forgiveness of sin, 
 which of all things in Christianity is the most spiritual, was to 
 be bought at shops as if it could be eaten or drunk. Luther's 
 grand enterprise lay precisely in this, that he took advantage of 
 this extreme point in Christianity in order to lead man back to 
 the original source of life, and to restore the dominion of the 
 Holy Ghost in the sanctuary of the heart. Here, as often 
 happens, the remedy was found in the disease, and the two 
 extremes met. Forthwith, after having for so many ages 
 expanded herself externally in ceremonies, and human obser- 
 vances and practices, the Church began to re-expand herself 
 inwardly, in faith, hope, and charity. 
 
 The duke's discourse proved the more effective from his 
 opposition to Luther being better known. Other members of the 
 Diet urged attention to different grievances, and their complaints 
 were seconded even by the ecclesiastical princes, ^ " We have a 
 
 » L. Opp, (W.) xxii. '748, "752. 
 
 * Here we find thus further explained, to what extent Luther excluded our 
 works. It was works that did not proceed from faith and a renewed heart, 
 wherehy men would merit everlasting life, and which thus in so far preceded 
 life. People must first be made partakers of life by faith, and children of God, 
 if with a renewed heart they would do works pleasing to God. This is the plain 
 doctrine of the Bible and recommends itself by a salutary experience. In vain 
 would all human wisdom, whether in the Romish or in the present self-styled 
 Pntestant Church, turn against it. — L. R. 
 
 •■' Seckend. Vorrede von Frick 
 
TlIK DIET APP0INT8 A COMMISSION. 679 
 
 pontiflf," said they, '* who loves nothing but the chase and other 
 such gratifications; tlie church livings of the German nation are 
 bestowed at Rome on artillery men, falconers, footmen, ass-dri- 
 vers, stable-boys, body-guards-men, and such like persons, at 
 once ignorant, incapable, and strangers to Germany."^ 
 
 The Diet appointed a commission to reckon up all the griev- 
 ances complained of; it found them amount to a hundred and 
 one. A deputation consisting of the secular and ecclesiastical 
 princes, presented an abstract of them to the emperor, conjuring 
 him to obtain redress as he had solemnly engaged to do in the 
 agreement he liad subscribed at his coronation. " How many 
 Christian souls lost for ever!" said they to Charles V. "what 
 depredations, what extortions, arising from the scandals with 
 which the spiritual chief of Christendom surrounds himself! 
 The ruin and disgrace of our people must be prevented. There- 
 fore do we, with one voice, beseech you most humbly and at the 
 same time in the most pressing manner, to give orders for a 
 general reformation, and to undertake and accomplish the same."^ 
 There was at that time an unseen influence in Christian 
 society, working at once on princes and people; a wisdom from 
 above that drew even the adversaries of the Reformation into 
 its wake, and prepared that emancipation, the hour for the 
 arrival of which had now sounded. 
 
 Charles could not but feel the representations thus made by 
 the empire. Neither the nuncio nor the emperor had expected 
 them. The latter straightway recalled the edict ordaining 
 Luther's writings to be committed to the flames in all parts of 
 the empire, and substituted in its place a provisional order that 
 those books should be handed over to the magistrates. 
 
 The assembly was not content with this; it desired that the 
 Reformer should appear. It is unjust, said his friends, to con- 
 demn Luther without a hearing, and without knowing from 
 himself whether he be the author of the books that are ordered 
 to be burnt. His doctrines, said his adversaries, have taken 
 such hold of men's hearts that it is not possible to arrest their 
 
 ' Biichsenmeistern, Falknern, Pfistern, Eseltreibern, Stall-knechten, Tra- 
 banten . . . (Knapps Nachlese niitzl. Ref. Urkunden, iii. p. 262.) 
 
 ' Dass eine Bessening und gemeine Reformation geschehe. (Ibid. p. 275.) 
 
"580 insTonY of the rkfoumation, 
 
 progress, unless we ourselves hear him. There will be no dis- 
 putation with him; and if he own his writings and refuse to 
 retract, then, electors, princes, states of the holy empire, all of us 
 together, loyal to the faith of our forefathers, will assist your ma- 
 jesty with our utmost powers in the execution of your decrees. ' 
 A leander now became alarmed, and dreading alike Luther's 
 woll known courage and the ignorance of the princes, he used 
 every endeavour to prevent the Reformer's making his appear- 
 ance. From Charles's ministers he went to such of the princes 
 as were best disposed towards the pope, and from those princes to 
 the emperor himself. 2 "It is not to be endured," he would say, 
 " that the judicial sentences of the sovereign pontiff should be 
 questioned. There will be no discussion held with Luther, you 
 say; but," he would go on to insist, " may we not look for some 
 sedition being excited by the mighty influence of that audacious 
 man, his fire-flashing eyes, his ready speech, and the mysterious 
 spirit that animates him?3 Even now many revere him as a 
 saint, and likenesses of him are to be found every where, sur- 
 rounded with a glory, as if his head were that of one of the 
 blessed* . . . If you would have him summoned to appear, 
 surely at least you will not put him under the protection of the 
 public faith ! "^ These last words might be expected to frighten 
 Luther or to prepare his destruction. 
 
 • L. 0pp. (L.) xxii. p. 567. 
 
 ' Q,u:im ob rem sedulo contestatus est apud Csesaris administros .... 
 (Pallavicini, i. p. 113.) 
 
 ^ Lingua promptus, ardore vultus, et oris spiritu ad concitandam seditionem 
 . . . (Ibid.) 
 
 * Considering the shortness of the time during which Luther had been before the 
 people of Germany, the extent and amount of his personal influence seem quite 
 unprecedented and confounding. In endeavouring to account for this, it is not 
 enough to say, that by his powerful popular eloquence, ready wit, and tremend- 
 ous powers of sarcasm and declamation, he had engrossed to himself a vast 
 •imount of the interest that had long been increasing in Germany, on the sub- 
 ject of "the grievances against Rome." Besides that in this respect, he had 
 riv.als of older standing in Ulrich Ilutten and F. von Sickengen, the question 
 still remains : how did it happen that people listened so readily to that large 
 proportion of Luther's teaching which was purely doctrinal, and not immed- 
 iately connected with any practical reforms ? 
 
 The answer to this has been suggested to us by the following passage from 
 Maimbourg : " The people in different parts of Germany who were perpetually 
 spoken to on the subject of the tyranny of the Roman antichrist, looked upon 
 Luther as a great prophet, whom God had raised up for the re-establishment of 
 the dominion of God's word in the Church, and for its deliverance from the 
 vcike of human laws and traditions, by which Christians, whom Jesus Christ 
 had restored to liberty, were miserably oppressed. And as he repressed vice 
 vilh great force in In? preachings ; had cdready composed in Germcnx and in 
 
TllIC NUNCIO TRIES TO FRIGJITEN LUTIIKR. 581 
 
 The nuncio found easy access to the m'uuU of tlie Spanish 
 grandees. So ardent was the flame of their fanaticism, that they 
 were impatient to proceed to tlie annihilation of the new heresy. 
 Frederick duke of Alva, in particular, was transported with 
 rage every time reform was so much as mentioned, i He would 
 f lin have waded in the blood of all its followers. Luther had 
 not yet been summoned to make appearance, and his single 
 name agitated the minds of all Christendom's assembled lords 
 at Worms. 
 
 The only man who seemed now at peace, was the very person 
 
 Latin many books o/jjicU/, expositions of the ten commandments of God, of the 
 Jyord's prayer, of the Fqnstles and Gospels read diiring Lent, the song of the 
 Virgin, the Psalms, and of the epistle to the Galatians, where he says some very 
 pood things and that, moreover, he seemed quite disinterested and of a regidar 
 life," &c. 
 
 The first steps of the career of merely political reformers arc seldom beyond 
 the suspicion of having vanity, ambition, or some other selfish passion for their 
 motives ; and it is well for such men ir, at the close of a long and active life- 
 time, they have succeeded in establishing for themselves the praise of disinter- 
 estedness and genuine patriotism. But it will be seen that Luther began by 
 giving unquestionable proofs to his countrymen that he had their bigliest inter- 
 ests, not his own personal aggrandisement, at heart. These proofs lay before 
 tliem in his first sermons and publications — those in which even Maimbourg 
 allows that he had said sotne very good things — in which he spoke from profound 
 personal convictions of his own nothingness and worthlessness, and from inti- 
 mate experience of the grace of God in Christ — those writings, in short, in 
 wliich he appears as the simple doctor of the Word of God, not as the impugner 
 of any of the errors or corruptions of an institution like the popedom, in oppos- 
 ing which he might, as ho did, gain for himself an illustrious name in history as 
 one of the greatest benefactors of mankind. Those publications enabled the 
 Germans to say of Luther what one illustrious ancient Roman had said of 
 another: Non in luce modo et ante ocidos civium magnus sed intns domique 
 prccsiantior. That any man's ];opularity and influence should have sprung from 
 so respectable a source, is higlily creditable to the Germans of the sixteenth 
 century, and proves that God had been preparing many hearts for the reception 
 of his own long obscured and neglected truth. 
 
 May God grant that those who in the various Churches of the Reformation 
 are standing forward as the opponents of the errors and abuses that have crept 
 into them, may have an influence and popularity resting on an equally solid 
 foundation, and that more and more of the spirit that can appreciate genuine 
 Christian excellence, may be difi"used among the body of the people at home 
 and abroad. 
 
 In concluding this note, we may mention that no sooner has Maimbourg 
 accounted for Luther's popularity among the people, by referring to the strict 
 morality and piety of his jynlpit ministrations and published ivorks, than he 
 proceeds to explain his popularity with "the very corrupt clergy," by attribut- 
 ing it to his unceasingly preaching a liberty " luhich agreeably flattered their pas- 
 sions." So totally ignorant was this Jesuit of the consistency of the liberty of 
 the Gospel with the holiness of its Author, that in his attempts to malign the 
 man who preached both, he falls into the grossest self-contradictions — an extra- 
 vagance of hostility which, alas ! is not confined to papists, but is perpetually 
 occurring among worldly men of every age. Te. 
 
 ^ llaud certe fidem publicam illi prffibendam . . . (Pallavicini, i. p. 113.) 
 
 ' Albae dux videbatur aliquando furentibus modis agitari . . . (Ibid. i>. 
 3C2.) 
 
582 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 who was making all the powers of the earth so ill at ease. 
 Luther's own friends were afraid. "Nothing now remains for 
 us," wrote Melanchthon to Spalatin, "but your good wishes and 
 your prayers. Oh ! would God but redeem the salvation of the 
 Christian people with our blood." ^ But Luther, a stranger to 
 fear, shutting himself up in his peaceful cell, meditated on the 
 words, while applying them to himself, in which Mary the 
 mother of our Lord, exclaims : " My soul doth magnify the 
 Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he 
 that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his 
 name. He hath showed strength with his arm. He hath put 
 down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low 
 degree.""^ The following are some of the reflections that crowded 
 upon Luther's heart : " He that is mighty . . . says Mary. 
 Oh! this was very bold in a young woman! With a single 
 word she strikes the strong with weariness, the mighty with 
 weakness, the wise with folly, all that have a glorious name on 
 the earth with disgrace, and she lays at the feet of God alone 
 all strength, all might, all wisdom, and all glory. 3 — ffis arm, 
 she goes on to say, and thus she calls that power whereby he 
 acts of himself, without the aid of the creatures: mysterious 
 power! . . . operating in secrecy and in silence, until it 
 has accomplished the purpose for which it was put forth. Des- 
 truction is there, although no one has seen it coming. Restora- 
 tion is there, although no one has suspected it. He abandons 
 his children to oppression and feebleness, so that each of them 
 is ready to say that they are lost ! . . But even then it 
 
 is that he is most strong; for it is when man's strength ceases 
 that that of God begins. Let faith only wait upon him . . . 
 And on the other hand, God allows his adversaries to lift them- 
 selves aloft in their grandeur and then' might. He withdraws 
 from them the aid of his strength and allows them to inflate 
 themselves with their own.* He empties them of his eternal 
 wisdom and leaves them to replenish themselves with the wisdom 
 
 ' Utinam Deus redimat nostro sanguine salutem Christiani populi. (Corp. 
 Ref. i. p. 362.) 
 
 2 Gospel according to St. Luke. Chap. i. ver. 46 — 55. 
 
 ^ Magnificat. L. 0pp. Wittemberg. Deutsch. Ausg. iii. p. 11, &c. 
 
 * Er zieht seine Krafft heraus und Isesst sie von eigener Krafft sich auf blasen. 
 Ibid. 
 
LUTHER IS SUMMONKn TO WOIIMS, 583 
 
 which is but of a day. And while they Hft themselves on liigh 
 in the tinsel lustre of their power, God's arm is withdrawn and 
 their work ... it vanishes like a soap bubble that bursts 
 and disappears." 
 
 It was on the 10th of March, at the moment that his name 
 was filling the imperial city with alarm, that Luther finished 
 this exposition of the Magnificat. 
 
 He was not allowed to remain long in his quiet retreat. In 
 compliance with the elector's orders, Spalatin sent him a note 
 of the articles of which a retractation was demanded from him. 
 A retractation after the refusal at Augsburg! . . . "Fear 
 not," he writes to Spalatin, "that 1 will retract a single syllable, 
 since their only argument lies in alleging that my writino-s are 
 opposed to the rites of what they call the church. If the 
 emperor Charles require my appearance only to have my retrac- 
 tation, I will reply to him that I will remain here, and it will 
 be as if I had been at Worms and had returned again. But if, 
 on the contrary, the emperor want me for the purpose of put- 
 ting me to death, as a foe to the empire, T am ready to appear 
 at his summons. ; 2 for with the help of Christ I will never 
 abandon the Word on the field of battle. I know it; these blood- 
 thirsty men will never rest until they have taken my life. Oh ! 
 that there were none but papists to imbrue their hands in my 
 blood!" 
 
 V. The emperor came to a decision at last. Luther's appear- 
 ance at the bar of the Diet seemed the only feasible means of 
 winding up, in any way, an affair that now engrossed the whole 
 empire; and Charles V. resolved to summon him, yet without 
 giving him a safe-conduct. Here Frederick had again to inter- 
 pose in the character of protector. No one could shut his eyes 
 to the jeopardy in which the Reformer was placed. " Luther's 
 friends," says Cochloeus, " dreaded lest he should be delivered 
 over to the power of the pope, or lest the emperor himself 
 should consign him to execution, as a perfidious heretic Avith 
 whom no faith was to be kept." 2 On this subject the princes 
 held a consultation, leading to a long and stormy discussion 3 
 
 ' Si ad me occidendum deincepsvocarevelit . . . offeram me venturum, 
 (L. Epp. i. p. 574.) 
 
 * Tanquam perfido liaeretico nulla sit servanda fides. (Cochlceus, p. 28.) 
 ^ Longa consultatio, diflScilisque disceptatio. (Ibid.) 
 
584 IIISTOKY OF THE REFORMATIOX. 
 
 Struck, at length, with the wide-spread agitation of people's 
 minds, extending to ahnost every section of Germany,^ and 
 dreading lest some sudden tumult or dangerous sedition, which 
 would of course be in Luther"'s favour, should break forth upon 
 the road as he pursued his journey, the princes concluded it to be 
 their wisest plan to set men's minds at ease with regard to him, 
 and not only the emperor but the elector of Saxony, duke 
 George and the landgrave of Hesse, through whose territories 
 he would have to pass, each gave him a safe-conduct. 
 
 On the 6th of March, Charles V. signed the following sum- 
 mons addressed to Luther: 
 
 "Charles by the graco of God elected Roman emperor, always 
 Auo-ustus, &c. &c. Honourable, beloved and pious ! ^ We and 
 the States of the Holy Empire here met, having resolved to hold 
 an inquest 3 touching the doctrine and the books thou hast new 
 for some time published, we have granted thee for thy journey 
 hither, and thy returning hence into a place of safety, our safe- 
 conduct and that of the Empire, which we send thee annexed 
 hereto. It is our sincere desire that thou dost forthwith put 
 thyself in readiness for this journey, so that within the space of 
 twenty-one days fixed in our safe-conduct, thou mayest certainly 
 be found here within call, and that thou fail not in this. Fear 
 neither injustice nor violence. We desire firmly to maintain 
 our safe-conduct aforesaid, and we wait for thine answering to 
 our appeal. In this respect thou wilt comply with our serious 
 counsel. 
 
 " Given in our imperial city of Worms, the sixth day of the 
 month of March, the year of our Lord 1521, and the second of 
 our reign. 
 
 " Charles." 
 "According to the order from my Lord, the Emperor, signed 
 with his own hand, 
 
 "Albert, Cardinal of Maintz, Arch-chancellor. 
 
 "Nicolas Zwyl." 
 
 The safe-conduct contained in this letter bore the address. 
 
 • Cum autem grandis ubique per Germaniam fere totam excitata asset 
 animorum commotio. (Cochloeus, p. 28.) 
 
 ^ Honorahilis, Dilecte, Devote, in the Latin. Tr. 
 ^ Scrutinium, in the Latin. Tk. 
 
LUTHER IS FURNISimO WITH A RAFK-CONDUCT. 685 
 
 •' To the honourable, our dear and pioua doctor Martin Luther, of 
 tlie order of Auc/tistinians.'" 
 
 It began thus: 
 
 "Wo Charles, fifth of that name, by the grace of God elected 
 Roman emperor, ever Augustus, King of Spain, of the two 
 Sicilies, of Jerusalem, of Hungary, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, &c.. 
 Arch-duke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Count of Hapsburg, 
 of the Flanders and the Tyrol, &c. &c." 
 
 Then, the king of so many nations, giving to wit that he had 
 summoned before him an Augustinian monk called Luther, 
 ordained all the princes, lords, magistrates, and others, to res- 
 pect the safe-conduct which he had given him, under penalty of 
 being punished by the emperor and the empire. ^ 
 
 Thus the emperor bestowed the epithets " dear, honourable, 
 pious," on one whom the chief of the Church had smitten with 
 excommunication. The intention of those who drew up this 
 document, was to remove all distrust from the minds of Luther 
 and his friends. Gaspard Sturm was charged with the delivery 
 of this message to the Reformer, and to accompany him to 
 Worms. Dreading the public indignation, the elector wrote on 
 the 12th of March to the magistrates of Wittemberg, to see to 
 the safety of that officer of the emperor's, and to provide a guard 
 for him should they judge it to be necessary. The usher- then 
 set out. 
 
 Thus were the designs of God carried into effect. God desired 
 to place upon a mountain that light which he had kindled in the 
 world ; and forthwith emperor, kings, and princes, set themselves 
 to effect his purpose without being conscious that they were 
 doing so. It costs him little to exalt what is most abject. An 
 act of his power suffices to raise the humble Mansfeld child from 
 an obscure cottage to the palace of assembled kings. In his 
 eyes there is neither littleness nor greatness, and when he sees 
 fit, Charles V. and Luther meet. 
 
 But will Luther comply with this summons? His best friends 
 doubted it. " Doctor Martin has been summoned hither,"" the 
 
 1 Lucas Cranach's Stammbuch, ect.,herausgegeben v. Chr. v. Mecheln. p. 12. 
 
 * M. Merle d'Aubi^nfi calls this officer heraut, herald, but the Latin terms 
 employed being fcecialis, nuntivs, and caduceator, I have made it usher. Indeed 
 his office seems nearly to have been tliat of usher of the black rod in the British 
 parliament. Tb, 
 
 I 4 k 
 
586 HISTORY Olf THE REFORMATION. 
 
 elector wrote to his brother on the 25th of March; "but 1 know 
 not whether he will come. I can augur nothing good." Three 
 weeks later, on the 1 6th of April, when he perceived that the 
 danger was increasing, that excellent prince wrote anew to duke 
 John; "Orders against Luther are placarded on the walls. The 
 cardinals and the bishops attack him with great acrimony. 
 May God make all turn out well ! Would to God that I could 
 procure for him a fair reception ! "^ 
 
 While these things were passing at Worms and at Wittem- 
 berg, the popedom was redoubling its blows. On the 28th of 
 March, Thursday before Easter, Eome resounded with the solem- 
 nities attending a grand excommunication. At that period it 
 is the custom there to publish the terrible bull in Ccena Domini^ 
 which is nothing but a long series of imprecations. When the 
 day was come, the approaches to the temple where the sovereign 
 pontiff was to officiate, were occupied at an early hour by the 
 papal guard, and by a vast concourse of people from all parts of 
 Italy, flocking to receive the holy father's blessing. The open 
 space in front of the temple was decorated with branches of 
 laurel and myrtle, tapers were burning upon the balcony, and 
 there the pyx was held aloft. All at once the steeple bells filled 
 the air with their solemn sounds; the pope, in his pontifical array, 
 appeared on the balcony, borne on an arm-chair; the people 
 dropped upon their knees; all heads were uncovered; flags 
 were lowered, arms grounded, and a solemn silence ensued. Some 
 instants after, the pope slowly put forth his hands, lifted them 
 to heaven, then dropped them gently towards the earth, at the 
 same time making the sign of the cross. This movement was 
 repeated thrice. Then the air resounded anew with the tolling 
 of the steeple bells, announcing to the distant villages that the 
 pontiff had pronounced his benediction; priests impetuously 
 rushed forward with lighted torches in their hands; these 
 torches they threw upon the ground, bi'andished to and fro, and 
 tossed from them with great violence and as if they were the 
 flames of hell-fire; the people became agitated and tumultuous . 
 and the words of cursing descended from aloft.- 
 
 ' Die Cardinsele und Bischbfe sind ihm hart zuwieder . . . (Seckend. 
 p. 365.) 
 
 - This ceremony has been described in several works ; among others : Tago 
 
Luther's hemarks on his excommunication. 687 
 
 On coming to the knowledge of this excommunication, Luther 
 published the tenor of it, together with some remarks of his 
 own, written in the sarcastic style which he knew so well how 
 to employ. Although this publication did not appear until 
 afterwards, we shall here introduce a few specimens of it. We 
 are to suppose the high priest of Christendom speaking from the 
 balcony of his great domed church, and the Wittemberg monk 
 replying to him from the centre of Germany. ^ 
 
 There is something characteristic in the contrast of the two 
 voices. 
 
 The pope. — " Leo, bishop. . . . 
 
 Luther. — " Bishop ... as a wolf is a shepherd : for a 
 bishop ought to exhort according to the doctrine of salvation, not 
 to vomit forth imprecations and maledictions. . . . 
 
 The pope. — " . . . Servant of all the servants of God. . . 
 
 Luther. — "In the evening when we are drunk; but in the 
 morning we call ourselves, Leo, lord of all lords. 
 
 The pope. — " The Roman bishops, our predecessors, have 
 been wont at this festival to employ the arms of justice. . . 
 
 Luther. — " Which according to thee, are excommunication 
 and anathema; but according to St. Paul, are long-suffering, 
 kindness, and love unfeigned. (2 Cor. vi. ver. 6, 7.) 
 
 The pope. — " According to the duty of the apostolic charge, 
 and for the maintenance of the purity of the Christian faith. . . . 
 
 Luther. — " That is to say, of the pope's temporal possessions. 
 
 The pope. — " And its unity, which consists in the union of 
 the members with Christ, their chief. . . . and with his 
 vicar. . . . 
 
 Luther. — " For Christ is not sufficient: some one else must be 
 had. 
 
 The pope. — " In order to guard the holy communion of the 
 faithful, we follow the ancient custom, and excommunicate and 
 curse on the part of God Almighty, the Father. . . 
 
 Luther. — " Of whom it is said: God sent not his Son into the 
 world to condemn the world. (John iii. 1 7.) 
 
 buch eincr Reise durch Deutschland und Italien. (Berlin, 1817, iv. p. 94.) 
 The main features date still farther back than the times of Luther. 
 
 For the pope's bull and Luther's commentary see " Die Bulla vom Abcnd- 
 frcssen . . ." (L. 0pp. (L.) xviii. p. I.) 
 
588 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The pope. — " . , . And the Son and the Holy Ghost; 
 and in virtue of the authority of the apostles Peter and Paul, 
 . and in virtue of our own. 
 
 Luther. — "And ME! says the voracious wolf, as if the 
 authority of God were too weak without him. 
 
 The pope. — " We curse all heretics, the Garases,! the Pata- 
 rins, the Poor men of Lyons, the Arnoldists, the Speronists, 
 the Passagenes, the Wickliffites, the Hussites, the Frati- 
 celli.2 . 
 
 Luther. — " For they wanted to have the holy Scriptures in 
 their possession, and they required that the pope should he 
 sober, and should preach the Word of God. 
 
 The pope. — " And Martin Luther, lately condemned by us for 
 a like heresy, together with all who adhere to him, and all, be 
 they who they may, who show him any favour. . . . 
 
 Luther. — " I thank thee, most gracious pontiff, for thus con- 
 denming me with all those Christians ! It is an honour to me 
 to have my name proclaimed at Rome on the occasion of a festi- 
 val in a manner so glorious, and to have it associated through- 
 out the Avorld with the names of all those humble confessors of 
 Jesus Christ! 
 
 The pope. — " In like manner we excommunicate and curse all 
 pirates and corsairs. . . . 
 
 Luther. — " Who, then, is the greatest of all pirates and cor- 
 sairs, if it be not he who carries off men's souls, casts them into 
 chains, or puts them to death? , . . 
 
 The pope. — " . . . Particularly those that haunt our sea. 
 
 Luther. — " Our sea ! ... St. Peter, our predecessor, 
 said: Silver and gold have I none (Acts iii. 6). Jesus Christ has 
 said: The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; hut ye 
 shall not he so. (Luke xxii. 25). But if a waggon laden with 
 hay must make way for a drunken man, by how much stronger 
 reason ought St. Peter and Jesus Christ to yield precedence to 
 the pope I 
 
 1 This name has been altered ; read Gazares or Cathares. 
 All sundry kinds of sects which during the times that preceded the Refor- 
 mation, arose in divers countries, Germany, France, England, Bohemia, even 
 Italy itself, in the midst of the deeply corrupted Church, and openly opposed 
 that corruption, but were on that account denounced and persecuted as heretics, 
 — L, R. 
 
LUTIIEU'S REMARKS ON HIS EXCOMMUNICATION'. 589 
 
 The pope. — " In like manner we excommunicate, and we 
 curse all who falsify our bulls and apostolic letters. . . . 
 
 Luther. — " But the Letters of God, the Scriptures of God, 
 all the world may condemn them and burn them. 
 
 The pope. — " In like manner we excommunicate and we curse 
 all who shall stop supplies of provisions on their way to our 
 court of Rome. . . . 
 
 Luther. — " He barks and snaps, like a dog when one would 
 take his bone from him.^ 
 
 The pope. — " In like manner we condemn, and we curse all 
 who retain judiciary dues, fruits, tythes, revenues, pertaining 
 to the clergy. . . . 
 
 Luther. — " For Jesus Christ hath said: If any man will take 
 away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also (Mat. v. 40), and we now 
 give the commentary of the same. 
 
 The pope. — "Whatever be their exalted station, their dignity, 
 their order, their power, their rank; should they even be bishops 
 or kings. . . . 
 
 Luther. — " For there will he false teachers among you, icho will 
 despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities, saith the Scripture, 
 (Jude, 8). 
 
 The pope, — " In like manner we condemn, and we curse all 
 who, in one way or another, do prejudice to the city of Rome, 
 the kingdom of Sicily, the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, the 
 patrimony of St. Peter in Tuscany, the duchy of Spoleto, the 
 marquisate of Ancona, the Campagna, the cities of Ferrara and 
 Benevento, and all the other cities or territories, pertaining to 
 the Church of Rome. 
 
 Luther. — " Peter, poor fisherman ! whence have Rome and 
 all these kingdoms come into thy hands? I salute thee, Peter! 
 king of Sicily ! . . . and fisherman at Bethsaida! 
 
 The pope. — " We excommunicate and curse all chancellors, 
 councillors, parliaments, procurators, governors, oflScials, bishops, 
 and others, who oppose our letters of exhortation, invitation, pro- 
 hibition, mediation, execution. ... 
 
 Luther. — " For the holy see seeks only a life of laziness, 
 magnificence, and debauchery, and to issue orders, talk big 
 
 • Gleichwie ein Ilund ums Beines willen. (L. 0pp. (L.) p. 12. 
 
590 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 deceive, lie, defame, seduce, and commit all sorts of malicious 
 acts, in peace and safety. . . . 
 
 "... Lord, arise ! it is not as the papists pretend. Thou 
 hast not abandoned us, and thine eyes are not averted from us !'"■ 
 
 Thus spoke Leo X. at Eome, and Luther at Wittemberg. 
 
 The pontiff having ended these condemnations, the parch- 
 ment whereon they were written was torn to shreds, and the 
 fragments thrown among the people. Forthwith the crowd 
 began to be violently agitated; each one darting forward in his 
 eas:emess to catch a bit of the terrible bull. In these were to be 
 found the sacred relics presented by the popedom to the faithful, 
 on the evening before the great day of grace and expiation. Ere 
 long the multitude dispersed, and all around the great church 
 returned to its accustomed silence. But it is time to return to 
 Wittemberg. 
 
 VL It was now the 24th of March. The imperial usher had 
 at last entered the gates of the city which was Luther's place of 
 residence. Gaspard Sturm waited upon the doctor, and delivered 
 the summons from Charles V. A serious and solemn moment 
 to the Reformer! All his friends were in consternation. No 
 prince, without excepting Frederick the Wise, had as yet 
 declared himself for him. The knights, it is true, gave utterance 
 to their threats, but they were despised by the mighty Charles. 
 Luther, however, was not discomposed. " It is not my coming 
 to Worms," said he, on seeing the anguish of his friends, " that 
 the papists desire, but my condemnation, and my death.^ It 
 matters not ! Pray, not for me, but for the Word of God. 
 Before my blood shall have had time to grow cold, thousands upon 
 thousands of men throughout the whole world will be held account- 
 able for having shed it ! Christ's most holy adversary, the father, 
 the master, the generalissimo of murderers, insists on its being 
 shed. Amen. May the will of God be done! Christ will give 
 me his Spirit to vanquish those ministers of error. I despise 
 them while I live, and by my death I shall triumph over them.- 
 People are busy at Worms about constraining me to retract. 
 My retractation will be as follows : I said formerly that the pope 
 
 ' Damnatum et perditum. (L. Epp. i. p. 656. 
 
 * . . . TJt hos Satanso ministros et contemnam vivos et vincam morions. 
 (Ibid. p. 6T9.) 
 
A NEW FRIEND COMES TO LUTHER, 691 
 
 is the vicar of Christ. Now I say that ho is tho adversary 
 of the Lord, and tlie apostle of the devil."" And when informed 
 that all the pulpits of the Franciscans and the Dominicans 
 resounded with imprecations and maledictions against him: "Oh 
 the marvellous joy," said he, "that it gives mc ! "^ lie knew that 
 he had done God's will, and that God was with him: wherefore, 
 then, should his heart misgive at setting of ? This purity of 
 intention — this freedom of the conscience, is a secret yet incal- 
 culable source of strength which is never wanting to the servant 
 of God, and renders him more invincible than all the mijrht of 
 mailed armies could make him. 
 
 It was then that Luther saw arrive in Wittemberg, a man who, 
 like Melanchthon, was to be his friend for life, and whose lot it 
 was to console the Reformer at the moment of his departure. 2 
 This was a priest of the age of thirty-six, named Bugenhagen, 
 who was then flying from the severities with which the bishop of 
 Camin, and prince Bogislas of Pomerania, were then persecuting 
 the friends of the Gospel, whether these were clergymen, bur- 
 gesses, or men of letters.^ Bugenhagen was born of a family of 
 senatorial rank, at Wollin, in Pomerania, whence his being com- 
 monly called Pomeranus, and he had been teaching, since his 
 twentieth year, at Treptow. The young had flocked to his 
 instructions, and the charms of his society had made the nobles 
 and the learned dispute the enjoyment of it. He was an assidu- 
 ous student of divine literature, making it his prayer that he 
 might be directed and instructed from above.'^ Towards the 
 close of December 1520, as he was seated one evening at supper 
 among his friends, Luther's book on the Bahylonish Captivity 
 was handed in to him. " Since Christ died," said he, after 
 running over it, "many have been the heretics who have infested 
 the Church, but never has there been a pest equal to the author 
 of this book." On taking it home with him, however, and after 
 .having perused and re-perused it, all his views underwent a 
 change; truths entirely new presented themselves to his mind, 
 and when, after an interval of some days, he had occasion to see 
 
 ' . ,. . Quod mire quam guadeam ! (L. Epp. i. p. 567.) 
 ^ Venit Wittembergam paulo ante iter Lutheri ad comitia Wormatia; indicia. 
 (Melch. Adam, vita Bugenhagii, p. 314.) 
 
 2 Sacerdotes, elves et scholasticcs in vincula conjecit. (Ibid. p. 313.) 
 
 * Precesque adjunxit, quibus divinitus se regi ac doceri petivit. (Ibid. p. 312.) 
 
592 IIISTOKY OF THE REFORM ATIOX. 
 
 his colleagues again, he said to them; " The whole world has 
 fallen into the thickest darkness. This man alone perceives the 
 light."^ Some priests, a deacon, the abbot himself, received the 
 pure doctrine of salvation, and as they preached it powerfully, they 
 drew oS their hearers, says an historian, from superstition to the 
 sole merit of Jesus Christ.'^ Then it was that persecution burst 
 forth. Many were even then pining in prisons, but Bugenhagen 
 escaped from his enemies, and reached Wittemberg. " He is a 
 sufferer for his love to tlie Gospel," Melanchthon wrote immedi- 
 ately to the elector's chaplain; "whither could he fly if not to 
 our aavXoj; and to the protection of our prince f ^ 
 
 But Bugenhagen was welcomed by none so heartily as by 
 Luther, whose confidence he so fully enjoyed, that it was agreed 
 between them that he should commence delivering an exposition 
 of the psalms as soon as the Reformer should be gone. Thus 
 did Divine Providence bring to the spot, at the fitting time, this 
 powerful man as a substitute in part for him whom Wittemberg 
 was about to lose. Placed a year afterwards at the head of the 
 church in that city, Bugenhagen presided there during the 
 period of thirty-six years. Luther used to call him emphati- 
 cally, the Pastor 
 
 Luther had now to set off, and such was the alarm of his 
 friends, that they thought his death certain, unless God should 
 miraculously interpose in his behalf. From Melanchthon 
 not being in his own country at Wittemberg, his suscep- 
 tible heart was the more undividedly attached to Luther. 
 *' Luther,"" he would say, "is in stead of all my friends; to me 
 he is greater and more admirable than I can find words to 
 express. You know how Alcibiades admired his friend So- 
 crates ;4 but very different is my admiration for Luther, for he 
 is a Christian." He then adds the beautiful but simple expres- 
 sion, " whom as often as I contemplate, I find him ever greater 
 than himself."^ Melanchthon would fain have accompanied 
 
 ' In cimmeriis tenebris versatur ; hie vir unus et solus verum videt. ( Mclch. 
 Adam, vita Bugenhaii, p. 313.) 
 
 ^ A superstitionibus ad unicum Christi meritum traducere. (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ Corpus Ref. i. p. 361. 
 " Alcibiades was persuaded that intercourse with Socrates was a resource 
 sent by the gods for instruction and salvation." (Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades.) 
 
 * Quern quoties contemplor se ipso subinde majorem judico. (Corp. Ref. i. 
 p. 264.) 
 
ULRICn OF HUTTEN WRITES TO THE EMPEROR. o93 
 
 Luther into danger, but tlioir coinmon friends, and doubtless the 
 doctor himself, opposed this. Who, thought they, better than 
 Philip could fill his friend's vacant place? and should the latter 
 never return, who, then, would there be to direct the work of 
 the Reformation? "Ah, that it had pleased God," said Mel- 
 anclithon, resigned but disappointed, " that I should be allowed 
 to accompany him!"^ 
 
 Straightway the vehement Amsdorff declared that he would 
 go along with the doctor. His strong mind felt a pleasure in 
 facing danger, and his lofty spirit would have nerved him to 
 stand before assembled kings without quailing. The elector had 
 sent for, to come to Wittemberg as professor of law, a person of 
 celebrity, yet remarkable for meekness, the son of a physician at 
 St. Gall, Jerome Schurff who was then living in the closest inti- 
 macy with Luther. " He has never been able," said Luther, 
 " to bring himself to pass sentence of death on a single male- 
 factor.""^ Nevertheless, this timid person wished to be allowed 
 to accompany the doctor on this perilous journey as his 
 legal adviser. A young Danish student, Peter Suaven, who 
 lodffed with Melanchthon, and became celebrated afterwards 
 for his evangelical labours in Pomerania and in Denmark, 
 likewise declared that he would accompany his master. It 
 was but fitting that the youth of the schools should have 
 their representative placed at the side of the champion of the 
 truth. 
 
 Germany was touched at the thought of the perils which were 
 now menacing the representative of her people, and she soon 
 found a voice worthy of herself, to give utterance to her alarms. 
 Ulrich of Hutten shuddered at the thought of his country being 
 smitten with such a stroke, and on the l.'st of April, wrote to 
 Charles V. himself. " Most excellent emperor," said he, 
 " you are on the eve of destroying us, and at the same time 
 ruining yourself. What can be the object proposed in this 
 affair of Luther's, if it be not the destruction of our liberty and 
 the depression of your power? Throughout the whole extent of 
 the empire, there is not a single honest man that does not take 
 
 1 Utinam licuisset niihi una proficisci. (Ibid. p. 366.) 1 Luth. 0pp. (W.) 
 xxii. 2067, 1819. 
 
 e L. 0pp. (W.) xxii. 2067. 1319. 
 
 I. 4 p 
 
594 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the keenest interest in this affair, l The priests alone rise 
 against Luther because of his being opposed to their exorbitant 
 power, their disgraceful luxury, and the depravity of their lives, 
 and because he has pleaded for the doctrine of Christ, for our 
 country's independence, and for sanctity of manners. 
 
 " O emperor, put away from you those fair-spoken persons 
 from Rome, those bishops, those cardinals, who want to prevent 
 all reformation. Have you not remarked the people's distress 
 when they beheld 3'ou on your arrival approaching the Rhine, 
 surrounded with these red-hatted folks . . . with a herd 
 of priests - not with a cohort of valiant warriors. 
 
 " Commit not your sovereign majesty to the keeping of those 
 who would trample it under foot. Have compassion upon us! 
 Drag not the whole nation to ruin along with you ! . . . . 
 Lead us on latlier into the most manifest danger, lead us among 
 swords and fires;^ let all the nations conspire against us; let all 
 their armies assail us, in such sort that we may openly show our 
 valour rather than be thus beaten and enslaved, in darkness and 
 secrecy,like women Avithout arms and without a conflict. 
 Ah, we had hopes that you would have been the person to deliver 
 us from the yoke of the Romans, and subvert the pontiff's tyranny. 
 God grant that the future may avail more than these commence- 
 ments ! 
 
 " It is as if all Germany cast herself on her knees at your 
 feet; 3 tearfully besought and implored your assistance, your com- 
 passion, your good faith; and by the sacred memory of those 
 Germans who, when all the world beside was subject to Rome, 
 refused to bow before that haughty city, she conjures you to 
 save her, to restore her to herself; to rescue her from bondage, 
 and to avenge her of her tyrants !""... 
 
 Thus spoke Germany to Charles V. by the mouth of the 
 gallant knight, but was unheeded by the emperor, who probably 
 tossed this epistle disdainfully to one of his secretaries. A 
 Fleming, not a German, in his feelings, his personal power, not 
 
 ' Neque enim quam lata est Germania, uUi boni sunt. . . . (L. 0pp. lat. 
 ii. p 183.) 
 
 * Due nos in manifestum potius periculum, due in ferrum, due in ignes. . . 
 (Ibid. p. 183.) 
 
 3 Omnem nunc Germaniam quasi ad genua provolutam tibi ( Ibid, 
 
 p. 1?4.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES WITTEMRERG FOR WORMS. 595 
 
 the empire's glory and independence, was the object that engross- 
 ed all his desires. 
 
 VII. It was now the 2d of April, and Luther had to take 
 leave of his friends. After informing Lange, by a note, that he 
 would pass the following Thursday or Friday at Erfurt, • he bade 
 his colleagues farewell; and it was then that turning to Melanch- 
 thon, he said with a voice that betrayed his feelings: "Should 
 I not return, and should my enemies put me to death, O my 
 brother, cease not to teach, and to abide steadfastly in the truth. 
 Labour in my place, for I shall not be able to labour myself. If 
 you be spared, my perishing is of little consequence." Then, 
 committing his soul into tlie hands of him that is faithful, Luther 
 entered the carriage and left Wittemberg.- The town council 
 had supplied him with a modest conveyance, covered with cloth, 
 which the travellers could draw close or throw open at pleasure. 
 The imperial usher, in the decorations of his office, and carrying 
 the eagle of the empire, preceded the party on horseback, 
 attended by a servant. Then came Luther, SchurfF, Amsdorff, 
 and Suaven in their car. The friends of the Gospel among the 
 buro-esses of Wittemberg, looked on with deep emotion, sending 
 up their prayers to God, and shedding many tears. Thus did 
 Luther set out. 
 
 He soon remarked that all whom he met by the way, were 
 saddened by unfavourable presentiments as to his fate. At 
 Leipsick no mark of honour was shown to him; it was thought 
 enough to present the wine usually offered. At Naumburg he 
 met with a priest, probably J. Langer, a man zealous but severe, 
 who carefully preserved in his study a portrait of the famous 
 Jerome Savonarola of Ferrara, burnt at Florence, in 1498, by 
 order of pope Alexander VI., as a martyr in the cause of liberty 
 and good morals more than as a confessor of Gospel truth. Taking 
 down the portrait of the Italian martyr, the priest went up to 
 Luther, and held it out to him, without uttering a word. The 
 latter understood what was meant by the mute portrait, but his 
 
 > L. Epp. i. p. 580. 
 
 2 Papists ask us for signs by which the Reformers would prove their mission 
 and calling. But granting those to be necessary, what stronger sign could ever be 
 given than that still unshaken courage of Luther's, which, while all around were 
 distressing themselves on his account, remained unfaltering, and eventually was 
 aided, not disappointed by God. — L. 11. 
 
596 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 soul was not to be shaken. " It is Satan," said he, " who by 
 these terrors, would prevent the truth from being confessed amid 
 the assembled princes, for he foresees the blow which that is likely 
 to inflict on his kingdom."! " Firmly abide by the truth thou 
 hast acknowledged," the priest then said to him in a serious tone, 
 " and thy God will no less firmly abide by thee.""^ 
 
 Having passed the night at Naumburg, where he had been 
 hospitably received by the burgomaster, Luther arrived next 
 evening at Weimar. He had hardly been a moment there when 
 he heard cries resounding from all quarters : these arose from his 
 sentence being in course of publication. " See," said the usher; 
 he looked, and his astonished eyes beheld imperial messengers 
 traversing tha city, and posting up in all quarters the emperor's 
 edict, enjoining Luthers publications to be delivered in to the 
 magistrates. Luther had no doubt that an ostentatious display 
 of these rigors had been prepared for him, in order that he might 
 be frightened from proceeding farther, and then condemned for 
 non-appearance. " Well, Mr. Doctor," said the usher, with a 
 face of dismay, "are you for continuing your journey?" — " Yes," 
 replied Luther, "although placed under interdict in all the towns 
 through which we have to pass, I will go on ! I have perfect 
 confidence in the emperor's safe-conduct. "^ 
 
 While at Weimar, Luther had an audience of duke John, 
 the elector of Saxony's brother, who resided there. That prince 
 invited him to preach, and he complied. The words of life flowed 
 with more than ordinary emotion from the doctor's heart, and a 
 Franciscan monk who was among his hearers, John Voit, the 
 friend of Frederick Myconius, was then converted to the doc- 
 trines of the Gospel. He left the monastery two years after- 
 wards, and at a later period was professor of theology at Wit- 
 
 ' Terrorem hunc a Sathana sibi dixit adferri. . . (Melch. Adam. p. 117.) 
 2 Er wolle bey der erkandten Wahrheyt mit breytem Fuss aushalten. . . 
 (Mathesius Historien, p. 23. we quote the first edition, of 1566.) 
 
 * M. Michelct professes to quote a bemi recit of what took place at the Diet, 
 ivritten by Luther himself, but without referring to the part of his works in 
 which it is to be found. According to it, it was on this occasion that he said 
 he would enter Worms although there were as many devils to oppose him as 
 there were tiles on the roofs, and, which affords a remarkable proof that his cour- 
 age was that of faith, not mere constitutional hardihood ; he considered the public 
 condemnation of his works a proof that his safe-conduct was already set at 
 nought at Worms, and confesses that he was trembling with fear when he 
 expressed his resolution to enter Worms notwithstanding. Tk. 
 
THE DOCTOR PROCEEDS ON HIS JOURNEY. 597 
 
 temberg. The duke gave Luther the money required for his 
 journey. 
 
 From Weimar the doctor proceeded to Erfurt, the town where 
 he had spent so many of his earlier days. There he hoped to see 
 his friend Lange, if, as he had written to him, he might enter 
 the place without danger.^ He was still from throe to four 
 leagues from it, near the village of Nora, when he saw a body of 
 horsemen in the distance, and was puzzled to think whether 
 they were friends or enemies. Soon Orotus, rector of the uni- 
 versity, Eobanus Hesse, the friend of Melanchthon, and whom 
 Luther called the prince of poets, Euricius Cordus, John Draco, 
 and others, to the number of forty in all, consisting of members 
 of the senate, of the university, and of the burgess class, all 
 mounted, hailed him with shouts of welcome. The road was 
 now covered with crowds of people from Erfurt, giving loud 
 utterance to their joy. All were eager to obtain a sight of the 
 mighty person who had dared to declare war with the pope. 
 
 A young man of eight and twenty, called Justus Jonas, had 
 ridden on in advance of the rest.2 Jonas, after studying law at 
 Erfurt, had been appointed rector of that university in 1519, but 
 having shared in the light which the Gospel was then diffusing 
 in all quarters, he had desired to become a divine. " I believe," 
 wrote Erasmus to him, " that God has chosen thee as an instru- 
 ment for illustrating the glory of his Son, Jesus."^ All Jonas's 
 thoughts turned towards Wittemberg and Luther. Some years 
 before this, while as yet but a student of law, Jonas who was of 
 a prompt and enterprising character, set off along with some of his 
 friends on foot, and in order to reach Erasmus, who was then at 
 Brussels, passed through forests infested by robbers, and towns 
 ravaged by the plague. And now, could he shrink from dan- 
 gers of a different kind in accompanying the Reformer to 
 Worms? This he earnestly besought as a favour, that he would 
 allow hira to do ; Luther consented, and thus met those two doc- 
 tors whose lot it was to be fellow-labourers for life in the great 
 
 ' Nisi periculum sit Erfordiam ingredi. (L. Epp. i. p. 580.) 
 " IIos inter qui nos prsDvenerat, ibat Jonas, 
 lUe decus nostri, primaque fama Chori. 
 (Eob. Ilessi Elegia secunda.) 
 
 ^ Velut organum auoddam clcctum ad illustrandam iilil sui Je'su gloriaiu. 
 Erasm. Epp. v. 9.) 
 
598 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 work of renovating the Church. Divine Providence grouped 
 about Luther, men who were destined to be luminaries of Ger- 
 many, the Melanchthons, the AmsdorfTs, the Bugenhagens, the 
 Jonases. On returning from Worms, Jonas was appointed pro- 
 vost of Wittemberg church, and doctor in theology. "Jonas," 
 said Luther, "is a man whose life is worth being bought and pre- 
 served in the earth at a great price.^ No preacher had received 
 an equal share of the gifts that captivate an audience.'* " Pom- 
 eranus is exegetic," said Melanchthon, " I am a dialectician, 
 Jonas is an orator. The words flow from him with admirable 
 beauty, and his eloquence is full of energy. But Luther sur- 
 passes us alL^^ It would appear that much about the same time, 
 one who had been a friend of Luther's in their boyhood, and a 
 brother of Luther's also, were added to the party that accom- 
 panied him. 
 
 The Erfurt deputation now turned their horses' heads, and both 
 the mounted and the pedestrians, surrounding Luther's carriage, 
 escorted him to within the walls of the city. At the gate, in 
 the public squares, and in the streets, where the poor monk had 
 so often begged for bread, the crowd of spectators was immense. 
 Luther alighted at the monastery of the Augustinians, where his 
 heart used to experience the consolations of the Gospel. Lange 
 gave him a joyful reception; Usingen, and some others of the 
 oldest friars, showed him much coldness. A wish was felt that 
 he should preach though interdicted from doing so, but the 
 usher himself was borne along by the general feeling, and gave 
 his consent. 
 
 On the Sunday after Easter, the church of the Augustinians 
 at Erfurt was filled to overflowing. The friar who, in former 
 days, used to open the doors and sweep the Church, entered the 
 pulpit, and having opened the Bible, he read these words. Peace be 
 unto you^ and when Jesus had so said, he showed unto them his hands 
 and his side, (John xx. 19, 20). "All the philosophers," said 
 he, " all the doctors, and writers, have applied themselves to 
 teaching how man may obtain everlasting life, and none of 
 
 > Vir est quern oportuit multo prajtio emptum et servatum in terra. ( Weis- 
 mann, i- p. 1436.) 
 
 2 Pomeranus est grammaticus, ego sum dialecticiis, Jonas est orator. . • , 
 Lutherus vero nobis omnibus antecellit. (Knapp. Narr. de J. Jona, p. 581.) 
 
LITTIIER PREACHES AT ERFURT. 
 
 599 
 
 them have succeeded. This is what I now wish to tell you." 
 Such had in all ages been the grand question; Luther's liearers 
 accordingly redoubled their attention. 
 
 " There are two kinds of works," continued the lleformer; 
 " works extrinsic to us: those are good works; our own works, 
 which are little worth. One man builds a church; another 
 makes a pilgrimage to St. James's or St. Peter"'s ; a third fasts, 
 prays, puts on the hood, goes barefoot ; another does something 
 different still. All these works are nothing, and will perish ; 
 for our own works have no virtue in them. Now, I am about 
 to tell you what is the true work. God hath raised again a man, 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that he may crush death, des- 
 troy sin, and shut the gates of hell. Such is the work of salva- 
 tion. The devil believed that he had the Lord in his power 
 when he beheld him between two thieves, suffering the most 
 shameful martyrdom, accursed both of God and of man. . . 
 But the Divinity put forth its might, and annihilated death, sin, 
 and hell. . . 
 
 " Christ hath won the victory ! here is the grand news ! and 
 we are saved by his work, not by our works. The pope says 
 something very different. But I tell you, the holy mother of 
 God herself has been saved, not by her virginity, nor by her ma- 
 ternity, nor by her purity, nor by her works, but solely by 
 means of faith, and by the works of God." .... 
 
 As Luther was speaking, a sudden crack was heard in one of 
 the galleries, and the dread of its giving way under the weight 
 of the crowd, produced no small agitation in the audience. Some 
 attempted to fly, while others stood fixed to their places by fright. 
 The speaker stopt for a moment; then extending his hand, he 
 said with a strong voice: "Fear nothing! there is no danger: 
 the devil would thus hinder the preaching of the Gospel, but he 
 will not succeed.!" Upon this those who were attempting to 
 escape, stopt i.; amazement; the congregation became calm, and 
 Luther, without allowing the devifs efforts to discompose him, 
 went on to say: "You speak much to us about faith, you will 
 perhaps say to me, Teach us, then, how we may obtain it. Yes, 
 indeed, I wish to teach you that. Our Lord Jesus Christ has 
 
 I Agnoiico insidias, hostis acerbe, tuas. (Hessi Eleg. teriia.) 
 
GOO HISTORY OF THE REB'ORMATION. 
 
 said: Peace he unto you ! behold my hands, as much as if lie had 
 said, Behold, man, it is I, it is I alone who have taken away 
 thy sins, and who have redeemed thee, and now thou hast peace ! 
 saith the Lord. . . 
 
 " I have not eaten the fruit of the tree," said Luther, " nor 
 have you any more done so ; but we have received the sin trans- 
 mitted to us from Adam and we have sinned ourselves. In like 
 manner I have not suffered upon the cross, nor have you so suf- 
 fered; but Christ has suffered for us; we are justified by the 
 work of God, and not by our own. ... I am, saith the 
 Lord, thy righteousness and thy redemption. l" 
 "Let us believe the Gospel, let us believe St Paul — not the 
 brieves and decretals of the popes."" ... 
 
 After preaching faith as the cause of the sinner's justification, 
 Luther preached works as the consequence and manifestation of 
 a man"'s being saved. 
 
 " Since God has saved us," said he, "let us so order our works 
 that he may take pleasure therein. Art thou rich? let thy 
 goods be serviceable to the poor? Art thou poor? let thy ser- 
 vices be of use to the rich? If thy labours be useless to all but 
 thyself, the services thou pretendest to render to God are a mere 
 lie. "2 
 
 Not a word about himself in Luther's sermon; not one allu- 
 sion to the circumstances in which he stood; nothing about 
 Worms, nor about Charles, nor about the nuncios ; he preaches 
 Christ and Christ alone ; at a crisis when the world had its eyes 
 upon him, he is not in the least taken up about himself; and this 
 is the mark of a true servant of God. 
 
 Luther left Erfurt, and passed through Gotha, where he again 
 preached. Myconius adds, that just as he was leaving the 
 church after service, the devil detached from the front of that 
 building, some stones which had not stirred from their position 
 for two hundred years. The doctor went on, and slept at the 
 monastery of the Benedictines at Reinhardsbrunn; from that he 
 proceeded to Isenac, where he felt indisposed. Amsdorff, Jonas, 
 
 ' See liere again the old, the true Gospel. Not by our works, but by those 
 of Christ, are we saved. And still, as Luther plainly intimates thereon, works 
 have their place, as the fruits of faith, done to serve God and our neighbours, 
 not to serve ourselves. — L. R. 
 
 » L. 0pp. (L.) xii. p. 48.5. 
 
CONCERN MANIFESTED FOU LUTHER HY THE PEOPLE. GOI 
 
 Schurft', all his friends, were in the greatest alarm. He was 
 blooded, and ha<l the most anxious attention paid to him; the 
 sheriff of the town, John Oswald, eagerly came with offers of 
 assistance, and brought with him a cordial-water, after drinking 
 which the doctor enjoyed some sleep, and recovered his strength 
 so far, as to be able to proceed on the morrow. 
 
 The whole population of the places through which he passed 
 rushed to meet him,^ and his journey was but the progress of a 
 triumph. People contemplated with deep emotion the bold man 
 who was going to offer his head to the emperor and tlie empire.- 
 A vast concourse surrounded him, and people spoke to him as 
 he went along. " Ah," said some, "there are so many cardinals 
 and bishops at Worms ! . . . They will burn you, they will 
 comsume your body to ashes, as they did with that of John 
 Huss." But nothing daunted the monk. " Although they 
 should make a fire that would reach from Worms to Wittem- 
 berg, and that should flame up to heaven, in the Lord's name 
 I would pass through it; I would appear before them, I would 
 enter between the jaws of this behemoth, I would break his 
 teeth, and would confess the Lord Jesus Christ. "3 
 
 One day, as he happened to be going into an inn and the 
 crowd pressing upon him as usual, an officer went forward and 
 said to him: "Are you the man that undertakes to reform the 
 popedom? . . . How are you to accomplish thatr"* . . 
 "Yes," replied Luther, "I am the man. I rely on Almighty 
 God, whose word and commandment I have before me." Where- 
 upon, struck with these words, the officer looked upon him less 
 austerely, and said: " My dear friend, what you have just told 
 me is somewhat. I serve Charles, but your Master is greater 
 than mine. He will assist and protect you."-^ Such was the 
 impression made by Luther. Even his enemies were struck as 
 they viewed the multitudes that flocked about him ; but they 
 have depicted this journey in very different colours.^ The Doc- 
 tor at last reached Frankfort on Sunday, the I'tth of April. 
 
 1 Iter facienti occurrebant populi. (Pallavicini, Hist. Con. Tr. i. p. 114.) 
 
 * Quacunque iter faciebant, frequens erat concursus hominum, videndi Luthcri 
 Rtudio. (Cochlceus, p. 29.) 
 
 ^ Ein Fener das bis an den Himmel reichte. . . . (Keil. i. p. 98.) 
 ■* Nunn habt Ihr einen grbssern Herrn, denn Ich. (Ibid. p. 99.) 
 
 * In diversoriis multa propinatio, Iseta compotatio, musices quoque guadia; 
 adeo lit Luthcrus ipsealicubi Eonora testudine ludens. omnium in se oculos con- 
 
 I. 4 G 
 
602 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The news of Luther s progress had already reached Worms. 
 The pope's friends had never supposed that he would obey the 
 emperor's summons. Albert, the cardinal-arch-bishop of Maintz, 
 would have given anything to stop him on his route, and fresh 
 devices were fallen upon in order to effect this. 
 
 On arriving at Frankfort, Luther first retired to rest, and next 
 sent word of his approach to Spalatin, who was then with the 
 elector at Worms. This was the only letter that he wrote in 
 the course of his journey. "I am about to reach you," said he, 
 *' although Satan has sought to stop me on the road by attacks 
 of indisposition. All the Avay from Isenac to this I have been 
 in a languishing condition, and am still in a state that I never 
 was in before. I am informed that Charles has published an 
 edict with a view to frighten me. But Christ lives, and we shall 
 enter Worms in spite of all the gates of hell and all the powers 
 of the air.l You may therefore be preparing lodgings for me." 
 
 The day following Luther paid a visit to the well-conducted 
 school of William Ness, a learned geographer of those days. 
 "Apply yourselves," said he to the boys whom he found there, 
 "to the reading of the Bible and to searching after truth." 
 Then, laying his right hand on the head of one, and his left on 
 that of another of the children, he pronounced a blessing on the 
 whole school. 
 
 And if Luther blessed children, he was at the same time the 
 hope of the aged. A widow, who was advanced in years and a 
 servant of God, Catherine of Holshausen, went to him and said: 
 "My father and mother foretold me that God would raise up a 
 man who would oppose papal vanities and save the Word of 
 God. I trust that thou art that man, and I wish thee, for thy 
 work, the grace of God's Holy Spirit."- 
 
 These sentiments were far from being universally entertained 
 at Frankfort. John Cochlceus, dean of the Church of our Lady, 
 was one of the church of Rome's most devoted members, and 
 when he saw Luther passing through Frankfort on his way to 
 Worms, he could not suppress his alarm. Nay, thinking that 
 
 verteret, velut Orpheus quidam, sed rasus adhuc et cucullatus, eoque mirabilior. 
 (Cochloeus, p. 29.) 
 
 1 Intrabimus Wormatiam, invitis omnibus portis inferni et potentatibus aeris. 
 (L. Epp. i. p. 987.) 
 
 * Ich hoflre dass du der Verheissene . . . (Cyp. Hil. Et. p. 608.) 
 
ALARM OF THE PAPISTS. 
 
 603 
 
 the Church stood in need of zealous defenders, although nobody, 
 it is true, had called for his services, but that he thought of 
 little moment, no sooner was Luther gone, than he set off 
 after him, being resolved, as he said, to sacrifice his life in 
 defence of the Church's honour.^ 
 
 Great now was the consternation that prevailed in the camp of 
 the pope's friends. The arch-heretic was on his way thither; 
 every day, every hour, was bringing him nearer Worms, and 
 should he enter, all might be lost. The arch-bishop Albert, the 
 confessor Glapio, and all the political persons immediately 
 about the emperor, were troubled at the thought. How were 
 they to prevent this monk from coming? To carry him off was 
 impossible, for he had Charles's safe-conduct. Their only resource 
 lay in stratagem ; and forthwith these able men contrived the 
 following scheme. The emperor's confessor, and his grand 
 chamberlain, Paul of Amsdorf, set off in great haste from 
 Worms 2 to the castle of Ebernburg, about ten leagues from that 
 city, and the residence of Francis of Sickingen, the knight who 
 had offered Luther an asylum. Bucer, the young Dominican, 
 chaplain to the elector palatine, and who became a convert to the 
 doctrines of the Gospel at the time of the disputation at Heidel- 
 berg, was then a refugee in the "hostelry of the righteous." The 
 knight himself, understanding little about religious matters, was 
 easily duped, and the confessor s designs were favoured, also, by 
 the character of the man who had previously been palatine chap- 
 Iain. Bucer, in fact, was for peace, and after distinguishing 
 betwixt fundamental and secondary points, he thought that the 
 latter might be sacrificed to peace and unity. ^ 
 
 Charles's chamberlain and confessor now commenced their 
 attack. They gave Sickingen and Bucer to understand that it 
 was all over with Luther, should he appear at Worms, and 
 declared that the emperor was about to send some learned men 
 to Ebernburg to confer with the doctor there. " It is under 
 
 1 Lutlieram illuc transeuntem subsequutus, ut pro honore Ecclesise vitam 
 suam . . - exhoneret. (Cochlceus, p. 36 ) The same person we so often 
 quote. 
 
 2 Dass der Keyser seinem Beichtvater und Ihrer Majest. Ober-Kammerling, 
 zu Sickingen schicht. (L. 0pp. xvii. p. 687.) 
 
 ^ Condofaciebat ra avayxala. a probabilibus distinguere, ut scirent qus9 reti- 
 nenda . . . (M, Adami, Yit. Buceri, p. 2230 
 
604 HISTORY OF THR REFORMATION. 
 
 your prttection," said they to the knight, " that the two parties 
 will place themselves." — "We agree with Luther on all essen- 
 tial points," they said to Bucer; "the only question is about 
 some matters of secondary importance: you will act as mediator 
 betwixt us."" The knight and the doctor were both shaken, on 
 which the confessor and the chamberlain continued to press their 
 object. They told Sickingen that the invitation to Luther must 
 come from him, but that Bucer must be the person to deliver 
 it. 1 All was settled to a wish. Let but the over-credulous 
 Luther come to Ebernburg, and who will be able to defend him 
 then ? 
 
 Luther had now reached Oppenheim and his safe-conduct had 
 but three days more to run, when behold a troop of persons was 
 seen approaching, at whose head he soon recognised the same 
 Bucer with whom he had held such confidential conversations at 
 Heidelberg.2 " These horsemen," said Bucer, after the first 
 cordial greetings were over, " belong to Francis of Sickingen. He 
 has sent me forward for the purpose of convoying you to his 
 strong hold. 3 The emperor''s confessor wishes to talk with you. 
 His influence over Charles is unbounded; every thing may be 
 settled. But beware of Aleander!" Jonas, Amsdorff, and 
 Schurff knew not what to think. Bucer insists; but Luther 
 feels no hesitation. " I continue my journey," says he to Bucer, 
 " and if the emperor's confessor has anything to say to me, he 
 will find me at Worms. I will go to the place to which I have 
 been summoned." 
 
 Meanwhile Spalatin himself began to feel uneasy and alarmed. 
 Surrounded at Worms with the enemies of the Reformation, he 
 heard it said that no regard should be paid to the safe-conduct 
 of a heretic. He became anxious about the safety of his friend. 
 At the moment that the latter was approaching the city, a mes- 
 senger appeared, charged to say to him, on the part of the chap- 
 lain, that he must not think of entering Worms! So much for 
 his best friend, the confident of the elector, Spalatin himself ! 
 . . . The imperturbable Luther looked steadily at the 
 messenger and replied : " Go — tell your master that even although 
 
 ' Dass er sollte den Luther zu sich fodern. (L. 0pp. xvii. p. 587.) 
 
 2 Da kam Bucer zu mit etlichen Reutern. (Ibid.) 
 
 ^ Und wolltc niir iiberreden zu Sickingen gen Ebernburg zu kommcn. (Ibid.) 
 
LUTHER ENTERS WOIIMS. 605 
 
 tliere were as many devils at Worms as there are tiles upon the 
 roofs, I would enter it."^ . . . Never perhaps was Luther so 
 great. The messenger returned to Worms, and there he related 
 this confounding message. " I was then a fearless man," said 
 Luther a few days before his death ; " I dreaded nothing. God 
 can inspire a man with so nmch daring, I know not if at pre- 
 sent I should have as much freedom and joy." — "When the 
 cause is good," adds his disciple Mathesius, " the heart is 
 enlarged, and gives courage and energy to evangelists and 
 soldiers.""^ 
 
 VIIL At last, on the morning of April 16th, Luther descried 
 the Avails of the ancient city. People were looking out for him 
 there, and indeed there was but one engrossing thought in 
 Worms. Bernard of Hirschfeld and Albert of Lindenau, young 
 noblemen who could not restrain their impatience, with six 
 cavaliers and other gentlemen, to the amount of a hundred, if 
 we are to believe Pallavicini, went out to meet him on horse- 
 back and surrounded him, so that he might be well escorted at 
 the moment of his entrance. He was now approaching. In 
 advance of him the imperial usher rode a prancing steed, invested 
 with all the insignia of his office. Then came Luther in 
 his modest car, Jonas followed on horseback; the cavaliers 
 surrounded him, and an immense crowd of people stood 
 waiting before the gates. At ten o'clock he passed those 
 v.alls, out of which so many predicted that he should never 
 come again. 
 
 Two thousand persons accompanied the famous Wittemberg 
 monk along the streets of the city. People eagerly pressed to 
 meet him and the crowd every moment increased, so that at 
 last it was much greater than it had been at the entrance of 
 the emperor. "All at once," as an historian tells us, "a man 
 dressed in a singular fashion, and carrying a great cross before 
 him, as was usual in funeral processions, came out from the 
 crowd, advanced towards Luther, and then with the loud voice 
 and the plaintive and monotonous recitative in which masses 
 for the repose of the souls of the dead are sung, he chanted the 
 
 I Wenn so vicl Teufel zu Worms wareii, alb Zicgcl auf den Diichorn, noch 
 wollt Ich hinein ! (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. SSY. 
 
 - So wachst das Ilerz im I,cibo . , . (Math. p. 24.) 
 
606 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 following words, as if lie intended that the sound should seem 
 
 to come from the empire of the dead. 
 
 Advenisti, O desiderabilis ! 
 
 Q,uein expectabamus in tenebris."' 
 
 Luther's arrival was celebrated by a requiem. If history 
 informs us rightly, it was the court-fool of one of the dukes of 
 Bavaria, who thus gave Luther one of those warnings, remark- 
 able at once for shrewdness and for irony, of which so many 
 examples have been related of those personages. But the shouts 
 of the crowd soon over-powered the de profundis of the cross- 
 bearer. The train advanced with difficulty through a sea of 
 people. The herald of the empire stopt at last at the hotel of 
 the knights of Rhodes — the same at which the elector's two coun- 
 sellors, Frederick of Thun and Philip of Feilitsch, as also the 
 marshal of the empire, Ulrich of Pappenheim, had their quar- 
 ters. Luther alighted from his car, and as he stepped on the 
 ground he said, " God will stand by me."- " I entered Worms 
 in a covered car and in my frock," said he, afterwards. "Every 
 one ran into the streets and wanted to see the monk Martin."*^ 
 
 The news of his arrival filled the elector of Saxony and Alean- 
 der with consternation. The young and elegant archbishop 
 Albert, who held a kind of middle place between the two parties, 
 was confounded at the daring boldness of such a step. "Had I 
 had no more courage than him," said Luther, "it is true that I 
 should never have been seen at Worms." 
 
 Forthwith Charles held a meeting of his privy council, and 
 those members of it who enjoyed most of his confidence, hastened 
 to the palace, urged thither by their fears. "And now that 
 Luther is come," said Charles, "what are we to do?" 
 
 Modo, archbishop of Palermo and chancellor of Flinders, if 
 we are to believe Luther's own testimony, replied: "We have 
 long deliberated on this subject. Let your imperial majesty 
 promptly rid yourself of this man. Did not Sigismond cause 
 John Huss to be burnt? No one is bound either to give or to 
 observe a safe-conduct in the case of a heretic." "^ — " No," said 
 
 * Thou hast come, O thou longed for one, whom we have been looking for in 
 the shades! (M. Adam. Vita Lutheri, p. 118.) 
 
 2 Deus stabit pro me. (Pallavicini, i. p. 114.) 
 
 2 L. 0pp. xvii. p. 687. 
 
 ■* Dass Ihre Majestat den Luther aufs erste boyscit thate und umbringen 
 licss. (Ibid. p. 587.) 
 
CAPITO AND COCIILCEUS. G07 
 
 Charles, "we must abide by our promises." The council accord- 
 ingly had to resign itself to the necessity of the lvefornier''t) 
 making his appearance. 
 
 While the great were thus perplexing themselves about Luther 
 in their council meetings, there were many men in Worms who 
 were delighted at the opportunity they now enjoyed of at last 
 beholding that illustrious servant of God. In the first rank 
 among these stood Capito, chaplain and counsellor of the arch- 
 bishop of Maintz. This remarkable person, who shortly before 
 had been preaching the Gospel in Switzerland with much liberty,^ 
 believed that the position he then occupied called for his pursu- 
 ing a course of conduct which subjected him to the charge of 
 cowardice from the Evangelicals, and to that of dissimulation 
 from the Romanists. ^ Nevertheless, he had preached the doc- 
 trine of faith with clearness at Maintz, and on his leaving that 
 city, arranged that a young and very zealous preacher, named 
 Hedio, should take his place. The Word of God was not bound 
 in that city — the ancient seat of the primate of the German 
 church. People there eagerly listened to the Gospel; in vain 
 did the monks endeavour to preach holy Scripture in their own 
 fashion, and employ all the means in their power to arrest the 
 forward rush of men's minds; they failed in their attempt. 
 But, while he preached the new doctrine withal, 3 Capito strove 
 to remain the friend of its persecutors, flattering himself with 
 some others who shared his views, that he might thus be of 
 great use to the Church. To hear them speak, one would have 
 thouirht, that if Luther were not burnt and all the Lutherans 
 excommunicated, it was solely to be ascribed to Capito's influence 
 with the archbishop Albert. ■* Cochlceus, dean of Frankfort, 
 who had arrived at Worms nearly about the same time with 
 Luther, went immediately to Capito. The latter, who was 
 externally at least on excellent terms with Aleander, presented 
 Cochlceus to him, and thus served as the connecting link between 
 
 ' See the eighth book. 
 
 ^ Astutia phis qnam vulpina vehementer callidum . . . Lutherismuw 
 versutissimo dissimulabat. (Cochlceus, p. 36.) 
 
 ^ Evangclinm audiunt avidissime, Verbuni Dei alligatum non est . . . 
 (Caspar Hedio. Zw. Epp. p. 157.) 
 
 * Lutherus in hoc districtu dudum esset combustus, Lutherani a.->ro<rv)ia.y(uyai, 
 nisi Capito aliter persuassisset principi. (Ibid. p. 148.) 
 
COS HISTOKY OF THE REFORMATION. . 
 
 the Reformer's two greatest ememies. * No doubt Capito thought 
 that he might greatly serve the cause of Christ by keeping up 
 all these appearances; but it cannot be asserted that any real 
 advantage accrued from them. The event almost always dis- 
 appoints the calculations of a wisdom purely human, and proves 
 that a decided course, while it is the most candid, is also the 
 most wise. 
 
 Meanwhile crowds continued to surround the hotel of Rhodes 
 where Luther had alighted. In the eyes of some he was a 
 prodigy of wisdom ; in those of others, a monster of iniquity. 
 The whole city was bent upon seeing him. 2 During the first 
 part of the day, indeed, he was allowed to rest himself for a few 
 hours and to converse with his most intimate friends, but hardly 
 had evening set in when counts, barons, knights, men of noble 
 rank, clergymen, and citizens flocked around him. All, not even 
 his greatest enemies excepted, were struck with the boldness of 
 his conduct, with the joy that seemed to animate him, the power 
 with which he spoke, and with the imposing because lofty 
 enthusiasm that invested this mere monk with an irresistible 
 authority. But while some ascribed this immense superiority 
 to something divine that there was about liim, the pope's friends 
 openly insisted that he was possessed of a devil. 3 4 Luther was 
 kept up until far on in the night, by an uninterrupted succession 
 of visits from this crowd of persons who had come to satisfy 
 their curiosity. 
 
 On the following morning, being that of Wednesday, the 17th 
 of April, Ulrich of Pappenheim, hereditary marshal of the empire, 
 summoned him to appear at four o'clock in the afternoon, before 
 
 1 Hie (Capito) ilium (Cochloeum) insinuavit Hieronymo Aleandro, nuntio 
 Leonis X. (Cochlcsus, p. 36.) 
 
 2 Eadem die tota civitas soHcite conflixit. (Pallavicini, i. p. 114. 
 
 ^ Nescio quid divinum suspicantur ; ex adverse alii, male dicmone obsessum 
 existimabant. (Pallavicini, i. p. Hi.) 
 
 * So was it once with the Saviour. Some ascribed his divine povi^ers to the 
 devil. Whenever people harden themselves against the truth, then have things 
 the most divine no other etfect upon them but that of hardening them still 
 more. Yet this takes nothing from the truth, which clearly reveals itself to 
 all who contemplate it with an unclouded eye. And to what but a full convic- 
 tion of the same and to special support from God, can we ascribe Luther's 
 cheerfulness, his composure, his cool deliberation, his firmness and courage, 
 amid dangers so great, to which he willingly exposed himself, purely from a sense 
 of duty, and which filled even the hearts of his friends with anguish on his accounl 
 and almost made them stagger. — L. R. 
 
LUTHEU DISQUIETED IN SPIRIT. 0'09 
 
 his imperial majesty and the states of the empire. This mes- 
 sage Luther received with profound respect. 
 
 Thus all was now settled, and Luther was about to appear 
 before the most august assembly in the world. He had no lack 
 of encouragements to cheer liira. That excitable knight, Ulrich 
 of Hutten, was then at Ebcrnburg. Not having it in his power 
 to appear at Worms, for Leo X. had called upon Charles V. 
 to send him bound, hand and feet, to Komc, he wished at least 
 to hold out a friendly hand to Luther, and that same day, 17th 
 April, he wrote to him in the words of the king of Israel:' 
 " The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of 
 Jacob defend thee ! Send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen 
 thee out of Zion ! Grant thee according to thine own heart and ful- 
 fil all thy counsel! my beloved Luther, my respected Father 
 . . . fear not, be strong. The council of the wicked has 
 beset you, they have opened their months upon you like roaring 
 lions. But the Lord will rise up against the ungodly and will 
 scatter them. Fight valiantly, then, for Christ. As for me I 
 too will fight bravely. Would to God that I might see how 
 they knit their brows. But the Lord will purge his vineyard 
 which the wild-boar out of the forest hath wasted . . 
 May Christ preserve you!" Bucer did what Hutten could not 
 do; he came himself from Ebernburg to Worms and never left 
 his friend during his whole stay there. 2 
 
 But it was not to man that Luther looked for strength. "He 
 who when assaulted by the enemy, holds out the shield of faith," 
 said he one day, "is like Perseus holding the Gorgon's head. 
 Whoever looked upon it died. Thus ought we to present the 
 Son of God to the snares of the devil." 3 On that morning of 
 the 1 7th of April, he had his moments of disquiet, in which the 
 face of God was hidden from him. His faith failed; his foes 
 were multiplying before him; this preyed upon his imagination. 
 . . . His soul became like a ship driven about in a storm, 
 labouring amid the billows, going down into the depths and 
 anon rising again towards heaven. In that hour of bitter 
 
 1 David, Psalm xx. 
 
 ^ Bucerus eodem venit. (Mel. Adam. Vit. Buceri, p, 212.) 
 ° Also sollen wir den Sohn Gottes als Gorgonis Haupt . . . (L. 0pp. 
 (W.) xxii. 1G59.) 
 
 4 H 
 
glO HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 grief in which he drank of Christ's cup— that hour which was to 
 him hke the garden of Gethsemane, he cast himself on the 
 ground and gave utterance to those cries interrupted by sobs, 
 which none can understand but such as can represent to them- 
 selves the depth of that anguish from which they went up unto 
 God. 1 " Almighty, everlasting God ! how terrible is this world ! 
 How it would open its jaws to devour me, and how weak is my 
 trust in thee ! ... Oh but the flesh is weak and Satan is 
 powerful! If my hopes are to repose in what is powerful in the 
 eves of the world, then it is all over with me ! . . . The 
 die is cast,2 the sentence is pronounced. . . . O God! O 
 God! ... thou my God! ... be helpful to me 
 against all the wisdom of this world! Do thou it; it is for thee 
 alone to do it . . . for the work is not mine, but thine. I 
 have nothing to bring me here, I have no controversy to main- 
 tain, not I, with these great ones of the earth! I, too, would 
 like that my days should glide along happily and calmly. But 
 .the cause is thine . . . and it is righteous and eternal! 
 Lord, be helpful to me ! Thou that art faithful, thou that 
 art unchangeable ! It is not in any man that I trust ! That were 
 vain indeed! All that is in man gives way; all that comes from 
 man faileth. O God, O God, . . . dost thou not hear me? 
 . . . My God, art thou dead? . . . No, thou canst not 
 die ! Thou only hidest thyself. Thou hast chosen me for this 
 work, I know it! . . . Well then ! be up and doing, God! 
 . . . Be thou upon my side, for the name of thy beloved 
 Son, Jesus Christ, who is my defence, my shield and my fortress."" 
 After a few moments of silent conflict, he continued thus. 
 "Lord, where dost thou rest? . . . Oh my God ! where art 
 thou? . . . Come, come, I am ready . . . . I am ready 
 to forsake Hfe for thy truth . . . patient as a lamb. For 
 it is a righteous cause and it is thine own ! . . . I will not 
 go away from thee, neither now, nor throughout eternity ! . . . 
 And although the world should be full of demons, although my 
 body, which nevertheless is the work of thine hands, should be 
 doomed to bite the dust, to be stretched upon the rack, cut into 
 pieces . . . consumed to ashes . . . my soul is thine ! 
 
 > L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 589.) 
 
 ' Die Glocke ist schon gegossen : the case is decided. 
 
LUTHER PROCEEDS TO THE DIET. 611 
 
 Yea, for this I have the assurance of thy Word. My soul is 
 thine. It will abide near thee throughout everlasting a<''cs 
 Amen! . . . O God, help thou me! . . . . Anicn!" ' 2 
 
 This prayer supplies a key to the understanding of Luther and 
 the Reformation. Here history removes the veil from the sauctu- 
 ar}'-, and shows us the secret place where strength and coura^-e 
 were communicated to the humble and despised man who became 
 God's instrument in giving freedom to the soul and thoughts of 
 men, and in commencing a new era. Luther and tlie Reforma- 
 tion are here caught in the act. The secret of their power is 
 laid bare. These utterances of a soul, while sacrificing itself in 
 the cause of truth, are found in a collection of pieces relative to 
 Luther's appearing at Worms, under number XVI., in the 
 midst of safe conducts and other such documents. Some one or 
 other of his friends, no doubt, had overheard him, and preserved 
 them for us. In our opinion it constitutes one of the hio-her 
 order of historical documents. 
 
 Four o'clock had now struck; the marshal of the empire pre- 
 sented himself; Luther must go, and he prepared to do so; God 
 had heard him; his calmness had returned as he left the hotel. 
 First walked the usher, after him the marshal of the empire, 
 and then the Reformer. The crowd in the streets was even 
 greater than during the evening before, so that to advance 
 through it was impossible. It was vain to call on the people to 
 make way; the crowding increased instead of diminishing. Per- 
 ceiving, at last, that it was impossible to reach the city hall in 
 
 ' Die Seele ist dein. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 689. 
 
 - The intervening struggle, as the critical moment drew near, is by no means 
 to be wondered at. God puts the seal to the divine nature of the work undertak- 
 en by Ijuther. lie relied not on his own strength. He did not recklessly cast 
 himself into the most manifest perils. He fully apprehended what became his 
 position, and the impossibility of his escaping from it, by means of human help, 
 unskaithed. lie was not insensible to his own preservation, and stood exposed 
 to the fiery darts of the wicked, who, as the crisis approached, would have had 
 him waver, and herein he was conformed to his Lord, who in Gethscmane felt 
 the keenest anguish. Even as he did then, he held fast by his God and employed 
 the best weapons for overcoming in such a conflict. His prayer was not offered 
 in vain. He was strengthened thereby to commit himself entirely to the hands 
 of God. The calm returned, and just at the requisite moment was his God nigh 
 to him, and on his entering the Diet, disposed matters, as the sequel informs us, 
 on the side whence he had not expected it, so as was most powerfully fitted to 
 banish from his mind all remaining fear. This is most intelligible to those who 
 are used to the ways of God, and who are always conversant with trials, although 
 these may be of a minor description. — L. R. 
 
6121 HISTORY OF THE REFOKMATION. 
 
 the usual way, the usher demanded a passage through private 
 houses, and thus conducted Luther along gardens and back ways,i 
 until they reached the place where the Diet met. The people, 
 on discovering this, threw themselves into the houses, and pressed 
 hard on the steps of the monk of Wittemberg ; they posted them- 
 selves at the windows that looked into the gardens, and a great 
 many persons mounted on the roofs. The ridges of the roofs, the 
 pavement of the streets, above, below, all was covered with spec- 
 tators.2 
 
 Even after they had reached the city hall, Luther, and those 
 who were with him, met with a new obstacle in being unable to 
 reach the door, on account of the pressure from the crowd. 
 " Make way, make way," was shouted to no purpose; no one 
 would stir, until at length the imperial soldiers forced a passage, 
 and Luther entered. The people would have rushed in after him 
 but that the soldiers interposed with their halberts. Luther 
 reached the interior of the building, but there, too, there was a 
 crowd of people, occupying the antichambers, and at the windows, 
 to the number of above five thousand spectators, consisting of 
 Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and others. Luther could with 
 difficulty move forward. At last, as he drew near the door by 
 which he was to pass into the immediate presence of his judges, 
 he met a valiant knight, the celebrated general George of 
 Freundsberg; the same who four years after, at the head of the 
 German foot, knelt with his fellow soldiers on the field of Pavia, 
 and then dashing himself on the left of the French army, threw 
 it into the Tesino, and in a great measure decided the captivity 
 of the king of France. The old general, on seeing Luther pass, 
 tapping him on the shoulder, and shaking a head that had grown 
 white in battles, he said in a kindly tone ; " Little monk, little 
 monk, you have before you a march and an encounter such as 
 neither I, nor any other captains have seen the like of, in the 
 bloodiest of our campaigns ! But if your cause be just, and if 
 you have the assurance of its being so, go forward in the name 
 of Gx)d, and dread nought ! God will not forsake you ! "^ A 
 
 ' Und ward also durch heimlich Gange gefuhi't. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 574.) 
 * Doch lief das Volk haufig zu, und stieg sogar auf Dacher. (Seckend. 348.) 
 ^ Mtinchlein, Miinclilein, du gehestjetzt einem Gang, einen solchen Stand zu 
 
 thun, dergleichen Ich und mancher Obrister, auch in unzer allerernestester. 
 
 Schlacht-Ordnurg nicht gethan haben. . . . (Seckend. 348.) 
 
LUTHER ENTERS THE HALL OF ASSEMBLY. 613 
 
 noble tribute paid by the courage of the sword to the courage of 
 the mind. He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taJceth a 
 dty,^ is the saying of a king. 
 
 At last the doors of the hall were thrown open. Luther 
 entered, and with him many persons who formed no part of the 
 Diet. Never did man appear before a more august assembly. 
 The emperor Charles V. whose kingdoms had the ascendancy 
 both in the old and in the new world; the archduke Ferdinand, 
 his brother; six electors of the empire, whose descendants at the 
 present day almost all wear kingly crowns ; eighty dukes, 
 the greater number of whom ruled over more or less extensive 
 territories, and among whom there were some whose names were 
 afterwards to become formidable to the Reformation, the duke of 
 Alva, and his two sons; eight margraves, thirty archbishops, 
 bishops, or prelates, seven ambassadors, among which were those 
 of thje kings of France and England; the deputies from ten free 
 cities, a great many princes, counts, and barons exercising sov- 
 ereign jurisdiction on their estates; the pope's nuncios, altogether 
 amounting to two hundred and four personages: such was the 
 imposing court before which Martin Luther appeared. 
 
 This very compearance amounted to a striking victory gained 
 over the popedom. The man that stood before them was condemn- 
 ed by the pope, and yet was summoned to appear before a tribunal 
 which, by so doing, placed itself above the pope. Although the 
 pope by his interdict, had decreed his separation from all human 
 society, he had been summoned in honourable terms, and admit- 
 ted into the presence of the most august assembly in the world. 
 The pope had ordained that his mouth should be for ever shut, 
 and he was about to open it before thousands of auditors, con- 
 vened from the remotest dwelling-places of Christendom. Thus 
 through Luther's instrumentality, an immense revolution had 
 taken place. Already had Rome come down from her throne, 
 and that at the voice of a monk. 
 
 Some of the princes, perceiving the humble son of the Mans- 
 feldt miner disconcerted at the sight of this assemblage of kings, 
 kindly went up to him, and one of them said to him: '■'■Fear not 
 them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul.'''' Another 
 even added: " When ye shall be brought before kings., the Spirit of 
 ' Proverbs xvi. 32 
 
614! HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 your Father will speak in you''"^ Tims by the mouths of the 
 mighty ones of this world did his Master's words comfort the 
 Reformer."^ 
 
 During this time the guards had been clearing a passage for 
 Luther, who could now step forward until he stood before the 
 throne of Charles V. All eyes were now turned towards him ; 
 the hubbub began to subside, and was succeeded at length by 
 perfect stillness, " Say nothing," said the marshal of the empire 
 to him, "until you are interrogated," and then left him. 
 
 IX. After a short and solemn pause, John of Eck, chancellor 
 of the archbishop of Treves, and a friend of Aleander's, but whom 
 the reader must carefully distinguish from the divine of that 
 name, rose and said in a loud and distinct voice, first in Latin, 
 then in German: "Martin Luther, his sacred and invincible 
 imperial majesty hath summoned thee before his throne, in pur- 
 suance of the counsel and advice of the states of the holy Roman 
 empire, in order that thou mayest be charged to reply to the 
 following two questions : ' First, dost thou acknowledge that 
 these books were composed by thee?' The speaker at the same 
 time pointed with his finger to about twenty publications that 
 had been laid upon a table in the middle of the hall, and before 
 where Lutlier stood. " I did not well know how they had come 
 to possess them," said Luther afterwards in relating this circum- 
 stance. Aleander had set himself to collect them. " Secondly," 
 continued the chancellor, " dost thou wish to retract these books 
 and their contents, or dost thou now persist in the things thou 
 hast therein advanced?" 
 
 Luther was about to reply, without any misgivings, to the 
 first of these questions, in the affirmative, when his counsel, 
 Jerome Schurff, promptly interposing, called aloud, " Let the 
 titles of the books be read."^ 
 
 The chancellor went up to the table and read the titles. 
 
 ' Einige aus denen Rcichs-GlieJern sprachen Ihm einen Mutb, mit Christi 
 Worten, ein. . . . (Matth. x. 20, 28 ; Seckend. p. 348.) 
 
 - How seasonable was not this address, even as that previously mentioned 
 from General Von Freundsberg ! This belongs to that order of things, wherein 
 the leading of God may be remarked, and which, compared with the state of 
 mind which Luther very shortly before experienced, and which apparently was 
 not entirely removed, plainly showed that God was with him, and at the fitting 
 time sent His angels to strengthen him, though by the ministry of men — L. R. 
 
 ^ Legantur tituli librormn! (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 588.) 
 
LUTHER S FIRST ANSWER TO THE DIET. 
 
 615 
 
 Among the rest there were several devotional works, that l»ad 
 HO reference to controversy. 
 
 On the books being enumerated, Luther, spoke as follows, first 
 in Latin, and afterwards in German 
 
 " Most Gracious Emperor, Gracious Princes and Lords! 
 
 " His Imperial Majesty addresses two questions to me. 
 
 " With regard to the first, I acknowledge the books enumer- 
 ated to have been from me; I cannot disown them. 
 
 " As for the second; seeing that it is a question that relates 
 to the faith and the salvation of souls, and in which the Word 
 of God has an interest, that is to say, the most precious treasure 
 that there is in heaven or upon the earth,^ I should act impru- 
 dently were I to reply inconsiderately. 1 might affirm less than 
 the case requires or more than truth exacts, and thus make my- 
 self offend against that Word of Christ: Whosoever icill deny me 
 before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heathen. 
 Wherefore I beseech your imperial majesty, with all submission, 
 to allow me time, that I may reply without doing prejudice to 
 the Word of God." 
 
 Far from indicating anything like hesitation on Luther's part, 
 this answer was worthy both of the Reformer and of the assembly. 
 In a matter of such gravity he behoved to be calm and circum- 
 spect, and to put far away from him the slightest suspicion of 
 being under the influence of passion or frivolity; besides, that 
 by speaking out at the fitting time he would better prove the 
 inflexible firmness of his resolution. History presents us with 
 many examples of men, who by too much promptitude of speech, 
 have brought great evils upon themselves, and upon the world. 
 But here Luther reined in his naturally impetuous character; 
 he restrained his tongue, ever ready to speak out; he checked 
 himself just as the feelings that animated him would fain have 
 revealed themselves. This self-command and composure, so 
 surprising in such a man, multiplied his moral power a hundred- 
 fold, and put him into a condition to answer at a later stage, with 
 a wisdom and a dignity that was to disappoint the expectations 
 of his adversaries, and disconcert their malice and their pride.2 
 
 1 Weil dies einc Frage vom Glauben iind der Seelen Seligkeit ist, und Gottos 
 "Wort belanget. . . . (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. SYS.) 
 
 » Here, too, is God's working visible ; while against his usual disposition, 
 
616 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Nevertheless, as he had spoken in a tone of respect, many 
 thought that he had begun to waver, and Charles's counsellors 
 cheered themselves with a gleam of hope. Charles himself, eager 
 to scan the man whose eloquence was throwing the nation into 
 commotion, had never taken his eyes from off him; but now he 
 turned towards one of his courtiers, and said with an air of dis- 
 dain: "Assuredly, this is not the man who will ever make me an 
 heretic."' Then, rising from his throne, the young emperor 
 retired with his ministers into a council chamber, while the 
 electors shut themselves into another, and the deputies from the 
 free cities into a third. The Diet having then re-constituted 
 itself, it was agreed that Luther's request should be granted — a 
 decision that quite disconcerted the more violent. 
 
 " Martin Luther," said the chancellor of Treves, " his imper- 
 ial Majesty, with the kindness that is natural to him, consents 
 to your having one day more, but upon the condition that you 
 answer by word of mouth and not in writing." 
 
 Thereupon the imperial usher stepped forward and re-con- 
 ducted Luther to his hotel. Threats and shouts of joy rent the 
 air by turns, as he passed along. The most sinister reports 
 began to circulate among Luther's friends. " The Diet is dis- 
 satisfied," it was said, "the nuncios are exulting, and the Refor- 
 mer will be sacrificed." Men's passions began to chafe, and 
 many persons of noble blood ran to see Luther. " Mr. Doctor," 
 said they, "how go matters now? We are assured that they 
 are going to burn you.2 . . . That wont be the case," said 
 those knights, "without their paying for it with their lives!" — 
 " And this actually happened," said Luther, referring to these 
 words at Eisleben, twenty years afterwards. 
 
 On the other side Luther's enemies were triumphing over what 
 had taken place. " He has applied for time," they said, " and 
 he will retract. When at a distance he spoke with arrogance, 
 
 which inclined to violence, and thus might easily have led him to speak unad- 
 visedly, Luther here displayed exemplary circumspection and meek discretion, 
 which were not the less coupled with wisdom and force, so that in these hazardous 
 moments he was almost conformed to his Lord when he stood before his judges. 
 Yet it was not through his own power or capacity that Luther thus spoke and 
 acted : it was the Lord himself that was with him. — L. R. 
 
 ' Hie certe nunquam eflBceret ut hsereticus evaderem. (Pallavicini, i. p. 116.) 
 ^ Wie geht's? man sagt sie wollen euch verbrennen. . . . (L. 0pp. (L.) 
 xvii. p. 688.) 
 
T.UTHER IS ADVISED TO RKTKACT. 617 
 
 but now his courage lails liini. ... He is a vanquished 
 man." 
 
 Luther was perhaps the only person in Worms who felt at 
 ease. A few moments after returning from the Diet, he wrote 
 to the imperial counsellor, Cuepianus, as follows: "I write to 
 you in the midst of tumult," (referring probably to the shouting 
 of the crowd that surrounded his hotel,) " this very hour I have 
 been in the presence of the emperor and his brother. ^ I have 
 acknowledged myself to be the author of my books, and have 
 declared that 1 will answer to morrow in regard to retracting. 
 I will not retract the stroke of a letter of all my works, Christ 
 being my helper.""2 
 
 The excitement that prevailed among tiie people and foreign 
 soldiery was now increasing from hour to hour, so that while the 
 different parties were proceeding calmly in the Diet, they were 
 coming to blows in the streets. The Spanish soldiers, proud and 
 pitiless, oflfended the burgesses of the city by their impudence. 
 One of these satellites of Charles's, finding in a book-shop the 
 pope's bull published by Hutten, with a commentary by that 
 knight, he took and tore it into pieces, and then throwing away 
 the fragments, trampled them under foot. Others, on discover- 
 ing some copies of Luther's work on the Babylonish captivity, 
 carried them oft', and tore them to shreds, whereupon the jieople 
 rose with indignation, threw themselves on the soldiers, and 
 put them to flight. In a third case, a mounted Spaniard with 
 his drawn sword pursued through the streets a German, who 
 fled from him, and the people were too much frightened to oppose 
 this furious foreigner. 3 
 
 Some political persons thought they had found out a device 
 for saving Luther. "Retract." said they to him, "your doc- 
 trinal errors, but persist in all that you have said against the 
 pope and his court, and you are saved." Aleander gnashed his 
 teeth at such advice. But Luther was not to be shaken from 
 his purpose, and declared that he cared little about a political 
 Reformation, if it were not founded on the ftiith. 
 
 When the 18th of April had arrived, Glapio, the chancellor 
 
 1 ITnc hora coram Csesare et fratre romano constiti. 'L. Epp. i. p. 587.) 
 Verum ego ne apicem quidem revocabo. ( Ibid. 
 Kappens Rcf. Urkunden, ii. p. 448. 
 
 I. 4 i 
 
618 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Vou Eck, and Aleander held an early meeting accoiding to 
 orders from Charles V. for the purpose of arranging in what 
 manner they should proceed with respect to Luther. 
 
 As for Luther, he set himself to compose his thoughts. He 
 possessed that peace of soul without which man is incapable of 
 doing anything great. He prayed; he read the Word of God; 
 he ran through his own writings and endeavoured to throw his 
 answer into a proper shape. The very thought that he was 
 about to bear testimony to Jesus Christ and to his Word in 
 presence of the emperor and of the empire, filled his heart with 
 joy. The moment when he was to appear being not far oft', he 
 went up to the holy Scriptures with deep emotion as they lay 
 open on his table, placed his left hand on them and raising his 
 risrht hand to God, he swore that he would remain faithful to 
 the Gospel and make a free confession of his faith, even though 
 he might have to seal that confession with his blood. After 
 this, he felt his mind still more at peace. 
 
 At four o'clock the usher presented himself and conducted 
 him to the place where the Diet held its sittings. The general 
 curiosity was now the more intense inasmuch as the answer 
 was to be decisive. The Diet being occupied at the time, Luther 
 had to wait in the court in the midst of an immense crowd which 
 heaved to and fro like the sea in a storm, and pressed on the 
 Reformer with its waves. The Wittemberg doctor had to spend 
 two long hours In the midst of a multitude eager to have a sight 
 of him. "I was not accustomed to all this fuss and bustle,"^ 
 said he, and a sad preparation it would, indeed, have been for an 
 ordinary man. But Luther was with God. His look was serene; 
 his features were unruffled; the Lord had set him upon a rock. 
 Night was now drawing on; torches were lighted in the hall 
 where the Diet was met; and their dusky radiance shone through 
 the antique stained-glass windows into the court. All things 
 assumed a solemn aspect. At last the doctor was introduced, 
 followed by many persons who, in their anxiety to hear his 
 answer, crowded in along with him. The princes having taken 
 their places, and Luther finding himself anew in the presence of 
 
 ' Des Getummels und Wesens war Icli gar nicht gcwohnt. (L. 0pp. xvii. p. 
 688, 535.) 
 
I.IJTHER ADDRESSES THE DIET. G19 
 
 Charles V., the chancellor of the elector of Treves rose ami 
 spoke thus: 
 
 "Martin Luther, 3'ou asked yesterday for a delay which 
 is now expired. It ought not unquestionably to have been 
 granted you, since every man should be sufliciently instructed 
 in the things of the faith, to be ready to render an account 
 thereof to all who may ask it; and especially thou who art so 
 great and able a doctor of holy Scriptures. . . . Now, thou, 
 answer to his majesty's requirement after his having dealt with 
 thee so tenderly. Dost thou desire to defend thy books as a 
 whole, or dost thou wish to retract ought thereof?" 
 
 After saying this in Latin, the chancellor repeated it in 
 German. 
 
 "Whereupon Dr. Martin Luther," say the minutes of the 
 Diet of Worms, "replied in the humblest and most submissive 
 manner. He did not shout nor express himself in a violent 
 tone, but with candour, mildness, propriety and modesty, and 
 yet with much Christian cheerfulness and firmness." ^ 
 
 "Most serene emperor! illustrious princes, gracious lords!" 
 said Luther, looking to Charles and to the assembly, " I humbly 
 present myself in your presence this day in compliance with the 
 order of yesterday, and by the mercies of God I conjure your 
 majesty and your august highnesses, to listen with candour to 
 the defence of a cause which, J am most sure, is just and true. 
 If through my ignorance, I shall be found wanting in the 
 usages and proprieties of courts, you will forgive me, seeing I 
 was not brought up in king'^s palaces, but in the obscurity of a 
 cloister. 
 
 "Two things were required of me yesterday on the part of 
 his imperial majesty: First, Whether I was the author of the 
 books whose titles were read; Secondly, Whether I would revoke 
 or defend the doctrine therein taught. I answered to the former 
 of these questions and now abide by that answer. 
 
 "As to the latter, I have composed books upon widely diflPer- 
 ent subjects. In some I have treated of faith and of good works, 
 in a manner at once so pure, so simple, and so Christian, that 
 
 > Schreyt nicht sehr /loch heflig, sondern redet fein, sittich, zuohfig und 
 bcscheiden. (L. 0pp. (L.) xv. p. 57G.) 
 
620 HISrOKY OF THE REFOHMATION. 
 
 my very adversaries, far from finding ought therein to reprehend, 
 admit that those works are useful and worthy of being read by 
 pious hearts. The bull itself of the pope, violent as it is, owns 
 this. Were I then to retract these, what should I be doing? 
 . . . . Wretched man ! I alone of all men should abandon 
 truths which friends and enemies alike unanimously approve, and 
 should oppose what all the world glories in confessing. 
 
 "In the second place, I have composed books against the 
 popedom, and therein I have attacked those who by false doc- 
 trine, wicked lives, and scandalous examples, desolate the Chi'is- 
 tian world and ruin souls and bodies. Is not this substantiated 
 by the complaints of God-fearing men ? Is it not evident that 
 the human laws and doctrines of the popes, entangle, torment, 
 and martyrise the consciences of the faithful, while the crying 
 and never-ending extortions of Rome, swallow up the property 
 and the wealth of Christendom, and of this most illustrious 
 nation in particular? . . 
 
 "Were T to revoke what I have written on this subject, what 
 should I be doing ... if not strengthening that tyranny 
 and opening a still wider door to impieties at once so many and 
 so great ?^ These evils would then overflow more furiously than 
 ever, and those haughty men would be seen ever more and more 
 increasing in number, and violence, and insolence. And not 
 only would the yoke that oppresses the Christian people become 
 more grievous through my retractation; it would, so to speak, 
 become more legitimate, for by that very retractation it would 
 have received the sanction of your serene majesty and of all the 
 estates of the holy empire. Great God! I should then prove 
 like an infamous cloak, destined to cover over and conceal every 
 kind of wickedness and tyranny ! . . . 
 
 " Finally, in the third place, I have written books against 
 private persons who have wanted to defend the Roman tyranny 
 and to destroy the faith. I frankly confess that I have possibly 
 attacked them with more acrimony than became my ecclesiasti- 
 cal profession. I do not look upon myself as a saint, but not 
 the more on that account can I retract my books, for I should 
 
 * Nicht allein die Fenster, sondern auch Thur und Thor aufthiite. (L. Opp 
 (L.) xvii. p. 573.) 
 
rUTIIER ADDBESSES THE DIET. 621 
 
 thus sanction the impieties of my opponents, and furnisli them 
 with occasion to crush the people of God still more cruelly. 
 
 " Meanwhile I am a mere man, and not God; I will therefore 
 defend myself as did Jesus Christ. If I have spoken evil, bear 
 witness of the evil, (John xviii, 23.) said he. How much more 
 ought not I, who am but dust and ashes, and who am so liable 
 to err, to desire that each should state what he has to say against 
 my doctrine? 
 
 "Therefore do I conjure you by the mercies of God, thou most 
 serene emperor, and ye most illustrious princes, and every man, 
 be he who he may, whether he belong to a higher or a lower 
 rank, to prove to me by the writings of the prophets and apos- 
 tles that I am mistaken. From the moment that I shall have 
 been convinced of this I will forthwith retract all my errors, and 
 will be the first to seize my writings and to cast them into the 
 flames. 1 
 
 "What I have just said clearly shows, I think, that I have 
 well weighed and considered the perils to which T expose myself, 
 but, far from being daunted by these, it is matter of great joy 
 to me, to perceive that the Gospel is at this day, as in former 
 times, a cause of trouble and of discord. Such is the character and 
 the destiny of the Word of God. I am not come to send peace 
 upon the earth hut a sicord, Jesus Christ hath said, (Mat. x. 
 PA.) God is to be admired and to be feared in his counsels; let 
 us fear lest, in setting ourselves to check dissensions, we perse- 
 cute the holy Word of God, and bring down upon our heads a 
 frightful deluge of insurmountable dangers, present disasters, 
 and everlasting desolations . . . Let us fear lest the reign 
 of that young and noble prince, the emperor Charles, on whom, 
 under God, we found such high expectations, not only should 
 commence, but further, continue and end under the most dismal 
 auspices. I might adduce examples drawn from the oracles of 
 God,'' continued Luther speaking with a most noble courage; 
 in the presence of the greatest monarch in the world, "I might 
 
 ' What an honest and well-advised address was this on the part of Luther. 
 No, it was no obstinate adhesion to what he may have once imprudently or 
 Inconsiderately spoken or done, but love for the truth alone was his motive. 
 We should not be ashamed to retract whatever can be demonstrated to be wrong 
 or ill-founded. But the truth he neither can nor will abandon. — L. f? 
 
622 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 speak to you of the Pharaohs, of the kings of Babylon and of 
 those of Israel, who never laboured more effectually for their 
 own ruin than when they thought to strengthen their empire by 
 counsels apparently most wise. God removeth the mountains and 
 they Jcnow not; he overturneth them in his anger. (Job ix. 6.) 
 
 "If 1 say these things, it is not that I think that such mighty 
 princes have any need of my poor counsels, but it is because I 
 wish to render to Germany what she has a right to claim from 
 her children. Thus, in commending myself to your august 
 majesty, and to your most serene highnesses, I humbly beseech 
 you not to allow the hatred of my enemies to launch forth an 
 indignation against me which I have not deserved."* 
 
 Luther pronounced what he said in German, with modesty, 
 yet also with much warmth and firmness ; ^ he was ordered 
 to repeat the same in Latin, the emperor not liking the Ger- 
 man tongue. The imposing assemblage that surrounded the 
 Reformer, together with the noise and excitement, had fatigued 
 him. " I was all in a sweat," said he, " heated by the tumult 
 and obliged to stand in the midst of the princes." Frederick 
 of Thun, a confidential councillor of the elector of Saxony, 
 having been posted by his master's orders at the Eeformer's side, 
 in order to guard him against surprise or violence, perceiving 
 the sad condition of the poor monk, said to him : "If you cannot 
 repeat your discourse, it is enough, Mr. Doctor." But Luther, 
 after pausing for a moment to take breath, again spoke, pro- 
 nouncing his discourse in Latin with the same energy as before.'' 
 
 "This was extremely gratifying to the elector Frederick," 
 the Reformer tells us. 
 
 As soon as he had ended, the chancellor of Treves, who acted 
 as spokesman to the Diet, said to him with indignation: " You 
 liave not answered the question that was addressed to you. ^ ou 
 Ao not stand here to throw doubts on the decisions of councils. 
 You are required to give a clear and precise answer. Do you, 
 or do you not, choose to retract? Upon this Luther answered 
 without flinching: " Since your most serene Majesty and your 
 
 1 This discourse, together with all the words we quote, is t.ikcn textually 
 from authentic documents. See L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. TTB — 780. 
 
 « Non clamose at modeste, non tamen sine Christiana animositate et constan- 
 tia. (L. 0pp. lat. ii. p. 165.) 
 
 3 See L. Opp. lat. ii. p. 105— ICT. 
 
LfTlIKU iVEITHKU CAN NOIt WILL RETRACr. C23 
 
 high niiglitinesses, require me to give a simple, clear, and pre- 
 cise reply, such will I give:^ I cannot submit my faith either to 
 the pope, or to councils, inasmuch as it is clear as daylight that 
 these have often fallen into error, and even into gross contradic- 
 tions with themselves. If, then, I be not convinced by testimon- 
 ies from Scripture, or by evident reasons, if people cannot per- 
 suade me by the very passages that I have quoted, and if they 
 fail thus to render my conscience a captive of the Word of God, / 
 neither can nor u-ill retract anything^ for it is unsafe for the Chris- 
 tian to say anything against his conscience." Then, stcadilv 
 contemplating the assembly before which he stood, and which 
 held his life in their hands: "Here I stand," said he, "I can 
 DO NO otherwise; God help me! Amen,"- 
 
 Thus did Luther, constrained to obey his faith, dragged by 
 his conscience to death, oppressed by the noblest necessity, a 
 slave to his creed, and in that creed supremely free, like a ship in 
 the midst of a frightful tempest, which in oi'der to save some- 
 thing more precious than itself, knowingly dashes itself against a 
 rock, utter those sublime words which, even at the distance of 
 three centuries, still thrill within us; thus spoke a friar before the 
 emperor and the greatest men of the nation ; and that man, weak 
 and despised, alone, yet aided by the grace of the Most High, 
 seemed to be greater and more powerful than them all. His words 
 have an energy, in opposing which all these mighty ones have to 
 confess their impotence. In this we see that weakness of God 
 which is stronger than men. The empire and the church on the 
 one hand, and an obscure man on the other, have met face to 
 face. God had assembled these princes and prelates that public 
 evidence might be given that their wisdom was nought. The 
 battle was lost; and the consequences of that defeat of the 
 iiiightv of the earth, were to make themselves felt anions: all 
 nations and in all future ages. 
 
 The meeting remained fixt in amazement. Many of the 
 princes could hardly conceal their admiration. The emperor, 
 recovering from the impression first made on him, exclaimed: 
 "The monk speaks undauntedly, and with a confident spirit." 3 
 
 * Pabo illud neqiie dciitatum, ncque cornutum. (L. 0pp. lat. ii. p. ]P>6.) 
 
 * llier stehe ich : Ich kann iiicht anders : Gott helfe mir. Amen (L Opn 
 (L.) xvii. p. 580.) 
 
 ^ Der Mbnch rcdct uncrschrocken, mit gctrostcm Muth ! (Seckend. 350.) 
 
524 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The Spaniards and Italians alone were disconcerted, and ere 
 long tliey made a jest of a greatness of soul which they could 
 not comprehend. 
 
 "If thou dost not retract," rejoined the chancellor when the 
 meeting had recovered from the impression produced by the 
 address they hadheard, "the emperor and the states of the empire 
 will see what course they ought to adopt towards an obstinate 
 heretic." Luther's friends shuddered at this; but the monk 
 repeated : " God help me, for I can retract nothing."^ 
 
 Luther then withdrew, and the princes proceeded to deliber- 
 ate. Each could perceive that it was a critical moment for 
 Christendom. The yea or nay of this monk, was to decide, 
 perhaps for ages, the repose of the Church and of the world. 
 An attempt had been made to frighten him, but he had only been 
 raised upon a tribunal in presence of the nation ; people thought 
 they were giving greater publicity to his defeat, but they had only 
 enhanced his victory. The partisans of Rome could not make 
 up their minds to submit to being so humbled. Luther was 
 called back and the spokesman said to him : " Martin, thou hast 
 not spoken with the modesty befitting thy person. The dis- 
 tinction thou hast made with regard to thy books, is a useless 
 one; for shouldst thou retract such as contain errors, the 
 emperor will not suffer the others to be burnt. It is an extra- 
 vagant request, thy asking to be refuted by Scripture, when thou 
 art reviving heresies that have been condemned by the general 
 council of Constance. The emperor, therefore, ordains thee to 
 say simply, by a yea or nay, if thou dost resolve to maintain 
 what thou hast advanced, or if thou dost wish to retract a part 
 thereof?" — " I have no other answer to make than what I have 
 already made," replied Luther calmly. It was enough. Firm 
 as a rock, all the waves of human power dash themselves against 
 him in vain. The energy of his utterance, his dauntless expres- 
 sion, his flashing eyes, and the imperturbable firmness that 
 revealed itself in the rude lines of his German features, produced 
 the most profound impression on that illustrious assembly. All 
 hope was gone for ever now. Spaniards, Belgians, the very 
 Romans themselves, were struck dumb. The monk had \a,i.- 
 
 > L. 0pp. (W.) XV. 2236. 
 
TIIK DIET IS ADJOURNED TILL NEXT DAY. 
 
 625 
 
 quished those great ones ol" the earth. He had said No to the 
 Church and to the empire. Cliarles V. rose, and the whole 
 meeting rose along with liim: the cliancellor announcing, in a 
 loud voice, "the Diet will meet to-morrow morning to receive 
 the opinion of the emperor." 
 
 X. It was now night, Each had to lind his way to his resid- 
 ence in the dark. Luther had an escort of two imperial officers 
 given him. Some supposed that his doom had been decreed, 
 that they were conducting him to prison, and that he would 
 come out of it, only to go to the stake. An immense tumult 
 arose. Several persons of noble family shouted: "Is he going 
 to prison?" — "No," replied Luther, "they are accompanying 
 me to my hotel." These words had a quieting effect. It was 
 now that the Spaniards who were attached to the emperor's 
 household, followed the audacious monk with hisses and jeers' all 
 alono' the streets he had to traverse, whilst others howled and 
 
 o 
 
 yelled like wild beasts deprived of their prey. But Luther re- 
 tained all his firmness and composure. 
 
 Such was the scene at Worms. This intrepid monk who 
 up to that time had with no small audacity braved all his 
 enemies, spoke during that hour in the face of those who were 
 thirsting for his blood, with calmness, dignity, and humility. 
 There was no exaggeration, no human enthusiasm, no angry 
 passion; in the midst of the most lively emotions, he was in 
 peace; modest in resisting the powers of this world; gi-eat in the 
 presence of all its majesties. In this we have irrefragable evi- 
 dence that Luther was then acting in obedience to God, not 
 according to the suggestions of pride. There was in the hall 
 at Worms one that was greater than either Luther or Charles. 
 When ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, 
 for a testimony against them and the Gentiles; take no thought how 
 or what ye shall speak, Jesus Christ has said : For it is not ye 
 that speak? Never, perhaps, was this promise so manifestly ful- 
 filled. 
 
 A profound impression had been made on the leading men of 
 
 1 Subsannatione hominem Dei et longo rugitu prosocuti sunt. (L. 0pp. lat. 
 ii. p. 166.) 
 
 * Gospel according to St. Matthew, chap. x. 18, 20. I have kept closer in 
 the words of the text than M. Merle d'Aubign6, whose paraphrases sound Jiarsh 
 to British ears. Tr. 
 
 I. 4 K 
 
626 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the empire; this Luther had observed, and his courage was con- 
 firmed by it. The pope's servants were angry with John Von 
 Eck for not having sooner interrupted the guilty monk. Several 
 princes and lords were gained over to a cause which was sustained 
 by such a firm conviction of its truth; and although with some, 
 indeed, the impression wore off, others, on the contrary, though 
 they concealed it then, manifested it afterwards with great cour- 
 
 age, 
 
 Luther had returned to his hotel, and was reposing his weary 
 body, after the fatigue of so rude an assault. Spalatin and other 
 friends surrounded him, and all joined in praising God. While 
 thus engaged, a footman entered, bearing a silver vase filled with 
 Eimbeck beer. "My master," said he, presenting it to Luther, 
 " invites you to refresh yourself with this drink."" — " What prince 
 is it," said the Wittemberg doctor, "who so graciously bethinks 
 himself about meT" It was the old duke Erick of Brunswick. 
 This offering from so powerful a lord and one, too, who belonged 
 to the pope's party, affected Luther. "His highness," continued 
 the servant, "was pleased to taste it himself before sending it to 
 you." Luther then allayed his thirst by pouring out some of 
 the duke's beer for himself, and after drinking it, said: "As 
 duke Erick has this day remembered me, so may our Lord Jesus 
 Christ remember him in the hour of his last conflict."^ The 
 present was a small matter; but Luther, wishing to give a token 
 of his gratitude to the prince that thought of him at such a m.o- 
 nient, gave him all that he had to give, a prayer. The servant 
 went with this message to his master. The old duke called to 
 mind these words on his death-bed, and addressing a young page, 
 Francis von Kramm, as he stood by his bedside, he said, "Take 
 the Gospel, and read to me." The boy read those words of 
 
 ' And so must the remembrance of this great event make the same impression 
 upon us. We owe M. Merle tlie most heartfelt gratitude for having depicted 
 it to us so much to the life, and, above all, ought v?e to be thankful to God -who 
 has bestowed on him the most admirable endowments for doing justice to the 
 task. It is very possible that he relates to us nothing but what may be read 
 flsewhere, and is drawn from credible sources: truly otherwise he would have 
 given us a work of fiction — not a history. l>ut here all is so well put together, 
 so natural, so simple, too, without far-fetched expressions, that verily they must 
 be men without a soul, or stubbornly prepossessed against the truth, whether they 
 be of the Roman Catholics or so called enlightened Protestants, who perceive 
 nothing here but French glibness of speech. — L. R. 
 
 ^ Also gedcncke seiner unscr Ilcrr Christusin scinem letzten KampfF. (Seek. 
 3.51.) 
 
THE EMPERORS MESSAGE TO THE DIET. 627 
 
 Christ : Whosoever shall give you a cup of cold water in my 
 name, because ye belong to Christ, the Saviour hath said, verily 
 1 say unto you, lie shall have his reward. 
 
 Hardly had the duke of Brunswick's valet gone out, when a 
 messenger arrived from the elector of Saxony, commanding 
 Spalatin's immediate attendance on him. Frederick had come 
 to the Diet in great perplexity, believing that in the emperor's 
 presence Luther would find his courage vanish. No wonder, 
 then, that the Reformer's firmness deeply afiected him. When 
 the chaplain arrived the table was laid; the elector was about to 
 sup with his court, and already the basin was brought in for the 
 guests to wash their hands. Seeing Spalatin enter, the elector 
 beckoned to him to follow while he went to his bed-chamber, and 
 there, while alone with him, he said with profound emotion: 
 " Oh how father Luther has spoken before the emperor and before 
 all the states of the empire ! I only tremble lest he may have 
 been too bold."l Frederick then fully resolved to protect the 
 doctor more courageously in future. 
 
 Aleander could not fail to perceive the impression that Luther 
 had produced ; he saw that now there was no time to be lost, and 
 that the young emperor must be urged to adopt vigorous mea- 
 sures. The season was favourable, war with France being 
 imminent. Leo X. desirous of aggrandising his states, and 
 caring little about the peace of Christendom, had caused two 
 treaties to be secretly negotiated at the same time; the one with 
 Charles against Francis, the other with Francis against Charles;2 
 By the one he demanded for himself from the emperor Parma, 
 Placentia, and Ferrara; by the other, he claimed restitution 
 from the king of a part of the kingdom of Naples, which would 
 thus be taken from Charles. The latter perceived the import- 
 ance of gaining over Leo to his interests, in order that he might 
 have him as an ally against his rival, the king of France; and 
 the price seemed small when the friendship of the mighty pon- 
 tiff might be bought by sacrificing Luther. 
 
 On the day following Luther's appearance, being Friday, April 
 
 1 0, wie schbn hat Pater Martinus geredet. (Seek. p. 355.) 
 
 2 Guicciardini L. xiv. p. 175. Dumont. Corp. dipl. T. iv. p. 96. — Dicesi del 
 papa Leone, che quando I'aveva fatto lega con alcuno, prima soleva dir che pcro 
 non si dovea restar detratar cum lo altro principe opposto. (Suriano, Venetian 
 ambassador at Rome, M. S. C. Archives of Venice.) 
 
(>28 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 19th, the emperor caused a message, written in French with 
 his own hand, to be read to the Diet.i "Descended," said 
 he, "from the Christian emperors of Germany, from the catholic 
 kings of Spain, from the archdukes of Austria, the dukes of 
 Burgundy, all of them illustrious as defenders of the Roman 
 faith, I am firmly resolved to follow the example of my fore- 
 fathers. A single monk, led astray by his own folly, rises against 
 the faith of Christendom. I will sacrifice my kingdoms, my 
 power, iity friends, my treasures, my body, my blood, my spirit, 
 and my life in putting a stop to this impiety.- I am about to 
 send back the Augustinian, Martin Luther, forbidding him mean- 
 while to cause the least tumult among the people; I will then 
 proceed against him and his adherents, as against manifest 
 heretics, by excommunication, by interdict, and by all means 
 fitted to ruin them.^ I call upon the members of the states to 
 conduct themselves like faithful Christians." 
 
 This address was not universally acceptable. Young and pas- 
 sionate, Charles had departed from ordinary forms; he ought 
 first to have asked the advice of the Diet. Two extreme opinions 
 forthwith were expressed. The creatures of the pope, the elector 
 of Brandenburg, and several ecclesiastical princes, insisted that 
 no respect should be paid to the safe-conduct that had been 
 granted to Luther.'^ "The Rhine,"" they said, "ought to receive 
 his ashes as it received, a century ago, those of John Huss." 
 Charles, if we are to believe an historian, bitterly repented after- 
 wards of not having followed this dastardly advice. " I confess," 
 said he towards the close of life, "that I committed a great 
 fault, in allowing Luther to live, I was under no obligation to 
 keep. my promise to him, that heretic having ofiended a greater 
 master than me, even God himself. I could, I even ought to 
 have forgotten my promise, and to have revenged the insults he 
 had done to God: it is from my not having seen to his death 
 that heresy has never ceased to make progress. His death 
 would have crushed it in its cradle.''^ 
 
 > Antographum in lingua Burgandicaab ipso met enarratum. (Cochlceus, 32.) 
 2 Regna, thesauros, amicos, corpus, sanguinem, vitam, spiritumque profundere. 
 (Fallav. i. p. 118.) 
 
 ^ Und andern Wegen sie zu vertilgen. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 681.) 
 
 * Pass Luthero das sichere Geleit nicht mbclite gehalten worden. (Seckend, 
 p. 357.) 
 
 * Sandoval : Hist, de Carlos V. quoted in Llorente's Hist, de V Inquisition, 
 
PARTY SPIRIT RUNS lllfUI IN WOUM.S. 629 
 
 So horrible a proposal aa this filled the elector aiid all Luther's 
 friends with dismay. "The execution of John Huss," said the 
 elector palatine, "caused too many calamities to break out upon 
 the German nation, to allow us to dream of having a stake pre- 
 pared for any such purpose again."* — "The princes of Germany,"''' 
 exclaimed even George of Saxony, Luther's irreconcilcable enemy, 
 "will not permit a safe-conduct to be violated. This, the first 
 Diet that has been held by our new emperor, will not render 
 itself guilty of so shameful an action. Such perfidy docs not 
 accord with the ancient German probity." The princes of 
 Bavaria, devoted as they were to the church of Kome, supported 
 this protestation. Thus the scene of death which had scared 
 the minds of Luther's friends, seemed to be removed to a dis- 
 tance. 
 
 The report of these discussions, which lasted two days, spread 
 through the city. Party spirit ran high. Those men of noble 
 family who espoused the Reformation, began to speak firmly 
 against the treachery required by Aleander. "The emperor," 
 said they, "is a young man, whom the papists and bishops, by 
 their flatteries, induce to act as they please."^ Pallavicini makes 
 mention of four hundred nobles who were prepared to make good 
 by their swords the safe-conduct that had been granted to Luther. 
 On Saturday morning placards were found attached to the house 
 deors and public places; some against Luther, and others in his 
 favour. On one of these there was simply placed the energetic 
 words of the preacher: "Wo to thee, O land, whose king is a 
 child." Seckingen, it was said, had collected many knights and 
 soldiers behind the impregnable ramparts of his fortress, at the 
 distance of some leagues from Worms, and waited only to know 
 what was to be the issue of the affair before he proceeded to act. 
 The enthusiasm of the people, not only in Worms but even in 
 the most remote cities of the empire,^ the fearless valour of the 
 
 i. p. 57. According to Llorente, the supposition that Charles, towards the close 
 of his life, inclined to evangelical sentiments, is a mere invention of Protestants 
 and of the enemies of Philip II. This question is an historical problem which 
 the numerous citations of Llorente seem unhappily to resolve completely accord- 
 ing to his opinion. 
 
 ' Eum esse puerum, qui nutu et blanditiis Papistarum et Episcoporum tra- 
 natur quocunque velint. (Cochloeus, p. 33.) 
 
 2 Verum etiam in longinquis Germanise civitatibus, molus et iimrmura plebium. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
630 HISTORY OF THE REFORAIATION. 
 
 knights, tlie personal attachment which several of the princes 
 bore towards the Reformer, everything, in short, must have 
 made Charles and the Diet sensible that the course required by 
 the Romans might compromise the supreme authority, stir up 
 revolts, and even convulse the empire. ^ It was a mere monk 
 whom they deliberated about burning; but not even all the 
 princes and partisans of Rome could muster sufficient courage to 
 do it. Nor can we doubt that Charles V., who was then a youth, 
 still dreaded perjury — a supposition confirmed by the words, if 
 truly reported, which some historians inform us that he uttered 
 on this occasion : " Though honesty and good faith were banished 
 from the whole universe, they ought to find an asylum in the 
 heart of princes." It is sad to think that he may have for- 
 gotten this while approaching the grave. Furthermore, other 
 motives may possibly have influenced the emperor. The Flor- 
 entine Vettori, the friend of Leo X. and of Machiavel, alleges 
 that Charles spared Luther, only that thus he might better hold 
 the pope in check.^ 
 
 At the sitting held on Saturday, the violent counsels of Ale- 
 ander were set aside. Luther was an object of affection; a desire 
 was felt to save the life of a man of such simplicity of character, 
 and who displayed so touching a confidence in God; but not the 
 less was there a desire felt to save the Church too. People 
 shuddered at the thought of the consequences that might follow 
 equally the triumph and the punishment of the Reformer. 
 Voices were raised in favour of a reconciliation, and it was sug- 
 gested that a new attempt should be made to that effect with 
 the Wittemberg doctor. The arch-bishop-elector of Maintz 
 himself, the young and sumptuous Albert, more devout than 
 courageous,^ says Pallavicini, had become alarmed on seeing the 
 mterest shown by the people and the nobility, in favour of the 
 Saxon monk. His chaplain, Capito, who during his residence 
 at Basel, had lived on friendly terms with the evangelical priest 
 at Zurich, called Zwingle, a man undaunted in the defence of the 
 
 1 Es ware sin Aufruhr daraus worden, says Luther. 
 
 2 Carlo si excus6 di non poter procedere piu oltre, rispetto al salvo condotto, 
 ma la Verita fu che conoscendo che il Papa temeva molto di questa doctrina di 
 Luthero, lo voile tenere con questo freno. (Vettori, istoria d' Italia. M. S. C. 
 Biblioth. Corsini at Rome, extracted by Ranke.) 
 
 3 Qui pio magis animo erat quam forti. (Pallavicini, p. 118.) 
 
STRANGERS AT WORMS SYMPATHIZE WITH LUTFIER. f).S 1 
 
 truth, \vhom we have already had occasion to niontioii, no douhfc 
 had Hkewise pressed the justice of the Reformer's cause upon 
 Albert. The worldly archbishop had one of those returns to 
 Christian sentiments which are to be observed at times in his 
 life, and consented to go to the emperor and ask him to permit 
 a last effort to be made. But Charles absolutely refused. On 
 Monday, April 22d, the princes went to him in a body to renew 
 Albert's solicitations. '' 1 will not depart from what I have deter- 
 mined," replied the emperor. "I will commission no one to go to 
 Luther officially. But," added he, greatly to the oflence of Ale- 
 ander, "I allow the man three days to reflect; during that time, 
 each may, on his own account, make such exhortations to him as 
 the case requires."^ This was all that was wanted. The Refor- 
 mer, it was thought, though fevered by the solemnity of his public 
 appearance, will yield in a conference of a more friendly kind, so 
 that possibly he may be rescued from the abyss into which he 
 is about to fall. 
 
 The elector of Saxony knew the contrary; and accordingly he 
 was filled with alarm. " Were it in my power,"" he wrote on the 
 day following to his brother, duke John, "I should be ready to 
 support Luther. You cannot imagine how the partisans of 
 Rome are attacking me. Could 1 tell you all, you would hear 
 wonders,'- They are bent on destroying him, and the moment 
 any one shows any interest in preserving him, he is forthwith 
 cried down as an heretic. May God, who does not abandon the 
 cause of righteousness, bring matters to a good end!" Fred- 
 erick, while he made no display of the warm affection which he 
 bore to the Reformer, was contented with not allowing a single 
 movement of his to escape his own observation. 
 
 It was not thus with the men of every rank who were then 
 to be found at Worms. They fearlessly declared their sym- 
 pathy; so much so, that from the Friday's sitting, a crowd of 
 princes, counts, barons, knights, gentlemen, clergymen, laity, 
 and common people surrounded the Reformer's hotel, going in, 
 coming out, and never thinking that they had seen enough of 
 him. 3 He had become the man of Germany, and those even 
 
 ' Quibus privatim exhortari homincm posscnt. (Pallavicini, i. p. 119.) 
 
 ^ Wunder hbren werdcn. (Seckend. . 65.) 
 
 ^ Und konnten nicht satt wcrden ihn zu sehen. (L. 0pp. xvii. p. 581.) 
 
632 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIOiV. 
 
 who considered him to be unquestionably in error, were affected 
 with that nobleness of soul whicli led him to sacrifice his life to 
 the voice of his conscience. With several of the personages then 
 at Worms, men who were considered the choice of the nation, 
 Luther held conversations seasoned with the salt that accom- 
 panied all that he said. No one could leave him without glow- 
 ing with a generous enthusiasm for the truth. "How many- 
 things I shall have to tell you!" wrote the private secretary of 
 the margrave Casimir of Brandenburg, George Vogler, to one of 
 his friends. "How many conversations full of godliness and 
 kindness Luther has had with me, and with others ! What an 
 agreeable person he is!"^ 
 
 One day a young prince of seventeen years of age, came 
 prancing into the court of the hotel; it was Philip, who had now 
 for two years been reigning over Hesse. The young margrave 
 was of a prompt and enterprising character, of a wisdom beyond 
 his 3^ears, of a warlike and impetuous disposition, and liked to 
 regulate his conduct by his own ideas. He had been struck 
 M'ith Luther''s speech, and wanted to have a nearer view of him. 
 "But he was not yet on my side," said Luther, while relating 
 this.2 He leapt from his saddle, went up without farther cere- 
 mony to Luther's room, and apostrophising him, said, "Well, 
 dear doctor, how go mattei^ now?" — "Gracious lord!" replied 
 Luther, " I hope they will go on well." — "From what I hear," 
 said the margrave, laughing, "you teach, doctor, that a woman 
 may leave her husband and take another when the first is 
 thought too old ! " The imperial court people had been telling 
 the landgrave this nonsense; and, indeed, the enemies of the 
 truth are never at a loss for fables to circulate about the pre- 
 tended instructions of Christian doctors. — "No, my lord," replied 
 Luther seriously; "let not your highness talk thus, I pray you !" 
 Thereupon the prince frankl}^ held out his hand to the doctor, 
 grasped his cordially, and said: "Dear doctor, if you be in the 
 right, God help you!" ... He then left the room, again 
 mounted his horse, and set off. This was the first interview of 
 these two men who were afterwards to take the lead in the Re- 
 
 ' Wie eine holdselige Person er is. (Meuzel. Magaz. i. p. 207.) 
 ^ War noch iiiclit auf meiner Seite. (L. 0pp. xvii. p. 589.) 
 
PIHIOlLaiF IME ilA©I^AKlQi50®(lJS, 
 
A RECONCILIATION ATTEMPTKD. 63^ 
 
 Formation, ami to (IciViul it, tlieone with tlie sword of tlio Word, 
 the other with that of kings. 
 
 The person who, by permission from Charles V., undertook 
 the office of mediator, was Richard of Greifenklau, archbishop 
 of Treves. At once on intimate terms with the elector of 
 Saxony and a good Roman Catholic, Richard wished, by bring- 
 ing this difficult affair to a settlement, to do a service both to 
 his friend and to the Church. On Monday evening, April 22d, 
 just as Luther was about to sit down to supper, a messenger 
 from the archbishop came to tell him that that prelate desired 
 to see him on the day after to-morrow, being Wednesday, at six 
 in the morning. 
 
 XI. The chaplain and Sturm, the imperial usher, were with 
 Luther on that day before six. But previous to that, at four 
 o'clock, Aleander had sent for Cochlceus to come to him. The 
 nuncio was not long of discovering that the man whom Capito 
 had introduced to him, was a devoted servant of the court of 
 Rome, on whom he could rely as surely as on himself. 
 Unable to be present at the interview himself, Aleander 
 wished to have a substitute in his place. "Be you at the arch- 
 bishop of Treves''s," said he to the dean of Frankfort : " avoid 
 having any discussion with Luther, but be content with listen- 
 ing attentively to all that shall be said, so that you may be 
 able to give me a faithful report of it." ^ 2 "Jhe Reformer 
 arrived at the archbishop"'s along with some friends, and found 
 the prelate surrounded with the niargi-ave, Joachim of Bran- 
 denburg, the bishops of Brandenburg and Augsburg, some nobles, 
 deputies from the free cities, jurisconsults, and theologians, 
 among which last were Cochlceus and Jerome Wehe, chancellor 
 of Baden. The latter, a skilful lawyer, wanted a reformation 
 in manners and discipline ; he even went farther : " The word 
 of God," he would say, "after being so long hidden under a 
 
 ' Aleander, mane hora quarta vocaverit ad se Cochloeum jubens ut . . 
 audiret solum. . . . (Cochlcnus, p. 36.) 
 
 ^ Mark here the cunning of Rome : quietly spying out all that is done and 
 said by others, in order to take its own measures more surely, and, meanwhile, 
 not divulging its own private thoughts, as almost always happens with open- 
 hearted persons. For this probably Aleander's absence and the pretended 
 obstacles that obliged him to send another in his place, were designed. Such 
 was then and is still the policy of the Roman court, in order that every thing 
 may be well prepared beforehand for the full execution of whatever has been 
 previously intended. L. R. 
 
 I. 4 ). 
 
G34> HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 bushel, must re-appear in all its lustre." ^ It was this concilia- 
 tory person who was charged with conducting the conference. 
 Turning with a kind expression to Luther, he said: " You 
 have not been sent for that we might enter into a discussion 
 with you, but that we might address you in the language of 
 brotherly affection. You know how carefully Scripture bids ua 
 beware of t/ie arrow that fiieih and of the demon of the noon day. 
 That enemy of mankind has incited you to publish things 
 contrary to religion. Look to your own salvation and that of 
 the empire. Beware lest those whom Jesus Christ hath 
 redeemed by his death from death everlasting, be seduced by you 
 and perish for ever. . . . Do not set yourself against the holy 
 councils. If we do not maintain what our fathers have decreed, 
 there will be nothing but confusion in the Church. The eminent 
 princes who hear me, take a particular interest in your preserva- 
 tion, but should you persist, the emperor will then banish you 
 from the empire,^ and no part of the world will have an asylum 
 to offer you. . . . Reflect then on the doom that awaits you!" 
 " Most clement and illustrious princes and lords," replied 
 Luther, " I return you most humble thanks for that most 
 clement and kind good will which has suggested this admoni- 
 tion. For I acknowledge myself to be a petty person, much too 
 worthless to be admonished by such princes." ^ He then con- 
 tinued : " I have not found fault with all the councils, but only 
 with that of Constance, because, in condemning that doctrine 
 of John Huss : That the Church of Christ is the universal body of 
 the predestined to salvation,^ it condemned the article of our creed 
 which says, / believe in the holy universal Church, and the Word 
 of God itself." " My instructions, it is said, give offence," he 
 added, " I reply, that the gospel of Christ cannot be preached 
 without giving offence. How then should this dread, or appre- 
 hension of danger, detach me from the Lord and from that 
 divine Word which is the only truth? . . . No, rather give 
 up my body, my blood, my life!" . . 
 
 ' Dass das Wort Gottes, welches so lange unter dem Scheffel verborgen 
 gesteckt, heller scheine . . . (Seckend. 364.) 
 
 * Und aus dem Reich verstossen. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 682, Sleidan, i. p. 97., 
 ^ AgnoBCO enim me homuncionem, longe viliorem esse, quam ut a tantis 
 
 principibiia . . . (L. 0pp. lat. p. 107.) 
 
 * Ecclesia Christi est universitas prccdcstinatorum. (Ibid.) 
 
THE CONVERSATION SOON CLOSKS. 635 
 
 Lutlior then withdrew, while tlie princes and doctors were 
 deliberating; after which Luther was called back, and Wche 
 mildly rejoined : " The powers that bo must be honoured even 
 when they err, and great sacrifices must be made to charity." 
 He then said in a more urgent tone, " Commit yourself to the 
 emperor's judgment, and don't be afraid.'' 
 
 Luther. — " I most heartily consent to my books being 
 examined and judged by the emperor, the princes, and even by 
 the meanest Christians ; but upon one condition, namely, that 
 thev take the Word of God for their rule. Men have nothinjr 
 to do but to obey it. My conscience hangs upon it, and I am a 
 prisoner in its absolute power." ^ 2 
 
 The elector of Brandenburg. — " If I rightly understand you, 
 Mr. Doctor, you do not wish to acknowledge any authority but 
 that of holy Scripture?" 
 
 Luther. — " "^'es, my Lord, precisely so. Yea, I abide by that."3 
 
 Thereupon the princes and the doctors withdrew; but the 
 excellent archbishop of Treves could not make up his mind to 
 relinquish what he had undertaken. " Come," said he to Luther, 
 as he conducted him into his private apartment, and at the same 
 time ordered John Von Eck and Cochloeus on the one side, and 
 Schurff and Amsdorff on the other, to follow them. "Why be 
 
 ' Sie -n-olltcn soin Gewisscn, dass mit Gottes "Wort und Ileiliger Schrifft 
 gebunden und gefangen ware, nicht'dringcn. (Math. p. 27.) 
 
 2 Here we see what was meant when the Reformers appealed to the Word of 
 God as the sole standard of their faith. Witli them this implied nothing but to ohcy 
 that Word ; their consciences were held bound thereto. Where this, as was the 
 case with them, is no mere pretence, but an actual honest certainty, there is no 
 cause to fear that the declarations and contents of that Word will prove very 
 divergent: — then it is no dead judge who cannot speak or make himself under- 
 stood, as the papists pretend, then it is quick and powerful and speaks to the 
 mind. With such, in regard to those things for which it has been really sent, it 
 speaks the same language throughout, as may be seen in the remarkable agree- 
 ment among the Reformers concerning the chief points of doctrine, and espe- 
 cially with regard to justification by grace. Granting that some difference of 
 sentiment remains, that may also be found in the Romish church on those 
 points which, as is alleged, have not been determined by the Church : here too, 
 then, these differences are to be found in matters of minor consequence : and if, 
 nevertheless, they (the Reformers) are to be blamed in this respect, it can justly 
 be so only in that, with regard to some at least, they have not been sufficiently 
 tolerant towards each other, but not in that they could not have had any com- 
 plete assurance in what is necessary for salvation ; as little as this charge would 
 he well founded with respect to the creed of Romanists, because the pope has 
 left some points undetermined. Most unfair is it, also, to appeal to the dissen- 
 sions which are to be found among later Protestants, and particularly those of 
 the present day, where among those, appealing to God's Word is a mere pre- 
 tence, as appears from their whole light treatment of the same. — L. R 
 
 ^ la darauf stehe Ich. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 688.) 
 
636 niSTOTlY OF THE REFORMATION'. 
 
 always appealing to holy Scripture?" said Eck warmly; "it is from 
 that quarter that all heresies have proceeded." But Luther, says 
 his friend Mathesius, remained immovable as a rock reposing 
 on the true rock, the Word of the Lord. " The pope,"" he 
 replied, " is not at all judge in the things of the Word of God. 
 Every Christian ought himself to see and comprehend how he 
 ought to live and die."' The parties then separated. The 
 partisans of the popedom were sensible of Luther's superiority, 
 and ascribed it to there being no one present who was capable 
 of replying to him. " Had the emperor acted wisely," said 
 Oochloeus, "in summoning Luther to Worms, he would have 
 called thither theologians also who might have refuted his errors." 
 
 The archbishop of Treves repaired to the Diet and announced 
 the small success that had attended his mediation. The youth- 
 ful emperor's astonishment was equalled only by his indignation. 
 " It is high time," said he, " that this affair were brought to a 
 close." The archbishop begged that two days more might be 
 granted; the whole Diet joined in this request; and Charles con- 
 sented. Aleander bitterly coraplained.2 
 
 Whilst these things were taking place at the Diet, Cochlceus 
 was burning with eagerness to carry off the victory which had 
 been denied to prelates and to kings. Although he had allowed 
 a few words to escape him from time to time at the archbishop's, 
 he had been restrained by the injunction that had been laid 
 upon him by Aleander, not to interfere. He was resolved to 
 indemnify himself, and had hardly concluded his report of what 
 had taken place to the papal nuncio when he went to see Luther. 
 Addressing him as a friend, he told him how much vexation he 
 had felt on hearing of the emperor s resolution. After dinner 
 tiie conversation became more animated.^ Cochloeus urged 
 Lutlicr to retract. The latter intimated by a sign that he 
 could not. Several noblemen who happened to be at the table, 
 could hardly restrain themselves under their feelings of indig- 
 nation at the partisans of Rome wishing, not to convince the 
 Reformer by Scripture, but to coerce him by force. " Very well," 
 8avs Cochloeus to Luther, losing patience at their reproaches, 
 
 ■ Ein Christenmensch muss zuschen und richton. (L. Epp. i. p. 604.) 
 2 Do eis Aleander acerrime conquestus est. (Pallavicini, i. p. 120.) 
 '■ I'wacto prandio. (CochlcBus, p. 36.) 
 
A SNARE AND ACCIDEXT NARRATED. G37 
 
 " 1 ofTer to dispute with you in public, if you will renounce your 
 safe-conduct."' Now, all that Luther called for was a public 
 disputation. What, then, was he to do ? To renounce the safe- 
 conduct was to destroy himself ; to refuse the defiance of Cochloeus, 
 was to seem as if he doubted the truth of his own cause. The 
 guests perceived in this challenge a treacherous artifice concerted 
 with Aleander, whom the dean of Frankfort had just left, and 
 Vollrat of Watzdorff, who was one of them, disembarrassed 
 Luther of so difficult an alternative. Indignant at a snare set 
 for no other purpose but that of delivering Luther into the hands 
 of the pubhc executioner,- this nobleman, being of a fiery tem- 
 perament, rose impetuously, seized the terrified priest and pushed 
 iiim out of the room, so fiercely that blood would have flowed 
 but for the interference of the other guests in behalf of the terror- 
 struck Cochloeus, who fled in confusion till he was far from the 
 hotel of the knights of Rhodes.3 No doubt it was in the heat 
 of discussion that the (ofi'ensive) expression had escaped the 
 dean, and no such design had been preconcerted by Aleander 
 and him to entrap Luther so insidiously, for Cochloeus denies 
 it, and we feel a pleasure in giving credit to his testimony. 
 Nevertheless, he had come from a conference with the nuncio 
 when he waited upon Luther. 
 
 In the evening the archbishop assembled at supper those who 
 had been present at the conference in the morning, thinking that 
 this might prove a means of enlarging men's minds and recon- 
 ciling them to each other. Dauntless and resolute as he was in 
 the presence of arbiters and judges, Luther displayed a good 
 humour and a cheerfulness that led people to expect all that 
 they could wish from him. The archbishop's chancellor, not- 
 withstanding the stiffness he had exhibited in his official char- 
 acter, lent himself to this experiment, and towards the close of 
 the entertainment, proposed that they should drink Luther's 
 health. The latter prepared to return the compliment ; he had 
 filled his glass, and according to the custom of that time, was 
 marking it with the sign of the cross, when all at once it flew 
 
 1 Und ■wolltc rnit mir disputiren, ich sollte allein das Geleit aufsagen. (L. 
 
 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 689.) 
 
 - Atque ita traderent eum carnificinao. (Cochloeus, p. 36.) 
 
 ^ Das Ihm das Blut liber den Konfif gelaufen ware, wo man nicht gewehret 
 
 hatte. (L. 0pp. fL.) x^ii. p. 689 ) 
 
638 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION'. 
 
 into pieces, spilling the wine on the table. The guests were in 
 consternation. "There must have been poison there," ^ said 
 some of Luther"'s friends aloud. But the doctor, without being 
 in the least discomposed, replied with a smile: " My dear Sirs, 
 either this wine was never destined for me, or it would have 
 hurt me. The glass doubtless has gone to shivers, in conse- 
 quence of having been plunged too soon into cold water, when 
 it was washed." These simple words, uttered in such circum- 
 stances, have something great in them, and give evidence of a 
 peace of mind that nothing could disturb. It is not to be sup- 
 posed that the Roman Catholics could have wished to poison 
 Luther, especially in the house of the archbishop of Treves. The 
 entertainment neither alienated nor reconciled the parties; the 
 Reformer's resolution was not to be influenced either by the favour 
 or the hatred of men; it had a higher source. 
 
 On Thursday morning, April 20th, the chancellor Wehe, and 
 Dr. Peutinger of Augsburg, the imperial counsellor, who had 
 shown much aff'ection for Luther ever since his interview with 
 de Vio, called at the hotel of the knights of Rhodes. The 
 elector of Saxony sent Frederick of Thun, and another of his 
 counsellors, to be present at the conference. " Commit yourself 
 in this matter to us," said Wehe and Peutinger with much 
 feeling, for they would willingly have sacrificed everything to 
 prevent the division which was about to rend the Church asunder. 
 "This business will end in a Christian way; we assure you that 
 it will." — "You have my answer in two words," said Luther. 
 " I consent to renounce my safe-conduct.^ Into the emperor's 
 hands I commit my person and my life, but the Word of God 
 . . never! " Frederick of Thun then rose with emotion 
 and said to the envoys : " Is not this enough ? Is not the 
 sacrifice great enough?" whereupon he went out, declaring that 
 he did not want to hear more. Wehe and Peutinger, hoping to 
 come to better terms with the Doctor, then returned to their 
 seats beside him: " Commit yourself in this matter to the Diet," 
 said they — " No," replied Luther, "/or cursed he the man that 
 
 * Es miisse Gift darinnen gewesen seyn. — Luther says nothing of this ci-rcum- 
 stance; but Razoberg, Luther's friend, physician to the elector John Frederick, 
 relates it in a manuscript to be found in the library at Gotha, and says that he 
 had it from an eye-witness. 
 
 ^ Er wollte ehe das Geleit aufsagen . . . (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. 589.) 
 
M'TIirU CONSENTa TO A GENERAL COUNCIL. 6S9 
 
 trusteth in man! (Jeremiah, 17.)" Wclio and Peutinger 
 redoubled tlieir exhortations and importunities ; they urged the 
 Reformer in the most pressing manner. Lutlier, wearied witli 
 this, rose and bid them farewell, saying: " I will not allow any 
 man to place himself above the Word of God.""^ — " Take further 
 time for reflection," said they while retiring, " we shall return 
 in the afternoon." 
 
 They did in fact return; but under the conviction that Luther 
 would not give way, they brought a new proposal with them. 
 Luther had refused to acknowledge (as his judge) first the pope, 
 next the emperor, then the Diet ; there still remained a judge 
 whom he had once invoked — namely, a general council. No 
 doubt this was such a proposal as Rome would have met with 
 indignation ; but it was the last remaining plank of safety, so 
 the delegates offered it to Luther, and he could have accepted it 
 without binding himself to anything precise. — Whole years must 
 have elapsed before the obstacles that the pope would be sure to 
 oppose to the convocation of a council, could be overcome ; and 
 to gain whole years, in the case of the Reformation, was to gain 
 everything. In that event, God and time might be expected to 
 do great things. But Luther before all things desired to be fair 
 and honest ; he had no wish to save liimself at the expense of 
 truth, even although dissimulation required nothing more than 
 silence. — " I consent to that," replied he, " but (and this quali- 
 fication was tantamount to refusing the award of a council) on 
 condition that the council shall judge only according to holy 
 Scripture. ""-^ 
 
 Not dreaming that a council could judge otherwise, Peutinger 
 and Wehe ran, quite overjoyed, to the archbishop : " Doctor 
 Martin,*" said they to him, " submits his books to a council," 
 and the archbishop was about to proceed with this good news to 
 the emperor, when some doubts came into his mind ; he sent 
 for Luther. 
 
 Richard of GreifFenklau was alone when the doctor arrived. 
 "Dear Mr. Doctor," said the archbishop with much kindness, and 
 more than common favour, 3 "my doctors assure me that you con- 
 
 ' Er wollte kurtzrum Menschen iiber Gottes Wort nicht erkennen. (L. 0pp. 
 (L.) xvii. p. 583.) 
 ^ Dass dariiber aus der hciligen Schrifl't gesprochen. (Ibid. p. 584.) 
 * Ganz gut und niehr denn gnsedig. (L. Epp. i. p. 604.) 
 
640 HISTORY OF THE REFOHMATION. 
 
 sent to submit your cause unreservedly to a council."" — " My 
 lord," replied Luther, " I can endure anything, but not the aban- 
 donment of Holy Scripture." The archbishop then perceived that 
 Wehe and Peutinger had misrepresented Avhat he had said. 
 Never could Rome consent to a council which should judge only 
 according to Scripture. "It was," says Pallavicini, "to desire 
 that a w^eak eye should read small print and at the same time 
 to refuse the use of spectacles." ^ 2 Xhe good archbishop heaved 
 a sigh. "It has been well that I sent for you," said he. " What 
 would have become of me had I gone forthwith, and reported 
 the said news to the emperor?'.' 
 
 Luther's immovable firmness, his unbending resolution, are 
 no doubt astonishing, but they will be understood and respected 
 by those who know the rightful claims of God. Rarely has there 
 been a nobler testimony borne to the unchangeable Word of 
 heaven ; and that at the risk of the liberty and the life of the 
 man who bore it. 
 
 "Well then," said the venerable prelate, "point out a remedy." 
 
 Luther, after a short pause. " My lord, I know of none but 
 that of Gamaliel : Jf this council^ or this work, he of men, it will 
 come to nought. But if it he of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest 
 haply ye he found even to fight against God. Let the emperor, the 
 electors, the princes, and the states of the empire transmit this 
 answer to the pope!" 
 
 Archbishop. — "Retract some articles at least." 
 
 Luther. — " Provided they be not those that w^ere condemned 
 by the council of Constance." 
 
 Archbishop. — "Ah ! Indeed I fear these will be precisely such 
 as will be insisted for." 
 
 Luther. — " Then better make a sacrifice of my body and my 
 
 ' Simulque conspiciliorum omnium usum negare. (L. Epp. i. 110.) 
 2 Singular comparison indeed ! God's Word, which must be a light for our feet, 
 and a lamp to our path, shall be likened to a book printed for weak eyes, in such 
 email type, that in order to i-ead it, spectacles are necessary. Now what man 
 would be such a fool as to print in so small a type for such an eye, so as that 
 the book by itself should be unreadable ? Yet such is the folly with which 
 those persons would charge God, who give out that the Bible is designedly so 
 obscurely written, that it requires some further exposition. Cardinal Palla- 
 vicini, and all the other abettors of the Roman see, by such an allegation betray 
 their dread lest the cleai-ness of Holy Scripture should speedily expose the 
 falsehood of their doctrines, and thus endeavour by it to keep the Bible out of 
 men's hands. -^ L. R. 
 
NEGOTIATIONS NOW HROUGHT TO AN END. 641 
 
 life, better allow my arms and legs to be cut off, tlian abandon 
 the clear and true Word of God.""! 
 
 The Archbishop understood Luther at last. " You may with- 
 draw," said he, still with the same mildness. — "My lord," re- 
 joined Luther, " will you be so good as take the necessary steps 
 for my obtaining from his majesty the safe-conduct that will be 
 required for my return?" — "1 will see to that," replied the good 
 archbishop, and they parted. 
 
 Thus ended these negotiations. The whole empire had turned 
 towards this man- with the most ardent prayers, and the most 
 terrible menaces, and the man had not faltered. His refusal to 
 bend beneath the iron arm of the pope, emancipated the Church, 
 and ushered in a new era. The intervention of Providence was 
 manifest. We have here one of those great scenes in history, 
 over above which the Divinity soars aloft in majestic grandeur. 
 
 Luther went out along with Spalatin, who had come in dur- 
 ing the conference with the archbishop. The elector of Saxony's 
 counsellor, John von Minkwitz, had fallen sick at Worms, and 
 the two friends now went to inquire for him at his house. 
 Luther addressed the invalid in language of the most affecting 
 consolation. "Farewell," said he on leaving him, "to-morrow 
 I shall leave Worms." 
 
 Luther was not mistaken. Within three hours from his 
 return to the hotel of the knights of Rhodes, the chancellor Von 
 Eck, accompanied by the emperor's chancellor and a notary, pre- 
 sented themselves. 
 
 The chancellor said to him: "Martin Luther, his imperial 
 majesty, the elector, princes, and states of the empire, having 
 exhorted thee to submission several times, and in several ways, 
 but always in vain, the emperor in his quality of advocate 
 and defender of the catholic faith, finds himself necessitated to 
 proceed. He therefore orders thee to return home within the 
 space of twenty-one days, and forbids thee to trouble the public 
 peace along the road, whether by preaching or by writings." 
 
 Luther was well aware that this message was but the com- 
 mencement of his condemnation. "It has happened as the Lord 
 
 » Ehe Stumpf und Stiel fahrcn lassen. . . . (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 684.) 
 ' Totum imperium ad se conversum spectabat. ( Pallavicini, i. p. 120.) 
 
 I. 4 M 
 
C42 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 hath pleased," he miklly rephed, "blessed be the name of th<? 
 Lord." He then added : " First of all, I most humbly, and from 
 the bottom of my heart, thank his majesty, the electors, princes, 
 and other states of the empire, for their having heard me with 
 so much kindness. I have not desired, nor do I now desire more 
 than one thing, a reformation of the Church according to Holy 
 Scripture. I am ready to do all, and to suffer all, in the way 
 of humble submission to the emperor. Life and death, honour 
 and disgrace, all is the same to me ; I make but one reservation : 
 the preaching of the Gospel ; for, says St. Paul, the Word is not 
 bound.'''' The deputies then withdrew. 
 
 On Friday, the 26tli of April, in the morning, the Reformer's 
 friends and several noblemen met at Luther's quarters.' It gave 
 them pleasure to see in the Christian constancy he had opposed 
 to Charles and to the empire, the celebrated portrait of antiquity 
 realised: 
 
 Justum et tenacem propositi viruin 
 Non civium ardor, prava jubentium, 
 
 Non vultus instantis tyranni 
 Mente quatit solida.^ . . . 
 
 They wished once more, and possibly for the last time, to bid 
 adieu to this intrepid monk. Luther provided a modest repast. 
 And now he had to take leave of his friends, and to fly to a dis- 
 tance from them, under a sky surcharged with storms. That 
 solemn moment he desired to pass in the presence of God. He 
 lifted his soul to him. He blessed those who surrounded him. ^ 
 Ten o'clock struck, and Luther left the hotel with the friends 
 who had accompanied him to Worms. Twenty geiitils-Jiommes^ 
 on horseback surrounded his carriage, a great crowd of people 
 accompanied him beyond the walls of the city. The imperial 
 
 1 Salutatis patronis et amicis qui eum frequentisyime convenerunt. . . . 
 (L. 0pp. lat. ii. p. 168.) 
 
 * Herat. Od. lib. iii. 3. Which may be rendered this : 
 
 The just, the firm, unshaken stands • 
 
 Befbre the mob's unjust commands ; 
 The tyrant's looks, when fiercest, prove 
 Powerless his steadfast soul to move. Tu. 
 ^ Seine Freunde gesegnet. (Mathesius, p. 27.) 
 
 * The term gentils-hommes is not translatable into our language, our nobility 
 not forming a separate caste as under the old regime in France, and to this day 
 in Germany. I presume M. Merle d' Aubign6 means men of noble blood, tnough 
 the Acta Doctoris M. Lutheri Wormatice habita do not specify the rank of the 
 Iricnds who accompanied Luther on leaving that city. Tr. 
 
1.UTHER DEPAKT8 FROM WORMS. 643 
 
 usher, Sturm, rejoined him sometime after at Oppenheim, and 
 they arrived on the day following at Frankfort. 
 
 XIII. Thus did Luther escape from the walls of Worms, when 
 they seemed likely to heconio his tomb. His whole heart gave 
 glory to God. "The devil himself," said he, "was guarding 
 the pope's citadel; but Christ has made a large breach in it, and 
 Satan has been obliged to confess that the Lord is more powerful 
 than her'i 
 
 " Tlio day of the Diet of Worms," says the godly Mathesius, 
 Luther's disciple and friend, "is one of the greatest and most 
 glorious days bestowed upon the earth until the end of the 
 world.''2 The combat fought at Worms was heard afar, and at 
 the noise that was made about it throughout all Christendom, 
 from the regions of the North to the mountains of Switzerland, 
 and the cities of England, France, and Italy, many seized with 
 ardour the potent arms of the Word of God. 
 
 Luther, after arriving at Frankfort on Saturday evening, 
 April 27th, on the day following took advantage of a few 
 moments of liberty, the first he had enjoyed for a long while, 
 to write a note remarkable at once for homeliness and energy, to 
 his friend Lucas Cranach, the celebrated painter at Wittemberg. 
 " Your servant, Godsire Lucas," says he, " I thought that his 
 majesty would have assembled some fifty doctors at Worms that 
 the monk might be fairly convicted of error. But nothing of 
 the kind. — Are these books thine? — Yea. — Do you choose to 
 recall them? — Nay. — Well then ! go about your business ! — Such 
 is the whole story. blinded Germans, how like children do 
 we act, and allow ourselves to be outwitted and duped by Home ! 
 
 . . . The Jews must once more be allowed to chant Yo ! 
 Yo! Yo! But Easter will come round for us also; and then 
 Ave shall sing: Alleluiah!^ , , . We must be quiet and 
 suffer for a little while. In a little while, ye shall not see me : and 
 again a little while ye shall see me; said Jesus Christ, (John xvi. 
 16.) I hope that it will be the same with me. Adieu. I com- 
 
 ' Aber Christus macht ein Loch derein. (L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p. 589.) 
 8 Diss ist dor herrlichen grossen Tag einer vorm Ende der Welt. (p. 28.) 
 ^ Es mussen die Juden einmal singen : Jo, Jo, Jo! ... . (L. Epp. i. 
 589 ) These shouts of joy, uttered by the Jews at the time of the crucifixion, 
 represent the triumphant shouts of the partisans of the popedom on the occasion 
 of the catastrophe which was about to burst upon Luther. But the Keformer 
 descried in the future the hallelnj.nh of bis deliverance. 
 
644 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 mend you all to the Lord. May he preserve in Christ your 
 mind and faith against the assaults of the wolves and dragons of 
 Rome. Amen!" 
 
 After writing this somewhat enigmatical letter, as time was 
 pressing, Luther straightway set off for Friedberg, which lies 
 six leagues from Frankfort. On the day following, Luther col- 
 lected his thoughts anew, and wished once more to write to 
 Charles, in whose regards he was unwilling to be confounded 
 with guilty rebels. In his letter to the emperor, he clearly 
 explains what the obedience is that we owe to kings, and what 
 we owe to God, together with the boundary line at which the 
 one must give place to the other. One involuntarily recalls, in 
 reading Luther, that saying of the greatest autocrat of modern 
 times: "My domination ends where that of conscience begins." ^ 
 
 " God, the searcher of hearts, is my witness,"'' said Luther, 
 *' that I am ready eagerly to obey your majesty, whether it be 
 in glory or in disgrace, whether by life or by death, and abso- 
 lutely, excepting nothing but the Word of God, by which man 
 liveth. In all the affairs of the present life, my loyalty shall be 
 immovable, for loss or gain here are matters of indifference in 
 regard to salvation. But it is not the will of God, that where 
 eternal interests are at stake, man should be subject to man. 
 Submission in things spiritual, implies the worship which ought 
 to be rendered to the Creator alone.'"- 
 
 Luther wrote also, but in German, to the states of the 
 empire, and his letter to them is of nearly the same purport 
 with that to the emperor. He recounted in it all that had 
 taken place at Worms. Many copies were taken and dissemi- 
 nated throughout all Germany ; everywhere, said Cochlceus, it 
 excited the indignation of the inhabitants against the emperor 
 and the higher clergy .^ 
 
 Early next morning Luther sent a note to Spalatin, enclosing 
 both the letters that he had written the night before ; he sent 
 
 i Napoleon, to the Protestant deputation on his accession to the empire. 
 
 2 Nam ea fides et submissio proprie est vera ilia latria et adoratio Dei . . . 
 (L. Epp. i. p. 592.) . 
 
 s Per chalcographos multiplicata et in populos dispersa est ea epistola 
 . . . Csesari autem et clericis odium populare, etc. (Cochlojus, p. 38.) It 
 would appear that to increase the interest attached to these letters, this multi- 
 plication was effected by etchings— probably fac-similes- engravers (chalcogra- 
 phi) having been employed. Tr. 
 
THB REFOKMER PREACHES AT ISENAC. 645 
 
 back to Worms the usher, Sturm, who liad been gained over to 
 the cause of the Gospel, and after embracing him, set off in all 
 haste for Grunberg. 
 
 On Tuesday, while still two leagues from Hirschficld, he met 
 the chancellor of the prince — abbot of that town, on his way to 
 receive him. Soon there appeared a troop of horse with the 
 abbot at their head. The latter sprang from his horse; Luther 
 alighted from his car; and after an interchange of greetings, 
 they entered Hirschfield. The senate received them at the city 
 gates.i The princes of the church ran to meet a monk who was 
 cursed by tlie pope, and the leading men among the people 
 bowed respectfully to a man who lay under the ban of the em- 
 peror. 
 
 "By five o'clock to-morrow morning we shall be at church," 
 said the prince, as he rose that evening from the table to which 
 he had invited the Reformer. He would have him occupy 
 his own bed. Luther preached next day, and the prince and 
 his train attended.- 
 
 Luther that evening reached the scene of his boyhood, Tsenac. 
 There all his friends came about him, urging him to preach, and 
 on the day following, they conducted him to the church. The 
 parish priest then made his appearance, accompanied by a notary 
 and witnesses: he stepped forward trembling all over, distracted 
 by the dread of losing his place on the one hand, and that of 
 opposing the powerful man who stood before him on the other. 
 " I protest against the liberty you are about to take," at last 
 said the priest in a tone of embarrassment. Luther went into 
 the pulpit, and soon the same voice, which three and twenty years 
 before, used to sing through the streets of that town for a bit of 
 bread, made the vaulted roofs of its ancient church resound with 
 those accents which were beginning to agitate the world. After 
 sermon the priest stept up to Luther in confusion. The notary 
 had drawn up the act; the witnesses had signed it; all was duly 
 done to prevent the priest from losing his place. " Forgive me,'''' 
 
 ^ Senatus intra portas nos excepit. (L. Epp. ii. p. G.) 
 
 2 Luthor, as quoted by M. Michelet, says that on this occasion he was splen- 
 didly entertained in the monastery — that the abbot actually gave up his own bed 
 to him — that he (Luther) warned them of what might be the conse<iucnces of 
 their getting him to preach, but that he had never consented that the word of 
 God should be bound. Tr. 
 
646 HISTORY or THE REFORMATION. 
 
 said he to the Doctor humbly, " I have done this from dread of 
 the tyrants who are now oppressing the church. "^ 
 
 In truth there was good ground for fear. The face of things 
 had changed at Worms, and Aleander seemed now to have all 
 his own way there. " Luther has to look for nothing short of 
 banishment," Frederick wrote to duke John. " Nothing can 
 save him. If God permit my return to you, I will have incre- 
 dible things to tell you. Not only Annas and Caiaphas, but 
 Pilate and Herod, have combined against him." As Frederick 
 cared little about remaining longer at Worms, he left the place, 
 and was followed by the elector palatine, and the elector arch- 
 bishop of Cologne. Princes of less elevated rank followed their 
 example. Judging it impossible to avert the blow that was 
 about to be struck, they preferred, improperly perhaps, to aban- 
 don the place, leaving none behind but Spaniards, Italians, and 
 the most ultramontane of the German princes. 
 
 The field was now clear, and Aleander could walk the course. 
 He presented to Charles the draught of an edict, designed as a 
 model for what the Diet ought to issue against the monk, and 
 in this case the nuncio''s labours pleased the angry emperor. 
 He convened the remaining members of the Diet in his cham- 
 ber, and made Aleanders edict be read over to them; all then 
 present, Pallavicini positively states, accepted it. 
 
 On the day following, which was a high holiday, the emperor 
 attended church, surrounded by his court, and when the religious 
 solemnities were over, in the presence of a vast multitude throng- 
 ing the sanctuary, Aleander, invested with all the ensigns of 
 his dignity, went up to Charles "V.2 He bore in his hand 
 two copies of the edict against Luther, the one in Latin, the 
 other in German, and prostrating himself before the imperial 
 majest}'-, he besought Charles to attach to these his signature, 
 and the seal of the empire. It was at the moment when the 
 sacrifice (of the Mass) was offered, when incense filled the tem- 
 ple, while the chanting still resounded along its vaulted roofs, and 
 as it were in the very presence of the Divinity, that the destruc- 
 tion of the enemy of Rome was to be signed. The emperor, 
 
 > Humiliter tamen excusante . . . ob metum tyrannorum suorum. (L. 
 Epp. ii. p. 6.) 
 
 * Cum Caesar in templo adessot . . . procossit illi obviam Aleander. 
 (Pallav. i. p. 122.) 
 
THE DECHEE OF CIIAULES 1-UTH AGAINST LKUlrit. fi47 
 
 with a most holiday expression,' took the pen and signed it, and 
 Aleander went out exulting, gave the decree to bo printed, and 
 sent it abroad over all Christendom. 2 This result of Home's 
 labours had cost the popedom some trouble. Pallavicini liim- 
 self tells us, that though bearing the date of May 8th, it wm 
 signed later, but was ante-dated for the purpose of producin" 
 the belief that it was referable to a time when all the members 
 of the diet were still assembled. 
 
 " We Charles V.," said the emperor (then followed his titles), 
 " to all the electors, princes, prelates, and others whom it con- 
 cerns. 
 
 " The Almighty having confided to us, for the defence of his 
 holy faith, more kingdoms, and greater might than he has ever 
 be/itowed on any of our predecessors, we mean to employ all our 
 powers in preventing any heresy from defiling our holy empire. 
 
 " The Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, albeit exhorted by 
 us, has rushed like a madman against holy Church, and has 
 set himself to stifle it with books that are full of blasphemies. 
 He has, in a disgraceful manner, defiled the indestructible law 
 of holy matrimony; he has endeavoured to excite the laity to 
 imbrue their hands in the blood of the priests,^ and, subverting 
 all subordination, he has never ceased to excite men to revolt, 
 division, war, murder, theft, fire-raising, and to labour to accom- 
 plish the utter ruin of the faith of Christians In a 
 
 word, and to say nothing of other malicious acts, this being, who 
 is not a man so much as the evil fiend in human form, concealed 
 under a monk's hood,4 has collected together, in one putrid slough, 
 all the most sinful heresies of times gone by, and to these has 
 added new ones of his own. . . . 
 
 "Accordingly, we have dismissed from our presence this 
 Luther, whom all pious and sensible men hold to be a fool, or one 
 possessed by the devil; and our intention is, that on the expir- 
 ation of his safe-conduct, recourse shall be had to the most 
 effectual means for arresting his furious madness. 
 
 " Therefore it is, that under pain of incurring the punishments 
 due to crimes of leze-majesty, we forbid you to give shelter to 
 
 ' Festivissimo vultu. (Pallav. i. p. 123.) « Et undiquo pcrvul-.ita. (Il'i.l.) 
 3 Ihre llamlc in der Pricstcr Blut zu waschcn. ( L. 0pp. (L.) xvii. p .'.!'^.) 
 * Nicht ein Mensch, sondcrn als der hcBso Fcind in Gcstalt oincs M(«n8chen 
 mit angenommener Moenchskutten. . . . (Ibid.) 
 
648 HISTORY OF THE KEFORMATION. 
 
 the said Luther, from the time that the fatal term be expired, 
 to conceal him, give him food or drink, or furnish him, by word 
 or deer", openly or secretly, with any kind of succour. We further 
 enjoin you to seize him, or cause him to be seized, wherever he 
 may be found, and to bring him to us without any delay, or to 
 retain him in sure custody, until you shall have learnt from us 
 how you ouglit to act in regard to him, and until you shall have 
 received the reward due to your exertions in so holy a cause. 
 
 " As for his adherents, you will apprehend them, suppress 
 down and confiscate their property. 
 
 " As for his writings, if even the best food becomes an object 
 of abhorrence to all men from the moment that a drop of poison 
 is mingled with it, how much more ought such books, in which a 
 deadly poison for the soul is to be found, to be not only rejected, 
 but, further, destroyed i You will therefore burn them, or utterly 
 destroy them in some other way. 
 
 " As for the authors, poets, printers, painters, sellers or pur- 
 chasers of handbills, tracts, or pictures against the pope and 
 against the Church, you will seize them, body and goods, and 
 treat them as you deem fit. 
 
 "And should any one, whatever be his dignity, dare to act 
 contrary to this decree of our imperial majesty, we ordain that 
 he be put to the ban of the empire. 
 
 "Let every one conduct himself as above enjoined.'"^ 
 
 I This imperial ban, drawn up in the name of the emperor, but the production 
 apparently of the pen of cardinal Aleander, is a worthy monument of the spirit 
 of Rome, as it has exhibited itself against the Reformation from its very earliest 
 commencement, and which may serve as a warning to us also. There are three 
 things to be specially remarked in it. First, That no lying and slander is too 
 base, if only men's minds can thereby be stirred up against the Reformation, 
 for where did the misdeeds ever appear of which Luther is here accused? And 
 what was that collection of heresies deserving punishment, which made him 
 resemble Satan in human form? Secondly, That it leaves no means untried 
 that can infuse bitter hatred and blood-thirstiness, in order that the trutn. and 
 all who are attached to it, may be destroyed from the earth : and, lastly. That it 
 seeks to rule by blind prejudice, and therefore it endeavours to make all 
 inquiry impossible, by destroying those writings which might serve to open 
 people's eyes. It is the very same spirit which even now displays itself, in the 
 slanders that men anew more and more make bold to throw out against the Re- 
 formation and the Reformers ; in the bitterness manifested against all attempts 
 that are put forth for the propagation of the truth ; and in the anxiety that is 
 shown to hinder the free examination of the truth and the unfettered examin- 
 ation of the very Bible. It is well for us to be on our guard : for were this 
 spirit, which people begin to show more and more in their operations, to gain 
 the mastery, we may look for such another imperial ban being issued for the 
 destruction of all Protestants, and for the absolute slavish subjection even of 
 all sincere Roman catholics I — I,. R. 
 
'I HE EDICT OF WORMS. 649 
 
 Such was tho edict that was signed in the cathedral at Worms. 
 It was more than a bull from Home which, although published 
 in Italy, might be denied execution in Germany. Hero the 
 emperor himself had spoken, and the Diet had ratified his decree.^ 
 
 1 Far from there being aiiytliing extraordinary in tliis imperial ban, tbo 
 following notices will show that the enijieror and Diet did no more by it than 
 comply with the requirements of the decrees of councils and of popes, etc., 
 authorities which neither had renounced, and with the constitutions of former 
 emperors. 
 
 The third general council of Lateran under Alexander III., the fourth 
 general council of Lateran under Innocent III., and the general council of Con- 
 stance decree that the goods of heretics, if laymen, shall be confiscated — that 
 the temporal lords, on being required by the ecclesiastical authorities " shall 
 within their jurisdictions, without delay, imprison heretics, and cause them to 
 be kept in close custody by putting tliem into fetters and iron chains, till the 
 Church hath passed sentence on them" — they decree that the secular powers, 
 what offices soever they enjoy, shall bo admonished and, if need be, compelled 
 by ecclesiastical censure, that as they desire to be reputed Christians, so they 
 will take an oath for the defence of the faith, and that they will honestly endeav- 
 our with their whole power, to exterminate all heretics, condemned by the 
 Church, out of their territories." 
 
 The general council of Constance requires all archbishops, bishops, and other 
 persons chosen for this work, to admonish and require all kings, emperors, 
 dukes, princes, &c., and by the apostolical authority to command them, to expel 
 all heretics forcmentioned out of their kingdoms, provinces, cities, towns, castles, 
 villages, territories, and other places; according to the canon of the Lateran 
 council, beginning with the words Sicut ait, thai is, according to the 2Yth canon 
 of the third general council of the Lateran, which under anathema forbids any 
 one to let the heretics there mentioned, tarry within their houses or territories. 
 
 The fourth council of Lateran adds that, "if the temporal lord, being required 
 and admonished by the Church, shall neglect to purge his territories from 
 heretical filth he shall be excommunicated by the metropolitan and his suffragans; 
 and if he neglect to give satisfaction within a year, this shall be signified to 
 the pope, that he, from henceforth, may pronounce his subjects discharged from 
 their obedience, and expose his territories to be enjoyed by Catholics, who 
 having exterminated the heretics, shall possess it without any contradiction, so 
 that no injury be done to the principal lord who doth not oppose his procedui-e; 
 provided notwithstanding, that the same law take place against those who have 
 no temporal lords." 
 
 To tho above quotations, which might be greatly multiplied, my authority adds: 
 "Now let it be observed, that both tho councils of Constance and of Basel do 
 reckon this Lateran among those councils which all their popes must swear to 
 maintain to the least tittle, and to defend even to blood, and that the council 
 of Trent not only hath declared it to be a general council, but also doth 
 affirm one of its definitions to be the voice of the whole Church, and therefore 
 these three councils must be supposed to approve all that is cited from this 
 council." The council of Bourgcs, approved by the general council of Basel, 
 declares "that Wjir may justly bo waged against condemned heretics, and that 
 princes and Christian people may be animated to fight against them." 
 
 The fourth general council of Latern decrees that "they who under the 
 badge of the cross will set themselves to exterminate heretics, shall have full 
 remission of all their sins which they confess, and for which they have been con- 
 trite, and a greater degree of everlasting happiness than others may expect." 
 Can. 3. 
 
 By the constitutions of Innocent VIII. "All magistrates, under the penalty 
 of excommunication, must execute the penalties imposed on heretics by the 
 inquisitors, without revising the justice of them, because heresy is a crime 
 merely ecclesiastical." Const. 10. Bull. Rom. To. i. p. 453. See " A Discourse 
 concerning the Laws of the Church of Rome made against Heretics," referred 
 1. -i :>• 
 
650 HISTOKY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 All the partisans of Rome now raised a shout of triumph. " It 
 is the end of the tragedy," they exclaimed, "As for me,**' said 
 Alphonso Valdez, a Spaniard at Charles's court, "I am convinced 
 that it is not the end but the commencement."! Valdez per- 
 ceived that the movement ran through the Church, the people, 
 the age, and that although Luther might fall, his cause ^vould 
 not fall along with him. But yet no one could hide from him- 
 self the imminent — the inevitable danger to which the Reformer 
 himself now stood exposed; and the great mass of the superstitious 
 were horrified to think of this incarnate Satan, whom the emperor 
 had pointed out to the whole nation as going about in the dis- 
 guise of a monk. 
 
 The man against whom the mighty ones of the earth were 
 foroinsr their thunder-bolts, had new left the Church at Isenac, 
 and was preparing to take leave of some of his dearest friends. 
 He did not like the road leading to Gotha and Erfurt, but pre- 
 ferred coins: to the villaire of ^Mora, from which liis father orii>i- 
 nally came, there once more to see his grandmother, who died 
 four months after, and to visit his uncle, Henry Luther, and 
 other relations. Schurff, Jonas, and Suavea set off for Wittem- 
 berg; Luther stepped into his car along with Amsdorff, avIio 
 remained with him, and they accompanied each other through 
 the forests of Thuringia.2 
 
 That same evening he arrived at the village of his fathers. 
 His poor old grandmother clasped in her arms the grandson who 
 had made head against the emperor Charles and pope Leo. 
 Luther spent the next day with the family; glad after the tur- 
 moil he had passed througli at Worms, to enjoy such delightful 
 tranquillity. On the day following he resumed his journey, 
 accompanied by Amsdorff and his brother James. It was amid 
 these solitudes that the Reformer's doom was to be decided. 
 Tliey were skirting the Thuringian woods and following the road 
 
 to in a former Note. One of the most revolting consequences of this frightful 
 and bloody despotism was, that in Spain the king was bound to be present at the 
 burning of condemned heretics. On the SOth of June ICSO, a great avto da fe 
 took place at Madrid, in presence of the king and queen, the chief nobility, and 
 a vast concourse of spectators in holiday attire. The reader will find an affecting 
 description of what then took place in Memoires de la Coiir d'Espagne par 
 ifadame dJAunoy, part ii. p. 51. Tk. 
 
 ' Non finem sed initium. (P. Martyris, Epp. 132.) 
 
 ^ Ad carnem meam trans sylvam profectus. (L, Epp. ii. p. 7.) 
 
LUTHER WAY-LAID AND CARRIED On". G5l 
 
 to Walters-hausen. As the car M'as in a liollow part of tlio 
 road near the deserted church of (Jlishoch, at some distance from 
 Altenstein castle, the travellers suddenly heard a noise, and in 
 an instant live horsemen in masks, and armed from head to heel, 
 burst upon them. James, the brother, no sooner saw the assail- 
 ants, than he leapt from the car, and without uttering a word, 
 ran off as fast as his legs could carry him. The driver wished 
 to defend himself. " Stop," cried one of the unknown with a 
 terrible voice, at the same time throwing himself on him and 
 laying him prostrate, l Another of the masked assailants seized 
 Amsdorff and kept him apart, while the remaining three laid 
 hold of Luther in perfect silence. Having dragged him violently 
 out of the car, they threw a cavalry cloak over his shoulders 
 and mounted him on a led horse. The other two now left Ams- 
 dorff and the driver ; the whole five leapt into their saddles ; 
 one dropt his hat but they did not stay even to pick it up again, 
 and in the twinkling of an eye they and their prisoner were lost 
 to view amid the dark foliage of the forest. They first took the 
 direction of Broderode ; but soon returned by another way, and 
 without leaving the wood, turned and winded about in all direc- 
 tions, in order to mislead any who might be upon their track. 
 
 Little used to riding on horseback, Luther was soon spent 
 with fatisrue.^ He was allowed to dismount for a few minutes, 
 when he lay down under a beech-tree, and quenched his thirst 
 from an adjacent spring, which to this day, is called Luther's 
 spring. His brother James continued his flight until he arrived 
 in the evening at Walters-hausen. The driver, in a great fright, 
 resumed his seat on the car, where Amsdorff had again taken his, 
 and by dint of rapid driving, quickly left the woods far behind, 
 and conducted Luther s friend to Wittemberg. It was soon 
 known at Walters-hausen, Wittemberg, and the intermediate 
 country houses, villages, and towns, that the doctor had been car- 
 ried off; and this news, much as it delighted some, filled the 
 greater number with astonishment and indignation. A cry of 
 lamentation soon arose from all Germany: "Luther has fallen 
 into the hands of his enemies! " 
 
 After .the violent conflict which Luther must have undergone, 
 
 1 Dejectoque in solum auriga et verbcrato, (Pallav. i. p. 122.) 
 " I.nn/:o itinore, novus oques, fcssus. (1^. Epp. ii. p. 3.) 
 
652 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 God desired that he should be conducted into a situation afford- 
 ing him peace and repose. After having placed him on the 
 brilliant theatre of Worms, where all the lieformer's mental 
 energies must have been so greatly excited, he gave him the 
 obscure and humbling retreat of a prison. Redraws forth from 
 the deepest privacy the weak instruments by which he means 
 to accomplish the greatest objects, and then, after allowing them 
 for a time to dazzle men's eyes on some bright scene of life, he 
 sends them back into the most profound obscurity. The Refor- 
 mation was not to be accomplished by violent struggles and 
 pompous exhibitions ; it was not thus that the leaven was to 
 penetrate the mass of the people ; the Spirit of God must have 
 calmer ways whereby to operate. The man who was ever piti- 
 lessly assailing the champions of Rome, was for a time to dis- 
 appear from the world; that great individuality was to be 
 eclipsed, to prevent the revolution that was about to be accom- 
 plished, from bearing the stamp of any individual. It was 
 needful that man should quit the scene, in order that God might 
 remain alone, moving by his Spirit upon the abyss, in which the 
 darkness of the middle ages was in process of being engulphed, 
 and saying. Let there he light! in order that there might be light. 
 
 Night came on at last, and as it was now impossible for any 
 one to follow the track of Luther's conductors, these took a new 
 direction. About eleven o'clock they reached a steep hill which 
 their horses slowly ascended.! It was crowned with an ancient 
 fortress, surrounded on all sides save that on which they 
 approached it, by the dark woods that cover the mountains of 
 Thuringia. 
 
 To this lofty and isolated castle, called the Warthiirg, where 
 landgraves used of old to conceal themselves, they conducted 
 Luther. The bolts were withdrawn, the iron bars fell, the por- 
 tals were opened, the Reformer crossed the threshold, and the 
 folding gates closed behind him. He dismounted on reaching 
 the castle yard. One of the horsemen, Burkard von Hund, 
 lord of Altenstein, then withdrew; another, John von Berlepsch, 
 provost of the Wartburg, conducted the doctor into the room 
 which was to be his prison, and where he found a knighfs habi- 
 
 ' Ilora fermc undecima ad niansionem noctis pcrvcni in tencbris. (L. Epp.) 
 ii. p. ;!.) 
 
LUTHKirS IMPRISONMENT. 653 
 
 liments and a sword. The three other troopers, acting under 
 the provosfs orders, strip him of his clerical dress and equip him 
 in the costume of a knight thus lying ready for him, enjoining 
 him at the same time to allow his beard and hair to grow,' in 
 order that no one in the castle even might discover who he was. 
 The people of the Wartburg were to know the prisoner simply by 
 the name of the knight Sir George. In his new dress Luther 
 could hardly recognise himself ! At last he was left alone, and 
 his mind could rano;e at will over the astounding; events at 
 Worms, the uncertain prospects that lay before him, and his new 
 and strange residence. From the narrow windows of his apart- 
 ment, he could discover the sombre, solitary, and boundless forests 
 which lay all around.2 " There," says Luther's friend and bio- 
 grapher, Mathesius, " the doctor was to remain like St. Paul in 
 his prison at Home." 
 
 Frederick of Thun, Philip Feilitsch, and Spalatin had not con- 
 cealed from Luther, in the course of a confidential conversation 
 which they had held with him at Worms, in compliance with 
 orders from the elector, that his liberty behoved to be sacrificed 
 to the wrath of Charles and the pope.^ Meanwhile Luther was 
 carried off in so mysterious a manner, that Frederick himself 
 long remained ignorant of the spot at which he was confined."* 
 The friends of the Reformation long mourned his disappearance. 
 Spring went by; summer, autumn, winter followed; the sun 
 
 ' Exutus vestibus meis et equestribus inductus, comam et barbam niitricns 
 (L. Epp. ii. p. T.) 
 
 ' The whole of Germany, we learn from the earliest writers, was originally 
 one vast forest, called the Hercynian forest. In procens of time the country 
 became partially cleared, still, however, leaving lai'ge detached tracts of wood- 
 land, such as the Black forest, separating Alsace from Suabia, the Steyger in 
 Franconia, the ITartz in Lunenburg, the Thuringer in which Luther was way- 
 laid and confined, &c. &c. Some idea of the vast extent and savage character 
 of these wildernesses may be had from their being described, even in the 
 eighteenth century, as abounding not only in wolves, bears, and wild-boars, but 
 also in wild horses, wild oxen, wild asses, and wild sheep. It is not difficult to 
 account for the existence of such remains of primeval desolation in a country 
 studded with large and thriving cities, when we remember that the nobles and 
 their feudal retainers delighted in the chase, and that the industrial population had 
 every inducement to abandon the country, and congregate and multiply in the 
 towns and cities, where skilled labour was protected from feudal wrong, fostered 
 by admirable municipal regulations, and made the avenue to wealth, respect, and 
 influence. Tr. 
 
 ^ Cum ipsa mo jamdudum non noveriiu (L. Epp. ii. p. Y.) 
 
 * According to Maimbourg, it was said that the duke of Saxony had given 
 orders generally that Luther should be put in some secure place, but did not 
 wish to be informed where, in order that he might swear to the emperor that 
 he did not know to what place Luther had betaken himself. Tk. 
 
6o4 HISTOKY OF THE REFOUMATION. 
 
 completed his yearly course, and still the walls of the Wartburg 
 enclosed their prisoner. Truth had been smitten with interdict 
 by the Diet, and her defender, immured in a fortress, disappeared 
 from the scene of the world, without its being known what had 
 become of him ; Aleander triumphed, the Reformation seemed 
 lost . . . but God still reigned, and the stroke which seemed 
 likely to annihilate the cause of the Gospel, was only to promote 
 the safety of its courageous minister and the diffusion of the 
 lioht of the faith far and wide.^ 
 
 Let us leave Luther a captive in Germany on the heights of 
 the Wartburg, and see what God was then doing in other coun- 
 tries of Christendom. 
 
 1 Seckend, p. 365. 
 
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