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HISTOR Y__ 
 
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 I IBEARY. J 
 
 X.YORK. ) 
 
 GREAT REFORMATIO/ 
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, &c 
 
 BY J<. H; MERLE D'AUBIGNE, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL OF GENEVA, AND MEMBER OF THE " 80CIETE EVANGELIttUE- 
 
 THE FOUR VOLUMES COMPLETE IN ONE. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL STREET, 
 AND PITTSBURG, 56 MARKET STREET. 
 
 1846. 
 
STEREOTYPED BY THOMAS B. SMITH, 
 216 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN T. TROW, 
 33 ANN STREET, N. Y. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The work I have undertaken is not the history of a party. ■'. It is the history of one of the 
 greatest revolutions ever effected in human affairs, — the history of a mighty impulse communicated 
 to the world three centuries ago, — and of which the operation is still everywhere discernible in our 
 own days. The history of the Reformation is altogether distinct from the history of Protestantism. 
 In the former all bears the character of a regeneration of human nature, a religious and social 
 transformation emanating from God himself. In the latter, we see too often a glaring depravation 
 of first principles, — the conflict of parties, — a sectarian spirit, — and the operation of private in- 
 terests. The history of Protestantism might claim the attention only of Protestants. The history 
 of the Reformation is a book for all Christians, — or rather for all mankind./' 
 
 An historian may choose his portion in the fipld before him. He may narrate the great events 
 which change the exterior aspect of a nation, or of the world ; or he may record that tranquil pro- 
 gression of a nation, of the church, or of mankind, which generally follows mighty changes in 
 " social relations. Both these departments of history are of high importance. But the public in- 
 terest has seemed to turn, by preference, to those periods which, under the name of Revolutions, 
 bring forth a nation, or society at large for a new aera, — and to a new career. 
 
 Of the last kind is the transformation which, with very feeble powers, I have attempted to de- 
 scribe, in the hope that the beauty of the subject will compensate for my insufficiency. The name 
 of revolution which I here give to it, is, in our days, brought into discredit with many who almost 
 confound it with revolt. But this is to mistake its meaning. A revolution is a change wrought in 
 human affairs. It is a something new which unrolls itself from the bosom of humanity ; and the 
 word, previously to the close of the last century, was more frequently understood in a good sense, 
 than in a bad one : — " a happy — a wonderful Revolution" was the expression.; The Reformation, 
 being the re-establishment of the principles of primitive Christianity, was the reverse of a revolt. 
 It was a movement regenerative of that which was destined to revive ; but conservative of that 
 which is to stand for ever. Christianity and the Reformation, while they established the great 
 principle of the equality of souls in the sight of God, and overturned the usurpations of a proud 
 priesthood which assumed to place itself between the Creator and his creature, at the same time 
 laid down as a first element of social order, that there is no power but what is of God, — and called 
 on all men to love the brethren, to fear God, to honour the king. 
 
 The Reformation is entirely distinguished from the revolutions of antiquity, and from the greater 
 part of those of modern times. In these, the question is one of politics, and the object proposed is 
 the establishment or overthrow of the power of the one, or of the many. *.The love of truth, of 
 holiness, of eternal things, was the simple and powerful spring which gave effect to that which we 
 have to narrate. It is the evidence of a gradual advance in human nature. In truth, if man, in- 
 stead of seeking only material, temporal, and earthly interests, aims at a higher object, and seeks 
 spiritual and immortal blessings, — he advances, he progresses. The Reformation is one of the 
 most memorable days of this progress. It is a pledge that the struggle of our own tunes will ter- 
 minate in favour of truth, by a triumph yet more spiritual and glorious, j 
 
 Christianity and the Reformation are two of the greatest revolutions In history. They were not 
 limited to one nation, like the various political movements which history records, but extended to 
 many nations, and their effects are destined to be felt to the ends of the earth. 
 \ Christianity and the Reformation are, indeed, the same revolution, but working at different pe- 
 riods, and in dissimilar circumstances. They differ in secondary features : — they are alike in their 
 first lines and leading characteristics. The one is the re-appearance of the other. The former 
 closes the old order of things ; — the latter begins the new. Between them is the middle age. One 
 is the parent of the other ; and if the daughter is, in some respects, inferior, she has, in others, 
 characters altogether peculiar to herself. 
 
 The suddenness of its action is one of these characters of the Reformation. The great revolu- 
 tions which have drawn after them the fall of a monarchy, or an entire change of political sys- 
 tem, or launched the human mind in a new career of developement, have been slowly and gra- 
 dually prepared ; the power to be displaced has long been mined, and its principal supports have 
 given way. It was even thus at the introduction of Christianity. But the Reformation, at the 
 first glance, seems to offer a different aspect. The Church of Rome is seen, under Leo X., in all 
 its strength and glory. A monk speaks, — and in the half of Europe this power and glory sud- 
 denly crumble into dust. This revolution reminds us of the words by which the Son of God an- 
 nounces his second advent: " As the lightning cometh forth from the west and shineth unto the 
 east, so shall also the coming of the Sou of man be." 
 
 
This rapidity is inexplicable to those who see in this great event only a reform : who make it 
 simply an act of critical judgment, consisting in a choice of doctrines, — the abandoning of some, 
 the preserving others, and combining those retained, so as to make of them a new code of doctrine. 
 
 How could an entire people ? — how could many nations have so rapidly performed so difficult a 
 work ? How could such an act of critical judgment kindle the enthusiasm indispensable to great 
 and especially to sudden revolutions ? But the Reformation was an event of a very different kind ; 
 and this its history will prove. It was the pouring forth anew of that life which Christianity had 
 brought into the world. It was the triumph of the noblest of doctrines — of that which animates 
 those who receive it with the purest and most powerful enthusiasm, — the doctrine of Faith — the 
 doctrine of Grace. If the Reformation had been what many Catholics and Protestants imagine, — 
 if it had been that negative system of a negative reason, which rejects with childish impatience 
 whatever displeases it, and disowns the grand ideas and leading truths of universal Christianity, — 
 it would never have overpassed the threshold of an academy, — of a cloister, or even of a monk's 
 eel!. But it had no sympathy witli what is commonly intended by the word Protestantism. Far 
 from having sustained any loss of vital energy, it arose at once like a man full of strength and 
 resolution. 
 
 Two considerations will account for the rapidity and extent of this revolution. One of these 
 must be sought in God, the other among men. The impulse was given by an unseen hand of 
 power, and the change which took place was the work of God. This will be the conclusion ar- 
 rived at by every one who considers the subject with impartiality and attention, and does not rest 
 in a superficial view. But the historian has a further office to perform : — God acts by second 
 causes. Many circumstances, which have often escaped observation, gradually prepared men for 
 the great transformation of the sixteenth century, so that the human mind was ripe when the hour 
 of its emancipation arrived. 
 
 The office of the historian is to combine these two principal elements in the picture he presents. 
 This is what is attempted in the present work. — We shall be easily understood, so long as we in- 
 vestigate the secondary causes which contributed to bring about the revolution we have undertaken 
 to describe. Many will, perhaps, be slower of comprehension, and will be inclined even to charge 
 us with superstition, when we shall ascribe to God the accomplishment of the work. And yet 
 that thought is what we particularly cherish. The history takes as its guiding star the simple and 
 pregnant truth that Gon is in History. But this truth is commonly forgotten, and sometimes dis- 
 puted. It seems fit, therefore, that we should open our views, and by so doing justify the course 
 we have taken. 
 
 In these days, history can no longer be that dead letter of facts to recording which the majority 
 of the earlier historians confined themselves It is felt that, as in man's nature, so in his history, there 
 are two elements, — matter and spirit. Our great writers, unwilling to restrict themselves to the 
 production of a simple recital, which would have been but a barren chronicle, have sought for some 
 principle of life to animate the materials of the past. 
 
 Some have borrowed such a principle from the rules of art ; they have aimed at the simplicity, 
 truth, and picturesque of description ; and have endeavoured to make their narratives live by the 
 interest of the events themselves. 
 
 Others have sought in philosophy the spirit which should fecundate their labours. With inci- 
 dents they have intermingled reflections, — instructions, — political and philosophic truths, — and have 
 thus enlivened their recitals with a moral which they have elicited from them, or ideas they have 
 been able to associate with them. 
 
 Both these methods are, doubtless, useful, and should be employed within certain limits. But 
 there is another source whence we must above all seek for the ability to enter into the understand- 
 ing, the mind, and the life of past ages ; — and this is religion. History must live by that principle 
 of life winch is proper to it, and that life is God. He must be acknowledged and proclaimed in 
 history ; — and the course of events must be displayed as the annals of the government of a Su- 
 preme Disposer. 
 
 I have descended into the lists to which the recitals of our historians have attracted me. I have 
 there seen the actions of men and of nations developing themselves with power, and encountering 
 in hostile collision ; — I have heard I know not what clangour of arms ; — but no where has my 
 attention been directed to the majestic aspect of the Judge who presides over the struggle. 
 
 And yet there is a principle of movement emanating from God himself in all the changes among 
 nations. God looks upon that wide stage on which the generations of men successively meet and 
 struggle. He is there, it is true, an invisible God ; but if the profaner multitude pass before Him 
 without noticing Him, because he is " a God that hideth himself," — thoughtful spirits, and such as 
 feel their need of the principle of their being, seek him with the more earnestness, and are not 
 satisfied until they lie prostrate at his feet. And their search is richly rewarded. For, from the 
 heights to which they are obliged to climb to meet their God, — the world's history, instead of offer- 
 ing, as to the ignorant crowd, a confused chaos, appears a majestic temple, which the invisible 
 hand of God erects, and which rises to His glory above the rock of humanity. 
 
 Shall we not acknowledge the hand of God in those great men, or in those mighty nations which 
 arise ; — come forth, as it were, from the dust of the earth, and give a new impulse, a new form, or 
 a new destiny to human affairs? Shall we not acknowledge His hand in those heroes who spring 
 up among men at appointed times ; who display activity and energy beyond the ordinary limits of 
 human strength ; and around whom individuals and nations gather, as if to a superior and myste- 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 rious power ? Who launched them into the expanse of ages, like comets of vast extent and 
 flaming trains, appearing at long intervals, to scatter among the superstitious tribes of men, an- 
 ticipations of plenty and joy — or of calamities and terror? Who, but God himself? Alexander 
 would seek his own origin in the abodes of the Divinity. And in the most irreligious age there 
 is no eminent glory but is seen in some way or other seeking to connect itself with the idea of 
 divine interposition. 
 
 And those revolutions which, in their progress, precipitate dynasties and nations to the dust, 
 those heaps of ruin which we meet with in the sands of the desert, those majestic remains which 
 the field of human history offers to our reflection, do they not testify aloud to the truth that God 
 is in History? Gibbon, seated on the ancient Capitol, and contemplating its noble ruins, ac- 
 knowledged the intervention of a superior destiny. He saw, — he felt its presence ; wherever his 
 eye turned it met him ; that shadow of a mysterious power re-appeared from behind every ruin ; 
 and he conceived the project of depicting its operation in the disorganization, the decline, and the 
 corruption of that power of Rome which had enslaved the nations. Shall not that mighty hand 
 which this man of admirable genius, but who had not bowed the knee to Jesus Christ, discerned 
 among the scattered monuments of Romulus and of Marcus Aurelius, — the busts of Cicero, and 
 Virgil, — Trajan's trophies, and Pompey's horses, be confessed by us as the hand of our God? 
 
 But what superior lustre does the truth — that God is in history — acquire under the Christian 
 dispensation ' What is Jesus Christ — but God's purpose in the world's history ? It was the dis- 
 covery of Jesus Christ which admitted the greatest of modern historians* to the just comprehen- 
 sion of his subject. — "The gospel," says he, " is the fulfilment of all hopes, the perfection of all 
 philosophy, the interpreter of all revolutions, the key to all the seeming contradictions of the phys- 
 ical and moral world, — it is life, — it is immortality. Since I have known the Saviour, every thing 
 is clear ; — with him, there is nothing I cannot solve."t 
 
 Thus speaks this distinguished historian ; and, in truth, is it not the keystone of the arch, — 
 is it not the mysterious bond which holds together the things of the earth and connects them with 
 those of heaven, — that God has appeared in our nature ? What ! God has been born into this 
 world, and we are asked to think and write, as if He were not every where working: out his own 
 will in its history ? Jesus Christ is the true God of human history ; the very lowliness of his ap- 
 pearance may be regarded as one proof of it. If man designs a shade or a shelter upon earth, 
 we look to see preparations, — materials, scaffolding, and workmen. But God, when he will give 
 shade or shelter, takes the small seed which the new-born infant might clasp in its feeble hand, 
 and deposits it in the bosom of the earth, and from that seed, imperceptible in its beginning, he 
 produces the majestic tree, under whose spreading boughs the families of men may find shelter. 
 To achieve great results by imperceptible means, is the law of the divine dealings. 
 
 It is this law which has received its noblest illustration in Jesus Christ. The religion which 
 has now taken possession of the gates of all nations, which at this hour reigns, or hovers over all 
 the tribes of the earth, from east to west, and which even a sceptical philosophy is compelled to 
 acknowledge as the spiritual and social law of this world ; — that religion, than which there is 
 nothing nobler under the vault of heaven, — nay, in the very universe of creation ; — what was its 
 commencement ? . . . A child born in the meanest town of the most despised country of the 
 earth : — a child whose mother had not even what falls to the lot of the most indigent and wretch- 
 ed woman of our cities, — a room to bring forth ; — a child born in a stable and placed in an ox's 
 crib . . . . O God ! I acknowledge thee there, and I adore thee. 
 
 The Reformation recognised the same law of God's operations : and it had the consciousness 
 that it fulfilled it. The thought that God is in history is often put forth by the Reformers. We 
 find it on one occasion in particular expressed by Luther, under one of those comparisons familiar 
 and grotesque, yet not without a certain sublimity, which he took pleasure in using, that he 
 might be understood by the people. " The world," said he one day, in a conversation with his 
 friend at table, — " the world is a vast and grand game of cards, made up of emperors, kings, and 
 princes. The Pope lor several centuries has beaten emperors, princes, and kings. They have 
 been put down, and taken up by him. Then came our Lord God ; he dealt the cards ; he took 
 the most worthless of them all, (Luther) and with it he has beaten the Pope, the conqueror of the 
 kings of the earth . . . There is the ace of God. ' He has cast down the mighty from their 
 seats, and has exalted them of low degree,' as Mary says." 
 
 The age of which I am about to retrace the history is most important for our own generation. 
 Man, when he feels his weakness, is generallyjnclir.ed to seek assistance in the institutions he 
 sees standing around him, or else in groundless*inventions of his imagination. The history of the 
 Reformation shews that nothing new can be wrought with " old things," and that if, according 
 to the Saviour's word, we need new bottles for new wine, we need also new wine for new bottles. 
 The history of the Reformation directs men to God, who orders all events in history ; to that divine 
 word, ever ancient in the eternal nattfre of the truths it contains, ever new in the regenerative 
 influence it exercises,— that word which, three centuries ago, purified society, brought back the 
 faith of God to souls enfeebled by superstition, and which, in every age of man's history, is the 
 source whence cometh salvation. 
 
 It is singular to observe many persons, impelled by a vague desire to believe in something 
 settled, addressing themselves now-a-days to old Catholicism. In one view, the movement is 
 
 * John Von Muller. t Lettre a C. Bonnet 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME. 
 
 At a period when increased attention is everywhere drawn to those original documents which 
 form the basis of Modern History, I gladly add my mite to the general stock. 
 
 In the former portion of this work, my attention was not confined to the historians of the time, 
 but I judged it right to compare the testimony of the witnesses, letters, and earliest accounts ; and 
 had recourse to the authority of manuscripts, particularly one by Bullinger, which has since been 
 printed. 
 
 But the necessity for recourse to unpublished documents became more urgent when I approach- 
 ed the Reformation in France. The printed materials for a history of the Reformed opinions in 
 that country are' few and scanty, owing to the state of continued trial in which the Reformed con- 
 gregations have existed. 
 
 In the spring of 1838, I examined the various public libraries of Paris, and it will be seen that a 
 manuscript preserved in the Royal Library, and never (as I believe,) before consulted, throws 
 much light on the commencement of the Reformation. 
 
 In the autumn of 1839, I consulted the manuscripts in the library of the conclave of pastors of 
 Neufchatel, a collection exceedingly rich in materials for the history of that age, since it includes 
 the manuscripts of Farel's library. I am indebted to the kindness of the lord of the manor of 
 Meuron, for the use of a manuscript life of Farel, written by Choupard, in which most of these 
 documents are introduced. These materials have enabled me to reconstruct an entire phase of 
 the Reformation in France. In addition to the above helps, and those supplied by the Library of 
 Geneva, an appeal inserted by me in the columns of the Archives du Christianisme, led to other 
 communications from private individuals, to whom I here return my grateful acknowledgments, — 
 and especially to M. Ladevese, pastor at Meaux. 
 
 It may be thought that I have treated at too much detail the early progress of the Reformed 
 opinions in France : but those particulars are in truth very little known. The entire period occu- 
 pying my Twelfth Book has but four pages allotted to it by Beza; and other historians have done 
 little more than record the political progress of the nation. 
 
 Many causes have combined to postpone the appearance of the present volume. Twice — has 
 heavy affliction interrupted the labour of its composition, and gathered my affections and my 
 thoughts at the graves of beloved children. The reflection that it was my duty to glorify that 
 adorable Master, who was dealing with me by such moving appeals, and at the same time minis- 
 tering to me of His heavenly consolations, could alone inspire me with the courage required for its 
 completion. 
 
 Aux Eaux Vives 
 pres Geneve. 
 
 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH VOLUME. 
 
 When a foreigner visits certain countries, as England, Scotland, or America, he is sometimes pre- 
 sented with the rights of citizenship. Such has been the privilege of the " History of the Reforma- 
 tion of the Sixteenth Century." From 150,000 to 200,000 copies are in circulation, in the English 
 language, in the countries I have just mentioned; while in France the number hardly exceeds 4000. 
 This is a real adoption,— naturalizing this Work in the countries that have received it with so 
 much favour. 
 
 I accept this honour. Accordingly, while the former Volumes of my History were originally pub- 
 lished in France ; now that, after a lapse of five years, I think of issuing a continuation of it, I do 
 so in Great Britain. 
 
 This is not the only change in the mode of publication. I did not think it right to leave to trans- 
 lators, as in the cases of the former Volumes, the task of expressing my ideas in English. The best 
 
E//V 
 
 translations are always faulty ; and the Author alone can have the certainty of conveying his idea, 
 his whole idea, and nothing but his idea. Without overlooking the merit that the several existing 
 translations may possess, even the best of them is not free from inaccuracies, more or less important. 
 Of these I have given specimens in the Preface to the New Translation of the former Volumes by 
 Dr. White, which has been revised by me, and which will shortly be published by Messrs. Oliver 
 and Boyd. These inaccuracies, no doubt most involuntary, contributed in giving rise to a very 
 severe contest that took place in America, on the subject of this Work, between the Episcopalians 
 and the Baptists on the one hand, and the Presbyterians on the other, — a contest, that I hope is now 
 terminated, but in which (as a New York correspondent informed me) one of the most beneficial 
 and powerful Christian Societies of the United States had been on the brink of dissolution. 
 
 With such facts before me. I could no longer hesitate. It became necessary for me to publish, 
 myself, in English ; and this I accordingly do. But although that language is familiar to me, I was 
 desirous of securing, to a certain extent, the co-operation of an English literary gentleman. Dr. 
 Henry White, a Graduate of Cambridge, and Member of a Continental University, has had the 
 great kindness to visit Switzerland for this purpose, although such a step exposed him to much in- 
 convenience, and to pass with me at Geneva the time necessary for this labour. I could not have 
 had a more enlightened coadjutor; and I here express my obligations to him for his very able 
 assistance. 
 
 I therefore publish in English this Continuation of the History of the Reformation. I do not 
 think that, as I publish, myself, in this language, any one will have the power, or will entertain the 
 idea, of attempting another publication. It would be a very bad speculation on the part of any 
 bookseller; for where is the reader that would not prefer the original text, as published by the 
 Author himself, to a translation made by a stranger 1 
 
 But there is a higher question — a question of morality. Of all property that a man can possess, 
 there is none so essentially his own as the labours of his mind. Man acquires the fruits of his 
 fields by the sweat of his servants and of his beasts of burden; and the produce of his manufac- 
 tures by the labour of his workmen and the movement of his machines ; but it is by his own toils, 
 by the exercise of his most exalted faculties, that he creates the productions of his mind. Accord- 
 ingly, in putting this History under the protection of the laws, I place it at the same time under a 
 no less secure safeguard, — that of justice. I know that it is written in the consciences on the other 
 side of the Channel and of the Atlantic: Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger 
 as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God.* To English honour I confide this 
 Work. 
 
 The first two Books of this Volume contain the most important epochs of the Reformation — the 
 Protest of Spire, and the Confession of Augsburg. The last two describe the establishment of the 
 Reform in most of the Swiss cantons, and the instructive and deplorable events that are connected 
 with the catastrophe of Cappel. 
 
 It was my desire to narrate also the beginnings of the English Reformation ; but my Volume is 
 filled, and I am compelled to defer this subject to the next. It is true I might have omitted some 
 matters here treated of, but I had strong reasons for doing the contrary. The Reformation in Great 
 Britain is not very important before the period described in this volume ; the order of time compel- 
 led me, therefore, to remain on the Continent; for whatever may be the historian's desire, he cannot 
 change dates and the order that God has assigned to the events of the world. Besides, before turn- 
 ing more especially towards England, Scotland, France, and other countries, I determined on bring- 
 ing the Reformation of Germany and German Switzerland to the decisive epochs of 1530 and 1531. 
 The History of the Reformation, properly so called, is then, in my opinion, almost complete in those 
 countries. The work of Faith has there attained its apogee : that of conferences, of interims, of 
 diplomacy begins. I do not, however, entirely abandon Germany and German Switzerland, but 
 henceforward they will occupy me less ■ the movement of the sixteenth century has there made its 
 effort. I said, from the very first: It is the History of the Reformation and not of Protestantism 
 that I am relating. 
 
 It is not, however, without some portion of fear that I approach the History of the Reformation 
 in England ; it is perhaps more difficult than elsewhere. I have received communications from some. 
 of the most respectable men of the different ecclesiastical parties, who, each feeling convinced that 
 their own point of view is the true one, desire me to present the history in this light. I hope to 
 execute my task with impartiality and truth. But I thought it would be advantageous to study for 
 some time longer the principles and the facts. I am at present occupied in this task, and shall con- 
 secrate to it, with God's assistance, the first part of my next Volume. 
 
 Should it be thought that I might have described the Reformation in Switzerland with greater 
 brevity, I beg my readers will call to mind that, independently of the intrinsic importance of this 
 history, Switzerland is the Author's birthplace. 
 
 I had at first thought of making arrangements for the present publication with the English and 
 Scotch booksellers who had translated the former portions. Relations that I had maintained with 
 some of these publishers, and which had gained my esteem for them, induced me to adopt this 
 course. They were consequently informed by letter of my purpose, and several months later I had 
 an interview with some of them at Glasgow. I told them of my intentions, and desired to know 
 theirs. They replied, that they could not communicate them immediately, since they would first 
 have to come to an arrangement with their colleagues, in order to make me a proposal in common. 
 It would appear that they did not succeed. However that may be, and although I allowed a suffi- 
 
 * Levit. xxiv. 23. 
 
 2 
 
X > PREFACE. 
 
 cient period of time to elapse, I received no communication from the associated publishers. But at 
 the same time, one of the first houses in Great Britain, Messrs. Oliver and Boyd of Edinburgh, 
 who were introduced to me by my highly respected friend Dr. Chalmers, made me a suitable and 
 precise offer. I could wait no longer; and on the very eve of my departure from London for the 
 Continent, after a sojourn of three months in Scotland and in England, I made arrangements with 
 them which have since been definitively settled, and the Work is now their property. 
 
 The French laws are positive to protect literary property in France, even if it belongs to a foreign- 
 er. I am less familiar with the English laws ; but I will not do England the injustice of believing 
 that its legislation is surpassed by that of France in justice and in morality. 
 
 J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE. 
 Eaux-Vives, Geneva, January 1846. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I.— Page 9. 
 
 % 
 
 STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Rise of the Papacy — Early Encroachments — Co-operation of the Bishops — Unity of the Church — 
 Visible Unity — Primacy of St. Peter — Patriarchates — Policy of Rome — Charlemagne — Disor- 
 ders of Rome — HiWebrand — the Crusades — Spiritual Despotism — Salvation by Grace — Pela- 
 gianism — The Church — Penance — Indulgences — Purgatory — Tax of Indulgences — The Pa- 
 pacy and Christianity — Theology — Dialectics — Predestination — Penance — Religion — Relics — 
 
 * Morals — Corruption — Disorders of the Priests — Bishops and Popes — Alexander VI. — Ceesar 
 Borgia — General Corruption — Ciceronians — Efforts for Reform — Prospects of Christianity — 
 State of the Papacy — Internal Divisions— Carnality of the Church — Popular Feeling — Doctrine 
 — Development of Mind — Revival of Letters — Philosophy — Principle of Reformation — Witnesses 
 — Mystics — Wiclif— Huss — Witnesses — The Empire — Peace — State of the People — State cf 
 Germany — Switzerland — Italy — Spain — Portugal — France — Low Countries — England — Bohe- 
 mia and Hungary — Frederic the Wise — Men of Letters — Reuchlin — His Labours — Reuchlin in 
 Italy — Contest with the Dominicans — The Hebrew Writings — Erasmus — Erasmus and Luther 
 — Hutten — Liters Obscurorum Virorum — Hiitten at Brussels — Sickingin — Cronberg — Hans 
 Sachs — General Ferment. 
 
 BOOK II.— Page 59. 
 
 THE YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 1483—1517. 
 
 Luther's Parents — Birth of Luther— Luther's Early Life — Magdeburg — His Hardships — The 
 " Shunamite" — Recollections — The University — Discovery — The Bible — Mental Agitation — 
 Visit to Mansfeldt — Luther's Resolution — The Farewell — The Convent — Humiliations — Endu- 
 rance — His Studies — Ascetic Life — Mental Struggle — Monastic Tendencies — Staupitz — Stau- 
 pitz and Luther — Present of a Bible — The Aged Monk — The Change — Consecration — Luther 
 at Eisleben — Invitation to Wittemberg — First Instructions — Lectures — The Old Chapel — His 
 Preaching — Journey to Rome — Sickness at Bologna — Luther in Rome — Effects of his Journey 
 — Pilate's Staircase — Confession of Faith — Luther leaves Home — Carlstadt — Luther's Oath — 
 Luther's Courage — Attacks the Schoolmen — Spalatin — Luther's Faith— His Preaching — Lu- 
 ther on Idolatry — On Superstitions— His Conduct— George Spenlein — The True Righteousness 
 —Luther and Erasmus — Christian Charity — George Leiffer — Luther's Theses — His Visitation 
 — Plague at Wittemberg — The Elector and the Relics — Spalatin — Duke George — Luther's 
 Sermon — Emser — The Supper — Free Will — Theses — Nature of Man — Doctor Eck — Urban 
 Regius — The Theses sent to Eck — Effect of the Theses. 
 
 BOOK III.— Page 102. 
 
 THE INDULGENCES AND THE THESES. 
 
 1517—1518. 
 
 Tetzel — Confessions — The Sale — Penance — Letter of Indulgence — Relaxations — A Soul in Pur- 
 gatory — The Shoemaker of Hagenau — Myconius — A Stratagem—VOpinions of the People-r- The 
 
Miser of Schneeberg — Leo X. — Albert — Farming Indulgences — Franciscans and Dominicans — 
 Confession — A Calumny Refuted — Luther's Sermon — The Dream — Theses — Letter to Albert 
 
 Efforts for Reform — The Bishops — Spread of the Theses — Reception of the Theses — Effects 
 
 of the Theses — Myconius — Apprehension — Opposers at Wittemberg — Luther's Answer — De- 
 jection of Luther— Motivesy-Tetzel's Attack — Luther's Answer — Luther's Boldness — Luther 
 and Spalatin — Study of the Scriptures — Scheurl and Luther — Albert Durer — Tetzel's Reply — 
 Disputation at Frankfort — Tetzel's Theses — Luther's Theses Burned — Outcry of the Monks — 
 Luther's Composure — Tetzel's Theses Burned — The higher Clergy— r Prierias — The Romish 
 System — The Disciple of the Bible— VThe Doctrine of the Reformation-i-Luther's Reply to Pri- 
 er j as — Hochstraten — Doctor Eck — The " Obelisks" — The " Asterisks"^— Scheurl Attempts Rec- 
 onciliation — Luther's Tracts — " Who art in Heaven" — " Our Daily Bread" — " Remission of 
 Sins" — Effects of Luther's, Teaching — Luther's Journey — The Palatine Castle — The " Para- 
 doxes" — The Disputation—Uts Results-ij-Bucer — Brentz — The Gospel of Heidelburg — Effect on 
 Luther — The Old Professor— Return to Wittemberg. 
 
 BOOK IV.— Page 151. 
 
 LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 May to December, 1518. 
 
 The Pope — Leo X. — Luther to his Bishop — Luther to the Pope — Luther to the Vicar-General — 
 The Cardinal to the Elector — Sermon on Excommunication — Luther's Influence — Diet at 
 Augsburg — The Emperor and the Elector — Letters to the Pope — Citation of Luther to Rome — 
 Intercession of the University — The Legate De Vio — The Pope's Brief — Luther's Indignation 
 — The Pope to the Elector — George Schwarzerd — Melancthon — Luther and Melancthon — 
 Staupitz to Spalatin — Luther's Resolution — He sets out — At Nuremberg — Luther at Nurem- 
 berg — De Vio — Serra Longa and Luther — Return of Serra Longa — Prior of the Carmelites — 
 Serra Longa — Luther and Serra Longa — The Safe Conduct — Appearance before the Legate — 
 First Interview — De Vio's Proofs — Luther's Replies — A Proposal — Luther and De Vio — Lu- 
 ther's Declaration — The Legate's Answer — Luther's Request — Third Conference — Luther's 
 Declaration — The Legate's Answer — Luther's Reply — The Cardinal Foiled — Rumours — De 
 Vio and Staupitz — Luther to Carlstadt — The Communion — Departure of Staupitz — Letter to 
 the Legate — Luther and the Legate — Luther's Letter to the Legate — His Appeal — Luther's 
 Flight — Nuremberg — The Legate to the Elector — Luther to the Elector — Graefenthal — Luther 
 • to Spalatin — Luther's Intended Departure — A Critical Hour — Deliverance — Dissatisfaction at 
 Rome — The Pope's Bull — Luther Appeals to a Council. 
 
 BOOK V.— Page 192. 
 
 THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION 1519. 
 
 The Pope's Chamberlain — Luther in Danger — Favourable Circumstances — Tetzel's Fears — Mil- 
 titz's Caresses — Retractation — Luther proposes silence — The Legate's Kiss — Tetzel rebuked — 
 Luther's Letter — Opposed to Separation — De Vio and Miltitz at Treves — The Reformed Opin- 
 ions Spread — Luther's Writings — Contest seems to Flag — Eck — The Pope's Authority — Lu- 
 ther Answers — Alarm of Luther's Friends — Truth Secure of Victory — The Bishop's Remon- 
 strance — Mosellanus — Arrival of Eck — An 111 Omen — Eck and Luther — The Pleissenburg — 
 Judges Proposed — The Procession — Luther — Carlstadt — Eck — Carlstadt s Books — Merit of 
 Congruity — Scholastic Distinction — Grace gives Liberty — Melancthon — Eck claims Victory — 
 Luther Preaches — Quarrel of Students and Doctors — Eck and Luther — The Roman Primacy 
 — Equality of Bishops — Christ the Foundation — Insinuation — The Hussites — Commotion in 
 the Audience — Monkish Horror — The Indulgences — Attention of the Laity— Eck's Report — 
 George of Anhalt — The Students of Leipsic — Results of the Disputation — More Liberty — Ac- 
 tivity of Eck — Melancthon's Defence — Firmness of Luther — Staupitz's Coolness — Christ given 
 for us — Infatuation of the Adversaries — The Lord's Supper — Is Faith Necessary — God's Word 
 a Sword — Luther's Calmness. 
 
CONTENTS. XI11 
 
 BOOK VI.— Page 223. 
 
 THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 Candidates for the Empire — Charles — Francis I. — The Crown Offered to Frederic — Charles 
 Elected — Dangers — Frederic to the Roman Court — Luther's Feelings — Melancthon's Alarm 
 • — Schaumburg— Sickingen — Hutten — Luther's Confidence — Faith, the Spring of Works — 
 The Author of Faith — Attack on the Papacy — The Three Barriers — All Christian Priests- 
 Corruptions of Rome — Germany in Danger — Call for Reform — Marriage of Priests — The Em- 
 pire — Conclusion — Success of the Appeal — Rome — Policy of Rome — Separation — The Swiss 
 Priest — The Roman Consistory — Condemnation — Melancthon — Melancthon's Hearth — His 
 Studies — Melancthon's Mother — The Gospel in Italy — Luther on the Mass — " Babylonian Cap- 
 tivity" of the Church — Baptism — No other Vows-*— Miltitz at Eisleben — Deputation to Luther 
 — Conference at Lichtenberg — Luther's Letter to the Pope — Union of Christ and the Believer 
 — Arrival of the Bull in Germany — The Students of Leipsic — Eck at Erfurth — Luther's Feel- 
 ings — The Pirckheimer Family — Luther — Ulric Zwingle — Luther's Answer — Fresh Move- 
 ments — The Bonfire of Louvain — Luther's Tranquillity — Appeal to a Council — Struggle — Burn- 
 ing of the Pope's Bull — Luther and the Academy — Luther and the Pope — Melancthon to the 
 States — Luther encourages his Friends — Melancthon to the Fearful — Luther's VocatrtJh — The 
 Bible and the Doctors — Retractation-VAleander the Nuncio— The Nuncio and the Emperor — 
 The Nuncio and the Elector — Duke 'John's Son Intercedes — The Elector Protects Luther — 
 The Nuncio's Answer — Erasmus in Cologne — Erasmus and the Elector — Erasmus's Declara- 
 tion — Erasmus's Advice — The Confessional — Luther on Confession — Antichrist — Luther's 
 Cause Gains Strength — Satires — Ulric Von Hutten — Carnival at Wittemberg — Staupitz 
 Alarmed — Luther's Labours — Progress of the Reformation. 
 
 BOOK VII.— Page 269. 
 
 THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. JANUARY TO MAY. 
 
 Difficulties — Luther summoned to Worms — Public Opinion — Efforts of Aleander — Fresh Charges 
 Against Luther — Aleander Rouses Rome — The Bull Fulminated — Luther's Motives — Political 
 Councils — The Confessor — And the Chancellor — Unavailing Manoeuvres — Erasmus's Declara- 
 tion — The Briefs — The Threats — The Audience — Speech of Aleander — Rome's Defence — Ap- 
 peal to Charles — Effects of the Nuncio's Speech — Feelings of the Princes — Duke George's 
 Speech — Character of the Reformation — Charles Gives Way — PublicjjOpinion — Luther's Se- 
 renity — Death and no Retractation — Summons — Safe-Conduct — Fears of the Elector — Holy 
 Thursday at Rome — The Pope and Luther — Luther's Courage — Bugenhagen — Persecution in 
 Pomerania — Amsdorff — Schurff— Hutten to Charles V. — Luther's Farewell — Luther at Wei- 
 mar — Cavalcade of Erfurth — Justus Jonas — Preaches at Erfurth — Faith and Works — The 
 People and Luther — Luther to Spalatin — A Stratagem — Luther's Resolution — Enters Worms 
 — Death Song — Capito and the Temporisers — Citation — His Prayer — The Strength of the 
 Reformation — Luther Repairs to the Diet — The Diet — Luther is Encouraged — Luther's An- 
 swer — Luther's Prudence — The Spaniards — Luther's Vow — Luther Again Before the Diet — 
 Luther's Speech — Requires Proof of Error — A Warning Voice — Repeats his Speech in Latin — 
 New Attempt — Calm in the Midst of Tumult — Duke Eric's Offering — The Elector and Spal- 
 atin — The Emperor's Message — The Safe-Conduct in Danger — Enthusiasm for Luther — Con- 
 ciliation — Concourse to Luther — Philip of Hesse — Conference at Abp. of Treves — Wehe's Ex- 
 hortation — Private Conversation — Cochlaeus's Proposal — Bursting of the Wine Glass — Con- 
 ference at the Hotel — Final Conference with the Archbishop — End of the Negociations — Lu- 
 ther Ordered to Quit Worms — Luther's Departure from Worms — His Letter to Cranach — Lu- 
 ther's Letter to Charles V.— The Curate of Eisenach — Charles Signs the Decree Against Lu- 
 ther—The Edict of Worms— Luther Among his Relations— The Ways of God— The Wartburg 
 — The Reformation Under a Cloud. 
 
 BOOK VIII.— Page 318. 
 the swiss— 1484— 1522. 
 
 Democracy — Mercenary Service — The Cottage of Wildhaus — The Herdsman's Family — Young 
 Ulric — Ulric at Bale — Ulric at Berne — Jetzer and the Ghost — Jetzer's Visions — Exposure of the 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Dominicans— Passion for Music— Wittembach— Schinner— The Labyrinth— Zwingle in Italy- 
 Principals of the Reformation — Zwingle's Studies — Zwingle's Classical Studies — Paris and Cla- 
 ris Oswald Myconius — CEcolampadius — Zwingle and Marignan — Alarm of the Pope — Dawn 
 
 of the Reformation— Effects of the Defeat at Marignan— The Two Worlds — Our Lady of the 
 Eremites— A Learned Society — Zwingle Transcribes the Scriptures — Zwingle Opposes Error — 
 Effects of his Preaching — Zwingle and the Legate— The Bishop of Constance— Stapfer and 
 
 Zwingle The Preachership — The Candidates — Zwingle's Confession — Zwingle Elected — 
 
 Leaves Einsidlen— Reception by the Chapter— Zwingle's Mode of Lecturing — Zwingle opens 
 the Gospel— Effects of his Preaching— Opposition— Familiar Manner— Love of Music — Imita- 
 tion of Christ— The' Colporteur— Samson at Berne— The Dean of Bremgarten— Henry Bullin- 
 
 ger Samson and the Dean — Zwingle's Studies— Samson and the Helvetic Diet— The Baths 
 
 of Pfeffers — The Critical Moment— Zwingle Attacked by the Plague — His Sick Bed and 
 Hymn — General Joy — The Adversaries— Effect of the Visitation— Myconius and Xyloctect — 
 Myconius Goes to Lucerne — Capito and Hedio — Opposition of the Monks — The Unnatural Son 
 
 Zwingle's Gentleness — Fall and Recovery of Man — Expiation of the God-man- -No Merit 
 
 in Good Works — Power of Love for Christ — Effects cf his Preaching — Dejection and Courage 
 -^-Zwingle and Staheli — Violent Attacks — The Reformer of Berne — Haller's Dejection — Os- 
 wald Persecuted — H. Bullinger — Gerold Von Knonau— Roubli at Bale — War Between Francis 
 and Charles — Foreign Service of the Swiss — Ferment — Truth Triumphs Amidst Opposition — The 
 Bishop's Deputies — The Councils; — The Parties Confronted — The Coadjutor and Zwingle — 
 Zwingle's Answer — Hofman's Charge — Zwingle's Reply — The Bishop's Mandates— The Arch- 
 
 eteles The Bishop Appeals to the Diet — Zwingle and the Monks — The Nuns of Oetenbach — 
 
 Defeat of Biocca — Francis Lambert — Preaches at Zurich — The Commander of the Johannites 
 —Carnival at Berae— The " Feeders Upon the Dead"— The Scull of St. Ann— Appenzel— 
 Adultery and Murder — Zwingle's Marriage — Meeting at Einsidlen — Petition to the Bishop — 
 The Meeting at Einsidlen Breaks Up — A Scene in a Convent — Myconius at Lucerne — Effects 
 of the Petition — The Council and the Diet— Friburg — Treatment of Oswald — Oswald Encour- 
 aged Oswald Quits Lucerne — Zwingle's Family Alarmed— His Resolution — Zwingle's Prayer. 
 
 BOOK IX.— Page 328. 
 
 LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 Aspect of the Church— Effects of Luther's Teaching— Wisdom of God— Agitation of the People 
 —Luther and Melancthon— Tidings of Luther's Safety— The Imperial Edict Powerless— The 
 " Knight George"— A Safe Solitude— Luther's Sickness— Alarm of his Friends— The Confes- 
 sional—Luther's Health— Feldkirchen's Marriage— Marriage of Priests— And of Friars— Monk- 
 ery—Luther on Monastic Vows— Dedication to His Father— Sale of Indulgences Resumed— 
 Luther's Letter to Spalatin— Luther to the Cardinal Elector— Effect of the Reformer's Letter- 
 Albert to Luther— Joachim of Brandenburg—" The Last shall be First"— Luther's Fitness for 
 the Work— Of Translating the Scriptures— Luther and Satan— Luther Quits the Wartburg— 
 The Sorbonne— Luther's Visit to Wittemburg— Progress of the Reformation— The Monk Ga- 
 briel—Interference of the Elector— Frederic's Caution— Attack on Monkery— Thirteen Monks 
 Quit the Convent— The Cordeliers Threatened— Decision of Monastic Vows— Carlstadt's Zeal 
 —The Lord's Supper— Town Council of Wittemburg— Errors of Popery— Fanatics of Zwickau 
 —The New Prophet— Nicolas Hussman— Melancthon and Stubner— Melancthon's Perplexity 
 —Carlstadt's Zeal— Contempt of Learning— Occupations of the Elector— Luther's Dejection— 
 His Test of Inspiration— Edict of the Diet— Luther Leaves the Wartburg— Primitive Church 
 —Two Swiss Students— A Strange Knight— Supper at the Inn— Luther on His Journey— Let- 
 ter to the Elector— Reception at Wittemburg— Meditation— Luther Preaches— I aith and Love 
 —God's Way— Luther on the Lord's Supper— Effect of Luther's Sermons— Luther s Modera- 
 tion and Courage— Stubner and Cellarius— Order Restored— Scripture and Faith— 1 he Vision- 
 ary Pen— Publication of the New Testament— Effects of Luther's Translation— I he ''Loci 
 Communes"— Original Sin— Free Will— Knowledge of Christ— Effect of Melancthon s Tract 
 —Henry VIII.— Catherine of Arragon— Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More— Cardinal Wol- 
 sey— Henry VIII. Writes against Luther— Royal Theology— The King's Vanity— Luther s 
 Indignation— His Reply to Henry VIII.— Literarv Courtesy-^-More's Attack upon Luther- 
 Henry's Attachment to More— Henry's Letter— Spread of the Reformation— 1 he Augustine 
 Monks— The Franciscans— The People and the Priests— The New Preachers— Power of the 
 Scriptures— Religion and Literature— The Press— Spread of Luther's Writings— Luther at 
 Zwickau— Duke Henry— Ibach at Rome— Diffusion of the Light— University of Wittemburg 
 — Principles of the Reformation — Transition State of the Church. 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 BOOK X.— Page 438. 
 
 MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 Movement in Germany — War between Francis I. and Charles V. — Inigo Lopez de Reculde 
 
 Siege of Pampeluna — Loyola's Armed Vigil — Enters a Dominican Convent — Mental Distress — 
 " Strong Delusions" — " Belief of a Lie" — Amusement of the Pope — Death of Leo X. — Charac- 
 ter of Adrian VI. — The Pope attempts a Reformation — Opposition at Rome — Designs against 
 Luther — Diet at Nuremburg — Osiauder at Nuremburg — The Pope's Candour — Resolution of 
 the Diet — Grievances — The Pope to th* Elector — The Pope's Brief — The Princes fear the 
 Pope — " The Fiery Trial" — " The Failing Mines" — The Augustine Convent — Mirisch and 
 Probst — Persecution at Miltenburg — The Inquisitors and the Confessors— The Fate of Lambert 
 — Luther's Sympathy — Hymn on the Martyrs — The Legate Campeggio— Evasion of the Edict 
 of Worms — Alarm of the Pope — The Dukes of Bavaria — Conference at Ratisbon — Subtle De- 
 vices — Results of the Ratisbon League — The Emperor's Edict — Martyrdom of Gaspard Tauber 
 — Cruelties in Wurtemburg — Persecution in Bavaria — Fanaticism in Holstein — The Prior and 
 the Regent — Martyrdom of Henry Zuphten — Luther and Carlstadt — Opinions on the Lord's 
 Supper — Carlstadt Leaves Wittemburg — Luther at Jena — Luther and Carlstadt — Luther at 
 Orlamund — Interview at Orlamund — On the Worship of Images — Carlstadt Banished — Carl- 
 stadt Retires to Strasburg — Assembly at Spires — Abridgment of the Reformed Doctrine — Albert 
 of Brandenburg — The Word of God Not Bound — All Saints' Church — Abolition of the Mass — 
 Nature of Christianity — Letter to Councillors — On the Use of Learning — Religion and the Arts 
 — Essence of Christianity — Music and Poetry — Abuses of Painting — Insurrection of the Peas- 
 antry — The Reformation and Revolt — Fanaticism — " The Spirit" — Munzer Preaches Revolt — 
 Liberty of Conscience — Luther's View of the Revolt — Luther to the Peasantry — Murder of 
 Count Helfenstein — Warlike Exhortation — Gotz of Berlichingen — " Radical Reform" — Defeat 
 of the Rebels — Munzer at Mulhausen — Anxieties at Wittemburg — The Landgrave Takes up 
 Arms — Defeat and Death of Munzer — Thirteenth Article— Luther Calumniated— Rise of the 
 New Church — The Revolt and the Reformation — The Last Days of the Elector Frederic — The 
 Elector and the Reformer — Duke George's Confederacy — The Nuns of Nimptsch — Catherine 
 Bora — The Deserted Convent — Luther's Thoughts on Matrimony— Luther's Marriage — Do- 
 mestic Happiness — The Elector John — The Landgrave Philip — Poliander's Hymn — New Ordi- 
 nation—Diet at Augsburg— League of Torgau— The Evangelic Union—" The Rulers Take 
 Counsel Together" — The Emperor's Message — The Reformation and the Papacy. 
 
 BOOK X I.— Page 493. 
 the swiss. 1522 — 1527. 
 
 Spiritual Slavery— Christian Liberty — Effect of the Gospel on Zwingle — Leo Judah at Zurich — 
 The Challenge — Zwingle and Faber — Zwingle Tempted by the Pope — " Zwingle's Passion" — 
 Tract against Images — Wooden Idols — The Unterwalders — Public Meeting — Hoffman's De- 
 fence of the Pope — The Mass — Schmidt of Kussnacht — Results of the Conference — Oswald 
 Myconius at Zurich — Thomas Plater — The Swiss Aroused — Hottinger Arrested — His Mar- 
 tyrdom — Persecution Invoked — Swiss and German Reformations — The Jewish and Pagan Ele- 
 ments— Zwingle's and Luther's Tasks— The Council and the People — Abduction of OExlin — 
 Riot and Conflagration — The Wirths arrested — The Prisoners Surrendered — A Spectacle to 
 the World—" Cruel Mockings"— " Faithful unto Death"— Father and Son on the Scaffold 
 — Abolition of the Mass — The Lord's Supper — Brotherly Love — Zwingle on Original Sin — 
 Attack upon Zwingle — The Gospel at Berne — Heim and Haller — Ordinance of the Govern- 
 ment—St. Michael's Nunnery— The Convent of Konigsfeld — Margaret Watteville's Letter 
 — Liberation of the Nuns— Pretended Letter of Zwingle— Clara May and Nicolas Watteville — 
 The Seat of Learning — 03colampadius — Flight from the Convent — CEcolampadius at Basle 
 — Jealousy of Erasmus — Hiitten and Erasmus — Death of Hutten — Vacillation and Decision 
 — Erasmus's Quatrain — Luther's Letter to Erasmus — Motives of Erasmus in Opposing the 
 Reformation — Lamentations of Erasmus — Arguments for Free Will — Premature Exultation — 
 A Test — God's Working— Jansenism— The Bible and Philosophy— The Three Days' Battle 
 — Character of False Systems — Conrad Grebel — Extravagances — " The Little Jerusalem" — 
 The Anabaptist Feast — Horrible Tragedy — Discussion on Baptism — Opinions not Punishable — 
 Popish Immobility — Zwingle and Luther — Zwingle on the Lord's Supper — Consubstantiation — 
 Luther's Great Principle — Carlstadt's Writings Prohibited — Zwingle's Commentary — The Sua- 
 bian Syngramma — Need of Union in Adversity — Struggles of the Reformation — Tumult in 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 the Tockenburg — Meeting at Ilantz — Comander's Defence — Doctrine of the Sacrament — Pro- 
 posed Public Discussion — Decision of the Diet — Zwingle in Danger — The Disputants at Baden 
 — Contrast of the Parties — Eck and (Ecolampadius — Zwingle's Share in the Contest — Mur- 
 ner of Lucerne — Haller and the Council of Berne — Reformation in St. Gall — Conrad Pel- 
 lican — The Mountaineers — Alliance with Austria — Farel Appears. 
 
 BOOK XII.— Page 545. 
 
 THE FRENCH. 1500—1526. 
 
 The Reformation in France — Persecution of the Vaudois — Birthplace of Farel — La Saint Croix — 
 The Priest's Wizard — Farel's Superstitious Faith — The Chevalier Bayard — Louis XII. — The 
 Two Valois — Lefevre — His Devotion — Farel's Reverence for the Pope — Farel and the Bible — 
 Gleams of Light — Lefevre Turns to St. Paul — Lefevre on Works — University Amusements — 
 Faith and Works — Paradoxical Truth — Farel and the Saints — Allman Refutes De Vio — Pierre 
 Olivetan — Happy Change in Farel — Independence and Priority — Of the Reformation in France 
 — Francis of Angouleme — Two Classes of Combatants — Margaret of Valois — Talents of the 
 Queen of Navarre — The Bishop and the Bible — Francis Encourages Learning — Margaret Em- 
 braces the Gospel — Poetical Effusions — Of the Duchess of Alencon — Margaret's Danger — 
 Violence of Beda — Louis Berquin — Opposition to the Gospel — The Concordat — The Concordat 
 Resisted— Fanalicism and Timidity — The Three Maries — Beda and the University — The King 
 and the Sorbonne — Briconnet in His Diocese — The Bishop and the Curates — Martial Mazurier 
 —Margaret's Sorrows — Strength under Trial — Death of Philibert of Nemours — Alone, not 
 Lonely — The Wandering Sheep — Briconnet's Hope and Prayer — Sufficiency of the Scriptures 
 — Lefevre's French Bible — The People " Turned Aside" — Church of Landouzy — The Gospel 
 and the French Court — Margaret's Lamentations — Briconnet Preaches Against the Monks — 
 Two Despotisms — Briconnet Draws Back — Leclerc the Wool-Comber — Leclerc's Zeal and 
 Sufferings — A Mother's Faith and Love — Secret Meetings for Worship — Berquin Impris- 
 oned by the Parliament — Charges Against Berquin — Liberated by the King — Pavanne's Re- 
 cantation and Remorse — Zeal of Leclerc and Chatelain — Peter Toussaint — Leclerc Breaks 
 the Images — Uproar among the People — Martyrdom of Leclerc and Chatelain — The Gospel 
 Expelled from Gap — Anemond's Zeal — Farel Preaches to His Countrymen — Pierre De Sebville 
 — Anemond Visits Luther — Luther's Letter to the Duke of Savoy — Farel's Arrival in Switz- 
 erland — (Ecolampadius and Farel — Cowardice of Erasmus — French Frankness — " Balaam" 
 — Farel's Propositions — Faith and Scripture — The Reformation Defended — Visits Strasburg 
 — Ordination of Farel — Apostolical Succession — Farel at Montbeliard — The Gospel at Lyons 
 — Anthony Papillon — Sebville Persecuted — Secret Meetings at Grenoble — Effects of the Bat- 
 tle of Pavia — Trial and Arrest of Maigret — Evangelical Association — Need of Unity — Christian 
 Patriotism — Influence of Tracts — The New Testament in French — Bible and Tract Societies 
 — Farel at Montbeliard — Oil and Wine — Toussaint's Trials — Fdrel and Anemond — The Image 
 of Saint Anthony — Death of Anemond — Defeat and Captivity of Francis I. — Consternation 
 of the French — Opposers of the. Faith — The Queen-Mother and the Sorbonne — Cry for "He- 
 retical" Blood — Parliament Establishes the Inquisition — Charges Against Briconnet — Cited Be- 
 fore the Inquisition — Dismay of the Bishop — Refused a Trial by His Peers — Briconnet's Temp- 
 tation and Fall — Retractation of Briconnet — Compared with Lefevre — Beda Attacks Lefevre 
 — Lefevre at Strasburg — Meets Farel — Berquin Imprisoned — Erasmus Attacked by the Monks 
 and the Sorbonne — Appeals to the Parliament and the King — More Victims in Lorraine — 
 Bonaventure Rennel — Courage of Pastor Schuch — Martyrdom of Schuch — Peter Caroli and 
 Beda — The Martyrdom of James Pavanne — The Hermit of Livry — Seized and Condemned — 
 Resources of Providence — John Calvin — The Family of Mommor — Calvin's Parentage — Cal- 
 vin's Childhood — His Devotion to Study — Infant Ecclesiastics — Calvin Proceeds to Paris — 
 Reformation of Language — Protestant France — System of Terror — The " Babylonish Captivity" 
 — Toussaint Goes to Paris — Toussaint in Prison — " Not accepting Deliverance" — Spread of 
 Persecution — Project of Margaret — For the Deliverance of Francis — Margaret's Resolution — 
 She Sails for Spain. 
 
 BOOK X III.— Page 625. 
 
 THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526 1529. 
 
 Twofold Movement of Reform — Reform, the Work of God— First Diet of Spirt; — Palladium of Re- 
 form — Proceedings of the Diet — Report of the Commissioners — The Papacy described — Destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem— Instructions of Seville — Change of Policy — The Holy League— Religious 
 
CONTENTS. xv ii 
 
 Liberty proposed — Crisis of the Reformation — Italian War— Emperor's Manifesto — Italian Cam- 
 paign — March on Rome — Revolt of the Troops — Papal Army— The Assault — The Sack Ger- 
 man Humours — Violence of the Spaniards — Profitable Calm — Constitution of the Church 
 
 Philip of Hesse — The Monk of Marburg — Lambert's Paradoxes — Friar Boniface— Disputation 
 at Homburg— Triumph of the Gospel in Hesse— Constitution of the Church — Synods — Two El- 
 ements in the Church — Luther on the Ministry — Organization of the Church — Evils of State 
 
 Interference — Luther's Letter to the Elector — German Mass — Melancthon's Instructions 
 
 Disaffection — Visitation of the Reformed Churches — Important Results — The Reformation Ad- 
 vances — Elizabeth of Brandenburg — A Pious Princess — Edict of Ofen — Persecutions Winde- 
 
 ler and Carpenter — Persecutions — Keyser — Alarm in Germany — Pack's Forgery League of 
 
 the Reformed Princes — Advice of the Reformers— Luther's pacific Counsel — Surprise of the Pa- 
 pist Princes — Pack's Scheme not improbable — Vigour of the Reformation — Alliance between 
 
 Charles and Clement— Omens — Hostility of the Papists — Arbitrary Proposition of Charles 
 
 — The Schism completed — The Protest — Principles of the Protest — The Supremacy of the Gos- 
 pel— Union of Truth and Charity — Ferdinand rejects the Protest — Joy of the Protestants Ex- 
 ultation of the Papists— Peter Muterstatt — Christian Unity a Reality — Escape of Grynsus 
 
 Melancthon's Dejection — The Princes, the true Reformers — Germany and Reform — Union ne- 
 cessary to Reform — Difficulty of Union — A Lutheran Warning — Proposed Conference at Mar- 
 burg — Melancthon and Zwingle — Zwingle's Departure — Rumours in Zurich — Hoc est Corpus 
 Meum — The Discussion — Figures— Scripture explained by Scripture — The Spiritual Eating— 
 Zwingle's Old Song — Agitation in the Conference — Metaphor— Christ's Humanity Finite — Tes- 
 timony of Augustin — Luther's Violence — End of the Conference — The Landgrave mediates 
 — Their Last Meeting — Zwingle's Emotion— Sectarian Spirit of the Germans — Brotherhood 
 Rejected — Christian Charity Prevails — The Real Presence — Luther's Dejection — State of Polit- 
 ical Affairs — Luther's Battle Sermon. 
 
 BOOK XIV.— Page 672. 
 
 THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 Two Striking Lessons — Charles V. — The German Envoys — Boldness of the Envoys — The Land- 
 grave's Present — The Envoys under Arrest — Their Release and Departure — Meeting of Charles 
 and Clement — Gattinara's Proposition — Clement's Objection — War Imminent — Luther's Ob- 
 jections — The Saviour is Coming — Charles's Conciliatory Language — The Emperor's Motives 
 — The Coronation — Alarm of the Protestants — Luther advocates Passive Resistance — Briich's 
 
 Noble Advice — Spiritual Armour — Luther remains at Coburg — Charles at Innspruck Two 
 
 Parties at Court — Sentiments of Gattinara — The King of Denmark — Piety of the Elector 
 
 Wiles of the Romanists — Augsburg — The Gospel Preached — The Emperor's Message The 
 
 Sermons Prohibited — Firmness of the Elector — The Elector's Reply — Preparation of the Confes- 
 sion — The Church, the Judge — The Landgrave's Catholic Spirit — Augsburg — Violence of the Im- 
 perialists — Charles at Munich — Charles and the Princes — The Procession — Enters Aucrsburg 
 
 The Benediction — Charles and the Landgrave — The Margrave of Brandenburg — The Emper- 
 or's Silence — Failure of the Interview — Agitation of Charles — Refusal of the Princes — Proces- 
 sion of Corpus Christi — Exasperation of Charles — The Sermons prohibited — A Compromise pro- 
 posed — A Compromise — Curiosity of the Citizens — The New Preachers — The Medley of Po- 
 pery—Luther Encourages the Princes — Veni Spiritus — Mass of the Holy Ghost — The Sermon 
 — Opening the Diet — The Elector's Prayer — Insidious Plan of the Romanists — Valdez and Me- 
 lancthon — Evangelical Firmness Prevails — Zeal of the Elector — The Signing of the Confession 
 — Luther's Anxiety — Luther's Texts — Luther to Melancthon — The Palatine Chapel — Recollec- 
 tions and Contrast — The Confession — Prologue — The Confession — Justification — Free Will and 
 Works — Faith — Luther on the Confession — Abuses — Church and State — Duty of the Bishops 
 — Epilogue — Remarks on the Confession — Church and State Distinct — Remarks — Moderate 
 Tone of the Confession — Defects — A New Baptism — Effect on the Romanists — Luther de- 
 mands Religious Liberty — Luther's Dominant Idea — Song of Triumph — An Ingenuous Confes- 
 sion — Hopes of the Protestants — Failure of the Popish Intrigues — The Emperor's Council — 
 Luther opposes Concession — Infatuation of the Papists — Scheme of the Romish Doctors — Me- 
 lancthon's Explanation — Refutation — Charles's Dissatisfaction — Interview with the Princes — 
 The Swiss at Augsburg — Zwingle's Confession — Afflicting Divisions — The Elector's Faith — 
 The Lion's Skin — The Refutation — Imperial Commands — Melancthon's Prescience — Policy of 
 Charles — Stormy Meeting — Resolutions of the Consistory — The Prayers of the Saints — Two 
 Miracles — The Emperor's Menace — The Mask — Omens — Tumult in Augsburg — Philip of 
 Hesse — Temptation — Union Resisted — The Landgrave — Protestant Firmness — Philip of Hesse 
 — Flight from Augsburg — Alarm in Augsburg — Metamorphoses — Unusual Moderation — Peace, 
 Peace — The Mixed Commission — The Three Points — Romish Dissimulation — The Main Ques- 
 tion — Church Government — Danger of Concession — Pretended Concord — Luther's Letters — 
 The Word above the Church — Melancthon's Blindness — Papist Infatuation — A New Commis- 
 
 3 
 
xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 s | on — The Landgrave's Firmness — The Two Phantoms — Concessions — Rome and Christianity — 
 Irritation — The Gordian Knot — The Council Granted — Alarm in Rome — Menaces — Alterca- 
 tions — Fresh Negotiations — Protestantism Resists — Luther's Exhortation — The Elector of Sax- 
 ony — The Recess of Augsburg — Irritating Language — Apology of the Confession — Intimidation 
 — Final Interview — Messages of Peace. — Exasperation of the Papists — Restoration of Popery 
 
 Tumult in the Church — Union of the Churches — The Pope and the Emperor — Close of the 
 
 Diet — Attack of Geneva — Joy of the Evangelicals — Establishment of Protestantism. 
 
 BOOK XV.— Page 751. 
 
 SWITZERLAND — CONQUESTS. 1526 — 1530. 
 
 Three Periods of Reform — Two Movements in the Church — The Two Movements — Aggressive 
 Spirit — The Schoolmaster — Farel's New Baptism — Farel's Studies — The Door is Opened — Op- 
 position — Lausanne — Picture of the Clergy — Farel at Lausanne — Farel and the Monk — Oppo- 
 sition to the Gospel — The Converted Monk — Christian Unity — State-Religion — A Resolution 
 of Berne — Almanack of Heretics — Haller — Zwingle's Exhortation — Anabaptists at Berne — 
 Victory of the Gospel — Papist Provocations — Proposed Disputation — Objections of the Forest 
 Cantons — Important Question — Unequal Contest — A Christian Band — The Cordeliers' Church 
 
 Opening of the Conference — Christ the Sole Head^Remarkable Conversion — St. Vincent's 
 
 Day — A Strange Argument — Papist Bitterness — Necessity of Reform — Zwingle's Sertnon — 
 Charity — Edict of Reform — The Reformation Reproached — The Reform Accepted — Faith and 
 Charity — First Evangelical Communion — Faith shown by Works — Head of Beatus — Threat- 
 ening Storm — Revolt — Christ in Danger — A Revolt — Energy of Berne — Victory — Political 
 Advantages — Romish Relics — Nuns of St. Catherine — Contests — Spread of Reform — A Popish 
 ]y[i rac l e — Obstacles in Basle — Zeal of the Citizens — Witticisms of Erasmus — Half Measures — 
 The Petition — Commotion in Basle — Half Measures Rejected — Reformed Propositions — A 
 Night of Terror — The Idols Broken — The Hour of Madness — The Reform Legalized — Erasmus 
 in Basle — Objections — Principles of the Reformation — Farel's Commission — Farel at Lausanne 
 
 Farel at Morat — Neufchatel — Farel's Labours — Farel's Preaching — Popery in Neufchatel — 
 
 Resistance of the Monks — The Hospital Chapel — Civil Power Invoked — Guillemette de Vugy — 
 The Feast of Assumption — The Mass Interrupted — Farel's Danger — 111 Treatment of Farel — 
 Apostles and Reformers Compared — Farel in the Cathedral — The Idols Destroyed — Interposi- 
 tion of the Governor — Reflections — Plans of the Romanists — The Governor's Difficulties — Pre- 
 liminaries — Hatred and Division — Proposed Delay — The Romanist Protest — The Voting — Ma- 
 jority for Reform — Protestantism Perpetual — The Image of St. John — A Miracle — Popery and 
 the Gospel — Reaction Preparing — Failure of the Plot — Farel's Labours — De Bely at Fontaine — 
 The Pastor Marcourt — Disgraceful Expedient — The Reform Established — Remarks. 
 
 BOOK XVL— Page 790. 
 
 SWITZERLAND —CATASTROPHE. 1528 1531. 
 
 Christian Warfare — Zwingle — Persecutions — Austrian Alliance — Animosity — Christian Exhorta- 
 tion — Keyser's Martyrdom — Zwingle and War — Zwingle's Error — Zwingle's Advice — War of 
 Religion — Zwingle joins the Army — War— *The Landamman iEbli — Bernese Interposition- 
 Swiss Cordiality— The Zurich Camp— A Conference— Peace Restored — Austrian Treaty Torn 
 — Zwingle's Hymn — Nuns of St. Catherine — Conquests of Reform — The Priest of Zurzack — 
 The Reform in Glaris — Italian Bailiwicks — The Monk of Como — The Monk of Locarno— Let- 
 ter to the German Church — The Monks of Wettingen — Abbe" of St. Gaul — Kiliankouffi— So- 
 leure — A New Miracle — Popery Triumphs — The Grisons Invaded— Forebodings to Berne- 
 Mutual Errors— Failure of the Diet— Political Reformation — Activity of Zurich — Diet Arau— 
 Blockade of the Waldsleddtes— Indignation — France Conciliates — Diet at Bremgarten — The 
 Five Cantons Inflexible — Zurich — Zwingle's False Position — The Great Council — Zwingle at 
 Bremgarten — The Apparition — Zwingle's Agony — Frightful Omens — The Comet — Zwingle's 
 Tranquillity— New Mediations — Deceitful Calm — Fatal Inactivity — Zurich Forewarned — 
 Manifesto of the Cantons— The Abbot Wolfgang — Infatuation of Zurich — The War Begins — 
 A Fearful Night— The War — Army of Zurich— Zwingle's Departure— Anna Zwingle — Army 
 of Zurich— Battle of Cappel— The March — Ambuscade — The Banner in Danger — The Banner 
 Saved — Terrible Slaughter — Slaughter of the Pastors — Zwingle's Last Moments— Barbarity of 
 the Victors — The Furnace of Trial— Distress — Zwingle is Dead — Funeral Oration — Army of 
 Zurich — Another Reverse — Inactivity of the Bernese — Joy of the Romanists — End of the War 
 — Death of tEcolampadius — Conclusion. 
 
HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIO!. 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Rise of the Papacy — Early Encroachments — Co-operation of the Bishops^ — Unity of the Church 
 — Visible Unity — Primacy of St. Peter — Patriarchates — Policy of Rome — Charlemagne — Dis- 
 orders of Rome — Hildebrand — The Crusades — Spiritual Despotism — Salvation by Grace — Pela- 
 gianism — The Church — Penance — Indulgences — Purgatory — Tax of Indulgences — The Papacy 
 and Christianity — Theology — Dialectics — Predestination — Penance — Religion — Relics — Morals 
 — Corruption — Disorders of the Priests — Bishops and Popes — Alexander VI — Caesar Borgia — 
 General Corruption — Ciceronians — Efforts for Reform — Prospects of Christianity — State of the 
 Papacy — Internal Divisions — Carnality of the Church — Popular Feeling — Doctrine — Develop- 
 ment of Mind — Revival of Letters — Philosophy — Principle of Reformation — Witnesses — Mystics 
 — Wiclif — Huss — Witnesses — The Empire — Peace — State of the People — State of Germany — 
 Switzerland — Italy — Spain — Portugal — France — Low Countries — England — Bohemia and Hun- 
 gary — Frederic the Wise — Men of Letters — Reuchlin — His Labours — Reuchlin hi Italy — Con- 
 test with the Dominicans — The Hebrew Writings — Erasmus — Erasmus and Luther — Hiitten 
 — Literas Obscurorum Virorum — Hiitten at' Brussels — Sickingin — Cronberg — Hans Sachs — 
 General Ferment. 
 
 The world was tottering on its old 
 foundations when Christianity appeared. 
 The various religions which had suf- 
 ficed for an earlier age no longer satis- 
 fied the nations. The mind of the exis- 
 ting generation could no longer taber- 
 nacle in the ancient forms. The gods 
 of the nations had lost their oracles — as 
 the nations had lost their liberty in 
 Rome. Brought face to face in the 
 Capitol they had mutually destroyed the 
 illusion of their divinity. A vast void 
 had ensued in the religious opinions of 
 mankind. 
 
 A kind of Deism, destitute of spirit 
 and vitality, hovered for a time over the 
 abyss in which had been engulphed the 
 superstitions of heathenism. — But, like 
 all negative opinions, it had no power to 
 edify. The narrow prepossessions of 
 the several nations had fallen with the 
 fall of their gods, — their various popula- 
 tions melted, the one into the other. In 
 Europe, Asia, Africa, all was but one 
 vast empire, and the human family be- 
 gan to feel its comprehensiveness and its 
 unity. 
 
 Then the Word was made flesh. 
 
 God appeared amongst men, and as 
 Man, to save that which was lost. In 
 2 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth dwelt all the fulness 
 of the Godhead bodily. 
 
 This is the greatest event in the an- 
 nals of all time. The former ages had 
 been a preparation for it ; the latter un- 
 roll from it. It is their centre and con- 
 necting link. 
 
 From this period the popular supersti- 
 tions had no significancy, and such 
 feeble relics of them as outlived the 
 general wreck of incredulity, vanished 
 before the majestic orb of eternal truth. 
 
 The Son of Man lived thirty-three 
 years on this earth. He suffered, he 
 died, he rose again, — he ascended into 
 heaven. His disciples, beginning at 
 Jerusalem, travelled over the Roman 
 Empire and the world, every where pro- 
 claiming their Master the author of ever- 
 lasting salvation. From the midst of a 
 people who rejected intercourse with 
 others — proceeded a Mercy that invited 
 and embraced all. A great number of 
 Asiatics, of Greeks, of Romans, hitherto 
 led by their priests to the feet of dumb 
 idols, believed at their word. " The 
 Gospel suddenly beamed on the earth 
 like a ray of the sun," says Eusebius. 
 A breath of life moved over this vast 
 field of death. A new, a holy people 
 
10 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 was formed upon the earth ; and the as- 
 tonished world beheld in the disciples of 
 the despised Galilean a purity, a self- 
 denial, a charity, a heroism, of which 
 they retained no idea. 
 
 The new religion had two features 
 amongst many others which especially 
 distinguished it from all the human sys- 
 tems which fell before it. One had re- 
 ference to the ministers of its worship, — 
 the other to its doctrines. 
 
 The ministers of paganism were al- 
 most the gods of those human inventions. 
 The priests led the people, so long at 
 least as their eyes were not opened. A 
 vast and haughty hierarchy oppressed 
 the world. Jesus Christ dethroned these 
 iiving idols, abolished this proud hierar- 
 chy, — took from man what man had 
 taken from God, and re-established the 
 soul in direct communication with the 
 divine fountain of truth, by proclaiming 
 himself the only Master and the only 
 Mediator. " One is your master, even 
 Christ (said he.) and all ye are bre- 
 thren." (Matt, xxiii.) 
 
 As to doctrine, human religions had 
 taught that salvation was of man. The 
 religions of the earth had invented an 
 earthly salvation. They had taught 
 men that heaven would be given to them 
 as a reward ; they had fixed its price, 
 and what a price ! The religion of 
 God taught that salvation was His gift, 
 and emanated from an amnesty and 
 sovereign grace. God hath given to us 
 eternal life. (1 John v. 11.) 
 
 Undoubtedly Christianity cannot be 
 summed up in these two points : but they 
 seem to govern the subject, especially 
 when historically viewed. And as it is 
 impossible to trace the opposition between 
 truth and error in all things, we have 
 selected its most prominent features. 
 
 Such were the two principles that 
 composed the religion which then took 
 possession of the Empire and of the 
 whole world. The standing of a Chris- 
 tian is in them, — and apart from them, 
 Christianity itself disappears. On their 
 preservation or their loss depended its 
 decline or its growth. One of these 
 principles was to govern the history of 
 tiie religion, the other its doctrine. They 
 Loth presided in the beginning. Let us 
 see how they were lost ; and let us first 
 trace the fate of the former. 
 
 The Church was in the beginning a 
 community of brethren. All its mem- 
 bers Avere taught of God ; and each pos- 
 sessed the liberty of drawing for himself 
 from the divine fountain of life. (John 
 vi. 45.) The epistles, which then settled 
 the great questions of doctrine, did not 
 bear the pompous title of any single 
 man, or ruler. We find from the holy 
 Scriptures that they began simply with 
 these words : " The apostles, elders and 
 brethren to our brethren." (Acts xv. 23.) 
 
 But the writings of these very apostles 
 forewarn, us that from the midst of these 
 brethren, there shall arise a power which 
 shall overthrow this simple and primitive 
 order. (2 Thess. ii.) 
 
 Let us contemplate the formation and 
 trace the development of this power alien 
 to the Church. 
 
 Paul of Tarsus, one of the chiefest 
 apostles of the new religion, had arrived 
 at Rome, the capital of the Empire and 
 of the world, preaching the salvation that 
 £ometh from God only. A Church was 
 formed beside the throne of the Caesars. 
 Founded by this same apostle, it was at 
 first composed of converted Jews, Greeks, 
 and some inhabitants of Rome. For a 
 while it shone brightly as a light set 
 upon a hill, and its faith was every 
 where spoken of. But ere long it de- 
 clined from its first simplicity. The spiri- 
 tual dominion of Rome arose as its poli- 
 tical and military power had done be- 
 fore, and was slowly and gradually ex- 
 tended. 
 
 The first pastors or bishops of Rome 
 employed themselves in the beginning 
 in converting to the faith of Christ the 
 towns and villages that surrounded the 
 city. The necessity which the bishops 
 and pastors felt of referring in cases of 
 difficulty to an enlightened guide, and 
 the gratitude which they owed to the me- 
 tropolitan church, led them to maintain 
 an intimate union with her. As is ge- 
 nerally the consequence in such circum- 
 stances, this reasonable union soon de- 
 generated into dependence. The bish- 
 ops of Rome regarded as a right the 
 superiority which the neighbouring 
 churches had voluntarily yielded. The 
 encroachments of power form a large por- 
 tion of all history: the resistance of those 
 whose rights are invaded forms the other 
 part : and the ecclesiastical power could 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 1! 
 
 not escape that intoxication which leads 
 those who are lifted up to seek to raise 
 themselves still higher. It felt all the 
 influence of this general weakness of 
 human nature.' 
 
 Nevertheless the supremacy of the 
 Roman bishop was at first limited* to 
 the overlooking of the churches, in the 
 territory lawfully subject to the prefect 
 of Rome. But the rank which this im- 
 perial city held in the world offered to 
 the ambition of its first pastors a prospect 
 of wider sway. The consideration which 
 the different Christian bishops enjoyed 
 in the second century was in proportion 
 to the rank of the city over which they 
 presided. Rome was the greatest, the 
 richest, and the most powerful city in 
 the world. It was the seat of empire, 
 the mother of nations. " All the inhabi- 
 tants of the earth are hers,"f said Julian, 
 and Claudian declares her to be " the 
 fountain of laws."! 
 
 * If Rome be the Queen of cities, why 
 should not her pastor be the King of 
 Bishops? Why should not the Roman 
 church be the mother of Christendom 1 
 Why should not all nations be her chil- 
 dren, and her authority be the universal 
 law ? It was natural to the heart of man 
 to reason thus. Ambitious Rome did so. 
 
 Hence it was that when heathen 
 Rome fell, she bequeathed to the hum- 
 ble minister of the God of peace, seated 
 in the midst of her own ruins, the proud 
 titles which her invincible sword had 
 won from the nations of the earth. 
 
 The bishops of the other parts of the 
 Empire, yielding to the charm that 
 Rome had exercised for ages over all na- 
 tions, followed the example of the Cam- 
 pagna, and aided the work of usurpation. 
 They willingly rendered to the Bishop 
 of Rome something of that honour which 
 was due to this Queen of cities : nor was 
 there at first anything of dependence in 
 the honour thus yielded. They acted 
 toward the Roman pastor as equals to- 
 ward an- equal ;§ but usurped power 
 
 * Suburbicaria loca. See the sixth canon of 
 the Council of Nice, cited by Rufinus as follows : 
 — Et ut apud Alexandriam et in urbe Roma ve- 
 tusta consuetudo servetur ut vel ille iEgypti vel 
 hie suburbicariarum ecclesiarum sollicitudinem 
 gerat, &c. Hist. Eccles. t Julian Orat. I. 
 
 t Claud, in Paneg. Stilic. til. 3. 
 
 § Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 5. c. 24. Socrat. Hist. 
 Eccles. c. 21. Cyprian ep. 59, 72, 75. 
 
 swells like the avalanche. Exhorta- 
 tions, at first simply fraternal, soon be- 
 came commands in the mouth of the Ro- 
 man Pontiff. A chief place amongst 
 equals appeared to him a throne. 
 
 The Bishops of the West favoured 
 this encroachment of the Roman pastors, 
 either from jealousy of the Eastern 
 bishops, or because they preferred subjec- 
 tion to a pope to the dominion of a tem- 
 poral power. 
 
 On the other hand, the theological 
 sects which distracted the East strove, 
 each for itself, to gain an interest at 
 Rome, hoping to triumph over its oppo- 
 nents by the support of the principal of 
 the Western churches. 
 
 Rome carefully recorded these re- 
 quests and intercessions, and smiled to 
 see the nations throw themselves into her 
 arms. She neglected no opportunity of 
 increasing and extending her power. 
 The praises, the flattery, and exagger- 
 ated compliments paid to her, and her 
 being consulted by other churches, be- 
 came in her hands as titles and docu- 
 ments of her authority. Such is the 
 heart of man exalted to a throne ; flat- 
 tery intoxicates him, and his head grows 
 dizzy. What he possesses impels him 
 to aspire after more. 
 
 The doctrine of " the Church," and of 
 the "necessity for its visible unity," which 
 had gained footing as early as the third 
 century, favoured the pretensions of 
 Rome. The great bond, which origin- 
 ally bound together the members of the 
 church, was a living faith in the heart, 
 by which all were joined to Christ as 
 their one Head. But various causes ere 
 long conspired to originate and develope 
 the idea of a necessity for some exterior 
 fellowship. Men, accustomed to the as- 
 sociations and political forms of an earth- 
 ly country, carried their views and 
 habits of mind into the spiritual and 
 everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ. 
 Persecution — powerless to destroy, or 
 even to shake the new community, com- 
 pressed it into the form of a more com- 
 pacted body. — To the errors that arose in 
 the schools of deism, or in the various 
 sects, was opposed the truth "one and 
 universal" received from the Apostles 
 and preserved in the church. All this 
 was well, so long as the invisible and 
 spiritual church was identical with the 
 
12 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 visible and outward community. But 
 soon a great distinction appeared: — the 
 form and the vital principle parted asun- 
 der. The semblance of identical and 
 external organization Avas gradually sub- 
 stituted in place of the internal and spiri- 
 tual unity which is the very essence of 
 a religion proceeding from God. Men 
 suffered the precious perfume of faith to 
 escape while they bowed themselves be- 
 fore the empty vase that had held it. 
 Faith in the heart no longer knit to- 
 gether in one the members of the church. 
 Then it was that other ties were sought ; 
 and Christians w r ere united by means of 
 bishops, archbishops, popes, mitres, cere- 
 monies, and canons. The Living 
 Church retiring by degrees to the lonely 
 sanctuary of a few solitary souls, — an ex- 
 terior church Avas substituted in place of 
 it, and installed in all its forms as of 
 divine institution. Salvation no longer 
 floAving forth from that Avord which was 
 iioav hidden — it began to be affirmed 
 that it Avas conveyed by means of certain 
 invented forms, and that none could ob- 
 tain it Avithout resorting to such means ! 
 No one, it was said, can by his faith at- 
 tain to everlasting life. — Christ commu- 
 nicated to the Apostles, and the Apostles 
 to the Bishops, the unction of the Holy 
 Spirit; and this spirit is found only in 
 this order of communication. In the be- 
 ginning of the Gospel, whosoever had 
 received the spirit of Jesus Christ was es- 
 teemed a member of the church : — noAv 
 the order Avas inverted ; and no one un- 
 less a member of the church, Avas 
 counted to have received the spirit of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 As soon as the notion of a supposed 
 necessity for a visible unity* of the 
 church had taken root, another error be- 
 gan to spread: — namely, that it Avas 
 needful that there should be some out- 
 Avard representative of that unity. 
 Though no trace of any primacy of St. 
 Peter above the rest of the Apostles 
 appears in the Gospels: although the 
 idea of a primacy is at variance with the 
 mutual relations of the disciples as 
 "brethren," — and even with the spirit 
 of the dispensation which requires all the 
 children of the Father to minister one to 
 another,* (1 Pet. iv. 10.) acknowledging 
 
 * From the previous reflections it is clear that 
 the author does not disparage that Unity which 
 
 but one Master and Head ; and though 
 the Lord Jesus had rebuked his disciples 
 whenever their carnal hearts conceived 
 desires of pre-eminence ; — a Primacy of 
 St. Peter Avas invented, and supported by 
 misinterpreted texts, and men proceeded 
 to acknoAvledge in that Apostle, and in 
 his pretended successor, the visible re- 
 presentative of visible unity — and head 
 of the whole Church ! 
 
 The constitution of the patriarchate 
 contributed further to the exaltation of 
 the Roman Papacy. As early as the 
 first three centuries, the churches of the 
 metropolitan cities had been held in pe- 
 culiar honour. The Council of Nice, in 
 its sixth canon, named especially three 
 cities, Avhose churches, according to it 
 held an anciently established authority 
 over those of the surrounding provinces. 
 These were Alexandria, Rome, and An- 
 tioch. The political origin of this dis- 
 tinction may be discerned in the name 
 which was at first given to the bishops 
 of these cities ; they were called Exarchs, 
 like the political governors.* In latter 
 times they bore the more ecclesiastical 
 name of Patriarch. It is in the Council 
 of Constantinople that Ave find this title 
 first used. This same Council created a 
 new Patriarchate, that of Constantinople 
 itself, the new Rome, the second capital 
 of the Empire. Rome at this period 
 shared the rank of Patriarchate with 
 these three churches. But Avhen the in- 
 vasion of Mahomet had swept away the 
 bishoprics of Alexandria and Antioch. 
 when the see of Constantinople fell 
 aAvay, and in latter times even separated 
 itself from the West, Rome alone re- 
 mained, and the circumstances of the 
 times causing everything to rally around 
 
 is the manifested result of the partaking of the 
 life of the Head by the members ; but only that 
 lifeless form of unity which man has devised in 
 place of it. We learn from John xvii. 21 — 23, 
 that the true and real One-ness of Believers 
 was to be manifested, — so that the world might 
 believe that the Father had sent Jesus. — Hence 
 we may conclude that the things which divide, 
 instead of gathering, the " little flock" are con- 
 trary to his mind : and among such things must 
 be classed not alone the carnality of names, (1 
 Cor. iii. 4.) — but every commandment or require- 
 ment of men that excludes the very weakest 
 whom God has received. (Rom. xiv. 1 — 3 ; Acts 
 xi. 17, compare Acts ii. 44, &c.) — Translator. 
 
 * See the Council of Chalcedon, canons 8 and 
 18, o i^apyoi rijs SioiKfiaco};. 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 13 
 
 her, she remained from that time with- 
 out a rival. 
 
 New and more powerful partisans 
 than all the rest soon came to her assis- 
 tance. Ignorance and superstition took 
 possession of the Church, and delivered it 
 up to Rome, blindfold and manacled. 
 
 Yet this bringing into captivity was 
 not effected without a struggle. The 
 voices of particular churches frequently- 
 asserted their independence. This 
 courageous remonstrance was especially- 
 heard in proconsular Africa and in the 
 East.* 
 
 To silence the cries of the churches, 
 Rome found new allies. Princes, who 
 in those troublesome times often saw 
 their thrones tottering, offered their ad- 
 herence to the Church, in exchange for 
 her support. They yielded to her spirit- 
 ual authority, on condition of her paying 
 them with secular dominion. They left 
 her to deal at will with the souls of men, 
 provided only she would deliver them 
 from their enemies. The power of the 
 hierarchy in the ascending scale, and of 
 the imperial power which was declining, 
 leaned thus one toward the other — and 
 so accelerated their two-fold destiny. 
 
 Rome could not lose by this. An 
 edict of Theodosius II. and of Valenti- 
 nian III. proclaimed the bishop of Rome 
 " ruler of the whole church." Justinian 
 issued a similar decree. These decrees 
 did not contain all that the Popes pre- 
 tended to see in them. But in those 
 times of ignorance it was easy for them 
 to gain reception for that interpretation 
 which was most favorable to themselves. 
 The dominion of the Emperors in Italy 
 
 * Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, speaking of 
 Stephen, bishop of Rome, has these words : " Ma- 
 gis ac magis ejus errorem denotabis qui haeretico- 
 rum causam contra Christianos et contra Eccle- 
 
 siam Dei asserere conatur qui unitatem 
 
 et vcritatem de divina lege venientem non tenens 
 
 Consuetudo sine veritate vestustas erroris 
 
 est." (Ep. 74.) Firmilian, bishop of Cesarea, in 
 Cappadocia, writing in the latter part of the third 
 century, observes, " Eos autem qui Romte sunt 
 non ea in omnibus observare quae sunt ab origine 
 tradita et frustra auctoritatem apostolorum pree- 
 
 tendere Caeterum nos (the bishops of 
 
 the churches of Asia, more ancient than the 
 Roman church) veritati et consuetudinem jun- 
 gimus, et consuetudini Romanorum consuetudi- 
 nem sed veritatis opponimus ; ab initio hoc ten- 
 entes quod a Christo et ab apostolo traditum est." 
 (Cypr. Ep. 75). These testimonies are of high 
 importance. 
 
 becoming every day more precarious, 
 the Bishops of Rome took advantage of 
 it to withdraw themselves from their de- 
 pendence. 
 
 But already the forests of the North 
 had poured forth the most effectual pro- 
 moters of papal power. The barbarians 
 who had invaded the West and settled 
 themselves therein, — but recently con- 
 verted to Christianity, — ignorant of the 
 spiritual character of the Church, and 
 feeling the want of an external pomp of 
 religion, prostrated themselves in a half 
 savage and half heathen state of mind at 
 the feet of the Chief Priest of Rome. At 
 the same time the people of the West 
 also submitted to him. First the Van- 
 dals, then the Ostrogoths, a short time 
 after the Burgundians and the Alains. 
 then the Visigoths, and at last the Lom- 
 bards and the Anglo-Saxons came bow- 
 ing the knee to the Roman Pontiff It 
 was the sturdy shoulders of the idolatrous 
 children of the North which elevated to 
 the supreme throne of Christendom, a pas- 
 tor of the banks of the Tiber. 
 
 These events occurred in the West at 
 the beginning of the seventh century, at 
 the precise period that the Mahometan 
 power arose in the East, and prepared to 
 overrun another division of the earth. 
 
 From that time the evil continued in- 
 creasing. In the eighth century we see 
 the Bishops of Rome on the one hand 
 resisting the Greek Emperors, their law- 
 ful sovereigns, and endeavoring to expel 
 them from Italy; whilst on the other 
 they court the French Mayors of the Pa- 
 lace, and demand from this new power 
 now arising in the West, a share in the 
 wreck of the empire. We see Rome 
 establish her usurped authority between 
 the East, which she repelled, and the 
 West which she courted ; thus erecting 
 her throne upon two revolutions. 
 
 Alarmed by the progress of the Arabs. 
 who had made themselves masters of 
 Spain, and boasted that they would spee- 
 dily traverse the Pyrenees and the Alps, 
 and proclaim the name of Mahomet on 
 the seven hills : — terrified at the daring 
 of Aistolpho, who, at the head of his 
 Lombards, threatened to put every Roman 
 to death,* and brandished his sword be- 
 
 * Fremens ut leo . . . asserens omnes uno 
 gladio jugulari. (Anastasius, Bibl. Vit. Pontif. 
 p. 83.) 
 
14 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 fore the city gates — Rome, in the pros- 
 pect of ruin, turned on all sides for pro- 
 tection, and threw herself into the arms 
 of the Franks. The usurper Pepin de- 
 manded the confirmation of his claim to 
 the throne : — the Pope granted it ; and, 
 in return, obtained his declaration in de- 
 fence of the " Republic of God." Pepin 
 recovered from the Lombards their con- 
 quests from the Emperor ; but instead of 
 restoring them to that Prince, he depo- 
 sited the keys of the conquered cities on 
 the altar of St. Peter's ; and, with up- 
 lifted hand, swore that it was not in the 
 cause of man that he had taken arms, — 
 but to obtain from God the remission of 
 his sins, and to do homage for his con- 
 quests to St. Peter! Thus did France 
 establish the temporal power of the 
 Popes. 
 
 Charlemagne appeared. — At one time 
 we see him climbing the stairs of St. 
 Peter's, devoutly kissing the steps: — 
 again he presents himself, — but it is as 
 master of all the nations composing the 
 Western Empire, and of Rome itself. 
 Leo Iir. decided to confer the rank on 
 one who already possessed the power ; 
 and in the year 800, on Christmas day, 
 he placed the crown of the Roman Em- 
 perors on the brow of the son of Pepin.* 
 From this period the Pope belonged to 
 the empire of the Franks, and his con- 
 nexion with the East was at an end : 
 thus loosing his hold on a decayed tree, 
 nodding to its fall, in order to graft him- 
 self upon a wild but vigorous sapling. 
 Little could he then have dared to hope 
 for the elevation that awaited his succes- 
 sors among the German nations to which 
 he thus joined himself 
 
 Charlemagne bequeathed to his feeble 
 successors only the wreck of his own 
 power. In the ninth century disunion 
 every where weakened the civil autho- 
 rity. Rome perceived that this was the 
 moment to exalt herself. What better 
 opportunity could offer for achieving the 
 Church's independence of the state than 
 when the crown of Charles was broken, 
 and its fragments scattered over his for- 
 mer empire. 
 
 * Visum est et ipai Apostolico Leoni . . . ut ip- 
 sum Carolum imperatorem nominare debuisset, 
 qui ipsam Roniam tenebat ubi semper Ca?sares 
 sedere soliti erant et reliquas sedes .... (Anna- 
 lista Lambecianus ad an. 801.) 
 
 It was then that the pretended decre- 
 tals of Isidorus appeared. In this collec- 
 tion of alleged decrees of the Popes, the 
 most ancient bishops, contemporaries of 
 Tacitus and Quintilian, were made to 
 speak the barbarous Latin of the ninth 
 century. The customs and constitutions 
 of the Franks were gravely attributed to 
 the Romans in the time of the Emper- 
 ors. Popes quoted the Bible in the Latin 
 translation of St. Jerome, who lived one, 
 two, or three centuries after them. And 
 Victor, bishop of Rome in the year 192, 
 wrote to Theophilus, who was archbishop 
 of Alexandria in 385. The impostor 
 who had fabricated this collection, en- 
 deavoured to prove that all bishops de- 
 rived their authority from the bishop of 
 Rome, who held his own immediately 
 from Christ. He not only recorded all 
 the successive acquisitions of the Pontiffs, 
 but carried them "back to the earliest 
 times. The Popes did not blush to avail 
 themselves of this contemptible impos- 
 ture. As early as 865, Nicholas I. se- 
 lected weapons from this repository to 
 attack princes and bishops.* This bare- 
 faced fabrication was for ages the arsenal 
 of Rome. 
 
 Nevertheless the vices and atrocities 
 of the Pontiffs were such as suspended 
 for a time the object of the decretals. 
 The Papacy signalised its sitting down 
 at the table of Kings by shameful liba- 
 tions ; and intoxication and madness 
 reigned in its orgies. About this time 
 tradition places upon the Papal throne a 
 girl named Joan, who had taken refuge 
 at Rome with her lover, and whose sex 
 was betrayed by the pains of child-birth 
 coming upon her in the midst of a solemn 
 procession. But let us not needlessly 
 exaggerate the shame of the Roman 
 Pontiffs. Women of abandoned charac- 
 ter reigned at this period in Rome. The 
 throne which affected to exalt itself above 
 the majesty of kings, was sunk in the 
 filth of vice. Theodora and Marozia in- 
 stalled and deposed at their pleasure the 
 pretended teachers of the Church of 
 Christ, and placed on the throne of St. 
 Peter their lovers, their sons, and their 
 grandsons. These too well authenti- 
 cated charges may have given rise to 
 the tradition of the female Pope Joan. 
 
 * See Ep. ad. Univ. Epi. s«. Gall. (Mansi XV.) 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 15 
 
 Rome was one vast scene of debauch- 
 ery, wherein the most powerful families 
 in Italy contended for pre-eminence. 
 The counts of Tuscany were generally 
 victorious in these contests. In 1033, 
 this family dared to place upon the pon- 
 tifical throne, under the name of Bene- 
 dict IXth, a young boy brought up in 
 debauchery. This child of twelve years 
 of age, continued when Pope in the prac- 
 tice of the same scandalous vices.* An- 
 other party elected in his stead Sylvester 
 111., and Benedict, with a conscience 
 loaded with adulteries and hands stained 
 with homicide, at last sold the Papacy 
 to a Roman ecclesiastic! 
 
 The Emperors of Germany, roused to 
 indignation by these enormities, purged 
 Rome with the sword. In 1047, a Ger- 
 man bishop, Leo IX. possessed himself 
 of the pontifical throne. 
 
 The Empire, using its right as suzer- 
 ain, raised up the triple crown from the 
 mire, and preserved the degraded Papa- 
 cy by giving to it suitable chiefs. In 
 1046, Henry III. deposed the three rival 
 popes, and pointing with his finger, on 
 which glittered the ring of the Roman 
 patricians, designated the bishop to whom 
 St. Peter's keys should be confided. 
 Four Popes, all Germans, and chosen 
 by the Emperor, succeeded. Whenever 
 the Pontiff of Rome died, a deputation 
 from its church repaired to the Imperial 
 court, just as the envoys of other dioceses, 
 to solicit the nomination of a bishop to 
 succeed him. The Emperors were not 
 sorry to see the Popes reforming abu- 
 ses — strengthening the influence of the 
 church — holding councils — choosing and 
 deposing prelates in spite of foreign 
 I princes : for in all this the Papacy, by 
 its pretensions, did but exalt the power 
 of the reigning Emperor, its suzerain 
 Lord. But such excesses were full of 
 peril to his authority. The power thus 
 gradually acquired might at any moment 
 be directed against the Emperor himself, 
 and the reptile having gained strength 
 
 * " Cuius quidem post adeptum sacerdoiium 
 vita quam turpis, quam foeda, quamque execranda 
 exstiterit, horresco referre." (Desiderius abbot 
 of Cassino, afterwards Pope Victor III. de nii- 
 raculis S. Benedicto, etc. lib. 3, init.) 
 
 t Theophylactus . . . cum post multa adulteria 
 et homicidia manibus suis perpetrata, etc. (Bo- 
 nizo bishop of Sutri, afterwards of Plaisance, 
 liber ad amicum.) 
 
 might turn against the bosom that had 
 warmed it, — and this result followed. 
 The Papacy arose from its humiliation 
 and soon trampled under foot the princes 
 of the earth. To exalt the Papacy was 
 to exalt the Church, to aggrandize reli- 
 gion, to ensure to the spirit the victory 
 over the flesh, and to God the conquest 
 of the world. Such were its maxims ; 
 in these, ambition found its advantagf , 
 and fanaticism its excuse. 
 
 The whole of this new policy is per- 
 sonified in one man, Hildebrand. 
 
 Hildebrand, who has been by turns 
 indiscreetly exalted or unjustly traduced, 
 is the personification of the Roman pon- 
 tificate in its strength and glory. He is 
 one of these characters in history, which 
 include in themselves a new order of 
 things, resembling in this respect Char- 
 lemagne, Luther, and Napoleon, in dif- 
 ferent spheres of action. 
 
 Leo IX. took notice of this monk as he 
 was going to Cluny, and carried him 
 with him to Rome. From that time 
 Hildebrand was the soul of the Papacy, 
 till he himself became Pope. He had 
 governed the Church under different 
 Pontiffs, before he himself reigned un- 
 der the name of Grogory VII. One 
 grand idea occupied his comprehensive 
 mind. He desir&l to establish a visible 
 theocracy, of which the Pope, as the 
 vicar of Christ, should be the head. 
 The recollection of the ancient universal 
 dominion of heathen Rome, haunted his 
 imagination and animated his zeal. He 
 wished to restore to Papal Rome what 
 Rome had lost under the emperors. " What 
 Marius and Caesar," said his flatterers, 
 " could not effect by torrents of blood, 
 you have accomplished by a word." 
 
 Gregory VII. was not actuated by the. 
 spirit of Christ. That spirit of truth, 
 humility, and gentleness was to him un- 
 known. He could sacrifice what he 
 knew to be the truth whenever he 
 judged it necessaiy to his policy. We 
 may instance the case of Berengarius. 
 But without doubt he was actuated by a 
 spirit far above that of the generality of 
 Pontiffs, and by a deep conviction of the 
 justice of his cause. Enterprising, am- 
 bitious, persevering in his designs, he 
 was at the same time skilful and politic 
 in the use of the means of success. 
 
 His first task was to remodel the mili- 
 
16 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tia of the Church. It was needful to 
 gain strength before attacking the Impe- 
 rial authority. A council held at Rome 
 removed the pastors from their families, 
 and obliged them to devote themselves 
 undividedly to the hierarchy. The law 
 of celibacy, devised and carried into ope- 
 ration by the Popes, (who were them- 
 selves monks,) changed the clergy into 
 a monastic order. Gregory VII. claimed 
 to exercise over the whole body of bi- 
 shops and priests of Christendom a power 
 equal to that possessed by an abbot of 
 Cluny over the order subjected to his 
 rule. The legates of Hildebrand passed 
 through the provinces, depriving the pas- 
 tors of their lawful partners, and the 
 Pope himself, if necessary, excited the 
 populace against the married clergy* 
 
 But Gregory's great aim was to eman- 
 cipate Rome from subjection to the Em- 
 peror. Never would he have dared to 
 conceive so ambitious a design, if the 
 discord which disturbed the minority of 
 Henry IV. and the revolt of the German 
 princes from that young Emperor had 
 not favoured his project. The Pope was 
 at this time one of the magnates of the 
 empire. Making common cause with 
 some of the greatest of its vassals, he 
 strengthened himself in the aristocratic 
 interest, and then proceeded to prohibit 
 all ecclesiastics from receiving investiture 
 from the Emperor, under pain of excom- 
 munication. 
 
 He thus snapt asunder the ancient ties 
 which connected the several pastors and 
 their churches with the royal authority — 
 but it was that he might bind them to 
 the pontifical throne. He undertook to 
 restrain by a powerful hand, priests, 
 princes, and people — and to make the 
 Pope a universal monarch. It was 
 Rome alone that every priest was to 
 fear — and in her only he was to hope. 
 The kingdoms and principalities of the 
 earth were to be her domain ; and kings 
 were to tremble before the thunders of 
 the Jupiter of New Rome. Woe to 
 those who should resist her. Their sub- 
 jects were released from their oaths of 
 allegiance — their whole country placed 
 
 * Hi quocumque prodeunt, clamores insultan- 
 tiiim, digitos ostendentium, colaphos pulsantium, 
 perferunt. Alii membris mutilati ; alii per longos 
 cruoiatus superbe necati, &c. — Martene et Du- 
 rand. Thes. Nov. Anecd. 1. 231. 
 
 under interdict — public worship was to 
 cease — the churches to be closed — the 
 bells mute — the sacrament no longer ad- 
 ministered — and the malediction ex- 
 tended even to the dead, to whom, at the 
 command of the proud Pontiff, the earth 
 refused the peace and shelter of the 
 tomb. 
 
 The Pope, whose power had been 
 from the very beginning subordinate, 
 first to the Roman Emperors ; then to 
 the Frankish princes ; and lastly to the 
 Emperors of Germany ; at once freed 
 himself, and assumed the place of an 
 equal, if not of a master. Yet Gregory 
 the Vllth was in his turn humbled ; 
 Rome was taken, and Hildebrand ob- 
 liged to flee. He died at Salerno ; his 
 last words were, Dilixi justitiam et odivi 
 iniquitatem ; propterea morior in ezilio* 
 And who will dare to charge with hy- 
 pocrisy words uttered at the very gates 
 of the tomb. 
 
 The successors of Gregory acted like 
 soldiers arriving after a great victory. 
 They threw themselves as conquerors on 
 the unresisting Churches. Spain, deli- 
 vered from the presence of Islamism, and 
 Prussia, reclaimed from idolatry, fell into 
 the embrace of the crowned priest. The 
 crusades, undertaken at his instance, 
 spread far and wide, and everywhere 
 confirmed his authority : — the pious pil- 
 grims, who in imagination had seen 
 saints and angels conducting their armed 
 hosts, and who entering humbly and 
 barefooted within the walls of Jerusalem, 
 had burned alive the Jews in their syna- 
 gogue, and shed the blood of tens of 
 thousands of Saracens on the spots where 
 they came to trace the footsteps of the 
 Prince of Peace, bore with them to the 
 East the name of the Pope, whose exis- 
 tence had been scarcely known there, 
 since the period when he exchanged the 
 supremacy of the Greeks for that of the 
 Franks. 
 
 Meanwhile that which the arms of the 
 republic and of the empire had failed to 
 effect, was achieved by the power of the 
 Church. The Germans brought to the 
 feet of a bishop the tribute their ancestors 
 had refused to the mightiest generals; 
 and their princes thought they received 
 from the Popes their crown, while in 
 
 * I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity 
 — therefore I die an exile. 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 17 
 
 reality the Popes imposed upon them a 
 yoke. The kingdoms of Christendom, 
 already subject to the spiritual empire of 
 Rome, became her serfs and tributaries. 
 
 Thus every thing was changed in the 
 Church. 
 
 At the beginning it was a society of 
 brethren, and now an absolute monarchy 
 is reared in the midst of them. All 
 Christians were priests of the living God 
 (1 Pet. ii. 9.), with humble pastors for 
 their guidance. But a lofty head is up- 
 lifted from- the midst of these pastors ; a 
 mysterious voice utters words full of 
 pride ; an iron hand compels all men, 
 small and great, rich and poor, freemen 
 and slaves, to take the mark of its power. 
 The holy and primitive equality of souls 
 before God is lost sight of. Christians 
 are divided into two strangely unequal 
 camps. On the one side a separate class 
 of priests daring to usurp the name of the 
 Church, and claiming to be possessed of 
 peculiar privileges in the sight of the 
 Lord. On the other, timid flocks re- 
 duced to a blind and passive submission ; 
 a people gagged and silenced and deliv- 
 ered over to a proud caste. Every tribe, 
 language, and nation of Christendom sub- 
 mitted to the dominion of this spiritual 
 king who had received power to overcome. 
 
 But side by side with that principle 
 that should have pervaded the history of 
 Christianity was a principle that was 
 given to preside over its doctrine. This 
 was the great principle of Christianity ; 
 its leading idea — that of grace, of pardon, 
 and amnesty, and of the gift of eternal 
 life. This idea supposed an alienation 
 from God, and an inability in man to en- 
 ter, by any power of his own, into com- 
 munion with an infinitely holy Being. 
 The opposition of true and false doctrine 
 cannot assuredly be entirely summed up 
 in the question of salvation by faith or 
 by works. Nevertheless, it is the most 
 striking feature in the contrast. We 
 may go farther : Salvation considered as 
 derived from any power in man is the 
 germinating principle of all errors and 
 perversions. The scandals produced by 
 this fundamental error brought on the 
 Reformation ; — and the profession of the 
 contrary principle was the means by 
 which it was achieved. It is therefore 
 indispensable that this truth should be 
 3 
 
 prominent in an introduction to the his- 
 tory of that Reformation. 
 
 Salvation by Grace. Such, then, was 
 the second peculiarity which was de- 
 signed especially to distinguish the reli- 
 gion that came from God from all human 
 systems. And what had become of this 
 great and primordial thought? Had the 
 Church preserved it as a precious deposit ? 
 Let us follow its history. 
 
 The inhabitants of Jerusalem, of Asia, 
 of Greece, and of Rome, in the time of 
 the Roman Emperors, had heard this 
 gospel. Ye are saved by grace — 
 
 THROUGH FAITH IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD J 
 
 (Eph. ii. 8.) and at this voice of peace, 
 at the sound of these good tidings, at this 
 word of power, multitudes of sinners be- 
 lieved, and were attracted to Him who 
 alone can give peace to the conscience \ 
 and numerous societies of believers were 
 formed in the midst of the degenerate 
 communities of that age. 
 
 But ere long an important error began 
 to prevail, as to the nature of Saving 
 Faith. — Faith (according to St. Paul) is 
 the way through which the whole being 
 of the believer, — his understanding, his 
 heart and his will, enters upon present pos- 
 session of the salvation purchased by the 
 incarnation and death of the Son of God. 
 Jesus Christ is apprehended by Faith, 
 and from that hour becomes all things 
 to, — and all things in, the believer. He 
 communicates to the human nature a di- 
 vine life ; and the believer, renewed and 
 set free from the power of self and of sin, 
 feels new affections, and bears new fruits. 
 Faith, says the theologian, labouring to 
 express these thoughts, is the subjective 
 appropriation of the objective Work of 
 Christ. If faith is not the appropriation 
 of Salvation it is nothing — the whole 
 economy of Christian doctrine is out of 
 place ; the fountains of the new life are 
 sealed, and Christianity is overturned 
 from its foundation. 
 
 And this consequence did in fact en- 
 sue. By degrees this practical view of 
 Faith was forgotten, and ere long it was 
 regarded, as it still is by many, as a bare 
 act of the understanding, a mere submis- 
 sion to a commanding evidence. 
 
 From this primary error a second ne- 
 cessarily resulted. When Faith was 
 robbed of its practical character, it could 
 no longer be maintained that Faith 
 
18 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 alone saved. Works no longer follow- 
 ing in their places as its fruits — it seemed 
 necessary to range them on one line with 
 it; and the Church was taught to be- 
 lieve that the sinner is justified by Faith 
 ami by Works. In place of that Chris- 
 tian unity in doctrine, which comprises 
 in a single principle Justification and 
 i Works — Grace and a rule of life — be- 
 lief and responsibility, succeeded that 
 melancholy quality which regards reli- 
 gion and moral duty as things altogether 
 unconnected; a fatal delusion which 
 brings in death, by separating the body 
 from the spirit, whose continued union is 
 the necessary condition of life itself. 
 The word of the Apostle heard across the 
 interval of ages is, " Having begun in 
 the spirit, are ye now made perfect by 
 the flesh?" 
 
 Another error contributed to unsettle 
 the doctrine of Grace. This was Pela- 
 gianism. Pelagius asserted that man's 
 nature was not fallen, — that there ft no 
 such thing as hereditary evil, and that 
 man having received power to do good, 
 has only to will in order to perform it.* 
 If the doing " good things" consists in 
 certain external acts, Pelagius judged 
 truly. But if regard is had to the mo- 
 tives whence these external acts proceed, 
 — or to the entire inward life of man, 
 (See Matt. xii. 34.) then we discern in 
 all his works selfishness — forgetfulness 
 of God, pollution and weakness. This 
 was the doctrine of St. Augustine. He 
 proved that to entitle any action to ap- 
 proval, it was needful not merely that it 
 should seem right when looked at by it- 
 self and from the outside, but above all 
 that its real spring in the soul should be 
 holy. The Pelagian doctrine, rejected 
 by St. Augustine from the church when 
 it presented itself broadly for investiga- 
 tion, re-appeared ere long with a side as- 
 pect as semi-Pelagian, and under forms 
 of expression borrowed from St. Augus- 
 tine's own writings. It was in vain that 
 eminent Father opposed its progress. He 
 died soon after. The error spread with 
 amazing rapidity through Christendom 
 — passing from the West to the East, 
 and even at this day it continues to dis- 
 turb and harass the Church. The dan- 
 
 * Velle ct esse ad hominem referenda sunt, 
 quia de arbitrii fonte descendunt. (Pela<r. in 
 Aug. de Gratia Dei, cap. iv.j 
 
 ger of the doctrine appeared in this : that 
 by placing goodness to the external act 
 rather than in the inward affections, it 
 led men to put a high value upon out- 
 ward action, legal observances and 
 works of penance. The more of such 
 works the greater the reputed sanctity 
 — heaven was to be obtained by means 
 of them — and (extravagant as such a 
 thought must appear to us) it was not 
 long before certain persons were believed 
 to have made attainments in holiness be- 
 yond that which was required of them. 
 
 Thus did the proud heart of man re- 
 fuse to give the glory to that God to 
 whom all glory belongs. Thus did man 
 claim to deserve, what God had decreed 
 to give freely ! He essayed to find in 
 himself the salvation which the Gospel 
 brought to him ready wrought out from 
 heaven. He spread a veil over the saving 
 truths of salvation which cometh from God, 
 and not from man — a salvation which 
 God gives — but barters not ; and from 
 that day all the other truths of religion 
 were overclouded : darkness spread over 
 the church, and from its deep and deplora- 
 ble gloom were seen to arise innumerable 
 errors. 
 
 And in the first place we may observe 
 that both great divisions of error con- 
 verged to one effect. Pelagianism, 
 while it corrupted the church's teaching, 
 strengthened the hierarchy : by the 
 same influence by which it hid the doc- 
 trine of grace, it exalted the authority 
 of the Church — for grace was God's part 
 in the work as the Church was man's ! 
 
 As soon as salvation was taken out of 
 the hands of God, it fell into the hands 
 of the Priests. The latter put themselves 
 in the place of the Lord ; and the souls 
 of men, thirsting for pardon, were no 
 longer taught to look to heaven, but to 
 the Church, and especially to its pre- 
 tended Head. The Roman Pontiff was 
 in the place of God to the blinded minds 
 of men. Hence all the grandeur and 
 authority of the Popes, and hence also 
 unutterable abuses. 
 
 Doubtless the doctrine of salvation by 
 Faith was not entirely lost to the Church. 
 We meet with it in some of the most 
 celebrated Fathers, after the time of Con- 
 stantine ; and in the middle ages. The 
 doctrine was not formally denied. Coun- 
 cils and Popes did not hurl their bulls 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 19 
 
 and decrees against it ; but they set up 
 beside it a something which nullified it. 
 Salvation by Faith was received by 
 many learned men, by many a humble 
 and simple mind, — but the multitude had 
 something very different. Men had in- 
 vented a complete system of forgiveness. 
 The multitude flocked to it and joined 
 with it, rather than with the Grace of 
 Christ ; and thus the system of man's de- 
 vising prevailed over that of God. Let 
 us examine some of the phases of this de- 
 plorable change. 
 
 In the time of Vespasian and his sons, 
 he who had been the most intimate com- 
 panion of the despised Galilean, one of 
 the sons of Zebedee, had said : " If we 
 confess our sins, God is faithful and just 
 to forgive our sins." 
 
 About 120 years later, under Commo- 
 dus, and Septimius Severus, Tertullian, 
 an illustrious pastor of Carthage, speak- 
 ing of pardon, already held a very dif- 
 ferent language. " It is necessary (said 
 he) to change our dress and food, we 
 must put on sackcloth and ashes, we 
 must renounce all comfort and adorning 
 of the body, and falling down before the 
 Priest, implore the intercession of the 
 brethren."* Behold man turned aside 
 from God, and turned back upon himself. 
 
 Works of penance, thus substituted for 
 the salvation of God, multiplied in the 
 Church from the time of Tertullian to 
 the I3th Century. Men were enjoined to 
 fast, to go bare-headed, to wear no linen, 
 &c. or required to leave home and coun- 
 try for distant lands, or else to renounce 
 the world and embrace a monastic life. 
 
 In the 1 lth century were added volun- 
 tary flagellations ; a little after they be- 
 came an absolute mania in Italy, which 
 was then in a very disturbed state. 
 Nobles and peasants, old and young, 
 even children of five years old, went in 
 pairs, through the villages, the towns, 
 and the cities, by hundreds, thousands, 
 and tens of thousands, without any other 
 covering than a cloth tied round the 
 middle, and visiting the churches in pro- 
 cession in the very depth of winter. 
 Armed with scourges, they lashed them- 
 selves without pity, and the streets re- 
 sounded with cries and groans, which 
 drew forth tears of compassion from all 
 who heard them. 
 
 * TertulL de Poenit 
 
 And yet long before the evil had ar- 
 rived at this height, men sighed for deli- 
 verance from the tyranny of the priests. 
 The priests themselves were sensible 
 that if they did not devise some remedy, 
 their usurped power would be at an end. 
 Then it was that they invented the sys- 
 tem of barter known by the name of in- 
 dulgences. It is under John, surnamed 
 the Faster, archbishop of Constantinople 
 that we see its first commencement. 
 The priests said, " O penitents, you are 
 unable to perform the penances we have 
 imposed upon you. Well then, we, the 
 priests of God, and your pastors, will 
 take upon ourselves this heavy burden. 
 Who can better fast than we 1 Who 
 better kneel and recite psalms than our- 
 selves V But the labourer is worthy of 
 his hire. " For a seven weeks fast, 
 (said Regino, abbot of Prum,) such as 
 are rich shall pay twenty pence, those 
 who are less wealthy ten pence, and the 
 poor three pence, and in the same pro- 
 portion for other things."* Some coura- 
 geous voices were raised against this 
 traffic, but in vain. / 
 
 The Pope soon discovered what advan- 
 tages he might derive from these indul- 
 gences. His want of money continued 
 to increase. Here was an easy resource, 
 which, under the appearance of a volun- 
 tary contribution, would replenish his 
 coffers. It seemed desirable to establish 
 so lucrative a discovery on a solid footing. 
 The chief men of Rome exerted them- 
 selves for this purpose. The irrefragable 
 doctor, Alexander de Hales, invented, in 
 the 13th century, a doctrine well suited 
 to secure this mighty resource to the 
 Papacy. A bull of Clement VII. de- 
 clared the new doctrine an article of the 
 faith. The most sacred truths were 
 made to subserve this persevering policy 
 of Rome. Christ, it was affirmed, has 
 done much more than was required for 
 reconciling God and man. One single 
 drop of his blood would have sufficed for 
 that ; but he shed his blood abundantly, 
 that he might form for his church a 
 treasury that eternity itself should never . 
 exhaust. The supererogatory merits of 
 the saints, the reward of the works they 
 have done, beyond and additional to the 
 obligations of duty, have still further en- 
 riched this treasury. Its guardianship 
 * Libri duo de ecclesiasticis disciplinis. 
 
20 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 and distribution are confided to the Vicar 
 of Christ upon earth. He applies to 
 every sinner, for sins committed after 
 baptisms, these merits of Christ and of 
 his saints, in the measure and decree 
 that his sins have made necessary. Who 
 would dare to attack a custom of so high 
 and holy an origin. 
 
 Rapidly was this almost inconceivable 
 invention reduced to a system. The 
 scale imposed ten, twenty years of pen- 
 ance, for such and such kinds of sin. " It 
 is not merely for each kind of sin, but 
 for each sinful action, that this penance 
 of*so many years is demanded," exclaim- 
 ed the mercenary priests. Behold man- 
 kind, bowed down under the weight of 
 a penance that seemed almost eternal. 
 
 " But for what purpose this long pen- 
 ance, when life is so short — when can it 
 take effect? How can man secure the 
 time requisite for its performance % You 
 are imposing on him centuries of severe 
 discipline. When death comes he will 
 but laugh at yon — for death will dis- 
 charge him from his burthen. Ah, wel- 
 come death!" But this objection was 
 provided against. The philosophers of 
 Alexandria had spoken of a fare in which 
 men were to be purified. Some ancient 
 doctors in the church had received the 
 notion. Rome declared this philosophic 
 tenet the doctrine of the church ; and the 
 Pope, by a bull, added purgatory to his 
 domain. He declared that man would 
 have to expiate in purgatory all he could 
 not expiate on earth ; but that indulgen- 
 ces would deliver men's souls from that 
 intermediate state in which their sins 
 would otherwise hold them. Thomas 
 Aquinas set forth this new doctrine in 
 his celebrated Summa. Nothing was 
 left undone to fill the mind with terror. 
 Man is by nature inclined to fear an un- 
 known futurity and the dark abodes be- 
 yond the grave ; but that fear was art- 
 fully excited and increased by horrible 
 descriptions of the torments of this puri- 
 fying fire. We see at this day in many 
 Catholic countries paintings exposed in 
 the temples, or in the crossways, wherein 
 poor souls engulphed in flames invoke 
 alleviation for their miseries. Who could 
 refuse the money that, dropt into the trea- 
 sury of Rome, redeemed the soul from 
 such horrible torments? 
 
 But a further means of increasing this 
 
 traffic was now discovered. Hitherto it 
 had been the sins of the living that had 
 been turned to profit ; they now began 
 to avail themselves of the sins of the 
 dead. In the 13th century it was de- 
 clared that the living might, by making 
 certain sacrifices, shorten or even termi- 
 nate the torments their ancestors and 
 friends were enduring in purgatory. 
 Instantly the compassionate hearts of 
 the faithful offered new treasures for the 
 priests. 
 
 To regulate this traffic, they invented 
 shortly after, probably in the Pontificate 
 of John XXII. the celebrated and scan- 
 dalous tax of indulgences, of which more 
 than forty editions are extant : a mind of 
 the least delicacy would be shocked at 
 the repetition of the horrors therein con- 
 tained. Incest was to cost, if not detect- 
 ed, five groschen, if known, or flagrant, 
 six A certain price was affixed to the 
 crime of murder, another to infanticide, 
 adultery, perjury, burglary, &c. Oh, 
 shame to Rome ! exclaims Claudius of 
 Esparsa, a Roman divine ; and we may 
 add, Oh, shame to human nature ! For 
 no reproach can attach to Rome which 
 does not recoil with equal force on man- 
 kind in general. Rome is human na- 
 ture exalted, and displaying some of its 
 worst propensities. We say this in truth 
 as well as in justice. 
 
 Boniface VIII., the boldest and most 
 ambitious of the Popes, after Gregory 
 VII, effected still more than his prede- 
 cessors had done. 
 
 He published a bull in 1300, by which 
 he declared to the church that all who 
 should at that time or thenceforth make 
 the pilgrimage to Rome, which should 
 take place eveiy hundred years, should 
 there receive a plenary indulgence. 
 Upon this multitudes flocked from Italy, 
 Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, France, Spain, 
 Germany, Hungary, and. other quarters. 
 Old men, of sixty and seventy, set out on 
 the pilgrimage ; and it was computed 
 that 200,000 visited Rome in one month. 
 All these foreigners brought with them 
 rich offerings, and the Pope and the Ro- 
 mans saw their coffers replenished. 
 
 The avarice of the Pontiffs soon fixed 
 this jubilee at intervals of fifty years, af- 
 terwards at thirty-three years, and at last 
 at twenty-five. Then, for the greater 
 convenience of the purchasers, and to 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 21 
 
 increase the profits of the venders, they 
 transferred both the jubilee and its indul- 
 gences from Rome to the market-places 
 of all the nations of Christendom. It 
 was no longer necessary to abandon 
 one's home : what others had been ob- 
 liged to seek beyond the Alps, each 
 might now obtain at his own door. 
 
 The evil was at its height, — and then 
 the Reformer arose. 
 
 We have seen what had become of 
 the principle which was designed to 
 govern the history of Christianity; we 
 have also seen what became of that 
 which should have pervaded its doctrine. 
 Both were now lost. 
 
 To set up a single caste as mediators 
 between God and man, and to barter in 
 exchange for works, and penances, and 
 gold, the salvation freely given by God j 
 — such was Popery. 
 
 To open wide to all, through Jesus 
 Christ, and without any earthly media- 
 tor, and without that power that called 
 itself the Church, free access to the gift 
 of God, eternal life ; — such was Christi- 
 anity, and such was the Reformation. 
 
 Popery may be compared to a high 
 wall erected by the labour of ages, be- 
 tween man and God. Whoever will 
 scale it must pay or suffer in the at- 
 tempt ; and even then he will fail to 
 overleap it. 
 
 The Reformation is the power which 
 has thrown down this wall, has restored 
 Christ to man, and has thus made plain 
 the way of access to the Creator. 
 
 Popery interposes the Church between 
 God and man. 
 
 Christianity and the Reformation bring 
 God and man face to face. 
 
 Popery separates man from God: — 
 the Gospel re-unites them. 
 
 After having thus traced the history 
 of the decline and loss of the two grand 
 principles which were to distinguish the 
 religion of God from systems of man's 
 devising, let us see what were the conse- 
 quences of this immense change. 
 
 But first let us do honour to the church 
 of that middle period, which intervened 
 between the age of the Apostles and the 
 Reformers. The church was still the 
 church, although fallen and more and 
 more enslaved. In a word, she was at 
 
 all times the most powerful friend of 
 man. Her hands, though manacled, 
 still dispensed blessings. Many eminent 
 servants of Christ diffused during these 
 ages a beneficent light ; and in the hum- 
 ble convent — the sequestered parish — 
 there were found poor monks and poor 
 priests to alleviate bitter sufferings. The 
 church Catholic was not the Papacy. 
 This filled the place of the oppressor ; 
 that of the oppressed. The Reforma- 
 tion, which declared war against the 
 one, came to liberate the other. And it 
 must be acknowledged, that the Papacy 
 itself was at times, in the hands of Him 
 who brings good out of evil, a necessary 
 counterpoise to the ambition and tyranny 
 of princes. 
 
 Let us now contemplate the condition 
 of Christianity at that time. 
 
 Theology and religion were then 
 widely different. The doctrine of the 
 learned, and the practice of priests, . 
 monks, and people, presented two very 
 different aspects. They had, however, 
 great influence upon each other, and the 
 Reformation had to deal with both. Let 
 us examine them, and take a survey first 
 of the Schools, or Theology. 
 
 Theology was still under the influence 
 of the middle ages. The middle ages 
 had awoke from their long trance, and 
 had produced many learned men. But 
 their learning had been directed neither 
 to the interpretation of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, nor to the examination of the his- 
 tory of the Church. Scriptural exposi- 
 tion, and the study of history, the two 
 great sources of theological knowledge, 
 still slumbered. 
 
 A new science had usurped their 
 place. It was the science of Dialectics. 
 The art of reasoning became the fruitful 
 mine of a new theology. The middle 
 ages had discovered the long lost writings 
 of Aristotle. Their knowledge of him 
 was derived either from old Latin versions, 
 or from translations from the Arabic. The 
 resuscitated Aristotle appeared in the 
 West as a giant, subjecting the minds, and 
 even the consciences of men. His philo- 
 sophic method added strength to the dispo- 
 sition for dialectics which marked the age. 
 It was a method well suited to subtle re- 
 searches and trivial distinctions. The very 
 obscurity of the translations of the Greek 
 philosopher favoured the dialectic subtlety 
 
22 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 which had captivated the West. The 
 Church, alarmed at its progress, for a while 
 opposed this new tendency. She feared 
 that this taste for discussion might en- 
 gender heresies. But the dialectic phi- 
 losophy proved to be easily compounded 
 with ; monks employed it against here- 
 tics, and thenceforward its victory was 
 secure. 
 
 It was the characteristic of this method 
 of teaching, to suggest numerous ques- 
 tions on every branch of theology, and 
 then to decide them by a solution. Of- 
 ten these, enquiries turned upon the most 
 useless matters. It was asked whether 
 all animals had been enclosed in Noah's 
 ark ; and whether a dead man could say 
 mass,* &c. But Ave should be wrong 
 to form our judgment of the scholastic 
 divines from such examples only. On 
 the contrary, we must often acknowledge 
 the depth and extent of their inquiries. 
 
 Some among them made a distinction 
 between theological and philosophical 
 truth, affirming that a proposition might 
 be theologically true, and philosophically 
 false. In this way it was hoped to re- 
 concile incredulity with a cold and dead 
 adherence to the forms of the Church. 
 But there were others, and Thomas 
 Aquinas at their head, who maintained 
 that the doctrine of revelation was in no 
 respect at variance with an enlightened 
 reason ; and that even as Christian cha- 
 rity does not annihilate the natural affec- 
 tions, but chastens, sanctifies, ennobles, 
 and governs them, so Faith does not 
 destroy Philosophy, but may make use 
 of it by sanctifying and illuminating it 
 with its own light. 
 
 The doctrine of the Trinity, opened a 
 wide field for the dialectic method of the 
 theologians. By dint of distinctions and 
 disputes, they fell into contrary errors. 
 Some distinguished the three Persons so 
 as to make of them three Gods. This 
 was the error of Rocelin of Compeigne 
 and his followers. Others confounded 
 the Persons so as to leave only an ideal 
 distinction. This was the case with Gil- 
 bert of Poictiers and his adherents. But 
 the orthodox doctrine was ably main- 
 tained by others; 
 
 The dialectic subtlety of the times was 
 not less directed to the article of the Di- 
 vine Will. How are we to reconcile 
 * Hottinger Hist. Eccles. V. 
 
 the will of God with his almighty power 
 and holiness? The scholastic divines 
 found in this question numerous difficul- 
 ties, and laboured to remove them by 
 dialectic distinctions. " We cannot say 
 that God wills the existence of evil" said 
 Peter the Lombard, " but neither can 
 we say that He wills that evil should 
 not exist." 
 
 The majority of these theologians 
 sought to weaken by their dialectic la- 
 bours the doctrine of Predestination 
 which they found in the church. Alex- 
 ander de Hales availed himself for this 
 purpose of the following distinction of 
 Aristotle ; that every action supposes two 
 parties, namely, an agent, and the thing 
 subjected to the action. Divine Predes- 
 tination, said he, acts doubtless for man's 
 salvation ; but it is requisite that it find 
 in the soul of men a capacity for the re- 
 ception of this grace. Without this se- 
 cond party the first cannot effect any 
 thing ; and Predestination consists in 
 this, that God knowing by his prescience 
 those in Avhom this second requisite will 
 be found, has appointed to give them his 
 grace. 
 
 As to the original condition of man, 
 these theologians distinguished natural 
 gifts and free gifts. The first they held 
 to consist in the primitive purity and 
 strength of the human soul. The second 
 were the gifts of God's grace that the 
 soul might accomplish good works. But 
 here again the learned were divided ; 
 some contended that man had originally 
 possessed only natural gifts, and had by 
 his use of them to merit those of grace. 
 But Thomas Aquinas, who was gener- 
 ally on the side of sound doctrine, af- 
 firmed that the gifts of grace had from 
 the beginning been closely united with 
 the gifts of nature, because the first man 
 was perfect in his moral health. The 
 Fall, said the former, who leaned towards 
 Free-will, has deprived man of the gifts 
 of grace, but it has not entirely stripped 
 him of the primitive strength of his na- 
 ture ; for the least sanctification would 
 have been impossible if there had been 
 no longer with him any moral strength. 
 Whilst, on the other side, the stricter 
 theologians thought that the Fall had 
 not only deprived man of grace, but cor- 
 rupted his nature. 
 
 All acknowledged the work of Recon- 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATfoN. 
 
 23 
 
 ciliation wrought out by Christ's suffer- 
 ings arid death. But some maintained 
 that redemption could have been effected 
 in no other way than by the expiatory 
 satisfaction of the death of Jesus Christ, 
 whilst others laboured to prove that God 
 had simply attached redemption and 
 grace to this price. Others again, and 
 among these last we may particularize 
 Abelard, made the saving efficacy of re- 
 demption to consist merely in its fitness 
 to awaken in man's heart a confidence 
 and love toward God. 
 
 The doctrines of Sanctification or of 
 Grace discovers to us in fresh abundance 
 the dialectic subtlety of these divines. 
 All of them, accepting the distinction of 
 Aristotle already mentioned, laid down 
 the necessity of the existence in man of 
 a materia disposita, a something disposed 
 to the reception of grace. But Thomas 
 Aquinas ascribes this disposition to grace 
 itself. Grace, said they, was formative 
 for man before the Fall ; now that there 
 is in him something to extirpate, it is 
 grace reformative. And a farther distinc- 
 tion was laid down between grace given 
 gratuitously, gratia gratis data, and 
 grace that makes acceptable, gratia gra- 
 tum faciens ; with many other similar 
 distinctions. 
 
 The doctrines of penance and indul- 
 gence, which we have already exhibited, 
 crowned the whole of this system, and 
 ruined whatever good it might contain. 
 Peter the Lombard had been the first to 
 distinguish three sorts of penitence ; that 
 of the heart or compunction ; that of the 
 lips, or confession ; that of works, or sa- 
 tisfaction by outward action. He distin- 
 guished, indeed, absolution in the sight 
 of God from absolution before the church. 
 He even affirmed that inward repentance 
 sufficed to obtain the pardon of sins. 
 But he found a way back into the error 
 of the church through another channel. 
 He allowed that for sins committed after 
 baptism, it was necessary either to en- 
 dure the fires of purgatory, or to submit 
 to the ecclesiastic penance ; excepting 
 only the sinner whose inward repent- 
 ance and remorse should be so great as 
 to obviate the necessity of further suffer- 
 ings. He proceeds to propose questions 
 which, with all his skill in dialectics, he 
 is embarrassed to resolve. If two men, 
 equal in their spiritual condition, but 
 
 one poor and the other rich, die the same 
 day, the one having no other succours 
 than the ordinary prajrers of the church, 
 while for the other many masses can be 
 said, and many works of charity can be 
 done, what will be the event? The 
 scholastic divine turns on all sides for an 
 answer, and concludes by saying, that 
 they will have the like fate, but not by 
 the like causes. The rich man's deliver- 
 ance from purgatory will not be more 
 perfect, but it will be earlier. 
 
 We have given a few sketches of the 
 sort of Theology which reig-ned in the 
 schools at the period of the Reformation. 
 Distinctions, ideas, sometimes just, some- 
 times false, but still mere notions. The 
 Christian doctrine had lost that odour of 
 heaven, that force and practical vitality 
 which came from God, and which had 
 characterized it as it existed in the apos- 
 tolic age : and these were destined again 
 to come to it from above. 
 
 Meanwhile the learning of the schools 
 was pure when compared with the ac- 
 tual condition of the church. The theol- 
 ogy of the learned might be said to J 
 flourish, if contrasted with the religion, 
 the morals, the instructions of the priests, 
 monks, and people. If Science stood in 
 need of a revival, the Church was in still 
 greater need of a Reformation. 
 
 The people of Christendom, and un- 
 der that designation almost all the na- 
 tions of Europe might be comprised, no 
 longer looked to a living and holy God 
 for the free gift of eternal life. They 
 therefore naturally had recourse to all 
 the devices of a superstitious, fearful, and 
 alarmed imagination. Heaven was peo- 
 pled with saints and mediators, whose 
 office it was to solicit God's mercy. All 
 lands were filled with the works of piety, 
 of mortification, of penance and obser- 
 vances, by which it was to be procured. 
 Take the description of the state of reli- 
 gion at this period given by one who 
 was for a long while a monk, and in 
 after life a fellow-labourer with Luther, 
 — Myconius. 
 
 " The sufferings and merits of Christ 
 were looked upon (says he,) as an empty 
 tale, or as the fictions of Homer. There 
 was no longer any thought of that faith 
 by which we are made partakers of the 
 Saviour's righteousness, and the inherit- 
 
24 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ance of eternal life. Christ was regarded 
 as a stern judge, prepared to condemn 
 all who should not have recourse to the 
 intercession of saints or to the Pope's in- 
 dulgences. Other intercessors were sub- 
 stituted in his stead ; first, the Virgin 
 Mary, like the heathen Diana ; and then 
 the saints, whose numbers were continu- 
 ally augmented by the Popes. These 
 intercessors refused their mediation un- 
 less the party was in good repute with 
 the monastic orders which they had 
 founded. To be so, it was necessary 
 not only to do what God had command- 
 ed in his word, but also to perform a 
 number of works invented by the monks 
 and the priests, and which brought them 
 in large sums of money. Such were 
 Ave Marias, the prayers of St. Ursula, 
 and of St. Bridget. It was necessary to 
 chaunt and cry day and night. There 
 were as many different pilgrimages as 
 there were mountains, forests, and val- 
 leys. But with money these penances 
 might be compounded for. The people 
 therefore brought to the convents and to 
 the priests money, and every thing they 
 possessed that was of any value, fowls, 
 ducks, eggs, wax, straw, butter, and 
 cheese. Then the chauntings resound- 
 ed, the bells rang, the odour of incense 
 filled the sanctuary, the sacrifices were 
 offered up, the tables groaned, the glasses 
 circulated, and these pious orgies were 
 terminated by masses. The bishops no 
 longer appeared in the pulpits, but they 
 consecrated priests, monks, churches, 
 chapels, images, books, and burial 
 places, and all these brought a large 
 revenue. Bones, arms, feet, were pre- 
 served in boxes of silver or gold ; they 
 gave them to the faithful to kiss during 
 mass, and this increased their gains. 
 
 " All maintained that the Pope being 
 in the place of God (2 Thessal. ii. 4.) 
 could not err ; and there were none to 
 contradict them."* 
 
 At the church of All Saint's, at Wit- 
 temberg, was shewn a fragment of 
 Noah's ark ; some soot from the furnace 
 of the three children ; a piece of wood 
 from the crib of the infant Jesus ; some 
 hair of the beard of the great St. Chris- 
 topher ; and nineteen thousand other re- 
 lics, more or less precious. At Schaff- 
 
 * Myconiua' History of the Reformation ; and 
 Seckendorf 's Hist, of Lutheranism. 
 
 hausen was shewn the breath of St 
 Joseph, that Nicodemus received on his 
 glove. In Wurtemburg might be seen 
 a seller of indulgences disposing of his 
 merchandise with his head adorned with 
 a feather plucked from the wing of the 
 Archangel Michael* But there was 
 no need to seek so far for these precious 
 treasures. Those who farmed the relics 
 overran the country. They bore them 
 about in the rural districts, (as has since 
 been done with the Holy Scriptures ;) 
 and carried them into the houses of the 
 faithful, to spare them the cost and trou- 
 ble of the pilgrimage. They were ex- 
 hibited with pomp in the churches. 
 These wandering hawkers paid a cer- 
 tain sum to the proprietors of the relics, 
 with a per centage on their profits. The 
 kingdom of heaven had disappeared ; 
 and men had opened in its place on 
 earth, a market of abominations. 
 
 At the same time, a profane spirit had 
 invaded religion, and the most solemn 
 recollections of the church ; the seasons 
 Avhich seemed most to summon the faith- 
 ful to devout reflection and love, were 
 dishonoured by buffoonery and profana- 
 tions altogether heathenish. The Hu- 
 mours of Easter held a large place in 
 the annals of the Church. The festival 
 of the Resurrection claiming to be joy- 
 fully commemorated, preachers went out 
 of their way to put into their sermons 
 whatever might excite the laughter of 
 the people. One preacher imitated the 
 cuckoo ; another hissed like a goose ; 
 one dragged to the altar a layman 
 dressed in a monk's cowl ; a second re- 
 lated the grossest indecencies ; a third 
 recounted the tricks of the Apostle St. 
 Peter, — among others, how, at an inn, 
 he cheated the host, by not paying his 
 reckoning, f The lower orders of the 
 clergy followed the example, and turned 
 their superiors into ridicule. The very 
 temples were converted into a stage, and 
 the priests into mountebanks. 
 
 If this was the state of religion, what 
 must have been the morals of the age 1 
 
 Doubtless the corruption was not uni- 
 versal. — Justice requires that this should 
 not be forgotten. The Reformation eli- 
 cited many shining instances of piety, 
 righteousness, and strength of mind 
 
 * Miiller Reliquien, vol. iii. p. 22. 
 t (Ecolamp. de risu paschal! 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 25 
 
 The spontaneous power of God was the 
 cause ; but how can we doubt that' by 
 the same power the germs of this new 
 life had been deposited long before in 
 the bosom of the church. If, in these 
 our days, any one were to collect the 
 immoralities and degrading vices that 
 are committed in any single country, 
 such a mass of corruption would doubt- 
 less be enough to shock every mind. 
 Bat the evil, at the period we speak of, 
 bore a character and universality that it 
 has not borne at any subsequent date ; 
 and above all, the abomination stood in 
 the holy places, which it has not been 
 permitted to do since the Reformation. 
 
 Moral conduct had declined with the 
 life of faith. The tidings of the gift of 
 eternal life is the power of God to rege- 
 nerate men. Once take away the salva- 
 tion which is God's gift, and you take 
 away sanctification and good works, — 
 and this was the result. 
 
 The proclamation and sale of indul- 
 gences powerfully stimulated an igno- 
 rant people to immorality. It is true 
 that, according to the Church, they 
 could benefit those only who made and 
 kept a promise of amendment. But 
 what could be expected from a doctrine 
 invented with a view to the profit to be 
 gained from it 1 The venders of indul- 
 gences were naturally tempted to further 
 the sale of their merchandise by present- 
 ing them to the people under the most 
 attractive and seducing aspect ; even the 
 better instructed did not fully compre- 
 hend the doctrine in respect to them. 
 All that the multitude saw in them was 
 a permission to sin ; and the sellers were 
 in no haste to remove an impression so 
 favourable to the sale. 
 
 What disorders, what crimes, in these 
 ages of darkness, in which impunity was 
 acquired by money ! What might not 
 be feared when a small contribution to 
 the building of a church was supposed 
 to deliver from the punishments of a fu- 
 ture world ! What hope of revival when 
 the communication between God and 
 man was at an end ; and man, afar off 
 from God, who is spirit and life, — moved 
 only in a circle of pitiful ceremonies and 
 gross practices, — in an atmosphere of 
 death. 
 
 The priests were the first who felt the 
 effects of this corrupting influence. De- 
 
 siring to exalt themselves, they had sunk 
 themselves lower. Infatuated men! 
 They aimed to rob God of a ray of his 
 glory, and to place it on their own brows ; 
 but their attempt had failed, and they 
 had received only a leaven of corruption 
 from the power of evil. The annals of 
 the age swarm with scandals. In many 
 places the people were well pleased that 
 the priest should have a woman in keep- 
 ing, that their wives might be safe from 
 his seductions.* What scenes of humili- 
 ation were witnessed in the house of the 
 pastor. The wretched man supported 
 the mother and her children, with the 
 tithe and the offering ;f his conscience 
 was troubled ; he blushed in presence 
 of his people, of his servants, and before 
 God. The mother, fearing to come to 
 want when the priest should die, pro- 
 vided against it beforehand, and robbed 
 the house. Her character was gone : 
 her children were a living accusation of 
 her. Treated on all sides with contempt, 
 they plunged into brawls and debauch- 
 eries. Such was the family of the priest. 
 These horrid scenes were a kind of in- 
 struction that the people were ready 
 enough to folio w.| 
 
 The rural districts were the scene of 
 numerous excesses. The abodes of the 
 clergy were frequently the resorts of the 
 dissolute. Cornelius Adrian, at Bruges,^ 
 the Abbot Trinkler, at Cappel,|| imitated 
 the customs of the East, and had their 
 harems. Priests, consorted with aban- 
 doned characters, frequented the taverns, 
 played dice, and finished their orgies by 
 quarrels and blasphemy. ^f 
 
 The council of Schaffhausen prohi- 
 bited the clergy from dancing in public 
 except at weddings ; from carrying two 
 kinds of weapons : and decreed that a 
 priest who should be found in a house 
 of ill-fame should be stripped of his eccle- 
 siastical habit.** In the archbishopric of 
 Mentz they scaled the walls in the night, 
 committed disturbances and disorders of 
 all kinds in the inns and taverns, and broke 
 
 * Nicol. De Clemangis de prsesulib. simoniacis. 
 
 t The words of Seb. Stor, pastor of Lichstall 
 in 1524. 
 
 t Fiisslin Beytriige, ii. 224. 
 
 § Metern. Nederl. hist. viii. 
 
 || Hottinger, Hist. Eccles. ix. 305. 
 
 IT Mandement de Hugo eveque de Constance, 
 Mar. 3, 1517. 
 
 ** Muller's Reliq. iii. 251. 
 
26 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 open doors and locks.* In several places 
 the priest paid to the hishop a regular tax 
 for the woman with whom he lived, and 
 for every child he had by her. A Ger- 
 man bishop, who Avas present at a grand 
 entertainment, publicly declared, that in 
 one year eleven thousand priests had 
 presented themselves to him for that pur- 
 pose. It is Erasmus who records this.f 
 
 The higher orders of the hierarchy 
 were equally corrupt. Dignitaries of the 
 Church preferred the tumult of camps to 
 the service of the altar. To be able, 
 lance in hand, to compel his neighbours 
 to do him homage, was one of the most 
 conspicuous qualifications of a bishop. 
 Baldwin, archbishop of Treves, was con- 
 stantly at war with his neighbours and 
 vassals ; razing their castles, building 
 fortresses of his own, and thinking only 
 how to enlarge his territory. A certain 
 bishop of Eichstadt, when dispensing 
 justice, wore under his habit a coat of 
 mail, and held in his hand a long sword. 
 He used to say he did not fear five Ba- 
 varians, provided they would but attack 
 him in the open field. J Every where 
 the bishops were engaged in constant 
 war with the towns ; the citizens demand- 
 ing freedom, and the bishops requiring 
 implicit obedience. If the latter trium- 
 phed, they punished the revolters by 
 sacrificing numerous victims to their 
 vengeance ; but the flame of insurrection 
 broke out again at the very moment 
 when in was thought to be extin- 
 guished. 
 
 And what a spectacle was presented 
 by the Pontifical Throne in the genera- 
 tion immediately preceding the Refor- 
 mation ! Rome, it must be acknow- 
 ledged, has seldom been witness to so 
 much infamy. 
 
 Rodri"-o Borg-ia, after living: in illicit 
 intercourse with a Roman lady, had con- 
 tinued a similar connection with one of 
 her daughters, by name Rosa Vanozza, 
 by whom he had had five children. He 
 was living at Rome with Vanozza and 
 other abandoned women, — as cardinal, 
 and archbishop, visiting the churches 
 
 * Steubing Gesch. der Nass. Oran. Lande. 
 
 t Uno anno ad sedelata undecim millia sacer- 
 dotum palam concubinariorum. — Erasmi Op. 
 torn. ix. p. 401. (This citation has been verified 
 — yet there seems to be some mistake in these 
 figures. TV.) 
 
 t Schmidt Gesch. der Deutschen. torn. iv. 
 
 and hospitals, — when the death of Inno- 
 cent VIII. created a vacancy in the Pon- 
 tifical chair. He succeeded in obtaining 
 it by bribing each of the cardinals at a 
 stipulated price. Four mules, laden 
 with silver, were publicly driven into the 
 palace of Sforza, the most influential of 
 the cardinals. Borgia became Pope 
 under the name of Alexander VI. and 
 rejoiced in the attainment of the pinnacle 
 of pleasures. 
 
 The very day of his coronation he 
 created his son Caesar, a ferocious and dis- 
 solute youth, archbishop of Valencia and 
 bishop of Pampeluna. He next pro- 
 ceeded to celebrate in the Vatican the 
 nuptials of his daughter Lucrezia by fes- 
 tivities, at which his mistress Julia Bella 
 was present, and which were enlivened 
 by farces and indecent songs. " Most of 
 the ecclesiastics," says an historian,* 
 "had their mistresses, and all the con- 
 vents of the capital were houses of ill 
 fame." Caesar Borgia espoused the cause 
 of the Guelphs, and when by their assis- 
 tance he had annihilated the power of 
 the Ghibelines, he turned upon the 
 Guelphs, and crushed them in their turn. 
 But he would allow none to share in the 
 spoils of his atrocities. In the year 1 497, 
 Alexander conferred upon his eldest son 
 the duchy of Benevento. The Duke 
 suddenly disappeared. That night a 
 faggot-dealer on the banks of the Tiber 
 saw some persons throw a corpse into the 
 river ; but he said nothing of it, for such 
 things were common. The Duke's body 
 was found. His brother Caesar had been 
 the instigator of the murder. f He did 
 not stop there. His brother-in-law stood 
 in the way of his ambition. One day 
 Caesar caused him to be stabbed on the 
 staircase of the Pope's palace, and he 
 was carried covered with blood to his 
 own apartments. His wife and sister 
 never left him. Dreading lest Caesar 
 should employ poison, they were accus- 
 tomed to prepare his meals with their 
 own hands. Alexander placed guards 
 before his door, — but Cassar ridiculed 
 these precautions, and on one occasion 
 when the Pope visited him dropped the 
 remark, " What cannot be done at din- 
 
 * Infessura. 
 
 t Amazzo il fratello ducha di Gandia e lo fa 
 butar nel Tevere. (M. S. C. of Capcllo, ambas- 
 sador at Rome in 1500 — extracted by Rancke.) 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION 
 
 27 
 
 Tier may be at supper." Accordingly, 
 he one day gained admittance to the 
 chamber of the wounded man, turned 
 out his wife and sister, and calling Mi- 
 chilotto, the executioner of his horrors, 
 and the only man in whom he placed 
 any confidence, commanded him to 
 strangle his victim before his eyes. Alex- 
 ander had a favourite named Peroto, 
 whose preferment offended the young 
 Duke. Caesar rushed upon him, Peroto 
 sought refuge under the Papal mantle, 
 clasping the Pontiff in his arms ; — Caesar 
 stabbed him, and the blood of the victim 
 spirted in the Pontiff's face. " The 
 Pope," adds a contemporary and witness 
 of these atrocities, — " loves the Duke his 
 son, and lives in great fear of him." 
 Csesar was one of the handsomest and 
 most powerful men of his age. Six 
 wild bulls fell beneath his hand in sin- 
 gle combat. Nightly assassinations took 
 place in the streets of Rome. Poison 
 often destroyed those whom the dagger 
 could not reach. Every one feared to 
 move or breathe lest he should be the 
 next victim. Csesar Borgia was the hero 
 of crime. The spot on earth where all 
 iniquity met and overflowed was the 
 Pontiff's seat. When man has given 
 himself over to the power of evil, — the 
 higher his pretensions before God, the 
 lower he is seen to sink in the depths of 
 hell. The dissolute entertainments given 
 by the Pope and his son Caesar, and his 
 daughter Lucrezia, are such as can nei- 
 ther be described nor thought of. The 
 most impure groves of ancient worship 
 saw not the like. Historians have ac- 
 cused Alexander and Lucrezia of incest, 
 but the charge is not sufficiently estab- 
 lished. The Pope, in order to rid him- 
 self of a wealthy Cardinal, had prepared 
 poison in a small box of sweetmeats, 
 which was to be placed on the table 
 after a sumptuous feast: the Cardinal, 
 receiving a hint of the design, gained 
 over the attendant, and the poisoned box 
 was placed before Alexander. He ate 
 of it and perished. The whole city came 
 together, and could hardly satiate them- 
 selves with the sight of this dead viper. 
 
 Such was the man who filled the pon- 
 tifical throne at the commencement of 
 the age of the Reformation. 
 
 * Gordon, Tommasi, Infessura, Guicciardini, 
 Eccard, &c. 
 
 Thus the clergy had disgraced reli- 
 gion and themselves. Well might a 
 powerful voice exclaim, " The ecclesias- 
 tic order is opposed to God and to his 
 glory. The people well know it, and it 
 is but too evident, from the many songs, 
 proverbs, and jests on the priests, current 
 amongst the common people, as also 
 from the figures of monks and priests 
 scrawled on the walls, and even on the 
 playing cards, that every one has a feel- 
 ing of disgust at the sight or name of a 
 priest." It is Luther who thus speaks.* 
 
 The evil had spread through all 
 ranks ; a spirit of delusion had been sent 
 among men ; the corruption of morals 
 corresponded to the corruption of the 
 faith ; the mystery of iniquity weighed 
 down the enslaved Church of Christ. 
 
 Another consequence necessarily en- 
 sued from the neglect into which the 
 fundamental doctrine of the Gospel had 
 fallen. From the darkness of the under- 
 standing resulted the corruption of the 
 heart. The priests having taken into 
 their own hands the dispensing a salva- 
 tion which belonged only to God, had 
 thereby secured a sufficient hold on the 
 respect of the people. What need had 
 they to study sacred learning 1 It was 
 no longer their office to explain the 
 Scriptures, but to grant letters of indul- 
 gence ; and for the fulfilling of that 
 ministry, it was unnecessary to have ac- 
 quired any great learning. 
 
 In country parts, says Wimpheling, 
 they appointed as preachers poor 
 wretches whom they had taken from 
 beggary, and who had been cooks, musi- 
 cians, huntsmen, stable boys, and even 
 worse, f 
 
 The superior clergy themselves were 
 sunk in great ignorance. A bishop of 
 Dunfeldt congratulated himself on never 
 having learned Greek or Hebrew. The 
 monks asserted that all heresies arose 
 from these languages, but especially 
 from the Greek. " The New Testa- 
 ment," said one of them, "is a book full 
 of serpents and thorns. Greek," con- 
 tinued he, " is a modern language, but 
 recently invented, and against which we 
 must be upon our guard. As to Hebrew, 
 my dear brethren, it is certain that who- 
 
 * Letter to the Cardinal-Elector of Mentz, 
 1525. 
 
 t Apologia pro Rep. Christ. 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 soever studies that immediately becomes 
 a Jew." Heresbach, a friend of Eras- 
 mus, and a respectable writer, reports 
 these very words. Thomas Linacer, a 
 learned and celebrated divine, had 
 never read the New Testament. Draw- 
 ing near his end (in 1524) he called for 
 it, but quickly threw it from him with 
 an oath, because his eye had caught the 
 words, " But I say unto you, Swear not 
 at all." " Either this is not the Gospel," 
 said he, " or we are not Christians." 
 Even the school of theology in Paris did 
 not scruple to declare before the Parlia- 
 ment, " There is an end of religion if 
 the study of Hebrew and Greek is per- 
 mitted."* • 
 
 If here and there among the clergy 
 some learning existed, it was not in 
 sacred literature. The Ciceronians of 
 Italy affected a great contempt for the 
 Bible on account of its style : men who 
 arrogated to themselves the title of 
 Priests of Christ's Church translated the 
 words of the Holy Ghost into the style 
 of Virgil and of Horace, to accommodate 
 them to the ears of men of taste. The 
 Cardinal Bembo wrote always, instead 
 of the Holy Spirit, " the breath of the 
 celestial zephyr ;" for remission of sins 
 he substituted the "pity of the Manes 
 and of the Gods ;" and instead of Christ 
 the Son of God, " Minerva sprung from 
 the brows of Jupiter." Finding one day 
 the respectable Sadoletus employed on a 
 translation of the Epistle to the Romans, 
 " Leave these childish productions," said 
 he, " such puerilities do not become a 
 sensible man."* 
 
 Behold some of the consequences of 
 the system that then weighed down 
 Christendom. This picture no doubt 
 exhibits in strong colours both the cor- 
 ruption of the Church and the need of 
 reformation. It is for that reason we 
 have sketched it. The vital doctrines 
 of Christianity had almost disappeared, 
 and with them the life and light which 
 constitute the essence of true religion. 
 The internal strength of the Church was 
 gone, and its lifeless and exhausted frame 
 lay stretched over the Roman world. 
 
 Who shall give it new life 1 Whence 
 shall we look for a remedy for so many 
 evils ? 
 
 * Muller's Reliq. torn. 3. p. 253. 
 f Fallen' Monum. ined. p. 400. 
 
 For ages a reformation in the church 
 had been loudly called for, and all the 
 powers of this world had attempted it. 
 But God alone could bring it to pass. 
 And he began by humbling the power 
 of man that he might exhibit man's help- 
 lessness. We see human assailants, one 
 after another, fail and break to pieces at 
 the feet of the Colossus they undertook 
 to cast down. 
 
 First temporal princes resisted Rome. 
 The whole power of the Hohenstaufens, 
 heroes who wore the Imperial crown, 
 seemed directed to humble and reform 
 Rome, and deliver the nations, and espe- 
 cially Germany, from her tyranny. 
 But the Castle of Canossa gave proof of 
 the weakness of the Imperial power 
 against the usurped dominion of the 
 Church. A warlike prince, the Em- 
 peror Henry IV., after a long and fruit- 
 less struggle against Rome, was reduced 
 to pass three days and nights in the 
 trenches of that Italian fortress, exposed 
 to the winter's cold, stripped of his im- 
 perial robes, barefoot, in a scanty woollen 
 garment, imploring with tears and cries 
 the pity of Hildebrand, before whom he 
 kneeled, and who, after three nights of 
 lamentation, relaxed his papal inflexi- 
 bility, and pardoned the suppliant.* Be- 
 hold the power of the high and mighty 
 of the earth, of kings and emperors 
 against Rome ! 
 
 To them succeeded adversaries per- 
 haps more formidable, — men of genius 
 and learning. Learning awoke in Italy, 
 and its awakening was with an energetic 
 protest against the Papacy. Dante, the 
 father of Italian poetry, boldly placed in 
 his Hell the most powerful of the Popes ; 
 he introduced St. Peter in heaven pro- 
 nouncing stern and crushing censures on 
 his unworthy successors, and drew hor- 
 
 * Pope Hildebrand himself relates the event 
 in these words : " Tandem rex ad oppidum Ca- 
 nnsii, in quo morati sumus, cum paucis advenit, 
 ibique per tridunm ante portam, deposito oirmi 
 regio cultu miserabiliter utpote discalceatus et 
 laniis inductus, persistens, non prius cum multo 
 rletu apostolicae miserationis auxilium et consola- 
 tionem implorare destitit quam omnes qui ibi 
 aderant ad tantam pietatem et compassionis 
 misericordiam movit ut, pro eo multis precibus 
 et lacrymis intercedentes, omnes quidem insoli- 
 tam nostras mentis duritiam mirarentur, nommlli 
 vero non apostolicae severitatis gravitatem sed 
 quasi tyrannicae feritatis crudelitatem esse cla- 
 marent." (Lib. iv. ep. 12. ad Germanos.) 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 29 
 
 rible descriptions of the monks and clergy. 
 Petrarch, that eminent genuis, of a mind 
 so superior to all the emperors and popes 
 of his time, boldly called for the re-estab- 
 lishment of the primitive order of the 
 Church. For this purpose he invoked 
 the efforts of the age and the power of 
 the emperor Charles IV. Laurentius 
 Valla, one of the most learned men of 
 Italy, attacked with spirit the pretensions 
 of the Popes, and their asserted inheri- 
 tance from Constantine. A legion of 
 poets, learned men, and philosophers, 
 followed in their track ; the torch of 
 learning was every where kindled, and 
 threatened to reduce to ashes the Romish 
 scaffolding that intercepted its beams. 
 But every effort failed ; Pope Leo X. en- 
 listed among the supporters and satellites 
 of his court, — literature, poetry, sciences 
 and arts ; and these came humbly kiss- 
 ing the feet of a power that in their 
 boasted infancy they had attempted to 
 dethrone. Behold the power of letters 
 and philosophy against Rome ! 
 
 At last an agency which promised 
 more ability to reform the church came 
 forward. This was the Church itself. 
 At the call for Reformation, reiterated on 
 all sides, and which had been heard for 
 ages past, that most imposing of eccle- 
 siastical conclaves, the Council of Con- 
 stance, assembled. An immense num- 
 ber of cardinals, archbishops, bishops, 
 eighteen hundred doctors of divinity and 
 priests : the Emperor himself, with a re- 
 tinue of a thousand persons ; the Elector 
 of Saxony, the Elector Palatine, the 
 Duke of Bavaria and Austria, and am- 
 bassadors from all nations, gave to this 
 assembly an air of authority, unprece- 
 dented in the history of Christianity. 
 Above the rest, we must mention the 
 illustrious and immortal doctors of the 
 University of Paris, the Aillys, the Ger- 
 sons, the Clemangnis, — those men of 
 piety, learning and courage, who by their 
 writings and eloquence communicated to 
 the Council an energetic and salutary 
 direction. Every thing bowed before 
 this assembly ; with one hand it deposed 
 three Popes at once, while with the other 
 it delivered John Huss to the flames. A 
 commission was named, composed of de- 
 puties from different nations, to propose 
 a fundamental reform. The Emperor 
 Sigismund supported the proposition with 
 
 the whole weight of his power. The 
 Council were unanimous. The cardi- 
 nals all took an oath that he among 
 them who should be elected Pope would 
 not dissolve the assembly, nor leave Con- 
 stance before the desired reformation 
 should be accomplished. Colonna was 
 chosen under the name of Martin V. 
 The moment was come which was to 
 decide the Reform of the Church; all 
 the prelates, the Emperor, the princes, 
 and the representatives of different na- 
 tions, awaited the result with intense de- 
 sire. " The Council is at an end" ex- 
 claimed Martin V. as soon as he had 
 placed the tiara on his brow. Sigismund 
 and the clergy uttered a cry of surprise, 
 indignation, and grief; but that cry was 
 lost upon the winds. On the 16th of 
 May, 1418, the Pope, arrayed in the pon- 
 tifical garments, mounted a mule richly 
 caparisoned; the Emperor was on his 
 right hand, the Elector of Brandenburgh 
 on his left, each holding the reins of his 
 palfrey ; four counts supported over the 
 Pope's head a magnificent canopy; 
 several princes surrounded him bearing 
 the trappings ; and a mounted train 
 of forty thousand persons, says an his- 
 torian, composed of nobles, knights, and 
 clergy of all ranks, joined in the solemn 
 procession outside the walls of Constance. 
 Then indeed did Rome, in the person of 
 her pontiff sitting on a mule, inwardly 
 deride the superstition that surrounded 
 her; then did she give proof that to 
 humble her a power must be exerted 
 far different from any thing that could be 
 put in motion by emperors, or kings, or 
 bishops, or doctors of divinity, or all the 
 learning of the age and of the church. 
 
 How could the Reformation proceed 
 from the very thing to be reformed? 
 How could the wound find in itself the 
 element of its cure ? 
 
 Nevertheless the means employed to 
 reform the Church, and which the result 
 showed to be inefficacious, contributed to 
 weaken the obstacles, and prepared the 
 ground for the Reformers. 
 
 The evils which then afflicted Christ- 
 endom, namely, superstition, incredulity, 
 ignorance, unprofitable speculation, and 
 corruption of morals, — evils naturally 
 engendered in the hearts of men, — were 
 not new on the earth. They had made 
 a great figure in the history of nations. 
 
30 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 They had invaded, especially in the 
 East, different religious systems, which 
 had seen their times of glory. Those 
 enervated systems had sunk under these 
 evils, and not one of them had ever 
 arisen from its fall. 
 
 And was Christianity now to undergo 
 the same destiny? Was it to be lost 
 like those old religions of the nations ? 
 Was the blow that had doomed them to 
 death to be of power to destroy it? Was 
 there nothing to secure its preservation ! 
 And these opposing forces which over- 
 flowed it, and which had already de- 
 throned so many various systems of wor- 
 ship, were they indeed to have power to 
 seat themselves without resistance On the 
 ruins of the Church of Jesus Christ 2 
 
 No : — there is in Christianity that 
 which there was not in any of these na- 
 tional systems. It does not, like them, 
 offer certain general ideas, mixed with 
 tradition and fables, destined, sooner or 
 later, to fall before the march of human 
 reason ; but it contains within it pure 
 Truth, built upon facts which challenge 
 the scrutiny of any upright and enlight- 
 ened mind. Christianity has for its ob- 
 ject not merely to excite in man certain 
 vague religious feelings, of which the 
 impression, once forgotten, can never be 
 revived; its object is to satisfy, and it 
 does in reality satisfy, all the religious 
 wants of human nature, in whatever de- 
 gree that nature may be developed. It 
 is not the contrivance of man, whose 
 works pass away and are forgotten, but 
 it is the work of God, who upholds what 
 he creates, and it has the promises of its 
 Divine Author for the pledge of its du- 
 ration. 
 
 It is impossible that human nature can 
 ever be above the need of Christianity. 
 And if ever man has for a time fancied 
 that he could do without it, it has soon 
 appeared to him clothed in fresh youth 
 and vigour, as the only cure for the hu- 
 man soul ; and the degenerate nations 
 have returned with new ardour to those 
 ancient, simple, and powerful truths, 
 which in the hour of their infatuation 
 they despised. 
 
 In fact, Christianity displayed, in the 
 16th century, the same regenerative 
 power which it had exercised in the first. 
 After the lapse of fifteen hundred years, 
 the same truths produced the same ef- 
 
 fects. In the days of the Reformation, 
 as in the days of Peter and Paul, — the 
 Gospel, with invincible energy, overcame 
 mighty obstacles. The efficacy of its 
 sovereign power was displayed from 
 north to south ; amidst nations differing 
 most widely in manners, in character, and 
 in civilization. Then, as in the times of 
 Stephen and of James, it kindled the fire 
 of enthusiasm and devotion in the midst 
 of the general deadness, and raised on 
 all sides the spirit of martyrs. 
 
 How was this revival in the Church 
 and in the world brought to pass? 
 
 An observant mind might then have 
 discerned two laws by which God gov- 
 erns the course of events. 
 
 He first prepares slowly and from afar 
 that which he designs to accomplish. 
 He has ages in which to work. 
 
 Then, when his time is come, he ef- 
 fects the greatest results by the smallest 
 means. He acts thus in nature and in 
 providence. For the production of a gi- 
 gantic tree, He deposits in the earth a 
 tiny seed ; for the renovation of his 
 church, He makes use of the meanest 
 instrument to accomplish what emperors, 
 learned men, and even the heads of that 
 church have failed to effect ? We shall 
 shortly have to investigate and bring to 
 light this little seed that a divine hand 
 placed in the earth in the days of the 
 Reformation. We must now distinguish 
 and recognize the different methods by 
 which God prepared the way for the 
 great change. 
 
 We will first survey the condition of 
 the Papacy ; and from thence we will 
 carry our view over the different influ- 
 ences which God caused to concur to 
 the accomplishment of his purposes. 
 
 At the period when the Reformation 
 was on the point of breaking forth, 
 Rome appeared in peace and safety. 
 One might have said that nothing could 
 for the future disturb her triumph. She had 
 gained great and decisive victories. The 
 general councils, those upper and lower 
 senates of Catholicism, had been subdued. 
 The Vaudois and the Hussites had been 
 put down. No university, (except per- 
 haps that of Paris, which sometimes 
 raised its voice at the instance of its 
 kings,) doubted of the infallibility of the 
 oracles of Rome. Every one seemed to 
 take part with its power. The superior 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 31 
 
 clergy preferred to give to a remote head 
 the tenth of their revenues, and quietly 
 to consume the remainder, to the hazard- 
 ing of all for the acquisition of an inde- 
 pendence which would cost dear, and 
 bring little advantage. The humbler 
 clergy, before whom were spread the 
 prospects and baits of higher dignities, 
 were willing to purchase these cherished 
 hopes by a little slavery. Add to which, 
 they were everywhere so overawed by 
 the heads of the hierarchy, that they 
 could scarcely move under their power- 
 ful hands, and much less raise themselves 
 and make head against them. The peo- 
 ple bowed the knee before the Roman 
 altar, and even kings, who began in 
 secret to despise the bishop of Rome, 
 could not have dared to raise the hand 
 against it, lest they should be reputed 
 guilty of sacrilege. 
 
 But if at the time when the Reform- 
 ation broke out, opposition seemed out- 
 wardly to have subsided, or even ceased 
 altogether, its internal strength had in- 
 creased. If we take a nearer view, we 
 discern more than one symptom which 
 presaged the decline of Rome. The 
 general councils, had, in their fall, dif- 
 fused their principles through the Church, 
 and carried disunion into the camp of 
 those who impugned them. The de- 
 defenders of the hierarchy had separated 
 into two parties ; those who maintained 
 the system of the absolute power of the 
 Pope, according to the maxims of Hilde- 
 brand ; and those who desired a consti- 
 tutional Papacy, offering securities and 
 liberty to the churches. 
 
 To this we may add, that in all par- 
 ties faith in the infallibility of the Ro- 
 man bishop had been rudely shaken. 
 If no voice was raised to attack him, it 
 was because every one was anxious to 
 retain the little faith he still possessed. 
 The slightest shock was dreaded, lest it 
 should overturn the edifice. The Chris- 
 tianity of the age held in its breath ; but 
 it was to avoid a calamity in which 
 it feared to perish. From the moment 
 when a man trembles to quit a once vene- 
 rated creed, he no longer holds it, and 
 he will soon abandon its very semblance. 
 
 Let us see what had brought about 
 this singular posture of mind. The 
 Church itself was the primary cause. 
 The errors and superstitions she had in- 
 
 troduced into Christianity, were not, pro- 
 perly speaking, what had so fatally 
 wounded her. This might indeed be 
 thought if the nations of Christendom 
 had risen above the Church in intellec- 
 tual and religious development. But 
 there was an aspect of the question level 
 to the observation of the laity, and it was 
 under that view that the Church was 
 judged : — it was become altogether 
 earthly. That priestly sway which gov- 
 erned the world, and which could not 
 subsist but by the power of illusion, and 
 of that halo which invested it, had for- 
 gotten its true nature, and left Heaven 
 and its sphere of light and glory, to im- 
 merse itself in the low interests of citi- 
 zens and princes. Born to the represen- 
 tation of the spirit, the priesthood had 
 forsaken the spirit — for the flesh. They 
 had thrown aside the treasures of learn- 
 ing and the spiritual power of the word, 
 and taken up the brute force and false 
 glory of the age : and this had naturally 
 resulted. It was truly the spiritual order 
 that the Church had at first attempted to 
 defend. But to protect it against the re- 
 sistance and invasion of the nations, she 
 had, from false policy, had recourse to 
 earthly instruments and vulgar weapons. 
 When once the Church had begun to 
 handle these weapons, her spiritual es- 
 sence was lost. Her arm could not be- 
 come carnal without her heart becoming 
 the same ; and the world soon saw her 
 former character inverted. She had at- 
 tempted to use earth iii defence of 
 Heaven : she now employed Heaven it- 
 self to defend earthly possessions. Theo- 
 cratic forms became, in her hands, only 
 instruments of worldly schemes. The 
 offerings which the people laid at the 
 feet of the sovereign pontiff of Christen- 
 dom, were used to support the luxury of 
 his court, and the charge of his armies. 
 His spiritual power supplied the steps by 
 which he placed his feet above the kings 
 and nations of the earth. The charm 
 was dispelled; and the power of the 
 Church was gone, from the hour that 
 men could say, " she is become as one 
 of us." 
 
 The great were the first to scrutinize 
 the title to this supposed power.* The 
 very questioning of it might possibly have 
 
 * Adrien Baillet Hist, des demeles de Boni- 
 face VIII. avec Philippe le Bel. Paris, 1708. 
 
32 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 sufficed to overturn Rome. But it was 
 a favourable circumstance on her side, 
 that the education of the princes was 
 every Avhere in the hands of her adepts. 
 These persons inculcated in their noble 
 pupils a veneration for the Roman pon- 
 tifls. The chiefs of nations grew up in 
 the sanctuary of the Church. Princes 
 of ordinary minds scarce ever got beyond 
 it. Many even desired nothing better 
 than to be found within it at- the close of 
 life. They chose to die wearing a monk's 
 cowl rather than a crown. 
 
 Italy was mainly instrumental in en- 
 lightening the sovereigns of Europe. 
 They had to contract alliances with the 
 Popes, which had reference to the tem- 
 poral Prince of the states of the Church, — 
 and not to the Bishop of bishops. Kings 
 were much astonished to find the Popes 
 ready to sacrifice some of the asserted 
 rights of the Pontiff, that they might re- 
 tain the advantages of the Prince. They 
 saw these self-styled organs of truth re- 
 sort to all the petty artifices of policy, 
 deceit, dissimulation, and even perjury.* 
 Then it was that the bandage that edu- 
 cation had drawn over the eyes of secu- 
 lar princes fell off It was then that the 
 artful Ferdinand of Arragon had recourse 
 to stratagem against stratagem; it was 
 then that the impetuous Louis XII. struck 
 a medal with this legend, Per dam Babylo- 
 nis nomen ,-f and the respectable Maximi- 
 lian of Austria, grieved at hearing of the 
 treachery of Leo X. exclaimed, " This 
 Pope, like the rest, is in my judgment a 
 scoundrel. Henceforth I can say that in 
 all my life no Pope has kept his faith or 
 word with me. I hope, if God be willing, 
 that this one will be the last of them."| 
 
 Discoveries of this sort made by kings 
 gradually took effect upon the people. 
 Many other causes had unclosed the 
 long sealed eyes of Christian nations. 
 The most reflecting began to accustom 
 themselves to the idea that the Bishop 
 of Rome was a man, and sometimes even 
 a very bad man. The people began to 
 suspect that he was not much holier than 
 their own bishops, whose characters were 
 veiy doubtful. But the Popes them- 
 selves contributed more than any single 
 cause to their own dishonour. Released 
 from constraint after the Council of Basle, 
 
 * Guicciardini. t I will extirpate the name 
 of Babylon. t Scultet. Annal. ad an. 1520. 
 
 they gave themselves up to the bound- 
 less licentiousness of victory. Even the 
 dissolute Romans shuddered. The ru- 
 mours of these disorders spread through 
 other countries. The people, incapable 
 of arresting the torrent that swept their 
 treasure into this gulf of profligacy, 
 sought amends in hatred.* 
 
 Whilst many circumstances contri- 
 buted to sap what then existed, there 
 were others tending to the production of 
 something new. 
 
 The singular system of theology that 
 had established itself in the Church, was 
 fitted powerfully to assist in opening the 
 eyes of the rising generation. Formed 
 for a dark age, as if the darkness were 
 to endure for ever, this system was des- 
 tined to be superseded and scattered to 
 the winds as soon as the age should out- 
 grow it. And this took place. The 
 Popes had added now this, and now that 
 article to the Christian doctrine. They 
 had changed or removed only what 
 could not be made to square with their 
 hierarchy ; what was not opposed to their 
 policy was allowed to remain during 
 pleasure. There were in this system 
 true doctrines, such as redemption, the 
 power of the Spirit of God, &c, which 
 an able theologian, if one had been found, 
 could have used to combat and overturn 
 the rest. The pure gold mixed with the 
 baser metal in the mint of the Vatican, 
 was enough to reveal the fraud. It is 
 true that if any courageous opponent 
 took notice of it, the winnowing fan of 
 Rome was immediately set to work to 
 cast the pure grain forth. But these re- 
 jections and condemnations did but aug- 
 ment the confusion. 
 
 That confusion was without bounds, 
 and the asserted unity was but one vast 
 disorder. At Rome there were the doc- 
 trines of the Court, and the doctrines of 
 the Church. The faith of the metropo- 
 lis differed from that of the provinces. 
 Even in the provinces there was an in- 
 finite diversity of opinion. There was 
 the creed of princes, of people and, above 
 all, of the religious orders. There were 
 the opinions of this convent, of that dis- 
 trict, of this doctor, and of that monk. 
 
 * Odium Romani nominis penitus inflxum esse 
 multarum gentium animis opinor, ob ea quae vulgo 
 de moribus ejus uxbis jactantur. (Erasmi Epist. 
 lib. xii. p. 634.) 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 33 
 
 Truth, that it might pass safe through 
 the period when Rome would have 
 crushed it with her iron sceptre, had 
 acted like the insect that weaves with 
 its threads the chrysalis in which it en- 
 velopes itself during the winter. And, 
 strange to say, the means that had served 
 in this way to preserve the truth, were 
 the scholastic divines so much decried. 
 These ingenious artisans of thought had 
 strung together all the current theologi- 
 cal notions, and of these threads they 
 had formed a net, under which it would 
 have been difficult for more skilful per- 
 sons than their contemporaries to recog- 
 nise the truth in its first purity. We 
 may regret, that the insect, full of life, 
 and so lately shining with the brightest 
 colours, should wrap itself in its dark 
 and seemingly inanimate covering ; but 
 that covering preserves it. It was thus 
 with the truth. If the interested and 
 suspicious policy of Rome, in the days 
 of her power, had met with the naked 
 truth, she would have destroyed it, or, at 
 least, endeavoured to do so. Disguised 
 as it was by the divines of that period, 
 under endless subtleties and distinctions, 
 the Popes did not recognise it, or else 
 perceived that while in that state it could 
 not trouble them. They took under 
 their protection both the artisans and 
 their handy-work. But the spring might 
 come, when the hidden truth might lift 
 its head, and throw off all the threads 
 which covered it. Having acquired 
 fresh vigour in its seeming tomb, the 
 world might behold it in the days of 
 its resurrection, obtain the victory over 
 Rome and all her errors. This spring 
 arrived. At the same time that the 
 absurd coverings of the scholastic divines 
 fell, one after another, beneath the skil- 
 ful attacks or derisions of a new genera- 
 tion, the truth escaped from its conceal- 
 ment in full youth and beauty. 
 
 It was not only from the writings of 
 the scholastic divines that powerful testi- 
 mony was rendered to the truth. Christi- 
 anity had every where mingled some- 
 thing of its own life with the life of the 
 people. The Church of Christ was a 
 dilapidated building: but in digging, 
 there were in some parts discovered in 
 its foundations the living rock on which 
 it had been first built. Some institutions 
 which bore date from the best ages of 
 
 the Church still existed, and could not 
 fail to awaken, in many minds evangeli- 
 cal sentiments opposed to the reigning 
 superstition. The inspired writers, the 
 earliest teachers of the Church, whose 
 writings were deposited in different li- 
 braries, uttered here and there a solitary 
 voice. It was doubtless heard in silence 
 by many an attentive ear. Let us not 
 doubt (and it is a consoling thought) 
 that Christians had many brethren and 
 sisters in those very monasteries wherein 
 we are too apt to see nothing but hypoc- 
 risy and dissoluteness. 
 
 ' It was not only old things that pre- 
 pared the revival of religion ; there was 
 also something new which tended pow- 
 erfully to favour it. The human mind 
 was advancing. This fact alone would 
 have brought on its enfranchisement. 
 The shrub as it increases in its growth 
 throws down the walls near which it 
 was planted, and substitutes its own 
 shade for theirs. The high priest of 
 Rome had made himself the guardian 
 of the nations. His superiority of un- 
 derstanding had rendered this office 
 easy ; and for a long time he kept them 
 in a state of tutelage and forced subjec- 
 tion. But they were now growing, and 
 breaking bounds on all sides. This 
 venerable guardianship, which hail its 
 origin in the principles of eternal life 
 and of civilization, communicated by 
 Rome to the barbarous nations, could no 
 longer be exercised without resistance. 
 A formidable adversary had taken up a 
 position opposed to her, and sought to 
 control her. The natural disposition of 
 the human mind to develope itself, to 
 examine and to acquire knowledge, had 
 given birth to this new power. Men's 
 eyes were opening ; they demanded a 
 reason for every step from this long re- 
 spected conductor, under whose guidance 
 they had marched in silence, so long as 
 their eyes were closed. The infancy of 
 the nations of Modern Europe was 
 passed ; a period of ripe age was arrived. 
 To a credulous simplicity, disposed to 
 believe every thing, had succeeded a 
 spirit of curiosity, an intelligence impa- 
 tient to discover the foundations of things. 
 They asked of each other what was the 
 design of God in speaking to the world? 
 and whether men had a right to set 
 themselves up as mediators between God 
 
34 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 and their brethren ? One thing alone 
 could have saved the Church ; and this 
 was to rise still higher than the laity. 
 To keep on a level with them was not 
 enough. But on the contrary the Church 
 was greatly behind them. It began to 
 decline just when they began to arise. 
 While the laity were ascending in the 
 scale of intelligence, — the priesthood was 
 absorbed in earthly pursuits and worldly 
 interests. A like phenomenon has been 
 often seen in history. The eaglet had 
 become full fledged, and there was none 
 who could reach it or prevent its taking 
 flight. 
 
 Whilst in Europe the light was thus 
 issuing from the prisons in which it had 
 been held captive, the East was sending 
 new lights to the West. The standard 
 of the Osmanlis, planted in 1453 on the 
 walls of Constantinople, had driven 
 thence the learned of that city. They 
 had carried Grecian literature into Italy. 
 The torch of antiquity rekindled the in- 
 tellectual flame which had for so many 
 ages been extinguished. Printing, then 
 recently discovered, multiplied the ener- 
 getic protests against the corruption of 
 the Church, and the not less powerful 
 calls which summoned the human mind 
 to new paths. There was at that time, 
 as it were, a burst of light. Errors and 
 vain ceremonies were exposed. But this 
 light, well suited to destroy, was most 
 unfit to build up. It was not given to 
 Homer or Virgil to rescue the Church. 
 
 The revival of letters, of science, and 
 of the arts, Avas not the moving principle 
 ofihe Reformation. We may rather say 
 that the Paganism of the poets, when it 
 re-appeared in Italy, brought with it the 
 Paganism of the heart. Vain supersti- 
 tions were attacked ; — but it was incre- 
 dulity that established itself in their stead, 
 with a smile of disdain and mockery. 
 Ridicule of all things, even the most sa- 
 cred, was the fashion, and deemed the 
 mark of wit. Religion was regarded 
 only as an instrument of government. 
 '' I have one fear," exclaimed Erasmus 
 in 1516, " it is, that with the study of an- 
 cient literature the ancient Paganism 
 should re-appear." 
 
 True, the world saw then, as after the 
 mockeries of the Augustan age, and as 
 in our own times after those of the last 
 century, a new Platonic Philosophy, 
 
 which, in its turn, attacked this impudent 
 incredulity ; and sought, like the philo- 
 sophy of our own days, to inspire respect 
 for Christianity, and re-animate the sen- 
 timents of religion. At Florence the 
 Medici favoured these efforts of the Pla- 
 tonists. But never can philosophical re- 
 ligion regenerate the Church or the 
 World. Proud — despising the preach- 
 ing of the cross — pretending to see in 
 the Christian dogmas only types and 
 symbols unintelligible to the majority 
 of minds — it may evaporate in mystical 
 enthusiasm, but must ever be powerless 
 to reform or to save. 
 
 What then would have ensued if true 
 Christianity had not re-appeared in the 
 world — and if true faith had not replen- 
 ished the heart with its strength and 
 holiness? The Reformation saved reli- 
 gion, and with it society. If the Church 
 of Rome had had at heart the glory of 
 God, and the happiness of nations, she 
 would have welcomed the Reformation 
 with joy. But what were these to a, 
 Leo X. ? 
 
 In Germany, the study of ancient 
 learning had effects the very reverse of 
 those which attended it in Italy and 
 France. It was "mixed with faith." 
 What had, in the latter, produced only 
 a certain trivial and sterile refinement 
 of taste, penetrated the lives and habits 
 of the Germans, warmed their hearts, 
 and prepared them for a better light. 
 The first restorers of letters in Italy and 
 France were remarkable for their levity ; 
 often for their immorality. The German 
 followers, with a grave spirit, sought 
 zealously for truth. There was formed 
 in that country a union of free, learned, 
 and generous individuals, among whom 
 were some of the princes of the land, and 
 who laboured to render science useful to 
 religion. Some of them brought to their 
 studies the humble teachableness of chil- 
 dren ; others an enlightened and pene- 
 trating judgment, inclined perhaps to 
 overstep the limits of sound and delibe- 
 rate criticism ; but both contributed to 
 clear the passages of the temple, hitherto 
 obstructed by so many superstitions. 
 
 The monkish theologians perceived 
 the danger, and they began to clamour 
 against the very same studies that they 
 had tolerated in Italy and France, be- 
 cause they were there mixed with levity 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 35 
 
 and dissoluteness. A conspiracy was 
 entered into against languages and sci- 
 ences, for in their rear they perceived 
 the true faith. One day a monk, cau- 
 tioning some one against the heresies of 
 Erasmus, was asked " in what they con- 
 sisted ?" He confessed he had not read 
 the work he spoke of, and could but al- 
 lege " that it was written in too good 
 Latin." 
 
 Still all these exterior causes would 
 have been insufficient to prepare the re- 
 novation of the Church. 
 
 Christianity had declined, because the 
 two guiding truths of the new covenant 
 had been lost. The first, in contra-dis- 
 tinction to Church assumption, is the 
 immediate relation existing between 
 every individual soul and the Fountain 
 of Truth — the second, (and this stood 
 directly opposed to the idea of merit in 
 human works,) is the doctrine of salva- 
 tion by Grace. Of these two principles, 
 immutable and immortal in themselves, 
 — for ever true, however slighted or cor- 
 rupted, which, — it might then have been 
 asked, — was to be first set in motion, and 
 give the regenerative impulse to the 
 Church ? — Was it to be the former, the 
 principle of Church authority 1 Or was 
 it to be the latter, the energy of the Spi- 
 rit ? — In our days men pretend to ope- 
 rate through the social condition upon 
 the soul : through human nature in ge- 
 neral, upon individual character. It will 
 be concluded that the principle of a 
 Church was prominent in the move- 
 ment : — History has shown the very 
 contrary : — it has proved that it is by 
 individual influence that an impression 
 is produced on the community, and that 
 the first step toward restoring the social 
 condition — is to regenerate the soul. All 
 the efforts for amelioration witnessed in i 
 the middle ages arose out of religious J 
 feeling ; — the question of authority was ! 
 never mooted till men were compelled j 
 to defend against the hierarchy the newly 
 discovered truth. — It was the same in 
 later times, in Luther's case. — When the 
 Truth that saves appears on the one side, 
 sustained by the authority of God's word, 
 — and on the other, the Error that de- 
 stroys, backed by trie power of the Ro- 
 man hierarchy, Christians cannot long 
 hesitate ; and in spite of the most spe- 
 cious sophisms and the fairest creden- 
 
 tials, the claim to authority is soon dis- 
 posed of. 
 
 The Church had fallen because the 
 great doctrine of Justification through 
 faith in Christ had been lost. It was 
 therefore necessary that this doctrine 
 should be restored to her before she could 
 arise. Whenever this fundamental truth 
 should be restored, all the errors and de- 
 vices which had usurped its place, the 
 train of saints, works, penances, masses, 
 and indulgences, would vanish. The 
 moment the one Mediator, and his one 
 sacrifice were acknowledged, all other 
 mediators, and all other sacrifices, would 
 disappear. " This article of justification," 
 says one* whom we may look upon as 
 enlightened on the subject, "is that 
 which forms the Church, nourishes it, 
 builds it up, preserves and defends it. 
 No one can well teach in the Church, 
 or successfully resist its adversary, if he 
 continue not in his attachment to this 
 grand truth." "It is," adds the Re- 
 former, referring to the earliest prophecy, 
 " the heel that crushes the serpent's head." 
 
 God, who was then preparing his work, 
 raised up, during a long course of ages, 
 a succession of witnesses to this truth. 
 But the generous men who bore testi- 
 mony to this truth, did not clearly com- 
 prehend it, or at least did not know how 
 to bring it distinctly forward. Incapable 
 of accomplishing the work, they were 
 well suited to prepare it. We may add 
 also, that if they were not prepared for 
 this work, the work itself was not ready 
 for them. The measure was not yet fulL 
 — the need of the true remedy was not yet 
 felt so extensively as was necessary. 
 
 Thus, instead of felling the tree at the 
 root by preaching chiefly and earnestly 
 the doctrine of salvation by grace, they 
 confined themselves to questions of cere- 
 monies, to the government of the Church, 
 to forms of worships, to the adoration of' 
 saints and images, or to the transubstanti* 
 ation,&c; and thus limiting their efforts to 
 the branches, they might succeed in pru- 
 ning the tree here and there, but they left 
 it still standing. In order to a salutary 
 reformation without, there must be a 
 real reformation within. And faith alone, 
 can effect this. 
 
 Scarcely had Rome usurped power 
 before a vigorous opposition was formed 
 * Luther to Brentius. 
 
36 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 against her ; and this endured throughout 
 the middle ages. 
 
 Archbishop Claudius, of Turin, in the 
 ninth century, Peter of Bruys, his pupil 
 Henry, Arnold of Brescia, in the twelth 
 century, in France and Italy, laboured 
 to restore the Avorship of God in spirit 
 and in truth ; but they sought that wor- 
 ship too much in the riddance from 
 images and outward ceremony. 
 
 The Mystics, who have existed in al- 
 most every age, seeking in silence, holi- 
 ness, righteousness of life, and quiet com- 
 munion with God, beheld with alarm 
 and sorrow the wretched condition of the 
 Church. They carefully abstained from 
 the quarrels of the schools, and all the 
 unprofitable discussions beneath which 
 true piety had been well nigh buried. 
 They laboured to turn men from the 
 empty form of an outward worship, from 
 noise and pomp of ceremonies, that they 
 might lead them to the inward peace of 
 the soul that seeks all its happiness in 
 God. They could not do this without 
 coming in collision with all the received 
 opinions, and exposing the wounds of 
 the Church ; but still even they had no 
 clear views of the doctrine of justification 
 by faith. 
 
 Far superior to the Mystics in purity of 
 doctrine, the Vaudois formed a long con- 
 tinued chain of witnesses for the truth. 
 Men more free than the rest of the 
 Church appear from early times to have 
 inhabited the summits of the Piedmon- 
 tese Alps. Their numbers had increased, 
 and their doctrine had been purified by 
 the disciples of Valdo. From the 
 heights of their mountains the Vaudois 
 protested for ages against the superstitions 
 of Rome.* " They contended," said 
 they, " for their lively hope in God 
 through Christ ; for regeneration and in- 
 ward renewal by faith, hope, and charity ; 
 for the merits of Christ, and the all-suffi- 
 ciency of his grace and righteousness."! 
 And yet this primary truth of the 
 Justification of the sinner, which ought 
 to rise pre-eminent above other doc- 
 trines, like Mount Blanc above the 
 surrounding Alps, was not sufficiently 
 prominent in their system. 
 
 Pierre Vaud, or Valdo, a rich mer- 
 
 * Nobla Leycon. 
 
 + Treatise on Antichrist, a work contemporary 
 with the Nobla Leycon. 
 
 chant of Lyons (a. d. 1170,) sold all his 
 goods and gave to the poor. He and his 
 friends appear to have had for their ob- 
 ject to re-establish in the intercourse of 
 life the perfection of primitive Chris- 
 tianity. He began then, like others, at 
 the branches, and not at the root. 
 Nevertheless his preaching was power- 
 ful ; for he recalled the minds of his 
 hearers to the Scriptures which menaced 
 the Roman hierarchy in its foundation. 
 
 In 1360 Wicklif made his appearance 
 in England, and appealed from the Pope 
 to the Word of God ; but the real inward 
 wound of the church appeared to him as 
 only one of many symptoms of its malady. 
 
 John Huss preached in Bohemia a 
 century before Luther appeared in 
 Saxony. He seemed to enter more 
 deeply than all who had gone before 
 him into the essence of Christian truth. 
 He besought Christ to grant him grace 
 to glory only in his cross, and in the in- 
 estimable humiliation of his sufferings. 
 But he attacked rather the lives of the 
 clergy than the errors of the Church. 
 And yet he was, if we may be allowed 
 the expression, the John the Baptist of 
 the Reformation. The flames of his 
 martyrdom kindled a fire which shed an 
 extensive light in the midst of the gen- 
 eral gloom, and was destined not to be 
 speedily extinguished. 
 
 John Huss did more : prophetic words 
 resounded from the depths of his dun- 
 geon. He foresaw that a real reforma- 
 tion of the, Church was at hand. When 
 driven from Prague, and compelled to 
 wander in the fields of Bohemia, where 
 he was followed by an immense crowd 
 eager to catch his words, he exclaimed : 
 " The wicked have begun by laying 
 treacherous snares for the goose* But 
 if even the goose, which is only a do- 
 mestic fowl, a tame creature, and unable 
 to rise high in the air, has yet broken 
 their snares, other birds, whose flight 
 carries them boldly towards heaven, will 
 break them with much more power. In- 
 stead of a feeble goose, the truth will 
 send forth eagles and sharp keen-eyed 
 falcons. "f The Reformers fulfilled this 
 prediction. 
 
 And when the venerable priest was 
 
 * The word Huss in Bohemian signifying 
 goose. 
 
 t Epist. J. Hubs tempore anathematis scripts. 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 37, 
 
 summoned, by order of Sigismund, be- 
 fore the Council of Constance, and cast 
 into prison, the chapel of Bethlehem, 
 where he had proclaimed the Gospel and 
 the future triumphs of Christ, employed 
 his thoughts more than his own defence. 
 One night, the holy martyr thought he 
 saw from the depths of his dungeon the 
 pictures of Christ, which were painted 
 on the walls of his oratory, effaced by 
 the Pope and his bishops. This dream 
 distressed him. Next night he saw 
 several painters engaged in restoring the 
 figures in greater numbers and more 
 vivid colouring ; and this work per- 
 formed, the painters, surrounded, by an 
 immense multitude, exclaimed : " Now 
 let the popes and bishops come when 
 they will, they will never again be able 
 to efface them." — " And many persons 
 thereupon rejoiced in Bethlehem, and I 
 amongst them," adds Huss. " Think 
 of your defence, rather than of your 
 dreams," said his faithful friend, the 
 Chevalier de Chlum, to whom he had 
 imparted his dream. " I am no dreamer," 
 replied Huss ; " but I hold it certain, 
 that the image of Christ will never be 
 effaced. They desired to destroy it, but 
 it will be imprinted anew on the hearts 
 of men by much better preachers than 
 myself. The nation that loves Christ 
 will rejoice at this. And I, awaking 
 from the dead, and rising as it were 
 from the grave, shall leap for joy."* 
 
 A century elapsed ; and the Gospel 
 torch rekindled by the Reformers, did in 
 truth enlighten many nations, who re- 
 joiced in its beams. 
 
 But it Avas not only amongst those 
 whom Rome regarded as her adversaries, 
 that a life-giving word was heard at that 
 period. Catholicism itself — and we may 
 take comfort from the thought — reckons 
 amongst its own members numerous 
 witnesses for the truth. The primitive 
 edifice had been consumed ; but a holy 
 fire smouldered beneath its ashes, and 
 from time to time bright sparks were 
 seen to escape. 
 
 Anselm of Canterbury, in a work for 
 the use of the dying, exhorted them " to 
 look solely to the merits of Jesus Christ." 
 
 A monk, named Arnoldi, offered up 
 every day in his peaceful cell this fervent 
 prayer, " Oh, Lord Jesus Christ ! I be- 
 
 * Huss, epp. sub tempus concilii script®. 
 
 lieve that in thee alone I have redemp- 
 tion and righteousness."* 
 
 A pious bishop of Bale, Christopher 
 de Utenheim, had his name written upon 
 a picture painted on glass, which is still 
 at Bale, and round it this motto, which 
 he wished to have always before him, — 
 " My hope is in the cross of Christ ; I 
 seek grace, and not works."t 
 
 A poor Carthusian, brother Martin, 
 wrote this affecting confession : " Oh, 
 most merciful God ! I know that I can 
 only be saved, and satisfy thy righteous- 
 ness, by the merit, the innocent suffering, 
 and death of thy well-beloved son. Holy 
 Jesus! my salvation is in thy hands. 
 Thou canst not withdraw the hands of 
 thy love from me ; for they have created, 
 and formed, and redeemed me. Thou 
 hast inscribed my name with a pen of 
 iron, in rich mercy, and so as nothing 
 can efface it, on thy side, thy hands, and 
 thy feet ;" etc. etc. After this the good 
 Carthusian placed his confession in a 
 wooden box, and enclosed the box in a 
 hole he had made in the wall of his 
 cell.t 
 
 The piety of brother Martin would 
 never have been known, if his box had 
 not been found, on the 21st of December, 
 1776, in taking down an old building 
 which had been part of the Carthusian 
 convent at Bale. How many convents 
 may have concealed similar treasures ! 
 
 But these holy men only held this 
 faith themselves, and did not know how 
 to communicate it to others. Living in 
 retirement, they might, more or less 
 adopt the words of good brother Martin, 
 written in his box : " Et si hctc prcedicta 
 co7ifiteri non possim lingua, confitcor ta- 
 men corde et scripto. — If I cannot confess 
 these things with my tongue, I at least 
 confess them with my pen and with my 
 heart." The word of truth was laid up 
 in the sanctuary of many a pious mind, 
 but to use an expression in the Gospel, it 
 had not free course in the world. 
 
 * Credo quod tu, mi Domine, Jesn Christe solus 
 es mea jnstitia et redemptio. Leibnitz script. 
 Brunsw. iii. 369. 
 
 t Spes mea crux Christi ; gradiam non opera 
 qusro. 
 
 t Sciens posse me aliter non salvari et tibi sa- 
 tisfacere nisi per meritum, etc. See for the cita- 
 tions, and many others, Flaccius Catal. Test 
 Veritatis ; Wolfii Lect. Memorabiles ; Miiller's 
 Reliquien, etc. etc. 
 
38 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 If men did not openly confess the doc- 
 trine of salvation, they at least did not 
 fear, even within the pale of the Romish 
 Church, boldly to protest against the 
 abuses which disgraced it. Italy itself 
 had at that time her witnesses against 
 the priesthood. The Dominican, Sava- 
 ronola, preached at Florence^ in 1498 
 against the insupportable vices of Rome ; 
 but the powers that then were, des- 
 patched him by the inquisition and the 
 stake. 
 
 Geiler of Kaisersberg was for three 
 and thirty years the great preacher of 
 Germany. He attacked the clergy with 
 energy. " When the summer leaves 
 turn yellow," said he, " we say that the 
 root is diseased : and thus it is, a dissolute 
 people proclaim a corrupted priesthood." 
 If no wicked man ought to say mass," 
 said he to his bishop, " drive out all the 
 priests from your diocese." The people, 
 hearing this courageous minister, learned 
 even in the sanctuary to see the enormi- 
 ties of their spritual guides. 
 
 This state of things in the Church it- 
 self deserves our notice. When the 
 Wisdom of God shall again utter his 
 teachings, there will every where be un- 
 derstandings and hearts to comprehend. 
 When the sower shall again come forth 
 to sow, he will find ground prepared to 
 receive the seed. When the word of 
 truth shall resound, it will find echoes to 
 repeat it. When the trumpet shall utter 
 a war-note in the Church many of her 
 children will prepare themselves to the 
 battle. 
 
 We are arrived near the scene on 
 which Luther appeared. Before we be- 
 gin the history of that great commotion 
 which caused to shoot up in all its bril- 
 liancy, that light of truth which had 
 been so long concealed, and which, by 
 renovating the Church, renovated so 
 many nations, and called others into ex- 
 istence, creating a new Europe and a 
 new Christianity, let us take a glance at 
 the different nations in the midst of 
 whom this revolution in religion took 
 place. 
 
 The Empire was a confederacy of dif- 
 ferent states, with the Emperor at their 
 head. Each of these states possessed 
 sovereignty over its own territory. The 
 Imperial Diet, composed of all the princes, 
 or sovereign states, exercised the legisla- 
 
 tive power for the whole of the Germanic 
 body. The Emperor ratified the laws, 
 decrees, or resolutions, of this assembly, 
 and it was his office to publish and exe- 
 cute them. The seven more powerful 
 princes, under the title of Electors, had 
 the privilege of awarding the Imperial 
 crown. 
 
 The princes and states of the Germa- 
 nic Confederacy had been anciently sub- 
 jects of the Emperors, and held their 
 lands of them. But after the accession 
 of Rodolph of Hapsburg (1273,) a series 
 of troubles had taken place, in which 
 princes, free cities, and bishops, acquired 
 a considerable degree of independence, 
 at the expense of the Imperial sovereign. 
 
 The north of Germany, inhabited 
 chiefly by the old Saxon race, had ac- 
 quired most liberty. The Emperor, in- 
 cessantly attacked by the Turks in his 
 hereditary possessions, was disposed to 
 keep on good terms with courageous 
 chiefs and communities, whose alliance 
 was then necessary to him. Several free 
 cities in the north-west and south of Eu- 
 rope had, by commerce, manufactures, 
 and industry, attained a considerable de- 
 gree of prosperity, and by that means, 
 of independence. The powerful house 
 of Austria, which wore the crown of the 
 Empire, controlled the majority of the 
 states of central Germany, overlooked 
 their movements, and was preparing to 
 extend its dominion, over and beyond 
 the whole Empire, when the Reforma- 
 tion interposed a powerful barrier to its 
 encroachments, and saved the liberties 
 of Europe. 
 
 If, in the time of St. Paul, or of Am- 
 brose, of Austin, of Chrysostom, or even 
 in the days of Anselm and Bernard, the 
 question had been asked, what people or 
 nation God would be likely to use to re- 
 form the church, — the thought might 
 have turned to the countries honoured 
 by the Apostles' ministry, — to Asia, to 
 Greece, or to Rome, perhaps to Britain 
 or to France, where men of great learn- 
 ing had preached ; but none would have 
 thought of the barbarous Germans. All 
 other countries of Christendom had, in 
 their turn, shone in the history of the 
 Church ; Germany alone had continued 
 dark. Yet it was Germany that was 
 chosen. 
 • God, who prepared during four thou- 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 39 
 
 sand years the Advent of his Messiah, 
 and led through different dispensations, 
 for many ages, the people among whom 
 he was to be born, also prepared Ger- 
 many in secret and unobserved, un- 
 known indeed even to itself, to be the 
 cradle of a Religious Regeneration, 
 which, in a later day, should awaken the 
 various nations of Christendom. 
 
 As Judea, the birth-place of our reli- 
 gion, lay in the centre of the ancient 
 world, so Germany was situate in the 
 midst of Christian nations. She looked 
 upon the Netherlands, England, France, 
 Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Bohemia, 
 Poland, Denmark, and the whole of the 
 north. It was fit that the principle of 
 life should develop itself in the heart of 
 Europe, — that its pulses might circulate 
 through all the arteries of the body the 
 generous blood designed to vivify its 
 members. 
 
 The particular form of constitution 
 that the Empire had received, by the 
 dispensations of Providence, favoured 
 the propagation of new ideas. If Ger- 
 many had been a monarchy, strictly so 
 called, like France or England, the ar- 
 bitrary will of the sovereign might have 
 sufficed to delay for a long time the 
 progress of the Gospel. But it was a 
 confederacy. The truth, opposed in one 
 state, might be received with favour by 
 another. Important centres of light, 
 which might gradually penetrate through 
 the darkness, and enlighten the sur- 
 rounding population, might be quickly 
 formed in different districts of the Empire. 
 
 The internal peace which Maximilian 
 had given to the Empire was no less fa- 
 vourable to the Reformation. For a 
 long while the numerous members of 
 the Germanic body had laboured to dis- 
 turb each other. Nothing had been seen 
 but confusions, quarrels, wars incessantly 
 breaking out between neighbours, cities, 
 and chiefs. Maximilian had laid a solid 
 basis of public order by instituting the 
 Imperial chamber appointed to settle all 
 differences between the states. — The Ger- 
 mans, after so many confusions and anxie- 
 ties, saw a new a?ra of safety and repose. 
 This condition of affairs powerfully con- 
 tributed to harmonize the general mind. 
 It was now possible in the cities and 
 peaceful valleys of Germany to seek and 
 adopt ameliorations, which discord might 
 
 have banished. We may add that it is 
 in the bosom of peace that the Gospel 
 loves most to gain its blessed victories. 
 Thus it had been the will of God. fifteen 
 centuries before, that Augustus should 
 present a pacified world for the blessed 
 triumphs of Christ's religion. Neverthe- 
 less the Reformation performed a double 
 part in the peace then beginning for the 
 Empire. It was as much cause as effect. 
 Germany, when Luther appeared, of- 
 fered to the contemplation of an observer 
 the sort of movement which agitates 
 the sea after a continued storm. The 
 calm did not promise to be lasting. The 
 first breath might again call up the tem- 
 pest. We shall see more than one ex- 
 ample of this. The Reformation, by 
 communicating a new impulse to the po- 
 pulation, destroyed for ever the old mo- 
 tives of agitation. It made an end of 
 the system of barbarous times, and gave 
 to Europe one entirely new. 
 
 Meanwhile the religion of Jesus Christ 
 had had its accustomed influence on Ger- 
 many. The common people had rapidly 
 advanced ; numerous institutions arose 
 in the Empire, and particularly in the 
 free cities, — well adapted to develope the 
 minds of the mass of the people. The 
 arts flourished ; the burghers followed 
 in security their peaceable labours and 
 the duties of social life. They gradually 
 opened to information, and thus acquired 
 respect and influence. It was not magis- 
 trates bending conscience to political ex- 
 pediency, or nobles emulous of military 
 glory, or a clergy seeking gain or power, 
 and regarding religion as their peculiar 
 property, who were to be the founders 
 of the Reformation in Germany. It was 
 to be the work of the bourgeoisie— gof the 
 people — of the whole nation. 
 
 The peculiar character of the Germans 
 was such as especially to favour a Refor- 
 mation in Religion. A false civilization 
 had not enfeebled them. The precious 
 seeds that a fear of God deposits in a 
 nation had not been scattered to the 
 winds. Ancient manners still subsisted. 
 There was in Germany that uprightness, 
 fidelity, love and toil, and perseverance, 
 — that religious habit of mind — which 
 we still find there, and which presages 
 more success to the Gospel, than the 
 scornful or brutal levity of other Euro- 
 pean nations. 
 
40 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Another circumstance may have con- 
 tributed to render Germany a soil more 
 favourable to the revival of Christianity 
 than many other countries. God had 
 fenced it in ; he had preserved its strength 
 for the day of its giving birth to his pur- 
 pose. It had not fallen from the faith 
 after a period of spiritual vigour, as had 
 been the case with the churches of Asia, 
 of Greece, of Italy, of France, and of Bri- 
 tain. The Gospel had never been offered 
 to Germany in its primitive purity ; the 
 first missionaries who visited the country- 
 gave to it a religion already vitiated in 
 more than one particular. It was a law 
 of the Church, a spiritual discipline, that 
 Boniface and his successors carried to the 
 Frisons, the Saxons, and other German 
 nations. Faith in the "good tidings," 
 that faith which rejoices the heart and 
 makes it free indeed, had remained un- 
 known to them. Instead of being slowly 
 corrupted, the religion of the Germans 
 had rather been purified. Instead of 
 declining, it had arisen. It was indeed 
 to be expected that more life and spirit- 
 ual strength would be found among this 
 people than among those enervated na- 
 tions of Christendom where deep dark- 
 ness had succeeded to the light of truth, 
 and an almost universal corruption had 
 taken place of the sanctity of the earliest 
 times. 
 
 We may make the like remark on the 
 exterior relation between the Germanic 
 body and the Church. The Germans 
 had received from Rome that element 
 of modern civilization, the faith. In- 
 struction, legislation, all, save their cou- 
 rage and their weapons, had come to 
 them from the Sacerdotal city. Strong 
 ties had from that time attached Germany 
 to the Papacy. The former was a spi- 
 ritual conquest of the latter, and we know 
 to what use Rome has ever turned her 
 conquests. Other nations, which had 
 held the faith and civilization before the 
 Roman Pontiff existed, had continued in 
 more independence of him. But this 
 subjection of Germany was destined only 
 to make the reaction more powerful at 
 the moment of awakening. When Ger- 
 many should open her eyes, she would 
 indignantly tear away the trammels in 
 which she had been so long kept bound. 
 The very measure of slavery she had 
 had to endure, would make her deliver- 
 
 ance and liberty more indispensable to 
 her, and strong champions of the truth 
 would come forth from the enclosure of 
 control and restriction in which her po- 
 pulation had for ages been shut up. 
 
 When we take a nearer view of the 
 times of the Reformation, we see, in the 
 government of Germany, still further 
 reasons to admire the wisdom of Him, 
 by whom kings reign, and princes exe- 
 cute judgment. There was, at that time, 
 something resembling what has in our 
 own days, been termed a system of see- 
 saw. When an energetic sovereign pre- 
 sided over the Empire, the imperial 
 power was strengthened ; on the othe]! 
 hand, when he was of feeble character, 
 the authority of the Electors gained 
 force. 
 
 Under Maximilian, the predecessor of 
 Charles V. this alternate rise and depres- 
 sion of the various states was especially 
 remarkable. At that time the balance 
 was altogether against the Emperor. 
 The princes had repeatedly formed close 
 alliances with one another. The emperors 
 themselves had urged them to do so, in 
 order that they might direct them at one 
 effort against some common enemy. But 
 the strength that the princes acquired 
 from such alliances against a passing 
 danger, might, at an after period, be 
 turned against the encroachments or 
 power of the Emperor. This did indeed 
 ensue. At no period had the Electors 
 felt themselves more independent of their 
 head, than at the period of the Reforma- 
 tion. And their head having taken part 
 against it, it is easy to see that this state 
 of things was favourable to the progaga- 
 tion of the Gospel. 
 
 We may add, that Germany was weary 
 of what the Romans contemptuously 
 termed " the patience of the Germans." 
 The latter had, in truth, manifested much 
 patience ever since the time of Louis of 
 Bavaria. From that period the emper- 
 ors had laid down their arms, and the 
 ascendancy of the tiara over the crown 
 of the Caesars was acknowledged. But 
 the battle had only changed its field. It 
 was to be fought on lower ground. The 
 same contests, of which emperors and 
 popes had set the example, were quickly 
 renewed in miniature, in all the towns 
 of Germany, between bishops and magis- 
 trates. The commonalty had caught up 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION, 
 
 41 
 
 the sword dropped by the chiefs of the 
 empire. As early as 1329, the citizens 
 of Frankfort on the Oder had resisted 
 with intrepidity their ecclesiastical supe- 
 riors. Excommunicated for their fidelity 
 to the Margrave Louis, they had remained 
 twenty-eight years without masses, bap- 
 tisms, marriage, or funeral rites. And 
 afterwards, when the monks and priests 
 reappeared, they had openly ridiculed 
 their return as a farce. Deplorable irre- 
 verence, doubtless ; but of which the 
 clergy themselves were the cause. At 
 the epoch of the Reformation, the animo- 
 sity between the magistrates and the ec- 
 clesiastics had increased. Every hour 
 the privileges and temporal possessions 
 of the clergy gave rise to collision. If 
 the magistrates refused to give way, the 
 bishops and priests imprudently had re- 
 course to the extreme means at their dis- 
 * posal. Sometimes the Pope interfered ; 
 and it was to give an example of the 
 most revolting partiality, or to endure 
 the humiliating necessity of leaving the 
 triumph in the hands of the commons, 
 obstinately resolved to maintain their 
 right. These continual conflicts had 
 filled the cities with hatred and contempt 
 of the Pope, and the bishops, and the 
 priests. 
 
 But not only among the burgomasters, 
 councillors, and town clerks did Rome 
 and the clergy find adversaries ; they 
 had opponents both above and below the 
 middle classes of society. From the 
 commencement of the 16th century, the 
 Imperial Diet displayed an inflexible 
 firmness against the papal envoys. In 
 May, 1510, the States assembled at Augs- 
 burg handed to the Emperor a statement 
 of ten leading grievances against the 
 Pope and clergy of Rome. About the 
 same time, there was a violent ferment 
 among the populace. It broke out in 
 1512 in the Rhenish provinces; where 
 the peasantry, indignant at the weight 
 of the yoke imposed by their ecclesias- 
 tical sovereigns, formed among them- 
 selves the League of the Shoes. 
 
 Thus, on all sides, from above and 
 from beneath, was heard a low murmur, 
 the forerunner of the thunderbolt that 
 was about to fall. Germany appeared 
 ripe for the work appointed for the 16th 
 century. Providence, in its slow course, 
 had prepared all things ; and even the 
 6 
 
 passions which God condemns were to 
 be turned by His power to the fulfilment 
 of his purposes. 
 
 Let us take a view of other nations. 
 
 Thirteen small republics, placed with 
 their allies in the centre of Europe, 
 among mountains which compose as it 
 were its citadel, formed a simple and 
 brave population. Who would have 
 thought of looking to these obscure val- 
 leys for the men whom God would 
 choose to be, jointly with the children 
 of the Germans, the liberators of the 
 Church? Who would have guessed 
 that poor and unknown villages, just 
 raised above barbarism — hidden among 
 inaccessible mountains, in the extremity 
 of lakes never named in history, — would,, 
 in their connection with Christianity, 
 eclipse Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, 
 Corinth, and Rome? Yet so it was. 
 Such was the will of Him who causeth 
 it to rain upon one city, and causeth 
 it not to rain upon another city, and 
 maketh his showers to descend on one 
 piece of land, while another withereth 
 under drought. (Amos iv. 7.) 
 
 Circumstances of another kind seemed 
 to surround with multiplied rocks the 
 course of the Reformation in the bosom 
 of the Swiss population. If, in a monar- 
 chy, it had to fear the hindrances of 
 power ; in a democracy it was exposed 
 to the hazards of the precipitation of the 
 people. True, this Reformation, which, 
 in the states of the Empire, could but 
 advance slowly and step by step, might 
 have its success decided in one day in 
 the general council of the Swiss republic. 
 But it was necessary to guard against 
 an imprudent haste, which, unwilling to 
 wait a favourable moment, should ab- 
 ruptly introduce innovations, otherwise 
 most useful, and so compromise the pub- 
 lic peace, the constitution of the state, 
 and even the future prospects of the Re- 
 formation itself. 
 
 But Switzerland also had had its pre- 
 parations. It was a wild tree, but one 
 of generous nature, which had been 
 guarded in the depth of the valleys, that 
 it might one day be grafted with a fruit 
 of the highest value. Providence had 
 diffused among this recent people, prin- 
 ciples of courage, independence, and 
 liberty, destined to manifest all their 
 strength when the signal of conflict with 
 
42 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Rome should be given. The Pope had 
 conferred on the Swiss the title of pro- 
 tectors of the liberties of the Church ; 
 but it seems they had understood this 
 honourable name in a totally different 
 sense from the Pontiff If their soldiers 
 guarded the Pope in the neighbourhood 
 of the Capitol, their citizens, in the bosom 
 of the Alps, carefully guarded their own 
 religious liberties against the invasion of 
 the Pope and of the clergy. Ecclesias- 
 tics were forbidden to have recourse to 
 any foreign jurisdiction. The " lettre des 
 pr tres" was a bold protest of Swiss 
 liberty against the corruptions and power 
 of the clergy. Zurich was especially 
 distinguished by its courageous opposi- 
 tion to the claims of Rome. Geneva, at 
 the other extremity of Switzerland, strug- 
 gled against its bishops. Doubtless the 
 love of political independence may have 
 made many of its citizens forget the true 
 liberty ; but God had decreed that this 
 love of independence should lead others 
 to the reception of a doctrine which should 
 truly enfranchise the nation. These two 
 leading cities distinguished themselves 
 among all the rest in the great struggle 
 we have undertaken to describe. 
 
 But if the Helvetic towns, open and 
 accessible to ameliorations, were likely 
 to be drawn early within the current of 
 the Reformation, the case was very dif- 
 ferent with the mountain districts. It 
 might have been thought that these com- 
 munities, more simple and energetic than 
 their confederates in the towns, would 
 have embraced with ardour a doctrine 
 of which the characteristics were simpli- 
 city and force : but He who said — " At 
 that time two men shall be in the field, 
 the one shall be taken and the other 
 left," saw fit to leave these mountaineers, 
 while He took the men of the plain. 
 Perhaps an attentive observer might 
 have discerned some symptoms of the 
 difference which was about to manifest 
 itself between the people of the town and 
 of the hills. Intelligence had not pene- 
 trated to those heights. Those Cantons, 
 which had founded Saviss liberty, proud 
 of the part they had played in the grand 
 struggle for independence, were not dis- 
 posed to be tamely instructed by their 
 younger brethren of the plain. Why, 
 they might ask, should they change the 
 faith in which they had expelled the 
 
 Austrians, and which had consecrated by 
 altars all the scenes of their triumphs? 
 Their priests were the only enlightened 
 guides to whom they could apply ; their 
 worship and their festivals were occupa- 
 tion and diversion for their tranquil lives, 
 and enlivened the silence of their peace- 
 ful retreats. They continued closed 
 against religious innovations. 
 
 Passing the Alps, we find ourselves 
 in that Italy, which, in the eyes of many 
 was the Holy Land of Christianity. 
 Whence would Europe look for good to 
 the Church but from Italy, and from 
 Rome itself? The power which had 
 placed successively upon the pontifical 
 chair so many different characters, might 
 it not one day place thereon a pontiff 
 who should become an instrument of bles- 
 sing to the Lord's heritage ? Even if 
 no hope was to be placed on the Popes, 
 were there not there bishops and coun- - 
 cils which would reform the Church? 
 Nothing good can come out of Nazareth ; 
 it must proceed from Jerusalem, — from 
 Rome. Such might have been the 
 thoughts of men, but God's thoughts 
 were not as theirs. He says, " Let him 
 that is filthy be filthy still ;" Rev. xxii. 
 11, and He left Italy to its unrighteous- 
 ness. Many causes conspired to deprive 
 this unhappy country of Gospel light. 
 Its different states, sometimes rivals, 
 sometimes enemies, came into violent 
 collision as often as they were shaken 
 by any commotion. This land of an- 
 cient glory was by turns the prey of in- 
 testine wars and foreign invasions ; the 
 stratagems of policy, the violence of fac- 
 tions, the agitation of battles, seemed to 
 be its sole occupation, and to banish for a 
 long time the Gospel of peace. 
 
 Italy, broken to pieces, and without 
 unity, appeared but little suited to receive 
 one general impulse. Every frontier 
 line was a new barrier, where truth 
 would be stopped and challenged, if it 
 sought to cross the Alps, or to land on 
 those smiling shores. It was true the 
 Papacy was then planning an union of 
 all Italy, desiring, as Pope Julius ex- 
 pressed it, to expel the barbarians, — that 
 is, the foreign princes ; and she hovered 
 like a bird of prey over the mutilated 
 and palpitating members of ancient Italy. 
 But if she had gained her ends, we may 
 easily believe that the Reformation 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 43 
 
 would not have been thereby advan- 
 ced. 
 
 And if the truth was destined to come 
 to them from the north, how could the 
 Italians so enlightened, of so refined a 
 taste and social habits, so delicate in their 
 own eyeSj condescend to receive any 
 thing at the hands of the barbarous Ger- 
 mans. Their pride, in fact, raised be- 
 tween the Reformation and themselves 
 a barrier higher than the Alps. But 
 the very nature of their mental culture 
 was a still greater obstacle than the pre- 
 sumption of their hearts. Could men, 
 who admired the elegance of a well ca- 
 denced sonnet more than the majestic 
 simplicity of the Scriptures, be a propi- 
 tious soil for the seed of God's word 1 ? 
 A false civilization is, of all conditions 
 of a nation, that which is most repug- 
 nant to the Gospel. 
 
 Finally, whatever might be the state 
 of things to Italy — Rome was always 
 Rome. Not only did the temporal power 
 of the Popes incline the several parties 
 in Italy to court at any cost their alli- 
 ance and favour, but in addition to this, 
 the universal sway of Rome offered more 
 than one inducement to the avarice and 
 vanity of the Italian states. Whenever 
 it should become a question of emanci- 
 pation of the rest of the world from the 
 yoke of Rome, Italy would again be- 
 come Italy ! domestic quarrels would 
 not be suffered to prevail to the advan- 
 tage of a foreign system ; and attacks 
 directed against the head of the penin- 
 sula would immediately call up the af- 
 fections and common interests from their 
 long sleep. 
 
 The Reformation, then, had little pros- 
 pect of success in that country. Never- 
 theless, there were found within its con- 
 fines souls prepared to receive the Gospel 
 light, and Italy was not then entirely 
 disinherited. 
 
 Spain possessed what Italy did not, — 
 a serious and noble people, whose reli- 
 gious mind had resisted even the stern 
 trial of the eighteenth century, and of 
 the Revolution, and maintained itself to 
 our own days. In every age this people 
 has had among its clergy men of piety 
 and learning/ and it was sufficiently re- 
 mote from Rome to throw off without 
 difficulty her yoke. There are few na- 
 tions wherein one might more reasonably 
 
 have hoped for a revival of that primi- 1 
 tive Christianity, which Spain had pro- 
 bably received from St. Paul himself. 
 And yet Spain did not then stand up 
 among the nations. She was destined 
 to be an example of that word of the 
 Divine Wisdom, " The first shall be 
 last." Various circumstances conduced 
 to this deplorable result. 
 
 Spain, considering its isolated position, 
 and -remoteness from Germany, would 
 feel but slightly the shocks of the great 
 earthquake which shook the Empire. 
 But more than this, she was busily occu- 
 pied in seeking treasure very different 
 from that which the Word of God was 
 then offering to the nations. In her eyes 
 the new world outshone the eternal world. 
 A virgin soil, which seemed to be com- 
 posed of gold and silver, inflamed the 
 imagination of her people. An eager 
 desire after riches left no room in the 
 heart of the Spaniard for nobler thoughts. 
 A powerful clergy, having the scaffolds 
 and the treasures of the land at their dis- 
 posal, ruled the Peninsula. Spain wil- 
 lingly rendered to its priests a servile 
 obedience, which, releasing it from spi- 
 ritual pre-occupations, left it to follow its 
 passions, and go forward in quest of 
 riches, and discoveries of new continents. 
 Victorious over the Moors, she had, at 
 the expense of her noblest blood, thrown 
 down the crescent from the towers of 
 Granada, and many other cities, and 
 planted in its place the cross of Jesus 
 Christ. This great zeal for Christianity, 
 which promised so much, — turned against 
 the truth, — for could Catholic Spain, that 
 had triumphed over infidels, refuse to 
 oppose heretics'? How could a people 
 who had expelled Mahomet from their 
 noble country, allow Luther to make 
 way in it? Their kings went further. 
 They fitted out their fleets against the 
 Reformation. They went forth to meet 
 and conquer it in England and in Hol- 
 land. But these attacks had the effect 
 of elevating the nations assailed ; and, 
 ere long, their power crushed the power 
 of Spain. Thus those Catholic countries 
 lost, owing to the Reformation, that very 
 temporal wealth which had led them, at 
 the first, to reject the spiritual liberty of 
 the Gospel. Yet the Spanish nation 
 was generous and brave ; and many of 
 its noble people, with equal ardour, and 
 
44 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 better knowledge, than those who had 
 rushed upon the swords of the Arabs, — 
 gave up their lives at the stake to the 
 Inquisition. 
 
 Portugal was nearly in the same con- 
 dition as Spain. Emanuel the Fortu- 
 nate gave to it an " age of gold," which 
 tended to unfit it for that self-denial which 
 Christianity requires. The nation pre- 
 cipitating itself on the newly discovered 
 routes to India and the Brazils, turned 
 its back upon Europe and the Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
 Few countries seemed likely to be 
 better disposed than France for the re- 
 ception of the evangelical doctrines. Al- 
 most all the intellectual and spiritual life 
 of the middle ages was concentrated in 
 her. It might have been said that the 
 paths were every where trodden for a 
 grand manifestation of the truth. Men 
 of the most opposite characters, and 
 whose influence over the people had 
 been most powerful, had in some degree 
 countenanced the Reformation. Saint 
 Bernard had set the example of that 
 heart-felt faith, that inward piety, which 
 is the most beautiful feature of its char- 
 acter. Abelard had introduced into the 
 study of theology the rational principle 
 which, though incapable of developing 
 the truth, is yet powerful for the destruc- 
 tion of error. Many heretics, so called, 
 had revived the light of God's word in 
 the provinces. The University of Paris 
 had placed itself in opposition to the 
 Church, and had not feared to combat 
 it. In the beginning of the fifteenth 
 century, the Clemangis and the Gersons 
 had spoken out with undaunted courage. 
 The Pragmatic Sanction had been a 
 grand Act of Independence, and pro- 
 mised to be the palladium of Gallic 
 liberty. The French nobility, numer- 
 ous, jealous of their pre-eminence, and 
 having at this period been gradually 
 deprived of their privileges by the grow- 
 ing power of their kings, must have been 
 favourably disposed towards a religious 
 change which might restore to them 
 some portion of the independence they 
 had lost. The people, of quick feelings, 
 intelligent, and susceptible of generous 
 emotions, were as open, or even more so, 
 than most other nations, to the truth. It 
 seemed as if the Reformation must be, 
 among theim the birth which should 
 
 crown the travail of several centuries. 
 But the chariot of France, which for so 
 many generations seemed to be advanc- 
 ing to the same goal, suddenly turned 
 at the moment of the Reformation, and 
 took a contrary direction. Such was the 
 will of Him who rules nations and their 
 kings. The prince, then seated in the 
 chariot, and holding the reins, and who, 
 as a patron of learning, seemed likely to 
 be foremost in promoting the Reforma- 
 tion, turned his people in another direc- 
 tion. The augury of ages was deceived, 
 and the impulse given to France was 
 spent and lost in struggles against the 
 ambition and fanaticism of her kings. 
 The race of Valois deprived her of her 
 rights. Perhaps if she had received the 
 Gospel, she might have become too pow- 
 erful. God had chosen a weaker people, 
 a people that as yet was not, — to be the 
 depository of his truth. France, after 
 having been almost reformed, found her- 
 self, in the result, Roman Catholic. The 
 sword of her princes, cast into the scale, 
 caused it to incline in favour of Rome. 
 Alas ! another sword, that of the Reform- 
 ers themselves, insured the failure of the 
 effort for Reformation. The hands that 
 had become accustomed to warlike wea- 
 pons, ceased to be lifted up in prayer. 
 It is by the blood of its confessors, not 
 by that of its adversaries, that the Gospel 
 triumphs. Blood shed by its defenders, 
 extinguishes and smothers it. Francis 
 I. in the very beginning of his reign, 
 eagerly sacrificed the Pragmatical Sanc- 
 tion to the Papacy, substituting a concor- 
 dat detrimental to France, and advan- 
 tageous to the crown and to the Pope. 
 Maintaining by his sword the rights of 
 the German Protestants at war with his 
 rival, this " father of the sciences" plunged 
 it up to the hilt in the hearts of his own 
 reformed subjects. His successors did, 
 from motives of fanaticism, or weakness, 
 or to silence the clamours of a guilty 
 conscience, what he had done for ambi- 
 tion. They met indeed with a powerful 
 resistance, but it was not always such as 
 the martyrs of the first ages had opposed 
 to their Pagan persecutors. The strength 
 of the Protestants was the source of their 
 weakness ; their success drew after it 
 their ruin. 
 
 The Low Countries formed, at that 
 period, one of the most flourishing por- 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 45 
 
 tions of Europe. Its population was in- 
 dustrious, better informed, owing to its 
 numerous connections with different re- 
 gions of the earth, full of courage, and 
 passionately attached to its independence, 
 its privileges, and its liberty. On the 
 very borders of Germany, it would be 
 the first to hear the report of the Refor- 
 mation ; it was capable of receiving it. 
 But all did not receive it. To the poor 
 it was given to receive the truth. The 
 hungry were filled with good things, and 
 the rich sent empty away. The Nether- 
 lands, which had always been more or 
 less connected with the Empire, had 
 forty years before fallen to the possession 
 of Austria, and after Charles V., they 
 devolved to the Spanish branch, and so 
 to the ferocious Philip. The princes 
 and governors of this ill-fated country 
 trampled the Gospel under foot, and 
 waded through the blood of its martyrs. 
 The country was composed of two divi- 
 sions, widely dissimilar the one from the 
 other. The south, rich and increased in 
 goods, succumbed. How could its exten- 
 sive manufactures, carried to such perfec- 
 tion, — how could Bruges, the great mart 
 of northern merchandize, or Antwerp, 
 the queen of commercial cities, make 
 their interests consist with a long and 
 bloody struggle for the things of faith ? 
 But the northern provinces, defended by 
 their dykes, the sea, their marshes, and, 
 still more, by the simple manners of the 
 population, and their determination to 
 suffer the loss of all, rather than of the 
 Gospel, — not only preserved their fran- 
 chises, their privileges and their faith, 
 but achieved independence and a glo- 
 rious existence as a nation. 
 
 England then gave little promise of all 
 she has subsequently acquired. Driven 
 from the Continent where she had long 
 obstinately contended for the conquest of 
 France, she began to turn her eyes to- 
 wards the ocean as to the empire which 
 was designed to be the true end of her 
 victories, and of which the inheritance 
 was reserved for her. Twice converted 
 to Christianity, first under the Britons, 
 then under the Anglo-Saxons, she paid 
 devoutly the annual tribute of St. Peter's 
 pence. Yet was she reserved for a lofty 
 destiny. Mistress of the ocean, every 
 where present .through all parts of the 
 earth, she was ordained to be one day, 
 
 with the people to whom she should give 
 birth, as the hand of God to scatter the 
 seed of life in remotest islands and on 
 boundless continents. Already some cir- 
 cumstances gave presage of her destinies. 
 Great intellectual light had shone in the 
 British Isles, and some glimmerings of 
 it still remained. A crowd of foreigners, 
 artists, merchants, workmen, from the 
 Low Countries, Germany, and other 
 regions, thronged her harbours and cities. 
 The new religious opinions would there- 
 fore be easily and quickly introduced. 
 Finally, England had then an eccentric 
 king, who, endowed with some learning 
 and considerable courage, was continu- 
 ally changing his purposes and notions, 
 and turning from one side to another, 
 according to the direction in which his 
 violent passions impelled him. It was 
 possible that one of the inconsistencies of 
 Henry VIII. might prove favourable to 
 the Reformation. 
 
 Scotland was then torn by factions. A 
 king five years old, a queen regent, am- 
 bitious nobles, an influential clergy, har- 
 assed this courageous nation on all sides. 
 It was however destined to hold a dis- 
 tinguished place amongst the nations 
 which should receive the Reformation. 
 
 The three northern kingdoms, Den- 
 mark, Sweden, and Norway, were united 
 under one government.- These rude and 
 warlike people seemed likely to have 
 little sympathy with the doctrine of love 
 and peace. Yet from the very energy 
 of their character, they were perhaps bet- 
 ter disposed to receive the spirit of the 
 evangelical doctrine than the southern 
 nations. But these descendants of war- 
 riors and pirates, brought perhaps too 
 warlike a spirit to the support of the Pro- 
 testant cause ; in subsequent times they 
 defended it heroically by the sword. 
 
 Russia, situate at the extremity of Eu- 
 rope, had but little connection with other 
 states, we may add, that she belonged to 
 the Greek Church. The Reformation 
 effected in the West had little or no in- 
 fluence upon the East. 
 
 Poland seemed well prepared for a 
 reformation. The vicinity of the Bohe- 
 mian and Moravian Christians had dis- 
 posed it to receive that religious impulse 
 which the neighbouring states of Ger- 
 many were destined speedily to impart 
 to it. As early as the year 1500, the 
 
46 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 nobility of Poland had demanded that 
 the cup should be given to the laity, ap- 
 pealing to the custom of the primitive 
 Church. The liberty which was enjoy- 
 ed in the cities, and the independence of 
 its nobles, made this country a safe asylum 
 for Christians who Avere persecuted in 
 their own. The truth they brought with 
 them was joyfully welcomed by num- 
 bers. — It is the country which in our 
 times has the fewest confessors of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 The flame of Reformation, which had 
 long flickered in Bohemia, had almost 
 been extinguished in blood. Neverthe- 
 less some poor survivors, escaped from 
 the carnage, were still living to see the 
 day that Huss had predicted. 
 
 Hungary had been distracted by intes- 
 tine wars, under the rule of princes with- 
 out ability or experience, who, in the 
 result, made the country a dependency 
 of Austria, by enrolling that powerful 
 house among the heirs of the crown. 
 
 Such was the condition of Europe at 
 the beginning of that sixteenth century, 
 which was destined to produce so mighty 
 a change in the great Christian famify. 
 
 But we have already observed, it was 
 on the vast platform of Germany, and 
 more particularly in Wittemberg,'in the 
 heart of the Empire, that the grand 
 drama of the Reformation was to com- 
 mence. 
 
 Let us contemplate the actors in the 
 prologue which ushered in, or contribu- 
 ted to, the work of which Luther was 
 appointed to be in God's hands the hero. 
 
 Of all the electors of the Empire the 
 most powerful at that time was Frederic 
 of Saxony, surnamed the Wise. The in- 
 fluence he exercised, joined to his wealth 
 and generosity, raised him above his 
 equals.* God selected him to serve as a 
 tree, under shadow of which the seed of 
 truth might put forth its first shoot without 
 being rooted up by the tempests around it. 
 
 Born at Torgan in 1463, he manifest- 
 ed from his early youth much love for 
 science, philosophy, and piety. Succeed- 
 ing in 1487, in conjunction with his bro- 
 ther John, to the government of the 
 hereditary states of his family, he receiv- 
 ed the dignity of Elector from the Em- 
 
 * Qui prse multis pollebat principibus aliis, 
 auctoritate, opibus, potentia, liberalitate et mag- 
 nificentia. (Cochlreus, Acta Lutheri, p. 3.) 
 
 peror Frederic III. In 1493 the pious 
 prince undertook a pilgrimage to the. 
 Holy Sepulchre. Henry of Schaumburg 
 on that sacred spot conferred upon him 
 the order of the Holy Sepulchre. He 
 returned to Saxony in the following sum- 
 mer. In 1502 he founded the university 
 of Wittemberg, which was destined to be 
 the nursery of the Reformation. 
 
 When the light dawned, he did not 
 commit himself on either side, but stood 
 by to secure it. No man was fitter for 
 this office ; he possessed the general 
 esteem, and was in the intimate confi- 
 dence of the Emperor. He even acted 
 for him in his absence. His Avisdom 
 consisted not in the skilful working of 
 deep laid policy, but in an enlightened 
 and prescient prudence, of which the first 
 law was never for the sake of any self- 
 interest to infringe the rules of honour 
 and religion. 
 
 At the same time he felt in his heart 
 the power of the word of God. One day, 
 when the Vicar-General, Staupitz, was in 
 his company, the conversation turned on 
 public declaimers: "All sermons," said 
 the Elector, " made up of mere subtleties 
 and human traditions, are marvellously 
 cold, without nerve or power, since there 
 is no subtlety we can advance that may 
 not by another subtlety be overturned. 
 Holy Scripture alone is clothed with such 
 power and majesty that shaming us out 
 of our rules of reasoning, it compels us 
 to cry out 'Never man spake as this.'" 
 Staupitz assenting entirely to his opinion, 
 the Elector cordially extended his hand 
 to him, and said, " Promise me that you 
 will always think thus."* 
 
 Frederic was precisely the prince that 
 was needed for the cradle of the Refor- 
 mation. Too much weakness on the 
 part of those friendly to the work might 
 have allowed it to be crushed. Too 
 much haste would have caused too early 
 an explosion of the storm that from its 
 origin gathered against it. Frederic was 
 moderate, but firm ; he possessed that 
 christian grace which God has in all 
 times required from his worshippers ; he 
 waited for God. He put in practice the 
 wise counsel of Gamaliel — " If this work 
 be of man it will come to nought ; — if 
 it be of God we cannot overthrow it." 
 " Things are come to such a pass," said 
 * Luther, epp. 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 47 
 
 the prince to one of the most enlightened 
 men of his time, Spengler of Nuremberg, 
 ' that men can do no more : — God alone 
 can effect any thing ; therefore we must 
 leave to his power those great events 
 which are too hard for us." We may 
 Ave 11 admire the wisdom of Providence 
 in the choice of such a prince to guard 
 the small beginnings of its work. 
 
 Maximilian I., who wore the Imperial 
 crown from 1493 to 1519, may be reck- 
 oned among those who contributed to 
 prepare the way of the Reformation. 
 He afforded to the other princes the ex- 
 ample of enthusiasm for literature and 
 science. He was less attached than any 
 other to the Popes, and had even thoughts 
 of seizing on the Papacy. No one can 
 say what it might have become in his 
 hands ; but we may be allowed to ima- 
 gine from this circumstance, that a rival 
 power to the Pope, such as the Reforma- 
 tion, would not have reckoned the Em- 
 peror of Germany among its fiercest 
 opponents. 
 
 Among even the princes of the Romish 
 Church were found venerable men, whom 
 sacred study and a sincere piety had pre- 
 pared for the divine work about to be 
 wrought in the world. Christopher of 
 Stadion, bishop of Augsburg, knew and 
 loved the truth ; but he would have had 
 to sacrifice all by a courageous confession 
 of it. Laurentius de Riba, bishop x>f 
 Wurtzburg, a kind, pious, and wise man, 
 and esteemed by the Emperor and princes, 
 Avas accustomed to speak openly against 
 the corruption of the Church. But he 
 died in 1519, too early to take part in 
 the Reformation. John VI., bishop of 
 Meissen, Avas used to say, " As often as 
 I read the Bible, I find there a different 
 religion from that Avhich is taught to us." 
 John Thurzo, bishop of Breslau, Avas 
 called by Luther the best bishop of the 
 age.* But he, too, died in 1520. Wil- 
 liam Bric/onnet, bishop of Meaux, contri- 
 buted largely to introduce the Reforma- 
 tion in France. Who indeed can say 
 to what extent the enlightened piety of 
 these bishops and of many others, was 
 of use in preparing, each in his diocese, 
 and beyond it, the great Avork of the Re- 
 formation 1 
 
 But it was reserved to men of lower 
 station than these princes or bishops to 
 * Lutheri, epp. i. p. 524. 
 
 become the chief instruments of God's 
 providence in the Avork of preparation. 
 It Avas the scholars and the learned, then 
 termed humanists, Avho exercised the 
 greatest influence on their age. 
 
 There existed at that time open war 
 betAveen these disciples of letters and the 
 scholastic divines. The latter; beheld 
 with alarm the great movements going 
 on in the field of intelligence, and took 
 up Avith the notion that immobility and 
 ignorance Avould be the best safeguards 
 of the Church. It was to save Rome 
 that divines opposed the revival of letters ; 
 but by so doing they in reality contri- 
 buted to her ruin, and Rome herself un- 
 consciously co-operated in it. In an un- 
 guarded moment, under the pontificate 
 of Leo X. she forsook her old friends 
 and embraced her youthful adversaries. 
 The Papacy formed Avith literature a 
 union which seemed likely to break the 
 old alliance Avith the monastic orders 
 The Popes did not at first perceive that 
 what they had taken up as a toy was in 
 reality a sword that might destroy them. 
 Thus in the last century Ave beheld 
 princes Avho received at their courts a 
 tone of politics and a philosophy Avhich, 
 if they had experienced their full effect, 
 Avould have overturned their thrones. 
 The alliance of which Ave have spoken 
 did not last long. Literature advanced, 
 entirely regardless of that Avhich might 
 endanger the poAver of its patrons. The 
 monks and the scholastic diA'ines per- 
 ceiA r ed that to forsake the Pope Avould be 
 to abandon their oavii interests. And 
 the Pope, notAvithstanding the transient 
 patronage Avhich he bestoAved upon the 
 fine arts, adopted, when it suited his in- 
 terest, measures most opposed to the spirit 
 of the time. 
 
 The revival of letters presented at that 
 time an animating spectacle. Let us 
 sketch some lines of this picture, select- 
 ing such as have the closest connexion 
 Avith the revival of the true faith. 
 
 In order that the truth might triumph, 
 it Avas necessary that the arms that were 
 to achieA'e the victory should be taken 
 from the arsenal in which for ages they 
 had lain hidden. These weapons were 
 the Holy Scriptures of the Old and NeAv 
 Testament. It was necessary to revive 
 in Christendom the love and study of 
 the sacred Greek and HebreAv texts. 
 
43 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The man chosen by God for this work 
 was John Reuchlin. 
 
 A very sweet toned child's voice had 
 been noticed in the choir of the church 
 of Pforzheim. It attracted the attention 
 of the Margrave of Baden. It proved to 
 be that of John Reuchlin, a young boy, 
 of pleasing manners and of a sprightly 
 disposition, the son of an honest citizen 
 ■of the place. The Margrave treated 
 him with great favour, and made choice 
 of him in 1473 to accompany his son 
 Frederic to the University of Paris. 
 
 The son of the bailiff of Pforzheim in 
 transports of joy arrived in company 
 with the prince at this most celebrated 
 school of the West. He there found the 
 Spartan Hermonymos, and John Weis- 
 sel, surnamed the Light of the World, 
 and he had now an opportunity of study- 
 ing, under the most able masters, the 
 Greek and Hebrew, of which there was 
 at that time no professor in Germany, 
 and which he himself was destined one 
 day to restore in the land of the Refor- 
 mation. The young and indigent Ger- 
 man transcribed for rich students the 
 verses of Homer, and the orations of Iso- 
 crates, and thus earned the means of 
 prosecuting his studies, and purchasing 
 books. 
 
 But he heard other things from Weis- 
 sel which made a powerful impression 
 on his mind. " The Popes may be de- 
 ceived, 1 ' said Weissel. " All satisfaction 
 made by men is blasphemy against 
 Christ, who has completely reconciled 
 and justified mankind. To God alone 
 belongs the power of giving complete 
 absolution. It is not necessary to confess 
 our sins to the priests. There is no pur- 
 gatory, unless it be God himself, who is 
 a consuming fire, and purifies from all 
 pollution." 
 
 When Reuchlin was hardly twenty, 
 he taught philosophy, and Greek and 
 Latin at Bale, and it was then accounted 
 almost a miracle that a German should 
 speak Greek. 
 
 The partisans of Rome began to be 
 uneasy when they saw men of indepen- 
 dent character searching into these an- 
 cient treasures. " The Romans make a 
 wry face," said Reuchlin, " and clamor- 
 ously assert that all such literary labours 
 are contrary to Roman piety, since the 
 Greeks are schismatics. Oh ! what pains 
 
 and patience are needed to restore wis- 
 dom and learning to Germany !" 
 
 Soon after, Eberhard of Wiirtemberg, 
 invited Reuchlin to Tubingen, to adorn 
 that rising university; and in 1487 he 
 took him into Italy. Chalcondylas, 
 Aurispa, John Picus of Mirandola, were 
 his friends and companions at Florence. 
 And at Rome, when Eberhard had a 
 solemn audience of the Pope, surrounded 
 by his cardinals, Reuchlin pronounced 
 an address in such pure and elegant La- 
 tin, that the assembly, who expected no- 
 thing of that kind from a barbarous Ger- 
 man, were in the utmost astonishment, 
 and the Pope exclaimed, " Certainly this 
 man deserves to be ranked with the best 
 orators of France and Italy." 
 
 Ten years after, Reuchlin was obliged 
 to take refuge at Heidelberg, at the court 
 of the Elector Philip, to escape the 
 vengeance of the successor of Eberhard. 
 Philip, in conjunction with John of Dal- 
 berg bishop of Worms, his friend and chan- 
 cellor, endeavoured to diffuse the light 
 that was beginning to dawn in all parts 
 of Germany. Dalberg had formed a li- 
 brary, which was open to all the studious. 
 Reuchlin made, in this new field, great 
 efforts to enlighten and civilize the peo- 
 ple. 
 
 Being sent to Rome by the Elector in 
 1498, on an important mission, he em- 
 ployed the time and money he could 
 command, either in improving himself 
 in the Hebrew, under the instruction of 
 the learned Jew, Abdias Sphorna, or in 
 purchasing whatever Hebrew and Greek 
 manuscripts he could meet with, intend- 
 ing to use them as torches, to diffuse in 
 his own country the light which was be- 
 ginning to appear. 
 
 An illustrious Greek, Argyropylos, 
 was explaining in that metropolis, to a 
 numerous auditory, the wonderful pro- 
 gress his nation had formerly made in 
 literature. The learned ambassador went 
 with his suite to the room where the 
 master was teaching, and on his entrance 
 saluted him, and lamented the misery of 
 Greece, then languishing under Turkish 
 despotism. The astonished Greek asked 
 the German : " Whence come you, and 
 do . you understand Greek ?" Reuchlin 
 replied : " I am a German, and am not 
 quite ignorant of your language." At 
 the request of Argyropylos, he read and 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 49 
 
 explained a passage of Thucydides, 
 which the professor happened to have 
 before him; upon which Argyropylos 
 cried out in grief and astonishment, 
 " Alas ! alas ! Greece, cast out and fugi- 
 tive, is gone to hide herself beyond the 
 Alps." 
 
 It was thus that the sons of barbarous 
 Germany and those of ancient Greece 
 met together in the palaces of Rome ; 
 thus it was that the East and the West 
 gave each other the right hand of fel- 
 lowship in this rendezvous of the world, 
 and that the former poured into the 
 hands of the latter those intellectual 
 treasures which it had carried off in its 
 escape from the barbarism of the Turks. 
 God, when his plans require it, brings 
 together in an instant, by some unlooked- 
 for catastrophe, those who seemed for 
 ever removed from each other. 
 
 On his return to Germany, Reuchlin 
 was again permitted to take up his abode 
 at Wurtemberg. It was at this time 
 that he entered upon the labours that 
 were most useful to Luther and to the 
 Reformation. He translated and ex- 
 pounded the Penitential Psalms, revised 
 the Vulgate, and especially distinguished 
 himself, by the publication of the first 
 Hebrew and German Grammar and 
 Dictionary. Reuchlin, by this labour, 
 took off the seals from the ancient Scrip- 
 tures, and made himself a name more 
 enduring than brass. 
 
 But it was not alone by his writings, 
 but also by his life, that Reuchlin sought 
 to promote the cause of truth. He had 
 great influence over the minds of youth, 
 and who can estimate how much the re- 
 formation owes to him on that account 1 
 We will mention but one example. A 
 young man, a cousin of his, the son of 
 an artizan, famous as a manufacturer of 
 . arms, whose name was Schwarzerd, 
 came to lodge with his sister Elizabeth, 
 for the purpose of studying under his 
 direction. Reuchlin, delighted with the 
 talents -and diligence of his young pupil, 
 adopted him, and spared neither advice, 
 presents of books, example, nor any thing 
 else that was likely to make his relation 
 useful to the Church and to his country. 
 He rejoiced in seeing his work prosper 
 in his hands ; and thinking his German 
 name Schwarzerd too harsh, he translated 
 it into Greek, according to the custom 
 7 
 
 of the time, and called the young student 
 Melancthon. This was the illustrious 
 friend of Luther. 
 
 Soon after, the amiable Reuchlin was 
 involved, much against his inclination, 
 in a violent contest, which was one of 
 the preludes of the Reformation. 
 
 There was at Cologne a baptised 
 Jew, named Pfeflerkorn, intimately con- 
 nected with the inquisitor Hochstraten. 
 This man and the Dominicans solicited 
 and obtained from the Emperor Maxi- 
 milian, probably with no bad motives, 
 an order, requiring the Jews to bring all 
 their Hebrew books (the Bible excepted) 
 to the town-hall of the city in which 
 they resided, there to be publicly burnt. 
 The reason alleged was, that they 
 were full of blasphemies against Jesus. 
 It must be confessed, that they were at 
 least full of absurdities, and that the 
 Jews themselves would not have lost 
 much by the proposed measure. How- 
 ever, they did not think so ; and no 
 power could rightly deprive them of 
 works which were in their estimation, of 
 great value. Add to which, the Domi- 
 nicans might be influenced by other mo- 
 tives than zeal for the Gospel. It is pro- 
 bable that they expected, by this means, 
 to extort considerable ransoms from the 
 Jews. 
 
 The Emperor asked Reuchlin to give 
 his opinion of these works. The learned 
 doctor pointed out the books that were 
 written against Christianity, leaving 
 them to the fate they deserved ; but he 
 tried to save the re§t : " The best way to 
 convert the Jews," he added, " would be 
 to establish in each university two mas- 
 ters of the Hebrew language, who should 
 teach divines to read the Bible in He- 
 brew, and thus refute the Jewish doc- 
 tors." The Jews, in consequence of this 
 advice, had their writings restored to 
 them. 
 
 The proselyte and the inquisitor, like 
 ravens who see their prey escaping, ut- 
 tered cries of rage and fury. They 
 picked out different passages from the 
 writings of Reuchlin, perverted the sense, 
 declared the author an heretic, accused 
 him of being secretly inclined to Juda- 
 ism, and threatened him with the inquisi- 
 tion. Reuchlin was at first alarmed, but 
 these men becoming more insolent, and 
 prescribing to him disgraceful conditions 
 
50 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 of peace, he published, in 1513, a " De- 
 fence against his Slanderers at Cologne ;" 
 in which he described the whole party 
 in the liveliest colours. 
 
 The Dominicans vowed vengeance. 
 Hochstraten erected at Mayence, a tribu- 
 nal against Reuchlin. The writings of 
 this learned man were condemned to the 
 flames. Reuchlin appealed to Pope 
 Leo X. This Pope, who did not much 
 like those narrow-minded and fanatical 
 monks, referred the whole affair to the 
 Bishop of Spires; the latter declared 
 Reuchlin innocent, and condemned the 
 monks to pay the expenses of the inves- 
 tigation. 
 
 This affair was of great importance 
 and made much noise in Germany. It 
 exhibited in the most revolting publicity, 
 the very large class of monkish theolo- 
 gians ; it drew together in closer alliance 
 all the friends of learning — then called 
 Reuchlinists, from the name of their dis- 
 tinguished head. This struggle was 
 like an affair of advanced posts, which 
 influenced in a considerable degree 
 the great contest which the heroic cour- 
 age of Luther afterwards waged with 
 error. 
 
 This union of letters with the faith is 
 an important feature of the Reformation, 
 and serves to distinguish it both from 
 the establishment of Christianity, and 
 from the revival in religion taking place 
 in our own days. The Christians, in the 
 Apostles' time, had against them the in- 
 tellectual cultivation of the age ; and, 
 with some exceptions, it is the same at 
 this day. But the majority of men of 
 letters were ranged on the side of the 
 Reformers. Even general opinion was 
 favourable to them. The work gained 
 in extension : perhaps it lost in depth ! 
 
 Luther, acknowledging all that Reuch- 
 lin had done,' wrote to him shortly af- 
 ter his victory over the Dominicans. 
 ''• The Lord has wrought in you, that 
 the light of his holy word may again 
 shine forth in Germany, where, for so 
 many ages, it has been, alas ! not only 
 stifled, but extinct."* 
 
 Reuchlin was about twelve years old 
 when one of the greatest geniuses of the 
 age was born. A. man, full of vivacity 
 
 ■* Mai Vita J. Reuchlin (Francof. 1687.)— 
 Mayerhoff J. Reuchlin und some Zeit. (Berlin, 
 1830.) 
 
 and wit, named Gerard, a native of 
 Gouda, in the Low .Countries, had 
 formed an attachment to the daughter of 
 a physician, named Margaret. The 
 principles of the Gospel did not govern 
 his life ; or, to say the least, his passion 
 silenced them. His parents, and nine 
 brothers, urged him to enter into the 
 Church. He fled, leaving Margaret on 
 the point of becoming a mother, and re- 
 paired to Rome. The shame-struck 
 Margaret grave birth to a son. Gerard 
 heard nothing of it ; and, some time 
 afterwards, he received from his parents 
 intelligence, that she he loved was no 
 more. Overwhelmed with grief, he took 
 priest's orders, and devoted himself to the 
 service of God. He returned to Hol- 
 land ; and, lo ! Margaret was still living, 
 she would never marry another ; and 
 Gerard remained faithful to his priest's 
 vows. Their affection was concentrated 
 on their infant son. His mother had 
 taken the tenderest care of him. The 
 father after his return, sent him to school 
 when he was only four years old. He 
 was not yet thirteen, when his master, 
 Sinthemius of Deventer, embracing 
 him one day with great joy, exclaimed : 
 " That child will attain the highest sum- 
 mits of learning." This was Erasmus 
 of Rotterdam. 
 
 About this time his mother died ; and 
 shortly after his father, from grief, fol- 
 lowed her. 
 
 The young Erasmus,* alone in the 
 world, felt the strongest aversion to the 
 monastic life, which his tutors would 
 have constrained him to embrace. At 
 last, a friend persuaded him to enter 
 himself in a convent of regular canons ; 
 which might be done without taking 
 orders. Soon after, we find him at the 
 court of the Archbishop of Cambray ; 
 and, a little later, at the university of 
 Paris. There he pursued his studies in 
 the greatest poverty, but with the most 
 indefatigable perseverance. Whenever 
 he could obtain any money, he employed 
 it in the purchase of Greek authors, — 
 and then, of clothes. Often the poor 
 Hollander solicited in vain the gener- 
 osity of his protectors: hence, in after 
 life, it was his greatest satisfaction to con- 
 
 * He was named Gerhard after liis father. 
 He translated this Dutch name into Latin (De- 
 siderius,) and into Greek (Erasmus.) 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 51 
 
 tribute to the support of young and poor 
 students. Devoted incessantly to the in- 
 vestigation of truth and learning, he yet 
 shrunk from the study of theology, from 
 a fear lest he should discover therein any 
 error, and so be denounced as an heretic. 
 
 The habits of application which he 
 formed, at this period, continued to dis- 
 tinguish him through life. Even in his 
 journeys, which were generally on 
 horseback, he was not idle. He was ac- 
 customed to compose on the high road, 
 or travelling across the country, and, 
 on arriving at an inn, to note down 
 his thoughts. It is in this way that he 
 composed his celebrated " Praise of 
 Foil?/" during a journey from Italy to 
 England. 
 
 Erasmus very early acquired a high 
 reputation among scholars. 
 
 But the monks, irritated by his " Praise 
 of Folly,"* in which he had turned them 
 to ridicule, vowed vengeance against 
 him. Courted by princes, he constantly 
 excused himself from their invitations ; 
 preferring to gain his livelihood with 
 Frobenius the printer, by correcting his 
 proofs, to a life of luxury and favour in 
 the splendid courts of Charles V., of 
 Henry VIII., and Francis I. ; or even to 
 encircling his head with the cardinal's 
 hat, which was offered to him.f 
 
 From 1509 he taught at Oxford. In 
 1516 he came to Bale, and in 1521 fixed 
 his abode there. 
 
 What was his influence on the Re- 
 formation ? 
 
 It has been too much exalted by some, 
 and too much depreciated by others. Eras- 
 mus never was, and never could have 
 become, a Reformer ; but he prepared 
 the way for others. Not only did he in 
 his time diffuse a love of learning and a 
 spirit of inquiry and discussion which 
 led much farther than he himself would 
 follow, but, in addition to this, he was 
 able, sheltered by the protection of great 
 prelates and powerful princes, to unveil 
 and combat the vices of the church by 
 the most pungent satires. 
 
 He did more ; not satisfied with at- 
 tacking abuses, Erasmus laboured to re- 
 
 * Ryx'.'iuoi' fitapia;. Seven editions of this book 
 were sold in a few months. 
 
 t A principibus facile mini contingeret fortuna, 
 nisi mihi niniium dulcis esset libertas. (Epist. 
 ad Pirck.) 
 
 cal divines from the scholastic theology 
 to the study of the Holy Scriptures. 
 " The highest use of the revival of phi- 
 losophy," said he, " will be to discover 
 in the Bible the simple and pure Chris- 
 tianity." A noble saying! and would 
 to God that the organs of the philosophy 
 of our days understood as well their pro- 
 per duty. " I am firmly resolved," said 
 he again, " to die in the study of the 
 Scripture. In that is my joy and my 
 peace."* " The sum of all Christian 
 philosophy," says he in another place, 
 "is reduced to this : — to place all our hope 
 in God, who, without our deserts, by 
 grace, gives us all things by Jesus Christ ; 
 to know that we are redeemed by the 
 death of his Son ; to die to the lusts of 
 the world ; and to walk conformably to 
 his doctrine and example ; not merely 
 without doing wrong to any, but doing 
 good to all ; to bear with patience our 
 trial in the hope of a future recompense ;. 
 and finally to ascribe no honour to our- 
 selves on the score of our virtues, but to 
 render praise to God for all our strength 
 and works. And it is with this that man 
 must be imbued until it becomes to him 
 a second nature."! 
 
 But Erasmus was not content with 
 making so open a confession of the evan- 
 gelic doctrine ; his labours did more 
 than his words. Above all he rendered 
 a most important service to the truth by 
 publishing his New Testament ; the first, 
 and for a long time, the only critical edi- 
 tion. It appeared at Bale in 1516, the 
 year previous to the usual date of tho 
 Reformation. He accompanied it with 
 a Latin translation, wherein he boldly 
 corrected the Vulgate, and with notes 
 defending his corrections. Thus Eras- 
 mus did that for the New Testament 
 which Reuchlin had done for the Old. 
 
 Divines and learned men might thur 
 read the word of God in the original, 
 language ; and at a later period they 
 were enabled to recognise the purity of 
 the doctrine of the Reformers. " Woulo 
 to God," said Erasmus, in sending forth 
 this work, " would to God it might bea; 
 as much fruit for Christianity as it hai 
 cost me labour and application." Hil 
 
 * Ad Servatium. 
 
 t Ad Job. Slechtam, 1519. Hasc suntanimii 
 hominum inculcanda, sic, nt velut in naturam 
 transeant. (Er. Epp. i. p. 680.) 
 
52 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 wish was realized. In vain did the 
 monks clamour against it. " He pre- 
 tends to correct the Holy Ghost !" said 
 they. The New Testament of Erasmus 
 shed a brilliant light. This great man 
 also diffused a taste for the word of God 
 by his paraphrases of the Epistle to the 
 Romans. The effect of his studies went 
 beyond his own intentions : Reuchlin 
 and Erasmus gave the Scriptures to the 
 learned ; — Luther, to the people. 
 
 Erasmus served as a stepping-stone to 
 several others. Many who would have 
 taken alarm at evangelical truths brought 
 forward in all their energy and purity, 
 suffered themselves to be drawn on by 
 him, and became afterwards the most 
 zealous actors in the Reformation. 
 
 But the very causes that made him a 
 lit instrument to prepare this great work, 
 disqualified him for accomplishing it. 
 " Erasmus knows very well how to ex- 
 pose error," said Luther, " but he does 
 not know how to teach the truth." The 
 Gospel of Christ was not the fire that kin- 
 dled and sustained his life, the centre 
 around which his activity revolved. In 
 him Christianity was second to learning. 
 He was too much influenced by vanity 
 to acquire a decided influence over his 
 contemporaries. He carefully Aveighed 
 the effect that each step might have upon 
 his own reputation. There was nothing 
 that he liked better to talk about than 
 himself and his own glory. " The Pope," 
 he wrote to an intimate friend, with a 
 childish vanity, at the period when he 
 declared himself the adversary of Lu- 
 ther, " the Pope has sent me a diploma 
 full of good will and honourable testi- 
 monials. His secretary declares that it 
 is an unprecedented honour, and that the 
 Pope himself dictated it word for word." 
 Erasmus and Luther are the repre- 
 sentatives of two great ideas relative to a 
 Reformation, — of two great parties in 
 their age, and in all ages. The one 
 class are men of a timid prudence ; the 
 other those of active courage and resolu- 
 tion. These two great bodies of men 
 existed at this period, and they were 
 personified in these two illustrious heads. 
 The former thought that the cultivation 
 of, theological science would lead gradu- 
 ally and without violence to the Refor- 
 mation of the Church. The more ener- 
 getic class thought that the spread of 
 
 more correct ideas amongst the learned 
 would not put an end to the gross super- 
 stitions of the people, and that to reform 
 such or such an abuse was of little im- 
 portance, so long as the life of the church 
 was not thoroughly renovated. 
 
 " A disadvantageous peace," said Eras- 
 mus, "is better than the most just 
 war."* He thought, — (and how many 
 Erasmuses have lived since that time, and 
 are still living) he thought that a Re- 
 formation which should shake the Church 
 would risk the overturning it ; he fore- 
 saw with terror passions excited, evil 
 mingling every where with the little 
 good that might be done ; existing insti- 
 tutions destroyed without others being 
 substituted in their stead, and the vessel 
 of the Church letting in water on every 
 side, engulphed at last in the raging bil- 
 lows. " They who let in the ocean to 
 new beds," said he, " are often deceived 
 in the result of their toil : for the mighty 
 element once admitted, stops not where 
 they would have it stayed, but overflows 
 where it will, spreading devastation 
 around."! 
 
 ( But the more courageous party was not 
 at a loss for an answer. History had suf- 
 ficiently proved that a candid exhibition 
 of the truth, and a decided, war against 
 imposture, could alone ensure the victory. 
 If they had used caution and political ar- 
 tifice, the Papal court would have extin- 
 guished the light in its first glimmerings. 
 Had not gentler means been tried for 
 ages? Had they not seen Council after 
 Council convoked with the intention of 
 reforming the Church 1 ? All had been 
 in vain. Why again try an experiment 
 that had so often failed ? 
 
 Undoubtedly a thorough Reformation 
 was not to be effected without violence. 
 But when has anything great or good 
 appeared amongst men without causing 
 some disturbance ? Would not the fear 
 of seeing evil mingling with good, if it 
 were allowed, put a stop to the very no- 
 blest and holiest undertakings? We 
 must not fear the evil that may arise from 
 general disturbance, but we must strength- 
 en ourselves to resist and overcome it. 
 
 * " Malo hunc, qualis qualis est, rerum huma- 
 narum statum quam novos excitari tumultus," 
 said Erasmus. 
 
 t Semel admissum non ea fertur, qua destina- 
 rat admissor. (Erasm. Epp. i. p. 953.) 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 53 
 
 Is there not, moreover, a marked dif- 
 ference between the agitation which 
 arises from human passions, and that 
 which is wrought by the Spirit of God ? 
 The former loosens the bonds of society, 
 but the latter strengthens them. How 
 erroneous was it to suppose, with Eras- 
 mus, that in the state in which Chris- 
 tianity then was, with that mixture of op- 
 posing elements, of truth and error, of 
 life and death, a violent convulsion could 
 possibly be avoided. Close if you can, 
 the crater of Vesuvius when the con- 
 tending elements are already agitating 
 its bosom ! The middle ages had wit- 
 nessed more than one violent commotion, 
 with an atmosphere less stormy than that 
 existing at the time of the Reformation. 
 We must not at such a moment think of 
 arresting and repressing, but rather of 
 directing and guiding. 
 
 If the Reformation had not broke forth, 
 who can estimate the ruin that would 
 have ensued ? Society a prey to a thou- 
 sand destructive elements, without any 
 regenerating or preserving principles, 
 would have been frightfully subverted. 
 Certainly, a Reformation such as Eras- 
 mus contemplated, and such as many 
 moderate but timid men of our times still 
 dream of, would have overturned Chris- 
 tian society. The people, deprived of 
 the light and piety which a true Refor- 
 mation brought down even to the lowest 
 ranks, abandoned to violent passion and 
 a restless spirit of revolt, would have 
 burst the chain like an enraged animal 
 roused by provocation to uncontrollable 
 fury. 
 
 The Reformation was nothing less than 
 the coming in of the Spirit of God among 
 men, a regulating principle, placed by 
 God upon the earth. It might, it is true, 
 move the elements of ferment which are 
 hidden in the human heart, but God 
 triumphed over all. The evangelical 
 doctrine, the truth of God, penetrating 
 among the mass of the people, destroyed 
 what was destined to be destroyed, — but 
 every where strengthened what was to 
 be maintained. The effect of the Re- 
 formation was to build up. Only preju- 
 dice could say that it lowered. And it 
 has been justly observed that the plough- 
 share might as well be accused of injur- 
 ing the earth it breaks up only to prepare 
 it for fruitfulness. 
 
 The great maxim of Erasmus was, 
 " Give light, and the darkness will dis- 
 perse of itself." The principle is good ; 
 Luther acted upon it. But when the 
 enemies of the light attempted to extin- 
 guish it, or to snatch the torch from him 
 who bore it, was it fit that, from a love 
 of peace, they should be suffered to do 
 so? Was it not a duty to resist the 
 wicked ? 
 
 Erasmus was deficient in courage. 
 But courage is as necessary to effect a 
 reformation as to capture a city. There 
 was much timidity in his character. 
 From his youth he trembled at the men- 
 tion of death. He took the most extra- 
 ordinary care of his health. He would 
 avoid, at any sacrifice, a place where 
 contagion prevailed. His relish for the 
 comforts of life surpassed even his vanity, 
 and this was his reason for declining 
 more than one brilliant offer. 
 
 Thus it was that .he did not pretend 
 to the part of a Reformer. " If the cor- 
 rupted morals of the court of Rome re- 
 quire a great and speedy remedy," said 
 he, " it is not for me, or such as me, to 
 effect it."* He had none of that strength 
 of faith which animated Luther. Whilst 
 the latter was ever ready to lay down 
 his life for the truth, Erasmus, with per- 
 fect ingenuousness, could say, " Let others 
 affect martyrdom : for my part, I think 
 myself unworthy of that honour. f I fear, 
 if a tumult arose, I should be like Peter 
 in his fall." 
 
 Erasmus, by his writings and dis- 
 courses, had, more than any other per- 
 son, hastened the Reformation ; and yet 
 he trembled when he saw the tempests 
 he had raised approaching. He would 
 have given every thing to restore the 
 former calm, even with its heavy vapours. 
 But it was too late, — the dam was broken 
 down. It was no longer possible to stay 
 the violence of the torrent that was at 
 once to cleanse, and fertilise the world. 
 Erasmus was powerful, so long as he 
 was an instrument in God's hands. When 
 he ceased to be that— he was nothing. 
 
 In the result Erasmus knew not on 
 which side to range himself. None 
 pleased him, and he dreaded all. " It is 
 
 * Infjens aliquod et prsesens remedium, certe 
 meum non est. (Er. Epp. i. p. 653.) 
 
 t Ego me non arbitror hoc honore dignum 
 (Ibid.) 
 
54 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 dangerous to speak," said he, " and dan- 
 gerous to be silent." In all great reli- 
 gious movements, there are such unde- 
 cided characters, — respectable in some 
 things, but hindering the truth, and who, 
 from a desire to displease no one, dis- 
 please all. 
 
 What, we may ask, would become of 
 truth, if God were not to raise up in its 
 defence more courageous champions?. • 
 
 Listen to the advice given by Eras- 
 mus to Vigilius Zuichem, afterwards 
 president of the superior court of Brus- 
 sels, as to his deportment towards the 
 sectaries, (for that was the name he 
 gave to the reformers). " My friendship 
 for you makes me to desire that you 
 should keep yourself quite clear of con- 
 tagion of sects, and that you give them 
 no ground to claim Zuichem as their 
 own. If you approve their teaching, at 
 least, dissemble your approval ; and, above 
 all, never dispute with them. A juris- 
 consult must be on his guard with these 
 people, as a certain dying man eluded 
 the devil. The devil asked him what 
 he believed. The dying man, fearing 
 that, if he confessed, he should be sur- 
 prised in some heresy, answered, ' What 
 the Church believes.' His interrogator 
 pressed him with the question, ' What 
 does the Church believe V The other 
 replied, ' What I believe V Again, the 
 devil, — ' And what do you believe V and 
 the dying man rejoined, ' What the 
 Church believes.' "* 
 
 So, the Duke George of Saxony, the 
 mortal enemy of Luther, having received 
 an equivocal answer to a question he 
 had addressed to Erasmus, exclaimed 
 aloud, " My dear Erasmus, wash me the 
 robe, if you can, without wetting it." 
 Secundus Curio, in one of his works, 
 depicts two heavens, the Papal and the 
 Christian. He found Erasmus in neither ; 
 but perceived him incessantly wheeling 
 in never ending eddies between both. 
 
 Such was Erasmus. He wanted that 
 "liberty of heart" which makes truly free. 
 How different would he have been, if he 
 had given up himself to devote his soul 
 to truth. But after trying to work some 
 reforms, with the approbation of the heads 
 of the Church, — after having, for the sake 
 of Rome, abandoned the Reformation, 
 
 * Erasmi Epist. 374. 
 
 when he saw that the two could not 
 walk together, — he lost all his influence 
 with either. On the one side, his recan- 
 tations could not repress the indignation 
 of the fanatic partizans of Popery. They 
 felt the injury he had done them, and 
 never forgave it. The monks poured 
 forth abuse on him from their pulpits. 
 They called him a second Lucian, — a 
 fox that had laid waste the vineyard of 
 the Lord. A doctor of Constance had 
 the portrait of Erasmus hung up in his 
 study, that he might spit in his face as 
 often as he pleased. 
 
 And, on the other hand, Erasmus, for- 
 saking the standard of the Gospel, found 
 himself deprived of the affection and 
 esteem of the noblest men of his age, 
 and had doubtless to suffer the loss of 
 those heavenly consolations which God 
 sheds into the hearts of those who act as 
 good soldiers of Christ. So at least it 
 would seem from the bitter tears, painful 
 vigils, disturbed rest, failure of appetite 
 and loss of relish for literary pursuits, 
 once his only enjoyments, wrinkled fore- 
 head, sallow complexion, and dejected 
 and sorrowful expression, that hatred of 
 what he calls a cruel life, and desire of 
 death which he described to his friends.* 
 Poor Erasmus ! 
 
 The enemies of Erasmus went a little 
 beyond the truth, when they said, on the 
 appearance of Luther, " Erasmus laid the 
 egg, and Luther has hatched it."f 
 
 The same signs of new life that were 
 seen among the princes, the bishops, and 
 the learned, were visible among men of 
 the world, nobles, knights and warriors. 
 The nobles of Germany played an im- 
 portant part in the Reformation. Many 
 of the most illustrious sons of Germany 
 formed a close alliance with literary men, 
 and, inflamed with a zeal sometimes in- 
 
 * Vigilise molestse, somnus irrequietus, cibus 
 insipidus omnis, ipsum quoque musarum studium 
 
 ipsa frontis meae mcestitia, vultus palor, 
 
 oculorum subtristis dejectio .... (Erasm. Epp. 1. 
 p. 1380.) 
 
 t The works of Erasmus were, edited by John 
 Leclerc, at Liege, in 1703, in 10 vols, folio. For 
 his life, consult Burigny Vie d'Erasme, Paris, 
 1757. A Miiller Leben des Erasmus — Hamb. 
 1828 ; and the life inserted by Leclerc in his 
 " Bibliothequc Choisie." See also the able and 
 impartial performance of M. Nisard (Revue des 
 deux mondes) — yet M. Nisard seems to me to 
 be mistaken in his estimate of Luther and 
 Erasmus. 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 55 
 
 discreet, made efforts to deliver their de- 
 pendants from the yoke of Rome 
 | Various causes would contribute to 
 make friends to the Reformation among 
 the nobles. Some, having frequented 
 the Universities, had there received into 
 their bosoms that fire with which the 
 learned were animated. Others, educat- 
 ed in noble sentiments, had hearts open 
 to the elevating doctrines of the Gospel. 
 Many found in the Reformation a vague 
 and chivalrous something to charm and 
 captivate them. Others, it must be own- 
 ed, were influenced by ill will to the 
 clergy, who had helped, under the rule 
 of Maximilian, to deprive them of their 
 ancient independence, and reduce them 
 to submission to their princes. Full of 
 enthusiasm, they deemed the Reforma- 
 tion the prelude of a great political reno- 
 vation ; they hoped to behold the Empire 
 emerge from the crisis with a splendour 
 altogether unprecedented, and a better 
 and more glorious state of things estab- 
 lished in the world as much by the sword 
 of chivalry as by the word of God.* 
 
 Ulric de Hutten, surnamed the De- 
 mosthenes of Germany, from his philip- 
 pics against the Papacy, forms, as it 
 were, the link which then held united 
 the knights and the men of letters. He 
 was no less distinguished by his writings 
 than by his military exploits. Descended 
 from an ancient family of Franconia, he 
 was sent, when eleven years old, to the 
 convent of Fulda, to become in due time 
 a monk. But Ulric, who felt no incli- 
 nation for that vocation, fled from the 
 convent in his sixteenth year, and re- 
 paired to the University of Cologne, 
 where he devoted himself to the study 
 of languages and poetry. At a later 
 period he led a wandering life, was pre- 
 sent in 1513 at the siege of Padua, in 
 the capacity of a common soldier, saw 
 Rome and all her abominations, and 
 there sharpened the darts which he af- 
 terwards hurled against her. 
 
 On his return *to Germany, Hutten 
 composed against Rome a writing enti- 
 tled, The Roman Trinity. He there 
 strips bare the disorders of that court, 
 
 * Animus ingens et ferox, viribus pollens. 
 Nam si consilia et conatus Hutteni non. defecis- 
 sent, quasi nervi copiurum, atque potential, jam 
 mutatio omnium rerum extitisset, et quasi orbis 
 status publici fuisset conversus. — Camer. Vita 
 Melancthonis. 
 
 and shows the necessity of putting a for- 
 cible stop to its oppressions. " There 
 are three things," says a traveller named 
 Vadiscus, introduced in this tract, "which 
 we commonly bring away with us from 
 Rome, — a bad conscience, a vitiated sto- 
 mach, and an empty purse. There are 
 three things which Rome does not be- 
 lieve in : the immortality of the soul, the 
 resurrection of the dead, and hull. There 
 are three things which Rome trades in : 
 the grace of Christ, the dignities of the 
 church, and women." — The last writing 
 obliged Hutten to quit the court of the 
 Archbishop of Mentz, where he was re- 
 siding when he composed it. 
 
 When Reuchlin's affair with the Do- 
 minicans made a noise, Hutten took the 
 part of the learned doctor. One of his 
 university acquaintances, Crotus Robia- 
 nus and others, composed at that time 
 the famous satire known by the name 
 of " Letters of Obscure Men," which first 
 appeared in 1516, one year before the 
 theses of Luther. This writing was at- 
 tributed especially to Hutten, and it is 
 very probable that he had a large share 
 in its composition. In it the monks, who 
 were the enemies of Reuchlin, and are 
 exhibited as the authors of these letters, 
 discourse of the affairs of the time, and 
 of theological subjects, in their manner, 
 and in barbarous Latin. They address 
 to their correspondent Eratius, professor 
 at Cologne, the most idiotic and useless 
 questions ; they discover with the utmost 
 simplicity their gross ignorance, incredu- 
 lity, superstition, and low and vulgar 
 spirit, and at the same time their pride, 
 and fanatical and persecuting zeal. They 
 relate to him many of their low adven- 
 tures and debaucheries, and many scan- 
 dalous particulars of the conduct of Hoch- 
 straten, Pfefferkorn, and other heads of 
 their party. These letters are very 
 amusing, from their mixture of hypocrisy 
 and stupidity: and the whole was so 
 much to the life, that the Dominicans 
 and Franciscans of England received 
 the writing with great approbation, and 
 thought it to be really composed in the 
 principles and for the defence of their 
 order. A prior of Brabant, in his credu- 
 lous simplicity, bought a large number 
 of copies, and sent them as presents to 
 the most distinguished of the Domini- 
 cans. The monks, more' and more irri- 
 
56 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tated, importuned Leo X. for a severe 
 bull against all who should dare to read 
 these letters; but that pontiff refused 
 them. They were compelled to endure 
 the general .ridicule, and "to suppress 
 their anger. No work ever struck a 
 more terrible blow at the pillars of Po- 
 pery. But it was not by ridicule and 
 satire that the Gospel was ordained to 
 triumph. If its friends had continued 
 their progress in these ways ; — if the 
 Reformation, instead of attacking error 
 with the weapons of God, had had re- 
 course to the spirit of mockery, — its 
 cause had been lost. Luther loudly 
 condemned these satires. One of his 
 acquaintances having sent him one, en- 
 titled " The Burthen of the Petition of 
 Pasquin." " The absurdities you have 
 sent me," said he, " appear to be the pro- 
 duction of an ill-regulated mind. I have 
 shown them to some friends, and they 
 all formed the same opinion of them." 
 And in reference to the same work, he 
 wrote to another of his correspondents. 
 " This petition seems to me a freak of 
 the same buffoon who wrote the Letters 
 of Obscure Men. I approve his design, 
 but not his performance ; for he deals 
 only in reproachful and insulting lan- 
 guage."* This judgment may be thought 
 severe, but it shows the spirit of Luther, 
 and how he arose above his contempora- 
 ries. — Yet it must be added that he did 
 not always follow these wise maxims. 
 
 Ulric, being obliged to renounce the 
 protection of the Archbishop of Mentz, 
 courted the favour of Charles V. who 
 was then at variance with the Pope. 
 
 He repaired to Brussels, where Charles 
 held his court. But. far from gaining 
 any advantage, he learned that the Pope 
 had required the Emperor to send him 
 bound hand and foot to Rome. The in- 
 quisitor Hochstraten, the persecutor of 
 Reuchlin, was one of those charged with 
 the office of brinjrina: him to trial. In- 
 dignant that his enemies should have 
 dared to make such a demand of the 
 Emperor, Ulric quitted Brabant. Just 
 outside Brussels he met Hochstraten on 
 the road. The terrified inquisitor fell 
 upon his knees and commended his soul 
 to God and the saints. " No," said the 
 knight : " I will not soil my weapon 
 with thy blood I" He gave him some 
 * Lutheri Epp. i. p. 37, 38. 
 
 strokes with the flat of his sword, and 
 allowed him to pass unhurt. 
 
 Hutten sought refuge in the Castle of 
 Ebernburg, where Francis of Sickingen 
 offered an asylum to all who were per- 
 secuted by the Ultramontanes. It was 
 there that his zeal, panting for the en- 
 franchisement of his nation, dictated 
 those remarkable letters addressed to 
 Charles V., Frederic the Elector of Sax- 
 ony, Albert archbishop of Mentz, and 
 the princes and nobility, which place 
 him in the first rank of orators. There 
 he composed all those writings, destined 
 to be read and comprehended by the 
 common people, which spread through- 
 out the German population a horror of 
 Rome and a love of liberty. Devoted 
 to the cause of the Reformer, his design 
 was to lead the nobles to take up arms 
 in favour of the Gospel, and to rush 
 sword in hand on that Rome which 
 Luther aimed to destroy only by the 
 word and invincible power of the truth. 
 
 And yet, in the midst of all this war- 
 like exultation, it is delightful to find in 
 Hutten kind and considerate feelings. 
 At the death of his parents, he gave 
 up to his brothers all the property of 
 the family, though he was the eldest 
 son, and even begged them not to 
 write to him nor send him any money, 
 lest, notwithstanding their innocence, 
 they should be exposed to the malice of 
 his enemies, and fall with him into the 
 pit. 
 
 If truth cannot acknowledge him as 
 one of her children, for she ever walks 
 in company with holiness of life and 
 charity of heart, she will at least accord 
 to him an honourable mention' as one 
 of the most formidable enemies of error.* 
 
 The same may be said of Francis of 
 Sickingen, his illustrious friend and pro- 
 tector. This noble knight, whom many 
 of his contemporaries judged worthy of 
 the Imperial crown, shines in the fore- 
 most rank of the Avarlike antagonists of 
 Rome. Though delighting in the noise 
 of battles, he was full of ardour for learn- 
 ing, and veneration for its professors. At 
 the head of an army which threatened 
 Wurtemberg, he commanded that in 
 case Stutgard should be taken by as- 
 sault, the house and property of the dis- 
 
 * Hiitten's works have been published at Ber- 
 lin by Munchen, 1822 to 1825, in 5 vols. 8vo. 
 
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 57 
 
 tinguished scholar, John Reuchlin, 
 should be respected. He afterwards in- 
 vited him to his camp, embraced him, 
 and tendered him his assistance in the 
 contest between him and the monks of 
 Cologne. Chivalry had for a long time 
 prided itself in despising learning. The 
 period we are retracing presents a new 
 spectacle. Under the ponderous cuirasses 
 of Sickingen and Hiitten, we perceive 
 that new movement of the general intel- 
 ligence then every where beginning to 
 make itself felt. The Reformation gave 
 to the world as its first fruits, warriors 
 who were friends of the arts and of 
 peace. 
 
 Hiitten, during his residence at the 
 castle of Sickingen, after his return from 
 Brussels, encouraged the brave knight to 
 study the evangelic doctrine, and ex- 
 plained to him the main truths on which 
 it is based. " And is there any man," 
 exclaimed Sickingen in astonishment, 
 " that dares seek to overturn such a doc- 
 trine ! Who dares to attempt it?" 
 
 Several who were at a later period 
 distinguished as Reformers found a re- 
 fuge in his castle. Among others Mar- 
 tin Bucer, Aquila, Schwebel, (Ecolam- 
 padius ; so that Hiitten, with some rea- 
 son, designated Ebenburg the "house 
 of the just." (Ecolampadius preached, 
 according to his custom, every day at the 
 castle. Nevertheless the warriors there 
 collected were ere long weary of hearing 
 so much of the mild virtues of Chris- 
 tianity : the sermons were too long for 
 them,' though (Ecolampadius did his best 
 to be brief. They, however, came every 
 day to church, but it was merely to hear 
 the benediction, or to make a short 
 prayer, so that (Ecolampadius was used 
 to exclaim, " Alas ! the word is here 
 sown upon rocks." 
 
 Soon after, Sickingen, wishing to help 
 the cause of truth in his own fashion, de- 
 clared war against the Archbishop of 
 Treves, "to open a door," as he said, 
 " for the Gospel." It was in vain that 
 Luther, who had then appeared, dis- 
 suaded him from it ; he attacked Treves 
 with five thousand horse and a thousand 
 foot. The courageous Archbishop as- 
 sisted by the Palatine and the Land- 
 grave of Hesse, compelled him to retreat. 
 In the spring following, the allies be- 
 sieged him in his castle of Landstein. 
 
 After a bloody assault, Sickingen Was 
 obliged to retire : he was mortally 
 wounded. The three princes penetrati '1 
 into the fortress, and passing through its 
 apartments, found the lion-hearted knight 
 in a vault, stretched on his death bed. He 
 put forth his hand to the Palatine, with- 
 out seeming to notice the princes who 
 accompanied him. But they overwhelmed 
 him with questions and reproachea 
 " Leave me in quiet," said he, " for I 
 must now prepare to answer to a greater 
 Lord than ye." When Luther heard of 
 his death, he exclaimed, "The Lord is 
 just, but wonderful ! It is not by the 
 sword that he will have his gospel pro- 
 pagated." 
 
 Such was the melancholy end of a 
 warrior who, as Emperor, or as an Elector, 
 might perhaps have raised Germany to 
 a high degree of glory, but who, con- 
 fined within a narrow circle, expended 
 uselessly the great powers with which 
 he was gifted. It was not in the tumul- 
 tuous minds of these warriors that divine 
 truth came to fix her abode. It was not 
 by their arms that the truth was to pre- 
 vail ; and God by bringing to nought 
 the mad projects of Sickingen, confirmed 
 anew the testimony of St. Paul, " The 
 weapons of our warfare are not carnal, 
 but mighty through God." 
 
 Another knight, Harmut of Cronberg, 
 the friend of Hiitten and Sickingen, ap- 
 pears, however, to have had more wis- 
 dom and knowledge of the truth. He 
 wrote with much modesty to Leo X. 
 urging him to restore his temporal power 
 to him to whom it belonged, namely, to 
 the Emperor. Addressing his subjects 
 as a father, he endeavoured to explain to 
 them the doctrines of the Gospel, and 
 exhorted them to faith, obedience and 
 trust in Jesus Christ, " who," added he, 
 " is the sovereign Lord of all." He re- 
 signed to the Emperor a pension of two 
 hundred ducats, " because he would no 
 longer serve one who gave ear to the 
 enemies of the truth." And we find a 
 saying of his recorded which places him 
 in our judgment, above Hiitten and 
 Sickingen : " Our heavenly teacher, the 
 Holy Ghost, can, when he pleases, teach 
 us in one hour much more of the faith 
 of Christ, than could be 'learned in ten 
 years at the University of Paris." 
 
 However, those who only look for the 
 
58 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 friends of the Reformation on the steps 
 of thrones,* or in cathedrals and acade- 
 mies, and who suppose it had no friends 
 amongst the people, are greatly mista- 
 ken. God, who was preparing the 
 hearts of the wise and powerful, was also 
 preparing amongst the lowest of the peo- 
 ple many simple and humble men, who 
 were one day to become the promoters 
 of his truth. The history of those times 
 shows the excitement that prevailed 
 among the lower classes. There were 
 not only many young men who rose to 
 fill the highest offices in the Church, but 
 there were men who continued all their 
 lives employed in the humblest occupa- 
 tions, who powerfully contributed to the 
 revival of Christianity. We relate some 
 circumstances in the life of one of them. 
 He was the son of a tailor named 
 Hans Sachs, and was born at Nurem- 
 berg, the 5th November, .1494. He 
 was named Hans (John) after his father, 
 and had made some progress in his 
 studies, when a severe illness obliging 
 him to abandon them, he applied him- 
 self to the trade of a shoemaker. Young 
 Hans took advantage of the liberty this 
 humble profession afforded to his mind 
 to search into higher subjects better 
 suited to his inclination. Since music 
 had been banished from the castles of 
 the nobles, it seemed to have sought and 
 found an asylum amongst the lower or- 
 ders of the merry cities of Germany. A 
 school for singing was held in the 
 church of Nuremberg. The exercises 
 in which young Hans joined opened his 
 heart to religious impressions, and helped 
 to excite in him a taste for poetry and 
 music. However, the young man's ge- 
 nius could not long be confined within 
 the walls of a workshop. He wished to 
 see that world of which he had read so 
 much in books, of which his companions 
 had told him so much, and which his 
 youthful imagination peopled with won- 
 ders. In 1511, he took his bundle on 
 his shoulders, and set out, directing his 
 course towards the south. The young 
 traveller, who met with merry compan- 
 ions on his road, students who were 
 passing through the country, and many 
 dangerous attractions, soon felt within 
 himself a fearfill struggle. The lusts of 
 life and his holy resolutions contended 
 * See Chateaubriand Etudes Historiques. 
 
 for the mastery. Trembling for tho 
 issue, he fled and sought refuge in the 
 little town of Wels, in Austria, (1513,) 
 where he lived in retirement, and in the 
 cultivation of the fine arts. The Em- 
 peror Maximilian happened to pass 
 through the town with a brilliant reti- 
 nue. The young poet was carried away 
 by the splendour of this court. The 
 prince received him into his hunting es- 
 tablishment, and Hans again forgot his 
 better resolutions in the joyous chambers 
 of the palace of Inspruck. But again 
 his conscience loudly reproached him. 
 The young huntsman laid aside his 
 glittering uniform, set out, repaired to 
 Schwartz, and afterwards to Munich. 
 It was there, in 1514, at the age of 
 twenty, he sang his first hymn, " to the 
 honour of God," to a well known 
 chaunt. He was loaded with applause. 
 Every where in his travels he had occa- 
 sion to notice numerous and melancholy 
 proofs of the abuses under which religion 
 was labouring. 
 
 On his return to Nuremberg, Hang 
 settled in life, married, and became the 
 father of a family. When the Reforma- 
 tion burst forth, he lent an attentive ear. 
 He clung to that holy book which had 
 already become dear to him as a poet, 
 and which he now no longer searched 
 for pictures and music, but for the light 
 of truth. To this sacred truth he soon 
 dedicated his lyre. From a humble 
 workshop, situated at one of the gates of 
 the imperial city of Nuremberg, pro- 
 ceeded sounds that resounded through 
 all Germany, preparing the minds of 
 men for a new era, and every where en- 
 dearing to the people the great revo- 
 lution which was then in progress. 
 The spiritual songs of Hans Sachs, his 
 Bible in verse, powerfully assisted this 
 work. It would perhaps be difficult to 
 say to which it was most indebted, the 
 Prince Elector of Saxony, Administrator 
 of the Empire, or the shoemaker of Nu- 
 remberg ! 
 
 There was at this time something in 
 every class of society that presaged a Re- 
 formation. In every quarter signs were 
 manifest, and events were pressing for- 
 ward that threatened to overturn the 
 work of ages of darkness, and to bring 
 about " a new order of things." The 
 light discovered in that age had commu- 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 59 
 
 nicated to all countries, with inconceiva- 
 ble rapidity, a multitude of new ideas. 
 The minds of men, which had slept for 
 so many ages, seemed resolved to redeem 
 by their activity the time they had lost. 
 To have left them idle and without 
 nourishment, or to have offered them no 
 other food than that which had long sus- 
 tained their languishing existence, would 
 have shown great ignorance of human na- 
 ture. The mind of man saw clearly what 
 was, and what was coming, and surveyed 
 with daring eye the immense gulph that 
 separated these two worlds. Great prin- 
 ces were seated upon the throne, the 
 ancient colossus of Rome was tottering 
 under its own weight ; the by-gone spirit 
 of chivalry was leaving the world, and 
 giving place to a new spirit which 
 breathed at the same time from the sanc- 
 tuaries of learning and from the dwell- 
 ings of the common people. The art of 
 printing had given wings to the written 
 word, which carried it, like certain 
 seeds, to the most distant regions. The 
 discovery of the Indies enlarged the 
 boundaries of the world. Every thing 
 proclaimed a mighty revolution at hand. 
 
 But whence was the stroke to come 
 that should throw down the ancienl edi- 
 fice, and call up a new structure from 
 the ruins? No one could answer this 
 question. Who had more wisdom than 
 Frederic? Who had more learning than 
 Reuchlin? Who had more talent than 
 Erasmus? Who had more wit and 
 energy than Hutten ? Who had more 
 courage than Sickingen? Who had 
 more virtue than Croubcrg ? And yet 
 it was neither Frederic, nor Reuchlin 
 nor Erasmus, nor Hutten, nor Sickingen 
 nor Cronberg. Learned men, princes 
 warriors, the Church itself, all had un 
 dermined some of the old foundations 
 but there they had stopped: and no- 
 Avhere was seen the hand of power that 
 was to be God's instrument. 
 
 However, all felt that it would soon 
 be seen. Some pretended to have dis- 
 covered in the stars sure indications of 
 its appearing. Some, seeing the misera- 
 ble state of religion, foretold the near ap- 
 proach of Antichrist. Others, on the 
 contrary, presaged some reformation at 
 hand. The world was in expectation. 
 Luther appeared. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 THE YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 1483—1517. 
 
 Luther's Parents-Birth of Luther— Luther's Early Life— Magdeburg— His Hardships-The 
 « Shunamite"-Recollections-The University-Discovery-The Bible-Mental Agitation- 
 Visit to Mansfeldt— Luther's Resolution— The Farewell— The Convent— Humihatioiw-Liidu- 
 rance— His Studies— Ascetic Life— Mental Struggle— Monastic Tendencies— htaupitz-htau- 
 pitz and Luther-Present of a Bible-The Aged Monk-TheChange-Consecra^on Luther 
 at Eisleben-Invitation to Wittemberg-First Instructions— Lectures-^The Old Chapel-ri.s 
 Preaching-Journey to Rome-Sickness at Bologna-Luther in Rome-Effects of h, f Journey 
 -Plates^ Staircase-Confession of Faith-Luther leaves Home-Carlstadt-Luther s Oath- 
 Luthe's Courage-Attacks the Schoolmen-Spalatin-Luther's Faith-Hs Pre.chmg-Luther 
 oi ridolatry-On Superstitions-His Conduct-George Spenlem-The True R.ghteousness- 
 Luther and Erasmus-Christian Charity-George Leiffei-Luther's Theses-H.s \ .s.tat.on- 
 Paaue at Wi t nnbero-The Elector and the Relics-Spalatin-Duke George-Li. her s Ser- 
 S-Enler-S Supper-Free Will-Theses-Nature of Man-Doctor Eck-Urban Regms 
 —The Theses sent to Eck— Effect of the Theses. 
 
 All things were ready. God, who 
 prepares his work for ages, accomplishes 
 it, when his time is come, by the feeblest 
 instruments. It is the m-.thod of God's 
 providence to effect great results by in- 
 
 considerable means. This law, which 
 pervades the kingdom of nature, is dis- 
 cerned also in the history of mankind. 
 God chose the Reformers of the Church 
 from the same condition, and worldly 
 
60 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 circumstances, from whence he had be- 
 fore taken the Apostles. He chose them 
 from that humble class which, though 
 not the lowest, can hardly be said to be- 
 long to the middle ranks. Every thing 
 was thus to make manifest to the world 
 that the work was not of man, but of 
 God. The reformer, Zwingle, emerged 
 from a shepherd's hut among the Alps : 
 Melancthon, the great theologian of the 
 Reformation, from an armourer's work- 
 shop ; and Luther from the cottage of a 
 poor miner. 
 
 The opening period of a man's life,— 
 that in which his natural character is 
 formed and developed under the hand of 
 God, — is always important. It is espe- 
 cially so in Luther's career. The whole 
 Reformation was there. 
 
 The different phases of this work suc- 
 ceeded each other in the mind of him 
 who was to be the instrument for it, be- 
 fore it was publicly accomplished in the 
 world. The knowledge of the Refor- 
 mation effected in the heart of Luther 
 himself is, in truth, the key to the Refor- 
 mation of the Church. It is only by 
 studying the work in the individual, that 
 we can comprehend the general work. 
 They who neglect the former, will know 
 but the form and exterior signs of the 
 latter. They may gain knowledge of 
 certain events and results, but they will 
 never comprehend the intrinsic, nature 
 of that renovation ; for the principle of 
 life that was the soul of it will remain 
 unknown to them. Let us then study 
 the Reformation of Luther himself, be- 
 fore we contemplate the facts that changed 
 the state of Christendom. 
 
 John Luther, the son of a peasant of 
 the village of Mora, near Eisenach, in 
 the county of Mansfield, in Thuringia, 
 descended from an ancient and widely- 
 spread family of humble peasantry,* 
 married the daughter of an inhabitant of 
 Neustadt, in the bishopric of Wurzburg, 
 named Margaret Lindemann. The new 
 married couple left Eisenach, and went 
 to settle in the little town of Eisleben, in 
 Saxony. 
 
 Seckendorff relates, on the testimony 
 of Relhan, the superintendant of Eisen- 
 ach in 1601, that the mother of Luther, 
 thinking her time was not near, had 
 
 * Vestus familia est et late propagata medio- 
 crium hominum. (Melanc. Vit. Luth.) 
 
 gone to the fair of Eisleben, and that 
 there she was brought to bed of her son. 
 Notwithstanding the credit that is due to 
 Seckendorff, this fact does not seem well 
 authenticated ; indeed it is not alluded to 
 by any of the oldest historians of Luther ; 
 moreover, the distance from Mora to 
 Eisleben must be about twenty-four 
 leagues, — a journey not likely to have 
 been undertaken in the state in which 
 Luther's mother then was, for the sake 
 of going to a fair ; and lastly, the testi- 
 mony of Luther himself appears to con- 
 tradict this assertion.* 
 
 John Luther was a man of upright 
 character, diligent in his business, open- 
 hearted, and possessing a strength of 
 purpose bordering upon obstinacy. Of 
 more cultivated mind than the generality 
 of his class, he read much. Books were 
 then rare ; but John did not neglect any 
 opportunity of procuring them. They 
 were his recreation in the intervals of 
 rest that his severe and assiduous labours 
 allowed him. Margaret possessed those 
 virtues which adorn good and pious 
 women. Modesty, the fear of God, and 
 devotion, especially marked her charac- 
 ter. She was considered by the mothers 
 of families in the place where she resided, 
 as a model worthy of their imitation. f 
 
 It is not precisely known how long 
 the new-married couple had been settled 
 at Eisleben, when, on the 10th of No- 
 vember, at 11 o'clock in the evening, 
 Mamaret afave birth to a son. Melanc- 
 thon often questioned the mother of his 
 friend as to the time of her son's birth. 
 " I well remember the day and the hour," 
 replied she ; " but I am not certain about 
 the year." But James, the brother of 
 Luther, an honest and upright man, said 
 that, according to the opinion of all the 
 family, Martin was born in the year of 
 our Lord 1483, on the 10th of November. 
 It was the eve of St. Martin.;); The 
 first thought of his pious parents was 
 to devote to God, by the rite of baptism, 
 the child that had been sent them. The 
 next day, which was Tuesday, the father, 
 
 * Ego natus sum in Eisleben baptizatusque 
 apud Sanctum Petrum ibidem. — Parcntes mei 
 de prope Isenaco illuc migrarunt. (L. Epp. i. 
 p. 390.) 
 
 t Intuebanturque in earn CBeterae honestae mu- 
 lieres, ut in exemplar virtutum. — (Melancthon 
 Vita Lutheri.) 
 
 \ Melancth. Vita Lutheri. 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER 
 
 61 
 
 with, joy and gratitude, carried his son to 
 St. Peter's church. It was there he re- 
 ceived the seal of his dedication to the 
 Lord. They named him Martin, in me- 
 mory of the day. 
 
 Little Martin was not six months old, 
 when his parents left Eisleben, to go to 
 Mansfeld, which is only five leagues dis- 
 tant. The mines of Mansfeld were then 
 much celebrated. John Luther, an indus- 
 trious man, feeling that he should per- 
 haps be called upon to bring up a nume- 
 rous family, hoped to get a better liveli- 
 hood there for himself and his children. 
 It was in this town that the understand- 
 ing and physical powers of young Lu- 
 ther were first developed ; it was there 
 that his activity began to display itself; — 
 there he began to speak and act. The 
 plains of Mansfeld, the banks of the 
 Vipper, were the theatre of his first sports 
 with the children of the neighbourhood. 
 The early years of their abode at 
 Mansfeld were full of difficulty for the 
 worthy John and his wife. They lived 
 at first in extreme poverty. "My pa- 
 rents," said the Reformer, "were very 
 poor. My father was a woodcutter, and 
 my mother has often carried the wood 
 on her back, that she might earn where- 
 with to bring us children up. They 
 endured the hardest labour for our sakes." 
 The example of parents whom he rever- 
 enced, and the habits they trained him 
 to, very early accustomed Luther to toil 
 and frugal fare. How often may Martin, 
 when a child, have accompanied his 
 mother to the wood, and made up and 
 brought to her his- little faggot. 
 
 There are blessings promised to the 
 labour of the righteous ; and John Luther 
 experienced their reality. He gradually 
 made his way, and established at Mans- 
 feld two small furnaces for iron. By 
 the side of these forges little Martin grew 
 U p 5 — and it was with the earnings of this 
 industry that his father was afterwards 
 able to place him at school. " It was 
 from a miner's fireside," says the worthy 
 Mathesius, "that one who was -destined to 
 recast vital Christianity was to go forth — 
 an expression of God's purpose, by his 
 means, to cleanse the sons of Levi, and 
 refine them as gold in His furnace."* 
 Respected by all for his uprightness, irre- 
 
 * Drumb musste dieser geistliche Schmelzer 
 (Mathesius, 1565, p. 3.) 
 
 proachable conduct, and good sense, he 
 was made one of the council of Mansfeld, 
 the chief town of the district so called. 
 Circumstances of too pinching want 
 might have weighed down their ehild's 
 spirit ; while comparatively easy circum- 
 stances would dilate his heart and raise 
 his character. 
 
 John took advantage of his new ap- 
 pointment, to court the society he pre- 
 ferred. He paid great attention to the 
 learned, and often invited to his table 
 the ecclesiastics and schoolmasters <»t the 
 place. His house afforded a sample of 
 those social meetings of citizens that did 
 honour to Germany in the beginning of 
 the 16th century. It was a kind of 
 mirror, to which came, and wherein , 
 were reflected, the numerous subjects 
 which successively took possession of the 
 agitated stage of the times. The child 
 derived advantage from this. Doubtless 
 the sight of these men, to whom so much 
 respect was shown in his father's house, 
 excited in the heart of young Martin the 
 ambitious desire that he himself might 
 one day be a schoolmaster or man of 
 learning. 
 
 As soon as he was old enough to re- 
 ceive instruction, his parents endeavoured 
 to communicate to him the knowledge 
 of God, to train him in His fear, and 
 form him to the practice of the Christian 
 virtues. They applied the utmost care 
 to this earliest domestic education.* But 
 their solicitude was not confined to jhis 
 instruction. 
 
 His father, desiring to see him acquire 
 the elements of that learning for which 
 he had so much esteem, invoked upon 
 him the blessing of God, and sent him 
 to school. .Martin was then a little 
 child. His father and Nicholas Em- 
 ler, a young man of Mansfeld, often car- 
 ried him in their arms to the house of 
 George Emilius, and came again to fetch 
 him. Years afterwards Emler married 
 Luther's sister. Fifty years later, the 
 Reformer reminded the aged Nicolas of 
 this touching mark of affection received 
 in his childhood, and commemorated it 
 on the blank leaves of a book presented 
 to this old friend, f 
 
 * Ad agnitionem ct timorem Dei do- 
 
 mestica institutione diligenter adsuefecerunt— 
 (Melancth. Vita Luth.; 
 
 t Walthers Nachrichten. 
 
62 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The piety of his parents, their active 
 turn of mind and strict virtue, gave to 
 the boy a happy impulse, and helped to 
 form in him a habit of seriousness and 
 application. In those days it was the 
 practice to use chastisements and fear as 
 the main impulses in education. Mar- 
 garet, although she sometimes approved 
 the too great severity of her husband, 
 often opened her maternal arms to Mar- 
 tin, and comforted him in his tears. Yet 
 she herself overstepped the precept of 
 that wisdom which tells us that he who 
 loves his child will chastise him early. 
 The resolute character of the child gave 
 frequent occasion for correction and re- 
 primand. " My parents," said Luther 
 in after life, " treated me cruelly, so that I 
 became very timid ; one day for a mere 
 trifle my mother whipped me till the 
 blood came. They truly thought they 
 were doing right ; but they had no dis- 
 cernment of character, which is yet ab- 
 solutely necessary, that we may know 
 when, on whom, and how, punishment 
 should be inflicted."* 
 
 At school the poor child was treated 
 with equal severity. His master flogged 
 him fifteen times in one day. " It is 
 right," said Luther, relating this fact, " it 
 is right to punish children, but at the 
 same time we must love them." With 
 such an education Luther early learned 
 to despise the attractions of a self-indul- i 
 gent life. It is a just remark of one of his 
 earliest biographers, that that which is to 
 become great must begin in small things ; j 
 and if children are from their youth 
 brought tip with too much daintiness and 
 care, they are injured for the rest of their j 
 lives." 
 
 Martin learned something at school. 
 He was taught the heads of the Cate- 
 chism, the Ten Commandments, the j 
 Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, some 
 hymns, some forms of prayer, a Latin 
 Grammar composed in the fourth cen- 
 tury by Donatus, master of St. Jerome, 
 and which, improved by Remigius, a 
 French monk, in the eleventh century, 
 was for a long while in great repute in 
 the schools ; he also read the Cisio Janus, 
 a singular calendar, composed in the 
 tenth or eleventh century ; — in a word, 
 
 * Sed non poterant discernere ingenia secun- 
 dum qua? essent temperanda? correctiones. — (L. 
 Opp. W. xxii. p. 1785.; 
 
 all that was studied in the Latin school 
 of Mansfeld. 
 
 But it appears that the child was not 
 yet led to God. The only religious feel- 
 ing that he then manifested was that of 
 fear. Every time that he heard Christ 
 spoken of he turned pale with terror ; 
 for he had been represented to him only 
 as an angry judge.* This servile fear, 
 which is so far removed from true reli- 
 gion, perhaps prepared his mind for the 
 good tidings of the gospel, and for that 
 joy which he afterwards felt when he 
 learned to know Christ as meek and 
 lowly of heart. 
 
 John Luther, in conformity with his 
 predilections, resolved to make his son a 
 scholar. That new world of light and 
 science which was every where produc- 
 ing vague excitement, reached even to 
 the cottage of the miner of Mansfeld, and 
 excited the ambition of Martin's father. 
 The remarkable character, and persever- 
 ing application of his son, made John 
 conceive the highest hopes of his success. 
 Therefore, when Martin was fourteen 
 years of age, in 1497, his father came to 
 the resolution of parting from him, and 
 sending him to the school of the Fran- 
 ciscans at Magdeburg. Margaret was 
 obliged to yield to this decision, and 
 Martin made preparations for leaving 
 his paternal roof. 
 
 Amongst the young people of Mans- 
 feld, there was one named John Reinecke, 
 the son of a respectable burgher. Mar- 
 tin and John, who had been schoolfel- 
 lows, in early childhood, had contracted 
 a friendship which lasted to the end of 
 their lives. The two boys set out to- 
 gether for Magdeburg. It was at that 
 place, when separated from their families, 
 that they drew closer the bonds of their 
 friendship. 
 
 Magdeburg was like a new world to 
 Martin. In the midst of numerous pri- 
 vations, (for he had hardly enough to 
 subsist on,) he observed and listened. 
 Andreas Proles, a provincial of the Au- 
 gustine order, was then preaching with 
 great zeal the necessity of reforming Re- 
 ligion and the Church. Perhaps these 
 discourses deposited in the soul of the 
 youth the earliest germ of the thoughts 
 which a later period unfolded. 
 
 This was a severe apprenticeship for 
 * Mathesius. 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 G3 
 
 Luther. Cast upon the world at four- 
 teen, without friends or protectors, he 
 trembled in the presence of his masters, 
 and in his play hours he and some chil- 
 dren, as poor as himself, with difficulty 
 begged their bread. " I was accustomed," 
 says he, " with my companions to beg a 
 little food to supply our wants. One day 
 about Christmas time, we were going 
 all together through the neighbouring 
 villages, from house to house, singing in 
 concert the usual carols on the infant 
 Jesus born at Bethlehem. We stopped 
 in front of a peasant's house which stood 
 detached from the rest, at the extremity 
 of the village. The peasant hearing us 
 sing our Christmas carols, came out with 
 some food which he meant to give us, 
 and asked in a rough loud voice, 'Where 
 are you, boys?' Terrified at these words, 
 we ran away as fast as we could. We 
 had no reason to fear, for the peasant 
 offered us this assistance in kindness ; 
 but our hearts were no doubt become 
 fearful from the threats and tyranny 
 which the masters then used towards 
 their scholars, so that we were seized 
 with sudden fright. At last, however, 
 as the peasant still continued to call after 
 us, we stopped, forgot our fears, ran to 
 him, and received the food that he offered 
 us. It is thus," adds Luther, " that we 
 tremble and flee when our conscience is 
 guilty and alarmed. Then we are afraid 
 even of the help that is offered us, and 
 of those who are our friends, and wish 
 to do us good."* 
 
 A year had scarcely elapsed, when 
 John and Margaret, hearing what diffi- 
 culty their son found in supporting him- 
 self at Magdeburg, sent him to Eisenach, 
 where there was a celebrated school, and 
 at which place they had relations, f They 
 had other children, and though their cir- 
 cumstances were much improved, they 
 could not maintain their son in a city 
 where he was a stranger. TrriFunre- 
 mitting labours of John Luther could do 
 no more than support the family at Mans- 
 feld. He hoped that when Martin got 
 to Eisenach, he would find it easier to 
 earn his living. But he was not more 
 fortunate there than he had been at 
 Magdeburg. His relations who lived 
 
 * Lutheri Opera (Walch.) ii. 2347. 
 t Isenacum enim pene totam parentelam 
 meam habet. (L. Epp. i. p. 390.) 
 
 in the town did not trouble themselves 
 about him, or perhaps they Were very 
 poor, and could not give him any assist- 
 ance. 
 
 When the young scholar was pressed 
 with hunger, he was obliged, as at Magde- 
 burg, to go with his school-fellows and 
 sing in the streets to earn a morsel of 
 bread. This custom of Luther's time is 
 still preserved in many towns in Ger- 
 many. These young people's voices 
 sometimes form a most harmonious con- 
 cert. Often the poor modest boy, instead 
 of bread, received nothing but harsh 
 words. More than once, overwhelmed 
 with sorrow, he shed many tears in se- 
 cret ; he could not look to the future 
 without trembling. 
 
 One day, in particular, after having 
 been repulsed from three houses, he was 
 about to return fasting to his lodging, 
 when having reached the Place St. 
 George, he stood before the house of an 
 honest burgher, motionless, and lost in 
 painful reflections. Must he, for want 
 of bread, give up his studies, and go to 
 work with his father in the mines of 
 Mansfeld? Suddenly a door opens, a 
 woman appears on the threshold : — it is 
 the wife of Conrad Cotta, a daughter of 
 the burgomaster of Eilfeld.* Her name 
 was Ursula. The chronicles of Eise- 
 nach call her " the pious Shunamite," in 
 remembrance of her who so earnestly 
 entreated the prophet Elijah to eat bread 
 with her. This Christian Shunamite had 
 more than once remarked young Martin 
 in the assemblies of the faithful ; she had 
 been affected by the sweetness of his 
 voice and his apparent devotion. f She 
 had heard the harsh words with winch 
 the poor scholar had been repulsed. She 
 saw him overwhelmed with sorrow be- 
 fore her door ; she came to his assistance, 
 beckoned him to enter, and supplied his 
 urgent wants. 
 
 Conrad approved his wife's benevo- 
 lence ; he even found so much pleasure 
 in the society of young Luther, that, a 
 few days afterwards, he took him to live 
 in his house. From that moment he no 
 longer feared to be obliged to relinquish 
 his studies. He was not to return to 
 Mansfeld, and bury the talent that God 
 
 * Lingk's Reisegesch. Luth. 
 t Dieweil, sie umb seines Singen und herzlichen 
 Gebets willen. (Mathesius, p. 3.) 
 7 
 
64 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 had committed to his trust! God had 
 opened the heart and the doors of a Chris- 
 tian family at the very moment when he 
 did not know what would become of him. 
 This event disposed his soul to that con- 
 f.dence in God, which at a later period 
 the severest trials could not shake. 
 
 In the house of Cotta, Luther lived a 
 very different life from that which he 
 had hitherto done. He enjoyed a tran- 
 quil existence, exempt from care and 
 want ; his mind became more calm, his 
 disposition more cheerful, his heart more 
 enlarged. His whole nature was awak- 
 ened by the sweet beams of charity, and 
 began to expand into life, joy, and hap- 
 piness. His prayers were more fervent ; 
 his thirst for learning became more ar- 
 dent ; and he made rapid progress in his 
 studies. 
 
 To literature and science he united 
 the study of the arts ; for the arts also 
 were then advancing in Germany. The 
 men whom God designs shall influence 
 their contemporaries, are themselves at 
 first influenced and led by the tenden- 
 cies of the age in which they live. Lu- 
 ther learned to play on the flute and on 
 the lute. He often accompanied his fine 
 alto voice with the latter instrument, and 
 thus cheered his heart in his hours of 
 sadness. He also took pleasure in ex- 
 
 Eressing by his melody his gratitude to 
 is adoptive mother, who was very fond 
 of music. He himself loved this art even 
 to his old age, and composed the words 
 and music of some of the most beautiful 
 German hymns. 
 
 Happy times for the young, man ! Lu- 
 ther always looked back to them with 
 emotion ! and a son of Conrad having 
 gone many years after to study at Wit- 
 temberg, when the poor scholar of Eise- 
 nach had become the learned teacher of 
 his age, he joyfully received him at his 
 table and under his roof. He wished to 
 repay in part to the son what he had re- 
 ceived from the father and mother. 
 
 It was when memory reverted to the 
 Christian woman who had supplied him 
 with bread when every one else repulsed 
 him, that he uttered this memorable say- 
 ing : " There is nothing sweeter than the 
 heart of a pious woman." 
 
 But never did Luther feel ashamed of 
 the time, when, pressed by hunger, he 
 sorrowfully begged the bread necessary 
 
 for the support of life and the continu- 
 ance of his studies. So far from this, he 
 thought with gratitude on the extreme 
 poverty of his youth. He considered it 
 as one of the means that God had made 
 use of to make him what he afterwards 
 became, and he thanked him for it. The 
 condition of poor children who were ob- 
 liged to lead the same kind of life, touched 
 him to the heart. " Do not despise," said 
 he, " the boys who try to earn their bread 
 by chaunting before your door, ' bread for 
 the love of God, 1 Papen propter Deum. 
 I have done the same. It is true that in 
 later years my father maintained me at 
 the University of Erfurth, with much 
 love and kindness, supporting me by the 
 sweat of his brow ; but at one time I was 
 only a poor mendicant. And now by 
 means of my pen, I have succeeded so 
 well, that I would not change fortunes 
 with the Grand Seignor himself. I may 
 say more ; if I were to be offered all the 
 possessions of the earth heaped one upon 
 another, I would not take them in ex- 
 change for what I possess. And yet I 
 should never have known what I do, if 
 I had not been to school, and been taught 
 to write." Thus did this great man ac- 
 knowledge that these humble beginnings 
 were the origin of his glory. He was 
 not afraid of reminding his readers that 
 that voice whose accents electrified the 
 Empire and the world, had not very long 
 before begged a morsel of bread in the 
 streets of a petty town. The Christian 
 takes pleasure in such recollections, be- 
 cause they remind him that it is in God 
 alone that he is permitted to glory. 
 
 The strength of his understanding, the 
 liveliness of his imagination, and his ex- 
 cellent memory, enabled him in a short 
 time to get the start of all his fellow stu- 
 dents.* He made especially rapid pror 
 gress in the dead languages, in rhetoric, 
 and in poetry. He wrote sermons, and 
 made verses. Cheerful, obliging, and 
 what is called good-hearted, he was be- 
 loved by his masters and his compa- 
 nions. 
 
 Amongst the professors, he was parti- 
 cularly attached to John Trebonius, a 
 learned man, of an agreeable address, 
 and who had that regard for the young 
 
 * Cumque et vis ingenii acerrima esset, et im- 
 primis ad eloquentiam idonea, celeriter sequalibiw 
 suis prsecurrit.— (Melancth. Vita Luth.) 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 65 
 
 which is so encouraging- to them. Mar- 
 tin had observed that when Trebonius 
 came into the school-room he took off 
 his hat and bowed to the scholars ; a 
 great condescension in those pedantic 
 times. This had pleased the young 
 man. He began to perceive that he 
 himself was something. The respect 
 paid him by his master had raised the 
 scholar in his own estimation. The col- 
 leagues of Trebonius, whose custom was 
 different, having one day expressed their 
 astonishment at this extreme condescen- 
 sion, he answered them ; — and his an- 
 swer made an impression on young Lu- 
 ther. " There are," said he, " amongst 
 these youths, some whom God will one 
 day raise to the ranks of burgomasters, 
 chancellors, doctors, and magistrates. 
 Though you do not now see the out- 
 ward signs of their respective dignities, 
 it is yet proper to treat them with re- 
 spect." Doubtless the young scholar 
 heard these words with pleasure, and 
 perhaps he then saw himself in prospect 
 adorned with a doctor's cap. 
 
 Luther had attained his eighteenth 
 year. He had tasted the sweets of learn- 
 ing. He thirsted after knowledge. He 
 sighed for a university education. He 
 longed to go to one of those fountains of 
 all knowledge, where his thirst for it 
 might be satisfied.* His father required 
 him to study the law. Full of confid- 
 ence in his son's talents, he desired to 
 see him cultivate them and make them 
 known in the world. Already, in antic- 
 ipation, he beheld him filling honoura- 
 ble offices amongst his fellow-citizens, 
 gaining the favor of princes, and shining 
 on the great stage of the world. It was 
 determined that the young man should 
 be sent to Erfurth. 
 
 Luther arrived at that university in 
 the year 1501 ; Jodocus, surnamed the 
 Doctor of Eisenach, was then teaching 
 scholastic philosophy in that plaokJKtn 
 great success. Melancthon regrets that 
 there was at that time nothing taught at 
 Erfurth but a logic beset with difficulties. 
 He expresses the opinion that if Luther 
 had met with professors of a different 
 character, if he had been taught the 
 milder and more tranquillizing doctrines 
 
 * Degustata igitur litterarum dulcedine, na- 
 tura flagrans cupiditate discendi appetit acade- 
 miam. — (Mel. Vit. Luth.) 
 9 
 
 of true philosophy, it might have moder- 
 ated and softened the natural vehemence 
 of his character.* The new pupil, how- 
 ever, began to study the philosophy of 
 the times in the writings of Occam, Sco- 
 tus, Bonaventura, and Thotnas Aquinas. 
 In later years he looked upon this class 
 of writers with abhorrence; — he trembled 
 with rage when even the name of Aris- 
 totle was pronounced in his presence; 
 and he went so far as to say that if Aris- 
 totle had not been a man, he should be 
 tempted to take him for the devil. But 
 his mind, eager for instruction, required 
 better food ; and he applied himself to 
 the study of the best ancient authors, Ci- 
 cero, Virgil, and others. He did not sa- 
 tisfy himself, like the generality of stu- 
 dents, with learning by heart the works 
 of these writers ; but he endeavored espe- 
 cially to fathom their thoughts, to imbibe 
 the spirit by which they were animated, 
 to make their wisdom his own, to com- 
 prehend the object they aimed at in their 
 writings, and to enrich his understanding 
 with their weighty sentences and bril- 
 liant descriptions. He often pressed his 
 tutors with inquiries, and soon outstript 
 his school-fellows. f Gifted with a reten- 
 tive memory and a vivid imagination, 
 all that he had read or heard remained 
 fixed on his memory ; it was as if he 
 had seen it himself. Thus did Luther 
 distinguish himself in his early youth. 
 " The whole University," says Melanc- 
 thon, " admired his genius. "| 
 
 But even at this early period the 
 young man of eighteen did not study 
 merely with a vew of cultivating his un- 
 derstanding ; there was within him a 
 serious thoughtfulness, a heart looking 
 upwards, which God gives to those 
 whom he designs to make his most zeal- 
 ous servants. Luther felt that he de- 
 pended entirely upon God, — a simple 
 and powerful conviction, which is at once 
 a principle of deep humility and an in- 
 centive to great undertakings. He fer- 
 vently invoked the divine blessing upon 
 his labours. Every morning he began 
 
 * Et fortassis ad leniendam vehementiam na- 
 ture mitiora studiavera philosophic. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Et quidem inter primos, ut ingenio studioquc 
 multos coasqualium antecellebat. — (Cochlaeus, 
 Acta Lutheri, p. 1.) 
 
 X Sic igitur in juventute eminebat ut toti aca- 
 demiae Lutheri ingenium admirationi esset. — 
 (Vita Luth.) 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the day with prayer ; then he went to 
 church; afterwards he commenced his 
 studies, and he never lost a moment in 
 the course of the day. " To pray well," 
 he was wont to say, " was the better half 
 of study."* 
 
 The young student spent in the library 
 of the university the moments he could 
 snatch from his academical labours. 
 Books being then scarce, it was in his 
 eyes a great privilege to be able to profit 
 by the treasures of this vast collection. 
 One day, (he had been then two years at 
 Erfurth, and was twenty years of age,) 
 he was opening the books in the library 
 one after another in order to read the 
 names of the authors. One which he 
 opened in its turn drew his attention. 
 He had not seen anything like it till 
 that hour. He reads the title : — it is a 
 Bible ! a rare book, unknown at that 
 time.f His interest is strongly excited ; 
 he is filled with astonishment at finding 
 more in this volume, than those frag- 
 ments of the gospels and epistles which 
 the Church has selected to be read to 
 the people in their places of worship 
 every Sunday in the year. Till then 
 he had thought that they were the whole 
 word of God. And here are so many 
 pages, so many chapters, so many books, 
 of which he had no idea! His heart 
 beats as he holds in his hand all the 
 Scripture divinely inspired. With eager- 
 ness and indescribable feelings he turns 
 over these leaves of God's word. The 
 first page that arrests his attention, re- 
 lates the history of Hannah and the 
 young Samuel. He reads, and can 
 scarcely restrain his joyful emotion. 
 This child whom his parents lend to the 
 Lord as long as he liveth ; Hannah's 
 song in which she declares that the 
 Lord raiseth up the poor out of the dust 
 and lifteth up the beggar from the dung- 
 hill, to set him among princes; the young 
 Samuel who grows up in the temple be- 
 fore the Lord; all this history, all this 
 revelation which he has discovered, ex- 
 cites feelings till then unknown. He re- 
 turns home with a full heart. " Oh !" 
 thought he, " if God would but give me 
 
 * Fleiseig gebet, ist uber die Helfft studert.— 
 (Mathes. 3.) 
 
 t Auff ein Zeyt, wie er die Biicher fein na- 
 cheinander besieht . . . kombt et viber die latein- 
 ische Biblia . . . (Mathes. 3.) 
 
 such a book for my own !"* Luther did 
 not yet understand either Greek or He- 
 brew. It is not probable that he should 
 have studied those languages during the 
 first two or three years of his residence 
 in the university. The Bible that had 
 filled him with such transport was in La- 
 tin. He soon returned to the library to 
 find his treasure again. He read and re- 
 read, and then in his surprise and joy, 
 he went back to read again. The first 
 gleams of a new truth then arose in his 
 mind. 
 
 Thus has God caused him to find His 
 word ! He has noAV discovered that 
 book of which he is one day to give to 
 his countrymen that admirable transla- 
 tion in which the Germans for three cen- 
 turies have read the oracles of God. 
 For the first time, perhaps, this precious 
 volume has been removed from the place 
 that it occupied in the library of Erfurth. 
 This book, deposited upon the unknown 
 shelves of a dark room, is soon to be- 
 come the book of life to a whole nation. 
 The Reformation lay hid in that Bible. 
 It was in this same year that Luther 
 took his first academical degree, that of 
 a bachelor. 
 
 The excessive labour he had under- 
 gone in preparing for his examination, 
 occasioned a dangerous illness. Death 
 seemed at hand. Serious reflections filled 
 his mind. He thought his earthly ca- 
 reer was at an end. All were interested 
 about the young man. " It was a pity," 
 thought they, " to see so many hopes so 
 early extinguished." Several friends 
 came to visit him on his sick bed. 
 Amongst them was an old man, a ve- 
 nerable priest, who had observed with 
 interest the labours and academical life 
 of the student of Mansfeld. Luther 
 could not conceal the thoughts that filled 
 big m ind. " Soon," said he, " I shall be 
 summoned hence." But the prophetic 
 old man kindly answered. " My dear 
 bachelor, take courage ! you will not die 
 this time. Our God will yet make you 
 his instrument in comforting many 
 others, f For God lays his cross upon 
 those whom he loves, and those who 
 
 * Avide percurrit, ccepitque optare ut olim ta- 
 lem librum et ipse nancisci posset. — (M. Adami. 
 Vit. Luth. p. 103.) 
 
 t Deus te virum faciet qui alios jjiultos itemm 
 consolabitur. — (M. Adami Vit. Luth. p. 103.) 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 67 
 
 bear it patiently gain much wisdom." 
 The words impressed the sick youth. 
 It was as he lay in the dust of death 
 that he heard the voice of a priest remind 
 him that God, as Samuel's mother had 
 said, raiseth up the poor. The old man 
 has poured sweet consolation into his 
 heart, and revived his spirits ; he will 
 never forget it. " This was the first 
 prophecy the doctor ever heard," says 
 Mathesius, the friend of Luther, who re- 
 lates this circumstance, " and he often 
 recollected it." We may easily compre- 
 hend in what sense Mathesius calls this 
 speech a prophecy. 
 
 When Luther was restored to health 
 there was in him a something new. 
 The Bible, his sickness, the words of the 
 old priest, seemed to have called him to 
 a new vocation. There was, however, 
 as yet, no settled purpose in his mind. 
 He resumed his studies. In 1505 he 
 was made master of arts, or doctor in 
 philosophy. The university of Urfurth 
 was then the most celebrated in all Ger- 
 many. The others were in comparison 
 but inferior schools. The ceremony was 
 performed according to custom, with much 
 pomp. A procession with torches came to 
 do honour to Luther.* The festival was 
 magnificent. There was general rejoic- 
 ing. Luther, perhaps, encouraged by 
 these honours, prepared to apply himself 
 entirely to the study of the law, agreea- 
 bly to the wishes of his father. 
 
 But God willed otherwise. Whilst 
 Luther was engaged in various studies, 
 and beginning to teach natural philoso- 
 phy and the ethics of Aristotle, with 
 other branches of philosophy, his con- 
 science incessantly reminded him that 
 religion was the one thing needful, and 
 that his first care should be the salvation 
 of his soul. He had learned God's ha- 
 tred of sin ; he remembered the penal- 
 ties that his word denounces against th< 
 sinner ; and he asked himselfB tu- 
 lingly, if he was sure that he possessed 
 the favour of God. His conscience an- 
 swered : No ! His character was prompt 
 and decided ; he resolved to do all that 
 depended upon himself, to ensure a 
 well-grounded hope of immortality. 
 Two events occurred, one after the other, 
 to rouse his soul and confirm his resolu- 
 tion. 
 
 * L. Opp. W. xxii. p. 2229. 
 
 Amongst his college friends there 
 was one, named Alexis, with whom ho 
 was very intimate. One morning a re- 
 port was spread in Erfurth that Alexis 
 had been assassinated. Luther hurried 
 to the spot and ascertained the truth of 
 the report. This sudden loss of his 
 friend affected him, and the question 
 which he asked himself: " What would 
 become of me, if I were thus suddenly 
 called away?" filled his mind with the 
 liveliest apprehension.* 
 
 It was then the summer of 1505. 
 Luther availed himself of the leisure 
 afforded him by the university vacation, 
 to take a journey to Mansfeld, to revisit, 
 the beloved abode of his infancy, and to 
 see his affectionate parents. Perhaps, 
 also, he intended to open his heart to his 
 father, to sound him upon the plan that 
 was forming in his mind, and obtain his 
 permission to engage in a different voca- 
 tion. He foresaw all the difficulties 
 that awaited him. The idle life of the 
 greater part of the priests was particu- 
 larly offensive to the active miner of 
 Mansfield. The ecclesiastics were more- 
 over little esteemed in society : most of 
 them possessed but a scanty revenue, 
 and the father, who had made many 
 sacrifices to keep his son at the univer- 
 sity, and saw him lecturing publicly in 
 his twentieth year, in a celebrated school, 
 was not likely readily to renounce his 
 proud hopes. 
 
 We are not informed of what passed 
 during Luther's abode at Mansfeld. 
 Perhaps the decided wish of his father 
 made him fear to open his mind to him. 
 He again left his father's house for the 
 halls of the academy. He was within 
 a short distance of Erfurth when he 
 was overtaken by a violent storm. The 
 thunder roared ; a thunderbolt sunk into 
 the ground by his side. Luther threw 
 himself on his knees. His hour is per- 
 haps come. Death, judgment, eternity, 
 are before him in all their terrors, and 
 speak with a voice which he can no 
 longer resist. " Encompassed with th«i 
 anguish and terror of death," as he 
 himself says,f he makes a vow, if God 
 will deliver him from this danger, to 
 
 * Interitu sodalis sui conBtritatus.-~(C©ehlffius, 
 p. 1.) 
 
 t Mit Erschrecken und Angst das Todes urn-, 
 geben. — (L. Epp. ii. 101.) 
 
G8 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 forsake the world, and devote himself 
 to His service. Risen from the earth, 
 having still before his eyes that death 
 must one day overtake him, he examines 
 himself seriously, and enquires what he 
 must do.* The thoughts that formerly 
 troubled him return with redoubled 
 power. He has endeavoured, it is true, 
 to fulfil all his duties. But what is the 
 state of his soul? Can he, with a 
 polluted soul, appear before the tribu- 
 nal of so terrible a God? He must 
 become holy. He now thirsts after 
 holiness as he had thirsted after know- 
 ledge. But where shall he find it? 
 How is it to be attained? The uni- 
 versity has furnished him with the 
 means of satisfying his first wish. Who 
 will assuage this anguish, this vehement 
 desire that consumes him now ? To 
 what school of holiness can he direct his 
 steps ? He will go into a cloister ; the 
 monastic life will ensure his salvation. 
 How often has he been told of its power 
 to change the heart, to cleanse the sinner, 
 to make man perfect ! He will enter 
 into a monastic order. He will there 
 become holy. He will thus ensure his 
 eternal salvation, f 
 
 Such was the event that changed the 
 vocation and the whole destiny of Lu- 
 ther. The hand of God was in it. It 
 was that powerful hand that cast to the 
 ground the young master of arts, the as- 
 pirant to the bar, the intended juriscon- 
 sult, to give an entirely new direction to 
 his after life. Rubianus, one of Luther's 
 friends at the university of Erfurth, 
 wrote to him m later times : " Divine 
 Providence foresaw what you would one 
 day become, when, on your return from 
 your parents, the fire of heaven struck 
 you to the ground, like another Paul, 
 near the city of Erfurth, and separating 
 you from us, led you to enter the Au- 
 gustine order." Thus, similar circum- 
 stances marked the conversion of two of 
 the greatest instruments chosen by Di- 
 vine Providence, to effect the two great- 
 est revolutions that have ever taken 
 place upon the earth : Saint Paul and 
 Luther. I 
 
 * Cum esset in campo, fulmiais ictu territus. 
 — (Cochlffiiis, 1.) 
 
 t Occasio autem fuit ingrediendi illud vitae ge- 
 nus quod pietati et studiis doctrinae de Deo ex- 
 istimavit esse convenentius. — (Mel. Vit. Luth.) 
 
 \ Some historians relate that Alexis was killed 
 
 Luther re-enters Erfurth. His resolu- 
 tion is unalterable. Still it is with re- 
 luctance that he prepares to break ties 
 that are so dear to him. He does not 
 communicate his design to any of his 
 companions. But one evening he in- 
 vites his college friends to a cheerful 
 and simple repast. Music once more 
 enlivens their social meeting. It is Lu- 
 ther's farewell to the world. Hence- 
 forth the companions of his pleasures 
 and studies are to be exchanged for the 
 society of monks ; cheerful and witty 
 discourse for the silence of the cloister ; 
 merry voices, for the solemn harmony of 
 the quiet chapel. God calls him ; he 
 must sacrifice all things. Now, how- 
 ever, for the last time, let him give way 
 to the joys of his youth ! The repast 
 excites his friends. Luther himself en- 
 courages their joy. But at the moment 
 when their gaiety is at its height, the 
 young man can no longer repress the 
 serious thoughts that occupy his mind. 
 He speaks. He declares his intention 
 to his astonished friends ; they endeav- 
 our to oppose it ; but in vain. And that 
 very night Luther, perhaps dreading 
 their importunity, quits his lodgings. 
 He leaves behind his books and furni- 
 ture, taking with him only Virgil and 
 Plautus. (He had not yet a Bible.) 
 Virgil and Plautus ! an epic poem and 
 comedies ! Singular picture of Luther's 
 mind ! There was, in fact in his char- 
 acter the materials of a complete epic 
 poem ; beauty, grandeur, and sublimity ; 
 but his disposition inclined to gaiety, 
 wit, and mirth ; and more than one Ija- 
 dicrous trait broke forth from the serious 
 and noble ground-work of his life. 
 
 Furnished with these two books, he 
 goes alone in the darkness of the night 
 to the convent of the hermits of St. Au- 
 gustine. He asks admittance. The 
 ens and closes again. Behold 
 ever separated from his parents, 
 fromTiis companions in study, and from 
 the world. It was the 17th of August 
 1505. Luther was then twenty-one 
 years and nine months old. 
 
 At length he is with God. His soul 
 
 by the thunder-bolt that alarmed Luther ; but 
 two contemporaries, Matheeius and Selneccer 
 (in Orat. de Luth.) distinguish between these 
 two events ; we may even add to their testi- 
 mony that of Melancthon, who says, " Sodalem 
 nescio quo casu interfectum." — (Vita Luth ) 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 ea 
 
 is safe. He is now to obtain that holi- 
 ness he so ardently desired. The monks 
 who gathered round the young doctor 
 were full of admiration, commending 
 his descision and renunciation of the 
 world.* But Luther did not forget his 
 friends. He wrote to them, bidding 
 adieu to them and to the world, and the 
 next day he sent them these letters, to- 
 gether with the clothes he had till then 
 worn, and the ring he received, when 
 made Master of Arts, which he returned 
 to the university, that nothing might 
 remind him of the world he had re- 
 nounced. 
 
 His friends at Erfurth were struck 
 with astonishment. Must it be, thought 
 they, that such eminent talents should 
 be lost in that monastic life, which is but 
 a kind of burial alive.f Full of grief, 
 they immediately repaired to the con- 
 vent, in hopes of inducing Luther to re- 
 tract so fatal a resolution ; but in vain. 
 The doors were closed against them. A 
 whole month was to elapse before any 
 one could be permitted to see the new 
 monk, or to speak to him. 
 
 Luther had almost immediately com- 
 municated to his parents the great change 
 that had now taken place. His father 
 was thunderstruck. He trembled for his 
 son, as Luther himself tells in the dedi- 
 cation of his book on monastic vows, 
 addressed to his father. His weakness, 
 his youth, the strength of his passions, 
 made his father fear that, after the first 
 moments of enthusiasm should have 
 passed, the indolent life of a monk might 
 either tempt the young man to despair, 
 or occasion him to fall into some grievous 
 sin. He knew that a monastic life had 
 already ruined many. Besides, the miner 
 of Mansfeld had formed other plans for 
 his son. He had hoped that he would 
 contract a rich and honourable marriage. 
 And now all his ambitious projects 
 overthrown in one night by this i: 
 dent step. 
 
 John wrote an angry letter to his son, 
 in which he used a tone of authority that 
 he had laid aside from the period when 
 his son had been made Master of Arts. 
 He withdrew all his favour, and declared 
 
 * Hujus mundi contempt*!, ingressus est re- 
 pente, multis admirantibus, monasterium .. . . 
 — (Cochlseus, 1.) 
 
 t In vita semimortua.— (Melch. Adami V. L. 
 p. 102.) 
 
 him disinherited from a father's love. 
 In vain did John Luther's friends, and 
 doubtless his wife, endeavour to soften 
 his displeasure, by saying: "If you would 
 make a sacrifice to God, let it be the best 
 and dearest of your possessions, your son, 
 your Isaac." The inexorable town-coun- 
 cillor of Mansfeld would listen to no- 
 thing. 
 
 After some time, however, (Luther tells 
 us this in a sermon preached at Wittem- 
 berg, the 20th of Janury, 1544,) the 
 plague visited the neighbourhood, and 
 deprived John Luther of two of his sons. 
 Just then there came one who told the 
 father, who was 1 in deep affliction : " The 
 monk of Erfurth is also dead." His 
 friends took that opportunity of reconcil- 
 ing the father to the young novice. " If 
 it should be a false report," said they, 
 " at least sanctify your present affliction 
 by consenting that your son should be a 
 monk." Well, be it so," said John Luther, 
 with a heart broken and yet struggling, 
 " and God grant he may prosper !" 
 When Luther, at a later period, recon- 
 ciled to his father, related the event that 
 induced him to embrace a monastic life : 
 " God grant," replied the worthy miner, 
 " that you may not have mistaken a 
 delusion of the devil for a sign from 
 heaven."* 
 
 There was then in Luther little of that 
 which made him in after life the Re- 
 former of the Church. His entering 
 into a convent is a proof of this. It was 
 an act in that spirit of a past age from 
 which he was to contribute to deliver 
 the Church. He who was about to be- 
 come the teacher of the world, was as 
 yet only its servile imitator. A new 
 stone was added to the edifice of super- 
 stition, by the very person who was 
 shortly to overturn it. Luther was then 
 looking for salvation in himself, in works 
 and observances ; he knew not that sal- 
 vation cometh of God only. He sought 
 to establish his own righteousness and 
 his own glory, — being ignorant of the 
 righteousness and glory of God. But 
 what he was then ignorant of he soon 
 learned. It was in the cloister of Er- 
 furth that the great change was effected 
 which substituted in his heart God and 
 His wisdom for the world and its tradi- 
 
 * Gott geb dass es nicht ein Betrug und teu- 
 flisch Gespenst sey.— (L. Epp. ii. p- 101.) 
 
70 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tions, and prepared the mighty revolu- 
 tion of which he was the most illustrious 
 instrument. 
 
 Martin Luther, on entering the con- 
 vent, changed his name, and took that 
 of Augustine. "What can be more mad 
 and impious," said he, in relating this 
 circumstance, " than to renounce one's 
 Christian name for the sake of a cowl ! 
 It is thus the popes are ashamed of their 
 Christian names, and show thereby that 
 they are deserters from Jesus Christ."* 
 
 The monks had received him joyfully. 
 It was no small gratification to their self- 
 love to see the university forsaken, by 
 one of its most eminent scholars, for a 
 house of their order. Nevertheless, they 
 treated him harshly, and imposed upon 
 him the meanest offices. They perhaps 
 wished to humble the doctor of philo- 
 sophy, and to teach him that his learn- 
 ing did not raise him above his brethren; 
 and thought, moreover, by this method, 
 to prevent his devoting himself to his 
 studies, from which the convent would 
 derive no advantage. The former mas- 
 ter of arts was obliged to perform the 
 functions of door-keeper, to open and shut 
 the gates, to wind up the clock, to sweep 
 the church, to clean the rooms, f Then, 
 when the poor monk, who was at once 
 porter, sexton, and servant of the cloister, 
 had finished his work : " Cutn sacco per 
 civitatem — With your bag through the 
 town !" cried the brothers ; and, loaded 
 with his bread-bag, he was obliged to go 
 through the streets of Erfurth, begging 
 from house to house, and perhaps at the 
 doors of those very persons who had been 
 either his friends or his inferiors. But 
 he bore it all. Inclined, from his natural 
 disposition, to devote himself heartily to 
 whatever he undertook, it was with his 
 whole soul that he had become a monk. 
 Besides, could he wish to spare the body? 
 to regard the satisfying of the flesh 1 Not 
 thus could he acquire the humility, the 
 holiness, that he had come to seek within 
 the Avails of a cloister 1 
 
 The poor monk, overwhelmed with 
 toil, eagerly availed himself of every 
 moment he could snatch from his de- 
 grading occupations. He sought to re- 
 tire apart from his companions, and give 
 
 * On Genesis, xxxiv. 3. 
 
 t Loca immunda purgare coactus fuit. — (M. 
 Adami Vit. Luth. p. 103.) 
 
 himself up to his beloved studies. But 
 the brethren soon perceived this, came 
 about him with murmurs, and forced 
 him to leave his books : " Come, come ! 
 it is not by study, but by begging bread, 
 corn, eggs, fish, meat and money, that 
 you can benefit the cloister."* And 
 Luther submitted, put away his books, 
 and resumed his bag. Far from repent- 
 ing of the yoke he had taken upon him- 
 self, he resolved to go through with it. 
 Then it was that the inflexible perse- 
 verance with which he ever prosecuted 
 the resolutions he had once formed be- 
 gan to develop itself. His patient endur- 
 ance of this rough usage gave a powerful 
 energy to his will. God was exercising 
 him first with small trials, that he might 
 learn to stand firm in great ones. Be- 
 sides, to be able to deliver the age in 
 which he lived from the miserable super- 
 stitions under which it groaned, it was 
 necessary that he should feel the weight 
 of them. To empty the cup, he must 
 drink it to the very dregs. 
 
 This severe apprenticeship did not, 
 however, last so long as Luther might 
 have feared. The prior of the convent, 
 upon the intercession of the university 
 of which Luther was a member, freed 
 him from the mean offices the monks 
 had imposed upon him. The young 
 monk then resumed his studies with 
 fresh zeal. The works of the Fathers 
 of the Church, especially those of St. 
 Augustine, attracted his attention. The 
 exposition which this celebrated doctor 
 has written upon the Psalms, and his 
 book concerning the Letter and the Spi- 
 rit, were his favourite reading. Nothing 
 struck him so much as the opinions of 
 this Father upon the corruption of man's 
 will, and upon the grace of God. He 
 felt, in his own experience, the reality of 
 that corruption, and the necessity for that 
 grace. The words of St. Augustine found 
 an echo in his heart : if he could have 
 belonged to any other school than that 
 of Christ, it would have undoubtedly 
 been that of the doctor of Hippo. He 
 almost knew by heart the works of Peter 
 d'Ailly and of Gabriel Biel. He was 
 struck with an observation of the former, 
 that if the Church had not decided other- 
 Avise, it would have been preferable to 
 allow that Ave really receive the bread 
 * Selnecceri Orat. de Luth. 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER 
 
 71 
 
 and wine in the Holy Sacrament, and 
 not mere accidents. 
 
 He also studied with attention Occam 
 and Gerson, who have so freely expressed 
 themselves concerning the authority of 
 the Popes. To this course of reading 
 he united other exercises. He was heard 
 publicly to unravel the most complicated 
 arguments, and extricate himself from 
 labyrinths whence others could find no 
 outlet. His hearers were astonished.* 
 
 But it was not to gain the credit of 
 being a great genius that he entered a 
 cloister j» it was to find the aliments of 
 piety to God.f He regarded these pur- 
 suits only as recreations. 
 
 He loved, above all, to draw wisdom 
 from the pure spring of the Word of 
 God. He found in the convent a Bible, 
 fastened by a chain. He had constant 
 recourse to this chained Bible. He un- 
 derstood but little of the Word ; but still 
 it was his most absorbing study. Some- 
 times he would meditate on a single pas- 
 sage for a whole day ; another time he 
 learned by heart some parts of the Pro- 
 phets, but above all, he wished to acquire, 
 from the writings of the Apostles and 
 Prophets, the knowledge of God's will, 
 — to increase in reverence for His name, 
 — and to nourish his faith by the sure 
 testimony of the word.J 
 
 It was apparently at this period, that 
 he began to study the Scriptures in the 
 originals, and, by this means, to lay the 
 foundation of the most perfect and useful 
 of his printed works, — the translation of 
 the Bible. He made use of the Hebrew 
 Lexicon, by Reuchlin, which had just 
 appeared. John Lange, a brother in the 
 convent, who was skilled in the Greek 
 and Hebrew, and with whom he always 
 maintained an intimate acquaintance, 
 probably assisted him at the outset. He 
 also made much use of the learned com- 
 ments of Nicholas Lyra, who diedjn 
 1340. It was this circumstance that 
 made Pfiug (afterwards Bishop of Naum- 
 burg) remark : " Si Lyra non lyrasset, 
 Lutherus non saltasset. — If Lyra had not 
 
 * In disputationibus publicis labyrinthos aliis 
 inextricablies, diserte multis admirantibus expli- 
 cabat. — (Melancth. Vit. Luth.) 
 
 t In eo vitse genere non famam ingenii, sed 
 alimenta pietatis quaerebat.— (Melancth. Vit. 
 Luth.) 
 
 t Ut firmis testimoniis aleret timorem et fidem. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 played his lyre, Luther had never 
 danced."* 
 
 The young monk applied himself to 
 his studies with so much zeal, that often, 
 for two or three weeks together, he would 
 omit the prescribed prayers. But he was 
 soon alarmed by the thought that he had 
 transgressed the rules of his order. Then 
 he shut himself up to redeem his negli- 
 gence ; he set himself to repeat consci- 
 entiously all his omitted prayers without 
 thinking of his necessary food. On one 
 occasion he passed seven weeks almost 
 without sleep. 
 
 Burning with the desire after that ho- 
 liness which he had sought in the clois- 
 ter, Luther gave himself up to all the 
 rigour of an ascetic life. He endea- 
 voured to crucify the flesh by fastings, 
 macerations, and watchings.f Shut up 
 in his cell, as in a prison, he was con- 
 tinually struggling against the evil 
 thoughts and inclinations of his heart. 
 A little bread, a single herring, were 
 often his only food. Indeed he was con- 
 stitutionally abstemious. So it was that 
 his friends have often seen him, — even 
 after he had learned that heaven was not 
 to be purchased by abstinence, — content 
 himself with the poorest food, and go 
 four days together without eating or 
 drinking.]; This is stated on the author- 
 ity of a credible witness, — Melancthon ; 
 and we see from this how little attention 
 is due to the fables which ignorance and 
 prejudice have circulated as to intemper- 
 ance in Luther. Nothing was too great 
 a sacrifice, at the period we speak of, for 
 the sake of becoming holy to gain hea- 
 ven. Never did the Romish Church 
 contain a monk of more piety; never 
 did a cloister witness efforts more sincere 
 and unwearied to purchase eternal hap- 
 piness. $ When Luther, become a Re- 
 former, declared that heaven could not 
 be thus purchased, he knew well what 
 he said: "Verily," wrote he to Duke 
 
 * Gesch. d. deutseh. Bibeliibersetzung. 
 
 t Summa disciplinse severitate se ipse regit, et 
 omnibus exercitiis lectiouum, disputationum, je- 
 juniorum, precum, omnes longe superat. — (Me- 
 lancth. Vita Luth.) 
 
 t Erat enim natura valde modici cibi et potus ; 
 vidi continuis quatuor diebus, cum quidem recte 
 valeret, prorsus nihil edentem aut bibentem. — 
 (Melancth. Vita Luth.) 
 
 § Strenue in studiis et exercitiis spmtualibus 
 militavit ibi Deo annis quatuor.— (Coclilaeus, 1.) 
 
72 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 George of Saxony, "I was a devout 
 monk, and followed the rules of my 
 order so strictly, that I cannot tell you all. 
 If ever a monk entered into heaven by 
 his monkish merits, certainly I should 
 have obtained an entrance there. All 
 the monks who knew me will confirm 
 this ; and if it had lasted much longer, 
 I should have become literally a martyr, 
 through watchings, prayer, reading, and 
 other labours."* 
 
 We approach the period which made 
 Luther a new man ; and, by discovering 
 to him the unfathomable love of God, 
 created in him the power to declare it to 
 the world. 
 
 Luther did not find, in the tranquil- 
 lity of the cloister and monkish perfec- 
 tion, the peace he was in quest of. He 
 wanted an assurance that he was saved. 
 This was the great want of his soul ; 
 without it he could not rest. But the 
 fears which had shaken him in the 
 world, pursued him to his cell. Nay 
 more, they increased there, and the least 
 cry of his conscience seemed to resound 
 beneath the vaulted roofs of the cloister. 
 God had led him thither, that he might 
 learn to know himself, and to despair of 
 his own strength or virtues. His con- 
 science, enlightened by the Divine 
 Word, taught him what it was to be 
 holy ; but he was filled with terror at 
 finding, neither in his heart nor in his 
 life, the transcript of that holiness which 
 he contemplated with wonder in the 
 Word of God. Melancholy discovery! 
 and one that is made by every sincere 
 man. No righteousness within ; no right- 
 eousness in outward action : every where 
 omission of duty, — sin, pollution. — The 
 more ardent Luther's natural character, 
 the more powerful was this secret and 
 constant resistance of his nature to that 
 which is good, and the deeper did it 
 plunge him into despair. 
 
 The monks and theologians encour- 
 aged him to do good works, and in that 
 way satisfy the divine justice. "But 
 what works," thought he, " can proceed 
 out of a heart like mine 1 How can I, 
 with works polluted even in their source 
 and motive, stand before a Holy Judge ?" 
 — " I was, in the sight of God, a great 
 sinner," says he ; " and I could not think 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xix. 2299. 
 
 it possible for me to appease him with 
 my merits." 
 
 He was agitated and dejected ; shun- 
 ning the trivial and dull discourse of the 
 monks. The latter, unable to compre- 
 hend the tempestuous heavings of his 
 soul, watched him with astonishment,* 
 while they complained of his silent and 
 unsocial manners. One day, Cochlaeus 
 tells us, whilst mass was performing in 
 the chapel, Luther's abstraction led him 
 thither, and he found himself in the choir 
 in the midst of the monks, dejected and 
 in anguish of mind. The prjest had 
 bowed before the altar — the incense was 
 offered, the Gloria chaunted, and the 
 gospel was being read, when the unhap- 
 py monk, unable to suppress his mental 
 torment, exclaimed, falling upon his 
 knees, " It is not I — it is not I."f The 
 monks were all amazement, and the so- 
 lemnity was for an instant interrupted. 
 Luther may perhaps have thought he 
 heard some reproach of which he knew 
 himself guiltless ; or he may have meant, 
 at the moment, to declare himself unde- 
 serving of being of the number of those 
 to whom Christ's death had brought eter- 
 nal life. According to Cochlseus, the 
 gospel of the day was the account of the 
 dumb man out of whom Jesus cast a 
 devil. Possibly Luther's exclamation 
 (if the story be true,) had reference to 
 this fact, and that resembling the dsemo- 
 niac in being like him speechless, he by 
 his cry protested that his silence was 
 owing to a different cause from dsemo- 
 niacal possession. Indeed, Cochlaeus tells 
 us that the monks did sometimes ascribe 
 the mental distresses of their brother to 
 a secret intercourse with the devil, and 
 that writer appears himself to have 
 shared in the opinion. | 
 
 A tender conscience led him to regard 
 the least sin as a great crime. No soon- 
 er had he detected it, than he laboured 
 to expiate it by the strictest self-denial ; 
 and that served only to make him feel 
 the inutility of all human remedies. " I 
 tormented myself to death," says he, " to 
 procure for my troubled heart and agi- 
 tated conscience peace in the presence of 
 
 * Visas est fratribus non nihil singularitatis 
 habere. — (Cochteus, 1.) 
 
 t Cum .... repente ceciderit vociferans : Non 
 sum ! non sum ! — (Cochlseus, 1.) 
 
 t Ex occulto aliquo cum sermone cominario 
 -(lb.) 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 73 
 
 God ; but encompassed with thick dark- 
 ness, I nowhere found peace." 
 
 All the practices of monkish holiness 
 which quieted so many drowsy con- 
 sciences around him, and to which in his 
 agony of mind he had recourse, soon 
 evinced themselves to be useless prescrip- 
 tions of an empirical quackery in reli- 
 gion. " When during the time I was a 
 monk, I felt temptations assail me, I am 
 a lost man, thought I. Immediately I 
 resorted to a thousand methods to ap- 
 pease the reproaches of my heart. I con- 
 fessed every day. But all that was of 
 no use. Then, overwhelmed with de- 
 jection, I distressed myself by the multi- 
 tude of my thoughts. See, said I to my- 
 self, thou art envious, impatient, passion- 
 ate ; therefore, wretch that thou art ! it is 
 of no use to thee to have entered into 
 this holy order." 
 
 And yet Luther, imbued with the pre- 
 judices of the age, had from his youth 
 deemed the remedies of which he now 
 experienced the inefhcacy, the certain 
 cure of a sick ■ soul. What was to be 
 thought of this strange discovery which 
 he had just made in the solitude of his 
 cloister ? One may then live in the sanc- 
 tuary, and yet carry within a man of sin. 
 He has obtained another garment, but 
 not another heart ; his hopes are disap- 
 pointed ; where shall he turn ? All these 
 rules and observances, can they be mere 
 inventions 1 Such a supposition appeared 
 to him one moment as a temptation of 
 the devil, — and the next, an irresistible 
 truth. Struggling either against the 
 holy voice which spoke in his heart, or 
 against the venerable institutions which 
 had the sanction of ages, Luther's exis- 
 tence was a continued conflict. The 
 young monk moved, like a spectre, 
 through the long corridors of the clois- 
 ters with sighs and groans. His bodily 
 powers failed, his strength forsook him ; 
 sometimes he was motionless as if dead.* 
 
 One day, overcome with sadness, he 
 shut himself in his cell, and for several 
 days and nights suffered no one to ap- 
 proach him. One of his friends, Lucas 
 Edemberger, uneasy about the unhappy 
 monk, and having some presentiment of 
 
 * Saepe eum cogitantem attentius de ira Dei, 
 aut. de mirandis pcenarum exemplis, subito tanti 
 terrores concutiebant, ut pene exanimaretur. — 
 (Melantch. Vita Luth.) 
 
 10 
 
 his state, took with him some young 
 boys, choral singers, and went and 
 knocked at the door of his cell. No one 
 opened or answered. The good Edem- 
 berger, still more alarmed, broke open 
 the door, and discovered Luther stretched 
 on the floor in unconsciousness, and 
 without any sign of life. His friend 
 tried in vain to recall his senses, but he 
 continued motionless. Then the young 
 choristers began to sing a sweet hymn. 
 Their clear voices acted like a charm on 
 the poor monk, to whom music had al- 
 ways been a source of delight, and by 
 slow degrees his strength and conscious- 
 ness returned.* But if for a few instants 
 music could restore to him a degree of 
 serenity, another and more powerful 
 remedy was heeded for the cure of his 
 malady ; there was needed that sweet 
 and penetrating sound of the Gospel, 
 which is the voice of God. He felt this 
 to be his want. Accordingly his suffer- 
 ings and fears impelled him to study 
 with unwearied zeal the writings of the 
 Apostles and Prophets, f 
 
 Luther was not the first monk who 
 had passed through these conflicts. The 
 cloisters often enveloped in their dark 
 walls abominable vices, which, if they 
 had been revealed, would have made an 
 upright mind shudder; but often also 
 they concealed Christian virtues, which 
 grew up beneath the shelter of a salutary 
 retirement ; and which, if they had been 
 brought forth to view, would have been 
 the admiration of the world. They who 
 possessed these virtues, living only with 
 each other and with God, drew no atten- 
 tion from without, and were often un- 
 known even to the small convent in 
 which they were inclosed; — their life 
 was known only to God. At times these 
 humble reeluses fell into that mystic 
 theology, the melancholy failing of the 
 noblest mmds, which in an earlier age 
 had been the delight of the first monks 
 on the banks of the Nile, and which 
 wears out unprofitably the souls in 
 which it reigns. 
 
 But whenever one of these men was 
 called to fill a distinguished post, he 
 manifested virtues of which the salutary 
 
 * Seckend, p. 53. 
 
 t Hoc studium ut magis expeteret, lllis 6Uis 
 doloribus et pavoribus inovebatur.— (Melantch. 
 Vita Luth.) 
 
74 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 effects were long and widely felt. The 
 candle being placed on the candlestick, 
 gave light to all the house ; many were 
 awakened by this light. Thus it was 
 that these pious souls were propagated 
 from generation to generation : and they 
 were shining like distant torches in the 
 very periods when the cloisters were 
 often only the impure receptacles of 
 darkness. 
 
 There was a young man who had 
 thus distinguished himself in one of the 
 convents in Germany. His name was 
 John Staupitz ; he was descended from a 
 noble family in Misnia. From early 
 youth he had been marked by a taste for 
 letters and a love of virtue.* He felt 
 the necessity of retirement that he might 
 devote himself to learning. But he soon 
 found that philosophy, and the study of 
 nature, could do nothing for our eternal 
 salvation. 
 
 He therefore began to study divinity. 
 But he especially endeavoured to join 
 obedience with knowledge. " For," says 
 one of his biographers, " it is in vain to 
 call ourselves divines, if we do not con- 
 firm that noble title by our lives." The 
 study of the Bible and of St. Augustine, 
 the knowledge of himself, the war he, 
 like Luther, had to wage with the deceit- 
 fulness and lusts of his own heart, — led 
 him to the Saviour. He found in faith 
 in Christ, Peace to his soul. The doc- 
 trine of the Election by Grace especially 
 engaged his thoughts. The uprightness 
 of his life, the depth of his learning, the 
 eloquence of his speech, no less than a 
 striking exterior and dignified manners,! 
 recommended him to his contemporaries. 
 The Elector of Saxony, Frederic the 
 Wise, honoured him with his friendship, 
 employed him in several embassies, and 
 founded under his direction the Univer- 
 sity of Wittemberg. Staupitz was the 
 first professor of divinity in that school, 
 from whence the light Avas one day to 
 issue to enlighten the schools and 
 churches of so many nations. He was 
 present^ at the Council of Lateran, in 
 place of the archbishop of Salzburg, be- 
 came provincial of his order in Thurin- 
 
 * A teneris unguiculis generoso animi impetu 
 
 ad virtutem et eruditam doctrinam contendit. 
 
 (Melch. Adam. Vita Staupizii ) 
 
 t Corporis forma atque statura conspicuus. 
 
 (Cochl. 3.) 
 
 gia and Saxony, and afterwards Vicar- 
 general of the Augustines for all Ger- 
 many. 
 
 Staupitz deeply lamented the corrup- 
 tion of morals and the errors of doctrine 
 which then devastated the Church. His 
 writings on "the love of God," "on Chris- 
 tian faith," and "conformity with the 
 death of Christ," as well as the testimony 
 of Luther, give proof of this. But he 
 considered the first of these two evils as 
 much greater than the latter. Besides, 
 the gentleness and indecision of his 
 character, his desire not to go beyond 
 the sphere of action which he thought 
 assigned to him, made him more fit to 
 be the restorer of a convent that the Re- 
 former of the church. He would have 
 wished to raise none but men of distin- 
 guished characters to offices of import- 
 ance, but not finding them, he submitted 
 to the necessity of employing others. 
 " We must," said he, " plough with such 
 horses as we can find ; and if we can- 
 not find horses, we must plough with 
 oxen."* 
 
 We have seen the anguish and internal 
 struggles which Luther underwent in the 
 convent of Erfurth. At this period the 
 visit of the Vicar-general was announced. 
 Staupitz, in fact, arrived in his usual visi- 
 tation of inspection. The friend of Fre- 
 deric, the founder of the University of 
 Wittemberg, the chief of the Augustines, 
 cast a benevolent look upon those monks 
 who were subject to his authority. Soon 
 one of the brothers attracted his notice. 
 He was a young man of middle stature, 
 reduced by study, fasting, and watching, 
 so that you might count his bones. t 
 His eyes, which were afterwards com- 
 pared to a falcon's, were sunk ; his de- 
 meanour was dejected; his countenance 
 expressed a soul agitated with severe con- 
 flicts, but yet strong and capable of en- 
 durance. There was in his whole ap- 
 pearance something grave, melancholy, 
 and solemn. Staupitz, who had acquired 
 discernment by long experience, easily 
 discerned what was passing in that mind, 
 and at once distinguished the young monk 
 from all his companions. He felt drawn 
 towards him, had a kind of presentiment 
 of his singular destiny, and soon experi- 
 enced for his inferior a paternal interest. 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) v. 2189. 
 t P. Mossellaui Epist. 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 75 
 
 He, like Luther, had been called to 
 
 struggle ; he could therefore understand 
 his feelings. He could, above all shew 
 him the path to that -peace which he had 
 himself found. What he was told of 
 the circumstances that had induced the 
 young Augustine to enter the convent, 
 increased his sympathy. He enjoined 
 the prior to treat him with more mild- 
 ness. He availed himself of the oppor- 
 tunities .his office afforded for gaining 
 the confidence of the young monk. He 
 approached him affectionately, and en- 
 deavoured in every way to overcome the 
 timidity of the novice — a timidity in- 
 creased by the respect and fear that he 
 felt for a person of rank so exalted as 
 that of Staupitz. 
 
 The heart of Luther, which had re- 
 mained closed under harsh treatment, at 
 last opened and expanded to the sweet 
 beams of love. " As in water face an- 
 swereth to face, so the heart of man to 
 man." (Pro v. xxvii. 9.) Staupitz's heart 
 responded to that of Luther. The Vicar- 
 general understood him. The monk felt 
 towards him a confidence till then un- 
 known. He opened to him the cause 
 of his sadness, he described the horrid 
 thoughts that distressed him, and hence 
 ensued, in the cloister of Erfurth, conver- 
 sations full of wisdom and" instruction. 
 
 " It is in vain," said the dejected Lu- 
 ther to Staupitz, " that I make promises 
 to God ; sin is always too strong for 
 me." 
 
 " Oh, my friend," answered the Vicar- 
 general, looking back on his own expe- 
 rience, " I have vowed to the holy God 
 more than a thousand times that I would 
 live a holy life, and never have I kept 
 my vow ! I now make no more vows, 
 for I know well I shall not keep them. 
 If God will not be merciful to me for 
 Christ's sake, and grant me a happy 
 death when I leave this world, I cannot, 
 with all my vows and good works, stand 
 before him. I must perish."* 
 
 The young monk is terrified at the 
 thought of divine justice. He confesses 
 all his fears. The unspeakable holiness 
 of God — his sovereign majesty fill him 
 with awe. Who can endure the day of 
 his coming ? Who can stand when He 
 appeareth % 
 
 Staupitz resumed. He knew where 
 * L. Opp. (W.) viiL 2725. 
 
 he had found peace, and it was in his 
 heart to tell the young man. " Why," 
 said he, "do you distress yourself with 
 these speculations and high thoughts? 
 Look to the wounds of Jesus Christ, to 
 the blood which he has shed for you ; it 
 is there you will see the mercy of God. 
 Instead of torturing yourself for your 
 faults, cast yourself into the arms of the 
 Redeemer. Trust in him, — in the right- 
 eousness of his life, in the expiatory sacri- 
 fice of his death. Do not shrink from 
 him ; God is not against you ; it is you 
 who are estranged and averse from God. 
 Listen to the Son of God. He became 
 man to assure you of the divine favour. 
 He says to you, ' You are my sheep ; 
 you hear my voice ; none shall pluck 
 you out of my hand.' "* 
 
 But Luther could not find in himself 
 the repentance he thought necessary to 
 his salvation ; he answered (and it is the 
 usual answer of distressed and timid 
 minds,) " How can I dare believe in the 
 favour of God, so long as there is no real 
 conversion ? I must be changed before 
 He can receive me." 
 
 His venerable guide proves to him 
 that there can be no real conversion, so 
 long as man fears God as a severe judge. 
 " What will you say then," cries Luther, 
 " to so many consciences, to whom are 
 prescribed a thousand insupportable pen- 
 ances in order to gain heaven ?" 
 
 Then he hears this answer from the 
 Vicar-gfeneral ; — or rather he does not 
 believe that it comes from a man ; it 
 seems to him a voice resounding from 
 heaven. f " There is," said Staupitz, " no 
 true repentance but that which begins in 
 the love of God and of righteousness.^ 
 That which some fancy to be the end 
 of repentance is only its beginning. In 
 order to be filled with the love of that 
 which is good, you must first be filled 
 with the love of God. If you wish to 
 be really converted, do not follow these 
 mortifications and penances. Love him 
 who has first loved you. 
 
 Luther listens, and listens again. 
 These consolations fill him with a joy 
 before unknown, and impart to him new 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) ii. 264. 
 
 t Te velut e coelo sonantem accepimus. — (L. 
 Epp. i. 115, ad Staupitium, 30 Maii, 1518.) 
 
 X Prenitentia vero non est, nisi qua? ab amore 
 justitise et Dei incipit, &c.— (Ibid.) 
 
76 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 light. " It is Jesus Christ," thinks he in 
 his heart ; " yes, it is Jesus Christ him- 
 self who comforts me so wonderfully by 
 these sweet and salutary words."* 
 
 These words, indeed, penetrated the 
 heart of the young monk like a sharp 
 arrow from the bow of a strong man.f 
 In order to repentance, we must love God ! 
 Guided by this new light, he consulted 
 the Scriptures. He looked to all the 
 passages which speak of repentance and 
 conversion. These words, so dreaded 
 hitherto, (to use his own expressions,) 
 become to him an agreeable pastime and 
 the sweetest refreshment. All the pas- 
 sages of Scripture which once alarmed 
 him, seemed now to run to him from all 
 sides, to smile, to spring up and play 
 around him.| 
 
 " Before," he exclaims, " though I care- 
 fully dissembled with God as to the state 
 of my heart, and though I tried to express 
 a love for him, which was only a con- 
 straint and a mere fiction, there was no 
 word in the Scripture more bitter to me 
 than that of repentance. But now there 
 is not one more sweet and pleasant to 
 me.§ Oh! how blessed are all God's 
 precepts, when we read them not in 
 books alone, but in the precious wounds 
 of the Saviour. "|| 
 
 However, Luther, though comforted 
 by the words of Staupitz, sometimes re- 
 lapsed into depression. Sin was again 
 felt in his timid conscience, and then to 
 the joy of salvation, succeeded all his 
 former despair. " Oh, my sin ! my sin ! 
 my sin !" cried the young monk, one day 
 in the presence of the Vicar-general, and 
 in a tone of the bitterest grief. " Well, 
 would you be only the semblance of a 
 sinner," replied the latter, " and have 
 only the semblance of a Saviour ?" And 
 then Staupitz added with authority: 
 " Know that Jesus Christ is the Saviour 
 
 * Memini inter jucundissimas et salutares fabu- 
 las tuas, quibus me solet Dominus Jesus miriflce 
 consol ari. — ( Ibid.) 
 
 t Hrcsit hoc verbum tuum in me, sicut sagitta 
 potentis acuta. — (Ibid.) 
 
 % Ecce jucundissimum ludum ; verba undique 
 mihi colludebant planque huic sententiffi arride- 
 bant et assultabant. — (L. Epp. i. 115, adStaupi- 
 tium, 30 Maii, 1518.) 
 
 § Nunc nihil dulcius aut gratius mihi sonat 
 quam poenitentia, &c. — (Ibid.) 
 
 || Ita enim dulcescunt preeeepta Dei, quando 
 non in libris tantum, sed in vulneribus dulcissimi 
 Salvatoris legenda intelligimus. — (Ibid.) 
 
 of those even who are real and great 
 sinners, and deserving of utter condem- 
 nation." 
 
 It was not only the sin that he found 
 in his heart that troubled Luther : to the 
 doubts of his conscience were added those 
 of his reason. If the holy precepts of the 
 Bible distressed him, some of the doc- 
 trines of the divine word increased his 
 distress. The truth, which is the great 
 instrument by means of which God gives 
 peace to man, must necessarily begin by 
 taking from him that false confidence 
 which is his ruin. The doctrine of elec- 
 tion especially troubled the young man, 
 and launched him into a field difficult 
 indeed to explore. Must he believe that 
 it was man who first chose God for his 
 portion? or that it was God who first 
 chose man ? The Bible, history, daily 
 experience, the writings of Augustine, 
 all had shown him, that we must always, 
 and in every thing refer in the last case 
 to that sovereign will by which every 
 thing exists, and upon which every thing 
 depends. But his ardent mind desired 
 to go farther. He wished to penetrate 
 into the secret counsels of God, — to un- 
 veil his mysteries, to see the invisible, 
 and comprehend the incomprehensible. 
 Staupitz checked him. He persuaded 
 him not to attempt to fathom God, who 
 hideth himself; but to confine himself 
 to what He has revealed of his character 
 in Christ. " Look at the wounds of 
 Christ," said he, "and you will there see 
 shining clearly the purpose of God to- 
 wards men. We cannot understand God 
 out of Christ. ' In Christ you will see 
 what I am and what I require,' hath the 
 Lord said ; ' you will not see it else- 
 where, either in heaven or on earth.' "* 
 
 The Vicar-general did yet more. He 
 brought Luther to acknowledge the fa- 
 therly design of God's providence in per- 
 mitting these temptations and varied 
 struggles with which his soul had to 
 contend. He made him see them in a 
 light well suited to revive his spirit. 
 God prepares for himself by such trials 
 the souls which he destines to some im- 
 portant work. We must prove the ves- 
 sel before we launch it on the mighty 
 deep. If education is necessary for every 
 man, there is a particular education ne- 
 cessary for those who are to influence 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxii. p. 489. 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER 
 
 77 
 
 the generation in which they live. This 
 is what Staupitz represented to the monk 
 of Erfurth. " It is not for nothing," said 
 he, " that God proves you by so many 
 trials ; however, you will see, there are 
 great things in which he will make use 
 of you as his minister." 
 
 These words, which Luther heard with 
 wonder and humility, filled him with 
 courage, and discovered to him in him- 
 self, powers which he had not even sus- 
 pected. The wisdom and prudence of 
 an enlightened friend gradually revealed 
 the strong man to himself. Staupitz did 
 not stop there. He gave him valuable 
 directions for his studies. He advised 
 him to derive henceforth all his divinity 
 from the Bible, laying aside the systems 
 of the schools. " Let the study of the 
 Scriptures," said he, " be your favourite 
 occupation." Never was better advice, 
 or better followed. But what especially 
 delighted Luther, was the present that 
 Staupitz made him of a Bible. At last 
 he himself possessed that treasure which 
 until that hour he had been obliged to 
 seek either in the library of the Uni- 
 versity, or at the chain in the convent, or 
 in the cell of a friend. From that time 
 he studied the Scriptures, and especially 
 St. Paul's Epistles, with increasing zeal. 
 His only other reading was the works 
 of St. Augustine. All that he read was 
 powerfully impressed upon his mind. 
 His struggles had prepared him to un- 
 derstand the word. The soil had been 
 deeply ploughed ; the incorruptible seed 
 took deep root. When Staupitz left 
 Erfurth, a new light had arisen upon 
 Luther. 
 
 Still the work was not finished. The 
 Vicar-General had prepared it. God 
 reserved the completion of it for a more 
 humble instrument. The conscience of 
 the young Augustine had not yet found 
 repose. His health at last sunk under 
 the exertions and stretch of his mind. 
 He was attacked with a malady that 
 brought him to the gates of the grave. 
 It was then the second year of his abode 
 at the convent. All his anguish and 
 terrors returned in the prospect of death. 
 His own impurity and God's holiness 
 again disturbed his mind. One day 
 when he was overwhelmed with des- 
 pair, an old monk entered his cell, and 
 spoke kindly to him. Luther opened 
 
 his heart to him, and acquainted him 
 with the fears that disquieted him. The 
 respectable old man was incapable of 
 entering into all his doubts, as Staupitz 
 had done ; but he knew his Credo, and 
 he had found there something to comfort 
 his own heart. He thought he would 
 apply the same remedy to the young bro- 
 ther. Calling his attention therefore to 
 the Apostle's creed, which Luther had 
 learnt in his early childhood at the school 
 of Mansfeld, the old monk uttered in 
 simplicity this article : " / believe in the 
 forgiveness of sins." These simple words, 
 ingenuously recited by the pious brother 
 at a critical moment, shed sweet consola- 
 tion in the mind of Luther. " I believe," 
 repeated he to himself on his bed of suf- 
 fering, " I believe the remission of sins." 
 " Ah," said the monk, " you must not 
 only believe that David's or Peter's sins 
 are forgiven :* the devils believe that. 
 The commandment of God is that we 
 believe our own sins are forgiven." How 
 sweet did this commandment appear to 
 poor Luther ! " Hear what St. Bernard 
 says in his discourse on the Annuncia- 
 tion," added the old brother. " The tes- 
 timony which the Holy Ghost applies 
 to your heart is this : ' Thy sins are for- 
 given thee.'' '' 
 
 From that moment the light shone into 
 the heart of the young monk of Erfurth. 
 The word of Grace was pronounced, 
 and he believed it. — He renounced the 
 thought of meriting salvation ; — and 
 trusted himself with confidence to God's 
 grace in Christ Jesus. He did not per- 
 ceive the consequence of the principle 
 he admitted ; — he was still sincerely at- 
 tached to the Church : — and yet he was 
 thenceforward independent of it ; for he 
 had received salvation from God him- 
 self; and Romish Catholicism was vir- 
 tually extinct to him. From that hour 
 Luther went forward ; — he sought in the 
 writings of the Apostles and Prophets 
 for alf that might strengthen the hope 
 which filled his heart. Every day he 
 implored help from above, and every day 
 new light was imparted to his soul. 
 
 This comfort to his spirit restored 
 health to his body. He quickly arose 
 from his sick-bed. He had received 
 
 * Davidi aut Petro . . . Sed mandatum Dei 
 esse, ut singuli homines nobis remitti peccata 
 credamus. — (Melanc. Vit. L.) 
 
78 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 new life in more than one sense. The 
 festival of Christmas, which soon after 
 arrived, was to him an occasion of rich 
 enjoyment of all the consolations of 
 faith. He took part in the solemnities 
 of that sacred season with sweet emotion ; 
 and when, in the services of the day, he 
 had to sing these words, " O bcata culpa 
 quce tcvlcm meruisti Redemptorem .'"* his 
 whole soul joyfully responded — Amen. 
 
 Luther had now been two years in the 
 cloister. The time drew near when he 
 was to be ordained priest. He had re- 
 ceived largely ; and he looked forward 
 with joy to the liberty afforded, by the 
 priest's office, of freely giving what he 
 had so freely received. He resolved to 
 take advantage of the approaching so- 
 lemnity, to be perfectly reconciled to his 
 •father. He invited him to be present at 
 it, and even asked him to fix the day. 
 John Luther, who had not yet entirely 
 forgiven his son, nevertheless accepted 
 this invitation, and named Sunday, May 
 2, 1507. 
 
 Amongst the number of Luther's friends 
 was John Braun, vicar of Eisenach, who 
 had been his faithful adviser during his 
 abode in that town. Luther wrote to 
 him on the 22d of April : this is the 
 earliest letter extant of the Reformer. 
 It is addressed : " To John Braun, holy 
 and venerable priest of Christ and of 
 Mary." 
 
 It is only in the two earliest-letters of 
 Luther that the name of the Virgin oc- 
 curs. 
 
 " God, who is glorious and holy in all 
 his Avorks," said the candidate for the 
 priesthood, " having condescended to 
 raise me up, who am but a wretched 
 man, and in every way an unworthy 
 sinner, and to call me, by his alone and 
 most free mercy, to his high and holy 
 ministry, I, that I may testify my grati- 
 tude for goodness so divine and munifi- 
 cent, ought (as far as dust and ashes can) 
 to fulfil, with all my heart, the office 
 entrusted to me. 
 
 " For this cause, my beloved father, 
 lord, and brother, I ask you, if you have 
 time, and your ecclesiastical and domestic 
 affairs allow it, to deign to assist me by 
 your presence and your prayers, that my 
 sacrifice may be acceptable in the sisrht 
 of God. 
 
 * Keil, p. 16. 
 
 " But I give you notice, that you must 
 come straight to our monastery, and 
 spend some time with us, without seek- 
 ing any other. lodging ; you must become 
 an inhabitant of our cells." 
 ■ At length the day arrived. The miner 
 of Mansfeld did not fail to be present at 
 the consecration of his son. He even 
 gave him an unequivocal proof of his 
 affection and generosity, by making him 
 a present on this occasion, of twenty 
 florins. 
 
 The ceremony took place. Jerome, 
 bishop of Brandenburg, officiated. At 
 the moment in which he conferred upon 
 Luther the power of celebrating the 
 mass, he put the cup into his hand, and 
 addressed him in these solemn words : 
 " Accipe potestatem sacrificandi pro vivis 
 et mortuis — Receive the power of offer- 
 ing sacrifice for the living and the dead." 
 Luther, at that moment, listened calmly 
 to these words, which granted him power 
 to do the work of the Son of God him- 
 self; but, at a later period, they made 
 him shudder. " That the earth did not 
 then swallow us both up, says he, " was 
 an instance of the patience and long-suf- 
 fering of the Lord."* 
 
 His father»afterwards dined in the con- 
 vent with his son, the friends of the young 
 priest, and the monks. The conversa- 
 tion turned on Martin's entrance into the 
 cloister. The brethren commended it as 
 a highly meritorious action ; on which 
 the inflexible John, turning to them, re- 
 marked : " Have you not read in the 
 Scripture, that it is a duty to obey father 
 and mother'?" These words struck Lu- 
 ther. They exhibited the action which 
 brought him into the convent in a totally 
 different light ; and long afterwards they 
 resounded in his heart. 
 
 Luther, after his consecration, acting 
 by the advice of Staupitz, made several 
 short excursions on foot to the parishes 
 and convents of the environs ; either to 
 occupy his mind, or for the sake of ne- 
 cessary exercise ; or else to accustom 
 himself to preaching. 
 
 It had been appointed that Corpus- 
 Christi should be kept with much cere- 
 mony at Eisleben. The Vicar-general 
 was to be present : Luther attended. He 
 still felt his need of Staupitz, and took 
 every opportunity of being in the com- 
 * L. Opp. xvi. (W.) 1144. 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 70 
 
 pany of that enlightened guide, who 
 helped forward his soul in the way of 
 life. The procession was numerous and 
 gaudy. Staupitz himself carried the 
 host: — Luther followed next, in his 
 priestly garments. The thought that 
 Jesus Christ himself was borne before 
 him by the Vicar-general, — the idea that 
 the Lord in person was present, — sud- 
 denly struck upon Luther's imagination, 
 and so overawed him, that it was with 
 difficulty he went forward : a cold sweat 
 came over him ; he staggered, and 
 thought he should die in the agony of 
 his fear : — at last, the procession stopped. 
 The host, which had awakened the 
 monk's terrors, was reverently deposited 
 in the sacristy, and Luther, left alone 
 with Staupitz, threw himself into his 
 arms, and confessed the cause of his fear. 
 Then the Vicar-general, who had long 
 known that gracious Saviour who breaks 
 not the bruised reed, gently whispered ! 
 — u Dear brother, it was not Jesus Christ ; 
 for Christ does not terrify ; he ever com- 
 forts."* 
 
 Luther was not destined to remain 
 hidden in an obscure convent. The 
 time had arrived which was to transfer 
 him to a wider theatre. Staupitz, with 
 Avhom he still maintained a regular cor- 
 respondence, was well persuaded that 
 there was in the young monk a spirit 
 too stirring to be confined within a nar- 
 row range. He spoke of him to Frede- 
 ric, the Elector of Saxony ; and that en- 
 lightened prince invited Luther, in 1508, 
 probably near the close of that year, to 
 become professor of the University of 
 Wittemberg. Wittemberg was the field 
 on which Luther was ordained to fight 
 many a hard battle. He felt himself 
 called thither. He was pressed to repair 
 quickly to his new post. He answered 
 the call immediately ; and in the haste 
 of his removal, he had not time even to 
 write to one whom he called his master 
 and well-beloved father, the curate of 
 Eisenach, John Braun. He wrote to 
 him from Wittemberg, a few months 
 after: "My departure was so sudden," 
 said he, " that it was almost unknown to 
 those with whom I was living. It is 
 true, I am at a greater distance, but the 
 
 * Es ist nicht Christus, denn Christus schreckt 
 nicht, sondern trostet nur. — (L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 
 p. 513, & 724.) 
 
 better half of me remains still with you ; 
 and the further I am removed in bodily 
 presence, the more closely my spirit is 
 drawn to you."* Luther had been three 
 years in the cloister of Erfurth. 
 
 Arriving at AVittcmberg, he repaired 
 to the convent of the Augustim s, Where 
 a cell was assigned him ; for though a 
 professor, he ceased not to be a monk. 
 He Avas appointed to teach physics and 
 dialectics. This appointment was pro- 
 bably conferred upon him in considera- 
 tion of his philosophical studies at Er- 
 furth, and his degree of Master of Arts. 
 Thus Luther, who was then hungering 
 and thirsting for the word of God, was 
 obliged to apply himself almost exclu- 
 sively to the scholastic philosophy of 
 Aristotle. He felt the need of that bread 
 of life which God gives to the world ; 
 and he was forced to bury himself in 
 mere human subtleties. Hard necessity ! 
 how did he sigh under it ! "I am very 
 well, by God's favour," wrote he to 
 Braun, " but that I am compelled to 
 give my whole attention to philosophy. 
 From the moment of my arrival at Wit- 
 temberg, I have longed to exchange that 
 study for theology ; but," added he, lest 
 he should be thought to mean the theol- 
 ogy of that age, " I mean that theology 
 which seeks the kernel of the nut, the 
 pulp of the wheat, the marrow of the 
 bone.f However things may go, God 
 is God," continued he, with that confi- 
 dence which was the life of his soul, 
 " man almost always errs in his judg- 
 ment ; but this is our God for ever and 
 ever: he will be our guide unto death." 
 The labours that were then imposed 
 upon Luther were at a later period of 
 great use in enabling him to combat the 
 errors of the schools. 
 
 He could not rest there. The desire 
 of his heart was destined to be fulfilled. 
 That same power, which some years be- 
 fore had driven Luther from the bar to 
 a religious life, now impelled him to the 
 Bible. He applied himself zealously to 
 the study of the ancient languages, espe- 
 cially the Greek and Hebrew, that he 
 might draw knowledge and doctrine 
 from the fountain head. He was, through 
 
 * Epp. i. p. 5.— 17th March, 1509. 
 
 t Theologia quae nucleum nucis et medullam 
 tritici et medullam ossium scrutatur. — (L. Epp 
 i.6.) 
 
80 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 life, indefatigable in his studies.* Some 
 months after his arrival at the university 
 he solicited the degree of Bachelor in 
 Divinity. He obtained it at the end of 
 March, 1509, with a particular direction 
 to Biblical theology. 
 
 Every day, at one o'clock, Luther was 
 expected to discourse upon the Bible ; a 
 precious hour for the professor and the 
 pupils, and which always gave them 
 deeper insight into the divine sense of 
 those discoveries so long lost to the peo- 
 ple and to the schools. 
 
 He began these lectures by explaining 
 the Psalms, and he soon passed to the 
 Epistle to the Romans. It was espe- 
 cially in meditating upon this book that 
 the light of truth entered his heart. In 
 the retirement of his tranquil cell, he de- 
 voted whole hours to the study of the 
 divine word, with St. Paul's Epistle 
 open before him. One day, having pro- 
 ceeded as far as the 17th verse of the 
 first chapter, he there read this passage 
 of the prophet Habakkuk : " The just 
 shall live by faith." The precept strikes 
 him. There is then for the just another 
 life than that possessed by the rest of 
 men ; and this life is the fruit of faith. 
 This word, which he receives into his 
 heart as if God himself had planted it 
 there, discloses to him the mystery of the 
 Christian life, and increases that life in 
 his soul. In the midst of his struggles 
 in after life, the words often recurred to 
 him, " The just shall live by faith."f 
 
 The lectures of Luther, with such a 
 preparation, were very different from any 
 that had been heard before. It was not 
 now an eloquent rhetorician, or a pedan- 
 tic schoolman who spoke ; it was a Chris- 
 tian who had experienced the power of 
 revealed truths ; who derived them from 
 the Bible, who drew them from the treas- 
 ury of his own heart, and presented them 
 in full life to his astonished auditors. 
 It was no longer man's teaching, but 
 God's. 
 
 This altogether new way of exhibit- 
 ing the truth made some noise : the ru- 
 mour of it spread far, and attracted to the 
 newly founded university a crowd of 
 young and foreign students. Several 
 even of the professors attended Luther's 
 
 * In studiis litterarum corpore ac mente inde- 
 fessua. — (Pallavicini Hist. Concil. Trid. 1. p. 16.) 
 t Seckend. p. 55. 
 
 lectures, and amongst others, the cele- 
 brated Martin Pollich of Mellerstadt, 
 doctor of physic, law, and philosophy, 
 who, with Staupitz, nad organized the 
 University of Wittemberg, and had been 
 its first rector. Mellerstadt, who has 
 been often called " the light of the 
 world," modestly mixed with the pupils 
 of the new professor. " This monk," 
 said he, " will put all doctors to the rout ; 
 he will introduce a new style of doctrine, 
 and will reform the whole Church : he 
 builds upon the word of Christ ; and no 
 one in this world can either resist or 
 overthrow that word, though it should 
 be attacked with all the weapons of 
 Philosophers, Sophists, Scotists, Albert- 
 ists, and Thomists."* 
 
 Staupitz, who was as the hand of Pro- 
 vidence to develop the gifts and treasures 
 that lay hidden in Luther, invited him 
 to preach in the church of the Augus- 
 tines. The young professor shrunk from 
 this proposal. He wished to confine 
 himself to his academical duties ; he 
 trembled at the thought of adding to 
 them those of public preaching. In vain 
 Staupitz entreated him : " No, no," re- 
 plied he, " it is no light thing to speak 
 to men in God's stead, "f An affecting 
 instance of humility in this great Refor- 
 mer of the Church ! Staupitz persisted. 
 " But the ingenious Luther found," says 
 one of his historians, " fifteen arguments, 
 pretexts or evasions, to excuse himself 
 from this summons." At last the chief 
 of the Augustines, still persevering in his 
 application : " Ah, worthy doctor," said 
 Luther, " it would be the death of me. 
 I could not stand it three months." " And 
 what then," replied the Vicar-general ; 
 " in God's name so be it ; for in heaven 
 also the Lord requires devoted and able 
 servants." Luther was obliged to yield. 
 
 In the middle of the square of Wit- 
 temberg stood an old wooden chapel, 
 thirty feet long and twenty broad, whose 
 walls, propped on all sides, were falling 
 to ruins. A pulpit made of planks, 
 raised three feet above the ground, re- 
 ceived the preacher. It was in thia 
 chapel that the Reformation was first 
 preached. It was the will of God that 
 this work for the restoration of his glory 
 
 * Melch. Adam. Vita Lutheri, p. 104. 
 t Fabricius, Centifolium Lutheri, p. 33. — Ma- 
 thesius, p. 6. 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER 81 
 
 should have the humblest beginnings. 
 The foundation of the church of the 
 Augustines was only just laid, and till it 
 should be completed they made use of 
 this mean place of worship. " That 
 building," adds the contemporary of Lu- 
 ther, who relates these circumstances, 
 " may be aptly compared to the stable in 
 which Christ was born.* It was in that 
 enclosure that God willed, if we may so 
 speak, that his well-beloved Son should 
 be born a second time. Amongst the 
 thousand cathedrals and parish churches 
 with which the world is filled, not one 
 was chosen for the glorious announce- 
 ment of everlasting life." 
 
 Luther preached: every thing was 
 striking in the new preacher. His ex- 
 pressive countenance and dignified de- 
 meanour, his clear and sonorous voice, 
 charmed the audience. Before his time, 
 the greater number of preachers had 
 sought to amuse their hearers rather than 
 to convert them. The deep seriousness 
 that marked the preaching of Luther, 
 and the joy with which the knowledge 
 of the Gospel filled his own heart, gave 
 to his eloquence an authority, energy, 
 and unction which none of his predeces- 
 sors had possessed. " Gifted with a 
 ready and lively intelligence," says one 
 of his adversaries,! "having a retentive 
 memory, and speaking his mother tongue 
 with remarkable fluency, Luther was 
 surpassed in eloquence by none of his 
 contemporaries. Addressing his hearers 
 fxom his place in the pulpit, as if he had 
 been agitated by some powerful passion, 
 and adapting his action to the words, he 
 affected their minds in a surprising man- 
 ner, and carried them like a torrent 
 whither he would. So much power, ac- 
 tion, and eloquence are rarely found 
 amongst the people of the north." " He 
 had," says Bossuet, " a lively and im- 
 petuous eloquence, which delighted and 
 captivated his auditory. "| 
 
 In a short time the little chapel could 
 no longer contain the crowds that flocked 
 thither. The council of Wittemberg 
 then chose Luther for their preacher, 
 and called upon him to preach in the 
 church of that city. The impression 
 which he there produced was still greater. 
 
 * Myconius. 
 
 t Florimond Raymond, Hist, hares, cap. 5. 
 t Bossuet, Hist, des Variations, 1. 1. 
 11 
 
 His wonderful genius, his eloquent style, 
 ami the excellency of the doctrines he 
 proclaimed, equally astonished his audi- 
 tors. His reputation spread far and wide, 
 and Frederic the Wise himself came 
 once to Wittemberg to hear him. 
 
 It was as if a new existence was open- 
 ing for Luther. To the drowsiness of 
 the cloister had succeeded a life of active 
 exertion. Freedom, employment, earn- 
 est and regular action completed the &- 
 establishment of harmony and peace in 
 his spirit. He was now at last in his 
 proper place, and the work of God was 
 about to open out its majestic course. 
 Luther was continuing his teaching both 
 in the hall of the academy and in the 
 church, when he was interrupted in his 
 labours. In 1510, or according to some, 
 not till 1511 or 1512, he was despatched 
 to Rome. A difference had arisen be- 
 tween seven convents of his order and the 
 Vicar-general.* Luther's acuteness, elo- 
 quence, and talents in discussion led to 
 his being chosen to represent these seven 
 monasteries-! This dispensation of di- 
 vine Providence was needed. It was fit 
 that Luther should know what Rome 
 was. Full of the prejudices and illu- 
 sions of the cloister, he had always pic- 
 tured it to himself as the seat of holiness. 
 He set out ; he crossed the Alps. But 
 hardly had he descended into the plains 
 of rich and voluptuous Italy than he 
 found at every step matter of surprise 
 and scandal. The poor German monk 
 was entertained at a wealthy convent of 
 the Benedictines, situate on the Po, in 
 Lombardy. This convent enjoyed a re- 
 venue of thirty-six thousand ducats; 
 twelve thousand were spent for the table, 
 twelve thousand on the buildings, and 
 twelve thousand to supply the other 
 wants of the monks J: The magnifi- 
 cence of the apartments, the richness of 
 the dresses, and the delicacy of the vi- 
 ands, astonished Luther. Marble, silk, 
 and luxury of every kind ; what a novel 
 spectacle to the humble brother of the 
 convent of Wittemberg ! He was amazed 
 and silent ; but Friday came, and what 
 was bis surprise ! The table of the Bene- 
 
 * Quod septera conventus a vicario in quibus- 
 dam dissentirent. — (Cochlreus, 2.) 
 
 t Quod esset acer ingenio et ad contradiceo- 
 dum audax et vehemens. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t L. Opp. (W.) xxii. p. 1468. 
 
82 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 dictines was spread with abundance 
 of meats. Then he found courage to 
 speak out. " The Church," said he, " and 
 the Pope forbid such things." The Bene- 
 dictines were offended at this rebuke 
 from the unmannerly German. But 
 Luther, having repeated his remark, and 
 perhaps threatened to report their irregu- 
 larity, some of them thought it easiest to 
 get rid of their troublesome guest. The 
 porter of the convent hinted to him that 
 he incurred danger by his stay. He ac- 
 cordingly took his departure from this 
 epicurean monastery, and pursued his 
 journey to Bologna, where he fell sick.* 
 Some have seen in this sickness the ef- 
 fect of poison. It is more probable that 
 the change in his mode of living disor- 
 dered the frugal monk of Wittemberg, 
 who had been used to subsist for the most 
 part on dry bread and herrings. This 
 sickness was not " unto death," but for 
 the glory of God. His constitutional 
 sadness and depression returned. What 
 a fate was before him, to perish thus far 
 away from Germany, under a scorching 
 sun, in a foreign land. The distress of 
 mind he had experienced at Erfurth 
 again oppressed him. A sense of his 
 sins disturbed him ; and the prospect of 
 the judgment of God, filled him with 
 dismay. But in the moment when his 
 terror was at its height that word of 
 Paul, " The just shall live by Faith" re- 
 curred with power to his thought, and 
 beamed upon his soul like a ray from 
 heaven. Raised and comforted, he ra- 
 pidly regained health, and again set 
 forth for Rome, expecting to find there a 
 very different manner of life from that 
 of the Lombard convents, and eager to ef- 
 face, by the contemplation of Roman 
 sanctity, the sad impression left upon his 
 memory by his sojourn on the banks of 
 the Po. 
 
 At last, after a fatiguing journey under 
 the burning sun of Italy, he approached 
 the seven-hilled city. His heart was 
 moved within him. His eyes longed to 
 behold the queen of the earth and of the 
 Church ! As soon as he discovered from 
 a distance the Eternal City, — the city of 
 St. Peter and St. Paul, the metropolis 
 of the Catholic World, he threw himself 
 on the earth, exclaiming, " Holy Rome, 
 I salute thee !" 
 
 * Matth. Dresser Hist Lutheri. 
 
 Luther was now in Rome ; the profes- 
 sor of Wittemberg was in the midst of the 
 eloquent ruins of the Rome of Consuls 
 and of Emperors, the Rome of Confes- 
 sors of Christ and of Martyrs. There 
 had lived Plautus and Virgil, whose 
 works he had carried with him into his 
 cloister ; and all those great men whose 
 history had so often stirred his heart. 
 He beheld their statues, and the ruined 
 monuments which still attested their 
 glory. But, all this glory and power 
 had passed away. He trod under foot 
 the dust of them. He called to mind, at 
 every step he took, the melancholy pre- 
 sentiments of Scipio, when, shedding 
 tears over the ruins of Carthage, its pa- 
 laces in flames, and its walls broken 
 down, he exclaimed : " It will one day 
 be thus with Rome !" " And truly," said 
 Luther, " the Rome of Scipios and Cae- 
 sars is but a corpse. There are such 
 heaps of ruin that the foundations of the 
 houses rest at this hour where once their 
 roofs were. There" said he, turning a 
 melancholy look on its ruins, " there 
 were once the riches and treasures of 
 this world !"* All these fragments of 
 wreck which his foot encountered whis- 
 pered to Luther, within Rome herself, 
 that what is strongest in the sight of 
 men may be destroyed by the breath of 
 the Lord. 
 
 But with these profaner ruins were 
 mixed holy ashes : the thought of this 
 came to his mind. The burial places 
 of the martyrs are hard by those of Ro- 
 man generals and conquerors. Christian 
 Rome and her trials, had more power 
 over the heart of the Saxon monk, than 
 Pagan Rome with all her glory. In 
 this very place arrived that epistle where- 
 in Paul wrote, " the just shall live by 
 faith." He is not far from the forum of 
 Appius, and the Three Taverns. In that 
 spot was the house of Narcissus ; here 
 stood the palace of Caesar, where the 
 Lord delivered the Apostle from the jaws 
 of the lion. Oh, how did these recollec- 
 tions strengthen the heart of the monk of 
 Wittemberg ! 
 
 Rome then presented a widely differ- 
 ent aspect. The warlike Julius II. filled 
 the pontifical chair, and not Leo X. as 
 some distinguished historians of Germany 
 have said, doubtless for want of attention. 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 2374, 2377. 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 83 
 
 Luther often related an incident of this 
 Pope's life. When the news was brought 
 him that his army had been defeated by 
 the French .before Ravenna, he was read- 
 ing his prayers ; he threw the book on 
 the floor, exclaiming with a dreadful 
 oath, " Well, now thou art become a 
 Frenchman. — Is it thus thou guardest 
 thy church V Then, turning himself in 
 the direction of the country to whose 
 arms he thought to have recourse, he 
 uttered these words, " Holy Swiss ! pray 
 for us."* Ignorance, levity, and disso- 
 lute morals, a profane contempt of every 
 thing sacred, and a shameful traffic in 
 divine things ; such was the spectacle 
 presented by this wretched city. ( Yet 
 the pious monk continued for a while in 
 his illusions. 
 
 Having arrived about the period of 
 the festival of St. John, he heard the 
 Romans repeating around him a proverb 
 current among the people : " Blessed is 
 that mother," said they, " whose son says 
 mass on St. John's eve." Oh, thought 
 Luther, how gladly would I make my 
 mother blessed. The pious son of Mar- 
 garet made some attempts to say mass 
 on that day, but he could not, the crowd 
 was too great, f 
 
 Warm in his feeling, and confiding in 
 disposition, he visited all the churches 
 and chapels, gave credit to all the mar- 
 vellous stories there told him, went 
 through with devotion the observances 
 required, and was pleased at being able 
 to perform so many pious acts, from 
 which his friends at home were debarred. 
 " How do I regret," thought the pious 
 monk, " that my father and mother are 
 still living : how happy should I be to 
 deliver them from the fire of purgatory 
 by my masses, my prayers, and other 
 admirable works."| He had found the 
 light ; but the darkness was far from be- 
 ing wholly chased from his mind ; he 
 had the faith and love of the Gospel, 
 but not the knowledge of it. It was no 
 easy matter to emerge from that deep 
 gloom that had for so many ages over- 
 spread the earth. 
 
 Luther said mass several times at 
 Rome. He went through it with all 
 * Sancte Swizere ! ora pro nobis.— (L. Opp. 
 (W.) xxii. 1314, 1332.) 
 
 t L. Opp. (W.) Dedication of the 117 Psm. 
 VI. vol. L. g. 
 X Ibid. 
 
 the unction and dignity that such an act 
 seemed to him to require. But how was 
 the heart of the Saxon monk distressed, 
 when he saw the profane and heartless 
 formality with which the Roman clergy 
 celebrated this Sacrament ! The priests, 
 on their part, laughed at his simplicity. 
 One day, when he was officiating, he 
 found that at the altar they had read 
 seven masses while he was reading one. 
 "Quick! quick!" said one of the priests, 
 " send Our Lady her Son back speed- 
 ily ;" — thus impiously alluding to the 
 transubstantiation of the bread into the 
 body and blood of Christ. Another time 
 Luther had only got as far as the Gos- 
 pel, when the priest who was at his side 
 had already finished the mass : " Make 
 haste, make haste !" whispered the lat- 
 ter, "do have done with it."* 
 
 His astonishment was still greater, 
 when he found, in the dignitaries of the 
 Church, the same corruption he had ob- 
 served in the inferior clergy. He had 
 hoped better things of them. 
 
 It was the fashion at the papal court 
 to attack Christianity ; and a person was 
 not counted a man of sense, if he did not 
 hold some eccentric and heretical opinion 
 in relation to the dogmas of the Church. f 
 Some would have convinced Erasmus, 
 by certain passages from Pliny, that 
 there was no difference between the 
 souls of men and of beasts ; and there 
 were young courtiers of the Pope, who 
 affirmed that the orthodox faith was the 
 growth of the cunning invention of the 
 saints. 
 
 Luther's office of envoy from the Au- 
 gustines of Germany, procured him invi- 
 tations to several meetings of distinguished 
 ecclesiastics. One day, in particular, he 
 was at table with several prelates : the 
 latter exhibited openly their buffoonery 
 in manners and impious conversation ; 
 and did not scruple to give utterance be- 
 fore him to many indecent jokes, doubt- 
 less thinking him one like themselves. 
 They related, amongst other things, 
 laughing, and priding themselves upon 
 it, how when saying mass at the altar, 
 instead of the sacramental words which 
 were to transform the elements into the 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xix. von der Winkelnesse, &c 
 
 t In quel tempo non pareva fosse galantuomo 
 
 e buon cortegiano colui che de dogmi della chiesa 
 
 non aveva qualche opinion erronea ed heretica. 
 
 —(CaracciolaVit.MS. Paul IV.) cited by Rancke. 
 
84 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 body and blood of the Saviour, they pro- 
 nounced over the bread and wine these 
 sarcastic words : " Bread thou art, and 
 bread thou shalt remain ; wine thou art, 
 and wine thou shalt remain — Panis es 
 et panis manebis ; vinum es et vinum 
 manebis." "Then," continued they, "we 
 elevate the pyx, and all the people wor- 
 ship." Luther could scarcely believe, his 
 ears. His mind, gifted with much viva- 
 city, and even gaiety, in the society of 
 his friends, was remarkable for gravity 
 when treating of serious things. These 
 Romish mockeries shocked him. " I," 
 says he, " was a serious and pious young 
 monk ; such language deeply grieved 
 me. If at Rome they speak thus openly 
 at table, thought I, what, if their actions 
 should correspond with their words, and 
 popes, cardinals, and courtiers should 
 thus say mass. And I, who have so often 
 heard them recite it so devoutly, how, in 
 that case, must I have been deceived ?" 
 Luther often mixed with the monks 
 and citizens of Rome. If some amongst 
 them extolled the Pope and the clergy, 
 the greater number gave free vent to 
 their complaints and sarcasms. What 
 stories had they to tell of the reigning 
 Pope, of Alexander VI., and of so many 
 others ! One day, his Roman friends 
 related, how Ccesar Borgia having fled 
 from Rome, had been taken in Spain. 
 On the eve of trial, he prayed for mercy, 
 and asked for a priest to visit him in his 
 prison. They sent him a monk. He 
 murdered him, disguised himself in his 
 cowl, and effected his escape. " I heard 
 that at Rome : it is a thing well known," 
 says Luther.* Another day, passing 
 along the principal street that led to St. 
 Peter's church, he stopped in astonish- 
 ment before a statue, representing a 
 pope, under the figure of a woman hold- 
 ing a sceptre, clothed in the papal mantle, 
 bearing a child in her arms. " It is a 
 girl of Mentz," said the people, " who 
 was chosen Pope by the cardinals, and 
 was delivered of a child on this spot : 
 therefore no pope ever passes through 
 this street." " I wonder," observed Lu- 
 ther, " that the popes allow the statue to 
 remain."! 
 
 * Das habe ich zu Rom, fur gewiss gehort, — 
 (Table Talk, p. 1322.) 
 
 t Es nimmt mich * Wunder dass die Pabste 
 solches Bild leiden kdnnen ! — (Ibid. p. 1320.) 
 
 Luther had expected to find the edifice 
 of the church encompassed with splen- 
 dour and strength ; but its doors were 
 broken in, and its walls consumed by 
 fire. He saw the desolation of the sanc- 
 tuary, and drew back in alarm. He had 
 dreamed of sanctity ; he found nothing 
 but profanation. 
 
 He was not less struck with the disor- 
 ders committed in the city. " The po- 
 lice is strict and severe in Rome," said 
 he. " The judge, or captain rides 
 through the city every night, with three 
 hundred attendants. He stops all he 
 finds in the streets ; if he meets an 
 armed man, he hangs him, or throws 
 him into the Tiber. And yet the city is 
 full of disorders and murders ; whilst, in 
 places where the word of God is truly 
 and faithfully preached, we see peace 
 and order prevail, without the necessity 
 for law or severity."* " It is incredible 
 what sins and atrocities are committed in 
 Rome," he says again ; " they must be 
 seen and heard to be believed. So that 
 it. is usual to say : ' If there be a hell, 
 Rome is built above it ; it is an abyss 
 from whence all sins proceed.' "f 
 
 This sight made, at the time, a great 
 impression on Luther's mind ; an im- 
 pression which Avas afterwards deepened. 
 " The nearer we approach to Rome, the 
 greater number of bad Christians do we 
 find," said he, several years after. " It is 
 commonly observed, that he who goes 
 to Rome for the first time, goes to seek 
 a knave there ; the second time, he finds 
 him ; and the third time, he brings him 
 away with him under his cloak. But 
 now, people are become so clever, that 
 they make the three journeys in one." J; 
 One of the most profound geniuses of 
 Italy, though of deplorable celebrity, 
 Macchiavelli, who was living at Flo- 
 rence when Luther passed through that 
 city to go to Rome, has made a similar 
 remark : " The greatest symptom," said 
 he, " of the approaching ruin of Chris- 
 tianity, (by which he meant the Roman 
 Catholic religion,) is, that the nearer we 
 approach the capital of Christendom, the 
 less do we find of the Christian spirit in 
 the people. The scandalous example 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxii. p. 2376. 
 t Address to the Christian Nobles of Germany. 
 t 1st irgend eine Haelle, so muss Rom darauf 
 gebaut seyn.— (lb. 2377.) 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 85 
 
 and the crimes of the court of Rome 
 have caused Italy to lose every principle 
 of piety, and every religious sentiment." 
 " We Italians," continues the great his- 
 torian, " are principally indebted to the 
 Church and to the priests, for having be- 
 come impious and profligate."* Luther 
 felt, later in life, all the importance of 
 this journey : "If any one would give me 
 a hundred thousand florins," said he, " I 
 wo^ld not have missed seeing Rome."f 
 
 This journey was also of advantage 
 to him ir* regard to learning. Like 
 Reuchlin, Luther profited by his resi- 
 dence in Italy, to obtain a deeper under- 
 standing of the Holy Scriptures. He 
 there took lessons in Hebrew from a 
 celebrated rabbin, named Elias Levita. 
 He acquired partly at Rome the know- 
 ledge of that divine word under the as- 
 sault of which Rome was doomed to 
 fall. 
 
 But this journey was above all of 
 great importance to Luther in another 
 respect. Not only was the veil with- 
 drawn, and the sardonic laugh, the 
 jesting incredulity, which lay concealed 
 behind the Romish superstitions, re- 
 vealed to the future Reformer : but also 
 the living faith which God had im- 
 planted in him was then powerfully 
 strengthened. 
 
 We have seen how he had at first 
 submitted to all the vain practices which 
 the church enjoins in order to purchase 
 the remission of sins. One day, in par- 
 ticular, wishing to obtain an indulgence 
 promised by the Pope to any one who 
 should ascend on his knees what is 
 called Pilate's staircase, the poor Saxon 
 monk was slowly climbing those steps 
 which they told him had been miracu- 
 lously transported from Jerusalem to 
 Rome. But, whilst he was going 
 through this meritorious work, he 
 thought he heard a voice like thunder, 
 speaking from the depth of his heart: 
 " The just shall live by faith." These 
 words, which already on two occasions 
 had struck upon his ear as the voice of 
 an angel of God, resounded instantane- 
 ously, and powerfully within him. He 
 started up in terror on the steps up 
 which he had been crawling ; he was 
 horrified at himself; and, struck with 
 
 * Dist. on the 1st Decade of Livy. 
 t L. Opp. (W.) xxii. p. 2374. 
 
 shame for the degradation to which su- 
 perstition had debased him, he fled from 
 the scene of his folly.* 
 
 This powerful text had a mysterious 
 influence on the life of Luther. It was 
 a creative word for the Reformer and for 
 the Reformation. It was by means of 
 that word that God then said : " Let there 
 be light, and there was light." 
 
 It is frequently necessary that a truth 
 should be repeatedly presented to our 
 minds, in order to produce its due effect. 
 Luther had often studied the Epistle to 
 the Romans, and yet never had justifica- 
 tion by faith, as there taught, appeared 
 so clear to him. He now understood 
 that righteousness which alone can 
 stand in the sight of God ; he was now 
 partaker of that perfect obedience of 
 Christ which God imputes freely to the 
 sinner as soon as he looks in humility to 
 the God-man crucified. This was the 
 decisive epoch in the inward life of Lu- 
 ther. That faith which had saved him 
 from the fear of death became hencefor- 
 ward the soul of his theology ; a strong 
 hold in every danger, giving power to 
 his preaching, and strength to his charity, 
 constituting a ground of peace, a motive 
 to service, and a consolation in life and 
 death. 
 
 But this great doctrine of a salvation 
 which proceeds from God and not from 
 man, was not merely the power of God 
 unto salvation to Luther, it also became 
 the power of God to reform the Church. 
 It was the same -weapon which the 
 Apostles had once wielded, and now, 
 after long disuse, it was drawn forth in 
 its original brightness from the arsenal 
 of Almighty God. At the moment 
 when Luther started from his knees, 
 transported with emotion at that word 
 which St. Paul had addressed to the in- 
 habitants of Rome, the truth, hitherto 
 held captive and fettered in the Church, 
 stood up also to fall no more. 
 
 We must here quote his own words. 
 " Though as a monk I was holy and ir- 
 reproachable," says he, " my conscience 
 was still filled with trouble and torment. 
 I could not endure the expression — the 
 righteous justice of God. I did not love 
 that just and holy Being who punishes 
 sinners. I felt a secret anger against 
 him ; I hated him because, not satisfied 
 * Seek p. 56. 
 
86 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 with terrifying by his law, and by th? mise- 
 ries of life, poor creatures, already ruined 
 by original sin, he aggravated our suf- 
 ferings by the Gospel. But when by 
 the Spirit of God, I understood these 
 words, — when I learnt how the justifica- 
 tion of the sinner proceeds from God's 
 mere mercy by the way of faith,* — then 
 I felt myself born again as a new man, 
 and I entered by an opened door into 
 the very paradise of God.f From that 
 hour I saw the precious and holy Scrip- 
 tures with new eyes. I went through 
 the whole Bible. I collected a multi- 
 tude of passages which taught me what 
 the work of God was. And as I had 
 before heartily hated that expression, 
 ' the righteousness of God,' I began 
 from that time to value and to love it, as 
 the sweetest and most consolatory truth. 
 Truly this text of St. Paul was to me as 
 the very gate of heaven." 
 
 Hence it was, that when he was 
 called upon on some solemn occasions 
 to confess this doctrine, it ever roused his 
 enthusiasm and rough eloquence. " I 
 see," said he in a critical moment,! 
 " that the devil, by means of his teachers 
 and doctors, is incessantly attacking this 
 fundamental article, and that he cannot 
 rest to cease from this object. Well, 
 then, I, Doctor Martin Luther, an un- 
 worthy evangelist of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, do confess this article, ' that faith 
 alone, Avithout works, justifies in the 
 sight of God, and I declare, that in spite 
 of the emperor of the Romans, the em- 
 peror of the Turks, the emperor of the 
 Tartars, the emperor of the Persians, the 
 Pope, all the cardinals, bishops, priests, 
 monks, nuns, kings, princes, nobles, all 
 the world, and all the devils, it shall 
 stand unshaken for ever ! that if they 
 will persist in opposing this truth, they 
 will draw upon their heads the flames 
 of hell. This is the true and holy gos- 
 pel, and the declaration of me, Doctor 
 Luther, according to the light given to 
 
 me by the Holy Spirit There 
 
 is no one," he continues, " who has died 
 for our sins, but Jesus Christ the Son of 
 
 * Qua vos Deusmisericorsjustifieat perfidem. 
 — (L. Opp. lat.) 
 
 t Hie me prorsus renatum esse sensi et apertis 
 portis in ipsum paradisum intrasse. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Gloss on the (Imperial Edict, 1531. — (L. 
 Opp. (L.) torn, xx.) 
 
 God. I repeat it once more : let all the 
 evil spirits of earth and hell foam and 
 rage as they will, this is nevertheless 
 true. And if Christ alone takes away 
 sin, we can not do so by all our works. 
 But good works follow redemption, — as 
 surely as fruit appears upon a living 
 tree. This is our doctrine, this the Holy 
 Spirit teacheth, together with all holy 
 Christian people. We hold it in God's 
 name. Amen !" 
 
 It was thus that Luther discovered 
 what hitherto even the most « illustrious 
 teachers and reformers had overlooked. 
 It was in Rome that God gave him this 
 clear view of the fundamental doctrine 
 of Christianity. He had come to seek 
 in that city of the Pontiffs, the solution 
 of some difficulties concerning a monastic 
 order ; he brought back in his heart, 
 that which was to emancipate the 
 Church. 
 
 Luther left Rome and returned to 
 Wittemberg, full of grief and indigna- 
 tion. Turning away his eyes in disgust 
 from the pontifical city, he directed 
 them trustfully to the Holy Scriptures, 
 and to that new life which the word of 
 God seemed then to offer to the world. 
 This word gained ground in his heart 
 in proportion as the Church lost its hold 
 upon him. He disengaged himself 
 from the one to turn to the other. All 
 the Reformation was comprised in that 
 change ; for it put God in the place the 
 priest had usurped. 
 
 Staupitz and the Elector did not lose 
 sight of the monk they had called to the 
 university of Wittemberg. It seems as 
 if the Vicar-general had a presentiment 
 of the work that was to be accomplished 
 in the world, and that finding it too 
 hard for him, he desired to urge Luther 
 to undertake it. Nothing is more re- 
 markable, or perhaps more inexplicable, 
 than the character of the man who was 
 ever ready to impel the monk onward 
 in the path to which God called him, 
 and yet himself went and ended his 
 days sadly in a convent. The preach- 
 ing of the young professor had made an 
 impression on the prince ; he admired 
 the strength of his understanding, the 
 power of his eloquence, and the excel- 
 lence of the subjects that he handled.* 
 
 * Vim ingenii, nervos orationis, ac rerum boni- 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER 
 
 87 
 
 The Elector and his friends, wishing to 
 promote a man of such great promise 
 resolved to raise him to the distinction 
 of doctor of divinity. Staupitz repaired 
 to the convent. He led Luther into the 
 cloister garden, and there talking Avith 
 him alone under a tree, which Luther 
 afterwards took pleasure in pointing out 
 to his disciples,* the venerable father 
 said to him : " My friend, you must now 
 become Doctor of the Holy Scriptures." 
 Luther drew back. The thought of this 
 distinguished honour overcame him. 
 " Seek one more worthy of it," said he ; 
 "for my part, I cannot consent to it." 
 The Vicar-general pressed the point. 
 " The Lord has much to do in the 
 Church, he requires just now young and 
 vigorous doctors," " This was said per- 
 haps jestingly," adds Melancthon, " yet 
 the event corresponded to it, for usually 
 many presages announce great revolu- 
 tions."! There is no reason to suppose 
 that Melancthon here speaks of pro- 
 phecy, strictly so called. The last cen- 
 tury, though remarkable for incredulity, 
 saw this exemplified : — how many pre- 
 sages, without miracle, preceded the re- 
 volution at the close of that century ! 
 
 " But I am weak and ailing ;" said 
 Luther ; " I have not long to live. 
 Look for a strong man." " The Lord 
 has work in heaven as in earth ; dead 
 or alive, God requires you."J 
 
 " The Holy Spirit alone can make a 
 doctor of divinity," § exclaimed the monk, 
 more and more overcome with fear. 
 "Do as your convent desires," said Stau- 
 pitz, " and what I your Vicar-General 
 require you to do, for you have promised 
 to obey us." " But think of my pov- 
 erty," resumed the friar, " I have no- 
 thing wherewith to pay the expenses in- 
 cident to such a promotion." " Do not 
 make yourself uneasy about that," said 
 his friend, " the prince is so kind as to 
 take the charges upon himself." Urged 
 
 tatem expositarum in concionibus admiratus 
 fuerat.— (Melancthon. Vita. Luth). 
 
 * Unter einem Baum den er mir und andern 
 gezeigt. — (Math. 6.) 
 
 t Malta praecedunt mutationes proesagia. — 
 (Vita Luth.) 
 
 X Ihr lebet nun oder sterbet, so darff euch 
 Gott in seinem Rathe. — (Math. 6.) 
 
 § Neminem nisi Spiritura Sanctum creare 
 posse doctorum theologice. — (Weismanni Hist. 
 Eccles. i. p. 1404.) 
 
 on all sides, Luther was obliged to sub- 
 mit. 
 
 It was toward the summer of 1512, 
 Luther set out for Leipsic to receive from 
 the treasurers of the Elector, the money 
 requisite on his promotion. But, accord- 
 ing to court custom, the money did not 
 arrive. Luther, becoming impatient, 
 wished to depart ; but the obedience be- 
 coming the character of a monk, re- 
 strained him. At last, on the 4th of 
 October, he received from Pfeffinger and 
 John Doltzig, fifty florins. He gave 
 them a receipt, in which he assumed no 
 other designation than monk. " I, Mar- 
 tin," said he, "brother of the order of 
 the Eremites."* Luther hastened back 
 to Wittemberg. 
 
 Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt, was 
 at that time the Dean of the Faculty of 
 Theology. Carlstadt is the name under 
 which this doctor is best known. He 
 was also called the A. B. C. Melanc- 
 thon first gave him that name, alluding 
 to the three initials of his name. Boden- 
 stein acquired in his native country the 
 first elements of education. He was of 
 grave and sombre character — perhaps 
 inclined to jealousy, of unquiet temper, 
 but very eager for learning, and gifted 
 with great capacity. He visited several 
 universities to enlarge his knowledge, 
 and studied theology at Rome itself. On 
 his return from Italy to Germany, he 
 established himself at Wittemberg, and 
 there became doctor of theology. At 
 this time, as he himself afterwards de- 
 clared, he had not read the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, f This trait gives a very just idea 
 of what then constituted theology. Carl- 
 stadt, besides his functions as professor, 
 was canon and archdeacon. This was 
 the man who was, one day, to divide the 
 Reformation. He then saw in Luther 
 only an inferior ; but the Augustine soon 
 became an object of his jealousy. One 
 day he remarked, " I will not be less dis- 
 tinguished than Luther."^ Far from an- 
 ticipating at this time the future great- 
 ness of the young professor, Carlstadt 
 conferred on his destined rival the first 
 degree of the university. 
 
 On the 18th October, 1512, Luther 
 
 * L. Epp. i. 11. 
 
 t Weismann. Hist. Eccles. p. 1416. 
 
 t Weismann. Hist. Eccles. p. 1416. 
 
88 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 was made licentiate in theology, and took 
 the following oath : 
 
 "I swear to defend the truth of the 
 Gospel with all my strength."* The 
 following day, Bodenstein solemnly de- 
 livered to him, in presence of a numer- 
 ous assembly, the insignia of Doctor in 
 Theology. 
 
 He was made Biblical Doctor, and not 
 Doctor of Sentences, and was therefore 
 specially bound to devote himself to the 
 study of the Bible, instead of human tra- 
 ditions. Then it was, as he himself tells 
 us, that he espoused his well-beloved and 
 Holy Scriptures, f He promised to preach 
 them faithfully, to teach them in purity, 
 to study them all his life, and to defend 
 them so far as God should enable him, 
 by disputation, and by writing against 
 false teachers. | 
 
 This solemn vow was to Luther his 
 vocation as a Reformer. Binding upon 
 his conscience the sacred obligation to 
 investigate freely, and declare openly 
 evangelical truth, that oath lifted the 
 new made doctor above the narrow 
 bounds to which his monastic vow 
 might have restricted him. Called by 
 the University, by his Sovereign, in the 
 name of the Imperial Majesty, and of 
 the Roman See itself, and bound before 
 God, by the most sacred of oaths, he was 
 from that time the intrepid herald of the 
 word of life. On that memorable day, 
 Luther was installed Champion of the 
 Bible. 
 
 Therefore it is that this oath, pledged 
 to the holy Scriptures, may be regarded 
 as one of the immediate causes of the 
 revival of the Church. The infallible 
 authority of the word of God was the 
 first and fundamental principle of the 
 Reformation. Every reform in detail, 
 afterwards effected in doctrine, morals, 
 church government, and public worship, 
 was but a consequence of this first prin- 
 ciple. In these days we can hardly 
 imagine the sensation produced by this 
 elementary truth, so simple, yet for ages 
 neglected. A few men, of more enlarged 
 discernment than the vulgar, alone fore- 
 saw its important consequences. Speed- 
 
 * Juro me veritatem evangelicam viriliter de- 
 fensurum. 
 
 t Doctor biblicus non sententiarius. — (Me- 
 lancth.) 
 
 X L. Opp. (W.) xvi. p. 2061— Mathesius, p. 7. 
 
 ily the courageous voices of all the Re- 
 formers proclaimed this powerful princi- 
 ple, at the sound of which the influence 
 of Rome crumbled into the dust : " Chris- 
 tians receive no other doctrines than those 
 which rest on the express words of Christ, 
 the apostles and prophets. No man, nor 
 any assembly of men, has power to pre- 
 scribe new doctrines." 
 
 The situation of Luther was changed. 
 The call he had received became to the 
 Reformer as one of those extraordinary* 
 commissions which the Lord entrusted 
 to prophets under the old dispensation, 
 and to apostles under the new. The 
 solemn engagement he had contracted, 
 made so profound an impression on his 
 soul, that the recollection of this vow 
 sufficed at a later period to comfort him 
 in the midst of the greatest dangers and 
 the rudest conflicts. And when he saw 
 all Europe agitated and disturbed by the 
 doctrine he had proclaimed, — when the 
 accusations of Rome, the reproaches .of 
 many pious men, and the doubts and 
 fears of his own heart (so easily moved,) 
 might have caused him to falter, to fear, 
 and fall into despondency, he called to 
 mind the oath he had taken, and re- 
 mained firm, tranquil, and rejoicing. 
 " I came forward," said he, " in a criti- 
 cal moment, and I put myself into the 
 Lord's hands. Let his will be done. 
 Who asked of him that he would make 
 me a teacher ? If he has made me such, 
 let him support me ; — or if he change 
 his purpose, let him deprive me. This 
 tribulation then does not intimidate me. 
 I seek but one thing — to have his favour 
 in all he calls me to do in his work." 
 Another time he said, " He who under- 
 takes anything without a divine call 
 seeks his own glory. But I, Doctor 
 Martin Luther, was constrained to be- 
 come a Doctor. The Papacy endea- 
 voured to stop me in the discharge of 
 my duty, but you see what has happened 
 to it ; — and much worse shall yet befall 
 it ; they cannot defend themselves against 
 me. By God's help I am resolved to 
 press on, to force a passage through, and 
 trample dragons and vipers under foot. 
 This will begin in my life time, and 
 finish after I am gone."* 
 
 From the hour of this oath Luther no 
 longer sought the truth for himself alone, 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxi. 2061. 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER 
 
 89 
 
 but for the Church. Still retaining- his 
 recollections of Rome, he perceived in- 
 distinctly before him a path in which he 
 purposed to go forward with all the 
 energy of his soul. The spiritual life 
 which hitherto had grown up within 
 him, began to manifest itself in outward 
 action. This was the third period of 
 his progress. His entrance into the con- 
 vent had turned his thoughts towards 
 God ; the knowledge of the remission 
 of sins, and of the righteousness of faith, 
 had delivered his soul from bondage. 
 The oath he had now taken had given 
 him that baptism by fire which constitu- 
 ted him the. Reformer of the Church. 
 
 The first adversaries he attacked were 
 those celebrated schoolmen whom he had 
 studied so deeply, and who then reigned 
 supreme in every university. He ac- 
 cused them of Pelagianism ; boldly op- 
 posing Aristotle (the father of the school) 
 and Thomas Aquinas, he undertook to 
 hurl them from the throne whence they 
 exercised so commanding an influence, 
 the one over philosophy, and the other 
 over theology* 
 
 " Aristotle, Porphyry, the theologians 
 of the Sentences," said he, writing to 
 Lange, " these are the unprofitable study 
 of this age. I desire nothing more ar- 
 dently than to lay open before all eyes 
 this false system, which has tricked the 
 Church, by covering itself with a Greek 
 mask ; and to expose its worthlessness 
 before the world. "f In all his public 
 disputations he was accustomed to repeat 
 — " The writings of the Apostles and 
 Prophets are more certain and sublime 
 than all the sophisms and theology of 
 the schools." Such language was new, 
 but gradually people became familiarized 
 with it ; and about one year after this 
 he was able exultingly to write, " God 
 works amongst us ; our theology and St. 
 Augustine make wonderful progress, and 
 are already paramount in our university. 
 Aristotle is on the wane, and already tot- 
 ters to his fall, which is near at hand 
 and irreversible. The lectures on the 
 Sentences are received with utter dis- 
 
 * Aristotelem in philosophicis, Sanctum Tho- 
 mam in theologicis, evertendos, susceperat. — 
 (Pallav. i. 16.) 
 
 t Perdita studia nostri soeculi. — (Epp. i. 15, 8 
 Feb. 1516.) 
 
 12 
 
 taste. None can hope for hearers unless 
 he profess the scriptural theology."* 
 Happy the university where such testi- 
 mony could be given ! 
 
 At the same time that Luther attacked 
 Aristotle, he took part with Erasmus and 
 Reuchlin against their enemies. He 
 entered into correspondence with those 
 great men, and others of the learned, 
 such as Piickheimer, Mutian, Hiitten, 
 who belonged more or less to the same 
 party. He formed also at this period 
 another friendship, which was yet more 
 important in its influence on his after life. 
 
 There was then at the court of the 
 Elector a person remarkable for wisdom 
 and candour. This was George Spala- 
 tin, a native of Spaltus, or Spalt, in the 
 bishopric of Eichstadt. He had been 
 curate of the village of Hohenkirch, near 
 the forests of Thuringia. He was after- 
 wards chosen by Frederic the Wise as 
 his secretary and chaplain, and private 
 teacher of his nephew, John Frederic, 
 heir of the electoral crown. Spalatin 
 was a man of simple manners, in the 
 midst of a court ; timid in emergencies, 
 and circumspect and prudent as his mas- 
 ter :f contrasting with the energetic Lu- 
 ther, with whom he was in daily com- 
 munication. Like Staupitz, he was fitted 
 rather for peaceable than for stirring- 
 times. Such men are necessary : they 
 are like that soft covering in which we 
 wrap jewels and crystals, to protect them 
 from injury in transporting them from 
 place to place. They seem of no use, 
 and yet without them the precious gems 
 would be broken or lost. Spalatin was 
 not capable of great actions, but he faith- 
 fully and noiselessly discharged the task 
 assigned to him.J He was at first one 
 of the principal aids of his master in col- 
 lecting those relics of the saints of which 
 Frederic was long an amateur. But by 
 slow degrees he, like his master, turned 
 toward the truth. The faith which was 
 then re-appearing in the Church did not 
 suddenly lay hold on him as on Luther, 
 — he was led on by more circuitous 
 paths. He became the friend of Luther 
 
 * Ep. i. 57. May 18, 1517. 
 
 t Secundum genium heri sui. Weismann. 
 Hist. Eccles. p. 1434. 
 
 t Fideliter et sine strepitu fungens.~(Weis- 
 mann. Hist, Eccles. p. 1434.) 
 
90 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 at the court, the agent through which 
 matters of business were transacted be- 
 tween the Reformer and the Princes, the 
 go-between of the Church and. the state. 
 The Elector honoured Spalatin with the 
 closest intimacy, and in his journies ad- 
 mitted him to share his carriage.* In 
 other respects the air of the court was 
 often oppressive to the worthy Spalatin, 
 and affected him with deep sadness ; he 
 would have wished to leave all these 
 honours, and again to become a simple 
 pastor in the woods of Thuringia. But 
 Luther comforted him, and persuaded 
 him to remain at his post. Spalatin ac- 
 quired general esteem. The princes and 
 scholars of his age evinced the sincerest 
 respect for him. Erasmus was accus- 
 tomed to say, " The name of Spalatin is 
 inscribed not only as one of my dearest 
 friends, but of my most revered protec- 
 tors, and that not on paper, but on my 
 heart."! 
 
 The affair of Reuchlin and the monks 
 was then making much noise in Ger- 
 many. The most pious persons often 
 hesitated which side to take, for the 
 monks were bent upon destroying the 
 Jewish books which contained blasphe- 
 mies against Christ. The Elector com- 
 missioned his chaplain to consult the 
 doctor of Wittemberg, whose reputation 
 was considerable. Luther replied by 
 letter, and it is the earliest of his letters 
 to the court preacher. 
 
 " What shall I say 1 these monks pre- 
 tend to expel Beelzebub, — but it is not 
 by the finger of God. I never cease to 
 complain and grieve at it. We Chris- 
 tians begin to be wise in things that are 
 without, and senseless at home.:}: There 
 are, in all the public places of our Jeru- 
 salem, blasphemies a hundred times 
 worse than those of the Jews, and in 
 every corner of it spiritual idols. We 
 ought in holy zeal to carry forth and 
 destroy these enemies within. But we 
 neglect what is most pressing, and the 
 devil himself persuades us to abandon 
 our own concerns, while he hinders us 
 from reforming what is amiss in others." 
 
 Luther never lost himself in this quar- 
 rel. A living faith in Christ was that 
 
 * Qui cum principe in rheda sive lectico solitus 
 est ferri.— (Corp. Ref. i. 33.; 
 
 t Melch. Ad. Vita Spalat. p. 100. 
 
 X Foris sapere et domi desipere (L. Epp. i. 
 
 which especially filled his heart and life, 
 " Within my heart," says he, " reigns 
 alone, and must alone reign, faith in my 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is the 
 beginning, the middle, and the end of the 
 thoughts that occupy me day and night."* 
 
 His hearers listened with admiration 
 as he spoke from the professor's chair, or 
 from the pulpit, of that faith in Christ. 
 His instructions diffused light. The 
 people marvelled that they had not ear- 
 lier acknowledged truths which appeared 
 so evident in his mouth. " The desire to 
 justify ourselves is the spring of all our 
 distress of heart," said he, " but he who 
 receives Christ as a Saviour has peace, 
 and not only peace, but purity of heart. 
 All sanctification of the heart is a fruit of 
 faith. For faith in us is a divine work 
 which changes us, and gives us a new 
 birth, emanating from God himself. It 
 kills Adam in us ; and, through the Holy 
 Spirit which it communicates, it gives us 
 a new heart and makes us new men. It 
 is not by empty speculations," he again 
 exclaims, " but by this practical method 
 that we obtain a saving knowledge of 
 Jesus Christ."f 
 
 It was at this time that Luther preached 
 on the Ten Commandments a series of 
 discourses, which have been preserved to 
 us under the name of, Declamations for 
 the People. Doubtless they are not free 
 from errors. Luther was only gradually 
 gaining light : " The path of the just is 
 as the shining light, which shineth more 
 and more unto the perfect day." But 
 still what truth in these discourses ! what 
 simplicity ! what eloquence ! how well 
 can we conceive the effect that the new 
 preacher would produce on his audience 
 and on his age. We will cite only one 
 passage at the opening of his discourses. 
 
 Luther ascended the pulpit of Wittem- 
 berg, and read these words : " Thou shalt 
 have no other gods than Me." Then 
 turning to the people, who thronged the 
 sanctuary, he said : " All the sons of 
 Adam are idolaters, and guilty trans- 
 gressors of this first commandment. "J 
 
 * Pref. ad Gal. 
 
 t Non per speculationem sed per hanc viam 
 practicam. 
 
 1 Omnes filii Adas sunt idolatry. — Decern 
 Praecepta Wittembergensi populo prtedicata per 
 R. P. D. Martinum Lutherum, Aug. anno 1516. 
 — (They were preached in German. The quo- 
 tation is from the Latin edition, i. p. 1.) 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 9! 
 
 Doubtless this strange assertion startled 
 his audience. He must justify it. The 
 speaker continued : " There are two 
 kinds of idolatry ; the one in outward 
 action, the other within our hearts. 
 
 " The outward, by which man wor- 
 ships wood, stone, reptiles, or stars. 
 
 " The inward, by which man, dread- 
 ing chastisement, or seeking his own 
 pleasure, renders no outward worship to 
 the creature, but yet in his heart loves it 
 and trusts in it. 
 
 " But what kind of religion is this ? 
 you do not bend the knee before riches 
 and honour, but you give them your 
 heart, the noblest part of your nature. 
 Alas ! with your bodies you worship 
 God, and with your spirits the creature. 
 
 " This idolatry pervades every man 
 until he is freely recovered by faith that 
 is in Jesus Christ. 
 
 " And how is this recovery brought 
 about ? 
 
 " In this way : Faith in Christ strips 
 you of all confidence in your own wis- 
 dom, and righteousness, and strength ; 
 .it teaches you that if Christ had not died 
 for you, and saved you by his death, nei- 
 ther you nor any created power could 
 have done so. Then you begin to de- 
 spise all these things which you see to 
 be unavailing.* 
 
 " Nothing remains, but Jesus — Jesus 
 only ; Jesus, abundantly sufficient for 
 your soul. Hoping nothing from all 
 created things, you have no dependance 
 save on Christ, from whom you look for 
 all, and whom you love above all. 
 
 " But Jesus is the one sole and true 
 God. When you have him for your 
 God, you have no other gods."f 
 
 It was thus that Luther pointed out 
 how the soul is brought to God, its sove- 
 reign good by the Gospel ; — agreeable 
 to that declaration of Christ : " I am the 
 way, and no man cometh unto the Fa- 
 ther but by me." 
 
 The man who thus spoke to this gene- 
 ration was surely intent not merely on 
 overturning some abuses ; his aim, above 
 all, was to establish true religion. His 
 work* was not merely negative ; it was 
 primarily positive. 
 
 * Nisi ipse pro te mortuus esset teque serva- 
 ret, nee tu, nee omnis creatura tibi posset pro- 
 desse. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t At Jesus est verus, unus, soliis Deus, quern 
 cum habes, non habes alienum Deum. — (Ibid.) 
 
 Luther then turned his discourse 
 against the superstitions which filled 
 Christendom ; signs and mysterious 
 omens ; observances of particular days 
 and months ; familiar demons, phantoms, 
 influences of the stars, incantations, meta- 
 morphoses, incubi and succubi ; patron- 
 age of saints, &c. &c. &c. He attacked 
 them all, one after the other, and with a 
 strong arm cast down these false gods. 
 
 But it was especially before the acad- 
 emy, before that youth, enlightened and 
 eager for instruction, that Luther spread 
 out the treasures of the word of God. 
 " He so explained the Scriptures," says 
 his illustrious friend Melancthon, " that, 
 in the judgment of all pious and enlight- 
 ened men, it was as if a new light had 
 arisen on the doctrine after a long and 
 dark night. He pointed out the differ- 
 ence between the Law and the Gospel. 
 He refuted that error, then predominant 
 in the Church and schools, that men, by 
 their own works, obtain remission of 
 sins, and are made righteous before God 
 by an external discipline. He thus 
 brought back the hearts of men to the 
 Son of God.* Like John the Baptist, 
 he pointed to the Lamb of God who has 
 taken away the sins of the world. He 
 explained that sin is freely pardoned on 
 account of God's Son, and that man re- 
 ceives this blessing through faith. He 
 in no way interfered with the usual cere- 
 monies. The established discipline had 
 not in all his order a more faithful ob- 
 server and defender. But he laboured 
 more and more to make all understand 
 the grand essential doctrines of Conver- 
 sion; of the Forgiveness of Sins; of Faith; 
 and of the true consolations of the Cross. 
 Pious souls were attracted and penetrated 
 by the sweetness of this doctrine ; the 
 learned received it joyfully.f One might 
 have said that Christ and his Apostles 
 and Prophets had come forth from dark- 
 ness or from some impure dungeon.]: 
 
 The firmness with which Luther ap- 
 pealed to, and rested on the Gospel, gave 
 great authority to his teaching. But 
 other circumstances added yet further to 
 his power. With him, action corres- 
 
 * Revocavit igitur Lirtherus hominum mentes 
 ad filium Dei.— (Melancthon, Vit. Luth.) 
 
 t Hujus doctrince dulcedine pii omnes valdo 
 capiebantur et eruditis graturn erat. — (Ibid.) 
 
 X Quasi ex tenebris, carcere, squalore educi 
 Christum, prophetas, apostolos. — (Ibid.) 
 
92 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ponded with his words. It was known 
 that these discourses were not merely 
 the fruit of his lips.* They came from 
 the heart, and were practised in his daily 
 walk. And when, at a later period, the 
 Reformation burst forth, many influen- 
 tial men, who saw with grief the divi- 
 sions of the Church, won before-hand by 
 the holy life of the Reformer, and his 
 remarkable genius, not only did not op- 
 pose him, but embraced the doctrine to 
 which his life gave testimony.! The 
 more men loved the Christian virtues, 
 the more did they incline toward the 
 Reformer ; — all the most upright divines 
 were in favour of him.| This is what 
 those who knew him, said of him, and 
 especially the wisest man of his age, 
 Melancthon, and Luther's celebrated op- 
 ponent, Erasmus. Envy and detraction 
 have dared to talk of his dissolute life. 
 Wittemberg was changed by this preach- 
 ing of Faith. This city became the focus 
 of a light which was soon to illuminate 
 Germany, and spread over the whole 
 Church. 
 
 Luther, whose heart was tender and 
 affectionate, desired to see those whom 
 he loved in possession of the light which 
 had guided him in the paths of peace. 
 He availed himself of all the opportuni- 
 ties he possessed as professor, teacher, 
 and monk, as well as of his extensive 
 correspondence, to communicate his treas- 
 ure to others. One of his old associates 
 of the convent of Erfurth, the monk 
 George Spenlein, was then in the con- 
 vent of Memmingen, having, perhaps, 
 spent a short time at Wittemberg. Spen- 
 lein had commissioned Luther to sell 
 some effects that he had left in his hands, 
 a cloak of Brussels stuff, a work by the 
 doctor Isenac, and a monk's hood. Lu- 
 ther carefully executed this commission. 
 "He got," says he, " a florin for the cloak, 
 half a florin for the book, and a florin for 
 the hood," and had forwarded the amount 
 to the Father Vicar, to whom Spenlein 
 was indebted the three florins. But Lu- 
 ther passed quickly from this account of 
 a monk's effects to a more important 
 subject. 
 
 * Orationes non e labris nasci, sed in pectore 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 t Eique, propter auctoritatem quam sanctitate 
 morum antea pepererat, adsenserunt. — (Ibid.) 
 
 % Puto et hodie theologos omnes probos fuvere 
 Luthero.— (Erasm. Epp. i. 652.) 
 
 "I should like," says he to brother 
 George, " to know how it is with your 
 soul ? Is it weary of its own righteous- 
 ness? In a word, does it breathe freely? 
 and put its trust in the righteousness of 
 Christ 1 In these days pride has drawn 
 many aside, and especially those who la- 
 bour with all their strength to be right- 
 eous. Not understanding the righteous- 
 ness of God, which is given to us freely 
 in Jesus Christ, they would stand before 
 him on their own merits. But that can 
 never be. When you and I were living 
 together, you were under this delusion, 
 and so was I. I contend against it un- 
 ceasingly, and I have not yet entirely 
 overcome it." 
 
 " Oh, my dear brother, learn to know 
 Christ, and him crucified. Learn to 
 sing a new song — to despair of your 
 own work, and to cry unto him, Lord 
 Jesus, thou art my righteousness, and I 
 am thy sin. Thou hast taken on thee 
 what was mine, and given to me what 
 is thine ;* what thou wast not thou be- 
 camest, that I might become what I was 
 not. Beware, my dear George, of aspir- 
 ing after such a purity as that thou may-^ 
 est not have to acknowledge thyself a 
 sinner ; for Christ dwells only with sin- 
 ners. He came down from heaven, 
 where he abode with the just, to dwell 
 also with sinners. Meditate often on 
 this love of Christ, and you will taste its 
 unspeakable comfort. If our labours and 
 afflictions could give peace to the con- 
 science, why did Christ die upon the 
 cross? You will find peace in him 
 alone ; despairing of yourself and of your 
 works, and beholding with what love he 
 spreads his arms to you ; taking all your 
 sins on himself, and bestowing on you 
 all his righteousness. 
 
 Thus, the doctrine of power, which 
 had already been the saving of the world 
 in the days of the Apostles, and which 
 was a second time to save in the days 
 of the Reformers, was set forth by Lu- 
 ther fearlessly and clearly. Reaching 
 across many centuries of ignorance and 
 superstition, he, in this, gave his hand to 
 St. Paul. 
 
 Spenlein was not the only one whom 
 he sought to instruct in this fundamental 
 
 * Tu Domine Jesu es justitia mea ; ego au- 
 tem sum peccatum tuum ; tu assumpsisti meum, 
 et dedisti mini tuum. — (L. Ep. i. p. 17.) 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 93 
 
 doctrine. The little of the truth he 
 found on this subject in the writings of 
 Erasmus distressed him. It was desira- 
 ble to enlighten on this matter a man of 
 such great authority and such admirable 
 genius. But how to do this. His friend 
 at the court, the chaplain of the Elector, 
 was much respected by Erasmus ; to him 
 Luther addressed himself thus : " What 
 displeases me in Erasmus, that man of 
 rare erudition, is, that where the Apostle 
 speaks of the righteousness of works and 
 of the law, he understands the fulfilment 
 of the ceremonial law. The righteous- 
 ness of the law consists not alone in cere- 
 monies, but in all the works of the Ten 
 Commandments. When these works 
 are done without faith in Christ, they 
 may, it is true, make a Fabricius, a Re- 
 gulus, or a man of perfect integrity in 
 man's sight, but they, in that case, are as 
 little entitled to the name of righteous- 
 ness, as the fruit of the medlar-tree is 
 entitled to be called a fig. For we do 
 not become righteous, as Aristotle as- 
 serts, by doing works of righteousness, but 
 when we are righteous we do righteous 
 works.* It is necessary that the agent be 
 changed, and then the works by conse- 
 quence. Abel was first acceptable to God, 
 and then his sacrifice was accepted." Lu- 
 ther continues : " I entreat you. fulfil the 
 duty of a friend and of a Christian in 
 pressing these things on Erasmus." This 
 letter is dated " in great haste, from the 
 corner of our convent, the 19th of Octo- 
 ber, 1516." It exhibits in its true light 
 the relation between Luther and Eras- 
 mus. It shews the sincere interest he 
 took in what he thought really for the 
 good of that illustrious writer. Doubt- 
 less at a later period Eramus's opposi- 
 tion to the truth obliged him to oppose 
 him openly; but he did so only after 
 having sought to set his adversary right. 
 The world, then, heard at length ideas 
 at once clear and deep on the nature of 
 that which is good. The principle was 
 at last proclaimed, that what constitutes 
 the real goodness of an action is not its 
 outward character, but the spirit in which 
 it is performed. This was aiming a 
 death-blow at all the superstitious obser- 
 
 * Non enim just agendo justi efficimur: sed 
 justi fiendo et essendo operamur justa. — (L. Ep. 
 i. p. 22.) 
 
 vances, which had for centuries oppressed 
 the Church, and prevented the Christian 
 virtues from growing and prospering. 
 
 " I read Erasmus," writes Luther else- 
 where, " but he every day loses weight 
 with me. I love to see him rebuke, 
 with so much learning and firmness, the 
 grovelling ignorance of the priests and 
 monks ; but I fear he does no great ser- 
 vice to the doctrine of Christ. What is 
 of man, is nearer to his heart than what 
 is of God.* We live in critical times. 
 To make a good and judicious Christian, 
 it is not enough to understand Greek 
 and Hebrew. St. Jerome who knew five 
 languages, is inferior to St. Augustine 
 who understood but one ; though Eras- 
 mus thinks the contrary. I carefully 
 conceal my opinion of Erasmus, lest 
 I should give an advantage to his 
 adversaries. It may be, that the Lord 
 will give him understanding in his good 
 time."f 
 
 The inability of man, — the almighty 
 power of God, — these were the two 
 truths that Luther sought to re-establish. 
 That is but a melancholy religion, and a 
 poor philosophy, which directs man to 
 his own natural strength. Past ages 
 have made trial of that strength ; and 
 whilst, in earthly things,, man has at- 
 tained admirable excellence, he has ne- 
 ver been able to dissipate the darkness 
 which hides God from his soul, or to 
 change a single inclination to evil. The 
 highest attainment in wisdom of the most 
 aspiring minds, or of the souls most ea- 
 ger after perfection, has been to despair 
 of themselves.^ It is therefore, a gener- 
 ous, consoling, and supremely true doc- 
 trine, which discovers to us our impo- 
 tence, that it may declare a power — of 
 God — by which we can do all things ; 
 and that is a noble Reformation which 
 vindicates on earth the glory of heaven, 
 and pleads before man the rights of the 
 mighty God. 
 
 But no one knew better than Luther 
 the intimate connection that unites the 
 free salvation which cometh of God, 
 with the free works of man. No one 
 
 * Humana pnevalunt in eo plusquam divina. 
 t Dtibit ei Dominus intollectumsuo forte tem- 
 pore.— (L. Epp. i. p. 52.) ^ _ 
 
 | ri nvv ; ivvarov djajinprriTov slvhi 'ion > — Vvnai . 
 
 is it possible to help sinning ? asks Epictetus, iv. 
 12, 19. A/tnxay^. Impossible ! he answers. 
 
94 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 shewed better than he, that it is only in 
 receiving all from Christ, that man gives 
 freely to his brethren. He ever pre- 
 sented, in the same picture, these two 
 procedures, — that of God, and that of 
 man. Thus, after having declared to 
 Spenlein the righteousness which saves 
 us, he added : " If thou firmly believest 
 these things, as thou oughtest, (for 
 cursed is he whosoever doth not believe 
 them,) receive thine erring and ignorant 
 brethren as Jesus Christ hath received 
 thee. Bear with them patiently ; make 
 their sins your own ; and if you have 
 any good thing to communicate to them, 
 do it. Receive you one another, said 
 the Apostle, as Christ also hath re- 
 ceived us, to the glory of God. It is a 
 wretched righteousness which will not 
 bear with others, because it deems them 
 eviL, and seeks the solitude of the desert, 
 instead of doing good to such, by long- 
 suffering, by prayer, and example. If 
 thou art the lily and the rose of Christ, 
 know that thy dwelling-place is among 
 thorns. Only take heed, lest by impa- 
 tience, rash judgments, and pride, thou 
 thyself become a thorn. Christ reigns 
 in the midst of his enemies. If he had 
 desired to live only among the good, 
 and die only for such as loved him, 
 would he have died at all ? and among 
 whom would he have lived?" 
 
 It is affecting to see how Luther him- 
 self put in practice these precepts of 
 charity. An Augustine of Erfurth, 
 George Leiffer, was exposed to many 
 trials. Luther heard of it, and a week 
 after he wrote this letter, he went to him 
 with expressions of compassion : "I hear," 
 said he, " that you are driven about by 
 many tempests, and that your soul is 
 impelled hither and thither by the waves. 
 The cross of Christ is divided over the 
 earth, and each one has his share. Do 
 not, you, refuse your portion ; rather re- 
 ceive it as a holy relic ; — not, indeed, 
 into a gold or silver vase, but, what is 
 much preferable, into a heart of gold — 
 a heart imbued with meekness. If the 
 wood of the cross was so sanctified by 
 the blood and body of Christ, that we 
 deem it the most venerable of relics, how 
 much more should Ave count, as holy 
 relics, the wrongs, persecutions, suffer- 
 ings and hatred of men, since they were 
 not only touched by Christ's flesh, but 
 
 embraced, kissed, and made blessed by 
 his boundless love."* 
 
 The teaching of Luther bore fruit. 
 Many of his disciples felt themselves 
 impelled to a public profession of the 
 truths which their master's lessons had 
 revealed to them. Among his hearers 
 was a young scholar, Bernard of Feld- 
 kirchen, professor of Aristotelian physics 
 in the university, and, five years later, 
 the first of the ecclesiastics who entered 
 into the marriage state. 
 
 Luther desired Feldkirchen to main- 
 tain, under his presidence, theses, in which 
 his principles were set forth. The doc- 
 trines professed by Luther acquired by 
 this means additional publicity. The 
 disputation took place in 1516. 
 
 This was Luther's first attack on the 
 reign of the sophists and on the Papacy, 
 as he says himself. Feeble as it was, it 
 cost him many misgivings. " I consent 
 to the printing of these propositions," said 
 he, many years after, when publishing 
 them in his works, " chiefly that the 
 greatness of my cause, and the success 
 with which God has crowned it, may 
 not lift me up ; for they manifest abun- 
 dantly my shame, that is to say, the in- 
 firmity and ignorance, the fear and trem- 
 bling, with which I began this contest. 
 I was alone ; I had thrown myself rashly 
 into the affair. Not being able to draw 
 back, I gave up to the Pope many im- 
 portant points ; — I even worshipped his 
 authority."! 
 
 The following were some of these 
 propositions :\ — 
 
 " The old man is the vantiy of vani- 
 ties ; he is the universal vanity, and he 
 makes other creatures vain, whatever 
 goodness may be in them 
 
 " The old man is called ' the flesh,' 
 not merely because he is led by the de- 
 sires of the flesh, but also, because though 
 he should even be chaste, virtuous, and 
 just, he is not born again of God, by the 
 Spirit. 
 
 "A man who is a stranger to the 
 grace of God cannot keep the command- 
 ments of God, nor prepare himself wholly, 
 
 * . . . . Sanctissimae reliquiae . . . deifies vo- 
 luntatis suae charitate amplexae, osculatae. — (L. 
 Epp. i. 18.) 
 
 t Sed etiam ultro adorabam. — (L. Opp. lat. i. 
 p. 50.) 
 
 X L. W. (L.) xviii. p. 142, and in the Latin 
 works. Tom. i. p. 51. 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 or in part, to receive grace, but remains 
 necessarily under sin. 
 
 " The will of man, without divine 
 grace, is not free, but enslaved and will- 
 ing to be so. 
 
 " Jesus Christ, our . strength, our right- 
 eousness, he who searches the hearts 
 and reins, is the only discerner and judge 
 of our deserts. 
 
 " Since all things are possible, through 
 Christ, to him that belie veth, it is super- 
 stitious to seek for other help, either in 
 man's will or in the saints."* 
 
 This disputation made a great noise, 
 and it has been considered as the com- 
 mencement of the Reformation. 
 
 The moment drew nigh when that 
 Reformation was to burst forth. God 
 hastened the preparation of the instru- 
 ment he designed to use. The Elector, 
 having built a new church at Wittem- 
 berg, and gave it the name of All Saints, 
 despatched Staupitz to the Low 'Coun- 
 tries to collect relics to enrich the new 
 temple. The Vicar-General commis- 
 sioned Luther to take his place in his 
 absence, and, in particular, to make a 
 visitation to forty monasteries of Misnia 
 and Thuringia. 
 
 Luther went first to Grimma, and 
 thence to Dresden. Everywhere he en- 
 deavoured to establish the truths he had 
 discovered, and to enlighten the mem- 
 bers of his order. " Do not join yourself 
 to Aristotle," said he to the monks, " or 
 to the other teachers of a misleading 
 philosophy, but apply yourselves to the 
 reading of the word of God. Seek not 
 your salvation in your own strength and 
 good works, but in the merits of Christ 
 and in the grace of God."f 
 
 An Augustine monk of Dresden had 
 eloped from his convent, and was resid- 
 ing at Mentz, where the prior of the Au- 
 gustines had received him. Luther wrote 
 to the prior,| desiring him to send back 
 this stray sheep ; and he added these 
 words of truth and charity : " I know — I 
 know that it cannot be but that offences 
 must come. It is no wonder when man 
 falls, but it is a miracle when he rises 
 and continues standing. Peter fell that 
 
 * Cum credenti omnia sint, auctore Christo, 
 possibilia, superstitiosum est, humano arbitrio, 
 aliis Sanctis, alia deputari auxilia. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Hilscher, Luthers Anwesenheit in Alt- Dres- 
 den, 1728. 
 
 t 1 May, 1516. Epp. i. p. 20. 
 
 he might know that he was a man. 
 Even at this day we see cedars of Leba- 
 non falling. The angels, even, (diffi- 
 cult as it is to conceive it,) fell in heaven, 
 and Adam in Paradise. Why, then, 
 should we wonder when a reed is shaken 
 by the whirlwind, or a nickering taper 
 is extinguished." 
 
 From Dresden, Luther repaired to Er- 
 furth, and re-appeared, to exercise the 
 functions of Vicar-general in that same 
 convent, where, eleven years before, he- 
 had wound up the clock, opened the 
 gates, and swept the floor of the church. 
 He placed in tfie post of prior of the con- 
 vent, his friend the bachelor, John Lange, 
 a man of learning and piety, but austere 
 in his disposition. Therefore it was he 
 exhorted him to affability and patience. 
 " Put on," said he, writing to him shortly 
 after, " put on a spirit of meekness to- 
 ward the prior of Nuremberg. It is pro- 
 per that you should do so, since the prior 
 has assumed a harsh and bitter tone. 
 Bitterness is not expelled by bitterness, — 
 that is to say, the devil is not cast out by 
 the devil ; but the sweet overcomes and 
 expels the bitter, — in other words, the 
 finger of God casts out devils."* Per- 
 haps we m?ly regret that Luther himself, 
 on some occasions, forgot to follow these 
 excellent directions. 
 
 At Neustadt, on the Orla, there was 
 nothing but disunion. Disturbances and 
 dissensions reigned in the convent. The 
 whole body of the monks were in open 
 war with their prior. They beset Lu- 
 ther with their complaints. The prior 
 Michael Dressel — or Tornator, as Luther 
 calls him, translating his name into La- 
 tin, — enumerated to the Doctor all his 
 grievances. " Oh, for peace !" said the 
 prior. " You seek peace," said Luther, 
 " but it is only the peace of the world, 
 and not the peace that is of Christ. Do 
 you not know that our God has set His 
 peace in the midst of opposition % He 
 whom nobody disturbs has not peace, 
 but he who, harassed by all men, and 
 by the things of this life, bears all tran- 
 quilly and joyfully ; he it is that has the 
 true peace. You cry with Israel, 'peace, 
 peace, when there is no peace. Say 
 rather with Christ, the cross, the cross, 
 
 * L. Epp. i. p. 36. Non enim asper asperum, 
 id est non diabolus diabolum, sed suavis aspe- 
 rum, id est digitum Dei ejicit daemonia. 
 
96 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 and there will be no cross : for the cross 
 ceases to be a cross when we can say 
 with love : ' O blessed cross ! there is no 
 wood like thine !' "* On his return to 
 Wittemberg, Luther, desiring to put a 
 stop to these dissensions, allowed the 
 monks to elect another prior. Luther 
 returned to Wittemberg after six weeks' 
 absence. What he had witnessed sad- 
 dened him ; but his journey gave him 
 a better knowledge of the Church and 
 of the world, and more confidence in his 
 intercourse with mankind, besides offer- 
 ing many opportunities of pressing the 
 fundamental truth that " Holy Scripture 
 alone shows us the way to heaven," and 
 at the same time exhorting the brethren 
 to live holily and at peace one with 
 another, t Doubtless a plenteous seed 
 was sown in the different Augustine con- 
 vents during that journey of the Re- 
 former. The monastic orders, which 
 had long been the support of Rome, did 
 more, perhaps, for the Reformation than 
 against it. This was especially true of 
 the Augustines. Almost all the men of 
 liberal and enlightened piety who were 
 living in the cloisters, turned toward the 
 Gospel. A new and generous blood 
 seemed to circulate through ifiese orders, 
 which were as the arteries of the Catho- 
 lic body in Germany. In public, little 
 was as yet heard of the new ideas of the 
 Augustine of Wittemberg ; while they 
 were already the chief subject of con- 
 versation in chapters and monasteries. 
 More than one cloister was, in this way, 
 the nursery of the Reformers. When 
 the great struggle came, pious and brave 
 men came forth from their retirement 
 and exchanged the solitude of monkish 
 life for the active service of ministers of 
 God's word. Even as early as this visit 
 of inspection in 1516, Luther aroused by 
 his words many a drowsy spirit. Hence 
 that year has been named " the Morning 
 Star of the Reformation." 
 
 Luther now resumed his usual occu- 
 pation. He Avas at this period, over- 
 whelmed with labour. Besides his du- 
 ties as professor, preacher, and confessor, 
 he was burthened with many temporal 
 concerns of his order and convent. " I 
 
 * Tarn cito enim crux cessat esse crux quam 
 cito tetus dixeris : Crux benedicta ! inter ligna 
 nullum tale. — (Epp. i. 27.) 
 
 t Heiliglich, friedlich und zuchtig. — (Math 
 p. 10.) 
 
 require almost continually," said he, 
 " two secretaries ; for I do scarce any- 
 thing else all day long than write let- 
 ters. I am preacher to the convent, 
 reader of prayers at table, pastor and pa- 
 rish minister, director of studies, vicar of 
 the priory, (that is to say, prior ten times 
 over,) inspector of the fish-ponds of Litz- 
 kau, counsel to the inns of Herzberg at 
 Torgau, lecturer on St. Paul, and com- 
 mentator on the Psalms. Seldom have 
 I time to say my prayers, or sing a 
 hymn ; not to mention my struggle with 
 flesh and blood, the devil and the world. 
 See what an idle man I am !"* 
 
 About this time the plague showed 
 itself at Wittemberg. A great num- 
 ber of the students and doctors* quitted 
 the town. Luther remained. " I do 
 not very well know," wrote he to his 
 friend at Erfurth, " whether the plague 
 will suffer me to finish the Epistle to 
 the Galatians. Quick and sudden in its 
 attacks, it' makes great havoc, especially 
 among the young. You advise me to 
 flee — but whither shall I flee ? I hope 
 the world will not go to pieces if bro- 
 ther Martin should fall, t If the plague 
 spreads, I will send the brethren away 
 in all directions, but for my part I am 
 placed here ; obedience does not allow 
 me to leave the spot until He who 
 called me hither shall call me away. 
 Not that I am above the fear of death, 
 (for I am not the Apostle Paul, but only 
 his commentator.) but I trust the Lord 
 will deliver me from the fear of it." 
 Such was the firm resolution of the Doc- 
 tor of Wittemberg. He whom the 
 plague could not force to retire a single 
 step, would he draw back from fear of 
 Rome 1 would he recede in the prospect 
 of the scaffold? 
 
 The same courage that Luther evinced 
 in presence of the most formidable evils. 
 he manifested before the great ones of 
 the world. The Elector was well satis- 
 fied with the Vicar-general. He had 
 reaped a rich harvest of relics in the 
 Low Countries. Luther gave an ac- 
 count of it to Spajatin. This affair of 
 the relics is singular enough, occurring 
 as it did at the moment when the Refor- 
 
 * Epp. i. p. 41 to Lange, 26 Oct 1516. 
 
 t Quo fugiam ? spero quod non corruet orbis 
 ruente fratre Martino.— (Epp. i. p. 42, 26 Oct. 
 1516.) 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 
 
 97 
 
 mation was about to open. Assuredly the 
 Reformers did not see clearly whither 
 they were tending. The Elector deemed 
 that nothing less than a bishopric was a 
 reward commensurate with the services 
 of the Vicar-general. Luther, to whom 
 Spalatin wrote on the subject, highly 
 disapproved the suggestion. " There 
 are many things," answered he, " that 
 are pleasing to your prince, which yet 
 displease God. I do not deny that he 
 is skilful in the concerns of the world, 
 but in what relates to God and the sal- 
 vation of souls, I consider him altogether 
 blind, as well as his adviser Pfeffinger. 
 I do not say that behind his back, 
 like a calumniator ; I do not conceal 
 my opinion from them ; for I am at all 
 times ready myself to tell them both 
 so to their faces. Why will you," 
 continued he, " seek to surround that 
 man (Staupitz) with all the heavings 
 and tempests of episcopal cares ?"* 
 
 The Elector did not take amiss the 
 frankness of Luther. "The prince," 
 wrote Spalatin, " often speaks of you in 
 honorable terms." Frederic sent the 
 monk some stuff for a gown. It was of 
 very fine cloth. " It would be too fine," 
 said Luther, " if it were not a prince's 
 gift. I am not worthy that any man 
 should think of me, much less a prince, 
 and so noble a prince. Those are most 
 useful to me who think worst of me.f 
 Present my thanks to our Prince for his 
 favour, but know that I desire neither 
 the praise of thyself nor of others ; all 
 the praise of man is vain, the praise that 
 cometh of God being alone true." 
 
 The worthy chaplain would not con- 
 fine himself to his functions at the court. 
 He wished to make himself useful to 
 the people, but, like many others in all 
 ages, he wished to do it without offence, 
 without irritating any one, and so to 
 conciliate general favor. " Point out 
 to me," said he, in a letter to Luther, 
 "some writing to translate, but one 
 that shall give general satisfaction, and 
 at the same time be useful." " Agreea- 
 ble and useful!" replied Luther, "that 
 is beyond my skill. The better things 
 are, the less they please. What is more 
 
 * Multa placent principi tuo, quse Deo displi- 
 cent (L. Epp. i. p. 25.) 
 
 t Si mihi maxime prosunt que mei pessime 
 meminerint. — (L. Epp. i. p. 45.) 
 13 
 
 salutary than Christ? and yet he is to 
 most a savor of death. You will say 
 that what you intend is to be useful 
 to those who love Christ ; — then cause 
 them to hear his voice ; you will thus 
 be agreeable and useful — never doubt 
 it — but to a small number, for the 
 sheep are but rare in this dreary region 
 of wolves."* 
 
 Luther, however, recommended to his 
 friend the sermons of Tauler the Domini- 
 can. " I never saw," said he, " either 
 in Latin or in our language, a theology 
 more sound or more conformable to the 
 Gospel. Taste them and see how gra- 
 cious the Lord is, but not till you 
 have first tasted and experienced how- 
 bitter is every thing in ourselves."! 
 
 It was in the course of the year 1517 
 that Luther became connected with 
 Duke George of Saxony. The house 
 of Saxony had at that time two chiefs. 
 Two princes, Ernest and Albert, car- 
 ried off in their childhood from the 
 castle of Altenburg, by Kunz of Kau- 
 fungen, had by the treaty of Leipsic 
 been acknowledged as the founders of 
 the two houses which still bear their 
 names. The Elector Frederic, son of 
 Ernest, was at the period we are record- 
 ing, the head of the Ernestine branch, 
 as his cousin, Duke George, was head 
 of the Albertine branch. Dresden and 
 Leipsic were situated in the states of 
 this duke, and he himself resided in 
 the former of these cities. His mother, 
 Sidonia, was daughter of the King of 
 Bohemia, George Podibrad. The long 
 struggle which Bohemia had maintained 
 with Rome, since the time of John 
 Huss, had had some influence on the 
 Prince of Saxony. He had often ma- 
 nifested a desire of a Reformation. 
 " He sucked it with his mother's milk," 
 said they; "he is, by his nature, an 
 enemy to the clergy. "| He annoyed, 
 in many ways, the bishops, abbots, ca- 
 nons, and monks; and his cousin, the 
 Elector Frederic, often had to interpose 
 in their behalf. It must have seemed 
 that Duke George would be the warm- 
 est patron of a Reformation. The de- 
 
 * Quo sunt aliqua salubriora, eo minus pla- 
 cent— (L. Epp. i. p. 46.) 
 
 t Quam amarum est, quicquid nos Bumus. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t L. Opp. (W.) xxii. p. 1849. 
 
 / 
 
93 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 vout Frederic, on the contrary, who 
 had in early life assumed, in the holy 
 sepulchre, the spurs of Godfrey, and 
 armed himself with the long- and heavy 
 sword of the conqueror of Jerusalem, 
 making- oath to fight for the Church, 
 like that valiant knight, seemed marked 
 out to be the most ardent champion of 
 Rome. But in what pertains to the 
 Gospel, all the calculations of human 
 wisdom are often deceived. The very 
 reverse ensued. The Duke would have 
 taken pleasure in bringing down the 
 Church and the clergy, in humbling 
 the bishops, whose princely retinue 
 much exceeded his own ; but to re- 
 ceive into his heart the doctrine of the 
 Gospel, which was to humble him, — to 
 confess himself a guilty sinner, incapable 
 of being saved except by grace, — was 
 quite another thing. He would have 
 willingly reformed others, but he had no 
 idea of reforming himself. He would 
 perhaps have put his hand to the work 
 to oblige the Bishop of Mentz to limit 
 himself to one bishopric, and to have 
 only fourteen horses in his stables, as he 
 said more than once ;* but when he saw 
 one altogether unlike himself appear 
 as the Reformer, — when he beheld a 
 plain monk undertake this work, and 
 the Reformation gaining ground among 
 the people, — the proud grandson of the 
 Hussite King became the most violent 
 adversary of the reform to which he had 
 shown himself favourable. 
 
 In the month of July, 1517, Duke 
 George requested Staupitz to send him 
 a learned and eloquent preacher. Stau- 
 pitz sent Luther, recommending him as 
 a man of great learning and irreproach- 
 able conduct. The prince invited him 
 to preach at Dresden, in the chapel of the 
 castle, on St. James the Elder's day. 
 
 The day came. The Duke and his 
 court repaired to the chapel to hear the 
 preacher from Wittemberg. Luther 
 seized with joy the opportunity of giv- 
 ing his testimony to the truth before 
 such an assembly. He. chose as his text 
 the gospel of the day : " Then the mo- 
 ther of Zebedee's children came to him 
 with her sons," &c. (Matt. xx. 20.) 
 He preached on the desires and unrea- 
 sonable prayers of men, and then pro- 
 ceeded to speak with energy on the 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxii. p. 1849. 
 
 assurance of salvation. He rested it on 
 this foundation ; — that they who hear 
 the word of God, and believe it, are the 
 true disciples of Christ, elect unto eternal 
 life. Then he spoke of free election ; 
 he shewed that this doctrine, viewed in 
 connection with Christ's work, has power 
 to dispel the terrors of conscience, so that 
 men, instead of fleeing far from the Holy 
 God, in the consciousness of their un- 
 worthiness, are brought by grace to seek 
 refuge in Him. In conclusion, he related 
 a story of three virgins, from which he 
 deduced edifying instructions. 
 
 The word of truth made a profound 
 impression on the hearers. Two of 
 them, especially, "seemed to pay particu- 
 lar attention to the sermon of the monk 
 of Wittemberg. The first was a lady 
 of respectable appearance, seated on the 
 benches of the court, and on Avhose fea- 
 tures might be traced a deep emotion. 
 This was Madame de la Sale, lady of 
 the bed-chamber to the Duchess. The 
 other was Jerome Emser, licentiate of 
 canon law, and secretary and counsellor 
 to the Duke. Emser was gifted with 
 talents and extensive acquirements. A 
 courtier, a skilful politician, he would 
 have wished at once to satisfy two oppo- 
 site parties, — to pass at Rome as a de- 
 fender of the Papacy, and at the same 
 time shine among the learned men of 
 Germany. But beneath this dexterous 
 policy lay hid much violence of charac- 
 ter. It was the chapel of the castle of 
 Dresden that was the scene of the first 
 meeting of Luther and Emser, who were 
 destined afterwards to break more than 
 one lance together. 
 
 The dinner hour sounded in the castle, 
 and soon the ducal family and the dif- 
 ferent persons of the court were assem- 
 bled round the table. The conversation 
 naturally turned on the morning preacher. 
 " How did you like the sermon V said 
 the Duke to Madame de la Sale, "If I 
 could but hear one other such sermon," 
 answered she, " I would die in peace." 
 " And I," replied Duke George, angrily, 
 " would give something not to have heard 
 it ; for such sermons are good for nothing, 
 and serve only to encourage men in sin." 
 
 The master having thus made known 
 his opinion, the courtiers gave vent to 
 their dissatisfaction. Each was ready 
 with his remark. Some asserted that in 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER 
 
 99 
 
 Luther's story of the three virgins, he 
 had in his eye three ladies of the court ; 
 — hereupon much talk and whispering- 
 ensued. The three ladies were rallied 
 on the circumstance of the monk of Wit- 
 temberg, having, as they said, publicly 
 pointed them out.* " He is an ignorant 
 fellow," said some. "A proud monk!" 
 said others. Each one criticised the ser- 
 mon in his own manner, and made the 
 preacher say what he pleased. The 
 truth had fallen in the midst of a court 
 little prepared to receive it. Every one 
 mangled it at his will. But whilst the 
 word of God was thus to some an occa- 
 sion of falling, it was to the lady of the 
 bed-chamber a corner-stone of edification. 
 One month afterwards, she fell sick, em- 
 braced with confidence the grace of the 
 Saviour, and died with joy.f 
 
 As to the Duke, it was not perhaps in 
 vain that he heard this testimony to the 
 truth. Whatever had been his opposi- 
 tion to the Reformation during his life, 
 he is known to have declared on his 
 death-bed that he had no other hope than 
 in the merits of Christ. 
 
 It was a matter of course that Emser 
 should do the honours to Luther in the 
 name of his master. He invited him to 
 supper. Luther declined. But Emser 
 pressed him till he assented. Luther 
 expected to meet only a few friends, but 
 lie soon saw it was a trap laid for him.| 
 A Master of Arts of Leipsic and several 
 Dominicans were with the Prince's secre- 
 tary. The Master of Arts, full of confi- 
 dence in himself, and of hatred against 
 Luther, accosted him with a friendly and 
 gentle air, but soon lost his temper, and 
 talked loudly. § The debate was opened. 
 The discussion turned, says Luther, on 
 the solemn trifling of Aristotle and St 
 Thomas. || In conclusion, Luther chal- 
 lenged the Master of Arts to define, 
 with all the learning of the Thomists, in 
 what obedience to God's commandments 
 consisted. The Master of Arts, though 
 puzzled, put a good face upon it. " Pay 
 me my fees first," said he, holding out 
 his hand, " Da pastim," as though he 
 
 * Has tres postea in aula principis, a me no- 
 tatas srarrierunt. — (L. Epp. i. p 85.) 
 
 t Keith. Leb. Luth. p. 32. 
 
 X Inter medias me insidias conjectum. — (L. 
 Epp. i. 85. 
 
 § In me acriter et clamose invectns est. — (Ibid.) 
 
 || Super Aristotelis et Thomse nugis. — (Ibid.) 
 
 were called on to give a formal lecture, 
 treating the guests as his scholars. " At 
 this ridiculous reply," adds the Reformer, 
 " Ave all laughed outright, and hereupon 
 we separated." 
 
 During this conversation, a Dominican 
 had listened at the door. He wanted to 
 enter that he might spit in Luther's face.* 
 He, however, restrained himself; but 
 publicly boasted of it afterwards. Em- 
 ser, delighted to sec his guests contend- 
 ing with each other, while he himself 
 appeared to maintain a guarded medium, 
 took pains to excuse himself to Luther 
 on the incident of the evening. f The 
 latter returned to Wittemberg. 
 
 He again applied himself laboriously 
 to work. He was preparing six or seven 
 young divines, who were about to un- 
 dergo examination for license to teach. 
 What most pleased him was, that their 
 promotion would contribute to the down- 
 fal of Aristotle. " I would lose no time," 
 said he, " in adding to the number of his 
 opponents."^ And with this object, he, 
 about that time, published some theses 
 which deserve our attention. 
 
 The Freedom of the Will was his 
 high subject. He had already slightly 
 touched on it in the theses of Feldkir- 
 chen ; he now went more fully into the 
 question. Ever since the promulgation 
 of Christianity, a controversy has been 
 carried on, with more or less keenness, 
 between the two doctrines of the liberty 
 and the bondage of the human will. 
 Certain scholastic writers, as Pelagius, 
 and others, had taught that man posses- 
 sed, from his own nature, a freedom of 
 will, or the power of loving God and 
 doing righteousness. Luther denied this 
 doctrine : not in order to deprive man of 
 liberty, but that he might lead him to 
 obtain it. The point of dispute, then, is 
 not, as has been commonly said, between 
 liberty and slavery ; it is between a 
 liberty proceeding from man's nature, 
 and a liberty that cometh of God. The 
 one party, who call themselves the advo- 
 cates of liberty, say to man : " Thou hast 
 the power to do right, thou hast no need 
 of more liberty !" the others, who have 
 
 * Ne prodiret et in faciem mei spueret. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Enixe sese excusavit. 
 
 X Cujus vellum hostes cito quamplurimos fieri. 
 —(Epp. i. 59.) 
 
100 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 been styled the partizans of slavery, say 
 to him the very reverse : " True liberty 
 is what thou necdest, and it is what God 
 offers to thee in the Gospel." On the 
 one side, they talk of liberty so as to per- 
 petuate servitude ; on the other, they 
 proclaim to us our bondage that we may 
 obtain liberty. Such has been the con- 
 test in St. Paul's time ; in the days of 
 St. Augustine ; and, again, in those of 
 Luther. The one party, congratulating 
 man on his freedom, would, in effect, 
 reconcile him to slavery; the other, show- 
 ing how his fetters may be struck off, are 
 the true advocates of liberty. 
 
 But we should be deceiving: ourselves, 
 it we are to sum up, in this question, the 
 whole of the Reformation. It is one, and 
 only one, of many doctrines that the pro- 
 fessor of Wittemberg contended for. It 
 would, especially, be a strange error to 
 assert, that the Reformation was a fatal- 
 ism, — an opposition to the notion of hu- 
 man liberty. It was a noble emancipa- 
 tion of the mind of man. Bursting the 
 many cords with which the hierarchy 
 had tied down the thoughts of men, — 
 restoring the ideas of liberty, of right of 
 free investigation, — it liberated its own 
 age, ourselves, and the remotest posterity. 
 And let none say : " True, the Reforma- 
 tion did liberate man from all human 
 despotism : but, at the same time, reduced 
 him to slavery in other things, by pro- 
 claiming the sovereignty of grace." 
 Doubtless, its aim was to bring the hu- 
 man will into harmony with the divine 
 will, to subject the former absolutely to 
 the latter, and to blend them together. 
 But where is the philosopher who does 
 not know, that perfect conformity to the 
 will of God is the sole, sovereign, and 
 complete liberty; and that man will 
 never be truly free, until perfect right- 
 eousness and unchanging truth reign 
 unrivalled in his heart and mind ? 
 
 The following are a few of the ninety- 
 nine propositions which Luther put forth 
 in the Church, against the Pelagian ra- 
 tionalism of the scholastic theology : — 
 
 " It is true that man, who is become 
 1 a bad tree,' can but will 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 led captive. 
 
 " It is not in the power of man's will 
 to purpose or not purpose all that is sug- 
 gested to him. 
 
 " Man, by nature, cannot wish that 
 God should be God. He would prefer 
 that himself should be God, and that God 
 should not be God. 
 
 " The excellent, infallible, and sole 
 preparation for grace, is the election and 
 the everlasting predestination of God.* 
 
 " It is false to say, that man, if he does 
 all in his power, dissipates the obstacles 
 to divine grace. 
 
 u In one word, nature possesses neither 
 a pure reason nor a good will.f 
 
 " On man's part, there is nothing that 
 goes before grace, — nothing but impo- 
 tency and rebellion. 
 
 " There is no moral virtue without 
 pride or sadness, — that is to say, without 
 sin. 
 
 " From first to last, we are not the 
 masters of our actions, but their slaves. 
 
 " We do not become righteous by do- 
 ing that which is righteous ; but having 
 become righteous, we do that which is 
 righteous. 
 
 " He who says a theologian, unac- 
 quainted with logic, is an heretic and 
 empiric, makes an empirical and here- 
 tical assertion. 
 
 " There is no form of reasoning or syl- 
 logism suited to the things of God.| 
 
 " If the syllogistic method were appli- 
 cable to divine things, the doctrine of the 
 Holy Trinity would be known and not 
 believed. 
 
 " In a word, Aristotle is to theology as 
 darkness to light. 
 
 " Man is more opposed to the grace of 
 God than to the law itself. 
 
 " He who is destitute of the grace of 
 God sins incessantly, though he should 
 neither kill, nor steal, nor commit adul- 
 tery. 
 
 " He sins, because he does not fulfil 
 the law spiritually. 
 
 " It is the righteousness of hypocrites 
 not to kill, and not to commit adultery 
 in outward acts. 
 
 " The law of God and the will of 
 
 * Optima et infallibilis ad jrratiam preparatio 
 et unica dispositio est aeterna Dei electio et prae- 
 destinatio. — (L. Opp. lat. i. 56.) 
 
 t Breviter nee rectum dictamen habet natura 
 nee bonam voluntatem. — (lb.) 
 
 t Nulla forma syllogistica tenet in terminis 
 divinis — (L. Opp. lat. i. 56.) 
 
YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 101 
 
 man are two opposites, which, without 
 the grace of God, cannot he made to 
 meet* 
 
 " What the law prescribes the will 
 never seeks, unless, from fear or interest, 
 it affects to seek it. 
 
 " The law is a task-master of our will, 
 which is not brought into obedience, save 
 only by the young child born unto us.f 
 (Isa. ix. 6.) 
 
 u The law makes sin to abound, for it 
 irritates and repels the will. 
 
 " But the grace of God makes right- 
 eousness to abound ' by Jesus Christ ;' 
 who leads us to love the law. 
 
 " All the works of the law seem fair 
 without, but are sin within. 
 
 " The will, when it turns towards the 
 law, without the grace of God, does so 
 only for its own self-pleasing. 
 
 " They are still under the curse who 
 do the works of the law. 
 
 " Blessed are all they who do works 
 of the grace of God. 
 
 " The law which is good, and in 
 which we have life, is the love of God 
 shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 " Grace is not given, that works may 
 be done oftener or easier ; but because, 
 without grace, no work of love can be 
 done. 
 
 " To love God is to abhor ourselves, 
 and to have nothing out of God."| 
 
 Thus, Luther attributes to God all 
 good that man can do. It is not enough 
 to repair and patch up, if we may so 
 speak, man's will ; an entirely new will 
 must be given him. God only could 
 have said this ; because God only could 
 accomplish it. This is one of the great- 
 est and most important truths that the 
 human mind can receive. 
 
 But Luther, while proclaiming the 
 impotence of man, did not fall into a 
 contrary extreme to that he opposed. 
 He says, in his 8th thesis : " It does not 
 follow, from this statement, that the will 
 is in its nature bad : that is, that its na- 
 ture is that of evil itself, as the Maniche- 
 
 * Lex et voluntas sunt adversarii duo sine gra- 
 tia Dei implicabiles. — (lb. p. 57.) 
 
 t Lex est exactor voluntatis, qui non supera- 
 tur nisi per Parvulum qui natus est nobis. — (L. 
 Opp. lat. i. 57.") 
 
 t L. Opp. Lips. xvii. p. 143 ; and Opp. lat. i. 
 
 ans have asserted."* The nature of man 
 was at first essentially good: it has turned 
 aside from good, — that is, from God, — 
 and inclined to evil. Still its holy and 
 glorious origin remains, and it may, by 
 the power of God, be restored and re- 
 newed. The office of Christianity is 
 thus to restore it. It is true, the Gospel 
 represents man in a condition of humili- 
 ation and impotence, but between two 
 states of glory and of grandeur — a past 
 glory, from which he has been hurled, 
 and a future glory, to which he is called. 
 That is the real truth : man knows it, 
 and on the slightest consideration, he 
 perceives that all that is said of his pre- 
 sent purity, power, and glory, is nothing 
 but a fiction designed to lull and soothe 
 his pride. 
 
 Luther, in his theses, protested not only 
 against the pretended goodness of man's 
 will, but also against the asserted illumi- 
 nation of his understanding in regard to 
 divine things. The schoolmen had ex- 
 alted human reason as well as man's 
 will. This theology, as it had been re- 
 presented by some of its teachers, was at 
 the bottom a kind of rationalism. The 
 propositions that we have quoted, show 
 this. We might suppose them directed 
 against the rationalism of our day. In 
 the theses which were the signal of the 
 Reformation, Luther censured the Church 
 and the popular superstitions which had 
 overloaded the Gospel with indulgences, 
 purgatory, and so many other abuses. 
 In the theses we have now quoted, he 
 attacked the schools and the rationalism 
 which had retrenched from the Gospel 
 the doctrine of God's sovereign grace. 
 The Reformation turned against ration- 
 alism before it attacked superstition. It 
 proclaimed the rights of God before it 
 lopped off the excrescences of man. It 
 was positive — before it was negative. 
 This has not been sufficiently adverted 
 to, and yet, if we do not keep it in mind, 
 it is impossible to appreciate this religious 
 revolution and its true nature. 
 
 However this may be, the truths that 
 Luther had just expressed with so much 
 energy, were quite new to his hearers. 
 To maintain these theses at Wittemberg 
 would have been an easy thing. His 
 
 * Nee igitur sequitur quod sit naturaliter mala, 
 id est natura mali, secundum Manichaeos. — 
 (Ibid.; 
 
102 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 influence prevailed there. It might have 
 been said that he was choosing a field in 
 which he knew no antagonist could op- 
 pose him. By offering battle in another 
 university, he was giving them a wider 
 publicity ; and it was through publicity 
 that the Reformation was to be effected. 
 He chose Erfurth, whose divines had 
 shown themselves so offended with him. 
 
 He therefore sent these theses to John 
 Lange, prior of Erfurth, and wrote to 
 him thus : " My anxiety to know your 
 mind on these paradoxes is great, per- 
 haps extreme. I strongly suspect that 
 your theologians will consider as paradox, 
 and even as cacodox, that which I must 
 always consider very orthodox.* Tell 
 me, therefore, your opinion, as soon as 
 you can. Pray inform the faculty of 
 theology, and all others, that I am ready 
 to come among you, and publicly main- 
 tain these propositions, either in the Uni- 
 versity or in the monastery." It does 
 not appear that Luther's challenge was 
 accepted. The monks of Erfurth con- 
 tented themselves with letting him know 
 that these theses had greatly displeased 
 them. 
 
 But he determined to send them into 
 another part of Germany. He turned 
 his eyes, for that purpose, on one who 
 played a remarkable part in the history 
 of the Reformation, and whose character 
 it is necessary we should understand. 
 
 John Meyer, a distinguished professor, 
 was then teaching at the university of 
 Ingolstadt, in Bavaria. He was a native 
 of Eck, a village of Suabia, and was 
 commonly called Doctor Eck. He was 
 a friend of Luther, who highly esteemed 
 his talents and information. He was 
 full of intelligence, well read, and gifted 
 with an extraordinary memory. To his 
 learning he united eloquence. His ac- 
 tion and voice expressed the liveliness of 
 his genius. Eck was, as to talent, in 
 southern Germany, what Luther was in 
 the north. They were the two most dis- 
 tinguished theologians of that period, 
 though differing widely in their tenden- 
 cy, as the sequel showed. Ingolstadt 
 almost rivalled Wittemberg. The re- 
 putation of the two Doctors drew from 
 all sides, to their respective universities, a 
 crowd of students eager to listen to their 
 lectures. Their personal qualities, not 
 * Imo cacodoxa videri. — (L. Epp. i. 60.) 
 
 less than their learning, endeared them 
 to their scholars. The character of Eck 
 has been censured. An incident of his 
 life will shew, that, at this period at least, 
 his heart was not closed against gene- 
 rous impulses. 
 
 Among the students, whom his reput- 
 ation had attracted to Ingolstadt, was a 
 young man named Urban Regius, born 
 on the banks of one of the Swiss lakes. 
 He had studied first at the university of 
 Friburg in Brisgau. Arriving at Ingol- 
 stadt, whither the reputation of Eck had 
 attracted him, Urban there attended 
 courses of philosophy, and won the doc- 
 tor's favor. Obliged to provide for his 
 own necessities, he found himself com- 
 pelled to take charge of the education of 
 some young nobles^ He was not only 
 to overlook their conduct and studies, 
 but himself to buy for them the books 
 and clothes they needed. These youths 
 were accustomed to dress well, and live 
 expensively. Regius, uneasy at this, re- 
 quested the parents to remove their sons. 
 " Take courage," answered they. His 
 debts increased, his creditors became 
 clamorous, he knew not what would be- 
 come of him. The Emperor was then 
 collecting an army against the Turks. 
 Some recruiting parties arrived at Ingol- 
 stadt. In his desperation Urban enlisted.' 
 He appeared in the ranks, in military 
 garb, at a review preparatory to march- 
 ing. Just then, Doctor Eck arrived in 
 the square with some of his colleagues. 
 To his great surprise, he recognised his 
 student in the midst of the recruits. 
 " Urban Regius !" said he, approaching 
 him, and fixing on him a scrutinizing 
 eye. " I am here !" answered the 1 con- 
 script. " What, I pray you, is the cause 
 of this change ?" The young man told 
 his story. "I will settle the affair," an- 
 swered Eck. He then proceeded to take 
 away his halberd, and bought his dis- 
 charge from the recruiting officers. The 
 parents, threatened by the Doctor with 
 the displeasure of their prince, sent the 
 necessary funds for their children's ex- 
 penditure. Urban Regius was preserved, 
 to become, at a later period, one of the 
 supporters of the Reformation. 
 
 It was Doctor Eck that Luther pitched 
 on to make known in the southern states, 
 his theses on Pelagianism and the Ra- 
 tionalism of the schools. He did not, 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 103 
 
 however, send them direct to the Profes- 
 sor of Ingolstadt, but addressed them to 
 their common friend, the worthy Chris- 
 topher Scheurl, town-clerk of the city of 
 Nuremberg, requesting him to forward 
 them to Eck, at Ingolstadt, which was 
 not far from Nuremberg. " I send you," 
 said he, " my propositions, (merely pa- 
 radoxical, or even kakistocloxical as they 
 seem to many) ; communicate them to 
 our dear Eck, that learned and saga- 
 cious man, that I may know what he 
 thinks of them."* It was thus Luther 
 then spoke of Doctor Eck ; such was the 
 friendship which united them. Luther 
 was not the first to break off this good 
 understanding. 
 
 But the combat was not to be fought 
 on that field. These theses turned, it 
 may be thought, on doctrines of higher 
 importance than those which, two 
 months after, set the whole Church in a 
 flame. And yet, notwithstanding Lu- 
 ther's challenge, they passed unnoticed. 
 They were read, at the most, in the pre- 
 cincts of the school, and they made no 
 sensation beyond its bounds. The rea- 
 son of this was, that they contained only 
 
 * Eccio nostro eruditissimo et ingeniossimo 
 viro exhibete, ut audiam et videam quid vocet 
 Mas.— (L. Epp. i. p. 63.) 
 
 academic propositions, and theological 
 doctrines ; whilst the theses which fol- 
 lowed had immediate reference to an 
 evil which had grown up in the midst 
 of the people, and overflowed Germany 
 on all sides. So long as Luther con- 
 fined himself to bringing forth long-for- 
 gotten doctrine, no response was heard. 
 When he pointed to the abuses which of- 
 fended all minds, every one gave ear. 
 
 Nevertheless, Luther, in both cases, 
 did but design to raise one of those theo- 
 logical discussions then frequent in the 
 University. His ideas did not range 
 beyond that circle. He had no thought 
 of becoming a Reformer. He had a 
 low opinion of his own powers, and his 
 humility even amounted to mistrust and 
 anxiety. " I deserve, — such is my ignor- 
 ance," — said he, " nothing better than to 
 be hidden in a corner unknown to every 
 one."* But a powerful hand drew him 
 forth from this corner, where he would 
 have wished to remain unknown to the 
 world. An occurrence, which did not 
 depend on Luther's will, threw him on 
 the field of battle, and the conflict began. 
 It is this providential circumstance that 
 the progress of events calls on us to nar- 
 rate. 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) jsviii. 1944. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 1517—1518. 
 
 Tetzel Confessions — The Sale — Penance — Letter of Indulgence — Relaxations— A Soul in Pur- 
 
 o-atory The Shoemaker of Hagenau — Myconius— A Stratagem— Opinions of the People— The 
 
 Miser of Schneeberg— Leo X. — Albert— Farming Indulgences — Franciscans and Dominicans 
 —Confession— A Calumny Refuted— Luther's Sermon— The Dream— Theses— Letter to Albert 
 —Efforts for Reform— The Bishops— Spread of the Theses— Reception of the Theses— Effects 
 of the Theses— Myconius— Apprehension— Opposers at Wittemberg— Luther's Answer— De- 
 jection of Luther— Motives— Tetzel's Attack— Luther's Answer— Luther's Boldness— Luther 
 and Spalatin— Study of the Scriptures— Scheurl and Luther— Albert Durer— Tetzel's Reply- 
 Disputation at Frankfort— Tetzel's Theses— Luther's Theses Burned— Outcry of the Monks- 
 Luther's Composure— Tetzel's Theses Burned— The higher Clergy— Prienas— The Romish 
 S vs tem— The Disciple of the Bible— The Doctrine of the Reformation— Luther's Reply to 
 Prierias— Hochstraten— Doctor Eck— The " Obelisks"— The " Asterisks"— Scheurl attempts 
 Reconciliation-Luther's Tracts-" Who art in Heaven"-" Our Daily Bi-ead'-" Remission 
 of Sins"— Effects of Luther's Teaching— Luther's Journey— The Palatine CasUe— 1 he ra- 
 radoxes"— The Disputation— Its Results— Bucer— Brentz— The Gospel of Heidelburg— Lttect 
 on Luther— The Old Professor — Return to Wittemberg. 
 
 A great agitation reigned, at that time, 
 among the people of Germany. The 
 
 Church had opened a vast market on the 
 earth. Judging from the crowd of buy- 
 
104 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ers, and the noise and jests of the dealers, 
 we might call it a fair ; but a fair held 
 by monks. The merchandise they ex- 
 tolled, offering it at a reduced price, was, 
 said they, the salvation of souls ! 
 
 The dealers passed through the coun- 
 try in a gay carriage, escorted by three 
 horsemen, in great state, and spending 
 freely. One might have thought it some 
 dignitary on a royal progress, with his 
 attendants and officers, and not a com- 
 mon dealer, or a begging monk. When 
 the procession approached a town, a mes- 
 senger waited on the magistrate : " The 
 grace of God, and of the Holy Father, 
 is at your gates !" said the envoy. In- 
 stantly every thing was in motion in the 
 place. The clergy > the priests, the nuns, 
 the council, the schoolmasters, the trades, 
 with their flags, — men and women, young 
 and old, went forth to meet the merchants, 
 with lighted tapers in their hands, ad- 
 vancing to the sound of music, and of all 
 the bells of the place ; " so that," says an 
 historian, " they could not have given a 
 grander welcome to God himself." Sa- 
 lutations being exchanged, the whole pro- 
 cession moved toward the church. The 
 pontiff's bull of grace was borne in front, 
 on a velvet cushion, or on cloth of gold. 
 The chief vender of indulgences fol- 
 lowed, supporting a large red wooden 
 cross ; and the whole procession moved 
 in this manner, amidst singing, prayers, 
 and the smoke of incense. The sound 
 of organs, and a concert of instruments, 
 received the monkish dealer and his at- 
 tendants into the church. The cross he 
 bore with him was erected in front of the 
 altar : on it was hung the Pope's arms ; 
 and, as long as it remained there, the 
 clergy of the place, the penitentiaries, 
 and the sub-commissioners, with white 
 wands in their hands, came every day 
 after vespers, or before the salutation, to 
 dp homage to it.* This great bustle ex- 
 cited a lively sensation in the quiet towns 
 of Germany. 
 
 One person in particular drew the at- 
 tention of the spectators in these sales. 
 It was he who bore the great red cross, 
 and had the most prominent part as- 
 signed to him. He was clothed in the 
 habit of the Dominicans, and his port 
 
 * Instruction of the Archbishop of Mentz to 
 the sub-commissioners of the Indulgence, &c 
 art. 8. 
 
 was lofty. His voice was sonorous, and 
 he seemed yet in the prime of his strength, 
 though he was past his sixty-third year.* 
 This man, who was the son of a gold- 
 smith of Leipsic named Diez, bore the 
 name of John Diezel or Tetzel. He had 
 studied in his native town, had taken his 
 bachelor's degree in 1487, and entered 
 two years later into the order of the Do- 
 minicans. Numerous honours had been 
 accumulated on him. Bachelor of The- 
 ology, Prior of the Dominicans, Aposto- 
 lical Commissioner, Inquisitor, (hereticce 
 pravitatis inquisitor,) he had ever since 
 the year 1502, filled the office of an agent 
 for the sale of indulgences. The expe- 
 rience he had acquired as a subordinate 
 functionary had very early raised him to 
 the station of chief commissioner. He 
 had an allowance of 80 florins per month, 
 all his expenses defrayed, and he was al- 
 lowed a carriage and three horses ; but 
 we may readily imagine that his indirect 
 emoluments far exceeded his allowances. 
 In 1507, he gained in two days at Frey- 
 berg 2000 florins. If his occupation re- 
 sembled that of a mountebank, he had 
 also the morals of one. Convicted at 
 Inspruck of adultery and abominable pro- 
 fligacy, he was near paying the forfeit of 
 his life. The Emperor Maximilian had 
 ordered that he should be put into a sack 
 and thrown into the river. The Elector 
 Frederic of Saxony had interceded for 
 him, and obtained his pardon, f But the 
 lesson he had received had not taught 
 him more decency. He carried about 
 with him two of his children. Miltitz, 
 the Pope's legate, cites the fact in one of 
 his letters. 1 It would have been hard to 
 find in all the cloisters of Germany a 
 man more adapted to the traffic with 
 which he was charged. To the theology 
 of a monk, and the zeal and spirit of an 
 inquisitor, he united the greatest effron- 
 tery. What most helped him in his office 
 was the facility he displayed in the in- 
 vention of the strange stories with which 
 the taste of the common people is gener- 
 ally pleased. No means came amiss to 
 him to fill his coffers. Lifting up his 
 voice and giving loose to a coarse volu- 
 
 5.) 
 
 * Ingenio ferox et corpore robustus. — (Cochl. 
 
 t Welchen Churfurst Friederich vom Sack 
 zu Inspruck er beten Hatte. — (Mathes. x.) 
 X L. Opp. (W.) xv. 862. 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 105 
 
 bility, he offered his indulgences to all 
 comers, and excelled any salesman at a 
 fair in recommending his merchandise.* 
 
 As soon as the cross was elevated with 
 the Pope's arms suspended upon it, Tet- 
 zel ascended the pulpit, and, with a bold 
 tone, began, in the presence of the crowd 
 whom the ceremony had drawn to the sa- 
 cred spot, to exalt the efficacy of indul- 
 gences. The people listened and won- 
 dered at the admirable virtues ascribed 
 to them. A Jesuit historian says him- 
 self, in speaking of the Dominican friars 
 •whom Tetzel had associated with him: 
 — " Some of these preachers did not fail, 
 as usual, to distort their subject, and so to 
 exaggerate the value of the indulgences 
 as to lead the people to believe that, as 
 soon as they gave their money, they were 
 certain of salvation and of the deliver- 
 ance of souls from purgatory, "f 
 
 If such were the pupils, we may ima- 
 gine what lengths the master went. Let 
 us hear one of these harangues, pronoun- 
 ced after the erection of the cross. 
 
 " Indulgences," said he, " are the most 
 precious and sublime of God's gifts. 
 
 " This cross " — (pointing to the red 
 cross) — " has as much efficacy as the 
 cross of Jesus Christ. J 
 
 "Draw near, and I will give you letters, 
 duly sealed, by which even the sins you 
 shall hereafter desire to commit shall be 
 all forgiven you. 
 ! " I would not exchange my privileges 
 for those of Saint Peter in heaven, for I 
 have saved more souls with my indul- 
 ; gences than he with his sermons. 
 
 " There is no sin so great that the in- 
 dulgence cannot remit it, and even if any 
 one should (which is doubtless impossi- 
 ble) ravish the Holy Virgin Mother of 
 God, let him pay, — let him only pay 
 largely, and it shall be forgiven him.§ 
 
 ) * Circumferuntur venales indulgentise in his 
 regionibus a Tecelio, Dominicano impudentissi- 
 mo sycophanta. — (Melancth. Vita Luth.) 
 
 t Hist, de Lutheranisme par le P. Maimbourg 
 de la compagnie de Jesus. 1681, p. 21. 
 
 t L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1393. 
 
 § Tetzel defended and maintained this asser- 
 tion in his antitheses, published the same year. 
 (Th. 99, 100, 101.) — Sub-commissariis, insuper 
 ac prcedicatoribus veniarum imponere, ut si quis 
 per impossibile Dei genetricem semper virginem 
 violasset, quod eundem indulgentiarum vigore 
 absolvere possent, luce clarus est. (Positiones 
 fratris I. Tezelii quibus defendit indulgentias 
 contra Lutherum.) 
 
 14 . 
 
 " Even repentance is not indispen- 
 sable. 
 
 " But more than all this : indulgences 
 save not the living alone, they also save 
 the dead. 
 
 " Ye priests, ye nobles, ye tradesmen, 
 ye wives, ye maidens, and ye young men, 
 hearken to your departed parents and 
 friends, who cry to you from the bottom- 
 less abyss : ' We are enduring horrible 
 torment ! a small alms would deliver 
 us; — you can give it, and you will 
 not !' " 
 
 A shudder ran through his hearers at 
 these words, uttered by the formidable 
 voice of the mountebank monk. 
 
 " The very moment," continued Tet- 
 zel, " that the money clinks against the 
 bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from 
 purgatory and flies free to heaven.* 
 
 " Q, senseless people, and almost like 
 to beasts, who do not comprehend the 
 grace so richly offered ! This day, hea- 
 ven is on all sides open. Do you now 
 refuse to enter? When, then, do you in- 
 tend to come in ? This day you may 
 redeem many souls. Dull and heedless 
 man, with ten groschen you can deliver 
 your father from purgatory, and you are 
 so ungrateful that you will not rescue 
 him. In the day of judgment, my con- 
 science will be clear ; but you will be 
 punished the more severely for neglect- 
 ing so great a salvation. I protest that 
 though you should have only one coat, 
 you ought to strip it off and sell it, to 
 purchase this grace. Our Lord God no 
 longer deals with us as God. He has 
 given all power to the Pope !" 
 
 Then, having recourse to other in- 
 ducements, he added : — " Do you know 
 why our most Holy Lord distributes so 
 rich a grace? The dilapidated Church of 
 St. Peter and St. Paul is to be restored, 
 so as to be unparalleled in the whole 
 earth. That church contains the bodies 
 of the holy apostles, Peter and Paul, 
 and a vast company of martyrs. Those 
 sacred bodies, owing to the present con- 
 dition of the edifice, are now, alas ! con- 
 tinually trodden, flooded, polluted, dis- 
 honoured, and rotting in rain and hail. 
 Ah ! shall these holy ashes be suffered 
 to remain degraded in the mire ?"f 
 
 * Th. 56.— (Ibid.) 
 
 t Instruction of the Archbishop of Mentz, &c. 
 
106 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 This touch of description never failed 
 to produce an impression on many hear- 
 ers. There was an eager desire to aid 
 poor Leo X. who had not the means of 
 sheltering from the rain the bodies of St. 
 Peter and St. Paul ! 
 
 The speaker next proceeded to de- 
 claim against the disputers who should 
 question, and the traitors who should 
 oppose his mission : — u I declare them 
 all excommunicated !" 
 
 Then turning to the docile souls among 
 his hearers, and impiously perverting the 
 Scripture : " Blessed," said he, " 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 
 which ye see, and have not seen them, 
 and to hear the things which ye hear, 
 and have not heard them." And as a 
 finish to his address, pointing to the 
 strong box in which the money was re- 
 ceived, he generally concluded his mov- 
 ing discourse by thrice calling on the 
 people : " Bring your money ! bring 
 money ! bring money !" " He uttered 
 this cry with such a dreadful bellow- 
 ing," observed Luther, " that one might 
 have thought some wild bull was rush- 
 ing among the people and goring them 
 with his horns."* The moment he had 
 made an end, he came down the steps 
 of the pulpit, ran towards the strong box, 
 and in sight of all the people, threw in 
 a piece of silver with a loud sound, f 
 
 Such were the discourses that Ger- 
 many heard with astonishment, in the 
 days when God was preparing Luther. 
 
 The sermon ended, the indulgence 
 was considered as having " established 
 its throne in the place with due solemn- 
 ity." Confessionals, surmounted with 
 the Pope's arms, were prepared. The 
 sub-commissioners and confessors chosen 
 were held to represent the apostolic peni- 
 tentiaries, or absolving priests of Rome, 
 at the period of a great jubilee ; and on 
 each of their confessionals were inscribed 
 their names and titles.^ 
 
 Then the people came in crowds to 
 the confessors. They came not with 
 
 * Resolut. on the 32nd Thesis. 
 
 t Teutzel, Reformationgesch. Myconii Ref. 
 Hist. Instruction of the Archbishop of Mentz 
 to the sub-commissioners of the indulgence. — 
 Theses of Luther. 
 
 t Instruction, etc. 5. 69. 
 
 contrite hearts, but with money in their 
 hands. Men, women, the young, the 
 poor, and those who lived by alms, — 
 every one then found money. The ab- 
 solving priest, after again setting forth 
 the indulgence, thus addressed the peni- 
 tents : " How much money can you, in 
 your conscience, spare to obtain so per- 
 fect a remission ?" " This question," 
 said the Archbishop of Mentz, in his in- 
 structions to the commissioners, " must 
 be put at the moment, in order that the 
 penitents may be better disposed to con- 
 tribute." 
 
 These conditions fulfilled were all that 
 was necessary. In the Pope's bull, some- 
 thing was indeed said of the repentance 
 of the heart and confession of the lips ; 
 but Tetzel and his companions cautiously 
 abstained from all mention of these ; 
 otherwise their coffers might have re- 
 mained empty. The archiepiscopal in- 
 structions forbade even to mention con- 
 version or contrition. Three great bene- 
 fits were proclaimed. It is sufficient to 
 notice the first. " The first benefit we 
 announce," said the commissioners, act- 
 ing on their instructions, " is the complete 
 pardon of all sins ; and it is not possible 
 to speak of any greater benefit than this, 
 since man who lives in sin is deprived 
 of the divine favour, and by this com- 
 plete pardon he recovers the grace of 
 God.* Now we affirm, that to obtain 
 these great blessings, it is only necessary 
 to purchase an indulgence.! And as to 
 those who desire to deliver souls from 
 purgatory, and to procure for them the 
 forgiveness of all their sins, let them put 
 their money in the chest ; but it is not 
 needful that they should feel sorrow of 
 heart, or make confession with the lips. J 
 Let them only hasten to bring their 
 money, for they will thus do a work 
 most profitable to departed souls, and to 
 the building of the Church of St. Peter." 
 Greater blessings could not be proposed, 
 nor at a lower cost. 
 
 Confession beipg gone through, (and 
 it was soon despatched,) the faithful has- 
 tened to the vendor. Only one was 
 
 * Die erste Gnade ist die vollkommene Verge- 
 bung aller Siinden, &c. Instruction 19. 
 
 t Nun den Beichtbrief zu kaufen. — (Ibid. 36.) 
 t Auch ist nicht nothigdas sie iif dem Herzen 
 zerknirscht sind, und mit dem Mund gebeichtet 
 haben. (Ibid. 38.) 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 107 
 
 commissioned to sell. He had his coun- 
 ter close to the cross. He turned a scru- 
 tinising glance on those who came. He 
 examined their manner, step, and attire, 
 and demanded a sum in proportion to the 
 apparent circumstances of the party pre- 
 senting himself. Kings, queens, princes, 
 archbishops, bishops, &c. were to pay, 
 according to the regulation, for an ordi- 
 nary indulgence, twenty-five ducats ; 
 abbots, counts, barons, &c. ten. The 
 other nobles, superiors, and all who had 
 an annual income of 500 florins, were to 
 pay six. Those who had an income of 
 200 florins, one ; the Test, half a florin. 
 And further, if this scale could not in 
 every instance be observed, full power 
 was given to the apostolic commissary, 
 and the whole might be arranged accord- 
 ing to the dictates of sound reason, and 
 the generosity of the giver.* For parti- 
 ticular sins Tetzel had a private scale. 
 Polygamy cost six ducats ; sacrilege and 
 perjury, nine ducats ; murder, eight ; 
 witchcraft, two. Samson, who carried 
 on in Switzerland the same traffic as 
 Tetzel in 'Germany, had rather a dif- 
 ferent scale. He charged for infanticide 
 four livres tournois ; for a parricide or 
 fratricide, one ducat, f 
 
 The apostolic commissaries sometimes 
 encountered difficulties in their com- 
 merce. It often happened, as well in 
 the towns as in the villages, that hus- 
 bands were opposed to the traffic, and 
 forbade their wives to carry any thing to 
 the dealers. What were their supersti- 
 tious partners to do ? " Have you not 
 your marriage portion, or some other pro- 
 perty, at your disposal 1" asked the ven- 
 dors. " In that case you can dispose of 
 it for this holy purpose, without your hus- 
 band's consent."^ 
 
 The hand that delivered the indul- 
 gence could not receive the money : that 
 was forbidden under the severest penal- 
 ties ; — there was good reason to fear that 
 hand might not always be trust worthy. 
 The penitent was himself to drop the 
 price of his pardon into the chest. § An 
 
 * Nach den Stiltzen der gesundun Vernuft, 
 nach ihrer Magnificenz und Freigebigkeit. — (In- 
 struction, &c. 26.) 
 
 t Muller's Reliq. iii. p. 264. 
 
 t Wider den Willen ihres Mannes. — (Instruc- 
 tion, 27. 
 
 § Ibid. 87, 90, 91. 
 
 angry look was cast on those who dared 
 to close their purses.* 
 
 If, among those who pressed into the 
 confessionals, there came one whose 
 crimes had been public, and yet un- 
 touched by the civil laws, such person 
 was obliged, first of all, to do public 
 penance. He was conducted to a cha- 
 *pel, or sacristy ; there he was stripped 
 of his clothes, his shoes taken off his 
 feet, and he left in his shirt. They 
 made him fold his arms upon his breast, 
 placed a light in one hand, and a wax 
 taper in the other. Then the penitent 
 walked at the head of the procession, 
 which passed to the red cross. He 
 kneeled till the singing and the collect 
 were concluded ; then the commissary 
 gave out the psalm, " Miserere mei" 
 The confessors immediately approached 
 the penitent, and led him across the station 
 towards the commissary, who, taking the 
 rod, and striking him thrice gently on 
 the back,f said : " God take pity on thee, 
 and pardon thy sin !" After this, he 
 gave out the Kyrie eleison, &c. Then 
 the penitent being led back, and placed 
 before the cross, the confessor pronounced 
 the apostolical absolution, and declared 
 him reinstated in the company of the faith- 
 ful. Wretched mummeries, concluded 
 by a passage of Scripture, which, at such 
 a time, was a profanation ! 
 
 We will give one of these letters of 
 absolution. It is worth while to know 
 the contents of these diplomas, which 
 gave occasion to the Reformation. 
 
 " Our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy 
 on thee, N.N., and absolve thee by the 
 merits of his most holy sufferings ! And 
 I, in virtue of the apostolic power com- 
 mitted to me, absolve thee from all eccle- 
 siastical censures, judgments, and penal- 
 ties that thou mayst have merited ; and 
 further, from all excesses, sins, and crimes 
 that thou mayst have committed, however 
 great and enormous they may be, and of 
 whatever kind — even though they should 
 be reserved to our holy father the Pope, 
 and to the Apostolic See. I efface all 
 the stains of weakness, and all traces of 
 the shame that thou mayst have drawn 
 upon thyself by such actions. I remit 
 the pains thou wouldst have had to en- 
 
 * Luth. Opp. Leipz. xvii. 79. 
 t Dreimal gelind auf den Riicken. — (Instruc- 
 tion.) 
 
108 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 dure in purgatory. I receive thee again 
 to the sacraments of the Church. I here- 
 by reincorporate thee in the communion 
 of the saints, and restore thee to the in- 
 nocence and purity of thy baptism ; so 
 that, at the moment of death, the gate of 
 the place of torment shall be shut against 
 thee, and the gate of the paradise of joy 
 shall be opened unto thee. And if thou' 
 shouldst live long, this grace continueth 
 unchangeable, till the time of thy end. 
 
 " In the name of the Father, of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 
 
 " The Brother, John Tetzel, commis- 
 sary, hath signed this with his own 
 hand." 
 
 In this document, we see Avith what 
 art presumptuous and false doctrines 
 were interspersed among sacred and 
 Christian expressions. 
 
 All the faithful were to come and con- 
 fess in the spot where the red cross was 
 set up. None but the sick, old men, and 
 women with child, were exempt. If, 
 however, there was in the neighbour- 
 hood any noble in his castle, or wealthy 
 man in his palace, his personal attend- 
 ance was dispensed with.* For he might 
 not care to mingle with this mob of peo- 
 ple, and his money was worth fetching 
 from his residence. 
 
 If there was any convent whose supe- 
 riors, disapproving Tetzel's traffic, for- 
 bade their monks to resort to the places 
 where the indulgence was offered, — 
 means were still found to remedy this. 
 Confessors were sent to them, commis- 
 sioned to absolve them contrary to the 
 rules of their order and the will of their 
 superiors.! Not a vein of the mine was 
 left unexplored. 
 
 Then came what was the object and 
 end of the whole affair, — the reckoning 
 of the money. To guard against all 
 risks, the chest had three keys: — one 
 was in the keeping of Tetzel, the other 
 with the delegated treasurer of the house 
 of Fugger, of Augsburg, to whom, some- 
 time before, this vast speculation had 
 been farmed ; and the third was lodged 
 with the eivil authority. When the ap- 
 pointed day arrived, the chest was opened 
 in presence of a public notary, and the 
 whole contents carefully counted, and 
 ■entered in the books. Was it not fit 
 
 * Instr. 9. 
 
 t Ibid. 69. 
 
 that Christ should arise and drive out 
 these buyers and sellers from the temple ? 
 
 The mission being ended, the dealers 
 relaxed in amusement, after their labours. 
 The instruction of the commissary-gen- 
 eral did, it is true, forbid their frequenting 
 taverns and disreputable places.* But 
 they paid little regard to this interdict 
 Sin must have had few terrors for men 
 who carried on so easy a traffic in it. 
 " The mendicant friars led an irregular 
 life," says a Roman Catholic historian ; 
 " they spent in taverns, gaming houses, 
 and houses of ill-fame, what the people 
 had scraped together from their pover- 
 ty"! It is even affirmed that, when 
 they were in the taverns, they would 
 sometimes stake on dice die salvation of 
 souls. J 
 
 But let us see to what scenes this sale 
 of the pardon of sins gave rise in Ger- 
 many. There are some incidents, which 
 of themselves are a picture of the times. 
 We like to let those whose history we 
 write speak for themselves. 
 
 At Masfdebura:, Tetzel refused to ab- 
 solve a rich lady, unless she paid down 
 one hundred florins. The lady con- 
 sulted her usual confessor, who was a 
 Franciscan. " God gives us remission 
 of sins freely," answered he ; " He does 
 not sell it." Yet he entreated her not to 
 mention what he had said. But the re- 
 port of an opinion so adverse to his gains 
 having reached the ears of Tetzel, — 
 " Such an adviser," he exclaimed, " de- 
 serves to be expelled or burnt alive. "§ 
 
 Tetzel found but few sufficiently en- 
 lightened, and still fewer bold enough to 
 resist him. In general he could easily 
 manage a superstitious crowd. He had 
 erected the red cross of indulgences at 
 Zwickau, and the good people of the 
 place had hastened to pour in the money 
 that was to liberate souls. He was about 
 to leave with a full purse. The evening 
 before his departure, the chaplains and 
 their acolytes called upon him to give 
 them a farewell repast. The request 
 was reasonable ; but what was to be 
 done ? — the money was already counted 
 and sealed up. In the morning he had 
 the large bell tolled. A crowd hurried 
 to the church : — every one thought that 
 
 * Ibid. 4. + Sarpi, Cnocile de Trente, p. 5. 
 t Schrock, K. G. v. d. R 1. 116. 
 § Schultet. Annal. Evangel, p. iv. 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 109' 
 
 something extraordinary had happened, 
 since the period of the station had ex- 
 pired. " I had intended," said he, " to 
 take my departure this morning, but last 
 night I was awakened by groans. I lis- 
 tened ; they proceeded from the cemetery. 
 Alas ! it was a poor soul that called me, 
 and intreated to be delivered from the 
 torment that consumed it. I therefore 
 have tarried one day longer, that I might 
 move Christian hearts to compassion for 
 this unhappy soul. Myself will be the 
 first to contribute ; — but he who will not 
 follow my example will be worthy of 
 all condemnation." What heart would 
 not answer to such an appeal 1 Besides, 
 who can tell what soul thus cries from 
 the tomb 1 The gifts were many ; and 
 Tetzel, with the chaplains and acolytes, 
 sat down to a merry feast, paid for by of- 
 ferings for the poor soul of Zwickau.* 
 
 The dealers in indulgences had estab- 
 lished themselves at Hagenau in 1517. 
 The wife of a shoemaker, profiting by 
 the permission given in the instruction 
 of the Commissary-general, had pro- 
 cured, against her husband's will, a let- 
 ter of indulgence, and had paid for it a 
 gold florin. Shortly after, she died ; and 
 the widower omitting to have mass said 
 for the repose of her soul, the curate 
 charged him with contempt of religion, 
 and the judge of Hagenau summoned 
 him to appear before him. The shoe- 
 maker put in his pocket his wife's indul- 
 gence, and repaired to the place of sum- 
 mons. " Is your wife dead V asked the 
 judge. — " Yes," answered the shoema- 
 ker. " What have you done with her?" 
 "I buried her and commended her soul 
 to God." " But have you had a mass 
 said for the salvation of her soul ?" " I 
 have not : — it was not necessary : — she 
 went to heaven in the moment of her 
 death." "How do you know that?" 
 " Here is the evidence of it." The 
 widower drew from his pocket the indul- 
 gence, and the judge, in presence of the 
 curate, read, in so many words, that in 
 the moment of death, the woman who 
 had received it would go, not into pur- 
 gatory, but straight into heaven. "If 
 the curate pretends that a mass is neces- 
 sary after that," said the shoemaker, "my 
 
 * Loschers, Ref. Acta, I. 404. L. Opp. xv. 
 443, &c. 
 
 wife has been cheated by our Holy Fa- 
 ther the Pope ; but if she has not been 
 cheated, then the curate is deceiving me." 
 There was no reply to this defence, and 
 the accused was acquitted.* It was thus 
 that the good sense of the people disposed 
 of these impostures. 
 
 One day, when Tetzel was preaching 
 at Leipsic, and had introduced into his 
 preaching some of these stories of which 
 we have given a specimen, two students 
 indignantly left the church, exclaiming 
 — " It is not possible to listen any longer 
 to the ridiculous and childish tales of 
 that monk. "| One of these students, it 
 is affirmed, was young Camerarius, who 
 was subsequently the friend of Mclanc- 
 thon, and wrote his life. 
 
 But, of all the young men of that pe- 
 riod, Tetzel made the strongest impres- 
 sion on Myconius — subsequently cele- 
 brated as a Reformer and an historian 
 of the Reformation. N Myconius had 
 received a religious education. " My 
 son," said his father, who was a pious 
 Franconian, " pray frequently ; for all 
 things are freely given to us by God 
 alone. The blood of Christ," he added, 
 " is the only ransom for the sins of the 
 whole world. Oh, my son ! if there 
 were but three men to be saved by 
 the blood of Christ, only believe ; — and 
 be sure that you shall be one of those 
 three. \ It is an insult to the Saviour's 
 blood to doubt its power to save." 
 Then, proceeding to warn his son against 
 the trade that was beginning in Germa- 
 ny, — " The Roman indulgences/' said 
 he, " are nets to fish for money, and de- 
 lude the simple. Remission of sins and 
 eternal life are not to be purchased by 
 money." 
 
 At thirteen, Frederic was sent to the 
 school of Annaberg, to finish his studies. 
 Soon after, Tetzel arrived in this town, 
 and remained there for two months. 
 The people flocked in crowds to hear 
 him preach. " There is," exclaimed Tet- 
 zel, with a voice of thunder, " no other 
 means of obtaining eternal life save the 
 satisfaction of good works. But this sa- 
 tisfaction is out of man's power. His 
 
 * Musculi Loci communes, p. 362. 
 
 t Hoffmanns Reformationgesch. v. Leipz. p. 32. 
 
 \ Si tantum tres homines esset salvanda per 
 sanguinem Christi, certo statueret unum se esse 
 ox tribus illis.— (Melch. Adam. Vita Mycon.) 
 
110 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 only resource is to purchase it from the 
 Roman Pontiff"* 
 
 When Tetzel was on the point of 
 leaving Annaberg his appeal became 
 more urgent. " Soon," said he with a 
 threatening accent, " I shall take down 
 that cross, and close the gate of heaven,f 
 and put out that sun of grace which 
 shines before your eyes." Then, resum- 
 ing a tenderer strain of exhortation, — 
 " This," said he, "is the day of salvation, 
 this is the accepted time." And as a 
 last effort, the pontifical Stentor,| speak- 
 ing to the inhabitants of a country rich 
 in mines, exclaimed, " Inhabitants of 
 Annaberg! bring hither your money; 
 contribute liberally in aid of indulgen- 
 ces, and all your mines and mountains 
 shall be filled with pure silver." Fi- 
 nally, at Easter, he proclaimed that he 
 would distribute his letters to the poor 
 gratuitously, and for the love of God. 
 
 The young Myconius happened to he 
 among the hearers. He felt a wish to 
 take advantage of this offer. " I am a 
 poor sinner," said he, addressing in La- 
 tin the commissioners to whom he ap- 
 plied, "and I need a free pardon." 
 " Those only," answered the dealers, 
 " can share in the merits of Christ who 
 stretch forth a helping hand to' the/ 
 Church — that is, give their money."! 
 " What mean, then," said Myconius^ 
 " those promises of free distribution 
 posted up on the gates and walls of 
 the churches ?" " Give at least a grow 
 said Tetzel's people, after having vainly* 
 interceded for the young man with their 
 master. " I cannot." — " Only six deni- 
 ers .» — « I have not even so much." The 
 Dominicans then began to apprehend 
 that he meant to entrap them. " Listen," 
 said they, " we will give you six deni- 
 ers." — On which the young man, raising 
 his voice with indignation, replied : " I 
 will have none of the indulgences that 
 are bought and sold. If I desired to 
 purchase them, I should only have to 
 sell one of my books. What I want is 
 a free pardon, — and for the love of God. 
 You will have to account to God for 
 having, for the sake of six deniers, 
 missed the salvation of a soul." " Ah ! 
 
 * Si nummis redimatur a Pontifice Romano. — 
 (Melch. Adam.) 
 
 t Clausurum januam cosli. — (Melch. Adam.) 
 X Stentor pontificius. — (lb.) 
 
 ah !" said they, " who sent you to tempt 
 us?" " No one," replied the young man : 
 " the desire of receiving the grace of 
 God could alone induce me to appear 
 before such great lords." He left them. 
 
 "I was grieved," says he," at being 
 thus sent away without pity. But I 
 felt in myself a Comforter, who whis- 
 pered that there is a God in heaven who 
 forgives repentant souls without money 
 and without price, for the sake of his 
 Son, Jesus Christ. As I left these peo- 
 ple, the Holy Spirit touched my heart. 
 I burst into tears, — and with sighs and 
 groans prayed to the Lord : O God, since 
 these men have refused remission of sins 
 because I had no money to pay, do thou, 
 Lord, take pity on me, and forgive them 
 in mere mercy. I retired to my cham- 
 ber. I took my crucifix from my desk, 
 placed it on my chair, and kneeled be- 
 fore it. I cannot here put down what I 
 experienced. I asked of God to be my 
 father, and to make me what he would 
 have me. I felt my nature changed, 
 converted, transformed. What had be- 
 fore delighted me was now distasteful. 
 To live with God, and to please Hm, 
 became my most ardent — my single de- 
 sire."* /^ ^ 
 
 T,h«s' Tetzel himself was preparing 
 the Reformation. By scandalous abuses 
 he made way for a purer teaching ; and 
 the generous indignation which he ex- 
 cited in youthful minds was destined 
 one day to break forth with power. We 
 may judge of this by the following inci- 
 dent. 
 
 A Saxon gentleman had heard Tetzel 
 at Leipsic, and was much shocked by 
 his impostures. He went to the monk, 
 and inquired if he was authorised to 
 pardon sins in intention, or such as the 
 applicant intended to commit 1 " Assu- 
 redly," answered Tetzel ; " I have full 
 power from the Pope to do so." 
 " Well," returned the gentleman, " I 
 want to take some slight revenge on 
 one of my enemies, without attempting 
 his life. I will pay you ten crowns, 
 if you will give me a letter of indul- 
 gence that shall bear me harmless." 
 Tetzel made some scruples ; they struck 
 their bargain for thirty crowns. Shortly 
 after, the monk set out from Leipsic. 
 
 * Letter of Myconius to Eberus in Hechtii 
 Vita Tezelii, Wittemb. i. p. 14. 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The gentleman, attended by his servants, 
 laid wait for him in a wood between 
 Juterboch and Treblin, — fell upon him, 
 gave him a beating, and carried off the 
 rich chest of indulgence-money the in- 
 quisitor had with him. Tetzel cla- 
 moured against this act of violence, 
 and brought an action before the judges. 
 But the gentleman showed the letter 
 signed by Tetzel himself, which ex- 
 empted him beforehand from all respon- 
 sibility. Duke George, who had at first 
 been much irritated at this action, upon 
 seeing this writing ordered that the ac- 
 cused should be acquitted.* 
 
 This traffic every where agitated the 
 minds of the people, and was every 
 where discussed. It was the subject of 
 conversation in castles, academies, and 
 private houses, as well as in inns, ta- 
 verns, and all places of resort, f Opinions 
 were divided ; some believed, some were 
 indignant. But the sober part of the 
 nation rejected with disgust the whole 
 system of indulgences. This doctrine 
 was so opposed to the Scriptures and to 
 sound sense, that all men who possessed 
 any knowledge of the Bible, or any na- 
 tural acuteness, had already condemned 
 it in their hearts, and only waited for a 
 signal to oppose it. On the other hand, 
 mockers found abundant cause for ridi- 
 cule. The people, who had been irri-J 
 tated for so many years by the ill con-? 
 duct of the priests, and whom the fear 
 of punishment had alone retained in any! 
 outward respect, gave~ loose to all theii 
 animosity ; and on all sides were heard 
 complaints and sarcasms upon the love- 
 of money that infected the clergy. 
 
 The people went still farther. They 
 impugned the power of the keys and 
 the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff 
 " Why," said they, " does not the Pope 
 deliver at once all the souls. from purga- 
 tory by a holy charity, and on account 
 of the great misery oi those souls, since 
 he frees so great a number for the sake 
 of perishable gam, and the cathedral of 
 St. Peter ?" 
 
 " Why do we continue to observe the 
 festivals and anniversaries for the dead 1 
 Why does not the Pope surrender, or 
 why does he not permit people to resume 
 
 * Albinus Meissn. Chronik. L. W. (W.) xv. 
 446, &c. Hechtius in Vita Tezelii. 
 t L. Opp. (Leipz.) xvii. p. Ill, 116. 
 
 the benefices and prebends founded in 
 favour of the dead, since now it is use- 
 less, and even wrong, to pray for those 
 whom indulgences have for ever set 
 free % What is this new kind of holi- 
 ness of God and of the Pope, that for 
 the sake of money they grant to a 
 wicked man, and an enemy of God, the 
 power of delivering from purgatory a 
 pious soul, beloved by the Lord, rather 
 than themselves deliver it freely from 
 love for it, and on account of its great 
 misery ?'•'* 
 
 Accounts were circulated of the gross 
 and immoral conduct of the traffickers in 
 indulgences. " To pay," said they, " what 
 they owe to drivers who carry them and 
 their goods ; to innkeepers, at whose 
 houses they lodge, or to any one who 
 does them service, they give a letter ot 
 indulgence for four, five, or as many souls 
 as they wish." Thus the brevets of sal- 
 vation were 'circulated in the inns and 
 markets, like bank notes or paper money. 
 " Bring hither your money" -said the 
 common people, " is the beginning, the 
 middle, and the end of their sermons."f 
 
 A miner of Schneeberg, meeting a 
 seller of indulgences, inquired : " Must 
 we, then, believe what you have often 
 said of the power of indulgences, and of 
 the authority of the Pope, and think that 
 we can redeem a soul from purgatory by 
 casting a penny into the chest?" The 
 dealer in indulgences affirmed that it 
 (was so. "Ah !" replied the miner, "what 
 a cruel man the Pope must be, thus to 
 leave a poor soul to suffer so long in the 
 flames for a wretched penny ! If he has 
 itio ready money, let him collect a few 
 hundred thousand crowns, and deliver all 
 these souls by one act. Even Ave poor 
 folks would willingly pay him the prin- 
 cipal and interest." 
 
 The people of Germany were weary 
 of the shameful traffic that was carrying 
 on in the midst of them. They could no 
 longer bear the impostures of these Ro- 
 mish tricksters, as Luther remarks.;}: Yet 
 no bishop or divine dared lay a finger 
 on their quackery and deceit. The minds 
 
 * Luther's Theses on the Indulgences. — (Th. 
 82, 83, 84.) 
 
 f L. Opp. (Leipz.) xvii. 79. 
 
 t Fessi erant Germani omnes, ferendis expli- 
 cationibus, nundinationibus, et infinitis impostu- 
 ris Romanensium nebulonum. (L Opp. Lat. in 
 praef.) 
 
112 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 of men were in suspense. They asked 
 each other, if God would not raise up 
 some powerful instrument for the work 
 that was required to be done. But such 
 an one was no where visible. 
 
 The pope who then filled the pontifi- 
 cal throne was not a Borgia, but Leo X. 
 of the illustrious family of the Medici. 
 He was a man of talent, open-hearted, 
 kind, and indulgent. His manners were 
 affable, his liberality unbounded, and his 
 morals greatly superior to those of his 
 court. Nevertheless the Cardinal Palla- 
 vicini confesses they were not quite free 
 from reproach. To these amiable quali- 
 ties he added many of the accomplish- 
 ments that form a great prince. He was, 
 especially, a liberal patron of the arts 
 and sciences. The earliest Italian come- 
 dies were represented in his presence, 
 and most of the dramas of his time were 
 honoured by his attendance. He was 
 passionately fond of music, — his palace 
 daily resounded with musical instru- 
 ments, and he was often heard humming 
 the airs that had been sung before him. 
 Fond of magnificence, he spared no ex- 
 pense in feastings, public games, theatri- 
 cal entertainments, and gifts. No court 
 surpassed in splendour or in pleasures 
 that of the Sovereign Pontiff So that 
 when news was brought that Julian Me- 
 dici was about to choose Rome as a place 
 of residence for himself and his young 
 bride, Cardinal Bibliena, the most influ- 
 ential of Leo's council, exclaimed, " God 
 be praised! We wanted nothing here 
 but a female circle." A " female circle" 
 was felt requisite to complete the attrac- 
 tions of the Pope's court. But a feeling 
 of religion was a thing of which Leo was 
 entirely ignorant. " His manners," says 
 Sarpi, " were so charming, that he would 
 have been a perfect man, if he had some 
 knowledge in religious matters, and a 
 little more inclination for piety, concern- 
 ing which he never troubled himself."* 
 
 Leo was in great want of money. He 
 had to provide for his vast expenses ; to 
 satisfy all demands on his liberality ; to 
 fill with gold the purse he every day 
 
 * Sarpi, Concile de Trente, p. 4. Pallavicini, 
 though labouring to refute Sarpi, confirms and 
 even aggravates the charge : — suo plane officia 
 defuit (Leo) .... venationes, facetias, pompas 
 adeo frequenles .... (Council. Trid. Hist i. p. 
 8,9.) 
 
 threw to the people ; to defray the costs 
 of the licentious plays at the Vatican ; to 
 gratify the continual demands of his re- 
 lations, and of courtiers who were ad- 
 dicted to voluptuousness ; to portion his 
 sister, who had married Prince Cibo, a 
 natural son of Pope Innocent VIII. ; and 
 to bear all the expenses attending his 
 taste for literature, arts, and pleasures. 
 His cousin, Cardinal Pucci, who was as 
 skilful in the art of amassing money as Leo 
 was prodigal in spending, advised him to 
 have recourse to indulgences The Pope, 
 therefore, published a bull, proclaiming 
 a general indulgence, the product of 
 which should be appropriated, he said, 
 to the building of St. Peter's church, that 
 splendid monument of ecclesiastical mag- 
 nificence. In a letter given at Rome, 
 under the seal of the fisherman, in No- 
 vember, 1517, Leo required from his 
 commissioner of indulgences 147 gold 
 ducats, " to pay for a manuscript of the 
 33rd book of Livy." Of all the uses he 
 made of the money extorted from the 
 Germans, this was undoubtedly the best. 
 But it was strange to deliver souls from 
 purgatory that he might purchase a man- 
 uscript of the wars of the Romans ! 
 
 There was then in Germany a young 
 prince who was in many respects a coun- 
 terpart of Leo X. : — this was Albert, the 
 younger brother of the Elector Joachim 
 of Brandenburg. This young man, at' 
 he age of twenty-four, had been made 
 Archbishop and Elector of Mentz and 
 of Magdeburg ; two years after he was 
 made Cardinal. Albert had neither the 
 virtues nor the vices which have often 
 characterised the dignitaries of the 
 Church. Young, volatile, worldly- 
 minded, but not devoid of generous sen- 
 tiTnents, he plainly saw many of the 
 abuses of Catholicism, and cared little 
 for the fanatical monks that surrounded 
 him. His equity inclined him to ac- 
 knowledge, at least in part, the justice of 
 what the friends of the Gospel required. 
 In his heart he was not greatly opposed 
 to Luther. Capito, one of the most dis- 
 tinguished Reformers, was for a long- 
 time his chaplain, counsellor, and inti- 
 mate confidant. Albert regularly at- 
 tended his preaching. " He did not de- 
 spise the Gospel," says Capito ; " on the 
 contrary, he highly esteemed it, and for 
 a long time prevented the monks from 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 113 
 
 attacking- Luther." But he would have 
 had the latter abstain from compromis- 
 ing him, and beware, while pointing out 
 the errors in doctrine and the vices of 
 the inferior clergy, of bringing to light 
 the faults of the bishops and princes. 
 Above all, he feared to find his own name 
 thrust forward in the contest. " See." said 
 Capito to Luther, at a subsequent period, 
 deluding himself as is usual in such 
 cases, " see the example of Christ and of 
 his Apostles : they reproved the Phari- 
 sees and the incestuous person in the 
 church of Corinth, but did not do so by 
 name,. You do not know what is passing 
 in the hearts of the bishops. There is, 
 perhaps, more good in them than you 
 think." But the frivolous and profane 
 turn of Albert's character was likely to 
 indispose him for the Reformation, even 
 more than the susceptibilities and fears 
 of his self-love. Affable in his manners, 
 witty, graceful, of expensive and even 
 dissipated habits, delighting in the plea- 
 sures of the table, and in rich equipages, 
 houses, licentious pursuits, and literary 
 society, this young Archbishop and Elec- 
 tor was in Germany what Leo was at 
 Rome. His court was one of the most 
 splendid of the Empire. He was ready 
 to sacrifice to pleasure and grandeur all 
 the foretastes of truth that might visit his 
 soul. Yet there was in him, to the last, 
 a sort of struggle with his better convic- 
 tions ; and he more than once manifested 
 moderation and equity. 
 
 Like Leo, Albert was in want of mo- 
 ney. Some rich merchants of Augsburg, 
 named Fugger, had made him some ad- 
 vances. He was pressed for the means 
 of liquidating his debts ; nay, more, al- 
 though he had obtained two archbishop- 
 rics and a bishopric, he had not enough 
 to pay for his f allium at Rome. This 
 ornament, made of white wool, inter- 
 spersed with black crosses, and blessed 
 by the Pope, who was accustomed to 
 send it to the archbishops as a sign of 
 their jurisdiction, cost them 26,000, or, 
 as some say, 30,000 florins. 
 
 It was quite natural that Albert should 
 form the project of resorting to the same 
 means as his superior to obtain money. 
 He solicited from the Pope the contract 
 for the " farming " of all the indulgences, 
 or, as they expressed it at Rome, " the 
 contract for the sins of the Germans." 
 15 
 
 At times the Popes kept the specula- 
 tion in their own hands. Sometimes 
 they farmed it to others ; as, in certain 
 states, is still done with gaming houses. 
 Albert proposed to Leo to divide the pro- 
 fits. Leo, in accepting the bargain, re- 
 quired immediate payment of the pal- 
 lium. Albert, who was all the while de- 
 pending on the indulgences for the means 
 of discharging this claim, applied to the 
 Fuggers, who, thinking it a safe invest- 
 ment, made, on certain conditions, the 
 required advances ; and were appointed 
 cashiers in this great undertaking. They 
 were at this period bankers to many 
 princes, and were afterwards made counts 
 for the services they had rendered. 
 
 The Pope and Archbishop having 
 thus divided beforehand the spoils of the 
 credulous souls of Germany, it was ne- 
 cessary to carry out the project, and to 
 find some one to undertake the trouble 
 of realizing it. The charge was first of- 
 fered to the Franciscans, and their guar- 
 dian was associated in it with Albert. 
 But the Franciscans did not desire any 
 part in this undertaking, which was al- 
 ready in ill repute among good people. 
 The Augustine monks, who were more 
 enlightened than the other religious or- 
 ders, would have cared still less to join 
 in it. Meanwhile, the Franciscans feared 
 to offend the Pope, who had lately sent 
 to their general, Forli, a cardinal's hat, 
 which cost that poor mendicant order 
 30,000 florins. The guardian therefore 
 judged it most prudent not to meet the 
 offer by a direct refusal ; but he raised 
 all kinds of difficulties in the way of Al- 
 bert ; they never could agree, so that the 
 Elector was glad to accept the proposal 
 that he should take the sole charge of 
 the concern. The Dominicans, on their 
 part, coveted a share in the lucrative 
 trade about to be opened. Tetzel, al- 
 ready notorious in such matters, hastened 
 to Mentz, and tendered his services to 
 the Elector. His proved usefulness in 
 publishing the indulgences for the 
 knio-hts of the Teutonic Order of Prus- 
 sia and Livonia was recollected, and he 
 was accepted ; and thus it was that all 
 this traffic passed into the hands of his 
 order.* 
 
 The first time Luther heard speak of 
 Tetzel was, as far as we are informed, 
 * Seckendorf. 42. 
 
114 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 in the year 1516, at Grimma, when he 
 was commencing his visitation of the 
 churches. Some one came and told 
 Staupitz, who was still with Luther, that 
 a seller of indulgences, named Tetzel, 
 was making much noise at Wiirtzen. 
 Some of his extravagant expressions be- 
 ing quoted, Luther was indignant, and 
 exclaimed, " God willing, I will make a 
 hole in his drum."* 
 
 Tetzel, in his return from Berlin, 
 where he had met with a most friendly 
 reception from the Elector Joachim, a 
 brother of the farmer-general, took up 
 his abode at Jiiterboch. Staupitz, avail- 
 ing himself of the confidence the Elec- 
 tor Frederic reposed in him, had repeat- 
 edly called his attention to the abuse of 
 the indulgences, and the disgraceful pro- 
 ceedings of the collectors. f The Princes 
 of Saxony, indignant at the shameful 
 traffic, had forbidden Tetzel to enter 
 their provinces. He was therefore com- 
 pelled to stop on the territory of his pa- 
 tron, the Archbishop of Magdeburg. . But 
 he drew as near as he could to Saxony. 
 At Jiiterboch he was only four miles 
 distant from Wittemberg. " This great 
 purse-drainer," said Luther, "went boldly 
 to work, beating up the country all round, 
 so that money began to leap out of every 
 man's purse, and fall into his chest." 
 The people flocked in crowds from Wit- 
 temberg, to the indulgence market at 
 Jiiterboch. 
 
 Luther was still at this time full of re- 
 spect for the Church and for the Pope. 
 He says himself, " I was then a monk, a 
 papist of the maddest, — so infatuated and 
 even steeped in the Romish doctrines, 
 that I would willingly have helped to 
 kill any one who had the audacity to re- 
 fuse the smallest act of obedience to the 
 Pope. I was a true Saul, like many 
 others still living.^: But, at the same 
 time his heart was ready to take fire for 
 what he thought the truth, and against 
 what, in his judgment, was error. " I 
 was a young doctor, fresh from the anvil, 
 glowing and rejoicing in the glory of 
 the Lord."§ 
 
 * Lingke, Reisegesch. Luthers, p. 27. 
 
 t Instillans ejuspectori frequentes indulgentia- 
 rum abusus. — (Cochlaeus. 4.) 
 
 t Monachum, et papistam insanissimum, ita 
 ebrium, im6 submersum in dogmatibus papa?, &c. 
 —In prsef. Opp. Witt. I. 
 
 § L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 
 
 One day Luther was at confessional in 
 Wittemberg. Several residents of that 
 town successively presented themselves: 
 they confessed themselves guilty of great 
 irregularities, adultery, licentiousness, 
 usury, unjust gains : such were the 
 things men came to talk of with a min- 
 ister of God's word, who must one day 
 give an account of their souls. He re- 
 proved, rebuked, and instructed. But 
 what was his astonishment, when these 
 persons replied that they did not intend 
 to abandon their sins ! The pious monk, 
 shocked at this, declared, that since they 
 would not promise to change their habits 
 of life, he could not absolve them. Then 
 it was that these poor creatures appealed 
 to their letters of indulgence ; they 
 shewed them, and contended for their 
 efficacy. But Luther replied, that he 
 had nothing to do with their paper : and 
 he added, " If you do not turn from the 
 evil of your way, you will all perish." 
 They exclaimed against this, and re- 
 newed their application ; but the doctor 
 was immoveable. " They must cease," 
 he said, " to do evil, and learn to do 
 well, or otherwise no absolution. Have 
 a care," added he, " how you give ear to 
 the indulgences : you have something 
 better to do than to buy licences which 
 they offer you for paltry pence."* 
 
 Much alarmed, these inhabitants of 
 Wittemberg quickly returned to Tetzel, 
 and told him that an Augustine monk 
 treated his letters with contempt. Tet- 
 zel, at this, bellowed with anger. He 
 held forth in his pulpit, used insulting 
 expressions and curses,f and, to strike 
 the people with more terror, he had a 
 fire lighted several times in the grand 
 square, and declared that he was ordered 
 by the Pope to burn the heretics, who 
 should dare to oppose his most holy in- 
 dulgences. 
 
 Such was the incident that first gave 
 occasion to the Reformation, though not 
 the cause of it. A pastor sees his sheep 
 going on in a way that would lead them 
 to their ruin ; — he seeks „to guide them 
 out of it. He has as yet no thought of 
 reforming the Church and the world. 
 
 * Coepi dissuadere populis et eos dehortari ne 
 indulgentiarum clamoribus aures prreberent. (L. 
 Opp. lat. in prsf.) 
 
 t Wutet, schilt, und maledeiet graulich auf 
 dem Predigtstuhl. — (Myconius, Reformation- 
 gesch.) 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 115 
 
 He has seen Rome and its corruption ; 
 but he does not erect himself against 
 Rome. He discerns some of the abuses 
 under which Christendom groans, but 
 he has no thought of correcting those 
 abuses. He does not desire to constitute 
 himself a Reformer.* He has no more 
 plan in his mind for the reform of the 
 Church, than he had previously had for 
 that which had been wrought in his own 
 soul. God himself designed a Reforma- 
 tion, and to make Luther the instrument 
 of its accomplishment. The same rem- 
 edy, of which the efficacy was proved 
 by the removal of his own distress, it 
 was God's purpose that he should apply 
 to the distresses of Christendom. He 
 remains quietly in the circle assigned to 
 him. He goes simply where his mas- 
 ter calls him. He is discharging at 
 Wittemberg his duties as professor, 
 preacher, pastor. He is seated in the 
 temple, where the members of his church 
 come to open their hearts to him. It is 
 there, on that field, that Evil attacks, and 
 Error seeks him out. Those about him 
 would* hinder him from discharging his 
 duty. His conscience, bound to the word 
 of God, is aroused. Is it not God who 
 calls him 1 Resistance is a duty, — there- 
 fore it is also a right ; — he must speak. 
 Such was the course of the events occur- 
 ring- in the providence of that God, who 
 had decreed to revive Christianity by the 
 agency of a miner's son ; and to refine 
 in his furnace the corrupted teaching of 
 the Church, f 
 
 After what has been stated, it is need- 
 less to refute a lying charge invented by 
 some enemies of Luther, and not till af- 
 ter his death. It has been said it was a 
 jealousy on the part of the monks of his 
 order, — the mortification of seeing the 
 Dominicans, and not the Augustines, 
 who had previously held it, entrusted 
 with this shameful and disreputable 
 commerce, that led the Doctor of Wit- 
 temberg to attack Tetzel, and his teach- 
 ing. The well ascertained fact that 
 this traffic had been at first offered to 
 the Franciscans, who would not have 
 
 * Hbbc initia fuerunt hujus controversies, in 
 qua Lutherus nihil suspicans aut somnians de 
 futura mutatione ritum, &c— (Melancth. Vita 
 Luth.) 
 
 t Mathesius. — Die verseurte Lehr durch den 
 Ofen gehen (p. 10.) 
 
 it, suffices to refute this invention re- 
 peated by writers who do but copy one 
 another. Cardinal Pallavicini himself 
 declares* that the Augustines had ne- 
 ver held this office. Besides, we have 
 seen the struggle of Luther's soul. His 
 conduct needs no other explanation. 
 He could not refrain from confessing 
 aloud the doctrine to which he owed his 
 happiness. In Christianity, when a man 
 finds a treasure for himself, he hastens to 
 impart it to others. In our day men 
 have abandoned such puerile and un- 
 worthy attempts to account for the great 
 revolution of the sixteenth century. It 
 is recognized that there must be some 
 more powerful lever to raise a whole 
 world, — and that the Reformation was 
 not in Luther merely, — but that the age 
 in which he lived must necessarily have 
 given birth to it. 
 
 Luther, called on alike by obedience 
 to the truth of God, and by charity to 
 man, ascended the pulpit. He warned 
 his hearers, as was his duty, as he him- 
 self tells us.f His Prince had obtained 
 from the Pope some special indulgences 
 for the church in the castle of Wittem- 
 berg. Some of the blows, which he is 
 about to strike at the indulgences of the 
 inquisitor, may easily fall on those of the 
 Elector. It matters not ; he will brave 
 his disgrace. If he sought to please man, 
 he would not be the servant of Christ. 
 
 " No one can shew from the Scriptures 
 that God's justice requires a penalty or 
 satisfaction from the sinner," said the 
 faithful minister of the word to the peo- 
 ple of Wittemberg. " The only duty it 
 imposes on him is a true repentance, a 
 sincere change of heart, a resolution to 
 bear the cross of Christ, and to strive to 
 do good works. It is a great error to 
 seek ourselves to satisfy God's justice for 
 our sins, for God ever pardons them freely 
 by an inestimable grace. 
 
 " The Christian Church, it is true, re- 
 quires somewhat from the sinner, and 
 what she requires she may remit. But 
 that is all. And furthermore, these in- 
 dulgences of the Church are only toler- 
 ated out of regard for slothful and im- 
 perfect Christians, who will not employ 
 themselves zealously in good works ; for 
 
 * Falsum est consuevisse hoc munus injungi 
 Eremitanis S. Augustini. ... (p. 14.) 
 t " Sauberlich." 
 
116 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 they excite no one to sanctification, but 
 leave every one in his lowness and im- 
 perfection." 
 
 Then, passing to the pretext on which 
 the indulgences were proclaimed, he con- 
 tinued : " It would be much better to con- 
 tribute to the building of St. Peter's from 
 love to God, than to buy indulgences for 
 such a purpose. But say you shall Ave 
 then not buy them 1 I have already said 
 as much, and I repeat it : — my advice is 
 that none should buy them. Leave them 
 for drowsy Christians, but do you keep 
 yourselves separate from such. Let the 
 faithful be turned from indulgences, and 
 exhorted to the works they neglect." 
 
 Then, glancing at his adversaries, Lu- 
 ther concluded in these words : " And 
 if some cry that I am a heretic, — for the 
 truth which I preach is prejudicial to 
 their coffers — I pay little regard to their 
 clamours ; — they are men of gloomy or 
 sickly minds, who have never felt the 
 truths of the Bible, never read the Chris- 
 tian doctrine, never understood their own 
 teachers, and are perishing in the tat- 
 tered rags of their vain opinions.* How- 
 ever, God grant to them and to us a right 
 understanding ! Amen." This said, the 
 Doctor came down from the pulpit, leav- 
 ing his hearers much affected by this bold 
 harangue. 
 
 This sermon was printed, and made a 
 deep impression on all who read it. Tet- 
 zel answered it, and Luther defended 
 himself ; but this was at a later period, 
 in 1518. 
 
 The feast of All Saints was at hand. 
 Some chroniclers relate at this time, a 
 circumstance, which, however little im- 
 portant it may be to the history of this 
 epoch, may still serve to characterise it. 
 It is a dream of the Elector, — beyond 
 reasonable doubt true in the essential 
 parts, though some circumstances may 
 have been added by those who related 
 it. It is mentioned by Seckendorf.f 
 
 * Sondern in ihren lochreichen und zerrisse- 
 nen Opinien viel nahe verwesen. — (L. Opp. (L.) 
 xvii. p. 119.) 
 
 t It is found in LSscher, i. 46, &c. Zentzels 
 Anf und Fortg. der Ref. Sunkers Ehrenged. p. 
 148. Lehmanns Beschr. Meissen. Erzgeb. &c. 
 and in a manuscript of the Archives of Weimar, 
 written from the dictation of Spalatin. It is 
 from this manuscript, published at the last jubilee 
 of the Reformation (1817), that we take the ac- 
 count of this dream. 
 
 " The fear of giving occasion to his ad- 
 versaries to say that Luther's doctrine 
 rested upon dreams, has perhaps pre- 
 vented other historians from speaking of 
 it," observes this respectable writer. 
 
 The Elector, Frederic of Saxony, these 
 chroniclers tell us, was then at his castle 
 of Schweinitz, six leagues from Wittem- 
 berg. The morning of the 31st of Octo- 
 ber, being with his brother, Duke John, 
 (who was then co-regent, and who reign- 
 ed alone after his death,) and with his 
 Chancellor, the Elector said to the 
 Duke :— 
 
 " Brother, I must tell you a dream 
 that I had last night, and of which I 
 should be very glad to know the mean- 
 ing. It is so deeply engraved on my 
 mind, that I should not forget it were I 
 to live a thousand years, for I dreamt it 
 thrice, and each time with some new cir- 
 cumstances." 
 
 Duke John. — " Is it a good dream or 
 bad dream ?" 
 
 The Elector. — " I know not : God 
 knows." 
 
 Duke John. — " Do not make ycjurself 
 uneasy about it: tell it me." 
 
 The Elector. — " Having gone to bed 
 last night, tired and dispirited, I fell asleep 
 soon after saying my prayers, and slept 
 quietly about two hours and a half. I 
 then woke ; and continued engaged till 
 midnight with a variety of thoughts. I 
 considered how I should keep the festival 
 of All Saints ; I prayed for the poor souls 
 in purgatory, and besought God to guide 
 me, my counsellors and my people, into 
 all truth. I fell asleep again : and then 
 I dreamt that Almighty God sent a monk 
 to me, who was the true son of the 
 Apostle Paul. All the saints accom- 
 panied him, according to the command 
 of God, in order to testify to me in his 
 favour, and to declare that he was not 
 come with any fraudulent design, but 
 that all he did was agreeable to the will 
 of God. They asked me, at the same 
 time, graciously to allow him to write 
 something on the church door of the 
 castle of Wittemberg ; which request I 
 granted by the mouth of the Chancellor. 
 Thereupon the monk went his way, and 
 began to write, but in such large charac- 
 ters, that I could read from Schweinitz 
 what he was writing. The pen that he 
 used was so long that its extremity 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 117 
 
 reached even to Rome, wounded the ears 
 of a lion (Leo) that was couched there, 
 and shook the triple crown on the Pope's 
 head. All the cardinals and princes, 
 running- hastily towards him, endeav- 
 oured to support it. You and I, bro- 
 ther, among the rest, attempted to sup- 
 port it ; I put out my arm : but, at that 
 moment I woke, with my arm extended, 
 in great alarm, and very angry with the 
 monk who handled his pen so awkward- 
 ly. I recovered myself a little : — it was 
 only a dream. 
 
 " But I was still half asleep, and I 
 closed my eyes again. My dream con- 
 tinued. The lion, still disturbed by the 
 pen, began to roar with all his might, so 
 that the whole city of Rome and all the 
 states of the holy Empire ran to enquire 
 what was the matter. The Pope called 
 upon us to restrain the monk, and ad- 
 dressed himself particularly to me, be- 
 cause he lived in my country. I woke 
 again : I repeated a Palet noster. I be- 
 sought God to preserve the ,holy Father, 
 and I then fell asleep again. 
 
 " After this, I dreamt that all the 
 Princes of the Empire, you and I 
 amongst the rest, were flocking to Rome, 
 trying one after the other to break this 
 pen ; but the more we exerted ourselves 
 the stiffer it became ; it resisted as if it 
 had been made of iron ; at length Ave 
 were tired. I then asked the monk, (for 
 I seemed to be sometimes at Rome and 
 sometimes at Wittemberg,) where he had 
 obtained that pen, and why it was so 
 strong ? ' The pen,' replied he, ' once 
 belonged to the wing of a goose of Bo- 
 hemia, a hundred years old.* I received 
 it from one of my old schoolmasters ; its 
 strength is — that no one can take the 
 pith out of it ; and I am myself quite sur- 
 prised at it' — Suddenly I heard a loud 
 cry ; from the monk's long pen had issued 
 a great number of other pens. I woke 
 a third time : it was daylight." 
 
 Duke John. — " Master Chancellor, 
 what do you think of it 1 Oh ! that we 
 had here a Joseph or a Daniel enlight- 
 ened by God !" 
 
 The Chancellor. — " Your highnesses 
 know the vulgar proverb, that the dreams 
 
 * John Huss. — This is one of the particulars 
 that may have been added at a subsequent pe- 
 riod, in allusion to the well known saying of Huss 
 himself. 
 
 of maidens, scholars, and nobles, have 
 generally some hidden meaning ; but 
 we shall not know the meaning of this 
 for some time, till the things to which it 
 relates shall have taken place. Therefore, 
 commend the accomplishment of it to 
 God, and leave it in his hands." 
 
 Duke John. — " I agree with you, mas- 
 ter Chancellor : it is not right that we 
 should puzzle our heads about the mean- 
 ing of this: God will turn all to his 
 glory." 
 
 The Elector. — ' : God in his mercy 
 grant it ! However, I shall never forget 
 the dream. I have thought of one interpre- 
 tation ; — but I. keep it to myself. Time 
 will perhaps show if I have guessed 
 right." 
 
 Such, according to the manuscript of 
 Weimer, was the conversation that took 
 place on the morning of the 31st of Oc- 
 tober at Schweinitz. Let us next see 
 what happened in the evening of the 
 same day at Wittemberg. We now re- 
 turn to the firmer ground of history. 
 
 The admonitions of Luther had pro- 
 duced but little effect : Tetzel, without 
 disturbing himself, continued his traffic 
 and his impious addresses to the people.* 
 Shall Luther submit to these grievous 
 abuses? shall he keep silence? As a 
 pastor, he has powerfully exhorted those 
 who attended his ministry ; and as a 
 preacher, he has uttered a warning voice 
 from the pulpit. He has yet to speak as 
 a divine ; he has yet to address himself, 
 not merely to a few persons in the con- 
 fessional, not merely to the assembly of 
 the church of Wittemberg, but to all 
 those who are, like himself, teachers of 
 God's word. His resolution is formed. 
 
 It was not the Church that he thought 
 of attacking; it was not the Pope he 
 was about to call to account : on the con- 
 trary, his respect for the Head of the 
 Church would not allow him to be any 
 longer silent in regard to assumptions, 
 by which the Pope's credit was dispa- 
 raged. He must take his part against 
 those audacious men who dared to mix 
 up his venerable name with their dis- 
 graceful traffic. Far from thinking of a 
 revolution that should overthrow the pri- 
 macy of Rome, Luther conceived that he 
 
 * Cujus impiis et nefariis concionibus incitatus 
 Lutherus studio pietatis ardens editit propositionea 
 de indulgentiis.— (Melancth. Vita Luth.) 
 
118 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 had the Pope and Catholicism with him, 
 against the effrontery of the monks.* 
 
 The feasts of All Saints was a very 
 important day at Wittemberg, and espe- 
 cially at the church which the Elector 
 had built and filled with relics. On this 
 occasion those relics, encased in gold 
 and silver, and adorned with precious 
 stones, were set out to dazzle the eyes of 
 the people with their magnificence.! 
 Whoever, on that day, visited the church, 
 and there confessed himself, obtained a 
 plenary indulgence. On that great day 
 the pilgrims flocked in crowds to Wit- 
 temberg. 
 
 Luther, whose plan was already formed, 
 went boldly on the evening of the 31st 
 of October, 1517, to the church, towards 
 which the superstitious crowds of pil- 
 grims were flocking, and affixed to the 
 door ninety-five theses or propositions, 
 against the doctrine of indulgences. 
 Neither the Elector, nor Staupitz, nor 
 Spalatin, nor any of his friends, even 
 those most intimate with him, had any 
 previous intimation of his design.;}: 
 
 Luther therein declared, in a kind of 
 preamble, that he had written these 
 theses in a spirit of sincere charity, and 
 with the express desire of bringing the 
 truth to light. He declared himself 
 ready to defend them, next day, at the 
 university itself, against all opposers. 
 
 The attention excited by them was 
 very great ; and they were read and re- 
 peated on all sides. The pilgrims, the 
 university, and the whole city were soon 
 in confusion. The following are some 
 of the propositions written by the pen of 
 the monk, and posted on the door of the 
 church of Wittemberg : 
 
 " 1. When our Master and Lord Jesus 
 Christ says, 'Repent,' he means that the 
 whole lite of his faithful servants upon 
 earth should be a constant and continual 
 repentance. 
 
 " 2. This cannot be understood of the 
 sacrament of penance, (that is to say of 
 confession and satisfaction,) as adminis- 
 tered by the priest. 
 
 * Et in iis certus mihi videbar, me habiturum 
 patronuni papain cujus fiducia tunc fortiter nite- 
 bar. (L. Opp. Lat. in prcef.) 
 
 t Quas magnifico apparatu publice popu- 
 
 lis ostendi curavit. — (Cochlceus, 4.) 
 
 t Cum hujus disputationis nullus etiam inti- 
 morum amicorum merit conscius. — (L Edd i 
 186.) m ' 
 
 " 3. However, our Lord does not here 
 speak only of inward repentance : in- 
 ward repentance is invalid, if it does not 
 produce outwardly every kind of mortifi- 
 cation of the flesh. 
 
 " 4. Repentance and grief — that is to 
 say, true penitence, lasts as long as a 
 man is displeased with himself, — that is 
 to say, till he passes from this life to 
 eternal life. 
 
 " 5. The Pope has no power or inten- 
 tion to remit any other penalty than that 
 which he has imposed, according to his 
 good pleasure, or conformably to the can- 
 ons, that is to say, to the Papal ordinances. 
 
 " 6. The Pope cannot remit any con- 
 demnation ; but can only declare and 
 confirm the remission that God himself 
 has given ; except only in cases that be- 
 long to him. If he does otherwise, the 
 condemnation continues the same. 
 
 " 8. The laws of ecclesiastical penance 
 can only be imposed on the living, and 
 in no wise respect the dead. 
 
 "21. The commissioners of indul- 
 gences are in error in saying, that, 
 through the indulgence of the Pope, man 
 is delivered from all punishment, and 
 saved. 
 
 " 25. The same power, that the Pope 
 has over purgatory in the Church at 
 large, is possessed by every bishop in his 
 diocese and every curate in his parish. 
 
 "27. Those persons preach human 
 inventions who pretend that, at the veiy 
 moment when the money sounds in the 
 strong box, the soul escapes from purga 
 tory. 
 
 " 28. This is certain : that, as soon as 
 the money sounds, avarice and love of 
 gain come in, grow and multiply. But 
 the assistance and prayers of the Church 
 depend only on the will and good plea- 
 sure of God. 
 
 " 32. Those who fancy themselves 
 sure of their salvation by indulgences will 
 go to the devil with those who teach 
 them this doctrine. 
 
 "35. They teach anti-Christian doc- 
 trines who profess that, to deliver a soul 
 from purgatory, or to purchase an indul- 
 gence, there is no need of sorrow or of 
 repentance. 
 
 " 36. Every Christian who feels true 
 repentance for his sins has perfect remis- 
 sion from the punishment and from the 
 sin, without the need of indulgences. 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 119 
 
 "37. Every true Christian, dead, or 
 living-, is a partaker of all the riches of 
 Christ, or of the Church, by the gift of 
 God, and without any letter of indul- 
 gence. 
 
 " 38. Yet we must not despise the 
 Pope's distributive and pardoning power, 
 for his pardon is a declaration of God's 
 pardon. 
 
 " 40. Repentance and real grief seek 
 and love chastening ; but the softness of 
 the indulgence relaxes the fear of chas- 
 tisement, and makes us averse from it. 
 
 " 42. We must teach Christians, that 
 the Pope neither expects nor wishes us 
 to compare the act of preaching indul- 
 gences with any charitable work what- 
 soever. 
 
 " 43. We must teach Christians, that 
 he who gives to the poor, or lends to the 
 needy, does better than he who buys an 
 indulgence. 
 
 " 44. For the work of charity makes 
 charity to abound, and renders man more 
 pious ; whilst the indulgence makes him 
 not better, but only more confident in 
 himself, and more secure from punish- 
 ment. 
 
 " 45. We must teach Christians that 
 he who sees his neighbour in want, and, 
 notwithstanding that, buys an indulgence, 
 does not in reality acquire the Pope's in- 
 dulgence, and draws down on himself 
 the anger of God. 
 
 " 4G. We must teach Christians, that 
 if they have no superfluity, they are 
 bound to keep for their families where- 
 with to procure necessaries, and they 
 ought not to waste their money on indul- 
 gences. •- 
 
 " 47. We must teach christians, that 
 the purchase of an indulgence is not a 
 matter of commandment, but a thing in 
 which they are left at liberty. 
 
 " 48. We must teach christians, that 
 the Pope, having more need of the 
 prayer of faith, than of money, desires 
 prayer rather than money, when he dis- 
 tributes indulgences. 
 
 " 49. We must teach christians, that 
 the Pope's indulgence is good, if we do 
 not put our trust in it ; but that nothing 
 can be more hurtful, if it leads us to neg- 
 lect piety. 
 
 " 50. We must teach christians, that 
 if the Pope knew the exactions of the 
 preachers of indulgences, he would rather 
 
 that the metropolitan church of St. Peter 
 were burnt to ashes, than see it built up 
 with the skin, the flesh, and bones of his 
 flock. 
 
 "51. We must teach christians, that 
 the Pope, as in duty bound, would will- 
 ingly give his own money, though it 
 should be necessary to sell the metropol- 
 itan church of St. Peter for the purpose, 
 to the poor people whom the preach- 
 ers of indulgences now rob of their last 
 penny. 
 
 " 52. To hope to be saved by indul- 
 gences is to hope in lies and vanity ; even 
 although the commissioner of indulgen- 
 ces, nay, though even the Pope himself, 
 should pledge his own soul in attestation 
 of their efficacy. 
 
 " 53. They are the enemies of the 
 Pope and of Christ, who, to favour the 
 preaching of indulgences, forbid the 
 preaching of the word of God. 
 
 " 55. The Pope can think no other- 
 wise than this : If the - indulgence 
 (which is the lesser) is celebrated with 
 the sound of a bell, and pomp and cere- 
 mony, much more is it right to celebrate 
 the preaching of the Gospel (which is 
 the greater) with a hundred bells, and a 
 hundred times more pomp and cere- 
 mony. 
 
 " 62. The true and precious treasure 
 of the Church is the holy Gospel of the 
 glory and grace of God. 
 
 " 65. The treasures of the Gospel are 
 nets, in which it formerly happened that 
 the souls of rich men, living at ease, 
 were taken. 
 
 " 66. But the treasures of the indul- 
 gence are nets, wherewith now they fish 
 for rich men's wealth. 
 
 " 67. It is the duty of bishops and 
 pastors to receive with all respect the 
 commissioners of the apostolical indul- 
 gences. 
 
 " 68. But it is much more their duty 
 to satisfy themselves, by their presence, 
 that the said commissioners do not preach 
 the dreams of their own fancy instead of 
 the Pope's orders. 
 
 "71. Cursed be whosoever speaks 
 against the Pope's indulgence. 
 
 " 72. But blessed be he who opposes 
 the foolish and reckless speeches of the 
 preachers of indulgences. 
 
 " 78. The Pope's indulgence cannot 
 take away the least of our daily sins, — 
 
120 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 so far as the blame or offence of it is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 " 79. To say that the cross, hung with 
 the Pope's arms, is as powerful as the 
 cross of Christ, is blasphemy. 
 
 " 80. The bishops, pastors, and di- 
 vines, who allow these things to be 
 taught to the people, will have to give 
 account for it. 
 
 "81. This shameless preaching, — 
 these impudent praises of indulgences, — 
 make it difficult for the learned to de- 
 fend the dignity and 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 the metropolitan church of St. 
 Peter's with his own money, rather than 
 with that of poor christians, seeing that 
 he is richer than the richest Crassus ? 
 
 " 92. May we therefore be rid of those 
 preachers, who say to the Church of 
 Christ ' Peace, peace,' when there is no 
 peace. 
 
 "94. We must exhort christians to 
 endeavour to follow Christ, their head, 
 under the cross, through death and hell. 
 
 " 95. For it is better, through much 
 tribulation, to enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven, than to gain a carnal security 
 by the consolations of a false peace." 
 
 Here then was the beginning of the 
 work. The germs of the Reformation 
 were inclosed in these theses of Luther. 
 They attacked the indulgences, and this 
 drew notice ; — but under this attack was 
 found a principle, which, while it drew 
 much less of the people's attention, was 
 one day to overturn the edifice of the 
 Papacy. The evangelic doctrine of a 
 free and gracious remission of sins was 
 for the first time publicly professed. 
 The work must now go forward. In 
 fact it was evident that whoever should 
 receive that faith in the remission of sins 
 proclaimed by the Doctor of Wittemberg, 
 — whoever should possess that repent- 
 ance, that conversion, and that sanctifica- 
 tion, of which he urged the necessity, — 
 would no longer regard human ordinan- 
 ces, would throw off the bandages and 
 restraints of Rome, and acquire the lib- 
 erty of God's children. All errors 
 would fall before this truth. It was 
 by this that the light had just entered 
 the mind of Luther ; it was likewise by 
 
 it that the light was ordained to spread 
 in the Church. A clear perception of 
 this truth was what had been wanting 
 to the earlier Reformers. Hence the 
 unprofitableness of their efforts. Luther 
 clearly saw, at a later period, that in 
 proclaiming justification by faith, he had 
 laid the axe to the root of the tree. " It 
 is doctrine that we attack in the follow- 
 ers of the Papacy," said he. " Huss 
 and Wickliff only attacked their life ; 
 but in attacking their doctrine, we seize 
 the goose by the throat. Every thing 
 depends on the word of God, which the 
 Pope has taken from us and falsified. I 
 have overcome the Pope, because my 
 doctrine is according to God, and his is 
 the doctrine of the devil."* 
 
 We also, in our day, have lost sight 
 of this cardinal doctrine of justification 
 by faith, though not in the same way as 
 our fathers. " In Luther's time," says 
 'one of our contemporaries,! " the remis- 
 sion of sins cost some money at least ; 
 but in our days, every one takes it 
 gratuitously to himself." There is much 
 analogy between these two false notions. 
 In our error there is perhaps more for- 
 getfulness of„ God than that which pre- 
 vailed in the 16th century. The princi- 
 ple of justification by God's free grace, 
 which delivered the Church from such 
 deep darkness at the period of the Re- 
 formation, can alone renew this gene- 
 ration, terminate its doubts and waver- 
 ings, destroy the egotism which con- 
 sumes it, establish morality and upright- 
 ness among the nations, — in a word, 
 bring back to God the world which has 
 forsaken him. » 
 
 But if these theses of Luther were 
 strong in the strength of the truth they 
 proclaimed, they were no less powerful 
 in the faith of him who declared 
 himself their champion. He had boldly 
 drawn the sword of the word. He had 
 done this in reliance on the power of 
 truth. He had felt that, in depend- 
 ence on the promises of God, something 
 might be hazarded, as the world would 
 express it. " Let him who resolves to 
 begin a good work," (said he, speaking 
 of this bold attack,) " undertake it, rely- 
 
 * Wenn man die Lehre angreifft, so wird die 
 Gans am Krage gegriffen. — (L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 
 p. 1369.) 
 
 t Harms de Kiel. 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 121 
 
 ing on the goodness of the thing itself, 
 and in no degree on any help or comfort 
 to be derived from men : — moreover, 
 let him not fear men, nor the whole 
 world. For that text shall never be 
 falsified : " It is good to trust in tfye 
 Lord, and he that trusteth in him shall 
 certainly never be confounded." But as 
 for him who will not, or cannot, ven- 
 ture something, trusting in God, let him 
 carefully abstain from undertaking any 
 thing."* We cannot doubt that Luther, 
 after having fixed his theses on the door 
 of the church of All Saints, withdrew to 
 his peaceful cell, filled with that peace 
 and joy which flow from an action done 
 in the name of the Lord, and for the 
 cause of everlasting truth. 
 
 Whatever boldness may appear in 
 these theses, we still discover in them 
 the monk who would refuse to allow a 
 single doubt as to the authority of the 
 Roman See. But in attacking the 
 doctrine of indulgences, Luther had 
 unconsciously borne hard upon many 
 errors, the discovery of which could not 
 be agreeable to the Pope, since it must 
 necessarily lead, sooner or later, to the 
 discrediting his supremacy. Luther's 
 views, at that time, did not extend so 
 far ; but he felt the boldness of the 
 step he had just taken, and thought 
 therefore that he ought to qualify it, as 
 far as he could, consistently with the re- 
 spect he owed to the truth. He con- 
 sequently put forth these theses only as 
 doubtful propositions, in respect to which 
 he solicited information from the learned ; 
 and he added (in accordance, it is true, 
 with an established custom,) a solemn 
 protestation, by which he declared, that 
 he did not mean to say or affirm any 
 thing that was not founded on the 
 Holy Scriptures, the Fathers of the 
 Church, and the rights and decretals of 
 the court of Rome. 
 
 Often did Luther, in after times, when 
 ' he contemplated the vast and unexpected 
 consequences of this courageous step, 
 feel amazed at himself, and unable to 
 comprehend how he had dared to take 
 it. The truth was, an invisible and all- 
 powerful hand here held the guiding 
 rein, and urged on the herald of truth in 
 a road which he knew not, and from the 
 difficulties of which he would perhaps 
 * L. Opp. Leipz. vi. p. 518. 
 16 
 
 have shrunk, had he been aware of 
 them, and advanced alone and of his 
 own will. " I entered on this contro- 
 versy," said he, " without any settled 
 purpose or inclination, and entirely un- 
 prepared. ... I call God to witness this 
 who sees the heart."* 
 
 Luther had learned what was the 
 source of these abuses. A little book 
 was brought him, adorned with the arms 
 of the Archbishop of Mentz and Magde- 
 burg, containing- rules to be followed in 
 the sale of the indulgences. Thus it 
 was this young prelate, this accomplished 
 prince, who had prescribed, or at least 
 sanctioned, this imposture. Luther saw 
 in him only a superior, whom it was his 
 duty to honour and respect. f He re- 
 solved no longer to beat the air, but ra- 
 ther to apply to those who had the office 
 of government in the church. He ad- 
 dressed to him a letter full of frankness 
 and humility. Luther wrote to Albert 
 the same day that he placarded his 
 theses. 
 
 " Forgive me, most reverend Father 
 in Christ, and most illustrious Prince, if 
 I, who am the very meanest of men,;); 
 have the boldness to write to your sub- 
 lime grandeur. The Lord Jesus is my 
 witness that, feeling how small and con- 
 temptible I am, I have long delayed to 
 do so. Yet let your Highness look upon 
 an atom of dust, and in your episcopal 
 compassion graciously receive my re- 
 quest. 
 
 " Men are carrying throughout the 
 country the papal indulgence, under 
 your Grace's name. I will not so much 
 accuse the clamours of the preachers 
 (for I have not heard them) as the false 
 opinions of simple and ignorant people, 
 who, when they purchase these indul- 
 gences, think themselves sure of their 
 salvation. 
 
 " Great God ! the souls confided, my 
 very excellent Father, to your care, are 
 trained not for life, but for death. The 
 strict reckoning that will one day be 
 required of you increases every day. 
 I could no longer keep silence. No ! 
 man is not saved by the work or the 
 
 * Casu enim, non voluntate nee studio, in has 
 turbas icindi ; Deum ipsum testor. — L. Opp. lat. 
 in prref.) 
 
 t Domino suo et pastori in Christo venerabili- 
 ter metuendo. — (Epp. i. p. 68.) 
 
 I Fex hominum. — (Epp. i. pp. 68.) 
 
122 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 office of his bishop. Scarcely even is 
 the righteous saved, and the way that 
 leadeth unto life is narrow. Why then 
 do the preachers of indulgences, by 
 empty fictions, lull the people in carnal 
 security? 
 
 " The indulgence alone, if we can 
 give ear to them, is to be proclaimed and 
 exalted. What, is it not the chief and 
 only duty of the bishops to teach the 
 people the Gospel and the love of 
 Christ?* Christ himself has no where 
 told us to preach indulgences, but he 
 has enjoined us to preach the Gospel. 
 How horrid and dangerous then it is 
 for a bishop to allow the Gospel to be 
 withheld, and the indulgences alone to 
 be continually sounded in the ears of 
 the people ! 
 
 " Most worthy Father in God, in the 
 Instruction of the Commissioners, which 
 was published in your Grace's name, 
 (certainly without your knowledge,) it 
 is said, that the indulgence is the most 
 precious treasure, that by it man is rec- 
 onciled to God, and that repentance is 
 not needed by those who purchase it. 
 
 " What can I, what ought I to do, 
 most worthy bishop and serene prince 1 
 Oh ! I entreat your Highness, by the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, to look into this mat- 
 ter with paternal vigilance, to suppress 
 this book entirely, and to order the 
 preachers to address to the people dif- 
 ferent instructions. If you neglect to do 
 this, prepare yourself to hear some day a 
 voice lifted that shall refute these preach- 
 ers, to the great disgrace of your most 
 serene Highness." 
 
 Luther, at the same time, sent his the- 
 ses to the Archbishop, and asked him in 
 a postscript to read them, in order to con- 
 vince himself of the little dependence 
 that was to be placed on the doctrine of 
 indulgences. 
 
 Thus, the only wish of Luther was 
 that the watchmen of the Church should 
 arouse themselves, and endeavour to put a 
 stop to the evils that were laying it waste. 
 Nothing could be more noble or respect- 
 ful than this letter of a monk to one of 
 the greatest princes of the Church and 
 of the Empire. Never did any one act 
 more in the spirit of Christ's precept: 
 " Render unto Caesar the things that are 
 
 * Ut populus Evangelium discat atque chari- 
 tatem Christi.— (Epp. 1. p. 68.) 
 
 Caesar's, and unto God the things that 
 are God's." This conduct bears no resem- 
 blance to that of the reckless revolution- 
 ist who despises dominions, and speaks 
 evil of dignities. It is the conscientious 
 appeal of a Christian and a priest, who 
 renders honour to all, but, above all, has 
 the fear of God in his heart. But all his 
 entreaties and supplications were useless. 
 Young Albert, wholly engrossed by 
 pleasure and the pursuits of ambition, 
 made no reply to this solemn address. 
 The Bishop of Brandenburg, Luther's 
 ordinary, a learned and pious man, to 
 whom he also sent the theses, replied 
 that he was attacking the power of the. 
 Church ; that he would bring upon him- 
 self much trouble and grief; that the at- 
 tempt would be found too much for his 
 strength, and that he would do well to 
 give up the affair altogether.* The 
 princes of the Church closed their 
 ears to the voice of God, which was 
 making itself heard in so affecting and 
 energetic a manner through the instru- 
 mentality of Luther. They would not 
 understand the signs of the times ; they 
 were struck with that blindness which 
 has already accelerated the ruin of so 
 many powers and dignities. " They 
 both thought at that time," as Luther af- 
 terwards observed, " that the Pope would 
 be too powerful for a poor mendicant 
 monk like me." 
 
 But Luther could judge better than 
 the bishops of the fatal effect of indul- 
 gences on the lives and morals of the 
 people ; for he was intimately connected 
 with them. He saw constantly and 
 close at hand, what the bishops only 
 knew from reports that could not be de- 
 pended on. If he found no help from 
 the bishops, God was not wanting to 
 him. The head of the Church, who sits 
 in the heavens, and to whom alone all 
 power is given upon earth, had himself 
 prepared the soil, and committed the 
 seed to the hand of his servant ; he gave 
 wings to those seeds of truth, and scat- 
 tered them in a moment over the whole 
 field of the church. 
 
 No one appeared next day at the uni- 
 versity to impugn the propositions of Lu- 
 ther. Tetzel's traffic was too generally 
 decried and too disreputable for any 
 
 * Ersollte still halten ; es ware eine grosse 
 Sache.— (Math. 13.) 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 123 
 
 other person than himself, or one of his 
 followers, to dare to accept the challenge. 
 But these theses were destined to find an 
 echo beyond the vaulted roof of the acad- 
 emy. Hardly had they been nailed to 
 the church door of the castle of Wittem- 
 berg, when the feeble sound of the ham- 
 mer was succeeded by a thunder-clap, 
 which shook the very foundations of 
 proud Rome ; threatened with instant 
 ruin the walls, gates, and pillars of the 
 Papacy ; stunned and terrified its cham- 
 pions j and at the same time awakened 
 from the slumber of error many thou- 
 sands of men.* 
 
 These theses spread with the rapidity 
 of lightning. Before a month had elapsed, 
 they had found their way to Rome. " In 
 the space of a fortnight," says a contem- 
 porary historian, " they had spread over 
 Germany, and within a month they had 
 run through all Christendom, as if an- 
 gels themselves had been the bearers of 
 them to all men. It is difficult to con- 
 ceive the stir they occasioned."! They 
 were afterwards translated into Dutch, 
 and into Spanish ; and a traveller car- 
 ried them for sale as far as Jerusalem. 
 " Every one," said Luther, " was com- 
 plaining of the indulgences, and, as all 
 the bishops and doctors had kept silence, 
 and no one was inclined to take the bull 
 by the horns, poor Luther became a fa- 
 mous doctor ; because, at last,, said they, 
 one doctor was found who dared grapple 
 with him. But I did not like this glory, 
 and I thought the song in too high a 
 key for my voice. "| 
 
 Many of the pilgrims who had flocked 
 from all sides to Wittemberg at the feast 
 of All Saints, took back with them — not 
 the indulgences — but the famous theses 
 of the Augustine monk. Thus they 
 helped to diffuse them. Every one read 
 them, meditating and commenting on 
 them. Men conversed about them in 
 convents and in colleges. § The devout 
 monks who had entered the convents 
 that they might save their souls, and all 
 upright and well intentioned men re- 
 joiced at so simple and striking a confes- 
 sion of the truth, and heartily desired 
 
 * Walther, Nachr. v. Luther, p. 45. 
 
 t Myconius, Hist. Ref. p. 23. 
 
 X Das Lied wollte meiner Stimme zu hoch 
 wurden. — (L. Opp.) 
 
 § In alle hohe Schulen und Closter. — (Math. 
 13.) 
 
 that Luther might continue the work he 
 had begun. " I observe," says one very 
 worthy of credit, and a great rival of the 
 Reformer (Erasmus,) speaking to a car- 
 dinal, " that the more irreproachable 
 men's morals, and the more evangelical 
 their piety, the less are they opposed to 
 Luther. His life is commended even by 
 those who cannot endure his opinions. 
 The world was weary of a method of 
 teaching in which so many puerile fic- 
 tions and human inventions were mixed 
 up, and thirsted for that living, pure, and 
 hidden stream which flows from the 
 veins of the apostles and evangelists. 
 The genius of Luther was such as fitted 
 him for these things, and his zeal would 
 naturally take fire at so noble an enter- 
 prise."* 
 
 To form an idea of the various but pro- 
 digious effect that these propositions pro- 
 duced in Germany, we should endea- 
 vour to follow them wherever they pen- 
 etrated, — into the study of the learned, 
 the cell of the monk, and the palaces of 
 the princes. 
 
 Reuchlin received a copy of them. 
 He was tired of the rude conflict he had 
 waged with the monks. The strength 
 evinced by the new combatant in these 
 theses cheered the depressed spirits of the 
 old champion of letters, and gave fresh 
 joy to his drooping heart. " Thanks be 
 to God," exclaimed he, after having read 
 them, "• they have now found a man who 
 will give them so much to do, that they 
 will be very glad to leave my old age to 
 pass away in peace." 
 
 The cautious Erasmus was in the 
 Low Countries when the theses reached 
 him. He inwardly rejoiced to see his 
 secret desires for the reform of abuses so 
 courageously expressed; he commended 
 their author, only exhorting him to more 
 moderation and prudence. And yet, 
 when some one in his presence blamed 
 Luther's violence, " God," said Erasmus, 
 " has sent a physician who cuts into the 
 flesh, because, without such an one, the 
 disorder would become incurable." And 
 when afterwards the Elector of Saxony 
 asked his opinon of Luther's affair, — "I 
 am not at all surprised," answered he, 
 smiling, " that he has occasioned so much 
 
 * Ad hoc prsestandum mihi videbatur ille, ut 
 natura compositus et accensus studio. — (Erasm. 
 Epp. Campegio Cardanali, 1. p» 650.) 
 
124 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 disturbance, for he has committed two 
 unpardonable offences, — he has attacked 
 the tiara of the Pope, and the bellies of 
 the monks."* 
 
 Doctor Flek, prior of the cloister of 
 Steinlausitz, had for some time discon- 
 tinued reading mass, but he told no one 
 his true reason. One day he found the 
 theses of Luther in the convent refectory : 
 he took them up and read ; and no soon- 
 er had he gone through some of them, 
 than, unable to suppress his joy, he ex- 
 claimed, " Oh ! now at last, one is come 
 who has been long waited for, and will 
 tell you all; — look there, monks!" 
 Thence glancing into futurity, as Mathe- 
 sius remarks, and playing on the word 
 Wittemberg: "All the world," said he, 
 "will come to seek wisdom on that 
 mountain, and will find it."f He wrote 
 to the Doctor, urging him by all means 
 to continue the glorious struggle with 
 courage. Luther calls him " a man full 
 of joy and consolation." 
 
 The ancient and famous episcopal see 
 of Wurzburg was then filled by a pious, 
 kind, and prudent man, Laurence of 
 Bibra. When a gentleman came to an- 
 nounce to him that he destined his 
 daughter for the cloister, " Better give 
 her a husband," said he. And he added, 
 " If you want money to do so, I will lend 
 you." The Emperor and all the princes 
 had the highest esteem for him. He de- 
 plored the disorders of the Church, and 
 especially of the convents. The theses 
 reached him also in his episcopal palace, 
 he read them with great joy, and pub- 
 licly declared that he approved Luther's 
 view. He afterwards wrote to the Elec- 
 tor Frederic : " Do not let the pious Doc- 
 tor Martin Luther leave you, for the 
 charges against him are unjust." The 
 Elector rejoiced at this testimony, copied 
 it with his own hand, and sent it to the 
 Reformer. 
 
 The Emperor Maximilian, the prede- 
 cessor of Charles V., himself read and 
 admired the theses of the monk of Wit- 
 temberg. He perceived the wide grasp 
 of his thoughts ; — he foresaw that this 
 obscure Augustine might probably be- 
 come a powerful ally in Germany, in 
 her struggle with Rome. Accordingly, 
 
 * Muller's Denkw. iv. 256. 
 + Alle Welt von dissem Weissenberg, Weis- 
 eheit bolen und bekom men. (p. 13.) 
 
 he sent this message to the Elector of 
 Saxony : " Take care of the monk Lu- 
 ther, for a time may come when we may 
 have need of him:"* and shortly after, 
 meeting Pfeffinger, the confidential ad- 
 viser of the Elector, at the Diet, — 
 "Well!" said he, " what is your Augus- 
 tine about? Truly his propositions are 
 not to be despised. He will show won- 
 ders to the monks, "f 
 
 Even at Rome, and at the Vatican, 
 the theses were not so ill received. Leo 
 X. regarded them rather with the feel- 
 ings of a friend of learning than a Pope. 
 The amusement they gave him made 
 him overlook the stern truths they con- 
 tained : and when Silvester Prierias, the 
 master of the sacred palace, besought 
 him to treat Luther as a heretic, he an- 
 swered: "That same brother, | Martin Lu- 
 ther, is a man of talent, and all that is said 
 against him is mere monkish jealousy." 
 
 There were few on whom the theses 
 of Luther had more effect than on the 
 student of Annaberg, whom Tetzel had 
 so unmercifully repulsed. Myconius 
 had entered into a convent. That very 
 night he had dreamed that he saw a 
 wide field covered Avith ripe grain. 
 " Reap," said the voice of him who 
 seemed to conduct him ; and when he 
 excused himself as unskilled, his guide 
 showed him a reaper labouring at his 
 work with inconceivable activity. " Fol- 
 low him, and do as he does,"§ said his 
 guide. Myconius, panting, like Luther, 
 for holiness, gave himself up in the con- 
 vent to watchings, fastings, macerations, 
 and all the works of man's invention. 
 But in the end he abondoned all hope of 
 attaining the object of his pursuit. He 
 left off study and applied himself only to 
 manual labours. Sometimes he bound 
 books, sometimes he wrought as a turn- 
 er, or at some other mechanical occupa- 
 tion. This activity of body was unavail- 
 ing, however, to quiet his troubled con- 
 science. God had spoken to him ; he 
 could not relapse into his former sleep. 
 This distress of mind lasted several years. 
 
 * Das ser uns den Munch Luther fleissig be- 
 ware. (Math. 15.) 
 
 t Schimdt, Brand. Reformationgesch. p. 124. 
 
 t Che frate Martino Luthero haveva un bellis- 
 simo mgegno, e che coteste erano invidie fra- 
 tesche. — (Brandelli, a contemporary of Leo, and 
 a Dominican. Hist. Trag. pars 3.) 
 
 § Melch. Adami Vita Myconii. 
 
THE INDULGENCES,, AND THE THESES. 
 
 125 
 
 Men sometimes imagine that the paths 
 of the Reformers were altogether plea- 
 sant, and that when once they had re- 
 jected the burthensome observances of 
 the Church, nothing remained but ease 
 and delight. Such persons do not know 
 that they only arrived at the truth by in- 
 ternal struggles a thousand times more 
 painful than the observances to which 
 servile spirits readily submitted. 
 
 At length the year 1715 arrived; — 
 the theses of Luther were published : 
 they ran through all lands; — they ar- 
 rived at the convent in which the stu- 
 dent of Annaberg was immured. He re- 
 tired with another monk, John Voit, into 
 a corner of the cloister, that he might 
 read them undisturbed.* There was in- 
 deed the truth he had learned from his 
 father, — his eyes were opened, — he felt 
 a voice within him responding to that 
 which then resounded throughout Ger- 
 many ; and a rich comfort filled his heart. 
 " I see clearly," said he, " that Martin 
 Luther is the reaper whom I beheld in 
 my dream, and who taught me to gather in 
 the ripe corn." Immediately he began 
 to profess the doctrine which Luther had 
 proclaimed. The monks listened to him 
 with dismay, combated his new opinions, 
 and exclaimed against Luther and his 
 convent. " That convent," replied My- 
 conius, " is as the Sepulchre of our Lord ; 
 some men attempt to hinder Christ's res- 
 urrection, but they cannot succeed in 
 their attempt." At last his superiors, 
 seeing that they were unable to con- 
 vince him, forbade him for a year and a 
 half all intercourse beyond the walls of 
 his convent ; prohibiting him from writ- 
 ing or receiving letters ; and threatened 
 him with perpetual imprisonment. How- 
 ever, the hour of deliverance came also 
 to him. Appointed shortly after pastor 
 at Zwickau, he was the first who openly 
 declared against the Papacy in the 
 churches of Thuringia. " Then it was 
 that I was enabled," says he, " to labour 
 with my venerable father Luther in the 
 harvest of the Gospel." Jonas has des- 
 ignated him a man capable of all he 
 undertook, f 
 
 Doubtless there were other souls be- 
 sides these to whom the theses of Luther 
 
 * Legit tunc, cum Johanne Voitio, in angulum 
 abditus, libellos Lutheri. — (Mel.) 
 t Qui potuit quod voluit. 
 
 were the signal of life. They kindled a 
 new light in many a cell, cabin, and 
 even palace. Whilst those who sought, 
 in monastic seclusion, a well-supplied 
 board, a life of indolence or the rever- 
 ence of their fellow-men, observes Ma- 
 thesius, heaped reproaches on the Re- 
 former's name, — the monks who lived 
 in prayer, fastings and mortifications, 
 thanked God when they heard the first 
 cry of that eagle predicted by John Huss, 
 a century before.* Even the common 
 people, who understood but little of the 
 theological question, and only knew that 
 this man protested against mendicant fri- 
 ars and indolent monks, hailed him with 
 shouts of joy. An extraordinary sensa- 
 tion was produced in Germany-by his 
 bold propositions. But others of his con- 
 temporaries foresaw their serious conse- 
 quences, and the many obstacles they 
 would have to encounter. They loudly 
 expressed their fears, and never rejoiced 
 without trembling. 
 
 " I fear much," wrote Bernard Adel- 
 man, the excellent canon of Augsburg, 
 to his friend Pirckheimer, "that the 
 worthy man will be after all obliged 
 to yield to the avarice and power of 
 the partisans of indulgences. His re- 
 monstrances have had so little effect, that 
 the Bishop of Augsburg, our primate 
 and metropolitan,! has just ordered, in 
 the Pope's name, fresh indulgences for 
 St. Peter's at Rome. Let him, without 
 losing time, seek the support of the prin- 
 ces ; let him beware of tempting God ; 
 for one must be void of common sense 
 not to see the imminent danger in which 
 he stands." Adelman rejoiced greatly 
 when a report was current that King 
 Henry VIII. had invited Luther to Eng- 
 land. " He will there," thought he, " be 
 able to teach the truth without molesta- 
 tion." Many there were who thus ima- 
 gined that the doctrine of the Gospel 
 needed to be supported by the power of 
 princes. They knew not that it advan- 
 ces without any such power, and that of- 
 ten the alliance of this power hinders 
 and weakens it. 
 
 The celebrated historian, Albert Kranz, 
 was lying on his death-bed at Ham- 
 
 * Darvon Magister Johann. Huss geweissaget. 
 —(Math. 13.) 
 
 t " Totque uxurum vir," adds he. Heumanni 
 Documenta litt. p. 167. 
 
S26 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 burgh, when the theses of Luther were 
 brought to him. " Thou hast truth on 
 thy side, brother Martin !" exclaimed the 
 dying man, " but thou wilt not succeed. 
 Poor monk, get thee to thy cell, and cry, 
 O God, have mercy on me !"* 
 
 An old priest of Hexter, in Westpha- 
 lia, having received and read the theses 
 in his presbytery, said, in low German, 
 shaking his head : " Dear brother Mar- 
 tin, if you succeed in casting down that 
 purgatory and those sellers of paper, 
 truly you will be a great man." Erbe- 
 nius, who lived a hundred years later, 
 wrote these lines under the words we 
 have quoted : 
 
 Quid vero, nunc si viveret, 
 Bonus iste clericus diceret ?t 
 
 Not only did many of Luther's 
 friends conceive fears from his proceed- 
 ing ; several expressed to him their dis- 
 approval. 
 
 The Bishop of Brandenburg, grieved 
 at seeing so important a controversy ori- 
 ginating in his own diocese, would have 
 wished to stifle it. He resolved to set 
 about it with mildness. " I find," said he 
 to Luther, by the Abbot of Lenin, " no- 
 thing in the theses concerning the indul- 
 gences at variance with the Catholic 
 faith. I even myself condemn those im- 
 prudent proclamations ; but for the love 
 of peace, and out of regard to your 
 bishop, cease to write on this subject." 
 Luther was embarrassed that so distin- 
 guished an abbot and so great a bishop 
 should address him with such humility. 
 Moved and carried away by the first im- 
 pulse of his heart, he answered ; " I 
 consent ; I prefer obedience even to the 
 working of miracles, if that were possi- 
 sible to me."| 
 
 The Elector saw with regret the com- 
 mencement of a contest, legitimate doubt- 
 less, but one of which the result could 
 not be foreseen. No prince more sin- 
 cerely desired to maintain the public 
 peace than Frederic. Yet now what a 
 vast conflagration might not this little 
 fire kindle ! what great contentions, what 
 
 * Frater, abi in cellam, et die, Miserere mei. 
 — (Lindner in Luthers Leben, p. 93.) 
 
 t What would the worthy clerk now say, 
 If he were living in our day ? 
 
 t Bene sum contentus : malo obedire quam 
 miracula facere, etiam si possem. — (Epp. i. 71.) 
 
 rending asunder of the nations might 
 this quarrel with the monks produce ! 
 The Elector sent Luther repeated inti- 
 mations of his uneasiness on the sub- 
 ject.* 
 
 In his own order, and even in his con- 
 vent of Wittemberg, Luther met with 
 disapprobation. The prior and the sub- 
 prior were frightened at the outcry made 
 by Tetzel and all his companions. They 
 went to Brother Martin's cell, alarmed 
 and trembling ; u Pray," said they, " do 
 not bring disgrace upon your order ! 
 The other orders, and especially the Do- 
 minicans, are already transported with 
 joy to think that they are not alone in 
 their obloquy." Luther was affected by 
 these words ; but soon recovering him- 
 self, he answered : " Dear fathers ! if the 
 thing is not of God, it will come to 
 nought ; if it is, let it go forward." 
 The prior and the sub-prior were silent. 
 " The thing is going forward stilly adds 
 Luther, after having related this circum- 
 stance, " and if it please God, it will 
 go on better and better to the end. 
 Amen."t 
 
 Luther had many other attacks of a 
 very different kind to endure. At Er- 
 furth he was accused of violence and 
 pride in the manner in which he con- 
 demned the opinions of others ; a re- 
 proach to which those persons are gene- 
 rally exposed who have that strength of 
 conviction which is produced by the 
 word of God. He was reproached with 
 haste, and with levity. 
 
 u They require modesty in me," re- 
 plied Luther, " and they themselves 
 trample it under foot in the judgment 
 they pass on me ! . . . We behold the 
 mote in another's eye, and consider not the 
 beam that is in our own eye. . . . The 
 truth will gain no more by my modesty 
 than it will lose by my rashness." — " I 
 should like to know," continued he, ad- 
 dressing himself to Lange, " what errors 
 you and your divines have found in my 
 theses 1 Who does not know that we 
 can seldom advance a -new idea without 
 an appearance of pride, and without be- 
 ing accused of seeking quarrels ! If hu- 
 mility herself attempted any thing new, 
 those of a different opinion would ex- 
 
 * Suumque dolorem ssepe significavit, metuens 
 discordias majores. — (Melanc. Vita Luth.) 
 t L. Opp. (L.) vi. p. 518. 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 127 
 
 claim that she was proud.* Why were 
 Christ and all the martyrs put to death ? 
 Because they appeared proud despisers 
 of the wisdom of the times in which 
 they lived, and because they brought 
 forward new truths without having first 
 humbly consulted the oracles of the old 
 opinions." 
 
 " Let not the wise men of the present 
 day, therefore, expect from me so much 
 humility, or rather hypocrisy, as to ask 
 their judgment, before I publish that 
 which my duty calls upon me to pro- 
 claim. What I am doing will not be 
 effected by the prudence of man, but by 
 the counsel of God. If the work is of 
 God, who shall stop it 1 If it is not, who 
 can forward it 1 Not my will, not theirs, 
 nor ours, but Thy will, thine, holy Fa- 
 ther, who art in heaven !" 
 
 What boldness, what noble enthusi- 
 asm, what trust in God ! and especially 
 what truth in these words, and what 
 truth for all times ! 
 
 However, the reproaches and accusa- 
 tions which were brought against Lu- 
 ther from all sides, did not fail to make 
 some impression upon his mind. He 
 was deceived in his expectations. He 
 had expected to see the heads of the 
 Church, the most distinguished philoso- 
 phers of the nation, publicly join him ; 
 but it was quite otherwise. A word of 
 encouragement hastily bestowed at the 
 outset was all that the more favourably 
 disposed afforded him ; and many of 
 those whom he had regarded with most 
 veneration were loud in their condemna- 
 tion of him. He felt himself alone in 
 the Church ; alone against Rome ; alone 
 at the foot of that ancient and formida- 
 ble citadel, whose foundations reached 
 to the bowels of the earth, and whose 
 walls, ascending to the skies, appeared 
 to deride the presumptuous stroke which 
 his hand had aimed against them.f He 
 was disturbed and dejected at the 
 thought. Doubts, which he thought 
 he had overcome, returned to his mind 
 with fresh force. He trembled to think 
 that he had the whole authority of the 
 Church against him. To withdraw 
 himself from that authority, to resist 
 
 * Finge enim ipsam humilitatem nova conari, 
 statim superbice subjicietur ab iis qui aliter sapi- 
 unt. — (L. Epp. i. p. 73.) 
 
 t Solus primo eram. — (L. Opp. lat in praef.) 
 
 that voice which nations and ages had 
 humbly obeyed, to set himself in op- 
 position to that Church which he had 
 been accustomed from his infancy to re- 
 vere as the mother of the faithful ; he, a 
 despicable monk, — it was an effort be- 
 yond human power.* No one step cost 
 him so much as this, and it was in fact 
 this that decided the fate of the Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
 No one can describe better than him- 
 self the struggle he then suffered in his 
 mind. " I began this affair," said he, 
 " with great fear and trembling. What 
 was I at that time 1 a poor, wretched, 
 contemptible friar, more like a corpse 
 than a man.f Who was I, to oppose 
 the Pope's majesty, before which not 
 only the kings of the earth and the 
 whole world trembled; but also, if I 
 may so speak, heaven and hell were 
 constrained to obey the slightest intima- 
 tion of his will ? No one can know 
 what I suffered those first two years, 
 and in what dejection, I might say in 
 what despair, I was often plunged. 
 Those proud spirits who afterwards at- 
 tacked the Pope with such boldness, 
 can form no idea of my sufferings ; 
 though, with all their skill, they could 
 have done him no injury, if Christ had 
 not inflicted upon him, through me, His 
 weak and unworthy instrument, a wound 
 from which he will never recover. But 
 whilst they were satisfied to look on and 
 leave me to face the danger alone, I 
 was not so happy, so calm, or so sure 
 of success ; for 1 did not then know 
 many things which now, thanks be to 
 God, I do know. There were, it is 
 true, many pious Christians who were 
 much pleased with my propositions and 
 thought highly of them. But I was not 
 able to recognize these, or look upon 
 them as inspired by the Holy Ghost; 
 I only looked to the Pope, the cardinals, 
 the bishops, the theologians, the juris- 
 consults, the monks, the priests. It 
 was from thence that I expected the 
 Spirit to breathe. However, after hav- 
 ing triumphed, by means of the Scrip- 
 tures, over all opposing arguments, I at 
 last overcame, by the grace of Christ, 
 
 * Concilium immanis audaciae plenum. — (Pal- 
 lav, i. p. 17.) 
 
 t Miserrimus tunc fraterculus cadaveri simi- 
 lior quam homini. — (L. Opp. lat. i. p. 49.) 
 
128 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 with much anguish, labour, and great 
 difficulty, the only argument that still 
 stopped me, namely, ' that I must hear 
 the church ;'* for, from my heart, I hon- 
 oured the church of the Pope as the true 
 church, and I did so with more sincerity 
 and veneration than those disgraceful 
 and infamous corrupters of the church, 
 who, to oppose me, now so much extol 
 it. If I had despised the Pope, as 
 those persons do in their hearts, who 
 praise him so much with their lips, I 
 should have feared that the earth would 
 open at that instant, and swallow me up 
 alive, like Korah and his company." 
 
 How honourable are these struggles 
 to -Luther's character ! what sincerity, 
 what uprightness, do they evince ! and 
 how much more worthy of our respect is 
 he rendered by these painful assaults 
 from within and from without, than 
 he could have been by an intrepidity 
 untried by conflict. This travail of his 
 soul is good evidence of the truth and 
 divine nature of his work. We see that 
 the cause and principle of all his actions 
 was from heaven. Who will dare to 
 say, after all the characteristics we have 
 pointed out, that the Reformation was a 
 political affair ? No, certainly, it was 
 not the fruit of human policy, but of di- 
 vine power. If Luther had only been 
 actuated by human passions, he would 
 have yielded to his fears ; his disap- 
 pointments and misgivings would have 
 smothered the fire that had been kindled 
 in his soul, and he would only have 
 shed a transient light upon the Church, 
 as had been done before by so many 
 zealous and pious men, whose names 
 have been handed down to posterity. 
 But now God's time was come ; the 
 work was not to be arrested ; the en- 
 franchisement of the Church must be ac- 
 complished. Luther was destined at 
 least to prepare the way for that com- 
 plete deliverance and that mighty in- 
 crease which are promised to the king- 
 dom of Christ. Accordingly he experi- 
 enced the truth of that glorious prom- 
 ise : "The youths shall faint, and be 
 weary, and the young men shall utterly 
 fail : But they that wait on the Lord 
 
 * Et cum omnia argumenta superassem per 
 Ecripturas, hoc unum cum summa difficultate et 
 augustia, tandem Christo favente, vix superavi, 
 Ecclesiam scilicet audiendam. — (L Opp lat i 
 p. 49.) 
 
 shall renew their strength ; they shall 
 mount up with wings, as eagles." And 
 the same divine power, which, anima- 
 ting the heart of the Doctor of Wittem- 
 berg, had led him to the combat, soon re- 
 stored his former courage. 
 
 The reproaches, the timidity, or the 
 silence of his friends had discouraged 
 him ; the attacks of his enemies re-ani- 
 mated him ; this is usually the case. 
 The adversaries of the truth, thinking 
 by their violence to do their own work, 
 did in fact the work of God.* Tetzel 
 took up the gauntlet, but with a feeble 
 hand. The sermon of Luther, which 
 had had the same effect upon the com- 
 mon people as the theses had had upon 
 the learned, was the first thing he un- 
 dertook to answer. He replied to this 
 discourse, sentence by sentence, in his 
 own manner ; he then gave notice that 
 he was preparing to confute his adver- 
 sary more at length, in some theses 
 which he would maintain at the famous 
 university of Frankfort upon the Oder. 
 " Then," said he, referring to the con- 
 clusion of Luther's sermon, " every one 
 will be able to discover who is an here- 
 siarch, a heretic, a schismatic, — who is 
 in error, who is rash, who is a slan- 
 derer. Then it will be evident to the 
 eyes of all, who has 'a gloomy brain,' 
 who has ' never felt the Bible, read the 
 doctrines of Christianity, and understood 
 his own teachers ;' — and in defence of 
 the propositions that I bring forward I 
 am ready to suffer any punishment 
 whatsoever, imprisonment, bastinado, wa- 
 ter, or fire." 
 
 One thing strikes us in this work of 
 Tetzel's. It is the difference between 
 his German and that of Luther. It 
 seems as if there were a distance 
 of several ages between them. A for- 
 eigner especially finds it difficult to un- 
 derstand Tetzel, whilst the language 
 of Luther is almost entirely such as is 
 used at the present day. It is suffi- 
 cient to compare their writings, to see 
 that Luther is the father of the German 
 language. This is undoubtedly one 
 of the least of his merits, but still it is a 
 merit. 
 
 * Hi furores Tezeliiet ejus sattellitum imponunt 
 necessitatem Luthero do rebus iisdem copiosius 
 disserendi et tuendiE veritatis. — (Melancth. Vita 
 Luth.) 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 129 
 
 Luther replied to this attack without 
 naming Tetzel ; — Tetzel had not named 
 him. But there was no one in Ger- 
 many who could not have written in 
 the front of their productions the names 
 which the authors thought fit to conceal. 
 Tetzel endeavoured to confound the re- 
 pentance that God requires with the pen- 
 itence that the Church imposes ; in order 
 to give higher value to his indulgences. 
 Luther undertook to clear up this point. 
 " To avoid many words," said he, in 
 his own picturesque language, " I give 
 to the winds, (which have more leisure 
 than I have,) his other remarks, which 
 are but paper flowers and dry leaves, 
 and I content myself with examining 
 the foundations of his edifice of burrs.'" 
 
 " The penitence imposed by the holy 
 Father cannot be the repentance re- 
 quired by Christ : for what the holy Fa- 
 ther imposes he can dispense with ; and 
 if these two penitences are one and 
 the same thing, it follows that the holy 
 Father takes away what Christ im- 
 poses, and destroys the commandment 
 of God . . . Let him only ill treat me," 
 continues Luther, after having quoted 
 other false interpretations of Tetzel, " let 
 him call me a heretic ; schismatical, 
 slanderous, and whatever he pleases; I 
 shall not be his enemy on that account ; 
 nay, so far from it, I will, on that account, 
 pray for him as for a friend. But it can- 
 not be endured that he should treat the 
 Holy Scripture, our consolation, as a sow 
 treats a sack of oats."* 
 
 We must accustom ourselves to find 
 Luther sometimes using expressions too 
 coarsely vituperative for modern taste : 
 it was the custom of the time ; and we 
 generally find in those words which 
 shock our notions of propriety in lan- 
 guage, a suitableness and strength which 
 redeem their harshness. He continues : 
 
 "He who purchases indulgences," say 
 our adversaries again, " does better than 
 he who gives alms to a poor man, unless 
 he be reduced to the greatest extremity. 
 Now, if they tell us that the Turks are 
 profaning our churches and crosses, we 
 may hear it without shuddering, for we 
 have amongst ourselves Turks a hundred 
 times worse, who profane and annihilate 
 the only true sanctuary, the word of God 
 
 * Das er die Schrift, unsern Trost, nicht an- 
 ders behandelt wie die Sau einen Habersack. 
 17 
 
 which sanctifies all things. . . . Let him 
 who wishes to follow this precept, take 
 good care not to feed the hungry, or to 
 clotho the naked, before they die of want, 
 and consequently have no more need of 
 assistance." 
 
 It is important to compare Luther's 
 zeal for good works, with what he says 
 about justification by faith. Indeed, no 
 one who has any experience and knowl- 
 edge of Christianity, wants this new 
 proof of a truth of which he has felt the 
 fullest evidence ; namely, that the more 
 firmly we hold the doctrine of justifica- 
 tion by faith, the better we know the 
 necessity of works, and the more diligent 
 we are in the practice of them ; whilst 
 on the other hand, any laxity of the doc- 
 trine of faith, brings with it, of necessity, 
 a neglect of good works. Luther, St. 
 Paul before him, and Howard after 
 him, are proofs of the. former assertion. 
 All men without this faith, — and the 
 world is full of such, — give proof of the 
 latter. 
 
 Luther proceeds to refer to the insults 
 of Tetzel, and returns them in this 
 fashion : " It seems to me, at the sound 
 of these invectives, that I hear a great 
 ass braying at me. I rejoice at it, and 
 should be very sorry that such people 
 should call me a good christian." .... 
 We must represent Luther such as he 
 was, and with all his weaknesses. This 
 inclination to humour, and even low hu- 
 mour, was one of them. He was a great 
 man, a man of God ; but he was a man, 
 and not an angel, nor even a perfect 
 man. Who has the right to require this 
 in him? 
 
 " Furthermore," adds he, defying and 
 challenging his adversaries to combat, 
 " although for such things it is not the 
 custom to burn heretics, here am I, at 
 Wittemberg, I, Doctor Martin Luther! 
 and if there is any inquisitor who wishes 
 to chew iron, or blow up rocks, I give 
 him notice that he may have a safe-con- 
 duct hither, open gates, a good table, 
 and a lodging prepared for him, all 
 through the gracious care of the worthy 
 prince, Duke Frederic, Elector of Sax- 
 ony, who will never be the protector of 
 heretics."* 
 
 We see that Luther was not wanting- 
 He trusted in the word of 
 * L. Opp. Leips. xvii. 132. 
 
 in courasre. 
 
130 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 God, and that is a rock that never fails 
 to shelter us in the storm. But God in 
 his faithfulness also afforded him other 
 assistance. To the bursts of joy with 
 which the multitude received the theses 
 of Luther, had succeeded a mournful si- 
 lence. The learned had timidly with- 
 drawn when they heard the calumnies 
 and insults of Tetzel and of the Domin- 
 icans. The bishops, who had before 
 loudly blamed the abuse of the indul- 
 gences, seeing them at last attacked, had 
 not failed, as is always the case, to dis- 
 cover that the attack was unseasonable. 
 The greater part of the Reformer's friends 
 were alarmed. Every one shrunk back 
 But when the first alarm was over, a 
 change took place in the minds of men. 
 The monk of Wittemberg, who, for 
 some time, had been almost alone in 
 the Church, soon saw himself again sur- 
 rounded by a multitude of friends and 
 admirers. 
 
 There was one, who, though timid, 
 still remained faithful to him at this cri- 
 sis, and whose friendship was a consola- 
 tion and support. This was Spalatin. 
 Their correspondence had been kept up. 
 " I return you thanks," he says to him, 
 speaking of a special mark of friendship 
 he had received from him, " but what do 
 I not owe you ?"•* It was on the 11th 
 of November, 1517, eleven days after 
 the publication of the theses, and conse- 
 quently at the moment when the minds 
 of the people were in the greatest fer- 
 ment, that Luther thus poured forth his 
 gratitude to his friend. It is interesting 
 to see in this very letter to Spalatin, how 
 this strong man, who had just performed 
 an action requiring so much courage, ac- 
 knowledges whence his strength is de- 
 rived. " We can do nothing of our- 
 selves ; Ave can do all things by the 
 grace of God. Ignorance in any mea- 
 sure is altogether beyond our power to 
 overcome. There is no ignorance so 
 dark but the grace of God can dispel it. 
 The more we labour by our own 
 strength to attain Avisdom, the more in- 
 fatuated we become. f And it is not true 
 that this invincible ignorance excuses 
 
 * Tibi gratias ago : im6 quid tibi non debeo ? 
 — (L. Epp. i. p. 74.) 
 
 t Quanto magis conamur ex nobis ad sapien- 
 tiam, tanto amplius appropinquamus insipientire. 
 — (L. Epp. i. p. 74.) 
 
 the sinner, for otherwise there is no such 
 thing as sin in the world." 
 
 Luther had sent his propositions nei- 
 ther to the prince nor to any of his cour- 
 tiers. It appears that the chaplain ex- 
 pressed some surprise at this. " I did 
 not wish," answered Luther, that my 
 theses should reach the hands of our il- 
 lustrious prince, or any of his circle, be- 
 fore those who think they are therein 
 referred to had received them, lest they 
 should suppose that I published them by 
 the prince's direction, or to court his fa- 
 vour, and out of ill will to the Bishop of 
 Mentz. I am told there are several who 
 fancy this ; — but now I can safely affirm, 
 that my theses were published without 
 the privity of Duke Frederic."* 
 
 If Spalatin comforted his friend, and 
 supported him with all his influence, 
 Luther, on his part, endeavoured to an- 
 swer all the enquiries addressed "to him 
 by the diffident chaplain. Among his 
 questions was one which is often pro- 
 posed in our days. " What," asked he, 
 a is the best method of studying the Scrip- 
 tures?" 
 
 " Hitherto," answered Luther, " wor- 
 thy Spalatin, you have asked only things 
 I was able to answer. But to guide you 
 in the study of the Holy Scripture is be- 
 yond my strength. However, if you in- 
 sist on knowing my method, I will not 
 conceal it from you. 
 
 " It is most plain we cannot attain to 
 the understanding of Scripture either by 
 study or by strength of intellect. There- 
 fore your first duty must be to begin 
 with prayer, f Entreat the Lord to deign 
 to grant you, in his rich mercy, rightly 
 to understand his word. There is no 
 other interpreter of the word of God but 
 the author of that word himself; even 
 as He has said, ' They shall all be 
 taught of God.' Hope nothing from your 
 study, or the strength of your intellect ; 
 but simply put your trust in God, and in 
 the guidance of his Spirit. Believe one 
 who has made trial of this method." J 
 
 * Sed salvum est nunc etiam jurare, quod sine 
 scitu ducis Frederici exierint. — (Ibid. p. 76.) 
 
 t Primum id certissimum est, sacras litteras 
 non posse vel studio, velin genio penetrari. Ide6 
 primum officium est ut ab oratione incipias. 
 
 t Igitur de tuo studio desperes oportet omnino, 
 simul et ingenio. Deo autem soli confidas et 
 influxui spiritus. Experto crede ista. — (L. Epp. 
 i. p. 88. 18. Jan.) 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 131 
 
 Here we see how Luther attained to the 
 possession of the truth which he preached 
 to others. It was not, as some have said, 
 by following the guidance of his own 
 presumptuous reason ; nor Avas it, as 
 others assert, by surrendering himself to 
 the contentious passions. He drew from 
 the purest and holiest spring, by humble, 
 trusting, and prayerful enquiry of God 
 himself. But then, there are few men 
 of this age who follow his example ; and 
 hence it is that there are few who under- 
 stand him. To a thoughtful mind these 
 words of Luther are of themselves a jus- 
 tification of the Reformation. 
 
 Luther also found consolation in the 
 friendship of respectable laymen. Chris- 
 topher Scheurl, the worthy town-clerk 
 of the imperial city of Nuremberg, at 
 this time afforded him some affecting 
 marks of his regard.* How sweet to 
 the heart of a man encompassed with ad- 
 versaries is every intimation of interest 
 felt in his success ! The town-clerk of 
 Nuremberg went further ; he wished to 
 bring over other friends to the man he 
 himself befriended. He proposed to him 
 that he should dedicate one of his writ- 
 ings to Jerome Ebner, a jurisconsult of 
 Nuremberg, who was then in great repute. 
 " You have a high notion of my labours," 
 answered Luther modestly ; " but I my- 
 self have a very poor opinion of them. 
 It was my wish, however, to comply 
 with your desire. I looked, — but amongst 
 all my papers, which I never before 
 thought so meanly of, I could find no- 
 thing but what seemed totally unworthy 
 of being dedicated to so distinguished a 
 person by so humble an individnal as 
 myself." Touching humility ! The 
 words are those of Luther, — and he is 
 speaking of the comparatively unknown 
 name of Doctor Ebner ! Posterity has 
 not ratified his estimate. 
 
 Luther, who made no attempt to circu- 
 late his theses, had not only abstained 
 from sending them to the Elector and 
 his court, but had not even sent them to 
 Scheurl. The to wn-clerk of Nuremberg 
 expressed some surprise at this. " My 
 design," answered Luther, " was not to 
 
 * " Literse tua?," wrote Luther to him, on the 
 11th of December, 1517, " animum tuum erga 
 meam parvitatem candidum et longo ultra merita 
 benevolentissimum probaverunt." — (L. Epp. i. p. 
 79.) 
 
 make them so public. I wished to discuss 
 the various points comprised in them with 
 some of our associates and neighbours.* 
 If they had condemned them, I would 
 have destroyed them ; if they had ap- 
 proved them, I would have published 
 them. But now they have been printed 
 again and again, and circulated so far 
 beyond all my expectations, that I regret 
 the production of them ;f not that I fear 
 the truth being made known to the peo- 
 ple, for that is my object ; but they are 
 not in the best form for general instruc- 
 tion. They contain some points, too, 
 which are still questionable in my own 
 judgment. And if I had thought they 
 would have made such an impression, 
 there are propositions that I would have 
 left out, and others that I would have as- 
 serted with greater confidence." Luther 
 afterwards thought differently. Far from 
 fearing that he had said too much, he de- 
 clared he ought to have spoken out much 
 more fully. But the apprehensions that 
 Luther evinced to Scheurl do honour to 
 his sincerity. They shew that he had 
 no preconceived plan, or party purpose ; 
 that he was free from self-conceit, and 
 was seeking the truth alone. When he 
 had discovered it in its fulness, his lan- 
 guage was changed. " You will find 
 in my earlier writings," said he, many 
 years afterwards, "that I very humbly 
 conceded to the Pope many and impor- 
 tant things which I now abhor and re- 
 gard as abominable and blasphemous. "J 
 
 Scheurl was not the only layman of 
 consideration who then manifested a 
 friendly disposition towards Luther. The 
 famous painter, Albert Durer, sent him 
 a present, probably one of his produc- 
 tions, and the Doctor expressed his grat- 
 itude for the gift.§ 
 
 Thus Luther, at that time, experienced 
 in his own person the truth of the divine 
 word : " A friend loveth at all times ; 
 and a brother is born for adversity." 
 But he recalled the passage for comfort to 
 others as Avell as to himself. 
 
 * Non fuit consilium voturrj neque eas evulgari, 
 sed cum paucis apud et circum nos habitautibus 
 primiim super ipsis conferri. — (L. Epp. i. p. 95.) 
 
 i" Ut me paeniteet hujus foeturse. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Qua? istis temporibus pro summa blasphemia. 
 et abominatione habeo et execror. — (L. Opp. Lat. 
 (Witt, in praef.) 
 
 § Accepi .... simul et donum insignis viri 
 Alberti Durer. — (L. Epp. i. p. 95.) 
 
132 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 He pleaded for the entire nation. The 
 Elector had just levied a tax, and it was 
 affirmed that he was about to levy another, 
 in accordance, probably, with the advice 
 of Pfeffinger, his counsellor, whose con- 
 duct was often the subject of Luther's 
 strictures. The Doctor boldly placed 
 himself in the breach. " Let not your 
 Highness," said he, " despise the prayer 
 of a poor friar. I beseech you, in God's 
 name, not to impose any further tax. I 
 was heart-broken, — and so were many 
 of those who are most devoted to you, — 
 at seeing to what a degree the last had 
 injured your Highness's fair name and 
 popularity. It is true that God has en- 
 dowed you with a lofty judgment, so 
 that you see further into the consequen- 
 ces of these things than I or your sub- 
 jects in general. But it may be the will 
 of God that a meaner capacity shall min- 
 ister instruction to a greater, — to the end 
 that no one may trust in himself, but 
 simply in the Lord our God. May he 
 deign, for our good, to preserve your 
 body in health, and your soul for ever- 
 lasting blessedness. Amen." Thus the 
 Gospel, while it honours kings, pleads 
 the cause of the people. It instructs sub- 
 jects in their duties, and it calls upon 
 princes to be regardful of their subjects' 
 rights. The voice of such a Christian 
 man as Luther, speaking in the secret 
 chamber of a sovereign, may often do 
 more than can be effected by a whole as- 
 sembly of legislators. 
 
 In this same letter, in which Luther 
 inculcated a stern lesson to his prince, he 
 was not afraid to ask a boon of him, or 
 rather, to remind him of a promise, — the 
 promise he had made him of a new 
 gown. This freedom on Luther's part, 
 at a moment when he might fear he had 
 offended Frederic, is equally honourable 
 to the Prince and the Reformer. " But 
 if," said he, " Pfeffinger has the charge 
 of these matters, let him give it me in 
 reality, and not in protestations of friend- 
 ship. For as to weaving fine words to- 
 gether, it is what he excels in ; but no 
 good cloth comes of that." Luther 
 thought that by his faithful counsels he 
 had fairly earned his court garment.* 
 However, two years after he had not re- 
 ceived it, and his solicitation was re- 
 
 * Mein Hofkleid verdienen. — (Epp. L. i. 77, 78.) 
 
 newed.* A fact which seems to shew 
 that Frederic was not so easily wrought 
 upon by Luther as has been supposed. 
 
 The minds of men had gradually re- 
 covered from the alarm that had at first 
 been communicated to them. Luther 
 himself was inclined to declare that his 
 words did not bear the construction that 
 had been put upon them. New events 
 might have diverted public attention ; 
 and the blow aimed against the Romish 
 doctrine might have spent itself in the 
 air, as had often been the case before. 
 But the partisans of Rome prevented the 
 affair from ending thus. They fanned 
 the flame instead of extinguishing it. 
 
 Tetzel and the Dominicans haughtily 
 replied to the attack made upon them. 
 Eager to crush the audacious monk who 
 had disturbed their traffic, and to concil- 
 iate the favour of the Roman Pontiff, 
 they raised a shout of indignation, — af- 
 firmed that to attack the indulgences es- 
 tablished by the Pope, was to attack the 
 Pope himself: and summoned to their as- 
 sistance all the monks and divines of their 
 school, f It is evident, indeed, that Tet- 
 zel was conscious of his own inability to 
 cope with such an adversary as Luther. 
 Quite disconcerted by the Doctor's attack, 
 and irritated in the highest degree, he 
 quitted the neighbourhood of Wittem- 
 berg, and went to Frankfort on the Oder, 
 where he arrived in November, 1517. 
 Conrad Wimpina, a man of great elo- 
 quence, and one of the most distinguished 
 divines of the time, was one of the profes- 
 sors in the university of that city. Wim- 
 pina regarded with a jealous eye, both the 
 Doctor of Wittemberg, and the universi- 
 ty to which he belonged. The reputa- 
 tion enjoyed by both gave him umbrage. 
 Tetzel requested him to answer the theses 
 of Luther, and Wimpina accordingly 
 wrote two series of antitheses, the first in 
 defence of the doctrine of indulgences, 
 and the second of the Papal authority. 
 
 On the 20th January, 1518, took place 
 that disputation which had been so long 
 preparing, which had been announced 
 so ostentatiously, and on which Tetzel 
 built his hopes. Loudly had he beat to 
 arms. Monks had been gathering to- 
 
 * Epp. L. i. p. 293. 
 
 t Suum senatum convocat ; monachos aliquot 
 et theologos sua sophistica utcumque tinctos. — 
 (Melancth. Vita Luth. 106.) 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 133 
 
 gether from all the neighbouring clois- 
 ters. More than three hundred were 
 now assembled. Tetzel read to them his 
 theses. In these he repeated all that he 
 had advanced before, even the declara- 
 tion that — " Whosoever shall say the 
 soul does not take its flight from purga- 
 tory, immediately that the money is drop- 
 ped into the chest, is in error."* 
 
 But above all, he put forward propo- 
 sitions by which the Pope seemed actu- 
 ally " seated," as the apostle expresses it, 
 " in the temple of God, shewing himself 
 to be God." This shameless dealer in 
 counterfeit wares found it convenient to 
 retreat with all his disorders and scan- 
 dals under the cover of the Pope's mantle. 
 
 The following are positions which he 
 declared himself ready to defend, in pres- 
 ence of the numerous assembly that sur- 
 rounded him. 
 
 " 3. Christians should be taught, that 
 the Pope, in the plentitude of his power, 
 is higher than the universal church and 
 superior to councils ; and that entire sub- 
 mission is due to his decrees. 
 
 " 4. Christians should be taught, that 
 the Pope alone has the right to decide 
 in questions of Christian doctrine ; — that 
 he alone, and no other, has power to ex- 
 plain, according to his judgment, the 
 sense of Holy Scripture, and to approve 
 or condemn the words and works of 
 others. 
 
 " 5. Christians should be taught, that 
 the judgment of the Pope, in things per- 
 taining to Christian doctrine, and neces- 
 sary to the salvation of mankind, can in 
 no case err. 
 
 " 6. Christians should be taught, that 
 they should place more dependance in 
 matters of faith on the Pope's judgment, 
 expressed in his decrees, than of the 
 unanimous opinion of all the learned, 
 resting merely upon their interpretation 
 of Scripture. 
 
 " 8. Christians should be taught, that 
 they who conspire against the honour or 
 dignity of the Pope incur the guilt of 
 treason, and deserve to be accursed. 
 
 " 17. Christians should be taught, that 
 there are many things which the 
 Church regards as certain articles of 
 
 * Quisquis ergo dicet, non citius posse animam 
 volare quam in fundo cistae denarius possit tin- 
 nire, errat. — (Positiones fratris Joh. Tezelii, Pos. 
 66. L. Opp. i. p. 94.) 
 
 the Catholic faith, although they are not 
 found either in the inspired Scriptures or 
 in the early Fathers. 
 
 " 44. Christians should be taught to 
 regard, as obstinate heretics, all who, by 
 speech, action, or writing, declare that 
 they would not retract their heretical 
 propositions, though excommunication af- 
 ter excommunication should be showered 
 upon them like hail. 
 
 " 48. Christians should be taught, that 
 they who protect the errors of heretics, 
 and who, by their authority, hinder them 
 from being brought before the judge who 
 has a right to hear them, are excommu- 
 nicate ; — and that if, within the space of 
 one year, they cease not from doing so, 
 they will be declared infamous, and se- 
 verely visited with punishment, conform- 
 able to the provisions of the law, and for 
 the warning of others.* 
 
 " 50. Christians should be taught, that 
 they who scribble so many books and 
 tracts, — who preach, or publicly, and 
 with evil intention, dispute about the 
 confession of the lips, the satisfaction of 
 works, the rich and large indulgences 
 of the Bishop of Rome and his power ; 
 they who side with those who preach 
 or write such things, and take pleasure 
 in their writings, and circulate them 
 among the people and in society; and 
 finally, all they, who, in secret, speak 
 of these things with contempt or irre- 
 verence, must expect to fall under the 
 penalties before recited, and to plunge 
 themselves, and others along with them, 
 into eternal condemnation at the great 
 day, and the deepest disgrace in this pres- 
 ent world. For every beast that touch- 
 eth the mountain shall be stoned." 
 
 We perceive that Luther was not the 
 only object of Tetzel's attack. In his 
 48th thesis he probably had an eye to 
 the Elector of Saxony. In other respects 
 these propositions savour strongly of the 
 Dominican. To threaten all opposition 
 with rigorous chastisements, was an in- 
 quisitor's argument, which there was no 
 way of answering. The three hundred 
 monks, whom Tetzel had assembled, 
 were full of admiration of all that he 
 had said. The divines of the university 
 
 * Pro infamibus sunt tenendi, qui etiam per 
 juris capitula terribiliter multis plectectur poenis 
 in omnium hominum terrorem. — (Positiones fra- 
 tris Joh. Tezelii. 56. L. Opp. i. p. 98.) 
 
HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 were too fearful of being classed among 
 the promoters of heresy, and too much 
 attached to the principles of Wimpina, 
 openly to attack the astounding theses 
 which had been read in their presence. 
 
 This affair, therefore, about which 
 there had been so much noise, seemed 
 likely to end like a mock fight; but 
 among the crowd of students present at 
 the discussion was a young man, about 
 twenty years of age, named John Knip- 
 strow. He had read the theses of Lu- 
 ther, and found them agreeable to the 
 Scriptures. Indignant at seeing the 
 truth publicly trampled under foot, with- 
 out any one offering himself in its de- 
 fence, the young man raised his voice, to 
 the great surprise of the whole assembly, 
 and attacked the presumptuous Tetzel. 
 The poor Dominican, who had not reck- 
 oned on any such opposition, was thrown 
 into dismay. After some attempts at an 
 answer, he abandoned the field of battle, 
 and made room for Wimpina. The lat- 
 ter defended his cause with more vig- 
 our ; but Knipstrow pressed him so hard 
 that, to put an end to the untoward con- 
 test, Wimpina, in his capacity of presi- 
 dent, declared the discussion terminated, 
 and proceeded at once to the promoting 
 of Tetzel to the rank of Doctor, ,as 
 the recompense of this glorious dispute. 
 After this, Wimpina, to get rid of his 
 young antagonist, caused him to be 
 sent to the convent of Pyritz, in Po- 
 merania, with directions that he should 
 be strictly watched. But this newly- 
 risen luminary, removed from the banks 
 of the Oder, was destined, at a later pe- 
 riod, to diffuse the light over Pomera- 
 nia. # God, when he sees fit, employs 
 the disciple to confound the master. 
 
 Tetzel, desirous to make up for the 
 check he had met with, had recourse 
 to the ultima ratio of Rome and its in- 
 quisitors, — the fire. He set up a pul- 
 pit and a scaffold in one of the sub- 
 urbs of Frankfort. He went thither in 
 solemn procession, arrayed in the insig- 
 nia of an inquisitor of the faith. He 
 inveighed, in his most furious manner, 
 from the pulpit. He hurled his thun- 
 ders with an unsparing hand, and loudly 
 exclaimed, that " the heretic Luther 
 ought to be burned alive." Then, pla- 
 
 * Spicker, Gesch. Dr. M. Luthers. — Beck- 
 manni Notitia univ. Francofurt. 8, &c. 
 
 cing the Doctor's propositions and ser- 
 mon on the scaffold, he set fire to 
 them.* He shewed greater dexterity 
 in this operation than he had dis- 
 played in defending his theses. Here 
 there was none to oppose him, and his 
 victory was complete. The arrogant 
 Dominican re-entered Frankfort in tri- 
 umph. When parties accustomed to 
 power have sustained defeat, they have 
 recourse to certain shows and semblan- 
 ces, which must be allowed them as a 
 consolation for their disgrace. 
 
 The second theses of Tetzel mark 
 an important epoch in the Reformation. 
 They changed the ground of the dispute, 
 transferring it from the indulgence-mar- 
 ket to the halls of the Vatican, — and 
 diverted the attack from Tetzel, to di- 
 rect it against the Pope. For the con- 
 temptible trafficker whom Luther had 
 assailed and held powerless in his grasp, 
 they substituted the sacred person of the 
 Head of the Church. Luther was all 
 astonishment at this. A little later, 
 probably, he would, of his own accord, 
 have taken up this new position ; but 
 his enemies spared him the trouble. 
 Thenceforward, the dispute had refer- 
 ence, not merely to a discredited traffic, 
 but to Rome itself; and the blow, that 
 a bold hand had aimed against Tetzel's 
 stall, smote, and shook to its founda- 
 tion, the throne of the pontifical king. 
 
 The theses of Tetzel served, moreover, 
 only as a signal to the troop of Romish 
 doctors. A shout was raised against 
 Luther by the monks, enraged at the ap- 
 pearance of an adversary more formida- 
 ble even than Erasmus or Reuchlin. 
 The name of Luther resounded from all 
 the Dominican pulpits. They stirred 
 up the passions of the people ; they 
 called the intrepid Doctor a madman, a 
 seducer, a wretch possessed by the devil. 
 
 His teaching was decried as the most 
 horrible of heresies. " Only wait," said 
 they, " a fortnight, or, at most, a month, 
 and that notorious heretic will be burned 
 alive." Had it depended on the Do- 
 minicans, indeed, the Saxon Doctor 
 would soon have met the fate of Huss 
 
 * Fulmina in Lntheram torquet : vociferatnr 
 ubique nunc haereticum igni perdendum esse ; 
 propositiones etiam Lutheri et concionem de in- 
 dulgentiis publice conjicit inflammas. — (Melanc 
 Vita Luth.) 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 135 
 
 and of Jerome ; but God was watching 
 over him. His life was destined to ac- 
 complish what the martyrdom of Huss 
 had begun. For each individual serves 
 the purposes of God; one by his life, an- 
 other by his death. Already many ex- 
 claimed that the whole university of 
 Wittemberg was tainted with heresy, 
 and they pronounced it infamous.* " Let 
 us drive out the wretch and all his parti- 
 sans," said they. And in many cases 
 these clamours did, in fact, excite the 
 passions of the people. Those who 
 shared in the opinions of the Reformer 
 were pointed out to public observation, 
 and wherever the monks had power in 
 their hands, the friends of the Gospel 
 felt the effects of their hatred. Thus the 
 prophecy of our Saviour began to be ful- 
 filled : " They shall revile you, and 
 persecute you, and say all manner of 
 evil against you falsely, for my sake." 
 This recompense of the world is in no 
 age withheld from the decided disciples 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 When Luther heard of the theses of 
 Tetzel and of the general attack of 
 which they had given the signal, his 
 courage rose. He saw that it was ne- 
 cessary to face such adversaries boldly ; 
 his intrepid spirit felt no difficulty in 
 resolving to do so. But, at the same 
 time, their weakness discovered to him 
 his own strength, and inspired him with 
 the consciousness of what in reality he 
 was. 
 
 He did not, however, give way to 
 those emotions of pride which are so con- 
 genial to man's heart. "I have more 
 difficulty," wrote he to Spalatin, at this 
 time, " to refrain from despising my adver- 
 saries, and so sinning against Christ, than 
 I should have in vanquishing them. 
 They are so ignorant, both of human 
 and divine things, that it is humbling to 
 have to dispute with them ; and yet it is 
 this very ignorance which gives them 
 their inconceivable boldness and their 
 brazen front"! But what, above all, 
 strengthened his heart, in the midst 
 of this general hostility, was the deep 
 conviction that his cause was the cause 
 of truth. "Do not wonder," he wrote 
 
 * Et> furunt usque ut universitatem Wittem- 
 bergensem propter me infamem conantur facere 
 et hsreticam. — (L. Epp. i. p. 92.) 
 
 t Epp. Luth. i. p. 62. 
 
 to Spalatin, in the beginning of 1518 
 " that they revile me so unsparingly. 
 I hear their revilings with joy. If they 
 did not curse me, we could t not be so 
 firmly assured that the cause I have un- 
 dertaken is that of God himself* Christ 
 was set for a sign that should be spoken 
 against." « I know," said he, another 
 time, " that from the beginning the 
 Word of God has been such as that 
 whosoever would carry it into the world, 
 must, like the apostles, leave everything, 
 and be delivered unto death. If it were 
 not so, it would not be the word of 
 Christ."! This peace, in the midst of 
 agitation, is a thing unknown to the he- 
 roes of the world. We see men at the 
 head of a government, — of a political 
 party, — sink under their labours and tri- 
 als. The Christian generally gathers 
 new strength in conflict. It is because 
 he is acquainted with a hidden source of 
 refreshment and courage, unknown to 
 him whose eyes are closed against the 
 Gospel. 
 
 One thing, however, at times disturbed 
 Luther : It was the thought of the dis- 
 sensions his courageous resistance might 
 give rise to. He knew that a word 
 might be enough to set the world in 
 a flame. He at times foresaw prince 
 opposing prince ; nation, perhaps set 
 against nation. His love for his coun- 
 try took alarm ; his Christian charity re- 
 coiled from the prospect. He would 
 gladly have secured peace ; yet it be- 
 hoved him to speak. It was the Lord's 
 will. " I tremble," said he, — " I shud- 
 der — at the thought that I may be an 
 occasion of discord to such mighty 
 princes."| 
 
 He still kept silence in regard to Tet- 
 zel's propositions concerning the Pope ; 
 had he been carried away by passion, 
 doubtless he would have fallen with im- 
 petuosity upon that astounding doctrine, 
 under which his adversary sought shel- 
 ter and concealment for himself. But 
 he did nothing of the kind. There is in 
 his delay, reserve, and silence, a some- 
 
 * Nisi Maledicerer non crederem ex Deo esse 
 qiiEE tracto. — (L. Epp. i. p. 85.) 
 
 t " Morte emptum est (verbum Dei,") con- 
 tinues he, in deeply energetic language, " morti- 
 bus vulgatum, mortibus servatum, mortibus quo- 
 que servandum aut referendum est." 
 
 t Inter tantos principes dissidii origo esse valde 
 horreo et timeo. — (L. Epp. i. p. 93.) 
 
136 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 thing grave and solemn, which suffi- 
 cienly reveals the spirit that animated 
 him. He paused, yet not from weak- 
 ness, — for the blow was but the heavier, 
 when at length it fell. 
 
 Tetzel, after his auto-da-fe at Frank- 
 fort on the Oder, had hastened to send 
 his theses into Saxony. They will serve, 
 thought he, as an antidote to those of 
 Luther. A man was despatched by the 
 inquisitor from Alle to distribute his prop- 
 ositions at Wittemberg. The students 
 of that university, indignant that Tetzel 
 should have burned the theses of their 
 master, no sooner heard of the arrival of 
 his messenger than they surrounded him 
 in troops inquiring in threatening tones 
 how he had dared to bring such things 
 thither. Some of them purchased a por- 
 tion of the copies he had brought with 
 him ; others seized on the remainder : 
 thus getting possession of his whole 
 stock, which amounted to eight hundred 
 copies ; then unknown* to the Elector, 
 the senate, the rector, Luther, and all 
 the professors, the students of Wittem- 
 berg posted bills on the gates of the uni- 
 versity, bearing these words : " Whoso- 
 ever desires to be present at the burning 
 and obsequies of the theses of Tetzel, let 
 him repair at two o'clock to the market 
 place." 
 
 They assembled in crowds at the hour 
 appointed ; and, amidst the acclamations 
 of the multitude, committed the proposi- 
 tions of the Dominican to the flames. 
 One copy was saved from the fire. Lu- 
 ther afterwards sent it to his friend 
 Lange, of Erfurth. The young students 
 acted on the precept of them of old time, 
 " an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 
 •tooth," and not on that of Christ But 
 when doctors and professors had set such 
 an example at Frankfort, can we wonder 
 that young students should follow it at 
 Wittemberg? The report of this aca- 
 demic execution spread through Ger- 
 many, and made much noise. f Luther 
 was deeply grieved at it. 
 
 " I am surprised," wrote he, to his 
 old master, Jodocus, at Erfurth, " that 
 you could think I had anything to do 
 with the burning of Tetzel's theses. 
 
 * Hffic inscio principe,senatu,rectore,denique 
 omnibus nobis. — (L. Epp. i. p. 99.) 
 
 t Fit ex ea re ingens undique fabula. — (L. Epp. 
 I p. 99.) 
 
 Do you think I have utterly lost my 
 senses 7 But what can I do ? When 
 the tale is told of me, anything, and 
 from every quarter, gains implicit belief* 
 Can I tie up men's tongues ? No mat- 
 ter ! let them tell, and hear, and see, 
 and report whatever they please. I will 
 go on as long as the Lord shall give 
 me strength ; and, with God's help, I 
 will fear nothing." — " What will come 
 of it," said he to Lange, " I know not ; 
 this only I know, that the peril in which 
 I stand is greatly enhanced by the act.f 
 This occurrence shows how the hearts 
 of the young were already kindled in 
 the cause of which Luther was the cham- 
 pion. It was a sign of high import ; for 
 a movement once begun among the 
 young is necessarily soon communicated 
 to the entire generation. 
 
 The theses of Tetzel and of Wim- 
 pina, though slightly esteemed, produced 
 a certain effect. They opened out the 
 questions in dispute ; they enlarged the 
 rent in the mantle of the church; they 
 brought new questions of thrilling in- 
 terest into the field of controversy. Con- 
 sequently, the heads of the Church began 
 to take a nearer view of the debate, and 
 to declare themselves strongly against 
 the Reformer. " I know not truly, on 
 whose protection Luther can rely," said 
 the Bishop of Brandenburg, " that he 
 ventures in this way to attack the au- 
 thority of the bishops." Perceiving that 
 this new conjuncture called for new pre- 
 cautions, the Bishop came himself to 
 Wittemberg. But he found Luther ani- 
 mated by that inward joy which springs 
 from a good conscience, and determined 
 to give battle. The Bishop felt that the 
 monk was obeying a power higher than 
 his own, and returned in an angry mood 
 to Brandenburg. One day (before the 
 close of the winter of 1518), while seated 
 at his fireside, he said, turning to those 
 who surrounded him, " I will not lay 
 my head down in peace until I have 
 cast Martin into the fire like this fag- 
 got ;" and as he spoke he cast the fag- 
 got on the blazing hearth. The revo- 
 lution of the sixteenth century was to 
 be no more indebted for support to the 
 heads of the Church than that of the 
 first century had been to the sandhe- 
 
 * Omnes omnibus omnia creduntde me. — (Ibid.) 
 t L. Epp. i. p. 98. 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 137 
 
 drim and the synagogue. The digni- 
 fied priesthood was again, in the six- 
 teenth century, opposed to Luther, the 
 Reformation, and its ministers, as it had 
 formerly been to Jesus Chuist, the Gos- 
 pel, and his Apostles, and as it too of- 
 ten is, in all periods, to the truth. " The 
 Bishops," said Luther, speaking of the 
 visit of the prelate of Brandenburg, " be- 
 gin to see that they should have done 
 what I am doing, and they are ashamed. 
 They call me arrogant and audacious ; 
 and I do not deny that I am so. But 
 they are not the people to know either 
 what God is, or what we are."* 
 
 A more formidable resistance than that 
 which Tetzel had offered had now sprung 
 up against Luther. Rome had answered 
 him. A reply had gone forth from the 
 Avails of the sacred palace. It was not 
 Leo X., however, who condescended to 
 meddle with theology. " A squabble 
 among the monks !" said he : " the best 
 way is to take no notice of it." And on 
 another occasion he observed, " It is a 
 drunken Germanf that has written these 
 theses : when he is sober he will talk 
 very differently." A Dominican of Rome, 
 Sylvester Prierias, master of the pontifi- 
 cal palace, filled the office of censor. In 
 that capacity he was the first to take cog- 
 nizance of the theses published by the 
 Saxon monk. 
 
 A Roman censor, and the theses of 
 Luther ! how remarkable the encounter ! 
 Freedom of speech, freedom of enquiry, 
 and freedom of religious belief, had now 
 to maintain a conflict, within the very 
 gates of Rome, against the power that 
 claims to hold in its hands the monopoly 
 of spiritual knowledge, and at its own 
 will to suppress the voice of Christian 
 truth or allow its utterance. The strug- 
 gle between that Christian liberty which 
 stamps men the children of God, and 
 that pontifical despotism which makes 
 them the slaves of Rome, is symbolized, 
 as it were, in the very beginning of the 
 Reformation, by the encounter of Luther 
 and Prierias. 
 
 This Roman censor, this prior-general 
 of the Dominicans, this dignitary, whose 
 office empowered him to determine what 
 
 * Quid vel Deus vel ipsi sumus. — (L. Epp. i. 
 224.) 
 
 t Ein voller trunkener Deutscher. — (L. Opp. 
 (W.) xxii. 1337.) 
 
 18 
 
 doctrines Christian men should profess, 
 and on what points they should be silent, 
 was eager to reply t He published a 
 writing which he dedicated to Leo X. 7 
 and in which he spoke contemptuously 
 of the German monk, and declared, with 
 an assurance altogether Roman, that he 
 should like to know whether that Mar- 
 tin had indeed an iron snout and a head 
 of brass, which it was impossible to shat- 
 ter.* Then, under the form of a dia- 
 logue, he proceeded to attack Luther's 
 theses, employing by turns ridicude, re- 
 viling, and threats. 
 
 The contest, between the Augustine 
 of Wittemberg and the Dominican of 
 Rome, was waged on the question which 
 is in itself the principle of the Reforma- 
 tion ; namely, what is the sole infallible 
 authority for Christians ? Take the sys- 
 tem of the Church, as set forth by its 
 most independent organs, t 
 
 The letter of the written word is dead, 
 without that spirit of interpretation, which 
 alone reveals its hidden meaning. But 
 this spirit is not given to every Christian, 
 but to the Church, that is, to the priests. 
 It is great presumption to affirm that He, 
 who promised to the Church to be with 
 her always even to the end of the world, 
 could have abandoned her to the power 
 of error. It will be said, perhaps, that 
 the doctrine and constitution of the 
 Church are not now such as we find 
 them in the Holy Scriptures. Undoubt- 
 edly ; but this change is only apparent, 
 it extends only to the form and not to 
 the substance. Nay^ more, — this change 
 is a progression. The life-giving power 
 of the Divine Spirit has imparted reality 
 to what, in Scripture, existed only in 
 idea. To the outline of the word it has 
 given a body, put a finishing touch to its 
 rough draught, and completed the work 
 of which the Bible had merely furnished 
 the rudiments. Consequently, we must 
 understand the meaning of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, as it has been determined by the 
 Church, under the guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit. — So far the Catholic doctors were 
 agreed : at this point they were divided, 
 — General Councils, said some (and Ger- 
 
 * An ferreum nasum aut caput aeneum gerat 
 iste Lutherus, ut eftringi non possit. — (Sylv. 
 Prieratis Dialogus.) 
 
 t See " Joh. Gersonis Proposition es de sensu 
 iitterali S. Scripture. — (Opp. torn, i.) 
 
138 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 son was of their number), are the repre- 
 sentatives of the Church. Others said, 
 it is the Pope who is the depositary of 
 the spirit of interpretation ; and no one 
 has the right to construe Scripture other- 
 wise than in accordance with the decree 
 of the Roman Pontiff This was the 
 tenet espoused by Prierias. 
 
 Such was the doctrine which the mas- 
 ter of the palace opposed to the infancy 
 of the Reformation. He advanced asser- 
 tions, with respect to the power of the 
 Church and of the Pope, to which the 
 most shameless flatterers of the court of 
 Rome would have blushed to subscribe. 
 The following is one of the principles 
 laid down at the commencement of his 
 writing : " Whosoever does not rely on 
 the teaching of the Roman Church, and 
 of the Roman Pontiff, as the infallible 
 rule of faith, and as that from which 
 Holy Scripture itself derives its obliga- 
 tion and authority, is an heretic."* 
 
 Then follows a dialogue in which the 
 speakers are Luther and Sylvester, and 
 in which the latter labours to refute the 
 Doctor's propositions. The sentiments 
 of the Saxon monk were altogether new 
 and strange to a Roman censor ; hence 
 Prierias shewed that he understood 
 neither the feelings of his heart nor the 
 principles that regulated his conduct. 
 He estimated the teacher of the truth by 
 the petty standard of the retainers of the 
 Papacy. "My good Luther," says he, 
 " were it thy fortune to receive from our 
 Lord the Pope a good bishoprick and a 
 plenary indulgence for the rebuilding of 
 thy church, how would thy tone be al- 
 tered, and how loudly wouldst thou extol 
 the indulgence which it now delights 
 thee to disparage !" With all his preten- 
 sions to refinement, this Italian has fre- 
 quent recourse to the grossest scurrility 
 of language. " If it is the nature of dogs 
 to bite," says he to Luther, " I should 
 fear thou hadst a dog for thy father."! 
 Toward the close of his work, the Do- 
 minican even marvels at his own con- 
 descension, in parleying thus with a mu- 
 tinous monk ; and in taking leave of his 
 adversary, he shows him the cruel teeth 
 
 * A qua, etiam Sacra Scriptura, robur trahit 
 et auctoritatem, haareticus est. — (Fundamentum 
 tertium.) 
 
 t Si mordere canum est proprium, vereor ne 
 tibi pater cards fuerit. — (Sylv. Prier. Dial.) 
 
 of an inquisitor. " The Roman Church," 
 says he, " the supremacy of whose power, 
 spiritual and temporal, is vested in the 
 Pope, can restrain, by the secular arm, 
 those who, having first received the faith, 
 afterwards depart from it. The Church 
 is under no obligation to employ argu- 
 ment to combat and overcome rebels."* 
 Such words, proceeding from the pen of 
 a dignitary of the Roman court, were 
 deeply significant ; yet they did not inti- 
 midate Luther ; he believed, or affected 
 to believe, that this dialogue was not writ- 
 ten by Prierias, but by Ulric de Hutten, 
 or some other contributor to the Lilterm 
 Obscurorum Virorum. " One of that fra- 
 ternity," said he, " from the mere love of 
 satire, or to set Luther against Prierais, 
 has collected together this mass of absur- 
 dity."! However, after having for some 
 time kept silence, his doubts, if he had 
 any, were removed ; he set to work, and 
 in two days prepared his answer. | 
 
 The Bible had decided Luther's des- 
 tiny : it had moulded the Reformer and 
 commenced the Reformation. Luther's 
 belief depended not on the testimony of 
 the Church. His faith had come from 
 the Bible itself: from within, and not 
 from without. He was so deeply con- 
 vinced that the evangelic doctrine was 
 immoveably built upon the word of God, 
 that all external doctrine was to him su- 
 perfluous. This experimental knowl- 
 edge possessed by Luther opened to the 
 Church a new futurity. The living 
 spring, which had gushed forth for the 
 refreshment of the monk of Wittemberg, 
 was to become a mighty river that should 
 slake the thirst of nations. 
 
 " To understand Scripture, it is neces- 
 sary that the Spirit of God should open 
 the understanding," said the Church, and 
 thus far it said truly. But its error lay 
 in considering the Holy Spirit as the ex- 
 clusive privilege of a particular caste, and 
 supposing that he could be pent up in as- 
 semblies and colleges, in a city, or a con- 
 clave. "The wind bloweth where it 
 listeth," said the Son of God, when speak- 
 
 * Seculari brachio potest eos compescere, nee 
 tenetur rationibus certare ad vincendos proter- 
 vientes. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t 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, 14 Jan.) 
 
 t T. i. Witt. Lat. p. 170. 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 13$ 
 
 ing of the Spirit of God, — -and elsewhere •:. 
 " They shall be all taught of God." The 
 corruption of the Church, the ambition 
 of the Pontiff's, the passions of Councils, 
 the animosities of the clergy, the pomp 
 of the prelates, had banished far from 
 those priestly abodes that Holy Spirit — 
 that Spirit of humility and of peace. 
 The Spirit of God had departed from the 
 assemblies of the proud, and the palaces 
 of princes of the Church, and had taber- 
 nacled with simple Christians and hum- 
 ble priests. He had turned from a tyr- 
 annous hierarchy, whose bloody heel 
 again and again had trampled on the 
 poor, — from a proud and ignorant clergy, 
 whose leaders were better skilled in the 
 use of the sword than of the Bible, — and 
 was present Avith despised sectaries, or 
 with men of understanding and learning. 
 The holy cloud, that had withdrawn it- 
 self from the stately temple and the 
 proud cathedral, had descended on the 
 secluded dwellings of the humble, or the 
 tranquil chamber of the conscientious en- 
 quirer. The Church, debased by her 
 love of power and lucre, dishonoured be- 
 fore the people, by her venal perversion 
 of the doctrine of life, — the Church, busy 
 in selling salvation, that she might re- 
 plenish a treasury exhausted by her 
 pride and debaucheries, — had forfeited 
 all respect ; and men of sense no longer 
 attached any value to her testimony. 
 Despising an authority so degraded, they 
 gladly turned toward the divine word 
 and its infallible authority as the only 
 refuge open to them in that universal 
 confusion. 
 
 The age therefore was ripe. The 
 bold movement by which Luther shifted 
 the support of the highest hopes of man's 
 heart, — loosening them with a strong 
 hand from the walls of the Vatican to 
 fix them on the rock of the word of God, 
 was hailed with enthusiasm. This was 
 the object the Reformer had in view in 
 his answer to Prierias. 
 
 Passing by the principles the Domini- 
 can had laid down at the opening of his 
 work — " I," said he, " following your ex- 
 ample, will also lay down certain princi- 
 ples." 
 
 The first is this passage of St. Paul : — 
 " If any one preach unto you another 
 Gospel than that is preached, though he 
 
 should be an angel from heaven, let 
 him be accursed." 
 
 The second is the following, from St. 
 Augustine writing to St. Jerome : — " I 
 have learned to render to the inspired 
 Scriptures alone the homage of a firm 
 belief, that they have never erred ; as to 
 others, I do not believe in the things 
 they teach, simply because it is they who 
 teach them." 
 
 Here Luther, with a steady hand, es- 
 tablishes the fundamental principles of 
 the Reformation. The word of God, — 
 the whole word of God, — and nothing 
 but the word of God. " If you rightly 
 understand these principles," continues 
 he, " you will also understand that your 
 whole Dialogue is overturned by them ; 
 for you have done nothing but bring for- 
 ward phrases and opinions of St. Tho- 
 mas." Then, openly impugning the 
 axioms of his adversary, he freely confess- 
 es that he thinks both Popes and Coun- 
 cils may err. He complains of the flat- 
 teries of the Roman courtiers, who as- 
 cribe this and that power to the Pope. 
 He declares that the Church exists vir- 
 tually in Christ alone, and representa- 
 tively in a General Council.* And then, 
 alluding to the insinuation of Prierias : 
 "Undoubtedly you judge me by your- 
 self," said he ; " but if I aspired to be 
 made a bishop I certainly should not use 
 the language which you find so offensive. 
 Do you imagine I am ignorant of the 
 manner in which bishoprics and priest's 
 orders are obtained at Rome? Do not 
 the very children sing, in every street of 
 that city, these well known words : — 
 
 • Of all foul spots the wide world round, 
 The foulest here, hi Rome, is found T "t 
 
 (Such songs had been current in Rome 
 before the election of one of the last 
 Popes.) Yet Luther speaks of Leo with 
 respect. " I know," says he, " that he 
 may be compared to Daniel in Babylon : 
 his innocence has often endangered his 
 life." He concludes by replying very 
 briefly to the threatening language used 
 by Prierias. " Lastly, you say that the 
 
 * E^o ecclesiam virtualiter non scio nisi in 
 Christo, representative non nisi in concilio. — (L. 
 Opp. lat. p. 174.) ( 
 
 t Quando hanc pueri in omnibus plateis ur- 
 bis cantant : Denique nunc facta est fcedissima 
 Roma.— (Ibid. p. 183.) 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Pope is both pontiff and emperor, and 
 that he can employ the secular arm to 
 compel obedience. Do you thirst for 
 blood then 1 I protest to you that these 
 rhodomontades and menaces of yours 
 ■give me not the slightest alarm. For 
 what if I were to lose my life 1 Christ 
 still lives ; Christ my Lord, and the Lord 
 of all, blessed for ever. Amen." 
 
 Thus fearlessly did Luther, in opposi- 
 tion to the infidel altar of the Papacy, 
 set up the altar of the holy and infallible 
 word of God ; an altar, before which he 
 would have every knee to bow, and on 
 which he declares himself ready to offer 
 up his life. 
 
 A new adversary now presented him- 
 self in the lists, — a Dominican, like his 
 predecessors. James Hochstraten, the 
 inquisitor of Cologne, of whose outcries 
 against Reuchlin, and the friends of lit- 
 erature, Ave have already spoken, could 
 not restrain his rage when he heard of 
 the first efforts of the hero of the Refor- 
 mation. It was not to be wondered at 
 that monkish ignorance and fanaticism 
 should assail the man who was to give 
 them the death-blow. Monachism had 
 arisen when the primitive truth had be- 
 gun to disappear. From that period 
 monachism and error had grown up side 
 by side. The man who was to accele- 
 rate their fall had now appeared. But 
 his sturdy antagonists would not abandon 
 the field. The struggle lasted to the 
 end of Luther's life, but we regard it as 
 epitomized in this dispute of Hochstraten 
 and Luther ; the free and courageous 
 Christian, and the irascible slave of 
 monkish superstitions ! Hochstraten lost 
 his temper, he gave vent to his indigna- 
 tion, and loudly demanded the death of 
 the heretic. He would have had re- 
 course to the stake to secure the triumph 
 of Rome. " It is high treason against 
 the Church," exclaimed he, " to suffer so 
 horrid a heretic to live an hour longer. 
 Away with, him at once to the scaffold I" 
 This sanguinary counsel was but too well 
 followed in many countries, and the 
 voices of many martyrs, as in the earlier 
 ages of the Church, gave testimony to 
 the truth from the midst of the flames. 
 Rut in vain were fire and sword invoked 
 against Luther. The angel of the Lord 
 encamped around him, and defended him. 
 Luther answered Hochstraten in few 
 
 words, but with much vigour: "Out 
 upon thee," said he, at the close of his 
 reply, " thou senseless murderer, thirsting 
 for the blood of thy brethren ! I sin- 
 cerely desire that thou shouldst not call 
 me Christian and faithful ; but that thou 
 shouldst continue, on the contrary, to de- 
 cry me as an heretic. Understand me, 
 thou blood-thirsty man! enemy to the 
 truth ! and if thy rage prompt thee to at- 
 tempt my life, take care to act circum- 
 spectly, and to choose thy time well: 
 God knows what is my purpose if my 
 life should be spared . . . My hope and 
 expectation, God willing, shall not be dis- 
 appointed."* Hochstraten made no reply. 
 
 An attack more trying to his feelings, 
 awaited the Reformer. Doctor Eck, the 
 celebrated professor of Ingolstadt, the de- 
 liverer of Urban Regius, the friend of 
 Luther, had received the famous theses. 
 Eck was not a man to defend the abuses 
 of the indulgences ; but he was a doctor 
 of the School, not of the Bible, — well 
 versed in the scholastic divinity, but not 
 in the word of God. If Prierias had rep- 
 resented Rome, and Hochstraten the 
 monks, the new combatant represented 
 the schools. The scholastic philosophy, 
 which for almost five centuries held 
 sway over Christendom, far from yield- 
 ing to the earliest efforts of the Reform- 
 er, arose in its pride to crush the man 
 who dared to treat it with contempt 
 Eck and Luther, Luther and the Schools, 
 were often afterwards arrayed one against 
 the other. But it was now the contest 
 opened. 
 
 It could hardly happen but that Eck 
 should consider many of Luther's asser- 
 tions erroneous. We have no reason to 
 doubt the sincerity of his convictions. 
 He was enthusiastic in defence of the 
 scholastic opinions, whilst Luther was 
 an equally enthusiastic adherent of the 
 word of God. We may even imagine 
 that Eck felt some concern at the neces- 
 sity of opposing his old friend : and yet 
 it appears, from the manner in which he 
 assailed him, that passion and jealousy 
 had some share in his motives. 
 
 It was under the title of Obelisks that 
 he wrote his remarks on the theses of 
 Luther. Desiring at first to keep up ap- 
 pearances, he did not publish his work, 
 but contented himself with communica- 
 * L. Opp. Leips. xvii. p. 140. 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 141 
 
 ting it in confidence to his ordinary, the 
 Bishop of Eichstadt. But the Obelisks 
 were soon widely dispersed, either 
 through the indiscretion of the Bishop, 
 or by the Doctor's own act. One copy 
 fell into the hands of Link, a preacher at 
 Nuremberg, and a friend of Luther ; by 
 him it was communicated to Luther him- 
 self. Eck was a very different adversa- 
 ry from either Tetzel, Prierias, or Hoch- 
 straten : the more his work excelled theirs 
 in learning and subtlety, the more inju- 
 rious was likely to be its effect. He 
 spoke of" his feeble adversary" in a tone 
 of compassion, well knowing that pity is 
 more disparaging than anger. He in- 
 sinuated that Luther's propositions were 
 spreading the Bohemian poison, that they 
 savoured of Bohemia, and by these ma- 
 lignant references, drew upon Luther the 
 odium attaching in Germany to the name 
 of Huss and the Bohemian schismatics. 
 The malice that was discernible in 
 this writing roused Luther's indignation. 
 But he was still more grieved at the 
 thought that the blow came from an old 
 friend. " It was then," thought he, " at the 
 cost of the affection of his friends, that truth 
 must be defended." Luther unbosomed 
 the sadness of his heart, in a letter to 
 Egranus, pastor at Zwickau. " In these 
 Obelisks," said he, " I am called a ' pes- 
 tilent man,' ' a Bohemian,' ' an heretic,' 
 and reproached as ' seditious,' ' insolent,' 
 and ' rash.' I overlook minor reproaches, 
 such as ' dull,' ' stupid,' ' ignorant,' ' de- 
 spiser of the sovereign pontiff,' &c. 
 Throughout there are nothing but insults, 
 and yet he who has written them is a 
 distinguished man, in whom genius and 
 learning are blended; moreover, one 
 who was united to me by a great intimacy, 
 recently contracted.* His name is John 
 Eck, doctor of divinity, chancellor of In- 
 golstadt, &c, a man well known and 
 highly esteemed for his writings. If I did 
 not know the design of Satan, I should 
 wonder at the rage which has prompted 
 Eck to violate a friendship so delightful, 
 and so recent besides,! and that without 
 giving me one word of notice." 
 
 But if Luther's heart was wounded, his 
 
 * Et quod magis urit, antea mihi magna, re- 
 centerque contracts, amicitia conjunctus. — (L. 
 Epp. i. p. 100.) 
 
 t Quo furore ille amicitias recentissimas et 
 jucundissimas solveret. — (L. Epp. i. p. 100.) 
 
 courage was not abated. On the con- 
 trary, he caught fresh fire for the dispute. 
 " Rejoice, brother," he said to Egranus 
 who had likewise been attacked by a 
 violent adversary, " rejoice, and let not 
 these paper missiles terrify you ! The 
 more furious my adversaries, the more I 
 advance. I leave the things that are be- 
 hind, for them to bark at, and I stretch 
 forward to those that are before, that 
 they may bark at those also in their 
 turn." 
 
 Eck felt how disgraceful his conduct 
 had been, and endeavoured to justify 
 himself in a letter to Carlstadt. In it 
 he termed Luther " their common friend." 
 He threw all the blame on the Bishop 
 of Eichstadt, at whose solicitation he de- 
 clared he had written his work. He 
 had not intended to publish the Obelisks, 
 he said ; if it had been otherwise he 
 would have manifested more regard for 
 the ties of friendship, by which he was- 
 united to Luther. Finally, he intimated, 
 a wish that, instead of engaging in a 
 public controversy with him, Luther 
 should turn his arms against the divines 
 of Frankfort. The professor of Ingol- 
 stadt, who had not feared to strike the 
 first blow, began to quail when he con- 
 sidered the strength of the adversary he 
 had had the imprudence to attack. He 
 would willingly have avoided the con- 
 test. But it was now too late. 
 
 All these fine speeches did not satisfy 
 Luther ; however, he wished to remain 
 silent. " I will swallow patiently," he 
 said,, " this morsel, worthy of Cerberus."* 
 But his friends were of a different opin- 
 ion. They importuned him and obliged 
 him to comply. He therefore answered 
 Eck's Obelisks by his Asterisks, or Stars; 
 " opposing," as he said, " the light and 
 dazzling brightness of the stars of heav- 
 en, to the rust and livid hue of the 
 Obelisks of the doctor of Ingolstadt." In 
 this work he treated his new adversary 
 ■with less harshness than he had used 
 towards his former opponents; but his 
 suppressed indignation at times broke 
 forth in his words. 
 
 He proved that in all that chaos of 
 Obelisks there was nothing of the Scrip- 
 tures, nothing of the Fathers of the 
 Church, nothing of the ecclesiastical 
 
 * Volui tamen hanc ofFam Cerbero dignam 
 | absorbere patientia. — (L. Epp. i. p. 100.) 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 canons; but throughout, nothing but 
 glosses of the schools ; opinions, mere 
 opinions, and dreams ;* in a word, all 
 those very things that Luther had at- 
 tacked. The Asterisks are full of life 
 and energy. The author is indignant 
 at the errors in his friend's book, but he 
 pities the man.f He again asserts the 
 fundamental principle that he had main- 
 tained in his answer to Prierias : " The 
 sovereign pontiff is a man, and may be 
 led into error; but God is truth itself, and 
 cannot erf."| And afterwards, using an 
 argument, ' ad homincm] against the 
 scholastic doctor ; " It is certainly an act 
 of audacity," says he, " for any one to 
 teach as the philosophy of Aristotle, 
 what he cannot prove on Aristotle's 
 authority. — You allow this. — Well, with 
 much greater reason is it the height of 
 audacity, to affirm in the Church, and 
 amongst Christians, what Christ himself 
 has not taught. § Now where do we 
 find in the Bible, that the treasure of 
 Christ's merits is confided to the Pope ?" 
 
 Lastly, he adds : " As to the malicious 
 reproach of Bohemian heresy, I bear 
 this accusation patiently, for Christ's sake. 
 I live in a celebrated university, a city 
 of note, a considerable bishoprick, a 
 powerful duchy, where all are orthodox, 
 and where, undoubtedly, they would not 
 tolerate so wicked a heretic." 
 
 Luther did not publish the Asterisks, 
 he only communicated them to his 
 friends; it was not till afterwards that 
 they were given to the public. || 
 
 This rupture between the doctor of 
 Ingolstadt and the doctor of Wittemberg 
 caused a great sensation in Germany. 
 They had common friends. Scheurl, . 
 especially, took alarm. It was through , 
 him that the two doctors had become ac- 
 quainted. He was one of those who 
 wished to see a Reformation take place 
 in the universal Germanic church, and 
 
 * Omnia scholasticissima, opinisissima, mera- 
 que somnia.— (Ast Opp. L. lat. i. 145.) 
 
 t Indignor rei et misereor hominis.— ( Ast. Opp. 
 L. lat. i. 150.) 
 
 t Homo est sumnras Pontifex, falli potest. 
 Sed Veritas est Deus, qui falli non potest.— (Ibid. 
 155.) 
 
 § Longe ergo impudentissima omnium teme- 
 ritas est, aliquid in ecclesia asserere, et inter 
 
 christianos. quod non docuit Christus 'Ast Odd 
 
 L. lat i. 156.) v "^ 
 
 || Cum privatim dedenm Astericos meos, fit ei 
 respondendi necessitas. — (L. Epp. p. 126.) 
 
 by the agency of its most distinguished 
 members. But if, at the outset, the most 
 eminent theologians were to fall to quar- 
 reling ; if, whilst Luther was advancing 
 new opinions, Eck stood up as the rep- 
 resentative of the old, what confusion 
 was to be apprehended? Would not 
 numerous adherents flock around each 
 chief, and form two hostile camps in the 
 bosom of the empire ? 
 
 On these accounts Scheurl endeavoured 
 to reconcile Eck and Luther. The lat- 
 ter declared himself ready to forget 
 everything; that he loved Eck's talents ;* 
 that he admired his learning ; and that 
 he felt more grief than anger at his old 
 friend's conduct. " I am prepared," said 
 he to Scheurl, " either for peace or war ; 
 but I prefer peace. Help us, then, by 
 your good offices ; grieve with us that 
 the deyil has kindled this beginning of 
 discord among us ; and afterwards rejoice 
 that Christ in his mercy has extinguished 
 it." He wrote affectionately to Eck, but 
 the latter returned no answer. f He did 
 not even send him any message. The 
 time for a reconciliation was past. The 
 breach grew wider and wider. The 
 pride of Eck and his implacable spirit 
 soon broke the last ties of their declining 
 friendship. 
 
 Such were the struggles which the 
 champion of God's word had to main- 
 tain in the beginning of his career. But, 
 in the estimation of a Christian, those 
 combats are of small account, that are to 
 be waged in the high places of this 
 world, or in the arena of the schools. 
 Human teachers imagine that they have 
 obtained a splendid triumph if some 
 literary circles are filled with the fame 
 of their systems. As their desire is 
 rather to gratify their self-love, or to 
 please a party, than to benefit mankind, 
 this brilliant worldly success suffices 
 them. Thus, their labours may be com- 
 pared to smoke, which, after blinding 
 the eyes, passes away without leavino- 
 any vestige behind. Neglecting to de- 
 posit their principles in the masses, they 
 do little more than skim the surface of 
 society. 
 
 * Diligimus hominis ingenium et admiramur 
 eruditionem. — (L. Epp. ad Scheurlum, 15 Jun. 
 1518, i. p. 125.) 
 
 t Nihil neque literarum neque verboram me 
 participem fecit. — (L. Epp. ad Scheurlum, 15 
 Jun. 1518, i. p. 125.) 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 143 
 
 Not so the Christian ; his aim is neither 
 a name in society, nor academical hon- 
 ours ; hut the salvation of souls. He 
 willingly foregoes the intellectual rivalry 
 in which he might engage at his ease, 
 with the disputers of this world, — and 
 prefers the secret labours which carry 
 light and life into the sequestered dwell- 
 ings of the poor. This did Luther ; or 
 rather, following his Master's precept, 
 " He did this, and left no other things 
 undone." While combating inquisitors, 
 chancellors of universities, and masters 
 of the palace, he laboured to diffuse 
 sound religious knowledge among the 
 multitude. With this view, he about 
 the same time published several popular 
 tracts, such as his sermons on the Ten 
 Commandments, preached two years pre- 
 viously in the church of Wittemberg, 
 and which have already been mentioned, 
 and also his explanation of the Lord's 
 Prayer, for the simple and unlearned 
 laity. Who would not desire to know 
 what the Reformer then addressed to the 
 people ?* We will cite, therefore, some 
 of the words which he put forth to " run 
 through the land," as he says in the pref- 
 ace to the last mentioned work. 
 
 Prayer, that interior act of the heart, 
 will undoubtedly be ever one of the 
 points with which a true and vital refor- 
 mation will commence ; Lumer's thought 
 was turned to this solemn subject. It is 
 not possible to transfuse his energetic 
 'style and the vigour of his language, 
 which was in course of formation, so to 
 speak, under his pen, as he composed. 
 We will however make some attempt. 
 
 " When thou prayest," said he, " let 
 thv words be few, but thy thoughts and 
 feelings many and deep. The less thou 
 speakest, the better thy prayers. Few 
 words and much thought is a Christian 
 frame. Many words and little thought 
 is heathenish." 
 
 " The prayer that is external and of 
 the body is that mumbling of the lips, 
 that outward babble, gone through with- 
 out attention, and heard and seen of 
 men ; but prayer in spirit and in truth 
 is the inward desire, the motions and 
 sighs that proceed from the depth of the 
 heart. The former is the prayer of hyp- 
 ocrites, and of those who trust in them- 
 
 * L. Opp. Leips. vii. p. 1086.) 
 
 selves. The latter is the prayer of God's 
 children who walk in his fear." 
 
 Passing on to the opening words of 
 the Lord's Prayer, he thus expresses 
 himself : — Our Father. " Of all names 
 there is not one which more inclines us 
 towards God than the name of Father. 
 We should feel less love, and derive less 
 consolation, from addressing him as Lord, 
 or God, or Judge. By that word Father, 
 his bowels of compassion are moved : 
 for there is no sound more sweet or pre- 
 vailing with a father than the voice of 
 his child." 
 
 He continues, and on the words, u who 
 art in heare/i" he says : " Whosoever 
 professes that he has a father in heaven, 
 acknowledges himself to be a stranger 
 upon earth ; — hence there is in his heart 
 an ardent longing, like that of a child 
 that is living among strangers in want 
 and grief, afar from its father-land. It 
 is as if he said, Alas ! my father, thou 
 art in heaven, and I, thy suffering child, 
 am on earth, far from thee, encompassed 
 with dangers, wants, and mourning." 
 
 " Hallowed be thy name.'''' — u He who 
 is passionate, abusive, envious, and slan- 
 derous, dishonours the name of God in 
 which he has been baptized. Profaning 
 to impious uses a vessel that God has 
 consecrated to himself, he is like a priest 
 who should take the holy cup and give 
 drink to swine, or gather dung into it." 
 
 " Thy kingdom come.'''' — " Those who 
 amass property and build magnificent 
 mansions, who strive after what the 
 world can give, and utter this prayer 
 with their lips, resemble those huge 
 organ pipes which incessantly sing with 
 all their power in the churches, without 
 speech, feeling, or reason." 
 
 Further on, Luther attacks the error of 
 pilgrimages, which was then so preva- 
 lent : " One goes to Rome, another to 
 St. James, a third builds a chapel, and a 
 fourth endows religious houses, in order 
 to attain to the kingdom of God ; but all 
 neglect the one thing needful, which is, 
 to become themselves his kingdom ! 
 Why seek the kingdom of God beyond 
 the seas I It is in thy heart it should 
 arise." 
 
 " It is an awful thing," he continues, 
 " to hear us offer this petition,' ' Thy will 
 be done.' Where in the church do we 
 see this ' will of God V One bishop 
 
144 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 rises against another bishop ; one church 
 against another church. Priests, monks, 
 and nuns quarrel, and thwart, and wage 
 war with each other, and every where 
 discord prevails. And yet each party 
 declares that there is good will and 
 upright intention ; and so, to the honour 
 and glory of God, they altogether do the 
 devil's work. . . ." 
 
 " Why do we use the words, ' our 
 bread V " he continues, expounding these 
 words, ' Give us this day our daily bread? 
 " Because we do not pray for the com- 
 mon bread that heathens partake, and 
 which God gives to all men, — but for 
 'our 1 bread, the bread of those who are 
 'children' of the heavenly Father." 
 
 " And what then is this bread of God ? 
 It is Jesus Christ our Lord. ' I am the 
 bread of life which came down from 
 heaven, and giveth life to the world.' 
 Therefore let no one be deluded : what- 
 ever sermons and instructions do not 
 exhibit and make known Jesus Christ, 
 cannot be the daily bread and nourish- 
 ment of souls." 
 
 " Of what use is it that such bread has 
 been provided, if it is not served up, and 
 so we are unable to partake of it ? It is 
 as if a noble feast were prepared, and 
 none were ready to distribute the bread, 
 to place the meat on table, or fill the 
 cups, and so the guests should be reduced 
 to feed on the mere sight and smell. 
 Therefore we must preach Christ alone. 
 
 " But, say you, what is it to know 
 Christ ? and what good will come of it ? 
 I answer ; to learn and know Christ, is 
 to understand what the Apostle declares, 
 namely : that ' Christ is made unto us 
 of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctifi- 
 cation, and redemption.' Now you 
 understand that, if you acknowledge all 
 your wisdom mere blameworthy foolish- 
 ness, your righteousness a criminal ini- 
 quity, your holiness a guilty pollution, 
 your redemption a miserable sentence of 
 condemnation ; if you 'feel that you are 
 truly, before God. and before all crea- 
 tures, a fool, a sinner, an impure and 
 condemned man ; if you manifest, not 
 by word alone, but from the bottom of 
 your heart, and by your works, — that 
 there is neiftier salvation nor comfort for 
 you, save only in Christ. To believe is 
 nothing else than feeding on this bread 
 from heaven. 11 
 
 Thus Luther faithfully adhered to his 
 resolution to open the eyes of a blinded 
 people, whom the priests were leading 
 at their pleasure. His writings rapidly 
 dispersed throughout Germany, called up 
 a new light, and shed abundantly the 
 seed of truth on a soil well prepared for 
 it. But, while attending to those who 
 were at a distance, he did not forget 
 those who were nigh at hand. 
 
 The Dominicans, from their pulpit, 
 anathematized the infamous heretic. Lu- 
 ther, — the man of the people, and who, 
 if he had desired it, could, by a few 
 words, have called up the popular fury 
 against them, — disdained such triumphs, 
 and thought only of instructing his 
 hearers. 
 
 And he did so. His reputation, which 
 spread more and more widely, and the 
 boldness with which he lifted the ban- 
 ner of Christ in the midst of an enslaved 
 Church, increased the eager attendance 
 on his preaching at Wittemberg. The 
 crowd of hearers was more considerable 
 than ever. Luther went straight to his 
 mark. One day, having ascended the 
 pulpit, he undertook to prove the doc- 
 trine of repentance, and on this occasion, 
 he pronounced a discourse which became 
 afterwards very celebrated, and in which 
 he laid down some of the grounds of the 
 evangelical doctrine. 
 
 He first contrasted man's pardon with 
 God's pardon. " There are," said he, 
 " two kinds of remission : the remission 
 of the penalty, and the remission of the 
 sin. The first reconciles outwardly the 
 offender with the Church. The second, 
 which is the heavenly grace, reconciles 
 the offender with God. If a man does 
 not find in himself that peace of con- 
 science, that joy of heart which springs 
 from God's remission of sin, there is no 
 indulgence that can help him, though 
 he should buy all that had ever been 
 offered upon earth." 
 
 He continues : " They wish to do good 
 works before their sins are forgiven them, 
 — whilst it is indispensable that our sins 
 be pardoned before good works can be 
 done. It is not works which banish 
 sin ; but drive out sin ana you will have 
 works.* For good works must be done 
 
 * Nicht die Werke treiben die Sunde aus ; 
 Bondem die Austreibung der Sunde thut gute 
 Werke.— (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 162.) 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 145 
 
 with a joyful heart, and a good con- 
 science toward God, that is, with remis- 
 sion of sins." 
 
 He then comes to the chief object of 
 this sermon, . which was also the great 
 end of the whole Reformation. The 
 Church had put itself in the place of 
 God and his word ; he rejects her 
 assumption, and shews everything to 
 depend on faith in God's word. 
 
 u The remission of the sin is out of 
 the power of pope, bishop, priest, or any 
 man living ; and rests solely on the 
 word of Christ, and on thine own faith. 
 For Christ did not design that our com- 
 fort, our hope, and our salvation, should 
 be built on a word or work of man, but 
 solely on himself, on his work, and on 
 his word. . . . Thy repentance and thy 
 works may deceive thee ;' but Christ, 
 thy God, will not deceive thee, nor will 
 he falter, and the devil shall not over- 
 throw his words."* 
 
 " A popte or a bishop has no more 
 power to remit sin than the humblest 
 priest. And even, without any priest, 
 every christian, even though a woman 
 or a child, can do the same.f For if a 
 simple believer say to thee, ' God pardon 
 thy sin in the name of Jesus Christ,' — 
 and thou receive that word with firm 
 faith, and as though God himself spake 
 it to thee, — thou art absolved." 
 
 " If thou dost not believe that thy sins 
 are forgiven thee, thou makest thy God 
 a liar, and shewest thyself to hold more 
 to thy vain thoughts than to God and 
 his word." 
 
 u Under the Old Testament, neither 
 priest, nor king, nor prophet, had author- 
 ity to declare remission of sins. But 
 under the New, every believer has this 
 power. The Church is 'full of remission 
 of sins ! J If a devoted christian should 
 comfort thy conscience by the word of 
 the cross, whether that christian be a 
 man or woman, young or old, receive 
 that comfort with such faith as to endure 
 death a hundred times, rather than doubt 
 that God has ratified it. Repent : do 
 all the works thou canst ; but let faith 
 
 * Christns deia Gott wird dir nicht li'igen, 
 noch wanken. — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 162.) 
 
 t Ob es schon ein Weib oder ein Kind ware. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 t Also siehst du dass die ganze Kirche voll von 
 Vergebung der Siindenist. — (Ibid.) 
 
 19 
 
 in pardon through Christ, hold the first 
 rank, and command the whole field of 
 your warfare."* 
 
 Thus spake Luther to his surprised 
 and delighted hearers. All the super- 
 structures which presumptuous priests 
 had raised for their own gain between 
 God and the soul of man were thrown 
 down, and man brought face to face with 
 his God. The word of forgiveness now 
 descended pure from on high without 
 passing through a thousand corrupting 
 channels. That the witness of God 
 should be received, it was no lono-er 
 necessary that men should attach to it 
 their delusive seal. The monopoly of 
 the priestly caste was abolished ; the 
 Church was delivered from her thraldom. 
 
 Meanwhile it was become needful 
 that the flame that had been lighted up 
 in Wittemberg should be kindled else- 
 where Luther, not satisfied with proclaim- 
 ing the truth of the Gospel in the place 
 of his own abode, as well to the students 
 as to the people, was desirous to scatter 
 in other places the seeds of sound doc- 
 trine. In the spring of 1518 the order 
 of the Augustines held its chapter general 
 at Heidelberg. Luther was summoned 
 thither as one of the most distinguished 
 men of his order. His friends made every 
 effort to dissuade him from undertaking 
 this journey. In truth, the monks had 
 laboured to make the name of Luther 
 hated in all the places he would have to 
 pass through. To insult they added 
 threats. A little matter would suffice to 
 raise a tumult on his journey, in which 
 he might fall a victim. " Or else," said 
 his friends, " what they dare not do by 
 violence, they will accomplish by treach- 
 ery and fraud."f But Luther never 
 allowed himself to be stopped short in 
 the performance of a duty by fear of 
 danger however imminent. Accordingly, 
 he was deaf to the timid suggestions of 
 his friends : he plainly shewed in whom 
 he put his trust, and under whose pro- 
 tection he was resolved to undertake this 
 dreadful journey. Then the festival of 
 Easter being terminated, he quietly set 
 out on foot,! the 13th April, 1518. 
 
 He took with him a guide, named 
 Urban, who carried his little baggage, 
 
 * Und Hauptmann im Felde bleibe. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t L. Epp. i. p. 98. 
 
 I Pedester veniam. — (Ibid.) 
 
146 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 and was to accompany him as far as 
 Wurtzburg. What thoughts must have 
 crowded the heart of this servant of the 
 Lord, during his journey ! At Weis- 
 senfels, the pastor, who had no previous 
 knowledge of him, recognised him im- 
 mediately as the Doctor of Wittemberg, 
 and received him cordially.* AtErfurth, 
 two other brethren of the order of the 
 Augustines joined company with him. 
 At Judenbach, the three travellers met 
 Degenhard Pfeffinger, the confidential 
 adviser of the Elector, and were enter- 
 tained by him at the inn. " I had the 
 pleasure," writes Luther to Spalatin, " of 
 making the rich lord poorer by some 
 groscken ; you know how I love on all 
 occasions to levy contributions on the 
 rich for the advantage of the poor ; 
 especially when the rich are friends* of 
 mine."f He reached Coburg overcome 
 with fatigue. " All goes well, by God's 
 favour," wrote he, " unless it be that I 
 must acknowledge myself to have sinned 
 in undertaking this journey on foot. But 
 for that sin I think I have no need of any 
 indulgence, for my contrition is perfect, 
 and the satisfaction plenary. I am ex- 
 hausted with fatigue, and all the con- 
 veyances are full. Is not this enough, 
 and more than enough, of penance, con- 
 trition, and satisfaction ?"| 
 
 The Reformer of Germany, not find- 
 ing room in the public conveyances, nor 
 any one willing to give up his place to 
 him, was obliged, on the following morn- 
 ing, notwithstanding his weariness, to 
 set out again from Coburg, on foot. He 
 arrived at Wurtzburg the second Sunday 
 after Easter, towards evening. From 
 thence he sent back his guide. 
 
 It was in this town that the Bishop of 
 Bibra resided, who had received his 
 theses with so much approbation. Luther 
 was the bearer of a letter to him from 
 the Elector of Saxony. The Bishop, 
 delighted with the opportunity thus 
 offered of becoming personally acquaint- 
 ed with this courageous champion of 
 the truth, immediately invited him to the 
 episcopal palace. He himself went to 
 meet him, addressed him very affection- 
 ately, and offered to procure him a guide 
 as far as Heidelberg. But Luther had 
 met at Wurtzburg his two friends, the 
 
 * L. Epp. i. p. 105. t L. Epp. i. p. 104. 
 X Ibid. 106. 
 
 Vicar-general Staupitz, and Lange, the 
 Prior of Erfurth, and had been offered 
 a seat in their carriage. He therefore 
 thanked Bibra for his proffered kind- 
 ness, and the next day the three friends 
 set out from Wurtzburg. They travelled 
 in this manner for three days, conversing 
 together. On the 21st of April they 
 reached Heidelberg. Luther alighted at 
 the convent of the Augustines. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony had given him 
 a letter for the Count Palatine Wolf- 
 gang, Duke of Bavaria. Luther re- 
 paired to his magnificent castle, the 
 delightful situation of which is even at 
 this day the admiration of strangers. 
 The monk, a native of the plains of 
 Saxony, had a heart capable of admir- 
 ing the picturesque situation of Heidel- 
 berg, commanding the two beautifnl 
 valleys of the Rhine and the Necker. 
 He delivered his letter of recommenda- 
 tion to John Simler, the steward of the 
 household. The latter, on -reading it, 
 observed : " Truly, you have a valuable 
 letter of credit here."* The Count Pala- 
 tine received Luther very graciously. 
 He invited him repeatedly to his table, 
 together with Lange and Staupitz. It 
 was a great comfort to Luther to meet 
 with so friendly a reception. " We were 
 very happy together," says he, " and 
 amused each other with agreeable and 
 pleasant conversation, taking our repast, 
 examining the beauties of the Palatine 
 palace, admiring the ornaments, the 
 armoury, cuirasses, and every thing 
 remarkable that this celebrated and 
 truly royal castle contains."! 
 
 But Luther had another task to per- 
 form. He must work while it was yet 
 day. Called for a time to a university 
 which exercised an extensive influence 
 over the west and south of Germany, he 
 was there to strike a blow which should 
 put in movement the churches of those 
 countries. He began therefore to write 
 some theses, which he proposed to main- 
 tain in a public disputation. Such dis- 
 putations were not unusual ; but Luther 
 felt that, to make this useful, it must be 
 of a striking character. His natural 
 disposition, moreover, prompted him to 
 present truth in a paradoxical form 
 
 * Ihr habt, bei Gott, einen kostlichen Cre- 
 denz. — (L. Epp. 1. ii.) 
 t L. Epp. 1. iii. 
 
THE INDULGENCES, AND THE THESES. 
 
 147 
 
 The professors of the university would 
 not suffer the disputation to take place 
 in their great hall. A room was, there- 
 fore, engaged in the convent of the Au- 
 gustines, and the 26th of April was fixed 
 for the discussion. 
 
 Heidelberg at a later period received 
 the evangelical doctrine. One who was 
 present at the conference in the convent 
 of the Augustines might have then fore- 
 seen, that that conference would one day- 
 bear fruit. 
 
 The reputation of Luther attracted a 
 numerous auditory, — professors, courtiers, 
 burghers, students, came in crowds. The 
 following are some of the Doctor's " para- 
 doxes," for by that name he designated 
 his theses. Even in our day, perhaps, 
 some might give them no better name ; 
 yet it would be easy to render them in 
 propositions obvious to common sense. 
 
 " 1. The law of God is a salutary 
 rule of life ; and yet it cannot help man 
 in the obtaining of righteousness ; but 
 on the contrary impedes him." 
 
 " 3. Works of men, let them be as 
 fair and good as they may, are yet evi- 
 dently nothing but mortal sins." 
 
 " 4. Works that are of God, however 
 unsightly and evil in appearance, have 
 yet an endless efficacy." 
 
 " 7. The works of the righteous them- 
 selves would be mortal sins, — if, from a 
 holy reverence of the Lord, they did not 
 fear that their works might indeed be 
 mortal sins."* 
 
 "9. To say that works done out of 
 Christ are truly dead works, — but not 
 mortal sins, — is a dangerous forgetful- 
 ness of the fear of God." 
 
 " 13. Free will, since the fall of man, 
 is but an empty word ; and if man does 
 all he can, he still sins mortally." 
 
 "16. A man who dreams he can 
 attain to grace by doing all that is in his 
 power, adds sin to sin, — and is doubly 
 guilty." 
 
 " 18. It is certain that man must 
 altogether despair of his own ability, if 
 he would be made capable of receiving 
 the grace of Christ." 
 
 " 21. A theologian of this world calls 
 good — evil, and evil — good ; but a 
 
 * Justorum opera essent mortalia, nisi pio Dei 
 timore ab ipsismet justis ut mortalia timerentur. 
 — (L. Opp. lat. i. 55.) 
 
 teacher of the cross is a teacher of 
 truth." 
 
 " 22. The wisdom which applies itself 
 to learn the invisible perfections of God 
 from his works, puffs up, blinds, and 
 hardens men." 
 
 " 23. The law calls forth God's anger : 
 slays, accurses, judges, and condemns 
 whatsoever is not in Christ."* 
 
 " 24. Yet this wisdom ($ 22,) is not 
 an evil ; and the law (§ 23,) is not to be 
 rejected ; but he who learns not the wis- 
 dom of God under the Cross, turns to 
 evil whatever is good." 
 
 " 25. That man is not justified who 
 does many works ; but he who, with- 
 out having yet done works, has much 
 faith in Christ." 
 
 " 26. The law says, < Do this,' and 
 what it enjoins is never done ; Grace 
 says, ' Believe in him,' and immediately 
 all is perfected."! 
 
 " 28. The love of God finds nothing 
 in man, but creates in him what he loves. 
 Man's love is the gift of his well be- 
 loved."} 
 
 Five Doctors of Divinity attacked 
 these theses. They had read them with 
 the surprise that their novelty excited. 
 Such theology seemed to them extrava- 
 gant. They, however, entered on the 
 discussion, as Luther tells us, with a 
 courtesy which inspired him with much 
 esteem for them ; yet with great ear- 
 nestness and discernment. Luther, on 
 his part, manifested unusual mildness in 
 his mode of reply, unrivalled patience in 
 listening to the objections of his oppo- 
 nents, and all the quickness of St. Paul 
 in solving the difficulties opposed to him. 
 His answers, — short but full of the word 
 of God, — astonished his hearers. " He 
 is exactly like Erasmus," said many, 
 " except that he surpasses him in one 
 thing ; — that is, he openly professes 
 what Erasmus was satisfied with insinu- 
 ating."§ 
 
 * Lex iram Dei operatur, occidit, maledicit, 
 reum facit, judicat, damnat, quicquid non est in 
 Christo.— (Ibid.) 
 
 t Lex dicit : Fac ! et nunquam fit. Gratia 
 dicit : Crede in hunc, et jam facta sunt omnia 
 — (L. Opp. lat. i. 55.) 
 
 X Amor Dei non invenit sed creat suum dili- 
 gibile ; amor hominis fit a suo diligibili. 
 
 § Bucer in Schultetet. — Annal. Evang. reno- 
 vat. p. 22. 
 
148 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The disputation was drawing near to 
 its close. The adversaries of Luther 
 had, at least, retreated with honour from 
 the field ; the youngest of them, Doctor 
 George Niger, alone continued the con- 
 test with the powerful disputant ; alarmed 
 at the hold propositions of the Augustine 
 monk, and not knowing what argument 
 to have recourse to, he exclaimed, with 
 an accent of fear, " If our peasantry heard 
 such things, they would stone you to 
 death."* At these words a general 
 laugh went round the assembly. 
 
 Yet never did an auditory listen with 
 more attention to a theological discussion. 
 The first words of the Reformer had 
 aroused men's minds. -Questions, which, 
 but a little while before, would have met 
 only with indifference, were at that hour, 
 teeming with interest. An observer 
 might have read in the countenances of 
 those present the new ideas which the 
 bold assertions of the Saxon Doctor 
 awakened in their minds. 
 
 Three youths especially were much 
 affected. One of them, by name Martin 
 Bucer, was a Dominican, of twenty-seven 
 years of age, who, in spite of the preju- 
 dices of his order, seemed unwilling to 
 lose a word of the Doctor's remarks. A 
 native of a small town in Alsace, he had, 
 in his sixteenth year, entered a convent. 
 He soon shewed such capacity, that the 
 more enlightened of the monks formed 
 high expectations of him.f u He will, 
 one day," said they, " be an honour to 
 our order." His superiors accordingly 
 sent him to Heidelberg, that he might 
 apply himself to the study of philosophy, 
 theology, Greek, and Hebrew. At that 
 period, Erasmus published several of his 
 writings. Martin Bucer read them with 
 avidity. 
 
 Shortly after this, the first published 
 writings of Luther appeared. The stu- 
 dent of Alsace hastened to compare the 
 doctrines of the Reformer with the Holy 
 Scriptures. Some misgivings as to the 
 truth of Popery were then awakened in 
 his mind. | It was in this way that light 
 
 * Si rustici haec audirent, certe lapidibus vos 
 obruerent et interficerent. — (L. Epp. i. p. 111.) 
 
 t Prudentioribus monachis spem de se prsecla- 
 ram excitavit. — (Melch. Adam. Vit. Buceri, p. 
 211.) 
 
 t Cum doctrinam in eis traditam cum sacris 
 Uteris contulisset, quaedam in pontificia religione 
 suspecta habere coepit. — (Ibid.) 
 
 was spread in those days. The Elector 
 Palatine took notice of the young man. 
 His powerful and sonorous voice and 
 agreeable manners, his eloquence, and 
 the freedom with which he attacked the 
 prevailing vices, made his preaching 
 remarkable. Appointed chaplain to the 
 Elector, he was fulfilling the functions 
 of his office, when he heard of Luther's 
 visit to Heidelberg. How great was his 
 joy ! He was among the first to repair 
 to the hall of the convent of the Augus- 
 tines. He had with him paper, pens, 
 and ink, intending to take notes. But 
 whilst his hand rapidly traced the words 
 of Luther, the hand of God wrote in im- 
 perishable characters on his heart the 
 great truths he heard. The first gleams 
 of the doctrine of grace diffused them- 
 selves in his soul in the course of that 
 memorable hour.* The Dominican was 
 won to Christ. 
 
 Not far from Bucer sate John Brentz, 
 or Brentius, then nineteen years of age. 
 Brentz, son of a magistrate of a town in 
 Suabia, had been entered student at 
 Heidelberg in his thirteenth year. His 
 application was unequalled. He rose at 
 midnight for study. This custom had 
 become so confirmed, that in after life he 
 could never sleep after that hour. But 
 at a later period he devoted the stillness 
 of these seasons to mediation on the Scrip- 
 tures. Brentz was one of the first to 
 discern the new light then appearing in 
 Germany. He hailed it with a soul 
 overflowing with love.f He eagerly 
 perused the writings of Luther. But 
 how was he rejoiced at the opportunity 
 of hearing him at Heidelberg ! One X)f 
 the Doctor's propositions especially struck 
 young Brentz. It was this : u That 
 man is not justified in the sight of God 
 who does many works ; but he who, 
 without having yet done works, has 
 much faith in Christ." 
 
 A pious woman of Heilbronn, on the 
 Necker, the wife of one of the council 
 of that town, named Snepf, following the 
 example of Hannah, had dedicated her 
 first-born son to the Lord, in the fervent 
 desire to see him devote himself to the 
 
 * Primam lucem purioris sentential de justifica- 
 tione in suo pectore sensit. — (Mclch. Adam. Vit 
 Buceri, p. 211.) 
 
 t Ingens Dei beneficium leetus Brentius agno- 
 vit, et grata mente ampiexus est. — (Ibid.) 
 
 
THE INDULGENCES. AND THE THESES. 
 
 149 
 
 study of divinity. This young man, born 
 in 1 495, made rapid progress in learning ; 
 I but either from liking, or from ambition, 
 or else in compliance with his father's 
 desire, he took to the study of jurispru- 
 dence. The pious mother grieved to see 
 her son Ehrhard pursuing a course differ- 
 ent from that to which she had conse- 
 crated him. She admonished him, ex- 
 postulated, and again and again reminded 
 him of her vow made at his birth.* At 
 length, overcome by his mother's perse- 
 verance, Ehrhard Snepf complied, and 
 he soon had such a relish for his new 
 studies, that nothing could have diverted 
 him from them. 
 
 He was very intimate with Bucer and 
 Brentz, and this friendship continued as 
 long as they lived ; " for," says one of 
 their historians, " friendships founded on 
 the love of literature and of virtue are 
 always lasting." He was present with 
 his two friends at the disputation at Heid- 
 elberg. The paradoxes and courageous 
 efforts of the Doctor of Wittemberg gave 
 a new impulse to his mind. Rejecting 
 the vain opinion of human merit, he 
 embraced the doctrine of the free justifi- 
 cation of the sinner. 
 
 The next day, Bucer went to Luther. 
 " I had," says he, " a familiar private 
 conversation with him, a most exquisite 
 repast — of no ordinary viands, but of the 
 truths which he set before me. To every 
 objection that I made, the Doctor had a 
 ready reply ; and he explained every 
 thing with the greatest clearness. Oh ! 
 would to God I had time to write you 
 more about it."f Luther was himself 
 affected with Bucer's deep emotion. " He 
 is the only brother of his order," he wrote 
 to Spalatin, " who is sincere ; he is a 
 young man of great promise. He re- 
 ceived me with simplicity, and conversed 
 very earnestly. He deserves our love 
 and confidence."! 
 
 Brentz, Snepf, and many others, moved 
 by the new truths which were beginning 
 to enlighten their minds, also visited 
 Luther ; they talked and conferred with 
 him ; they requested an explanation of 
 
 * Crebris interpellationibus cum voti quod de 
 nato ipsa facerat admoneret, et a studio juris ad 
 theologiam quasi conviciis avocaret. — (Melch. 
 Adami Snepfii Vita.) 
 
 t Gerdesius, Monument. Antip. &c. 
 
 t L. Epp. i. p. 412. 
 
 what they had not understood. The 
 Reformer, leaning on the word of God, 
 answered them. Every word that he 
 spoke imparted fresh light to their minds. 
 A new world seemed to open before 
 them. 
 
 After the departure of Luther, these 
 noble-minded men began to teach at 
 Heidelberg. It was fit that they should 
 carry on what the man of God had 
 begun, and not leave the torch that he 
 had kindled to expire. The disciple will 
 speak when the teacher is silent. Brentz, 
 young as he was, undertook to expound 
 St. Matthew's Gospel, — at first in his own 
 room — afterwards, when that apartment 
 was found too small, in the hall of Phi- 
 losophy. The theologians, envious at 
 the concourse of hearers that this young 
 man drew together, betrayed their irri- 
 tation. Brentz then took orders, and 
 transferred his lectures to the college of 
 the canons of the Holy Ghost. Thus 
 the fire, already kindled in Saxony, was 
 communicated to Heidelberg. The light 
 spread rapidly. This period has been 
 called the seed-time of the Palatinate. 
 
 But it was not the Palatinate alone 
 that reaped the fruits of that memorable 
 disputation at Heidelberg. These cour- 
 ageous friends of the truth soon became 
 shining lights in the Church. All of 
 them attained to eminent stations, and 
 took a conspicuous part in the transac- 
 tions to which the Reformation gave birth. 
 Strasburg, and afterwards England, 
 were indebted to the labours of Bucer 
 for a purer knowledge of the truth. 
 Snepf first declared it at Marburg, then 
 at Stuttgard, at Tubingen, and at Jena. 
 And Brentz, after having laboured at 
 Heidelberg, taught for a long time at 
 Halle in Suabia, and at Tubingen. We 
 shall meet with them again, as we trace 
 the course of the Reformation. 
 
 This disputation carried forward Lu- 
 ther himself. He increased from day to 
 day in the knowledge of the truth. " I 
 am one of those," said he, " who have 
 myself made progress by writing for 
 and instructing others, — not one of those 
 who, with'-iut any such training, have 
 suddenly become great and learned doc- 
 tors." 
 
 He was delighted to see the eagerness 
 with which the young students received 
 the growing truth. This it was that 
 
150 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 comforted him when he found the old 
 doctors so deeply-rooted in their opinions. 
 " I have the glorious hope," said he, 
 " that even as Christ, when rejected by 
 the Jews, turned towards the Gentiles, 
 so we shall see the rising generation 
 receive the true theology, which, these 
 old men, wedded to their vain and most 
 fantastical opinions, now obstinately re- 
 ject."* 
 
 The chapter being ended, Luther 
 proposed returning to Witttemberg. The 
 Count Palatine gave him a letter for the 
 Elector, dated the 1st of May, in which 
 he said that " the skill which Luther 
 had shewn in the disputation did great 
 honour to the university of Wittemberg." 
 He was not allowed to return on foot.f 
 The Augustines of Nuremberg con- 
 ducted him as far as Wurtzburg. 
 From thence he went to Erfurth with 
 the brethren of that city. Immediately 
 on his arrival, he paid a visit to his 
 former master, Jocodus. The old pro- 
 fessor, much grieved and scandalized at 
 the course his pupil had taken, was 
 accustomed to prefix to all Luther's prop- 
 ositions a theta, the letter which the 
 Greeks made use of to denote condem- 
 nation. :{: On several occasions he had 
 written to the young doctor in a style of 
 reproach. The latter wished to answer 
 those letters by word of mouth. Not 
 being admitted, he wrote to his master : 
 "All the university, with the exception 
 of one licentiate, think as I do. Nay, 
 more : the Prince, the Bishop, several 
 other prelates, and all the most enlight- 
 ened of our citizens, declare unanimously 
 that till now they never knew or under- 
 stood Christ and his Gospel. I am 
 willing to receive your reproofs. And 
 even should they be harsh, they will 
 appear gentle to me. Open your heart, 
 
 * L. Epp. i. p. 112. 
 
 t Veni autem curru qui ieram pedester. — (L. 
 Epp. i. p. 110.) " 
 
 t Omnibus placitis meis nigrum theta praefigit. 
 — (Ibid. p. 111.) 
 
 therefore, without fear ; express your 
 displeasure : I will not and cannot be 
 angry with you. God and my own 
 conscience are my witnesses."* 
 
 The old doctor was affected by these 
 expressions of his former pupil. He 
 wished to try whether there were no 
 means of removing the condemnatory 
 theta. They talked over the subject, 
 but to no purpose. " I made him under- 
 stand, however," says Luther, " that all 
 their dogmas were like that creature 
 which is said to devour itself. But it is 
 useless to talk to a deaf man. These 
 doctors cling to their petty distinctions, 
 though they confess that they have 
 nothing to confirm them but what they 
 call the light of natural reason, — a 
 gloomy chaos to us who proclaim the 
 one and only light, Christ Jesus, "f 
 
 Luther quitted Erfurth in the carriage 
 belonging to the convent, which took 
 him to Eisleben. From thence the 
 Augustines of the place, proud of the 
 doctor who had done such honour to their 
 order and their town, which was his 
 native place, furnished him with horses 
 to proceed to Wittemberg at their ex- 
 pense. Every one wished to show some 
 mark of affection and esteem to this 
 extraordinary man, whose fame was daily 
 increasing. 
 
 He arrived on the Saturday after As- 
 cension day. The journey had done 
 him good, and his friends thought him 
 looking stronger and in better health 
 than before he set out.:}: They rejoiced 
 at all that he related. Luther rested for 
 a while after the fatigue of his journey 
 and his dispute at Heidelberg ; but this 
 rest was only a preparation for severer 
 labours. 
 
 * L. Epp. i. p. 111. 
 
 t Nisi dictamine rationis naturalis, quod apud 
 nos idem est quod chaos tenebratum, qui non 
 proedicamus aliam lucem quam Christum Jesum 
 iucem veram et solam. — (L. Epp. i. p. 111.) 
 
 X Ita ut nonnullis videar factus habilior et cor- 
 pulentior. — (L. Epp. i. p. 111.) 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 151 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 MAY TO DECEMBER, 1518. 
 
 The Pope — 'Leo X. — Luther to his Bishop — Luther to the Pope — Luther to the Vicar-General — 
 The Cardinal to the Elector — Sermon on Excommunication — Luther's Influence — Diet at Augs- 
 burg — The Emperor and the Elector — Letters to the Pope — Citation of Luther to Rome — Inter- 
 cession of the University — The Legate De Vio — The Pope's Brief — Luther's Indignation — The 
 Pope to the Elector — George Schwarzerd — Melancthon — Luther and Melancthon — Staupitz to 
 Spalatin— Luther's Resolution — He sets out — At Nuremburg — Luther at Nuremburg — De Vio 
 — Serra Longa and Luther — Return of Serra Longa — Prior of the Camelites — Serra Longa — 
 Luther and Serra Longa — The Safe-conduct — Appearance before the Legate — First Interview 
 — De Vio's Proofs — Luther's Replies — A Proposal — Luther and De Vio — Luther's Declaration 
 — The Legate's Answer — Luther's Request — Third Conference — Luther's Declaration — The. 
 Legate's Answer — Luther's Reply — The Cardinal Foiled— Rumours — De Vio and Staupitz — 
 Luther to Carlstadt — The Communion — Departure of Staupitz — Letter to the Legate — Luther 
 and the Legate — Luther's Letter to the Legate — His Appeal — Luther's Flight — Nuremburg — 
 The Legate to the Elector — Luther to the Elector — Graefenthal — Luther to Spalatin — Luther's 
 Intended Departure — A Critical Hour — Deliverance — Dissatisfaction at Rome — The Pope's Bull 
 — Luther Appeals to a Council. 
 
 At length Truth had raised its head 
 in the midst of the nations of Christen- 
 dom. Having triumphed over the infe- 
 rior instruments of the papal power, it 
 was now to enter upon a struggle with 
 its head himself. We are about to con- 
 template Luther in close conflict with 
 Rome. 
 
 It was after his return from Heidel- 
 berg that Luther advanced to the attack. 
 His first Theses on the indulgences had 
 been imperfectly understood. He re- 
 solved to set forth their meaning more 
 plainly. He had found, by the clamours 
 proceeding from the blindness and hatred 
 of his enemies, how important it was to 
 gain over to the side of the truth the 
 more enlightened portion of the nation : 
 — he decided therefore to appeal to its 
 judgment, by presenting to it the grounds 
 on which his new conviction rested. It 
 was quite necessary to invite the decision 
 of Rome ; he did not hesitate to send 
 thither his explanations ; while with 
 one hand he held them forth to all his 
 impartial and enlightened fellow-coun- 
 trymen, he, with the other, laid them 
 before the footstool of the Sovereign 
 Pontiff. 
 
 These explanations of his theses, 
 which he called solutions* were written 
 with great moderation. Luther tried to 
 * L. Opp. Leipsig. xvii. p. 29 to 113. 
 
 soften the passages that had occasioned 
 irritation, and evinced a genuine modesty. 
 But, at the same time, he manifested an 
 immoveable conviction, and courageously 
 defended every proposition that truth 
 obliged him to maintain. He repeated, 
 once more, that every Christian who 
 truly repented had remission of sins 
 without any indulgence ; that the Pope 
 had no more power than the lowest 
 priest to do anything beyond simply de- 
 claring the forgiveness that God had 
 already granted ; that the treasury of the 
 merits of saints, administered by the 
 Pope, was a pure fiction : and that holy 
 Scripture was the sole rule of faith. 
 But let us listen to his own statement of 
 some of these things. 
 
 He begins by laying down the nature 
 of true repentance, and contrasts that act 
 of God, by which man is regenerated 
 with the mummeries of the Romish 
 Church. " The Greek word fiBxavoelie 
 said he, " signifies, put on a new spirit. 
 a new mind, — take to you a new nature, 
 so that, ceasing to be earthly, you may 
 become heavenly ; Christ is a teacher of 
 the spirit, and not of the letter, and his 
 words are spirit and life." Thus he 
 teaches a repentance in spirit and in 
 truth, and not those outward penances 
 which the haughtiest sinner may per- 
 form without any real humiliation, — he 
 
152 
 
 HISTORY' OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 requires a repentance, which may be 
 wrought in every situation of life, — un- 
 der the purple robe of kings, under the 
 priest's cassock, the prince's hat, — in the 
 midst of the splendours of Babylon, 
 where Daniel dwelt, — as well as under 
 the monk's frock, or the mendicant's 
 rags.* 
 
 Further on we read these bold words : 
 " I care little what pleases or displeases 
 the Pope. He is a man like other men. 
 There have been many popes who have 
 not only taken up with errors and vices, 
 but things yet more extraordinary. I 
 listen to the Pope as pope, that is, when 
 he speaks in the canons, agreeably to 
 the canons, or regulates any matter con- 
 jointly with a council, — but not when he 
 speaks of his own mind. If I acted on 
 any other rule, might I not be required 
 to say, with those who know not Jesus 
 Christ, that the horrible massacres of 
 Christians, by which Julius II. was 
 stained, were the good deeds of a kind 
 shepherd of the Lord's sheep ?"f 
 
 " I must needs wonder," he continues, 
 " at the simplicity of those who have said 
 that the two swords in the Gospel repre- 
 sent the one the spiritual, the other the 
 temporal power. True it is, that the 
 Pope holds a sword of Iron, and thus 
 offers himself to the view of Christians 
 not as a tender father, but as an awful 
 tyrant. Alas ! God, in his anger, hath 
 given us the sword we preferred, and 
 withdrawn that which we despised. 
 Nowhere, in all the earth, have there 
 been more cruel wars than among 
 Christians. Why did not the same in- 
 genious critic who supplied this fine com- 
 mentary, interpret the narrative of the 
 two keys delivered to St. Peter in the 
 same subtle manner, and establish, as a 
 dogma of the Church, that one serves to 
 unlock the treasury of heaven, and the 
 other the treasures of this world 1"% 
 
 " It is impossible," says he, "for' a man 
 to be a Christian without having Christ ; 
 and, if he has Christ, he has, at the same 
 time, all that is in Christ. What gives 
 peace to the conscience is that, by faith, 
 our sins are no more ours, but Christ's, 
 upon whom God hath laid them all ; and 
 that, on the other hand, all Christ's 
 righteousness is ours, to whom God hath 
 
 * On the first Thesis. 
 t Thesis 80. 
 
 t Thesis 26. 
 
 given it. Christ lays his hand upon us, 
 and we are healed. He casts his mantle 
 upon us, and we are clothed ; for he is 
 the glorious Saviour, blessed for ever."* 
 
 With such views of the riches of sal- 
 vation by Christ, there could no longer 
 be any need of indulgences. 
 
 At the same time that Luther thus at- 
 tacked the papal rule, he spoke honour- 
 ably of Leo X. " The times we live in," 
 said he, " are so evil, that even persons 
 of the highest station have no power to 
 help the Church. We have at this time 
 a very good Pope in Leo X. His sin- 
 cerity and learning are a matter of joy 
 to us. But what can he do alone, amia- 
 ble and gracious as he is 1 He deserved, 
 assuredly, to be elected Pope in better 
 times. In these days we deserved none 
 but such as Julius II. or Alexander VI." 
 
 He then came to this point. — " I will 
 speak out, in a few words and boldly. — 
 The Church requires to be reformed. 
 And it is a work neither for one man, 
 as the Pope, — nor for several, as the car- 
 dinals and fathers in council assembled, 
 — but for the whole world ; or rather it 
 is a work which appertains to God alone. 
 As to the time when such Reformation 
 shall commence, he only knows it who 
 has appointed all time. The barriers 
 are thrown down, and it is no longer in 
 our power to restrain the overflowing 
 billows." 
 
 These are a few of the declarations 
 and thoughts which Luther addressed to 
 the more enlightened of his countrymen. 
 Whitsuntide was drawing near, and thus 
 it was at the same season which the 
 apostles rendered to their risen Saviour 
 the first testimony of their faith, that Lu- 
 ther, the new apostle, published this ani- 
 mated testimony, in Avhich he breathed 
 forth his ardent desires for the resurrec- 
 tion of the Church. On Whitsun-eve, 
 22d May, 1518, he despatched this wri- 
 ting to the Bishop of Brandenburg, his 
 ordinary, accompanied with these words: 
 " Most worthy Father in God ! 
 
 " It is now some time since a new and 
 unheard-of doctrine, concerning the apos- 
 tolic indulgences, began to be preached 
 in these parts : the learned and the un- 
 learned were troubled by it ; and many 
 persons known, or personally unknown 
 to me, requested me to declare from the 
 * Thesis 37. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 153 
 
 pulpit, or by writing - , my opinion of the 
 novelty — I will not say the impudence 
 — of the doctrine I refer to. At first I 
 kept myself silent and neutral. But, at 
 last, things came to such a pass, that the 
 Pope's holiness was compromised. 
 
 " What could I do ? I thought it my 
 part neither to approve nor condemn 
 these doctrines, but to open a discussion 
 on this important subject, till such time 
 as the holy Church should pronounce 
 upon it. 
 
 " No one presenting himself, or accept- 
 ing the challenge to a discussion which 
 I had invited all the world, and my the- 
 ses being considered not as matter of de- 
 bate, but as propositions dogmatically 
 asserted ;* — I find myself obliged to put 
 forth an explanation of them. Deign, 
 therefore, to accept these offerings! that 
 I present to you, most clement Bishop. 
 And that all may see that I am not 
 acting presumptuously, I entreat your 
 reverence to take pen and ink and blot 
 out or even throw into the fire what- 
 ever may displease you. I know that 
 Christ needs none of my labour or ser- 
 vices, and that he can easily, without my 
 instrumentality, make known the good 
 tidings in his church. Not that the de- 
 nunciations and threats of my enemies 
 alarm me. Gluite the contrary. If they 
 were not so wanting in prudence, and 
 lost to shame, no one should hear or 
 know anything about me. I would 
 immure myself in a corner, and there 
 study alone for my own profit. If this 
 matter is not of God, it will certainly not 
 be to my honour, nor to the honour 
 of any man, but will come to nought. 
 May glory and honour be to him to 
 whom alone they belong !" 
 
 Luther was, up to this time, under the 
 influence of respect for the head of the 
 church ; he gave credit to Leo for justice 
 and a love of truth. Accordingly he 
 resolved to write to him also. A week 
 after, on Trinity Sunday, 30th May, 
 1518, he addressed to him a letter, of 
 which the following are some fragments. 
 " To the Most blessed Father, Pope 
 Leo X., Supreme Bishop, — brother Mar- 
 tin Luther, an Augustine, wishes eternal 
 salvation ! 
 
 * Non ut disputabilia sed asserta acciperentur. 
 — (L. Epp. i. 114.) 
 t Ineptias. 
 
 20 
 
 " I hear, most holy Father, that evil 
 reports circulate concerning me, and that 
 my name is in bad odour with your Ho- 
 liness. I am called a heretic, an apos- 
 tate, a traitor, and a thousand other re- 
 proachful names. What I see surprises 
 me, and what I hear alarms me. But 
 the sole foundation of my tranquillity re- 
 mains unmoved, being a pure and quiet 
 conscience. O, holy Father ! deign to 
 hearken to me, who am but a child and 
 need instruction." 
 
 Luther then relates the affair from its 
 beginning, and thus proceeds : 
 
 " Nothing was heard in all the tav- 
 erns but complaints of the avarice of 
 the priests, attacks on the power of the 
 keys, and of the supreme bishop. I call 
 all Germany to witness. When I heard 
 these things, my zeal was aroused for 
 the glory of Christ, — if I understand my 
 own heart ; or if another construction is 
 to be put on my conduct, — my young 
 and warm blood was inflamed. 
 
 " I represented the matter to certain 
 princes of the Church, but some laughed 
 at me, and others turned a deaf ear. The 
 awe of your name seemed to have made 
 all motionless. Thereupon, I published 
 this dispute. 
 
 " This, then, holy Father, this is the 
 action which has been said to have set 
 the whole world in a flame ! 
 
 " And now what am I to do 1 I can- 
 not retract what I have said, and I see 
 that this publication draws down on me, 
 from all sides, an inexpressible hatred. 
 I have no wish to appear in the great 
 world, — for I am unlearned, of small 
 wit, and far too inconsiderable for such 
 great matters, more especially in this 
 illustrious age, when Cicero himself, if 
 he were living, would be constrained to 
 hide himself in some dark corner.* 
 
 " But in order to appease my enemies 
 and satisfy the desires of many friends, 
 I here publish my thoughts. I publish 
 them, holy Father, that I may dwell the 
 more safely under your protection. All 
 those who desire it may here see with 
 what simplicity of heart I have petitioned 
 the supreme authority of the Church to 
 instruct me, and what respect I have 
 manifested for the power of the keys.f 
 
 * " Sed cogit necessitas mo anserem strepere 
 inter olores,'' adds Luther. — (L Epp. i. 121.) 
 t Quam pure simpliciterque ecclesiasticam 
 
154 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 If I had not acted with propriety, it 
 would have been impossible that the 
 serene lord Frederic, Duke and Elector 
 of Saxony, who shines foremost among 
 the friends of the apostolic and christian 
 truth, should have endured that one, so 
 dangerous as I am asserted to be, should 
 continue in his university of Wittem- 
 berg. 
 
 " Therefore, most holy Father, I throw 
 myself at the feet of your Holiness, and 
 submit myself to you, with all that I 
 have and all that I am. Destroy my 
 cause or espouse it ; pronounce either 
 for, or against me ; take my life, or 
 restore it, as you please ; I will receive 
 your voice as that of Christ himself, who 
 presides and speaks through you. If I 
 have deserved death, I refuse not to die ;* 
 the earth is the Lord's, and all that 
 therein is. May He be praised for ever 
 and ever. May he maintain you to all 
 eternity. Amen. 
 
 " Signed the day of the Holy Trinity, 
 in the year 1518. Brother Martin 
 Luther, Augustine." 
 
 What humility and truth in this fear, 
 or rather this admission of Luther, that 
 his young and warm blood had perhaps 
 taken fire too hastily ! We see here the 
 man of sincerity, who, instead of pre- 
 suming on himself, dreads the influence 
 of his passions, even in such actions as 
 are most conformable to the command- 
 ment of God. This is not the language 
 of a proud fanatic. We behold Luther's 
 earnest desire to gain over Leo to the 
 cause of truth, to avoid all schism, and to 
 cause the Reformation (the necessity of 
 which he proclaimed,) to proceed from 
 the highest authority in the Church. 
 Certainly, it is not he who can be accused 
 of having broken up that unity of the 
 western Church, which so many of all 
 sects have since regretted. On the con- 
 trary, he gave up everything but truth 
 that he might maintain it. It was his 
 adversaries who, refusing to allow the 
 fulness and sufficiency of the salvation 
 
 potestatem et revereatiam clavium quaesierim et 
 coluerim. — (Ibid.) 
 
 * Quare, beatissime Pater, prostratum me pedi- 
 bus tuas Beatitudinis offero, cum omnibus quee 
 sum et habeo ; vivifica, occide : voca, revoca ; 
 approba, reproba, ut placuerit. Vocem tuam vo- 
 cem Christi in te prsesidentis et loquentis agnos- 
 cam. Si mortem merui, mori non recusabo.— (L. 
 Epp. i. p. 121.) 
 
 wrought by Jesus Christ, tore to shreds 
 the Lord's vesture at the foot of the 
 cross. 
 
 After writing this letter, Luther, on the 
 same day, wrote to his friend Staupitz, 
 Vicar-general of his order. It was 
 through him that he resolved to forward 
 to Leo both his "Solutions" and his letter. 
 
 " I beg of you," said he, " to receive 
 with favour the poor productions that I 
 send you,* and to forward them to the 
 excellent Pope Leo X. Not that I mean 
 by this to draw you into the peril in 
 which I stand ; I am resolved myself to 
 incur the whole danger. Christ will 
 look to it, and make it appear whether 
 what I have said comes from him or my- 
 self, — Christ, without whom the Pope's 
 tongue cannot move, nor the hearts of 
 kings decree. 
 
 " As for those who threaten me, I have 
 no answer for them but the saying of 
 Reuchlin : ' The poor man has nothing 
 to fear, for he has nothing to lose.'f I 
 have neither money nor estate, and I 
 desire none. If I have sometimes tasted 
 of honour and of good report, may He 
 who has begun to strip me of them finish 
 his work. All that is .left me is this 
 wretched body, enfeebled by many trials 
 — let them kill it by violence or fraud, so 
 it be to the glory of God ; by so doing 
 they will but shortern the term of my 
 life by a few hours. It is sufficient for 
 me that I have a precious Redeemer, a 
 powerful High Priest, my Lord Jesus 
 Christ. I will praise him as long as I 
 have breath. If another will not join 
 me in praising him, what is that to me ?" 
 In these words we read the innermost 
 heart of Luther. 
 
 Whilst he was thus placing confidence 
 in Rome, Rome had thoughts of ven- 
 geance against him. As early as the 
 3rd of April, Cardinal Raphael de Ro- 
 vera had* written to the Elector Frederic 
 in the Pope's name, to intimate that 
 some suspicion was entertained of his 
 fidelity, and to desire him to avoid pro- 
 tecting Luther. " The Cardinal Ra- 
 phael," observed the latter, " would have 
 been well pleased to see me burned alive 
 by Duke Frederic."^: Thus Rome was 
 
 * The Solutions. 
 
 t Qui pauper est nihil timet, nihil potest per- 
 dere.— (L. Epp. i. 118.) 
 J L. Opp. (W.) xv. p. 339. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 155 
 
 beginning' to turn arms against Luther ; 
 her first blow was directed to the depri- 
 ving him of his protectors favour. If she 
 succeeded in destroying this shelter of 
 the monk of Wittemberg, he would fall 
 an easy prey to her agents. 
 
 The German sovereigns were very 
 tenacious of their reputation as Christian 
 princes. The slightest suspicion of 
 heresy filled them with fears. The 
 Roman Court had skilfully taken advan- 
 tage of this disposition of mind. Frederic 
 had always been attached to the religion 
 of his fathers. Hence the Cardinal 
 Raphael's letter produced a very con- 
 siderable impression upon his mind. 
 But, on the other hand, the Elector made 
 it a rule never to be hasty in anything. 
 He knew that truth was not always on 
 the side of the strongest. The disputes 
 of the Empire with Rome had taught 
 him to discern the interested views of 
 that Court. He had arrived at the con- 
 viction that, to be a christian prince, it 
 was not necessary to be a slave to the 
 Pope. 
 
 u He was not one of those profane 
 persons," says Melancthon, " who would 
 stifle all changes in their very birth. 
 Frederic submitted himself to the will 
 of God. He carefully read the writings 
 that were put forth, and would not allow 
 any to destroy what he thought true." 
 He possessed this power. Besides, being 
 absolute sovereign of his own dominions, 
 he enjoyed at least as much respect 
 throughout the Empire as was paid to 
 the Emperor himself. 
 
 It is probable that Luther received 
 some intimation of this letter of Cardinal 
 Raphael's, which reached the Elector on 
 the 7th of July. Perhaps it was in the 
 prospect of excommunication, which this 
 Roman missive seemed to forebode, that 
 he ascended the pulpit of Wittemberg 
 on the 15th of the same month, and 
 preached a discourse on that topic, which 
 made a deep impression on his hearers. 
 He explained the distinction between 
 inward and outward excommunications, 
 the former excluding from communion 
 with God, and the latter, from the rites 
 and ceremonies of the Church. " No 
 one," said he, " can reconcile the fallen 
 soul to God but the Lord. No one can 
 separate a man from communion with 
 God but that man himself, by his own 
 
 sins. Blessed is that man who dies un- 
 der an unjust sentence of excommuni- 
 cation ! Whilst, for righteousness' sake r 
 he suffers a cruel judgment from men, 
 he receives from God the crown of ever- 
 lasting happiness !" 
 
 Some loudly commended this bold 
 language ; others were yet more enraged 
 by it. 
 
 But Luther did not now stand alone ; 
 and though his faith needed no other 
 support than that of God himself, he had 
 called up on all sides a power that pro- 
 tected him from his enemies. The voice 
 of this man had been heard by the whole 
 German nation. From his sermons and 
 writings issued beams of light which 
 awakened and illuminated his contem- 
 poraries. The energy of his faith rushed 
 like a stream of fire upon the frozen 
 hearts of men. The life which God had 
 given to this extraordinary mind was 
 imparted to the dead body of the Church. 
 Christendom, which had remained mo- 
 tionless for so many years, was now 
 alive with religious enthusiasm. The 
 popular attachment to the superstitions 
 of Romanism was daily lessening ; those 
 who came with money in hand to pur- 
 chase pardon were every day fewer ;* 
 and the reputation of Luther was every 
 dav extended. Men's thoughts were 
 directed toward him, and he was hailed 
 with affection and respect, as the intrepid 
 defender of truth and freedom. f Doubt- 
 less all did not penetrate the depths of 
 the doctrines he proclaimed. It was 
 enough for the greater number to know 
 that the new doctor stood up against the 
 Pope ; and that, at his powerful word, 
 the dominion of the priests and monks 
 was tottering to its fall. The attack of 
 Luther was to them like a beacon-fire on 
 a mountain-top, which announces to a 
 whole people the moment for bursting 
 their bonds. Luther was not aware of 
 the influence he had obtained, till all the 
 generous spirits among his countrymen 
 had by acclamation acknowledged him 
 their leader. But to many the appear- 
 ance of Luther was much more than 
 this. The word of God, which he 
 handled with so much power, penetrated 
 
 * Rarescebant manus largentium. — (Coch- 
 laeus, 7.) 
 
 t Luthero autem contra augebatur auctoritas, 
 favor, fides, sestimatio. 
 
156 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to the souls of men like a two-edged 
 sword. In many hearts an ardent desire 
 was kindled to obtain the assurance of 
 pardon and everlasting life. Since the 
 first ages of the Church, there had not 
 been witnessed such hungering and 
 thirsting after righteousness. If the 
 preaching of Peter the Hermit and of 
 Bernard had induced multitudes, during 
 the middle ages, to assume outwardly the 
 symbol of the cross, the preaching of 
 Luther influenced the hearts of men to 
 take up the true cross, — the truth that 
 saves the soul. The superstructure, which 
 then encumbered the Church, had smo- 
 thered true piety j the form had extin- 
 guished the spirit The word of power 
 given to Luther was as a breath of life to 
 Christendom. At first sight the writings 
 of Luther carried with them the sym- 
 pathy both* of the faithful and of the 
 unbeliever ; — of the latter, because the 
 positive doctrines, afterwards to be es- 
 tablished, were not yet fully opened ; 
 of the former, because those doctrines 
 were in principle comprised in that living 
 faith, which his writings set forth with 
 so much power. Hence the influence 
 of those writings was unbounded. They 
 spread instantaneously throughout Ger- 
 many, and the whole world. Every- 
 where a persuasion existed that what 
 men now beheld was not merely the rise 
 of a new sect, but a new birth of the 
 Church and of society. Those who 
 were then born again by the breath of 
 God's Spirit rallied round him who had 
 been instrumental in imparting to them 
 spiritual life. Christendom was divided 
 into two opposing parties ; the one con- 
 tending for the spirit against form ; and 
 the other for form against the spirit. On 
 the side of form there Avas, it is true, 
 every appearance of strength and mag- 
 nificence ; on the side of the spirit there 
 was weakness and littleness. But form, 
 void of the spirit, is as an empty body 
 which the first breath may overthrow. 
 Its resemblance of strength serves only 
 to exasperate the hostility and hasten its 
 downfall. Thus the simple word of 
 truth had called forth a whole host in 
 favour of Luther. 
 
 It could not be otherwise, for the 
 nobles were beginning to bestir them- 
 selves, and the empire and the Church 
 were already uniting their forces to rid 
 
 themselves of the troublesome monk, 
 The Emperor Maximilian was then 
 holding an imperial diet at Augsburg. 
 Six electors had repaired thither in per- 
 son at his summons. All the Germanic 
 states had their representatives in this 
 assembly. The kings of France, of 
 Hungary, and of Poland, had sent am- 
 bassadors. All these princes and envoys 
 displayed great magnificence. The war 
 against the Turks was one of the causes 
 for which the diet was held. The Sul- 
 tan Selim, after having poisoned his 
 father, and put his brothers and their 
 children to death, had carried his vic- 
 torious arms into Armenia, Egypt, and 
 Syria. Serious apprehensions were en- 
 tertained that he might push forward 
 his armies into Italy and Hungary. It 
 was not long, however, before death 
 closed his career. But Leo X. did not, 
 on that account, abandon the project of 
 a new crusade. His legate earnestly 
 exhorted the Germanic states to prepare 
 for war. " Let the clergy," said he, 
 " pay a tenth, the laity a fiftieth part of 
 their property ; let each family furnish 
 the pay of one soldier ; let the rich give 
 annual contributions, and all will go 
 well." The states, bearing in mind 
 the bad use that had been made of 
 former contributions, and influenced by 
 the prudent advice of the Elector Fred- 
 eric, contented themselves with answer- 
 ing that they would consider the matter, 
 and at the same time brought forward 
 new grievances against Rome. A Latin 
 discourse, published whilst the Diet was 
 sitting, boldly pointed out to the German 
 princes the real danger. " You wish," 
 said the author, "to expel the Turk. 
 Your intention is good, but I fear you 
 are mistaken as to his person. You 
 must look for him in Italy, and not in 
 Asia. Each of our princes has power 
 sufficient to defend his country against 
 the Turk of Asia ; but as to the Turk 
 of Rome, the whole of Christendom is 
 not sufficient to conquer him. The 
 former has not yet done us any harm, 
 the latter walketh about everywhere 
 thirsting for the blood of the poor."* 
 
 Another affair no less important was to 
 engage the attention of the Diet. Max- 
 imilian wished to have his grandson 
 Charles, who was already King of Spain 
 * Schrock, K. Gesch. n. d. R. I. p. 156. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 157 
 
 and Naples, proclaimed King of the Ro- 
 mans, and his successor in the Imperial 
 dignity. The Pope understood his own 
 interest too well to wish to see the 
 throne of the Empire filled by a prince 
 whose power in Italy might make him 
 so formidable to himself. The Emperor 
 imagined that he had gained over to his 
 side the majority of the Electors and 
 of the states ; but he met with a deci- 
 ded opposition from Frederic. It was 
 in vain that he solicited him ; in vain 
 did the ministers and best friends of the 
 Elector join their entreaties to the solici- 
 tations of the Emperor ; the Prince -was 
 inexorable, and showed, as has been ob- 
 served, that he had firmness of mind not 
 to depart from a resolution of which he 
 had seen the propriety. The Emperor's 
 design failed. 
 
 From that time Maximilian sought 
 to insinuate himself into the good graces 
 of the Pope, in order to win his as- 
 sent to his favourite plan. Wishing to 
 give him a particular proof of his attach- 
 ment, he wrote to him (on the 5th of 
 August) the following letter : " Most 
 holy Father, we were informed some 
 days since, that a brother of the Augus- 
 tine order, named Martin Luther, had 
 taken upon himself to maintain certain 
 propositions relative to the sale of indul- 
 gences. What gives us the more con- 
 cern is, that the aforesaid brother meets 
 with many protectors, amongst whom are 
 some of exalted rank.* If your Holiness, 
 and the most reverend Fathers of the 
 Church (the Cardinals), do not promptly 
 exert your authority to put an end to these 
 scandalous proceedings, these mischie- 
 vous teachers will not only seduce the com- 
 mon people, but will involve great princes 
 in their destruction. We will be careful 
 to enforce throughout our Empire, what- 
 ever your Holiness shall decree on this 
 subject, to the glory of Almighty God." 
 
 This letter must have been written in 
 consequence of s6me rather warm dis- 
 cussion that Maximilian had had with 
 Frederic. The same day the Elector 
 wrote to Raphael de Rovera. He was 
 doubtless apprised that the Emperor was 
 addressing the Roman Pontiff, and, in 
 order to parry the blow, he himself 
 opened a communication with Rome. 
 
 * Defensores et patronos etiam potentes quos 
 dictus frater consecutest. — (Raynaldad an. 1518.) 
 
 " It will ever be my desire," said he, 
 " to prove my submission to the univer- 
 sal Church. 
 
 "Therefore have I never defended the 
 writings and discourses of Doctor Martin 
 Luther. I hear, however, that he has 
 uniformly expressed his willingness to 
 appear, under a safe-conduct, before 
 learned, christian, and impartial judges, 
 to defend his doctrine, and to submit to 
 their descision, if they should be able 
 by the Scriptures to convince him of 
 error."* 
 
 Leo X., who, until this hour, had al- 
 lowed the matter to take its course, 
 roused at length by the outcry of theolo- 
 gians and monks, now appointed an ec- 
 clesiastical court in Rome, for the pur- 
 pose of judging Luther, and in which 
 the Reformer's great enemy, Sylvester 
 Prierias, was at once accuser and judge. 
 The preliminaries were soon arranged, 
 and the court summoned Luther to 
 appear before it in person within sixty 
 days. 
 
 Luther was at Wittemberg, quietly 
 awaiting the good effects which he ima- 
 gined his submissive letter to the Pope 
 was calculated to produce, when, on 
 the 7th August, two days only after the 
 letters from Frederic and Maximilian 
 had been despatched to Rome, he re- 
 ceived the summons from the papal tri- 
 bunal. " At the moment that I looked 
 for benediction," said he, " I saw the 
 thunderbolt descend upon me. I was 
 like the lamb that troubled the stream 
 at which the wolf was drinking. Tetzel 
 escaped, and I was devoured." 
 
 This summons threw all Wittemberg 
 into consternation, for, whatever course 
 Luther might take, he could not escape 
 danger. If he went to Rome he would 
 become the victim of his enemies. If 
 he refused to appear, he would, as usual, 
 be condemned for contumacy, and would 
 not escape, for it was known that the 
 Legate had received from the Pope an 
 order to strain every nerve to excite the 
 Emperor and the German princes against 
 Luther. His friends were alarmed. 
 Shall the preacher of the truth go and 
 risk his life " in that great city, drunk 
 with the blood of the saints and of the 
 martyrs of Jesus?" Shall every man 
 who ventures to lift his head in the 
 * L. Opp. lat. xvii. p. 169. 
 
158 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 midst of the enslaved nations of Chris- 
 tendom be, on that account, struck 
 down ? Shall this man be trampled un- 
 der foot, who seemed formed to resist a 
 power which nothing had previously 
 been able to withstand 1 Luther him- 
 self could see no one but the Elector 
 able to save him ; but he preferred death 
 to endangering his prince's safety. His 
 friends at last agreed on an expedient 
 which would not compromise Frederic. 
 Let him refuse Luther a safe-conduct : 
 the latter would then have a fair excuse 
 for not appearing at Rome. 
 
 On the 8th of August, Luther wrote 
 to Spalatin, to ask him to use his influ- 
 ence with the Elector, to have his cause 
 heard in Germany. " See," said he, 
 writing to Staupitz, " what snares they 
 lay for me, and how I am surrounded 
 by thorns. But Christ lives and reigns, 
 the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 
 My conscience tells me that I have 
 taught the truth, though truth appears 
 still more odious because I teach it. The 
 Church is the womb of Rebecca. The 
 children must struggle together, even 
 to the endangering - of the mother's 
 life.* As to the rest, pray to the Lord 
 that I may not take too much joy in the 
 trial. May God not lay this sin to their 
 charge !" 
 
 The friends of Luther did not confine 
 themselves to consultations and com- 
 plaints. Spalatin wrote, on the part of 
 the Elector, to Renner, the Emperor's 
 secretary : " Doctor Martin will will- 
 ingly submit himself to the judgment 
 of any of the universities of Germany, 
 except Erfurth, Lepizic, and Frankfort 
 on the Oder, which have forfeited their 
 claim to be regarded as impartial. It is 
 out of his power to appear at Rome in 
 person."! 
 
 The members of the university of Wit- 
 temberg addressed an intercessory letter 
 to the Pope himself. " His weak health," 
 they said, speaking of Luther, " and the 
 dangers of the journey, make it difficult, 
 and even impossible, that he should obey 
 the order of your Holiness. His distress 
 and his entreaties incline us to compas- 
 sionate him. We beseech you then, 
 
 * Uterus Rebecca est : parvulos in eo collidi 
 
 necesse est, etiam usque ad periculum matris 
 
 (L. Epp. i. p. 138.; 
 
 t L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 173. 
 
 most Holy Father, as obedient children, 
 to look upon him in the light of one 
 who has never been tainted by any 
 doctrines opposed to the tenets of the 
 Romish Church." 
 
 The university, in its solicitude, ad- 
 dressed another letter the same day to 
 Charles von Miltitz, a Saxon gentleman, 
 who was chamberlain to the Pope, and 
 was much esteemed by him. In this 
 letter they gave a more decided testi- 
 mony in favour of Luther, than they 
 had dared to do in the former. " The 
 reverend father, Martin Luther, the Au- 
 gustine," said they, " is the noblest and 
 most distinguished member of our uni- 
 versity. For several years, we have 
 been witnesses of his talent, his learn- 
 ing, his intimate acquaintance with arts 
 and literature, his irreproachable morals, 
 and his truly christian deportment."* — 
 This strong sympathy of those about 
 him is one of the greatest proofs of Lu- 
 ther's worth. 
 
 Whilst the result of this application 
 was anxiously awaited it was settled with 
 less difficulty than might have been ex- 
 pected. The Legate de Vio, mortified 
 at his failure in the commission he had 
 received to excite a general Avar against 
 the Turks, wished to give importance to 
 his embassy into Germany by some other 
 distinguished service. He thought that 
 if he were to extirpate heresy he should 
 return to Rome with honour. He there- 
 fore petitioned the Pope to put this affair 
 into his hands. Leo, on his part, was 
 well disposed towards Frederic, for hav- 
 ing so firmly resisted the election of 
 Charles. He felt that he might again 
 have need of his assistance. Without 
 further reference to the former summons, 
 he commissioned his Legate, by a brief, 
 dated the 23d of August, to investigate the 
 affair in Germany. The Pope conceded 
 nothing by consenting to this mode of 
 proceeding, and in case Luther should 
 be prevailed on to retract, the publicity 
 and scandal that must have attended his 
 appearance at Rome would be avoided. 
 
 " We charge you," said the Pope, " to 
 compel the aforesaid Luther to appear 
 before you in person ; to prosecute and 
 reduce him to submission without delay, 
 as soon as you shall have received this 
 
 * L. Opp. (lat.) i. 183, 184. L. Opp. (L.) xviL 
 171, 172. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 159 
 
 our order ; he. ' having already been de- 
 clared a heretic by our dear brother Je- 
 rome, bishop of Asculan."* 
 
 " For this purpose," said he, " invoke 
 the power and assistance of our very 
 dear son in Christ, Maximilian, and the 
 other princes of Germany, and of all 
 the communities, universities, and poten- 
 tates, whether ecclesiastical or secular. 
 And when you have secured his per- 
 son, cause him to be detained in safe 
 custody, that he may be brought before 
 us."f 
 
 We see that this indulgent concession 
 of the Pope, was little else than an ex- 
 pedient for dragging Luther to Rome. 
 Then follows the milder alternative. 
 
 " If he should return to a sense of his 
 duty, and ask pardon for so great an 
 offence, freely and of his own accord, we 
 give you power to receive him mto the 
 unity of holy mother Church." 
 
 The Pope soon returns to his male- 
 dictions. 
 
 "If he should persist in his stubborn- 
 ness, and you fail to get possession of 
 his person, we give you power to pro- 
 scribe him in all places in Germany ; to 
 put away, curse, and excommunicate all 
 those who are attached to him, and to 
 enjoin all Christians to shun their society." 
 Even this is not enough. 
 " And to the end," he continues, " that 
 this pestilence may the more easily be 
 rooted out, you will excommunicate all 
 the prelates, religious orders, universities, 
 communities, counts, dukes, and poten- 
 tates, the Emperor Maximilian excepted, 
 who shall neglect to seize the said Mar- 
 tin Luther, and his adherents, and send 
 them to you under proper and safe 
 custody. And if (which God forbid) 
 the aforesaid princes, communities, uni- 
 versities, and potentates, or any who be- 
 long to them, shelter the said Martin and 
 his adherents, or give them publicly or 
 secretly, directly or indirectly, assistance 
 and advice, we lay an interdict on these 
 princes, communities, universities, and 
 potentates, with their towns, boroughs, 
 countries, and villages, as well as on the 
 
 * Dictum Lutheram hsereticum per praedictum 
 auditorem jani declaratum. — (Breve Leonis ad 
 Thomam.) 
 
 t Brachio cogas atque compellas, et eo in po- 
 testate tua redacto eum sub fideli custodia reti- 
 neas, ut coram nobis sistatur. — (Breve Leonis ad 
 Thomam.) 
 
 towns, boroughs, countries, and villages, 
 where the said Martin shall take refuge, 
 as long as he shall remain there, and 
 three days after he shall have quitted the 
 same." 
 
 This audacious power, which affects 
 to be the earthly representative of him 
 who said : " God sent not his Son into 
 the world to condemn the world, but that 
 the world through him might be saved," 
 — continues its anathemas; and, after 
 having pronounced penalties against ec- 
 clesiastics offending, thus proceeds : 
 
 " As to the laity, if they do not obey 
 your orders, without any delay or demur, 
 we declare them reprobate, (excepting 
 always his Imperial Majesty,) unable to 
 perform any lawful act, disentitled to 
 christian burial, and deprived of all fiefs 
 which they may hold either from the 
 apostolic see, or from any lord what- 
 ever."* 
 
 Such was the treatment that awaited 
 Luther. The Roman despot had pre- 
 pared every thing to crush him. He had 
 set every engine at work ; even the 
 quiet of the grave must be invaded. 
 His ruin seemed inevitable. How could 
 he escape this powerful combination ? 
 But Rome had miscalculated ; the move- 
 ment excited by the Spirit of God could 
 not be quelled by the decrees of its 
 chancery. 
 
 Even the semblance of a just and 
 impartial inquiry had been disregarded ; 
 and Luther had already been declared 
 an heretic, not only before he had been 
 heard, but even long before the expira- 
 tion of the time allowed for his personally 
 appearing. The passions (and never 
 are they more strongly excited than in 
 religious discussions) break through all 
 forms of justice. Not only in the Roman 
 church, but in those Protestant churches 
 which have departed from the Gospel, 
 and in every place where truth has been 
 forsaken, do we find it treated in this 
 way. All means seem good against the 
 Gospel. We frequently see men, Vho, 
 in any other case, would shrink from 
 committing the least injustice, not hesi- 
 tating to trample under foot all rule and 
 equity, when Christianity, or her wit- 
 nesses, are concerned. 
 
 * Infamire et inhabilitatis ad omnes actus le- 
 gitimes, ecclesiastics sepulturse, privationis quo- 
 que feudorum. — (Breve Leonis ad Thomam.) 
 
160 
 
 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 When Luther eventually came to the 
 knowledge of this brief, he gave free ex- 
 pression to his indignation. " The most 
 remarkable part of the transaction is 
 this," said he ; " the brief was issued the 
 23rd of August ; I was summoned the 
 7th of August ; so that between the 
 summons and the brief, sixteen days had 
 elapsed. Now, make the calculation, 
 and you will find that my Lord Jerome, 
 bishop of Asculan, proceeded against me, 
 pronounced judgment, condemned me, 
 and declared me a heretic, before the 
 summons reached me, or, at the most, 
 within sixteen days after it had been 
 forwarded to me. Now, I ask what 
 becomes of the sixty days that are 
 granted me in the summons itself. They 
 began the 7th of August — they would 
 expire the 7th of October. . . Is this 
 the style and manner of the Roman 
 Court, that in the same day she sum- 
 mons, exhorts, accuses, judges, condemns, 
 and declares guilty, and this, too, in the 
 case of one who is at such a distance 
 from Rome, and who can have no knowl- 
 edge of what is going on 1 What 
 answer can they make to all this? 
 They certainly forgot to clear their brains 
 with hellebore, before they had recourse 
 to such clumsy artifice."* 
 
 But at the same time that Rome was 
 arming the legate with her thunders, 
 she was endeavouring, by soft and flat- 
 tering speeches, to detach from Luther's 
 interest the prince whose power she 
 most dreaded. ■ The same day, {the 23rd 
 of August, 1518,) the Pope wrote to the 
 Elector of Saxony. He had recourse to 
 the same practised policy which we have 
 before noticed, and sought to natter the 
 Prince's vanity. 
 
 u Dear Son," said the Roman Pontiff, 
 "when we think of your noble and 
 worthy family ; of you, who are its 
 ornament and head ; when we remem- 
 ber how you and your ancestors have 
 always wished to uphold the Christian 
 faith and the honour and dignity of the 
 Holy See, we cannot believe that a man 
 who abandons the faith can rely on your 
 Highness's favour, and recklessly give 
 the rein to his wickedness. And yet 
 reports have reached us from all quarters, 
 that a certain brother Martin Luther, a 
 monk of the order of St. Aug-ustine, 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 1 76. 
 
 acting the part of a child of iniquity 
 and a despiser of God, has forgotten his 
 habit and his order, which require hu- 
 mility and obedience, and boasts that he 
 fears neither the authority nor the chas- 
 tisement of any man, assured, as he 
 declares himself, of your favour and pro- 
 tection. 
 
 "But, as we are sure that he is, in 
 this, deceiving himself, we have thought 
 it good to write to your Highness, and 
 to exhort you, according to the will of 
 God, to be jealous of your honour as a 
 Christian prince, the ornament, the glory, 
 and the sweet savour of your noble 
 family, — to defend yourself from these 
 calumnies, — and to clear yourself, not 
 only from the commission of so great a 
 crime as that which is imputed to you, 
 but also from the very suspicion which 
 the rash presumption of this monk tends 
 to bring upon you." 
 
 Leo, at the same time, intimated to 
 Frederic that he had commissioned the 
 Cardinal of St. Sixtus to examine into 
 the affair, and he desired him to deliver 
 up Luther into the hands of the Legate, 
 " lest," added he, recurring to his favour- 
 ite argument, " pious people of this or 
 after times should one day lament and 
 say : The most dangerous heresy that 
 ever afflicted the Church of God, arose 
 through the assistance, and under the 
 protection, of that noble and worthy 
 family."* 
 
 Thus Rome had taken her measures. 
 To one party she offered the intoxicating 
 incense of flattery ; for the other she re- 
 served her vengeance and her terrors. 
 
 All earthly powers, — emperor, pope, 
 princes, and legates, — were put in motion 
 against the humble friar of Erfurth, 
 whose inward conflicts we have already 
 traced. " The kings of the earth stood 
 up and the rulers took counsel against 
 the Lord, and against his anointed." 
 
 Before this letter and brief had yet 
 reached Germany, and while Luther was 
 still fearing that he should be obliged 
 to appear at Rome, a fortunate circum- 
 stance occurred to comfort his heart. 
 He needed a friend into whose bosom 
 he could pour out his sorrows, and whose 
 faithful love should comfort him in his 
 hours of dejection. God sent him such 
 a friend in Melancthon. 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 173. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 161 
 
 George Schwarzerd was a skilful 
 master-armourer of Bretten, a small 
 town in the Palatinate. On the 14th 
 of February, 1497, a son was born to 
 him, whom he named Philip, and who, 
 afterwards, became celebrated under the 
 name of Melancthon. George, who en- 
 joyed the esteem of the princes of the 
 Palatinate of Bavaria, and of Saxony, 
 was remarkable for the perfect upright- 
 ness of his dealings. Often did he refuse 
 to take from purchasers the price they 
 offered ; and, if he knew that they were 
 poor, he obliged them to take back their 
 money. ' He regularly rose at midnight, 
 and offered a prayer upon his knees. If 
 he ever happened to omit this service, 
 he was dissatisfied with himself all day. 
 Schwarzerd's wife, whose name was 
 Barbara, was the daughter of a respect- 
 able magistrate, John Reuter. She was 
 of an affectionate disposition, somewhat 
 inclined to superstition, but very discreet 
 and prudent. Some old and well known 
 German rhymes are ascribed to her pen. 
 We give their sense as well as we are 
 able : 
 
 Gifts to the poor impoverish none, 
 To church to pray will hinder none, 
 To grease the wheel delayeth none, 
 Ill-gotten wealth enricheth none, 
 God's holy book deludeth none. 
 
 Also the following : 
 
 He who is a freer spender 
 
 Than his plough or toil can render, 
 
 Sure of ruin, slow or fast, 
 
 May perhaps be hanged at last.* 
 
 Philip was not eleven years old when 
 his father died. Two days before his 
 death, George summoned his son to his 
 bedside, and exhorted him to " set the 
 Lord always before him." " I foresee," 
 said the dying man, " that stormy times 
 are at hand. I have witnessed great 
 things ; but there are greater still in prep- 
 aration. God preserve, and guide you, 
 my son!" After receiving his father's 
 blessing, Philip was sent to Spire, that 
 he might not be present at his father's 
 death. He wept bitterly on taking his 
 departure, 
 
 Reuter, the worthy bailiff, Philip's 
 grandfather, who had a young son of his 
 own, performed a father's part towards 
 the orphan. He took both Philip and 
 
 * Ahnosen geben armt nicht, &c. Wer mehr 
 will verzehren, etc. — (Miiller's Reliquien.) 
 
 21 
 
 his brother George into his own house, 
 and shortly after, engaged John Hun- 
 garus as tutor to the three boys. Hun- 
 garus was an excellent man, and after- 
 wards preached the Gospel with great 
 effect, continuing his labours to an advan- 
 ced age. He never overlooked any fault 
 in the young man, but punished it with 
 discretion : " It was thus," said Melanc- 
 thon, in 1554, " that he made me a 
 grammarian. He loved me as if I had 
 been his son ; I loved him as a father ; 
 and I trust that we shall meet in 
 heaven."* 
 
 Philip was remarkable for the excel- 
 lence of his understanding, his quickness 
 in acquiring, and his talent for commu- 
 nicating knowledge. He could never 
 be idle, but was always seeking for some 
 one with whom he might discuss the 
 things he had heard, f It often hap- 
 pened, that learned foreigners passed 
 through Bretten, and visited Reuter. 
 On such occasions, the bailiff's grand- 
 son immediately accosted them, engaged 
 them in conversation, and pressed them" 
 so closely on the subjects discussed, that 
 by-standers were astonished. 
 
 To a powerful genius he united great 
 sweetness of disposition, and thus gained 
 the favour of all who knew him. He 
 had an impediment in his speech ; but, 
 following the example of the illustrious 
 Grecian orator, he laboured with so 
 much perseverance to overcome this de- 
 fect, that in after life no traces of it were 
 perceptible. 
 
 On the death of his grandfather, young 
 Philip was sent with his brother and his 
 uncle John to the school of Pforzheim. 
 The young boys lodged with one of 
 their female relations, who was sister to 
 the celebrated Reuchlin. Thirsting for 
 knowledge, Philip, under the tuition of 
 George Simler, made rapid progress in 
 learning, and especially in the Greek 
 language, to which he was passionately 
 devoted. Reuchlin often visited Pforz- 
 heim. At his sister's house he became 
 acquainted with her young inmates, and 
 was very much struck with Philip's an- 
 
 * Dilcxit me ut filium, et ego eum ut patrem ; 
 et conveniemus, spero, in vita sterna. — (Me- 
 laucth. Expl. Evang.) 
 
 t Quiescere non poterat, sed qusrebat ubique 
 aliquem cum quo de auditis disputaret. — (Came- 
 rarius, Vita Melancth. p. 7.) 
 
162 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 swers. He presented him with a Greek 
 grammar and a Bible. These two 
 books were destined to be the study of 
 his whole life. 
 
 When Reuchlin returned from his 
 second journey into Italy, his young re- 
 lation, who was then twelve years old, 
 celebrated the day of his arrival by acting 
 in his presence, with some friends, a 
 , Latin comedy of his own composing. 
 Reuchlin, delighted with the young 
 man's talent, tenderly embraced him, 
 called him his beloved son, and, smi- 
 ling, placed upon his head the red hat 
 he had received when he was made doc- 
 tor. It was at this time that Reuchlin 
 changed his name of Schwarzerd for that 
 of Melancthon. Both words signify 
 black earth, the one in the German, the 
 other in Greek. Most of the learned 
 men of those times translated their names 
 into Greek or Latin. 
 
 At twelve years of age Melancthon 
 went to the university of Heidelberg. 
 It was there he began to slake his thirst 
 for knowledge. At fourteen he was 
 made bachelor. In 1512 Reuchlin in- 
 vited him to Tubingen, where many 
 eminent scholars were assembled. He 
 attended the lectures of the theologians, 
 the physicians, and the jurisconsults. 
 There was no kind of knowledge that 
 he deemed unworthy of pursuit. He 
 sought not for fame, but for the possession 
 and advantage of learning-. 
 
 Holy Scripture especially engaged his 
 attention. Those who frequented the 
 church of Tubingen had remarked that 
 he had frequently a book in his hand, 
 which he read between the services. 
 The mysterious volume seemed larger 
 than the ordinary mass books : and a re- 
 port was circulated that Philip on such 
 occasions read some profane author. 
 But it turned out that the suspected 
 book was a copy of the Holy Scriptures, 
 recently printed at Bale by John Frobe- 
 nius. He continued to use this book all 
 hjs life, with the most diligent attention. 
 He always carried about him this pre- 
 cious volume, taking it with him to the 
 various public assemblies which he was 
 called on to attend.* Rejecting the vain 
 systems of the schoolmen, he adhered to 
 the plain word of God, Erasmus, wri- 
 ting at that time to CEcolampadius, thus 
 * Camerar. Vita Philip. Melancthonis, p. 16. 
 
 expresses himself: "I have the highest 
 opinion and the most brilliant expecta- 
 tions of Melancthon. May our Lord so 
 order events, that he may long survive 
 us ! He will altogether eclipse Eras- 
 mus."* 
 
 Nevertheless, Melancthon then par- 
 took of the errors of his time. " I shud- 
 der," — said he, at an advanced period of 
 his life, " when I think of the supersti- 
 tious respect I paid to images, while I 
 was yet a Papist."! 
 
 In 1514, he was made Doctor of Phi- 
 losophy, and began to lecture publicly. 
 He was then seventeen. The grace 
 and charm which he ( communicated to 
 his instructions formed a striking con- 
 trast to the tasteless method then fol- 
 lowed by the doctors, and especially by 
 the monks. He took an active part in 
 the contest in which Reuchlin was en- 
 gaged with the ignoramuses of his time. 
 Agreeable in conversation, gentle and 
 graceful in manners, and beloved by all 
 who knew him, he soon acquired great au- 
 thority and established reputation among 
 the learned. 
 
 It was at this time that the Elector 
 Frederic formed the design of inviting 
 some man of distinguished learning to 
 become professor of the ancient lan- 
 guages in his university in Wittem- 
 berg. He applied to Reuchlin, who rec- 
 ommended Melancthon. Frederic fore- 
 saw the celebrity that the young Gre- 
 cian would confer on an institution so 
 dear to him — and Reuchlin, overjoyed 
 at so favourable an opening for his 
 young friend, wrote to him in the words 
 of the Lord to Abraham ; " Get thee 
 out from thy country, and from thy 
 kindred, and from thy father's house, and 
 I will make thy name great, and thou 
 shalt bo a blessing." " Yes," continued 
 the old man, " I trust it will be thus 
 with thee, my dear Philip, my disciple 
 and my joy."! Melancthon acknowl- 
 edged the voice of God in this summons. 
 All the university grieved at his depar- 
 ture : yet were there some who envied 
 and hated him. He bade farewell t<> 
 his native place, exclaiming, " The will 
 
 "* Erasmi Epist. i. p. 405 
 
 t Horresco quando cogito qnomodo ipse acces- 
 serim ad statuas in papatu. — (Explicat. Jyrang.) 
 
 t Meum opus et meum duatiam. — (Corp. Ret", 
 i. 33.) 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 163 
 
 of the Lord be done !" He was then one- 
 and-twenty. 
 
 Melancthon performed the journey on 
 horseback in company with some Saxon 
 merchants, as in the desert the traveller 
 joins a caravan : for, as Reuchlin says, 
 " he knew neither the roads nor the 
 towns they had to pass through."* At 
 Augsburg he waited on the Elector, who 
 was stopping there. At Nuremberg he 
 made acquaintance with the excellent 
 Pirckheimer, and at Leipzig with the 
 learned Grecian Mosellanus. The uni- 
 versity of this latter city gave a feast in 
 his honour. The repast was truly aca- 
 demical. A variety of dishes were intro- 
 duced in succession, and as each was 
 put upon the table, one of the professors 
 rose and addressed a studied Latin 
 speech to Melancthon. The latter an- 
 swered impromptu. At last, tired of so 
 much eloquence, he said, " My learned 
 friends, suffer me to answer once for all 
 to your orations ; for, being entirely un- 
 prepared, I am unable to infuse into my 
 replies so much variety as you have in- 
 troduced in your addresses." After this 
 the dishes were brought in without the 
 accompanying orations, f 
 
 Melancthon arrived at Wittemberg on 
 the 25th of August, 1518, two days after 
 Leo X. had signed the brief addressed 
 to Cajetan, and the letter to the Elector. 
 
 The professors of Wittemberg did not 
 receive Melancthon so graciously as 
 those of Leipzig had done. Their first 
 impression of him did not answer the 
 expectation they had formed. They be- 
 held a young man, who looked even 
 younger than he really was, of small 
 stature, and of a shy and timid demean- 
 our. Is this the famous Doctor, thought 
 they, that the great men of our day, such 
 as Erasmus and Reuchlin, so highly 
 extol 1 . . . . Neither Luther, to whom 
 he first introduced himself, nor Luther's 
 colleagues, conceived any great hopes 
 of him, when they remarked his youth, 
 his diffidence, and his retiring man- 
 ners. 
 
 On the 29th of August, being four 
 days after his arrival, he delivered his 
 inaugural discourse. The whole uni- 
 versity was convened on the occasion. 
 
 * Des Wegs mid der Orte unbekannt. — (Ibid. 
 30.) 
 
 t Camcr. Vita Mel. 26. 
 
 The lad,* as Luther calls him, spoke 
 such elegant Latin, and manifested so 
 much learning, so cultivated an under- 
 standing, and such sound judgment, that 
 all his auditors were astonished. 
 
 When he had concluded his speech, 
 all crowded around him to offer their 
 congratulations ; but no one felt more 
 delighted than Luther. He hastened to 
 communicate to his friends the senti- 
 ments of his heart. " Melancthon," said 
 he, writing to Spalatin on the 31st of 
 August, " delivered, only four days after 
 his arrival, so beautiful and learned an 
 oration that it was heard by all with ap- 
 probation and astonishment. We soon 
 got over the prejudices we had conceived 
 from his personal appearance ; we now 
 extol and admire his eloquence. We 
 thank the prince and yourself for the 
 service you have done us. I can wish 
 for no better Greek master. But I fear 
 that our poor fare will not suit his deli- 
 cate frame, and that we shall not keep 
 him long with us, on account of the 
 smallness of his allowance. 1 hear that 
 the people of Leipzig are already brag- 
 ging that they will be able to carry him 
 off from us. Beware, my dear Spalatin. 
 of despising this youth. The young man 
 is worthy of the highest honour."! 
 
 Melancthon began at once to expound 
 Homer and St. Paul's Epistle to Titus. 
 He was full of ardour. " I will use 
 every endeavour," he wrote to Spalatin, 
 " to win the favour of those at Wittem- 
 berg, who love learning and virtue." 
 Four days after his inauguration, Luther 
 again wrote to Spalatin : 
 
 " I commend to your special regard 
 that most learned and very amiable Gre- 
 cian, Philip. His lecture room is always 
 crowded. All the theologians, especially, 
 attend his lectures. He puts them all, 
 whether they be in the upper, the lower, 
 or the middle classes, upon learning 
 Greek."| 
 
 Melancthon, on his part, felt he could 
 return Luther's affection. He soon dis- 
 cerned in him a kindness of disposition, 
 a strength of mind, a courage, and a 
 wisdom, which till then he had never 
 
 * Puer et adolescentulus, si astatem consideres. 
 (L. Epp. i. 141.) 
 
 t L. Epp. i. 135. 
 
 X Summos cum mediis et infimis studiosos facit 
 graecitatis. — (L. Epp. i. 140.) 
 
164 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 found in any man. He revered and 
 Joved him. " If there he any one," said 
 he, " that I love and embrace with my 
 whole heart, it is Martin Luther."* 
 
 With such feelings did Luther and 
 Melancthon meet ; and their friendship 
 continued till death. We cannot suffi- 
 ciently admire the goodness and wisdom 
 of God, in bringing together two men so 
 different, and yet so necessary to each 
 other. Melancthon was as remarkable 
 for calmness, prudence, and gentleness, as 
 Luther was for wisdom, impetuosity, and 
 energy. Luther communicated vigour 
 to Melancthon : — Melancthon moderated 
 Luther. They were like positive and 
 negative agents in electricity, by whose 
 reciprocal action an equilibrium is main- 
 tained. If Melancthon had not been at 
 Luther's side, the torrent might have 
 overflowed its banks: — when Luther 
 was not by, Melancthon faltered, and 
 gave way even where he ought not.f — 
 Luther did much by potter : — Melanc- 
 thon did no less, perhaps, by following a 
 slower and gentler method. Both were 
 upright, open-hearted, and generous ; 
 both, full of" love for the word of eternal 
 life, proclaimed it with a fidelity and 
 devotion which governed their whole 
 lives. 
 
 Melancthon' s appearance wrought a 
 revolution, not merely in Wittemberg, 
 but throughout Germany and the learned 
 world. The study he had applied to the 
 Greek and Latin classics and philosophy 
 had given an order, clearness, and pre- 
 cision to his ideas which diffused on the 
 subjects he handled a new light and an 
 indescribable beauty. The sweet spirit 
 of the Gospel fertililized and animated 
 all his reflections; and in his lectures 
 the driest sciences appeared clothed with 
 a grace that charmed all hearers. The 
 sterility that the scholastic philosophy 
 had spread over instruction was gone, a 
 new method of teaching and of study was 
 introduced by Melancthon. "Thanks to 
 him," says a distinguished historian of 
 Germany,^ " Wittemberg became the 
 school of the nation." 
 
 * Martinum, si omnino in rebus humanis quid- 
 quam, vehementissime. diligo, et aninio integerri- 
 mo complector. — (Mel. Epp. i. 411.) 
 
 t Calvin, writing to Sleidan, observes: " Do- 
 minus eum fortiore spiritu instruat, ne gravem 
 ex ejus timiditato jacturam sentiat posteritas." 
 
 \ Plank. 
 
 The impulse that Melancthon gave to 
 Luther in his work of translating the 
 Bible, is one of the most memorable cir- 
 cumstances of the friendship between 
 these great men. As early as 1517, 
 Luther had made some attempts towards 
 that translation. He got together as 
 many Greek and Latin books as he 
 could collect. With the aid of his dear 
 Philip, his labour now proceeded with 
 fresh energy. Luther obliged Melanc- 
 thon to take part in his researches, con- 
 sulted him in difficult passages ; and the 
 work, which was destined to be one of 
 the grandest works of the Reformer, ad- 
 vanced more securely and rapidly to its 
 completion. 
 
 Doubtless, the arrival of Melancthon 
 at so critical a moment, brought with it 
 a sweet relaxation to the mind of Luther. 
 Doubtless, in the delightful expansion of 
 a new friendship, and in the midst of 
 the Biblical studies to which he applied 
 himself with fresh zeal, he sometimes 
 altogether forgot Rome, Prierias, Leo, 
 and that ecclesiastical court before which 
 he was to appear. Yet these were brief 
 moments that soon passed away. His 
 thoughts were ever reverting to the aw- 
 ful tribunal before which he was cited 
 by the influence of his implacable ene- 
 mies. With what terror would not the 
 thought have filled a soul desiring aught 
 but the triumph of truth ' But Luther 
 did not tremble in the prospect of it : full 
 of trust in the faithfulness and power of 
 God, he remained firm : and was ready 
 to expose himself alone to the wrath of 
 enemies more terrible than those who 
 had brought Huss to the stake. 
 
 A few days after the arrival of Melanc- 
 thon, and before the decision of the Pope, 
 which removed the citation of Luther 
 from Rome to Augsburg, could be known, 
 Luther wrote thus to Spalatin : — " I do 
 not ask our sovereign to do the least 
 thing in defence of my theses ; — I am 
 willing to be delivered up, and cast alone 
 into the hands of all my adversaries. 
 Let him suffer the storm to exhaust all 
 its rage on me. What I have under- 
 taken to defend, I hope I shall, by Christ's 
 help, be enabled to maintain. As to 
 force, we must needs yield to that, but 
 without forsaking the truth."* 
 
 Luther's courage communicated itself 
 * L. Epp. i. p. 139. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 165 
 
 to others. The gentlest and most timid, 
 beholding the danger that threatened the 
 witness of the truth, found language full 
 of energy and indignation. The prudent 
 and pacific Staupitz wrote to Spalatin on 
 the 7th of September : " Do not cease to 
 exhort the Prince, our master, not to be 
 dismayed by the roaring of the lions. 
 
 " Let the Prince make a stand for the 
 truth, without regarding Luther or Stau- 
 pitz, or the order. Let there be at least 
 one place where we may speak freely 
 and fearlessly. I know that the plague 
 of Babylon (I had almost said, of Rome) 
 is let loose against all who attack the 
 corruptions of those who betray Christ 
 for gain. I, myself, have seen a preacher 
 of the truth pulled out of his pulpit, and, 
 though on a saint's day, bound and drag- 
 ged to prison. Others have witnessed 
 still greater atrocities. Therefore, my 
 dearly beloved, persuade his Highness to 
 continue in his present sentiments."* 
 
 The order for his appearance at Augs- 
 burg, before the cardinal legate, at length 
 arrived. It was now with one of the 
 princes of the Roman Church that Lu- 
 ther had to do. All his friends besought 
 him not to set out.f They feared that a 
 snare might be laid for him on his jour- 
 ney, or a design formed against his life. 
 Some set about finding a place of con- 
 cealment for him. Staupitz himself, the 
 timid Staupitz, was moved at the thought 
 of the danger which threatened that bro- 
 ther Martin whom he had drawn forth 
 from the obscurity of the cloister, and 
 launched upon the agitated sea where 
 his life was now in peril. Ah ! would 
 it not have been better for that poor bro- 
 ther to have remained all his life un- 
 known? It is too late now. Yet he 
 will do all in his power to save him. 
 Accordingly he wrote to him from his 
 convent at Salzburg, on the I5th Sep- 
 tember, imploring him to flee and take 
 refuge with him. " It seems to me," 
 said he, " that the whole world is up in 
 arms,' and combined against the truth. 
 Even so was the crucified Jesus hated ! 
 I see not that you have anything else to 
 expect than persecution. Ere long, no 
 one without the Pope's permission, will 
 be allowed to search the Scriptures, and 
 
 * Jen. Aug. i. p. 384. 
 
 t (Contra omnium amicorum consilium com- 
 parui.) 
 
 to learn Christ from them, which yet is 
 Christ's injunction. Your friends are 
 few in number. God grant to those few 
 friends courage to declare themselves in 
 opposition to your formidable enemies ! 
 Your most prudent course is to leave 
 Wittemberg for a time, and come and 
 reside with me. Then — let us live and 
 die together. This is also the Prince's 
 opinion," adds Staupitz.* 
 
 From different quarters Luther re- 
 ceived alarming information. Count Al- 
 bert of Mansfeldt sent him a message 
 to abstain from setting out, because some 
 great nobles had bound themselves by an 
 oath, to seize and strangle, or drown 
 him.f But nothing could shake his 
 resolution. He would not listen to the 
 Vicar-general's offer. — He will not go 
 and hide in the convent of Salzburg : — 
 he will continue faithfully on that stormy 
 stage where the hand of God has placed 
 him. It is by perseverance in the midst 
 of opposers, by loudly proclaiming the 
 truth in the midst of the world, that 
 the kingdom of the truth is advanced. 
 Why then should he flee ? He is not 
 of those who draw back unto perdition, 
 but of those who believe to the saving 
 of their souls. That word of the Mas- 
 ter, whom he is resolved to serve and 
 love continually, resounds in his heart: 
 " Whosoever shall confess me before 
 men, him will I confess before my Fa- 
 ther which is in heaven." Everywhere, 
 in the history of Luther, and of the Ref- 
 ormation, do we find ourselves in pres- 
 ence of that intrepid spirit, that elevated 
 morality, that boundless charity, which 
 the first establishment of Christianity had 
 exhibited to the world. "I am like 
 Jeremiah," said Luther, at the moment 
 we are speaking of, — " ' a man of strife 
 and contention ;' but the more they in- 
 crease their threatenings, the more they 
 multiply my joy. My wife and children 
 are well provided for. My lands and 
 houses and all my goods are safe4 They 
 have already torn to pieces my honour 
 and my good name. All I have left is 
 my wretched body ; — let them have it ; 
 — they will then shorten my life by a 
 
 * Epp. i. 61. 
 
 t Ut vel stranguler, vel baptizer ad mortem. — 
 (L. Epp. i. 120.) 
 
 t Uxor mea et liberi mei provisi sunt. — (L. 
 Epp. i. 129.) — He had none. 
 
166 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 few hours. But as to my soul, — they 
 shall not have that. He, who resolves 
 to bear the word of Christ to the world, 
 must expect death at every hour ; — for 
 our spouse is a bloody husband unto us."* 
 
 The Elector was then at Augsburg. 
 Shortly before he left that city and the 
 Diet, he pledged himself to the Legate, 
 that Luther sbould appear before him. 
 Spalatin wrote to his friend, by direction 
 of the Prince, that the Pope had named 
 a commission to hear him in Germany ; 
 that the Elector would not suffer him to 
 be carried to Rome ; — and desired him 
 to prepare to set out for Augsburg. Lu- 
 ther resolved to obey. The information 
 he had received from Count Mansfeldt 
 induced him to ask Frederic for a safe- 
 conduct. The latter replied, that it was 
 not needed, and sent him only letters of 
 recommendation to several of the most 
 distinguished counsellors of Augsburg. 
 He, at the same time, forwarded some 
 money for his journey, and the Reformer, 
 poor and unprotected, set forth on foot, to 
 place himself in the power of his adver- 
 saries.! 
 
 With what feelings must he have quit- 
 ted Wittemberg, and directed his steps 
 towards Augsburg, where the Pope's leg- 
 ate awaited him ! The object of his 
 journey was not like that to Heidelberg, 
 — a friendly meeting ; — he was about to 
 appear, without any safe-conduct, before 
 the delegate of Rome ; perhaps he was 
 going to meet death. But his faith was 
 not in word, it was in truth. Therefore 
 it was that it gave him peace ; and he 
 advanced without fear, in the name of 
 the Lord of Hosts, to. bear his testimony 
 to the Gospel. , 
 
 He reached Weimar on the 28th of 
 September, and took up his lodgings in 
 the convent of the Cordeliers. One of 
 the monks could not take his eyes off 
 him. This was Myconius. It was the 
 first time he had seen Luther. He wish- 
 ed to approach him, and whispered that 
 he owed to him the peace of his soul, 
 and that all his desire was to labour with 
 him. But Myconius was closely Avatch- 
 ed by his superiors, and was not permitted 
 to speak to Luther.;); 
 
 * Sic enim sponsus noster sponsus sanguinum 
 nobis est. — (L. Epp. see Exodus, iv. 25.) 
 
 t Veni igitur pedester et pauper Augustam. 
 . . . — (L. Opp. Lat. in prsef.) 
 
 X Ibi Myconius primum vidit Lutherum : sed 
 
 The Elector of Saxony then held his 
 court at Weimar, and it is probable that, 
 on that account, the Cordeliers received 
 the Doctor. The day after his arrival 
 was the festival of St. Michael : — Luther 
 said mass, and was even invited to preach 
 in the Castle Chapel. It was a mark of 
 favour that his Prince took pleasure in 
 conferring upon him. He preached from 
 an overflowing heart, in the presence of 
 the court, on the text of the day, which 
 is in Matthew's Gospel, ch. xviii. verses 
 1 to 1 1. He spoke strongly against hyp- 
 ocrites, and such as boast of their own 
 righteousness. But he said not a word 
 of the angels, though it was the invari- 
 able custom to do so on St. Michael's 
 day. 
 
 The courage of the Doctor, who was 
 repairing quietly on foot to attend a sum- 
 mons, which, for so many before him, 
 had been a summons to die, astonished 
 those who beheld him. Interest, won- 
 der, and compassion successively took 
 possession of their hearts. John Kest- 
 ner, provisor of the Cordeliers, struck 
 with apprehension at the thought of the 
 dangers that awaited his guest, said : 
 " My brother, you have to meet Italians 
 at Augsburg. They are shrewd people, 
 subtle antagonists, and will give you 
 enough to do. I fear you will not be 
 able to defend your cause against them. 
 They will cast you into the fire, and the 
 flames will consume you."* Luther 
 answered gravely : " My dear friend, 
 pray to our Lord God, who is in heaven, 
 and put up a pater noster for me and for 
 his dear child Jesus, whose cause is mine, 
 — that he may be favourable to him. If 
 He maintains his cause, mine is safe ; but 
 if He will not maintain it, certainly it is 
 not in me to maintain it; and it is He 
 who will bear the dishonour." 
 
 Luther continued his journey on foot, 
 and arrived at Nuremberg. Being about 
 to present himself before a prince of the 
 church, he wished to make a suitable 
 appearance. The dress he wore was old, 
 and much the worse for his journey. He 
 therefore borrowed a monk's frock of his 
 faithful friend Wenceslaus Link, the 
 preacher at Nuremberg. 
 
 ab accessu et colloquio ejus tunc est prohibitus. 
 — (M. Adami Vita Myconii, p. 176.) 
 
 * Profect6 in ignem te conjicient, et flammis 
 exurent. — (Melch. Adam. Vita Myconii, p. 176, 
 Ref. Hist. p. 30.) 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 167 
 
 Doubtless Luther did not call on Link 
 alone, but visited his other friends at 
 Nuremberg, and among them Scheurl, 
 the town-clerk, Albert Durer, the cele- 
 brated painter, (to whose memory that 
 town is at this time erecting a statue,) 
 and others. He was confirmed in his 
 resolution by his intercourse with these 
 excellent ones of the earth, whilst many- 
 monks as well as laity caught the alarm 
 at his journey, and besought him to turn 
 back. The letters he wrote from this 
 town breathe the spirit which then ani- 
 mated him: "I find," said he, "men of 
 cowardly spirit, who wish to persuade me 
 not to go to Augsburg ; but I am deter- 
 mined to go on. May the Lord's will 
 be done ! Even at Augsburg, and in 
 the midst of his enemies, Christ reigns. 
 Let Christ be exalted, and the death of 
 Luther or any other sinner, is of little 
 moment. As it is written, ' May the 
 God of my salvation be exalted !' Fare- 
 well ! persevere, stand fast, for we must 
 be rejected t either by men or by God: 
 but God is true, and man is a liar."* 
 
 Link and Leonard, an Augustine 
 monk, could not bear to let Luther en- 
 counter alone the dangers that threatened 
 him. They knew his disposition, and 
 that, overflowing as he was with self-de- 
 votion and courage, he would probably 
 be wanting in prudence. They there- 
 fore accompanied him. When they 
 were within five leagues of Augsburg, 
 Luther, who was no doubt suffering from 
 the fatigue of his journey, and the agita- 
 tion of his mind, was seized with violent 
 pains in the stomach. He thought he 
 should die. His two friends, much 
 alarmed, engaged a waggon. They ar- 
 rived at Augsburg in the evening of Fri- 
 day, the 7th of October, and alighted at 
 the convent of the Augustines. Luther 
 was much exhausted; but he rapidly-re- 
 covered ; and doubtless his faith and the 
 vivacity of his mind greatly conduced to 
 his restoration to health. 
 
 Immediately on his arrival, and before 
 he had seen any one, Luther, desiring 
 to show every mark of respect to the Leg- 
 ate, begged Wenceslaus Link to go to 
 his house, to announce that he was in 
 
 * Vitat Christus ; moriatur Martinus . . . . 
 — (Weismanni, Hist. Sacr. Novi Test. p. 1465.) 
 Weismann had read this letter in manuscript. 
 It is not in the collection of M. de Wette. 
 
 Augsburg. Link did so, and respect- 
 fully intimated to the Cardinal, on behalf 
 of the Doctor of Wittemberg, that the 
 latter was ready to appear before him 
 whenever he should require his attend- 
 ance. De Vio was rejoiced at this in- 
 telligence. At length, then, he had the 
 hot-headed heretic in his power ; he in- 
 wardly resolved that he should not leave 
 Augsburg as he had entered it. At the 
 same time that Link waited upon the 
 Legate, the monk Leonard went to an- 
 nounce to Staupitz Luther's arrival at 
 Augsburg. The Vicar-general had pre- 
 viously written to the Doctor, to say he 
 would certainly visit him as soon as he 
 arrived. Luther lost no time in inform- 
 ing him of his presence.* 
 
 The Diet was over. The Emperor 
 and the Electors had already left the 
 place. The Emperor, it is true, had not 
 finally taken his departure, but was hunt- 
 ing in the environs. The representative 
 of Rome alone remained at Augsburg. 
 Had Luther arrived whilst the Diet was 
 sitting, he would have met powerful 
 friends ; but everything now seemed 
 likely to yield before the papal authority. 
 
 The Judge before whom Luther was 
 to appear was not of a character to calm 
 his apprehensions. Thomas de Vio, who 
 was surnamed Cajetan from the Town 
 of Gaeta, in the kingdom of Naples, 
 where he was born (1469), was one of 
 whom great expectations had been enter- 
 tained from his youth. At sixteen he 
 had entered into the order of the Domin- 
 icans, contrary to the express wish of his 
 parents. He had afterwards become 
 general of his order, and cardinal of the 
 church of Rome. But what boded ill 
 to Luther, the learned Doctor was one 
 of the most zealous advocates of that 
 scholastic theology which the Reformer 
 had so severely handled. His learning, 
 the austerity of his disposition, and the 
 purity of his morals, ensured to him an 
 influence and authority in Germany, 
 which other Roman courtiers would not 
 easily have acquired. It was to his rep- 
 utation for sanctity, no doubt, that he 
 owed his appointment. Rome had cal- 
 culated that this would admirably serve 
 her purposes. Thus even the good qual- 
 ities of Cajetan made him still more 
 formidable. Besides, the affair entrusted 
 * Epp. i. p. 144. 
 
168 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. • 
 
 to him was by no means a complicated 
 one. Luther was already declared a 
 heretic. If he would not retract, the 
 Legate's duty must be to send him to 
 prison ; and, if he escaped, to visit with 
 excommunication such as should dare to 
 receive him. This was the course which 
 the dignitary before whom Luther was 
 cited was authorized to take on behalf 
 of Rome.* 
 
 The Reformer had recruited his strength 
 by a night's rest. On the morning of 
 Saturday, the 8th of October, he began 
 to reflect on his strange situation. He 
 was resigned, and was patiently waiting 
 till God's will should be manifested by 
 the progress of events ; he did not wait 
 long. A person, unknown to him, sent 
 him word, as if entirely devoted to his 
 service, that he was coming to visit him, 
 advising him to avoid appearing before 
 the Legate till he had seen him. The 
 message came from an Italian courtier, 
 named Urban de Serra Longa, who had 
 often visited Germany as envoy from the 
 Margrave of Montserrat. He had known 
 the Elector of Saxony, at whose court he 
 had been accredited, and after the Mar- 
 grave's death, he had attached himself to 
 the Cardinal de Vio. 
 
 The art and address of this courtier 
 presented the most striking contrast to 
 the noble frankness, and generous in- 
 tegrity of Luther. The Italian soon 
 arrived at the monastery of the Augus- 
 tines. The Cardinal had sent him to 
 sound the Reformer, and to prepare him 
 for the recantation expected from him. 
 Serra Longa imagined that his long resi- 
 dence in Germany gave him an advan- 
 tage over the other courtiers of the Leg- 
 ate's train ; he expected to make short 
 work with this German monk. He ar- 
 rived, attended by two servants, and pro- 
 fessed to have come of his own accord, 
 from friendship for a favourite of the 
 Elector of Saxony, and out of love to the 
 Church. After having saluted Luther 
 with many professions, the diplomatist 
 added, in a tone of affection : 
 
 " I am come to offer you prudent and 
 good advice. Make your peace with 
 the church. Submit unreservedly to the 
 Cardinal. Retract your calumnies. Rec- 
 ollect the abbot Joachim of Florence ; 
 
 * The Pope's Bull.— (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 
 174.) r 
 
 he, as you know, had put forth heresies, 
 and yet he was afterwards declared no 
 heretic, because he retracted his errors." 
 
 Luther intimated his intention of stand- 
 ing upon his defence. 
 
 Serra Longa. — " Beware of that. 
 Would you presume to enter the lists 
 with the Legate of his Holiness ?" 
 
 Luther. — " If they can prove to me 
 that I have taught any thing contrary to 
 the Romish Church, I will be my own 
 judge, and immediately retract. But 
 the main point is, to ascertain whether 
 the Legate relies more on the authority 
 of St. Thomas than the faith will sanc- 
 tion. If he does, I shall certainly not 
 submit to him." 
 
 Serra Longa. — " Oh, oh ! you intend, 
 then, to offer him battle !" 
 
 Upon this the Italian began to use 
 language which Luther designates as 
 horrible. He asserted that one might 
 maintain false propositions, if they only 
 brought in money and filled the strong 
 box ; that all discussion in the universi- 
 ties concerning the Pope's authority was 
 to be avoided ; but that, on the contrary, 
 it was sound doctrine that the Pontiff 
 might,* by a nod, alter or suppress arti- 
 cles of faith ; with much more in the 
 same strain. But the crafty Italian soon 
 perceived that he was forgetting him- 
 self ; he resumed his former gentleness, 
 and endeavoured to persuade Luther to 
 submit to the Legate in every thing, and 
 to retract his doctrine, his theses, and the 
 oaths he had taken. 
 
 The Doctor, who at first had given 
 some credit to the fair professions of the 
 orator Urban, (as he calls him in his 
 narrative,) began to suspect that they 
 were very hollow, and that he was much 
 more in the interest of the Legate than 
 in his. He therefore spoke with rather 
 more reserve, and contented himself 
 with saying that he was quite ready to 
 be humble and obedient, and to give sat- 
 isfaction in any point in which he might 
 be shewn to be in error. At these 
 words Serra Longa exclaimed, exult- 
 ingly : " I will go directly to the Legate, 
 and you will follow me presently. Every 
 thing will go well, and it will be soon 
 settled."! 
 
 * Et nutu solo omnia abrogare, etiam ea quae 
 fidei assent. — (L. Epp. i. 144.) 
 t L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 179. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 169 
 
 He took his leave, and the Saxon 
 monk, who had more discernment than 
 the Roman courtier, thought within him- 
 self: " This crafty Sinon has been poorly 
 trained by his Greeks."* Luther was 
 divided between hope and fear. Yet 
 hope prevailed. The visit of Serra 
 Longa, whom he afterwards calls a fool- 
 ish meddler,! and his strange assertions, 
 aroused his courage. 
 
 The different counsellors, and other 
 respectable inhabitants of Augsburg, to 
 whom the Elector had recommened Lu- 
 ther, were all eager to visit a man whose 
 name already resounded through all Ger- 
 many. Peutinger, the Imperial coun- 
 sellor, one of the most distinguished pa- 
 tricians in the city, and who often invited 
 Luther to his table, the counsellor Lan- 
 gemantel, Doctor Auerbach of Leipzig, 
 and the two brothers Adelmann, both 
 canons, with several others, repaired to 
 the convent of the Augustines. With 
 cordial friendship they accosted this ex- 
 traordinary man, who had taken a long 
 journey to deliver himself up to the 
 agents of Rome. "Have you a safe-con- 
 duct ?" asked they. " No," replied the 
 intrepid monk. " What boldness !" they 
 exclaimed. " This," said Luther, u was 
 a civil phrase to express my fool-hardi- 
 ness." All joined in entreating him not 
 to go to the Legate without first obtain- 
 ing a safe-conduct from the Emperor 
 himself. It is probable that something 
 had already transpired concerning the 
 papal brief of which the Legate was the 
 bearer. 
 
 " But I came to Augsburg without a 
 safe-conduct," replied Luther, " and I met 
 with no harm." 
 
 " The Elector," resumed Langeman- 
 tel, with affectionate earnestness, "com- 
 mended you to our care ; you ought 
 therefore to follow our directions." 
 
 Doctor Auerbach added his entreaties 
 to those of Langemantel. " We know," 
 said he, " that the Cardinal is, in his 
 heart, enraged against you to the great- 
 est degree.^ We must not trust tnese 
 Italians." § 
 
 * Hunc Sinonem parum consults instructum 
 arte pelasga. — (L. Epp. i. p. 144: see Virgil's 
 jEneid, Book 2.) 
 
 t Mediator ineptus. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Sciunt enim eum in me exacerbatissimum in- 
 tus. quicquid simulet foris. . . — (L. Epp. i. p. 143.) 
 
 § L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 201. 
 22 
 
 The canon Adelmann spoke to the 
 same effect : " They have sent you with- 
 out protection," said he, " and they have 
 neglected to provide you with the very 
 thing which you most need."* 
 
 His friends took upon themselves to 
 obtain the necessary safe-conduct from 
 the Emperor. They then proceeded to 
 tell Luther how many persons of conse- 
 quence were favourably disposed toward 
 him. " The French minister himself, 
 who left Augsburg a few days ago, spoke 
 of you most honourably, "f This re- 
 mark struck Luther, and he remembered 
 it afterwards. Thus some of the most 
 remarkable citizens of one of the first 
 cities in the empire were already gained 
 over to the Reformation. 
 
 Their conversation had reached this 
 point, when Serra Longa returned : — 
 " Come," said he to Luther, " the Cardi- 
 nal is waiting for you. I will myself 
 conduct you to him. But first let me tell 
 you how you must appear in his presence. 
 When you enter the room where he is 
 sitting, you must prostrate yourself with 
 your face to the ground ; when he tells 
 you to rise, you must kneel before him, 
 and you must not stand erect till he 
 orders you to do so.J Remember that it 
 is before a prince of the church you are 
 about to appear. As to the rest, fear 
 nothing ; all will soon be settled without 
 any difficulty."' 
 
 Luther, who had before promised to 
 accompany Serra Longa whenever he 
 should summon him, was embarrassed. 
 However, he did not fail to repeat the 
 advice of his Augsburg friends, and said 
 something of a safe-conduct. 
 
 " Beware of asking any thing of the 
 sort," replied Serra Longa quickly, " you 
 have no need of it whatever. The Leg- 
 ate is well disposed towards you, and 
 quite ready to end the affair amicably. 
 If you ask for a safe-conduct, you will 
 spoil all."§ 
 
 "My gracious lord, the Elector of Sax- 
 ony," replied Luther, " recommended me 
 to several honourable men in this town. 
 They advise me not to venture without a 
 safe-conduct : I ought to follow their ad- 
 vice. Were I to neglect it, and any 
 thing should befal me, they would write 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 203. 
 
 t Seckendorf, p. 144. t Seckendorf, p. 130. 
 
 § L. Opp. (L) 179. 
 
170 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to the Elector, my master, that I would 
 not hearken to them." 
 
 Luther persisted in his resolution ; and 
 Serra Longa Avas obliged to return to his 
 employer, and report to him the failure 
 . of his mission, at the very moment when 
 he fancied it would be crowned with suc- 
 cess. 
 
 Thus ended that day's conference with 
 the orator of Montserrat. ' 
 
 Luther received another invitation, 
 proceeding from very different motives. 
 John Frosch, prior of the Carmelites, 
 was an old friend. Two years before, 
 he had maintained some theses, as a 
 licentiate in theology, under the superin- 
 tendence of Luther. He called on him, 
 and pressed him to come and stay with 
 him. He laid claim to the honour of 
 having the Doctor of all Germany as 
 his guest. Already men did not fear to 
 render him homage in the face of Rome : 
 already the weak was become the strong- 
 er. Luther accepted the invitation, and 
 accordingly removed from the convent 
 of the Augustines to that of the Carme- 
 lites. 
 
 The day did not close without his seri- 
 ously reflecting on his position. The 
 visit of Serra Longa, and the apprehen- 
 sions of the counsellors, concurred to con- 
 vince him of the difficult circumstances 
 in which he stood. Nevertheless, he had 
 God in heaven for his protector, and in 
 His keeping he could sleep in peace. 
 
 The next day was Sunday ; he obtain- 
 ed, a little more rest. However, he was 
 obliged to bear another kind of fatigue. 
 Nothing was talked of in the city but 
 Dr. Luther, and all desired to see (as he 
 wrote to Melancthon) " the new Erostra- 
 tus who had kindled so vast a conflagra- 
 tion." They crowded about him; and 
 the good Doctor, doubtless, smiled at this 
 strange excitement. 
 
 But he had also to support another sort 
 of importunity. If there was a general 
 wish to see him, there was a still greater 
 desire to hear him. He was asked on 
 all sides to preach. Luther had no great- 
 er joy than to proclaim the Gospel. He 
 would have rejoiced to preach Christ in 
 this great city, and in the solemn circum- 
 stances in which he was placed. But on 
 this, as on many occasions, he manifested 
 a most proper feeling of decorum, and 
 much respect- for his superiors. He de- 
 
 clined to preach, in the fear that the Leg- 
 ate might think he did so to vex and to 
 brave him. This moderation and pru- 
 dence were assuredly as valuable instruc- 
 tions as a sermon. 
 
 However, the Cardinal's agents did 
 not let him rest, but returned to the 
 charge. " The Cardinal," said they, 
 " sends you assurances of his grace and 
 favour : why are you afraid ?" And they 
 endeavoured by every possible argument 
 to persuade him to wait upon the Legate. 
 " He is so gracious, that he is like a 
 father," said one of "these emissaries. 
 But another, going close up to him, 
 whispered : " Do not believe what they 
 say. There is no dependence to be 
 placed upon his words."* Luther per- 
 sisted in his resolution. 
 
 On the morning of Monday, the 10th 
 of October, Serra Longa again renewed 
 his persuasions. The courtier had made 
 it a point of honour to succeed in his ne- 
 gotiations. The moment he entered : 
 
 " Why," he asked in Latin, " why do 
 you not go to the Cardinal 2 He is ex- 
 pecting you in the most indulgent frame 
 of mind. With him the whole question 
 is summed up in six letters, — Revoca, — 
 retract. Come, then, with me, you have 
 nothing to fear." 
 
 Luther thought within himself that 
 those were six very important letters ; 
 but without further discussion, he re- 
 plied, 
 
 " As soon as I have received the safe- 
 conduct, I will appear." 
 
 Serra Longa lost his temper at these 
 words. He persisted — he brought for- 
 ward additional reasons for compliance. 
 But Luther was immoveable. The Ital- 
 ian courtier, still irritated, exclaimed : 
 
 " You imagine, no doubt, that the 
 Elector will take up arms in your favour, 
 and risk, for your sake, the loss of the 
 dominions he inherits from his ances- 
 tors." 
 
 Luther. — " God forbid I" 
 
 Serra Longa. — u When all forsake 
 you, where will you take refuge ?" 
 
 Luther, smiling and looking upwards 
 with the eye of faith. — " Under heaven !"f 
 
 For an instant Serra Longa was struck 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 305. 
 f Et ubi manebis ? . . . Respondi : Sub Coelo. 
 — (L. Opp. in praef.) 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 171 
 
 dumb by this sublime and unexpected 
 reply ; — he then continued : 
 
 " How would you act, if you had the 
 Leg-ate, the Pope, and all the Cardinals 
 in your power, as they have you, at this 
 moment, in theirs?" 
 
 Luther. — " 1 would pay them all re- 
 spect and honour. But the word of God 
 is with me — above all." 
 
 Serra Longa, laughing, and moving 
 one of his fingers backward and forward 
 in a maimer peculiar to the Italians. — 
 " Ha ! ha ! all proper honour ! I do not 
 believe a word of it !" 
 
 He then left the house, leaped into his 
 saddle, and disappeared. 
 
 Serra Longa went no more to Luther ; 
 but he long remembered the resistance 
 he had met with from the Reformer, and 
 that which his master was doomed soon 
 after to experience in person. We shall 
 find him again, at a later period, loudly 
 demanding the blood of Luther. 
 
 Shortly after Serra Longa had left Lu- 
 ther, the latter received the safe-conduct. 
 His friends had procured it from the % Im- 
 perial counsellors. It is probable that 
 they had consulted the Emperor on the 
 subject, as he was not far from Augsburg. 
 It would even seem, from what the Car- 
 dinal afterwards said, that, from a wish 
 to avoid offending him, they had asked 
 his consent to their application ; perhaps 
 that may have been the reason why De 
 Vio sounded Luther through Serra Longa ; 
 for to oppose openly the giving him a safe- 
 conduct would have discovered intentions 
 that it was wished to conceal. It seemed 
 a safer policy to persuade Luther himself 
 to desist from the demand. But it soon 
 became evident that the Saxon monk was 
 not likely to yield. 
 
 Luther was about to appear before the 
 Legate. In requiring a safe-conduct, he 
 did not lean upon an arm of flesh, for he 
 well remembered that the Emperor's safe- 
 conduct had not preserved John Huss 
 from the flames. He only desired to do 
 his duty by following the advice of his 
 master's friends. The Lord would de- 
 cide his cause. If God required his life, 
 he was ready joyfully to lay it down. 
 At this solemn moment, he felt the need 
 of once more communicating with his 
 friends, and especially with Melancthon, 
 already so endeared to him ; and he avail- 
 
 ed himself of an interval of leisure to 
 write to him. 
 
 " Shew yourself a man," said he, " as 
 you are ready to do. Instruct the youth 
 of our beloved country in what is right 
 and agreeable to the will of God. As 
 for me, I am going to offer up myself for 
 you and for them,* if it be the Lord's 
 will. I prefer death, yea, even, what to 
 me would be the greatest misfortune, the 
 loss of your valued society, to retracting 
 what it was my duty to teach, and per- 
 haps ruining by my failure the noble 
 cause to which we are devoted. 
 
 u Italy is involved, as Egypt was for- 
 merly, in thick darkness, even darkness 
 which may be felt. The whole nation 
 knows nothing of Christ, nor of what 
 pertains to him. And yet they arc our 
 lords and masters in the faith and in 
 morals. Thus the wrath of God is ful- 
 filled amongst us ; as the prophet says, 
 ' I will give children to be their princes, 
 and babes shall rule over them.' Do your 
 duty to God, my dear Philip, and avert 
 his wrath by fervent and holy prayer." 
 
 The Legate, apprised that Luther 
 would appear the next day before him, 
 called together those in Avhom he had 
 confidence, both Italians and Germans, 
 that he might concert with them how he 
 ought to treat the German monk. Opin- 
 ions were divided. One said, " We must 
 compel him to retract." Another, " We 
 must arrest him and throw him into pris- 
 on." A third was of opinion that it 
 would be better to put him out of the 
 way. A fourth, that it would be expe- 
 dient rather to win him over by gentle- 
 ness and mildness. The Cardinal seems 
 to have resolved, in the first instance, to 
 make trial of this last method, f 
 
 At length the day of conference arrived. J 
 The Legate, knowing that Luther had 
 declared himself willing to retract what- 
 ever should be proved contrary to the 
 truth, was sanguine as to the result : he 
 did not doubt that one of his rank and 
 learning would, without much difficulty, 
 reclaim the monk to obedience to the 
 Church. 
 
 Luther repaired to the house of the 
 
 * Ego pro illis et vobis vado immolari. — (L 
 Epp. i. 146.) 
 
 t L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 113. 
 t Tuesday, 11th of October. 
 
172 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Legate, accompanied by the prior of the 
 Carmelites, his friend and host, by two 
 friars of the convent, by Doctor Link, 
 and by an Augustine, probably the same 
 that had accompanied him from Nurem- 
 berg. Scarcely had he entered the Leg- 
 ate's palace, when all the Italians, who 
 composed the train of this Prince of the 
 Church, flocked round him, desiring to 
 see the famous Doctor, and pressed him 
 so closely that he could hardly proceed. 
 On entering the room where the Cardinal 
 was waiting for him, Luther found him 
 accompanied by the apostolical nuncio 
 and Serra Longa. His reception was 
 cool, but civil ; and, according to Roman 
 etiquette, Luther, following the instruc- 
 tions of Serra Longa, prostrated himself 
 before the Cardinal ; when the latter told 
 him to rise, he knelt ; and when the 
 command was repeated, he stood erect. 
 Several of the most distinguished Italians 
 of the Legate's household entered the 
 room, in order to be present at the inter- 
 view, impatient to see the German monk 
 humble himself before the Pope's repre- 
 sentative. 
 
 The Legate was silent. He expected, 
 says a contemporary, that Luther would 
 begin his recantation. But Luther waited 
 reverently for the Roman Prince to address 
 him. Finding, however, that he did not 
 open his lips, he understood his silence 
 as an invitation to open the business, and 
 spoke as follows : — 
 
 "Most worthy father, upon the sum- 
 mons of his Holiness the Pope, and at the 
 desire of my gracious Lord, the Elector 
 of Saxony, I appear before you, as a 
 humble and obedient son of the holy 
 Christian Church ; and I acknowledge 
 that it was I who published the proposi- 
 tions and theses that are the subject of 
 inquiry. I am ready to listen with all 
 submission to the charges brought against 
 me, and, if I am in error, to be instructed 
 in the truth." 
 
 The Cardinal, who had determined to 
 assume the tone of a kind and compas- 
 sionate father towards an erring child, 
 answered in the most friendly manner, 
 commended Luther's humility, and ex- 
 pressed the joy he felt on beholding it, 
 saying : — " My dear son, you have filled 
 all Germany with commotion by your 
 dispute concerning indulgences. I hear 
 that you are a doctor well skilled in the 
 
 Scriptures, and that you have many fol- 
 lowers. If, therefore, you wish to be a 
 member of the Church, and to have in 
 the Pope a most gracious lord, listen to 
 me." 
 
 After this exordium, the Legate did 
 not hesitate to tell him all that he ex- 
 pected of him, so confident was he of his 
 submission : " Here," said he, " are three 
 articles which, acting under the direction 
 of our most holy Father, Pope Leo the 
 Tenth, I am to propose to you : — 
 
 " First, you must return to your duty ; 
 you must acknowledge your faults, and 
 retract your errors, your propositions, and 
 sermons. Secondly, you must promise 
 to abstain, for the future, from propagating 
 your opinions. And, thirdly, you must 
 engage to be more discreet, and avoid 
 every thing that may grieve or disturb 
 the church." 
 
 Luther. — " Most worthy father, I re- 
 quest to be permitted to see the Pope's 
 brief, by virtue of which you have re- 
 ceived full power to negotiate this affair." 
 
 Serra Longa and the rest of the Italians 
 of the Cardinal's train were struck with 
 astonishment at such a demand, and al- 
 though the German monk had already 
 appeared to them a strange phenomenon, 
 they were completely disconcerted at so 
 bold a speech. Christians familiar with 
 the principles of justice desire to see them 
 adhered to in proceedings against others 
 or themselves ; but those who are accus- 
 tomed to act according to their own will 
 are much surprised when required to 
 proceed regularly and agreeably to form 
 and law. 
 
 De. Vio. — " Your command, my son, 
 cannot be complied with. You have to 
 acknowledge your errors ; to be careful 
 for the future what you teach ; not to 
 return to your vomit ; so that you may 
 rest without care and anxiety ; and then, 
 acting by the command and on the au- 
 thority of our most holy father the Pope, 
 I will adjust the whole affair." 
 
 Luther. — " Deign, then, to inform me 
 wherein I have erred." 
 
 At this request, the Italian courtiers, 
 who had expected to see the poor Ger- 
 man fall upon his knees and implore 
 mercy, were still more astonished than 
 before. Not one of them would have 
 condescended to answer so impertinent 
 a question. But De Vio, who thought 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 173 
 
 it scarcely generous to crush this feeble 
 monk by the weight of all his authority, 
 and trusted, moreover, to his own learn- 
 ing for obtaining an easy victory, con- 
 sented to tell Luther what he was accused 
 of, and even to enter into discussion with 
 him. We must do justice to the general 
 of the Dominicans. It must be acknowl- 
 edged, that he showed more equity, a 
 greater sense of propriety, and less irrita- 
 tion, than have subsequently been ex- 
 hibited in a majority of similar cases. He 
 assumed a tone of condescension, and said, 
 
 " My beloved son ! there are two prop- 
 ositions put forward by you, which you 
 must, before all, retract : — 1st. l The treas- 
 ure of indulgences does not consist of 
 the merits and sufferings of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ :' — 2ndly. ' The man who 
 receives the holy sacrament must have 
 faith in the grace offered to him.' " 
 
 Both these propositions did indeed 
 strike a death-blow at the commerce of 
 Rome. If the Pope had not power to 
 dispose at will of the Saviour's merits, — 
 if, on receiving the paper in which the 
 brokers of the Church traded, men did 
 not acquire a portion of that infinite 
 righteousness, — this paper currency lost 
 its value, and men would count it no 
 better than a mere rag. And thus also 
 with the sacraments. The indulgences 
 were, in some sense, an extraordinary 
 branch of commerce with Rome ; the 
 sacraments made part of her ordinary 
 traffic. The revenue they yielded was 
 by no means small. But to assert that 
 faith was necessary to make them pro- 
 ductive of any real benefit to the soul of 
 the Christian was to rob them of their 
 attraction in the sight of the people. For 
 faith is not in the Pope's gift ; it is be- 
 yond his power, and can come from God 
 alone. To declare its necessity was, 
 therefore, to snatch irom the hands of 
 Rome both the speculation and the prof- 
 its attached to it. In assailing these 
 two doctrines, Luther had followed the 
 example of Christ himself. In the very 
 beginning of his ministry, he had over- 
 turned the tables of the money-changers, 
 and driven the dealers out of the temple. 
 " Make not my Father's house a house of 
 merchandise." 
 
 Cajetan continued : " I will not 'bring 
 forward the authority of St. Thomas, and 
 the other scholastic doctors, to confute 
 
 these errors ; I will rest entirely on the 
 holy Scriptures, and speak to you in per- 
 fect friendship." 
 
 Nevertheless, when De-Vio proceeded 
 to bring forward his proofs, he departed 
 from the rule he had laid down.* He 
 combated Luther's first proposition by an 
 Extravagance or Constitution] of Pope 
 Clement ; and the second by all sorts of 
 opinions from the scholastic divines. The 
 discussion turned at its outset upon this 
 constitution of the Pope in favour of in- 
 dulgences. Luther, indignant at hear- 
 ing what authority the Legate attributed 
 to a decree of Rome, exclaimed : 
 
 " I cannot receive such constitutions as 
 sufficient proofs on subjects so important. 
 For they wrest the holy Scriptures, and 
 never quote them to the purpose." 
 
 De Vio. — " The Pope has authority 
 and power over all things." 
 
 Luther [warmly). — " Save the Scrip- 
 tures."^ 
 
 De Vio {in derision). — "Save the Scrip- 
 tures ! . . . Do not you know that the 
 Pope is higher than the Councils, for he 
 has recently condemned and punished 
 the council of Bale." 
 
 Luther. — " But the university of Paris 
 has appealed against his decision." 
 
 De Vio. — " Those gentlemen of Paris 
 will receive their desert." 
 
 The Cardinal and Luther then pro- 
 ceeded to discuss the second article, 
 namely, the faith that Luther declared to 
 be necessary to render the sacraments 
 efficacious. Luther, pursuing his usual 
 method, quoted, in favour of the opinion 
 that he maintained, several passages of 
 Scripture. But the Legate received them 
 with derision. " It is of faith in general 
 that you are speaking now," said he. 
 " Not so," replied Luther. One of the 
 Italians, the Legate's master of the cere- 
 monies, provoked at Luther's resistance 
 and answers, was burning with desire 
 to speak. He often attempted to inter- 
 rupt the conversation ; but the Legate 
 commanded silence. At last he was 
 obliged to reprove him in so authori- 
 tative a tone, that the master of the cere- 
 monies left the room in confusion. § 
 
 * L. Opp. (L) xvii. p. 180. 
 
 t This name is given to certain Constitutions 
 of the Popes, collected and appended to the 
 Canon Law. 
 
 X Salva Scriptura. § L Opp. (L.) xvii. p. ' 180. 
 
174 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " As to indulgences," said Luther to 
 the Legate, " if you .can prove to me 
 that I am mistaken, I am ready to re- 
 ceive instruction. We may leave that 
 subject open, without compromising our 
 faith as Christians. But as to that other 
 article, c6ncerning faith, if I yielded any 
 thing there, I should be denying Christ. 
 I cannot, therefore, and I will not yield 
 that point, and by God's help I will hold 
 it to the end. 1 ' 
 
 De Vio [beginning to lose temper), — 
 " Whether you will or will not, you must 
 this very day retract that article, or else 
 for that article alone, I will proceed to 
 reject and condemn all your doctrine." 
 
 Luther, — " I have no will but the 
 Lord's. He will do with me what seem- 
 eth good in his sight. But had I a hun- 
 dred heads, I would rather lose them all 
 than retract the testimony I have borne 
 to the holy Christian faith." 
 
 De Vio. — " I am not come here to ar- 
 gue with you. Retract, or prepare to 
 endure the punishment you have de- 
 served."* 
 
 Luther clearly perceived that it was 
 impossible to end the affair by a confer- 
 ence. His adversary was seated before 
 him as though he himself were Pope, 
 and required a humble submission to all 
 that he said to him, whilst he received 
 Luther's answers, even when grounded 
 on the holy Scriptures, with shrugs and 
 every kind of irony and contempt. He 
 thought the most prudent plan would be 
 to answer the Cardinal in writing. This 
 means, thought he, offered at least one 
 consolation to the oppressed. Others 
 might then give their judgment of the 
 affair : and the unjust adversary, who, 
 by clamour, remained master of the 
 field, might be overawed by the public 
 voice, f 
 
 Having, therefore, shown a disposition 
 to withdraw: "Do you wish," said the 
 Legate to him, " that I should give you 
 a safe-conduct to repair to Rome ?" 
 
 Nothing would have pleased Cajetan 
 better than the acceptance of this offer. 
 He would thus have got rid of an affair 
 of which he began to perceive the diffi- 
 culties, and Luther and his heresy woujd 
 have fallen into the hands of those who 
 would have known how to deal with 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 180, 183, 206, &c. 
 t L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 209. 
 
 them. But the Reformer, who was sen- 
 sible of the dangers that surrounded him 
 even at Augsburg, took care to refuse an 
 offer that would have delivered him up, 
 bound hand and foot, to the vengeance 
 of his enemies. He rejected the propo- 
 sal as often as De Vio chose to repeat 
 it : which he did several times. The 
 Legate concealed the chagrin he felt at 
 Luther's refusal • he assumed an air of 
 dignity, and dismissed the monk with a 
 compassionate smile, under which he en- 
 deavoured to hide his disappointment, and, 
 at the same time, with the politeness of 
 one who hopes to have better success 
 another time. 
 
 Hardly had Luther reached the court- 
 yard of the palace, when the loquacious 
 Italian, the master of the ceremonies, 
 whom the Cardinal's reprimands had 
 obliged to leave the hall of audience, de- 
 lighted at being able to speak to him out 
 of the hearing of Cajetan, and eager to 
 confound the abominable heretic by his 
 overpowering arguments, ran after him. 
 and, before he came up with him, began 
 to deal out his sophisms. But Luther, 
 disgusted with the man's folly, answered 
 him with one of those sarcastic rebukes 
 which he always had at command, and 
 the master of the ceremonies, quite con- 
 founded, turned back and slunk abashed 
 to the Cardinal's palace. 
 
 Luther had not been impressed with 
 a very high opinion of his dignified ad- 
 versary. He had heard from him, as he 
 afterwards wrote to Spalatin, assertions 
 which were quite contrary to sound the- 
 ology, and which, in the mouth of an- 
 other, would have been considered arch- 
 heresies. And yet De Vio was looked 
 upon as the most learned of the Domini- 
 cans. Next to him stood Prierias. ' : We 
 may judge from this," said Luther, "what 
 those must be who fill the tenth or the 
 hundredth rank!"* 
 
 On the other hand, the noble firmness 
 of the Doctor of Wittemberg had greatlv 
 surprised the Cardinal and all his cour- 
 tiers. Instead of a poor monk, suing 
 abjectly for pardon, they beheld a man oi 
 independent spirit, an undaunted Chris- 
 tian, an enlightened Doctor, who required 
 them to bring proofs to support their un- 
 just accusations, and courageously defend- 
 ed his own doctrine. The inmates of 
 * L. Epp. i. 173. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 175 
 
 Cajetari's palace exclaimed with one 
 voice against 'the pride, obstinacy, and 
 effrontery of the heretic. Luther and 
 De Vio had learned to know one an- 
 other, and both were preparing them- 
 selves for a second interview. 
 
 A joyful surprise awaited Luther on 
 his return to the convent of the Carme- 
 lites. The Vicar-general of the order 
 of the Augustines, his friend, his father, 
 Staupitz, had arrived there. Not having 
 been able to prevent Luther from going 
 to Augsburg, Staupitz gave his friend a 
 new and affecting proof of his attach- 
 ment, by joining him in that city, with 
 the hope of rendering him some service. 
 This excellent man foresaw that the con- 
 ference with the Legate would have 
 momentous results. His fears and his 
 friendship for Luther combined to dis- 
 turb him. It was a balm to the Reform- 
 er's heart, after that trying conference, to 
 embrace so precious a friend. He related 
 to him how he had found it impossible to 
 obtain a satisfactory answer, and how he 
 had been required to recant without even 
 an attempt to convict him of error. " You 
 must absolutely," said Staupitz, " answer 
 the Legate in writing." 
 
 After what he had heard of this first 
 interview, Staupitz expected no good re- 
 sult from any succeeding one. He there- 
 fore determined upon a step which he 
 thought present circumstances made ne- 
 cessary ; he decided to release Luther 
 from the obligation of obedience to his 
 order. Staupitz proposed by this means 
 to attain two objects : if, as he could not 
 but forebode, Luther should fail in his 
 undertaking, this proceeding would pre- 
 vent the disgrace of his condemnation 
 from being reflected on his whole order ; 
 and if the Cardinal should enjoin him to 
 oblige Luther to silence or to a recanta- 
 tion, he would have an excuse for non- 
 compliance.* This ceremony was gone 
 throuodi in the usual forms. Luther 
 clearly perceived all that it foreboded. 
 His mind was deeply affected by the 
 breaking of ties that he had formed in 
 the enthusiasm of youth. The order 
 he had chosen now rejected him. His 
 natural protectors forsook him. Already 
 he was become a stranger to his breth- 
 ren. But though his heart was oppressed 
 
 * Darinn ihn Staupitz von dem Kloster-Ge- 
 horsam absolvirt. — (Math. 15.) 
 
 with sorrow at the thought, he recovered 
 his serenity by looking to the promises of 
 a faithful God, who has said . " I will nev- 
 er leave thee ; 1 will never forsake thee." 
 
 The Imperial counsellors, having inti- 
 mated to the Legate through the Bishop 
 of Trent that Luther was provided with 
 the Emperor's safe-conduct, at the same 
 time cautioning him against taking any 
 steps against the Reformer's person, De 
 Vio, in a silent passion, abruptly answer- 
 ed in the true Romish style, " Be it so : 
 but I shall do what the Pope enjoins 
 me."* We know what the Pope's in- 
 junctions were. 
 
 The next dayf both parties prepared 
 for a second interview, which seemed 
 likely to be decisive. Luther's friends, 
 intending to accompany him to the Leg- 
 ate's palace, repaired to the convent of 
 the Carmelites. The Dean of Trent 
 and Peutinger, both Imperial counsellors, 
 and Staupitz, arrived one after the other. 
 Besides these, Luther soon had the plea- 
 sure of Welcoming the knight Philip 
 von Feilitzsch, and Doctor Ruhel, coun- 
 sellors of the Elector, who had received 
 orders from their master to be present at 
 the conferences, and to watch over Lu- 
 ther's personal safety. They had arrived 
 at Augsburg on the previous evening. 
 They were commissioned to keep close 
 to him, says Mathesius, as the knight 
 Chlum stood by John Huss at Constance. 
 The Doctor also took a notary with him, 
 and, accompanied by all his friends, re- 
 paired to the Legate's palace. 
 
 As they set out Staupitz drew close to 
 Luther ; he felt all that his friend would 
 have to endure ; he kneAV that if his eye 
 were not directed towards the Lord, who 
 is the deliverer of his people, he must 
 sink under his trial : " My dear brother," 
 said he, solemnly, " ever bear in mind 
 that you entered on these struggles in 
 the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."! 
 It was thus that God encompassed his 
 humble servant with consolations and 
 encouragement. 
 
 Luther, on arriving at the Cardinal's, 
 found there a new opponent : this was 
 the prior of the Dominicians of Augs- 
 burg, who was seated beside his superior. 
 Luther, in conformity with his resolu- 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 201. 
 t Wednesday, 12th Oct 
 t Seckend. p. 137. 
 
176 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tion, had put his answer in writing. 
 The customary salutations being gone 
 through, he read, with a firm voice, the 
 following declaration : 
 
 " I declare that I honour the holy Ro- 
 man Church, and, moreover, that I will 
 continue to do so. I have sought after 
 truth in my public disputations, and what 
 I have taught, I, to this hour, regard as 
 right, true, and christian. Nevertheless 
 I am but a man, and I may be mistaken. 
 I am therefore willing to be instructed 
 and corrected wherever I may have 
 erred. I declare myself ready to answer 
 by word of mouth, or in writing, all ob- 
 jections and all charges that the illustri- 
 ous Legate may bring against me. I 
 declare myself willing to submit my 
 theses to the decision of the four univer- 
 sities of Bale. Fribourg in Brisgau, Lou- 
 vain, and Paris, and to retract whatever 
 they shall declare to be erroneous. In 
 a word, I am ready to do all that can be 
 required of a christian man. But I sol- 
 emnly protest against the method that 
 has been pursued in this affair, and 
 against that strange assumption which 
 would oblige me to retract, without hav- 
 ing convicted me of error." 
 
 Undoubtedly nothing could be more 
 consonant with reason than these propo- 
 sals of Luther, and they must have greatly 
 embarrassed a judge who had been previ- 
 ously instructed Avhat judgment he was to 
 pronounce. The Legate, who was quite 
 unprepared for this protest, endeavoured 
 to hide his confusion, by affecting a 
 laugh, and putting on the semblance of 
 mildness. 
 
 " This protest," he said to Luther with 
 a smile, "is quite unnecessary; I will not 
 dispute with you in public or in private, 
 but my wish is to settle the whole affair 
 with paternal tenderness."* 
 
 It was the policy of the Cardinal to 
 lay aside the strict forms of justice, 
 which afford protection to the accused, 
 and to treat the matter as an affair of ad- 
 ministration, between a superior and his 
 inferior ; — a convenient method, as it 
 leaves the fullest scope to the exercise of 
 arbitrary power. 
 
 Continuing in the most affectionate 
 tone :-*-" My dear friend," said De Vio, 
 " I beseech you to abandon this useless 
 
 * Loscher, ii. 463. L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 181, 
 209. 
 
 design ; but rather return to a sense of 
 duty, acknowledge the truth, and behold 
 me ready to reconcile you to the Church, 
 and to the supreme bishop. . . . Retract, 
 my friend, retract ; such is the Pope's 
 will. Whether it be your will or not, 
 matters little ; you would find it hard to 
 kick against the pricks. ..." 
 
 Luther, who saw himself already 
 treated as a rebellious child, rejected by 
 the Church, exclaimed : " I cannot re- 
 tract ! but I offer to answer, and in wri- 
 ting. We had enough of contention — 
 yesterday."* 
 
 De Vio was provoked at this .expres- 
 sion, which reminded him that he had 
 not acted with sufficient discretion ; but 
 he recovered himself, and said, smiling : 
 
 " Contention ! my dear son ; I did not 
 contend with you. I am as little in- 
 clined as yourself to contention ; but to 
 gratify his Highness the Elector Frede- 
 ric, I am ready to hear you, and exhort 
 you as a friend and a father." 
 
 Luther did not understand why the 
 Legate should have taken umbrage at 
 the phrase he had made use of; for, 
 thought he to himself, if I had not wished 
 to be courteous, I should not have said 
 " contend," but " dispute" and " quarrel," 
 for that was what we really did yester- 
 day. 
 
 However, De Vio, who felt that, be- 
 fore the respectable witnesses present at 
 the conference he must at least appear to 
 convince Luther and endeavour to crush 
 him by argument, reverted to the two 
 propositions which he had pointed out as 
 fundamental errors, fully resolved to al- 
 low the Reformer the fewest possible op- 
 portunities of reply. Relying on Italian 
 volubility, he overwhelmed him with 
 objections without waiting for an answer. 
 Sometimes he sneered, sometimes he 
 chided ; he declaimed with passionate 
 energy ; he jumbled together the most 
 incongruous things ; quoted St. Thomas 
 and Aristotle ; exclaimed and raved 
 against all who differed from them ; and 
 broke out in invective against Luther. 
 Again and again the latter attempted to 
 reply ; but the Legate instantly inter- 
 rupted him and overwhelmed him with 
 threats. "Recant! recant I" was the 
 burthen of his harangue ; he stormed, 
 enacted the dictator, and put down all 
 * Digladiatum.— (L. Epp. i. p. 181.) 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 17? 
 
 effort to reply.* Staupitz undertook to 
 stop the Legate. " Deign to allow Doc- 
 tor Martin time to answer," said* he. 
 But the Legate resumed his harangue : 
 he quoted the extravagances and the 
 opinions of St. Thomas : he had resolved 
 to have all the talk to himself. Unable 
 to convince, and fearing to strike, he 
 would at least stun by his violence. 
 
 Luther and Staupitz clearly perceived 
 that they must not only forego all hope 
 of enlightening De Vio by discussion, 
 but also of making any useful confession 
 of the faith. Luther, therefore, renewed 
 the request he had made at the begin- 
 ning of the interview, and which the 
 Cardinal had then eluded. And not be- 
 ing permitted to speak, he requested that 
 he might he allowed at least to put his 
 answer in writing and send it to the 
 Legate. Staupitz seconded his request ; 
 several of the company present joined in 
 his solicitations ; and Cajetan, in spite 
 of his dislike to> written documents,: — 
 for he remembered that such documents 
 are lasting, — at length consented. They 
 separated. The hope which had been 
 conceived that the affair might be termi- 
 nated at this interview was thus ad- 
 journed, and it was necessary to await 
 the result of the ensuing conference. 
 
 The permission granted to Luther by 
 the general of the Dominicans to take 
 time for reflection, and to write his an- 
 swer to the two distinct allegations 
 brought against- him relating to the in- 
 dulgences — and to~ faith, — was undoubt- 
 edly no more than strict justice ; and yet 
 we must give De Vio credit for it, as a 
 mark of moderation and impartiality. 
 
 Luther left the Cardinal's palace rejoic- 
 ing that his just request had been 
 granted. In his way to and from the 
 palace, he was the object of general at- 
 tention. Enlightened men were inter- 
 ested in his cause, as if they themselves 
 were about to stand upon their trial. It 
 was felt that it was the cause of the 
 gospel, of justice, and of liberty, which 
 was then to be pleaded at Augsbnrg. 
 The lower orders alone sided with Caje- 
 tan, and they, doubtless, gave the Reform- 
 er significant proofs of their disposition, 
 for he took notice of it.f 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 181, 209.— Decies ferfe 
 coepi ut loquerer, toties rursus tonabat et solus 
 regnabat. + L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 186. 
 
 It daily became more evident that the 
 Legate would hear nothing from him 
 save the words, " I retract ;" and those 
 words Luther was determined not to ut- 
 ter. What issue could be looked for in 
 so unequal a struggle? How could it 
 for a moment be thought that the whole 
 power of Rome, arrayed _ against one 
 man, could fail in the end to crush him? 
 Luther saw all this : lie fit the pressure 
 of that heavy hand under which he had 
 dared to place himself; he despaired of 
 ever returning to Wittemberg, of seeing 
 his dear Philip again, and once more 
 finding himself encircled by those noble 
 youths in whose hearts he so delighted 
 to sow the seeds of everlasting life. He 
 saw the sentence of excommunication 
 suspended over his head, and did not 
 doubt that it would shortly fall upon him.* 
 These forebodings distressed him, but 
 did not cast him down. His trust in 
 God was not shaken. God may, in- 
 deed, destroy the instrument he has 
 hitherto made use of-; but he will main- 
 tain the truth. Whatever may happen, 
 Luther must defend it to the last. With 
 these feelings, therefore,, he began to pre- 
 pare the protest he intended to present 
 to the Legate. It seems he devoted to 
 that purpose a part of the 13th of Octo- 
 ber. 
 
 On the following day, Luther returned 
 to the Cardinal's palace, attended by the 
 counsellors of the Elector. The Italians 
 crowded round him as usual, and a num- 
 ber of them were present at the con- 
 ference. Luther stepped forward and pre- 
 sented his protest to the Legate. The 
 Cardinal's attendants gazed intently on 
 his writing, in their eyes so daring and 
 presumptuous. The following is the dec- 
 laration which the Doctor of Wittem- 
 berg handed to their master : — f 
 
 " You charge me upon two points. 
 And first you bring against me the con- 
 stitution of Pope Clement VI., in which 
 it is asserted that the treasure of indul- 
 gences is the merit of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and of the saints ; an assertion 
 which I deny in my theses. 
 
 "-Panormitanus," continues he, (apply- 
 ing that designation to Ives, Bishop of 
 Chartres, towards the close of the eleventh 
 century, and author of the famous collec- 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 185. 
 t L. Opp. (L) xvii. 187. 
 
178 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tion of ecclesiastical law called Panormia) 
 — " Panormitanus in his first book de- 
 clares, that, in what pertains to our 
 holy faith, not only a General Council, 
 but even a private Christian, is above 
 the Pope, if he can adduce clearer testi- 
 mony from the Scriptures, and better 
 reasons.* The voice of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ is far above the voice of all men, 
 by whatever names they may be called. 
 " What most disturbs me and excites 
 my most painful reflections is, that this 
 constitution contains in it many things 
 altogether contrary to the truth. First, 
 it asserts that the merits of the saints form 
 a treasury ; — whilst the whole volume of 
 Scripture testifies that God rewards us 
 far more richly than we have deserved. 
 The prophet exclaims : ' Enter not into 
 judgment with thy servant, O Lord, for 
 in thy sight shall no man living be justi- 
 fied.'! ' Woe to man,' says St. Augustine, 
 'however honourable and praiseworthy 
 his life may be, if God were to pronounce 
 a judgment upon him from which mercy 
 should be excluded. 'J 
 
 " Thus, then, the saints are not saved 
 by their merits, but solely by the mercy 
 of God, as I have declared. I maintain 
 this, and I take my stand upon it. The 
 words of holy Scripture, which teach us 
 that the saints have not merit enough, 
 ought to be more regarded than those 
 words of men, which affirm that they 
 have merits in superabundance. For 
 the Pope is not above, but under the 
 authority of the word of God." 
 
 Luther did not stop there : he shewed 
 that if the indulgences could not consist 
 in the merits of the saints, neither could 
 they consist in the merits of Christ. He 
 proved that the indulgences were barren 
 and unprofitable, since they had no other 
 effect than to excuse men from good 
 works, such as prayer, alms, &c. " No," 
 he exclaimed, "the righteousness of Christ 
 Jesus is not a treasure of indulgences, ex- 
 cusing us from good works, but a treasure 
 of grace quickening us to perform them. 
 The righteousness of Christ is applied to 
 the faithful, not by indulgences, not by 
 the keys, but by the Holy Ghost alone, 
 
 * Ostendit in materia, fidei non modb generate 
 concilium esse super papam sed etiam quemlibet 
 fidelium, si melioribus nitatur auctoritate et rati- 
 one quam papa. — (L. Opp. lat. i. p. 209.) 
 
 t Ps. 143. 2. t Confess ix. 
 
 and not by the Pope. If any one holds 
 an opinion resting on better foundations 
 than mine," added he, in concluding 
 what referred to this first point, " let him 
 make it known, and then will I retract." 
 
 " I have affirmed," said he, adverting 
 to the second charge, " that no man can 
 be justified before God except by Faith ; 
 so that it is necessary that a man should 
 believe with a perfect confidence that he 
 has received pardon. To doubt of this 
 grace is to reject it. The faith of the 
 just is his righteousness and his life."* 
 
 Luther supported his proposition by 
 many texts from Scripture. 
 
 " Deign, then, to intercede in my be- 
 half with our most holy lord the Pope 
 Leo X., that he may not treat me with 
 so much severity. My soul seeks the 
 light of truth. I am not so proud, nor 
 so set upon vain-glory, that I should be 
 ashamed to retract, if I had taught what 
 is not agreeable to the truth. My greatest 
 joy will be to see the triumph of that 
 doctrine which is according to the mind 
 of God. Only let me not be forced to do 
 any thing that is against my conscience." 
 
 The Legate took the declaration which 
 Luther presented, and, after looking it 
 over, said coolly : " You have wasted 
 many words, and written what is little 
 to the purpose : you have replied very 
 foolishly to the two charges brought 
 against you, and you have covered your 
 paper with numerous passages from the 
 holy Scriptures that have no reference 
 whatever to the subject." De Vio then 
 with a contemptuous gesture threw down 
 Luther's protest, as if unworthy of his 
 regard ; and resuming the tone which 
 had in some degree been successful in 
 the last interview, he renewed the cry 
 that Luther must retract. The latter was 
 inflexible. "Brother! brother!" cried 
 De Vio in Italian, " when you were last 
 here you were very docile, but to-day 
 you are altogether intractable." Then 
 the Cardinal began a long speech, bor- 
 rowed from the writings of St. Thomas ; 
 he again extolled with all his might the 
 constitution of Clement VI. ; he persisted 
 in maintaining that, in virtue of that con- 
 stitution, the very merits of Christ are 
 distributed to the faithful by means of the 
 indulgences : he thought he had silenced 
 
 * Justitia justi et vita ejus, est fides ejus. — (L. 
 Opp. lat. i. p. 211.) 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 179 
 
 Luther. The latter at times attempted 
 to speak ; but De Vio scolded and thun- 
 dered on without intermission, and, as on 
 the previous occasion, claimed the sole 
 right to be heard. 
 
 This manner of proceeding had on the 
 first occasion been in some measure suc- 
 cessful ; — but Luther was not a man to 
 bear with it a second time. His indig- 
 nation at length broke forth, and it was 
 now his turn to astonish the bystanders, 
 who thought him already conquered by 
 the prelate's volubility. He raised his 
 sonorous voice : he took up the Cardinal's 
 favourite objection, and made him pay 
 dearly for his temerity in entering the 
 lists against him. " Retract ! retract !" 
 repeated De Vio, shewing him the con- 
 stitution of the Pope. " Well !" said 
 Luther, " only prove to me, by this con- 
 stitution, that the treasure of indulgences 
 is the very merit of Christ, and I consent 
 to retract, according to the will and pleas- 
 ure of your eminence . . ." 
 
 The Italians, who had not expected 
 this, exulted at his words, and could not 
 repress their joy at seeing the adversary 
 at length taken in the toils. As to the 
 Cardinal, he was like one beside him- 
 self; he laughed aloud — but it was an 
 indignant and angry laugh ; he stepped 
 forward, took up the volume containing 
 the famous constitution, turned over the 
 leaves, found the passage, and elated with 
 the' advantage he thought he had secured, 
 read it aloud with breathless eagerness.* 
 The Italians were now triumphant ; the 
 counsellors of the Elector were anxious 
 and embarrassed ; Luther waited the 
 right moment. At last, when the Car- 
 dinal came to these words, " The Lord 
 Jesus Christ acquired this treasure by 
 his sufferings," Luther interrupted him ; 
 " Most worthy father," said he, " deign to 
 consider this passage well, and to medi- 
 tate upon it carefully: ' He has acquired.'! 
 Christ has acquired a treasure by his 
 merits ; the merits then are not the treas- 
 ure ; for, to speak with philosophic pre- 
 cision, the cause is a different thing from 
 that which flows from it. The merits 
 of Christ have acquired for the Pope the 
 power of giving such indulgences to the 
 people ; but they are not the very merits 
 
 * Legit fervens et anhelans. — (L. Epp. i. p- 
 145.) 
 t Acquisivit. — (L. Epp. i. p. 145.) 
 
 of the Lord which the Pope distributes. 
 Thus, then, my conclusion is true, and 
 this constitution, which you so loudly 
 appeal to, testifies with me to the truth 
 which I declare." 
 
 De Vio still held the book in his hand; 
 his eyes still rested on the fatal passage : 
 the inference was unanswerable. Be- 
 hold him taken in the very net he had 
 spread for another ; and Luther, with a 
 strong hand, held him fast, to the utter 
 astonishment of the Italian courtiers who 
 surrounded him. The Legate would 
 have eluded the difficulty ; but all re- 
 treat was closed. From an early stage 
 of the discussion he had given up the 
 testimony of the Scriptures, and that of 
 the Fathers ; and had sheltered himself 
 under this extravagance of Clement VI., 
 and now he was taken in his strong hold. 
 Still he was too artful to betray his em- 
 barrassment. In order to conceal his 
 confusion, the Cardinal abruptly changed 
 the subject, and vehemently attacked 
 Luther on other points of difference. 
 Luther, who detected this skilful man- 
 oeuvre, drew tighter on every side the 
 net in which he had taken his opponent, 
 making it impossible for him to escape : 
 " Most reverend father," said he, in a 
 tone of irony, veiled under the semblance 
 of respect, " your Eminence must not 
 suppose that we Germans are altogether 
 ignorant of grammar : to be a treasure, 
 and to purchase a treasure, are two very 
 different things." 
 
 " Retract !" exclaimed De Vio, " re- 
 tract ! or I will send you to Rome, there 
 to appear before the judges commissioned 
 to take cognizance of your cause. I will 
 excommunicate you and all your parti- 
 zans, and all who shall at any time coun- 
 tenance you ; and will cast them out of 
 the Church. Full power has been given 
 to me for this purpose by ,the holy apos- 
 tolic see.* Think you that your protect- 
 ors will stop me? Do you imagine that 
 the Pope can fear Germany? The 
 Pope's little finger is stronger than all 
 the princes of Germany put together."! 
 
 " Condescend," replied Luther, " to for- 
 ward the written answer I have given 
 you to Pope Leo X., with my most hum- 
 ble prayers." 
 
 The Legate at these words, glad to 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 197. 
 t L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1331. 
 
180 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 have a momentary respite, again assumed 
 an air of dignity, and turning to Luther, 
 said, in a haughty and angry tone : 
 
 " Retract, or return no more !"* 
 
 The expression struck Luther. He 
 must now answer in another manner 
 than by words. He made an obesiance 
 and withdrew. The counsellors of the 
 Elector followed, and the Cardinal and 
 his Italians, left alone, looked at each 
 other, utterly confounded at such a result 
 of the discussion. 
 
 Luther and De Vio never met again : 
 but the Reformer had made a powerful 
 impression on the Legate, which was 
 never entirely effaced. What Luther 
 had said concerning faith, what De Vio 
 read in the subsequent writings of the Doc- 
 tor of Wittemberg, considerably changed 
 the Cardinal's sentiments. The theolo- 
 gians of Rome saw with surprise and 
 dissatisfaction the opinions touching jus- 
 tification which he brought forward in his 
 commentary upon the Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans. The Reformation did not recede, 
 nor did the Reformer retract ; but his 
 judge, who had so repeatedly command- 
 ed him to retract, changed his views, — 
 and himself indirectly retracted his er- 
 rors. Thus the unshaken fidelity of the 
 Reformer was crowned with reward. 
 
 Luther returned to the monastery where 
 he had been a guest. He had stood 
 firm : he had borne witness to the truth ; 
 he had done what it was his duty to do ; 
 God would do the rest. His heart over- 
 flowed with joy and peace. 
 
 However, the tidings that were brought 
 him were not encouraging ; a rumour 
 prevailed throughout the city that, if he 
 did not retract, he was to be seized and 
 thrown into a dungeon. The Vicar-gen- 
 eral of the order, Staupitz himself,! it 
 was asserted, had given his consent to 
 this. Luther could not believe that his 
 friend would act in this manner. No! 
 Staupitz could not betray him! As to 
 the designs of the Cardinal, his own 
 words had thrown sufficient light upon 
 them. Yet Luther would not flee from 
 the danger ; his life, as well as the truth 
 itself, was in powerful keeping, and, in 
 spite of all these threatenings, he deter- 
 mined not to leave Augsburg. 
 
 * Revoca aut non revertere. — (L. Opp. (L.) 
 xvii. 202.) 
 
 t L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 210. 
 
 The Legate soon repented of his vio- 
 lence ; he felt that he had forgotten the 
 part it was his policy to play, and wish- 
 ed to resume it. Hardly had Stau- 
 pitz dined, (for the interview had taken 
 place in the morning, — and dinner was 
 served at noon,) when he received a mes- 
 sage from the Cardinal, inviting him to 
 his house. Staupitz repaired thither, ac- 
 companied by Wenceslaus Link.* The 
 Vicar-general found the Legate alone 
 with Serra Longa. De Vio immediately 
 advanced towards Staupitz, and addressed 
 him in the gentlest manner : — " Try 
 now," said he, " to prevail upon your 
 monk and induce him to retract. Really, 
 I am pleased with him on the whole, and 
 he has no better friend than myself." f 
 
 Staupitz. — " I have already done my 
 endeavours, and I will now again advise 
 him humbly to submit to the church." 
 
 De Vio. — " You must give him prop- 
 er answers to the arguments that he ad- 
 duces from the Scriptures." 
 
 Staupitz. — " I must confess, my lord, 
 that that is beyond my power ; for Doc- 
 tor Martin is more than a match for me, 
 both in acuteness and in knowledge of 
 the Scriptures." 
 
 The Cardinal smiled, we may imag 
 ine, at the Vicar-general's frank confes- 
 sion. His own experience, moreover, 
 had taught him the difficulty of convict- 
 ing Luther of error. He continued, ad- 
 dressing himself to Link as well as to 
 Staupitz : 
 
 " Are you aware that, as favourers of 
 heretical doctrine, you are yourselves ex- 
 posed to the penalties of the church?" 
 
 Staupitz. — " Deign to resume the con- 
 ference with Luther, and open a public 
 disputation on the controverted points." 
 
 De Vio, alarmed at the thought of such 
 a measure, exclaimed, — " I will argue no 
 more with the beast. Those eyes of his 
 are too deeply set in his head, and his 
 looks have too much meaning in them." J 
 
 Staupitz finally obtained the Cardinal's 
 promise that he would state in writing 
 what he required Luther to retract. 
 
 The Vicar-general then returned to 
 Luther. In some degree shaken by the 
 representations of the Cardinal, he en- 
 
 * Ibid. p. 204. t Ibid. p. 185. 
 
 X Ego nolo amplius cum hac bestia disputare. 
 Habet enim profundos oculos et mirabiles specu- 
 lationes in capite suo. — (Myconius, p. 33.) 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 181 
 
 deavoured to lead him to some conces- 
 sion. " Refute then," said Luther, " the 
 Scriptures I have brought forward." — 
 " That is beyond my power," said Stau- 
 pitz. — " Very well," replied Luther, " my 
 conscience will not allow me to retract 
 until those passages of Scripture can be 
 shewn to have another meaning. And 
 so," continued he, "the Cardinal pro- 
 fesses his willingness to settle the affair 
 in this way, without subjecting me to 
 disgrace or detriment. Ah ! these are 
 fine Italian words, but, in plain Ger- 
 man, they mean nothing less than my 
 everlasting shame and ruin. What bet- 
 ter can he look for who, from fear of man 
 and against his own conscience, denies 
 the truth?"* 
 
 Staupitz desisted ; he merely informed 
 Luther that the Cardinal had consented 
 to send him in writing the points on 
 which he required his recantation. He 
 then, doubtless, acquainted him with his 
 intention of leaving Augsburg, where he 
 had now nothing more to do. Luther 
 communicated to him a purpose he had 
 formed for comforting and strengthening 
 their souls. Staupitz promised to return, 
 and they separated for a short time. 
 
 Left alone in his cell, Luther's thoughts 
 turned towards the friends most dear to 
 his heart. His thoughts wandered to 
 Weimar and to Wittemberg. He wished 
 to tell the Elector what was passing, and 
 thinking there might be impropriety in 
 addressing the Prince in person, he 
 wrote to Spalatin, and begged the chap- 
 lain to let his master know the state of 
 his affairs. He related to him all that 
 had passed, even to the promise the 
 Legate had just made to send a state- 
 ment of the controverted points in wri- 
 ting. He concluded, by saying :f " Thus 
 the matter stands ; but I have neither 
 hope nor confidence in the Legate. I 
 am resolved not to retract a single sylla- 
 ble. I shall publish the answer that I 
 have put into his hands, in order that, if 
 he proceed to violence, he may be cov- 
 ered with shame in the sight of all Chris- 
 tendom." 
 
 The Doctor next availed himself of 
 the few moments that were still remain- 
 ing, to send tidings of himself to his friends 
 at Wittemberg. 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 129. 
 t L. Epp. 149. 
 
 " Peace and happiness !" he wrote to 
 Doctor Carlstadt. " Accept these few 
 words in place of a long letter : for time 
 and events are pressing. Another time 
 I hope to write to you and others more 
 fully. For three days my affair has 
 been in hand, and things are at such 
 a point that I have no longer a hope 
 of seeing you again, and have nothing 
 to expect but excommunication. The 
 Legate will not allow me to defend my- 
 self, either publicly or in private. His 
 wish, he tells me, is to act the part of 
 a father, not of a judge ; and yet he 
 will hear nothing from me but the words: 
 'I retract, and acknowledge that I have 
 been in error.' And those are words 
 I will not utter ! The peril in which 
 my cause is placed is so much the great- 
 er, because it is judged not only by 
 implacable enemies, but even by men 
 incapable of understanding its merits. 
 However, the Lord God lives and reigns : 
 to His keeping I commend myself; and 
 I doubt not that in answer to the prayers 
 of pious souls, He will send me deliv- 
 erance : / seem to feel that prayer is being 
 made for me ! 
 
 "Either I shall return to you unhurt; 
 or else under a sentence of excommuni- 
 cation ; I must seek shelter elsewhere. 
 
 " Whatever may happen to me, quit 
 yourself manfully ; stand fast, and glorify 
 Christ joyfully and without fear. . . . 
 
 " The Cardinal always styles me 'his 
 dear son.' I know how little that means. 
 Still I am persuaded I should be to him 
 one of the dearest and most acceptable of 
 men, if I would but pronounce the single 
 word : ' Revoca. ) But I will not become 
 a heretic by renouncing the faith that 
 has made me a christian. Better far 
 would it be — to be cast out and accursed, 
 and perish at the stake. 
 
 " Farewell, my dear Doctor ! show 
 this letter to our theologians, — to Ams- 
 dorff, to Philip, to Otten, and to others, 
 in order that you may pray for me, and 
 also for yourselves ; for it is your cause 
 also that is now trying. It is the cause 
 of the faith of Jesus Christ, and of the 
 grace of God."* 
 
 Sweet thought ! which ever fills with 
 
 consolation and peace the hearts of those 
 
 who have borne witness to Jesus Christ, 
 
 to his divinity and grace, when the world 
 
 * L. Epp. i. 159. 
 
182 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 rains upon them from all sides its cen- 
 sures, its interdicts, and its scorn ! " Our 
 cause is the cause of faith in the Lord." 
 And what sweetness also in the convic- 
 tion expressed by the Reformer : " / seem 
 to feel that I am prayed for." The Ref- 
 ormation was a work of prayer and of 
 piety toward God. The struggle be- 
 tween Luther and De Vio was, in truth, 
 one of a religious principle, then re-ap- 
 pearing in full vigour, with the expiring 
 strength of the disputatious dialectics of 
 the middle age. 
 
 Thus did Luther converse with his ab- 
 sent friends. Staupitz soon returned ; 
 Doctor Ruhel and the knight FeiKtzsch, 
 both of them sent by the Elector, also 
 visited him, after taking leave of the Car- 
 dinal. Some other friends of the Gospel 
 joined them ; and Luther, seeing thus as- 
 sembled together these noble-minded men, 
 who were soon to be parted from each 
 other, and from whom he himself was 
 about, perhaps, to be for ever separated, 
 proposed that they should join in cele- 
 brating the Lord's Supper. The propo- 
 sal was agreed to ; and this little assem- 
 bly of the faithful partook of the body 
 and blood of Christ. What must have 
 been the feelings of the Reformer's friends 
 at the moment when, as they celebrated 
 with him the Lord's Supper, they reflected 
 that this was perhaps the last time that 
 this privilege would be allowed him. 
 What joy and love must have filled the 
 heart of Luther in the consciousness of 
 being so graciously accepted by his Mas- 
 ter, at the very moment when men were 
 rejecting him. How solemn must have 
 been that supper ! How sacred that 
 evening !* 
 
 The next day,f Luther expected to re- 
 ceive the instructions which the Legate 
 was to send to him. 
 
 But, not receiving any message from 
 him, he requested his friend, Doctor Wen- 
 ceslaus Link, to wait upon the Cardinal. 
 De Vio received Link most affably, and 
 assured him that he wished to take the 
 most friendly course. " I no longer con- 
 sider Doctor Martin Luther a heretic," 
 added he ; "I will not, at this time, ex- 
 communicate him, unless I receive fur- 
 ther instructions from Rome : for I have 
 sent his answer to the Pope by an ex- 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 178. 
 t Sunday, 15th Oct. 
 
 press." Then, to give a proof of his good 
 intentions towards him, he added ■ " If 
 Doctor Luther would only retract on 
 the subject of indulgences, the business 
 would soon be concluded ; for, as to faith' 
 in the sacraments, that is an article that 
 every one may interpret and understand 
 in his own way." Spalatin, who relates 
 this, adds this sarcastic but just observa- 
 tion : " Whence it is evident, that Rome 
 attaches more importance to money than 
 to our holy faith and the salvation of 
 souls."* 
 
 Link returned to Luther. He found 
 Staupitz there, and gave an account of 
 his visit. When he mentioned the un- 
 expected concession of the Legate : " It 
 would have been well," said Staupitz, 
 " if Doctor Wenceslaus had had a notary 
 and witnesses with him, to have taken 
 down that speech in writing ; for, if such 
 a proposal were made public, it would do 
 no small prejudice to the cause of these 
 Romans." 
 
 However, the more the Roman prelate 
 softened his tone, the more confirmed the 
 honest Germans were in their distrust of 
 him. Several of those trustworthy per- 
 sons to whom Luther had been recom- 
 mended held a council together : " The 
 Legate," said they, " is preparing some 
 mischief, through this courier he speaks 
 of, and it is much to be feared that you 
 will all be seized and cast into prison." 
 
 Staupitz and Wenceslaus, therefore, 
 determined to leave the town ; they em- 
 braced Luther, who persisted in remain- 
 ing at Augsburg, and directed their course 
 by two different roads to Nuremberg, not 
 without many misgivings as to the fate 
 of the magnanimous witness whom they 
 were leaving behind them. 
 
 Sunday passed very quietly. Luther 
 waited in vain for a message from the 
 Legate: the latter sent none. He then 
 determined to write to him. Staupitz 
 and Link, before they set out, had beg- 
 ged him to treat the Cardinal with all 
 possible respect. Luther had not yet 
 made trial of Rome and her envoys ; it 
 was his first experience. If his humble 
 deference did not succeed he would know 
 what to expect in future. But now, at 
 least, he must make trial of it. As to 
 his own share in the matter, not a day 
 passed in which he did not condemn 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 182. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 183 
 
 himself, and mourn over his proneness to 
 use expressions stronger than the occa- 
 sion required ; why should he not con- 
 fess to the Cardinal what he every day 
 confessed to God? Besides, Luther's 
 heart was easily affected by kindness, 
 and he suspected no evil. He therefore 
 took up his pen, and with a feeling of 
 repectful goodwill, wrote to the Cardinal 
 as follows :* 
 
 " My very worthy father in God, I 
 approach you once more, not personally, 
 but by letter, entreating your fatherly 
 kindness graciously to listen to me. 
 
 " The reverend Doctor Staupitz, my 
 very dear father in Christ, has advised 
 me to humble myself, to mistrust my own 
 judgment, and to submit my opinion to 
 the judgment of pious and impartial 
 men. He also commended your fatherly 
 kindness, and has fully convinced me of 
 your friendly disposition towards me. 
 This intelligence has filled me with joy. 
 
 " Now, therefore, most worthy father, 
 I confess, as I have already done before, 
 that as I have not shown, (as they tell 
 me,) sufficient diffidence, gentleness, and 
 respect for the name of the sovereign 
 pontiff; and though my opponents have 
 given me great provocation, I now see 
 that it would have been better to have 
 conducted my cause more meekly, cour- 
 teously, and reverently, and not to have 
 answered a fool according to his folly, 
 lest I should be like unto him. 
 
 " This grieves me very much, and I 
 ask pardon. I will publicly acknowl- 
 edge it from the pulpit, as indeed I have 
 often done before. I will endeavour, by 
 the grace of God, to speak differently. I 
 will do more ; I am ready to promise of 
 my own accord, not again to say a single 
 word on the subject of indulgences, if 
 this business is arranged. But then, let 
 those also who led me to begin it be 
 compelled, on their part, to moderate 
 their discourses, or to be silent. 
 
 " So far as the truth of what I have 
 taught is concerned, the authority of St. 
 Thomas and of the other doctors cannot 
 satisfy me. I must hear (if I am worthy 
 to do so) the voice of the spouse, which 
 is the Church. For it is certain she 
 hears the voice of the bridegroom, Christ. 
 
 " I therefore, in all humility and sub- 
 mission, entreat you to refer this matter, 
 
 * This letter bears date the 17th October. 
 
 hitherto so unsettled, to our most holy 
 lord, Leo X., in order that the Church 
 may decide, pronounce, and ordain, and 
 that those who shall be called on to re- 
 tract, may do so with a good conscience, 
 or believe in all sincerity."* 
 
 In reading this letter, another reflec- 
 tion occurs to us. We see that Luther 
 did not act upon a preconceived plan, 
 but solely in obedience to convictions suc- 
 cessively impressed upon his mind and 
 heart. Far removed from any settled 
 scheme or preconcerted opposition, he 
 was sometimes, without suspecting it, in 
 contradiction with himself; earlier con- 
 victions were still standing in his mind, 
 although their opposites had already 
 found a place there. And yet it is in 
 these characters of truth and sincerity 
 that some have spught for objections to 
 the Reformation; it is because it followed 
 that necessary law of progression, im- 
 posed in every thing on the human mind, 
 that some have written the history of its 
 variations ; it is in those very features that 
 mark its sincerity; and make it honour- 
 able, that one of eminent genius has seen 
 the most powerful objections against it.f . . 
 Strange perverseness of the mind of man ! 
 
 Luther received no answer to his let- 
 ter. Cajetan and all his courtiers, after 
 being so violently agitated, had suddenly 
 become motionless. What could be the 
 reason of this? Might it not be that 
 calm which precedes a storm? Some 
 viewed the delay in the light in which 
 Pallavicini has represented it. " The 
 Cardinal was waiting," says he, " till the 
 proud monk, like an inflated bellows, 
 should gradually lose the wind which 
 filled him, and become humble. "\ Those 
 who thought they better understood the 
 ways of Rome, felt sure that the Legate 
 intended to arrest Luther, but that, not 
 daring to proceed to such extremities on 
 his own authority, on account of the Im- 
 perial safe-conduct, he was awaiting an 
 answer from Rome to his message. 
 Others could not believe that the Cardi- 
 nal would wait so long. " The Emper- 
 or Maximilian," they said, (and in this 
 they might speak the truth,) " will no more 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) 198. 
 
 t Bossuet, Hist, des Variations. — (Liv. i. p. 25, 
 &c.) 
 
 X Ut follis ille ventosa elatione distantus ... (p. 
 40.) 
 
184 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 scruple to give up Luther for trial by the 
 Church, notwithstanding his safe-conduct, 
 than Sigismund did to surrender Huss to 
 the Council of Constance. The Legate 
 is perhaps now in communication with 
 the Emperor. The sanction of Maximil- 
 ian may every hour be expected. The 
 more opposed he was before to the Pope, 
 the more does he seem to seek to please 
 him ; and so it will be till the crown 
 of the empire encircles his grandson's 
 brows." Not a moment was to be lost. 
 " Draw up an appeal to the Pope-," said 
 the kind-hearted men who surrounded 
 Luther ; '• Draw up an appeal to the Pope, 
 and leave Augsburg without delay/' 
 
 Luther, whose presence in that city 
 had for the last four days been utterly 
 useless, and who had sufficiently proved, 
 by remaining after the departure of the 
 Saxon counsellors sent by the Elector to 
 watch over his safety, that he feared no- 
 thing, and was ready to answer for him- 
 self, yielded at last to the wishes of his 
 friends. But first he resolved to inform 
 De Vio of his intention ; he wrote to him 
 on the Tuesday, the eve of his departure. 
 This letter was in a bolder strain than 
 the former. Seeing his advances were 
 unavailing, Luther seems to erect him- 
 self in the consciousness of his right, and 
 of the injustice of his enemies. 
 
 •• Most worthy father in God," he 
 wrote to De Vio, " your parental kind- 
 ness has witnessed, yea. witnessed and 
 sufficiently acknowledged my obedience. 
 I have undertaken a long journey, in the 
 midst of dangers, in great weakness of 
 body, and notwithstanding my extreme 
 poverty, at the command of our most holy 
 lord, Leo X. ; — I have personally appear- 
 ed be-fore your eminence ; — and lastly, I 
 have thrown myself at the feet of his 
 Holiness, and now wait his good pleasure, 
 ready to submit to his judgment, whether 
 he condemn or acquit me. 1 therefore 
 feel that I have left nothing undone that 
 becomes an obedient son of the Church. 
 
 " It is my intention, therefore, not use- 
 lessly to prolong my stay here ; it is in- 
 deed impossible I should do so, as I want 
 the means ; and you have positively for- 
 bidden my ag-ain appearing before you 
 unless I would retract. 
 
 " Thus I again set out in the name of 
 the Lord, desiring, if possible, to find 
 some place where I may live in peace. 
 
 Several persons of more importance than 
 myself have persuaded me to appeal from 
 your paternal kindness, and even from 
 our most holy lord, Leo X., ill-informed, 
 to himself when he shall be better in- 
 formed on the matter. Though I know 
 that such an appeal will be more agree- 
 able to his highness the Elector than a 
 recantation, yet if it had been my duty 
 only to consult my own feelings, I would, 
 not have made it. ... I have committed 
 no crime : — I ought therefore to have 
 nothing to fear." 
 
 Luther having written this letter 
 (which was not delivered to the Legate 
 until after his departure), prepared to 
 leave Augsburg. God had preserved 
 him hitherto, and with all his heart he 
 praised the Lord for his protection. But 
 it was his duty not to tempt God. He 
 embraced his friends, Peutinger, Lange- 
 mantel, the Adelmanns, Auerbach, and 
 the Prior of the Carmelites, who had af- 
 forded him such Christian hospitality. On 
 Wednesday, before daybreak, he was up 
 and ready to set out. His friends had 
 advised him to take every possible pre- 
 caution, fearing, that if his departure were 
 known, it might be opposed. He fol- 
 lowed their advice as well as he could. 
 A horse, that Staupitz had left at his 
 disposal, was brought to the door of the 
 convent. Once more he bids adieu to his 
 brethren ; he then mounts and sets out, 
 without a bridle for his horse, without 
 boots or spurs, and unarmed. The ma- 
 gistrate of the city had sent him as a 
 guide a horseman, who was well ac- 
 quainted with the roads. This man con- 
 ducts him in the dark through the silent 
 streets of Augsburg. They direct their 
 course to a little gate in the wall of the 
 city. One of the counsellors, Lageman- 
 tel. had ordered that it should be opened 
 to him. He is still in the Legate's pow- 
 er. The hand of Rome is still over 
 him; doubtless, if the Italians knew that 
 their prey was escaping, the cry of pur- 
 suit would be raised : — who knows 
 Avhethcr the intrepid adversary of Rome 
 may not still be seized and thrown into 
 prison ? . . . At last Luther and his guide 
 arrive at the little gate : — they pass 
 through. They are out of Augsburg; 
 and putting their horses into a gallop, 
 they soon leave the city far behind them. 
 Luther, on leaving, had deposited his 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 185 
 
 appeal to the Pope in the hands of the 
 Prior of Pomesaw. His friends advised 
 him not to send it to the Legate. The 
 Prior was commissioned to have it post- 
 ed, two or three days after the Doctor's 
 departure, on the door of a cathedral, in 
 the presence of a notary and of witnesses. 
 This was done. 
 
 In this writing 1 Luther declared that 
 he appealed from the most holy Father 
 the Pope, ill-informed in this' business, 
 to the most holy Lord and Father in 
 ( ihrist, Leo X. by name, by the grace of 
 God, when better informed, &c. &c* 
 The appeal had been drawn up in the 
 regular form, by the assistance of the 
 Imperial notary, Gall de Herbrachtin- 
 gen, in the presence of two Augustine 
 monks, Bartholomew Utzmair and Wen- 
 gel Stcinbies. It was dated the 16th of 
 October. 
 
 When the Cardinal heard of Luther's 
 departure, he was struck with surprise, 
 and, as he affirmed in a letter to the 
 Elector, even with alarm and apprehen- 
 sion. He had, indeed, some reason to be 
 vexed. This departure, which so abrupt- 
 ly terminated his negotiations, disconcert- 
 ed all the hopes which his pride had so 
 long cherished. He had been ambitious 
 of the honour of healing the wounds of 
 the Church, and re-establishing the de- 
 clining influence of the Pope in Germa- 
 ny : and not only had the heretic escaped 
 with impunity, but without his having 
 so much as humbled him. The con- 
 ference had* served only to exhibit in a 
 strong light, on the one hand the sim- 
 plicity, uprightness, and firmness of Lu- 
 ther, and on the other, the imperious and 
 unreasonable procedure of the Pope and 
 his representative. Inasmuch as Rome 
 had gained nothing, she had lost ; — and 
 her authority, not having been reinforced, 
 had in reality sustained a fresh check. 
 What will be said of all this at the Vati- 
 can 1 what will be the next despatches re- 
 ceived from Rome 1 The difficulties of 
 the Legate's situation will be forgotten, 
 the untoward issue of the affair will be 
 ascribed to his want of skill. Serra 
 Longa and the rest of the Italians were 
 furious on seeing themselves, dexterous 
 as they were, outwitted by a German 
 monk. De Vio could hardly conceal 
 his vexation. Such an insult appeared 
 * Melius informandum.— (L Opp. lat. i. p. 219.) 
 24 
 
 to call for vengeance, and we shall soon 
 see him give utterance to his anger in a 
 letter to the Elector. 
 
 .Meanwhile Luther, accompanied by 
 the horseman, continued his journey from 
 Augsburg. He urged his horse and 
 kept the poor animal at full speed. He 
 called to mind the real or supposed flight 
 of John Huss, the manner in which he 
 was overtaken, and the assertion of his 
 adversaries, who affirmed that Huss hav- 
 ing, by his flight, annulled the Krnper- 
 or's safe-conduct, they had a right to con- 
 demn him to the flames.* However, 
 these uneasy feelings did not long occu- 
 py Luther's mind. Having got clear 
 from the city where he had spent ten 
 days under that terrible hand of Rome 
 which had already crushed so many 
 thousand witnesses for the truth, and 
 shed so much blood, — at large, breath- 
 ing the open air, traversin-j- the villages 
 and plains, and wonderfully delivered by 
 the arm of the Lord, his whole soul 
 overflowed with praise. He might well 
 say : " Our soul is escaped as a bird out 
 of the snare of the fowlers ; the snare 
 is broken, and we are delivered. Our 
 help is in the name of God, who made 
 heaven and earth."f Thus was the 
 heart of Luther filled with joy. But his 
 thoughts again reverted to De Vio : 
 " The Cardinal," thought he, " would 
 have been well pleased to get me into 
 his power and send me to Rome. He 
 is, no doubt, mortified that I have es- 
 caped from him. He thought he had 
 me in his clutches at Augsburg. He 
 thought he held me fast ; but he was 
 holding an eel by the tail. Shame that 
 these people should set so high a price 
 upon me ! They would give many 
 crowns to have me in their power, 
 whilst our Saviour Christ was sold for 
 thirty pieces of silver."! 
 
 Luther travelled fourteen leagues the 
 first day. In the evening, when he ar- 
 rived at the inn where he was to spend 
 the night, he was so fatigued — (his horse, 
 says one of his biographers, had a very 
 rough trot,) — that, on alighting, he was 
 unable to stand, and dropped motionless 
 upon the straw. He, however, enjoyed 
 some rest. The next day he continued 
 his journey. At Nuremberg he found 
 
 * Weissman, Hist. Eccles. i. p. 237. 
 
 t Ps. 124. % L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 202 
 
186 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Staupitz, who was engaged in visiting 
 the convents of his order. It was in this 
 city that he first saw the brief that the 
 Pope had sent to Cajetan concerning 
 him. He was indignant at it, and had he 
 read it before he left Wittemberg, it is 
 very probable he would never have ap- 
 peared before the Cardinal. " It is im- 
 possible to believe," said he, " that any 
 thing so monstrous can have emanated 
 from a Sovereign Pontiff."* 
 
 Every where on his journey Luther 
 was an object of general interest. He 
 was returning without having given up 
 any thing. Such a victory gained by 
 a mendicant friar over the representa- 
 tives of Rome, filled every heart with 
 astonishment. It seemed as if Germany 
 had now its revenge for the Italian con- 
 tempt of Ultramontanes. God's word 
 had obtained more honour than the 
 word of the Pope. The power which 
 for ages had borne rule, had just re- 
 ceived a formidable check. The jour- 
 ney of Luther was a triumph. Men re- 
 joiced at the obstinacy of Rome, because 
 it was likely to hasten her ruin. If she 
 had not insisted on retaining her shame- 
 ful gains, — if she had been prudent 
 enough not to despise the Germans, — if 
 she had reformed flagrant abuses, — per- 
 haps, according to human calculations, 
 things would have returned to the death- 
 like state from which Luther had awa* 
 kened. But the Papacy would not yield ; 
 and the Doctor was to be constrained to 
 bring many other errors to light, and to 
 advance in the knowledge and manifes- 
 tation of the truth. 
 
 On the 26th of October, Luther arrived 
 at Graefenthal, at the extremity of the 
 woods of Thuringia. He there met 
 Count Albert of Mansfeldt, the same 
 person who had so strongly dissuaded 
 him from going to Augsburg. The 
 Count laughed heartily at his strange 
 equipment. He compelled him to stop, 
 and obliged him to become his guest : 
 Luther soon afterwards continued his 
 journey. 
 
 He hastened on, desiring to be at 
 Wittemberg on the 31st of October, in 
 the expectation that the Elector would be 
 there at the feast of All Saints, and that 
 he might have an interview with him. 
 The brief which he had read at Nurem- 
 * L. Epp. i. p. 166. 
 
 berg had revealed to him all the danger 
 of his situation. In fact, being already 
 condemned at Rome, he could not hope 
 either to continue at Wittemberg, or to 
 find an asylum in a convent, or to dwell 
 any where in peace and safety. The 
 protection of the Elector might, perhaps, 
 avail him ; but he was far from being 
 sure of it. He had nothing more to 
 hope from the true friends he had hith- 
 erto possessed at this prince's court. 
 Staupitz, having lost the favour he had 
 long enjoyed, was then leaving Saxony. 
 Spalatin, though beloved by Frederic, 
 had not much influence over him. The 
 Elector himself was not sufficiently in- 
 structed in the doctrine of the Gospel to 
 expose himself for the sake of it to man- 
 ifest dangers. However, Luther thought 
 he could not do better than return to 
 Wittemberg, and there wait to see what 
 the eternal and merciful God would do 
 with him. If, as some expected, he were 
 unmolested, he resolved to devote him- 
 self entirely to the study and to the in- 
 struction of youth.* 
 
 Luther got back to Wittemberg on 
 the 30th of October. His haste had been 
 in vain. Neither the Elector nor Spala- 
 tin had come to the feast. His friends 
 were delighted to see him again amongst 
 them. He hastened to inform Spalatin 
 of his arrival. " I have arrived to-day 
 at Wittemberg, safe and sound, through 
 God's mercy," said he ; " but how long 
 I shall stay here I know not. ... I am 
 filled with joy and peace ; and find it 
 hard to conceive how the trial I am en- 
 during can appear so grievous to so many 
 distinguished men." 
 
 De Vio had not waited long, after 
 the departure of Luther, to pour forth all 
 his indignation to the Elector. His let- 
 ter breathed vengeance. 
 
 He gave Frederic an account of the 
 conference, with an air of self-satisfac- 
 tion : — " Since brother Martin," said he 
 in conclusion, " cannot be brought by pa- 
 ternal measures to acknowledge his er- 
 ror, and to continue faithful to the Cath- 
 olic Church, I request your Highness 
 to send him to Rome, or to banish him 
 from your territories. Be assured that 
 this complicated, evil-intentioned, and 
 mischievous affair cannot be long pro- 
 tracted ; for as soon as I shall have in- 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xru. p. 183. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 187 
 
 formed our most holy lord of all this ar- 
 tifice and malice, he will bring it to a 
 speedy end." In a postscript, written 
 with his own hand, the Cardinal en- 
 treated the Elector not to tarnish with 
 shame his own honour and that of his 
 illustrious ancestors, for the cause of a 
 contemptible monk.* 
 
 Never was the soul of Luther roused 
 to higher indignation than when he 
 read the copy of this letter which the 
 Elector sent him. The sense of the 
 sufferings he was destined to endure, the 
 value of the truth for which he con- 
 tended, contempt for the conduct of the 
 Roman Legate, together swelled his 
 heart. His answer, written at the mo- 
 ment when his whole soul was thus agi- 
 tated, is distinguished by that courage, 
 elevation, and faith, which he ever dis- 
 played in the most trying circumstances 
 of his life. He gave, in his turn, an 
 account of the conference at Augsburg. 
 He described the deportment of the Car- 
 dinal : and thus proceeded : 
 
 " I would like to answer the Legate, 
 putting myself in the place of the Elector. 
 
 " ' Prove to me that you understand 
 what you talk about,' I would say to 
 him ; ' let the whole discussion be car- 
 ried on in writing. I will then send 
 brother Martin to Rome, or else I will 
 apprehend him and have him put to 
 death. I will take care of my own con- 
 science and honour, and I will not allow 
 my glory to be sullied. But as long as 
 your absolute knowledge shuns the light, 
 and only discovers itself by clamour, I 
 cannot put faith in darkness.' 
 
 " This, most excellent Prince, is the an- 
 swer I would make him. 
 
 " Let the reverend Legate, or the Pope 
 himself, specify my errors in writing: 
 let them bring forward their reasons; 
 let them instruct me, who desire to be 
 instructed, who ask to be so, who intend 
 what I say, and long for instruction, 
 so that even a Turk would not refuse 
 to satisfy me. If I do not retract and 
 condemn myself, when they have proved 
 to me that the passages of Scripture that 
 I have quoted ought to be understood in 
 a different sense from that in which I 
 have understood them, — then, O most 
 excellent Elector ! let your Highness be 
 the first to prosecute and expel me, let 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 203. 
 
 the university reject me and overwhelm 
 me with indignation. I will go further, 
 and I call heaven and earth to witness, 
 let the Lord Christ Jesus himself reject 
 and condemn me ! These are not words 
 of vain presumption, but of firm convic- 
 tion. Let the Lord deprive me of his 
 grace, and every creature of God refuse 
 to countenance me, if, when I have been 
 shewn a better doctrine, I do not em- 
 brace it. 
 
 " But if, on account of my low estate, 
 and because I am but a poor mendicant 
 brother, they despise me, and so refuse to 
 instruct me in the way of truth, let your 
 Highness beg the Legate to inform you 
 in writing wherein I have erred ; and if 
 they refuse this favour to your Highness 
 yourself, let them write their own views, 
 either to his Imperial Majesty, or to some 
 German Archbishop. What ought I 
 to do — what can I do — more ? 
 
 " Let your Highness listen to the voice 
 of your conscience and of your honour, 
 and not send me to Rome. No man has 
 the right to require this of you ; for it is 
 impossible that I should be safe in Rome. 
 The Pope himself is not safe there. It 
 would be enjoining you to betray Chris- 
 tian blood. Tb,ey have there paper, pens, 
 and ink ; they have also numberless no- 
 taries. It is easy for them to write wherein 
 and wherefore I have erred. It will cost 
 them less trouble to instruct me at a dis- 
 tance by writing, than, having me among 
 them, to put me to death by stratagem. 
 
 " I resign myself to banishment. My 
 adversaries lay snares for me on all sides ; 
 so that I can nowhere live in safety. 
 That no harm may happen to you on 
 my account, I leave your territories, in 
 God's name. I will go wherever the eter- 
 nal and merciful God will have me. Let 
 him do with me what seemeth him good. 
 
 " Thus, then, most serene Elector, I 
 reverently bid you farewell. I commend 
 you to Almighty God, and I give you 
 endless thanks for all your kindness to 
 me. Whatever be the people among 
 whom I may hereafter live, wherever 
 my future lot may be cast, I shall ever 
 remember you, and' shall gratefully pray, 
 without ceasing, for the happiness of you 
 and yours.* 
 
 * Ego enim ubicumque ero gentium, illustris- 
 simce Dominationis tuae nunquam non ero memor 
 — (L. Epp. i. 187.) 
 
HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " I am still, thanks to God, full of joy, 
 and praise him that Christ, the Son of 
 God, counts me worthy to suffer in so 
 holy a cause. May He for ever preserve 
 your illustrious Highness. Amen." 
 
 This letter, so overflowing with the 
 accents of truth and justice, made a deep 
 impression on the Elector. " He was 
 shaken by a very eloquent letter," says 
 Maimbourg. Never could he have had 
 the thought of giving up an innocent 
 man to the power of Rome. Perhaps he 
 might have persuaded Luther to conceal 
 himself for some time. But he resolved 
 not even in appearance to yield in any 
 way to the Legate's threats. He wrote 
 to his counsellor, Pfeffinger, who was 
 then at the court of the Emperor, to rep- 
 resent to his Majesty the real state of 
 affairs, and to beg him to write to Rome, 
 so that the matter might be brought to a 
 conclusion, or at least be determined in 
 Germany by impartial judges.* 
 
 Some days after, the Elector wrote to 
 the Legate in reply : " Since Doctor 
 Martin has appeared before you at Augs- 
 burg, you ought to be satisfied. We did 
 not expedt that, without convincing him 
 of error, you would claim to oblige him 
 to retract. Not one of the learned men 
 in our states has intimated to us an opin- 
 ion that Martin's doctrine is impious, 
 antichristian, or heretical." The Prince, 
 in the latter part of his letter, declined 
 sending Luther to Rome, or expelling 
 him from his territories. 
 
 This letter, which was communicated 
 to Luther, rejoiced his heart. " Gracious 
 God !" he wrote to Spaiatin, " with what 
 joy I read and re-read it ; for I know 
 what confidence I may repose in these 
 words, at once so forcible and so discreet. 
 I fear the Italians will not understand 
 their full import. But they will at least 
 comprehend that what they believed al- 
 ready finished is scarcely yet begun. Be 
 pleased to present my grateful acknowl- 
 edgments to the Prince. It is strange 
 that he (De Vio) who, a little while ago, 
 was a mendicant friar like myself, is not 
 afraid to address the most powerful princes 
 with disrespect, to call them to account, 
 to threaten and command them, and treat 
 them with such preposterous haughti- 
 ness. Let him learn that the temporal 
 power is ordained of God, and that none 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 244. 
 
 are permitted to trample its glory under 
 foot."* 
 
 One thing that had undoubtedly en- 
 couraged Frederic to answer the Legate 
 in a tone which the latter did not expect, 
 was a letter addressed to him by the 
 university of Wittemberg. It was not 
 without reason that they declared them- 
 selves in the Doctor's favour. The uni- 
 versity was increasing in reputation, and 
 surpassed all the other schools. A crowd 
 of students flocked thither from all parts 
 of Germany to listen to this extraordinary 
 man, whose instructions seemed to open 
 a new era to religion and learning. 
 These young men, who arrived from the 
 different provinces, would often stop when 
 they discovered in the distance the stee- 
 ples of Wittemberg ; and, raising their 
 hands toward heaven, bless God for hav- 
 ing caused the light of truth to shine 
 forth from Wittemberg, as in former 
 ages from Mount Sion, that it might 
 penetrate to the most distant lands, f A 
 life and activity, hitherto unknown, was 
 infused into the university studies. — 
 " Our young men are as diligent here 
 as ants upon an ant-hill,"}: wrote Lu- 
 ther. 
 
 Thinking that he might soon be driven 
 out of Germany, Luther busied himself 
 in publishing a report of the conference 
 at Augsburg. He resolved that it should 
 be preserved as a memorial of the strug- 
 gle between Rome and himself. He 
 saw the storm ready to burst, but he did 
 not fear it. He was in daily expectation 
 of the maledictions of Rome. He ar- 
 ranged and regulated every thing, that 
 he might be ready when they arrived. 
 " Having tucked up my gown and gird- 
 ed my loins," said he, " I am ready to 
 depart like Abraham, not knowing whith- 
 er I go ; or rather well knowing whither, 
 since God is every where. "§ He intend- 
 ed to leave behind him a farewell letter. 
 " Take courage, then," he wrote to Spa- 
 latin ; " to read the letter of a man ac- 
 cursed and excommunicated." 
 
 His friends were full of fears and anx- 
 iety on his account. They entreated 
 him to deliver himself up as a prisoner 
 
 * L. Epp. i. p. 198. 
 t Scultet. Annal. i. p. 17. 
 t Studium nostrum more formicarum fervet. — 
 (L. Opp. i. p. 193.) 
 
 § Quia Deus ubique. — (L. Opp. i. p. 188.) 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 into the Elector's hands, that that prince 
 might keep him somewhere in safety.* 
 
 His enemies could not comprehend 
 the grounds of his confidence. One day, 
 at the court of the Bishop of Branden- 
 burg, the conversation turned on the Re- 
 former, and it was asked on what sup- 
 port he could be depending. Some said, 
 " It is on Erasmus and Capito and other 
 learned men that he reckons for protec- 
 tion." — "No, no!" replied the Bishop: 
 " the Pope would care very little for those 
 gentiy. It is to the University of Wittem- 
 berg and the Duke of Saxony that he 
 looks for support." .... Thus both par- 
 ties were ignorant of that strong tower in 
 which the Reformer had sought refuge. 
 
 Thoughts of taking his departure were 
 passing through Luther's mind. It was 
 not the fear of danger that gave rise to 
 them, but the presentiment of the inces- 
 santly renewed opposition he should find 
 in Germany to the open profession of the 
 truth. " If I stay here," said he, " I 
 shall be denied the liberty of speaking 
 and writing many things. If I depart, I 
 will pour forth freely the thoughts of my 
 heart, and devote my life to Christ, "f 
 
 France was the country where Luther 
 hoped he might without hindrance pro- 
 claim the truth. The liberty enjoyed by 
 the doctors of the university of Paris ap- 
 peared to him worthy of envy. Besides, 
 he, on many points, agreed in the opin- 
 ions that prevailed there. What might 
 have ensued, if Luther had been removed 
 from Wittemberg to France? Would 
 the Reformation have established itself 
 there as it did in Germany? Would 
 the power of Rome have been dethroned 
 there ; and France, which was destined 
 to endure a long struggle between the 
 hierarchical principles of Rome and the 
 ruinous principles of an irreligious philos- 
 ophy, have become the great dispenser 
 of evangelical light ? It is useless to in- 
 dulge in vain conjectures. But, certainly. 
 Luther at Paris would have made a 
 great difference in the fortunes of the 
 Church and of France. 
 
 The soul of Luther was deeply moved. 
 He often preached in the church of the 
 city, supplying the place of Simon Heyns 
 
 * Ut principi me in captivitatem darera. — (L. 
 Epp. i. p. 189.) 
 
 t Si iero, totum effundara, et vitam offeram 
 Christo.— (L. Epp. i. p. 190.) 
 
 Pontanus, the pastor of Wittemberg, 
 who was frequently indisposed. He 
 thought it right, at all hazards, to take 
 leave of the congregation to whom he 
 had so often preached the doctrine of 
 salvation. " I am a very unstable preach- 
 er," said he one day in the pulpit, " and 
 very uncertain in my position. How 
 often have I left you suddenly without 
 taking leave of you. If this should hap- 
 pen again, and I should never return, 
 receive my last farewell." Then, hav- 
 ing added a few words, he concluded by 
 saying, with moderation and gentleness : 
 " Finally, I warn you not to be ter- 
 rified, if the Papal censures should be 
 discharged against me in all their fury. 
 Do not blame the Pope, nor bear any ill- 
 will to him, or to any man living, but 
 leave the whole matter to God."* 
 
 At length the moment of his departure 
 seemed at hand. The Prince gave him 
 to understand that he wished him to 
 leave Wittemberg. The wishes of the 
 Elector were too sacred with Luther for 
 him not to hasten to comply with them. 
 The Reformer prepared to depart, with- 
 out knowing well to what quarter to 
 direct his steps. Resolving, however, 
 once more to see his friends about him, 
 be invited them to a farewell repast. 
 Seated with them at table, he once more 
 enjoyed their conversation and their af- 
 fectionate and anxious friendship. A 
 letter was brought to him. It came from 
 the court. He opened and read it. His 
 heart sank within him. It enclosed an 
 order for his departure. The Prince in- 
 quired : " Why he delayed so long ?" 
 His soul was overwhelmed with dejec- 
 tion. However, he resumed courage ; 
 and, raising his head, said firmly and 
 joyfully, turning to those about him : 
 " Father and mother forsake me ; but 
 the Lord will take me up."f Depart 
 then he must. His friends were much 
 affected. What would become of him? 
 If Luther's protector rejects him, who will 
 receive him? And this Gospel, this 
 word of truth, and this admirable work 
 he had taken in hand, will, doubtless, 
 perish with the faithful witness. The 
 fate of the Reformation seemed suspend- 
 ed by a single thread ; and would not 
 
 * Deo rem committerent. — (Luth. Epp.i.p. 191.) 
 t Vater und Mutter verlassen mich, aber der 
 Herr nimmt mich auf. 
 
190 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the moment in which Luther left the 
 walls of Wittemberg break that thread? 
 Luther and his friends said little. Sym- 
 pathising in his feelings, they gave vent 
 to their tears. However, but a short 
 time had elapsed, when a second mes- 
 senger arrived. Luther opened this let- 
 ter, expecting to find a reiterated order 
 for his departure. But, lo ! the mighty 
 power of the Lord ! for the present he is 
 saved. Every thing is changed. " As 
 the Pope's new envoy," said the letter, 
 u hopes that every thing may be settled 
 by a conference, remain for the present."* 
 How important was this hour! and what 
 might have happened if Luther, ever 
 anxious to obey the Prince's pleasure, 
 had left Wittemberg immediately on the 
 receipt of the first letter ! Never had 
 Luther and the cause of the Reformation 
 been brought lower than at this moment. 
 It might have been thought that their 
 fate was decided : in an instant it was 
 changed. Having reached the lowest 
 step in his career, the Reformer rapidly 
 arose, and. from that time his influence 
 continued to ascend. " At the word of 
 the Lord," in the language of the prophet, 
 " his servants go down to the depths, and 
 mount up again to heaven." 
 
 Spalatin, by Frederic's orders, sent for 
 Luther to Lichtemberg, to have an inter- 
 view with him. They had a long con- 
 versation on the state of affairs. " If 
 the Pope's sentence of condemnation 
 come, I certainly cannot remain/at Wit- 
 temberg," said Luther. " Beware," re- 
 plied Spalatin, " of being in too great a 
 hurry to go to France. "f He left him, 
 telling him to wait further tidings from 
 him. " Only commend my soul to Christ," 
 said Luther to his friends. " I see that 
 my adversaries are more and more deter- 
 mined on my destruction. But Christ is 
 meanwhile strengthening me in my de- 
 termination not to give way.";}; 
 
 Luther at that time published his re- 
 port of the conference at Augsburg. 
 Spalatin had written to him from the 
 Elector to abstain from doing so ; but it 
 was too late. When the publication had 
 taken place, the Prince gave his sanc- 
 
 * L. Opp. xv. 824. 
 
 t Ne tam cit6 in Galliam irem. — (L. Epp. i. p. 
 195.) 
 
 t Firmat Christus propositum non cedendi in 
 me. — (Ibid.) 
 
 tion. " Great God !" said Luther in his 
 preface, " what a new, what an amazing 
 crime to seek after light and truth, and 
 above all in the Church, that is to say, 
 in the kingdom of truth !" "I send you 
 this document," said he, writing to Link : 
 " it cuts too deep, no doubt, to please the 
 Legate ; but my pen is ready to give 
 out much greater things. I mysef know , 
 not whence these thoughts come to me. 
 As far as I can see, the work is not yet 
 begun ;* so little reason is there for the 
 great men of Rome hoping to see an end 
 of it. I shall send you what I have 
 written, in order that you may judge if 
 I am right in believing that the Anti- 
 christ of whom St. Paul speaks, now 
 reigns in the court of Rome. I think I 
 can prove that now-a-days the power that 
 presides there is worse than the Turks 
 themselves." 
 
 On all sides, sinister reports reached 
 Luther. One of his friends wrote him 
 word that the new envoy from Rome 
 had received orders to apprehend him 
 and deliver him to the Pope. Another 
 reported that, as he was travelling, he 
 had met with a courtier, and that, the 
 conversation having turned upon the af- 
 fairs which were then the general topic 
 in Germany, the latter confided to him 
 that he had undertaken to seize and de- 
 liver Luther into the hands of the Sover- 
 eign Pontiff! " But the more their fury 
 and violence increase," wrote Luther, 
 " the less do I fear them."f 
 
 Cajetan's ill success had occasioned 
 much dissatisfaction at Rome. The vex- 
 ation felt at the failure of the affair, 
 fell in the first instance upon him. All 
 the Roman courtiers thought they had 
 cause to reproach him for having been 
 deficient in the prudence and address 
 which, in their account, were the most 
 indispensable qualifications in a legate, 
 and for not having relaxed the strictness 
 of his scholastic theology on so impor- 
 tant an occasion. " The failure is en- 
 tirely owing to him," said they. " His 
 awkward pedantry has spoiled all. Why 
 did he provoke Luther by insults and 
 threats, instead of alluring him by the 
 promise of a bishopric, or even, if neces- 
 
 * Res ista necdum habet initium suum, meo 
 judicio. — (L. Epp. i. p. 193.) 
 
 t Qu6 illi magis furunt et vi affectant viam 
 eo minus ego terreor. — (L. Epp. i. p. 191. 
 
LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE. 
 
 191 
 
 sary, a cardinal's hat ?"* These merce- 
 naries judged of the Reformer by them- 
 selves. The failure, however, must be 
 retrieved. On the one hand, it was re- 
 quisite that Rome should declare her- 
 self; on the other, she must not offend 
 the Elector, who might be very service- 
 able to her in the anticipated event of 
 the election of an Emperor. As it was 
 impossible for Roman ecclesiastics to 
 form a notion of the true source whence 
 Luther derived his strength and courage, 
 they imagined that the Elector was much 
 more deeply implicated in the matter 
 than he really was. The Pope resolved, 
 therefore, to pursue a different line of 
 policy. He caused to be published in 
 Germany, by his Legate, a bull, wherein 
 he confirmed the doctrine of indulgences 
 precisely in those points which had been 
 questioned, but making no mention ei- 
 ther of the Elector or of Luther. As 
 the Reformer had always declared that 
 he would submit to the decision of the 
 Romish Church, he must now, as the 
 Pope thought, either keep his word, or 
 openly shew himself to be a disturber of 
 the peace of the Church, and a despiser 
 of the apostolic see. In either case, the 
 Pope, it was thought, must be a gainer. 
 But nothing is ever gained by so obsti- 
 nate a resistance against the truth. In 
 vain had the Pope threatened with ex- 
 communication whosoever should teach 
 otherwise than he ordained; the light 
 is not arrested by such orders. It would 
 have been wiser to moderate, by cer- 
 tain restrictions, the pretensions of the 
 sellers of indulgences. Apparently, this 
 decree of Rome was a further act of im- 
 policy. By legalizing the most flagrant 
 abuses, it irritated all sensible men, and 
 rendered impossible the return of Luther 
 to his allegiance to the Church. " It was 
 commonly thought," says a Catholic his- 
 torian,! and a great enemy to the Refor- 
 mation, "that this bull had been framed 
 only for the gain of the Pope and of the 
 mendicant friars, who began to find that 
 no one would give any thing for their 
 indulgences." 
 
 The Cardinal De Vio published this 
 decree at Lintz, in Austria, on the 13th 
 of December, 1518 ; but Luther had al- 
 * Sarpi, Concile de Trente, p. 8. t Maimbourg. 
 
 ready taken his stand in a position of se- 
 curity. On the 28th of November he 
 had appealed, in the chapel of Corpus 
 Christi at Wittemberg, from the Pope 
 to a General Council of the Church. 
 He foresaw the storm that was about to 
 burst upon him, and he knew that God 
 only could avert it. But there was 
 something he himself was called to do ; 
 — and he did it. He must no doubt 
 leave Wittemberg, if it were only for 
 the sake of the Elector, as soon as the 
 maledictions of Rome should arrive 
 there ; yet he resolved not to quit Saxony 
 and Germany without a public protest. 
 He, therefore, drew up his appeal ; " and 
 that it might be ready to be distributed 
 as soon as the furies of Rome should 
 overtake him," as he says, he had it 
 printed, under the express condition that 
 the bookseller should deposit with him 
 all the copies. But this man, from de- 
 sire of gain, sold almost the whole im- 
 pression whilst Luther was quietly ex- 
 pecting to receive them. He was much 
 annoyed, but the thing was done. This 
 bold appeal was dispersed far and wide. 
 In it Luther again protested that he had 
 no intention of saying any thing against 
 the holy Church, or the authority of the 
 Apostolic see, and the Pope duly informed. 
 " But," continued he, " seeing that the 
 Pope, who is God's vicar upon earth, 
 may, like any other man, fall into error, 
 commit sin, and utter falsehood, and that 
 the appeal to a General Council is the 
 only safeguard against acts of injustice 
 which it is impossible to resist, — on these 
 grounds I find myself obliged to have 
 recourse to it."* 
 
 Behold, then, the Reformation launch- 
 ed upon a new career. It is no longer 
 to depend upon the Pope and his de- 
 crees, but upon a General Council. Lu- 
 ther speaks to the Church at large, and 
 the voice which proceeds from the chapel 
 of Corpus Christi is to make itself heard 
 in all the gatherings of the Lord's flock. 
 It is not in courage that the Reformer is 
 wanting. Behold him giving new proof 
 of it. Will God be wanting to him? 
 The answer will be read in the different 
 phases of the Reformation which are still 
 to pass before us 
 
 * Loscher, Ref. Act. 
 
192 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 BOOK V, 
 
 THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 The Pope's Chamberlain — Luther in Danger — Favourable Circumstances — Tetzel's Fears — Mil- 
 titz's Caresses — Retraction — Luther proposes silence — The Legate's Kiss — Tetzel Rebuked — ■ 
 Luther's Letter — Opposed to Separation — De Vio and Miltitz at Treves — The Reformed Opin- 
 ions Spread — Luther's Writings — Contest seems to Flag — Eck — The Pope's Authority — Luther 
 Answers — Alarm of Lutber's Friends — Truth Secure of Victory — The Bishop's Remonstrance — 
 Mosellanus — Arrival of Eck — An 111 Omen — Eck and Luther — The Pleissenburg — Judges Pro- 
 posed — The Procession — Luther — Carlstadt — Eck — Carlstadt's Books — Merit of Congruity — 
 Scholastic Distinction — Grace gives Liberty — Melancthon — .Eck claims Victory — Luther 
 Preaches — Quarrel of Students and Doctors — Eck and Luther — The Roman Primacy — Equal- 
 ity of Bishops — Christ the Foundation — Insinuation — The Hussites — Commotion in the Audi- 
 ence — Monkish Horror — The Indulgences — Attention of the Laity — Eck's Report — George of 
 Anhalt — The Students of Leipsic — Results of the Disputation — More Liberty — Activity of Eck 
 — Melancthon's Defence — Firmness of Luther — Staupitz's Coolness — Christ given for us — In- 
 fatuation of the Adversaries — The Lord's Supper — Is Faith Necessary — God's Word a Sword — 
 Luther's Calmness. 
 
 The clouds were gathering over Luther 
 and the Reformation. The appeal to a 
 General Council was a new attack on 
 Papal authority. A bull of Pius II. had 
 pronounced the greater excommunication 
 against any one, even though he should 
 be the Emperor himself, who should be 
 guilty of such a rejection of the Holy 
 Father's authority. Frederic of Saxony, 
 scarcely yet well established in the evan- 
 gelic doctrine, was on the point of ban- 
 ishing Luther from his states.* A second 
 message from Leo X. would, in that 
 case, have thrown the Reformer among 
 strangers, who might fear to compromise 
 their own security by harbouring a monk 
 whom Rome had anathematized.' And 
 even if cne of the German nobles had 
 taken up arms in his defence, such poor 
 knights, looked down upon with con- 
 tempt by the powerful sovereigns of Ger- 
 many, must ere long have sunk in their 
 hazardous enterprize. 
 
 But at the moment when all his court- 
 iers were urging Leo to rigorous meas- 
 ures, when another blow would have 
 laid his enemy at his feet, that Pope 
 suddenly changed his course, and made 
 overtures of conciliation.! Doubtless it 
 may be said, he mistook the disposition 
 of the Elector, and thought him much 
 
 * Letter from the Elector to his envoy at 
 Rome.— (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 298.) 
 
 t Rationem agendi prorsus oppositam inire 
 statuit. — (Card. Pallavicini, Hist. Concil. Trid. 
 vol. iv. p. 51.) 
 
 more favourable to Luther than he really 
 was. We may allow that public opin- 
 ion, and the spirit of the age — powers 
 then comparatively new — might seem to 
 Leo to surround the Reformer with an 
 insurmountable rampart of defence. We 
 may suppose, as one historian* has done, 
 that Leo did but follow the impulse of 
 his judgment and his heart, which in- 
 clined him to gentleness and moderation. 
 But this method, so unlike Rome, at 
 such a juncture,, is so strange, that it is 
 impossible not to acknowledge in it a 
 more powerful intervention. 
 
 A noble Saxon, chamberlain to the 
 Pope, and canon of Mentz, of Treves, 
 and of Meissen, was then at the court of 
 Rome. He had worked his way into 
 favour. He boasted of his connection, 
 by family relationships, with the princes 
 of Saxony — so that the Roman courtiers 
 sometimes called him Duke of Saxony. 
 In Italy he paraded his German nobility. 
 In Germany he affected awkwardly the 
 manners and refinement of Italy. He 
 was addicted to wine, and this vice had 
 gained strength from his residence at 
 Rome.f Nevertheless the Roman court- 
 iers built great hopes on him. His Ger- 
 man origin, his insinuating manner, and 
 his skill in negociation, altogether per- 
 suaded them that Charles Miltitz would, 
 
 * Roscoe, vol. iv. p. 2. 
 
 t Nee ab usu immoderato vini abstinuit. — (Pal- 
 lavicini, vol. i. p. 69.) 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 193 
 
 by his prudence, succeed in arresting the 
 revolution that threatened the world. 
 
 It was important to hide the real ob- 
 ject of the Roman chamberlain's mission 
 — this was not difficult. Four years be- 
 fore, the pious Elector had petitioned 
 the Pope for the gulden rose. This rose 
 was deemed to represent the body of Je- 
 sus Christ. It was consecrated every 
 year by the Sovereign Pontiff, and pre- 
 sented to one of the leading princes of 
 Europe. It was decided to present it 
 this year to the Elector. Miltitz set out, 
 with instructions to inquire into the state 
 of affairs, and to gain over Spalatin and 
 Pfeffinger, the Elector's counsellors. He 
 was entrusted with private letters for 
 them. By thus conciliating the co-oper- 
 ation of those who surrounded the Elect- 
 or, Rome expected quickly to become 
 the mistress of her now formidable ad- 
 versary. 
 
 The new Legate arrived in Germany, 
 in December, 1518, and endeavoured in 
 the course of his journey to sound the 
 general opinion. To his extreme aston- 
 ishment he noticed, wherever he stopped, 
 that the majority of the inhabitants were 
 favourable to the Reformation. Men 
 spoke of Luther with enthusiasm.* For 
 one who declared himself on the Pope's 
 side, he found three against him.f Lu- 
 ther has preserved an incident that occur- 
 red. " What is your opinion of the See 
 (sedia) of Rome," often inquired the 
 Legate, of the mistresses and domestics 
 of the inns. One day, one of these poor 
 women answered with naivete : " What 
 can we know of the sort of chairs (sedia) 
 you have at Rome, whether of stone or 
 wood?"| 
 
 The mere report of the arrival of the 
 new Legate, spread suspicion and dis- 
 trust in the Elector's court, the univer- 
 sity, the city of Wittemberg, and through- 
 out Saxony. " Thank God, Martin is 
 still alive !" wrote Melancthon in alarm. § 
 
 * Sciscitatus per viam Mitilius quanam esset 
 in asstimatione Lutherus .... sensit de eo cum 
 admiratione homines loqui. — (Pallavicini, torn. i. 
 p. 51.) 
 
 t Ecce ubi unum pro papa stare inveni tres pro 
 te contra papain stabant. — (L.Opp, lat. in prajf.) 
 
 I Quid nos scire possunms quales vos Romos 
 habeatis sellas, ligneasne an lapideas? — (L. Opp. 
 lat. in praef.) 
 
 § Martinus noster, Deo gratias, adhuc spirat. 
 — (Corpus Reformatorum edidit Bretschneider, i. 
 p. 61.) 
 
 25 
 
 It was whispered that the Roman cham- 
 berlain had orders to get Luther into his 
 power by stratagem or violence. On all 
 sides the Doctor was advised to be on 
 his guard against the snares of Miltitz. 
 " He is sent," said they, " to seize and 
 deliver you to the Pope. Persons de- 
 serving of credit have seen the brief 
 with which he is furnished." — " I await 
 the will of God," replied Luther.* 
 
 Miltitz. had indeed arrived, bearing 
 letters addressed to the Elector, his coun- 
 sellors, the bishops, and the burgomaster 
 of Wittemberg. He brought with him 
 seventy apostolic briefs. If the flattery 
 and favours of Rome were successful, 
 and Frederic should deliver up Luther, 
 these briefs were to be used as passports. 
 It was his plan to post up one of them 
 in each of the towns on his route, and in 
 this way to convey his prisoner to Rome, 
 without opposition.! 
 
 The Pope seemed to have taken all 
 his measures. In the Elector's court 
 they scarce knew what course to pursue. 
 Violence they might have resisted, but 
 what to oppose to the head of Christen- 
 dom, uttering the language of mildness 
 and reason ? would it not be well-timed 
 if Luther could lie concealed till the 
 storm should have passed by ? An un- 
 foreseen event came to the deliverance of 
 Luther, the Elector, and the Reforma- 
 tion from this perplexing position. The 
 aspect of the world was suddenly changed. 
 
 On the 12th of January, 1519, died 
 Maximilian, the Emperor of Germany. 
 Frederic of Saxony, agreeably to the 
 Germanic Constitution, became adminis- 
 trator of the Empire. From that mo- 
 ment the Elector was relieved from the 
 fear of nuncios and their projects. New 
 interests were set to work in the Roman 
 Court, which compelled it to temporize 
 in its negociations with Frederic, and 
 arrested the blow which it cannot be 
 doubted Miltitz and De Vio had medi- 
 tated. 
 
 The Pope had an earnest desire to ex- 
 clude from the imperial throne Charles 
 of Austria, then the reigning king of 
 Naples — a neighbour on a throne was in 
 his judgment more to be feared than a 
 
 * Expecto consilium Dei. — (L. Epp. i. p. 191.) 
 t Per singula oppida affigeret unum, et ita 
 
 tutus me perduceret Romam. — (L» Opp- l a t. in 
 
 praf.) 
 
194 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 monk of Germany. Desiring to secure 
 the co-operation of the Elector — who in 
 this matter might be of so great service, 
 he resolved to afford some respite to the 
 monk that he might the better counter- 
 work the king. In spite of this policy 
 both made progress. It formed, however, 
 the motive for the change in Leo X.'s 
 proceedings. 
 
 Another circumstance contributed to 
 avert the storm that impended over the 
 Reformation. Political troubles broke 
 out immediately after the Emperor's de- 
 mise. In the south the Suabian Confed- 
 eration sought to avenge itself on Ulric 
 of Wurtemberg, who had broken his al- 
 legiance. In the north the Bishop of 
 Hildcsheim invaded, with an armed 
 force, the Bishopric of Minden and the 
 states of the Duke of Brunswick. Amidst 
 these confusions, how could the great 
 ones of the age attach importance to a 
 dispute concerning the remission of sins! 
 But God made above all conductive to 
 the progress of the Reformation the rep- 
 utation of the Elector, now Vicar of the 
 Empire, for prudence, and the protection 
 he afforded to the new teachers. " The 
 tempest was hushed," says Luther, " the 
 Papal excommunication began to be 
 thought light of." Under shelter of the 
 Elector the Gospel spread itself abroad, 
 and hence no small damage to the cause 
 of the Papacy.* 
 
 We may add that during an interreg- 
 num the severest prohibitions naturally 
 lost much of their authority. Communi- 
 cation became more open and . easy. 
 The ray of liberty that beamed upon 
 those first beginnings of the Reformation, 
 helped materially to develop the yet ten- 
 der plant ; and a thoughtful observer 
 might even then have discerned how fa- 
 vourable political liberty would one day 
 be to the progress of evangelic Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Miltitz, who had reached Saxony be- 
 fore the death of Maximilian, had lost 
 no time in visiting his former friend 
 Spalatin; but scarcely did he begin to 
 open his charges against Luther — before 
 the chaplain broke out in complaint 
 against Tetzel. He acquainted the 
 Nuncio with the falsehoods and blasphe- 
 mies of the vender of indulgences, and 
 
 * Tunc desiit paululum saevire tempestas . . 
 — (L. Opp. lat. in prsef.) 
 
 declared that all Germany ascribed to the 
 Dominican's proceedings the dissensions 
 that distracted the Church. 
 
 Miltitz was astonished. Instead of ac- 
 cuser, he found himself in the place of 
 one accused. His wrath was instantly 
 turned against Tetzel ; and he sum- 
 moned him to appear before him at Al- 
 tenburg, and account for his conduct. 
 
 The Dominican, as cowardly as he 
 was boastful, dreading the people whose 
 indignation had been roused by his im- 
 postures, had discontinued his progresses 
 through the towns and provinces, and 
 was then living in retirement in the col- 
 lege of St. Paul. He turned pale on 
 the receipt of Miltitz's letter. Rome her- 
 self seemed to abandon him — to con- 
 demn him — and to tempt him to quit 
 the only asylum in which he reckoned 
 himself safe — as if to expose him to the 
 anger of his enemies. Tetzel refused 
 to obey the Nuncio's summons. He 
 wrote to Miltitz on the 31st December, 
 1518 — "Certainly I would not shrink 
 from the fatigue of the journey if I could 
 leave Leipsic without risking my life — 
 but Martin Luther has so roused and ex- 
 cited powerful chiefs against me, that 
 I am no where safe. A great number 
 of his partisans have bound themselves 
 by oath to put me to death ; therefore I 
 cannot come to you."* A striking con- 
 trast between the two men then dwell- 
 ing, one in the college of St. Paul at 
 Leipsic, and the other in the cloister of 
 St. Augustine at Wittemberg. The ser- 
 vant of God manifested an intrepid cour- 
 age in the face of danger ; — the servant 
 of men betrayed a contemptible cow- 
 ardice. 
 
 Miltitz had been directed in the first 
 instance to try the effect of persuasion ; 
 and it was only on the failure of this, 
 that he was to produce his seventy briefs, 
 and play off the favours of Rome so as 
 to induce the Elector to restrain Lu- 
 ther. He therefore expressed a wish for 
 an interview with the Reformer. Spal- 
 atin, their common friend, offered his 
 house for the purpose, and Luther left 
 Wittemberg for Altenburg on the 2d or 
 3d of January. 
 
 In this interview Miltitz exhausted all 
 the stratagems of a diplomatist and Ro- 
 man courtier. At the instant of Luther's 
 * Loscher, ii. 567. 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 195 
 
 arrival, the Nuncio approached him with 
 great show of friendship — " Oh," thought 
 Luther, " how is his former violence 
 changed to gentleness. The second Saul 
 came to Germany the bearer of seventy- 
 briefs, authorising him to drag me in 
 chains to that homicide Rome, but the 
 Lord has thrown him to the earth in the 
 way."* " Dear Martin," said the Pope's 
 chamberlain, in a persuasive tone, " I 
 thought you were an old theologian, 
 who, quietly seated at his fireside, had 
 certain theological crotchets, but I see you 
 are yet young and in the prime of life."t 
 
 "Do you know," continued he, assu- 
 ming a graver tone, " that you have 
 drawn away all the world from the 
 Pope."! Miltitz well knew that it is 
 by flattering the pride of men that they 
 are most readily deluded, — but he did 
 not know the man he had to deal with. 
 
 " Even if I were backed by an army 
 of twenty-five thousand men,' r continued 
 he, " I truly would not undertake to kid- 
 nap and carry you to Rome."§ Thus, 
 notwithstanding her power, Rome felt 
 weak when opposed to a poor monk, and 
 the monk was conscious of strength in 
 his opposition to Rome. " God arrests 
 the billows on the shore," said Luther, 
 " and he does so with the sand !"|| 
 
 The Nuncio, thinking he had by 
 these flatteries prepared the mind of Lu- 
 ther, thus continued : " Be persuaded, 
 and yourself staunch the wound you 
 have inflicted on the Church, and which 
 none but yourself can heal. Beware, I 
 beseech you," he added, " of raising a 
 storm in which the best interests of man- 
 kind would be wrecked.'"^ And then 
 he gradually proceeded to hint that a re- 
 tractation was the only way of remedy- 
 ing the evil, but instantly softened the 
 objectionable word by expressions of 
 high esteem for Luther, and indignation 
 
 * Sed per viam a Domino prostratus .... 
 mutavit violentiam in benevolentiam fallaeissime 
 Bimulatam. — (L. Epp. 1. 206.) 
 
 t O Martine, ego credebam te esse senem ali- 
 quem theologum, qui post fornacem sedens 
 . . . . — (L. Opp. lat. in priEf.) 
 
 X Quod orbem totum mihi conjunxerim et pa- 
 pae abstraxerim. — (L. Epp. 1. 231. 
 
 § Si habrem 25 milla armatorum, non confiderem 
 te posse a me Romam perduci. — (L. Opp. in preef.) 
 
 || L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 
 
 IT Profusis Iacrymis ipsum oravit, ne tam per- 
 niciosam Christiano generi tempestatem cieret. — 
 (Pallavicini, 1. 52.) 
 
 against Tetzel. The net was spread by 
 a skilful hand, — what hope of escape from 
 its meshes? 
 
 "If the Archbishop of Mentz had acted 
 thus with me from the first," said Luther, 
 at a later period, " this matter had not 
 made the noise it has done."* 
 
 Luther spoke out : enumerated, with 
 calmness, yet with earnestness and ener- 
 gy, the just complaints of the Church; 
 he gave free expression to his indigna- 
 tion against the Archbishop of Mentz, 
 and boldly complained of the unworthy 
 manner in which the Roman Court had 
 treated him, notwithstanding the purity 
 of his intentions. 
 
 Miltitz, who had not expected so deci- 
 ded a tone, nevertheless suppressed his 
 anger. " I offer," said Luther, " from 
 this time forth to keep silence on these 
 things, and to let the matter die away,f 
 provided my enemies are reduced to si- 
 lence ; but if they continue their at- 
 tacks, we shall very soon see a partial 
 dispute give rise to a serious struggle. 
 My weapons are ready prepared." After 
 a moment's pause, he continued, " I will 
 even go a step further. I will write to 
 his Holiness, acknowledging that I have 
 been a little too violent ; and declare 
 that it is as a faithful son of the Church 
 that I have opposed a style of preach- 
 ing which drew upon it the mockeries 
 and insults of the people. I even con- 
 sent to put forth a writing wherein I 
 will desire all who shall read my works, 
 not to see in them any attack on the 
 Church of Rome, and to continue in 
 submission to its authority. Yes, I am 
 willing to do everything and bear every- 
 thing : but as to a retractation, don't ex- 
 pect it from me." 
 
 Miltitz saw by Luther's resolute man- 
 ner that the wisest course was to seem 
 satisfied with what the Reformer was 
 willing to promise. He merely proposed 
 that they should name an Archbishop as 
 arbritrator on some of the points they 
 would have to discuss. " Be it so," said 
 Luther — " but I much fear that the 
 Pope will not accept of any judge; if so, 
 I will not abide by the Pope's decision, 
 and then the dispute will begin again. 
 
 * Non evasisset res in tantum tumultum. — (Ir 
 Opp. lat. in prasf.) 
 
 t Und die Sache sich zu Tode bluten. — (L. 
 Epp. i. 207.) 
 
196 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The pope will give us the text, and I 
 will make my own commentary on it." 
 
 Thus ended the first interview of Lu- 
 ther with Miltitz. They met once again, 
 and at this meeting the truce, or rather 
 the peace, was signed. Luther immedi- 
 ately gave information to the Elector of 
 all that had passed. 
 
 " Most serene Prince and gracious 
 Lord," wrote he, " I hasten humbly to 
 inform your Electoral Highness that 
 Charles Miltitz and myself are at last 
 agreed, and have terminated our differ- 
 ences by the following articles : — 
 
 " 1. Both sides are forbidden to write 
 or act, henceforward, in the question that 
 has been raised. 
 
 " Miltitz will, without delay, commu- 
 nicate to his Holiness the state of affairs. 
 His Holiness will commission an enlight- 
 ened bishop to inquire into the affair, and 
 to point out the erroneous articles which 
 I am to retract. If proof is afforded me 
 that I am in error, I will gladly retract, 
 and never more do any thing that can 
 lessen the honour or authority of the holy 
 Roman Church."* 
 
 The agreement thus effected, Miltitz's 
 joy broke forth. " For a century," said 
 he, " no question has caused more anx- 
 iety to the Cardinals and Court of Rome. 
 They would have given ten thousand 
 ducats rather than see it prolonged."! 
 
 The Pope's chamberlain spared no 
 marks of attention to the monk of Wit- 
 temberg ; one moment he expressed his 
 satisfaction, the next he shed tears. 
 These demonstrations of sensibility but 
 little moved the Reformer, yet he avoided 
 betraying what he thought of them. " I 
 feigned not to understand the meaning 
 of those crocodile tears," said he. — The 
 crocodile is said to weep wdien it is una- 
 ble to seize on its prey.J 
 
 Miltitz invited Luther to supper. The 
 doctor accepted the invitation. His host 
 laid aside the dignity of his function, and 
 Luther gave free vent to the cheerfulness 
 of his natural temper. The repast was 
 joyous ;§ and the moment of adieu arri- 
 
 * L. Epp. i. p. 209. 
 
 t Ab integro jam soeculo nullum negotium 
 Ecclesice contigisse quod mnjarem illi sollicitudi- 
 nem incussisset. — (Pallav. t. i. p. 52.) 
 
 i Ego dissimulabam has crocodili lacrymas a 
 me intelligi. — (L. Epp. i. p. 216.) 
 
 § Atque vesperi, me accepto, convivio lsetati 
 sumus.— (Ibid. 231.) 
 
 ving, the Legate opened his arms to the 
 heretic doctor, and saluted him.* " A 
 Judas kiss," thought Luther. " I af- 
 fected not to understand these Italian 
 manners," wrote he to Staupitz.f 
 
 Would that salute indeed make recon- 
 ciliation between Rome and the dawn- 
 ing Reformation 1 Miltitz hoped it 
 might, and rejoiced in the hope ; for he 
 had a nearer view than the Roman 
 Court could take of the terrible effect 
 the Reformation was likely to produce 
 on the Papacy. If Luther and his op- 
 ponents are silenced, said he to himself, 
 the dispute will be terminated ; and 
 Rome, by skilfully calling up new cir- 
 cumstances, will regain her former influ- 
 ence. To all appearance, therefore, the 
 struggle was nearly passed — Rome had 
 opened her arms and the Reformer had 
 cast himself into them. But this work 
 was not of man, but of God. It was the 
 mistake of Rome to see only a contro- 
 versy with a monk, in what was in real- 
 ity a revival of the Church. The kisses 
 of a papal chamberlain could not arrest 
 the renewal of Christianity. 
 
 Miltitz, acting on the agreement that 
 he had just concluded, repaired from Al- 
 tenburg to Leipsic, where Tetzel was 
 then residing. There was no need to 
 enjoin silence on the Dominican, for he 
 would gladly have sought, if possible, to 
 hide himself in the bowels of the earth ; 
 but the Nuncio resolved to vent his 
 wrath upon him. On arriving at Leip- 
 sic he cited him before him. He over- 
 whelmed him with reproaches, accused 
 him of being the cause of all the evil, 
 and threatened him with the Pope's an- 
 ger.| He went further : the agent of 
 the house of Fugger, who was then at 
 Leipsic, was confronted with him. Mil- 
 titz exhibited to the Dominican the ac- 
 counts of that house, papers that bore 
 his own signature ! and demonstrated 
 that he had squandered or appropria- 
 ted to his own use considerable sums. 
 The unhappy man, whom, in the day of 
 his triumph, nothing could abash, was 
 struck motionless by these well-founded 
 
 * Sic amice discessimus etiam cum osculo 
 (Judse scilicet.) — (L. Epp. i. p. 216.) 
 
 t Has Italitates.— (Ibid. 231.) 
 
 X Verbis minisque pontificis ita fregit hominem, 
 hactenus terribilem cunctis et imperterritum sten- 
 torem. — (L. Opp. in pnef.) 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519- 
 
 197 
 
 charges. He shrunk despairingly — his 
 health gave way — and he knew not 
 where to hide his shame. Luther re- 
 ceived intelligence of the miserable fate 
 of his former adversary, and seems to 
 have been the only person concerned for 
 him. " I pity Tetzel" wrote he to Spal- 
 atin.* He did not stop there. It was 
 not the man, but his actions, that he had 
 hated. At the very time when Rome 
 was pouring wrath upon him, Luther 
 wrote to him a letter of consolation. But 
 all was in vain ! Tetzel, haunted by the 
 remorse of conscience, alarmed by the 
 reproaches of his dearest friends, and 
 dreading the anger of the Pope, died 
 miserably, shortly afterwards. It was 
 commonly believed that grief had hasten- 
 ed his end.f 
 
 Luther, in fulfilment of the promises 
 that he had made to Miltitz, wrote to 
 the Pope, on the 3rd of March, as fol- 
 lows : — " Most holy Father, — May your 
 Holiness condescend to incline your pa- 
 ternal ear, which is that of Christ him- 
 self, toward your poor sheep, and listen 
 with kindness to his bleating. What 
 shall I do, most holy Father ! I cannot 
 stand against the torrent of your anger, 
 and I know no way of escape. They 
 require of me that I should retract. I 
 would be prompt to do so, if that could 
 lead to the result they desire. But 
 the persecutions of my enemies have 
 spread my writings far and wide, and 
 they are too deeply engraven on the 
 hearts of men to be by possibility erased. 
 A retractation would only still more dis- 
 honour the Church of Rome, and call 
 forth from all a cry of accusation against 
 her. Most holy Father, I declare it in 
 the presence of God, and of all the world, 
 I never have sought, nor will I ever 
 seek, to weaken, by force or artifice, 
 the power of the Roman Church or of 
 your Holiness. I confess that there is 
 nothing in heaven or earth that should 
 be preferred above that Church, save 
 only Jesus Christ the Lord of all.":}; 
 
 These words might appear strange, 
 and even reprehensible in Luther, if 
 we failed to bear in mind that the light 
 
 * DoleoTotzel'mm . . . .— (L. Epp. i. p. 223.) 
 t Sed conscientia indignati Papa? forte occu- 
 
 buit. — (L. Opp. in praef.) 
 
 X Praeter unum Jesum Christum Dominum 
 
 omnium. — (L. Epp. i. p. 234.) 
 
 broke in upon him not suddenly, but by 
 slow and progressive degrees.- They 
 are evidence of the important truth, that 
 the Reformation was not a mere opposi- 
 tion to the Papacy. It was not a war 
 waged against a certain form or con- 
 dition of things, neither was it the result 
 of any negative tendency. Opposition 
 to the Pope was its secondary sign. A 
 new life, a positive doctrine, was its gen- 
 erating principle — " Jesus Christ the 
 Lord of all, and who should be prefer- 
 red before all," and above Rome herself, 
 as Luther intimates in the latter Words 
 of his letter. Such was essentially the 
 cause of the Revolution of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 It is probable that a short time previ- 
 ous to the period we are recording, the 
 Pope would not have passed over unno- 
 ticed a letter in which the monk of Wit- 
 temberg flatly refused any retractation. 
 But Maximilian was no more ; — it was 
 a question who was to succeed him, and 
 Luther's letter was disregarded in the 
 midst of the political intrigues Avhich 
 then agitated the city of the Pontiffs. 
 
 The Reformer turned his time to bet- 
 ter account than his potent enemy. 
 Whilst Leo the Tenth, absorbed in his 
 interests as a temporal prince, was strain- 
 ing every nerve to exclude a formidable 
 neighbour from the throne, Luther daily 
 grew in knowledge and in faith. He 
 studied the decretals of the Popes, and 
 the discoveries he made materially mod- 
 ified his ideas. He wrote to Spalatin 
 — "I am reading the decretals of the 
 Pontiffs, and, let me whisper it in your 
 ear, I know not whether the Pope is 
 Antichrist himself, or whether he is his 
 apostle ; so misrepresented, and even cru- 
 cified, does Christ appear in them."* _ 
 
 Yet he still esteemed the ancient 
 Church of Rome, and entertained no 
 thought of separation from it. " That 
 the Roman Church," said he, " is more 
 honoured by God than all others, is not 
 to be doubted. St. Peter, St. Paul, for- 
 ty-six popes, some hundreds of thousands 
 of martyrs, have laid down their lives 
 in its communion, having overcome hell 
 and the world, so that the eyes of God 
 rest on the Roman Church with special 
 favour. Though now-a-days every thing 
 
 * Nescio au Papa sit Antichristus ipse vel 
 apostolus ejus. — (L. Epp. i. 239.) 
 
198 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 there is in a wretched state, it is no 
 ground for separating from it. On the 
 contraiy, the worse things are going, the 
 more should we hold close to it ; for it is 
 not by separation from it that we can 
 make it better. We must not separ- 
 ate from God on account of any work 
 of the devil, nor cease to have fellowship 
 with the children of God, who are still 
 abiding in the pale of Rome, on account 
 of the multitude of the ungodly. There 
 is no sin, no amount of evil, which 
 should be permitted to dissolve the bond 
 of charity or break the unity of the 
 body. For love can do all things, and 
 nothing is difficult to those who are 
 united."* 
 
 It was not Luther who separated him- 
 self from Rome, but Rome that separated 
 herself from Luther ; and in so doing 
 put from her the ancient faith of that 
 Catholic Church which she then repre- 
 sented. It was not Luther who took 
 from Rome her power, and obliged her 
 bishop to descend from a throne that had 
 been usurped : the doctrines he pro- 
 claimed, the word of the apostles, which 
 God again made known in the Church 
 with power and clearness, were alone 
 effectual to dethrone the tyranny that 
 had for centuries enslaved the Church. 
 
 These declarations of Luther, pub- 
 lished towards the end of February, were 
 not such as were altogether satisfactory 
 to Miltitz and De Vio. These two vul- 
 tures had both seen their prey escape 
 them, and had retired within the walls 
 of ancient Treves. There, under fa- 
 vour of the Archbishop, they nourished 
 the hope of accomplishing by their union 
 the purpose each had separately failed 
 to effect. The two Nuncios saw plainly 
 that nothing was to be expected from 
 Frederic, now invested with supreme 
 power. They saw that Luther persisted 
 in his refusal to retract. The only 
 chance of success consisted in depriving 
 the heretical monk of the Elector's coun- 
 tenance, and then inveigling him within 
 their reach. Once at Treves, in a state 
 subject to a Prince of the Church, and 
 no cunning will deliver him till he shall 
 have fully satisfied the requirements of 
 the Pontiff. They went to work with- 
 out delay. "Luther," said Miltitz to the 
 Elector Archbishop of Treves, " has ac- 
 * L. Opp. L. xvii. 224. 
 
 cepted the arbitration of your Grace : 
 we request you, therefore, to summon 
 him before you." The Elector of 
 Treves accordingly wrote on the 3rd 
 of May to the Elector of Saxony, request- 
 ing him to send Luther to him. De 
 Vio, and shortly after Miltitz himself, re- 
 paired to Frederic, to announce to him 
 that the Golden Rose had arrived at 
 Augsburg, consigned to the care of the 
 Fuggers. The moment they thought 
 had arrived for striking a decisive blow. 
 
 But affairs were changed — neither 
 Frederic nor Luther was moved from 
 his confidence. The Elector compre- 
 hended his new position, and no longer 
 feared the Pope, much less his agents. 
 The Reformer, seeing Miltitz and De 
 Vio united, foresaw the fate that awaited 
 him, if he complied with their .summons. 
 " On all sides," said he, " my life is way- 
 laid."* Besides, he had appealed to the 
 Pope, and the Pope, busy in intrigues 
 with crowned heads, had not answered 
 his appeal. Luther wrote to Miltitz, 
 " How can I set out without an order 
 from Rome in these troublous times? 
 How can I expose myself to so many 
 dangers, and such heavy expense, poor 
 as I am?" 
 
 The Elector of Treves, a prudent and 
 moderate man, and connected by relations 
 of friendship with Frederic, resolved to 
 consult the interests of the latter. He had 
 no wish to interfere unless positively re- 
 quired to do so. He, therefore, came to 
 an agreement with the Elector of Sax- 
 ony, to adjourn the examination to the 
 ensuing Diet, — and it was not until two 
 years after that the Diet assembled. 
 
 Whilst the dangers that threatened 
 Luther were thus warded off by a prov- 
 idential hand, he himself was boldly ad- 
 vancing to a result he did not discern. 
 His reputation was increased, the cause 
 of truth gained strength, the number 
 of students at Wittemberg increased, 
 and among them were found the most 
 distinguished youth of Germany. " Our 
 city," wrote Luther, " can scarce hold 
 the numbers who are arriving ;" and on 
 another occasion he observes, •' The stu- 
 dents increase upon us like an overflow- 
 ing tide."f 
 
 * Video ubique, undique, quocumque modo, an- 
 
 imam meam quaeri. — (L. Epp. i. p. 274. 16 May.) 
 
 t Sicut aquainundans. — (L. Epp.i. p.278,279.) 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 199 
 
 But, already, the Reformer's voice 
 was heard beyond the confines of Ger- 
 many. Passing the frontiers of the Em- 
 pire, it had begun to shake the founda- 
 tions of the Roman power among the 
 several nations of Christendom. Frobe- 
 nius, the celebrated printer of Balse, had 
 put forth a collection of Luther's wri- 
 tings. They circulated rapidly. At 
 Basle, the bishop himself commended 
 Luther. The Cardinal of Sion, after 
 reading his works, exclaimed, with an 
 ironical play on his name, " O Luther ! 
 thou art a true Luther," (a purifier, lau- 
 terer.) 
 
 Erasmus was at Louvain when the 
 writings of Luther were received in the 
 Low Countries. The Prior of the Au- 
 gustines of Antwerp, who had studied at 
 Wittemberg, and acquired, according to 
 the testimony of Erasmus, a knowledge 
 of primitive Christianity, read them with 
 eagerness, as did other Belgians. But 
 those who were intent only on their own 
 selfish interests, remarks Erasmus, men 
 who fed the people with old wives' tales, 
 broke out in angry fanaticism. " I can- 
 not tell you," wrote Erasmus to Luther, 
 " the emotion and truly tragic agitation 
 your writings have occasioned."* 
 
 Frobenius sent 600 copies of these wri- 
 tings to France and Spain. They were 
 publicly sold in Paris : the Sorbonne 
 doctors read them with approbation, as it 
 would appear. It was high time, said 
 some of them, that those who devoted 
 themselves to biblical studies should speak 
 out freely. In England these books 
 were received with still greater eager- 
 ness. Some Spanish merchants transla- 
 ted them into Spanish, and forwarded 
 them from Antwerp to their own coun- 
 try. " Assuredly," says Pallavicini, " these 
 merchants must have been of Moorish 
 blood"! 
 
 Calvi, a learned bookseller of Pavia, 
 took a large quantity of copies to Italy, 
 and distributed them in the transalpine 
 cities. It was no desire of gain that in- 
 spired this man of letters, but a wish 
 to contribute to the revival of the love of 
 God. The power with which Luther 
 
 * Nullo sermone consequi queam, quos tragce- 
 dias hie excitarint tui libelli . . . — (Erasm. Epp. 
 vi. 4.) 
 
 t Maurorum stirpe prognatis. — (Pallavicini, i. 
 
 91.) 
 
 maintained the cause of Christ filled 
 him with joy. " All the learned men 
 of Italy," wrote he, " will unite with me, 
 and we will send you tributary verses 
 from our most distinguished writers." 
 
 Frobenius, in transmitting to Luther 
 a copy of his publication, related these 
 joyful tidings, and thus continued : — " I 
 have sold all the impressions except ten 
 copies, and no speculation ever answered 
 my purpose so well as this." Other let- 
 ters informed Luther of the joy his wri- 
 tings diffused. " I am delighted," said 
 he, " that the truth is found so pleasing, 
 although she speaks with little learning 
 and in stammering accents."* 
 
 Such was the commencement of the 
 awakening in the several countries of 
 Europe. If we except Switzerland, where 
 the preaching of the Gospel had been al- 
 ready heard, the arrival of the Doctor of 
 Wittemberg's writings every where forms 
 the first page in the history of the Ref- 
 ormation. A printer of Basle scattered 
 the first germs of truth. At the mo- 
 ment when the Roman Pontiff thought 
 to stifle the work in Germany, it be- 
 gan to manifest itself in France, the 
 Low Countries, Italy, Spain, England, 
 and Switzerland. Even though the 
 power of Rome should fell the parent 
 stem .... the seeds are henceforth 
 spread abroad in all lands. 
 
 Whilst the conflict was beginning be- 
 yond the limits of the Empire, it seemed 
 to be suspended within. The most tur- 
 bulent allies of Rome, the Franciscan 
 monks of Juterbok, who had imprudently 
 attacked Luther, had retired in silence 
 after a vigorous reply from the Reformer. 
 The Pope's partisans were no longer 
 heard — Tetzel was incapable of any 
 movement. The friends of Luther en- 
 treated him to give over further contest, 
 and he had promised to do so. The 
 theses were beginning to be forgotten. 
 This hollow peace struck powerless the 
 eloquence of the Reformer. The Ref- 
 ormation appeared arrested in its prog- 
 ress — « But," observed Luther, speaking 
 subsequently of this period, " men were 
 forming vain schemes, for the Lord had 
 arisen to judge among the nations."! 
 
 * In his id guadeo, quod Veritas, tarn barbare 
 et indocte loquens, adeo placet. — (L. Epp. i. 255.) 
 
 + Dominus evigilavit et stat ad judicandos 
 populos. — (L. Opp. lat. in praef.) 
 
200 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Elsewhere we find him exclaiming, 
 " God does not conduct, but drives me, 
 and carries me forward. 1 am not mas- 
 ter of my own actions. I would gladly- 
 live in peace, but I am cast into the 
 midst of tumult and changes."* 
 
 The scholastic Eck, author of the Obe- 
 lisks, and Luther's early friend, was the 
 first to re-commence the combat. He 
 was sincerely attached to the Papacy; 
 but he appears to have been a stranger 
 to the religion of the heart, and to have 
 been of that class, too numerous in every 
 age, who look upon science, and even 
 upon theology and religion, as means of 
 advancement in the world. Vain glory 
 dwells under the cassock of the pastor as 
 well as under the armour of the warrior. 
 Eck had applied himself to the logic of 
 the schools, and Avas acknowledged an 
 adept in this kind of controversy. Whilst 
 the knights of the middle ages, and the 
 warriors of the age of the Reformation, 
 sought glory in tournaments, the scho- 
 lastic pedants contended for distinction in 
 those syllogistic discussions for which- the 
 academies often afforded a stage. Eck, 
 full of confidence in himself, and proud 
 of the popularity of his cause, and of the 
 prizes he had won in eight universities of 
 Hungary, Lombardy, and Germany, ar- 
 dently desired an opportunity of display- 
 ing his ability and address. The " ob- 
 scure monk," who had so suddenly grown 
 into a giant — this Luther, whom no one 
 had hitherto humbled — offended his pride 
 and aroused his jealousy, f It may have 
 occurred to him, that in seeking his own 
 glory he might ruin the cause of Rome. 
 . . . But scholastic pride was not to be 
 checked by such a thought. Divines, as 
 well as princes, have at times sacrificed 
 the general weal to their own personal 
 glory. We shall see what particular cir- 
 cumstance afforded the Doctor of Ingol- 
 stadt the desired opportunity of entering 
 the lists with his rival. 
 
 The zealous but too ardent Carlstadt 
 was still in communication with Luther ; 
 they were also especially united by their 
 attachment to the doctrine of grace, and 
 by their admiration for St. Augustine. 
 
 * Deus rapit, pellit, nedum ducit me ; non sum 
 compos mei ; volo esse quietus, et rapior in me- 
 dios tumultos. — (L. Epp. i. 231.) 
 
 .t Nihil cupiebat ardentius, quam sui specimen 
 prtebere in solemni disputatione cum cemulo. — 
 (Pallavicini, torn. i. p. 55.) . 
 
 Of enthusiastic character and small dis- 
 cretion, Carlstadt was not a man to be 
 restrained by the skill and policy of a 
 Miltitz. He had published against Eck's 
 Obelisks some theses, wherein he espoused 
 the opinions of Luther and their common 
 faith. Eck had put forth a reply, and 
 Carlstadt had not left him the advantage 
 of the last word.* The discussion grew 
 warm. Eck, desiring to profit by the op- 
 portunity, had thrown down the gauntlet, 
 and the impetuous Carlstadt had taken 
 it up. God used the passions of these 
 two men to bring about his purposes. 
 Luther had taken no part in these dis- 
 cussions, and yet he was destined to be 
 the hero of the struggle. There are 
 some men who by the necessity of the 
 case are continually brought forward on 
 the stage. It was settled that Leipsic 
 should be the scene of the discussion. 
 This was the origin of the Leipsic dis- 
 pute, afterwards so famous. 
 
 Eck thought it a small thing to contest 
 the question with Carlstadt. It was his 
 object to humble Luther. He therefore 
 sought by every means to tempt him into 
 the field, and for this end put forth thir- 
 teen theses,! which he so framed as to 
 bear directly on the principal doctrines of 
 the Reformer. The thirteenth was in 
 these words, — " We deny that the au- 
 thority of the Roman Church did not 
 rise above that of other churches before 
 the time of Pope Sylvester : and we ac- 
 knowledge in every age as successor of 
 St. Peter and Vicar of Jesus Christ him 
 who was seated in the chair and held the 
 faith of St. Peter." Sylvester lived in 
 the time of Constantine the Great ; Eck, 
 therefore, in this thesis, denied that the 
 primacy possessed by Rome was given to 
 it by that emperor. 
 
 Luther, who had consented, not with- 
 out reluctance, to remain silent, was deep- 
 ly moved as he read these propositions. 
 He saw that they were directed against 
 him, and felt that he could not decline the 
 challenge without disgrace. " That man," 
 said he, " declares Carlstadt to be his an- 
 tagonist, and at the same moment attacks 
 me. But God reigns. He knows what 
 it is that He will bring out of this tra- 
 gedy. \ It matters little how it affects 
 
 * Defensio adversus Eckii monomachiam. 
 
 t L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 242. 
 
 X Sed Deus in medio horum ; ipse novit quid 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 201 
 
 Doctor Eck or me. The purpose of God 
 must be fulfilled. Thanks to Eck, this, 
 which has hitherto been but a trifle, will 
 in the end become a serious matter, and 
 strike a fatal blow against the tyranny of 
 Rome and her Pontiff." 
 
 The truce had been broken by Rome 
 herself. Nay, more, in again giving the 
 signal of battle, the contest had been 
 transferred to a quarter which Luther 
 had not yet directly attacked. Eck had 
 called the attention of his adversaries 
 to the primacy of Rome. He thus fol- 
 lowed the dangerous example of Tetzel* 
 Rome invited the stroke ; — and if in the 
 result she left on the arena proofs of her 
 defeat, it is certain that she herself had 
 provoked the formidable blow. 
 
 The Pontiff's supremacy once over- 
 turned, all the superstructure of Rome 
 must needs crumble into dust. Hence 
 the papacy was in danger, and yet nei- 
 ther Miltitz nor Cajetan took any step to 
 prevent this new contest. Could they 
 imagine the Reformation subdued — -or 
 were they smitten with the blindness 
 which deludes the powerful to their 
 ruin ? 
 
 Luther, who had set a rare example 
 of moderation in keeping silence so long, 
 boldly accepted the challenge of his new 
 antagonist. He put forth fresh theses in 
 reply to those of Eck. The concluding 
 one was thus expressed — " It is by con- 
 temptible decretals of Roman Pontiffs, 
 composed hardly four centuries ago, that 
 it is attempted to prove the primacy of the 
 Roman Church ; — but arrayed against 
 this claim are eleven centuries of credible 
 history, the express declarations of Scrip- 
 ture, and the conclusions of the Council 
 of Nice, the most venerable of all the 
 councils."! 
 
 " God knows," wrote Luther, at the 
 same time to the Elector, " that it was 
 my fixed purpose to keep silence, and 
 that I was rejoiced to see the struggle 
 brought to a close. I was so scrupulous 
 in my adherence to the treaty concluded 
 with the Pope's commissary, that I did 
 not answer Sylvester Prierias. notwith- 
 standing the taunts of my adversaries, and 
 the advice of my friends. But now Dr. 
 
 ex ea tragedia. deducere voluerit. — (L. Epp. i. 
 230, 222.) 
 
 * See p. 163. 
 
 t L. Opp. (L.) xvii. p. 245. 
 
 26 
 
 Eck attacks me ; and not me only, but 
 the whole University of Wittemberg. I 
 cannot allow truth to be thus loaded with 
 opprobrium."* 
 
 Luther wrote at the same time to Carl- 
 stadt : " Worthy Andrew, I am not will- 
 ing that you should enter on this dis- 
 pute, since the attack is in reality directed 
 against me. I gladly lay aside my seri- 
 ous studies to turn my strength against 
 these parasites of the Pontiff"! Then 
 turning to his adversary, and disdainfully 
 calling from Wittemberg to Ingolstadt, 
 he exclaims, "Now then, dear Eck, take 
 courage, — gird on thy sword.}: If I could 
 not please thee when thou earnest as a 
 go-between, perhaps I may better satisfy 
 thee as an antagonist. Not that I, of 
 course, can expect to overcome thee, — 
 but that after all thy triumphs in Hun- 
 gary, Lombardy, Bavaria, (if we are to 
 believe thy own report,) I shall be giv- 
 ing thee the opportunity of earning the 
 name of conqueror of Saxony and Mis- 
 nia ! — so that thou shalt ever after be 
 hailed with the glorious epithet of Au- 
 gust, ."§ 
 
 All Luther's friends did not share in 
 
 his courage, — for no one had hitherto 
 
 been able to resist the sophisms of Eck. 
 
 But their great cause of alarm was the 
 
 subject matter of the dispute . . . the 
 
 Pope's primacy ! Plow can the poor 
 
 monk of Wittemberg dare to stand up 
 
 against the giant who for ages has Crush- 
 es o o 
 
 ed all his enemies 1 The courtiers of the 
 Elector were alarmed. Spalatin, the 
 prince's confidant, and the intimate friend 
 of Luther, was filled with apprehensions. 
 Frederic himself was not at ease. Even 
 the sword of the Knight of the Holy Sep- 
 ulchre, with which he had been invested 
 at Jerusalem, would not avail him in this 
 struggle. Luther alone was unmoved. 
 "The Lord," thought he, "will deliver 
 him into my hand." His own faith fur- 
 nished him with encouragement for his 
 friends. " I beseech you, my dear Spala- 
 tin," said he, " do not give way to fear. 
 You well know that if Christ had not 
 been on our side, what I have already 
 
 * L. Epp. i. 237. 
 
 t Gaudens et videns posthabeo istorum mea 
 seria ludo. — (L. Epp. i. 251.) 
 
 I Esto vir fortis et accingere gladio tuo super 
 femur tuum, potentissime ! — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Ac si voles semper Augustus saluteris in 
 sternum. — (Ibid.) 
 
202 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 done must have been my ruin. Even 
 lately did not news come from Rome to 
 the Duke of Pomerania's chancellor, that 
 I had destroyed all respect for Rome, and 
 that no way appeared of quieting the 
 general feeling ; so that it was intended 
 to deal with me, not judicially, but by 
 Roman stratagem; such were the words 
 used — 1 suppose meaning poison, am- 
 bush, or assassination !" 
 
 " I restrain myself, and out of regard 
 to the Elector and the University, I keep 
 back many things which I would employ 
 against Babylon, if I were elsewhere. O, 
 my dear Spalatin, it is not possible to 
 speak truth concerning Scripture and the 
 Church, without rousing the beast. Don't 
 expect to see me at peace unless I re- 
 nounce the study of divine things. If 
 this matter be of God, it will not end till 
 all my friends have forsaken me, as all 
 the disciples of Christ forsook him. — 
 Truth will stand unaided, and will pre- 
 vail by his right hand, not mine or yours, 
 or by any other man's.* If I perish, the 
 world will not perish with me. But 
 wretch that I am, I fear I am not worthy 
 to die in such a cause." "Rome," wrote 
 he again about this time, " Rome eagerly 
 longs for my destruction, and I grow 
 weary of defying her. I am credibly in- 
 formed that a paper effigy of Martin Lu- 
 ther has been publicly burnt in the Cam- 
 pus Floralis at Rome, after being loaded 
 with execrations. I await their onset."f 
 "The whole world," he continued, "is 
 in motion and shaking. What will be 
 the consequence, God alone knows. For 
 my part I foresee wars and calamities. 
 God have mercy on us."| 
 
 Luther wrote letter after letter to Duke 
 George, to ask permission of that prince,^ 
 in whose states Leipsic was situated, to 
 repair thither, and take part in the dis- 
 cussion : still he received no answer. 
 The grandson of the Bohemian king 
 Podiebrad, alarmed by Luther's proposi- 
 tion touching the Pope's authority, and 
 fearing, lest Saxony should become the 
 
 * Et sola sit Veritas, quce salvet se dextera sua> 
 non mei, non tua, non ullius hominis . . . — (L- 
 Epp. i. 261.) 
 
 t Expecto furorem illorum. — (Ibid. 280 of the 
 30th May, 1519.) 
 
 t Totus orbis nutat et movetur, tam corpore 
 quam anima. — (L. Epp. i. 261.) 
 
 § Ternis Uteris, a duce Georgio non potui cer- 
 tum obtinere responsum. — (Ibid. 282.) 
 
 theatre of struggles similar to those which 
 had long- ravaged Bohemia, resolved not 
 to consent to Luther's request. The lat- 
 ter hereupon decided to publish some ex- 
 planations of his thirteenth thesis. But 
 this tract, so far from persuading Duke 
 George, strengthened him in his resolu- 
 tion ; and he decidedly refused the Re- 
 former his permission to take part in the 
 discussion, allowing him only to be pres- 
 ent as a spectator.* Luther was greatly 
 mortified ; nevertheless it was his desire 
 simply to follow God's leadings, and he 
 resolved to repair thither, to witness what 
 took place, and wait any opening that 
 might offer. 
 
 At the same time, the prince promoted 
 by all his influence the discussion be- 
 tween Eck and Carlstadt. George was 
 devotedly attached to the established doc- 
 trine — but he was upright, sincere, a 
 friend to free enquiry, and far from deem- 
 ing all exercise of individual judgment 
 in such things justly open to the charge 
 of heresy, merely because it might give 
 offence to Rome. Add to this, the Elec- 
 tor united his influence with his cousin, 
 and George, emboldened by the language 
 of Frederic, ordered that the dispute 
 should take place. | 
 
 Bishop Adolphus of Meresburg, in 
 whose diocese Leipsic was situate, saw 
 more clearly than Miltitz and Cajetan 
 the danger of subjecting questions of such 
 high importance to the uncertain issue of 
 a single combat. Rome could not well 
 expose to such hazard the acquisition of 
 several centuries. All the divines of 
 Leipsic sharing in the alarm, entreated 
 their bishop to interfere and prevent the 
 discussion. Adolphus, therefore, ear- 
 nestly dissuaded Duke George, but the 
 latter answered with much good sense :J 
 " I am surprised to find a bishop holding 
 in abhorrence the ancient and laudable 
 custom of our fathers, to enquire into 
 doubtful questions in matters of faith. 
 If your theologians object to defend their 
 doctrines, the money given them would 
 be better bestowed in maintaining old 
 women and children, who at least might 
 sew and sing." 
 
 * Ita ut non disputator sed spectator futurus 
 Lipsiam ingrederer. — (L. Opp. in praef.) 
 
 t Principis nostri verbo firmatus. — (L. Epp. i. 
 255.) 
 
 I Schneider, Lips. Chr. iv. 168. 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 203 
 
 This letter produced little effect on the 
 bishop and his divines. Error has a 
 hidden conscience which makes its sup- 
 porters fear discussion, even while they 
 talk most largely of free enquiiy. Ad- 
 vancing without circumspection, it draws 
 back with cowardice. Truth provokes 
 not, but holds firm. Error provokes en- 
 quiry and then retires. The prosperity 
 of the university of Wittemberg was an 
 object of jealousy at Leipsic. The 
 monks and the priests from their pulpits 
 besought the people to avoid the new 
 heretics. They reviled Luther, depict- 
 ing him and his friends in the darkest 
 colours, to rouse the fanaticism of the 
 lowest classes against the doctors of the 
 Reformation.* Tetzel himself, who was 
 still living, exclaimed from his retreat, 
 " It is the devil himself who is urging 
 on this contest."! 
 
 Still not all the Leipsic professors were 
 of this opinion. Some belonged to the 
 class of indifferent spectators, ever ready 
 to find amusement in the faults of both 
 sides. Of this number was Peter Mosel- 
 lanus. He cared little for John Eek, 
 or Carlstadt, or Martin Luther, but he 
 promised himself much amusement from 
 their contest. " John Eck, the most il- 
 lustrious of gladiators of the pen and 
 rhodomontadists," said he, writing to his 
 friend Erasmus, " John Eck, who, like 
 the Socrates of Aristophanes, looks down 
 upon the gods themselves, is about to 
 come to blows with Andrew Carlstadt. 
 The battle will end in smoke. There 
 will be matter for mirth for ten Demo- 
 crituses."| 
 
 On the "other hand, the timid Erasmus 
 was alarmed at the idea of a dispute ; 
 and his prudence tried to prevent the 
 discussion. " If you would trust Eras- 
 mus," wrote he to Melancthon, "you 
 would apply yourself rather to the culti- 
 vation of literature, than to disputes with 
 its enemies. § In that way I think we 
 should get on better. Above all, let 
 us remember in the contest that we must 
 not conquer by force of words only, but 
 
 * Theologi interim ne proscindunt . . . popu- 
 lum Lipsiae inclamant. — (L. Epp. i. 255.) 
 
 t Das wait del- Teufel !— (Ibid.) 
 
 t Seckendorf, 201. 
 
 § Malim te plus opera? sumere in asserendis 
 bonis litteris, quam in sectandis harum hostibus. 
 — (Corpus Reform, ed. Bretschneider, i. 78, April 
 22, 1519.) 
 
 also by modesty and gentleness." Nei- 
 ther the fears of the priests, nor the 
 prudence of pacificators, could now pre- 
 vent the contest. Each party prepared 
 himself. 
 
 Eck was the first to arrive at the place 
 of rendezvous. On the 21st of June he 
 entered Leipsic, accompanied by Polian- 
 der, a young man whom he had brought 
 from Ingolstadt to take notes of the dis- 
 cussion. He was received with great 
 honours. Attired in priestly garments, 
 at the head of a numerous procession, he 
 passed through the streets of the city on 
 Corpus Christi day. All crowded to see 
 him. " The whole population was in 
 my favour," said he, in speaking of it ; 
 " nevertheless," he continues, " a rumour 
 was spread abroad in the city that I 
 should be defeated in the encounter." 
 
 The day after the festival, Friday, the 
 24th of June, and St. John's day, the 
 party from Wittemberg arrived in Leip- 
 sic. Carlstadt, who was to conduct the 
 controversy against Eck, was alone in 
 his travelling car, in advance of the rest. 
 Duke Barnim of Pomerania, who was 
 at that time studying at Wittemberg, 
 and had been chosen Rector of the Uni- 
 versity, followed in an open carriage. 
 Seated beside him were the two cele- 
 brated divines — the fathers of the Refor- 
 mation — Melancthon and Luther. Me- 
 lancthon had refused to be separated 
 from his friend. "Martin, that soldier 
 of Jesus Christ," were his words to Spal- 
 atin, " has stirred up all this filthy bog.* 
 My soul is moved with indignation when 
 I think of the shameful conduct of the 
 Pope's doctors. Stand firm and constant 
 with us." Luther himself had requested 
 his Achates, as he has been termed, to 
 bear him company. 
 
 John Lange, vicar of the Augustines, 
 several doctors of law, a few masters of 
 arts, two licentiates in theology, and 
 other ecclesiastics, among whom was 
 noticed Nicholas Amsdorff, closed the 
 procession. Amsdorff, descended from a 
 noble family of Saxony, far from being 
 fascinated by the brilliant career to which 
 his birth seemed to call him, had de- 
 voted himself to theology. The theses 
 on Indulgences had led him to the 
 knowledge of the truth. Instantly he 
 
 * Martinus, Domini miles, hanc camarinam 
 movit.— (Corp. Ref. i. 82.) 
 
£04 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 had made a courageous profession of 
 faith.* Of energetic mind and vehe- 
 ment character, Amsdorff was accustom- 
 ed to urge on Luther, already by na- 
 ture prompt to actions of questionable 
 prudence. Born to elevated station, he 
 was not awed by rank, and in address- 
 ing the great he spoke at times with a 
 freedom bordering upon rudeness. " The 
 gospel of Jesus Christ," said he in pres- 
 ence of a noble assembly, " belongs to 
 the poor and afflicted, and not to princes, 
 lords, and courtiers, such as you, who 
 live in a round of pleasures and enjoy- 
 ments."! 
 
 But this was not all the array of 
 Wittemberg. A large bpdy of students 
 accompanied their teachers. Eck affirms 
 that there were as many as two hundred. 
 Armed with pikes and halberds, they 
 attended the doctors in their route, re- 
 solved to defend them, and proud of their 
 cause. 
 
 In this order the procession of the Re- 
 formers arrived at Leipsic. Just as it 
 had passed the Grimma gate, and had 
 reached the cemetery of St. Paul, a 
 wheel of Carlstadt's travelling car broke 
 down. The archdeacon, whose vanity 
 was pleasing itself with so solemn an en- 
 try, was precipitated into the mud. He 
 was not hurt, but was compelled to 
 proceed on foot to the place assigned 
 for his abode. Luther's chariot, which 
 was following that of Carlstadt, got be- 
 fore him, and bore the Reformer safe 
 and sound to his destination. The peo- 
 ple of Leipsic, who had assembled to 
 witness the entry of the •champions of 
 Wittemberg, interpreted this accident as 
 an ill omen for Carlstadt ; and it was 
 soon a prevalent impression that he 
 would break down in the conflict, but that 
 Luther would remain master of the field. J 
 
 Adolphus of Merseburg was not idle. 
 As soon as he learned the approach of 
 Luther and Carlstadt, and even before 
 they had alighted, he caused to be affixed 
 on the doors of the churches a notice 
 prohibiting the opening of the discussion 
 under pain of excommunication. Duke 
 
 * Nee cum carne et sanguine diu contulit, sed 
 statim palam ad alios fidei confessionem constan- 
 ter edidit— (M. Adami Vita Amsdorff.) 
 
 t Weismann, Hist. Eccl. i. 1444. 
 
 t Seb. Froschel vom Priesterthum. — (Wittemb. 
 1585, in prael'.) 
 
 George, astounded at this audacity, di- 
 rected the city council to tear down the 
 bishop's placard, and committed to prison 
 the daring meddler who had ventured 
 to be the agent of his orders.* George 
 had himself arrived at Leipsic. He was 
 accompanied by all his court ; among the 
 rest by Jerome Emser, with whom Lu- 
 ther had spent a memorable evening at 
 Dresden.! George made the customary 
 presents to the two disputants. " The 
 Duke," said Eck boastfully, " presented 
 me with a fine stag, and to Carlstadt he 
 gave only a roebuck. "| 
 
 The moment Eck heard that Luther 
 had arrived, he repaired to the doctor's 
 lodging ; — " What is this ?" said he, " I 
 am told you object to dispute with me." 
 — Luther. " How can I dispute, since 
 the Duke forbids me to do so," — Eck. 
 " If I am not allowed to dispute with 
 you, I shall take very little interest in 
 discussing with Carlstadt. It is on your 
 account I am here."§ Then, after a mo- 
 ment's silence, he continued, " If I obtain 
 the Duke's permission, will you take the 
 field ?" — Luther, (overjoyed). " Only 
 obtain permission, and we will meet." 
 
 Eck instantly waited on the Duke ; 
 he laboured to dissipate his fears ; he as- 
 sured him that he was certain of victory, 
 and that the Pope's authority, far from 
 suffering by the dispute, would come out 
 of it the more glorious. " It was fit," he 
 said, " that the argument should bear 
 against the principal party. — If Luther 
 be unhumbled, every thing is still to be 
 done ; if he is overcome, all is at au 
 end." George granted the desired per- 
 mission. 
 
 The Duke had had a large apartment 
 prepared in his palace named Pleissen- 
 burg. Two elevated pulpits had been 
 erected opposite each other, — tables had 
 been placed for the notaries engaged to 
 take notes of the discussion, and benches 
 were ranged around for the audience. 
 The pulpits and benches were hung 
 with rich tapestry. In front of that in- 
 tended for the doctor of Wittemberg, 
 was suspended the portrait of St. Martin ; 
 — on that of Eck was the figure of St. 
 
 * L. Opp. L. xvii. 245. 
 
 t See p. 122. t Seckend. p. 190. 
 
 § Si tecum non licet disputare neque cum 
 Carlstatio volo ; propter te enim hue veni. — (L. 
 Opp. in praef.) 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 295 
 
 George.. — " We shall see," said the 
 haughty Eck, a? he contemplated this 
 emblem — " if I do not trample my an- 
 tagonists under my feet." Every thing 
 announced the high importance attached 
 to the dispute. 
 
 On the 25th of June, a meeting was 
 held in the Castle to settle the order 
 that should be followed. Eck, who placed 
 even more dependence on his declama- 
 tion and action, than on his arguments, 
 exclaimed, " We will dispute freely 
 and extempore, and the notaries need not 
 take down our words." 
 
 Carlstadt. " It was understood that 
 the discussion should be written, printed, 
 and submitted to the judgment of the 
 public." , 
 
 Eck. " Writing down all that is said 
 wearies the minds of the disputants, and 
 protracts the contest. There is an end 
 at once of the spirit necessary to give 
 animation to the discussion. Do not de- 
 lay the flow of eloquence."* 
 
 The friends of Eck supported his pro- 
 posal ; — but Carlstadt persisted in his ob- 
 jections, and the champion of Rome was 
 obliged to give way. 
 
 Eck. " Well, be it so ; let it be in 
 writing : but at least the discussion taken 
 down by the notaries must not be made 
 public before it has been submitted to the 
 inspection of chosen judges." 
 
 Luther. " Then does the truth that 
 Doctor Eck and his followers hold dread 
 the light ?" 
 
 Eck. " There must be judges." 
 Luther. " What judges V 
 Eck. " When the discussion is closed, 
 we will settle who they shall be." 
 
 The object of the Romanist was ap- 
 parent. If the Wittemberg divines ac- 
 cepted judges they were lost : for their 
 adversaries were previously secure of the 
 favour of those who would be applied 
 to. If they refused to abide their de- 
 cision, their enemies would cover them 
 with shame, by circulating the report 
 that they feared to submit themselves to 
 impartial award. 
 
 The Reformers demanded for judges 
 — not this and that individual, whose, 
 opinion had been previously formed, but 
 the general body of Christians. It was 
 to this universal suffrage they appealed. 
 Besides, sentence of condemnation given 
 * Melaucth. Opp. i. 139.— (Koethe ed.) 
 
 against them, would, in their judgment, 
 matter little, if, in defending their cause 
 before the christian world, they should 
 lead souls to the discovery of the light. 
 " Luther," says a Roman historian, "re- 
 quired the whole body of believers for 
 his judges ; in other words, a tribunal so 
 extensive that no urn would be found to 
 receive the suffrages."* 
 
 The parties separated. — " Observe their 
 artifices," remarked Luther and his 
 friends to each other. — " They no doubt 
 mean to require that the Pope or the 
 Universities should be the judges of the 
 result." 
 
 In fact, on the following morning the 
 Romish party sent one of their number 
 to Luther, with instructions to propose to 
 him .... the Pope .... as judge — 
 the Pope ! " The Pope !" said Luther, 
 " how can I accede to such a proposal?" 
 
 " Beware," said all his friends, " of ac- 
 cepting such unjust conditions." — Eck 
 and his advisers held another council 
 They gave up the Pope, and proposed 
 certain Universities. " Do not retract 
 the liberty you have before conceded to 
 us," said Luther. " We cannot yield 
 this point," replied they. — " Then," ex- 
 claimed Luther, " I will take no part in 
 the discussion."! 
 
 Again the parties separated, and 
 throughout the city the affair was a sub- 
 ject of conversation. — " Luther will not 
 accept the challenge," said the Roman- 
 ists . . . " He will not acknowledge any 
 judge !" His words are commented on 
 and misconstrued, and endeavours are 
 made to represent them in the most un- 
 favourable colours. — "What, is it true 
 that he declines the discussion V said the 
 warmest friends of the Reformer. They 
 flock around him and give expression to 
 their misgivings — " You decline the dis- 
 cussion !" said^ they, " your refusal will 
 bring lasting shame on your University, 
 and on the cause you have taken in 
 hand." 
 
 It was assailing him on his weak side. 
 " Well then," said he, indignantly, " I 
 accept the conditions proposed ; — but I 
 reserve to myself the right to appeal, and 
 decline the jurisdiction of Rome."! 
 
 * Aiebat, ad universos mortales pertinere judi- 
 cium, hoc est ad tribunal cujuscolligendis calculis 
 nulla urna satis capax.— (Pallavicini, torn. i. 55.) 
 
 f L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 245. t Ibid. 246. 
 
206 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The 27th of June was the day fixed 
 for the opening of the discussion. Early 
 in the morning a meeting took place in 
 the great college of the University, and 
 from thence the train walked in proces- 
 sion to the church of St. Thomas, where 
 a solemn mass was performed by order, 
 and at the expense of the Duke. After 
 the service the parties present repaired in 
 procession to the ducal castle. In front, 
 walked Duke George and the Duke of 
 Pomerania; then came counts, barons, 
 knights, and other persons of rank, and 
 lastly, the doctors, of both sides. A guard 
 consisting of seventy-three citizens, arm- 
 ed with halberds, accompanied their 
 march, with banners flying, and martial 
 music, halting at the castle-gates. 
 
 The procession having reached the 
 palace, each took his seat in the hall, 
 where the discussion was to take place. 
 Duke George, the hereditary Prince 
 John, Prince George of Anhalt, then 
 twelve years of age, and the Duke of 
 Pomerania, occupied the seats assigned 
 them. 
 
 Mosellanus ascended the pulpit, to re- 
 mind the theologians, by the Duke's or- 
 der, in what manner they were to dis- 
 pute. " If you fall to quarrelling," said 
 the speaker, " what difference will re- 
 main between a theologian in discussion 
 and a shameless duellist % In this ques- 
 tion what is victory, but the recovery of 
 a brother from error % It seems as if 
 each of you should be more desirous to 
 be so conquered than to conquer !"* 
 
 This address terminated, sacred mu- 
 sic resounded in the halls of the Pleis- 
 senburg ; the whole assembly fell upon 
 their knees, and the ancient hymn of in- 
 vocation to the Holy Spirit, Vcni, Sancte 
 Spiritus, was chaunted. Solemn mo- 
 ments in the history of the Reformation ! 
 Thrice was the invocation repeated, and 
 whilst this impressive voice was heard 
 around, the defenders of the ancient doc- 
 trine, and the champions of this new 
 teaching, the churchmen of the middle 
 ages, and those who sought to restore the 
 church of the apostles, humbly bowed 
 their foreheads to the earth. The time- 
 honoured bond of one communion still 
 bound together all these different minds ; 
 the same prayer still proceeded from all 
 these lips, as if one heart pronounced it. 
 * Seckend. p. 209. 
 
 These were the last moments of out- 
 ward and lifeless unity : a new Oneness 
 of the spirit and of life was commencing. 
 The Holy Spirit was invoked upon the 
 church, and was preparing to answer in 
 the revival of Christianity. 
 
 The chaunting and prayer being con- 
 cluded, all rose from their knees. The 
 discussion was about to commence, but it 
 being twelve o'clock, it was postponed 
 till two in the afternoon. 
 
 The Duke assembled at his table the 
 principal persons who intended to be 
 present at the discussion. After the re- 
 past, they returned to the castle. The 
 hall was filled with spectators. Discus- 
 sions of this kind Were the public meet- 
 ings of that age. It was in such meet- 
 ings that the men who represented the 
 generation in which they lived agitated 
 the questions which occupied the general 
 mind. Soon the speakers took their 
 places. That their appearance may be 
 better conceived, we will give their por- 
 traits as traced by one of the most im- 
 partial witnesses of the encounter. , 
 
 " Martin Luther is of middle size, and 
 so thin, by reason of his continual studies, 
 that one can almost count his bones. 
 He is in the prime of life, and his voice 
 is clear and sonorous. His knowledge 
 and understanding of the Holy Scriptures 
 are incomparable : the whole word of 
 God is at his fingers' ends.* Added to 
 this, he has vast resources of argument 
 and ideas. One might perhaps desire 
 somewhat more judgment to arrange 
 eveiy thing in its right order. In con- 
 versation he is agreeable and obliging ; 
 in no respect stoical or proud ; he accom- 
 modates himself to every one ; his man- 
 ner of speaking is pleasing, and full of 
 joviality ; he evinces much firmness, and 
 has ever a contented expression of coun- 
 tenance, whatever may be the threats of 
 his adversaries. So that one is constrain- 
 ed to believe that it is not without divine 
 assistance that he does such great things. 
 He is blamed, however, for being more 
 severe in his reproofs than is becoming in 
 a divine, especially when advancing nov- 
 elties in religion." 
 
 " Carlstadt is smaller in stature : he 
 has a dark and sunburnt complexion; 
 
 * Seine Gelehrsamkeit aber und Verstand in 
 heiliger Schrift ist unvergleichlich, so dass er fast 
 alles ira Griff hat. — (Mosellanus in Seckend. 206.) 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 207 
 
 his voice is harsh ; his memory less tena- 
 cious than that of Luther, and he is yet 
 more warm in temper. Yet he pos- 
 sesses, though in a lower degree, the 
 same qualities for which his friend is re- 
 markable." 
 
 " Eck is tall and broad shouldered ; 
 his voice is strong and truly German. 
 He has good lungs, so that he would be 
 well heard in a theatre, and would even 
 make a capital town-crier. His articu- 
 lation is rather thick than clear. He has 
 none of the grace so much commended 
 by Fabius and Cicero. His mouth, 
 eyes, and whole countenance give you 
 the idea rather of a soldier, or a butcher, 
 than of a divine.* His memory is won- 
 derful, and if his understanding were 
 equal to it, he would be a truly perfect 
 man. But his comprehension is slow, 
 and he wants that judgment, without 
 which all other gifts are useless. Hence, 
 in disputing, he produces a mass of pas- 
 sages from the Bible, citations from the 
 Fathers, and different kinds of proof, 
 without careful selection or discernment. 
 Add to this, his effrontery is almost in- 
 conceivable. If he is embarrassed he 
 breaks off from the subject in hand, 
 plunges into another, sometimes even 
 takes up the opinion of his antagonist 
 under a different form of expression, and 
 with wonderful address attributes to his 
 opponent the very absurdity he himself 
 was defending." 
 
 Such is the description given by Mo- 
 sellanus of the men who then engaged 
 the attention of the multitude who throng- 
 ed the great hall of the Pleissenburg. 
 
 The discussion was opened by Eck 
 and Carlstadt. 
 
 Eck's eyes rested for an instant on 
 some articles that lay on the desk of his 
 adversary's pulpit, and which seemed to 
 offend his eye. These were the Bible 
 and the Fathers. " I object to entering 
 upon the discussion," exclaimed he on a 
 sudden, " if you are permitted to bring 
 your books with you." Strange that a 
 theologian should have recourse to books 
 in order to dispute. Eck's surprise ought 
 to have been yet more surprising. "All 
 this is but a fig-leaf by which this Adam 
 
 * Das Maul, Augen und ganze Gesicht, pres- 
 entirt ehe einen Fleischer oder Soldaten, als 
 einen Theologum. — (Mossellanus in Seckend. 
 206.) 
 
 seeks to hide his shame," said Luther. 
 " Did not Augustine consult books when 
 he contended against the Manicheans?"* 
 It mattered not ! the partisans of Eck 
 were loud in their clamours. Mutual 
 imputations were thrown out. " The 
 man has no memory," said Eck. Final- 
 ly, it was arranged, according to the 
 wish of the chancellor of Ingolstadt, that 
 each party should be restricted to the use 
 of his memory and of his tongue. " Thus, 
 then/! said many, " in this disputation 
 the point at issue will not be the inquiry 
 after truth, but what praise is to be as- 
 signed to the speech and memory of the 
 disputants." 
 
 It being impossible to relate, at length, 
 the course of a discussion which lasted 
 seventeen days, we must, to borrow the 
 expression of an historian, imitate paint- 
 ers, who, in representing a battle, give 
 prominence to the more memorable ac- 
 tions, leaving the rest in the back 
 ground, f 
 
 The subject in dispute, between Eck 
 and Carlstadt. was an important one. 
 " Man's will, previous to his conversion," 
 said Carlstadt, "can do no good work. 
 Every good work, proceeds entirely and 
 exclusively from God, who gives to man 
 first the will and afterwards the power 
 to perform it." This truth had been 
 proclaimed by Holy Scripture, in the 
 words — It is God that workcth in you, 
 both to will and to do of his good pleas- 
 ure£ and by Saint Augustine, who, in 
 disputing with the Pelagians, had ex- 
 pressed it almost in the same words. 
 Every action which is wanting in love 
 to God, and obedience to Him, is in His 
 sight destitute of that which can alone 
 render it good ; even though in other re- 
 spects flowing from the noblest of human 
 motives. But there is in man a natural 
 opposition to the will of God. He has 
 not in himself the strength to overcome 
 this. He has neither the power nor the 
 will to do so. This then must be the 
 work of divine power. 
 
 This is the doctrine so cried down by 
 the world, and which is yet so simple ; 
 the doctrine of Free-will. But the scho- 
 lastic divines had expounded it so as 
 scarcely to be recognised. Doubtless, 
 
 * Praetexit tamen et hie Adam ille folium fici 
 pulcherrimum. — (L. Epp. i. 294.) 
 
 t Pallavicini, i. 65. t Phflippians ii. 13. 
 
208 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 said they, the will of man in a state of 
 nature can do nothing truly acceptable 
 to God ; but it can do much to render 
 him more capable of receiving the grace 
 of God, and more meet to obtain it. 
 They called these preparations a merit 
 of congruity ;* " because it was congru- 
 ous," says Thomas Aquinas, " that God 
 should treat with special favour the man 
 who makes a right use of his own will." 
 And as to the conversion which must be 
 wrought in man, doubtless it was the 
 grace of God; which, as the scholastic di- 
 vines taught, must effect it ; but without 
 excluding natural powers. These pow- 
 ers, said they, have not been destroyed 
 by sin: — sin but interposes an obstacle to 
 their development: but when this im- 
 pediment is removed, and that, said they, 
 it is the office of the Spirit of God to ac- 
 complish, the action of these powers is 
 restored. To make use of their favour- 
 ite illustration, the bird that has been 
 long confined, has, in this condition, nei- 
 ther lost its strength nor forgotten how- 
 to fly ; but a friendly hand is needed to 
 loose its fetters before it can again rise on 
 the wing. Such, said they, is the condi- 
 tion of man.f 
 
 This was the subject of dispute be- 
 tween Eck and Carlstadt. Eck had at 
 first seemed entirely opposed to Carlstadt's 
 propositions on this subject; but finding 
 it difficult to maintain the position he had 
 chosen, he said, " I grant that our will 
 has not power to do a good act, and that 
 it receives power from God." " Do you 
 then acknowledge," asked Carlstadt, over- 
 joyed" at having won such a concession, 
 " that a good work comes entirely of 
 God?" "The whole good work comes 
 truly from God," replied the subtle Eck, 
 "but not entirely." " That is a discov- 
 ery most worthy of theological learning," 
 cried Melancthon. "An entire apple," 
 pursued Eck, " is produced by the sun, 
 but not by one effect, and without the co- 
 operation of the plant." J Doubtless no 
 one ever maintained that an apple was 
 altogether the product of the sun. 
 
 Well, then, said the opposing parties, 
 going deeper into this question, at once 
 
 * Meritum conrruum. t Planck, i. 176. 
 
 t Quanquam totum opus Dei sit, non tamen 
 * totaliter a Deo esse, quemadmodum totum po- 
 mum efficitur a sole, sed non a sole totaliter et 
 sine plants efficentia.— (Pallavicini, t. i. 58.) 
 
 so delicate and so important in philoso- 
 phy and religion, let us then inquire how 
 God acts on man, and how man concurs 
 with this action. " I acknowledge," said 
 Eck, "that the first thought leading to 
 the conversion of a man comes from God, 
 and that man's will is in this entirely 
 passive."* So far the two antagonists 
 were agreed. " I acknowledge," said 
 Carlstadt, " on my side, that after this 
 first act, which proceeds from God, some- 
 thing is requisite on the part of man 
 which St. Paul calls will, which the Fa- 
 thers term consent." Here again both 
 agreed ; but from this point they diverg- 
 ed. " This consent on the part of man," 
 said Eck, " comes partly from our natu- 
 ral will, partly from God's grace to us."t 
 " No," said Carlstadt, " it is requisite that 
 God should entirely create this will in 
 man."! Hereupon Eck began to mani- 
 fest surprise and anger at words so well 
 adapted to make man sensible of his own 
 nothingness. " Your doctrine," said he, 
 " regards man as a stone, a log, incapa- 
 ble of reciprocal action." "What!" an- 
 swered the Reformers, " does not the ca- 
 pacity for receiving the strength that God 
 produces in him, — a capacity which, ac- 
 cording to us, man possesses. — sufficiently 
 distinguish him from a stone, or a log of 
 wood ?" " But," replied their antago- 
 nist, "you take a position that directly 
 contradicts experience, when you refuse 
 to acknowledge any natural ability in 
 man." " We do not deny," replied the 
 others, " that man possesses certain pow- 
 ers^and ability to reflect, meditate, and 
 choose ; only we count such powers as 
 mere instruments which can do no good * 
 thing until the hand of God has moved 
 them ; they are like to a saw that a man 
 holds in his hands.''§ 
 
 The great question of Free-will was 
 here discussed ; and it was easy to de- 
 monstrate that the doctrine of the Refor- 
 mers did not take away from a man the 
 liberty of a moral agent, and reduce him 
 to a passive machine. The liberty of a 
 moral agent consists in the power of act- 
 ing conformably to his choice. Every 
 
 * Motionem seu inspirationem prevenientem 
 esse a solo Deo ; et ibi liberum arbitrium habet 
 se passive. 
 
 t Partim a Deo, partim a libero arbitrio. 
 
 X Consentit homo, sed consensus est donum 
 Dei. — Consentire non est age re. 
 
 § Ut serra in manu hominis trahentis. 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 209 
 
 action performed without external con- 
 straint, and in pursuance of the determi- 
 nation of the soul itself, is a free action 
 The soul is determined by motives ; but 
 we constantly see the same motives act- 
 ing diversely on different minds. Many 
 do not act conformably to the motives of 
 which they yet acknowledge all the 
 force. This failure of the motive pro- 
 ceeds from obstacles opposed by the cor- 
 ruption of the heart and understanding. 
 But God, in giving " a new heart and a 
 new spirit," takes away these obstacles ; 
 and in removing them, far from depri- 
 ving man of liberty, he removes that 
 which hindered him from acting freely, 
 and from following the light of his con- 
 science ; and thus, as the Gospel ex- 
 presses it, makes him free. (John viii. 
 36.) 
 
 A trivial incident interrupted the dis- 
 cussion. Carlstadt, as Eck relates,* had 
 prepared certain arguments, and, like 
 many preachers of our own clay, he was 
 reading what he had written. Eck saw 
 in this mere college tactics ; he objected 
 to it. Carlstadt, embarrassed, and fear- 
 ing he should not get on well without 
 his paper, persisted. " Ah !" exclaimed 
 the doctor of the schools, proud of the ad- 
 vantage he thought he had obtained, 
 " he has not quite so good a memory as 
 I have." The point was referred to ar- 
 bitrators, who permitted the reading of 
 passages of the Fathers, but came to the 
 resolution that with that exception the 
 discussion should be extempore. 
 
 This first stage of the dispute was 
 often interrupted by the spectators. Much 
 agitation and even audible expressions 
 of feeling broke forth. Any proposition 
 that did not find favour with the ma- 
 jority excited instant clamours, and 
 then it was necessary to enjoin silence. 
 The disputants themselves were some- 
 times carried away by the eagerness of 
 the dispute 
 
 Close to Luther stood Melancthon, 
 who was almost in an equal degree an 
 object of curiosity. He was of small 
 stature, and would have passsed as not 
 above eighteen years of age. Luther, 
 who was a head taller, seemed connected 
 with him in the closest friendship : they 
 came in and went out together. " To 
 look at Melancthon," said a Swiss di- 
 * Seckendorf, p. 192. 
 27 
 
 vine** who studied at Wittemberg, " one 
 would say he was but a youth ; but in 
 understanding, learning, and talent, he- 
 is a giant : and one wonders how such 
 heights of wisdom and genius can be 
 contained within so slight a frame." 
 Between the sittings Melancthon con- 
 versed with Carlstadt and Luther. He 
 aided them in their preparation for the 
 discussion, and suggested the arguments 
 that his vast learning enabled him to 
 contribute ; but while the discussion was 
 going on, he remained quietly seated 
 among the spectators, listening with at- 
 tention to the words of the speakers, f 
 At times, however, he came to the assist, 
 ance of Carlstadt. Whenever the latter 
 was near giving way under the decla- 
 mation of the Chancellor of Ingolstadt, 
 the young professor would whisper a 
 word, or hand him a slip of paper where- 
 on he had noted down a reply. Eck 
 having on one occasion perceived this, 
 and indignant that the grammarian, as 
 he termed him, should dare to meddle in 
 the discussion, turned round and said in- 
 solently ; " Be silent, Philip, mind your 
 studies, and do not stand in my way."| 
 Eck may perhaps have even then fore- 
 seen how formidable an opponent he 
 would one day find in this youth. Lu- 
 ther was roused by this rude insult di- 
 rected against his friend. " The judg- 
 ment of Philip," said he, " has greater 
 weight with me than a thousand Dr. 
 Ecks." 
 
 . The calm Melancthon easily detected 
 the weak points of the discussion. " One 
 cannot help feeling astonished," said he, 
 with that prudence and gracious spirit 
 which we recognise in all his words, 
 "when we think on the violence with 
 which these subjects were treated. How 
 could any expect to derive instruction 
 from it'? The Spirit of God loves retire- 
 ment and silence; it is there he pene- 
 trates into our hearts. The bride of 
 Christ does not take her stand in the 
 streets and cross-ways, but she leads her 
 spouse into the house of her mother."^ 
 Each party claimed the victory. Eck 
 
 * John Kessler, afterwards Reformer at St. 
 Gall. 
 
 t Lipsicse pugnEe ociosus spectator in reliquo 
 vulgo sedi. — (Corpus Reformatorum, i. 111.) 
 
 t Tace tu, Philippe, ac tua studia cura, ne me 
 perturba. — (Ibid. i. 149.) 
 
 § Melancth. Opp. p. 134. 
 
210 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 resorted to every arfrfice to appear victo- 
 rious. As the lines of divergence ran 
 closely together, it often happened that 
 he exclaimed that he had reduced his 
 adversary to his opinion ; or else, like 
 another Proteus, said Luther, he turned 
 suddenly round, put forth Carlstadt's 
 opinion differently expressed, and tri- 
 umphantly demanded if he could refuse 
 to acknowledge it. And the uninitiated, 
 who had not watched the manoeuvre of 
 the sophist, began to applaud and exult 
 with him. Nevertheless, Eck, -without 
 perceiving it, in reality gave up in the 
 course of the discussion, much more 
 than he had intended. His partisans 
 laughed immoderately at his successive 
 devices ; " but," said Luther, " I am 
 much inclined to think that their laugh- 
 ter was affected, and that they were ac- 
 tually on thorns when they saw their 
 chief, who had commenced the battle 
 with bravados, abandon his standard, leave 
 his own ranks, and act the part of a shame- 
 less deserter."* 
 
 Three or four days after the opening 
 of the conference, it had been interrupted 
 on account of the festival of the apostles 
 St. Peter and St. Paul. 
 
 The Duke of Pomerania requested 
 Luther to preach on the occasion in his 
 chapel. Luther gladly consented. But 
 the chapel was early thronged, and the 
 crowds of hearers increasing, the assem- 
 bly adjourned to the great hall of the 
 castle where the conference had been 
 carried on. Luther took his text from 
 the gospel of the day, and preached on 
 the grace of God and the authority of St. 
 Peter. What he was accustomed to 
 maintain before a learned auditory, he 
 then declared to the people. — Christian- 
 ity brings the light of truth to the hum- 
 blest as well as the most intelligent 
 minds. It is this which distinguishes it 
 from all other religions, and all systems 
 of philosophy. The Leipsic divines, who 
 had heard Luther's sermon, hastened to 
 report to Eck the offensive expressions 
 with which they had been scandalized. 
 " You must answer him," cried they, 
 " these specious errors must be publicly 
 refuted." Eck desired nothing better. 
 All the churches were at his service, and 
 on four successive occasions he ascended 
 
 * Relictis signis, desertorem exercitus et trans- 
 fugam factum. — (L. Epp. i. 265.) 
 
 the pulpit and inveighed against Luther 
 and his sermon. Luther's friends were 
 indignant. They demanded that the 
 theologian of Wittemberg should in his 
 turn be heard. But their demand was 
 disregarded. The pulpits were open to 
 the enemies of the gospel, and shut to 
 those who proclaimed it. " I was si- 
 lent," said Luther, " and was obliged to 
 suffer myself to be attacked, insulted, and 
 calumniated without even the power to 
 excuse or defend myself."* 
 
 It was not only the clergy who oppo- 
 sed the teachers of the evangelical doc- 
 trine ; the burghers of Leipsic were in 
 that of one mind with the clergy. A 
 blind fanaticism rendered them the ready 
 dupes of the falsehood and prejudice 
 which were circulated abroad. The 
 principal inhabitants abstained from vis- 
 iting Luther or Carlstadt ; and if they 
 accidentally met 'in the street, they passed 
 them without salutation. They misrep- 
 resented them to the Duke. On the 
 other hand, they were in daily commu- 
 nication and interchange of visits with 
 the Doctor of Ingolstadt. To Luther 
 they offered the disputant's customary 
 present of wine. Beyond this, any who 
 were favourably disposed toward him 
 concealed their predilection from others : 
 several, following the example of Nicb- 
 demus, came to him in the night or by 
 stealth. Two individuals alone stood 
 forward to their own honour, and pub- 
 licly declared themselves his friends : — 
 Doctor Auerbach, whom we have al- 
 ready seen at Augsburg, and Doctor Pis- 
 tor the younger. 
 
 The greatest agitation prevailed in the 
 city. The two parties resembled two 
 hostile camps, and sometimes came to 
 blows. Frequent quarrels took place in 
 the inns between the Leipsic students 
 and those of Wittemberg. It was cur- 
 rently asserted, even in the meetings of 
 the clergy, that Luther carried about 
 with him a devil enclosed in a small 
 box. " I know not," said Eck spitefully, 
 " whether the devil is in the box or un- 
 der his frock — but sure I am he is in one 
 or the other." ' 
 
 Several doctors of the opposing parties 
 were lodged, during the progress of the 
 disputation, in the house of the printer 
 
 * Mich verklagen, schelten und schmffihen. 
 . .— (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 247.) 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 211 
 
 Herbipolis. Their contentions ran so 
 high, that their host was obliged to place 
 a police sergeant, armed with a halberd, 
 at the head of the table, with instructions 
 to preserve the peace. One day Baum- 
 garten, a vendor of indulgences, came to 
 blows with a gentleman attached to Lu- 
 ther, and in the violence of his fit of pas- 
 sion, burst a blood-vessel and expired. 
 u I myself," says Froschel, who relates 
 the fact,* " was one of those who carried 
 him to the grave." In such results the 
 general ferment in men's minds mani- 
 fested itself. Then, as in our days, the 
 speeches in the assemblies found an echo 
 in the dinner-room and public streets. 
 
 Duke George, though strongly biassed 
 in favour of Eck, did not evince so much 
 zeal in his cause as his subjects. He 
 invited all three, Eck, Luther, and Carl- 
 stadt, to dinner. He even requested Lu- 
 ther to visit him in private ; but soon 
 manifested the prejudices that had been 
 artfully inculcated. " Your tract on tin- 
 Lord's Prayer," said the Duke, " has 
 misled the consciences of many. There 
 are some who complain that for four days 
 together they have not been able to' say 
 one pater" 
 
 It was on the 4th of July that the con- 
 test commenced between Eck and Lu- 
 ther. Everything announced that it 
 would be more violent and decisive than 
 that which had just terminated. The 
 two disputants were advancing to the 
 arena, firmly rogolved not to lay down 
 their arms till victory should have de- 
 clared in favour of one or the other. 
 General attention was alive, for the sub- 
 ject of dispute was the Pope's primacy. 
 Two prominent hindrances obstruct the 
 progress of the Gospel, the hierarchy 
 and rationalism. Rationalism as applied 
 to the doctrine of man's moral powers, 
 had been the object of attack in the ear- 
 ly part of the discussion. The hierar- 
 chy, viewed in what was at once its basis 
 as well as climax — the doctrine of the 
 Pope's authority — was now to be im- 
 pugned. On the one side appeared Eck, 
 the defender of the established teaching, 
 and, like some boastful soldier, strong in 
 confidence derived from previous tri- 
 umphs.! On the other side came Lu- 
 
 * Loscher, iii. 278. 
 
 t Faciebat hoc Eccius quia certam sibi gloriam 
 propositam cemebat, propter propositionem meam, 
 
 ther, to whom the contest seemed to 
 promise nothing but persecutions and ig- 
 nominy, but who presented himself with 
 a clear conscience, a firm determination 
 to sacrifice every thing to the cause of 
 truth, and a hope full of faith in God's 
 power to deliver him. 
 
 At seven in the morning the two dis- 
 putants had taken their places, encom- 
 passed by an attentive and numerous au- 
 ditory. 
 
 Luther stood up, and adopting a neces- 
 sary precaution, said, with humility : 
 
 " In the name of the Lord — Amen. 
 I declare that the respect I have for the 
 Sovereign Pontiff would have prevented 
 my sustaining the part I am taking in 
 this discussion, had not the worthy Doc- 
 tor Eck persuaded me thereto." 
 
 Eck. " In thy name, blessed Jesus ! 
 Before I enter on this discussion, I pro- 
 test in your presence, noble chiefs, that 
 all I shall say is subject to the judgment 
 of the first of all episcopal chairs, and to 
 the master who fills it." 
 
 After a moment's silence, Eck con- 
 tinued : 
 
 " There is in God's Church a prima- 
 cy derived from Christ himself. The 
 Church militant has been set up in the 
 likeness of the Church triumphant. But 
 this latter is a monarchy, wherein every 
 thing ascends hierarchially to its sole 
 head — God himself. Therefore it is that 
 Christ has established a similar order 
 upon earth. How monstrous would the 
 Church be without a head."* 
 
 Luther, turning to the assembly, 
 
 " When the doctor declares that it is 
 most needful that the Church universal 
 have a Head, he says well. If there be 
 any one among us who affirms the con- 
 trary, let him stand forth. I hold no such 
 thing." 
 
 Eck. " If the Church militant has nev- 
 er been without its one Head, I would 
 beg to ask who he can be, but the Ro- 
 man Pontiff?" 
 
 Luther, raising his eyes to heaven, 
 
 " The Head of the Church militant is 
 Christ himself, and not a mortal man. 
 I believe this, on the authority of God's 
 
 in qua negaban Papam esse jure divino caput 
 Ecclesiee: hie patuit ei campus magnus. — (L. 
 Opp. in praef.) 
 
 * Nam quod monstram esset, Ecclesiam esse 
 acephalam ! — (L Opp. lat. i. 243.) 
 
212 
 
 HISTORY (3F THE REFORMATION. 
 
 testimony, whose word says, He must 
 reign until his enemies be put under his 
 feet.* Let us then no longer give ear to 
 those who put away Christ to the Church 
 triumphant in heaven. His kingdom is 
 a kingdom of faith. We see not our 
 Head, and yet we are joined to him."t 
 
 Eck, not discomfited, and turning to 
 other arguments, resumed : 
 
 u It is from Rome, as St. Cyprian tells 
 us, that sacerdotal unity proceeded." X 
 
 Luther. " As regards the Western 
 Church, agreed. But is not this Roman 
 Church herself derived from that of Je- 
 rusalem? And to speak correctly, the 
 church of Jerusalem was mother and 
 nurse of all the churches."^ 
 
 Eck. " St. Jerome affirms, that if au- 
 thority above that of all other churches is 
 not lodged with the Pope, there will be 
 in the Church as many schisms as there 
 are bishops." || 
 
 Luther. " I admit it,T that is to say, 
 that if all the faithful were consenting, 
 this authority might, agreeably to the 
 principles of human legislation, be right- 
 fully ascribed to the chief Pontiff Nei- 
 ther would I deny that if the whole body 
 of believers should consent to acknowl- 
 edge as first and chief bishop — the bishop 
 of Rome, or of Paris, or of Magdeburg, 
 it would be our duty to acknowledge him 
 as such, — from respect to this general 
 consent of the whole church : but that is 
 what the world has never seen nor ever 
 will see. Even in our own day, does not 
 the Greek church withhold her consent 
 to Rome ?" 
 
 Luther was at this time quite prepared 
 to acknowledge the Pope as chief magis- 
 trate of the Church, — freely chosen by it ; 
 but he denied his divine right. It was 
 not until a later period that he denied 
 that any submission was due to him. 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 25. 
 
 t Prorsus audiendi non sunt qui Christum 
 
 extra Ecclesiam militantem, tendunt in trium- 
 
 ^ phantem, cum sit regnum fidei. Caput nostrum 
 
 non videmus; tamen habemus. — (L. Opp. lat. i. 
 
 243.) 
 
 ^ Unde sacerdotalis unitas exorta est. — (Ibid. 
 243.) 
 
 § Hasc est matrix proprie omnium ecclesiarum. 
 —(Ibid. 244.) 
 
 || Cui si non exors quaedam et ab omnibus 
 eminens detur potestas. — (Ibid. 243.) 
 
 V Detur, inquit, hoc est jure humano, posse 
 fieri, consentientibus caeteris omnibus fidelibus. 
 -(Ibid. 244.) 
 
 That was an advance to which the Leip- 
 sic controversy mainly contributed. But 
 Eck was on ground which Luther knew 
 better than he. As Eck appealed to the 
 authority of the Fathers, Luther resolved 
 to defeat him by the Fathers themselves. 
 
 " That my construction of the words," 
 said he, "is truly what St. Jerome intend- 
 ed, I will prove by his own epistle to 
 Evagrius. Every Bishop, says he, whe- 
 ther of Rome or of Eugubium, whether 
 of Constance or of Regium, whether of 
 Alexandria or of Thanis, has the same 
 honour and the same priestly rank.* The 
 influence of wealth, or the humility of 
 poverty alone, makes their difference of 
 standing." 
 
 From the Fathers Luther passed to 
 the decrees of the Councils, which recog- 
 nize in the bishop of Rome only the first 
 among his peers, f " We read," said he, 
 " in the decree of the Council of Africa, 
 ' Let not the bishop of the chief see be 
 called Prince of the Pontiffs, or Sovereign 
 Pontiff, or any other name of that sort, 
 but simply bishop of the first see.' If the 
 monarchy of the bishop of Rome were of 
 divine right," continued Luther, "would 
 not this decision be heretical ?" 
 
 Eck met this by one of the subtle dis- 
 tinctions to which he was so accustomed 
 to have recourse. 
 
 " The bishop of Rome, if you please, 
 is not universal bishop, but bishop of the 
 church universal. "J 
 
 Luther. " I will not say one word on 
 that answer. Let our hearers themselves 
 judge concerning it." 
 
 " Certainly," he afterwards observed, 
 " that was a gloss worthy of a theologian, 
 and just of a kind to content a disputant 
 eager for triumph. I have not remained 
 at Leipsic, at considerable cost to no pur- 
 pose, since I have learned that the Pope 
 of a truth is not universal bishop, but 
 bishop of the church universal !"§ 
 
 Eck. " Well, to come to the point. 
 The venerable doctor requires from me, a 
 proof that the primacy of the church of 
 Rome is of divine right ; I find that 
 proof in the words of Christ — ' Thou art 
 
 * Ejusdem meriti et ejusdem sacerdotti est. — 
 (L. Opp. lat. i. 244.) 
 
 t Primus inter pares. 
 
 t Non episcopus universalis, sed universalis 
 Ecclesiae Episcopus. — Clb. 246.) 
 
 § Ego gloriar me tot expensis non frustra . . — 
 (L. Opp. i. 299.) 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 213 
 
 Peter, and upon this rock I will build my 
 church.'' St. Augustine, in one of his 
 epistles, has thus explained the meaning 
 of the passage — 'Thou art Peter, and on 
 this rock, that is to say, on Peter, I will 
 build my church.' It is true, that Au- 
 gustine has elsewhere said, that by this 
 rock we must understand Christ himself, 
 but he has not retracted his first explana- 
 tion." 
 
 Luther. "If the reverend doctor brings 
 against me these words of St. Augustine, 
 let him himself first reconcile such oppo- 
 site assertions. For certain it is, that 
 St. Augustine has repeatedly said, that 
 the rock was Christ, and hardly once 
 that it was Peter himself. But even 
 though St. Augustine and all the Fathers 
 should say that the Apostle is the rock 
 of which Christ spake, I would, if I 
 should stand alone, deny the assertion — 
 supported by the authority of the Holy 
 Scripture — in other words by divine 
 right* — for it is written, Other founda- 
 tion can no man lay than that is laid, 
 even Christ Jesus.] Peter himself calls 
 Christ the chief corner-stone, and living 
 rock, on which toe arc built up a spiritual 
 house. 11 % 
 
 Eck. "I am astonished at the humility 
 and diffidence with which the reverend 
 doctor undertakes to stand alone against 
 so many illustrious Fathers, thus affirm- 
 ing that he knows more of these things 
 than the Sovereign Pontiff, the Councils, 
 divines, and universities ! .... It would 
 no doubt be very wonderful if C4od had 
 hidden the truth fronj so many saints and 
 martyrs till the advent of the reverend 
 father." 
 
 Luther. " The Fathers are not op- 
 posed to me. — St. Augustine, St. Am- 
 brose, and the most eminent divines say 
 as I do. On that confession of faith the 
 church is built, says St. Ambrose,^ ex- 
 plaining what is to be understood by the 
 stone on which the church rests. Let 
 my antagonist then restrain his speech. 
 Such expressions as he has just used do 
 but stir up animosity, instead of helping 
 in learned discussion." 
 
 * Resistam eis ego umis, auctoritate Apostoli 
 id est, divino jure. — (L. Opp. lat. i. 237.) 
 
 t 1 Cor. iii. 11. 
 
 X 1 Peter ii. 4, 5. 
 
 § The Church is built upon that confession of 
 faith.— (L. Opp. lat. i. 254.) 
 
 Eck had not expected so much learn- 
 ing in his adversary, and managed to 
 extricate himself from the labyrinth m 
 which he had endeavoured to entangle 
 him. '• The reverend father," said he, 
 " has entered on this discussion after well 
 preparing his subject. Your excellencies 
 will excuse me if I should not produce so 
 much exact research. I came hither to 
 discuss, and not to make a book." Eck 
 was in some sort taken by surprise, but 
 not defeated. Having no other argu- 
 ment at hand, he had recourse to an odi- 
 ous and contemptible artifice, which, if it 
 did not bear down, must at least greatly 
 embarrass his adversary. If the suspicion 
 of being a Bohemian, a heretic, a Huss- 
 ite, do but hang over Luther, he is van- 
 quished ; for the Bohemians were detest- 
 ed in the church. The doctor of Ingol- 
 stadt adopted this stratagem. " From 
 primitive times," said he, "it has been 
 ever acknowledged, that the Church of 
 Rome derives her primacy from Christ 
 himself, and not from human law. I 
 must admit, however, that the Bohemians 
 in their obstinate defence of their errors 
 have attacked this doctrine. I ask the 
 reverend father's pardon if I am opposed 
 to the Bohemians on account of their op- 
 position to the Church ; and if the present 
 discussion has recalled those heretics to 
 my recollection ; for ... . according to 
 my humble judgment .... the infer- 
 ences the doctor has drawn are entirely 
 favourable to their errors ; and, it is said, 
 they boast of this."* 
 
 Eck had rightly calculated the effect. 
 All his partisans loudly applauded the 
 artful insinuation, and an exultation was 
 manifest in the auditory. " These in- 
 sults," said the Reformers at a subsequent 
 period, " pleased their fancy much more 
 than the progress of the discussion." 
 
 Luther. " I neither love, nor ever shall 
 love, a schism. Since on their own au- 
 thority the Bohemians have separated 
 from unity with us, they are in the wrong: 
 even though divine right should be in 
 favour of the doctrine : for the highest di- 
 vine right is love and the unity of the 
 Spirit."! 
 
 * Et, ut fama est, de hoc plurimum gratulan- 
 tur.— (Ibid. 250.) 
 
 t Nunquam mihi placuit, nee in seternum pla- 
 cebit quodcumque schisma . . . Cum supremum 
 jus divinum sit Charitas et Unitas Spiritus. — (L. 
 Opp. lat. i. 250.) 
 
214 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 It was on the 5th of July, in the morn- 
 ing sitting, that Luther uttered these 
 words. The meeting shortly after broke 
 up, the dinner hour having arrived. It 
 is likely that some one of the friends, or 
 perhaps of the enemies of the doctor, drew 
 his thoughts to the fact that he had gone 
 very far in thus condemning the Chris- 
 tians of Bohemia. Had they not in real- 
 ity stood for those doctrines that Luther 
 was then maintaining ? Hence it was, 
 when the assembly were again together 
 at two "m the afternoon, Luther broke 
 silence and said courageously: — "Among 
 the articles of John Huss and the Bohe- 
 mians, there are some that are most 
 agreeable to Christ. This is certain ; and 
 of this sort is that article : ' There is only 
 One church universal :' and again: 'That 
 it is not necessary to salvation that we 
 should believe the Roman church supe- 
 rior to others.' — It matters little to me 
 whether Wiclif or Huss said it. It is 
 Truth." 
 
 This declaration of Luther produced 
 an immense sensation on the auditory. 
 Huss, Wiclif, names held in abhorrence, 
 pronounced with respect by a monk, in 
 the midst of a Catholic assembly ! . . . 
 An almost general murmur ran round 
 the hall. Duke George himself was 
 alarmed. He foresaw for Saxony the 
 unfurling of the standard of that civil 
 discord which had ravaged the states of 
 his maternal ancestors. Not able to sup- 
 press his feelings, he broke forth in a loud 
 exclamation, in the hearing of all the as- 
 sembly; "He is mad."* Then, shaking 
 his head, he rested his hands on his sides. 
 The whole assembly was in high excite- 
 ment. Those who were seated rose from 
 their seats, conversing in groups. The 
 drowsy were aroused : the enemies of 
 Luther exulted ; and his friends were 
 greatly perplexed. Several who till then 
 had listened to him with satisfaction, be- 
 gan to doubt his orthodoxy. The effect 
 of this speech was never effaced from the 
 mind of Duke George : from that hour 
 he looked with an evil eye on the Re- 
 former, and became his enemy, f 
 
 As to Luther, he did not give way to 
 this burst of murmurs. " Gregory Nazi- 
 anzen," continued he, with noble calm- 
 
 * Das wait die Sucht ! 
 
 t Nam adhuc erat dux Georgius mihi non ini- 
 micus, quod sciebam certo. — (L. Opp. in prsef.) 
 
 ness, " Basil the great, Epiphanius, 
 Chrysostom, and a great many other 
 Greek bishops, are saved ; and yet they 
 never believed that the Church of Rome 
 was superior to other churches. It does 
 not belong to the Roman pontiffs to add 
 new articles of faith. There is no au- 
 thority for the believing Christian but 
 the Holy Scripture. It, alone, is of di- 
 vine right. I beg the worthy doctor Eck 
 to grant me that the Roman Pontiffs have 
 been men, and not to speak of them as if 
 they were Gods."* 
 
 Eck here resorted to one of those 
 pleasantries which give an easy advan- 
 tage, in appearance, to him who uses 
 them. 
 
 " The reverend father, who is not skil- 
 ful in his cookery," said he, " has just 
 made a very bad hash of heretics and 
 Greek saints ; so that the odour of sanc- 
 tity of the one, hides the taste of poison 
 in the others."! 
 
 Lother, interrupting Eck with spirit — 
 " The worthy doctor speaks with effront- 
 ery. In my judgment, Christ can have 
 no concord with Belial." 
 
 Such were the discussions which gave 
 employment to the two doctors. The as- 
 sembly were attentive. The interest at 
 times flagged, however, and the hearers 
 were not displeased when any incident 
 occurred, to enliven them by some dis- 
 traction. It often happens, that events 
 of the greatest importance are in this way 
 broken in upon by comic accidents. 
 Something of this sort took place at 
 Leipsic. 
 
 Duke George, folfowing the custom of 
 the age, kept a court fool. Some wags 
 said to him, " Luther is contending that 
 a court fool may get married, Eck main- 
 tains the contrary opinion." Hereupon 
 the fool conceived great aversion for Eck, 
 and every time he came to the hall in 
 the Duke's suite, he eyed the theologian 
 with threatening looks. One day, the 
 chancellor of Ingolstadt, descending to 
 buffoonery shut one eye, (the fool was 
 blind of one eye) and with the other 
 looked askance at the dwarf. The lat- 
 
 * Nee potest fidelis Christianus cogi ultra sac- 
 ram Scripturam, quae est proprie jus divinum. — 
 (L. Opp. lat. i. 252.) 
 
 t At Rev. Pater artis coquinaria minus in- 
 structs, commiscet sanctos grsecos cum schis- 
 maticis et hereticis, ut fuco sanctitatis Patrum, 
 hsereticoram tueatur perfidiam. — (Ibid. 252.) 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 215 
 
 ter, no longer able to control himself, 
 poured forth a torrent of abuse on the 
 learned doctor. The whole assembly, 
 says Peifer, gave way to laughter, and 
 this incident lessened in some degree the 
 extreme tenston of their minds,* 
 
 During this time the city was the 
 scene of events which shewed the horror 
 with which the bold assertions of Luther 
 inspired the partisans of Rome. The 
 loudest clamours proceeded from the con- 
 vents in the Pope's interest. One Sun- 
 day the doctor of Wittemberg entered 
 the church of the Dominicans just before 
 high mass. There were present only a 
 few monks, who were going through the 
 earlier masses at the lower altars. As 
 soon as it was known in the clositer that 
 the heretic Luther was in the church, the 
 monks ran together in haste, caught up 
 the remonstrance^ and taking it to its re- 
 ceptacle, carefully shut it up, lest the holy 
 sacrament should be profaned by the im- 
 pure eyes of the Augustine of Wittem- 
 berg. While this was doing, they who 
 were reading mass collected together the 
 sacred furniture, quitted the altar, crossed 
 the church, and sought refuge in the sa- 
 cristy, as if, says a historian, the devil 
 himself had been behind them. 
 
 Everywhere the discussions furnished 
 subject of conversation. In the lodging 
 houses, at the university, at the court, 
 each one gave his opinion. Duke 
 George, with all his irritation, did not 
 pertinaciously refuse to allow himself to 
 be convinced. One day, when Eck and 
 Luther were dining with him, he inter- 
 rupted their conversation, by the remark : 
 " Whether the Pope be by divine right, 
 or human right, it is at any rate a fact 
 that he is Pope."f Luther was quite 
 pleased with these words. " The prince," 
 said he, " would never have given utter- 
 ance to them if my arguments had not 
 impressed him." 
 
 The dispute on the Pope's primacy 
 had lasted five days. On the 8th of July 
 they came to the subject of Purgatory. 
 The discussion lasted rather more than 
 two days. Luther at this time admitted 
 the existence of purgatory ; but he denied 
 
 * L. Opp. W. xv. 1440.— 2 Loscher, iii. 281. 
 
 t Ita ut ipse dux Georgius inter prandendum 
 ad Eccium et me dicat : " Sive sit jure humano, 
 sive sit jure divine?, papa ; ipse est papa. — (L. Opp. 
 in praef.) 
 
 that this doctrine was taught in Scrip- 
 ture, and by the Fathers in the way the 
 scholastic divines and his adversary as- 
 serted. " Our doctor Eck," said he, al- 
 luding to the superficial character of his 
 opponent, " has to-day run over Scripture 
 almost without touching it, as a spider 
 runs upon the water." 
 
 On the 11th of July the disputants ar- 
 rived at the Indulgences. " It was no 
 better than play, a mere joke," said Lu- 
 ther. " The indulgences fell with scarce 
 the shadow of defence. Eck agreed with 
 me in almost every thing."* Eck him- 
 self observed, " If I had not met Doctor 
 Martin on the question of the Pope's 
 primacy, I could almost come to agree- 
 ment with him."f 
 
 The discussion afterwards turned on 
 Repentance, the Priest's absolution, and 
 Satisfactions. Eck, as his practice was, 
 quoted the scholastic divines, the Do- 
 minicans, and the Pope's canons. Lu- 
 ther closed the discussion by these 
 words : — 
 
 " The reverend doctor avoids the Holy 
 Scriptures, as the devil flees from before 
 the cross. For my part, saving the re- 
 spect due to the Fathers, I prefer the au- 
 thority of the word of God ; and it is 
 that which I would press upon our 
 judges."^ 
 
 Thus ended the dispute between Eck 
 and Luther. Carlstadt and the doctor 
 of Ingolstadt continued for two days to 
 discuss the merits of man in good works. 
 On the 16th of July the affair was ter- 
 minated, after having lasted twenty days, 
 by a sermon from the Superior of Leip- 
 sic. As soon as this was over, a band of 
 music was heard, and the solemnity was 
 closed by the Te Deum. 
 
 But during this solemn chaunt, men's 
 minds were no longer as they were when 
 the hymn Veni Spiritus had been sung. 
 Already the presentiments of some ap- 
 peared realized. The arguments of the 
 two opposing champions had inflicted an 
 open wound on the Papacy. 
 
 These theological discussions, which 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 246. 
 
 t So wollt' er fast einig mit mir gewest seyn. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 X Videtur fugere a facie Scripturarum, sicut 
 diabolus crucera. Quare salvis reverentiis Pat- 
 rum, praefero ego auctoritatem Scriptural, quod 
 commendo judicibus futuris. — (L. Opp. lat. i. 
 291.) 
 
216 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 in our days would excite little attention, 
 had been followed and listened to with 
 interest for twenty days, by laymen, 
 knights, and princes. Duke Barnim of 
 Pomerania, and Duke George were con- 
 stant in attendance. " But on the other 
 hand," says an eye-witness, "some Leip- 
 sic divines, friends of Eck, slept soundly 
 much of the time, and it was even neces- 
 sary to wake them at the close of the 
 discussion, lest they should lose their 
 dinner." 
 
 Luther was the first who quitted Leip- 
 sie. Carlstadt set out soon after. Eck 
 remained a few days after their departure. 
 
 No decision was made known on the 
 matters discussed.* Each one comment- 
 ed on them as he pleased. " There has 
 been at Leipsic," said Luther, " loss of 
 time, not search after truth. For these 
 two years past that we have been exam- 
 ining the doctrines of the adversaries, we 
 have counted all their bones. Eck, on 
 the contrary, has hardly grazed the sur- 
 face,! yet he has made more outcry in 
 one hour, than we in two long years." 
 
 Eck, in private letters to his friends, 
 acknowledged his having been defeated 
 on many points ; but he was at no loss 
 for reasons to account for it. J " The 
 Wittemberg divines," said he in a letter 
 to Hochstraten, dated the 24th July, 
 " have had the best of the argument on 
 certain points; first, because they brought 
 with them their books ; secondly, because 
 their friends took notes of the discussion, 
 which they could examine at home at 
 leisure ; thirdly, because they were sev- 
 eral in number ; — two doctors (Carlstadt 
 and Luther,) Lange, vicar of the Augus- 
 tines, two licentiates, Amsdorff, and a 
 most arrogant nephew of Reuchlin, (Me- 
 lancthon,) three doctors of law, and seve- 
 ral masters of arts, all were assisting in 
 the discussion, either publicly or in se- 
 cret. As for myself, I came forward 
 alone, having only right on my side." — 
 Eck forgot Emser, the bishop, and all 
 the doctors of Leipsic. 
 
 * Ad exitum eertaminis, uti solet, nulla prodiit 
 decisio. — (Pallavicini, i 65.) 
 
 t Totam istam concbjsionum cohortem multo 
 acrius et validius nostri Wittembergenses . . op- 
 pugnaverunt et ita examinaverunt ut ossa eorum 
 numerare licuerit, quas Eccius vix in facie cutis 
 leviter perstrinxit. — (L. Epp. i. 291.) 
 
 | Verum in multis me obruerunt. — (Corpus 
 Reform, i. 83.) 
 
 If such admissions were made by Eck 
 in his confidential correspondence, it was 
 quite otherwise in public. The doctor 
 of Ingolstadt and the theologians of 
 Leipsic, loudly boasted of " their victory." 
 They spread everywhere false repqrts. 
 The mouth-pieces of their party repeated 
 their self-gratulations. "Eck," wrote 
 Luther, '• boasts in all companies of his 
 victory."* But the laurels were an ob- 
 ject of contention in the camp of Rome. 
 " If we had not come in aid of Eck," 
 said his Leipsic allies, "the illustrious 
 doctor would have been overthrown." 
 " The divines of Leipsic are well-mean- 
 ing people," said the doctor of Ingolstadt, 
 " but I had formed too high expectations 
 from them — I did all myself." " You 
 see," said Luther to Spalatin, " that they 
 are singing another Iliad and iEneid. 
 They are so kind as to make me play 
 the part of Hector or Turnus, whilst 
 Eck is their Achilles or Eneas. Their 
 only doubt is, whether the victory was 
 gained by the forces of Eck or of Leip- 
 sic. All I can say to throw light on 
 the question, is, that doctor Eck clamour- 
 ed continually, and the men of Leipsic 
 kept continual silence."! 
 
 " Eck has obtained the victory, in the. 
 opinion of those who do not understand 
 the question, and who have grown grey 
 in scholastic studies," observed the ele- 
 gant, witty, and judicious Mosellanus ; 
 " but Luther and Carlstadt remain mas- 
 ters of the field in the judgment of those 
 who have learning, intelligence, and 
 modesty.";}; 
 
 The dispute was, however, destined 
 not to vanish in mere smoke. Every 
 work done in faith bears fruit. The 
 words of Luther had found their way, 
 with irresistible power, to the minds of 
 his hearers. Several, who had regu- 
 larly attended in the hall of the castle, 
 were brought under the truth. It was 
 especially in the very midst of its most 
 active enemies, that its conquests were 
 achieved. Poliander, secretary to Eck, 
 and his intimate friend and disciple, 
 was gained to the cause of the Reforma- 
 
 o 
 
 * Eccius triumphat ubique. — (L. Epp. i. 299.) 
 + Novam quamdam Iliada et iEneida illos can- 
 tare . .— (L. Epp. i. 305.) 
 
 X Lutheri Sieg sey um so viel weniger beruhmt, 
 weil der Gelehrten, Verstiindigen, und derer die 
 sich selbst nicht hoch riihmen, wenig scyen. — 
 (Seckendorf, 207.) 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 217 
 
 tion ; and as early as the year 1522, he 
 preached the gospel publicly at Leipsic. 
 John Cellarius, professor of Hebrew, one 
 of the warmest opponents of the Refor- 
 mation, struck by tbe words of the 
 mighty doctor, began to search the Scrip- 
 tures more deeply Shortly after, he 
 gave up his place ; and, full of humility, 
 came to Wittemberg, to study at the feet 
 of Luther. He was subsequently pastor 
 at Frankfort and at Dresden. 
 
 Among those who sat on the benches 
 reserved for the court, and who sur- 
 rounded Duke George, was George of 
 Anhalt, a young prince of twelve years, 
 descended from a family celebrated for 
 their bravery against the Saracens. He 
 was then prosecuting his studies under a 
 private tutor. This illustrious youth 
 was early distinguished for his eager 
 desire of knowledge and love of truth. 
 Often he was heard to repeat the prov- 
 erb of Solomon, " Lying lips do not be- 
 come a prince." The discussion at 
 Leipsic awakened in this child serious 
 reflections, and a decided partiality for 
 Luther.* Shortly after he was offered a 
 bishopric. His brothers and all his rela- 
 tions urged him to accept it ; desiring 
 to see him rise to the higher dignities of 
 the church. He was immoveable in his 
 refusal. On the death of his pious 
 mother, he found himself in possession 
 of all the Reformer's writings. He put 
 up constant and fervent prayers to God, 
 beseeching him to bring his heart un- 
 der the power of the truth; and often 
 in the privacy of his cabinet, he exclaim- 
 ed with tears, " Deal with thy servant 
 according to thy mercy, and teach me 
 thy statutes."! His prayers were an- 
 swered. Under strong conviction, and 
 constrained to action on it, he fearlessly 
 ranged himself on the side of the gospel. 
 In vain his tutors, and foremost among 
 them Duke George, besieged him with 
 entreaties and remonstrances. He con- 
 tinued inflexible ; and George, half 
 brought over by the answers of his 
 pupil, exclaimed, " I am not able to 
 answer .him : but I will, nevertheless, 
 continue in my church, for it is not pos- 
 sible to break an old dog." We shall 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xv. 1440. 
 
 t A Deo petivit, flecti pectus suum ad verita- 
 tem, ac lacrymans ssepe haec verba repetivit . . . 
 — (M. Adami, Vita Georgii Anhalt, p. 248.) 
 28 
 
 again meet with this aimable prince ; 
 who was, indeed, one of the noble char- 
 acters of the Reformation ; who himself 
 preached the word of life to his subjects: 
 and to whom has been applied the say- 
 ing of Dion Cassius on the emperor 
 Marcus Antoninus, " In his whole life he 
 was consistent with himself; a good man 
 without any guile."* 
 
 It was especially among the students 
 that the words of Luther were received 
 with enthusiasm. They felt the differ- 
 ence between the spirit and power of the 
 Wittemberg doctor, and the sophistical 
 distinctions and vain speculations of the 
 chancellor of Ingolstadt. They saw 
 Luther relying on the word of God. 
 They saw doctor Eck taking his stand 
 only on the traditions of men. The 
 effect was instantaneous. The lecturing 
 halls of the university of Leipsic were 
 almost deserted after the disputation. A 
 circumstance of the time contributed to 
 this : the plague shewed itself. But 
 there were several other universities, as 
 Erfurdt or Ingolstadt, to which the stu- 
 dents might have retired. The force of 
 truth attracted them to Wittemberg. 
 There the number of students was 
 doubled.f 
 
 Among those who removed from the 
 one university to the other, there was a 
 young man of sixteen, of melancholy 
 character, silent, and often lost in ab- 
 straction in the very midst of the conver- 
 sation and amusements of his fellow- 
 stud en ts.| His parents had thought 
 him of weak intellect, but ere long 
 they found him so quick in his learning, 
 and so continually occupied in his stud- 
 ies, that they conceived great expecta- 
 tions of him. His uprightness, candour, 
 diffidence, and piety, made him an ob- 
 ject of general affection, and Mosella- 
 nus pointed to him as a pattern to the 
 whole university. His name was Gas- 
 perd Cruciger, and he was a native, of 
 Leipsic. The young student of Wit- 
 temberg was at a later period the friend 
 of Melancthon, and fellow-labourer with 
 Luther in the translation of the Bible. 
 
 * " O//0105 Sia -rravTwv lycvero ayadog it i)v, kol 
 
 ovSlv 7rooazolrjTov c't^cv." — Vid. Melch. Adam. p. 
 255. 
 
 t Peifer Histor. Lipsiensis, 356 
 
 X Et cogitabundus et sa?pe in midios sodalitios 
 quovisperegrinante animo. — (Melch. Adami, Vita 
 Crucigeri, p. 193.) 
 
♦* 
 
 218 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The disputation at Leipsic had yet no- 
 bler results. It was there that the theo- 
 logian of the Reformation received his 
 call to the work. Modest and silent, 
 Melancthon had been present at the dis- 
 cussion, taking scarcely any part in it 
 Hitherto he had applied himself only to 
 literature. The conference communica- 
 ted to him a new impulse, and launched 
 the eloquent professor into theology. 
 From that hour he bowed the heights 
 of his learning before the word of God. 
 He received the evangelical doctrine 
 with the simplicity of a child. His au- 
 ditors heard him explain the way of sal- 
 vation with a grace and clearness which 
 delighted every one. He advanced 
 boldly in this path so new to him, — for, 
 said he, " Christ will not be wanting to 
 those who are his."* From this period, 
 the two friends went forward together, 
 contending for liberty and truth, the one 
 with the energy of Paul, the other with 
 the gentleness of John. Luther has well 
 expressed the difference of their voca- 
 tions. " I," says he, " was born for strug- 
 gling in the field of battle with parties 
 and devils. Thus it is that my writings 
 breathe war and tempest. I must root 
 up stock and stem, clear away thorns 
 and brambles, and fill up swamps and 
 sloughs. I am like the sturdy wood-cutter, 
 who must clear and level the road. But 
 our master of arts, Philip, goes forward 
 quietly and gently, cultivating and plant- 
 ing, sowing and watering joyfully, ac- 
 cording as God has dealt to him so liber- 
 ally of his gifts."! 
 
 If Melancthon, the tranquil sower, was 
 called to his work by the Leipsic discus- 
 sion, Luther, the sturdy wood-cutter, felt 
 that it added strength to his arm, and his 
 courage was proportionately exalted. The 
 mightiest result of the discussion was in- 
 deed that which was wrought in Luther 
 himself — " The scholastic theology," said 
 he, " then crumbled into dust before me, 
 under the boasted presidence of Doctor 
 Eck." The covering, which the schools 
 and the church had spread before the 
 sanctuary, was rent from top to bottom. 
 Driven to further investigation, he attain- 
 ed unexpected discoveries. With equal 
 surprise and indignation, he beheld the 
 
 * Christus suis non deerit. — (Corpus Reform. 
 i. 104.) 
 
 t L. Opp. (W.) xv. 200. 
 
 evil in all its magnitude. Searching into 
 the annals of the Church, he discovered 
 that the supremacy of Rome had its origin 
 in the ambition of one party and the 
 credulous ignorance of another. Silence, 
 as to these melancholy discoveries, was 
 not permitted to him. The pride of his 
 adversaries, — the victory they pretended 
 to have gained, — their'endeavours to put 
 out the light decided his purpose. He 
 went forward in the way wherein God 
 led him, without disquieting himself as to 
 the result to which it might lead him. 
 Luther has marked this as the epoch of 
 his enfranchisement from the papal yoke. 
 ''Learn of me," says he, "how hard it is 
 to unlearn the errors which the whole 
 world con firms by its example,* and which, 
 by long use, have become to us as a second 
 nature. I had for seven years read and 
 hourly expounded the Scriptures with 
 much zeal, so that I knew them almost 
 all by heart. f I had also all the first- 
 fruits of the knowledge and faith of my 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; that is, I knew that 
 we are justified and saved, not by our 
 works, but by faith in Christ ; and I even 
 openly maintained that it is not by divine 
 right that the Pope is chief of the Chris- 
 tian church. And yet . . I could not 
 see the conclusion from all this, namely: — 
 that of necessity and beyond doubt, the 
 Pope is of the devil. For what is not of 
 God, must needs be of the devil."! Lu- 
 ther adds further on — " I do not now give 
 free utterance to my indignation against 
 those who still adhere to the Pope, since 
 I, who had for so many years read the 
 Holy Scriptures with so much care, yet 
 held to Papacy with so much obstinacy."^ 
 
 Such were the real results of the Leip- 
 sic discussion, and they were much more 
 important than the discussion itself. They 
 were like the first successes which disci- 
 pline and inspirit an army. 
 
 Eck gave himself up to all the intoxi- 
 cation of what he had tried to represent 
 as a victory. He circulated slanders 
 against Luther. He heaped one impu- 
 
 * Quam difficile sit eluctari et emergere ex 
 erroribus, totius orbis exemplo firmatis . . . — 
 (L. Opp. lat. in preef.) 
 
 t Per septem annos, ita ut memoriter pene 
 omnia tenerem . . — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Quod enim ex Deo non est, necesse est ex 
 diabolo esse. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Cum ego tot annis sacra legens diligentis- 
 sime, tamen ita hsesi tenaciter. — (Ibid.) 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 219 
 
 tation upon another.* He wrote to Fred- 
 eric. He sought, like a skilful general, 
 to profit by the confusion which ever fol- 
 lows a conflict, in order to obtain from 
 the Prince some important concessions. 
 Before taking measures against his ad- 
 versary in person, he invoked the flames 
 to consume his writings-^— even those 
 which he had not read. He entreated 
 the Elector to convoke the provincial 
 council — " Let us," said the foul-mouthed 
 Doctor, "exterminate all these vermin 
 before they have multiplied beyond 
 bounds."! 
 
 It was not against Luther alone that 
 he poured out his wrath. His rashness 
 called Melancthon into the lists. The 
 latter, connected by the tenderest friend- 
 ship with the worthy (Ecolampadius, 
 sent him an account of the discussion, 
 speaking in terms, of commendation of 
 Doctor Eck4 Nevertheless, the pride of 
 the chancellor of Ingolstadt was wound- 
 ed. He instantly took pen in hand 
 against " that grammarian of Wittem- 
 berg, who, to say the truth, is not unac- 
 quainted with Greek and Latin, but had 
 dared to circulate a letter, wherein he had 
 insulted him, Dr. Eck."$ 
 
 Melancthon answered. This was his 
 first theological writing. It is marked 
 by the exquisite urbanity which distin- 
 guished this excellent man. After lay- 
 ing down the principles of hermeneutical 
 science, he shews that we ought not to 
 explain the Holy Scripture, by the Fa- 
 thers, but the Fathers by the Holy Scrip- 
 ture. " How often," says he, " has not 
 Jerome been mistaken ! — how often Au- 
 gustine ! — how often Ambrose ! How 
 often do we not find them differing in judg- 
 ment — how often do we not hear them re- 
 tracting their errors ! There is but one 
 Scripture divinely inspired and without 
 mixture of error." || 
 
 " Luther does not adhere to certain 
 
 * Proscidit, post abitum nostrum, Martinum 
 inhumanissime. — (Melancthon Corp. Refor. i. 
 106.) 
 
 t Ehe das Ungeziffer uberhand nehme. — (L. 
 Opp. (L.) xvii. 271.) 
 
 t Eccius ob varias et insignes ingenii dotes. . . 
 — (L. Opp. lat. i. 337.) 
 
 § Ausus est grammaticus Wittembergensis, 
 Graece et Latine sane non indoctus, epistolam 
 edere . . .—(Ibid. 338.) 
 
 || Una est Scriptura, coelestis spiritus, pura, et 
 per omnia verax. — (Contra Eckium Defensio, 
 Corp. Reform, i. 115.) 
 
 dubious expositions of the ancients, say 
 his adversaries : and why should he ad- 
 here to them 1 In his explanation of the 
 passage of St. Matthew, Thou art Petcr 7 
 and on this rock will I build my churchy 
 he says the very same thing as Origen r 
 who in his account is a host, yea, the very 
 thing that Augustine writes in his homi- 
 ly, and Ambrose in his sixth book on St. 
 Luke, not to mention others. What 
 then, you will say, can the Fathers con- 
 tradict each other ! And what is there 
 so surprising in that?* I reverence the 
 Fathers, because I believe the Holy 
 Scripture. The sense of Scripture is one 
 and simple, as heavenly truth itself. We 
 enter into it by comparing Scripture with 
 Scripture, and deduce it from the thread 
 and connection of the whole. f There is 
 a philosophy enjoined us with respect to 
 the Scriptures given by God ; it is to 
 bring to them all the thoughts and max- 
 ims of men, as to the touch-stone by which 
 these are to be tried "\ 
 
 For a long time no one had so elegant- 
 ly set forth such powerful truths. The 
 word of God was reinstated in its proper 
 place, and the Fathers in theirs. The 
 course by which the true sense of Scrip- 
 ture is obtained was plainly indicated. 
 The preaching of the Gospel rose above 
 the difficulties and glosses of the schools. 
 Melancthon furnished a means, available 
 for all times, of answering those, who, like 
 Dr. Eck, would involve this subject in 
 perplexities. The weak " grammarian" 
 had arisen, and the broad and robust 
 shoulders of the scholastic gladiator had 
 yielded under the first movement of his 
 arm. 
 
 The more Eck felt his weakness, the 
 louder were his clamours. He thought 
 by rhodomontade and accusations to se- 
 cure the victory which his argument had 
 failed to achieve. The monks and all 
 the partisans of Rome re-echoed these 
 clamours. From all parts of Germany 
 reproaches were showered upon Luther ; 
 but he remained unmoved by them. 
 " The more reproach is heaped upon me," 
 said he at the conclusion of some expla- 
 
 * Quid igitur ? Ipsi secum pugnant ! quid 
 mirum ? — (Contra Eckium Defensio, Corp. Re- 
 form, i. p. 115.) 
 
 t Quem collatis Scripturis e filo ductuque ora- 
 ticnis licet assequi. — (Ibid. 114.) 
 
 X Ut hominum sententias, decretaque ad ipsas y 
 cou ad Lydium lapidem exigamus. — (Ibid.) 
 
220 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 nations which he published of the propo- 
 sitions of Leipsic, " the more do I glory 
 in it. Truth, that is to say Christ, must 
 increase, while I must decrease. The 
 voice of the bridegroom and of the bride 
 gives me a joy that is far above the fears 
 their clamours cause me. It is not men 
 that are opposing me, and I have no en- 
 mity against them ; it is Satan the prince 
 of evil, who is labouring to intimidate me. 
 But he who is in us is greater than he 
 who is in the world. The opinion of 
 this age is against us, — that of posterity 
 will be more favourable."* 
 
 If the discussion of Leipsic multiplied 
 the enemies of Luther in Germany, it 
 augmented the number of his friends in 
 distant parts. " That which Huss was 
 formerly in Bohemia," wrote the Breth- 
 ren to him from that country, " you Mar- 
 tin, are now in Saxony ; therefore, con- 
 tinue in prayer, and be strong in the 
 Lord." 
 
 About this time a rupture took .place 
 between Luther and Emser, then profes- 
 sor at Leipsic, The latter wrote to Dr. 
 Zack, a zealous Roman Catholic of 
 Prague, a letter apparently intended to 
 remove from the Hussites the impression 
 that Luther partook of their views. Lu- 
 ther could not doubt that the design of 
 the Leipsic professor was. under the sem- 
 blance of justifying him, to cause the sus- 
 picion to hang over him of adhering to 
 the Bohemian heresy, and he resolved at 
 once to rend asunder the veil with which 
 his former guest at Dresden sought to 
 cover his enmity. With this view he 
 published a letter addressed " to the he- 
 goat Emser." (The armorial bearing of 
 Emser was a he-goat.) He concluded 
 this writing with words which well ex- 
 press the writer's character, — " Love for 
 all men, but fear of none !"{ 
 
 While new friends and new enemies 
 came forth, some earlier friends began to 
 shew signs of estrangement from Luther. 
 Staupitz, by whose means the Reformer 
 had emerged from the obscurity of the 
 cloister of Erfurth, began to evince some 
 coldness towards him. Luther rose to 
 an elevation of views, whither Staupitz 
 was not able to follow him. " You aban- 
 don me," wrote Luther to him ; " I have 
 
 * Preesens male judicat aetas ; judicium melius 
 posteritatis erit. — (L. Opp. Lat. i. 310.) 
 t L. Opp. Lat. i. 252. 
 
 been all this day grieving like a weaned 
 child.* I dreamed of you last night," 
 continues the Reformer. " I thought you 
 were taking leave of me, and I was 
 weeping and sobbing bitterly ; but I 
 thought you put out your hand to me 
 and bade me be tranquil, for you would 
 return to me again." 
 
 The ' peace-maker, Miltitz, resolved to 
 make another effort to calm the minds of 
 the disputants. But what influence could 
 be had over men still agitated by the 
 feeling of conflict. His endeavours were 
 unavailing. He presented the famous 
 Golden Rose to the Elector, and the 
 prince did not give himseif the trouble 
 even to receive it in person. f Frederic 
 well knew the artifices of Rome ; it was 
 useless, therefore, to think any longer of 
 deceiving him.| 
 
 Far from giving ground, Luther con- 
 tinued to advance. It was at this time 
 that he struck one of his heaviest blows 
 against prevailing error, by publishing 
 his first Commentary on the Epistle to 
 the Galatians.^ The second commenta- 
 ry undoubtedly surpassed the first ; but 
 even in this he set forth with great pow- 
 er the doctrine of justification by faith. 
 Every word of the new apostle was full 
 of life, and God made use of him as an 
 instrument to introduce the knowledge 
 of himself into the hearts of the people. 
 "Christ has given Himself (ox our sins," 
 said Luther to his contemporaries : || " It 
 is not silver or gold that he has given for 
 us ; it is not a man, it is not the host of 
 angels ; it is Himself, without whom 
 nothing is great, that he has given. And 
 this incomparable treasure he has given 
 for our sins! Where now are those who 
 proudly boast the power of our will 1 — 
 where are the precepts of moral philoso- 
 phy? where the power and the obliga- 
 tion of the law ? Since our sins are so 
 great that nothing less than a ransom so 
 stupendous could remove them, shall we 
 still seek to attain unto righteousness by 
 the strength of our will, by the force of 
 
 * Egosuper te,sicutablactatussupermatre sua, 
 tristissimus hac dio fui. — (L. Epp. i. 342.) * 
 
 t Rosam quam vocant auream nullo honore 
 dignatus est ; mo pro ridiculo habuit. — (L. Opp 
 lat in priEf.) 
 
 t Intellexit princeps artes Roman® curiffi et 
 eos (legatos) digne tractare novit — (Ibid.) 
 
 § September, 1519. 
 
 || L. Opp. (L.) x. 461 
 
THE LEIPSIC DISCUSSION, 1519. 
 
 221 
 
 law, by the doctrines of men? What 
 use can we have of all these subtleties 
 and delusions? Alas! they could but 
 cover our iniquities with a cloak of lies, 
 and make us Jiypocrites beyond the reach 
 of salvation." 
 
 But while Luther proved that there is 
 no salvation for man but in Christ ; he 
 shewed, also, that this salvation changes 
 the heart of man, and makes him abound 
 in good works. He who has truly heard 
 the word of Christ and keeps it is thence- 
 forward clothed with the spirit of charity. 
 If thou lovest him who hath made thee a 
 present of twenty florins, or rendered thee 
 any service, or testified in any other way 
 his affection towards you, how much 
 more shouldest thou love Him who hath 
 given for thee, not gold or silver, but him- 
 self ' ; who hath received for thee so many 
 wounds ; who hath undergone for thy 
 sake an agony and sweat of blood ; who 
 in thy stead hath suffered death ; in a 
 word, who, in discharge of thy sins, hath 
 swallowed up death, and acquired for 
 thee a Father in heaven full of love ! If 
 thou dost not love him, thy heart hath 
 not entered into or understood the things 
 which he hath done ; thou hast not be- 
 lieved them ; for faith worketh by love." 
 — " This epistle is my epistle," said Lu- 
 ther, speaking of the Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians : " I have espoused it." 
 
 His adversaries did but hasten his pro- 
 gress. Without them it would have 
 been more gradual. Eck provoked 
 against him at this period a new attack 
 on the part of the Franciscans of Juter- 
 bok. Luther, in his answer,* not satis- 
 fied with repeating what he had already 
 taught, attacked some errors which he 
 had recently discovered ; " I should be 
 glad to be informed," said he, " where, 
 in the Scripture, the power of canonizing 
 saints has been given to the Popes ; and 
 also what necessity, what use there can 
 be in canonizing, them ?" " For aught 
 it matters," he added ironically, "let 
 them go on canonizing to their heart's 
 content."! 
 
 These new attacks of Luther remained 
 unanswered. The infatuation of his 
 enemies favoured him as much as his 
 
 * Defensio contra malignum Eccii judicium. — 
 (I. lat. 356.) 
 
 t Canonizet quisque quantum volet. — (Ibid. 
 367.) 
 
 own courage. They contended, with 
 much warmth and passion, for things that 
 were at most but secondary and subordi- 
 nate opinions ; and when Luther assailed 
 the very foundations of the Romish doc- 
 trine, they saw them struck without ut- 
 tering a word. They exerted themselves 
 to defend some advanced outworks at the 
 very time that their intrepid adversary 
 was penetrating into the citadel, and. 
 planting there the standard of the truth. 
 Hence they were afterwards much aston- 
 ished to see the fortress, of which they 
 ■had constituted themselves the defenders, 
 undermined, on fire, and sinking in the 
 midst of the flames, while they thought it 
 impregnable, and were braving the be- 
 siegers. It is the ordinary course in such 
 catastrophes. 
 
 The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
 began now to occupy the thoughts of 
 Luther. He sought in vain to find this 
 holy Supper in the Mass. One day (it 
 was a short time after his return from 
 Leipsic), he ascended the pulpit. Let us 
 pay attention to his words, for they are 
 the first he uttered on a subject which 
 has since divided the Reformed Church 
 into two parties : " There are three 
 things," said he, " necessary to be under- 
 stood in the holy sacrament of the altar : 
 the sign, which must be external, visible, 
 and under a corporeal form ; the thing 
 signified, -which is internal, spiritual, and 
 within the soul of man ; and Faith, 
 which uses both."* If definitions had 
 been carried no further, the unity of the 
 Church would not have- been destroyed. 
 Luther continued : 
 
 " It would be w#ll if the Church, in a 
 general council, would order the 'sacra- 
 ment to be administered in ' both kinds 1 
 to all believers ; not, however, that one 
 kind would not be sufficient, for Faith of 
 itself would suffice." 
 
 These bold words pleased his hearers. 
 Some, however, were surprised, and an- 
 gry. " It is false," said they ; " it is. a 
 scandal. "f The preacher continued : 
 
 " There is no union more intimate, 
 more deep, more indivisible, than that 
 which takes place between the food and 
 the body which the food nourishes. 
 Christ unites himself to us in the sacra- 
 ment, in such a manner, that he acts as 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 272. 
 t L. Opp. (L.) Ibid. 281. 
 
222 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 if he were identical with us. Our sins 
 assail him : his righteousness defends 
 usr 
 
 But Luther was not satisfied with de- 
 claring the truth : he attacked one of the 
 fundamental errors of Rome.* The Ro- 
 mish Church pretends that the sacrament 
 operates by itself, independently of the 
 person who receives it. Nothing can be 
 more convenient than such an opinion. 
 Hence the ardour with which the sacra- 
 ment is sought for, and hence come the 
 profits of the Romish clergy. Luther 
 attacked this doctrine,t and met it with 
 its opposite,| which requires faith and 
 consent of heart in him who receives it. 
 
 This energetic protest was calculated 
 to overthrow the long established super- 
 stitions. But strange to say, no attention 
 was paid to it. Rome passed unnoticed 
 what one would have thought would 
 have called forth a shriek, while she bore 
 down haughtily on a remark Luther had 
 let fall at the commencement of his dis- 
 course, on " communion in both kinds." 
 
 This discourse having been published 
 in the month of December, a cry of here- 
 sy arose on all sides. "It is the doctrine 
 of Prague to all intents and purposes !" 
 was the exclamation at the court of Dres- 
 den, where the sermon arrived during 
 the festival of Christmas : " besides the 
 work is written in German, in order that 
 the-xommon people may understand it."§ 
 The devotion of the prince was disturbed, 
 and en the third day of the festival he 
 wrote to his cousin Frederic : " Since the 
 publication of this discourse the number 
 of the Bohemians who receive the Lord's 
 Supper in both kinds has increased six 
 i thousand. Your Luther, instead of a 
 simple Wittemberg professor, will, ere 
 long, be Bishop of Prague, and an arch- 
 heretic." — " He is a Bohemian by birth," 
 said some, " and of Bohemian parents ! 
 He was brought up at Prague, and in- 
 structed from the writings of Wiclif !" 
 
 Luther thought fit to contradict these 
 reports in a tract, wherein he formally 
 gave an account of his origin. "I was 
 
 * Si quis dixerit per ipsa nova? legis sacramen- 
 ta ex opere operato non conferri gratiam, sed so- 
 lam fidem diviniE promissionis, ad gratiam con-se- 
 «juendam sufficere, anathema sit. — (Concil. Tri- 
 dent. Sess. 7. can. 8.) 
 
 t Known by the name of opus operatum. 
 
 t That of opus operantis. 
 
 § L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 281. 
 
 born at Eisleben," he said, " and was 
 baptized in the Church of St. Peter. I 
 never in my life was nearer to Bohemia 
 than Dresden."* 
 
 The letter of Duke George did not 
 estrange the Elector from Luther. A 
 few days afterwards, this prince invited 
 the doctor to a splendid banquet, which 
 he gave to the Spanish Ambassador, and 
 Luther on this occasion boldly disputed 
 with the minister of Charles, f The 
 Elector, through the medium of his chap- 
 lin, had begged him to defend his cause 
 with moderation. " Too much impru- 
 dence displeases men," answered Luther 
 to Spalatin, " but too much prudence is 
 displeasing to God. It is impossible to 
 make a stand for the Gospel without cre- 
 ating some disturbance and offence. The 
 word of God is a sword, waging war, 
 overthrowing and destroying ; it is a 
 casting down,;}; a disturbance, and comes, 
 as the prophet Amos says, as a bear in 
 the way, and as a lion in the forest. I 
 want nothing from them. I ask nothing. 
 There is One above who seeks and re- 
 quires. Whether his requirements be 
 disregarded or obeyed, affects not me."§ 
 
 Every thing announced that Luther 
 would soon have more need than ever of 
 faith and courage. Eck was forming 
 plans of vengeance. Instead of gather- 
 ing the laurels which he had reckoned 
 upon, the gladiator of Leipsic had become 
 the laughing-stock of all the men of sense 
 of his country. Keen satires were pub- 
 lished against him. One appeared as a 
 ' : letter from some unlearned Canons." 
 It was written by CEcolampadius, and 
 stung Eck to the quick. Another was a 
 complaint against Eck, probably written 
 by the excellent Pirckheimer, of Nurem- 
 berg, abounding in a pungency, and at 
 the same time a dignity of which nothing 
 bu\ the Provincial Letters of Pascal can 
 convey any idea. 
 
 Luther expressed his displeasure at 
 some of these writings. " It is better," 
 
 * Caeteram ego natus sum in Eisleben. — (Lutlv 
 Epp. i. 389.) 
 
 + Cum quo heri ego et Philippus certavimus, 
 splendide invitati. — (Ibid. 396.) 
 
 t Verbum Dei gladius est, bellum est, ruina 
 
 est, scandalum est, perditio est, venenum est 
 
 —(Ibid. 417.) 
 
 § Ego nihil quaero: est, qui qucerat. Stet 
 ergo, sive cadat : ego nihil lucror, aut amitto. — 
 (Ibid. 418.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 223 
 
 said he, " to attack openly, than to wound 
 from behind a hedge."* 
 
 How was the Chancellor of Ingolstadt 
 deceived in his calculations ! His coun- 
 trymen abandoned him. He prepared 
 to cross the Alps to invoke foreign assist- 
 ance. Wherever he went, he breathed 
 threats against Luther, Melancthon, Carl- 
 stadt, and even the Elector himself. "Judg- 
 ing by the haughtiness of his words," 
 says the Doctor of Wittemberg, " one 
 would say that he imagines himself to be 
 the Almighty. "t Inflamed with anger 
 and the thirst of vengeance, Eck took hi6 
 departure for Italy, there to receive the 
 reward of his asserted triumphs, and to 
 forge in the capital at Rome mightier 
 bolts than those weapons of scholastic 
 controversy which had been broken in 
 his hands. 
 
 Luther well knew the dangers which 
 
 * Melior est aperta criminatio, quam iste sub 
 sepe morsus. — (L. Epp. i. 426.) 
 
 t Deum crederes omnipotentem loqui. — (lb. 
 380.) 
 
 this journey of his antagonist was likely 
 to draw down on him, but he did not 
 quail. Spalatin, in alarm, urged him to 
 make advances to an accommodation. 
 " No," replied Luther, " so long as he 
 challenges, I dare not withdraw from the 
 contest. I commit every thing to God, 
 and give up my bark to winds and waves. 
 The battle is the Lord's. Why will you 
 fancy that it is by peace that Christ will 
 advance his cause ? Has not he himself, 
 — have not all the martyrs after him, 
 poured forth their blood in the conflict?"* 
 Such, at the . commencement of the 
 year 1520, was the position of the two 
 combatants of Leipsic. The one enga- 
 ged in rousing the power of the Papacy 
 to crush his rival. The other awaiting 
 the contest with all the calmness of one 
 who seems to reckon upon peace. The 
 year then opening was destined to wit- 
 ness the bursting of the storm. 
 
 * Cogor rem Deo committere, data flatibus et 
 fluctibus nave ; Bellum Domini est. — Ibid. 425.) 
 
 BOOK VI, 
 
 THE ROMAN .BULL, 1520. 
 
 Candidates for the Empire — Charles — Francis I. — The Crown Offered to Frederic — Charles 
 Elected — Dangers — Frederic to the Roman Court — Luther's Feelings — Melancthon's Alarm — 
 Schaumburg — Sickingen — Hutten — Luther's Confidence — Faith, the Spring of Works — The 
 Author of Faith — Attack on the Papacy — The Three Barriers — All Christians Priests — Corrup- 
 tions of Rome — Germany in Danger — Call for Reform — Marriage of Priests — The Empire — 
 Conclusion — Success of the Appeal — Rome — Policy of Rome — Separation — The Swiss Priest — 
 The Roman Consistory — Condemnation — Melancthon — Melancthon's Hearth — His Studies-J- 
 Melancthon's Mother — The Gospel in Italy — Luther on the Mass — " Babylonian Captivity" of 
 the Church — Baptism — No other Vows — Miltitz at Eisleben — Deputation to Luther — Conference 
 at Lichtcnberg — Luther's Letter to the Pope — Union of Christ and the Believer — Arrival of the 
 Bull in Germany— The Students of Leipsic— Eck at Erfurth— Luther's Feelings — The. Pirckhei- 
 mer Family— Luther— UlricZwingle — Luther's Answer — Fresh Movements — The Bonfire of Lou- 
 vain — Luther's Tranquillity — Appeal to a Council — Struggle — Burning of the Pope's Bull — Lu- 
 ther and the Academy — Luther and the Pope — Melancthon to the States — Luther Encourages 
 his Friends — Melancthon to the Fearful — Luther's Vocation — The Bible and the Doctors — Re- 
 tractation — Aleander the Nuncio — The Nuncio and the Emperor — The Nuncio and the Elec- 
 tor—Duke John's Son Intercedes— The Elector Protects Luther— The Nuncio's Answer — Eras- 
 mus in Cologne — Erasmus and the Elector — Erasmus's Declaration — Erasmus's Advice — The 
 Confessional — Luther on Confession— Antichrist — Luther's Cause Gains Strength — Satires — Ul- 
 ric Von Hutten— Carnival at Wittemberg— Staupitz Alanncd— Luther's Labours — Progress of 
 the Reformation. 
 
 A new actor was about to appear on I Christendom since the days of Charle- 
 the stage. It was the will of God that magne. He made choice of a prince in 
 the monk of Wittemberg should be the vigour of youth, to whom every thing 
 brought face to face with the most pow- promised a reign of long duration, a 
 erful monarch who had appeared in j prince whose sceptre bore sway over a 
 
224 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 considerable part of the old, and also over 
 a new World, so that, according to a cel- 
 ebrated saying, the sun never set upon 
 his vast domains ; and with this prince 
 he confronted the humble Reformation, 
 that had had its beginning in the secret 
 cell of a convent at Erfurlh in the an- 
 guish and groans of a poor monk. The 
 history of this morfarch, and of his reign, 
 was destined, apparently, to read an im- 
 portant lesson to the world. It was to 
 show the nothingness of all " the strength 
 of man," when it presumes to strive 
 against " the weakness of God." Had a 
 prince, friendly to Luther, been called to 
 the empire, the success of the Reforma- 
 tion might have been attributed to his pro- 
 tection. Had an emperor of feeble char- 
 acter filled the throne — even though he 
 should have been opposed to the new 
 doctrine, the -success that attended it might 
 have admitted of explanation by the weak- 
 ness of the reigning sovereign. But it 
 was the haughty conqueror of Pavia 
 whose pride was to be humbled before 
 the power of the divine Word ; and the 
 whole world was called to witness that 
 he to whom power was given to lead 
 Francis I. to the dungeons of Madrid was 
 compelled to lay down the sword before 
 the son of a poor miner. 
 
 The Emperor Maximilian was no 
 more. The electors were assembled aj 
 Frankfort to choose his successor. This 
 was a decision of high importance to all 
 Europe under present circumstances. 
 All Christendom was occupied with the 
 election. Maximilian had not been what 
 is called a great prince ; but his memory 
 was dear to the people. They were fond 
 of calling to mind his ready wit, and 
 good-nature. Luther often mentioned 
 him in conversation with his friends, and 
 one day related the following sally of the 
 monarch : 
 
 A mendicant was following him close- 
 ly, asking alms, and calling him brother; 
 " for," said he, " we are both descended 
 from the same father, Adam. I am 
 poor," he continued, " but you are rich, 
 and therefore ought to assist me." The 
 emperor turned round at these words, and 
 said : " Here, take this penny, go to your 
 other brethren, and if every one of them 
 gives you as much, you will soon be 
 richer than I am."* 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1869. 
 
 The crisis required, for the Imperial 
 crown, a prince of more energy than the 
 good-natured Maximilian. The times 
 were about to change ; ambitious poten- 
 tates were to contest the throne of 
 the Emperors of the West ; a powerful 
 hand must seize the reins of the Empire, 
 and long and bloody wars must succeed 
 to a profound peace. 
 
 Three kings contended at the diet of 
 Frankfort for the crown of the Caesars. 
 A young prince, grandson of the late 
 Emperor, born in the first year of the 
 century, and consequently nineteen years 
 of age, was the first who presented him- 
 self. He was named Charles, and was 
 born at Ghent. His grandmother, on 
 the father's side, Mary, daughter of 
 Charles the Bold, had bequeathed to 
 him Flanders, and the rich territories of 
 Burgundy. His mother, Joanna, daugh- 
 ter of Ferdinand of Arragon and Isabel- 
 la of Castile, and wife of Philip, son of 
 the Emperor Maximilian, had transmit- 
 ted to him the united crowns of Spain, 
 Naples, and Sicily : to which Christopher 
 Columbus had added a new World. 
 The death of his grandfather placed him 
 at this moment in possession of the he- 
 reditary dominions of Austria. This 
 young prince, endowed with much intel- 
 ligence, and amiable when it pleased him 
 to be so, combined with the taste for 
 military exercises, in which the illustri- 
 ous Dukes of Burgundy had so long dis- 
 tinguished themselves, the subtlety and 
 penetration of the Italians, the reverence 
 for existing institutions which still char- 
 acterises the house of Austria, and which 
 promised a firm and zealous defender to 
 the Papacy, and a great knowledge of 
 public affairs, acquired under the tutor- 
 ship of Chievres. From the age of fif- 
 teen he had attended at all the delibera- 
 tions of his council.* These various 
 qualities were in some degree concealed 
 and veiled by the reserve and taciturnity 
 peculiar to the Spanish nation. There 
 was something melancholy in his long 
 thin visage. " He is pious and silent," 
 said Luther ; "-I venture to say that he 
 does not speak so much in a year as I do 
 in a day."f If the character of Charles 
 had been developed under the influence 
 of liberal and christian principles, he 
 
 * Memoires de Du Bellay, i. 45. 
 t L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1874. 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 225 
 
 would perhaps have been one of the most 
 admirable princes recorded in history ; 
 but political considerations absorbed his 
 thoughts, and tarnished his better quali- 
 ties. 
 
 Not contented with the many sceptres 
 gathered together in his hand, the young 
 Charles aspired to the imperial dignity. 
 " It is a sunbeam which sheds splendour 
 on the house it lights upon," remarked 
 some ; " but when any one puts forth 
 the hand to lay hold on it, he grasps 
 nothing." (Jharles, on the contrary, saw 
 in it the summit of all earthly greatness, 
 and a means of obtaining a sort of magic 
 influence over the minds of the people. 
 
 Francis I., of France, was the second 
 of the competitors. The young paladins 
 of the court of this king, incessantly ur- 
 ged on him, that he ought, like Charle- 
 magne, to be Emperor of all the West ; 
 and, following the example of the knights 
 of old, lead them against the Crescent, 
 which menaced the Empire, strike the 
 power of the infidels to the dust, and re- 
 cover the holy sepulchre. " It is neces- 
 sary," said the ambassadors of Francis to 
 the Electors, " to prove to the dukes of 
 Austria, that the imperial crown is not 
 hereditary. Germany has need, under 
 existing circumstances, not of a young 
 man of nineteen, but of a prince who 
 unites, with experienced judgment, tal- 
 ents already acknowledged. Francis 
 will combine the forces of France and 
 Lombardy, with those of Germany, to 
 make war upon the Mussulmans. Be- 
 sides this, as he is sovereign of the duchy 
 of Milan, he is already a member of the 
 Empire." The French ambassadors 
 supported these arguments with 400,000 
 crowns, expended in purchasing suf- 
 frages, and with entertainments, at which 
 the guests were to be gained over to their 
 party. 
 
 Lastly, Henry VIII., king of England, 
 jealous of the power which the choice of 
 the Electors would give, either to Fran- 
 cis or to Charles, also entered the lists : 
 but he soon left these two powerful ri- 
 vals to dispute the crown between them. 
 
 The Electors were disinclined to the 
 cause, of the latter candidates. The peo- 
 ple of Germany, they thought, would 
 see in the king of France a foreign mas- 
 ter, and this master might very likely 
 deprive themselves of that independence 
 29 
 
 of which the nobility of his own domin- 
 ions had lately seen themselves stripped. 
 
 As for Charles, it was an established 
 maxim with the Electors, not to choose 
 a prince already playing an important 
 part in the Empire. The Pope partook 
 of their apprehensions from such a choice. 
 He was for rejecting the king of Naples, 
 his neighbour, and the king of France, 
 whose enterprising spirit he dreaded. 
 " Choose rather one from amongst your- 
 selves,'' was the advice he caused to be 
 conveyed to the Electors. The Elector 
 of Treves proposed the nomination of 
 Frederfc of Saxony. The Imperial crown 
 was laid at the feet of this friend of Luther. 
 
 Such a choice would have obtained 
 the approbation of all Germany. The 
 prudence of Frederic, and his love for 
 the people, were well known. At the 
 time of the revolt of Erfurth, he had been 
 urged to take that town by assault. He 
 refused, that he might spare the effusion 
 of blood. And when it was urged that 
 the assault would not cost the lives of five 
 men : his answer had been, " A single 
 life would be too much."* It seemed as 
 if the election of the protector of the Ref- 
 ormation was on the point of securing 
 its triumph. Ought not Frederic to have 
 regarded the wish of the Electors as a 
 call from God himself? Who was bet- 
 ter able to preside over the destinies of 
 the Empire, than so prudent a prince ? 
 Who more likely to withstand the Turks 
 than an Emperor abounding in faith 1 
 It may be that the Elector of Saxony's 
 refusal, so much lauded by historians, 
 was a fault on the part of this prince. It 
 may be that the struggles by which Ger- 
 many was afterwards torn, are to be part- 
 ly attributed to this refusal. But it is 1 
 hard to say, whether Frederic deserves 
 censure for want of faith, or honour for 
 his humility. He judged that the safety 
 of the Empire required that he should re- 
 fuse the crown. f " There is need of an 
 Emperor more powerful than myself to 
 save Germany,' 1 said this modest and 
 disinterested prince : " the Turk is at our 
 gates. The king of Spain, whose heredi- 
 tary possessions (in Austria) border on 
 the menaced frontier, is its natural de- 
 fender." 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1858. 
 t Is vero herolca plane moderationo animi 
 majrnifice repudiavit. . . — (Pallavicini, i. 79.) 
 
226 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The Legate of Rome, seeing that 
 Charles was about to be chosen, declared 
 that the Pope withdrew his objections ; 
 and on the 28th of June the grandson of 
 Maximilian was elected. "God," said 
 Frederic, at a subsequent period, "has 
 given him to us in mercy and in dis- 
 pleasure."* The Spanish envoys offered 
 30,000 gold florins to the Elector of Sax- 
 ony, as a mark of their master's grati- 
 tude ; but this prince refused the gift, and 
 prohibited his ministers from accepting 
 any present. At the same time, he con- 
 tributed to the security of the liberties of 
 Germany, by a treaty to which the en- 
 voys of Charles swore in his name. The 
 circumstances under which the latter as- 
 sumed the Imperial crown seemed to 
 give a stronger pledge than these oaths 
 in favour of German liberty and of the 
 continued progress of the Reformation. 
 The young prince felt himself cast into 
 shade by the laurels which his rival, 
 Francis I., had gathered at Marignan. 
 Their rivalry was to be continued in Ita- 
 ly, and the time it would occupy would, 
 doubtless, be sufficient to strengthen and 
 confirm the Reformation. Charles quit- 
 ted Spain in May, 1520, and was crown- 
 ed on the 22nd of October at Aix-la- 
 Chapelle. 
 
 Luther had foreseen that the cause of 
 the Reformation would, ere long, have 
 to be pleaded before the Emperor. He 
 wrote to Charles, while this prince was 
 still at Madrid. " If the cause which I 
 defend," said he to him, " is worthy of 
 appearing before the throne of the Ma- 
 jesty of heaven, it is surely not unwor- 
 thy of engaging the attention of a prince 
 of this world. O Charles! thou prince 
 among the kings of the earth ! I throw 
 myself as a suppliant at the feet of your 
 Most Serene Majesty, and conjure you 
 to deign to receive under the shadow of 
 your wings, not me, but the very cause 
 of that eternal truth, for the defence of 
 which God has intrusted you with the 
 sword."t The young king of Spain 
 treated this strange letter from a Ger- 
 man monk with neglect, and gave no an- 
 swer. 
 
 While Luther was in vain turning his 
 eyes towards Madrid the storm seemed 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1880. 
 t Causam ipsam veritatis. — (L. Epp. i. 392, Jan. 
 15, 1520.) 
 
 to increase around him. The flame of 
 fanaticism was kindled in Germany. 
 Hochstraten, never weary in attempts at 
 persecution, had extracted certain theses 
 from the writings of Luther. The uni- 
 versities of Cologne and of Louvain had, 
 at his solicitation, condemned these works. 
 That of Erfurth, still retaining an angry 
 recollection of Luther's preference of 
 Wittemberg, was about to follow their 
 example ; but Luther, on learning their 
 intention, wrote to Lange in such strong 
 terms, that the theologians of Erfurth 
 were alarmed and kept silence. The 
 condemnation, pronounced at Cologne 
 and Louvain, was sufficient, however, 
 to produce great excitement. Add to 
 this that the priests of Meissen, who had 
 taken part with Emser in his quarrel, 
 openly declared (according to the state- 
 ment of Melancthon) that whosoever 
 should kill Luther would be without sin.* 
 " The time is come," says Luther, " in 
 which men will think they do service to 
 Jesus Christ in putting us to death." 
 These murderous suggestions, as might 
 have been expected, produced their natu- 
 ral results. 
 
 While Luther was walking one day 
 before the monastery of the Augustines, 
 says one of his biographers, a stranger, 
 having a pistol concealed in his sleeve, 
 approached, and said to him : " Why do 
 you go thus alone ?" " I am in the 
 hands of God," answered Luther ; " he is 
 my strength and shield. What can man 
 do unto me ?"t Hereupon, adds the his- 
 torian, the stranger turned pale, and fled 
 trembling. Serra Longa, the orator of 
 the conference of Augsburg, wrote about 
 the same time to the Elector : " Let not 
 Luther find an asylum in your High- 
 ness's territories ; let him be every- 
 where driven and stoned in open day : 
 that will rejoice me more than if you 
 were to give me 10,000 crowns. "| 
 
 It was, however, on the side of Rome 
 that the storm was chiefly gathering. 
 A nobleman of Thuringia, Valentin 
 Teutleben, vicar of the 'Archbishop of 
 Mentz, and a zealous partisan of the Pa- 
 pacy, was the representative of the Elec- 
 
 * Ut sine peccato esse cum censebant qui me 
 interfecerit— (L. Epp. i. 383.) 
 
 t Wass kann mir ein Mensch thun ? — (Keith, 
 L. Umstilnde, 89.) 
 
 t Tenzel Hist. Ber. ii. 168. 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 227 
 
 tor of Saxony at Rome. Teutleben, 
 scandalised at the protection which his 
 master granted to the heretical monk, 
 saw with vexation and impatience his 
 mission paralysed by this, as he thought, 
 imprudent conduct. He imagined that 
 by alarming the Elector he should in- 
 duce him to abandon the rebellious the- 
 ologian. " I can get no hearing," wrote 
 he, " on account of the protection which 
 you grant to Luther." But the Ro- 
 manists were deceived, if they thought 
 to intimidate the prudent Frederic. This 
 prince knew that the will of God and 
 the voice of the people were more ir- 
 resistible than decrees of the papal court. 
 He directed his ambassador to intimate 
 to the Pope, that, far from defending 
 Luther, he had always left him to defend 
 himself; that he had already requested 
 him to quit the university, and even 
 Saxony; that the doctor had declared 
 himself ready to obey, and would not 
 have been then in the electoral states, 
 had not the Legate himself, Charles 
 Miltitz, begged the prince to keep him 
 near his own person, lest, repairing to 
 other countries, Luther should act with 
 more liberty than in Saxony itself.* 
 Frederic did still more : he wished to 
 open the eyes of Rome. " Germany," 
 continued he, in his letter, " possesses a 
 great number of learned men, well ac- 
 quainted with languages and sciences ; 
 the laity themselves are beginning to be 
 enlightened, and to be fond of the sacred 
 writings ; and if the reasonable terms of 
 Dr. Luther are refused, it is much to be 
 feared that peace will never be re-estab- 
 lished. The doctrine of Luther has ta- 
 ken deep root in many hearts. If, in- 
 stead of refuting it by the testimony of 
 the Bible, attempts are made to crush 
 it by the thunders of the Church, great 
 offence will be occasioned, and terrible 
 and dangerous rebellions will be ex- 
 cited." f 
 
 The Elector, placing confidence in 
 Luther, caused the letter of Teutleben, 
 as well as another which he had received 
 from the Cardinal St. George, to be com- 
 municated to him. The Reformer was 
 
 * Da er viel freyer und sicherer schreiben und 
 handeln mochte was er wollte. . . . — (L. Opp. 
 (L.) i. 298.) 
 
 t Schreckliche, grausame, schiidliche und 
 verderbliche Emporungen erregen. — (Ibid.) 
 
 much moved on reading them. He 
 saw at once all the dangers that sur- 
 rounded him, and his mind was for an 
 instant overwhelmed. But it was at 
 such moments that his faith broke forth, 
 and manifested itself in all its strength. 
 Often weak and ready to fall into de- 
 spondency, he was seen to rise and ap- 
 pear greater in the midst of the storm. 
 He would gladly have been delivered 
 from so many trials, but he knew well 
 at what price peace was offered to him, 
 and he indignantly rejected it. " Hold 
 my peace !" said he ; "I am willing to 
 do so, if they will permit me, that is to 
 say, if they will silence others. If any 
 one envies me my appointments, let him 
 take them ; if any one desires the de- 
 struction of my writings, let him burn 
 them. I am ready to keep silence, pro- 
 vided it be not required that evangelical 
 truth should stand still* I ask for no 
 cardinal's hat, nor gold, nor any thing 
 else that Rome values. I will make 
 any sacrifices ; so that the way of salva- 
 tion is left open to Christians.! All 
 their threats do not terrify me, all their 
 promises cannot seduce me." 
 
 Warmed by these feelings, Luther soon 
 recovered his disposition for action, and 
 chose the Christian's conflict rather than 
 the calm of the recluse. One night 
 sufficed to reproduce in his mind the 
 desire to overthrow the power of Rome. 
 " My resolution is taken," he wrote next 
 morning : " I despise alike the rage and 
 the favour of Rome. Away with recon- 
 ciliation ! I desire never more to have 
 any communication with her.J Let her 
 condemn — let her burn my writings ! 
 In my turn, I will condemn and publicly 
 burn the canon law, that nest of all here- 
 sies. My moderation hitherto has been 
 useless ; and I renounce it !" 
 
 His friends were very far from being 
 so confident. The consternation was 
 great at Wittemberg. " Our expectation 
 is on the stretch," said Melancthon. " I 
 would rather die than be separated from 
 
 * Semper quiescere paratus, modo veritatem 
 evangelicam non jubeant quiescere. — (L. Epp. i. 
 462.) 
 
 t Si salutis viam Christianis permittant esse 
 liberam, hoc unum peto ab illis, ac proeterea nihil. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 t Nolo eis reconciliari nee communicare in per- 
 petuum.— (Ibid. 466. July 10th, 1520.) 
 
228 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Luther.* If God does not send us help 
 we perish." " Our Luther is still alive," 
 wrote he a month afterwards in his anxi- 
 ety ; " God grant that he may yet live 
 long ! for the Romish sycophan tsleave 
 no stone unturned for his destruction. 
 Pray for the preservation of the intrepid 
 vindicator of sacred learning."f 
 
 These prayers were heard. The 
 warnings which the Elector had ad- 
 dressed to Rome through the medium 
 of his representative were not without 
 foundation. The preaching of Luther 
 had resounded far and wide ; in cottages, 
 in convents, in the houses of the citizens, 
 in the castles of the nobles, in the 
 academies, and in the palaces of kings. 
 " Let my life," he had said to Duke 
 John of Saxony, " be found to bear fruit 
 only in the conversion of one man, and 
 I shall willingly consent that all my 
 books should perish."| It was not a sin- 
 gle individual, it was a great multitude, 
 that had discovered light in the wri- 
 tings of the humble doctor. Accord- 
 ingly, every where men were found 
 ready to protect him. The sword, in- 
 tended for his destruction, was being 
 forged in the Vatican ; but heroes were 
 arising in Germany who would defend 
 him at hazard of their own lives. At 
 the moment when the bishops were cha- 
 fing with anger, when the princes kept 
 silence, when the people were in expec- 
 tation, and the thunders were already 
 rolling above the seven hills, God stirred 
 up the German nobility to form a bul- 
 wark for his servant. 
 
 Sylvester of Schaumburg, one of the 
 most powerful knights of Franconia, at 
 this juncture sent his son to Wittemberg 
 with a letter for the Reformer. " Your 
 life is in danger," wrote Schaumburg. 
 " If the assistance of the electors, of the 
 princes, or of the magistrates should fail 
 you, beware, I entreat you, of seeking 
 refuge in Bohemia, where learned men 
 have formerly had so much to endure ; 
 come rather to me. I shall soon, God 
 willing, have collected above a hundred 
 gentlemen, and with their help I shall be 
 able to preserve you from all peril." § 
 
 * Emori mallim, quam ab hoc viro avelli. — 
 (Corpus Reform, i. 160, 163.) 
 
 + Martinus noster spirat, atque utinam diu. 
 . . .—(Ibid. 190, 208.) 
 
 t L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 392. 
 
 § Denu Ich, und hundert von Adel, die Ich 
 
 Francis of Sickingen, that hero of his 
 age, whose intrepid courage we have al- 
 ready seen,* loved the Reformer, both 
 because he thought him worthy to be 
 loved, and also because he was hated by 
 the monks.f "My services, my pos- 
 sessions, and my person, in short every 
 thing which I have," he wrote, " is at 
 your disposal. You are resolved to stand 
 up for the truth of the Gospel. I am 
 ready to lend my aid in that work.";}: 
 Harmuth of Cronberg held the same 
 language. Lastly, Ulric of Hiitten, the 
 poet and valiant knight of the sixteenth 
 century, took every occasion to speak out 
 in favour of Luther. But what a con- 
 trast between these two men! Hiitten 
 wrote to the Reformer : " We want swords, 
 bows, javelins, and bombs, in order to re- 
 pel the fury of the devil." Luther on 
 receiving these letters exclaimed, " I will 
 not resort to arms and bloodshed for the 
 defence of the Gospel. It is by the 
 preaching of the Word that the world 
 has been conquered ; by the Word the 
 Church has been saved ; by the Word, 
 also, it will be restored." " I do not de- 
 spise his offer," said he again on receiving 
 the letter of Schaumburg which we have 
 mentioned, " but I will depend on none 
 but Christ alone. "§ Not thus had Ro- 
 man Pontiffs spoken when they waded 
 in the blood of the Waldenses and Albi- 
 genses. Hiitten was conscious of the 
 difference between Luther's object and 
 his own ; and accordingly wrote thus 
 nobly to him on the subject : " My 
 thoughts are running on earthly aims, 
 while you contemning such things, are 
 devoted to the things of God alone ;"|| 
 and forthwith he set out to endeavour, if 
 possible, to gain over to the cause of truth 
 Ferdinand and Charles V."ft 
 
 Thus at one moment the enemies of 
 Luther overwhelmed him, and at anoth- 
 er his friends arise in his defence. u My 
 
 (ob Gott will) aufbrinfiren will, euch redlich an- 
 halten . . .—(Ibid. 381.) 
 
 * " Equitum Germaniae rarum decus," says 
 Melancthon on the occasion. — (Corp. Reform, i. 
 201.) 
 
 t Et ob id invisus illis.— (Ibid. 132.) 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 § Nolo nisi Christo protectore niti. — (L. Epp. 
 i. 148.) 
 
 || Mea humana sunt : tu perfection jam totua 
 ex divinis pendes. — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 175.) 
 
 IT Viam facturus libertati (cod. Bavar. veritati) 
 per maximos principes. — (Corp. Ref. i. 201.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 229 
 
 bark," says he, " is driven at the mercy 
 of the winds, — fear and hope alternately 
 prevail ; but what does it signify ?"* 
 Nevertheless the testimonies of sympathy 
 which he received were not without 
 their effect upon his mind. " The Lord 
 reigns," he said ; " I see His hand pal- 
 pably present."! Luther felt that he no 
 longer stood alone ; his words had borne 
 fruit, — and this thought inspired him 
 with fresh courage. The fear of com- 
 promising the interest of the Elector 
 could no longer keep him in check, 
 now that he felt that he had other de- 
 fenders prepared to brave the anger of 
 Rome. He became consequently more 
 free, and, if possible, more resolute. 
 This is an important epoch in the de- 
 velopment of Luther's character. " It is 
 right that Rome should understand," 
 wrote he at this time to the chaplain of 
 the Elector, " that although she should 
 succeed in obtaining by her threats my 
 expulsion from Wittemberg, she would 
 only injure her own cause. Not in Bo- 
 hemia, but in the heart of Germany, are 
 those who are ready to defend me 
 against the thunders of Papacy. If I 
 have not yet brought to bear upon my 
 adversaries all that I am preparing for 
 them, it is neither to my moderation nor 
 to the weight of their tyranny that they 
 are to attribute my forbearance, but to 
 the name of the Elector and to the in- 
 terests of the University of Wittemberg, 
 which I feared to compromise ; now that 
 such fears are dissipated I am about to 
 redouble my efforts against Rome and 
 her courtiers.";}: 
 
 s Yet it was not so much on the great 
 the Reformer relied. He had been of- 
 ten urged to dedicate one of his books to 
 Duke John, brother of the Elector, but 
 had abstained from doing so. " I fear," 
 he had said, " lest this suggestion may 
 proceed from himself. The Holy Scrip- 
 tures ought not to minister to the glo- 
 ry of any other name but that of God."§ 
 Luther now shook off these fears, and 
 dedicated to Duke John his discourse on 
 
 * Ita fluctuat navis mea ; nunc spes, nunc 
 timor regnat. — (L. Epp. i. 443.) 
 
 t Dominus regnat, ut palpare possimus. — (Ibid. 
 451.) 
 
 X Ssevius in Romaneses grassaturus . . . — (L. 
 •Epp. i. 465.) 
 
 4 Scriptarum sacram nolim alicujus nomini 
 nisi Dei servire. — (lb. 431.) 
 
 Good Works. Of all his writings, this 
 is one in which the Reformer most 
 powerfully opens the doctrine of justifica- 
 tion by faith, that great truth, whose 
 power he estimates far above the sword 
 of Hutten, the armed bands of Sickingen, 
 or the favour of dukes or electors. 
 
 " The first, the noblest, and the great- 
 est of all Avorks," says he, " is faith in 
 Jesus Christ.* From this work all oth- 
 ers must flow. They are all but the vas- 
 sals of faith, and receive from it alone all 
 their efficacy." 
 
 " If a man but feel in his heart the 
 assurance that what he does is acceptable 
 to God, his action is good though he 
 should but raise a straw from the earth ; 
 but if he has not this confidence his 
 action is not a good work, even though 
 he should raise the dead to life. A 
 Heathen, a Jew, a Turk, a sinner, may 
 do all other works ; but to put one's trust 
 in God, and have assurance that we are 
 accepted by him, is what none but the 
 Christian standing in grace is capable of 
 doing." f 
 
 " A Christian who has faith in God, 
 does all with liberty and joy : while that 
 man who is not at one with God, is full 
 of cares and under bondage ; he enquires 
 anxiously what amount of good works is 
 required of him ; he turns to ask of this 
 man or another, finding no rest for his 
 soul, and doing every thing with fear and 
 dissatisfaction." 
 
 " Therefore it is that I have ever held 
 up the necessity of Faith. But in the 
 world around me it is otherwise. There 
 the essential thing is represented to be 
 the having many works, works of high 
 fame and of all degrees, without regard- 
 ing whether they are done in faith. 
 Thus they build up their peace, not on 
 the good pleasure of God, but on their 
 own merits, or in other words, on the 
 sand." (Matt. vii. 26.) 
 
 " It said that to preach faith, is to dis- 
 courage good works ; but though a man 
 should have in himself the combined 
 strength of all his race, or even of all 
 created beings, this one duty of the life 
 
 * Das erste und hochste, alleredelste — gute 
 Werck ist der Glaube in Christum. . . . — (L. 
 Opp. (L.) xvii. 394.) 
 
 t Wenn ein Mensch tausend, oder alle Men- 
 schen, oder alle Creaturen ware. — (L. Opp. (L.) 
 368.) 
 
230 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 of faith would be a task too great to be 
 ever performed. If I say to a sick man : 
 ' resume your health, and you will have 
 the use of your limbs,' can it be said 
 that I forbid him to use his limbs 1 
 Must not health precede labour? It is 
 the same when we preach faith : faith 
 must go before works, in Older to good 
 works." 
 
 " Where then, you will say, is this 
 faith to be found, and how is it to be re- 
 ceived 1 Truly, this is what most con- 
 cerns us to know. Faith comes from 
 Jesus Christ alone, promised and given 
 freely." 
 
 " O man ! consider Christ, and see in 
 him how God displays his mercy to- 
 wards thee without any worthiness of 
 thine going before.* Draw from this 
 discovery of His grace the belief and 
 assurance that all thy sins are forgiven 
 thee. Works never could produce this 
 faith. It flows in the blood, — from the 
 wounds and death of Christ. It springs 
 up, from that source, to rejoice our 
 hearts. Christ is the rock whence flow 
 our milk and honey." (Deut. xxxii.) 
 
 Not being: able to notice all the works 
 of Luther, we here quote some short ex- 
 tracts from this discourse on Good Works, 
 on account of the Reformer's own opin- 
 ion of it. " In my opinion," said he, "it 
 is the best of my published writings," 
 and he immediately adds this deep re- 
 flection : " But I know that when I please 
 myself with what I write, the infection of 
 that bad leaven hinders it from pleasing 
 others."! Melancthon, in transmitting 
 this discourse to a friend, accompanied it 
 with these words : " No one among all 
 the Greek and Latin writers has come 
 nearer to the spirit of St. Paul than Lu- 
 ther."} 
 
 But besides the substitution of a scheme 
 of merits in place of the grand truth of 
 grace and amnesty, another evil had 
 grown up in the Church. A haughty 
 power had arisen in the midst of the 
 
 * Siehe, also musst du Christum in dich bil- 
 den, und sehen wie in Ihm Gott — seine Barm- 
 herzigkeit dir fiirhalt und darbeut. — (L. Opp. (L.) 
 398.) 
 
 t Erit, meo judicio, omnium quae ediderim op- 
 timum : quanquam scio qua? mihi mea placent, hoc 
 ipso fermento infecta, non solera aliis placere. — 
 (L. Epp. i. 431.) 
 
 t Quo ad Pauli spiritum nemo proprius accessit. 
 —(Corp. Ref. i. 202.) 
 
 humble shepherds of Christ's flock. Lu- 
 ther resolved to attack this usurped au- 
 thority. In the midst of all his troubles, 
 he had privately studied the rise, prog- 
 ress, and usurpations of the Papacy. 
 The discoveries he had made had filled 
 him with amazement. He no longer 
 hesitated to make them known, and to 
 strike the blow which, like the rod of 
 Moses in old time, was to awaken a peo- 
 ple that had long slumbered in bondage. 
 Even before Rome could find time to 
 publish her formidable bull, he himself 
 hurled against her a declaration of war. 
 " The ' time to be silent' is past," he ex- 
 claims : " the ' time to speak' is arrived." 
 On the 23rd of June, 1520, he published 
 the celebrated Appeal to his Imperial Ma- 
 jesty and the Christian nobility of the 
 German nation, concerning the Reforma- 
 tion of Christianity* 
 
 " It is not rashly and without consid- 
 eration," said he, in the commencement 
 of this appeal, " that I, a man of the 
 common people, take upon myself to ad- 
 dress your highnesses. The misery and 
 oppression which at this hour weigh 
 down all Christian states, and more es- 
 pecially Germany, wring from me a cry 
 of distress. I find myself compelled to 
 call for help ; I must see if God will not 
 give his Spirit to some one or other of 
 our countrymen, and thus stretch forth 
 his hand to save our wretched nation. 
 God has placed over us a young and 
 generous prince (the Emperor Charles 
 V..f) and has thus filled our hearts with 
 high hopes. But we ourselves must, on 
 our parts, do all that is possible for us 
 to do. 
 
 " Now, it is of the very first necessity, 
 that we do not at all rely upon our own 
 strength, or our own wisdom. If we be- 
 gin even a good work with confidence in 
 ourselves, God overturns and destroys it. 
 Frederic I., Frederic II., and many other 
 emperors besides, before whom the world 
 stood in awe, have been trampled under 
 foot by the Popes, because they trusted in 
 their own strength rather than in God. 
 Therefore they could not succeed. It is 
 against the power of hell that, we have 
 to contend in this struggle. We must 
 set about the work, hoping nothing from 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 447*to 502. 
 t Gott hat uns ein junges edles Blut zum 
 Haupt gegeben. — (Ibid. 457.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 231 
 
 the strength of our own arms, and de- 
 pending humbly on the Lord ; looking 
 to the present distress of Christians, in- 
 stead of dwelling on the acts of evil doers. 
 Take but another course, and though the 
 work may 'seem to prosper for a while, 
 all of a sudden, in the very height of the 
 struggle, confusion will come in, evil men 
 will cause boundless disasters, and the 
 world will be deluged with blood. The 
 greater our power, the greater our dan- 
 ger if we walk not in the fear of the 
 Lord." 
 
 After this exordium, Luther continued 
 as follows : 
 
 " The Romanists have raised three bar- 
 riers against all reformation. When the 
 temporal power has attacked them, they 
 have denied its authority, and asserted 
 that the spiritual power was superior to 
 it. When any one rebuked them out of 
 the Scripture, they have answered that 
 no one, but the Pope, was able to inter- 
 terpret Scripture. When they have been 
 threatened with a council, the reply has 
 been, no one but the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 has authority to convoke a council." 
 
 " They have thus wrested from our 
 hands the three rods destined to correct 
 them, and have given the rein to all evil. 
 But now, God help us, and give us one 
 of those trumpets which overthrew the 
 walls of Jericho ! With the breath of our 
 lips, let us throw down the paper walls, 
 which the Romanists have built around 
 them, and lift up the scourges which pun- 
 ish the wicked, by exposing the wiles 
 and stratagems of the devil." 
 
 Luther then begins the assault. He 
 shakes to its very foundation that papal 
 monarchy which had for centuries past 
 banded together the nations of the West 
 under the sceptre of the Roman bishop. 
 That there is no such thing as a priestly 
 caste, is the truth, hidden from the church 
 even from its first ages, which he power- 
 fully sets forth at the outset : 
 
 " It has been said, that the pope, the 
 bishops, the priests, and those who dwell 
 in the convents, form the spiritual or ec- 
 clesiastical state ; and that the princes, 
 nobles, citizens, and peasants, form the 
 secular state or laity. This is a fine sto- 
 ry, truly. Let no one, however, be 
 alarmed by it. All Christians belong to 
 the spiritual state ; and there is no other 
 difference between them, than that of 
 
 the functions which they discharge. We 
 have all one baptism, one faith, and it is 
 this which constitutes the spiritual man. 
 The unction, the tonsure, ordination, con- 
 secration by the bishop or the pope, may 
 make an hypocrite, but never a spir- 
 itual man. We are all alike conse- 
 crated priests by baptism, as St. Peter 
 says : ' Ye are priests and kings ;' 
 although it does not belong to all to ex- 
 ercise such offices, for none can take to 
 himself that which is common to all, 
 without the consent of the communi- 
 ty. But if Ave were without this 
 consecration from God, the Pope's unc- 
 tion could never constitute a priest. 
 If a king had ten sons of equal claim, 
 to the inheritance, and they should 
 choose one of their number to act for 
 them, they would all be kings, though 
 only one of them would administer their 
 common power. The case is the same 
 with the Church. If any pious laymen 
 were banished to a desert, and, having 
 no regularly consecrated priest among 
 them, were to agree to choose for that of- 
 fice one of their number, married or un- 
 married, this man would be as truly a 
 priest as if he had been consecrated by 
 all the bishops in the world. Augustine, 
 Ambrose, and Cyprian were chosen in 
 this manner. 
 
 " Hence it follows that laity and priests, 
 princes and bishops, or, as they say, the 
 clergy and the laity, have in reality noth- 
 ing to distinguish them, but their func- 
 tions. They all belong to the same es- 
 tate ; but all have not the same work to 
 perform. 
 
 " If this be true, why should not the 
 magistrate chastise the clergy 1 the secu- 
 lar power has been ordained by God for 
 the punishment of evil-doers, and the 
 praise of those who do well. And free 
 scope should be allowed for it to act 
 throughout Christendom ; let it touch 
 whom it may, pope, bishops, priests, 
 monks, nuns, or any others. St. Paul 
 says to all Christians : Let every soul* 
 (consequently the Pope also) be subject to 
 the higher powers, for they bear not the 
 sword in vainP 
 
 Having in like manner overturned 
 
 "the other barriers," Luther passed in 
 
 review the corruptions of Rome. He 
 
 displayed in a popular style of eloquence, 
 
 * Hdoa ipvxi- — Rom. xii. 1, 4. 
 
232 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the evils that had been felt and acknowl- 
 edged for centuries. Never had a more 
 noble protest been heard. The great as- 
 sembly before whom Luther spoke was 
 the Church ; the power whose corrup- 
 tions he attacked was that papal power 
 which had for ages weighed heavily 
 upon all nations ; and the reformation he 
 so loudly called for was destined to exert 
 its powerful influence over all Christian 
 nations throughout the world, and to last 
 as long as man shall exist upon the 
 earth. 
 
 He commenced with the Pope. " It 
 is monstrous," he says, " to. see him who 
 is called the vicar of Christ, displaying 
 a magnificence unrivalled by that of any 
 Emperor. Is this to resemble the poor 
 and lowly Jesus, or the humble St. Pe- 
 ter ? The Pope, say they, is the lord of 
 the world! But Christ, whose vicar he 
 boasts himself to be, said : My kingdom 
 is not of this world. Ought the power 
 of the vicar to go beyond that of his 
 Lord?" 
 
 Luther next proceeded to describe 
 the effects of papal sway. " Do you 
 know what end the Cardinals serve ? I 
 will tell you. Italy and Germany have 
 many convents, religious foundations, and 
 benefices, richly endowed. By what 
 machinery can this wealth be drawn to 
 Rome ? — Cardinals have been created ; 
 to them these cloisters and prelacies have 
 been given ; and at this moment — Italy 
 is almost deserted, the convents are de- 
 stroyed, the bishoprics devoured, the_ 
 towns falling to decay, the inhabitants" 
 demoralized, religious worship expiring, 
 and preaching abolished ! And why is 
 all this ? Because, forsooth, all the wealth 
 of the churches must go to Rome. The 
 Turk himself would never have so ruined 
 Italy." 
 
 Luther then turned to his native 
 country. 
 
 " And now that they have sucked the 
 blood of their own nation, they come to 
 Germany ; they begin softly ; but let us 
 be on our guard ! or Germany will soon 
 be like Italy. We have already some 
 Cardinals here and there. Before the 
 dull-minded Germans comprehend our 
 design, think they, they will have nei- 
 ther bishopric, convent, benefice, nor so 
 much as one penny left. Antichrist 
 must possess the treasure of the earth. 
 
 Thirty or forty Cardinals will be created 
 in a day : to one will be given Bamberg, 
 to another the bishopric of Wurzburg ; 
 to these will be attached rich benefices, 
 until the churches and the cities are left 
 desolate. And then the Pope will say, 
 I am the vicar of Christ, and shepherd 
 of his flocks. Let the Germans submit 
 to my authority !" 
 
 The indignation of Luther kindled as 
 he proceeded. 
 
 " What ! shall we Germans endure 
 these robberies and extortions of the 
 Pope ? If the kingdom of France has 
 been able to defend itself from them, why 
 should we suffer ourselves to be thus rid- 
 iculed and laughed at ? And oh ! would 
 that they robbed us only of our goods : 
 but they also lay waste the churches: 
 they fleece the sheep of Christ ; abolish 
 the worship, and silence the word of 
 God." 
 
 Luther exposed the " Romish practice" 
 of gradually abstracting the wealth and 
 the revenues of Germany. Annats, palls, 
 commendams, administrations, expective 
 graces, reversions, incorporations, reserves, 
 &c, all pass before him ; "let us," says 
 he, " endeavour to put a stop to so much 
 wretchedness and desolation. If we want 
 to march against the Turks, let us begin 
 with those Turks who are the worst of 
 all. If we hang thieves and cut off the 
 heads of brigands, let us not suffer the 
 avarice of Rome to escape, which is the 
 greatest of all robbers and thieves ; and 
 that too in the name of St. Peter and of 
 Jesus Christ ! Who can tolerate this ? 
 Who can keep silence ? Has not all 
 that the Pope possesses been obtained by 
 robbery? for he has neither purchased 
 it, nor inherited it from St. Peter, nor 
 gained it by his labours. Whence then 
 does it all come ? — " 
 
 The Reformer proposes remedies for 
 all these evils. He calls energetically 
 upon the German nobility, to put an end 
 to these depredations on the part of Rome. 
 Coming then to the Pope himself, " Is it 
 not ridiculous," he exclaimed, " that the 
 Pope should pretend to be the lawful 
 heir of the Empire ? who gave it to him ? 
 Was it Christ, when he said : ' The kings 
 of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them ; 
 but it shall not be so with yon V (Luke 
 xxii. 25, 26.) How is it possible to gov- 
 ern an empire, and at the same time to 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 233 
 
 preach, pray, study, and have care for 
 the poor 1 Christ forbade the twelve to 
 carry with them either gold or two coats, 
 because the duties of the ministry cannot 
 be discharged, unless there is a freedom 
 from all other care ; and the Pope would 
 at the same time govern the Empire, and 
 remain Pope !" 
 
 Luther went on to strip the Pontiff of 
 his spoils : " Let the Pope renounce all 
 pretensions to the kingdom of Naples 
 and Sicily. He has no more right to it 
 than I have. It is without any just 
 claim, and inconsistent with the direc- 
 tions of Christ, that he holds possession 
 of Bologna, Imola, Ravenna, Romagna, 
 the Marches of Ancona, &c. l No man 
 that warreth] says St. Paul, ' entangleth 
 himself with the affairs of this life.' 1 (2 Tim. 
 ii. 4.) And the Pope, who claims to be 
 chief of the Church militant, entangles 
 himself more with the things of this life, 
 than any emperor or king. We must 
 relieve him from all this burden. Let 
 the emperor put into the hands of the 
 Pope the Bible and mass-book, in order 
 that his holiness may leave government 
 for kings, and keep to preaching and 
 praying."* 
 
 He was quite as earnest against the 
 Pope's ecclesiastical authority in Ger- 
 many, as against his temporal power in 
 Italy. " As a first step," says he, " it be- 
 hoves us to expel from all the German 
 States the Pope's legates, and the pre- 
 tended benefits which they sell us at their 
 weight in gold, and which are mere im- 
 postures. They take our money, and 
 for what ? for legalizing ill-gotten gains 
 — for dissolving the sacredness of oaths — 
 for teaching us to break faith — for in- 
 structing us in sin, and leading us di- 
 rectly to hell. Hear this — O Pope ! not 
 ' most holy' — but most sinning ! May 
 God, from his throne on high, hurl thy 
 throne ere long to the bottomless pit !" 
 
 The Christian tribune proceeded. 
 Having summoned the Pope to his baf, 
 he cited before him all the corruptions 
 which followed in the train of the Papa- 
 cy, and began to sweep from the floor of 
 the Church, the rubbish that encumbered 
 it. He commenced with the monks : 
 
 * Ihm die Biblien und Betbiicher dafiir anzei- 
 gen — und er predige und bete. — (L. Opp. xvii. 
 
 472.) 
 
 " Now then I come to that slothful 
 crew who promise much but do little. 
 Bear with me, my friends, I mean you 
 well ; what I have to say to you is a 
 truth both sweet and bitter — it is that no 
 more cloisters must be built for mendicant 
 friars. God knows we have enough al- 
 ready, and would to heaven they were 
 all levelled with the ground ! Vaga- 
 bonding through a country never has 
 done, and never can do good." 
 
 The marriage of ecclesiastics comes 
 next. It was the first time that Luther 
 had spoken on that subject : 
 
 " To what a condition is the clergy 
 fallen, and how many priests do we find 
 burdened with women, and children, and 
 their bitter remorse, while no one comes 
 to their aid ! It may suit the Pope and 
 the bishops to let things go on as they 
 list, and that which is lost continue lost : 
 be it so. But for my part, I will deliver 
 my conscience. I will open my mouth 
 freely : let pope, bishop, or who ever will, 
 take offence at it ! I say then, that ac- 
 cording to the appointment of Christ and 
 his apostles, every town should have a 
 pastor, or bishop, and that this pastor may 
 have one wife, as St. Paul writes to Tim- 
 othy : ' Let the bishop be the husband of 
 one wife,' (Tim. iii. 2), and as is still the 
 practice in the Greek church. But the 
 devil has persuaded the Pope, as St. Paul 
 tells Timothy (1 Tim. iv. 1—3), 'to for- 
 bid' the clergy 'to marry.' And hence 
 miseries innumerable. What is to be 
 done 1 What resource for so many pas- 
 tors, irreproachable in every thing, ex- 
 cept, that fhey live in secret commerce 
 with a woman to whom they would, 
 with all their heart, be joined in wed- 
 lock? Ah! let them set their con- 
 sciences at rest ! let them take this wo- 
 man for their lawful wife, let them live 
 virtuously with her, without troubling 
 themselves whether it please the pope or 
 not. The salvation of the soul is of more 
 consequence than tyrannous and arbitrary 
 laws, which come not from the Lord." 
 
 It is in this way that the Reformation 
 sought to restore purity of morals in the 
 Church. The Reformer continued : 
 
 " Let festivals be abolished, and none 
 observed but Sunday : or if it is wished 
 to keep the great Christian festivals, let 
 them be celebrated only in the morning, 
 and the rest of the day be regarded as a 
 
234 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 working-day. For since people do no- 
 thing on feast-days but drink, play, run 
 into vice, or waste their time in idleness, 
 there is much more offence to God on 
 these days than on others." 
 
 He then turns to the dedication of 
 churches, which he designates mere tav- 
 erns ; and next notices the customary 
 fasts and the different religious fraterni- 
 ties. — He insists not only against the 
 abuses of these things, but aims to put 
 an end to schisms. " It is time," he says, 
 " that we should take a serious interest 
 in the affair of the Bohemians; that we 
 should lay aside hatred and envy, and 
 unite with them." He proposes some 
 excellent measures of conciliation, and 
 adds : " It is thus that we ought to con- 
 vince heretics by Scripture, following in 
 this the example of the early fathers, and 
 not exterminate them by fire. According 
 to the contrary course, the executioners 
 would be the best teachers in the world. 
 Oh ! would to God that on both sides 
 we would stretch out the right hand of 
 brotherly humility, instead of erecting 
 ourselves in the opinion of our strength 
 of argument and right. Charity is more 
 needed than the Roman Papacy. I have 
 done all in my power. If the Pope and 
 his adherents offer opposition, on their 
 own heads must rest the responsibility. 
 The Pope ought to be willing to surren- 
 der every thing — authority, wealth, and 
 honour — if by so doing he could save one 
 soul. But he would rather see the whole 
 universe perish, than yield a hair's-breadth 
 of the power he has usurped ! I am clear 
 of these things."* 
 
 After this, Luther turns to the univer- 
 sities and schools : 
 
 " I fear much," he says, " that the uni- 
 versities will be found to be great gates 
 leading down to hell, unless they take 
 diligent care to explain the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and to engrave them in the hearts 
 of our youth. I would not advise any 
 one to place his child where the Holy 
 Scriptures are not regarded as the rule 
 of life. Every institution where God's 
 word is not diligently studied, must be- 
 come corrupt."! Weighty words ! which 
 
 * Nun liess er ehe die Welt untergehen, ehe 
 er ein Haar-breit seiner vermessenen Gewalt 
 liese abbrechen. — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 483.) 
 
 t Es muss verderben, alles was nicht Gottes 
 Wort ohn Unterlass treibt.— (Ibid. 486.) 
 
 governments, fathers, and the learned in 
 all ages, would do well to consider. 
 
 Towards the close of his appeal, he 
 reverts to the Empire and the Emperor : 
 
 " The Pope," he says, " not being able 
 to manage the ancient masters of the 
 Roman empire, bethought himself of the 
 plan of appropriating their title and em- 
 pire, and then giving them to us Ger- 
 mans. Thus it has happened that we 
 have become vassals of the Pope. The 
 Pope took possession of Rome, extorting 
 from the Emperor an oath not to reside 
 there ; and hence it is that the Emperor 
 is Emperor of Rome, without Rome ! 
 We have the name, and the Pope the 
 country and its cities. We have the 
 title and arms of the Empire : the Pope 
 monopolizes its treasure, power, privi- 
 leges, and liberties. He devours the 
 kernel, and we are put off with the shell. 
 It is thus that the pride and tyranny of 
 Rome has at all times abused our sim- 
 plicity." 
 
 " But may God, who has given us 
 such an empire, now stand by us ! Let 
 us act worthily of our name, our title, 
 and our arms ; let us preserve our liber- 
 ty ! and let the Romans learn what it is 
 that God has given us by their hands. 
 They boast of having given us an em- 
 pire. Well, then, let us take it, for it is 
 ours. Let the Pope abandon Rome, and 
 all he holds possession of in the Empire. 
 Let him cease his taxes and extortions ! 
 Let him restore to us our liberty, our 
 power, our property, our honour, our 
 souls and bodies ! Let the Empire be 
 what an empire ought to be, and let the 
 sword of princes no longer be lowered 
 before the hypocritical pretensions of a 
 Pope !" 
 
 There is a lofty reason in these words, 
 besides their force and persuasion. Did 
 ever, before, any orator make such an 
 appeal to the whole nobility of the em- 
 pire, and the Emperor himself? Far 
 from wondering that so many of the 
 German States separated themselves from 
 Rome, ought we not rather to be aston- 
 ished that all Germany did not rise en 
 masse and retake from Rome that impe- 
 rial power which the Popes had with so 
 much effrontery usurped 1 
 
 Luther terminates this bold harangue 
 with these words : 
 
 " I car* easily believe that I may have 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 235 
 
 held too high a tone, that I may have 
 proposed many things which will ap- 
 pear impossible, and attacked many er- 
 rors with too much vehemence. But 
 what can I do ? Let the world be of- 
 fended rather than God ! They can but 
 take my life. Again and again I have 
 offered peace to my adversaries. But 
 God has, by their own instruments, com- 
 pelled me continually to uplift a louder 
 and a louder voice against them. I have 
 one indictment in reserve against Rome. 
 If their ears itch to know what it is, I 
 will utter it aloud. Dost thou not know, 
 
 Rome ! dost thou not know well what 
 
 1 mean 1 . . ." 
 
 Allusion is probably made here to a 
 tract on Popery which Luther intended 
 to give to the world, but which has not 
 been published. The prior Burkhard 
 wrote at the time to Spengler ; " There 
 is also a little book de execrandd venere 
 Romanorum ; but it is kept back." The 
 title indicated the probability that it would 
 afford great occasion of scandal. There 
 is reason to rejoice that Luther had the 
 moderation not to publish this work. 
 
 " If my cause is just," continued he, 
 " it will be its lot to be condemned on 
 earth, and espoused only by Christ in 
 heaven. Let them come on then, popes, 
 bishops, priests, monks, and doctors ! let 
 them bring forth all their zeal, and let 
 loose all their rage ! Verily, it is their 
 part to persecute the truth, as every age 
 has witnessed." 
 
 But where did this monk acquire so 
 clear a perception of public affairs, which 
 the States of the Empire themselves often 
 found it difficult to estimate correctly? 
 What could embolden this obscure Ger- 
 man to stand up in the midst of his own 
 long-enslaved nation, and to strike such 
 mighty blows against the papal authori- 
 ty? What is this mysterious strength 
 which inspires him ? May we not an- 
 swer that he had heard these words of 
 God, addressed to one of the holy men 
 of old : " Behold, I have made thy face 
 strong against their faces; as an ada- 
 mant, harder than flint, have I made thy 
 forehead : fear them not." 
 
 Addressed to the German Nobility, 
 Luther's appeal soon reached all those 
 for whom it had been written. It spread 
 through Germany with wonderful rapidi- 
 ty. His friends trembled ; Staupitz and 
 
 those who preferred a moderate course 
 thought the blow too severe. " In these 
 days," answered Luther, "whatever is 
 quietly mooted, falls into oblivion, and 
 no one troubles himself about it."* At 
 the same time, he evinced perfect sim- 
 plicity and humility. He had no con- 
 ception of the prominent part he was to 
 perform. " I know not what to say of 
 myself," he wrote ; " perhaps I am the 
 precursor of Philip, (Melancthon.) and, 
 like Elias, am preparing the way for him 
 in spirit and in power. And it is he who 
 will one day trouble Israel, and the house 
 of Ahab."f 
 
 But there was no need to wait for an- 
 other than him who had already ap- 
 peared. The house of Ahab was already 
 shaken. The Appeal to the German No- 
 bility had appeared on the 26th of June, 
 1520; and in a short time 4000 copies 
 were sold, — an extraordinary number for 
 that period. The astonishment was uni- 
 versal. This writing produced a power- 
 ful sensation among all the people. The 
 force, the spirit, the clearness, and the 
 noble daring which reigned throughout 
 it, rendered it a most popular tract. In 
 short, it was felt by the common people 
 as proceeding from one who loved them. 
 The hesitating views of very many wise 
 men were clearly brought out and the 
 usurpations of Rome were made evident 
 to the minds of all. No one at Wittem- 
 berg any longer doubted that the Pope 
 was Antichrist. Even the Elector's 
 court, so circumspect and timid, mani- 
 fested no disapprobation, and seemed to 
 wait the result. But the nobility and the 
 people did not wait. The whole nation 
 was roused ; the voice of Luther had 
 deeply moved it ; henceforth it was 
 gained over, and rallied round the stand- 
 ard that he raised. Nothing could have 
 been more favourable to the Reformer 
 than this publication. In palaces, in the 
 castles of the nobles, in the citizens' 
 dwellings, and even in the cottages of 
 the peasantry, all were now prepared, 
 and as though cased in steel, against the 
 sentence of condemnation which was 
 about to fall upon this prophet of the peo- 
 ple. All Germany was in a flame ; and 
 whenever the Pope's bull might come, 
 
 * Quae nostro saeculo quiete tractantur, mex 
 cad ere in oblivionem. — (L. Epp. i. 479.) 
 t Ibid. 
 
236 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 it would not avail to extinguish the con- 
 flagration. 
 
 At Rome every thing was ready for 
 the condemnation of the defender of the 
 Church's liberties. That Church had 
 long lived in profound security. For 
 many years the monks of Rome had ac- 
 cused Leo X. of caring for nothing but 
 luxury and pleasure, and wasting time in 
 hunting, plays, and music,* while the 
 Church was nodding to its ruin. Now, 
 at length aroused by the clamours of 
 Eck, — who had come from Leipsic to 
 invoke the power of the Vatican, — the 
 Pope, the cardinals, the monks, and all 
 Rome were awake to the sense of dan- 
 ger and intent on saving the Papacy. 
 
 In fact, Rome was brought into the 
 necessity of having recourse to measures 
 of stern severity. The gauntlet was 
 thrown down ; the combat must be to 
 the death. — It was not the abuses of the 
 Pontiff's authority itself — that Luther 
 had attacked. At his bidding, the Pope 
 was required to descend meekly from his 
 throne, and become again a simple pastor 
 or bishop on the banks of the Tiber. All 
 the dignitaries of the Roman hierarchy 
 were required to renounce their riches 
 and worldly glory, and again become 
 the elders and deacons of the churches 
 of Italy. All that splendour and power, 
 which had for centuries dazzled the West, 
 was to vanish away and give place to the 
 humble simplicity of worship of the first 
 Christians. Doubtless God could have 
 wrought these changes, and He will do 
 so in his own time ; but they could not 
 be looked for from man. And even if a 
 people had been found so disinterested 
 and courageous as to be willing to over- 
 turn the ancient and costly edifice of the 
 Roman Church, thousands of priests and 
 bishops would have put forth their hands 
 to save it from its fall. The Pope had 
 received his power under the express 
 condition of defending the dominion con- 
 fided to him. Rome believed herself to 
 be set by God for the government of the 
 Church. We cannot, therefore, be sur- 
 prised that she stood prepared to hurl the 
 most terrible judgments. And yet for a 
 while she hesitated. Many cardinals, 
 and the Pope himself, had no wish to 
 
 * E sopra tutto musico eccellentissimo, e quan- 
 do el canta con qualche uno, H far donar cento e 
 pia ducati.— (Zorsi M. S. C.) 
 
 resort to severe measures. The states- 
 manlike Leo was well aware that a sen- 
 tence, the execution of which depended 
 on the rather doubtful consent of the civil 
 power, might seriously compromise the 
 authority of the Church. He saw be- 
 sides that the violent measures already 
 resorted to had but increased the evil. 
 Might not this Saxon monk be gained 
 over? asked the politicians of Rome. 
 Was it possible that the Church's power, 
 aided by Italian artifice, should fail to 
 accomplish its object? Negociation must 
 yet be tried. 
 
 Eck, therefore, found many difficulties 
 to contend with. He tried every expe- 
 dient ; labouring incessantly to prevent 
 any concessions to what he deemed here- 
 sy. In his daily walks through Rome 
 he loudly vaunted his anger, and called 
 for vengeance. He was quickly joined 
 by the fanatical party of the monks. 
 Emboldened by these allies, he besieged 
 the Pope and the cardinals with fresh 
 courage. According to him, any attempt 
 at conciliation was useless. Such efforts, 
 said he, are mere fancies and remote ex- 
 pectations. He knew the danger, for he 
 had wrestled with the audacious monk. 
 He saw the necessity for cutting off this 
 gangrened member, lest the disorder 
 should spread throughout the body. The 
 vehement disputer of Leipsic met and 
 removed objection after objection, and 
 with difficulty persuaded the Pope.* He 
 was resolved to save Rome in spite of 
 herself. He left no stone unturned. For 
 hours together he continued in close de- 
 liberation with the Pontiff f He excited 
 the court and the convents, the people 
 and the church. " Eck is moving against 
 me," says Luther, " the lowest depths of 
 hell ; he has set the forests of Lebanon 
 in a blaze."| At length he carried his 
 point. The politic counsellors were 
 overborne by the fanatics who were ad- 
 mitted to the papal councils. Leo gave 
 way. The condemnation of Luther was 
 determined on, and Eck began to breathe 
 freely. His pride was flattered by the 
 thought that he had decided the ruin of 
 
 * Sarpi Hist, du Concile de Trente. 
 
 + Stetimus nuper, papa, duo cardinales — et 
 ego per quinque horas in deliberatione . . . (Eckii 
 Epistola, 3 Maii. L. Opp. lat. ii. 48/> 
 
 t Impetraturus abyssos abyssorum — succen- 
 surus saltum Libani. — (L. Epp. i. 421, 429.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 237 
 
 his heretical rival, and thus saved the 
 Church. " It was well," said he, " that 
 I came at this time to Rome, for the er- 
 rors of Luther were but little known there. 
 It will one day be known how much I 
 have done in behalf of this cause."* 
 
 Thus did God send out a spirit of in- 
 fatuation upon the doctors of Rome. It 
 had become necessary that the separation 
 between truth and error should be effect- 
 ed, and it was error that was destined to 
 make the separation. Had matters been 
 brought to an accommodation, it could 
 only have been at the expense of truth ; 
 but to take away from truth the smallest 
 portion of itself is paving the way for its 
 utter loss and annihilation. In this re- 
 spect Truth resembles the insect which 
 is said to die if deprived of one of its 
 antennas. Truth requires to be entire 
 and perfect in all its members, in order 
 to the manifestation of that power by 
 which it is able to gain wide and,salutary 
 victories, and extend its triumphs to fu- 
 ture ages. Blending a little error with 
 truth, is like casting a grain of poison into 
 a full dish ; that grain suffices to change 
 the quality of the food, and death, slow 
 but certain, is the result. The defenders 
 of the doctrine of Christ, against the at- 
 tacks of its adversaries, guard its ad- 
 vanced outworks as jealously as the cita- 
 del itself; for the enemy once in posses- 
 sion of the least important of these posts, 
 is not far removed from conquest. The 
 Roman Pontiff, at the period we are 
 treating of, determined upon rending 
 asunder the Church, and the portion 
 which he has continued to hold, though 
 still magnificent, hides in vain, under 
 outward pomp and ceremony, the princi- 
 ple that is undermining its existence. 
 Where the word of God is, there only is 
 life. Luther, courageous as he was, 
 would probably have been silent if Rome 
 herself had kept silence, or shown any 
 desire to make concessions. But God 
 had not allowed the Reformation to be 
 dependant on the weakness of man's 
 heart ; Luther was in the hands of One 
 whose eye penetrated results. Divine 
 providence made use of the Pope to break 
 every link between the past and the 
 future, and to throw the Reformer into a 
 course altogether unknown, and leading 
 
 * Bonum fuit me venisse hoc tempore Ro- 
 mam. — (Epist. Eckii.) 
 
 he knew not whither. The Papal Bull 
 was Rome's bill of divorce addressed to 
 the pure Church of Jesus Christ in the 
 person of one who was then standing as 
 her humble but faithful representative ; 
 and the Church accepted it, that she 
 might thenceforward hold only from her 
 Head who is in heaven. 
 
 Whilst at Rome the condemnation of 
 Luther was sought for with violent ani- 
 mosity, a humble priest, an inhabitant of 
 one of the rude towns of Switzerland, 
 who never had any intercourse with the 
 Reformer, had been deeply affected at 
 the thought of the blow which hung over 
 him, and whilst even the intimates of the 
 doctor of Wittemberg were silent and 
 trembling, this Swiss mountaineer formed 
 the resolution to do his utmost to arrest 
 the dreaded bull ! His name was Ulric 
 Zwingle. William Des Faucons, sec- 
 retary to the Pope's Legate in Switzer- 
 land, and entrusted by the Legate with 
 his duties during his absence, was his 
 friend. " As long as I live," said the 
 Nuncio ad interim only a few days be- 
 fore, " you may rest assured of every 
 thing on my part that can be expected 
 from a true friend." The Swiss priest, 
 trusting to this assurance, repaired to the 
 office of the Roman Nuncio (so at least 
 we may conclude from one of his letters). 
 It was not for himself that he feared the 
 dangers into which faith brings the be- 
 liever ; he knew that a disciple of Christ 
 must be ever ready to lay down his life. 
 " All that I ask of Christ for myself," 
 said he to a friend to whom he at the 
 time unbosomed his anxiety respecting 
 Luther, " is that I may support the afflic- 
 tions which await me like a man. I am 
 a vessel of clay in his hands ; let him 
 break me in shivers, or strengthen me 
 as seems good to him."* But the Swiss 
 preacher dreaded the consequences to the 
 Church of so severe a blow struck at the 
 Reformer. He laboured to persuade the 
 representative of Rome to inform the Pope 
 on the matter, and to employ all the means 
 in his power to deter him from excom- 
 municating Luther. f " The dignity of 
 
 * Hoc unum Christum obtestans, ut masculo 
 omnia pectore ferre donet, et me figulimun suum 
 rumpat aut firmet, ut illi placitum sit. — (Zwinglii 
 Epistolae, curant. Schulero et Schulthessio, p. 
 144.) 
 
 t Ut pontificem admoneat, ne excommunica- 
 
238 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the holy see itself is concerned in it," 
 said he ; " for if things come to such a 
 pass, Germany, enthusiastically attached 
 to the Gospel and its teacher, will be sure 
 to treat the Pope and his anathemas with 
 contempt."* The effort was unavailing, 
 and it appears that, even at the time it 
 was made, the blow was already struck. 
 Such was the first occasion on which the 
 path of the Saxon doctor and that of the 
 Swiss priest were so ordered as to meet 
 together. We shall again find the latter 
 in the course of this history, and shall 
 behold him developing his character, and 
 growing by degrees to lofty stature in the 
 church of the Lord. 
 
 The condemnation of Luther once de- 
 termined on, new difficulties arose in the 
 bosom of the consistory. The divines 
 proposed to proceed immediately to ful- 
 minate the sentence ; the civilians, on 
 the contrary, desired to commence by a 
 citation. " Was not Adam," said they, 
 appealing to their colleagues, " cited 
 before he was condemned ? ' Adam, 
 where art thou?' said the Lord. In the 
 instance of Cain likewise : ' Where is 
 thy brother Abel?' asked the Eternal." 
 To these singular arguments drawn from 
 holy Writ, the canonists added conside- 
 rations derived from natural law. " Evi- 
 dence of a crime," they said, " cannot 
 take from any criminal the right of de- 
 fending himself against the charge."! It 
 is pleasing to trace such principles of 
 equity in a Romish synod. But these 
 scruples did not suit the theologians of 
 the assembly, who, carried away by pas- 
 sion, thought only of setting to work 
 quickly. It was finally arranged that 
 Luther's doctrine should be condemned 
 immediately, and that as to himself and 
 his adherents, a term of sixty days should 
 be granted them ; after which, if they 
 did not recant their opinions, they should 
 be all ipso facto excommunicated. De 
 Vio, who had returned from Germany 
 sick, had himself carried on his couch to 
 the assembly, unwilling to miss this petty 
 triumph, which afforded him some con- 
 solation, Though defeated at Augsburg, 
 
 tionem ferat. — (Zwinglii Epistola?, curant. Schu- 
 lero et Schulthessio, p. 144.) 
 
 * Nam si feratur, auguror Germanos cum ex- 
 communicatione pontificem quoque contemp- 
 turos. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Sarpi Hist, du Concile de Trente, i. 12. 
 
 he claimed to take part at Rome in con- 
 demning the unconquerable monk, whom 
 his learning, acuteness, and authority had 
 failed to humble. Luther was not there 
 to answer : hence the boldness of De Vio. 
 On the 15th of June the sacred college 
 agreed on the condemnation, and gave 
 their approbation to the celebrated bull. 
 
 "Arise, O Lord!" said the Roman 
 Pontiff, speaking at this solemn moment 
 as Vicar of God and Head of the Church, 
 " arise, and remember the reproaches 
 wherewith fools reproach thee all day 
 long. Arise, O Peter ! remember thy 
 holy Roman Church, mother of all the 
 churches, and mistress of the faith. Arise, 
 O Paul ! for a new Porphyry is here, at- 
 tacking thy doctrines and the holy popes, 
 our predecessors. Finally, arise, O as- 
 sembly of all the saints ! holy Church of 
 God ! and intercede for us with God 
 Almighty."* 
 
 The Pope proceeds to cite as perni- 
 cious, scandalous and corrupt, forty-one 
 propositions of Luther, in which the lat- 
 ter explained the " sound doctrine" of 
 the Gospel. The following are included 
 in the propositions condemned : — - 
 
 B To deny that sin remains in the in- 
 fant after baptism is to trample under foot 
 St. Paul and our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 " A new life is the best and highest 
 penitence." 
 
 " To burn heretics is contrary to the 
 will of the Holy Spirit," &c. &c. 
 
 " As soon as this bull shall be pub- 
 lished," continues the Pope, " the bishops 
 are to search diligently for the writings 
 of Martin Luther in which these errors 
 are contained, and to burn them publicly 
 and solemnly in the presence of the clergy 
 and of the laity. As to Martin himself, 
 what is there, in the name of Heaven, 
 that we have not done 1 Imitating the 
 goodness of God Almighty, we are ready, 
 notwithstanding, to receive him again 
 into the bosom of the Church, and we 
 allow him sixty days to forward to us his 
 recantation in writing, attested by two 
 prelates ; or rather, (which would be 
 more satisfactory) to present himself be- 
 fore us in Rome, that none may any 
 more doubt his obedience. In the mean 
 time, he must from this moment cease 
 preaching, teaching, and writing, and 
 commit his works to the flames. And if 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 305, et Opp. lat. i. 32. 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 239 
 
 he do not recant within the space of sixty- 
 days, we, by these presents, sentence him- 
 self and his adherents as open and con- 
 tumacious heretics." The Pope after- 
 wards pronounces a long train of excom- 
 munications, maledictions, and interdicts 
 against Luther and all his partisans, with 
 orders to seize their persons and send 
 them to Rome.* It is easy to guess 
 what would have become of these gener- 
 ous confessors of the Gospel in the dun- 
 geons of the Papacy. 
 
 The storm was thus gathering oveT 
 the head of Luther ; the bull was pub- 
 lished : and for centuries Rome had not 
 uttered the sentence of condemnation 
 without following it with the stroke of 
 death. This murderous message from 
 the seven-hilled city was to reach the 
 Saxon monk in his cloister. The mo- 
 ment was well chosen. The new Em- 
 peror, who had so many reasons for cul- 
 tivating friendly relations with the Pope, 
 would no doubt hasten to recommend 
 himself by sacrificing to him an obscure 
 monk. Leo X., the cardinals, and all 
 the partisans of Rome exulted, fancying 
 they saw their enemy at then: feet. 
 
 While the eternal city was thus agi- 
 tated, events of more tranquil character 
 were passing at Wittemberg. Melanc- 
 thon was shedding there a soft, but bril- 
 liant light. Near two thousand auditors 
 from Germany, England, the Nether- 
 lands, France, Italy, Hungary, and 
 Greece, were frequently assembled 
 around him. He was twenty-four years 
 of age, and had not taken orders. Every 
 house in Wittemberg was open to this 
 young professor, so learned, and at the 
 same time so amiable. Foreign univer- 
 sities, Ingolstadt in particular, sought to 
 attract him within their walls. His 
 friends at Wittemberg resolved to retain 
 him among them, by inducing him to 
 marry. Although he desired a partner 
 for his dear Philip, Luther declared he 
 would not be his adviser in this affair. 
 Others took that part upon themselves. 
 The young doctor was a frequent visitor 
 at the house of the burgomaster Krapp, 
 who belonged to an ancient family. 
 Krapp had a daughter named Catherine, 
 
 * Sub praedictis paenis, prsefatum Lutherum, 
 complices adhoerentes, receptatores et fautores, 
 personaliter oapiant et ad nos mittant. — (Bulla 
 Leonis, loc. cit.) 
 
 of a mild and amiable character, and 
 great sensibility. Melancthon's friends 
 urged him to ask her in marriage ; but 
 the young scholar was buried in his 
 books, and would not hear of any thing 
 else. His Greek authors, and his Testa- 
 ment, formed his delight. He met the 
 arguments of his friends with other ar- 
 guments. At length his consent was 
 obtained. The necessary steps were 
 taken for him by his friends, and Cathe- 
 rine was given to him for a wife. He 
 received her very coldly,* and said with 
 a sigh : " God has then willed it so ? I 
 must forego my studies and my pleasures, 
 in compliance with the wishes of my 
 friends."! Yet he was not insensible 
 to Catherine's merits. " Her character 
 and education," said he, " are such as I 
 might have desired of God. Ssfr$ b Qcos 
 T£KiiaipoiT6.+ And truly she is deserving 
 of a better husband." The match was 
 agreed on during the month of August ; 
 the espousals took place on the 25th of 
 September, and at the end of November, 
 the marriage was celebrated. Old John 
 Luther, with his wife and daughters, 
 came to Wittemberg on this occasion ;^ 
 and many learned and distinguished 
 persons attended at the celebration of 
 the wedding. 
 
 The young bride was as remarkable 
 for her warmth of affection as the young 
 professor for his coldness of manner. 
 Ever full of anxiety for her husband, 
 Catherine was alarmed by the least ap- 
 pearance of danger to the object of her 
 affection. When Melancthon proposed 
 to take any step that might compromise 
 his safety, she overwhelmed him with 
 entreaties to renounce his intention. "I 
 was obliged." wrote Melancthon, on one 
 of these occasions, " I was obliged to yield 
 to her weakness — it is our lot." How 
 many instances of unfaithfulness in the 
 Church may have a similar origin ! Per- 
 haps to the influence of Catherine we 
 should attribute the timidity and fears for 
 which her husband has been often blamed. 
 Catherine was no less tender and affec- 
 
 * Uxor enim datur mihi non dico quam frigenti. 
 —(Corp. Ref. i. 211.) 
 
 t Ege meis studiis. mea me voluptate fraudo. — 
 (Ibid. i. 265.) 
 
 t May God bring the affair to a happy issue ! 
 —(Ibid. i. 212.) 
 
 \ Parentes mei cum sororibus nuptias honora- 
 runt Philippi.— (L. Epp. i. 528.) 
 
240 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tionate as a mother than as a wife. She 
 gave liberally to the poor. "Forsake 
 me not, O God- when I am old and 
 grey-headed !" Such was the ordinary 
 ejaculation of this pious and timid soul. 
 The heart of Melancthon was soon won 
 over by the affection of his wife. When 
 he had once tasted the sweets of domestic 
 life, he became fully sensible of their 
 value. He was formed indeed to relish 
 them, and no where was he more happy 
 than with his Catherine and his children. 
 A French traveller, having one day found 
 the " master of Germany" rocking the 
 cradle of his child with one hand and 
 holding a book in the other, started with 
 surprise. But Melancthon, without being 
 disconcerted, explained to him with so 
 much earnestness the high value of chil- 
 dren in the sight of God, that the stran- 
 ger left the house wiser, to use his own 
 words, than he had entered it. 
 
 The marriage of Melancthon added a 
 domestic hearth to the Reformation. 
 There was thenceforward in Wittemberg 
 one family whose house was open to all 
 those who were breathing the new life. 
 The concourse of strangers was im- 
 mense.* People came to Melancthon 
 concerning a thousand different matters ; 
 and the established rule was to refuse 
 nothing to any one.f The young pro- 
 fessor was especially disinterested on oc- 
 casions of doing good. When his money 
 was spent he would secretly part with his 
 table service to some dealer, but little 
 concerning himself for the loss of it, so 
 that he might have wherewithal to re- 
 lieve the distressed. 
 
 Accordingly, " it would have been im- 
 possible," says his friend Camerarius, 
 " to have provided his own wants and 
 those of his family, if a divine hidden 
 blessing had not furnished him from 
 time to time with the means." His good- 
 nature was extreme. He had some an- 
 cient gold and silver medals, remarkable 
 for their legends and impressions. One 
 day he was shewing them to a stranger 
 who was on a visit. " Take any one 
 you would like," said Melancthon to 
 him. — " I would like them all," answered 
 
 * Videres in aedibus illis perpetuo accedentes 
 et introeuntes ct discedentes atque exeuntes ali- 
 quos. — (Camerar. Vita Melancth. p. 40.) 
 
 1 Ea domus disciplina erat, ut nihil cuiquam 
 negaretur. — (Ibid.) 
 
 the stranger. " I own," says Philip, " I 
 was at first offended at this unreasonable 
 request; nevertheless, I gave them to 
 him."* 
 
 There was in the writings of Melanc- 
 thon a delightful odour of antiquity, 
 which gave them an inexpressible charm, 
 while it did not prevent the savour of 
 Christ from being at the same time ex- 
 haled from every part of them. There 
 is not one of his letters to his friends, in 
 which one is not naturally reminded of 
 the wisdom of Homer, of Plato, of Cice- 
 ro, and of Pliny — Christ remaining al- 
 ways his Master and his God. Spalatin 
 had desired of him an explanation of this 
 saying of Jesus Christ : " Without me, 
 ye can do nothing." (John xv. 5.) Me- 
 lancthon referred him to Luther : " ' Cur 
 agam gestum spectante Roscio,' to use 
 the words of Cicero,"f said he. He then 
 continues : " The passage teaches that 
 we must be absorbed by Christ, so that 
 we ourselves should no longer act, but 
 that Christ should live in us. As the 
 divine nature has been made one body 
 with man in Christ, so should man be 
 incorporated by faith with Jesus Christ." 
 
 This celebrated scholar usually retired 
 to rest shortly after supper. At two or 
 three o'clock in the morning he was at 
 work.;}: It was during these early studies 
 that his best works were composed. His 
 manuscripts were usually laid on his 
 table, exposed in view of all who went in 
 and out, so that he was robbed of several 
 of them. When he had invited any 
 friends to his house, he requested one or 
 other of them, before sitting down to 
 table, to read some short composition, 
 either in prose or verse. When he made 
 a journey, he always took with him some 
 young persons as companions. He con- 
 versed with them in a manner both in- 
 structive and entertaining. If conversa- 
 tion flagged, each was required to recite 
 in turn some passages from the ancient 
 poets. He frequently resorted to irony, 
 tempering it, however, by much sweet- 
 ness. " He does but prick the skin," 
 said he, speaking of himself, " he never 
 inflicts a wound." 
 
 * Sed dedisse nihilominus illos. — (Camerar. 
 Vita Melancth. 43.) 
 
 t " Why should I speak in the presence of 
 Eoscius?"— (Corp. Reform. Ep. Apr. 13, 1520.) 
 
 t Surgebat mox aut non longo intervallo post 
 mediam noctem. — (Camerar. p. 56.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 241 
 
 Learning was his passion. The great 
 object of his life was to diffuse a love of 
 letters and general information. Let us 
 not forget that the literature highest in 
 his estimation was the Holy Scripture, 
 and only subordinately the literature of 
 the heathen. " I devote myself," said he, 
 " to one thing only ; the defence of learn- 
 ing. We must by our example kindle 
 the admiration of youth for knowledge, 
 and lead them to love it for its own sake, 
 not for the gain that is to be made of it. 
 The ruin of letters brings with it the de- 
 struction of all that is-good : religion, 
 morals, the things of God, and the things 
 
 of man * The better a man is, 
 
 the greater is his desire to preserve 
 knowledge ; for he knows that of all 
 plagues ignorance is the most pernicious." 
 
 Some time after his marriage Melanc- 
 thon went to Bretten, in the Palatinate, 
 in company with Camerariiis and some 
 other friends, on a visit to his affectionate 
 mother, ^.s soon as he caught a view 
 of his native town, he alighted, and 
 kneeling down thanked God, for having 
 permitted him to see it once more. Mar- 
 garet, embracing her son, almost swooned 
 for joy. She pressed him to fix his abode 
 at Bretten, and was urgent in entreaties 
 that he would continue in the faith of 
 his fathers. Melancthon excused him- 
 self, but with much moderation and re- 
 serve, from fear of wounding his mother's 
 conscience. He grieved at parting from 
 her : and whenever any traveller brought 
 him news from his native town, he was 
 as merry, he said, as if going back to 
 childhood itself. Such, in the touching 
 privacy of domestic life, was the man 
 who was one of the chief instruments of 
 the religious revolution of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 The family peace and busy studies of 
 Wittemberg were shortly after disturbed 
 by a tumult. The students quarrelled 
 and came to blows with the citizens. 
 The rector betrayed great want of ener- 
 gy. The grief of Melancthon on wit- 
 nessing the excesses of these disciples of 
 learning maybe easily imagined. Luther 
 was indignant. His was not the charac- 
 ter that would conciliate by undue con- 
 cessions. The disgrace these disorders 
 
 * Religiomen, mores, hnmana divinaque omnia 
 labefactat literarum inscitia — (Corp. Ref. i. 207, 
 July 22, 1520.) 
 
 31 
 
 brought upon the University deeply 
 wounded him.* He ascended the pul- 
 pit, and preached with great force against 
 these seditions; calling on both parties 
 to submit themselves to the magistrates.! 
 His discourse occasioned great irritation. 
 " Satan," said he, " not being able to pre- 
 vail against us from without, seeks to in- 
 jure us from within. I do not fear him; 
 but I fear lest the anger of God should 
 fall upon us for not having fully received 
 his word. In these last three years, 1 
 have been thrice exposed to great dan- 
 ger : in 1518 at Augsburg, in 1519 at 
 Leipsic, and now in 1520, at Wittemberg. 
 It is neither by wisdom, nor by violence, 
 that the renovation of the Church will 
 be accomplished, but by humble prayer, 
 and a bold faith, that shall range Jesus 
 Christ on our side.| O my friend, join 
 thy prayers to mine, that the evil spirit 
 may not be permitted to use this little 
 spark, to kindle a vast conflagration." 
 
 But more terrible conflicts awaited Lu- 
 ther. — Rome was brandishing the sword, 
 with which she was about to strike the 
 preacher of the Gospel. The rumour 
 of the condemnation which was about to 
 fall upon him, far from depressing the 
 Reformer, increased his courage. He 
 took no pains to parry the stroke of this 
 haughty power. It is by striking yet 
 more terrible blows himself, that he will 
 baffle those of his adversaries. While 
 the Transalpine congregations were ful- 
 minating their anathemas "against him, 
 he was planning to carry the sword of 
 the word into the midst of the Italian 
 states. Letters from Venice spoke of the 
 favour with which the opinions were 
 there received. He ardently desired to 
 send the Gospel beyond the Alps. But 
 evangelists were required to be the bear- 
 ers of it. " I could wish," said he, " that 
 we had living books, that is to say, preach- 
 ers,^ and that we could multiply and pro- 
 tect them in all places, that they might 
 convey to the people the knowledge of 
 divine things. The Prince could not 
 
 * Urit me ista confusio aeademia? nostra?. — 
 (L. Epp. i. 467.) 
 
 t Commcndans potestatem magistratuum. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Nee pmdentia nee armis, sed humili 
 
 oratione et forti fide, quibus obtineamus Chris- 
 tum pro nobis. — (Ibid. p. 469.) 
 
 § Si vivos libros, hoc est eoncionatores posso- 
 mus multipltcare. — (L Epp. i. 491.) 
 
242 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 undertake a work more worthy of him- 
 self. If the people of Italy were to re- 
 ceive the truth, our cause would then be 
 unassailable." It does not appear that 
 this project of Luther was realized. At 
 a later period, it is true, some preachers 
 of the Gospel, Calvin himself among 
 others, resided' for a while in Italy: but 
 at fthis rime no steps were taken to ac- 
 complish Luther's plan. He had looked 
 for help to one of the princes of this world. 
 Had lie appealed to men in humble sta- 
 tion, but full of zeal for the kingdom of 
 God, the result might have been very 
 different. At the period we are record- 
 ing, the idea was general that every thing 
 must be done by governments ; and the 
 association of private individuals, an 
 agency by which in our days such great 
 things are accomplished in Christendom, 
 was almost unknown. 
 
 If Luther was not successful in his 
 plans for spreading the knowledge of the 
 truth to distant countries, he was but the 
 more zealous in preaching it at Jiome. 
 It was at this time that he delivered, at 
 Wittemberg, his discourse on the office 
 of the mass.* In this discourse he de- 
 claimed against the numerous sects of 
 the Romish Church, and reproached her, 
 with justice, for her want of unity. " The 
 multiplicity of laws in matters of con- 
 science," he exclaims, "has filled the 
 world with sects and divisions. The ha- 
 tred thence engendered between priests, 
 monks, and laity, is even greater than 
 that which exists between Christians and 
 Turks. Nay more than this ; priests are 
 mortal enemies to priests, and monks to 
 monks. Each is devoted to his own sect, 
 and, despises all others. The unity and 
 love of Christ is broken up and destroyed." 
 — He then attacks the opinion that the 
 mass is a sacrifice and has any power in 
 itself. — " The better part of every sacri- 
 fice, and consequently of the Lord's Sup- 
 per," he says, " is in the word and the 
 promises of God. Without faith in this 
 word and in these promises, the sacra- 
 ment is but dead ; it is a body without a 
 soul, a cup without wine, a purse with- 
 out money, a type without fulfilment, a 
 letter without meaning, a casket without 
 jewels, a sheath without a sword." 
 
 The voice of Luther was not, however, 
 confined within the limits of Wittemberg, 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 490. 
 
 and if he did not find missionaries to car- 
 ry his instructions to distant parts, God 
 had provided a missionary of a new kind. 
 Printing was destined to supply the place 
 of preachers of the Gospel. The press 
 was to constitute a battery which should 
 open a breach in the Roman fortress. 
 The mine had been charged by Luther, 
 and the explosion shook the edifice of 
 Rome to its foundations. His famous 
 tract on the Babylonian Captivity of the 
 Church appeared on the 6th of October, 
 1520.* Never had any one evinced 
 such courage in circumstances so critical. 
 
 In this work he begins by setting forth 
 with admirable irony, all the advantages 
 for which he is indebted to his enemies : — 
 
 " Whether I will or no," says he, " I 
 learn more and more every day, urged 
 on as I am by so many celebrated mas- 
 ters. Two years ago I attacked indul- 
 gences ; but with such faltering indeci- 
 sion that I am now ashamed of it. It, 
 however, is not to be wondered at ; for 
 then I had to roll forward the rock by 
 myself." 
 
 He then returns thanks to Prierias, to 
 Eck, to Emser, and to his other adversa- 
 ries. " I denied," he continued, " that 
 the Papacy was from God, but admitted 
 that it stood by human right. But now, 
 after having read all the subtleties on 
 which these worthies set up their idol, I 
 know that Papacy is nothing but the 
 reign of Babylon, and the violence of the 
 mighty hunter Nimrod. I therefore re- 
 quest all my friends, and all booksellers, 
 that they will burn the books I have 
 before written on this subject, and in their 
 stead substitute this single proposition : — 
 ' The Papacy is a general chase, led by 
 the Bishop of Rome, and having for its ob- 
 ject the snaring and ruining of souls.' "t 
 
 Luther afterwards attacks the errors 
 that prevailed with respect to the sacra- 
 ments, monastic vows, &c. He reduces 
 the seven sacraments of the Church to 
 three ; Baptism, Penitence, and the 
 Lord's Supper. He explains the true na- 
 ture of the latter. He then passes on to 
 baptism, and it is here especially that he 
 establishes the excellence of Faith, and 
 makes a powerful attack upon Rome. 
 " God," he says, " has preserved to us 
 
 * L. Opp. lat. ii. G3, et Leips. xvii. 511. 
 t Papatus est robusta venatio Romani episco- 
 pi. — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 64.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 243 
 
 this sacrament alone pure from human 
 traditions. God has said : ' He that be- 
 lieveth and is baptized, shall be saved.' 
 This promise of God ought to be prefer- 
 red to the glory of all works, to all vows, 
 satisfactions, indulgences, and every thing 
 which man has invented. Now on this 
 promise, received by faith, depends our 
 salvation. If we believe, our heart is 
 strengthened by the divine promise; and 
 though a believer should be bereft of all 
 beside, this promise which he believes" 
 will never forsake him. With this he 
 will be able to withstand the adversary 
 who assaults his soul. It will be his 
 support in the hour of death, and his 
 plea at the judgment-seat of God. In 
 all his trials it will be his consolation 
 that he can say : God is faithful to his 
 promise : I have received the pledge of 
 it in baptism : if God is for me, who can 
 be against me 1 Oh, how vich is the bap- 
 tized Christian ! nothing can ruin him, 
 but his own refusal to believe. 
 
 " Perhaps the baptism of little chil- 
 dren may be objected to what I say as to 
 the necessity of faith. But as the word 
 of God is mighty to change the heart of 
 an ungodly person, who is not less deaf, 
 nor less helpless than an infant — so the 
 prayer of the Church, to which all things 
 are possible, changes the little child, by 
 the operation of the faith which God 
 pours into his soul, and thus purifies and 
 renews it."* 
 
 Having explained the doctrine of bap- 
 tism, Luther makes use of it as a weapon 
 against the Papacy. If the Christian 
 really finds all his salvation in renewal 
 by baptism through faith, what need has 
 he of the prescriptions of Rome ? 
 
 " For this reason," says Luther, " I 
 declare that neither Pope, nor bishop, 
 nor any other man livi»g, has authority 
 to impose the least thing upon a Christian 
 without his own consent. Whatever is 
 done otherwise, is done by an arbitrary 
 assumption. f We are free from all men. 
 
 * Sicut enim verb urn Dei potcns est dum so- 
 nat, etiam impii cor immutare, quod non minus 
 surdum et incapax quam ullua parvulus, ita per 
 orationem Ecclesite offerentis et credentis, par- 
 vulus fide infusa nmtatur, mundatur et renova- 
 tur. — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 77.) 
 
 t Dico itaque, neque papa, neque episcopus, 
 ncque ullus hominum habet jus unins syilaba: 
 constituendse super Christianum hominem, nisi 
 id fiat ejusdem consensu ; quidquid aliter fit, ty- 
 rannico spiritu fit. — (lb. 77.) 
 
 The vow which we have made in bap- 
 tism is of itself sufficient, and more than 
 we can ever fulfil.* All other vows, then, 
 may be dispensed with. Let whoever 
 enters into the priesthood or joins a mo- 
 nastic order, be assured that the labours 
 of a monk or of a priest, however ar- 
 duous, differ in no respect, as to their val- 
 ue in the sight of God, from those of a 
 peasant working in his field, or of a wo- 
 man attending to the duties of her 
 house. f God esteems all things accord- 
 ing to the faith whence they proceed. 
 And it often happens that the simple la- 
 bour of a serving man or woman is more 
 acceptable to God than the fastings and 
 works of a monk, because in these last 
 faith is wanting. Christian people are 
 the true people of God, carried captive 
 to Babylon, and there stripped of what 
 they had acquired by their baptism." 
 
 Such were the means by which the 
 religious revolution, we are relating, was \ 
 accomplished. The necessity of faith 
 was first established, and then the Re- 
 formers applied it to demolish and bring 
 to dust the prevailing superstitions. It 
 was with that power, which is of God, 
 and which can remove mountains, that 
 they advanced against so many errors. 
 These words of Luther, and many other 
 similar appeals, circulating far and wide 
 through cities, convents, and country 
 places, became the leaven which leavened 
 the whole mass. 
 
 Luther terminated this work on the 
 Babylonian Captivity with these words : 
 
 •' I hear that new papal excommunica- 
 tions have been concocted against me. 
 If this be so, this book may be regarded 
 as a part of my future ' recantation.' 
 The rest will follow shortly, in proof of 
 my obedience, and the whole will, by 
 Christ's help, form a collection such as 
 Rome has never yet seen or heard of." 
 
 After this, all hope of reconciliation 
 between the Pope and Luther must ne- 
 cessarily have vanished. The incom- 
 patibility of the faith of the Reformer with 
 the Church's teaching could not but be 
 
 * Generali edicto tollere vota — abunde enim 
 vovimus in baptismo, et plus quam possimus im- 
 plere.— (lb. 78.) 
 
 t Opera quantum libet sacra et ardua religiowv 
 rum et sacerdotum, in oculis Dei prorsus nihil 
 distare ab operibas rustici in agro laborantis aut 
 mulieris in domo sua curantis. — (lb.) 
 
244 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 evident to the least discerning. But at 
 this very time fresh negociations had just 
 commenced. About the end of August, 
 1520, and five weeks before the publica- 
 tion of the " Babylonian Captivity," the 
 chapter of the Augustines was assembled 
 at Eisleben. The venerable Staupitz 
 resigned on this occasion the office of 
 Vicar-general of the order, and Wences- 
 laus Link, who had accompanied Luther 
 to Augsburg, was invested with that dig- 
 nity The indefatigable Miltitz arrived 
 suddenly during the sitting of the chap- 
 ter.* He was eagerly bent on reconcil- 
 ing the Pope and Luther. His self-love, 
 his avarice, but above all his jealousy 
 and hatred were interested therein. The 
 vain-glorious boasting of Eck had thrown 
 him into the shade ; he knew that the 
 doctor of Ingolstadt had disparaged him 
 at Rome, and he would have made any 
 sacrifice to baffle the plots of his trouble- 
 some rival by the prompt conclusion of 
 peace. The religious bearing of the 
 question gave him little or no concern. 
 One day, as he himself relates, he was at 
 table with the bishop of Meissen ; and 
 the guests had drank pretty freely, when 
 a new work of Luther's was brought in. 
 It was opened and read ; the bishop 
 went into a passion : the official swore ; 
 but Miltitz laughed heartily. f Miltitz 
 dealt with the Reformation as a man of 
 the world ; Eck as a theologian. 
 
 Stimulated by the arrival of Dr. Eck, 
 Miltitz addressed to the chapter of the 
 Augustines a discourse delivered with a 
 very marked Italian accent,;}: thinking by 
 this means to impose upon his good 
 countrymen. " The whole order of the 
 Augustines is compromised in this af- 
 fair," said he: "Point out to me, I pray 
 you, some moans of restraining Luther."^ 
 " We have nothing to do with the doc- 
 tor," answered the fathers, " and we 
 should not know what advice to give 
 
 }rou." They rested their answer, doubt- 
 ess, on the fact of Luther having been 
 released by Staupitz at Augsburg from 
 
 * Nondum tot pressus difficultatibus animum 
 desponderat Miltitius — dignus profecto non me- 
 diocri laude. — (Pallavicini, i. 68.) 
 
 t Der Bischof entriistet, der Official geflu- 
 chet, er aber gelachet habe. — (Seckend. p. 266.) 
 
 t Orationem habuit italica pronuntiatione ves- 
 titam.— (L. Epp. i. 483.) 
 
 § Petens consilium super me compescendo. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 his obligations as concerned their order. 
 Miltitz persisted. " Let a deputation of 
 this venerable chapter wait on Luther, 
 and request him to write a letter to the 
 Pope, assuring him that he has never 
 laid any plots against his person.* That 
 will suffice to terminate the affair." The 
 chapter yielded to the proposal of the 
 Nuncio, and commissioned, doubtless at 
 his desire, Staupitz the late Vicar-general, 
 and Link his successor, to confer with 
 Luther. The deputation set out imme- 
 diately for Wittemberg, bearing a letter 
 from Miltitz addressed to the doctor, and 
 full of expressions of high respect. 
 " There was no time to lose," said he, 
 " the thunder, already suspended over the 
 head of the Reformer, was about to burst ; 
 and then all would be over." 
 
 Neither Luther, nor the deputies, who 
 were favourable to his opinions,! enter- 
 tained a hope that any thing would be 
 gained by writing to the Pope. But this 
 in itself was a reason for not refusing 
 compliance with the suggestion. The 
 letter could but be a matter of form 
 which would make still more apparent 
 the justice of Luther's cause. " This 
 Italian of Saxony (Miltitz)," thought 
 Luther, " has doubtless his own private 
 interest in view in making this request. 
 Well, be it so ; I will write in strict con- 
 formity with truth, that I have never en- 
 tertained any design against the Pope's 
 person. I must be on my guard, and 
 not be too stern in my hostility to the 
 see of Rome. Yet it shall be sprinkled 
 with salt."t 
 
 But shortly after this, the doctor heard 
 of the arrival of the bull in Germany ; 
 on the 3rd of October he declared to 
 Spalatin that he would not write to the 
 Pope, and on the Gth of the same month 
 he published his book on the " Babylo- 
 nian Captivity." Still Miltitz was not 
 disheartened. — His wish to humble Eck 
 made him dream of impossibilities. On 
 the 2nd of October he had written in full 
 confidence to the Elector : " All will go 
 well : but for God's sake, do not any 
 longer delay paying me the pension 
 
 * Nihil mc in personam suam fuisse molitum- 
 —(Ibid. 484.) 
 
 t Quibus omnibus causa mea non displicet. — 
 (Ibid. 486.) 
 
 t Aspergetur tamen sale suo. — (L. Epp. i. 
 486.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 245 
 
 which you and your brother have allow- 
 ed me for some years past. I must have 
 money to gain new friends at Rome. 
 Write to the Pope, present the young 
 cardinals, his relations, with gold and 
 silver pieces of your Electoral Highness's 
 coin, and add some for me ; for I have 
 been robbed of what you had given me."* 
 
 Even after Luther had heard of the 
 bull, the intriguing Miltitz was not dis- 
 couraged. He requested a conference 
 with Luther at Lichtenberg. The Elec- 
 tor ordered the latter to repair thither. f 
 But his friends, and above all the affec- 
 tionate Melancthon, opposed his going.;}; 
 " What," thought they, " at the moment 
 of the appearance of the bull which en- 
 joins all to seize Luther, that he may be 
 taken to Rome, shall he accept a confer- 
 ence, in a secluded place, with the Pope's 
 Nuncio ! Is it not clear that Dr. Eck, 
 not being able to approach the Reformer, 
 because he has made his hatred too pub- 
 lic, the crafty chamberlain has under- 
 taken to snare Luther in his toils'?" 
 
 These fears could not restrain the doc- 
 tor of Wittemberg. The Prince had 
 commanded, and he resolved to obey. 
 "I am setting out for Lichtenberg," he 
 wrote on the 1 1th of October to the chap- 
 lain : " Pray for me." His friends would 
 not desert him. On the same day, to- 
 wards evening, Luther entered Lichten- 
 berg on horseback, surrounded by thirty 
 horsemen, amongst whom was Melanc- 
 thon. About the same time, the Pope's 
 Nuncio arrived, attended only by four 
 persons. § Might not this modest escort 
 be a stratagem to inspire Luther and his 
 friends with confidence? 
 
 Miltitz was urgent in his solicitations; 
 he assured Luther that the blame would 
 be thrown on Eck and his foolish boast- 
 ings, || and that all would be arranged to 
 the satisfaction of both parlies. " Well!" 
 answered Luther, " I offer to keep silence 
 for the future, if my adversaries will but 
 
 * Den Pabst's Nepoten, zwei oder drei Chur- 
 furstliche Gold und Silberstiicke, zu verehren. — 
 (Seckeud. p. 267.) 
 
 t Sicut princeps ordinavit. — (L. Epp. i. 455.) 
 
 t Invito prseceptore (Melancthon) nescio quan- 
 ta metuente. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Jener von mehr als dreissig, dieser aber kaum 
 mit veir Pferden begleitet. — (Seckend. p. 268.) 
 
 || Totum pondus in Eccium versurus. — (L. 
 Epp. i. 496.) 
 
 do the same I will do all I can to main- 
 tain it."* 
 
 Miltitz was overjoyed. He accompa- 
 nied Luther as far as Wittemberg. The 
 Reformer and the Papal Nuncio entered 
 the city side by side, while Dr. Eck was 
 drawing near it, holding, in menacing 
 hands, the formidable bull, which, it was 
 hoped, would extinguish the Reforma- 
 tion. " We shall bring the affair to a 
 happy issue," wrote Miltitz forthwith to 
 the Elector: "thank the Pope for his 
 rose, and send at the same time forty or 
 fifty florins to the cardinal Quatuoi 
 Sa>icloru?>i."\ 
 
 m Luther, in fulfilment of his promise, 
 was to write to the Pope. Before bid- 
 ding an eternal farewell to Rome, he re- 
 solved once more to address to her some 
 weighty and salutary truths. His letter 
 may perhaps be regarded by some as a 
 mere caustic composition, a bitter and in- 
 sulting satire ; but this would be to mis- 
 take his feelings. It was his conviction 
 that to Rome were to be attributed all 
 the ills of Christendom : bearing that in 
 view, his words are, not insults, but sol- 
 emn warnings. The more he loves Leo, 
 the more he loves the church of Christ ; 
 he resolves therefore to disclose the great- 
 ness of the evil. The energy of his af- 
 fection may be inferred from the strength 
 of his expressions. The moment is ar- 
 rived for heavy blows. He reminds us 
 of a prophet, for the last time, traversing 
 the city, reproaching it with all its abom- 
 inations, revealing to it the judgments of 
 the Eternal, and crying aloud : " Yet a 
 few days!" — The following is the letter: 
 
 " To the Most Holy Father in God, 
 Leo X., Pope of Rome, all happiness 
 and prosperity in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 Amen. 
 
 ' ; From the midst of this violent con- 
 test, which for these three years past, I 
 have waged with abandoned men, I can- 
 not refrain from sometimes turning my 
 eyes towards you, O Leo, Most Holy 
 Father in God ! And although the mad- 
 ness of your impious parasites, has com- 
 pelled me to appeal from your sentence 
 to a future Council, my heart has never 
 been turned away from your Holiness ; 
 and I have never ceased, by prayers and 
 
 * Ut nihil videar omittere quod in me ad pacem 
 quoquo modo facere possit. — (L. Epp. i 496.) 
 t Seckend. p. 268. 
 
246 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 sighs, to pray to God for your prosperity, 
 and for that of your pontificate.* 
 
 " I have attacked, it is true, some Anti- 
 christian doctrines, and I have inflicted 
 some deep wounds on my adversaries on 
 account of their impiety. I cannot re- 
 gret this, for I have in this Christ for an 
 example. Of what use is salt if it hath 
 lost its savour 1 or the sword-blade, if it 
 doth not cut ?f Cursed is he who doth 
 the Lord's work coldly. O most excel- 
 lent Leo, far from having conceived any 
 \ evil design against you, I wish you the 
 most precious blessings for all eternity. 
 One thing only have I done. I have de- 
 fended the word of truth. I am ready to 
 give way to every one, in every thing ; 
 but as regards that Word, I will not — I 
 cannot abandon it.| He who expects 
 otherwise of me, mistakes me. 
 
 u It is true that I have attacked the 
 court of Rome ; but neither yourself, nor 
 any man upon earth can deny that the 
 corruption of that court is greater than 
 that of Sodom or Gomorrah, and that 
 there is no hope left of curing its impie- 
 ty. True, I have been filled with horror, 
 beholding that in your name the poor of 
 Christ's flock were deceived. I have op- 
 posed this, and will continue to oppose 
 it; not that I dream of effecting any 
 thing in this Babylon of confusion, 
 against the opposition of sycophants ; but 
 I am debtor to my brethren, that, if pos- 
 sible, some of them may escape these ter- 
 rible scourges. 
 
 " You know that Rome, for many 
 years past, has inundated the world with 
 every thing destructive to soul and body. 
 The Church of Rome, formerly pre- 
 eminent for sanctity, is become a den of 
 thieves, a scene of open prostitution, a 
 kingdom of death and hell,§ so that Anti- 
 christ himself, if he were to appear, could 
 not increase its iniquity. All this is as 
 clear as the light of day. 
 
 " And you, O Leo, are all this while 
 as a lamb in the midst of wolves ; or as 
 
 * TJt non totis viribus, sedulis atque quantum 
 in me fait gemebnndis precibus apud Deum 
 quaesierim. — (L. Epp. i. 498.) 
 
 t Quid proderit sal, si non mordeat? Quid os 
 gladii, si non ca?dat? — (L. Epp. i. 499.) 
 
 t Verbum deserere et negare nee possum, nee 
 volo. — (L. Epp. i. 499.) 
 
 § Facta est — spelunca latronum licentiosissi- 
 ma, lupanar omnium impudentissimum regnum, 
 peccati, mortis et inferni. — (Ibid. 500.) 
 
 Daniel in the den of lions ! Unaided, 
 how can you resist these monsters ? Per- 
 haps there may be three or four cardinals 
 uniting virtue with learning. But what 
 are these among so many ! You will 
 be taken off by poison, even before you 
 are able to apply a remedy. There is 
 no hope for Rome ; the anger of God 
 has gone forth and will consume her.* 
 She hates reproof, and dreads reform ; 
 she refuses to restrain the madness of her 
 impiety, and it may be said of her as of 
 her mother : ' We would have healed 
 Babylon but she is not healed: let -us 
 forsake her !'f Men looked to you and 
 your cardinals to apply the cure to all 
 this ; but the patient laughs at her phy- 
 sician, and the steed will not answer to 
 the reins. 
 
 " Full of affection for you, most excel- 
 lent Leo, I have ever regretted that, 
 formed as you are for a better age, you 
 have been raised to the pontificate at such 
 a period as this. Rome is not worthy of 
 you, or of any who resemble you ; she 
 deserves no other ruler than Satan him- 
 self. And truly it is he rather than your- 
 self who reigns in that Babylon. Would 
 to God, that, laying aside the glory 
 which your enemies extol so highly, you 
 could exchange it for a simple pastorship, 
 or subsist on your paternal inheritance ; 
 for none but Judases are fit for such 
 state. What end then, dear Leo ! is 
 served by you in this court of Rome ; 
 unless it be, that execrable men should, 
 under cover of your name and power, 
 ruin men's fortunes, destroy souls, mul- 
 tiply crimes, and lord it over the faith, 
 the truth, and the whole Church of God ? 
 
 Leo! Leo! you are the most unfortu- 
 nate of men, and you sit on the most 
 perilous of all thrones ! I tell you the 
 truth, because I wish you well. 
 
 " Is it not true that there is nothing 
 under heaven more corrupt and hateful 
 than the Roman court ? It exceeds the 
 very Turks in vice and profligacy. Once 
 as the gate of heaven, it is become the 
 jaws of hell itself! distending and kept 
 open by the wrath of God,J so that when 
 
 1 behold so many poor creatures throw- 
 
 * Actum est de Romana curia: pervenit in 
 earn ira Dei usque in finem. — (L. Epp. i. 500.) 
 
 t Jeremiah, li. 9. 
 
 t Olim janua coeli, nunc patens quoddam os 
 inferni et tale os, quod urgenteira Dei, obstrui 
 non potest. — (L. Epp. i. 501.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 247 
 
 ing themselves into it, I must needs cry- 
 aloud in the midst of this tempest that 
 some may be saved from the frightful 
 abyss. 
 
 " This, O Leo, my Father, is the rea- 
 son why I have inveighed so strongly 
 against a see which dispenses death to its 
 adherents. Far from conspiring against 
 3'our person, I have felt that I was labour- 
 ing for your safety, in boldly attacking 
 the prison, or rather the hell, in which 
 you are confined. To do the utmost to 
 destroy the court of Rome, is but to dis- 
 charge your own duty. To cover it 
 with shame, is to honour Christ ; in a 
 word, to be a Christian, is to be not a 
 Roman. 
 
 " However, seeing that I was losing 
 my time in succouring the See of Rome, 
 I sent to her my letter of divorce, saying ; 
 Farewell, Rome, ' he that is unjust, let 
 him be unjust still ; and he who is filthy, 
 let him be filthy still !'* and then, in si- 
 lence, and retirement, applied myself to 
 the study of the Holy Scriptures. Then 
 it was that Satan stirred up his servant 
 John Eck, a great enemy of Jesus Christ, 
 to challenge me ag-ain to descend into 
 the arena. He sought to establish his 
 own primacy, not the primacy of Peter ! 
 and with this purpose, to conquer Luther, 
 and leal him in triumph to Rome, upon 
 him must lay the blame of the defeat 
 which has covered Rome with shame." 
 
 Luther here relates what had passed 
 between himself and De Vio, Miltitz, and 
 Eck ; he then continues : 
 
 " Now then I come to you, most holy 
 Father, and, prostrate at your feet, en- 
 treat you to restrain, if possible, the enemies 
 of peace. But I cannot retract my doc- 
 trines. I cannot consent that rules of in- 
 terpretation should be imposed on Holy 
 Scripture. The word of God, the source 
 whence all liberty flows, must be left 
 free.f 
 
 " O Leo ! my Father ! do not listen to 
 the flatterers who tell you that you are 
 not a mere man, but a demi-god, and 
 that you may. rightfully command what- 
 ever you please. You are the ' servant of 
 servants] and the plaee where you are 
 seated is of all places the most dangerous 
 
 * Revelation of St. John, xxii. 11. 
 
 t Leges interpretandi verbi Dei non patior, 
 cum oporteat verbum, Dei esse non alligatum, 
 quod libertatem docet— (L. Epp. i. 504.) 
 
 and the most miserable. Put no faith in 
 those who exalt you, but rather in those 
 who would humble you. I may be bold 
 in presuming to teach so sublime a Ma- 
 jesty, which ought to instruct all men. 
 But I see the dangers which surround 
 you at Rome ; I see you driven first one 
 way, then another, on the billows of a 
 raging sea ; and charity obliges me to 
 warn you of your danger, and urge you 
 to provide for your safety. 
 
 " That I may not appear' in your Ho- 
 liness's presence, empty-handed, I present 
 you with a little book which has been 
 dedicated to you, and which will apprise 
 you with what subjects I may occupy 
 myself — in case your flatterers shall per- 
 mit me. It is but a trifle in appearance, 
 yet its contents are important : for it com- 
 prises a summary of the Christian's life. 
 I am poor, and have nothing more to of- 
 fer you ; and indeed is there any thing 
 you have need of, save spiritual gifts 1 
 I commend myself to the remembrance 
 of your Holiness, praying that the Lord 
 Jesus may ever preserve you ! Amen !" 
 
 The little book which Luther pre- 
 sented in token of respect to the Pope, 
 was his discourse of " the liberty of the 
 Christian." The Reformer shows incon- 
 trovertibly in this treatise, that the Chris- 
 tian, without infringement of the liberty 
 which faith gives him, may submit to 
 every external ordinance, in a spirit of 
 liberty and love. Two truths are the 
 basis of his argument : " A Christian is 
 free, and all things are his. A Chris- 
 tian is a servant, and subject in all things 
 unto all. He is free, and has all things 
 by faith ; he is a subject and a servant in 
 love." 
 
 He first shews the power of faith in 
 rendering the Christian free : " Faith 
 unites the soul with Christ, as a spouse 
 with her husband," says Luther to the 
 Pope. " Every thing which Christ has, 
 becomes the property of the believing 
 soul : every thing which the soul has, 
 becomes the property of Christ. Christ 
 possesses all blessings and eternal life : 
 they are thenceforward the property of 
 the soul. The soul has all its iniquities 
 and sins : they are thenceforward borne 
 by Christ. A blessed exchange com- 
 mences: Christ who is both God and 
 man, Christ who has never sinned, and 
 whose holiness is invincible, Christ the 
 
248 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Almighty and Eternal, taking to himself 
 by his nuptial ring of Faith, all the sins 
 of the believer, those sins are lost and 
 abolished in him ; for no sins dwell be- 
 fore his infinite righteousness. Thus by 
 faith the believer's soul is delivered from 
 all sins, and clothed with the eternal 
 righteousness of her bridegroom, Christ. 
 O happy union ! the rich, the noble, the 
 holy bridegroom takes in marriage his 
 poor, guilty, and despised spouse,* de- 
 livers her from every evil, and enriches 
 her with the most precious blessings — 
 Christ, a king and a priest, shares this 
 honour and glory with all Christians. 
 The Christian is a king, and consequently 
 possesses all things ; he is a priest, and 
 consequently possesses God. And it is 
 faith, not works, which brings him all 
 this honour. A Christian is free from 
 all things, — above all things, — faith giv- 
 ing him richly of all things !" 
 
 In the second part of his discourse, 
 Lutuer presents the other side of the 
 truth. u Although the Christian is thus 
 made free, he voluntarily becomes a ser- 
 vant, that he may act towards his breth- 
 ren as God has acted towards himself by 
 Jesus Christ." "I will serve," he says, 
 "freely, joyfully, gratuitously, a Father 
 who has thus shed upon me all the abund- 
 ance of his blessings : I will become all 
 things to my neighbour, as Christ has 
 become all things for me." — "From 
 Faith," continues Luther, " flows the 
 love of God ; from love flows a life of 
 liberty, charity, and joy. O how noble 
 and exalted is the Christian's life ! but, 
 alas ! none know it, and none preach it. 
 By faith the Christian ascends to God ; 
 by love he descends to man ; and yet 
 abides ever in God. Such is true liberty, 
 a liberty which as much surpasses every 
 other as the heavens are high above the 
 earth." 
 
 This was the work with which Lu- 
 ther accompanied his letter to Leo X. 
 
 While the' Reformer was thus address- 
 ing himself for the last time to the Ro- 
 man Pontiff, the bull which excommuni- 
 cated him was already in the hands of 
 the dignitaries of the German Church, 
 and at the doors of Luther's dwelling. 
 
 * 1st nun das nicht eine frohliche Wirthschaft, 
 da der reiehe, edle, fromme Brautigam Christus, 
 das arme, verachtete, bose Huhrlein zur Ehe 
 nimmt. — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 385.) 
 
 The Pope had commissioned two high 
 functionaries of his court, Carracioli and 
 Aleander, to carry it to the Archbishop 
 of Mentz, desiring him to see to its ex- 
 ecution. But Eck himself appeared in 
 Saxony, as herald and agent in the great 
 effort of the Pontiff The doctor of In- 
 golstadt had had better opportunities than 
 any other of knowing the force of Lu- 
 ther's blows ; he had seen the danger, 
 and had stretched forth his hand to sup- 
 port the tottering power of Rome. He 
 imagined himself the Atlas destined to 
 bear up on his robust shoulders the old 
 Roman world, which was ready to crum- 
 ble into ruin. Elated with the success of 
 his journey to Rome, proud of the com- 
 mission which he had received from the 
 Sovereign Pontiff, and of the bull he 
 bore in his hands, and which contained 
 the condemnation of his unconquerable 
 rival, his present mission was in his eyos 
 a greater triumph than all the victories 
 he had gained in Hungary, in Bavaria, 
 in Lombardy, and Saxony, and from 
 which he had previously derived so much 
 credit. But all this pride was about to 
 be humbled. By entrusting to Eck the 
 publication of the bull, the Pope had 
 committed an error which was destined 
 to destroy its impression. So marked a 
 distinction, granted to a man who did 
 not hold any elevated rank in the Church, 
 offended minds that were susceptible of 
 offence. The Roman Bishops, accus- 
 tomed to receive the bulls of the Pope 
 direct, took it amiss that the present bull 
 should be published in their dioceses by 
 this unexpected Nuncio. The nation 
 which had ridiculed the pretended victor 
 in the conferences at Leipsic, when he 
 fled to Italy, saw with astonishment and 
 indignation the same person re-appear on 
 this side the Alps, armed with the in- 
 signia of a pontifical Nuncio, and with 
 power to crush men whom it held in 
 honour. Luther regarded this sentence, 
 conveyed to him by his implacable ad- 
 versary, as an act of personal vindictive- 
 ness. This condemnation appeared to 
 him, says Pallavicini, as the concealed 
 poniard of a mortal enemy, and not the 
 lawful axe of a Roman lictor.* Accord- 
 ingly this writing was considered, not as 
 the bull of the Sovereign Pontiff, but as 
 
 * Non tanquam a securi legitimi lictoris, sed 
 telo infensissimi hostis. — (Pallavicini, i. 74.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1530. 
 
 249 
 
 the bull of Dr. Eck. Thus the force of 
 the blow was broken by the very mo- 
 tives which had provoked it. 
 
 The chancellor of Ingolstadt had re- 
 paired in haste to Saxony. It was there 
 that he had given battle, it was there 
 that he wished to parade his victory. He 
 succeeded in getting the bull posted up 
 at Meissen, at Merseburg, and at Bran- 
 denburg, toward the end of September. 
 But in the first of these towns it was pla- 
 carded in a place where nobody could 
 read it, and the bishops of these three 
 dioceses were in no haste to publish it. 
 His great protector, Duke George him- 
 self, forbade the council of Leipsic to 
 make it public before they had received 
 the order of the bishop of Merseburg, and 
 this order did not arrive till the following 
 year. " These difficulties are but for 
 form's sake," thought Eck at first ; for 
 in other respects every thing seemed to 
 smile upon him. Duke George sent him 
 a gilt cup and a few ducats ; Miltitz him- 
 self, who had hastened to Leipsic on hear- 
 ing that his rival was arrived, invited him 
 to dinner. The two Legates were fond 
 of the luxuries of the table, and Miltitz 
 thought that he could not have a better 
 opportunity of sounding Dr. Eck than 
 over their wine. " When he had drunk 
 pretty freely," says the Pope's chamber- 
 lain, " he began to boast above measure; 
 he displayed his bull, and told how he 
 had planned to bring that insolent fel- 
 lcw, Martin, to reason."* But it was 
 not long before the doctor of Ingolstadt 
 had occasion to observe that the wind 
 was turning. A great change had been 
 effected at Leipsic within a year.f On 
 St. Michael's day, some students posted, 
 in ten different places, placards wherein 
 the new Nuncio was keenly attacked. 
 Taking the alarm, he sought refuge in 
 the convent of St. Paul, where Tetzel 
 had already found an asylum, refused all 
 visits, and obtained from the prior a pro- 
 mise that his juvenile opponents should 
 be called to account. But poor Eck 
 gained little by this. The students com- 
 posed a ballad upon him, and sung it in 
 the streets. Eck overheard it from his 
 
 * Nachdem (writes Miltitz) er nun tapfer 
 getrunken hatte, ting er gleich an trefflich von 
 seiner Ordre zu prahlen, &c. — (Seckend. p. 238.) 
 
 t Longe a'.iam faciem et mentem Lipsiae eum 
 invenire quam sperasset. — (L. Epp. i. 492.) 
 32 
 
 seclusion. At this all his courage van- 
 ished, and the formidable champion 
 trembled in every limb. Threatening 
 letters poured in upon him. A hundred 
 and fifty students arrived from Wittem- 
 berg, loudly exclaiming against the Pa- 
 pal envoy. The poor Nuncio could hold 
 out no longer. 
 
 " I do not wish him to be killed,"* 
 said Luther, " but I hope his designs will 
 be frustrated." Eck quitted his retreat 
 by night, retired clandestinely from Leip- 
 sic, and sought to conceal himself at Co- 
 burg. Miltitz, who relates the circum- 
 stance, seemed to triumph in it even 
 more than the Reformer. But his tri- 
 umph did not last long. The chamber- 
 lain's plans of conciliation all failed, and 
 his end was deplorable, having, while in 
 a state of intoxication, fallen into the 
 Rhine at Mentz. 
 
 By degrees Eck resumed courage. 
 He repaired to Erfurth, where the theo- 
 logians had shewn more than one mark 
 of their jealousy of the Wittemberg doc- 
 tor. He required that this bull should 
 be published in that city ; but the stu- 
 dents seized the copies, tore them in 
 pieces, and threw them into the river, 
 saying, " Since it is a bubble, let us see 
 it float!"! "Now," said Luther, on hear- 
 ing of this, " the paper of the Pope is 
 truly a bubble {bulla)." Eck did not 
 dare to show himself at Wittemberg : he 
 sent the bull to the prior, menacing him, 
 if it were not complied with, with the 
 ruin of the university. He wrote at the 
 same time to Duke John, brother and 
 colleague of Frederic. " Do not take 
 my proceeding amiss," said he, " for I 
 am contending for the faith, and my task 
 costs me much care and labour as well 
 as money."| The prior declared, that 
 not having received a letter from the 
 Pope accompanying the bull, he must 
 object to publish it, and referred the mat- 
 ter to the opinion of the lawyers. Such 
 was the reception which the condemna- 
 tion of the Reformer met with from the 
 learned world. 
 
 While the bull was producing this vio- 
 
 * Nollem eum occidi, quanquam optera ejus 
 consilia irrita fieri. — (L. Epp. i. 492.) 
 
 t A studiosis discerpta et in aquam projecta, 
 dicentibus: Bulla est, in aquam natet! — (Ibid. 
 520.) 
 
 t Mit viel Miihe, Arbeit, und Kosten. — (L. 
 Opp. (L.) xvii. 317.) 
 
250 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 lent agitation in the minds of the Ger- 
 mans, a solemn voice was raised in an- 
 other country of Europe. One, who dis- 
 cerned the extensive schism the Pope's 
 bull would cause in the Church, stood 
 forth to utter a word of warning and to 
 defend the Reformer. This was the 
 same Swiss priest whom we have al- 
 ready mentioned, Ulric Zwingle, who, 
 without any communication or previous 
 friendship with Luther, put forth a tract 
 replete with discretion and dignity, and 
 the earliest of his numerous Writings.* 
 A fraternal affection seemed to attract 
 him towards the doctor of Wittemberg. 
 " The piety of the Pontiff,'' he said, " re- 
 quires of him that he should joyfully 
 sacrifice his dearest interests to the glory 
 of Christ his King, and to the general 
 peace of the Church, Nothing is more 
 derogatory to his true dignity than the 
 having recourse only to rewards and ter- 
 rors for its defence. The writings of 
 Luther had not even been read, before 
 he was decried among the people as a 
 heretic, a schismatic, and even as Anti- 
 christ himself. None gave him warning, 
 no one refuted him : he requested a dis- 
 cussion, and it was thought sufficient to 
 condemn him. The bull that has been 
 issued against him is disapproved even 
 by those who respect the Pope's authori- 
 ty ; for they discern in every part of it 
 traces of the impotent hatred of a few 
 monies, and not the mildness of a Pontiff 
 who should be the vicar of a Saviour full 
 of charity. It is universally acknowl- 
 edged, that the current teaching of the 
 Gospel of Christ has greatly degenerated, 
 and that a visible and signal restoration 
 of laws and public morals is requisite.! 
 Consult all men of learning and virtue, 
 and it will be found that the more per- 
 fect their sincerity and their attachment 
 to the truths of the Gospel, the less are 
 they stumbled by the books of Luther. 
 There is no one who does not confess 
 that these books have made him a better 
 man, | although, perhaps, there may be 
 
 * Consilium cujusdum ex animo cupientis esse 
 consultum et pontificis dignitati, et Christians 
 religionis tranquillitati. — (Zwinglii Opera, curant. 
 Schulero et Schulthessio, iii. 1 — 5.) 
 
 t Multum degenerasse ab ilia sincera Christi 
 evangeiica doctrina, adeo ut nemo non fateatur 
 opus esse publica aliqua et insigni legum ac mo- 
 rum instauratione. — (Ibid. 3.; 
 
 t Nemo non fatetur se ex illius libris factum 
 esse meliorem. — (Ibid. 4.) 
 
 some parts not to be approved. Let men 
 of pure doctrine, and of acknowledged 
 probity, be selected ; let three princes 
 above all suspicion, the Emperor Charles, 
 the King of England, and the King of 
 Hungary, appoint arbitrators : and let the 
 arbitrators read the writings of Luther, 
 let him be heard in person, and let what- 
 ever they shall determine be ratified? 
 
 N<v/)<rdiro >; rav XpioTOu iraiSeuiKai n\f)8na ! 
 
 This suggestion proceeding from Swit- 
 zerland was not attended to. It was ne- 
 cessary that the great divorce should take 
 place ; it was needful that Clfristemlom 
 should be reht ; the remedy for the evils 
 that oppressed it was to be discovered in 
 its very wounds. 
 
 And, indeed, what importance could 
 be attached to this resistance on the part 
 of a few students, priors, and priests? If 
 the strong arm of Charles V. should 
 unite with the power of the Pope, will 
 they not together suffice to crush all 
 these scholars and grammarians ? Will 
 any be able to withstand the combined 
 power of the Pontiff of Christendom and 
 of the Emperor of the West ? The blow 
 is struck, Luther is excommunicated ; 
 the Gospel seems lost ! At this awful 
 crisis, the Reformer does not disguise 
 from himself the greatness of the danger 
 in which he is placed. He looks for 
 support from above, and prepares to re- 
 ceive as from the hand of the Lord him- 
 self, the blow which seems about to crush 
 him. The thoughts of his soul were 
 gathered before the throne of God. 
 'I What is about to happen," said he, " I 
 know not, nor do I care to know, assured 
 as I am that He who sits on the throne 
 of heaven, has from all eternity, foreseen 
 the beginning, the progress, and the end 
 of this affair. Let the blow light where 
 it may, I am without fear. Not so much 
 as a leaf falls, without the will of our Fa- 
 ther. How much rather will He care 
 for us ! It is a light thing to die for the 
 Word, since the Word which was made 
 flesh hath himself died. If we die with 
 him, we shall live with him ; and pass- 
 ing through that which he has passed 
 through before us, we shall be where he 
 is and dwell with him for ever."f At 
 
 * " May the doctrine and truth of Christ gain 
 the victory !" 
 
 t Parum est nos pro verbo mori, cum ipsum 
 incarnatum pro nobis prius mortuum sit. — (Epp. 
 i. 490.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520, 
 
 251 
 
 times, however, Luther was unable to 
 repress his contempt for the devices of 
 his enemies, and we find in him a recur- 
 rence of that mixture of sublimity and 
 irony which characterized his writings. 
 " I know nothing of Eck's movements," 
 said he, " except that he has arrived 
 with a long beard, a long bull, and a 
 long purse — : but I laugh at his bull."* 
 
 It was on the third of October that he 
 was made acquainted with the Papal re- 
 script. " At last then this Roman bull 
 has come to hand," said he, " I despise 
 it ; — and resist it as impious, false, and in 
 every way worthy of Eck. It is Christ 
 himself who is therein condemned. No 
 reasons are given in it ; I am cited to 
 appear, not that I may be heard, but that 
 I may recant. I will treat it as a for- 
 gery, although I believe it to be genuine. 
 Oh ! that Charles the Fifth would act as 
 a man ! oh, that for the love of Christ he 
 would humble these demons.f I glory 
 in the prospect of suffering for the best of 
 causes. Already I feel in my heart more 
 liberty ; for I now know that the Pope is 
 Antichrist, and that his chair is that of 
 Satan himself." 
 
 It was not merely in Saxony that the 
 thunders of Rome had awakened appre- 
 hension. A private family in Suabia, 
 which had been neutral in the contest, 
 found its peace suddenly disturbed. Bili- 
 bald Pirckheimer, of Nuremberg, one of 
 the most distinguished men of his age, 
 who had lost his beloved wife Crescentia 
 soon after their union, was joined in the 
 closest bonds of affection with his two 
 young sisters, Charitas, abbess of St. 
 Claire, and Clara a nun in the same 
 convent. These two young ladies served 
 God in solitude, and divided their time 
 between study, attendance on the poor, 
 and meditation on eternity. Bilibald, en- 
 gaged in the business of the slate, sought 
 relaxation from public duties in the cor- 
 respondence which he kept up with them. 
 They were learned, read Latin, and 
 studied the Fathers of the Church ; but 
 nothing was so dear to them as the Holy 
 Scriptures. They had never had any 
 other instructor than their brother. The 
 letters of Charitas are distinguished by 
 
 * Venisse eum barbatum, bullatum, numraa- 
 tum — Ridebo et ego bullam sive ainpullam. — 
 (Ep. i. 488.) 
 
 t Utinam Carolus vir esset, et pro Christo hos 
 Satanas aggrederetur. — (Ibid. 494.) 
 
 delicacy and amiable feelings. Full of 
 tender affection for Bilibald, she dreaded 
 the least danger that approached him. 
 Pirckheimer, to re-assure this timid spir- 
 it, composed a dialogue between Charitas 
 and Veritas (Charity and Truth,) in 
 which Veritas endeavours to strengthen 
 Charitas.* Nothing can be more touch- 
 ing, or more fitted to console an affec- 
 tionate and anxious heart. 
 
 What must have been the dismay of 
 Charitas, when a rumour was spread 
 that the name of Bilibald was posted up 
 immediately under the Pope's bull in 
 conjunction with the name of Luther. 
 In fact, Eck, urged on by blind fury, had 
 associated with Luther six of the most 
 distinguished persons in Germany ; 
 namely, Carlstadt, Feldkirchen, and 
 Egranus, who cared very little for his 
 proceedings, and Adelman, Pirkheimer, 
 and his friend Spengler, whose position 
 as public functionaries rendered them 
 peculiarly sensitive to reproach. The 
 agitation was great in the convent of St. 
 Clair. How could the disgrace of Bili- 
 bald be endured % Nothing is more 
 painful to relatives than such trials. 
 Pirckheimer and Spengler wrote to the 
 Pope, affirming that they adhered to the 
 doctrines of Luther only so far as they 
 were in conformity with the Christian 
 faith. Revenge and anger had been evil 
 counsellors to Eck. The reputation of 
 Bilibald and his friends brought the bull 
 against them into discredit ; and their 
 character and their numerous connec- 
 tions increased the general irritation. 
 
 Luther at first pretended to doubt the 
 authenticity of the bull. " I find," said 
 he in his first writing he put forth, " that 
 Eck has brought from Rome another 
 bull, which is so like himself, that it 
 might be named Doctor Eck, — so full is 
 it of falsehood and error. He gives out 
 that it is the Pope's doing ; whereas it is 
 a mere piece of deception." Having al- 
 leged reasons for his doubts, Luther ends 
 by saying : " I require to see with my 
 own eyes the seal, and strings, the very 
 words and signature of the bull, in a 
 word, every thing belonging to it ; oth- 
 erwise I will not care one straw for these 
 outcries."! 
 
 * Pickheimeri Opp. Francof. 
 t Oder nicht ein Haarbreit geben. — (L Opp. 
 (L.) xvii. 323.) 
 
252 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 But no one, not even Luther himself, 
 doubted that the bull was the Pope's. 
 Germany waited to see what the Re- 
 former would do. Would he stand firm 1 
 All eyes were turned towards Wittem- 
 berg. Luther did not keep them long 
 in suspense. He answered by a tremen- 
 dous discharge of artillery, publishing 
 on the 4th of November, 1520, his work 
 "Against the Bull of Antichrist" 
 
 " What numberless errors and frauds," 
 said he, "have crept in among the poor 
 deluded people under cover of the 
 Church and the pretended infallibility 
 of the Pope! how many souls have thus 
 been lost ! how much blood shed ! how 
 many murders committed ! how many 
 kingdoms laid waste !" 
 
 " I can discern all the difference," said 
 he, ironically, " between skill and mal- 
 ice, and I care very little for malice so 
 unskilful. To burn books is an act so 
 easy that even children may perform it ; 
 how much more then the Holy Father 
 and his illustrious doctors.* One would 
 have looked for some more cunning 
 move. Besides, for aught I care, let 
 them destroy my works ! I desire noth- 
 ing better ; for all I wanted was to lead 
 Christians to the Bible, that they might 
 afterwards throw away my writings.! 
 Great God, if we had but a right under- 
 standing of the Holy Scriptures, what 
 need would there be of my books 1 By 
 God's grace, I am free, and bulls can 
 neither soothe nor intimidate me. My 
 strength and my consolation are in a 
 place where neither men nor devils can 
 ever reach them." 
 
 The, tenth proposition of Luther, con- 
 demned by the Pope, was couched in 
 these terms : " A man's sins are not par- 
 doned, unless he believes that they are 
 pardoned when the priest pronounces ab- 
 solution." The Pope, by condemning 
 this proposition, denied that faith was 
 necessary in the sacrament. " They 
 pretend," exclaims Luther, " that we are 
 not to believe that our sins are pardoned, 
 when Ave are absolved by the priest. 
 What then are we to do ? Hear now, 
 O! Christians, this great news from 
 
 * So ist Biicher verbrennen so leicht, dass es 
 auch Kinder konnen, geschweig denn der heilige 
 Vater Pabst . . .—(Ibid. 324.) 
 
 t In Biblien zu fuhren, dass man derselben 
 Verstand-erlangte, und denn meine Biichlein 
 verschwinden liess. — (Ibid.) 
 
 Rome. Condemnation is pronounced 
 against that article of which we profess 
 when we say ' I believe in the Holy Ghost, 
 the Christian Church, and the remission 
 of sins.' If I knew that the Pope had 
 really issued this bull at Rome" (which 
 he did not doubt), " and that it had not 
 been forged by that arch-liar Eck, I 
 would proclaim to all Christians that 
 they ought to hold the Pope as the very 
 Antichrist the Scripture speaks of. And 
 if he would not cease from thus publicly 
 proscribing the faith of the Church, then 
 . . . let the temporal sword itself be op- 
 posed to him, rather than to the Turk ! 
 . . . . For the Turk leaves us free to 
 believe, but the Pope forbids it!" 
 
 Whilst Luther was speaking with so 
 much energy, new dangers were gather- 
 ing. The plan of his enemies was to 
 procure his expulsion from Wittemberg. 
 If Luther could be removed from Wit- 
 temberg, Luther and Wittemberg would 
 both be ruined. One measure would rid 
 Rome of her heretic doctor and of the 
 heretical university. Duke George, the 
 bishop of Merseberg, and the Leipsic 
 theologians were clandestinely labouring 
 for this result* Luther on hearing of it 
 remarked, " I leave the matter in God's 
 hands."f These intrigues were not al- 
 together without effect. Adrian, profes- 
 sor of Hebrew at Wittemberg, suddenly 
 turned against the doctor. It required 
 considerable firmness of faith to bear up 
 against the weight of the Pope's bull. 
 There are some who will go only a cer- 
 tain length with truth. Such was Adrian. 
 Awed by the Pope's sentence he quitted 
 Wittemberg, and repaired to Leipsic to 
 Dr. Eck. 
 
 The bull was beginning to take effect. 
 The word of the Pontiff* of Christendom 
 still carried force. Fire and sword had 
 long since taught submission. The stake 
 was still fixed and the faggots piled at 
 his bidding. Every thing announced 
 that an awful catastrophe was about to 
 put an end to the audacious rebellion of 
 the Augustine monk. The Pope's nun- 
 cios had made urgent representations to 
 the young emperor : Charles declared 
 that he would protect the ancient reli- 
 gion,! an d m some of his hereditary states 
 
 * Ut Wittemberga pellerer. — (L. Epp. i. 5i9.) 
 t Id quod in manum Dei refero. — (Ibid. 520.) 
 I A ministris pontificiis mature pneoccupatus, 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 253 
 
 scaffolds were raised for the purpose of 
 committing the writings of the heretic to 
 the flames. Ecclesiastical dignitaries and 
 counsellors of state attended at these 
 autos-da-fe. Those flames will strike 
 terror in all quarters, said the Roman 
 courtiers. And they did, indeed, carry- 
 fear to many timid and superstitious 
 minds ; but even in the Emperor's here- 
 ditary states, the only part of his domin- 
 ions where the clergy ventured to carry 
 the bull into execution, the people, and 
 sometimes the higher classes often treated 
 these pontifical demonstrations with ridi- 
 cule or indignation. " Luther," said the 
 doctors of Louvain, in an audience with 
 Margaret, who at that time governed the 
 Low Countries, " Luther is undermining 
 the Christian faith." — " Who is this Lu- 
 ther ?" asked the princess. — " An igno- 
 rant monk." — " Well," replied she, " do 
 you who are learned, and so many, write 
 against him. The world will surely be- 
 lieve a company of learned men rather 
 than a single monk of no learning." 
 The doctors of Louvain preferred an 
 easier method. They raised at some ex- 
 pense a vast pile of wood. The multi- 
 tude flocked to the place. Students and 
 citizens were seen making their way 
 through the crowd in great haste, carry- 
 ing under their arms huge volumes 
 which they threw into the flames. Their 
 apparent zeal edified the monks and doc- 
 tors ; but the stratagem was soon after 
 discovered : it was the Sermoncs discipuli, 
 Tariarct, and other scholastic and popish 
 books, which had been thrown into the 
 fire instead of the writings of Luther.* 
 
 The Count of Nassau, viceroy of Hol- 
 land, in reply to the solicitations of the 
 Dominicans, to be permitted to burn the 
 obnoxious books, answered : " Go preach 
 the Gospel as purely as Luther, and you 
 will have no reason to complain of any 
 one." Conversation turning on the Re- 
 former at a banquet at which the great- 
 est princes of the empire were present, 
 the lord of Ravenstein said aloud : 
 " After the lapse of four whole centuries, 
 a single Christian man has stood forth at 
 last, and him the Pope would put to 
 death."f 
 
 declaravit se velle veterom fidem tutari. — (Palla- 
 vicini, i. 80.) 
 
 * Seckend. p. 289. 
 
 t Ea ist in vierhundert Jahren ein christlicher 
 
 Luther, conscious of the strength of his 
 cause, preserved his composure amidst all 
 the tumult excited by the bull.* " Were 
 it not for your exhortations," said he to 
 Spalatin, " I should hold my peace ; as- 
 sured as I am, that it is by the wisdom 
 and the power of God that the work must 
 be accomplished."! Here was the man 
 of a timid spirit urging openness of 
 speech, while the man of native resolu- 
 tion was disposed to remain silent. The 
 reason was, that Luther discerned the 
 operation of a power whose agency was 
 unnoticed by his friend. " Be of good 
 cheer," continued the Reformer, " it was 
 Christ that began all this, — and he will 
 bring it to its appointed issue ; — even 
 though my lot be banishment and death. 
 Jesus Christ is here present ; and He that 
 is in us, is mightier than he that is in the 
 world."!: 
 
 But duty now requires him to speak, 
 that the truth may be made manifest. 
 Rome has assailed him ; it shall be seen 
 whether he shrinks from her blows. The 
 Pope has placed him under the ban of 
 the Church ; he will place the Pope un- 
 der the ban of Christianity. The sen- 
 tence of the Pontiff has hitherto been 
 absolute : he will now oppose sentence 
 to sentence, and the world shall perceive 
 which is the word of power. " For the 
 peace of my own conscience," said he, 
 " I am resolved that men shall no longer 
 remain ignorant of the danger they are 
 in :"§ and forthwith he took steps to re- 
 new his appeal to a general Council. 
 To appeal from the Pope to a council 
 was in itself a crime. It was, therefore, 
 by a fresh violation of the pontifical au- 
 thority, that Luther undertook to exoner- 
 ate himself from the offences already laid 
 to his charge. 
 
 On the 17th of November, a notary 
 and five witnesses, of whom Cruciger 
 was one, assembled at ten o'clock in the 
 morning, in one of the halls of the Au- 
 gustine convent, in which Luther resided. 
 There, — the public functionary, Sarctor 
 von Eisleben, being in readiness to take 
 
 Mann aufgestanden, den will der Pabst todt ha- 
 
 ben. — (Seckend. p. 288.) 
 
 * In bullosis illis tumultibus. — (L. Epp i. 519.) 
 t Rem totam Deo committerem. — (Ibid. 521.) 
 t Christ us ista ccepit, ista perficiet, etiam me 
 
 sive extincte, sive fugato. — (Ibid. 526.) 
 
 § Ut meam conscientiam redimam. — (L. Epp. 
 
 i. 522.) 
 
254 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 a minute of his protest, — the Reformer 
 in a solemn tone of voice spoke as foh 
 lows, in the presence of the witnesses : 
 
 " Forasmuch as a general Council of 
 the Christian Church is superior to the 
 Pope, especially in matters of faith ; 
 
 " Forasmuch as the authority of the 
 Pope is not superior, but inferior to Scrip- 
 ture, and he has no right to slay Christ's 
 sheep, or cast them into the jaws of the 
 wolf; 
 
 " 1, Martin Luther, an Augustine, and 
 Doctor of the Holy Scriptures at Wittem- 
 berg, on my own behalf, and on behalf 
 of such as stand or shall stand on my 
 side, do, by this instrument, appeal from 
 his Holiness, Pope Leo, to a general 
 Christian Council, hereafter to be held. 
 
 " I appeal from the aforesaid Pope 
 Leo ; first, as an unjust, hasty, and op- 
 pressive judge, who condemns me with- 
 out having given me a hearing, and 
 without declaring the grounds of his 
 judgment: — secondly, as a heretic and 
 apostate, misguided, hardened, and con- 
 demned by Holy Writ, who requires me 
 to deny the necessity of Christian faith in 
 the use of the sacraments ;* — thirdly, as 
 an enemy, an Antichrist, an adversary of 
 the Scriptures, and an usurper of their 
 authority.! who presumes to set up his 
 own decrees against all the declarations 
 of the word of God ; — fourthly, as a con- 
 temner, a calumniator, a blasphemer of 
 the Holy Christian Church, and of every 
 free Council, who asserts that a Council 
 is nothing in itself. v 
 
 " Wherefore, I most humbly beseech 
 the most serene, illustrious, excellent, 
 wise, and worthy lords, Charles the Ro- 
 man Emperor, the Electors, princes, 
 counts, barons, knights, gentlemen, cities, 
 and municipalities of the whole German 
 nation, to adhere to this my protest, and 
 unite With me to resist the Antichristian 
 proceedings of the Pope, — for God's glo- 
 ry, in defence of the Church and of the 
 Christian faith, and to uphold the free 
 "Councils of Christendom ; and Christ, 
 our Saviour, will richly reward them by 
 his everlasting grace. But if there be 
 
 * Ab erroneo, indurato, per Scripturas sanctas 
 damnato, hoeretico et apostate — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 
 50.) See also, L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 332. The 
 German copy has a few paragraphs which are 
 not in the Latin. 
 
 f Oppressore totius Sacrse Scripturae. — (L. 
 Opp. lat. ii. 50.) See also, L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 332. 
 
 any who set my entreaties at naught, 
 preferring obedience to the Pope, an im- 
 pious man, — rather than to obey God,* 
 I do hereby disavow all responsibility on 
 their account, having given a faithful 
 warning to their consciences ; and I leave 
 them to the final judgment of God, to- 
 gether with the Pope and all his adher- 
 ents." 
 
 Such was Luther's instrument of di- 
 vorce ; such was his answer to the Pon- 
 tiff's bull. It was a deeply momentous 
 declaration. The charges which he 
 brought against the Pope were of the 
 gravest character, nor were they lightly 
 preferred. The protest was circulated . 
 throughout the whole of Germany, and 
 found its way into most of the courts of 
 Christendom. 
 
 Luther, however, though his recent 
 act might have seemed the very extremi- 
 ty of daring, had another and a still bold- 
 er measure in contemplation. He was 
 determined that in nothing would he be 
 behind Rome. The monk of Wittem- 
 berg shall do all that the Sovereign Pon- 
 tiff ventures to do. Sentence against sen- 
 tence he has already pronounced ; he 
 will now kindle pile for pile. The de- 
 scendant of the Medici and the miner's 
 son have encountered each other in the 
 lists, breast to breast — and while that 
 conflict continues with which the world 
 is destined to resound, not a blow shall 
 be struck by the one combatant that 
 shall not be returned by the other. On 
 the 10th of December, a placard was af- 
 fixed to the walls of the university of 
 W'ittemberg. It contained an invita- 
 tion to the professors and students to re- 
 pair at the hour of nine in the morning 
 to the east gate, beside the Holy Cross. 
 A great number of doctors and youths 
 assembled, and Luther, putting himself 
 at their head, led the procession to the 
 appointed spot. How many piles had 
 Rome kindled during the ages of her do- 
 mination. Luther was now to make a 
 better application of the great Romish 
 principle. It was only of some musty 
 writings that he sought to be rid, and fire 
 he thought could never be employed to 
 better purpose. A scaffold had ahead}' 
 been erected. One of the oldest among 
 the Masters of Arts soon set fire to it. 
 
 * Et papae, impio homini, plus quam Deo ote- 
 diant— (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 332.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 255 
 
 As the flames arose, Luther drew nigh, 
 and cast into the midst of them the Can- 
 on Law, the Decretals, the Clementines, 
 the Extravagants of the Popes, and a 
 portion of the works of Eck and of Era- 
 ser. When these books had been redu- 
 ced to ashes, Luther took the Pope's Bull 
 in his hand, held it up, and said aloud : 
 " Since thou hast afflicted the Lord's 
 Holy One, may fire unquenchable afflict 
 and consume thee !" and thereupon he 
 threw it into the flames. He then with 
 much composure bent his steps towards 
 the city, and the crowd of docters, profes- 
 sors, and students, with loud expressions 
 of applause, returned to Wittemberg in 
 his train. " The Decretals," said Luther, 
 " are like a body whose face is as fair as 
 a virgin's ; but its limbs are forceful as 
 those of the lion, and its tail is that of the 
 wily serpent. In all the papal laws, 
 there is not a single word to teach us 
 what Jesus Christ truly is."* — " My ene- 
 mies," he said again, "by burning my 
 books, may have disparaged the truth in 
 the minds of the common people, and 
 occasioned the loss of souls; for that rea- 
 son I have burned their books in my 
 turn. This is a mighty struggle but just 
 began. Hitherto I have been only jest- 
 ing with the Pope. I entered upon this 
 work in the name of God; — He will 
 bring it to a close without my aid, by 
 his own power. If they dare to burn 
 my books, — of which it is no vain boast 
 to say that they contain more of the Gos- 
 pel than all the Pope's books put togeth- 
 er, I may with far better reason burn 
 theirs, which are wholly worthless." 
 
 Had Luther commenced the Reforma- 
 tion by an act like this, the consequen- 
 ces might have been deplorable. Fa- 
 naticism might have been awakened by 
 it, and the Church forced into a career of 
 disorder and violence. But in the first 
 stages of his task, the Reformer had been 
 satisfied with calmly expounding the 
 doctrines of Scripture. The foundations 
 of the edifice had been cautiously and se- 
 curely laid. In the present posture of 
 affairs, a vigorous blow, such as he had 
 just struck, might not merely be produc- 
 tive of no ill effect ; it might probably 
 hasten the moment when Christianity 
 should rejoice over the downfall of the 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1493—4495. 
 
 power by which the Christian world had 
 so long been held in thraldom. 
 
 Luther by this act distinctly announ 
 ced his separation from the Pope and the 
 Papal Church. After his letter to Leo, 
 such an announcement might in his es- 
 timation be necessary. He now accept- 
 ed the excommunication which Rome 
 had pronounced. He proclaimed in the 
 face of Christendom that between him 
 and the Pope there was war even to the 
 death. Like the Roman who burned 
 the vessels that had conveyed him to the 
 enemy's shore, he left himself no re- 
 source, but to advance and offer battle. " 
 
 We have seen how he re-entered Wit- 
 temberg. On the following morning, 
 the hall of the academy was more than 
 usually crowded. The minds of those 
 that composed the assembly had been 
 excited, a deep solemnity prevailed, the 
 address which the doctor was to deliver 
 was the subject of earnest expectation. 
 He proceeded with a portion of his com- 
 mentary upon the Psalms, which he had 
 begun in the month of March of the pre- 
 ceding year. Having finished his lec- 
 ture, he paused for a few moments, and 
 then he said with great vivacity : " Be 
 on your guard against the laws and stat- 
 utes of the Pope. I have burned the De- 
 cretals, but that is mere child's play. It 
 is time, and more than time, that the 
 Pope himself were burned, — I mean," 
 he immediately subjoined — "the papal 
 chair, with all its false doctrines, and all 
 its abominations." Assuming then a 
 more solemn tone : " If you do not with 
 your whole hearts resist the impious 
 usurpation of the Pope, you cannot be 
 saved. Whosoever takes pleasure in the 
 Popish doctrine and worship will be lost 
 to all eternity in the world to come."* 
 
 " True," added he, " if we reject that 
 false creed, we must expect no less than 
 to encounter every kind of danger — even 
 to the loss of life. But far better it is to 
 expose ourselves to all the perils that 
 this present world can assail us with, 
 than to hold our peace ! So long as my 
 life shall last, I, for my part, will never 
 cease to warn my brethren of the wound 
 and plague of Babylon, lest any of those 
 who now walk with us should slide back 
 like the rest into the pit of hell." 
 
 * Muss ewig in jenem Leben verlohren seyn. 
 — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 333.) 
 
256 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive the effect 
 which was produced upon the auditory 
 by this discourse, with the energy of 
 which we ourselves cannot fail to be 
 struck. " Not a man among us," adds 
 the candid student to whom we are in- 
 debted for its preservation, " unless he be 
 a senseless block (as all the Papists are," 
 he remarks in a parenthesis) — " not a 
 man among us doubts that this is the 
 very truth. It is evident to all the faith- 
 ful, that Doctor Luther is an angel of the 
 living God,* commissioned to lead back 
 the sheep of Christ's flock to the whole- 
 some pastures from which we have wan- 
 dered." 
 
 This discourse, and the act which pre- 
 ceded it, mark an important epoch in the 
 Reformation. In his heart, Luther had 
 been alienated from the Pope by the 
 controversy at Leipsic. But at the mo- 
 ment when he burned the bull, he de- 
 clared in the most explicit manner his 
 separation from the Bishop of Rome, and 
 the Roman Church, and his adherence 
 to the Church universal, as founded by 
 the apostles of Jesus Christ. At the east 
 gate of Wittemberg he kindled a flame 
 which three hundred years have not yet 
 extinguished. 
 
 " The Pope," said he, " has three 
 crowns: — I will shew you why; — the 
 first is against God, for he abrogates re- 
 ligion ; — the second against the Emperor, 
 for he abrogates the secular power; — the 
 third against society at large, for he ab- 
 rogates marriage."! When he was ac- 
 cused of too much violence in his oppo- 
 sition to Popery : — " Oh !" he replied, 
 " were it mine to choose, my testimony 
 against it should be no other than the 
 voice of thunder, and every word should 
 fall like the fiery bolt."| 
 
 This undaunted spirit was rapidly 
 communicated to Luther's friends and 
 fellow-countrymen. The nation rallied 
 round him. Melancthon, about this 
 time, addressed to the States of the Em- 
 pire a discourse which for elegance of 
 style, and strength of reasoning, is wor- 
 thy of its amiable author. It was an 
 answer to a book attributed to Emser, 
 
 * Lutherum esse Dei viventis angelum qui 
 palabundas Cliristi oves paseat. — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 
 123.) 
 
 t L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1313. 
 
 + Und ein jeglich Wort eiiie Donneraxt wiire. 
 —(Ibid. 1350.) 
 
 but published under the name of the 
 Roman theologian Rhadinus. Never 
 had Luther himself spoken with greater 
 energy ; and yet in Melancthon' s com- 
 position there is a grace superadded, 
 which wins its way to the heart. 
 
 After proving, by texts quoted from 
 Scripture, that the Pope is not superior 
 to other bishops ; — " What hinders us," 
 he asks of the States, " from depriving the 
 Pope of the authority with which we 
 have invested him?* It is a matter of 
 small concern to Luther that our wealth 
 — the treasure of Europe — is sent to 
 Rome. What grieves him, and grieves 
 us also, is, that the Papal laws and Pon- 
 tifical dominion entail upon the souls of 
 men, not jeopardy merely, but absolute 
 ruin. Every man may judge for him- 
 self, whether or not it behoves him to de- 
 dicate his money to the maintenance of 
 Romish luxury ; but to form a judgment 
 on matters of religion and the holy mys- 
 teries is beyond the capacity of the mul- 
 titude. On this ground does Luther ap- 
 peal to your faith and to your zeal ; and 
 every pious man, if not openly, at least 
 by secret groans and sighs, joins in the 
 same invocation. Recollect that you are 
 Christians, princes of a Christian nation, 
 and hasten to rescue the piteous wreck 
 of Christianity from the tyrannous hand 
 of Antichrist. They who would per- 
 suade you that you have no jurisdiction 
 over these priests are deceiving you 
 orossly. Let the same spirit that ani- 
 mated Jehu against the priests of Baal, 
 urge you by that memorable example to 
 crush the Romish superstition ; a super- 
 stition more detestable by far than the 
 idolatry of Baal itself"! Such was the 
 language in which the mild Melancthon 
 addressed the princes of Germany. 
 
 Here and there a cry of alarm was 
 raised among the friends of the Refor- 
 mation. Men of feeble character, ever 
 inclined to concession and compromise, 
 and Staupitz, the foremost of this class, 
 gave utterance to sentiments of deep 
 concern. "All that has been done hi- 
 therto," said Luther to him, " has been 
 mere play. Remember what you your- 
 self said ; — if God were not the author of 
 
 * Quid obstat quominus papa? quod dedimus jus 
 adimamus? — fCorp. Reform, i. 337.) 
 
 t Ut extinguaris illam multo tetriorem Baalis 
 idololatria Romanam superstitionem.— (Corp. 
 Ref. i. 337.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520: 
 
 257 
 
 all this, it never could have taken place. 
 The tumult is continually growing more 
 and more tumultuous; nor do I think that it 
 Avill ever be appeased until the last day."* 
 This was Luther's method of encourag- 
 ing the timorous. Three centuries have 
 passed away, and the tumult is not ap- 
 peased yet. 
 
 " The Papacy," continued he, " has 
 ceased to be what it was yesterday and 
 the day before. Excommunicate ane, 
 and burn my writings it may, — aye, and 
 put me to death ! — but that which is 
 now going forward it can never stop. 
 We stand on the very threshold of some 
 wonderful dispensation, f When I burn- 
 ed the bull, it was with inward fear and 
 trembling; but I look back upon that 
 act with more pleasure than upon any 
 passage of my life."! 
 
 Here we cannot but pause, delighted 
 to trace the image of the future' so viv- 
 idly impressed on the mighty mind of the 
 Reformer. "O my father," says he to 
 Staupitz in the conclusion of his letter, 
 " pray for the word of God and for me : 
 I am hurried along by these billows and 
 well nigh overwhelmed."^ 
 
 On every side, then, the battle is now 
 begun. The combatants have flung 
 away their scabbards. The Word of 
 God has reclaimed its rightful authority, 
 and the sentence of deposition has gone 
 forth against him who had usurped the 
 place of God. The agitation pervades 
 every class of the community. In no 
 age has there been a lack of selfish men, 
 who would gladly allow mankind to 
 slumber on in error and corruption ; but 
 those whose hearts are enlarged, however 
 timid by naturnl constitution, think far 
 differently. " We are well aware," says 
 the mild and moderate Melancthon, "that 
 statesmen are averse from all innovation ; 
 and it must be confessed that in this 
 scene of mournful confusion, which we 
 call human life, — controversies, however 
 just the grounds from which they spring, 
 are always chargeable with some mea- 
 
 * Tnmultus egregie tiimultuatur, ut nisi ex- 
 tremo die sedari mini posse non videatur. — (L. 
 Epp. i. 541.) 
 
 t Omninb aliquid portenti prce foribus est. — (L. 
 Epp. i. 543.) What a presentiment of the fu- 
 ture ! 
 
 X . . . primum trepidus et orans, sed nunc la?- 
 tior quam ullo totius vita? mem facto. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Ego fluctibus his rapior et volvor. — (Ibid.) 
 33 
 
 sure of evil. Nevertheless, it is neces- 
 sary that God's word and his command- 
 ments should have preference in the 
 Church, over every earthly interest.* 
 The everlasting anger of God is de- 
 nounced against such as endeavour to 
 suppress the truth. It was Luther's duty, 
 therefore, — a Ciiristian duty from which 
 he could in no way escape, more especi- 
 ally as he held the office of a teacher in 
 the Church, — to reprove those pernicious 
 errors which unprincipled men were so 
 shamefully engaged in diffusing. " If 
 these disputes engender many evils, as, 
 to my great grief," he adds, " I perceive 
 that they do, the fault rests with those 
 who first propagated error, and with those 
 who now, with diabolical malignity, at- 
 tempt to uphold it." 
 
 But this was not the opinion enter- 
 tained by all. Luther was overwhelmed 
 with reproaches, — the storm burst upon 
 him from every quarter. — "He stands 
 alone!" said some. — "He teaches new 
 doctrines !" said others.. 
 
 " Who knows," replied Luther, deeply 
 conscious of the vocation he had received 
 from on high, — " who knows whether 
 God has not called and chosen me for 
 this very purpose,! and whether they 
 who despise me have not reason to fear 
 lest they be found despisers of God him- 
 self. Moses was alone when the Israel- 
 ites were led out of Egypt ; Elijah was 
 alone in the time of King Ahab; Eze- 
 kiel was alone at Babylon. God has 
 never chosen for his prophet either the 
 high-priest or any other person of ex- 
 alted rank ; he has generally chosen men 
 of a mean and low condition, — in the in- 
 stance of Amos, even a simple shepherd. 
 The saints in every age have been called 
 upon to rebuke the great of this world — 
 Kings and princes — priests and scholars 
 — and to fulfil their office at the peril of 
 their lives. Has it not been thus under 
 the New Testament dispensation 1 Am- 
 brose, in his time, stood alone ; after him, 
 Jerome was alone ;— later still Augustine 
 was alone. I say not that I am a pro- 
 phet ]\ but I say that they have the more 
 
 * Sed tamen in Ecclesia necesse est anteferri 
 mandatum Dei omnibus rebus humanis. — (Me- 
 lancth. vit. Lutheri.) 
 
 t Wer weiss ob mich Gott dazu berufen und 
 erwaehlt hat. — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 338.) 
 
 X Ich sage nicht dass Ich ein Prophet sey- — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
258 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 reason to fear, because I am alone and 
 they are many. Of this I am sure, that 
 the Word of God is with me, and that it 
 is not with them." 
 
 " It is asserted also,' ' continues he, •*' that 
 I am bringing forward novelties, and 
 that it is impossible to believe that all 
 other teachers for so long a time have 
 been in error. 
 
 '■ No — these are not novelties that I 
 preach ! — But I affirm that the doctrines 
 of Christianity have been lost sight of by 
 those whose special duty it was to pre- 
 serve them — by the learned — by the 
 bishops. I doubt not, indeed, that the 
 truth has still found an abode in some 
 few hearts, were it only with infants in 
 the cradle.* Poor husbandmen, and sim- 
 ple children, in these days, understand 
 more of Jesus Christ than the Pope, the 
 bishops, or the doctors. 
 
 "I am accused of rejecting the holy 
 doctors of the Church. I reject them not, 
 but since those doctors all labour to prove 
 what they write by the Holy Scriptures, 
 it follows that the Scriptures must be 
 clearer and more conclusive than their 
 writings. Who would ever think of 
 proving what is in itself obscure by the 
 help of something obscurer still % Ne- 
 cessity therefore obliges us to have re- 
 course to the Bible, as all the doctors 
 have done ; and to test their writings by 
 it, — for the Bible is our only rule and 
 standard. 
 
 u But it is further objected that men 
 high in station pursue me with their 
 censures. What then! — do not the 
 Scriptures clearly show that they who 
 persecute are generally in the wrong, 
 and they who suffer persecution in the 
 right, — that the majority has always been 
 on the side of falsehood, and the minori- 
 ty only on the side of truth ? It is the 
 fate of truth to occasion an outcry"f 
 
 Luther then passes under review the 
 various propositions which had been con- 
 demned by the bull as heretical ; and 
 demonstrates their truth by arguments 
 drawn from Holy Scripture. With how 
 much force, in particular, does he main- 
 tain the doctrine of grace ! 
 
 "What !" says he, " shall we say, that 
 nature antecedently to, and unassisted by, 
 
 * Und sollten's eitel Kinder in der Wiege seyn. 
 — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 339.) 
 t Wahrheit hat allezeit rumort.— (Ibid. 340.) 
 
 grace, can hate sin, flee from sin, and re- 
 pent of it, while yet, after grace vouch- 
 safed, that same nature loves sin, seeks 
 it, yearns after it, and never ceases to 
 strive agajnst grace and oppose it, — this 
 being the burden under which the saints 
 are continually groaning. It is as though 
 you were to tell me that some sturdy 
 tree, which my utmost efforts could nev- 
 er bend, would bend of its own accord 
 were it left alone, or that some torrent 
 which dikes and dams were ineffectual 
 to restrain would check its own course 
 if all these impediments were removed. 
 NO ! never shall we attain to repent- 
 ance by considering sin or its conse- 
 quences, but only by fixing our contem- 
 plation on the wounded Saviour, and on 
 the love of which his wounds are the to- 
 ken.* The knowledge of sin must pro- 
 ceed from repentance, — not repentance 
 from the knowledge of sin. That knowl- 
 edge is the fruit, — repentance the tree. 
 In our country the fruit grows on the 
 tree, but in the domain of his Holiness 
 it would seem that the tree grows on 
 the fruit!" 
 
 The intrepid teacher, though protest- 
 ing, yet retracts some of his propositions. 
 Notwithstanding all his protestations, Lu- 
 ther retracts. But our surprise will cease, 
 when we learn the manner of his doing 
 this. After citing the four propositions 
 regarding indulgences which had been 
 condemned by the bull,f he simply 
 adds: 
 
 " In deference to the holy and learned 
 bull, I retract all that I have ever ad- 
 vanced on the subject of Indulgences. 
 If my books deserved to be burned, it 
 was because they contained certain con- 
 cessions to the Pope in respect to that 
 doctrine of indulgences ; on which ac- 
 count I myself now condemn them to 
 the flames." 
 
 Then follows another retractation in re- 
 spect to John Huss : " I now say, not that 
 some of the articles but that ail the arti- 
 cles propounded by John Huss are alto- 
 gether orthodox. The Pope in condemn- 
 ing Huss has condemned the Gospel. I 
 have gone five times as far as he, and 
 yet I greatly fear I have not gone far 
 
 * Man soil zuvor Christum in seine Wimden 
 sehen, und aus denselben seine Liebe gegen uns. 
 — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 351.) 
 
 t The 19th to the 22nd.— (Ibid. 363.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 259 
 
 enough. Huss only says that a wicked 
 Pope is not a member of the Christian 
 Church ; — I, on the other hand, were I 
 now to see St. Peter himself seated in 
 the Roman chair, would deny that he 
 was Pope by God's appointment." 
 
 The powerful language of the Re- 
 former sunk deep into men's minds, and 
 prepared them for enfranchisement. 
 Every word was a living spark help- 
 ing" to spread the flame through the 
 whole nation. But an important ques- 
 tion was yet to be decided. Would the 
 Prince, whose territory Luther inhabit- 
 ed, concur in the execution of the bull, 
 or would he oppose it 1 This question 
 was not easily answered. The Elector, 
 as well as the other princes of the Em- 
 pire, was then at Aix-la-Chapelle. It 
 was there that the crown of Charle- 
 magne was placed on the head of the 
 youngest, and yet the most powerful 
 monarch of Christendom. The pomp 
 and magnificence" displayed on that oc- 
 casion surpassed all previous example. 
 After the ceremony, Charles the Fifth, 
 attended by Frederic and the other 
 princes, by the ministers and ambassa- 
 dors, immediately repaired to Cologne. 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, which had been visited 
 by the plague, seemed to discharge its 
 entire population into that ancient city 
 of the Rhine. 
 
 Among the crowd of strangers who 
 were then received within its walls, were 
 the Pope's two nuncios, Marina Carraci- 
 oli and Hieronymus Aleander. Carraci- 
 oli, who had been employed on a previ- 
 ous embassy to Maximilian, was authoris- 
 ed to congratulate the new Emperor, and 
 to treat with him on affairs of state. But 
 Rome had perceived that in order to 
 bring her measures for the extinction of 
 the Reformation to a successful issue, she 
 must send to Germany a nuncio special- 
 ly charged with that service, and fitted 
 by a peculiar cast of mind, and by a 
 union of dexterity with activity, for its 
 accomplishment. With this view Ale- 
 ander had been selected.* This indi- 
 vidual, who at a later period was invest- 
 ed with the cardinal's purple, was de- 
 scended, it would appear, from a family 
 of considerable antiquity, and not, as some 
 
 * Studium flagrantissimum religionis, ardor 
 idolis . . incredible quanta solertia. — (Pallavicini, 
 i. 84.) 
 
 have reported, from a Jewish stock. The 
 licentious Borgia sent for him to Rome 
 to make him secretary to that son Caesar, 
 at whose very name all Rome trem- 
 bled.* ■ " The master and the servant 
 were well matched," says a contempora- 
 ry writer, thus intimating similarity of 
 character between Aleander and Alex- 
 ander the Sixth. The verdict seems too 
 severe. After the death of Borgia, Al- 
 eander gave himself up to study with 
 renewed ardour. His proficiency in 
 Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic, 
 gained him the credit of being the most 
 learned man of his age. Whatsoever 
 pursuit he engaged in, he devoted him- 
 self to it with his whole heart. The zeal 
 with which he applied himself to the ac- 
 quisition of languages was no less in- 
 tense than that which he afterwards dis- 
 played in persecuting the Reformation. 
 His services were next engaged by Leo 
 the Tenth. Protestant historians speak 
 of his epicurean morals ; Romish histo- 
 rians celebrate his blameless life, f It 
 appears that he was addicted to luxury, 
 to dramatic entertainments, and public 
 shows. " Aleander lives at Venice the 
 life of a grovelling epicurean in high es- 
 tate," said his old friend Erasmus. All 
 reports agree that he was a man of im- 
 perious character, prompt in his actions, 
 ardent, indefatigable, imperious, and de- 
 voted to the Pope. Eck was the fiery 
 and intrepid champion of the schools : 
 Aleander, the haughty envoy of the 
 domineering Vatican. He seemed born 
 to be a Nuncio. 
 
 Rome had every thing in readiness for 
 the destruction of the monk of Wittem- 
 berg. The part which Aleander had to 
 perform as the Pope's representative in 
 the coronation of the Emperor, he re- 
 garded as only a subordinate commission, 
 adapted, however, to promote his main 
 design, by the personal consideration 
 which it necessarily secured for him. 
 But his real office was to persuade 
 Charles to crush the Reformation in its . 
 
 * It was of this son (Caesar) that Capello, the 
 Venitian ambassador at Rome in the year 1500, 
 said : Tutta Roma trema di esso dncha non li 
 faza amazzar. . . — (Extract by Ranke from a 
 manuscript letter in the archives of Vienna.) 
 
 t Er wird iibel als ein gebohrner Jude und 
 schiindlicher Epicurer beschrieben. — (Seckend. 
 288.) Integritas vitas quo. prasnoscebatur. — (Pal- 
 lavicini, i. 84.) 
 
260 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 birth.* " The Pope," said the Nuncio, 
 as he gave the bull into the Emperor's 
 hands, " the Pope, who has measured his 
 strength with so many mighty princes, 
 will find little difficulty in dealing with 
 these grammarians." Under that con- 
 temptuous designation he included Lu- 
 ther, Melancthon, and Erasmus. Eras- 
 mus himself was present at the audi- 
 ence. 
 
 Immediately after his arrival at Co- 
 logne, Aleander, acting in concert with 
 Carracioli, made it the object of his most 
 strenuous efforts that the heretical writ- 
 ings of Luther should be publicly burned 
 in every part of the empire, but more 
 particularly under the eyes of the Ger- 
 man princes assembled in that city. 
 Charles the Fifth had already given his 
 consent, so far as concerned his heredit- 
 ary dominions. The agitation of men's 
 minds in this juncture was extreme. 
 The ministers of Charles and the Nun- 
 cios themselves Were solemnly warned 
 that measures like these, instead of heal- 
 ing the wound, would inflame it. " Do 
 you imagine," they were asked, " that 
 the doctrine taught by Luther exists only 
 in those books which you are now con- 
 demning to the flames ? It is deeply en- 
 graven where you cannot obliterate it — 
 in the hearts of the German nation, f If 
 you mean to employ force, you must 
 give the word for myriads of swords to 
 be unsheathed, and a countless multitude 
 of victims to be slaughtered. Piling a 
 few faggots together to burn a few sheets 
 of paper will be of no avail ; nor does it 
 beseem the dignity of the Emperor, or 
 that of the Sovereign Pontiff, to employ 
 such weapons."^ The Nuncio clung to 
 his faggots notwithstanding. " These 
 flames that we shall kindle," said he, 
 " are a sentence of condemnation written 
 in giant characters, conspicuous far and 
 wide — to the learned and the unlearned 
 — legible even to such as can read no 
 others." 
 
 But after all, the Nuncio cared little 
 about books or papers ; Luther himself 
 was the mark he aimed at. , " These 
 fires," he remarked again, " are not suffi- 
 
 * Cui tota sollicitudo insisteret nascentis hsere- 
 sis evellendse. — (Pallavicini, i. 83.) 
 
 t Altiusque insculptam in mentibu's universal 
 fere Germanise. — (Pallavicini, i. 88.) 
 
 X In vi innumerabilium gladiorum qui infini- 
 tum populum trucidarent . . — (Ibid.) 
 
 cient to purify the pestilential atmosphere 
 of Germany.* Though they may 
 strike terror into the simple-minded, they 
 leave the authors of the mischief unpun- 
 ished. We must have an imperial edict 
 sentencing Luther to death." f 
 
 Aleander found the Emperor less com- 
 pliant when the Reformer's life was de- 
 manded, than he had shown himself be- 
 fore, when his books alone were attacked. 
 
 " Raised as I have been so recently to 
 the throne, I cannot," said Charles, "with- 
 out the advice of my counsellors, and 
 the consent of the Princes of the Em- 
 pire, strike such a blow as this against a 
 faction so numerous and so powerfully 
 protected. Let us first ascertain .what 
 our father, the Elector of Saxony, thinks 
 of the matter; we shall then be prepared 
 to give our answer to the Pope. "J On 
 the Elector, therefore, must the Nuncios 
 now exercise their artifices and the power 
 of their rhetoric. 
 
 On the first Sunday of November, af- 
 ter Frederic had attended mass in the 
 convent of the Cordeliers, Carracioli and 
 Aleander demanded an audience of him. 
 He received them in the presence of the 
 Bishop of Trent and of several of his 
 counsellors. Carracioli opened the in- 
 terview by presenting to the Elector the 
 Pope's brief. Of a milder character than 
 Aleander, he thought it expedient to 
 gain the Prince over, if possible, by fair 
 speeches, and accordingly began by com- 
 plimenting him and his ancestors. " In 
 your Highness," said he, " are reposed all 
 our hopes for the salvation of the Church 
 and the Holy Roman Empire." 
 
 But the impetuous Aleander, resolved 
 to come at once to the point, stepped 
 abruptly forward and interrupted his col- 
 league, who modestly gave way to him.§ 
 " It is to myself and to Eck," said he, 
 "that the affair of friar Martin has been 
 entrusted. Consider the infinite peril into 
 which this man is plunging the Christian 
 commonwealth. Unless a remedy be 
 speedily applied, the fate of the Empire 
 is sealed. Why has the empire of the 
 
 * Non satis ad expurgandum aerem Germanise 
 jam tabificum. — (Pallavicini, i. 89.) 
 
 t Csesaris edictum in caput . . . Lutheri. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Audiamus antea hac in re patrem nostrum 
 Fredericum. — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 117.) 
 
 § Cui ita loquenti de improvise- sese addit Ale- 
 ander . . . — (Ibid.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 261 
 
 Greeks been destroyed, but because they 
 fell away from the Pope 1 You cannot 
 join yourself to Luther without being 
 dissevered from Christ.* In the name 
 of his Holiness, I require of you two 
 things : first, that you cause Luther's 
 writings to be burned ; secondly, that you 
 inflict upon the heretic himself the pun- 
 ishment he deserves, or else that you de- 
 liver him up a prisoner to the Pope.f 
 The Emperor and all the Princes of the 
 Empire have signified their willingness 
 to accede to our demands ; — you alone 
 demur." 
 
 Frederic replied by the mouth of the 
 Bishop of Trent : " This is a matter of 
 too much importance to be decided in- 
 stantly. Our determination in regard to 
 it shall be duly communicated to you." 
 
 The position in which the Elector was 
 placed was a difficult one. To which 
 side shall he incline ?' On the one side are 
 arrayed the Emperor, the Princes of the 
 Empire, and the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 whose authority Frederic, at this' time, 
 has no thought of shaking off; on the 
 other stands a monk, a poor monk, for 
 against Luther alone is this assault lev- 
 elled. The reign of Charles has but just 
 begun. Shall Frederic, the oldest, the 
 wisest of the sovereign princes of Ger- 
 many, be the first to kindle discord in 
 the Empire? And, besides, how shall 
 he forfeit the praise of that devotion 
 which led him in earlier days on his 
 long pilgrimage to the sepulchre of 
 Christ % 
 
 But there were voices raised to plead 
 on the opposite part also. A youthful 
 Prince, who afterwards wore the electoral 
 diadem, and whose reign was signalized 
 by great calamities — John Frederic, the 
 son of Duke John, and nephew of the 
 Elector, having been educated by Spal- 
 atin, and having now attained the age of 
 seventeen, had had his heart deeply im- 
 bued with a love of the truth, and was 
 ardently attached to Luther.J When 
 he saw him pursued by the anathemas 
 of Rome, he embraced his cause with the 
 
 * Non posse cum Luthero conjungi quinsejun- 
 geretur a Christo. — (Pallavicini, i. 86.) 
 
 t Ut de eo supplicium sumeret, val captum 
 pontifici transmitteret. — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 117.) 
 
 X Sonderliche Gunst und Gnade zu mir un- 
 wiirdiglich und den grossen Willen und Lust zu 
 der heiligen gottlichen Wahrheit . . . — (L. Epp. 
 548, to John Frederic, 30th October, 1520. 
 
 fervour of a young Christian, and the 
 spirit of a young Prince. He wrote to 
 the Reformer, and also to his uncle, and 
 with dignified earnestness besought the 
 latter to protect Luther against his ene- 
 mies. On the other hand, Spalatin, — 
 often, it must be confessed, in too timid a 
 strain, — as well as Pontanus, and the 
 other counsellors who were with the 
 Elector at Cologne, represented to the 
 Prince that he could not abandon the 
 Reformer.* 
 
 Amidst this general agitation one man 
 remained unmoved : it was Luther him- 
 self. While his friends were invoking 
 the assistance of the great to save him 
 from destruction, the monk, in his cloister 
 at Wittemberg, had come to the conclu- 
 sion that it was his part, rather, to rescue 
 the great of this world from their immi- 
 nent peril. " If the Gospel," he wrote 
 to Spalatin, " were of such a nature that 
 it must be propagated or supported by 
 earthly potentates, God would not have 
 committed it to the hands of a few fisher- 
 men, f It is not to princes or to Pontiffs 
 that the task is assigned of defending 
 God's word. Enough for them, if they 
 can themselves escape the judgments of 
 the Lord and his Anointed. I speak 
 thus boldly that they may be led to ac- 
 quaint themselves with the divine Word, 
 and may find salvation there." 
 
 What Luther desired was about to be 
 accomplished. The same faith, that 
 worked unseen in the convent of Wit- 
 temberg, was to display its power in the 
 princely halls of Cologne. Frederic's 
 courage, which for a while, perhaps, had 
 faltered, soon rose again to its wonted 
 pitch. He shuddered at the thought of 
 delivering an honest man into the hands 
 of his implacable enemies. " Justice 
 must have precedence even of the Pope :" 
 by this principle would he regulate his 
 conduct. 
 
 On the 4th of November, his counsel- 
 lors intimated in his name, to the papal 
 Nuncios, who had again met in the pres- 
 ence of the Bishop of Trent in the Elec- 
 tor's palace, that his highness had seen 
 with great concern, the advantage which 
 
 * Assiduo flabello ministrorum ill i jugiter sua- 
 dentium ne Lutherum desereret. — (Pallavicini, i. 
 86.) 
 
 t Evangelium si tale esset quod potentatibus 
 mundi aut propagaretur aut servaretur, non illud 
 piscatoribus Deus demandasset. — (L. Epp. i. 521.) 
 
262 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Doctor Eck had taken of his absence, to 
 involve many persons in the sentence of 
 condemnation, who were not particular- 
 ized in the bull ; that since his departure 
 from Saxony, multitudes, very probably, 
 of every class,, the learned as well as the 
 unlearned, the clergy asAvell as the laity, 
 had joined themselves to Luther, and be- 
 come parties to his appeal ;* that neither 
 his Imperial Majesty, nor any one else, 
 had yet made it appear to him that Lu- 
 ther's writings had been refuted, or dem- 
 onstrated to be fit only for the flames ; 
 that he demanded therefore, that Doctor 
 Luther should be furnished with a safe- 
 conduct, and permitted to answer for him- 
 self before a tribunal, composed of learn- 
 ed, pious, and impartial judges. 
 
 After this announcement, Aleander, 
 Carracioli, and their followers withdrew 
 for a while, to hold a consultation.! This 
 was the first occasion on which the Elec- 
 tor had publicly declared his intentions 
 in regard to the Reformer. The Nun- 
 cios had expected him to adopt a very 
 different course. The affair having been 
 brought to that stage in which his con- 
 tinued neutrality would expose him to 
 dangers, the full extent of which no fore- 
 sight could measure, — they thought that 
 he would no longer hesitate to give up 
 the obnoxious monk. So Rome had 
 reasoned. But her machinations were 
 now to be baffled by a power which her 
 calculations had left wholly out of view ; 
 — the love of justice and truth. 
 
 On the re-admission of the Nuncios 
 into the audience chamber, " I should 
 like to know," said the arrogant Alean- 
 der, " what would the Elector think, if 
 one of his subjects were to appeal from 
 his judgment to that of the king of 
 France, or some other foreign sovereign." 
 But perceiving at last, that the Saxon 
 counsellors were not to be wrought upon: 
 " We will execute the bull," said he, " we 
 will pursue and burn the writings of Lu- 
 ther. As for his person," he added, af- 
 fecting a tone of disdainful indifference, 
 " the Pope has little inclination to imbrue 
 his hands in the blood of the unhappy 
 wretch." 
 
 * Ut ingens vis populi doctorum et rudium, 
 sacrorum et profanorum, sese conjunxerint . . . — 
 (L. Opp. lat. ii. 116.) 
 
 t Quo audito Marinus et Aleander seorsim 
 cum suis locuti sunt. — (lb. 117.) 
 
 When the tidings reached Wittemberg. 
 of the reply given by the Elector of the 
 Nuncios, Luther's friends were transport- 
 ed with joy. Melancthon and Amsdorff, 
 in particular, conceived the most sanguine 
 hopes of the future. " The German no- 
 bles," said Melancthon, " will follow the 
 guidance of the Prince whom they re- 
 vere as their Nestor. If Homer styled 
 his aged hero the bulwark of the Greeks, 
 why may not our Frederic be surnamed 
 the bulwark of Germany V* 
 
 Erasmus, the oracle of courts, the ar- 
 biter of schools, the luminary of the age, 
 was then at Cologne. He had been 
 summoned thither by several princes, de- 
 sirous to profit by his counsels. Erasmus, 
 at the epoch of the Reformation, was the 
 leader of that party which held the just 
 mean between the other two ; such at 
 least was his own persuasion, — a mis- 
 taken one, however, — for when truth 
 and error stand in hostile opposition, jus- 
 tice halts not on the middle ground. He 
 was the chief of that philosophical and aca- 
 demic party, which, for centuries, had 
 been attempting to correct the abuses of 
 the Romish Church, but still without 
 success. He was the representative of 
 human wisdom, — a wisdom far too weak 
 to chastise the pride of Popery. The 
 task could be achieved only by the wis- 
 dom of God, which men often deem fool- 
 ishness, but at the voice of which the 
 mountains crumble into dust. Erasmus 
 would neither throw himself into the 
 arms of Luther, nor yet would he crouch 
 at the footstool of the Pope. He wavered, 
 and sometimes lost his balance between 
 the two opposing influences ; ever and 
 anon attracted towards the Reformer, and 
 then again suddenly drawn back into the 
 sphere of Romish delusion. In a letter 
 addressed to Albert, the Archbishop of 
 Mentz, he had declared himself in Lu- 
 ther's favour. "It seems," said he, " as 
 though the last spark of Christian piety 
 were about to be extinguished \ and this 
 it is that has stirred up the heart of Lu- 
 ther ; — his aim is not distinction, nor is 
 he seeking wealth."! But this letter, 
 
 * Homerica appellatione murum Germanis. — 
 (Corp. Ref. i. 272.) 
 
 t Et futurum erat . . . ut tandem prorsus ex- 
 tingueretur ilia scintilla Christianas pietatis ; haee 
 moverunt animum Lutheri ... qui nee hono- 
 res ambit nee pecuniam cupit. — (Erasm. Epp*. 
 Lond. 1642, p. 586.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 263 
 
 which Ulrich Von Hiitten imprudently- 
 published, was the cause of so much an- 
 noyance to Erasmus, that he determined 
 to observe more caution for the future. 
 Moreover, though he lay under the 
 charge, of connivance with Luther, the 
 unmeasured language employed by the 
 latter gave him serious umbrage : " Al- 
 most all good people lean towards Lu- 
 ther,"* he observed, " but I perceive that 
 the affair will end in rebellion .... I 
 do not wish my name to be coupled with 
 his. f It injures me and does him no 
 service."^ " Be it so," replied Luther, 
 " if that displeases you, I promise you 
 that I will never make mention of you, 
 or any of your friends." Such was the 
 man to whom the favourers and the ene- 
 mies of the Reformer, alike addressed 
 themselves. 
 
 The Elector, knowing that the opinion 
 of a man so highly respected as Erasmus 
 would carry great weight with it, re- 
 quested a visit from the illustrious Hol- 
 lander. Erasmus obeyed the invitation 
 on the 5th of December. The friends of 
 Luther regarded the interview with some 
 measure of secret alarm. The Elector 
 was standing before the fire, with Spala- 
 tin by his side, when Erasmus was 
 ushered into the chamber. " What think 
 you of Luther V asked Frederic imme- 
 diately. The prudent Erasmus, sur- 
 prised by the question so suddenly put to 
 him, endeavoured at first to evade a re- 
 ply. He screwed up his mouth, bit his 
 lips, and remained silent. Hereupon the 
 Elector raised his eye-brows,^ (as was his 
 custom, Spalatin tells us, when he meant 
 to force an explicit answer from the per- 
 son with whom he was conversing,) and 
 looked Erasmus steadfastly in the face. 
 The latter, at a loss how to extricate him- 
 self from the difficulty, replied at last, in 
 a half-jocular tone ; " Luther has com- 
 mitted two grievous sins ; he has attack- 
 ed the Pope's crown and the monks' bel- 
 lies." || The Elector smiled, but inti- 
 
 * Favent vero ferme boni omnes. — (Corp. Ref. 
 i. 205.) 
 
 t Er will von mir ungenennt seyn. — (L. Epp. 
 i. 255.) 
 
 t Nam ea res me gravat et Lutherum non sub- 
 levat.— (Corp. Ref. i. 206.) 
 
 § Da sperret accep wahrlich mein gnadigst 
 Herr seine Augen nur wohl auf . . . — (Spalatin 
 Hist. MS. in Seckendorf, p. 291.) 
 
 || Lutherus peccavit in duobus, nempe quod 
 
 mated to his visitor that he was in earn- 
 est. Erasmus then, casting off his reserve, 
 replied as follows : " The origin of all 
 these dissensions is the hatred the monks 
 bear to learning, and the fear that besets 
 them of seeing their tyranny brought to 
 an end. What are the weapons of their 
 warfare against Luther 1 clamour, cabal, 
 malice, and slander. The more virtuous 
 a man is, and the more strongly attached 
 to the doctrines of the Gospel, the less 
 does he find to censure in Luther's pro- 
 ceedings.* The severity of the bull has 
 roused the indignation of all good men ; 
 for they find in it none of the gentleness 
 that befits the Vicar of Christ, t Two 
 universities only, out of the whole num- 
 ber, have condemned Luther ; and even 
 they have condemned without having 
 convicted him. Let them not deceive 
 themselves ; the danger is greater than 
 some persons imagine. There are diffi- 
 culties in their way which will not easily 
 be surmounted.^ To begin the reign of 
 Charles by so unpopular an act as Lu- 
 ther's imprisonment, would be an evil 
 omen for the future. The world is 
 thirsting for gospel truth ;§ let us beware j 
 how we resist so holy a desire. Let the 
 whole question be examined by dispas- 
 sionate and competent judges ; it is the 
 only course that can be followed, con- 
 sistently with the dignity of the Pope 
 himself." 
 
 Such was the language of Erasmus to 
 the Elector. Its frankness may perhaps 
 astonish us ; but Erasmus well knew to 
 whom he was speaking. Spalatin listen- 
 ed to it with delight. When Erasmus 
 took his leave, he accompanied him the 
 whole way to the house of Count von 
 Nuenar, the provost of Cologne, where 
 the illustrious scholar resided. The lat- 
 ter, obeying the impulse of the moment, 
 when he found himself at home, sat 
 down, committed to writing the substance 
 of what he had said to the. Elector, and 
 gave the paper into Spalatin's hands. 
 The fear of Aleander, however, soon took 
 
 etigit coronam pontificis et ventres monachorum. 
 — (See previous part of the volume.) 
 
 * Cum optimus quisque et evangelical doctrinaB 
 proximus dicatur minime offensus Luthero. — 
 (Axiomata Erasmi in L. Opp. lat. ii. 115.) 
 
 t Bulte sevitia probos omnes ofFendit ut indig- 
 na mitissimo Christi vicario. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Urgent ardua negotia. 
 
 § Mundus sitit veritatem evangelicam. — (Ibid.) 
 
264 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 possession of his mind ; the courage he 
 had felt in the presence of the Elector 
 and his chaplain forsook him, and he en- 
 treated Spalatin to let him have that un- 
 guarded paper back again, lest it should 
 fall into the hands of the terrible Nuncio. 
 But it was already too late. 
 
 The Elector, feeling himself strength- 
 ened by the opinion of Erasmus, assumed 
 a more decided tone in his communica- 
 tions with the Emperor.' Erasmus him- 
 self, in several conferences, which (like 
 those granted to Nicodemus of old,) were 
 held at night,* laboured hard to persuade 
 the Imperial counsellors that the whole 
 affair might be referred to the judgment 
 of an impartial tribunal. He probably 
 hoped that he himself might be chosen 
 to decide the controversy which threat- 
 ened to divide the Christian world. His 
 vanity would have found ample gratifi- 
 cation in such an office. But at the same 
 time, that he might not lose his credit at 
 Rome, he wrote to Leo the Tenth, in the 
 most submissive terms, and Leo answer- 
 ed his letters graciously ; a circumstance 
 which was the source of deep mortifica- 
 tion to Aleander.f In his devotion to the 
 Pope's cause, the Nuncio would willing- 
 ly have administered a severe reproof to 
 the Pope himself; for Erasmus gave 
 publicity to the Pontiff's letters, and 
 made them subservient to the confirma- 
 tion of his own credit. Aleander for- 
 warded a remonstrance on this head to 
 the Vatican. The reply he received was 
 to this effect : " Do not appear to per- 
 ceive the evil intentions of the man. 
 Prudence forbids it. We must not close 
 the door of repentance against him. "J 
 
 Charles himself adopted a system of 
 equipoise, which consisted in flattering 
 both the Pope and the Elector, and mani- 
 festing a disposition to lean alternately to 
 the one side or the other, according to 
 the shifting exigency of the moment. 
 His ministers obscurely intimated to Ale- 
 ander the plan which their master was 
 inclined to follow. " The Emperor," 
 said they, " will be regulated in his con- 
 duct towards the Pope, by the tenor of 
 the Pope's conduct towards himself: he 
 
 * Sollicitatis per nocturnosicongressus . . . — 
 
 (Pallavicini, p. 87.) 
 
 t Quce male torquebant. Aleandrum. — (Ibid.) 
 X Prudentis erat consilii hominis pravitatem 
 
 dissimulare. — (Pallavicini, p. 88.) 
 
 does not choose to increase the power of 
 his rivals, particularly that of the king of 
 France."* At these words, the arrogant 
 Nuncio gave vent to his indignation " 
 " What," he replied, " even though the 
 Pope should relinquish his alliance with 
 the Emperor, must the Emperor on that 
 account relinquish his creed t If that be 
 the way in which he means to avenge 
 himself, bid him tremble, — his faithless- 
 ness will be visited on his own head!" 
 But the Imperial diplomatists were not to 
 be intimidated by the Nuncio's threats. 
 
 Yet though the Roman legates had 
 failed to bend the great ones of this world 
 to their will, the inferior agents of the 
 Papacy succeeded in making some im- 
 pression on the lower ranks of men. 
 The myrmidons of Rome had heard the 
 command given by their chief. Many 
 fanatical priests gladly took advantage 
 of the bull to alarm the consciences of 
 their hearers, and many well-meaning 
 but ill-instructed ecclesiastics deemed it a 
 sacred duty to obey the injunctions of 
 the Pope. It was in the confessional 
 that the struggle against Rome had been 
 begun by Luther ;f it was in the con- 
 fessional that Rome now put forth her 
 strength against the adherents of the Re- 
 former. Denied all public recognition 
 of its -validity, the bull, nevertheless, be- 
 came powerfully operative in these soli- 
 tary tribunals. " Have you read the 
 writings of Luther ?" was the question 
 put by the confessor : — ' ; have you them 
 in your possession ? — do you regard them 
 as true or heretical?" And if the peni- 
 tent hesitated to pronounce the prescribed 
 anathema, the priest refused him absolu- 
 tion. The consciences of many were 
 disturbed. Great agitation prevailed 
 amongst the people. This dexterous ex- 
 pedient prolnised fair to bring multitudes 
 once more under the papal yoke, who 
 had but now been won over to the gos- 
 pel Well might Rome rejoice that six 
 centuries before^ she had created a tribu- 
 nal so admirably adapted to secure to the 
 priesthood a despotic sway over the con- 
 science of every Christian. So long as 
 
 * Csesarem ita se gesturum erga Pontificem 
 uti se Pontifex erga Csesarem gereret . . . — (Ibid. 
 91.) 
 
 t See p. 142. 
 
 X In 1215, by the fourth Lateran Council, un- 
 der Innocent the Third. 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 2G5 
 
 that tribunal stands her empire shall not 
 be overthrown. 
 
 Luther was speedily informed of what 
 was going on. With none to aid him in 
 baffling this device, how shall he act ? 
 The Word, the testimony of Holy Writ, 
 loudly and fearlessly proclaimed — this 
 shall be his weapon of defence. The 
 Word shall find access to those troubled 
 consciences, those dismayed hearts, — and 
 they shall be strengthened. A powerful 
 impulse was needed, and powerfully was 
 the voice of Luther lifted up. He ad- 
 dressed the penitents in a tone of intrepid 
 dignity and high-minded contempt for 
 all secondary considerations. " When 
 you are asked," said he, "whether or 
 not you approve of my books, let your 
 answer be — ' You are a confessor, not an 
 inquisitor nor a gaoler. It is my duty 
 to confess whatsoever my conscience 
 prompts me to disclose, it is yours to ab- 
 stain from prying into the secrets of my 
 heart. Give me absolution first, and 
 then dispute with Luther — with the 
 Pope — with whomsoever you please ; 
 but beware of turning the sacrament of 
 penance into an instrument of strife and 
 debate.' And if the confessor should re- 
 fuse to yield," said Luther, "I would dis- 
 pense with his absolution. Be not dis- 
 quieted ; if man absolves you not, God 
 will absolve you. Rejoice, therefore, 
 that you are absolved of God himself, 
 and come forward fearlessly to the sacra- 
 ment of the altar. The priest will have 
 to answer at the last day for the absolu- 
 tion he has withheld. They may deny 
 us the sacrament, but they cannot de- 
 prive us of the strength and grace which 
 God has attached to it. It is not their 
 will, nor any power of theirs, but our 
 own faith that the Lord has made essen- 
 tial to our salvation. The sacrament, — 
 the altar, — the priest, — the church — we 
 may pass them all by ; that word of God 
 which the bull condemned is more than 
 all these things! The soul may dis- 
 pense with the sacrament, but it cannot 
 live without the Word. Christ, the true 
 bishop, will himself supply your spiritual 
 feast."* 
 
 Such was the strain of Luther's exhor- 
 tation. That animating voice pierced 
 the recesses of every dwelling, — of every 
 
 * Und wird dich der reehte Bisehopp Christus 
 seiber speisen. — (L. Opp. lxvii. 563.) 
 34 
 
 troubled bosom, — and courage and faith 
 were everywhere! awakened by its echoes. 
 But it was not enough for him to stand 
 on the defensive, — he felt that he must 
 become the assailant, and return blow for 
 blow. A book had been written against 
 him by a Roman theologian, named 
 Ambrosius Catharinus. " I will rouse 
 the choler of that Italian beast,"* said 
 Luther. He kept his word. In his an- 
 swer, he proved by the revelations of 
 Daniel and St. John, by the Epistlea of 
 St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, that the 
 kingdom of Antichrist, predicted and de- 
 scribed in the Bible, was no other than 
 the Papacy. " I know for certain," said 
 he, in conclusion, " that our Lord Jesus 
 Christ liveth and reigneth. In the 
 strength of that assurance I could face 
 ten thousand Popes, and never shrink. 
 May God visit us at length according to 
 his infinite power, and hasten the day 
 of the glorious coming of his Son, in 
 which he shall destroy that man of sin. 
 And let all the people say, Amen."t 
 
 And all the people did say, Amen ! A 
 sacred dread took possession of every 
 mind. The image of Antichrist seated 
 on the Pontificial throne was present to 
 every imagination. This new idea, so 
 startlingly displayed by Luther to his 
 contemporaries in the glowing colours of 
 prophetic delineation, gave a fearful sliock 
 to the power of Rome. Faith in the di- 
 vine Word succeeded to that unqualified 
 submission which had hitherto been ren- 
 dered to the Church, and the Pope's au- 
 thority, so long regarded with the deep- 
 est reverence, was now the object of gen- 
 eral detestation and terror. 
 
 Germany replied to the Papal bull by 
 saluting Luther with redoubled acclama- 
 tions. The plague had made its appear- 
 ance in Wittemberg, yet new students 
 were continually flocking to the univer- 
 sity, and from five to six hundred disci- 
 ples were statedly assembled to listen to 
 the lectures of Luther and Melanc- 
 thon. The convent chapel and the 
 city church were both too small for the 
 eager crowd that hung on the lips of the 
 Reformer. The prior of the Augustines 
 was in constant alarm, lest the buildings 
 
 * Italicee best'aj bilem movebo. — (L. Epp. i. 
 570.) 
 
 t Ostendat ilium diem adventus gloriae Filii 
 sui quo destruatur iniquus ist. — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 
 162.) 
 
266 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 should give way under the weight of the 
 throngs that filled them.* Nor was this 
 excitement confined within the walls of 
 Wittemberg — all Germany partook of it. 
 From princes, nobles, and scholars, in 
 every quarter, — Luther received letters 
 that spoke the language of encourage- 
 ment and of faith. More than thirty 
 such letters were shown by him to Spal- 
 atin.f 
 
 On one occasion the Margrave of 
 Brandenburg, accompanied by several 
 other princes, came to Wittemberg to pay 
 Luther a visit. " They wanted to see 
 the Man,"! as he himself expresses it. 
 And of a truth all wanted to see the man 
 whose voice stirred the nations and 
 caused the Pontiff of the West to totter 
 on his throne. 
 
 The enthusiasm of Luther's friends 
 grew stronger every day. " O the un- 
 heard-of folly of Emser !" cried Melanc- 
 thon, " that he should presume to mea- 
 sure his strength with our Hercules, over- 
 looking the finger of God in what has 
 been done by Luther,^ even as the king 
 of Egypt overlooked it in the acts of 
 Moses." The mild Melancthon em- 
 ployed 'the most energetic language to 
 urge forward such as appeared to him to 
 be falling back, or pausing in their 
 course. " Luther has arisen to defend 
 the truth," said he, addressing John 
 Hesse, " and dost thou keep silence ? 
 He breathes still — aye and prospers, — in 
 spite of all the wrath and fury of Pope 
 Leo. Remember that it is impossible for 
 Romish impiety to give a sanction to the 
 Gospel. || In this unhappy age how can 
 we hope that a Judas or a Caiaphas, — a 
 Pilate or a Herod will ever be wanting 
 to uphold the evil cause. Stand forth 
 then to resist such adversaries, in the 
 might of God's holy word." 
 
 Besides this, caustic satires against the 
 most conspicuous among the Italian 
 agents of the Pope were circulated 
 
 * Es mochte noch gar die Kirche und Capelle 
 um der Men go willen einfallen. — (Spalatin in 
 Seckend. p. 295.) 
 
 t Mehr als dreyssig Briefe von Fiirsten. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Videre enim hominem voluerunt. — (L. Epp. 
 i. 544. 16 Jan. 1521.) 
 
 § . . Dei digitum esse qua? a Martino fiant. — 
 (Corp. Ref. i. 282.) 
 
 || Non posse Evangelium Romanae impietati 
 probari.— (Corp. Ref. i. 280.) 
 
 through all the provinces of the empire. 
 Ulric Von Hiitten was indefatigable in 
 his exertions. He addressed letters to 
 Luther, to the Legates, to all the most 
 considerable personages of Germany. " I 
 tell thee — once and again I tell thee, O 
 Marinus !" said he in an epistle to the 
 Legate Carracioli, " that those deceitful 
 mists with which you blinded our eyes 
 are scattered for ever : the Gospel is 
 preached, the truth is made known, the 
 absurdities of Rome are given up to con- 
 tempt—your decrees are unheeded and 
 null, — our deliverance is at hand."* 
 
 Not content with the use of prose, 
 Hiitten had recourse also to verse. He 
 published his " Outcry on the Fire raised 
 by Luther y] Appealing in his poem to 
 Christ himself, he besought him to re- 
 buke in his fiery displeasure all who 
 dared to deny his authority. Hiitten 
 was not inclined to stop at words ; — he 
 was eager to draw his sword in the strug- 
 gle. Luther reproved his rash designs. 
 " I would not have the Gospel supported 
 by violence and carnage," said he : " I 
 have written to Hiitten to tell him so. "J 
 
 The celebrated painter Lucas Cranach 
 published a set of prints under the title 
 of Christ' 's Passion and Antichrist : re- 
 presenting on one side the glory and 
 magnificence of the Pope ; on the other 
 the humdiation and sufferings of the 
 Redeemer. Luther composed the in- 
 scriptions for these prints. They pro- 
 duced an unexampled effect. The peo- 
 ple renounced their attachment to a 
 church which appeared in every partic- 
 ular so directly opposed to the example 
 
 * Ablata ilia est a vobis inducta olim nostris 
 oculis caligo . . . praedicatur Evangelium . . . 
 spes est libertatis. — (Ulric ab Hiitten Eques. Mar. 
 Carrac. M. Opp. lat. ii. 176.) 
 
 t ... Quo tu oculos, pie Cbriste, tuos, fron- 
 tisque severa? 
 Tende supercilium, teque esse ostende ne- 
 
 ganti. 
 Qui te contemnunt igitur mediumque to- 
 
 nanti 
 Ostendunt dignitum, tandem iis te ostende 
 
 potentem 
 Te videat ferns ille Leo, te tota malorum 
 Sentiat illuvies, scelerataque Roma tremis- 
 
 cat 
 Ultorem scelerum discant te vhrere saltern 
 Qui regnare negant. 
 
 (In Incendium Lutberanum Exclama- 
 tio Ulrichi Hiitten Equitis, Ibid.) 
 t Nollem vi et ccede pro Evangelio certari ; 
 ita scripsi ad hominum. — (L. Epp. i. 243.) 
 
THE ROMAN BULL, 1520. 
 
 267 
 
 of its founder. "It is an excellent work," 
 said Luther, "for the laity."* 
 
 In some instances those who attacked 
 the Papacy employed weapons ill suited 
 to the sanctity of the Christian character. 
 Emser had answered Luther's work, ad- 
 dressed " To the Goat of Leipsic ;" hy 
 another inscribed, " To the Bull of Wit- 
 temberg ;" the appellation was not ill 
 chosen. But at Magdeburg Emser' s 
 book was hung to the gallows, with this 
 inscription, " The book is worthy of its 
 place," and a rod was hung under it to 
 denote the punishment due to the author, f 
 At Doeblin there was written under the 
 Pope's bull, in, derision of its impotent 
 fury, " The nest is here, but the birds are 
 flown. "+ 
 
 The students of Wittemberg, taking 
 advantage of the carnival, dressed up 
 one of their own number in garments re- 
 sembling those worn by the Pope, and 
 carried him in pompous procession, 
 though in a manner somewhat too ludi- 
 crous, as Luther remarks,^* through the 
 streets of the city. When they reached 
 the great square beside the river, some of 
 them, feigning a mutiny, made a sudden 
 attempt to throw the Pope into the wa- 
 ter. His Holiness, unwilling to submit 
 to the immersion, took to his heels ; his 
 cardinals, his bishops, and familiars of 
 every degree did the same ; the students 
 chased them from street to street, and 
 every corner of Wittemberg enjoyed the 
 spectacle of some Romish dignitary pur- 
 sued by the jeers and shouts of the ex- 
 cited populace. || " The enemy of Christ," 
 says Luther, " who mocks at kings, and 
 at Christ himself, meets but a just re- 
 quital, when he also is turned into mock- 
 ery." Here, in our judgment, he errs; 
 the spotless dignity of truth ought not to 
 be so profaned. In the conflicts she is 
 called upon to wage she needs not such 
 auxiliaries as songs, or the caricatures, or 
 mummeries of a carnival. It may be, 
 
 * Bonus et pro laicis liber. — (Ibid. 571.) 
 
 t In publico infamise loco affixus. — (Ibid. 560.) 
 
 t Das Nest is hie ; die Vogel sind ausgeflogen. 
 
 —(Ibid. 570.) 
 
 § Nimis ludicre Papam personatum circum- 
 
 venerunt sublimem et pompaticum. . . . — (Ibid. 
 
 561.) 
 
 || . . . Fugitivum cum Cardinalibus, Episcopis, 
 
 famulisque suis in diversas partes oppidi disper- 
 
 serunt et insecuti sunt. — (L. Epp. i. 561. 17 Feb. 
 
 1521.) 
 
 indeed, that without these popular de- 
 monstrations, her success would be less 
 apparent : but it would be purer and con- 
 sequently more durable. 
 
 It was not all exultation and defiance, 
 however, with the Reformer. Behind 
 his triumphal chariot, drawn joyously 
 along by enthusiastic and devoted ad- 
 herents, there stood the slave to remind 
 him of impending evil- Some of his 
 friends, at this time, seemed disposed to 
 retrace their. steps. Staupitz, whom he 
 called his father, appeared to be wavering. 
 The Pope had accused him, and Staupiz 
 had declared himself ready to submit to 
 the judgment of His Holiness. " I fear," 
 said Luther, " that by accepting the Pops 
 as your judge, you will seem to renounce 
 me and the doctrines which I have 
 maintained. If Christ loves you, he will 
 constrain you to retract your letter. 
 Christ is rejected, stripped, blasphemed: 
 this is not the time to shrink back, but 
 to sound the onset.* You exhort me to 
 be humble : I, on the other hand, exhort 
 you to be firm ; for you have too much 
 humility, as I have too much pride. I 
 shall be called a proud man, — I know ; — 
 a covetous man, an adulterer, a homicide, 
 an anti-pope, a wretch guilty of every 
 crime. It matters little, — so that no one 
 can charge me with having impiously 
 kept silence while the Lord was com- 
 plaining ; ' / looked on my right hand and 
 beheld ; but there was no man that would 
 know me.' The word of Christ is a 
 word, not of peace, but of the sword. 
 If you will not follow Christ, let me ad- 
 vance alone. I will press forward, and 
 the prize of the high calling shall be 
 mine."f 
 
 Luther thus, like a consummate gen- 
 eral, kept a watchful eye on the face of 
 the battle ; and while fresh combatants 
 were continually rushing forward at his 
 bidding into the thickest of the fight, he 
 failed not to mark where any of his fol- 
 lowers were beginning to give ground ; 
 nor was he slow to rally them again be- 
 neath their adopted standard. His warn- 
 ing voice resounded far and wide. Let- 
 ter followed letter in rapid succession. 
 Three printing presses were incessantly 
 
 * Non enim hie tempus timendi sed clamandi, 
 —(Ibid. 557.) 
 
 t Quod si tu non vis sequi, sine me ire et rapi. 
 — (L. Epp. i. 558.) 
 
268 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 employed in. multiplying the copies of his 
 various writings.* His discourses passed 
 from hand to hand through the whole 
 nation ; — supporting the agitated penitent 
 in the confessional, — giving courage to 
 the faltering convert in the cloister, — and 
 asserting the claims of evangelic truth, 
 even in the abodes of princes. 
 
 " Amid the storms that assailed me," 
 he wrote to the Elector, " I always hoped 
 that I should be permitted to enjoy re- 
 pose at last. But I now see. that this was 
 one of the thoughts of man. Day after 
 day the waves are rolling higher, and on 
 every side the ocean hems me in. Fierce- 
 ly indeed is the tempest raging,f yet I 
 still grasp the sword with one hand, 
 while with the other I build up the walls 
 of Sion."J His former ties are now 
 broken ; the arm that levelled the thun- 
 ders of excommunication against him, 
 has severed them for ever. " Being ex- 
 communicated by the bull," said he, " I 
 am released from the authority of the 
 Pope, and the monastic laws. I embrace 
 my deliverance with joy. Yet I relin- 
 quish not the habit of my order ; nor do 
 I leave the convent."^ And still, in the 
 midst of all this commotion, he recalls to 
 mind the dangers to which his own soul 
 is exposed in the struggle. He feels 
 the necessity of watching over himself. 
 " Thou dost well to pray for me," he 
 wrote to Pelliean, who was residing at 
 Basle ; " I cannot give myself up as I 
 ought to holy exercises ; life is a Cross to 
 me. Thou dost well in exhorting me to 
 moderation ; I feel the need of it ; but I 
 am not master of myself: an impulse, of 
 I know not what nature, hurries me away. 
 I bear enmity to no man ; || but I am so 
 beset with enemies myself, that I cannot 
 be sufficiently on my guard against the 
 seductions of Satan. Pray for me 
 then . . ." 
 
 Thus it was that both the Reformer 
 and the Reformation were led forward 
 on the way which God had marked out 
 
 * Cum tria prcelia solus ego occupare cogar. — 
 (L. Epp. i. 558.) 
 
 t Videns rem tumultuosissimo tumult u tumul- 
 tuante.m. — (Ibid. 546.) 
 
 t Unna manii gladium apprehendens et altera 
 murum sedificatiirus. — (lb. 565.) 
 
 § Ab ordinis et Papse legibus solutus . . . quod 
 gaudeo et amplector. — (L. Epp. i. 568.) 
 
 || . . . Compos mei non sum, rapior nescio quo 
 Bpiritu, eum nemiui me male veile conscius sim. 
 —(Ibid. 555.) 
 
 for them. The agitation was still spread- 
 ing more widely. Persons who might 
 have been expected to prove the staunch- 
 est adherents of the. hierarchy, began 
 now to share in the general movement. 
 " Those even, : ' says Eck, with consider- 
 able candour, " on whom the Pope has 
 conferred the best benefices and the rich- 
 est prebends, are as mute as so many 
 senseless stocks. There are many of 
 them even, who extol Luther as a man 
 filled with the Spirit of God, and call the 
 defenders of the Pope sophists and flat- 
 terers."* The church, apparently in full 
 vigour, supported by the treasures, the 
 power, the armed array of the world, — 
 but in reality exhausted, enfeebled, des- 
 titute of the love of God, of Christian 
 vitality, of devotion to the truth, — found 
 herself, in this condition, opposed to a 
 company of simple-minded but courage- 
 ous men, who had learned that God is 
 with them who contend for his Word, 
 and therefore never doubted of their vic- 
 tory. In all ages it has been seen how 
 great is the power of any predominant 
 idea to work upon the inert mass of man- 
 kind, to rouse the spirit of a nation, and 
 to urge its votaries by thousands, if need 
 be, into the field of battle and the very 
 jaws of death. But if an idea whose 
 origin is earthly has a potency so great, 
 — what limit shall we set to the power 
 of one communicated from above, w T hen 
 God himself has opened men's hearts to 
 receive it? Not often, indeed, in the 
 world's history has such a power been 
 exerted ; it was displayed, however, in 
 the infancy of Christianity, — at the period 
 of the Reformation it was exhibited again, 
 — and it shall be witnessed once more in 
 the latter days. Men who despised the 
 riches and the grandeur of the world, 
 and were content to lead a life of poverty 
 and privation, began now to bestir them- 
 selves for the sake of that most precious 
 of all treasures, the doctrine of truth and 
 grace. Alt the elements of religious feel- 
 ings were fermenting in the agitated bo- 
 som of society, and a glowing enthusiasm 
 was kindled in men's souls, which forced 
 them by an irresistible impulse, into that 
 glorious career opened by the providence 
 of God for the moral renovation of their 
 
 * Reynald, Epist. J. Eekii ad Cardinal Con- 
 tareuum. 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1531. 
 
 2&9 
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 THE DIET OP WORMS. 1521. JANUARY TO MAY. 
 
 Difficulties — Luther Summoned to Worms — Public Opinion — Efforts of Aleander — Fresh Chargei 
 Against Luther — Aleander Rouses Rome — The Bull Fulminated — Luther's Motives — Political 
 Councils — The Confessor — And the Chancellor — Unavailing Manoeuvres — Erasmus's Decla- 
 ration — The Briefs — The Threats — The Audience — Speech of Aleander — Rome's Defence — 
 — Appeal to Charles — Effects of the Nuncio's Speech — Feelings of the Princes — Duke George's 
 Speech — Character of the Reformation — 'Charles Gives Way — Public Opinion — Luther's Seren- 
 ity — Death and no Retractation — Summons — Safe-Conduct — Fears of the Elector — Holy- 
 Thursday at Rome — The Pope and Luther — Luther's Courage — Bugenhagen — Persecution in 
 Pomerania — Amsdorff — Schurff — Hutten to Charles V. — Luther's Farewell — Luther at Weimar 
 — Cavalcade of Erfurth — Justus Jonas — Preaches at Erfnrth — Faith and Works — The People and 
 Luther — Luther to Spalatin — A Stratagem — Luther's Resolution — Enters Worms — Death Song 
 — Capito and the Temporisers — Citation — His Prayer — The Strength of the Reformation — Lu- 
 ther Repairs to the Diet — The Diet — Luther is Encouraged — Luther's Answer — Luther's Pru- 
 dence — The Spaniards — Luther's Vow — Luther Again Before the Diet — Luther's Speech — 
 Requires Proof of Error — A Warning Voice — Repeats his Speech in Latin — New Attempt — 
 Calm in the Midst of Tumult — Duke Eric's Offering — The Elector and Spalatin — The Em- 
 peror's Message — The Safe-Conduct in Danger — Enthusiasm for Luther — Conciliation — Con- 
 course to Luther — Philip- of Hesse — Conference at Abp. of Treves — Wehe's Exhortation — Pri- 
 vate Conversation — Cochlteus's Proposal — Bursting of the Wine Glass — Conference at the Ho- 
 tel — Final Conference with the Archbishop — End of the Negociations — Luther Ordered to Quit 
 Worms — Luther's Departure from Worms — His Letter to Cranach — Luther's Letter to Charles 
 V. — The Curate of Eisenach — Charles Signs the Decree Against Luther — The Edict of Worms 
 — Luther Among his Relations — The Ways of God — The Wartburg — The Reformation Under a 
 Cloud. 
 
 The Reformation engendered by the 
 solitary struggles of a broken and con- 
 trite spirit, in a cell of the convent at Er- 
 furth, had been gaining strength from 
 the moment of its birth. A man of hum- 
 ble station, holding in his hand the Word 
 of life, had stood erect in the presence of 
 earthly dignities, and they had quailed 
 before him. Armed with that Word 
 alone, he had encountered first Tetzel 
 and his numerous host, and after brief 
 resistance those greedy traffickers had 
 been driven from the field ; — then the 
 Roman Legate at Augsburg, and the 
 Legate, in confusion, had suffered his 
 prey to escape ; — then again the learned 
 divines, in the halls of Leipsic, and the 
 astonished theologians had seen the 
 weapons of their scholastic logic shivered 
 in their hands ; — lastly, when the Pope 
 himself had started from his slumbers to 
 launch his fiercest lightnings at the head 
 of the offending monk — that same Word 
 had again been the safeguard of him 
 who trusted in it, and the arm of the 
 spiritual despot had been stricken with 
 palsy. One struggle more was yet to be 
 endured ; for the Word was destined to 
 
 triumph over the Emperor of the West, 
 over the kings and princes of many lands, 
 and at length, having humbled all earthly 
 opposition, to be exalted in the church, 
 and there to reign supreme as the very 
 Word of the living God. 
 
 A solemn diet was about to be con- 
 vened, — the first assembly of the German 
 States since the accession of Charles. 
 Nuremberg, the city in which, by virtue 
 of the Golden Bull, it ought to have been 
 held, was at this time afflicted by the 
 plague ; it was therefore summoned to 
 meet at Worms, on the 6th of January, 
 1521.* Never before had so many 
 princes been present at the Diet ; on this 
 occasion all were desirous of taking a 
 part in the first act of the young Empe- 
 ror's government ; all were ambitious of 
 displaying their own grandeur. Among 
 the rest the young Landgrave Philip 
 of Hesse, who was afterwards to play so 
 important a part in the Reformation, 
 arrived at Worms about the middle of 
 January, with a train of six hundred cav- 
 aliers, many of them highly distinguished 
 for their military prowess. 
 
 * Sleidan, vol. i. 80. 
 
270 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 A more powerful motive, however, 
 had actuated the electors, the dukes, the 
 archbishops, the landgraves, the mar- 
 graves, the counts, the bishops, the bar- 
 ons and lords of the Empire, as well as 
 the deputies of the free cities and the am- 
 bassadors of the various foreign sover- 
 eigns, whose gorgeous retinues were now 
 pouring from every quarter into the city 
 of Worms. Intimation had been given 
 that the Diet would be occupied with the 
 nomination of a Council of Regency to 
 administer the government in the Empe- 
 ror's absence, with the question regarding 
 the j urisdiction of the Imperial Chamber, 
 and with other weighty matters ; but the 
 public attention was chiefly fixed upon a 
 subject distinct from all these, but which 
 the Emperor had also mentioned in his 
 letters of convocation, — namely, the Ref- 
 ormation. The great political interests 
 of state faded into insignificance when 
 contrasted with the cause of the monk of 
 Wittemberg. This was the main topic 
 of discourse among the dignified person- 
 ages who were assembled in Worms. 
 
 Every thing indicated that the Diet 
 would be a difficult and boisterous one. 
 Charles, at this early period, had not yet 
 adopted a decided line of policy, his tutor 
 and first minister died while the assembly 
 was sitting, — many ambitious designs 
 were on foot, — many conflicting passions 
 at work, — the Spaniards and the Flem- 
 ings were striving hard to exclude each 
 other from the confidence of their youth- 
 ful Sovereign, — the Nuncios were busily 
 pursuing their artful schemes, — the Ger- 
 man Princes had assumed a tone of in- 
 dependence. It was easy to foresee that 
 a struggle was at hand in which all the 
 subtleties of party intrigue would find 
 ample exercise.* 
 
 How was Charles to act, between the 
 Papal Nuncio on the one hand, and the 
 Elector to whom he was indebted for his 
 crown on the other ? How avoid giving 
 offence either to Aleander or to Freder- 
 ic 1 The former was continually urging 
 the Emperor to execute the Pope's bull ; 
 the latter as perseveringly entreated him 
 to take no steps against the monk until 
 he should have allowed him a hearing. 
 Desirous of satisfying both these con- 
 tending parties, the young Prince, during 
 
 * Es gieng aber auf diesem Reichstag gar, 
 schlupferig zu. — (Seckend. p. 326.) 
 
 a temporary residence at Oppenheim, had 
 written to the Elector to bring Luther to 
 the Diet, on the assurance that no injus- 
 tice should be practised against him, that 
 he should be protected from all violence, 
 and that a free conference should be. al- 
 lowed him with men qualified to discuss 
 the disputed point. 
 
 This letter from Charles, which was 
 accompanied by others from his minister 
 Chievres and the Count of Nassau, threw 
 the Elector into great perplexity. He 
 well knew that at any moment an alli- 
 ance with the Pope might become neces- 
 sary to the young and ambitious Empe- 
 ror, and that Luther, in that case, would 
 be lost. If he carried the Reformer to 
 Worms, he might probably be conduct- 
 ing him to the scaffold. And yet the 
 Emperor's orders were peremptory. The 
 Elector desired Spalatin to inform Lu- 
 ther of the directions he had received. 
 " Our enemies," observed the chaplain, 
 " are straining every nerve to accomplish 
 their design."* 
 
 The friends of Luther trembled, but 
 he himself partook not of their fears. 
 His health at that time was very weak ; 
 but this he heeded not. " If I cannot 
 perform the journey to Worms as a man 
 in good health," said he in his answer to 
 the Elector, " I will be carried thither in a 
 litter. For since the Emperor has sum- 
 moned me, I can regard it only as the 
 call of God. If they intend to use vio- 
 lence against me, as they probably do, for 
 assuredly it is with no view of gaining 
 information that they require me to ap- 
 pear before them ; I commit the matter 
 into the hands of God. He still lives 
 and reigns who preserved the three Is- 
 raelites in the fiery furnace. If it be not 
 His will to save me, my life is little 
 worth. Let us only take care that the 
 Gospel be not exposed to the insults of 
 the ungodly, and let us shed our blood in 
 its defence rather than allow them to 
 triumph. Who shall say whether my 
 life or my death would contribute most 
 to the salvation of my brethren ? It is 
 not for us to decide. Let us only pray 
 God that our young Empeior may not 
 begin his reign by imbruing his hands 
 in my blood. I would rather perish by 
 the sword of Rome. You remember the 
 
 * Adversaries omnia moliri ad maturandum id 
 negotii. — (L. Epp. i. 534.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 271 
 
 judgments with which the Emperor Sig- 
 ismund was visited after the murder of 
 John Huss. Expect any thing from me 
 but flight or recantation.* Fly I cannot, 
 still less can I recant." 
 
 Before Luther's letter reached him, the 
 Elector had formed his resolution. This 
 Prince, whose acquaintance with the 
 Gospel was daily increasing, began now 
 to adopt a more decided course. He was 
 sensible that the conference at Worms 
 could lead to no advantageous result. 
 " It seems to me," he wrote to the Em- 
 peror, " that to bring Luther with me to 
 Worms, would be an undertaking of 
 much difficulty. I beg to be relieved 
 from it. Moreover, it has never been 
 .my desire to favour his doctrines, but 
 only to prevent him from being con- 
 demned unheard. The Legates, with- 
 out waiting for your sanction, took meas- 
 ures which were injurious both to Lu- 
 ther's honour and to mine ; and I have 
 reason to fear that he has been provoked 
 to an act of imprudent retaliation, which, 
 in the event of his appearance at Worms, 
 might place him in extreme jeopardy." 
 The Elector alluded to the burning of 
 the Pope's bull. 
 
 But the report of Luther's intended ap- 
 pearance had already been circulated at 
 Worms. The seekers after novelty 
 heard it with joy, — the Imperial court- 
 iers with alarm, — but by none was it re- 
 ceived with so indignant a feeling as by 
 the Papal Legate. Aleander, on his way 
 to the Diet, had had opportunities of see- 
 ing to what extent the Gospel proclaim- 
 ed by Luther had found acceptance in 
 every class of society. Academicians, 
 lawyers, nobles, the inferior clergy, many 
 even of the monks, and vast numbers of 
 the common people, had embraced the 
 Reformation.! The adherents of the 
 new doctrines showed a fearless front, 
 their language was frank and firm, — 
 and, on the contrary, an unconquerable 
 terror paralysed the partisans of Rome. 
 The Papacy was standing yet, but those 
 who were regarded as its pillars began 
 to stagger, for their ears had already 
 caught the presages of approaching ru- 
 
 * Omnia de me prssumas prater fugam et 
 palinodiam.— (L. Epp. i. 536.) 
 
 t Multitudo . . . turba pauperum nobilium . . . 
 
 grammatici causidici . . . inferiores ecclesi- 
 
 astici . . . factio multorum regularium . . .— (Pal- 
 lavicini, i. 93.) 
 
 in ; — presages resembling that faint and 
 dubious sound which alone gives brief 
 warning when a mountain totters to its 
 fall.* Aleander, in the course of his 
 journey to Worms, was often subjected 
 to the severest mortification. When he 
 had occasion to halt in any spot for re- 
 freshment or repose, neither collegians, 
 nor nobles, nor priests, even among those 
 believed to be favourable to the Pope's 
 cause, would venture to receive him, and 
 the haughty Nuncio was obliged to seek 
 shelter in the meanest inns.f Alarmed 
 by these symptoms, Aleander concluded 
 that his life was in danger. He arrived 
 at Worms, with that idea uppermost in 
 his mind, and his Roman fanaticism as- 
 sumed additional bitterness from the sense 
 of personal injury. He had immediate 
 recourse to every means within his reach 
 to prevent the audacious appearance of 
 the formidable Luther. " Would it not 
 be a scandal," said he, " to see laymen 
 instituting a fresh enquiry into a cause in 
 which the Pope has already pronounced 
 a sentence of condemnation ?" To a Ro- 
 man courtier nothing could be so unwel- 
 come as an enquiry, — and, moreover, this 
 was to have taken place in Germany, not 
 at Rome, a circumstance in itself deeply 
 affronting, even on the supposition of Lu- 
 ther, being eventually condemned with- 
 out a dissentient voice ; but such result 
 of the trial was uncertain. Might it not 
 be feared that the man whose powerful 
 eloquence had already done such deadly 
 mischief might draw aside many of the 
 princes and lords into the path of perdi- 
 tion ? Aleander's remonstrances with 
 Charles were of the most urgent char- 
 acter, he entreated, he threatened, he 
 spoke in the lofty tone of one who repre- 
 sented the Head of the Church. £ Charles 
 gave way and wrote to the Elector that 
 inasmuch as the time allowed to Luther 
 had expired, he was now in the condition 
 of a man actually excommunicated by 
 the Pope, and consequently, if he would 
 not retract what he had written, Frede- 
 ric must leave him at Wittemberg. But 
 that prince had already commenced his 
 journey without him. " I beseech the 
 
 * Hce omnes conditiones petulanter grassanti- 
 um . . ■ metum cuilibet incutiebant. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Neminem nactus qui auderet ipsum excipere 
 ad vilia sordidaque hospitia segre divertit.— (Ibid.) 
 
 t Legati Romani nolunt ut audiatur homo 
 heereticus. Minantur multa.— (Zw. Epp. p. 157.) 
 
272 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Lord," said Melancthon, when the Elec- 
 tor took his departure, " to deal gracious- 
 ly with our sovereign. On him rest all 
 our hopes for the revival of Christianity. 
 His enemies will stop at nothing, km. 
 
 vavra \1B0v Kivrjzopivoi* but God will bring 
 
 to nought the devices of Ahithophel. As 
 for us, let us perform our part in the con- 
 flict by our teachings and our prayers." 
 Luther was much grieved that he was 
 forbiddden to appear at Worms. f 
 
 It was not enough for Aleander, how- 
 ever, that Luther was prevented from 
 making his appearance at the Diet, — he 
 was bent on obtaining his condemnation. 
 He returned incessantly to the charge 
 with the princes, prelates, and other 
 members oi the assembly ; he charged 
 the Augustine not only with disobedience 
 and heresy, but also with sedition, rebel- 
 lion, impiety, and blasphemy. But the 
 very tones of his voice betrayed the pas- 
 sions by which he was actuated. " Ha- 
 tred and the thirst of vengeance," an ob- 
 server remarked, "are his motives, ra- 
 ther than any true zeal for religion ;"| and 
 in spite of the frequency and the vehe- 
 mence of his harangues he persuaded no 
 one.§ Some reminded him that the 
 Pope's bull had only condemned Luther 
 conditionally ; others allowed indications 
 to escape them of the joy they felt at 
 seeing the pride of Rome brought down. 
 The Emperor's ministers on the one 
 hand, and the ecclesiastical Electors on 
 the other affected extreme coldness, — the 
 former, in order that the Pope might per- 
 ceive the necessity of contracting an alli- 
 ance with their master, the latter that he 
 might be compelled to purchase their 
 co-operation at a higher price. A con- 
 viction of Luther's innocence was the 
 prevailing sentiments in the assembly, 
 and Aleander could not restrain his in- 
 dignation. 
 
 But the coldness of the Diet he couldbet- 
 ter have brooked than the coldness which 
 
 * They will not leave a stone unturned. — 
 (Corp. Ref. i. 279. 24 Jan.) 
 
 t Cum doiore legi novissimas Caroli litteras. — 
 (L. Epp. i. 542.) 
 
 t Magis invidia et vindictae libidine quam zelo 
 pietatis. — (Hist. Joh. Cochlsei de actis et scriptis 
 Martini Lutheri. — Par. 1556.^). 27. verso. — Cocb- 
 laeus was one of Luther's greatest enemies. We 
 shall shortly have to speak of him.) 
 
 § Vehementibus suis orationibus parum pro- 
 movij. — (Cochlseua.) 
 
 was now manifested by Rome. Rome, 
 when at length, with much difficulty, she 
 had been induced to treat the attack of 
 the " drunken German" as a serious mat- 
 ter, never imagined that a bull emanat- 
 ing from the Sovereign Pontiff could fail 
 to reduce him at once to complete and 
 abject submission. — She had relapsed into 
 her former security,* and neither bull 
 nor coin did she now forward to Ger- 
 many. Now, without money, how was 
 it possible to manage an affair like this?f 
 Rome must be roused, and Aleander ac- 
 cordingly sounds the alarm. " Ger- 
 many," he wrote to the Cardinal de 
 Medicis, " is falling away from Rome ; 
 — the princes, I say, are falling away 
 from the Pope. A little more delay — a 
 little more compromise — and the case be- 
 comes hopeless ! — Money ! Money ! or 
 Germany is lost!"J 
 
 At this cry Rome awakes ; the retain- 
 ers of the Papacy assembled in the Vat- 
 ican, cast aside their torpor, and hasten 
 to forge fresh thunders of direful potency. 
 The Pope issues a new bull,§ and that 
 excommunication, with which hitherto 
 the heretical doctor had only been threat- 
 ened, is now decidedly pronounced 
 against him and against all his adherents. 
 Rome, by thus wilfully snapping asun- 
 der the last thread that yet held him to her 
 church, gave Luther more liberty, and 
 consequently more power. Assailed by 
 the papal thunders, he cast himself, with 
 a more ardent love, into the arms of 
 Christ. Driven from the outward tem- 
 ple, he felt more deeply that he was a tem- 
 ple himself, inhabited by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 " It is a glorious thing to think of," 
 said he, " that we sinners, believing in 
 Christ and feeding on his flesh, should 
 have him dwelling in us, — in all his 
 power, his wisdom, and his righteous- 
 ness, — for it is written, Whosoever be- 
 lieveth in me, in him I abide. O wonder- 
 ful abode ! marvellous tabernacle, how far 
 excelling that which was set up by Moses ! 
 within, how magnificently adorned, with 
 costly hangings and purple veils and im- 
 
 * Negligens quaadam securitas Romam perva- 
 serat— (Pallavicini, i. 94.) 
 
 t Nee pecunia ad varios pro eadem sumptus. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Periculum denique amittend® Germania? ex 
 parsimonia monetae cujusdam. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Decet Romanum pontificem, &c. — (Roman. 
 Bullarium.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 273 
 
 f dements of gold ! and yet without, even 
 ike that other tabernacle which God 
 commanded to be erected in the wilder- 
 ness of Sinai there is nothing to be seen 
 but the coarse covering of ram's skins 
 and goat's hair.* Often does the Chris- 
 tian stumble, and in his outward aspect 
 all is weakness and reproach. But 
 what matters it ? — beneath that infirmity 
 and foolishness of his, a power lies hid 
 which the world cannot know, and which 
 yet must overcome the world ; for 
 Christ abideth in him. I have some- 
 times seen Christians halting in their 
 walk, and ready to fall, but when the 
 hour came that they must wrestle with 
 the enemy, or plead their Master's cause 
 before the world, Christ on a sudden 
 stirred within them, and so strong and val- 
 iant did they then become that Satan was 
 dismayed and fled from their presence."! 
 Such an hour as he spoke of was soon 
 to come upon himself; and Christ, who 
 "abode" with him, was then to be his 
 present help. Rome in the meantime 
 cast him off in scorn. The Reformer 
 and all who took part with him, of what- 
 soever rank or degree, were anathema- 
 tized, and were declared to have forfeit- 
 ed for themselves and their descendants, 
 all their honours and their worldly goods. 
 Every faithful Christian was enjoined, as 
 he valued his own soul, to shun all inter- 
 course with that accursed crew ; in every 
 place where the heresy hid gained a 
 footing, it was the duty of the priests on 
 Sundays and holidays, at the hour of 
 high mass, solemnly to publish the sen- 
 tence of excommunication. The sacred 
 vessels and omamenls were to be re- 
 moved from the altar, — the cross to be 
 laid on the ground, — twelve priests, hold- 
 ing torches in their hands, were to light 
 them first, and immediately to dash them 
 down, and extinguish them by trampling 
 them under foot : the bishop was then to 
 proclaim the condemnation of those un- 
 godly men ; the bells were to be tolled; 
 the bishop and the priests in concert were 
 to chant anathemas and maledictions ; 
 and the service was to be concluded by a 
 discourse of unsparing severity against 
 Luther and his adherents. 
 
 * Exodus, xxvi. 7, 14. 
 
 t So renrete sich der Christus, dass sie so fest 
 wurden dass der Tufel flichen inusste. — (L. Opp. 
 ix. 613, on John vi. 56.) 
 35 
 
 Twenty-two days had elapsed since 
 the publication of the sentence at Rome, 
 though it probably had not yet transpired 
 in Germany, when Luther, having heard 
 that it was again in contemplation to 
 summon him to Worms, addressed a let- 
 ter to the Elector, couched in such terms 
 as to give that Prince the option of com- 
 municating it to the Diet. Luther was 
 anxious to correct the erroneous notions 
 entertained by the Princes who composed 
 that august assembly. — and candidly to 
 explain to them the true merits of a 
 cause so little understood. " 1 rejoice 
 with all my heart, most serene Prince," 
 said he. " that his Imperial Majesty is 
 disposed to have this affair brought be- 
 fore him. I call Christ to witness that it 
 is the cause of the German nation, of the 
 Catholic church, of the Christian world, 
 — of God himself, — not the cause of a 
 solitary, humble individual.* i am 
 ready to repair to Worms, provided only 
 that a safe-conduct, and learned, pious, 
 and impartial judges be allowed me. I 
 am ready to answer for myself, — for it is 
 not in the spirit of recklessness, nor for 
 the sake of worldly profit, that I have 
 taught the doctrine which is laid to my 
 charge ; — I have taught it in obedience 
 to my conscience and to my oath as a 
 doctor of the Holy Scriptures ; — for (Jod's 
 glory have I taught it, — for the salva- 
 tion of the Christian Church, — for the 
 good of the German people, — for the 
 rooang out of gross superstition and 
 grievous abuses, — the cure of innumer- 
 able evils, — the wiping away of foul dis- 
 grace, — the overthrow of tyranny, blas- 
 phemy, and impiety in countless forms/ 1 
 
 Tins declaration, made at so critical a 
 moment of Luther's life, deserves to be 
 regarded with deep attention. Here we 
 see the motives by which he was actua- 
 ted, here are the secret springs which 
 gave the first impulse of revival to the 
 Curistian community. We find no traces 
 here of monkish emulation, or a desire to 
 break loose from the restraint of monastic 
 vows. 
 
 But all this was of little moment to 
 mere politicians. An alliance with the 
 Pope was every day becoming more 
 
 * Causam qua!, Christo teste, Dei, christian! 
 orbis, ecclesice catholics? et tot.us Germanics na- 
 tionis. et uon uiiius et privati est hominis. — (L. 
 Epp. i. 511.) 
 
274 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 necessary to the success of Charles's de- 
 signs. Situated as he was between the 
 Pope and the Elector, he could have 
 wished either to separate Frederic from 
 Luther, or to satisfy the Pope without 
 offending Frederic. But how was this 
 to be accomplished ? Many of his cour- 
 tiers treated the whole affair of the Au- 
 gustine monk with that contemptuous 
 indifference which politicians generally 
 affect when the interests of religion are 
 discussed. " Let us avoid all extreme 
 measures," said they. " Let us entangle 
 Luther in negociations, and silence him 
 by the help of some partial concessions. 
 To stifle the flame, not fan it, — is the 
 course of true policy. If the monk fall 
 into the trap, we have gained our object. 
 By accepting a compromise, he will fix a 
 gag on his own mouth and ruin his cause. 
 To save appearances, a few external re- 
 forms must be granted, — the Elector 
 will be satisfied, the Pope will be con- 
 ciliated, and things will go on once more 
 in the ordinary track." 
 
 Such was the plan devised by the con- 
 fidants of the Emperor. 
 
 The doctors of Wittemberg appear to 
 have discovered this new artifice. " They 
 are trying to gain men over secretly," 
 said Melancthon, " and mining in the 
 dark."* John Glapio, the Emperor's 
 confessor, a man in high repute, an adroit 
 courtier, and a wily monk, was charged 
 with the execution of the scheme. Gla- 
 pio possessed the full confidence of 
 Charles, who, adopting in this particular 
 the Spanish custom, abandoned to him 
 almost entirely the care of all matters re- 
 lating to religion. Charles had no soon- 
 er been elevated to the imperial throne, 
 than Leo hastened to gain the good will 
 of Glapio by marks of favour which the 
 confessor warmly acknowledged.! He 
 could not better discharge his debt of 
 gratitude to the Pontiff than by silencing 
 the new-born heresy, and accordingly 
 applied himself to the work. I 
 
 Among the counsellors of the Elector 
 of Saxony, one who held a conspicuous 
 place was Gregory Brack, or Pontanus, 
 a man distinguished for intelligence, de- 
 
 * Blanculum tentent et experiantur . . . — (Corp- 
 Reform, i. 281, 3. Feb.) 
 
 t Benignis officiis recens a Pontifice delinitus 
 ( . . .— (Pallavicini, i. 90.) 
 
 t Et sane in eo toto negotio slngulare probitatis 
 ardorisque specimen debit. — (Ibid.; 
 
 cision, and courage, whose skill in divini- 
 ty might have shamed all the doctors ; 
 while his wisdom was adequate to baffle 
 the united craft of all the monks in the 
 court of Charles the Fifth. Glapio, 
 knowing the influence which the chan- 
 cellor possessed, requested an interview 
 with him, and introducing himself, as 
 though he had been a friend of the Re- 
 former : " I was filled with joy," said he, 
 in a kindly tone, " when I read the first 
 writings of Luther ; I looked upon him 
 as a vigorous tree that had shot forth 
 goodly branches and gave promise to the 
 Church of the most precious fruit. Many 
 others, it is true, had entertained the same 
 views as he : but none had so nobly and 
 undauntedly proclaimed the truth. But 
 when I read his book on the Babylonian 
 Captivity, I felt like a man stunned and 
 overwhelmed by a shower of blows from 
 head to foot. I cannot believe," added 
 the monk, "that brother Martin will 
 avow himself the author of it ; it is mark- 
 ed neither by his peculiar style, nor by 
 the learning he elsewhere evinces." Af- 
 ter some discussion the Confessor con- 
 tinued : " Conduct me to the Elector, and 
 in your presence I will show him where 
 Luther has erred." 
 
 The Chancellor replied that the busi- 
 ness of the Diet left his Highness no lei- 
 sure, and moreover, that he took no part 
 in that affair. The monk, to his great 
 vexation, found his request eluded. 
 "Nevertheless," said the Chancellor, 
 " since you say there is no evil with- 
 out a remedy, be pleased to explain 
 yourself." 
 
 Assuming a confidential air, the Con- 
 fessor answered : " The Emperor ear- 
 nestly desires to see a man like Luther 
 reconciled to the Church ; for his books 
 (before the publication of the treatise on 
 the Babylonian CajJtivitt/) were by no 
 means disagreeable to his Majesty.* 
 That last work of Luther's was, doubt- 
 less, written under the irritation of feel- 
 ing excited by the bull. Let him but 
 declare that he had no intention to dis- 
 turb the peace of the Church, and the 
 learned of every nation will join hands 
 with him. Procure me an audience of 
 his Highness." 
 
 * Es haben dessen Biicher Ihro Majestiit . . . 
 um et was gefallen. — (Archives of Weimar. — 
 Seckend. p. 315.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 275 
 
 The Chancellor waited on the Elec- 
 tor again. Frederic well knew that any 
 retraction whatsoever was impossible. 
 « Tell the Confessor," said he, " that I 
 cannot comply with his wish, but con- 
 tinue your conference with him." 
 
 Glapio received this message with 
 many demonstrations of respect, and shift- 
 ing his ground he said : " Let the Elector 
 name some persons in whom he places 
 confidence to deliberate on this affair." 
 
 The Chancellor. " The Elector does 
 not profess to be Luther's advocate."* 
 
 The Confessor. " Well, then, you 
 and I, at least, can take the matter up. 
 Christ is my witness that I urge this from 
 love to the Church, and to Luther him- 
 self, who has opened so many hearts to 
 the truth." 
 
 The Chancellor having refused to un- 
 dertake a task which properly belonged 
 to the Reformer himself, was about to 
 withdraw. 
 
 " Stay !" said the monk. 
 
 The Chancellor. "What is your 
 wish?" 
 
 The Confessor. " Let Luther deny 
 that he is the author of the Babylonian 
 Captivity." 
 
 The Chancellor. " But the Pope's 
 bull condemns all his other works." 
 
 The Confessor. " That was be- 
 cause of his obstinacy. If he disclaims 
 that book, the Pope, in virtue of his ple- 
 nary authority, can easily reverse the sen- 
 tence of excommunication. What may 
 we not hope for, now that we have so ex- 
 cellent an Emperor ?" 
 
 Perceiving that these words had made 
 some impression on the Chancellor, the 
 monk followed them up by observing: 
 " Luther always wants to argue from the 
 Bible. The Bible — it is like wax, you 
 may stretch and mould it any way that 
 you please. I would undertake to find 
 authority in the Bible for doctrines more 
 extravagant even than Luther's. He 
 runs into error by interpreting every 
 word of Christ as a command." Wish- 
 ing next to act upon the other's fears, he 
 added, ' : What would the issue be, if to- 
 morrow or the next day, the Emperor 
 were to have recourse to arms 1 . . Think 
 of that." 
 
 The Confessor's artifices were not yet 
 
 * Dcr andern das Hertz zu vielem Guten 
 eroffiiet . .—(Ibid.) 
 
 exhausted. " A man might have lived ten 
 years in his company," says Erasmus, 
 " without having fathomed him at last." 
 
 " What an excellent book," said he to 
 the Chancellor on his next visit a few 
 days afterwards, " is that work of Lu- 
 ther's on Christian liberty ! What wis- 
 dom, what learning, what wit does it dis- 
 play ; it is the production of a scholar, 
 indeed ! . . . . Let men of irreproacha- 
 ble character be chosen on both sides, 
 and let the Pope and Luther agree to 
 abide by their judgment. In many ar- 
 ticles it is past a doubt that a decision 
 would be in Luther's favour.* .... I 
 will speak to the Emperor about it my- 
 self. Believe me, I am not without 
 grounds for what I say to you. I have 
 told the Emperor that the chastisements 
 of God would fall upon him and the 
 Princes also, unless the Church, the 
 spouse of Christ, were cleansed from all 
 those stains which now defile her. I 
 told him too, that God had raised up Lu- 
 ther, and given him a commission to re- 
 prove men for their sins, using him as a 
 rod to punish the offences of the world. "f 
 
 These words we may receive as the 
 echo of the popular voice at that period, 
 and as testifying the opinion which was 
 then entertained of Luther, even by his 
 enemies. The Chancellor, roused by 
 what the monk had just said, could not 
 help expressing his surprise that his mas- 
 ter should be treated with so little defer-; 
 ence. " The Emperor holds daily con- 
 sultations on this affair," said he, " and 
 the Elector is invited to none of them. 
 He thinks it strange that the Emperor, 
 to whom he has rendered some service, 
 should exclude him from his councils." 
 
 The Confessor. " I was never pre- 
 sent at any of those deliberations but 
 once, and on that occasion I heard the 
 Emperor resist the importunities of the 
 Legates. Five years hence it will be 
 seen what Charles has done for the Ref- 
 ormation of the Church." 
 
 "The Elector," replied Pontanus, 
 " knows nothing of Luther's intentions. 
 Let him be summoned hither to speak for 
 himself." 
 
 * Es sey nicht zu zweifcln dass Lutherus in 
 vielen Artickeln werde den Sieg davon tragen 
 . . .— (Seckend. p. 319.) 
 
 t Dass Gott dieseu Mann gesandt, . . . dass er 
 eine Geissel seye urn der Siinden willen. — (Wei- 
 | mar Archiv. — Seek. p. 320.) 
 
276 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The Confessor replied, with a deep 
 sigh :* " I call God to witness how ar- 
 dently I desire to see the Reformation of 
 Christendom accomplished." 
 
 To slacken the course of the affair, to 
 keep Luther's mouth closed in the mean 
 time ; this was the sum of what Glapio 
 aimed at. At all events, to prevent Lu- 
 ther from coming to Worms. To the 
 nuncios, the monks, and the rest of the 
 papal phalanx, a dead man returning from 
 the other world, and appearing in the 
 midst of the Diet, would not have been so 
 fearful a spectacle as the bodily presence 
 of the Doctor of Wittemberg. 
 
 " How many days does it take to tra- 
 vel from Wittemberg to Worms ?" in- 
 quired the Confessor in a tone of affected 
 indifference, and immediately departed, 
 having first intreated Pontanus to pre- 
 sent his very respectful salutations to the 
 Elector. 
 
 Such were the stratagems practised by 
 the courtiers. The firmness of Pontanus 
 disconcerted them all. That upright man 
 was unmoved as a rock throughout the 
 whole course of these proceedings. And 
 in the end the monks themselves fell into 
 the snare which they had laid for their 
 enemies. " The Christian," said Luther, 
 in his figurative language, " is like the 
 bird tethered beside a trap. Wolves and 
 foxes prowl around it, and at length 
 spring upon their prey ; but they fall into 
 the pit. and perish there, while that tim- 
 orous bird remains unharmed. Thus it 
 is that we are preserved by the holy An- 
 gels, and those devouring wolves, the 
 hypocrites and persecutors, are restrained 
 from doing us any hurt."f Not only 
 were the artifices of the Confessor un- 
 availing, but the admissions he had made 
 confirmed Frederic in his opinion that 
 Luther was in the right, and that it was 
 his duty to protect him. 
 
 The hearts of men were still inclining 
 more strongly towards the Gospel. A 
 Dominician prior proposed that the Em- 
 peror, the kings of France, Spain, Eng- 
 land, Portugal, Hungary and Poland, the 
 Pope and the Electors, should name re- 
 presentatives, to whom the determina- 
 tion of the controversy should be com- 
 mitted. " A case like this," it was urged, 
 
 * Glapio that hierauf einen tiefen Seufzer, und 
 tufte Gott zum Zeugen. . . — (.Seek. p. 221.) 
 t L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1655. 
 
 " has never been decided by the Pope 
 alone."* Such was the spirit now every 
 where prevalent, that it seemed impossi- 
 ble to condemn Luther without having 
 heard and convicted him.f 
 
 Aleander, in the hight of his alarm, 
 displayed unwonted energy. It was no 
 longer against the Elector and Luther 
 alone that he had to contend. The se- 
 cret negociations of the Confessor, the 
 plan of accommodation proposed by the 
 Dominican, the acquiesence of Charles's 
 ministers, the coldness of Romish piety 
 even among the most devoted friends of 
 the Pontiff, — a coldness which Pallavi- 
 cini likens to that produced by the gush 
 of some icy stream,! — all these circum- 
 stances Aleander viewed with a forebod- 
 ing eyfi. He had at length received 
 from Rome the money he had applied 
 for ; he had in his possession briefs 
 couched in the strongest language, and 
 addressed to the highest authorities in 
 the Empire.^ Fearful lest his victim 
 should escape him, he conceived that 
 now was the time to strike the decisive 
 blow. He forwarded the briefs to the 
 several parties to whom they were di- 
 rected, he scattered silver and gold with 
 an unsparing hand, he lavished the most 
 alluring promises, " and aided by his 
 three-fold machinery," says the Cardinal, 
 whose narrative we follow, " made a fresh 
 effort to draw the wavering assembly to 
 the Pope's side." || For the Emperor he 
 planted his snares with special diligence. 
 He took advantage of the dissensions be- 
 tween the Flemish and Spanish minis- 
 ters. He laid incessant siege to the Sov- 
 ereign's ear. The friends of Rome, 
 waking at his call from their torpor, 
 pressed the youthful Charles with their 
 united solicitations. " Not a day passes," 
 wrote the Elector to his brother John, 
 " but measures hostile to Luther are 
 brought forward ! his enemies now de- 
 mand that he should be placed under the 
 ban of the Pope and the Emperor jointly . 
 
 * Und niemals dem Papst allein geglaubt. — 
 (Seek. p. 323.) 
 
 t Spalatinus scribit tantum favoris Evangelio 
 esse istic ut me. inaiiditum et inconvictum dam- 
 nari non sperct. — (L. Epp. i 556. 9 Feb.) 
 
 t Hinc aqua manabat, quce succensas pietatis 
 sestum resti'nguebat. — (Pallavicini, i. 96.) 
 
 § Mandata, pecuniae et diplomata. — (Ibid. 95.) 
 
 || Triplici hac industria nunc Aleander . . . — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 277 
 
 to injure him by every possible method 
 is their single aim. The men who pa- 
 rade their red hats before us, — the Ro- 
 mans and their followers, pursue this work 
 with an unwearied zeal."* 
 
 Aleander did, in reality, urge the con- 
 demnation of the Reformer with an im- 
 petuosity which Luther himself desig- 
 nates as " incredible fury."f The Apos- 
 tate Nuncio.J as Luther calls him, was on 
 one occasion transported by his anger so 
 far beyond the bounds of caution, that 
 he cried aloud, " If ye seek to shake 
 off your allegiance to Rome, ye Ger- 
 mans ! we will bring things to such a 
 pass, that ye shall unsheath the sword of 
 extermination against each other, and 
 perish in your own blood."^ "It is in 
 this way that the Pope feeds Christ's 
 sheep," observes the Reformer. 
 
 But much unlike this was the language 
 he used himself. For his own sake he 
 asked nothing. " Luther," said Melanc- 
 thon, " is ready to purchase the glory and 
 advancement of the Gospel at the cost of 
 his own life." || But he trembled when he 
 thought of the calamities of which his 
 death might be the signal. He saw a 
 misguided people avenging his martyr- 
 dom, probably by shedding the blood of 
 his adversaries, and especially that of the 
 priests. He deprecated so terrible a re- 
 sponsibility. " God," said he, " is re- 
 straining the fury of his enemies ; but if 
 it break loose . . . then shall we see a 
 storm bursting on the heads of the priests 
 like that which formerly swept over Bo- 
 hemia and laid it waste. I shall not 
 have to answer for this, for I have made 
 it my earnest prayer that the German 
 Princes would oppose the Romans by the 
 wisdom of their council, not by the 
 sioord.% To war against priests a timid 
 and helpless tribe, is to war against wo- 
 men and children." 
 
 Charles the Fifth did not long hold 
 out against the solicitations of the Nun- 
 
 * Das thun die in rothen Hiitten prangen.^ — 
 (Seek. 364.) 
 
 t Miro furore Papistic moliunter mihi mala. — 
 (L. Epp. i. 556.) 
 
 X Nuntius apostaticus ^playing on the word 
 " apostolical,") agit summis viribus. — (Ibid. 569.) 
 
 § Ut mutuis credibus absumpti vestro cruore 
 pereatis. — (Ibid. 556.) 
 
 || Libenter etiam morte sua Evangelii gloriam 
 et profectura emerit. — (Corp. Ref. i. 285.) 
 
 ^ Non ferro, sed consiliis et edictis. — (L. Epp. 
 i. 56.) 
 
 cio. The bigotry he inherited from his 
 Flemish and Spanish ancestors had been, 
 successfully fostered by his preceptor 
 Adrian, who at a later period ascended 
 the Pontifical throne. But it was neces- 
 sary to obtain the concurrence of the 
 State. " Convince the Diet," said the 
 youthful Monarch. This was exactly 
 what Aleander desired ; it was agreed 
 that he should be introduced to the as- 
 sembly on the 13th of February. 
 
 The Nuncio duly prepared himself for 
 that solemn audience. It was a weighty 
 task that had been imposed upon him J 
 but Aleander was worthy to sustain it. 
 He was not merely the Legate and rep- 
 resentative of the Sovereign Pontiff, in- 
 vested with all the outward dignity befit- 
 ting his exalted functions, — he was also 
 one of the most eloquent men of his age. 
 The friends of the Reformation waited 
 the result in some anxiety. The Elec- 
 tor, under the pretext of indisposition, ab- 
 sented himself from the sitting ; but he 
 instructed some of his counsellors to at- 
 tend and to take notes of the Nuncio's 
 discourse. 
 
 On the appointed day, Aleander pro- 
 ceeded to the Imperial Assembly. The 
 feelings -of the people were strongly ex- 
 cited, many called to mind how Annas 
 and Caiaphas had gone to the judgment 
 hall of Pilate to demand the death of 
 him " who perverted the nation.' 1 ' 1 * At 
 the moment when the Nuncio had his 
 foot upon the threshold, the usher of the 
 Diet, says Pallavicini, rudely stepping 
 up to him, set his clenched fist against 
 his breast and thrust him back.f "He 
 was a Lutheran in his heart," adds the 
 Romish historian. If this anecdote is 
 true, it certainly shows an unseemly ex- 
 cess of passion in the individual, but it 
 also enables us to judge how powerful 
 an effect had been produced by Luther's 
 teaching, even among those who kept 
 the doors of the Germanic Council. The 
 high-spirited Aleander, repressing the of- 
 ficer's insolence by his dignified demean- 
 our, walked forward and entered the 
 hall. Never had Rome been summoned 
 to plead her cause before so august an 
 assembly. The Nuncio placed before 
 him such documents as he thought ne- 
 
 * Luke xxiii. 2. 
 
 t . . . Pugnis ejus pectori admotis repulerit. — 
 (Pallavicini, i. 112.) 
 
278 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 cessary to certify the sentence of con- 
 demnation, together with the writings of 
 Luther and the Papal bulls, and then si- 
 lence having been proclaimed in the 
 Diet, he spoke as follows : — 
 
 " Most august Emperor ! most potent 
 Princes ! most excellent Deputies ! I ap- 
 pear before you to advocate the cause 
 which engages the warmest affections 
 of my heart. My office is to guard the 
 ever-hallowed tiara that rests on the 
 brows of my master, to uphold that Pon- 
 tifical throne in whose defence I would 
 gladly deliver my body to the flames, 
 were I only assured that the newly- 
 spawned heresy which I stand forth to 
 denounce would perish along with me.* 
 
 " I deny the assertion that the contro- 
 versy between Luther and Rome is one 
 in which the Pope alone is interested. I 
 have Luther's writings here before me, 
 and any man who has his eyesight may 
 see that they attack the holy doctrines of 
 the Church. He teaches that those 
 alone are worthy communicants whose 
 consciences are filled with sorrow and 
 confusion on account of their sins, and 
 that baptism justifies no one unless he 
 hath faith in that word of promise of 
 which baptism is the pledge, f He de- 
 nies the necessity of good works to quali- 
 fy us for everlasting glory. He denies 
 that Ave have liberty and power to obey 
 the law of nature and the law of God. 
 He affirms that we sin of necessity in all 
 our actions. Have weapons better fitted 
 than these to sever all the ties of morali- 
 ty ever been drawn from the arsenal of 
 hell? 
 
 " He contends for the abrogation of re- 
 ligious vows. What miserable disorder 
 would the world behold, if those who 
 
 * Dummodo mecum una monstrum nascentis 
 haeresis arderet. — (Pallavicini, i. 97.) Secken- 
 dorf, and after him other Protestant historians, 
 have asserted that Pallavicini himself is the au- 
 thor of the speech which he puts into the mouth 
 of Aleander. It is true that the Cardinal admits 
 having moulded it into the shape in which he 
 presents it to his readers ; but he specifies the 
 materials he has used, and among these Alean- 
 der's letters deposited in the archives of the Vati- 
 can.— (Acta Wormatia:, fol. 66 and 99.) I 
 think, therefore, that to reject it altogether would 
 be injudicious. I have collected some additional 
 passages of the speech from other sources, Pro- 
 testant and Romish. 
 
 t Baptismum neminem justificare, sed fidem 
 in verbum promissionis cui additur Baptismus. — 
 (Cochlaeus, Act. Luth. 28.) 
 
 were designed to be the leaven of their 
 race were to cast aside their sacred vest- 
 ments, forsake the temples that once re- 
 sounded with their holy songs, and plunge 
 at once into adultery, incest, and licen- 
 tiousness. 
 
 " Why should I enumerate all the 
 crimes of this audacious monk ? He sins 
 against the dead, for he denies the exist- 
 ence of purgatory ; he sins against heav- 
 en, for he says that he would not believe 
 an angel sent from heaven ; he sins 
 against the church, for he maintains that 
 all Christians are priests : he sins against 
 the saints, for he treats their venerable 
 writings with contempt : he sins against 
 Councils, for he calls the Council of 
 Constance an assembly of devils ; he sins 
 against the secular power, for he forbids 
 the punishment of death to be inflicted 
 on any one who has not committed a 
 mortal sin.* There are people who tell 
 Us he is a man of piety. I will not im- 
 pugn his private character ; I will only 
 remind this assembly that it is a common 
 thing for the devil to deceive men under 
 the appearance of sanctity." 
 
 Aleander next adverted to the decree 
 of the Council of Florence, condemning 
 the doctrine of purgatory, and laid the 
 Pope's bull regarding that council at the 
 Emperor's feet. The Archbishop of 
 Mentz took up the bull and gave it into 
 the hands of the Archbishops of Cologne 
 and Treves, who received it reverently, 
 and handed it to the other Princes. The 
 Nuncio having thus preferred his charge 
 against Luther, proceeded in his second 
 object, the justification of Rome. 
 
 " Luther tells us that at Rome the lips 
 profess what the life belies. If this be 
 true, must not the inference we draw 
 from it be exactly the opposite of his? 
 If the ministers of any religion live in 
 accordance with its precepts, that very to-, 
 ken proves the religion to be false. Such 
 was the religion of the ancient Romans. 
 Such is that of Mahomet, and that of 
 Luther himself; but such is not the reli- 
 gion taught us by the Roman Pontiffs. 
 No ! the doctrine they profess condemns 
 them all as having failed in their duty, 
 many of them as highly blameworthy, 
 some I frankly confess it, as deeply crim- 
 
 * Weil er verbiete jemand mit Todes Strafe 
 zu belegen der nicht eine Todsiinde begangen. — 
 (Seckend. p. 333.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 279 
 
 inal.* .... By that doctrine their ac- 
 tions are delivered over to the censure of 
 men's tongues while they live, to the ex- 
 ecration of history after their death, f 
 Now what pleasure, or what profit, I 
 ask, can the Pontiffs have proposed to 
 themselves in inventing a religion like 
 this? 
 
 '' The Church, we shall be told, in 
 the early ages was not governed by the 
 Roman pontiffs .... and what is the 
 inference here ? If an argument like 
 this is to have any weight, we may next 
 exhort men to feed upon acorns, or 
 princesses of royal blood to go forth and 
 wash their garments by the river side." 
 
 But the Nuncio's main attack was di- 
 rected personally against his antagonist 
 the Reformer. Adverting indignantly 
 to the opinion expressed by some, that 
 Luther ought to be heard : " Luther," 
 cried he, " will allow himself to be set 
 right by no one. Long ago the Pope 
 summoned him to Rome, but he obeyed 
 not the call. The Pope then required 
 him to appear before his Legate at Augs- 
 burg, and he did appear there, when he 
 had obtained a safe-conduct from the 
 Emperor, — that is to say, when the Le- 
 gate's hands were tied, and the use of his 
 tongue alone allowed him. J .... Oh," 
 said Aleander, turning towards Charles, 
 " I beseech your Imperial Majesty not to 
 do that which could only reflect dishon- 
 our upon your name. Meddle not with 
 an affair in which the laity have no right 
 to interpose. Discharge the duty that 
 properly devolves upon you. Let Lu- 
 ther's doctrines be proscribed by your 
 authority throughout the Empire, — let 
 his writings be every where committed 
 to the flames. Shrink not from the path 
 of justice. There is enough in the er- 
 rors of Luther to warrant the burning of 
 a hundred thousand heretics. § And 
 whom have we to fear ? The multitude ? 
 Their insolence makes them formidable 
 while the battle is delayed, but when it 
 comes their cowardice will render them 
 
 * . . . . Multos ut quadantenus reos, nonnullos 
 (dicam ingenue) ut scelestos. — (Pallavicini, i. 
 101.) 
 
 t I^nguarum vituperationi dura vivunt, histo- 
 riarum infamise post mortem. — (Ibid.; 
 
 % Quod idem erat ac revinctis legati brachiis et 
 lingua solum soluta. — (Ibid. 109.) 
 
 § Dass 100,000 Ketzer ihrenthalben verbrannt 
 werden. — (Seek. p. 332.) 
 
 contemptible. Foreign princes? Nay! 
 the King of France has issued an edict 
 to prevent Luther's doctrine from gaining 
 an entrance into his dominions : the 
 King of England is preparing to combat 
 him with his own royal pen. The opin- 
 ion of Hungary, Italy, and Spain, it is 
 for yourself to declare, and there is not 
 one of your neighbours, how great soev- 
 er their hatred against you, who would 
 wish you so much mischief as this here- 
 sy must entail upon you. For if our 
 enemy dwells close beside us, we may, 
 perhaps, desire that the ague should en- 
 ter his house, but not the plague. What 
 are all these Lutherans? A motley rab- 
 ble of insolent grammarians, licentious 
 priests, disorderly monks, ignorant advo- 
 cates, degraded nobles, misled and per- 
 verted plebeians. How greatly superior 
 is the Catholic party in numbers, in in- 
 telligence, in power? An unanimous 
 decree of this illustrious assembly will 
 open the eyes of the simple, show the 
 unwary their danger, determine the wa- 
 vering, and strengthen the weak-hearted. 
 But if the axe be not laid to the root of 
 this venomous plant, — if the death-blow 
 be not dealt against it, — then I behold it 
 covering Christ's heritage with its 
 branches, changing the vineyard of the 
 Lord into a howling wilderness, convert- 
 ing God's kingdom into a haunt of wild 
 beasts ; plunging Germany into the same 
 wretched condition of barbarism and deso- 
 lation to which Asia has been reduced 
 by the superstition of Mahomet." 
 
 The Nuncio concluded his address. 
 He had spoken for three hours. His 
 impetuous eloquence had produced a 
 strong sensation in the assembly. The 
 Princes looked at each other, Cochlceus 
 tells us, with countenances that betrayed 
 excitement and alarm, and murmurs were 
 soon heard to arise from various quarters 
 against Luther and those who supported 
 him.* If the energetic Luther had been 
 present to reply to this address ;— if, 
 takino- advantage of those admissions 
 which the remembrance of the infamous 
 Borgia, his former master, had wrung 
 from the Roman orator, he had shewn 
 that the very arguments by which the 
 Nuncio attempted to defend Rome were 
 
 * Vehementer exterriti atque commoti alter 
 alterum intuebantur atque in Lutherum ejusque 
 fautores murmurare pergunt. — (Cochlasus, p. 28.) 
 
280 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 sufficient to condemn her ; if he had dem- 
 onstrated that the doctrine which bore 
 witness to her iniquity was not that in- 
 vented by her, as the orator had said, but 
 was that pure religion which Christ had 
 given to the world, and which it was the 
 aim of the Reformation to re-establish in 
 its primitive lustre ; if he had drawn a 
 faithful and vivid picture of the errors 
 and abuses of the Papacy, and pointed 
 out how it converted the religion of Jesus 
 Christ into an engine of self-aggrandise- 
 ment and spoliation ; the effect of the 
 Nuncio's harangue would have been 
 utterly and at once destroyed ; — but no 
 one rose to speak. The assembly con- 
 tinued under the influence of the address, 
 and. in the first moments of agitation and 
 excitement, it manifested a strong desire 
 to root out the Lutheran heresy from the 
 soil of the Empire.* 
 
 Nevertheless this victory was won in 
 appearance only. It was the will of God 
 that Rome should have an opportunity 
 of displaying the utmost strength of her 
 cause with her utmost skill. The great- 
 est of her orators had spoken in this as- 
 sembly of Princes ; he had said all that 
 Rome had to say in her own behalf: but 
 to many of those who heard him, this 
 last effort of the Papacy was destined to 
 serve as a sign of its abasement. If the 
 open confession of truth be required to 
 secure its triumph, so also the unreserved 
 exhibition of error is the necessary pre- 
 lude of its overthrow. Neither of them 
 can accomplish its course in secret. The 
 light brings all things to the test. 
 
 A few days were sufficient to efface 
 the impression produced by the speech, — 
 as is always the case when an orator has 
 recourse to high-sounding words to cover 
 the hollowness of his reasoning. The 
 majority of the Princes were ready to 
 sacrifice Luther, but none were disposed 
 to abandon the rights of the Empire, or 
 to suppress the grievances of the Ger- 
 manic nation. They were willing enough 
 to give up the insolent monk who had 
 dared to speak out so plainly ; but their 
 compliance in this particular entitled 
 them, as they thought, to represent to the 
 Pope more urgently the justice of a re- 
 form, demanded by the concurrent voice 
 
 * Lmthernam hseresin esse funditus evellendam. 
 — (Pallavicini ; also Roscoe's Life of Leo X. vol. 
 iv.) 
 
 of the chiefs of the nation. And ac- 
 cordingly it was the most determined of 
 Luther's personal enemies, Duke George 
 of Saxony, who spoke with the greatest 
 earnestness against the encroachments of 
 Rome. This Prince, the grandson of 
 Podiebrad king of Bohemia, though of- 
 fended by the doctrine of grace taught 
 by the Reformer, still looked forward 
 with hope to a Reformation, moral and 
 ecclesiastical. The chief cause of his 
 irritation against the monk of Wittem- 
 berg was, that, by those obnoxious doc- 
 trines of his, he was spoiling the whole 
 affair. But now, when he found the 
 Nuncio studiously involving Luther and 
 the Reformation of the Church in one 
 and the same sentence of condemnation, 
 Duke George suddenly stood up to speak 
 in the assembly of the Princes, to the 
 great astonishment of those who knew 
 his hostility to the Reformer. " The 
 Diet," said he, " must not lose sight of 
 the grievances of which it has to claim 
 redress from the Court of Rome. How 
 numerous are the abuses that have crept 
 into our dominions ! The annats, which 
 the Emperor granted of his free will for 
 the good of religion, now exacted as a 
 due ; the Roman courtiers daily invent- 
 ing new regulations to favour the mo- 
 nopoly, the sale, the leasing out of eccle- 
 siastical benefices ;' a multitude of offen- 
 ces connived at ; a scandalous toleration 
 granted to rich offenders, while those 
 who have not wherewithal to purchase 
 impunity are severely punished ; the 
 Popes continually bestowing reversions 
 and rent charges on the officers of their 
 palace to the prejudice of those to 'whom 
 the benefices rightfully belong ; the ab- 
 beys and convents of Rome given in 
 commendam to cardinals, bishops, and pre- 
 lates, who apply their revenues to their 
 own use, — so that in many convents 
 where there ought to be twenty or thirty 
 monks, not one is to be found : — stations 
 multiplied to excess ; — shops for indul- 
 gences opened in every street and square 
 of our cities, — shops of Saint Anthony, 
 of the Holy Ghost, of Saint Hubert, of 
 Saint Vincent, and I know not how 
 many more ; — societies contracting at 
 Rome for the privilege of setting up this 
 trade, — then purchasing from their bishop 
 the right of exposing their merchandise 
 to sale : and finally to meet all this out- 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 281 
 
 lay of money, squeezing and draining 
 the last coin out of the poor man's purse ; 
 — indulgences which ought to be granted 
 only with a view to the salvation of souls, 
 and procured only by prayer and fasting 
 and works of charity, — sold for a price ; 
 — the officials of the bishops oppressing 
 men of low degree with penances for 
 blasphemy, or adultery, or drunkenness, 
 or profanation of this or that festival, — 
 but never addressing so much as a re- 
 buke to ecclesiastics who are guilty of 
 the same crimes, — penances so devised as 
 to betray the penitent into a repetition of 
 his offence, in order that more money 
 may be exacted from him :* — these are 
 but a few of the abuses which cry out 
 on Rome for redress. All shame is laid 
 aside, and one object alone incessantly 
 pursued, — money ! evermore money ! — 
 so that the very men whose duty it is to 
 disseminate the truth are engaged in 
 nothing but the propagation of falsehood, 
 and yet they are not merely tolerated but 
 rewarded ; — because the more they lie 
 the larger are their gains. This is the 
 foul source from which so many cor- 
 rupted streams flow out on every side. 
 Profligacy and avarice go hand in hand. 
 The officials summon women to their 
 houses on various pretences, and endea- 
 vour, either by threats or by presents, to 
 seduce them, — and if the attempt fails, 
 they ruin their reputation.! Oh! it is 
 the scandal occasioned by the clergy 
 ♦hat plunges so many poor souls into 
 everlasting perdition. A thorough re- 
 form mUst be effected. To accomplish 
 that reform a General Council must be 
 assembled. Wherefore, most excellent 
 Princes and Lords, I respectfully beseech 
 you to give this matter your immediate 
 attention." Duke George then presented 
 a written catalogue of the grievances he 
 had enumerated. This happened a few 
 days after Aleander's address. The im- 
 portant document has been preserved in 
 the archives of Weimar. 
 
 Luther himself had not spoken with 
 greater energy against the abuses of 
 
 * Sondern dass er es bald wieder begehe nnd 
 mehr Geld erlegen miisse. — (Archives of Wei- 
 mar. — Seckend. p. 328.) 
 
 t Das sie Weibesbilder unter mancherley 
 Scheiu beschiken, selbige sodann mit Drohungen 
 und Geschenken zu fallen suchen, oder in einen 
 bosen Verdacht bringen. — (Weimar Archiv. — 
 Seek, p 330.) 
 
 36 
 
 Rome, but he had done something more. 
 The Duke pointed out the evil, — Luther 
 along with the evil had pointed out also 
 its cause and its cure. He had shewn 
 that the sinner receives the true indul- 
 gence,— that remission of sins which 
 comes from God, — solely by faith in the 
 grace and merits of Christ ; — and by this 
 simple yet powerful truth he had over- 
 thrown all the traffic which had been es- 
 tablished by the priests. " How shall a 
 man become holy?" said he one day. 
 " A cordelier will reply : Put on a grey 
 hood and tie a cord round your middle. 
 A Roman will answer, Hear mass and 
 fast. But a Christian will say : Faith in 
 Christ — and that alone — justifies and 
 saves. We must have eternal life before 
 good works. But when we are born 
 anew and made children of God by the 
 word of grace, — then we perform good 
 works."* 
 
 The Duke's language was that of a 
 secular prince ; Luther's that of a true 
 Reformer. The great sin of the Church 
 was that she had. thrown down the bar- 
 riers that separated her from the world, — 
 that she had converted all her operations 
 and all her benefits into external and ma- 
 terial things, in the last stage of her 
 contamination, she had embraced the 
 scheme of indulgences, and the most 
 spiritual blessing that belongs to Chris- 
 tianity, — pardon, — was now to be bought 
 at a stall like food or drink ! Luther's 
 great achievement consisted in this, — 
 that he took advantage of that extremity 
 of degradation into which Christianity 
 had sunk, to lead back individuals and 
 the Church to the original fountain of 
 life, — and to re-establish the supremacy 
 of the Holy Spirit in the sanctuary of 
 the believer's heart. The remedy in 
 this case, as in many others, arose out of 
 the evil itself, and the two extremes 
 touched each other. Henceforward the 
 Church, which for so many ages had 
 been content with an external manifesta- 
 tion by ceremonies and observances and 
 practices of human authority, began 
 once more to seek her developement 
 within, in faith, hope, and charity. 
 
 The Duke's speech produced the 
 greater effect, on account of his well- 
 known opposition to Luther. Other 
 members of the Diet brought forward 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 748. 752. 
 
382 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 other grievances. Even the ecclesiasti- 
 cal princes supported these complaints.* 
 " We have a Pontiff," said they, " who is 
 occupied only with pleasure and the 
 chase ; the church preferment of Ger- 
 many is bestowed at Rome on gunners, 
 falconers, valets, ass-drivers, grooms, 
 guardsmen, and other people of the same 
 stamp, ignorant, inexperienced, and 
 strangers to our nation. "f 
 
 The Diet nominated a Committee to 
 draw up a list of grievances ; the enu- 
 meration extended to a hundred and one. 
 A deputation composed of secular and 
 ecclesiastical princes presented this report 
 to the Emperor, with an earnest request 
 that he would do them right in the mat- 
 ter, — conformably to the engagement he 
 had contracted on his elevation to the 
 throne. " What a loss of Christian 
 souls," said they to Charles, " what injus- 
 tice, what extortion are the daily fruits of 
 those scandalous practices to which the 
 spiritual head of Christendom affords his 
 countenance. The ruin and dishonour of 
 our nation must be averted. We there- 
 fore very humbly, but bery urgently, be- 
 seech you to sanction a general Reforma- 
 tion, to undertake the work, and to carry 
 it through. "J The Christian commu- 
 nity at this period was operated upon by 
 an unknown power, which descended 
 alike on princes and people, — a wisdom 
 from above which exerted its influence 
 even on the adversaries of reform, and 
 prepared the way for that great deliver- 
 ance whose appointed hour was now at 
 hand. 
 
 Charles could not be insensible to the 
 remonstrances of the Imperial Diet. 
 Neither the Nuncio nor the Emperor had 
 anticipated them. The latter immedi- 
 ately withdrew the edict which com- 
 manded Luther's writings to be commit- 
 ted to the flames in every part of the 
 Empire, and issued in its stead a provis- 
 ional order that all copies of those wri- 
 tings should be delivered into the hands 
 of the magistrates. 
 
 This did not satisfy the assembly ; it 
 demanded Luther's appearance. It is 
 
 * Seckend. Vorrede von Frick. 
 
 t Buchsenmeistern, Falknem, Pfistern, Esel- 
 treibern, Stallknechsen, Trabanten . . . Kapps 
 Nachlese niitzl.— (Ref. Urkunden, iii. 262.) 
 
 t Dass eine Besserung und gemeine Reforma- 
 tion geschehe. — (Ibid. 275.) 
 
 unjust, said his friends, to condemn Lu- 
 ther without having heard him, and with- 
 out having ascertained from his own lips 
 that he is the author of those books 
 which it is proposed to burn. His doc- 
 trine, said his adversaries, has taken so 
 fast a hold on men's minds, that it is im- 
 possible to check its progress, unless we 
 allow him a hearing. There shall be no 
 disputing with him ; and in the event of 
 his acknowledging his writings, and re- 
 fusing to retract them, we will all with 
 one accord, Electors, Princes, and States 
 of the holy Empire, in firm adherence to 
 the faith of our ancestors, give your Ma- 
 jesty our unsparing aid to carry your de- 
 crees into full effect.* 
 
 Aleander, disturbed by this proposal, 
 and dreading every thing from Luther's 
 intrepidity and the ignorance of the 
 Princes before whom he would have to 
 plead, made strenuous efforts to prevent 
 his being summoned. After conferring 
 with Charles's ministers, he went to 
 those Princes who were best disposed 
 towards the Pope, and from them to the 
 Emperor himself. f "It is not permit- 
 ted," said he, " to question what the Sov- 
 ereign Pontiff has decreed. There shall 
 be no disputing with Luther, you say ; 
 but how can we be sure," he continued, 
 " that the genius of this audacious man, 
 the fire that flashes from his eyes, the 
 eloquence of his speech, the mysterious 
 spirit that animates him, will not suffice 
 to excite a tumult. J Already there are 
 many who revere him as a saint, and his 
 image is every where to be seen encircled 
 with rays of glory, like those which sur- 
 round the heads of the blessed. If he 
 must needs be cited to appear, beware, at 
 all events, of pledging the public faith 
 for his safety."^ These last words were 
 calculated to intimidate Luther, or to 
 pave the way for his destruction. 
 
 The Nuncio found it easy to influence 
 the grandees of Spain. In the intensity 
 of their fanatic zeal, they panted for the 
 annihilation of the new heresy. Fred- 
 eric, Duke of Alva, in particular, was 
 thrown into a fit of rage, as often as the 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xxii. 567. 
 
 t Quam ob rem sedul6 contestatus est apud 
 CaBsaris administros. — (Pallav. i. 113.) 
 
 X Lingua promptus, adore vultus et oris spiritu 
 ad concitandum seditionem. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Haud certe fidem publicam illi prffibendam 
 — (Pallavicini, i 113.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 283 
 
 Reformation was mentioned.* It would 
 have delighted him to wade knee-deep 
 in the blood of its proselytes. The sum- 
 mons for Luther's appearance was yet 
 suspended, but his name had become a 
 watchword of startling interest in the 
 ears of all the magnates in Christendom 
 then assembled at Worms. 
 
 The man by whom the powers of the 
 earth were thus shaken seemed alone to 
 enjoy peace. The tidings from Worms 
 were alarming ; even Luther's friends 
 were dismayed. " Nothing is left to us 
 but your good will and your prayers," 
 wrote Melancthon to Spalatin. "Oh 
 that God would vouchsafe to make our 
 blood the price of the Christian world's 
 deliverance !"t But Luther, a stranger to 
 all fear, shutting himself up in his quiet 
 cell, fixed his meditations, with an im- 
 mediate reference to his own case, on 
 these ecstatic words of Mary, the mother 
 of Jesus : " 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." \ Let us review some of 
 the thoughts which passed through Lu- 
 ther's heart. '' He that is mighty . . . 
 saith Mary. Oh what boldness of speech 
 in this young virgin ! By a single word 
 she brands all the strong with weakness 
 — all the mighty with faintness — all the 
 wise with folly — and all those whose 
 name is glorious on the earth with dis- 
 grace ; — and casts all strength, all might, 
 all wisdom, all glory, at the feet of God 
 alone. § . . . His arm, she says again, — 
 signifying the power by which he acts 
 of himself, without the aid of any of his 
 creatures, — that mysterious power which 
 operates in secret and in silence until it 
 has accomplished all his will . . . De- 
 struction comes when none has marked 
 its approach — deliverance comes when 
 none has dared to look for it. He 
 leaves his children in oppression and 
 misery, so that every one says within 
 
 * Albse dux videbatur aliquando furentibus mo- 
 llis agitari. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Utinam Deus redimat nostro sanguine salu- 
 tem Christian! populi.— (Corp. Ref. i. 362.) 
 
 t Luke i. 46—55. 
 
 § Magnificat— (L. Opp. Wittemb. Deutsch. 
 Ausg. iii. 11, &c.) 
 
 himself, They are past all hope ! But 
 even then is He strongest ; for when 
 man's strength ends, God's strength be- 
 gins. Only let faith wait upon him . . . 
 And at another time he sutlers his ene- 
 mies to exalt themselves in their pomp 
 and vain-glory. He withdraws from 
 them the succour of his strength, and 
 leaves them to be puffed up with their 
 own.* He empties them of his eternal 
 wisdom, and permits them to be inflated 
 with their own wisdom, which is but for 
 a day ; and then, when the eyes of their 
 fellow men a»e dazzled with their great- 
 ness, God's arm is lifted up, and lo ! the 
 fabric they have been rearing disappears 
 in a moment, like a bubble bursting in 
 the air !" 
 
 It was on the 10th of March, while 
 the imperial city was trembling at his 
 name, that Luther concluded his com- 
 mentary on the Magnificat. 
 
 He was not long to be left undisturbed 
 in his retreat. Spalatin, in obedience to 
 the orders of the Elector, sent him a 
 note of the articles which he would be 
 called on to retract. A retractation after 
 his refusal at Augsburg ! " Never fear," 
 he wrote to Spalatin, " that I will retract 
 a single syllable, since the only argu- 
 ment they have to urge against me is 
 that my writings are at variance with the 
 observances of what they call the Church. 
 If our Emperor Charles sends for me 
 only to retract, my answer shall be that I 
 will remain here, and it will be all the 
 same • as though I had been at Worms 
 and returned again. But if the Empe- 
 ror chooses then to send for me to put 
 me to death as an enemy to the Empire, 
 I shall be ready to obey his summons ;f 
 for, by Christ's help, I will never aban- 
 don his word in the hour of battle. I 
 know that these blood-thirsty men will 
 never rest till they have taken my life. 
 God grant that my death may be laid to 
 the charge of the Papists alone !" 
 
 The Emperor at length had formed his 
 resolution. Luther's appearance before 
 the Diet seemed the only probable meth- 
 od of settling the affair which engross- 
 ed the attention of the Empire. Charles 
 accordingly resolved to cite him to 
 
 * Er zieht seine Kraft heraus und Iasst sie von 
 eigener Kraft sich auf blasen. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Si ad me occidendum deinceps vocare velit 
 . . . offeram me venturum. — (L. Epp. i. 574.) 
 
284 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Worms, but without giving him a safe- 
 conduct. It now became necessary for 
 Frederic once more to assume the part of 
 his protector. The danger which threat- 
 ened the Reformer was obvious to every 
 one. The friends of Luther, Cochlaeus 
 remarks, were afraid that he would be 
 delivered up to the Pope, or that the Em- 
 peror would himself cause him to be put 
 to death as an obstinate heretic, who had 
 forfeited every claim to be treated with 
 good faith.* There was a long and ear- 
 nest debate on this point in the Diet.f 
 Overawed, at last, by the "agitation that 
 prevailed m almost every part of Ger- 
 many, and fearing lest some sudden tu- 
 mult, or some dangerous insurrection^ 
 (in favour of the Reformer, doubtless,) 
 should break out in the course of Luther's 
 journey, the Princes decided that it was 
 expedient to quiet men's minds in regard 
 to his personal safety, and not only the 
 Emperor, but also the Elector of Saxony, 
 Duke George, and the Landgrave of 
 Hesse, through whose territories he had 
 to pass, gave him severally a safe-con- 
 duct. / 
 
 On the 6th of March, 1521, Charles 
 the Fifth affixed his signature to the fol- 
 lowing summons addressed to Luther : — 
 
 " Charles, by the grace of God, Em- 
 peror elect of the Romans, always Au- 
 gust, &c. &c. 
 
 " Worshipful, well-beloved, and godly ! 
 Whereas we and the States of the holy 
 Empire here assembled, have resolved 
 to institute an inquiry touching the doc- 
 trine and writings which thou hast 
 lately put forth, we have on our own be- 
 half and on behalf of the Empire, issued 
 our safe-conduct, hereunto annexed, for 
 thy journey hither and return to a place 
 of security. Our hearty desire is that 
 thou shouldest prepare thyself to set out 
 immediately, so that within the space of 
 twenty-one days fixed by our safe-con- 
 duct thou mayest without fail present 
 thyself before us. Fear no injustice or 
 violence. We Avill steadily abide by 
 our safe-conduct aforesaid, and we ex- 
 pect that thou wilt pay obedience to 
 
 * Tanquam perfido hceretico nulla sit servanda 
 fides.— (Cochlaeus, p. 28.) 
 
 t Longa consultatio difficilisque disceptatlo. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Cum autem grandis ubique per Germaniam 
 fere totam excitata esset . . . animorum commo- 
 tio — (Ibid.) 
 
 our summons. Such is our earnest in- 
 junction. 
 
 " Given in our imperial city of Worms, 
 this 6th day of the month of March, in 
 the year of our Lord 1521, and the sec- 
 ond of our reign, 
 
 " Charles. 
 
 " By order of my Lord the Emperor, 
 under his sign manual, Albert, Cardi- 
 nal of Mentz, Arch-Chancellor. 
 
 " Nicolas ZwylP 
 
 The safe-conduct enclosed in this writ 
 was directed a To the worshipful our 
 well-beloved and godly Doctor Martin 
 Luther, of the order of the Augustines." 
 
 It began thus : 
 
 " We, Charles, the fifth of that name, 
 by the grace of God, Emperor elect of 
 the Romans, always August, King of 
 Spain, of the Two Sicilies, of Jerusalem, 
 of Hungary, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, &c. 
 Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, 
 Count of Hapsburg, of Flanders, of the 
 Tyrol," &c. &c. 
 
 And then this sovereign of so many 
 states intimating that he has cited a cer- 
 tain Augustine monk, named Luther, to 
 appear in his presence, requires all 
 princes, lords, magistrates, and others, to 
 respect the safe-conduct which he has 
 granted to him, under pain of being 
 dealt with as offenders against the Em- 
 peror and the Empire.* 
 
 Thus did the Emperor bestow the ap- 
 pellations of " well-beloved, worshipful, 
 and godly," on a man whom the head 
 of the Church had visited with excom- 
 munication. The phraseology of the 
 instrument was designed to remove all 
 mistrust from the mind of Luther and 
 his friends. Gaspar Sturm was ap- 
 pointed to deliver this missive to the Re- 
 former, and to escort him to Worms. 
 The Elector, fearing some outbreak of 
 popular feeling, wrote on the 12th of 
 March to the magistrates of Wittemberg r 
 desiring them to adopt measures for the 
 safety of the Emperor's officer, and, if 
 necessary, to furnish him with a guard. 
 The herald took his departure. 
 
 Thus was the purpose of God fulfilled'. 
 It was his will that this light, which he had 
 kindled in the world, should be set upon 
 
 * Lucas Cranachs Stammbuch, &c. heraasge- 
 gebenv. Chr. v. Mecheln. p. 12. 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 285 
 
 a hill ; and emperor, kings and princes, 
 were all busily employed — though they 
 knew it not — in executing what He had 
 appointed. It is an easy thing with Him 
 to raise the meanest to dignity. An act 
 of His power, operating through succes- 
 sive years, suffices to lead the offspring 
 of a Saxon peasant from the lowly cot- 
 tage of his childhood to that imperial 
 hall in which assembled sovereigns 
 awaited his coming. In His presence 
 none are either small or great, and when 
 He wills it, Charles and Luther meet on 
 the same level. 
 
 But will Luther obey the summons? 
 His best friends write in uncertainty on 
 this point. "Dr. Martin," wrote the 
 Elector to his brother on the 21st of 
 March, " is cited to appear here ; but I 
 know not whether he will come. I au- 
 gur nothing but mischief." Three weeks 
 later, on the 16th of April, this excellent 
 prince, perceiving that the danger was 
 increasing, wrote again to Duke John as 
 follows : — " A proclamation has been is- 
 sued against Luther. The cardinals and 
 the bishops are very hard upon him.* 
 God grant that this may end well ! 
 Would to Gftd that I could ensure him 
 a favourable hearing !" 
 
 While these things were passing at 
 Worms and Wittemberg, the papacy was 
 renewing its assaults. On the 28th of 
 March, which was the Thursday before 
 Easter, all Rome resounded with a sol- 
 emn sentence of excommunication. It is 
 the custom at this season to publish the 
 terrible bull in coma Domini, which is 
 nothing but a long string of imprecations. 
 On the day of which we speak, the ap : 
 proaches to the church in which the Sov- 
 ereigo Pontiff was to officiate in person, 
 were filled at an early hour by the Papal 
 guard, and by a vast multitude that had 
 Hocked together from all parts of Italy to 
 receive the benediction of the Holy Fa- 
 ther. The square before the Basilica 
 was decorated with laurel and myrtle, 
 wax candles were burning on the balco- 
 ny of the church, and beside them was 
 elevated the sacred receptacle of the 
 host. On a sudden the deep sound of 
 bells reverberates through the air ; — the 
 Pope, arrayed in his pontifical robes, and 
 borne in an arm-chair, makes his appear- 
 
 * Die Cardinale und Bischofe sind ihra hart 
 zuwider. — (Seckend. p. 365.) 
 
 ance on the balcony ; the people fall on 
 their knees ; all heads are uncovered ; 
 the flags that were waving in tl^e wind- 
 are lowered ; the troops ground their 
 arms ; and a solemn silence ensues. Af- 
 ter a pause of some moments, the Pope 
 slowly stretches out his hands, lifts them 
 up towards heaven, and then, making 
 the sign of the cross, lets them gradually* 
 fall towards the earth. He repeats these 
 gestures three times. And now again the 
 pealing bells are heard, giving notice, far 
 and wide, of the Pontiff's benediction ; 
 and next a train of priests is seen advan- 
 cing, each with a lighted torch in his 
 hand ; as they rush hurriedly along, they 
 swing their torches downwards, they 
 brandish them aloft, they toss them wild- 
 ly to and fro, like so many fires of hell ; 
 the multitude are thrilled with awe and 
 terror ; and the words of malediction roll 
 heavily above their heads.* 
 
 When Luther was apprised of this ex- 
 communication, he published the form 
 of it, with some remarks in that caustic ' 
 style which he knew so well how to as- 
 sume. Although this publication did 
 not appear till some time afterwards, we 
 shall present some extracts from it here. 
 Let us listen to the high-priest of Chris- 
 tendom, as he speaks from the balcony 
 of his Basilica, — and to the monk of 
 Wittemberg, who answers him out of the 
 heart of Germany.! 
 
 There is something characteristic in 
 the contrast of the two voices. 
 
 The Pope. " Leo, bishop." 
 
 Luther. " Bishop ! as much as a wolf 
 is a shepherd ; for a bishop's duly is to 
 give godly exhortations, not to vomit 
 forth imprecations and curses." 
 
 The Pope. " Servant of all the ser- 
 vants of God. ..." 
 
 Luther. " In the evening when we 
 are drunk ; but next morning we call 
 ourselves Leo, lord of all lords." 
 
 The Pope. " The bishops of Rome, 
 our predecessors, have been wont on. 
 this festival to employ the arms of jus- 
 tice. . . ." 
 
 * This ceremony is described in several works, 
 and amongst others in the " Tagebuch einer 
 Reise durch Deutschland mid Italien." (Berlin, 
 1817, iv. 94.) Its principal features are of a high- 
 er antiquity than the times of which we treat. 
 
 t See, for the Pope's bull and Luther's com- 
 mentary, " Die Bulla vom Abendfresscn." — (L. 
 Opp. (L.) xviii. 1.) 
 
286 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Luther. " Which, according to your 
 account, are excommunication and anath- 
 ema: but according to St. Paul, long- 
 suffering, kindness, love unfeigned." — 
 (2 Cor. vi. 6, 7.) 
 
 The Pope. "According to the duty 
 of the Apostolic charge, and to maintain 
 the purity of the Christian faith. . . ." 
 
 Luther. " That is to say, the tempo- 
 ral possessions of the Pope." 
 
 The Pope. " And the unity thereof, 
 which consists in the union of the mem- 
 bers with Christ their head, . . . .and 
 with his Vicar. . . ." 
 
 Luther. " For Christ is not sufficient, 
 we must have another besides." 
 
 The Pope. " To preserve the holy 
 communion of the faithful, we follow the 
 ancient rule, and accordingly do excom- 
 municate and curse, in the name 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. 17.) 
 
 The Pope. « The Son and the Holy 
 Ghost, — and by the authority of the 
 Apostles, Peter and Paul, .... and by 
 our own. . . ." 
 
 Luther. " Our own, sa3's the raven- 
 ous wolf, as though God's might were 
 too weak without him." 
 
 The Pope. " We curse all heretics — 
 the Garasi,* the Patarini, ' the poor men' 
 of Lyons, the Arnoldists, the Speronists, 
 the Passageni, the Wicklefites, the Huss- 
 ites, the Fraticelli. . . ." 
 
 Luther. " Because they have sought 
 to possess themselves of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and admonished the Pope to be 
 modest, and preach the Word of God." 
 
 The Pope. " And Martin Luther, re- 
 cently condemned by us for a like here- 
 sy, together with all his adherents, and 
 all persons, whosoever they may be, who 
 aid or abet him." 
 
 Luther. u I thank thee, most gracious 
 Pontiff, that thou hast proclaimed me in 
 company with all these Christians. It is 
 an honour for me to have my name pro- 
 claimed at Rome at the time of the fes- 
 tival, in so glorious a manner, and to 
 have it circulated throughout the world 
 with the names of all those humble con- 
 fessors of Christ." 
 
 The Pope. " In like manner, we ex- 
 
 * This is a corrupt orthography : read Gazari 
 or Cathari. 
 
 communicate and curse all pirates and 
 
 corsairs. . . ." 
 
 Luther. " And who is the greatest of 
 all pirates and corsairs, if it be not he 
 who takes souls captive, and binds them 
 in chains, and delivers them to deafn?" 
 
 The Pope. "... especially such as 
 infest our seas. ..." 
 
 Luther. " Our seas ! St. Peter, our 
 predecessor, said : 'Silver and gold have 1 
 none] (Acts iii. 6.) Jesus Christ said, 
 ' The kings of the Gentiles exercise lord- 
 ship over them ; but ye shall not be so.' 
 (Luke xxii. 25.) But if a waggon laden 
 with hay must give way to a drunken 
 man, how much more fitting is it that 
 St. Peter and Christ himself should give 
 way to the Pope !" 
 
 The Pope. " In like manner we ex- 
 communicate and curse all those who 
 falsify our bulls and letters apostoli- 
 cal. . . ." 
 
 Luther. " But God's letters, — God's 
 Holy Scriptures, — any one may condemn 
 and burn them." 
 
 The Pope. " In like manner we ex- 
 communicate and curse all those who in- 
 tercept any provisions on their passage to 
 our city of Rome . . . ." 
 
 Luther. " He snarls and bites like a 
 dog that is battling for his bone."* 
 
 The Pope. " In like manner we con- 
 demn, and we curse all those who with- 
 hold any privileges, dues, tithes) or reve- 
 nues belonging to the clergy." 
 
 Luther. " Forasmuch as Christ hath 
 said, ' If any man will sue thee at the law 
 and take away thy coat, let him have thy 
 cloak also ;' (Matt. v. 40.) and ye have 
 now heard Our commentary thereon . ." 
 
 The Pope. " Whatever be their sta- 
 tion, dignity, order, authority, or rank, 
 be they even bishops or kings." 
 
 Luther. " ' For there shall be false, 
 teachers among you, who shall despise do 
 minion, and speak evil of dignities] saith 
 the Scripture." (Jude 8.) 
 
 The Pope. " In like manner we con- 
 demn and curse all who in any manner 
 whatsoever shall molest the city of Rome, 
 the kingdom of Sicily, the islands of Sar- 
 dinia 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. or 
 
 * Gleichwie ein Hund urns Beines willea. — 
 (L. Opp. (L.) xviii. 12.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 287 
 
 any other city or territory belonging to 
 the Church of Rome.'' 
 
 Luther. " O, Peter, thou poor fisher- 
 man ! how hast thou become master of 
 Rome and so many kingdoms besides? 
 I bid thee all hail ! Peter! king of Sicily ! 
 .... and fisherman of Bethsaida." 
 
 The Pope. " We excommunicate and 
 curse all chancellors, counsellors, parlia- 
 ments, procurators, governors, officials, 
 bishops and others who shall resist any 
 of our letters admonitory, permissive, pro- 
 hibitory, mediatory, or executive." 
 
 Luther. " For the Holy See seeks 
 only to live in idleness, pomp and de- 
 bauchery, — to rule and intimidate, — to 
 lie and deceive, — to dishonour and se- 
 duce, and commit all kinds of evil in 
 peace and security . . . ." 
 
 " O Lord, arise ! it is not so with us as 
 the Papists pretend ; thou hast not for- 
 saken us, neither are thine eyes turned 
 away from us." 
 
 Such was the dialogue between Leo 
 the Tenth at Rome, and Martin Luther 
 at Wittemberg. 
 
 The Pontiff having concluded his 
 anathemas, the parchment on which they 
 were written was torn up and its frag- 
 ments scattered among the people. The 
 crowd was instantly thrown into violent 
 commotion, every one rushed forward 
 eager to seize a scrap of the terrible 
 bull. These were the holy relics that 
 the Papacy offered to its followers on the 
 eve of the great day of grace and expia- 
 tion. The multitude soon dispersed, and 
 the neighbourhood of the Basilica re- 
 sumed its accustomed stillness. Let us 
 return to Wittemberg. 
 
 It was now on the 24th of March, 
 Gaspar Sturm, the Imperial Herald, had 
 passed through the gates of the city in 
 which Luther resided. He presented 
 himself before the Doctor, and delivered 
 into his hands the Emperor's writ of 
 summons. It was an anxious and solemn 
 moment for the Reformer. His friends 
 Avere all panic struck. Hitherto not one 
 of the princes, not even Frederic the 
 Wise, had openly espoused his cause. 
 The knights, it is true, had begun to use 
 threatening language ; but Charles in the 
 plenitude of his power paid small regard 
 to it. Luther, however, preserved his 
 composure. " The Papists," said he, ob- 
 serving the distress of his friends, " have 
 
 little desire to see me at Worms, but they 
 long for my condemnation and death!* 
 No matter ! Pray, not for me, but foi 
 the word of God. My blood will scarce- 
 ly be cold before thousands and tens of 
 thousands in every land will be made to 
 answer for the shedding of it. The 
 ' Most Holy' adversary of Christ, the fa- 
 ther and master and chief of man-slay- 
 ers, is resolved that it shall be spilt. 
 Amen ! The will of God be done ! 
 Christ will give me his Spirit to over- 
 come these ministers of Satan. I de- 
 spise them while I live ; I will triumph 
 over them in death. f They are striving 
 hard at Worms to force me to recant. 
 My recantation shall be this : I said for- 
 merly that the Pope was Christ's vicar ; 
 now I say that he is the adversary of the 
 Lord and the Apostle of the devil." 
 And when he was told that all the pul- 
 pits of the Franciscans and Dominicans 
 were ringing with imprecations and mal- 
 edictions against him :\ " Oh, how it de- 
 lights me to hear it," exclaimed he. 
 He knew that he had obeyed the will of 
 God, and that God was with him : — why 
 then should he fear to set out 1 Purity 
 of intention and a conscience void of of- 
 fence impart to the servant of God a 
 hidden yet incalculable strength which 
 never fails him, — a strength in which he 
 goes forth against his enemies with that 
 assurance of victory which no adaman- 
 tine breast-plate, no phalanx of trusty 
 spears can ever afford. 
 
 Luther was at this time unexpectedly 
 called on to welcome a man who, like 
 Melancthon, was destined to be his 
 friend through life, as well as to ^ive 
 him present comfort in the hour of his 
 departure. § This was a priest named 
 Bugenhagen, in the thirty-sixth year of 
 his age, who had fled from the rigorous 
 persecution exercised by the Bishop of 
 Camin, and Prince Bogislas, of Pomc- 
 rania, against all,, whether ecclesiastics, 
 citizens, or scholars, who embraced the 
 Gospel. || Born at Wollin, in Pomera- 
 
 * Damnatum et perditum. — (L. Epp. i. 556.) 
 t . . . ut hos Satanae ministros et contemnam 
 
 vivens et vicam moriens. — (I*. Epp. i. 597.) 
 \ . . . Quod mire quam gaudeam. — (Ibid. 567.) 
 § Venit Wittembergam pauld ante iter Lu- 
 
 theri ad comitia Wormatife indicta. — (Melch. 
 
 Adam, vita Bugenhagii, p. 314.) 
 
 || Saeerdotes cives et scholasticos in vincula 
 
 conjecit. — (Ibid. p. 313.) 
 
288 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 nia (whence he is commonly called Po- 
 meranus), of a family holding senatorial 
 rank, Bugenhagen, from the age of 
 twenty, had been teaching at Treptow. 
 The young listened eagerly to his instruc- 
 tions ; the noble and the learned vied 
 with each other in courting his society. 
 He was a diligent student in the sacred 
 literature, and one who prayed to God 
 to enlighten and direct him.* One 
 •evening (it was towards the end of De- 
 cember, 1520,) as he sat at supper with 
 some, friends,, a copy of Luther's book 
 on the Babylonian Captivity was put into 
 his hands. " Since Christ's death," said 
 lie, after having glanced it over, " there 
 have been many heretics to vex the 
 Church ; but never yet has there risen 
 up such a pest as the author of this book." 
 Having taken the book home with him, 
 however, and read it once and again, his 
 thoughts underwent a total change ; 
 truths of which he had never dreamed 
 became palpable to his mind; and re- 
 turning a few days afterwards to his com- 
 panions, he said : " The whole world has 
 been lying in thick darkness. This 
 man-^— and none but he — has discerned the 
 truth."f Several priests, a deacon, and 
 even the abbot himself, received the 
 pure doctrine of salvation, and in a short 
 time, by their powerful preaching, they 
 turned their hearers, says an historian, 
 from human superstitions, to put their 
 sole trust in the availing righteousness of 
 Jesus Christ.;}: Then burst forth the per- 
 secution. Many were already groaning 
 in dungeons. Bugenhagen escaped 
 from his enemies, and arrived, as we 
 have seem at Wittemberg. " He is suf- 
 fering for the Gospel's sake," observed 
 Melancthon, writing, on this occasion, to 
 the Elector's chaplain, " where could he 
 seek refuge, but in this asylum of ours 
 under the protection of our Prince ?"§ 
 
 But by none was Bugenhagen re- 
 ceived so joyfully as by Luther. It was 
 agreed between them, that immediately 
 after the Reformer's departure, Bugen- 
 hagen should begin to expound the 
 
 * Precesqueadjimxit quibus divinitusse re hac 
 doceri petivit. — (Melch. Adam, vita Bugenhagii, 
 p. 312.) 
 
 t In Cimmeriis tenebris versatur : hie vir unus 
 et solus verum videt. — (Ibid. 313.) 
 
 X A superstitionibus ad unicum Christi meri- 
 tum traducere. — (Ibid.) 
 
 ij Corp. Ref. i. 361 
 
 Psalms. Thus did Providence raise up 
 that gifted man to supply, in part at 
 least, the loss of him whom Wittemberg 
 was about to lose. A year later, Bugen- 
 hagen was placed at the head of the 
 Church of that city, and he continued 
 to preside over it for six and thirty years. 
 Luther bestowed upon him the emphatic 
 appellation of the Pastor. 
 
 Luther was now ready to set out. His 
 dejected friends believed that, unless God 
 should interpose by a miracle, he was 
 going to meet his death. Melancthon, 
 far removed from his native soil, had at- 
 tached himself to Luther with the strong 
 affection of an ardent mind. " Luther," 
 said he, " makes up to me for the loss of 
 all my friends. He is, in my estima- 
 tion, greater and more wonderful than I 
 know how to express. You remember 
 how Socrates was revered by Alcibiades ;* 
 — but my admiration of Luther is of a 
 higher kind, for it is a Christian feeling." 
 And he adds the beautiful though sim- 
 ple phrase : " As often as I contemplate 
 him, he seems to me every time to have 
 grown greater than himselff Melanc- 
 thon wished to bear Luther company in 
 his perils. But their common friends, — 
 and, doubtless, the Reformer himself, — 
 opposed his desire. Was not Philip to 
 fill his friend's place ? — and if the latter 
 should never return, who would then 
 carry on the work of reformation % 
 "Would to God," said Melancthon, as 
 he reluctantly submitted, " I were allow- 
 ed to set out with him."| 
 
 The vehement Amsdorff at once, de- 
 clared his intention to accompany the Doc- 
 tor. His bold heart delighted in danger 
 — and his lofty spirit did not shrink from 
 appearing before an assembly of kings. 
 The elector had invited to Wittemberg a 
 professor of law, the celebrated John 
 Schurff, son of a physician at St. Gall, a 
 man of a remarkably mild disposition 
 who lived in intimacy with Luther. " He 
 could never find the heart to pass sen- 
 tence of death upon any criminal,"^ said 
 
 * Alcibiades was persuaded that the society 
 of Socrates was granted him by the special fa- 
 vour of the Gods, for his guidance and protection. 
 —(Plutarch, in his life of Alcibiades.) 
 
 t Quem quoties contemplor, se ipso subindo 
 majorem judico. — (Corp. Ref. i. 264.) 
 
 X Utinam licuisset mini una proficisci. — (Ibid. 
 365.) 
 
 § L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 2067. 1819. 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 289 
 
 Luther, speaking of Schurff! Yet this 
 timid man desired to be present with the 
 Doctor as his adviser, in the course of his 
 hazardous journey. Peter Suaven, a 
 young Danish student, who lodged in 
 Melancthon's house, and was afterwards 
 famous for his preaching of the Gospel 
 in Pomerania and Denmark, also an- 
 nounced that he would accompany his 
 1 father.' It was fit that the youth of the 
 schools should have some one to repre- 
 sent it, at the side of the champion of 
 truth. 
 
 All Germany was moved at the 
 thought of the dangers which threatened 
 one who was the people's representative. 
 She found a voice that was worthy of 
 her to express her alarms. Ulric Hutten, 
 trembling at the thought of the blow the 
 country was on the eve of sustaining, 
 wrote on the 1st of April to Charles V. 
 himself: " Most excellent Emperor, you 
 are about to involve yourself and us in 
 one common ruin. What is the object 
 of this procedure against Luther, unless 
 it be the destruction of our liberty and 
 the downfall of your power. Through- 
 out the empire there is no man but takes 
 a lively interest in this matter.* The 
 priests alone are opposed to Luther, be- 
 cause he has stood forth against their 
 overgrown power, shameful luxury, and 
 depraved conduct, and pleaded for the 
 Christian doctrine, the national liberties, 
 and purity of morals. 
 
 " O Emperor, no longer countenance 
 those Roman advocates, those bishops 
 and cardinals who would hinder all ref- 
 ormation. Have you not noticed the 
 sadness of the people when they beheld 
 your arrival, approaching the Rhine sur- 
 rounded with those red hats, — a troop of 
 priests, instead of a cohort of valiant 
 warriors 1 
 
 " Give not up your sovereign majesty 
 to those who would trample it under 
 their feet. Take pity on us, and do not 
 involve the whole nation in your own 
 ruin. Lead us into the midst of dangers 
 — against sword and cannonf — let all 
 nations conspire, and their armies come 
 against us, so that we may prove our 
 courage in the face of day, and not be 
 
 * Neque enim quam lata est Germania, ulli 
 boni sunt . . . — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 182.) 
 
 t Due nos in manifestum potius periculum, 
 due in ferrum, due in ignes. — (Ibid. 183.) 
 37 
 
 conquered and enslaved, darkly and se- 
 cretly, as if we were women unarmed 
 and unresisting . . . .„ Alas, we hoped 
 that you would deliver us from the Ro- 
 man yoke,and dethrone the Pontiff's tyr- 
 anny. God grant that the future may 
 be happier than these beginnings. 
 _ "AH Germany is at your feet,* implo- 
 ring your help, your compassion, your 
 fidelity ; appealing to those German he- 
 roes, who stood erect before the proud 
 city, when the whole world besides were 
 its subjects, and conjuring you to save 
 her, — to restore her to what she once 
 was — to deliver her from slavery, and 
 avenge her on her tyrants." 
 
 Thus spake the German nation to 
 Charles the Fifth, by the mouth of Ulric 
 Hutten. The Emperor paid no attention 
 to this appeal, and it is probable, threw 
 the letter contemptuously to one of his 
 secretaries. He was a Fleming, not a 
 German. His personal power, and not 
 the liberty or glory of the Empire, was 
 the object of his desire. 
 
 It was the 2nd of April. Luther was 
 to take leave of his friends. After hav- 
 ing apprized Lange by letter, that he 
 would spend the Thursday or Friday 
 following at Erfurth,f he bade adieu to 
 his colleagues. Turning to Melancthon 
 he saidj with deep emotion : — " If I never 
 return, and my enemies should take my 
 life, cease not, dear brother, to teach and 
 stand fast in the truth. Labour in my 
 stead, since I can no longer work. If 
 thy life be spared, my death will matter 
 little." Then committing his soul to 
 Him who is faithful, Luther stepped into 
 the waggon and quitted Wittemberg. 
 The town-council had furnished him 
 with a plain carriage, covered with an 
 awning, which the travellers might 
 throw back or draw over them at plea- 
 sure. The Imperial herald in full cos- 
 tume, and wearing the imperial eagle, 
 went before on horseback, and was fol- 
 lowed by his servant. Then came Lu- 
 ther, Schurff, Amsdorfff and Suaven, in 
 their open waggon. The burghers of 
 Wittemberg, to whom the Gospel was 
 precious, sorrowing and in tears, invoked 
 the blessing of God upon his journey. 
 Luther set forth. 
 
 * Omnen nunc Gerraaniam quasi ad genua 
 provolutam tibi . . . — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 584.) 
 t L. Epp. i. 580. 
 
290 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 He soon had occasion to observe that 
 gloomy presentiments filled the hearts of 
 those he met. At Leipsic no honours 
 were paid him, beyond the customary 
 offering of wine. At Naumburg he 
 met a priest, probably J. Langer, a man 
 of stern zeal, who kept hung up in his 
 study a portrait of the celebrated Jerome 
 Savonarola, of Ferrara, who perished in 
 the flames at Florence in the year 1498, 
 by order of Pope Alexander the Sixth, — 
 a martyr to liberty and morals, rather 
 than a confessor of the Gospel. Taking 
 down the portrait of the Italian martyr, 
 the priest held it forth in silence as he 
 approached Luther. The latter well un- 
 derstood the import of this silent action, 
 but his intrepid spirit was unmoved. " It 
 is Satan," he remarked, " who seeks by 
 these terrors to hinder the confession of 
 the truth in the assembly of the princes, 
 for he foresees the effect it will have on 
 his kingdom."* " Stand fast in the truth 
 thou hast professed," replied the priest 
 gravely, " and thy God will never for- 
 sake thee."f 
 
 Having passed one night at Naum- 
 burg, where the burgomaster had re- 
 ceived him hospitably, Luther arrived on 
 the following evening at Weimar. He 
 had scarcely alighted, when he heard 
 the voices of the criers on all sides. They 
 were proclaiming his sentence. " Look 
 there," said the herald. He turned his 
 eyes, and beheld with astonishment the 
 Emperor's messengers passing from 
 street to street, everywhere placarding 
 the imperial edict, enjoining all men to 
 bring in his writings to the magistrates. 
 Luther saw clearly that these vigorous 
 proceedings were designed to stay his 
 further progress, — by working upon his 
 apprehensions, — and after that to con- 
 demn him as having refused to appear. 
 " Well, Doctor, will you go any further ?" 
 asked the herald, in alarm. " Yes," re- 
 plied Luther, " though I should be put 
 under interdict in every town, I will go 
 on. I rely on the Emperor's safe-con- 
 duct." 
 
 At Weimar, Luther had an audience 
 of Duke John, brother to the Elector of 
 
 * Terrorem hunc a Sathana sibi dixit adferri 
 . . .— (Melch. Adam. p. 117.) 
 
 t Er wolle bey der erkandten Wabrheyt mit 
 breytem Fuss aushalten . < — (Mathesius, p. 23 
 — first edition, 1566.) 
 
 Saxony, who was then residing in that 
 city. The prince requested him to 
 preach, and he consented. Words of 
 life-giving power flowed forth from his 
 swelling heart. A Franciscan monk, 
 John Voit, a friend of Frederic Myconius, 
 was on that occasion converted to the 
 Gospel. Two years afterwards he left 
 the convent, and became subsequently 
 professor of theology at Wittemberg. 
 The Duke assisted Luther with money 
 for his journey. 
 
 From Weimar the Reformer repaired 
 to Erfurth. It was the town in which 
 his youth had been passed. He ex- 
 pected to find there his friend Lange ; if, 
 as he had written word, there was no 
 risk incurred by entering the town.* As 
 he came within three or four leagues of 
 the place, nigh the village of Nora, he 
 saw at a dfstance a troop of horsemen. 
 Were they friends or foes? Rapidly 
 Crotus, rector of the University, Eobanus 
 Hesse, the friend of Melancthon, (styled 
 by Luther the prince of poets,) Euricius 
 Cordus, John Draco, and others, to the 
 number of forty, senators, students, and 
 burghers, welcomed him with joyful ac- 
 clamations. A crowd of the population 
 of Erfurth met him in the road and 
 cheered him as he drew nigh, eager to 
 behold the mighty monk who had dared 
 to give battle to the Pope. 
 
 A young man of twenty-eight years 
 of age, named Justus Jonas, preceded the 
 party, f Jonas, after studying the law at 
 Erfurth, had been elected rector of the 
 University in 1519. Receiving the 
 light of the Gospel, which was then 
 beaming forth in all directions, he had 
 conceived the wish to devote himself to 
 sacred learning. u I think," said Eras- 
 mus, in writing to him, " that God has 
 chosen you as his instrument to make 
 known to others the glory of his Son 
 Jesus."| The thoughts of Jonas Avere 
 all turned toward Luther at Wittemberg. 
 Some years before, when he was yet a 
 student of law, his enterprising spirit had 
 
 * Nisi periculum sit Erfordiam ingredi. — (L. 
 Epp. i. 580.) 
 
 t Hos inter, qui nos prasvenerant, ibat Jonas, 
 Hie decus nostri, primaque fama Chori. 
 
 Eob. Hessi. Elcgia secunda. 
 t Velut organum quoddam electum ad illus- 
 trandam filii sui Jesu gloriam. — (Erasmi Epp. v. 
 27.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 291 
 
 led him in company with a few friends, 
 to make a journey on foot through forests 
 infested by thieves, and across a country 
 ravaged by the plague, in order to visit 
 Erasmus, who was then at Brussels. 
 And shall he not brave dangers of ano- 
 ther kind to accompany the Reformer to 
 Worms ? He. entreated Luther to allow 
 him to join him, and Luther consented. 
 This was the first meeting of the two 
 doctors, who were destined to pass their 
 whole lives in labouring together for the 
 revival of the Church. Divine Provi- 
 dence was assembling around Luther 
 men who were destined to be the lights 
 of Germany : Melancthon, Amsdorff, 
 Bugenhagen, Jonas. After his return 
 from Worms, Jonas was elected provost 
 of the church of Wittemberg, and doctor 
 of divinity. " Jonas," continued Luther, 
 " is a man whose continued life on this 
 earth is worth any purchase."* No 
 preacher had more power of captivating 
 his hearers. " Pomeranus is exegetical," 
 said Melancthon ; " I am a logician, — 
 Jonas is the preacher. Words flow beau- 
 tifully from his lips, and his eloquence is 
 full of energy. But Luther excels in 
 all."f It appears that about this time a 
 friend of Luther's childhood, and also 
 one of his brothers, joined him in his 
 route. 
 
 The deputation from Erfurth had 
 turned their horses' heads. They enter- 
 ed its walls, on horseback and on foot, 
 surrounding Luther's waggon. At the 
 city gate — in the public squares — and in 
 those streets where the poor monk had 
 so often begged a morsel of bread, a 
 crowd of spectators was assembled ; Lu- 
 ther alighted at the convent of the Au- 
 gustines. Lange welcomed him with 
 joy. Usingen and some of the more 
 aged friars manifested considerable cool- 
 ness. He was requested to preach : — 
 preaching had been forbidden him ; but 
 the herald himself, carried away by the 
 feelings of those about him, gave his 
 consent. ' 
 
 On the Sunday after Easter the church 
 of the Augustines. of Erfurth, was crowd- 
 
 * Vir est quem opportuit multo pretio emp- 
 tum et servatum in terra. — (Weismann. i. 1436.) 
 
 f Pomeranus est grammatieus, ego sum dialec- 
 ticus, Jonas est orator . . . — Lutherus vero nobit 
 omnibus antecillit. — (Knapp Narrat. de J. Jona. 
 p. 581.) 
 
 ed to excess. The brother whose duty 
 it once was to unclose the gates, and 
 sweep out the aisles, ascended the pulpit, 
 and opening the Bible, read these words : 
 — " Peace be unto you : and when Jesus 
 had so said, he shewed unto them his hands 
 and his side," John xx. 19, 20. " Philos- 
 ophers, learned doctors, and writers," 
 said he, " have all laboured to show how 
 man can attain to eternal life, and they 
 have all failed. I am now to tell you 
 the way." 
 
 In every age this has been the great 
 question ; accordingly his hearers were 
 all attention. 
 
 " There are two kinds of works," con- 
 tinued the Reformer : " works not of 
 ourselves, and these are good works ; 
 and our own works, and they are but 
 little worth. One builds a church, — an- 
 other goes a pilgrimage to St. James's 
 or St. Peter's, — a third fasts, prays, as- 
 sumes the cowl, and goes barefoot, — an- 
 other does something else. All these 
 are of no value, and will pass away ; for 
 our own works are powerless. But I 
 am about to declare to you what is work 
 indeed. God has raised up a Man, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that He might destroy 
 death, — finish transgression, and close 
 the gates of hell. This is the work of 
 Salvation. The devil thought he had 
 the Lord in his grasp, when he saw him 
 between two thieves suffering a shame- 
 ful death, under the curse of God and 
 men. But the Godhead displayed its 
 power, destroying Death, Sin, and 
 Hell " 
 
 " Christ has overcome ! — this is the 
 great news ! — and we are saved by his 
 work, not by our own. The Pope 
 teaches a different doctrine. But I af- 
 firm that even the holy mother of God 
 is saved neither by her virginity, nor by 
 her maternity, nor yet by her purity, or 
 her works, — but solely by means of faith, 
 and by the operation of God. . ." 
 
 While Luther was preaching, a noise 
 was suddenly heard in one of the gal- 
 leries, and it was thought it was giving 
 way from the weight of the crowd. This 
 caused much confusion in the auditory. 
 Some rushed from their places, — others 
 were motionless from fear. The preach- 
 er stopped for a moment, — then stretch- 
 ing forth his hand he exclaimed aloud, 
 " Fear not — there is no danger — the 
 
292 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 devil is seeking Jo throw hinderances in 
 the way of my preaching the gospel — 
 but he shall not gain his point."* At 
 his bidding, those that were leaving the 
 place stopped, astonished and constrain- 
 ed ; the assembly resumed its calmness, 
 and Luther proceeded, not regarding the 
 temptations of the devil. " Some per- 
 haps will say, You talk to us much about 
 Faith, teach us then how to obtain it. 
 Well, agreed ! I will show you how. 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ said, ' Peace be 
 unto you. Behold my hands V That is 
 to say, Look, O man, it is I, I alone, who 
 have taken away thy sin and redeemed 
 thee, and now thou hast peace, saith the 
 Lord. 
 
 " I," continued Luther, " ate not the 
 fruit of the tree — no more did you ; but 
 we have received the sin transmitted to 
 us by Adam, and we have sinned. In 
 like manner I suffered not on the cross 
 — no more did you ; but Christ suffered 
 for us ; we are justified by the work of 
 God, and not by our own ; 1 myself, 
 saith the Lord, am thy righteousness and 
 thy Redeemer." 
 
 " Believe the Gospel — believe St. Paul 
 — and not the letters and decretals of the 
 Popes." 
 
 Luther, after preaching Faith as justi- 
 fying the sinner, proceeds to preach 
 Works as the fruits and evidence of our 
 being saved. 
 
 " Since God has saved us, — let us so 
 order our works that he may take plea- 
 sure in them. Art thou rich ? — let thy 
 riches be the supply of other men's pov- 
 erty. Art thou poor? — let thy service 
 minister to the rich. If thy labour is for 
 thyself alone, — the service thou offerest 
 to God is a mere pretence.'' f 
 
 Not a word concerning himself did 
 Luther find place for in this sermon, nor 
 yet for any allusion to the circumstances 
 in which he stood ; — not a word concern- 
 ing Worms, the Emperor, or the Nun- 
 cios : he preached Christ, and Him 
 alone. In a moment, when the eyes of 
 all the world were turned on him, he had 
 no thought uppermost for himself ; — it is 
 a mark of the faithful servant of God. 
 
 Luther took his departure from Er- 
 furth and passed through Gotha, where 
 
 * Agnosco insidias, hostis acerbe, tuas. — (Hes- 
 si Eleg. tertia.) 
 
 tL. Opp. (L) xii. 485. 
 
 he again preached. Myconius adds, 
 that after the sermon, when the congre- 
 gation were leaving, the devil detached 
 from the pediment of the church some 
 stones that had not moved for two 
 hundred years. The Doctor took a 
 night's rest in the convent of the Bene- 
 dictines at Reinhardsbrunn, and proceed- 
 ed from thence to Eisenach, where he 
 was suddenly taken ill. Amsdorff, Jo- 
 nas, Schurff, and all his friends, were 
 alarmed. They bled him and were un- 
 remitting in their attentions. The Schul- 
 thess of the town, John Oswald, brought 
 him a cordial. Luther having taken it, 
 had some sleep, and refreshed by rest, 
 was enabled to resume his journey on the 
 following morning. 
 
 Every where as he passed, the people 
 of the country flocked round him.* His 
 progress resembled a triumph. Men con- 
 templated with interest the bold man 
 who was going to present himself bare- 
 headed before the Emperor and the Em- 
 pire, f A dense crowd accompanied his 
 steps, discoursing with him. " Ah," 
 said some, " there are plenty of cardinals 
 and bishops at Worms ! . . . . You will 
 be burnt alive, and your body reduced to 
 ashes, as they did with John Huss." 
 But nothing daunted the monk. 
 " Though they should kindle a fire, 
 whose flame should reach from Worms 
 to Wittemberg, and rise up to heaven, I 
 would go through it in the name of the 
 Lord, and stand before them, — >I would 
 enter the jaws of the behemoth, break 
 his teeth, and confess the Lord Jesus 
 Christ."!: 
 
 One day when he had entered into an. 
 inn, and the crowd was as usual pressing 
 about him, an officer made his way 
 through, and thus addressed him: — " Are 
 you the man who has taken in hand to 
 reform the Papacy ? . . . How can you 
 expect to succeed ?" " Yes," answered 
 Luther, " I am the man. I place my 
 depenelance upon that Almighty God 
 whose word and commandment is before 
 me." The officer, deeply affected, gazed 
 on him with a mild expression, and said, 
 
 * Iter facienti occurrebant populi. — (Pallavici- 
 ni.Hist. C. Tr. i. 114.) 
 
 t Quacunque iter faciebant, frequens erat 
 concursus hominum, videndi Lutheri studio. — 
 (CochliBiis, p. 29.) 
 
 t Ein Feuer das bis an den Hiinmel reichte 
 . . .— (Keil. i. 90.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 293 
 
 " Dear friend, there is much in what 
 you say ; I am a servant of Charles, but 
 your Master is greater than mine. He 
 will help and protect you."* Such was 
 the impression that Luther produced. 
 Even his enemies were awed by the 
 sight of the crowd that surrounded him : 
 but they have depicted his progress in 
 very different colours, f At length the 
 Doctor reached Frankfort on Sunday, the 
 14th of April. 
 
 Accounts of Luther's progress had be- 
 fore this reached Worms. The Pope's 
 partisans had not expected that he would 
 obey the Emperor's summons. Albert, 
 cardinal-archbishop of Mentz, would 
 have given the world to stop him on his 
 journey ; new expedients were resorted 
 to for this purpose. 
 
 Luther rested a short time at Frank- 
 fort ; from thence he wrote to Spalatin, 
 who was then with the Elector at 
 Worms announcing his approach. It is 
 the only letter he wrote during the jour- 
 ney. " I am arrived here," said he, " al- 
 though Satan has sought to stop me in 
 my way by sickness. From Eisenach 
 to this place I have been suffering, and I 
 am at this moment in worse condition 
 than ever. I find that Charles has is- 
 sued an edict to terrify me ; but Christ 
 lives, and we shall enter Worms in spite 
 of all the councils of hell, and all the 
 powers of the air.| Therefore engage a 
 lodging for me." 
 
 Next day Luther visited the learned 
 school of William Nesse, the celebrated 
 geographer of that age. " Apply your- 
 selves," said he, ''• to the reading of the 
 Bible, and the investigation of truth." 
 Then laying his right hand on one, and 
 his left on another, he pronounced his 
 blessing on all the scholars. 
 
 If Luther was thus engaged in bless- 
 ing children, he was not less the hope 
 of aged Christians. A widow of great 
 age, who served God with her heart, 
 Catherine of Holzhausen, came to him 
 
 * Nun habt Ihr einen grossern Herm, denn 
 Ich.— (Keil, i. 90.) 
 
 t In diversoriis multa propinatio, laeta compo- 
 tatio, musices quoque gaudia : adeo ut Lutherus 
 ipse alicubi sonora testudine ludens, omnium in 
 se oculos eonverteret, velut Orpheus quidem, sed 
 rasus adhuc et cuculatus eoque mirabilior. — 
 (Cochlaeus, p. 29.) 
 
 t Intrabimus Wormatiam, invitis omnibus por- 
 tls inferni et potentatibus seris. — (L. Epp. i. 987 ) 
 
 with these words : " My father and mo- 
 ther predicted to me that God would one 
 day raise up a man who should oppose 
 the vanities of the Pope, and rescue the 
 word of God. I hope you are that man ; 
 and I wish you the grace and Holy 
 Spirit of God for your help."* 
 
 These feelings were very far from 
 being general at Frankfort. John Coch- 
 laeus, dean of the Church of our Lady, 
 was a devoted adherent of the Roman 
 Church. He could not repress his fears 
 at sight of Luther in his passage through 
 Frankfort on his way to Worms. He 
 felt that the Church had need of zealous 
 defenders. It mattered little that he had 
 not been called upon. Scarcely had Lu- 
 ther left the city when Cochlaeus set out 
 after him, ready, as he said, to lay down 
 his life in defence of the honour of his 
 Church. | 
 
 The panic was great among the par- 
 tisans of the Pope. The heresiarch was 
 approaching; — every day, every hour, 
 brought him nearer. Once at Worms, 
 and all might be ruined. The Arch- 
 bishop Albert, the Confessor Glapio, and 
 all the political advisers of the Emperor, 
 were in dismay. How to stop the monk 
 was the question. To seize and carry 
 him off was not to be thought of, for he 
 was furnished with Charles's safe-con- 
 duct; artifice alone could compass the 
 end. Instantly they devise the follow- 
 ing plan. The Emperor's confessor and 
 his grand-chamberlain, Paul of Ams- 
 dorff, set out in haste from Worms. ;{: 
 They direct their course toward the cha- 
 teau of Ebernburg, distant about ten 
 leagues, and the residence of Francis 
 Sickengen, the knight who had offered 
 Luther an asylum. Bucer, a young 
 Dominican, and chaplain to the Elector 
 Palatine, converted to the Gospel at the 
 period of the conference at Heidelberg, 
 had sought refuge and was then residing 
 in this " abode of the righteous." The 
 knight, who was well versed in matters 
 of religion, was easily imposed upon ; 
 and the character of the former chaplain 
 
 * Ich hofFe dass du der Verheissene . . . — 
 (Cypt. Hilar. Ev. p. 608.) 
 
 t Lutherum iliac transeuntem subsequutus, ut 
 pro honore ecclesiae vitam suam . . . exponeret. — 
 (\ 'ochlseus, p. 36.) 
 
 t Dass der Keyser seinen Beichtvater und 
 Hirer Majest. Ober-Kammerling, zu Sickengen 
 schickt. — (L. Opp. xvii. 587.) 
 
294 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to the Palatine favoured the views of the 
 confessor. In fact Bucer was disposed 
 for peace. Distinguishing fundamental 
 from secondary truths, he thought he 
 might sacrifice the latter for the sake of 
 peace and unity.* 
 
 The chamberlain and Charles's con- 
 fessor opened the business. They gave 
 Sickengen and Bucer to understand that 
 if Luther was once in Worms, it would 
 be all over with him. They declared 
 that the Emperor was ready to send cer- 
 tain learned men to Ebemburg, there to 
 talk over matters with the Doctor. 
 " Both parties," said they to the knight, 
 " will put themselves under your protec- 
 tion." And to Bucer they said, " We 
 agree with Luther on all essential things, 
 — the only questions between us relate 
 to some secondary points. You will act 
 as mediator between us." The knight 
 and the doctor were shaken. The con- 
 fessor and the chamberlain continued — 
 " The invitation must come from you," 
 said they to Sickengen, " and Bucer 
 must be the bearer of it."f The whole 
 project was agreed to, according to their 
 wish. Only let Luther credulously obey 
 their invitation to Ebemburg, and the 
 term of his safe-conduct will soon ex- 
 pire : — then who can protect him % 
 
 Luther had reached Oppenheim. In 
 three days his safe-conduct would be 
 void. A troop of horsemen were seen 
 approaching, and soon he recognized the 
 same Bucer with whom he v had held 
 such intimate conversations at Heidel- 
 berg. | " These horsemen belong to 
 Francis Sickengen," said Bucer, after 
 the first greetings. " He has sent me to 
 conduct you to his fortress. § The Em- 
 peror's confessor desires a conference 
 with you. His influence with Charles 
 is unbounded ; — everything may yet be 
 arranged ; but have nothing to do with 
 Aleander!" Jonas, Amsdorff, Schurff, 
 knew not what to think. Bucer urged 
 him : — but Luther never faltered. " I 
 shall go on," answered he, " and if the 
 
 * Condoce faciebat ra avayxaia a probabilius 
 distinguere, ut scirent qua? retinenda . . . — (M. 
 Adam. Vit. Buoeri, p. 223.) 
 
 t Dass er sollt.e den Luther zu sich fodern. — 
 (L. Opp. xvii. 587.) 
 
 X Da kam Bucer zu, mit etlichen Reutern. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 § Und wollte mir uberrcden zu Sickengen gen 
 Ebemburg zu kommen. — (L. Opp. xvii. 587.) 
 
 Emperor's confessor has anything to say 
 to me, he will find me at Worms. I re- 
 pair to the place of summons.' 1 
 
 In the meanwhile Spalatin himself be- 
 gan to be disturbed with apprehensions. 
 Situate in the midst of enemies of the 
 Reformation, he heard it said on all sides 
 that the heretic's safe-conduct would be 
 disregarded. His friendship took the 
 alarm. At the moment when Luther 
 was approaching the city, a servant met 
 him and delivered him a message from 
 the chaplain : " Abstain from entering 
 Worms." And this from Spalatin him- 
 self, the Elector's confidential adviser! 
 Luther, still unshaken, turned his eyes 
 on the messenger, and answered, " Go 
 tell your master, that though there should 
 be as many devils at Worms, as there are 
 tiles on, its roofs, I would enter it."* At 
 no time had the grandeur of Luther's 
 spirit been more evidenced. The mes- 
 senger re-entered Worms, and delivered 
 the astounding declaration. "I was then 
 intrepid," said Luther, (a few days be- 
 fore his death), "I feared nothing. God 
 can give this boldness to man. I know 
 not whether now I should have so much 
 liberty and joy." " When our cause is 
 good," adds his disciple Mathesius, " the 
 heart expands and gives courage and 
 energy to the evangelist and the soldier."f 
 
 At last, on the morning of the 16th 
 April, Luther discovered the walls of the 
 ancient city. All were expecting him. 
 But one subject occupied the thoughts 
 of the citizens. Some young nobles, 
 Bernard of Kirschfeld, Albert Lindenau, 
 with six mounted cavaliers, and other 
 gentlemen of the prince's retinue, to the 
 number in all of a hundred, (according 
 to Pallavicini,) in their impatience, rode 
 out of the city to meet him, and sur- 
 rounding his travelling car, escorted him 
 to the gates. He went forward. The 
 Imperial herald galloped before, attired 
 in the vestments of his office. Luther 
 came next, in his modest vehicle. Jonas 
 followed on horseback, and the party of 
 horsemen surrounded him. A vast 
 crowd was awaiting his arrival at the 
 gates. At ten o'clock he entered within 
 
 * Wenn so viel Teufel zu Worms w'aren, als 
 Ziegel auf den Dilchern noch wollt Ich hinein ! — 
 (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 587.) 
 
 t So wachstdas Herz in Leibe . . . — (Math. p. 
 24.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 295 
 
 those walls, whence so many had pre- 
 dicted to him that he would never again 
 depart. Behold him in Worms ! 
 
 Two thousand persons accompanied 
 the famed monk of Wittemberg through 
 the streets of the city. People ran to 
 their doors to see him. The crowd was 
 increasing every moment, — and was even 
 greater than at the public entry of the 
 Emperor himself. Of a sudden, says an 
 historian, a man clothed in grotesque 
 habiliments, and bearing before him a 
 lofty cross, as is customary at funerals, 
 penetrated through the crowd, and ad- 
 vanced towards Luther : — then with the 
 shrill and plaintive cadence, in which the 
 priests perform masses for the repose of 
 the dead, he chaunted these words, as if 
 he were uttering them from the abode of 
 departed spirits — 
 
 Advenisti, O desiderabilis ! 
 Quem expectabamus in tenebris !* 
 
 Thus was Luther's arrival celebrated 
 by a requiem. It was the court fool of 
 one of the Dukes of Bavaria, who (if the 
 account may be depended upon) thus 
 gave to Luther one of those warnings, re- 
 plete at once with solemn instruction and 
 irony, of which so many instances are 
 on record. But the shouts of the crowd 
 soon drowned the de profundis of the 
 cross-bearer. The procession made its 
 way with difficulty through the people. 
 At last the herald of the Empire stopped be- 
 fore the hotel of the Knights of Rhodes. 
 It was there that Frederic of Thun, and 
 Philip Feilitsch, two counsellors of the 
 Elector, and U Iric Pappenheim, the Mar- 
 shal of the Empire, had taken up their 
 abode. Luther alighted from his wag- 
 gon, and as he set foot on the ground, 
 exclaimed, " God will be my defence."! 
 " I entered Worms," said he, at a later 
 period, " in an open cart and in a monk's 
 frock. And every one came out into the 
 streets, desiring to see friar Martin."| 
 
 The intelligence of his arrival was re- 
 ceived with alarm by the Elector of Sax- 
 ony and Aleander. Albert, the young 
 and accomplished Archbishop, whose 
 mind was in a middle position, was dis- 
 mayed at this daring step. " If I had no 
 more courage than the Archbishop," said 
 
 * Thou art come whom we desired — whom 
 we waited for in the regions of darkness ! 
 t Deus stabit pro me. — (Pallavicini, i. 1 14.) 
 t L. Opp. xvii. 587. 
 
 Luther, " true it is they would never have 
 seen me at Worms." 
 
 Charles V. instantly convoked his 
 council. The confidential adviser of the 
 Emperor repaired in haste to the palace 
 — for the fear had communicated lo them. 
 '• Luther is come," said Charles, " what 
 must be done ?" 
 
 Modo, Bishop of Palermo and Chan- 
 cellor of Flanders, answered, according 
 to the testimony of Luther : — " We have 
 long thought of this matter. Let your 
 Majesty rid yourself at once of this man. 
 Did not Sigismund bring John Huss to 
 the stake ? One is under no obligation 
 either to give or to observe a safe-conduct 
 in the case of heretics."* " Not so," said 
 Charles, " what we promise we should ob- 
 serve and keep." It was, therefore, agreed 
 that the Reformer should be heard. 
 
 Whilst the great were thus planning 
 how to deal with Luther, there were not 
 a Hew in Worms rejoicing in the oppor- 
 tunity of at last beholding this distin- 
 guished servant of God. Capito, chap- 
 lain and counsellor of the Archbishop of 
 Mentz, was of their number. This re- 
 markable man, who a little while before 
 had preached the gospel in Switzerland 
 with much liberty! — though he then 
 owed it to the station he filled, to pursue a 
 course which exposed him to the charge 
 of cowardice from the Evangelical 
 preachers, and of dissimulation from the 
 Romanists.^ Yet at Mentz he had 
 preached the doctrine of faith with great 
 clearness. When he was leaving that 
 city he had arranged for his place being 
 supplied by a young and zealous preacher 
 named Hedion. The word of God was not 
 bound in that ancient seat of the German 
 primacy. The Gospel was eagerly list- 
 ened to ; in vain did the monks attempt 
 to preach from the Scriptures after their 
 manner ; — in vain did they make every 
 effort to arrest the impulsion given to 
 men's minds. Their failure was com- 
 plete. § But whilst preaching the new 
 
 * . . . Dass Ihre Majestat den Luther aufs 
 erste beyseit tliate und umbringen Iiess. . . — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Book VIII. 
 
 X Astutia plusquam vulpina vehementer calli- 
 dum .... Lutherum versutissime dissimulabut. — 
 (Cochksus, p. 3G.) 
 
 § Evangelium audiunt avidissime, verbum Dei 
 alligatum lion est . . . — (Caspar Hedio Zw. Epp. 
 p. 157.) 
 
296 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 doctrine, Capito sought to maintain 
 friendly relations with its persecutors ; — 
 with a few of the same opinions he flat- 
 tered himself that he might in this way 
 render great service to the Church. To 
 hear them talk one might have thought 
 that if Luther was not burnt and his fol- 
 lowers excommunicated, it was only ow- 
 ing to the influence that Capito possessed 
 with the Archbishop.* Cochlseus, dean of 
 Frankfort, arriving at Worms at the same 
 time as Luther, repaired direct to Capito's 
 residence. The latter, who at least was 
 outwardly on very friendly terms with 
 Aleander, introduced Cochlseus to him, 
 becoming thus a connecting link between 
 the Reformer's two great enemies.f 
 Doubtless Capito imagined that he did 
 service to the cause of Christ, by keeping 
 up these appearances ; but it would be 
 impossible to show any good effect flow- 
 ing from them. The event almost al- 
 ways disconcerts such calculations of hu- 
 man policy, proving that a decided course, 
 while it is the most frank, is also most 
 wise. 
 
 Meanwhile crowds continued to gather 
 outside the hotel of Rhodes where Luther 
 had alighted. Some had conceived an 
 idea of him as a prodigy of wisdom ; 
 others as a monster of iniquity. Every 
 one desired to see him.| They left him, 
 however, a few hours to recruit himself 
 after his journey, and discourse with his 
 most intimate friends. But as soon as 
 the evening closed in, counts, barons, 
 knights, gentlemen, ecclesiastics, and citi- 
 zens, flocked about him. All, even 
 those most opposed to him, were struck 
 with his courageous bearing — the joy 
 that beamed in his countenance — the 
 power of his eloquence, and the solemn 
 elevation and enthusiasm which gave to 
 the words of a single monk a sort of ir- 
 resistible authority. But some ascribed 
 this grandeur to a something divine ; 
 whilst the partisans of the Pope loudly 
 exclaimed that he was possessed by a 
 devil. § Visitors poured in, and the suc- 
 
 * Lutherus in hoc districtu dudum esset com- 
 bustus, Lutherani dn-oo-OTay wyot, nisi Capito aliter 
 persuasisset principi. — (Ibid. 148.) 
 
 t Hie (Capito) ilium (Cochlaeum) insinuavit 
 Hieronymo Aleandro, nuncio Leonis X. — (Coch- 
 lseus, p. 36.) 
 
 t Eadem die tota civitas solicito confluxit . . . 
 — (Pallavicini, i. 114.) 
 
 § Nescio quid divinum suspicabantur ; ex ad- 
 
 cession of the curious kept Luther from 
 his bed till a late hour. 
 
 On the next morning, 17th of April, 
 the hereditary Marshal of the Empire, 
 Ulric Pappenheim, cited him to appear 
 at four o'clock in the afternoon in pres- 
 ence of his Imperial Majesty and of the 
 States of the Empire. Luther received 
 the message with profound respect. 
 
 Thus all things were ready. He was 
 about to appear for Jesus Christ before 
 the most august of all assemblies. En- 
 couragements were not wanting. The 
 bold knight, Ulric Hutten, was then in 
 the castle of Ebernburg. Prevented 
 coming to Worms, (for Leo the Tenth 
 had desired Charles to send him bound 
 hand and foot to Rome,) he resolved at 
 least to stretch out the hand of friendship 
 to Luther, and on the same day, 17th of 
 April, he wrote to him, adopting 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 out of Zion : grant thee according to 
 thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel* 
 O beloved Luther, my venerated father ! 
 . . . . fear not and stand firm. The coun- 
 sels of the wicked have laid wait for you, 
 they have opened their mouths against 
 you — like roaring lions. But the Lord 
 will arise against them and put them to 
 flight. Fight, therefore, valiantly the 
 battle of Christ. For my part I too will 
 fight boldly. Would to God I might be 
 allowed to face their frowns. But the 
 Lord will deliver his Vine, that the wild 
 boar of the forest has laid waste .... 
 Christ preserve you !"f . . . . Bucer did 
 what Hutten was prevented doing, he 
 made the journey from Ebernburg to 
 Worms, and never left his friend during 
 his stay there. \ 
 
 But Luther looked not to men for his 
 strength. "He who, attacked by the 
 enemy, holds up the buckler of Faith," 
 said he one day, " is like Perseus pre- 
 senting the head of the Gorgon. Who- 
 ever looks upon it is struck dead. It is 
 thus that we should hold up the Son of 
 God against the snares of the devil. "§. 
 
 verso alii malo dumone obsessum existimabant. — 
 
 (Ibid.) * Ps. xx. 
 
 + Servet te Christus.— (L. Opp. ii. 175.) 
 t Bucerus eodem venit. — (M. Adam. Vit. Bu- 
 
 ceri, p. 212.) 
 
 § Also sollen wir den Sohn Gottes als Gorgo- 
 
 nis Haupt . . .— (L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1659.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 297 
 
 On the morning- of this 17th April, he 
 was for a few minutes in deep exercise 
 of mind. God's face seemed to be veiled, 
 and — his faith forsook him : — his ene- 
 mies seemed to multiply before him, and 
 his imagination was overcome by the 
 aspect of his dangers. His soul was like 
 a ship driven by a violent tempest, rock- 
 ed from side to side, — one moment plun- 
 ged in the abyss, and the next carried 
 up to heaven. In that hour of bitter 
 trial — when he drank of the cup of 
 Christ — an hour which to him was as 
 the garden of Gethsemane, he threw 
 himself with his face upon the earth, 
 and uttered those broken cries, which 
 we cannot understand, without entering, 
 in thought, into the anguish of those 
 deeps from whence they rose to God.* 
 " Oh God, Almighty God everlasting ! 
 how dreadful is the world ! behold how 
 its mouth opens to swallow me up, and 
 how small is my faith in Thee ! . . . Oh ! 
 the weakness of the flesh and the power 
 of Satan ! If I am to depend upon any 
 strength of this world — all is over. . . . 
 The knell is struck. . . . Sentence is gone 
 forth. . . . O God ! O God ! O thou my 
 God ! help me against all the wisdom of 
 this world. Do this, I beseech thee ; 
 thou shouldst do this .... by thy own 
 mighty power. . . . The work is not mine, 
 but Thine. I have no business here. . . . 
 I have nothing to contend for with these 
 great men of the world ! I would gladly 
 pass my days in happiness and peace. 
 But the cause is Thine, .... and it is 
 righteous and everlasting ! O Lord ! 
 help me ! O faithful and unchangeable 
 God ! I lean not upon man. It were 
 vain ! Whatever is of man is tottering, 
 whatever proceeds from him must fail. 
 My God ! my God ! dost thou not hear ? 
 My God ! art thou no longer living ? 
 Nay, thou canst not die ! Thou dost but 
 hide Thyself. Thou hast chosen me for 
 this work. I know it! . . . Therefore, 
 O God, accomplish thine own will ! For- 
 sake me not, for the sake of thy well-be- 
 loved Son, Jesus Christ, my defence, my 
 buckler, and my strong hold."t 
 
 After a moment of silent struggle, he 
 continued, " Lord — where art thou ? . . . 
 My God, where art thou 1 . . . Come, I 
 pray thee, I am ready. . . . Behold me 
 
 * L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 598. 
 
 t Die Glocke ist schon gegossen. — (L. Opp. 
 (L.) xvii. 589.) 
 
 38 
 
 prepared to lay down my life for thy 
 truth . . . suffering like a lamb. For the 
 cause is holy. It is thine own ! . . . I 
 will not let thee go, no, nor yet for all eter- 
 nity ! And though the world should be 
 thronged with devils — and this body 
 which is the work of thine hands, should 
 be cast forth, trodden under foot, cut in 
 pieces, .... consumed to ashes, .... ?«?/ 
 soul is thine. Yes, I have thine own 
 word to assure me of it. My soul be- 
 longs to thee, and will abide with thee 
 for ever ! Amen ! O God send help ! 
 . . . Amen !"* 
 
 This prayer discloses to us Luther and 
 the Reformation. History here lifts the 
 veil of the sanctuary, and discovers the 
 secret source whence strength and cour- 
 age descended to the humble and despi- 
 sed man, who was God's instrument, to 
 set at liberty the soul and thought of 
 man and open a new age. Luther and 
 the Reformation lie open before us. We 
 discern their inmost springs. We see 
 where their power lay. This effusion 
 of a soul offering itself up in the cause 
 of truth is found in the collection of doc- 
 uments relative to the citation of Luther 
 to Worms, under number 16, of the safe- 
 conducts and other papers of that nature. 
 One of his friends doubtless overheard 
 and preserved it. In our judgment it is 
 one of the noblest of historical documents. 
 
 Four o'clock arrived. The Marshal 
 of the Empire appeared. Luther prepa- 
 red to set out. God had heard his pray- 
 ers ; he was calm when he quitted the 
 hotel. The herald walked first. Next 
 came the Marshal of the Empire, follow- 
 ed by the Reformer. The crowd that 
 thronged the streets was yet more dense 
 than on the preceding evening. It was 
 not possible to advance — it was in vain 
 that orders were given to make way ; — 
 the crowd was increasing. At last the 
 herald, seeing the impossibility of reach- 
 ing the Town Hall, demanded admission 
 into some private houses, and conducted 
 Luther through the gardens and back 
 ways to the place where the Diet was as- 
 sembled, f The people who witnessed this, 
 rushed into the houses after the monk of 
 Wittemberg, stationing themselves at the 
 windows overlooking the gardens, and 
 many of them taking their stand on the 
 
 * Die Seele ist dein. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Und ward also durch heimliche Gangs ge» 
 fuhrt. — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 544.). 
 
298 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tops of the houses. The roofs and the 
 pavements, above and beneath, all around 
 him, were covered with spectators.* 
 
 Arriving at last at the Town Hall, 
 Luther and his companions were again 
 at a loss how to pass the gateway, which 
 was thronged by the multitude. Make 
 room ! was the cry ; but no one stirred. 
 The Imperial soldiers then cleared a 
 passage. The people hurrying forward 
 to enter together with the Reformer, the 
 soldiers drove them back with their hal- 
 berds. Luther entered the interior of 
 the hall, and there again he beheld the 
 enclosure crowded. In the ante-cham- 
 bers and window recesses, there were 
 more than five thousand spectators — 
 German, Italian, Spanish, and of other 
 nations. Luther advanced with difficulty. 
 As he drew near the door which was to 
 admit him to the presence of his judges, 
 he was met by a valiant knight, George 
 Freundsberg, who, four years afterwards, 
 attended by his followers, couched his 
 lance at the battle of Pavia, and bearing 
 down the left of the French army, drove 
 it into the Tessino, and decided the cap- 
 tivity of the King of France. This old 
 general, seeing Luther pass, touched him 
 on the shoulder, and shaking his head, 
 blanched in many battles, said kindly, 
 " My poor monk, my poor monk, thou 
 hast a march and a struggle to go 
 through, such as neither I nor many other 
 captains have seen the like in our most 
 bloody battles. But if thy cause be just, 
 and thou art sure of it, go forward in 
 God's name, and fear nothing ! He will 
 not forsake thee !"f A noble tribute 
 rendered by martial spirit to the courage 
 of the soul. "He that ruleth his. spirit 
 is greater than he that taketh a city," 
 was the word of a king.| 
 
 And now the doors of the hall were 
 thrown open, — Luther entered, and 
 many who formed no part of the Diet 
 gained admission with him. Never had 
 any man appeared before so august an 
 assembly. The Emperor Charles V., 
 whose kingdom extended across both 
 
 * Doch lief das Volk haufig zu, und stieg sogar 
 auf Diicher.— (Seek. 348.) 
 
 t Monchlein, Monchlein, du gehest jetzt einen 
 Gang, einen solchen Stand zu thun, dergleichen 
 Ich und mancher Obrister, auch in unser aller- 
 ernestesten Schlacht-Ordnung nicht gethan ha- 
 ben . . —(Seek. p. 348.) 
 
 } Proverbs, xvi. 32. 
 
 hemispheres, — his brother the Archduke 
 Ferdinand, — six Electors of the Empire, 
 most of whose successors are now crown- 
 ed heads, — twenty-four dukes, many of 
 them territorial sovereigns, and among 
 whom were some who bore a name in 
 after times held in fear and horror by the 
 nations who accepted the Reformation — 
 (the Duke of Alva and his two sons) — 
 eight margraves, — thirty archbishops, 
 bishops, and prelates, — seven ambassa- 
 dors, including those of France and Eng- 
 land, — the deputies of ten free cities, — 
 a number of princes, counts, and barons 
 of rank, — the Pope's Nuncios, — in all 
 two hundred persons. Such was the 
 imposing assemblage before which stood 
 Martin Luther. 
 
 His appearance there was of itself a 
 signal victory over the Papacy. The 
 man whom the Pope had condemned 
 stood before a tribunal raised by that 
 very fact above the Pope's authority. 
 Placed under interdict, and struck out 
 from human fellowship by the Pope, — 
 he was cited in respectful terms, and re- 
 ceived before the noblest of human au- 
 ditories. The Pope had decreed that 
 his lips should be closed for ever, — and he 
 was about to unclose them in presence 
 of thousands assembled from the remotest 
 countries of Christendom. Thus had an 
 immense revolution been effected by his 
 means ; Rome was brought down from 
 her seat, and the power that thus hum- 
 bled her was the word of a monk ! 
 
 Some Princes who were near him, ob- 
 serving the humble son of the miner of 
 Mansfeld awed and affected in this as- 
 sembly of sovereigns, approached him 
 kindly. One of them whispered, " Fear 
 not them who are able to kill the body, 
 and cannot destroy the soul." Another 
 whispered to him, " When you are 
 brought before kings it shall be given to 
 you by the Spirit of your Father what 
 you shall say."* Thus was the monk 
 strengthened with his Master's words by 
 the great ones of this world. 
 
 Meanwhile the guards made way for 
 Luther. He stepped forward, and found 
 himself in front of the throne of Charles 
 V. All eyes were turned upon him. 
 The confusion was stilled, and there was 
 
 * Einige aus denen Reichs-Gliedern sprachen 
 Ihm einen Muth, mit Christi Worten, ein . . . — 
 CMatt. x. 20, 28. Seckendorf, p. 348.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 299 
 
 a profound silence. " Say nothing until 
 a question is put to you." said the Mar- 
 shal of the Empire as he quitted him. 
 
 After a moment's solemn pause, John 
 Eck, the Chancellor of the Archbishop 
 of Treves, and the friend of Aleander, 
 whom we must not confound with the 
 theologian of that name, rose, and in a 
 clear and sonorous accent, first in Latin 
 and then in German, said : 
 
 " Martin Luther, his sacred and in- 
 vincible Majesty has cited you before 
 his throne, acting on the opinion and ad- 
 vice of the States of the Holy Roman 
 Empire, to require you to answer to these 
 questions. First : Do you acknowledge 
 these writings to have been composed by 
 you?" At the same time the speaker 
 pointed with his finger to about twenty 
 volumes placed on a table in the centre 
 of the hall, immediately before Luther. 
 " I could not guess where they had ob- 
 tained them," said Luther, relating the 
 fact ; it was Aleander who had taken 
 the trouble to collect them. "Secondly," 
 continued the Chancellor, " Are you pre- 
 pared to retract these works, and the 
 propositions contained therein, or do you 
 persist in what you have therein ad- 
 vanced?" 
 
 Luther, without faltering, was about 
 to answer the first question in the affir- 
 mative, when Jerome SchurfF, hastily in- 
 terrupting him, exclaimed aloud, " Let 
 their titles be read."* 
 
 The Chancellor advancing to the table 
 read the titles. There were in the num- 
 ber several works of a devotional char- 
 acter, and altogether unconnected with 
 the controverted points. 
 
 The enumeration being gone through, 
 Luther spoke as follows, first in Latin, 
 then in German : — 
 
 " Most gracious Emperor, Princes, and 
 Lords ! 
 
 " His Imperial Majesty puts to me two 
 questions. 
 
 " As to the first, I acknowledge the 
 books, the names of which have been 
 read, to be of my writing ; I cannot deny 
 them. 
 
 " As to the second, seeing that it is a 
 question which has reference to faith, and 
 the salvation of souls, — a question which 
 concerns the word of God, the greatest 
 
 * Legantur tituli librorum. — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 
 
 588. 
 
 and most precious treasure of heaven or 
 earth,* — I should act rashly if I were to 
 answer without reflection. I might say 
 less than the circumstance demands, or 
 more than truth requires, and so sin 
 against that word of Christ, — Whosoever 
 shall deny me before men, him will I deny 
 before my Father who is in heaven. There- 
 fore it is that I most humbly desire his 
 Imperial Majesty to allow me time, that 
 I may answer without offending against 
 the word of God." 
 
 This reply, far from countenancing the 
 supposition of indecision in Luther, was 
 worthy of the Reformer and of the as- 
 sembly. It was fit that he should act 
 calmly and circumspectly in a question 
 of such grave importance, that this sol- 
 emn moment of his life might be clear 
 from the suspicion of passion or precip- 
 itancy. Besides, by taking reasonable 
 time the deliberate firmness of his res- 
 olution would be the more strikingly 
 apparent. Many men in the history of 
 the world have brought great evils on 
 themselves and their contemporaries by 
 a hasty word. Luther restrained his 
 own naturally impetuous temper : — he 
 suppressed the words that were on his 
 tongue and kept silence, when all the 
 feelings that inspired him struggled to 
 find utterance. This self-command and 
 calmness, so unusual in such a man, in- 
 creased his power a hundred-fold, and 
 enabled him afterwards to answer with 
 a prudence, a force, and a dignity, which 
 baulked the expectations of his enemies, 
 and confounded their pride and malice. 
 
 Nevertheless, as his tone had been re- 
 spectful many thought he was wavering. 
 A ray of hope appeared for the Roman 
 courtiers. Charles, eager to know more 
 of a man whose teaching disturbed the 
 Empire, had observed him narrowly. 
 Turning to one of his courtiers, he re- 
 marked contemptuously, " Certainly that 
 man will never induce me to turn her- 
 etic"! Then rising from his seat, the 
 young Emperor, attended by his minis- 
 ters, withdrew to the council chamber ; — 
 the Electors assembled in another apart- 
 ment together with the Princes ; the de- 
 
 * Weil dies eine Frage vom Glauben und 
 der Seelen Seiigkeit ist und Gottes Wort be- 
 langet . . .—(Ibid. 573.) 
 
 t Hie certe nunquam efficeret ut haereticus 
 evaderem. — (Pallavicini, i. 115.) 
 
300 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 puties of the free cities in a third. The 
 Diet on re-assembling agreed to grant 
 the request. It was a notable blunder in 
 men actuated by passion and prejudice. 
 
 " Martin Luther," said the Chancellor 
 of Treves, " his Imperial Majesty, acting 
 in the goodness of his nature, consents to 
 allow you one day's delay ; but on con- 
 dition that you make answer by word of 
 mouth, and not in writing." 
 
 Immediately the Imperial herald came 
 forward and conducted Luther back to 
 the hotel. Threats and shouts accom- 
 panied him through the crowd ; — alarm- 
 ing reports reached his friends. " The 
 Diet is displeased," it was said : " the 
 Pope's envoys triumph ; — the Reformer 
 will fall a victim." Men's passions were 
 roused. Some gentlemen repaired in 
 haste to Luther. " Doctor," said they in 
 agitation, " what is all this % They say 
 they are resolved to bring you to the 
 
 stake * If they dare attempt it," 
 
 they added, " it shall be at the peril of 
 their lives." " And it would have been 
 so," said Luther, repeating their words at 
 Eisleben twenty years later. 
 
 On the other hand, Luther's enemies 
 were all confidence. " He has begged 
 for time," said they ; " he is going to re- 
 tract. At a distance his speech was ar- 
 rogant; — but now his courage forsakes 
 him. . . He is conquered." 
 
 Luther was perhaps the only person 
 at Worms perfectly undisturbed. A few 
 minutes after his return from the Diet he 
 wrote, to the counsellor Cuspianus : " I 
 am writing to you from the very midst 
 of a tempest (perhaps he alluded to the 
 noise of the crowd outside his hotel). 
 An hour ago I appeared before the Em- 
 peror and his brother.! • • ■ I avowed 
 myself the author of my books, and I 
 have promised to give my answer to- 
 morrow, as to recantation. By the help 
 of Jesus Christ, I will not retract a sin- 
 gle letter of my writings." % 
 
 The commotion among the people and 
 the soldiers of the states was increasing 
 every hour. Whilst the two parties 
 were repairing calmly to the Diet, — the 
 
 * Wie geht's ? man sagt sie wollen euch ver- 
 brennen . . . — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 588.) 
 
 t Hac bora coram Ca?sare et fratre Romano 
 constiti.— (L. Epp. i. 587.) 
 
 X Verum ego ne apicem quidem revocabo. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 people and the soldiers came to blows in 
 the streets. The Spanish troops, proud 
 and stern, gave great offence by their in- 
 solence to the burghers of the city. One 
 of these satellites of Charles, finding in 
 a bookseller's shop the Pope's Bull, pub- 
 lished with a commentary written by the 
 knight Hiitten, laid hands upon it, tore it 
 in pieces, and trampled it under foot. 
 Others having discovered several copies 
 of Luther's tract on the Captivity of 
 Babylon, carried them off and tore them 
 up. The common people, roused to re- 
 sistance, fell upon the soldiers and com- 
 pelled them to retire. Another time a 
 mounted Spaniard pursued, sword in 
 hand, through the public streets of 
 Worms, a German, who fled from him, 
 — and the people in their fright made no 
 attempt to stop the pursuer.* 
 
 Some politic persons thought they had 
 hit upon an expedient to rescue Luther. 
 " Retract," said they, " your errors in 
 doctrine, but adhere to all you have said 
 concerning the Pope and his court, and 
 you will be safe." Aleander trembled 
 at the suggestion. But Luther, not to be 
 moved from his purpose, declared that 
 he cared little for a political reformation 
 if it were not based upon faith. 
 
 On the 18th of April, Father Glapio, 
 the Chancellor Eck, and Aleander met 
 early in the morning agreeably to orders 
 from Charles V. to settle the course of 
 proceeding with Luther. 
 
 Luther composed his thoughts. He 
 felt that tranquillity of soul without 
 which man can do nothing truly great. 
 He prayed ; — he read the Word of God ; 
 ■ — he glanced over his own writings, and 
 endeavoured to give a suitable form to 
 his answer. The thought that he was 
 about to bear testimony for Jesus Christ 
 and his word in the face of the Emperor 
 and of the whole Empire dilated his 
 heart with joy ! The moment when he 
 was to make his appearance was ap- 
 proaching. He drew near the table on 
 which the volume of the Holy Scriptures 
 lay open, placed his left hand upon it, 
 and raising the other towards heaven, he 
 vowed to adhere constantly to the Gos- 
 pel, and to confess his faith freely, even 
 though he should be called to seal his 
 confession with his blood. This done, 
 he felt the peace of his soul increased. 
 * Happens Ref. Urkunden, ii. 448. 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 301 
 
 At four o'clock the herald presented 
 himself, and conducted Luther to the 
 hall of the Diet. The general curiosity 
 was extreme, for the answer was to be 
 decisive. The Diet being engaged in 
 deliberation, Luther was obliged to wait 
 in the court, surrounded by a dense 
 crowd, eagerly moving to and fro, and 
 resembling a sea of heads. For two 
 hours, the Reformer was hemmed in by 
 the multitude pressing to see him. " I 
 was not used," said he, " to such ways 
 and noises."* To an ordinary man this 
 would have been a grievous hindrance 
 to preparedness of mind. But Luther 
 Avas walking with God. His look 'was 
 serene ; his features unruffled. The 
 Eternal was placing him on a rock. 
 Evening began to close in, and the 
 torches were lighted in the hall. Their 
 light gleamed through the ancient paint- 
 ed glass to the court beyond, and the 
 whole scene wore an aspect of more than 
 common solemnity. At length the Doc- 
 tor was admitted. Many persons ob- 
 tained admission with him, for every one 
 was desirous to hear his answer. The 
 Princes having taken their seats, and 
 Luther being again in presence of Charles 
 V. — the Chancellor of the Elector of 
 Treves broke silence, and said : 
 
 '■ Martin Luther, you requested yester- 
 day a delay which is now expired. Cer- 
 tainly the Diet was not bound in justice 
 to accede to your desire, since every man 
 should be so grounded in his faith as to 
 be able at all times to give an answer to 
 those who ask him ; much more one 
 who is an eminent and learned doctor in 
 the Scriptures. . . . Now, therefore, an- 
 swer the enquiry of his Majesty, who 
 has manifested so much indulgence. 
 Are you prepared to defend all that your 
 writings contain, or do you wish to re- 
 tract any part of them ?" 
 
 After having spoken these words, the 
 Chancellor repeated them in German. 
 
 "Hereupon," say the Acts of Worms, 
 " Doctor Martin Luther made answer in 
 a low and humble tone, without any 
 vehemence or violence, but with gentle- 
 ness and mildness, and in a manner full 
 of respect and diffidence, yet with much 
 joy and Christian firmness." f 
 
 * Des Gctiimmels und Wesens war Ich gar 
 nicht gewohnt. — (L. Opp. xvii. 588, 535.) 
 
 t Schreyt nicht sehr nocli heftig, sondern re- 
 
 " Most Serene Emperor, and you illus- 
 trious Princes and gracious Lords," said 
 Luther, turning towards Charles, and 
 looking round the assembly, " I this day 
 appear before you in all humility, accord- 
 ing to your command, and I implore 
 your Majesty and your august High- 
 nesses, by the mercies of God, to listen 
 with favour to the defence of a cause 
 which I am well assured is just and 
 right. I ask pardon, if by reason of my 
 ignorance, I am wanting in the manners 
 that befit a court ; for I have not been 
 brought up in king's palaces, — but in the 
 seclusion of a cloister. 
 
 " Two questions were yesterday put 
 to me by his Imperial Majesty ; the first, 
 whether I was the author of the books 
 whose titles were read : the second, whe- 
 ther I wished to 'revoke or defend the 
 doctrine I have taught. I answered the 
 first, and I adhere to that answer. 
 
 " As to the second, I have composed 
 writings on very different subjects. In 
 some I have discussed Faith and Good 
 Works, in a spirit at once so pure, clear, 
 and Christian, that even my adversaries 
 themselves, far from finding anything to 
 censure, confess that these writings are 
 profitable, and deserve to be perused by 
 devout persons. The Pope's bull, vio- 
 lent as it is — acknowledges this. What 
 then should I be doing if I were now to 
 retract these writings 'I Wretched man ! 
 I alone, of all men living, should be 
 abandoning truths approved by the unan- 
 imous voice of friends and enemies, and 
 opposing doctrines that the whole world 
 glories in confessing. 
 
 " I have composed, secondly, certain 
 works against Popery, wherein I have 
 attacked such as by false doctrine, irregu- 
 lar lives, and scandalous examples, aiilict 
 the Christian world, and ruin the bodies 
 and souls of men. And is not this con- 
 firmed by the grief of all who fear God % 
 Is it not manifest that the laws and hu- 
 man doctrines of the Popes entangle, 
 vex, and distress the consciences of the 
 faithful, whilst the crying and endless 
 extortions of Rome engulf the property 
 and wealth of Christendom, and more 
 particularly of this illustrious nation 1 
 
 " If I were to revoke what I have 
 written on that subject, what should I do 
 
 det fein, sktich, ziichtig und bescheiden . . — 
 (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 576.) 
 
302 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 . . . but strengthen this tyranny, and 
 open a wider door to so many and fla- 
 grant impieties 1* Bearing down all re- 
 sistance with fresh fury, we should be- 
 hold these proud men swell, foam, and 
 rage more than ever ! And not merely 
 would the yoke which now weighs down 
 Christians be made more grinding by my 
 retractation, — it would thereby become, 
 so to speak, lawful, — for, by my retrac- 
 tation, it would receive confirmation from 
 your most Serene Majesty, and all the 
 States of the Empire. Great God! I 
 should thus be like to an infamous cloak, 
 used to hide and cover over every kind 
 of malice and tyranny. 
 
 " In the third and last place, — I have 
 written some books against private indi- 
 viduals, who had undertaken to defend 
 the tyranny of Rome by destroying the 
 faith. I freely confess that I may have 
 attacked such persons with more violence 
 than was consistent with rny profession 
 as an ecclesiastic : I do not think of my- 
 self as a saint ; — but neither can I re- 
 tract these books, because I should, by so 
 doing, sanction the impieties of my oppo- 
 nents ; and they would thence take occa- 
 sion to crash God's people with still more 
 cruelty. 
 
 " Yet, as I. am a mere man, and not 
 God, I will defend myself after the ex- 
 ample of Jesus Christ, who said : ' If I 
 have spoken evil, bear -witness against me? 
 (John xviii. 23.) How much more 
 should I, who am but dust and ashes, 
 and so prone to error, desire that every 
 one should bring forward what he can 
 against my doctrine, 
 
 " Therefore, most Serene Emperor, 
 and you illustrious Princes, and all, whe- 
 ther high or low, who hear me, I im- 
 plore you by the mercies of God to prove 
 to me by the writings of the prophets 
 and apostles that I am in error. As soon 
 as I shall be convinced, I will instantly 
 retract all my errors, and will myself be 
 the first to seize my writings, and commit 
 them to the flames. 
 
 ' : What I have just said I think'will 
 clearly show, that I have well considered 
 and weighed the dangers to which I am 
 exposing myself; but far from being dis- 
 mayed by them, I rejoice exceedingly to 
 see the Gospel this day, as of old, a cause 
 
 * Nicht allein die Fenster sondern auch Thiir 
 und Thor aufthiite. — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 573.) 
 
 of disturbance and disagreement. It is 
 the character and destiny of God's word. 
 ' I came not to send peace unto the earth, 
 but a sword,' said Jesus Christ. God is 
 wonderful and awful in his counsels. 
 Let us have a care, lest in our endeavours 
 to arrest discords, we be found to fight 
 against the holy word of God and bring 
 down upon our heads a frightful deluge 
 of inextricable dangers, present disaster, 
 and everlasting desolations ..... Let us 
 have a care lest the reign of the young 
 and noble Prince, the Emperor Charles, 
 on whom, next to God, we build so many 
 hopes, should not only commence, but 
 continue and terminate its course under 
 the most fatal auspices. I might cite ex- 
 amples drawn from the oracles of God," 
 continued Luther, speaking with noble 
 courage in the presence of the mightiest 
 monarch of the world. " I might speak 
 of Pharaohs, — of kings of Babylon, or 
 of Israel, who were never more contrib- 
 uting to their own ruin, than when, by 
 measures in appearance most prudent, 
 they thought to establish their authority ! 
 God removeth the mountains and they 
 know not. (Job ix. 5.) 
 
 " In speaking thus, I do not suppose 
 that such noble Princes have need of my 
 poor judgment ; but I wish to acquit 
 myself of a duty that Germany has a 
 right to expect from her children. And 
 so commending myself to your August 
 Majesty, and your most Serene High- 
 nesses, 1 beseech you in all humility, not 
 to permit the hatred of my enemies to 
 rain upon me an indignation I have not 
 deserved."* 
 
 Luther had pronounced these words 
 in German, with modesty, and yet with 
 much earnestness and resolution ;t he 
 was desired to repeat them in Latin : 
 (the Emperor was not fond of German.) 
 The splendid assembly which surround- 
 ed the Reformer, its noise and excitement 
 had exhausted him. " I was bathed in 
 sweat," said he, " and standing in the 
 centre of the Princes." Frederic of 
 Thun, confidential counsellor of the 
 Elector of Saxony, who by his master's 
 orders had taken his stand at the Re- 
 
 * This speech as well as most of the docu- 
 ments we cite are taken word for word from au- 
 thentic documents. — (Sec L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 776 
 —780.) 
 
 t Non clamose at modeste, non tamen sine 
 Christiana animositate et constantia. — (Ibid. 165.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 503 
 
 former's side, to guard him against sur- 
 prise or violence, seeing the exhaustion 
 of the poor monk, said, " If you are not 
 equal to the exertion of repeating your 
 speech, what you have said will suffice.'' 
 But Luther, having taken a moment's 
 breathing time, began again, and repeat- 
 ed his address in Latin with undiminish- 
 ed power.* 
 
 " The Elector was quite pleased with 
 that," said the Reformer, when relating 
 the circumstance. 
 
 As soon as he stopped speaking, the 
 Chancellor of Treves, spokesman of the 
 Diet, said angrily : — 
 
 " You have not given any answer to 
 the enquiry put to you. You are not to 
 question the decisions of the Councils, — 
 you are required to return a clear and 
 distinct answer. Will you, or will you 
 not retract V Luther then answered 
 unhesitatingly : — " Since your most Se- 
 rene Majesty and your High Mightiness- 
 es require of me a simple, clear, and di- 
 rect answer, I will give one,f and it is 
 this : — I cannot submit my faith either 
 to the Pope or to the Councils, — because 
 it is as clear as noon-day that they have 
 often fallen into error, and even into 
 glaring inconsistency with themselves. 
 If then I am not convinced by proof from 
 Holy Scripture or by cogent reasons ; if 
 I am not satisfied by the very texts that I 
 have cited ; and if my judgment is not 
 in this way brought into subjection to 
 God's word, I neither can nor will re- 
 tract any thing : for it cannot be right for 
 a Christian to speak against his con- 
 science." Then turning a look on that 
 i assembly before whom he stood, and 
 which held in its hands his life or death : 
 " I stand here, and can say no more : — 
 God help me. Amen."! 
 
 Thus did Luther, constrained to act 
 upon his Faith, led by his conscience to 
 the surrender of his life, bound by the 
 noblest of all necessity, — the servant of the 
 truth he believed, and in that service 
 most free ; like a vessel freighted with trea- 
 sure more precious than itself that the 
 pilot runs upon the rocks ; — pronounce 
 the sublime words that at the distance of 
 
 * See L. Opp. lat. ii. 165—167. 
 
 t Dabo illud neque dentatum, neque comutum. 
 —(Ibid. 166.) 
 
 I Hier stehe ich : Ich kan nicht anders ; Gott 
 helfe mir ! Amen. — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 580. 
 
 three centuries still make our hearts 
 bound within us. Thus spake, in pres- 
 ence of the Emperor and the chiefs of 
 the nation, a single monk ! and that 
 weak and poor man standing alone, but 
 depending on the grace of the Most 
 High, shone forth grander and mightier 
 than them all. His words came with a 
 power against which the great of this 
 world could do nothing. This is that 
 weakness of God which is stronger than 
 men. The Empire and the Church on 
 the one hand, — an obscure individual on 
 the other, have looked upon each other ! 
 God had gathered together these kings 
 and prelates, to bring publicly to naught 
 their wisdom. The battle is lost ; and 
 the consequences of this defeat of the 
 powers of this world will be felt among 
 all nations, and in all ages to come. 
 
 The assembly was motionless with 
 astonishment. Several of the Princes 
 present could scarcely conceal their ad- 
 miration. The Emperor, recovering 
 from first impressions, exclaimed, " The 
 monk speaks with an intrepid heart and 
 unshaken courage.' 1 * The Spaniards 
 and Italians alone were confounded, and 
 soon began to ridicule a moral grandeur 
 which they could not comprehend. 
 
 " If you do not retract," resumed the 
 Chancellor, as soon as the assembly had 
 recovered from the impression produced 
 by Luther's speech,— " the Emperor and 
 the States of the Empire will proceed to 
 consider how to deal with an obstinate 
 heretic." At these words Luther'.-, 
 friends trembled ; — but the monk repeat- 
 ed : " May God be my helper f for I can 
 retract nothing."! 
 
 This said, Luther withdrew, and the 
 Princes deliberated. Every one saw 
 clearly that the moment was critical for 
 Christendom. On the yea or nay of this 
 monk, perhaps, depended the repose of 
 the Church and of the world for ages to 
 come. In the desire to over-awe him, ho 
 had been raised on a platform in sight of 
 a whole nation : the attempt to give 
 publicity to his defeat had only served 
 to enhance his victory over his enemies. 
 The partisans of Rome could not patient- 
 ly submit to this humiliation. Luther 
 was again called in, and the speaker thus 
 
 * Der Monch redet. unerschrocken, mit ge- 
 trostem Muth ! — Seckendorf, p. 350.) 
 t L. Opp. (W.) xv. 2235. 
 
304 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 addressed him : — " Martin, you have not 
 spoken with that humility which befits 
 your condition. The distinction you 
 nave drawn as to your works was need- 
 less, for if you retracted such as contain 
 errors, the Emperor would not allow the 
 rest to he burned. It is absurd to require 
 to be refuted by Scripture, when you are 
 reviving heresies condemned by the gen- 
 eral Council of Constance. The Empe- 
 ror therefore commands you to say sim- 
 ply, yes or no, whether you mean to af- 
 firm what you have advanced, or wheth- 
 er you desire to retract any part thereof." 
 — " I have n'o other answer to give than 
 that I have already given," said Luther 
 quietly. They understood him. — Firm 
 as a rock, — the billows of the powers of 
 the world had broken harmlessly at his 
 feet The simple energy of his words, 
 his erect countenance, the glance of his 
 eye, the inflexible firmness that might 
 be traced in his rude German features, 
 had indeed left a deep impression on the 
 assembly. All hope of quelling his spirit 
 had vanished. The Spaniards, the Belgi- 
 ans, and even the Italians were silent. 
 The monk had triumphed over these 
 powers of this world. He had said No 
 to the Church and to the Empire. Charles 
 the Fifth arose from his seat and the 
 whole assembly rose at the same instant. 
 " The Diet will meet again to-morrow 
 morning to hear the Emperor's decision," 
 said the Chancellor aloud. 
 
 It was night ;- — each repaired home in 
 the dark. Two of the Imperial officers 
 were appointed to accompany Luther. 
 Some persons took it into their heads that 
 his doom had been decided, that they 
 were conducting him to prison, which he 
 would only leave to mount the scaffold. 
 Then a tumult spread. Several gentle- 
 men demanded aloud : " Are they lead- 
 ing him to prison ? M " No !" answered 
 Luther, " they are conducting me to my 
 hotel." On hearing this the commotion 
 subsided. Then certain Spaniards of 
 the Emperor's household followed the 
 boJd man through the streets that led to 
 the hotel, with shouts and mockery,* 
 while others poured forth the cries of a 
 wild beast bereft of his prey. But Lu- 
 ther maintained his firmness and assu- 
 
 * Subsannatione hominem Die et longo rugitu 
 prosecuti sunt. — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 166.) 
 
 Such was the scene of Worms. The 
 intrepid monk who had hitherto boldly 
 braved all his enemies, spoke on that 
 occasion to those who thirsted for his 
 blood with calm dignity and humility. 
 With no exaggeration, no enthusiasm of 
 the flesh, no irascibility ; he was in peace 
 in the liveliest emotion ; unpresumptu- 
 ous, though withstanding the powers of 
 this world ; and full of grandeur in pres- 
 ence of the great ones of the earth. Be- 
 hold an indubitable sign that Luther 
 was then acting in obedience to God, 
 and not the suggestions of his own pride. 
 In the hall at Worms was one greater 
 than Luther or than Charles. " When 
 ye shall be brought before governors 
 and kings for my sake, take no thought 
 how or what ye shall speak, for it shall 
 be given you in that same hour what ye 
 shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, 
 but the Spirit of your Father which 
 speaketh in you."* Never, perhaps, has 
 this promise been more signally fulfilled, 
 
 A powerful impression had been pro- 
 duced on the chiefs of the empire. Lu- 
 ther had remarked this ; and it had 
 given him new courage. The Pope's 
 adherents were provoked because Eck 
 had not earlier interrupted the speech of 
 the guilty monk. Several princes and 
 lords were won over to his cause by the 
 tone of deep conviction with which he 
 had defended it. It is true, with some 
 the effect was transient ; but some who 
 then concealed their thoughts, at a later 
 period declared themselves with great 
 boldness. 
 
 Luther had returned to his hotel, and 
 was seeking in repose to recruit his 
 strength, exhausted in the stern and try- 
 ing events of the day. Spalatin and 
 others of his friends surrounded him, 
 giving thanks to God. As they were 
 discoursing, a servant entered, bearing a 
 silver vase filled with Eimbek beer. 
 " My master," said he, as he offered it to 
 Luther, " desires you to refresh yourself 
 with this beverage." "What prince is 
 it," said the Wittemberg Doctor, ' : who 
 has me in such gracious remembrance?" 
 It was the aged Duke Eric of Bruns- 
 wick* The Reformer was moved- by 
 this offering from a powerful lord belong- 
 ing to the Pope's party. " His High- 
 ness himself," continued the messenger, 
 * Matt. x. 18, 20. 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 305 
 
 " drank of the cup before sending it to 
 you." Hereupon Luther, being thirsty, 
 poured out some of the Duke's beer, and 
 after having drunk, he said : " As on 
 this day Duke Eric has remembered 
 me, may our Lord Jesus Christ remem- 
 ber him in the hour of his last struggle."* 
 The gift was a trilling- one ; but Luther, 
 desiring to show his gratitude to a Prince 
 who thought of him at such a moment, 
 gave him of such as he had, — a prayer ! 
 The servant bore his message to his 
 9 master. The aged Duke called to mind 
 these words at the moment of his death, 
 and addressing a young page, Francis 
 Kram, who was standing at his bedside: 
 —"Take the Bible," said he, " and read 
 to me." The youth read the words of 
 Christ, and the soul of the dying man 
 took comfort. " Whosoever shall give 
 you a cup of water to drink in my na?ne, 
 because ye belong to Christ" said the Sa- 
 viour, " verily I say unto you he shall not 
 lose his reward" 
 
 The servant of the Duke of Bruns- 
 wick had scarcely left him, when a mes- 
 senger from the Elector of Saxony brought 
 orders to Spalatin to come to him imme- 
 diately. Frederic had attended the Diet 
 with many apprehensions. He had ex- 
 pected that Luther's courage would have 
 failed him in the Emperor's presence. 
 Hence he had been deeply affected by 
 the Reformer's firmness. He felt proud 
 of having taken such a man under his 
 protection. When the chaplain arrived, 
 the table was spread. The Elector was 
 just sitting down to supper with his 
 court, and already the servant in waiting 
 had taken away the vase in which it 
 was the custom to wash before eating. 
 On seeing Spalatin enter, Frederic in- 
 stantly made a sign to him to follow 
 him ; and as soon as he found himself 
 alone with him in his bedchamber, he 
 said with strong emotion : " Oh ! how Lu- 
 ther spoke before the Emperor and all 
 the States of the Empire : — all I feared 
 was that he might go too far!"f From 
 that time Frederic formed a resolution to 
 protect the Doctor more openly. 
 
 Aleander saw the effect that Luther 
 had produced ; there was no time to 
 
 * Also gedencke seiner unser Herr Christus 
 in seinem letzten Kampffi — (Seek. p. 354.) 
 
 t O wie schon hat Pater Martinas geredet. — 
 (Seek. p. 355.) 
 
 39 
 
 lose. It was necessary to urge the 
 young Emperor to adopt vigorous meas- 
 ures. The moment was favourable : a 
 war with France was impending. Leo 
 X, eager to aggrandize his states, and 
 caring little for the peace of Christen- 
 dom, was at the same lime secretly ne- 
 gociating two treaties,— one with Charles 
 against Francis, and the other with Fran- 
 cis against Charles.* By the former he 
 stipulated with the Emperor for the pos- 
 session of Parma, Placentia, and Ferra- 
 ra; by the latter he claimed from the 
 King a district of the kingdom of Na- 
 ples, which should be conquered from 
 Charles. The latter felt the importance 
 of gaining Leo to his side, that he might 
 be strengthened by his alliance in the 
 war with his rival of France. The 
 mighty Pontiff's friendship seemed to 
 be cheaply purchased by the sacrifice of 
 Luther. 
 
 The day following Luther's appear- 
 ance being Friday, the 1-9 th of April, 
 the Emperor caused to be read aloud 
 to the Diet, a message written in Flem- 
 ish by his own hand : — f 
 
 " Descended from the Christian Em- 
 perors of Germany, from the Catholic 
 Kings of Spain, from the Archdukes of 
 Austria and Dukes of Burgundy, who 
 have all distinguished themselves as de- 
 fenders of the faith of Rome, I am firmly 
 resolved to tread in the footsteps of my 
 ancestors. A single monk, led astray by 
 his own madness, erects himself against 
 the faith of Christendom. I will sacri- 
 fice my kingdoms, my power, my 
 friends, my treasure, my body and 
 blood, my thoughts and my life, to stay 
 the further progress of this impiety. J I 
 am about to dismiss the Augustine Lu- 
 ther, forbidding him to cause the least 
 disturbance among the people. I will 
 then take measures against him and his 
 adherents, as open heretics, by excom- 
 
 * Guieciardini, L. xiv. 175. Dumont Corp. 
 Dipl. torn. iv. 96. Dice&i del papa Leone, ehe 
 qnando l'aveva fatto lega con alcuno, prima so- 
 leva dir che pero non si dovea restar de tratar 
 cum lo altro principe opposto. — (Suriano, Vene- 
 tian Ambassador at Rome, MS. archives of Ve- 
 nice.) 
 
 t Autographum in lingua Burgundies ab ipso- 
 met exaratum. — (Cochlajus, p. 32.) 
 
 t Regna, thesauros, amicos, corpus, eangui- 
 nem, vitam, spiritumque profundere. — (Pallavi- 
 cini, i. 118.) 
 
306 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 munication, interdict, and every means 
 necessary to their destruction.* I call 
 on the members of the states to com- 
 port themselves like faithful Christians." 
 
 This address was not well received by 
 all to whom it was addressed. Charles, 
 young and hasty, had not observed the 
 customary form which obliged him first 
 to ask the opinion of the Diet. Immedi- 
 ately two directly opposite parties began 
 to show themselves. The creatures of 
 the Pope, the Elector of Brandenburg, 
 and several dignitaries of the church de- 
 manded that Luther's safe-conduct should 
 not be respected.f " His ashes ought to 
 be thrown into the Rhine," said they, 
 "as was the fate of John Huss." 
 Charles, if we may believe one historian, 
 subsequently repented bitterly that he 
 did not adopt this cowardly suggestion. 
 " I acknowledge," said he, towards the 
 close of life, " that I committed a great 
 mistake in not punishing Luther with 
 death. I was not bound to keep my pro- 
 mise ; that heretic had offended a master 
 greater than I. I might and I ought to 
 have forgotten my pledge, and avenged 
 the offence he committed against God. 
 It is because I did not have him put to 
 death, that heresy has ever since been 
 spreading. His death would have stifled 
 it in its cradle."| 
 
 This frightful proposal filled the Elec- 
 tor and all Luther's friends with alarm. 
 " The death of John Huss," said the 
 Elector Palatine, " has brought too many 
 calamities on Germany for us to think 
 of again erecting a like scaffold." Even 
 Duke George exclaimed : " The German 
 Princes will not endure the violation of 
 a safe-conduct. This first Diet, presided 
 over by our new Emperor, will not be 
 guilty of so shameful an action. Such 
 perfidy befits not the ancient good faith 
 of the Germans." The Bavarian Prin- 
 ces, though attached to the Roman 
 
 * Und andern Wegen sie zu vertilgen. — (L. 
 Opp. (L.) xvii. 581.) 
 
 t Dass Luthero das sichere Geleit nicht mochte 
 gehalten werden. — (Seckend. p. 357.) 
 
 t Sandoval Hist, de Carlos V. quoted by Llo- 
 rente in his History of the Inquisition, ii. 57. 
 According to Llorente, the supposition that 
 Charles toward the end of his life leaned to evan- 
 gelical opinions is an invention of the Protestants, 
 and of the enemies of Philip II. The question 
 is a problem in history which the numerous cita- 
 tions of Llorente seem, unhappily, to solve con- 
 formably to his statement. 
 
 Church, supported this protest ; and the 
 prospect of his death that Luther's 
 friends had before them gradually dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 The report of these discussions, which 
 lasted for two days, circulated in the city. 
 Party spirit was roused. Certain gentle- 
 men who had espoused the new opinions 
 began to speak their minds boldly on 
 the act of treachery that Aleander 
 solicited. " The Emperor," said they, 
 "is young, and is led away by the cajo- 
 leries of Papists and bishops."* Palla^ 
 vicini mentions four hundred nobles, all 
 ready with their swords to enforce re- . 
 spect to Luther's safe-conduct. On the 
 morning of Saturday, placards were seen 
 posted on the doors of the houses, and in 
 the public squares, some against Luther, 
 and others in his favour. In one was 
 read the strong and simple words of Ec- 
 clesiastes, Woe to thee, O land, when thy 
 king is a child ! It was rumoured that 
 Sickengen had assembled, at a distance 
 of a few leagues from Worms, within the 
 impregnable walls of his fortress, a num- 
 ber of knights and soldiers, and waited 
 only the issue of the affair to know how 
 to act. The popular enthusiasm, not 
 merely in Worms, but even in the re- 
 motest towns of the Empire,! — the in- 
 trepid courage of the knights, — the de- 
 votion of several princes to the cause of 
 the Reformation — all together, gave 
 clear intimation to Charles and to the 
 Diet that the course of proceeding urged 
 by the Romanists might place in jeopardy 
 the supreme authority, give birth to 
 popular commotions, and endanger the 
 very stability of the Empire itself.J: It 
 was but a question — whether a single 
 monk should be brought to the stake ; 
 but the princes and partisans of Rome 
 could not muster among them all either 
 the strength or the courage necessary for 
 the act. Doubtless, also, Charles V., yet 
 in his youth, feared to incur the guilt of 
 perjury. We might infer this, from a 
 saying which, if report be true, he ut- 
 tered at this juncture. " Though honour 
 
 * Eum esse puerum, qui nutu et blandiliis 
 Papistarum et Episcoporum trahatur quocunque 
 velint. — (Cochlaeus, p. 33.) 
 
 t Verum etiam in longinquis GermanifB civi- 
 tatibus, motus et murmura plebium. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Es ware ein Aufruhr daraus worden, says 
 Luther. 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 307 
 
 and good faith should be banished from 
 the earth, they should find an asylum in 
 the breasts of princes." It is a melan- 
 choly reflection that he appears to have 
 forgotten this maxim before his death. 
 But the Emperor may have been actu- 
 ated by other motives. The Florentine 
 Vettori, the friend of Leo X. and of 
 Machiavelli, affirms that Charles spared 
 Luther that he might hold the Pope in 
 check.* 
 
 In the sitting of Saturday the violent 
 propositions of Aleander were rejected. 
 Luther was the object of much affection, 
 and a desire was general to rescue this 
 simple man, whose confidence in God 
 was so affecting ; but it was wished, at 
 the same time, to save the Church. Men 
 trembled at the foreseen consequences of 
 either the triumph or the punishment of 
 the Reformer. Plans of conciliation 
 were started, and it was proposed to 
 make a new effort with the Doctor of 
 Wittemberg. The Archbishop Elector 
 of Mentz himself, the young and prod- 
 igal Albert, "more devout than bold," 
 says Pallavicini,f had caught the alarm 
 at witnessing the interest evinced by the 
 people and the nobility in the fate of the 
 monk of Saxony. His chaplain, Capito, 
 who during his residence at Bale had 
 contracted acquaintance with the evan- 
 gelical priest of Zurich, Zwingle, a cour- 
 ageous confessor of the truth, of whom 
 we have before had occasion to speak, 
 there can be little doubt, also represented 
 to Albert the justice of the Reformer's 
 cause. The worldly Archbishop expe- 
 rienced one of those transient recurrences 
 of Christian feelings which we some- 
 times trace in the lives of men, and con- 
 sented to wait on the Emperor and re- 
 quest him to give time for a fresh at- 
 tempt. But Charles would not hear of 
 any thing of the kind. On Monday the 
 22nd of April, the Princes came in a 
 body to repeat the request of Albert. 
 " I will not go from what I have laid 
 down," replied the Emperor. " I will 
 authorize no one to have any official 
 
 * Carlo si excuso di non poter procedere piu 
 oltre, rispetto al salvocondotto, 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'ltalia MSC. 
 Biblioth. Corsini at Rome, extracted by Ranke.) 
 
 t Qui pio magis animo erat quam forti. — (Pal- 
 .avicini, p. 118.) 
 
 communication with Luther. But," ad- 
 ded he (much to the indignation of Ale- 
 ander), " I will allow that man three 
 days' consideration ; during which time 
 any one may exhort him privately, as 
 he may think fit."* It was all his 
 friends asked. The Reformer, thought 
 they, elevated by the solemnity of his 
 public trial, would perhaps give way in 
 more friendly conference, and, by this 
 means, it might be possible to save him 
 from the gulph that yawned before him. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony knew the very 
 contrary : hence he was full of anxiety. 
 " If it were in my power," he wrote on 
 the next day to his brother, Duke John, 
 " I would be ready to undertake the de- 
 fence of Luther. You can hardly ima- 
 gine how I am beset by the partisans of 
 Rome. If I were to tell you all, you 
 would hear strange things. f They are 
 bent upon his ruin ; and if any one 
 evinces the least interest in his safety, he 
 is instantly cried down as a heretic. May 
 God, who forsaketh not the cause of the 
 righteous, bring the struggle to a happy 
 issue !" Frederic, without betraying 
 his warm affection for the Reformer, con- 
 tented himself with keeping a constant 
 eye upon all his movements. 
 
 Not so men of all ranks at Worms. 
 Their sympathy broke forth without fear 
 or disguise. On the Friday, a train of prin- 
 ces, counts, barons, knights, gentlemen, ec- 
 clesiastics, laity and common people, sur- 
 rounded the Reformer's lodging, entering 
 and departing as if never satisfied with 
 gazing on hnn.'$ He was become the 
 man of Germany. Even those who did 
 not question his being in error, were af- 
 fected by the nobility of soul which led 
 him to peril his life at the call of his con- 
 science.' Luther had the happiness of 
 holding with many persons at Worms, 
 and those some of the most intelligent 
 of the nation, conversations abounding in 
 that salt with which all his works are 
 seasoned All, on leaving him, carried 
 away a sentiment of generous enthusi- 
 asm for truth. : ' How many things have 
 I to tell you," wrote George Vogler, pri- 
 vate secretary to the Margrave Casimir 
 
 * Quibus privatim exhortari hominem possenL 
 
 — (Pallavicini, i. 119.) 
 
 t Wunder horen werden. — (Seckend. 365.) 
 I Und konnten nicht satt werden ihnzu sehen. 
 
 — (L. Opp. xvii. 581.) 
 
308 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 von Brandenburg. " What conversa- 
 tions, overflowing with piety and kind- 
 ness, Luther has had with me and others. 
 Oh ! how rich in grace is that man !"* 
 
 One day a young Prince, of seventeen 
 years of age, galloped into the court of 
 the inn ; — it was Philip, who for two 
 years had governed Hesse. The young 
 Landgrave was of decided and enter- 
 prising character, — wise above his years, 
 warlike, impetuous and little accustomed 
 to be guided by any thing but his own 
 will. Struck by Luther's speech, he 
 wished to have a nearer view of him. 
 " He however was not on my side in the 
 matter,"! said Luther, in relating it. He 
 threw himself from his horse, — ran up 
 the stairs without ceremony to Luther's 
 apartment, and addressing him, said, 
 " Well, Doctor ; how are you going on ?" 
 " My noble lord," answered Luther, " I 
 think all will end well." " I hear," re- 
 plied the Landgrave, laughing, " that 
 you, Doctor, teach that a woman may 
 leave her husband and take another when 
 the first is proved to be too old." The 
 courtiers of the Imperial Court had in- 
 vented this story. The enemies of truth 
 never fail to circulate inventions as pre-, 
 tended doctrines of Christian teachers. 
 ' : No, my lord," replied Luther, with 
 gravity, " do not talk thus, I beg of your 
 Highness." On this the Prince thrust 
 out his hand to the Doctor, cordially 
 grasping Luther's, with the words : 
 " Dear Doctor, if you are in the right, 
 may God be your helper !" and then 
 leaving the room, jumped into his saddle 
 and rode off It was the first interview 
 of these two men, who were destined 
 subsequently to stand in the van of the 
 Reformation, defending it, — the one by 
 the sword of the Word, — and the other 
 by that of kingly power. 
 
 The Archbishop of Treves, Richard 
 von Greiffenklau, by permission of 
 Charles, had undertaken the office of 
 mediator. Richard, who was intimate 
 with the Elector of Saxony, and a 
 staunch Roman Catholic, wished, by ac- 
 commodating this affair, to render a ser- 
 vice to his friend as well as to the Church. 
 In the evening of Monday, 22nd April, 
 
 * Wie eine holdselige Person er ist. — (Meuzel 
 Magaz. i. 207.) 
 
 t War noch nicht aiif meiner Seite. — (L. Opp. 
 xvii. 589.) 
 
 just as Luther was sitting down to table, 
 a messenger from this prelate brought 
 him word that the Archbishop wished to 
 see him on the day after the morrow, 
 Wednesday, at six in the morning. 
 
 The chaplain, attended by Sturm, the 
 Imperial herald, was at Luther's door 
 before six in the morning of that day. 
 But already, and as early as four o'clock, 
 Aleander had summoned Cochlseus to his 
 side. The Nuncio had quickly discern- 
 ed in the man whom Capito had intro- 
 duced to him a devoted instrument of the 
 Roman Court, and one on whom he 
 could rely as upon himself. Not being 
 himself able to attend the interview, Al- 
 eander wished much to have some one 
 in place of himself. " Do you go direct 
 to the Archbishop of Treves," said he to 
 the Dean of Frankfort, " take no part in 
 the discussion, but merely pay attention 
 to all that is said, so as to be able to bring 
 me an exact report."* The Reformer 
 repaired, accompanied by some of his 
 friends, to the Archbishop's residence. 
 He found the Prelate surrounded by the 
 Margrave Joachim of Brandenburg, Duke 
 George of Saxony, the Bishops of Bran- 
 denburg and Augsburg, some nobles and 
 deputies of the free cities, and other civil- 
 ians and divines, among whom were 
 Cochlasus and Jerome Wehe, chancellor 
 of Baden. The latter, a learned civilian, 
 was anxious to see a reformation of gen- 
 eral morals and discipline : he went even 
 further in his wishes. " What we want," 
 said he, " is that the word of God, so long 
 hidden under a bushel, should be brought 
 forward in all its brightness."! This 
 friend to conciliation was appointed to 
 conduct the conference. Turning kindly 
 to Luther, he said, " The object in sum- 
 moning you hither is not to dispute with 
 you, — but to urge upon you brotherly 
 exhortations. You know how carefully 
 Scripture enjoins us to beware of the 
 ' arrow that flietli by day, and the de- 
 struction that wasteth at noon-day.' The 
 adversary of the human race has impel- 
 led you to the publishing of certain 
 things contrary to the faith. Consider 
 your own eternal interest, and that of the 
 
 * Aleander, mane liora quarta vocaverit ad se 
 Cochlaeum, jubens ut . . . audiret solum . . . — 
 (Cochlaeus, p. 36.) 
 
 t Dass das Wort Gottes, welches so lange 
 unter dem Scheffel verborgen gesteckt, heller 
 scheine . . . — (Seckend. 364.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 309 
 
 Empire. Have a care, lest those whom 
 Christ hath redeemed from eternal death 
 by his blood, should by you be led away 
 to their everlasting ruin. Cease to set 
 up your judgment against that of holy 
 Councils. Unless we adhere to the de- 
 crees of our fathers, there will be nothing 
 but confusion in the Church. The emi- 
 nent princes who hear me are quite in- 
 tent upon saving you ; but if you persist, 
 the Emperor will banish you beyond the 
 Empire,* and no part of the world will 
 then be able to give you shelter. Con- 
 sider therefore the fate that awaits you." 
 
 " Most serene Princes," answered Lu- 
 ther, " I thank you for your kind concern, 
 for I am but a poor man, — of too mean 
 station to look to be advised by such 
 great lords ;"t — an( i ne proceeded to say, 
 "I have not censured all the Councils, 
 but only the Council of Constance, for 
 their condemnation of John Huss's doc- 
 trine : namely, that the Christian Church 
 is the assembly of those who are predestina- 
 ted to salvatioii.% It condemned that ar- 
 ticle of our faith, J believe in the holy 
 universal Church, and even the word of 
 God." He added : "lam told that my 
 preaching gives occasion of stumbling. 
 I answer, that it is impossible to preach 
 the gospel of Christ without offence. 
 Why then should any such fear separate 
 me from the Lord, and that divine word 
 which alone is truth 1 No, rather will I 
 give up body, blood, and life itself! . . ." 
 
 The Princes and Doctors having delib- 
 erated, Luther was called in, and Wehe 
 resumed with mildness : — " We must 
 honour the powers that be, even when 
 they err : and sacrifice much for the sake 
 of charity." Then with more earnest- 
 ness he added : — " Submit to the judg- 
 ment of the Emperor, and fear nothing." 
 
 Luther. " I consent with all my heart 
 to the Emperor, the Princes, and even 
 the humblest Christian's examining and 
 judging of my writings, but on one single 
 condition, namely, that they take God's 
 word for their guide. Men have nothing 
 to do, but to render obedience to that. 
 My conscience is in dependance upon 
 
 * Und aus deiri Reich verstossen. — (L. Opp. 
 (L.) xvii. 582. Sleidan, i. 97.) _ 
 
 t Agnosco enim me homuncionem, longe vil- 
 iorem esse, quam ut a tantis Principibus . . . — 
 (L. Opp. lat. p. 167.) 
 
 \ Ecclesia Christi est universitas praedestina- 
 torum. — (Ibid.) 
 
 that word, and I am the bounden subject 
 of its authority."* 
 
 The Elector of Brandenburg. " If 
 I understand you, Doctor, you will ac- 
 knowledge no other judge than the Holy 
 Scripture ?" 
 
 Luther. " Yes, my lord, exactly so — 
 that is my resolve." f On this the 
 Princes and Doctors withdrew, but the 
 excellent Archbishop of Treves was still 
 loath to forego his undertaking. u Come 
 with me," said he to Luther, passing into 
 his private apartment, and at the same 
 time he desired John Eck and Cochla?us 
 of the one side, and Schurff and Amsdorff 
 of the other party to follow. " Why," 
 asked Eck, with warmth, " continually 
 appeal to the Holy Scripture 1 — it is from 
 thence come all heresies." But Luther, 
 says his friend Mathesius, was unmoved 
 as a rock, backed by the true rock, the 
 word of the Lord. " The Pope," said 
 he, " is no judge in things pertaining to 
 the word of the Lord. It is the duty of 
 every Christian to see and understand 
 how to live and die."| They separated. 
 The partisans of the Papacjrfelt Luther's 
 superiority, and ascribed it to the circum- 
 stance of there being no one at hand 
 capable of answering him. " If the Em- 
 peror had managed well," says Cochlseus, 
 " when he cited Luther to Worms, he 
 would have also summoned theologians 
 capable of refuting his errors." 
 
 The Archbishop of Treves repaired to 
 the Diet, and communicated the failure 
 of his negociation. The surprise of the 
 young Emperor was only equalled t>y 
 his indignation. " It is high time," said 
 he, "to put an end to this business." 
 The Archbishop requesting a delay of 
 two days, and all the Diet joining in the 
 request, Charles V. gave consent. Ale- 
 ander, losing patience, broke forth in 
 complaints.^ 
 
 While these things were passing in 
 the Diet, Cochlseus burned with desire 
 to bear off the victory denied to prelates 
 and kings. Though he had ever and 
 
 * Sie- wollten sein Gewissen, das mit Gottes 
 Wort und heiliger Schrifft gebunden und gefan- 
 gen ware, nieht dringen. — (Math. p. 57.) 
 
 tJa darauf stehe Ich.— (L. Opp. (L.) xviL 
 558.) 
 
 t Ein Christenmensch muss zusehen und rich- 
 ten . .— (L. Epp. i. 604.) 
 
 § De iis Aleander acerrime conquestus est. — 
 (Pallavicini, i. 120.) 
 
310 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 anon thrown out a word, in the presence 
 of the Archbishop of Treves, the injunc- 
 tion of Aleander to maintain silence had 
 restrained him. He resolved to make 
 amends for this restraint, and lost no 
 time, after giving the Pope's Nuncio an 
 account of his mission, to present him- 
 self at Luther's lodging. Advancing to 
 him in a friendly manner, he expressed 
 his regret at the Emperor's resolution. 
 After they had dined together, the con- 
 versation grew more animated.* Coch- 
 lffius urged Luther to retract. The latter 
 shook his head. Several persons who 
 sat at table could with difficulty control 
 their feelings. They expressed their in- 
 dignation that the Papists, instead of con- 
 vincing, should seek to restrain the Re- 
 former by force. " Well," _ said Cochlae- 
 us to Luther, growing impatient of these 
 reproaches, " I offer to dispute publicly 
 with you if you will forego your safe- 
 conduct."! Of all things what Luther 
 most wished was a public discussion. 
 What was he to do ? To throw aside 
 his safe-conduct would be to risk destruc- 
 tion : to decline Cochlseus's challenge 
 would be casting doubt upon his cause. 
 The guests saw in this proposal an act 
 of perfidy planned with Aleander, whom 
 the Dean had just left. Vollrat von 
 Watzdorf relieved Luther from the em- 
 barrassment of a decision. Warm in his 
 temper, and roused to indignation at the 
 thought of a stratagem devised for de- 
 livering Luther into the hands of the ex- 
 ecutioner,;]; he rose with great warmth, 
 and seizing the terrified priest turned 
 him out of doors ; and blood might have 
 flowed had not the guests interposed be- 
 tween the angry knight and the trem- 
 bling Cochlaeus.§ The latter withdrew 
 in confusion from the hotel of the 
 Knights of Rhodes. Doubtless it was 
 nothing but the warmth of argument 
 that had drawn forth the words let slip 
 by the Dean : doubtless there was no 
 design concocted with Aleander to draw 
 Luther into the toils. Cochheus denies 
 
 * Peracto prandio. — (Coehlseus, p. 36.) 
 
 t Und wollte mit mir disputiren, ich sollte al- 
 lein das Geloit aufsagen. — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 
 589.) 
 
 t Atque ita traderat eum camificiua?. — (Coch- 
 lteus, p. 36.) 
 
 § Das Ihm das Blut uber den KopfF gelaufen 
 ware, wo man nicht gewehret hatte. — (L. Opp. 
 (L.) xvii. 589.) 
 
 it, and we prefer to believe his assurance. 
 Yet, true it is, he had but just quitted the 
 Nuncio to present himself at Luther's 
 lodging. 
 
 That same evening the Archbishop of 
 Treves assembled at supper the persons 
 who had been present in the morning's 
 conference. He sought thus to unbend 
 the minds of the parties and dispose them 
 in favour of reconciliation. Luther, with 
 all his intrepid firmness in presence of 
 arbiters or judges, was remarkable in 
 private intercourse for a good nature and 
 cheerfulness, which gave ground to hope 
 almost anything from him. The Arch- 
 bishop's Chancellor, who had displayed 
 so much stiffness in his official bearing, 
 concurred in this plan, and towards the 
 end of the repast, gave Luther's health. 
 The latter was about to return the com- 
 pliment, — the wine was poured out, and 
 according to his custom he had made the 
 sign of the cross on his glass ; when all 
 of a sudden the glass burst in his hands, 
 and the wine was spilt upon the table. 
 The guests were thunderstruck. Some 
 of Luther's friends exclaimed, " It must 
 have been poisoned,"* but the Doctor, 
 without discomposure, answered with a 
 smile — " Dear friends, either this wine 
 was not destined for me, — or it would 
 have disagreed with me :" adding calmly 
 — "No doubt the glass has flown, be- 
 cause in washing, it was plunged too 
 suddenly in cold water." These simple 
 words have something of grandeur about 
 them in his circumstances, and shew his 
 unruffled peace. We cannot hence infer 
 that the Romanists intended to poison 
 Luther, above all, at the table of the 
 Archbishop of Treves. This repast had 
 no effect one way or another. Neither 
 human applause, nor any fear of man 
 could shake the Reformer's decision. It 
 was from above ! 
 
 On the morning of Thursday, the 25th 
 of April, the Chancellor Wehe and Doc- 
 tor Peutinger of Augsburg, the Empe- 
 ror's counsellor, who had expressed much 
 friendship for Luther on occasion of his 
 interview with De Vio, repaired to the 
 
 * Es miisse Gift darinnen gewesen seyn. — 
 Luther does not mention this circumstance, but 
 his friend Razeberg, physician to the Elector 
 John Frederic, records it in a manuscript history, 
 found in the library of Gotha, and says he re- 
 ceived it from an eye-witness. 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 311 
 
 hotel of " the Knights of Rhodes." The 
 Elector of Saxony sent Frederic Von 
 Thun, and another of his council, to be 
 present at the conference. " Rely upon 
 us," said Wehe and Peutinger, earnestly 
 desirous at any sacrifice to prevent the 
 schism which was on the point of divid- 
 ing the Church — " this business shall be 
 concluded in a Christian spirit ; take our 
 word for it." " I answer at once," said 
 Luther ; " I consent to forego my safe- 
 conduct,* and resign ,my person and my 
 life to the Emperor's disposal ; but as to 
 the word of God . . . Never!" Frede- 
 ric Von Thun, in strong emotion, stood up, 
 and addressing the two envoys, said, " Is 
 not that enough ? Is not such a sacrifice 
 sufficient ?" And then, protesting he 
 would hear no more, he withdrew. On 
 this Wehe and Peutinger, hoping to 
 succeed better with the Doctor himself, 
 seated themselves at his side. " Submit 
 to the Diet," said they to him. " No," 
 answered Luther, " for it is written, 
 'Cursed is he who trusteth in man.'" 
 (Jeremiah xvii.) Wehe and Peutinger 
 redoubled their exhortations and instan- 
 ces, — pressing the Reformer more and 
 more closely ; — Luther, worn out, arose, 
 and made sign to them to retire, saying : 
 " I will allow no man to exalt himself 
 above God's word."f — " Think better of 
 it," said they as they withdrew ; " we 
 will call on you again in the afternoon." 
 They came, according to appointment, 
 but aware that Luther would not yield the 
 point, they brought with them a new propo- 
 sal. Luther has declined to acknowledge 
 the Pope, the Emperor, and the Diet, there 
 was yet an authority which he himself 
 had formerly invoked ; a General Coun- 
 cil. Doubtless such a suggestion would 
 call forth the anger of Rome, but it was 
 a last plank. The delegates, therefore, 
 proposed to Luther an appeal to a Coun- 
 cil. He had only to accede to the offer 
 without entering into points of detail. 
 Years must elapse before the difficulties 
 the Pope would interpose in the way of 
 a Council could be removed. A gain 
 of some years was everything to the Re- 
 formation and the Reformer. God, in 
 the progress of events, would in that time 
 
 * Er wollte ehe das Geleit aufsageu . . . — (L. 
 Opp. (L.) xvii. 589.) 
 
 t Er wollte kurtzrum Menschen iiber Gottes 
 Wort nicht erkennea. — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 583.) 
 
 bring about great changes. But Luther 
 put right above all things : he had no 
 desire to deliver himself at the expense 
 of the Truth, even though a silent dis- 
 simulation of it should be all required of 
 him. " I consent, — but," he answered, 
 and the condition involved an appeal 
 from the Council as judge, — "on condi- 
 tion that the Council should decide ac- 
 cording to Holy Scripture.' 1 * 
 
 Peutinger and Wehe, who had no 
 idea of a Council deciding otherwise, 
 hastened, overjoyed, to the Archbishop. 
 " Doctor Martin," said they, " will sub- 
 mit his writings to the judgment of a 
 Council." The Archbishop was prepa- 
 ring to communicate the intelligence to 
 the Emperor, when a doubt crossed his 
 mind ; he sent for Luther. 
 
 Richard Von GreifFenklau was alone 
 when the Doctor arrived. " Dear Doc- 
 tor," said the Archbishop, with much 
 kindness of manner, f "my doctors as- 
 sure me that you consent to submit your 
 cause without reserve to the decision of 
 a Council." — " My Lord," answered Lu- 
 ther, " I can- endure any thing except to 
 abandon the Holy Scripture.'" The Arch- 
 bishop saw at once that Wehe and Peu- 
 tinger had not fully explained the facts. 
 Never could Rome give her consent to a 
 Council which should take Scripture 
 alone for its guide. " It was requiring," 
 says Pallavicini, " that one of weak sight 
 should read very small writing, and at 
 the same moment refusing him the use 
 of glasses.":): The good Archbishop 
 sighed. " It was of little use," said he, 
 " my sending for you. What would 
 have been the consequence if I had 
 gone direct to bear the message to the 
 Emperor ?" 
 
 The unshaken firmness and upright- 
 ness of Luther may well astonish us. 
 They will, however, be comprehended 
 and honoured by all who know the 
 righteousness of God. Seldom has a 
 nobler testimony been borne to the un- 
 changeable word of the Lord at the peril 
 of the liberty and life of the man who 
 thus bore witness. 
 
 " Well, then," said the venerable Pre- 
 * Dass dariiber aus der heiligen Schrifft ges- 
 prochen. — (Ibid. 584.) 
 
 t Ganz gut und mehr denn gnaedig. — (L. Epp. 
 i. 604.) 
 
 X Simulque conspiciliorun omnium usum ne- 
 gare.— (L. Epp. i. 110.) 
 
312 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFpRMATION. 
 
 late addressing Luther, "let me hear 
 your own remedy for the evil." 
 
 Luther was silent for an instant. 
 "My lord, I know of none but what 
 is found in that word of Gamaliel: 'if 
 this work be of men, it will come to 
 nought. But if it be of God ye can- 
 not overthrow it, lest haply ye be found 
 even to fight against God.' Let the 
 Emperor, the Electors, and the States of 
 the Empire, return that answer to the 
 Pope." 
 
 The Archbishop. " At least retract 
 some articles." 
 
 Luther. " Provided they be not those 
 which the Council of Constance has con- 
 demned." 
 
 The Archbishop. " Alas, I fear it is 
 precisely those." 
 
 Luther. " Then far sooner take my 
 life ; rather would I be deprived of my 
 limbs than give up the plain and sincere, 
 word of God."* 
 
 The Archbishop at length understood 
 Luther. "Retire," said he, still in a tone 
 of much mildness. "My lord," resumed 
 Luther, " may I beg you to request his 
 Majesty to send me the safe-conduct 
 necessary for my return whence I came." 
 — " I will attend to it," replied the wor- 
 thy Archbishop, — and they parted. 
 
 Thus terminated these negociations. 
 The attention of the whole Empire had 
 been engaged by this man,t and its ur- 
 gent entreaties and direful threats had 
 not caused him to stumble. His erect 
 bearing under the iron hand of the Pope 
 was the means of emancipating the 
 Church — and the commencement of a 
 new era. The interposition of Provi- 
 dence was manifest. It was one of those 
 grand scenes in history above which the 
 majesty of God seems to rise and hover. 
 Luther retired in company with Spalatin, 
 who had joined them during his conver- 
 sation with the Archbishop. John von 
 Minkwitz, counsellor of the Elector of 
 Saxony, had been taken ill at Worms. 
 The two friends visited him. Luther 
 comforted the sick man in the tenderest 
 manner. " Farewell," said he as he left 
 the room, "to-morrow I leave Worms." 
 
 Luther was not mistaken. Scarcely 
 
 * Ehe Stumpf und Stiel fahren lassen . . . — 
 (L. Opp. (h.) xvii. 584.) 
 
 + Totum imperium ad se conversum specta- 
 bat— (Pallavicini, i. 120.) 
 
 three hours had elapsed from his return 
 to his hotel, when the Chancellor Eck, 
 attended by the Chancellor of the Em- 
 pire, and a notary, presented themselves. 
 
 The Chancellor addressed him as fol- 
 lows : — " Martin Luther, His Imperial 
 Majesty, the Electors, Princes, and States 
 of the Empire, having repeatedly and in 
 various ways, — but in vain, — exhorted 
 you to submission, — the Emperor, in his 
 character of defender of the Catholic 
 faith, finds himself compelled to resort to 
 other measures. He therefore orders you 
 to return to whence you came, within 
 the space of twenty-one days, and pro- 
 hibits you from disturbing the public 
 peace on your journey, either by preach- 
 ing or writing." 
 
 Luther was well aware that this mes- 
 sage was the precursor of his condemna- 
 tion. " It has happened unto me," an- 
 swered he mildly, " according to the will 
 of the Eternal. Blessed be his name !" 
 He then proceeded, — " And first, I hum- 
 bly, and from the bottom of my heart, 
 thank his Majesty, the Electors, Princes, 
 and States of the Empire, that they have 
 given me so gracious a hearing. I 
 neither have, nor ever have had, a wish 
 but for one thing : to wit, a reformation 
 of the Church according to the Holy 
 Scripture. I am ready to do or to suffer 
 all things for obedience to the Emperor's 
 will. Life or death, honour or dishonour, 
 I will bear. I make but one reservation 
 — the preaching of the Gospel ; for, says 
 St. Paul, the Word of God is not to be 
 bound." The deputies retired. 
 
 On Friday morning the 26th of April, 
 the Reformer's friends and several nobles 
 assembled at Luther's lodgings.* Men 
 took delight in recognizing in the chris- 
 tian constancy he had opposed to Charles 
 and to the Empire, the features of the cele- 
 brated character of antiquity : 
 
 Justum ac tenacem propositi virum, 
 Non civium ardor prava jubentium 
 
 Non vuitus instantis tyranni, 
 
 Mente quatit golida . . . t 
 
 All were eager once more, and per- 
 haps for the last time, to say farewell to 
 the intrepid monk. Luther partook of 
 a simple repast. And now he must bid 
 
 * Salutatis patronis et amicis qui eum fre- 
 quentissimi convenerunt . . . — (L. Opp. lat. ii. 
 168.) 
 
 t Horat. Od. lib. 3. 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 313 
 
 adieu to his friends, and depart far 
 from them under a sky overhung with 
 storms. He resolved to spend this solemn 
 moment in the presence of God. He 
 fortified his soul, and gave his blessing 
 to those around him.* It was ten o'clock. 
 Luther left the hotel, attended by his 
 friends who had accompanied him to 
 Worms. Twenty gentlemen on horse- 
 back surrounded the waggon. A crowd 
 accompanied him outside the city. Sturm, 
 the Imperial herald, joined him shortly 
 after at Oppenheim, and on the following 
 day the party arrived at Frankfort. 
 
 Thus did Luther leave those walls 
 which seemed destined to become his 
 tomb. His heart overflowed with praise 
 to God. " Satan himself," said he, " kept 
 the Pope's citadel, but Christ has made 
 a wide breach in it, and the devil has 
 been compelled to confess that Christ is 
 mightier than he."f 
 
 " The day of the Diet of Worms," says 
 the devout Mathesius, the disciple and 
 friend of Luther, "is one of the most 
 glorious given to the earth before its 
 great catastrophe.":}: The conflict at 
 Worms resounded far and near, and as 
 the report of it traversed Europe from 
 the northern countries to the mountains 
 of Switzerland, and the towns of England, 
 France, and Italy, many seized with 
 eagerness the mighty weapons of the 
 word of God. 
 
 Arriving at Frankfort on the evening 
 of Saturday the 27th of April, Luther, 
 on the following morning, took advan- 
 tage of a moment of leisure, the first he 
 had enjoyed for a long time past, to des- 
 patch a short letter, replete at once with 
 familiarity and energy, to his friend Lu- 
 cas Cranach, the celebrated painter at 
 Wittemberg : " My service to you, dear 
 master Lucas," said he : "I expected his 
 Majesty would assemble fifty learned 
 doctors to convict the monk outright. 
 But not at all. Are these books of your 
 writing ? Yes. Will you retract them ? 
 No ! Well begone ! There's the whole 
 history. Deluded Germans. .... how 
 childishly we act ! — how we are duped 
 
 * Seine Freunde gesegnet.— (Mathesius, p. 
 27.) 
 
 t Aber Christus macht eui Loch derein. — (L. 
 Opp. (L.) xvii. 589.) 
 
 X Diss ist der herrlichen grossen Tag einer 
 vorm Ende der Welt. — (p. 28.) 
 40 
 
 and defrauded by Rome ! Let the Jews 
 sing their Yo ! Yo ! Yo ! But a pass- 
 over is coming for us also, and then we 
 will sing Hallelujah !* We must keep 
 silence and endure for a short time. ' A 
 little while and ye shall not see me, and 
 again a little while and ye shall see me,' 
 said Jesus Christ. I trust I may say the 
 same. Farewell. — I commend you all to 
 the Eternal. May He preserve in Christ 
 your understanding and your faith, from 
 the attacks of the wolves and dragons 
 of Rome. Amen." 
 
 After writing this rather mysterious 
 letter, Luther immediately set out for 
 Friedberg, six leagues from Frankfort. 
 Time, in fact, pressed. On the following 
 morning he again collected his thoughts, 
 and resolved once more to address 
 Charles the Fifth. He was unwilling 
 to appear in the light of a guilty rebel. 
 In his letter he explained clearly the 
 obedience the Christian owes to king, — 
 and that which is due to God, — and the 
 point at whicli the former must give place 
 to the latter. As we read Luther's letter, 
 we are involuntarily reminded of the 
 saying of the greatest autocrat of modern 
 times : " My dominion ends where that 
 of conscience commences."! 
 
 "God is my witness, who knoweth 
 the thoughts," said Luther, " that I am 
 ready with all my heart to obey your 
 Majesty through good or evil report, in 
 life or in death, with no one exception, 
 save the word of God, by which man 
 liveth. In all the affairs of this life my 
 fidelity shall be unshaken, for, in these, 
 loss or gain has nothing to do with sal- 
 vation. But it is contrary to the will 
 of God, that man should be subject to 
 man, in that which pertains to eternal 
 life. Subjection in spirituals is a real 
 worship, and should be rendered only to 
 the Creator."| 
 
 Luther also wrote in German a letter to 
 the States. It was nearly to the same 
 
 * Es miissen die Juden einmal singen Io, Io, 
 Io ! . . .— (L. Epp. i. 589.) The shouts of the 
 Jews at the crucifixion are here taken to repre- 
 sent the triumphant songs of the partisans of Po- 
 pery on the downfall of Luther ; but the Re- 
 former hears at a distance the hallelujahs of de- 
 liverance. 
 
 t Napoleon to the Protestant deputies after 
 his accession to the Empire. 
 
 X Nam ea fides et submissio proprie est vera 
 ilia latria et adoratio Dei . . .— (L. Epp. i. 592.) 
 
314 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 effect, and recapitulated what had taken 
 place at Worms. This letter was several 
 times transcribed and circulated through- 
 out the Empire, exciting everywhere, 
 says Cochlaeus, the feelings of the people 
 against the Emperor and the upper 
 ranks of the clergy.* 
 
 Early the following morning Luther 
 wrote a note to Spalatin, enclosing in it 
 the two letters he had written on the 
 previous evening. He sent back to 
 Worms the herald Sturm, who had been 
 gained to the cause of the Gospel. Em- 
 bracing him, he parted from him, and 
 set out in haste for Grunberg. 
 
 On the Tuesday, when he was within 
 two leagues distance from Hirschfeld, he 
 was met by the Chancellor to the Prince 
 Abbot of the city, who had come out to 
 welcome him. Soon after appeared a 
 troop of horsemen, headed by the Abbot. 
 The latter dismounted, Luther stepped 
 from his waggon. The Prince and the 
 Reformer embraced, and entered Hirsch- 
 feld together. The Senate received them 
 at the gates. Thus dignitaries of the 
 Church opened their arms to a monk 
 whom the Pope had anathematised, and 
 the higher classes did honour to a man 
 whom the Emperor had placed under 
 ban of the empire, f 
 
 " To-morrow morning, at five o'clock, 
 we shall be at church," said the Prince, 
 rising from a repast to which he had in- 
 vited the Reformer. He insisted on his 
 occupying his own apartment. The fol- 
 lowing day Luther preached, and the 
 Prince Abbot and his suite attended the 
 sermon. 
 
 In the evening of that day Luther 
 reached Eisenach, the scene of his child- 
 hood. All his acquaintance in the place 
 came round him, and entreated him to 
 preach : and the following day they es- 
 corted him to church. Upon this the 
 curate appeared, attended by a notary 
 and witnesses. He stepped forward, 
 trembling between fear of losing his ap- 
 pointment and of opposing the energetic 
 man before him. " I must protest" said 
 he at last, with embarrassment, " against 
 
 * Per chalcographos multiplicata et in populos 
 ■dispersa est ea epistola . . . Cssari autem et cler- 
 icis odium populare, &c. — (Cochlaeus, p. 38.) 
 
 t Senatus intra portas nos excepit. — (L. Epp. 
 ki. 6.; 
 
 the liberty you are about to take." Lu- 
 ther ascended the pulpit, and a voice, 
 which, three-and-twenty years before, 
 had sung in the streets of that same town 
 for a morsel of bread, proclaimed through 
 the vaulted roofs of its venerable church 
 the word which was beginning to 
 agitate the world. The sermon being 
 over, the curate stepped up to Luther. 
 He held in his hand the record drawn 
 up by the notary, and regularly wit- 
 nessed, to protect the curate from dismis- 
 sal. " I ask your pardon," said he, hum- 
 bly : " I take this course from fear of the 
 tyrants that oppress the Church. ,: * 
 
 And truly there was ground for ap- 
 prehension. Affairs at Worms had 
 changed their aspect, and Aleander 
 reigned paramount. " The only pros- 
 pect for Luther is banishment," wrote 
 Frederic to his brother, Duke John, 
 u «othing can save him. If God per- 
 mits me to see you again, I shall have 
 strange things to tell you. Not only 
 Annas and Caiaphas, but Pilate and 
 Herod have conspired against him." 
 Frederic had no desire to prolong his 
 stay, and accordingly quitted Worms, as 
 did the Elector Palatine. The Elector 
 Archbishop of Cologne also took his de- 
 parture from the Diet, and the inferior 
 Princes followed the example. Deeming 
 it impossible to avert the blow, they pre- 
 ferred, perhaps unwisely, to quit the 
 place. The Spaniards, Italians, and the 
 most ultra-montane of the German 
 Princes alone remained. 
 
 Thus Aleander was master of the 
 field. He presented to Charles a rough 
 draft of an edict, intended to serve as a 
 model for that the Diet was about to pub- 
 lish against the monk. The production 
 of the Nuncio pleased the incensed Em- 
 peror. He assembled the members of 
 the Diet still at Worms in his council 
 chamber and read to them Aleander's 
 paper, which, as Pallavicini informs us, 
 was approved by all present. 
 
 On the following day, which was a 
 public festival, the Emperor repaired to 
 the cathedral, attended by the nobles of 
 his court. The service being gone 
 through, a crowd of persons thronged 
 the interior, when Aleander, clothed in 
 
 * Humiliter tamen excusante . . ob metum 
 tyrannorum suoruni. — (L. Epp. ii. 6.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 315 
 
 the insignia of his order, approached 
 Charles.* He held in his hand two 
 copies of the edict against Luther, one in 
 Latin, the other in German, and kneeling 
 before his Imperial Majesty, he petition- 
 ed Charles to affix to it his signature and 
 the seal of the Empire. It was at the 
 moment when sacrifice had just been of- 
 fered, when the incense filled the temple, 
 and the hymn was reverberating in the 
 vaulted roofs, and, as it were, in the im- 
 mediate presence of God, that the seal 
 was to be set to the destruction of the 
 enemy of Rome. The Emperor, in the 
 most gracious manner,! took a pen, and 
 attached his signature to the edict. Ale- 
 ander withdrew in triumph, and instantly 
 sent the decree to the printer, and thence 
 to every part of Christendom. J This re- 
 sult of Roman diplomacy had cost no 
 small pains to the Papacy. We learn 
 from Pallavicini himself that the edict, 
 though dated the 8th of May, was writ- 
 ten and signed some days later, but ante- 
 dated, in order that it might appear sanc- 
 tioned by the presence of the whole 
 Diet. 
 
 " We, Charles the Fifth, &c," said the 
 Emperor, " to the Electors, Princes, Prel- 
 ates, and all to whom these presents shall 
 come. 
 
 " The Almighty having confided to us 
 for the defence of our holy faith more 
 extensive dominion and rule than He 
 hath given to any of our predecessors, 
 we purpose to employ all our powers to 
 preserve our holy empire from being pol- 
 luted by any heresy. 
 
 ' ; The Augustine monk, Martin Lu- 
 ther, regardless of our exhortations, has 
 madly attacked the holy Church, and at- 
 tempted to destroy it by writings full of 
 blasphemy. He has shamefully vilified 
 the unalterable law of holy marriage ; 
 he has laboured to incite the laity to im- 
 brue their hands in the blood of their 
 priests ;$ and, defying all authority, has 
 incessantly excited the people to revolt, 
 schism, war, murder, theft, incendiarism, 
 and the utter destruction of the Christian 
 faith .... In a word, and passing over 
 
 * Cum Cassar in templo adesset . . . processit 
 illi obviam Aleander. — (Pallavicini, i. 122.) 
 
 t Festivissimo vultu. — (Pallavicini, i. 122.) 
 
 t Et undique pervulgata. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Ihre Hiinde in der Priester Blut zu waschen. 
 — (L. Opp. (L.) xvii. 598.) 
 
 many other evil intentions this being,, 
 who is no man, but Satan himself under 
 the semblance of a man in a monk's 
 hood,* has collected, in one offensive 
 mass, all the worst heresies of former 
 ages, adding his own to the number. 
 
 " We have therefore dismissed from 
 our presence this Luther, whom all rea- 
 sonable men count a madman, or pos- 
 sessed by the devil ; and it is our inten- 
 tion that so soon as the term of his safe- 
 conduct is expired, effectual measures be 
 forthwith taken to put a stop to his fury. 
 
 " For this end, and on pain of incur- 
 ring the penalty of treason, we hereby 
 forbid you to receive the said Luther 
 from the moment when the said term is 
 expired, or to harbour or to give him 
 meat or drink, or by word or act, pub- 
 licly or in private, to aid or abet him. 
 We further enjoin you to seize, or cause 
 him to be seized, wherever he may be, 
 and to bring him before us without delay, 
 or hold him in durance until you shall 
 be informed how to deal with him, and 
 have received the reward due to your 
 co-operation in this holy work. 
 
 " As to his adherents, you are enjoined 
 to seize upon them, putting them down 
 and confiscating their property. 
 
 " Touching his writings — seeing that 
 the best of food is* held in horror by all 
 men when the least poison is mixed 
 therewith, how much more should such 
 writings, wherein the main object is a 
 mortal venom, be not merely rejected, 
 but destroyed'? You will, therefore, 
 burn, or in other ways utterly destroy 
 them. 
 
 " As to the authors, poets, printers, 
 painters, venders, or purchasers, of cari- 
 catures or placards against the Pope or 
 the Church, you are enjoined to seize on 
 their persons and property, and deal 
 with them as may seem fit. 
 
 "And if any one, whatever may be 
 his rank, should dare to act contrary to 
 this decree of our Imperial Majesty, we 
 command that he be placed under ban 
 of the Empire. 
 
 " Let each one observe this decree." 
 
 Such was the edict signed in the ca- 
 thedral of Worms. It was more than a 
 Roman bull, which though issued in 
 
 * Nicht ein Mensch, sondern als der bose 
 Feind in Gestalt eines Menschen mit angenom- 
 mener Monchshiitten . . . — (Ibid.) 
 
316 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Italy might not be carried into execution 
 in Germany. The Emperor himself had 
 spoken, and the Diet had ratified the de- 
 cree. The whole body of Romanists 
 shouted for joy. " The tragedy is over," 
 exclaimed they. " For my part," said 
 Alphonso Valdez, a Spaniard of Charles's 
 court, " I am persuaded it is not the 
 last act, but the beginning."* Valdez 
 clearly perceived that the movement was 
 in the Church, the people, the age, — and 
 that were Luther to fall, his cause would 
 not perish with him. But none could 
 help seeing the imminent and inevitable 
 danger in which the Reformer was 
 placed, and the superstitious multitude 
 were impressed by a feeling of horror at 
 the thought of that incarnate Satan 
 whom the Emperor pointed to as clothed 
 with a monk's habit. 
 
 The man against whom the mighty 
 ones of this earth were thus forging their 
 thunderbolts, — on leaving the pulpit of 
 Eisenach, endeavoured to muster resolu- 
 tion to take leave of some of his dearest 
 friends. He decided not to take the road 
 to Gotha and Erfurth, but to proceed by 
 way of the village of Mora, the birth- 
 place of his father, in order once more to 
 see his grandmother (who died four 
 months afterwards,) and to visit his uncle, 
 Henry Luther, and some other relations. 
 Schurff, Jonas, and Suaven set out for 
 Wittemberg ; Luther entered his wag- 
 gon, accompanied by Amsdorff, and 
 plunged into the forest of Thuringen.f 
 
 That same evening he arrived in the 
 village of his fathers. The aged peasant 
 pressed to her heart that grandson who 
 had dared to confront the Emperor and 
 the Pope. Luther passed the following 
 day with his relations, joyfully contrast- 
 ing its sweet tranquillity with the turmoil 
 of Worms. The next day he again set 
 out in company with Amsdorff and his 
 brother James. It was in these secluded 
 spots that the Reformer's fate was on the 
 point of being decided. They skirted 
 the woods of Thuringen, taking the path 
 that leads to Waltershausen. As the 
 waggon was passing a narrow defile 
 near the ruined church of Glisbach, a 
 short distance from the castle of Alten- 
 
 * Non finem sed initium. — (P. Martyris Epp. 
 p. 412.) 
 
 t Ad carnem meara trans sylvam profectus. — 
 (L. Epp. ii. 7.) 
 
 stein, suddenly a noise was Ireard, and 
 in a moment, five horsemen, masked 
 and armed from head to foot, fell upon 
 them. His brother James, as soon as he 
 caught sight of the assailants, jumped 
 from the waggon, and fled as fast as he 
 could without uttering a word. The 
 driver would have resisted. " Stop," 
 cried a hoarse voice, and instantly one 
 of the attacking party threw him to the 
 earth.* Another of the masks grasped 
 Amsdorff, and held him fast. While 
 this was doing, the three horsemen laid 
 hold on Luther, maintaining profound 
 silence. They forced him to alight, and 
 throwing a knight's cloak over his 
 shoulders, set him on a led horse that 
 they had with them. This done, the 
 two other masks let go Amsdorff and the 
 waggoner, and the whole five sprang 
 into their saddles. One dropped his cap, 
 but they did not stop to recover it ; and 
 in the twinkling of an eye, the party and 
 their prisoner were lost in the thick 
 gloom of the forest. At first they took 
 the direction of Broderode : but they 
 rapidly changed their route, and without 
 quitting the forest, rode first in one di- 
 rection and then in another, turning their 
 horses' feet to baffte any attempt to track 
 their course. Luther, little used to riding, 
 was soon overcome with fatigue. f His 
 guides permitted him to stop for a few 
 instants. He rested on the earth beside 
 a beech tree, and drank some water 
 from a spring, which still bears his name. 
 His brother James, continuing his flight 
 from the scene of the rencounter, reached 
 Waltershausen that evening. The dri- 
 ver, hastily throwing himself into the 
 waggon, in which Amsdorff had already 
 mounted, galloped his horse at full speed, 
 and conducted Luther's friend to Wittem- 
 berg. At Waltershausen, at Wittem- 
 berg, in the open country, the villages 
 and towns on the route, the news spread 
 that Luther was carried off Some re- 
 joiced at the report, but the greater num- 
 ber were struck with astonishment and 
 indignation, — and soon a cry of grief re- 
 sounded throughout Germany — " Luther 
 has fallen into the hands of his ene- 
 
 * Dejectoque in solum auriga et verberato. — 
 (Pallav. i. 122.) 
 
 t Longo itinere, novus eques, fessus. — (L. Epp. 
 ii. 3.) 
 
THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521. 
 
 317 
 
 After the stirring conflict that Lu- 
 ther had been called to sustain, it had 
 pleased God that he should be transfer- 
 red to a place of repose and peace. Af- 
 ter raising him on the dazzling stage of 
 Worms, where all the energies of the 
 Reformer's soul had been roused to their 
 highest pitch, God had prepared for him 
 the obscure and lowly refuge of a prison. 
 He draws from the deepest obscurity the 
 frail instruments by which He designs 
 to bring mighty things to pass ; and then 
 when He has suffered them to shine for 
 a while on an illumined stage, He dis- 
 misses them again to obscurity. The 
 Reformation was to be brought about by 
 other steps than violent struggles or pub- 
 lic tribunals. Not thus does the leaven 
 penetrate the body of the people : — the 
 Spirit of God seeks stiller channels. The 
 man whom the champions of Rome were 
 pitilessly persecuting, was to disappear for 
 a time from the world. It was needful 
 that his personal greatness should be 
 hidden in shade, that the revolution then 
 accomplishing might not bear the im- 
 press of one man. It was fit that the 
 man should be put aside that God alone 
 might remain to move by his Spirit over 
 the abyss, wherein the darkness of the 
 middle ages was sinking, and to say, 
 " Let there be light !" in order that there 
 might be light. 
 
 The shades of evening closing in, and 
 no one being now able to observe their 
 track, Luther's escort changed their 
 route. It was nearly eleven o'clock at 
 night when they arrived at the foot of a 
 hill.* The horses slowly climbed the 
 steep ascent. On the summit stood an 
 ancient fortress, on every side but that 
 by which they approached it, surrounded 
 by the black forests which clothe the 
 mountains of Thuringen. 
 
 It was to the lofty and isolated castle 
 of Warlburg, where the ancient Land- 
 graves in earlier times had fixed their 
 retreat, that Luther was thus led. The 
 bolts were drawn back, the iron bars fell, 
 the gates unclosed, the Reformer passed 
 the threshold, and the doors were closed 
 upon him. He dismounted in an inner 
 court. One of the horsemen, Burkard 
 von Hund, lord of Altenstein, then left 
 
 * Hora ferme undecima ad mansionem noctis 
 perveni in tenebris. — (L. Epp. ii. 3.) 
 
 him. Another, John von Berlepsch, pro- 
 vost of Wartburg, conducted him to his 
 apartment, where he found a knight's 
 garment and sword. The three others 
 followed, and took away his ecclesiasti- 
 cal habit, attiring him in the knightly 
 dress prepared for him, and enjoining 
 him to let his beard and hair grow,* that 
 no one in the castle might know who he 
 was. The attendants of the castle of 
 Wartburg were to know the prisoner 
 only by the name of knight George. 
 Luther scarcely recognized himself under 
 his singular metamorphosis, f Left at 
 length to his meditations, he had leisure 
 to revolve the extraordinary events that 
 had befallen him at Worms, the uncer- 
 tain future that awaited him, and his 
 new and strange abode. From the nar- 
 row windows of his turret, his eye dis- 
 covered the dark untrodden and bound- 
 less forest which surrounded him. " It 
 was there," says Mathesius, his friend 
 and biographer, ' ; that Luther was shut 
 in, like St. Paul in his prison at Rome." 
 , Frederic von Thun, Philip Feilitsch, 
 and Spalatin, in a confidential conversa- 
 tion with Luther, by order of the Elector, 
 had not disguised from him that his lib- 
 erty would be sacrificed to the anger of 
 Charles, and of the Pope.| Yet this forced 
 abduction was so involved in mystery, 
 that Frederic himself was for a long 
 time ignorant of the place where Luther 
 was concealed. The grief of those who 
 were favourable to the Reformation con- 
 tinued. Spring passed away ; summer, 
 autumn, winter succeeded ; — the sun had 
 run its annual course, and the walls of 
 the Wartburg still held their prisoner. 
 Truth had been placed under interdict 
 by the German Diet ; and its defender, 
 immured in a fortress, was no longer on 
 the stage of events ; and even the fate 
 that had overtaken him was unknown. 
 Aleander was all confidence, and the 
 Reformation appeared lost . . . but God 
 reigns ! and the blow which seemed to 
 brino- to nothing the cause of the Gospel, 
 will but serve to rescue its undaunted 
 
 * Exutus vestibus meis et equestribus indu- 
 tus, comam ct barbam nutriens . . . — (L. Epp. ii. 
 7.) 
 
 t Cum ipse mo jamdudum non noverim. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Seckendorf, p. 3G5. 
 
318 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 servant, and diffuse far and wide the 
 radiance of faith. 
 
 Let us leave Luther a captive in Ger- 
 many, on the heights of the Wartburg, 
 
 and let us see what God was then bring- 
 ing to pass in other countries of Chris- 
 tendom. 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 Demecracy— Mercenary Service— The Cottage of Wildhaus— The Herdsman's Family— Young 
 Ulr-ic— Ulric at Bale — Ulrie at Berne — Jetzer and the Ghost-^Jetzer's Visions — Exposure of the 
 Dominicans — Passion for Music — Wittembach — Schinner — The Labyrinth — Zwingle in Italy — 
 Principals of the Reformation — Zwingle's Studies — Zwingle's Classical Studies — Paris and Claris 
 — Oswald Myconius — OZcolampadius — Zwingle and Marignan — Alarm of the Pope — Dawn of 
 the Reformation — Effects of the Defeat at Marignan — The Two Worlds — Our Lady of the 
 Eremites — A Learned Society — Zwingle Transcribes the Scriptures — Zwingle Opposes Error 
 — Effects of his Preaching — Zwingle and the Legate— The Bishop of Constance— Stapfer and 
 Zwingle — The Preachership — The Caadidates — Zwingle's Confession — Zwingle Elected — 
 Leaves Einsidlen — Reception by the Chapter — Zwingle's Mode of Lecturing — Zwingle opens 
 the Gospel — Effects of his Preaching — Opposition — Familiar Manner — Love of Music — Imita- 
 tion of Christ — The Colporteur — Samson at Berne — The Dean of Bremgarten — Henry Bullin- 
 ger — Samson and the Dean — Zwingle's Studies — Samson and the Helvetic Diet — The Baths of 
 Pfeffers — The Critical Moment — Zwingle Attacked by the Plague — His Sick Bed and Hymn — 
 General Joy — The Adversaries — Effect of the Visitation — Myconius and Xyloctect — Myconius 
 Goes to Lucerne — Capido and Hedio — Opposition of the Monks — The Unnatural Son — Zwingle's 
 Gentleness — Fall and Recovery of Man — Expiation of the God-man — No Merit in Good Works 
 — Power of Love for Christ — Effects of his Preaching — Dejection and Courage — Zwingle and 
 Sttiheli — Violent Attacks — The Reformer of Beme — Halfer's Dejection — Oswald Persecuted — 
 H. Bullinger — Ceroid Von Knonau — Roubli at Bale — War Between Francis and Charles — 
 Foreign Service of the Swiss — Ferment — Truth Triumphs Amidst Opposition — The Bishop's 
 Deputies — The Councils — The Parties Confronted — The Coadjuter and Zwingle — Zwingle's 
 Answer — Hofman's Charge — Zwingle's Reply — The Bishop's Mandates — The Archeteles — 
 The Bishop Appeals to the Diet — Zwingle and the Monks — The Nuns of Oetenbach — Defeat 
 of Bicocca — Francis Lambert — Preaches at Zurich — The Commander of the Johannites — Car- 
 nival at Berne — The (i Feeders Upon the Dead " — The Scull of St. Ann — Appenzel — Adultery 
 and Murder — Zwingle's Marriage — Meeting at Einsidlen — Petition to the Bishop — The Meet- 
 ing at Einsidlen Breaks Up — A Scene in a Convent — Myconius at Lucerne — Effects of the 
 Petition — The Council and the Diet — Friburg — Treatment of Oswald — Oswald Encouraged — 
 Oswald Quits Lucerne — Zwingle's Family Alarmed — His Resolution — Zwingle's Prayer. 
 
 At the period when the decree of the 
 Diet of Worms was announced, a stead- 
 ily progressive movement was begin- 
 ning to manifest itself in the quiet val- 
 leys of Switzerland. To the voices 
 which were raised in the plains of Upper 
 and Lower Saxony, responded from the 
 mountains of Switzerland the bold voices 
 of its priests and herdsmen, or of the 
 inhabitants of its martial citites. The 
 partisans of Rome, in their sudden alarm, 
 exclaimed aloud that a vast and formida- 
 ble conspiracy was every where forming 
 against the Church. The friends of the 
 Gospel joyfully replied, that as in spring- 
 time the breath of life is felt from the 
 sea-shore to the mountain top, so the 
 Spirit of God was now melting the ice 
 
 of a long winter in every part of Christ- 
 endom, and clothing with verdure and 
 flowers the most secluded valleys, and 
 the most steep and barren rocks. Ger- 
 many did not communicate the light of 
 truth to Switzerland, — Switzerland to 
 France, — France to England : all these 
 lands received it from God ; just as no 
 one region transmits the light to another, 
 but the same orb of splendour dispenses 
 it direct to the earth. Raised far above 
 men, Christ, the Day-Star from on high, 
 was, at the period of the Reformation, as 
 at the first introduction of the Gospel, the 
 Divine source whence came the light of 
 the world. One and the same doctrine 
 suddenly established itself in the 16th 
 century, at the domestic hearths, and in 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 319 
 
 the places of worship, of nations the most 
 distant and dissimilar. It was because 
 the same Spirit was every where present, 
 producing the same faith. 
 
 The Reformation in Germany and 
 that in Switzerland demonstrate this 
 truth. Zwingle did not communicate | 
 with Luther. Doubtless there was a 
 bond of union between both these men ; ] 
 but we must seek it above this earth. 
 He who gave the truth from heaven to j 
 Luther, gave it to Zwingle. Their ; 
 communion was in God. " I began," . 
 said Zwingle, " to preach the Gospel in | 
 the year of grace 1516 — that is, at a 
 time when the name of Luther had i 
 never been heard among these countries. I 
 It was not from Luther that I learned ' 
 the doctrine of Christ, — it was from 
 God's word. If Luther preached Christ, 
 he does as I do : that is all."* 
 
 But whilst the several Reformations 
 derived from the same Spirit a compre- 
 hensive unity, — they also bore various 
 peculiar features derived from the differ- 
 ent populations in the midst of which 
 they were wrought. 
 
 We have already slightly sketched 
 the state of Switzerland at the period of 
 the Reformation. We will add but a 
 few words. In Germany the principle 
 of monarchy prevailed. In Switzerland 
 the democratic principle prevailed. In 
 Germany the Reformation had to strug- 
 gle against the authority of princes, — in 
 Switzerland against the will of the peo- 
 ple. A popular assembly, more readily 
 swayed than a single individual, is more 
 hasty in its decisions. The victory over 
 Papal rule, which beyond the Rhine 
 had cost years, required, on the Swiss 
 bank, but a few months or even days. 
 
 In Germany the person of Luther 
 rises majestically amid the Saxon popu- 
 lation ; he seems almost alone in his at- 
 tacks on the Roman Colossus ; and 
 wherever the battle rages we distinguish 
 his lofty figure on the field of conflict. 
 Luther is, as it were, the monarch of the 
 change which is effected. — In Switzer- 
 land the contest is begun, at one and the 
 same time, in several cantons ; — there is a 
 
 * . . . 1516, eo scilicet tempore, quum Lutheri 
 nomen in nostris regionibus inauditum adhuc 
 erat . . . doctrinam Christi non a Luthero, sed ex 
 verbo Dei didici. — (Zwinglii Opera curant. 
 Schulero et Schultessio, Turici, vol. i. 273, 276.) 
 
 confederation of Reformers ; — their very 
 number surprises us. Doubtless one 
 head is seen above the rest, — but no 
 one commands : — it is a republican ma- 
 gistracy, to which all come, bearing the 
 peculiar features of their origin. We 
 have Wittembach, Zwingle, Capito, Hel- 
 ler, (Ecolampadius, Oswald Myconius. 
 Leo Juda, Farell. Calvin ; — it is at Gla- 
 ris, at Bale, at Zurich, at Berne, at Neuf- 
 chatel, at Geneva, at Lucerne, at Schaff- 
 hausen, at Appenzel, at Saint Gall, and 
 in the country of the Grisons. In the 
 German Reformation but one stage is 
 seen, and that uniform and level, like 
 the face of the land ; but in Switzerland 
 the Reformation appears broken, like the 
 country itself, by its thousand hills. 
 Every valley has its own hour of awa- 
 kening, and every mountain top its own 
 radiance. 
 
 A calamitous period had ensued to the 
 Swiss people since their exploits against 
 the Dukes of Burgundy. Europe hav- 
 ing learned the strength of their arms 7 
 had drawn them from their fastnesses, and 
 deprived them of their independence, by 
 making them arbiters in the field of bat- 
 tle of the fortunes of her states. The 
 hand of the Swiss peasant turned a 
 sword against the breast of his country- 
 man in the plains of Italy and France, 
 while foreign intrigues were spreading 
 discord and envy in those Alpine mead- 
 ows, so long the abode of simplicity and 
 peace. Tempted by golden bribes, sons T 
 workmen, and servants, quitted by stealth 
 the chalets of the mountain pastures to 
 tread the banks of the Rhone or of the 
 Po. Swiss unity had yielded to the 
 gradual progress of mules laden with 
 gold. The Reformation, — for in Swit- 
 zerland the Reformation had its political 
 aspect. — proposed to re-establish the unity 
 and primitive virtue of the cantons. Its 
 first call was, that the people should tear 
 in pieces the nets of foreign lures, and 
 with one heart embrace each other at 
 the foot of the Cross. But its generous 
 desire was unheeded ; Rome, long used 
 to recruit in the Swiss valleys the blood 
 she lavished in the strife for power, arose 
 indignantly. She excited the Swiss 
 against their own countrymen ; and 
 passions, till then unknown, lacerated the 
 , bosom of the nation. 
 I Switzerland stood in need of a refor- 
 
320 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 mation. The Swiss were, it is true, re- 
 markable for a simplicity and credulity 
 which were subjects of ridicule to the 
 cunning Italians; but they were also 
 considered to be of all nations the most 
 stained by incontinency. Astrologers 
 ascribed this to the constellations,* — phi- 
 losophers to the temperament of these 
 indomitable people, — moralists to the 
 principles of the Swiss, who counted 
 deceit, vinkindness, and calumny, sins of 
 deeper die than unchastity.f Marriage 
 Avas forbidden to the priests, but it 
 would have been difficult to find one 
 who lived in true celibacy. Often they 
 were enjoined to behave themselves not 
 chastely — but prudently. This was one 
 of the first disorders which the Refor- 
 mation opposed. It is time to take a 
 view of the glimmerings of the new light 
 that was dawning in the Alps. 
 
 Toward the middle of the eleventh 
 century, two pilgrims penetrated 'from 
 St. Gall, in the direction of the moun- 
 tains southward of that ancient monas- 
 tery, and reached an uninhabited valley 
 ten leagues in extent. ! This valley is, 
 on the north, separated from the canton 
 of Appenzel by the lofty mountains of 
 the Sentis, the Sommerigkopf, and the 
 Old Man. Southward the Kuhfirsten, 
 with its seven peaks, rises between it 
 and the Wallenses, Sargans, and the 
 Orisons. Towards the east, the valley 
 lies open to the rays of the rising sun, 
 displaying in the distance the magnifi- 
 cent prospect of the Tyrolese Alps. The 
 two pilgrims arriving at the source of a 
 small stream, the Thur, erected there 
 two cells. By slow degrees thinly-scat- 
 tered habitations appeared; and on the 
 most elevated site, 2010 feet above the 
 lake of Zurich, there arose around a 
 little church a village called Wildhaus, 
 or the Wildkouse, on which now depend 
 two hamlets, Lisighaus, or Elizabeth's 
 house, and Shonenboden. On those ele- 
 vated spots the earth does not yield its 
 fruits. A green sward of Alpine fresh- 
 ness clothes the whole valley, ascending 
 the sides of mountains, above which, 
 
 * "VVirz, Helvetische Kirchen Geschichte, iii. 
 201. 
 
 t Sodomitis melius erit in die judicii, quam 
 rerum vel honoris ablatoribus. (Hemrnerlin, de 
 anno jubilaeo.) 
 
 t Tockenburg. 
 
 enormous rocks rise in savage grandeur 
 towards heaven. 
 
 A quarter of a league from the church, 
 near Lisighaus, beside a footway leading 
 to the pastures beyond the river, there 
 still stands a solitary house. Tradition 
 informs us that the wood required for 
 the building was felled on the very spot 
 it occupies.* It has every appearance 
 of remote antiquity. The walls are thin, 
 — the windows are composed of small 
 round panes, — the roof is formed of shin- 
 gles, loaded with stones to prevent the 
 wind carrying them away. In front 
 gushes a limpid stream. 
 
 There lived in this house towards the 
 close of the fifteenth century a man 
 named Zwingle, amman or bailiff of the t 
 village. The family of Zwingle or 
 Zwingli was ancient, and in great es- 
 teem among the dwellers on these 
 mountains.! Bartholomew, the bailiff's 
 brother, first curate of the parish, and in 
 1487 dean of Wesen, enjoyed a sort of 
 reputation in the district, j The wife of 
 the amman of Wildhaus, Margaret Meili, 
 whose brother John was afterwards ab- 
 bot of the convent of Fischingen in 
 Thurgovia, had already borne him two 
 sons, Heniy and Klaus, when on new 
 year's day, 1484, just seven weeks from 
 the birth of Luther, a third son, who 
 was afterwards named Ulric, saw the 
 light in this solitary chalet. § Five other 
 sons, John, Wolfgang, Bartholomew, 
 James, and Andrew, and one daughter, 
 added to the strength of this Alpine fam- 
 ily. Not a man in the neighbouring 
 country was more respected than the 
 bailiff Zwingle. || His character, his 
 office, and his numerous progeny, made 
 him the patriarch of these hills. He, as 
 well as his sons, led a shepherd life. 
 Soon as the early days of May arrived 
 
 * Schuler's, Zwingli's Bildungs Gesch. p. 290. 
 
 t Diss Geschliicht der Zwinglinen, wass in 
 guter Achtung diesser Landen, als ein gut alt 
 ehrlich Geschliicht. — (H. Bullinger Hist. Besch- 
 reibung der Eidg. Gesch ichten.) This precious 
 work exists only in manuscript. I am indebted 
 for the communication of it to the kindness of 
 M. J. G. Hess. The orthography of the manu- 
 script is preserved. It is now in course of pub- 
 lication. 
 
 t Ein Verrumbter Mann. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § " Quadragesimum octavum agimus." — 
 (Zwingle to Vadian, 17th Sept. 1531.) 
 
 || Claras fuit pater ob spectatam vitse sane 
 timoniam. — (Oswald Myconius Vita Zwinglii.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1481— 1522. 
 
 321 
 
 to cheer the mountains, the father and 
 his sons set out with their floeks for 
 the pastures ; ascending as the season 
 advanced, from station to station, and at- 
 taining the loftiest summits of the Alps 
 towards the. end of July. Then they 
 began again to descend gradually to- 
 ward the valley, and in this way the 
 people of Wildhaus were accustomed to 
 return in autumn to their lowly cottages. 
 Frequently in summer the young folks, 
 who had been left behind in their hab- 
 itations, eager to breathe the pure air of 
 the mountains, set out in parties for the 
 chalets, accompanying with their songs 
 the sound of their rustic music ; for all 
 were musical. As they arrived on the 
 Alps, the shepherds saluted them from 
 afar with their horns and songs, and has- 
 tened to regale them with a repast of 
 milk: after which the merry company, 
 by many a winding path, descended 
 again into the valley to the sound of 
 their pipes. Ulric, doubtless, sometimes 
 shared these delights in early youth. 
 He grew up at the foot of those rocks 
 which seemed everlasting, and whose 
 peaks pointed to the skies. " I have of- 
 ten thought," said one of his friends. 
 " that being brought near to heaven on 
 these sublime heights, he contracted a 
 something heavenly and divine."* 
 
 Many were the long winter evenings 
 in the cottages of Wildhaus. At such 
 seasons young Ulric listened at his pa- 
 ternal hearth to the conversations of the 
 bailiff and the elderly men of the vil- 
 lage. When they recounted how the 
 people of the valley had formerly 
 groaned under a cruel yoke, his heart 
 responded to the old men's joy at the 
 tnoughts of the independence achieved 
 by Tockcnburg, and secured to it by its 
 alliance with the Swiss. The love of 
 his country was kindled, and Switzer- 
 land became endeared to his heart. If 
 a word were uttered against the con- 
 federated cantons, the child would im- 
 mediately rise, and with simple earnest- 
 ness, undertake their defence. f Often, 
 too, would he sit quietly at the knee 
 of his pious grandmother, listening with 
 fixed attention to her Bible stories and 
 
 * Divinitatis nonnihil ccclo propriorem con- 
 traxisse. — (Osw. Myc.) 
 
 t Schulers Zw. Bildung. p. 291. 
 
 41 
 
 superstitious legends, and eagerly receiv- 
 ing them into his heart. 
 
 The good bailiff took delight in observ- 
 ing the promising disposition of his son. 
 He thought he saw that Ulric might be 
 fit for something better than tending his 
 herds on Mount Sentis, and singing the 
 Ranz des Bergers. One day he took 
 him in his hand and directed his steps 
 towards Wessen. He crossed the grassy 
 summits of the Ammon, avoiding the, 
 wild and bold rocks which border the 
 lake of Wallenstadt ; and arriving at the 
 village, entered the dwelling of the dean, 
 his brother, and gave into his care the 
 young mountaineer, to be examined as 
 to his capacities.* The dean, in a short 
 time, loved his nephew as if he were 
 his own son. Delighted, with the quick- 
 ness of his understanding, he confided 
 the task of his instruction to' a school- 
 master, who soon taught him all he him- 
 self knew. When he was ten years old, 
 Ulric already evinced marks of superior 
 intelligence,! and his father and uncle 
 decided on sending him to Bale. 
 
 When this child of the mountains of 
 Tockenburg arrived in that celebrated 
 city, a new world seemed to open before 
 him. The fame of the celebrated Coun- 
 cil of Bale, — its university founded by 
 Pius II. in 1460, — its printing presses, 
 which recalled to life the great writers 
 of antiquity, and disseminated through 
 the world the first fruits of the revival of 
 learning, — and the circumstances of its 
 being the abode chosen by such eminent 
 men as the Wessels and Wittembachs, 
 and above all, by Erasmus, made Bale, 
 at the period of the Reformation, one 
 of the great foci of illumination in the 
 West. 
 
 Ulric was placed in St. Theodore's 
 school, at that time presided over by 
 Greg-ory Binzli, a man of affectionate 
 character, and of a gentleness at that 
 period rarely found in schoolmasters. 
 Young Zwingle made rapid progress. 
 Learned discussions much in vogue in 
 that age among the doctors of universi- 
 ties had descended even to the children 
 of the school. Ulric took part in them, 
 
 * Tenerimum adhuc ad fratrem sacrificum 
 addu.xit, nt ingenii ejus periculum faceret. — 
 (Melch. Ad. Zw. p. 25.) 
 
 t Und in Ihm erschinen merkliche Zeichen 
 eines edlen Gemuths. — (Bullinger's MS.) 
 
322 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 disciplining his nascent strength against 
 the pupils of other establishments, and 
 invariably corning off victorious from 
 these contests, which were as the pre- 
 ludes of those which were to overthrow 
 the Papal authority in Switzerland.* 
 Such early successes roused the jealousy 
 of his senior rivals. Ere long he out- 
 grew the school of Bale, as he had out- 
 grown that of Wesen. 
 
 Lupulus, a distinguished scholar, had 
 shortly before opened at Berne, the first 
 learned foundation of Switzerland. The 
 bailiff of Wildhaus, and the curate of 
 Wesen, agreed together to send the youth 
 there, and in 1497, Zwingle, leaving the 
 smiling plains of Bale, again approached 
 those upper Alps among which he had 
 passed his infancy, and whose snowy 
 summits glowing in the sun might be 
 discerned from Berne. Lupulus, a dis- 
 tinguished poet, introduced his pupil to 
 the hidden treasures of classical learn- 
 ing,! then known only, and but slightly, 
 to a few. The young neophyte was de- 
 lighted to breathe these perfumes of an- 
 tiquity. His mind opened, his style took 
 its form, and himself became a poet. 
 
 Among the convents of Berne, that of 
 the Dominicans was most celebrated. 
 A grave controversy existed between 
 these monks and the Franciscans. The 
 latter maintained the immaculate con- 
 ception of the Virgin, which the former 
 denied. Wherever they went, — at the 
 splendid altar that adorned their church, 
 — and from the twelve columns which 
 supported its roof, the Dominicans thought 
 of nothing but to humble their rivals. 
 The well-toned voice of Zwingle had 
 drawn their notice ; they listened to the 
 accounts brought them of his preco- 
 cious understanding ; and thinking he 
 might do credit to their order, sought to 
 attract him amongst them,| and invited 
 him to take up his residence in the con- 
 vent, until the period when he might 
 pass his noviciate. The future useful- 
 ness of Zwingle was at stake. The 
 amman of Wildhaus, on learning the 
 
 * In disputationibus, quas pro more turn erant 
 inter pueros usitatas victoriam semper reportavit. 
 — (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 t Ab eo in adyta classicorum scriptorum in- 
 trod uctus. — (Ibid.) 
 
 X Und alss er wol singen kondt lokten Ihn die 
 prediger Monchen in dass Kloster. — (Bullinger, 
 MSC.) 
 
 baits the Dominicans held out, trembled 
 for the innocence of his son, and desired 
 him to leave Berne without delay. Thus 
 Zwingle escaped those monastic walls in 
 which Luther had voluntarily immured 
 himself. What afterwards ensued will 
 shew the greatness of the danger Zwin- 
 gle then incurred. 
 
 A great agitation reigned in Berne in 
 1507. A young man of Zurzack, named 
 John Jetzer, having one day presented 
 himself at the convent of the Domini- 
 cans, had been repulsed. The poor 
 youth, grieving at his rejection, hod re- 
 turned to the charge, holding out 53 flo- 
 rins and some silk stuffs. " It is all I 
 have in the world," said he, " take it, 
 and receive me into your order." He 
 was admitted on the 6th of January as a 
 lay brother. But on the very first night 
 a strange noise in his cell filled him with 
 terror. He fled to the convent of Car- 
 thusians, but they sent him back to the 
 Dominicans. 
 
 The following night being the eve of 
 the festival of St. Matthias, he was awa- 
 kened by deep sighs. Opening his 
 eyes he beheld by his bedside a tall 
 phantom clothed in white : — " I am a 
 soul from the fires of purgatory," said a 
 sepulchral voice. The lay brother an- 
 swered shuddering, " May God deliver 
 you ! I can do nothing." On this the 
 spirit drew nigh, and sei^jng him by the 
 throat, reproached him with his refusal. 
 The terrified Jetzer cried aloud, — u What 
 can I do for your deliverance ?" — " You 
 must scourge yourself to blood during 
 eight days, and lie prostrate on the earth 
 in the chapel of St. John." This • said, 
 the apparition vanished. The lay bro- 
 ther confided what he had seen to his 
 confessor, the convent preacher, and by 
 his advice submitted to the discipline 
 enjoined him. It was soon reported 
 throughout the town that a departed 
 soul had applied to the Dominicans for 
 its deliverance out of purgatory. The 
 multitude deserted the Franciscans, and 
 every one hastened to the church where 
 the holy man was seen stretched pros- 
 trate on the earth. The soul of the suf- 
 ferer had announced that it would return 
 in eight days. On the appointed night 
 it re-appeared, accompanied by two spir- 
 its tormenting it, and howling fearfully : 
 — "Sec*,", said the voice; — "Scot, the 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 323 
 
 forger of the Franciscans' doctrine of 
 the immaculate conception of the Virgin, 
 is among those who suffer with me these 
 horrible torments." At this report, which 
 soon circulated in Berne, the partisans 
 of the Franciscans were still more appal- 
 led. But the soul had announced that 
 the Virgin herself would make her ap- 
 pearance. Accordingly, on the day 
 named, the astonished brother beheld 
 Mary appear in his cell. He could not 
 believe his eyes. She approached him 
 kindly, delivered to him three tears of Je- 
 sus, three drops of his blood, a crucifix, 
 and a letter addressed to Pope Julius II. 
 " He is," said- she, "the man whom God 
 has chosen to abolish the festival of the 
 immaculate conception." Then coming 
 close to the bed in which the brother 
 lay, she announced in a solemn tone 
 that a distinguished grace was about to 
 be conferred on him, — and he felt his 
 hand pierced with a nail ! — but Mary 
 wrapped round the wound a linen cloth, 
 worn (she said) by her son during the 
 flight into Egypt. But this was not 
 enough ; — that the glory of the Domini- 
 cans might equal that of the Francis- 
 cans, Jetzer was to have the five wounds 
 of Christ and of St. Francis in his hands, 
 feet, and side. The other four were in- 
 flicted, — a sleeping potion was adminis- 
 tered, and he was placed in an apartment 
 hung with tapestry, representing the 
 events of the Passion. Here he passed 
 days, his imagination becoming inflamed. 
 Then the doors were from time to time 
 thrown open to the people, who came in 
 crowds to gaze on the brother with the 
 five wounds, extending his arms, with 
 his head reclined, and imitating in his 
 posture the crucifixion of our Lord. At 
 intervals, losing consciousness, he foamed 
 at the mouth, and seemed to give up the 
 ghost. " He is suffering the cross of 
 Christ," whispered those who stood 
 round him. The multitude, eager for 
 wonders, incessantly thronged the con- 
 vent. Men worthy of high esteem, — 
 even Lupulus, the master of Zwingle, — 
 were awe-struck ; and the Dominicans 
 from their pulpits, extolled the glory 
 with which God had covered their order. 
 For some years that order had felt a 
 necessity for humbling the Franciscans, 
 and adding by the claim of miracles to 
 the devotion and liberality of the people. 
 
 Berne, with its " simple, rustic, and igno- 
 rant population," (adopting the descrip- 
 tion of it given by the sub-prior of Berne 
 to the chapter held at Wempfen on the 
 Necker) had been chosen for the scene 
 of these wonders. The prior, the sub- 
 prior, the preacher, and the purveyor of 
 the convent had taken upon them the 
 chief parts ; but they could not play them 
 throughout. Favoured with another 
 vision of Mary, Jetzer thought he recog- 
 nized the voice of his confessor, and hav- 
 ing given utterance to his suspicion, 
 Mary vanished. Soon after she again 
 appeared to upbraid him with his incre- 
 dulity. " This time it is the prior !" 
 cried Jetzer, throwing himself forward 
 with a knife in his hand. The saint 
 hurled a pewter plate at the head of the 
 brother, and again disappeared. 
 
 In consternation at the discovery which 
 Jetzer had made, the Dominicans sought 
 to rid themselves of him by poison. He 
 detected the artifice, and fleeing from the 
 convent, divulged their imposture. They 
 put a good face upon the matter, and de- 
 spatched deputies to Rome. The Pope 
 commissioned his legate in Switzerland, 
 together with the Bishops of Lausanne 
 and Sion, to investigate the affair. The 
 four Dominicans were convicted, and 
 condemned to be burnt alive, and on the 
 1st of May, 1509, they perished in the 
 flames, in presence of more than 30,000 
 spectators. This event made a great 
 noise throughout Europe, and by reveal- 
 ing one great plague of the Church, was 
 instrumental in preparing the way of the 
 Reformation.* 
 
 Such were the men from whose hands 
 young Ulric Zwingle escaped. He had 
 studied letters at Berne, — he was now 
 to apply himself to philosophy ; and for 
 this purpose he repaired to Vienna in 
 Austria. Joachim Vadian, a young na- 
 tive of St. Gall, whose genius seemed to 
 give promise of a distinguished states- 
 man to Switzerland ; — Henri Loreti, of 
 the canton of Glaris, commonly called 
 Glarianus, and who shewed considerable 
 talent for poetry; — a young Suabian, 
 John Heigeriin, son of a smith, and on 
 that account called Faber, of supple 
 
 * Wirz, Helvetische Kirchen, Gesch. vol. iii. 
 387. Anshelms Cronik, iii. and iv. No event 
 of that age gave occasion to more publications. — 
 See nailer's Biblioth. der Schw. Gech. iii. 
 
324 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 character, fond of distinction, and mani- 
 festing the qualities of a courtier : — such 
 were the companions of Ulric's studies 
 and amusements in the Austrian capital. 
 
 In 1502 Zwingle returned to Wild- 
 haus : while he gazed on its mountains, 
 he felt that he had tasted of the sweets 
 of learning, and was no longer able to 
 live amid his brethren's songs, and the 
 bleatings of their flocks. He was eigh- 
 teen : he went to Bale* to renew his ap- 
 plication to study ; and there at one 
 and the same time master and student, 
 he taught in the school of St. Martin, 
 and pursued his studies at the university: 
 he could now dispense with his father's 
 succours. Shortly after he took the de- 
 gree of Master of Arts. A native of 
 Alsace, named Capito, who was nine 
 years older than himself, was one of his 
 dearest friends. 
 
 Zwingle devoted himself to the study 
 of scholastic theology, for called as he 
 was at a later period to combat its soph- 
 isms, it was necessary he should explore 
 its tangled labyrinths. But often the 
 joyous student of the mountains of the 
 Sends was seen suddenly to shake off 
 the dust of the schools, and exchanging 
 his philosophic toils for amusement, take 
 the lute, harp, violin, flute, dulcimer, or 
 hunting-horn, and pour forth gladsome 
 sounds as in the meadows of Lisighaus, 
 making his apartment, or the houses of 
 his friends echo with the airs of his be- 
 loved country, and accompanying them 
 with his own songs. In his love of mu- 
 sic he was a true son of Tockenburg, 
 a master among many.f He played 
 the instruments we have named, and 
 others besides. Enthusiastically attached 
 to the art, he diffused a taste for it 
 through the university, not that he rel- 
 ished dissipation, but because he loved 
 relaxation from the fatigue of graver 
 studies, and its power of restoring him 
 with fresh strength for close application. J 
 There was no one more cheerful or more 
 amiable, or whose discourse had more 
 
 * Ne dintius ab exercitio literarmn cessaret. — 
 (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 t Ich habe auch nie von Keinem gehort, der 
 in der Kunst Musica . . so erfahren gewesen. — 
 (B. Weysen, Fiisslin Beytrage zur Ref. Geseh. 
 iv. 35.) 
 
 t Ut ingenium seriis defatigatum recrearetur 
 et paratius ad solita etudia redderetur . . . — 
 (Melch. Ad. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 charms.* He might have been com- 
 pared to a vigorous alpine-tree, expand- 
 ing in all its grace and strength, not 
 yet pruned, and sending forth its strong 
 boughs on every side. The moment 
 was destined to arrive, when these 
 branches would shoot upward with re- 
 newed vigour towards heaven. 
 
 Having made his way into scholastic 
 theology, he returned weary and dis- 
 gusted from these arid sands, having 
 found nothing but confused ideas, — a 
 vain babble, emptiness, and barbarism, 
 without any sound idea of doctrine. " It 
 is mere lost time," said he, — and he 
 waited to know more. 
 
 Just at that crisis (November, 1505) 
 arrived in Bale, Thomas Wittembach, 
 son of a burgomaster of Bienne. Wit- 
 tembach had previously been teaching 
 at Tubingen at the same time with 
 Reuchlin. He was in the prime of life, 
 sincere, pious, versed in the liberal scien- 
 ces, in mathematics, and in the Holy 
 Scriptures. Zwingle and all the young 
 students immediately gathered round 
 him. An energy hitherto unknown 
 breathed in his discourses, and prophetic 
 words proceeded from his lips. " The 
 time is not far distant," said he, " when 
 the scholastic theology will be abolished, 
 and the primitive teaching of the Church 
 restored."! "The death of Christ," 
 added he, " is the only ransom of our 
 souls."| The heart of Zwingle eagerly 
 received those seeds of life. § 
 
 Among the students who constantly 
 attended the lectures of the youthful Doc- 
 tor, was a young man of twenty-three 
 years of age, of small stature, and weak 
 and unhealthy appearance, but whose 
 look bespoke at once gentleness and in- 
 trepidity. It was Leo Juda, son of a curate 
 of Alsace, and whose uncle had lost his 
 life at Rhodes, under the standard of its 
 knights, for the defence of Christendom. 
 Leo and Ulric lived in the closest in- 
 timacy. Leo played the dulcimer, and 
 had a very fine voice. Often in his 
 
 * Ingenio amoenus, et ore jucundus, supra 
 quam dici possit, erat. — (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 t Et doctrinam Ecclesice veterem . . . instau- 
 rari oporteat. — (Gualterus, Misc. Tig. iii. 102.) 
 
 t Der Tod Christi sey die einige Bezalilung 
 fur unsere Siinde — (Fuslin Beyr. ii. 268.) 
 
 § Quum a tanto viro semina qusedam . . . 
 Zwingliano pectori injecta essent. — (Leo Jud. in 
 Pnef. ad. Ann. Zw. in N. T.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 325 
 
 apartment the two friends of the arts 
 amused themselves in joyous song-. Leo 
 Juda became subsequently Zwingle's 
 colleague, and death itself could not ter- 
 minate this sacred friendship. 
 
 The situation of pastor of Glaris be- 
 came vacant at this period. Henry Goldi, 
 a young courtier in the Pope's service, 
 groom of his Holmess's palfrey, and al- 
 ready endowed with several benefices, 
 hastened to Glaris with the Pope's letter 
 of appointment. But the shepherds of 
 Glaris, proud of the antique glories of 
 their race, and of their struggles for 
 liberty, were unwilling to bow their 
 heads before a parchment from Rome. 
 Wildhaus is not far from Glaris ; and 
 Wesen, of which Zwingle's uncle was 
 curate, is the place where that people 
 hold their market. The reputation of 
 the young master of arts at Bale had 
 penetrated to these mountains. The 
 people of Glaris resolved to choose 
 Zwingle for their priest. They invited 
 him in 1506. Zwingle, after being or- 
 dained at Constance by the bishop, 
 preached his first sermon at Rapperswill. 
 On St. Michael's day he read his first 
 mass at Wildhaus, in presence of all his 
 relations and the friends of his family, 
 and towards the close of the year reached 
 Glaris. 
 
 He immediately applied himself zeal- 
 ously to the duties of his extensive parish. 
 Yet he was but twenty-two years of age. 
 and at times he yielded to dissipation 
 and the loose morality of the age. As a 
 Romish priest he was like other priests 
 all around him. But even at that time, 
 when as yet the Gospel had not changed 
 his heart, Zwingle never plunged into 
 those scandals which often grieved the 
 Church,* and he constantly felt that it 
 was necessary to subject his desires to 
 the holy rule of God's word. 
 
 A passion for war at that time dis- 
 turbed the quiet valleys of Glaris. There 
 dwelt in those valleys whole families of 
 heroes; the Tschudi, the Wala, the 
 Aebli, whose blood had been shed on the 
 field of battle. The elder warriors were 
 accustomed to recount to youths ever 
 ready to listen to such recitals, the events 
 of the wars of Burgundy and Suabia, the 
 battles of St. James and of Ragaz. But 
 
 * Sic reverentia pudoris, imprimis autem offi- 
 cii divini, perpetuo cavit. — (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 alas, it was no longer against the ene- 
 mies of their liberty that these martial 
 shepherds took arms. They might be 
 seen at the bidding of the King of 
 France, of the Emperor, of the Duke of 
 Milan, or of the Pope, descending like 
 an avalanche from the Alps, and rushing 
 with the noise of thunder against the 
 trained soldiers of the plain. 
 
 Towards the end of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, a poor boy named Matthew Schin- 
 ner, who was attending the school of Sion 
 in the Valais, was one day singing be- 
 fore the doors, as Luther used to do 
 rather later, when he heard himself 
 called by an old man ; the latter, struck 
 by the liberty with which the child an- 
 swered his questions, said in that pro- 
 phetic accent which, say some, man 
 sometimes acquires shortly before his de- 
 parture from this world — " Thou shalt be 
 a Bishop and a Prince!' 1 ''* The predic- 
 tion made a deep impression on the 
 young mendicant, and from that moment 
 an ambition the most unbounded took 
 possession of his heart. At Zurich, and 
 at Como, his progress in his studies 
 amazed his teachers. He was appointed 
 curate in a small parish in the Valais ; 
 rose rapidly in reputation, and being sub- 
 sequently sent to Rome to solicit the 
 Pope's confirmation of a recent election 
 of a Bishop of Sion, he procured the 
 bishopric for himself, and encircled his 
 head with the episcopal crown. Ambi- 
 tious and artful, yet not unfrequently 
 noble and generous, this man never re- 
 garded one dignity as anything but a 
 stepping-stone to a higher. Having ten- 
 dered his services to Louis XII. for a 
 stipulated price, the King remarked, " It 
 is too much for any one man." — " I will 
 shew him," replied the Bishop of Sion in 
 a passion, " that I am a man worth pur- 
 chasing at the cost of many." Accord- 
 ingly he made proposals to Pope Julius 
 II., who received his advances with joy ; 
 and Schinner, in the year 1510, suc- 
 ceeded in uniting the whole Swiss Con- 
 federation with the policy of that ambi- 
 tious Pontiff The Bishop having been 
 rewarded with a Cardinal's hat, smiled 
 to see but a single step between him and 
 the papal throne itself! 
 
 Schinner's attention was continually 
 engaged by the Swiss cantons, and as 
 
 * Helvet. Kirch. Gesch. von Wire, iii. 214. 
 
326 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 soon as he discerned any man of rising 
 influence, he hastened to attach him to 
 his interest. The pastor of Glaris drew 
 his notice ; and it was not long before 
 Zwingle was apprized that the Pope had 
 granted him an annual pension of fifty 
 florins, to encourage him in his studies. 
 His poverty being such as did not allow 
 his purchasing books, this money, so long 
 as he received it, was spent in procuring 
 classical and theological works from 
 Bale.* Zwingle thenceforward con- 
 nected himself with the Cardinal, and 
 thus became attached to the Romanist 
 party. Schinner and Julius II. at length 
 laid aside the mask. Eight thousand 
 Swiss collected together by the eloquence 
 of the Cardinal Bishop passed the Alps; 
 — but want of supplies, and the valour 
 and bribes of the French, obliged them 
 to retreat ingloriously to their mountains. 
 They brought with them the usual ef- 
 fects of their foreign wars, — suspicion, 
 licentiousness, party spirit, violence, and 
 every kind of disorder. The citizens 
 rose against their magistrates, the chil- 
 dren against their fathers, — agriculture 
 and their flocks were neglected, — and 
 luxury and beggary increased, — the most 
 sacred ties were broken, and the Con- 
 federacy seemed on the point of falling 
 to pieces. 
 
 Then it was that the eyes of the young 
 curate of Glaris were opened, and his 
 indignation was awakened. His power- 
 ful voice was raised to shew the people 
 the gulph into which they were hurry- 
 ing. In the year 1510, he published his 
 poem, entitled the Labyrinth. Behind 
 the mazes of that mysterious garden, 
 Minos has concealed the Minotaur, a 
 monster half man and half bull, whom 
 he feeds with the blood of the Athenian 
 youth. The Minotaur, says Zwingle, is the 
 sin, the irrcligion, and the foreign service 
 of the Swiss which devour her children. 
 
 A brave man, Theseus, undertakes to 
 deliver his country ; but many obstacles 
 are in the way ; — first, a lion with one 
 eye ; it is Spain and Arragon ; — next a 
 crowned eagle with open throat ; it is 
 the Empire ; — then a cock with crest 
 erect, as if provoking to the onset ; it is 
 France. The hero overcoming all these 
 
 * Wellches er an die Biicher verwendet. — 
 (Bullinger MSC.J 
 
 obstacles, slays the monster and delivers 
 his country. 
 
 " So it is now," exclaims the poet, 
 " the people wander in the labyrinth ; 
 but being without the clue, they never 
 return to light. We nowhere see men 
 following the walk of Christ. For a 
 breath of fame we risk our lives, — harass 
 our neighbours, — rush into strifes, war, 
 and battles .... as if the very furies 
 had broken loose from hell."* 
 
 A Theseus was needed, — a Reformer; 
 — Zwingle saw this, and from that mo-' 
 ment he had an obscure presentiment of 
 his destiny. Shortly after this he put 
 forth another allegory, in which his 
 meaning was more clearly conveyed. f 
 
 In April, 1512, the confederates again 
 rose at the Cardinal's summons to the 
 rescue of the Church. Glaris was fore- 
 most. The whole commune was en- 
 rolled for the campaign, and ranged un- 
 der its banner with its Landaman and 
 Pastor. Zwingle was compelled to join 
 the march. The army passed the Alps ; 
 and the Cardinal made his appearance 
 among the confederates with the pon- 
 tiff's presents, — a ducal cap adorned 
 with pearls and gold, and surmounted 
 with the Holy Spirit, represented under 
 the figure of a dove. The Swiss scaled 
 the walls of the fortified towns, and in 
 the -face of the enemy swam the rivers, 
 naked, with their halberds in their arms. 
 Every where the French were defeated, 
 the bells and trumpets sounded, people 
 flocked from all sides ; the nobles sent 
 to the army wine and fruits in great 
 abundance ; monks and priests pro- 
 claimed on the roads that the confede- 
 rates were God's people and the aven- 
 gers of the spouse of Christ ; while the 
 Pope, a prophet similar to Caiaphas, 
 conferred on the confederates the title 
 of " Defenders of the Liberty of the 
 Church."| 
 
 This visit to Italy was not without its- 
 consequences to Zwingle in his vocation 
 
 * Dass wir die hollschen wutterinn'n 
 Mogcnd denken abbrochen syn. 
 (Zw. Opp. ed. Schiller et Schulthess, ii. part 
 ii. 250.) 
 t Fabelgedicht vom Ochsen und etiichen 
 Thieren, iez loufender din^e begriffenlich. — 
 (Ibid. 257.) 
 
 t De Gestis inter Gallos et Helvetios, relatio 
 H. Zwinglii. 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 327 
 
 as a Reformer. It was on his return 
 from this campaign that he began to 
 study Greek, — " in order," he said, " to 
 draw from the true source the doctrine 
 of Christ."* " I am resolved to apply 
 myself so closely to Greek (he wrote to 
 Vadian, Feb. 23, 1513,) that no one but 
 God shall call me off from that study." 
 " I do so from a love of divine learning - , 
 and not for the sake of fame." At a 
 subsequent period,, a worthy priest who 
 had been his school-fellow, having visited 
 him, — " Master Ulric," said the visitor, 
 " they tell me you have gone into the 
 new error, and that you are a follower 
 of Luther." — "I am no Lutheran," said 
 Zwingle, " for I understood Greek before 
 I had heard the name of Luther." f To 
 understand Greek and study the Gospel 
 in the original, was in Zwingle's judg- 
 ment the basis of the Reformation. 
 
 Zwingle went beyond this early ac- 
 knowledgment of the great principle of 
 Evangelic Christianity, namely, the un- 
 erring authority of Holy Scripture. He 
 further saw the way of determining the 
 sense of the Divine Word : — " Those per- 
 sons have but low thoughts of the Gos- 
 pel, who regard whatever they think in- 
 compatible Avith their reason as of no 
 consequence, unnecessary, or unjust £ 
 Men are not permitted to bend the Gos- 
 pel according to their pleasure, to their 
 own interpretations." § " Zwingle looked 
 to heaven," says his best friend, "desiring 
 to have no other interpreter than the 
 Holy Ghost." || 
 
 Such, from the very commencement 
 of his career, was the man who has been 
 boldly represented as having aimed to 
 subject the Bible to human reason. 
 " Philosophy and Theology." said he, 
 "were constantly raising difficulties in 
 my mind. At length I was brought to 
 say, we must leave these things, and en- 
 deavour to enter into GocVs thoughts in 
 
 * Ante decern annos, operam dedi graecis Ut- 
 eris, ut ex fontibus doctrinam Christi haurire pos- 
 sem.— (Zw. Opp. 1. 274. Explan. Article, 1523.) 
 
 t Ich hab' graces konnen, ehe icn ni nut von 
 Luther gehot hab. — (Salat. Chronicle, MSC.) 
 
 X Nihil sublimius de evangelio sentiunt, quam 
 quod, quidqnid eorum rationi non est consenta- 
 neum, hoc iniquum, vanum et frivolum existi- 
 mant.— (Zw. Opp. i. 202.) 
 
 § Nee posse evangelium ad sensum et inter- 
 pretationem hominum redigi. — (Zw. Opp. i. 215.) 
 
 || In crelum suspexit, doctorera quserelis spiri- 
 tura.— (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 his own word. I applied myself," con- 
 tinues he, " in earnest prayer to the Lord 
 to give me his light ; and though I read 
 nothing but Scripture, its sense became 
 clearer to me than if I had studied many 
 commentators." He compared Scripture 
 with Scripture, interpreting obscure texts 
 by such as were more clear.* Ere long 
 he was thoroughly acquainted with the 
 Bible, and especially with the New Tes- 
 tament.! When Zwingle thus turned 
 towards the Holy Scriptures, Switzerland 
 made its earliest advance towards the 
 Reformation. Accordingly, when he 
 expounded their meaning, all felt that 
 his teaching came from God and not 
 from man 4 " A wojk altogether di- 
 vine !" exclaims Oswald Myconius ; — " it 
 was in this manner that we recovered 
 the knowledge of heavenly truth." 
 
 Yet Zwingle did not despise the ex- 
 planations of the most celebrated teach- 
 ers ; he subsequently studied Origen, 
 Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Chrysos- 
 tom, but never as authorities. " I study 
 the doctors," said he, "just as we ask a 
 friend, How do you understand this ?" 
 Holy Scripture was, in his judgment, 
 the touchstone by which the holiest doc- 
 tors should themselves so be tested. § 
 
 Zwingle's advance was slow and pro- 
 gressive. He did not arrive at truth, as 
 Luther had done, by those tempest- 
 shocks, which compel the soul hastily 
 to seek a refuge ; he reached it by the 
 gentle influence of Scripture — a power 
 which gradually subdues the heart of 
 man. Luther attained the wished-for 
 shore after struggling Avith the storms of 
 ocean ; — ZAvingle by steering cautiously 
 and sloAvly along the shore. They 
 are the two leading methods by which 
 God conducts men. Zwingle Avas not 
 fully converted to God and his Gospel 
 until the early days of his abode at Zu- 
 rich ; yet the moment Avhen in 1514 or 
 1515, this bold man boAved the knee be- 
 fore God, to ask of Him to enable him to 
 understand His Avord, Avas that wherein 
 
 * Scripta contulit et obscura claris elucidavit 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 t In summa er macht im, die H. Schrifft, In- 
 sonders dass N. T. gantz gemein. — (Bullinger, 
 MSC.) 
 
 X Ut nemo non videret Spiritum doctorem, 
 non hominem. — (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 § Scriptura canonica, seu Lydio lapide pro- 
 bandos.— (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
328 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 appeared the dawn of the day-star which 
 afterwards rose upon him. 
 
 It was about this time that a poem of 
 Erasmus, wherein that writer introduced 
 Jesus Christ speaking to one who was 
 perishing by his own apathy, produced a 
 deep impression on Zwingle's thoughts. 
 Alone in his room he repeated to him- 
 self the passage in which Jesus com- 
 plained that men came not to him for 
 all grace, though he was the fountain of 
 all blessing. " All .'" said Zwingle, 
 " All J" and that word again and again 
 recurred to his mind. — " Are there then 
 any created beings or saints, from whom 
 we should seek help ? No, Christ is our 
 only treasure."* 
 
 Zwingle did not confine his reading to 
 Christian writers. One of the accompa- 
 niments of the Reformation of the six- 
 teenth century was an attentive study of 
 the classics. Zwingle delighted in the 
 poems of Hesiod, Homer, and Pindar, 
 and has left commentaries on the two 
 latter. He studied closely Cicero and 
 Demosthenes, whose writings instructed 
 him in oratory and politics. The child 
 of the mountains also loved the wonders 
 of nature as reported by Pliny : Thucy- 
 dides, Sallust, Livy, Caesar, Suetonius, 
 Plutarch, and Tacitus, gave ,him an in- 
 sight into the affairs of life. He has 
 been blamed for his enthusiastic attach- 
 ment to the great names of antiquity ; 
 and true it is that some of his expres- 
 sions respecting them are not to be justi- 
 fied. But in paying them so much hon- 
 our, he thought he discerned in them 
 not mere human virtues, but the influ- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit. God's dealings, 
 far from being limited in former ages to 
 the Holy Land, extended, as he thought, 
 to the whole world. f '' Plato, also," said 
 he, " drew from a source divine ; and if 
 the Catos, Camillus', and Scipios, had 
 not been deeply religious, could they 
 have acted so nobly as Ave know they 
 did?"} 
 
 * Dass Christus unser armen seelen ein ein- 
 ziger Schatz sey. — (Zw. Opp. i. 298.) Zwingle, 
 speaking in 1523, says he read this poem of 
 Erasmus eight or nine years before. 
 
 t Spiritus ille coelestis non solam Palacstinam 
 vel creaverat vel fovebat, seel mundum univer- 
 sum . . . — (CEcol. et Zw. Epp. p. 9.) 
 
 t Nisi religiosi nunquam fuissent magnanimi. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 Zwingle diffused around him a love 
 of letters. Several young persons of dis- 
 tinction were brought up in his school. 
 " You have offered me not only your 
 books, but yourself," wrote Valentine 
 Tschudi, son of one of the heroes in the 
 wars of Burgundy ; and this youth, who 
 had already studied at Vienna and Bale 
 under the first masters, added, " I have 
 never nTet with any one who explains 
 the classics with so much justness of 
 thought, and depth of understanding, as 
 yourself."* Tschudi went to Paris, and 
 had an opportunity of comparing the 
 genius of its university, with that he had 
 known in the narrow valley of the Alps, 
 overlooked by the gigantic summits and 
 eternal snows of the Dodi, the Glarnisch, 
 the Righi, and the Freyberg. " In what 
 trifling do they educate the youth of 
 France !" said he ; " no poison can equal 
 the sophistical art they are trained in. 
 It dulls the faculties, destroys the judg- 
 ment, and reduces to the level of the 
 brutes. It makes a man a mere echo, an 
 empty sound. Ten women could not 
 compete with one of such sophists. f 
 Even in their prayers I feel assured they 
 bring their sophisms to God himself, and 
 would by syllogisms oblige the Holy 
 Spirit to grant their petitions." Such as 
 this period was Paris, the intellectual 
 capital of Christendom, contrasted with 
 Glaris, a market-town of shepherds of the 
 Alps. One gleam of light from God's 
 word gives more true illumination than 
 all the wisdom of man. 
 
 A great genius of that age, Erasmus, 
 exercised much influence on Zwingle. 
 The moment any of his writings ap- 
 peared Zwingle hastened to procure it. 
 In 1514 Erasmus visited Bale, and was 
 received by its Bishop with every expres- 
 sion of esteem. All the friends of learn- 
 ing assembled round him. But the 
 monarch of the schools had at once dis- 
 covered the man who promised to be the 
 glory of Switzerland. " I congratulate 
 the Swiss people," said he, writing to 
 Zwingle, " that you are doing your best 
 to civilize and ennoble it, by studies and 
 moral conduct alike worthy of admira- 
 
 * Nam qui sit acrioris in cnodandis autcribus 
 judicii, vidi neminem. — (Zw. Epp. p. 13.) 
 
 t Ut nee decern mulierculae . . uni sophistee 
 adaequari queant. — (IbLd. 45.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 329 
 
 tion."* Zwingle longed to see him. 
 " Spaniards and Gauls once made the 
 journey to Rome to look on Titus 
 Livius," said he, and — set out. Arriv- 
 ing at Bale, he there found a man about 
 forty years of age, of small stature, weak 
 health, and delicate constitution, but ex- 
 tremely amiable and polite. f It was 
 Erasmus. The charm of his intimacy 
 banished Zwingle's timidity, and the 
 power of his intellect impressed him 
 with reverence. " As poor," said Ulric, 
 " as iEschines, when the disciples of 
 Socrates each brought a gift to their 
 master, I make you the present he made, 
 and give you myself? 
 
 Among the men of learning who then 
 formed a kind of court of Erasmus, — 
 Amerbach, Rhenanus, Froben, Nessenus, 
 Glareanus, and the rest — Zwingle took 
 notice of a young native of Lucerne, 
 twenty-seven years of age, named Os- 
 wald Geishussler. Erasmus, translating 
 his name into Greek, had named him 
 Myconius. We shall often speak of him 
 by his Christian name, to distinguish 
 this friend of Zwingle from Frederic 
 Myconius, the disciple of Luther. Os- 
 wald, after studying at Rothwyl with 
 another young man of his own age, 
 named Berthold Haller, — then at Berne, 
 and afterwards at Bale, — had become 
 rector of St. Theodoric's, and still later 
 of St. Peter's school in that city. 
 Though the humble schoolmaster had 
 but a slender income, he had married a 
 young girl of a simplicity and purity of 
 mind that won all hearts. We have al- 
 ready said that it was a time of trouble 
 in Switzerland ; when foreign wars gave 
 rise to scandalous disorders, and the sol- 
 diers returning to their country brought 
 with them habits of licentiousness and 
 brutality One winter's day, gloomy and 
 overcast, some of these wretches attacked 
 the quiet dwelling of Oswald in his ab- 
 sence. They assaulted the door, threw 
 stones, and with indecent language 
 called for his wife. At last they burst 
 open the door, and having made their 
 way to his school, broke every thing in 
 
 * Tu, tuique similes optimis etiam studiis ac 
 moribus et expolietis et nobilitabitis. — (Zw. Epp. 
 p. 10.) 
 
 t Et corpusculo hoc tuo minuto, verum mini- 
 me inconcinno, urbannissime gestientem videre 
 videar. — (Ibid.) 
 
 - 42 
 
 the place, and then retired. Shortly 
 after Oswald returned. His son, little 
 Felix, ran to meet him with loud cries ; 
 and his wife, speechless, made signs of 
 horror. In a moment he perceived what 
 had happened. At the same instant a 
 noise was heard in the street. Unable 
 to controul himself, the schoolmaster 
 s'eized a weapon and pursued the rioters 
 to the cemetery. They took refuge 
 within it and prepared to resist. Three 
 of them rushed upon Myconius and 
 wounded him; and while his wounds 
 were being dressed, the wretches again 
 broke into his house with horrid cries. 
 Oswald tells no more.* Such were the 
 scenes which took place in Switzerland 
 at the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, before the Reformation had hu- 
 manized the manners of the people. 
 
 The uprightness of Oswald Myconius, 
 and his desire of learning and virtue, 
 brought him into contact with Zwingle. 
 The rector of the school of Bale at once 
 acknowledged the superior genius of the 
 curate of Glaris. In unaffected humil- 
 ity he shrunk from the praises of 
 Zwingle and Erasmus. " You school- 
 masters," the latter would often say, 
 " are, in my opinion, equal to kings." 
 But the modest Myconius was of a dif- 
 ferent judgment. "I do but creep upon 
 the earth," said he; "from my •child- 
 hood there has been a something low 
 and small about me."f 
 
 A preacher who had arrived in Bale, 
 almost at the same time as Zwingle, was 
 then exciting attention. Of mild and 
 peaceful temper, he loved a tranquil life ; 
 — slow and circumspect in his actions, he 
 was most happy in studious occupations, 
 and in endeavours to promote good will 
 among Christians. \ He was named 
 John Hausschein, in Greek CEcolainpa- 
 dius, or " light of the house," and was 
 born in Franconia, of rich parents, one 
 year before the birth of Zwingle. His 
 pious mother wished to devote to learn- 
 ing and to God himself the only child 
 that providence had left her. His father 
 at first destined him to commerce, and 
 
 * Erasmi, Laus Stultitiae, cumannot. Myconii. 
 
 t Equidem humi repere didici hactenus, et est 
 natura nescio quid humile vel a cunabulis in me. 
 — (Ozw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 t Ingenio miti et tranquillo, pacis et Concor- 
 dia? studiosissimus. — (M. Ad. Vit. CEc p. 58.) 
 
330 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 afterwards to jurisprudence j but on 
 (Ecolampadius's return from Bolonga, 
 (where he had studied law), the Lord, 
 whose purpose it was to make him a 
 light in the Church, called him to the 
 study of Theology.* He was preaching 
 in his native town when Capito, who 
 had made his acquaintance at Heidel- 
 berg, obtained his election as preacher 
 at Bale. He there proclaimed Christ 
 with an eloquence which was the admi- 
 ration of his hearers, t Erasmus ad- 
 mitted him to intimacy. GEcolampadius 
 was charmed with the hours he spent in 
 the society of this distinguished genius. 
 "We must seek," said the prince of 
 scholars, " we must seek but one 
 thing in Holy Scripture, namely, Jesus 
 Christ."^ He presented to the young 
 preacher in token of his friendship the 
 first chapters of St. John's Gospel. 
 (Ecolampadius would often kiss this 
 pledge of so valued a friendship, and ap- 
 pended it to his crucifix, " in order," 
 said he, " that I may always remember 
 Erasmus in my prayers.'' 
 
 Zwingle returned to his mountain- 
 home with his mind and heart full of all 
 he had seen and heard at Bale. " I 
 should not be able to sleep," said he, 
 writing to Erasmus, " without holding 
 some discourse with you. There is no- 
 thing 1 am so proud of as having seen 
 Erasmus." Zwingle had received a 
 new impulsion. Such visits have at 
 times great effects en a Christian's con- 
 duct. The disciples of Zwingle, Valen- 
 tin, Jost, Louis, Peter, and Egidius 
 Tschudi ; his friends, the bailiff Aebli, 
 the curate Binzli of Wesen, Fridolin 
 Brunner, and the celebrated professor 
 Glareanus, were delighted to watch his 
 growth* in wisdom and knowledge. 
 The old respected him as a courageous 
 defender of his country ; — the faithful 
 pastors as a zealous minister of the Lord. 
 Nothing was transacted in the country 
 without his advice. All the better sort 
 looked to him as destined one day to re- 
 store the ancient virtues of their country. § 
 
 * Flectente et vocante Deo, qui eo in domo 
 sua pro lampade usurus erat. — (Ibid. 46.) 
 
 t Omnium vere spiritualium et eruditorum ad- 
 miratione Christum predicavit. — (Ibid.) 
 
 I Nihil in sacris literis praeter Christum quae- 
 rendum. — (Erasmi, Epp. p. 403.) 
 
 § Justitiam avitam per hunc olim restitutum 
 iri. — (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 Francis the First having ascended the 
 throne, and preparing to avenge on Italy 
 the honour of France, the Pope, in 
 alarm, sought to gain over the cantons. 
 Thus, in 1515, Ulvic again saw the 
 plains of Italy covered by the battalions 
 of his fellow-countrymen. But the dis- 
 cord which the intrigues of the French 
 introduced among the army of the con- 
 federates grieved his spirit. Often 
 might he be seen, in the midst of the 
 camp, haranguing, in words of energy 
 and wisdom, an audience armed from 
 head to foot and ready for battle.* On 
 the 8th of September, five days before 
 the battle of Marignan, he preached in 
 the square of Monza, where the Swiss 
 troops who adhered to their standards 
 were assembled. " If the advice of 
 Zwingle had then been followed," says 
 Werner Steiner of Zug, " what miseries 
 would our country have been spared !" 
 But all ears were closed against the ac- 
 cents of concord, peace, and submission. 
 The overpowering eloquence of the Car- 
 dinal Schinner electrified the confed- 
 erates, and made them rush impetuously 
 to the fatal plains of Marignan. The 
 flower of the Swiss youth perished. 
 Zwingle, who had failed in his attempts 
 to avert these calamities, exposed him- 
 self in the cause of Rome to the greatest 
 danger. His hand grasped a sword !f 
 Melancholy mistake of Zwingle. He, a 
 minister of Christ, more than once forgot 
 that it was his duty to fight only with 
 the weapons of the Spirit, and he wa s 
 doomed to see accomplished in his own 
 case in a most striking manner, that pro- 
 phecy of the Lord, They that take the 
 sword shall perish by the sicord. 
 
 Zwingle and the Swiss failed to save 
 Rome from defeat. The Venetian am- 
 bassador, at the court of Rome, was the 
 first to learn the news of the defeat at 
 Marignan. Overjoyed, he repaired early 
 to the Vatican. The Pope left his 
 apartments, though scarcely attjred, to 
 give him audience. Leo the Tenth on 
 hearing the intelligence made no secret 
 of his fears. In a moment of alarm he 
 saw nothing but Francis the First, and 
 
 * In dem Heerlager hat er Flyssig geprediget. 
 — (Bullinger, MSC.) 
 
 t ... In den Schlachten sich redlich und tap- 
 fer gestellt m it Rathen, Worten und Thaten. — 
 (Bullinger, MSC.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1484r— 1522. 
 
 331 
 
 lost all hope : — " My lord ambassador," 
 said he tremblingly to Zorsi. " we must 
 throw ourselves into the king's arms and 
 cry for mercy." Luther and Zwingle, 
 when in circumstances of peril, knew 
 another refuge and invoked another 
 mercy.* 
 
 This second visit to Italy was not un- 
 attended with advantage to Zwingle. 
 He took notice of the differences between 
 the Ambrosian ritual, in use at Milan, 
 and that of Rome. He collected and 
 compared with each other the most an- 
 cient canons of the Mass. Thus his 
 spirit of enquiry found employment 
 amid the tumult of camps. At the same 
 time the sight of the children of his na- 
 tive land, drawn from their mountains, 
 and delivered up to slaughter like their 
 cattle, filled him with indignation. 
 " The blood of 1 the confederates," said 
 he, ' : is counted of less value than their 
 sheep and oxen." The faithlessness and 
 ambition of the Pope,f — the avarice and 
 ignorance of the clergy. — the licentious- 
 ness and immorality of the monks, — the 
 pride and luxury of the prelates, — the 
 corruption and venality that spread on 
 all sides among his countrymen, — all 
 these evils were forced more than ever 
 on his notice, and helped to deepen more 
 than ever his conviction of the necessity 
 of a reformation in the Church. 
 
 Zwingle from that time preached the 
 word of God with more distinctness. 
 He expounded the portions of the Gos- 
 pels and Epistles chosen for public wor- 
 ship ; ever comparing Scripture with 
 Scripture.;}; He spoke with force and 
 animation,^ and pursued with his audi- 
 tors' the same course that God was pur- 
 suing with him. He did not expose, as 
 Luther did, the wounds of the Church ; 
 but, according as his study of the Bible 
 discovered to him any profitable instruc- 
 tion, he imparted it to his flock. He 
 laboured to persuade them to receive the 
 truth into their hearts ; and then de- 
 
 * Domine orator, vederemo quel fara il re 
 Christmo semetteremo in le so man dimandando 
 misericordia. — (Zoisi Relatione MS.) 
 
 t Bellissimo parlador : (Leo X.) prometea assa 
 ma non atendea . . . — (Relatione MSC. di Gra- 
 denigo, venuto orator di Roma.) 
 
 t Non hominum commentis, sed sola scriptu- 
 rarum biblicarum collatione. — (Zw. Opp. i. 273.) 
 
 § Sondern auch mit predigen, darrinen er 
 helftig wass. — (Bullinger's MS.) 
 
 pended upon it for the effect it was des- 
 tined to produce.* "If the people see 
 clearly what is true," thought he, "they 
 will at once discern what is false." — 
 This maxim is good in the commence- 
 ment of a reformation, but a time arrives 
 when error must be boldly denounced. 
 Zwingle well knew this. " The spring," 
 said he, ' ; is the season for sowing our 
 seed." — It was then seed time with him. 
 
 Zwingle has marked this period as the 
 dawn of the Swiss Reformation. Four 
 years before, he had bent over God's 
 book ; and he now raised his head arid 
 turned toward the people to impart to 
 them the light he had received from it. 
 It was a new and important epoch in 
 the development of the religious revolu- 
 tion of these countries ; but it is a mis- 
 taken conclusion to infer that Zwingle's 
 reformation preceded Luther's. Zwingle 
 may possibly have preached the Gospel 
 a year previous to the theses of Luther, 
 but the Gospel was preached by Luther 
 himself four years before those celebrated 
 propositions. If Luther and Zwingle 
 had clone nothing but preach, the Refor- 
 mation would not have so soon spread 
 through the Church. The one and the 
 other was neither the first monk, nor the 
 first priest who taught a purer doctrine 
 than the scholastic teachers ; but Luther 
 was the first who boldly and publicly 
 raised the standard of truth against pre- 
 vailing error, and invited general atten- 
 tion to the fundamental doctrine of the 
 Gospel, salvation by grace ; thus intro- 
 ducing his generation to that path of 
 knowledge, faith, and life, from which a 
 new world has arisen, and commencing 
 a real and saving change. The great 
 battle of which the signal was given in 
 the theses of 1517, was the true parent 
 of the Reformation, and gave to it both 
 its soul and its form. Luther was the 
 earliest of the Reformers. 
 
 A spirit of inquiry was beginning to 
 breathe on the Swiss mountains. One 
 day the curate of Glaris, being in the 
 lovely country of Mollis, at the house of 
 Adam the curate of the place in com- 
 pany with Binzli, curate of Wesen, and 
 Varchon, curate of Kerensen, the party 
 of friends found an old liturgy in which 
 
 * Volebat veritatem coguitam, in cordibus 
 auditorum, agere suuin officium. — (Osw. Myc- 
 Vit. Zw.) 
 
332 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 they read these words, — " After the child 
 is baptized, the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper and the cup is to be given him."* 
 — "Then," remarked Zwingle, "the Sup- 
 per was at that time given under both 
 kinds!" The liturgy in question was 
 about two centuries old. This was a 
 grand discovery for the priests of the 
 Alps. 
 
 The defeat at Marignan produced the 
 consequences that were to be expected in 
 the remoter cantons. The victorious 
 Francis I. lavished gold and flattery to 
 win over the confederates ; and the Em- 
 peror adjured them by their honour, by 
 the tears of widows and orphans, and the 
 blood of their brethren, not to sell their 
 services to their murderers. The French 
 party prevailed in Glaris, and his resi- 
 dence in the country became from that 
 time a burthen to Ulric. 
 
 At Glaris, Zwingle might have re- 
 mained a man of his own age. Party 
 intrigue, political prejudices, the Empire, 
 France, the Duke of Milan, might have 
 almost absorbed his life. God never 
 leaves in the tumult of the world those 
 whom he is training for the people. He 
 leads them aside, — he sets them in soli- 
 tude, where they may feel themselves in 
 his presence, and gather inexhaustible 
 instruction. The Son of God himself, 
 the type in that particular of his dealings 
 with his servants, passed forty days in the 
 desert. The time had come when 
 Zwingle was to be delivered from the 
 turmoil of his political agitation, which 
 by constant passage through his soul 
 would have quenched the Spirit of God. 
 It was time that he should be disciplined 
 for another stage than that whereon fig- 
 ured courtiers and factions, and on which 
 he might have been tempted to waste an 
 energy worthy of better aims. His 
 country stood in need of a very different 
 service. It was necessary that a new 
 life should at this time descend from 
 heaven, and that he who was to be the 
 instrument in communicating it to others 
 should himself unlearn the things of time. 
 These two spheres are entirely distinct ; 
 a wide space separates these two worlds ; 
 and before passing from, the one to the 
 other, Zwingle was to halt for a while 
 
 * Detur Eucharistiae saeramentum, similiter 
 poculum sanguinis. — (Zw. Opp. i. 266.) 
 
 on a neutral territory, a middle and pre- 
 paratory ground, there to be taught of 
 God. God at this time took him from 
 the centre of the factions of Glaris, and 
 led him, for his noviciate, to the solitude 
 of a hermitage. Thus was the hopeful 
 promise of the Reformation, which ere 
 long was to be transplanted to another 
 soil, and to cover the mountains with its 
 shadow, shut up in the narrow enclosure 
 of the walls of an abbey. 
 
 About the middle of the ninth century, 
 a wayfaring monk, Meinrad of Hohen- 
 zollern, had passed between the lakes of 
 Zurich and Wallstetten, and resting on 
 a little hill in front of an ampitheatre of 
 fir trees, had constructed there his cell. 
 Outlaws had imbrued their hands in the 
 blood of the saint. For a long time the 
 blood-stained cell was deserted. But to- 
 wards the end of the tenth century, a 
 convent and church, in honour of the 
 Virgin, was built on this sacred spot. 
 On the eve of the day appointed for its 
 consecration, the Bishop of Constance 
 and his priests were at prayers in the 
 church — when a heavenly chaunt, pro- 
 ceeding from some invisible beings, sud- 
 denly resounded in the chapel. They 
 listened prostrate and amazed. Next 
 day, as the Bishop was about to conse- 
 crate the chapel, a voice three times re- 
 peated, " Stop ! Stop ! God himself has 
 consecrated it."* Christ in person, it was 
 said, had pronounced his blessing on it 
 during the night ; the hymns heard were 
 those of the angels, apostles, and saints ; 
 and the Virgin had appeared for an in- 
 stant like a flash of lightning on the altar. 
 A bull of Leo VIII. forbade the faithful 
 to doubt the truth of this legendary tale. 
 From that time a vast crowd of pilgrims 
 poured incessantly to our Lady of the 
 Eremites for the consecration of the an- 
 gels. Delphi and Ephesus in former 
 ages, and Loretto in modern times, have 
 alone equalled the renown of Einsidlen. 
 It was in this singular scene that Ulric 
 Zwingle was, in 1516, called to be priest 
 and preacher. 
 
 Zwingle did not hesitate. " I am 
 neither swayed by ambition, nor the love 
 of gain," said he, " but driven by the in- 
 
 * Cessa, cessa frater, divinitus capella conse- 
 crata est. — Hartm. Annal. Einsidl. p. 51. 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484.— 1522. 
 
 333 
 
 trigues of the French."* Motives of a 
 higher kind concur to decide him. On 
 the one hand being more retired, having 
 more quiet, and a charge of less extent, 
 he will have more time for study and 
 meditation. On the other hand, this re- 
 sort of pilgrims will afford him oppor- 
 tunity for diffusing to the most distant 
 lands the knowledge of Christ, f 
 
 The friends of the gospel at Glaris 
 loudly expressed their grief. " What 
 worse could have befallen Glaris," said 
 Peter Tschudi, one of the most distin- 
 guished citizens of the canton, " than to 
 lose so valuable a man. 1 ';}; His parish- 
 ioners, seeing his inflexibility, resolved 
 to continue to him the name of pastor 
 of Glaris, with a part of the stipend, and 
 the power of returning to it whenever he 
 would. § 
 
 Conrad of Reichberg, a gentleman 
 descended from an ancient family of 
 serious, open-hearted, intrepid, and some- 
 times stern manners, was one of the best 
 known huntsmen of the country whither 
 Zwingle was going. He had established 
 on one of his estates a stud for the breed- 
 ing of horses, which became famous in 
 Italy. This man was the Abbot of Our 
 Lady of the Eremites. Reichberg held in 
 equal aversion the pretensions of Rome, 
 and theological controversy. When one, 
 on occasion of a visitation of the order, 
 made some remarks : ' : I am master here 
 and not you," answered he abruptly; 
 "go about your business." Another 
 time, when Leo .Tuda was discussing 
 some subject at table with the adminis- 
 trator of the convent, the hunting Abbot 
 exclaimed : — " Let me put an end to your 
 disputings : — I say with David, Have 
 viercy upon me, O God ! according to thy 
 loving kindness: Enter not into judg- 
 ment with, thy servant ! — and I want to 
 know nothing more. !, || 
 
 * Locum mutavimus non cupidinis aut cupidi- 
 tatis moti stimulis, verum Gallomm technis. — 
 (Zw. Epp. 24.) 
 
 t Christum et ejus veritatem in regiones et 
 varias et rem'otas divulgari tain felici opportuni- 
 tate.— (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 t Quid enim Glareans nostra tristius acci- 
 dere poterat, tanto videlicet privari viro. — (Zw. 
 Epp. p. 1G.) 
 
 § For two years after this, Zwingle still signed 
 himself : Pastor Glaronce, Minister Eremi. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 || Wirz, K. Gesch. iii. 363 Zwinglis Bildung 
 v. Schiiler, p. 174. Miscell. Tigur. iii. 28. 
 
 The Baron Theobald de Geroldsek 
 was administrator of the monastery. He 
 was of mild character, sincerely pious, 
 and fond of learning. His favourite 
 scheme was to collect in his convent a 
 society of learned men. With this view 
 he had invited Zwingle. Eager for in- 
 struction, he entreated his new friend to 
 direct his studies. " Read the Holy 
 Scriptures," answered Zwingle, " and for 
 the better understanding them, consult 
 St. Jerome." " And yet," he continued, 
 " a time is coming (and soon too, with 
 God's help,) when Christians will think 
 little of St. Jerome or any other teacher, 
 but the Word of God."* The conduct 
 of Geroldsek exhibited evidence of his 
 progress in the faith. He gave permis- 
 sion to the nuns of a nunnery attached 
 to Einsidlen to read the Bible in the 
 vulgar tongue, and some years after he 
 took up his abode at Zurich, in Zwingle's 
 neighbourhood, and died on'the plain of 
 Cappel. The same attraction soon united 
 to Zwingle the worthy GExlin, Lucas, 
 and other inmates of the abbey walls. 
 These studious men, remote from the 
 clamours of party, were accustomed to 
 read together the Scriptures, the Fathers, 
 the masterpieces of antiquity, and the 
 writings of the restorers of learning. It 
 often happened that friends from distant 
 parts joined their interesting circle. One 
 day Capito, among others, arrived on a 
 visit to Einsidlen. The two friends, re- 
 newing the connection formed at Baden, 
 together went round the convent and its 
 wild environs, — absorbed in conversation 
 touching the Scripture and the will of 
 God. On one point they were agreed ; 
 — it was that the Pope must fall ! Capito 
 was at that time a braver man than he 
 was at a later date. 
 
 In this quiet retreat. Zwingle had rest, 
 leisure, books, and friends ; and he grew 
 in understanding and in faith. Then it 
 was (May 1507,) that he applied him- 
 self to a task that was very useful to 
 him. As in early times, the kings of 
 Israel with their own hands transcribed 
 the law of God, so Zwingle copied out 
 the Epistles of St. Paul. There were, 
 then none but cumbrous editions of the > 
 
 * Fore, idque brevi, Deo sic juvante, ut neque 
 Hieronymus neque ca^teri, sed sola scriptura di- 
 vini apud Chrislianos in pnetio sit futura. — (Zw. 
 Opp. i. 273.) 
 
334 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 New Testament, and Zwingle wished 
 to be able to carry it always about hirn.* 
 He learnt by heart the whole of the 
 Epistles; then the remaining books of 
 the New Testament ; and after that por- 
 tions of the Old. Thus did his heart 
 cleave more and more to the supreme 
 authority of God's Word. Not satisfied 
 with acknowledging its supremacy, he 
 formed the resolution to subject his life 
 to it in sincerity. Gradually his walk 
 became in every thing more Christian. 
 The purpose lor which he had been 
 brought into this wilderness was then 
 accomplishing. Doubtless it was not till 
 his visit to Zurich that the Christian life 
 penetrated his soul with power ; but al- 
 ready at Einsidlen his progress in sancti- 
 fication was evident. At Glaris he had 
 been seen to take part in worldly amuse- 
 ments; — at Einsidlen he was more notice- 
 able for purity of manners and freedom 
 from every stain and from every kind of 
 worldliness: he began to see the great 
 spiritual interests of the people, and by 
 slow degrees learned what God would 
 teach him. 
 
 Providence had besides other purposes 
 in bringing him to Einsidlen. He was 
 to have a nearer view of the supersti- 
 tions and corruptions which had invaded 
 the Church. The image of the Virgin, 
 ■carefully preserved in the monastery, it 
 was alleged had the power of working 
 miracles. Over the gate of the abbey 
 might be read this pompous inscription 
 — " Here may be obtained complete re- 
 mission of sins." A multitude of pil- 
 grims from all parts of Christendom 
 flocked to Einsidlen, that they might ob- 
 tain this grace for their pilgrimage. The 
 church, the abbey, the whole valley, was 
 crowded on occasion of the fete of the 
 Virgin, with her devout worshippers. 
 But it was especially on the grand fete 
 of the consecration of the angelg, that the 
 crowd thronged the hermitage. Long 
 files, to the number of several thousands 
 of both sexes, climbed the steep sides of 
 the mountain leading to the oratory, sing- 
 ing hymns, or counting the beads of their 
 chaplets. These devout pilgrims forced 
 their way into the church, believing them- 
 selves nearer to God there than any where 
 else. 
 
 Zwingle's residence at Einsidlen had 
 * This manuscript is in the library of Zurich. 
 
 similar effects to those attending Luther's 
 visit to Rome, in admitting him to a 
 closer view of the corruptions of the 
 Papacy. It was there his education, as 
 a Reformer, was completed. The seri- 
 ousness his soul had acquired soon mani- 
 fested itself in outward action. Affected 
 at the sight of so many evils, he resolved 
 to oppose them energetically. He did 
 not falter between his conscience and his 
 interest. He boldly stood up, and his 
 powerful eloquence fearlessly attacked 
 the superstition of the crowd that sur- 
 rounded him. " Think not," said he, 
 speaking from his pulpit, " that God is 
 in this temple more than in any other 
 part of creation. Wherever he has fixed 
 your dwelling he encompasses you, and 
 hears you as much as at our Lady at 
 Einsidiin. What power can there be in 
 unprofitable works, weary pilgrimages, 
 offerings, prayers to the Virgin and the 
 saints, to secure you the favour of God ! 
 What signify the multiplying of words 
 in prayer ! What efficacy in the cowl, 
 or shaven crown, or priestly garments 
 falling, and adorned with gold ! God 
 looks upon the heart — and our heart is 
 far off from God."* 
 
 But Zwingle was resolved to do more 
 than resist superstition ; he sought to 
 satisfy the ardent desire after reconcilia- 
 tion with God, which urged on some of 
 the pilgrims that flocked to the chapel 
 of our Lady of Einsidlen. " Christ," he 
 cried, like the Baptist from another wil- 
 derness of Judea ; " Christ, who offered 
 himself on the cross once for all, is the 
 sacrifice and victim which satisfies for all 
 eternity, for the sins of all believers."! 
 Thus Zwingle went forward. From the 
 hour, when so bold a style of preaching 
 was heard in the most venerated sanc- 
 tuary in Switzerland, the banner of re- 
 sistance to Rome was more distinctly 
 visible above its mountains : and there 
 was a kind of earthquake of reformation 
 which moved its very foundations. 
 
 In truth, an universal astonishment 
 took possession of men's minds at the 
 sound of the eloquent priest's sermons. 
 
 * Vestis oblonga et plicis plena, muli auro or- 
 nati . . . Cor vero interim procul a Deo est. — 
 (Zvv. Opp. i. 23G.) 
 
 t Christus qui sese semel in cruce obtulit, hos- 
 tia est et victima satisfaciens in sternum, pro 
 peccatis omnium fidelium. — (Ibid. 263.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 335 
 
 Some withdrew with horror ; others fluc- 
 tuated between the faith of their fathers 
 and the doctrine that was to give them 
 peace ; many were led to that Jesus who 
 was declared to be full of mercy, and 
 took away with them the tapers they 
 had brought to present to the Virgin. 
 A crowd of pilgrims returned to their 
 native places, everywhere announcing 
 the tidings they had heard at Einsidlen. 
 " Christ alone saves us, and he saves 
 everywhere !" It often happened that 
 troops of pilgrims, astonished at what 
 they thus heard recounted, turned back 
 without completing their pilgrimage. 
 The worshippers of Mary were every 
 day fewer. It was from their offerings 
 the revenue of Zwingle and of Geroldsek 
 was drawn. But the bold witness .for 
 the truth was too happy to see himself 
 impoverished, while thus, spiritually, 
 making many rich. 
 
 On Easter Sunday, 1518, among the 
 numerous hearers of Zwingle was a 
 learned man, of gentle character and 
 active charity, named Gaspard Hedio, 
 a doctor of divinity at Bale. Zwingle 
 preached on the history of the man taken 
 with palsy (Luke v.), in which occurs 
 our Lord's declaration : " The Son of 
 Man hath power on earth to forgive sins" 
 a passage well suited to strike the crowd 
 assembled in the church of the Virgin. 
 The preacher's discourse moved, de- 
 lighted, and inspired the whole assem- 
 bly ; and in an especial manner the 
 doctor of Bale.* Long afterwards Hedio 
 would express his admiration : — " How 
 beautiful and profound ! how grave and 
 convincing ! how moving and agreeable 
 to the Gospel was that discourse !" said 
 he. " How it reminds one of the cvepyeia, 
 (force) of the ancient doctors."f From 
 that moment Hedio admired and loved 
 Zwingle. | He longed to go to him and 
 open his heart : he lingered about the 
 abbey without daring to make advances, 
 restrained, as he tells us, by a sort of 
 superstitious fear. Mounting his horse, 
 he slowly departed from our Lady's 
 chapel, looking back on a spot which 
 
 * Id sermo ita me inflammavit. . . — (Zw. Epp. 
 p. 90.) 
 
 t Elegans ille, doctus, gravis, copiosus, pene- 
 • trans et evangelicus . . . — (Ibid. 89.) 
 
 I Ut inciperem Zwinglium arctissime complec- 
 ti, suscipere at admirari. — (Ibid.) 
 
 held so great a treasure, with the warmest 
 regret.* 
 
 In this manner did Zwingle preach ; 
 less powerfully, no doubt, but with more 
 moderation, and no less success than Lu- 
 ther ; he avoided precipitation, and gave 
 less offence to men's minds than the 
 Saxqn monk ; he trusted to the power 
 of Truth for results. The same pru- 
 dence marked his intercourse with the 
 dignitaries of the Church. Far from 
 directly opposing them, like Luther, — 
 he continued long on friendly terms with 
 them. They treated him with respect, 
 not only on account of his learning and 
 talents, (and Luther would have been 
 entitled to equal attention from the Bish- 
 ops of Mentz and Brandeburg) but still' 
 more on account of his devotion to the 
 Pope's political views, and the influence 
 that such a man as Zwingle must needs 
 possess in a republic. 
 
 In fact, several cantons, weary of the 
 Pope's service, were on the point of a 
 rupture. But the Legates hoped to re- 
 tain many on their side by gaining 
 Zwingle, as they had gained over Eras- 
 mus, by pensions and honours. The 
 Legates, Ennius and Pucci, often visited 
 Einsidlen, where, from the proximity of 
 the democratic cantons, their negociations 
 with those states were most easy. But 
 Zwingle, far from sacrificing truth to the 
 solicitations and bribes of Rome, allowed 
 no opportunity to pass of defending the 
 Gospel. The famous Schinner, who was 
 then on ill terms with his diocese, spent 
 some time at Einsidlen. " The whole 
 Papacy," remarked Zwingle, in conver- 
 sation with him, " rests on bad founda- 
 tions, f Do you begin and clear away 
 errors and corruptions, or else you will 
 see the whole fabric come tumbling to 
 the ground with frightful noise. "| 
 
 He spoke with the same frankness to 
 the Legate Pucci. Four times did he 
 return to the charge. " By God's help," 
 said he, " I mean to preach the Gospel, 
 — and that will shake Rome :" and then 
 he went on to explain what was needed in 
 order to save the Church. Pucci promised 
 
 * Sicque abequitavi, non sine moiestia, quam 
 tamen ipse mihi pepereram. — (Ibid. 90.) 
 
 t Dass das ganz papstum einen sclilechten 
 grund habe. — (Zw. Opp. ii. pars. i. 7.) 
 
 t Oder aber sy werdind mit grosser unriiw 
 umfallen. — (Ibid.) 
 
<aoo 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 every thing, but did nothing. Zwingle 
 declared his intention to throw up the 
 Pope's pension, but the Legate entreated 
 him to retain it. As he had no desire 
 to appear in open hostility against the 
 head of the Church, Zwingle continued 
 in receipt of it for three years. "But 
 do not think," said he, " that for' any 
 money I will suppress a single syllable 
 of truth."* _ Pucci. in alarm, procured 
 the nomination of the Reformer as acolyte 
 of the Pope. It was a step to further 
 honours. Rome sought to intimidate 
 Luther by solemn judgments ; and to 
 win Zwingle by her favours. Against 
 one she hurled excommunications ; to the 
 other she cast her gold and splendours. 
 •They were two different methods for 
 attaining the same end, and sealing the 
 daring lips which presumed, in opposi- 
 tion to the Pope's pleasure, to proclaim 
 the word of God in Germany and Swit- 
 zerland. The last device was the most 
 skilfully conceived, — but neither was suc- 
 cessful. The enlarged hearts of the 
 preachers of the Gospel were shewn to 
 be above the reach of vengeance or 
 seduction. 
 
 About this time, Zwingle conceived 
 great hopes of another Swiss prelate. 
 This was Hugo of Landenberg, Bishop 
 of Constance. Landenberg gave direc- 
 tions for a general visitation of the 
 churches, but being a man of very feeble 
 character, he allowed himself to be over- 
 ruled, sometimes by Faber his vicar, at 
 others by a bad woman, from whose in- 
 fluence he could not extricate himself. 
 He sometimes seemed to honour the 
 Gospel ; and yet, if any one preached it 
 boldly, he looked upon the preacher as 
 a disturber. He was one of those men 
 too often met with in the church, who, 
 preferring truth to error, are nevertheless 
 more tender of error than concerned for 
 truth ; and are frequently found at last 
 opposed to those in whose ranks they 
 ought to be contending. Zwingle ap- 
 plied to Hugo ; — but in vain. He was 
 doomed to experience, as Luther had 
 done, that it was useless to invoke the 
 assistance of the heads of the Church ; 
 and that the only way to revive Chris- 
 tianity was to act the part of a faithful 
 
 * Frustra sperari me vel verbulum de veritate 
 deminuturum esse, pecuniae gratia. — (Zw. Opp. 
 i. 365.) 
 
 teacher of God's word. The opportunity 
 for this was not long delayed. 
 
 In 1518, a barefooted Carmelite arri- 
 ved on the heights of St. Gothard, in 
 those elevated passes which have been 
 with difficulty opened across the steep 
 rocks that separate Switzerland from 
 Italy. This man had been brought up 
 in an Italian convent, and was the bearer 
 of Papal indulgences, which he was 
 commissioned to sell to the good Chris- 
 tian people of the Helvetic league. Bril- 
 liant successes under two preceding Popes 
 had made him notorious for this shame- 
 ful traffic. Companions of his journey, 
 whose business it was to puff off his 
 wares, accompanied his advance across 
 snows and ice-fields, as old as creation 
 itself. The caravan, miserable in its ap- 
 pearance, and a good deal resembling a 
 troop of adventurers in quest of booty, 
 went forward to the sound of the dashing 
 streams that form by their confluence the 
 rivers Rhine, Reuss, Aar, Rhone, Tes- 
 sino, and others, — silently meditating the 
 spoiling of the simple Swiss. Samson, — 
 for that was the name of the Carmelite, 
 attended by his company, arrived first at 
 Uri, and commenced their trade. They 
 had soon made an end with these poor 
 country folks, and removed thence to the 
 canton of Schwitz. It was there Zwingle 
 was residing ; and there it was that the 
 contest between these servants of two 
 widely different masters was to begin. 
 " / am empowered to remit all sins .'" said 
 the Italian monk (the Tetzel of Switzer- 
 land) to the people of Schwitz. "Heaven 
 and earth are subject to my authority ; 
 and I dispose of Christ's merits to who- 
 ever will purchase them, — by bringing 
 me their money for their indulgence." 
 
 When tidings of this discourse reached 
 Zwingle, his zeal was kindled, and he 
 preached vehemently. " Christ," said 
 he, " the Son of God, says, Come unto me 
 all ye who labour and are heavy laden, 
 and I will give you rest. What auda- 
 cious folly and madness is it then to say, 
 contradicting him : ' Buy letters of in- 
 dulgence, — apply to Rome, — give your 
 money to the monks, — sacrifice to the 
 priests !* — if you do these things, I will 
 absolve you from your sins.' Christ is 
 
 * Romam curre ! redime literas indulgenti- 
 arum ! da tantumdem monachis ! offer sacerdo- 
 tibus, &c— (Zw. Opp. i. 222.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 337 
 
 the one offering! Christ is the only sac- 
 rifice ! Christ is the only way !"* 
 
 Throughout Schwitz people soon spoke 
 of Samson as a cheat and impostor. He 
 took the road to Zug ; and, for the mo- 
 ment, the two champions missed each 
 other. 
 
 Scarcely had Samson taken his depar- 
 ture from Schwitz, when a citizen of that 
 canton named Stapfer, who was much 
 respected, and afterwards public secre- 
 tary, was suddenly reduced, with his 
 family, to a state of total destitution. 
 "Alas!" said he, addressing himself in 
 his perplexity to Zwingle, " I know not 
 how to satisfy my hunger and the wants 
 of my poor children. "j Zwingle could 
 give when Rome would take ; and he 
 was as ready to do good works, as he 
 was to oppose those who inculcated them 
 as means by which we are saved. He 
 daily supplied Stapfer with support-! " It 
 is God," said he, intent on taking no 
 credit to himself, " it is God who "begets 
 charity in the believer, and gives at once 
 the first thought, the resolve, and the 
 work itself: it is God who does it by his 
 own power."^ Stapfer's affection for him 
 lasted till death ; and four years after 
 this, when he filled the post of secretary 
 of Schwitz, he turned to Zwingle under 
 the feeling of a higher want, and with 
 noble candour said, " Since it was you 
 who once supplied my temporal need, 
 how much more may I expect you may 
 give me that which shall satisfy the 
 famine of my soul." 
 
 The friends of Zwingle multiplied 
 daily. It was no longer at Glaris, Bale, 
 and Schwitz, that persons were found 
 whose hearts were with him : — at Uri, 
 there was Schmidt the secretary ; at Zug, 
 Colin Muller, and Werner Stein er, his 
 old companion in arms at Marignan ; at 
 Lucerne, Xyloctect and Kilchmeyer ; at 
 Bienne, Wittembach ; and in other parts 
 not a few. But the curate of Einsidlen 
 had no more devoted friend than Oswald 
 Myconius. Oswald had quitted Bale in 
 
 * Christus una est oblatio, unum sacrificium, 
 una via. — (Ibid. 201.) 
 
 t Ut mese, meorumque liberorum inedia? cor- 
 porali subveniretis. — (Zw. Epp. 284.) 
 
 t Largas mihi quotidie suppetias tulistis. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 § Caritatem ingenerat Deus, consilium, pro- 
 positum et opus. Quidquid boni praestat Justus, 
 hoc Deus sua virtute prsestat. — (Zw. Opp. i. 226.) 
 
 43 
 
 15 16 to take the direction of the cathedral 
 school at Zurich. At this period that 
 city possessed neither learned men nor 
 schools. Oswald laboured, in conjunc- 
 tion with several benevolent persons, to 
 reclaim the people of Zurich from their 
 ignorance, and initiate them in ancient 
 learning. He at the same time defended 
 the uncompromising truth of holy Scrip- 
 ture, and declared that if the Pope or the 
 Emperor should enjoin what was con- 
 trary to the Gospel, it was man's duty to 
 obey God alone, who is above Emperor 
 or Pope. 
 
 Seven centuries before,. Charlemagne 
 had added a college of canons to that 
 same cathedral:, the school attached to 
 which was placed under Oswald Myco- 
 nius. These canons having declined 
 from their first institution, and wishing 
 So enjoy eheir benefices in the sweets of 
 indolence, had adopted the custom of 
 electing a preacher, to whom they dele- 
 gated the duty of preaching and the cure 
 of souls. This post became vacant short- 
 ly after the arrival of Oswald, who im- 
 mediately thought of his friend. What 
 a blessing it would; be to Zurich ! Zwin- 
 gle's manners and appearance were pre- 
 possessing ; — he was a handsome man,* 
 of polite address, and pleasing conversa- 
 tion, already remarked for his eloquence, 
 and distinguished among all the con- 
 federated Swiss for his brilliant genius. 
 Myconiirs spoke of him to the provost of 
 the chapter, Felix Frey,f who was pre- 
 possessed by the manners and talents of 
 Zwingle : — to Utinger, an old man much 
 respected, and to the canon Hoffman, a 
 man of upright and open character, who 
 having for a long time opposed the foreign 
 service of the Swiss, was favourably in- 
 clined toward Ulric. Other inhabitants 
 of Zurich had, on different occasions, 
 heard Zwingle at Einsidlen, and had 
 returned home full of admiration. The 
 approaching election of a preacher for 
 the cathedral ere long put every body in 
 Zurich in motion. Various interests 
 were started : — many laboured night and 
 day to promote the election of the elo- 
 quent preacher of our Lady of the Ere- 
 
 * Dan Zwingli vom lyb ein hnbscher man 
 wass. — (Bullinger MS.) 
 
 t Und als Imme sein gestalt und geschiklich- 
 keit wol gefiel, gab er Im syn stimm. — (Ibid.) 
 
338 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 mites.* Myconius apprized his friend of 
 it. " On Wednesday next," answered 
 Zwingle, " I am going to dine at Zurich, 
 and we will talk it over." He came ac- 
 cordingly. Calling on one of the canons 
 the latter inquired : " Could you not 
 come amongst us and preach the word of 
 God ?" — " I could," answered Zwingle, 
 " but I will not come unless invited ;" 
 and forthwith he returned to his mon- 
 astery. 
 
 This visit alarmed his enemies. They 
 persuaded several priests to offer them- 
 selves as candidates for the vacant post. 
 A Suabian, named Lorenzo Fable, even 
 preached a sermon in proof of his talent ; 
 and a report prevailed that he was chosen. 
 " True it is, then," said Zwingle when 
 he heard it, " no prophet is honoured in 
 his own country ; since a Suabian is pre- 
 ferred before a Swiss. I see what pop- 
 ular applause is worth."f Immediately 
 afterwards Zwingle. received intelligence 
 from the secretary of Cardinal Schinner 
 that the election had not taken place ; 
 nevertheless the false report that had 
 reached him piqued the curate of Ein- 
 sidlen. Finding one so unworthy as 
 Fable aspiring to fill the office, he was 
 the more bent on obtaining it, and wrote 
 to Myconius on the subject. Oswald 
 answered the following day. " Fable 
 will continue Fable : the good folks who 
 will have to decide the election, have 
 learned that he is the father of six sons, 
 and is besides possessed of I can't tell 
 how many benefices."! 
 
 Zwingle's opponents were not dis- 
 couraged ; true, all agreed in extolling 
 his distinguished acquirements ; § but 
 some said, " He is too passionately fond 
 of fnusic;" others, "he is fond of com- 
 pany and pleasure ;" others again, " he 
 was in his youth very intimate with peo- 
 ple of loose morals." One man even 
 charged him with having been guilty of 
 seduction. This was mere calumny : — 
 yet Zwingle, although more innocent 
 than the ecclesiastics of his age, had 
 more than once, in the first years of his 
 
 * Qui dies et noctes laborarent ut vir ille sub- 
 rogaretur.— (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 t Scio vulgi acclamationes et illud blandum 
 Euge! Euge!— (Zw. Epp. p. 53.) 
 
 X Fabula manebit fabula ; quem domini mei 
 acceperunt sex pueris esse patrem . . . (Ibid.) 
 
 (j Neminem tamen, qui tuam doctrinam non 
 ad ccelum ferat . . — (Ibid.) 
 
 ministry, given way to the passions of 
 youth. It is not easy to estimate the 
 effect upon the soul of the atmosphere in 
 which it lives. There existed under the 
 Papacy, and among the clergy, disorders 
 that were established, allowed, and rec- 
 ognised, as agreeable to the laws of 
 nature. A saying of iEneas Sylvius, 
 afterwards Pope Pius II, gives some 
 notion of the wretched state of public 
 morals at this period.* Licentiousness 
 had become almost every where allowed. 
 Oswald exerted all his activity in his 
 friend's favour. He laboured to the ut- 
 most to clear his character, and happily 
 succeeded.! He visited the burgomaster 
 Roust, Hoffman, Frey, and Utinger. 
 He extolled the probity, the frankness, 
 and deportment of Zwingle, and con- 
 firmed the favourable impression that he 
 had made on the people of Zurich. But 
 little credence was given to the assertions 
 of his adversaries. The men of most 
 weight gave their judgment that Zwingle 
 should be the preacher of Zurich. The 
 canons whispered the same thing. " You 
 may hope for success," wrote Oswald with 
 emotion, "for I have hopes of it." At the 
 same time he apprised him of the charges 
 of his enemies. Although Zwingle was 
 not yet altogether a new man, his was 
 the soul of one whose conscience is awak- 
 ened, and who may fall into sin, but never 
 without struggle and remorse. Often 
 had he determined to live a holy life, — 
 alone among his order — in the world. 
 But when he heard himself accused he 
 would not boast of exemption from sin. 
 Accordingly he wrote to the canon Utin- 
 ger. " With none to walk with me in 
 the path of holiness (many even of those 
 about me being offended at it,) I did alas! 
 fall; — and, as St. Peter says, turned again, 
 like a dog, to my own vomit. £ God 
 knows with what shame and anguish I 
 have dragged forth into light these sins 
 from the depths of my heart, and spread 
 them before that mighty God, to whom 
 I, however, confess my wretchedness 
 more freely than to mortal man."§ But 
 
 * Non esse qui vigesimum annum excessit, nee 
 virginem tetigerit. — (Zw. Epp. p. 57.) 
 
 t Reprimo hffic pro viribus, imo et repressi. — 
 (Ibid. 54.) 
 
 X Quippe neminem habens, comitem hujus in- 
 tituti, scandalizantes vero non paucos, hen '. ce- 
 cidi et factus sum canisad vomitum. — (Ibid. 55.) 
 
 § En cum verecundia (Deus novit !) magna 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 339 
 
 while Zwingle acknowledged himself a 
 sinner, he vindicated himself from the 
 odious charges brought against him, and 
 affirmed that lie had ever abhorred the 
 thought of adultery, or the seduction of 
 the innocent ; * — melancholy excesses ! 
 then too common : — " I call to witness," 
 he added, " all with whom I ever lived."f 
 
 On the 1 lth of December the election 
 took place. Zwingle was chosen by a 
 majority of seventeen out of twenty-four 
 votes. The time had come for the Ref- 
 ormation to arise in Switzerland. The 
 chosen instrument that Providence had 
 been for three years preparing in the 
 seclusion of Einsidlen was ready, and 
 was to be transferred to another scene. 
 God, who had made choice of the rising 
 university of Wittemberg, situate in the 
 heart of Germany, under the protection 
 of the wisest of princes, there to call Lu- 
 ther, — made a choice of Zurich, esteemed 
 the chief town of Helvetia, there to fix 
 Zwingle. At Zurich he would be in 
 communication not merely with the most 
 intelligent and simple-minded, the most 
 resolute and energetic, of the Swiss popu- 
 lation, but also with the various cantons 
 that lay around that ancient and influen- 
 tial state. The hand that had taken up 
 a poor herdsman of mount Sentis, and 
 placed him in a preparatory school, — now 
 established him, mighty in word and in 
 deed, in the face of all his nation, that he 
 might become the instrument of its re- 
 generation. Zurich was to become the 
 focus of illumination for the whole of 
 Switzerland. 
 
 To the inmates of Einsidlen, the day 
 on which they received the tidings of 
 Zwingle's nomination was a day of re- 
 joicing and grief intermingled. The 
 society which had been formed there was 
 about to be broken up by the removal 
 of its most valuable member ; and who 
 could tell whether superstition might not 
 again assert her sway over that„ancient 
 haunt of the pilgrim ? The Council of 
 Schwitz transmitted to Ulric an address, 
 
 haec ex pectoris specubus depromsi, apud eum 
 scilicet cum quo etiam coram minus quam cum 
 ullo ferme mortalium confiteri vererer. — (Zw. 
 Epp. p. 55.) 
 
 * Ea ratio nobis perpetuo fuit, nee alienum 
 thorum conscendere, nee virginem vitiare. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Testes invoco cunctos, quibuscum vixi. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 expressive of their sentiments, in which 
 they styled him " their reverend, learned, 
 and very gracious malster and worthy 
 friend."* " Choose for us at least a suc- 
 cessor worthy of yourself," said Geroldsek 
 to Zwingle. " I have a little lion for 
 you," he replied, " who is both simple- 
 hearted and wise ; a man conversant 
 with the mysteries of Holy Writ." " I 
 will have him," said the administrator 
 immediately. This was Leo Juda, that 
 mild yet intrepid man, with whom Zwin- 
 gle had contracted so close a fellowship 
 at Bale. Leo Juda accepted a charge 
 which brought him nearer to his beloved 
 Ulric. The latter, after embracing his 
 friends, bade farewell to the solitude of 
 Einsidlen, and pursued his journey to 
 that delightful region, where the cheer- 
 ful and goodly city of Zurich is seated, 
 amidst an amphitheatre of gentle hills, 
 whose sides are clothed with vineyards, 
 and their feet bedecked with meadows 
 and orchards, while over their wooded 
 crests are descried the lofty summits of 
 the distant Albis. Zurich, the political 
 centre of Switzerland, where the leading 
 men of the nation were frequently assem- 
 bled, was a point from which the Hel- 
 vetic territory might be acted on, and the 
 seeds of truth scattered over the whole 
 of the cantons. Accordingly the friends 
 of literature and of the Gospel hailed the 
 election of Zwingle with their heartiest 
 acclamations. At Paris, especially, the 
 Swiss students, who were a numerous 
 body there, were transported with joy at 
 the. tidings.f But if at Zurich, Zwingle 
 had the prospect of a mighty victory 
 opened to him, he had also to expect an 
 arduous conflict. Glareanus wrote to 
 him from Paris : " I foresee that your 
 learning will excite a bitter hostility 
 against you ; but take courage, and, like 
 Hercules, you will overcome all the 
 monsters you have to encounter."^ 
 
 It was on the 27th of December, 1518, 
 that Zwingle arrived at Zurich; he 
 alighted at the hotel of Einsidlen. His 
 welcome was a cordial and honourable 
 
 * Reverende, perdecte, admodum gratiose dom- 
 ine ac bone amice. — (Zw. Epp. p. 60.) 
 
 t Omnes adeo quotquot ex Helvetiis adsunt ju- 
 venes fremere et gaudere. — (Ibid. p. 64.) 
 
 t Quantum invidiaa tibi inter istos eruditio tua 
 conflabit.— (Ibid. 64.) 
 
340 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 one.* The chapter immediately assem- 
 bled to receive him, and he was invited 
 to take his place among his colleagues. 
 Felix Frey presided ; the canons, wheth- 
 er friendly or hostile to Zwingle, were 
 seated indiscriminately round their prin- 
 cipal. There was a general excitement 
 throughout the assembly ; every one felt, 
 though probably he knew not why, that 
 this new appointment was likely to have 
 momentous results. As the innovating 
 spirit of the young priest was regarded 
 with apprehension, it was agreed that 
 the most important of the duties attached 
 to his new office should be distinctly 
 pointed out to him. " You will use your 
 utmost diligence," he was gravely ad- 
 monished, " in collecting the revenues of 
 the chapter — not overlooking the smallest 
 item. You will exhort the faithful, both 
 from the pulpit and in the confessional, 
 to pay all dues and tithes, and to testify 
 by their offerings the love which they 
 bear to the Church. You will be careful 
 to increase the income that arises from 
 the sick, from masses, and in general from 
 all ecclesiastical ordinances." The chap- 
 ter added : " As to the administration of 
 the sacraments, preaching and personally 
 watching over the flock, — these also are 
 among the duties of the priest. But for 
 the performance of these, you may em- 
 ploy a vicar to act in your stead, — es- 
 pecially in preaching. You are to ad- 
 minister the sacraments only to persons 
 of distinction, and when especially called 
 upon: — you are not allowed to admin- 
 ister them indiscriminately to people of 
 all ranks."! 
 
 What regulations were these for 
 Zwingle to subscribe to ! Money ! 
 money ! nothing but money ! Was it 
 then for this that Christ had appointed 
 the ministry 1 Prudence, however, step- 
 ped in to moderate his zeal: he knew 
 that it is impossible for the seed to be 
 dropped into the earth, and the tree to 
 grow up, and the fruit to be gathered, all 
 at once. Without offering any remarks 
 on the charge that had been delivered to 
 him, he modestly expressed the gratitude 
 he felt for having been made the object 
 of so honourable a choice, and then pro- 
 ceeded to explain what were his inten- 
 
 * Do er ehrlich und wol empfangen ward. — 
 (Bullinger, MS.) 
 t Schulers Zwingli's Bildung, p. 227. 
 
 tions. " The history of Jesus," said he, 
 " has been too long kept out of the 
 people's view. It is my purpose to lec- 
 ture upon the whole of the Gospel ac- 
 cording to St. Matthew, drawing from 
 the fountains of Scripture alone,* sound- 
 ing all its depths, comparing text with 
 text, and putting up earnest and unceas- 
 ing prayers, that 1 may be permitted to 
 discover what is the mind of the Holy 
 Spirit, f It is to the glory of God, to the 
 praise of his only Son, to the salvation 
 of souls, and their instruction in the true 
 faith, that I desire to consecrate my min- 
 istry."! Language, so new to their ears, 
 made a deep impression on their chapter. 
 Some heard it with joy ; but the greater 
 part signified their disapproval of it.§ 
 " This method of preaching is an innova- 
 tion," cried they ; " one innovation will 
 soon lead to another ; — and where can 
 we stop ?" The canon Hoffman, es- 
 pecially, thought it his duty to prevent 
 the fatal effects of an appointment which 
 he had himself promoted. " This ex- 
 pounding of Scripture," said he, " will do 
 the people more harm than good." — "It 
 is no new method," replied Zwingle, "it 
 is the old one. Recollect St. Chrysos- 
 tom's homilies upon Matthew, and St. 
 Augustine's upon John. Besides, I will 
 be cautious in all that I say, and give no 
 one cause to complain." 
 
 In abandoning the exclusive use of 
 detached portions of the Gospels merely, 
 Zwingle was departing from the practice 
 that had prevailed since the days of 
 Charlemagne, and restoring the Holy 
 Scriptures to their ancient rights ; he was 
 connecting the Reformation, even in the 
 beginning of his ministry, with the prim- 
 itive times of Christianity, and preparing 
 for future ages a deeper study of the 
 Word of God. But more than this : the 
 firm and independent posture which he 
 assumed in relation to the Church, gave 
 intimation that his aim was extraor- 
 
 * Absque humanis commentationibus, ex solis 
 fontibus Scripturre sacra?. — (Zw. Opp. i. 273.) 
 
 t Sed mente spiritus, quam diligenti Sr.riptura- 
 rum collatione, precibusque ex corde fusis, se 
 nacturum. — (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 t Alles Gott und seinen einigen Sohn zu Lob 
 und Ehren und zu reehten Heil der Seelen, zur 
 Underrichtung im reehten Glauben. — (Bullinger, 
 MS.) 
 
 § Quibus auditis, mceror simul et leetitia. — 
 (Osw. Myc.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 341 
 
 dinary : his character as a Reformer 
 began now to manifest itself distinctly 
 to the eyes of his countrymen ; and the 
 Reformation consequently moved a step 
 onward. 
 
 Hoffman, having failed in the chapter, 
 addressed a written request to the prin- 
 cipal, that he would prohibit Zwingle 
 from disturbing the people in their faith. 
 The principal sent for the new preacher, 
 and spoke to him in a very affectionate 
 tone. But no human power could seal 
 his lips. On the 31st of December, he 
 wrote to the Council of Glaris, that he 
 entirely relinquished the cure of souls, 
 which, by their favour, he had hitherto 
 retained ; and for the future he dedicated 
 himself entirely to Zurich, and the work 
 which God was preparing for him in that 
 city. 
 
 On Saturday, the first of January, 1519, 
 Zwingle, having on that day completed 
 his thirty-fifth year, ascended the pulpit 
 of the cathedral. The church was filled 
 by a numerous assemblage of persons 
 desirous to see a man who had already 
 acquired celebrity, and to hear that new 
 Gospel of which every one was beginning 
 to speak. " It is to Christ," said Zwingle, 
 "that I wish to guide you, — to Christ, 
 the true spring of salvation. This divine 
 word is the only food that I seek to min- 
 ister to your hearts and souls." He then 
 announced that on the following day, the 
 first Sunday of the year, he would begin 
 to explain the Gospel according to Saint 
 Matthew. On the morrow, accordingly, 
 the preacher, and a still more numerous 
 auditory, were assembled in their places. 
 Zwingle opened the Gospel, the book 
 that had so long been sealed, and read 
 the first page. Passing under review the 
 history of the Patriarchs and prophets 
 (from the first chapter of Matthew,) he 
 expounded it in such a manner, that all 
 exclaimed in astonishment and delight 
 — " We never heard the like of this be- 
 fore !"* 
 
 He continued in this way to explain 
 the whole of St Matthew according to 
 the Greek original. He showed how 
 the explanation and the application of 
 the Bible were both to be found in the 
 very nature of man. Setting forth the 
 
 * Dessgleiehen wie jederman redt, nie gehort 
 worden war. — (B. Weise, a contemporary of 
 Zwingle's, Fusslin Beytrage, iv. 36.) 
 
 sublimest truths of the gospel in familiar 
 language ; his preaching adapted itself 
 to every class, — to the wise and learned, 
 as well as the ignorant and simple.* He 
 magnified the infinite mercies of God the 
 Father, while he besought his hearers to 
 put their trust in Jesus Christ as the only 
 Saviour, f At the same time that he 
 called them to repentance by the most 
 persuasive appeals, he combated the errors 
 which prevailed among his countrymen 
 by the most vigorous reasoning. He 
 raised a fearless voice against luxury, in- 
 temperance, extravagance in dress, injus- 
 tice to the poor, idleness, mercenary serv- 
 ice in war, and the acceptance of pensions 
 from foreign princes. " In the pulpit," 
 says one of his contemporaries, " he 
 spared no one, neither Pope, nor Em- 
 peror, nor Kings, nor Dukes, nor Princes, 
 nor Lords, not even the Confederates. 
 All the strength and all the joy of his 
 own heart were in God ; therefore he 
 exhorted the whole city of Zurich to trust 
 in none but Him."| — " Never before had 
 any man been heard to speak with so 
 much authority," says Oswald Myconius, 
 who watched the labours of his friend 
 with joy and ardent hope. 
 
 It was impossible that the Gospel could 
 be proclaimed in Zurich without effect. 
 A great and continually increasing mul- 
 titude of every class, but especially of 
 the lower orders, flocked to hear it.fy 
 Many of the citizens of Zurich had ceased 
 to attend public worship. " I derive no 
 benefit from the discourses of these priests," 
 was the frequent observation of Fusslin, 
 a poet and historian, as well as a coun- 
 cillor of state ; — " they do not preach the 
 things pertaining to salvation ; for they 
 understand them not. Avarice and vo- 
 luptuousness are the only qualities I dis- 
 cover in them." Henry Rauschlin, the 
 state-treasurer, a diligent reader of the 
 Scriptures, entertained the same senti- 
 
 * Nam ita simp] ices (pqualiter cum prudentis- 
 simis et acutissimis quibusque proficiebant. — 
 (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 t In welchem er Gott den Vater prysset und 
 alle Menschen allein uff Jesum Christum, als den 
 eini<ren Heiland verthrauwen lehrte. — (Bullinger, 
 MS?) 
 
 t All sein Trost 6tuhnd allein mit frolichem 
 
 Gemuth zu Gott — (B. Weise Fusslin Beytr. 
 
 iv. 36.) 
 
 § Do ward bald ein gross gelaiiff von allerley 
 menschen, Innsonders von dem gemeinen Mann 
 . . .—(Bullinger, MS.) 
 
342 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ments. " The priests," said he, " gath- 
 ered together by thousands at the Coun- 
 cil of Constance .... to burn the best 
 man among them all." These distin- 
 guished men, attracted by curiosity, came 
 to hear Zwingle's first lecture. The 
 emotions which the preacher awakened 
 in their minds, were successively depicted 
 in their countenances. " Glory be to 
 God," said they as they left the church ; 
 " this is a preacher of the truth. He 
 will be our Moses to lead us forth from 
 Egypt."* From that hour they became 
 the intimate friends of the Reformer. 
 " Ye rulers of this world," said Fusslin, 
 " cease to persecute the doctrine of Christ. 
 After Christ the Son of God had been 
 put to death, fishermen were raised up 
 to publish his Gospel. And so now, if 
 you destroy the preachers of the truth, 
 you will see glass-workers, and millers, 
 and potters, and founders, and shoema- 
 kers, and tailors, starting up to teach in 
 their stead. "f 
 
 At first there was but one cry of ad- 
 miration throughout Zurich, but when 
 the first burst of enthusiasm had sub- 
 sided, the enemy took heart again. 
 Many well-meaning men, alarmed by the 
 thought of a Reformation, gradually fell 
 away from Zwingle. The violence of 
 the monks, which for a brief space had 
 been suppressed, now broke out anew, 
 and the college of the canons resounded 
 with complaints. Zwingle remained im- 
 moveable. His friends, as they contem- 
 plated his courage, recognised in their 
 teacher the true spirit of the apostolic 
 age.| Among his enemies there were 
 some who jeered and mocked at him, 
 others who resorted to insulting threats ; 
 but he endured all with the patience of a 
 Christian. § " If we would win souls to 
 Christ," he often remarked, "we must 
 learn to shut our eyes against many 
 things that meet us in our way."|| An 
 
 * Und unser Moses seyn der uns Egypten 
 fiihrt— (Bullinger, MS.) 
 
 t Werden die Glaser, Miiller, Hafner, Giesser, 
 Schubmacher und Schneider lehren. — (Mull. 
 Reliq. iii. 185.) 
 
 t Nobis apostolici illius sceculi virum reprsesen- 
 tas.— (Zw. Epp. p. 74.) 
 
 § Obganniunt quidam, rident, minantur, petu- 
 lanter incessunt ... at tu vere, Christiana, pa- 
 tientia, suffers omnia. — (Zw. Epp. p. 74. 7th May, 
 1519.) 
 
 || Connivendum ad multa ei qui velit malos 
 Christo lucri facere . . . . — (Ibid.) 
 
 admirable saying, which ought not to 
 pass unnoted. 
 
 His character, and his habitual deport- 
 ment towards his fellow-men, contributed 
 as much as his public ministrations to 
 gain all hearts. He was at once a true 
 Christian and a true republican. The 
 equality of mankind was with him no 
 unmeaning phrase ; it was inscribed on 
 his heart, and his life was in accordance 
 with it. He had neither that pharisaical 
 pride nor that monkish coarseness by 
 which men of simple and of refined 
 taste are alike disgusted : all acknowl- 
 edged the attraction of his manner, and 
 found themselves at ease in his society. 
 Bold and energetic in the pulpit, he was 
 affable to those whom he met in the 
 streets or public walks ; he was often 
 seen in the places where the civic com- 
 panies or trading bodies held their meet- 
 ings, explaining to the burghers the lead- 
 ing articles of the Christian faith, or 
 holding familiar conversation with them. 
 He accosted peasants and patricians with 
 the same cordiality. " He invited the 
 country-folks to dinner," says one of his 
 most violent enemies, " walked with 
 them, talked to them about God, and 
 often put the devil into their hearts, and 
 his own writings into their pockets." 
 His example had such weight, that even 
 the town-councillors of Zurich would 
 visit those rustic strangers, supply them 
 with refreshment, go about the city with 
 them, and pay them all possible atten- 
 tion."* 
 
 He continued to cultivate music, 
 though " with moderation," as Bullinger 
 assures us ; nevertheless the adversaries 
 of the Gospel took advantage of this, 
 and called him " the evangelical lute- 
 player and piper." f Faber, on one oc- 
 casion, reproved him for indulging in 
 this recreation. " My dear Faber," re- 
 plied Zwingle, with manly frankness, 
 " thou knowest not what music is. I do 
 not deny that I have learned to play the 
 lute and the violin, and other instru- 
 ments ; and at worst, they serve me to 
 quiet little children, when they cry ; J but 
 as for thee, thou art too holy for music ! — 
 
 * Dass der Rath gemeldete Bauem besucht 
 . . . — (Salat's Chronik. p. 155.) 
 
 t Der Lauthenschlager und evangelischer 
 pfyffer.— (Bullinger, MS.) 
 
 t Dass kombt mir ja wol die kind zu gesch- 
 weigen. — (Ibid.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 343 
 
 and dost thou not know, then, that David 
 was a cunning player on the harp, and 
 how he chased the evil spirit out of 
 Saul ? Oh ! if thy ears were but awake 
 to the notes of the celestial lute, the evil 
 spirit of ambition and greediness of 
 wealth, by which thou art possessed, 
 would in like manner depart from thee.'' 
 Perhaps there was something of weak- 
 ness in Zwingle's attachment to music ; 
 yet it was in a spirit of open-heartedness, 
 and evangelical liberty, that he cultivated 
 an art which religion has always con- 
 nected with her loftiest exercises. He 
 composed the music of several of his 
 Christian lyrics, and was not ashamed 
 sometimes to touch his lute for the 
 amusement of the little ones of his flock. 
 He displayed the same kindly disposition 
 in his demeanour towards the poor. " He 
 ate and drank," says one of his contem- 
 poraries, "with all who invited him, he 
 treated no one with disdain, — he was full 
 of compassion for the poor, and always 
 composed and cheerful in good or evil 
 fortune. No calamity ever daunted him, 
 his speech was ever hopeful, — his heart 
 ever steadfast."* Thus did Zwingle 
 continually enlarge the sphere of his in- 
 fluence, — sitting alternately at the poor 
 man's scanty board, and the banquet- 
 table of the great, as his Master had 
 done before him, — and never, in any 
 situation, omitting an opportunity to fur- 
 ther the work with which God had en- 
 trusted him. 
 
 From the same motive he was inde- 
 fatigable in study. From sun-rise until 
 the hour of ten he employed himself in 
 reading, writing, or translating ; the 
 Hebrew especially, during that portion 
 of the day occupied much of his atten- 
 tion. After dinner he gave audience to 
 those who had any communication to 
 make to him, or stood in any need of his 
 advice ; he walked out in company with 
 his friends, and visited his people. At 
 two o'clock he resumed his walk. He 
 took a short turn after supper, and then 
 began writing letters, which often en- 
 gaged him till midnight. He always 
 read and wrote standing, and never 
 allowed the customary allotment of his 
 
 * War allwegen trostlichen Gemiith und tap- 
 ferer Red. — (B. Weisse Fiissl. Beytr. iv. 36.) 
 
 time to be disturbed, except for some 
 very important cause.* 
 
 But the efforts of one man were not 
 enough. He received a visit about this 
 time from a stranger named Lucian, 
 who brought him some of the works of 
 the German Reformer. Rhenanus, a 
 scholar then resident at Bale, and an un- 
 wearied propagator of Luther's writings 
 in Switzerland, had sent this man to 
 Zwingle. It had occurred to Rhenanus 
 that the hawking of books might be 
 made a powerful means of spreading the 
 doctrines of the Gospel. " Ascertain," 
 said Rhenanus to Zwingle, "whether 
 this Lucian possesses a sufficient share 
 of discretion and address ; if it shall ap- 
 pear that he does, let him go from city 
 to city, from town to town, from village 
 to village, nay from house to house, — all 
 over Switzerland, carrying with him the 
 writings of Luther, and especially the 
 exposition of the Lord's Prayer, written 
 for the laity, f The more it is known, 
 the more purchasers will it find. But 
 be sure to let him take no other books in 
 his pack, for if he have none but Lu- 
 ther's, he will sell them the faster." To 
 this expedient was many a Swiss family 
 indebted for the gleam of light that 
 found an entrance into their humble 
 dwelling. There was one book, how- 
 ever, which Zwingle should have caused 
 to be circulated before any of Luther's — 
 the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 An opportunity of displaying his zeal 
 in a new field of service was soon afford- 
 ed him. Samson, the famous dealer in 
 indulgences, was journeying by slow 
 stages towards Zurich. This vender of 
 disreputable wares had arrived from 
 Schwitz at Zug on the 20th of Septem- 
 ber, 1518, and had remained at Zug 
 three days. An immense crowd had 
 gathered about him in that town. Those 
 of the poorest class were the most eager 
 of the throng, and thus prevented the 
 rich from making their way to him. 
 This did not suit the monk's purpose, 
 and accordingly one of his attendants 
 
 * Certas studiis vindicans horas, quas etiam 
 non omisit, nisi seriis coactus. — (Osw. Myc. Vit. 
 Zw.) 
 
 t . . . Oppidatim, municipatim, vicatim, imo 
 domesticatim per Helvetios circumferat. — (Zw. 
 E PP . p. 81.) 
 
344 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 kept crying out to the populace : — " Good 
 people do not press forward so hard. 
 Clear the way for those who have money. 
 We will do our best afterwards to satisfy 
 those who have none." From Zug, 
 Samson and his company went on to Lu- 
 cerne, — from Lucerne to Underwalden, — 
 and thence, passing through a cultivated 
 region of the Alps, with its rich inter- 
 jacent villages, skirting the everlasting 
 snows of the Oberland, — and displaying 
 their Romish merchandise for sale in 
 every inhabited spot of the loveliest dis- 
 trict of Switzerland, — they arrived at 
 length in the neighbourhood of Berne. 
 At first, the monk received an intimation 
 that he would not be allowed to enter 
 the city ; but eventually, by the aid of 
 some interested auxiliaries within, he 
 succeeded in gaining admission, and 
 spread out his stall in St. Vincent's 
 church. He there began to cry up his 
 wares more loudly than ever. " Here," 
 said he to the rich, " are indulgences on 
 parchment, for one crown ! — There,'' ad- 
 dressing himself to the poor, " are abso- 
 lutions on common paper, for two batz 
 only !" One day, a knight of high name, 
 Jacob von Stein, presented himself before 
 him, mounted on a prancing dapple-grey 
 charger. " Give me," said the knight, 
 "an indulgence for myself; for my troop, 
 which is five hundred strong ; — for all 
 the vassals on my domain of Belp ; and 
 for all my ancestors ; and I will give you 
 in return this dapple grey horse of mine." 
 It was a high price to ask for a horse. 
 Nevertheless, the charger pleased the 
 barefooted Carmelite. The bargain was 
 struck, the beast was led into the monk's 
 stable, and all those souls were duly de- 
 clared to have been delivered for ever 
 from the pains of hell.* On another 
 occasion, a burgher obtained from him 
 for thirteen florins an indulgence, by vir- 
 tue of which, his confessor was author- 
 ized to absolve him, among other things, 
 from every kind of perjury, f Samson 
 was held in such reverence, that the 
 counsellor, Von May, an old man, of 
 enlightened mind, having dropped some 
 expressions against him, was obliged to 
 ask pardon of the haughty monk on his 
 knees. 
 
 * Um einem Kuttgrowen Hengst. — (Anshelm, 
 v. 335 : J. J. Hotting. Helv. K. Gesch. iii. 29.) 
 t A quovis perjurio. — (Muller's Reliq. iv. 403.) 
 
 The last day of his stay had now ar- 
 rived. A deafening clamour of bells 
 gave warning to the inhabitants of Berne 
 that the monk was about to take his de- 
 parture. Samson was in the church, 
 standing on the steps of the high altar. 
 The canon, Henry Lupulus, Zwingle's 
 former master, officiated as his inter- 
 preter. " When the wolf and the fox 
 come abroad together," said the canon 
 Anselm, addressing the Schultheiss von 
 Watteville, " the wisest plan for you, 
 worshipful Sir, is to gather your sheep 
 and your geese with all speed into a 
 place of safety." But the monk cared 
 little for such remarks as these, which, 
 moreover, seldom reached his ears. " Fall 
 on your knees," said he to the supersti- 
 tious crowd ; " repeat three pater nosters 
 and three ave marias, and your souls 
 will instantly be as pure as they were at 
 the moment of your baptism." The 
 multitude fell on their knees forthwith. 
 Then determined to outdo himself, Sam- 
 son cried out, " I deliver from the torments 
 of purgatory and hell the souls of all the 
 people of Berne who have departed this 
 life, whatsoever may have been the man- 
 ner or the place of their death." These 
 mountebanks, like those who perform at 
 fairs, always reserved their most astound- 
 ing feat for the last. 
 
 Samson, now heavily laden with coin, 
 directed his course towards Zurich, 
 through the Argan and Baden. As he 
 proceeded on his journey, this Carmelite, 
 who had made so sorry a figure when he 
 first crossed the Alps, displayed an in- 
 creasing pomp and pride of retinue. The 
 bishop of Constance, having taken um- 
 brage because he had not applied to him 
 to legalize his bulls, had forbidden all 
 the curates of his diocese to open their 
 churches to him. At Baden, however, 
 the curate did not venture to persevere 
 in obstructing the holy traffic. The 
 monk's effrontery rose to a higher pitch. 
 Pacing round the church-yard at the 
 head of a procession, he used to fix his 
 eyes on some object in the air, while his 
 acolytes were chaunting the hymn for 
 the dead, and pretending that he saw 
 the liberated souls flying up from the 
 church-yard towards heaven, to cry out : 
 " Ecce volant ! Behold ! they fly !" One 
 day a man, residing in the neighbour- 
 hood, found his way into the tower of 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 345 
 
 the church and mounted to the belfry; 
 presently a quantity of white feathers 
 floated in the air, and fell thickly on the 
 astonished procession : " Behold ! they 
 fly!" cried the waggish citizen of Baden, 
 from his lofty perch, still shaking more 
 feathers, out of a pillow that he had un- 
 ripped. Many of the bystanders laughed 
 heartily at the jest.* Samson, on the 
 contrary, was greatly incensed, — nor 
 could he be appeased until assurances 
 were given him that the man was at 
 times disordered in his intellect. He left 
 Baden quite crest-fallen. 
 
 Pursuing his journey, he arrived about 
 the end of February, 1519, at Brem- 
 garten, whither he had been invited by 
 the Schultheiss, and the second curate of 
 the town, both of whom had seen him at 
 Baden. The dean of Bremgarten, Bul- 
 linger, was a man, than whom none, 
 in all that country, stood higher in public 
 estimation. He was but ill-informed, it 
 is true, as to the errors of the Church, 
 and imperfectly acquainted with the word 
 of God ; — but his frank disposition, his 
 overflowing zeal, his eloquence, his lib- 
 erality to the poor, his willingness to do 
 kind offices for his humble neighbours, 
 made him universally beloved. In his 
 youth he had formed a connection of a 
 conscientious kind with the daughter of 
 a councillor of the same town. Such 
 was the custom with those members of 
 the priesthood, who wished to avoid a 
 life of profligacy. Anna had brought 
 him five children, and his numerous 
 family had in no degree diminished the 
 consideration in which the Dean was 
 held. There was not in all Switzerland 
 a more hospitable house than his. Being 
 much addicted to the chase, he was often 
 seen, surrounded by ten or a dozen dogs, 
 and accompanied by the lords of Hall- 
 wyli, the abbot of Mury, and the patri- 
 cians of Zurich, scouring the fields and 
 forests in his vicinity. He kept open 
 house, and not one among all his guests 
 was a blither man than himself. When 
 the deputies, who were sent to the Diet, 
 passed through Bremgarten, on their way 
 to Baden, they never failed to take their 
 seats at the Dean's table. " Bullinger," 
 said they, " keeps court like some power- 
 ful baron." 
 
 * Dessen viel luth gnug lachten.— (Bullinger, 
 
 MS.) 
 
 44 
 
 Strangers, when they visited the house, 
 were sure to remark a boy of intelligent 
 aspect, whom they found among its in- 
 mates. This was Henry, one of the 
 Dean's sons. The child in his earliest 
 years had passed through many imminent 
 perils. He had been seized with the 
 plague, and reduced to such extremity, 
 that he was thought to be dead, — and 
 preparations were making for his burial, 
 when, to the joy of his parents, he gave 
 signs that he was yet alive. At another 
 time, a vagrant enticed him from the 
 house, and was carrying him off, when 
 some passers-by recognised and rescued 
 him. At the age of three years, he al- 
 ready knew the Lord's prayer and the 
 Apostles' creed ; and would often steal 
 into the church, mount his father's pulpit, 
 gravely stand up there, and repeat at the 
 full pitch of his voice, " I believe in God 
 the Father, &c. &c." When he was 
 twelve years old, his parents sent him to 
 the grammar school of Emmeric, — not 
 without feelings of strong apprehension, 
 for those were dangerous times for an 
 inexperienced boy. Instances were fre- 
 quent of students, to whom the discipline 
 of a university appeared too severe, ab- 
 sconding from their college in troops, 
 carrying children along with them, and 
 encamping in the woods, — whence they 
 sent out the youngest of their party to 
 beg, or else, with arms in their hands 
 attacked travellers, plundered them, and 
 then consumed the fruit of their rapine 
 in debauchery. Henry was happily pre- 
 served from evil in his new and distant 
 abode. Like Luther, he gained his sub- 
 sistence by singing at the doors of houses, 
 for his father was resolved that he should 
 learn to depend on his own resources. 
 He had reached the age of sixteen when 
 he first opened a New Testament. " I 
 there found," said he, " all that is neces- 
 sary for man's salvation, and from that 
 hour I came to the conclusion that we 
 must follow the Holy Scriptures alone, j 
 and reject all human additions. I neither ■, 
 trust the Fathers, nor myself; but I ex- 
 plain Scripture by Scripture, adding no- 
 thing, and taking nothing away"* God 
 was in this way training up the youth, 
 who was afterwards to be the successor 
 of Zvvingle. He is the author of that 
 * Bulling. Epp. Frank's Merkw. Zuge, p. 19. 
 
346 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 manuscript chronicle from which we so 
 frequently quote. 
 
 It was about this time that Samson 
 arrived at Bremgarten, with all his train. 
 The stout-hearted Dean, not in the least 
 intimidated by this little army of Italians, 
 gave notice to the monk that he must not 
 vend his merchandise within his jurisdic- 
 tion. The Schultheiss, the town-coun- 
 cil, and the second pastor, all friends of 
 Samson, were assembled in a room of 
 the inn, where the latter had taken up 
 his quarters, and clustered in much per- 
 plexity round the irritated monk. The 
 Dean entered the chamber. " Here are 
 the Pope's bulls !" said the monk, "open 
 vour church to me !" 
 
 The Dean. " I will suffer no one, 
 Under colour of unauthenticated letters 
 like these (for the bishop has not legal- 
 ized them.) to squeeze the purses of my 
 parishioners." 
 
 The Monk, in a solemn tone. " The 
 Pope is above the bishop. I charge you 
 not to deprive your flock of so marvel- 
 lous a grace." 
 
 The Dean. " Were it to cost me my 
 life, — I will not open my church." 
 
 The Monk, in great anger. " Rebel- 
 lious priest! in the name of our most 
 holy lord, the Pope, I pronounce against 
 thee the greater excommunication, — nor 
 will I grant thee absolution until thou 
 hast paid a penalty of three hundred du- 
 cats for this unheard of presumption." 
 
 The Dean, turning to go out again. 
 u I am prepared to answer for myself be- 
 fore my lawful judges ; as for thee, and 
 thy excommunication, I have nothing to 
 do with either." 
 
 The Monk, tra?isported with rage. 
 " Headstrong beast that thou art ! I am 
 going straight to Zurich, and there I 
 will lodge my complaint with the depu- 
 ties of the Confederation."* 
 
 The Dean. " I can show myself 
 there as well as thou, and thither will I 
 go." 
 
 While these things were passing at 
 Bremgarten, Zwingle, who saw the 
 enemy gradually draw nigh, was preach- 
 ing with great vigour against indul- 
 gences.! The vicar, Faber of Con- 
 
 * Du freche Bestie . . &c.— (Bullinger, MS.) 
 t Ich predgete streng wider des Pabsts Ablass 
 . .— (Zw. Opp. 2. 1st part, p. 7.) 
 
 stance, encouraged him in this, and 
 promised him the support of the bishop.* 
 " I know," said Samson, on his road to 
 Zurich, "that Zwingle will speak against 
 me, but I will stop his mouth." Assured- 
 ly, Zwingle felt too deeply the sweetness 
 of the pardoning grace of Christ to re- 
 frain from attacking the paper pardons 
 of these presumptuous men. Like Lu- 
 ther, he often trembled on account of sin ; 
 but in the Saviour he found deliverance 
 from his fears. Humble, yet strong- 
 minded, he was continually advancing 
 in the knowledge of the Lord. " When 
 Satan," said he, " attempts to terrify me, 
 crying aloud : Lo ! this and that thou 
 hast left undone, though God has com- 
 manded it ! — the gentle voice of the Gos- 
 pel brings me instant comfort, for it whis- 
 pers : What thou canst not do (and of a 
 truth thou canst do nothing), — that Christ 
 does for thee, and does it thoroughly." 
 " Yes!" continued the pious evangelist, 
 " when my heart is wrung with anguish 
 by reason of my impotence, and the 
 weakness of the flesh, my spirit revives 
 at the sound of these joyful words : 
 Christ is thy sinlessness ! Christ is thy 
 righteousness ! Christ is the Alpha and 
 the Omega ; Christ is the beginning and 
 the end ; Christ is all ; he can do all !f 
 All created things will disappoint and 
 deceive thee ; but Christ, the sinless and 
 the righteous, will accept thee." — " Yes, 
 it is He," exclaimed Zwingle, " who is 
 our righteousness, and the righteousness 
 of all those who shall appear as righteous 
 for ever before the throne of God !" 
 
 Confronted by truths like these, the 
 indulgences could never stand : Zwingle 
 therefore hesitated not to attack them. 
 " No man," said he, " has power to remit 
 sins, — except Christ alone, who is very 
 God and very man in one.J Go, if thou 
 wilt, and buy indulgences. But be as- 
 sured, that thou art in nowise absolved. 
 They who sell the remission of sins for 
 money, are but companions of Simon 
 
 * Und hat mich darin gestiirkt : er welle mir 
 mit aller triiw byston.-*-(Ibid.) 
 
 t Christus est innocentia tua ; Christus est jus- 
 titia et puritas tua ; Christus est salus tua ; tu 
 nihil es, tu nihil potes ; Christus est A et fl I; 
 Christus est prora et puppis ; Christus est omnia 
 . .— 'Zw. Opp. i. 207.) 
 
 t Nisi Christus Jesus, verus Deus et verus 
 homo. . . .—(Ibid. 412.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 347 
 
 the magician, the friends of Balaam, the 
 ambassadors of Satan." 
 
 The worthy Dean Bullinger, still 
 heated by his altercation with the monk, 
 arrived before him at Zurich. He came 
 to lay a complaint before the Diet against 
 the shameless trafficker, and his fraudu- 
 lent trade. Deputies sent by the bishop 
 on the same errand were already on the 
 spot, with whom he made common cause. 
 Assurances of support were proffered 
 him on all hands. The same spirit 
 which animated Zwingle, was now 
 breathing over the whole city.. The 
 council of state resolved to prohibit the 
 monk from entering Zurich. 
 
 Samson had arrived in the suburbs, 
 and alighted at an inn. Already he had 
 his foot in the stirrup to make his entry 
 into the city, when he was accosted by 
 messengers from the council, who offered 
 him the honorary wine-cup, as an agent 
 of the Pope, and at the same time inti- 
 mated to him that he might forego his 
 intention of appearing in Zurich. "T 
 have somewhat to communicate to the 
 Diet, in the name of his Holiness," re- 
 plied the monk. This was only a strata- 
 gem. It was determined, however, that 
 he should be admitted ; but as he spoke 
 of nothing but his bulls, he was dis- 
 missed, after having been forced to with- 
 draw the excommunication he had pro- 
 nounced against the Dean of Brem- 
 garten. He departed in high dudgeon ; 
 and soon after the Pope recalled him 
 into Italy. A cart, drawn by three* 
 horses, and loaded with coin, obtained 
 under false pretences from the poor, 
 rolled before him over those steep roads 
 of the St. Gothard, along which he had 
 passed eight months before, indigent, un- 
 attended, and encumbered by no burden 
 save his papers.* 
 
 The Helvetic Diet showed more reso- 
 lution at this time than the Diet of Ger- 
 many. The reason was that no bishops 
 or cardinals had seats in it. And ac- 
 cordingly the Pope, unsupported by those 
 auxiliaries, was more guarded in his 
 proceedings towards Switzerland than 
 towards Germany. Besides this, the 
 affair of the indulgences, which occupies 
 so prominent a place in the narrative of 
 
 * Und fiihrt mit ihm ein threspendiger Schatz 
 an gelt den er arraen luthen abgelogen hat. — 
 (Bullinger, MS.) 
 
 the German Reformation, forms but an 
 episode in the history of the Reformation 
 in Switzerland. 
 
 Zwingle's zeal overlooked all con- 
 siderations of personal ease or health; 
 but continued toil at last rendered relax- 
 ation necessary. He was ordered to re- 
 pair to the baths of Pfeffers. "Oh!" 
 said Herus, one of the pupils resident in 
 his house, who in this parting salutation 
 gave utterance to a feeling which was 
 shared by all to whom Zwingle was 
 known, " had I a hundred tongues, a 
 hundred mouths, and a voice of iron, as 
 Virgil says — or rather, had I the elo- 
 quence of Cicero, never could I express 
 how much I owe you, or how much pain 
 I suffer from this separation."* Zwingle, 
 however, was constrained to go. His 
 journey to Pfeffers led him through the 
 frightful gorge formed by the impetuous 
 torrent of the Jamina. He descended 
 into that ' infernal gulf,' to use the phrase 
 of Daniel the hermit, and reached the 
 baths of which he was in quest, — a site 
 continually shaken by the din of the 
 tumbling torrent, and moistened by the 
 cloud of spray that rises from its shat- 
 tered waters. In the house in which 
 Zwingle was lodged, it was necessary to 
 burn torches at noon-day ; and it was the 
 belief of the neighbourhood that fearful 
 spectres might sometimes be descried 
 gliding to and fro amidst the darkness: 
 and yet even here he found an oppor- 
 tunity of serving his Master. His affa- 
 bility won the hearts of many of the in- 
 valids assembled at the baths. Of this 
 number was the celebrated poet, Philip 
 Ingentinus. a professor of Friburg, in the 
 Brisgau,t who from that time became a 
 strenuous supporter of the Reformation. 
 
 God was watching over his work, and 
 it was his will to hasten it. The defect 
 of Zwinsde consisted in his strength. 
 Strong in bodily constitution, strong in 
 character, strong in talent, he was destin- 
 ed to see all his strength laid low in the 
 dust, that he might become such an in- 
 strument as God loves best to employ. 
 There was a baptism with which he yet 
 needed to be baptized, — the baptism of 
 
 * Etiamsi mihi sint lingufe centum, sint ora- 
 que centum, ferrea vox, ut Virgilius ait, aut 
 potius Ciceroniana eloquentia. — (Zw. Ep. p. 84.) 
 
 t Illic turn comitatem tuam e sinu uberrimo 
 profluentem non injucunde sum expertua. — (Zw.. 
 Epp. p. 119.) 
 
348 
 
 HISTORY <OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 adversity, infirmity, weakness, and pain. 
 Luther had received it in that season of 
 anguish when piercing cries burst forth 
 from his narrow cell, and echoed through 
 the long corridors of the convent at Er- 
 furth. Zwingle was to receive it by 
 being brought into contact with sickness 
 and death. In the history of the heroes 
 of this world. — of such men as Charles 
 XII. or Napoleon, — there is always a 
 critical moment which shapes their career 
 and ensures their future glory ; it is that 
 in which a consciousness of their own 
 strength is suddenly imparted to them. 
 And a moment not less decisive* than 
 this, — though stamped with an impress 
 altogether different, — is to be found in the 
 life of every heroic servant of God ; — it 
 is that moment in which he first recog- 
 nises his absolute helplessness and noth- 
 ingness ; — then it is that the strength of 
 God is communicated to him from on 
 high. A work such as that which 
 Zwingle was called to perform is never 
 accomplished in the natural strength of 
 man ; it would in that case come to 
 naught, just as a tree must wither which 
 is planted in its full maturity and vigour. 
 The plant must be weak, or its roots will 
 never strike ; the grain must die in the 
 earth, or it cannot bring, forth much 
 fruit. God was about to lead Zwingle, 
 and with him the work which seemed 
 to be dependent on him for success, — to 
 the very gates of the grave. It is from 
 amidst the dry bones, the darkness and 
 the dust of death, that God delights t© 
 raise His instruments, when He designs 
 to scatter light and regeneration and 
 vitality over the face of the earth. 
 
 While Zwingle was buried among 
 the stupendous rocks that overhang the 
 headlong torrent of the Jamina, he sud- 
 denly received intelligence that the plague, 
 or trie u great death"* as it was .called, 
 had visited Zurich. This terrible malady 
 broke -out in August, on St. Lawrence's 
 day, and lasted till Candlemas, sweep- 
 ing away during that period no fewer 
 than two thousand five hundred souls. 
 The young people who resided under 
 Zwingle's roof had immediately quitted 
 it, according to the directions he had left 
 behind him. His house was deserted 
 therefore — but it was his time to return 
 to it. He set out from Pfeffers in all 
 * Der Grosse Tod.— (Bullinger, MS.) 
 
 haste, and appeared once more among his 
 flock, which the disease had grievously 
 thinned. His young brother Andrew, 
 who would gladly have stayed to attend 
 upon him, he sent back at once to Wild- 
 haus, and from that moment gave him- 
 self up entirely to the victims of that 
 dreadful scourge. It Was his daily task 
 to testify of Christ and his consolations 
 to the sick.* His friends, while they 
 rejoiced to see him still unharmed, while 
 the arrows of pestilence were flying thick 
 around him,| were visited nevertheless 
 with many secret misgivings on his ac- 
 count. "Do good," was the language 
 of a letter written to him from Bale, by 
 Conrad Brunner, who himself died of 
 the plague a few months afterwards ; — 
 " but at the same time be advised to take 
 care of your own life." The caution 
 came too late ; Zwingle had been seized 
 by the plague. The great preacher of 
 Switzerland was stretched on a bed from 
 which it was probable he might never 
 rise. He now turned his thoughts upon 
 the state of his own soul, and lifted up 
 his eyes to God. He knew that Christ 
 had given him a sure inheritance ; and 
 pouring forth the feelings of his heart in 
 a hymn full of unction and simplicity. — 
 the sense and the rhythm of which we 
 will endeavour to exhibit, though we 
 should fail in the attempt to copy its nat- 
 ural and primitive cast of language, — he 
 cried aloud : 
 
 Lo ! at my door 
 Gaunt death I spy :t 
 Hear, Lord of Life, 
 Thy creature's cry ! 
 
 The arm that hung 
 Upon the tree, 
 Jesus uplift — 
 And rescue me. 
 
 Yet, if to quench 
 My sun at noon 
 
 * TJt in majori periculo sis quod in dies de novo 
 exponas, dum invisis oegrotis. — (Bullinger, MS.) 
 M. de Chateaubriand had forgotten this fact, and 
 a thousand similar ones, when he remarked that 
 " the Protestant pastor abandons the helpless on 
 the bed of death, and is never seen rushing into 
 the grasp of the pestilence." — (Essay on English 
 Literature.) 
 
 t Plurimum gaudeo te inter tot jactus telorum 
 versantem illsesum hactenus evasisse. — (Ibid.) 
 
 J Ich mein der Tod, 
 
 Syg an der Thiir.— (Zw. Opp. 2 
 2nd part, p. 270.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 349 
 
 Be thy behest,* 
 Thy will be done ! 
 
 In faith and hope 
 Earth I resign, 
 Secure of heaven, — 
 For I am thine ! 
 
 The disease, in the mean time, gained 
 ground ; his friends in deep affliction be- 
 held the man on whom the hopes of 
 Switzerland and of the Church reposed 
 ready to be swallowed up by the grave. 
 His bodily powers and natural faculties 
 Avere forsaking him. His heart was 
 smitten with dismay ; yet he found 
 strength sufficient left him to turn to- 
 wards God, and to cry : 
 
 Fierce grow my pains s 
 Help, Lord, in haste ! 
 For flesh and heart 
 Are failing fast. 
 
 Clouds wrap my sight r 
 My tongue is dumb, 
 Lord, tarry not, 
 The hour is come !t 
 
 In Satan's grasp 
 On hell's dark brink 
 My spirit reels,- 
 Ah, must I sink ? 
 
 No, Jesus, no! 
 Him I defy, 
 While here beneath 
 Thy cross I lie. 
 
 The Canon Hoffman, sincerely at- 
 tached to the creed which he professed, 
 could not bear the idea of seeing Zwingle 
 die in the errors which he had inculcated. 
 He waited on the principal of the chap- 
 ter. " Think," said he, " of the peril of 
 his soul. Has he not given the name 
 of fantastical innovators to all the doclbrs 
 who have taught for the last three hun- 
 dred and eighty years and upwards — 
 Alexander of Hales, Saint Bonaventura, v 
 Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and 
 all the canonists ? Does he not affirm 
 that the doctrines they have broached 
 are no better than dreams into which 
 they have fallen, with their hoods drawn 
 over their eyes, in the gloomy corners 
 of their cloisters ? Alas ! it would have 
 
 * Willt du dann glych 
 
 Tod haben mich 
 
 In mitts der Tagen min 
 
 So soil's willig sin. — (Ibid.) 
 t Nun ist es um 
 
 Min Zung ist stumm 
 
 Darum ist Zyt 
 Das du min stryt. 
 
 been better for the city of Zurich had 
 he ruined our vintages and harvests for 
 many a year ; and now he is at death's 
 door ! I beseech you save his poor soul !" 
 It would appear that the principal, more 
 enlightened than the canon, did not 
 think it necessary to convert Zwingle to 
 St. Bonaventura and Albertus Magnus. 
 He was left undisturbed. 
 
 Great was the consternation that pre- 
 vailed throughout the city. The believers 
 cried to God night and day, earnestly 
 entreating that He would restore their 
 faithful pastor.* The alarm had spread 
 from Zurich to the mountains of Tock- 
 enburg. Even in that elevated region 
 the plague had made its appearance. 
 Seven or eight persons had fallen a prey 
 to it in the village ; among these was a 
 servant of Nicholas, Zwingle's brother, f 
 No tidings were received from the Re- 
 former. " Let me know," wrote young 
 Andrew Zwingle, " what is thy state, 
 my beloved brother ! The abbot, and 
 all our brothers salute thee." It would 
 seem that Zwingle's parents were already 
 dead, since they are not mentioned here;. 
 
 The news of Zwingle's illness, fol- 
 lowed by a report of his death, was cir- 
 culated throughout Switzerland and Ger- 
 many. a Alas!" exclaimed Helio, in 
 tears, "the deliverer of our country, the 
 trumpet of the Gospel, the magnanimous 
 herald of the truth is s&ricken with death 
 in the flower and spring-tide of his age!"f 
 When the intelligence reached Bale that 
 Zwingle was no more,, the whole city 
 resounded with lamentations. § 
 
 But that glimmering spark of life 
 which had been left unquenched, began 
 now to burn more brightly. Though 
 labouring still under great bodily weak- 
 ness, his soul was impressed with a deep 
 persuasion, that God had called him to 
 replace the candle of His word on the 
 deserted candlestick of the Church. The 
 
 * Alle glaubige rufften Gott treuwillich aru 
 dass er ihren getreuwen Hirten weider ufrichte- 
 — (Bullinger, MS.) 
 
 t Nicolas vero germano nostra etiam obiil ser- 
 vus suus, attamen non in cedibus suis. — (Zw. 
 Epp. 88.) 
 
 t Quis enim non doleat publicam patria? salu- 
 tem, tubam Evangelii, magnanimum veritatis 
 buccinatorem languere, intercidere. . . — (Ibid. 90.) 
 
 § Heu quantum luctus fatis Zwinglium con- 
 cessisse importunus ille rumor suo vehementi im- 
 petu divulgavit. — (Ibid. 91.) 
 
350 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 plague had relinquished its victim. With 
 strong emotion Zwingle now exclaimed : 
 
 My father God, 
 Behold me whole ! 
 Again on earth 
 A living soul ! 
 
 Let sin no more 
 My heart annoy, 
 But fill it, Lord, 
 With holy joy. 
 
 Though now delayed, 
 My hour must come, 
 Involved, perchance, 
 In deeper gloom.* 
 
 It matters not ; 
 
 Rejoicing yet 
 
 I'll bear my yoke 
 
 To Heaven's bright gate.t 
 
 As soon as he was able to hold a pen, 
 (it was about the beginning of Novem- 
 ber,) he wrote to his family. Unspeak- 
 able was the joy which his letter im- 
 partedj to all his relatives, but especially 
 to his younger brother Andrew, who 
 himself died of the plague in the course 
 of the following year, leaving Ulric to 
 lament his loss with tears and cries, sur- 
 passing the measure, — as he himself re- 
 marks, — even of a woman's passion. § 
 At Bale, Conrad Brunner, Zwingle's 
 friend, and Bruno Amerbach, the cele- 
 brated printer, — both young men, — had 
 been carried to the grave after three days' 
 illness. It was believed in that city that 
 Zwingle also had perished. There was 
 a general expression of grief throughout 
 the university. " He whom God loves," 
 said they, " is made perfect in the morn- 
 ing of life."j| But what was their joy 
 
 * These words were fulfilled in a remarkable 
 manner, twelve years afterwards, on the bloody 
 field of Cappel. 
 
 t So will ich doch 
 
 Den trutz und poch 
 
 In diser welt 
 Tragen frolich 
 Urn widergelt. 
 Although these three fragments of poetry have 
 their respective dates attached to them, " at the 
 beginning, — in the middle, — at the end — of the 
 sickness," and truly represent the feelings of 
 Zwingle at the different epochs, it is probable 
 that they were not thrown into the form into 
 which we now find them, until after his recov- 
 ery. — (See Bullinger, MS.) 
 
 t Inspectis tuis litteris incredihilis quidam aes- 
 tus laetitiae pectus meum subiit. — (Zw. Epp. p. 88.) 
 § Ejulatum et luctum plusquam foemineum. 
 (Ibid. 155.) 
 
 || Of Tt 6coi <pt\iovot vtaviaxet TeXcvrn. — (Zw. 
 
 Epp. p. 90.) 
 
 when tidings were brought, first by Col- 
 lin us, a student from Lucerne, and after- 
 wards by a merchant of Zurich, that 
 Zwingle had been snatched from the 
 brink of the grave.* The vicar of the 
 Bishop of Constance, John Faber, that 
 early friend of Zwingle, who was after- 
 wards his most violent opponent, wrote 
 to him on this occasion : — " Oh, my be- 
 loved Ulric ! what joy does it give me 
 to learn that thou hast been delivered 
 from the jaws of the cruel pestilence. 
 When thy life is in jeopardy, the Chris- 
 tian commonwealth has cause to tremble. 
 The Lord has seen it good by this trial 
 to incite thee to a more earnest pursuit 
 of eternal life." 
 
 This was indeed the end which the 
 Lord had in view in subjecting Zwingle 
 to trial, and the end was attained, but in 
 another way than Faber contemplated. 
 This pestilence of the year 1519, which 
 committed such frightful ravap-es in the 
 north of Switzerland, became an effectual 
 agent in the hands of God for the con- 
 version of many souls. t But on no one 
 did it exercise so powerful an influence 
 as on Zwingle. The Gospel which he 
 had heretofore embraced as a mere doc- 
 trine, now became a great reality. He 
 rose from the dark borders of the tomb 
 with a new heart. His zeal became 
 more ardent, his life more holy , his 
 preaching more free, more Christian, 
 more persuasive. This was the epoch 
 of Zwingle's complete emancipation : 
 henceforward he devoted himself entire- 
 ly to God. But along with the Reformer, 
 the Reformation, also, of Switzerland re- 
 ceived new life. The scourge of God, 
 " the great death," while it ranged over 
 those mountains, and swept along those 
 valleys, impressed a character of deeper 
 holiness on the movement which was 
 taking place within their bosom. The 
 Reformation, as well as Zwingle, was 
 immersed in the waters of sanctified afflic- 
 tion, and came forth endued with a purer 
 and more vigorous vitality. It was a 
 memorable season in the dispensations 
 of God for the regeneration of the Swiss 
 people. 
 
 * E diris te mortis faucibus feliciter crcptum 
 negotiator quidam tigurinus. — (Ibid. 91.) 
 
 t Als die Pestilenz im Jahre 1519, in dieser 
 Gegend grassirte, viele neigten sich zu einem 
 bessern Leben. — (Georg. Vogelin. Ref. Hist. 
 Fiisslin Beytr. iv. 174.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 351 
 
 Zwingle derived an accession of that 
 strength, of which he stood so much in 
 need, from his renewed communion with 
 his friends. With Myconius especially 
 he was united by the bonds of a strong 
 affection. They walked side by side, 
 each supporting the other, like Luther 
 and Melancthon. Oswald was happy at 
 Zurich. His position there was a con- 
 strained one, it is true ; but the virtues 
 of his modest wife made him amends for 
 all his discomforts. It was of her that 
 Glareanus said : " Could I meet a young 
 woman resembling her, I would prefer 
 her to a king's daughter." The enjoy- 
 ment which Zwingle and Myconius 
 found in their reciprocal friendship was 
 sometimes broken in upon, however, by 
 the voice of a faithful monitor. That 
 monitor was the canon Xyloctect, who 
 was continually calling on Myconius to 
 return to Lucerne, the place of his birth. 
 " Zurich is not thy country," said he, 
 " but Lucerne. Thou sayest that the 
 Zurichers are thy friends : I acknowl- 
 edge it ; — but canst thou tell how it will 
 fare with thee when the shadows of 
 evening begin to fall on thy path? Re- 
 member thy duty to thy country,* — such 
 is my desire, my entreaty, — and if I may 
 so speak, my command !" Following 
 up his words by acts, Xyloctect caused 
 Myconius to be elected rector of the col- 
 legiate school of his native city. Oswald 
 then hesitated no longer ; he saw the 
 finger of God in this nomination, and 
 o-reat as was the sacrifice demanded of 
 him, he resolved to make it. Might it 
 not be the will of the Lord to employ 
 him as His instrument in publishing the 
 doctrine of peace in the warlike canton 
 of Lucerne ? But how shall we describe 
 the parting between Zwingle and My- 
 conius? On either side, their farewell 
 was accompanied with tears. " Thy de- 
 parture," observed Ulric in a letter writ- 
 ten to Oswald shortly afterwards, " has 
 been such a discouragement to the cause 
 which I defend, as can only be com- 
 pared to that which would be felt by an 
 army drawn up in order of battle, were 
 it suddenly deprived of one of its wings. f 
 
 * Patriam cole, suadeo et obsecro, et si hoc 
 possum jubeo. — (Xyloctect Myconio.) 
 
 t Nam res meae, te abeunte, non sunt minus 
 accisffi quam si exercitui in procinctu stanti al- 
 tera alarum abstergatur. — (Zw. Epp. p. 98.) 
 
 Alas ! now I feel the value of my My- 
 conius, and can perceive how often, when 
 I dreamed not of it, he has upheld the 
 cause of Christ I" 
 
 Zwingle felt the loss of his friend the 
 more acutely, by reason of the debilitated 
 state to which the plague had reduced 
 him. " It has enfeebled my memory," 
 he complains in a letter, dated 30th No- 
 vember, 1519, "and prostrated my spir- 
 its." While he was yet scarcely con- 
 valescent, he had resumed all his labours. 
 " But," said he, " I often in preaching 
 lose the thread of my discourse. My 
 whole frame is oppressed with languor, 
 and I am little better than a dead man." 
 Besides this, Zwingle's opposition to in- 
 dulgences had aroused the animosity of 
 those who supported them. Oswald en- 
 couraged his friend by the letters he wrote 
 to him from Lucerne. Was not the Lord, 
 at this moment, giving a pledge of his 
 readiness to help, by the protection which 
 he afforded in Saxony to the mighty 
 champion who had gained such signal 
 victories over Rome ? " What thinkest 
 thou," said Myconius to Zwingle, "of the 
 cause of Luther ? For my part, I have 
 no fear either for the Gospel or for him. 
 If God does not protect his truth, by whom 
 else shall it be protected ? All that I ask 
 of the Lord is, that he will not withdraw 
 his hand from those who have nothing 
 so dear to them as his Gospel. Go on 
 as thou hast begun, and an abundant 
 reward shall be bestowed upon thee in 
 heaven." 
 
 The arrival of an old friend at this 
 time brought some comfort to Zwingle, 
 in his grief for the removal of Myconius. 
 Bunzli, who had been Ulric's master at 
 Bale, and who had since succeeded the 
 Dean of Wesen, the Reformer's uncle, 
 arrived at Zurich in the first week of the 
 year 1520, and Zwingle and he formed 
 the resolution of taking a journey to Bale 
 together to see their common friends.* 
 Zwingle's visit to Bale was not unproduc- 
 tive of good. "Oh, my dear Zwingle!" 
 wrote John Glother, at a later period, 
 " never shall I forget thee ! My gratitude 
 is thy due for the kindness displayed by 
 thee during thy stay at Bale, in visiting 
 me as thou didst, — me, a poor school- 
 master, a man without name, without 
 learning, without merit, and in a low 
 * Zw. Epp. p. 103 and 111. 
 
352 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 condition. My affections thou hast won 
 hy that elegance of manners, that inde- 
 scribable fascination, by which thou sub- 
 duest all hearts, — and I might almost say 
 the very stones."* But Zwingle's earlier 
 friends derived still greater benefit from 
 his visit. Capito and Hedio, with many 
 others, were electrified by his powerful 
 discourses ; and the former, adopting the 
 same course at Bale which Zwingle had 
 pursued at Zurich, began to expound St. 
 Matthew's Gospel to an auditory which 
 continually increased in numbers. The 
 doctrine of Christ manifested its power in 
 searching and warming the heart. The 
 people received it with joy, and hailed 
 the revival of Christianity with eager 
 acclamations, f The Reformation had 
 already dawned. A proof of this was 
 soon seen in a conspiracy of priests and 
 monks, which was formed against Capito. 
 Albert, the young Cardinal-archbishop of 
 Mentz, who was desirous to attach so 
 learned a man to his person, took advan- 
 tage of this circumstance, and invited 
 him to his court. Capito, seeing the dif- 
 ficulties with which he was surrounded, 
 accepted the invitation.^ The people 
 thought themselves aggrieved, their in- 
 dignation was roused against the priests, 
 and the city was thrown into commotion. § 
 Hedio was spoken of as Capito' s suc- 
 cessor ; but some objected to his youth, 
 and others said : — " He is his disciple !" 
 " The truth," said Hedio, " is of too pun- 
 gent a quality. There are susceptible 
 ears, which it cannot fail to wound, and 
 which are not to be wounded with im- 
 punity. [| No matter ! I will not be 
 turned aside from the straight road." 
 The monks redoubled their efforts. " Be- 
 ware," was their language in the pulpit, 
 u of giving credence to those who tell 
 you that the sum of Christian doctrine 
 is to be found in the Gospels, and iit the 
 Epistles of St. Paul. Scotus has rendered 
 greater service to Christianity than Paul 
 himself. All the learning that has been 
 
 * Morum tuorum elegantia. suavitasque in- 
 credibilis, qua omnes tibi devincis, etiam lapides, 
 ut sic dixerim. — (Ibid. 133.) 
 
 t Renascenti Christianismo miram quam fave- 
 ant.— (Ibid. 120.) 
 
 I Cardinalis illic invitavit amplissimis condi- 
 tionibus. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Tumultus exoritur et maxima indignatio 
 vulgi erga l(psiu — (Ibid.) 
 
 || Auriculas teneras mordaci radere vero non 
 asque adeo tutum est — (Zw. Epp. p. 120.) 
 
 preached and published has been stolen 
 from Scotus. The utmost that certain 
 persons have been able to achieve in 
 their attempts to gain a reputation for 
 themselves, has been to mix up a few 
 words of Greek and Hebrew with his 
 matter, so as to perplex and darken the 
 whole."* 
 
 The tumult continued to increase ; 
 there was reason to fear that after Cap- 
 ito's departure, the opposition would be- 
 come still more powerful. " I shall be 
 left almost alone, weak and insignificant 
 as I am," said Hedio, " to struggle with 
 those formidable monsters."! In this 
 emergency he betook himself to God for 
 succour ; — and in a letter to Zwingle 
 expressed himself thus : — " Support my 
 courage by frequent letters. Learning 
 and religion are now between the ham- 
 mer and the anvil. Luther has been 
 condemned by the universities of Louvain 
 and Cologne. If ever the church was 
 in imminent peril, she is so at this 
 hour!"! 
 
 Capito quitted Bale for Mentz on the 
 28th of April; and Hedio succeeded him. 
 Not content with the public assemblies 
 which were held in the church, where he 
 continued the lectures on Saint Matthew, 
 he resolved, as he wrote to Luther to in- 
 stitute, in the ensuing month of June, 
 private meetings in his own house, that 
 he might impart more familiar instruc- 
 tion in the Gospel to such as should de- 
 sire it. This powerful method of com- 
 municating religious knowledge, and 
 awakening the concern and affection of 
 believers for divine things, could not fail 
 on this, as on every occasion, to excite 
 the concurrent opposition of worldly- 
 minded laymen, and an arrogant priest- 
 hood, classes which are equally inimical, 
 though on different grounds, to every 
 attempt to worship God anywhere but 
 within the enclosure of certain walls. 
 But Hedio was not to be driven from his 
 purpose. 
 
 About the period when he conceived 
 this praiseworthy design at Bale, there 
 arrived at Zurich one of those characters, 
 who, in revolutionary times, are often 
 
 * Scotum plus profuisse rei Christiana? quam 
 
 ipsum Paulum qujcquid eruditum furatum 
 
 ex Scoto. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Cum pestilentissimis monstris. — (Ibid.) 
 1 Si unquam imminebat periculum, jam im- 
 miaet.— (Ibid. 17th March, 1520.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1-184— 1522. 
 
 353 
 
 thrown up like a foul scum upon the 
 agitated surface of society. 
 
 The senator Grebel, a man highly 
 respected at Zurich, had a son named 
 Conrad, a young man of remarkable 
 talents, a determined enemy to ignorance 
 and superstition, — which he assailed with 
 the keenest satire ; vehement and over- 
 bearing in his manners, sarcastic and 
 acrimonious in his speech, destitute of 
 natural affection, addicted to dissolute 
 habits, frequent and loud in professions 
 of his own integrity, and unable to dis- 
 cover anything but evil in the rest of 
 mankind. We mention him here be- 
 cause he was destined afterwards to a 
 melancholy celebrity. Just at this time, 
 Vadianus contracted a marriage with 
 one of Conrad's sisters. The latter, who 
 was then a student at Paris, where his 
 own misconduct prevented him from 
 making any progress, having a desire to 
 be present at the nuptials, suddenly ap- 
 peared about the beginning of June, in 
 the midst of his family. The prodigal 
 son was welcomed by his poor father 
 with a gentle smile ; by his tender mo- 
 ther with many tears. The tenderness 
 of his parents could not change that 
 unnatural heart. Some time afterwards, 
 on the recovery of his worthy but un- 
 fortunate mother from an illness which 
 had nearly proved fatal, Conrad wrote to 
 his brother-in-law Vadianus. " My mo- 
 ther is well again ; and has taken the 
 management of the house once more into 
 her own hands. She sleeps, rises, be- 
 gins to scold, breakfasts, scolds again, 
 dines, resumes her scolding, and never 
 ceases to torment us from morning to 
 night. She bustles about, overlooking 
 kettle and oven, gathering and strewing, 
 toils continually, wearies herself to death, 
 and will soon have a relapse."* Such 
 was the man who subsequently attempt- 
 ed to lord it over Zwingle, and who ac- 
 quired notoriety as the leader of the fa- 
 natical Anabaptists. Divine providence 
 may have permitted such characters to 
 appear at the epoch of the Reformation, 
 in order that the contrast furnished by 
 their excesses might display more con- 
 spicuously the wise, christian, and mod- 
 erate spirit of the Reformers. 
 
 * Sie regiert das Haus, schlaft, steht auf, 
 zankt, fruhstuckt, keift . . — (Simml. Samml. 4 
 VVirz, i. 76.) 
 
 45 
 
 Everything indicated that the struggle 
 between the Gospel and the Papacy was 
 about to commence. " Let us stir up the 
 waverers,'' said Hedio, in a letter to 
 Zwingle, < ; there is an end to peace ; 
 and let us fortify our own hearts; we 
 have implacable enemies to encounter."* 
 Myconius wrote in the same strain ; but 
 Ulric replied to these warlike appeals 
 with admirable mildness. " I could 
 wish," said he, " to conciliate those stub- 
 born men by kindness and gentleness of 
 demeanour, rather than to get the better 
 of them in angry controversy. t For if 
 they call our doctrine (though ours it is 
 not) a doctrine of devils, that is not to be 
 wondered at ; I receive it as a token that 
 we are the ambassadors of God. The 
 devils cannot remain silent in. Christ's 
 presence." 
 
 Desirous as he was to follow the path 
 of peace, Zwingle was not idle. Since 
 hi3 illness his preaching had become 
 more spiritual and more fervent. More 
 than two thousand of the inhabitants 
 of Zurich had received the word of 
 God into their hearts, — confessed the 
 evangelical doctrine, — and were qualified 
 to assist in its propagation. 
 
 Zwingle's faith is the same as Lu- 
 ther's ; but it rests more upon argument 
 than his-. Luther is carried forward by 
 the internal impulse, Zwingle by the at- 
 traction of the light revealed to him. 
 In Luther's writings w r e find a deeply 
 seated personal conviction of the precious- 
 ness of the cross of Christ to his own soul ; 
 and this earnest, unfaltering conviction 
 gives life and energy to all that he says. 
 The same thing, undoubtedly, is found 
 in the writings of Zwingle, but not in 
 the same degree. His contemplations 
 have been fixed rather on the Christian 
 system as a whole ; he reveres it for its 
 surpassing beauty, for the light which it 
 sheds upon the soul of man, lor the ever- 
 lasting life which it brings into the world. 
 In the one the affections are the moving 
 power, — in the other the understanding ; 
 and hence it happens that persons not 
 experimentally acquainted with the faith 
 which animated these two distinguished 
 disciples of the Lord, have fallen into a 
 
 * Armemus pectora nostra ! pugnandum erit 
 contra teterrimos hostes. — (Zw. Epp. p. 101.) 
 
 t Benevolentia honestoque cbsequio potius allici 
 quam animosa oppugnatione trahi. — (Ibid. 103.) 
 
354 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 gross error, and represented the one as a 
 mystic, the other as a rationalist. The 
 one is more pathetic, it may he, in the ex- 
 position of his faith— the other is more 
 philosophic ; but the same truths are em- 
 braced by both. Secondary questions, 
 perhaps, they do not always regard under 
 the same aspect ; but that faith which is 
 one, that faith which renews and justi- 
 fies all who possess it, that faith which 
 no confession, no formulary of doctrine, 
 can ever adequately express, — is the pro- 
 perty of each alike. The opinions of 
 Zwingle have often been so erroneously 
 stated, that it seems necessary to give a 
 summary of the doctrine which he then 
 preached to the people who nocked in 
 crowds to hear him in the cathedral of 
 Zurich. 
 
 Zwingle beheld in the fall of the first 
 man a key to the entire history of the 
 human race. •' Before the fall," said he, 
 in one of his discourses, " man had been 
 created with a free will, so that if he had 
 been willing he might have fulfilled the 
 law : his nature was pure ; the disease 
 of sin had not yet tainted it ; — his life 
 was in his own hands. But having de- 
 sired to be ' as God,' — he died ; — and not 
 he alone, but all that are born of him. 
 All men, then, being dead in Adam, 
 must ever remain so, until the Spirit, 
 which is God himself, raises them out 
 of death."* 
 
 The people of Zurich, who listened 
 eagerly to the impressive pi'eacher, were 
 overwhelmed with sorrow when their 
 eyes were first opened to the sinful con- 
 dition of mankind ; but the word of con- 
 solation was next administered, and they 
 were taught the remedy by which the 
 life of man is renewed. " Christ, very 
 man and very God,"f said the eloquent 
 descendant of the shepherds of the Tock- 
 enburg, " has purchased for us an ever- 
 lasting deliverance. He who died for 
 
 * Quum ergo omnes homines in Adamo mor- 
 tui sunt . . . donee per Spiritum et gratiam Dei 
 ad vitam qua? Deus est excitentur. — (Zw. Opp. 
 i. 203.) — These expressions and others which we 
 have, already quoted, or shall proceed to quote, 
 are extracted from a work published by Zwingle 
 in 1523, in which he reduced into a compendium 
 the doctrine which he had then been preaching 
 for several years. " Hie resensere coepi," he 
 says, " qua? ex verbo Dei predicavi." — (Ibid. 
 228.) 
 
 t Christus verus homo et verus Deus . . — (Ibid. 
 206.) 
 
 us is the eternal God : his passion, there- 
 fore, is an eternal sacrifice, and has a per- 
 petual efficacy;* it satisfies the divine 
 justice for ever upon behalf of all who 
 rely upon it with a firm and unshaken 
 faith." — " Where sin is," said the Re- 
 former again, " death must needs follow. 
 But Christ had no sin, neither was there 
 guile found in his mouth ; nevertheless 
 he suffered death. — -Wherefore/ but be- 
 cause he suffered it in our stead. Fie 
 was content to die, that he might restore 
 us to life ;f and forasmuch as he had no 
 sins of his own, the Father, in his in- 
 finite mercy, laid upon him the iniquity 
 of us all." — " The will of man," argued 
 the christian orator, " had rebelled against 
 the Most High ; it was necessary, there- 
 fore, for the re-establishment of the eter- 
 nal order of things, and the salvation of 
 man, that the human will should, in 
 Christ, give place to the divine.^ It was 
 a frequent remark of his that the ex- 
 piatory death of Jesus Christ had taken 
 place for the benefit of the faithful, or the 
 people of God.fy 
 
 The souls that hungered after salva- 
 tion in the city of Zurich found comfort 
 in these good tidings ; but there were 
 some errors of ancient growth which 
 their minds still harboured, and which it 
 was needful to extirpate. Following out 
 the great truth that salvation is the gift 
 of God, Zwingle pleaded powerfully 
 against the pretended merit of human 
 works. "Since eternal salvation," said 
 he, " proceeds solely from the merits and 
 the death of Christ, the notion of merit 
 in our works is no better than vanity 
 and folly, — not to call it senseless im- 
 piety. |[ If we could have been saved 
 by our own works, Christ's death would 
 have been unnecessary. All who have 
 
 * Deus enim eetemus quum sit qui pro nobis 
 moritur, passionem ejus feternam et perpetuo 
 salutarem esse oportet. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Mori voluit ut ncs vitse restitueret. . . — (Ibid. 
 204.) 
 
 t Necesse fuit ut voluntas humana in Christo 
 se divines submitteret. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Hostia est et victima satisfaeiens in sternum 
 pro peccatis omnium fidelium. — (Zw. Opp. i. 253.) 
 Expurgata peccata multitudinis, hoc est, fidelis 
 populi.— (Ibid. 264.) 
 
 || Sequitur meritum nostrorum operum nihil 
 esse quam vanitatem et stultitiam, ne dicam 
 impietatem et ignorantem impudentiam. — (Ibid. 
 290.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 355 
 
 ever come to God have come to him by 
 the death of Jesus."* 
 
 Zwingle was not ignorant of the 
 objections which this doctrine excited 
 amongst a portion of his auditory. 
 There were some who waited on him 
 for the purpose of stating those objec- 
 tions. He answered them from the pul- 
 pit thus : " Some persons, rather specu- 
 lative than pious, perhaps, object that 
 his doctrine makes men reckless and 
 dissolute. But what need we care for 
 the objections and plans that may be 
 conjured up by the speculations of men. 
 All who believe in Christ are assured 
 that whatever comes from God is neces- 
 sarily good. If then the Gospel is of 
 God, it is good.f And what other 
 power is there that could bring in righte- 
 ousness, truth, and love among the chil- 
 dren of men?" — "O God most merciful, 
 most righteous, Father of all mercies!" 
 cried he in a transport of devotion, " with 
 what marvellous love hast thou em- 
 braced us, — even us thy enemies.^ How 
 great and how full is the hope thou hast 
 imparted to us, who merited no other 
 portion than despair ! To what a height 
 of glory hast thou vouchsafed, in thy be- 
 loved Son, to exalt our meanness and 
 nothingness ! Surely it is thy purpose 
 by this unspeakable Love, to constrain 
 us to love thee in return." 
 
 Pursuing this idea, he next showed 
 that love to the Redeemer was a law 
 more powerful than the commandments. 
 " The Christian," said he, " being de- 
 livered from the law, depends entirely 
 on Christ. Christ is his reason, his coun- 
 sel, his righteousness, his sanctification, 
 his whole salvation. Christ lives and 
 moves in him. Christ alone leads him 
 on his way, and he needs no other 
 o-uide."§ Then making use of a com- 
 parison well adapted to the compre- 
 hension of his hearers, he added : 
 "When a government forbids its citi- 
 zens, under pain of death, to receive any 
 
 * Quotquot ad Deum venerunt unquam per 
 mortem Christi ad Deum venisse. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Certus est quod quidquid ex Deo est bonum 
 eit. Si ergo Evangelium ex Deo bonum est. — 
 (Ibid. 2080 i 
 
 X Quanta, caritate nos fures et perduelles. 
 
 § Turn enim totus a Christo pendet. Christus 
 est ei ratio, consilium, justitia, ir.nocentia et tota 
 salus. Christus iu eo vivit, in eo agit. — (Zw. 
 Opp. i. 233.) 
 
 pension or largess from the hands of 
 foreigners, how gentle and easy is that 
 law to those who, for the sake of their 
 fatherland and liberty, would, of their 
 own accord, abstain from so unworthy 
 an act ! But on the contrary, how harsh 
 and oppressive does it appear to those 
 who care for nothing but their selfish 
 gains ! Even so it is that the righteous 
 man lives free and joyful in his love of 
 righteousness, while the unrighteous man 
 walks painfully under the burthen of the 
 law that condemns him."* 
 
 In the cathedral of Zurich, that day, 
 there were many old soldiers who could 
 appreciate the truth of these words ; — 
 and can we deny that love is the most 
 powerful of lawgivers ? Are not all its 
 requisitions immediately fulfilled? Does 
 not the beloved object live in our hearts, 
 and there enforce obedience to all that 
 he has enjoined ? Accordingly Zwingle, 
 assuming a still bolder tone as he pro- 
 ceeded, testified to the people of Zurich 
 that love to the Redeemer was the only 
 motive* that could impel man to the per- 
 formance of actions acceptable to God. 
 " Works done out of Christ are worth- 
 less," said the Christian teacher, u since 
 every good work is done by him, — in 
 him, — and through him, what is there 
 that we can lay claim to for ourselves? 
 Wheresoever there is faith in God, there 
 God himself abides, — and wheresoever 
 God is, there is awakened a zeal which 
 urges and constrains men to good works. t 
 See to it, only, that Christ be in thee, 
 and thou in Christ, — and fear not but 
 He will work in thee. Of a truth the 
 life of a Christian man is but one con- 
 tinual good work, begun and carried for- 
 ward and brought to completion — by 
 God alone."J ( 
 
 J)eeply impressed with the greatness 
 of that love of God which is from ever- 
 lasting, the herald of grace adopted a 
 strain of impassioned earnestness in the 
 invitations which he addressed to the ir- 
 resolute and fearful. " How is it," said 
 he, " that you fear to draw nigh to that 
 
 * Bonus vir in amore justitiaa liber et leetus vivit 
 —(Ibid. 284.) 
 
 t Ubi Deus, illic cura est et studium ad opera 
 bona urgens et impellens. — (Zw. Opp. i. 213.) 
 
 J Vita ergo pii hominis nihil aliud est nisi per- 
 petua quffidam et indefessa boni operatio quam 
 Deus incipit, ducit et absolvit. — (Ibid. 295.) 
 
356 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tender Father who has chosen us? 
 Why has he chosen us of his free mer- 
 cy ? Why has he called us ? Why has 
 he drawn us to himself? to this end only, 
 think you, that we should shrink from 
 approaching him ?"* 
 
 Such was the doctrine put forth by 
 Zwingle. It was the doctrine preached 
 by Jesus Christ himself. " If Luther 
 preaches Christ, he does what I do," said 
 the preacher of Zurich. " He has led 
 to Christ many more souls than I : — be 
 it so. Yet will I bear no other name 
 than that of Christ, whose soldier I am, 
 and who alone is my head. Never has 
 a single line been addressed by me to 
 Luther, or by Luther to me. And 
 why ? — that it might be manifest to all 
 how uniform is the testimony of the 
 Spirit of God, — since we, who have had 
 no communication with each other, 
 agree so closely in the doctrine of Jesus 
 Christ."! 
 
 The success which attended on Zwin- 
 gle's preaching corresponded to its fidel- 
 ity .| The spacious cathedral was too 
 small to contain the multitude of his 
 hearers. All believers united in prais- 
 ing God for the new life which had be- 
 gun to quicken the inanimate body of 
 the Church. Many strangers from every 
 canton, who came to Zurich, either to 
 attend the Diet, or for other purposes, 
 embraced the new doctrines, and carried 
 the precious seeds of truth into all the 
 valleys of Switzerland. From populous 
 cities and from hamlets hidden in the 
 glen, one cry of rejoicing gratitude arose 
 to heaven. " Switzerland," said Nicholas 
 Hageus, in a letter written from Lucerne, 
 " has heretofore given birth to many 
 a Csesar, and Scipio, and Brutus ; but 
 scarcely could she number among her 
 offspring one or two to whom Christ was 
 truly known, and who had learned to 
 nourish souls with the divine word in- 
 stead of doubtful disputations. Now that 
 Divine Providence has given to Switzer- 
 land, Zwingle for a preacher, and Os- 
 wald Myconius for a professor, religion 
 
 * Quum ergo Deus pater nos elegit ex gratia 
 euS., traxitque et vocavit, cur ad eum accedere 
 non auderemus? — (Ibid. 287.) 
 
 t Quam concors sit spiritus Dei, dum nos tam 
 procul dissiti, nihil colludentes, tam concorditer 
 Christi doctrinam docemus. — (Zw. Opp. i. 276.) 
 
 X Quam fortis sis in Christi prcedicando. — 
 (Zw. Epp. p. 160.) 
 
 and sacred literature are reviving in the 
 midst of us. O happy Helvetia, wouldst 
 thou only rest from war, satisfied with 
 the glory thou hast already won in arms, 
 and cultivate in future that truer glory 
 which follows in the train of righteous- 
 ness and peace!"* — "It was reported," 
 said Myconius, in a letter to Zwingle, 
 " that thy voice could not be heard at 
 the distance of three paces. But we find 
 now how false a tale it was ; for thou art 
 heard all over Switzerland."! — " It is a 
 noble courage with which thou hast arm- 
 ed thyself," said Hedio, writing from 
 Bale ; " I will follow thee as far as I 
 have strength. "J — " I have listened to 
 thy teaching," wrote Sebastian Hofmeis- 
 ter of Schaff hausen, in a letter dated from 
 Constance : " God grant that Zurich, the 
 head of our confederacy, may be healed 
 of its disease, that so the whole body may 
 be restored to soundness."^ 
 
 But Zwingle met with adversaries as 
 well as admirers. " Wherefore," said 
 some, " does he concern himself with 
 the political affairs of Switzerland ?" — 
 " Why," said others, " does he repeat the 
 same things so often in his religious in- 
 structions ?" In the midst of these con- 
 flicting judgments, the soul of Zwingle 
 was often overcome with dejection. It 
 seemed to him that a general confusion 
 was at hand, and that the fabric of socie- 
 ty was on the point of being overturned. || 
 He began to apprehend that it was im- 
 possible for good to make its appearance 
 in one quarter, but evil must spring up 
 to counteract it in another. f If at one 
 moment hope shone in his mind, it was 
 instantly succeeded by fear. But he soon 
 recovered from his depression. " The life 
 of man here below is a warfare," said he ; 
 " he who Avould inherit glory must face 
 the world as an enemy, and, like David, 
 force the haughty Goliath, exulting in 
 his strength, to bite the dust." — " The 
 
 * O Helvetiam longe feliciorem, si tandem 
 liceat to a bellis conquiescere ! — (Ibid. 128.) 
 
 t At video inendacium esse, cum audiaris per 
 totam Helvetiam. — (Ibid. 135.) 
 
 X Sequar te quoad potero . . . — (Ibid. 134.) 
 
 § Ut capite felicis patriae nostra? a morbo erep- 
 to, sanitas tandem in reliqua membra recipere- 
 tur.— (Zw. Epp. p. 147.) 
 
 I) Omnia sursum deorsumque moventur. — 
 (Ibid. 142.) 
 
 IT Ut nihil proferre caput queat, cujus non 
 contrarium e regione emergat. — (Ibid.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 357 
 
 Church," said he again, using the very- 
 expression which Luther had employed, 
 ■" has been purchased by blood, and by 
 blood must it be restored.* The more 
 numerous are the stains that defile it, the 
 more numerous also must be the Hercu- 
 lean arms employed to cleanse away that 
 augean filth, f I fear little for Luther," 
 added he, " though he be assailed by the 
 thunderbolts of the Romish Jupiter.";}; 
 
 Zwingle had need of rest ; he repaired 
 to the waters of Baden. The curate of 
 the place, who had been one of the Pope's 
 body-guard, a man of good character, but 
 destitute of learning, had earned his ben- 
 efice by carrying the halberd. Tena- 
 cious of his military habits, he passed 
 the day and a portion of the night in 
 jovial company, while Staheli, his vicar, 
 was unwearied in performing all the du- 
 ties of his calling. § Zwingle sent for 
 this young minister. " I have need," 
 said he, " of helpers in Switzerland ;"-— 
 and from that moment, Staheli became 
 his fellow-labourer. Zwingle, Staheli, 
 and Luti, who was afterwards a pastor 
 at Winterthur, lived under the same 
 roof. 
 
 Zwingle's self-devotion was not to miss 
 its reward. The word of Christ, which 
 he preached so diligently, was ordained 
 to bring forth fruit. Many of the magis- 
 trates had been converted ; they had 
 found comfort and strength in God's 
 holy word. Grieved to observe with 
 what effrontery the priests, and especial- 
 ly the monks, in their addresses from the 
 pulpit, uttered anything that came upper- 
 most in their minds, the Council issued 
 an ordinance by which they were en- 
 joined to " deliver nothing in their dis- 
 courses but what they should have drawn 
 from the sacred fountains of the Old and 
 New Testaments." || It was in 1520 that 
 the civil power thus interfered for the 
 first time in the work of the Reforma- 
 tion, — fulfilling the duty of the Christian 
 magistrate, as some affirm ; because the 
 
 * Eeclesiam puto, ut sanguine parta est, ita 
 sanguine instaurari. — (Ibid. 143.) 
 
 t Eo plures annabis Hercules qui fimum tot 
 hactenus bourn efferant. — (Ibid. 144.) 
 
 t Etiamsi fulmine Jovis istius fulminetur. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 § Misc. Mig. iii. G79-696. Wirz. i. 79, 78. 
 
 || Vetuit eos Senatus quicquam prsedicare quod 
 non ex sacrarum literarum utriusque Testamenti 
 jbntibus hausissent. — (Zw. Opp. iii. 28.) 
 
 first duty of a magistrate is to uphold re- 
 ligion, and to protect the paramount and 
 vital interests of the community ; — de- 
 priving the Church of its liberty, say 
 others, — bringing it under subjection to 
 the secular power, and opening the way 
 for that long train of calamities which 
 has since been engendered by the union 
 of Church and State. We will not here 
 attempt to decide that great controversy 
 by which more than one nation is agita- 
 ted at the present day. Let it suffice us 
 to have marked its origin at the epoch 
 of the Reformation. But there is that 
 in the fact itself which we must also 
 mark ; — the act of those magistrates was 
 itself an effect produced by the preach- 
 ing of the word of God. The Reforma- 
 tion in Switzerland was now emerging 
 from the sphere of individual conversions, 
 and becoming a national work. It had 
 first sprung up in the hearts of a few 
 priests and scholars ; it was now spread- 
 ing abroad, and lifting itself on high, and 
 assuming a station of publicity. Like 
 the waters of the sea it rose by degrees, 
 until it had overspread a wide expanse. 
 
 The monks were confounded, — they 
 were enjoined to preach only the word 
 of God, and that word the majority of 
 them had never read ! Opposition pro- 
 vokes opposition. This ordinance be- 
 came the signal for more violent attacks 
 against the Reformation. Plots were 
 now formed against the curate of Zurich, 
 and his life was in danger. One even- 
 ing, when Zwingle and his assistants 
 were quietly conversing in their house, 
 they were disturbed by the hasty en- 
 trance of some burghers, who inquired : 
 — " Have you strong bolts on your 
 doors'?" and added, " Be on your guard 
 to-night." — " We often had alarms of this 
 kind," adds Staheli, " but we were well 
 armed,* and there was a watch set in the 
 street for our protection." 
 
 Elsewhere, however, measures of more 
 atrocious violence were resorted to : — an 
 old inhabitant of Schaffhausen, named 
 Gaster, a man distinguished for his piety, 
 and for an ardour few, at his age, pos- 
 sess, having himself derived much com- 
 fort from the light which he had found 
 in the Gospel, endeavoured to communi- 
 cate it to his wife and children. In his 
 
 * Wir waren aber gut geriistet. — (Misc. Tig. 
 ii. 681. Wirz. i. 334.) 
 
358 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 jseal, which perhaps was not duly tem- 
 pered with discretion, he openly attacked 
 the relics, the priestcraft, and the super- 
 stition with which that canton abounded. 
 He soon became an object of hatred and 
 terror even to his own family. Perceiv- 
 ing' at length that evil designs were en- 
 tertained against him, the old man fled, 
 broken-hearted, from his home, and be- 
 took himself to the shelter of the neigh- 
 bouring forest. There he continued for 
 some days, sustaining life upon such 
 scanty food as the wilds afforded him, 
 when suddenly, on the last night of the 
 year, 1520, torches flashed through the 
 whole extent of the forest, while yells of 
 infuriated men, mingled with the cry of 
 savage hounds, echoed fearfully through 
 its deepest recesses. The Council had 
 ordered the woods to be scoured to dis- 
 cover his retreat. The hounds caught 
 scent of their prey, and seized him. The 
 unfortunate old man was dragged before 
 the magistrate, and summoned to abjure 
 his faith ; stedfastly refusing to do so, he 
 was beheaded.* 
 
 But a little while after the New Year's 
 day that witnessed this bloody execution, 
 Zwingle was visited at Zurich by a 
 young man about twenty-eight years of 
 age, tall of stature, and of an aspect 
 which denoted candour, simplicity, and 
 diffidence.! He introduced himself by 
 the name of Berthold Haller. Zwingle 
 immediately recognised the celebrated 
 preacher of Berne, and embraced him 
 with all that affability which rendered 
 his address so fascinating. Haller, 
 whose native place was Aldingen, in 
 Wurtemberg, j had studied first at Rot- 
 Avell, under Rubellus, and subsequently 
 at Pforzheim, where he had Simler for 
 his master, and Melancthon for a fel- 
 low-pupil. The Bernese about that time 
 manifested a desire to make their re- 
 public the seat of letters, as it was al- 
 ready powerful in arms. Rubellus and 
 Haller, the latter of whom was then 
 twenty-one years of age, repaired to 
 Berne accordingly. Haller soon be- 
 came a canon there, and was afterwards 
 
 * "Wirz. 1. 510. Sebast. Wagner, von Kirch- 
 hofer, p. 18. 
 
 t Animi tui candorem siniplicem et simplici- 
 tatem candid issimam, hue tua pusilla quidem 
 epistola. . . . — (Zw. Epp. p. 186.) 
 
 t Ita ipse in Uteris manuscriptis. — (J. J. Hott. 
 iii. 54.) 
 
 appointed preacher of the cathedral. 
 The Gospel proclaimed by Zwingle had 
 found its way to Berne. Haller be- 
 lieved: and from that time he felt a 
 wish to have personal intercourse with 
 the gifted man, whom he already re- 
 vered as a father. His journey to Zu- 
 rich, undertaken with this view, had 
 been announced by Myconius. Such 
 were the circumstances of the meeting 
 between Haller and Zwingle. Haller, 
 whose characteristic was meekness of 
 disposition, confided to Zwingle the 
 trials with which he was beset ; and 
 Zwingle, who was eminently endowed 
 with fortitude, communicated to Haller 
 a portion of his own courage. " My 
 spirit," said Berthold, " is overwhelmed. 
 I cannot endure such harsh treatment. 
 I am resolved to give up my pulpit, seek 
 a retreat with Wittembach, at Bale, and 
 employ myself for the future in the pri- 
 vate study of the Scriptures." — " Alas !" 
 replied Zwingle, " a feeling of discour- 
 agement often takes possession of me 
 likewise, when I am unjustly assailed. 
 But Christ awakens my conscience by 
 the powerful stimulus of his threaten- 
 ings and promises. He rouses my fears 
 by declaring : — Whosoever shall be 
 ashamed of me before men, of him will I 
 be ashamed before my Father ; — and then 
 he gives me comfort by adding : — Who- 
 soever shall confess me before men, him trill 
 I confess before my Father. O, my dear 
 Berthold. be of good cheer ! Our names 
 are written above, in characters that can 
 never be effaced, as citizens of the heav- 
 enly city.* For my part I am ready to 
 die for Christ. f Let those wild bears' 
 cubs of. yours," he added, " only once 
 give ear to the doctrine of Jesus Christ, 
 and you will see how gentle they will 
 become.:); But Y 011 must address your- 
 self cautiously to the work, lest they 
 turn and rend you." Haller's courage 
 rose again. " My soul," said he to 
 Zwingle, " has cast off her slumber. I 
 must needs preach the Gospel. Christ 
 must again be received within those 
 
 * Scripta tamen habeatur in fastis supemorum 
 civium. — (Zw. Epp. p. 186.) 
 
 t Ut mori pro Christo non usque ade6 detrec- 
 tem apud me. — (Ibid. 187.) 
 
 X Ut ursi tui ferociusculi, audita. Christi doc- 
 trine, mansuescere incipiant. — (Ibid ) The read- 
 er is aware, that a bear is the armorial device of 
 the Canton of Berne. 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 359 
 
 walls from which he has so long heen 
 banished. n * Thus was Berthold's lamp 
 kindled afresh by Ulric's, — and the 
 timid Haller could now unshrinkingly 
 encounter the savage brood of bears 
 " that gnashed their teeth," says Zwin- 
 gle, " and longed to devour hirn." 
 
 But it was in another quarter that the 
 persecution was to begin in Switzerland. 
 The warlike canton of Lucerne was 
 about to take the field, like a champion 
 sheathed in mail, and ready for the 
 charge. The military spirit had* full 
 sway in this canton, which was much 
 addicted to foreign alliances ; and the 
 great men of the city would knit their 
 brows if they heard so much as a pacific 
 whisper breathed to damp the martial 
 ardour of their country. It happened, 
 however, that some of Luther's writings 
 found their way into the city, and there 
 were certain citizens who set themselves 
 to peruse them. With what horror were 
 they seized as they read on ! It seemed 
 to them that none but an infernal hand 
 could have traced those lines ; their 
 imagination was excited, their senses 
 were bewildered, and they fancied that 
 the room was filled with devils gathering 
 thickly round them, and glaring on them 
 with a sardonic leer.f They shut the 
 book, and cast it from them in affright. 
 Oswald, who had heard these singular 
 visions related, never spoke of Luther 
 except to his most intimate friends ; con- 
 tenting himself with simply setting forth 
 the Gospel of Christ. The cry never- 
 theless was raised through the whole 
 city : — " To the stake with Luther and 
 the schoolmaster (Myconius)!"J — " I am 
 assailed by my enemies," said Oswald to 
 a friend of his, " as a ship is beaten by 
 the tempest."^ One day, early in the 
 year 1520, he was unexpectedly sum- 
 moned to appear before the Council. 
 " You are strictly enjoined," said the 
 magistrates, " never to read Luther's 
 writings to your pupils, — never to men- 
 tion his name in their hearing, — never 
 
 * Donee Christum, cucullatis nugis Ionge a 
 nobis exulem pro virili restituerim. — (Ibid. 187.) 
 
 t Dum Lutherum semel legerint, ut putarent 
 stubellam suam plenam esse daemonibus . . . — 
 (Zw. Epp. p. 137.) 
 
 t Clamatur hie per totam civitatem : Lutherum 
 comburendum et ludi magistrum. — (Ibid. 153.) 
 
 § Non aliter meimpelluntquam procellse mari- 
 nsB navem aliquam. — (Ibid. 159.) 
 
 even to think of him yourself."* The 
 lords of Lucerne were disposed, we per- 
 ceive, to confine their jurisdiction within 
 no narrow bounds. Shortly after this, a 
 preacher delivered a fierce philippic 
 against heresy from the pulpit. — A pow- 
 erful effect was produced upon the audi- 
 tory ; all eyes were turned upon Oswald, 
 for against whom else could the preacher 
 have meant to direct his discourse ? Os- 
 wald remained quiet in his seat, as if 
 the matter had not concerned him. But 
 when he and his friend, the canon Xyloc- 
 tect, amongst the rest of the congrega- 
 tion, were retiring from the church, one 
 of the councillors came up to them, with 
 an air that betrayed his internal discom- 
 posure, and said in an angry tone: — 
 " How now, ye disciples of Luther, why 
 do ye not defend your Master?" They 
 made no reply. " I live," said Myco- 
 nius, " in the midst of savage wolves ; 
 but I have this consolation, that the 
 greater part of them have lost their fangs. 
 They would bite if they could, and since 
 they cannot bite they howl." 
 
 The Senate was now convened, for 
 the tumult among the people was in- 
 creasing. " He is a Lutheran!" said 
 one of the councillors. " He broaches 
 new doctrines !" said another. " He is 
 a seducer of youth !" said a third. " Let 
 him appear! let him appear!" The 
 poor schoolmaster appeared accordingly, 
 and had to listen to fresh interdicts and 
 threats. His guileless spirit was wound- 
 ed and depressed. His gentle wife could 
 only comfort him by the tears of sym- 
 pathy which she shed. " Every one is 
 against me," said he, in the anguish of 
 his heart. " Whither shall I turn me 
 in the storm, or how escape its fury ? 
 Were it not for the help that Christ 
 gives me, I should long since have sunk 
 under this persecution."! — " What mat- 
 ters it," said Doctor Sebastine Hofmeis- 
 ter, writing to him from Constance, 
 " whether Lucerne will give you a home 
 or not ? The earth is the Lord's. The 
 man whose heart is stedfast finds a home 
 in every land. Were we even the vilest 
 of men, our cause is righteous, for we 
 teach the word of Christ." 
 
 Whilst the truth was struggling 
 
 * Im& ne in mentem eum admitt'erem. — (Ibid.) 
 t Si Chrislus non esset, jam olim defecissem. 
 — (Zw. Epp. p. 160.) 
 
360 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 against so much opposition at Lucerne, 
 it was gaining ground at Zurich. Zwin- 
 gle was unwearied in his labours. De- 
 sirous of studying the whole of the Scrip- 
 tures in the original languages, he had 
 applied himself diligently to the acquisi- 
 tion of the Hebrew under the direction 
 of John Boscherstein, a disciple of Reuch- 
 lin. But in studying the Scriptures, his 
 object was to make their contents known. 
 The peasants who brought their produce 
 on Fridays to the market of Zurich 
 showed great eagerness to become ac- 
 quainted with the word of God. To 
 meet their desire, Zwingle, in December, 
 1520, had commenced the practice of 
 expounding every Friday, a portion of 
 the Psalms, previously making that por- 
 tion the subject of his private medita- 
 tions. The Reformers always connect- 
 ed deep study with laborious ministry ; 
 — the ministry was the end, the study 
 was but the means. They were equally 
 diligent in the closet and the public as- 
 sembly. This union of learning with 
 Christian love is one of the character- 
 istics of the period. In his Sunday ex- 
 ercises, Zwingle, after having comment- 
 ed on St. Matthew's narrative of the life 
 of our Saviour, proceeded to show in a 
 course of lectures on the Acts of the 
 Apostles, how the doctrine of Christ had 
 been published to the world. He next 
 explained the rules of the Christian life, 
 as they are set forth in the ^Epistle to 
 Timothy ; — he drew arguments for the 
 refutation of errors in the doctrine from 
 the Epistle to the Galatians, — and to this 
 he joined the two Epistles of St. Peter, 
 in order to prove to the despisers of St. 
 Paul, that one and the same spirit an- 
 imated both the apostles ; he ended with 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, that he might 
 exhibit in their full extent the benefits 
 which flow from the gift of Jesus Christ, 
 as great high-priest of believers. 
 
 But Zwingle devoted not his attention 
 solely to men of mature age, he labour- 
 ed also to kindle a holy fire in the 
 bosom of the young. One day in the 
 same year 1521, as he sat in his closet, 
 occupied in studying the Fathers of the 
 Church, the most striking passages of 
 whose works he was collecting and care- 
 fully classing them in a large volume, — 
 the door was opened by a young man, 
 whose countenance and mien strongly 
 
 prepossessed him in his favour.* This 
 was Henry Bullinger, who had come to 
 visit him on his way home from Ger- 
 many, impelled by an earnest desire to 
 form an acquaintance with a teacher of 
 his native land, whose name was already 
 celebrated in Christendom. The come- 
 ly youth fixed his eyes by turns on the 
 Reformer and his books ; it seemed as 
 though he felt an instant call to follow 
 his example. Zwingle received him 
 with the cordiality that won the hearts 
 of all who accosted him. This first visit 
 had a powerful influence on the whole 
 life of the student after he returned to 
 his father's roof. Another young man 
 had also attracted Zwingle's regard ; this 
 was Gerold Meyer von Knonau. His 
 mother Anna Reinhardt, who afterwards 
 filled an important part in Zwingle's 
 history, had been greatly admired for her 
 beauty, and was still distinguished for 
 her virtues. A youth of noble family, 
 John Meyer von Knonau, who had been 
 brought up at the court of the Bishop 
 of Constance, his kinsman, had con- 
 ceived an ardent affection for Anna ; but 
 she was of plebeian birth. The elder 
 Meyer von Knonau refused his consent 
 to their union, and when he found that 
 it had taken place, he disinherited his 
 son. In 1513 Anna, was left a widow 
 with one son and two daughters, and the 
 education of her poor orphans now be- 
 came the sole object of her life. The 
 grandfather was inexorable. One day, 
 however, the widow's maid servant hav- 
 ing taken out young Gerold, a graceful 
 lively child, just three' years old, and 
 having stopped with him in the fish- 
 market, old Meyer, who was sitting at 
 the window,! happened to observe him, 
 followed his movements with his eyes, 
 and asked whose child it was, so fresh 
 and beautiful and joyous. "It is your 
 
 * Ich hab by Im eim gross Buch gesehen, 
 Locorum communium, als ich by Ihm wass, a°. 
 1521, dorinnen er Senientias und dogmata Pa- 
 trutn, flyssig jedes an seinem ort verzeichnet. — 
 (Bullinger, MS.) 
 
 t Liiget dess Kindts grossvater zum fanster 
 uss, und ersach das kind in dcr fischer branten 
 (Kufe,) so friich (frisch) und frolich sitzen .... 
 — (Archives des Meyer von Knonau, quoted in a 
 biographical notice of Anna Reinhardt, Erlan- 
 gen, 1835, by M. Gerold Meyer von Knonau.) I 
 am indebted to the kindness of this friend for the 
 elucidation of several obscure passages in Zwin- 
 gle's history. 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 361 
 
 own son's child I" was the reply. The 
 old man's heart was moved, its icy crust 
 was melted in a moment, — the past was 
 forgotten, and he hastened to clasp in his 
 arms the bereaved wife and children of 
 his son. Zwingle felt a father's love for 
 the young, the noble, and courageous 
 Gerold, whose destiny it was to perish in 
 his prime, at the Reformer's side, with 
 his hand upon his sword, and surround- 
 ed, alas! by the dead bodies of his ene- 
 mies. Thinking that Gerold could not 
 pursue his studies with advantage at 
 Zurich, Zwingle, in 1521, sent him to 
 Bale. 
 
 The young Von Knonau did n©t find 
 Zvvingle's friend Hedio at the Univer- 
 sity. Capito, being obliged to attend the 
 Archbishop Albert to the coronation of 
 Charles V., had sent for Hedio to take 
 his place at Mentz. Bale had thus with- 
 in a brief space been deprived of its two 
 most faithful preachers ; the church in 
 that city seemed to be left desolate ; but 
 other men now came forward. The 
 church of William Roubli, the curate of 
 Saint Albans, was thronged by an audit- 
 ory of four thousand persons. He in- 
 veighed against the mass, purgatory, and 
 the invocation of saints ; but he was a 
 man of a contentious spirit, greedy of pop- 
 ular admiration, — the antagonist of error 
 rather than the champion of truth. On 
 Corpus Christi day, he joined the great 
 procession ; but instead of the relics 
 which it was the practice to exhibit, a 
 magnificently decorated copy of the Holy 
 Scriptures was carried before him, bear- 
 ing this inscription in large letters, " The 
 Biblk ; this is the true relic ; all the rest 
 are but dead men's bones." — Courage 
 adorns the servant of God, but ostenta- 
 tion ill befits him. The work of an 
 Evangelist is to preach the Bible, — not 
 to make a pompous parade of it. The 
 irritated priests laid a charge against 
 Roubli before the Council. A crowd 
 immediately assembled in the square of 
 the Cordeliers. " Protect our preacher," 
 was the cry of the burghers, addressing 
 the Council. Fifty ladies of distinction 
 interceded in his behalf; but Roubli was 
 compelled to quit Bale. At a later pe- 
 riod he was implicated, like Grebel, in 
 the disorders of the Anabaptists. The 
 Reformation, in the course of its devel- 
 opement, never failed to cast out the 
 46 
 
 chaff that was mingled with the good 
 grain. 
 
 But now, in the lowliest of cbapels, a 
 humble voice was heard that distinctly 
 proclaimed the truths of tin' ' rospel. It 
 was the voice of the youthful Wolfgang 
 Wissemburger, the son of a counsellor 
 of State, and chaplain to the hospital. 
 Those of the inhabitants of Bale, whose 
 eyes were opened to their own spiritual 
 necessities, were induced to gather round 
 the meek-tempered chaplain, rather than 
 the arrogant Roubli. Wolfgang began 
 to read the mass in German. The 
 monks renewed their clamours ; but this 
 time they failed, and Wissemburger was 
 left free to preach the Gospel ; — " be- 
 cause," says an old chronicler, " he was 
 a burgher, and his father was a counsel- 
 lor."* These early advantages, gained 
 by the Reformation at Bale, gave token 
 of greater success to follow. Moreover, 
 they were of the utmost importance, as 
 they affected the progress of the work 
 throughout the whole of the confederated 
 cantons. Zurich no longer stood alone. 
 The enlightened city of Bale had begun 
 to listen to the new doctrine with delight. 
 The foundations of the renovated temple 
 were widening. The Reformation in 
 Switzerland had reached another stage 
 of its growth. 
 
 Zurich, however, was still the centre 
 of the movement. But in the course of 
 the year 1521, events of political import- 
 ance occurred, which brought bitter grief 
 to the heart of Zwingle, and in a meas- 
 ure distracted the attention of his coun- 
 trymen from the preaching of the Gospel. 
 Leo X. — who had proffered his alliance 
 simultaneously to Charles V. and to Fran- 
 cis I. — had at length determined in favour 
 of the Emperor. The war between the 
 two rivals was about to break out in 
 Italy. "We shall leave the Pope nothing 
 but his ears,"f said the French general 
 Lautrec. This sorry jest increased the 
 anger of the Pontiff The King of 
 France claimed the assistance of the 
 Swiss Cantons, which, with the exception 
 
 * Dieweil er ein Burger war und sein Vater 
 dcs Iiaths. — (Fridoliu Ryff's Chronik.) 
 
 f Disse che M. di Lutrech et M. de l'Escu 
 havia ditto clie'l voleva die ie recchia del Papa 
 fusse la major parte restasse di la so persona. — 
 (Gradenigo, the Venetian Ambassador at Romo, 
 MS. 1523.) 
 
362 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 of Zurich, were all in alliance with him ; 
 — it was afforded at his calf The Pope 
 conceived the hope of engaging Zurich 
 on his side ; and the Cardinal of Sion, 
 ever ready for intrigue, and relying on 
 his own dexterity and eloquence, imme- 
 diately visited the city, to procure a levy 
 of soldiers for his master. But he had 
 to encounter a vigorous opposition from 
 his old friend Zwingle. The latter was 
 indignant at the thought of the Swiss 
 selling their blood to foreigners ; his 
 imagination pictured to him the Zurich- 
 ers on the plains of Italy, under the stand- 
 ard of the Pope and the Emperor, rushing 
 with levelled pikes against the other con- 
 federates, who were gathered under the 
 banners of France ; and in the contem- 
 plation of that fratricidal scene, his patri- 
 otic and Christian soul was filled with 
 horror. He lifted up his admonitory 
 voice in the pulpit. " Will you rend 
 asunder and destroy the confederation?"* 
 cried he. " We give chase to the wolves 
 who ravage our flocks ; but we set no 
 guard against such as prowl around us 
 to devour our brethren ! Oh ! there is 
 good reason why their robes and hats 
 are red, if you only twitch those gar- 
 ments of theirs, ducats and crowns will 
 fall out : but if you grasp them tightly, 
 you will find them dripping with the 
 blood of your brothers, your fathers, your 
 sons, your dearest friends !"f In vain 
 did Zwingle record his energetic protest. 
 The Cardinal with his red hat prevailed, 
 and two thousand seven hundred Zurich- 
 ers marched out under the command of 
 George Berguer. Zwingle was deeply 
 afflicted. His efforts, however, were not 
 wholly unproductive of good. A long 
 period was to elapse before the banners 
 of Zurich should again be unfurled, and 
 carried through the city gates at the call 
 of a foreign prince. 
 
 Mortified by the ill success of the cause 
 which he had espoused as a citizen, Zwin- 
 gle devoted himself with renewed zeal to 
 the diffusion of the Gospel. He preached 
 with greater energy than ever. " I will 
 
 * Sagt wie es ein fromme Eidtgnossechafft 
 zertrennen und umbkehren wurde. — (Bullinger, 
 MS.) 
 
 t Sie tragen billig rothe hilt und mantel, dan 
 schiite man sie, so fallen cronen und Duggaten 
 heraus, — winde man sie, so runt deities Bruders, 
 Vaters, Sohns und guten Freunds Blut heraus. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 never desist," said he, " from my labours to 
 restore the primitive unity of the Church 
 of Christ."* He opened the year 1522, 
 with the first of a series of discourses in 
 which he pointed out the difference be- 
 tween the precepts of the Gospel and 
 those of men. When the season of Lent 
 arrived, his exhortations assumed a still 
 more impressive tone. Having laid the 
 foundations of the new edifice, he was 
 solicitous to clear away the ruins of the 
 old one. " For the space of four years," 
 said he to the crowd assembled in the 
 cathedral, " ye have gladly received the 
 holy doctrines of the Gospel. The love 
 of God has glowed within your bosoms, 
 — ye have tasted the sweetness of the 
 heavenly manna, — it is impossible that 
 ye should now find savour or sustenance 
 in human traditions."! He proceeded 
 to argue against the obligation to abstain 
 from flesh at particular seasons. " There 
 are some," he cried in a strain of unstud- 
 ied eloquence, " who pretend that to eat 
 flesh is a fault, — nay, a heinous sin, — 
 though God has never forbidden it, — but 
 who yet regard it as no sin at all to sell 
 human flesh to the foreigner, and deliver 
 their brethren to be butchered !"$ This 
 bold language could not fail to awaken 
 the indignation and anger of those among 
 his auditory who supported the military 
 compacts with foreign states ; they in- 
 wardly vowed that they would never 
 forget it. 
 
 While he preached thus fearlessly, 
 Zwingle still continued to say mass ; he 
 observed the rules established by the 
 church, and even abstained from flesh 
 on the appointed days. He recognised 
 the necessity of enlightening the minds 
 of the people in the first place. But 
 there were some turbulent spirits who 
 acted with less prudence. Roubli, who 
 had found an asylum at Zurich, allowed 
 himself to be hurried blindly along by 
 the impulse of an overcharged zeal. He, 
 but lately the curate of Saint Albans, — 
 a Bernese captain, — and Conrad Huber, 
 a member of the Great Council, — were 
 accustomed to meet together at Huber's 
 
 * Ego veterem Christi ecclesias unitatem in- 
 staurare non desinam. — (Zw. Opp. iii. 47.) 
 
 t Gustum non aliquis humanarum traditionum 
 cibils vobis arridere potuerit. — (Ibid. i. 2.) 
 
 t Aber menschentleisch verkaufen un zu Tod 
 schlagen . . . — (Ibid. ii. 2nd part, 301.) 
 
THE SWISS— 14S4— 1523. 
 
 3G3 
 
 house, for the express purpose of eating 
 flesh on Fridays and Saturdays, an ex- 
 ploit in which they greatly prided them- 
 selves. The question of abstinence be- 
 gan to engross the public attention. A 
 native of Lucerne, who was on a visit in 
 Zurich, said to a citizen with whom he 
 was familiar : — " You do wrong, — you 
 worthy confederates of Zurich, — to eat 
 flesh during Lent." The Zuricher : 
 " But you also, good folks of Lucerne, 
 take the liberty of eating it on days when 
 it is forbidden." The Lucernese : " We 
 purchased our license from the Pope." 
 The Zuricher : " And we ours from the 
 butcher* .... If it is au affair of money,, 
 the one, surely, is as good as the other." 
 The Council having been called upon 
 to punish those who transgressed the 
 ecclesiastical ordinances, requested the 
 opinion of the curates on this matter. 
 Zwingle replied that the practice of eat- 
 ing flesh on all days alike was in itself 
 harmless ; but that it was right to abstain 
 from adopting it, until the question should 
 have been decided by some competent 
 authority. The other members of the 
 clerical body concurred in the same 
 opinion. 
 
 The enemies of the truth took ad- 
 vantage of this fortunate circumstance. 
 Their influence was fast declining, — 
 Zwingle's ascendancy becoming para- 
 mount, — it was necessary to strike a 
 prompt and vigorous blow. They ad- 
 dressed an urgent appeal to the Bishop 
 of Constance. " Zwingle," cried they, 
 '' is the destroyer, not the pastor, of the 
 Lord's flock. M t 
 
 The ambitious Faber, Zwingle's for- 
 mer friend, had recently undertaken a 
 journey to Rome, and returned full of 
 zeal for the Papacy. To the notions 
 which he had imbibed during his so- 
 journ in that imperious court, we must 
 ascribe the first outbreak of the religious 
 troubles in Switzerland. The time had 
 now arrived for a decisive struggle be- 
 tween gospel truth and the retainers of 
 the Roman Pontiff Until the truth has 
 been exposed to hostile efforts, its innate 
 power is never fully elicited. It was un- 
 der the cold shadow of opposition and 
 
 * So haben wirs von dem Metzger erkaufft . . . 
 — > Bullinger, MS.) 
 
 + Ovilis dominici populator esse, non custos 
 aut pastor. — (Zvv. Opp. iii.) 
 
 CUtlOD that Christianity in its ear- 
 liest growth acquired the strength by 
 which its enemies were eventually dis- 
 comfited And at the epoch of the 
 
 great revival which forms the subject of 
 this history, it was the will of God that 
 His truth should march onward in the 
 same rugged and thorny track-. The 
 high-priests then, as in the days of the 
 Apostles, set themselves against the new 
 doctrine. But for these assaults, it might, 
 perhaps, have remained concealed in the 
 secret chamber of a ihw believing b 
 But God's puipose was to manifest it to 
 the world. Opposition had the i 
 clearing new avenues for its pas 
 launching it on a new career, ami fi 
 on it the eyes ' of the entire nation. It 
 operated like the gust of wind that scat- 
 ters the seed to a distance, which other- 
 wise, perhaps, might have laid inert and 
 unprofitable in the spot where it felL 
 The tree under whose salutary foli 
 the tribes of Helvetia were to find rest 
 and shelt-r had been planted, indeed, in 
 the depths of her valleys : but the storm 
 was needed to give its roots a firmer hold 
 of the soil, and to enlarge the covert of 
 its branches. The partisans of the Pa- 
 pacy no sooner caught a glimpse of the 
 flame that had been kindled at Zurich, 
 than they hastened, while it was yet 
 smouldering, to stifle it ; but their efforts 
 served only to fan it into vigour. 
 
 On the 7th of April, 1522, in the after 
 part of the day, three ecclesiastics en- 
 trusted with a mission from the Bishop 
 of Constance, entered the walls of Zu- 
 rich. Two of them had an austere and 
 angry cast of countenance, the third was 
 of gentler aspect. These persons were 
 Melchior Battli, the bishop's coadjutor, 
 Doctor Brendi, lastly John Vanner, the 
 preacher of the cathedral, a man of 
 evangelic piety, who was silent through- 
 out the whole affair.* It was already 
 late in the evening when Luti ran to 
 Zwingle to tell him the news. " Officers 
 have arrived from the bishop," said he, 
 " some great blow is to be struck ; all 
 
 * (Zw. Opp. p. 8.)— J. J. Hottinger (iii. 77.) 
 Ruchat (i. 134, 2nd edition,) and others say, that 
 Faber was at the head of the deputation. Zwin- 
 gle gives the names of the three deputies, and 
 makes no mention of Faber. The authors first 
 cited have no doubt confounded two distinct of- 
 fices of the Roman hierarchy, — the coadjutor 
 and the vicar-general. 
 
364 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 who favour the old customs are in com- 
 motion. A notary is now going- round 
 to give notice of an assembly of the 
 clergy to be held at an early hour to- 
 morrow in the Chapter-house." 
 
 The assembly was held accordingly 
 on the following morning ; when the Co- 
 adjutor rose and delivered a speech, 
 which his opponents characterized as 
 violent and arrogant;* he studiously 
 refrained, however, from mentioning 
 Zwingle by name. Some priests who 
 had lately been won over to the Gospel, 
 and who were yet weak in the faith, 
 were overawed ; — their paleness, their 
 silence, their sighs, testified that they had 
 iost all courage. f Zwingle stood up 
 and delivered a speech which his adver- 
 saries made no attempt to answer. At 
 Zurich, as in the other cantons, the most 
 violent enemies of the new doctrine were 
 to be found in the smaller Council. The 
 deputies having been baffled in the meet- 
 ing of the clergy, now carried their com- 
 plaint before the magistrates ; Zwingle 
 was absent; they had therefore no re- 
 ply to fear. The result appeared de- 
 cisive. The Gospel and its champion 
 were on the point of being condemned 
 without a hearing. Never was the 
 Reformation in Switzerland in more im- 
 minent peril. It seemed destined to be 
 smothered in its cradle. In this emer- 
 gency, the councillors who were friendly 
 to Zwingle appealed to the jurisdiction 
 of the Great Council, — it was their only 
 remaining resource, and God was pleased 
 to make it availing for the preservation 
 of the Gospel. The Two Hundred 
 were convened. The partisans of the 
 Papacy used every endeavour to exclude 
 Zwingle from that assembly. Zwingle 
 struggled hard to obtain admission. He 
 knocked at every door, as he himself 
 tells us, and left not a stone unturned ; J — 
 but all in vain. " It is impossible !" said 
 the Burgomasters ; " The Council has 
 signed an order to the contrary."— 
 " Thereupon," says Zwingle, " I desist- 
 ed, and with heavy sighs laid the matter 
 before Him who hears the grodnings of 
 
 * Erat tota oratio vehemens et stomachi su- 
 percilique plena — (Zw. Opp. 3. 8.) 
 
 t Infirmos quosdam nuper Christo lucrifactos 
 s^cerdotes offensos ea sentirem ex tacitis pallori- 
 bus ac suspiriis.— (Ibid. 9.) 
 
 t Frustra diu movi omnem lapidem. — (Ibid.) 
 
 the prisoner, beseeching him to succour 
 his Gospel."* "The patient and submis- 
 sive expectation of a servant of God is 
 never disappointed. 
 
 On the ninth of April the Two Hun- 
 dred were assembled. " We must have 
 our pastors here," said those members at 
 once, who were friendly to the Reforma- 
 tion. The smaller Council objected; 
 but the great Council determined that 
 the pastors should be present at the ac- 
 cusation, and might even reply to it, if 
 they should think fit. The deputies 
 from Constance were ushered in first, — 
 and then the three ourates of Zurich, 
 Zwingle, Engelhard, and the aged 
 Roeschli. 
 
 After the adverse parties who were 
 thus brought face to face had regarded 
 each other for a while with scrutinizing 
 glances, the Coadjutor rose to speak. 
 " If his heart and his head had only been 
 matched with his voice," says Zwingle, 
 '• he would have excelled Apollo and 
 Orpheus in sweetness, and the Gracchi 
 and Demosthenes in power." 
 
 "The civil constitution," said the cham- 
 pion of the Papacy, " and the Christian 
 religion itself are threatened with ruin. 
 Men have appeared amongst us teaching 
 newly-invented doctrines, that are equally 
 abominable and seditious." He went on 
 for some time in the same strain, and 
 then fixing his eyes on the assembled 
 senators before whom he stood : " Con- 
 tinue in the Church," said he, " continue 
 in the Church. Out of the Church none 
 can be saved. The ceremonies of the 
 Church alone can bring unlearned Chris- 
 tians to the knowledge of salvation :f 
 and the pastors of the flock have no- 
 thing to do but to explain the significa- 
 tion of these ceremonies to the people." 
 
 When the Coadjutor had finished his 
 speech and resumed his seat for a mo- 
 ment, he again rose, and was preparing 
 with his colleagues to leave the council- 
 hall, when Zwingle earnestly addressed 
 him. — " Reverend Coadjutor !" said he, 
 " and you, Sirs, who bear him company ! 
 I beseech you to stay until I have an- 
 swered this charge." 
 
 * Ibi ego quiescere ac suspiriis rem agere ccepi 
 apud eum qui audit gemitum compeditorum. — 
 (Zw. Opp. 3. 9.) 
 
 t Unicas esse per quas simplices Christiani ad 
 agnitjonem salutis inducerentur. — (Ibid. 10.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 365 
 
 The Coadjutor. " It is not our com- 
 mission to dispute with any one." 
 
 Zwingle. ; ' I wish not to dispute, but 
 to state unreservedly what my doctrine 
 has been up to this hour." 
 
 The Burgomaster. Roust, addressing 
 the deputies from Constance : " I pray 
 you listen to what the curate hns to say 
 in reply." 
 
 The Coadjutor. " I know too well 
 the man I have to deal with. Ulric 
 Zwingle is too violent for any discussion 
 to be held with him." 
 
 Zwingle. "Was there, ever an in- 
 stance before of an innocent man being 
 so vehemently attacked, and then denied 
 a hearing? In the name of that faith 
 which we all profess, — in the name of 
 the baptism which each of us has re- 
 ceived, — in the name of Christ, the au- 
 thor of salvation and eternal life, — I ad- 
 jure you to listen to me !* If you can- 
 not as deputies, — do so, at least, as Chris- 
 tians !" 
 
 After having discharged her idle vol- 
 ley, Rome was hastily retreating from 
 the field of battle. The Reformer was 
 anxious only to be heard ; the Papal en- 
 voys thought but of escaping. A cause 
 thus advocated was already gained by 
 the one party and lost by the other. The 
 Two Hundred could no longer contain 
 their indignation ; — a murmurf ran 
 through the whole assembly ; again the 
 Burgomaster remonstrated with the dep- 
 uties. At last, abashed and silenced, 
 they returned to their seats. Then 
 Zwingle spoke as follows : — 
 
 " The Reverend Coadjutor talks of 
 doctrines that are seditious and subver- 
 sive of civil authority. Let him learn 
 that Zurich is more tranquil and more 
 obedient to the laws than any city in 
 Switzerland, — a blessing which all good 
 Christians attribute to the Gospel. What 
 influence so powerful as that of Chris- 
 tianity to maintain good order in "a com- 
 munity 1% As for ceremonies, what pur- 
 pose do they serve but to disfigure the 
 
 * Ob communem fidem, ob communem bap- 
 tismum, ob Christum vitse salustisque auctorem. 
 — (Zw. Opp. 3. 11.) 
 
 t Coepit murmur audiri civium indignantium. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 X Imo Christianismum ad communem justi- 
 tiam servandam esse potentissimum.— (Zw. Opp. 
 iii. 13.) 
 
 lineaments of Christ and his followers?* 
 No, — it is not by vain observances like 
 these thai the unlearned multitude can 
 be brought to the knowledge of the truth. 
 There is another ami a better way. It 
 is the way that Christ and his apoetles 
 have marked out for us, — even the Gos- 
 pel itself. Let ns not be told that the 
 people cannot understand the Gospel. 
 Whosoever believes must needs under- 
 stand. The people can believe ; there- 
 fore they can understand. This is an 
 operation of the Holy Spirit, — not of the 
 human intellect. f With regard to ab- 
 stinence, let him who thinks forty days 
 insufficient, — fast, if he will, all the year 
 round :■ — it concerns not me ! All that 
 I contend for is, that no ofte should be 
 compelled to fast ; and that the Zurich- 
 ers ought not, for the neglect of this petty 
 observance, to be accused of withdrawing 
 themselves from the communion of Chris- 
 tians . . ." 
 
 " I never said that!" cried the Coad- 
 jutor. " No !" said his colleague, Doctor 
 Brendi, " he did not say that." But the 
 Senate unanimously confirmed the asser- 
 tion of Zwingle. 
 
 " Worthy fellow-citizens," continued 
 Zwingle, " let not this accusation move 
 you. The foundation of the Church is 
 the same rock, the same Christ — that 
 gave Peter his name, because he con- 
 fessed him faithfully. In every nation 
 whosoever believes with all his heart in 
 the Lord Jesus is accepted of God Here. 
 truly, is the Church, out of which no one 
 can be saved. % To explain the Gospel, 
 and to obey it, — such is the sum of our 
 duty as the ministers of Christ." 
 
 " Let those who live upon ceremonies 
 make it their business to explain them !" 
 — This was probing the wound to the 
 quick. 
 
 A flush passed over the Coadjutor's 
 face, but he remained silent. The as- 
 sembly of the Two Hundred broke up. 
 On the same day they came to the reso- 
 lution, that the Pope and the cardinals 
 should be requested to explain the con- 
 troverted point, and that in the mean 
 time abstinence from flesh should be ob- 
 
 * Ceremonias haud quicquam aliud agere quam 
 et Christo et ejus fidelibus os obiinere. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Quidquid hie agitur divino fit afilatu, non 
 humano ratiocinio. — (Ibid.) 
 
 X Extra illam neminein salvaxi. — (Ibid. 3. 15.) 
 
360 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 served during- Lent. This was leaving 
 the matter as it stood, and meeting the 
 bishop by an expedient to gain time. 
 
 The effect of this controversy was to 
 forward the work of the Reformation. 
 The champions of Rome, and those of 
 the new doctrines, had encountered each 
 other, in the presence, it might be said, 
 of tiie whole people, and the issue had 
 not been to the advantage of the former. 
 This was the first conflict in a warfare 
 which was destined to be long and diffi- 
 cult, and .marked by many vicissitudes 
 of humiliation and rejoicing. But vic- 
 tory won at the commencement of a con- 
 test inspires an army with courage, and 
 strikes terror into the enemy. The Ref- 
 ormation had gained a vantage-ground, 
 from which it was not to be dislodged. 
 The Council, indeed, found it necessary 
 to proceed with caution : but the people 
 loudly proclaimed the defeat of Rome. 
 " Never," said they, in the exultation of 
 the moment, " never again can she rally 
 her scattered forces."* " You have 
 shown the spirit of St. Paul himself," 
 said one of Zwingle's correspondents, 
 " in this manful attack on those whited 
 walls, — those false apostles and their 
 Ananias. The servants of Antichrist 
 can now only gnash their teeth against 
 you !" — From the heart of Germany 
 there came voices that hailed him — " the 
 glory of regenerated theology!"! 
 
 But in the mean time the enemies of 
 the truth were collecting all their strength. 
 If the Gospel was to be suppressed at all, 
 there was no time to be lost, for it would 
 soon bid defiance to their efforts. Hoff- 
 man impeached the Reformer in a writ- 
 ten discourse of great length, which he 
 addressed to the chapter. "Even though 
 the curate," said he, " could bring for- 
 ward witnesses to prove that certain of- 
 fences or disorders had been committed 
 by ecclesiastics in such and such a con- 
 vent, or street, or tavern, it would be a 
 breach of duty to name the delinquents! 
 Why does he insinuate — (it is true I 
 have scarcely ever heard him myself) 
 that he alone derives his doctrine from 
 the fountain-head, while others draw 
 
 * Ut, vulgo jactatum sit, nunquam ultra co- 
 pias sarturos — (Zw. Epp. 203.) 
 
 t Vale renascentis Theologiae decus. — (Letter 
 of Urban Regius. Zw. Epp, 205.) 
 
 theirs from puddles and kennels ?* Is 
 it not impossible, — seeing the difference 
 of men's minds— thatall preachers should 
 preach alike?" 
 
 Zwingle defended himself in a full 
 assembly of the chapter, scattering his 
 adversary's charges, '■ as a bull with his 
 horns scatters a wisp of straw to the 
 wind."| The affair which had appear- 
 ed so serious, ended in a peal of laugh- 
 ter at the canon's expense. But Zwin- 
 gle did not stop here ; — on the 16th of 
 April he published a treatise " on thefree 
 use ofmeats. r '\ 
 
 The Reformer's unconquerable firm- 
 ness was a cause of rejoicing to all who 
 loved the truth, and particularly to the 
 evangelical Christians of Germany, af- 
 flicted as they were by the long impris- 
 onment at Wartburg, of that eminent 
 apostle who had first appeared in the bo- 
 som of the Church. Already there were 
 instances of pastors and believing laymen 
 who had been driven into exile by the 
 rigorous edict which Charles, under the 
 influence of the Papacy, had issued at 
 Worms, — and who had found an asylum 
 at Zurich. " Oh, how it gladdens my 
 heart !" was the language of a letter 
 written to Zwingle by Nesse, the pro- 
 fessor of Frankfort, whom Luther had 
 visited on his way to the Diet : — " how 
 it gladdens my heart to hear with what 
 boldness you are preaching Christ Jesus ! 
 Strengthen by your exhortations, I be- 
 seech you, those whom the cruelty of un- 
 worthy prelates has banished from our 
 bereaved churches."^ 
 
 But it was not in Germany alone that 
 the friends of the Reformation were ex- 
 posed to the deadly machinations of their 
 adversaries. Not a day passed but secret 
 meetings were held at Zurich, to devise 
 some method of getting rid of Zwingle. || 
 One day he received an anonymous let- 
 ter, which he immediately communi- 
 
 * Die andern aber aus Rinnen und Pfutzen. 
 — (Simml. Samml. Wirz. I. 244.) 
 
 t Ut cornu vehemens taurus aristas. — (Zw. 
 Epp. p. 203.) 
 
 X De deluctu et libero ciborum usu. — (Zw. 
 Opp. i. 1.) 
 
 § Et ut iis qui ob malorum episcoporum srevi- 
 tiam a nobis submoventur prodesse velis. — (Zw. 
 Epp. p. 208.) 
 
 || Nulla praeterierat hora, in qua non fierent . . . 
 consultationes insidiosissimas. — (Osw. Myc Vit 
 Zw.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1481— 1522. 
 
 367 
 
 catcd to his two vicars. " You are beset 
 with snares on every side," said the wri- 
 ter ; " a potent poison has been prepared 
 to deprive you of life.* Partake of no 
 food but in your own house ; eat no bread 
 but what your own cook has baked. 
 There are those within the walls of Zu- 
 rich who are leagued for your destruc- 
 tion. The oracle which has revealed 
 this to me, is better entitled to credit than 
 that of Delphi. I am your friend ; my 
 name you shall know hereafter."! 
 
 On the morning following the day on 
 which Zwingle received this mysterious 
 epistle, just as Staheli was entering- the 
 Water-church, a chaplain stopped him 
 and said — " Leave Zwingle's house with 
 all speed ; a catastrophe is at hand !" 
 Some unknown fanatics, who despaired 
 of seeing the Reformation checked by 
 words, had betaken themselves to the 
 dagger. When mighty revolutions are 
 in progress, and the foul dregs of society 
 are heaved upon its agitated surface, we 
 often see the assassin playing a conspic- 
 uous part. Zwingle was preserved, how- 
 ever, for God watched over him. 
 
 But while the plots of the murderers 
 were baffled, the legitimate engines of 
 the Papacy were again put in motion. 
 The bishop and his counsellors were de- 
 termined to renew the war. Tidings to 
 this effect reached Zwingle from every 
 quarter. The Reformer, still leaning on 
 the word of God, replied with high- 
 minded intrepidity : — " I fear them as a 
 lofty crag fears the roaring waves that 
 dash against the base.":}: . . . civ t<d Qe£. 
 " God being my helper," added he. On 
 the 2nd of May, the Bishop of Constance 
 issued a mandate, in which, without any 
 mention of Zurich, or of Zwingle,- he 
 complained that evil-disposed persons 
 were reviving doctrines which had long 
 since been condemned, and that learned 
 and unlearned men were alike every 
 where irreverently discussing the most 
 exalted mysteries. John Vanner, preach- 
 er of the cathedral of Constance, was the 
 first who was individually attacked. " I 
 choose," said he, " rather to be a Chris- 
 tian, though I incur the hatred of many, 
 
 *"Era(/ia (p'ippaxa \vyp~d. — (Ibid. 199.) 
 + E<5; £i>i ; agnosces me postea. — (Ibid.) 
 X Quos ita metuo ut litus altum fluctuum un- 
 das minacium. — (Zw. Epp. 203.) 
 
 than to purchase the friendship of the 
 world by forsaking Christ!"* 
 
 But it was at Zurich that the death- 
 blow must be dealt against the infant 
 heresy. Faber and the bishop knew 
 that Zwingle had many enemies among 
 the canons. They resolved to take ad* 
 vantage of this circumstance. Towards 
 the end of May a letter from the bishop 
 was received at Zurich, ad o the 
 
 principal and chapter. "Sons of the 
 Church," said the prelate, "let those 
 ! ri b who will perish! but let oon ■ en- 
 tice you to abandon the Church."! At 
 the same time, the bishop charged the 
 canons to prevent those pernicious doc- 
 trines which were giving birth to dan- 
 gerous sects from being preached among 
 them, or made the subject of discussion 
 either in private or in public. When 
 this letter was read in the chapter, all 
 eyes were turned upon Zwingle. He 
 could not but know what that look im- 
 plied. " You think," said he, u 1 per- 
 ceive that this letter has reference to me ; 
 be pleased to deliver it to me then, and, 
 by God's help, I will answer it." 
 
 Zwingle's answer was embodied in a 
 work, bearing the title of Archctelcs, 
 which signifies the " beginning and the 
 end ;" '• for," said he, " 1 hope that this 
 my first reply will also be my last." in 
 this production, he speaks in a very re- 
 spectful manner of the bishop, and as- 
 cribes all the hostility of which he had 
 to complain to the malevolence of a few 
 designing men. ' : What, after all, is my 
 offence.- 1, he asks, "I have endeavoured 
 to open men's eyes to the peril of their 
 souls ; I have laboured to bring them to 
 the knowledge of the only true God, and 
 Christ Jesus his Son. To this end I 
 have employed no subtle arguments, but 
 the word, of truth and soberness, such as 
 my brethren of Switzerland could un- 
 derstand." Then exhanging his defen- 
 sive posture for that of an assailant, he 
 significantly adds : " Julius Caesar, when 
 he felt that he had received a mortal 
 wound, exerted his remaining strength 
 to gather his robe around him, that he 
 
 * Malo esse Christianus cum multorum invidia 
 quam relinquere Christum propter mundauonun 
 amicitiam.— (Ibid. 200, 22 May.) 
 
 t Nemo vos filios ecclesiae de ecclesia tollat. — 
 (Zw. Opp. 3. 35.) 
 
368 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 might fall with dignity. The downfall 
 of your ceremonies is at hand ; be it 
 your care to give their fate what decency 
 you may, — and to speed the inevitable 
 transition from darkness to light."* 
 
 This was all the effect produced by 
 the bishop's letter to the chapter of Zu- 
 ^rich. Since every milder expedient 
 proved ineffectual, it became necessary 
 now to strike a vigorous blow. Faber 
 and Landenberg cast their eyes around 
 them, and fixed them at last on the Diet, 
 — the Council of the Helvetic nation. f 
 Deputies from the bishop presented them- 
 selves before that assembly ; they stated 
 that their master had issued a mandate 
 forbidding the priests of his diocese to 
 attempt any innovation in matters of doc- 
 trine ; that his injunction had been set 
 at nought, and that he consequently ap- 
 pealed to the heads of the Confederation 
 to aid him in reducing the rebels to obe- 
 dience, and in maintaining the true and 
 ancient faith.}: The enemies of the Ref- 
 ormation had the ascendancy in this su- 
 preme assembly of the nation. But a 
 little before, it had issued a decree by 
 which all priests were required to desist 
 from preaching ; on the ground that their 
 discourses tended to stir up dissensions 
 among the people. This decree of the 
 Diet, its first act of interference with the 
 Reformation, had not hitherto been en- 
 forced ; but now, being bent on rigorous 
 measures, the assembly summoned before 
 it Urban Weiss, the pastor of Fislispach, 
 near Baden, who was accused by public 
 report of preaching the new doctrine, 
 and rejecting the old. The proceedings 
 against Weiss were suspended for a 
 while at the intercession of a numerous 
 body of citizens, — security having first 
 been exacted from him to the amount of 
 a hundred florins, which were collected 
 by his parishioners. 
 
 But the Diet had taken a side in the 
 contest ; this was evident, and the monks 
 and priests began to recover their cour- 
 age. At Zurich they had assumed a 
 haughtier aspect immediately on the pro- 
 mulgation of the first decree. Several 
 
 * In umbrarum locum lux quara ocissime in- 
 ducatur.— (Zw. Opp. 3. 69.) 
 
 t Nam er ein anderen Weg an die Hand ; — 
 echike seine Boten . . . &c. — (Bulllinger, MS.) 
 
 t Und den waliren alten Glauben erhallten. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 members of the Council were accustomed 
 to visit the three convents every mornino- 
 and evening, and even to take their meals 
 there. The monks lectured their well- 
 meaning guests, and urged them to pro- 
 cure an ordinance from the government 
 in their favour. " If Zwingle will not 
 hold his peace," said they, " we will cry 
 out louder than he !" The Diet had 
 openly espoused the cause of the oppres- 
 sors : the Council of Zurich knew not 
 how to act. On the 7th of June, it pub- 
 lished an ordinance forbidding any one 
 to preach against the monks ; but no 
 sooner had this ordinance been voted, 
 than " a sudden noise was heard in the 
 council-chamber," says Bullinger's Chro- 
 nicle, — " so that all present looked at 
 each other in dismay."* Tranquillity 
 was not restored ; on the contrary, the 
 contest which was carried on in the pul- 
 pits grew warmer every day. The Coun- 
 cil appointed a committee before whom 
 the pastors of Zurich and the readers 
 and preachers of the convents were re- 
 spectively summoned to appear in the 
 Principal's dwelling-house. After a keen 
 debate, the Burgomaster enjoined both 
 parties to refrain from preaching any- 
 thing that might breed discord. " I can- 
 not submit to this injunction," said Zwin- 
 gle ; " I claim the right of preaching the 
 Gospel freely, without any condition 
 whatsoever, agreeably to the former or- 
 dinance. I am bishop and pastor of Zu- 
 rich ; it is to me that the care of souls 
 has been confided. I am under the obli- 
 gation of an oath, from which the monks 
 are exempt. They are the party who 
 ought to give way, — not I. If they 
 preach what is false, I will contradict 
 them, were it even in the pulpit of their 
 own convent. If I myself preach any 
 doctrine contrary to the Holy Gospel, 
 then I desire to be rebuked, not only by 
 the chapter, but by any private citizen,! 
 and moreover to be punished by the 
 Council." — "And we," said the monks, 
 " on our part, demand permission to 
 preach the doctrines of St. Thomas." 
 The committee of the Council, after 
 mature deliberation, determined " that 
 Thomas Aquinas, Scotus, and the other 
 
 * Liess die Rathstuben einen grossen Knall. 
 — (Bullinger, MS.) 
 
 + Sondern von einem jedem Burger wyssen. 
 —(Bullinger, MS.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 369 
 
 doctors should be laid aside, and that 
 preachers should confine themselves to 
 the Holy Gospel." Again, therefore, 
 the truth was triumphant. But the an- 
 ger of those who supported the Papacy- 
 was inflamed to a higher pitch. The 
 Italian canons could not conceal their 
 fury. They cast insulting glances at 
 Zwingle in the chapter, and seemed to 
 be thirsting for his blood.* 
 
 These tokens of hostility could not in- 
 timidate Zwingle. There was one place 
 in Zurich where, thanks to the Domini- 
 cans, no ray of light had hitherto enter- 
 ed ; this was the nunnery of Octenbach. 
 The daughters of the first families of 
 Zurich were accustomed to take the veil 
 there. It seemed unjust that these poor 
 females, shut up within the walls of their 
 convent, should alone be debarred from 
 hearing the word of God. The Great 
 Council ordered Zwingle to visit them. 
 The Reformer accordingly mounted the 
 pulpit which none but the Dominicans 
 had hitherto occupied, and delivered a 
 sermon " On the clearness and certainty 
 of the word of God."f He afterwards 
 published this remarkable discourse, 
 which produced a great effect, and still 
 further contributed to exasperate the 
 monks. 
 
 An event now occurred which enlarg- 
 ed the sphere of this religious animosity, 
 and communicated it to many a heart 
 which had as yet been a stranger to its 
 influence. The Swiss, under the com- 
 mand of Stein and Winkelried, had suf- 
 fered a bloody defeat at Bicocca. They 
 had made a gallant attack on the enemy; 
 but the artillery of Pescara, and the lanz- 
 knechts of that same Freundsberg whom 
 Luther had encountered at the door of 
 the Council-hall at Worms, had over- 
 thrown officers and standards, and whole 
 companies at once had been mowed down 
 and exterminated. Winkelried and Stein, 
 • • with many inferior chiefs who bore the 
 illustrious names of Mulinen, and Dies- 
 bach, and Bonstetten, and Tschudi, and 
 Pfyffer, had been left on the field of bat- 
 tle. Schwitz, in particular, had been 
 bereft of the bravest of her sons. The 
 mangled remnant of that disastrous con- 
 
 * Oculos in me procacius torquent, ut cujus 
 caput peti gauderent. — (Zw. Opp. iii. 29.) 
 
 t De claritate et certitudine verbi Dei. — (Ibid. 
 i. 66.) 
 
 47 
 
 flict returned to Switzerland, carrying 
 mourning in their train. A cry of un- 
 mingled lamentation resounded from the 
 Alps to the Jura, from the Rhone even 
 to the Rhine. 
 
 But no one felt this calamity more keen- 
 ly than Zwingle. He immediately address- 
 ed a letter to the canton of Schwitz to dis- 
 suade the citizens of that state from en- 
 gaging again in foreign service. " Your 
 ancestors," said he, with all the warmth 
 of a true-hearted Switzer, " contended 
 with their enemies in defence of their 
 liberties ; but never did they imbrue 
 their hands in Christian blood. These 
 foreign wars bring upon our country in- 
 calculable evils. The anger of God de- 
 scends upon the States, and Swiss liberty 
 is almost lost between the interested 
 caresses and mortal hatred of foreign 
 Princes."* Zwingle gave the right 
 hand to Nicolas Von Flue, and support- 
 ed the appeal of that friend of peace. 
 This remonstrance, being presented at a 
 general assembly of the people of Schwitz, 
 produced such an impression, that it was 
 decreed that provisionally the state would 
 decline any alliance for the next twenty- 
 five years. But it was not long before the 
 French party procured the revocation of 
 this noble resolution ; and from that time 
 Schwitz was, of all the cantons, the most 
 opposed to Zwingle and his efforts. Even 
 the disgraces that the same party drew 
 upon their country served but to increase , 
 their hatred of the bold preacher who 
 was striving to avert them. A violent 
 opposition was formed against Zurich 
 and Zwingle. The usages of the Church, 
 and the recruiting services, attacked at 
 the same moment, mutually supported 
 each other against the rising wind which 
 threatened both with downfall. Mean- 
 while, enemies were multiplying from 
 without. It was no longer the Pope 
 alone, but the other foreign princes, who 
 vowed irreconcilable hatred to the Ref- 
 ormation. Its effect went to deprive 
 them of those Swiss halberds which had 
 added so many triumphs to their ambi- 
 tion ... On the side of the Gospel there 
 remained — God — and the excellent of the 
 earth : — it was more than enough. Di- 
 vine Providence was besides bringing to 
 
 * Ein gottlich Vermanung an die ehreamen, 
 &c. eidgnossen zu Schwyz. — (Zw. Opp. ii. 2nd 
 part, 206.) 
 
370 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 its support men of different countries who 
 were persecuted for their faith. 
 
 On Saturday the 12th of July, the in- 
 habitants of Zurich witnessed the arrival 
 in their streets of a monk, of tall, thin, 
 and gaunt stature, habited in the grey 
 frock of the Cordeliers, of foreign ap- 
 pearance and mounted on an ass ; his 
 bare feet almost touching the ground.* 
 In this manner he arrived from the road 
 leading to Avignon, not knowing a word 
 of German. However, by means of 
 Latin he contrived to make himself un- 
 derstood. Francis Lambert (for that 
 was his name), inquired for Zwingle, 
 and handed to him a letter from Berthold 
 Haller : " The Franciscan father who is 
 the bearer of this," wrote the Bernese 
 curate, " is no other than apostolic preach- 
 er to the convent-general at Avignon. 
 For the last five years he has been teach- 
 ing the true Christian doctrine ; he has 
 preached in Latin to our clergy at Ge- 
 neva, at Lausanne, before the bishop, at 
 Friburg, and latterly at Berne, touching 
 the church, the priesthood, the sacrament 
 of the mass, the traditions of the Roman 
 bishops, and the superstitions of religious 
 orders. To me, such teaching from a 
 Cordelier, and a Frenchman, (both char- 
 acters that, as you know, suppose a host 
 of superstitions) seemed a thing unpre- 
 cedented."! The Frenchman himself 
 recounted to Zwingle that the writings 
 of Luther having been discovered in his 
 cell, he had been obliged to leave Avig- 
 non at a moment's warning ; how he had 
 first preached the Gospel in the city of 
 Geneva, and afterwards at Lausanne, on 
 the banks of the same lake. Zwingle, 
 quite overjoyed, threw open to him the 
 church of our Lady, — assigning' him a 
 seat in the choir, before the high altar. 
 There Lambert delivered four sermons, 
 in which he attacked with vigour the 
 errors of Rome ; but in his fourth dis- 
 course he defended the invocation of the 
 saints and of Mary. 
 
 " Brother ! Brother ! you are mis- 
 taken," | exclaimed a loud voice. It was 
 Zwingle' s. Canons and chaplains leaped 
 
 * . . . Kam ein langer, gerader, barfiisser 
 Monch . . ritte auf einer Eselin. — (Fiisslin Bey- 
 trage, iv. 39.) 
 
 t A tali Franciscano, Gallo, quae omnioe mare 
 superstitionem confluere faciunt, inaudita. — (Zw. 
 Epp. p. 207.) 
 
 I Bruder da irrestdu. — (Fiisslin Beytr. iv.40.) 
 
 for joy on seeing a dispute arising be- 
 tween the Frenchman and the heretical 
 curate . " He has publicly attacked you," 
 said they to Lambert; "require of him 
 a public, discussion." The monk of 
 Avignon did so : — and on the 22nd of 
 July, at ten o'clock, the two disputants 
 met in the conference-hall of the canons. 
 Zwingle opened the Old and New Tes- 
 tament in Greek and Latin. He dis- 
 cussed and expounded until two o'clock, 
 when the Frenchman, clasping his hands 
 together and raising them towards heav- 
 en,* broke forth in these words : ' : I thank 
 thee, O God, that by this thy gifted min- 
 ister, thou hast granted to me so clear a 
 discovery of the truth." — " Henceforth," 
 he added, turning to the assembly, u in 
 all my trials I will invoke none but God 
 alone, and throw aside my beads. To- 
 morrow I purpose to continue my jour- 
 ney. I am going to Bale to see Eras- 
 mus of Rotterdam, and thence to Wittem- 
 berg to see the Augustine Martin Lu- 
 ther." And accordingly he took his 
 departure on his ass. We shall meet 
 with him again. This man was the 
 first who went forth from France for the 
 sake of the Gospel into Switzerland and 
 Germany ; the humble forerunner of 
 many thousands. 
 
 Myconius had no such consolations. 
 On the contrary, it was his lot to see Se- 
 bastian Hofmeister, who had come from 
 Constance to Lucerne, and had there 
 preached the Gospel boldly, — compelled 
 to quit the city. On this, Oswald's mel- 
 ancholy increased — a fever consumed 
 him; the physicians gave their opinio'n 
 that if he did not remove he would die. 
 " No where do I more wish to b*e than 
 with you," wrote he to Zwingle, " and 
 no where have I less wish to be than at 
 Lucerne. Men torment me, and the 
 climate destroys me. People say that 
 my disease is the punishment of my in- 
 iquity. It is in vain to speak or do any 
 thing, they turn every thing to poison. 
 . . . There is One above, on whom alone 
 my hope rests." t 
 
 This hope was not delusive. — It was 
 about the end of March, and Annuncia- 
 tion-day was approaching. The day be- 
 fore its eve a solemn fast was observed, 
 
 * Dass er beyde Hiinde zusammen hob. — (Ibid.) 
 
 + Quicquid facio venerium est illis. Sed est in 
 
 quem omnis sges mea reclinat. — (Zw. Epp. 192.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1523. 
 
 371 
 
 in memory of a conflagration that in 1340 
 had reduced to ashes the greater part of 
 the city. A crowd of people from the 
 environs were collected together at Lu- 
 cerne, and several hundred priests were 
 assembled. A noted preacher usually 
 preached ; and on this occasion Conrad 
 Schmid, of Kusnacht, commander of the 
 Joha unites, arrived to take the duty. A 
 great crowd filled the church, — but what 
 was their astonishment, when the com- 
 mander, abandoning the customary Latin 
 oration, spoke in plain Gferman,* that all 
 could understand ; declared with authori- 
 ty and holy zeal the love of God in send- 
 ing His Son into the world, and elo- 
 quently shewed that our works cannot 
 save us, and that God's promises are in 
 truth the essence of the Gospel. " God 
 forbid," cried the commander, in the 
 hearing of the astonished congregation, 
 " that we should recognize a head so full 
 of sin as the Roman bishop, and thereby 
 reject Jesus Christ, f If the Bishop of 
 Rome dispenses the bread of the Gospel, 
 let us acknowledge him as a pastor — not 
 as our head ; and if he does not dispense 
 it, let us in no way whatever recognize 
 him." Oswald could not restrain his joy. 
 
 " What a man !" he exclaimed, — 
 " What a discourse ! — what majesty and 
 authority ! — how full of the spirit of 
 Christ !" The effect was almost univer- 
 sal. To the agitation which pervaded 
 the town succeeded a solemn silence : 
 but all this Avas transient, — if a nation 
 closes the ear to God's call, his calls are 
 every day less frequent, and ere long 
 they are altogether withdrawn. This 
 was the fate of Lucerne. 
 
 While truth was there proclaimed 
 from the pulpit, — at Berne, the Papacy 
 was assailed in the festive meetings of 
 the people. A layman of reputation, 
 Nicolas Manuel, famed for his talents, 
 and afterwards promoted to high office 
 in the State, indignant at seeing his 
 countrymen mercilessly plundered by 
 Samson, composed some carnival dramas, 
 in which he keenly satirized the extor- 
 tion^ haughtiness, and pomp of the Pope 
 
 * Wolt er keine pracht tryben mit latein 
 schwatzen, sondem gut teutsch reden. — (Bullin- 
 ger, MSC.) 
 
 t Absit a grege Christiano, ut caput tam lutu- 
 lentum et peccatis plenum acceptans, Christum 
 abjiciat. — (Zw. Epp. p. 195.) 
 
 and clergy ... On the mardi gras, or 
 Shrove Tuesday of their lordships, (their 
 lordships were then the clergy, and the 
 clergy usually began their Lent eight 
 days before other people,) nothing was 
 talked of in Berne but a drama or mys- 
 tcrii, called — the Feeders upon the Dead, 
 which some young folks were to act in 
 the rue de la Croix. The people flocked 
 to the spot. — As literary productions, 
 these dramatic sketches of the early part 
 of the sixteenth century possess some 
 interest, — but it is in a very different 
 point of view that we recal them : we 
 would prefer doubtless not to have to 
 adduce, on the part of the Reformation, 
 attacks of this nature ; as truth triumphs 
 by far different weapons: history, how- 
 ever, does not create, but faithfully trans- 
 mits what she finds. 
 
 And now the acting begins, much to 
 the satisfaction of the impatient crowd 
 gathered together in the rue de la Croix. 
 The Pope appears, attired in splendid 
 habiliments, and seated on a throne. 
 Around him stand his courtiers and 
 body-guard, and a mixed assemblage of 
 dignified and inferior clergy ; — beyond 
 them are nobles, laymen, and beggars. 
 Shortly after, a funeral procession ap- 
 pears ; — it is a wealthy farmer whom 
 they are carrying to his grave. Two of 
 his kinsmen walk slowly in front of the 
 coffin, with handkerchiefs in their hands. 
 The procession being arrived in the 
 Pope's presence, the bier is lowered, the 
 acting begins : — 
 
 FIRST RELATIVE. 
 
 The noble army of saints, 
 Take pity on our lot ; 
 Alas ! our cousin -is dead, 
 In the prime of his life. 
 
 ANOTHER RELATIVE. 
 
 No cost will we spare 
 
 For priests, friars, or nuns, 
 Tho' a hundred crowns we should drain ; 
 
 Determined are we ; 
 
 His spirit to free, 
 From dire purgatorial pain.* 
 
 The Sacristan coming out of the crowd near 
 the Pope, and hurrying to the curate, Robert 
 Ne'er-Enough : — 
 
 * Kein kosten soil uns dauern dran, 
 
 Wo wir Monch uud Priester mogen ha'n, 
 Und sollt'es kosten hundert kronen .... 
 (Bern. Mausol. iv. Wirz, K. Gesch. i. 383.) 
 
372 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 My lord curate, let me drink your health ; 
 A rich farmer is just dead ! 
 
 THE CURATE. 
 
 One, say you. One is not enough. 
 
 One dead ! 'tis for ten that I call ; 
 
 The more die off, the more blithely we live,* 
 
 This death is the best trick of all ! 
 
 THE SACRISTAN. 
 
 Ah ! if I had but my heart's desire, 
 I'd pass my time in tolling of knells ; 
 For unlike field labour the dead never tire, 
 But pay well, and tell no tales. 
 
 THE CURATE. 
 
 If tolling a bell opes the gate of heaven, 
 I know not — but what does that matter ? 
 It brings me in barbel, pike, salmon, and trout ; 
 And my larder grows, day by day, fatter. 
 
 THE CURATE'S NIECE.t 
 
 'Tis all very well — but I put in my claim, 
 
 And this soul. must to-day me provide 
 
 With a comely new gown of white, black, pink, 
 
 or green, 
 And a neat pretty kerchief beside. 
 
 Cardinal Loftylook, — wearing the red hat, 
 and standing near the Pope : 
 Did we not love the bloody prize of Death, 
 Would we have led to slaughter, in their prime, 
 Those armed trains, 
 On battle plains, 
 In wars our pride has kindled in our time ?t 
 The blood of Christians yields to Rome her 
 wealth ! 
 Hence do I wear a hat of sanguine red, 
 Made fat with pomp and riches by the dead ! 
 
 BISHOP WOLFS-BELLY. ' 
 
 By papal right I mean to live and die. 
 
 I wear rich silks, and spend luxuriously ; 
 
 I lead in battle, or I hunt at will ! 
 
 If we in the first church were living still, 
 
 My cloak were what a peasant round him flings.§ 
 
 But we were shepherds then, and now, we're 
 
 kings! 
 Yet 'mongst the shepherds I to pass intend. 
 
 A VOICE. 
 How so ? 
 
 BISHOP WOLFS-BELLY. 
 
 At the sheep-shearing time, my friend ! 
 Shepherds and wolves are we to our fat flocks ; 
 They must feed us, or fall beneath hard knocks. 
 Marriage to curates doth the Pope deny : 
 'Tis well : — but who among them will comply ? 
 
 * Je mehr je besser ! Kiimen doch noch 
 Zehn '.—(Ibid.) 
 
 t In the German the term is more gross, 
 Pfaffenmetze. 
 
 t Wenn mir nicht war' mit Todten wohl, 
 
 So lag nicht mancher Acker voll, etc. 
 
 (Bern. Mausol. iv. Wire, K: Gesch. i. 383.) 
 
 § Wenn es stund, wie im Anfang der Kirchen, 
 Ich trtige vielleicht grobes Tuch und Zwil- 
 chen. — (Ibid.) 
 
 Not e'en the best of them. That's better still ! 
 What matter scandals ? — Bribes my coffers fill. 
 Thus shall I better sport a princely train : 
 The smallest coin indeed I ne'er disdain. 
 A priest with money takes a wife discreetly : 
 Four florins yearly . . . seal my eyes completely. 
 Brings she him children, — he must bleed again . . 
 Two thousand florins in a year I gain : 
 If they were virtuous I should starve, be sure.* 
 Thanks to the Pope ! him kneeling I adore. 
 'Tis in his faith I'll live, — his church defend, 
 And ask no other God till life shall end ! 
 
 THE POPE. 
 
 Men think that to a haughty priest 'tis given 
 T' unclose or shut at will the gate of heaven. 
 — Preach well the conclave's chosen one's decree 
 And we are kings — and laymen slaves shall be : 
 But if the Gospel standard be displayed, 
 All's over with us ! — for 'tis no where said 
 
 That men should give their money to the priest. 
 Perhaps too, if the Gospel were obeyed, 
 We should pass life in poverty and shade . . . 
 Instead of these caparisoned proud steeds, 
 With these rich carriages my household needs, 
 
 My holiness would ride a duller beast.t 
 No, — We'll find means to guard the goodly gains 
 Our predecessors left, — and quell rash aims. 
 'Tis ours to will, and the world's part to bow ; 
 To me as to a God its nations vow ; 
 Crushed by my weight when I ascend its throne, 
 I give its good things to my pack alone. 
 And unclean laymen must not touch our treasure ; 
 Three drops of holy water '11 fill his measure ! 
 
 We will not follow out this literal 
 rendering of Manuel's dramatic effusion. 
 The vexation of the clergy on learning 
 these efforts of the Reformers, their an- 
 ger against those who would thus put a 
 stop to these disorders, — is painted in 
 vivid colours. The dissoluteness the 
 mystery brought prominently forward 
 was too general for each one not to be 
 struck by the truth of the picture. The 
 people were in commotion. Many were 
 the satirical jests of the spectators as they 
 broke up from the spectacle in the rue de 
 la Croix ; but some were more gravely 
 affected, and these spoke of the liberty of 
 the Christian, and the Pope's despotism, 
 — contrasting the simplicity of the Gos- 
 pel with Romish pageantry. Rapidly 
 the popular contempt broke forth in the 
 public streets. On Ash Wednesday the 
 people paraded the indulgences through 
 the city, accompanying them with satiri- 
 cal songs. A heavy blow had been 
 
 * The German is very expressive. So bin Ich 
 auf gut Deutsch ein Hurenwirth. — (Bern. Mau- 
 sol. iv. Wirz, K. Gesch. i. 383.) 
 
 t Wir mochten fast kaum ein Eselein ha'n.— 
 (Ibid.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 373 
 
 struct, in Berne, and throughout Swit- 
 zerland, at the ancient edifice of Popery. 
 Shortly after this dramatic representa- 
 tion, another comedy took place at Berne ; 
 but in this last, invention had no share. 
 The clergy, the council, and the burgh- 
 ers, had assembled before the upper gate, 
 expecting the skull of St. Ann, which 
 the celebrated knight, Albert von Stein, 
 had gone to fetch from Lyons. After 
 waiting some time, Stein arrived, bearing 
 the precious relic, wrapped in a covering 
 of silken stuff On its passage through 
 Lausanne, the bishop of that place had 
 fallen on his knees before it. The holy 
 trophy was carried in procession to the 
 church of the Dominicans. Bells were 
 rung, — the procession entered, and the 
 skull of the Virgin's mother was solemn- 
 ly deposited on the altar dedicated to her, 
 beneath a screen of costly lattice-work. 
 But in the height of the rejoicing, came 
 a letter from the Abbot of the convent at 
 Lyons (where the remains of the saint 
 were preserved,) announcing that the 
 monks had tricked the knight, by im- 
 posing on him an unclean skull picked 
 up from among the bones of the ceme- 
 tery. This 'imposition on the celebrated 
 city of Berne deeply offended its inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 The Reformation was making progress 
 in other parts of Switzerland. In 1521, 
 Walter Klarer, a young man of Appenzel, 
 returned from the university of Paris to 
 his own canton. The writings of Lu- 
 ther fell into his hands, and in 1522 he 
 preached the Gospel with all the fervour 
 of a young Christian. An innkeeper 
 named Rausberg, a member of the Coun- 
 cil of Appenzel, threw open his house to 
 the friends of truth. A famous captain, 
 Bartholomew Berweger, who had fought 
 in the ranks for Julius II. and Leo X., 
 being lately returned from Rome, in- 
 stantly set about persecuting the new 
 doctrine. But recollecting one day that 
 he had seen much that was wrong at 
 Rome, he began to read his Bible and 
 hear the preachers ; — his eyes were 
 opened, and he embraced the Gospel. 
 Observing that the crowds that came 
 could no longer find room in the 
 churches : " Why not preach in the 
 open fields and in the public squares?" 
 said he — in spite of much opposition, the 
 hills, meadows, and mountains of Ap- 
 
 penzel, from that time often resounded 
 with the tidings of salvation. 
 
 This doctrine, ascending the course of 
 the Rhine, even reached as far as an- 
 cient Rhetia. One day a stranger com- 
 ing from Zurich, passed the river, and 
 presented himself at the door of a sad- 
 dler of Flasch, the first town in the Gri- 
 sons. Christian Anhorn listened with 
 amazement to the conversation of his 
 guest. "Preach then," said the whole 
 village to the stranger, whose name was 
 James Burkli ; — and Burkli took his 
 stand before the altar. A body of armed 
 men, with Anhorn at their head, sur- 
 rounded him to protect him from any 
 sudden attack; and thus he proclaimed 
 the Gospel. The report of his preaching 
 spread abroad, and on the next Sunday 
 an immense crowd assembled. Very 
 soon a great number of the inhabitants 
 of that country desired to partake of the 
 Lord's supper, according to Christ's ap- 
 pointment. But one day the tocsin was 
 suddenly heard in Mayenfield ; — the 
 people ran together in alarm, the priests 
 depicted the dangers that threatened the 
 Church, and — followed by this fanatic 
 population, — hurried to Flasch. An- 
 horn, who was working in the fields, sur- 
 prised by the ringing of bells at so un- 
 usual an hour, returned home in haste, 
 and secreted Burkli in a deep pit that 
 had been dug in his cellar. The house 
 was already surrounded; the doors were 
 burst open, and strict search made for 
 the heretical preacher ; but in vain. At 
 length they left the place.* 
 
 The word of God had spread through 
 the ten jurisdictions of the league. The 
 curate of Mayenfield, on returning from 
 Rome, (whither he had fled in indigna- 
 tion at the progress of the Gospel,) ex- 
 claimed — " Rome has made an evange- 
 list of me !" and became -from that time 
 a zealous Reformer. Ere long, the Ref- 
 ormation extended itself in the league 
 of what was called " the house of God." 
 " Oh, if you could but see how the inha- 
 bitants of the Rhetian Alps cast away 
 from them the yoke of Babylon !" wrote 
 Salandronius to Vadian. 
 
 Revolting disorders hastened the day 
 when Zurich and its neighbouring 
 country should finally throw off the 
 
 * Anhorn, Wiedergeburt tier Ev. Kirchen in 
 den 3 Bundten. Chur. 1680. Wirz, i. 557. 
 
374 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 yoke. A married schoolmaster desiring 
 to take priest's orders obtained his wife's 
 consent and was separated from her. 
 The new curate finding himself un- 
 able to fulfil his vow of celibacy quitted 
 the place of his wife's residence, from 
 regard to her, and settling himself in the 
 diocese of Constance, there formed a cri- 
 minal connection. His wife hearing of 
 it went to him. The poor priest was 
 melted at the sight of her, and dismissing 
 the woman who had usurped her rights, 
 took home his lawful wife. Instantly 
 the procurator-fiscal made out his report, 
 — the Vicar-general was in motion, — the 
 councillors of the consistory met in deli- 
 beration, and .... enjoined the curate to 
 renounce his wife, or his benefice. The 
 poor wife left her husband's house in 
 tears ; her rival resumed her place in tri- 
 umph. The church was satisfied, and 
 from that moment left the adulterous 
 priest undisturbed.* 
 
 Shortly after a curate of Lucerne se- 
 duced a married woman, and cohabited 
 with her. The husband repairing to 
 Lucerne availed himself of the oppor- 
 tunity afforded by the priest's absence to 
 recover his wife. As he was returning 
 the seducer met them in the way ; — he 
 instantly fell upon the injured husband, 
 and inflicted a wound, of which the lat- 
 ter died.f All good men saw the neces- 
 sity of re-establishing the law of God, 
 which declares marriage " honourable to 
 all." (Heb. xiii. 4.) The ministers of 
 the Gospel had discovered that the law 
 of celibacy was altogether of human au- 
 thority, imposed by the Popes, contrary 
 to God's word, which, in describing a 
 faithful bishop, represents him as a hus- 
 band and a father. (1 Tim. iii. 2 — 4.) 
 They also saw that of all the corruptions 
 which had gained a footing in the church, 
 not one had led" to more profligacy and 
 scandals. Hence they not only thought 
 it lawful, but even a part of their duty 
 to God to reject it. Several among 
 them at this period returned to the apos- 
 tolic usage. Xyloctect was already a 
 husband. Zwingle also married about 
 this time. Among the women of Zurich 
 none was more respected than Anna 
 
 * Simml. Samml. vi. — Wirz, K. Gesch. i. 275. 
 t Hinc cum scorto redeuntem in itinere debre- 
 endit, adgreditur, lethiferoque vulnere csedit et 
 tandem moritur. — (Zw. Epp. p. 206.) 
 
 Reinhardt, widow of Meyer von Knonau, 
 mother of Gerold. From Zwingle's 
 coming among them, she had been con- 
 stant in her attendance on his ministry ; 
 she lived near him, and he had remarked 
 her piety, modesty, and maternal tender- 
 ness. Young Gerold, who had become 
 almost like a son to him, contributed 
 further to bring about an intimacy with 
 his mother. The trials that had already 
 befallen this Christian woman, — whose 
 fate it was to be, one day, more severely 
 tried than any woman whose history is 
 on record, — had formed her to a serious- 
 ness which gave prominency to her 
 Christian virtues.* She was then about 
 thirty-five, and her whole fortune con- 
 sisted of 400 florins. It was on her that 
 Zwingle fixed his eyes for a companion 
 for life. He felt the sacredness and in- 
 timate sympathy of the marriage tie ; 
 and termed it "a most holy alliance."! — 
 " As Christ," said he, " died for those who 
 are His, and gave himself entirely for 
 them, so should those who are united 
 together by marriage, do and suffer all 
 things one for the other." But Zwingle, 
 when he took Anna Reinhardt to wife. 
 did not make his marriage public. This 
 was beyond doubt a blameable weakness 
 in one who was in other things so reso- 
 lute. The light he and his friends pos- 
 sessed on the subject of celibacy was by 
 no means general. The weak might 
 have been stumbled. He feared lest his 
 usefulness in the church might be des- 
 troyed by making known his marriage,^ 
 and he sacrificed much of his happiness 
 to these fears, excusable, perhaps, but 
 such as he ought to have disregarded^. 
 
 * Anna Reinhardt, von Gerold Meyer von Kno- 
 nau, p. 25. 
 
 t Ein hochheiliges Bimdniss. — (Ibid. 25.) 
 
 I Qui veritus sis, te marito non tam feliciter usu- 
 rum Christum in negotio verbi sui. — 'Zw. Epp. 
 p. 335.) 
 
 § The most respectable biographers, and those 
 who have followed them, place Zwingle's mar- 
 riage two years later, namely, in April 1524. 
 Without intending here to state all the reasons 
 which have satisfied me that this is an error, I 
 will notice the most conclusive. A letter from 
 Zwingle's intimate friend Myconius, bearing date 
 22d July, 1522, has these words: Vale cum ux- 
 ore quam felicissimc. Another letter from the 
 same friend, written toward the end of that year, 
 has likewise the words : Vale cum uxore. That 
 the date of these letters is quite correct is proved 
 by the very contents of them. But what is still 
 stronger, a letter written from Strasburg by Bu- 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 375 
 
 Meanwhile, interests of a higher kind 
 were engaging the thoughts of the friends 
 of truth. The Diet, as we have seen, 
 urged on by the enemies of the Reforma- 
 tion, had enjoined the preachers of the 
 Gospel to, abstain for the future from 
 preaching doctrines that disturbed the 
 people. Zwingle felt that the moment 
 for action had arrived, and with charac- 
 teristic energy he invited such ministers 
 of the Lord as were favourable to the 
 Gospel, to meet him at Einsidlen. The 
 strength of Christians is neither in force 
 of arms, flames, scaffold, party policy, or 
 man's power. It is found in a simple 
 but unanimous and courageous confes- 
 sion of the great truths which must one 
 day prevail over the world. Those who 
 serve God are specially called on to hold 
 up these heavenly truths in presence of 
 all the people, una wed by the clamours 
 of enemies. These truths carry in them- 
 selves the assurance of their triumph, and 
 idols fall before them as before the ark 
 of God. The time had come when God 
 would have the great doctrine of salva- 
 tion thus confessed in Switzerland ; it 
 was fit that the gospel standard should 
 be planted on an elevated spot. Provi- 
 dence was on the point of drawing forth 
 from their unknown seclusion humble 
 but intrepid men, and causing them to 
 give a noble testimony in the face of the 
 whole nation. 
 
 Towards the end of June and begin- 
 ning of July, 1522, pious ministers were 
 ssen from every side journeying to the 
 
 cer at the moment when Zwingle's marriage was 
 made public, the 14th of April, 1524, (the date 
 of the year is wanting, but it is evident that this 
 letter is of that year,) contains several passages 
 which shew Zwingle to have been married a 
 considerable time before ; the following are some 
 of these, besides what is cited in the preceding 
 note. Professum palam te maritum legi. Unum 
 hoc desiderabam in te. — Quae multo facilius quam 
 connubii tui confessionem Antichristus posset 
 ferre. — Ayopiv, ab eo, quod cum fratribus . . . 
 episcopo Constantiensi congressus es, nullus cre- 
 didi. — Qua ratione id tarn diu celares . . . non 
 dubitarim, rationibus hue adductum, quoe apud 
 virum evangelicum non queant omnino repudiari 
 . . . &c. — (Zw. Epp. 235.) Zwingle, then, did 
 not marry in 1524, but he then made public his 
 marriage contracted two years before. The 
 learned editors of Zwingle's letters observe — Num 
 forte jam Zwinglius Annam Reinhardam clan- 
 destino in matrimonio habebat? (p. 210.) which 
 appears to me to be not a doubtful point, but a 
 fact sufficiently established. 
 
 famous chapel of Einsidlen, on a new 
 pilgrimage.* From Art in the canton 
 of Schwitz, came its curate, Balthasar 
 Trachsel ; from Weiningen near Baden, 
 the curate Staheli ; from Zug, Werner 
 Steiner ; from Lucerne, the canon Kilch- 
 meyer; from Uster, the curate Pfister ; 
 from Hongg, near Zurich, the curate 
 Stumpff ; from Zurich itself, the canon 
 Fabricius, the chaplain Schmid, the 
 preacher of the hospital, Grosmann, and 
 Zwingle. Leo Juda, curate of Einsidlen, 
 joyfully received these ministers of Christ 
 into the ancient abbey. Since Zwingle's 
 residence, the place had become a kind 
 of citadel of truth, — a refuge for the righ- 
 teous, f So in the solitary field of Grut- 
 li, two hundred and fifteen years before, 
 had gathered together three-and-thirty 
 patriots, fearlessl y determined to burst 
 asunder the yoke of Austria. At Ein- 
 sidlen the great aim was to cast away 
 the yoke of man's authority in the things 
 of God ! Zwingle proposed to his friends 
 to address an urgent petition to the can- 
 tons and the bishop; claiming a free 
 preaching of the Gospel, and also the 
 abolition of compulsory celibacy, the 
 source of so many disorders. All agreed 
 in his suggestion.^ Ulric had himself 
 prepared addresses. That to the bishop 
 was first read. It was on the 2nd of 
 July, 1522. All signed it. A hearty 
 affection united the preachers of the Gos- 
 pel. Many others there were who sym- 
 pathized with those who had met at Ein- 
 sidlen ; such were Haller, Myconius, 
 Hedio, Capito, CEcolampadius, Sebastian 
 Meyer, Hoffmeister, and Vanner. This 
 brotherly unity is one of the loveliest 
 features of the Swiss Reformation. The 
 excellent men we have mentioned ever 
 acted with one heart, and their mutual 
 affection lasted till death. 
 
 The men assembled at Einsidlen saw 
 plainly that nothing but the energy of 
 faith could combine in one work the 
 members of the confederation divided by 
 the foreign capitulations. But their 
 views rose above this. " The heavenly 
 
 * Thaten sich zusammen etliche priester. — 
 (Bullinger, M.S.) 
 
 t Zu Einsidlen hatten sie alle Sicherheit dahin 
 zu gehen und dort zu wohnen. — (J. J. Hottinger 
 Helv. K. Gesch. iii. 86.) 
 
 t Und wurden eins an den Bischoff zu Con. 
 stantz und gmein Eidtgnossen ein Supplication 
 zu stellen. — (Bullinger, MSC.) 
 
376 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 teachino-," said they to their ecclesiastical 
 superior in their address dated 2nd July, 
 u that truth which God the Creator has 
 made known in his Son to mankind im- 
 mersed in sin, has long been veiled from 
 our eyes by the ignorance, not to say the 
 evil intentions, of a handful of men. But 
 Almighty God has decreed to reinstate 
 it in its primitive purity. Join then with 
 those who desire that the great body of 
 Christians should return to their Head, 
 that is Christ ... * For our parts we 
 are resolved to proclaim his Gospel with 
 unwearied perseverance, and yet with a 
 prudence that shall leave no ground of 
 complaint against us.f Favour this un- 
 dertaking ; startling, perhaps, but not 
 rash. Take your stand like Moses, in 
 the way, at the head of the people get- 
 ting up out of Egypt, and by your own 
 hands overturn all obstacles to the tri- 
 umphant march of truth." 
 
 After this spirit-stirring appeal, the 
 ministers of the Gospel assembled at Ein- 
 sidlen came to the subject of celibacy. 
 Zwingle had for himself nothing to seek 
 on that head ; — he had as his partner 
 such a minister's wife as Saint Paul has 
 shetched, "grave, sober, faithful in all 
 things." (1 Tim. iii. 2.) But his 
 thoughts were for those of his brethren 
 whose consciences were not, as his, set 
 free from human ordinances. He longed 
 for that time when those servants of God 
 might live openly and without fear in 
 the circle of their families, " having their 
 children in subjection with all gravity." 
 — " You are not ignorant," said the men 
 of Einsidlen, " how deplorably hitherto 
 the laws of chastity have been violated 
 by the clergy. When in the consecra- 
 tion of ministers to the Lord, the question 
 is put to him who speaks on behalf of the 
 rest : — Are the persons you present to us 
 righteous men 1 — he answers : — They 
 are righteous. Are they well instructed ? 
 — They are well instructed. But when 
 he is asked : are they chaste ? His an- 
 swer is : As far as man's weakness per- 
 mits."! — <: The New Testament every 
 
 * Et universa Christianorum multitude) ad ca- 
 put suum, quod Christus est, redeat. Supplicatio 
 quorundam apud Helvetios Evangelistarum. — 
 (Zw. Opp. iii. 18.) 
 
 t Evangelium irremisso tenore promulgare 
 statuimuB . . . — (Zw. Opp. iii. 18.) 
 
 X Suntne casti ? reddidit : Quatenus humana 
 imbecillita8 permittit — (Ibid. i. III. 21.) 
 
 where condemns illicit intercourse, while 
 it every where sanctions marriage." Here 
 follow a great number of citations from 
 Scripture. — "It is for this reason we en- 
 treat you, by the love of Christ, by the 
 liberty he has obtained for us, by the dis- 
 tress of weak and unstable souls, by the 
 wounds of so many ulcerated consciences, 
 — by every motive, divine and human, 
 to consent that what has been enacted in 
 presumption, may be annulled in wis- 
 dom ; lest the noble fabric of the Church 
 crumble into dust with frightful crash, 
 spreading ruin far and wide.* Look 
 around you. Behold how many storms 
 threaten society. If prudence does not 
 come to our rescue, the fate of the clergy 
 is decided." 
 
 The petition addressed to the Confed- 
 eration was at greater length, f " Wor- 
 thy Sirs !" thus spoke the allies of Ein- 
 sidlen : " We are all Swiss, and acknowl- 
 edge you as our fathers. Some among 
 us have given proof of our fidelity in the 
 field of battle, in pestilence, and other 
 calamities. It is in the name of chastity 
 that we address you. Which of you 
 does not know that we should better 
 consult the lust of the flesh by declining 
 to subject ourselves to the conditions of 
 lawful wedlock. But it is indispensable 
 to put an end to the scandals which in- 
 flict the Church of Christ. If the tyranny 
 of the Roman Pontiff should persist in 
 oppressing us, — O! noble heroes, fear 
 nothing ! The authority of God's word, 
 the rights of Christian liberty, and the 
 sovereign power of grace, will encompass 
 and protect xxs.% We are of one land 
 and of one faith ; we are Swiss ; and the 
 "virtue of our race has ever displayed its 
 power in unflinching defence of all who 
 are unjustly oppressed." 
 
 Thus did Zwingle and his friends 
 boldly uplift the standard of the truth 
 and freedom in Einsidlen itself, that an- 
 cient bulwark of superstition, which even 
 in our days is still one of the most noted 
 sanctuaries of Roman observances. They 
 
 * Ne quando moles ista non ex patris coelestis 
 sententia constructa, cum fragore longe pernici- 
 osiore corruat. — (Zw. Opp. iii. 24.) 
 
 t Arnica et pia paranesis ad commuuem Hel- 
 vetiorum civitatem scripta, ne evangelicae doctri- 
 nal cursum impediant, &c. — (Ibid. i. 39.) 
 
 t Divini enim verbi aucloritatem, libertatis 
 christianae et divinse gratis praesidium nobis 
 adesse conspicietis. — (Ibid. 63.) 
 
THE SWISS*— 1484— 1522. 
 
 377 
 
 appealed to the chiefs of the State and of 
 the Church. Like Luther, they publicly 
 placarded their theses : — but it was at 
 the doors of the episcopal palace and of 
 the council of the nation. The friends 
 at Einsidlen Separated ; calm, joyous, 
 and full of confidence in that God to 
 whom they had committed their cause : 
 
 But it was in the convents that indig- 
 nation was at its height. Even - meet- 
 ing held therein for discussion or amuse- 
 ment witnessed some new attack. One 
 day. on occasion of a grand festivity in 
 the convent of Fraubrunn, the wine 
 mounting to the heads of the guests, 
 they begun to break out in bitter speeches 
 
 and passing, some by the way of the against the Gospel.* That which chiefly 
 field of battle of Morgarten. others over ( irritated these friars and pr; - 
 the chain of the Albis, and the rest by j evangelic doctrine, that in the Christian 
 other valleys or mountain paths, they re- Church there can properly be no priest- 
 turned each one to his post. •• Truly ly caste raised above o'ther believers, 
 there was something sublime for those ! Among the guests, there was but one 
 times," says Henry Bullinger,* - that | who was a favourer of the Reformation, 
 these men should have thus dared to step | and he was a layman named Macrin, 
 forward, and taking their stand around I schoolmaster of Soleure. At first he 
 the Gospel expose themselves to even* took no pan in the discourse, but changed 
 kind of danger. But God has preserved his sea: from one table to another. At 
 them ail, so that no evil has happened length, unable to endure the shouts of 
 unto them, for God ever protects those the guests, he arose and said aloud, — 
 who are his. :: And in truth there was "Well: all true Christians are priests 
 a sublimity- in this proceeding. It was a and sacrificers. according to that word of 
 decisive step in the progress of the Ref- St Peter: (1 Pet. ii. 9. Rev. i. 6.) ye 
 ormation, one of the most brilliant days ! are kings and pries:; At this speech 
 of the religious regeneration of Switzer- the Dean of BurgdorrT. one of the loud- 
 land. A holy bond was compacted at est in company, a huge man of powerful 
 Einsidlen. Humble and brave men had lungs and sonorous voice, burst into a 
 taken • the sword of the Spirit, which is i loud laugh, and mingling jest with in- 
 the word of God. and the shield of faith. 1 salt, — • So men," said he. -you Greek- 
 The gauntlet had been thrown down, — lings and accidence-mongers are the 
 and the challenge siren, not by one man royal priesthood ? . . . Noble sacrificers !f 
 only, — but by men of different cantons. — beggar kings! ... priests without pre- 
 prepared to peril their fives on the issue, j bends or livings P 1 And all with one 
 The battle was evidently approaching. I accord turned against the presumptuous 
 Every thing betokened that it would be ! layman. 
 
 vigorously contes:ed. As early as the j It was however at Lucerne that the 
 7th of July, the magistrate of Zurich, bold measure of the men at Einsidlen 
 willing to do the Romanists a pleasure, ""as to produce the greatest sensation, 
 summoned before him Conrad Grebe! I The Diet had met in that town, and 
 and Ciaus Hottinger, two intemperate from all sides came complaints against 
 men, who seemed desirous to overpass the over-zealous preachers who obstructed 
 the limit of a prudent reformation. - We the regular sale of Swiss blood to foreign 
 prohibit you. :: said the burgomaster , nations. On the 22nd July, 1522, as 
 Roust, "from speaking against the monks. Oswald Myconius sat at dinner in his 
 or on the points in~ controversy. " ? At ; house in company with the Canon Kilch- 
 that moment a loud clap was heard in mever. and several favourers of th 
 
 the room, says an old chronicle. The 
 work of God was so manifest in events, 
 that men saw in everything the sign of 
 His intervention. Every one in aston- 
 ishment looked round the apartment 
 without being able to discover the cause 
 of the mysterious sound, f 
 
 * Es wass zwahren gross zu denen Zyten . . . 
 —{Bullinger, MSC 
 
 t Da liess die Stube einen grcssen Knall. — 
 (Fusslin Bevtr. iv. 39.) 
 
 43 
 
 pel. a young lad. sent by Zwingle, came 
 to the door.t He was the bearer of the 
 two famous petitions of Einsidlen, to- 
 
 * Cum invalescente Baccho, disputationes. imo 
 verius junjia ... — Zw. Epp. 230.) 
 
 + Estote ergo Grseculi ac Donatistffi regale sa- 
 cerdotium . . . — Zw. Epp. 230. Donati&te, 
 from Donatus. the author of the Latin Gr ammar 
 then in use in the schools. 
 
 : Venit puer. qnem misjsti, inter prandendum 
 . . .— Jbid. 209.) 
 
378 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 gether with a letter from Zwingle, in 
 which he desired Oswald to circulate 
 them in Lucerne. " My advice is," 
 added the Reformer, " that it should he 
 done quietly and gradually, rather than 
 all at once, for we need to learn to give 
 up everything, — even our wives, — for 
 Christ's sake." 
 
 The critical moment for Lucerne was 
 approaching ; — the homb had fallen ; the 
 shell was about to burst. The friends 
 read the petitions, " May God bless this 
 beginning !"* exclaimed Oswald, raising 
 his eyes to heaven. He then added : 
 " This prayer should from this moment 
 be the constant burthen of our hearts." 
 The petitions were forthwith circulated, 
 — perhaps more actively than Zwingle 
 desired. But the momemt was without 
 example. Eleven men, the elite of the 
 clergy, had placed themselves in the 
 breach ; — it was requisite to enlighten 
 men's minds, to decide the wavering and 
 carry with them the co-operation of the 
 most influential members of the Diet. 
 
 Oswald, in the midst of his exertions, 
 did not forget his friend. The young 
 messenger had told of the attacks that 
 Zwingle had to endure from the monks 
 of Zurich. " The words of the Holy 
 Ghost are invincible," wrote Myconius 
 in reply, the same day. " Armed with 
 the shield of the Holy Scriptures, you 
 have overcome, not in one conflict only, 
 or in two, but in three ; and now a 
 fourth is commencing. Hold fast those 
 mighty weapons, whose edge is harder 
 than a diamond. Christ needs for the 
 defence of those who are his, nothing 
 but his word. Your conflicts communi- 
 cate unconquerable courage to all who 
 have devoted themselves to Jesus Christ."! 
 
 The two petitions did not produce the 
 effect expected from them in Lucerne. 
 Some men of piety approved them, — but 
 they were few in number. Many, fear- 
 ing to compromise themselves, would 
 neither commend nor blame them.| 
 Others said, " These people will make 
 nothing of it." The priests murmured 
 against them, and the populace broke 
 forth in open hostility. The passion for 
 
 * Deus coepta fortunet ! — (Zw. Epp. p. 209.) 
 t Is permaneas, qui es, in Christo Jesu ... — ■ 
 
 (Ibid. 210.) 
 
 X Boni qui pauci sunt, eommendant libellos ves- 
 
 tros ; alii non laudant nee vituperant. — (Ibid.) 
 
 military adventure had again shewn it- 
 self in Lucerne, after the bloody defeat 
 of Bicocca, and nothing but war was 
 thought of* Oswald, who attentively 
 watched these varying impressions, felt 
 his resolution fail. The reign of Gospel 
 light in Lucerne and Switzerland, which 
 his hopes had dwelt upon with joy, 
 seemed to vanish. " Our countrymen 
 are blind as to heavenly things," said he, 
 fetching a deep sigh ; " there is nothing 
 to be hoped from the Swiss for the glory 
 of Christ."! 
 
 In the Council and at the Diet, exas- 
 peration was at its height. The Pope, 
 France, England, the Empire, were all 
 in motion round Switzerland, since the 
 defeat of Bicocca, and the retreat gf the 
 French under command of Lautrec from 
 Lombardy. Was it because the political 
 interests of the moment were not suffi- 
 ciently complicated that these eleven 
 men must bring forward their petitions, 
 thereby adding controversies of religion? 
 The deputies of Zurich alone inclined to 
 favour the Gospel. The canon Xyloc- 
 tect, trembling for the safety of himself 
 and his wife, — for he had married into 
 one of the chief families of the neigh- 
 bourhood, — had with tears declined the 
 invitation to Einsidlen to sign the ad- 
 dress. The canon Kilchmeyer had 
 evinced more courage, and ere long he 
 had need of it. — " Sentence is impending 
 over me," he wrote on the 13th of August 
 to Zwingle. " I await it with firmness. ." 
 As he was writing, the officer of the 
 Council entered his apartment, and de- 
 livered him a summons to appear on the 
 following morning. \ "If I am cast into 
 prison," said he, continuing his letter, " I 
 claim your help ; but it will be easier to 
 transport a rock from our Alps, than to 
 move me as much as a hand's breadth 
 from the word of Jesus Christ." Regard 
 to his family, and the resolution that had 
 been come to, that the storm should be 
 directed against Oswald, — saved the can- 
 on ! 
 
 Berthold Haller had not signed the 
 petitions, perhaps because he was not 
 
 * Belli furor occupat omnia. — (Zw. Epp. p. 
 210.) 
 
 t Nihil ob id apud Helvetios agendnm de iis 
 rebus quae Christi gloriam possunt augere. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Tu vero audi. Hasc dum scriberem, irruit 
 praeco, a Senatoribus missus . . . — (Ibid. 213.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1484— 1522. 
 
 379 
 
 Swiss by birth. But, without flinching, 
 he, as Zwingle had done, expounded the 
 Gospel of St. Matthew. A great crowd 
 thronged the cathedral church of Berne. 
 The word of God wrought more mightily 
 than Manuel's dramas had done on the 
 people. Haller was summoned to the 
 town-hall. — the people escorted him thi- 
 ther, and continued collected in the great 
 square. Opinions were divided in the 
 Council. " It is a matter that concerns 
 the bishops," said the most influential 
 persons ; " we must hand over the preach- 
 er to my Lord Bishop of Lausanne." 
 Haller' s friends were alarmed at these 
 words, and sent him word to retire with 
 all possible despatch. The people ga- 
 thered round and bore him company, 
 and a considerable number of burghers 
 remained in arms in front of his dwelling, 
 ready to form a rampart for their humble 
 pastor, with their bodies. The Bishop 
 and Council drew back at the aspect of 
 this bold demonstration, and Haller was 
 saved ! But he was not the only cham- 
 pion of truth at Berne. Sebastian Meyer 
 refuted the Bishop of Constance's pastor- 
 al letter, and more especially the charge 
 that the disciples of the Gospel taught a 
 new doctrine, and that the ancient only 
 is the true. " To have gone wrong for 
 a thousand years," said he, " cannot 
 make us right for a single hour : other- 
 wise it would have been the duty of the 
 heathen to continue in their religion. 
 And if the most ancient doctrines are to 
 be preferred, then fifteen hundred years 
 are more than five centuries, — and the 
 Gospel is more ancient than the decrees 
 of the Popes."* 
 
 At this time the magistrates of Friburg 
 intercepted certain letters addressed to 
 Haller and Meyer, by a canon of Fri- 
 burg, named John Hollard, a native of 
 Orbe. They proceeded to throw him 
 into prison, stripped him of his appoint- 
 ment, and finally banished him. One 
 John Vannius, a chorister of the cathe- 
 dral, shortly after declared himself in 
 favour of the Gospel ; for in this war as 
 soon as. one soldier falls, another steps 
 forward to occupy his place in the ranks. 
 « How is it possible," asked "Vannius, 
 "that the muddy water of the Tiber 
 should flow side by side with the pure 
 stream that Luther has drawn from St. 
 * Simml. Samml. vi. 
 
 Paul's source ?" But the chorister also 
 had his mouth shut. ", Among -all the 
 Swiss," said Myconius, writing to Zwin- 
 gle, " there are hardly any more averse 
 from sound doctrine than the people of 
 Friburg."* 
 
 There was nevertheless one c.wption, 
 namely Lucerne, — and Myconius ex- 
 perienced this. He had not signed the 
 celebrated' petitions ; but if not ha, his 
 friends did so ; — and a victim was re- 
 quired. The ancient literature of Greece 
 and Rome, thanks to his efforts, was be- 
 ginning to shine upon Lucerne ; — from 
 various quarters, people resorted thither 
 to hear the learned professor; and the 
 peacefully disposed listened with delight 
 to softer sounds than those of halberds, 
 swords, and cuirasses, which previous to 
 this time had been the only sounds in 
 that warlike city. Oswald had sacrificed 
 every thing for his country ; he had quit- 
 ted Zurich and Zwingle ; he had injured 
 his health ; his wife was infirm,! and his 
 son of tender years ; — if Lucerne should 
 reject him, no where could he hope for 
 an asylum ! But these considerations 
 had no power over the merciless spirit of 
 party, — and the things that should have 
 moved them to compassion, inflamed their 
 anger. Hurtenstein, burgomaster of Lu- 
 cerne, an old and brave soldier, who had 
 acquired distinction in the wars of Suabia 
 and Burgundy, urged the Council to dis- 
 miss the schoolmaster from his post, — and 
 wished, together with the master, to ex- 
 pel his Greek and Latin, and his preach- 
 ing, from the canton. He succeeded. 
 On leaving the Council, in which it had 
 been decided to dismiss Myconius, Hur- 
 tenstein encountered Berguer, the deputy 
 of Zurich : — " We send you back your 
 schoolmaster," said he, ironically ; " get 
 ready a comfortable lodging for him." 
 " We will not let him lie in the streets,":}: 
 instantly 'replied the courageous deputy. 
 But Berguer promised more than he 
 could perform. 
 
 The words dropped by the burgomas- 
 ter were too true, and they were soon 
 confirmed to the distressed Myconius. 
 He is deprived of his occupation, — ban- 
 
 * Hoc audio vix alios esse per Helvetiam, qui 
 pejus veliut sanee doctrinae. — (Zw. Epp. p. 226.) 
 
 t Conjux infirma.— (Ibid. 192.) 
 
 X Veniat ! efficiemus enira ne dormiendum sit 
 ei sub dio.— (Ibid. 216.) 
 
380 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ished, — and the only crime laid to his 
 charge is that he is a disciple of Luther.* 
 He turns his eyes on the right hand and 
 on the left, and no where does he' discern 
 shelter. He beholds himself and his 
 wife and child, — weak and ailing, — 
 driven from their home, — and all around 
 him, his country rocked by a violent 
 tempest that is rending and destroying 
 whatever ventures to stand against it, — 
 u Here," said he to Zwingle, " is your 
 poor Myconius discharged by the Coun- 
 cil of Lucerne. f Where shall I go 1 . . . 
 I know not .... Assailed as you your- 
 self are, how can you shelter me ? . . . . 
 I look, therefore, in my tribulation to 
 God, as my only hope. Ever abound- 
 ing, ever merciful, he suffers none who 
 make their prayer to Him to go empty 
 away. — May he supply my wants !" 
 
 So spake Oswald. — He waited not 
 long before a word of consolation came 
 to him. There was one man in Swit- 
 zerland who had been schooled in trials 
 of faith. Zwingle hastened to raise and 
 cheer his friend. " So rude are the blows 
 by which the enemy would level God's 
 house," said Zwingle, " and so repeated 
 the assaults, that it is no longer the rains 
 descending, and the wind blowing, ac- 
 cording to the Lord's prediction, (Matt, 
 vii. 27.) but hail and thunder-storm. | If 
 I did not discern the Lord keeping the 
 vessel, I should long since have let go 
 the helm ; — but I see him in the height 
 of the tempest, strengthening the cordage, 
 shifting the yards, spreading the sails, 
 nay more, commanding the very winds. 
 Would it not then be the action of a faint 
 heart, and unworthy of a man, were I to 
 abandon my post and seek in flight a 
 death of shame 1 I commit myself en- 
 tirely to his sovereign goodness. Let 
 him govern all, — let him remove im- 
 pediments, — let him appear or delay, 
 hasten or stay, — rend, swallow up, or 
 plunge us to the bottom of the deep ; we 
 will not fear.§ We are vessels that be- 
 long to Him. He can make us to hon- 
 our or to dishonour, according to his 
 
 * Nil exprobarunt nisi quod sim Lutheramis. 
 — (Zw. Epp. p. 216.) 
 
 t Expellitur ecce miser Myconius a Senatu 
 Lucemano. — (Ibid. 215.) 
 
 X Nee ventos esse, nee imbres, sed grandines 
 et fulmina.— (Ibid. 217.) 
 
 § Regat, vehat, festinet, maneat, acceleret, 
 moretur, mergat. — (Zw. Epp. p. 217.) 
 
 pleasure !" After these breathings of 
 lively faith, Zwingle continued : — " My 
 advice to you is to present yourself before 
 the Council, and there pronounce a speech 
 worthy of Christ, and of yourself — that is 
 to say, suited to melt and not to irritate 
 the hearers. Deny that you are a Lu- 
 theran, but profess yourself a disciple of 
 Jesus Christ. Let your pupils accom- 
 pany you, and speak for you; — and if 
 this does not prevail, come to your friend, 
 come to Zwingle, and look upon our city 
 as your own hearth." 
 
 Oswald, emboldened by these words, 
 followed the noble counsel of the Re- 
 former ; but all his efforts were fruitless. 
 The witness for truth was doomed to quit 
 his country, and they of Lucerne were so 
 active in decrying him, that every where 
 the magistrates opposed the offering him 
 an asylum : " Nothing remains for me," 
 said the confessor of Jesus Christ, heart- 
 broken at the aspect of so much enmity, 
 " but to beg the support of my miserable 
 existence from door to door."* The day 
 soon arrived when the friend of Zwingle, 
 and his most effective fellow-labourer, the 
 first among the Swiss who united the of- 
 fice of instructor in learning with the 
 love of the Gospel, the Reformer of Lu- 
 cerne, and afterwards one of the chiefs 
 of the Helvetic church, was compelled 
 with his feeble partner, and infant child, 
 to leave that ungrateful city where, out 
 of all his family, only one of his sisters 
 had received the love of the Gospel. He 
 passed its ancient bridge. He caught 
 sight of those mountains which seemed 
 to rise from the bosom of lake Waldstet- 
 ten to the clouds. The canons Xyloctect 
 and Kilchmeyer, the only friends the 
 Reformation could as yet number among 
 his countrymen, followed close behind 
 him. And in the moment when this 
 poor man, in company with the helpless 
 sufferers dependent upon him for support, 
 turned towards the lake, and, shedding 
 tears for his infatuated country, bade 
 adieu to the sublime natural grandeur 
 of his birth-place, — the Gospel itself de- 
 parted from Lucerne, and there Rome 
 reigns unto this day. 
 
 The Diet itself, then sitting at Baden, 
 stimulated by the severity resorted to 
 against Myconius, — irritated by the peti- 
 tions from Einsidlen, which, being print- 
 
 * Osteatim quaerere quod edam. — (Ibid. 245.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1484— 1522. 
 
 381 
 
 ed and circulated, produced every where 
 a strong sensation, — and persuaded by 
 the bishop of Constance, who urged them 
 to strike a final blow at their innovators, 
 had recourse to persecution, enjoined the 
 authorities of the baillages to " give in- 
 formation against all, whether priests or 
 laymen, who should impugn the estab- 
 lished faith," and in blind haste proceed- 
 ed to arrest the preacher who happened 
 to be nearest, namely, Urban Weiss, pas- 
 tor of Fislispach (who had before this 
 been released on bail) and sent him to 
 Constance, to the Bishop, who kept him 
 a long while in confinement. " In this 
 manner," says Bullinger's Chronicle, 
 "began the confederate states' persecu- 
 tion of the Gospel, and all this happened 
 at the instigation of the clergy, who in 
 all ages have dragged Jesus Christ be- 
 fore the judgment seats of Herod and 
 Pilate."* 
 
 Zvvingle was not destined to escape 
 trial, — and he was at this time wounded 
 in the tenderest point. A rumour of his 
 doctrine and his struggles had passed the 
 Santis, penetrated the Tockenburg, and 
 reached the heights of Wildhaus. The 
 family of herdsmen 'from which he 
 sprang, were deeply moved by what 
 they heard. Of Zwingle's five brothers 
 some had not ceased to follow their 
 mountain occupations ; while others, to 
 the great grief of their brother, had at 
 times taken up arms, left their flocks, 
 and served foreign princes. All were 
 in consternation at the reports brought to 
 their chalets. In imagination they be- 
 held their brother seized, dragged before 
 his bishop at Constance, and a pile of 
 faggots lighted for his destruction, on the 
 spot where John Huss had perished. 
 The high-spirited shepherds could ill 
 brook the thought of being called the 
 brothers of a heretic. They wrote to 
 Ulric, communicating their distress and 
 alarm : Zwingle answered them. " As 
 long as God shall enable me, I will per- 
 form the task that he has assigned me, 
 without fearing the world and its proud 
 tyrants. I know all that may befal me. 
 There is no danger, no evil, that I have 
 not long and carefully considered. My 
 strength is weakness itself, and I know 
 
 * Uss anstifften der geistlichen, Die zu alien 
 Zyten, Christum Pilate und Herodi viirstellen. 
 — (MSC.) 
 
 the power of my enemies ; but I like- 
 wise know that I can do all things 
 through Christ that strengthcneth me. 
 Were I to hold my peace, another would 
 be raised up and constrained to do what 
 God is doing by my means, — while I 
 should be judged by God! O, my dear 
 brethren, banish far from your thoughts 
 all these apprehensions. If I have a fear 
 it is that 1 have been more gentle and 
 tractable than suits the times we live in.* 
 ' What shame,' say you, ' will fall upon 
 all our family, if you are burnt or in any 
 other way putfto death ?' \ O, my beloved 
 brethren, the Gospel derives from the 
 blood of Christ this wondrous property, 
 that the fiercest persecutions, far from ar- 
 resting its progress, do but hasten its tri- 
 umph ! They alone are faithful soldiers 
 of Christ who are not afraid to bear in 
 their own bodies the wounds of their 
 Master. All my efforts have no other 
 end than to make known to men the 
 treasures of blessedness that Christ has 
 purchased for us ; that all men may turn 
 to the Father, through the death of his 
 Son. If this doctrine should offend you, 
 your anger cannot stop my testimony. 
 You are my brothers, yes, my own bro- 
 thers, sons of my father, who have hung 
 on the same breasts . . . but if you were 
 not my brethren in Christ, and in the 
 work of faith, then would my grief be so 
 overpowering that nothing would exceed 
 it. Farewell. I will never cease to be 
 your attached brother, if you will not 
 cease to be the brethren of Jesus Christ." % 
 The confederated Swiss seemed to rise 
 as one man against the Gospel. The 
 petitions from Einsidlen had been the 
 signal of that movement. Zwingle, af- 
 fected at the fate of his beloved Myco- 
 nius, saw, in his misfortunes, but the be- 
 ginning of sorrows. Enemies within 
 and without the city, — a man's foes, 
 ' those of his own house,' — furious oppo- 
 sition from monks and priests, — strong 
 measures of repression by the Diet and 
 Councils, — riotous, perhaps murderous 
 assaults, from partisans of the foreign 
 
 * Plus enim metuo ne forte lenior mitiorque 
 fuerim. — (De semper casta Virgine Maria, Zw. 
 Opp. i. 104.) , 
 
 t Si vel ignis vel alio quodam supplicii genere 
 tollaris e medio. — (Ibid.) 
 
 I Frater vester germanus nunquam desinam, 
 si modo vos fratres Christi esse perrexeritis. — (Zw. 
 Opp. i. 107.) 
 
J82 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 service, — the upper valleys of Switzer- 
 land, the cradle of the Confederation, 
 pouring forth phalanxes of invincible sol- 
 diers, to reinstate Rome, and quench the 
 nascent revival of faith at the risk of 
 their lives ! Such was the prospect the 
 prophetic mind of the Reformer beheld 
 with trembling. And what a prospect ! 
 was indeed this revival to be crushed in 
 its very beginning ? Then it was that 
 Zwingle, anxious and troubled in mind, 
 spread before his God the deep anguish 
 of his soul. "O Jesus," he exclaimed, 
 "thou seest how the wicked and the blas- 
 phemer stun thy people's ears with their 
 clamours.* Thou knowest how from 
 my youth up I have abhorred controver- 
 sy, and yet, against my will, thou hast 
 never ceased to impel me to the conflict. 
 
 * Vides enim, piissime Jesu, aures eorum sep- 
 ias esse nequissimis susurronibus, sycophantis, lu- 
 crionibus . . . — (Ibid. iii. 74.) 
 
 Therefore, do I call upon Thoe with con 
 fidence to finish what thou hast begum! 
 If in anything I have builded unwisely, 
 let thy hand of power cast it down. If 
 I have laid any other foundation beside 
 Thee, let thy mighty arm overturn it.* 
 O thou vine full of all sweetness to whom 
 the Father is the husbandman, — and we 
 are branches, abandon not thy suckers, t 
 Hast thou not promised to be with us 
 unto the end of the world !" 
 
 It was on the 22nd of August, 1522, 
 that Ulric Zwingle, the Swiss Reformer, 
 beholding the thunder-cloud descending 
 from the mountains on the frail bark of 
 the Faith, thus poured forth to God the 
 troubles and desires of his soul. 
 
 * Si fundamentum aliud prater te jecero, de- 
 moliaris ! — (Ibid. 74.) 
 
 t O suavissima vitis, cujus vinitor Pater, pal- 
 mites vere nos'sumus : sationem tuam ne dese- 
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 Aspect of the Church— Effects of Luther's Teaching— Wisdom of God— Agitation of the People- 
 Luther and Melancthon— Tidings of Luther's Safety— The Imperial Edict Powerless— The. 
 " Knight George"— A Safe Solitude— Luther's Sickness— Alarm of his Friends— The Confes- 
 sional—Luther's Health— Feldkirchen's Marriage— Marriage of Priests— And of Friars— Monk- 
 ery— Luther on Monastic Vows— Dedication to His Father— Sale of Indulgences Resumed— 
 Luther's Letter to Spalatin— Luther to the Cardinal Elector— Effect of the Reformer's Letter- 
 Albert to Luther— Joachim of Brandenburg—" The Last shall be First"— Luther's Fitness for 
 the Work— Of Translating the Scriptures— Luther and Satan— Luther Quits the Wartburg— - The 
 Sorbonne— Luther's Visit to Wittemburg— Progress of the Reformation— The Monk Gabriel- 
 Interference of the Elector— Frederic's Caution— Attack on Monkery— Thirteen Monks Quit 
 the Convent— The Cordeliers Threatened— Decision of Monastic Vows— Carlstadt's Zeal — Tho 
 Lord's Supper— Town Council of Wittemburg— Errors of Popery— Fanatics of Zwickau— The 
 New Prophet— Nicolas Hussman— Melancthon and Stubner— Melancthon's Perplexity— Carl- 
 stadt's Zeal— Contempt of Learning— Occupations of the Elector— Luther's Dejection— His Test 
 of Inspiration — Edict of the Diet— Luther Leaves the Wartburg— Primitive Church— Two Swiss 
 Students— A Strange Knight— Supper at the Inn— Luther on His Journey— Letter to the Elec- 
 tor—Reception at Wittemburg— Meditation— Luther Preaches— Faith and Love — God's Way — 
 Luther on the Lord's Supper— Effect of Luther's Sermons — Luther's Moderation and Courage— 
 Stubner and Cellarius— Order Restored— Scripture and Faith— The Visionary Pen— Publica- 
 tion of the New Testament— Effects of Luther's Translation— The " Loci Communes"— Origi- 
 nal Sin— Free Will— Knowledge of Christ— Effect of Melancthon's Tract— Henry VIII — 
 Catherine of Arragon— Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More— Cardinal Wolsey— Henry VIII. 
 Writes against Luther— Royal Theology— The King's Vanity— Luther's Indignation— His Re- 
 ply to Henry VIII.— Literary Courtesy— More's Attack upon Luther— Henry's Attachment to 
 More— Henry's Letter— Spread of the" Reformation— The Augustine Monks— The Franciscans 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 383 
 
 — The People and the Priests — The New Preachers — Power of the Scriptures — Religion and 
 Literature — The Press — Spread of Luther's Writings — Luther at Zwickau — Duke Henry — 
 Ihach expelled — Diffusion of the Light — University of Wittemhurg — Principles of the Reforma- 
 tion — Transition State of the Church. 
 
 It was now fouryears since the Church 
 had heard again proclaimed a Truth 
 which had formed part of her earliest 
 teaching. The mighty word of a Sal- 
 vation by Grace, — once ' fully preached' 
 throughout Asia, Greece, and -^taly by 
 Paul and his companions, and discovered 
 many ages after, in the pages of the Bi- 
 ble, by a monk of Wittemberg, — had re- 
 sounded from the plains of Saxony, as far 
 as Italy, France, and England ; and the 
 lofty mountains of Switzerland had echoed 
 its inspiring accents. The springs of 
 truth, liberty, and life were again opened: 
 multitudes had drunk gladly of the wa- 
 ters ; but those who had freely partaken 
 of them had retained the same external 
 appearance, and while all within was 
 new, every thing without remained un- 
 changed. 
 
 The constitution of the Church, its 
 ritual, and its discipline had undergone 
 no alteration. In Saxony — even at Wit- 
 temberg — and wherever the new opin- 
 ' ions had spread, the papal ceremonies 
 held on their accustomed course ; the 
 priest before the altar offering the host 
 to God was believed to effect a mysteri- 
 ous transubstantiation ; friars and nuns 
 continued to present themselves at the 
 convents to take upon them the monastic 
 vows; pastors lived single ; religious bro- 
 therhoods herded together ; pilgrimages 
 were undertaken ; the faithful' suspend- 
 ed their votive offerings on the pillars of 
 the chapels ; and all the accustomed 
 ceremonies, down to the minutest ob- 
 servances, were celebrated as before. A 
 voice had been heard in the world, but 
 as yet it was not embodied forth in action. 
 The language of the priest accordingly 
 presented the most striking contrast with 
 his ministrations. From his pulpit he 
 might be heard to thunder against the 
 mass as idolatrous, and then he might 
 be seen to come down to the altar, and 
 go scrupulously through the prescribed 
 form of the service. On every side, the 
 recently recovered Gospel sounded in the 
 midst of the ancient rites. The officia- 
 ting priest himself was unconscious of 
 his inconsistency, and the populace, who 
 listened with avidity to the bold dis- 
 
 courses of the new preachers, continued 
 devoutly observant of their long-estab- 
 lished customs, as though they were 
 never to abandon them. All things con- 
 tinued unchanged at the domestic hearth, 
 and in the social circle, as in the house 
 of God. A new faith was abroad, but 
 new works were not yet seen. The 
 vernal sun had risen, but winter still 
 bound the earth ; neither flower, nor leaf, 
 nor any sign of vegetation was visible. 
 But this aspect of things was deceptive j 
 a vigorous sap was secretly circulating 
 beneath the surface, and was about to 
 change the face of the world. 
 
 To this wisely-ordered progress, the 
 Reformation may be indebted for its tri- 
 umphs. Every revolution should bo 
 wrought out in men's minds before it 
 takes the shape of action. The contrast 
 we have remarked did not at first fix 
 Luther's attention. He seemed to ex- 
 pect that while men' received his writings 
 with enthusiasm, they should continue 
 devout observers of the corruptions those 
 writings exposed. One might be tempt- 
 ed to believe that he had planned his 
 course beforehand, and was resolved to 
 change the opinions of men before he 
 ventured to remodel their forms of wor- 
 ship. But this would be ascribing to 
 Luther a wisdom, the honour of which 
 is due to a higher Intelligence. He was 
 the appointed instrument for a purpose 
 he had no power to conceive. At a later 
 period he could discern and comprehend 
 these things, but he did not devise or ar- 
 range them. God led the way; the part, 
 assigned to Luther was to follow. 
 
 If Luther had begun by external ref- 
 ormation — if he had followed up his 
 words by an attempt to abolish monastic 
 vows, the mass, confession, the prescribed 
 form of worship, — assuredly he would 
 have encountered the most formidable 
 resistance. Mankind need time to ac- 
 commodate themselves to great changes 
 But Luther was not the imprudent and 
 daring innovator that some historians* 
 have depicted. The people, seeing no 
 change in their daily devotions, followed 
 undoubtingly their new leader — wonder- 
 * Hume, &c. 
 
584 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ing at the assaults directed against a 
 man who left unquestioned their mass, 
 their beads, and their confessor ; and dis- 
 posed to ascribe such enmity to the petty- 
 jealousy of secret rivals, or to the hard 
 injustice of powerful enemies. And yet 
 the opinions that Luther put forth, fer- 
 mented in the minas of men, moulded 
 their thoughts, and so undermined the 
 strong hold of prejudice that it, ere long, 
 fell without being attacked. Such influ- 
 ence is, indeed, gradual. Opinions make 
 their silent progress, like the waters 
 which trickle behind our rocks, and 
 loosen them from the mountains on which 
 they rest : suddenly the hidden operation 
 is revealed, and a single day suffices to 
 lay bare the work of years, if not of cen- 
 turies. 
 
 A new era had dawned upon the Ref- 
 ormation : already truth was recovered 
 in its teaching ; henceforward the teach- 
 ing of the truth is to work truth in the 
 Church and in society. The agitation 
 was too great to allow of men's minds 
 remaining at their then point of attain- 
 ment ; on the general faith in the dogmas 
 so extensively undermined, customs had 
 been established which now began to be 
 disregarded, and were destined, with 
 them, to pass away. 
 
 There was a courage and vitality in 
 that age, which prevented its continuing 
 silent in presence of proved error. The 
 sacraments, public worship, the hierarchy, 
 vows, constitutional forms, domestic and 
 public life, all were on the eve of under- 
 going modification. The bark, slowly 
 and laboriously constructed, was on the 
 point of being lowered from the stocks, 
 and launched on the open sea. It is for 
 us to follow its progress through many 
 shoals. 
 
 The captivity of Luther in the castle 
 of Wartburg, separates these two periods. 
 That Divine Providence which was 
 about to give a mighty impulse to the 
 Reformation, had prepared the means of 
 its progress, by leading apart into pro- 
 found seclusion, the man chosen to effect 
 it. For a while, the work was as much 
 lost sight of as the instrument of it : but 
 the seed must be committed to the earth, 
 if it is to bring forth fruit ; and from this 
 captivity, which might have seemed to 
 close the Reformer's career, the Reforma- 
 
 tion was destined to go forth to new con- 
 quests, and spread rapidly through the 
 world. 
 
 Until this period, the Reformation had 
 indeed centered in the person of Luther. 
 His appearance before the Diet of 
 Worms was unquestionably the subli- 
 mest hour of his life. His character at 
 that time seemed almost without a blem- 
 ish ; and this it is that has led some to 
 the remark, that if God, who hid the Re- 
 former for ten months within the walls 
 of the Wartburg, had at that moment 
 for ever removed him from the eyes of 
 men, his end would have resembled an 
 apotheosis. But God designs no apothe- 
 osis for His servants, — and Luther was 
 preserved to the Church, that in him, 
 and by his errors, the Church might 
 learn that the faith of Christians should 
 rest only on the word of God. He was 
 hurried away and placed at a distance 
 from the stage on which the great revo- 
 lution of the sixteenth century was going 
 on. The truth which he had for four 
 years so energetically proclaimed, con- 
 tinued to produce its effect upon Chris- 
 tendom ; and the work of which he had 
 been the weak instrument, bore thence- 
 forward the impress, not of man — but of 
 God himself. 
 
 All Germany was moved by the news 
 of Luther's captivity. Rumours, the most 
 contradictory, were circulated in the pro- 
 vinces. Men's minds were more agitated 
 by the absence of the Reformer, than 
 they could possibly have been by his pre- 
 sence. On one side, it was affirmed that 
 some of his friends, passing from the 
 French territory, had carried him off, 
 and lodged him in safety beyond the 
 Rhine.* In another place, it was said 
 that assassins had taken his life. Even 
 in the smallest villages, inquiries were 
 heard concerning Luther. Travellers 
 were questioned, and groups of the cu- 
 rious assembled in the market-places. 
 Sometimes a stranger, passing through, 
 recounted how the Reformer had been 
 carried off; depicting the brutal horse- 
 men hastily tieing their prisoner's hands 
 behind him, dragging him after them on 
 foot, till his strength was spent, and deaf 
 to his cries, though the blood forced its 
 
 * Hie .... invalescit opinio, me esse ab ami- 
 cis captum e Francia missis. — (L. Epp. ii. 5.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 385 
 
 way from his fingers.* His body, said 
 some, has been seen pierced through 
 and through.f Such narratives drew 
 forth exclamations of grief and horror. 
 ' Never more shall we behold him !' 
 said the gathered crowds ; ' never again 
 shall we hear that bold man whose voice 
 stirred the depths of our hearts !' Luther'* 
 partisans, moved with indignation, swore 
 to avenge his death. AVomen and 
 children, men of peace, and aged people, 
 foreboded new disturbances. The alarm 
 of the Romish party was altogether un- 
 exampled. The priests and friars who 
 had been at first unable to conceal their 
 joy, believing their own triumph se- 
 cured by the death of one man, and had 
 carried themselves haughtily, would now 
 willingly have hid themselves from the 
 threatening anger of the populace.^ 
 Those who had g^ven free vent to their 
 rage, so long as Luther was at large, 
 now trembled with alarm, though Luther 
 was in captivity. $ Aleander, especially, 
 was as if thunderstruck. " The only 
 way of extricating ourselves," wrote a 
 Roman Catholic to the Archbishop of 
 Mentz, " is to light our torches, and go 
 searching through the earth for Luther, 
 till we can restore him to the nation that 
 will have him."|| It might have been 
 thought that the pallid ghost of the Re- 
 former, dragging his chain, was spread- 
 , ing terror around, and calling for venge- 
 ance. Luther's death, it was predicted, 
 would occasion the effusion of torrents of 
 human blood. T 
 
 Nowhere was there a stronger feeling 
 displayed than in Worms itself. Bold 
 remonstrances were heard both from no- 
 bles and people. Ulric Hutten and Her- 
 mann Busch filled the air with their 
 plaintive lamentations and calls to war. 
 Loud accusations were brought against 
 
 * Et iter festinantes cursii equites ipsum pe- 
 destrem raptim tractum fuisse ut sanguis e digitis 
 erumperet. — (Cochlanis, p. 39.) 
 
 t Fuit qui testatus sit, visum a se Lntheri ca- 
 daver transfossum. . . . — (Pallaviciai Hist. Cone. 
 Trid. i. p. 122.) 
 
 t Molem vulgi imminentis ferre non possunt. 
 — (L. Epp. ii. p. 13.) 
 
 \ Qui me libero insanierunt, nunc me captivo 
 ita formidant ut incipiant mitigare. — (Ibid.) 
 
 || Nos vitam vix redempturos, nisi accensis 
 candelis undique eum requiramus. — (L. Epp. ii. 
 p. 13.) 
 
 V Gerbelii Ep. in M. S. C. Heckelianis. Lind- 
 ner, Leb. Luth. p. 244. 
 49 
 
 Charles V. and the Nuncios. The en- 
 tire nation had espoused the cause of the 
 monk whose energy of faith had made 
 him its leader. 
 
 At Wittemborg, his colleagues and 
 friends, and especially Melancthon, were 
 at first lost in sadness. Luther had been the 
 means of communicating to the youno- stud- 
 ent the treasures of that divine knowledge 
 which from that hour had taken posses- 
 sion of his whole soul. It was Luther 
 who had given substance and life to that 
 intellectual culture which Melancthon 
 brought with him to Wittemberg. The 
 depth of the Reformer's doctrine had im- 
 pressed the young Grecian, and his bold 
 advocacy of the claims of the unchang- 
 ing Word against human traditions had 
 called forth his enthusiasm. He had as- 
 sociated himself with him in his labours, 
 and taking up the pen, with that finished 
 style which he had imbibed in the study 
 of ancient literature, he had made the 
 authority of Fathers and of Councils to 
 bend before the sovereignty of God's 
 Word. 
 
 The prompt decision that Luther dis- 
 played in the trying occasions of life, 
 Melancthon manifested in his pursuit of 
 learning. Never were two men more 
 strongly marked with diversity and 
 agreement. " Scripture," said Melanc- 
 thon, "satisfies the soul with holy and 
 wondrous delight — it is a heavenly am- 
 brosia !"* " The word of God," exclaimed 
 Luther, " is a sword — an instrument of 
 war and destruction, — it falls on the 
 children of Ephraim like the lioness that 
 darts from the forest." Thus one saw in 
 Scripture chiefly its power to comfort ; — 
 and the other, a mighty energy opposed 
 to the corruption of the world. But to 
 both it was the sublimest of themes. In 
 so far, there was a perfect agreement in 
 their judgment. "Melancthon," observed 
 Luther, " is a miracle in the estimation 
 of all who know him. He is the most 
 dreaded enemy of Satan and the school- 
 men, for he knows all their foolishness, 
 and he knows Christ as the rock. That 
 young Grecian goes beyond me even in 
 divine learning, — he will do you more 
 good than many Luthers!" And he 
 went on to say he -was ready to give up 
 an opinion if Philip disapproved it. Me- 
 
 * Mirabilis in iis voluptas, imino ambrosia quaB- 
 dam coelestis. — (Corp. Ref. i. 128. 
 
386 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 lancthon, on his part, full of admiration 
 for Luther's knowledge of Scripture, 
 ranked him far above the Fathers. He 
 took pleasure in excusing the jesting 
 which Luther was reproached for resort- 
 ing to, and would, on such occasions, 
 compare him to an earthen vase which 
 holds a precious treasure in an unsightly 
 vessel. " I would be careful how I 
 blame him," said he.* 
 
 But behold the two friends so inti- 
 mately united in affection, now parted 
 one from the other. The two fellow- 
 soldiers no longer march side by side to 
 the rescue of the Church. Luther is ab- 
 sent, — and lost perhaps for ever ! The 
 consternation at Wittemberg was ex- 
 treme : — as that of an army, gloomy and 
 dejected, at sight of the bleeding corpse 
 of the general who was leading it on to 
 victory. 
 
 Suddenly news arrived of a more cheer- 
 ing character. " Our well-beloved father 
 still lives,"! exclaimed Philip, exultingly, 
 " take courage and stand firm." But ere 
 long melancholy prognostications return- 
 ed. Luther was indeed living, but in 
 close imprisonment. The edict of 
 Worms, with its menacing proscrip- 
 tions,^: was circulated by thousands 
 throughout the empire, and even in the 
 Tyrolese mountains. § Was not the Ref- 
 ormation on the very eve of destruction 
 by the iron hand impending over it? 
 The gentle spirit of Melancthon recoiled 
 with a thrill of horror. 
 
 But above the hand of man's power, a 
 mightier hand was making itself felt, and 
 God was rendering powerless that dread- 
 ed edict. The German princes, who had 
 long sought occasion to reduce the au- 
 thority which Rome exercised in the 
 empire, took alarm at the alliance be- 
 tween the Emperor and the Pope, lest it 
 should work the ruin of their liberty. 
 Whilst, therefore, Charles, in journeying 
 in the Low Countries, might see with a 
 smile of irony the bonfires in which flat- 
 terers and fanatics consumed the writings 
 of Luther in the public squares, — those 
 writings were read in Germany with 
 
 * Spiritum Martini nolim temere in hac causa 
 Interpellare. — (Ibid. p. 211.) 
 
 t Pater noster charissimus vivit. — (Ibid. p. 389.) 
 
 t Dicitur parari proscriptio horrenda. — (Corp. 
 Ref. i. p. 389.) 
 
 § Dicuntur signatas chart® proscriptionis bis 
 mille misses quoque ad Insbruck. — (Ibid.) 
 
 continually increasing eagerness, and 
 numerous pamphlets in favour of the 
 Reformation every day attacked the pa- 
 pal authority. 
 
 The Nuncios could not control them- 
 selves when they found that the edict, 
 which it had cost them so much to ob- 
 tain, produced so feeble an effect. u The 
 ink of the signature," said they, " has 
 scarcely had time to dry, when, behold, 
 on all sides, the imperial decree is torn 
 to pieces." The populace were more 
 and more won to the cause of the ex- 
 traordinary man who, without heeding 
 the thunderbolts of Charles and of the 
 Pepe, had made confession of his faith 
 with the courage of a martyr. It was 
 said, •" Has he not offered to retract if 
 refuted, and no one has had the hardi- 
 hood to undertake to refute him. Does 
 not that show that he has spoken the 
 truth?" Thus it was that the first emo- 
 tions of fear were followed at Wittemberg 
 and throughout the empire by a move- 
 ment of enthusiasm. Even the arch- 
 bishep of Mentz, beholding the bujst of 
 national sympathy, durst not give per- 
 mission to the Cordeliers to preach agai nst 
 the Reformer. The University, which 
 might have been expected to yield to the 
 storm, raised its head. The new doc- 
 trines had taken too deep root to suffer 
 by Luther's absence, and the halls of the 
 academies were crowded with auditors.* 
 
 Meanwhile, the Knight George, for 
 this was the name of Luther, so long as 
 he was in the Wartburg, was living sol- 
 itary and unknown. " If you were to 
 see me," wrote he to Melancthon, " truly 
 you would take me for a knight ; even 
 you would scarcely know me again."! 
 Luther, on his arrival, passed a short 
 time in repose, enjoying a leisure which 
 had not yet been allowed him. He was 
 at large within the fortress ; but he was 
 not permitted to pass outside \X.% All 
 his wishes were complied with, and he 
 had never been better treated. § Many 
 were the thoughts that occupied his mind, 
 
 * Scholastici quorum supra millia ibi tunc fue- 
 runt. — (Spalatini Annates, 1521, October.) 
 
 t Equitem videres ac ipse vix agnosceres.— 
 (L. Epp. ii. 11.) 
 
 X Nunc sum hie otiosus, sicut inter captivos li- 
 ber.— (Ibid, p. 3, 12 May.) 
 
 § Quanquam et hilariter et libenter omnia mi- 
 ni mimstret. — (Ibid. p. 13, 15 August.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 387 
 
 but none of them had power to disturb 
 him. By turns he looked down upon 
 the forests that surrounded him, and 
 raised his eyes to heaven — " Strange cap- 
 tivity I" he exclaimed, — " a prisoner by 
 consent, and yet against my will."* 
 " Pray for me," he wrote to Spalatin : — 
 "I want nothing save your prayers : don't 
 disturb me by what is said or thought of 
 me in the world. At last I am quiet."f 
 This letter, like many of that period, is 
 dated from the island of Patmos. Luther 
 compared the Wart burg to the island 
 celebrated as the scene of the banishment 
 of St. John by the emperor Domitian. 
 
 After the stirring contests that had 
 agitated his soul, the Reformer onjoyed 
 repose in the heart of the gloomy forests 
 ofThuringen. There he studied evan- 
 gelic, truth, — not for disputation, but as 
 the means of regeneration and of life. 
 The Reformation, in its beginning, was 
 of necessity polemic ; — other circum- 
 stances required new labours. After 
 eradicating with the hoe the thorns and 
 brambles, the time was arrived for peace- 
 ably sowing the word of God in men's 
 hearts. If Luther had been all his life 
 called to wage conflicts, — he would not 
 have effected a lasting work in the 
 Church. By his captivity he escaped a 
 danger which might have ruined the 
 cause of the Reformation, — that of al- 
 ways attacking and demolishing, without 
 ever defending or building up. 
 
 This secluded retreat had one effect, 
 perhaps still more beneficial. Lifted by 
 his nation, like one raised upon a shield, 
 he was but a hand's breadth from the 
 abyss beyond, and the least degree of in- 
 toxication might have precipitated him 
 headlong. Some of the foremost pro- 
 moters of the Reformation in Germany, 
 as well as in Switzerland, had made ship- 
 wreck on the shoals of spiritual pride and 
 fanaticism. Luther was a man very 
 subject to the weaknesses of our nature ; 
 and, as it was, he did not entirely escape 
 these besetting dangers. Meanwhile, 
 the hand of the Almighty, for a while, 
 preserved him from them, by suddenly 
 removing him from the intoxication of 
 
 * Ego mirabilis captivus qui et volens et nolens 
 hie sedeo. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 4, 12 May.) 
 
 t Tu fac ut pro me ores: hac una re opus 
 mihi est. Quicquid de me fit in publico, nihil 
 moRror ; ego in quiete tandem sedeo. — (L. Epp. 
 ii. p. 4, 10 June, 1521.) 
 
 success, and plunging him in the depth 
 of a retirement unknown to the world! 
 There his soul gathered up itself to God 
 —there it was again tempered by adver- 
 sity: — his sufferings, his humiliation, 
 [ obliged him to walk, at least for a time, 
 | with the humble; — and the principles 
 j of the christian life thenceforward de- 
 veloped themselves in his soul with fresh 
 energy and freedom. 
 
 | Luther's tranquillity was not of long 
 duration. Seated in solitude on the walls 
 of the Wartburg, he passed whole days 
 lost in meditation. At times, the Church 
 rose before his vision, and spread out all 
 her wretchedness :* at other times, lifting 
 his eyes to heaven, he would say, " Canst 
 Thou have made all men in vain?" 
 Then letting go his confidence, he would 
 add, dejectedly, "Alas! there is no one 
 in this closing day of wrath to stand as 
 a wall before the Lord, and save Israel !" 
 
 Then recurring to his own lot, he 
 dreaded being charged with having de- 
 serted the field of battle ;f the thought 
 was insupportable. " Rather," exclaimed 
 he, "would I be stretched on burning 
 coals than stagnate here half dead. "% 
 Transported in thought to Worms — to 
 Wittemberg — into the midst of his ad- 
 versaries — he regretted that, yielding to 
 his friends' entreaties, he had withdrawn 
 himself from the world. § " Ah." said 
 he, " nothing on earth do I more' desire 
 than to face my cruel enemies."|| 
 
 Some gentler thoughts, however, 
 brought a truce to such complainings. 
 Luther's state of mind was not all tem- 
 pest ; his agitated spirit recovered at 
 times a degree of calm and comfort. 
 Next to the assurance of the Divine pro- 
 tection, one thing consoled him in his 
 grief- — it was the recollection of Melanc- 
 thon. u If I perish," he wrote, " the 
 Gospel will loose nothing!! — you will 
 succeed me as Elisha succeeded Elijah, 
 
 * Ego hie sedens tota die faciem Ecclesia? ante 
 me constituo. — (L. Epp. ii. 1.) 
 
 t Verebar ego ne aciein deserere viderer. — 
 (L. Epp. ii. 1.) 
 
 t Mallem iuter carbones vivos ardere, quam 
 solus semivivus, atque utinam non mortuus pu- 
 tere.— (Ibid. 10.) 
 
 § Cervicem esse objectandam publico furori. — 
 (Ibid. 69.) 
 
 || Nihil magis opto, quam furoribus adversario- 
 rum occurrere, objecto jugulo. — (Ibid. 1.) 
 
 If Etiam si peream, nihil peribit Evangelio. — 
 (Ibid. p. 10.) 
 
388 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 with a double portion of my spirit." But 
 calling- to mind the .timidity of Melanc- 
 thon, he ejaculated — " Minister of the 
 Word ! keep the walls and towers of 
 Jerusalem till our enemies shall strike 
 you down. We stand alone on the plain 
 of battle ; after me they will strike you 
 down."* 
 
 This thought of the final onset of 
 Rome on the infant Church, threw him 
 into renewed anxieties. The poor monk, 
 — a prisoner and alone, — had many a 
 struggle to pass through in his solitude ; 
 but suddenly he seemed to get a glimpse 
 of his deliverance. He thought he could 
 foresee that the assaults of the papal power 
 would rouse the nations of Germany ; 
 and that the soldiers of the Gospel, vic- 
 torious over its enemies, and gathered 
 under the walls of the Wartburg, would 
 give liberty to its captive. " If the Pope," 
 said he, " should stretch forth his hand 
 against all who are on my side, there 
 will be a violent commotion ; the more 
 he urges on our ruin, the sooner shall we 
 see an end of him and his adherents ! 
 and as for me .... I shall be restored to 
 your arms.f God is awakening many, 
 and He it is who impels the nations. 
 Only let our enemies take up our affair 
 and try to stifle it in their arms, — and it 
 will grow by their pressure, and come 
 forth more formidable than ever !" 
 
 But sickness brought him down from 
 these lofty heights to which his courage 
 and faith would at times rise. He had 
 already, when at Worms, suffered much ; 
 and his disorder had increased in soli- 
 tude. \ The food of the Wartburg was 
 altogether unsuited to him ; it was rather 
 less ordinary in quality than that of his 
 convent, and it was found needful to give 
 him the poor diet to which he had been 
 accustomed. He passed whole nights 
 without sleep, — anxieties of mind were 
 added to pain of body. No great work 
 is accomplished without struggle and suf- 
 fering. Luther, alone on his rock, en- 
 dured in his vigorous frame a suffering 
 that was needed, in order to the eman- 
 cipation of mankind. " Sitting, at night, 
 in my apartment," says he, "I uttered 
 
 * Nos soli adhuc stamus in acie : te querent 
 post mc. — (Ibid. p. 2.) 
 
 t Quo citus id tentaverit, hoc citius et ipse et 
 8ui peribunt, et ego revertar. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 10.) 
 
 X Auctum est malum, quo Wormatis labora- 
 bam.— (Ibid. p. 17.) 
 
 cries like a woman in travail."* Then, 
 ceasing to complain, and touched with 
 the thought that what he was undergo- 
 ing was sent in mercy from God, he 
 broke forth in accents of love : " Thanks 
 to Thee, O Christ, that thou wilt not 
 leave me without the precious relics of 
 thy holy cross !"f But soon, feeling in- 
 dignation against himself wrought in his 
 soul, he exclaimed, "Hardened fool that 
 I am ; woe is me ! my prayers are few ; 
 I wrestle but little with the Lord ; I be- 
 wail not the state of the Church of God :| 
 instead of being fervent in spirit, my pas- 
 sions take fire : I sink in sloth, in sleep, 
 and indolence." Then, not knowing to 
 what to ascribe his feelings, and accus- 
 tomed to expect blessing through the af- 
 fectionate remembrance of his friends, he 
 exclaimed, in the bitterness of his soul, 
 " O, my friends, do you then forget to 
 pray for me? that God can thus leave 
 me to myself." 
 
 Those who were about him, as also 
 his Wittemberg friends, and those at the 
 Elector's court, were anxious and alarmed 
 at his mental suffering. They trembled 
 ! in the prospect of the life that had been 
 j snatched from the fires of the Pope, and 
 | the sword of Charles, so sadly sinking 
 and expiring. The Wartburg then 
 would be Luther's tomb ! " I fear," said 
 Melancthon, " lest his grief for the condi- 
 tion of the Church should bring him 
 down to the grave. He has lighted a 
 candle in Israel ; if he dies, what hope is 
 left us 1 Would that by the sacrifice of 
 my worthless life, I could retain in this 
 world one who is surely its brightest or- 
 nament.^ O, what a man!" he Re- 
 claimed, (as if already standing beside 
 his grave,) " surely we never valued him 
 as we ought." 
 
 What Luther termed the shameful in- 
 dolence of his prison-life, was in reality, 
 diligence beyond the strength of ordi- 
 nary mortals. " Here am I," said he, on 
 the 14th of May, "lapped in indolence 
 and pleasures. [He doubtless refers to 
 the quality of his food, which was at 
 
 * Sedco dolens, sicut puerpera, lacer et saucius 
 et cruentus. — (Ibid, p 50, 9 Sept.) 
 
 t Gratias Christo, qui me sine reliquiis sanctae 
 Crucis non dere linquit. — (Ibid.) 
 
 I Nihil gemens pro ecciesia Dei. — (L. Epp. ii. 
 p. 22, 13 July.) 
 
 § Utinam hac vili anima mea ipsius vitam 
 emere queam. — (Corp. Ref. i. 415, 6 July.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 389 
 
 first less coarse than what he had been 
 used to.] I am going through the Bible 
 in Hebrew and Greek. I mean to write 
 a discourse in German touching auricu- 
 lar confession ; also to continue the trans- 
 lation of the Psalms, and to compose a 
 collection of sermons, as soon as I have 
 received what I want from Wittemberg. 
 My pen is never idle."* Even this was 
 but a part of Luther's labours. 
 
 His enemies thought that, if not dead, 
 at least he was effectually silenced ; but 
 their exultation was short, and, ere long, 
 no doubt could exist that he still lived. 
 A multitude of tracts, composed in the 
 Wartburg, followed each other in rapid 
 succession ; and everywhere the well- 
 known voice of the Reformer was enthu- 
 siastically responded to. Luther, at the 
 same moment, put forth such writings as 
 were adapted to build up the church, 
 and controversial tracts which disturbed 
 his opponents in their fancied security. 
 For nearly a whole year, he, by turns, 
 instructed, exhorted, rebuked, and thun- 
 dered from his mountain height, and his 
 astonished adversaries might well enquire 
 whether indeed there was not something 
 supernatural in so prodigious an activi- 
 ty — " He could not have allowed himself 
 any rest,"f says Cochlseus. But the so- 
 lution of the whole mystery was to be 
 found in the rashness of the Romish 
 party. They were in haste to profit by 
 the decree of Worms, to put an end to 
 the Reformation ; and Luther, sentenced 
 — placed under the ban of the empire, — 
 and a prisoner in the Wartburg, stood up 
 in the cause of sound doctrine, as if he 
 were still at large and triumphant. It 
 was especially at the tribunal of penance, 
 that the priests strove to rivet the fetters 
 of their deluded parishioners ; — hence it 
 is the Confessional that Luther first as- 
 sails. " They allege," says he, " that pas- 
 sage in St. James, ' confess your sins to 
 one another ;' a strange confessor this — 
 his name is ' one another !' Whence it 
 would follow that the confessors ought 
 also to confess to their penitents; that 
 every Christian should in his turn be 
 pope, bishop, and priest, and that the 
 
 * Sine intermissione scribo. — (L. Epp. ii. 6 and 
 16.) 
 
 t Cum quiescere non posset. — (Cochlaeus, Ac- 
 ta Lutheri, p. 39.) 
 
 pope himself should make confession be- 
 fore all."* 
 
 Scarcely had Luther finished this tract, 
 when he commenced another. A divine 
 of Louvain, named Latomos, already 
 known by his opposition to Reuchlin 
 and Erasmus, had impugned the Refor- 
 mer's statements. Twelve days after, 
 Luther's answer was ready, and it is one 
 of his masterpieces. He first defends 
 himself against the charge of want of 
 moderation. " The moderation of this 
 age," says he, " consists in bending the 
 knee before sacrilegious pontiffs and im- 
 pious sophists, and saying, ' Gracious 
 Lord, most worthy master.' Then, hav- 
 ing so done, you may persecute who 
 you will to the death ; you may convulse 
 the world, — all that, shall not hinder your 
 being a man of moderation ! Away with 
 such moderation, say I. Let me speak 
 out, and delude no one. The shell may 
 be rough, perhaps, but the nut is soft and 
 tender."! • 
 
 The health of Luther continued to de- 
 cline ; he began to think of leaving the 
 Wartburg. But what to do ; to appear 
 in open day at the risk of his life ? In 
 the rear of the mountain on which the 
 fortress was built, the country was inter- 
 sected by numerous footpaths, bordered 
 by tufts of wild strawberries. The mas- 
 sive gate of the castle was unclosed, and 
 the prisoner ventured, not without fear, 
 to gather some of the fruit.J Gradually, 
 he became more venturesome, and, clothed 
 in his knight's disguise, and attended by 
 a rough-mannered but faithful guard 
 from the castle, he extended his excur- 
 sions in the neighbourhood. One day, 
 stopping to rest at an inn, Luther laid 
 aside his sword, which encumbered him, 
 and took up some books that lay near. 
 His natural disposition got the better of 
 his prudence. His attendant took the 
 alarm lest an action so unusual in a man 
 of arms, should excite a suspicion that 
 the doctor was not really a knight. 
 Another time, the two companions de- 
 
 * Und der Pabst musse ihm beichten. — (L. 
 Opp. xvi. p. 701.) 
 
 t Cortex meuf esse potest durior, sed nucleus 
 meus mollis et didcis est. — (L. Opp. xvii. Lat. ii. 
 p. 213.) 
 
 t Zu zeiten gehet er inn die Erdbeer am 
 Schlossberg. — (Mathesius, p. 33.) 
 
390 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 scended the mountain, and entered the 
 convent of Reichardsbrunn, in which, 
 but a few months before, Luther had 
 rested for a night, on his way to Worms.* 
 Suddenly one of the lay-brothers uttered 
 an exclamation of surprise — Luther had 
 been recognised. His keeper, seeing 
 how the matter stood, hurried him away, 
 and it was not till they were galloping 
 far from the cloisters, that the monk re- 
 covered from his astonishment. 
 
 The life of the Doctor of Wittemberg, 
 in his assumed character of knight, had, 
 indeed, at times, a something about it 
 truly theological. One day, the snares 
 were made ready — the fortress gates 
 thrown open — the sporting dogs let loose. 
 Luther had expressed a wish to partake 
 of the pleasures of the chase. The 
 huntsmen were in high spirits ; the dogs 
 scoured the hills, driving the hares 
 from the brushwood ; but as the tumult 
 swelled around him, the Knight George, 
 
 aotionless in the midst of it, felt his soul 
 1 with solemn thoughts. Looking 
 round him, his heart heaved with sor- 
 row.! "Is it not," said he, "the very 
 picture of the Devil, setting his dogs, the 
 bishops, those messengers of antichrist, 
 and sending them out to hunt down poor 
 souls?"| A young leveret had been 
 snared : rejoicing to liberate it, Luther 
 wrapped it in his mantle, and deposited 
 it in the midst of a thicket ; but scarcely 
 had he left the spot, when the dogs 
 scented it, and killed it. Drawn to the 
 place by its cry, Luther uttered an ex- 
 clamation of grief — " O, Pope! and thou, 
 too, O Satan ! it is thus that ye would 
 compass the destruction of the souls that 
 have been rescued from death !"§ 
 
 Whilst the Doctor of Wittemberg, 
 dead to the world, was seeking to recruit 
 his spirits by these occupations in the 
 vicinity of the Wartburg, the great work 
 was progressing, as if by its own power. 
 The Reformation, in fact, was beginning 
 to take effect. It was no longer limited 
 
 * See page 292. 
 
 t Theologisabar etiam ibi inter retia et canes 
 . . . tantum misericordice etdoloris miscuit myste- 
 rium. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 43.) 
 
 t Quid enim ista imago, nisi Diabolum signifi- 
 cat per insidias suas et impios magistros canes 
 suos . . — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Sic sasvit Papa et Satan ut servatas etiam 
 animas perdat. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 44.) 
 
 to teaching ; it now began to affect and 
 mould the life. 
 
 Bernard Feldkirchen, the pastor of 
 Kemberg, and the first, under Luther's 
 direction, to expose the errors of Rome,* 
 was also the first to throw off the yoke 
 of her institutions : — he married ! 
 
 There is, in the German character, a 
 strong love of family and domestic enjoy- 
 ments : — hence, of all the injunctions of 
 the Papal authority, none had had more 
 lamentable results than the imposition of 
 celibacy. Made obligatory on the heads 
 of the clergy, this practice had prevented 
 the fiefs of the church from passing into 
 hereditary possessions. But extended by 
 Gregory VII. to the inferior orders, its 
 effects had been indeed deplorable. Many 
 of the priests, in evading the obligation 
 imposed upon them, by shameful dis- 
 orders, had drawn down hatred and con- 
 tempt on their profession ; while those 
 who had submitted to Hildebrand's law, 
 were indignant that the Church, which 
 lavished power, riches, and earthly pos- 
 sessions on its higher dignitaries, should 
 impose on its humbler ministers, who 
 were ever its most useful supporters, a 
 denial so opposed to the Gospel. 
 
 " Neither the Pope, nor the Councils," 
 said Feldkirchen, and another pastor, 
 named Seidler, who followed his exam- 
 ple, " can have a right to impose on the 
 Church a command that endangers soul 
 and body. The obligation 1o observe 
 God's law compels us to throw aside tra- 
 ditions of men."f The re-establishment 
 of marriage was, in the sixteenth century, 
 an homage paid to the moral law. The 
 ecclesiastical power, in alarm, instantly 
 issued its mandates against the two 
 priests. Seidler, who lived in the terri- 
 tory of Duke George, was given up to 
 his superiors, and died in prison. But 
 the Elector Frederic refused to surrender 
 Feldkirchen to the Archbishop of Mag- 
 deburg. " His Highness," said Spala- 
 tin, " declines to act the part of a police- 
 officer." Feldkirchen, therefore, con- 
 tinued to preside over his flock, though 
 a husband and a father ! 
 
 The first emotion Of the Reformer, on 
 receiving intelligence of these events, was 
 
 * See page 94. 
 
 t Coegit me ergo ut humanas traditiones viola- 
 rem, necessitas servandi juris divini. — (Corp. Ref 
 i. p. 441.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES TPHE WARTBURG. 
 
 391 
 
 one of joy. "I am all admiration," says 
 he, " of the new bridegroom of Kemberg, 
 who moves on fearlessly in the midst of 
 all this hubbub." Luther was satisfied 
 that priests ought to marry. But this 
 question led directly to another — the 
 marriage of friars — and on this point 
 Luther had to pass through one of those 
 internal struggles, of which his life was 
 full ; for every reform was of necessity to 
 be wrought out by a mental conflict. 
 Melancthon and Carlstadt, — the one a 
 layman, the other in priest's orders, — 
 thought that the liberty of contracting 
 the marriage bond ought to be as free to 
 the friars as to the priests. Luther, him- 
 self a monk, did not at first agree with 
 them in judgment. One day, when the 
 commandant of the Wartburg had brought 
 him some theses of Carlstadt, touching 
 celibacy, " Good Heaven !" he exclaimed, 
 "will our Wittemberg friends allow wives 
 even to monks ?" The thought over- 
 whelmed him, and disturbed his spirit. 
 For himself, he put far from him the lib- 
 erty he claimed for others : " Ah," said 
 he, indignantly, " at least they will not 
 make me take a wife."* This expression 
 is doubtless unknown to those who as- 
 sert that Luther's object in the Reforma- 
 tion was that he might marry. Bent 
 upon the truth, not from any desire of 
 self-pleasing, but with upright intentions, 
 he undertook the defence of that which 
 appeared to him to be right, although it 
 might be at variance with the general 
 tendency of his doctrine. He worked 
 his way through a mingled crowd of 
 truths and errors, until the errors had al- 
 together fallen, and truth alone remained 
 standing in his mind. 
 
 There was indeed a broad distinction 
 discernible between the two questions. 
 The marriage of priests did not draw 
 after it the downfall of the priesthood ; 
 on the contrary, it was of itself likely to 
 win back popular respect to the secular 
 clergy : but the marriage of friars in- 
 volved the breaking up of the monastic 
 institutions. The question then really 
 was, whether it was right to disband the 
 army that acknowledged themselves the 
 soldiery of the Pope. " The priests," 
 said Luther, writing to Melancthon, "are 
 ordained by God, and therefore they are 
 
 * At mihi non obtrudent uxorem. — (L. Epp. 
 ii. p. 40.) 
 
 set above the commandments of men ; 
 but the friars have of their own accord 
 chosen a life of celibacy, — they therefore 
 are not at liberty to withdraw from the 
 obligation they have laid themselves 
 under."* 
 
 The Reformer was destined to ad- 
 vance a step further, and by a new strug- 
 gle to carry also this post of the enemy. 
 Already he had trampled under his feet 
 many Romish corruptions ; nay, even 
 the authority of Rome herself. But 
 monkery was still standing — monkery, 
 which had in early times carried the 
 spark of life to many a desert spot, and, 
 passing through successive generations, 
 now filled so many cloisters with sloth 
 and luxury, seemed to find a voice and 
 advocate in the castle of Thuringen, and 
 to depend for life or death upon the agi- 
 tated conscience of one man ! Luther 
 struggled for a while, at one moment on 
 the point of rejecting it, — at another dis- 
 posed to acknowledge it. At last, no 
 longer able to support the contest, he 
 threw himself in prayer at the feet of 
 Christ, exclaiming, " Do thou teach us — 
 do thou deliver us — establish us with thy 
 free Spirit, in the liberty thou hast given 
 us ! for surely we are thy people !"f 
 
 And truly there was no long tarrying ; 
 a great change took place in the Reform- 
 er's thoughts, and again it was the great 
 doctrine of Justification by Faith which 
 gave victory. 
 
 This weapon, which had put down 
 indulgences, baffled Romish intrigues, 
 and humbled the Pope himself, dethroned 
 monkery also from the place it held in 
 the mind of Luther and of all Christen- 
 dom. Luther was led to see that the 
 monastic institutions we're in flagrant 
 opposition to the doctrines of Free Grace, 
 and that the life led by the monks was 
 entirely grounded on the assertion of hu- 
 man merit. Convinced from that instant, 
 that the glory of Christ was at stake, his 
 conscience incessantly repeated — ' Monk- 
 ery must yield.' So long as Justification 
 by Faith is clearly held by the Church, 
 
 * Me enim vehementer movet, quod sacerdo- 
 tum ordo, a Deo institutus, est liber, non autem 
 monuchorum qui sua sponte statum eligerunt. — 
 (L. Epp. ii. p. 34.) 
 
 t Dominus Jesus erudiat et liberet nos, per 
 misericordiam suam, in libertatem nostram. — 
 (Melancthon on Celibacy, 6th Aug. 1521, ibid. p. 
 40.) 
 
392 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 not one of her members will become a 
 monk.* This persuasion continued to 
 gain strength in his mind, and as early 
 as the beginning of December, he ad- 
 dressed to the bishops and deacons of the 
 church of Wittemberg, the following 
 theses — his declaration of war against 
 monkery : — 
 
 " Whatsoever is not of faith, is sin. — 
 Rom. xiv. 23. 
 
 " Whoever binds himself by a vow of 
 celibacy, of chastity, of service to God — 
 without faith — vows, profanely and idol- 
 atrously, a vow to the devil himself. 
 
 " To make such vows is worse than to 
 be priests of Cybele, or vestals of Pagan 
 worship ; for the monks make their vows 
 in the thought that they shall be justified 
 and saved by them ; and that which 
 should be ascribed to the alone mercy of 
 God, is thus ascribed to human deserv- 
 ings. Such convents ought to be razed 
 to the foundation, as being- abodes of the 
 devil. There is but one Order that is 
 holy, and makes men holy, and that is — 
 Christianity or Faith.f 
 
 " To make the religious houses really 
 useful, they should be converted into 
 schools, wherein children might be 
 brought up to manhood ; instead of 
 which, they are establishments where 
 grown men are reduced to second child- 
 hood for the rest of their lives." 
 
 We see that Luther at this period would 
 have tolerated the convents as houses of 
 education ; but, ere long, his attack upon 
 them became more unsparing. 
 
 The immorality and shameful prac- 
 tices that disgraced the cloisters, recurred 
 forcibly to his thoughts. " It is my great 
 aim," he wrote to Spalatin, on the 11th 
 of November, " to rescue the young from 
 the hellish fires of celibacy ?% and he 
 proceeded to compose a tract against mo- 
 nastic vows, which he dedicated to his 
 father. " Do you desire," said he, in his 
 dedication to the old man at Mansfeld, 
 " do you still feel a desire to extricate me 
 froma monk's life ? You have the right 
 to do so., for you are still my father, and 
 I am still your son. But it is not need- 
 ed : God has been beforehand with you, 
 
 * L. Opp. (W.) xxii. p. 1466. 
 
 t Es ist nicht mehr denn eine einige Geistlich- 
 keit, die da heilig ist, mid heilig macht. . . . — (L. 
 Opp. xvii. p. 718.) 
 
 % Adolescentes liberare ex isto inferno cceliba- 
 tus.— (Ibid. ii. 95.) 
 
 and has Himsslf delivered me from it by 
 his mighty arm. What does it matter 
 if I should lay aside the tonsure or the 
 cowl ? Is it the cowl, — is it the tonsure 
 that constitutes a monk ? ' All things 
 are yours,' said St. Paul, ' and you are 
 Christ's.' I belong not to the cowl, but 
 the cowl to me ; I am a monk, and yet 
 no monk ; I am a new creature, not of 
 the Pope, but of Jesus Christ ! Christ 
 alone, and no mere go-between, is my 
 bishop, my abbot, my prior, my lord, my 
 master, — and I acknowledge no other ! 
 What matters it to me if the Pope should 
 sentence and put me to death ; he can- 
 not summon me from the grave, and take 
 my life a second time. That great day 
 is nigh when the kingdom of abomina- 
 tions shall be overthrown. Would to 
 God the Pope would do his worst, and 
 put us all to death ; our blood would cry 
 to heaven against him, and bring down 
 swift destruction on him- and his ad- 
 herents."* 
 
 Luther himself was already trans- 
 formed : he felt himself no longer a friar. 
 It was no outward circumstances, no hu- 
 man passions, no haste of the flesh that 
 had brought about the change. A strug- 
 gle had been gone through : Luther had 
 at first sided with monkery, but truth 
 had descended into the arena, and monk- 
 ery was overthrown. The triumphs of 
 human passion are short-lived, but those 
 of truth are decisive and durable. 
 
 Whilst Luther was thus preparing the 
 way for one of the greatest changes 
 which the Church was destined to pass 
 through, and the Reformation was be- 
 ginning to manifest its effects on the lives 
 of Christians, — the partisans of Rome, 
 with that blind infatuation common to 
 those who have long held power, were 
 pleasing themselves with the thought, 
 that because Luther was in the Wart- 
 burg, the Reformation was for ever at an 
 end. They thought, therefore, quietly 
 to resume their former practices, which 
 had been for an instant interrupted by 
 the monk of Wittemberg. Albert, the 
 Archbishop and Elector of Mentz, was 
 one of those weak persons who, when 
 things are nearly balanced, are found on 
 
 * Dass unser Blut niocht schreien, und drin- 
 gen sein Gericht, dass sein bald ein Ende wiirde. 
 — (L. Epp. ii. p. 105.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 393 
 
 the side of truth ; but whenever their 
 own interest is concerned, are quite wil- 
 ling to take up with error. His great 
 aim was that his court should equal in 
 splendour that of any of the German 
 princes, that his equipages should be as 
 rich, and his table as well served : the 
 trade in indulgences was to him an ad- 
 mirable resource for the promotion of his 
 favourite object. Accordingly, no sooner 
 was the decree against Luther issued from 
 the Imperial Chancellor's court, than Al- 
 bert, who was then at Halle, attended by 
 his courtiers, called together the vendors 
 of indulgences, whose activity had been 
 paralysed by the Reformer's preaching, 
 and endeavoured to encourage them by 
 such words as — " Do not fear, we have 
 silenced him : go shear the flock in 
 peace ; the monk is in prison, under bolts 
 and bars ; and this time he will be clever 
 indeed if he disturbs us at our work." 
 The market was again opened, the Avares 
 spread out for sale, and again the church- 
 es of Halle resounded with the harangues 
 of the mountebanks. 
 
 But Luther still lived ; and his voice 
 had power to pass beyond the walls and 
 gratings behind which he was concealed. 
 Nothing could have roused him to a 
 higher pitch of indignation. " What !" 
 thought he, " violent discussions have 
 taken place, I have braved every danger, 
 the truth has triumphed, and now they 
 dare to trample it in the dust, as if it had 
 been refuted. They shall again hear 
 that voice which arrested their guilty 
 traffic." " I will take no rest," wrote 
 Luther to Spalatin, " till I have attacked 
 the idol of Mentz, and its whoredoms at 
 Halle."* He Avent instantly to work, 
 caring little for the mystery in which 
 some sought to envelope his seclusion in 
 the Wartburg. He was like Elijah in 
 the desert, forging new thunderbolts to 
 hurl against the impious Ahab. On the 
 1st of November, he completed a tract 
 " Against the new Idol of Halle." 
 
 The Archbishop had received infor- 
 mation of Luther's intentions. Urged 
 by his apprehensions, he, toward the 
 middle of December, despatched two of 
 his attendants, Capito and Auerbach, to 
 Wittemberg, to ward off the blow. " It 
 
 * Non continebor quin idoluin Mojnintinum in- 
 vadam, cum suo lupanari Hallensi. — (L. Epp. 
 ii. p. 59, 7th October.) 
 
 50 
 
 is indispensable," said they to Melanc- 
 thon, who received them courteously, " it 
 is quite indispensable that Luther should 
 moderate his impetuosity." But Me- 
 lancthon, though himself of gentler spirit, 
 was not of the number of those who im- 
 agine wisdom to consist in perpetual con- 
 cession, retracting, and silence. " God 
 is making use of him," he replied, " and 
 this age requires a bitter and pungent 
 salt."* On this, Capito, addressing him- 
 self to Jonas, 'endeavoured, through him, 
 to influence the Elector's councils. 
 
 The report of Luther's design had al- 
 ready spread thither, and produced great 
 consternation. " What!" said the cour- 
 tiers, " rekindle the flame that it cost so 
 much trouble to subdue ! The only 
 safety for Luther is to withdraw into the 
 shade ; and see how he exalts himself 
 against the greatest prince in the empire." 
 " I will not suffer Luther to write against 
 the Archbishop of Mentz, to the disturb- 
 ance of the public tranquillity,"! said 
 the Elector. 
 
 When these words were reported to 
 Luther, he was indignant. It is not 
 enough, then, to confine his body, they 
 would enchain his spirit, and the truth 
 itself. Do they imagine he hides him- 
 self from fear 1 or that his retreat is a 
 confession of defeat? On the contrary, 
 he contends that it is a victory gained. 
 Who then in Worms had dared to rise 
 up against him, in opposition to the 
 truth % Accordingly, when the captive 
 of the Wartburg had finished reading 
 Spalatin's letter, apprizing him of the 
 Elector's intention, he threw it aside, re- 
 solving to return no answer. But he 
 could not contain his feelings ; he again 
 took it in hand. " And so, the Elector 
 will not sutler, &c. !" wrote Luther in 
 reply, " and I on my part will not suffer 
 that the Elector should not allow me to 
 write. Rather will I be the utter ruin 
 of yourself, the Elector, and the whole 
 world. % If I have stood up against the 
 Pope, who created your Cardinal, is it 
 fitting that I should give way to his crea- 
 ture % Truty, it is very fine to hear you 
 
 * Huic seculo opus esse acerrimosale. — (Corp. 
 Ref. i. 463.) 
 
 t Non passurum principem, scribi in Mogunti- 
 num. — (L. Epp. ii. 94.) 
 
 t Potius te et principem ipsum perdam et om- 
 nem creaturam. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 94.) 
 
394 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 say we ought not to disturb the public 
 peace, while you permit the disturbance 
 of the Peace that is from God. It shall 
 not be so. Spalatin ! O Prince it shall 
 not stand !* I send, with this, a tract I 
 had written against the Cardinal, before 
 I received your letter ; — please to hand 
 it to Melancthon." 
 
 The reading of this manuscript alarmed 
 Spalatin ; — he again urged on the Re- 
 former the imprudence of a publication 
 that would oblige the Imperial govern- 
 ment to lay aside its affected ignorance 
 of what had become of him, and to pro- 
 ceed to punish a prisoner who assailed 
 the chief dignitary of the Church and 
 Empire. If Luther persisted, the gen- 
 eral tranquillity would be disturbed, and 
 the cause of the Reformation endangered. 
 Luther, therefore, consented to delay the 
 publication, and even gave Melancthon 
 leave to strike out the more severe pas- 
 sages.! But growing indignant at his 
 friend's timidity, he wrote to Spalatin, — 
 " The Lord still lives — He reigns, — the 
 Lord whom you counsellors of the court 
 cannot trust, unless He so shapes his 
 work, as that there be nothing left to 
 trust Him in !" — and he forthwith re- 
 solved to write direct to the Cardinal. 
 
 It is the Episcopal authority itself that 
 Luther calls to the bar of judgment in 
 the person of the German primate. His 
 words are those of a bold man, burning 
 with zeal in behalf of truth, and feeling 
 that he speaks in the name of God 
 himself. 
 
 " Your Electoral Highness," wrote he, 
 from the depth of his retirement, "has 
 seen fit again to set up at Halle the idol 
 that engulphs the treasure and the souls 
 of poor Christians. You think, perhaps, 
 that 1 am disabled, and that the power 
 of the Emperor will easily silence the 
 protest of a feeble monk .... But know 
 this, — I will fearlessly discharge the duty 
 that christian charity lays me under, 
 dreading not the gates of hell ! — and 
 much less, popes, bishops, or cardinals. 
 
 " Therefore, I humbly implore your 
 Electoral Highness to call to remem- 
 brance the origin of this business, and 
 how from one little spark came so fearful a 
 conflagration. Then also, the world re- 
 
 * Non sic, Spalatine, non sic, princeps. — (Ibid.) 
 t Ut acerbiora tradat (ib. p. 110.) doubtless 
 radat. 
 
 posed in fancied security. ' That poor 
 mendicant friar,' thought they, ' who, un- 
 aided, would attack the Pope, has under- 
 taken a task above his strength.' But 
 God interposed his arm, and gave the 
 Pope more disturbance and anxiety than 
 he had known since first he sat in the 
 temple of God, and lorded it over God's 
 church. That same God still lives — let 
 none doubt it* He will know how to 
 bring to nothing the efforts of a Cardinal 
 of Mentz, though he should be backed 
 by four emperors — for it is His pleasure 
 to bring down the lofty cedars, and hum- 
 ble the pride of the Pharaohs. 
 
 u For this cause I apprize your High- 
 ness that if the idol is ^iot removed, it 
 will be my duty, in obedience to God's 
 teaching, publicly to rebuke your High- 
 ness, as 1 have done the Pope himself. 
 Let not' your Highness neglect this no- 
 tice. I shall wait fourteen days for an 
 early and favourable answer. Given in 
 my wilderness retreat, on Sunday after 
 St. Catherine's day, 1521. Your High- 
 ness' devoted and humble, Martin Lu- 
 ther." 
 
 This letter was forwarded to Wittem- 
 berg, and from thence to Halle, where 
 the Cardinal Elector was then resident ; 
 for no one dared venture to intercept it, 
 foreseeing the storm such an act of auda- 
 city would have called forth. But Me- 
 lancthon accompanied it by a letter to 
 the prudent Capito, wherein he laboured 
 to give a favourable turn to so untoward 
 a step. 
 
 It is not possible to describe the feel- 
 ings of the young and pusillanimous 
 Archbishop on the receipt of the Reform- 
 er's letter. The forthcoming work against 
 the idol of Halle was like a sword sus- 
 pended over his head. And yet what 
 must have been, at the same time, the ir- 
 ritation produced by the insolence of the 
 low-born and excommunicated monk, 
 who dared address such language to a 
 prince of the house of Brandenburg, and 
 a primate of the German church. Ca- 
 pito besought the Archbishop to comply 
 with Luther's advice. Fear, pride, and 
 conscience, which he could not stifle, 
 struggled long in Albert's soul. At 
 length, dread of the threatened writing, 
 joined, perhaps, to a feeling of remorse. 
 
 * Derselbig Gott lebet noch, da zweifel nur 
 niemand an — (L. Epp. ii. p. 113.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 395 
 
 prevailed. He stooped to humble him- 
 self, and put together such an answer as 
 seemed likely to appease the man of the 
 Warthurg, and scarcely had the fourteen 
 days expired, when Luther received the 
 following letter, more surprising even 
 than his own terrifying epistle. 
 
 "My dear Doctor, — I have received 
 and read your letter, and have taken it 
 in good part, as being well intended : but 
 I think the cause that has induced you 
 to write to me in such a strain, has for a 
 long time past had no existence. It is 
 my desire, by God's help, to comport my- 
 self as a pious bishop, • and a christian 
 prince ; and I confess that for this, God's 
 grace is necessary to me. I deny not 
 that I am a sinful man, liable to sin, and 
 apt to be led astray, and even sinning 
 and going astray every day of my life. 
 I know that, without God's grace, I am 
 but worthless and loathsome mire, like 
 others ; if not worse. In replying to 
 your letter, I would not omit to express 
 the favour I bear you ; for it is my most 
 earnest desire, for Christ's sake, to show 
 you all kindness and favour. I know 
 how to receive the rebuke of a christian, 
 and a brother. By my own hand. 
 Albert." 
 
 Such was the strain in which the Elec- 
 tor Archbishop of Mentz and Magdeburg, 
 commissioned to represent and maintain 
 in Germany the constitution of the 
 Church, wrote to the excommunicated 
 prisoner of the Wartburg ! In thus re- 
 plying, did Albert obey the better dic- 
 tates of his conscience, or was he swayed 
 by his fears ? On the former supposition, 
 it is a noble letter ; on the' latter, it is 
 contemptible. We would rather suppose 
 it to have proceeded from a right motive. 
 However that may be, it at least shows 
 the vast superiority of the servant of God 
 above the greatness of this world. Whilst 
 Luther, solitary, a captive, and under 
 sentence, derived from his faith an un- 
 conquerable courage, the Cardinal-arch- 
 bishop, surrounded on all sides with the 
 power and favour of the world, trembled 
 in his chair. Again, and again, does 
 this reflection present itself, and it affords 
 the solution of the strange enigma offered 
 by the history of the Reformation. The 
 Christian is not called to calculate his 
 resources, and count the means of suc- 
 cess. His one concern is to know that 
 
 his cause is the cause of God ; — and that 
 he himself has no aim but his Master's 
 glory. Doubtless he has an enquiry to 
 make, but it has reference only to his 
 motives ; the Christian looks in upon his 
 heart, — not upon his arm: he regards 
 right, — not strength. And that question 
 once well settled, — his path is clear. It 
 is for him to go boldly forward, though 
 the world and all its armies should with- 
 stand his progress ; in the firm persua- 
 sion that God himself will fight against 
 the opposers. 
 
 Thus did the enemies of the Reforma- 
 tion pass at once from the harshest mea- 
 sures to pitiable weakness : they had 
 done this at Worms, and these sudden 
 changes are continually recurring in the 
 conflict between truth and error. Every 
 cause destined to succumb, carries with 
 it an internal malaise, which occasions it 
 to stagger and fluctuate between opposite 
 extremes. Steadiness of purpose and 
 energy could not sanctify a bad cause, 
 but they might serve at least to gild its 
 fall with what the world calls glory. 
 
 Joachim I., Elector of Brandenburg, 
 Albert's brother, was an example of that 
 decision of character so rare in our own 
 times. Immoveable in his principles, 
 decisive in action, knowing when need- 
 ful how to resist the encroachments of 
 the Pope, he opposed an iron hand to 
 the progress of the Reformation. Long 
 before this, when at Worms, he had 
 urged that Luther should be refused a 
 hearing, and brought to punishment, 
 notwithstanding the safe-conduct with 
 which he was furnished. Scarcely was 
 the edict of Worms issued, when he di- 
 rected that it should be rigorously en- 
 forced in his states. Luther could ap- 
 preciate so decided a character, and, 
 drawing a distinction in favour of Joa- 
 chim, when, speaking of his other adver- 
 saries, remarked, " we may still pray for 
 the Elector of Brandenburg."* This 
 disposition in the prince seemed to com- 
 municate itself to his people. Berlin 
 and Brandenburg long continued closed 
 to the reformed doctrines. But that 
 which is slowly received is firmly held; 
 whilst countries, which then hailed the 
 Gospel with joy, as Belgium and Westr 
 phalia, were ere long seen to abandon 
 it; Brandenburg, — which was the latest 
 * Helwing, Gesch. der Brandeb. ii p. 605. 
 
396 
 
 HISTORY -OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 of the German states to enter on the way 
 of faith, — was destined, at a later period, 
 to stand foremost in the cause of the Ref- 
 ormation.* 
 
 Luther was not without suspicion that 
 the Cardinal's letter was dictated by- 
 some insidious design suggested by Ca- 
 pito. He returned no answer ; he de- 
 clared to the latter, that so long as the 
 Archbishop, unequal as he was to the 
 care of a petty parish, should hold to his 
 pretensions as Cardinal, and his episco- 
 pal state, instead of discharging the hum- 
 ble duty of a minister of the Gospel, he 
 ■could not be in the way of salvation, f 
 Meanwhile, and at the very time that 
 Luther contended against error, as if he 
 were still in the thick of the conflict, he 
 was at work in his retirement as though 
 regardless of all that was happening out- 
 side its walls. The time had arrived 
 when the Reformation was to pass from 
 the closet of divines, into the private life 
 of nations ; and, nevertheless, the great 
 engine by which this advance was to be 
 effected was not yet brought forth. This 
 mighty and wonder-working engine, 
 from whence a storm of missiles was to 
 be discharged against Rome, battering 
 down its walls, — this engine, which was 
 to upheave the burthen, under which the 
 Papacy then held down the almost stifled 
 Church, and to communicate to mankind 
 an impulse which, ages after, would still 
 be felt, was ordained to go forth from the 
 old castle of the Wartburg, and enter, 
 with the Reformer, on the world's stage 
 on the same day that closed his captivity. 
 
 The further the Church was removed 
 from the days in which Jesus, its true 
 light, walked on this earth, the more did 
 it need the candle of God's word to trans- 
 mit to after times the unclouded knowl- 
 edge of Jesus Christ. But that Divine 
 Word was unknown to that age. Some 
 fragments of translations from the Vul- 
 gate, made in 1477, 1490, and 1518, had 
 been but coldly received, and were al- 
 most unintelligible, as well as, from their 
 high price, beyond the reach of the com- 
 mon people. The giving the Scriptures 
 
 * Hoe enim proprium est illorum hominum 
 (ex March. Brandeburg) ut quam semel in reli- 
 gione sententiam approbaverint, uon facile dese- 
 rant. — (Leutiiigeri Opp. i. 41.) 
 
 t Larvam cardinalatus et pompam episcopa- 
 lem ablegare. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 132.) 
 
 to the Church in Germany in the ver- 
 nacular tongue, had even been prohibit- 
 ed.* Added to which, the number of 
 those who could read, became consider- 
 able, only when there existed in the Ger- 
 man language a book of strong and gen- 
 eral interest. 
 
 Luther was ordained to present his 
 nation with the written word. That 
 same God who had relegated St. John in 
 Patmos, that he might there write what 
 he had seen, had shut up Luther in the 
 Wartburg, that he should there translate 
 his Word. This great labour, which it 
 would have been difficult for him to take 
 in hand in the distracting occupations of 
 Wittemberg, was to seat the new edifice 
 on the solid rock, and,- after the lapse of 
 so many ages, recall Christians from 
 scholastic subtleties to the pure and un- 
 adulterated fountains of redemption and 
 salvation. The wants of the Church 
 loudly called for this service, and Lu- 
 ther's deep experience had fitted him to 
 render it. In truth, he had found in the 
 faith, that rest for his own soul, which 
 his fluctuating conscience and monkish 
 prejudice had so long sought in merits 
 and holiness of his own. The ordinary 
 teaching of the Church, the theology of 
 the schools knew nothing of the conso- 
 lations which faith gives: but the Scrip- 
 tures set them forth powerfully, — and it 
 was in the Scriptures that he had dis- 
 covered them. Faith in God's word had 
 given him liberty! By faith he felt 
 himself freed from the dogmatic authori- 
 ty of Church, hierarchy, tradition, the 
 notions of the schools, the power of pre- 
 judice, and commandments of men ! 
 These manifold bonds which had for 
 ages chained down and silenced all 
 Christendom, were burst asunder, and 
 he could raise his head freed from all 
 authority save that of the Word. This 
 independence of man, — this subjection to 
 God, which he had learned in the Holy 
 Scriptures, — he was anxious to commu- 
 nicate to the Church. But for this pur- 
 pose it was needful that he should give 
 to it God's own Revelations. There 
 was a necessity that some strong hand 
 should unclose the portals of that arsenal 
 whence Luther had drawn his weapons,, 
 and that its recesses, which had for ages 
 been unexplored, should be laid open to 
 * Codex Diplom. Eccleske Mogunt. iv. p. 460- 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 3&7 
 
 all christian people against the day of 
 trial. 
 
 Luther had, before this time, translated 
 some fragments of the Holy Scripture. 
 The seven penitential psalms* had first 
 occupied his pen. John the Baptist, — 
 Jesus Christ, — and the Reformation — 
 alike commenced by calling men to re- 
 pentance. It is, indeed, the principle of 
 every regeneration in human nature. 
 These earlier essays had been eagerly 
 bought up, and had awakened a general 
 demand for more ; and this desire on the 
 part of the people was by Luther regard- 
 ed as a call from God. He resolved to 
 meet it. He was a captive enclosed 
 within lofty walls ; but what of that ! he 
 would devote his leisure to render the 
 Word of God into the language of his 
 nation. Soon shall we see that Word 
 descending with him from the Wartburg 
 — circulating among the families of Ger- 
 many, and enriching them with spiritual 
 treasure, that had hitherto been shut up 
 within the hearts of a few pious persons. 
 " Would that that book alone," he ex- 
 claimed, " were in all languages — before 
 the eyes — in the ears — and in the hearts 
 of all."f Admirable words, which a 
 W T ell-known society^ engaged in trans- 
 lating the Bible into the vernacular dia- 
 lect of every nation under heaven, has, 
 after a lapse of three centuries, under- 
 taken to realise. "Scripture," says he 
 again, " Scripture ' without comment' is 
 the sun whence all teachers receive their 
 light." 
 
 Such are the true principles of Chris- 
 tianity and of the Reformation. Adopt- 
 ing these memorable words, Ave are not 
 to seek light from the Fathers, to inter- 
 pret Scripture, — but to use Scripture to 
 interpret the writings of the Fathers. 
 The Reformers, as also the Apostles, hold 
 lorth the alone word of God as light, 
 whilst they exalt the one offering of 
 Christ as the only righteousness. To 
 mingle commandments of men with this 
 supreme authority of God, or any righ- 
 teousness of man's own, with this per- 
 fect righteousness of Christ, is to corrupt 
 the two great fundamental truths of the 
 
 * Ps. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 147. 
 
 t Et solus hie liber omnium lingua., manu, 
 oculis, auribus, cordibus, versaretur. — (L. Epp. ii. 
 p. 116.) 
 
 t The Bible Society. 
 
 Gospel. Such were the two leading 
 heresies of Rome : and the doctrines that 
 certain teachers would introduce into the 
 bosom of the Reformation, though not 
 carried to such a length, have the same 
 tendencies. 
 
 Luther, taking up the Greek originals 
 of the inspired writers, entered on the 
 difficult task of rendering them into his 
 native tongue. Important moment in 
 the history of the Reformation ! thence- 
 forth, it was no longer in the hands of 
 the Reformer. The Bible was brought 
 forward — and Luther held a secondary 
 place. God showed himself; and man 
 was seen as nothing. The Reformer 
 placed the Book in the hands of his con- 
 temporaries : thenceforward, each could 
 hear God speaking to him, — and, as for 
 himself, he mingled in the crowd, placing 
 himself among those who came to draw 
 from the common fountain of light and life. 
 
 In translating the Holy Scriptures, 
 Luther had found that consolation and 
 strength which met his need. Weak in 
 body — solitary — depressed in spirit by 
 the machinations of his enemies, and 
 sometimes by the indiscretions of his 
 friends — and sensible that his life was 
 wasting in the gloom of the old castle, 
 he had, at times, to pass through awful 
 struggles. In those days, men were 
 much disposed to carry into the visible 
 world the conflicts that the soul sustains 
 with its spiritual enemies. Luther's 
 vivid imagination easily gave, bodily 
 shape to the emotions of his soul, and the- 
 superstitions of the middle ages had still 
 some hold upon his mind, so that it might 
 be said of him, as was said of Calvin, in 
 reference to his judgment in regard to 
 heretics, that he had in him the remains 
 of Popery. To Luther, Satan was not 
 simply an invisible, though really exist- 
 ing, being; he thought that adversary of 
 God was accustomed to appear in bodily 
 form to man, as he had appeared to Jesus 
 Christ. Although we may more than 
 doubt the authenticity of the details given 
 on such topics in his Table Talk and 
 elsewhere,* history must yet record this 
 weakness in the Reformer. Never had 
 these gloomy imaginations such power 
 over him as in his seclusion in the Wart- 
 
 * M. Michelet, in his Memoirs of Luther, de- 
 votes no less than thirty pages to the various ac- 
 counts of this incident. 
 
398 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 burg. At Worms, when in the days of 
 his strength, he had braved the power of 
 the devil, — but now, that strength was 
 broken, and his reputation tarnished. 
 He was thrown aside : Satan had his 
 turn — and in bitterness of soul, Luther 
 imagined he saw him rearing before him 
 his gigantic form — lifting his finger as 
 if in threatening, grinning triumphantly, 
 and grinding his teeth in fearful rage. 
 One day in particular, as it is reported, 
 whilst Luther was engaged in transla- 
 ting the New Testament, he thought he 
 saw Satan, in detestation of his work, 
 tormenting and vexing him, and moving 
 round him like a lion ready to spring 
 upon his prey. Luther, alarmed and 
 aroused, snatching up his inkstand, threw 
 it at the head of his enemy. The appa- 
 rition vanished, and the ink-bottle was 
 dashed to pieces against the wall.* 
 
 His stay at the Wartburg began now 
 to be insupportable to him. He was in- 
 dignant at the timidity of his protectors. 
 Sometimes he remained all day lost in 
 silent and deep meditation, and, awaken- 
 ing from it, he would utter the exclama- 
 tion — " Ah ! would I were at Wittem- 
 berg !" At length, he could no longer 
 restrain himself: — "Enough," thought 
 he, " enough of policy." He must again 
 see his friends — hear from their lips how 
 things were going on, and talk over all 
 with them. True, he risked falling into 
 the power of his enemies ; but nothing 
 could deter him. Toward the end of 
 November, he secretly quitted the Wart- 
 burg, and set out for Wittemberg.f 
 
 A storm had just then burst forth 
 against him. The Sorbonne had at 
 length spoken out This celebrated 
 school of Paris — next in authority in 
 the Church to the Pope himself — the 
 ancient and venerable source whence 
 theological teaching had gone forth, had 
 just issued its verdict against the Ref- 
 ormation. The following were among 
 the propositions it condemned: — Luther 
 had said, " God ever pardons sin freely, 
 and requires nothing from us in return, 
 save that for the time to come we live ac- 
 cording to righteousness." He had added 
 
 * The keeper of the Wartburg regularly points 
 out to travellers the mark made by Luther's ink- 
 stand. 
 
 t Machete er sich heimlich aus seiner Patmo 
 auf.— (L. Opp. xviii. 238.) 
 
 — " The most mortal of all mortal sins is 
 this: to wit, that a man should think that 
 he is not guilty of damnable and mortal 
 sin in the sight of God." He had also de- 
 clared, that the practice of burning here- 
 tics was contrary to the will of the Holy 
 Ghost. To these several propositions, 
 as well as to many others which it 
 quoted, the Faculty of Theology, in 
 Paris, had replied by the word, " Heresy 
 — let it be accursed."* 
 
 But there was a youth, a stripling of 
 twenty-four years of age, of diffident 
 and retiring manners, who ventured to 
 take up the gauntlet that the first college 
 in Europe had thrown down. It was 
 no secret at Wittemberg, what was to be 
 thought of those lofty censures ; — it was 
 known that Rome had allowed free 
 course to the machinations of the Domi- 
 nicans, and that the Sorbonne had been 
 misled by the influence of two or three 
 fanatical teachers who were designated 
 in Paris by satirical nicknames. f Ac- 
 cordingly, in his apology, Melancthon 
 did not confine himself to defending Lu- 
 ther, , but with the fearlessness which 
 characterizes his writings, he carried the 
 war into his adversaries' camp. " You 
 say, ' he is a Manichean' — ' he is a Mon- 
 tanist :' you call for fire and faggot to re- 
 press his madness. And who, I pray 
 you, is a Montanist? Luther, who 
 would have men believe Scripture only 1 
 or yourselves, who would claim belief 
 for the thoughts of men rather than for 
 the word of God 1"% 
 
 And truly the attaching more import- 
 ance to man's teaching than to God's 
 word was in substance the heresy of 
 Montanus, as it is the real character of 
 that of the Pope, and, indeed, of all who 
 rank church authority or mystical im- 
 pulses above the .plain words of the 
 Sacred Writings. Accordingly, the 
 young master of arts, who had been 
 heard to say — " I would rather die than 
 relinquish the faith of the Gospel,"^ did 
 
 * Determinatio theologorum Parisiensium su- 
 per doctrina Lutherana. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 366 to 
 388.) 
 
 t Damnarunt triumviri Beda, Querons, et 
 Christophoros. Nomina sunt horum monstrorum 
 etiam vulgo nunc nota Belua, Stercus, Christo- 
 tomus. — (Zvvinglii Epp. i. p. 176.) 
 
 t Corp. Ref. i. p. 396. 
 
 § Scias me positurum animam citius quam 
 fidem— (Corp. Ref. i. p. 396.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 300 
 
 not stop there. He charged the doctors 
 of the Sorbonne with having darkened 
 the light of the Gospel, — put out the doc- 
 trine of Faith, — and substituted a vain 
 philosophy in place of true Christianity.* 
 The publication of this writing of Melanc- 
 thon changed the position of the parties. 
 He proved unanswerably that the heresy 
 was in Paris and in Rome, and the Ca- 
 tholic truth at Wittemberg. 
 
 All this while, Luther, little regarding 
 the censures of the Sorbonne, was jour- 
 neying in his disguise as a knight 
 toward the university city. Various 
 rumours reached him in his journey, of 
 a spirit of impatience and insubordina- 
 tion having manifested itself among cer- 
 tain of his adherents.! He was deeply 
 grieved at it.| At last he arrived at 
 Wittemberg without having been recog- 
 nized on the road thither, and stopped at 
 the door of Amsdorff. Immediately his 
 friends were secretly called together. 
 Among the first was Melancthon, who 
 had so often said, '.' I would rather die 
 than be separated from him."§ They 
 met. What an interview ! what joy ! 
 The captive of the Wartburg, surrounded 
 by his friends, enjoyed the sweets of 
 christian friendship. He learned the 
 spread of the Reformation, — the hopes 
 of his brethren, — and, delighted with 
 what he saw and heard, || he kneeled 
 down and prayed, gave thanks, and then, 
 with brief delay, set forth, and returned 
 to the Wartburg. 
 
 His joy was well founded. The work 
 of the Reformation made, just then, a 
 prodigious advance. Feldkirchen, ever 
 in the van, had mounted the breach ; 
 the whole body of those who held the 
 new doctrines were in motion, and the 
 energy which carried the Reformation 
 from the range of teaching into the pub- 
 lic worship, to private life, and the con- 
 stitution of the Church, revealed itself 
 by another explosion — more threatening 
 
 * Evangelium obscuratum est . . . fides extinc- 
 ta v ... Ex Christianismo, contra omnem sensum 
 spiritus, facta est queedam philosophica vivendi 
 ratio.— (Ibid. p. 400.) 
 
 t Per viam vexatus rumore vario de nostrorum 
 quorumdam importunitate. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 109.) 
 
 J Liess in der Stille seine Freunde fodern. — 
 (L. Opp. xviii. p. 238.) 
 
 § Quo si mihi carendum est, mortem fortius 
 tulero.— (Corp. Ref. i. p. 453—455.) 
 
 || Omnia vehementer placent qua? video et au- 
 dio.— (L. Epp. ii. p. 109.) 
 
 to the papal power than that which had 
 already happened. 
 
 Rome, having rid herself of the Re- 
 former, thought she had extinguished the 
 new heresy ; but it was not long before 
 a great change took place. Death re- 
 moved the Pontiff who had put Luther 
 under ban. Troubles broke out in 
 Spain, and compelled Charles V. to re- 
 cross the Pyrenees. War was declared 
 between that prince and Francis the 
 First ; and (as if this were not enough 
 to engross the Emperor's attention,) Soly- 
 man invaded Hungary. Charles, thus 
 attacked on all sides, found himself com- 
 pelled to leave unmolested the monk of 
 Worms, and his religious novelties. 
 
 It was about this time, that the bark 
 of the Reformed Faith, which, driven in 
 every direction by the winds, had been 
 well nigh swamped, righted itself, and 
 rode above the waters. 
 
 It was in the convent of the Augus- 
 tines, at Wittemberg, that the Reforma- 
 tion showed itself. We cannot wonder 
 at this : the Reformer, it is true, was not 
 within its walls, but no human power 
 could expel from it the spirit that had 
 animated him. 
 
 Strange doctrines had for some time 
 been occasionally heard in the church 
 where Luther had so often preached. 
 A zealous monk, who rilled the office of 
 college preacher, loudly urged on his 
 hearers the necessity of a Reformation. 
 As if Luther, whose name was on every 
 one's lips, had reached too commanding 
 an elevation and esteem, God seemed to 
 be making choice of men, no way known 
 for any strength of character or influ- 
 ence, to bring in the Reformation, for 
 which the renowned doctor had opened 
 a way. " Christ," said the preacher, 
 ''instituted the Sacrament of the Altar, 
 in remembrance of his death, and not to 
 make it an object of worship. To bow 
 down to it is idolatry. The priest who 
 communicates alone or in private, is guilty 
 of a sin. No prior has the right to re- 
 quire a monk to say mass alone. Let 
 one, two, or three officiate, and all the 
 rest receive the Lord's Sacrament under 
 both kinds."* 
 
 * Einem, 2 oder 3 befehlen Mess zu halten 
 und die andern 12 von denen das Sacrament sub 
 utraque specie mit empfahen. — (Corp. Ref. t 
 p. 460.) 
 
400 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Such was the change called for by the 
 monk Gabriel ; and his bold words were 
 heard with approbation by his brother 
 monks, particularly those who came from 
 the Low Countries.* As disciples of the 
 Gospel, why should they not conform in 
 everything to its directions? Had not 
 Luther himself, in writing to Melancthon, 
 in the month of August, remarked — 
 " Henceforth, I will say no more private 
 masses?"! Thus the friars, the very 
 soldiers of the hierarchy, when made 
 free by the Word of God, boldly took 
 part against Rome. 4 
 
 In Wittemberg they encountered an 
 unbending resistance from the Prior, 
 and here they yielded, — at the same time 
 protesting that to support the mass was 
 to oppose the Gospel of God. 
 
 The Prior had carried the day. One 
 man's authority had prevailed over all 
 the. rest. It might have been thought that 
 this stir among the Augustines was but 
 a capricious act of insubordination, such 
 as was often occurring in the convents; 
 but in reality the spirit of God itself was 
 then moving christian hearts. A single 
 voice proceeding from the seclusion of a 
 monastery, found a thousand echoes ; 
 and that which men would have confined 
 to the knowledge of the inhabitants of 
 the convent, spread beyond its walls, and 
 began to show itself in the heart of the 
 city. 
 
 Rumours of the differences among the 
 monks were soon circulated in the town : 
 the burghers and students sided some 
 with, and others against the mass. The 
 Elector's court interposed. Frederic, in 
 some surprise, despatched his Chancellor, 
 Pontanus, to Wittemberg, with orders to 
 reduce the monks to obedience, putting 
 them, if necessary, upon bread and wa- 
 ter ;| and on the 12th October, a deputa- 
 tion of Professors, among whom was Me- 
 lancthon, repairing to the convent, ex- 
 horted the monks to desist from all in- 
 novations,§ or at least to wait the course 
 of events. This did but rekindle their 
 
 * Der meisto Theil jener Parthaei Niederlten- 
 der seyn. — (Ibid. 476.) 
 
 t Sed et ego amplius non faciam missam pri- 
 vatim in seternum. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 36. ^ 
 
 t Woilen die Monche nicht Mess halten, sie 
 werden's bald in der Kiichen und Keller empfin- 
 den.— (Corp. Ref. i. p, 461.) 
 
 § Mit dem Messhalten keine Neuerung ma- 
 then. — (Ibid.) 
 
 zeal ; and all, with exception of their 
 Prior, being of one mind in their faith, 
 they appealed to Scripture, to the spiri- 
 tual discernment of believers, and to the 
 impartial judgment of divines, — and two 
 days after, handed in a declaration in 
 writing. 
 
 The Professors proceeded to examine 
 the question more closely, and perceived 
 that the monks had truth on their side. 
 Having come to convince others, they 
 were convinced themselves ! What was 
 to be done? Conscience pleaded — their 
 perplexity was continually increasing ; 
 and at last, after long hesitation, they 
 came to a courageous decision. 
 
 On the 20th of October, the University 
 reported to the Elector, after setting forth 
 the abuses of the mass : " Let your Elec- 
 toral Highness," said they, " put an end 
 to all corruptions ; lest, in the day of 
 judgment, Christ should apply to us the 
 rebukes he once pronounced upon Ca- 
 pernaum." 
 
 Thus, it was no longer a handful of 
 oWure monks who spoke, — it was the 
 University, accredited by the most judi- 
 cious, as having, for years past, been the 
 great school of national instruction : and 
 thus, the very agency employed to quell 
 the spirit of the Reformation, was about 
 to diffuse it far and wide. 
 
 Melancthon, with that decision which 
 he carried into learning, put forth fifty- 
 five propositions calculated to enlighten 
 the minds of enquirers. 
 
 " Just," said he, " as gazing on a cross 
 is no good work, but the bare contempla- 
 tion of a sign that reminds us of Christ's 
 death." 
 
 "Just as to behold the sun is not to 
 do any good work, but merely to look 
 upon that which reminds us of Christ 
 and his Gospel." 
 
 " So, to partake of the Lord's Supper 
 is not to do a good work, but merely to 
 make use of a sign which recalls to re- 
 membrance the grace bestowed upon us 
 through Christ." 
 
 " But here is the difference ; namely, 
 that the symbols invented by men do 
 only remind ,us of what they signify — 
 whilst the signs given by God, not 
 merely recall the things themselves, but 
 assure our hearts in the will of God." 
 
 " As the sight of a cross does not justi- 
 fy, so the mass cannot justify." 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 401 
 
 " As the gazing - on a cross is no sacri- 
 fice for our own or others' sins, just so 
 the mass is no sacrifice." 
 
 " There is but one sacrifice, — but one 
 satisfaction, — Jesus Christ. Beside him 
 there i? none other." 
 
 " Let such bishops as do not withstand 
 the profanations of the mass, be anath- 
 ema."* 
 
 Thus spake the pious and gentle-spir- 
 ited Philip. 
 
 The Elector was astounded. His in- 
 tention had been to restore order among 
 a few refractory friars, and lo ! the entire 
 University, with Melancthon at their 
 head, stand up to defend them. To wait 
 the course of events, was ordinarily, in 
 his view, the most eligible course. He 
 had no relish for abrupt changes, and it 
 was his wish that all opinions should be 
 left to work their own way. " Time 
 alone," thought he, " throws light upon 
 all things, and brings all to maturity." 
 And yet the Reformation was advancing 
 in spite of all his caution with rapid 
 strides, and threatened to carry all before 
 it. Frederic made indeed some efforts 
 to arrest it. His authority, — the influ- 
 ence of his personal character, — and such 
 arguments as appeared to him most con- 
 clusive, were all called into exercise : 
 " Do not be hasty," said he, to the di- 
 vines, "you are too few in number to ef- 
 fect such a change. If it is well founded 
 in Scripture, others will be led to see it, 
 and you will have the whole Church 
 with you in putting an end to these cor- 
 ruptions. Speak of these things, — dis- 
 cuss and preach them as much as you 
 will, but keep up the established ser- 
 vices." 
 
 Such was the war waged relative to 
 the mass. The monks had boldly 
 mounted to the assault; — the divines, af- 
 ter a moment of indecision, had supported 
 them. The prince and his counsellors 
 alone defended the citadel. It has been 
 said that the Reformation was brought 
 about by the power and authority of the 
 Elector ; but so far from this being the 
 case* we see the assailants drawing oft' 
 their forces, in deference to the voice of 
 the revered Frederic, and the mass, for a 
 while, continuing to hold its place. 
 
 * Signa ab hominibus reperta admonent tan- 
 tum ; signa a Deo tradita, prceterquam quod ad- 
 monent, certificant etiam cor de voluntate Dei. 
 —(Corp. Ref. i. p. 478.) 
 
 51 
 
 | The heat of battle was already begin- 
 j ning to rage in another part of the field. 
 ; The monk Gabriel did not relax in his 
 fervid appeals from the pulpit of the Au- 
 gustines. It was against the condition 
 of monkery itself he now dealt his power- 
 ful strokes ; and if the strength of Romish 
 doctrines was principally in the mass, 
 I the monastic order formed the main sup- 
 port of her priestly hierarchy. Hence, 
 ! these two posts were the first to be 
 stormed. "No one," exclaimed Gabriel, 
 according to the Prior's report, " not even 
 a single inmate of a convent, keeps God'3 
 commandments." 
 
 " No one who wears a cowl can be 
 saved* Whoso enters a cloister, enters 
 into the service of the Devil. Vows of 
 chastity, poverty, and obedience to a su- 
 perior, are contrary to the spirit of the 
 Gospel." 
 
 These strange expressions were re- 
 ported to the Prior, who took care not to 
 be present in church to hear them. 
 
 "Gabriel," said his informants, " Ga- 
 briel insists that every possible means 
 should be taken to clear out the cloisters; 
 that when the friars are met in the street, 
 they should be twitched by the cloak, 
 and pointed out to ridicule : and thatjf 
 that does not rout them from their con- 
 vent, they should be expelled by main 
 force. He cries, ■ break open the monas- 
 teries, destroy them, raze them to their 
 foundations, that no trace of them may 
 remain, and that on the ground they co- 
 ver, not one stone may be left of walls 
 that have sheltered such sloth and super- 
 stition.' "f 
 
 The friars were astonished ; their con- 
 sciences whispered that the charge 
 brought against them was but too true; 
 — that the life of a monk was not agree- 
 able to the will of God ; — and that no 
 man could have a claim to their implicit 
 and unlimited obedience. 
 
 In one day, thirteen Augustine monks 
 quitted the convent, and throwing aside 
 the habit of their order, assumed the 
 dress of the laity. Such of them as had 
 the advantage of instruction continued 
 their course of study, in the hope of being 
 one day useful to the Church ; and such 
 
 * Kein Monch verde in der Kappe selig.— 
 (Corp. Ref. i. p. 433.) 
 
 t Dass man nicht oben Stuck von einem 
 Kloster da sey gestanden, merken moge. — (Corp. 
 Ref. i. p. 483.) 
 
402 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 as had profited litle by study, sought a 
 livelihood by working- with their own 
 hands, according to the precept of the 
 Apostle, and after the example of the 
 worthy burghers of Wittemberg.* One, 
 who had some knowledge of carpentry, 
 applied for the freedom of the city, resolv- 
 ing to marry and settle. 
 
 If Luther's entrance into the convent 
 of the Augustines at Erfurth, had laid the 
 seeds of the Reformation, the departure of 
 the tnirteen monks from the convent of 
 the Augustines of Wittemberg was the 
 signal of its taking possession of the na- 
 tions of Christendom. For a period of 
 thirty years, Erasmus had exposed the 
 unprofitableness, fatuity, and vices of the 
 friars ; and all Europe had gone with 
 him in his ridicule and contempt. Thir- 
 teen men of resolute character returned to 
 their place in society ; — and there, in 
 service to their fellow men, sought to ful- 
 fil God's commandments. The marriage 
 of Feldkirchen was one of humiliation to 
 the hierarchy ; — the emancipation of 
 these thirteen Augustines followed close 
 upon it, as a second. Monkery, which 
 had established itself in the day when 
 the Church entered on her long period 
 of bondage and error, was doomed to fall 
 whenever the time came which should 
 restore liberty and truth. 
 
 This bold step occasioned a general 
 ferment in Wittemberg. All marvelled at 
 the men who thus came forward to share 
 the labours of the common people, and 
 welcomed them as brethren : — at the 
 same time, cries were heard against those 
 who obstinately clung to their indolent 
 seclusion within the walls of their mon- 
 astery. The monks, who adhered to 
 the prior, trembled in their cells, and the 
 prior himself, carried away by the gener- 
 al feeling, suspended the performance of 
 private masses. 
 
 In a moment so critical, the least con- 
 cession necessarily precipitated the course 
 of events. The order issued by the Prior 
 caused a strong sensation in the town 
 and in the University, and produced an 
 unforeseen explosion. Among the stu- 
 dents and burghers of Wittemberg, were 
 some of those turbulent spirits whom the 
 least excitement inflames, and urges to 
 
 * " Etlicho unter den Biirgern, etliche unter 
 den Studenten," said the Prior, in his address to 
 the Elector.— (Ibid.) 
 
 criminal excesses. These men were in- 
 dignant that the same masses, which 
 were suspended by the devout Prior, 
 should still be performed in the parish 
 church; and on the 3d December, as 
 mass was about to be chaunted, they sud- 
 denly made their way to the altar, bore 
 off the books, and compelled the officia- 
 ting priests to seek safety in flight-. The 
 Council and the University assembled to 
 take severe -measures against the authors 
 of these disturbances. But the passions, 
 once roused, are not easily calmed. The 
 Cordeliers had taken no part in the Ref- 
 ormation that had begun to show itself 
 among the Augustines. Next day the 
 students affixed to the gates of their 
 monastery a threatening placard. Soon 
 after, forty of their number forced their 
 way into the chapel, and without proceed- 
 ing to violence, gave such free expression 
 to their ridicule, that the monks dared 
 not proceed with the mass. In the even- 
 ing, notice came advising the friars to be 
 on their guard. " The students," it was 
 said, " have planned to break into the 
 monastery." The monks in alarm, and 
 seeing no way of defence against these 
 real or supposed attacks, sent in haste tp 
 ask protection of the Council. Soldiers 
 were placed on guard, 'but the enemy did 
 not make his appearance. The Univer- 
 sity arrested the students who had taken 
 part in these disturbances. They were 
 found to be from Erfurth, and already 
 noted for their insubordination.* The 
 penalty annexed to their offence by the 
 laws of the University was imposed upon 
 them. 
 
 _ Nevertheless, it was felt that a neces- 
 sity had arisen for a careful examination 
 of the lawfulness of monastic vows. A 
 chapter, composed of the Augustine 
 monks of Thuringen and'Misnia, assem- 
 bled at Wittemberg in December follow- 
 ing. Luther's judgment was acquiesced 
 in. They declared, on the one hand, 
 that monastic vows were not sinful, but^ 
 on the other hand, that they were not ob- 
 ligatory. " In Christ," said they, " there 
 is neither layman nor monk, — each one 
 is free to leave the monastery or to abide 
 in it. Let whoever leaves it, beware 
 how he abuses his liberty ; let him who 
 
 * In summa es sollen die Aufruhr etliche Stu- 
 denten von Erffurth erwerckt haben. — (Corp. 
 Ref. i. p. 490.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 403 
 
 abides in it, obey his superiors, — but with 
 the obedience of love ;" and they pro- 
 ceeded to prohibit mendicity, and the 
 saying masses for money ; they also de- 
 termined that the more instructed monks 
 should devote themselves to teaching the 
 word of God, and that *the rest should 
 labour with their own hands for the sup- 
 port of their brethren.* 
 
 Thus the question of Vows seemed to 
 be settled, but that of the Mass was still 
 undecided. The Elector continued to op- 
 pose the stream, and to defend an institu- 
 tion which he saw still standing in every 
 nation where Christianity was professed. 
 The moderation of this mild sovereign 
 could not, however, for any length of 
 time, hold in the public mind. Carlstadt, 
 above all, took part in the general fer- 
 ment. Zealous, upright, and fearless: 
 prompt, like Luther, to sacrifice every 
 thing for the truth ; he had not the Re- 
 former's wisdom and moderation : he was 
 not free from vanity, and with a disposi- 
 tion that led him to go deeply into every 
 question, he yet had but little power of 
 judgment, and no great clearness of 
 ideas. Luther had delivered him from 
 the teaching of the schools, and had led 
 him to study the Scriptures ; but Carl- 
 stadt had not had patience to acquire a 
 knowledge of the original languages, 
 and had not, as his friend had done, ac- 
 knowledged the sufficiency of God's 
 word. Hence he was often taking up 
 with singular interpretations. As long 
 as Luther was at his side, the influence 
 of the master restrained the disciple with- 
 in due bounds ; but Carlstadt was freed 
 from this wholesome restraint. In the 
 university, — in the chapel, — throughout 
 Wittemberg, — the little tawny-complex- 
 ioned Carlstadt, who had never excelled 
 in eloquence, gave utterance to thoughts, 
 at times, profound, but often enthusiastic 
 and exaggerated. " What infatuated fol- 
 ly !'' he exclaimed, " for men to think 
 that the Reformation must be left to God's 
 working. A new order of things is 
 opening. The strength of man must be 
 brought in, and woe to him who shall 
 hold back instead of mounting the breach 
 in the cause of the mighty God !" 
 
 The Archdeacon's speech communi- 
 
 * Corp. Ref. i. p. 456. — The editors assign to 
 this decree the date of October, before the monks 
 had forsaken their convent. 
 
 cated his own impatience to his auditory. 
 " Whatever the Pope has set up is im- 
 pious," exclaimed some men of sincere 
 and upright minds, under the influence 
 of his harangues. " Let us not make 
 ourselves accomplices in these abomina- 
 tions by allowing them to exist. That 
 which God's word condemns ought to be 
 swept from the face of Christendom, with- 
 out regarding the commandments of men. 
 If the heads of the state and of the 
 church will not do their duty, let us at 
 least do ours. Let us leave thinking of 
 negociation, conferences, theses, and dis- 
 cussions, and let us apply the true reme- 
 dy to so many evils. We want a second 
 Elijah to throw down the altars of Baal !" 
 
 The restoration of the Supper of the 
 Lord in this moment of ferment and en- 
 thusiastic excitement, could not, doubt- 
 less, wear that character of solemnity 
 and sacredness which was given to it by 
 the Son of God in his institution of it 
 ' the night that he was betrayed.' But if 
 God was now using the weakness and 
 passions of men, it was, not the less, His 
 own hand which was engaged in re-es- 
 tablishing in the midst of His church 
 the feast of His own love. 
 
 As early as the October previous, 
 Carlstadt had privately celebrated the 
 Lord's Supper, according to Christ's ap- 
 pointment, with twelve of his friends. 
 On the Sunday before Christmas Day, 
 he announced from the pulpit that, on 
 New Year's Day, he would distribute 
 the elements under the two kinds, bread 
 and wine, to all who should come to the 
 altar : that he intended to omit all un- 
 necessary ceremonies,* and should per- 
 form the service without cope or chasu- 
 ble. 
 
 The Council, in perturbatin, requested 
 the counsellor Bergen to interfere, and 
 prevent so disorderly a proceeding, where- 
 upon Carlstadt resolved not to wait the 
 time fixed. On Christmas Day, 1521, 
 he preached, in the parochial church, on 
 the duty of abandoning the mass, and 
 receiving the sacrament under both kinds. 
 The sermon being ended, he came down, 
 took his place at the altar, and after pro- 
 nouncing, in German, the words of insti- 
 tution, said solemnly, turning towards 
 the people, — " If any one feels the bur- 
 
 * Und die anderen Schirymstege alle ausseu 
 lassen. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 512.) 
 
404 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 then of his sins, and is hungering and 
 thirsting for the grace of God, let him 
 draw near, and receive the body and 
 blood of the Lord."* Then, without 
 elevating the host, he distributed to each 
 one the bread and wine, saying, " This 
 is the cup of my blood, the blood of the 
 new and everlasting covenant." 
 
 Conflicting feelings reigned in the as- 
 sembly. Some, in the sense that a fur- 
 ther grace of God was given to the 
 Church, drew near the altar in silent 
 emotion. Others, attracted principally 
 by the novelty of the occasion, approached 
 in some confusion, and with a kind of 
 impatience. Not more than five com- 
 municants had presented themselves in 
 the confessional, — the rest took part only 
 in the public confession of sins. Carl- 
 stadt gave to all the general absolution, 
 laying upon them no other penance than 
 this, " Sin no moreV — In conclusion, the 
 communicants sang the Agnus Dei.\ 
 
 Carlstadt met with no opposition : the 
 changes we are narrating had already 
 obtained general concurrence. The Arch- 
 deacon administered the Lord's Supper 
 again on New Year's Day, and also on 
 the Sunday following, and from that 
 time the regular observance of it was 
 kept up. Einsidlen, one of the Elector's 
 council, having rebuked Carlstadt for 
 seeking his own exaltation, rather than 
 the salvation of his hearers — " Noble 
 Sir !" answered he, " I would meet death 
 in any form, rather than desist from fol- 
 lowing the Scripture. The word has 
 come to me so quick and powerful .... 
 woe is me if I do not preach."]: Soon 
 after this, Carlstadt married. 
 
 In the month of January, the town- 
 council of Wittemberg issued regulations 
 for the celebration of the Supper accord- 
 ing to the amended ritual. Steps were 
 also taken to restore the influence of reli- 
 gion upon public morals ; — for it was the 
 office of the Reformation to re-establish, 
 simultaneously, faith, christian worship, 
 and general morality. It was decreed 
 that public beggars should be no longer 
 tolerated, whether friars or others ; and 
 
 * Wer mit Siinden beschwert und nach der 
 Gnade Gottes hungrig und durstig. — (Ibid. 
 p. 540.) 
 
 t Wer.n man communicirt hat, so singt man : 
 Agnus Dei carmen. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 540.) 
 
 t Mir ist das Wort fast in grosser Geschwin- 
 digkeit eingefallen. — (Ibid. p. 545.) 
 
 that in each street, some man, well re- 
 ported of for piety, should be commis- 
 sioned to take care of the poor, and to 
 summon before the University or the 
 Council such as were guilty of disor- 
 ders.* 
 
 So fell that grand bulwark of Romish 
 dominion, — the Mass. Thus it was that 
 the Reformation passed beyond the sphere 
 of teaching, into that of public worship. 
 For three centuries, the mass and the 
 doctrine of transubstantiation had been 
 regularly established, f Throughout that 
 long period, all things within the Church 
 had a new tendency impressed upon 
 them, and every thing conspired to fa- 
 vour the pride of man and the honour 
 paid to the priest. The holy sacrament 
 had been adored, — regular festivals had 
 been instituted in honour of the most 
 stupendous of miracles, — the worship of 
 Mary had risen high in the scale of pub- 
 lic estimation, — the priest, who in the 
 consecration of the elements was sup- 
 posed to receive mysterious power to 
 change them into the very body of Christ, 
 had been separated from the class of laity, 
 and, to use the words of Thomas Aqui- 
 nas, had become a ' mediator between 
 God and man,'| — celibacy had been pro- 
 claimed as an inviolable law, — auricular 
 confession was enforced upon the people, 
 and the cup of blessing denied them, — 
 for how, indeed, should common people 
 be ranged on the same line with priests, 
 honoured with the most solemn of all 
 ministrations. The Mass cast reproach 
 upon the Son of God ; it was opposed to 
 the perfect remission through his cross, 
 and the spotless glory of his everlasting 
 kingdom ; — but, whilst it disparaged the 
 glory of the Lord, it exalted the priest, — 
 whom it invested with the inconceivable 
 power of reproducing, in hand, and at 
 will, the Sovereign Creator of all things !$ 
 Thenceforward the Church seemed to 
 exist — not to preach the Gospel, but only 
 to reproduce Christ in the flesh ! The 
 Roman Pontiff whose obedient vassals, 
 at their pleasure, created the body of 
 
 * Keinen offenbaren Sunder zu dulden .... 
 —(Ibid. p. 540.) 
 
 t By the Council of Lateran, in 1215. 
 
 X Sacerdos constituitur medius inter Deum et 
 populum. — (Th. Aquin. Summa iii. p. 22.) 
 
 § Perfectio hujus sacramenti non est in usu 
 fidelium, sed in consecratione materise. — (Th. 
 Aquin. Summa, Quest. 80.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 405 
 
 God himself, — took his seat as God, in 
 the temple of God, and asserted his 
 claim to a spiritual treasury, from whence 
 to draw forth at will indulgences for the 
 pardon of men's sins. 
 
 Such were the gross errors which for a 
 period of three centuries had established 
 themselves in the Church in connection 
 with the mass. The Reformation, by- 
 abolishing this thing of man's setting up, 
 swept away all the abuses blended with 
 it. The proceeding of the Archdeacon 
 was therefore full of important results. 
 The costly shows that amused the people, 
 the worship of the Virgin, the pride of 
 the clergy, and the papal authority, were 
 all shaken. The glory was withdrawn 
 from the priests, and returned to rest on 
 Jesus, — and the Reformation advanced a 
 step farther. 
 
 Nevertheless, prejudiced observers 
 might have seen nothing in all that was 
 going on, but what might be deemed the 
 effect of passing enthusiasm. Facts were 
 needed, that should give proof of the con- 
 trary, and demonstrate that there was a 
 deep and broad distinction between a 
 Reformation based on God's word and 
 any mere fanatical excitement. 
 
 Whenever a great ferment is working 
 in the Church, some impure elements 
 are sure to mingle with the testimony 
 given to truth ; and some one or more 
 pretended reforms arise out of man's ima- 
 gination, and serve as evidences or coun- 
 tersigns of some real reformation in prog- 
 ress. Thus many false Messiahs in the 
 first century of the Church, were an evi- 
 dence that the true Messiah had already 
 come. The Reformation of the sixteenth 
 century could not run its course without 
 presenting the like phenomenon, and it 
 was first exhibited in the little village of 
 Zwickau. 
 
 There were dwelling at Zwickau a 
 few men, who, being deeply moved by 
 the events passing around them, looked 
 for special and direct revelations from 
 the Deity, instead of desiring, in meek- 
 ness and simplicity, the sanctification of 
 their affections. These persons asserted 
 that they were commissioned to complete 
 that Reformation which in their view 
 Luther had but feebly begun. " What 
 is the use," asked they, " of such close 
 application to the Bible? Nothing is 
 heard of but the Bible. Can the Bible 
 
 preach to us? Can it suffice for our in- 
 struction ? If God had intended to in- 
 struct us by a book, would he not have 
 given us a Bible direct from heaven ! It 
 is only the SriuiT that can enlighten ! 
 God himself speaks to us, and shows us 
 what to do and say." Thus did these 
 fanatics, playing into the hands of Rome, 
 impugn the fundamental principle on 
 which the whole Reformation is based ; 
 namely, the perfect sufficiency of the 
 Word of God. 
 
 Nicolas Storch, a weaver, publicly 
 declared that the angel Gabriel had ap- 
 peared to him by night, and after reveal- 
 ing to him matters he was not allowed 
 to divulge, had uttered the words — " Thou 
 shalt sit on. my throne!''* A senior 
 student of Wittemberg, named Mark 
 Stubner, joined Storch, and forthwith 
 abandoned his studies, — for, according to 
 his own statement, he had received im- 
 mediately from God the ability to inter- 
 pret holy Scripture. Mark Thomas, 
 also a weaver, associated himself with 
 them : and another of the initiated, by 
 name Thomas Munzer, a man of fanati- 
 cal turn of mind, gave to the new sect a 
 regular organization. Resolving to act 
 according to the example of Christ, 
 Storch chose from among his followers 
 twelve apostles and seventy disciples. 
 All these loudly proclaimed, as we have 
 lately heard it asserted by a sect of our 
 own days, that Apostles and Prophets 
 were at last restored to the Church, t 
 
 Ere long, the new prophets, in accord- 
 ance with this plan of adhering to the 
 example of those of holy writ, began to 
 declare their mission — " Woe, woe!" they 
 exclaimed, " a church under human gov- 
 ernors, corrupted like the bishops, can- 
 not be the church of Christ. The un- 
 godly rulers of Christendom will soon be- 
 east down. In five, six, or seven years, 
 a time of universal desolation will come 
 upon the earth. The Turk will get pos- 
 session of Germany ; the clergy, not even 
 excepting those who have married, shall 
 be slain. The ungodly sinners shall all 
 be destroyed ; and when the earth shall 
 have been purified by blood, supreme 
 power shall be given to Storch, to install 
 
 * Advolasse Gabrielem Angelum. — (Camera- 
 rii Vita Melancthonis, p. 48.) 
 
 t Breviter, de sese predicant, viros esse pro- 
 pheticos et apostolicos. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 514.) 
 
406 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the saints in the government of the 
 earth.* Then shall there be one Faith 
 and one Baptism ! The day of the Lord 
 draweth nigh, and the end of all things 
 is at hand. Woe ! woe ! woe ! : ' Then 
 publicly declaring that infant baptism 
 Avas of no avail, the new prophets called 
 upon all to draw near, and receive at 
 their hands a true baptism, in token of 
 their entrance into the new Church of 
 God. 
 
 Such preaching made a deep impres- 
 sion on the popular mind. INot a few 
 devout persons were startled by the 
 thought that prophets were again given 
 to the Church, and those on whom the 
 love of the marvellous had most power, 
 threw themselves into the open arms of 
 the eccentric preachers of Zwickau. 
 
 But scarcely had this heresy, which 
 had shown itself of old in the days of 
 Montanism, and again in the middle ages, 
 drawn - together a handful of separatists, 
 when it encountered in the Reformation 
 a strong opposing power. Nicolas Hauss- 
 man, to whom Luther gave that noble 
 testimony — " What we teach, he ads ,"f 
 was at this time the pastor of Zwickau. 
 This good man was not led away by the 
 pretensions of the false prophets. Sup- 
 ported by his two deacons, he successful- 
 ly resisted the innovations Storch and 
 his followers were seelcing to introduce. 
 The fanatics, repelled by the pastors of 
 the church, fell into another extrava- 
 gance : they formed meetings, in which 
 doctrines subversive of order were pub- 
 licly preached. The people caught the 
 infection, and disturbances were the con- 
 sequence ; a priest, bearing the sacrament, 
 was pelted with stones.^ and the civil 
 authority interfering, committed the most 
 violent of the party to prison. § Indig- 
 nant at this treatment, and intent upon 
 justifying themselves and obtaining re- 
 dress, Storch, Mark Thomas, and Stub- 
 ner, repaired to Wittemberg. || 
 
 They arrived on the 27th December, 
 
 * Ut rerum potiatur et instauret sacra et res- 
 publicas tradat Sanctis viris tenendas. — (Camerar. 
 Vit. Mel. p. 45.) 
 
 t Quod nos docemus, ille facit. 
 
 t Einen Priester der da's Vcnerabilc getragcn 
 mit Steinen geworfen. — (Seek. p. 482.) 
 
 § Sunt et illic in vincula conjecti. — (Mel. Corp. 
 Ref i. p. 513.) 
 
 || Hue advolarunt tres viri, duo lanifices, lite- 
 rarum rudes, literatus tertius est. — (MeL Corp. 
 Ref. i. p. 513.) 
 
 1521. Storch, leading the way with the 
 port and bearing of a Lanzknecht,* and 
 Mark Thomas and Stubner following be- 
 hind. The disorder that reigned in Wit- 
 temberg was favourable to their designs. 
 The youth of the academies, and the 
 class of citizens already roused and ex- 
 cited, were well prepared to give eap: to 
 the new teachers. 
 
 Making sure of co-operation, they 
 waited upon the University Professors, 
 to receive their sanction : " We, : ' said 
 they, " are sent by God to teach the peo- 
 ple. The Lord has favoured us with 
 special communications from Himself; 
 we have the knowledge of things which 
 are coming upon the earth. f In a word, 
 we are Apostles and Prophets, and we 
 appeal, for the truth of what we say, to 
 Doctor Luther." The Professors were 
 amazed. 
 
 " Who commissioned you to preach ?" 
 enquired Melancthon of Stubner, who 
 had formerly studied under him, and 
 whom he now received at his table. — 
 " The Lord our God." — " Have you com- 
 mitted anything to writing ?" — " The 
 Lord our God has forbidden me to do so." 
 Melancthon drew back, alarmed and as- 
 tonished. 
 
 "There are indeed spirits of no ordinary 
 kind in these men," said he ; " but what 
 spirits? . . . none but Luther can solve 
 the doubt. On the one hand let us be- 
 ware of quenching the Spirit of God, 
 and on the other, of being seduced by 
 the spirit of the devil." 
 
 Storch, who- was of a restless disposi- 
 tion, soon left Wittemberg; Stubner re- 
 mained behind. Actuated by an ardent 
 desire to make proselytes, he went from 
 house to house, conversing with one and 
 another, and persuading many to ac- 
 knowledge him as a prophet of God. He 
 especially attached himself to Cellarius, 
 a Suabian, a friend of Melancthon, and 
 master of a school attended by a consid- 
 erable number of young persons. Cel- 
 larius admitted, with blind confidence, 
 the claims of the new Apostles. 
 
 Melancthon's perplexity and uneasi- 
 ness continued to increase. It was not 
 so much the visions of the prophets of 
 
 * Incedens more et habitu mililum istorum 
 quos Lanzknecht dicimus. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 245.) 
 
 t Esse sibi cum Deo familiaria colloquia, videre 
 
 f„tura —(Mel. Electori, 27th Dec. 1521. 
 
 Corp. Ref. i. p. 514.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 407 
 
 Zwjpkau, as their doctrine concerning 
 Baptism, that disturbed him. To him it 
 seemed agreeable to reason, — and he 
 thought it deserved to be examined into, 
 — " for," observed he, u nothing should be 
 lightly received or rejected."* 
 
 Such was the spirit of the Reformation. 
 In this hesitation and struggle of Me- 
 lancthon, we have an evidence of his up- 
 rightness, which does him more honour 
 than a determined opposition could have 
 done. 
 
 The Elector himself, whom Melanc- 
 thon termed "the light of Israel,"! had 
 his doubts. " Prophets and Apostles in 
 the electorate of Saxony, as of old time 
 in Jerusalem ! It is a solemn question," 
 said he, " and as a layman, I cannot de- 
 cide it. But rather than fight against 
 God, I would take to my staff, and de- 
 scend from my throne !" 
 
 On reflection, he intimated by his 
 counsellors, that Wittemberg had quite 
 sufficient trouble in hand : that it was 
 most likely the claims of the men of 
 Zwickau were a temptation of the devil, 
 and that the wisest course appeared to be 
 to allow the whole matter to settle down, 
 — that nevertheless whenever his High- 
 ness should clearly perceive what was 
 God's will, he would not confer with 
 flesh and blood, but was ready to endure 
 every thing in the cause of truth. | 
 
 Luther received in the Wartburg in- 
 telligence of the ferment at the court of 
 Wittemberg. His informants apprized 
 him of strange persons having made their 
 appearance, and that, as to their message, 
 it was not known from whence it came. 
 The thought instantly occurred to him, 
 that God had permitted these deplorable 
 events in order to humble his servants, 
 and to rouse them to seek higher degrees 
 of sanctification. " Your Highness," 
 said he, in a letter to the Elector, " your 
 Highness for many a year collected rel- 
 iques far and wide ; God has heard 
 your prayers, and sent you, at no cost or 
 trouble of your own, a whole cross, with 
 nails, spears, and scourges. God prosper 
 the newly acquired relic ! Only let your 
 
 * Censebat enim neque admittendum neque 
 rejiciendum quicquam temere. — (Camer. Vit. 
 Mel. p. 49.) 
 
 t Electori lucernce Israel. — (Ibid. p. 513.) 
 t Daruber auch leiden was S. C. G. leiden 
 soUt— (Ibid. p. 537.) 
 
 Highness spread out your arms, and en- 
 dure the piercing of the nails in your 
 flesh. I always expected that Satan 
 would send us this plague." 
 
 Nevertheless, there was nothing, ac- 
 cording to his judgment, more urgent 
 than to secure to others the liberty he 
 claimed for himself. He would have no 
 divers weights or measures: "Pray let 
 them alone ; don't imprison them." wrote 
 he to Spalatin ; " let not our prince im- 
 brue his hands in the blood of the pro- 
 phets that have risen up."* Luther was 
 far beyond the age in which he lived, 
 and even beyond many of the Reformers 
 in the matter of toleration. 
 
 Affairs were daily growing more seri- 
 ous in Wittemberg. f 
 
 Carlstadt did not receive many things 
 taught by the new teachers, and especial- 
 ly their anabaptist doctrine ; but there is 
 something contagious in religious enthu- 
 siasm, which a head like his could with 
 difficulty withstand. From the time the 
 men of Zwickau arrived in Wittemberg, 
 Carlstadt had accelerated his movements 
 in the direction of violent changes: "It 
 is become necessary," cried he, " that we 
 J should exterminate all the ungodly prac- 
 tices around us."± He brought forward all 
 ' the texts against image worship, and with 
 j increased vehemence declaimed against 
 J Romish idolatry — "People kneel," said 
 he, " and crawl before those idols ; burn 
 tapers before their shrines, and make 
 offerings to them. Let us arise, and 
 drag the worshippers from their altars !" 
 
 Such appeals were not lost upon the 
 populace. They broke into churches, 
 carried off the images, breaking them in 
 pieces, and burning them.§ Better would 
 it have been to have awaited their abo- 
 lition by authority ; but the cautious ad- 
 j vances of the leaders of the Reformation 
 were thought to compromise its security. 
 
 It was not long before one who lis- 
 tened to these enthusiasts might have 
 thought that there were no real Christians 
 in all Wittemberg, save only those who re- 
 fused to come to confession, persecuted 
 the priests, and ate meat on fast days. 
 
 * Ne princeps manus cruentet in prophetis. — 
 (L. Epp. ii. p. 135.) 
 
 t Ubi fiebant omnia in dies difficiliora. — 
 (Camer. Vit. Mel. p. 49.) 
 
 I Irruendum et demoliendum statim. — (Ibid.) 
 § Die Bilder zu sturmen und aus den Kirchen 
 zu werfen. — (Math. p. 31.) 
 
408 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The bare suspicion that he did not reject, 
 one and all, the ceremonies of the 
 Church as inventions of the devil, was 
 enough to subject a man to the charge 
 of being a worshipper of Baal. " We 
 must form a church," they exclaimed, 
 "that shall consist of the Saints alone !" 
 
 The burghers of Wittemberg presented 
 to the Council certain regulations which 
 it was compelled to sanction. Several 
 of these regulations were conformable to 
 christian morals. The closing of places 
 of amusement was particularly insisted 
 upon. 
 
 But soon after this, Carlstadt went 
 still greater lengths ; he began to pour 
 contempt upon human learning ; and the 
 students heard their aged tutor advising 
 them, from his rostrum, to return to their 
 homes, and resume the spade, or follow 
 the plough, and cultivate the earth, be- 
 cause man was to eat bread in the sweat 
 of his brow ! George Mohr, master of 
 the boy's school of Wittemberg, carried 
 away by a similar madness, called from 
 his window to the burghers outside to 
 come and remove their children. Where 
 indeed was the use of their pursuing 
 their studies, since Storch and Stubner 
 had never been at the University, and 
 yet were prophets? A mechanic was 
 just as well, nay perhaps better qualified 
 than all the divines in the world, to 
 preach the Gospel ! 
 
 Thus it was that doctrines were put 
 forth directly opposed to the Reformation. 
 The revival of letters had opened a way 
 for the reformed opinions. Furnished 
 with theological learning, Luther had 
 joined issue with Rome ; — and the Wit- 
 temberg enthusiasts, similar to those fa- 
 natical monks exposed by Erasmus and 
 Reuchlin, pretended to trample under 
 foot all human learning ! Only let Van- 
 dalism once establish its sway, and the 
 hopes of the world were gone ; and 
 another irruption of barbarians would 
 quench the light which God had kin- 
 dled among Christian people. 
 
 It was not long before the results of 
 these strange lessons began to show 
 themselves. Men's minds were diverted 
 from the Gospel, or prejudiced against it; 
 the school was almost broken up. the de- 
 moralised students burst the bands of 
 discipline, and the states of Germany re- 
 
 called such as belonged to their several 
 jurisdictions.* Thus the men who 
 aimed at reforming, and infusing new 
 vigour into every thing, had brought all 
 to the brink of ruin. " One more effort," 
 thought the partisans of Rome, who, on 
 all sides, were again lifting their heads, 
 "and all will be oursF'f 
 
 The prompt repression of these fanat- 
 ical excesses was the only means of sav- 
 ing the Reformation. But who should 
 undertake the task? Melancthon ? He 
 was too young, too deficient in firmness, 
 too much perplexed by this strange con- 
 juncture of circumstances. The Elec- 
 tor? He was the most pacific man of 
 his age. To build his castles of Alten- 
 burg, Weimar, Lochau, and Coburg, to 
 adorn the churches with fine pictures by 
 Lucas Cranach, to improve the chaunt- 
 ings in his chapels, to advance the pros- 
 perity of his university, and promote the 
 happiness of his subjects ; to stop in his 
 walks and distribute little presents to 
 playful children, — such were the tran- 
 quil occupations of his life ; and now, in 
 his declining years, to engage in conflict 
 with fanatics, and oppose violence to 
 violence, — how could the gracious and 
 pious Frederic take such a step ? 
 
 The evil, therefore, was gaining 
 ground, and no one stept forward to ar- 
 rest its progress. Luther was absent far 
 from Wittemberg. Confusion and ruin 
 impended over the city. The Reforma- 
 tion beheld, proceeding, as it were, from 
 its own bosom, an enemy more to be 
 dreaded than Popes and Emperors. It 
 was as if on the brink of an abyss. 
 
 " Luther ! Luther !" was the cry from 
 one end of Wittemberg to the other. 
 The burghers were clamorous for his re- 
 appearance. Divines felt their need of 
 the benefit of his judgment ; even the 
 prophets appealed to him. All united in 
 entreating him to return. | 
 
 We may guess what was passing in 
 the Reformer's mind. The harsh usage 
 of Rome seemed nothing when compared 
 with what now wrung his heart. It is 
 
 * Etliche Fiirsten ihre Bewandten abgefordert. 
 —(Corp. Ref. i. p. 560.) 
 
 t Perdita et fundltus diruta. — (Cam. Vit. Mel. 
 p. 52.) 
 
 t Lutherum revocavimus ex heremo suo mag- 
 nis de causis. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 566.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 409 
 
 from the very midst of the Reformation 
 that its enemies have gone forth. It is 
 preying upon its own vitals ; and that 
 teaching, which, by its power, had suf- 
 ficed to restore peace to his troubled 
 heart, he beholds perverted into an occa- 
 sion of fatal dissensions in the Church. 
 
 " If I knew," said Luther, at an earlier 
 period, " that my doctrine had injured 
 one human being, however poor and un- 
 known, — which it could not, for it is the 
 very Gospel, — I would rather face death 
 ten times over, than not retract it.* And 
 lo ! now, a whole city, and that city Wit- 
 temberg itself, is sinking fast into licen- 
 tiousness." True, indeed, the doctrine 
 he had taught had not been the cause of 
 all this evil ; but from every quarter of 
 Germany voices were heard that accused 
 him as the author of it. Some of the 
 bitterest feelings he had ever known op- 
 pressed his spirit at this juncture, and his 
 trial was of a different kind. Was this 
 then, he asked himself, to be the issue 
 of the great work of Reformation 1 Im- 
 possible ! he utterly rejected the doubts 
 that presented themselves. God has be- 
 gun the work — God will fulfil it. "I 
 prostrate myself in deep abasement be- 
 fore the Eternal," said he, " and I im- 
 plore of Him that His name may rest upon 
 this work, and that if anything impure 
 has mingled in the doing of it, He will 
 remember that I am but a sinful man."f 
 
 The letters written to Luther, convey- 
 ing reports of the inspiration of the pre- 
 tended prophets and their exalted com- 
 munion with the Lord, did not occasion 
 him a moment's hesitation. He well 
 knew the deep struggles and prostra- 
 tions of the spiritual life ; at Erfurth and 
 at Wittemberg, he had had experience 
 of the mighty power of God, which ren- 
 dered him but little disposed to credit the 
 statement that God had appeared visibly, 
 and discoursed with his creature. 
 
 " Ask thero," said he, in writing to 
 Melancthon, " if they have known those 
 spiritual heavings, those pangs of God's 
 new creation, those deaths and hells, 
 which accompany a real regeneration.^ 
 
 * MSchte ich ehe zehn Tode leyden. — (Wie- 
 der Emser, L. Opp. xviii. p. 613.) 
 
 t Ich krieche zu seiner Gnaden. — (L. Opp. 
 xviii. p. 615.) 
 
 t Qiiisras num experti sint spirituales illas an- 
 gustias et nativitates divinas, mortes infernosque. 
 — (L. Epp. ii. p. 215.) 
 
 52 
 
 And if they speak only of soft and tran- 
 quil impressions, piety, and devotion, as 
 they phrase it, don't believe them ; not 
 even though they should assert that they 
 have been caught up into the third heav- 
 en ! In order that Christ should enter 
 into his glory, it behoved him to pass 
 through the suffering of death : thus the 
 believer must pass through the tribula- 
 tion of his sin before he enters into his 
 Peace. Would you learn when, where, 
 and how, God speaks to men 1 Listen 
 to the word. ' As a lion He has broken 
 all my bones, — I am cast out from before 
 His face, and my life is brought down to 
 the gates of death.' No, no, the Divine 
 Majesty (as they term Him) does not 
 speak face to face with man, for ' no man] 
 says He, ' can see my face and UveJ " 
 
 But his firm conviction that the pro- 
 phets were under a delusion did but ag- 
 gravate Luther's grief. The solemn 
 truth of Salvation by Grace seemed to 
 have quickly lost its attraction, and men 
 were turning aside after fables. He be- 
 gan to understand that the work was not 
 so easy as he had once fondly thought. 
 He stumbled at this first stone placed in 
 his path by the fickleness of the human 
 heart. Grief and anxiety weighed heavy 
 on his spirit. He desired, though at the 
 hazard of his life, to remove the stum- 
 bling-block out of the way of the people, 
 and he resolved to return to Wittem- 
 berg. 
 
 It was a moment of considerable dan- 
 ger. The enemies of the Reformation 
 thought themselves on the very eve of 
 destroying it. George of Saxony, who 
 would neither connect himself with 
 Rome nor with Wittemberg, had writ- 
 ten, as early as the 15th October, 1521, 
 to Duke John, the Elector's brother, to 
 induce him to side with those who op- 
 posed the progress of the Reformation. 
 " Some," wrote he, " deny the immortal- 
 ity of the soul, others, and those friars 
 too ! drag the relics of St. Anthony 
 through the streets, and throw them into 
 the gutters.* All this comes of Luther's 
 teaching. Entreat your brother either 
 to make a public example of the impious 
 authors of these 'disorders, or, at least, 
 publicly to declare his opinion of them. 
 Our grey hairs warn us that we are 
 
 * Mit Schweinen und Schellen . . . . in Koth 
 geworfen. — (Weyn. Ann Seek. p. 482.) 
 
410 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 near the end of our course, and that we 
 ought speedily to put an end to such 
 evils." 
 
 After this, George took his departure 
 to be present at the sittings of the Impe- 
 rial Government at Nuremberg. On ar- 
 riving, he used every means to procure 
 the adoption of severe measures. The 
 result was that, on the 21st of January, 
 the Diet published an edict, in which 
 they conplained bitterly that the priests 
 were accustomed to say mass without 
 being habited in priest's garments, — that 
 they pronounced the words of consecra- 
 tion in German, — administered it to such 
 as had not confessed themselves, — passed 
 it into the hands of laymen, without 
 even troubling themselves to ascertain 
 whether the communicant came to it 
 fasting.* 
 
 The Imperial Government directed 
 the Bishops accordingly, to look after 
 and punish severely the innovators within 
 their respective dioceses : and the Bishops 
 were not slow in following these direc- 
 tions. 
 
 It was just at this moment that Lu- 
 ther decided to appear again upon the 
 stage. He clearly saw the critical posi- 
 tion of affairs, and foreboded wide-spread- 
 ing calamity. "A time of trouble," said 
 he, " is coming upon the empire which 
 will sweep before it princes, magistrates 
 and bishops. People's eyes are opened 
 they cannot be driven by main force 
 Germany will be deluged with blood, f 
 Let us take our stand as a wall of de- 
 fence to our country in the day of God's 
 anger." 
 
 So thought Luther : but he perceived 
 a danger yet more imminent. At Wit- 
 temberg, the fire, instead of expiring, 
 was burning every day more fiercely. 
 From the summits of the Wartburg, 
 Luther might discern in the horizon the 
 lurid glare that gives notice of devasta- 
 tion flashing at intervals through the 
 gloom. Who but himself can apply a 
 remedy in the crisis? What should 
 prevent his throwing himself into the 
 heat of the conflagration, and exerting 
 his influence to arrest its progress 1 He 
 foresees his enemies preparing to strike 
 
 * In ihre lalsche Hande reiche. — (L. Opp. 
 xviii. p. 285.) 
 
 t Germaniam in sanguine natare. — (L. Epp. 
 ii. p. 157.) 
 
 him down, but his purpose is not shaken. 
 Nor is he deterred by the Elector's en- 
 treaty that he would keep within the 
 Wartburg, and there quietly prepare his 
 justification at the approaching Diet. 
 A more urgent necessity is pressing 
 upon his soul ; and it is to justify the 
 Gospel itself. " The news from Wit- 
 temberg," wrote he, " is every day be-' 
 coming more alarming. I am on the 
 point of setting out. That state of things 
 absolutely requires it."* 
 
 Accordingly, on the 3d of March, he 
 finally decided on leaving the Wartburg. 
 He bade farewell to its grey turrets and 
 gloomy forests. He passed beyond those 
 walls, within which the anathemas of 
 Leo and the sword of Charles were alike 
 powerless. He trod the path that wound 
 to the foot of the mountain. The world 
 which lay stretched before him, and on 
 which he was once more about to ap- 
 pear, would soon perhaps ring with the 
 clamours of those who sought his life. 
 It matters not. On he goes rejoicing ; 
 for it is in the name of the Lord that he 
 is bending his steps towards the haunts 
 of men. f 
 
 Time had been busy. Luther was 
 leaving the Wartburg for another cause 
 and in a different character from that in 
 which he had first entered it. He had 
 arrived there as one who had attacked 
 the received tradition, and its established 
 teachers. He was quitting it for the de- 
 fence of the doctrine of the Apostles 
 against a new class of adversaries. He 
 had entered the Wartburg as an innova- 
 tor who had assailed the ancient hierar- 
 chy, — he was leaving it in the spirit of a 
 conservator, that he might defend the 
 faith of Christians. Until this period, 
 Luther had seen in the success of his ef- 
 forts but the triumph of the great truth 
 of Justification by Faith ; and, armed 
 with this single weapon, he had beaj 
 down long standing superstitions. But 
 if there had been a time for removing 
 that which had encumbered the soil, a 
 season must needs come for building up. 
 Hidden under the ruins with which his 
 assaults had strewed the plain, behind 
 discredited letters of indulgence, broken 
 
 * Ita enim res postulat ipsa. — (Ibid. p. 135.) 
 t So machte er sich mit unglaublicher Freu- 
 
 digkeit des Geistes, im Nahmen Gottes auf den 
 
 Weg.— (Seek. p. 458.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WART BURG. 
 
 411 
 
 tiaras and trampled cowls, beneath the 
 many Romish errors and corruptions 
 that his mind surveyed as the slain upon 
 a battle-field, he discerned and brought 
 forth to light the primitive Catholic 
 Church, re-appearing still the same, and, 
 as it were, emerging from a protracted 
 struggle, with unchangeable doctrine 
 and heavenly accents. He could appre- 
 ciate the vast difference between Rome 
 and that true Church which he hailed 
 and embraced with joy. Luther wrought 
 no new thing on the earth, as has been 
 falsely charged upon him ; he did not 
 build for his own age an edifice that had 
 no associations with the past ; he dis- 
 cerned and let in the light upon those 
 earlier foundations which were then over- 
 run with thorns and brambles ; while he 
 persevered in reconstructing the temple, 
 he did but build on the fundamental 
 truths taught by the Apostles. Luther 
 was aware that the ancient and primi- 
 tive Apostolic Church must, on one hand, 
 be restored and opposed to that papal 
 power which had so long oppressed it, — 
 and, on the other hand, be defended 
 against enthusiasts and unbelievers, who 
 affected to disown it, and were seeking to 
 set up some new thing, regardless of all 
 that God had done in past ages. Luther 
 was, from thft hour, no longer the rep- 
 resentative of a single great truth — that 
 of Justification by Faith, though, to the 
 last, he gave to it the highest place ; the 
 whole theology of Christianity now occu- 
 pied his thoughts: — and while he be- 
 lieved that, in its essence, the Church is 
 the Congregation of Saints, he was care- 
 ful not to despise the visible Church, and 
 he therefore recognised those who were 
 outwardly called, as constituting, in a 
 ' certain sense, the kingdom of God. Ac- 
 cordingly, a great change took place in 
 Luther, and, in his entrance into divine 
 truth, and in that regenerative process 
 which God was carrying on in the world. 
 The hierarchy of Rome, acting upon 
 him, might have goaded the Reformer to 
 one extreme, had not the sects, which, at 
 this time, lifted their heads so daringly, 
 recalled him to just and moderate views. 
 His residence in the Wartburg divides 
 these two periods of the history of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 Luther rode slowly on in the direction 
 of Wittemberg. It was Shrove Tuesday, 
 
 and the second day of his journey. 
 Towards evening, a terrific storm came 
 on, and the roads were flooded. Two 
 ig Swiss, who xvcvc travelling the 
 same way, were hastening for shelter 
 to the city of Jena. They had studied 
 at Bale, and were attracted to Wittem- 
 berg by the renown of its university. 
 Journeying on foot, tired, and wet 
 through, John Kessler, of Saint Gall, 
 and his comrade, quickened their steps. 
 The town was in all the bustle and buf- 
 foonery of the carnival — dances, mas- 
 querades, and tumultuous feasting, en- 
 grossed the thoughts of the inhabitants, 
 and the two travellers, on arriving, could 
 find no room in any of the inns. After 
 a while, they were directed to the Black 
 Bear, outside the city gate. Harassed 
 and depressed, they repaired thither. 
 The landlord received them kindly.* 
 Ashamed of their appearance, they sat 
 down near the open door of the public 
 room, unwilling to go further. Seated 
 at one of the tables, was a solitary man 
 in the habit of a knight, his head covered 
 with a red cap, and wearing small 
 clothes, over which hung down the skirts 
 of his doublet. His right hand rested 
 on the pommel of his sword ; his left 
 grasped the hilt ; a book lay open before 
 him, and he seemed to be reading atten- 
 tively.! At the noise made by their en- 
 trance, the stranger raised his head and 
 saluted them courteously, inviting them 
 to approach and take a seat with him at 
 the table ; then offering them a glass of 
 beer, he said, alluding to their accent, 
 " You are Swiss, I perceive ; but from 
 which of the Cantons?" — "From St. 
 Gall." — " If you are going to Wittem- 
 berg, you will there meet one of your 
 countrymen, Doctor Schurff " Encour- 
 aged by so much affability, they en- 
 quired — " Could you kindly inform us 
 where Martin Luther now is?" — "I 
 know for certain," answered the knight, 
 " that Luther is not at Wittemberg, but 
 probably he will be there shortly. Phil- 
 ip Melancthon is there. If you'll be 
 advised by me, apply yourselves to the 
 
 * See the narrative of Kessler, with its details, 
 in the simple language of that age, in Bernet, 
 Johann. Kessler, p. 27. Hahnhard Erzahlungen, 
 iii. p. 300, and Marheinecke Gesch. der Ref. ii. 
 p. 321, 2d edit. 
 
 t In einem rothen Schlopli, in blossen Hosen 
 und Wamms . . — (Ibid.) 
 
412 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Greek and Hebrew, that yon may under- 
 stand the Holy Scriptures." "If our 
 lives are spared/' observed one of the 
 Swiss, " we will not return without see- 
 ing and hearing Doctor Luther ; it is for 
 that purpose we have made the journey. 
 We hear he wants to abolish the clergy 
 and the mass, and as our parents always 
 intended to bring us up to the church, 
 we should like to know on what grounds 
 he is acting." The knight was silent 
 for a moment, and then enquired, " Where 
 have you been studying hitherto?" — 
 "At Bale."— "Is Erasmus still there? 
 what is he doing?" They answered his 
 questions; and a pause ensued. The 
 two Swiss knew not what to make of 
 their new acquaintance. " How strange," 
 thought they, " that the conversation of 
 a knight should be all about Schurff, 
 Melancthon, and Erasmus, and the ad- 
 vantage of knowing Greek and Hebrew." 
 " Tell me, my friends," said the stranger, 
 suddenly breaking silence, " what is 
 said of Luther in Switzerland?" — "Sir," 
 replied Kessler, " opinions concerning 
 him are greatly divided, as is the case 
 every where. Some extol him, and others 
 pronounce him an abominable heretic", 
 — " Aye, aye, the priests, no doubt," re- 
 marked the stranger. 
 
 The knight's cordiality had put the 
 students completely at their ease. Their 
 curiosity was excited to know what book 
 he had been reading when they came 
 in. The knight had closed the volume. 
 Kessler's -comrade ventured to take it up: 
 what was his surprise at finding it to be 
 the Hebrew Psalter. Laying it down, 
 he said, as if to divert attention from this 
 freedom, u Gladly would I give my little 
 finger to understand that language." — 
 " You will surely have your wish," was 
 the stranger's reply, " if you will take 
 the pains to acquire it." 
 
 A few minutes after, the landlord's 
 voice was heard calling Kessler. The 
 poor Swiss began to fear something was 
 amiss ; but the host whispered, " I hear 
 you want to see Luther ; well, it is he 
 who is seated beside you." Kessler's 
 first thought was that he was jesting. 
 " You surely would not deceive me," 
 said he. " It is he, himself," replied the 
 landlord; "but don't let him see that you 
 know him." Kessler made no answer ; 
 but returned to the room, and resumed 
 
 his seat, eager to communicate the infor- 
 mation to his companion. To do this 
 was not easy ; at last he leaned forward, 
 as if looking towards the door, and stoop- 
 ing close to his friend's ear, whispered, — 
 " The landlord says it is Luther himself." 
 — " Perhaps," returned his companion, 
 " he said Hutten?" — " Probably so," said 
 Kessler, " I may have mistaken the one 
 name for the other, for they resemble 
 each other in sound." 
 
 At that moment, the trampling of 
 horses' feet was heard outside : two trav- 
 elling merchants, asking a night's lodg- 
 ing, entered the room, laid aside their 
 spurs, and threw off their cloaks, and 
 one of them deposited near him, on the 
 table, an unbound book, which attracted 
 the knight's notice. " What book may 
 that be ?" asked he. " It is a commen- 
 tary on the Gospels and Epistles, by 
 Doctor Luther," was the traveller's an- 
 swer ; " it has only just appeared." — " I 
 shall get it shortly," remarked the knight. 
 
 Conversation was interrupted by the 
 landlord's announcing that supper was 
 ready. The two students, not wishing 
 to Incur the expense of a meal in com- 
 pany with the knight Ulric Hutten, and 
 two thriving merchants, took the land- 
 lord aside, and asked him to serve them 
 with something apart. " Come along, my 
 friends," said the innkeeper of the Black 
 Bear, "sit ye down beside this gentle- 
 man ; I will let you off easy." — " Come, 
 come," said the knight, " I'll pay the 
 score." 
 
 During supper, the mysterious stranger 
 made many striking and instructive re- 
 marks. Both merchants and students 
 listened in silence, more attentive to his 
 words than to the dishes before them. 
 In the course of conversation, one of the 
 merchants exclaimed, " Luther must be 
 either an angel from heaven, or a devil 
 from hell !" and he followed up his ex- 
 clamation by the remark, — " I would 
 give ten florins for an opportunity of 
 meeting him, and confessing to him." 
 
 Supper being over, the merchants rose 
 from their seats ; the two Swiss remained 
 in company with the knight, who, ta- 
 king up a large glass of beer, and raising 
 it to his lips, said gravely, after the cus- 
 tom of the country, — " Swiss, one glass 
 more, for thanks." And as Kessler was 
 about to take the glass, the stranger, re- 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 413 
 
 placing it, handed him one filled with 
 wine: — "You are not used to beer," 
 said he. 
 
 This said, he rose from his seat, threw 
 over his shoulders a military cloak, and 
 extending his hand to the students, said, 
 " When you reach Wittemberg, salute 
 Doctor Jerome Schurff from me." — 
 " With pleasure," replied they ; " but 
 whose name shall we give?" — " Do you 
 tell him only, that he who is coming 
 sends him greeting." With these words 
 he departed, leaving them delighted with 
 his condescension and kindness. 
 
 Luther, — for he it was, — continued his 
 journey. It will be remembered, that 
 he had been placed under ban of the 
 Empire : whoever met him might there- 
 fore seize his person. But in that criti- 
 cal moment, engaged as he was, in an 
 enterprise replete with dangers, he was 
 calm and serene, and conversed cheer- 
 fully with those whom he met with on 
 his way. 
 
 It was not that he deceived himself as 
 to immediate results. He saw the hori- 
 zon black with storms : — " Satan," said 
 he, " is enraged ; and all around me are 
 plotting death and destruction.* But I 
 go forward to throw myself in the way 
 of the Emperor and the Pope, with no 
 protector but God above. C4o where I 
 will, every man is at perfect liberty to 
 put me to death wherever he may find 
 me» Christ is Lord of all ! if it be His 
 will that my life should be taken, even 
 so let it be." 
 
 That same day, being Ash Wednes- 
 day, Luther arrived at Borne, a small 
 town in the neighbourhood of Leipsic. 
 He felt that it became him to acquaint 
 his prince with the bold step he was 
 about to take, and accordingly wrote as 
 follows, from the inn at which he had 
 alighted : 
 
 " Grace and peace from God, our Fa- 
 ther, and from our Lord Jesus Christ! 
 Most Serene Elector, Gracious Prince, — 
 the reproach brought upon the Gospel 
 by the events that have taken place at 
 Wittemberg, have so deeply grieved me, 
 that I should have lost all hope, were I 
 not assured that our cause is that of the 
 truth. 
 
 * Furit Satanas ; et fremunt vicini undique, 
 nescio quot mortibus et infernis. — (L. Epp. ii. 
 p. 153.) 
 
 " Your Highness knows full well,— 
 or if not, be it known to you, I received 
 the Gospel — not from man, but from hea- 
 ven, — by our Lord Jesus Christ. It was 
 not from any doubt as to the truth, that 
 I formerly requested public discussions : 
 I did so in humility, and in the hope to 
 win over others. But since my humili- 
 ty is taken advantage of to the hindrance 
 of the Gospel, my conscience urges me, 
 at this time, to change my course of ac- 
 tion. I have sufficiently shown my def- 
 erence to your Highness, in withdraw- 
 ing from the public gaze for a whole 
 year. Satan knows that it was not from 
 cowardice that I did so. I would have 
 entered Worms, though there had been 
 as many devils in the town, as there 
 were tiles upon its roofs. Now Duke 
 George, whom your Highness mentions 
 as if to scare me, is much less to be 
 dreaded than a single devil. If what is 
 passing at Wittemberg were occurring 
 at Leipsic, (the Duke's usual place of res- 
 idence,) I would instantly mount my 
 horse, and repair thither, even though — 
 your Highness will, I trust, pardon the 
 expression — it should rain Dukes George 
 for nine days together, and every one 
 should be nine times as fierce as he ! 
 What can he be thinking of in attack- 
 ing me 1 Does he suppose that Christ, 
 my Lord, is a man of straw?* May 
 God avert from him the awful judgment 
 that hangs over him. 
 
 "Be it known to your Highness, that 
 I am repairing to Wittemberg, under a 
 protection more powerful than that of an 
 Elector. I have no thought of soliciting 
 the aid of your Highness : and am so far 
 from desiring your protection, that it is 
 rather my purpose to protect your High- 
 ness. If I knew that your Highness 
 could or would take up my defence, I 
 would not come to Wittemberg. No sec- 
 ular sword can advance this cause : God 
 must do all, without the aid or co-opera- 
 tion of man. He who has most faith, is 
 the most availing defence ; but, as it 
 seems to me, your Highness is as yet 
 very weak in faith. 
 
 " But since your Highness desires to 
 know what to do, I will humbly answer : 
 Your Electoral Highness has already 
 done too muck, and should do nothing 
 
 * Er halt meinen Herrn Christum fur eia 
 Mann aus Stroh geflochten. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 139.) 
 
414 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 whatever ; God neither wants nor will 
 endure that you or I should take thought 
 or part in the matter. Let your High- 
 ness follow this advice. 
 
 " In regard to myself, your Highness 
 must remember your duty as Elector, 
 and allow the instructions of his Imperi- 
 al Majesty to be carried into effect in 
 your towns and districts, offering no im- 
 pediment to any who would seize or kill 
 me ;* for none may contend against the 
 powers that be, save only He who has 
 ordained them. 
 
 " Let your Highness accordingly leave 
 the gates open, and respect safe-conducts, 
 if my enemies in person, or by their en- 
 voys, should come to search for me in 
 your Highness's states. Every thing 
 may take its course, without trouble or 
 prejudice to your Highness. 
 
 " I write this in haste, that you may 
 not feel aggrieved by my coming. My 
 business is with another kind of person 
 from Duke George, one who knows me, 
 and whom I know well. 
 
 " Written at Borne, at the inn of the 
 Guide, on Ash Wednesday, 1522. 
 " Your Electoral Highness's 
 
 "Very humble servant, 
 
 " Martin Luther." 
 
 In this way, Luther made his approach 
 to Wittemberg ; he wrote to his prince, 
 but not. as we have seen, to excuse the 
 step he had taken. An unshaken con- 
 fidence animated his heart. He saw 
 God's hand engaged in the cause, and 
 that sufficed him. The heroism of faith 
 was perhaps never more fully acted out. 
 In one of the editions of Luther's works, 
 we read opposite this letter, the remark 
 — " This is a wonderful writing of the 
 third and latest Elias."f 
 
 It was on Friday, the 7th of March, 
 that Luther re-entered Wittemberg, hav- 
 ing been five days on his journey. Doc- 
 tors, students, burghers, broke forth in 
 rejoicings, for they had again among 
 them the pilot who could best extricate 
 the vessel from the reefs by which it was 
 encompassed. 
 
 The Elector, who was then at Lochau, 
 attended by his court, was much affected 
 by the perusal of the Reformer's letter. 
 
 * Und ja nicht wehren ... so sie raich fahen 
 ode;- todten will. — (L. Epp. p. 140.) 
 
 t Der wahre, dritte und lezte Elias . . . — (L. 
 Opp. (L.) xviii. p. 271.) 
 
 In his desire to exculpate him before the 
 Diet, he wrote to Schurff — " Let Luther 
 write to me, explaining his reasons for 
 returning to Wittemberg, and introduce 
 the statement that he came without my 
 consent." Luther complied. 
 
 " Behold me ready to bear your High- 
 ness's disapprobation, and the anger of 
 the whole world. Are not the Wittem- 
 bergers my own sheep ? Has not God 
 committed them to my care ? and ought 
 I not, if need be, to lay down my life for 
 them 1 Besides, I dread lest we should 
 see, throughout Germany, a revolt by 
 which God shall punish our nation. 
 Let your Highness be well assured, the 
 decrees of heaven are not like those of 
 Nuremberg."* This letter was written 
 on the same day that Luther reached 
 Wittemberg. 
 
 The following day, being Easter Eve, 
 Luther visited Jerome Schurff He found 
 Melancthon, Jonas, Amsdorff, Augustin 
 Schurff. Jerome's brother, assembled. 
 Luther put many questions to them, and 
 while they recounted all that had taken 
 place in his absence, two foreigners en- 
 tered the room. Tbe Swiss drew back 
 timidly, on finding themselves in the 
 midst of this company of learned Doc- 
 tors ; but they soon recovered their self- 
 possession when they saw in the centre, 
 of the group, the knight whom they had 
 met at the Black Bear. The latter ad- 
 vancing, accosted them as old friends, 
 and said, smiling, as he pointed to one 
 of the company. — "That is Philip Me- 
 lancthon, whom I mentioned to you." 
 The two Swiss spent that day in the so- 
 ciety of the assembled friends, on the 
 strength of the meeting at Jena. 
 
 One absorbing thought engrossed the 
 Reformer's mind, and damped the plea- 
 sure he would otherwise have felt at 
 finding himself once more surrounded 
 by his friends. Doubtless, the stage on 
 which he had chosen to appear was an 
 obscure one. He was about to raise his 
 voice in a petty town of Saxony ; and 
 yet his object was, in reality, so import- 
 ant, as to influence the destinies of the 
 world, and be felt in its effects by many 
 nations and people. The question to be 
 decided was, — whether the teaching 
 which he had derived from God's Worcl 
 
 * L. Epp. ii p. 143. Luther altered this ex- 
 pression at the Elector's request. 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 415 
 
 and which was destined to produce so 
 mighty an effect, would, in the trial, 
 prove stronger than those disorganizing 
 principles which threatened its extinction. 
 It was now to be seen whether it was 
 possible to reform without destroying, — 
 to open a way to new developments 
 without losing such as had already been 
 evolved. To reduce to silence fanatics 
 in the energy of the first bursts of enthu- 
 siasm, — to arrest the headlong course of 
 a thoughtless multitude, — to calm their 
 spirits, and restore order, peace, and rea- 
 son, — to break the force of the torrent 
 that beat against the as yet unsettled edi- 
 fice of the Reformation, — such was the 
 object of Luther's return to Wittemberg. 
 But would his influence accomplish all 
 this? Time must show. 
 
 The Reformer's heart thrilled at the 
 thought of the struggle he was about to 
 enter upon. He raised his head, as the 
 lion shakes his brindled mane when 
 roused to the fight. ' ; The hour," said 
 he, " is arrived, when we must trample 
 under foot the power of Satan, and con- 
 tend against the spirit of darkness. If 
 our adversaries do not flee from us ; — 
 Christ will know how to compel them. 
 We who put our trust in the Lord of 
 life and death, are lords both of life and 
 of death !' : * 
 
 But at the same time the impetuous 
 Reformer, as if restrained by a higher 
 power, refused to employ the anathemas 
 and thunders of the Word, and set about 
 his work in the spirit of an humble pas- 
 tor — a tender shepherd of souls. " It is 
 with the Word we must contend," ob- 
 served he, " and by the Word we must 
 refute and expel what has gained a foot- 
 ing by violence. I would not resort to 
 force against such as are superstitious ; — 
 nor even against unbelievers! Whoso- 
 ever believeth let him draw nigh, and 
 whoso believeth not, stand afar off* Let 
 there be no compulsion. Liberty is of 
 the very essence of Faith." f 
 
 The next day was Sunday. That day 
 the Doctor, whom the lofty walls of the 
 Wartburg had for nearly a year hidden 
 from the public eye, is to appear in the 
 pulpit of the church of Wittemberg. 
 
 * Domini enim sumus vitce et mortis. — (L. 
 Epp. ii. p. 150.) 
 
 t Non enim ad fidem et ad ea quae fidei sunt, 
 ullus cogendus est. . . . — (L Epp. ii. p. 151.) 
 
 " Luther is come back." " Luther is to 
 preach to-day." The news, repeated 
 from one to another, had of itself no 
 slight effect in giving a turn to the 
 thoughts by which the multitude were 
 deluded. People hurried to and fro in 
 all directions ; and on Sunday morning 
 the church was filled to overflow with 
 an attentive and impressed congregation 
 
 Luther could comprehend the disposi- 
 tion of his hearers' minds. He ascended 
 the pulpit. Behold him surrounded by 
 the flock which had formerly followed 
 him with one heart as a docile sheep, 
 but which has broken from him in the 
 spirit of an untamed heifer. His ad- 
 dress was simple and noble, — energetic 
 and persuasive ; — breathing the spirit of 
 a tender father returning to his children, 
 and enquiring into their conduct, while 
 he communicates the reports that have 
 reached him concerning them. He 
 frankly commended their progress in the 
 faith, and having thus prepared and 
 gathered up their thoughts, he proceeded 
 as follows : — 
 
 " But we need a something beyond 
 Faith ; and that is Love. If a man who 
 carries a sword is alone, it matters not 
 whether he draw it or keep it sheathed ; 
 but if he is in a crowd let him have a 
 care lest he wound any of those about 
 him. 
 
 . " Observe a mother with her babe. 
 She first gives it nothing but milk ; and 
 then the most easily digestible food. 
 What would be the consequence were 
 she to begin by giving it meat or wine? 
 
 " In like manner should we act toward 
 our brother. — Have you been long at 
 the breast? — If so, well; — only let your 
 brother suck as long ! 
 
 "Observe the Sun. He dispenses two 
 gifts — namely — light and warmth. The 
 mightiest monarch cannot turn aside his 
 rays: — they come straight on, arriving 
 upon this earth by a direct course. 
 Meanwhile his warmth goes out and dif- 
 fuses itself in every direction. So it is 
 that Faith, like light, should ever be sim- 
 ple and unbending ; — whilst Love, like 
 warmth, should beam forth on all sides, 
 and bend to eveiy necessity of our breth- 
 ren." 
 
 Having thus engaged his hearers' at- 
 tention, he proceeded to press them more 
 closely : 
 
416 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " It is agreeable to Scripture, say you, 
 to abolish the mass. Be it so. But 
 what order, what decency have you ob- 
 served ? It became you to offer up ear- 
 nest prayers to God ; to apply to the 
 authorities ; then, indeed, every one 
 might have acknowledged that the thing 
 was of the Lord." 
 
 Thus spake Luther. The fearless 
 man who, at Worms, had stood forth 
 against the princes of this world, made a 
 deep impression on men's minds by these 
 accents of wisdom and peace. Carlstadt 
 and the prophets of Zwickau, from being 
 extolled and all-powerful for a few weeks, 
 and ruling to the disturbance of the pub- 
 He peace, had shrunk into insignificance 
 beside the prisoner escaped from the 
 Wartburg. 
 
 " The Mass," he continued, u is a bad 
 thing. God is opposed to it. It ought 
 to be abolished, and I would that every 
 where the Supper of the Gospel were es- 
 tablished in its stead. But let none be 
 torn from it by force. We must leave re- 
 sults to God. It is not ice that must work, 
 — but His Word. And why so ? you 
 will ask. Because the hearts of men 
 are not in my hand as clay in the hand 
 of the potter. We have a right to speak, 
 but none whatever to compel. Let us 
 preach ; — the rest belongs to God. If I 
 resort to force, what shall I gain ? Gri- 
 mace, fair appearances, apeings, cramped 
 uniformity, and hypocrisy. But there 
 will be no hearty sincerity, — no faith, — 
 no love. Where these are wanting, — 
 all is wanting ; and I would not give a 
 straw for such a victory !* 
 
 " Our first aim must be to win the 
 heart ; and 1 to this end we must preach 
 the Gospel. Then we shall find the 
 Word impressing one to-day, another the 
 next day ; and the result will be, that 
 each one will withdraw from the Mass, 
 and cease to receive it. God does more 
 by the simpler power of His word than 
 you and I and the whole world could ef- 
 fect by all our efforts put together ! God 
 arrests the heart, and that once taken, — 
 all is won 1 . 
 
 " I say not this that you should re- 
 store the Mass. Since it is done away 
 with, in God's name, let it not be revived. 
 But was it right to go about it in such a 
 
 * Ich wollte nicht einen Birnstiel drauf geben. 
 — (L. Opp. (L.) xviii. p. 255.) 
 
 manner ? Paul, coming one day to the 
 famous city of Athens, found there the 
 altars of such as were no gods. He 
 passed on from one to the other, observ- 
 ing them without touching one of them ; 
 but he made his way to the market-place, 
 and testified to the people that all their 
 gods were nought but images, graven by 
 art and man's device. And that preached 
 Word took possession of their hearts, 
 and the idols fell, without his so much 
 as touching them ! 
 
 u I am ready to preach, argue, write, 
 — but I will not constrain any one : for 
 faith is a voluntary act. Call to mind 
 what I have already done. I stood up 
 against Pope, indulgences, and Papists; 
 but without violence or tumult. I 
 brought forward God's Word ; I preached 
 and wrote, and there I stopped. And 
 whilst I laid me down and slept, or 
 chatted with Amsdorff and Melancthon 
 over our tankard of Wittemberg beer, 
 the word I had preached brought down 
 the power of the Pope to the ground, so 
 that never prince or emperor had dealt it 
 such a blow. For my part, I did next 
 to nothing : the power of the Word did 
 the whole business. Had I appealed to 
 force, Germany might have been deluged 
 with blood. But what would have been 
 the consequence ? Ruin and destruction 
 of soul and body. Accordingly, I kept 
 quiet, and let the Word run through the 
 length and breadth of the land. Know 
 you what the devil thinks when he sees 
 men resort to violence to spread the Gos- 
 pel through the world? Seated behind 
 the fire of hell, and folding his arms, 
 with malignant glance and horrid leer, 
 Satan says, ' How good it is in yonder 
 madmen to play into my hands.' But 
 only let him see the Word of the Lord 
 circulating, and working its way unaided 
 on the field of the world, and at once he 
 is disturbed at his work, his knees smite 
 each other, he trembles, and is ready to 
 die with fear." 
 
 On the Tuesday following, Luther 
 again ascended the pulpit, and his power- 
 ful exhortation was once more heard, in 
 the midst of an attentive audience. He 
 preached again on Wednesday, Thurs- 
 day, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He 
 took a review of the destruction of 
 images, the distinction of meats, the in- 
 stitution of the Supper, the restoration of 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 417 
 
 the cup to the laity, and the abolition of 
 the confessional. He showed that these 
 points were of much less consequence 
 than the Mass, and that the prime movers 
 of the disorders of which Wittemberg 
 had been the scene, had grossly abused 
 their liberty. He passed by turns from 
 accents of true Christian charity to bursts 
 of holy indignation. 
 
 He especially declared himself against 
 those wbo ventured lightly to partake of 
 the Supper of the Lord. ' ; It is not the 
 mere pressing with the teeth" said he, "it 
 is the inward and spiritual partaking 
 realized by faith which makes us Chris- 
 tians, and without which all outward 
 acts are but show and grimace. But 
 that faith consists in the firm belief that 
 Jesus is the Son of God ; that having 
 himself borue our sins and our iniquities 
 on the cross, he is, himself, the alone and 
 all-sufficient expiation ; that he now ap- 
 pears continually in the presence of God, 
 reconciling us. to the Father : and has 
 given to us the sacrament of his body for 
 the strengthening of our faith in this un- 
 speakable mercy. Only let me believe 
 this, and God is my defence : with Him 
 for my buckler I defy sin, death, hell, and 
 devils', they cannot harm me, nor even 
 so much as ruffle a hair of my head ! 
 That spiritual bread is comfort to the af- 
 flicted, health to the sick, life to the dy- 
 ing, food to the hungry, and a treasury 
 for the poor ! The man who does not 
 feel the burthen of his sins, ought, there- 
 fore, to abstain from approaching the al- 
 tar. What can he have to do there? 
 Ah ! let conscience be heard ; let our 
 hearts be broken with the sense of our 
 sins, and we shall not come to that holy 
 sacrament in a spirit of presumption." 
 
 Crowds continually filled the church ; 
 many came even from the neighbouring 
 towns and villages to hear this new 
 Elijah. Among others Capito passed 
 two days at Wittemberg, and heard the 
 .doctor preach twice. Never before had 
 Luther and the cardinal's chaplain been 
 so entirely agreed. Melancthon, magis- 
 trates, professors, and the whole popula- 
 tion were overjoyed.* Schurff, delighted 
 with such a termination of so unpromis- 
 ing a state of things, hastened to com- 
 municate the intelligence to the Elector. 
 
 * Grosse Freude und Frohlocken unter Gelahr- 
 ten und Ungelahrten. — (L. Opp. xviii. p. 266.) 
 
 53 
 
 He wrote to him on Friday, the 15th of 
 March, after hearing Luther's sixth dis- 
 course. " Oh, what joy has Doctor Mar- 
 tin's reappearance diffused among us! 
 His words, through divine mercy, every 
 day bring back into the way of truth our 
 poor deluded people. It is manifest that 
 the Spirit of God is with him, and that 
 his coming to Wittemberg is by His spe- 
 cial providence."* 
 
 In truth these sermons are models of 
 popular eloquence ; but not such as, in 
 the days of Demosthenes, or # even in 
 those of Savonarola, had led captive the 
 hearts of the people. The task of the 
 preacher of Wittemberg was one of 
 greater difficulty. It is far easier to 
 rouse the fury of a wild beast than to 
 charm it down. What was needed was 
 to soothe a fanatic multitude, and to tame 
 unruly passions ; and in this Luther suc- 
 ceeded. In his first eight sermons, he 
 allowed not a word to escape him against 
 the originators of these disorders ; no al- 
 lusion likely to give pain, — not so much 
 as a word by which their feelings could 
 be wounded. But his moderation was 
 his strength.; and the more tenderly he 
 dealt with the souls that had gone astray, 
 the more perfectly did he vindicate that 
 truth that was aggrieved. There was no 
 withstanding the power of his eloquence. 
 Men usually ascribe to timidity and 
 cowardly compromise, exhortations that 
 inculcate moderation. Here, how dif- 
 ferent was the case ! In publicly stand- 
 ing forth before the inhabitants of Wit- 
 temberg, Luther braved the Pope's ex- 
 communication and the Emperor's pro- 
 scription. He re-appeared, notwithstand- 
 ing the Elector's prohibition, who had 
 intimated that he could not protect him. 
 Even at Worms his courage had not 
 been so signally proved. He was expo- 
 sing himself to the most imminent dan- 
 gers; and hence his call was responded 
 to. The man who braved the scaffold, 
 might claim to be listened to when he 
 inculcated submission. None better qual- 
 ified to urge on his hearers the duty of 
 obedience to God, than he who, in order 
 that he might himself render such obedi- 
 ence, defied the most violent persecution 
 of man. At Luther's appeal difficulties 
 disappeared — tumult subsided — sedition 
 
 * Aus sonderlicher Schickung des Allmuchti- 
 gen . . . — (Ibid.) 
 
418 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 was silenced, and the burghers of Wit- 
 temberg returned quietly to their dwell- 
 ings. 
 
 Gabriel Didymus, who, of all the Au- 
 gustine monks, had manifested most en- 
 thusiasm, hung upon the Reformer's 
 words. "Don't you think Luther a 
 wonderful teacher?" inquired one of his 
 hearers, who was himself deeply affected. 
 "Ah!" replied he, "I seem to be listen- 
 ing to the voice of an angel rather than 
 a man."* Didymus, soon after this, pub- 
 licly confessed he had been deceived. 
 "He is quite a changed man," said Lu- 
 ther, f 
 
 It was not so at first with Carlstadt. 
 Abandoning his studies, and frequenting 
 the workshops of artisans, that he might 
 there receive the true interpretation of 
 the Scriptures, he was mortified at be- 
 holding his party losing ground on the 
 re-appearance of Luther. £ In his view 
 it was arresting the Reformation in the 
 midst of its career. Hence, his counte- 
 nance wore a constant air of dejection, 
 sadness, and dissatisfaction. Neverthe- 
 less, he sacrificed his self-love for the sake 
 of peace, restrained his desire to vindicate 
 his doctrine, was reconciled, at least in 
 appearance, to his colleague, and soon 
 after resumed his studies in the univer- 
 sity. $ 
 
 The most noted of the prophets were 
 not at Wittemberg when Luther arrived 
 there. Nicolas Storch was on a prog- 
 ress through the country. Mark Stub- 
 ner had quitted the hospitable roof of 
 Melancthon. Perhaps their spirit of pro- 
 phecy had left them without " voice or 
 answer," || from the first tidings brought 
 them that the new Elijah was turning 
 his steps toward their Mount Carmel. 
 Cellarius, the old schoolmaster, alone 
 remained. Meanwhile, Stubner, hear- 
 ing that his sheep were scattered, re- 
 turned in haste to Wittemberg. Those 
 who had remained faithful to " the heav- 
 enly prophecy" gathered round their 
 master, repeated the substance of Luther's 
 
 * Imo, inquit, angeli, non hominis vocem mihi 
 audisse videor. — (Camerarius, p. 12.) 
 
 t In aliura virum mutatus est. — (L. Epp. ii. 
 p. 156.) 
 
 t Ego Carlstadium offendi, quod ordinationes 
 suas cessavi. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 177.) 
 
 § Philippi et Carlstadii lectiones, ut sunt opti- 
 ma; . .—(Ibid. p. 284.) 
 
 || 1 Kings xviii. 
 
 sermons, and pressed him with anxious 
 enquiries as to what they ought to think 
 and do.* Stubner exhorted them to 
 stand firm. " Let him come forth," in- 
 terposed Cellarius ; " let him give us the 
 meeting ; let him only afford us oppor- 
 tunity to declare our doctrine, and then 
 we shall see . . . ." 
 
 Luther had but little wish to meet 
 them. He knew them to be men of vio- 
 lent, hasty, and haughty temper, who 
 would not endure even kind admonitions, 
 but required that every one should, at 
 the very first summons, submit to them 
 as to a supreme authority.! Such are 
 enthusiasts in every age. Nevertheless, 
 as an interview was requested, Luther 
 could not decline it. Besides, it might 
 be doing service to the weak of the flock 
 to unmask the imposture of the prophets. 
 Accordingly the meeting took place. 
 Stubner opened the conversation. He 
 showed how he proposed to restore the 
 Church and reform the world. Luther 
 listened to him with great calmness. | 
 " Of all you have been saying," replied 
 he, at last, gravely, " there is nothing 
 that I see to be based upon Scripture. 
 It is a mere tissue of fiction." At these 
 words Cellarius lost all self-possession. 
 Raising his voice like one out of his 
 mind, he trembled from head to foot, and 
 striking the table with his fist, in a vio- 
 lent passion, § exclaimed against Luther's 
 speech as an insult offered to a man of 
 God. On this Luther remarked, " Paul 
 declared that the signs of an apostle 
 were wrought among the Corinthians, in 
 signs and mighty deeds. Do you like- 
 wise prove your apostleship by miracles." 
 — " We will do so," rejoined the pro- 
 phets.! "The God whom I serve," 
 answered Luther, " will know how to 
 bridle your gods." Stubner, who had 
 hitherto preserved an imperturbable si- 
 lence, now fixing his eyes on the Reform- 
 er, said, in a solemn tone, " Martin Lu- 
 ther, hear me while I declare what is 
 
 * Rursum ad ipsum confluere . . . — (Camerar. 
 p. 52.) 
 
 t Vehementer superbus et impatiens . . . credi 
 vult plena auctoritate, ad primam vocem . . . — 
 (L. Epp. ii. p. 179.) 
 
 t Audivit Lutherus placide . . . — (Camcr. p. 52.) 
 
 § Cum et solum pedibus et propositam mensu- 
 lam manibus feriret. — (Ibid.) 
 
 || Quid pollicentes de mirabilibus affectionibus. 
 —(Ibid. p. 53.) ' 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 419 
 
 passing at this moment in your soul. 
 You are beginning to see that my doc- 
 trine is true." Luther was silent for a 
 few moments, and then replied, " The 
 Lord rebuke thee, Satan." Instantly the 
 prophets lost all self-command. They 
 shouted aloud, " The Spirit, the Spirit." 
 The answer of Luther was marked by 
 the cool contempt and cutting homeli- 
 ness of his expressions : " 1 slap your spi- 
 rit on the snout!"* said he. Hereupon 
 their outcries redoubled. Cellarius was 
 more violent than the rest. He stormed 
 till he foamed at the mouth,f — and their 
 voices were inaudible from the tumult. 
 The result was that the pretended pro- 
 phets abandoned the field, and that very 
 day they left Wittemberg. 
 
 Thus did Luther achieve the object 
 for which he had left his retirement. 
 He had taken his stand against fanati- 
 cism, and expelled from the bosom of 
 the church the enthusiasm and disorder 
 which had invaded it. If the Reforma- 
 tion with one hand dashed to the earth 
 the dusty decretals of Rome, with the 
 other it put away from it the pretensions 
 of the mystics, and established on the ter- 
 ritory it had acquired the living and sure 
 Word of God. The character of the 
 Reformation was thus distinctly seen. 
 Its mission was to keep constantly a mid- 
 dle course between these extremes, remote 
 alike from fanatical distortions and from 
 the death-like slumber of the papal rule. 
 
 Here was an instance of a whole pop- 
 ulation passionately excited, and misled 
 to such a degree as to have cast off all 
 restraint, at once listening to reason, re- 
 covering calmness, and returning to their 
 accustomed submission, so that the most 
 perfect quiet again reigned in that very 
 city which, but a few days before, had 
 been like the troubled ocean. 
 
 The most absolute liberty was forth- 
 with established at Wittemberg. Luther 
 continued to reside in the convent, and 
 to wear the monastic habit ; but every 
 one was free to lay it aside. In coming 
 to the Lord's Supper, persons might 
 either receive only the general absolu- 
 tion or they might apply for a special 
 one. It was recognised as a principle to 
 
 * Ihren Geist naue er iiber die Schnauze. — 
 (L. Opp. Altenburg. Augs. iii. p. 137.) 
 
 t Spumabat et fremebat et furebat— (L. Epp. 
 ii. p. 179.) 
 
 reject nothing but what contradicted a 
 clear and express declaration of Scrip- 
 ture.* It was no indifference that dic- 
 tated this course. On the contrary, reli- 
 gion was recalled to its essential princi- 
 ple. Piety only withdrew from the ac- 
 cessary forms in which it had been well 
 nigh lost, that it might rest on its true 
 basis. Thus was the Reformation itself 
 preserved, and the church's teaching 
 progressively developed in love and truth. 
 
 No sooner was order re-established, 
 when the Reformer turned to his be- 
 loved Melancthon, and requested his co- 
 operation in the final revision of the 
 translation of the New Testament, which 
 he had brought with him from the 
 Wartburg.f As early as the year 1519, 
 Melancthon had laid down the grand prin- 
 ciple that the Fathers must be explained 
 conformably to the Scripture, and not Scrip- 
 ture according to the Fathers. Medita- 
 ting daily on the books of the New Testa- 
 ment, he felt at once charmed by their 
 simplicity, and solemnly impressed by 
 the depth of their import. " In thqii, and 
 them only," affirmed this adept in ancient 
 philosophy, " do we find the true ' food 
 of the soul.' " Gladly, therefore, did he 
 comply with Luther's desire, and many 
 were the hours the two friends, from that 
 time, spent together, studying and trans- 
 lating the inspired Word. Often would 
 they pause in their labours to give free 
 expression to their wonder. " If Reason 
 could speak," said Luther, "it would say, 
 O, that I could once hear the voice of 
 God ! I should think it worth a journey 
 to the very uttermost parts of the earth ! 
 Give ear, then, my fellow-man — God, the 
 creator of heaven and earth, now speaks 
 to thee !" 
 
 The printing of the New Testament 
 was begun and carried on with an activ- 
 ity beyond all example. { One might 
 have thought the very printers felt the 
 importance of the work in hand. Three 
 presses were constantly employed, and 
 ten thousand sheets were struck off 
 every day.§ 
 
 At last, on the 21st Sept., appeared the 
 
 * Ganz klare und griindliche Schrift. 
 
 f Verum omnia nunc elimare cnepimus Philip- 
 pus et ego. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 17G.) 
 
 t Ingenti labore et studio. — (L. Epp. p. 236.) 
 
 § Singulis diebus decies millia chartarum sub 
 tribus prelis . . . — (Ibid.) 
 
420 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 complete edition of three thousand copies 
 in two volumes, with the brief title, 
 " The New Testament in German : — at 
 Wittemberg." It bore no name of man. 
 From that hour every German might ob- 
 tain the Word of God at a small pecuni- 
 ary cost.* 
 
 The new translation, written in the 
 tone of the sacred books, in a language 
 that was as yet in its virgin simplicity, 
 and now first opening its full beauty, in- 
 terested and delighted all classes, from 
 the highest to the lowest. It was a na- 
 tional work — the people's book — nay, 
 much more, it was the book of God. 
 Even enemies could not withhold their 
 commendation of this wonderful produc- 
 tion, and there were some incautious par- 
 tisans of the Reformation so carried 
 away by the beauty of the new version, 
 as to imagine they could recognize in it 
 a second inspiration. It, indeed, served 
 more than all Luther's own writings to 
 diffuse a spirit of christian piety. The 
 great work of the sixteenth century was 
 now placed on a rock whence nothing 
 could dislodge it. The Bible, restored 
 to the people, recalled the mind of man, 
 which had for ages wandered in the end- 
 less labyrinths of scholastic teaching, to 
 the heavenly springs of salvation. Hence, 
 the success that attended this step was 
 prodigious. All the copies were quickly 
 disposed of. In December following, a 
 second edition appeared ; and by the 
 year 1533, no less than seventeen edi- 
 tions had issued from the presses of Wit- 
 temberg; thirteen from Augsburg; twelve 
 from Bale ; one from Erfurth ; one from 
 Grimma ; one from Leipsic ; thirteen 
 from Strasburg.f 
 
 Even while the first edition of the 
 New Testament was passing through 
 the press, Luther was already at work 
 on a translation of the Old Testament. 
 This labour, begun in 1522, was con- 
 tinued without intermission. He issued 
 it in detached portions, as he finished 
 them, in order to gratify the impatience 
 of the public demand, and to make the 
 purchase easy to the poor. 
 
 From Scripture and Faith, two streams 
 issuing from one and the same spring, 
 the life of the Gospel has flowed, and 
 still diffuses itself through the world. 
 
 * A florin and a half, about a half-crown, 
 t Gcsched. deutsch. Bibel Uebersetz. 
 
 They bore directly against two estab- 
 lished errors. Faith was met by the op- 
 posing Pelagian tendency of Catholi- 
 cism. Scripture, in like manner, found 
 arrayed against it the theory of tradition 
 and the authority of Rome. Scripture 
 led its reader to Faith, and Faith made 
 him the disciple of the Word. " Man 
 can do no meritorious work : the free 
 grace of God, received through faith in 
 Christ, alone saves him." Such was the 
 doctrine proclaimed throughout Chris- 
 tendom. But this teaching must needs 
 bring Christendom to the study of the 
 Scripture. In truth, if faith in Christ is 
 everything in Christianity, and if the ob- 
 servances and ordinances of the Church 
 are nothing, it is not to the Church's 
 teaching, but to Christ's word that we 
 must adhere. The bond that unites to 
 Christ will be everything to the believing 
 soul. What signifies the outward link 
 that connects him with a visible church, 
 enslaved by the commandments of 
 men? . . Thus, as the doctrine of the 
 Bible had impelled Luther's contempora- 
 ries toward Jesus Christ, their love for 
 Jesus Christ, in its turn, impelled them 
 towards the Bible. It was not, as some 
 in our days have supposed, from a philo- 
 sophic necessity, or from doubt, or a spir- 
 it of inquiry that they reverted to Scrip- 
 ture, it was because they found there the 
 words of Him they loved. " You have 
 preached Christ," said they to the Re- 
 former, " let us now hear him himself? 1 
 And they caught at the sheets given to 
 the world, as a letter coming to them 
 from heaven. 
 
 But if the Bible was thus joyfully wel- 
 comed by such as love the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, it was scornfully rejected by such 
 as preferred the traditions and ordinances 
 of men. This publication by Luther 
 was the signal of violent persecution. 
 Rome trembled at the report brought 
 thither. The pen which transcribed the 
 sacred oracles was in truth that visionary 
 pen which Frederic had beheld in his 
 dream, reaching to the seven hills, and 
 discomposing the pope's tiara. The 
 monk in his cell, the prince upon his 
 throne, uttered a cry of anger. The ig- 
 norant priests were dismayed at the 
 thought that burghers, and even rustics 
 would now be able freely to discuss with 
 them the precepts of the Lord. The 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 421 
 
 king of England denounced the work to 
 the Elector Frederic and to Duke George 
 of Saxony. But before this, and as early 
 as the November previous, the Duke 
 had commanded all his subjects to deliver 
 up every copy of Luther's New Testa- 
 ment into the hands of the magistrate. 
 Bavaria, Brandenburg, Austria, and all 
 the states in the interest of Rome passed 
 similar decrees. In some parts, a sacri- 
 legious bonfire, composed of the sacred 
 books, was lighted in the public squares.* 
 Thus did Rome, in the sixteenth century, 
 renew the efforts, by which heathenism 
 had attempted to uproot the religion of 
 Jesus Christ, at the period when the 
 reins were escaping from the hands of 
 the Priests of Idol worship. But what 
 power can stay the triumphant progress 
 of the Gospel 1 " Even after I had pro- 
 hibited the sale," wrote Duke George, 
 "many thousand copies were sold and 
 read in my states." 
 
 God even used, for the purpose of 
 making known His word, the very hands 
 that were essaying to destroy it. The 
 Romish divines, seeing they could not 
 stop the circulation of the Reformer's 
 work, themselves put forth a translation 
 of the New Testament. It was no other 
 than Luther's, here and there altered by 
 the new editors. No hindrance was of- 
 fered to the reading of it. Rome had 
 not yet experienced that wherever the 
 Word of God took root, its own power 
 began to totter. Joachim of Branden- 
 burg, gave license to his subjects to read 
 any translation of the Bible, in Latin or 
 in German, provided it were not from 
 the presses of Wittemberg. The Ger- 
 man nations, and more especially the 
 people of Brandenburg, made, in this 
 way, a decided advance in the knowl- 
 edge of the truth. 
 
 The publication of the New Testa- 
 ment in the vernacular tongue, is among 
 the memorable epochs of the Reforma- 
 tion. If the marriage of Feldkirchen 
 had been the first step in the progress of 
 its influence from the sphere of teaching 
 to that of social life ; — if the abolition of 
 monastic vows had been the second, and 
 the establishment of the Supper of the 
 Lord a third stage of this transition, the 
 publication of the New Testament was, 
 
 * Qui et alicubi in unum congesti rogum pub- 
 lice combusti sunt. 
 
 perhaps, even more important than all 
 the rest. It wrought an entire change 
 in the aspect of society — not alone in the 
 priest's presbytery — not merely in the 
 monk's cell and the noble's closet, but 
 more than this, in the interior of the 
 dwellings of the nobles, citizens, and 
 peasantry. When Christians began to 
 read the Bible in their families, Christi- 
 anity itself underwent a palpable change. 
 Thence ensued changed habits, — im- 
 proved morals, — other conversations, — in 
 short, a new life. With the publication 
 of the New Testament, it seemed as if 
 the Reformation passed the threshold of 
 the college, and took its proper place at 
 the hearths of the people. 
 
 The effect that followed was incalcu- 
 lable. The Christianity of the Primitive 
 Church was, by the publication of the 
 Holy Scriptures, presented full before the 
 eyes of the nation, recovered from the 
 oblivion in which for centuries it had 
 lain hid, — and the sight was, of itself, 
 enough to justify the charges that had 
 been brought against Rome. The least in- 
 structed, provided they did but know how 
 to read — women, artisans, (we are quoting 
 from one of that age who was bitterly 
 opposed to the Reformation,) studied the 
 New Testament with eager delight.* 
 They carried it about with them, learnt 
 portions by heart, and saw in its pre- 
 cious pages the proof of the perfect ac- 
 cordance of that Reformation which was 
 Luther's aim, with the revelation that 
 God had given. 
 
 Meanwhile, it was in detached por- 
 tions only that the teaching of the Bible 
 and of the Reformation had till then been 
 set forth. A certain truth had been de- 
 clared in one tract — a certain error ex- 
 posed in another. The field of the 
 Church presented the appearance of a 
 plain, on which here and there were seen, 
 without order or arrangement, the ruins 
 of the old, and the materials of a new 
 structure ; but as yet the new edifice was 
 wanting. True it is, that the publica- 
 tion of the New Testament met this 
 want. The Reformation might say, 
 with that book in its hand — " Behold my 
 system." But as each individual may 
 contend that his system is none other than 
 that of the Bible, the Reformation seemed 
 
 * . . . muliercs, et quilibet idiotic . . . avidis- 
 sime legerent. — (CochUeus, p. 50.) 
 
422 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 called to set forth in order what it found 
 in Holy Scripture. This was a work 
 Melancthon now contributed in its name. 
 
 In the development of his theology, 
 Melancthon's steps had been deliberate ; 
 but they were taken with firmness, and 
 the result of his enquiries was courage- 
 ously made known to all. As early as 
 1520, he had declared that some of the 
 seven sacraments were, in his judgment, 
 mere imitations of Jewish feasts ; and 
 that he considered the asserted infallibil- 
 ity of the Pope as a proud pretension, 
 directly at variance with Scripture and 
 sound judgment. " We want more than 
 a Hercules,"* remarked he, " to make a 
 stand against such doctrines." Here we 
 see that Melancthon had been led to the 
 same conclusion as Luther by a more 
 studious and calm process of conviction. 
 The time had now come that he in his 
 turn should publicly confess his faith. 
 
 In 1 52 1 , during his friend's captivity in 
 the Wartburg, his celebrated " Loci Com- 
 munes" had presented to Christian Eu- 
 rope a body of doctrine, based on solid 
 grounds, and admirably compacted. The 
 tracings of a simple and majestic outline 
 appeared before the wondering minds of 
 that generation. As the translation of 
 the New Testament had justified the 
 Reformation to the people, so Melanc- 
 thon's Loci Communes served to justify 
 it in the judgment of the learned. , 
 
 For fifteen centuries the Church had 
 existed on the earth without having seen 
 such a work. Relinquishing the com- 
 mon argumentation of scholastic theolo- 
 gy, the friend of Luther had at last given 
 to Christendom a system of divinity, de- 
 rived entirely from Scripture. In it the 
 reader was conscious of a breath of life, 
 a quickness of understanding, a force of 
 conviction, and a simplicity of statement, 
 which strikingly contrasted with the sub- 
 tle and pedantic method of the schools. 
 The coolest judgments, and the most 
 exact divines, were alike impressed with 
 admiration. 
 
 Erasmus designated this work a won- 
 drous army, ranged in order of battle 
 against the pharisaic tyranny of false 
 teachers ;f and while he confessed that 
 
 * Adverstis quas non uno nobis, ut ita dicam, 
 Hercule opus est. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 137.) 
 
 t Video dogmatum aciem pulchre instructam 
 
 on some points he did not agree with the 
 author, he nevertheless added, that hav- 
 ing always loved him, he had never 
 loved him so much as after reading this 
 work. " So beautiful is the proof that it 
 affords," said Calvin, when presenting it 
 at a subsequent period to the French 
 people, " that the most perfect simplicity 
 is the noblest method of handling the 
 Christian doctrine."* 
 
 But no one experienced a finer joy 
 than Luther ; to the last this work was 
 to him a theme of wonder. The occa- 
 sional sounds his trembling hand had 
 drawn, in the deep emotion of his soul, 
 from the chords of prophets and apostles, 
 were here blended together in entrancing 
 harmony. Those solid masses of truth 
 which he had hewn from the quarry 
 of Holy Scripture, were here raised 
 and compacted together in one majestic 
 edifice. He was never tired of commend- 
 ing the work to the attention of the 
 youths who came to study at Wittem- 
 berg. " If you would wish to become 
 divines," said he, " read Melancthon."! 
 
 In Melancthon's judgment, a deep 
 sense of the wretched state to which man 
 is reduced by s», is the foundation on 
 which we must build the teaching of 
 Christian theology. This universal evil 
 is the primary fact, the leading truth 
 whence the science takes its departure ; 
 and it is this which forms the peculiar 
 distinction of theology from the sciences 
 which work their own advancement by 
 the powers of reason. 
 
 The Christian divine, diving into the 
 heart of man, revealed its laws and mys- 
 terious motions, as the philosopher in later 
 times has disclosed the laws and attrac- 
 tions of material bodies. " Original sin," 
 said he, " is an inclination born with us 
 — an impulse which is agreeable to us — 
 a certain influence which leads us into 
 the commission of sin, and which has 
 passed from Adam upon all his posterity. 
 Just as there is found in fire a native 
 energy which mounts upward, just as 
 in the loadstone we observe a natural 
 
 adversus tyrannidem pharisai'cam. — (Er. Epp. 
 p. 949.) 
 
 * La Somme de Theologie, par Philippe Me- 
 lancthon. — (Geneve, 1551. Jehan Calvin aux 
 lecteurs.) 
 
 t " Librum invictum," said he another time, 
 " non solum immortalitate sed et canone ecclesi- 
 astico dignum." — (De servo arbitrio.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 423 
 
 power of attracting steel, just so do we 
 find in man a primary impulse impelling 
 him to that which is evil. I admit free- 
 ly that in Socrates, Xenocrates, Zeno, 
 were seen temperance and chastity ; these 
 exterior virtues were found in men whose 
 hearts were unpurified, and they pro- 
 ceeded out of the love of self, hence we 
 should regard them in reality, not as vir- 
 tues, but vices."* Such language may 
 sound harsh, but not so if we enter into 
 Melancthon's real meaning. None more 
 prompt than he to acknowledge virtues 
 in the great men of antiquity, which en- 
 titled them to the esteem of men ; but he 
 laid down the solemn truth, that the 
 highest law given by God to all his crea- 
 tures is to love Him above all things. If 
 then man in doing that which God com- 
 mands, does it, not from love to God, but 
 from love of self — -can we think that God 
 will accept him, thus daring to substitute 
 self in place of His own infinite Majesty? 
 And must it not be enough to vitiate any 
 action, that it involves in it a direct rebel- 
 lion against the sovereignty of God? 
 
 The Wittemberg divine proceeded to 
 show how man is rescued from this 
 wretched state : " The Apostle," said he, 
 " invites thee to contemplate at the Fa- 
 ther's right hand, the Son of God, our 
 great Mediator, ever living to make in- 
 tercession for us,f and he calls upon thee 
 to believe assuredly that thy sins are par- 
 doned, and thyself counted righteous and 
 accepted by the Eather, for the sake of 
 that Son who died upon the cross." 
 
 A peculiar interest attaches to this first 
 edition of the Loci Communes, from the 
 manner in which the German divine 
 speaks concerning Free Will. We find 
 him recognizing, even more clearly than 
 had been done by Luther, (for he was 
 more of a theologian,) that this doctrine 
 could not be separated from that which 
 constituted the very essence of the Ref- 
 ormation. Man's justification in the 
 sight of God, is by Faith alone, was the 
 first point. This faith wrought in man's 
 heart by the alone Grace of God, was 
 the second, Melancthon saw clearly 
 
 * Loci communes thcologici. Bale, 1521, p. 35, 
 — a rare edition. See for the subsequent revis- 
 ions, that of Erlangen, 1828, a reprint of that 
 of Bale, 1561. 
 
 t Vult te intueri Filium Dei sedentem addex- 
 teram Patris, mediatorem interpellantem pro no- 
 bis.— (Ibid.) 
 
 that to allow any ability in the natural 
 man to believe, would, in this second point, 
 entirely set aside that grand doctrine of 
 Grace which is asserted in the first. He 
 was too discerning, — too deeply instructed 
 in the Scriptures, to be misled on so im- 
 portant a question. But he went too 
 far : instead of confining himself to the 
 religious bearing of the question, he en- 
 tered upon metaphysics. He laid down 
 a sort of fatalism, which might lead his 
 readers to think of God as the author of 
 evil, and which consequently has no 
 foundation in Scripture : — " Since what- 
 ever happens," said he, " happens by ne- 
 cessity, agreeably to the divine foreknowl- 
 edge, it is plain that our will hath no lib- 
 erty whatever."* 
 
 But the principal object Melancthon 
 had in view, was to present theology as 
 a system of devotion. — The schools had 
 so dried up the generally received creed, 
 as to leave it destitute of life. The office 
 of the Reformation was to reanimate this 
 lifeless creed. In succeeding editions, 
 Melancthon felt the necessity for great 
 clearness in doctrinal statements.! In 
 1521, however, it was not so much the 
 case. " The knowledge of Christ," said 
 he, " is found in the knowledge of the 
 blessings derived through him. Paul, 
 writing to the Romans, and desiring to 
 sum up the Christian doctrine, does not 
 set about treating philosophically of the 
 Trinity, the Incarnation, Creation, active 
 or passive. What, then, are his themes? 
 — the Law, Sin, Grace. On our instruc- 
 tion in these, depends our knowledge of 
 Christ."}; 
 
 The publication of this treatise was of 
 singular service to the cause of truth. 
 Calumnies stood refuted— prejudices were 
 dissipated. Among the religious, the 
 worldly, and the learned, the genius of 
 Melancthon was admired, and his char- 
 acter esteemed and loved. Even such 
 
 * Quandoquidem omnia quae eveniunt, neces- 
 sario eveniunt juxta divinam praedestinationem, 
 nulla est voluntatis nostras libertas. — Loci eomm. 
 theol. Bale, 1521, p. 35. 
 
 t See the edition of 1561, reprinted in 1829, 
 pages 14 to 44, the several chapters, — De tribus 
 personis ; — De divinitate Filii ; — De duabus na- 
 turis in Christo ; — Testimonia quod Filius sit per- 
 sona ; testimonia refulantia Arianos ; De discer- 
 nendis proprietatibus humanae et divinffi natura? 
 Christi ; — De Spiritu sancto, &,c. &c. 
 
 X Hoc est Christum cognoscere, beneficia ejus 
 cognoscere, &c. — (Ibid.) 
 
424 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 as had no personal knowledge of the 
 author were conciliated to his creed by 
 this work. The vigour and occasional 
 violence of Luther's language had of- 
 fended many; but in Melancthon, an 
 elegance of composition, a discriminating 
 judgment, and a remarkable clearness 
 and arrangement were seen engaged in 
 the exposition of those mighty truths that 
 had aroused the slumbering world. The 
 work was rapidly bought up and read 
 with avidity. His gentleness and mod- 
 esty won all hearts, while his elevation 
 of thought commanded their respect ; 
 and the higher classes, who had been 
 hitherto undecided, were captivated by 
 a wisdom which had at last found so 
 noble an utterance. 
 
 On the other hand, such of the oppo- 
 sers of the truth as had not been hum- 
 bled by the energy of Luther, were, for 
 a while, silenced and disconcerted by the 
 appearance of Melancthon's tract. They 
 had found another man as worthy as 
 Luther to be a mark for their hatred. 
 "Alas!" they exclaimed, "alas, for Ger- 
 many ! to what new extremity shall we 
 be brought by this last birth !"* 
 
 The Loci Communes passed through 
 sixty-seven editions between 1521 and 
 1595, without including translations. 
 Next to the Bible, this work may have 
 mainly contributed to the establishment 
 of the evangelical doctrine. 
 
 Whilst the "grammarian," Melanc- 
 thon, was by this happy co-operation aid- 
 ing the efforts of Luther, schemes of a 
 violent character were again planning 
 by his formidable enemies. At the news 
 that he had effected his escape from the 
 Wartburg and appeared again on the 
 world's stage, the rage of his former ad- 
 versaries returned. 
 
 Luther had been rather more than 
 three months at Wittemberg, when a 
 rumour, repeated by common fame, 
 brought him the intelligence that one of 
 the greatest monarchs of Christendom 
 had risen up against him. Henry VIII. 
 head of the house of Tudor, a prince 
 descended from the families of York and 
 Lancaster, and in whom, after torrents of 
 bloodshed, the red and white roses were 
 at length united, the puissant king of 
 England, who boldly advanced the ob- 
 
 * Heu ! infelicem hoc novo partu Germani- 
 am! . . .— (Cochl.) 
 
 solete authority of his crown over the 
 continent, and more particularly over 
 France — had put forth an answer to the 
 poor monk of Wittemberg. " I hear 
 much commendation of a little treatise 
 by the king of England," wrote Luther 
 to Lange, on the 26th of June, 1522.* 
 
 Henry the Eighth was then in his 
 thirty-first year, — " tall, strong-built, and 
 proportioned, and had an air of authority 
 and empire,"! and a countenance that 
 expressed the vivacity of his mind. Ve- 
 hement in temper, bearing down what- 
 ever stood in the way of his passions, 
 and thirsting for distinctions, the defects 
 of his character, were for a time mista- 
 ken for the impetuosity of youth — and 
 there was no lack of flatterers to confirm 
 him in them. Often would he resort, 
 accompanied by his favourite compan- 
 ions, to the house of his chaplain, Thom- 
 as Wolsey, the son of a butcher of Ips- 
 wich. This man, who was gifted with 
 great abilities, of excessive ambition, and 
 unbounded audacity, being patronised by 
 the Bishop of Winchester, the king's 
 chancellor, had rapidly risen in his mas- 
 ter's favour. He would often allure the 
 young prince to his residence by the at- 
 traction of riotous pleasures,:}; in which 
 he would not have ventured to indulge 
 within the walls of his own palace. 
 This is recorded by Polydore Vergil, then 
 sub-collector of the Pope's revenues in 
 England. In these orgies, the chaplain 
 outdid the licentiousness of the younger 
 courtiers. He sang, danced, laughed, 
 played the buffoon, took part in indecent 
 conversation, and fenced. § He soon at- 
 tained the highest seat at the council 
 board, and the whole kingly power pass- 
 
 * Jactant libellum regis Anglice ; sed leum il- 
 ium suspicor sub pelle tectum — an allusion to 
 Lee, Henry the Eighth's chaplain, punning on 
 his name. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 213.) 
 
 t He was tall, strong-built, and proportioned, 
 and had an air of authority and empire. — (Col- 
 lier's Eccles. Hist, of Great Britain, fol. ii. 1.) 
 
 t Domi suce voluptatum omnium sacrarium fecit, 
 quo regem frequenter ducebat. — (Polyd. Vergili- 
 us, Angl. Hist. Bale, 1570, fol. p. 633.)— Poly- 
 dore Vergil seems to have been a sufferer by 
 Wolsey's pride, and to have been, perhaps, in- 
 clined, on that account, to exaggerate that minis- 
 ter's errors. 
 
 § Cum illis adolescentibus una psallebat, salta- 
 bat, sermones leporis plenos habebat, ridebat, 
 jocabatur. — (Polyd. Vergilius, Angl. Hist. Bale, 
 1570, fol. p. 633.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 425 
 
 ing into his hands, he was enabled to 
 stipulate with foreign princes for a reward 
 for his influence in affairs. 
 
 Henry passed whole days in balls, 
 banqueting, and jesting — thus squander- 
 ing the treasure which the avarice of his 
 father had accumulated. Splendid tour- 
 naments succeeded each other without 
 intermission. On these occasions, the 
 king, who was easily distinguished from 
 the other combatants by his manly beau- 
 ty, took the lead.* If the contest seemed 
 for a moment doubtful, his expertness or 
 strength, or else the skilful policy of his 
 antagonist, decided the victory in his fa- 
 vour, and the arena resounded with shouts 
 of applause. Such easy triumphs infla- 
 ted the vanity of the young prince, and 
 there was no pinnacle of earthly gran- 
 deur to which he would not have aspired. 
 The Queen was often present on such 
 occasions. Her grave deportment, mel- 
 ancholy look, and constrained and de- 
 pressed manner, presented a marked con- 
 trast to the tumultuous glitter of such 
 festivities. Henry VIII., soon after his 
 accession, had, from political considera- 
 tions, contracted marriage with Catherine 
 of Arragon, five years older than himself, 
 widow of his brother Arthur, and aunt to 
 Charles V. While her husband followed 
 his pleasures, the virtuous Catherine, 
 whose piety was such as Spain has been 
 noted for, was accustomed to leave her 
 bed in the dead of the night to take a 
 silent part in the prayers of the monks. f 
 She would kneel without cushion or car- 
 pet. At five, after taking a little rest, 
 she would again rise, and assume the 
 habit of St. Francis ; for she had been 
 admitted into the third order of that 
 saint.J Then, hastily throwing over her 
 the royal garments, she was in church at 
 six, to join in the holy offices. 
 
 Two beings, living in such different at- 
 mospheres, could not long continue united. 
 
 * Eximia corporis forma praditus, in qua etiam 
 regiaa majestutis augusta qnoedam species eluce- 
 bat'. — (Sanderus de Schismate Anglicano. p. 4.) 
 — The work of Sanders, the Pope's nuncio, mast 
 be read with much suspicion, for unfounded and 
 calumnious statements are not wanting in it — as 
 has been remarked by Cardinal Quirini and the 
 Roman Catholic doctor Lingard. — (See the His- 
 tory of England, by this last, vol. vi. p. 173.) 
 
 t Surgebat media nocte ut nocturnis religio- 
 Borurn precibus interesset. — (Sanders, p. 5.) 
 
 X Sub regio vestitu Divi Francisci habitu ute- 
 batur. — (Sanders, p. 5.) 
 
 54 
 
 Catherine, however, was not the only 
 representative of Romish devotion at the 
 court of Henry VIII. John Fisher, 
 bishop of Rochester, then nearly seventy 
 years of age, and distinguished alike for 
 his learning and strict morals, was the 
 object of universal veneration. He had 
 been, for a long period, the oldest coun- 
 sellor of Henry VII., and the Duchess 
 of Richmond, grandmother to Henry 
 VIII, had, on her death-bed, confided to 
 him the youth and inexperience of her 
 grandson. The king, in the midst of his 
 excesses, long continued to revere the 
 aged bishop as a father. 
 
 A much younger man than Fisher, a 
 layman and civilian, had, at this time, 
 attracted general attention by his genius 
 and noble character. His name was 
 Thomas More. He was the son of one 
 of the judges of the Court of King's 
 Bench. In poor circumstances, of tem- 
 perate habits, and unwearied application, 
 he, at the age of twenty, had sought to 
 mortify the passions of youth by wearing 
 a hair shirt, and by self-inflicted scourg- 
 ings. One day, when summoned to the 
 presence of Henry VIII., at a moment 
 when he was attending mass, he replied — 
 " The king's service must give way to 
 the service of God." Wolsey introduced 
 him to Henry, who employed him in 
 various embassies, and lavished on him 
 much kindness. He would often send 
 for him to converse with him on astron- 
 omy, and at other times concerning 
 Wolsey, or on disputed points of theol- 
 ogy- 
 
 The king was, to say the truth, not 
 
 altogether unacquainted with the doc- 
 trines of Rome. It even appears, that, 
 had prince Arthur lived to ascend the 
 throne, Henry was destined to the archi- 
 episcopal see of Canterbury. In his 
 mind and life were strangely blended 
 Thomas Aquinas* — St. Bonaventura — 
 
 tournaments banquetings — Elizabeth 
 
 Blount, and others of his mistresses. 
 Masses set to music by himself were 
 chaunted in his chapel. 
 
 From the time Henry VIII. first heard 
 of Luther, his indignation broke forth ; 
 and no sooner did the decree of the Diet 
 of Worms reach England than he gave 
 orders that the Pontiff's bull against the 
 
 * Legebat studiose libros divi Thomee Aquina- 
 ti s ._(Polyd. Vergil, p. 634.) 
 
426 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Reformer's writings should be carried 
 into execution.* On the 12th of May, 
 1521, Thomas Wolsey, who, together 
 with the rank of Chancellor of England, 
 held that of Cardinal and Roman Legate, 
 repaired in solemn procession to St. Paul's 
 Church. Swollen by excess of pride, he 
 assumed to rival the pomp of royalty 
 itself. He was accustomed to seat him- 
 self in a gold chair, slept in a golden 
 bed, and dined on a table covered with 
 cloth of gold.f On this occasion he dis- 
 played his utmost state. His household, 
 to the number of 800 persons, compri- 
 sing barons, knights, sons of the first 
 families, who had entered his service as 
 a step towards the service of the state, 
 attended the haughty prelate. His gar- 
 ments shone with gold and silk, (he was 
 the first esccleciastic who had ventured 
 to assume such sumptuous apparel. )| 
 Even the horse-cloths and harness were 
 of the like costly materials. Before him 
 walked a priest of lofty stature, bearing 
 a silver pillar, surmounted by a cross. 
 Behind him, another stately ecclesiastic, 
 holding in his hand the archiepiscopal 
 crozier of York ; a nobleman at his side 7 
 carried his cardinal's hat.§ Others of the 
 nobility — the prelates — the ambassadors 
 of the Pope and of the Emperor joined 
 the cavalcade, and were followed by a 
 long line of mules, bearing chests over- 
 hung with rich and brilliant stuffs ; and 
 in this pompous procession the several 
 parties that composed it were carrying to 
 the pile the writings of the poor monk 
 of Wittemberg. On reaching the church, 
 the proud priest deposited his cardinal's 
 hat on the altar itself The virtuous 
 Bishop of Rochester took his place at 
 the foot of the cross, and with accents of 
 strong emotion, preached earnestly against 
 heresy. After this, the attendants drew 
 near, bearing the writings of the heresi- 
 arch, and they were devoutly consumed 
 in the presence of a vast concourse of 
 
 * Prirnum libros Lutheranos, quorum magnus 
 jam numerus per venerat in manus suoram An- 
 glorum, comburendos euravit. — (Ibid. p. 664.) 
 
 t Uti sella aurea, uti pulvino aureo, uti velo 
 aureo ad mensam. — (Ibid. p. 664.) 
 
 t Primus episcoporum et cardinalium, vestitum 
 exteriorem sericum sibi induit. — (Polyd. Vergil, 
 p. 633.) 
 
 §-Galerum cardinalium, ordinis insignem, sub- 
 lime a ministro prasferebat .... super altare 
 collocabat — (Ibid. p. 645.) 
 
 spectators. Such was the first public 
 announcement of the Reformation to the 
 people of England. 
 
 Henry did not rest there. This prince, 
 whose sword was ever Uplifted against 
 his adversaries, his wives, and his favour- 
 ites, wrote to the Elector Palatine — 
 " Surely, it is no other than the devil, 
 who, by the agency of Luther, has kin- 
 dled this wide-spreading conflagration. 
 If Luther will not retract, let himself and 
 his writings be committed to the flames."* 
 
 But this was not all. Convinced that 
 the progress of heresy was mainly as- 
 cribable to the extreme ignorance of the 
 German princes, Henry conceived that 
 the moment was arrived for the exhibition 
 of his own learning. The recollection 
 of the triumphs of his battle-axe did not 
 permit him to doubt of the victory he 
 should gaiu by his pen. But another 
 passion, vanity, — ever large in little 
 minds, — spurred on the royal purpose. 
 He was mortified by the circumstance, 
 that he had no title to set against that of 
 Most Christian and Catholic, borne by 
 the kings of France and of Spain, and 
 had for a long time solicited from the 
 court of Rome a similar distinction. 
 What course more likely to obtain it than 
 an attack upon heresy! Henry, then, 
 laid aside his royal dignity, and descend- 
 ed from his throne into the arena of theo- 
 logical dispute. He pressed into his ser- 
 vice Thomas Aquinas, Peter Lombard, 
 Alexander of Hale, and Bonaventura, 
 and gave to the world his " Defence of 
 the Seven Sacraments, against Martin 
 Luther, by the most Invincible King of 
 England and of France, Lord of Ireland, 
 Henry, the Eighth of that nameV 
 
 " I will put myself in the forefront of 
 the Church, to save her," said the king 
 of England in this book ; — " I will re- 
 ceive into my bosom the poisoned darts 
 of her assailant ;f what I hear constrains 
 me to this. All the servants of Jesus 
 Christ, whatever be their age, sex or 
 rank, should rise up against the common 
 enemy of Christendom. "{ 
 
 " Let us be doubly armed : with the 
 
 * Knapp's Nachlese, ii. p. 458. 
 
 t Meque adversus venenata jacula hostis earn 
 oppugnantis objicerem (Assertio septem sacra- 
 mentorum adv. M. Lvtherum in prologo.) 
 
 X Omnis Christi servus, omnis setas, omnis 
 sexus, omnis ordo consurgat. — (Ibid.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 427 
 
 heavenly armour to conquer with the 
 arms of truth, him who fights with those 
 of error ; but also an earthly armour, so 
 that, should he show himself obstinate 
 iu malice, the hand of the executioner 
 may silence him ; and thus, for once at 
 least, he may be useful to the world, by 
 the terrible example of his death."* 
 
 Henry VIII. could not conceal the 
 contempt which he entertained for his 
 feeble adversary. " This man," says the 
 royal theologian, " seems to be in pains 
 of labour ; he travafts in birth ; and lo ! 
 he brings forth but wind. Take away 
 the audacious covering of proud words, 
 with which he clothes his absurdities, — 
 as an ape is clothed with purple, — and 
 what remains ? — a wretched and empty 
 sophism."! 
 
 The king defends, successively, the 
 mass, penance, confirmation, marriage, 
 orders, and extreme unction. He is not 
 sparing of hard epithets towards his ad- 
 versary ; styling him sometimes an in- 
 fernal wolf, at others a venomous serpent, 
 or a limb of the devil, and he even casts 
 doubts on Luther's sincerity. In short, 
 Henry VIII. crushes the mendicant monk 
 with his royal anger, " and writes," says 
 an historian, " as it were with his scep- 
 tre."! 
 
 It must, however, be confessed that 
 the book was not ill written, consider- 
 ing the author and the age in which he 
 wrote. The style is not altogether de- 
 void of force. The public of the day set 
 no bounds to its praises. The theologi- 
 cal treatise of the powerful king of Eng- 
 land was received with a profusion of 
 adulation. " The most learned work 
 that ever the sun saw," is the expression 
 of some.§ "It can only be compared 
 With the works of Saint Augustine," said 
 others. " He is a Constantine, a Charle- 
 magne, — nay more," echoed others, " he 
 is a second Solomon." 
 
 These flattering reports soon reached 
 the continent. Henry had desired his 
 ambassador at Rome, John Clarke, dean 
 of Windsor, to present his book to the 
 Sovereign Pontiff Leo X. received the 
 
 * Et qui nocuit verbo malitice, supplicii prosit 
 exemplo. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Mirum est quanto nixu parturiens, quam ni- 
 hil peperit, nisi merum ventum . . . . — (Ibid.) 
 
 I Collier. Eccl. Hist. Gr. Br. p. 17. 
 
 § Burnet, Hist, of the Ref. of England, i. p. 
 30. 
 
 ambassador in full consistory : Clarke 
 presented the royal work to him with 
 these words, " The king my master as- 
 sures you, now that he has refuted the 
 errors of Luther with the pen, he is 
 ready to combat his adherents with the 
 sword." Leo, touched with this promise, 
 answered, that the king's book could 
 not have been composed but by the aid 
 of the Holy Spirit, and conferred upon 
 Henry the title of "Defender of the 
 Faith" — still borne by the Sovereigns of 
 England ! 
 
 The reception which the work met 
 with at Rome, contributed not a little to 
 attract the general attention. In a few 
 months, many thousand copies, from dif- 
 ferent presses, got into circulation ;• so 
 that, to use the words of Cochlseus, " the 
 whole Christian world was filled with 
 wonder and joy."f 
 
 Such extravagant praises served to 
 augment the already insufferable vanity 
 of the head of the race of Tudor. He 
 seemed himself to entertain no doubt, 
 that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit. J 
 Henceforward he could not endure con- 
 tradiction. Papal authority was in his 
 view, no longer at Rome, but at Green- 
 wich, — and infallibility was vested in his 
 own person. This proud assumption 
 served greatly to promote, at a later pe- 
 riod, the Reformation in England. 
 
 Luther read Henry's book with a 
 smile, mingled with disdain, impatience, 
 and indignation. The falsehoods and 
 insults it contained, but above all the air 
 of pity and contempt which the king af- 
 fected, irritated the doctor of Wittemberg 
 to the highest degree. The thought that 
 the Pope had publicly approved the 
 book, and that on all sides the enemies 
 of the Gospel were triumphing over the 
 Reformation and the Reformer, as al- 
 ready overthrown, increased his indigna- 
 tion : — and why indeed, thought he, 
 should he temporise ? Was he not con- 
 tending in the cause of One greater than 
 all the kings of this earth ? The gentle- 
 ness that the Gospel inculcates seemed 
 to him out of place. An eye for an eye, 
 
 * Intra paucos menses, liber ejus a multis 
 chalcographis in multa millia multiplicatus. — 
 (Cochlseus, p. 44.) 
 
 t Ut totum orbem christianum et gaudio et 
 admiratione repleverit. 
 
 I He was brought to fancy it was written with 
 some degree of inspiration. — (Burnet in prsef.) 
 
428 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 a tooth for a tootk And indeed he went 
 beyond all bounds: — persecuted, railed 
 at, hunted down, wounded, — the furious 
 lion turned upon his pursuers, and set 
 himself determinedly to crush his enemy. 
 The Elector, Spalatin, Melancthon, Bu- 
 genhagen, essayed in vain to appease 
 him. They tried to dissuade him from 
 replying; but nothing could stop him. 
 " I won't be gentle toward the king of 
 England," said he : "I know it is useless 
 to humble myself, to compromise, en- 
 treat and try peaceful methods. I will 
 show these wild beasts, who are every 
 day running at me with their horns, how 
 terrible I can be ; I will turn upon^my 
 pursuers, I will provoke, and exasperate 
 my adversary, until exhausting all his 
 strength he falls and is for ever annihi- 
 lated.* ' If this heretic does not retract,' 
 says the new Thomas, Henry VIII., 'he 
 must be burnt!' Such are the weapons 
 which are now employed against me : 
 the fury and the faggots of stupid asses 
 and hogs of the Thomas Aquinas brood, f 
 Well, then, be it so ! Let these swine 
 come on, if they dare ; aye, let them 
 even burn me — here I am, awaiting 
 them. My ashes, after death, though 
 cast into a thousand seas, shall rise up in 
 arms, and pursue, and swallow up their 
 abominable troop. Living, I will be the 
 enemy of the Papacy, — and burnt, I will 
 be its ruin ! Go then, swine of St. Tho- 
 mas, do what you will. Ever will you 
 find Luther, like a bear upon your road, 
 and like a lion upon your path. He 
 will fall upon you from all sides, and 
 give you no rest until he shall have 
 ground your iron brains, and pulverized 
 your brazen foreheads !" 
 
 Luther begins by reproaching Henry 
 VIII. with having supported his state- 
 ments merely by decrees and doctrines 
 of man. " As to me," says he, " I do not 
 
 * (L. Epp. ii. p. 236.) Mea in ipsos exercebo 
 cornua, irritaturus Satanam, donee effusis viribus 
 et eornatibus corruat in se ipso. 
 
 + Ignis et furor insulsissimorum asinorum et 
 Thomisticorum poreorum. — (Contra Henricum 
 Regem, Opp. Lat. ii. p. 331.) There is some- 
 thing in this way of speaking which recalls to 
 our mind the language of the great agitator of 
 Ireland, except that there is more force and no- 
 bility of thought in the orator of the sixteenth 
 century, than in him of the nineteenth. — (See 
 Revue Britannique, Nov. 1835 : ' The Reign of 
 O'Connell'— " Soaped swine of civilised society," 
 &c. p. 30.) 
 
 cease my cry of ' The Gospel ! the Gos- 
 pel ! — Christ ! Christ !' — and my enemies 
 are as ready with their answer, — ' Cus- 
 tom! custom! — Ordinances! ordinances! 
 — Fathers ! fathers !' — ' That your faith 
 should not stand in the wisdom of men, but 
 in the power of God] says St. Paul. And 
 the Apostle, by this thunder-clap from 
 heaven, at once overturns and disperses, 
 as the wind scatters the dust, all the 
 foolish thoughts of such a one as this 
 Henry ! Alarmed and confounded, the 
 Aquinases, Papists, Henrys, fall prostrate 
 before the power of those words."* 
 
 He proceeds to refute in detail the 
 king's book, and exposes his arguments, 
 one after the other, with remarkable 
 clearness, energy, and knowledge of the 
 Scriptures, and of Church history ; but 
 also with a boldness and contempt, and 
 at times a violence, which need not sur- 
 prise us. 
 
 Towards the end, Luther's indigna- 
 tion is again aroused, that his adversary 
 should only have drawn his arguments 
 from the Fathers ; for on them was made 
 to turn the whole controversy : " To all 
 the decisions of Fathers, of men, of an- 
 gels, of devils, I oppose," says he, "not 
 the antiquity of custom, not the habits of 
 the many, but the word of the Eternal 
 God, — the Gospel, — which they them- 
 selves are obliged to admit. It is to this 
 book that I keep, — upon it I rest, — in it 
 I make my boast, — in it I triumph, and 
 exult over Papists, Aquinases, Henrys, 
 sophists, and all the swine of hell. f The 
 King of Heaven is on my side, — there- 
 fore I fear nothing, though even a thou- 
 sand Augustines, a thousand Cyprians, 
 and a thousand such churches as that of 
 which this Henry is Defender, should 
 rise up against me. It is a small mat- 
 ter that I should despise and revile an 
 earthly king, since he himself has not 
 feared, by his writings, to blaspheme the 
 King of Heaven, and profane his Holy 
 name by the most daring lies."! 
 
 " Papists !" he exclaims in conclusion, 
 
 "will you never have done with your 
 
 * Confusi et prostrati jacent a facie verborum 
 
 istius tonitrui. — (Contra Henricum regem. Opp. 
 
 Lat. ii. p. 336.) 
 
 t Hie sto, hie sedeo, hie maneo, hie glorior, 
 hie triumpho, hie insulto papistis . . . — Contra 
 Henricum regem. Opp. Lat. ii. p. 342.) 
 
 t Nee magnum si ego regem terree contemno.- 
 — (Cont. Hen. reg. p. 344. verso.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 429 
 
 vain attempts? Do, then, what ye list. 
 Notwithstanding, it must still come to 
 pass, that popes, bishops, priests, monks, 
 princes, devils, death, sin, — and all that 
 is not Jesus Christ, or in Jesus Christ, — 
 must fall and perish before the power of 
 this Gospel, which I, Martin Luther, 
 have preached."* 
 
 Thus spake an unfriended monk. His 
 violence certainly cannot be excused, if 
 we judge of it according to the rule to 
 which he himself was ever appealing, 
 namely, God's Word. It cannot even be 
 justified, by pleading in extenuation, the 
 grossness of the age, — (for Melancthon 
 knew how to observe courtesy of lan- 
 guage in his writings,) — nor can we plead 
 the energy of his character. If something 
 is allowed for this, more must be ascribed 
 to the violence of his passions. It is bet- 
 ter, then, that we should give our judg- 
 ment against it. Nevertheless, justice 
 requires the remark, that in the sixteenth 
 century this extravagant language was 
 not so strange as it would be at this time. 
 The learned were, like the nobles, a 
 kind of estate. Henry, in attacking Lu- 
 ther, had put himself in the rank of a 
 man of letters. Luther replied to him ac- 
 cording to the law which obtained in the 
 republic of letters ; viz. that the truth of 
 what is stated is to be considered, and not 
 the condition in life of him who states it. 
 Let it be added, also, that when this 
 same king turned against the Pope, the 
 insults heaped upon him by the Romish 
 writers, and by the Pope himself, far ex- 
 ceeded all that Luther had ever fulmi- 
 nated against him. 
 
 Besides, — if Luther did call Doctor 
 Eck an ass, and Henry VIII. a hog, he 
 indignantly rejected the intervention of 
 the secular arm ; at the time that the 
 former was writing a dissertation to show 
 that heretics ought to be burned, and the 
 latter was erecting scaffolds that he might 
 follow out the precepts of the chancellor 
 of Ingolstadt. 
 
 Great was the emotion at the king's 
 court, when Luther's reply arrived. Sur- 
 rey, Wolsey, and the rest of the courtiers 
 put a stop to the fetes and pageantry at 
 Greenwich, to vent their indignation in 
 sarcasms and abuse. The aged Bishop 
 of Rochester, who had looked on with 
 delight at the young prince, formerly 
 * 3 L. Opp. Leipz. xviii. p. 209. 
 
 confided to his care, breaking a lance in 
 defence of the Church, was stung to the 
 quick by the monk's attack. He replied 
 to it at the moment. His words gave a 
 good idea of the age, and of the Church: — 
 " Take us the little foxes that spoil the 
 vines, says Christ in Solomon's Song ; 
 from this we learn," said Fisher, " that 
 we ought to lay hands upon heretics, be- 
 fore they grow big. Luther is become a 
 large fox, so old, so cunning, so mischiev- 
 ous, that it is very difficult to catch him. 
 What do I say, a fox ? He is a mad 
 dog, a ravening wolf, a cruel she-bear ; or 
 rather, all these put together, for the mon- 
 ster includes many beasts within him."* 
 Thomas More also descended into the 
 
 arena to enp-acre with the monk of Wit- 
 ts o 
 
 temberg. Although a laic, his zeal 
 against the Reformation amounted to 
 fanaticism, if it would not have led him 
 even to the shedding of blood. When 
 yoUng men of family take up the cause of 
 the Papacy, they often, in their violence, 
 outdo the clergy themselves. "Reverend 
 brother, father tippler, Luther, apostate 
 of the order of St. Augustine, (misshapen 
 bacchanalian) of either faculty, unlearned 
 doctor of sacred theology. "f Thus it is 
 the Reformer is addressed by one of the 
 most illustrious men of the age. Then 
 he goes on to say, in explanation of the 
 way in which Luther had composed his 
 book against Henry VIII. — " He assem- 
 bled his companions, and bid them go 
 each his own way to pick up scurrilities 
 and insults. One frequented the public 
 carriages and barges ; another the baths 
 and gambling houses ; this one, the bar- 
 bers' shops and low taverns; that one, 
 the manufactory and the house of ill fame. 
 They took down in their pocket-books 
 all that they heard of insolence, of filthi- 
 ness, of infamy, and bringing back all 
 these insults and impurities, they filled 
 with them that dirty sink which is called 
 '• Luther's wit? " Then he continues : 
 " If he retracts these lies and calumnies, 
 if he puts away these fooleries and this 
 rage, if he swallows down his excrements 
 again. | .... he will find one who will 
 
 * Canem dixissem rabidum, imo lupum rapa- 
 cissimum, aut sasvissimam quamdam ursam. — 
 (Coehlseus, p. 60.) 
 
 t Reverendus frater, pater, potator, Luthcrus. 
 — (Coehlseus, p. 61.) 
 
 t Si . . suas resorbeat et aua relingat stercora. 
 —(Ibid. p. 62.) 
 
430 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 soberly discuss with him. But if he 
 continues as he has begun, joking, taunt- 
 ing, fooling, calumniating, vomiting out 
 sinks and sewers .... * let others do 
 what they choose ; for ourselves we prefer 
 leaving the little man to his own anger 
 and dirtiness.' 1 f Thomas More would 
 have done better to restrain his own 
 coarseness ; Luther never descended to 
 such a style, neither did he return it any 
 answer. 
 
 This work increased Henry's attach- 
 ment to More. He even used to go and 
 visit him at his humble residence at Chel- 
 sea. After dinner, — his arm leaning on 
 the shoulder of his favourite, the king 
 would walk round the garden with him, 
 whilst the astonished wife of his flattered 
 host, concealed behind a lattice, with her 
 children, could not but keep her eyes 
 fixed on them. After one of these walks, 
 More, who well knew the man he had to 
 deal with, said to his wife, " If my head 
 ctiuld gain for him a single castle in 
 France, he would not hesitate a moment 
 to take it off" 
 
 The king, thus defended by the Bishop 
 of Rochester, and by his future chancel- 
 lor, needed not any more to resume his 
 pen. Confounded at the thought of 
 being treated, in the face of Europe, as 
 any common writer, Henry VIII. aban- 
 doned the dangerous position he had 
 taken, and laying aside the pen of the 
 theologian, had recourse to the more ef- 
 fectual measures of diplomacy. 
 
 An ambassador was despatched from 
 his court at Greenwich, with a letter to 
 the Elector, and to the Dukes of Saxony. 
 " The true serpent cast down from heav- 
 en, even Luther," says Henry, " casts out 
 a flood of poison upon the earth. He 
 excites revolt in the Church of Jesus 
 Christ, he abolishes its laws, insults the 
 authorities, inflames the laity against the 
 priesthood, both of these against the Pope, 
 the people against kings, and asks noth- 
 
 * Sentinas, cloacas, latrinas . . . stercora. — 
 (Ibid. p. 63.) ♦ 
 
 tCumsuis .... et stercoribus . . . relinquere. — 
 (Ibid.) Cochlseus indeed glories in the citation 
 of these passages, choosing what, according to 
 his taste, he thinks the finest parts of the work 
 of Thomas More. M. Nisard, on the contrary, 
 confesses in his book on More, whose defence 
 he undertakes with so much warmth and learn- 
 ing, that, in this writing, the expressions dictated 
 by the anger of the Catholic are such, that the 
 translation of them is impossible. 
 
 ing better than to see Christians fighting 
 against, and destroying one another, and 
 the enemies of our faith enjoying, with 
 a savage grin, the scene of carnage.* 
 
 " What is this doctrine, which he calls 
 evangelical, other than the doctrine of 
 Wicklif? Now, most honoured uncles, 
 I know how your ancestors have labour- 
 ed to destroy it ; they pursued it, as a 
 wild beast, in Bohemia, and driving it, 
 till it fell into a pit, they shut it in there, 
 and barricaded it. You will not, 1 am 
 sure, let it escape through your negli- 
 gence, lest, making its way into Saxony, 
 it should become master of the whole of 
 Germany, and, with smoking nostrils, 
 vomiting forth the fire of hell, spread 
 that conflagration far and wide, which 
 your nation has so often wished to ex- 
 tinguish in its blood, t 
 
 ''Therefore it is, most worthy lords, 
 I feel obliged to exhort you, and even to 
 beseech you, by all that is most sacred, 
 promptly to extinguish the cursed sect of 
 Luther. Shed no blood, if it can be 
 avoided ; but if this heretical doctrine 
 lasts, shed it without hesitation, in order 
 that this abominable sect may disappear 
 from under the heaven. "| 
 
 The Elector and his brother referred 
 the king to the approaching council. 
 Henry VIII. was thus as far as ever from 
 his object. " So renowned a name mixed 
 up in the dispute," says Paolo Sarpi, 
 " served to give it a greater zest, and to 
 conciliate general favour towards Luther, 
 as is usually the case in combats and 
 tournaments, where the spectators have 
 always a leaning to the weakest, and 
 delight to exaggerate the merit of his 
 actions."^ 
 
 In fact, an immense movement was in 
 progress. The Reformation, which, after 
 the Diet of Worms, had been thought 
 to be confined, together with its great 
 teacher, in the turret-chamber of a strong 
 castle, was breaking forth on all sides in 
 the empire, and even throughout Christ- 
 endom. The two parties, until now, 
 mixed up together, were beginning to 
 
 * So ergiest er, gleichwie eine Schlang vom 
 Himmel geworfen. — (L. Opp. xviii. p. 2 J 2.) The 
 original is in Latin — Velut a coelo dejectus ser- 
 pens, virus effundit in terras. 
 
 t Und durch sein schiidlich Anblasen das hol- 
 lische Feuer ausspriihe. — (L. Opp. xviii. p. 213.) 
 
 t Oder aber auch mit Blut vergiessen. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Hist, of the Council of Treat, p. 15, 16. 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 431 
 
 separate, and the partisans of a monk, 
 who had nothing on his side but the 
 power of his words, were fearlessly taking 
 their stand in the face of the followers 
 of Charles V. and Leo X. Luther had 
 only just left the Wartburg, — the Pope 
 had excommunicated all his adherents, — 
 the Imperial Diet had just condemned 
 his doctrine, — the princes were active in 
 putting it down throughout the greatest 
 part of the German states, — the Romish 
 priests were setting the public against it 
 by their violent invective, — foreign na- 
 tions were requiring that Germany should 
 sacrifice a man whose attacks were for- 
 midable even at a distance, — and yet, 
 this new sect, few in number, and among 
 whose numbers there was no organiza- 
 tion, no acting in concert, nothing, in 
 short, of concentrated power, was already, 
 by the energy of the faith engaged in it, 
 and the rapidity of its conquests of the 
 minds of men, beginning to cause alarm 
 to the vast, ancient, and powerful sover- 
 eignty of Rome. Every where was to 
 be seen, as in the first appearance of 
 spring-time, the seed bursting forth from 
 the earth, spontaneously and without 
 effort. Every day some progress might 
 be remarked. Individuals, village pop- 
 ulations, country towns, nay, large cities, 
 joined in this new confession of the name 
 of Jesus Christ. It was met by strong 
 opposition and fierce persecution, but the 
 mysterious power which animated these 
 people was irresistible ; and, though per- 
 secuted, they still went forward, facing 
 the terrors of exile, imprisonment, or the 
 stake, and were every where more than 
 conquerors over their persecutors. 
 
 The monastic orders, which Rome 
 had planted over the whole of Christen- 
 dom, like nets for catching souls and re- 
 taining them in their meshes, were 
 among the first to burst their fetters, and 
 to propagate the new doctrine in every 
 part of the Western Church. The Au- 
 gustines of Saxony had gone along with 
 Luther, and, like him, formed that inti- 
 mate acquaintance with the Word of 
 Truth, which, making God their portion, 
 disabused their minds from the delusions 
 of Rome and its lofty pretensions. But 
 in other convents of this order, the light 
 of the Gospel had also shone forth : some- 
 times, among the aged, who, like Stau- 
 pitz, had preserved, in the midst of a leav- 
 
 ened Christianity, the sound doctrines of 
 truth, and were now asking of God that 
 they might depart in peace, since their 
 eyes had seen his salvation ; sometimes,, 
 among the young, among those who had 
 imbibed Luther's instructions with the 
 characteristic eagerness of their years. 
 At Nuremberg, Osnabruck, Dillingen, 
 Ratisbon, in Hesse, in Wirtemburg, at 
 Strasburgh, at Antwerp, the convents of 
 the Augustineswere returning to the faith 
 of Christ, and by their courageous confes- 
 sion exciting the indignation of Rome. 
 
 But the movement was not confined to 
 the Augustines. Men of decided charac- 
 ter among the other orders followed their 
 example ; and, notwithstanding the cla- 
 mours of their fellow-monks, who were 
 unwilling to abandon their carnal observ- 
 ances, and undeterred by their anger 
 and conteinpt, or by censure, discipline, 
 and claustral imprisonment, they fearless- 
 ly lifted up their voices in favour of that 
 holy and precious truth, which, after so 
 many toilsome researches, so many 
 distressing doubts, and inward con- 
 flicts, they had at last foiand. In the 
 majority of the cloisters, the most spiri- 
 tual, devout, and instructed monks de- 
 clared themselves in favour of the Refor- 
 mation. Eberlin and Kettenbach at- 
 tacked, from the convents of the Francis- 
 cans at Ulm, the service of bondage of 
 monkery, and the superstitious practices 
 of the Church, with an eloquence that 
 mfght have drawn a whole nation after 
 it. They introduced in their petition, in 
 the same sentence, a request for the aboli- 
 tion of the houses of the monks, and of 
 those of prostitution. Another Franciscan. 
 Stephen Kempe, preached the Gospel at 
 Hamburg, and, though alone, set his face 
 like a flint against the hatred, envy, 
 threats, cunning, and violence of the 
 priests, — enraged to see the congrega- 
 tions forsake their altars, and flock with 
 enthusiasm to his preachings.* 
 
 Sometimes it was the superiors them- 
 selves who were first won over to the 
 Reformation. The Priors at Halber- 
 stadt, at Neuenwerk, at Halle, at Sagan, 
 set the example, in this respect, to those 
 under their authority ; at least, they de- 
 clared that if a monk felt his conscience 
 
 * Der tibrigen Prediger Feindschafft, Neid, 
 Nachstellungen, Praticken und Schrecken. — 
 (Seckendorf, p. 559.) 
 
432 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 burdened by his monastic vows, so far 
 from insisting on his remaining in the 
 convent, they would themselves carry 
 him out on their shoulders.* 
 
 In fact, in all parts of Germany might 
 be seen monks Jeaving, at the gates of 
 their monastery, their frock and cowl. Of 
 these, some had been expelled by the vio- 
 lence of their fellows, or of their superiors; 
 others, of a gentle and peaceable spirit, 
 could no longer endure the continually 
 recurring disputes, insults, recriminations, 
 and animosities, which pursued them from 
 morning till night. Of all these, the 
 greater number were convinced that the 
 monastic vows were inconsistent with the 
 will of God and the Christian life. Some 
 had gradually been led to this conviction ; 
 others had reached it at once by con- 
 sidering a single text. The indolent, 
 heavy ignorance which generally marked 
 the mendicant orders communicated a 
 feeling of disgust to men of more intelli- 
 gent minds, who could no longer endure 
 the society of such associates. A Fran- 
 ciscan, begging his way, one day pre- 
 sented himself, box in hand, at a black- 
 smith's shop, in Nuremberg. " Why 
 don't you get your bread by working 
 with your own hands'?" inquired the 
 blacksmith. Thus invited, the sturdy 
 monk, tossing from him his habit, lifted 
 the hammer, and brought it down again 
 with force upon the anvil. Behold the 
 useless mendicant transformed into the 
 industrious workman ! The box and 
 monk's gown were sent back to the 
 monastery.! 
 
 It was not, however, the monks only, 
 who ranged themselves under the stand- 
 ard of evangelical truth : a far greater 
 number of priests proclaimed the new 
 doctrine. But it needed not to be pro- 
 mulgated by human organs; it often 
 acted upon men's minds and aroused 
 them from their deep slumber, without 
 the instrumentality of a preacher. 
 
 Luther's writings were read in the 
 boroughs, cities, and hamlets ; even the 
 village schoolmaster had his fire-side audi- 
 ence. Some persons in each locality, im- 
 pressed with what they had heard, con- 
 sulted the Bible to relieve their uncertain- 
 ty, and were struck with the marked con- 
 
 * Seckendorf, p. 811. Stentzd. Script. Rer 
 Sites, I. p. 45. 
 
 t Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte, ii. p. 70. 
 
 trast between the Christianity of Scrip- 
 ture and that which they had imbibed. 
 Fluctuating for a while between Roman- 
 ism and Holy Writ, they ere long took 
 refuge in that living Word which had 
 beamed into their minds with such 
 new and cheering lustre. While these 
 changes were passing in their minds, an 
 evangelical preacher — he might be a 
 priest, or, perhaps, a monk — would ap- 
 pear. He speaks with eloquence and 
 authority,* proclaiming that Christ has 
 fully atoned for the sins of his people, 
 and proves from the sacred Word the 
 vanity of human works and penance. 
 Such preaching excited terrible opposi- 
 tion ; the clergy, in numerous instances, 
 aided by the magistrates, used every 
 effort to bring back those whose souls 
 were escaping from bondage. But there 
 was in the new preaching an accordance 
 with Scripture, and a secret, but irresist- 
 ible energy, which won the heart and 
 subdued the most rebellious. Risking 
 the loss of property, and, if needful, the 
 loss of life itself, men deserted the barren 
 fanatical preachers of the Papacy, and 
 enrolled themselves under the Gospel 
 banner, f Sometimes the people, irritated 
 at the thought how long they had been 
 duped, drove away the priests ; but more 
 frequently these latter, forsaken by their 
 flocks, without tithes or offerings, went 
 off, with desponding hearts, to earn a 
 livelihood in distant places. :f Whilst the 
 defenders of the ancient hierarchy with- 
 drew in sullen dejection, pronouncing 
 maledictions as they took leave of their 
 former flocks, — the people, whom truth 
 and liberty filled with transports of joy, 
 surrounded the new preachers with ac- 
 clamations, and in their eagerness to hear 
 the Word, bore them, as in triumph, into 
 the churches and pulpits.^ 
 
 A word of Power from God himself, 
 was remoulding society. In many in- 
 stances, the people, or the principal citi- 
 zens, wrote to a man whose faith they 
 knew, urging him to come and instruct 
 
 * Eaque omnia prompte, alacriter, eloquenter. 
 — (CochlEBiis, p. 52.) 
 
 t Populo odibiles catholici concionatores. — 
 (Cochlasus, p. 52.) 
 
 t Ad extremam redaeti inopiam, aliunde eibi 
 victum quaerere cogerentur. — (Ibid. p. 53.) 
 
 § Triuniphantibus novis praedicatoribus qui se- 
 quacem populum verbo novi Evangelii sui duce- 
 bant— (Ibid.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 433 
 
 them ; and he, for the love of the truth, 
 would, at their call, at once leave his 
 worldly interests, his family, friends, and 
 country* Persecution often compelled 
 the favourers of the Reformation to aban- 
 don their dwellings ; — they arrive in a 
 place where the new doctrines have 
 never yet been heard of; they find there 
 some hospitable roof, offering shelter to 
 houseless travellers ; there they speak 
 of the Gospel, and read a few pages to 
 the listening townsmen, and perhaps, by 
 the intercession of their new acquaint- 
 ances, obtain leave to preach a sermon in 
 the church. Immediately, the Word 
 spreads like fire through the town, and 
 no efforts can stay its progress. f If not 
 permitted to preach in the church, the 
 preaching took place elsewhere, and 
 every place became a temple. At Hu- 
 sum in Holstein, Herman Tast, then on 
 his way from Wittemberg, and to whom 
 the parochial clergy denied the use of 
 the church, preached to' an immense 
 multitude, under the shade of two large 
 trees adjoining the churchyard, not far 
 from the spot where, seven centuries be- 
 fore, Anschar had first proclaimed the 
 Gospel to a Heathen auditory. At 
 Armstadt, Gaspard Gittel, an Augustine 
 friar, preached in the market-place. At 
 Dantzic, the Gospel was proclaimed from 
 an eminence outside the city. At Goss- 
 lar, a student of Wittemberg opened the 
 new doctrines, in a plain planted with 
 lime-trees, from which circumstance the 
 evangelical Christians there obtained the 
 appellation of The Lime-tree Brethren. 
 
 Whilst the Priests were exposing, be- 
 fore the eyes of the people, their sordid 
 avidity, the new preachers, in addressing 
 them, said : " Freely we have received 
 — freely do we give.":}: The observation 
 often dropt by the new preachers in the 
 pulpit, that Rome had of old given to 
 the nations a corrupted Gospel, so that 
 Germany now first heard the Word of 
 Christ in its divine and primitive beauty, 
 made a deep impression upon all ;§ and 
 the grand thought of the equality of all 
 
 * Multi, omissa re domestica, in speciem veri 
 Evangelii, parentes et amicos relinquebant. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Ubi vero aliquos nacti fuissent amicos in ea 
 civitate . . . . — (Cochlaeus, p. 54.) 
 
 t Mira eis erat liberalitas. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Earn usque diem nunquam germane praedi- 
 catam. — (Cochlaeus, p. 53.) 
 55 
 
 men in the universal brotherhood of 
 Jesus Christ, elevated the souls which 
 had so long borne the yoke of the feu- 
 dality and papacy of the middle ages.* 
 
 Simple Christians were often seen 
 with the New Testament in hand, offer- 
 ing to justify the doctrine of the Refor- 
 mation. The Catholics, who adhered to 
 Rome, drew back in dismay ; for the 
 study of Holy Scripture was reserved to 
 the priests and monks alone. The latter 
 being thus compelled to come forward, 
 discussion ensued ; but the priests and 
 monks were soon overwhelmed with the 
 Scriptures quoted by the laity, and at a 
 loss how to meet them.f " Unhappily," 
 says Cochlasus, " Luther had persuaded 
 his followers that their faith ought only 
 to be given to the oracles of Holy Writ." 
 Often clamours were heard in the crowd, 
 denouncing the shameful ignorance of 
 the old theologians, who had till then 
 been regarded by their own party as 
 among the most eminently learned. "J 
 
 Men of the humblest capacity, and 
 even the weaker sex, by the help of the 
 knowledge of the Word, persuaded, and 
 prevailed with many. Extraordinary 
 times produced extraordinary actions. 
 At lngolstadt a young weaver read the 
 works of Luther to a crowded congre- 
 gation, in the very place where Doctor 
 Eck was residing. The university 
 council of the same town, having re- 
 solved to oblige a disciple of Melancthon 
 to retract, — a woman, named Argula de 
 Staufen, volunteered to defend him, and 
 challenged the doctors to a public dispu- 
 tation. Women, children, artizans, and 
 soldiers, had acquired a greater know- 
 ledge of the Bible than learned doctors 
 or surpliced priests. 
 
 Christianity was presented in two-fold 
 array, and under aspects strikingly con- 
 trasted. Opposed to the old defenders of 
 the hierarchy, who had neglected the 
 acquirement of the languages and the 
 cultivation of literature, (we have it on 
 the authority of one of themselves) was 
 a generous-minded youth, most of them 
 devoted to study and the investigation of 
 the Scriptures, and acquainted with the 
 
 * Omnes aequales et fratres in Christo. — (Ibid.) 
 t A Iaicis lutheranis, plures scripturas locos, 
 
 quam a monachis et praesbyteris. — (Ibid. p. 54.) 
 t Reputabantur catholici ab illis ignari Scrip- 
 
 turarum. — (Ibid.) 
 
434 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 literary treasures of antiquity.* Gifted 
 with quickness of apprehension, eleva- 
 tion of soul, and intrepidity of heart, 
 these youths soon attained such proficien- 
 cy that none could compete with them. 
 It was not only the vigour of their faith 
 which raised them above their contempo- 
 raries, but an elegance of style, a per- 
 fume of antiquity, a sound philosophy, 
 and a knowledge of the world, of which 
 the theologians, veteris farina (as Coch- 
 laeus himself terms them) were alto- 
 gether destitute. So that on public occa- 
 sions, on which these youthful defenders 
 of the Reformation encountered the 
 Romish doctors, their assault was carried 
 on with an ease and confidence that em- 
 barrassed the dulness of their adversa- 
 ries, and exposed them before all to de- 
 served contempt. 
 
 The ancient structure of the Church 
 was thus tottering under the weight of 
 superstition and ignorance, while the 
 new edifice was rising from its founda- 
 tions of faith and learning. The ele- 
 ments of a new life were diffused among 
 the general body of the people. List- 
 less dulness was everywhere succeeded 
 by an inquiring disposition and a thirst 
 for information. An active enlightened 
 and living faith, took the place of super- 
 stitious piety, and ascetic meditations. 
 Works of true devotedness superseded 
 mere outward observance and penances. 
 The pulpit prevailed over the mumme- 
 ries of the altar, and the ancient and su- 
 preme authority of God's word was at 
 length re-established in the Church. 
 
 The art of printing, that mighty en- 
 gine, the discovery of which marks the 
 fifteenth century, came to the assistance 
 of the efforts we are now recording ; and 
 its weighty missiles were continually dis- 
 charged against the enemy's walls. 
 
 The impulse which the Reformation 
 gave to popular literature in Germany 
 was prodigious. Whilst the year 1513 
 saw only " thirty-five publications, and 
 1517 but thirty-seven, the number of 
 books increased with astonishing rapid- 
 ity after the appearance of Luther's 
 theses. We find, in 1518, seventy-one 
 various publications recorded; in 1519, 
 one hundred and eleven ; in 1520, two 
 
 * Totam vero juventutem, eloquentiae litteris, 
 linguarumque studio deditara ... in partem suam 
 traxit. — (Cochlreus, p. 54.) 
 
 hundred and eight; in 1521, two hun- 
 dred and eleven ; in 1522, three hun- 
 dred and forty-seven ; and in 1523, four 
 hundred and ninety-eight. And where 
 were all these books published ? Al- 
 most invariably at Wittemberg. And 
 who was the author of them? For the 
 most part, Luther. The year 1 522, saw 
 one hundred and thirty publications 
 from the pen of the Reformer alone ; 
 and the following year, one hundred 
 and eighty-three ; whilst in this latter 
 year, the total number of Roman Catho- 
 lic publications amounted to but twenty.* 
 Thus, the literature of Germany was 
 formed in the din of controversy^ as its 
 religion arose in the midst of conflicts. 
 Already it gave evidence of that learned, 
 profound, bold, and stirring spirit that 
 latter times have seen in it. The genius 
 of the nation now, for the first time, dis- 
 played itself without mixture, and in the 
 very hour of its birth it received a bap- 
 tism of fire from Christian enthusiasm. 
 
 Whatever Luther and his friends com- 
 posed, others disseminated far and wide. 
 Monks, who had been led to see the un- 
 lawfulness of the monastic obligations, 
 and desirous of exchanging a life of in- 
 dolence for one of activity, but too igno- 
 rant to be able themselves to proclaim 
 the Word of God, traversed the prov- 
 inces, and, visiting the hamlets and cot- 
 tages, sold the writings of Luther and 
 his friends. Germany was, ere long, 
 overrun with these enterprising colpor- 
 teurs.! Printers and booksellers eagerly 
 received whatever writings were directed 
 to the defence of the Reformation, but 
 would not look at those of the opposite 
 party, as savouring generally of igno- 
 rance- and barbarism.^ If any of these 
 men, however, ventured to sell a book in 
 favour of Papacy, or to offer it for sale 
 at Frankfort, or elsewhere, he drew upon 
 himself a torrent of ridicule and sar- 
 casm fro'm dealers, publishers, and schol- 
 ars.§ Vainly had the Emperor and the 
 
 * Panzer's Annalen der Deutsch Litt. — 
 (Ranke's Deutsch Gesch. ii. p. 79.) 
 
 t Apostatarum, monasteriis relictis, infinitus~ 
 jam erat Humerus, in speciem bibliopolarum. — 
 (Cochlseus, p. 54.) 
 
 t Catholicorum, velut indocta et veteris barba- 
 rici trivialia scripta, contemnebant. — (Cochlceus, 
 
 P- 54.) 
 
 § In publicis mercatibus Francofordise et alibi, 
 vcxabantur ac ridebuntur. — (Ibid.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 435 
 
 reigning princes fulminated severe edicts 
 against the writings of the Reformers. 
 As soon as an inquisitorial visit was de- 
 termined on, the dealers (who secretly- 
 obtained information of it) would con- 
 ceal the books which it was intended to 
 proscribe ; and the people, ever eager to 
 possGss that of which authority would 
 deprive them, would afterwards buy 
 them up, and read them with redoubled 
 ardour. It was not alone Germany that 
 was the theatre of such incidents, the 
 writings of Luther were translated into 
 French, Spanish, English, and Italian, 
 and were circulated among those na- 
 tions. 
 
 If instruments so despised could yet 
 inflict such disaster on the power of 
 Rome, what was it when the monk of 
 Wittemberg was heard to raise his voice? 
 Shortly after the discomfiture of the 
 strange prophets, Luther traversed the 
 territory of Duke George, in a waggon, 
 attired in plain clothes. His gown was 
 carefully concealed, and the Reformer 
 wore the disguise of a countryman. Had 
 he been recognised, and so fallen into 
 the hands of the exasperated Duke, it 
 had, perhaps, been all over with him. 
 
 He was on his way to preach at Zwic- 
 kau, the birth-place of the pretended I have made this journey 
 prophets. Scarcely was it known at j present of this money 
 
 an old woman, in order to excite a tu- 
 mult."* But vain was the effort ; the 
 Reformer's word put the evil spirit to si- 
 lence ; an enthusiasm communicated it- 
 self from one to another, looks and 
 warm greetings were exchanged, the 
 people pressed each other by the hand, 
 and the friars, not knowing what to 
 make of what they saw, and unable to 
 charm down the tempest, soon found it 
 necessary to take their departure from 
 Zwickau. 
 
 In the Castle of Freyberg resided 
 Duke Henry, brother of Duke George. 
 His wife, the Princess of Mecklenburg, 
 had, the preceding year, presented him 
 with a son, who was christened Maurice. 
 Duke Henry united the bluntness and 
 coarse manners of the soldier to a pas- 
 sion for the pleasures of the table, and 
 the pursuits of dissipation. He was, 
 withal, pious after the manner of the 
 age in which he lived ; he had visited 
 the Holy Land, and had also gone on 
 pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James at 
 Compostella. He would often say, 
 " When I was at Compostella, I depos- 
 ited a hundred golden florins on the al- 
 tar of the Saint, and I said to him, — ' O ! 
 St. James, it is to gain your favour I 
 I make you a 
 but if those 
 
 Schneeberg, Annaberg, and the neigh- 
 bouring towns, when numbers flocked to 
 hear him. Fourteen thousand persons 
 arrived in the town, and as there was no 
 edifice which could contain so great a 
 multitude, Luther preached from the 
 balcony of the Town-hall to twenty-five 
 thousand auditors, who thronged the 
 market-place, — and of whom several 
 had climbed to the top of some stones 
 that lay heaped together near the hall* 
 The servant of Jesus Christ was expati- 
 ating with fervour on the election of 
 grace, when suddenly a shriek proceeded 
 from the midst of the rivetted auditory. 
 An old woman of haggard mien, who 
 had stationed herself on a large block of 
 stones, was seen motioning with her lank 
 arms as though she would controul the 
 multitude just about to fall prostrate at 
 the feet of Jesus. Her wild yells inter- 
 rupted the preacher. " It was the devil," 
 says Seckendorf, " who took the form of 
 
 * Von dem Rathhaus unter einem Zulauf von 
 25,000 Menschen.— (Seek, p. 539.) 
 
 knaves (the priests) steal it from you, I 
 can't help it ; so take you care of it.' "f 
 Two friars, (a Franciscan and a Do- 
 minican) disciples of Luther, had been 
 for some time preaching the Gospel at 
 Freyberg. The Duchess, whose piety 
 had inspired her with a horror of heresy, 
 attended their sermons, and were all as- 
 tonishment at discovering that what she 
 had been taught so much to dread, was 
 the gracious word of a Saviour. Gra- 
 dually, her eyes were opened ; and she 
 found peace in Jesus Christ. The mo- 
 ment Duke George learned that the 
 Gospel was preached at Freyberg, he 
 begged his brother to resist the introduc- 
 tion of such novelties. The Chancellor 
 Stehelin and the canons seconded these 
 representations with their fanatical zeal. 
 A violent explosion took place at the 
 court of Freyberg. Duke Henry sternly 
 
 * Der Teufel indem er sich in Gestalt einea 
 alten Weibes . . . — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Lasst du dir's die Buben nehmen . . . — (Ibid, 
 p. 430.) 
 
436 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 reprimanded and reproached his wife, 
 and more than once the pious Duchess 
 was known to shed tears over the cradle 
 of her babe. By slow degrees, how- 
 ever, her gentle entreaties melted the 
 heart of her husband. This man, so 
 stern by nature, softened down. A sweet 
 harmony was established between them : 
 at length, they were enabled to join in 
 prayer beside their infant son. Great 
 and untold destinies hovered above that 
 son ; and from that cradle, where the 
 christian mother had so often poured out 
 her sorrows, was to come forth one whom 
 God in his own time would use as a de- 
 fender of the Reformation. 
 
 The intrepidity of Luther had made a 
 deep impression on the inhabitants of 
 Worms. The Imperial Decree over- 
 awed the magistrates ; the churches 
 were all closed ; but a preacher, taking 
 his stand on a rudely-constructed pulpit, 
 in a square thronged with an immense 
 multitude, proclaimed the glad tidings 
 with persuasive earnestness. If the au- 
 thorities showed a disposition to inter- 
 fere, the people dispersed in an instant, 
 hastily carrying off their pulpit ; but no 
 sooner had the officers of authority 
 passed by, than they again erected their 
 pulpit in some more retired spot, to which 
 the multitude would again flock together, 
 to hear more of the Word of Jesus 
 Christ. This temporary pulpit was 
 every day set up in one spot or another, 
 and served as a rallying point for the 
 people who were still under the influ- 
 ence of the emotions awakened by the 
 drama lately enacted in Worms.* 
 
 At Frankfort on the Maine, one of the 
 most considerable free cities of the em- 
 pire, all was commotion. A courageous 
 evangelist, Ibach, preached salvation by 
 Jesus Christ. The clergy, among whom 
 was Cochlseus, known by his writings 
 and his opposition to the Reformation, 
 irritated by the daring intrusion of such 
 a colleague, denounced him to the Arch- 
 bishop of Mentz. The Council, though 
 with some timidity, nevertheless support- 
 ed him ; but without avail. The clergy 
 expelled the evangelical minister, and obli- 
 ged him to quit Frankfort. Rome ap- 
 peared triumphant ; all seemed lost ; and 
 private Christians began to fear that they 
 
 * So liessen sie eine Canzel machen, die man 
 von einem Ort zum andern . . . — (Seek. p. 436.) 
 
 were for ever deprived of the preaching 
 of the Word : but at the very moment 
 when the citizens seemed disposed to 
 submit to the tyranny of their priests, 
 certain nobles suddenly declared them- 
 selves for the Gospel. Max of Moln- 
 heim, Harmut of Cronberg, George of 
 Stockheim, and Emeric of Reiffenstein, 
 whose estates lay near Frankfort, wrote 
 to the Council : — " We are constrained 
 to make a stand against those spiritual 
 wolves." And, in addressing the clergy, 
 they said : — " Either embrace evangeli- 
 cal doctrines and recall Ibach, or we will 
 pay no more tithes." 
 
 The common people, who listened 
 gladly to the reformed opinions, embol- 
 dened by this language of the nobles, 
 showed symptoms of agitation ; and one 
 day when Peter Mayer, the persecutor 
 of Ibach, and who of all the priests was 
 the most hostile to the new opinions, was 
 on the point of preaching against here- 
 tics, a violent tumult broke forth, and 
 Mayer in alarm retreated from the pul- 
 pit. This popular movement decided 
 the determination of the Council. An 
 ordinance was published, enjoining all 
 ministers to preach the pure Word of 
 God, or to quit the town. 
 
 The light which shone forth from 
 Wittemberg, as from the heart of the 
 nation, was thus diffusing itself through- 
 out the empire. In the west, — Berg, 
 Cleves, Lippstadt, Munster, Wesel, Mil- 
 tenberg, Mentz, Deux Ponts, and Stras- 
 burg, heard the 'joyful sound.' In the 
 south, — Hof, Schlesstadt, Bamberg, Ess- 
 lingen, Hall (in Suabia), Heilbrunn, 
 Augsburg, Ulm, and many' other places, 
 welcomed it with joy. In the east, — 
 the Duchy of Liegnitz, Prussia and Po- 
 merania, received it with open arms. 
 In the north, — Brunswick, Halberstadt, 
 Gosslar, Zell, Friesland, Bremen, Ham- 
 burg, Holstein, and even Denmark, and 
 other adjacent countries, moved at the 
 sounds of the new teaching. 
 
 The Elector had declared that he 
 would give full liberty to the bishops to 
 preach in his dominions ; but that he 
 would not deliver any one into their 
 hands. Accordingly, the evangelical 
 preachers, persecuted in other countries, 
 were soon driven to take refuge in Sax- 
 ony. Among these were — Ibach, from 
 Frankfort, Eberlin, from Ulm, Kana- 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 437 
 
 dorff, from Magdeburg, Valentine Mus- 
 teus,* whom the canons of Halber- 
 stadt had horribly mutilated, and other 
 faithful ministers, from all parts of Ger- 
 many, flocked to Wittemberg, as to the 
 only asylum of which they felt secure. 
 Here they could hold converse with the 
 leading Reformers, thereby strengthening 
 themselves in the faith, and at the same 
 time communicating the experience each 
 one had gained, together with the infor- 
 mation he had acquired. It is thus that 
 the waters of our rivers return, borne in 
 the clouds from the vast expanse of ocean, 
 to feed the glaciers whence they first de- 
 scended, to flow through the plain. 
 
 The work which was at this time de- 
 veloping itself at Wittemberg, composed, 
 as has been seen, of various elements, 
 became from day to day increasingly the 
 work of that nation, of Europe, and of 
 Christendom. The school which Fred- 
 eric had founded, and into which Luther 
 had introduced the Word of Life, was 
 the centre of that wide-spreading revolu- 
 tion which regenerated the Church ; and 
 from it the Reformation derived a true 
 and a living unity, far above the semblance 
 of unity that might be seen in Rome. 
 The Bible was the supreme authority at 
 Wittemberg, and there its doctrines were 
 heard on all sides. This academy, 
 though the most recent of all in its ori- 
 gin, had acquired a rank and influence 
 throughout Christendom which hitherto 
 had exclusively appertained to the an- 
 cient University of Paris. The crowds 
 of students which resorted to Wittem- 
 berg, from all parts of Europe, brought 
 thither the report of the wants of the 
 Church and of the people, and in quit- 
 ting those walls, become sacred in their 
 esteem, they bore with them, to the 
 Church and people, that Word of Grace, 
 which is for the healing and salvation 
 of the nations. 
 
 In contemplating these happy results, 
 Luther felt his confidence increased. 
 He had seen a feeble effort, begun 
 amidst so many fears and struggles, 
 change the face of the christian world ; 
 and he himself was astonished at a re- 
 
 * Aliquot ministri canonicorum capiunt D. 
 Valentinum Mustseum et vinctum manibus pedi- 
 busque, injecto in ejus os freno, deferunt per 
 trabes inferiores coenobii partes, ibique in cella 
 oerevisiaria eum castrant. — (Hamelmann, Hist, 
 renati Evangelii, p. 880.) 
 
 suit which he never anticipated when he 
 first entered the lists against Tetzel. 
 Prostrate before the God whom he 
 adored, he confessed that the work was 
 His ; and he rejoiced in the assurance 
 of victory which no power could prevent. 
 " Our enemies threaten us with death," 
 said he, to the Chevalier Harmut of 
 Cronberg — " if their wisdom were equal 
 to their folly, it is with life they would 
 threaten us. What an absurdity and in- 
 sult it is to affect to denounce death 
 against Christ and Christians, who are 
 themselves the conquerors of death !* 
 It is as if I would seek to affright a 
 rider by saddling his courser, and help- 
 ing him to mount. Do they not know 
 that Christ is raised from the dead ? So 
 far as they see, He is yet lying in the 
 grave, nay — even in hell. But we know 
 that He lives." He was grieved when- 
 ever he thought that any one should look 
 upon him as the author of a work, of 
 which the most minute details disclosed 
 to him the finger of God. " Some there 
 are," said he, " who believe because J 
 believe. But they only truly believe, 
 who would continue faithful even though 
 they should hear (which may God for- 
 bid!) that I had denied Christ. True 
 disciples believe — not in Luther — but in 
 Jesus Christ. Even I myself care little 
 for Luther, f Let him be counted a 
 saint or a cheat, what care I? It is not 
 him that I preach ; it is Christ. If the 
 devil can seize Luther, let him do so! 
 But let Christ abide with us, and we 
 shall abide also." 
 
 Surely it is idle to explain such a prin- 
 ciple as here speaks out, by the mere 
 circumstances of human affairs. Men 
 of letters might sharpen their wits, and 
 shoot their poisoned arrows against Pope 
 and friars — the gathering cry for free- 
 dom, which Germany had so often sent 
 forth against Italian tyranny, might 
 again echo in the castles and provinces ; 
 — the people might again delight in the 
 familiar voice of the Wittemberg night- 
 ingale % heralding the spring that was 
 everywhere bursting forth ; — but it was 
 no change in mere outward circum- 
 
 * Herren und Siegmanner des Todes. — (L. 
 Epp. ii. p. 164.) 
 
 t Ich kenne auch selbst nicht den Luther.— 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 % Wittemberger Nacktigall, poem of Hans 
 Sachs, 1523. 
 
438 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 stances, like such as is the effect of a 
 craving for earthly liberty, that was then 
 accomplishing. Those who assert that 
 the Reformation was brought about by 
 bribing the reigning princes with the 
 prospect of convent treasure, — the clergy 
 with the licence of marriage, — or the 
 people with the boon of freedom, are 
 strangely mistaken in its nature. Doubt- 
 less, a profitable use of resources which 
 hitherto had maintained the monks in 
 idleness, — doubtless, marriage and lib- 
 erty, God's gifts, might conduce to the 
 progress of the Reformation, — but the 
 moving power was not in these things. 
 An interior revolution was going on in 
 the deep privacy of men's hearts: Chris- 
 tians were again learning to love and to 
 
 forgive, to pray, to suffer affliction, and, 
 if need be, to die for the sake of that 
 Truth which yet held out no prospect of 
 rest on this side heaven ! The Church 
 was in a state of transition. Christian- 
 ity was bursting the shroud in which it 
 had so long been veiled, and resuming 
 its place in a world which had well nigh 
 forgotten its former power. He who 
 made the earth, now ' turned his hand,' 
 and the Gospel, — emerging from eclipse, 
 — went forward, notwithstanding the re- 
 peated efforts of priests and of kings, — 
 like the Ocean, which, when the hand 
 of God presses on its bosom, rises in ma- 
 jestic calmness along its shores, so that 
 no power of man is able to resist its 
 movement. 
 
 BOOK X. 
 
 MOVEMENTS IN^GERMANY. 
 
 Movement in Germany— War between Francis I. and Charles V. — Inigo Lopez de Recalde — 
 Siege of Pampeluna — Loyola's Armed Vigil — Enters a Dominican Convent — Mental Distress — 
 " Strong Delusions" — " Belief of a Lie" — Amusement of the Pope — Death of Leo X. — Charac- 
 ter of Adrian VI. — The Pope attempts a Reformation — Opposition at Rome — Designs against 
 Luther — Diet at Nuremburg — Osiander at Nuremburg — The Pope's Candour — Resolution of 
 the Diet — Grievances — The Pope to the Elector — The Pope's Brief— The Princes fear the 
 
 Pope " The Fiery Trial" — " The Failing Mines" — The Augustine Convent— Mirisch and 
 
 Probst — Persecution at Miltenburg — The Inquisitors and the Confessors — The Fate of Lambert 
 
 Luther's Sympathy — Hymn on the Martyrs — The Legate Campeggio— Evasion of the Edict 
 
 of Worms— Alarm of the Pope — The Dukes of Bavaria — Conference at Ratisbon — Subtle De- 
 vices—Results of the Ratisbon League— The Emperor's Edict— Martyrdom of Gaspard Tauber 
 
 Cruelties in Wurtemburg — Persecution in Bavaria — Fanaticism in Holstein — The Prior and 
 
 the Regent — Martyrdom of Henry Zuphten — Luther and Carlstadt — Opinions on the Lord's 
 Supper — Carlstadt Leaves Wittemburg — Luther at Jena — Luther and Carlstadt — Luther at 
 Orlamund — Interview at Orlamund — On the Worship of Images — Carlstadt Banished — Carl- 
 stadt Retires to Strasburg — Assembly at Spires — Abridgment of the Reformed Doctrine — 
 Albert of Brandenburg — The Word of God Not Bound — All Saints' Church — Abolition of the 
 
 Mass Nature of Christianity — Letter to Councillors— On the Use of Learning— Religion and 
 
 the Arts — Essence of Christianity — Music and Poetry— Abuses of Painting— Insurrection of 
 the Peasantry — The Reformation and Revolt — Fanaticism — "The Spirit" — Miinzer Preaches 
 Revolt Liberty of Conscience — Luther's View of the Revolt — Luther to the Peasantry — Mur- 
 der of Count Helfenstein— Warlike Exhortation— Gotz of Berlichingen — " Radical Reform" — 
 Defeat of the Rebels — Miinzer at Mulhausen — Anxieties at Wittemburg — The Landgrave 
 V Takes up Arms— Defeat and Death of Miinzer — Thirteenth Article— Luther Calumniated — 
 :. Rise of the New Church— The Revolt and the Reformation— The Last Days of the Elector 
 Frederic— The Elector and the Reformer — Duke George's Confederacy — The Nuns of 
 Nimptsch— Catherine Bora— The Deserted Convent— Luther's Thoughts on Matrimony — Lu- 
 ther's Marriage— Domestic Happiness— The Elector John— The Landgrave Philip— Poliander's 
 Hymn— New Ordination — Diet at Augsburg — League of Torgau — The Evangelic Union — 
 " The Rulers Take Counsel Together"— The Emperor's Message— The Reformation and the 
 Papacy. 
 
 The Reformation, which had taken I its way into the public worship and the 
 its rise in a few pious hearts, had worked | private life of the Church ; it was to be 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 439 
 
 expected that it would, as it advanced, 
 penetrate into civil relationships. Its 
 progress was constantly, from within, — 
 outward. We are about to contemplate 
 this great change taking possession of 
 the political life of nations. 
 
 For a period of nearly eight centuries, 
 Europe had formed one vast sacerdotal 
 state. Its emperors and kings had been 
 under the patronage of its popes. If 
 France and Germany had afforded ex- 
 amples of energetic resistance to auda- 
 cious pretensions, still, Rome, in the re- 
 sult, had prevailed, and the world had 
 seen temporal princes, consenting to act 
 as executioners of her terrible sentences, 
 contend in defence of her power against 
 private Christians living under their 
 rule, and shed, in her cause, the blood 
 of the children of their people. 
 
 No infringement of this vast ecclesias- 
 tical polity but must affect, in a greater 
 or less degree, established political rela- 
 tions. 
 
 Two leading desires then agitated the 
 minds of the Germans. On one hand, 
 the people aspired after a revival of the 
 faith : on the other they demanded a 
 national government wherein the Ger- 
 man states might be represented, and 
 which should serve as a counterpoise to 
 the Imperial power.* 
 
 The Elector Frederic had urged this 
 demand at the time of the election of 
 Maximilian's successor, and the youth- 
 ful Charles had consented. A national 
 government had, in consequence, been 
 chosen, consisting of the Imperial chief 
 and representatives of the various elec- 
 tors and circles. 
 
 Thus while Luther was reforming the 
 Church, Frederic was engaged in re- 
 forming the State. 
 
 But when, simultaneously with a 
 change in religion, important modifica- 
 tions of political relationships were in- 
 troduced by the authorities, it was to be 
 apprehended that the commonalty would 
 exhibit a disposition to revolt, — thereby 
 bringing into jeopardy the Reformation 
 both of Church and of State. 
 
 This violent and fanatical irruption 
 of the people, under certain chosen lead- 
 ers, unavoidable where society is in a 
 
 * Pfeffel Droit publ. de l'AIlemagne. 590.— 
 Robertson, Charles V. vol. iii. p. 1 14. — Ranke, 
 Deutsche Gesen. 
 
 state of crisis, — did not fail to happen in 
 the times we are recording. 
 
 Other circumstances there were which 
 tended to these disorders. 
 
 The Emperor and the Pope had 
 combined against the Reformation, and 
 it might appear to be doomed to fail be- 
 neath the strokes of such powerful ene- 
 mies. Policy — interest — ambition obli- 
 ged Charles V. and Leo X. to extirpate 
 it. But such motives are feeble defences 
 against the power of Truth. A devoted 
 assertion of a cause deemed sacred can 
 be conquered only by a like devoted ness 
 opposed to it. But the Romans, quick 
 to catch Leo's enthusiasm for a sonnet 
 or a musical composition, had no pulse 
 to beat response to the religion of Jesus 
 Christ : or, if at times some graver 
 thoughts would intervene, instead of 
 their being such as might purify their 
 hearts, and imbue them with the Chris- 
 tianity of the Apostles, they turned upon 
 alliances, or conquests, or treaties that 
 added new provinces to the Papal states ; 
 and Rome, with cold disdain, left to the 
 Reformation to awaken on all sides a 
 religious enthusiasm, and to go forward 
 in triumphant progress to new victories. 
 The foe that she had sworn to crush, in 
 the church of Worms, was before her in 
 the confidence of courage and strength. 
 The contest must be sharp : blood must 
 flow. 
 
 Nevertheless some of the dangers that 
 threatened the Reformation seemed, just 
 then, to be less pressing. The youthful 
 Charles, standing one day, a little before 
 the publication of the edict of Worms, 
 in a window of his palace in conversa- 
 tion with his confessor, had, it is true, 
 said with emphasis, laying his hand upon 
 his heart, " I swear that I will hang up 
 before this window the first man who, 
 after the publication of my edict, shall 
 declare himself a Lutheran."* But it 
 was not long before his zeal cooled. 
 His plan for restoring the ancient glory 
 of the empire, or, in other words, enlarg- 
 ing his own dominions, was coldly re- 
 ceived ;f and taking umbrage with his 
 
 * Sancte juro .... eum ex hac fenestra, meo 
 jussu suspensum iri. — (Pallavicini, i. p. 130.) 
 
 t Essendo tomato dalla Dieta che sua MaestS. 
 haveva fatta in Wormatia, escluso d'ogni conclu- 
 sion buona d'ajuti e di favori che si fussi proposto 
 d'ottenere in esea. — (Instruttione al card. Far- 
 
440 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 German subjects, he passed the Rhine, 
 and retired to the Low Countries, avail- 
 ing himself of his sojourn there, to afford 
 the friars some gratifications that he 
 found himself unable to give them in 
 the empire. At Ghent, Luther's wri- 
 tings were burned by the public execu- 
 tioner with the utmost solemnity. More 
 than fifty thousand spectators attended 
 this auto-da-fe, and , the presence of the 
 Emperor himself, marked his approval 
 of the proceedings.* 
 
 Just at this time, Francis the First, 
 who eagerly sought a pretext for attack- 
 ing his rival, had thrown down the 
 gauntlet. Under pretence of re-estab- 
 lishing in their patrimony the children 
 of John of Albret, king of Navarre, he 
 had commenced a bloody contest, des- 
 tined to last all his life : — sending an 
 army to invade that kingdom, under 
 command of Lesparra, who rapidly 
 pushed his victorious advance to the 
 gates of Pampeluna. 
 
 On the walls of this fortress was to be 
 enkindled an enthusiasm Avhich, in after 
 years, should withstand the aggressive 
 enthusiasm of the Reformer, and breathe 
 through the Papal system a new energy 
 of devotedness and control. Pampeluna 
 was to be the cradle of a rival to the 
 Wittemberg monk. 
 
 The spirit of chivalry, which had so 
 long reigned in the Christian world, still 
 survived in Spain. The wars with the 
 Moors, recently terminated in that Penin- 
 sula, but continually recurring in Africa 
 — and distant and adventurous expeditions 
 beyond sea, kept alive in the Castilian 
 youth the enthusiastic and simple valour 
 of which Amadis had been the ideal ex- 
 hibition. 
 
 Among the garrison of Pampeluna was 
 a young man named Don Inigo Lopez 
 de Recalde, the youngest of a family of 
 thirteen. Recalde had been brought up 
 at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic. 
 Remarkable for a fine person,! and ex- 
 pert in the use of sword and lance, he 
 was ardently ambitious of chivalrous re- 
 nown. Clothed in dazzling armour, and 
 
 nese. Manuscript of the Bibl. Corsini, published 
 by Ranke.) 
 
 * Ipso Caesare, ore subridenti, spectaculo plau- 
 B it. — (Pallavicini, i. p. 130.) 
 
 t Cum esset in corporis ornatd elegantissimus. 
 — (Maffei, Vita Loyote, 1586, p. 3.) 
 
 mounted on a prancing steed, he took 
 delight in exposing himself to the glitter- 
 ing dangers of the tournament,* enga- 
 ging in hazardous enterprizes, taking part 
 in the impassioned struggles of opposing 
 factions,! an d manifesting as much de- 
 votion to St. Peter as to his lady-love. 
 Such was the life led by the young 
 knight. 
 
 The governor of Navarre, having gone 
 into Spain to obtain succours, had left to 
 Inigo and a few nobles the charge of de- 
 fending Pampeluna. These latter, learn- 
 ing the superior numbers of the French 
 troops, decided on retiring. Inigo en- 
 treated them to stand firm and resist Les- 
 parra ; but, not being able to prevail on 
 them, he indignantly reproached them 
 with their cowardice and perfidy, and 
 then threw himself into the citadel, re- 
 solved to defend it at the sacrifice of his 
 life.i 
 
 When the French, who had been re- 
 ceived with enthusiasm in Pampeluna, 
 proposed to the commandant of the for- 
 tress to capitulate, " Let us endure every- 
 thing,"^ boldly exclaimed Inigo, " rather 
 than surrender!" On this the French 
 began to batter the walls with their for- 
 midable artillery, and in a short time they 
 attempted to storm it. The bravery and 
 exhortations of Inigo gave fresh courage 
 to the Spaniards ; they drove back the 
 assailants by their arrows, swords, or hal- 
 berds. Inigo led them on. Taking his 
 stand on the ramparts, with eyes flaming 
 with rage, the young knight brandished 
 his sword, and felled the assailants to the 
 earth. Suddenly a ball struck the wall, 
 just where he stood ; a stone shivered 
 from the ramparts, wounded the knight 
 severely in the right leg, at the same 
 moment as the ball, rebounding from the 
 violence of the shock, broke his left. 
 Inigo fell senseless. || The garrison im- 
 mediately surrendered ; and the French, 
 
 * Equorumque et armorum usd pracelleret. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Partim in factionum rixarumque periculis, 
 partim in amatoria vesania . . . tenipus consumeret. 
 —(Maffei, Vita Loyolae, 1586, p. 3.) 
 
 I Ardentibus oculis, detestatus ignaviam per- 
 fidiamque spectantibus omnibus, in arcem solus 
 introit. — (Ibid. p. 6.) 
 
 § Tam acri ac vehementi oratione commilitoni- 
 bus dissuasit. — (Maf. Vita Loyolae, 1586, p. 6.) 
 
 || Ut e vestigio semiajiimis alienata mente cor- 
 ruerit. — (Ibid. p. 7.) 
 
LUTHER LEAVES THE WARTBURG. 
 
 441 
 
 admiring the courage of their youthful 
 adversary, bore him in a litter to his rela- 
 tives in the castle of Loyola. In this 
 lordly mansion, from which his name 
 was afterwards derived, Inigo had been 
 born of one of the most illustrious families 
 of that country, eight years after the birth 
 of Luther. 
 
 A painful operation became necessary. 
 In the most acute suffering, Inigo firmly 
 clenched his hands, but uttered no com- 
 plaint.* 
 
 Constrained to a repose which he could 
 ill endure, he found it needful to employ, 
 in some way, his ardent imagination. 
 In the absence of the romances which 
 he had been accustomed to devour, they 
 gave him the Life of Christ, and the 
 Flores Sanctorum. The reading of these 
 works, in his state of solitude and sick- 
 ness, produced an extraordinary effect 
 upon his mind. The stirring life of 
 tournaments and battles, which had oc- 
 cupied his youth, to the exclusion of every 
 thing beside, seemed as if receding and 
 fading from view, while a career of 
 brighter glory appeared to open before 
 him. The humble labours of the saints, 
 and their heroic patience were, all of a 
 sudden, seen to be far more worthy of 
 praise than all the high deeds of chivalry. 
 Stretched upon his couch, and still under 
 the effects of fever, he indulged in the 
 most conflicting thoughts. The world 
 he was planning to renounce, and that 
 life of holy mortification which he con- 
 templated, both appeared before him — 
 the one soliciting by its pleasures, the 
 other by its severities; — and fearful was 
 the struggle in his conscience between 
 these two opposing worlds. " What," 
 thought he, " if I were to act like St. 
 Francis or St. Dominic ?"f But the rec- 
 ollection of the lady to whom he had 
 pledged his love recurred to his mind. 
 " She is neither countess nor duchess," 
 said he to himself, with a kind of simple 
 yanity, "sfie is much more than either."! 
 But thoughts like these were sure to fill 
 him with distress and impatience, while 
 
 * Nullum aliud indicium dedit doloris, nisi ut 
 coactus in pugnum digitos valde constringeret. 
 —(Ibid. p. 8.) 
 
 t Quia si ego hoc agerem quod fecit b. Fran- 
 ciscus, quid si hoc quod b. Dominicus? — (Acta 
 Sanctorum, vii. p. 634.) 
 
 X Non era condessa, ni duquessa, mas era su 
 estado mas alto . . . — (lb.) 
 
 56 
 
 the idea of imitating the example of the 
 saints caused his heart to overflow with 
 peace and joy. 
 
 From this period his resolution was 
 taken. Scarcely had he risen from his 
 sick-bed, when he decided to retire from 
 the world. As Luther had done, he 
 once more invited to a repast his com- 
 panions in arms ; and then, without di- 
 vulging his design, set out, unattended,* 
 for the lonely cells excavated by the 
 Benedictine monks, in the rocks of the 
 mountains of Montserrat. Impelled, not 
 by the sense of his sin, or of his need of 
 the grace of God, but by the wish to be- 
 come " knight of the Virgin Mary," and 
 to be renowned for mortifications and 
 works, after the example of the army of 
 saints, — he confessed for three successive 
 days, gave away his costly attire to a 
 mendicant,! clothed himself in sackcloth, 
 and girded himself with a rope. Then, 
 calling to mind the armed vigil of Am- 
 adis of Gaul, he suspended his sword at 
 the shrine of Mary, passed the night in 
 watching, in his new and strange cos- 
 tume ; and sometimes on his knees, and 
 then standing, but ever absorbed in 
 prayer, and with his pilgrim's staff in 
 hand, went through all the devout prac- 
 tices of which the illustrious Amadis had 
 set the example. " Thus," remarks the 
 Jesuit, Maffei, one of the biographers of 
 the saint, " while Satan was stirring up 
 Martin Luther to rebellion against all 
 laws, divine and human, and whilst that 
 heretic stood up at Worms, declaring im- 
 pious war against the Apostolic See, 
 Christ, by his heavenly providence,, 
 called forth this new champion, and 
 binding him by after vows to obedience 
 to the Roman Pontiff, opposed him to 
 the licentiousness and fury of heretical 
 perversity."^ 
 
 Loyola, who was still lame in one of 
 his legs, journeyed slowly by circuitous 
 and secluded paths till he arrived at 
 Manresa. There he entered a convent 
 of Dominicans, resolving in this retired 
 spot to give himself up to the most rigid 
 
 * Ibi duce amicisque ita salutatis, ut arcana 
 consiliorum suorum quam accuratissime tegeret. 
 — (Maf. p. 16.) 
 
 t Pretiosa vestimenta quibus erat ornatus, 
 pannoso cuidam largitus sacco sese alacer induit 
 ac func prajcinxit. — (Ibid. p. 20.) 
 
 t Furori ac libidini hsereticse pravitatis oppo- 
 nent.— (Ibid, p. 21.) 
 
442 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 penances. Like Luther, he daily went 
 from door to door begging his bread.* 
 Seven hours he was on his knees, and 
 thrice every day did he flagellate him- 
 self. Again at midnight he was accus- 
 tomed to rise and pray. He allowed his 
 hair and nails to grow ; and it would 
 have been hard, indeed, to recognise in 
 the pale and lank visage of the monk of 
 Manresa, the young and brilliant knight 
 of Pampeluna. 
 
 Yet the moment had arrived when 
 the ideas of religion, which hitherto had 
 been to Inigo little more than a form of 
 chivalric devotion, were to reveal them- 
 selves to him as having an importance, 
 and exercising a power of which, till then, 
 he had been entirely unconscious. Sud- 
 denly, without any thing that might give 
 intimation of an approaching change of 
 feeling, the joy he had experienced left 
 him.f In vain did he have recourse to 
 prayer and chaunting psalms ; he could 
 not rest4 His imagination ceased to 
 present nothing but pleasing illusions, — 
 he was alone with his conscience. He did 
 not know what to make of a state of feel- 
 ing so new to him ; and he shuddered 
 as he asked whether God could still be 
 against him, after all the sacrifices he 
 had made. Day and night, gloomy ter- 
 rors disturbed him, — bitter were the tears 
 he shed, and urgent was his cry for that 
 peace which he had lost — but all in vain.$ 
 He again ran over the long confession 
 he had made at Montserrat. " Possi- 
 bly," thought he, " I may have forgotten 
 something." But that confession did but' 
 aggravate his distress of heart, for it re- 
 vived the thought of former transgres- 
 sions. He wandered about, melancholy 
 and dejected, his conscience accusing 
 him of having, all his life, done nought 
 but heap sin upon sin, and the wretched 
 man — a prey to overwhelming terrors — 
 filled the cloisters with the sound of his 
 sighs. 
 
 Strange thoughts, at this crisis, found 
 
 * Victum osteatim precibus, infimis emendi- 
 care quotidie. — (Maf. p. 23.) 
 
 t Tunc subito nulla preecedente significatione 
 prorsus exui nudarique se omni guadio eentiret. 
 —(Ibid. p. 27.) 
 
 X Nee jam in precibus, neque in psalmis . . . . 
 ullam inveniret delectationem aut requiem. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 § Vanis agitari terroribus, dies noctesque fleti- 
 bus jungere. — (Ibid. p. 28.) 
 
 access to his heart. Obtaining no relief 
 in the confessional, and the various ordi- 
 nances of the Church,* he began, as Lu- 
 ther had done, to doubt their efficacy. 
 But, instead of turning from man's works, 
 and seeking to the finished work of 
 Christ,— he considered whether he should 
 not once more plunge into the vanities 
 of the age. His soul panted eagerly for 
 that world that he had solemnly renoun- 
 ced ;f but instantly he recoiled, awe- 
 struck. 
 
 And was there, at this moment, any 
 difference between the monk of Manresa 
 and the monk of Erfurth 1 Doubtless, 
 in secondary points ; but their condition 
 of soul was alike. Both were deeply 
 sensible of their sins ; both sought peace 
 with God, and desired to have the assu- 
 rance of it in their hearts. If another 
 Staupitz, with the Bible in his hand, had 
 presented himself at the convent of Man- 
 resa, perhaps Inigo might have been 
 known to us as the Luther of the Pen- 
 insula. These two remarkable men of 
 the sixteenth century, the founders of two 
 opposing spiritual empires, which, for 
 three centuries, have warred one against 
 the other, were, at this period, brothers ; 
 and, perhaps, if they had been thrown 
 together, Luther and Loyola would have 
 rushed into each other's embrace, and 
 mingled their tears and their prayers. 
 
 But, from this moment, the two monks 
 were to take opposite courses. 
 
 Inigo, instead of regarding his remorse 
 as sent to urge him to the foot of the 
 cross, deluded himself with the belief 
 that his inward compunctions were not 
 from God, but the mere suggestions of 
 the devil; and he resolved not to think 
 any longer of his sins, but to obliterate 
 them for ever from his memory !| Lu- 
 ther looked to Christ — Loyola did but 
 turn inward on himself. 
 
 It was not long before visionary attes- 
 tations came in confirmation of Inigo's 
 self-imposed convictions. His own res- 
 olutions had been to him in place of the 
 Lord's -grace, and he had suffered the 
 
 * Ut nulla jam res mitigare dolorem posse vi- 
 deretur.— (Maf. p. 29.) 
 
 t Et saeculi commodis repetendis magno quo- 
 dam impetu cogitaverit. — (Ibid. p. 30.) 
 
 t Sine ulla dubitatione constituit piffiteritae 
 vitcB labes perpetua oblivione conterere. — (Ibid, 
 p. 31.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 443 
 
 imaginations of his own heart to take 
 the place of God's word. He had count- 
 ed the voice of God, speaking to him in 
 his conscience, as the voice of the devil ; 
 and hence, we see him, in the remainder 
 of his history, the dupe of delusions of 
 the power of darkness. 
 
 One day, Loyola chanced to meet an 
 old woman ; as Luther, when his soul 
 was under trial and exercise, had received 
 a visit from an old man. But the Span- 
 ish crone, instead of testifying of Remis- 
 sion of Sins to the penitent of Manresa, 
 predicted certain appearances of Jesus. 
 This was the sort of Christianity to which 
 Loyola, like the prophets of Zwickau, 
 had recourse. Inigo did not seek truth 
 from the Holy Scriptures, but invented 
 in their place certain direct communica- 
 tions from the world of spirits. He soon 
 passed his whole time absorbed in exta- 
 cy and abstraction. 
 
 Once, when on his way to the church 
 of St. Paul, outside the city, he followed, 
 lost in thought, the course of the Llobre- 
 gat, and stopped, for a moment, to seat 
 himself on its bank. He fixed his eyes 
 *on the river which rolled its deep waters 
 in^ silence before him. He soon lost all 
 consciousness of surrounding objects. 
 Of a sudden, he fell into an extacy. 
 Things were revealed to his sight, such 
 as ordinary men comprehend only after 
 much reading and long watching, and 
 study.* He rose from his seat. As he 
 stood by the bank of the river, he seem- 
 ed to himself a new man. He proceeded 
 to throw himself on his knees before a 
 crucifix erected near the spot, decided to 
 devote his life in service to that cause, 
 the mysteries of which had just been re- 
 vealed to his soul. 
 
 From this time, his visions were more 
 frequent. Sitting one day on the steps 
 of St. Dominic, at Manresa, singing 
 hymns to the Virgin, his thoughts were 
 all of a sudden arrested, and, wrapt in 
 extacy of motionless abstraction, while 
 the mystery of the Holy Trinity f was 
 revealed before his vision, under symbols 
 of glory and magnificence. His tears 
 flowed — his bosom heaved with sobs of 
 emotion, and all that day he never 
 ceased speaking of that ineffable vision. 
 
 * Quae vix demum solent homines intelligen- 
 tia comprehendere. — (Maf. p. 32.) 
 + En figuras de tree teclas. 
 
 Such repeated apparitions had over- 
 come and dissipated all his doubts. He 
 believed, not as Luther, because the 
 things of Faith were written in the Word 
 of God,— but because of the visions he 
 himself had had. " Even though no 
 Bible had existed,"* say his apologists, 
 " even though those mysteries should 
 never have been revealed in Scripture, 
 he would have believed them, for God 
 had disclosed Himself to him."f Luther, 
 become a doctor of divinity, had pledged 
 his oath to the sacred Scriptures — and 
 the alone infallible rule of God's word 
 was become the fundamental principle 
 of the Reformation. Loyola, at the time 
 we are recording, bound himself to 
 dreams and apparitions ; — and visionary 
 delusions became the moving principles 
 of his life, and the grounds of his confi- 
 dence. 
 
 Luther's sojourn in the convent of 
 Erfurth, and that of Loyola at Manresa 
 explain to us the principle of the Refor- 
 mation, and the character of modern 
 Popery. We will not follow, — in his 
 journey to Jerusalem, whither he re- 
 paired on leaving the convent, — the 
 monk who was to be a means of re- 
 animating the expiring power of Rome. 
 We shall meet with him again in the 
 further progress of this history. 
 
 Whilst these things were passing in 
 Spain, Rome herself appeared to wear a 
 graver aspect. The great patron of 
 music, hunting, and feasting was re- 
 moved from the throne of the Pontiff, 
 and succeeded by a pious and grave 
 monk. 
 
 Leo X. had been greatly pleased by 
 the intelligence of the edict of Worms, 
 and of Luther's captivity ; and in sign 
 of his triumph had caused the Reformer 
 to be publicly burnt in effigy, together 
 with his writings.^ It was the second 
 or third time that the Papacy had in- 
 dulged itself in this harmless satisfaction. 
 At the same time, Leo, to show his grati- 
 tude to the Emperor, united his army 
 with the Imperial forces. The French 
 
 * Quod etsi nulla scriptura, mysteria ilia fidei 
 doceret. — (Acta Sanct.) 
 
 t Quae Deo sibi aperiente cognoverat. — (Maf. 
 p. 34.) 
 
 t Comburi jussit alteram vultus in ejus statua, 
 alteram animi ejus hi Iibris. — (Pallavicini, i. p. 
 128.) 
 
444 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 were compelled to evacuate Parma, PJa- 
 centia, and Milan ; and Cardinal Giulio 
 de Medici* cousin to the Pope, made a 
 public entry into the latter city. The 
 Pope appeared on the point of attaining 
 the summit of human greatness. 
 
 The winter of the year 1521 was just 
 commencing. It was customary with 
 Leo X. to spend the autumn in the coun- 
 try. At that season, he would leave 
 Rome without surplice, and also, what, 
 remarks his master of the ceremonies, 
 was a yet greater impropriety, wearing 
 boots ! At Viterbo, he would amuse 
 himself with hawking ; at Corneto, he 
 hunted ; the lake of Bolsena afforded 
 him the pleasures of fishing. Leaving 
 these, he would pass some time at his fa- 
 vourite residence, Malliana, in a round of 
 festivities. Musicians, improvisatori, and 
 other Roman artists, whose talents might 
 add to the charms of this delightful 
 villa, there gathered round the Sovereign 
 Pontiff He was residing there, when 
 news was brought him of the taking of 
 Milan. A tumult of joy ensued in the 
 town. The courtiers and officers could 
 not contain their exultation ; the Swiss 
 discharged their carbines, and Leo in- 
 cautiously passed the night in walking 
 backward and forward in his chamber, 
 and looking out of the window at the re- 
 joicings of the people. He returned to 
 Rome, exhausted in body, and in the in- 
 toxication of success. Scarcely had he 
 re-entered the Vatican, when he was 
 suddenly taken ill. " Pray for me," said 
 he to his attendants. He had not even 
 time to receive the last sacraments, and 
 died, in the prime of life, at the age of 
 forty-seven — in a moment of victory, and 
 amid the sounds of public joy. 
 
 The crowd that followed the hearse of 
 the Sovereign Pontiff gave utterance to 
 curses. They could not pardon his hav- 
 ing died without the sacraments, — leav- 
 ing behind him the debts incurred by 
 his vast expenditure. " Thou didst win 
 the pontificate like a fox — heldst it like 
 a lion — and hast left it like a dog," said 
 the Romans. 
 
 Such was the mourning with which 
 Rome honoured the Pope who excom- 
 municated the Reformation ; and one 
 whose name yet serves to designate a 
 remarkable period in history. 
 
 Meanwhile a feeble reaction against 
 
 the temper of Leo and of Rome was al- 
 ready beginning in Rome itself. A few 
 men of piety had opened a place of 
 prayer in order to mutual edification, — 
 not far from the spot in which tradition 
 reports the first Christians of Rome to 
 have held their meetings.* Contarini, 
 who had been present on Luther's ap- 
 pearance at Worms, took the lead in 
 these little meetings. Thus, almost at 
 the same time as at Wittemberg, a kind 
 of movement toward a reformation mani- 
 fested itself at Rome. Truly has it 
 been remarked, that wherever there are 
 the seeds of ' love to God,' there are also 
 the germs of reformation. But these 
 well-meant efforts were soon to come to 
 nothing. 
 
 In other times, the choice of a succes- 
 sor to Leo X. would surely have fallen 
 upon a Gregory VII. or an Innocent III., 
 if men like them had been to be found ; 
 but now the Imperial interest was 
 stronger than that of the Church, and 
 Charles V. required a Pope who should 
 be devoted to his interests. 
 
 The Cardinal de Medici, afterwards 
 Clement VII., seeing that he had no '' 
 chance of obtaining the tiara, exclaimed 
 aloud — "Choose the Cardinal Tortosa, 
 an old man whom every one regards as 
 a saint." The result was, that this prel- 
 ate, who was a native of Utrecht, and 
 of humble birth, was actually chosen, 
 and reigned under the name of Adrian 
 VI. He had been professor at Louvain, 
 and afterwards tutor to Charles. In 
 1517, through the Emperor's influence, 
 he had been invested with the Roman 
 purple. Cardinal de Vio supported his 
 nomination. " Adrian," said he, " was 
 very useful in persuading the doctors of 
 Louvain to put forth their condemnation 
 of Luther. "t The conclave, tired out 
 and taken by surprise, nominated the 
 ultramontane Cardinal. " But soon com- 
 ing to their senses," observes an old 
 chronicler, " they were ready to die with 
 fear of the consequences." The thought 
 that the native of the Netherlands might 
 not accept of the tiara, brought them 
 temporary relief ; but it was soon dissi- 
 
 * Si unirono in un oratorio, chiamato del divf- 
 no amore, circa sessanta di loro. — (Caracciolo 
 Vita da Paolo IV. MSC. Ranke.) 
 
 t Doctores Lovanienses accepisse consilium a 
 tam conspicuo alumno. — (Pallavicini, p. 136.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 445 
 
 pated. Pasquin represented the elect 
 Pontiff under the character of a school- 
 master, and the Cardinals as boys under 
 the discipline of the rod. The irritation 
 of the populace was such that the mem- 
 bers of the conclave thought themselves 
 fortunate to escape being thrown into the 
 river.* In Holland, it was a subject of 
 general rejoicing that they had given 
 a head to the Church. Inscribed on 
 banners, suspended from the houses, 
 were the words, " Utrecht planted — 
 Louvain watered — the Emperor gave 
 the increase." One added underneath, 
 the words, — " and God had nothing to 
 do with it !" 
 
 Notwithstanding the dissatisfaction 
 which was at first manifested by the in- 
 habitants of Rome, Adrian VI. repaired 
 thither in August, 1522, and was well 
 received. It was whispered from one to 
 another that he had five thousand bene- 
 fices in his gift, and each reckoned on 
 some advantage to himself. For a long 
 time, the Papal chair had not been filled 
 by such a man. He was upright, indus- 
 trious, learned, pious, sincere, irreproach- 
 able in morals, and neither misled by 
 favouritism, nor blinded by passion. He 
 brought with him to the Vatican, his old 
 house-keeper, whom he charged to con- 
 tinue to provide frugally for his daily 
 wants in that palace which Leo had 
 filled with luxury and dissipation. He 
 was a stranger to the tastes of his pre- 
 decessor. When they showed him the 
 noble group of Laocoon, discovered only 
 a few years before, and purchased by 
 Julius II. at an enormous cost — he turn- 
 ed away, coolly observing, " They are 
 the idols of the heathen:" and in one of 
 his letters, he wrote, " I would far rather 
 serve God in my priory at Louvain, 
 than be pope at Rome." 
 
 Adrian, alarmed by the danger to 
 which the religion, which had come 
 down to them, through the middle ages, 
 was exposed from the spread of the Ref- 
 ormation ; and not, like the Italians, fear- 
 ing the discredit into which Rome and 
 her hierarchy were brought by it, — 
 earnestly desired to oppose and arrest its 
 progress; and he judged that the best 
 means to that end was to be found in a 
 reformation of the Church by herself. 
 " The Church," said he, " stands in need 
 * Sleidan. Hist, de la Ref. i. p. 124. 
 
 of a reformation ; but we must take one 
 step at a time." " The Pope," said Lu- 
 ther, " advises that a few centuries should 
 be permitted to intervene between the 
 first and the second step." In truth, the 
 Church had for ages tended towards a 
 reformation. It was now no time for 
 temporising. It was necessary to act ! 
 
 Adhering to his plan, Adrian set about 
 banishing from the city the profane, the 
 perjurers, and the usurers. It was no 
 easy task, for they composed a considera- 
 ble proportion of the population. 
 
 At first the Romans derided him, but 
 ere long they hated him. Priestly rule 
 and the vast gains it brought, the power, 
 and influence of Rome, its games and its 
 festivals, the luxury that everywhere 
 reigned in it, all would be irretrievably 
 lost, if there were a return to apostolic 
 simplicity. 
 
 The restoration of discipline every- 
 where encountered strong opposition. 
 " To produce the desired effect," said the 
 chief Cardinal Penitentiaria, " it would 
 be necessary to begin by reviving the 
 ' first love' of Christians : the remedy is 
 more than the patient can bear ; it will 
 be death to him. Take care, lest in 
 your desire to preserve Germany you 
 should lose Italy."* And, indeed, it was 
 not long before Adrian had even more 
 to fear from Romanism than Lutheranism 
 itself. 
 
 Those about him attempted to lead 
 him back to the path he had abandoned. 
 The old and practised Cardinal Soder- 
 mus of Volterra, the intimate friend of 
 Alexander VI., of Julius II., and of Leo 
 X.,t would often drop expressions well 
 suited to prepare him for that part, to 
 him so Strang*, which he was reserved 
 to act. "Heretics," observed he, "have, 
 in all ages, declaimed aganist the morals 
 of the Roman Court; and yet the Popes 
 have never changed them. It has never 
 been by reforms that heresies have been 
 extinguished, but by crusades." "Oh, how 
 wretched is the position of the Popes," 
 replied the Pontiff, sighing deeply, " since 
 they have not even liberty to do right."| 
 
 On the 23d March, 1522, and before 
 
 * Sarpi Histoire du Concile de Trente, p. 20. 
 
 t Per longa esperienza delle cose del miindo, 
 molto prudente e accorto. — (Nardi. Hist. Fior., 
 lib. 7.) 
 
 i Sarpi Hist du Cone, de Tr., p. 21. 
 
446 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Adrian's entry into Rome, the Diet as- 
 sembled at Nuremberg - . Already the 
 bishops of Mersburg and Misnia had pe- 
 titioned the Elector of Saxony to allow a 
 visitation of the convents and churches 
 in his states. Frederic, thinking that 
 truth had nothing to fear, had consented, 
 and the visitation took place. The bish- 
 ops and doctors preached vehemently 
 against the new opinions, exhorting, 
 alarming, and entreating, but their argu- 
 ments seemed to have no effect ; and 
 when looking about them for more effect- 
 ual methods, they requested the secular 
 authorities to carry their directions into 
 execution, the Elector's council returned 
 for answer, that the question was one 
 that required to be examined by the 
 Word of God, and that the Elector, at 
 his advanced age, could not engage in 
 theological investigation. These expe- 
 dients of the bishops did not reclaim a 
 single soul to the fold of Rome ; and 
 Luther, who passed over the same ground 
 shortly afterwards, preaching from place 
 to place, dispelled, by his powerful ex- 
 hortation, the slight impression that had 
 here and there been produced. 
 
 It was to be feared that the Archduke 
 Ferdinand, brother to the Emperor, would 
 do what Frederic had declined doing. 
 That young prince, who presided at 
 several sittings of the Diet, gradually 
 acquiring decision of purpose, might, in 
 his zeal, boldly unsheathe the sword 
 that his more prudent and politic brother 
 wisely left in the scabbard. In fact, 
 Ferdinand, in his hereditary states of 
 Austria, had already commenced a cruel 
 persecution against those who were fa- 
 vourable to the Reformation. But God, 
 on various occasions, ma^e instrumental, 
 in the deliverance of reviving Christian- 
 ity, the very same agency that had been 
 employed for the destruction of corrupt 
 Christianity. The Crescent suddenly 
 appeared in the panic-struck provinces 
 of Hungary. On the 9th of August, af- 
 ter a siege of six weeks, Belgrade, the 
 advanced post of that kingdom, and of 
 the empire, was taken by assault by So- 
 liman. The followers of Mahomet, after 
 retiring from Spain, seemed intent on 
 re-entering Europe from the East. The 
 Diet of Nuremberg turned its attention 
 from the Monk of Worms to the Sultan 
 of Constantinople. But Charles V. kept 
 
 both antagonists in view. In writing to 
 the Pope from Valladolid on the 31st 
 October, he said, " We must arrest the 
 progress of the Turks, — and punish by 
 the sword, all who favour the pestilent 
 doctrines of Luther."* 
 
 It was not long before the thunder 
 clouds which had seemed to pass by and 
 roll eastward, again gathered over the 
 Reformer. His re-appearance and ac- 
 tivity at Wittemberg had revived the 
 by-gone • hatred. " Now that we know 
 where to lay hands on him," said Duke 
 George, " why not carry into effect the 
 sentence of Worms ?" It was confident- 
 ly affirmed in Germany, that Charles V. 
 and Adrian had in a meeting at Nurem- 
 berg concerted the measures to be adopt- 
 ed.! " Satan feels the wound that has 
 been inflicted on him," said Luther, 
 " and thence his rage. But Christ has 
 already put forth his power, and will ere 
 long trample him under foot, in spite of 
 the gates of hell. "J 
 
 In the month of December, 1522, the 
 Diet again assembled at Nuremberg. 
 Everything announced that, as Soliman 
 had been the great enemy that had fixed 
 attention in the spring session, Luther 
 would be its principal object during the 
 winter sittings. Adrian VI., by birth a 
 German, hoped to find that favour from 
 his own nation which a Pope of Italian 
 origin could not expect.^ He, in conse- 
 quence, commissioned Chieregati, whom 
 he had known in Spain, to repair to 
 Nuremberg. At the opening of the Di- 
 et, several of the princes spoke strongly 
 against Luther. The Cardinal Arch- 
 bishop of Salzburg, who was high in the 
 confidence of the Emperor, urged the 
 adoption of prompt and vigorous meas- 
 ures, before the arrival of the Elector of 
 Saxony. The Elector Joachim of Bran- 
 denburg, inflexible in his purpose, and 
 the Chancellor of Treves, jointly insisted 
 that the edict of Worms should be carried 
 into effect. The rest of the princes were 
 % 
 
 * Das man die Nachfolger derselben vergifte- 
 ten Lehre, mit dem Schwert strafen mag. — (L. 
 Opp. xvii. p. 321.) 
 
 t Cumfama sit fortis et Cffisarem et Papam 
 Numbergam conventuros. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 214.) 
 
 t Sed Christus qui ccepit conteret eum. — (L. 
 Epp. ii. p. 215.) 
 
 § Quod ex ea regione venirent, undo nobis se- 
 cundum carnem origo est. — (See the Pope's brief 
 L. Opp. lat. ii. p. 352.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 447 
 
 in great part undecided, and divided in 
 opinion. The dilemma in which the 
 church was placed, filled its faithful ad- 
 herents with anguish. " I would give 
 one of my fingers," exclaimed the Bishop 
 of Strasburg, in* open assembly of the 
 Diet, " I would give one of my fingers 
 to be no priest."* 
 
 Chieregati, supported by the Cardinal 
 of Salzburg, insisted that Luther should 
 be put to death. " It is necessary," said 
 he, speaking in the Pope's name, and 
 holding the Pope's brief in his hand, u It 
 is indispensable that we should sever 
 from the body that gangrened member, f 
 Your forefathers punished with death 
 John Huss and Jerome of Prague, at 
 Constance, but both these are now risen 
 up in Luther. Follow the glorious ex- 
 ample of your ancestors, and by the help 
 of God, and of St. Peter, gain a signal 
 victory over this serpent of hell." 
 
 On hearing the brief of the pious and 
 mild Adrian read in the assembly, the 
 majority of the princes were not a little 
 alarmed. | Many began to see more in 
 Luther's arguments ; and they had hoped 
 better things from the Pope. Thus then 
 Rome, though under the presidency of 
 an Adrian, cannot be brought to acknowl- 
 edge her delinquency, but still hurls her 
 thunderbolts, and the fields of Germany 
 are again about to be deluged with blood. 
 Whilst the princes maintained a gloomy 
 silence, the prelates, and such members 
 of the Diet as were in the interest of Rome, 
 tumultuously urged the adoption of a de- 
 cision. " Let him be put death,"§ cried 
 they, — as we learn from the Saxon envoy 
 who was present at this sitting. 
 
 Very different were the sounds heard 
 in the churches of Nuremberg. The 
 chapel of the hospital, and the churches 
 of the Augustines, St. Sebald and St. 
 Lorenzo, were crowded with multitudes 
 flocking to hear the preaching of the 
 Gospel. Andrew Osiander preached pow- 
 erfully at St. Lorenzo's. Many princes 
 attended, especially Albert, Margrave of 
 Brandenburg, who, in his quality of 
 
 * Er wollte einen Finger drum geben. — (Seek. 
 p. 568.) 
 
 t Resecandos uti membra jam pwtrida a sano 
 corpore. — (Pall. i. 158.) 
 
 X Einen grossen Schrecken eingejagt. — (Seek. 
 p. 552.) 
 
 § Nicht anders geschrien denn : Crucifige .' 
 Crucifige ! — (L. Opp, xviii. p. 367.) 
 
 Grand Master of the Teutonic order, took 
 rank immediately next to the archbishops. 
 Monks, abandoning the religious houses 
 in the city, applied themselves to learn 
 various trades, in order to gain their live- 
 lihood by their labour. 
 
 Chieregati could not endure such daring 
 disobedience. He insisted that the priests 
 and refractory monks should be imprison- 
 ed. The Diet, notwithstanding the re- 
 monstrances of the ambassadors of the 
 Elector of Saxony and the Margrave 
 Casimir, decided to seize the persons of 
 the monks, but consented to communi- 
 cate previously to Osiander and his col- 
 leagues the Nuncio's complaint. A com- 
 mittee, under the direction of the fanati- 
 cal Cardinal of Salzburg, was charged 
 with the matter. The danger was im- 
 minent — the conflict was on the point of 
 commencing, and it was the great Coun- 
 cil of the nation that provoked it. 
 
 Yet the people interposed. Whilst 
 the Diet was engaged in deliberating 
 what should be done with these ministers, 
 the town council was considering what 
 steps should be taken in regard to the 
 decision of the Diet. The council came 
 to a resolution which did not overstep the 
 limits assigned to it by the laws, — that 
 if force were employed to deprive them 
 of their preachers, recourse should be 
 had to force to set them at liberty. Such 
 a resolution was full of significance. The 
 astonished Diet returned an answer to 
 the Nuncio that it was not lawful to ar- 
 rest the' preachers of the free city of Nu- 
 remberg without previously convicting 
 them of heresy. 
 
 Chieregati was strangely disconcerted 
 by this fresh insult to the supreme authori- 
 ty of the Papacy. — " Very well," said he, 
 haughtily, addressing himself to Ferdi- 
 nand, " do you then do nothing, — leave 
 me to act, — I will seize the preachers in 
 the Pope's name."* When the Cardinal- 
 Archbishop Albert of Mentz, and the 
 Margrave Casimir were apprized of this 
 startling determination, they came in 
 haste to the Legate, imploring him to 
 abandon his intention. The latter was, 
 at first, inflexible, affirming that, in the 
 bosom of Christendom, obedience to the 
 Pope could not be dispensed with. The 
 
 * Sese auctoritate pontifica curaturum ut isti 
 caperentur. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 606 ) 
 
448 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 two Princes retired ; — " If you persist in 
 your intention/' said they, "we require 
 you to send us notice, for we will quit 
 the city before you venture to lay hands 
 on the preachers."* The Legate aban- 
 doned his project. 
 
 Despairing- of success by authoritative 
 measures, he now decided to have re- 
 course to expedients of another kind, and 
 with this purpose, communicated to the 
 Diet the Pontiff's intentions and orders, 
 which he had hitherto kept private. 
 
 But the well-intentioned Adrian, little 
 used to the ways of the world, did injury 
 even by his candour to the cause he had 
 at heart " We are well aware," said 
 he, in the ' resolutions' forwarded to his 
 Legate, " that for many years past, the 
 holy city has been a scene of many cor- 
 ruptions and abominations.! The infec- 
 tion has spread from the head through 
 the members, and has descended from 
 the Popes to the rest of the clergy. It 
 is our desire to reform that court of 
 Rome, whence so many evils are seen 
 to flow, — the whole world desires it, and 
 it is in order that we may do this, that 
 we consented to ascend the throne of the 
 pontiffs." 
 
 The supporters of Rome blushed to 
 hear these unlooked-for words. " They 
 thought," as Pallavicini says, " that such 
 admissions were too sincere. "J The 
 friends of the Reformation, on the con- 
 trary, rejoiced to hear Rome herself pro- 
 claiming her corruption. Who could 
 doubt that Luther had truth on his side, 
 now that the Pope declared it ! 
 
 The answer of the Diet shewed how 
 greatly the authority of the chief Pontiff 
 had lost ground in the empire. Luther's 
 spirit seemed to have taken possession 
 of the hearts of the nation's representa- 
 tives. The moment was auspicious. — 
 Adrian's ear seemed open, — the Emper- 
 or was at a distance ; — the Diet resolved 
 to enumerate in one document the va- 
 rious wrongs that Germany had for cen- 
 
 * Priusquam illi caperentur, se urbe cessuro- 
 sesse. — (Ibid.) 
 
 + In earn sedem aliquot jam annos quuedam 
 vitia irrepsisse, abusus in rebus sacris, in legibus 
 violationes, in cunctis denique perversionem. — 
 (Pallav. i. p. 100. See also Sarpi, p. 25. L. 
 Opp. xviii. p. 329, &c.) 
 
 t Liberioris tamen quam par erat, sinceritatis 
 fuisse visum est, ea conventui patefacere. — (Ibid. 
 p. 162.) 
 
 turies endured from Rome, and to address 
 their memorial to the Pope. 
 
 The Legate was alarmed at this de- 
 termination. He used threats and en- 
 treaties, but both were unavailing. The 
 secular states adhered to their purpose, 
 and the ecclesiastical did not venture to 
 offer opposition. Eighty grievances were 
 therefore set forth. The corruption and 
 arts of the Popes and of the court of 
 Rome, in order to squeeze revenue from 
 Germany, — the scandals and profana- 
 tions of the clerical orders, — the disorders 
 and simony of the ecclesiastical courts, — 
 the encroachments on the civil power to 
 the restriction of liberty of conscience, 
 were detailed with equal freedom and 
 force. The States distinctly intimated 
 that traditions of men were the source 
 of all this abuse, and they ended by say- 
 ing, — " If these grievances are not re- 
 dressed within a limited time, we will 
 consult together, and seek some other 
 means of deliverance from our sufferings 
 and our wrongs."* Chieregati, having 
 a presentiment that the report the Djet 
 would prepare would be couched in 
 strong language, hastily took his depar- 
 ture from Nuremberg, thus avoiding 
 being himself the bearer of so disap- 
 pointing and insolent a communica- 
 tion. 
 
 After all, was it not still to be feared 
 that the Diet would endeavour to make 
 some amends for this bold measure, by 
 the sacrifice of Luther himself? At first, 
 there were some apprehensions of such 
 a policy, — but a spirit of justice and sin- 
 cerity had been breathed on the assembly. 
 Following the example of Luther, it de- 
 manded the convocation of a free Coun- 
 cil in the Empire, and decreed that until 
 such Council should assemble, nothing 
 should be preached but the simple Gos- 
 pel, and nothing put forth in print, 
 without the sanction of a certain number 
 of men of character and learning.! 
 These resolutions afford us some means 
 of estimating the vast advance the Ref- 
 ormation had made since the Diet of 
 Worms, — and yet the Saxon envoy, the 
 knight Frelitsch, recorded a formal pro- 
 test against the censorship prescribed by 
 
 * Wie- sie solcher Beschwerung und Drangsaal 
 entladen werden. — (L. Opp. xviii. p. 354.) 
 
 t Ut pie placideque purum Evangelium prasdi- 
 caretur. — (Pal. i. p. 166. Sleiden, i. p. 135.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 449 
 
 the Diet, moderate as that censorship 
 might seem. The decree of the Diet 
 was a first victory gained by the Ref- 
 ormation, which was the presage of 
 future triumphs. Even the Swiss, in 
 the depths of their mountains, shared in 
 the general exultation. " The Roman 
 Pontiff has been defeated in Germany !" 
 said Zwingle ; " All that remains to be 
 done is to deprive him of his armour. 
 It is for this that we must now fight, and 
 the battle Avill be fiercer than before. 
 But we have Christ present with us in 
 the conflict."* Luther loudly affirmed 
 that the edict the Princes had put forth 
 was by inspiration of God himself, f 
 
 Great was the indignation al the Vat- 
 ican among the Pope's council. " What ! 
 it is not enough to have to bear with a 
 Pope who disappoints the expectation of 
 the Romans, in whose palace no sound 
 of song or amusement is ever heand, but, 
 in addition to this r secular princes are to 
 be suffered to hold a language that Rome 
 abhors, and refuse to deliver up the 
 monk of Wittemberg to the executioner !" 
 
 Adrian himself was indignant at the 
 events in Germany, and it was on the 
 head of the Elector of Saxony that he 
 now poured out his anger. Never had 
 the Roman Pontiffs uttered a cry of 
 alarm more energetic, more sincere, or 
 more affecting. 
 
 " We have waited long — perhaps too 
 long," said the pious Adrian, in his brief 
 addressed to the Elector : " It was our 
 desire to see whether God would visit 
 thy soul, so that thou mightest at the last 
 be delivered from the snares of the devil. 
 But where we had hoped to gather 
 grapes there have we found nothing but 
 wild grapes. The Spirit's promptings 
 have been despised ; thy wickedness has 
 not been subdued. Open then thine 
 eyes to behold the greatness of thy fall ! 
 
 " If the unity of the Church is gone — 
 if the simple have been turned out of the 
 way of that faith which they had sucked 
 from their mothers' breasts — if the church- 
 es are deserted — if the people are without 
 priests, and the priests have not the hon- 
 our due to them, — if christians are with- 
 
 * Victus est ac ferme profligatns e Germania 
 romanus pontifex. — (Zvv. Epp. 313. 11th Oct. 
 1523.) 
 
 t Gott habe solches E. G. eingeben. — (L. Opp. 
 xviii. 476.) 
 
 57 
 
 out Christ, to> whom is it owing but to 
 thee?* .... If christian peace has for- 
 saken the earth — if, on every side, dis- 
 cord, rebellion, pillage, violence, and 
 midnight conflagrations prevail — if the 
 cry of war is heard from east to west — 
 if universal conflict is at hand, — it is thou 
 thyself who art the author of all these. 
 
 " Seest thou not that sacrilegious man 
 (Lulher), how he rends with wicked 
 hands, and profanely tramples under 
 foot, the pictures of the saints, and even 
 the holy cross of Jesus ? . . . . Seest thou 
 not how, in his infamous rage, he incites 
 the laity to shed the blood of the priests, 
 and overturn the temples of the Lord ? 
 
 " And what, if the priests he assails 
 are disorderly in conduct 1 lias not the 
 Lord said, ' Whatsoever they bid you, that 
 observe and do, but do not after their works 1 
 — thus instructing us in the honour that 
 belongs to them, even though their lives 
 should be disorderly! 
 
 " Rebellious apostate ! he does not 
 blush to defile vessels dedicated to God ; 
 he forces from the sanctuaries virgins 
 .consecrated to Christ, delivering them 
 over to the devil ; he getteth into his 
 power the priests of the Lord, and gives 
 them to abandoned women. Awful prof- 
 anation ! which even the heathen would 
 have reprobated in the priests of their 
 idol worship. 
 
 " What punishment, what infliction, 
 dost thou think we judge thee to de- 
 serve 1 Have pity on thyself, — have 
 pity on thy poor Saxons ; for surely, if 
 thou dost not turn from the evil of thy 
 way, God will bring down His ven- 
 geance upon thee. 
 
 " In the name of the Almighty God 
 and our Saviour Jesus Christ, of whom 
 I am vicegerent on earth, I warn thee 
 that thou wilt be judged in this world, 
 and be cast into the lake of everlasting 
 fire in that which is to come. Repent 
 and be converted. Both swords are im- 
 pending over thy head, — the sword of 
 the Empire, and that of the Papal au- 
 thority." 
 
 The pious Frederic shuddered as he 
 
 * Dass die Kirchen olino Volk sind, class die 
 Volker ohne Priester sind, dass die Priester ohne 
 Ehre sind, und dass die Christen ohnc Christo 
 sind. — (L. Opp. xviii. p. 371.) 
 
 t Wen sie gleich eines verdammten Lebens 
 sind. — (L. Opp. xviii. p. 379.) 
 
450 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 read this menacing brief. A little be- 
 fore he had written to the Emperor to 
 say that his age and bodily indisposition 
 incapacitated him for attending to such 
 matters ; and the answer returned was 
 one of the most insolent letters a reign- 
 ing prince had ever received. Infirm 
 and aged as he was, his eyes rested upon 
 the sword he had received at the holy 
 sepulchre in the days of youthful vigour. 
 A thought crossed- his mind that it 
 might be necessary to unsheathe it in 
 defence of the conscience of his subjects, 
 and that, near as his life was to its close, 
 he should not descend to the grave in 
 peace. He forthwith wrote to Wittem- 
 berg to have the judgment of the fathers 
 of the Reformation as to what should be 
 done. 
 
 There, also, forebodings of commotion 
 and persecution were rife. " What can 
 I say," exclaimed the mild Melancthon, 
 "whither can I turn?* Hatred presses 
 ns to the earth — the world is up in arms 
 against us." Luther, Link, Melancthon, 
 Bugenhagen and Amsdorff, held a con- 
 sultation on the answer to be returned to 
 the Elector. They drew up a reply, 
 each in terms nearly identical, and the 
 advice they gave is not a little remark- 
 able. 
 
 " No prince," said they, " can under- 
 take a war without the consent of the 
 people from whose hands he has receiv- 
 ed his authority.! But the people have 
 no heart to fight for the Gospel, for they 
 do not believe. Therefore, let not princes 
 take up arms ; they are rulers of the 
 nations , that is to say, of unbelievers." 
 Here we find the impetuous Luther so- 
 liciting the discreet Frederic to restore 
 his sword to its scabbard. No better an- 
 swer could be given to the Pope's charge 
 that he stirred up the laity to embrue 
 their hands in the blood of the priests. 
 Few characters have been more misun- 
 derstood than his. This advice was 
 dated the 8th February, 1523. Frederic 
 submitted in silence. 
 
 It was not long before the effects of 
 the Pope's angpr began to be seen. The 
 princes who had recapitulated their 
 
 * Quid dicam ? quo me vertam ? — (Corf). Ref. 
 i. p. 627.) 
 
 + Principi nullum licet suscipere bellum, nisi 
 consentiente populo, a quo accepit imperium. — 
 (Ibid, p 601 j 
 
 grievances, now dreading the conse- 
 quences, sought to make amends by 
 compliances. Some, there were, who 
 reflected that victory would probably de- 
 clare for the Pontiff, seeing that he, to 
 all appearance, was the stronger of the 
 two. " In our days," observed Luther, 
 " princes are content to say three times 
 three make nine, or twice seven make 
 fourteen, — right, the counsel shall stand. 
 Then the Lord our God arises and 
 speaks : ' What then do you allow for 
 My power?' .... It may be naught 
 . . . . And immediately He confuses 
 the figures, and their calculations are 
 proved false."* 
 
 The stream of fire poured forth by 
 the humble and gentle Adrian kindled 
 a conflagration, and the rising flame 
 spread far and wide in Christendom a 
 deep agitation. Persecution, which had 
 slackened for a while, was now renewed. 
 Luther trembled for Germany, and 
 sought to allay the tempest. " If the 
 princes make war against the truth," said 
 he, " there will be such confusion as will 
 be the ruin of princes, magistrates, cler- 
 gy, and people. I tremble at the thought 
 that all Germany may, in a little while, 
 be deluged with blood. f Let us stand 
 as a rampart for our country against the 
 wrath of our God. Nations are not now 
 as formerly. ;£ The sword of civil war is 
 impending over kings : — they are bent 
 on destroying Luther — but Luther is 
 bent on saving them ; Christ lives and 
 reigns, and I shall reign with him. v § 
 
 These words were spoken to the winds. 
 Rome was pressing forward to scaffolds 
 and the shedding of blood. The Refor- 
 mation in this resembled Jesus Christ, — 
 that it came not to send peace on the 
 earth, but a sword. Persecution was 
 necessary in the counsels of God. As 
 certain substances are hardened in the 
 fire that they may be less liable to be af- 
 fected by atmospheric changes, so the 
 fiery trial was designed to arm and de- 
 fend the truth of the Gospel from the in- 
 fluence of the world. But that fiery 
 
 * So kehrt er ihnen auch die Rechnung gar 
 um. — (L. Opp. xxii. 1831.) 
 
 t Ut videar mini videre Germaniam in san- 
 guine natare.- — (L. Epp. ii. p. 156.) 
 
 t Cogitent populos non esse tales modo, qualee 
 hactenus fuerunt. — (Ibid. p. 157.) 
 
 § Christus meus vivit et regnat, et ego vivam 
 et regnabo. — (Ibid. p. 158.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 451 
 
 trial did yet more ; — it served, as in the 
 early days of Christianity, to kindle in 
 men's hearts an universal enthusiasm for 
 a cause against which such rage was let 
 loose. There is in man, when first in- 
 troduced to the knowledge of the truth, 
 a holy indignation against violence and 
 injustice. An instinct received from 
 God impels him to range himself on the 
 side of the oppressed ; and, at the same 
 time, the faith of the martyrs exalts, 
 controls, and leads him to that saving 
 truth which gifts its followers with so 
 much courage and tranquillity. 
 
 Duke George openly took the lead in 
 the persecution. But he was not con- 
 tent to carry it on among his own sub- 
 jects ; he desired, above all, to see it ex- 
 tend itself to electoral Saxonyj the focus 
 of heresy, and he laboured hard to move 
 the Elector Frederic and Duke John. 
 In writing to them from Nuremberg, he 
 observed, "Certain merchants, recently 
 from Saxony, bring reports from thence 
 of strange things, and such as are most 
 opposed to the honour of God, and the 
 saints. It seems, they take the holy 
 sacrament in their hands — consecrate 
 the bread and wine in the common 
 speech of the people — pour the blood of 
 Christ into a common cup. It is said 
 that at Eulenberg, a man, who sought 
 occasion to insult an officiating priest, 
 rode into the church mounted on an ass. 
 And what do we hear to be the conse- 
 quence 1 The mines, with which God 
 had enriched Saxony, are become less 
 productive ever since this preaching of 
 Luther's innovations. Would to God 
 that those who boast that they have re- 
 stored the Gospel in the electorate had 
 employed themselves in carrying the 
 testimony of it to Constantinople. Lu- 
 ther's speech is gentle and specious, but 
 it draws after it a sting which is sharper 
 than a scorpion's. Let us make ready 
 our hands to fight. Let us cast these 
 apostate monks and ungodly priests into 
 prison ; let us do so at once ; for the 
 hairs of our heads are turning as grey 
 as our beards, and admonish us that we 
 have not long to live."* 
 
 So wrote Duke George to the Elector. 
 The latter answered decidedly, yet mild- 
 
 * Wie ihre Bart und Haare ausweisen. — 
 (Seckend. p. 482.) 
 
 ly, that whoever should commit any 
 crime within his state should not go un- 
 punished ; but that, as to matters of con- 
 science, they must be left to the judg- 
 ment of God.* 
 
 Failing in his endeavour to persuade 
 Frederic, George pressed his severities 
 against such as lay within his reach. 
 He imprisoned the monks and priests 
 who were known to adhere to Luther's 
 doctrines, — recalled to their families the 
 students who had gone from his states to 
 pursue their studies in the universities to 
 which the Reformation had extended, 
 and required his subjects to deliver up 
 to the magistrates all copies of the New 
 Testament in the vernacular tongue. 
 Similar measures were put in force in 
 Austria, Wurtemberg, and the Duchy 
 of Brunswick. 
 
 But it was in the Low Countries, un- 
 der the immediate rule of Charles V., 
 that the persecution broke out with most 
 violence. The convent of the Augus- 
 tines, at Antwerp, contained within it 
 many monks who had hailed with joy 
 the truths of the Gospel. Several of the 
 brothers had passed some time at Wit- 
 temberg, and ever since 1519, Salvation 
 by Grace had been preached in their 
 church with unusual power. Toward 
 the close of the year 1521, James Probst, 
 the prior, a man of ardent temperament, 
 and Melchior Mirisch, who was remark- 
 able for the opposite qualities of experi- 
 ence and prudence, were arrested and 
 carried to Brussels. They were there 
 brought before Aleander, Glapio, and 
 several other prelates. Taken unawares, 
 disconcerted, and dreading consequences, 
 Probst recanted. Melchior Mirisch found 
 means to appease his judges ; and, while 
 he avoided a recantation, escaped con- 
 demnation. 
 
 These proceedings no way overawed 
 the monks who remained in the convent 
 of Antwerp. They continued to preach 
 the Gospel with earnestness. The peo- 
 ple crowded to hear, and the church of 
 the Augustines at Antwerp was unable 
 to contain the hearers, as had been the 
 case at Wittemberg. In October, 1522, 
 the storm which nad been gathering 
 over their heads suddenly burst forth. 
 
 * Musse man solche Dinge Gott iiberlassen. — 
 (Seckend. p. 485.) 
 
452 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The convent was closed, and the monks 
 imprisoned and sentenced to die.* A 
 few effected their escape. Some women, 
 roused into forgetfulness of the natural 
 timidity of their sex, rescued one of 
 them, by name Henry Zuphten. from 
 the hands of the executioners.! Three 
 of the younger monks, Henry Voc, 
 John Eesch, and Lambert Thorn, eva- 
 ded for a time the search of the inquisi- 
 tors. The sacred vessels of the convent 
 were publicly sold, the entrance to the 
 church barricaded, the holy sacrament 
 was carried forth as if from a place of 
 pollution, and Margaret, who then gov- 
 erned the Low Countries, solemnly re- 
 ceived it into the church of the Holy 
 Virgin.;}; An order was given that not 
 one stone should be left upon another of 
 that heretical monastery : and several 
 private citizens and women who had 
 joyfully received the Gospel were thrown 
 into prison. § 
 
 Luther was deeply grieved on receiv- 
 ing intelligence of these events. "The 
 cause we have in hand," said he, "is no 
 longer a mere trial of strength ; it de- 
 mands the sacrifice of our lives, and must 
 be cemented by our blood." || 
 
 Mirisch and Probst were reserved for 
 a very different fate. The politic Mirisch 
 soon became the docile slave of Rome, 
 and was employed in carrying into exe- 
 cution the Imperial orders against the fa- 
 vourers of the Reformation.!" Probst, 
 on the contrary, escaping out of the 
 hands of the inquisitors, wept bitterly 
 over his failure, retraced his recantation, 
 and boldly preached, at Bruges in Flan- 
 ders, the doctrine he had abjured. Be- 
 ing again arrested and cast into prison 
 at Brussels, death seemed inevitable.** 
 A Franciscan took pity upon him, as- 
 sisted him in his flight, and Probst, "sa- 
 ved by a miracle of God," says Luther, 
 reached Wittemberg, where all hearts 
 
 * Zum Tode verurtheilet— (Seek. p. 548.) 
 
 t Quomodo mulieresvi Henricum liberarint. — 
 (L. Epp. ii. p. 265.) 
 
 t Susceptum honorifice a domina Margareta. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 § Cives aliquos, et mulieres vexata? et punitae. 
 —(Ibid ) 
 
 || Et vitam exiget et sanguinem. — (Ibid. 181.) 
 
 f Est executor Csesaris contra nostros. — (Ibid. 
 p. 207.) 
 
 ** Domo captum, exustum credimus. — (Ibid. 
 p. 214.) 
 
 were filled with joy at his second deliv- 
 erance.* 
 
 On every side the priests of Rome were 
 under arms. The town of Miltenberg 
 on the Maine, in the jurisdiction of the 
 Elector Archbishop of Mentz, had, of all 
 the towns of Germany, received the 
 Word of God with most joy. The in- 
 habitants were much attached to their 
 pastor, John Draco, one of the most en- 
 lightened men of his time. He was com- 
 pelled to leave the city ; but the Roman 
 clergy withdrew at the same time, dread- 
 ing the vengeance of the people. An . 
 evangelical deacon remained behind, and 
 comforted their hearts. At Jhe same 
 time the soldiery of Mentz were intro- 
 duced and dispersed through the city, 
 vomiting blasphemies, brandishing their 
 swords, and giving themselves up to de- 
 bauchery.! 
 
 Some of the evangelical Christians 
 fell victims to their violence,^ others were 
 seized and thrown into dungeons, the 
 rites of Romish worship was restored, 
 the reading of the Scriptures prohibited, 
 and the inhabitants forbidden to speak 
 of the Gospel, even in their family meet- 
 ings The deacon had taken refuge with 
 a poor widow, on the entrance of the 
 troops. Information was given to the 
 commanding officer, and a soldier de- 
 spatched to take him. The humble dea- 
 con, hearing the steps of the soldier who 
 sought his life, advancing, quietly waited 
 for him, and just as the door of the cham- 
 ber was abruptly pushed open, he came 
 forward, and, embracing him, said, " I 
 bid you welcome, brother. Here I am : 
 
 * Jacobus, Dei miraculo liberatus qui nunc i 
 agit nobiscum. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 182.) This letter, 
 which is found in M. De Wette's collection, un- 
 der the date of April 14, must be subsequent to 
 the month of June, — since, on the 26th of June, 
 we find Luther saying that Probst has been again 
 taken, and was expected to be burnt. The sup- 
 position that would solve the difficulty, by sup- 
 posing Probst to have been at Wittemberg be- 
 tween these two captures, is not admissible, for 
 Luther would not have said of a Christian who 
 had been saved from death by his recantation 
 that he had been delivered by a miracle of God. 
 Perhaps, we should read the date, &c. of this 
 letter, instead of ' in die S. Tihurtii,' — ' in die 
 Turiafi.' — which would place it in July 13 — tho 
 probable date, in my opinion. 
 
 t So sie doch schandlicher leben denn Huren 
 und Buben.— (L. Epp. ii. p. 482.; 
 
 X Schlug etliche todt.— (Seek. p. 604.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 453 
 
 plunge your sword in my bosom."* 
 The stern soldier, in astonishment, dropt 
 his weapon, and contrived to save the 
 pious evangelist from further molestation. 
 
 Meanwhile, the inquisitors of the Low 
 Countries, thirsting for blood, scoured 
 the neighbouring country, searching 
 everywhere for the young Augustines 
 who had escaped from the Antwerp per- 
 secution. Esch, Voes, and Lambert, 
 were at last, discovered, put in chains, 
 and conducted to Brussels. Egmonda- 
 nus, Hochstraten, and several other in- 
 quisitors, summoned them to their pres- 
 ence. " Do you retract your opinion," 
 inquired Hochstraten, " that the priest 
 has no power to forgive sins, but that 
 that power belongs to God alone ?" — and 
 then he went on to enumerate the other 
 Gospel truths which he required them to 
 abjure. " No : we will retract nothing," 
 exclaimed Esch and Voes, firmly ; " we 
 will not disown God's Word ; we will 
 rather die for the faith !" 
 
 The Inquisitor. — ' ; Confess that you 
 have been deceived by Luther." 
 
 The young Augustines. — " As the 
 apostles were deceived by Jesus Christ." 
 
 The Inquisitors. — " We declare you 
 to be heretics, worthy of being burnt 
 alive ; and we deliver 
 secular arm." 
 
 Lambert was silent 
 of death terrified him : 
 certainty agitated his heart. " I request 
 four days' respite," said he, in stifled 
 emotion. He was taken back to prison. 
 As soon as this respite was expired, 
 Esch and Voes were degraded from 
 their priestly office, and handed over to 
 the council of the reigning governess 
 of the Low Countries. The council de- 
 livered them, bound, to the executioner. 
 Hochstraten and three other inquisitors ac- 
 companied them to the place of execution, f 
 
 Arriving at the scaffold, the young 
 martyrs contemplated it with calmness. 
 Their constancy, their piety, and their 
 youth, drew tears from the inquisitors 
 themselves. When they were bound to 
 the stake,| the confessors drew near, 
 
 * Sey gegriisst, mein Bruder. — (Scultet. ann. 
 i. p. 173.) 
 
 t Facta est hsec res Bruxellee in publico foro. 
 — (L. Epp. ii. p. 361.) 
 
 t Nondum triginta annorum. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 
 361.) 
 
 you 
 
 over to the 
 
 The prospect 
 distress and un- 
 
 " Once more we ask you if you will re- 
 ceive the Christian faith?" 
 
 The Martyrs. — We believe in the 
 Christian Church, but not in your 
 Church." 
 
 Half-an-hour elapsed. It was a pause 
 of hesitation. A hope had been cher- 
 ished that the near prospect of such a 
 death would intimidate these youths. 
 But, alone tranquil of all the crowd that 
 thronged the square, they began to sing 
 psalms, — stopping from time to time to 
 declare that they were resolved to die for 
 the name of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " Be converted — be converted," cried 
 the inquisitors, " or you will die in the 
 name of the devil." " No," answered 
 the martyrs ; " we will die like Chris- 
 tians, and for the truth of the Gospel." 
 
 The pile was then lighted. Whilst 
 the flame slowly ascended, a heavenly 
 peace dilated their hearts ; and one of 
 them could even say, " I seem to be on 
 a bed of roses."* ' The solemn hour 
 was come — death was at hand. The 
 two martyrs cried with a loud voice, " O 
 Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy 
 upon us !" and then they began to recite 
 their creed, f At last the flames reached 
 them ; but the fire consumed the cords 
 which fastened them to the stake before 
 their breath was gone. One of them, 
 feeling his liberty, dropped upon his 
 knees in the midst of the flames, and 
 then, in worship to his Lord, exclaimed, 
 clasping his hands, " Lord Jesus, Son 
 of David, have mercy on us !"t 
 
 Their bodies were quickly wrapped 
 in flame ; they shouted " Te Deum lauda- 
 mus." Soon their voices were stifled, — 
 and their ashes alone remained. 
 
 This execution had lasted four hours. 
 It was on the 1st of July. 1523, that the 
 first martyrs of the Reformation laid 
 down their lives for the Gospel. 
 
 All good men shuddered when they 
 heard of these events. The future was 
 big with fearful anticipations. " The 
 executions have begun,"§ said Erasmus. 
 " At length," exclaimed Luther, " Christ 
 
 * Dit schijnen mij als roosen te zijn. — (Brandt 
 Hist, der Reformatie, i. p. 79.) 
 
 t Admoto igni, canere cceperunl symbolurn 
 fidei, says Erasmus. — (Epp. i. p. 1278.) 
 
 t Da ist der eine im Feuer auf die Knie j 
 len. — (L. <Opp. xviii. p. 481.) 
 
 § Ccepta est carnificina. — (Epp. i. p. 129.) 
 
454 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 is gathering some fruits of our preach- 
 ing, and preparing new martyrs." 
 
 But the joy of Luther in the con- 
 stancy of these young Christians was 
 disturbed by the thoughts of Lambert. 
 Of the three, Lambert possessed most 
 learning ; he had been chosen to fill the 
 place of Probst, as preacher at Antwerp. 
 Finding no peace in his dungeon, he 
 was terrified at the prospect of death ; 
 but still more by conscience, which re- 
 proached him with cowardice, and urged 
 him to confess the Gospel. Delivered, 
 ere long, from his fears, he boldly pro- 
 claimed the truth, and died like his 
 brethren.* 
 
 A noble harvest sprung up from the 
 blood of these martyrs. Brussels mani- 
 fested a willingness to receive the Gos- 
 pel.f " Wherever Aleander lights a 
 pile," remarked Erasmus, "there it 
 seems as if he had sowed heretics." :{: 
 
 " I am bound with you in your 
 bonds," exclaimed Luther : " Your dun- 
 geons, and your burnings my soul takes 
 part in.§ All of us are with you in 
 spirit ; and the Lord is above it all I" 
 
 He proceeded to compose a hymn 
 commemorative of the death of the 
 young monks ; and soon, in every direc- 
 tion, throughout Germany and the Low 
 Countries, in towns and in villages, 
 were heard accents of song which com- 
 municated an enthusiasm for the faith 
 of the martyrs. || 
 
 Flung to the heedless winds, 
 Or on the waters cast, 
 
 * Quarta post exustus est tertius frater Lam- 
 bertus — (L. Epp. ii. p. 361.) 
 
 t Ea mors multos fecit lutheranos. — (Er. Epp. 
 p. 952.) Turn demum ccepit civitas favere Lu- 
 thero. — (Ibid. p. 1676. Erasmus to Duke 
 George.) Ea civitas antea purissima. — (Ibid. p. 
 1430.) 
 
 t Ubicumque fumos excitavit nuntius, ibi di- 
 ceres fuisse factam hsereseon sementem. — (Ibid.) 
 § Vestra vincula mea sunt, vestri carceres et 
 ignes mei sunt. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 464.) 
 || Die Asche will nicht lassen ab, 
 Sie stiiubt in alien Landen, 
 Hie hilft kein Bach, Loch, noch Grab . . . . — 
 (L. Opp. xviii. p. 484.) 
 
 Obligingly rendered by John Alex. Messen- 
 ger ; to whose friendly pen the publisher is in- 
 debted for the touching hymns of Zwingle (see 
 pages 348 — 350) : as well as for the transla- 
 tion of a considerable portion of Books V. to 
 VIII., besides other assistance and many valua- 
 ble suggestions. 
 
 Their ashes shall be watched, 
 And gathered at the last. 
 And from that scattered dust, 
 Around us and abroad, 
 Shall spring a plenteous seed 
 Of witnesses for God. 
 
 Jesus hath now received 
 Their latest living breath, — 
 Yet vain is Satan's boast 
 Of victory in their death. 
 Still — still — though dead, they 
 And trumpet-tongued proclaim 
 To many a wakening land, 
 The one availing Name. 
 
 Doubtless Adrian would have persist- 
 ed in these violent measures ; — the fail- 
 ure of his efforts to arrest the progress 
 of the Reformation — his own orthodoxy 
 — his zeal — his inflexibility — even his 
 conscientiousness would have made him 
 an unrelenting persecutor. Providence 
 ordained otherwise. He expired on the 
 14th of September, 1523; and the Ro- 
 mans, overjoyed at being rid of the stern 
 foreigner, suspended a crown of flowers 
 at the door of his physician, with an in- 
 scription — u to the saviour of his court- i 
 
 try" 
 
 Julio de Medicis, cousin to Leo X., 
 succeeded Adrian under the name of 
 Clement VII. From the day of his 
 election, all ideas of religious reforma- 
 tion were at an end. . The new Pope, 
 like many of his predecessors, thought 
 only of maintaining the privileges of the 
 Papacy, and employing its resources for 
 his own aggrandisement. 
 
 Anxious to repair the indiscretions of 
 Adrian, Clement despatched a legate of a 
 character resembling his own, Cardinal 
 Campeggio, the ablest prelate of his court, 
 and a man of large experience, well ac- 
 quainted with most of the German Prin- 
 ces. After a pompous reception in his 
 passage through the Italian cities, the 
 Legate soon noticed the change that had 
 taken place in the Empire. On entering 
 Augsburg, he proposed, according to 
 custom, to give his benediction to the 
 people ; but those to whom he spoke 
 met the proposal by a smile. The hint 
 was enough ; and he entered Nurem- 
 berg incognito, without repairing to 
 St. Sebalde's church, where the clergy 
 were waiting for him. No priests in sa- 
 cerdotal vestments were seen advancing 
 to greet him ; — no cross was borne in 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 455 
 
 solemn state before him ; but one might 
 have thought a private individual was 
 taking his journey through the city.* 
 Every thing indicated that the reign of 
 the Papacy was drawing to its close. 
 
 The Diet had met again in session, at 
 Nuremberg, in January, 1525. A storm 
 was impending over the government of 
 the nation, owing to the firmness of 
 Frederic. The Suabian league, com- 
 prising the richest cities of the empire, 
 and, above all, Charles the Fifth, had 
 combined for his destruction. He was 
 charged with favouring the newly- 
 broached heresy. Accordingly, it was 
 decided that the executive powers should 
 be so entirely changed as not to retain 
 one of the old members. Frederic, 
 overwhelmed with grief, instantly took 
 his departure from Nuremberg. 
 
 Easter drew nigh. Osiander and the 
 gospel preachers redoubled their activity. 
 The former preached publicly to the ef- 
 fect, that Antichrist entered Rome the 
 very day that Constantine had quitted it 
 to fix his residence at Constantinople. 
 The ceremony of Palm Sunday and 
 others were omitted : four thousand per- 
 sons partook of the supper under both 
 kinds ; and the Glueen of Denmark, sis- 
 ter to the Emperor, publicly received it 
 in like manner at the Castle. " Oh !" 
 exclaimed the Archduke Ferdinand, los-. 
 ing all self-command, " would that you 
 were not myt sister." — " The same moth- 
 er bore us," replied the Queen ; " and I 
 would give up every thing but God's 
 truth to serve you."f 
 
 Campeggio trembled at witnessing 
 such audacity ; nevertheless, affecting to 
 despise the jeers of the people, and the 
 harangues of the preachers, — and rely- 
 ing on the authority of the Emperor and 
 of the Pope, he referred the Diet to the 
 edict of Worms, and demanded that the 
 Reformation should be put down by 
 force. On hearing this, some of the 
 princes and deputies gave vent to their 
 indignation. "And pray," asked they, 
 addressing Campeggio, "what has be- 
 come of the memorial of grievances pre- 
 sented to the Pope by the people of 
 
 * Communi habitu quod per sylvas et carnpos 
 ierat, per mediam urbem . . . sine clero, sine prse- 
 via cruce. — (Cochl. p. 82.) 
 
 t Wolle sich des Wortes Gottes halten. — 
 (Seckend. p. 613.) 
 
 Germany?" The Legate, acting upon 
 his instructions, assumed an air of bland 
 surprise : " Three versions of that me- 
 morial have been received in Rome," 
 said he ; " but it has never been officially 
 communicated ; and I could never be- 
 lieve that so unseemly a paper could 
 have emanated from your Highnesses." 
 
 The Diet was stung by this reply. If 
 this be the spirit in which the Pope re- 
 ceives their representations, they also 
 know what reception to give to such as 
 he should address to them. Several dep- 
 uties remarked that such was the ea- 
 gerness of the people for the Word 
 of God, that the attempt to deprive them 
 of it would occasion torrents of blood- 
 shed. 
 
 The Diet straightway set about pre- 
 paring an answer to the Pope. As it 
 was not possible to get rid of the edict 
 of Worms, a clause was added to it, 
 which had the effect of rendering it 
 null. " We require," said they, " that all 
 should conform to it — so far as is possi- 
 ble."* But several of the states had de- 
 clared that it was impossible to enforce it. 
 At the same time calling to mind the 
 unwelcome remembrance of the Coun- 
 cils of Constance and of Bale, the Diet 
 demanded the convocation in Germany 
 of a General Council of Christendom. 
 
 The friends of the Reformation did 
 not stop there. What could they look 
 for from a Council which might perhaps 
 never be called together, and which, in 
 any case, would be sure to be composed 
 of bishops of all nations? Will Ger- 
 many humble her anti-Roman inclina- 
 tions in deference to prelates assembled 
 from Spain, France, England, and 
 Italy ? The government of the nation 
 has been already set aside. It is neces- 
 sary that in its place should be a ' na- 
 tional assembly' charged with the de- 
 fence of the popular interest. 
 
 Vainly did Hannart, the Spanish en- 
 voy of Charles, supported by the adhe- 
 rents of Rome and of the Emperor, op- 
 pose the suggestion ; the majority of the 
 Diet were unshaken. It was arranged 
 that a diet or secular assembly should 
 meet in November at Spires, to regulate 
 all questions of religion, and that the 
 States should invite their divines to pre- 
 
 * Quantum eis 
 84.) 
 
 -(Cochl. p. 
 
HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 pare a list of controverted points to be 
 laid before that august assembly. 
 
 No time was lost. Each province 
 prepared its memorial, and never had 
 Rome reason to apprehend so great an 
 explosion. Franconia, Brandenburg, 
 Henneberg, Windsheim, Wertheim, Nu- 
 remberg, declared for the truth of the 
 Gospel as opposed to the seven sacra- 
 ments, the corruptions of the mass, the 
 worship of the saints, and the Pope's su- 
 premacy. " There is coin for you of the 
 genuine stamp/' said Luther. Not one 
 of the questions which engaged the pop- 
 ular mind seemed likely to be passed 
 over in silence, in that council of the na- 
 tion. The majority would make a stand 
 for general measures. The unity of 
 Germany, its independence, and its ref- 
 ormation, would yet be safe ! 
 
 When news of what was passing 
 reached the Pope, he could not restrain 
 his anger. What ! do any presume to 
 set up a secular tribunal to decide ques- 
 tions of religion in contempt of his au- 
 thority 1* If this unprecedented step 
 be taken, doubtless Germany will be 
 saved, — but Rome is ruined ! A con- 
 sistory was hastily called together, and 
 one who watched the dismay of the 
 senators might have thought the Ger- 
 mans were in full march upon the Cap- 
 itol. " As to the Elector Frederic," 
 exclaimed Aleander, " we must take off 
 his head ;" and another Cardinal gave 
 counsel that the Kings of England and 
 of Spain should overawe the free cities 
 by threatening to break off all commer- 
 cial intercourse with them. In conclusion, 
 the consistory came to the decision that 
 the only way of safety lay in moving 
 heaven and earth to prevent the pro- 
 posed assembly at Spires. 
 
 The Pope wrote directly to the Em- 
 peror : — " If I am called to be foremost 
 in making head against the storm, it is 
 not because I am the only one threaten- 
 ed by the tempest, but because I am at 
 the helm. The imperial authority is 
 yet more invaded than even the dignity 
 of the court of Rome." 
 
 Whilst the Pope was sending this let- 
 ter to Castile, he was seeking to 
 strengthen himself by alliances in Ger- 
 
 * Pontifiex aegerrime tulit . . . intelligens no- 
 vum de religione tribunal eo pacto excitari citra 
 ipsius auctoritatem. — (Pallav. i. p. 182.) 
 
 many. It was not long before he gained 
 over one of the most powerful reigning 
 families of the Empire, the Dukes of 
 Bavaria. The edict of Worms had 
 been as much a dead letter there as else- 
 where ; and the doctrine of the Gospel 
 had made its way extensively. But sub- 
 sequent to the close of 1521, the princes 
 of the country, urged on by Doctor Eck, 
 who was chancellor in their university 
 of Ingolstadt, had again made advances 
 towards Rome, and passed a law enjoin- 
 ing their subjects to adhere faithfully to 
 the religion of their forefathers.* 
 
 The Bavarian bishops showed some 
 signs of alarm at this intervention of the 
 secular authority. Eck set out immedi- 
 ately for Rome to solicit from the Pope 
 an extension of the authority lodged in 
 the princes. The Pope granted all their 
 desires, and even went so far as to make 
 over to them a fifth of the revenues of 
 the church in their country. 
 
 Here we see Roman Catholicism, at 
 a time when the Reformation had no 
 regular settlement, resorting to establish- 
 ed institutions for support, and Catholic 
 princes, aided by the Pope, seizing the 
 revenues of the Church long before the 
 Reformation had ventured to touch them. 
 What then must be thought of the oft- 
 repeated charges of Catholics on this 
 head ! 
 
 Clement VII. was secure of the as- 
 sistance of Bavaria in quelling the 
 dreaded assembly of Spires. It was not 
 long before the Archduke Ferdinand, 
 the Archbishop of Salzburg, and others 
 of the princes were likewise gained 
 over. 
 
 But Campeggio was bent on some- 
 thing more. His aim was to divide 
 Germany into two hostile camps ; — 
 Germans were to be opposed to Ger- 
 mans. 
 
 During a previous residence at Stut- 
 gard, the Legate had concerted with 
 Ferdinand the project of a league against 
 the Reformation. " There is no telling 
 what may be the result of an assembly 
 in which the voice of the people will be 
 heard," observed he : " The Diet of 
 Spires may be the ruin of Rome and the 
 salvation of Wittemberg. Let us close 
 
 * Erstes baierisches Religions Mandat. — (Win- 
 ter, Gesch. der Evang. Lehre in Baiern, i. p 
 310.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 457 
 
 our ranks and be prepared for the on- 
 set."* It was settled that Ratisbon 
 should be the point of rendezvous. 
 
 Prevailing over the jealousies that es- 
 tranged the reigning houses of* Bavaria 
 and Austria, Gampeggio contrived to 
 assemble in that city, toward the end of 
 1524, the Duke of Bavaria and the 
 Archduke Ferdinand. The Archbishop 
 of Salzburg and the Bishops of Trent 
 and of Ratisbon, joined them. The 
 Bishops of Spires, Bamberg, Augsburg, 
 Strasburg, Bale, Constance, Freesingen, 
 Passau, and Brixen, sent deputies to the 
 assembly. 
 
 The Legate opened the subject of the 
 meeting, depicting in moving language 
 the dangers resulting from the Reforma- 
 tion both to princes and the clergy, and 
 concluded by calling upon them to ex- 
 tirpate heresy and rescue the Church. 
 
 For fifteen days the conferences were 
 continued in the town-hall of Ratisbon. 
 At the expiration of that time, a ball, 
 which continued till daybreak, served as 
 a relaxation to the first Catholic assem- 
 bly convened by the Papacy to resist the 
 infant Reformation,! — and, after this, 
 measures were agreed upon for the de- 
 struction of the heretics. 
 
 The Princes and Bishops bound 
 themselves to enforce the edicts of 
 Worms and Nuremberg — to allow of no 
 innovations in public worship — to toler- 
 ate no married priest — to recall the stu- 
 dents of their states who might be resi- 
 dent in Wittemberg, and to employ all the 
 means in their power for the extirpation 
 of heresy. They enjoined the preach- 
 ers to take for their guides, in interpret- 
 ing difficult scriptures, the Latin Fa- 
 thers, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and 
 Gregory. Not daring, in the face of the 
 Reformation, to invoke again the au- 
 thority of the Schools, they contented 
 themselves with laying the foundations 
 of Roman orthodoxy. 
 
 But, not able to close their eyes 
 against the scandals and profligate mor- 
 als of the clergy,^ they agreed on a pro- 
 gramme of reform in which they studi- 
 ously selected such grievances of the 
 
 * Winter, Gesch. der Evang. Lehre in Baiern, 
 i. p. 156. 
 
 t Ranke, Deutsche Gesch. ii. p. 159. 
 
 t Improbis clericorum abusibus et perditis 
 moribus. — (Cochl. p. 91.) 
 58 
 
 Germans, as least involved or affected 
 the court of Rome. They prohibited 
 priests from dealings in the way of bar- 
 ter, from frequenting taverns, being 
 present "at dances," and disputing over 
 their bottle about points of faith ! 
 
 This was the issue of the confedera- 
 tion of Ratisbon.* In the very act of 
 taking up arms against the Reformation, 
 Rome yet conceded a something ; — and 
 we discern in these regulations the ear- 
 liest influence of the Reformation, in in- 
 ducing an interior renovation in Cathol- 
 icism itself. Wherever the Gospel de- 
 velops its resources, its enemies are sure 
 to have their counterfeits at hand. Em- 
 ser had produced a translation of the 
 Bible to counteract that by Luther. 
 Eck, in like manner, put forth his Loci 
 Communes in opposition to Melanc- 
 thon's,f — and then it was that Rome be- 
 gan to oppose to the Reformation those 
 partial changes which have given to 
 Roman Catholicism its present aspect. 
 But, in truth, these expedients were but 
 subtle devices to escape impending dan- 
 gers. Branches, plucked indeed from 
 the tree of the Reformation, but set in a 
 soil which doomed them to decay ; the 
 principle of life was wanting, and thus 
 it will ever be with all similar attempts. 
 
 Another fact is here presented to us. 
 The Romanist party, by the league 
 which they formed at Ratisbon, were 
 the first to violate the unity of Germany. 
 It was in the Pope's camp that the sig- 
 nal of battle was given. Ratisbon was 
 the birth-place of that schism and po- 
 litical rending of their country which so 
 many of the Germans to this hour de- 
 plore. The national assembly of Spires 
 was called to ensure the unity of the 
 Empire by sanctioning and extending 
 the Reformation of the Church. The 
 conventicle of separatists that met at Ra- 
 tisbon for ever divided the nation in two 
 parties.^ Yet the schemes of Campeg- 
 gio were not at first attended with the 
 results anticipated. But few of the 
 chiefs responded to the call. The most 
 decided opponents of Luther, Duke 
 
 * Ut Lutherans factioni efficacius rcsistere 
 possint, ultronea confederatione sese constrixe- 
 runt. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Enchiridion, seu loci communes contra hje- 
 reticos. 
 
 t Ranke Deutsche Gesch. ii. p. 163. 
 
458 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 George of Saxony, the elector Joachim 
 of Brandenburg, the ecclesiastical Elec- 
 tors, and the imperial cities, declined 
 taking anv part. An opinion prevailed 
 that the Pope's legate was forming a 
 Romanist faction opposed to the national 
 mind. The popular sympathies coun- 
 terbalanced the antipathies of religion ; 
 and it was not long before the Ratisbon 
 Reformation was an object of public ridi- 
 cule. But a first step had been taken, 
 — an example had been set. It was ex- 
 pected that, with a little pains, it would 
 be easy eventually to confirm and en- 
 large this Roman league. Those who 
 then hesitated would be decided by the 
 course of events. To the legate, Cam- 
 peggio, is ascribed the glory of having 
 laid the train which was to bring little 
 less than destruction upon the liberties 
 of Germany, and the safety of the Em- 
 pire, and the Reformation. From that 
 hour the cause of Luther was no longer 
 of a nature purely religious; and the 
 contest with the Wittemberg monk 
 ranked among the political events of 
 Europe. Luther in this new sphere, 
 would pass under eclipse, and Charles 
 V., the Pope, and the reigning Princes, 
 would be the chief actors on the stage 
 where the grand drama of the sixteenth 
 century was to be performed. 
 
 But the prospect of the assembly at 
 Spires was continually present to the 
 minds of the people. . Its measures 
 might remedy the mischiefs that Cam- 
 peggio had occasioned at Ratisbon. Ac- 
 cordingly, Rome strained every nerve to 
 prevent its assembling. "What!" ex- 
 claimed the Pope's deputies to Charles 
 V., as also to his ally Henry VIII., and 
 other princes, " will these presumptuous 
 Germans pretend to decide points of 
 faith in a national assembly ! They 
 seem to expect that kings, the imperial 
 authority, all Christendom, and the 
 whole world, are to bend to their deci- 
 sions." 
 
 The moment was not ill chosen for 
 influencing the Emperor. The war be- 
 tween that prince and Francis the First 
 was at its height. Pescara and the 
 Constable of Bourbon had left Italy, 
 and entering France in the month of 
 May, laid siege to Marseilles. The 
 Pope, who looked with an evil eye on 
 this attack, might effect a powerful di- 
 
 version in the rear of the Imperial 
 forces. Charles, who, under these cir- 
 cumstances, must have feared to give 
 umbrage to his Holiness, did not hesi- 
 tate to sacrifice the independence of the 
 Empire, that he might purchase the, fa- 
 vour of Rome, and humble his rival the 
 king of France. 
 
 On the 15th July, Charles issued an 
 edict, dated at Burgos in Castile, " in 
 which he haughtily and angrily declared 
 that to the Pope alone belonged the right 
 to convoke a Council, and to the Em- 
 peror that of demanding one : that the 
 meeting appointed to be held at Spires 
 neither ought to be, nor could be allow- 
 ed : that it was strange that the German 
 people should undertake to do that, which 
 all the nations of the earth, with the 
 Pope at their head, could not lawfully 
 do : and that it was necessary, without 
 delay, to carry into effect the decree of 
 Worms against the modern Mahomet." 
 Thus it was from Spain and Italy the 
 blow was struck which arrested the de- 
 velopment of the Gospel among the peo- 
 ple of Germany. Charles was not satis- 
 fied with this. In 1519 he had offered 
 to duke John, the Elector's brother, to 
 give his sister, the Archduchess Catha- 
 rine, in marriage to his son, John Fred- 
 eric, heir to the electorate. But was 
 not that reigning house of Saxony the 
 grand support of those principles of re- 
 ligious and political independence which 
 Charles detested ? He decided to break 
 off all intercourse with the troublesome 
 and guilty champion of Gospel princi- 
 ples and the nation's wishes, — and ac- 
 cordingly gave his sister in marriage to 
 John III , king of Portugal. Frederic, 
 who in 1519 had manifested some indif- 
 ference to the overtures of the king of 
 Spain, was enabled in 1524, to suppress 
 his indignation at this conduct of the 
 Emperor. But Duke John haughtily 
 intimated his feeling of the affront put 
 upon him. 
 
 Thus, an observer might have distin- 
 guished, as they fell slowly into the line, 
 the rival hosts by whose struggle for 
 mastery the Empire was to be so long 
 convulsed. 
 
 The Romanists went a step further. 
 The compact of Ratisbon was to be no 
 empty form ; it was necessary that it 
 should be sealed with blood. Ferdinand 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 459 
 
 and Campeggio descended the Danube 
 from Ratisbon to Vienna, and, during 
 their journey, mutually pledged them- 
 selves to cruel measures. Instantly a 
 persecution was set on foot in the Aus- 
 trian provinces. 
 
 A citizen of Vienna, by name Gas- 
 pard Tauber, had circulated Luther's 
 writings, and had himself written against 
 the invocation of saints, purgatory, and 
 transubstantiation.* Being thrown into 
 prison, he was required by his judges, 
 both divines and jurisconsults, to retract 
 his errors. It was believed that he had 
 given way, and every preparation was 
 made in Vienna to gratify the populace 
 with the solemn spectacle of his recanta- 
 tion. On St. Mary's day, two pulpits 
 were erected over the cemetery of St. 
 Stephen's, the one for the leader of the 
 choir, whose office was to chaunt the 
 heretic's repentance, the other for Tau- 
 ber himself. The formula of his recan- 
 tation was put into his hands. f The 
 people, the choristers, and the priests 
 were in silent expectation. Whether it 
 was that Tauber had given no promise 
 to recant, or whether, in the appointed 
 moment of abjuration, he suddenly re- 
 ceived fresh energy of faith, — he ex- 
 claimed aloud, " / am not convinced, and 
 I appeal to the holy Roman Empire." 
 Ecclesiastics, choristers, and by-standers, 
 were struck with astonishment and dis- 
 may. But Tauber continued calling for 
 death rather than that he should deny 
 the Gospel. He was beheaded, — his 
 body burned :| — and his firmness left an 
 indelible impression on the memory of 
 the citizens of Vienna. 
 
 At Buda, in Hungary, a bookseller, 
 named John, who had received the truth 
 in the love of it, had distributed copies 
 of the New Testament, and also some 
 of Luther's writings. The persecutors 
 bound him to a stake, and then forming 
 a pile of his books, so as to enclose him 
 within them, set fire to the whole. The 
 poor man manifested an unshaken cour- 
 age, rejoicing, amidst the flames, that he 
 
 * Atque etiam proprios ipse tractatus per- 
 scripserim. — (Cochlasus, p. 92, verso.) 
 
 t See Coehl., lb. Ciun igitur ego Casparus 
 Tauber, etc. 
 
 I Credo te vidisse. Casparis Tauber historiam 
 martyris novi Viennae, quern csesum capite scri- 
 bunt et igne exustum pro verbo Dei. — (Luther to 
 Hausmann, 12 Nov. 1524, ii. p. 563.) 
 
 was counted worthy to suffer for his 
 Lord's name. " Blood follows blood," 
 cried Luther, when he heard of this 
 martyrdom,* " but that innocent blood 
 that Rome delights to shed, will one day- 
 choke the Pope, with his kings and 
 their kingdoms." f 
 
 The zeal of the fanatics burnt every 
 day more fiercely. Gospel preachers 
 were expelled, magistrates banished, and 
 sometimes the most horrible torments 
 were inflicted. In Wurtemberg an in- 
 quisitor, named Reichler, caused the 
 Lutherans, especially their preachers, to 
 be hanged upon the trees. Monsters 
 were found, who deliberately nailed by 
 their tongues to the stake the ministers 
 of God's word, — so that the sufferers, 
 tearing themselves in their agony from 
 the wood to which they were fastened, 
 endured a frightful mutilation in their 
 efforts to liberate themselves, — and were 
 thus deprived of that gift of speech 
 which they had long used in the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel.^: 
 
 The same persecutions were set on 
 foot in the other states of the Catholic 
 League. In the neighbourhood of Salz- 
 burg a minister of the Gospel, who had 
 been sentenced to imprisonment for life, 
 was on his way to the prison ; whilst 
 the constables who had charge of him 
 were stopping to drink at a house by the 
 wayside, two country youths, moved 
 with compassion, contrived, by eluding 
 their vigilance, to favour the escape of 
 the pastor. The rage of the Archbish- 
 op broke forth against these poor people, 
 and without so much as any form of 
 trial, he commanded that they should be 
 beheaded. They were secretly taken 
 outside the town, at an early hour. 
 Coming to the plain where they were to 
 die, the executioner's heart failed him : 
 — " For," said he, " they have not been 
 condemned." "Do your duly," said the 
 Archbishop's emissary, sternly, " and 
 leave to the Prince to answer for it :" — 
 and the heads of the youths were imme- 
 diately struck off $ 
 
 * Idem accidit Budce in Ungaria bibliopoles 
 cuidam Johanni, simul cum libris circa eum posi- 
 tis exusto, fortissimeque passo pro Doinino. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Sanguis sanguinem tangit, qui suffocabit 
 papam cum regibus et regnis suis. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Ranke, Deutsche Gesch. ii. p. 174. 
 I § Zauner, Salzburger Chronik IV. p. 381. 
 
480 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The persecution raged with most vio- 
 lence in the states of the Duke of Bava- 
 ria. Priests were degraded ; nobles ex- 
 pelled from their castles ; spies traversed 
 the country ; and suspicion and terror 
 filled the hearts of all. Bernard Fichtel, 
 a magistrate, was on his way to Nurem- 
 berg, called thither by the Duke's af- 
 fairs ; on the road, he was joined by 
 Francis Bourkard, a professor, from In- 
 golstadt, and a friend of Eck. Bourkard 
 accosted him, and they travelled in com- 
 pany. After supping together, the pro- 
 fessor began to speak on matters of reli- 
 gion. Fichtel having some knowledge 
 of his company, reminded him that the 
 recent edict prohibited such topics of 
 conversation. " Between us," answered 
 Bourkard, " there is nothing to fear." 
 On this Fichtel remarked, " I don't think 
 the edict can be enforced ;" and he went 
 on to express himself in a tone of doubt 
 respecting purgatory, observing, " that it 
 was a dreadful thing to visit religious 
 differences with death." At hearing 
 this, Bourkard could not control himself. 
 " What more just," exclaimed he, " than 
 to strike off the heads of all those scoun- 
 drel Lutherans ?" He soon took a kind 
 leave of Fichtel ; — but hastened to lodge 
 information against him. Fichtel was 
 thrown into prison, and the unhappy 
 man, who had no desire of the martyr's 
 crow n — his religious convictions not be- 
 ing at all deep — escaped death only by 
 a shameful recantation. Confidence was 
 at an end ; and no one was safe. 
 
 But that death which Fichtel avoided, 
 others met. It was in vain that the 
 Gospel was now only privately preach- 
 ed.* The Duke urged on its pursuers ; 
 following it even in the darkness, in se- 
 cret places, in private dwellings, and 
 mountain recesses. 
 
 " The cross and persecution are in full 
 career in Bavaria," said Luther : " those 
 wild beasts are carrying all before 
 them."t 
 
 Even the north of Germany was not 
 exempted from these atrocities. Bogis- 
 las, Duke of Pomerania, dying, his son, 
 who had been brought up in the court 
 of Duke George, set on foot a persecu- 
 
 * Verbi non palam seminati. — (L. Epp. ii- 
 p. 559.) 
 
 + In Bavaria multum regnat crux et persecu- 
 te ... . (Ibid.) 
 
 tion of the Gospel. Suaven and Knips- 
 trow were compelled to seek refuge in 
 flight 
 
 But it was in Holstein, that one of the 
 most memorable instances of fanaticism 
 occurred. 
 
 Henry Zuphten, who, as has been 
 seen, had escaped from the convent at 
 Antwerp, was engaged in preaching the 
 Gospel at Bremen. Nicholas Boye, pas- 
 tor at Mehldorf, in the country of the 
 Dittmarches, and several devout persons 
 of the neighbouring districts, having in- 
 vited him to come over and declare 
 Jesus Christ ; he complied. Immedi- 
 ately, the prior of the Dominicans and 
 the vicar of the official of Hamburg 
 concerted measures. " If he is allowed 
 to preach, and the people give ear," said 
 they, " we are undone." The prior 
 passed a disturbed night ; and, rising 
 early in the morning, repaired to the 
 wild and barren heath on which the for- 
 ty-eight regents of the country are ac- 
 customed to hold their meetings. " The 
 monk from Bremen is come amongst 
 us," said he, addressing them, " and will 
 bring ruin on the Dittmarches." Those 
 forty-eight simple-minded and unlearned 
 men, deceived into the belief that they 
 would earn imperishable renown by de- 
 livering the world from the heretical 
 monk, decided on putting him to death 
 without so much as giving him a hear- 
 ing. 
 
 It was Saturday — and the prior was 
 bent on preventing Henry's preaching 
 on the following Sunday. In the mid- 
 dle of the night he knocked at the door 
 of the pastor Boye, armed with the man- 
 date of the forty-eight regents. " If it 
 be the will of God that I should die 
 among the Dittmarches," said Henry 
 Zuphten ; " Heaven is as easily reached 
 from thence as from anywhere else.* I 
 will preach." 
 
 He ascended the pulpit, and spoke 
 with earnestness. His hearers, moved 
 and roused by his christian eloquence, 
 had scarcely quitted the church, when 
 the prior delivered to them the mandate 
 of the forty-eight regents forbidding- the 
 monk to preach. They immediately 
 sent a deputation to the heath, and the 
 Dittmarches, after long discussion, agreed 
 * Der Himmel ware da so nahe als anderswo. 
 — (L. Opp. xix. 330.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 that, considering their total ignorance, 
 further measures should be deferred till 
 Easter. But the prior, irritated at this, 
 approached certain of the regents, and 
 stirred up their zeal afresh. " We will 
 write to him," said they. " Have nothing 
 to do with him," replied the prior ; " if 
 he begins to speak, we shall not be able 
 to withstand him. We must seize him 
 during the night, and burn him without 
 giving him time to open his lips." 
 
 Every thing was arranged accord- 
 ingly. The day after Conception day, 
 at nightfall, Ave Maria was rung. At 
 the signal, all the peasants of the adja- 
 cent villages assembled, to the number 
 of five hundred, and their leaders hav- 
 ing broached three butts of Hamburg 
 beer, by this means stimulated their re- 
 solution. The hour of midnight struck 
 as the party entered Mehldorf ; the pea- 
 sants were under arms ; the monks car- 
 ried torches ; all went forward in disor- 
 der, exchanging shouts of fury. Ar- 
 rived at the village, there was a deep 
 silence lest Henry receiving intimation 
 of danger, should effect his escape. 
 
 Of a sudden, the gates of the parson- 
 age were burst open — the drunken pea- 
 santry rushed within, striking everything 
 in their way — tossing pell-mell, dishes, 
 kettles, cups, and articles of apparel. They 
 seized any money that they could find, 
 and then rushing on the poor pastor, 
 they struck him down, shouting " Kill 
 him ! kill him !" and then threw him 
 into the mud. But Henry was their 
 chief object in the attack. They pulled 
 him out of bed, tied his hands behind 
 him, and dragged him after them, naked 
 as he was, in the piercing cold. " What 
 are you come here for?" cried they ; and 
 as Henry answered meekly,, they ex- 
 claimed, " Down with him ! down with 
 him ! if we listen to him we shall be- 
 come heretics like himself." They had 
 dragged him naked over ice and snow, 
 his feet were bleeding profusely, and he 
 begged to be set on horseback. " A fine 
 thing truly," said they, ' : for us to furnish 
 horses for heretics ! On, on" — and they 
 continued dragging him behind them 
 till they arrived at the heath. A wo- 
 man, who stood at the door of the house 
 just as the servant of God was passing, 
 burst into tears. "My good woman," 
 said Henry, " weep not for me." The 
 
 bailiff pronounced his sentence. Then 
 one of his ferocious escort, with a sword, 
 smote the preacher of Jesus Christ on 
 the head. Another struck him with a 
 club. A monk was ordered to approach, 
 and receive his confession. " My bro- 
 ther," said Henry, " have I done you 
 any wrong?" "None," replied • the 
 monk. " Then," returned Henry, " I 
 have nothing to confess to you, and you 
 have nothing to forgive." The monk 
 retired in confusion. Many attempts 
 were made to set fire to the pile ; but 
 the wood would not catch. For two 
 hours the martyr stood thus in the pres- 
 ence of the infuriated peasantry — calm, 
 and lifting his eyes to heaven. While 
 they were binding him, that they might 
 cast him into the flame, he began to con- 
 fess his faith. " First burn," said a 
 countryman, dealing him a blow with 
 his fist on the mouth ; " burn ; and after 
 that, speak." They threw him on the 
 pile, but he rolled down on one side. 
 John Holme, seizing a club, struck him 
 upon the breast, and laid him dead upon 
 the burning coals. " Such is the true 
 story of the sufferings of that holy mar- 
 tyr, Henry Zuphten."* 
 
 Whilst the Romanists were, on all 
 sides, unsheathing the sword against the 
 Reformation, the work itself was passing 
 through new stages of development. 
 Not to Zurich — nor Geneva, but to 
 Wittemberg, the focus of Luther's re- 
 vival, must we go to find the beginnings 
 of that Reformed Church, of which 
 Calvin ranks as the most distinguished 
 doctor. There' was a time when these 
 two great families of believers slept in 
 the same cradle. Concord ought to 
 have crowned their matured age ; but 
 when once the question of the Supper 
 was raised, Luther threw away the 
 proper element of the Reformation, and 
 took his stand for himself and his church 
 in an exclusive Lutheranism. The mor- 
 tification he experienced from this rival 
 teaching was shown in his loss of much 
 of that kindness of manner which was 
 so natural to him, and communicated in 
 its stead a mistrust, an habitual dissatis- 
 faction, and an irritability which he had 
 never before manifested. 
 
 * Das ist die wahre Historie, etc. — (L. Opp. 
 (L.) xix. p. 333.) 
 
462 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 It was between the two early friends 
 — the two champions who, at Leipsic, 
 had fought side by side against Rome, 
 — between Carlstadt and JLuther that the 
 controversy broke forth. Their attach- 
 ment to contrary views was the result, 
 with each of them, of a turn of mind 
 that has its value. Indeed, there are 
 two extremes in religious views ; the one 
 tends to materialize all things ; the other, 
 to spiritualize every thing. The former 
 characterized Rome ; the latter is seen 
 in the Mystics. Religion resembles 
 man himself in this — namely, that it con- 
 sists of a body and a soul ; pure idealists, 
 equally with materialists in questions of 
 religion, as of philosophy — both err. 
 
 This was the great question which 
 lay hid in the dispute concerning the 
 Supper. Whilst a superficial observer 
 sees in it nothing but a paltry strife 
 about words, a deeper observation dis- 
 cerns in it one of the most important 
 controversies that can engage the mind 
 of man. 
 
 Here the Reformers diverge, and form 
 two camps ; but each camp carries away 
 a portion of the truth. Luther, with 
 his adherents, think they are resisting an 
 exaggerated spiritualism. Carlstadt, and 
 those of the reformed opinion, believe 
 they are opposing a detestable material- 
 ism. Each turns against the error 
 which, to his mind, seems most noxious, 
 and in assailing it, goes — it may be — 
 beyond the truth. But this being ad- 
 mitted, it is still true that both are right 
 in the prevailing turn of their thoughts, 
 and, though ranking in different hosts, 
 the two great teachers are nevertheless 
 found under the same standard — that of 
 Jesus Christ, who alone is truth in the 
 full import of that word. 
 
 Carlstadt was of opinion that nothing 
 could be more prejudicial to genuine 
 piety than to lean upon outward observ- 
 ances, and a sort of mysterious efficacy 
 in the sacraments. " The outward par- 
 ticipation in the Supper brings Salva- 
 tion," had been the language of Rome; 
 and that doctrine had sufficed to mate- 
 rialize religion. Carlstadt saw no bet- 
 ter course for again exalting its spiritual 
 character than to deny all presence of 
 Christ's body; and he taught that the 
 Supper was simply a pledge to believers 
 of their redemption. 
 
 As to Luther, he now took an exactly 
 opposite direction. He had at first con- 
 tended for the sense we have endeavour- 
 ed to open. In his tract on the Mass, 
 published in 1520, he thus expressed 
 himself: — "I can every day enjoy the 
 advantages of the Sacraments, if I do 
 but call to mind the word and promise 
 of Christ, and with them feed and 
 strengthen my faith." Neither Carl- 
 stadt, nor Zwingle, nor Calvin have said 
 any thing more strong than this. It ap- 
 pears, indeed, that at that period the 
 thought would often occur to him, that 
 a symbolical explanation of the Supper 
 would be the mightiest engine to over- 
 turn the Papal system ; for, in 1525, we 
 find him saying, that five years before, 
 he had gone through much trial of mind 
 on account of this doctrine ;* and that 
 any one who could then have proved to 
 him that there is only the bread and 
 wine in the Supper would have done 
 him the greatest service. 
 
 But new circumstances arose, and 
 threw him into a position in which he 
 was led to oppose, and sometimes with 
 much heat, opinions to which he had 
 made so near an approach. The fanati- 
 cism of the Anabaptists may account for 
 the turn which Luther then took. These 
 enthusiasts were not content with dis- 
 paraging what they termed the outward 
 .Word — that is, the Bible, and setting up 
 a claim to special communications of the 
 Holy Spirit, they went so far as to des- 
 pise the Sacrament of the Supper as an 
 external act, and to speak of the inward 
 as the only true communion. From that 
 time, in every attempt to exhibit the 
 symbolical import of the Supper, Lu- 
 ther saw only the danger of weakening 
 the authority of the Scriptures, and of 
 admitting, instead of their true meaning, 
 mere arbitrary allegories spiritualizing 
 all religion, and making it consist, not 
 in the gifts of God, but in man's impres- 
 sions ; and, by this means, substituting, 
 in place of genuine Christianity, a mys- 
 tic doctrine, or theosophy, or fanaticism 
 which would be sure to be its grave. It 
 must be confessed, that, but for the ener- 
 getic resistance of Luther, this tendency 
 to mysticism (enthusiastic and subjective 
 in its character,) might have rapidly ex- 
 
 * Ich habe wohl so harte Anfechtungen da 
 erlitten. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 577.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 463 
 
 tended itself, and turned back the tide of 
 blessings which the Reformation was to 
 pour upon the world. 
 
 Carlstadt, impatient at finding himself 
 hindered from opening his views with- 
 out reserve in Wittemberg ; and having 
 no rest in his spirit, from his desire to 
 combat a system which, in his view, 
 " lowered the value of Christ's death, 
 and set aside his righteousness," resolved 
 " to give a public testimony for the ad- 
 vantage of poor deluded Christians." 
 He left Wittemberg, in the beginning 
 of the year 1524, without previous inti- 
 mation of his intention to the university 
 or the chapter, and repaired to the small 
 town of Orlamund, the church of which 
 Avas placed under his superintendence. 
 Dismissing the vicar, he procured him- 
 self to be appointed its pastor, and in op- 
 position to the wishes of the chapter, of 
 the university, and of the Elector, estab- 
 lished himself in his new office. 
 
 He soon began to disseminate his doc- 
 trines : " It is not possible," said he, " to 
 name any advantage derived from the 
 real presence, which does not already 
 flow from faith — it is, therefore, useless." 
 To explain Christ's words in the institu- 
 tion of the Supper, he resorted to an in- 
 . terpretation which is not received in the 
 Reformed churches. Luther, during the 
 discussion at Leipsic, had explained the 
 words — " Thou, art Peter, and on this 
 rock I will build my church" — separating 
 the two propositions, and applying the 
 latter to the person of the Saviour. 
 " Just so," said Carlstadt, " ' take eaf was 
 spoken in reference to the bread ; but 
 ; this is my body 1 is to be understood of 
 Jesus Christ, who then pointed to him- 
 self, — and intimated by the symbol of 
 the broken bread, that that body was 
 about to be broken." 
 
 Carlstadt did not stop there. Scarce 
 had he emancipated himself from Lu- 
 ther's oversight, when he felt his zeal re- 
 vive against the use of images. His 
 bold addresses and enthusiastic appeals 
 were but too likely to madden the minds 
 of men in these agitated times. The 
 people, thinking they heard a second Eli- 
 jah, proceeded to throw down the idols 
 of Baal. The excitement soon spread to 
 the neighbouring villages. The Elector 
 interfered ; but the peasants answered 
 that it was right to obey God rather than 
 
 men. On this, the Prince decided to 
 despatch Luther to Orlamund, to restore 
 tranquillity. Luther looked upon Carl- 
 stadt as a man urged on by a love of no- 
 toriety ;* a fanatic who would even go 
 the length of raising war against Christ 
 himself. Perhaps Frederic might have 
 made a wiser choice. Luther, however, 
 set forth ; and Carlstadt saw his trouble- 
 some rival once more appear in order to 
 baffle his projects of reform and arrest 
 his impetuosity. 
 
 Jena lay in the road to Orlamund. Ar- 
 riving in that town on the 23rd August, 
 Luther ascended the pulpit on the 24th, 
 at seven in the morning. He preached 
 an hour and a half to a numerous audi- 
 tory against fanatics, rebels, the breakers 
 of images, and the despisers of the real 
 presence, protesting with vehemence 
 against the innovations -at Orlamund. 
 He did not refer to Carlstadt by name, 
 but every one understood whom he had 
 in his eye. 
 
 Either by accident or design, Carlstadt 
 was then at Jena, and among the crowd 
 of Luther's hearers. He lost no time in 
 calling the preacher to account. Luther 
 was at dinner with the prior of Wittem- 
 berg, the burgomaster, the secretary, the 
 pastor of Jena, and several officers in the 
 service of the Emperor and of the Mar- 
 grave, when a letter was handed to him 
 from Carlstadt, requesting an interview. 
 He passed it to those near him, and re- 
 turned a message by the bearer : " If 
 Doctor Carlstadt wishes to see me, let 
 him come in ; — if not, I have no wish to 
 see him." Carlstadt entered. His ap- 
 pearance produced a lively sensation in 
 the whole assembly. The majority, ea- 
 ger to see the two lions encounter one 
 another, suspended their repast, and were 
 all eyes, while the more timid turned pale 
 with apprehension. 
 
 Carlstadt, at Luther's invitation, took a 
 seat opposite to him, and then said, " Doc- 
 tor, you have in your sermon of this day 
 classed me with those who inculcate re- 
 volt and assassination. I declare that 
 such a charge is false." 
 
 Luther. — " I did not name you ; but 
 since the cap fits, you may wear it." 
 
 A momentary pause ensued. — Carl- 
 stadt resumed : " I am prepared to show 
 
 * Hue perpulit eum insana glories et laudis li- 
 bido. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 551.) 
 
464 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 that in the doctrine of the sacrament you 
 have contradicted yourself, and that from 
 the days of the apostles, no one has 
 preached that doctrine so purely as I 
 have done." 
 
 Luther.-" Write then — establish your 
 point." 
 
 Carlstadt. — "I offer you a public dis- 
 cussion at Wittemberg or at Erfurth, if 
 you promise me a safe-conduct." 
 
 Luther. — " Never fear, Doctor !" 
 
 Carlstadt. — " You bind me hand 
 and foot, and when you have deprived 
 me of the power to defend myself, you 
 strike." * 
 
 Silence ensued. — Luther resumed : — 
 
 " Write against me — but openly — and 
 not in secret." 
 
 Carlstadt. — " If I were but assured 
 you were in earnest in what you say, I 
 would do so." • 
 
 Luther. — " Set about it ; — here — take 
 this florin." 
 
 Carlstadt. — " Where is it ? I accept 
 the challenge." 
 
 At these words, Luther thrust his 
 hand in his pocket, and producing a 
 gold florin, said, as he gave it to Carl- 
 stadt, " Take it, and attack me like a 
 man." 
 
 Carlstadt, holding the gold florin in 
 his hand, and turning to the assembly, 
 said, " Dear brethren, this is to me ara- 
 bo, a pledge that I have authority to write 
 against Luther ; I call you all to witness 
 this." 
 
 Then bending the florin that he 
 might know it again, he put it into his 
 purse, and held out his hand to Luther. 
 The latter pledged him. Carlstadt re- 
 turned his civility. " The more vigor- 
 ous your attacks, the better I shall like 
 them," resumed Luther. 
 
 " If I fail," answered Carlstadt, " the 
 fault will be mine." 
 
 They once more shook each other by 
 the hand, and Carlstadt returned to his 
 lodging. 
 
 Thus, says an historian, as from a sin- 
 gle spark a fire often originates which 
 consumes in its progress the vast forest, 
 so from this small beginning a great divi- 
 sion in the Church took its rise.f 
 
 * Ihr bandet mir Hiinde et Fiisse, darnach 
 echlugt Ihr mich. — (L. Opp. xix. p. 150.) 
 
 t Sicut una scintilla scepe totam sylvam com- 
 burit. — (M. Adam, Vit. Carlst. p. 83.) Our ac- 
 
 Luther set forward for Orlamund, and 
 arrived there but indifferently prepared 
 by the scene at Jena. He assembed the 
 council and the church, and said, " Nei- 
 ther the Elector nor the University will 
 acknowledge Carlstadt as your pastor." 
 — " If Carlstadt is not our pastor," repli- 
 ed the treasurer of the town-council, " why 
 then, St. Paul is a false teacher, and 
 your writings are mere falsehood, — for 
 we have chosen him."* 
 
 As he said this, Carlstadt entered the 
 room. Some of those who happened to 
 be next to Luther made signs to him to be 
 seated, but Carlstadt, going straight up to 
 
 count is chiefly derived from the Acts of Rein- 
 hard, pastor of Jena, an eye-witness, — but a 
 friend of Carlstadt, — and taxed with inaccuracy 
 by Luther. 
 
 * How remarkable is this incident ! On this 
 passage the translator had made a note which 
 he will here insert for the confirmation of thoso 
 who, though only ' two or three' in any one place, 
 are acting in confidence in the sufficiency of 
 ' God and the word of His grace' to 'build them 
 up.' 
 
 If the conference had been really carried on 
 in the reverential sense of the presence of the 
 Spirit, (Acts i. 24, Eph. ii. 22.) it might have 
 been asked, and so have come down to us, on 
 what passage in St. Paul these persons grounded 
 their choosing of their pastor. 
 
 But would not the recognition of His presence 
 have led to the acknowledgment of His ' divi- 
 ding' gifts to the mutually dependant members, 
 (1 Cor. xii. 25. xiv. 31.) ' according to His own 
 will'? — (1 Cor. xii. 11.) and so have prevented 
 the assertion of a right on their part to elect, — 
 much less to elect to exclusive pastorship ? 
 
 Luther was a brother, and one not meanly 
 gifted for service to the body ; — might it not have 
 been expected that Carlstadt, calling to mind 
 Romans xii. and 1 Cor. xiv. 3, 31, would have 
 welcomed the word of Luther in the little church 
 of Orlamund, — and that that word would have 
 been just the very corrective, or rather comple- 
 ment, needed by the peculiarity of Carlstadt's 
 teaching, — for as M. D'Aubigne has observed, 
 the turn of mind of each had its value. 
 
 Instead of (his, we find the Great Reformer 
 saying, " The Elector and the University will 
 not acknowledge Carlstadt as your pastor ;" and 
 the church of Orlamund replying, " We have 
 chosen him ;" — the two forms of disobedient lim- 
 iting of the teaching of the Spirit, with which 
 Christians have become so familiar, — and which, 
 in their want of faith, almost all are helping to 
 perpetuate. 
 
 See the reflections at the opening of the Xlth 
 Book of this history. The heart that is exercised 
 by these things should consider John xiv. 16, 26 ; 
 xvi. 7 ; xvii. 21 ; Acts v. 3 ; Rom. viii. 9 ; 1 Cor. 
 xi. 2 ; xiv. 37 ; Eph. iv. 16 ; 1 Th. iv. 18 ; v. 11 ; 
 Heb. iii. 13. 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 465 
 
 Luther, said, " Dear Doctor, if you will 
 allow me, I will give you induction." 
 
 Luther. — " You are my antagonist. 
 I have fixed you by the pledge of a flo- 
 rin." 
 
 Carlstadt. — " I will be your antag- 
 onist so long as you are opposed to God 
 and his truth." 
 
 Luther. — " Leave the room ; I cannot 
 allow of your being present." 
 
 Carlstadt. — " This is an open meet- 
 ing) — if your cause is good, why fear 
 me?" 
 
 Luther, to his attendant : — « Go, — put 
 the horses to : I have nothing to say here 
 to Carlstadt ; and since he will not leave, 
 I shall go."* Luther rose from his seat, 
 upon which Carlstadt withdrew. 
 
 After a moment's silence, Luther re- 
 sumed : — " Only prove from the Scrip- 
 ture that it is our duty to destroy images." 
 One of the Town Council. — " Doc- 
 tor, you will allow, I suppose, that 
 Moses was acquainted with God's com- 
 mandments." This said, he opened his 
 Bible. " Well, here are his words, — 
 ' Thou shalt not make to thyself any gra- 
 ven image, nor any likeness J " &c. 
 
 Luther. — " The passage refers only 
 to images for idolatrous worship. If [ 
 hang up, in my chamber, a crucifix, and 
 do not worship it ; what harm can it do 
 me?" 
 
 A Shoemaker.—" I have often touched 
 my hat before an image which was in 
 my room, or on my mantlepiece. It is 
 an act of idolatry which robs God of the 
 glory due to him alone." 
 
 Luther. — " Would you think it ne- 
 cessary, then, because they are abused, to 
 put your women to death, and pour your 
 wine into the gutter ?"f 
 
 Another Member of the Church. — 
 " No : they are God's creatures, which 
 we are not commanded to destroy." 
 
 The conference had lasted some time. 
 Luther and his attendant returned to 
 their carriage, astonished at the scene 
 they had witnessed, and having failed to 
 convince the inhabitants, who claimed 
 for themselves the right of interpreting 
 and freely expounding the Scripture. 
 Agitation reigned in Orlamund. The 
 people insulted Luther ; and some even 
 
 * Spann an, spann an. — (L. Opp. xix. p. 154.) 
 t So muss du des Missbrauchs halber auch. — 
 (Ibid. p. 155.) 
 
 59 
 
 called after him, — " Begone ! in the name 
 of all the devils ; and may you break 
 your neck before you are out of our 
 town."* Never had the Reformer had 
 to undergo such contemptuous treatment. 
 
 He repaired thence to Kale, the pas- 
 tor of which place had also embraced 
 the views of Carlstadt. He resolved to 
 preach a sermon there ; but on entering 
 the pulpit, he found the broken frag- 
 ments of a crucifix. At first his emo- 
 tion overcame him ; but recovering him- 
 self, he gathered up the pieces into one 
 corner of the pulpit, and delivered a dis- 
 course in which he made no allusion to 
 the circumstance. " I determined," said 
 he, speaking of it in after life, " to re- 
 venge myself on the devil by this con- 
 tempt for him." 
 
 The nearer the Elector's life drew to 
 a close, the more did he appear to dread 
 lest men should go too far in the work 
 of Reformation. He issued orders to de- 
 prive Carlstadt of his appointments, and 
 banished him, not only from Orlamund, 
 but from the states of the Electorate. It 
 was in vain that the Church of Orla- 
 mund interceded in his behalf, — in vain 
 did they petition that he might be per- 
 mitted to reside among them as a private 
 citizen, with leave occasionally to preach, 
 — in vain did they represent that the 
 word of God was dearer to them than 
 the whole world, or even a thousand 
 worlds.! Frederic was deaf to their en- 
 treaties, and he even went the length of 
 refusing the unhappy Carlstadt the funds 
 necessarily required for his journey. 
 Luther had nothing to do with this 
 sternness on the part of the Prince : it 
 was foreign to his disposition, — and this 
 he afterwards proved. But Carlstadt 
 looked at him as the author of his dis- 
 grace, and filled Germany with his com- 
 plaints and lamentations. He wrote a 
 farewell letter to his friends at Orlamund. 
 The bells were tolled, and the letter read 
 in presence of the sorrowing Church.J 
 It was signed — " Andrew Bodenstein, 
 
 * Two of the most distinguished living- histori- 
 ans of Germany add, that Luther was pelted by 
 the inhabitants ; but Luther tells us the contrary: 
 — " Dass ich nit mit Steinen und Dreck ausge- 
 worffen ward." — (L. Epp. ii. p. 579.) 
 
 f Hoher als tausend Welten. — (Seek. p. 628.) 
 t Qua? publice vocatis per campanas loct:e sunt 
 omnibus simul flenlibus. — (L. Epp. ii. 558.) 
 
466 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 expelled by Luther, unconvicted, and 
 without even a hearing." 
 
 It is impossible not to feel a pain at 
 contemplating these two men, once 
 friends, and both worthy of our esteem, 
 thus angrily opposed. Sadness took pos- 
 session of the souls of the disciples of 
 the Reformation. What would be the 
 end of it, when thus its bravest defend- 
 ers turned one against another 1 Luther 
 could discern these fears, and endeavour- 
 ed to allay them. " Let us contend," 
 said he, " as those who fight for another. 
 It is God's cause :* the care of it belongs 
 to God, — the work, the victory, and the 
 glory, all are His. He will fight for it, 
 and prevail, though we should stand still. 
 Whatever He decrees should fall, let it 
 fall, — whatever He wills should stand, 
 let that stand. It is no cause of our own 
 that is at stake ; and we seek not our 
 own glory." 
 
 Carlstadt sought refuge at Strasburg, 
 whore he published several writings. 
 u He was well acquainted," says Doctor 
 Schcur, " with Latin, Greek, and He- 
 brew ;" and Luther acknowledged him 
 to be his superior in learning. Endow- 
 ed Avith great powers of mind, he sacri- 
 ficed to his convictions fame, station, 
 country, and even his bread. At a later 
 period of his life he visited Switzerland. 
 There, it might seem, he ought to have 
 commenced his teaching. The indepen- 
 dence of his spirit needed the free air 
 breathed by the CEcolampadiuses and 
 Zwingles. His instructions soon at- 
 tracted an attention nearly equal to that 
 which had been excited by the earliest 
 theses put forth by Luther. Switzerland 
 seemed almost gained over to his doc- 
 trine. Burer and Capito also appeared 
 to adopt his views. 
 
 Then it was that Luther's indignation 
 rose to its height ; and he put forth one 
 of the most powerful but also most out- 
 rageous of his controversial writings, — 
 his book " Against the Celestial Proph- 
 ets." 
 
 Thus the Reformation, hunted down by 
 the Pope, the Emperor and the Princes, 
 began to tear its own vitals. It seemed 
 to be sinking under accumulated evils ; 
 and surely it would have been lost if it 
 
 * Causa Dei est, cura Dei est, opus Dei est, 
 victoria Dei est, gloria Dei est. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 
 556.) 
 
 ad been a work of man. But soon 
 from the very brink of ruin it rose again 
 in renewed energy. 
 
 The Catholic League of Ratisbon, 
 and the persecutions that followed close 
 upon it, created a powerful popular re- 
 action. The Germans were not disposed 
 to surrender that word of God of which 
 they had recovered possession ; and when 
 orders to that effect came to them from 
 Charles V., though backed by papal 
 bulls and the faggots of Ferdinand, and 
 other Catholic Princes, they returned for 
 an answer, — " We will not give it up." 
 
 No sooner had the members of the 
 League taken their departure from Ra- 
 tisbon, when the deputies of the towns 
 whose bishops had taken part in that al- 
 liance, surprised and indignant, assem- 
 bled at Spires, and passed a law, that, 
 notwithstanding the episcopal prohibi- 
 tions, their preachers should confine 
 themselves to the proclamation of the 
 Gospel, and the Gospel only, according 
 to the doctrine of the apostles and proph- 
 ets. They proceeded to prepare a re- 
 port, couched in firm and consistent 
 terms, to be presented to the assembly of 
 their nation. 
 
 The Emperor's letter, dated from Bur- 
 gos, came unseasonably to disturb their 
 plans. Nevertheless, toward the close 
 of that year, the deputies of the towns 
 and many nobles assembling at Ulm, 
 bound themselves by solemn oath to as- 
 sist one another, in case of an attack. 
 
 Thus the free cities opposed to the 
 camp that had been formed by Austria, 
 Bavaria, and the bishops, another, in 
 which the standard of the Gospel and of 
 the national liberties was unfurled. 
 
 Whilst the cities were placing them- 
 selves in the van of the Reformation, seve- 
 ral princes were, about the same time, gain- 
 ed over to its ranks. In the beginning - 
 of June, 1524, Melancthon was return- 
 ing, on horseback, from a visit to his 
 mother, in company with Camerarius 
 and some other friends, when, approach- 
 ing Frankfort, he met a brilliant retinue ; 
 — it was Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, 
 who, three years previously, had visited 
 Luther at Worms, and was now on his 
 way to the games of Heidelberg, where 
 most of the princes of Germany were 
 expected to be present. 
 
 Thus did Providence bring Philip 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 467 
 
 successively in contact with the two lead- 
 ing Reformers. It was known that the 
 celebrated Doctor was gone on a journey 
 to his birth-place. One of the horsemen 
 who accompanied the Landgrave re- 
 marked, — " It is Melancthon, I think." 
 Immediately the young Prince put spurs 
 to his horse, and coming up with the 
 Doctor, enquired, — " Is your name 
 Philip?" " It is/' replied he, drawing 
 back timidly, and preparing respectfully 
 to alight.* " Keep your saddle," said 
 the Prince, " turn your horse's head, and 
 come stay one night with me ; there are 
 some things 1 want to speak with you 
 about. Fear nothing." " What can I 
 liar from a prince like yourself!" rejoin- 
 ed the Doctor. " Ah, ah," said the Land- 
 grave, laughing, " if I were only to car- 
 ry you off, and hand you over to Cam- 
 peggio, he would not be a little pleased, 
 I suspect." The two Philips rode on- 
 ward side by side, — the Prince asking 
 questions, and the Doctor answering ; 
 and the Landgrave delighted with the 
 clear and impressive views that were 
 opened before him. At length, Melanc- 
 thon entreating him to permit him to 
 continue his journeyj Philip reluctantly 
 parted with him. '■ On one condition," 
 said he, ' : and that is, that, on your return 
 home, you should treat fully the ques- 
 tions we have discussed,! and send me 
 your thoughts in writing." Melancthon 
 promised. " Go, then," said Philip, 
 t; and pass freely through my states." 
 
 Melancthon, with his accustomed ta- 
 lent, prepared an Abridgment of the 
 Reformed Doctrine of Christianity ;\ and 
 this tract, remarkable for its conciseness 
 and force of argument, made a decided 
 impression upon the mind of the Land- 
 grave. Shortly after his return from the 
 Heidelberg games, this Prince issued an 
 edict, in which, without connecting him- 
 self with the free towns, he opposed the 
 League of Ratisbon, and directed that 
 the Gospel should be preached in all its 
 purity. He embraced it himself, with 
 the energy that marked his character. 
 l - Rather," exclaimed he, " would I sacri- 
 fice my body, my life, my estates, and 
 
 * Honoris causa de equo descensurus. — (Ca- 
 merarius, p. 94.) 
 
 t Ut de qua3stionibus quas audiisset moveri, 
 aliquid diligenter conscriptum curaret. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Epitome renovatae ecclesiasticoe doctrinae. 
 
 my subjects, than the word of God." A 
 Franciscan friar, named Ferber, perceiv- 
 ing this inclination of the Prince in fa- 
 vour of the Reformation, wrote him a 
 letter filled with reproaches and entrea- 
 ties to continue faithful to Rome. " I 
 am resolved," answered Philip, " to be 
 faithful to the ancient doctrine, — but as I 
 find it set forth in the Scriptures :" and 
 he proceeded to prove, with much clear- 
 ness of statement, that man is justified by 
 faith alone. The monk, confounded, 
 made no reply.* The Landgrave was 
 commonly spoken of as " the disciple of 
 Melancthon.'' f 
 
 Other Princes followed the same 
 course. The Elector Palatine refused 
 to countenance the slighest persecution ; 
 the Duke of Luneburg, nephew of the 
 Elector of Saxony, began the Reformation 
 in his dominions; and the King of Den- 
 mark gave orders that, throughout Sles- 
 wick and Holstein, every one should be 
 at liberty to worship God according as 
 his conscience dictated. 
 
 The Reformation gained a victory 
 yet more important. A Prince, whose 
 conversion to Gospel truth involved con- 
 sequences most momentous to our own 
 times, now evinced a disposition to with- 
 draw from Rome. One day, towards 
 the end of June, shortly after the return 
 of Melancthon to Wittemberg, Albert, 
 Margrave of Brandenburg, and Grand 
 Master of the Teutonic Order, entered 
 Luther's apartment. This chief of the 
 monastic knights of Germany, who then 
 governed Prussia, had repaired to the 
 Diet of Nuremberg, to invoke the aid 
 of the Empire against Poland. He re- 
 turned broken in spirit. On one hand, 
 Osiander's preaching, and the reading 
 of the New Testament, had convinced 
 him that his monk's vow was contrary 
 to the word of God ; on the other, the 
 suppression of the national government 
 in Germany had deprived him of all 
 hope of obtaining the assistance which 
 he had come to solicit. What was to 
 be done. . . . 1 The Saxon councillor, 
 De Planitz, in whose company he had 
 left Nuremberg, proposed to him to seek 
 an interview with the Reformer. " What 
 think you," said the anxious and agitated 
 
 * Seckendorf, p. 738. 
 
 t Princeps ille discipulus Philippi fuit a quibua- 
 dam appellatus. — (Oamer. p. 95.) 
 
468 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Prince to Luther, " of the rule of our 
 order ?," Luther did not hesitate ; he 
 saw that a course of conduct in confor- 
 mity with the Gospel was, also, the only 
 means of saving Prussia. " Look to God 
 for assistance," said he, to the Grand 
 Master, " and reject the senseless and 
 inconsistent rule of your order ; put an 
 end to your detestable hermaphrodite 
 principality, neither religious nor secu- 
 lar ;* away with mere pretended chas- 
 tity, and seek that which is the true. 
 Take a wife — and become the founder 
 of a legitimate empire, in the place of 
 that anomalous monster, "f These words 
 set clearly before the mind of the Grand 
 Master a state of things which he had 
 as yet seen but indistinctly. A smile 
 lighted up his countenance ; but he was 
 too prudent to give utterance to his 
 thoughts. J Melancthon, who was pres- 
 ent, spoke to the same effect as Luther, 
 and the Prince set out to return to his 
 dominions, leaving the Reformers in the 
 confident hope that the seed which they 
 had sown would sink down into his 
 heart, and one day bring forth fruit. 
 
 Thus, as we have seen, Charles the 
 Fifth and the Pope had opposed the na- 
 tional assembly at Spires, fearing lest the 
 Word of God should win over all pres- 
 ent ; but the Word of God was not 
 bound. It was denied a hearing in a 
 hall of a town of the Lower Palatinate. 
 But what then ? — it burst forth and 
 spread throughout the provinces, stir- 
 ring the hearts of the people, enlighten- 
 ing the Princes and developing that 
 Divine power, of which neither Bulls 
 nor Ordinances can ever divest it. 
 
 Whilst nations and their rulers were 
 thus coming to the light, the Reformers 
 were endeavouring to remould every 
 thing by the infusion of the true prin- 
 ciples of Christianity. Public worship 
 first engaged their attention. The mo- 
 ment, anticipated by the Reformer, when 
 returning from the Wartburg, had ar- 
 rived : " Now," said he, " that hearts 
 have been fortified by Divine Grace, we 
 must put away those things which defile 
 the Lord's kingdom, and attempt to do 
 
 * Ut loco illius abominabilis principatus, qui 
 hermaphrodita quidam. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 527.) 
 
 t Ut contempta istu stulta confusaque regula, 
 uxorem duceret. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Me turn arrisit, sed nihil respondit. — (Ibid.) 
 
 something in the Name of Jesus." He 
 required that the communion should be 
 taken under both kinds ; that the Sup- 
 per should be cleared of every thing 
 which gave to it the character of a sacri- 
 fice ;* that Christians should never as- 
 semble themselves together without hav- 
 ing the word of God preached to them |f 
 that the flock, or at least the priests and 
 students, should meet every morning at 
 four or five o'clock, to read the Old Tes- 
 tament, and every evening at five or six 
 o'clock, to read the New Testament ; 
 that on Sundays the whole church 
 should meet together, morning and af- 
 ternoon, and that the great object of the 
 services should be to sound abroad the 
 Word of God4 
 
 The church of All Saints, at Wittem- 
 berg, especially called forth his indigna 
 tion. In it, (to quote the words of Seck- 
 endorf,) 9,901 masses were annually 
 celebrated, and 35,570 lbs. of wax annu- 
 ally consumed. Luther called it " the 
 sacrilege of Tophet." " There are," 
 said he, " only three or four lazy monks 
 who still worship this shameful Mam- 
 mon ; and if I had not restrained the 
 people, this abode of all Saints, or rather 
 of all Devils, would have been brought 
 down with a crash such as the world 
 has never yet heard." 
 
 It was in connection with this church 
 that the conflict began. It resembled 
 those ancient sanctuaries of heathen 
 worship in Egypt, Gaul, and Germany, 
 which were ordained to fall, that Chris- 
 tianity might be established in their 
 place. 
 
 Luther, earnestly desiring that the 
 mass should be abolished in this cathe- 
 dral, addressed to the chapter on the 1st 
 March, 1523, a requisition to that effect, 
 following it up by a second letter dated 
 the 11th July.§ The canons having 
 pleaded the Elector's orders, — " What, 
 in this case, have we to do with the 
 prince's orders ?" remarked Luther : " he 
 is but a secular prince ; his business is 
 to bear the sword, and not to interfere 
 
 * Weise christliche Messe zu halten. — (L. 
 Opp. (L.) xxii. p. 232.) 
 
 t Die christliche Gemeine nimmer soil zusam- 
 men kommen, es werde denn daselbst Gottes 
 Wort geprediget. — (L. Opp. xxii. 226.) 
 
 t Dass das Wort im Schwange gehe. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § L. Epp. ii. p. 308, and 854. 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 469 
 
 in the ministry of the Gospel."* Luther 
 here clearly marks the distinction be- 
 tween the State and the Church. 
 " There is," said he again, " but one 
 sacrifice to put away sins, — Christ, who 
 has offered himself once for all ; and we 
 are partakers thereof, not by any works 
 or sacrifices of ours, — but solely through 
 belief of the word of God." 
 
 The Elector, feeling his end approach- 
 ing, was averse from further change. 
 
 But entreaties from other quarters 
 came in aid of those of Luther. " It is 
 high time to act," wrote the cathedral 
 provost, Jonas, to the Elector : " such a 
 shining forth of Gospel truth, as that 
 which we have at this hour, does not 
 ordinarily last longer than a sunbeam. 
 Let us then lose no time."j" 
 
 This letter of Jonas, not having 
 changed the Elector's views, Luther be- 
 came impatient ; he judged that the 
 time had come to strike the final blow, 
 and he addressed a letter of menace to the 
 chapter. " I beg of you, as a friend ; — J 
 desire and seriously urge it upon you to 
 put an end to this sectarian worship. If 
 you refuse to do so, you shall, God help- 
 ing, receive the punishment which you 
 will have deserved. I say this for your 
 guidance, and I request an immediate 
 reply — yes, or no — before Sunday next, 
 in order that I may consider what I have 
 to do. God give you grace to follow 
 His light.:}: 
 
 " Martin Luther, 
 " Preacher at Wittemberg. 
 W Thursday, Dec. 8th, 1524." 
 
 At this juncture the rector, two burgo- 
 masters, and ten councillors, waited upon 
 the Dean, and begged him, in the name 
 of the university, of the council, and of 
 the commune of Wittemberg, " to abolish 
 the great and horrible impiety committed 
 against the majesty of God, in the cele- 
 bration of mass." 
 
 The chapter found it necessary to give 
 way, and declared that, enlightened by 
 the word of God,§ they acknowledged 
 the abuses which had been denounced, 
 and published a new order of service, 
 
 * Welchem gebiihrt das Schwerd, nicht das 
 Predigtamt zuversorgen. — (L. Opp. xviii. p. 497.) 
 
 t Corp. Ref. i. p. 636. 
 
 t L. Epp. ii. p. 565. 
 
 § Durch das Licht des heiligen gottlichen 
 Wortes . . . . — (L. Opp. xviii. p. 502.) 
 
 which began to be observed on Christ- 
 mas Day, 1524. 
 
 Thus fell the Mass, in this renowned 
 sanctuary, where it had so long held out 
 against the reiterated attacks of the Re- 
 formers. The Elector Frederic, suffer- 
 ing from gout, and drawing near his end, 
 could not, by any efforts of his, retard 
 this great triumph of the Reformation. 
 He saw in it the will of God, and sub- 
 mitted to it. The cessation of Romish 
 observances, in the church of All Saints, 
 hastened their abolition in many of the 
 churches of Christendom. In all quarters 
 there was similar resistance, but also the 
 like victory. Vainly did priests, and 
 even princes in many places, try to 
 interpose obstacles ; they could effect 
 nothing. 
 
 It was not alone in public worship 
 that the Reformation was ordained to 
 work a change. Education was very 
 early associated with the Reformed 
 Church, and these two institutions, in 
 their power to regenerate mankind, were 
 alike invigorated by its influence. It 
 was in intimate alliance with letters that 
 the Reformation had made its appearance 
 in the world ; and, in the hour of its 
 triumph, it did not forget its ally. 
 
 Christianity is not a mere expansion 
 of Judaism ; its great end is not again to 
 envelop man, as the Papacy seeks to do, 
 in the swaddling bands of outward ordi- 
 nances and man's teaching. Christianity 
 is a new creation ; it takes possession of 
 the inward man, and transforms him in 
 the innermost principles of his nature ; 
 so that he needeth not human teaching, 
 but, by God's help, is able, of himself, 
 and by himself, to discern that which is 
 true, and to do that which is right.* 
 
 To bring man to that maturity which 
 Christ has purchased for him, and to 
 emancipate him from the tutelage in 
 which Rome had so long held him 
 bound, the Reformation must needs de- 
 velop the whole man ; and, while by 
 the Word of God it regenerated his 
 heart and will, it enlightened his under- 
 standing by the study of sacred and pro- 
 fane literature. 
 
 Luther understood this ; he felt that 
 to consolidate the Reformation, he must 
 work on the minds of the rising genera- 
 tion, remodel the schools, and propagate 
 * Heb. chap. viii. 11. 
 
470 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 throughout Christendom the knowledge 
 necessary for a deep study of the Holy 
 Scriptures. This, therefore, was one of 
 the objects of his life. He was especial- 
 ly impressed with this conviction, at this 
 period of his history, and, accordingly, 
 he addressed a letter to the councillors 
 of all the towns in Germany, urging 
 them to found Christian schools. " Dear 
 sirs," said he, "so much money is an- 
 nually expended in arquebuses, making 
 roads, and constructing dykes, — how is 
 it that a little is not expended in paying 
 one or two schoolmasters to instruct our 
 poor children % God stands at the door, 
 and knocks ; blessed are we if we open 
 to Him ! Now-a-days, there is no famine 
 of God's word. My dear countrymen, 
 buy, buy, whilst the market is opened 
 before your dwellings. The Word of 
 God and His grace resembles a shower 
 which falls and passes on. It fell among 
 the Jews ; but it passed away, and now 
 they have it no longer. Paul bore it 
 with him to Greece ; but there also it is 
 passed, and Mahometanism prevails in 
 its place. It came to Rome and the 
 Latin territories ; but from thence it like- 
 wise departed, and now Rome has the 
 Pope.* O ! Germans, think not that you 
 will never have that Word taken away 
 from you. The little value you put upon 
 it will cause it to be withdrawn. There- 
 fore, he who would have it. must lay 
 hold upon and keep it. 
 
 " Let our youth be the objects of your 
 care," he continued, addressing the mag- 
 istrates, " for many parents are like the 
 ostrich, their hearts are hardened against 
 their young, and, satisfied with having 
 laid the egg, they give themselves no 
 further trouble about it. The prosperity 
 of a town does not consist in amassing 
 wealth, erecting walls, building man- 
 sions, and the possession of arms. If 
 attacked by a party of madmen, its ruin 
 and devastation would only be the more 
 terrible. The true well-being of a town, 
 its security, its strength, is to number 
 within it many learned, serious, kind, 
 and well-educated citizens. And who is 
 to blame that there are found, in our 
 days, so few of this stamp, but you, 
 magistrates, who have suffered our youth 
 
 * Aber bin ist hin ; sie haben nun den Papet. 
 — (L. Opp. W. x. 535.) 
 
 to grow up like the neglected growth of 
 the forest?" 
 
 Luther especially insisted on the ne- 
 cesity for the study of literature and lan- 
 guages : " We are asked," says he, " what 
 is the use of learning Latin, Greek, and 
 Hebrew, when we can read the Bible in 
 German 1 But for the languages/' he re- 
 plied, " we should never have received the 
 Gospel . . . Languages are the scabbard in 
 which the sword of the Spirit* is found ; 
 they are the casket which holds the jew- 
 els; they are the vessels which contain 
 the new wine ; they are the baskets in 
 which are kept the loaves and fishes 
 which are to feed the multitude. If we 
 cease to study languages, we shall not 
 only lose the Gospel, but, eventually, we 
 shall be unable either to speak or write in 
 Latin or in German. From the hour we 
 throw them aside, Christianity may date 
 its decline, even to falling again under 
 the dominion of the Pope. But now that 
 languages are once more held in estima- 
 tion, they diffuse such light that all man- 
 kind are astonished — and that every one , 
 may see that the Gospel we preach is al- 
 most as pure as that of the Apostles 
 themselves. The holy Fathers of other 
 days, made many mistakes by reason of 
 their ignorance of languages ; in our 
 time, some, like the Vaudois of Pied- 
 mont, do not attach value to the study of 
 them ; but though their doctrine may be 
 sound, they often fail of the real meaning 
 of the Sacred Text ; they are without a 
 safeguard against error, and I much fear 
 that their faith will not continue pur*e.f 
 If a knowledge of languages had not giv- 
 en me the certainty of the true sense of the 
 Word, I might have been a pious monk, 
 quietly preaching the Truth in the ob- 
 scurity of the cloister ; but I should have 
 left Pope, sophists, and their anti-chris- 
 tian power in the ascendant.";}; 
 
 But Luther's attention was not limited 
 to the education of ecclesiastics ; — he was 
 desirous that learning should no longer 
 be confined to the Church alone ; and 
 proposed to extend it to the laity, who 
 
 * Die Sprachen sind die Scheide, darinnen 
 dies Messer des Geistes steeket. — (L. Opp. W. 
 x. p. 535.) 
 
 t Es sey oder werde nicht lauter bleiben. — 
 (L. Opp. W. x. p. 535.) 
 
 t Ich hatte wohl auch konnen fromm seyn 
 und in der Stille rechte predigen. — (Ibid.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 471 
 
 had hitherto been debarred from it. He 
 suggested the establishment of libraries, 
 not limited merely to works and com- 
 mentaries of scholastic divines and Fa- 
 thers of the Church, but furnished with the 
 productions of orators and poets, even 
 though heathens, as also with books of 
 literature, law, medicine, and history. 
 "Such writings," said he, "are of use to 
 make known the wonderful works of 
 God." 
 
 This effort of Luther is one of the 
 most important the Reformation produ- 
 ced. It wrested learning from the hands 
 of the priests, who had monopolised it, 
 like those of Egypt in ancient times, — 
 and rendered it accessible to all. From 
 this impulse, derived from the Reforma- 
 tion, some of the greatest developments 
 of later ages have proceeded. Literary 
 men, and scholars of the laity, who now- 
 a-days decry the Reformation, forget that 
 they are themselves its offspring ; and 
 that, but for its influence, they would at 
 this hour be like half-educated children, 
 subject to the tyrannical authority of the 
 clergy. The Reformation recognised 
 the intimate connection of all branches of 
 learning, receiving all to learn, and open- 
 ing all the avenues to learning. " They 
 who despise general literature," said Me- 
 lancthon, "make no more account of sa- 
 cred theology. Their affected contempt is 
 but a pretext to conceal their indolence."* 
 
 The Reformation not only communi- 
 cated a mighty impulse to literature, but 
 served to elevate the Arts, although Pro- 
 testantism has often been reproached as 
 their enemy. Many Protestants have 
 willingly taken, up and borne this re- 
 proach. We will not examine whether or 
 not the Reformation ought to glory in 
 it ; but will merely remark, that impar- 
 tial history does not confirm the premises 
 on which the clergy rests. Let Roman 
 Catholicism pride itself in being more 
 favourable than Protestantism to the arts. 
 Be it so : Paganism was even more so ; 
 while Protestantism hath somewhat else 
 to glory in. There are some religions 
 in which the disposition in man to a 
 taste for the fine arts has a place assign- 
 ed it above that given to his moral na- 
 ture. Christianity is distinguished from 
 these by the fact that the moral element 
 
 * Hunc titulum ignaviae suae prsetextunt. — 
 (Corp. Ref. i. p. 613.) 
 
 is its essence. Christian principle mani- 
 fests itself, not in productions of the fine 
 arts, but in the fruits of a Christain life. 
 Every sect that forgets this bearing of 
 Christianity upon morals, forfeits its claim 
 to the name of Christian. Rome has not 
 entirely renounced this essential charac- 
 teristic, but Protestantism cherishes it in 
 far greater purity. It takes pleasure in 
 deep acquaintance with morals, discrimi- 
 nating religious actions not by their out- 
 ward appearence and effect upon the imag- 
 ination, but according to their inherent 
 worth, and their bearing upon the con- 
 science ; so that, if the Papacy is strongly 
 marked as an esthetic system, as has 
 been proved by an able writer,* Protes- 
 tantism is equally characterised as a mo- 
 ral system. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Reformation, while 
 primarily appealing to the moral sense, 
 addressed the whole man. We have 
 seen how it spoke to his understanding, 
 and what it did for literature : it spoke 
 also to his sensibility and imagination, 
 and thereby contributed to the develop- 
 ment of the Arts. The Church was no 
 longer composed exclusively of priests 
 and friars ; it was the assembly of the 
 faithful ; all were to take part in the wor- 
 ship ; and congregational singing was to 
 take the place of the priests' chaunting. 
 Luther, in translating the Psalms, had in 
 view their adaptation to be sung in the 
 churches. Thus a taste for Music was 
 disseminated throughout the nation. 
 
 " Next to theology," said Luther, " it is 
 to Music that I give the highest place 
 and the greatest honour. f A schoolmas- 
 ter," he added, " ought to know how to 
 sing ; without this qualification I would 
 have nothing to do with him." 
 
 One day, when some fine music was 
 performing, he exclaimed in transport, 
 " If our Lord God has shed forth such 
 wondrous gifts on this earth, which is no 
 better than a dark nook, what may we 
 not expect in that eternal life in which 
 we shall be perfected." From the days 
 of Luther, the congregated worshippers 
 have taken part in the singing ; the Bi-: 
 ble has been the great theme of their 
 songs, and the impulse communicated at 
 
 * Chateaubriand, Genie du Christianisme. 
 
 t Ich gebe nach der Theologie, der Musica 
 den nahestcn Locum und hochste Ehre. — (L. 
 Opp. W. xxii. p. 2253.) 
 
472 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 that period of the Reformation, has more 
 recently produced those noble Oratorios, 
 which have carried the art to its highest 
 point of attainment. 
 
 Poetry participated in the movement. 
 In singing the praises of God, Chris- 
 tians were not willing to restrict them- 
 selves to simple renderings of ancient 
 hymns. The souls of Luther and his 
 contemporaries, elevated by faith to the 
 most sublime contemplations, roused to 
 enthusiasm by the dangers and struggles 
 which incessantly threatened the infant 
 Chuich, inspired by the poetry of the 
 Old, and the hope of the New Testament, 
 soon began to pour out their feelings in 
 religious songs, in which poetry and mu- 
 sic joined, and blended th-eir most heav- 
 enly accents ; and thus were heard revi- 
 ving, in the sixteenth century, the hymns 
 which, in the first century, soothed the 
 sufferings of the martyrs. In 1523, Lu- 
 ther, as we have already said, consecra- 
 ted it to commemorate the martyrs of 
 Brussels; others of the children of the 
 Reformation followed his example. Many 
 were the hymns composed, and rapidly 
 circulated among the people, and greatly 
 did they contribute to arouse their slum- 
 bering minds. It was in this same year 
 Hans Sach composed the " Nightingale of 
 Wittenberg.'" It represented the teach- 
 ing that had been current in the Church 
 for four centuries as a moonlight time of 
 wandering in the deserts. But the night- 
 ingale proclaimed the dawn, and soaring 
 above the morning mist, sang the praise 
 of day. 
 
 Whilst lyric poesy was thus deriving 
 from the Reformation its loftiest inspira- 
 tion, satirical verses and dramas, from 
 the pen of Hutten, Murner, and Manuel 
 were attacking the most flagrant corrup- 
 tions. 
 
 It is to the Reformation that the great 
 poets of England, Germany, and perhaps 
 of France, are indebted for the highest 
 flights of their muse. 
 
 Painting was, of all the arts, the least 
 affected by the Reformation. This, nev- 
 ertheless, was renovated, and, as it were, 
 hallowed by that universal movement 
 which was then communicated to all the 
 powers of man. The great master of 
 that age, Lucas Cranach, settled at Wit- 
 temberg, and became the painter of the 
 Reformation. We have seen how he 
 
 represented the points of contrast between 
 Christ and Antichrist (the Pope,) and 
 was thus among the most influential in- 
 struments in that change by which the 
 nation was transformed. As soon as he 
 had received new convictions, he devo- 
 ted his chastened pencil solely to paint- 
 ings in harmony with the thoughts of a 
 Christian, and gave to groups of children, 
 represented as blessed by the Saviour, that 
 peculiar grace with which he had previ- 
 ously invested legendary saints. 
 
 Albert Durer was one of those who 
 were attracted by the Word of Truth, and 
 from that time, a new impulse was given 
 to his genius. His master-pieces were 
 produced subsequently to conversion. 
 It might have been discerned, from the 
 style in which he thenceforward depicted 
 the Evangelists and Apostles, that the Bi- 
 ble had been restored to the people, and 
 that the painter derived thence a depth, 
 power, life, and dignity, which he never 
 would have found within himself* 
 
 It must, however, be admitted, that, of 
 all the arts, Painting is that one whose 
 influence upon religion is most open to 
 well founded and strong objection. We 
 see it continually connected with griev- 
 ous immorality or pernicious error ; and 
 those who have studied history, or visit- 
 ed Italy, will look for nothing in this art 
 of benefit to human-kind. Our general 
 remark holds good, however, notwith- 
 standing this exception. 
 
 Thus every thing progressed, arts, 
 literature, purity of worship — and the 
 minds of prince and people. But this 
 glorious harmony, which the Gospel, in 
 its revival, every where produced, was 
 on the eve of being disturbed. The 
 melody of the Wittemberg Nightingale 
 was to be broken in upon by the howl- 
 ing of the tempest, and the roaring of li- 
 ons. In a moment a cloud overspread 
 Germany, and a brilliant day was suc- 
 ceeded by a night of profound darkness. 
 
 A political ferment, very different from 
 that which the Gospel brings with it, 
 had long been secretly working in the 
 Empire. Sinking under secular and ec- 
 clesiastical oppression, and, in some of 
 the states, forming part of the seigneuri- 
 al property and liable to sale with it, the 
 people began to threaten to rise in insur- 
 rection, and burst their fetters. This 
 * Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte, ii. p. 85. 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 473 
 
 spirit of resistance had shown itself long 
 before the Reformation, by various symp- 
 toms ; and even at that time a feeling of 
 religion had mingled with the political 
 elements of resistance. It was impossible, 
 in the sixteenth century, to keep asun- 
 der two principles so intimately associa- 
 ted with the existence of nations. In 
 Holland, at the close of the preceding 
 century, the peasantry had made an in- 
 surrection, representing on their banners 
 a loaf of bread and a cheese, the two sta- 
 ple articles of their poor country. The 
 " alliance of the shoes" showed itself first 
 in the neighbourhood of Spires, in 1503 ; 
 and in 1513, being encouraged by the 
 priests, it was re-acted at Brisgau. In 
 1514, Wurtemburg was the scene of" the 
 league of poor Conrad," which had for 
 its object to sustain, by the revolt, " the 
 right of God." In 1515, Carinthia and 
 Hungary had been the theatre of terri- 
 ble commotions. These seditious move- 
 ments had been arrested by torrents of 
 blood ; but no relief had been afforded to 
 the people. A political reform was : there- 
 fore, not less evidently needed than reli- 
 gious reform. In this the people were 
 right ; but it must be admitted, that they 
 were not ripe for its enjoyment. 
 
 Since the commencement of the Ref- 
 ormation these popular ferments had not 
 been repeated ; men's minds were absorb- 
 ed with other thoughts. Luther, whose 
 penetrating eye had discerned the condi- 
 tion of people's minds, had, from his tow- 
 er in the Wartburg, addressed to them 
 some serious exhortations, of a nature to 
 pacify their agitated feelings: — 
 
 "Rebellion," he observed, " never ob- 
 tains for us the benefit we seek, and God 
 condemns it. What is rebellion ? is it not 
 to revenge oneself? The devil tries hard 
 to stir up to rebellion such as embrace 
 the Gospel, that it may be covered with 
 reproach ; but they who have rightly re- 
 ceived the truths I have preached, will 
 not be found in rebellion."* 
 
 The aspect of things gave cause to fear 
 that the popular ferment could not be 
 much longer restrained. The govern- 
 ment which Frederic of Saxony had ta- 
 ken pains to form, and which possessed 
 the nation's confidence, was broken up. 
 
 * Luther's treue Ermahnung an alle Christen 
 sich vor Aufruhr und Emporung zu hiiten. — 
 (Opp. xviii. p. 288.) 
 
 6Q 
 
 The Emperor, whose energy would per- 
 haps have supplied the place of the in- 
 fluence of the national administration, was 
 absent ; the princes, whose union had al- 
 ways constituted the strength of Germany, 
 were at variance; and the new manifestoes 
 of Charles the Fifth against Luther, by 
 excluding all hope of a future reconcilia- 
 tion, deprived the Reformer of much of 
 the moral influence, by which, in 1522, 
 he had succeeded in calming the tempest. 
 The barrier, which had hitherto with- 
 stood the torrent, being swept away, its 
 fury could no longer be restrained. 
 
 The religious movement did not give 
 birth to the political agitation ; but in 
 some quarters it was drawn into, and 
 went along with its swelling tide. We 
 might, perhaps, go farther, and acknowl- 
 edge that the movement which the Ref- 
 ormation communicated to the popular 
 mind, added strength to the discontent 
 which was everywhere fermenting. The 
 vehemence of Luther's writings, his bold 
 words and actions, and the stern truth he 
 spake, not only to the Pope and the pre- 
 lates, but even to the nobles, must needs 
 have contributed to inflame minds that 
 were already in a state of considei'able 
 excitement. Thus Erasmus failed not to 
 remind him, — " We are now gathering 
 the fruits of your teaching."* More- 
 over, the animating truths of the Gospel, 
 now fully brought to light, stirred all bo- 
 soms, and filled them with hopeful antici- 
 pations. But there were many unrenew- 
 ed hearts which were not prepared by a 
 change of thought for the faith and lib- 
 erty of a Christian. They were quite 
 willing to cast off the yoke of Rome, but 
 they had no desire to take upon them 
 the yoke of Christ. Thus, when the 
 Princes who espoused the cause of Rome 
 endeavoured, in their anger, to crush the 
 Reformation, those who were really 
 Christians were enabled patiently to en- 
 dure those cruel persecutions, — while the 
 majority were roused to resistance, and 
 broke forth in tumults ; and, finding their 
 desires opposed in one direction, they 
 sought vent for them in another. " Why 
 is it," said they, "when the Church in- 
 vites all men to a glorious liberty, that 
 servitude is perpetuated in the state? 
 When the Gospel inculcates nothing but 
 
 * Habemus fructum tui spiritus. — (Erasm. 
 Hyperasp. B. 4.) 
 
474 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 gentleness, why should Governments 
 rule only by force ?" Unhappily, at the 
 very period when a reformation of relig- 
 ion was hailed with joy, alike by nobles 
 and people, a political reformation, on the 
 contrary, encountered the opposition of 
 the most powerful of the nation. And 
 whilst the former had the Gospel for its 
 rule and basis, the latter had ere long no 
 principles or motives but violence and in- 
 subjection. Hence, — while the one was 
 kept within the bounds of truth, the other 
 rapidly overpassed all bounds, — -like an 
 impetuous torrent bursting its banks. But 
 to deny that the Reformation exerted an 
 indirect influence on the co^nmotions 
 which then disturbed the Empire, would 
 subject the historian to the charge of 
 partiality. A fire had been lighted up 
 in Germany by religious discussions, 
 from which it was scarcely possible but 
 that some sparks should escape which 
 were likely to inflame the popular minds. 
 The pretensions of a handful of fanatics 
 to divine inspiration added to the danger. 
 Whilst the Reformation constantly ap- 
 pealed from the authority claimed by the 
 Church to the real authority of the Sa- 
 cred Word, those enthusiasts rejected, not 
 only the authority of the Church, but 
 that of Scripture also ; they began to 
 speak only of an inward Word — an in- 
 ternal revelation from God ; and unmind- 
 ful of the natural corruption of their 
 hearts, they abandoned themselves to the 
 intoxication of spiritual pride, and imag- 
 ined themselves to be saints. 
 
 " The Sacred Writings," said Luther, 
 "were treated by them as a dead letter, 
 and their cry was, 'the Spirit! the Spirit!' 
 But assuredly, I, for one, will not follow 
 whither their spirit is leading them ! 
 May God, in His mercy, preserve me 
 from a Church in which there are only 
 such saints.* I wish to be in fellowship 
 with the humble, the weak, the sick, 
 who know and feel their sin, and sigh 
 and cry continually to God from the bot- 
 tom of their hearts to obtain comfort and 
 deliverance." These words of Luther 
 have a depth of meaning, and indicate 
 the change which his views were under- 
 going as to the nature of the Church. 
 They, at the same time, show how op- 
 
 * Der barmherzige Gott behiite mich ja fiir 
 der christltehen Kirche, darin eitel heilige sind. — 
 (Upon John i. 2. L. Opp. (W.) vii. p. 1469.) 
 
 posed the religious principles of the reb- 
 els were to the religious principles of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 The most noted of these enthusiasts 
 was Thomas Miinzer ; he was not with- 
 out talent ; had read his Bible, was of a 
 zealous temperament, and might have 
 done good, if he had been able to gather 
 up his agitated thoughts, and attain to 
 settled peace of conscience. But with 
 little knowledge of his own heart, and 
 wanting in true humility, he was taken 
 up with the desire of reforming the world, 
 and, like the generality of enthusiasts, 
 forgot that it was with himself, he should 
 begin. Certain mystical writings, which 
 he had read in his youth, had given a 
 false direction to his thoughts. He made 
 his first appearance in public at Zwickau; 
 — quitted Wittemberg on Luther's re- 
 turn thither, — not satisfied to hold a 
 secondary place in the general esteem, 
 and became pastor of the small town of 
 Alstadt, in Thuringia. Here he could 
 not long remain quiet, but publicly 
 charged the Reformers with establishing 
 by their adherence to the written Word, 
 a species of Popery, and with forming 
 churches which were not pure and holy. 
 " Luther," said he, " has liberated 
 men's consciences from the Papal yoke ; 
 but he has left them in a carnal liberty, 
 and has not led them forward in spirit 
 towards God."* 
 
 He considered himself as called of 
 God to remedy this great evil. The 
 revelations of the Spirit, according to 
 him, were the means by which the 
 Reformation he was charged with should 
 be effected. " He who hath the Spirit," 
 said he, "hath true faith, although he 
 should never once in all his life see the 
 Holy Scriptures. The heathen and the 
 Turks are better prepared to receive the 
 Spirit than many of those Christians who 
 call us enthusiasts." This remark was 
 directed against Luther. " In order to 
 receive the Spirit," continued he, " we 
 must mortify the flesh — wear sackcloth 
 — neglect the body — be of a sad coun* 
 tenance — keep silencef — forsake the 
 haunts of men — and implore God to 
 vouchsafe to us an assurance of His 
 
 * Fiihrote sie nicht weiter in Geist und zu 
 Gott.— (L Opp. xix. 294.) 
 
 t Saur sehen, den Bart nicht abschneiden. — 
 (L. Opp. xix. p. 294.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 475 
 
 favour. Then it is that God will come 
 unto us, and talk with us, as he did of 
 old with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If 
 He were not to do so, He would not de- 
 serve our regard.* I have received from 
 God the commission to gather together 
 His elect in a holy and eternal union." 
 
 The agitation and ferment which were 
 Avorking in men's minds were not a little 
 favourable to the spread of these enthu- 
 siastic ideas. Men love- the marvellous 
 and whatever flatters their pride. Mun- 
 zer having inoculated with his own 
 views, a portion of his flock, abolished 
 the practice of chaunting, and all the 
 other ceremonies annexed to public wor- 
 ship. He maintained that to obey princes 
 " devoid of understanding," was to serve, 
 at one and the same time, God and Be- 
 lial ; and then setting off at the head of 
 his parishioners to a chapel in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Alstadt, to which pilgrims 
 were accustomed to resort from all quar- 
 ters, he totally demolished it. After this 
 exploit, being obliged to leave the coun- 
 try, he wandered from place to place in 
 Germany, and came as far as Switzer- 
 land, everywhere carrying with him, 
 and communicating to all who gave ear 
 to him, the project of a general revolu- 
 tion. Wherever he went he found men's 
 minds prepared. His words were like 
 gunpowder cast upon burning coals, and 
 a violent explosion quickly ensued. 
 
 Luther, who had rejected the warlike 
 enterprises of Sickingen,f could not be 
 led away by the tumultuous movements 
 of the peasantry. Happily for social or- 
 der, the Gospel kept him from falling 
 into this error ; for what would have 
 been the consequences, had he cast his 
 extensive influence into the scale? . . . 
 He resolutely maintained the distinction 
 between spiritual and secular matters ; 
 constantly affirming, that it was to im- 
 mortal souls that Christ gave liberty by 
 His word ; and while on the one hand 
 he impugned the authority of the Church, 
 he on the other, with equal courage, 
 stood up for the power of rulers. " A 
 Christian," said he, "ought to suffer a 
 hundred deaths, rather than be mixed up 
 
 * The expression used by Miinzer is low and 
 irreverent : Er wollt in Gott scheissen wenn er 
 nicht mit ihm redet, wie mit Abraham. — (Hist. 
 of Miinzer, by Melancthon.— Ibid. p. 295.) 
 
 t Book i. p. 57. 
 
 in the least degree with the revolted 
 peasantry." He wrote to the Elector — 
 " It gives me indescribable satisfaction 
 that these enthusiasts themselves boast, 
 to all who will give ear to them, that they 
 do not belong to us. ' It is,' say they, ' the ( 
 Spirit which impels us ;' to which I 
 reply, ' that it must be an evil spirit, that 
 bears no other fruits than the pillage of 
 convents and churches ;' the greatest rob- 
 bers on this earth might easily do as 
 much as that." 
 
 At the same time, Luther, who desired 
 for others the liberty that he claimed for 
 himself, was dissuading the Prince from 
 resorting to severe measures. " Let ihem 
 preach what they will, and against whom 
 they please," said he, " for it is the Word 
 of God alone which must go forth and 
 give them battle. If the spirit in them be 
 the true Spirit, any severities of ours will 
 be unavailing : but if our Spirit be the 
 true, He will not fear their violence \ 
 Let us leave the Spirits to struggle and 
 contend.* A few, perhaps, may be 
 seduced. In every battle there are some 
 wounded ; but he who is faithful in the 
 fight shall receive the crown. Never- 
 theless, if they have recourse to the 
 sword, let your Highness prohibit it, 
 and command them to quit your do- 
 minions." 
 
 The insurrection commenced in the 
 districts of the Black Forest, near the 
 sources of the Danube, a country that 
 had been often the theatre of popular 
 commotions. On the 19th July, 1524, 
 the Thurgovian peasantry rose against 
 the Abbot of Reichenau, who had re- 
 fused to appoint over them an evangeli- 
 cal preacher. Shortly after this, several 
 thousands of them collected round the 
 small town of Tenger, — their object 
 being to liberate an ecclesiastic who 
 was there imprisoned. The insurrection 
 spread, with inconceivable rapidity, from 
 Suabia as far as the Rhenish provinces, 
 Franconia, Thuringia, and Saxony. In 
 January, 1525, all these countries were 
 in a state of open insurrection. 
 
 Towards the close of that month, the 
 peasantry put forth a declaration in 
 twelve articles, wherein they claimed 
 the liberty of choosing their own pastors, 
 the abolition of small tithes, servitude, 
 
 * Man lasse die Ceister auf cinander platzen 
 und treffen. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 547.) 
 
476 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 and the taxes on inheritance ; the right 
 to hunt, fish, cut wood, &c. Each de- 
 mand was backed by a passage from the 
 Bible : and they concluded with the 
 words, — " If \ve are wrong, let Luther 
 set us right by the Scriptures." 
 
 They requested to have the opinion of 
 the divines of Wittemberg. Melancthon 
 and Luther each gave his judgment sep- 
 arately ; and the decision of each re- 
 minds us of the difference that marked 
 their characters. Melancthon, who re- 
 garded any disturbance as a serious 
 crime, overstepped the limits of his ha- 
 bitual mildness, and seemed to labour to 
 express the strength of his indignation. 
 According to him, the peasantry were 
 public criminals, on whom he invoked 
 all laws, — divine and human. If amica- 
 ble communications should fail of effect, 
 he would have the magistrates to pursue 
 them, as they would robbers and assas- 
 sins. " Nevertheless," adds he, — (and 
 some one feature, at least, we need to 
 find, that shall remind us of Melanc- 
 thon,) — " think of the orphans before you 
 have recourse to capital punishment !" 
 
 Luther took the same view of the 
 revolt as Melancthon ; but he had a 
 heart which deeply felt for the miseries 
 of the people. He manifested, on this 
 occasion, a noble impartiality, and frank- 
 ly spoke truth to both parties. He first 
 addressed the princes, — and more par- 
 ticularly the bishops : — 
 
 '• It is you," said he, u who have 
 caused the revolt ; it is your declama- 
 tions against the Gospel, it is your guilty 
 oppression of the poor of the flock, — 
 which have driven the people to despair. 
 My dear Lords, it is not the peasants 
 who have risen against you, — it is God 
 Himself who is opposing your madness.* 
 The peasants are but instruments He is 
 employing to humble you. Think not 
 you can escape the punishment reserved 
 for you. Even though you should suc- 
 ceed in exterminating all the peasantry, 
 God could from these stones raise up 
 others to chastise your pride. If I were 
 bent on avenging my own wrongs, I 
 might laugh in my sleeve, — and quietly 
 look on, while the peasantry were act- 
 ing, — or even inflame their rage, — but 
 the Lord keep me from it ! My dear 
 
 * Gott ist's selber der setzt sich wider euch. — 
 (L. Opp. xix. p. 254.) 
 
 Lords, for the love of God ! calm your 
 irritation ; — grant reasonable conditions 
 to these poor people, as phrenzied and 
 misled persons ; — appease these commo- 
 tions by gentle methods, lest they give 
 birth to a conflagration which shall set 
 all Germany in a flame. Some of their 
 twelve articles contain just and reason- 
 able demands." 
 
 Such an exordium was calculated to 
 gain for Luther the confidence of the 
 peasantry, and to induce them to listen 
 to the truths which he was about to 
 press upon them. After admitting that 
 some of their demands were founded 
 in justice, he declared that rebellion was 
 the act of heathens : that Christians were 
 called to suffer, not to fight : that if they 
 persisted in their revolt in the name of 
 the Gospel, but contrary to the very pre- 
 cepts of the Gospel, he should consider 
 them as worse enemies than the Pope. 
 " The Pope and the Emperor," con- 
 tinued he, " combined against me ; but 
 the more the Emperor and the Pope 
 stormed, the more did the Gospel make 
 its way. Why was this ? Because I 
 neither took up the sword, nor called for 
 vengeance, nor had recourse to tumult or 
 revolt ; I committed all to God, — and 
 waited for Him to interpose by His 
 mighty power. The Christian conflict 
 is not to be carried on by sword or 
 arquebuss, but by endurance and the 
 cross. Christ, their Captain, would not 
 have his servants smite with the sword, 
 — he was hanged upon a tree." 
 
 But in vain did Luther inculcate these 
 Christian precepts. The people, under 
 the influence of the inflammatory har- 
 angues of the leaders of the revolt, were 
 deaf to the words of the Reformer. " He 
 is playing the hypocrite," said they, "and 
 flatters the nobles : — he has himself made 
 war against the Pope, and yet expects 
 that we should submit to our oppressors." 
 
 Instead of subsiding, the insurrection 
 grew more formidable. At Weinsberg, 
 Count Louis of Helfenstein, and the 
 seventy men under his command, were 
 doomed to death. A body of peasantry 
 drew up in close ranks, with advanced 
 pikes, whilst others drove the Count and 
 his retainers against the points of this 
 forest of weapons.* The wife of the ill- 
 
 * Und jechten ein Grassen durch di» 
 — (Mathesius, p. 46.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 477 
 
 fated Helfenstein, a natural daughter of 
 the Emperor Maximilian, holding her 
 infant in her arms, imploring them, on 
 hended knees, to spare the life of her 
 husband, and vainly endeavoured to 
 avert this barbarous murder. A lad who 
 had served under the Count, and had 
 afterwards joined the rebels, gamboled in 
 mockery before him, and played the dead 
 march upon his fife, as if he had been 
 leading his victims io a dance. All per- 
 ished ; the infant was wounded in its 
 mother's arms, and she herself thrown 
 upon a dung-cart, and thus conveyed to 
 Heilbronn. 
 
 At the news of these atrocities, a cry 
 of horror was uttered by the friends of 
 the Reformation, and Luther's feeling 
 heart was violently agitated. On one 
 hand, the peasantry, ridiculing his coun- 
 sel, asserted that they had a revelation 
 from Heaven, — impiously perverted the 
 threatenings contained in the Old Testa- 
 ment, — proclaimed an equality of condi- 
 tions, and a community of goods, — de- 
 fended their cause with fire and sword, 
 and rioted in barbarous executions. On 
 the other hand, the enemies of the Ref- 
 ormation, with malicious sneer, enquired 
 if the Reformer did not know that it was 
 easier to kindle a fire than to extinguish 
 it. Indignant at these excesses, and 
 alarmed at the thought that they might 
 check the progress of the Gospel, Luther 
 no longer hesitated ; he laid aside his 
 former forbearance, and denounced the 
 rebels with all the energy of his charac- 
 ter, overpassing, perhaps, the just bounds 
 within which he should have contained 
 himself. 
 
 " The peasantry," said he, " are guilty 
 of three horrible crimes against God and 
 men ; and thus deserve both the death 
 of the body and that of the soul. In the 
 first place, they rebel against their rulers, 
 to whom they have sworn allegiance ; 
 next, they xob and plunder convents and 
 castles ; and, to crown all, they cloak 
 their crimes under the profession of the 
 Gospel ! If you neglect to shoot a mad 
 dog, yourself and all your neighbours 
 will perish. He who dies in the cause 
 of the magistrates will be a true martyr, 
 provided he fight with a good con- 
 science." 
 
 Luther then proceeds to comment se- 
 verely upon the guilty violence of the 
 
 peasantry, in compelling simple and 
 peaceable men to join their ranks, and 
 thus bringing them into the same con- 
 demnation. He then proceeds : " On 
 this account, my dear Lords, I conjure 
 you to interpose for the deliverance of 
 these poor people. I say to him who 
 can bear arms, strike, and kill. If thou 
 shouldst fall, thou canst not have a more 
 blessed end ; for thou meetest death in 
 the service of God, and to save thy 
 neighbour from hell."* 
 
 Neither gentle nor violent measures 
 could arrest the popular torrent. The 
 church bells were rung- no longer for 
 divine worship. Whenever their deep 
 and prolonged sounds were heard in 
 country places, it was known as the 
 tocsin, and all flew to arms 
 
 The people of the Black Forest had 
 enrolled themselves under John Muller 
 of Bulgenbach. With an imposing as- 
 pect, wrapped in a red cloak, and wear- 
 ing a red cap, this chief daringly pro- 
 ceeded from village to village, followed 
 by his peasantry. Behind him, on a 
 waggon, decorated with boughs and 
 ribands, was exhibited a tri-coloured flag, 
 black, red, and white, — the standard of 
 revolt. A herald, similarly decorated, 
 read aloud the twelve articles, and in- 
 vited the people to join in the insurrec- 
 tion. Whoever refused to do so, was 
 banished from the community. 
 
 Their progress, which at first was pa- 
 cific, became more and more alarming. 
 i: We must," they exclaimed, "compel 
 the lords of the soil to submit to our con- 
 ditions" — and by way of bringing them 
 to compliance they proceeded to break 
 open the granaries, empty the cellars, 
 draw the fish-ponds, demolish the castles 
 of the nobles, and set fire to the convents. 
 Opposition had inflamed to frenzy these 
 misguided men : Equality could no 
 longer satisfy them ; — they thirsted for 
 blood ; and swore to make every man 
 who wore a spur bite the dust. 
 
 At the approach of the peasantry, 
 those towns which were incapable of 
 withstanding a siege opened their gates, 
 and made common cause with them. In 
 every place they entered, the images of 
 the saints were defaced — the crucifixes 
 broken to pieces, — while women, armed 
 
 * Deinen Nehesten zu retten aus der HoIIe. 
 — (L. Opp. xix. p. 266.) 
 
478 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 with weapons, passed through the streets 
 threatening the lives of the monks. 
 Beaten and repulsed in one place, they 
 re-assembled in another, and braved the 
 most formidable regular troops. 
 
 A committee chosen by the peasants 
 stationed themselves at Heilbrun. The 
 Counts of Lowenstein were captured, 
 stript, and clothed in common blouse, 
 a white staff was placed in their hands, 
 and they were compelled to swear adhe- 
 sion to the twelve articles. " Brother 
 George, and you, brother Albert," said a 
 brazier to the Counts of Hohenlohe, who 
 visited their camp, " swear to us to act 
 the part of brothers — for yourselves are 
 now peasants and no longer lords." 
 Equality of rank, that dream of demo- 
 crats, was established in aristocratic Ger- 
 many. 
 
 Many persons of the upper classes, 
 some from fear, and some from motives 
 of ambition, joined the insurrection. 
 The celebrated Gotz of Berlichingen 
 finding himself unable to maintain his 
 authority over his vassals, prepared to 
 seek a refuge in the states of the Elector 
 of Saxony, but his wife, who was then in 
 child-bed, wishing to keep him at home, 
 concealed from him the Elector's letter. 
 Gotz, hemmed in on all sides, was com- 
 pelled to put himself at the head of the 
 rebel forces. On the 7th of May, the 
 peasants entered Wurtzburg, where they 
 were received with acclamations. The 
 troops of the princes and of the knights 
 of Suabia and Franconia, who were sta- 
 tion§d in that city, evacuated it, and 
 withdrew in confusion within the citadel, 
 — the last refuge of the nobility. 
 
 But already had the commotion spread 
 to other parts of Germany. Spires, the 
 Palatinate, Alsace, Hesse, had adopted 
 the twelve articles, and the peasants 
 threatened Bavaria, Westphalia, the Ty- 
 rol, Saxony, and Lorraine. The Mar- 
 grave of Baden, having scornfully reject- 
 ed the articles, was compelled to seek 
 refuge in flight. The Coadjutor of Ful- 
 da acceded to them with a laugh. The 
 smaller towns submitted, alleging that 
 they had no spears to resist the insur- 
 gents. Mentz, Treves, Frankfort, obtain- 
 ed the immunities on which they had in- 
 sisted. 
 
 Throughout the Empire, a wide- 
 spreading revolution was in full career. 
 
 The ecclesiastical and secular privileges, 
 which bore so heavily on the peasantry, 
 were to be suppressed ; church property 
 was to be diverted to secular uses, to in- 
 demnify the chiefs, and meet the exigen- 
 cies of the state ; taxes were to be abol- 
 ished, with exception of a tribute payable 
 every ten years ; the power of the Em- 
 peror, as recognised by the New Testa- 
 ment, was to be maintained supreme ; all 
 other reigning princes were to come 
 down to the level of citizens ; sixty-four 
 free courts we>re to be instituted, and men 
 of all ranks to be eligible as judges; all 
 conditions were to return to their primi- 
 tive positions ; the clergy were to be re- 
 stricted to the pastorship of their several 
 churches ; princes and knights were to be 
 defenders of the weak ; uniform weights 
 and measures were to be introduced ; 
 and one coin to be struck, and be the 
 only currency of the whole Empire. 
 
 Meanwhile, the nobles were recovering 
 from their first stupor, and George Truch- 
 sess, commander-in-chief of the Imperial 
 forces, advanced in the direction of the 
 lake of Constance. On the 7th of May, 
 he drove back the peasants at Beblingen, 
 and directed his march upon the town of 
 Weinsberg, where the unfortunate Count 
 of Helfenstein had lost his life. He set 
 fire to it, and burned it to the ground, 
 giving orders that its ruins should be left 
 as a lasting memorial of the treason of 
 its inhabitants. At Furfeld, he effected 
 a junction with the Elector Palatine and 
 the Elector of Treves, and the combined 
 army advanced upon Franconia. 
 
 The Frauenberg, the citadel of Wurtz- 
 burg, had held out for' the cause of the 
 nobles, and the main army of the peas- 
 ants still lay before its walls. On receiv- 
 ing intelligence of the approach of Truch- 
 sess, they resolved on an assault, and on 
 the 15th of May, at nine in the evening, 
 the trumpets sounded, the tri-colour flag 
 was unfurled, and the psasants rushed to 
 the assault with frightful shouts. Sebas- 
 tian Rotenhan, one of the staunchest 
 partisans of the Reformation, was com- 
 mandant in the castle. He had organ- 
 ized the means of defence on an efficient 
 footing, and when he harangued the 
 soldiers and exhorted them to repel the 
 attack, they had all sworn to do so, rais- 
 ing their three fingers towards heaven. 
 A fierce struggle ensued. The reckless 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 479 
 
 and despairing efforts of the peasants 
 were answered from the walls of the for- 
 tress by petards and showers of sulphur 
 and boiling pitch, and discharges of can- 
 non. The peasants, thus struck by their 
 unseen enemy from behind the ramparts, 
 for an instant faltered, but their fury rose 
 above it all. Night closed in, and the 
 contest still raged. The fortress, lighted 
 up by a thousand battle-fires, seemed, in 
 the darkness of the night, to resemble a 
 towering giant pouring forth flames, and 
 contending in the midst of bursts of thun- 
 der for the salvation of the Empire from 
 the savage bravery of infuriated hordes. 
 At two in the morning, the peasants, fail- 
 ing in all their efforts, at last retreated. 
 
 They tried to open negociations with 
 the garrison, on the one side, and with 
 Truchsess, who was approaching at the 
 head of his army, on the other. But ne- 
 gociation was not their forte. Violence 
 and conquest offered their only chance 
 of safety. After some hesitation, they de- 
 cided to advance against the Imperial for- 
 ces; but the cannon and charges of the 
 Imperial cavalry made fearful havoc in 
 their ranks. On reaching Konigshofen, 
 they were completely routed. Then it 
 was that the princes, nobles, and bishops, 
 cruelly abusing their victory, gave loose 
 to unheard-of cruelties. Those who were 
 taken prisoners, were hanged at the road- 
 side. The bishop of Wurtzburg, who 
 had taken flight, returning to his diocese, 
 passed over it, attended by executioners, 
 who shed, without distinction, the blood 
 of rebels, and of such as were living qui- 
 etly in subjection to God's word. Gotz 
 de Berlichingen was sentenced to impris- 
 onment for life. The Margrave Casimir 
 of Anspach, deprived of their sight no 
 less than eighty peasants, who, in the re- 
 bellion, had declared, with an oath, that 
 their eyes should never look upon that 
 prince, — casting the victims of his cruel- 
 ty on the wide world, blind, and holding 
 each other by the hand, to grope their 
 way, and beg their bread. The unfor- 
 tunate youth who had played, on his fife, 
 the death-march of Helfenstein, was 
 chained to a stake, and a fire lighted 
 round him — the knights being present, 
 and laughing at his horrid contortions. 
 
 Everywhere public worship was re- 
 stored, under its ancient forms. In the 
 most flourishing and populous districts 
 
 of the Empire, the traveller was horror- 
 struck with the sight of heaps of dead 
 bodies and smoking ruins. Fifty thou- 
 sand had perished ; and almost every- 
 where the people lost what little liberty 
 they had previously possessed. Such, 
 in Southern Germany, was the dreadful 
 result of the Revolt. 
 
 But the evil was not confined to the 
 south and west of Germany. Miinzer, 
 after traversing part of Switzerland, Al- 
 sace, and Suabia, had again turned his 
 steps toward Saxony. Some townsmen 
 of Mulhausen, in Thuringia, invited 
 him to their town, and elected him as 
 their pastor. The Town-council having 
 offered resistance, Miinzer degraded it, 
 — appointing* another in its stead, com- 
 posed of his own friends, and presided 
 over by himself. Contemning the Christ 
 full of grace, whom Luther preached, 
 and resolved on recourse to violent 
 means, his cry was, — " We must exter- 
 minate with the sword, like Joshua, the 
 Canaanitish nations." He set on foot a 
 community of goods,* and pillaged the 
 convents. " Miinzer," wrote Luther to 
 Amsdorff, on the 11th of April, 1525, 
 " Miinzer is king, and emperor of Mul- 
 hausen, and no longer its pastor." The 
 lowest classes ceased to work. If any 
 one wanted a piece of cloth, or a supply 
 of corn, he asked his richer neighbour : 
 if the latter refused, the penalty was 
 hanging. Mulhausen being a free town, 
 Miinzer exercised his power, unmolested 
 for nearly a year. The revolt of South- 
 ern Germany led him to imagine that 
 the time was come to extend his new 
 kingdom. He cast some large guns in 
 the convent of the Franciscans, and ex- 
 erted himself to raise the peasantiy and 
 miners of Mansfeld. " When will you 
 shake off your slumbers," said he, in a 
 fanatical address : " Arise, and fight the 
 battle of the Lord ! — The time is come. 
 — France, Germany, and Italy, are up 
 and doing. Forward, Forward, For- 
 ward ! — Dran, Dran, Dran ! Heed not 
 the cries of the ungodly. They will 
 weep like children, — but be you pitiless. 
 — Dran, Dran, Dran ! — Fire burns ; — 
 let your swords be ever tinged with 
 
 * Omnia simul communia. — (L. Opp. xix. p 
 292.) 
 
480 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 blood !* — Dran, Dran, Dran ! — Work 
 while it is day." The letter was signed 
 " Munzer, God's servant against the un- 
 godly." 
 
 The country people, eager for plun- 
 der, flocked in crowds to his standard. 
 Throughout the districts of Mansfeld, 
 Stolberg, Schwarzburg, Hesse, and 
 Brunswick, the peasantry rose en masse. 
 The convents of Michelstein, Ilsenburg, 
 Walkenried, Rossleben, and many others 
 in the neighbourhood of the Hartz moun- 
 tains, or in the plains of Thuringia, were 
 plundered. At Reinhardsbrunn, the 
 place which Luther had once visited, 
 the tombs of the ancient landgraves were 
 violated, and the library destroyed. 
 
 Terror spread far and wide. Even at 
 Wittemberg, some anxiety began to be 
 felt. The Doctors who had not feared 
 Emperors nor Pope felt themselves trem- 
 ble in presence of a madman. Curiosity 
 was all alive to the accounts of what was 
 going on, and watched every step in the 
 progress of the insurrection. Melancthon 
 wrote — " We are here in imminent dan- 
 ger. If Munzer be successful, it is all 
 over with us ; unless Christ should ap- 
 pear for our deliverance. Munzer's prog- 
 ress is marked by more than Scythian 
 cruelty.f His threats are more dreadful 
 than I can tell you." 
 
 The pious Elector had hesitated long 
 what steps he should take. Munzer had 
 exhorted him, as well as the other reign- 
 ing princes, to be converted : " For," said 
 he, "their time is come:" and he had 
 signed his letters — " Munzer, armed with 
 the sword of Gideon." It was Frederic's 
 earnest desire to try gentle methods for 
 reclaiming these deluded men. Dan- 
 gerously ill, he had written on the 1 4th 
 of April, to his brother John — " Possibly, 
 more than one cause for insurrection has 
 been given to these wretched people. 
 Oh, in many ways are the poor oppress- 
 ed by their temporal, as well as by their 
 spiritual rulers!" And when his coun- 
 cillors adverted to the humiliation, con- 
 fusions, and dangers to which he would 
 expose himself by neglecting to stifle the 
 rebellion in its infancy, he made answer 
 — " In my time, I have been a potent 
 
 * Lasset euer Schwerdt nicht kalt werden 
 von Blut— (L. Opp. xix. 289.) 
 
 t Moncerus plus quam Scythicam crudelita- 
 tera prae se fert. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 741.) 
 
 Elector with horses and chariots in great 
 abundance, — if, at this time, God will 
 take them away, I will go on foot."* 
 
 Philip, the young Landgrave of 
 Hesse, was the first of the reigning 
 princes who took up arms. His knights 
 and retainers swore to live or die with 
 him. Having put the affairs of his 
 states in order, he moved towards Sax- 
 ony. On their side, Duke John, the 
 Elector's brother, Duke George of Sax- 
 ony, and Duke Henry of Brunswick, ad- 
 vancing, effected a junction with the 
 Hessian troops. As the combined force 
 came into sight, the peasants, in alarm, 
 took their station on a hill, and, without 
 observing any discipline, set about con- 
 structing a sort of rampart, composed of 
 their waggons. Munzer had not even 
 provided powder for his immense guns. 
 No help appeared — the troops hemmed 
 them in, and a panic spread through the 
 rebel host. The princes from motives 
 of humanity, proposed to them to capitu- 
 late — and they showed signs of willing- 
 ness to do so. Then it was, that Mun- 
 zer had recourse to the most powerful 
 lever of enthusiasm : " This day," said 
 he, " this day we shall behold the mighty 
 arm of God, and destruction shall fall 
 upon our enemies !" Just at that moment, 
 a rainbow was seen in the clouds — and 
 the frantic multitude, whose standard 
 bore the representation of a rainbow, be- 
 held in it a sure omen of the Divine pro- 
 tection. Munzer took advantage of it : 
 " Never fear," said he, to the burghers 
 and peasantry ; " 1 will receive all their 
 balls in my sleeve :"f and at the same 
 moment, he gave direction that a young 
 gentleman, Maternus Geholfen, an envoy 
 from the princes, should be cruelly put 
 to death, in order that the rebels might 
 thus know themselves beyond the hope 
 of pardon. 
 
 The Landgrave harangued his sol- 
 diers — "I well know," said he, "that 
 we princes are often to blame — for we 
 are but men ; but it is God's will that 
 the powers that be should be respected. 
 Let us save our wives and children from 
 the fury of these murderers. The Lord 
 will give us the victory, for hath He not 
 
 * So wolle er hinhunftig zu fuss gehen. — 
 (Seek. p. 685.) 
 
 t Ihr sollt 6ehen dass ich alio Biichsensteine 
 in Ermel fassen will. — (L. Opp. xix. p. 297.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 481 
 
 said, ' He that resisteth the power, resist- 
 eth the ordinance of God. 1 " Philip then 
 gave the signal for the attack. It was 
 the 15th of May, 1525. The army put 
 itself in motion — but the crowd of peas- 
 ants standing still, struck up the hymn, 
 "Come, Holy Spirit," — expecting Heav- 
 en to interfere in their behalf. But the 
 artillery soon opened a breach in their 
 rude fortification, and scattered confusion 
 and death in their midst. On this, their 
 fanaticism and resolution at once forsook 
 them ; a panic spread throughout their 
 host, and breaking from their ranks they 
 fled in the utmost disorder. Five thou- 
 sand were slain in the pursuit. After 
 the battle the princes and their victorious 
 troops entered Frankenhausen. A sol- 
 dier, who had mounted to the loft of the 
 house in which he was quartered, per- 
 ceived a man crouching in concealment.* 
 " Who are you ?" demanded he ; ' ; are 
 you one of the rebels'?" — then catching 
 sight of a writing-case, he opened it, and 
 found therein letters addressed to Thom- 
 as Miinzer — "Is that your name?" in- 
 quired the trooper. — " No," answered the 
 sick man. But the soldier, uttering 
 dreadful threats, Munzer — for he it was 
 — confessed he was the man. " You 
 'are my prisoner," rejoined the other. 
 Being taken before Duke George and 
 the Landgrave, Munzer persisted in 
 maintaining that he was justified in 
 chastising the nobles, since they were 
 opposers of the Gospel. ■' Wretch !" said 
 they, " think of those whose death thou 
 hast occasioned." But he made answer, 
 smiling in the midst of his anguish, 
 " They would have it so." He took the 
 sacrament under one kind, and was be- 
 headed on the same day as his lieuten- 
 ant PfeifTer. Mulhausen was taken, and 
 the peasants loaded with chains. 
 
 One of the nobles, who had remarked 
 in the crowd of prisoners a peasant whose 
 appearance interested him, drew near, 
 and said, — " Well, my boy, what gov- 
 ernment is most to your mind, — the 
 peasants or the princes?" The poor 
 youth, sighing deeply, replied, — "Ah, 
 my dear lord, no edge of sword inflicts 
 such suffering as the rule of a peasant 
 over his fellow."! 
 
 * So findet er einen am Bctt. 
 t Kein Messer scherpfer schirrt denn wenn ein 
 Baur des andern Herr wird. — (Mathesius, p. 48.) 
 61 
 
 What remained of the rebellion was 
 quenched in blood , Duke George was 
 particularly inflexible. In the states of 
 the Elector, there were neither execu- 
 tions nor punishments ;* God's word, 
 preached in its purity, had been proved 
 sufficient to control the tumultuous pas- 
 sions of the people. 
 
 In truth, Luther had, from its very be- 
 ginning, withstood the rebellion ; which 
 to him appeared the forerunner of final 
 judgments. He had spared neither ad- 
 vice, entreaties, nor irony. To the 
 twelve articles which the rebels had 
 drawn up at Erfurth, he had subjoined 
 as a thirteenth : " Item, the following 
 article omitted above. From this day 
 forth the honourable Council shall be 
 powerless, — its functions shall be to do 
 nothing, — it shall sit as an idol or as a 
 log, — the commune shall chew its meat 
 for it, and it shall govern bound hand 
 and foot. From this day, the waggon 
 shall guide the horses, the horses shall 
 hold the reins, and all shall go on pros- 
 perously, in conformity with the glorious 
 system set forth in the foregoing articles." 
 
 Luther was not satisfied with using 
 his pen. Just when the confusion was 
 at its height, he left Wittemberg, and 
 traversed some of the districts where the 
 agitation was greatest. He preached, 
 he laboured to soften the hearts of his 
 hearers, and being strengthened from 
 above in his work, he guided, quieted, 
 and brought back into their accustomed 
 channels, the impetuous and overflowing 
 torrents. 
 
 The reformed teachers everywhere ex- 
 erted a similar influence. At Halle, 
 Brentz, by the power of the divine prom- 
 ises, revived the drooping spirits of its 
 inhabitants, and four thousand of the 
 peasants fled before six hundred of its 
 citizens.! At Ichterhausen, where a 
 body of peasants had met, intending to 
 demolish certain castles, and put their 
 owners to death, Frederic Myconius 
 ventured alone among them, and such 
 was the power of his eloquence, that 
 they at once abandoned their purpose.^ 
 
 * Hie nulla carnificina, nullum supplicium. — 
 (Corp. Ref. i. p. 752.) 
 
 t Eorum animos fractos et perturbatos verbo 
 Dei erexit. — (M. Adam. Vit. Brentii, p. 441.) 
 
 t Agmen rustieorum qui convenerant ad de- 
 moliendas arces, unica oratione sic compescuit. 
 — (M. Adam. Vit. Fred. Myconii, p. 178.) 
 
482 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Such was the part taken by the Re- 
 formers and the Reformation during the 
 continuance of the revolt. They con- 
 tended, as far as they were enabled, by 
 the sword of the Word, and boldly 
 asserted the principles which alone have 
 power at all times to preserve order and 
 subjection among nations. Hence we 
 find Luther asserting that if the whole- 
 some influence of sound doctrine had not 
 withstood the madness of the people, the 
 revolt would have extended its ravages 
 far more widely, and would everywhere 
 have overturned both Church and State. 
 Every thing inclines us to believe that 
 this melancholy anticipation would have 
 been realised. 
 
 If, as we have seen, the Reformers 
 stood up against sedition, they neverthe- 
 less did not escape without being wound- 
 ed. That moral agony which Luther 
 had first undergone in his cell at Er- 
 furth, was perhaps at its height after the 
 revolt of the peasants. On the side of 
 the princes it was repeated, and in many 
 quarters believed, that Luther's teaching 
 had been the cause of the rebellion; and 
 groundless as was the charge, the Re- 
 former could not but feel deeply affected 
 by the credit attached to it. On the 
 side of the people, Miinzer and all the 
 leaders of the sedition represented him 
 as a vile hypocrite and flatterer of the 
 great,* and their calumnies easily ob- 
 tained belief. The strength with which 
 Luther had declared against the rebels, 
 had given offence even to men of mode- 
 rate opinions. The partisans of Rome 
 exulted ;f all seemed against him, and 
 he bore the indignation of that genera- 
 tion : but what most grieved him was 
 that the work of heaven should be thus 
 degraded by being classed with the 
 dreams of fanatics. He contemplated 
 the bitter cup presented to him, and fore- 
 seeing that ere long he would be forsa- 
 ken by all, he exclaimed, " Soon shall I 
 also have to say, ' All ye shall be offend- 
 ed because of me in that night !' " 
 
 Yet, in the midst of this bitter experi- 
 ence, his faith was unshaken. " He," 
 said he, " who has enabled me to tread 
 the enemy under foot when he came 
 
 * Quod adulator principum vocer. — (L. Epp. 
 ii. p^ 671.) 
 
 t Gaudent papistse de nostro dissidio. — (Ibid. 
 p. 612.) 
 
 against me as a roaring lion, will not 
 suffer that enemy to crush me, now that 
 he approaches with the treacherous leer 
 of the basilisk.* I mourn over the late 
 calamities. Again and again have I 
 asked myself whether it might not have 
 been better to have allowed the Papacy 
 to pursue its course unmolested, rather 
 than be a witness to the breaking out of 
 such commotions. But no : — it is better 
 to have extricated a few from the jaws 
 of the devil, than that all should be left 
 under his murderous fangs." \ 
 
 At this period we must note the com- 
 pletion of that change in Luther's views 
 which had commenced at the time of his 
 return from the Wartburg. A principle 
 of internal life no longer satisfied him ; the 
 Church and her institutions assumed a 
 high importance in his estimate. The 
 fearlessness with which he had thrown 
 down all that stood in the way of his re- 
 forms, drew back in the prospect of 
 a work of destruction, far more radical 
 and sweeping : he felt the necessity for 
 preserving, ruling, building up, — and it 
 was in the centre of the blood watered 
 ruins with which the war of the peasants 
 had covered Germany, that the structure 
 of the new Church rose slowly from its 
 foundations. 
 
 The troubles we have been narrating 
 left a deep and enduring impression on 
 the minds of that age. Nations were 
 struck with consternation. The masses 
 who had sought in the Reformation 
 nothing but political freedom, withdrew 
 from it of their own accord, when they 
 saw that spiritual liberty was the only 
 liberty it offered. Luther's opposition to 
 the peasants involved the renunciation of 
 the inconstant favour of the people. It 
 was not long before a seeming tranquil- 
 lity was restored, and the silence of ter- 
 ror;}; succeeded to the outbreaks of enthu- 
 siasm and sedition. 
 
 Thus the popular passions, the cause 
 of revolution, and radical equality, were 
 quelled and passed away : but the Ref- 
 
 * Qui cum toties hactenus sub pedibus meis 
 calcavit et contrivit leonem el draconem, non 
 sinet etjam basiliscum super me calcare. — (Ibid, 
 p. 671.) 
 
 t Es ist besser einige aus dem Rachen des 
 Teufels herausreissen. — (L. Opp. ii. Ed. ix. p. 
 961.) 
 
 X Ea res incussit .... vulgo terrorem, ut ni- 
 hil usquam moveatur. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 752.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 483 
 
 ormation did not pass away. The two 
 movements, by many confounded with 
 each other, were exhibited in the dis- 
 tinctness of their character by the diver- 
 sity of their results. The revolt was a 
 thing of earthly origin, the Reformation 
 was from above — some cannon and sol- 
 diers sufficed to put down the former, but 
 the latter never ceased to grow and 
 strengthen, in spite of the reiterated as- 
 saults of the imperial or ecclesiastical 
 powers. 
 
 And yet the cause of the Reformation 
 itself seemed likely to perish in the gulph 
 in which the liberties of the people were 
 lost. A melancholy event appeared like- 
 ly to hasten its ruin. At the time the 
 princes were in full march against Mun- 
 zer, and ten days before the final defeat 
 of the peasants, the aged Elector of Sax- 
 ony, the man whom God had raised up 
 to defend the Reformation against exter- 
 nal dangers, descended to the tomb. 
 
 His strength had been daily declining; 
 and his feeling heart was wrung by the 
 atrocities which stained the progress of 
 the war of the peasants. " Oh !" cried 
 he, with a deep sigh, " if it were the will 
 of God, I would gladly be released from 
 this life. I see nothing left, neither love, 
 truth, or faith, or any thing good upon 
 this earth."* 
 
 Turning from the thought of the con- 
 fusions that prevailed throughout Ger- 
 many, the pious prince quietly prepared 
 himself to depart. He had taken up his 
 abode in his castle of Lochau. On the 
 4th of May, he asked for his chaplain, 
 the faithful Spalatin : " You do well to 
 visit me," said he to him as he entered 
 the room, " for it is well to visit the sick." 
 Then directing that his couch should be 
 moved toward the table where Spalatin 
 was seated, he desired his attendants to 
 leave the room, and affectionately taking 
 his friend's hand, spoke to him familiarly 
 of Luther, of the peasants, and of his ap- 
 proaching end. At eight that same even- 
 ing Spalatin returned : the aged prince 
 opened his mind to him, and confessed 
 his sins, in the presence of God. The 
 next morning, the 5th, he received the 
 communion under both kinds. No mem- 
 ber of his family was present : his brother 
 
 * Noch etwas gutes mehr in der Welt. — 
 (Seckend. p. 702.) 
 
 and his nephew had both left with the 
 army ; but, according to the ancient cus- 
 tom of those times, his domestics stood 
 round the bed gazing in tears* upon the 
 venerable prince whom it had been their 
 sweet privilege to serve : " My little chil- 
 dren," said he, tenderly, " if I have offend- 
 ed any one of you forgive me for the 
 love of God ; for we princes often offend 
 against such little ones, and it ought not 
 so to be." In this way did Frederic con- 
 form himself to the apostle's direction 
 that the rich humble himself when he is 
 brought low, " because as the flower of 
 the grass he shall pass away."f 
 
 Spalatin never left him. He set be- 
 fore him with glowing earnestness the 
 glorious promises of the Gospel ; and the 
 pious Elector drank in its strong consola- 
 tions with unspeakable peace. That 
 evangelic doctrine was then to his soul 
 no longer a sword, turned against false 
 teaching, searching it in all its refuges of 
 lies, and triumphing over it at every 
 turn : it was a shower — a gentle dew, 
 distilling on his heart, and causing it to 
 overflow with hope and joy. God and 
 eternity were alone present to his 
 thought. 
 
 Feeling his death rapidly drawing 
 nigh, he destroyed a will he had made 
 some years before, in which he had com- 
 mended his soul to "the Mother of God," 
 and dictated another in which he cast 
 himself on the spotless and availing 
 merit of Jesus Christ " for the forgive- 
 ness of his sins," and expressed his firm 
 assurance that "he was redeemed by the 
 precious blood of his beloved Saviour."! 
 This done, he added, — " My strength 
 fails me, I can say no more;" and at 
 five the same evening he " fell asleep." 
 " He was a son of Peace," remarked 
 his physician, " and in peace he is de- 
 parted." — "Oh!" said Luther, "how bit- 
 ter to his survivors was that death." § 
 
 It is remarkable that Luther, who just 
 at that time was on a mission of peace, 
 trying fo allay the excitement left, by re- 
 cent events, on the minds of the people 
 of Thuringia, had never seen the Elec- 
 tor, but at a distance, — as at Worms, 
 
 * Dass alle Umstehende zum weinen bewegt. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 t St. James, 1 Eh. 10th ver. 
 
 t Durch das theure Blut meines allerliebsten 
 Heylandes erloset. — (Seek. p. 703.) 
 
 § O mors amara! — (L. Epp. ii. p. 659.) 
 
484 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 when the latter was seated beside Charles 
 the Fifth. But from the moment the Ref- 
 ormation appeared, these two remark- 
 able men had been together in spirit. 
 Frederic in quest of the national interest 
 and independence, — Luther in quest of 
 truth and reformation. It cannot be 
 doubted that the Reformation was, in 
 principle, a work of the Spirit ; but, in 
 order to its gaining footing on the earth, 
 it was, perhaps, necessary that it should 
 be linked with a something connected 
 with the interests of the nation. Hence, 
 — no sooner had Luther stood up against 
 indulgences, than the alliance between 
 the Monk and the Prince was tacitly- 
 concluded, — an alliance in its nature 
 simply moral, without form of contract, 
 without writing, without even verbal 
 communication, — an alliance in which 
 the stronger lent no' aid to the weaker 
 party, but that which consisted in leav- 
 ing him unmolested to his work. But 
 now that the mighty oak, under the 
 shelter of which the Reformation had 
 grown up, was felled to the dust, — now 
 that the opposers of the Gospel gave 
 more free expression to their hatred, and 
 its supporters were obliged to retire or to 
 be silent, it seemed as if nothing was 
 left to defend it against the sword of 
 those who were pursuing it. 
 
 The confederates of Ratisbon, after the 
 complete defeat of the peasants of the 
 southern and western provinces, proceed- 
 ed to vent their revenge on the Ref- 
 ormation, as well as on those who had 
 taken part in the revolt. At Wurtzburg, 
 at Bamberg, inoffensive citizens were 
 put to death, — including some who had 
 even opposed themselves to the peasants. 
 " It matters not," it was openly said, 
 "they were of the Gospellers," — and 
 they were beheaded.* 
 
 Duke George sought opportunity to 
 infuse into the minds of the Landgrave 
 and Duke John his own prejudices and 
 antipathies. "See," said he, after the 
 rout of the peasants, pointing to the 
 field of carnage, "see what miseries 
 Luther has occasioned." John and 
 Philip showed signs of acquiescence. 
 " Duke"George," remarked the Reformer, 
 " flatters himself he shall succeed, now 
 that Frederic is dead ; but Christ still 
 reigns in the midst of his enemies. 
 * Ranke, Deutsche Gesch. ii. p. 226. 
 
 Gnash their teeth as they will, the 
 desire of them shall perish."* 
 
 George lost no time in forming, in 
 northern Germany, a confederacy similar 
 to that of Ratisbon. The Electors of 
 Mentz and Brandenburg, — Dukes Hen- 
 ry, Eric, and George, assembled at Des- 
 sau, and there concluded a treaty of alli- 
 ance in the interest of Rome.f In the 
 month of July, George urged the new 
 Elector and his son-in-law, the Land- 
 grave, to accede to it. Then, as if to 
 give intimation of the objects of the con- 
 federation, he beheaded two citizens of 
 Leipsic, who had been proved to have in 
 their possession the Reformer's writings. 
 
 Just at this time letters from Charles 
 the Fifth, dated from Toledo, reached 
 Germany, by which another Diet was 
 convoked at Augsburg. Charles wished 
 to give the Empire such a constitution 
 as would allow him to dispose, at will, 
 of the military force of Germany. The 
 divisions in religion favoured his design. 
 He had but to let loose the Catholics 
 against the Gospellers ; and when both 
 should have exhausted their strength, he 
 might gain an easy victory over both. 
 " Away with the Lutherans,"^: was there- 
 fore the cry of the Emperor. 
 
 Thus, all conspired against the Ref- 
 ormation. Never could Luther's spirit 
 have been bowed down by such mani- 
 fold apprehensions. The surviving sec- 
 taries of Miinzer had vowed to take his 
 life. His sole protector was no more. 
 " Duke George," wrote some, " intended 
 to arrest him in Wittemberg itself."^ 
 The Princes who could have defended 
 him, one after another bowed before the 
 storm, and seemed to be abandoning the 
 cause of the Gospel. The University, 
 already lowered in credit by the recent 
 confusions, was, according to rumour, on 
 the point of being suppressed by the new 
 Elector. Charles, after his victory at 
 Pavia, had just convoked another Diet, 
 that a finishing blow might be dealt 
 against the Reformation. What dan- 
 gers, then, must he not have foreseen? 
 The anxious mental struggles that had so 
 often drawn sobs from his bosom again 
 
 * Dux Gorgius, mortuo Frederico, putat se 
 omnia posse. — (L. Epp. iii. p- 22 ) 
 
 t Habito conciliabulo conjuraverunt restituros 
 sese esse omnia . . . — (Ibid.) 
 
 X Sleidan. Hist, de la Ref. i. p. 214. 
 
 § Keil. Luther's Leben, p. 160 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 485 
 
 wrung his heart. How should he bear 
 up against such multiplied enemies? In 
 the very crisis of this agitation, with all 
 these accumulated dangers staring him in 
 the face, — the corpse of Frederic scarce- 
 ly cold, and the plains of Germany still 
 strewed with the unburied bodies of the 
 peasants — Luther, — none surely could 
 have imagined such a thing, — Luther 
 married ! 
 
 In the monastery of Nimptsch, near 
 Grimma, in Saxony, resided, in the year 
 1523, nine nuns, who had devoted them- 
 selves to the reading of God's word, and 
 had discerned the contrast that existed 
 between the christian life and the daily 
 routine of their cloister. The names of 
 these nuns were Magdalene Staupitz, 
 Elisa Canitz, Ave Grossn, Ave and Mar- 
 garet Schonfeld, Laneta Golis, Margaret 
 and Catherine Zeschau, and Catherine 
 Bora. The first step taken by these 
 young women, after their minds were de- 
 livered from the superstitions of their 
 monastery, was to write to their relations 
 — " Our continuance in a cloister," said 
 they, " is incompatible with the salvation 
 of our souls."* Their parents, dreading 
 the trouble such a resolution was likely 
 to occasion to themselves, repelled with 
 harshness the entreaties of their children. 
 The poor nuns were overwhelmed with 
 distress. How to leave their nunnery ! 
 their timidity took alarm at so desperate 
 a decision. At last, their horror of the 
 Papal services prevailed, and they mutu- 
 ally promised not to part company, but 
 together to find their way to some re- 
 spectable quarter with decency and or- 
 der, f Two respected and pious citizens 
 of Torgau, Leonard Koppe and Wolff 
 Tomitzch, tendered their assistance! — 
 they welcomed it as of God's sending, 
 and quitted the convent of Nimptsch 
 without any hindrance being interposed, 
 as if the hand of the Lord had set open 
 its gates. § Koppe and Tomitzch were 
 in waiting to receive them in their wag- 
 gon — and on the 7th of April, the nine 
 
 * Der Seelen Seligkeit halber. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 
 323.) 
 
 t Mit aller Zucht und Ehre an redliche Stiitte 
 und Orte kommen. — (Ibid. p. 322.) 
 
 t Per honestos cives Torgavienses adductae. — 
 (Ibid. p. 319.) 
 
 § Mirabiliter evaserunt. — (Ibid.) 
 
 nuns, amazed at their own boldness, 
 drew up in deep emotion at the gate of 
 the old convent of the Augustihes where 
 Luther resided. 
 
 " This is not my doing." said Luther, 
 as he received them, " but would to God 
 I could, in this way, give liberty to en- 
 slaved consciences, and empty the clois- 
 ters of their tenants. A breach is made, 
 however."* Several persons proposed to 
 the doctor to receive the nuns into their 
 houses, and Catherine Bora found a 
 welcome in the family of the burgo- 
 master of Wittemberg. 
 
 If Luther had then before him the 
 prospect of any solemn event, it was that 
 he should be called to ascend the scaffold, 
 not the steps of the altar. Many months 
 after this, he answered those who spoke 
 of marriage — " God may change my 
 purpose, if such be His pleasure ; but at 
 present I have no thought of taking 
 a wife : not that I am insensible to the 
 charms of a married life ; I am neither 
 wood nor stone ; but I every day expect 
 death and the punishment of a heretic."f 
 
 And yet all was moving onward in 
 the church. The habits of monastic life, 
 invented by man, were on all sides giving 
 place to the habits of domestic life, insti- 
 tuted by God. On Sunday, the 9th of 
 October, Luther, on rising, laid aside his 
 monk's gown, assumed the garb of a 
 secular priest, and then made his appear- 
 ance in the church, where this trans- 
 formation caused a lively satisfaction. 
 Christianity, in its renewed youth, hailed 
 with transport everything that announced 
 that the old things were passed away. 
 
 It was not long before the last monk 
 quitted the convent. Luther remained 
 behind ; his footsteps alone re-echoed in 
 its long corridors — he sat silent and alone 
 in the refectory, so lately vocal with the 
 babble of the monks. A speaking si- 
 lence ! attesting the triumph of the Word 
 of God. The convent had, indeed, ceased 
 to have any existence. Luther, .toward 
 the end of December, 1524, transmitted 
 to the Elector the keys of the monastery, 
 together with a message, that himself 
 would see where it might be God's will 
 
 * Und alle Kloster ledig machen. — (Ibid. p. 
 322.) 
 
 + Cum expectam quotidie mortem et meritum 
 haeretici supplicium. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 570, 30th 
 Nov. 1524.) 
 
486 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to feed him.* The Elector made over 
 the convent to the university, and desired 
 Luther to continue to reside in it. The 
 abode of the monks was, ere long, to be- 
 come the home of a Christian family. 
 
 Luther, who had a heart happily con- 
 stituted for relishing the sweetness of do- 
 mestic life, honoured and loved the mar- 
 riage state. It is even likely that he 
 had some preference for Catherine Bora. 
 For a long while, his scruples and the 
 thought of the calumnies which such a 
 step would occasion, had hindered his 
 thinking of her ; and he had offered the 
 hand of poor Catherine first to Baum- 
 gartner of Nuremberg,! and afterwards 
 to Doctor Glatz, of Orlamund. But when 
 Baumgartner declined, and Catherine 
 herself refused Glatz, he began more 
 seriously to consider whether he himself 
 ought not to think of making her his 
 wife. 
 
 His aged father, who had been so 
 much grieved when he first took upon 
 him the profession of an ecclesiastic, 
 urged him to marry.}; But one thought 
 above all was present in much power to 
 the conscience of Luther. Marriage is 
 God's appointment — celibacy is man's. 
 He abhorred whatever bore the stamp 
 of Rome. " I desire," said he, to his 
 friends, "to have nothing left of my 
 papistic life."§ Night and day he be- 
 sought the Lord to put an end to his un- 
 certainty. At last a thought came to 
 break the last ties which held him back. 
 To all the considerations of consistency 
 and personal obedience which taught 
 him to apply to himself that word of 
 God — It is not good that man should be 
 alone\\ — was added a higher and more 
 powerful motive. He recognized that if 
 as a man he was called to the marriage 
 state, he was also called to it as a 
 Reformer. This thought decided him. 
 
 " If that monk marries," said his friend 
 Schurff the jurisconsult, (i he will cause 
 men and devils to shout with laughter,!" 
 and bring ruin upon all that he has 
 
 * Muss und will Ich sehen wo mich Gott er- 
 nahret.— (Ibid. p. 582.) 
 
 t Si vis Ketam tuam a Bora tenere. — (L. Epp. 
 ii. p. 553.) 
 
 t Aus Begehren meines lieben Vaters. — (Ibid. 
 iii. p. 2.) 
 
 § Ibid. p. 1. || Genesis ii. 18. 
 
 ff Risuros mundum universum et diabolum ip- 
 sum ._(M. Ad. Vit. Luth. p. 130.) 
 
 hitherto effected." This remark had 
 upon Luther an effect the very reverse 
 of what might have been expected. To 
 brave the world, the devil, and his ene- 
 mies, and, by an act in man's judgment 
 the most likely to ruin the Reformation, 
 make it evident that its triumph was not 
 to be ascribed to him, was the very thing 
 he most of all desired. Accordingly, 
 lifting up his head, he boldly replied, — 
 " I'll do it ! I will play this trick to the 
 world and the devil! — I'll content my 
 father and marry Catherine I" Luther, 
 by his marriage, broke even more irrev- 
 ocably with the institutions of the Papa- 
 cy. He sealed his doctrine by his own 
 example, — and emboldened the timid to 
 an entire renunciation of their delusions.* 
 Rome had seemed to be here and there 
 recovering the ground she had lost, and 
 might have been indulging in dreams of 
 victory ; — but here was a loud explosion 
 that carried wonder and terror into her 
 ranks, and discovered, more clearly than 
 ever, the courage of the enemy she had 
 pictured to herself defeated and depressed. 
 " I am determined," said Luther, " to 
 bear witness to the Gospel, not by my 
 words alone, but by my actions. I am 
 determined, in the face of my enemies, 
 who already are triumphing and exult- 
 ing over me, to marry a nun, — that they 
 may know that they have not conquered 
 me.f I do not take a wife that I may 
 live long with her; but, seeing people 
 and princes letting loose their fury against 
 me, — in the prospect of death, and of 
 their again trampling my doctrine under 
 foot, I am resolved to edify the weak, by 
 leaving on record a striking confirmation 
 of the truth of what I have taught."^ 
 
 On the 11th of June, Luther repaired 
 to the house of his friend and colleague 
 Amsdorff. He requested Pomeranus, 
 whom he dignified with the special 
 character of the Pastor, to give them the 
 nuptial benediction. Lucas Cranach and 
 Doctor John Apelles witnessed their mar- 
 riage. Melancthon was not present. 
 
 * Ut confirmem facto quae docui, tarn multoa 
 invenio pusillanimes in tanta luce Evangelii. — 
 (L. Epp. iii. p. 13.) 
 
 t Nonna ducta uxore in despectum triumphan- 
 tium et clamantium Jo ! Jo ! hostium. — (Ibid, 
 p. 21.) 
 
 t Non duxi uxorem ut diu viverem, sed quod 
 nunc propiorem finem meum suspicarer. — (Ibid, 
 p. 32.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 487 
 
 No sooner Had Luther's marriage 
 taken place than all Christendom was 
 roused by the report of it. On all sides 
 accusations and calumnies were heaped 
 upon him. " It is incest," exclaimed 
 Henry the Eighth. " A monk has mar- 
 ried a vestal !"* said some. " Antichrist 
 must be the fruit of such a union," said 
 others ; " for it has been predicted that 
 he will be the offspring of a monk and a 
 nun." To which Erasmus made an- 
 swer, with malicious sneer, " If that 
 prophecy be true, what thousands of An- 
 tichrists the world has before now seen."f 
 But while these attacks were directed 
 against Luther, some prudent and mode- 
 rate men, in the communion of the 
 Church of Rome, undertook his defence. 
 " Luther," said Erasmus, " has taken to 
 wife a female of the noble house of Bora, 
 — but she brought him no dowry. "| 
 One whose testimony carries still more 
 weight, bore witness in his favour. 
 Philip Melancthon, the honoured teacher 
 of Germany, who had at first been 
 alarmed by so bold a step, now remarked 
 with that grave conscientiousness which 
 commanded respect even from his ene- 
 mies : " If it is asserted that there has 
 been anything unbecoming in the affair 
 of Luther's marriage, it is a false slan- 
 der.*^ It is my opinion, that, in marry- 
 ing, he must have done violence to his 
 inclination. The marriage state, I allow, 
 is one of humility, — but it is also one of 
 sanctity — if there be any sanctity in this 
 world ; and the Scriptures everywhere 
 speak of it as honourable in God's sight." 
 
 At first Luther was disturbed by the 
 reproaches and indignities showered upon 
 him. Melancthon showed more than his 
 usual kindness and affection towards 
 him; |j and it was not long before the 
 Reformer was enabled to discern, in 
 men's opposition, one mark of God's ap- 
 proval. " If the uiorld were not scan- 
 dalized by what I have done," said he, 
 
 * Monachus cum vestali copularetur. — (M. Ad. 
 Vit. Luth. p. 131.) 
 
 t Quot Antichristorum millia jam olim habet 
 mundus. — (Er. Epp. p. 789.) 
 
 X Erasmus adds : — Partu mature- sponsae vanus 
 erat rumor.— (Er. Epp. p. 780, 789.) 
 
 § On xpcvSoi tovto xal SiafioXr) can. — (Corp. 
 Ref. i. p. 753 ad Cam.) 
 
 j| Haoa anovSn koX evvoia. — (Ibid.) 
 
 " I should have reason to fear that it was 
 not according to God's mind."* 
 
 Eight years had elapsed between the 
 period when Luther first preached agayist 
 indulgences, and the time of his union 
 with Catherine Bora. It would be diffi- 
 cult to attribute, as is sometimes done, 
 his zeal against the corruptions of the 
 Church to an eager desire to enter into 
 the marriage state. He was already 
 turned forty-two ; and Catherine had 
 passed two years at Wittemberg since 
 leaving the convent. 
 
 Luther's marriage was a happy one : 
 ' : The greatest of earthly blessings," said 
 he, " is a pious and amiable wile, — who 
 fears God and loves her family, one with 
 whom a man may live in peace and in 
 whom he may repose perfect confidence." 
 
 Some time after, in writing to one of 
 his friends, he intimated that his Cathe- 
 rine might soon present him with a 
 child ;f and, in fact, just one year after 
 their marriage, Catherine was delivered 
 of a boy.:j; '^ ^ e charms of domestic life 
 soon dispelled the dark clouds raised 
 around him by the wrath of his adver- 
 saries. His Ketha, as he called her, 
 manifested towards him the tenderest 
 affection, comforting him, when cast 
 down, by reciting passages of the Bible, 
 relieving him from the cares of the 
 household, sitting by him in his intervals 
 of leisure, while she worked his portrait 
 in embroidery, or reminded him of the 
 friends he had neglected to write to, and 
 amused him by the simplicity of her 
 questions. A sort of dignity seems to 
 have marked her deportment, for Luther 
 occasionally spoke of her as " My Lord 
 Catherine." On one occasion he said, 
 jesting, that if ever he had to marry 
 again, he would chisel an obedient wife 
 in stone, for, added he, " there is no pos- 
 sibility of finding a real one." His- let- 
 ters were full of tenderness for Catherine, 
 whom he styled, " his dear and gracious 
 wife" — " his dear and amiable Ketha." 
 Luther's manner acquired more playful- 
 
 * Offenditur etiam in carne ipsius divinitatis et 
 creatoris, he adds. — (L. Epp. iii. p. 32.) 
 
 t 21st Oct. 1525. Catena mea simulat vel 
 vere implet illud Genes 3. Tu dolore gravida 
 eris. — (L. Epp. iii. p. 35.) 
 
 t Mir meine liebe Kethe einen Hansen Luther 
 bracht hat, gestern um zwei. — (8th June, 1526. 
 Ibid. p. 119.) 
 
48S 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ness from the society of his Catherine ; 
 and that happy flow of spirits continued 
 from that time, and was never lost even 
 in the most trying circumstances. 
 
 Such was the almost universal corrup- 
 tion of the clergy, that the priestly office 
 had fallen into almost general disrepute: 
 the isolated virtue of a few faithful ser- 
 vants of God had not sufficed to redeem 
 it from contempt. Family peace and 
 conjugal fidelity were continually being 
 disturbed, both in towns and rural dis- 
 tricts, by the gross passions of priests and 
 monks ; — none were safe from their se- 
 ductions. The free access allowed them 
 to families, and sometimes even the con- 
 fidence of the confessional, was basely 
 perverted into an opportunity of instil- 
 ling deadly poison, that they might 
 gTatify their guilty desires. The Ref- 
 ormation, by abolishing the celibacy of 
 the ecclesiastics, restored the sanctity of 
 wedlock. The marriage of the clergy 
 put an end to an untold amount of secret 
 profligacy. The Reformers became ex- 
 amples to their flocks in the most en- 
 dearing and -important of all human re- 
 lationships, — and it was not long before 
 the people rejoiced to see the ministers of 
 religion in the character of husbands and 
 fathers. 
 
 On a hasty view, Luther's marriage 
 had indeed seemed to multiply the diffi- 
 culties in the way of the Reformation. 
 It was still suffering from the effects of 
 the revolt of the peasants ; the sword of 
 the Emperor and of the princes was un- 
 sheathed against it ; and its friends, the 
 Landgrave Philip, and the new Elector 
 John, appeared discouraged and si- 
 lenced. 
 
 Nevertheless, this state of things was 
 of no long duration. The young Land- 
 grave ere long, boldly raised his head. 
 Ardent and fearless as Luther, the manly 
 spirit of the Reformer had won his emu- 
 lation. He threw himself with youth- 
 ful daring into the ranks of the Refor- 
 mation, while he at the same time stud- 
 ied its character with the grave intelli- 
 gence of a thoughtful mind. 
 
 In Saxony, the loss of Frederic's pru- 
 dence and influence was but ill supplied 
 by his successor ; but the Elector's broth- 
 er, Duke John, instead of confining him- 
 self to the office of a protector, inter- 
 vened directly and courageously in mat- 
 
 ters affecting religion : " I desire," said 
 he, in a speech communicated to the as- 
 sembled clergy, on the 16th August, 
 1525, as he was on the point of quitting 
 Weimar, " that you will in future preach 
 the pure word of God, apart from those 
 things which man has added." Some 
 of the older clergy, not knowing how to 
 set about obeying his directions, answer- 
 ed with simplicity, — " But we are not 
 forbidden to say mass for the dead, or to 
 bless the water and salt ?" — " Every 
 thing, — no matter what," — replied the 
 Elector, " must be conformed to God's 
 word." 
 
 Soon after, the young Landgrave con- 
 ceived the romantic hope of converting 
 Duke George, his father-in-law. Some- 
 times he would demonstrate the suffi- 
 ciency of the Scriptures — another time he 
 would expose the Mass, the Papacy, and 
 compulsory vows. His letters followed 
 quick upon each other, and the various 
 testimony of God's word was all brought 
 to bear upon the old Duke's faith.* 
 
 These efforts were not without results. 
 Duke George's son was won to the new 
 opinions. But Philip failed with the fa- 
 ther. — " A hundred years hence," said 
 the latter, " and you will see who is 
 right." — " Awful speech !" observed the 
 Elector of Saxony : " What can be the 
 worth, I pray you, of a faith that needs 
 so much previous reflection ?f — P° or 
 Duke ! he will hold back long — I fear 
 God has hardened his heart, as Phara- 
 oh's, in old time." 
 
 In Philip, the friends of the Gospel 
 possessed a leader, at once bold, intelli- 
 gent, and capable of making head against 
 the formidable assaults its enemies were 
 planning. But is it not sad to think, 
 that from this moment the leader of the 
 Reformation should be a soldier, and not 
 simply a disciple of God's word ? Man's 
 part in the work was seen in due ex- 
 pansion, and its spiritual element was 
 proportionably contracted. The work 
 itself suffered in consequence, for every 
 work should be permitted to develop it- 
 self, according to the laws of its own na- 
 ture, — and the Reformation was of a na- 
 ture essentially spiritual. 
 
 God was multiplying external sup- 
 
 * Rommels Urkundenbuch. I. p. 2. 
 t Was das fur ein Glaube sey, der eine solche 
 Erfahrung erfordert. — (Seckend, p. 739.) 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 489 
 
 ports. Already a powerful state on the 
 German frontier — Prussia — unfurled 
 with joy the standard of the Gospel. 
 The chivalrous and religious spirit that 
 had founded the Teutonic order, had 
 gradually become extinct with the mem- 
 ory of the ages in which it arose. The 
 knights, intent only upon their private 
 interests, had given dissatisfaction to the 
 
 f>eople over whom they presided. Po- 
 and had seized the opportunity to im- 
 pose her suzerainty on the order. Peo- 
 ple, knights, grand master, Polish influ- 
 ence, were so many different interests 
 continually conflicting, and rendering 
 the prosperity of the country impossi- 
 ble. 
 
 In this state of things, the Reforma- 
 tion found them, and all men saw in it 
 the only way of deliverance for that 
 unfortunate people. Brisman, Speratus, 
 Poliander, (who had been secretary to 
 Eck, at the time of the Leipsic discus- 
 sion,) and others besides, preached the 
 Gospel in Prussia. 
 
 One .day a beggar, coming from the 
 lands under the rule of the Teutonic 
 knights, arrived in Wittemberg ; and, 
 stopping before the residence of Luther, 
 sang slowly that noble hymn of Polian- 
 der's, 
 
 " At length redemption's come."* 
 
 The Reformer, who had never heard 
 this Christian hymn, listened, rapt in as- 
 tonishment. The foreign accent of the 
 singer heightened his joy. " Again, 
 again," cried he, when the beggar had 
 ended. Afterwards he enquired where 
 he had learned that hymn, and tears 
 filled his eyes, when he heard from the 
 poor man that it was from the shores of 
 the Baltic that this shout of deliverance 
 was sounding as far as Wittemberg: — 
 then, clasping his hands, he gave thanks 
 to Gocl.f 
 
 In truth Redemption was come even 
 thither ! 
 
 " Take compassion on our weakness," 
 said the people of Prussia to the Grand 
 Master, "and send us preachers who 
 may proclaim the pure Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ." Albert at first gave no answer, 
 but he entered into parley with Sigis- 
 mund king of Poland, his uncle and 
 suzerain lord. % 
 
 * Es ist das Heyl uns kommen her. 
 t Dankte Gott mit Freuden. — (Seek. p. 668.) 
 62 
 
 The latter acknowledged him as he- 
 reditary Duke of Prussia,* and the new 
 prince made his entry into his capital of 
 Konigsberg, amidst the ringing of bells, 
 and acclamations of the inhabitants, who 
 had decorated their houses, and strewed 
 their streets with flowers. " There is 
 but One religious order," said Albert, 
 " and it is as comprehensive as Christian- 
 ity itself!" The monastic orders vanish- 
 ed, and that divinely appointed order- 
 was restored. 
 
 The bishops surrendered their secular 
 rights to the new Duke ; the convents 
 were converted into hospitals ; and the 
 Gospel carried into the poorest villages ; 
 and in the year following, Albert mar- 
 ried Dorothy, daughter of the king of 
 Denmark, whose faith in the one Saviour 
 was unshaken. 
 
 The Pope called upon the Emperor 
 to take measures against the " apostate" 
 monk ; — and Charles placed Albert un- 
 der interdict. 
 
 Another prince of the house of Bran- 
 denburg, the Cardinal-Archbishop of 
 Mentz, was just then on the point of fol- 
 lowing his relation's example. The re- 
 volt of the peasants was especially men- 
 acing in its aspect toward the ecclesiasti- 
 cal principalities; the Elector, Luther, 
 and all Germany thought a great revo- 
 lution was at hand. The Archbishop 
 seeing no better way to preserve his prin- 
 cipality than to render it secular, pri- 
 vately requested Luther to sound the 
 minds of the people preparatory to so de- 
 cided a step,f — which Luther accord- 
 ingly did, in a letter written with a view 
 to its being made public, wherein he 
 said that the hand of God was heavy on 
 the clergy, and that nothing could save 
 them.! However the War of the peas- 
 ants having been brought to an earlier 
 termination than had been looked for : 
 the cardinal retained possession of his 
 temporalities — his uneasiness subsided, 
 and all thoughts of secularizing his po- 
 sition were dismissed ! 
 
 Whilst John of Saxony, Philip of 
 Hesse, and Albert of Prussia, were 
 openly taking part with the Reformation, 
 and thus, in place of the cautious Fred- 
 eric, three princes of bold and decided 
 
 * Sleidan, Hist, de la Ref. p. 220. 
 
 t Seckend. p. 712. 
 
 t Er muss herunter. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 674.) 
 
490 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 character were standing forward in its 
 support, the blessed Word was working 
 its way in the Church, and among the 
 nations. Luther besought the Elector 
 to establish generally the preaching of 
 the Gospel in place of the ministrations 
 of Romish priests, and to direct a gene- 
 ral visitation of the churches.* About 
 the same time at Wittemberg they began 
 to exercise the episcopal function, and 
 ordain ministers : " Let not the Pope, the 
 bishops, or the monks, exclaim against us," 
 said Melancthon, " we are the Church ; 
 — he who separates from us separates 
 himself from the Church. There is no 
 other Church — save the assembly of 
 those who have the word of God, and 
 who are purified by iff 
 
 All this could not be said and done 
 without occasioning a strong reaction. 
 Rome had thought the Reformation ex- 
 tinguished in the blood of the rebel 
 peasants — but in all quarters its flame 
 was rising more bright and powerful 
 than ever. She decided on making one 
 more effort. The Pope and the Empe- 
 ror wrote menacing letters, the former 
 from Rome, the latter from Spain. The 
 Imperial government took measures for 
 restoring the ancient order of things, and 
 preparations were made for finally crush- 
 ing the Reformation at the approaching 
 Diet. 
 
 The electoral Prince of Saxony, and 
 the Landgrave, in some alarm, met on 
 the 7th of November in the castle of 
 Friedewalt, and came to an agreement 
 that their deputies at the Diet should act 
 in concert. Thus in the forest of Sul- 
 lingen arose the earliest elements of an 
 evangelical association in opposition to 
 the leagues of Ratisbon and Dessau. 
 
 The Diet opened on the 1 1th of De- 
 cember, at Augsburg. The princes fa- 
 vourable to the Gospel were not present, 
 but the deputies from Saxony and Hesse 
 spoke out fearlessly : " The rising of the 
 peasants," said they, " was the effect of 
 impolitic and harsh usage. God's truth 
 is not to be torn from the heart by fire 
 and sword : if you are bent on resorting 
 to violence against the reformed opinions, 
 you will bring down upon us calamities 
 
 * L. Epp. iii. p. 28, 38, 51, &c. 
 
 t Dass Kirche sey allein diejenige, so Gottes 
 Wort haben und damit gereiniget werden. — 
 (Corp. Ref. i. p. 766.) 
 
 more terrible than those from which we 
 have but just escaped." 
 
 It was felt that the resolution of the 
 Diet must be most important in its re- 
 sults. Every one desired, by postponing 
 the decisive moment, to gain time to 
 strengthen his own position. It was ac- 
 cordingly resolved, that the Diet should 
 re-assemble at Spires in the month of 
 May following ; and in the meanwhile 
 the rescript of Nuremberg was to contin- 
 ue in force. " When the Diet meet 
 again," said they, " we will go fully into 
 the questions of ' the holy faith, — public 
 rights, — and the general peace.' " 
 
 The Landgrave pursued his plan. 
 Toward the end of February, 1526, he 
 had a conference with the Elector at Go- 
 tha. The two princes came to an un- 
 derstanding, that if attacked on account 
 of the word of God, they would unite 
 their forces to resist their adversaries. 
 This alliance was formally ratified at 
 Torgau, and was destined to be fruitful 
 in important consequences. 
 
 However, the alliance he had conclu- 
 ded was of itself not enough to satisfy the 
 Landgrave. Convinced that Charles was 
 at work to compact a league "against 
 Christ and his holy word," he addressed 
 letter after letter to the Elector, urging 
 upon him the necessity of uniting with 
 other states : " For myself," said he, 
 " rather would I die than deny the word 
 of God, and allow myself to be driven 
 from my throne."* 
 
 At the Elector's court much uncer- 
 tainty prevailed. In fact, a serious dif- 
 ficulty stood in the way of union between 
 the princes favourable to the Gospel ; 
 and this difficulty originated with Lu- 
 ther and Melancthon. Luther insisted 
 that the doctrine of the Gospel should be 
 defended by God alone. He thought 
 that the less man meddled in the work, 
 the more striking would "be God's inter- 
 vention in its behalf. All the politic 
 precautions suggested, were in his view 
 attributable to unworthy fear and sinful 
 mistrust. Melancthon dreaded lest an 
 alliance between the evangelical princes 
 should hasten that very struggle which 
 it was their object to avert. 
 
 The Landgrave was not to be deterred 
 by such considerations, and laboured to 
 gain over the neighbouring states to the 
 
 * Seckendorf, p. 768. 
 
MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY. 
 
 491 
 
 alliance, but he failed in his endeavours. 
 The Elector of Treves abandoned the 
 ranks of the opposition, and accepted a 
 pension from the Emperor. Even the 
 Elector Palatine, whose disposition was 
 known to be favourable to the Gospel, 
 declined Philip's advances. 
 
 Thus, in the direction of the Rhine, 
 the Landgrave had completely failed ; 
 but the Elector, in opposition to the ad- 
 vice of the reformed divines, opened ne- 
 gociations with the princes who had in 
 all times gathered round the standard of 
 the powerful chief of Saxony. On the 
 12th day of June, the Elector and his 
 son, the Dukes Philip, Ernest, Otho and 
 Francis of Brunswick and Lunenburg, 
 Duke Henry of Mecklenburg, Prince 
 Wolf of Anhalt, Counts Albert and Geb- 
 hard of Mansfeld, assembled at Magde- 
 burg, and there, under the presidence of 
 the Elector, they contracted an alliance 
 similar to that of Torgau. 
 
 "Almighty God," said the princes, 
 u having in his unspeakable mercy again 
 brought forward among men his holy 
 and eternal word, the food of our souls, 
 and our richest treasure on this earth, — 
 and great efforts being made by the cler- 
 gy and their adherents to suppress and 
 extirpate it, — we, — being well assured 
 that He who has sent it forth to glorify 
 his name upon earth, will know how to 
 maintain it, mutually engage to preserve 
 that blessed word to our people, and to 
 employ for this end our goods, and our 
 lives, the resources of our states, and the 
 arms of our subjects, and all that we J 
 have, putting our trust not in our armies, 
 but solely in the almighty power of the 
 Lord, of whom we desire to be but the 
 instruments."* So spoke the princes. 
 
 Two days after, the city of Magde- 
 burg was received into the alliance, and 
 Albert of Brandenburg, the new Duke 
 of Prussia, acceded to it by a separate 
 convention. 
 
 The Evangelic Union was formed; 
 but the dangers it was destined to ward 
 off seemed every day to become more 
 threatening. The priests, and such of 
 the princes as adhered to the Romish 
 party, had seen the Reformation, which 
 they had thought stifled, suddenly grow- 
 
 * Allein auf Gott den Allmiichtigen, als des- 
 sen Werkzeuge sie handeln. — (Hortleber, Ur- 
 sache des deutschen Krieges, i. p. 1490.) 
 
 ing up before them to a formidable 
 height. Already the partisans of the 
 Reformation were nearly as numerous 
 as those of the Pope. If they should 
 form a majority in the Diet, the conse- 
 quences to the ecclesiastical states might 
 be imagined. Now or never ! It was 
 no longer a heresy to be refuted, but 
 a powerful party to be withstood. Victo- 
 ries of a different kind from those of.Eck 
 were needed on this occasion. 
 
 Vigorous measures had been already 
 taken. The metropolitan chapter of the 
 church of Mentz had convoked an as- 
 sembly of its suffragans, and adopted the 
 resolution to send a deputation to the Em- 
 peror and the Pope, entreating them to in- 
 terpose for the deliverance of the Church. 
 
 At the same time, Duke George of 
 Saxony, Duke Henry of Brunswick, and 
 the Cardinal-Elector Albert, had met at 
 Halle, and addressed a memorial to 
 Charles. " The detestable doctrine of 
 Luther," said they, " is making extensive 
 progress ; every day attempts are made 
 to seduce ourselves, and, failing to per- 
 suade us, they seek to compel us by ex- 
 citing our subjects to revolt. We im- 
 plore the Emperors intervention."* On 
 the breaking up of this conference. Bruns- 
 wick himself set out for Spain to induce 
 Charles to take the decisive step. 
 
 He could not have arrived at a more 
 favourable juncture : the Emperor had 
 just concluded with France the famous 
 peace of Madrid. He seemed to have 
 nothing left to apprehend from that quar- 
 ter, and his undivided attention was 
 now directed to the affairs of Germany. 
 Francis the First had offered to defray 
 half the expenses of a war either against 
 the heretics or against the Turks ! 
 
 The Emperor was at Seville ; — he 
 was on the eve of marriage with a prin- 
 cess of Portugal, and the banks of the 
 Guadalquiver resounded with joyous 
 festivity. A dazzling train of nobles, 
 and vast crowds of people thronged the 
 ancient capital of the Moors. The pomp 
 and ceremonies of the Church were 
 displayed under the roofs of its noble 
 cathedral. A Legate from the Pope 
 officiated ; and never before, even under 
 Arabian rule, had Andalusia witnessed a 
 spectacle of more magnificence and so- 
 lemnity. 
 
 * Schmidt, Deutsche Gesch. viii. p. 202. 
 
492 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Just at that time, Henry of Brunswick 
 arrived from Germany, and solicited 
 Charles to save the Church .and the 
 Empire from the attacks of the monk of 
 Wittemberg. His request was immedi- 
 ately taken into consideration, and the 
 Emperor resolved on vigorous measures. 
 
 On the 23d of March, 1526, he ad- 
 dressed letters to several of the princes 
 and free cities that still adhered to Rome. 
 He also specially commissioned the Duke 
 of Brunswick to communicate to them 
 that he had learned with grief that the 
 continued progress of Luther's heresy 
 threatened to fill Germany with sacri- 
 lege, havoc, and bloodshed ; and at the 
 same time, to express the great pleasure 
 he felt in the fidelity of the majority of 
 the States, and to acquaint them that, 
 laying aside all other business, he was 
 about to leave Spain and repair to Rome, 
 to concert measures with the Pope, and 
 from thence to pass into Germany, and 
 there oppose that abominable Wittem- 
 berg pest; adding, that it behoved them 
 to continue steadfast in their faith, and in 
 the event of the Lutherans seeking to 
 seduce or oblige them to a renunciation 
 of it, to repel their attempts by a united 
 and courageous resistance : that he him- 
 self would shortly be among them and 
 support them with all his power.* 
 
 When Brunswick returned into Ger- 
 many, the Catholic party joyfully lifted 
 up their heads. The Dukes of Bruns- 
 wick, Pomerania, Albert of Mecklen- 
 burg, John of Juliers, George of Saxony, 
 the Dukes of Bavaria, and all the digni- 
 taries of the Church, on reading the 
 menacing letters of the conqueror of 
 Francis the First, thought their triumph 
 secure. It was decided they should at- 
 tend the approaching Diet, and humble 
 the heretical princes ; and in the event 
 of the latter resisting, quell them with 
 the sword. " I may be Elector of Saxo- 
 
 * Archives of Weimar. — (Seckend. p. 768.) 
 
 ny any day I please"* was an expression 
 ascribed by report to Duke George — 
 words to which he afterwards endeav- 
 oured to attach another meaning. " The 
 Lutheran party cannot long hold to- 
 gether," said his Chancellor to the Duke, 
 in a tone of exultation ; " let them mind 
 what they are about :" — and truly Luther 
 was on his guard, though not in the 
 sense their words conveyed. He atten- 
 tively observed the designs of the op- 
 posers of God's word : he, like Melanc- 
 thon, expected that thousands of swords 
 would ere long be unsheathed against 
 the Gospel. But he sought a strength 
 far above the strength of men. Writing 
 to Frederic Myconius, he observed, " Sa- 
 tan is raging : ungodly priests take coun- 
 sel together, and we are threatened with 
 war. Exhort the people to contend 
 earnestly before the throne of the Lord, 
 by faith and prayer, that our adversaries, 
 being overcome by the Spirit of God, 
 may be constrained to peace. The most 
 urgent of our wants — the very first thing 
 we have to do, is to pray : let the people 
 know that they are at this hour exposed 
 to the edge of the sword, and the rage of 
 the devil: let them pray. v j 
 
 Thus every thing indicated a decisive 
 conflict. The Reformation had on its 
 side the prayers of Christians, the sym- 
 pathy of the people, and an ascendant in 
 men's minds that no power could stay. 
 The Papacy had with it the established 
 order, the force of early habit, the zeal 
 and hatred of powerful princes, and the 
 authority of an Emperor whose domin- 
 ion extended over both hemispheres, and 
 who had just before deeply humbled the 
 pride of Francis the First. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs when 
 the Diet of Spires was opened. Let us 
 now turn our attention to Switzerland. 
 
 * Ranke, Deutsch Gesch. ii. p. 349. Rommel 
 Urkunden, p. 22. 
 
 t Ut in mediis gladiis et furoribus Satanse po- 
 sito et periclitanti. — (L. Epp. iii. p. 100.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 493 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 Spiritual Slavery — Christian Liberty — Effect of the Gospel on Zwingle — Leo Judah at Zurich — 
 The Challenge — Zwingle and Faber — Zwingle Tempted by the Pope — " Zwingle's Passion" — 
 Tract against Images — Wooden Idols — The Unterwalders — Public Meeting — Hoffman's De- 
 fence of the Pope — The Mass — Schmidt of Kussnacht — Results of the Conference — Oswald 
 Myconius at Zurich — Thomas Plater — The Swiss Aroused — Hottinger Arrested — His Martyr- 
 dom — Persecution Invoked — Swiss and German Reformations — The Jewish and Pagan Ele- 
 ments — Zwingle's and Luther's Tasks — The Council and the People — Abduction of (Exlin — 
 Riot and Conflagration — The Wirths arrested — The Prisoners Surrendered — A Spectacle to the 
 World — " Cruel Mockings" — " Faithful unto Death" — Father and Son on the Scaffold — Abo- 
 lition of the Mass — The Lord's Supper — Brotherly Love — Zwingle on Original Sin — Attack 
 upon Zwingle — The Gospel at Berne — Heirn and Haller — Ordinance of the Government — St. 
 Michael's Nunnery — The Convent of Konigsfeld — Margaret Watt&ville's Letter — Liberation 
 of the Nuns — Pretended Letter of Zwingle — Clara May and Nicolas Watteville — The Seat of 
 Learning — OZcolampadius — Flight from the Convent — OZcolampadius at Basle — Jealousy of 
 Erasmus — Hutten and Erasmus — Death of Hiitten — Vacillation and Decision — Erasmus's 
 Quatrain — Luther's Letter to Erasmus — Motives of Erasmus in Opposing the Reformation — 
 Lamentations of Erasmus — Arguments for Free Will — Premature Exultation — A Test — God's 
 Working — Jansenism — The Bible and Philosophy — The Three Days' Battle — Character of 
 False Systems — Conrad Grebel — Extravagances — " The Little Jerusalem" — The Anabaptist 
 Feast — Horrible Tragedy — Discussion on Baptism — Opinions not Punishable — Popish Immo- 
 bility — Zwingle and Luther — Zwingle on the Lord's Supper — Consubstantiation — Luther's Great 
 Principle — Carlstadt's Writings Prohibited — Zwingle's Commentary — The Suabian Syngramma 
 — Need of Union in Adversity — Struggles of the Reformation — Tumult in the Tockenburg — 
 Meeting at Ilantz — Comander's Defence- -Doctrine of the Sacrament — Proposed Public Dis- 
 cussion — Decision of the Diet — Zwingle in Danger — The Disputants at Baden — Contrast of 
 the Parties — Eck and fficolampadius — Zwingle's Share in the Contest — Murner of Lucerne — 
 Haller and the Council of Berne — Reformation in St. Gall — Conrad Pellican — The Mountaineers 
 — Alliance with Austria — Farel Appears. 
 
 We are about to contemplate the di- 
 versities, or, as they have been since call- 
 ed, variations of the Reformation. These 
 diversities are among- its most essential 
 characters. 
 
 Unity in diversity, and diversity in 
 unity — i s a law of Nature, and also of 
 the Church. 
 
 Truth may be compared to the light 
 of the Sun. The light comes from heav- 
 en colourless, and ever the same ; and 
 yet it takes different hues on earth, va- 
 rying according to the objects on which 
 it falls. Thus different formularies may 
 sometimes express the same christian 
 Truth, viewed under different aspects. 
 
 How dull would be this visible crea- 
 tion, if all its boundless variety of shape 
 and colour were to give place to an un- 
 broken uniformity ! And may we not 
 add how melancholy would be its as- 
 pect, if all created beings did but com- 
 pose a solitary and vast Unity ! 
 
 The unity which comes from Heaven 
 
 doubtless has its place, — but the diversity 
 of human nature has its proper place also. 
 In religion we must neither leave out 
 God nor man. Without unity your reli- 
 gion cannot be of God, — without diver- 
 sity, it cannot be the religion of man. 
 And it ought to be of both. Would you 
 banish from creation a law that its Di- 
 vine Author has imposed upon it, namely, 
 — that of boundless diversity 1 i: Things 
 without life giving sound," said Paul, 
 " whether pipe or harp, except they give 
 a distinction in the sounds, how shall it 
 be known what is piped or harped '?"* 
 But, if in religion there is a diversity, 
 the result of distinction of individuality, 
 and which, by consequence, must sub- 
 sist even in heaven, — there is a diversity 
 which is the fruit of man's rebellion, — 
 and this last is indeed a serious evil. 
 
 There are two opposite tendencies 
 which may equally mislead us. The 
 one consists 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiv. 7 
 
 in the exaggeration of di- 
 
494 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 versity, — the other, in extending the 
 unity. The great doctrines of man's 
 salvation are as a line of demarcation 
 between these two errors. To require 
 more than the reception of those doc- 
 trines, is to disallow the diversity : to 
 require any thing less, is to infringe the 
 unity. 
 
 This latter departure is that of rash 
 and unruly minds looking beyond, or 
 out of Jesus Christ, in the desire to set 
 up systems and doctrines of men. 
 
 The former appears in various exclu- 
 sive sects, and is more especially seen in 
 that of Rome. 
 
 It is the duty of the Church to reject 
 Error from her bosom. If this be neg- 
 lected, Christianity cannot be upheld ; 
 but, pushed to an extreme, it would fol- 
 low that the Church should take pro- 
 ceedings against the smallest deviations, 
 and intervene in mere disputes about 
 words ; faith would be silenced, and 
 christian feeling reduced to slavery. Not 
 such was the condition of the Church in 
 those times of real Catholicity, — the first 
 ages. It cast out the sects which im- 
 pugned the fundamental truths of the 
 Gospel, but where these were received, 
 it left full liberty to faith. Rome soon 
 departed from these wise precedents, and, 
 in proportion as an authoritative teaching 
 of man established itself within the 
 Church, there appeared a Unity of man's 
 ' imposing. 
 
 A system of human appointment be- 
 ing once devised, rigour went on increas- 
 ing from age to age. Christian liberty, 
 respected by the catholicity of the ear- 
 liest ages, was first limited, then chained, 
 and finally stifled. Conviction, which, 
 by the laws of our nature, as well as of 
 God's word, should be freely formed in 
 the heart and understanding, was im- 
 posed by external authority, ready fra- 
 med and squared by the masters of man- 
 kind. Thought, will, and feeling, all 
 those faculties of our nature, which, once 
 subjected to the Word and Spirit of God, 
 should be left free in their working, were 
 hindered of their proper liberty, and com- 
 pelled to find vent in forms that had been 
 previously settled. The mind of man 
 became a sort of mirror wherein impres- 
 sions to which it was a stranger were 
 reproduced, but which, of itself, presented 
 nothing! Doubtless there were those 
 
 who were taught of God — but the great 
 majority of Christians received the con- 
 victions of other men ; — a personal faith 
 was a thing of rare occurrence : the Ref- 
 ormation it was that restored this treasure 
 to the Church. 
 
 And yet there was, for a while, a 
 space within which the human mind 
 was permitted to move at large, — certain 
 opinions, at least, which Christians were 
 at liberty to receive or reject at will. 
 But, as a besieging army, day by day, 
 contracts its lines, compelling the garri- 
 son to confine their movements within 
 the narrow enclosure of the fortress, and, 
 at last, obliging it to surrender at discre- 
 tion, just so, the hierarchy, from age to 
 age, and almost from year to year, has 
 gone on restricting the liberty allowed 
 for a time to the human mind, until, at 
 last, by successive encroachments, there 
 remained no liberty at all. That which 
 was to be believed, — loved, — or done, — 
 w r as regulated and decreed in the courts 
 of the Roman chancery. The faithful 
 were relieved from the trouble of ex- 
 amining, reflecting, and combating ; all 
 they had to do was to repeat the formu- 
 laries that had been taught 'them! 
 
 From that period, whenever, in the 
 bosom of Roman Catholicism, a man 
 has appeared inheriting the Catholicity 
 of apostolic times, such a one, feeling his 
 inability to act out the life imparted to 
 him, in the "bonds in which he is held, 
 has been led to burst those bonds, and 
 give to the astonished world another ex- 
 ample of a Christian walking at liberty 
 in the acknowledgment of no law but 
 the law of God. 
 
 The Reformation, in restoring liberty 
 to the Church, must therefore restore to 
 it its original diversity, and people it 
 with families united by the great features 
 of resemblance derived from their com- 
 mon head, but varying in secondary fea- 
 tures, and reminding us of the varieties 
 inherent in human nature. Perhaps it 
 might have been desirable that this 
 diversity should have been allowed to 
 subsist in the Universal Church without 
 leading to sectarian divisions, and yet we 
 must remember that Sects are only the 
 expression of this diversity. 
 
 Switzerland, and Germany, which 
 had till now developed themselves inde- 
 pendently, came in contact with each 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 495 
 
 other in the years we are about to re- 
 trace, and they afforded an example of 
 that diversity of which we have spoken, 
 and which was to be one of the charac- 
 teristics of Protestantism. We shall have 
 occasion to behold men perfectly agree- 
 ing in the great doctrines of the Faith, 
 yet differing on certain secondary ques- 
 tions. True it is that human passion 
 found an entrance into these discussions, 
 but while deploring such minglings of 
 evil, Protestantism, far from seeking to 
 disguise the diversity, publishes and pro- 
 claims it. Its path to unity is indeed 
 long and difficult, but the unity it pro- 
 poses is real. 
 
 Zwingle was advancing in the chris- 
 tian life. Whilst the Gospel had to 
 Luther brought deliverance from the 
 deep melancholy in which he had been 
 plunged when in the convent of Erfurth, 
 and developed in him a cheerfulness 
 which often amounted to gaiety, and of 
 which, from that time, the Reformer 
 gave such* repeated evidence, even when 
 exposed to the greatest dangers, — Chris- 
 tianity had had quite a contrary effect on 
 the joyous child of the mountains of the 
 Tockenburg. Reclaiming Zwingle from 
 his thoughtless and worldly career, it had 
 stamped upon his character a seriousness 
 which was not natural to him. This 
 seriousness was indeed most needed. We 
 have seen how, toward the close of 
 1522, numerous enemies appeared to 
 rise against the Reformation.* From 
 all sides reproaches were heaped upon 
 Zwingle, and contentions would at times 
 take place even in the churches. 
 
 Leo Juda, who, to adopt the words of 
 an historian, was a man of small stature,t 
 with a heart full of love for the poor, and 
 zeal against false teachers, had arrived in 
 Zurich about the end of 1522, to take 
 the duty of pastor of St. Peter's church. 
 He had been replaced at Einsidlen by 
 Oswald Myconius4 His coming was a 
 valuable acquisition to Zwingle and the 
 Reformation. 
 
 One day, sflbn after his arrival, being 
 at church, he heard an Augustine monk 
 preaching with great earnestness that 
 
 * See Book 8, to the end. 
 
 t Er war ein kurzer Mann.— (Fiisslin Bey- 
 triige, iv. p. 44.) 
 
 \ Ut post abitum Leonis, monachis aliquid le- 
 gam. — (Zw. Epp. p. 253.) 
 
 man was competent by his own strength 
 to satisfy the righteousness of God. 
 " Reverend father Prior." exclaimed Leo, 
 " listen to me for an instant ; and you, 
 my dear fellow-citizens, keep your seats, 
 — I will speak as becomes a Christian :" 
 and he proceeded to show the unscriptu- 
 ral character of the teaching he had just 
 been listening to.* A great disturbance 
 ensued in the church. — Instantly several 
 persons angrily attacked the "little priest" 
 from Einsidlen. Zwingle, repairing to 
 the Council, presented himself before 
 them, and requested permission to give 
 an account of his doctrine, in presence of 
 the bishop's deputies; — and the Council,* 
 desiring to terminate the dissensions, con-' 
 voked a conference for the 29th of Janu- 
 ary. The news spread rapidly through- 
 out Switzerland. "A vagabond diet," 
 observed his mortified adversaries, " is to 
 be held at Zurich. All the vagrants 
 from the high-road will be there." 
 
 Wishing to prepare for the struggle, 
 Zwingle put forth sixty-seven theses. In 
 them the mountaineer of the Tocken- 
 burg boldly assailed the Pope, in the 
 face of all Switzerland. 
 
 " They," said he, " who assert that the 
 Gospel is nothing until confirmed to us 
 by the Church, blaspheme God." 
 
 " Jesus Christ is the only way of sal- 
 vation for all who have been, are, oir 
 shall be." 
 
 " Christians are all the brethren of 
 Christ, and of one another ; and they 
 have no 'fathers,' upon earth; — away, 
 therefore, with religious orders, sects, and 
 parties." 
 
 " No compulsion should be employed 
 in the case of such as do not acknowl- 
 edge their error, — unless by their sedi- 
 tious conduct they disturb the peace of 
 others." 
 
 Such were some of the propositions 
 put forth by Zwingle. 
 
 On the morning of Thursday, the 
 29th January, more than six hundred 
 persons were collected in the hall of the 
 Great Council, at Zurich. Many from 
 the neighbouring cantons, as well as 
 Zurichers, the learned, the higher classes, 
 and the clergy, had responded to the call 
 of the Council. " What will be the end 
 
 * J. J. Hottinger, Helw. Kirch. Gesch. iii. p. 
 105. 
 
496 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 of all this?' 1 * was the question asked. 
 None ventured to answer; but the breath- 
 less attention, deep feeling, and agitation, 
 which reigned in the meeting, sufficient- 
 ly showed that important results were 
 looked for. 
 
 The Burgomaster Roust, who had 
 fought in the battle of Marignan, presided 
 at the conference. The knight James 
 Anwyl, grand master of the bishop's 
 court at Constance, Faber the vicar- 
 general, and several doctors of divinity, 
 attended on the part of the bishop. 
 Schaffhausen had deputed Doctor Se- 
 bastian Hofmeister ; he was the only 
 ^deputy from the cantons, — so weak, as 
 yet, was the Reformation in Switzerland. 
 On a table in the centre of the hall was 
 deposited a Bible, and seated before it 
 was Zwingle. *' I am driven and beset 
 on all . sides," he had said, " yet I stand 
 firm,t leaning on no strength of my own, 
 but on Christ, the rock, by whose help I 
 can do all things." 
 
 Zwingle stood up. " I have proclaim- 
 ed," said he, " that salvation is to be 
 found in Christ alone ; and it is for 
 this that, throughout Switzerland, I am 
 charged with being a heretic, a seducer, 
 and rebellious man. Here, then, I stand 
 in God's name!":}; 
 
 On this, all eyes were turned to Fa- 
 ber, who, rising from his seat, thus re- 
 plied : — " I am not sent to dispute, — but 
 to report." The assembly in surprise, 
 began to smile. u The Diet of Nurem- 
 berg," continued Faber, a has promised 
 a Council within one year: we must 
 wait for its assembling." 
 
 " What ! " said Zwingle, u is not this 
 large and intelligent meeting as compe- 
 tent as a council V 1 then turning to those 
 who presided, he added, — " Gracious 
 Lords ; defend the word of God." 
 
 A solemn silence ensued on this ap- 
 peal. At last it was interrupted by the 
 burgomaster. " If any one present has 
 anything to say," said he, " let him say 
 on." Still all were silent. " I implore 
 all those who have accused me, — and I 
 
 * Ein grosses Verwunderen, was doch uss der 
 Sach werden wollte. — (Bullinger, Chron. i. p. 
 97.) 
 
 t Imrnotns tamen maneo, non meis nervis 
 nixus, sed petra Chnsto in quo omnia possum. — 
 (Zw. Epp. p. 261.) 
 
 X Nun wohlan in dem Namen Gottes, hie bin 
 ich. — (Builinger, Chron. p. 98.) 
 
 know that some are here present," said 
 Zwingle, " to come forward and rebuke 
 me for the truth's sake." Not a word! 
 Again and again Zwingle repeated his 
 request, but to no purpose. Faber, thus 
 brought to close quarters, lost sight, for 
 an instant, of the reserve he had impo- 
 sed on himself, and stated that he had 
 convicted of his error the pastor of Filis- 
 pach, who was at that time in durance ; 
 but, having said this, he again relapsed 
 into silence. It was all in vain that he 
 was urged to bring forward the argu- 
 ments by which he had convinced that 
 pastor ; he would give no answer. This 
 silence on the part of the Romish doc- 
 tors mortified the impatience of the as- 
 sembly. A voice from the further end 
 of the hall was heard exclaiming, — 
 " Where have they got* to — those brag- 
 garts, whose voices are so loud in our 
 streets.* Come forward : there's the 
 man you want." On this the burgomas- 
 ter observed, smiling, " It seems that the 
 sharp-edged sword that succeeded against 
 the pastor of Filispach is fast fixed in its 
 scabbard :" — and he proceeded to break 
 up the meeting. 
 
 In the afternoon, the parties being 
 again assembled, the Council resolved 
 that master Ulric Zwingle, not being re- 
 proved by any one, was at liberty to con- 
 tinue to preach the Gospel ; and that the 
 rest of the clergy of the canton should 
 be enjoined to advance nothing but what 
 they could establish by the Scriptures. 
 
 " Thanks be to God, who will cause 
 his word to prevail in heaven and in 
 earth !" exclaimed Zwingle. On this 
 Faber could not suppress his indigna- 
 tion. " The theses of master Ulric," 
 said he, "are incompatible with the 
 honour due to the Church, and opposed 
 to the doctrine of Christ, — and I can 
 prove it." " Do so," retorted Zwingle. 
 But Faber declined, except it should 
 be in Paris, Cologne, or Friburg. " I 
 acknowledge no authority but that of the 
 Gospel," said Zwingle : " Before you 
 can shake one word of that, the earth 
 itself will open before you."f " That's 
 always the cry," remarked Faber; "the 
 Gospel. — nothing but the Gospel ! Men 
 
 * u e. — the monks. Wo siud nun die grossen 
 Hansen . . . . — (Zw. Opp. i. p. 124.) 
 
 t Eh muss das Erdrych brechen. — (Zw. Opp. 
 i. p. 148.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 497 
 
 might lead holy lives in peace and char- 
 ity if there were no Gospel !"* At these 
 words the auditors indignantly rose from 
 their seats, and the meeting finally broke 
 
 The Reformation was gaining ground. 
 It was at this period called to new con- 
 quests. After the skirmish at Zurich, in 
 which the ablest champions of the Pa- 
 pacy had kept silence, who would be so 
 bold as to oppose the new doctrines? 
 But methods of another kind were tried. 
 The firmness of Zwingle, and the re- 
 publican freedom of his bearing, over- 
 awed his enemies. Accordingly, re- 
 course was had to suitable methods for 
 subduing him. Whilst Rome was pur- 
 suing Luther with anathemas, she la- 
 boured to win the Reformer of Zurich 
 by persuasions. Scarcely was the con- 
 ference closed over when Zwingle was 
 surprised by a visit from the captain of 
 the Pope's guards — the son of the bur- 
 gomaster Roust, accompanied by Einsius 
 the legate, who was the bearer of a 
 brief from the Pontiff, — in which Adrian 
 addressed Zwingle as his " well-belov- 
 ed son," and assured him of his spe- 
 cial favour. At the same time the Pope 
 set others upon urging Zink to influence 
 Zwingle. f " And what," enquired Os- 
 wald Myconius, " does the Pope author- 
 ise you to offer him ?" " Everything 
 short of the Pontiff's chair," | answered 
 Zink, earnestly* 
 
 There was nothing, whether mitre, 
 crozier, or cardinal's hat, which the Pope 
 would not have given to buy over the 
 Reformer of Zurich. But Rome alto- 
 gether mistook her man — and vain were 
 all her advances. In Zwingle, the 
 Church of Rome had a fos even more 
 determined than Luther. He had less 
 regard for the long established notions 
 and the ceremonies of former ages — it 
 was enough to draw down his hostility 
 that a custom, innocent in itself, had been 
 connected with some existing abuses. In 
 his judgment the word of God alone was 
 to be exalted. 
 
 * Man mocht denocht friintlich, fridlich und 
 tugendlich lilben, wenn glich kein Evangelium 
 were. — (Bull. Chron. p. 107. Zw. Opp. i. p. 
 152.) 
 
 t Cum de tua egregia virtute specialiter nobis 
 Bit oognitum. — (Zw. Epp. p. 266.) 
 
 t Serio respondit : Omnia certe praeter sedem 
 papalem. — (Vit. Zwingli per Oaw. Myc.) 
 63 
 
 But if Rome had so little understand- 
 ing of the events then in progress in 
 Christendom she wanted not for counsel- 
 lors to give her the needful information. 
 
 Faber, irritated at the Pope's thus 
 humbling himself before his adversary — 
 lost no time in advising him. A cour- 
 tier, dressed in smiles, with honied words 
 upon his tongue, those who listened to 
 him might have thought him friendly 
 toward all, and even to those whom he 
 charged with heresy, — but his hatred 
 was mortal. Luther, playing on his 
 name (Faber,) was accustomed to say — 
 " The vicar of Constance is a black- 
 smith ... of lies. Let him take 
 up arms like a man, and see how Christ 
 defends us."* 
 
 These words were no uncalled-for bra- 
 vado — for all the while that the Pope in 
 his communications with Zwingle was 
 complimenting him on his distinguished 
 virtues, and the special confidence he re- 
 posed in him, the Reformer's enemies 
 were multiplying throughout Switzer- 
 land. The veteran soldiers, the higher 
 families, and the herdsmen of the moun- 
 tains, were combined in aversion to a 
 doctrine which ran counter to all their 
 inclinations. At Lucerne, public notice 
 was given of the performance of Zwin- 
 gle 's passion ; and the people dragged 
 about an effigy of the Reformer, shout- 
 ing that they were going to put the her- 
 etic to death ; and laying violent hands 
 on some Zurichers who were then at 
 Lucerne, compelled them to be specta- 
 tors of this mock execution. " They 
 shall not disturb my peace," observed 
 Zwingle ; " Christ will never fail those 
 who are his." Even in the Diet threats 
 against him were heard. t " Beloved 
 Confederates," said the Councillor of 
 Mullinen, addressing the cantons, " make 
 a stand against Lutheranism while there 
 is yet time. At Zurich no man is mas- 
 ter in his own house." 
 
 This agitation in the enemies' ranks 
 proclaimed, more loudly than any thing 
 else could have done, what was passing 
 in Zurich. In truth victory was already 
 bearing fruits, the victorious party were 
 gradually taking possession of the coun- 
 
 * Prodeant volo, palamque arma capiant .... 
 — (Zw. Epp. p. 292.) 
 
 t Christum suis nunquam defecturum. — (Zw. 
 Epp. p. 278.) 
 
498 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 try ; and every day the Gospel made 
 some new progress. Twenty-four canons, 
 and a considerable number of the chap- 
 lains came of their own accord to peti- 
 tion the Council for a reform of their 
 statutes. It was decided to replace those 
 sluggish priests by men of learning and 
 piety, whose duty it should be to instruct 
 the youth of Zurich, and to establish, in- 
 stead of their vespers and Latin masses 
 
 ligion itself had been overturned with 
 the crucifix of Stadelhofen. " They are 
 sacrilegious disturbers, — they are worthy 
 of death," exclaimed the partisans of 
 Rome. The Council caused the icono- 
 clasts to be arrested. 
 
 " No," exclaimed Zwingle, speaking 
 from his pulpit, ; ' Hottinger and his 
 friends have not sinned against God, nor 
 are they deserving of death* — but they 
 
 a daily exposition of a chapter in the may be justly punished for having re 
 Bible from the Hebrew, and Greek ! sorted to violence without the sanction 
 texts, first for the learned, and then for I of the magistrates."! 
 the people 
 
 Unhappily there are found in every 
 army ungovernable spirits, who leave 
 their ranks, and make onset too early, 
 on points which it would be better for a 
 while to leave unattacked. Louis Ket- 
 zer, a young priest, having put forth a 
 tract in German, entitled the Judgment 
 of God against Images, a great sensation 
 was produced, and a portion of the peo- 
 ple could think of nothing else. It is 
 ever to the injury of essentials that the 
 mind of man is pre-occupied with see- 
 
 Meanwhile acts of a similar kind 
 were continually recurring. A vicar of 
 St. Peter's one day observing before the 
 porch of that church a number of poor 
 persons ill clad and famished, remarked 
 to one of his colleagues, as he glanced 
 at the images of the saints decked in 
 costly attire — " I should like to strip 
 those wooden idols and clothe those poor 
 members of Jesus Christ." A few days 
 after, at three o'clock in the morning, 
 the saints and their fine trappings were 
 missing-. The Council sent the vicar to 
 
 ondary matters. Outside one of the city prison, although he protested that he 
 gates at a place called Stadelhofen, was had no hand in removing them. " Is it 
 stationed a crucifix elaborately carved, these blocks of wood," exclaimed the 
 and richly ornamented. The more ar- people, " that Jesus enjoined us to 
 dent of the Reformed, provoked at the j clothe ? Is it of such images as these 
 superstitious veneration still paid this j that he will say to the righteous — " 1 
 imao-e could not suppress their indigna- was naked, and ye clothed Me v '' 
 
 tion whenever they had occasion to pass 
 that way. A citizen/ by name Claudius 
 Hottinger, " a man of family," says Bul- 
 
 Thus the Reformation, when resisted, 
 rose to a greater height ; and the more 
 it was compressed, with the more force 
 
 lino-er " and well acquainted with the j did it break forth and threaten to carry 
 Scriptures," meeting the miller of Stadel- 1 all^before it. 
 hofen, to whom the crucifix belonged, 
 
 These excesses conduced to some ben- 
 eficial results. Another struggle was 
 his^ idols. " No one requires you to j needed to issue in further progress — for 
 
 enquired when he meant to take away 
 
 worship them," was the miller's reply. 
 " But do you not know," retorted Hot- 
 tinger, "that God's word forbids us to 
 have graven images?" "Very well," 
 replied the miller, " If you are empow- 
 ered to remove them, I leave you to do 
 so." Hottinger thought himself author- 
 ized to act, and he was soon after seen 
 to leave the city, accompanied by a 
 number of the citizens. On arriving at 
 the crucifix, they deliberately dug round 
 the image until," yielding to their efforts, 
 it came down with a loud crash to the 
 earth. 
 
 This daring action spread alarm far 
 and wide. One might have thought re- 
 
 in spiritual things as in the affairs of 
 earthly kingdoms, there can be no con- 
 quest without a struggle — and since the 
 adherents of Rome were inert, events 
 were so ordered that the conflict was be- 
 gun by the irregular soldiery of the 
 Reformation. In fact, the magistrates 
 were perplexed and undecided : they 
 felt the need of more light in the mat- 
 ter ; and for this end they resolved on 
 
 * The same principles are seen in the speeches 
 of M. M. de Broglie and Royer-Collard, on occa- 
 sion of the celebrated debates on the law of Sac- 
 rilege. 
 
 t Doram habend ir unser Herren keiu rticht 
 zuinen, sy zu toden. — (Bull. Chr. p. 127.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1522— 1527. 
 
 499 I 
 
 appointing- a second public meeting, to 
 discuss in German, and on grounds of 
 Scripture, the question as to images. 
 
 The bishops of Coira, Constance, and 
 Bale, the university of the latter city, 
 and the twelve cantons, were according- 
 ly requested to send deputies to Zurich. 
 But the bishops declined compliance, 
 recollecting the little credit their depu- 
 ties had brought them on occasion of the 
 first meeting, and having no wish for a 
 repetition of so humiliating a scene. Let 
 the Gospel party discuss if they will — 
 but let it be among themselves. On the 
 former occasion, silence had been their 
 policy — on this they will not even add 
 importance to the meeting by their pres- 
 ence. Rome thought perhaps that the 
 combat would pass over for want of com- 
 batants. The bishops were not alone in 
 refusing to attend. The men of Unter- 
 wald returned for answer that they had 
 no philosophers among them — but kind 
 and pious priests alone — who would per- 
 severe in explaining the Gospel as their 
 fathers had done ; that they accordingly 
 must decline sending a deputy to Zwin- 
 gle and the like of him ; but that only 
 let him fall into their hands, and they 
 would handle him after a fashion to cure 
 him of his inclination for such irregular- 
 ities. The only cantons that sent repre- 
 sentatives were Schaffhausen* and Saint 
 Gall. 
 
 On Monday, the 26th of October, 
 more than nine hundred persons — among 
 whom were the members of the Grand 
 Council — and no less than three hundred 
 and fifty priests, were assembled after 
 sermon in the large room of the Town 
 Hall. Zwingle and Leo .Tuda were 
 seated at a table on which lay the Old 
 and New Testaments in the originals. 
 Zwingle spoke first, and soon disposing 
 of the authority of the hierarchy and its 
 councils, he laid down the rights of ev- 
 ery Christian church, and claimed the 
 liberty of the first ages, when the Church 
 had as yet no council either oecumenical 
 or provincial. " The Universal Church," 
 said he, " is diffused throughout the 
 world, wherever faith in Jesus Christ 
 has spread : in India as well as in Zu- 
 rich. . . . And as to particular 
 
 * So wollten wir Ihm den Lohn geben, dass 
 er's nimmer mehr thiite. — (Simmler Samml. 
 M.S.C. ix.) 
 
 churches, we have them at Berne, at 
 Schaffhausen, and even here. But the 
 Popes, with their cardinals and councils, 
 are neither the Universal Church, nor a 
 particular Church.* This assembly 
 which hears me," exclaimed he, with 
 energy, "is the church of Zurich — it 
 desires to hear the word of God, and 
 can rightfully decree whatever it shall 
 see to be conformable to the Scriptures." 
 
 Here we see Zwingle relying on the 
 Church — but on the true Church, — not 
 on the clergy, but on the assembly of 
 believers. He applied to particular 
 churches all those passages of Scripture 
 that speak of the Church Catholic. He 
 could not allow that a church that listen- 
 ed with docility to God's word could fall 
 into error. The Church was, in his judg- 
 ment, represented both politically and 
 ecclesiastically by the Great Council.f 
 He began by explaining each subject 
 from the pulpit ; and when the minds of 
 his hearers were convinced, he proposed 
 the different questions to the Council, 
 who, in conformity with the ministers of 
 the Church, recorded such decisions as 
 they called for.| 
 
 In the absence of the bishops' deputies, 
 Conrad Hoffman, an aged canon, under- 
 took to defend the Pope. He maintain- 
 ed that the Church, the flock, the " third 
 estate," was not authorized to discuss 
 such matters. " I resided," said he, " for 
 no less than twelve years at Heidelberg 
 in the house of a man of extensive learn- 
 ing, named Doctor Joss — a kind and 
 pious man — with whom I boarded and 
 lived quietly for a long time, but then he 
 always said that it was not proper to 
 make such matters a subject of discus- 
 sion ; you see, therefore!" . . On this 
 every one began to laugh. " Thus," 
 continued Hoffman, " let us wait for a 
 Council — at present I shall decline taking 
 part in any discussion Avhatever, but shall 
 act according to the bishop's orders, even 
 though he himself were a knave !" 
 
 * Der Pabste, Cardinale und Bischdffe Con- 
 cilia sind nicht die christliche Kirche. — (Fiissl. 
 Beytr. III. p. 20.) 
 
 t Diacosion Senatus summa est potestas Ec- 
 clesia? vice. — (Zw. Opp. III. p. 339.) 
 
 I Ante omnia multitudinem de quupstione probtj 
 docere ita factum est, ut quidqnid diacosii (the 
 grand council,) cum verbi ministris ordinarent, 
 jamdudum in animis fidelium ordinatum esset. — 
 (Zw. Opp. III. p. 339.) 
 
500 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " Wait for a Council !" interrupted 
 Zwingle, "and who, think you, will 
 attend a Council? — the Pope and some 
 sleepy and ill-taught bishops, who will 
 do nothing but what pleases them. No, 
 that is not the Church : Hong and Kiiss- 
 nacht (two villages in the neighbour- 
 hood of Zurich,) are more of a Church 
 than all the bishops and popes put 
 together." 
 
 Thus did Zwingle assert the rights of 
 Ghristians in general, whom Rome had 
 stript of their inheritance. The assem- 
 bly he addressed was in his view not so 
 much the church of Zurich as its earliest 
 representative. Here we see the begin- 
 nings of the Presbyterian system. Zwin- 
 gle was engaged in delivering Zurich 
 from the jurisdiction of the bishops of 
 Constance — he was likewise detaching 
 it from the hierarchy of Rome : and on 
 this thought of the flock and the assembly 
 of believers, he was laying the founda- 
 tions of a new church order to which 
 other countries would afterwards adhere. 
 The discussion was continued. Seve- 
 ral priests having defended the use of 
 images, without deriving their arguments 
 from Scripture, Zwingle, and the rest of 
 the Reformers, refuted them by passages 
 from the Bible. " If," said one of the 
 presidents, " no one defends the images 
 by the Scriptures, we shall call upon 
 some of their advocates by name." No 
 one coming forward, the curate of Wad- 
 ischwyl was called. " He is asleep," 
 exclaimed one of the crowd. The curate 
 of Horgen was next called. " He has 
 sent me in his stead," said his vicar, "but 
 I cannot answer for him." It was plain 
 that the power of the word of God was 
 felt in the assembly. The partisans of 
 the Reformation were buoyant with liber- 
 ty and joy ; their adversaries, on the con- 
 trary, were silent, uneasy, and depressed. 
 The curates of Laufen, Glattfelden, and 
 Wetzikon, the rector and curate of Pfaffi- 
 kon, the dean of Elgg, the curate of 
 Baretschwyl, the Dominicans and Cor- 
 deliers, known for their preaching in de- 
 fence of image worship and the saints, 
 were one after another invited to stand 
 forward. They all made answer that 
 they had nothing to say in their defence, 
 and that, in future, they would apply 
 themselves to the study of the truth. 
 " Until to-day," said one, " I have put 
 
 my faith in the ancient doctors, but now 
 I will transfer my faith to the new.?' — 
 " It is not us," interrupted Zwingle, "that 
 you should believe. It is God's word. 
 It is only the Scriptures of God that 
 never can mislead us." The sitting had 
 been protracted, — night was closing in. 
 The president, Hofmeister of Schaff- 
 hausen, rose and said : " Blessed be God 
 the Almighty and Eternal, who, in all 
 things, giveth us the victory," — and he 
 ended by exhorting the Town-Council 
 of Zurich to abolish the worship of 
 images. 
 
 On Tuesday, the assembly again met, 
 Vadian being president, to discuss the 
 doctrine of the Mass. " My brethren in 
 Christ," said Zwingle, " far from us be 
 the thought that there is any thing un- 
 real in the body and blood of Christ.* 
 Our only aim is to prove that the Mass 
 is not a sacrifice that can be offered to 
 God by one man for his fellow, unless 
 indeed any will be bold enough to say 
 that a man can eat and drink for his 
 friend." 
 
 Vadian having twice inquired if any 
 of those present had any thing to say in 
 defence of the doctrine impugned, and 
 no one coming forward, the canons of 
 Zurich, the chaplains, and several eccle- 
 siastics declared themselves of Zwingle's 
 opinion. 
 
 But scarcely had the Reformers over- 
 come the partisans of the ancient doc- 
 trines, when they were called to contend 
 against the impatient spirits of men clam- 
 orously demanding abrupt and violent 
 changes, instead of prudent and gradual 
 reformation. The unfortunate Conrad 
 Grebel rose, and said : " It is not suffi- 
 cient that we should talk about the 
 Mass : it is our duty to do away with the 
 abuses of it." — " The Council," answered 
 Zwingle, " will put forth an edict on the 
 subject." On this, Simon Stumpf ex- 
 claimed, " The Spirit of God has already 
 decided, — why then refer the matter to 
 the Council's decision?"! 
 
 The commandant Schmidt, of Kuss- 
 nacht, rose gravely, and, in a speech 
 marked by much wisdom, said, — " Let 
 
 * Dass cinigerly Betrug oder Falsch syg in 
 dem reinen Blut und Fleisch Christi. — (Zw. Opp. 
 i. p. 498.) 
 
 t Der Geist Gottes urtheilet.— (Zw. Opp. i. p 
 529.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1522— 1527. 
 
 501 
 
 us teach Christians to receive Christ into 
 their hearts.* Until this hour you have 
 all been led away after idols. The 
 dwellers in the plain have made pil- 
 grimages to the hills, — those of the hill 
 country have gone on pilgrimage to the 
 plain ; the French have made journeys 
 into Germany, and the Germans into 
 France. You now know whither you 
 qught to go. God has lodged all things 
 in Christ. Worthy Zurichers, go to the 
 true source, and let Jesus Christ re-enter 
 your territory, and resume his ancient 
 authority." 
 
 This speech made a deep impression, 
 and no one standing up to oppose it, 
 Zwingle rose with emotion, and spoke 
 as follows : — " My gracious lords, God is 
 with us, — He will defend His own cause. 
 Now then, in the name of our God, let 
 us go forward." Here Zwingle's feel- 
 ings overcame him ; — he wept, and many 
 of those near him also shed tears. 
 
 Thus ended the conference. The 
 president rose ; — the burgomaster thank- 
 ed them, and the veteran, turning to the 
 Council, said in a grave tone, with that 
 voice that had been so often heard in the 
 field of battle, — " Now then, let us take 
 in hand the sword of the Word .... 
 and may God prosper his own work !" 
 
 This dispute, which took place in the 
 month of October, 1523, was decisive in 
 its consequences. The greater number 
 of the priests, who were present at it, re- 
 turned full of zeal to their stations in dif- 
 ferent parts of the canton ; and the effect 
 of those memorable days was felt in ev- 
 ery corner of Switzerland. The church 
 of Zurich, which, in its connexion with 
 the see of Constance, had always main- 
 tained a certain measure of independ- 
 ence, was now completely emancipated. 
 Instead of resting, through the bishop, 
 on the Pope, it rested henceforth, 
 through the people, on the Word of God. 
 Zurich had recovered the rights of 
 which Rome had deprived her. The 
 city and its rural territory vied with 
 each other in zeal for the work of the 
 Reformation, and the Great Council 
 merely obeyed the impulse of the people 
 at large. On every important occasion, 
 the city and the villages signified the re- 
 sult of their separate deliberations. Lu- 
 
 * Wie sy Christum in iren Herzen sollind bil- 
 den und machen. — (Ibid. p. 534.) 
 
 ther had restored the Bible to the Chris- 
 tian community, — Zwingle went further 
 — he restored their rights. This is a 
 characteristic feature of the Reformation 
 in Switzerland. The maintenance of 
 sound doctrine was entrusted, under 
 God, to the people ; and recent events 
 have shown that the people can dis- 
 charge that trust better than priests or 
 pontiffs. 
 
 Zwingle did not allow himself to be 
 elated by victory ; on the contrary, the 
 Reformation, under his guidance, was 
 carried on with much moderation. " God 
 knows my heart," said he, when the 
 Council demanded his opinion, " He 
 knows that I am inclined to build up, 
 and not to cast down. There are timid 
 spirits whom it is needful to treat tender- 
 ly ; let the mass, therefore, for some time 
 longer, be read on Sundays in the 
 churches, and let those who celebrate it 
 be carefully protected from insult."* 
 
 The Council issued a decree to this 
 effect. Hottinger and Hochrutiner, one 
 of his friends, were banished from the 
 canton for two years, and forbidden to 
 return without an express permission. 
 
 The Reformation at Zurich proceeded 
 thus in a steady and Christian course. 
 Raising the city day by day to a higher 
 pitch of moral elevation, it cast a glory 
 round her in the eyes of all who loved 
 the word of God. Throughout Switzer- 
 land, therefore, those who welcomed the 
 day-spring which had visited the Church, 
 felt themselves powerfully attracted to 
 Zurich. Oswald Myconius, after his 
 expulsion from Lucerne, had spent six 
 months in the valley of Einsidlen, when 
 returning one day, wearied and over- 
 powered by the heat of the weather, from 
 a journey to Glaris, he was met on the 
 road by his young son, Felix,f who had 
 run out to bring him tidings of his hav- 
 ing been invited to Zurich, to take 
 charge of one of the schools there. Os- 
 wald could hardly credit the happy in- 
 telligence, and hesitated for a while be- 
 tween hope and fear.J "I am thine," 
 was the reply which, at length, he ad- 
 
 * Ohne dass jemand sich unterstehe die Mess- 
 priester zu beschimpfen. — (Wirtz H. K. G. v. p. 
 208.) 
 
 t Incsperato nuntio excepit me Alius redeun- 
 tem ex Glareana. — (Zw. Epp. p. 322.) 
 
 t Inter spem ac metum. — (Ibid.) 
 
502 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 dressed to Zwingle. Geroldsek dismiss- 
 ed him with regret, for gloomy thoughts 
 had taken possession of his mind. 
 " Ah !" said he, " all who confess Christ 
 are nocking to Zurich : I fear that one 
 day we shall all perish there together."* 
 A melancholy foreboding, which was 
 but too fully realized when Geroldsek, 
 and so many other friends of the Gospel 
 lost their lives on the plain of Cappel. 
 
 At Zurich Myconius had at last found 
 a secure retreat. His predecessor, nick- 
 named at Paris, on account of his stat- 
 ure, " the tall devil," had neglected his 
 duty. Oswald devoted his whole heart 
 and his whole strength to the fulfilment 
 of his. He explained the Greek and 
 Latin classics ; he taught rhetoric and 
 logic ; and the youth of the city listened 
 to him with delight, f Myconius was to 
 become, to the rising generation, all that 
 Zwingle was already to those of maturer 
 years. 
 
 At first Myconius felt some alarm at 
 the number of full-grown scholars com- 
 mitted to his care ; but by degrees he 
 gathered courage, and it was not long 
 before he distinguished among his pupils 
 a young man of four-and-twenty, whose 
 intelligent looks gave sufficient indica- 
 tion of his love of study. This young 
 man, whose name was Thomas Plater, 
 was a native of the Valais. In that 
 beautiful valley, through which the tor- 
 rent of the Viege rolls its tumultuous 
 waters, after escaping from the sea of 
 glaciers and snow that encircles Mount 
 Rosa, — seated between St. Nicholas and 
 Standen, upon the hill that rises on the 
 right of the river, is still to be seen the 
 village of Grachen. This was Plater's 
 birth-place. From under the shadow of 
 those colossal Alps emerged one of the 
 most remarkable of all the characters 
 that figured in the great drama of the 
 sixteenth century. At the age of nine 
 he had been consigned to the care of a 
 curate, a kinsman of his own, — by whom 
 the little rustic was often so severely 
 beaten, that his cries, he tells us himself, 
 were like those of a kid under the hands 
 of the butcher. One of his cousins took 
 him along with him to visit the schools 
 of Germany. But removing in this way 
 
 * Ac deinde omnes simul pereamus. — (lb. 
 p. 323.) 
 
 t Fuventus ilium lubens audit. — (Ibid. p. 264.) 
 
 from school to school, when he had 
 reached the age of twenty, he scarcely 
 knew how to read !* On his arrival at 
 Zurich, he made it his fixed determina- 
 tion that he would be ignorant no long- 
 er, took his post at a desk in one corner 
 of the school over which Myconius pre- 
 sided, and said to himself, " Here thou 
 shalt learn, or here thou shalt die." The 
 light of the Gospel quickly found its 
 way to his heart. One morning, when 
 it was very cold, and fuel was wanting 
 to heat the school-room stove, which it 
 was his office to tend, he said to himself, 
 " Why need I be at a loss for wood, 
 when there are so many idols in the 
 church?" The church was then emp- 
 ty, though Zwingle was expected to 
 preach, and the bells were already ring- 
 ing to summon the congregation. Pla- 
 ter entered with a noiseless step, grap- 
 pled an image of St. John, which stood 
 over one of the altars, carried it off, and 
 thrust it into the stove, saying, as he did 
 so, " Down with thee, — for in thou must 
 go." Certainly neither Myconius nor 
 Zwingle would have applauded such an 
 act. 
 
 It was by other and better means that 
 unbelief and superstition were to be 
 driven from the field. Zwingle and his 
 colleagues had stretched out the hand of 
 fellowship to Myconius ; and the latter 
 now expounded the New Testament in 
 the Church of the Virgin, to a numer- 
 ous and eager auditory.f Another pub- 
 lic disputation, held on the 13th and 14th 
 January, 1524, terminated in renewed 
 discomfiture to the cause of Rome ; and 
 the appeal of the canon Koch, who ex- 
 claimed, " Popes, cardinals, bishops, 
 councils, — these are the church for me !" 
 awakened no sympathetic response. 
 
 Everything was moving forward at 
 Zurich ; men's minds were becoming 
 more enlightened, — their hearts more 
 stedfast. The Reformation was gaining 
 strength. Zurich was a fortress in 
 which the new doctrine had entrenched 
 itself, and from within whose enclosure 
 it was ready to pour itself abroad over 
 the whole confederation. 
 
 The enemies were aware of this. 
 They felt that they must no longer de- 
 lay to strike a vigorous blow. They 
 
 * See his Autobiography. 
 
 t Weise Fiisslin Beyter. iv. p. 66. 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 503 
 
 had remained quiet long enough. The 
 strong men of Switzerland, her iron- 
 sheathed warriors, — were up at last, and 
 stirring ; and who could doubt, when 
 they were once aroused, that the strug- 
 gle must end in blood 1 
 
 The Diet was assembled at Lucerne. 
 The priests made a strenuous effort to 
 engage that great council of the nation 
 in their favour. Friburg and the For- 
 est Cantons proved themselves their do- 
 cile instruments. Berne, Basle, Soleure, 
 Glaris, and Appenzel, hung doubtfully 
 in the balance. Schaffhausen was al- 
 most decided for the Gospel ; but Zu- 
 rich alone assumed a determined attitude 
 as its defender. The partisans of Rome 
 urged the assembly to yield to their pre- 
 tensions and adopt their prejudices. " Let 
 an edict be issued," said they, " enjoining 
 all persons to refrain from inculcating or 
 repeating any new or Lutheran doctrine, 
 either secretly or in public ; and from 
 talking or disputing on such matters in 
 taverns, or over their wine."* Such was 
 the new ecclesiastical law which it was 
 attempted to establish throughout the 
 confederation. 
 
 Nineteen articles to this effect were 
 drawn up in due form, — ratified, on the 
 26th January, 1523, by all the states — 
 Zurich excepted, and transmitted to all 
 the bailiffs, with injunctions that they 
 should be strictly enforced, — " which 
 caused," says Bullinger, " great joy 
 among the priests, and great grief among 
 the faithful." A persecution, regularly 
 organized by the supreme authority of 
 the confederation, was thus set on foot. 
 
 One of the first who received the man- 
 date of the Diet was Henry Flackenstein 
 of Lucerne, the bailiff of Baden. It was 
 to his district that Hottinger had retired 
 when banished from Zurich, after having 
 overthrown the crucifix at Stadelhofen ; 
 and he had here given free utterance to 
 his sentiments. One day, when he was 
 dining at the Angel Tavern, at Zurzach, 
 he had said that the priests expounded 
 Holy Scriptures amiss, and that trust 
 ought to be reposed in none but God 
 alone. t The host, who was frequently 
 
 * Es soil nieman in den "VVirtzhuseren oder 
 sunst hinter dem Wyn von Lutherischen oder 
 newen Sachen uzid reden. — (Bull. Chr. p. 144.) 
 
 t Wie wir unser pitt Hoffnung und Trost al- 
 lein uffGott— (Bull. Chr. p. 146.) 
 
 coming into the room to bring bread or 
 wine, lent an attentive ear to what seem- 
 ed to him very strange discourse. On 
 another occasion, when Hottinger was 
 paying a visit to one of his friends — John 
 Schutz of Schneyssingen, — " Tell me," 
 said Schutz, after they had finished their 
 repast, " what is this new religion that 
 the priests of Zurich are preaching ?" — 
 " They preach," replied Hottinger, "that 
 Christ has offered himself up once only 
 for ail believers, and by that one sacrifice 
 has purified them and redeemed them 
 from all iniquity; and they prove by 
 Holy Scripture that the Mass is a mere 
 delusion." 
 
 Hottinger had afterwards (in Februa- 
 ry, 1523,) quitted Switzerland, and re- 
 paired on some occasion of business, to 
 Waldshut, on the other side of the Rhine. 
 In the meanwhile, measures had been 
 taken to secure his person ; and when 
 the poor Zuricher, suspecting no danger, 
 recrossed the Rhine about the end of 
 February, he had no sooner reached Co- 
 blentz, a village on the left bank of the 
 river, than he was arrested. He was 
 conveyed to Klingenau, and as he there 
 fearlessly confessed his belief, Flacken- 
 stein said, in an angry tone, " I will take 
 you to a place where you shall meet 
 with those who will give you a fitting 
 answer." Accordingly the bailiff drag- 
 ged his prisoner first before the magis- 
 trates of Klingenau, next before the su- 
 perior tribunal of Baden, and ultimately, 
 since he could not elsewhere obtain a 
 sentence of condemnation against him, 
 before the Diet assembled at Lucerne. 
 He was resolved that in one quarter or 
 another he would find judges to pro- 
 nounce him guilty. 
 
 The Diet was prompt in its proceed- 
 ings, and condemned Hottinger to lose 
 his head. When this sentence was com- 
 municated to him, he gave glory to Jesus 
 Christ. " Enough, enough," cried Jacob 
 Troger, one of the judges, " we do not 
 sit here to listen to sermons — thou shalt 
 babble some other time." — " He must 
 have his head taken off for this once," 
 said the bailiff Am-Ort, with a laugh, 
 " but if he should recover it again, we 
 will all embrace his creed." — " May God 
 forgive those who have condemned me!" 
 exclaimed the prisoner ; and when a 
 monk presented a crucifix to his lips, " It 
 
504 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 is the heart," said he, pushing it away, 
 "that must receive Jesus Christ." 
 
 When he was led forth to death, there 
 were many among the spectators who 
 could not restrain their tears. He turned 
 towards them, and said, " I am going to 
 everlasting happiness." On reaching the 
 place of execution, he lifted up his eyes 
 to heaven, saying, "Oh, my Redeemer, 
 into thy hands I commend my spirit !" — 
 and a moment after, his head rolled 
 upon the scaffold. 
 
 No sooner had the blood of Hottinger 
 been shed than the enemies of the Ref- 
 ormation seized the opportunity of in- 
 flaming the anger of the confederates to 
 a higher pitch. It was in Zurich that 
 the root of the mischief must be crushed. 
 So terrible an example as that which had 
 now been set, could not fail to intimidate 
 Zwingle and his followers. One vigor- 
 ous effort more. — and the Reformation 
 itself would share the fate of Hottinger. 
 The Diet immediately resolved that a 
 deputation should be sent to Zurich, to 
 call on the councils and the citizens to 
 renounce their new faith. 
 
 The deputies were admitted to an au- 
 dience on the 21st of March. "The 
 ancient unity of the Christian Church is 
 broken," said they ; " the evil is gaining 
 ground; the clergy of the four Forest 
 Cantons have already intimated to the 
 magistrates that aid must be afforded 
 them, or their functions must cease. 
 Confederates of Zurich ! join your efforts 
 to ours ; root out this new religion ;* dis- 
 miss Zwingle and his disciples ; and 
 then let us all unite to remedy the abuses 
 which have arisen from the encroach- 
 ments of popes and their courtiers." 
 
 Such was the language of the adver- 
 sary. How would the men of Zurich 
 now demean themselves ? Would their 
 hearts fail them? Had their courage 
 ebbed away with the blood of their 
 fellow-citizens 1 
 
 The men of Zurich left neither friends 
 nor enemies long in suspense. The re- 
 ply of the Council was calm and dignifi- 
 ed. They could make no concessions in 
 what concerned the word of God. And 
 their very next act was a reply more em- 
 phatic still. 
 
 It had been the custom ever since the 
 
 * Zurich selbigen ausreuten und undertrucken 
 helfe.— (Holt Helv. K. G. iii. p. 170.) 
 
 year 1351, that, on Whit Monday, a 
 numerous company of pilgrims, each 
 bearing a cross, should go in procession 
 to Einsidlen, to worship the Virgin. 
 This festival,* instituted in commemora- 
 tion of the battle of Tatwyll, was com- 
 monly attended with great disorders. It 
 would fall, this year, on the 7th of May. 
 At the instance of the three pastors, it 
 was now abolished, and all the other 
 customary processions were successively 
 brought under due regulation. 
 
 Nor did the Council stop here. The 
 relics, which had given occasion to so 
 many superstitions, were honourably in- 
 terred.! And then, on the further re- 
 quisition of the three pastors, an edict 
 was issued, decreeing that, inasmuch as 
 God alone ought to be honoured, the 
 images should be removed from all the 
 churches of the canton, and their orna- 
 ments applied to the relief the poor. 
 Accordingly, twelve councillors, — one for 
 each tribe, the three pastors, and the city 
 architect, — with some smiths, carpenters, 
 and masons, visited the several churches; 
 and having first closed the doors, took 
 down the crosses, obliterated the paint- 
 ings, whitewashed the walls, and carried 
 away the images, to the great joy of the 
 faithful, who regarded this proceeding, 
 Bullinger tells us, as a glorious act 
 of homage to the true God. In some of 
 the country parishes the ornaments of 
 the churches were committed to the 
 flames, " to the honour and glory of 
 God." Soon after this, the organs were 
 suppressed, on account of their connec- 
 tion with many superstitious observ- 
 ances ; and a new form of baptism was 
 established, from which everything un- 
 scriptural was carefully excluded. % 
 
 The triumph of the Reformation threw 
 a joyful radiance over the last hours of 
 the burgomaster Roust and his colleague. 
 They had lived long enough ; and they 
 both died within a few days after the 
 restoration of a purer mode of worship. 
 
 The Swiss Reformation here presents 
 itself to us under an aspect rather differ- 
 ent from that assumed by the Reforma- 
 tion in Germany. Luther had severely 
 
 * Uff einen creitzgang sieben unehelicher kin- 
 den uberkommen wurdend. — (Bullinger Chr. p. 
 160.) 
 
 t Und es eerlich bestattet hat. — (Bull. Chr. 
 p. 161.) 
 
 t Habend die nach inen zu beschlossen. 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 505 
 
 rebuked the excesses of those who broke 
 down the images in the churches of 
 Wittemberg ; — and here we behold 
 Zwingle, presiding in person over the 
 removal of images from the temples of 
 Zurich. This difference is explained by 
 the different light in which the two Re- 
 formers viewed the same object. Lu- 
 ther was desirous of retaining in the 
 Church all that was not expressly con- 
 tradicted by Scripture, — while Zwingle 
 was intent on abolishing all that could 
 not be proved by Scripture. The Ger- 
 man Reformer wished to remain united 
 to the Church of all preceding ages, and 
 sought only to purify it from everything 
 that was repugnant to the word of God. 
 The Reformer of Zurich passed back 
 over every intervening age till he reach- 
 ed the times of the apostles ; and, sub- 
 jecting the Church to an entire trans- 
 formation, laboured to restore it to its 
 primitive condition. 
 
 Zwingle's Reformation, therefore, was 
 the more complete. The work which 
 Divine Providence had entrusted to Lu- 
 ther, — the re-establishment of the doc- 
 trine of Justification by Faith, was un- 
 doubtedly the great work of the Ref- 
 ormation ; but when this was accom- 
 plished, other ends, of real, if not of pri- 
 mary importance, remained to be achiev- 
 ed ; and to these, the efforts of Zwingle 
 were more especially devoted. 
 
 Two mighty tasks, in fact, had been 
 assigned to the Reformers. Christian 
 Catholicism taking its rise amidst Jewish 
 Pharisaism, on the one hand, and the 
 Paganism of Greece, on the other, had, 
 by degrees, contracted something of the 
 spirit of each of those systems, and had 
 thus been transformed into Roman Ca- 
 tholicism. The Reformation, therefore, 
 whose mission it was to purify the 
 church, had to clear it alike from the 
 Jewish and the Pagan element. 
 
 The Jewish element had incorporated 
 itself chiefly with that portion of Chris- 
 tian doctrine which relates to man. 
 Catholicism had borrowed from Judaism 
 the pharisaic notions of inherent righte- 
 ousness, and salvation obtainable by hu- 
 man strength or works. 
 
 The Pagan element had allied itself 
 
 principally with that other portion of 
 
 Christian doctrine which relates to God. 
 
 Paganism had corrupted the catholic 
 
 64 
 
 notion of an infinite Deity whose power T 
 being absolutely all-sufficient, acts every 
 where and at every moment. It had set 
 up in the church the dominion of sym- 
 bols, images, and ceremonies ; and the 
 saints had become the demi-gods of Po- 
 pery. 
 
 The Reformation, in the hands of Lu- 
 ther, was directed essentially against the 
 Jewish element. With this he had been 
 compelled to struggle at the outset, when 
 an audacious monk, on behalf of the 
 Pope, was bartering the salvation of 
 souls for paltry coin. 
 
 The Reformation, as conducted by 
 Zwingle, was directed mainly against 
 the Pagan element. It was this that he 
 had first encountered, in the chapel of 
 the Virgin at Einsidlen, when crowds 
 of worshippers, benighted as those of old 
 who thronged the temple of Ephesian 
 Diana, were gathered from every side 
 to cast themselves down before a gilded 
 idol. 
 
 The Reformer of Germany proclaim- 
 ed the great doctrine of justification by 
 faith, — and, in so doing, inflicted a death 
 blow on the pharisaic righteousness of 
 Rome. The Swiss Reformer, undoubt- 
 edly, did the same. The inability of 
 man to save himself is the fundamental 
 truth on which all reformers have taken 
 their stand. But Zwingle did something 
 more. He brought forward, as practical 
 principles, the existence of God, and His 
 sovereign, universal, and exclusive agen- 
 cy ; and by the working out of these 
 principles, Rome was utterly bereft of 
 all the props that had supported her 
 paganized worship. 
 
 Roman Catholicism had exalted man 
 and degraded God: Luther reduced 
 man to his proper level of abasement ; 
 and Zwingle restored God, (if we may 
 so speak,) to his unlimited and undivi- 
 ded supremacy. 
 
 Of these two distinct tasks, which 
 were specially, though not exclusively, 
 allotted to the two Reformers, each was 
 necessary to the completion of the other. 
 It was Luther's part to lay the founda- 
 tion of the edifice — Zwingle's to rear 
 the superstructure. 
 
 To an intellect gifted with a still more 
 capacious grasp, was the office reserved 
 of developing on the shores of the Le- 
 man, the peculiar characters of the Swiss 
 
506 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 and the German Reformation, — blending 
 them together and imprinting them thus 
 combined, on the Reformation as a 
 whole.* 
 
 But while Zwingle Was thus carrying 
 on the great work, the disposition of the 
 cantons was daily becoming more hostile. 
 The government of Zurich felt how ne- 
 cessary it was to assure itself of the sup- 
 port of the people. The people, more- 
 over, — that is to say, " the assembly of 
 believers," was, according to Zwingle's 
 principles, the highest earthly authority 
 to which an appeal could be made. The 
 Council resolved, therefore, to test the 
 state of public opinion, and instructed 
 the bailiffs to demand of all the town- 
 ships, whether they were ready to en- 
 dure every thing for the sake of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, " who shed his pre- 
 cious blood,' 1 said the Council, " for us 
 poor sinners."! The whole canton fol- 
 lowed close upon the city in the career 
 of Reformation. — and, in many places, 
 the houses of the peasants had become 
 schools of Christian instruction, in which 
 the Holy Scriptures were constantly 
 read. 
 
 The proclamation of the Council was 
 received by all the townships with en- 
 thusiasm : " Only let our magistrates 
 hold fast and fearlessly to the word of 
 God," answered they, "we will help 
 them to maintain it ; I and, if any should 
 seek to molest them, we will come like 
 brave and loyal citizens to their aid." 
 The peasantry of Zurich showed, on that 
 occasion, as they have recently shown 
 again, that the strength of the Church is 
 in the Christain people. 
 
 But the people were not alone. The 
 man whom God had placed at their head, 
 answered worthily to their call. Zwin- 
 gle seemed to multiply himself for the 
 service of God. Whosoever, in any of 
 the cantons of Switzerland, suffered per- 
 secution for the Gospel's sake, addressed 
 himself to him.§ The weight of busi- 
 
 * Litterarischer Anzeiger, 1840, No. 27. 
 
 t Der sin rosenfarw blut alein fur uns arme 
 sunder vergossen hat. — (Bull. Chr. p. 180.) 
 
 t Meine Herrn sollten audi nur dapfer bey 
 dem Gottsworte verbleiben. — (Fiissl. Beytr. iv. 
 p. 107. where the answer given by each town- 
 ship is recorded.) 
 
 § Scribunt e Helvetiis ferine omnes qui prop- 
 ter Christum premuntur. — (Zw. Epp. p. 348.) 
 
 ness, the care of the churches,* the so- 
 licitude inspired by that glorious struggle 
 which was now beginning to be waged 
 in every valley of his native land — all 
 pressed heavily on the Evangelist of 
 Zurich. At Wittemberg, the tidings of 
 his courageous deportment were received 
 with joy. Luther and Zwingle were 
 the two great luminaries of Upper and 
 Lower Germany ; and the doctrine of 
 salvation, which they proclaimed so 
 powerfully, was fast diffusing itself over 
 all those vast tracts of country that stretch 
 from the summit of the Alps to the shores 
 of the Baltic and the German Ocean. 
 
 While the word of God was pursuing 
 its victorious course over these spacious 
 regions, we cannot wonder that the Pope 
 in his palace, the inferior clergy in their 
 presbyteries, the magistrates of Switzer- 
 land in their councils, should have viewed 
 its triumphs with alarm and indignation. 
 Their consternation increased every day. 
 The people had been consulted ; — the 
 Christian people had again become some- 
 thing in the Christian Church ; their 
 sympathies and their faith were now ap- 
 pealed to, instead of the decrees of the 
 Roman chancery. An attack so formi- 
 dable as this must be met by a resistance 
 more formidable still. On the 18th April, 
 the Pope addressed a brief to the Con- 
 federates ; and, in the month of July, the 
 Diet assembled at Zug, yielding to the 
 urgent exhortations of the Pontiff, sent 
 a deputation to Zurich, Schaffhausen, 
 and Appenzel, to notify to those states 
 their fixed determination that the new 
 doctrine should be entirely suppressed, 
 and its adherents subjected to the forfeit- 
 ure of property, honours, and even life 
 itself. Such an announcement could not 
 fail to excite a strong sensation at Zurich; 
 but a resolute answer was returned from 
 that canton, — that in matters of faith, the 
 word of God alone must be obeyed. 
 When this reply was communicated to 
 the assembly, the liveliest resentment 
 was manifested on the part of Lucerne, 
 Schwitz, Uri, Unterwalden, Friburg, and 
 Zug, and, forgetting the reputation and 
 the strength which the accession of Zu- 
 rich had formerly imparted to the infant 
 Confederation, forgetting the precedence 
 
 * Negotiorum strepitus et ecclesiarum cur© 
 ita me undique quatiunt. — (Ibid.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 507 
 
 which had been assigned to her, the sim- 
 ple and solemn oaths of fidelity by which 
 they were bound to her, — -the many vic- 
 tories and reverses they had shared with 
 her, — these states declared that they 
 would no longer sit with Zurich in the 
 Diet. In Switzerland, therefore, as well 
 as in Germany, the partisans of Rome 
 were the first to rend asunder the federal 
 union. But threats and breaches of al- 
 liance were not enough. The fanaticism 
 of the cantons was clamorous for blood ; 
 and it soon appeared what were the 
 weapons which Popery intended to wield 
 against the word of God. 
 
 The excellent CExlin,* a friend of 
 Zwingle, was the pastor of Burg, a vil- 
 lage in the vicinity of Stein, upon the 
 Rhine. The bailiff Am-Berg, who had 
 previously appeared to favour the cause 
 of the Gospel,f being anxious to obtain 
 that bailiwick, had pledged himself to 
 the leading men of the canton of Schwitz, 
 that he would put down the new religion. 
 CExlin, though not resident within his 
 jurisdiction, was the first object of his 
 persecution. 
 
 On the night of the 7th July, 1524, 
 near midnight, a loud knocking was 
 heard at the pastor's door; it was open- 
 ed ; — they were the soldiers of the bailiff 
 They seized him and dragged him away 
 prisoner, in spite of his cries. CExlin, 
 believing that they meant to put him to 
 death, shrieked out " Murder I" The in- 
 habitants rose from their beds in affright, 
 and the whole village immediately be- 
 came a scene of tumult, the noise of 
 which was heard as far as Stein. « The 
 sentinel posted at the castle of Hohenk- 
 lingen fired the alarm gun, the tocsin 
 was sounded, and the inhabitants of 
 Stein, Stammheim, and the adjacent 
 places, were shortly all a-foot and cluster- 
 ing together in the dark, to ask each 
 other what was the matter. 
 
 Stammheim was the residence of the 
 deputy-bailiff Wirth, whose two eldest 
 sons, Adrian and John, young priests full 
 of piety and courage, were zealously en- 
 gaged in preaching the Gospel. John 
 especially was gifted with a fervent faith, 
 and stood prepared to offer up his life in 
 the cause of his Saviour. It was a house- 
 
 * See page 333. 
 
 t Der war anfangs dem Evangelio gunstig. — 
 (Bull. Chr. p. 180.) 
 
 hold of the patriarchal cast. Anna, the 
 mother, who had brought the bailiff a 
 numerous family, and reared them up in 
 the fear of God, was revered for her vir- 
 tues through the whole country round. 
 At the sound of the tumult in Burg, the 
 father and his two sons came abroad like 
 their neighbours. The father was in- 
 censed when he found that the bailiff of 
 Frauenfeld had exercised his authority 
 in a manner repugnant to the laws of his 
 country. The sons were grieved by the 
 tidings that their friend and brother, 
 whose good example they delighted to 
 follow, had been carried off like a crimi- 
 nal. Each of the three seized a halberd, 
 and regardless of the fears of a tender 
 wife and mother, father and sons joined 
 the troop of townspeople who had sallied 
 out from Stein with the resolute purpose 
 of setting their pastor at liberty. Unfor- 
 tunately, a band of those ill-disposed per- 
 sons who never fail to make their ap- 
 pearance in a moment of disorder, had 
 mingled with the burghers in their 
 march. The bailiff's Serjeants were 
 hotly followed ; but warned by the tocsin 
 and the shouts of alarm which echoed 
 on every side, they redoubled their speed, 
 dragging their prisoner along with them, 
 and in a little time the Thur was inter- 
 posed between them and their pursuers. 
 
 When the people of Stein and Stamm- 
 heim reached the bank of the river and 
 found no means of crossing it, they halted 
 on the spot, and resolved to send a depu- 
 tation to Frauenfeld. "Oh!" said the 
 bailiff Wirth, " the pastor of Stein is so 
 dear to us that I would willingly sacrifice 
 all I possess, — my liberty, — my very 
 heart's blood — for his sake."* The rab- 
 ble, meanwhile, finding themselves in 
 the neighbourhood of the convent of It- 
 tingen, occupied by a community of Car- 
 thusians, who were generally believed to 
 have encouraged the bailiff Am-Berg in 
 his tyranny, entered the building and 
 took possession of the refectory. They 
 immediately gave themselves up to ex- 
 cess, and a scene of riot ensued. In vain 
 did Wirth entreat them to quit the place ;f 
 he was in danger of personal ill treat- 
 ment among them. His son Adrian had 
 
 * Sunder die kuttlen in Buch fur In wagen. — 
 (Bull. -Chr. p. 193.) 
 
 t Und badt sy um Gottes willen uss dem 
 Kloster zu gand.— (Ibid. p. 183.) 
 
508 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 remained outside of the monastery ; John 
 entered it, but shocked by what he be- 
 held within, came out again immediate- 
 ly.* The inebriated peasants proceeded 
 to pillage the cellars and granaries, to 
 break the furniture to pieces, and to burn 
 the books. 
 
 As soon as the news of these disorders 
 reached Zurich, the deputies of the 
 Council were summoned in haste, and 
 orders issued for all persons belonging to 
 the canton who had left their homes to 
 return to them immediately. These or- 
 ders were obeyed. But a crowd of Thur- 
 govians, drawn together by the tumult, 
 now established themselves in the con- 
 vent for the sake of the good cheer which 
 they found there. A fire suddenly broke 
 out, no one could tell how, — and the edi- 
 fice was reduced to ashes. 
 
 Five days after, the deputies of the 
 cantons were convened at Zug. Nothing 
 was heard in this assembly but threats 
 of vengeance and death. " Let us march," 
 said they, "with our banners spread, 
 against Stein and Stammheim, and put 
 the inhabitants to the sword." The 
 deputy-bailiff and his two sons had long 
 been objects of especial dislike on ac- 
 count of their faith. " If any one is 
 guilty," said the deputy from Zurich, 
 " he must be punished ; but let it be by 
 the rules of justice, not by violence." 
 Vadian, the deputy from St. Gall, spoke 
 to the same effect. Hereupon the avoyer 
 John Hug of Lucerne, unable any longer 
 to contain himself, broke out into fright- 
 ful imprecations.! " The heretic Zwin- 
 gle is the father of all these rebellions ; 
 and you, Doctor of St. Gall, you favour 
 his hateful cause, and labour for its 
 advancement. You shall sit here with 
 us no longer!" The deputy for Zug 
 endeavoured to restore order, but in vain. 
 Vadian retired; and knowing that his 
 life was in danger from some of the 
 lower order of the people, secretly left 
 the town, and, by a circuitous road, 
 reached the convent of Cappel in safety. 
 
 The magistrates of Zurich, intent upon 
 repressing all commotion, resolved upon 
 a provisional arrest of the individuals 
 against whom the anger of the confeder- 
 ates had been more particularly mani- 
 fested. Wirth and his sons were living 
 
 * Dan es im leid was. — (Bull. Chr. p. 195.) 
 t Mit fluchen und wiitien (Ibid. p. 184.) 
 
 quietly at Stammheim. "Never," said 
 Adrian Wirth from the pulpit, " can the 
 friends of God have any thing to fear 
 from his enemies." The father was 
 warned of the fate that awaited him, and 
 advised to make his escape along with 
 his sons. " No," he replied, " I put my 
 trust in God, and will wait lor the 
 Serjeants here." When at length a 
 party of soldiers presented themselves at 
 his door — " Their worships of Zurich," 
 said he, " might have spared themselves 
 this trouble ; — had they only sent a child 
 to fetch me, I would have obeyed their 
 bidding."* The three Wirths were car- 
 ried to Zurich and lodged in the prison. 
 Rutiman, the bailiff of Nussbaum, shared 
 their confinement. They underwent a 
 rigid examination ; but the conduct they 
 were proved to have held furnished no 
 ground of complaint against them. 
 
 As soon as the deputies of the cantons 
 were apprized of the imprisonment of 
 these four citizens, they demanded that 
 they should be sent to Baden, and de- 
 creed that, in case of a refusal, an armed 
 power should march upon Zurich, and 
 carry them off by force. " It belongs of 
 right to Zurich," replied the deputies of 
 that canton, " to determine whether these 
 men are guilty or not, and we find no 
 fault in them." Hereupon, the deputies 
 of the cantons cried out, " Will you sur- 
 render them to us, or not? — answer yes 
 or no — in a single word." Two of the 
 deputies of Zurich mounted their horses 
 at once, and repaired with all speed to 
 their constituents. 
 
 Their arrival threw the whole town 
 into the utmost agitation. If the authori- 
 ties of Zurich should refuse to give up 
 the prisoners, the confederates would 
 soon appear in arms at their gates, and, 
 on the other hand, to give them up, was, 
 in effect, to consent to their death. Opin- 
 ions were divided. Zwingle insisted on 
 a refusal. "Zurich," said he, "must 
 remain faithful to its ancient laws." At 
 last a kind of compromise was suggested. 
 " We will deliver up the prisoners," said 
 they to the Diet, " but on this condition, 
 that you shall examine them regarding 
 the affair of Ittingen only, and not with 
 reference to their faith." The Diet 
 agreed to this proposition ; and on the 
 
 * Dann hattind sy mir ein kind geschikt. — 
 (Bull. Chr. p. 186.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 509 
 
 Friday before St. Bartholomew's day, 
 (August, 1524,) the three Wirths and 
 their friend took their departure from 
 Zurich under the escort of four Coun- 
 cillors of State and a few soldiers. 
 
 The deepest concern was manifested 
 on this occasion by the whole body of 
 the people. The fate which awaited the 
 two old men and the two brothers was 
 distinctly foreseen. Nothing but sobs 
 was heard as they passed along. " Alas !" 
 exclaims a contemporary writer, " what a 
 woeful journey was that !"* The church- 
 es were all thronged. " God will punish 
 us," cried Zwingle, — " He will surely 
 punish us. Let us at least beseech Him 
 to visit those poor prisoners with com- 
 fort, and strengthen them in the true 
 faith." f 
 
 On the Friday evening, the prisoners 
 arrived at Baden, where an immense 
 crowd was awaiting to receive them. 
 They were taken first to an inn, and af- 
 terwards to the jail. The people pressed 
 so closely round to see them that they 
 could scarcely move. The father, who 
 walked first, turned round towards his 
 sons, and meekly said, — " See, my dear 
 children, we are like those of whom the 
 Apostle speaks, — men appointed to 
 death, a spectacle to the world, to angels, 
 and to men." — (1 Cor. iv. 9.) Just then 
 he chanced to observe, among the crowd, 
 the bailiff* Am-Berg, his mortal enemy, 
 and the prime author of all his misfor- 
 tunes. He went up to him, held out his 
 hand, and, grasping Am-Berg's, — though 
 the bailiff* would have turned away, — 
 said, with much composure, " There is 
 a God above us, and He knows all 
 things." 
 
 The examination began the next 
 morning. Wirth, the lather, was the 
 first who was brought before the tribu- 
 nal. Without the least consideration for 
 his character or for his age, he was put 
 to the torture ; but he persisted in de- 
 claring that he was innocent both of the 
 pillage and the burning of lttingen. A 
 charge was then brought against him of 
 having destroyed an image representing 
 St. Anne. As to the other prisoners, — 
 nothing could be substantiated against 
 
 * O weh! was elender Fahrt war das!^ 
 (Bern. Weyss. Fiissl. Beyt. iv. p. 56.; 
 
 t Sy troste und in warem glouben starckte. — 
 (Bull. Chr. p. 188.) 
 
 them, except that Adrian Wirth was 
 married, and that he was accustomed to 
 preach after the manner of Zwingle and 
 Luther ; and that John Wirth had given 
 the holy sacrament to a sick man with- 
 out candle or bell !* 
 
 But the more conclusively their inno- 
 cence was established, the more furious 
 became the excitement of their adversa- 
 ries. From morning till noon of that 
 day, the old man was made to endufc all 
 the severity of torture. His tears were 
 of no avail to soften the hearts of his 
 judges. John Wirth was still more cru- 
 elly tormented. " Tell us," said they, 
 in the midst of his agonies, " from whom 
 didst thou learn thy heretical creed? 
 Was it Zwingle, or who else, that taught 
 it thee ?" And when he was heard to 
 exclaim, "O merciful and everlasting 
 God ! grant me help and comfort !" 
 " Aha !" said one of the deputies, " where 
 is your Christ now?" When Adrian 
 was brought forward, Sebastian von 
 Stein, a deputy of Berne, addressed 
 him thus : — " Young man, tell us the 
 truth, for if you refuse to do so, I swear 
 by my knighthood, — the knighthood I 
 received on the very spot where God 
 suffered martyrdom, — we will open all 
 the veins in your body, one by one." 
 The young man was then hoisted up by 
 a cord, and while he was swinging in 
 the air, " Young master," said Stein, 
 with a fiendish smile, - ]- " this is our wed- 
 ding gift;" alluding to the marriage 
 which the youthful ecclesiastic had re- 
 cently contracted. 
 
 The examination being now con- 
 cluded, the deputies returned to their 
 several cantons to make their report, and 
 did not assemble again until four weeks 
 had expired. The bailiff's wife, — the 
 mother of the two young priests,— re- 
 paired to Baden, carrying a child in her 
 arms, to appeal to the compassion of the 
 judges. John Escher, of Zurich, ac- 
 companied her as her advocate. The 
 latter recognized among the judges Je- 
 rome Stocker, the landamman of Zug, 
 who had twice been bailiff of Frauen- 
 feld. " Landamman," said he, accosting 
 
 * On Kerzen, schellen und anders so bisshar 
 geiipt ist. — (Bull. Chr. p. 196.) 
 
 t Alls man inn am folter seyl uffzog, sagt der 
 zum Stein: Herrli, das ist die gaabdiewiruch zu 
 iiwer Hussfrowen schanckend. — (Ibid. p. 190.) 
 
510 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 him, " you remember the bailiff Wirth ; 
 you know that he has always been an 
 honest man." " It is most true, my good 
 friend Escher," replied Stocker ; " he 
 never did anyone an injury: country- 
 men and strangers alike were sure to 
 find a hearty Avelcome at his table ; his 
 house was a convent, — inn, — hospital, 
 all in one.* And knowing this, as I do, 
 had he committed a robbery or a mur- 
 der, I would have spared no effort to ob- 
 tain his pardon ; but since he has burned 
 St. Anne, the grandmother of Christ, it 
 is but right that he should die !" — 
 " Then God take pity on us!" ejaculated 
 Escher. 
 
 The gates were now shut, (this was 
 on the 28th of September,) and the dep- 
 uties of Berne, Lucerne, Uri, Schwitz, 
 Underwald, Zug, Glaris, Friburg, and 
 Soleure, having proceeded agreeably to 
 usage, to deliberate on their judgment 
 with closed doors, sentence of death was 
 passed upon the bailiff Wirth, his son 
 John, who, of all the accused, was the 
 firmest in his faith, and who appeared to 
 have gained over the others, and the 
 bailiff Rutiman. They spared the life 
 of Adrian, the younger of Wirth's sons, 
 as a boon to his weeping mother. 
 
 The prisoners were now brought forth 
 from the tower in which they had been 
 confined. " My son," said the father to 
 Adrian, " we die an undeserved death, 
 but never do thou think of avenging it." 
 Adrian wept bitterly. " My brother," 
 said John, " where Christ's word comes 
 his cross must follow."! 
 
 After the sentence had been read to 
 them, the three christian sufferers were 
 led back to prison ; John Wirth walk- 
 ing first, the two bailiffs next, and a vic- 
 ar behind them. As they crossed the 
 castle bridge, on which there was a 
 chapel dedicated to St. Joseph, the vicar 
 called out to the two old men — " Fall on 
 your knees and invoke the saints." At 
 these words, John Wirth, turning round, 
 said, " Father, be firm ! You know 
 there is but one Mediator between God 
 and man — Christ Jesus." — " Assuredly, 
 my son," replied the old man, " and by 
 the help of His grace, I will continue 
 faithful to Him, even to the end." On 
 
 * Sin huss ist allwey gsin wie ein Kloster, 
 wirtshuss und Spitall.— (Bull. Chr. p. 198.) 
 t Doch allwag das criitz darbey. — (Ibid.) 
 
 this, they all three began to repeat the 
 Lord's Prayer, "Our Father who art 
 in heaven." . . . And so they crossed 
 the bridge. 
 
 They were next conducted to the 
 scaffold. John Wirth, whose heart was 
 filled with the tenderest solicitude for his 
 father, bade him a solemn farewell. 
 " My beloved father," said he, " hence- 
 forth thou art my father no longer, and 
 I am no longer thy son ; — but we are 
 brothers still ' in Christ our Lord, for 
 whose name's sake we are doomed to 
 suffer death.* So now, if such be God's 
 will, ray beloved brother, let us depart to 
 be with Him who is the father of us all. 
 Fear nothing !" — " Amen !" answered 
 the old man, " and may God Almighty 
 bless thee, my beloved son, and brother 
 in Christ." 
 
 Thus, on the threshold of eternity did 
 father and son take their leave of each 
 other, with joyful anticipations of that 
 unseen state in which they should be 
 united anew by imperishable ties. There 
 were but few among the multitude 
 around whose tears did not flow profuse- 
 ly. The bailiff Rutiman prayed in si- 
 lence, t All three then knelt down " in 
 Christ's name," — and their heads were 
 severed from their bodies. 
 
 The crowd, observing the marks of 
 torture on their persons, uttered loud ex- 
 pressions of grief. The two bailiffs left 
 behind them twenty-two children, and 
 forty-five grandchildren. Anna was 
 obliged to pay twelve golden crowns to 
 the executioner by whom her husband 
 and son had been deprived of life. 
 
 Now at length blood had been spilt — 
 innocent blood. Switzerland and the 
 Reformation were baptized with the 
 blood of the martyrs. The great enemy 
 of the Gospel had effected his purpose ; 
 but in effecting it he had struck a mor- 
 tal blow against his own power. The 
 death of the Wirths was an appointed 
 means of hastening the triumph of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 The Reformers of Zurich had ab- 
 stained from abolishing the mass when 
 they suppressed the use of images ; but 
 
 * Furohin bist du nitt me min Vatter und ich 
 din sun, sondern wir sind briidern in Christo. — 
 (Bull. Chr. p. 204.) 
 
 t Des gnadens weyneten vil Liithen herzlicli. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1537. 
 
 ffii 
 
 the moment for doing so seemed now to 
 have arrived. 
 
 Not only had the light of the Gospel 
 been diffused among the people — but 
 the violence of the enemy called upon 
 the friends of God's word to reply by 
 some striking demonstration of their un- 
 shaken constancy. As often as Rome 
 shall erect a scaffold, and heads shall 
 drop upon it, so often shall the Reforma- 
 tion exalt the Lord's holy Word, and 
 crush some hitherto untouched corrup- 
 tion. When Hottinger was executed, 
 Zurich put down the worship of images, 
 and now that the Wirths have been sac- 
 rificed, Zurich shall reply by the aboli- 
 tion of the Mass. While Rome fills up 
 the measure of her severities, the Ref- 
 ormation shall be conscious of a perpet- 
 ual accession of strength. 
 
 On the 11th of August, 1525, the 
 three pastors of Zurich, accompanied by 
 Megander, and Oswald and Myconius, 
 presented themselves before the Great 
 Council, and demanded the re-establish- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper. Their dis- 
 course was a weighty one,* and was lis- 
 tened to with the deepest attention ; — 
 every one felt how important was the de- 
 cision which the Council was called up- 
 on to pronounce. The mass — that mys- 
 terious rite which for three successive 
 centuries had constituted the animating 
 principle in the worship of the Latin 
 Church — was now to be abrogated, — 
 the corporeal presence of Christ was to 
 be declared an illusion, and of that illu- 
 sion, the minds of the people were to be 
 dispossessed ; some courage was needed 
 for such a resolution as this, and there 
 were individuals in the Council who 
 shuddered at the contemplation of so au- 
 dacious a design. Joachim Am Grut, 
 the under-secretary of state, was alarmed 
 by the demand of the pastors, and op- 
 posed it with all his might. " The 
 words, This is my bod]/," said he, "prove 
 beyond all dispute that the bread is the 
 very body of Christ himself." Zwingle 
 argued that there is no other word in the 
 Greek langaage than can. (is) to express 
 signifies, and he quoted several instances 
 of the employment of that word in a 
 figurative sense. The Great Council was 
 convinced by his reasoning, and hesi- 
 
 * Und vermantend die ernstlich. — (Bull. Chr. 
 p. 263.) 
 
 tated no longer. The evangelical doc- 
 trine had sunk deep into every heart, 
 and moreover, since a separation from 
 the Church of Rome had taken place, 
 there was a kind of satisfaction felt in 
 making that separation as complete as 
 possible, and digging a gulf as it were 
 between the Reformation and her. The 
 Council decreed therefore that the mass 
 should be abolished, and it was deter- 
 mined that on the following day. which 
 was Maundy Thursday, the Lord's Sup- 
 per should be celebrated in conformity to 
 the apostolic model. 
 
 Zwingle's mind had been deeply en- 
 gaged in these proceedings ; and at 
 night, when he closed his eyes, he was 
 still searching for arguments with which 
 to confront his adversaries. The subject 
 that had occupied him during the day, 
 presented itself to him again in a dream. 
 He thought that he was disputing with 
 Am-Grut, and could not find an answer 
 to his principal objection. Suddenly 
 some one stood before him in his dream 
 and said, " Why dost not thou quote the 
 11th verse of the 12th chapter of Exo- 
 dus : Ye shall eat the La7nb in haste ; it 
 is the Lord's Passover?" Zwingle 
 awoke, rose from his bed, took up the 
 Septuagint translation, and turning to 
 the verse, found the same word £0 t< (is) 
 whose import in that passage, by univer- 
 sal admission, can be no other than sig- 
 nifies. 
 
 Here then, in the very constitution of 
 the paschal feast under the old covenant, 
 was the phrase employed in that identi- 
 cal sense which Zwingle assigned to it 
 — who could resist the conclusion that 
 the two passages are parallel ? 
 
 On the following day, Zwingle took 
 the verse just mentioned as the text of 
 his discourse, and reasoned so forcibly 
 from it that the doubts of his hearers 
 were dispelled. 
 
 The incident which has now been re- 
 lated, and which is so naturally explain- 
 ed — and the particular expression* used 
 by Zwingle to intimate that he had no 
 recollection of the aspect of the person 
 whom he saw in his dream, have given 
 rise to the assertion that the doctrine pro- 
 mulgated by the Reformer was delivered 
 to him by the devil ! 
 
 * Ater fuerit an albus nihil memini, somnium 
 enim narro. 
 
512 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The altars disappeared ; some plain 
 tables, covered with the sacramental 
 bread and wine, occupied their places, 
 and a crowd of eager communicants was 
 gathered round them. There was some- 
 thing exceedingly solemn in that assem- 
 blage. Our Lord's death was commem- 
 orated on three different days, by differ- 
 ent portions of the community : — on 
 Maunday Thursday, by the young peo- 
 ple ; on Good Friday, the day of his 
 passion, by those who had reached the 
 middle stage of life • on Easter Sunday, 
 by the aged.* 
 
 After the deacons had read aloud such 
 passages of Scripture as relate to this 
 sacrament, the pastors addressed their 
 flock in the language of pressing admo- 
 nition, — charging all those whose wilful 
 indulgence in sin would bring dishonour 
 on the body of Christ to withdraw from 
 that holy feast. The people then fell on 
 their knees • the bread was carried 
 round on large wooden dishes or plat- 
 ters, and every one broke off a morsel 
 for himself; the wine was distributed in 
 wooden drinking cups ; the resemblance 
 to the primitive Supper was thought to 
 be the closer. The hearts of those who 
 celebrated this ordinance were affected 
 with alternate emotions of wonder and 
 
 j°yt 
 
 Such was the progress of the Refor- 
 mation at Zurich. The simple com- 
 memoration of our Lord's death caused 
 a fresh overflow in the Church, of love to 
 God, and love to the brethren. The 
 words of Jesus Christ were once more 
 proved to be ' spirit and life.' Whereas 
 the different orders and sections of the 
 Church of Rome had kept up incessant 
 disputes among themselves, the first ef- 
 fect of the Gospel, on its re-appearance 
 in the Church, was the revival of broth- 
 erly charity. The Love which had 
 glowed so brightly in the first ages of 
 Christianity, was now kindled anew. 
 Men, who had before been at variance, 
 were found renouncing their long-cher- 
 ished enmity, and cordially embracing 
 each other, after having broken bread 
 together at the table of the Lord. Zwin- 
 gle rejoiced at these affecting manifesta- 
 
 * Fusslin Beytr. iv. p. 64. 
 
 t Mit grossem verwundern viler Luthen und 
 noch mit vil grossern frouden gloubigen. — (Bull. 
 Chr. p. 264.) 
 
 tions of grace, and returned thanks to 
 God that the Lord's Supper was again 
 working those miracles of charity, which 
 had long since ceased to be displayed 
 in connection with the sacrifice of the 
 mass.* 
 
 " Our city," said he, " continues at 
 peace. There is no fraud, no dissen- 
 sion, no envy, no wrangling among us. 
 Where shall we discover the cause of 
 this agreement except in the Lord's 
 good pleasure, and the harmlessness and 
 meekness of the doctrine we profess?"! 
 
 Charity and unity were there — but 
 not uniformity. Zwingle, in his " Com- 
 mentary on true and false religion"^ 
 which he dedicated to Francis the First, 
 in March, 1525, the year of the battle 
 of Pavia, had stated some truths in a 
 manner that seemed adapted to recom- 
 mend them to human reason, following 
 in that respect the example of several of 
 the most distinguished among the scho- 
 lastic theologians. In this way he had 
 attached to original corruption the ap- 
 pellation of a disease, reserving the name 
 of sin for the actual violation of law .^ 
 But these statements, though they gave 
 rise to some objections, yet occasioned no 
 breach of brotherly charity ; for Zwin- 
 gle, while he persisted in calling origi- 
 nal sin a disease, added, by that disease, 
 all men were ruined, and that the sole 
 remedy was in Jesus Christ. || Here 
 then was no taint of Pelagian error. 
 
 But whilst in Zurich the celebration 
 of the sacrament was followed by the 
 re-establishment of Christian brother- 
 hood, Zwingle and his friends had to 
 sustain a harder struggle than ever 
 against their adversaries without. Zwin- 
 gle was not only a Christian teacher, 
 he was a true patriot also ; and we 
 know how zealously he always opposed 
 the capitulations, and foreign pensions, 
 and alliances. He was persuaded that 
 
 * Expositio fidei. — (Zvv. Opp. ii. p. 241.) 
 
 t" Ut tranquillitatis et innocentiae studiosos red- 
 dat— (Zw. Epp. p. 390.) 
 
 t De vera, et falsa, religions commentarius. — 
 (Zw. Opp. iii. p. 145, 325.) 
 
 § Peccatum ergo morbus est eognatus nobis, 
 quo fugimus aspera et gravia, sectamur jucunda 
 et voluptuosa : secundo loco accipitur peccatum 
 pro eo quod contra legem fit. — (Ibid. p. 204.) 
 
 || Originali morbo perdimur omnes ; remedio 
 verb quod contra ipsum invenit Deus, incolumi- 
 tati restituimur. — (De peccato originali declaratio 
 ad Urbanum Rhegium. — (Ibid. p. 632.) 
 
 \ 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 513 
 
 this extraneous influence was destructive 
 to piety, contributed to the maintenance 
 of error, and was a fruitful source of 
 civil discord. But his courageous pro- 
 tests on this head were destined to im- 
 pede the progress of the Reformation. 
 In almost every canton, the leading men, 
 who received the foreign pensions, and 
 the officers under whose command the 
 youth of Switzerland were ied out to 
 battle, were knit together in powerful 
 factions and oligarchies, which attacked 
 the Reformation, not so much in the 
 spirit of religious animosity, as in the 
 belief that its success would be detri- 
 mental to their own pecuniary and po- 
 litical interests. They had already 
 gained a triumph in Schwitz, and that 
 canton, in which Zwingle, Leo Juda, 
 and Oswald Myconius had preached the 
 truth, and which seemed disposed to fol- 
 low the example of Zurich, had, on a 
 sudden, renewed the mercenary capitu- 
 lations, and closed the door against the 
 Gospel. 
 
 In Zurich itself, a few worthless per- 
 sons, instigated to mischief by foreign 
 agency, made an attack upon Zwingle, 
 in the middle of the night, throwing 
 stones at his house, breaking the win- 
 dows, and calling aloud for " red haired 
 Uli, the vulture of Glaris," — so that 
 Zwinode started from his sleep, and 
 caught up Ins sword.* The action is 
 characteristic of the man. 
 
 But these desultory assaults could not 
 counteract the impulse by which Zurich 
 was carried onward, and which was be- 
 ginning to vibrate throughout the whole 
 of Switzerland. They were like pebbles 
 thrown to check the course of a torrent. 
 The waters of the torrent meanwhile 
 were swelling, and the mightiest of its 
 obstacles were likely soon to be swept 
 away. 
 
 The people, of Berne having intimated 
 to the citizens of Zurich, that several of 
 the cantons had refused to sit with them 
 any longer in the Diet: — ' ; Well," re- 
 plied the men of Zurich, with calm dig- 
 nity, raising (as in times past the men 
 of Rutli had done) their hands towards 
 heaven, "we are persuaded that God the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose 
 name the Confederation has been formed, 
 
 * Interea sur^ere Zwinglius adensem suum. — 
 (Zw. Opp. iii. pr411.) 
 
 65 
 
 will not forsake us, and will, at last, in 
 his mercy, make us to sit at the right 
 hand of His majesty."* 
 
 With such a faithful spirit, there was 
 nothing to fear for the Reformation. 
 But would it 'make similar progress in 
 die other states of the Confederation? 
 Might not Zurich be single on the side 
 of the word of God 1 Berne, Basle, and 
 other cantons, would they remain in their 
 subjection to Rome ? It is this we are 
 now to see. Let us then turn towards 
 Berne, and contemplate the march of 
 the Reformation in the most influential 
 of the confederated states. 
 
 No where was the contest likely to be 
 so sharp as at Berne, for the Gospel had 
 there both powerful friends and deter- 
 mined opponents. At the head of the 
 reforming party was the banneret John 
 Weingarten, Bartholomew May, mem- 
 ber of the lesser Council, his sons Wolf- • 
 gang and Claudius, his grandsons, James 
 and Benedict, and, above all, the family 
 of the Wattevilles. James W'atteville, 
 the magistrate, who, since 1512, had pre- 
 sided over the republic, had read the 
 writings of Luther and Zwingle, at the 
 time of their publication, and had often 
 conversed concerning the Gospel with 
 John Haller, pastor at Anseltingen, 
 whom he had protected from his per- 
 secutors. 
 
 His son, Nicholas, then thirty-one 
 years of age, had, for two years, filled 
 the office of provost in the church of 
 Berne ; and, as such, by virtue of papal 
 ordinances, enjoyed distinguished privi- 
 leges; so that, Berthold Haller, in speak- 
 ing of him, would eall him '■ our 
 Bishop."f 
 
 The prelates and the pope used every 
 effort to bind him to the interests of 
 Rome.}; and the circumstances in which 
 he was placed, seemed likely to keep 
 him from the knowledge of the Gospel; 
 but the workings of God's Spirit were 
 more powerful than the flatteries of man. 
 " Watteville," says Zwingle, § w was 
 
 * Bey ihm zuletzt sitzen. — (Kirchhofer. Ref. 
 v. Bern. p. 55.) 
 
 t Episcepus noster Vadivillius. — (Zw. Epp. 
 p. 285.) 
 
 t Tantum favoris et amicitiae quce tibi cum 
 tanto summorum pontificum et potentissimorum 
 episcoporiim coetu hactenus iutercessit. — (Zw. 
 Opp. i. ed. lat. p. 305.) 
 
 § Ex obscuris ignoranliae tenebris in amoenam 
 
514 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 turned from darkness to the sweet light 
 of the Gospel." As the friend of Ber- 
 thold Haller, he was accustomed to read 
 the letters which he received from Zwin- 
 gle, for whom he expressed the highest 
 admiration.* 
 
 It was natural to suppose that the in- 
 fluence of the two Wattevilles, the one 
 being at the head of the state, and the 
 other of the church, would draw after it 
 the republic over which they presided. 
 But the opposite party was scarcely less 
 powerful. 
 
 Among its chiefs were the schultheiss 
 of Erlach, the banneret Willading, and 
 many persons of high family, whose 
 interests were identified with those of 
 the convents placed under their adminis- 
 tration. Backing these influential lead- 
 ers was an ignorant and corrupted clergy, 
 who went the length of calling Gospel 
 truth, " an invention of hell." " Be- 
 loved colleagues," said the counsellor of 
 Mullinen, at a full conference, held in 
 the month of July, " be on your guard, 
 lest this Reformation should creep in 
 upon us. There is no safety at Zurich 
 in one's own house : people are obliged 
 to have soldiers to guard them." In 
 consequence, they invited to Berne the 
 lecturer of the Dominicans at Mentz, 
 John Heim, who, taking his stand in the 
 pulpit, poured forth all the eloquence of 
 St. Thomas Aquinas against the Ref- 
 ormation.! 
 
 Thus, then, the two parties were in 
 presence of each other ; a struggle seem- 
 ed inevitable, but already there were 
 indications with whom the victory would 
 remain. In fact, a common faith united 
 a part of the people to those distinguished 
 families who espoused the Reformation. 
 Berthold Haller exclaimed, full of confi- 
 dence in the future, " Unless, indeed, the 
 wrath of God should show itself against 
 us, it is not possible that the word of the 
 Lord should be banished from the city, 
 for the Bernese are hungering after it",| 
 
 Two acts of the government soon ap- 
 peared to incline the balance in favour 
 
 Evangelii lucem productum. — (Zw. Opp. i. ed. 
 lat. p. 305.) 
 
 * Epistolas tuas et eruditionis et humauitatis 
 testes locupletissimas. — (Zw. Epp. p. 287.) 
 
 t Suo Thomistico Marte omnia invertere. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Famem verbi Bernates habent. — (Zw. Epp. 
 p. 295.) 
 
 of the new opinions. The Bishop of 
 Lausanne had given notice of an episco- 
 pal visitation ; the Council sent a mes- 
 sage to him by the provost, Watteville, 
 desiring him to abstain from it.* And, 
 in the mean time, the government put 
 forth an ordinance, which, whilst in 
 appearance it left the enemies of the 
 truth in possession of some of their ad- 
 vantages, at the same time sanctioned the 
 principles on which the Reformation was 
 founded. They directed that the minis- 
 ters should preach, clear of all additions, 
 — freely and openly, — the Gospel and 
 the doctrine of God, as it is found in the 
 books of the Old and New Testaments ; 
 and that they should not allude to any 
 doctrine, disputation, or writing coming 
 from Luther or other teachers. f 
 
 Great was the surprise of the enemies 
 of the truth, when they saw the minis- 
 ters of the Gospel appealing with confi- 
 dence lo this decree. This ordinance, 
 which was to furnish the ground for all 
 those that succeeded, was, legally speak- 
 ing, the commencement of the Reforma- 
 tion at Berne. From that time, there was 
 more decision in the progress of this 
 canton ; and Zwingle, who attentively 
 observed all that was passing in Switzer- 
 land, was able to write to the provost de 
 Watteville, " Christians are all exulting 
 on account of the faith which the pious 
 city of Berne has just received. "t ' : The 
 cause is that of Christ," exclaimed the 
 friends of the Gospel, and they exerted 
 themselves to advance it with increased 
 confidence. § The enemies of the Ref- 
 ormation, alarmed at these first advan- 
 tages, closed their ranks, and resolved on 
 striking a blow which should ensure 
 victory on their side. They conceived 
 the project of getting rid of those minis- 
 ters whose bold preaching was turning 
 all* the ancient customs upside down ; 
 and a favourable occasion was not long 
 wanting. There was, at Berne, in the 
 place where now stands the hospital de 
 1'Ile, a convent of nuns of the Dominican 
 
 * Ut nee oppidum, nee pagos Bernatum visi- 
 tare pratendat omnino. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Alein das heilig Evangelium mid die leer 
 Gottes frey, offentlich und unverborgen. — (Bull. 
 Chr. p. 111.) 
 
 t Alle Christen sich allenthalben frouwend des 
 Glaubens — (Zw. Opp. i. p. 426.) 
 
 § Christi negotium agitur. — (Zw. Epp. 9 th 
 May, 1523.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 515 
 
 order, consecrated to St. Michael. St. 
 Michael's day, (29th of September,) was 
 always a solemn festival to the inmates 
 of the nunnery. On this anniversary, 
 many of the clergy were present, and, 
 among - others, Wittembach de Bienne, 
 Sebastian Meyer, and Berthold Haller. 
 This latter, having entered into conver- 
 sation with the nuns, among whom was 
 Clara, the daughter of Claudius May, 
 (one of those who maintained the new 
 doctrines,) he remarked to her, in the 
 presence of her grandmother, " the merits 
 of the monastic state are but imaginary, 
 whilst marriage is honourable, and insti- 
 tuted by God himself." Some nuns, to 
 whom Clara related this conversation of 
 Berthold, received it with outcries. It 
 was soon rumoured in the city that Hal- 
 ler had asserted that " the nuns were all 
 children of the devil." The opportunity 
 that the enemies of the Reformation had 
 waited for, was now arrived : and they 
 presented themselves before the lesser 
 Council. Referring to an ancient law, 
 which enacted that whosoever should 
 carry off a nun from her convent should 
 lose his head, they proposed that the 
 "sentence should be mitigated" so far, as 
 that, without hearing the three accused 
 ministers in their defence, they should be 
 banished for life ! The lesser Council 
 granted the petition, and the matter 
 was immediately carried to the grand 
 Council. 
 
 Thus, then, Berne was threatened with 
 the loss of her Reformers. The in- 
 trigues of the Popish party seemed suc- 
 cessful. But Rome, triumphant when 
 she played her game with the higher 
 orders, was beaten when she had to do 
 with the people or their representatives. 
 Hardly were the names of Haller, of 
 Meyer, of Wittembach — those names 
 held in veneration by all the Swiss, — 
 pronounced in the grand Council, before 
 an energetic opposition was manifested 
 against the lesser Council and the clergy. 
 "We cannot," said Tillman, "condemn 
 the accused unheard ! . . . Surely their 
 own testimony may be received against 
 that of a few women." The ministers 
 were called up. There seemed no way 
 of settling matters. " Let us admit the 
 statements of both parties," said John 
 Weingarten. They did so, and dis- 
 charged the accused ministers, — at the 
 
 same time desiring them to confine them- 
 selves to the duties of their pulpits, and 
 not to trouble themselves concerning the 
 cloisters. But the pulpit was all they 
 wanted: their accusers had taken nothing 
 by their motion. It was counted a great 
 victory gained by the Reforming party, 
 insomuch that one of the leading men 
 exclaimed, " It is all over now — Luther's 
 work must go forward."* 
 
 And go forward it did, — and that in 
 places where it could least have been 
 expected. At Konigsfeld upon the river 
 Aar, near the castle of Hapsburg, stood 
 a monastery adorned with all the mag- 
 nificence of the middle ages, and in 
 which reposed the ashes of many of that 
 illustrious house which had so often 
 given an Emperor to Germany. To 
 this place the noble families of Switzer- 
 land and of Suabia used to send their 
 daughters to take the veil. It was in 
 the neighbourhood of this convent that 
 the Emperor Albert had fallen by the 
 hand of his nephew, John of Suabia, on 
 the 1st of May, 13U8 ; and the beautiful 
 stained windows of the church at Konigs- 
 feld represented the horrible tortures 
 which had been inflicted upon the rela- 
 tions and dependants of the perpetrators 
 of the murder. Catherine of Waldburg- 
 Truchsess, abbess of the convent at the 
 period of the Reformation, numbered 
 among her nuns Beatrice Landenberg, 
 sister of the Bishop of Constance, Agnes 
 Mullinen, Catherine Bonnstetten, and 
 Margaret Watteville, sister of the provost. 
 The liberty enjoyed in this convent, a 
 liberty which in earlier times had given 
 occasion to scandalous disorders, had 
 favoured the introduction not only of the 
 Bible, but of the writings of Luther and 
 Zwingle ; and soon a new spring of life 
 and joy changed the aspect of its interior. 
 Nigh to that cell to which Glueen Agnes, 
 daughter of Albert, had retired, after 
 bathing 121 torrents of blood " as in May- 
 dews;" and where, dividing her time 
 between spinning wool and embroider- 
 ing tapestry for the church, she had 
 mingled thoughts of vengeance with de- 
 votional exercises, — Margaret Watteville 
 had only thoughts* of peace, — read the 
 Scriptures, — and found time, in her spare 
 
 * Es ist nun gethan. Der Lutherische Han- 
 del muss vorgehen. — (Anshelm. Wirtz. K. G. V 
 p. 290.) 
 
516 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 moments, to compound, of certain saluta- 
 ry ingredients, an excellent electuary. 
 Retiring to her cell, the youthful nun 
 took courage to write to the Reformer of 
 Switzerland. Her letter discovers to us, 
 better than any reflections could do, the 
 Christian spirit whicl* existed among 
 those pious women, — still, even in our 
 days, so much calumniated. 
 
 " Grace and peace, in the Lord-Jesus 
 Christ, be given and multiplied towards 
 you always, by God our heavenly 
 Father," was the language of the nun 
 of Konigsfeld to Zwingle : " Very learn- 
 ed, reverend, and most dear Sir, I pray 
 you to take in good part this letter which 
 I now address to you. The love of 
 Christ constrains me ; — especially since I 
 have learned that the doctrines of grace 
 are spreading from day to day through 
 your preaching of the word of God. For 
 this cause I give thanks to the Eternal 
 God, for that he has enlightened us 
 anew, and has sent us, by His Holy 
 Spirit, so many heralds of His blessed 
 word; and at the same time I present 
 before him my earnest prayers, that He 
 will be pleased to clothe with His 
 strength, both you and all those who 
 publish His glad tidings, — and that arm- 
 ing you against all enemies of the truth, 
 He will cause His Divine Word to grow 
 in all men. Most learned Sir, I take the 
 liberty of sending to your reverence this 
 little mark of my affection ; I pray you 
 do not despise it, for it is an offering of 
 Christian love. If this electuary should 
 be useful to you, and you should wish to 
 have more, pray let me know, 'for it 
 would be a joy to my heart to do any- 
 thing that would be agreeable to you. 
 I am writing not my own feelings only, 
 but those of all in our convent of Konigs- 
 feld who love the Gospel. They salute 
 you in Jesus Christ, and we together 
 cease not to commend you to His Al- 
 mighty protection.* 
 
 "Saturday before Lalare, 1523." 
 
 Such was the pious letter which the 
 nun of Konigsfeld wrote to the Reformer 
 of Switzerland. 
 
 A convent into which the light of the 
 Gospel had penetrated in such power, 
 could not long continue to adhere to 
 
 * Cujus proesidio auxilioque preescntissimo, nos 
 
 vestram dignitatem assidue commendamus 
 
 (Zw. Epp. p. 280.) 
 
 monastic observances. Margaret Watte- 
 ville and her sisters, persuaded that they 
 should better serve God in their families 
 than in a cloister, solicited permission to 
 leave it. The Council of Berne, in some 
 alarm, took measures to bring the nuns 
 to reason, and the provincial and abbess 
 alternately tried promises and threats, but 
 the sisters, Margaret, Agnes, and Cathe- 
 rine, and their friends, could not be dis- 
 suaded. On this, the discipline of the 
 convent was relaxed, — the nuns being 
 exempted from fasting and matins, and 
 their allowance increased. " We desire," 
 said they, in reply to the Council, " not 
 ' the liberty of the flesh] but that of the 
 spirit. We, your poor, unoffending pris- 
 oners, beseech you to take compassion 
 on us." — " Our prisoners ! our prisoners," 
 exclaimed the banneret, Krauchthaler ; 
 " / have no wish to detain them prison- 
 ers !" This speech, coming from a firm 
 defender of the convents, decided the 
 Council. The gates were opened ; and 
 a short time afterwards Catherine Bonn- 
 stetten married William von Diesbach. 
 
 Nevertheless, Berne, instead of openly 
 taking part with the Reformation, did 
 but hold a middle course, and pursue a 
 system of vacillation. An incident soon 
 occurred which made this apparent. Se- 
 bastian Meyer, lecturer of the Francis- 
 cans, put forth a recantation of Romish 
 errors, which produced an immense sen- 
 sation ; and, in which, depicting the con- 
 dition of the inmates of convents, he said, 
 " The living in them is more impure, the 
 falls more frequent, the recoveries more 
 tardy, the habitual walk more unsteady, 
 the moral slumber in them more danger- 
 ous, the grace toward offenders more 
 rare, and the cleansing from sin more 
 slow, the death more despairing, and the 
 condemnation more severe."* At the 
 very time when Meyer was thus declar- 
 ing himself against the cloisters, John 
 Heim, lecturer of the Dominicans, ex- 
 claimed from the pulpit, " No ! Christ 
 has not, as the Evangelicals tell us, 
 made satisfaction once for all, to his 
 Father. God must still further every 
 day be reconciled to men by good works 
 and the sacrifice of the mass." Two 
 burghers, who happened to be in the 
 
 * Langsamer gereiniget, verzweifelter stirbt, 
 hiirter verdammet. — (Kirchhofer Referm. v. 
 Bern. p. 48.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 517 
 
 church, interrupted him with the words, 
 " That's not true.' 1 The interruption 
 caused a great disturbance in the church j 
 and Heim remained silent. Some pressed 
 him to go on ; but he left the pulpit with- 
 out finishing his sermon. The next day 
 the Grand Council struck a blow at once 
 against Rome and the Reformation ! 
 They banished from the city the two 
 leading controversialists, Meyer and 
 Heim. It was remarked of the Bernese, 
 " They are neither clear nor muddy,"* — 
 taking in a double sense the name of 
 Luther, which in old German signified 
 clear.] 
 
 * Dass sie weder luther noch trub seyen. — 
 (Ibid. p. 50.) 
 
 t Romish writers, and particularly M. de Hal- 
 ler, have mentioned, following Salat and Tschudi, 
 enemies of the Reformation, a pretended letter 
 of Zwingle, addressed, at this juncture, to Kolb 
 at Berne. It is as follows: — " Health and bless- 
 ing from God our Saviour. Dear Francis, move 
 gently in the matter. At first only throw one 
 sour pear to the bear, amongst a great many 
 sweet ones ; afterwards two, then three ; and as 
 soon as he begins to eat them, throw more and 
 more, — sweet and bitter all together. Empty 
 the sack entirely. Soft, hard, sweet, bitter, he 
 will eat them all, and will no longer allow either 
 that they be taken, or he driven away. — Zurich, 
 Monday before St. George, 1525. 
 
 " Your servant in Christ, 
 
 " Ulrich Zwingle." 
 
 We can oppose convincing arguments against 
 the authenticity of this letter. First, — In 1525, 
 Kolb was pastor at Wertheimer. He did not 
 come to Berne until 1527.— (See Zw. Epp. 526.) 
 M. de Haller substitutes, indeed, but quite arbi- 
 trarily, 1527 for 1525. This correction, doubt- 
 less, had its object ; but, unfortunately, in ma- 
 king it, M. de Haller puts himself in direct con- 
 tradiction of Salat and Tschudi, who, though 
 they do not agree as to the day on which this 
 letter was mentioned in the diet, agree as to the 
 year, which, with both is clealry 1525. Second- 
 ly, — There is no agreement as to the way in 
 which the letter itself got abroad. According to 
 one account, it was intercepted ; another ver- 
 sion tells us that Kolb's parishioners communica- 
 ted it to an inhabitant of the small cantons, who 
 happened to be at Berne. Thirdly, — The origi- 
 nal is in German. Now Zwingle wrote always 
 in Latin to his friends who could understand that 
 language : moreover, he used to salute them as 
 brother, and not as servant. Fourthly, — In 
 reading Zwingle's correspondence it is impossible 
 not to perceive that his style is quite different 
 from that of the pretended letter. Zwingle never 
 would have written a letter to say so little. His 
 letters in general are long and full of news. To 
 call the little jeu d' esprit picked up by Salat a 
 letter, is but trifling. Fifthly, — Salat deserves 
 but little confidence as an historian ; and Tschudi 
 appears to have copied him, with a few variations. 
 
 But it was in vain to attempt to 
 smother the Reformation at Berne. It 
 made progress on all sides. The nuns 
 of the convent de l'lle had not forgotten 
 Haller's visit. Clara May, and many of 
 her friends, pressed in their consciences 
 to know what to do, wrote to the learned 
 Henry Bullinger. In answer, he said, 
 " Saint ^aul enjoins young women not 
 to take upon them vows, but to marry, 
 instead of living in idleness, under a false 
 show of piety. (1 Tim. v. 13, 14.) Fol- 
 low Jesus in humility, charity, patience, 
 purity, and kindness."* Clara, looking 
 to heaven for guidance, resolved to act 
 on the advice, and renounce a manner of 
 life at variance with the word of God, — 
 of man's invention, — and beset with 
 snares. Her grandfather Bartholomew, 
 who had served for fifty years in the field 
 and the council-hall, heard with joy of 
 the resolution she had formed. Clara 
 quitted the convent. 
 
 The provost, Nicholas Watteville, con- 
 nected by strong ties of interest to the 
 Roman hierarchy, and who was to have 
 been nominated to the first vacant bish- 
 opric in Switzerland, also gave up his 
 titles, revenues, and expectations, that he 
 might keep a clear conscience ; and, 
 breaking through all the entanglements 
 in which the popes had sought to bind 
 him, he too entered into that state, which 
 had been, from the beginning, instituted 
 by God. Nicholas Watteville took to 
 wife Clara May ; and his sister Marga- 
 ret, the nun of Konigsfeld, was, about 
 the same time, united to Lucius Tschar- 
 ner of Coira.f 
 
 Everything gave intimation of the 
 victory which the Reformation would 
 soon obtain at Berne. A city not less 
 important, and which then ranked as 
 the Athens of Switzerland — Basle, was 
 
 Possibly a man of the small cantons may have 
 had communication, from some inhabitant of 
 Berne, of the letter from Zwingle to Haller, 
 which we have before mentioned, wherein Zwin- 
 gle employs, with a good deal of dignity, the 
 comparison of the bears, — which is found in 
 all authors of that age. This may have given 
 the idea to some wit to invent this letter, which 
 has been supposed to have passed from Zwingle 
 to Kolb. 
 
 * Euerem Herrn Jesu nachfolget in Demuth. 
 — (Kirchh. Ref. v. B. 60.) 
 
 t Zw. Epp. annotatio, p. 451. It is from this 
 union that the Tscharners of Berne derive their 
 descent. 
 
518 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 also beginning to take part in the 
 memorable struggle of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 Each of the cities of the Confedera- 
 tion had its own peculiar character. 
 Berne was distinguished as the place of 
 residence of the chief families ; and the 
 question was one that seemed likely to 
 be decided by the part taken by certain 
 of the leading nobles. At Zurich, the 
 ministers of the Word, such men as 
 Zwingle, Leo Juda, Myconius, and 
 Schmidt, exercised a commanding influ- 
 ence over a powerful middle class of so- 
 ciety. Lucerne was the city of arms, — 
 a centre of military organization. Basle 
 was the seat of learning, and its accom- 
 paniment, — printing-presses. Erasmus, 
 the acknowledged head of the republic 
 of letters in the sixteenth century, had 
 there fixed his residence, and preferring 
 the liberty it afforded him to the flatter- 
 ing invitations of popes and kings, he 
 had become a centre of attraction to a 
 concourse of men of learning. 
 
 However, a man inferior to Erasmus 
 in natural genius, but humble, gentle, 
 and pious, was, ere long, to exercise, in 
 that very city, an influence more power- 
 ful than that possessed by this prince of 
 scholars. Christopher von Utenheim, 
 bishop of Basle, who agreed in judg- 
 ment with Erasmus, sought to surround 
 himself with men disposed to co-operate 
 in a sort of half-way Reformation. With 
 this view he had called to his aid Capito 
 and (Ecolampadius. The latter had a 
 something savouring of monkery in his 
 habit of mind, and this often clashed 
 with the views of the philosopher. 
 CEcolampadius, however, on his part, 
 soon became enthusiastically attached to 
 Erasmus ; and it is probable he would 
 have lost all independence of mind in 
 this intimacy, if Providence had not 
 separated' him from his idol. He re- 
 turned, in 1517, to his native city, 
 Weinsberg. Here he was disgusted 
 with the disorders and the profanity 
 which prevailed among the priests ; and 
 he has left a noble record of the serious 
 spirit which from that time actuated 
 him, in his work entitled " The Hu- 
 mours of Easter," which appears to have 
 been written about this period.* 
 
 Called to Augsburg, towards the end 
 * Herzog. Studien -und Kritiken, 1840. p. 334. 
 
 of 1518, to fill the post of preacher in 
 its cathedral, he found that city still un- 
 der the effects of the memorable discus- 
 sion which had been held there, in the 
 previous May, between Luther and the 
 Pope's legale. It was necessary that he 
 should choose his side, and CEcolampa- 
 dius did not hesitate to declare himself 
 on the side of the Reformer. Such can- 
 dour on his part soon drew down upon him 
 much opposition, and being convinced 
 that his natural timidity, and the feeble- 
 ness of his voice, rendered it impossible 
 for him to succeed in public, he looked 
 around him for a place of retreat, and 
 his thoughts rested on a convent of 
 monks of Saint Bridget, near Augsburg, 
 renowned for the piety, as well as for 
 the profound and liberal studies of its 
 monks. Feeling the need of repose, of 
 leisure, and, at the same time, of quiet 
 occupation and prayer, he addressed 
 himself to this community, and inquired, 
 " Can I live in your convent according 
 to the word of God ?" The answer be- 
 ing in the affirmative, CEcolampadius 
 entered its gates on the 23d April, 1520, 
 having expressly stipulated that he 
 should be free, if ever the ministry of 
 the word of God should require his ser- 
 vice elsewhere. 
 
 It was well that the Reformer of Basle 
 should, like Luther, become acquainted 
 with that monastic life, which presented 
 the fullest exhibition of the working of 
 Roman Catholicism. But rest was what 
 he could not find there ; his friends 
 blamed the step ; and he himself de- 
 clared frankly that Luther was nearer to 
 the truth than his adversaries. No 
 wonder, therefore, that Eck and other 
 Romish doctors pursued him with mena- 
 ces even in this his quiet retreat. 
 
 At the time we are recording, CEco- 
 lampadius was neither one of the Re- 
 formed, nor yet a blind follower of 
 Rome ; what he most desired was a sort 
 of purified Catholicism, which is no 
 where to be found in history, — but the 
 idea of which has, to many, served as a 
 bridge of passage to better things. He 
 set himself to correct, by reference to the 
 word of God, the statutes of his order. 
 " I conjure you," said he, to the confra- 
 ternity, " not to think more highly of 
 your statutes, than of the ordinances 
 and commandments of the Lord." "We 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 519 
 
 have no wish," replied his brethren, "for 
 other rules than those of the Saviour. 
 Take our books, and mark, as in the 
 presence of Christ himself, whatever you 
 find therein contrary to his word." 
 (Ecolampadius began the task imposed ; 
 but he was almost wearied by it. " O 
 Almighty God !" he exclaimed, " what 
 abominations has not Rome sanctioned 
 in these statutes." 
 
 Hardly had he pointed out some of 
 them, when the anger of the fraternity 
 was aroused. " Thou heretic — thou 
 apostate," was their cry, " thou deservest 
 to be thrown into a lonesome dungeon 
 for the rest of thy days." They would 
 not allow him to come to prayers. 
 Meanwhile, outside the walls, still great- 
 er danger awaited him. Eck, and his 
 party, had not relinquished their 
 schemes. " In three days,'* it was told 
 him, " they will be here to arrest you." 
 " Do you intend," asked he, " to deliver 
 me- up to assassins V The monks were 
 silent and irresolute . . . ; neither will- 
 ing to save him, nor yet to give him 
 up. At this juncture, some friends of 
 (Ecolampadius approached the convent, 
 bringing with them horses to conduct 
 him to a place of safety. At the news, the 
 monks decided to allow the departure of 
 one who had brought the seeds of trou- 
 ble into their convent. " Farewell" 
 said he. Behold him at liberty ! 
 
 He had remained nearly two years in 
 the convent of Saint Bridget. 
 
 (Ecolampadius was saved — he began 
 to breathe. " I have sacrificed the 
 monk," said he, writing to a friend, " and 
 have regained the Christian." But his 
 flight from the convent, and his heretical 
 writings, were everywhere proclaimed. 
 People on all sides drew back at his ap- 
 proach. He knew not which way to 
 turn, when Sickingen offered him an 
 asylum. This was in the spring of the 
 year 1522. He accepted it. 
 
 His mind, oppressed during his con- 
 finement within the monastery, recover- 
 ed its elasticity amongst the noble war- 
 riors of Ebernburg. " Christ, is our 
 liberty !" burst from his lips, " and that 
 which men consider as their greatest 
 misfortune, — death itself, — is for us a 
 real gain." He directly commenced 
 reading to the people the Gospels and 
 Epistles in German. " No sooner will 
 
 these trumpets sound abroad," said he, 
 " than the walls of Jericho will crumble 
 to the ground." 
 
 Thus the most humble man of his 
 time was preparing, in a fortress on the 
 banks of the Rhine, in the midst of un- 
 polished warriors, for that change of 
 worship which Christianity was shortly 
 to undergo. Nevertheless, Ebernburg 
 was not a field large enough for his 
 plans ; besides, he felt the need of other 
 society than such as he was in the midst 
 of. Cratander, the bookseller, invited 
 him to take up his abode at Basle ; 
 Sickingen offered no impediment ; and 
 (Ecolampadius, glad at the the thought 
 of seeing his old friends, arrived there 
 on the 16th November, 1522. After 
 having lived there some time, simply as 
 a man of learning, without any public 
 vocation, he was nominated vicar of the 
 church of St. Martin, and his acceptance 
 of this humble engagement* perhaps de- 
 cided the Reformation at Basle. When- 
 ever (Ecolampadius was to preach a 
 great crowd filled the church. f At the 
 same time, the publid lectures given by 
 him, and by Pellican, were crowned 
 with so much success, that Erasmus 
 himself felt constrained to exclaim, 
 " (Ecolampadius triumphs !"J 
 
 " In fact, this gentle, and firm man," 
 says Zwingle, " diffused, all around him, 
 the sweet savour of Christ ; and all who 
 assembled about him grew in the truth."^ 
 Often a report prevailed that he was on 
 the point of being obliged to quit Basle, 
 and begin again his hazardous flights. On 
 these occasions his friends, — and above all 
 Zwingle, — would be in consternation ; 
 but then came tidings of fresh advanta- 
 ges gained by (Ecolampadius, dissipat- 
 ing their fears, and raising their hopes. 
 The renown of his labours spread even 
 to Wittemberg, and rejoiced Luther, 
 who would often talk with Melancthon 
 concerning him. But the Saxon Re- 
 former was not without anxiety on his 
 account. Erasmus was at Basle, — and 
 
 * Meis sumtibus nonsine contemptu etinvidia. 
 — (CEcol. ad Pirckh de Eucharistia.) 
 
 t Dass er kein Predigt thate, er hatte ein 
 machtig Volk darinn, — says Peter Kyf, his con- 
 temporary. — (Wirtz. v. 350.) 
 
 } (Ecolampadius apud nos triumphat. — (Eras, 
 ad Zwing. Zw. Epp. p. 312.) 
 
 § Ilii magis ac magis in omni bono augescunt. 
 — (Eras, ad Zwing. Zw. Epp. p. 312.) 
 
520 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Erasmus was the friend of (Ecolampa- 
 dius. . . . Luther thought it his duty to 
 put one whom he loved on his guard. 
 " I fear much," wrote he, " that like 
 Moses, Erasmus will die in the country 
 of Moab, and never lead us into the land 
 of promise."* 
 
 Erasmus had retired to Basle, as to a 
 quiet city, situated in the centre of the 
 intellectual activity of the age, — from 
 whence, by means of the printing-press 
 of Frobenius, he could act upon France, 
 Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Eng- 
 land. But he liked not to be interfered 
 with ; and if the neighbourhood of 
 (Ecolampadius was not entirely agree- 
 able to him, another man there was 
 whose presence inspired him with still 
 more apprehension. Ulric Hutten had 
 followed (Ecolampadius to Basle. For 
 some time he had been attacking the 
 Pope, as one knight tilts with another. 
 " The axe," said he, " is already laid at 
 the root of the tree. Faint not, my coun- 
 trymen, in the heat of the battle : the lot 
 is cast ; the charge is begun . . . Hurrah 
 for liberty!" He laid aside the Latin, 
 and now wrote only in German ; for his 
 object was to get at the hearts of the 
 people. 
 
 His views were grand and generous. 
 According to his plan, there was to be 
 a yearly meeting of bishops, to regulate 
 the interests of the church. Christian 
 institutions, and above all, a Christian 
 spirit, was to go forth from Germany, as 
 formerly from Judea, and spread through 
 the whole world. Charles V. was the 
 young hero destined to realise this gold- 
 en age ; but Hutten's hopes having been 
 blasted in that quarter, he turned towards 
 Sickingen, and sought from knighthood 
 that which the Imperial authority re- 
 fused him. 
 
 Sickingen, as a leading chieftain, had 
 acted a distinguished part in Germany ; 
 but soon after the nobles had besieged 
 him in the castle of Landstein, and 
 the ancient walls of that fortress had 
 yielded to the strange power of cannon 
 and musketry, — then only recently in- 
 vented. The taking of Landstein had 
 been the final defeat of the power of the 
 knights, — the triumph of the art of mod- 
 ern warfare over that of the middle ages. 
 
 * Et in lerram promissionis ducere non potest. 
 — (L. Epp. ii. p. 353.) 
 
 Thus, the last exploits of the knights had 
 been on the side of the Reformation, 
 while the earliest use of the newly-in- 
 vented engines was against it. The 
 steel-clad warriors, whose bodies fell be- 
 neath the unlooked-for storm of balls, 
 made way for other soldiery. Other 
 conflicts were opening. A spiritual 
 knighthood was taking the place of the 
 Du Guesclins and Bayards ; and those 
 battered ramparts, broken walls, and ex- 
 piring warriors, told, more plainly than 
 Luther had been able to do, that it was 
 not by such allies or such weapons that 
 the Gospel of the Prince of Peace was 
 destined to prevail. 
 
 The hopes of Hutten had died with 
 the fall of Landstein, and the ruin of the 
 power of the knights. As he stood by 
 the corpse of his friend Sickingen, he 
 bade adieu to his dream of brighter days 
 to come, and losing all confidence in 
 men, he sought only for retirement and 
 repose. In quest of these, he visited 
 Erasmus in Switzerland. An early 
 friendship had subsisted between them ; 
 but the rough and overbearing knight, 
 regardless of the opinions of others, 
 quick to grasp the sword, and dealing 
 his blows on all sides, wherever he 
 came, could scarcely be expected to 
 ' walk together ' with the fastidious and 
 timid Erasmus, with all his refinement, 
 politeness, love of praise, his readiness to 
 sacrifice all for the sake of it, and his 
 fear, above all, of controversy. 
 
 On his arrival at Basle, Hutten, poor, 
 suffering in bodily health, and a fugitive, 
 immediately sought out his old friend. 
 But Erasmus shrunk from the thought 
 of receiving at his table a man who was 
 placed under ban by the Pope and the 
 Emperor, — a man who,* in his conver- 
 sation, would spare no one, and, besides 
 borrowing money of him, would no doubt 
 be followed by others of the " Gospel 
 party," whom Erasmus dreaded more 
 and more. He declined to see him, — 
 and the magistrates of Basle desired Hut- 
 ten to leave the city. Wounded to the 
 
 * Ille egens et omnibus rebus destitutus qurere- 
 bat nidum aliquem ubi moveretur. Erat mini 
 g-loriosus ille miles cum sua scabie in sedes reei- 
 piendus, simulque recipiendus ille chorus titulo 
 Evangelicorum, writes Erasmus to Melancthon 
 in a letter in which he seeks to excuse himself. — 
 (Er. Epp. p. 949.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 521 
 
 quick, and irritated by the timid pru- 
 dence of his friend, Hutten repaired to 
 Mulhausen. and there circulated a violent 
 diatribe against Erasmus, — to which the 
 latter put forth a reply replete with 
 talent. The knight had, as it were, with 
 both hands, seized his sword, and felled 
 his adversary to the earth; the philoso- 
 pher, recovering his feet, had replied to 
 the strokes of his adversary by peckings 
 with his beak.* 
 
 Hutten was again compelled to flight. 
 He reached Zurich, and there found a 
 kind reception at the hospitable hearth 
 of Zwingle. Intrigues again obliged 
 him to quit that city ; and after passing 
 some time at the baths of Pfeffers, he re- 
 paired, provided with a letter from the 
 Swiss Reformer, to the pastor, John 
 Schnapp, who resided in the little island 
 of Uffnan, on the lake of Zurich. That 
 humble minister of God's word received 
 the sick and homeless knight with the 
 tenderest charity. And in that tranquil 
 and unknown seclusion, Ulric Hutten, 
 one of the most remarkable men of his 
 age, expired about the end of August, 
 after an agitated life, in the course of 
 which he had been expelled by one 
 party, persecuted by another, and desert- 
 ed by nearly all ; — having all his life 
 contended against superstition, without, 
 as it would seem, ever arriving at the 
 knowledge of the truth. The poor min- 
 ister, who had gained some experience in 
 the healing art, had bestowed upon him 
 the utmost attention. He left behind 
 him neither money nor furniture, nor 
 books, — nothing, save his pen.f So 
 broken was that steel-clad arm that he 
 had dared to put forward to support the 
 ark of God. 
 
 But there was one man in Germany 
 more formidable in the eyes of Erasmus 
 than the ill-fated knight, — and that man 
 was Luther. The time had come when 
 the two great combatants of the age were 
 to measure their strength in the lists. 
 They were the leaders of two very differ- 
 ent reformations. Whilst Luther was 
 bent on a complete reformation, Erasmus, 
 as the advocate of a middle course, was 
 seeking certain concessions from the 
 hierarchy, that might have the effect of 
 
 * Expostulatio Hutteni. — Erasmi spongia. 
 t Libros nullos habuit, supellectilem nullam, 
 prater calamum. — (Zw. Epp. p. 313.) 
 66 
 
 conciliating the opposing parties. Lu- 
 ther was disgusted with the vacillation 
 and inconsistency of Erasmus. " You 
 are trying to walk on eggs without 
 breaking them," said he.* 
 
 At the same time, he met these vacil- 
 lations of Erasmus with the most entire 
 and unfaltering decision. " We Chris- 
 tians," said he, " ought to be well per- 
 suaded of what we teach, and to be able 
 to say yes and no. To object to our affirm- 
 ing with full conviction what we believe, 
 is to strip us of our faith itself. The 
 Holy Spirit is no spirit of doubt, f And 
 he has written in our hearts a firm and 
 peaceful assurance, which makes us as 
 sure of the object of faith as we are of 
 our existence." 
 
 These words suffice to show on which 
 side strength was to be found. To effect 
 a change in religion, there is need of 
 firm and living faith. A salutary revo- 
 lution in the Church is never to be 
 derived from philosophic views and 
 thoughts of man. To restore fertility to 
 the earth after a long drought, the light- 
 ning must strike the cloud, and the 
 windows of heaven must be opened. 
 Critical acuteness, philosophy, and even 
 history, may prepare the ground for a 
 true faith, but never can they fill its 
 place. Vainly would you cleanse the 
 aqueduct or build up your embankments, 
 so long as the rain cometh not down from 
 heaven. The learning of man without 
 faith is but as the dry channel. 
 
 Much and essentially as Luther and 
 Erasmus differed one from the other, 
 a hope was long cherished by Luther's 
 friends, and even by himself, that both 
 would one day be united in resistance of 
 Rome. Expressions, dropt in his caustic- 
 humour, were commonly reported, which 
 showed the philosopher dissenting, in his 
 opinion, from the most devoted adherents 
 of Catholicism. For instance, it is re- 
 lated, that, when in England, he was 
 one day in earnest conversation with > 
 Thomas More on the subject of transub- \ 
 stantiation. " Only believe," said More, 
 " that you receive the body of Christ, and 
 you really have it." Erasmus was silent. 
 Shortly after this, when Erasmus was 
 
 * Auf Eyern gehen und keines zutreten. — (L. 
 Opp. xix. p. 11.) 
 
 t Der heilige Geist ist kein Scepticus. — (Ibid. 
 p. 8.) 
 
522 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 leaving England, More lent him a horse 
 to convey him to the port where he was 
 to embark ; but Erasmus took it abroad 
 with him. When More heard of it, he 
 reproached him with much warmth ; but 
 the only answer Erasmus gave him was 
 in the following quatrain : — * 
 
 " Only believe thou sharest Christ's feast, say 
 you, 
 And never doubt the fact is therefore true : 
 So write I of thy horse ; — if thou art able 
 But to believe it, he is in thy stable.t" 
 
 Erasmus's sentiments having got wind, 
 not only in Germany and England, but 
 in other countries, it was said at Paris 
 that " Luther wanted to force open the 
 door of which Erasmus had already 
 picked the lock."| 
 
 The position taken by Erasmus was a 
 difficult one. " I will not be unfaithful 
 to the cause of Christ," wrote he to 
 Zwingle, " at least so far as the times 
 will ailow."^ Just in proportion as he 
 saw Rome rising up against the favourers 
 of the Reformation, he prudently drew 
 back from them. All parties looked to him. 
 Pope, emperor, kings, nobles, men of 
 learning, and even his most intimate 
 friends, entreated him to take up his pen 
 against the Reformer. || "You cannot 
 possibly undertake a work more accepta- 
 ble to God and more worthy of your 
 genius," wrote the Pope. "ft 
 
 Erasmus for a long time held out 
 against these solicitations. He could not 
 conceal from himself that the cause of 
 the Reformation was that of Religion as 
 well as of Learning. Moreover, Luther 
 was an adversary he dreaded to find 
 himself opposed to. " It is an easy thing 
 for you to say, Write against Luther," 
 
 * There is surely profanity as well as levity in 
 this. May the reader be preserved from any 
 sympathy with such a way of dealing with a be- 
 lief which, right or wrong, is reverential. — Tr. 
 t " Quod mihi dixisti nuper de corpore Christi : 
 Crede qucd habes et habes : 
 Hoc tibi rescribo tantum de tuo caballo : 
 Crede quod habes et habes." 
 
 (Pallavicini, Singularia, p. 71.) 
 t Histoire Cathol. denotre temps, par S. Fon- 
 taine de l'ordre de St. Francois, Paris, 1562. 
 
 § Quantum hoc seculum patitur. — (Zw. Epp. , 
 p. 221.) 
 
 || A Pontifice, aCfEsare, a regibus et principus, 
 a doctissimis etiam et carissimis amicis hue pro- 
 vocor. — (Erasm. Zw. Epp. p. 308.) 
 
 11 Nulla te et ingenio, eruditione, eloquentiaque 
 tua dignior esse potest. — (Adrianus Papa, Epp. 
 Er. p. 1202.) 
 
 said he to a Romish divine, "but the 
 matter is full of hazard."* He knew 
 not which way to move. 
 
 This hesitation on the part of Eras- 
 mus drew upon him the most violent of 
 both parties. Luther himself scarcely 
 knew how to make his respect for Eras- 
 mus's learning consist with the indigna- 
 tion his timid policy awakened in him. 
 He resolved to break through the pain- 
 ful restraint he had hitherto imposed on 
 himself and wrote to him, in April, 
 1524, a letter which he commissioned 
 Camerarius to deliver to him. 
 
 " You, have not yet received from the 
 Lord the courage requisite for marching 
 side by side with us against the Papists. 
 We bear with your weakness. If learn- 
 ing prospers, and if, by its means, the 
 treasury of Scripture is unlocked to all 
 comers, it is a gift which God has given 
 us by you — a noble gift, for which our 
 praise ascends to heaven. But do not 
 desert the post assigned you, to take up 
 your quarters in our camp. No doubt 
 your eloquence and genius might be use- 
 ful to us ; but, since your courage fails 
 you, remain where you are. If I could 
 have my will, those who are acting with 
 me should leave your old age in peace, 
 to fall asleep in the Lord. The great- 
 ness of our cause has long ago surpassed 
 your strength. But then, dear Erasmus, 
 cease, I pray you, to scatter, with open 
 hands, the biting satire you are so skilled 
 to clothe in flowery rhetoric, for the 
 slightest stroke of your pen inflicts more 
 pain than the being ground to powder 
 by all the Papists put together. Be 
 satisfied to be a spectator of our tragedy;! 
 only abstain from writing against me, 
 and I will not attack you." 
 
 Here we see Luther, whose spirit 
 breathed the breath of conflict, asking 
 for peace and amity ! Erasmus, the 
 man of peace, broke it. 
 
 This communication of the Reformer 
 was received by Erasmus as the keenest 
 of insults, and if he had not previously 
 resolved on publishing against Luther, it 
 is probable that resolution was then ta- 
 ken. " Perhaps," was his reply, " per- 
 haps Erasmus will better serve the Gos- 
 pel by writing against you, than certain 
 
 * Res est periculi plena. — (Er. Epp. p. 758.) 
 + Spectator tantum sis tragcedise nostra. — (L. 
 Epp. ii. p. 501.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1522— 1527. 
 
 5'23 
 
 senseless writers on your* own side, 
 whose doctrines do not allow me to be 
 any longer a mere spectator of the tra- 
 gedy." 
 
 But other motives were not wanting. 
 Henry VIII. and the leading nobility of 
 England, pressed him to declare him- 
 self openly against the Reformation, and 
 Erasmus, in a moment of more than 
 usual boldness, gave a promise to that 
 effect. His questionable position had, 
 besides, become a source of continual 
 trouble to him ; he loved ease, and the 
 necessity he was continually brought 
 under of vindicating his conduct was a 
 constant disturbance. He loved the 
 praise of men, and he heard himself 
 charged with fearing Luther, and being 
 unable to answer him — he clung to the 
 uppermost seat. — and the plain monk of 
 Wittemberg had dethroned the powerful 
 Erasmus from his pre-eminence. It was 
 his aim, by a bold step, to regain the 
 place he had lost. The established 
 Christianity of his age, with one voice, 
 invited him to the attempt. A man of 
 large capacity, and of the highest repu- 
 tation in that age, was wanted to oppose 
 to the Reformation. Erasmus gave him- 
 self to the work. 
 
 But with what weapons will he arm 
 for the encounter ? Will he call forth 
 the former thunders of the Vatican 1 
 Will he undertake the vindication of the 
 corruptions which are the- disgrace of 
 the Papacy 1 Erasmus could not act 
 such a part. The grand movement 
 which then swelled all hearts, after the 
 death-like stupor of so many centuries, 
 filled him with joy, and he would have 
 shrunk from shackling its progress. 
 Unable to be the champion of Roman 
 Catholicism in that which it has added 
 to Christianity, he undertook the defence 
 of it in the particulars wherein it has 
 taken away from it. Erasmus chose for 
 the ground of his attack upon Luther, 
 that point wherein Catholicism makes 
 common cause with Rationalism, the 
 doctrine of Free Will, or the power of 
 man by nature. Accordingly, although 
 undertaking thus to defend -the Church, 
 Erasmus was also gratifying the men of 
 this world ; and, although fighting the 
 battle on behalf of the Pope, he was also 
 
 * Quidam stolidi scrtbentes.pro te. — (Unschul- 
 dige Nachricht, p. 545.) 
 
 contending on the side of the philoso- 
 phic party. It has been said that he 
 acted injudiciously in thus restricting 
 himself to an intricate and unprofitable 
 question.* Luther, — the Reformers 
 generally, — and, indeed, that age werd 
 of a different opinion ; and we agree 
 with them. ' ; I must acknowledge," 
 said Luther, " that, in this great contro- 
 versy, you alone have taken the bull by 
 the horns. I thank you with all my 
 heart, for I prefer to be occupied with 
 that theme rather than such secondary 
 questions as Pope, purgatory, and indul- 
 gences, with which the enemies of the 
 Gospel have hitherto dogged my steps."! 
 
 His own experience, and the attentive 
 study of the Holy Scriptures, and of St. 
 Augustine, had convinced Luther that 
 the powers of man's nature are so 
 strongly inclined to evil, that, in his own 
 strength, he can attain no more than an 
 outward decency, of no value or suffi- 
 ciency in the sight of God. He had, at 
 the same time, recognised that it was 
 God, who, by his Holy Spirit, bestowing 
 freely on man the gift of ' faith,' commu- 
 municated to him a real righteousness. 
 This doctrine had become the vital prin- 
 ciple of his religion, the predominating 
 tenet of his theology, and the pivot on 
 which the entire Reformation turned. 
 
 Whilst Luther maintained that every 
 thing good in man came down from 
 God, Erasmus sided with those who 
 thought that this good came out from 
 man himself. God or man — good or 
 evil — these are no unimportant themes ; 
 and if there is ' triviality, 1 it is assuredly 
 not in such solemn questions. 
 
 It was in the autumn of 1524, that 
 Erasmus published his famous tract, en- 
 titled, " Diatribe on the Freedom of the 
 Will," and as soon as it saw the light, 
 the philosopher could hardly credit his 
 own boldness. With his eyes riveted on 
 the arena, he watched, with trembling, 
 the gauntlet he had flung to his adver- 
 sary. " The die is cast," he wrote to 
 Henry VIII., with emotion ; " the book 
 on free will is published. I have done 
 
 * " It is humbling to mankind," says M. Ni- 
 sard — see Revue des deux mondes, iii. p. 411, — 
 " to contemplate men capable of grasping- eternal 
 truths, fencing and debating in such trivialities, 
 like gladiators righting with flies." 
 
 t L. Opp. xix. p. 146. 
 
524 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 a bold thing, believe me. I expect 
 nothing less than to be stoned for it. 
 But I take comfort from your majesty's 
 example, whom the rage of these people 
 has not spared."* 
 
 His alarm soon increased to such a 
 degree, that he bitterly lamented the 
 step he had taken. " Why," he ejacu- 
 lated, u why was I not permitted to grow 
 old in the mount of the Muses ! Here 
 am I, at sixty years of age, forcibly 
 thrust forward into the arena, and I am 
 throwing the cestus and the net, instead 
 of handling the lyre ! I am aware," 
 said he to the Bishop of Rochester, 
 " that in writing upon free will, I was 
 going out of my sphere ; you congratu- 
 late me on my triumphs. Ah ! I do not 
 know over whom. The faction (the 
 Reformation) gathers strength daily. t 
 Was it then my fate, at my time of life, 
 to pass from my place as a friend of the 
 Muses, to that of a miserable gladi- 
 ator !" 
 
 Doubtless it was no small matter for 
 the timid Erasmus to have stood forth 
 against Luther : nevertheless, he had not 
 spoken out with any extraordinary bold- 
 ness. He seems, in his book, to ascribe 
 but little to man's will, and to leave to 
 Grace the greater part of the work ; but 
 then he chooses his arguments so as to 
 make it seem as if man did every thing, 
 and God nothing. Not daring openly 
 to express his opinions, he seems to af- 
 firm one thing, and to prove another ; so 
 that one may be allowed to suppose that 
 he believed what he proved, not what 
 he asserted. 
 
 He distinguishes three several senti- 
 ments opposed to different degrees of Pe- 
 lagianism : " Some think," said he, 
 " that man can neither will, nor begin, 
 still less perform any thing good, with- 
 out the special and constant aid of Di- 
 vine grace ; and this opinion seems prob- 
 able enough. Others teach that the 
 will of man has no power but for evil, 
 and that it is grace alone that works any 
 good in us ; and lastly, there are some 
 who assert that there never has been any 
 free will, either in angels, or in Adam, 
 
 * Jacta est alea . . . audax, mihi crede, faci- 
 lius . . . expecto lapidationem. — (Er. Epp. p. 
 811.) 
 
 t Quomodo triumphans neseio . . . Factio 
 crescit in dies latius. — (Ibid. p. 809.) 
 
 or in us, whether before or after grace 
 received ; but that God works in man 
 whether it be good or evil, and that 
 every thing that happens, happens from 
 an absolute necessity."* 
 
 Erasmus, whilst seeming to admit the 
 first of these opinions, uses arguments 
 that are opposed to it, and which might 
 be employed by the most determined 
 Pelagian. It is thus that, quoting the 
 passages of Scripture, in which God of- 
 fers to man the choice between good and 
 evil, he adds : " Man then must needs 
 have a power to will and to choose ; for 
 it would be folly to say to any one, 
 Choose ! were it not in his power to do 
 so?" 
 
 Luther feared nothing from Erasmus : 
 " Truth," said he, " is more powerful 
 than words. The victory will remain 
 with him who with stammering lips 
 shall teach the truth, and not to him 
 who eloquently puts forward a lie."y 
 But when he received Erasmus' book in 
 the month of October, 1524, he consider- 
 ed it to be so feebly argued, that he hes- 
 itated whether to answer it. " What !" 
 he exclaimed, " all this eloquence in so 
 bad a cause ! It is as if a man should 
 serve up mud on gold and silver dishes. \ 
 One cannot get any hold upon you. 
 You are like an eel that slips through 
 one's fingers ; or, like the fabled Pro- 
 teus, who changes his form when in 
 the very arms of him who would stran- 
 gle him." 
 
 Luther making no reply, the monks 
 and theologians of the schools broke forth 
 in exultation : "Well, where is your Lu- 
 ther now? Where is the great Mac- 
 cabeus ? Let him enter the lists ! let 
 him come forward ! Ah ! ah ! he has 
 at last found his match ! He Jias had a 
 lesson to keep in the back ground ! he 
 has learnt to be silent."^ 
 
 Luther saw that he must answer Eras- 
 mus ; but it was not till the end of the 
 year 1525 that he prepared to do soj 
 
 * De libero arbitrio Aiarpitlfi. — (Erasmi. Opp. 
 ix. p. 1215, sq.) 
 
 t Victoria est penes balbutientem veritatem v 
 non apud mendacem eloquentiam. — (L. Epp. ii. 
 p. 200.) 
 
 \ Als wenn einer in silbern oder guldern Schus- 
 seln wolte mist und Unflath Auftragen. — (L. 
 Opp. xix. p. 4.) 
 
 § Sehet, sehet nun da zu ! wo ist nua Luther. 
 —(Ibid. p. 3.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 525' 
 
 and Melancthon having told Erasmus 
 that Luther would write with modera- 
 tion, the philosopher was greatly alarm- 
 ed. " If I write with moderation," said 
 he, "it is my natural character; but 
 there is in Luther's character the indig- 
 nation of the son of Peleus. And how 
 can it be otherwise? The vessel that 
 braves such a storm as that which rages 
 round Luther, needs anchor, ballast, and 
 rudder to keep it from bearing down out 
 of its course — If therefore he should 
 answer more temperately than suits his 
 character — the sycophants will exclaim 
 that we understand one another." — We 
 shall see that Erasmus was soon relieved 
 from this last fear. 
 
 The doctrine of God's election as the 
 sole cause of man's salvation, had long 
 been dear to the Reformer : — but hitherto 
 he had only considered its practical influ- 
 ence. In his answer to Erasmus he in- 
 vestigated it especially in a speculative 
 point of view, and laboured to establish, 
 by such arguments as seemed to him 
 most conclusive, that God works every 
 thing in man's conversion, and that our 
 heart is so alienated from the love of 
 God, that it can only have a sincere 
 desire after righteonsness by the regen- 
 erating action of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 " To call our will a Free will," said 
 he, " is to imitate those princes who 
 accumulate long titles, styling themselves 
 sovereigns of this or that kingdom, prin- 
 cipality, and distant island, (of Rhodes, 
 Cyprus, and Jerusalem,) over which they 
 do not exercise the least authority." 
 Nevertheless, Luther here makes an im- 
 portant distinction which shows that he 
 by no means participated in the third 
 opinion which Erasmus had raised to 
 notoriety by attributing it to him. " Man's 
 will," said he, " may indeed be said to be 
 free, not indeed in relation to what is 
 above him, — that is. to God, — but in re- 
 lation to what is beneath him, — that is, 
 to the things of this world. In any mat- 
 ter affecting my property, my lands, my 
 house, or my farm, I find myself able to 
 act, do, and manage freely ; but in every- 
 thing that has reference to his salvation, 
 man is a captive ; he is subject to the 
 will of God, — or rather to that of the 
 devil.* Show me," cries he, "only one 
 * L. Opp. xix. p. 33. 
 
 among all those who teach the doctrine 
 of free will, who has been able in himself 
 ,to find strength to endure a slight insult r 
 a passionate assault, nay, even the hostile 
 look of his enemy, and that joyfully, — 
 and without so much as asking whether 
 he is willing to give up his body, his life, 
 his goods, his honour, and all that he 
 has, — I will acknowledge that you have 
 gained your cause."* 
 
 Luther had too much penetration not 
 to discern the contradictions into which 
 his adversary had fallen. He, therefore, 
 in his answer, laboured to enclose the 
 philosopher in the net in which he had 
 entangled himself. "If the passages you 
 quote," said he, "establish the principle 
 that it is easy for us to do good, where- 
 fore is it that we are disputing ? And 
 what need can we have of Christ, or the 
 <Holy Spirit ? Christ would then have 
 shed his blood without necessity to ob- 
 tain for us a power which we already 
 had in our own nature." In truth the 
 passages quoted by Erasmus are to be 
 understood in quite a different sense. 
 This much debated question is more sim- 
 ple than it at first sight appears. When 
 the Bible says to man, ' Choose,' it is be- 
 cause it assumes the assistance of God's 
 grace, by which alone he can obey the 
 command. God, in giving the com- 
 mandment, gives also the strength to ful- 
 fil it. If Christ said to Lazarus, ' Come 
 forth,' it was not that Lazarus could re- 
 store himself to life, but that Christ, in 
 commanding him to come forth, gave 
 him the ability to do so, and accompanied 
 his word with his creative power. He 
 speaks, and it is done. Moreover it is 
 quite true that the man to whom God 
 speaks, must will to do ; it is he himself, 
 and not another, that must will ; — he 
 can receive this will from none but God ; 
 but surely in him it must be ; and the 
 very command which God brings to 
 him, and which, according to Erasmus, 
 proves the power to be in man, is so 
 perfectly reconcilable with God's work- 
 ing, that it is, in fact, the very means 
 by which that work of God is wrought 
 out. It is by saying to the man, " Be 
 converted," that God converts him. 
 
 But the idea which Luther especially 
 kept in view in his answer is, that the 
 passages quoted by Erasmus are design- 
 * Ibid. p. 33. 
 
526 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ed not to make known to men this pre- 
 tended power which is attributed to 
 them, but to show them their duty, and 
 their total inability to fulfil it. " How 
 often does it happen," says Luther, "that 
 a father calls to him his feeble child, 
 saying, ' Will you come, my son ? come 
 then,' — in order that the child may 
 learn to call for his assistance and allow 
 himself to be carried "* 
 
 After having combated Erasmus's ar- 
 guments in favour of free will, Luther 
 defends his own against the attacks of 
 his opponent. " Dear Diatribe,", says 
 he, ironically, " mighty heroine, you 
 who pride yourself on having explained 
 away those words of our Lord in St. 
 John's Gospel, ' Without me ye can do 
 nothing,' although you acknowledge 
 their force and call them Luther's 
 Achilles, listen to me — Unless you 
 prove that this word nothing not only 
 may, but must signify a little., all your 
 sounding words, all your famous exam- 
 ples, have no more effect than if a man 
 were to attempt to oppose a mighty con- 
 flagration with a handful of straw. 
 What matter to us such assertions as, 
 This may mean, this may be thus under- 
 stood, whilst you ought to prove to us 
 that it must be so understood. Unless 
 you do this we take the declaration in 
 its literal meaning, and laugh at all your 
 examples, your fine exordiums, and self- 
 complacent boastings."! 
 
 Subsequently, Luther shows, still from 
 the Scriptures, that the grace of God 
 does all in Conversion. He concludes 
 thus : " In short, since the Scripture 
 every where contrasts Christ with that 
 which has not the spirit of Christ ; since 
 it declares that every thing which is not 
 Christ, and in Christ, is under the power 
 of delusion, darkness, the devil, death, 
 sin, and the wrath of God ; it follows 
 that every passage in the Bible which 
 speaks of Christ is against your doctrine 
 of free will. Now such passages are in- 
 numerable, the Holy Scriptures are full 
 of them.";}; 
 
 We perceive that the discussion which 
 arose between Luther and Erasmus, is 
 the same as that which occurred a cen- 
 tury later between the Jansenists and 
 
 * L. Opp. xix. p. 55. 
 t L. Opp. xix. p. 116. 
 t Ibid. p. 143. 
 
 Jesuits, — between Pascal and Molina.* 
 Wherefore, then, while the Reformation 
 has had such immense results, did Jan- 
 senism, though adorned by the finest ge- 
 niuses, go out in weakness ? It is be- 
 cause Jansenism went back to St. Au- 
 gustine, and rested for support on the 
 Fathers ; whilst the Reformation went 
 back to the Bible, and was based on the 
 word of God ; — because Jansenism made 
 a compromise with Rome, and would 
 have pursued a middle course between 
 truth and error ; whereas, the Reforma- 
 tion, relying on God alone, cleared the 
 soil, swept away the incrustations of past 
 ages, and laid bare the primitive rock. 
 To stop half way in any work is use- 
 less ; in every undertaking we must go 
 through. Hence, while Jansenism has 
 passed away, Evangelical Christianity 
 presides over the destinies of the world. 
 
 After having energetically refuted the 
 errors of Erasmus, Luther renders a 
 high sounding, but perhaps somewhat 
 malicious, homage to his genius. " I 
 confess," says he, " that you are a great 
 man : in whom have we ever beheld 
 more learning, intelligence, or readiness, 
 both in speaking and writing 1 As to 
 me, I possess none of these qualities ; in 
 one thing only can 1 glory — I am a 
 Christian. May God raise you infinitely 
 above me in the knowledge of His Gos- 
 pel, so 'that you may surpass me in that 
 respect as much as you already do in 
 every other."! 
 
 Erasmus was incensed beyond mea- 
 sure by the perusal of Luther's answer, 
 and looked upon his encomiums as the 
 honey of a poisoned cup, or the embrace 
 of a serpent at the moment he fixes his 
 deadly fang. He immediately wrote to 
 the Elector of Saxony, demanding jus- 
 tice ; and, when Luther wished to ap- 
 pease him, he lost his usual temper, and, 
 in the words of one of his most zealous 
 apologists, began " to pour forth invec- 
 tives in a feeble voice and with hoary 
 hairs."| 
 
 Erasmus was conquered. Moderation 
 had, till this occasion, been his strength ; 
 
 * It is scarcely necessary to say that I do not 
 speak of personal discussions between these two 
 men, of whom, the one died in 1600, and the 
 other was not born till 1623. 
 
 t L. Opp. xix. p. 146, 147. 
 
 t M. Nisard. Erasme, p. 41. 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 527 
 
 and now this left him. Anger was the 
 only weapon he could oppose to Luther's 
 energy. The wisdom of the philosopher, 
 on this occasion, failed him. He replied, 
 publicly in his H//perapistes, in which 
 he accuses the Reformer of barbarism, 
 falsehood, and blasphemy. The philos- 
 opher even ventured on prophecy ; " I 
 predict," said he, " that no name under 
 heaven will hereafter be more execrated 
 than Luther's." The jubilee of 1817 
 has replied to this prophecy, after a lapse 
 of three centuries, by the enthusiasm 
 and acclamations of the entire Protestant 
 world. 
 
 Thus, while Luther, with the Bible in 
 his hand, was placing himself in the van 
 of his age, Erasmus, in opposition to 
 him, sought that station for himself and 
 philosophy. Of these two chiefs, which 
 has been followed % Both, undoubtedly. 
 Nevertheless, Luther's influence on the 
 nations of Christendom has been infi- 
 nitely greater than that of Erasmus. 
 Even those who did not well compre- 
 hend the matter in dispute, seeing Jjje 
 full conviction of one antagonist, and the 
 doubts of the other, could not refrain 
 from believing that the former had truth 
 on his side, and that the latter was in the 
 wrong. It has been said that the three 
 last centuries, the 16th, 17th and 18lh, 
 may be considered as a protracted battle 
 of three days' duration.* We willingly 
 adopt the comparison, but not the part 
 that is allotted to each of these days. 
 The same struggle, it is said, marked 
 the sixteenth and the eighteenth centu- 
 ries. On the first day, as on the last, we 
 are told that it was philosophy that 
 broke the ranks. The sixteenth century 
 philosophical ! Strange mistake ! No, 
 each of those days had its marked and 
 peculiar characteristic. On the first, the 
 Word of God, the Gospel of Christ tri- 
 umphed, and Rome was defeated : and 
 Philosophy, in the person of Erasmus, 
 and her other champions, shared in the 
 defeat. On the second, we admit that 
 Rome, her authority, her discipline, and 
 her doctrine, are again seen on the point 
 of obtaining the victory, through the in- 
 trigues of a far-famed society, and the 
 power of the scaffold, aided by certain 
 leaders of eminent character, and others 
 of lofty genius. The third day, human 
 
 * Port Royal, par Sainte Beuve, vol. i. p. 20. 
 
 Philosophy arises in all its pride, and 
 finding the battle field occupied, not by 
 the Gospel, but by Rome, it quickly 
 storms every entrenchment, and gains an 
 easy conquest. The first day's battle 
 was for God, the second for the Priest, 
 the third for Reason — what shall the 
 fourth be? . . . . The confused struggle, 
 the hard fought conflict, as we believe, 
 of all these powers together, which will 
 end in the triumph of Him to whom tri- 
 umph belongs 
 
 But the battle which the Reformation 
 fought in the great day of the sixteenth 
 century was not one and single, — but 
 manifold. The Reformation had to com- 
 bat at once several enemies ; and after 
 having protested against the decretals 
 and the sovereignty of the Popes — then 
 against the cold apothegms of ration- 
 alists, philosophers, and school-men, — it 
 took the field against the reveries of en- 
 thusiasm and the hallucinations of mysti- 
 cism ; opposing alike to these three pow- 
 ers the sword and the buckler of God's 
 Holy Revelation. 
 
 We cannot but discern a great resem- 
 blance, — a striking unity, — between 
 these three powerful adversaries. The 
 false systems which, in every age, have 
 been the most adverse to evangelical 
 Christianity, have ever been distinguish- 
 ed by their making religious knowledge 
 to emanate from man himself. Ration- 
 alism makes it proceed from reason ; 
 Mysticism from a certain internal illu- 
 mination ; Roman Catholicism from an 
 illumination derived from the Pope. 
 These three errors look for truth' in 
 man ; Evangelical Christianity looks for 
 it in God alone : and while Rationalism, 
 Mysticism, and Roman Catholicism ac- 
 knowledge a permanent inspiration in 
 men like ourselves, and thus make room 
 for every species of extravagance and 
 schism, — Evangelical Christianity rec- 
 ognises this inspiration only in the wri- 
 tings of the Apostles and Prophets, and 
 alone presents that great, noble, and liv- 
 ing unity which continues to exist un- 
 changed throughout all ages. 
 
 The office of the Reformation has 
 been to re-establish the rights of the 
 word of God, in opposition, not only to 
 Roman Catholicism, but also to Ration- 
 alism and Mysticism 
 
528 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The fanaticism of the Anabaptists, 
 which had been extinguished in Ger- 
 many, by Luther's return to Wittem- 
 berg, reappeared in vigour in Switzer- 
 land, where it threatened the edifice 
 which Zwingle, Haller, and CEcolam- 
 padius had erected on the foundation 
 of the word of God. Thomas Munzer, 
 obliged to quit Saxony in 1521, had 
 reached the frontiers of Switzerland. 
 Conrad Grebel, whose ardent and rest- 
 less disposition we have already remark- 
 ed, had joined him, as had also Felix 
 Mantz, a canon's son, and several other 
 natives of Zurich. Grebel endeavoured 
 to gain over Zwingle. It was in vain 
 that the latter had gone further than 
 Luther ; he saw a party spring up 
 which desired to proceed to yet greater 
 lengths. " Let us," said Grebel, " form 
 a community of true believers ; for it is 
 to them alpne that the promise belongs ; 
 and let us establish a church, which 
 shall be without sin."* " It is not pos- 
 sible," replied Zwingle, " to make a 
 heaven upon earth ; and Christ has 
 taught us to let the tares grow among 
 the wheat"! 
 
 Grebel, unsuccessful with the Reform- 
 er, wished to appeal from him to the 
 people. " The whole community of 
 Zurich," said he, " is entitled to decide 
 finally in all matters of faith." But 
 Zwingle dreaded the influence which 
 violent enthusiasts might exercise in a 
 popular assembly. He believed that, 
 except on some extraordinary occasions, 
 where the people might be called on to 
 give their support, it was more desirable 
 to confide the interests of religion to a 
 college, which might be considered the 
 chosen representatives of the church. 
 Consequently, the Council of Two 
 Hundred, which then exercised the su- 
 preme political authority in Zurich, was 
 also entrusted with the ecclesiastical 
 power, on the express condition that it 
 should conform, in all things, to the rule 
 of the Holy Scriptures. Undoubtedly 
 it would have been preferable to have 
 organised the church complete, and call- 
 ed on it to name representatives, to 
 whom no interests save the religious in- 
 terests of the people should be confided ; 
 
 * Vermeintend ein Kirchen zu versammlen 
 die one Siind war. — (Zw. Opp. ii. p. 231.) 
 t Zw. Opp. iii. p. 362. 
 
 for he who is qualified for affairs of 
 state, may be very unskilful in adminis- 
 tering those of the church, — just as the 
 reverse of this is also true. Neverthe- 
 less, the inconvenience was not then so 
 serious as it would be in our days, for 
 the members of the Grand Council had 
 heartily embarked in the religious move- 
 ment. However this may be, Zwingle, 
 in his appeal to the church, would not 
 bring it too prominently forward ; and 
 preferred a system of representation to 
 the active sovereignty of the general 
 body. It is the same policy which, after 
 three centuries, the states of Europe 
 have adopted, in reference to earthly 
 politics. 
 
 Meeting with a repulse from Zwingle, 
 Grebel turned in another direction. 
 Roubli, an aged minister of Basle, 
 Brodtlein, minister at Zollikon, and 
 Lewis Herzer, welcomed his advances. 
 They resolved on forming an indepen- 
 dent body in the centre of the general 
 community, — a church within the 
 church. A new baptism was to be their 
 instrument for gathering their congrega- 
 tion, which was to consist exclusively of 
 true believers. " The baptism of in- 
 fants," said they, " is a horrible abomi- 
 nation, — a flagrant impiety, invented by 
 the evil spirit and by Pope Nicholas II."* 
 
 The Council of Zurich, in some 
 alarm, directed that a public discussion 
 should be held ; and as the Anabaptists 
 still refused to relinquish their errors, 
 some of them, who were natives of Zu- 
 rich, were imprisoned, and others, who 
 were foreigners, were banished. But 
 persecution only inflamed their zeal. 
 " It is not by words alone," cried they, 
 " but by our blood, that we are ready to 
 bear testimony to the truth of our 
 cause." Some of them, girding them- 
 selves with ropes or rods of osier, ran 
 through the streets, crying, " Yet a few 
 days and Zurich will be destroyed ! 
 Woe to thee, Zurich ! woe ! woe !" 
 Several there were who uttered blas- 
 phemies : " Baptism," said they, " is but 
 the washing of a dog. To baptize a 
 child is of no more use than baptizing a 
 cat."f Fourteen men, including Felix 
 
 * Impietatem manifestissiman, a caco da>mone> 
 a Nicolao II. esse. — (Hottinger, iii. p. 219.) 
 
 + Nulzete eben so viel als wenn man eine 
 Katze taufet.— (Fussl. Beytr. i. 243.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 529 
 
 Mantz, and seven women, were arrested, 
 and, in spite of Zwingle's entreaties, im- 
 prisoned, on an allowance of bread and 
 water, in the heretics' tower. After a 
 fortnight's confinement they managed, 
 by removing some planks in the floor, to 
 effect their escape during the night. 
 "An angel,' 1 they said, "had opened 
 their prison doors, and set them free."* 
 
 They were joined by George Jacob 
 of Coira, a monk, who had absconded 
 from his convent, and who was surnam- 
 ed Blaurock, as it would seem from his 
 constantly wearing a blue dress. His 
 eloquence had obtained for him the ap- 
 pellation of a second Paul. This intrep- 
 id monk travelled from place to place, 
 constraining many, by the fervour of his 
 appeals, to receive his baptism. One 
 Sunday, at Zollikon, whilst the deacon 
 was preaching, the impetuous Anabap- 
 tist, suddenly interrupting him, exclaim- 
 ed in a voice of thunder, " It is written, 
 My house is a house of prayer, but ye 
 have made it a den of thieves." Then, 
 raising the staff he carried in his hand, 
 he struck it four times violently on the 
 ground. 
 
 " I am a door," exclaimed he ; " by me 
 if any man enter in he shall find pasture. 
 I am a good shepherd. My body I give 
 to the prison ; my life to the sword, the 
 axe, and the wheel. I am the begin- 
 nig of the baptism and of the bread of 
 the Lord."f 
 
 While Zwingle was attempting to 
 stem the torrent of Anabaptism at Zu- 
 rich, it quickly inundated St. Gall. 
 Grebel arrived there, and was received 
 by the brethren with acclamations ; and 
 on Palm Sunday he proceeded to the 
 banks of the Sitter, attended by a great 
 number of his adherents, whom he 
 there baptized. 
 
 The news soon spread through the 
 neighbouring cantons, and a great mul- 
 titude from Zurich, Appenzell, and va- 
 rious other places, flocked to " the little 
 Jerusalem." 
 
 Zwingle was deeply afflicted by this 
 agitation. He saw a storm descending 
 on the land where the seeds of the Gos- 
 
 * Wie die Apostel von dem Engel Gottes ge- 
 lediget.— (Bui. Chr. p. 261.) 
 
 t Ich bin ein Anfanger der Taufe und des 
 Herra Brodes. — (Fiissl. Beytr. i. p. 264.) 
 67 
 
 pel had as yet scarcely begun to take 
 root.* Resolving to oppose these disor- 
 ders, he composed a tract " on Bap- 
 tism,"! which the Council of St. Gall, 
 to whom he dedicated it, caused to be 
 read in the church in the hearing of the 
 people. 
 
 " Dear brethren in the Lord," said 
 Zwingle, " the waters of the torrftnts 
 which rush from our rocks hurry with 
 them every thing within their reach. 
 At first, small stones only are put in mo- 
 tion, but these are driven violently 
 against larger ones, until the torrent ac- 
 quires such strength that it carries away 
 every thing it encounters in its course, 
 leaving behind lamentations, vain re- 
 grets, and fertile meadows changed into 
 a wilderness. The spirit of disputation 
 and self-righteousness acts in a similar 
 manner, it occasions disturbances, ban- 
 ishes charity, and where it found fair 
 and prosperous churches, leaves behind 
 it nothing but mourning and desolate 
 flocks." 
 
 Thus wrote Zwingle — the child of 
 the mountains of the Tockenburg. 
 " Give us the word of God," exclaimed 
 an Anabaptist who was present in 
 church, " and not the word of Zwingle." 
 Immediately confused voices arose : 
 " Away with the book ! away with the 
 book !" cried the Anabaptists. Then 
 rising, they quitted the church, exclaim- 
 ing, " Do you keep the doctrine of 
 Zwingle ; as for us, we will keep the 
 word of God."t 
 
 Then it was that this fanaticism broke 
 forth in lamentable disorders. Alleging, 
 in excuse, that the Saviour had exhorted 
 us to become as little children, these 
 poor creatures began to go dancing 
 through the streets, clapping their hands, 
 footing it in a circle, seating themselves 
 on the ground together, and tumbling 
 each other in the sand. Some there 
 were who threw the New Testament 
 into the fire, exclaiming, " The letter 
 killeth, the spirit giveth life ;" and seve- 
 ral, falling into convulsions, pretended to 
 have revelations from the Holy Spirit. 
 
 * Mich beduret seer das ungewitter. — (Zw. to 
 the Council of St. Gall, ii. p. 230.) 
 
 t Vom Tauf, vom Widertauf, und vom Kin- 
 dertauf.— (Zw. Opp. ii. p. 230.) 
 
 t So wollen wir Gottes Wort haben. — (Zw. 
 Opp. ii. p. 237.) 
 
530 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 In a solitary house situated on the 
 Mullegg, near St. Gall, lived an aged 
 farmer, John Schucker, with his five 
 sons. The whole family, including the 
 servants, had received the new baptism ; 
 and two of the sons, Thomas and Leon- 
 ard, were distinguished for their fanati- 
 cism. On the 7th of February, 1526, 
 being Shrove Tuesday, they invited a 
 large party of Anabaptists to their house, 
 and the father had a calf killed for the 
 feast. The good cheer, the wine, and 
 their numbers altogether, heated their 
 imaginations ; and they spent the whole 
 night in fanatical excitement, convul- 
 sions, visions, and revelations.* 
 
 In the morning, Thomas, still agitated 
 by that night of disorder, and having 
 even, — as it would seem, — lost his 
 senses, took the calf's bladder, and pla- 
 cing part of the gall in it, in imitation of 
 the symbolical language of the prophets, 
 approached his brother Leonard, and 
 said to him gloomily, " Thus bitter is 
 the death thou art to suffer !" Then he 
 added, " Brother Leonard, fall on thy 
 knees ;" Leonard knelt down ; — present- 
 ly, " Brother Leonard, arise !" Leonard 
 arose. Their father, brothers, and the 
 other Anabaptists, looked on with aston- 
 ishment, asking themselves what God 
 would do. Soon Thomas resumed : 
 " Leonard, kneel down again !" Leonard 
 obeyed. The spectators, terrified at the 
 gloomy countenance of the wretched 
 Thomas, said to him, " Reflect on what 
 thou art about to do ; take care that no 
 mischief happens." — " Fear not," an- 
 swered Thomas. " nothing will happen 
 without the will of the Father." At 
 the same moment he hastily snatched a 
 sword, and bringing it down with all his 
 force on the neck of his brother, who 
 was kneeling before him, like a crimi- 
 nal before the executioner, he severed 
 his head from his body, crying out, 
 " Now is the will of the Father accom- 
 plished !" The bystanders recoiled in 
 horror ; the farm resounded with shrieks 
 and lamentations. Thomas, who had 
 nothing on him but his shirt and draw- 
 ers, rushed out of the house bare-footed, 
 and with his head uncovered, and run- 
 ning towards St. Gall, with frenzied 
 
 * Mit wunderbaren geperden und gespriichen, 
 verzucken, gesichten, und ofFenbarungen. — (Bul- 
 ling. Chr. i. p. 324.) 
 
 gestures, entered the house of the burgo- 
 master, Joachim Vadian, with haggard 
 looks, shouting, " I proclaim to thee the 
 day of the Lord.' 1 '' The dreadful tidings 
 spread throughout St. Gall — " He has 
 killed his brother as Cain killed Abel," 
 said the crowd.* The criminal was 
 seized. — " True," he repeated continual- 
 ly, " I did it, but it was God who did it 
 by my hand." On the 16th of February, 
 the unhappy wretch was beheaded by 
 the executioner. Fanaticism had run 
 its course to the utmost. Men's eyes were 
 opened, and, to adopt the words of an 
 early historian, " the same blow took oft 
 the head of Thomas Schucker, and of 
 Anabaptism in St. Gall." 
 
 At Zurich, however, it still prevailed. 
 On the 6th of November, in the prece- 
 ding year, a public discussion had taken 
 place, in order to content the Anabap- 
 tists, who were constantly complaining 
 that the innocent were condemned un- 
 heard. The three following theses were 
 put forth by Zwingle and his friends, as 
 subjects of the conference, and triumph- 
 antly maintained by them in the Coun- 
 cil hall. 
 
 " The children of believing parents are 
 childrenof God, even as those who were 
 born under the Old Testament ; and 
 consequently they may receive Baptism." 
 " Baptism is, under the New Testa- 
 ment, what Circumcision was under the 
 Old. Consequently, Baptism is now to 
 be administered to children, as Circum- 
 cision was formerly." 
 
 " The custom of repeating Baptism 
 cannot be justified either by examples, 
 precepts, or arguments drawn from Scrip- 
 ture ; and those who are re-baptized, cru- 
 cify Jesus Christ afresh." 
 
 But the Anabaptists did not confine 
 themselves to questions purely religious; 
 they demanded the abolition of tithes, 
 " since," said they, " they are not of divine 
 appointment." Zwingle replied that the 
 tithes were necessary for the maintenance 
 of the churches and schools. He desired 
 a complete religious reformation, but he 
 was resolved not to allow the least inva- 
 sion of public order or political institu- 
 tions. This was the limit at which he 
 discerned, written by the hand of God, 
 that word from heaven, " Thus far shalt 
 
 * GLych wie Kain den Abel sinen bruder er- 
 mort hat !— (Bull. Chr. i. p. 324.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1522— 1527. 
 
 531 
 
 thou go, and no farther."* Somewhere, 
 it was necessary to make a stand ; and it 
 was at this point that Zwingle and the 
 Reformers took their stand, in spite of 
 the efforts made by rash and impetuous 
 men to hurry them beyond it. 
 
 But when the Reformers themselves 
 stopped, they could not stop the enthusi- 
 asts, who seem as if brought into contact 
 with them in order to set off by contrast 
 their wisdom and sobcrmindedness. It 
 was not enough for the Anabaptists to 
 have formed their church ; — in their eyes 
 that church was itself the State. Did 
 any one summon them before the trib- 
 unals, — they refused to recognise the ci- 
 vil authority, maintaining that it was a 
 remnant of Paganism, and that they 
 would obey no power but that of God ! 
 They taught that it was unlawful for 
 Christians to fill public offices or bear the 
 sword, — and, resembling in another res- 
 pect certain irreligious enthusiasts of our 
 own days, they esteemed a ' community 
 of goods' as the perfection of humanity, f 
 
 Thus the evil was increasing ; Civil 
 Society was endangered. It arose to 
 cast out from its bosom those elements 
 that threatened it with destruction. The 
 Government, in its alarm, suffered itself 
 to be hurried into strange measures. 
 Resolved on making an example, they 
 condemned Mantz to be drowned. On 
 the 5th January. 1527, he was put into 
 a boat; his mother, (the aged concubine 
 of his father, the canon,) together with 
 his brother, mingled in the crowd which 
 accompanied him to the water's edge. 
 " Be faithful unto death," was their ex- 
 hortation. At the moment when the ex- 
 ecutioner prepared to throw Mantz into 
 the lake, his brother burst into tears ; 
 but his mother, cairn and undaunted, 
 witnessed, with eyes dry and flashing 
 fire, the martyrdom of her son J 
 
 The same day, Blaurock was scourged 
 with rods. As he was led outside the 
 city, he shook his blue dress, and the 
 dust from off his feet, against it.§ This 
 
 * Job xxxviii. 11. 
 
 t Fussl. Beytr. i. p. 229—258 ; ii. p. 263. 
 
 t Ohne dass er oder die Mutter, sondern nur 
 der Bruder geweinet. — CHott. Hel\». K. Gesch. 
 iii. p. 385.) 
 
 § Und schiittlet sinen blauen rock und sine 
 echiih uber die Statt Zurich. — (Bull. Chr. i. p. 
 382.) 
 
 unhappy man was, it would appear, 
 burnt alive two years after this by the 
 Roman Catholics of the Tyrol. 
 
 Undoubtedly, a spirit of rebellion ex- 
 isted among the Anabaptists ; undoubt- 
 edly, the ancient ecclesiastical law, which 
 condemned heretics to capital punish- 
 ments, was still in force, and the Refor- 
 mation could not, in the space of one or 
 two years, reform every thing ; nor can 
 we doubt that the Catholic states would 
 have accused their Protestant neighbours 
 of encouraging insubjection, if the latter 
 had not resorted to severe measures 
 against these enthusiasts ; but though 
 such considerations serve to account for 
 the rigour of the magistrate, they never 
 can justify it. Measures might be taken 
 against an infringement of the civil con- 
 stitution, but religious errors, being com- 
 bated by the teachers of religion, should 
 be altogether exempt from the jurisdic- 
 tion of civil tribunals. Such opinions 
 are not to be expelled by whippings, nor 
 are they drowned in the waters into 
 which those who profess them may be 
 cast : they again come forth from the 
 depth of the abyss ; and the fire but 
 serves to kindle in those who adhere to 
 them a fiercer enthusiasm, and thirst for 
 martyrdom. Zwingle, whose sentiments 
 on this subject we have already seen, 
 took no part in these severities.* 
 
 But it was not only on the subject of 
 baptism that dissensions were to arise; 
 yet more serious differences appeared, 
 touching the doctrine of the Lord's Sup- 
 per. 
 
 The human mind, freed from the yoke 
 which had so long weighed it down, 
 made use of its liberty ; and, if Roman- 
 ism is hemmed in by the shoals of des- 
 potic authority, Protestantism. has to steer 
 clear of those of anarchy. One charac- 
 teristic distinction of Protestantism is 
 progress, while that of Romanism is im- 
 mobility. — 
 
 Roman Catholicism, possessing in the 
 papal authority a means of, at any time, 
 establishing new doctrines, appears, at 
 first view, to have in it a principle emi- 
 nently favourable to change. It has, in- 
 
 * Quod homines seditiosi, rei-publicas turba- 
 tores, magistratuum hostes, justa Senatus sen- 
 tentia, damnati sunt, num id Zwinglio fraudi esse 
 poterit? — (Rod. Gualtheri Epist. ad lectorem, 
 Opp. 1544. ii.) 
 
532 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 deed, largely availed itself of this power, 
 and, century after century, we see Rome 
 bringing forward, or confirming new 
 dogmas. But its system once completed, 
 Roman Catholicism has declared itself 
 the champion of immobility. Therein 
 lies its safety : it resembles a shaky 
 building, from which nothing can be 
 taken without bringing the whole down 
 to the ground. Permit the priests to 
 marry, or strike a blow against the doc- 
 trine of transubstantiation, and the whole 
 system totters — the entire edifice falls to 
 pieces. 
 
 It is not thus with Evangelical Chris- 
 tianity. Its principle is much less fa- 
 vourable to change, much more so to pro- 
 gress and life. On the one hand, it rec- 
 ognises no other fountain of truth than 
 Scripture, one and immutably the same, 
 from the very beginning of the Church 
 to the end of time ; how, then, should it 
 vary, as Popery has varied 1 But, on 
 the other hand, every individual Chris- 
 tian is to draw for himself from this 
 fountain ; and hence spring progress and 
 liberty. Accordingly, Evangelical Chris- 
 tianity, although in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury the same that it was in the six- 
 teenth, and in the first, is, — at all times, — 
 full of spontaneity and action ; and is, at 
 this moment, filling the wide world with 
 its researches and its labours, its Bibles 
 and its missionaries, with light, salva- 
 tion, and life ! 
 
 It is a gross error which would class 
 together, and almost confound rational- 
 ism and mysticism with Christianity, 
 and, in so doing, charge upon it the ex- 
 travagances of both. Progress belongs to 
 the nature of Christian Protestantism : it 
 has nothing in common with immobility 
 and a state of deadness- but its move- 
 ment is that of healthful vitality, and not 
 the aberration of madmen, or the rest- 
 lessness of disease. We shall see this 
 character manifesting itself in relation to 
 the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 What ensued might have been ex- 
 pected. This doctrine had been under- 
 stood in very various ways in the early 
 ages of the Church : and the difference 
 of opinion continued up to the time when 
 the doctrine of transubstantiation and the 
 scholastic theology began, at about the 
 same period, their reign over the mind 
 of the middle ages. But that dominion 
 
 was noAV shaken to its base, and the for- 
 mer differences were again to appear. 
 
 Zwingle and Luther, who had at first 
 gone forward, each in his separate course, 
 — the one in Switzerland, the other in 
 Saxony, — were one day to find them- 
 selves brought, as it were, face to face. 
 The same mind, and, in many respects, 
 the same character, might be discerned 
 in them. Both were full of love for truth 
 and hatred of injustice ; both were nat- 
 urally violent ; and in both that violence 
 was tempered by sincere piety. But 
 there was one feature in the character of 
 Zwingle which tended to carry him be- 
 yond Luther. He loved liberty, not only 
 as a man, but as a republican, and the 
 fellow-countryman of Tell. Accustomed 
 to the decision of a free state, he was not 
 stopped by considerations before which 
 Luther drew back. He had, moreover, 
 given less time to the study of the theol- 
 ogy of the schools, and found himself, in 
 consequence, less shackled in his modes 
 of thinking. Both ardently attached to 
 their own convictions, — both resolute in 
 defending them, — and little accustomed 
 to bend to the convictions of others, they 
 were now to come in contact, like two 
 proud chargers rushing from opposite 
 ranks and encountering on the held of 
 battle. 
 
 A practical tendency predominated in 
 the character of Zwingle and of the Ref- 
 ormation which he had begun, and this 
 tendency was directed to two great ends 
 — simplicity in worship and sanctification 
 in life. To adapt the form of worship to 
 the wants of the soul, seeking not out- 
 ward ceremonies, but things invisible, 
 was Zwingle's first object. The idea of 
 Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, 
 which had given rise to so many cere- 
 monies and superstitions in the Church, 
 must, therefore, be abolished. But the 
 other great desire of the Swiss Reformer 
 led him directly to the same result. He 
 judged that the Romish doctrine respect- 
 ing the Supper, and even that held by 
 Luther, implied a belief of a certain mys- 
 tical influence, which belief, he thought, 
 stood in the way of sanctification ; — he 
 feared lest the Christian, thinking that 
 he received Christ jn the consecrated 
 bread, should no longer earnestly seek to 
 be united to him by faith in the heart. 
 "Faith," said he, "is not knowledge, 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 533 
 
 opinion, imagination ; — it is a reality.* 
 It involves in it a real participation in 
 divine things." Thus, whatever the ad- 
 versaries of Zwingle may have asserted, 
 it was no leaning towards rationalism, 
 but a deep religious view of the subject 
 which conducted him to the doctrines he 
 maintained. 
 
 The result of Zwingle's studies were 
 in accordance with these tendencies. In 
 studying the Scriptures, not only in de- 
 tached passages, but as a whole, and 
 having recourse to classical antiquity to 
 solve the difficulties of language, he ar- 
 rived at the conviction, that the word 
 "is" in the words of institution of this 
 sacrament, should be taken in the sense 
 of " signifies ~; v and, as early as the year 
 1523, he wrote to a friend, that the bread 
 and wine in the Lord's Supper are ex- 
 actly what the water is in baptism, f " In 
 vain," added he, " would you plunge a 
 thousand times under the water a man 
 who does not believe. Faith is the one 
 thing needful." 
 
 Luther, at first, set out from principles 
 nearly similar to those of the Reformer 
 of Zurich. " It is not the sacrament 
 which sanctifies," said he, " it is faith in 
 the sacrament." But the extravagances 
 of the Anabaptists, whose mysticism 
 spiritualized every thing, produced a 
 great change in his views. When he 
 saw enthusiasts, who pretended to inspi- 
 ration, destroying images, rejecting bap- 
 tism, and denying the presence of Christ 
 in the Eucharist, he was affrighted ; he 
 had a kind of prophetic presentiment of 
 the dangers which would threaten the 
 Church if this tendency to over-spiritual- 
 ize, should gain the ascendant ; hence 
 he took a totally different course, like 
 the boatman, who, to restore the balance 
 of his foundering skiff, throws all his 
 weight on the side opposed to the storm. 
 
 Thenceforward Luther assigned to the 
 sacraments a higher importance. He 
 maintained they were not only signs by 
 which Christians were outwardly distin- 
 guished, but evidences of the Divine will, 
 adapted to strengthen our faith. He went 
 
 * Fidem rem esse, non 6cientiam, opinionem 
 vel imaginationem. — (Comment de vera relig. 
 Zw. Opp. iii. p. 230.) 
 
 t Haud aliter hie panem- et vinum esse puto 
 quam aqua est in baptismo. — (Ad Wittenbachium 
 Epp. 15th June, 1523.) 
 
 farther : Christ, according to him, desired 
 to give to believers a full assurance of 
 salvation, and, in order to seal this prom- 
 ise to them with most effect, had added 
 thereto his real body in the bread and 
 wine. "Just," continued he, "as iron 
 and fire, though two different substances, 
 meet and are blended in a red hot bar, 
 so that in every part of it there is at once 
 iron and fire ; so, a fortiori, the glorified 
 body of Christ exists in every part of the 
 bread." 
 
 Thus, at this period of his career, Lu- 
 ther made, perhaps, a partial return to the 
 scholaslic theology. He had openly di- 
 vorced himself from it on the doctrine of 
 justification by faith ; but on the doctrine 
 of this Sacrament, he gave up but one 
 point, viz. transubslantiation. and retained 
 the other, the real 'presence. He even 
 went so far as to say that he would rather 
 receive the mere blood with the Pope 
 than the mere wine with Zwingle. 
 
 Luther's great principle was never to 
 depart from the doctrines or customs of 
 the Church, unless the words of Scrip- 
 ture absolutely required him to do so. 
 " Where has Christ commanded us to 
 elevate the host, and exhibit it to the 
 people ?" had been Carlstadt's question. 
 " Where has he forbidden it ?" was Lu- 
 ther's reply. Herein lies the difference 
 of the two Reformations we are consid- 
 ering. The traditions of the Church 
 were dear to the Saxon Reformer. If 
 he separated from them on many points, 
 it was not till after much conflict of 
 mind, and because, above all, he saw the 
 necessity of obeying the word of God. 
 But wherever the letter of God's word 
 appeared to him in accordance with the 
 tradition and practice of the Church, he 
 adhered to it with unalterable resolution. 
 Now this was the case in the question 
 concerning the Lord's Supper. He did 
 not deny that the word " is " might be 
 taken in the sense ascribed to it by 
 Zwingle. He admitted, for example, 
 that it must be so understood in the pas- 
 sage, " That rock was Christ;"* but 
 what he did deny was that the word 
 should be taken in this sense in the in- 
 stitution of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 In one of the later schoolmen, Occam, 
 whom he preferred to all others,f he 
 
 * 1 Cor. x. 4. 
 
 t Diu multumque legit scripta Occam cujus 
 
534 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 found an opinion which he embraced. 
 With Occam, he gave up the continually 
 repeated miracle, in virtue whereof, ac- 
 cording to the Romish Church, the body 
 and blood take the place of the bread 
 and wine after every act of consecration 
 by the priest, — and with Occam, substi- 
 tuted for it a universal miracle, wrought 
 once for all, — that is, the ubiquity or 
 omnipresence of Christ's body. " Christ," 
 said he, "is present in the bread and 
 wine, because he is present everywhere, 
 — and in an especial manner where he 
 wills to be."* 
 
 The inclination of Zwingle was the 
 reverse of Luther's. He attached less 
 importance to the preserving a union, in 
 a certain sense, with the universal 
 church, and thus maintaining our hold 
 upon the tradition of past ages. As a 
 theologian, he looked to Scripture alone ; 
 and thence only would he freely, and 
 without any intermediary channel, de- 
 rive his faith ; not stopping to trouble 
 himself with what others had in former 
 times believed. As a republican, he 
 looked to the commune of Zurich. His 
 mind was occupied with the idea of the 
 church of his own time, not with that 
 of other days. He relied especially on 
 the words of St. Paul, — " Because there 
 is but one bread, we being many are One 
 body ;"f and he saw in the supper the 
 sign of a spiritual communion between 
 Christ and all Christians. " Whoever," 
 said he, " acts unworthily, is guilty of sin 
 against the body of Christ, of which he 
 is a member." Such a thought had a 
 great practical power over the minds of 
 communicants; and the effects it wrought 
 in the lives of many, was to Zwingle 
 the confirmation of it. 
 
 Thus Luther and Zwingle had insen- 
 sibly separated from one another. Nev- 
 ertheless peace, perhaps, might have 
 continued between them, if the turbulent 
 Cavlstadt, who spent some time in pass- 
 ing to and fro between Germany and 
 Switzerland, had not inflamed their con- 
 flicting opinions. 
 
 A step, taken with a view to preserve 
 
 acumen anteferebat Thomae et Scoto. — (Me- 
 lancth. Vita Luth.) 
 
 * Occam und Luther. — Studien und Kritiken. 
 1839, p. 69. 
 
 t The passage referred to is 1 Cor. x. 17, and 
 the original stands thus: — -"On c?s apros, tv o-wfia 
 oi ttoAXol hopey- — (Tr.) 
 
 peace, led to the explosion. The Coun- 
 cil of Zurich-, wishing to put a stop to 
 controversy, prohibited the sale of Carl- 
 stadt's writings. Zwingle, though he 
 disapproved the violence of Carlstadt. 
 and blamed his mystic and obscure ex- 
 pressions,* upon this, thought it right to 
 defend his doctrine, both from the pulpit 
 and before the Council ; and soon after- 
 wards he wrote a letter to the minister, 
 Albert of Reutlingen, in which he said : 
 " Whether or not Christ is speaking of 
 the sacrament in the sixth chapter of St. 
 John's gospel, it is, at least, evident, that 
 he therein teaches a mode of eating his 
 flesh and drinking his blood, in which 
 there is nothing corporeal."! He then 
 endeavoured to prove that the Supper of 
 the Lord, by reminding the faithful, ac- 
 cording to Christ's design, of his body 
 which ' was broken ' for them, is the 
 procuring cause of that spiritual-mandu- 
 cation, which is alone truly beneficial to 
 them. 
 
 Nevertheless, Zwingle still shrunk 
 from a rupture with Luther. He trem- 
 bled at the thought that distressing dis- 
 cussions would rend asunder the little 
 company of believers forming in the 
 midst of effete Christendom. Not so 
 with Luther. He did not hesitate to in- 
 clude Zwingle in the ranks of those en- 
 thusiasts with whom he had already 
 broken so many lances. He did not re- 
 flect that if images had been removed 
 from the churches of Zurich, it had 
 been done legally, and by public author- 
 ity. Accustomed to the forms of the 
 German principalities, he knew but lit- 
 tle of the manner of proceeding in the 
 Swiss republics ; and he declared against 
 the grave Swiss divines, just as he had 
 done against the Miinzers and the Carl- 
 stadts. 
 
 Luther having put forth his discourse 
 " against celestial prophets" Zwingle's 
 resolution was taken ; and he published 
 almost immediately after, his Letter to 
 Albert, and his Commentary on true and 
 false Religion, dedicated to Francis T. 
 In it he said, " Since Christ, in the sixth 
 
 * Quod morosior est (Carlstadius) in cceremo- 
 niis non ferendis, non admodum probo. — (Zw. 
 Epp. p. 369.) 
 
 t A manducatione cibi, qui ventrem implet, 
 transiit ad verbi manducationem, quam cibum 
 vocat ccelestem, qui mundum vivificet. — (Zw. 
 Opp. iii. p. 573.) 
 
 '\ 
 
THE SWISS— 1522— 1527. 
 
 535 
 
 of John, attributes to faith the power of 
 communicating eternal life, and uniting 
 the believer to him in the most intimate 
 of all unions, what more can we need 1 
 Why should we think that he would af- 
 terwards attribute that efficacy to His 
 flesh, when He himself declares that the 
 flesh profiteth nothing? So far as the 
 suffering death for us, the flesh of Christ 
 is of unspeakable benefit to us, — for it 
 saves us from perdition ; — but as being 
 eaten by us, it is altogether useless." 
 
 The contest began. Pomeranus, Lu- 
 ther's friend, took the field, and attacked 
 the Evangelist of Zurich somewhat too 
 contemptuously. Then it was that (Eco- 
 lampadius began to blush that he had so 
 long struggled with his doubts, and 
 preached doctrines which were already 
 giving way in his own mind. Taking 
 courage, he wrote from Basle to Zwin- 
 gle. " The dogma of the ' real presence' 
 is the fortress and strong hold of their 
 impiety; so long as they cleave to this 
 idol, none can overcome them." After 
 this, he, too, entered the lists, by publish- 
 ing a tract on the import of the Lord's 
 words, " This is my body.' 1 * 
 
 The bare fact that (Ecolampadius had 
 joined the Reformer of Zurich, excited 
 an immense sensation, not only at Basle, 
 but throughout all Germany. Luther 
 was deeply affected by it. Brentz, 
 Schnepff, and twelve other ministers in 
 Suabia, to whom (Ecolampadius had ded- 
 icated his tract, and who had almost all 
 been disciples under him, testified the 
 most lively sorrow. In taking up the 
 pen to answer him, Brentz said, " Even 
 at this moment, when I am separating 
 from him for just reasons, I honour and 
 admire him as much as it is possible to 
 do. The tie of love is not severed be- 
 cause we differ in judgment." And he 
 proceeded, in concert with his friends, to 
 publish the celebrated Suabia/b Syngram- 
 ma, in which he replied to the arguments 
 of (Ecolampadius with boldness, but with 
 respect and affection. " If an emperor," 
 say the authors of the Syngramma, 
 " were to give a baton or a wand to a 
 judge, saying, ' Take — this is the power 
 of judging :' — the wand, no doubt, is a 
 mere sign ; but, the words being added 
 
 * He retained the usual signification of the 
 word is, but he understood, by body, a sign of 
 the body. 
 
 thereto, the judge has not merely the 
 sign of the power, he has the power it- 
 self." 
 
 The true children of the Reformation 
 might admit this illustration. The Syn- 
 gramma was received with acclamations, 
 and its authors were looked upon as the 
 defenders of the truth. Several divines, 
 and even some laymen, in their desire 
 to share in their glory, undertook the 
 defence of the doctrine that was assailed, 
 and wrote against (Ecolampadius. 
 
 Then it was Strasburg interposed, and 
 sought to mediate between Switzerland 
 and Germany. Capito and Bucer were 
 disposed for peace ; and, in their view, 
 the question under discussion was of se- 
 condary importance. Accordingly step- 
 ping between the two parties, they sent 
 George Cassel, one of their colleagues, to 
 Luther, to conjure him not to snap the 
 link of brotherhood which united him 
 with the Swiss divines. 
 
 No where does Luther's character dis- 
 play itself more strikingly than in this 
 controversy on the Lord's Supper. Never 
 did it more clearly appear with what 
 firmness he maintained the convictions 
 he believed to be those of a Christian, — 
 with what faithfulness he established 
 them on the authority of Scripture alone, 
 — his sagacity in defending them, and his 
 animated, eloquent, and often overpower- 
 ing argumentation. But, on the other 
 hand, never was there a more abundant 
 exhibition of the obstinacy with which 
 he brought up every argument for his 
 own opinion, the little attention he gave 
 to his opponents' reasoning, and the un- 
 charitable haste with which he attributed 
 their errors to the wickedness of their 
 hearts, and the machinations of the devil. 
 To the mediator of Strasburg he said, — 
 " Either the one party or the other, — 
 either the Swiss or we, — must be minis- 
 ters of Satan." 
 
 Such were what Capito termed " the 
 furies of the Saxon Orestes ;" and these 
 furies were succeeded by exhaustion. 
 Luther's health suffered. One day he 
 fainted in the arms of his wife and 
 friends ; and, for a whole week, he was 
 as if " in death and hell."* He had lost 
 Jesus Christ, he said, and was driven 
 hither and thither by tempests of despair. 
 
 * In mortd et in inferno jactatus. — (L. Epp. iii- 
 p. 132.) 
 
536 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The world was about to pass away, and 
 prodigies announced that the last day- 
 was at hand. 
 
 But these divisions among- the friends 
 of the Reformation were to have after 
 consequences yet more to be deplored. 
 The Romish divines in Switzerland espe- 
 cially boasted of being able to oppose Lu- 
 ther to Swingle. And yet, if, — now that 
 three centuries have passed away, — the 
 recollection of these divisions should 
 teach Evangelical Christians the precious 
 lesson of Unity in diversity, and Love in 
 liberty, they will not have happened in 
 vain. Even at the time, — the Reform- 
 ers, by thus opposing one another, proved 
 that they were not governed by blind 
 hatred of Rome, but that Truth was the 
 great object of their hearts. It must be 
 admitted that there is something gener- 
 ous in such conduct ; and its disinterest- 
 edness did not fail to produce some fruit, 
 and extort from enemies themselves a 
 tribute of interest and esteem. 
 
 But we may go further, and here 
 again we discern the Sovereign hand 
 which governs all events, and allows no- 
 thing to happen but what makes part of 
 its own wise plan. Notwithstanding his 
 opposition to the Papacy, Luther had a 
 strong conservative instinct. Zwingle, 
 on the contrary, was predisposed to radi- 
 cal reforms. Both these divergent ten- 
 dencies were needed. If Luther and his 
 followers had been alone in the work, it 
 would have stopped short in its progress ; 
 and the principle of Reformation would 
 not have wrought its destined effect. If, 
 on the other hand, Zwingle had been 
 alone, — the thread would have been 
 snapped too abruptly and the Reforma- 
 tion would have found itself isolated from 
 the ages which had gone before. 
 
 These two tendencies, which, on a su- 
 perficial view, might seem present only 
 to conflict together, were, on the contra- 
 ry, ordained to be the complement of each 
 other, — and now that three centuries 
 have passed away, we can say that they 
 have fulfilled their mission. 
 
 Thus, on all sides, the Reformation 
 had to encounter resistance ; and, after 
 combating the rationalist philosophy of 
 Erasmus, and the fanatical enthusiasm 
 of the Anabaptists, it had, in addition, to 
 settle matters at home. But its great and 
 lasting struggle was against the Papa- 
 
 cy ; — and the assault, commenced in the 
 cities of the plain, was now carried to the 
 most distant mountains. 
 
 The summits of Tockenburg had 
 heard the sound of the Gospel, and three 
 ecclesiastics were prosecuted by order of 
 the bishop, as tainted with heresy. " Only 
 convince us by the word of God," said 
 Militus, Doring, and Farer, " and we will 
 humble ourselves, not only before the 
 chapter, but before the very least of the 
 brethren of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we 
 will obey no one ; not even the greatest 
 among men."* 
 
 The genuine spirit of Zwingle and of 
 the Reformation speaks out in these 
 words. It was not long before a new in- 
 cident occurred to inflame the minds of 
 the mountaineers. A meeting of the 
 people took place on St. Catherine's day ; 
 the townsmen gathered in groups, and 
 two men of Schwitz, whose business had 
 called them to the Tockenburg, were 
 seated together at one of the tables. 
 They entered into conversation : — " Ulric 
 Zwingle," exclaimed one of them, "is a 
 heretic and a robber." The Secretary 
 Steiger defended the Reformation. Their 
 loud voices attracted the attention of the 
 meeting. George Bruggman, uncle to 
 Zwingle, who was seated at an adjoining 
 table, angrily left his seat, exclaiming, 
 " Surely they are speaking of Master Ul- 
 ric ;" on which the guests all rose up and 
 followed, apprehending a disturbance.! 
 The tumult increased ; the bailiff hastily 
 collected the Town-council in the open 
 street, and Bruggman was requested, for 
 the sake of peace, to content himself with 
 saying, " If you do not retract your 
 words, it is yourselves who are liars and 
 thieves." " Recollect what you have just 
 said," answered the men of Schwitz, "we 
 will not forget it." This said, they 
 mounted their horses, and set forward at 
 full speed for Schwitz.J 
 
 The government of Schwitz addressed 
 to the inhabitants of the Tockenburg, a 
 letter, which spread terror wherever it 
 came. " Stand firm and fear nothing,"^ 
 
 * Ne poteirtissimo quidem, sed soli Deo ejusque 
 verbo. — (Zw. Epp. p. 370.) 
 
 + Totumque convivium sequi, grandem con- 
 flictum timentes. — (Ibid. p. 371.) 
 
 t Auf solches, ritten sie wieder heim. — (Ibid, 
 p. 374.) 
 
 § Macti animo este et interriti. — (Zw. Epp. p. 
 351.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 537 
 
 wrote Zwingle to the Council of his na- 
 tive place : " Let not the lies they circu- 
 late concerning me disturb you. There 
 is no brawler but has the power to call 
 me heretic ; but do you avoid all insult- 
 ing language, tumults, excesses, and mer- 
 cenary war. Relieve the poor j espouse 
 the cause of the oppressed ; and what- 
 ever insults may be heaped upon you, 
 hold fast your confidence in Almighty 
 God."* 
 
 Zwingle's exhortations had the desired 
 effect. The Council were still hesita- 
 ting ; but the people gathering together 
 in their several parishes, unanimously 
 resolved that the Mass should be abol- 
 ished and the word of God adhered to.f 
 
 The progress of the work was not less 
 marked in Rhetia, from whence Salan- 
 dronius had been compelled to take his 
 departure, but where Comander was 
 preaching with much boldness. It is 
 true that the Anabaptists, by their fanati- 
 cal preachings in the country of the Gri- 
 sons, had at first been a great hindrance 
 to the progress of the Reformation. The 
 people had split into three parties. Some 
 had embraced the doctrines of those pre- 
 tended prophets: others in silent aston- 
 ishment meditated with anxiety on the 
 schism that had declared itself. And, 
 lastly, the partisans of Rome were loud 
 in their exultations^ 
 
 A meeting was held at Ilantz, in the 
 Grison league, for the purpose of a dis- 
 cussion. The supporters of the Papacy, 
 on one hand, the favourers of the Ref- 
 ormation on the other, collected their 
 forces. The bishop's vicar at first la- 
 boured to avoid the dispute. '• Such dis- 
 putations are attended with considerable 
 expenses," said he ; " I am ready to put 
 down ten thousand florins, in order to 
 defray them, but I expect the opposite 
 party to do as much." " If the bishop 
 has ten thousand florins at his disposal," 
 exclaimed the rough voice of a country- 
 
 * Verbis diris abstinete .... opem ferte ege- 
 nis .... spem certissimam in Deo reponatis 
 omnipotente. — (Ibid.) Either the date of one of 
 the letters, 14th and 23d of 1524, must be a mis- 
 take, or one letter from Zwingle to his fellow- 
 countrymen of the Tockenburg must be lost. 
 
 t Parochias uno consensu statuerunt in verbo 
 Dei manere. — (Zw. Epp. p. 423.) 
 
 t Pars tertia papistarum est in immensum glo- 
 riantium de schismate inter uos facto. — (Ibid. p. 
 400.) 
 
 68 
 
 man in the crowd, " it is from us he has 
 extorted them ; to give such poor priests 
 as much more would be a little too bad." 
 " We are a poor set of people," said Co- 
 mander, the pastor of Coira ; " we can 
 scarcely pay for our soup, where then can 
 we raise ten thousand florins."* Every 
 one laughed at this stratagem, and the 
 business proceeded. 
 
 Among those present were Sebastian 
 Hofmeister and James Amman of Zurich. 
 They held in their hands the Holy 
 Scriptures, in Hebrew and Greek. The 
 bishop's vicar moved that strangers be 
 desired to withdraw. Hofmeister under- 
 stood this to be directed against him. 
 " We have come provided,"' said he, 
 " with a Hebrew and Greek Bible, in 
 order that none may in any way do vi- 
 olence to the Scripture. However, soon- 
 er than stand in the way of the confer- 
 ence, we are willing to retire " " Ah !" 
 cried the curate of Dintzen, as he glan- 
 ced at the books the two Zurichers held 
 in their hands, " if the Hebrew and 
 Greek languages had never obtained 
 entrance into our country, there would 
 be fewer heresies among us."f " St. Je- 
 rome," observed another, " has translated 
 the Bible for us, and we don't want the 
 Jewish books." " If the Zurichers are 
 excluded," said the banneret of Ilantz, 
 " the commune will move in the affair." 
 "Well," replied the others, "let them 
 listen, but let them be silent." The Zu- 
 richers were accordingly allowed to re- 
 main, and their Bible with them. 
 
 Comander, rising in his place, read 
 from the first of his published theses — 
 " The Christian Church is born of the 
 word of God. Its duty is to hold fast 
 that Word, and not to give ear to any 
 other voice." He proceeded to establish 
 what he advanced by numerous passages 
 j from the Scriptures. " He went boldly 
 forward," says an eye-witness, " planting 
 his foot, at every step, with the firmness 
 of an ox's tread."| " This will last all 
 day," said the vicar. — '•'• When he is at 
 table with his friends, listening to those 
 
 * Sie waren gute arme Gesellen mit Ieeren 
 Secklen.— (Fiissl. Beytr. i. p. 358.) 
 
 t Ware die Griechische und Hebraische 
 Sprache nicht in das Land gekommen. — (Ibid. 
 p. 360.) 
 
 X Satze den Fuss wie ein miider Ochs. — ■ 
 (Fiissl. Beytr. i. p. 362.) 
 
538 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 who play the flute, he does not grudge 
 the time,"* remarked Hofmeister. 
 
 Just then one of the spectators left his 
 seat, and elbowing his passage through 
 the crowd, forced his way up to Coman- 
 der, waving his arms, scowling on the 
 Reformer, and knitting his brows. He 
 seemed like one beside himself; and 
 as he bustled up to Comander, many 
 thought he was going to strike him.f 
 He was a schoolmaster of Coira. " I 
 have written down various questions for 
 you to answer," said he to Comander : 
 " answer them directly." " I stand here," 
 said the Reformer of the Grisons, " to 
 defend my teaching. Do you attack it, 
 and I will answer you; or, if not, go 
 back to your place. I will reply to you 
 when I have done." The schoolmaster 
 deliberated for an instant. u Well," said 
 he, at last, — and returned to his seat. 
 
 It was proposed to proceed to consider 
 the doctrine of the Sacrament. The 
 abbot of St. Luke's declared that it was 
 not without awe that he approached such 
 a subject ; and the vicar devoutly cross- 
 ed himself in fear. 
 
 The schoolmaster of Coira, who had 
 before showed his readiness to attack 
 Comander, with much volubility began 
 to argue for the received doctrine of the 
 Sacrament, grounding what he said on 
 the words, — " This is my body." " My 
 dear Berre," said Comander to him, 
 " how do you understand these words, — 
 John is Elias ?" " I understand," replied 
 Berre, who saw Comander's object in the 
 question, " I understand that he was 
 truly and essentially Elias." " And why 
 then," continued Comander, " did John 
 the Baptist himself say to the Pharisees 
 that he was not Elias ?" The school- 
 master was silent ; and at last ejaculated, 
 — " It is true." All laughed, — even the 
 friends who had urged him to speak. 
 
 The abbot of Saint Luke's spoke at 
 much length on the Supper ; and the 
 conference was finally closed. Seven 
 priests embraced the Gospel. The most 
 perfect religious liberty was proclaimed ; 
 and in several of the churches, the 
 Romish worship was abolished. " Christ," 
 to use the words of Salandronius, " grew 
 
 * Den Pfeiffern zuzuhoren, die . . wie den 
 Fiirsten hofierten. — (Ibid.j 
 
 t Blintzete mit den Augen, rumpfete die 
 Stirne.— (Fussl. Beytr. i. p. 368.) 
 
 up every where in the mountains, like 
 the tender grass of the spring, and his 
 ministers were like living fountains, 
 watering those Alpine pastures."* 
 
 The Reformation was advancing, with 
 yet more rapid strides, in Zurich. Domin- 
 icans, Augustines, Capuchins, so long 
 opposed to each other, were reduced to 
 the necessity of living together ; — an an- 
 ticipated purgatory for these poor monks. 
 In place of those degenerated institutions 
 were founded schools, an hospital, a the- 
 ological seminary. Learning and char- 
 ity everywhere took the place of sloth 
 and selfishness. 
 
 These triumphs of the Reformation 
 could not escape notice. The monks, 
 the priests, and their prelates, hot know- 
 ing how to move, everywhere felt that 
 the ground was passing from under their 
 feet ; and that the Church was on the 
 point of sinking under its unprecedented 
 dangers. The oligarchs of the cantons, 
 — the hired supporters of foreign capitu- 
 lations, perceived there was no time to 
 be lost, if they wished to preserve their 
 own privileges ; and at the moment when 
 the Church, in her terror, was sinking 
 into the earth, they again tendered her 
 the support of their arms bristling with 
 steel. A John Faber was reinforced by 
 a Stein or John Hug of Lucerne, and 
 the civil authority came forward to assist 
 that power of the hierarchy which opens 
 his mouth to blaspheme and makes war 
 against the saints. f 
 
 Public opinion had for a long while 
 demanded a conference. No other way 
 appeared of quelling the people \ " Only 
 convince us from the Scriptures," said 
 the Council of Zurich to the Diet, " and 
 we will fall in with your desires." " The 
 Zurichers," said the people, " have given 
 you their promise ; if you are able to 
 refute them from the Scriptures, why not 
 do it 1 And if not able, why not your- 
 selves conform to the Bible?" 
 
 The conferences at Zurich had had a 
 mighty influence ; it seemed politic to 
 oppose to them a conference held in a 
 city in the interest of Rome ; taking at 
 
 * Vita, moribus et doctrina herbescenti Christo 
 apud Rhoetos fons irrigans. — (Zw. Epp. p. 485.) 
 
 t Rev. xiii. 
 
 % Das der gmein man, one eine offne disputa- 
 tion, nitt zu stillenj was. — (Bulling. Chr. i. p. 
 331.) 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 539 
 
 the same time all necessary precautions 
 to secure the victory to the Pope's party. 
 
 It is true that the same party had de- 
 clared such discussions unlawful, — but a 
 door of evasion was found to escape that 
 difficulty ; for, said they, all that it is 
 proposed to do is to declare and condemn 
 the pestilent doctrine of Zwingle.* This 
 difficulty obviated, they looked about 
 them for a sturdy disputant, and Doctor 
 Eck offered himself. He had no fear 
 of the issue. " Zwingle, no doubt, has 
 more knowledge of cows than of books,"f 
 observed he, as Hofmeister reports. 
 
 The Grand Council of Zurich de- 
 spatched a safe-conduct for Eck to repair 
 direct to Zurich ; but Eck answered 
 that he would await the answer of the 
 Confederation. Zwingle, on this, pro- 
 posed to dispute at St. Gall, or at Schaff- 
 hausen, but the Council, grounding its 
 decision on an article in the federal com- 
 pact, which provided that any person ac- 
 cused of misdemeanor should be tried in 
 the place of his abode, enjoined Zwingle 
 to retract his offer. 
 
 The Diet at length came to the decis- 
 ion that a conference should take place 
 at Baden, and appointed the 16th of 
 May, 1526. This meeting promised im- 
 portant consequences ; for it was the re- 
 sult and the seal of that alliance that 
 had just been concluded between the 
 power of the Church, and the aristocrats 
 of the Confederation. " See," said 
 Zwingle to Vadian, " what these oli- 
 garchs and Faber| are daring enough 
 to attempt." 
 
 Accordingly, the decision to be ex- 
 pected from the Diet was a question of 
 deep interest in Switzerland. None 
 could doubt that a conference held under 
 such auspices would be anything but 
 auspicious to the Reformation. Were 
 not the five cantons most devoted to the 
 Pope's views paramount in influence in 
 Baden ? Had they not already con- 
 demned Zwingle's doctrine, and pursu- 
 ed it with fire and sword? At Lucerne 
 had he not been burnt in effigy with 
 every expression of contempt ? At Fri- 
 burg had not his writings been consigned 
 
 * Diet of Lucerne, 13th of March, 1526. 
 
 t Er habe wohl mehr Kiihe gemolken als Bii- 
 cher gelesen. — (Zvv. Opp. ii. p. 405.) 
 
 X Vide nunc quid audeant oligarch! atque Fa- 
 ber.— (Zw. Epp. p. 484.) 
 
 to the flames? Throughout the five 
 cantons was not his death demanded by 
 popular clamour ? The cantons that ex- 
 ercised a sort of suzerainty in Baden, 
 had they not declared that Zwingle 
 should be seized if he set foot on any 
 part of their territory?* Had not Uber- 
 linger, one of their chiefs, declared that 
 he only wished he had him in his power 
 that he might hang him, though he 
 should be called an executioner as long 
 as he lived ?f And Doctor Eck himself, 
 had he not for years past called for fire 
 and sword as the only methods to be 
 resorted to against heretics? — What then 
 must be the end of this conference, and 
 what result can it have but the death of 
 the Reformer? 
 
 Such were the fears that agitated the 
 commission appointed at Zurich, to ex- 
 amine into the matter. Zwingle, behold- 
 ing their agitation, rose and said, " You 
 know what happened at Baden to the 
 valiant men of Stammheim, and how the 
 blood of the Wirths stained the scaffold 
 — and yet we are summoned to the very 
 place of their execution ! Let Zurich, 
 Berne, Saint Gall, or, if they will, Basle, 
 Constance, or Schaff hausen be chosen 
 for the conference ; let it be agreed that 
 none but essential points shall be discuss- 
 ed, that the word of God shall be the 
 only standard of authority which nothing 
 shall be allowed to supersede, and then I 
 am ready to come forward. "| 
 
 Meanwhile, fanaticism was already 
 aroused and was striking down her vic- 
 tims. On the 10th of May, 1526, that is, 
 about a week before the discussion at 
 Baden, a consistory," headed by the same 
 Faber who challenged Zwingle, con- 
 demned to the flames, as a heretic, an 
 evangelical minister named John Htigle, 
 pastor of Lindau,^ who sang the Te Devm 
 while walking to the place of execution. 
 At the same time, another minister, na- 
 med Peter Spengler, was drowned at Fri- 
 burg, by order of the bishop of Constance. 
 
 * Zwingli in ihrem Gebiet, wo er betreten 
 werde, gefangen zu nehmen. — (Zw. Opp. ii. p. 
 422.) 
 
 t Da wollte er gern all sein Lebtag ein Henker 
 genannt werden. — (Ibid. p. 454.) 
 
 X Wellond wir ganz geneigt syn ze erschynen. 
 — (Zw. Opp. ii. 423.) 
 
 \ Hunc hominem haereticum damnamus, pro- 
 jicimus et conculcamus. — (Hotting. Helv. K. 
 Gesch. iii. p>. 300. 
 
540 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Gloomy tidings reached Zwingle from 
 all sides. His brother-in-law, Leonard 
 Tremp, wrote to him from Berne : " I 
 conjure you as you value your life, not to 
 repair to Baden. I know that they will 
 not respect your safe-conduct."* 
 
 It was confidently asserted that a proj- 
 ect had been formed to seize, gag, and 
 throw him into a boat which should car- 
 ry him off to some secret place. f Taking 
 into consideration these threats of danger 
 and death, the Council of Zurich resolv- 
 ed that Zwingle should not go to Ba- 
 den, i 
 
 The day for the discussion being fixed 
 for the 19th of May, the disputants and 
 representatives of the cantons and bish- 
 ops slowly collected. First, on the side 
 of the Roman Catholics, appeared the 
 pompous and boastful Eek ; on the Pro- 
 testant side, the modest and gentle CEco- 
 lampadius. The latter was fully sensi- 
 ble of the perils attending this discussion : 
 — " Long had he hesitated," says an an- 
 cient historian, " like a timid stag, wor- 
 ried by furious dogs ;" at length he de- 
 cided on proceeding to Baden ; first ma- 
 king this solemn protestation — " I recog- 
 nize no other rule of judgment than the 
 word of God." He had, at first, much 
 wished that Zwingle should share his 
 perils :§ but he soon saw reason to be- 
 lieve that if the intrepid doctor had shown 
 himself in that fanatical city, the anger 
 of the Roman Catholics, kindling at the 
 sight of him, would have involved them 
 both in destruction. 
 
 The first step was to determine the 
 laws which should regulate the contro- 
 versy. Eck proposed that the deputies of 
 the Forest Cantons should be authorized 
 to pronounce the final judgment — a propo- 
 sal which, if it had been adopted, would 
 have decided beforehand the condemna- 
 tion of the reformed doctrines. Thomas 
 Plater, who had come from Zurich to at- 
 tend the conference, was despatched by 
 CEcolampadius to ask Zwingle's advice. 
 Arriving at night, he was with difficulty 
 admitted into the Reformer's house. 
 
 * Caveatis per caput vestrum. — (Zw. Epp. p. 
 483.) 
 
 t Navigio captum, ore mox obturato, clam 
 fuisse deportandum. — (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
 t Zwinglium Senatus Tigurinus Badenam di- 
 mittere recusavit. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Si periclitaberis, periclitabimur omnes tecum. 
 — (Zw. Epp. p. 312.) 
 
 Zwingle, waking up and rubbing his 
 eyes, exclaimed, " You are an unseason- 
 able visitant, — what news do you bring ? 
 For these six weeks past, I have had no 
 rest ; thanks to this dispute."* Plater 
 stated what Eck required. " And how," 
 replied Zwingle, " can those peasants be 
 made to understand such matters ? they 
 would be much more at home in milk- 
 ing their cows."t 
 
 On the 21st of May the conference be- 
 gan. Eck and Faber, accompanied by 
 prelates, magistrates, and doctors, robed 
 in damask and silk, and bedizened with 
 rings, chains, and crosses,^ repaired to the 
 church. Eck haughtily ascended a pul- 
 pit superbly decorated, whilst the humble 
 CEcolampadius, meanly clad, sat facing 
 his adversary upon a rudely constructed 
 platform. " During the whole time the 
 conference lasted," says the chronicler 
 Bullinger, " Eck and his party were 
 lodged in the parsonage house of Baden, 
 faring sumptuously, living gaily and dis- 
 orderly, drinking freely the wine with 
 which they were supplied by the abbot 
 of Wettingen.fy Eck, it was said, takes 
 the baths at Baden, but it is in wine that 
 he bathes. The Reformers, on the con- 
 trary, made but a sorry appearance, and 
 were scoffed at as a troop of mendicants. 
 Their manner of lffe afforded a striking 
 contrast to that of the Pope's champions. 
 The landlord of the Pike, the inn at 
 which CEcolampadius lodged, curious to 
 see how the latter spent his time in his 
 room, reported that whenever he looked 
 in on him, he found him either reading 
 or praying. It must be confessed, said 
 he, that he is a very pious heretic " 
 
 The discussion lasted eighteen days ; 
 and every morning the clergy of Baden 
 went in solemn procession, chaunting 
 litanies, in order to ensure victory. Eck 
 was the only one who spoke in defence 
 of the Romish doctrines. He was at Ba- 
 den exactly what he was at Leipsic, with 
 the same German twang, the same broad 
 shoulders and sonorous voice, reminding 
 one of a town-crier, and in appearance 
 more like a butcher than a divine. He 
 
 * Ich bin in 6 Wochen nie in das Beth Kom- 
 men. — (Plater's Leben. p. 263.) 
 
 t Sie verstunden sich bas auf Kuh malken. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Mit Syden, Damast und Sammet bekleydet 
 —(Bull. Chr. i. p. 351.) 
 
 § Verbruchten vil wyn. — (Ibid.) 
 
THE SWISS— 1522— 1527. 
 
 541 
 
 was vehement in disputing-, according to 
 his usual custom ; trying to wound his 
 opponents by insulting language, and 
 even now and then breaking out in an 
 oath.* The president never called him 
 to order — 
 
 Eck stamps his feet, and claps his hands, 
 He raves, he swears, lie scojds ; 
 
 " I do," cries he, " what Rome commands, 
 And teach whate'er she holds„"t 
 
 (Ecolampadius, on the contrary, with 
 his serene countenance, x his noble and 
 patriarchal ai r, spoke with so much mild- 
 ness, but at the same time with so much 
 ability and courage, that even his antag- 
 onists, affected and impressed, whispered 
 to one another, " Oh that the tall sallow 
 man were on our side. "J Sometimes, in- 
 , deed, he was moved at beholding the ha- 
 tred and violence of his auditors : " Oh," 
 said he, " with what impatience do they 
 listen to me ; but God will not forego 
 His glory, and it is that only that we 
 seek."§ 
 
 (E colampadius having combated Eck's 
 first thesis, which turned on the real pres- 
 ence, Haller, who had reached Baden 
 after the commencement of the discussion, 
 entered the lists against the second. Lit- 
 tle used to such discussions, constitution- 
 ally timid, fettered by the instructions of 
 his government, and embarrassed by the 
 presence of its chief magistrate, Gaspard 
 Mullinen, a bitter enemy of the Refor- 
 mation, Haller had none of the confident 
 bearing of his antagonist ; but he had 
 more real strength. When Haller had 
 concluded, (Ecolampadius again entered 
 the lists, and pressed Eck so closely, that 
 the latter was compelled to fall back upon 
 the custom of the church. " In our 
 Switzerland," answered (Ecolampadius, 
 " custom is of no force unless it be accord- 
 ing to the constitution ; now, in ail mat- 
 ters of faith, the Bible is our constitution." 
 
 The third thesis, regarding invocation 
 of saints ; the fourth, on images; the fifth, 
 on purgatory, were successively discussed. 
 
 * So entwuscht imm ettwan ein Schiir. — 
 (Bull. Chr. i. p. 381.) 
 
 t Egg zablet mit fussen mid henden 
 Fing an schelken und schenden, etc. 
 (Contemporaneous Poems of Nicholas Manuel of 
 Berne.) 
 
 t O were der lange gal man uff unser syten. 
 —(Bull. Chr. i. p. 353.) 
 
 § Domino suam gloriam, quam salvam cupi- 
 mus ne utiquam desestuor. — (Zw. Epp. p. 511.) 
 
 No one came forward to dispute the two 
 last theses, which bore reference to orig- 
 inal sin and baptism. 
 
 Zwingle took an important part in 
 the whole of the discussion. The Cath- 
 olic parly had appointed four secretaries, 
 and prohibited all other persons from ta- 
 king notes on pain of death.* Never- 
 theless, a student from the Valais, named 
 Jerome Walsch, gifted with a retentive 
 memory, carefully impressed upon his 
 mind all that he heard, and upon leav- 
 ing the assembly privately committed his 
 recollections to writing. Thomas Plater, 
 and Zimmermann of Winterthur, carried 
 these notes to Zwingle every day, as also 
 letters from (Ecolampadius, and brought 
 back the Reformer's answers. The gates 
 of Baden were guarded by halberdiers, 
 and it was only by inventing different 
 excuses that the two messengers could 
 evade the questions of the soldiers, who 
 were at a loss to comprehend why these, 
 youths so frequently entered and quitted 
 the city.-f- Thus Zwingle, though ab- 
 sent from Baden in bodily presence, was 
 with them in spirit. 
 
 He advised and strengthened his 
 friends, and refuted his adversaries. 
 " Zwingle," says Oswald Myconius, 
 "has laboured more in meditating upon 
 and watching the contest, and transmit- 
 ting his advice to Baden, than he could 
 have done by disputing in person in the 
 midst of his enemies." J 
 
 During the whole time of the confer- 
 ence the Roman Catholics were in a fer- 
 ment, publishing abroad the report of 
 advantages gained by them. " (Ecolam- 
 padius," cried they, " vanquished by Eck, 
 lies prostrate on the field, and sues for 
 quarter ;§ the Pope's authority will be 
 
 * Man sollte einem ohne aller weiter Urtheil- 
 en, den Kopf abhauen. — (Thorn. Platerl. Leben8 
 Beschreib. p. 262.) 
 
 t When I was asked, "What are you going 
 to do?" I replied,"! am carrying chickens to- 
 sell to the gentlemen who are come to the baths :" 
 — the chickens were given me at Zurich, and 
 the guards could not understand how it was 
 lhat I always got them so fresh, and in so short 
 a time. — (Plater's Autobiography.) 
 
 t Quam laborasset disputando vel inter medios 
 hostes. — (Osw. Myc. Vit. Zw.) See the various 
 writings composed by Zwingle relative to the 
 Baden conference. — (Opp. ii. p. 398, 520.) 
 
 § (Ecolampadius victus jacet in arena prostra- 
 tus ab Eccio, herbam porrexit. — (Zw. Epp. p. 
 514.) 
 
542 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 every where restored."* These state 
 merits were industriously circulated 
 throughout the cantons, and the many, 
 prompt to believe every rumour, gave 
 credit to these vauntings of the partisans 
 of Rome. 
 
 The discussion being concluded, the 
 monk Murner of Lucerne, nicknamed 
 the a tom-cat, ; ' came forward and read 
 forty articles of accusation against Zwin- 
 gle. "I thought," said he, "that the 
 dastard would appear and answer for 
 himself, but he has not done so : I am 
 therefore justified by every law, both hu- 
 man and divine, in declaring forty times 
 over, that the tyrant of Zurich and all 
 his partisans are rebels, liars, perjured 
 persons, adulterers, infidels, thieves, rob- 
 bers of temples, fit only for the gallows ; 
 and that any honest man must disgrace 
 himself if he hold any intercourse with 
 them, of what kind soever." Such was 
 the opprobrious language which, at that 
 time, was honoured with the name of 
 " Christian con troversy," by divines whom 
 the Church of Rome herself might well 
 blush to acknowledge. 
 
 Great agitation prevailed at Baden ; 
 the general feeling was that the Reform- 
 ers were overcome not by force of argu- 
 ments,- but by power of lungs, f Only 
 CEcolampadius and ten of his friends 
 signed a protest against the theses of 
 Eck, whilst they were adopted by no 
 less than eighty persons, including those 
 who had presided at the discussion, and 
 all the monks of Wittengen. Haller 
 had left Baden before the termination of 
 the conference. 
 
 The majority of the Diet then decreed, 
 that as Zwingle, the leader in these per 
 nicious doctrines, refused to appear, and 
 as the ministers who had come to Baden 
 hardened themselves against conviction, 
 both the one and the others were in con- 
 sequence cast out from the bosom of the 
 church. J 
 
 But this celebrated contest, which had 
 originated in the zeal of the oligarchs 
 and the clergy, was yet in its effects to 
 be fatal to both. Those who had con- 
 
 * Spem concipiunt lastam fore ut regnum ip- 
 sorum restituatur. — (Ibid. p. 513.) 
 
 t Die Evangelische weren wol uberschryen, 
 uicht aber vberdisputiert worden. — (Hotting. 
 Helv. K. Gesch. iii. p. 320.) 
 
 X Von gemeiner Kyrchen ussgestossen. — (Bull. 
 Chr. p. 355.) 
 
 tended for the Gospel, returning to their 
 homes, infused into their fellow-citizens 
 an enthusiasm for the cause they had 
 defended ; and Berne and Basle, two of 
 the most influential cantons of the Hel- 
 vetic confederation, began thenceforth to 
 fall away from the ranks of the Papacy. 
 
 It was to be expected that CEcolampa- 
 dius would be the first to suffer, the ra- 
 ther as he was not a native of Switzer- 
 land ; and it was not without some fear 
 that he returned to Basle. But his alarm 
 was quickly dissipated. His gentle 
 words had sunk deeply into those un- 
 prejudiced minds which had been closed 
 against the vociferations of Eck ; and he 
 was received with acclamations by all 
 men of piety. His adversaries, it is true, 
 used all their efforts to exclude him from 
 the pulpit, but in vain : he taught and 
 preached with greater energy than be- 
 fore, and never had the people manifest- 
 ed a more ardent thirst for the word of 
 the Lord.* 
 
 The course of events at Berne was of 
 a similar character. The conference at 
 Baden, which it had been hoped would 
 stifle the Reformation, gave to it a new 
 impulse in this the most powerful of the 
 Swiss cantons. No sooner had Haller 
 arrived in the capital, than the inferior 
 Council summoned him before them, and 
 commanded him to celebrate mass. Hal- 
 ler asked leave to answer before the 
 Grand Council ; and the people came 
 together, thinking it behoved them to 
 defend their pastor. Haller, in alarm, 
 declared that he would rather quit the 
 city than be the innocent occasion of dis- 
 orders. Upon this, tranquillity being re- 
 stored, " If," said the Reformer, " 1 am 
 required to perform mass I must resign 
 my office : the honour of God and the 
 truth of His holy Word lie nearer to my 
 heart than any care what ' I shall eat, or 
 wherewithal I shall be clothed.' " Hal- 
 ler uttered these words with much emo- 
 tion ; the members of the Council were 
 affected ; even some of his opponents 
 were moved to tears, f Once more was 
 moderation found to be strength. To 
 meet in some measure the requirements 
 of Rome, Haller was removed from his 
 office of canon, but appointed preacher. 
 
 * Plebe Verbi Domini admodum sitiente. — 
 (Zw. Epp. p. 518.) 
 t Tillier, Gesch. v. Bern. iii. p. 242. 
 
THE SWISS.— 1522— 1527. 
 
 543 
 
 His most violent enemies, Lewis and 
 Anthony von Diesbach and Anthony 
 von Erlach, indignant at this decision, 
 immediately withdrew from the Council 
 and the city, and threw up their rank as 
 citizens. " Berne stumbled," said Hal- 
 ler, " but she has risen up in greater 
 strength than ever." This firmness of 
 the Bernese mado a powerful impression 
 in Switzerland.* 
 
 But the effects of the conference of 
 Baden were not confined to Berne and 
 Basle. While these events were occur- 
 ring in those powerful cities, a move- 
 ment more or less of the same character 
 was in progress in several other states of 
 the Confederation. The preachers of 
 St. Gall, on their return from Baden, 
 proclaimed the Gospel, f At the conclu- 
 sion of a public meeting, the images 
 were removed from the parish church of 
 St. Lawrence, and the inhabitants parted 
 with their costly dresses, jewels, rings, 
 and gold chains, that they might employ 
 the money in works of charity. The 
 Reformation did, it is true, strip men of 
 their possessions, but it was in order that 
 the poor might be clothed ; and the only 
 worldly goods it claimed the surrender 
 of were those of the Reformed them- 
 selves. | 
 
 At Mulhausen the preaching was con- 
 tinued with unwearied boldness. Thur- 
 govia and the Rhenish provinces daily 
 drew nearer to the doctrine held in Zu- 
 rich. Immediately after the conference, 
 Zurzach abolished the use of images in 
 its churches, and almost the whole dis- 
 trict of Baden received the Gospel. 
 
 Nothing can show more clearly than 
 such facts as these which party had re- 
 ally triumphed. Hence we find Zwin- 
 gle, contemplating what was passing 
 around him, giving thanks to God: — 
 " Manifold are their attacks," said he, 
 " but the Lord is above all their threat- 
 enings and all their violence ; — a won- 
 derful unanimity in behalf of the Gos- 
 pel prevails in the city and canton of 
 Zurich — we shall overcome all things 
 
 * Profuit hie nobis Bernates tarn dextre in 
 servando Berchtoldo suo egisse. — (Ecol. ad. Zw. 
 Epp. p. 518.) 
 
 t San Gallenses officiis suis restitutos. — (Zw. 
 Epp. p. 518.) 
 
 t Kostbare Kleider, Kleinodien, Ring, Ketten, 
 etc. freywillig verkauft. — (Hott. iii. p. 338.) 
 
 by the prayer of faith."* Shortly af- 
 terwards, writing ifi Haller, he expressed 
 himself thus : " Every thing here below 
 follows its appointed course : — after the 
 rude northern blast comes the gentle 
 breeze. The scorching heat of summer 
 is succeeded by the treasures of autumn. 
 And now after stern contests, the Creator 
 of all things, whom we serve, has opened 
 for us a passage into the enemy's camp. 
 We are at last permitted to receive 
 among us the Christian doctrine, that 
 dove so long denied entrance, but which 
 has never ceased to watch for the hour 
 when she might return. Be thou the 
 Noah to receive and shelter her." 
 
 This same year Zurich made an im- 
 portant acquisition. Conrad Pellican, 
 superior of the Franciscan convent at 
 Basle, professor of theology when only 
 twenty-four years of age, had, through 
 the interest of Zwingle, been chosen to 
 fill the office of Hebrew professor at 
 Zurich. On his arrival he said, " I have 
 long since renounced the Pope, and de- 
 sired to live to Christ."! Pellican's crit- 
 ical talents rendered him one of the 
 most useful labourers in the great work 
 of the Reformation. 
 
 Early in 1527, Zurich, still excluded 
 from the Diet by the Romish cantons, 
 and wishing to take advantage of the 
 more favourable disposition manifested 
 by some of the confederates, convened 
 an assembly within her own walls. It 
 was attended by deputies from Berne, 
 Basle, Schaffhausen, Appenzell and 
 Saint Gall. " We require," said the 
 deputies of Zurich, "»that God's word, 
 which alone leads us to Christ crucified, 
 be the one thing preached, taught, and 
 exalted. We renounce all doctrines of 
 men, whatever may have been the cus- 
 tom of our forefathers ; being well as- 
 sured that if they had been visited by 
 this divine light of the Word, which we 
 enjoy, they would have embraced it with 
 more reverence than we, their unworthy 
 descendants."! The deputies present 
 promised to take into consideration the 
 
 * Fideli enim oratione omnia superabimus. — 
 (Zw. Epp. p. 519.) 
 
 t Jamdudum papse renuntiavi et Christo vivere 
 conenpivi. — (Ibid. p. 455.) 
 
 t Mit hoherem Werth und mehr Dankbarkeit 
 daim wir angenommen. — (Zurich Archiv. Absch. 
 Sonntag nach Lichtmesse.) 
 
544 
 
 HISTORY OF THE "REFORMATION. 
 
 representations made by their brethren 
 of Zurich 
 
 Thus the breach in the walls of Rome 
 was every day widened. The Baden 
 conference it was hoped would have re- 
 paired it ; but, on the contrary, from that 
 time forward the cantons that had hith- 
 erto been only doubtful appeared willing 
 to make common cause with Zurich. 
 The Reformation was already spreading 
 among the inhabitants of the plain, and 
 beginning to ascend the sides of the 
 mountains; — and the more ancient can- 
 tons, which had been as the cradle and 
 are still the citadel of Switzerland — 
 seemed in their alpine inclosures alone 
 to adhere faithfully to the religion of 
 their fathers. These mountaineers, con- 
 stantly exposed to violent storms, avalan- 
 ches, and overflowing torrents, are all 
 their lives obliged to struggle against 
 these formidable enemies, and to sacri- 
 fice every thing for the preservation of 
 the pastures where their flocks graze, and 
 the roofs which shelter them from the 
 tempest, and which at any moment may 
 be swept away by an inundation. Hence 
 a conservative principle is strikingly de- 
 veloped among them, and has been 
 transmitted from generation to generation. 
 With these children of the mountains, 
 wisdom consists in preserving what they 
 have inherited from their fathers. 
 
 At the period we are recording these 
 rude Helvetians struggled against the 
 Reformation that came to change their 
 faith and worship, as at this very hour 
 they contend against the roaring waters 
 which tumble from their snow-clad hills, 
 or against those modern notions and pol- 
 itics which have established themselves 
 in the adjoining cantons. They will 
 probably be the very last to lay down 
 their arms before that twofold power 
 which has already planted its standard on 
 the adjacent hills, and is steadily gaining 
 ground upon these conservative commu- 
 nities. 
 
 Accordingly, these cantons, yet more 
 irritated against Berne than against Zu, 
 rich, and trembling lest that powerful 
 state should desert their interests, assem- 
 bled their deputies in Berne itself, eight 
 days after the conference at Zurich. 
 They called on the Council to deprive 
 the innovating teachers of their office, to 
 proscribe their doctrines, and to maintain 
 
 the ancient and true Christian faith, as 
 confirmed by past ages and sealed by the 
 blood of martyrs. " Convene all the 
 bailiwicks of the canton," added they, 
 " if you refuse to do this, we will take it 
 upon ourselves." The Bernese were 
 irritated, and replied, "We require no 
 assistance in the directing of those who 
 hold authority under us." 
 
 This answer only inflamed the anger 
 of the Forest Cantons ; and those very 
 cantons, which had been the cradle of 
 the political liberty of Switzerland, af- 
 frighted at the progress of religious liber- 
 ty, began to seek even foreign alliances' 
 in order to destroy it. In opposing the 
 enemies of the capitulations it seemed to 
 them reasonable to seek the aid of capitu- 
 lations ; and if the oligarchs of Switzer- 
 land were not sufficiently powerful, it was 
 natural to have recourse to the princes 
 their allies. Austria, who had found it 
 impossible to maintain her own authority 
 in the Confederation, was ready to inter- 
 fere to strengthen the power of Rome. 
 Berne learnt with terror that Ferdinand, 
 brother of Charles V., was preparing to 
 march against Zurich, and all those who 
 look part with the Reformation.* 
 
 Circumstances were becoming more 
 trying. A succession of events, more or 
 less adverse, such as the excesses of the 
 Anabaptists, the disputes with Luther 
 concerning the Lord's Supper, and other 
 causes, seemed to have compromised the 
 prospects of the Reformation in Switzer- 
 land. The conference at Baden had dis- 
 appointed the hopes of the Papists, and 
 the sword which they had brandished 
 against their opponents had been shiver- 
 ed in their hands ; but their animosity 
 and rage did but increase, and they be- 
 gan to prepare for a fresh effort. The 
 Imperial power was in motion ; and the 
 Austrian bands, which had been com- 
 pelled to shameful flight from the defiles 
 of Morgarten and the heights of Sem- 
 pach, stood ready to enter Switzerland 
 with flying banners, to confirm the tot- 
 tering authority of Rome. The moment 
 was critical : it was no longer possible to 
 halt between two opinions ; — to be '' nei- 
 ther clear nor muddy." Berne and other 
 cantons which had so long hesitated were 
 reduced to the necessity of decision, either 
 
 * Berne a Zurich, le lundi apres Misericorde. 
 — (Kirchoff, B. Haller. p. 85.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 150O— 152S. 
 
 545 
 
 to return without loss of time to the Pa- 
 pal ranks, or to take their stand with 
 boldness on the side of Christ. 
 
 Just then William Farel, a French- 
 man from the mountains of Dauphiny, 
 communicated a powerful impulse to 
 Switzerland, — decided the reformation of 
 the western cantons, hitherto sunk in a 
 profound slumber, and so caused the bal- 
 ance to incline in favour of the new doc- 
 trines throughout the Confederation. Fa- 
 rel's coming resembled the arrival of 
 those fresh troops, who, just when the 
 
 battle hangs doubtfully, appear upon the 
 field, throw themselves into the thick of 
 the fight and decide the victory. He led 
 the way in Switzerland for another 
 Frenchman, whose austere faith and 
 commanding genius were ordained to 
 terminate the Reformation, and render 
 the work complete. In the persons of 
 these distinguished men France took her 
 part in that vast commotion which agi- 
 tated Christendom. It is therefore time 
 that we should turn our attention to 
 France. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 The Reformation in France — Persecution of the Vaudois— Birthplace of Farel — La Saint Croix — 
 The Priest's Wizard— Farel's Superstitious Faith — The Chevalier Bayard — Louis XII. — The 
 Two Valois — Lefevre — His Devotion — Farel's Reverence for the Pope — Farel and the Bible — 
 Gleams of Light — Lefevre turns to St. Paul — Lefevre on Works — University Amusements — 
 Faith and Works — Paradoxical Truth — Farel and the Saints— Allman Refutes Dovio — Pierre 
 Olivetan — Happy Change in Farel — Independence and Priority — Of the Reformation in France 
 — Francis of Angouleme — Two Classes of Combatants — Margaret of Valois — Talents of the 
 Queen of Navarre — The Bishop and the Bible — Francis Encourages Learning — Margaret Em- 
 braces the Gospel — Poetical Effusions — Of the Duchess of Atencon — Margaret's Danger — Vio- 
 lence of Beda — Louis Berquin — Opposition to the Gospel — The Concordat — The Concordat Re- 
 sisted — Fanaticism and Timidity — The Three Maries— Beda and the University — The King 
 and the Sorbonne — Briconnet in His Diocese — The Bishop and the Curates — Martial Mazurier 
 — Margaret's Sorrows— Strength Under Trial — Death of Philibert of Nemours — Alone, Not 
 Lonely — The Wandering Sheep — Briconnet's Hope and Prayer — Sufficiency of the Scriptures 
 — Lefevre's French Bible — The People " Turned Aside" — Church of Landouzy — The Gospel 
 and the French Court — Margaret's Lamentations — Briconnet Preaches Against the Monks — 
 Two Despotisms — Briconnet Draws Back — Leclerc the Wool-Comber — Leclerc's Zeal and Suf- 
 ferings — A Mother's Faith and Love — Secret Meetings for Worship — Berquin Imprisoned by the 
 Parliament — Charges Against Berquin — Liberated by the King — Pavanne's Recantation" and 
 Remorse — Zeal of Leclerc and Chatelain — Peter Toussainl — Leclerc Breaks the Images — Up- 
 roar among the People — Martyrdom of Leclerc and Chatelain — The Gospel Expelled from Gap 
 — Anemond's Zeal — Farel Preaches to His Countrymen — Pierre De Sebville — Anemond Visits 
 Luther — Luther's Letter to the Duke of Savoy — Farel's Arrival in Switzerland — fficolampadius 
 and Farel — Cowardice of Erasmus — French Frankness — " Balaam" — Farel's Propositions — 
 Faith and Scripture — The Reformation Defended — Visits Strasburg — Ordination of Farel — 
 Apostolical Succession — Farel at Montbeliard — The Gospel at Lyons — Anthony Papillon — 
 Sebville Persecuted — Secret Meetings at Grenoble — Effects of the Battle of Pavia — Trial and 
 Arrest of Maigret — Evangelical Association — Need of Unity — Christian Patriotism — Influence 
 of Tracts — The. New Testament in French — Bible and Tract Societies — Farel at Montbeliard 
 — Oil and Wine — Toussaint's Trials — Farel and Anemond — The Image of Saint Anthony — 
 Death of Anemond — Defeat and Captivity of Francis I. — Consternation of the French — Oppo- 
 sers of the Faith — The Queen-Mother and the Sorbonne — Cry for '• Heretical" Blood — Parlia- 
 ment Establishes the Inquisition — Charges Against Briconnet — Cited Before the Inquisition — 
 Dismay of the Bishop — Refused a Trial by His Peers — Briconnet's Temptation and Fall — Re- 
 tractation of Brigonnet — Compared with Lefevre — Beda Attacks Lefevre — Lefevre at Strasburg 
 — Meets Farel — Berquin Imprisoned — Erasmus Attacked by the Monks and the Sorbonne — 
 Appeals to the Parliament and the King — More Victims in Lorraine — Bonaventure Reunel — 
 
 69 
 
546 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Courage of Pastor Schuch — Martyrdom of Schuch — Peter Caroli and Beda — The Martyrdom 
 of James Pavanne — The Hermit of Livry — Seized and Condemned — Resources of Providence 
 John Calvin — The Family of Mommor — Calvin's Parentage — Calvin's Childhood — His De- 
 votion to Study — Infant Ecclesiastics — Calvin Proceeds to Paris — Reformation of Language — 
 Protestant France — System of Terror — The " Babylonish Captivity" — Toussaint Goes to Paris 
 — Toussaint in Prison — " Not accepting Deliverance" — Spread of Persecution — Project of Mar- 
 garet — For the Deliverance of Francis — Margaret's Resolution — She Sails for Spain. 
 
 One essential character of Christianity, 
 is its Universality. Very different in 
 this respect are the religions of particular 
 countries that men have invented. Adapt- 
 ing themselves to this or that nation, and 
 the point of progress which it has reached, 
 they hold it fixed and motionless at that 
 point — or if from any extraordinary cause 
 the people are carried forward, their re- 
 ligion is left behind, and so becomes use- 
 less to them. 
 
 There has been a religion of Egypt — 
 of Greece — of Rome, and even of Judea. 
 Christianity is the only religion of Man- 
 kind. 
 
 It has for its origin in man — Sin ; and 
 this is a character that appertains not 
 merely to one race, but which is the in- 
 heritance of all mankind. Hence, as 
 meeting- the hip-hest necessities of our 
 common nature, the Gospel is received 
 as from God, at once by the most barbar- 
 ous nations, and the most civilized com- 
 munities. Without deifying national 
 peculiarities, like the religions of anti- 
 quity, it nevertheless does not destroy 
 them, as modern cosmopolism aims to 
 do. It does better, for it sanctifies, en- 
 nobles, and raises them to a holy one- 
 ness, by the new and living principle it 
 communicates to them. 
 
 The introduction of the Christian reli- 
 gion into the world has produced an in- 
 calculable change in history. There had 
 previously been only a history of nations, 
 — there is now a -history of mankind : 
 and the idea of an' education of human 
 nature as a whole, — an education, the 
 work of Jesus Christ himself, — is become 
 like a compass for the historian, the key 
 of history, and the hope of nations. 
 
 But the effects of the Christian religion 
 are seen not merely among all nations, 
 but in all the successive periods of their 
 progress. 
 
 When it first appeared, the world re- 
 sembled a torch about to expire in dark- 
 ness, and Christianity called forth anew 
 a heavenly flame. 
 
 In a later age, the barbarian nations 
 
 had rushed upon the Roman territories, 
 carrying havoc and confusion wherever 
 they came ; and Christianity, holding up 
 the cross against the desolating torrent, 
 had subdued, by its influence, the half- 
 savage children of the north, and mould- 
 ed society anew. 
 
 Yet an element of corruption lay hid- 
 den in the religion carried by devoted 
 missionaries among these rude popula- 
 tions. Tbeir faith had come to them al- 
 most as much from Rome as from the 
 Bible. Ere long that element expanded; 
 man every where usurped the place of 
 God, — the distinguishing character of the 
 church of Rome ; and a revival of reli- 
 gion became necessary. This Chris- 
 tianity gave to man in the age of which 
 we are treating. 
 
 The progress of the Reformation in 
 the countries we have hitherto surveyed 
 has shown us the new teaching rejecting 
 the excesses of the Anabaptists, and the 
 newly arisen prophets : but it is the shal- 
 lows of Incredulity which it especially 
 encountered in the country to which Ave 
 are now to turn our attention. Nowhere 
 had bolder protests been heard against 
 the superstitions and. abuses of the 
 Church. Nowhere had there been a 
 more striking exhibition of that love of 
 learning, apart from, or independent of, 
 Christianity, which often leads to irre- 
 ligion. France bore within it at once 
 two reformations-, — the one of man, the 
 other of God. " Two nations were in 
 her womb, and two manner of people 
 were to be separated from her bowels."* 
 
 In France not only had the Reforma- 
 tion to combat incredulity as well as su- 
 perstition, it found a third . antagonii-.,. 
 which it had not encountered, at least in 
 so much strength, among the Germanic 
 population, and this was immorality. 
 Profligacy in the church was great. De- 
 bauchery sat upon the throne of Francis 
 the First and Catherine de Medicis ; and 
 the rigid virtues of the Reformers pro- 
 
 * Gen. xxv. 23. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 547 
 
 voked the anger of the Sardanapaluses.* 
 Wherever it came, doubtless, — but espe- 
 cially in France — the Reformation was 
 necessarily not only dogmatic and eccle- 
 siastical, but, moreover, moral. 
 
 These violent opposing influences, 
 which the Reformation encountered at 
 one and the same moment among the 
 French people, gave to it a character al- 
 together peculiar. Nowhere did it so 
 often have its dwelling in dungeons, or 
 bear so marked a resemblance to the 
 Christianity of the first ages in faith and 
 love, and in the number of its martyrs. 
 If in those countries of which we have 
 heretofore spoken the Reformation was 
 more illustrated by its triumphs, in those 
 we are about to speak of it was more glo- 
 rious in its reverses ! If elsewhere it might 
 point to more thrones and council cham- 
 bers, here it could appeal to more scaf- 
 folds and hill-side meetings. Whoever 
 knows in what consists the real glory of 
 Christianity upon earth, and the features 
 that assimilate to its Author, will study 
 with a deep feeling of veneration and af- 
 fection the history, often marked with 
 blood, which we are now to recount. 
 
 Of those who have afterwards shone on 
 the stage of life, the greater number have 
 been born and have grown up in the 
 provinces. Paris is like a tree which 
 spreads out to view its flowers and its 
 fruit, but of which the roots draw from 
 a distance and from hidden depths of 
 the soil the nutritive juices which they 
 transform. The Reformation followed 
 this law. 
 
 The Alps, which had witnessed the 
 rise of fearless Christian men in every 
 canton, and almost in every valley of 
 Switzerland, were destined in France 
 also to shelter, with their lengthened 
 shadows, the infancy of some of the ear- 
 liest Reformers. For ages they had pre- 
 served their treasure more or less pure in 
 their lofty valleys, among the inhabitants 
 of the Piedmontese districts of .Luzerne, 
 Angrogne, and Peyrouse. The truth, 
 which Rome had not been able to wrest 
 from them, had spread from the heights 
 to the hollows and base of the mountains 
 in Provence and in Dauphiny. 
 
 The year after the accession of Charles 
 VIII., the son of Louis XI. and a youth 
 
 * Sardanapalus (Henry II.) inter 6Corta. — 
 (Calvini Epp. M.S.) 
 
 of feeble health and timid character — In- 
 nocent VIII. had been invested with the 
 Pontiff's tiara, (1484.) He had seven 
 or eight sons by different women : — 
 hence, according to an epigram of that 
 age, the Romans unanimously gave him 
 the name of Father* 
 
 There was, at this time, on the south- 
 ern declivities of the Alps of Dauphiny 
 and along the banks of the Durance, an 
 after-growth of the ancient Vaudois opin- 
 ions. " The roots," says an old chroni- 
 cler, " were continually putting forth fresh 
 shootsin all directions. ! 'f Bold men were 
 heard to designate the Church of Rome 
 the ' church of evil spirits,' and to main- 
 tain that it was quite as profitable to pray 
 in a stable as in a church. 
 
 The clergy, the bishops, and the Ro- 
 man legates were loud in their outcries, 
 and on the 5th of May, 1487, Innocent 
 VIII. the ' Father' of the Romans, issued 
 a bull against these humble Christians. 
 " To arms," said the Pontiff, " to arms ! 
 and trample those heretics under your 
 feet as you would crush the venomous ser- 
 pent."! 
 
 At the approach of the Legate, at the 
 head of an army of eighteen thousand 
 men, and a host of voluntaries, drawn to- 
 gether by the hope of sharing in the 
 plunder of the* Vaudois, the latter aban- 
 doned their dwellings and retired to the 
 mountains, caverns, and clefts of the 
 rocks, as the birds flee for shelter when 
 a storm is rising. ' Not a valley, a thick- 
 et, or a rock escaped their persecutor's 
 search. Throughout the adjacent Alps, 
 and especially on the side of Italy, these 
 defenceless disciples of Christ were track- 
 ed like hunted deer. At last the Pope's 
 satellites were worn out with the pur- 
 suit ; their strength was exhausted, their 
 feet could no longer scale the inaccessi- 
 ble retreats of the ' : heretics," and their 
 arms refused their office. 
 
 In these Alpine solitudes, then disturb- 
 ed by Romsn fanaticism, three leagues 
 
 * Octo nocens pueros genuit totidemque pu- 
 ellas. 
 Htmc merito poterit dicere Roma Patrem. 
 
 + In Ebreduncnsi archiepiscopatu veteres Wa!- 
 densium hiereticorum fibra repullularunt. — (Ray- 
 nald. Annates Ecclesiast. ad. ann. 1487.) 
 
 t Armis insurgaut, eosque veluti aspides vene- 
 nosos . . . conculcent. — (Bull of Innocent VIII. 
 preserved at Cambridge. Leger Histoire des 
 Egliaes Vaudoises, ii. p. 8.) 
 
548 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 from the ancient town of Gap,* in the di- 
 rection of Grenoble, not far from the 
 flowery turf that clothes the table land of 
 Bayard's mountain, at the foot of the 
 Mont de l'Aiguille, and near to the Col 
 de Glaize, toward the source of the Buzon, 
 stood, and stili stands, a group of houses, 
 half hidden by surrounding trees, and 
 known by the name of Farel, or, in pa- 
 tois, Farcau.j On an extended plain 
 above the neighbouring cottages, stood a 
 house of the class to which, in France, 
 the appellation of " gentilhommiere" is at- 
 tached — a country gentleman's habita- 
 tion.;}; It was surrounded by an orchard, 
 which formed an avenue to the village. 
 Here, in those troublous times, lived a 
 family bearing the name of Farel, of long- 
 established reputation for piety, and, as it 
 would seem, of noble descent. § In the 
 year 1489, at a time when Dauphiny 
 was groaning under a weight of papal 
 oppression, exceeding what it had ever 
 before endured, a son was born in this 
 modest mansion, who received the name 
 of William. Three brothers, Daniel, 
 Walter, and Claude, and a sister, grew 
 up with William, and shared his sports 
 on the banks of the Buzon, and at the 
 foot of Mount Bayard. 
 
 His "infancy and boyhood were passed 
 on the same spot. His "parents were 
 among the most submissive thralls of 
 Popery. " My father and mother believ- 
 ed every thing-," j| he tells us himself; and 
 accordingly they brought up their chil- 
 dren in the strictest observances of Ro- 
 mish devotion. 
 
 God had endowed William Farel with 
 
 * Principal town of the High Alps. 
 
 t Revue du Dauphine\ July 1837, p. 35. 
 
 t Grenoble to Gap, distant a quarter of an 
 hour's journey from the last posthouse, and a 
 stone's throw to the right from the high road is 
 the village of the Farels. The site of the house 
 which belonged to the father of the Farel is still 
 pointed out. Though it is now occupied by a 
 cottage only, its dimensions are sufficient to prove 
 that the original structure must have been a dwel- 
 ling of a superior order. The present inhabitant 
 of the cottage bears the name of Farel. For 
 these particulars I am indebted to M. Blanc, the 
 pastor of Mens. 
 
 § Gulielmum Farellum Delphinatem, nobili fa- 
 milia ortum. — (Bezre Icones.) Calvin, writing to 
 Cardinal Sadolet, dwells upon the disinterested- 
 ness of Farel, — a man of such noble birth. — 
 (Opuscula, p. 148.) 
 
 || Du vray usage de la croix, par Guillaume 
 Farel, p. 237. 
 
 many exalted qualities, fitted to give him 
 an ascendancy over his fellow-men. Gift- 
 ed at once with a penetrating judgment, 
 and a lively imagination, sincere and up- 
 right in his deportment, characterised by 
 a loftiness of soul which never, under any 
 temptation, allowed him to dissemble the 
 convictions of his heart ; — he was still 
 more remarkable for the earnestness, the 
 ardour, the unflinching courage which 
 bore him up and carried him forward in 
 spite of every hindrance. But, at the 
 same time, he had the faults allied to 
 these noble qualities, and his parents 
 found frequent occasion to repress the 
 violence of his disposition. 
 
 William threw himself with his whole 
 soul into the same superstitious course 
 which his credulous family had followed 
 before him. " I am horror struck," said 
 he, at a later period, " when I think on 
 the hours, the prayers, the divine honours, 
 which I have offered myself, and caused 
 others to offer, to the cross, and such like 
 vanities."* 
 
 Four leagues distant from Gap / to 
 the south, near Tallard, on a hill which 
 overlooks the impetuous waters of the 
 Durance, was a place in high repute at 
 that time, called La Sainte Croix. Wil- 
 liam was but seven or eight years old 
 when his parents thought fit to take him 
 thither on a pilgrimage. f " The cross 
 you will see there," said they, " is made 
 of the wood of the very cross on which 
 Jesus Christ was crucified." 
 
 The family set forth on their journey, 
 and, on reaching the object of their ven- 
 eration, cast themselves prostrate before 
 it. After they had gazed awhile on the 
 holy wood of the cross, and the copper 
 appertaining to it, — the latter, as the 
 priest told them, " made of the basin in 
 which our Saviour washed the feet of 
 his disciples," — the pilgrims cast their 
 eyes on a little crucifix which was at- 
 tached to the cross. " When the devils 
 send us hail and thunder," resumed the 
 priest, " this crucifix moves so violently, 
 that one would think it wanted to get 
 loose from the cross to put the devils to 
 flight, and all the while it keeps throw* 
 
 * Du vray usage de la croix, par Guillaume 
 Farel, p. 232. 
 
 t J'estoye fort petit et a peine je savoye lire. — 
 (Ibid. p. 237.) Le premier pelerinage auquel 
 i'ai este a este a la saincte croix. — (Ibid, p 233.) 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 549 
 
 ing out sparks of fire against the storm ; 
 were it not for this, the whole country 
 would be swept bare."* 
 
 These pious pilgrims were greatly af- 
 fected at the recital of such prodigies. 
 " Nobody," continued the priest, " sees or 
 knows any thing of these things except 
 myself and this man here . . . ." The 
 pilgrims turned their heads, and saw a 
 strange looking man standing beside 
 them. " It would have frightened you 
 to look at him," says Farel : " the pupils 
 of both his eyes seemed to be covered 
 with white specks ; whether they were 
 so in reality, or that Satan gave them 
 that appearance. "f This uncouth look- 
 ing man, whom the unbelieving called 
 the "priest's wizard," on being appealed 
 to by the latter, bore testimony at once 
 to the truth of the miracle. J 
 
 A new episode was now accidentally 
 introduced to complete the picture, and 
 mingle suggestions of guilty excess with 
 the dreams of superstition. " Up comes 
 a young woman on some errand very 
 different from devotion to the cross, car- 
 rying a little child wrapped in a cloak. 
 And, behold, the priest goes to meet her, 
 and takes hold of her and the child, and 
 carries them straight into the chapel : 
 never, believe me, did couple in a dance 
 amble off more lovingly than did these two. 
 But so blinded were we that we took no 
 heed of their gestures or their glances, and 
 even had their behaviour been still more 
 unseemly, we should have deemed it alto- 
 gether right and reverent : — of a truth, 
 both the damsel and the priest under- 
 stood the miracle thoroughly, and how 
 to turn a pilgrim visit to fair account." § 
 
 Here we are presented with a faithful 
 picture of the religion and manners of 
 France at the commencement of the 
 Reformation. Morals and belief had 
 alike been vitiated, and each stood in 
 need of a thorough renovation. In pro- 
 portion as a higher value was attached 
 to outward rites, the sanctification of the 
 heart had become less and less an object 
 of concern ; — dead ordinances had every 
 
 * Du vray usage de la croix, par Guillaume 
 Farel, p. .235— 239. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 237. t Ibid. p. 238. 
 
 § Du vray usage de la croix, par Guillaume 
 Farel, p. 235. Some phrases of this narrative 
 have been a little softened. 
 
 where usurped the place of a christian 
 life : and, by a revolting yet natural al- 
 liance, the most scandalous debauchery 
 had been combined with the most super- 
 stitious devotion. Instances are on rec- 
 ord of theft committed at the altar, — se- 
 duction practised in the confessional, — 
 poison mingled with the eucharist, — 
 adultery perpetrated at the foot of a 
 cross ! Superstition, while ruining 
 Christian doctrine, had ruined morality 
 also. 
 
 There were, however, numerous ex- 
 ceptions to this pitiable state of things in 
 the Christianity of the middle ages. 
 Even a superstitious faith may be a sin- 
 cere one. William Farel is an example 
 of this. The same zeal which afterwards 
 urged him to travel incessantly from 
 place to place, that he might spread the 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ, then incited 
 him to visit every spot where the church 
 exhibited a miracle, or exacted a tribute 
 of adoration. Dauphiny could boast of 
 her seven wonders, which had long been 
 sanctified in the imagination of the peo- 
 ple.* But the beauties of nature, by 
 which he was surrounded, had also their 
 influence in raising his thoughts to the 
 Creator. 
 
 The magnificent chain of the Alps, 
 — the pinnacles covered with eternal 
 snow, — the enormous rocks, sometimes 
 rearing their pointed summifs to the sky, 
 sometimes stretching their naked ridges 
 on-and-on above the level clouds, and 
 presenting the appearance of an island 
 suspended in the air, — all these wonders 
 of creation, which, even then, were dila- 
 ting the soul of Ulric Zwingle, in the 
 Tockenburg, spoke with equal force to 
 the heart of William Farel, among the 
 mountains of Dauphiny. He thirsted 
 for life, — for knowledge — for light ; he 
 aspired to be something great: he asked 
 permission to study. 
 
 It was an unwelcome surprise to his 
 father, who thought that a young noble 
 should know nothing beyond his rosary 
 and his sword. The universal theme of 
 conversation at that time was the prowess 
 of a young countryman of William's, a 
 native of Dauphiny, like himself, named 
 Du Terrail, but better known by the 
 name of Bayard, who had recently per- 
 
 * The boiling spring, the cisterns of Sassenage, 
 the manner of Briancon, &c. 
 
550 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 formed astonishing feats of valour in the 
 battle of Tar, on the other side of the 
 Alps. " Such sons as he," it was cur- 
 rently remarked, " are like arrows in 
 the hand of a mighty man. Blessed is 
 the man who lias his quiver full of 
 them!" Accordingly, Farel's father re- 
 sisted his wish to become a scholar. But 
 the youth's resolution was not to be 
 shaken. God designed him for nobler 
 conquests than any that are to be achieved 
 by such as Bayard. He urged his re- 
 quest with repeated importunity, and the 
 old gentleman at length gave way.* 
 
 Fare] immediately applied himself to 
 study with surprising ardour. The mas- 
 ters whom he found in Dauphiny were 
 of little service to him; and he had to 
 contend with all the disadvantages of 
 imperfect methods of tuition and incapa- 
 ble teachers. f But difficulties stimulated 
 instead of discouraging him ; and he 
 soon surmounted these impediments. 
 His brothers followed his example. Dan- 
 iel subsequently entered on the career of 
 politics, and was employed on some im- 
 portant negociations concerning religion.:}: 
 Walter was admitted into the confidence 
 of the Count of Furstemberg. 
 
 Farel, ever eager in the pursuit of 
 knowledge, having learned all that was 
 to be learned in his native province, turn- 
 ed his eyes elsewhere. The fame of 
 the university of Paris had long re- 
 sounded through the Christian world. 
 He was anxious to see " this mother of 
 all the sciences, this true luminary of the 
 Church, which never knew eclipses, — 
 this pure and polished mirror of the faith, 
 dimmed by no cloud, sullied by no foul 
 touch. § He obtained permission from 
 his parents, and set out for the capital 
 of France. 
 
 In the course of the year 1510, or 
 shortly after the close of that year, the 
 young Dauphinese arrived in Paris. 
 His native province had sent him forth a 
 devoted adherent of the Papacy, — the 
 
 * Cum a parentibus vix impetrassem ad litter- 
 as concessum. — (Farel Natali Galeoto, 1527. 
 MS. Letters of the conclave of Neuchatel.) 
 
 t A prreceptoribus praecipue in Latina lingua 
 ineptissimis institutus. — (Farelli Epist.) 
 
 t Life of Farel, MS. at Geneva. 
 
 § Universitatem Parisiensem matrem omnium 
 scientiarum .... speculum fidei tersum et poli- 
 tum . . . — (Prima Apellat Universit. an. 1396, 
 Bulceus, iv. p. 806.) 
 
 capital was to convert him into something 
 far different. In France, the Reforma- 
 tion was not destined, as in Germany, to 
 take its rise in a petty city. By what- 
 ever movement the population of the" 
 former country may at any time be agi- 
 tated, the impulse is always to be traced 
 to the metropolis. A concurrence of 
 providential circumstances had made 
 Paris, at the commencement of the six- 
 teenth century, the focus from which a 
 spark of vivifying fire might easily be 
 emitted. The stranger from the neigh- 
 bourhood of Gap, who had just found 
 his way to the great city, an obscure and 
 ill-instructed youth, was to receive that 
 spark into his bosom, and to share it with 
 many around him. 
 
 Louis XII., the father of his people, had 
 just convened an assembly of the represen- 
 tatives of the French clergy at Tours. This 
 prince seems to have anticipated the times 
 of the Reformation, so that if that great 
 revolution had taken place during his 
 reign, all France, probably, would have 
 become Protestant. The assembly at 
 Tours had declared that the King had a 
 right to make war against the Pope, and 
 to carry into effect the decrees of the 
 Council of Basle. These decisions were 
 the subject of general conversation in 
 the colleges, as well as in the city, and 
 at the court, and they could not fail to 
 make a deep impression on the mind of 
 young Farel. 
 
 Two children of royal blood were 
 then growing up in the court of Louis. 
 The one was a young prince of tall sta- 
 ture, and a striking cast of features, who 
 evinced little moderation of character, and 
 yielded himself unreflectingly to the mas- 
 tery of his passions, so that the king was 
 often heard to say, " That great boy will 
 spoil all."* This was Francis of Angou- 
 leme, Duke of Valois, the king's cousin. 
 Boisy, his governor, had taught him, 
 however, to show great respect to letters. 
 The companion of Francis was his 
 sister Margaret, who was two years old- 
 er than himself. " A princess," says 
 Brantome, " of vigorous understanding, 
 and great talents, both natural and ac- 
 quired."! Accordingly, Louis had 
 spared no pains in her education, and 
 the most learned men in the kingdom 
 
 * Mezeray, vol. iv. p. 127. 
 
 t Brant. Dames Illustres, p. 331. 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 551 
 
 were prepared to acknowledge Margaret 
 as their patroness. 
 
 Already, indeed, a group of illustri- 
 ous men was collected round the two 
 Valois. William Bude, -who, in his 
 youth, had given himself up to self-in- 
 dulgence of every kind, and especially 
 to the enjoyment of the chase, — living 
 among his hawks, and horses, and 
 hounds ; and who, at the age of twenty- 
 three, had suddenly altered his course of 
 life, sold off his equipage, and applied 
 himself to study with all the eagerness 
 he had formerly displayed when cheer- 
 ing on his pack to follow the scent 
 through field and forest,* — Cop, the 
 physician, — Francis Vatable, whose pro- 
 ficiency in Hebrew learning was ad- 
 mired by the Jewish doctors themselves, 
 — James Tusan,the celebrated Hellenist ; 
 — these and other men of letters besides. 
 — encouraged by Stephen Poncher, the 
 bishop of Paris, Louis Ruze, the " Lieu- 
 tenant-Civil," and Francis de Luynes, 
 and already protected by the two young 
 Valois, — maintained their ground against 
 the violent attacks of the Sarbonne, who 
 regarded the study of Greek and He- 
 brew as the most fearful heresy. At 
 Paris, as in Germany and Switzerland, 
 the restoration of religious truth was 
 preceded by the revival of letters. But 
 in France the hands that prepared the 
 materials were not appointed to construct 
 the edifice. 
 
 Among all the doctors who then 
 adorned the French metropolis, one of 
 the most remarkable was a man of dimin- 
 utive stature, of mean appearance, and 
 humble birth ;f whose wit, erudition, 
 and eloquence had an indescribable 
 charm for all who approached him. The 
 name of this doctor was . Lefevre ; he 
 was born in 1455 at Etables, a little 
 town in Picardy. He had received only 
 an indifferent education, — a barbarous 
 one, Theodore Beza calls it ; but his 
 genius had supplied the want of masters ; 
 and his piety, his learning, and the' no- 
 bility of his soul shone with a lustre so 
 much the brighter. He had been a 
 great traveller, — it would even appear 
 that his desire to acquire knowledge had 
 
 * His wife and sons came to Geneva in 1540, 
 after his death. 
 
 t Homunculi unius neque genere insignis. — 
 (Bezse Icones.) 
 
 led him into Asia and Africa.* So early 
 as the year 1493, Lefevre, being then a 
 doctor of theology, occupied the station 
 of a professor in the University of Paris. 
 He immediately assumed a distinguished 
 place among his colleagues, and in the 
 estimation of Erasmus ranked above 
 them all. f 
 
 Lefevre soon discovered that he had 
 a peculiar task to fulfil. Though at- 
 tached to the practices of the Romish 
 church, he conceived a desire to reform 
 the barbarous system which then pre- 
 vaild in the University ;J he accordingly 
 began to teach the various branches of 
 philosophy with a precision hitherto un- 
 known. He laboured to revive the 
 study of languages and classical antiqui- 
 ties. He went further than this ; he 
 perceived that when a mental regenera- 
 tion is aimed at, philosophy and litera- 
 ture are insufficient instruments. Aban- 
 doning, therefore, the scholastic theology, 
 which for so many ages had held an un- 
 disputed sway in the seats of learning, 
 he applied himself to the Bible, and 
 again introduced the study of the Ho- 
 ly Scriptures and evangelical science. 
 They were no barren researches to 
 which he addicted himself; he went 
 straight to the heart of the Bible. His 
 eloquence, his candour, his affability, cap- 
 tivated every heart. Earnest and fer- 
 vent in the pulpit, — in his private inter- 
 course with his pupils he condescended 
 to the most engaging familiarity. " He 
 loves me exceedingly," was the lan- 
 guage of Glareanus, one of the number, 
 when writing to his friend Zwingle ; 
 " he is all frankness and kindness, — he 
 sings, he plays, he disputes, and then 
 laughs with me."§ Accordingly, a great 
 number of disciples from every country 
 were gathered around his chair. 
 
 This man, learned as he was, submit- 
 ted himself all the while, with childlike 
 
 * In the 2nd chapter of his Commentary on 
 the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians is a cu- 
 rious story regarding Mecca and the temple 
 there, which he relates in the style of a traveller. 
 
 t Fabro, viro quo vix in multis millibus repe- 
 rias vel integriorem vel humaniorem, says Eras- 
 mus.— (Er. Epp. p. 174.) 
 
 t Barbariem nobilissimse academias 
 
 incumbentem detrndi. — (Bezse Icones.) 
 
 § Supra modum me amat totus integer et can- 
 didus, mecum cantillat ludit, disputat, ridet me- 
 cum. — (Zw. Epp. p. 26.) 
 
552 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 simplicity, to the ordinances of the church. 
 He passed as much time in the churches 
 as in his closet, — so that a sympathetic 
 union seemed established beforehand be- 
 tween the old doctor of Picardy and the 
 young student of Dauphiny. When two 
 natures, so congenial as these, are brought 
 within the same sphere, though it be the 
 wide and agitated circle of a capital city, 
 their reciprocal attraction must at last place 
 them in contact with each other. In his 
 pious pilgrimages, young Farel soon ob- 
 served an old man, by whose devotion 
 he was greatly interested. He remark- 
 ed how he fell on his knees before the 
 images, how long he remained in that 
 posture, how fervently he seemed to pray, 
 and how devoutly he repeated his hours. 
 " Never," says Farel, " had I heard a 
 chanter chant the mass more reverent- 
 ly."* This was Lefevre. Farel imme- 
 diately felt a strong desire to become ac- 
 quainted with him ; — and great, indeed, 
 was his joy when the venerable man met 
 his approaches with kindness. He had 
 now found what he had come to the ca- 
 pital to seek. Henceforth his chief de- 
 light was to converse with the doctor of 
 Etaples, to listen to his instructions, to 
 practise his admirable precepts, and to 
 kneel with him in pious adoration at the 
 same shrine. Often were the aged Le- 
 fevre and his youthful disciple seen as- 
 sisting each other to adorn the image of 
 the Virgin with flowers, — while far re- 
 moved from Paris, far removed from the 
 throng of the collegiate hall, they mur- 
 mured in concert their earnest prayers 
 to the blessed Mary.f 
 
 The attachment of Farel to Lefevre 
 was generally noticed, and the respect 
 inspired by the old doctor was reflected 
 on his pupil. This illustrious connection 
 was the means of withdrawing the young 
 Dauphinese from his obscurity. He 
 soon acquired a reputation for his zeal ; 
 and many pious persons of the wealthier 
 order entrusted him with sums of money, to 
 be applied to the support of poor students. :{: 
 
 Some time elapsed before Lefevre and 
 his disciple attained to a clear perception 
 
 * Ep. de Farel a tous seigneurs, peuples et 
 pasteurs. 
 
 + Floribus jubebat Marianum idolum, dumuna 
 soli murmuraremus preces Marianas ad idolum, 
 ornari. — (Farellus Pellicano, an 1556.) 
 
 X Manuscript at Geneva. 
 
 of the truth. It was neither the hope of 
 a rich benefice, nor any propensity to an 
 irregular life, that bound Farel so firmly 
 to the cause of Popery : a spirit like his 
 was not to be influenced by motives so 
 sordid. The Pope, in his eyes, was the 
 visible chief of the church, — a sort of di- 
 vinity, at whose bidding souls were res- 
 cued from perdition. If any one, in his 
 hearing, presumed to say a word against 
 the venerated Pontiff, he gnashed his 
 teeth like a raging wolf, and, if he could, 
 would have called down thunder from 
 heaven to overwhelm the guilty wretch 
 in ruin and confusion. " I believe," he 
 said, " in the cross, in pilgrimages, in 
 images, in vows, in relics. What the 
 priest holds in his hands, shuts up in the 
 box, eats himself, and gives to be eaten 
 by others, — that is my only true God, — 
 and to me there is no God beside, in 
 heaven or on earth !"* " Satan," he 
 says afterwards, " had lodged the Pope, 
 and Popery, and all that is of himself, 
 so deeply in my heart, that, even in the 
 Pope's own heart, they could have sunk 
 no deeper." 
 
 And thus it was, that while Farel 
 seemed to be seeking God, his piety de- 
 cayed, and superstition gathered strength 
 in his soul. He has himself, in forcible 
 language, described his condition at that 
 time.f " Oh I" says he, " how I shudder 
 at myself and my sins, when I think on 
 it all ; and how great and wonderful a 
 work of God it is, that man should ever 
 be delivered from such an abyss !" 
 
 The deliverance in his own case was 
 wrought by little and little. In the course 
 of his reading, his attention had at first 
 been engaged by profane authors; but, 
 finding no food for his piety in these, he 
 had set himself to study the lives of the 
 saints : infatuation had led him to these 
 legends, and he quitted them more miser- 
 ably infatuated still. % He then addressed 
 himself to several of the celebrated doc- 
 tors of the age ; but these, instead of im- 
 parting tranquillity to his mind, only ag- 
 gravated his wretchedness. He next 
 
 * Epp. de Farel, — a tous seigneurs, peuples 
 et pasteurs. 
 
 t Quo plus pergere et promovere adnitebar, 
 eo amplius retrocedebam. — (Far. Galeoto, MS. 
 Letters at Neuchatel.) 
 
 X Quae de Sanctis conscripta offendebam, ve- 
 rum ex stulto insanum faciebant. — (Ibid.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 553 
 
 resolved to study the ancient philoso- 
 phers, and attempted to learn Christianity 
 from Aristotle ; but again his hopes were 
 frustrated. Books, images, relics, Aris- 
 totle, the Virgin, and the saints, — all 
 were unavailing. His eager spirit wan- 
 dered from one broken cistern of human 
 wisdom to another, and turned away 
 from each in succession, unrelieved of 
 the thirst that consumed it. 
 
 At last, remembering that the Pope 
 allowed the writings of the Old and New 
 Testament to be called the " Holy Bible," 
 Farel betook himself to the perusal of 
 these, as Luther, in the cloister of Erfurth, 
 had done before him ; and then, to his 
 dismay,* he found that the existing state 
 of things was such as could in no way 
 be reconciled with the rule of Scripture. 
 He was now, we might think, on the 
 very point of coming at the truth, when, 
 all at once, the darkness rolled back upon 
 him with redoubled weight, and the 
 depths closed over him again. " Satan," 
 says he, ''started up in haste, that he 
 might not lose his possession, and wrought 
 in me as he was wont."f A terrible 
 struggle between the word of God and 
 the word of the Church now ensued in 
 his heart. If he fell in with any passage 
 of Scripture opposed to the practice of 
 the Romish Church, he cast down his 
 eyes in perplexity, not daring to credit 
 what he read.| "Ah!" he would- say, 
 shrinking away from the Bible, " I do 
 not well understand these things ; — I 
 must put a different construction on these 
 passages from that which they seem to 
 me to" bear. I must hold to the interpre- 
 tation of the Church, — or rather, of the 
 Pope !" 
 
 One day, when he was reading the 
 Bible, a doctor, who chanced to come in, 
 rebuked him sharply. " No one," said 
 he, " ought to read the Holy Scriptures 
 until he has studied philosophy, and ta- 
 ken his degree in arts." This was a 
 preparation the Apostles had never re- 
 quired ; — but Farel believed him. " I 
 was the most unhappy of men," he tells 
 us, " for I turned away my eyes from the 
 light."§ 
 
 The young Dauphinese was now visit- 
 
 * Farel a tous seigneurs. t Ibid. 
 
 t Oculos demittens, visis non credebam.— 
 (Farel Natali Galeoto.) 
 
 § Oculos a luce avertebam. 
 70 
 
 ed with a fresh paroxysm of Romish fer- 
 vor. His imagination was inflamed by 
 the legends of the saints. The severities 
 of monastic discipline were to him a 
 powerful attraction. There was a clus- 
 ter of gloomy cells in a wood not far 
 distant from Paris occupied by an es- 
 tablishment of Carthusians: hither he 
 often repaired as an humble visitor, and 
 took part in the austerities of the monks. 
 " I was busied day and night," he says, 
 '•in serving the devil after the fashion 
 of the Pope, — that man of sin. 1 had 
 my Pantheon in my heart, and so many 
 intercessors, so many saviours, so many 
 gods, that I might well have passed for 
 a Popish register." 
 
 The darkness could never grow thick- 
 er, — but now the morning star was to 
 arise ; and the voice of Lefevre was to 
 give the signal of its appearance. The 
 Doctor of Etaples had already caught 
 some gleams of light : an inward con- 
 viction assured him that the Church 
 could not remain in the state in which 
 she then was ; — and often on his way 
 homeward, after chanting the mass, or 
 paying adoration to an image, the old 
 man would turn to his youthful disciple, 
 and say in a solemn tone, as he grasped 
 him by the hand : — " My dear William, 
 God will change the face of the world, — 
 and you will see it !"* Farel did not 
 properly conceive his meaning. But 
 Lefevre did not stop at these mysterious 
 words ; and the great change which was 
 wrought in his mind about this time was 
 appointed to produce a similar change in 
 the mind of his pupil. 
 
 The old Doctor had undertaken a task 
 of immense labour; he was carefully 
 collecting the legends of the saints and 
 martyrs, and arianging them in the or- 
 der in which their names are inserted in 
 the calendar. Two months had already 
 been printed, when one of those rays of 
 light that come from on high flashed on 
 a sudden into his soul. He could no 
 lono-er overcome the disgust which su- 
 perstitions so puerile must ever excite in 
 a christian heart. The grandeur of the 
 word of God made him perceive the 
 
 * A tous seigneurs. — See also his letter to 
 Pellican. Ante annos plus minus quadraginta, 
 me manu apprehensum ita alloquebatur : — 
 " Guillelme, oportet orbem immutari et tu vide- 
 bis !" 
 
554 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 wretched folly of such fables. They now 
 appeared to him hut as " brimstone, fit 
 only to kindle the fire of idolatry."* He 
 abandoned his work, and casting aside 
 all these legends, turned affectionately to 
 the Holy Scriptures. At that moment, 
 when Lefevre, forsaking the marvellous 
 histories of the saints, laid his hand on 
 the word of God, a new era opened in 
 France, — and the Reformation com- 
 menced its course. 
 
 Weaned, as we have seen, from the 
 fictions of the Breviary, Lefevre began 
 to study the Epistles of St. Paul: the 
 light grew rapidly in his heart, and he 
 soon communicated to his disciples that 
 knowledge of the truth, which we find in 
 his Commentaries. f Those were strange 
 doctrines for the schools and for the 
 world around him, which were then first 
 heard in Paris, and disseminated by print- 
 ing presses through all Christendom. 
 We may imagine that the young stu- 
 dents who listened were aroused, im- 
 pressed, and changed ; and that in this 
 way the aurora of a brighter day had 
 dawned upon France prior to the year 
 1512. 
 
 The great truth of Justification by 
 Faith, which at once overturns the sub- 
 tilties of the schools and the Popish doc- 
 trine of the efficacy of works, was boldly 
 proclaimed in the very bosom of Sor- 
 bonne itself. " It is God alone," said the 
 teacher, (and it might have seemed as if 
 the very roofs of the university would cry 
 out against such new sounds,) " It is God 
 alone, who by His grace justifies unto 
 eternal life.\ There is a righteousness 
 of our own works, and a righteousness 
 which is of grace, — the one a thing of 
 man's invention, the other coming from 
 God, — the one earthly and passing away, 
 the other divine and everlasting, — the 
 one the shadow and semblance, the other 
 the liffht and the truth. — the one discov- 
 
 * A tons seigneurs, peuples et pasteurs. 
 
 t The first edition of his Commentary on the 
 Epistles of St. Paul bears the date, if I mistake 
 not, of 1512. There fs a copy of it in the Royal 
 Library at Paris. The second edition is that to 
 which my citations refer. The learned Simon, 
 in his observations on the New Testament, says, 
 " James Lefevre must be ranked among the 
 most able commentators of his age." 
 
 % Solus enim Deus est qui hanc justitiam per 
 fidem tradit, qui sola gratia ad vitam justificat 
 aeternam. — (Fabri Comm. in Epp. Pauli, p. 70.) 
 
 ering sin and bringing the fear of death 
 — the other revealing grace for the at- 
 tainment of life !"* 
 
 "What will you then say?" enquired 
 the hearers, to whom such sounds ap- 
 peared to contradict the teaching of four 
 centuries, " will you say that any one 
 man was ever justified without works?" 
 — " One, do you ask V returned Lefevre, 
 " why they are innumerable. How many 
 shameful sinners have eagerly asked to 
 be baptized, having nothing but faith in 
 Christ alone, and who, if they died the 
 moment after, entered into the life of the 
 blessed without works." — " If, then, we 
 are not justified by works, it is in vain 
 that we should do them," replied some. 
 To this the Doctor made answer, — and 
 possibly the other Reformers might not 
 have altogether gone with him in his re- 
 ply : — " Quite the contrary, — it is not in 
 vain. If I hold up a mirror to the Sun, 
 it receives in it his image : the more I 
 polish and clean the mirror, the brighter 
 does the reflection of the sun shine in it ; 
 but if I suffer it to tarnish and dull, the 
 solar brilliancy is lost. So it is with Justi- 
 fication in those who lead an unholy 
 life." In this passage, Lefevre, like St. 
 Augustin, in several parts of his writings, 
 does not perhaps sufficiently mark the 
 distinction between justification and sanc- 
 tification. • The Doctor of Etaples often 
 reminds us of him of Hippone. Those 
 who lead an unholy life have never re- 
 ceived justification, — hence such cannot 
 lose it. But Lefevre perhaps intended 
 to say that the Christian, when he falls 
 into any sin, loses the assurance of his 
 salvation, and not his salvation itself. f 
 To this way of stating it there would be 
 nothing to object. 
 
 Thus a new life and a new character 
 of teaching had penetrated within the 
 University of Paris. The doctrine of 
 Faith, which in the first ages had been 
 
 * Ilia umbratile vestigium atque signum, heec 
 lux et Veritas est. — (Fabri Comm. in Epp. Pauli, 
 p. 700 
 
 t The believer may well bless God for this 
 truth, namely, that he may lose the ('sentiment') 
 assurance of his salvation without his salvation 
 being endangered. The cloud may, and it is 
 believed often has, involved the vessel during the 
 greater part of her course, which is not the less 
 advancing unto the haven where she would be. 
 Is Christ in the vessel ? — is that which concerns 
 us.— Tr. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 555 
 
 preached in Gaul by Pontius and Ire- 
 nseus, was again heard. Thenceforward 
 there were two different parties and two 
 different peoples in that celebrated school. 
 The instructions given by Lefevre, — the 
 zeal of his disciples, formed- a striking 
 contrast to the dry teaching of the majori- 
 ty of its doctors, and the frivolous conver- 
 sation of the generality of the students. 
 In the colleges, more time was lost in 
 committing to memory different parts in 
 comedies, masquerading, and mounte- 
 bank farces, than was given to the study 
 of God's word. In such farces it not un- 
 frequently happened that the respect due 
 to the higher classes, the nobility, and 
 even royalty itself, was forgotten. At the 
 very time we are writing of, the Parlia- 
 ment intervened, and summoning before 
 them the principals of several of the col- 
 leges, prohibited those indulgent tutors 
 from suffering such comedies to be acted 
 in their houses".* 
 
 But a mightier intervention than the 
 mandates of Parliament came to the cor- 
 rection of these disorders in the Univer- 
 sity : Christ was preached among its in- 
 mates. Great was the comznotion on its 
 benches ; and the minds of the students 
 were almost as generally occupied with 
 discussions of the doctrines of the Gos- 
 pel, as in scholastic subtilties or theatri- 
 cal exhibitions. Some of those fc whose 
 lives were least able to bear the light, 
 were yet heard taking the part of works, 
 and feeling instinctively that the doctrine 
 of Faith condemned the licentiousness of 
 their lives, — they maintained that St. 
 James, in his epistle, was at variance 
 with the writings of St. Paul. Lefevre, 
 resolving to stand by and protect the 
 treasure he had found, showed how the 
 two Apostles agreed : " Does not St. 
 James say," asked he, " that every good 
 and perfect gift cometh down from above, 
 — and who will contest that justification 
 is the perfect gift, the excellent grace ? 
 ... If we see a man moving, the 
 breathing we see in him is to us the sign 
 of life. Thus works are necessary, but 
 only as signs of that living faith which 
 is accompanied by justification f Is it 
 the eye-salve or lotion which gives light 
 to the eye % No ; it is the light of the 
 
 * Crevier Hist, de l'Universite, V.p. 95. 
 t Opera signa viva? fidei, quam jastificatio se- 
 quitur. — (Fabri Coram, in Epp. Pauli, p. 73.) 
 
 sun. Just so our works are but as eye- 
 salves and lotions ; the beam that the sun 
 sends forth from above is justification it- 
 self."* 
 
 Farel hung upon these sounds with in- 
 tense interest. Instantly this word of a 
 Salvation by Grace had upon his soul an 
 unspeakable power of attraction. Eveiy 
 objection fell, — every difficulty vanished. 
 Scarcely had Lefevre brought forward 
 this doctrine, when Farel embraced it 
 with all his heart and mind. He had 
 known enough of labour and conflict to 
 be convinced that he had* no power to 
 save himself ; therefore, when he saw in 
 God's word that God saves freely, he 
 believed God. " Lefevre," exclaimed he, 
 " extricated me from the delusive thought 
 of human deservings, and taught me how 
 that all is of Grace, — which I believed 
 as soon as it was spoken. "t Thus was 
 gained to the faith by a conversion as 
 prompt and decisive as that of St. Paul 
 himself, that Farel who, to use the words 
 of Theodore Beza, undismayed by 
 threatening, despising the shame and en- 
 during his cross, won for Christ, — Mont- 
 belliard, Neufchatel, Lausanne, Aigle, 
 and at last Geneva itself! 
 
 Meanwhile Lefevre, following up his 
 teaching, and taking delight in employ- 
 ing contrasts and paradoxes, embodying 
 weighty truths, extolled the sublime mys- 
 teries of redemption. " Oh !" he ex- 
 claimed, " the unspeakable greatness of 
 that exchange, — the sinless One is con- 
 demned, and he who is guilty goes free, 
 — the Blessing bears the curse, and the 
 cursed is brought into blessing, — the Life 
 dies, and the dead live, — the Glory is 
 whelmed in darkness, and he who knew 
 nothing but confusion of face is clothed 
 with glory."^ The pious teacher, going 
 yet deeper into his theme, recognised 
 that all salvation emanates from the sov- 
 ereignty of God's love : " They who are 
 saved," said he, w are saved by the elect- 
 ing grace and will of God, not by their 
 own will. Our election, our will, our 
 working is all in vain ; the alone elec- 
 
 * Sed radius desuper a sole vibratus, justifica- 
 tio est.— <Ibid. p. 73.) 
 
 t Farel. A tous seigneurs. 
 
 t Nullis difficultatibus fractus, nnllis minis, 
 convitiis, verberibus denique inflictis territus. — 
 (Beza? Icones.) 
 
 § O ineffabile commereiam! . . . — (Fabri 
 Comm. 145 verso.) 
 
556 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tion of God is all powerful ! When we 
 are converted, it is not our conversion 
 which makes us the elect of God, but it 
 is the grace, will, and election of God 
 which work our conversion."* 
 
 But Lefevre did not stop short in doc- 
 trines ; if he gave to God the glory, — he 
 turned to man for " the obedience," and 
 urged the obligations flowing from the 
 exceeding privileges of the Christian. 
 " If thou art a member of Christ's church," 
 said he, " thou art a member of his body ; 
 if thou art of his body, then thou art full 
 of the Divinfc nature, for the ' fulness of 
 the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily.' 
 Oh ! if men could but enter into the un- 
 derstanding of this privilege, how purely, 
 chastely, and holily would they live, and 
 how contemptible, when compared with 
 the glory within them, — that glory 
 which the eye of flesh cannot see, — 
 would they deem all the glory of this 
 world."f 
 
 Lefevre felt that the office of a teacher 
 in heavenly things was a high distinc- 
 tion: he discharged that office with un- 
 varying fidelity. The dissolute morals 
 of the age, and more especially of the 
 clergy, roused his indignation, and was 
 the theme of many a stern rebuke : 
 " What a reproach," said he, " to heara 
 bishop asking persons to drink with him, 
 gambling, shaking the dice, and spend- 
 ing his whole time in hawking, sporting, 
 hunting, hallooing in the chase of wild 
 beasts, and sometimes with his feet in 
 houses of ill-fame.| . . . O men worthy 
 of a more signal retribution than Sar- 
 danapalus himself!" 
 
 Such was the preaching of Lefevre. 
 Farel listened, trembling with emotion, 
 — received all into his soul, and went for- 
 ward in that new path now suddenly 
 made plain before him. Nevertheless 
 there was one article of his former creed 
 which he could not as yet entirely relin- 
 quish ; it was the invocation of the 
 saints. The noblest minds have often 
 these lingering remains of darkness after 
 the light has broken in upon them. Fa- 
 rel heard with astonishment the teacher 
 
 * Inefficax est ad hoc ipsum nostra" voluntas, 
 nostra electio ; Dei autem electio efficacissima et 
 potentissima, &c. — (Ibid. p. 89. verso.) 
 
 t Si de corpore Christi, divinitate repletus es. — 
 (Fabri Comm. p. 176. verso.) 
 
 X Et virgunculas gremio tenentem, cum sua- 
 viis sermones miscentem. — (Ibid. p. 208.) 
 
 declare that Christ alone should be in- 
 voked: "Our religion," said Lefevre, 
 " has only one foundation, one object, one 
 head, Jesus Christ, blessed for ever! he 
 hath trodden the winepress alone. Let 
 us not then take the name of Paul, of 
 Apollos, or of Peter. The cross of Christ 
 alone opens heaven, and shuts the gate 
 of hell." These words wakened a strug- 
 gle in the soul of Farel. On the one 
 hand he beheld the whole army of saints 
 with the Church, — on the other, Jesus 
 Christ and His preacher. One moment 
 he inclined to the one side, the next to 
 the other. It was the last hold of an- 
 cient error, and his final struggle. He 
 hesitated ; still clinging to those vene- 
 rated names before which Rome bends 
 adoringly. At last the decisive blow was 
 struck from above ; the scales fell from 
 his eyes ; Jesus was seen by him as the 
 only object of adoration. " From that 
 moment," said he, " the Papacy was de- 
 throned from my mind. I began to ab- 
 hor it as devilish, and the holy word of 
 God held the supreme place in my 
 heart."* 
 
 Events in the great world accelerated 
 the advance of Farel and his friends. 
 Thomas De Vio, who was subsequently 
 opposed at Augsburg against Luther, 
 having contended in a printed work that 
 the Pope was absolute monarch of the 
 Church, Louis XII. called the attention 
 of the University of Paris to the work in 
 February, 1512. James Allman, one of 
 the youngest of its doctors, a man of rare 
 genius and unwearied, application, read 
 at one of the meetings of the faculty of 
 theology a refutation of the Cardinal's 
 arguments, which drew forth the plau- 
 dits of the assembly.f 
 
 What must have been the effect of 
 such discussions on the young disciples 
 of Lefevre 1 Could they hesitate when 
 the university itself manifested an impa- 
 tience of the Papal yoke 1 If the main 
 body were in motion, should not they be 
 skirmishing at the advanced posts 1 " It 
 was necessary," said Farel, " that the Pa- 
 pal authority should be very gradually 
 expelled from my mind, for the first shock 
 did not bring it down.";}; He contem- 
 
 81. 
 
 * Farel. A tous seigneurs. 
 t Crevier Hist, de l'Universite - de Paris, v p 
 I. 
 X Farel. A tous seigneurs. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 557 
 
 plated the abyss of superstitions in which 
 he had been plunged ; standing on its 
 brink, he again surveyed its gloomy 
 depths, and drew back with a feeling of 
 terror : — "Oh !" ejaculated he, " what hor- 
 ror do I feel for myself and my sins when 
 I think of the past.* Lord," he con- 
 tinued, " would that my soul served Thee 
 with living faith after the example of thy 
 faithful servants? Would that I had 
 sought after and honoured Thee as I 
 have yielded my heart to the mass, and 
 served that magic wafer, — giving all 
 honour to that !" Grieving over his past 
 life, he with tears repeated those words 
 of St. Augustine, " I have come too late 
 to the knowledge of Thee ! too late have 
 I begun to love Thee !" 
 
 Farel' had found Christ ; and safe in 
 harbour he reposed in peace after the 
 storm. f "Now," said he r " every thing 
 appears to me to wear a different aspect.^ 
 Scripture is elucidated, prophecy is open- 
 ed, and the epistles carry wonderful light 
 into my soul.§ A voice before unknown 
 — the voice of Christ, my shepherd and 
 my teacher, speaks to me with power/' [| 
 So great was the change in him that 
 "instead of the murderous heart of a 
 ravening wolf," he came back, as he him- 
 self tells us, " like a gentle and harmless 
 lamb, with his heart entirely withdrawn 
 from the Pope and given to Jesus 
 Christ."! 
 
 Escaped from so great an evil, he 
 turned toward the Bible,** and applied 
 himself zealously to the acquirement of 
 Greek and Hebrew. ft He was unre- 
 mitting in his study of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, esteeming them more and more, 
 and daily receiving more light. He con- 
 tinued to resort to the churches of the 
 established worship — but what did he 
 there hear? — Responses and chauntings 
 innumerable, words spoken without un- 
 
 * Ibid. 
 
 t Animus per varia jactatus, verum nactus 
 portum, soli hoesit. — (Farel Galeoto.) 
 
 t Jam rerum nova facies. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Notior scriptura, apertiores prophetas, lucidi- 
 ores apostoli. — (Ibid.) 
 
 || Agnita pastoris, magistri et praeceptoris 
 Christi vox. — (Ibid.) 
 
 IT Farel. A tous seigneurs. 
 
 ** Lego sacra ut causam inveniam. — (Farel 
 Galeoto.) 
 
 tt Life of Farel. MSS. of Geneva and of 
 Choupard 
 
 derstanding.* Often, when standing 
 among the throng that gathered round 
 an image or an altar, he would exclaim, 
 — " Thou alone art God ! Thou alone 
 art wise ! Thou alone art good ' f No- 
 thing should be taken away — nothing 
 added to thy holy law — for Thou only 
 art the Lord, and it is Thou alone who 
 claimest and hast a right to our obe- 
 dience." 
 
 Thus all human teachers were brought 
 down from the height to which his im- 
 agination had raised them, and he rec- 
 ognized no authority but God and his 
 word. The doctors of Paris, by their 
 persecution of Lefevre, had long since 
 lost all place in his esteem ; but ere long 
 Lefevre himself, his well-beloved guide 
 and counsellor, was no more to him than 
 his fellow-man : he loved and venerated 
 him as long as he lived — but God alone 
 was become his teacher. . 
 
 Of all the Reformers, Farel and Lu- 
 ther are the two best known to us in 
 their early spiritual history, and most 
 memorable for the struggles they had to 
 pass through. Earnest and energetic, 
 men of conflict and strife, they bore the 
 brunt of many an onset before they 
 were permitted to be at peace. Farel is 
 the pioneer of the Reformation in Swit- 
 zerland and in France. He threw him- 
 self into the wood, and with his axe 
 cleared a passage through a forest of 
 abuses. Calvin followed, as Luther was 
 followed by Melancthon, resembling him 
 in his office of theologian and " master- 
 builder." These two men, — who bear 
 some resemblance to the legislators of 
 antiquity, the one in its graceful, the 
 other in its severer style, — settle, establish, 
 and give laws to the territory won by 
 the two former. And yet if Farel re- 
 minds us of Luther, we must allow that 
 it is only in one aspect of the latter that 
 we are reminded of him. Luther, be- 
 sides his superior genius, had, in all that 
 concerned the Church, a moderation and 
 prudence, an acquaintance with past ex- 
 perience, a comprehensive judgment, 
 and even a power of order, which was 
 not found in an equal degree in the Re- 
 former of Dauphiny. 
 
 Farel was not the only young French- 
 
 * Clamores multi, cantionea innumerae. — 
 (Farel Galeoto, MSS. of Neufchatel.) 
 t Vere tu solus Deus ! — (Ibid.) 
 
558 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 man into whose soul a new light was, at 
 this time, introduced. The doctrines 
 which flowed from the lips of the 
 far-famed doctor of Etaples fermented 
 among the crowd of his hearers ; and in 
 his school were formed, and trained the 
 bold men who were ordained to struggle, 
 even to the very foot of the scaffold. 
 They listened, compared, discussed, and 
 argued with characteristic vivacity. It 
 is a probable conjecture, that we may 
 number among the handful of scholars 
 who then espoused the Truth, young 
 Pierre Olivetan, born at Noyon, at the 
 end of the fifteenth century, who after- 
 wards revised Lefevre's translation of 
 the Bible into French, and seems to have 
 been the first who so presented the doc- 
 trine of the Gospel as to draw the atten- 
 tion of a youth of his family, also a na- 
 tive of Noyon, who became the most dis- 
 tinguished of all the leaders of the Ref- 
 ormation.* 
 
 Thus, before 1512, at a time when 
 •Luther had made no impression on the 
 world, but was taking a journey to Rome 
 on some business touching the interests 
 of some monks, and when Zwingle had 
 not even begun to apply himself in ear- 
 nest to Biblical studies, but was travers- 
 ing the Alps, in company with the con- 
 federated forces, to fight under the Pope's 
 banner — Paris and France heard the 
 sound of those life-giving truths, whence 
 the Reformation was destined to come 
 forth — and there were found souls pre- 
 pared to propagate those sounds, who re- 
 ceived them, with holy affection. Ac- 
 cordingly, Theodore Beza, in speaking 
 of Lefevre of Etaples, observes that " it 
 was he who boldly began the revival of 
 the holy religion of Jesus Christ:"! and 
 he remarks that, " as in ancient times, 
 the school of Isocrates had the reputation 
 of furnishing the best orators, so, from 
 the lecture-rooms of the doctor of Eta- 
 ples, went forth many of the best men 
 of the age, and of the Church."! 
 
 The Reformation was not, therefore, 
 in France, an importation from strangers ; 
 it took its birth on the French territory. 
 Its seed germinated in Paris — its earliest 
 
 * Biographie Universale, Article Olivetan. 
 Histoire du Calvinisme, par Maimbourg, 53. 
 
 t Et purioris religionis instaurationem fortiter 
 agressus. — (Beza? Icones.) 
 
 t Sic ex Stap ulensis auditorio praestantissimi 
 viri plurimi prodierint. — (Ibid.) 
 
 | shoots were struck in the University it- 
 ' self, that ranked second in power in 
 Romanized Christendom. God deposited 
 the first principles of the work in the 
 kindly hearts of some inhabitants of 
 | Picardy and Dauphiny, before it had be- 
 ' gun in any other country of the globe. 
 The Swiss Reformation was, as we have 
 seen,* independent of that of Germany ; 
 | the French Reformation was, in like 
 manner, independent of that of Switzer- 
 land, and that of Germany. The work 
 sprung up in these different countries at 
 one and the same time, without commu- 
 nication between them, as in a field of bat- 
 tle, the various divisions that compose the 
 army are seen in motion at the same in- 
 stant, although the order to advance has 
 not passed from one to the other, but all 
 have heard the word of command pro- 
 ceeding from a higher authority. The 
 time had come — the nations were ripe, 
 and God was everywhere beginning the 
 revival of His Church. 
 
 If we regard dates, we must then con 
 fess that neither to Switzerland nor to 
 Germany belongs the honour of having 
 been first in the work, although, hither- 
 to, only those countries have contended 
 for it. That honour belongs to France. 
 This is a fact that we are the more care* 
 ful to establish, because it has possibly, 
 until now, been overlooked. Without 
 dwelling upon the influence exercised by 
 Lefevre, directly or indirectly, on many 
 persons, and especially on Calvin. — let us 
 consider that which he had on one of his 
 disciples, Fare! himself, — and the energy 
 of action which that servant of God from 
 that hour manifested. Can we, after 
 that, withhold our conviction that even 
 though Zwingle and Luther should 
 never have been born, there would still 
 have been a movement of Reformation 
 in France ? It is, of course, impossible 
 to estimate how far it might have ex- 
 tended : we must even acknowledge that 
 the report of what was passing on the 
 other side of the Rhine and the Jura, af- 
 terwards accelerated and animated the 
 progress of the Reformers of France. 
 But it was they who were first awakened 
 by the voice of that trumpet which 
 sounded from heaven in the sixteenth 
 century, and who were earliest in the 
 field, on foot, and under arms. 
 
 * See page 318. 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 559 
 
 Nevertheless, Luther is the great work- 
 man of the sixteenth century, and, in the 
 fullest import of the term, the first Re- 
 former. Lefevre is not as complete as 
 Calvin, Farel, or Luther. There is 
 about him that which reminds us of 
 Wittemberg — of Geneva — but a some- 
 thing besides, that tells of the Sorbonne ; 
 he is the foremost Catholic in the Ref- 
 ormation movement, and the latest of 
 the Reformers in the Catholic movevent. 
 To the last, he continues a go between, 
 — a mediator, — not well understood ; re- 
 minding us that there is some connection 
 between the old things and the new, 
 which might seem for ever separated as 
 by a great gulf. Repulsed and persecu- 
 ted by Rome, he yet holds to Rome, by 
 a slender thread which he is unwilling 
 to sever. Lefevre of Etaples has a 
 place to himself in the theology of the 
 sixteenth century : he is the connecting 
 link between ancient and modern times, 
 and the man in whom the theology of 
 the middle ages passed into the theology 
 of the Reformation. 
 
 Thus, in the University, the truth was 
 already working. But the Reformation 
 was not to be an affair of college life. 
 It was to establish its power among the 
 great ones of the earth, and to have some 
 witnesses even at the King's court. 
 
 The young Francis of Angouleme, 
 cousin-german and son-in-law to Louis 
 XII., succeeded him on the throne. 
 His manly beauty and address, his cour- 
 age, and his love of pleasure, rendered 
 him the most accomplished knight of his 
 time. His ambition, however, rose high- 
 er ; it was his aim to be a great and 
 even a gracious prince ; provided only 
 that all should bend before his sovereign 
 authority. Valour, taste for literature, 
 and gallantry, are three words that well 
 express the genius of Francis, and of the 
 age in which he figured. At a some- 
 what later period, the like features ap- 
 pear in Henry IV. and Louis XIV. 
 These princes wanted that which the 
 Gospel communicates ; and, although 
 there has been no time when the nation 
 did not contain in it the elements of 
 sanctity and of Christian elevation, it may 
 be said that these great monarchs of 
 modern France have, in a measure, 
 stamped upon that people the impress of 
 their own characters, if it be not more 
 
 correct to say that they themselves were 
 the faithful expression of the character 
 of the nation over which they presided. 
 If the evangelic doctrine had entered 
 France under the auspices of the most 
 famed of the Valois princes, it might 
 have brought with it to the nation that 
 which France has not, — a spiritual turn 
 of mind, a christian purity, and an intel- 
 ligence in heavenly things, which would 
 have been the completion of the national 
 character in what most contributes to 
 the strength and greatness of a people. 
 
 It was under the r^le of Francis I. 
 that Europe, as well as France, passed 
 from the middle ages to the range of 
 modern history. It was then that that 
 new world which was bursting forth on 
 all sides when that prince ascended the 
 throne, grew and entered upon possession. 
 Two different classes of men exercised 
 an influence in moulding the new order 
 of society. On the one hand were the 
 men of faith, who were also men of wis- 
 dom and moral purity, and close to them, 
 the writers of the court, — the friends of 
 this world and its profligacy, — who, by 
 their licentious principles, contributed to 
 the depravation of morals as much as the 
 former served to reform them. 
 
 If, m the days of Francis the First, 
 Europe had not witnessed the rise of the 
 Reformers, but had been given up by 
 God's righteous judgment to the uncon- 
 trolled influence of unbelieving innova- 
 tors, her fate and that of Christianity had 
 been decided. The danger seemed great. 
 For a considerable time, the two classes 
 of combatants, the opposers of the Pope, 
 and those who opposed the Gospel, were 
 mixed up together ; and as both claimed 
 liberty, they seemed to resort to the same 
 arms against the same enemies. In the 
 cloud of dust raised on the field, an un- 
 practised eye could not distinguish be- 
 tween them. If the former had allowed 
 themselves to be led away by the latter, 
 all would have been lost. Those who 
 assailed the hierarchy passed quickly 
 into extremes of impiety, urging on the 
 people to a frightful catastrophe. The 
 Papacy itself contributed to bring about 
 that catastrophe, accelerating by its am- 
 bition and disorders the extinction of any 
 truth and life still left in the Church. 
 
 But God called forth the Reformation, 
 — and Christianity was preserved. The 
 
560 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Reformers who had shouted for liberty, 
 were, ere long, heard calling to obedi- 
 ence. The very men who had cast down 
 that throne whence the Roman Pontiff 
 issued his oracles, prostrated themselves 
 before the ' word of the Lord.' Then 
 was seen a clear and definite separation, 
 and war was declared between the two 
 divisions of the assailants. The one party 
 had desired liberty only that themselves 
 might be free, — the others had claimed 
 it for the word of God. The Reforma- 
 tion became the most formidable antago- 
 nist of that incredulity to which Rome 
 can show leniency. Having restored 
 liberty to. the Church, the Reformers re- 
 stored religion to society; and this last 
 was, of the two, the gift most needed. 
 
 The votaries of incredulity, for a while, 
 hoped to reckon among their number 
 Margaret of Valois, Duchess of Alencon, 
 whom Francis loved with especial ten' 
 derness, and, as Brantome informs us, 
 used to call his "darling."* The same 
 tastes and general information distin- 
 guished both brother and sister. Of fine 
 person like Francis, Margaret united to 
 those eminent qualities, which in their 
 combination constitutes remarkable char- 
 acters, those gentler virtues which win 
 the affection. In the gay world, the fes- 
 tive entertainment, the royal, the imperial 
 court, she shone in queenly splendour, 
 charming and captivating all hearts. 
 Passionately fond of literature and gifted 
 with no ordinary genius, it was her de- 
 light to shut herself in her apartment, 
 and there indulge in the pleasures of re- 
 flection, study, and meditation. But her 
 ruling desire was to do good and prevent 
 evil. When ambassadors from foreign 
 countries had presented themselves be- 
 fore the king, they were accustomed af- 
 terwards to pay their respects to. Marga- 
 ret, and " they were greatly pleased with 
 her, 1 ' observes Brantome, " and returning 
 to their homes, noised abroad the fame 
 of her : and he adds that " the king 
 would often hand over to her matters of 
 importance, leaving them for her to de- 
 cide."! 
 
 This celebrated princess was through 
 life distinguished by her strict morals; 
 but whilst many who carry austerity on 
 their lips, indulge laxity in conduct, the 
 
 * Vie des Dames Illustres, p. 333, Have 1740. 
 t Ibid. p. 337. 
 
 very reverse of this was seen in Marga- 
 ret. Blameless in conduct, she was not 
 altogether irreproachable in the use of 
 her pen. Far from wondering at this, 
 we might rather wonder that a woman 
 dissolute as was Louisa of Savoy, should 
 have a daughter so pure as Margaret. 
 Attending the court, in its progress 
 through the provinces, she employed her- 
 self in describing the manners of the 
 time, and especially those of the priests 
 and monks. " On these occasions," says 
 Brantome, " I often used to hear her re- 
 count stories to my grandmother, who 
 constantly accompanied her in her litter, 
 as dame cPhonneur, and had charge of 
 her writing desk."* According to some, 
 we have here the origin of the Heptame- 
 ron ; but more recent and esteemed crit- 
 ics have satisfied themselves that Marga- 
 ret had no hand in forming that collec- 
 tion, in some parts chargeable with worse 
 than levity, but that it was the work of 
 Desperiers, her gentleman of the cham- 
 ber.! 
 
 This Margaret, so charming, so full of 
 wit, and living in so polluted an atmos- 
 phere, was to be one of the first won over 
 by the religious impulse just then com- 
 municated to France. But how, in the 
 centre of so profane a court, and amid 
 the sounds of its licentious gossip, was the 
 Duchess of Alencon to be reached by 
 the Reformation? Her soul, led to look 
 to heaven, was conscious of wants that 
 the Gospel alone could meet. Grace can 
 act in every place, and Christianity, — 
 
 * Vie des Dames Illustres, p. 346. 
 
 t This is proved by one of the most distin- 
 guished critics of the age. M. Ch. Nodier, in 
 the Revue des Deux Mondes, t. xx. wherein he 
 observes, p. 350 — " Desperiers is in reality and 
 almost exclusively author of the Heptameron. I 
 scruple not to say I have no doubt of this, and en- 
 tirely coincide in the opinion of Bouistuan, who, 
 solely on this account, omitted and withheld the 
 name of the Queen of Navarre." If, as I think, 
 Margaret did compose some tales, doubtless the 
 most harmless of those in the Heptameron, it 
 must have been in her youth — just after her 
 marriage with the Duke of Alencon (1509). 
 The circumstances mentioned by Brantome, p. 
 346, that the king's mother and Madame de Sa- 
 voy " being young," wished to " imitate" Mar- 
 garet, is a proof of this. To this may be added 
 the evidence of De Thou, who says, " Si tem- 
 pera et juvenilem setatem in qua scriptum est 
 respicias, non prorsus damnandum, certe gravi- 
 tate tantoe heroinae et extrema vita minus dig- 
 num." — (Thuanus, t. vi. p. 117.) Brantome and 
 De Thou are two unobjectionable witnesses. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 561 
 
 which even before an apostle had ap- 
 peared in Rome, had some followers 
 among the household of Narcissus, and 
 in the palace of Nero,* — in the day of its 
 revival rapidly made its way to the court 
 of Francis the First. There were ladies 
 and lords who spoke to that princess con- 
 cerning the things of faith, and the sun 
 which was then rising on France, sent 
 forth one of its earliest beams on a man 
 of eminent station by whom its light was 
 immediately reflected on the Duchess of 
 Alencun. 
 
 Among the most distinguished lords 
 of the court was Count William of Mont- 
 brun, a son of Cardinal Briqonnet of St. 
 Malo, who had entered the church on his 
 being left a widower. Count William, 
 devoted to studious pursuits, himself also 
 took orders, and was bishop, first of Lo- 
 deva, and afterwards of Mcaux. Al- 
 though twice sent on an embassy to 
 Rome, he returned to Paris unseduced 
 by the attractions and splendours of 
 Leo X. 
 
 At the period of his return to France, 
 a ferment was beginning to manifest it- 
 self. Farel, as Master of Arts, was lec- 
 turing in the college of Cardinal Le- 
 moine, one of the four leading establish- 
 ments of the faculty of theology of Paris, 
 ranking equal with the Sorbonne. Two 
 countrymen of Lefevre, Arnaud and Ge- 
 rard Roussel, and some, others, enlarged 
 this little circle of free and noble spirits. 
 Briqonnet. who had so recently quitted 
 the festivals of Rome, was all amazement 
 at what had been doing in Paris during 
 his absence. Thirsting after the truth, 
 he renewed his former intercourse with 
 Lefevre, and soon passed precious hours 
 in company with the Doctor of the Sor- 
 bonne, Farel, the two Roussels, and their 
 friends. f Full of humility, the illustri- 
 ous prelate sought instruction from the 
 very humblest, but, above all, he sought 
 it of the Lord himself. " J am all dark," 
 said he, " waiting for the grace of the 
 divine favour, from which my sins have 
 banished me." His mind was as if daz- 
 zled by the glory of the Gospel. His 
 eye-lids sunk under its unheard-of bright- 
 ness. " The eyes of all mankind," ex- 
 
 
 * Romans xvi. 11. Phil. iv. 22. 
 t Histoire de la Re'vocat. de 1'edit de Nantes, 
 vol. i. p. 7. Maimbourg. Hist, du Calv. p. 12. 
 71 
 
 claimed he, " cannot take in the whole 
 light of that sun!"* 
 
 Lefevre had commended the Bishop to 
 the Bible, — he had pointed to it as that 
 guiding clue which ever brings us back 
 to the original truth of Christianity, such 
 as it existed before all schools, sects, or- 
 dinances, and traditions, and as that 
 mighty agent by means of which the re- 
 ligion of Jesus Christ is renewed in 
 power. Briqonnet read the Scriptures. 
 " Such is the sweetness of that heavenly 
 manna," said he, " that it never cloys ; 
 the more we taste of it, the more we long 
 for it."t The simple and prevailing 
 truth of Salvation filled him with joy ; 
 — he had found Christ, he had found 
 God Himself. " What vessel," he ex- 
 claimed, "is capable of receiving into it 
 such vast and inexhaustible grace. But 
 the mansion expands with our desire to 
 lodge the good guest. Faith is the 
 quarter-master who alone can find room 
 for him, or rather who alone can enable 
 us to dwell in hiviP But, at the same 
 time, the excellent bishop grieved to see 
 that living word which the Reformation 
 gare to the world so slighted at court, in 
 the city, and among the people ; and 
 he exclaimed, " Singular innovation, so 
 worthy of acceptation, and yet so ill re- 
 ceived !" 
 
 Thus did evangelic truth open itself a 
 way into the midst of the frivolous, disso- 
 lute, and literary court of Francis I. Sev- 
 eral of those who composed it and en- 
 joyed the unlimited confidence of that 
 prince, — as John du Bellay, du Bud6, 
 Cop, the court physician, and even Petit, 
 the king's confessor, seemed favourable 
 | to the views of Briqonnet and Lefevre. 
 ' Francis, who loved learning, and invited 
 | to his court scholars " suspected" of Lu- 
 ; theranism, " in the thought." observes 
 j Erasmus, " that he should, in that way, 
 ! adorn and illustrate his reign better than 
 he could do by trophies, pyramids, or 
 buildings," — was himself persuaded by 
 his sister, by Briqonnet, and the learned 
 of his court and colleges. He was pres- 
 
 * These expressions of Bri^onnet are from a 
 manuscript in the Royal Library at Paris — enti- 
 tled Letters of Margaret Queen of Navarre, and 
 which is marked S. F. 337. I shall more than 
 once have occasion to quote this manuscript, 
 which I found not easy to decipher. I quote 
 the language of the time. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
562 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ent at the discussions of the learned, — 
 enjoyed listening to their discourse at ta- 
 ble, — and would call them " hischildren." 
 He assisted to prepare the way for the 
 word of God, by founding professorships 
 of Hebrew and Greek, — accordingly, 
 Theodore Beza thus speaks, when pla- 
 cing his portrait at the head of the Re- 
 formers, — ' ; Pious Reader ! do not shud- 
 der at the sight of this adversary. Ought 
 not he to have his part in this honour who 
 banished barbarism from society, and 
 with firm hand established in its place 
 the cultivation of three languages and 
 profitable studies that should serve as the 
 portals of that new structure that was 
 shortly to arise."* 
 
 But there was at the court of Francis 
 I. one soul which seemed prepared for 
 the reception of the evangelic doctrines 
 of the teachers of Etaples and of Meaux. 
 Margaret, hesitating and not knowing 
 on what to lean in the midst of the prof- 
 ligate society that surrounded her, sought 
 somewhat on which her soul might rest, 
 — and found it in the Gospel. She turn- 
 ed toward that fresh breath of life which 
 was then reviving the world, and inhaled 
 it with delight as coming from heaven. 
 She gathered from some of the ladies- of 
 her court the teaching of the new preach- 
 ers. Some there were who lent her their 
 writings, and certain little books, called, 
 in the language of the time, u tracts ]'' — 
 they spoke of " the primitive church, of 
 the pure word of God, of a worship ' in 
 spirit and truth,' of a Christian liberty 
 that rejected the yoke of human traditions 
 and superstitions, that it might adhere 
 singly to God.' ; f It was not long before 
 this princess sought interviews with Le- 
 fevre, Farel, and Roussel. Their zeal, 
 piety, and walk, and all she saw of them, 
 impressed her, — but it was her old friend, 
 the bishop of Meaux, who was her guide 
 in the path of faith. 
 
 Thus, at the glittering court of Fran- 
 cis I. — and in the dissolute house of 
 Louisa of Savoy, was wrought one of 
 those conversions of the heart which in 
 every age are the work of the word of 
 God. Margaret subsequently recorded 
 
 * Neque rex potentissime pudeat . . . quasi 
 atrienses hujus sedis futuras. — (Bezae Icones.)— 
 Disputationibus eorum ipse interfuit. — (Flor. Rae- 
 mundi, Hist, de ortu haeresum. vii. p. 2.) 
 
 + Maimbourg. Hist, du Calvinisme, p. 16. 
 
 in her poetical effusions the various emo- 
 tions of her soul at this important period of 
 her life, and we may there trace the course 
 by which she was led. We see that the 
 sense of sin had taken strong hold upon 
 her, and that she bewailed the levity 
 with which she had once viewed the 
 scandals of the court. 
 
 Is there in the abyss's lowest depth 
 A punishment that equals e'en the tenth 
 Of all my sin. 
 
 The corruption which she had so long 
 overlooked, now that her eyes were open- 
 ed, was seen in every thing about her — 
 
 Surely in me there dwells that evil root 
 
 That putteth forth in others branch and fruit.* 
 
 But amid all the horror she felt at her 
 own state of heart, she yet acknowledged 
 that a God of Peace had manifested him- 
 self to her soul — 
 
 Thou, O my God, hast in thy Grace come down 
 To me, a worm of earth, who strength hath none.t 
 
 And soon a sense of the love of God 
 in Christ was shed abroad in her heart: — 
 
 My Father, then, — but what a Father thou, 
 Unseen, — that changest not, — endless of days, 
 
 Who graciously forgivest all my sins. 
 Dear Lord Emanuel, behold me fall 
 Low at thy sacred feet, a criminal ! 
 
 Pity me, Father, — perfect in Thy love ! 
 Thou art the sacrifice, and mercy-seat, 
 And Thou hast made for us an offering meet, 
 
 Well pleasing unto Thee, oh God above.! 
 
 Margaret had found the faith, and her 
 soul in its joy gave free expression to 
 holy delight, — 
 
 Oh Saviour Jesus — oh most holy Word — 
 
 Only begotten of thy Father God — 
 
 The First — the Last — for whom all things were 
 
 made — 
 Bishop and King, set over all as Head, 
 Through death, from fear of death thou sett'st 
 
 us free ! 
 Making us children by our faith in Thee, 
 Righteous and pure and good by faith to be. 
 Faith plants our souls in innocence again, 
 
 * Marguerites de la Marguerite des princesses 
 (Lyon 1547) tome l er , Miriordel'ame pecheresse, 
 p. 15. The copy I have used seems to have be- 
 longed to the Queen of Navarre herself, and 
 some notes appearing in it are, it is said, in her 
 handwriting. It is now in tb» possession of a 
 friend. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 18, 19. 
 
 X Ibid. Oraison a J. C, p. 143. 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 563 
 
 Faith makes us kings with Christ as kings to 
 
 reign, 
 Faith gives us all things in our Head to gain.* 
 
 From that time a great change was 
 seen in the Duchess of Alencon — 
 
 Though poor, untaught, and weak I be, 
 Yet feel I rich, wise, strong in Thee.t 
 
 However, the power of sin was not yet 
 subdued — Her soul was still conscious 
 of a want of blessed harmony, and of a 
 degree of inward struggle that perplexed 
 her, — 
 
 By spirit noble, yet by nature serf, 
 
 Of heavenly seed, — begotten here on earth ; 
 
 God's temple, — wherein things unclean find 
 
 room ; 
 Immortal, — and yet hastening to the tomb ; 
 Though fed by God, — in earthly pastures roving ; 
 Shrinking from ill, — yet sinful pleasures loving ; 
 Cherishing truth — yet not to truth conformed ; 
 Long as my days on earth prolonged are, 
 Life can have nought for me but constant war.t 
 
 Margaret, seeking in nature symbols 
 that might express the felt want and de- 
 sire of her soul, chose for her emblem, 
 says Brantome, the marigold, " which in 
 its flower and leaf has most resemblance 
 to the sun, and, turning, follows it in its 
 course. "§ She added this device, Non 
 inferiora secutus — I seek not things be- 
 low — "signifying," continues the annal- 
 ist of the court, " that her actions, 
 thoughts, purposes, and desires were di- 
 rected to that exalted Sun, namely God, 
 — whereupon it was suspected that she 
 had imbibed the religion of Luther." || 
 
 In fact, the princess shortly after ex- 
 perienced the truth of that word, " All 
 that will live godly in Jesus Christ shall 
 suffer persecution." The new opinions 
 of Margaret were the subject of conver- 
 sation at court, and great was the sensa- 
 tion ; — What ! could the king's sister be 
 one of those people? — For a moment it 
 might have been feared that Margaret's 
 disgrace was certain. But the king, who 
 loved his sister, affected to disregard the 
 rumour of the court. The conduct of 
 Margaret gradually dissipated the oppo- 
 sition : — " Every one loved her, for," 
 
 * Marguerites de la Marguerite des princesses 
 (Lyon 1547), tome 1 , Mirior de l'ame peche- 
 resse, p. 15. Discord de l'Esprit et de la chair, 
 p. 73. 
 
 t Ibid. Mirior de Fame, p. 22. 
 
 X Ibid. Discord de l'Esprit et de la chair, p. 
 71. 
 
 § Vies des Femmes Illustres. p. 33. 
 
 |! Ibid. p. 33. 
 
 says Brantome, " she was very kind, 
 gentle, condescending, and charitable, 
 very easy of access, giving away much 
 in alms, overlooking no one, but winning 
 all hearts by her gracious deportment."* 
 
 In the midst of the corruption and frivol- 
 ity of that age, the mind may joyfullycon- 
 template this elect soul, which the grace 
 of God gathered from beneath all its 
 pomps and vanities. But her feminine 
 character held her back. If Francis the 
 First had had the convictions of his sis- 
 ter, we can hardly doubt he would have 
 followed them out. The fearful heart of 
 the princess trembled at the thought of 
 facing the anger of her king. She con- 
 tinued to fluctuate between her brother 
 and her Saviour, unwilling to give up 
 either one or the other. We do not rec- 
 ognise in her the Christian who has at- 
 tained to the .perfect liberty of God's 
 children, but the exact type of those 
 souls — at all times so numerous, and es- 
 pecially among her sex, — who, drawn 
 powerfully to look to heaven, have not 
 strength sufficient to disengage them- 
 selves entirely from the bondage of 
 earth. 
 
 Nevertheless, such as she is here seen, \ 
 her appearance is a touching vision on 
 the stage of history. Neither Germany 
 nor England presents such a picture as 
 Margaret of Valois. She is a star, 
 slightly clouded, doubtless, but shedding 
 a peculiarly soft light. And at the pe- 
 riod we are contemplating, her light 
 even shines forth with much radiance. 
 Not till afterwards, when the angry 
 glance of Francis the First denounces a 
 mortal hatred of the Gospel, will his sis- 
 ter spread a veil over her holy faith. 
 But at this period she is seen erect in the 
 midst of a degraded court, and moving 
 in it as the bride of Jesus Christ. The 
 respect paid to her, the high opinion en- 
 tertained of her understanding and cha- 
 racter, pleads, more persuasively than 
 any preacher, the cause of the Gospel 
 at the court of France, and the power 
 of this gentle female influence gains ad- 
 mission for the new doctrines. Perhaps 
 it is to this period we may trace the dis- 
 position of the noblesse to embrace Pro- 
 testantism. If Francis had followed in 
 the steps of his sister, if the entire nation 
 had opened its arms to Christianity, the 
 * Vies des Femmes Illustres, p. 341. 
 
564 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 conversion of Margaret might have been 
 the channel of salvation to France. 
 But whilst the nobles welcomed the Gos- 
 pel, the throne and the people adhered 
 faithful to Rome, — and a day came when 
 it was a source of heavy misfortune to 
 the Reformation to have numbered in its 
 ranks the names of Navarre and Conde. 
 
 Thus already had the Gospel made 
 converts in France. Lefevre, Briconnet, 
 Farel, Margaret, in Paris, joyfully fol- 
 lowed in the direction of the movement. 
 It seemed as if Francis himself was more 
 attracted by the light of learning than 
 repelled by the purity of the Gospel. 
 The friends of God's word encouraged 
 the most hopeful anticipations, and were 
 pleasing themselves with the thought 
 that the heavenly doctrine would spread, 
 unresisted, through their country, when 
 suddenly a powerful opposition was con- 
 cocted in the Sorbonne, and at the court. 
 France, which was to signalize herself 
 among Roman Catholic states by three 
 centuries of persecution of the Re- 
 formed opinions, arose against the Ref- 
 ormation with pitiless sternness. If the 
 seventeenth century was, in France, an 
 age of bloody persecution, the sixteenth 
 was that of cruel struggle. In no coun- 
 try, perhaps, have those who professed 
 the reformed faith met with more merci- 
 less opposers on the very spots where 
 they brought the Gospel. In Germany 
 the anger of the enemy came upon them 
 from other states, where the storm had 
 been gathering. In Switzerland, it fell 
 upon them from the neighbouring can- 
 tons ; but in France it everywhere, met 
 them face to face. A dissolute woman 
 and a rapacious minister then took the 
 lead in the long line of enemies of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 Louisa of Savoy, mother of the king 
 and of Margaret, notorious for her gal- 
 lantries, of overbearing temper, and sur- 
 rounded by ladies of honour, whose li- 
 centiousness was the beginning of a long 
 train of immorality and infamy at the 
 court of France, naturally ranged herself 
 on the side of the opposers of God's 
 word. What rendered her more formi- 
 dable was the almost unbounded influ- 
 ence she possessed over her son. But 
 the Gospel encountered a still more for- 
 midable enemy in Anthony Duprat, 
 Louisa's favourite, and, by her influence, 
 
 elevated to the rank of chancellor of the 
 kingdom. This man, whom a contem- 
 porary historian has designated as the 
 most vicious of bipeds,* was yet more 
 noted for avarice than Louisa for her dis- 
 solute life. Having begun with enrich- 
 ing himself by perverting justice, he 
 sought to add to his wealth at the cost of 
 religion ; and took orders with a view to 
 get possession of the richest benefices. 
 
 Luxury and avarice thus characterized 
 these two persons, who, being both de- 
 voted to the Pope, sought to cover the in- 
 famy of their lives by shedding the blood 
 of heretics.f 
 
 One of their first steps was to hand 
 over the kingdom to the ecclesiastical 
 supremacy of the Pope. The king, af- 
 ter the battle of Marignan, had a meet- 
 ing with Leo X. at Bologna, and in that 
 place was concluded the memorable Con- 
 cordat, in virtue of which those two 
 princes divided between them the spoils 
 of the Church. They annulled the 
 supremacy of Councils to ascribe su- 
 premacy to the Poj)e, and took from the 
 respective churches the power of nom- 
 inating to bishoprics, to give that power 
 to the king. After this, Francis the 
 First, supporting the Pontiff's train, re- 
 paired publicly to the cathedral church of 
 Bologna to ratify the treaty. Sensible of 
 the iniquity of the Concordat, he turned 
 to Duprat, and whispered in his ear, — 
 " There is enough in this to damn us 
 both."!' But what signified to him sal- 
 vation, — money and the Pope's alliance 
 was what he sought. 
 
 The Parliament met the Concordat 
 with a vigorous resistance. The king, 
 after keeping its deputies waiting for 
 some weeks at Amboise, sent for them 
 one day into his presence, upon rising 
 from table, and said : " There is a king 
 in France, and I don't at all understand 
 that any men should form a senate after 
 the manner of Venice." He then or- 
 dered them to depart before sunset. From 
 such a prince, Gospel liberty had nothing 
 to hope. Three days afterwards, the 
 Grand Chamberlain- la Tremouille ap- 
 peared in Parliament, and directed that 
 the Concordat should be enregistered. 
 
 * Bipedum omnium nequissimus. — (Belcarius, 
 xv. p. 435.) 
 
 t Sismondi. Hist, des Fran^ais, xvi. p. 387. 
 t Mathieu, i. p. 16. 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 565 
 
 On this, the University was in motion. 
 On the 18th of March, 1518, a solemn 
 procession, at which were present the 
 whole body of students and bachelors in 
 their corps, repaired to the church of St. 
 Catherine of Scholars, to implore God to 
 preserve the liberties of the Church and 
 kingdom.* " The halls of the different 
 colleges were closed ; strong bodies of 
 students went armed through the streets, 
 threatening and in some instances mal- 
 treating consequential persons, engaged 
 pursuant to the king's directions, in ma- 
 king known the Concordat and carry- 
 ing it into effect."! However, in the re- 
 sult, the University allowed the compact 
 to be fulfilled, but without rescinding the 
 resolutions in which their opposition to 
 it was declared ; and " from that time," 
 says the Venetian ambassador Correro, 
 " the king began to give away bishoprics 
 at the solicitation of the ladies of the 
 court, and to bestow abbey lands on his 
 soldiers, so that at the French court bish- 
 oprics and abbeys were counted mer- 
 chandise, just as among the Venetians 
 they trade in pepper and cinnamon. "| 
 
 Whilst Louisa and Duprat were ta- 
 king their measures to root up the Gos- 
 pel by the destruction of the Gallican 
 Church, a powerful party of fanatics 
 were gathering together against the Bi- 
 ble. The truth of the Gospel has ever 
 had two great adversaries, — the profli- 
 gacy of the world, and the fanaticism of 
 the priests. The soholastic Sorbonne and 
 a shameless court, were now about to go 
 forward hand in hand against the con- 
 fessors of Jesus Christ. The unbeliev- 
 ing Sadducees and hypocritical Phari- 
 sees, in the early days of the Gospel, 
 were the fiercest enemies of Christianity, 
 and they are alike in every age. At 
 their head stood Noel Bedier, commonly 
 called Beda, a native of Picardy, syndic 
 of the Sorbonne, who had the reputa- 
 tion of the first blusterer and most fac- 
 tious disturber of his time. Educated in 
 the dry maxims of scholastic morality, he 
 had grown up in the constant hearing of 
 the theses and antitheses of his college, 
 and had more veneration for the hair- 
 breadth distinctions of the school, than 
 
 * Crevier, v. p. 110. 
 
 t Fontaine, Hist. Cathol. Paris, 1562, p. 16. 
 
 t Raumer. Gesch. Europ i. p. 270. 
 
 for God's word, so that his anger was 
 readily excited whenever any one ven- 
 tured to give utterance to other thoughts. 
 Of a restless disposition, that required 
 continually to be engaged in pursuit of 
 new objects, he was a torment to all 
 about him ; his very element was trou- 
 ble ; he seemed born for contention ; and 
 when adversaries were not at hand, he 
 would fall upon his friends. Boastful 
 and impetuous, he filled the city and the 
 university with the noise of his disputa- 
 tion, — with his invectives against learn- 
 ing and the innovations of that age, — as 
 also against those, who, in his opinion, 
 did not sufficiently oppose them. Some 
 laughed, others gave ear to the fierce 
 talker, and in the Sorbonne his violence 
 gave him the mastery. He seemed to be 
 ever seeking some opponent, or some vic- 
 tim to drag to the scaffold — hence, before 
 the " heretics" began to show themselves, 
 his imagination had created them, and 
 he had required that the vicar-general of 
 Paris, Merlin, should be brought to the 
 stake, on the charge of having defended 
 Origen. But when he caught sight of 
 the new teachers, he bounded like a wild 
 beast that suddenly comes within view 
 of its unsuspecting prey. " There are 
 three thousand monks in one Beda," re- 
 marked the wary Erasmus.* 
 
 Yet his violence injured the cause he 
 laboured to advance. " What ! can the 
 Romish Church rest for her support on 
 such an Atlas as that?f Whence all 
 this commotion but from the insane vio- 
 lence of Beda ?" was the reflection of the 
 wisest. 
 
 In truth the invectives that -terrified 
 the weak, revolted nobler minds. At the 
 court of Francis the First, was a gentle- 
 man of Artois, by name Louis Berquin, 
 about thirty years of age, who was never 
 married. The purity of his life,| his ac- 
 curate knowledge, which had won him 
 the appellation of " most learned among 
 the noble," § his ingenuousness, compas- 
 sion for the poor, and unbounded attach- 
 ment to his friends, distinguished him 
 
 * In uno Beda sunt tria millia monachorum. 
 — (Erasmi Epp. p. 373.) 
 
 t Talibus Atlantibus nititur Ecclesia romana. 
 —(Ibid. p. 113.) 
 
 t Ut ne rumusculus quidem impudicitise sit un- 
 quam in ilium exortus. — (Erasmi Epp. p. 1278.) 
 
 § Gaillard Hist, de Francis ler. 
 
566 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 above his equals.* The rites of the 
 Church, its fasts, festivals, and masses, 
 had not a more devout observer,! and he 
 held in especial horror every thing heret- 
 ical. His devotion was indeed the won- 
 der of the whole court. 
 
 It seemed as if nothing could have 
 given this man a turn in favour of the 
 Reformation ; nevertheless, some points 
 of his character disposed him toward the 
 Gospel. He had a horror of all dissimu- 
 lation, and having himself no ill-will to 
 any, he could not endure injustice in oth- 
 ers. The overbearing violence of Beda 
 and other fanatics, their shuffling and 
 persecutions disgusted his generous heart, 
 and as he was accustomed in every thing 
 to go heartily to work, he, ere long, 
 wherever he came, in the city and at 
 court, even in the first circles,! was heard 
 vehemently protesting against the tyran- 
 ny of those doctors, and pursuing into 
 their very holes the pestilent hornets who 
 then kept the world in fear.$ 
 
 But this was not all : for his opposi- 
 tion to injustice led Berquin to enquire 
 after the truth. He resolved on know- 
 ing more of that Holy Scripture so dear 
 to the men against whom Beda and his 
 parly were conspiring ; — and scarcely 
 had he begun to study it, than his heart 
 was won by it. Berquin immediately 
 sought the intimacy of Margaret, Briqon- 
 net, Lefevre, and those who loved the 
 truth ; and in their society tasted of the 
 purest delight. He became sensible that 
 he had something else to do than to stand 
 up against the Sorbonne, and gladly 
 would he have communicated to all 
 France the new convictions of his soul. 
 With this view he sat down to compose 
 and translate into French certain chris- 
 tian writings. To him it seemed as if 
 every one must confess and embrace the 
 truth as promptly as he himself had done. 
 The impatient zeal that Beda brought to 
 the service of traditions of men, Berquin 
 employed in the cause of God's truth. 
 Somewhat younger than the syndic of 
 the Sorbonne, less wary, less acute, he 
 
 * Mirere benignus in egenos et amicos. — (Er. 
 Epp. p. 1238.) 
 
 t Constitutionum ac rituum ecclesiasticorum 
 observantissimus . . . . — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Actes des Martyrs de Crespin, p. 103. 
 
 § Ut maxime omnium tunc metuendos era- 
 bones in ipsis eorum cavis . . . . — (Bezee Icones.) 
 
 had in his favour the noble incentive of 
 a love of truth. Berquin had a higher 
 object than victory over his antagonist 
 when he stood up against Beda. It was 
 his aim to let loose the flood of truth 
 among his countrymen. On this account, 
 Theodore Beza observes, " that if Francis 
 the First had been another Elector, Ber- 
 quin might have come down to us as an- 
 other Luther."* 
 
 Many were the obstacles in his way. 
 Fanaticism finds disciples everywhere, — 
 it is a contagious infection. The monks 
 and ignorant priests sided with the syn- 
 dic of the Sorbonne. An esprit de corps 
 pervaded their whole company, governed 
 by a few intriguing and fanatical leaders, 
 who knew how to work upon the credu- 
 lity and vanity of their colleagues, and 
 by that means communicate to them their 
 own animosities. At all their meetings 
 these persons took the lead, lording it 
 over others, and reducing to silence the 
 timid and moderate of their body. Hard- 
 ly could they propose any thing, when 
 this party exclaimed, in an overbearing 
 tone, " Now we shall see who are of Lu- 
 ther's faction."! If the latter offered any 
 reasonable suggestion, instantly a shud- 
 der passed from Beda to Lecouturier, 
 Duchesne, and the rest, and all exclaim- 
 ed, " Why they are worse than Luther." 
 The manoeuvre answered their purpose, 
 and the timid, who prefer quiet to dis- 
 putation, and are willing to give up their 
 own opinion for their own ease, — those 
 who do not understand the very simplest 
 questions, — and, lastly, such as are easily 
 turned round by mere clamour, were led 
 away by Beda and his followers. Some 
 silently, and some assenting aloud, sub- 
 mitted to the influence exercised over or- 
 dinary spirits by one proud and tyranni- 
 cal mind. Such was the state of this 
 association, regarded as venerable, and 
 which, at this time, was found among the 
 most determined opposers of the Chris- 
 tianity of the Gospel. Often would one 
 glance within the interior of such bodies 
 suffice to enable us to estimate at its true 
 value the war they wage against truth. 
 
 Thus the University which, under 
 Louis XII.. had applauded the first ink- 
 
 * Gallia fortassis alteram esset Lutherum 
 nacta. — (Bezse Icones.) 
 
 t Hie inquiunt, apparebit qui sint Lutheranae 
 factionis.— (Er. Epp. p. 889.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 567 
 
 lings of independence in Allman, ab- 
 ruptly plunged once more, under the 
 guidance of Duprat and Louisa of Savoy, 
 into fanaticism and servility. If we ex- 
 cept the Jansenists, and a few others, no 
 where in the Gallican clergy do we find 
 a noble and genuine independence. It 
 has done no more than vibrate between 
 servility to the court, and servility to the 
 Pope. If, under Louis XII. or Louis 
 XIV., we notice some faint semblance of 
 liberty, it is because its master in Paris 
 was at strife with its master in Rome. 
 Herein we have the solution of the 
 change we have noticed. The Univer- 
 sity and the Bishops forgot their rights 
 and obligations, the moment the King 
 ceased to enjoin the assertion of them ! 
 
 Beda had long cherished ill-will 
 against Lefevre. The renown of the 
 doctor of Picardy irritated and ruffled the 
 pride of his countryman, who would 
 gladly have silenced him. Once before, 
 Beda had attacked the doctor of Eiaples, 
 and, having as yet but little discernment 
 of the true point of the evangelic doc- 
 trines, he had assailed his colleague on a 
 point which, strange as it must to us ap- 
 pear, was very near sending Lefevre to 
 the scaffold.* The doctor had asserted 
 that Mary the sister of Lazarus, Mary 
 Magdalen, and the woman who was a 
 sinner, (mentioned by Luke in his sev- 
 enth chapter,) were three distinct per- 
 sons. The Greek fathers had considered 
 them as distinct, but the fathers of the 
 Latin Church had spoken of them as one 
 and the same. This shocking heresy, 
 in relation to the three Maries, set Beda 
 and all his clique in motion. Christen- 
 dom itself was roused. Fisher, bishop 
 of Rochester, and one of the most emi- 
 nent prelates of the age, wrote against 
 Lefevre, and the whole church declared 
 against a judgment that is now univer- 
 sally received among Roman Catho- 
 lics themselves. Already, Lefevre, con- 
 demned by the Sorbonne, was prosecuted 
 by the Parliament on the charge of here- 
 sy, when Francis I., not sorry to have an 
 opportunity of striking a blow at the 
 Sorbonne, and humbling the monks, in- 
 terfered, and rescued him from the hands 
 of his persecutors. 
 
 Beda, enraged at seeing his victim 
 
 * Gaillard Hist, de Francis Ier. iv. p. 228. 
 
 thus snatched from his grasp, resolved 
 on taking his next measures more cun- 
 ningly. The name of Luther was be- 
 ginning to be noised in France. The 
 Reformer, after disputing against Eck at 
 Leipsic, had agreed to acknowledge the 
 universities of Erfurth and of Paris as his 
 judges. The zeal displayed by the Uni- 
 versity against the Concordat doubtless 
 led him to expect an impartial verdict. 
 But a change had taken place, and the 
 more decided their opposition to the en- 
 croachments of Rome, the more did the 
 members of the University seem to have 
 it at heart to make proof of their ortho- 
 doxy. Beda, accordingly, found them 
 quite disposed to enter into all his views. 
 
 On the 20th of January, 1520, the 
 questor of France purchased twenty cop- 
 ies of Luther's conference with Eck, to 
 distribute them among the members of the 
 commission charged to make its report 
 on the matter. More than a year was 
 taken up in the investigation. The Ger- 
 man Reformation was beginning to pro- 
 duce a strong sensation in France. The 
 several universities, then truly Catholic 
 institutions, resorted to from all parts of 
 Christendom, maintained a more direct 
 and intimate intercourse, on topics of 
 theology and philosophy, between Ger- 
 many, France, and England, than exists 
 in our own day. The report, brought to 
 Paris, of Luther's labours and success, 
 strengthened the hands of such men as 
 Lefevre, Briqonnet, and Farel. Some of 
 the divines of the Sorbonne were struck 
 by the truths they saw in the writings of 
 the Wittemberg monk. Now and then 
 a bold confession was heard ; but there 
 was also fierce opposers. " Europe," 
 says Crevier, "was all expectation of 
 the decision of the University of Paris." 
 The issue seemed doubtful, — but Beda 
 finally triumphed. In April, 1521, the 
 University decreed that the writings of 
 Luther should be publicly committed to 
 the flames, and that the author should 
 be compelled to retract. 
 
 Further measures were resolved on. 
 Luther's disciples had crossed the Rhine, 
 even before his writings. Maimbourg 
 tells us that the University was quickly 
 filled with foreigners, who, having ob- 
 tained a reputation on the strength of 
 some knowledge of Hebrew, and more 
 of Greek, crept into the houses of per- 
 
568 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 sons of distinction, and took upon them 
 the liberty of explaining the Scriptures.* 
 The faculty, therefore, sent a deputation 
 to the king to call attention to these dis- 
 orders. 
 
 Francis the First, caring little for the- 
 ological dissensions, was then pursuing 
 the career of his pleasures. Passing from 
 one chateau to another, in company with 
 his gentlemen and the ladies of his moth- 
 er's and his sister's court, he indulged in 
 every species of dissolute excess, out of 
 the range of the troublesome observation 
 of his capital. In this way he passed 
 through Britainy, Anjou, Guienne, An- 
 goumois, Poitou, requiring, in villages 
 and forests, the same attention and luxu- 
 ry as if he had been in the Chateau des 
 Tournelles at Paris. Nothing was heard 
 of but tournaments, single combats, mas- 
 querades, shows, and feastings, " such," 
 says Brantome, u that Lucullus himself 
 never saw the like."t 
 
 Suspending for a moment the course 
 of his pleasures, he gave audience to the 
 grave deputies of the Sorbonne ; but he 
 saw only men of learning in those whom 
 the faculty designated as heretics; and 
 should a prince, who boasts of having 
 eclipsed and put hors de page the kings 
 of France, stoop to humour a clique of 
 fanatical doctors. " I command you," 
 was his answer, " not to molest those peo- 
 ple. To persecute those who teach us 
 would prevent able scholars from settling 
 in our country." % 
 
 The deputation quitted the royal pres- 
 ence in a rage. What then is to be the 
 consequence 1 The danger is every day 
 greater, already the heretical sentiments 
 are counted as those of the best informed 
 classes, — the devouring flame is circu- 
 lating between the rafters, — the confla- 
 gration will presently burst forth, and 
 the structure of the established faith will 
 fall, with sudden crash, to the earth. 
 
 Beda and his party, failing to obtain 
 the king's permission to resort to scaf- 
 folds, had recourse to more quiet perse- 
 cution. There was no kind of annoy- 
 ance to which the evangelic teachers 
 were not subjected. Every day brought 
 with it new rumours and new charges. 
 The aged Lefevre, wearied out by these 
 
 * Histoire du Calvinisme, p. 10. 
 
 r Vie des Hommes Illustres, i. p. 326. 
 
 X Maimbourg, p. 11. 
 
 ignorant zealots, panted for quiet. The 
 pious Briconnet, who was unremitting in 
 his attentions to the Doctor of Etaples,* 
 offered him an asylum. Lefevre, there- 
 fore, took leave of Paris, and repaired to 
 Meaux. It was a first advantage gained 
 by the enemies of the Gospel, and thence- 
 forth it was seen that if the party cannot 
 enlist the civil power on its side, it has 
 ever a secret and fanatical police, which 
 it knows how to use, so as to ensure the 
 attainment of its ends. 
 
 Thus Paris was beginning to rise 
 against the Reformation, and to trace, as 
 it were, the first lines of that enclosure 
 which, for three centuries, was to bar the 
 entrance of the Reformation. God had 
 appointed that in Paris itself its first glim- 
 mering should appear; but men arose 
 who hastily extinguished it ; — the spirit 
 of the sixteen chiefs was already work- 
 ing, and other cities in the kingdom were 
 about to receive that light which the cap- 
 ital itself rejected. 
 
 Briconnet, on returning to his diocese, 
 there manifested the zeal of a Christian 
 and of a bishop. He visited all the par- 
 ishes, and having called together the 
 deans, curates, vicars, church-wardens, 
 and principal parishioners, he made en- 
 quiries respecting the teaching and man- 
 ner of life of the preachers. "At the 
 time of the gathering," they replied, 
 " the Franciscans of Meaux sally forth ; 
 a single preacher goes over four or five 
 parishes in one day ; repeating as many 
 times the same sermon, not to feed the 
 souls of his hearers, but to fill his belly, 
 and enrich his convent, f The scrip once 
 replenished, the object is answered ; the ' 
 preaching is at an end, and the monks 
 are not seen again in the churches until 
 begging time comes round again. The 
 only thing these shepherds attend to is 
 the shearing of their flocks."^ 
 
 The majority of the curates lived upon 
 their incomes at Paris. " Oh !" exclaimed 
 the pious bishop, on finding the presbyte- 
 ry he had come to visit deserted, " must 
 
 * Pro innumerfs beneficiis, pro tantis ad studia 
 commodis. — (Epist. dedicatoria Epp. Pauli.) 
 
 t Eo solum doceri quae ad coenobium illoram 
 ac ventrem explendum pertinerent. — (Acta Mart, 
 p. 334.) 
 
 X MS. de Meaux. I am indebted to M. La- 
 deveze, pastor of Meaux, for the communication 
 of a copy of this MS. preserved in that city. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 569 
 
 we not regard those who thus forsake the 
 service of Christ,* traitors to him ?" Bri- 
 connet resolved to apply a remedy to these 
 evils, and convoked a synod of all his 
 clergy for the 13th of October, 1519. 
 But these worldly priests, who gave but 
 little heed to the remonstrances of their 
 bishop, and for whom Paris possessed 
 so many attractions, took advantage of a 
 custom, by virtue of which tl\ey were al- 
 lowed to substitute one or more vicars to 
 look after their flocks in their absence. 
 Out of a hundred and twenty-seven vic- 
 ars, Briconnet, upon examination, found 
 only fourteen whom he could approve. 
 
 Earthly-minded curates, imbecile vic- 
 ars, monks whose God was their belly, 
 such, then, was the state of the church. 
 Briconnet forbade the pulpit to the Fran- 
 ciscans,f and, being persuaded that the 
 only method of supplying able ministers 
 in his diocese, was himself to train them, 
 he determined to found a school of theol- 
 ogy at Meaux, under the superintendence 
 of pious and learned doctors. It became 
 necessary to look around for such per- 
 sons. Beda, however, supplied him with 
 them. 
 
 This fanatic and his troop continued 
 their efforts, and complaining bitterly 
 against the government for tolerating the 
 new teachers, declared they would wage 
 war against their doctrines without, and 
 even against its orders. Lefevre had in- 
 deed quitted the capital, but were not 
 Farel and his friends still there. Farel, 
 it is true, did not preach, for he was not 
 in priest's orders ; but in the university, 
 in the city, with professors, priests, stu- 
 dents, and citizens, he boldly maintained 
 the cause of the Reformation. Others, 
 emboldened by his example, circulated 
 more freely the word of God. Martial 
 Mazurier, president of St. Michael's col- 
 lege, and distinguished as a preacher, 
 unsparingly depicted the disorders of the 
 time, in the darkest and yet the truest 
 colours, and it seemed scarce possible to 
 withstand the force of his eloquence. | 
 The rage of Beda, and those divines who 
 acted with him, was at its height. " If 
 
 * MS. de Meaux. 
 
 t Eis in universa diocesi sua praedicationem 
 interdixit— (Act. Mart. p. 334.) 
 
 t Frequentissimas de reformandis hominum 
 moribus condones habuit. — (Lannoi, Navarrae 
 gymnasii Hist. p. 261.) 
 
 72 
 
 we suffer these innovators," said Beda, 
 " they will spread through our whole 
 company, and there will be an end of our 
 teaching and tradition, as well as of our 
 places, and the respect France and all 
 Christendom have hitherto paid us." 
 
 The doctors of the Sorbonne were the 
 stronger party. Farel, Mazurier, Gerard 
 Roussel, and his brother Arnaud, soon 
 found their active service every where 
 counteracted. The Bishop of Meaux 
 pressed his friends to rejoin Lefevre, — 
 and these worthy men, persecuted and 
 hunted by the Sorbonne, and hoping to 
 form with Briconnet a sacred phalanx for 
 the triumph of truth, accepted the bish- 
 op's invitation, and repaired to Meaux.* 
 Thus, the light of the Gospel was grad- 
 ually withdrawn from the capital where 
 Providence had kindled its first sparks. 
 " This is the condemnation, that light is 
 come into the ivorld, and men love dark- 
 ness rather than light, because their deeds 
 are evilP\ It is impossible not to discern 
 that Paris then drew down upon it that 
 judgment of God which is here conveyed 
 in the words of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Margaret of Valois, successively de- 
 prived of Briconnet, Lefevre, and their 
 friends, found herself alone in the centre 
 of Paris, and of the dissolute court of 
 Francis I. A young princess, sister to 
 her mother, Philibert of Savoy, lived on 
 intimacy with her. Philibert, whom the 
 king of France had given in marriage to 
 Julian the Magnificent, brother of Leo 
 X., in confirmation of the Concordat, had, 
 after her nuptials, repaired to Rome, 
 where the Pope, delighted with so illus- 
 trious an alliance, had expended no less 
 than 150,000 ducats in festive entertain- 
 ments on the occasion. ;£ In 1516, Julian, 
 who then commanded the Papal forces, 
 died, leaving his widow only eighteen. 
 She attached herself to Margaret, being 
 attracted by the influence which the 
 character and virtues of that princess 
 ffave her over all about her. The grief 
 of Philibert unclosed her heart to the 
 voice of religion. Margaret imparted to 
 her the fruit of her reading, and the wid- 
 ow of the lieutenant-general of the Church 
 
 * It was the persecution which arose against 
 them in Paris, in 1521, which compelled them 
 to leave that city. — (Vie de Farel, par Chaupard.) 
 
 t St. John iii. 19. 
 
 X Guichemon. Hist. gen. de Savoie, ii. p. 18Q. 
 
570 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 began to taste the sweetness of the saving 
 truth. But Philibert had as yet too little 
 experience to be a support to her friend, 
 and often did Margaret tremble at the 
 thought of her own extreme weakness. 
 If the love she bore her king, and her 
 fear of offending him, led her to any ac- 
 tion contrary to her conscience, instantly 
 her soul was troubled, and, turning in 
 sorrow to the Lord, she found in him a 
 master and brother more gracious and 
 sweet to her heart than Francis himself. 
 It was in such a season she breathed forth 
 those feelings : — 
 
 Sweet Brother, who in place of chastenings meet, 
 Lead'st gently home thy wandering sister's feet, 
 Giving thy Grace and Love in recompense 
 Of murmurings, presumption, and offence. 
 Too much, my Brother, — too much hast thou 
 
 done: 
 The blessing is too vast for such an one.* 
 
 When she saw all her friends retiring 
 to Meaux, Margaret turned after them a 
 look of sorrow from the midst of the fes- 
 tivities of the court. She seemed desert- 
 ed of all, — her husband the Duke of 
 Alencon was setting out for the army, — 
 her young aunt Philibert was returning 
 to Savoy. The Duchess wrote to Bri- 
 connet, as follows : — 
 
 " Monsieur de Meax, — Knowing that 
 God is all-sufficient, I apply to you to 
 ask your prayers that He will conduct in 
 safety, according to His holy will, M. 
 d'Alenqon, who is about to take his de- 
 parture, by order of the king, as lieuten- 
 ant-general of his army, which I appre- 
 hend will not break up without a war ; 
 and, thinking that, besides the public 
 good of the kingdom, you have an inter- 
 est in all that concerns his and my salva- 
 tion, I request your spiritual aid. To- 
 morrow, my aunt leaves Nemours for Sa- 
 voy. I must be mixed up with many 
 things which I dread. Therefore, if you 
 should know that master Michael could 
 make a journey hither, it would be a 
 comfort to me, which I desire only for 
 the honour of God."f 
 
 Michael Arand, whose counsel Mar- 
 garet desired, was one of the members 
 of the evangelic assembly at Meaux, 
 who, at a later period, exposed himself 
 
 * Miroir de l'ame pe"cheresse. Marguerites 
 de la Marguerite, &c. i. p. 36. 
 
 t Lettres de Marguerite, reine de Navarre. — 
 (Bibl. Royale Manuscript, S. F. 337. 1521.) 
 
 to many dangers in preaching the Gos- 
 pel. 
 
 The pious princess trembled to see an 
 opposition gathering strength against the 
 truth. Duprat and the retainers of the 
 government, Beda and those who ad- 
 hered to the University, inspired her with 
 terror. Bri<jonnet wrote cheeringly — " It 
 is the war which the gentle Jesus said 
 he was come to send upon earth, — the 
 fire, the fierce fire which transforms 
 earthliness into that which is heavenly. 
 With all my heart do I desire to help you, 
 Madam ; but do not expect from my 
 weakness any more than the will to 
 serve you. Whoever has faith, hope, 
 love, has all that is necessary, and need- 
 eth not any other help or protection. God 
 will be all, — and out of Him we can 
 hope for nothing. Take with you into 
 the conflict that mighty giant, uncon- 
 querable Love. The war is led on by 
 Love. Jesus requires to have our hearts 
 in his presence : woe befals the Christian 
 who parts company from Him. He who 
 is present in person in the battle is sure 
 of victory ; but if the battle is fought out 
 of His own presence, he will often lose 
 ground."* 
 
 The Bishop of Meaux was then be- 
 ginning to experience what it is to con- 
 tend for the word of God. The theolo- 
 gians and monks, irritated by the shelter 
 he had afforded to the friends of the Ref- 
 ormation, vehemently accused him, so 
 that his brother, the Bishop of St. Malo, 
 came to Paris to enquire into the charges 
 brought against him.f Hence Margaret 
 was the more touched by the comfortings 
 which Briqonnet addressed to her ; and 
 she answered by offering him her assist- 
 ance. 
 
 " If in any thing," wrote she, " you 
 think that I can be of service to you or 
 your's, be assured that I shall find com- 
 fort in doing all I can. Everlasting 
 Peace be given to you after the long 
 struggles you have waged for the faith — 
 in the which cause pray that you may 
 live and die. 
 "Your devoted daughter, Margaret."! 
 
 * Lettres de Marguerite, reine de Navarre. — 
 (Bibl. Royale Manuscript, S.F. 337. 12th June, 
 1521.) 
 
 t MS. de Meaux. 
 
 X MS. S.F. 227, de la Bibl. royale. 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 571 
 
 Happy would it have been if Briton- 
 net had died while contending for the 
 truth. Yet was he still full of zeal. 
 Philibert of Nemours, universally re- 
 spected for her piety, charity, and blame- 
 less life, read with increasing interest the 
 evangelical writings sent her from time 
 to time by the Bishop of Meaux. " I 
 have received all the tracts you forward- 
 ed," wrote Margaret to Bri^onnet, " of 
 which my aunt of Nemours has taken 
 some, and I mean to send her the last, 
 for she is now in Savoy, called thither by 
 her brother's marriage. Her absence is 
 no small loss to me ; — think of my lone- 
 liness in your prayers." Unhappily, 
 Philibert did not live to declare herself 
 openly in favour of the Reformation. 
 She died, in 1524, at the castle of Virieu 
 le Grand in Bugey, at the age of twenty- 
 six.* Margaret was deeply sensible of 
 the loss of one who was to her a friend 
 — a sister ; one who could, indeed, enter 
 into her thoughts. Perhaps no loss by 
 death was the occasion of more sorrow 
 to her, if we except that of her brother. 
 
 Alas ! nor earth nor heaven above appears 
 To my sad eyes, so ceaseless are the tears 
 That from them flow.t 
 
 Margaret, feeling her ' own weakness 
 to bear up under her grief, and against 
 the seductions of the court, applied to 
 Briqonnet to exhort her to the love of 
 God : — " The gentle and gracious Jesus, 
 who wills, and who alone is able to work 
 that which he wills, in his infinite mer- 
 cy, visit your heart, and lead it to love 
 him with an undivided love. None but 
 He, Madam, hath power to do this, and 
 we must not seek light from darkness, 
 nor warmth from cold. When he draws, 
 he kindles, and by the warmth draws us 
 after him, enlarging our hearts. You 
 write to me to pity you because you are 
 alone ; I do not understand that word. 
 The heart that is in the world, and rest- 
 ing in it, is indeed lonely, — for many and 
 evil are they who compass it about. But 
 she whose heart is closed against the 
 world and awake to the gentle and gra- 
 cious Jesus, her true and faithful spouse, 
 
 is really alone, living on supplies from 
 
 • 
 
 * Guichemon. Hist, de la maison de Savoie, 
 ii. p. 181. 
 
 t Chanson spirituelle apres la mort du Roi. — 
 (Marguerites, i. p. 473.) 
 
 One who is all to her, — and yet not alone, 
 because never left by Him who replen- 
 ishes and preserves all. I cannot and 
 ought not to pity such solitude as this, 
 which is more to be prized than the 
 whole world around us, from which I am 
 confident that God hath in his love de- 
 livered you, so that you are no longer 
 its child. Continue, Madam, — alone, — 
 abiding in Him who is your all, and who 
 humbled himself to a painful and igno- 
 minious death. 
 
 " In commending myself to your fa- 
 vour, I humbly entreat you not to use 
 the words of your last letters. You are 
 the daughter and the spouse of God only. 
 No other father hath any claim upon 
 you. I exhort and admonish you to be 
 to Him such and so good daughter as He 
 is to you a Father ; and since you can- 
 not attain to this, by reason that finite 
 cannot compare with infinite, I pray Him 
 to strengthen you, that you may love and 
 serve Him with all your heart."* 
 
 Notwithstanding these counsels, Mar- 
 garet was not yet comforted. She grieved 
 over the loss of those spiritual guides who 
 had been removed from her. The new 
 pastors set over her to reclaim her, did 
 not possess her confidence ; and notwith- 
 standing what the bishop had said, she 
 felt alone amidst the court, and all around 
 her seemed like a desolate wilderness. 
 She wrote to Briqonnet as follows : — "As 
 a sheep wandering in a strange land, and 
 turning from her pasture in distrust of 
 her new shepherds, naturally lifts her 
 head to catch the breeze from that quar- 
 ter of the field where the chief shepherd 
 once led her to the tender grass, just so 
 am I constrained to implore your love. 
 Come down from your mountain, and 
 look in pity on the blindest of all your 
 fold, astray among a people living in 
 darkness. 
 
 (Signed) " MARGrjERiTE."f 
 
 The Bishop of Meaux, in his reply, 
 taking up the comparison of a wandering 
 sheep, under which Margaret had pic- 
 tured herself, uses it to depict the myste- 
 ries of Salvation under the figure of a 
 wood. " The sheep," says he, " on en- 
 tering this wood under the guidance of 
 
 * MSC, S.F. 337, de la Bibl. royale, 10th 
 July, 
 t Ibid. 
 
572 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the Holy Spirit, is at once charmed by 
 the goodness, beauty, height, length, 
 breadth, depth, and refreshing odours of 
 the forest, and looking round about, sees 
 only Him in all, and all in Him ; and 
 hastening onward through its green al- 
 leys, finds it so sweet, that the way be- 
 comes life, joy, and consolation."* The 
 bishop then describes the sheep trying in 
 vain to penetrate to the bounds of the for- 
 est (as a soul would fathom the deep 
 things of God,) meeting with mountains 
 which it in vain endeavours to ascend, 
 being stopped on all sides by " inaccessi- 
 ble heights." He then shows the way 
 by which the soul, inquiring after God, 
 surmounts the difficulties, and how the 
 sheep among all the hirelings, finds out 
 " the Chief Shepherd's nook," and " en- 
 ters on the wing of meditation by faith ;" 
 then all is made plain and easy, and she 
 begins to sing, " I have found him whom 
 my soul loveth." 
 
 Thus wrote the Bishop of Meaux. In 
 the fervour of his zeal he would at this 
 time have rejoiced to see France regen- 
 erated by the Gospel. f Often would he 
 dwell especially on those three individu- 
 als who seemed called to preside over the 
 destinies of his country; namely, the 
 king, his mother, and his sister. He 
 thought that if the royal family were but 
 enlightened, the whole nation would be 
 so ; and that the clergy, aroused to emu- 
 lation, would awake from their deathlike 
 stupor. " Madam," wrote he to Marga- 
 ret, " I humbly pray God that He will 
 please, in His goodness, to kindle a fire 
 in the hearts of the king, his mother, and 
 yourself, so that from you three a flame 
 may go forth through the nation, and re- 
 animate especially that class, which, by 
 its coldness, chills all the others." 
 
 Margaret did not share in these hopes. 
 She says nothing of her mother, nor yet 
 of her brother. These were themes she 
 did not dare to touch ; but in her answer 
 to the bishop, in January, 1522, oppressed 
 at heart by the indifference and worldli- 
 ness all around her, she said, — " The 
 times are so cold, the heart so frozen 
 up ;" and she signed herself — " Your 
 cold-hearted, hungering and thirsting 
 daughter, "Margaret." 
 
 * Ibid. 
 
 t Studio veritatis aliis declarandee inflamma- 
 tus. — (Act. Martyrum, p. 334.) 
 
 This letter did not discourage Bri^on- 
 net, but it put him upon reflection ; and 
 feeling how much he who sought to re- 
 animate others required to be reanimated 
 himself, he asked the prayers of Mar- 
 garet and of Madame de Nemours. 
 " Madam," said he, with perfect simplici- 
 ty, "1 pray you to re-awaken by your 
 prayers the poor drowsy one."* 
 
 And such, in 1521, were the expres- 
 sions interchanged at the court of France. 
 Strange words, doubtless ; and which 
 now, after a lapse of above three centu- 
 ries, a manuscript in the Royal Library 
 reveals to us. Was this influence in high 
 places favourable to the Reformation, or 
 adverse to it? The spur of truth was 
 felt indeed at the court, but perhaps did 
 but arouse the slumbering beast, — exci- 
 ting him to rage, — and causing him to 
 dart more furiously on the weak ones of 
 the flock. 
 
 In truth the time was drawing nigh 
 when the storm was to burst upon the 
 Reformation ; but first it was destined to 
 scatter some seeds and gather in some 
 sheaves. This city of Meaux, which a 
 century and a half later was to be 
 honoured by the residence of the noble 
 defender of the Gallican church against 
 the claims of Rome, was called to be the 
 first town in France wherein regenerated 
 Christianity should establish its hold. It 
 was at this time the field on which the 
 labourers profusely scattered their seed, 
 and into which they had already put the 
 sickle. Bric.onnet, less given to slumber 
 than he had said, cheered, watched, and 
 directed every thing. His fortune was 
 equal to his zeal. Never did any one 
 make a more noble use of his means — 
 and never did so noble a devotion promise 
 at first to yield such abundant fruit. As- 
 sembled at Meaux, the pious teachers 
 took their measures thenceforward with 
 more liberty. The word of God was not 
 bound ; and the Reformation made a 
 great advance in France. Lefevre, with 
 unwonted energy, proclaimed that Gos- 
 pel with which he would gladly have 
 filled the world — "Kings, princes, no- 
 bles, the people, and all nations," he ex- 
 claimed, " ought to think and aspire only 
 after Jesus Christ. f Every priest should 
 
 * MSC. de la Bibl. royale. 
 t Reges, principes, magnates omnes et subinde 
 omnium natiouum populi, ut nihil aliud cogitent 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 573 
 
 resemble that angel seen by John in the 
 Apocalypse, flying through the air, hav- 
 ing in his hand the everlasting Gospel, 
 to preach to every nation, and kindred, 
 and tongue, and people. Draw near, ye 
 pontiffs, kings, and generous hearts. 
 Awake, ye nations, to the light of the 
 Gospel, and receive the breath of eternal 
 life.* Sufficient is the word of God !"f 
 
 Such, in truth, was the motto of the 
 new school : sufficient is the word of God. 
 The whole Reformation is embodied in 
 that truth. " To know Christ and his 
 word," said Lefevre, Roussel, Farel, " is 
 the only true, living, and universal The- 
 ology. He who knows that, knows 
 everything. "J 
 
 The truth produced a deep impression 
 at Meaux. At first private meetings took 
 place, then conferences, and lastly the 
 Gospel was proclaimed in the churches. 
 But a yet more formidable blow was 
 struck against the authority of Rome. 
 
 Lefevre resolved to put it in the power 
 of the Christians of France to read the 
 Scriptures. On the 30th of October he 
 published the French translation of the 
 four Gospels ; on the 6th of November 
 the remaining books of the New Testa- 
 ment ; and on the 12th of November, 
 1524, the whole of these collected in one 
 volume at Meaux ; and in 1525 a French 
 version of the Psalms fy Thus in France, 
 and almost at the same time as in Ger- 
 many, we have the commencement of 
 that publication of the Scriptures, in the 
 vernacular tongue, which, after a lapse 
 of three .centuries, was to receive such 
 wonderful development. In France, as 
 in the countries beyond the Rhine, the 
 Bible produced a decided effect. Many 
 there were who had learned by experi- 
 ence that when they sought the know- 
 ledge of divine things, darkness and 
 doubt encompassed them on all sides. 
 How many were the passing moments, 
 — perhaps even years, — in which they 
 had been tempted to regard the most cer- 
 tain truths as mere illusions. We want 
 
 . . . ac Christum . . .— (Fabri Comment, in 
 Evang. prafat.) 
 
 * Ubivis gentium expergiscimini ad Evangelii 
 lucem . . . — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Verbum Dei sufficit. — (Ibid.) 
 
 $ Hsec est universa et sola vivifica Theologia 
 . . . Christum et verbum ejus esse omnia. — (Ibid. 
 in Ev. Johan. p. 271.) 
 
 $ Le Long. Biblioth. sacree, 2 edit. p. 42. 
 
 a ray from heaven to enlighten our dark- 
 ness. Such was the longing desire of 
 many souls at the period of the Reforma- 
 tion. With feelings of this sort many 
 received the Scriptures from the hands 
 of Lefevre. They read them in their 
 families and in private. The Bible be- 
 came increasingly the subject of conver- 
 sation. Christ appeared to these souls, 
 so long misled, as the sun and centre of 
 all discovery. No longer did they want 
 evidence that Scripture was of the Lord : 
 they knew it, for it had delivered them 
 from darkness into light. 
 
 Such was the course by which some 
 remarkable persons in 'France were at 
 this time brought to know God. But 
 there were yet humbler and more ordi- 
 nary steps by which many of the poorer 
 sort arrived at the knowledge of the 
 truth. The city of Meaux was almost 
 entirely peopled with artizans and deal- 
 ers in woollen cloth. "Many," says a 
 chronicler of the sixteenth century, " were 
 taken with so ardent a desire to know 
 the way of salvation, that artisans, card- 
 ers, fullers, and combers, while at work 
 with their hands, had their thoughts en- 
 o-asred in conversation on the word of 
 God, and getting comfort from thence. 
 On Sunday and on festivals, especially, 
 they employed themselves in reading the 
 Scriptures and inquiring into the good 
 pleasure of the Lord."* 
 
 Briconnet rejoiced to see true piety 
 take the place of superstition in his dio- 
 cese. " Lefevre, availing himself of his 
 great reputation for learning," observes a 
 contemporary historian,! " managed so 
 to cajole and impose upon Messire Guil- 
 laume Briconnet by his specious words, 
 that he turned him aside into gross error, 
 so that it has been found impossible to 
 cleanse the town and diocese of Meaux 
 from that wicked doctrine from that time 
 to this, when it has marvellously spread 
 abroad. The subverting of that good 
 bishop was a sad event, for he had, be- 
 fore that, been very devout in his service 
 to God and the Virgin Mary." How- 
 ever, not all had been so grossly ' turned 
 aside,' to adopt the expression of the 
 Franciscan. The townspeople were di* 
 
 * Act. des Mart. p. 182. 
 t Hist. Cathol. de notre temps, par Fontaine, 
 de l'ordre de Saint Francois. Paris, 1562. 
 
574 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 vided in twc parties. On one side were 
 the Franciscan monks, and the partisans 
 of Romanism : on the other, Bricnnnet, 
 Lefevre, Farel, and those who loved the 
 new preaching. A man of low station, 
 named Leclerc, was one of the most ser- 
 vile adherents of the monks ; but his wife 
 and his two sons, Peter and John, had 
 joyfully received the Gospel ; and John, 
 who was by trade a wool-carder, soon at- 
 tracted notice among the infant congre- 
 gations. James Pavanne, a native of 
 Picardy, a young man of open and up- 
 right character, evinced an ardent zeal 
 for the Reformed opinions. Meaux was 
 become a focus of light. Persons called 
 thither by business, and who there heard 
 the Gospel, returning, bore it with them 
 to their respective homes. It was not 
 merely in the city that the Scripture was 
 the subject of inquiry ; " many of the ad- 
 jacent villages were awakened, 1 ' says a 
 chronicler, " so that in that diocese 
 seemed to shine forth a sort of image of 
 the regenerated church." 
 
 The environs of Meaux were, in au- 
 tumn, clothed with rich harvests, and a 
 crowd of labouring people resorted thith- 
 er from the surrounding countries. Rest- 
 ing themselves, in the heat of the day, 
 they would talk with the people of those 
 parts of a seed-time and harvest of an- 
 other kind. Certain peasantry, who had 
 come from Thierachia. and more partic- 
 ularly from Landouzy, after their return 
 home continued in the doctrine they had 
 heard, and, ere long, an evangelic church 
 was formed in this latter place,* — a church 
 which is among the most ancient in the 
 kingdom. " The report of this unspeak- 
 able blessing spread through France, 
 says the chronicler. f Briconnet himself 
 preached the Gospel from the pulpit, and 
 laboured to diffuse, far and wide, that 
 " free, gracious, true, and clear light, 
 which dazzles and illuminates every 
 creature capable of receiving it ; and, 
 while it enlightens him, raises him by 
 adoption to the dignity of a child of 
 God."± He besought his hearers not to 
 
 * These facts are derived from old and much 
 damaged papers discovered in the church of Lau- 
 douzy-la-Ville (Aisne), by M. Colany, during 
 the time he filled the office of pastor in that 
 town. 
 
 t Actes des Mart. p. 182. 
 
 J MS. in the Royal Library, S.F., No. 337. 
 
 listen to those who would turn them 
 aside from the Word. " Though an an- 
 gel from heaven," exclaimed he, "should 
 preach any other Gospel, do not give ear 
 to him." At times melancholy thoughts 
 presented themselves to his mind. He 
 did not feel confident in his own stedfast- 
 ness, and he recoiled from the thought of 
 the fatal consequences that might result 
 from any failure of faith on his part. 
 Forewarning his hearers, he would say, 
 " Though I, your bishop, should change 
 my voice and doctrine, take heed that 
 you change not with me."* At that 
 moment nothing foreboded such a calam- 
 ity. " Not only," says the chronicler, 
 " the word of God was preached, but it 
 was practised : all kinds of works of 
 charity and love were visible ; the morals 
 of the city were reformed, and its super- 
 stitions disappeared."! 
 
 Still indulging in the thought of gain- 
 ing over the king and his mother, the 
 bishop sent to Margaret a translation of 
 St. Paul's Epistles, richly illuminated, 
 humbly soliciting her to present it to the 
 king, " which, coming through your 
 hands," added he, " cannot fail to be ac- 
 ceptable. They make a truly royal 
 dish," continued the worthy bishop, " of 
 a fatness that never corrupts, and having 
 a power to restore from all manner of 
 sickness. The more we taste them the 
 more we hunger after them, with desires 
 that are ever fed and never cloyed. "J 
 • What dearer commission could Mar- 
 garet receive . . . . 1 The moment seem- 
 ed auspicious. Michel d'Arande was sft 
 Paris, detained there by command of the 
 king's mother, for whom he was transla- 
 ting portions of the Scriptures. § But 
 Margaret would have preferred that Bri- 
 connet should himself present St. Paul 
 to her brother: "You would do well to 
 come,'' wrote she, "for you know the 
 confidence the king and his mother have 
 in you."|| 
 
 Thus at this time (in 1522 and 1523) 
 was God's word placed before the eyes 
 of Francis the First and Louisa of Savoy. 
 
 * Hist. Cathol. de Fontaine. 
 
 t Actes des Mart. p. 182. 
 
 t MS., in the Royal Library, S.F. No. 337. 
 
 § Par le commandement de Madame a quy il 
 a lyvre quelque chose de la saincte Escripture 
 qu'elle desire parfairc. — (Ibid.) 
 
 || Ibid. 
 
$ 
 
 THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 575 
 
 They were thus brought in contact with 
 that Gospel of which they were after- 
 wards to he the persecutors. We see 
 nothing to indicate that that Word made 
 on them any saving impression ; curiosi- 
 ty led them to unclose that Bible which 
 was the subject of so much discussion ; 
 but they soon closed it again as they had 
 opened it. 
 
 Margaret herself with- difficulty strug- 
 gled against the worldliness which sur- 
 rounded her. Her tender regard for her 
 brother, respect for her mother, the flat- 
 tery of the court, all conspired against 
 the love she had vowed to Jesus Christ. 
 Many indeed were her temptations. At 
 times, the soul of Margaret, assailed by 
 so many enemies, and dizzy with the 
 tumult of life, turned aside from her 
 Lord. Then becoming conscious of her 
 sin, the princess shut herself in her apart- 
 ments, and gave vent to her grief in 
 sounds very different from those with 
 which Francis and the young lords who 
 were the companions of his pleasures, 
 filled the royal palaces in their carous- 
 ings :— 
 
 I have forsaken thee, for pleasure erring: 
 In place of thee, my evil choice preferring ; 
 And from thee wandering, whither am I come? 
 Among the cursed, — to the place of doom. 
 I have forsaken thee, oh Friend sincere ; 
 And from thy love, the better to get free, 
 Have clung to things most contrary to thee.* 
 
 After this, Margaret, turning in the 
 direction of Meaux, wrote, in her distress, 
 — " I again turn toward you, Mons. ' Fa- 
 bry,' and your companions, desiring you 
 in your prayers to entreat of the un- 
 speakable mercy an alarum that shall 
 rouse the unwatchful weak one from her 
 heavy and deathlike slumbers."! 
 
 The friends of the Reformation were 
 beginning to indulge in cheering antici- 
 pations. Who would be able to resist 
 the Gospel if the authority of Francis 
 the First should open the way for it. 
 The corrupting influence of the court 
 would be succeeded by a sanctifying ex- 
 ample, and France would acquire a mo- 
 ral power which would constitute her the 
 benefactress of nations. 
 
 But the Romish party on their side 
 had caught the alarm. One of their 
 
 * Les Marguerites, i. p. 40. 
 
 t MS. in the Royal Library, S. F. No. 337. 
 
 party at Meaux, was a Jacobin monk, of 
 the name of Roma. One day, when Le- 
 fevre, Farel, and their friends were in 
 conversation with him, and certain other 
 partisans of the Papacy, Lefevre incau- 
 tiously gave utterance to his hopes : " Al- 
 ready," said he, " the Gospel is winning 
 the hearts of the nobles and the common 
 people, and ere long we shall see it 
 spreading throughout France, and cast- 
 ing down the inventions that men have 
 set up." The aged doctor was warmed 
 by his theme, his eyes sparkled, and his 
 feeble voice seemed to put forth new 
 power, resembling the aged Simeon giv- 
 ing thanks to the Lord because his eyes 
 had seen His salvation. Lefevre's friends 
 partook of his emotion ; the opposers were 
 amazed and silent .... Suddenly Roma 
 rose from his seat, exclaiming, " Then I 
 and all the monks will preach a crusade 
 — we will raise the people, and if the 
 king suffers the preaching of your Gos- 
 pel, we will expel him from his kingdom 
 by his own subjects."* Thus did a monk 
 venture to stand up against the knightly 
 monarch. The Franciscans applauded 
 his boldness. It was necessary to pre- 
 vent the fulfilment of the aged doctor's 
 predictions. Already the mendicant friars 
 found their daily gatherings fall off The 
 Franciscans in alarm distributed them- 
 selves in private families. " Those new 
 teachers are heretics," said they, "they 
 call in question the holiest practices, and 
 deny the most sacred mysteries." Then, 
 growing bolder, the more violent of the 
 party, sallying forth from their cloister, 
 presented themselves at the bishop's resi- 
 dence, and being admitted, — " Make 
 haste," said they, "to crush this heresy, 
 or the pestilence which now afflicts 
 Meaux will extend its ravages through 
 the kingdom." 
 
 Briconnet was roused, and for a mo- 
 ment disturbed by this invasion of his 
 privacy ; but he did not give way. Des- 
 pising the interested clamour of a set of 
 ignorant monks, he ascended the pulpit 
 and preached in vindication of Lefevre, 
 designating the monks as pharisees and 
 hypocrites. Still this opposition from 
 without had already awakened anxiety 
 and conflict in his soul. He tried to 
 quiet his fears by persuading himself 
 that it was necessary to pass through 
 
 * Farel. Epitre au Due de Lorraine. Gen. 1634- 
 
576 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 such spiritual struggles. " By such con- 
 flict," said he, in expressions that sound 
 mystical to our ears, " we are brought to 
 a death that ushers into life, and, while 
 ever mortifying life, — living we die, and 
 dying, live."* The way had been more 
 sure, if, turning to the Saviour,, as the 
 apostles, when " driven by the winds and 
 tossed," he had cried out, — " Lord ! save 
 us, or we perish." 
 
 The monks of Meaux, enraged at this 
 repulse, resolved to carry their complaint 
 before a higher tribunal. An appeal lay 
 open to them ; and if the bishop should 
 be contumacious, he may be reduced to 
 compliance. Their leaders set forth for 
 Paris, and concerted measures with Beda 
 and Duchesne. They presented them- 
 selves before the Parliament, and lodged 
 information against the bishop and the 
 heretical teachers. " The town," said 
 they, " and all the neighbouring country, 
 is infected with heresy, and the muddy 
 waters go forth from the bishop's palace." 
 
 Thus France began to hear the cry of 
 persecution raised against the Gospel. 
 The priestly and the civil power, — the 
 Sorbonne and the Parliament laid their 
 hands upon the sword, and that sword 
 was destined to be stained with blood. 
 Christianity had taught men that there 
 are duties anterior to all civil relation- 
 ships ; it had emancipated the religious 
 mind, laid the foundations of liberty of 
 conscience, and wrought an important 
 change in society ; for Antiquity, every- 
 where recognizing the citizen and no- 
 where the man, had made of religion a 
 matter of mere state regulation. But 
 scarcely had these ideas of liberty been 
 given to the world when the Papacy cor- 
 rupted them. In place of the despotism 
 of the prince, it substituted that of the 
 priest. Often, indeed, had both prince 
 and priest been by it stirred up against 
 the Christian people. A new emanci- 
 pation was needed : the sixteenth centu- 
 ry produced it. Wherever the Reforma- 
 tion established itself, the yoke of Rome 
 was thrown off, and liberty of conscience 
 restored. Yet is there such a proneness 
 in man to exalt himself above the truth, 
 that even among many Protestant na- 
 tions of our own time, the Church, freed 
 from the arbitrary power of the priest, is 
 
 * MS. in the Royal Library, S. F. No. 337. 
 
 near falling again into subserviency to 
 the civil authority ; thus, like its divine 
 Founder, bandied from one despotism to 
 another ; still passing from Caiaphas to 
 Pilate, and from Pilate to Caiaphas ! 
 
 Bri^onnet, who enjoyed a high repu- 
 tation at Paris, easily cleared himself. 
 But in vain did he seek to defend his 
 friends ; the monks were resolved not to 
 return to Meaux empty handed. If the 
 bishop would escape, he must sacrifice 
 his brethren. Of a character naturally 
 timid, and but little prepared for ' Christ's 
 sake' to give up his possessions and stand- 
 ing, — alarmed, agitated, and desponding, 
 he was still further misled by treacherous 
 advisers : " If the evangelical divines 
 should leave Meaux," said some, " they 
 will carry the Reformation elsewhere." 
 His heart was torn by a painful struggle. 
 At length the wisdom of this world pre- 
 vailed : on the 12th of April, 1523, he 
 published an ordonnance by which he de- 
 prived those pious teachers of their 
 licence to preach. This was the first 
 step in Briqonnet's downward career. 
 
 Lefevre was the chief object of enmity. 
 His commentary on the four Gospels, 
 and especially the epistle " to Christian 
 readers," which he had prefixed to it, in- 
 flamed the wrath of Beda and his fel- 
 lows. They denounced the work to the 
 faculty — " Has he not ventured," said the 
 fiery syndic, "to recommend to all the 
 faithful the reading of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures ? Does he not affirm that whoso- 
 ever loves not the word of Christ is no 
 Christian ;* and again, that the word of 
 God is sufficient of itself to lead us to 
 eternal life ?" 
 
 But Francis I. saw nothing more in 
 this accusation than a theological squab- 
 ble. He appointed a commission, before 
 which Lefevre successfully defended him- 
 self, and was honourably acquitted. 
 
 Farel, who had fewer protectors at 
 court, found himself obliged to quit 
 Meaux. It appears that he at first re- 
 paired to Paris,! and thai having thejre 
 unsparingly assailed the errors of Rome, 
 he again found himself obliged to re- 
 move, and left that city, retiring to Dau- 
 
 * Qui verbum ejus hoc modo non diligunt, quo 
 pacto hi Christian! essent. — (Prsef. Comm. in 
 Evang.) 
 
 t " Farel, apres avoir subsist^ tant qu'il put a 
 Paris."— (Bezae Hist. Eccles.i. 6.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 577 
 
 phiny, whither he was desirous of carry- 
 ing the Gospel. 
 
 To have intimidated Lefevre, and 
 caused Bric,onnet to draw back, and Fa- 
 rel to seek refuge in flight, was a victory 
 gained, so that the Sorbonne already be- 
 lieved they had mastered the movement. 
 Monks and doctors exchanged congratu- 
 lations ; but enough was not done in 
 their opinion, — blood had not flowed. 
 They went, therefore, again to their 
 work, and blood, since they were bent on 
 shedding it, was now to slake the thirst 
 of Roman fanaticism. 
 
 The evangelical Christians of Meaux, 
 seeing their pastors dispersed, sought to 
 edify one another. A wool-carder, John 
 Leclerc, who had imbibed the true chris- 
 tian doctrine from the instructions of the 
 divines, the reading of the Bible, and 
 some tracts,* distinguished himself by 
 his zeal and his expounding of the Scrip- 
 ture. He was one of those men whom 
 the Spirit of God inspires with courage,! 
 and places in the foremost rank of a re- 
 ligious movement. The Church of 
 Meaux soon came to regard him as its 
 minister. 
 
 The idea of one universal priesthood, 
 known in such living power to the first 
 Christians, had been revived by Luther| 
 in the sixteenth century. But this idea 
 seems then to have dwelt only in theory 
 in the Lutheran Church, and was really 
 acted out only anions' the congregations 
 of the Reformed Churches. The Lu- 
 theran congregations (agreeing in this 
 point with the Anglican Church) took, 
 it seems, a middle course between the 
 Romish and the Reformed Churches. 
 Among the Lutherans, everything pro- 
 ceeded from the pastor or priest ; and 
 nothing was counted valid in the Church 
 but what was regularly conveyed through 
 its rulers. But the Reformed Churches, 
 while they maintained the divine' ap- 
 pointment of the ministry. — by some sects 
 denied, — approached nearer to the primi- 
 tive condition of the apostolical commu- 
 nities. From this time forward, they re- 
 cognized and proclaimed that the flock 
 are not to rest satisfied with receiving 
 what the priest gives out ; that, since the. 
 
 * Aliis pauculislibellis diligenter lectis. — (Bezae 
 Icones.) 
 
 1 Animosae fidei plenus. — (Ibid.) 
 t Vide vol. ii. pp. 87, 88 
 73 
 
 Bible is in the hands of every one, the 
 members of the Church, as well as those 
 who take the lead, possess the key of 
 that treasury whence the latter derive 
 their instructions ; that the gifts of God, 
 the spirit of faith, of wisdom, of consola- 
 tion, and of knowledge are not imparted 
 to the minister alone ; but that each is 
 called upon to employ for the good of all 
 whatever gift he has received : and that 
 it may often happen that some gift need- 
 ful for the edification of the Church may 
 be denied to the pastor, and granted to 
 some member of his flock. Thus the 
 mere passive state of the Churches was 
 changed into one of general activity ; 
 and it was in France especially that this 
 transformation took place. In other 
 countries, the Reformers are found al- 
 most exclusively among the ministers and 
 doctors ; but in France, the men who 
 had read or studied had for fellow-labour- 
 ers men of the lowest class. Among 
 God's chosen servants in that country we 
 have a doctor of the Sorbonne and a 
 wool-comber. 
 
 Leclerc began to visit from house to 
 house, strengthening and confirming the 
 disciples in their faith. But not resting 
 satisfied with these ordinary labours, he 
 longed to see the papal edifice over- 
 thrown, and France coming forward to 
 embrace the Gospel. His ungovernable 
 zeal was such as to remind an observer 
 of Hottinger at Zurich, and Carlstadt at 
 Wittemberg. He wrote a proclamation 
 against the Antichrist of Rome, in which 
 he announced that the Lord was about to 
 consume that wicked one with the spirit 
 of his mouth, and proceeded boldly to 
 post his placard at the very door of the 
 cathedral.* Soon all was confusion in 
 the neighbourhood of the ancient edifice. 
 The faithful were amazed, the priests en- 
 raged. What ! shall a base wool-comber 
 be allowed to assail the Pope? The 
 Franciscans were furious. They insisted 
 that at least on this occasion a terrible 
 example should be made, — Leclerc was 
 thrown into prison. 
 
 His trial took place in the presence of 
 Briconnet himself, who was now to wit- 
 ness and endure all that was done. The 
 
 * Cet herctique e"erivit des pancartes qu'il at- 
 tacha aux portes de la grande eglise de Meaux. 
 (MS. de Meaux.) See also BeztE Icones, Crespin, 
 Actes des Martyrs, &c. 
 
578 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 wool-comber was condemned to be pub- 
 licly whipped through the city, three 
 successive days, and on the third day to 
 be branded on the forehead. The mourn- 
 ful spectacle began. Leclerc was led 
 through the streets, his hands bound, his 
 back bare, and receiving from the exe- 
 cutioners the blows he had drawn upon 
 himself by his opposition to the bishop 
 of Rome. A great crowd followed the 
 martyr's progress, which was marked by 
 his blood : some pursued the heretic with 
 yells: others, by their silence, gave no 
 doubtful signs of sympathy with him ; 
 and one woman encouraged the martyr 
 by her looks and words — she was his 
 mother. 
 
 At length, on the third day, when the 
 bloody procession was over, Leclerc was 
 made to stop at the usual place of exe- 
 cution. The executioner prepared to 
 fire, heated the iron which was to sear 
 the flesh of the minister of the Gospel, 
 and approaching him branded him as a 
 heretic on his forehead. Just then a 
 shriek was uttered — but it came not from 
 the martyr. His mother, a witness of 
 the dreadful sight, wrung with anguish, 
 endured a violent struggle between the 
 enthusiasm of faith and maternal feel- 
 ings; but her faith overcame, and she 
 exclaimed in a voice that made the ad- 
 versaries tremble, " Glory be to Jesus 
 Chvist and his witnesses."* Thus did 
 this Frenchwoman of the 16th century 
 have respect to that word of the Son of 
 God, — " Whosoever loveth his son more 
 than me is not worthy of me." So da- 
 ring a courage at such a moment might 
 have seemed to demand instant punish- 
 ment ; but that Christian mother had 
 struck powerless the hearts of priests and 
 soldiers. Their fury was restrained by a 
 mightier arm than theirs. The crowd 
 falling back and making way for her, 
 allowed the mother to regain, with fal- 
 tering step, her humble dwelling. Monks, 
 and even the town-serjeants themselves, 
 gazed on her without moving ; " not one 
 of her enemies," says Theodore Beza, 
 " dared put forth his hand against her." 
 After this punishment, Leclerc, being set 
 at liberty, withdrew, first to Rosay en 
 Brie, a town six leagues from Meaux, 
 
 * Hist Eccle"s. de Th. de Bezee, p. 4. Hist- 
 des Martyrs de Crespin, p. 92. 
 
 and subsequently to Metz, where we 
 shall again meet with him. 
 
 The enemy was triumphant. " The 
 Cordeliers having regained possession of 
 the pulpit, propagated their accustomed 
 falsehoods and absurdities."* But the 
 poor working-people of Meaux, no longer 
 permitted to hear the word of God in 
 regular assemblies, began to hold their 
 meetings in private, " imitating," says 
 the chronicler, " the sons of the prophets 
 in the days of Ahab, and the Christian's 
 of the early church ; assembling, as op- 
 portunity offered, at one time in a house, 
 at another in a cavern, and at times in a 
 vineyard or a wood. On such occasions, 
 he among them who was most conver- 
 sant with the Holy Scriptures, exhorted 
 the rest ; and this being done, they all 
 prayed together with much fervency, 
 cheered by the hope that the Gospel 
 would be received in France, and the 
 tyranny of Antichrist be at an end."f 
 Where is the power can arrest the prog- 
 ress of truth ? 
 
 One victim, however, did not satisfy 
 the persecutors ; and if the first against 
 whom their anger was let loose was but 
 a wool-comber, the second was a gentle- 
 man of the court. It was become neces- 
 sary to overawe the nobles as well as the 
 people. The Sorbonne of Paris was un- 
 willing to be outstripped by the Francis- 
 cans of Meaux. Berquin, "the most 
 learned among the nobles," continuing 
 to gather more confidence from the Scrip- 
 tures, had composed certain epigrams 
 against the " drones of the Sorbonne :" 
 and had afterwards gone so far as to 
 charge them with impiety, t 
 
 Beda and Duchesne, who had not ven- 
 tured any reply in their usual style to the 
 witticisms of a gentleman of the court, 
 adopted a different line of conduct when 
 they discerned that serious convictions 
 were at the bottom of these attacks. Ber- 
 quin had become a Christian ; his ruin 
 was therefore decided on. Beda and Du- 
 chesne having seized some of his trans- 
 lations, found in them sufficient to bring 
 more than one heretic to the stake : " He 
 asserts," they exclaimed, "that it is wrong 
 to invoke the Virgin Mary in place of 
 the Holy Spirit, and to call her the source 
 
 * Actes des Martyrs, p. 183. t Ibid. 
 
 t Impietatis etiam accusatos, turn voce, turn 
 scriptis. — (Beza? Icones.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 579 
 
 of all grace !* He declares himself against 
 the custom of speaking of her as our hope 
 and our life, and says that these titles be- 
 long only to the Son of God." There 
 were other charges against Berquin, — 
 his closet was as it were a library, whence 
 the supposed tainted works were diffused 
 through the kingdom. Above all, Me- 
 lancthon's Loci Communes served to stag- 
 ger the more learned. The man of pie- 
 ty, entrenched amid his folios and tracts, 
 had, in his christian love, made himself 
 translator, corrector, printer, and book- 
 seller .... It seemed indispensable to 
 stop the stream at its source. 
 
 Accordingly, one day, while Berquin 
 was quietly engaged in his studies, the 
 house was of a sudden surrounded by 
 armed men, demanding admittance. The 
 Sorbonne and its agents, armed with au- 
 thority from the Parliament, were at his 
 door. Beda, the dreaded syndic, was at 
 their head, and never did inquisitor more 
 perfectly perform his function. Followed 
 by his satellites, he made his way to Ber- 
 quin's study, communicated the object of 
 his mission, and desiring his followers to 
 keep an eye upon him, commenced his 
 search. Not a volume escaped his no- 
 tice, and an exact inventory was made 
 under his direction. Here lay a treatise 
 by Melancthon ; there a pamphlet by 
 Carlstadt ; farther on a work of Luther's ; 
 — here ' heretical' books which Berquin 
 had translated from Latin into French ; 
 there — others of his own composition. 
 With two exceptions, all the books seized 
 abounded with Lutheran doctrine, and 
 Beda quitted the house, carrying away 
 his booty, and more elated than a gen- 
 eral laden with the spoil of conquered 
 nations.f 
 
 Berquin perceived that a violent storm 
 had burst upon his head, but his courage 
 did not falter ; — he had too much con- 
 tempt for his adversaries to fear them. 
 Meanwhile, Beda lost no time. On the 
 31st May, 1523, the Parliament decreed 
 that all the books seized at Berquin's 
 house should be laid before the faculty 
 of theology. Its decision was soon made 
 known, and on the 25th of June, it con- 
 demned all the works, except the two al- 
 
 * Incongrue beatam Virginem invocari pro 
 Spiritu Sancto. — (Erasmi Epp. 1279.) 
 
 t Gaillard Hist, de Francois I. iv. 241. Cre"- 
 vier, Univ. de Paris, v. p. 171. 
 
 ready mentioned, to be burnt as heretical; 
 and enjoined that Berquin should be re- 
 quired to abjure his errors. The Parlia- 
 ment ratified the decision. Berquin ap- 
 peared at the bar of this formidable body ; 
 he knew that the next step beyond it 
 might be to the scaffold ; but, like Lu- 
 ther at Worms, he stood firm. It was in 
 vain that the Parliament insisted on his 
 retracting ; he was not of those who fall 
 away after being made partakers of the 
 Holy Ghost. He that is begotten of God 
 keepeth himself and that wicked one touch- 
 ed him not.* Every such fall proves that 
 conversion has either been only apparent, 
 or else partial ;f now Berquin's was a 
 real conversion. He answered the court 
 before which he stood with decision ; and 
 the Parliament, using more severity than 
 the Diet of Worms, directed its officers to 
 take the accused into custody, and lead 
 him away to prison. This took place on 
 the 1st of August, 1523. On the 5th, 
 the Parliament handed over the heretic 
 to the Bishop of Paris, in order that that 
 prelate might take cognizance of the af- 
 fair, and jointly with the doctors and 
 counsellors, pass sentence on the culprit. 
 Berquin was forthwith transferred to the 
 official prison. \ 
 
 Beda, Duchesne, and their companions 
 had their victim in their clutches ; but the 
 court bore no favour to the Sorbonne, and 
 Francis was more powerful than Beda. 
 A feeling of indignation spread among 
 the nobles : what do these monks and 
 priests mean, not to respect the rank of a 
 gentleman ? What charge do they bring 
 against him ? — was the question asked 
 in the presence of Francis. Is it that he 
 blames the practice of invoking the Vir- 
 gin instead of the Holy Spirit? But 
 Erasmus and many more have censured 
 it. Is it on such frivolous charges they 
 go the length of imprisoning an officer 
 of the king?§ This attack of theirs is a 
 blow struck against knowledge and true 
 religion ; an insult to jiobles, knights, 
 and royalty itself. The king decided on 
 
 * Hebrews vi. 4. 1 John v. 18. 
 
 t This is believed to be a faithful rendering 
 of the original. The. interpretation and the ap- 
 plication may be open to question. — (TV.) 
 
 I Ductus est in carcerem, reus hajreseos peri- 
 clitatus. — (Erasmi Epp. 1279. Crevier, Gaillard, 
 loc. cit.) 
 
 § Ob hujusmodi noenias. — (Erasm. Epp. 1279.) 
 
580 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 again making - the Sorbonne feel the 
 weight of his authority. He issued let- 
 ters summoning the parties in the cause 
 before his council, and on the 8th of Au 
 gust a messenger presented himself at 
 the official prison, bearing a royal man- 
 date enjoining that Berquin should be at 
 liberty. 
 
 It seemed at first doubtful whether the 
 monks would yield compliance. Francis 
 had anticipated some difficulty, and, in 
 charging the messenger with the execu- 
 tion of his orders, had added, " If you 
 meet with any resistance, I authorize you 
 to break open the doors." There was 
 no misunderstanding these words. The 
 monks and the Sorbonne submitted to 
 the affront put upon them ; and Berquin, 
 released from durance, appeared before 
 the king's council, and was there ac- 
 quitted* 
 
 Thus did Francis I. humble the eccle- 
 siastical power. Under his reign Ber- 
 quin fondly hoped that France might 
 free herself from the Papal yoke ; and he 
 began to meditate a renewal of hostili- 
 ties. With this intent, he opened com- 
 munications with Erasmus, who at once 
 acknowledged his right intentions, t But 
 the philosopher, ever timid and temporiz- 
 ing, replied, — "Remember to avoid irri- 
 tating the drones ; and pursue your 
 studies in peace.^ Above all, do not im- 
 plicate me in your affairs, for that will be 
 of no service to either of us."§ 
 
 Berquin was not discouraged. If the 
 great genius of the age draws back, he 
 will put his trust in God who never de- 
 serts His work. God's work will be 
 effected, — either by humble instrument- 
 ality, or without it. Erasmus himself ac- 
 knowledged that Berquin, like the palm 
 tree, rose in renewed vigour from every 
 new gust of persecution that assailed 
 him. j| 
 
 Not such were all who had embraced 
 the Evangelical doctrines. Martial Ma- 
 zurier had been one of the most zealous 
 
 * At judices, ubi viderunt causam esse nullius 
 tnomenti, absolverunt hominem. — (Ibid ) 
 
 t Ex epistola visus est mihi vir bonus. — (Ibid.) 
 t Sineret crabrones et suis se studiis oblectaret. 
 — (Erasmi Epp. 1279.) 
 
 (j Deinde ne me involveret suae causae. — (Ibid.) 
 || Ille, ut habebat quiddam cum palma com- 
 mune, adversus deterrentem tollebat animos. — 
 (Ibid.) There is probably an allusion to Pliny, 
 Hist. Naturalis, xvi. 42. 
 
 of preachers. He was accused of having 
 advocated very erroneous opinions ;* and 
 even of having committed, while at 
 Meaux, certain acts of violence. " This 
 Martial Mazurier, being at Meaux," — 
 such are the. words of a manuscript pre- 
 served in that city, and which we have 
 already had occasion to quote, — " enter- 
 ing the church of the reverend Fathers, 
 the Cordeliers, and seeing the statue of 
 St. Francis, in high relief, outside the 
 door of the convent, where that of St. 
 Roch is now placed, struck it down and 
 broke it." Mazurier was arrested, and 
 thrown into prison, where he at once fell 
 back upon his own reflections and the 
 keenest perplexity.f It was the Gospel 
 rule of morals, rather than its great doc- 
 trines, that had won him over to the 
 ranks of the Reformers ; and that rule, 
 taken alone, brought with it no strength. 
 Terrified at the prospect of the stake 
 awaiting him, and believing that, in 
 France, the victory would be sure to re- 
 main with Rome, he easily persuaded 
 himself that he should have more influ- 
 ence and honour by going back to the 
 Papacy. Accordingly, he recanted his 
 former teaching, and directed that doc- 
 trines altogether opposed to those as- 
 cribed to him should be preached in his 
 parish ; J and uniting, at a later period, 
 with the most fanatical of the Romish par- 
 ty, — and particularly with the celebrated 
 Ignatius Loyola,^ — he became thence- 
 forward the most zealous supporter of the 
 Papal cause. From the days of the Em- 
 peror Julian, apostates have ever been 
 among the sternest enemies of the doc- 
 trines which they once professed. 
 
 An occasion soon offered for Mazurier 
 to make proof of his zeal. The youthful 
 James Pavanne had also been thrown 
 into prison. Martial hoped to cover his 
 own shame by involving another in the 
 like fall. The youth, the amiable dis- 
 position, the learning, and the integrity 
 of Pavanne, created a general interest in 
 his favour ; and Mazurier imagined that 
 he himself should be deemed less culpa- 
 ble if he could but persuade Master 
 James to a similar course. Visiting him 
 
 * Histoire I'TJniversite par Crcvier, v. p. 203. 
 
 t Gaillard, Hist, de Francois I. v. p. 234. 
 
 X " Comme il etait homme adroit, il esquiva 
 la condamnation," says Crcvier, v. p. 203. 
 
 § Cum Ignatio Loyola init amicitiam. — (Lau- 
 noi Navarrte gymnasii historia, p. 621.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 581 
 
 in his cell, he began by pretending that 
 he had advanced further in inquiry into 
 the truth than Pavanne had done. " You 
 are under a mistake, James," he often re- 
 peated to him : " You have not gone deep 
 into these matters: you have made ac- 
 quaintance only with the agitated sur- 
 face of them."* Sophisms, promises, 
 threats, were freely resorted to. The un- 
 fortunate youth, deceived, disturbed, and 
 perplexed, yielded to these perfidious ad- 
 vances ; and on the morrow of Christ- 
 mas day, 1524, he publicly abjured his 
 pretended errors. But from that hour a 
 spirit of melancholy and remorse sent by 
 the Almighty, weighed heavy on his 
 soul. Deep sadness consumed him, and 
 his sighs were unceasing. " Ah !" he 
 repeated, "for me life has nothing left 
 but bitterness." Such are the mournful 
 consequences of apostacy. 
 
 Nevertheless, among those French- 
 men who had received the word of God 
 were found men of more intrepid hearts 
 than Pavanne and Mazurier. Towards 
 the end of 1523, Leclerc settled at Metz, 
 in Lorraine, " and there," says Theodore 
 Beza. " he acted on the example of St. 
 Paul, who, while labouring at Corinth 
 as a tent-maker, persuaded both the Jews 
 and the Greeks."! Leclerc, while pur- 
 suing his industry as a wool-comber, in- 
 structed those of his own condition ; and 
 among these last there had been several 
 instances of real conversion. Thus did 
 this humble artizan lay the foundations 
 of a church which afterwards became 
 celebrated. 
 
 But at Metz, Leclerc did not stand 
 alone Among the ecclesiastics of that 
 city was one John Chatelain, an Augus- 
 tine monk of Tournay, and doctor of 
 theology, who had been brought to the 
 knowledge of God, J through his acquaint- 
 ance with the Augustihes of Antwerp. 
 Chatelain had gained the reverence of 
 the people by the strictness of his mor- 
 als ;§ and the doctrine of Christ, when 
 preached by him, attired in cope and 
 stole, appeared less strange to the inhab- 
 
 * Actes des Martyrs, p. 99. 
 
 t Acts of the Apostles, xviii. 3, 4. Apostoli 
 apud Corinthios exemplum secutus. — (Beza? 
 Icones.) 
 
 t Vocatus ad cognitionem Dei. — (Act. Mart. 
 180.) 
 
 § Gaillard, Hist, de Francois I. v. p. 232. 
 
 itants of Metz, than when it proceeded 
 from the lips of a poor artizan, laying 
 aside the comb with which he carded his 
 wool, to take up and explain a French 
 version of the Gospels. 
 
 By the active zeal of these two men 
 the light of evangelical truth began to be 
 diffused throughout the city. A very 
 devout woman named Toussaint, one of 
 the middle class of the people, had a son 
 called Peter, with whom, in the hours of 
 his childish sports, she would often speak 
 of serious things. Every one, even to 
 the humblest, lived then in expectation 
 of some extraordinary event. One day 
 the child was amusing himself in riding 
 on a stick, in a room where his mother 
 was conversing with some friends on the 
 things of God, when she said, in a voice 
 of emotion, "Antichrist will soon come 
 with great power, and will destroy such 
 as shall have been converted by the 
 preaching of Elias."* These words be- 
 ing frequently repeated, arrested the at- 
 tention of the child, and he afterwards 
 recalled them. At the time when the 
 doctor of theology and the wool-comber 
 were engaged in preaching the Gospel 
 at Metz, Peter Toussaint was grown up. 
 His relations and friends, wondering at 
 his precocious genius, conceived the hope 
 of seeing him in an exalted station in the 
 Church. An uncle on his father's side 
 was primicier, or head of the chapter of 
 Metz.f The cardinal John of Lorraine, 
 son of Duke Rene, who kept a large es- 
 tablishment, expressed much regard for 
 the primicier and his nephew, the latter 
 of whom, notwithstanding his youth, had 
 just before obtained a prebend, when his 
 attention was drawn to the study of the 
 Gospel. Why may not the preaching 
 of Chatelain and Leclerc be that of 
 Elias? It is true, Antichrist is every- 
 where arming against it. But what mat- 
 ter? "Let us," said he, "lift up our 
 heads, looking to the Lord, who will 
 come and will not tarry. "J The light 
 of truth was beginning to find entrance 
 among the principal families of Metz. 
 
 * Cum equitabam in arundine longa, memini 
 sffipe audisse me a matre, venturum Antichris- 
 tum cum potentiS. magna, perditurumque eos qui 
 essent ad Elise pradicationem conversi. — (Tossa- 
 nus Farello, 4 Sept. 1525, from a MS. of the 
 conclave of Neufchatel.) 
 
 t Tossanus Farello, 21st July, 1525. 
 
 t Ibid. 4th Sept. 1525. 
 
582 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The knight Esch, an intimate friend of 
 the primicier, or dean, and much respect- 
 ed, had been recently converted.* The 
 friends of the Gospel were rejoicing 
 in this event : — Pierre was accustom- 
 ed to term him " our worthy master the 
 knight ;" adding with noble candour, " if 
 we may be allowed to call any man mas- 
 ter on earth."f 
 
 Thus Metz was about to become a fo- 
 cus of light when the rash zeal of Le- 
 clerc abruptly arrested its slow but sure 
 progress, and excited a commotion which 
 threatened ruin to the infant church. 
 The populace of Metz had continued to 
 observe their accustomed superstitions, 
 and Leclerc's spirit was stirred within 
 him at the sight of the city almost whol- 
 ly given to idolatry. One of their high 
 festivals drew nigh. About a league dis- 
 tant from the city stood a chapel inclosing 
 statues of the Virgin and of the most ven- 
 erated saints of the surrounding country, 
 whither the people of Metz were in the 
 habit of resorting in pilgrimage on a cer- 
 tain day in the year, to worship these im- 
 ages and obtain the pardon of their sins. 
 
 On the eve of this festival the pious 
 and the courageous spirit of Leclerc was 
 deeply agitated. Had not God said — 
 " Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, 
 but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and 
 quite break down their images?% Leclerc 
 understood the words as addressed to 
 himself, and without conferring with 
 Chatelain, Esch, or any of those who he 
 may have expected would dissuade him, 
 quitted the city, and approached the chap- 
 el'. There he collected his thoughts as 
 he sat silently before these statues. As 
 yet the way was open to him to retire ; 
 but to-morrow — in a few hours — the en- 
 tire population of a city, which ought to 
 be worshipping God alone, will be bow- 
 ing before these blocks of wood and stone. 
 A struggle ensued in the heart of the 
 humble wool-carder, similar to that which 
 was so often endured in the hearts of the 
 early Christians. What signified the dif- 
 ference, that here it was the images of 
 the saints of the neighbouring country, 
 and not of heathen gods and goddesses 
 
 * Clarissimum ilium equitem . . . cui multum 
 familiaritae et amicitias, cum primicerio Metensi, 
 patruo meo. — (Toss. Farello, 2d Aug. 1524.) 
 
 t Ibid. 21st July, 1525. MS. of Neufchatel. 
 
 X Exodus xx. 4 ; xxiii. 24. 
 
 — did not the worship rendered to mese 
 images belong of right to God alone? 
 Like Polyeucte before the idols of the 
 temple, his heart shuddered, and his 
 courage was roused : 
 
 Ne perdons plus le temps, le sacrifice est pret, 
 Allons y du vrai Dieu soutenir l'inte>et ; 
 Allons fouler aux pieds ce foudre ridicule 
 Dont arme un bois pourri ce peuple trop credule 
 Allons en e"clairer l'aveuglement fatal, 
 Allons briser ces dieux de pierre et de me"tal 
 Abandonnons nos jours, a. cette ardeur celeste — 
 Faisons triompher Dieu ; qu'il dispose du reste. 
 Corneille, Polyeucte.* 
 
 Leclerc accordingly rose from his seat, 
 and approaching the images, removed 
 and broke them, in his holy indignation 
 scattering the fragments before the altar. 
 He did not doubt that this action was by 
 special inspiration of the spirit of the 
 Lord, and Theodore Beza was of the 
 same judgment.! — This done, Leclerc 
 returned to Metz, re-entering it at day- 
 break, and noticed only by a {ew persons 
 at the moment of his passing the gate of 
 the city. | 
 
 Meanwhile all were in motion in the 
 ancient city of Metz. The bells rang, 
 the various religious bodies mustered, 
 and the entire population, headed by the 
 priests and monks, left the city, reciting 
 prayers and chanting hymns to the saints 
 whom they were on their way to worship. 
 Crosses and banners went forward in or- 
 derly procession, and drums and instru- 
 ments of music mingled with the hymns 
 of the faithful. After an hour's march, 
 the procession reached the place of pil- 
 grimage. But what was the astonish- 
 ment of the priests, when advancing with 
 censers in hand, they beheld the images 
 they had come to worship mutilated, and 
 their fragments strewed upon the earth. 
 They drew back appalled, — and an- 
 nounced to the crowd of worshippers the 
 sacrilege that had been committed. In- 
 stantly the hymns were hushed — the mu- 
 sic stopped — the banners were lowered, 
 and agitation pervaded the assembled 
 multitude. Canons, curates, and monks, 
 laboured still further to inflame their an- 
 ger and excited them to search out the 
 
 * Polyeucte, by P. Corneille. What many 
 admire in poetry, they pass condemnation on in 
 history. 
 
 t Divini spiritus afflatu impulsus. — (Bezas 
 Icones.) 
 
 t Mane apud urbis portam deprehensus. 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 583 
 
 guilty person, and require that he should 
 be put to death.* A shout was raised on 
 all sides. " Death — Death to the sacri- 
 legious wretch." They returned in haste 
 and disorder to the city. 
 
 Leclerc was known to all ; several 
 times he had been heard to call the 
 images idols; moreover he had been ob- 
 served at day-break returning from the 
 direction of the chapel. He was appre- 
 hended, and at once confessed the fact, at 
 the same time conjuring the people to 
 worship God alone. But his appeal only 
 the more inflamed the rage of the multi- 
 tude, who would have dragged him to 
 instant execution. Placed before his 
 judges, he courageously declared that 
 Jesus Christ — God manifest in the flesh 
 — ought to be the sole object of worship; 
 — and was sentenced to be burnt alive ! 
 He was conducted to the place of exe- 
 cution. 
 
 Here an awful scene awaited him : his 
 persecutors had been devising all that 
 could render his sufferings more dread- 
 ful. At the scaffold they were engaged 
 heating pincers, as instruments of their 
 cruelty. Leclerc heard with calm com- 
 posure the savage yells of monks and 
 people. They began by cutting off* his 
 right hand ; then taking up the red hot 
 pincers, they tore away his nose ; after 
 this, with the same instrument, they lace- 
 rated his arms, and having thus mangled 
 him in many places, they ended by ap- 
 plying the burnings to his breasts, t All 
 the while that the cruelty of his enemies 
 was venting itself on his body, his soul 
 was kept in perfect peace. He ejacu- 
 lated solemnly,^ — " Their idols are silver 
 and gold, the work of metis hands. They 
 have mouths, but they speak not : eyes have 
 they, but they see not : they have ears, but 
 thev hear not : noses have they, but they 
 smell not : they have hands, but they han- 
 dle not : feet have they, but they walk not : 
 neither speak they through their throat. 
 They that make them are like unto them ; 
 so is every one that trusteth in them. O 
 
 * Totam civitatem concitarunt ad auctorem 
 ejus facinoris quajrendum. — (Act. Mart. lat. p. 
 189.) 
 
 t Naso candentibus forcipibus abrepto, iisdem- 
 que brachio utroque, ipsis que mammis crudelis- 
 sime perustis. — (Bezre Icones.) MS. of Meaux ; 
 Crespin, &c. 
 
 X Altissima voce recitans. — (Bezre Icones.) 
 Psalm cxv. 4 — 9. 
 
 Israel, trust thou in the Lord ; lie is their 
 help and their shield. 1 ' The enemies 
 were awed by the sight of so much com- 
 posure, — believers were confirmed in 
 their faith,* and the people, whose in- 
 dignation had vented itself in the first 
 burst of anger, were astonished and af- 
 fected, f After undergoing these tortures, 
 Leclerc was burned by a slow fire in 
 conformity to the sentence. Such was 
 the death of the first martyr of the Gos- 
 pel in France. 
 
 But the priests of Metz did not rest 
 there : in vain had they laboured to 
 shake the fidelity of Chatelain — " He is 
 like the deaf adder," said they, " he re- 
 fuses to hear the truth."! He was ar- 
 rested by the servants of the Cardinal of 
 Lorraine, and transferred to the castle of 
 Nommeny. 
 
 After this he was degraded by the offi- 
 cers of the bishop, who stripped him of 
 his vestments, and scraped the tips of his 
 fingers with a piece of broken glass, say- 
 ing, " Thus do we take away the power 
 to sacrifice, consecrate, and bless, which 
 thou didst formerly receive by the anoint- 
 ing of thy hands." § Then throwing 
 over him the habit of a layman, they 
 handed him over to the secular power, 
 which doomed him to be burnt alive. 
 The fire was quickly lighted, and the 
 servant of Christ consumed in the flames. 
 " Nevertheless," observe the historians of 
 the Gallican Church, who, in other re- 
 spects, are loud in commendation of these 
 acts of rigour, " Lutheranism spread 
 through all the district of Metz." 
 
 From the moment this storm had de- 
 scended on the church of Metz, distress 
 and alarm had prevailed in the house- 
 hold of Touissaint. His uncle, the dean, 
 without taking an active part in the mea- 
 sures resorted to against Leclerc and 
 Chatelain, shuddered at the thought that 
 his nephew was one among those people. 
 His mother's fears were still more 
 aroused : not a moment was to be lost : 
 all who had given ear to the evangelic 
 doctrine felt their liberty and lives to be 
 
 * Adversariis territis, piis magnopere confir- 
 matis. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Nemo qui non commoveretur, attonitus. — 
 (Act. Mart. lat. p. 189.) 
 
 t Instar aspidis serpentis aures omni surditate 
 affectas.— (Act. Mart. lat. p. 183.) 
 
 § Utri usque man us digitos lamina vitrea erasit 
 —(Ibid. p. 66.) 
 
584 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 in danger. The blood shed by the in- 
 quisitors had but increased their thirst for 
 more. New scaffolds would ere long be 
 erected: Pierre Touissaint, the knight 
 Esch, and others besides, hastily quitted 
 Metz, and sought refuge at Basle. 
 
 Thus violently did the storm of perse- 
 cution rage at Meaux and at Metz. Re- 
 pulsed from the northern provinces, the 
 Gospel for a while seemed to give way ; 
 but the Reformation did but change its 
 ground, and the south-eastern provinces 
 became the basis and theatre of the move- 
 ment. 
 
 Farel, who had retired to the foot of 
 the Alps, was labouring actively in his 
 work. It was a small thing to him to en- 
 joy in the bosom of his family the sweets 
 of domestic life. The report of the events 
 that had taken place at Meaux and at 
 Paris had communicated a degree of ter- 
 ror to his brothers; but a secret influ- 
 ence attracted them towards those new 
 and wondrous truths which their brother 
 William was in the habit of dwelling 
 upon. The latter, with all the earnest- 
 ness of his character, besought them to 
 be converted to the Gospel ;* and Daniel, 
 Walter, and Claude were at length won 
 over to that God whom their brother de- 
 clared to them. They did not at first re- 
 linquish the worship of their forefathers, 
 but when persecution arose, they boldly 
 suffered the loss of friends, property, and 
 country, for the liberty to worship 
 Christf 
 
 The brothers of Luther and Zwingle 
 do not appear to have been so decidedly 
 converted to the Gospel. The Reforma- 
 tion in France had from its outset a pe- 
 culiarly domestic character. 
 
 Farel's exhortations were not confined 
 to his brothers. He made known the 
 truth to his relatives and friends at Gap 
 and its vicinity. It would even appear, 
 if we give credit to one manuscript, that, 
 availing himself of the friendship of cer- 
 tain ecclesiastics, he began to preach the 
 Gospel in some of the churches ;J but 
 other authorities affirm that he did not at 
 
 * MS. of Choupard. 
 
 + Farel, says a French MS. preserved at Gene- 
 va, was a gentleman in station of ample fortune, 
 which he gave up for the sake of his religion, — 
 as did also three of his brothers. 
 
 t II precha l'Evangile publiquement avec une 
 grande liberte\ — (MS. of Choupard.) 
 
 this time occupy the pulpit. However 
 that may be, the opinions he professed 
 were noised abroad, and both priests and 
 people insisted that he should be silenced: 
 " What new and strange heresy is this ?" 
 said they ; " how can we think that all 
 the practices of devotion are useless? 
 The man is neither monk nor priest : he 
 has no business to preach."* 
 
 It was not long before the whole of the 
 authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, were 
 combined against Farel. It was suffi- 
 ciently evident he was acting with that 
 sect which was everywhere spoken 
 against. " Let us cast out from amongst 
 us," cried they, " this firebrand of dis- 
 cord." Farel was summoned before the 
 judges, roughly handled, and forcibly ex- 
 pelled the city. : 'f 
 
 Yet he did not forsake his country, — 
 the open plains and villages, — the banks 
 of the Durance, — of the Guisanne, — of 
 the lsere, — was there not many a soul in 
 those localities that stood in need of the 
 Gospel? and if he should run any risk, 
 were not those forests, caverns, and steep 
 rocks, which had been the familiar 
 haunts of his childhood, at hand to afford 
 him their shelter ? He began therefore 
 to traverse the country, preaching in pri- 
 vate dwellings and secluded meadows, 
 and retiring for shelter to the woods and 
 overhanging torrents.}; It was a train- 
 ing by which God was preparing him 
 for other trials : " Crosses, persecutions, 
 and the lyings-in-wait of Satan, of which 
 I had intimation, were not wanting," 
 said he ; u they were even much more 
 than I could have borne in my own 
 strength, but God is my father : He has 
 ministered, and will for ever minister 
 to me all needful strength."^ Very many 
 of the inhabitants of these countries re- 
 ceived the truth from his lips ; and thus 
 the same persecution that drove Farel 
 from Paris and Meaux was the means of 
 diffusing the Reformation in the coun- 
 tries of the Saone, the Rhone, and the 
 Alps. In all ages, it has been found that 
 
 * Ibid. Hist, des Eveq. de Nismes, 1738. 
 
 t II fut chasse, voire fort rudement, tant par 
 l'eveque que par ceux de la ville. — (MS. of Chou- 
 pard.) 
 
 t Olim errabundus in sylvis, in nemoribus, in 
 aquis vagatus sum — (Farel ad Capit. de Bucer. 
 Basil 25th Oct. 1526. MS. of Neufchatel.) 
 
 § Non defuere crux, persecutio et Satanee 
 machinamenta . . . — (Farel Galeoto.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526 
 
 585 
 
 they who have heen scattered abroad, 
 have gone everywhere preaching the word 
 of God.* 
 
 Among the Frenchmen who were at 
 this time gained over to the Gospel, was 
 a Dauphinese gentleman, the Knight 
 Anemond de Coct, the younger son of 
 the auditor of Coct, the lord of Chatelard. 
 Active, ardent, truly pious, and opposed 
 to the generally received veneration of 
 relics, processions and clergy, Anemond 
 readily received the evangelic doctrine, 
 and was soon entirely devoted to it. He 
 could not patiently endure the formality 
 that reigned around him, and it was his 
 wish to see all the ceremonies of the 
 Church abolished. The religion of the 
 heart, the inward worship of the Spirit, 
 was everything in his estimation : " Nev- 
 er," said he, ' : has my mind found any 
 rest in externals. The sum of Chris- 
 tianity is in that text, — ' John truly bap- 
 tized with water, but ye shall be baptized 
 with the Holy Ghost.' We must become 
 'new creatures.' "f 
 
 Coct, endued with the vivacity of his 
 nation, spoke and wrote one day in 
 French, the next in Latin. He read and 
 quoted Donatus, Thomas Aquinas, Juve- 
 nal, and the Bible ! His style was brief, 
 and marked by abrupt transitions Ever 
 restless, he would present himself wherev- 
 er a door seemed to be opened to the 
 Gospel, or a famous teacher was to be 
 heard. His cordiality won the affection 
 of all his acquaintances. " He is a man 
 of distinction, both for his birth and his 
 learning," observed Zwingle, at a later 
 period, " but yet more distinguished for 
 his piety and obliging disposition."^ An- 
 emond is a sort of type of many French- 
 men of the Reformed opinions : vivacity, 
 simplicity, a zeal which passes readily 
 into imprudence, — such are the qualities 
 often recurring among those of his coun- 
 trymen who have embraced the Gospel. 
 But at the very opposite extreme of the 
 French character, we behold the grave 
 aspect of Calvin, serving as a weighty 
 counterpoise to the light step of Coct. 
 Calvin and Anemond are as the two 
 
 * Acts viii. 
 
 t Nunquam in externis quievit spiritus mens. 
 — (Coctus Farello, MS. of the Conclave of Neuf- 
 chatel.) 
 
 X Virum est genere, doctrinaque clarum, ita 
 pietate humaniteque longe clariorem. — (Zw. Epp. 
 p. 319.) 
 
 74 
 
 poles between whom the religious world 
 of France revolves. 
 
 No sooner had Anemond received from 
 Farel the knowledge of Jesus Christ* 
 than he set about winning souls to that 
 doctrine of ' spirit and life.' His father 
 was no more. His elder brother, — of a 
 stern and haughty temper, — disdainfully 
 repulsed his advances. Laurent, — the 
 youngest of the family, and affectionately 
 attached to him, — seemed but half to en- 
 ter into the understanding of his words, 
 and Anemond, disappointed in his own 
 family, turned his activity in another di- 
 rection. 
 
 Hitherto it was among the laity only 
 that this awakening in Dauphiny had 
 been known. Farel, Anemond, arid their 
 friends, wished much to see a priest ta- 
 king the lead in the movement, which 
 promised to make itself felt throughout 
 the Alps. There dwelt at Grenoble a 
 curate, — a minorite, by name Pierre de 
 Sebvilie, famed for the eloquence of his 
 preaching, right-minded and simple, — 
 " conferring not with flesh and blood," — 
 and whom God. by gradual process, was 
 drawing to the knowledge of Himself, f 
 It was not long before Sebville was 
 brought to the acknowledgment that 
 there is no unerring Teacher save the 
 word of the Lord ; and, relinquishing 
 such teaching as rests only on the wit- 
 ness of men, he determined in his heart 
 to preach a Gospel, at once " clear, pure, 
 and holy."! These three words exhibit 
 the complete character of the Reforma- 
 tion. Coct and Farel rejoiced to hear 
 this new preacher of Grace, raising his 
 powerful voice in their country ; and 
 they concluded that their own presence 
 would thenceforth be less necessary. 
 
 The more the awakening spread, the 
 more violently did opposition arise. Ane- 
 mond, longing to know more of Luther, 
 Zwingle, and of the countries which had 
 been the birth-place of the Reformation, 
 — and indignant at finding the Gospel 
 rejected by his own countrymen, resolv- 
 ed to bid farewell to his country and 
 family. He made his will, — settling his 
 
 * In a letter to Farel, he signs : — Filius tuus 
 humilis.—{% Sept. 1524.) 
 
 t Pater coelestis animum sic tuum ad se traxit. 
 — (Zwinglius Sebvilte, Epp. p. 320.) 
 
 t Nitide, pure, sancteque prcedicare in animum 
 inducis. — (Ibid.) 
 
 
586 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 property, then in the hands of his elder 
 brother, the lord of Chatelard, on his 
 brother Laurent.* This done, he quitted 
 Dauphiny and France, and passing over, 
 with impetuous haste, countries which 
 were then not traversed without much 
 difficulty, he went through Switzerland, 
 and scarcely stopping at Basle, arrived at 
 Wittemberg, where Luther then was. It 
 was shortly after the second diet of Nu- 
 remberg. The French gentleman ac- 
 costed the Saxon Doctor with his accus- 
 tomed vivacity,— spoke with enthusiastic 
 warmth concerning the Gospel, — and 
 dwelt largely on the plans he had formed 
 for the propagation of the truth. The 
 grave Saxon smiled as he listened to the 
 southern imagination of the speaker ; 
 and Luther,f who had some prejudices 
 against the national character of the 
 French, — was won, and carried away by 
 Anemond. The thought that this gen- 
 tleman had made the journey from 
 France to Wittemberg, for the Gospel's 
 sake, affected him.| " Certainly," re- 
 marked the Reformer to his friends, 
 " that French knight is an excellent 
 man, and both learned and pious,§" and 
 Zwingle formed a similar opinion of 
 him. 
 
 Anemond having seen what had been 
 effected by the agency of Luther and 
 Zwingle, imagined that if they would 
 but take in hand France and Savoy, no- 
 thing could stand against them ; and ac- 
 cordingly, failing to persuade them to 
 remove thither, he earnestly desired of 
 them that, at least, they would write. 
 He particularly besought Luther to ad- 
 dress a letter to Charles Duke of Savoy, 
 brother of Louisa and of Philibert, and 
 uncle to Francis the First and Margaret. 
 " That prince," observed he to Luther, 
 " is much drawn to piety and true reli- 
 gion, || and he takes pleasure in convers- 
 
 * " My brother Anemond Coct, when setting 
 forth from this country, made me his heir." — 
 (MS. Letters in the Library at Neufchatel.) 
 
 t " Mire ardens in Evangelium," said Luther 
 to Spalatin. — (Epp. ii. p. 340.) " Sehr briinstig 
 in der Herrlichkeit des Evangelii," said he to the 
 Duke of Savoy.— (Ibid. p. 401.) 
 
 t Evangelii gratia hue profectus e Gallia. — 
 (L. Epp. ii. p. 340.) 
 
 § Hie Gallus eques . . . optimus vir est, erudi- 
 tus ac pius. — (Ibid.) 
 
 || Ein grosser Leibhaber der wahren Religion 
 und Gottseligkeit— (Ibid. p. 401.) 
 
 ing concerning the Reformation with 
 certain persons at his court. He is just 
 the one to enter into your views, — for his 
 motto is, ' Nihil deest timentibus Deum ;'* 
 and that is your own maxim. Assailed 
 alternately by the Empire and by France, 
 humbled, broken in spirit, and continu- 
 ally in danger, his heart knows its need 
 of God and His grace : all he wants is 
 to be impelled to action : once gained 
 over to the Gospel, his influence would 
 be immense in Switzerland, Savoy, and 
 France. Pray write to him." 
 
 Luther was a thorough German, and 
 would not have been at ease beyond the 
 frontier of his own nation. Yet, in true 
 catholicity of heart, his hand was imme- 
 diately put out where he recognised breth- 
 ren ; and wherever a word might be spo- 
 ken with effect, he took care to make it 
 heard. Sometimes on the same day he 
 would write letters to countries separated 
 by the widest distances, — as the Nether- 
 lands, Savoy, Livonia. 
 
 " Assuredly," he answered Anemond, 
 " a love for the Gospel is a rare and in- 
 estimable jewel in a prince's crown. "t 
 And he proceeded to write to the Duke 
 a letter which Anemond probably carried 
 with him as far as Switzerland. 
 
 " I beg your Highness's pardon," wrote 
 Luther, " if I, a poor and unfriended monk, 
 venture to address you ; or rather I would 
 ask of your Highness to ascribe this bold- 
 ness of mine to the glory of the Gospel, 
 — for I cannot see that glorious light arise 
 and shine in any quarter, without exult- 
 ing at the sight .... My hope is, that 
 my Lord Jesus Christ may win over 
 many souls by the power of your Serene 
 Highness's example. Therefore it is I 
 desire to instruct you in our teaching. 
 We believe that the very beginning of 
 salvation and the sum 'of Christianity 
 consists in faith in Christ, who, by his 
 blood alone, — and not by any works of 
 ours, — has put away Sin, and destroyed 
 the power of death. We believe that 
 this faith is God's gift, formed in our 
 hearts by the Holy Spirit, and not at- 
 tained by any effort of our own ; — for 
 
 * " They that fear God shall want no good 
 thing." — (Hist. Gen. de la Maison de Savoie par 
 Guichenon, ii. p. 228.) 
 
 t Eine seltsame Gabe und hohes Kleinod un- 
 ter den Fursten. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 401.) 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 587 
 
 faith is a principle of life,* begetting man 
 spiritually, and making him a new crea- 
 ture." 
 
 Luther passed thence to the effects of 
 faith, and showed that it was not possible 
 to be possessed of that faith without the 
 superstructure of false doctrine and hu- 
 man merits, — built up so laboriously by 
 the Church, — being at once swept away. 
 " If Grace," said he, " is the purchase of 
 Christ's blood, it follows that it is not the 
 purchase of works of ours. Hence the 
 Avhole train of works of all the cloisters 
 in the world are, — for this purpose, — use- 
 less ; and such institutions should be 
 abolished, as opposed to the blood of Je- 
 sus Christ, and as leading men to trust in 
 their own good works. Ingrafted in 
 Christ, nothing remains for us but to do 
 good ; because being become good trees, 
 we ought to give proof of it by bearing 
 good fruits." 
 
 " Gracious Prince and Lord," said Lu- 
 ther, in conclusion : " May your High- 
 ness, having made so happy a beginning, 
 help to spread this doctrine, — not by the 
 sword, which would be a hindrance to 
 the Gospel, — but by inviting to your 
 states teachers who preach the Word. It 
 is by the breath of His mouth that Jesus 
 will destroy Antichrist ; so that, as Daniel 
 describes, he may be broken without 
 hand. Therefore, most Serene Prince, 
 let your Highness cherish that spark that 
 has been kindled in your heart. Let a 
 flame go forth from the house of Savoy, 
 as once from the house of Joseph, f May 
 all France be as stubble before that fire. 
 May it burn, blaze, purify, — that so that 
 renowned kingdom may truly take the 
 title of ' Most Christian,' — which it has 
 hitherto received only in reward of blood 
 shed in the cause of Antichrist." 
 
 Thus did Luther endeavour to diffuse 
 the Gospel in France. We have no 
 means of knowing the effect of this letter 
 on the Prince ; but we do not find that 
 he ever gave signs of a wish to detach 
 himself from Rome. In 1523, he re- 
 quested Adrian VI. to be godfather to 
 his first-born son ; and at a later period, 
 we find the Pope promising him a car- 
 dinal's hat for his second son. Ane- 
 
 * Der Glaube ist ein lebendig Ding ... — 
 (Ibid. p. 502.) The Latin is wanting. 
 
 t Das ein Feuer von dem Hause Sophoy aus- 
 gehe. — (L. Epp. ii. p. 406.) 
 
 mond, after making an effort to be ad- 
 mitted to see the court and Elector of Sax- 
 ony,* and, for this purpose, providing 
 himself with a letter from Luther, re- 
 turned to Basle, more than ever resolved 
 to risk his life in the cause of the Gospel. 
 In the ardour of his purpose he would 
 have roused the entire nation. " All 
 that I am, or ever can be," said he, — 
 " All I have or ever can have, it is my 
 earnest desire to devote to the glory of 
 God."t 
 
 At Basle Anemond found his country- 
 man Farel. The letters of Anemond 
 had excited in him a great desire to be 
 personally acquainted with the Swiss and 
 German Reformers. Moreover, Farel felt 
 the need of a sphere in which his activi- 
 ty might be more freely put forth. He 
 accordingly quitted France, which al- 
 ready offered only the scaffold to the 
 preachers of a pure Gospel. Taking to 
 bye-paths, and hiding in the woods, he 
 with difficulty escaped out of the hands 
 of his enemies. Often had he mistaken 
 the direction in which his route lay. 
 " God," observes he, " designs, by my 
 helplessness in these little matters, to 
 teach me how helpless I am in greater 
 things."^ -^t length he entered Switzer- 
 land in the beginning of 1524. There 
 he was destined to spend his life in the 
 service of the Gospel, — and then it was 
 that France began to pour into Switzer- 
 land those noble heralds of the Gospel 
 who were to seat the Reformation in Ro- 
 mane Switzerland, and communicate to 
 it a new and powerful impulse through- 
 out and far beyond the limits of the con- 
 federated cantons. 
 
 The catholicity of the Reformation is 
 a beautiful character in its history. The 
 Germans pass into Switzerland — the 
 French into Germany — and, at a some- 
 what later period, we see the English 
 and the Scotch passing to the Continent, 
 and the Continental teachers to Great 
 Britain. The Reformations of the seve- 
 ral countries take their rise independent- 
 ly of each other — but as soon as they 
 
 * Vult videre aulam et faciem Principis nostri. 
 —(Ibid. p. 340.) 
 
 t Quidquid sum, habeo, ero, habebove, ad Dei 
 gloriam insumere mens est. — (Coct. Epp. MS. 
 of Neufchatel.) 
 
 t Voluit Dominus per infirmahsec, docere quid 
 possit homo in majoribus.— (Farel CapitonL 
 Ibid.) 
 
588 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 look around them, their hands are held 
 out to each other. To them there is one 
 Faith, one Spirit, one Lord. It is an er- 
 ror to treat the history of the Reforma- 
 tion in connection with any single coun- 
 try ; — the work was one and the same in 
 all lands ; and the Protestant Churches 
 were from the very beginning, a " whole 
 body fitly joined together."* 
 
 Certain persons who had fled from 
 France and Lorraine at this time, formed 
 in the city of Basle a French Church, 
 whose members had escaped from the 
 scaffold. These persons had spread the 
 report of Lefevre, Farel, and the events 
 that had occurred at Meaux ; and when 
 Farel entered Switzerland he was al- 
 ready known as one of the most fearless 
 heralds of the truth. 
 
 He was immediately introduced to 
 CEcolampadius, who, some time before 
 this, had returned to Basle. Seldom does 
 it happen that two characters more op- 
 posite are brought together. CEcolam- 
 padius charmed by his gentleness — Fa- 
 rel carried away his hearers by his ear- 
 nestness — but from the moment they met 
 these two men felt themselves one in 
 heart, t It resembled the first meeting 
 of Luther and Melancthon. CEcolam- 
 padius bade him welcome, gave him an 
 apartment in his house, received him at 
 his table, and introduced him to his 
 friends ; and it was not long before the 
 learning, piety, and courage of the young 
 Frenchman won the hearts of his new 
 friends. Pellican, Imelia, Wolfhard, and 
 others of the preachers of Basle, were 
 fortified in their faith by the energy of 
 his exhortations. CEcolampadius was 
 just then suffering under depression of 
 spirits: — "Alas," he wrote to Zwingle, 
 " it is in vain I preach — I see no hope of 
 any effect being produced. Perhaps 
 among the Turks I might succeed bet- 
 ter."! " Oh," added he, sighing, " I as- 
 cribe the failure to myself alone." But 
 the more he saw of Farel the more his 
 heart felt encouragement ; and the cou- 
 rage he derived from the Frenchman 
 laid the ground of an undying affection. 
 " Dear Farel,'' said he to him, " I trust 
 
 * Eph. iv. 16. 
 
 t Amicum semper habui a primo colloquio. — 
 (Farel ad Bulling. 27th May, 1556.) 
 
 X Fortasse in mediis Turcis felicius docuissem. 
 — (Zw. et. Ecol. Epp. p. 200.) 
 
 the Lord will make ours a friendship for 
 all eternity — and if we are parted below, 
 our joy will only be the greater when we 
 shall be gathered in presence of Christ 
 in the heavens !"* Pious and affecting 
 thoughts. The coming of Farel was evi- 
 dently help from above. 
 
 But whilst the Frenchman took de- 
 light in the society of CEcolampadius, he 
 drew back with cool independence from 
 a man at whose feet the principal na- 
 tions of Christendom paid homage. The 
 prince of scholars — the man whose smile 
 and words were objects of general ambi- 
 tion — the teacher of that age — Erasmus 
 — was passed over by Farel. The young 
 Dauphinese had declined to pay his re- 
 spects to the venerated philosopher of 
 Rotterdam — having no relish for those 
 who are never more than half-hearted 
 for truth, and who in the clear under- 
 standing of the consequences of error, are 
 nevertheless full of allowances for those 
 who propagate it. Accordingly we have 
 in Farel that decision which has become 
 one of the distinguishing characters of 
 the Reformation in France, and in those 
 cantons of Switzerland bordering on 
 France — characters which have been by 
 some deemed stiffness, exclusiveness, and 
 intolerance. A controversy had com- 
 menced between Erasmus and Lefevre, 
 arising out of the commentaries put forth 
 by the latter, — and in all companies par- 
 ties were divided for the one and against 
 the other.f Farel had unhesitatingly 
 ranged himself on the side of his teacher. 
 But that which chiefly roused his indig- 
 nation was the cowardly course pursued 
 by the philosopher toward the evangeli- 
 cal party ; — Erasmus's doors were closed 
 against them. That being the case, Fa- 
 rel will not enter them ! — to him this 
 was felt to be no loss; convinced as he 
 was that the very ground of a true theol- 
 ogy — the piety of the heart — was want- 
 ing to Erasmus. " Frobenius'swuje knows 
 more of theology than he does," remarked 
 Farel ; and stung by the intelligence 
 that Erasmus had written to the Pope, 
 
 * Mi Farelle, spero Dominum conservaturum 
 amicitiam nostram immortalem ; et si hie con- 
 jungi nequimus, tanto beatius alibi apud Chris- 
 tum erit contubernium. — (Zw. et GDcol. Epp. p. 
 201.) 
 
 t Nullum est pene convivium . . . — (Er. Epp. 
 p. 179.) ■ 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 589 
 
 advising him how to set about " extin- 
 guishing the spread of Lutheranism,"* he 
 publicly declared that Erasmus was en- 
 deavouring to stifle the Gospel. 
 
 This independence of young Farel dis- 
 turbed the composure of the man of learn- 
 ing. Princes, kings, learned men, bish- 
 ops, priests, and men of the world, all 
 were ready to offer him the tribute of 
 their admiration : — Luther himself had 
 treated him with respect, so far as he was 
 personally mixed up in this controversy ; 
 and this Dauphinese — a nameless ref- 
 ugee — ventured to brave his power. So 
 insolent a freedom caused Erasmus more 
 annoyance than the homage of the world 
 at large could give him joy, and hence 
 he lost no opportunity of venting his 
 spite against Farel. Moreover, in assail- 
 ing him he contributed to clear himself, 
 in the judgment of the Roman Catholics, 
 of the suspicion of heresy, — " I never met 
 with such a liar, — -such a restless sedi- 
 tious spirit as that man,"f observed he ; 
 "his heart is full of vanity, and his 
 tongue charged with malice."| But the 
 anger of Erasmus did not stop at Farel 
 — it was directed against all the French- 
 men who had sought refuge at Basle, 
 and whose frankness and decision were 
 an offence to him. They paid evidently 
 no respect to persons ; and wherever the 
 truth was not frankly confessed, they took 
 no notice of the man, how great soever 
 his genius might be. Wanting, perhaps, 
 in the graciousness of the Gospel, there 
 was in their faithfulness that which re- 
 minds one of the prophets of old — and it 
 is truly delightful to contemplate men 
 who stand erect before that to which the 
 world bows down. Erasmus, astonished 
 bv this lofty disdain, complained of it in 
 all companies. " What mean we," wrote 
 he to Melancthon, li to reject pontiffs and 
 bishops, only to submit to the insolence 
 of more cruel ragamuffin tyrants and 
 madmen, § for such it is that France has 
 o-iven us." — " There are some French- 
 men," he wrote to the Pope's secretary 
 (at the same time sending him his book 
 on Free Will), " who are even more in- 
 
 * Consilium quo sic extinguatur inceqftm 
 Lutheranum. — (Er. Epp. p. 179.) 
 
 t Quo nihil vidi mendacius, virulentius, et se- 
 ditiosius. — (Ibid. p. 798.) 
 
 t Acidae linguee et vanissimus. — (Ibid. p. 2129.) 
 
 § Scabiosos . . . rabiosos . . . nam nuper nobis 
 misit Gallia.— (Ibid. p. 350.) 
 
 sane than the Germans themselves. They 
 have ever on their lips these five words 
 — Gospel — Word of God — Faith — Christ 
 — Holy Spirit — and yet I doubt not but 
 that it is the spirit of Satan that urges 
 them on."* In place of Farellus he often 
 wrote Fallicus, thus designating as a 
 cheat and deceiver one of the most frank- 
 hearted men of his age. 
 
 The rage and anger of Erasmus were 
 at their height, when information arrived 
 that Farel had termed him a Balaam. 
 Farel thought that Erasmus, like that 
 prophet, was (perhaps unconsciously) 
 swayed by gifts to curse the people of 
 God. The man of learning, no longer 
 able to restrain himself, resolved to chas- 
 tise the daring Dauphinese : and one 
 day, when Farel was discussing certain 
 topics of Christian doctrine with some 
 friends, in the presence of Erasmus, the 
 latter rudely interrupted him with the 
 question, — K On what ground do you call 
 me Balaam?"! Fafel, who was at first 
 disconcerted by the abruptness of the 
 question, soon recovered himself, and 
 made answer that it was not he who had 
 given him that name. Being pressed to 
 say who it was, he mentioned Du Blet 
 of Lyons, who like himself had sought 
 refuge at Basle. % " Perhaps he may 
 have made use of the expression," re- 
 plied Erasmus, " but it is yourself who 
 taught it him." Then ashamed to have 
 lost his temper, he hastily changed the 
 subject : — " Why is it," asked he, " that 
 you assert that we are not to invoke the 
 saints? Is it because Holy Scripture 
 does not enjoin the practice ?" — " It is," 
 answered the Frenchman. " Well," said 
 the man of learning, " I call on you to 
 show from Scripture that we should in- 
 voke the Holy Ghost?" Farel gave this 
 clear and solid answer : ' : If He be God, 
 we must invoke Him."§ " I dropt the 
 conversation," said Erasmus, " for the 
 night was closing in. :, || From that time, 
 
 * Non duitem quin agantur spiritu Satanse. 
 — (Er. Epp. p. 350.) 
 
 t Diremi disputationem . . . — (Ibid. p. 804.) 
 
 X Utdiceretnegotiatorem quemdam Dupletum 
 hoc dixisse.— (Ibid. p. 2129.) 
 
 § Si Deus est, inquit, invocandus est. — (Er. 
 Epp. p. 804.) 
 
 || Oinissa disputatione, nam imminebat nox. 
 — (Ibid.) We have only Erasmus' account of 
 this conversation ; he himself reports that Farel 
 gave a very different account of it. 
 
590 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 whenever Farel's name came under his 
 pen, the opportunity was taken to repre- 
 sent him as a hateful person, on every 
 account to be shunned. The Reformer's 
 letters are, on the contrary, marked by 
 moderation as regards Erasmus. Even 
 in those most constitutionally hasty, the 
 Gospel is a more gracious thing than 
 Philosophy. 
 
 The Evangelic doctrine had already 
 many friends in Basle, in the town-coun- 
 cil, and among the people ; but the Doc- 
 tors and the University opposed it to the 
 utmost of their power. (Ecolampadius 
 and Stor, pastor at Liestal, had maintain- 
 ed certain theses against them. Farel 
 thought it well to assert in Switzerland 
 also the great maxim of the Evangelic 
 school of Paris and of Meaux, — God's 
 Word is all-svfficicnt. He requested per- 
 mission of the University to maintain 
 some theses, — " the rather," he modestly 
 added, " to be reproved if I am in error, 
 than to teach others."* But the Univer- 
 sity refused its permission. 
 
 Farel then appealed to the Council, 
 and the Council issued public notice, 
 that a Christian man, by name William 
 Farel, having, by the inspiration of the 
 Holy Spirit, prepared certain articles con- 
 formable to the Gospel,! leave was given 
 him to maintain the same in Latin. The 
 University forbade all priests and stu- 
 dents to be present at the conference, and 
 the Council met the prohibition by one 
 of an opposite tenor. 
 
 The following are some of the thirteen 
 propositions that Farel put forth : — 
 
 " Christ has left us the most perfect 
 rule of life ; no one can lawfully take 
 away, or add anything thereto." 
 
 " To shape our lives by any other pre- 
 cepts than those of Christ, leads directly 
 to impiety." 
 
 " The true ministry of priests is to at- 
 tend only to the ministry of the Word ; 
 and for them there is no higher dignity." 
 
 " To take from the certainty of the 
 Gospel of Christ, is to destroy it." 
 
 " He who thinks to be justified by any 
 strength or merits of his own, and not by 
 faith, puts himself in the place of God." 
 
 " Jesus Christ, who is head over all 
 
 * Damit er gelehrt werde, ob er irre. — (Fussli 
 Beytr. iv. p. 244.) 
 
 t Aus Eingiessung des heiligen Geistes ein 
 christlicher Mensch und Bruder. — (Ibid.) 
 
 things, is our polar star, and the only 
 guide we ought to follow."* 
 
 Thus did this native of France stand 
 up at Basle. f .A child of the mountains 
 of Dauphiny, brought up at Paris, at the 
 feet of Lefevre, thus boldly proclaimed in 
 the celebrated Swiss University, and in 
 presence of Erasmus, the great principles 
 of the Reformation. Two leading ideas 
 pervaded Farel's theses, — the ope involv- 
 ed a return to the Scripture, the other a 
 return to the Faith, — two movements 
 distinctly condemned by the Papacy at 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century 
 as heretical and impious, in the celebra- 
 ted constitution Unigenitus, and which, 
 ever closely connected with each other, 
 in reality overturn the whole of the Papal 
 system. If Faith in Christ is the begin- 
 ning and end of Christianity, the word of 
 Christ, and not the voice of the Church, 
 is that to which we must adhere. Nor 
 is this all ; for if Faith unites in one the 
 souls of believers, what signifies an ex- 
 ternal bond ? Can that holy union de- 
 pend for its existence on croziers, bulls, 
 or tiaras ? Faith knits together in spirit- 
 ual and true oneness all those in whose 
 hearts it has taken up its abode. Thus 
 at one blow disappeared the triple delu- 
 sion of human deservings, traditions of 
 men, and simulated unity. And these 
 compose the sum of Roman Catholicism. 
 
 The discussion was opened in Latin.J 
 Farel and (Ecolampadius stated and es- 
 tablished their articles, calling repeatedly 
 upon those who differed from them to 
 make answer ; but none answered to the 
 call. The sophists, as CEcolampadius 
 terms them, boldly denied them, — but 
 from their skulking corners.^ The 
 people therefore began to look with 
 contempt upon the cowardice of their 
 priests, and learned to despise their tyr- 
 anny. || 
 
 Thus did Farel take his stand among 
 the defenders of the Reformation. So 
 
 * Guilelmus Farellus Christianis lectoribus, 
 die Martis post Reminiscere. — (Fussli Beytr. iv. p. 
 217.) Fussli does not give the Latin text, 
 t Schedam conclusionum a Gallo illo. — (Zw. 
 >. p. 333.) 
 
 Schedam conclusionum latine apud nos dis- 
 putatam. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Agunt tamen inagnos interim thrasones, sed 
 in angulis lucifugae. — (Zw. Epp. p. 333.) 
 
 |] Incipit tamen plebs paulatim iliorum ignaviam 
 et tyrannidem verbo Dei agnoscere. — (Ibid.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 591 
 
 much learning and piety rejoiced the 
 hearts of observers, and already more 
 signal victories were looked forward to. — 
 " He is singly more than a match for all 
 the Sorbonne put together,"* said they. 
 His openness, sincerity, and candour, 
 charmed all.f But in the very height 
 of his activity he did not forget that every 
 mission must begin at our own souls. 
 The mild CEcolampadius made with the 
 earnest hearted Farel an agreement, by 
 which they mutually engaged to exercise 
 themselves in humility and gentleness in 
 their familiar intercourse. Thus on the 
 very field of contention were these cou- 
 rageous men engaged in composing their 
 souls to peace. — The impetuous zeal of 
 Luther and of Farel were not unfrequent- 
 ly necessary virtues ; for a degree of effort 
 is required to move society and recast the 
 Church. In our days we are very apt to 
 forget this truth, which then was ac- 
 knowledged by men of the mildest char- 
 acter. " Some there are," said CEcolam- 
 padius to Luther, in introducing Farel to 
 him, " who would moderate his zeal 
 against the opposers of the truth ; but I 
 cannot help discerning in that same zeal 
 a wonderful virtue, and which, if but 
 well directed, is not less needed than gen- 
 tleness itself. "J Posterity has ratified 
 the judgment of CEcolampadius. 
 
 In the month of May, 1524, Farel, 
 with some friends from Lyons, repaired 
 to Schaff hausen, Zurich, and Constance. 
 Zwiffgle and Myconius welcomed with 
 the liveliest joy the French refugee, and 
 Farel never forgot the kindness of that 
 welcome. But on his return to Basle he 
 found Erasmus and others of his enemies 
 at work, and received an order to quit 
 the city. His friends loudly expressed 
 their displeasure at this stretch of authori- 
 ty — but in vain, and he was driven from 
 that Swiss territory which was even then 
 regarded as an asylum for signal misfor- 
 tunes. — " Such is our hospitality !" ejac- 
 ulated CEcolampadius in indignation : 
 "We are a people like unto Sodom." § 
 
 At Basle Farel had contracted a close 
 
 * Ad totam Sorbonicam afnigendam si non et 
 perdendam. — (CEcol. Luthero, Epp. p. 200.) 
 
 t Farello nihil candidius est. — (Ibid.) 
 
 X Verum ego virtutem illam admirabilem et 
 non minus placiditate, si tempestive fuerit, neces- 
 sarian!. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Adeo hospitum habemus rationem, veri Sod- 
 omitae. — (Zw. Epp. p. 434.) 
 
 friendship with the knight D'Esch — the 
 latter resolved to bear him company, and 
 they set forth, provided by CEcolampa- 
 dius with letters for Capito and Luther, 
 to whom the doctor of Basle commended 
 Farel as the same William who had la- 
 boured so abundantly in the work of 
 God.* At Strasburg Farel formed an 
 intimacy with Capito, Bucer, and Hedio 
 — but we have no account of his having 
 gone to Wittemberg. 
 
 When God withdraws his servants 
 from the field of combat, it is commonly 
 that they may be again brought forward 
 in increased strength and more complete- 
 ly armed for the conflict. Farel and his 
 companions from Meaux, from Metz, 
 from Lyons, and from Dauphiny, driven 
 by persecution from France, had been 
 tempered with new firmness in Switzer- 
 land and in Germany, in the society of 
 the earlier Reformers; and now, like 
 soldiers scattered by the first charge of 
 the enemy, but instantly collecting again 
 their force, they were about to turn round 
 and go forward in the name of the Lord. 
 Not only on the frontiers, but in the in- 
 terior of France, the friends of the Gos- 
 pel were beginning to take courage. The 
 signal was made — the combatants were 
 arming for the assault — the word was 
 given. " Jesus, his truth and grace" — a 
 word of more power than the clang of 
 arms in the tug of war, filled all hearts 
 with enthusiasm, and all gave omen of 
 a campaign pregnant with new victories 
 and new and more wide-spreading ca- 
 lamities. 
 
 Montbeliard at this time stood in need 
 of a labourer in the Gospel. Duke Ulric 
 of Wurtemberg — young, impetuous, and 
 cruel — having been dispossessed of his 
 hereditary states in 1519 by the Suabian 
 league, had retired to that province, his 
 last remaining possession. In Switzer- 
 land he became acquainted with the Re- 
 formers. His misfortunes had a whole- 
 some effect, and he listened to the truth, f 
 CEcolampadius apprized Farel that a 
 door was opened at Montbeliard, and the 
 latter secretly repaired to Basle. 
 
 Farel had not regularly entered on 
 the ministry of the word ; but at this pe- 
 
 * Gulielmus ille qui tarn probe navavit operam. 
 — (Zw. et CEcol. Epp. p. 175.) 
 
 t Le prince qui avoit cognoissance de l'Evan- 
 gile. — (Farel. Summaire.) 
 
592 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 riod of his life we see in him all the 
 qualifications of a servant of the Lord. It 
 was not lightly or rashly that he entered 
 the service of the Church. " If I con- 
 sidered my own qualifications," said he, 
 " I would not have presumed to preach, 
 hut would have preferred to wait till the 
 Lord should send more gifted persons."* 
 But he received at this time three several 
 calls. No sooner had he reached Basle 
 than CEcolampadius, moved by the wants 
 of France, besought him to give himself 
 to the work there. " Consider," said he, 
 * how little Jesus is made known in their 
 language — will you not teach them a 
 little in their own dialect, to enable them 
 to understand the Scriptures." f At the 
 same time the inhabitants of Montbe- 
 Jiard invited him among them, and last- 
 ly, the prince of that country gave his 
 assent to the invitation. | Was not this 
 a thrice repeated call from God % . . " I 
 did not see," said he, "how I could re- 
 fuse to act upon it.§ It was in obedience 
 to God that I complied with it." Con- 
 cealed in the house of CEcolampadius, 
 little disposed to take the responsible post 
 offered to him, and yet constrained to 
 yield to so manifest an indication of God's 
 will, Farel undertook the task — and 
 CEcolampadius, calling upon the Lord, 
 ordained him,U giving him at the same 
 time some wise counsels. — "The more 
 you find yourselves inclined to vehe- 
 mence," said he, " the more must you ex- 
 ercise yourself to maintain a gentle bear- 
 ing ; — temper your lion heart with the 
 softness of the dove."!" The soul of Fa- 
 rel responded to such an appeal. 
 
 Thus Farel, — once the devoted adhe- 
 rent of the ancient Church, — was about 
 to enter on the life of a servant of God, 
 and of the Church in its renewed youth. 
 If, in order to a valid ordination, Rome 
 requires the imposition of the hands of a 
 bishop deriving uninterrupted succession 
 and descent from the Apostles, she does 
 so — because she sets the tradition of men 
 
 * Summaire c'est a dire, brieve declaration de 
 G. Farel, dans l'epilogue. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 t Etant requis et demande du peuple et du 
 consentement du prince. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Summaire, c'est a dire, brieve declaration de 
 G. Farel, dans l'epilogue. 
 
 || Avec l'invocation du nom de Dieu. — (Ibid.) 
 
 If Leoninam magnanimitatem columbina rao- 
 deetia frangas. — (QScol. Epp. p. 198.; 
 
 above the authority of the word of God. 
 Every church in which the supremacy 
 of the Word is not acknowledged, must 
 needs seek authority from some other 
 source ; — and then, what more natural 
 than to turn to the most revered servants 
 of God, and ask of them what we do not 
 know that we have in God himself? If 
 we do not speak in the name of Jesus 
 Christ, is it not at least something gained 
 to be able to speak in the name of St. 
 John or of St. Paul 1 One who has with 
 him the voice of antiquity is indeed more 
 than a match for the rationalist, who 
 speaks only his own thought. But 
 Christ's minister has a yet higher au- 
 thority. He preaches, — not because he 
 is the successor of St. Chrysostom or St. 
 Peter, — but because the Word which he 
 proclaims is from God. Successional au- 
 thority, — venerable as it may appear, — is 
 yet no more than a thing of man's inven- 
 tion, in place of God's appointment. In 
 Farel's ordination, we see nothing of 
 successionally derived sanction. Nay 
 more, we do not see in it that which be- 
 comes the congregations of the Lord, — 
 among whom everything should be done 
 " decently and in order" and whose God 
 is " not the God of confusion." In his 
 case there was no setting apart by the 
 Church ; but then extraordinary emer- 
 gencies justify extraordinary measures. 
 At this eventful period, God himself was 
 interposing, and Himself ordaining, by 
 marvellous dispensations, those whom he 
 called to bear a part in the regeneration 
 of society ; and that was an ordination 
 that abundantly compensated for the ab- 
 sence of the Church's seal. In Farel's 
 ordination we see the unchanging word 
 of God, entrusted to a man of God, to 
 bear it to the world ; — the calling of 
 God, and of the people, and the consecra- 
 tion of the heart. And perhaps no minis- 
 ter of Rome or of Geneva was ever more 
 lawfully ordained for that holy ministry. 
 Farel took his departure for Montbeliard, 
 in company with the knight D'Esch. 
 
 Thus did Farel find himself occupying 
 an advanced post. Behind him were 
 Basle and Strasburg, assisting him by 
 their advice and by the productions of 
 their printing presses. Before him lay 
 the provinces of Franchecomte, Burgun- 
 dy, Lorraine, Lyons, and other districts 
 of France ; wherein men of God were 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 593 
 
 beginning to stand up against error, in 
 the thick darkness. He set himself im- 
 mediately to preach Christ, — exhorting 
 believers not to suffer themselves to be 
 turned aside from the Holy Scriptures, 
 either by threatenings or artifice. Ta- 
 king the part long afterwards taken by 
 Calvin on a grander scale, Farel, at 
 Montbeliard, was like a general stationed 
 on a height, surveying, with searching 
 vigilance, the field of battle, cheering 
 those who were actively engaged, rally- 
 ing those whom the enemy's charge had 
 forced to give way, and by his courage 
 
 animating: those who hung- back.* Eras- 
 es o 
 
 mus wrote directly to his Roman Catho- 
 lic friends, informing them that a French- 
 man, escaped out of France, was making 
 a great noise in these regions.! 
 
 The efforts of Farel were not without 
 effect. People wrote to him : " On all 
 sides seem to multiply men who devote 
 their lives to the extension of Christ's 
 kingdom."^: The friends of the Gospel 
 gave thanks to God for the daily increas- 
 ing brilliancy in which the Gospel shone 
 in France. § Gainsayers were confound- 
 ed, and Erasmus, writing to the bishop 
 of Rochester, observed, — " The faction is 
 every day spreading, and has penetrated 
 into Savoy, Lorraine, and France."|| 
 
 For a considerable time Lyons seemed 
 the centre of the Evangelic movement in 
 the interior, as Basle was of that beyond 
 the frontiers. Francis the First, called 
 to the south, on an expedition against 
 Charles V., arrived in those countries, 
 attended by his mother and sister, and 
 by his court. Margaret had with her, in 
 her company, certain men who had em- 
 braced the Gospel. " The rest of her 
 people she left behind," remarks a letter 
 
 * The comparison is in the words of a friend 
 who was acquainted with Fare!, during- his abode 
 at Mcntbeliard : — Strenuum et oculatum impera- 
 torem, qui iis etiam anirnum facias qui in acie 
 versantur. — (Tossanus Farello, MS. de Neufcha- 
 tel, 2d Sept. 1524.) 
 - t . ... Tumultuatur et Burgundia nobis prox- 
 imo, per Phalucum quemdam Galium qui e 
 Gallia profugus. — (Er. Epp. p. 80!).) 
 
 t Suppullulare qui omues conatus adferant, 
 quo possit Christi regnum quam lalissime patere. 
 —(MS. de Neufchatel, 2 Aug. 152!.) 
 
 § Quod in Galliis omnibus sacrossanctum Dei 
 vcrbum in dies magis acmagis elucescat. — (Ibid.) 
 
 || Faetio crescit in dies latins, propagata in Sa- 
 baudiam, Lothoringiam, Franciam. — (Er. Epp. 
 p. 809.) 
 
 75 
 
 written at the time.* Whilst under the 
 eyes of Francis, 14,000 Swiss, 6,000 
 Frenchmen, and 1,500 noble knights, 
 were defiling through Lyons, on their 
 way to repel the Imperial army that had 
 invaded Provence, and that great city re- 
 sounded with the clang of arms, the tramp 
 of cavalry and the sound of trumpets, — 
 the friends of the Gospel were on their 
 way to the more peaceful triumphs. 
 They were intent on attempting, at Ly- 
 ons, what they had not been able to real- 
 ize at Paris. Remote from the Sorbonne 
 and the Parliament, a freer course might 
 be open to God's word. Perhaps the 
 second city of the kingdom was destined 
 to be the first wherein the Gospel should 
 be received. Was it not there that the 
 excellent Peter Waldo had begun to 
 make known the divine Word ? In that 
 earlier age he had roused the national 
 mind. Now that God had made all 
 things ready to emancipate His Church, 
 was there not ground to hope for more 
 extensive and decisive results? Accord- 
 ingly the Lyonese, who in general were 
 not, it must be confessed, ' poor men,' 
 began to handle, with more confidence, 
 the - sword of the Spirit which is the 
 word of God." 
 
 Among those about Margaret's person, 
 was her almoner, Michel d'Arande. The 
 Duchess gave direction that the Gospel 
 should be publicly preached in Lyons, 
 and master Michel boldly proclaimed the 
 pure word of God to a numerous audi- 
 tory, — attracted partly by the good ti- 
 dings, and partly by the favour with 
 which the preacher and his preaching 
 were regarded by the sister of their king.f 
 
 Anthony Papillon. a man of cultivated 
 mind, an accomplished Latinist, a friend 
 of Erasmus, the earliest of his country- 
 men thoroughly instructed in the Gospel,! 
 accompanied the Princess. At Marga- 
 ret's request he had translated Luther's 
 tract on the monks' vows, " on which 
 account he was often called in question 
 by that vermin of the city of Paris," re- 
 marks Sebville. § But Margaret had 
 
 * De Sebville a Coct du 28th Dec. 1524.— 
 (MS. du Conclave de Neufchatel.) 
 
 t Elle a une docteur de Paris appele" maitre 
 Michel Eleymosinarius, lequel ne preche devant 
 elle que purement l'Evangile. — (Sebville ti Coct 
 MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 X Ibid. § Ibid. 
 
594 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 protected the scholar from the enmity of 
 the Sorbonne, and had obtained for him 
 the appointment of chief master of re- 
 quests to the Dauphin, with a seat in the 
 council.* He was almost equally useful 
 to the Gospel by the sacrifices he made 
 for its cause as by his great prudence. 
 Vaugris, a merchant, and Anthony Du 
 Blet, a gentleman, and a friend of Farel, 
 were the principal persons who took part 
 with the Reformation at Lyons. The 
 latter, whose activity was untiring, served 
 as a sort of connecting link between the 
 Christians scattered throughout those 
 countries, and was the medium of their 
 intercourse* with Basle. The armed 
 bands of Francis the First had done no 
 more than traverse Lyons, whilst the 
 spiritual soldiery of Jesus Christ had 
 paused within it, and leaving the former 
 * to carry was into Provence, they com- 
 menced the ' fight of faith' in the city of 
 Lyons itself. 
 
 But their efforts were not confined to 
 Lyons. Casting their eyes over the sur- 
 rounding country, their operations were 
 carried on, at one and the same time, at 
 4 different points ; and the Christians of 
 Lyons supported and encouraged the 
 confessors of Christ in the adjacent prov- 
 inces, and bore His name where as yet 
 it was not known. The new teaching 
 reascended the banks of the Saone, and 
 the voice of one " bringing the glad ti- 
 dings" was heard in the narrow and ir- 
 regular streets of Macon. Michel d'A- 
 rande, the almoner of the king's sister, 
 himself visited that place in 1524, and. 
 by Margaret's intercession, obtained li- 
 cense to preach in a townf which was 
 afterwards deluged with blood, and be- 
 came for ever memorable for its saute- 
 ries. 
 
 After extending their travels in the di- 
 rection of the Saone, the Christians of 
 Lyons, ever looking for an open door, re- 
 ascended the acclivities of the Alps. 
 There was, at Lyons, a Dominican 
 named Maigret, who had been expelled 
 from Dauphiny, where he had preached 
 the new doctrine with singular boldness, 
 and who earnestly requested that some 
 one would go over and help his brethren 
 of Grenoble and Gap. Papillon and Du 
 
 * Ibid. 
 
 t Arandius preche a Mascon. — (Coct a Farel, 
 Dec. 1524, MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 Blet repaired thither.* A violent storm 
 had just broken out there against Seb- 
 ville and his preaching. The Domin- 
 icans moved heaven and earth, and, in 
 their rage at the escape of Farel, Ane- 
 mond, Maigret, and the other preachers, 
 sought to crush such as were within 
 their clutches. f They, therefore, insist- 
 ed that Sebville should be arrested.^ 
 
 The friends of the Gospel at Grenoble 
 caught the alarm. Was Sebville, also, 
 on the eve of being lost to them ? Mar- 
 garet interceded with her brother. Some 
 persons of distinction at Grenoble, inclu- 
 ding the king's advocate, either secretly 
 or avowedly favourable to the Gospel, 
 exerted themselves in his behalf: and he 
 was happily rescued from the fury of his 
 enemies.^ 
 
 His life indeed was saved, but his 
 mouth was stopped. " Remain silent," 
 said his friends, " or you will be brought 
 to the scaffold." " Only think what it is," 
 wrote he to De Coct, u to have silence im- 
 posed upon rne, under pain of death." || 
 Some, whose firmness had been most re- 
 lied on, were overawed by these threat- 
 enings. The king's advocate, and others, 
 exhibited marked coldness,! and many 
 returned to the Roman Catholic com- 
 munion, alleging that they would still 
 offer to God a spiritual worship in the 
 privacy of their hearts, and give to the 
 outward "observances of Catholicism a 
 spiritual interpretation ; — a melancholy 
 snare, and one that leads men from one 
 act of unfaithfulness to another. There 
 is no false system adhesion to which may • 
 not in this way be justified. The unbe- 
 liever, taking up with fancied myths and 
 allegories, will preach Christ from .the 
 
 * II y a eu deux grands personages a Greno- 
 ble.— (Coct a Farel, Dec. 1524, MS. de Neuf- 
 chatel.) The title Messire is given to Dn Blet, 
 indicating a person of rank. I incline to think 
 that that of negotiator, elsewhere given him, 
 refers to his activity : yet he might be a mer- 
 chant of Lyons. 
 
 t Conjicere potes ut post Macretum et me in 
 Sebivillam exarserint. — (Anemond a Farel, 7th 
 Sept. 1524, MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 X Les Thomistes ont voulu proceder contre 
 moi par inquisition et caption depersonne. — (Let- 
 tre de Sebville. Ibid.) 
 
 § Si ce ne fut certains amis secrets, je estois 
 mis entre les mains des Pharisiens. — (Lettre do 
 Sebville, MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 || Ibid. 
 
 IT Non solum tepedi sed frigidi. — (MS. de 
 Neufchatel.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 595 
 
 pulpit: — and the follower of a superstition 
 held in abhorrence among the heathen, 
 will, by a moderate exercise of ingenuity, 
 trace in it the symbol of a pure and ele- 
 vated thought. In religion the very first 
 essential is truth. There were, however, 
 some of the Christians of Grenoble, and 
 among them Amedee Galbert and a cou- 
 sin of Anemond, who held fast to their 
 faith.* These men of piety were accus- 
 tomed secretly to meet together with 
 Sebville at each other's houses, and thus 
 " spake often one to another." Their 
 place of meeting was chosen for the sake 
 of its retirement ; they met at night in 
 the apartment of a brother, with closed 
 doors, to pray to Christ, — as if they had 
 been robbers meeting for some guilty 
 purpose ! Rumour would often follow 
 them to their humble meeting with some 
 groundless alarm. Their enemies wink- 
 ed at such secret conventicles, but they 
 had inwardly doomed to the stake any 
 one who should venture to open his lips 
 in public to speak the word of God. f 
 
 It was at this juncture that Du Blet 
 and Papillon arrived in Grenoble. Find- 
 ing that Sebville had been silenced, they 
 exhorted him to go to Lyons, and there 
 preach Christ. The following Lent 
 promised to afford him the favourable op- 
 portunity of a vast crowd of hearers. 
 Michel d'Arande, Maigret, and Sebville 
 agreed together to put themselves in front 
 of the battle, and thus all was arranged 
 for an impressive testimony to the truth 
 in the second city .of the kingdom. The 
 rumour of the approaching Lent spread 
 into Switzerland : " Sebville is at large, 
 and is purposing to preach at Lyons, in 
 the church of St. Paul," wrote Anemond 
 to Farel.| But disasters, bringing with 
 them confusion throughout France, in- 
 tervened, and prevented the spiritual con- 
 test. It is in periods of tranquillity that 
 the Gospel achieves its blessed conquests. 
 The battle of Pavia, which took place in 
 the month of February, disconcerted the 
 bold project of the Reformers. 
 
 Meanwhile, without waiting for Seb- 
 ville, Maigret, amidst much opposition 
 
 * Tuo cognato, Amedeo Galberto exceptis. — 
 (MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 t Mais de en parler publiquement, il n'y pend 
 que le feu.— (MS. do Neufchatel.) 
 
 t Le samedi des Quatre-Temps.— (Dec. 1524, 
 ibid.) 
 
 from the clergy and the monks,* had 
 from the beginning of the winter been 
 preaching at Lyons, Salvation by Christ 
 alone. In his sermons, he passed over 
 the worship of the creature, — the saints, 
 — the Virgin, — and the power of the 
 priesthood. The great mystery of God- 
 liness, — " God manifest in the flesh," — 
 was the one great doctrine exalted by 
 him. " The early heresies of the poor 
 men of Lyons were again showing them- 
 selves under a more dangerous form than, 
 ever," it was remarked. In spite of op- 
 posers, Maigret continued his preaching : 
 the faith that animated him found utter- 
 ance in emphatic words ; it is in the 
 very nature of Truth to embolden the 
 heart that receives it. Nevertheless, it 
 was decreed that at Lyons, as at Greno- 
 ble, Rome should get the upper hand. 
 Under the very eyes of Margaret, the 
 preacher was arrested, dragged through 
 the streets, and committed to prison. 
 Vaugris, a merchant who was just then 
 j leaving the town on his way to Switzer- 
 ! land, carried with him the news of what 
 I had happened. One thought cheered 
 , the melancholy these tidings diffused 
 [ among the friends of the Reformation, — 
 "Maigret is seized," said they, "but 
 thanks be to God, Madame d'AlenponKs 
 on the spot."f 
 
 Their hopes soon left them. The Sor- 
 bonne had formally condemned certain 
 propositions maintained by the faithful 
 preacher ;| Margaret, whose position was 
 every day becoming more embarrassing, 
 beheld the daring of the Reformers, and 
 the hatred of those in power both rising at 
 the same moment. Francis the First was 
 beginning to lose patience at the restless 
 zeal of the preachers, and to regard them 
 as fanatics whom it was good policy to 
 reduce to submission. Margaret, there- 
 fore, fluctuating between her desires to 
 serve her brethren in Christ, and the 
 failure of her ability to preserve them, 
 sent them word that they were to abstain 
 from rushing into new difficulties, seeing 
 that she could not again make applica- 
 tion to the king in their behalf. The 
 friends of the Gospel believed that this 
 
 * Pour vray Maigret a preche a Lion, raaul- 
 gr6 les pretres et moines. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t MS. de Neufchatel. 
 
 t Histoire de Francois I. par Gaillard, torn. iv. 
 p. 233. 
 
596 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 resolution could not be irrevocable : 
 " God give her grace," said they, " to say 
 and write only what is needful to poor 
 souls."* But even if they should lose 
 this help of man, Christ was with them, 
 — and it seemed well that the soul should 
 be stripped of other dependence, that it 
 might lean upon God alone. 
 
 The friends of the Gospel had lost 
 their power, and the powerful were de- 
 claring against it. Margaret was alarm- 
 ed. Soon — heavy news, received from 
 beyond the Alps, was to plunge the 
 whole kingdom into mourning, — absorb- 
 ing attention in the one object of saving 
 France and her king. But if the Chris- 
 tians of Lyons were motionless, did not 
 Basle contain within its walls soldiers 
 escaped from the battle, and ready to re- 
 new it 1 The exiles from France have 
 never forgotten her : banished for three 
 centuries by Roman fanaticism, we see 
 their last descendants carrying to the 
 towns and plains of their father-land, the 
 treasure of which the Pope deprives 
 them. At the crisis, when the good sol- 
 diers of Christ in France dejectedly 
 threw away their arms, we see the ref- 
 ugees at Basle, preparing for renewed 
 efforts. With the example before their 
 eyes of the sceptre of St. Louis and of 
 Charlemagne falling from the grasp of a 
 Francis the First,' should they not be in- 
 cited to lay hold on a ''kingdom which 
 cannot be moved ?"t 
 
 Farel, Anemond, Esch, Toussaint, and 
 their friends in Switzerland, composed an 
 Evangelical Association, having for its 
 object the deliverance of their country 
 from spiritual darkness. Intelligence 
 reached them from all sides, that there 
 was an increasing thirst after God's word 
 in France ;J it was desirable to take ad- 
 vantage of it, and to water and sow the 
 seed while yet it was seed time. CEco- 
 lampadius, Oswald Myconius, and Zwin- 
 gle, continually encouraged them to this. 
 The Swiss teacher, Myconius, wrote thus 
 in January, 1525, to De Coct: "Exiled 
 as you are from your country by the 
 tyranny of Antichrist, your presence 
 
 * Pierre Touissant a Farel, Basle 17 Dec. 
 1524.— (MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 t Heb. xii. 28. 
 
 \ Gallis verborum Dei sitientibus. — (Coctus 
 Farello, 2 Sep. 1524. MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 amongst us is the proof that you have 
 courageously stood forth in the cause of 
 Truth. The oppressions of Christian 
 Bishops will lead the people to regard 
 them as no better than deceivers. Stand 
 fast; the time is not distant when we 
 shall arrive in the wished for haven, 
 whether we be struck doAvn by the op- 
 pressors, or they themselves be cast 
 down,* and all will then be well with 
 us, if we do but continue faithful to Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 These cheering words were precious 
 indeed to the French refugees ; — but just 
 then, a blow struck by those very Chris- 
 tians of Switzerland, and of Germany, 
 who sought to cheer them, carried grief 
 to their hearts. In the feeling of their 
 recent escape from the fires of persecu- 
 tion, they, at this time, beheld with dis- 
 may the Evangelical Christians beyond 
 the Rhine disturbing their repose by 
 their deplorable differences. The con- 
 troversy, in relation to the Lord's Supper, 
 had begun. Deeply affected, and feel- 
 ing the need of mutual love, the French 
 Reformers would have made any sacri- 
 fice to conciliate the divergent parties. 
 It became the great object of their de- 
 sire. None more than they felt from the 
 outset the need of Christian unity. At 
 a later period, Calvin afforded proof of 
 this? "Would to God," said Peter Tous- 
 saint, " that, by my worthless blood, I 
 could purchase peace, concord, and union 
 in Christ Jesus."t The French, gifted 
 with quick discernment, saw, from the 
 very beginning, how the rising dissen- 
 sions would stand in the way of the Ref- 
 ormation. "All would go favourably 
 beyond our hopes, if we were but agreed 
 among ourselves. Many there are v who 
 would gladly come to the light, but they 
 are prevented by seeing such divisions 
 among the learned."^ 
 
 The French were the first to suggest 
 conciliatory advances: "Why," wrote 
 they from Strasburg, " why not send Bu- 
 cer or some other man of learning to 
 confer with Luther ? The more we de- 
 
 * Non longe abest enim, quo in portum tran- 
 quillum pervenlimus . . . — (Oswald Myconius 
 a Anemond de Coct. MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 t 21st December, 1525.— (MS. du Conclave 
 de Neufchatel.) 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 597 
 
 lay the wider will our differences be- 
 come." These fears seemed every day 
 more founded.* 
 
 Failing in their endeavours, these 
 Christians turned their eyes towards 
 France, and the conversion of their own 
 country to the faith thenceforth exclu- 
 sively engaged the hearts cf these gen- 
 erous men, whom history, — so loud in 
 praise of men who have sought only their 
 own glory, — has, for three centuries, 
 scarcely mentioned. Cast upon a for- 
 eign soil, they threw themselves on their 
 knees, and, daily in their solitude, called 
 down blessings from God upon their 
 fatherland. f Prayer was the great in- 
 strument by which the Gospel spread 
 through the kingdom, and the great en- 
 gine by which the conquests of the Ref- 
 ormation were achieved. 
 
 But there were other men of prayer 
 beside these. Never, perhaps, have the 
 ranks of the Gospel comprised combat- 
 ants more prompt to suffer in the hour of 
 conflict. They felt the importance of 
 scattering the Scriptures and pious wri- 
 tings in their country, which was still 
 overclouded with the thick darkness of 
 superstition. A spirit of inquiry was 
 dawning in their nation, and it seemed 
 necessary on all sides to unfurl the sails 
 to the wind. Anemond, ever prompt in 
 action, and Michel Bentin, another refu- 
 gee, resolved to employ, in concert, their 
 zeal and talents. Bentin decided to es- 
 tablish a printing press at Basle, and the 
 knight to turn to account the little he 
 knew of German, by translating into that 
 language the more striking tracts written 
 by the Reformers. ' : Oh !" exclaimed 
 they, rejoicing in their project ; " would 
 to God that France were so supplied 
 with Gospel writings that in cottages, 
 and in palaces, in cloisters, and in pres- 
 byteries, and in the inner sanctuary of all 
 hearts, a powerful witness might be borne 
 for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ."| 
 
 For such an undertaking funds were 
 
 * Multis jam christianis Gallis dolet, quod a 
 Zwinglii aliorumque de Eucharistia sententia, 
 dissentiat Lutherus. — (Tossanus Farello, 14th 
 July, 1525.) 
 
 t Quam sollicite quotidianis precibus com- 
 mendem. — (Tossanus Farello, 2nd Sept. 1524, 
 MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 I Opto enim Galliam Evangelicis voluminibus 
 abundare.— (Coctus Farello, MS. de Neufcha- 
 tel.) 
 
 necessary, — and the refugees were des- 
 titute of funds. Vaugris was then at 
 Basle. Anemond, on parting with him, 
 gave him a letter to the brethren of Ly- 
 ons, some of whom had considerable 
 possessions in lands, and, notwithstanding 
 they were oppressed, remained faithful to 
 the Gospel. In his letter, he asked their 
 assistance ;* but that could not at all meet 
 the extent of the need. The Frenchmen 
 resolved to establish several presses at 
 Basle, that should be worked day and 
 night, so as to inundate all France with 
 God's word.f At Meaux, Metz, and 
 other places, there were those rich enough 
 to contribute to this work ; and as no one 
 could appeal to Frenchmen with more 
 authority than Fare], it was to him that 
 Anemond made application. \ 
 
 We do not find that the scheme of 
 Anemond was realized ; but the work 
 was carried out by others. The presses 
 of Basle were incessantly employed in 
 printing French works, which were for- 
 warded to Farel, and by him introduced 
 into France. One of the earliest of the 
 issues of this Religious Tract Society was 
 Luther's Exposition of the Lord's Prayer. 
 " We sell the Pater at four derniers de 
 Bale to private persons," wrote Vaugris 
 — " but to the wholesale dealer, we sup- 
 ply copies at the rate of 200 for two flor- 
 ins, which is something less."§ 
 
 Anemond was accustomed to transmit 
 from Bale to Farel any profitable books 
 published or received in that city — at one 
 time a tract on ordination, at another, an 
 essay on the education of children. || 
 Farel looked through them, composing, 
 translating, and seeming, at one and the 
 same time, all activity, and yet all med- 
 itation. Anemond urged on, and super- 
 intended the printing, and these letters, 
 requests, and books, all these little single 
 sheets, were among the instruments of 
 regeneration to that age. While disso- 
 luteness and profligacy descended from 
 
 * TJt pecunice aliquid ad me mittant. — (Coct. 
 Far. MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 t Ut prsela multa erigere possimus. — (Ibid.) 
 
 X An censes inveniri posse Lugduni, Meldas, 
 aut alibi in Galliis qui nos ad hsec juvare velint. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 \ Vaugris a Farel.— (Bale, 29th Aug. 1524. 
 MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 || Mitto tibi librum de instituendis ministris 
 Ecclesiae cum libro de instituendis pueris. — (Coc- 
 tus Farello, 2d Sept. 1524, Ibid.) 
 
598 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the throne to the lower orders, and dark- 
 ness spread from the very steps of the 
 altar, these writings, so inconsiderable 
 and unnoticed, alone diffused the beams 
 of light, and the seeds of holiness. 
 
 But it was especially God's word that 
 the evangelic merchant of Lyons required 
 for his fellow-countrymen. That gene- 
 ration of the sixteenth century, so eager 
 for all that could satisfy the re-awakened 
 intellect, was to receive in its vernacular 
 tongue those early records of the first 
 ages — redolent with the young breath of 
 human nature, — and those holy oracles 
 of apostolic times, bright with the fulness 
 of the revelation of Christ. Vaugris 
 wrote to Farel — " Pray, see if it be not 
 possible to have the New Testament 
 translated by some competent hand ; — it 
 would be a great blessing to France, 
 Burgundy, and Savoy. And if you 
 should not be already provided with the 
 proper types, I would order some from 
 Paris or Lyons — but if we have the types 
 at Basle, it would be all the better." 
 
 Lefevre had previously published at 
 Meaux, but by detached portions, the 
 books of the New Testament in the 
 French language. Vaugris wished some 
 one to undertake a revision of the whole 
 for a new edition. Lefevre undertook to 
 do so, and, as we have already related, 
 published the entire volume on the 12th 
 October, 1524. Conrad, an uncle of 
 Vaugris, who had also sought an asylum 
 in Basle, sent for a copy. De Coct, hap- 
 pening to be in company with a friend 
 on the 18th November, first saw the book, 
 and was overjoyed. " Lose no time in 
 going to press again," said he, " for I 
 doubt not a vast number of copies will be 
 called for."* 
 
 Thus was the word of God offered to 
 France side by side with those traditions 
 of the Church which Rome is still con- 
 tinually presenting to her. " How can 
 we discern," asked the Reformers, " be- 
 tween what is of man in your traditions 
 and that which is of God, save only by 
 the Scriptures of truth ? — The maxims of 
 the Fathers, the decretals of the Church, 
 cannot be the rule of faith : they show 
 us what was the judgment of those earlier 
 divines, but only from the Word can we 
 gather the thoughts of God. Every thing 
 must be tested by Scripture." 
 
 * MS. of the Conclave of Neufchatel. 
 
 In this manner, for the most part, these 
 printed works were circulated. Farel 
 and his friends transmitted the sacred 
 books to certain dealers or colporteurs — 
 poor men of good character for piety, 
 who, bearing their precious burden, went 
 through towns and villages — from house 
 to house — in Franchecomte, Burgundy, 
 and the neighbouring districts, knocking 
 at every door. The books were sold to 
 them at a low price, that the interest 
 they had in the sale might make them 
 the more industrious in disposing of 
 them.* Thus as early as 1524 there ex- 
 isted in Basle, and having France for the 
 field of their operations, a Bible society — 
 an association of colporteurs — and a re- 
 ligious tract society. It is, then, a mis- 
 take to conceive that such efforts date 
 only from our own age ; they go back, — 
 at least in the identity of the objects they 
 propose, — not merely to the days of the 
 Reformation, but still further, to the first 
 ages of the Church. 
 
 The attention which Farel bestowed 
 on France did not cause him to neglect 
 the places where he resided. Arriving 
 at Montbeliard, towards the end of July, 
 1524, he had no sooner sown the seed, 
 than, to use the language of (Ecolam- 
 padius, the first-fruits of the harvest began 
 to appear. Farel, exulting, communi- 
 cated his success to his friend. — •' It is 
 easy," replied the doctor of Basle, " to in- 
 stil a few dogmas into the ears of our au- 
 ditors ; but God alone can change their 
 hearts." t 
 
 De Coct, overjoyed with this intelli- 
 gence, hurried to Peter Toussaint's house. 
 " To-morrow," said he, with his usual vi- 
 vacity, " I set off to visit Farel." Tous- 
 saint, more calm, was then writing to the 
 evangelist of Montbeliard : " Have a 
 care," wrote he; "the cause you have 
 taken in hand is of solemn importance, 
 and should not be contaminated by the 
 counsels of men. The great ones may 
 promise you their favour, assistance, aye, 
 and heaps of gold — but to put confidence 
 in these things is to forsake Jesus Christ, 
 and to walk in darkness.'^ Toussaint 
 was in the aet of closing his letter when 
 
 * Vaugris a Farel.— (MS. of Neufchatel.) 
 t Animum autem immutare, divinum opus est. 
 
 — (OZcol. Epp. p. 200.) 
 
 X . . . A quibus si pendemus, jam a Christo de- 
 
 fecimus. — (Manuscrit de Neufchatel.) . 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 599 
 
 De Coct entered ; a!nd the latter, taking 
 charge of it, set off for Montbeliard. 
 
 He found all the city in commotion. 
 Several of the rXides, in alarm, and cast- 
 ing a look of contempt on Farel, exclaim- 
 ed, " What can this poor wretch want 
 with us 1 Would that he had never come 
 amongst us. He must not remain here, 
 or he will bring ruin upon us as well as 
 upon himself." These nobles, who had 
 retired to Montbeliard in company with 
 the duke for shelter, feared lest the stir 
 which everywhere accompanied the 
 spread of the Reformation should, by 
 drawing upon them the notice of Charles 
 V. and Ferdinand, lead to their being 
 driven from their only remaining asy- 
 lum. But the ecclesiastics were Farel's 
 bitterest opponents. The superior of the 
 Franciscans at Besanqon hastened to 
 Montbeliard, and concocted defensive 
 measures with the clergy of that place. 
 The following Sunday Farel had scarce- 
 ly begun to preach when he was inter- 
 rupted, and called a liar and a heretic. 
 Immediately the whole assembly was in 
 an uproar. The audience rose, and call- 
 ed for silence. The duke hastened to 
 the spot, put both the superior and Farel 
 under arrest, and insisted that the former 
 should prove his charges, or else retract 
 them. The superior chose the latter 
 course, and an official report was pub- 
 lished of the transaction.* 
 
 This attack only rendered Farel more 
 zealous than before : thenceforward he 
 believed it his duty fearlessly to unmask 
 these interested priests ; and, drawing 
 the sword of the Word, he applied it 
 unsparingly. He was now more than 
 ever led to imitate Jesus, rather in his 
 character as the purifier of the temple, 
 driving out thence the traffickers and 
 money-changers, and overthrowing their 
 tables, — than as the one of whom pro- 
 phecy declared, " He shall not strive nor 
 cry, neither shall his voice be heard in the 
 streets''' 1 OEcolampadius was affrighted. 
 These two men were the perfect types 
 of two characters diametrically opposite, 
 and yet both worthy of our admiration — 
 " Your mission," wrote (Ecolampadius 
 to Farel, " is gently to draw men to the 
 truth, not to drag them with violence ; 
 to preach the Gospel, — not to pronounce 
 
 * Der Christliche Handel zu Miimpelgard, 
 verLoffen. mit griindlichen Wahrheit 
 
 maledictions. Physicians resort to am- 
 putation, only when external applica- 
 tions have failed. Act the part of the 
 fhysician, not of the executioner. In 
 my judgment, it is not enough that you 
 are gentle towards the v friends of the 
 Truth. You must likewise win over the 
 adversaries. Or if the wolves are to be 
 driven from the fold, at least let the sheep 
 hear the voice of the shepherd. Pour 
 oil and wine into the wounded heart — 
 and be the herald of glad tidings, not a 
 judge or a tyrant."* The report of these 
 things spread both in France and Lor- 
 raine, and this gathering together of ref- 
 ugees in Basle and Montbeliard began 
 to alarm the Sorbonne and the Cardinal. 
 Gladly would they have broken up so 
 ominous an alliance ; for error knows 
 no greater triumph than the enlisting a 
 renegade in its ranks. Already had 
 Martial Mazurier and others given the 
 papal party in France an opportunity of 
 rejoicing over shameful desertions : but 
 if they could only succeed in seducing 
 one of those confessors of Christ who 
 had fled for safety to the banks of the 
 Rhine, — one who had suffered much for 
 the name of the Lord, — that were indeed 
 a victory for the hierarchy. Measures 
 were concerted and directed in the first 
 instance against the youngest. 
 
 The Dean, the Cardinal of Lorraine, 
 and all the circle which assembled at the 
 prelate's house, deplored the sad fate of 
 Peter Toussaint, once the object of so 
 many hopes. He is at Basle, said they, 
 living in the very house of (Ecolampa- 
 dius, in close intercourse with that leader 
 in this heresy. They wrote to him mov- 
 ingly, as though his salvation was at 
 stake. These letters were the more dis- 
 tressing to the poor young man, because 
 they bore evident marks of sincere affec- 
 tion, t One of his relations, probably the 
 Dean himself, urged him to remove to 
 Paris, Metz, or whatever place he pleas- 
 ed, provided it were but at a distance 
 from the Lutherans. This relation bear- 
 ing in mind how much Toussaint was 
 indebted to him, doubted not his imme- 
 diate compliance with the injunction ; 
 
 * Quod Evangelistam, non tyrannicum legis- 
 latorem preestes. — (CEcol. Epp. p. 206.) 
 
 t Me in dies divexari legendis amicorum lit— 
 teris qui me . . . ab instituto remorari nituntur. — 
 (Tossanus Farello, 2nd Sep. 1524. Manuscrit 
 de Neufcbatel.) 
 
600 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 when therefore he found his efforts un- 
 availing, his affection was succeeded by 
 violent hatred. This resistance, on the 
 part of the young refugee, exasperated 
 against him all his family and friends. 
 Recourse was had to his mother, who 
 was entirely under the influence of the 
 monks :* the priests came about her 
 frightening her, and persuading her that 
 her son had been guilty of crimes which 
 could not be named without shuddering. 
 On this the distressed parent wrote to 
 her son an affecting letter, " full of tears," 
 as he says, in which she described her 
 misery in heart-rending terms. " Oh ! 
 wretched mother," said she, " Oh ! un- 
 natural son ! — Cursed be the breasts 
 that suckled thee, cursed be the knees 
 that bare thee."f 
 
 Poor Toussaint was overwhelmed with 
 consternation. What was he to do 1 Re- 
 turn to France he could not. To leave 
 Basle and proceed to Zurich or Wittem- 
 berg, beyond the reach of his kindred, 
 would only have added to their distress. 
 OUcolampadius suggested a middle course. 
 "Leave my house," said he.| With a 
 sorrowful heart Toussaint complied, and 
 went to lodge with a priest, both igno- 
 rant and obscure, and sofy well fitted to 
 quiet the fears of his relations. What a 
 change for him ! He had no intercourse 
 with his host except at meals. At such 
 times they were continually differing on 
 matters of faith, but — no sooner was his 
 meal ended, than Toussaint hastened to 
 shut himself in his chamber ; where, un- 
 disturbed by noise and controversy, he 
 carefully studied the word of God. " The 
 Lord is my witness," said he, " that in 
 this valley of tears, I have but one de- 
 sire, and that is, to see Christ's kingdom 
 extend itself, that all with'one mouth may 
 glorify God. "|| 
 
 One incident took place and cheered 
 Toussaint. The enemies of the Gospel 
 at Metz were becoming more and more 
 powerful. At his entreaty the chevalier 
 d'Esch, undertook a journey in July, 
 
 * Jam capuloproxima. — (MS.de Neufchatel.) 
 f Litteras ad me dedit plenas, lacrymis quibus 
 
 maledicit et uberibus quae me lactarunt, &c. — 
 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 X Visum est OZcoIampadio consultum . . . ut a 
 
 se secederem. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Utor domo cujusdam sacrificuli. — (Ibid.) 
 
 || Ut Cbristi regniim quam latissime pateat. — 
 
 (MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 1525, to strengthen the Evangelical 
 Christians of that city. He traversed 
 the forests of Vosges, and reached the 
 place where Leclerc had* laid down his 
 life, bringing with him several books 
 with which Farel had supplied him.* 
 
 But the French exiles did not confine 
 their attention to Lorraine. De Coct re- 
 ceived letters from one of Farel's bro- 
 thers, depicting, in gloomy colours, the 
 condition of Dauphiny. He carefully 
 avoided showing them, lest he should 
 alarm the faint-hearted, but bore them 
 on his heart before God in fervent pray- 
 er, for His all-powerful aid.f In De- 
 cember, 1524, one Peter Verrier, a mes- 
 senger from Dauphiny, entrusted with 
 commissions for Fare! and Anemond, 
 arrived on horseback at Montbeliard. 
 The knight, with his usual impetuosity, 
 immediately resolved on returning into 
 France. " If the said Peter has brought 
 money," wrote he to Farel, " do you take 
 it : if he has brought letters open them, 
 take copies and send them to me. Do 
 not however sell the horse, but keep it, 
 since I may perhaps need it. I am 
 minded to enter France secretly, and 
 visit Jacobus Faber, (Lefevre) and Aran- 
 dius. Write me your opinion of this 
 plan."!; 
 
 Such was the unreserved confidence 
 which existed among these refugees. De 
 Coct, it is true, was already indebted 
 thirty-six crowns to Farel, whose purse 
 was ever at the service of his friends. 
 The knight's plan of returning to France 
 was one of more zeal than wisdom. His 
 habitual want of caution would have ex- 
 posed him to certain death. This Farel 
 doubtless explained to him. Leaving 
 Basle he withdrew to a small town, hav- 
 ing, as he said, " great hopes of acquir- 
 ing the German tongue, God willing.'' § 
 
 Farel continued to preach the Gospel 
 at Montbeliard. His spirit was grieved 
 within him, beholding the great body of 
 
 * Quil s'en retoume a Metz, la on les enne- 
 mis de Dieu s'elevent journellement contre 
 l'Evangile. — (Tossanus Farello ; 17th Dec. 1524. 
 MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
 t Accepi ante horam a fratre tuo epistolam 
 quam hie nulli manifestavi: terrentur enim in- 
 firmi.— (Coctus Farello, 2nd Sept. 1524.) 
 
 t Coct a Farel, Dec. 1524. MS. de Neufcha- 
 tel. 
 
 § Coct a Farel, Jan. 1525. MS. de Neuf- 
 chatel. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 601 
 
 the people of that place wholly given to 
 the worship of images. In his opinion it 
 was no better than a return to heathen 
 idolatry. 
 
 Nevertheless the exhortations of (Eco- 
 lampadius, and the fear of compromising 
 the truth, would, perhaps, have long re- 
 strained him, but for an unforeseen cir- 
 cumstance. One day, towards the end 
 of February (it was the feast of St. An- 
 thony,) Farel was walking near the 
 banks of a little river that runs through 
 the town, below the lofty rock on which 
 stands the citadel, when, as he reached 
 the bridge, he met a procession, reciting 
 prayers to St. Anthony, and headed by 
 two priests, bearing the image of that 
 saint. He thus found himself suddenly 
 brought into contact with these supersti- 
 tions. A violent struggle took place in 
 his soul ; shall he be silent, or conceal 
 himself? would it not be a cowardly 
 want of faith 1 These dumb idols, borne 
 on the shoulders of ignorant priests, made 
 his blood boil. He boldly advanced, 
 snatched from the priests' arms the shrine 
 of the holy hermit, and threw it from the 
 bridge into the stream. Then, turning 
 toward the astonished crowd, he exclaim- 
 ed aloud, " Poor idolaters, will ye never 
 put away your idols?"* 
 
 The priests and people were motion- 
 less in astonishment. A holy fear for a 
 while paralyzed them : but soon recover- 
 ing, they exclaimed, " The image is 
 sinking," and their motionless silence 
 was succeeded by transports of rage. The 
 crowd would have rushed upon the sac- 
 rilegious wretch who had hurled into the 
 river the object of their adoration ; but 
 Farel, we know not how, escaped their 
 fury, t 
 
 Many may regret that the Reformer 
 allowed himself to be hurried into an act 
 which tended to check the progress of 
 the truth. We can enter into their feel- 
 ings. Let no man think himself author- 
 ized to attack with violence an institu- 
 tion which has the public sanction. Yet 
 
 * Revue du Dauphine", torn. ii. p. 38. MS. de 
 Clioupard. 
 
 t M. Kirchhoffer, in his Life of Farel, gives 
 this circumstance as an uncertain tradition : but 
 it is related by Protestant writers, and besides 
 seems to me perfectly consistent with the char- 
 acter of Farel and the fears of GEcolampadius. 
 It is our duty to admit the weaknesses of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 76 
 
 is there in this zeal of the Reformer a 
 something more noble than that cold pru- 
 dence so common in the world, and 
 which shrinks from incurring the small- 
 est danger, or making the most trifling 
 sacrifice for the advancement of God's 
 kingdom. Farel well knew that by this 
 act he was exposing himself to the death 
 which Leclerc had suffered. But his own 
 conscience bore testimony that he desired 
 only to promote the glory of God, and 
 this elevated him above all fear. 
 
 After this incident of the bridge, in 
 which we discern his natural character, 
 Farel was obliged to conceal himself, 
 and soon afterwards to quit the city. He 
 took refuge with GEcolampadius at Basle ; 
 but he ever retained that attachment to 
 Montbeliard, which a servant of God 
 never ceases to cherish for the scene of 
 the first-fruits of his ministry.* 
 
 At Basle, sad tidings awaited him. 
 Himself a fugitive, he now learned that 
 Anemond de Coct was dangerously ill. 
 Farel immediately remitted to him four 
 gold crowns : but on the 25th of March, 
 a letter from Oswald Myconius brought 
 him intelligence of the knight's death. 
 " Let us so live," wrote Oswald, " that we 
 may enter into that rest which we trust 
 the soul of Anemond has now entered 
 
 upon."f 
 
 Thus prematurely died Anemond ; — 
 still young, full of activity and energy, — 
 in himself a host, — ready to undertake 
 every labour, and brave every danger in 
 the hope of evangelizing France. God's 
 ways are not our ways. Not long before, 
 and near Zurich too, another noble. Ul- 
 ric von Hutten, had breathed his last. 
 Points of resemblance are not wanting 
 between the two ; but the piety and 
 christian virtues of the native of Dau- 
 phiny entitle him to rank far above the 
 level of the witty and intrepid enemy of 
 the Pope and monks. 
 
 Shortly after Anemond's death. Farel, 
 finding it impossible to remain at Basle 
 whence he had already been expelled, 
 joined his friends Capito and Bucer at 
 Strasburg. 
 
 Thus at Montbeliard and at Basle, as 
 well as at Lyons, the ranks of the Re- 
 
 * Ingens affectus, qui me cogit Mumpelgardum 
 amare. — (Farel ii Epp.) 
 
 t Quo Anemundi spiritum jam pervenisse spe- 
 ramus.— (Myconius Farello, MS. de Neufchatel.) 
 
602 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 formers were thinned. Of those who 
 most zealously contended for the faith, 
 some had been removed by death — oth- 
 ers were scattered by persecution, and in 
 exile. In vain did the combatants turn 
 their efforts in every direction. On all 
 sides they were repulsed. But though 
 the forces concentrated first at Meaux, 
 then at Lyons, and lastly at Basle, had 
 been successively broken up, there re- 
 mained here and there, in Lorraine, at 
 Meaux, and even in Paris, good soldiers, 
 who struggled, more or less openly, 
 in support of God's word in France. 
 Though the Reformation saw its ranks 
 broken, it still had its single champions. 
 Against these the Sorbonne and the Par- 
 liament now turned their anger. The 
 resolution was taken to exterminate from 
 the soil of France the devoted men who 
 had undertaken to plant thereon the 
 standard of Jesus Christ ; — and unprece- 
 dented misfortunes seemed at this season 
 to conspire with the enemies of the Ref- 
 ormation to favour the attainment of 
 their purpose. 
 
 During the latter part of Farel's stay 
 at Montbeliard, great events had indeed 
 taken place on the theatre of the world. 
 Lannoy, and Pescara, Charles's generals, 
 having quitted France on the approach 
 of Francis I., that Prince crossed the 
 Alps, and blockaded Pa via. On the 24th 
 of February, 1525, Pescara attacked 
 him. Bonnivet, la Tremouille, la Pa- 
 lisse and Lescure died fighting by his 
 side. The Duke of Alenqon, the first 
 prince of the blood and husband of Mar- 
 garet, fled, carrying with him the rear- 
 guard, and died of shame and grief at 
 Lyons. Francis himself, thrown from 
 his horse, surrendered his sword to 
 Charles de Lannoy, viceroy of Naples. 
 who received it kneeling on one knee. 
 The King of France was the Emperor's 
 prisoner ! His captivity seemed to be 
 the greatest of all misfortunes. "No- 
 thing is left me but honour and life," 
 wrote that Prince to his mother. But to 
 none was this event more affecting than 
 to Margaret. The glory of her country 
 over-clouded, France without a monarch, 
 and exposed to accumulated dangers, 
 her beloved brother the captive of his 
 haughty foe, her husband dishonoured 
 and dead, — what an overflowing cup of 
 bitterness! But she had a Comforter: 
 
 — and whilst her brother sought to com- 
 fort himself by repeating, " Tout est per- 
 du, fors Vhonneur /" (all is lost save hon- 
 our !) . . She was able to say, ' Fors Je- 
 sus seul, mon frere, jils de DieuJ — " Save 
 Christ alone, my brother, Son of God !"* 
 
 All France, nobles, parliament, and 
 people were overwhelmed in consterna- 
 tion. Ere long, as in the first three cen- 
 turies of the Church, the calamity which 
 had overtaken the state was charged 
 upon the Christians, — and the cry of fa- 
 natics on all sides demanded their blood 
 as the means of averting further misfor- 
 tunes. The moment, therefore, was fa- 
 vourable to the opposers of the truth ; it 
 was not enough to have dislodged the 
 evangelical Christians from the three 
 strong positions they had taken up, it 
 was necessary to profit by the popular 
 panic to strike while the iron was hot, 
 and utterly to extirpate a power which 
 was becoming so formidable to the Pa- 
 pacy. 
 
 At the head of this conspiracy, and 
 loudest in these clamours, were Beda, 
 Duchesne, and Lecouturier. These irre- 
 concilable enemies of the Gospel flattered 
 themselves that they might easily obtain, 
 from public terror, the victims hitherto 
 refused. They went immediately to work, 
 employing fanatical harangues, lamenta- 
 tions, threats, and libels, to arouse the an- 
 gry passions of the nation and its gov- 
 ernors, — vomiting fire and flame against 
 their adversaries, and heaping insults 
 upon them.f 
 
 They stopped at nothing ; — dishonest- 
 ly quoting their words, without reference 
 to any explanatory context, substituting 
 expressions of their own in place of those 
 used by the teachers they wished to in- 
 culpate, and omitting or adding according 
 as was necessary to blacken the char- 
 acter of their opponents. :{: Such is the 
 testimony of Erasmus himself. 
 
 Nothing so much excited their anger 
 as the doctrine of Salvation by Free 
 Grace, — the corner-stone of Christianity 
 and of the Reformation. " When I con- 
 template," said Beda, " these three men, 
 Lefevre, Erasmus, and Luther, in other 
 
 * Les Marguerites de la Marguerite, p. 29. 
 
 t Plusquamscurrilibus conviciis debacchantes. 
 . . . — (Er. Francisco Regi, p. 1108.) 
 
 t Pro meis verbis supponit sua, praetermittit, 
 addit.— (Ibid. p. 887.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 603 
 
 respects gifted with so penetrating a ge- 
 nius, leagued together in a conspiracy 
 against meritorious works, and resting all 
 the weight of salvation on faith alone,* I 
 am no longer astonished that thousands, 
 led away by such teaching, begin to say, 
 ' Why should I fast and mortify my body?' 
 Let us banish from France this hateful 
 doctrine of grace. This neglect of good 
 works is a fatal snare of the devil." 
 
 Thus did the syndic of the Sorbonne 
 fight against the faith. He would nat- 
 urally find supporters in a profligate court, 
 and likewise in another class of people, 
 more respectable, but not less opposed to 
 the Gospel ; — we mean those grave men, 
 and rigid moralists, who, devoted to the 
 study of laws and judicial forms, discern 
 in Christianity no more than a system of 
 laws, and in the Church only a sort of 
 moral police, and who, unable to make 
 the doctrines of man's spiritual helpless- 
 ness, the new birth, and justification by 
 faith, square with the legal habit of their 
 minds, are induced to regard them as 
 fanciful imaginations, dangerous to pub- 
 lic morals and to national prosperity. 
 This aversion to the doctrine of free 
 grace, manifested itself in the 16th cen- 
 tury under two widely different forms. 
 In Italy and in Poland it took the form 
 of Socinianism, so called from its origi- 
 nator, who was descended from a cele- 
 brated family of jurists at Sienna ; while 
 in France, it showed itself in the stern 
 decrees and burnings of the Parliament. 
 
 Contemning the great truths of the 
 Gospel, as promulgated by the Reform- 
 ers, and thinking it necessary to do some- 
 thing at this season of overwhelming ca- 
 lamity, the Parliament presented an ad- 
 dress to Louisa of Savoy, remonstrating 
 strongly on the conduct of the govern- 
 ment towards the new teaching : " Here- 
 sy," said they, " has raised its head 
 amongst us, and the king, by his neglect- 
 ing to bring the heretics to the scaffold, 
 has drawn down upon us the wrath of 
 heaven." 
 
 At the same time the pulpits resounded 
 with lamentations, threatenings, and mal- 
 edictions ; and prompt and signal pun- 
 
 * Cum itaque cernerara tres istos . . uno ani- 
 mo in opera meritoria conspirasse. — (Natalis Be- 
 dae Apologia adversus clandestinos Lutheranos, 
 fol. 41.) 
 
 ishments were loudly demanded. Mar- 
 tial Mazurier took a prominent part 
 among the preachers of Paris, and en- 
 deavouring by his violence to efface the 
 recollection of his former connection with 
 the partisans of the Reformation, inveigh- 
 ed against such as were " secretly the dis- 
 ciples of Luther." " Know you," cried 
 he, " the rapid progress of this poison 1 
 Know you its strength ? It acts with in- 
 conceivable rapidity ; in a moment it may 
 destroy tens of thousands of souls. Ah ! 
 well may we tremble for France. 1 '* 
 
 It was not difficult to excite the Queen- 
 mother against the favourers of the Ref- 
 ormation. Her daughter Margaret, the 
 chief personages of the court, she herself, 
 Louisa of Savoy, who had ever been de- 
 voted to the Roman Pontiff, had been by 
 certain of the fanatics charged with coun- 
 tenancing Lefevre, Berquin, and the other 
 innovators. Had she not been known, 
 insinuated her accusers, to read their 
 tracts and translations of the Bible ? 
 The Queen-mother was not unwilling to 
 clear herself of such dishonouring sus- 
 picions. Already she had despatched 
 her confessor to the Sorbonne to enquire 
 of that body as to the best method of ex- 
 tirpating this heresy. " The detestable 
 doctrine of Luther," said she in her mes- 
 sage to the faculty, " every day gains new 
 adherents." The faculty smiled on the 
 receipt of this message. The time had 
 been when the representations they had 
 made were dismissed without so much as 
 a hearing ; but now their advice was 
 humbly solicited in the matter. At length 
 they held within their grasp that heresy 
 which they had so long desired to stifle. 
 They deputed Noel Beda to return an 
 immediate answer to the Queen-Regent. 
 " Since," said the fanatical syndic, " the 
 sermons, discussions, and books, with 
 which we have so often opposed heresy, 
 have failed to arrest its progress, a proc- 
 lamation ought to be put forth, prohibit- 
 ing the circulation of the writings of the 
 heretics — and if these measures should 
 prove insufficient, force and restraint 
 should be employed against the persons 
 of the false teachers ; for they who resist 
 
 * Mazurius contra occultos Lutheri discipuli 
 os declamat, ac recentis veneni celeritatem vim- 
 que denunciat. — (Lannoi, regii Navarrae gym- 
 nasii historia, p. 621.) 
 
604 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the light must be subdued by punishments 
 and terror?'* 
 
 But Louisa had not even waited for 
 their answer. Scarcely had Francis fall- 
 en into the hands of Charles V., when 
 she wrote to the Pope, consulting him as 
 to his wishes with respect to heretics. It 
 was important to Louisa's policy to secure 
 to herself the favour of a pontiff who had 
 power to raise all Italy against the con- 
 queror of Pavia ; and she did not think 
 that favour would be too dearly bought 
 at the cost of some French blood. The 
 Pope, delighted at the opportunity of let- 
 ting loose his vengeance in the ' most 
 Christian kingdom,' against a heresy of 
 which he had failed to arrest the progress 
 either in Switzerland or Germany, gave 
 instant directions for the establishment of 
 the Inquisition in France, and despatched 
 a bull to that effect to the Parliament. 
 At the same time Duprat, whom the 
 Pontiff had created a cardinal, at the 
 same time bestowing upon him the arch- 
 bishopric of Sens and a rich abbey, la- 
 boured to testify his gratitude for these 
 favours, by his indefatigable opposition 
 to the heretics. Thus the Pope, the Re- 
 gent, the doctors of the Sorbonne and the 
 Parliament, the Chancellor and the fa- 
 natics, were now combining to ruin the 
 Gospel and put its confessors to death. 
 
 The Parliament was first in motion. 
 The time had arrived, when it was ne- 
 cessary that the first body in the state 
 should take steps against the new doc- 
 trine : moreover, it might seem called to 
 act, inasmuch as the public tranquillity 
 was at stake. Accordingly, the Parlia- 
 ment, " under the impulse of a holy zeal 
 against the innovations," issued an edict,! 
 " that the Bishop of Paris, and certain 
 other bishops, should be held responsible 
 to M. Philippe Pott, president of re- 
 quests, and Andrew Verjus, its counsel- 
 lor, and to Messires William Duchesne, 
 and Nicolas Leclerc, doctors of divinity, 
 to institute and conduct the trial of per- 
 sons tainted with the Lutheran doctrine." 
 
 " And with a purpose of making it ap- 
 pear that those persons were acting rather 
 under the authority of the Church than 
 
 * Histoire de l'Universite', par Crevier, v. p. 
 196. 
 
 t De la religion catholique en France, par de 
 Lezeau. MS. de la bibliotbeque de Sainte-Gene- 
 vieve at Paris. 
 
 of the Parliament, it pleased his Holi- 
 ness, the Pope, to forward a brief, dated 
 20th May, 1525, in which he approved 
 the commissioners that had been named." 
 
 " Accordingly, in pursuance of these 
 measures, all who, being called before 
 these deputies, were by the bishop or by 
 the ecclesiastical judges, pronounced Lu- 
 therans, were handed over to the secular 
 arm, — that is, to the said Parliament, 
 who forthwith condemned them to the 
 flames."* We quote the very words of 
 a manuscript of that age. 
 
 Such was the dreadful court of Inqui- 
 sition, appointed, during the captivity of 
 Francis 1., to take cognizance of the 
 charge against the Evangelic Christians 
 of France, as dangerous to the state. Its 
 members were two laymen and two ec- 
 clesiastics ; and one of these latter was 
 Duchesne, next to Beda the most fanati- 
 cal of the adverse party. Shame had 
 prevented their placing Beda himself in 
 the commission, but his influence was 
 only the more secured by the precaution. 
 
 Thus the machinery was set up, — its 
 various springs in order, — and every one 
 of its blows likely to be mortal. It was 
 an important point to settle against whom 
 its first proceedings should be taken. 
 Beda, Duchesne, and Leclerc, M. Philip 
 Pott, the president, and Andrew Verjus, 
 the counsellor, met to deliberate on this 
 point. Was there not the Count of Mont- 
 brun, the old friend of Louis XII., and 
 the former ambassador at the court of 
 Rome, Briconnet, then Bishop of Meaux? 
 This committee of public safety, of 1525, 
 thought that by singling out its object 
 from an elevated station, it should strike 
 terror through all hearts. This consid- 
 eration seems to have decided them ; 
 and the venerable bishop received notice 
 of trial. 
 
 Far from quailing before the persecu- 
 tion of 1523, Briconnet had persisted, in 
 conjunction with Lefevre, in opposing 
 the popular superstitions. The more 
 eminent his station in the Church and 
 in the State, the more fatal did the effect 
 of his example appear, and the more did 
 his enemies judge it necessary to extort 
 from him a public recantation, or to bring 
 
 * The MS. of the Library of St. Genevieve, 
 whence I have derived this fragment, bears the 
 name of Lezeau, but in the catalogue that of 
 Lefebre. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 605 
 
 him to a yet more public retribution. 
 The court of inquisition lost no time in 
 collecting - and preparing the evidence 
 against him. He was charged with 
 harbouring the teachers of the new her- 
 esy : it was alleged that a week after the 
 superior of the Cordeliers had preached 
 in St. Martin's church at Meaux, by di- 
 rection of the Sorbonne, to restore sound 
 doctrine, — Briconnet had himself occu- 
 pied the pulpit, and, in publicly refuting 
 him, had designated the preacher and 
 his brother Cordeliers impostors, false 
 prophets, and hypocrites ; and that, not 
 satisfied with that, he ha_d, through his 
 official, summoned the superior to appear 
 personally to answer to him.* 
 
 It would even seem, if we may trust 
 to one manuscript of the time, that the 
 Bishop had gone much further, and that 
 he in person, attended by Lefevre, had 
 in the autumn of 1524 gone over his dio- 
 cese, committing to the flames, wherever 
 he came, all images, the crucifix alone 
 excepted. So daring a conduct, which 
 would go to prove so much decision, 
 combined with much timidity in the 
 character of Briconnet — if we give credit 
 to the fact — would not fix upon him the 
 blame visited on other iconoclasts ; for 
 he was at the head of that Church whose 
 superstitions he then sought to reform, 
 and was therefore acting at least in the 
 sphere of his rights and duties.f 
 
 However we may regard it, in the 
 eyeS of the enemies of the Gospel, the 
 charge against Briconnet was of a very 
 aggravated character. He had not mere- 
 ly impugned the Church's authority, he 
 had erected himself against the Sorbonne 
 itself, — that society, all the energies of 
 
 * Hist, de l'Universite, par Crevier, v. p. 204. 
 
 t In the library of the pastors of Neufchatel, 
 is a letter of Sebville, in which the following 
 passage occurs : " Je te notifie que l'eveque de 
 Meaux en Brie pies Paris cum Jacobo Fabro sta- 
 pulensi, depuis trois mois, en visitant l'eveche ont 
 brule actu tous les images, reserve le crucifix, et 
 sont personellement ajournes a Paris a ce mois 
 de mars venant pour repondre coram supremn 
 curia et universitdte." I am rather disposed to 
 think the fact truly stated, though Sebville was 
 not on the spot, Mezeray, Daniel, and Maim- 
 bourg make no mention of it. These Roman 
 Catholic writers, who are not very circumstan- 
 tial, may have had motives for passing over the 
 fact in silence, considering the issue of the trial ; 
 and moreover, the report of Sebville agrees with 
 all the known facts. However, the, matter is 
 open to question. 
 
 which were directed to the perpetuation 
 of its own greatness. Great, therefore, 
 was the joy in the society at the intelli- 
 gence that its adversary was to stand a 
 trial before the Inquisition, and John 
 Bochart, one of the leading lawyers of 
 the time, pleading before the Parliament 
 against Briconnet, exclaimed aloud, — 
 " Neither the Bishop, nor any single in- 
 dividual can lawfully exalt himself, or 
 open his mouth against the faculty. 
 Neither is the faculty called to discuss 
 or give its reasons at the bar of the said 
 Bishop, whose duty it is to offer no oppo- 
 sition to the wisdom of that holy society, 
 but to esteem it as under the guidance 
 of God himself."* 
 
 In conformity with this representation, 
 the Parliament put forth an edict on the 
 3d October, 1525, wherein, after author- 
 izing the arrest of all those who had 
 been informed against ; it gave orders 
 that the Bishop should be examined by 
 Master James Menager and Andrew 
 Verjus, counsellors of the court, touching 
 the matters charged against him.f 
 
 The order of the Parliament struck 
 terror to the bishop's heart. Briconnet, 
 twice honoured with the post of ambas- 
 sador at Rome, — Briconnet, a bishop, a 
 noble, the intimate friend of Louis XII. 
 and Francis I., — to undergo an interro- 
 gatory by two counsellors of the court . 
 . . . He who had fondly dreamed that 
 God would kindle in the hearts of the 
 king, his mother, and his sister, a flame 
 that would run through the kingdom, 
 now beheld that kingdom turning against 
 him in the endeavour to quench that fire 
 which it had received from heaven. The 
 king was a captive ; his mother was pla- 
 cing herself at the head of the enemy's 
 force : and Margaret, dismayed by the 
 misforturfcs of her country, no longer 
 dared to avert the blow directed against 
 her dearest friends, and failing first on 
 the spiritual father who had so often 
 cheered and comforted her. Not long 
 before this, she had written to Briconnet 
 a letter full of pious emotions : " Oh !" 
 she had said, " that this poor languid 
 heart might experience some warmth of 
 that love with which I would that it were 
 burnt to ashes."! But the time had ar- 
 
 * Hist, de l'Universite, par Crevier, v. p. 204. 
 
 t Maimbourg Hist, du Calv. p. 14. 
 
 t MS. de la Biblioth. Royale, S. F. No. 337. 
 
606 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 rived when the question was one of lite- 
 ral burnings. Such mystical expressions 
 were not now in season ; and one who 
 resolved to confess the faith must brave 
 the scaffold ! The poor bishop, who 
 had been so sanguine in the hope to see 
 the Reformation gradually and gently 
 winning its way in men's minds, trem- 
 bled in dismay when he found, that, at 
 the eleventh hour, it must be purchased 
 at the sacrifice of life itself. It is possi- 
 ble such a thought may never before 
 have occurred to him, and he recoiled 
 from it in an agony of fear. 
 
 One hope, however, remained for Bri- 
 <jonnet ; and that was, that he might be 
 allowed to appear before the Chambers 
 of Parliament in general assembly agree- 
 ably to the priviJege belonging, by cus- 
 tom, to his rank. Doubtless, in that 
 august and numerous assembly, some 
 generous hearts would respond to his 
 appeal, and espouse his cause. Accord- 
 ingly, he humbly petitioned the court to 
 grant him this indulgence ; but his ene- 
 mies had equally with himself calculated 
 the possible issue of such a hearing. Had 
 they not learned a lesson when Luther, 
 in presence of the Germanic Diet, at 
 Worms, had shaken the resolution of 
 those who had previously seemed most 
 decided? Carefully closing every ave- 
 nue of escape, they exerted themselves 
 with such effect, that the Parliament on 
 the 25th October, 1525, in an edict af- 
 firming that previously issued,* refused 
 Briconnet the favour he had petitioned 
 for. 
 \ Behold the Bishop of Meaux, placed 
 like a common priest of the lowest order 
 before Masters James Menager and An- 
 drew Verjus. Those two jurisconsults. 
 the obedient tools of the Sorbonne, were 
 not likely to be swayed by those higher 
 considerations to which the Chambers 
 of Parliament might be accessible ; they 
 were men of facts : — was it, or was it not, 
 a fact, that the bishop had set himself in 
 opposition to the society? With them, 
 this was the only question. Accordingly 
 Briconnet's conviction was secured. 
 
 Whilst the sword was thus impending 
 over the head of the bishop, the monks, 
 priests, and doctors, made the best use of 
 their time ; — they saw plainly that if Bri- 
 connet could be persuaded to retract, their 
 * M^imbourg Hist, du Calv. p. 15. 
 
 interest would be better served than by 
 his martyrdom. His death would but 
 inflame the zeal of those who were uni- 
 ted with him in their faith, while his 
 apostacy would plunge them in the deep- 
 est discouragement. They accordingly 
 went to work. They visited him, and 
 pressed him with their entreaties. Mar- 
 tial Mazurier especially strained every 
 nerve to urge him to a fall, as he him- 
 self had fallen. Arguments were not 
 wanting, which might, to Briconnet, 
 seem specious. Would he then take 
 the consequence, and be rejected from 
 his office ? If he remained in the church, 
 might he not use his influence with the 
 king and the court to an extent of good 
 which it was not easy to estimate ? What 
 would become of his friends when his 
 power was at an end ? Was not his re- 
 sistance likely to compromise the success 
 of a Reformation which, to be salutary 
 and lasting, ought to be carried into ef- 
 fect by the legitimate influence of the 
 clergy? How many would be stumbled 
 by his persisting in opposition to the 
 Church ; and, on the other hand, how 
 many would be won over by his conces- 
 sions? His advisers pretended that they, 
 too, were anxious for a Reformation ; 
 " All is going on by insensible steps," 
 said they ; " both at the court, in the 
 city, and in the provinces, things are 
 progressing : — and would he, in the 
 mere lightness of his heart, dash the 
 fair prospect in view ! After all, he was 
 not asked to relinquish what he had 
 taught, but merely to comply with the 
 established order of the Church. Could 
 it be well, at a time when France was 
 suffering under the pressure of so many 
 reverses, — to stir up new confusions ? 
 " In the name of religion, country. 
 friends — nay, even of the Reformation 
 itself — consent /" said they. Such are 
 the sophisms that are the ruin of many 
 a noble enterprise. 
 
 Yet every one of these considerations 
 had its influence on the Bishop's mind. 
 The Tempter, who came to Jesus in the 
 wilderness, presented himself to Briqon- 
 net in fair and specious colours ; — and 
 instead of saying, with his Master, " Get 
 thee behind me, Satan !" he heard, listen- 
 ed, and considered his suggestions. . . • 
 Thenceforward his faithfulness was at an 
 end. 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 607 
 
 Briconnet had never been embarked, 
 with all his heart, like Farel or Luther 
 in the movement which was then re- 
 moulding the Church. There was in 
 him a sort of mystical tendency, which 
 enfeebles the souls in which it gains 
 place, and takes from them the firmness 
 and confidence which are derived from a 
 Faith that rests simply on the word of 
 God. The cross he was called to take 
 up, that he might follow Christ, was too 
 heavy for him.* Shaken in resolution, 
 alarmed, dizzy, and not knowing which 
 way to turn, he faltered, and stumbled 
 against the stone that had been artfully 
 laid in his pathf ... he fell ; — and, in- 
 stead of throwing himself into the arms 
 of Christ, he cast himself at the feet of 
 Mazurier,;}; and, by a shameful recanta- 
 tion, brought a dark cloud upon the glory 
 of a noble fidelity. § 
 
 Thus fell Briconnet, the friend of Le- 
 fevre and of Margaret ; and thus the ear- 
 liest protector of the Gospel in France, 
 denied that good news of Grace, in the 
 criminal thought that his abiding faithful 
 would compromise his influence in the 
 Church, at the court, and in the king- 
 dom. But what his enemies represented 
 as the saving of his country, was, per- 
 haps, the greatest of its misfortunes. 
 What might not have been the conse- 
 quence, if Briconnet had possessed the 
 courage of Luther % If one of the most 
 eminent of the French bishops, enjoying 
 the respect of the king and the love of 
 the people, had ascended the scaffold, 
 and there, like 'the poor of this world,' 
 sealed, by a courageous confession and a 
 christian death, the truth of the Gospel, 
 would not France herself have been put 
 upon reflection % Would not the blood 
 of the Bishop of Meaux have served, like 
 that of Polycarp and Cyprian, as seed of 
 the church ; and should we not have seen 
 those provinces, so famed for many recol- 
 lections, emancipating themselves, in the 
 sixteenth century, from the spiritual dark- 
 ness in which they are still enveloped 1 
 
 Briconnet underwent the form of an 
 
 * Crucis statim oblatse terrore perculsus. — 
 (Bezse Icones.) 
 
 t Dementatus. — (Bezae Icones.) 
 
 i Ut Episeopus etiam desisteret suis consiliis 
 effecit. — (Launoi, regii NavarraB gymnasii hist. 
 p. 621.) 
 
 § Nisi turpi palinodia gloriam hanc omnem 
 ipse eibi invidisset. — (Bezse Icones.) 
 
 interrogatory, in presence of Masters 
 James Menager and Andrew Verjus, 
 who declared that he had sufficient- 
 ly vindicated himself from the crime 
 charged against him. He was then put 
 under penance, and convened a synod, at 
 which he condemned the writings of Lu- 
 ther, retracted whatever he had taught at 
 variance with the Church's teaching, re- 
 stored the custom of invocation of saints, 
 persuading such as had left the rites of 
 the Church to return to them ; and as if 
 desiring to leave no doubt as to his rec- 
 onciliation with the Pope and the Sor- 
 bonne, kept a solemn fast on All-saints- 
 eve, and issued orders for pompous pro- 
 cessions, in which he appeared personally, 
 evidencing still further his faith by his 
 largesses and apparent devotion.* 
 
 The fall of Briconnet is perhaps the 
 most memorable of all those recorded of 
 that period. There is no like example 
 of one so deeply engaged in the work 
 of the Reformation so abruptly turning 
 against it ; yet must we carefully con- 
 sider both his character and his fall. Bri- 
 connet stood relatively to Rome, as Le- 
 fevre stood in relation to the Reforma- 
 tion. Both represented a sort of juste 
 milieu, — appertaining, in strictness of 
 speech, to neither party, — as it were, one 
 on the right and the other on the left 
 centre. The Doctor of Etaples leans to- 
 wards the Word ; the Bishop inclines to- 
 wards the Hierarchy ; — and when these 
 men, who touch each other, are driven to 
 decision, we see the one range himself 
 on the side of Christ, and the other on the 
 side of Rome. We may add, that it is 
 not possible to think that Briqonnet can 
 have entirely laid aside the convictions 
 of his faith ; and at no time did the Ro- 
 man doctors put confidence in him ; not 
 even after he had retracted. But he did, 
 as did afterwards the Bishop of Cambray, 
 whom he in some points resembled ; he 
 flattered himself he might outwardly sub- 
 mit to the Pope's authority, while he in 
 his heart continued subject to the divine 
 Word. Such Aveakness is incompatible 
 with the principle of the Reformation. 
 Briqonnet was one of the most distin- 
 guished of the quietist or mystic school ; 
 and it is well known that one of the lead- 
 ing maxims of that school has ever been 
 
 * Mezeray, ii. p. 981 ; Daniel, v. p. 644 ; Mo- 
 reri, article Brisonnet. 
 
608 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to settle down in, and adapt itself to, the 
 church in which it exists, whatever that 
 church may be. 
 
 The mournful fall of Briconnet was 
 felt as a shock to the hearts of his former 
 friends, and was the sad forerunner of 
 those deplorable apostacies to which the 
 friendship of the world so often led, in 
 another age of French history. The 
 man who seemed to hold the reins of the 
 movement was abruptly precipitated from 
 his seat, and the Reformation was, in 
 that country, thenceforth to pursue its 
 course without a leader or guide, in low- 
 liness and secresy. But the disciples of 
 the Gospel from that time lifted up their 
 eyes, regarding, with more fixedness of 
 faith, their Head in heaven, whose un- 
 changing: faithfulness their souls had 
 known. 
 
 The Sorbonne was triumphant A 
 great advance toward the final ruin of 
 the Reformation in France had been 
 made, and it was important to follow up 
 their success. Lefevre stood next after 
 Briqonnet, and Beda had, therefore, with- 
 out loss of time, turned his hostility 
 against him, publishing a tract against 
 the celebrated doctor, full of such gross 
 calumnies, that we have Erasmus's judg- 
 ment of them, that "even cobblers and 
 smiths could lay the finger on the false- 
 hood of them." What seemed above all 
 to enrage him was that doctrine of Justi- 
 fication, by Faith, which Lefevre had 
 proclaimed in the ears of Christians. To 
 this Beda continually recurred as an arti- 
 cle which, according to him, overturned 
 the Church. " What !" he exclaimed, 
 u Lefevre affirms that whoever ascribes 
 to himself the power to save himself will 
 be lost, whilst whosoever, laying aside 
 all strength of his own, casts himself into 
 the arms of Christ, shall be saved. . . . 
 Oh, what heresy ! thus to teach the use- 
 lessness of meritorious works. . . . What 
 hellish doctrine ! — what delusion of the 
 devil ! Let us oppose it with all our 
 power."* 
 
 Instantly that engine of persecution, 
 which took effect in the recantation or 
 in the death of its victims, was turned 
 against Lefevre; and already hopes 
 were entertained that he would share the 
 
 * Perpendens perniciosissimam demonis falla- 
 ciam. . . . Oecurri quantum valui. — (Nat. Bedee 
 Apolog. adv. Lutheranos, fol. 42.) 
 
 fate of Led ere the wool-comber, or that 
 of the bishop of Briqonnet. His trial was 
 quickly gone through ; and a decree of 
 Parliament condemned nine propositions 
 extracted from his commentaries on the 
 Gospels, and placed his translation of the 
 Scriptures in the list of prohibited works.* 
 
 These measures were felt by Lefevre 
 to be only the prelude of others. From 
 the first intimation of the approaching 
 persecution he had clearly perceived, that 
 in the absence of Francis the First he 
 would not be able to bear up under his 
 enemies' attacks, and that the time had 
 arrived to act on the direction, — " When 
 they persecute you in one city, Jiee ye unto 
 another.^ Lefevre quitted Meaux, where, 
 ever since the bishop's apostacy, he had 
 experienced nothing but bitterness of soul, 
 and had found his efforts paralysed ; and 
 as he looked back upon his persecutors, 
 he shook off the dust from off his feet, — 
 " not to call down evil upon them, but in 
 testimony of the evils that were coming 
 upon them : for," says he, " as that dust 
 is shaken from off our feet, just so are they 
 cast off from the favour and presence of 
 the Lord.":}: 
 
 The persecutors beheld their victim at 
 large ; but they derived comfort from the 
 thought that, at least, France was deliv- 
 ered from this father of heresy. 
 
 Lefevre, a fugitive from his enemies, 
 arrived at Strasburg under an assumed 
 name. There he was immediately in- 
 troduced to the friends of the Reforma- 
 tion ; and what must have been his joy, 
 to hear publicly taught that same Gospel 
 of which he had caught the first fleams 
 in the Church; — why, it was just his 
 own faith ! It was exactly what he had 
 intended to express ! It was as if he had 
 been a second time born to the Christian 
 life. Gerard Roussel, one of those Evan- 
 gelical Christians, who, nevertheless, like 
 the Doctor of Etaples, attained not to 
 complete enfranchisement, had been like- 
 wise compelled to quit France. Both 
 together attended the lectures of Capito 
 and of Bucer,§ and met in private inter- 
 
 * I. Lelong Biblioth. sacree, 2d part. p. 44. 
 
 t St. Matth. x. 14—23. 
 
 t Quod excussi sunt a facie Domini sicut pul- 
 vis ille excussus est a pedibus. — (Faber in Ev. 
 Matth. p. 40.) 
 
 § Faber stapulensis et Gerardns Rufus, clam 
 e Gallia profecti, Capitonem et Bucerum audie- 
 runt. — (Melch. Adam. Vita Captonis, p. 90.) 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 609 
 
 course with those faithful teachers.* It 
 was even rumoured that they had been 
 commissioned to do so, by Margaret, the 
 king's sister. f But the adoring contem- 
 plation of the ways of God, rather than 
 polemical questions, engaged Lefevre's 
 attention. Casting a glance upon the 
 state of Christendom, and filled with won- 
 der at what he beheld passing on its 
 stage, moved with feelings of gratitude, 
 and full of hopeful anticipation, he threw 
 himself on his knees, and prayed to the 
 Lord " to perfect that which he saw then 
 beginning.' : | 
 
 At Strasburg one especially agreeable 
 surprise awaited him — his pupil, his ' son 
 in the faith,' Farel, — from whom he had 
 been parted by persecution for nearly 
 three years, — had arrived there just be- 
 fore. The aged doctor of the Sorbonne 
 found, in his young pupil, a man in the 
 vigour of life, a christian, 'strong in the 
 faith,' — and Farel grasped with affection- 
 ate respect the shrivelled hand which 
 had guided his earliest steps, conscious 
 of the liveliest joy at thus recovering his 
 spiritual father in the society of faithful 
 men, and in a city that had received the 
 truth. They attended in company the 
 pure teaching of eminent teachers, — 
 broke bread together in the supper of the 
 Lord, according to Christ's institution, 
 and received touching proofs of the love 
 of the brethren. " Do you recollect," 
 said Farel to Lefevre, " an expression 
 you once let fall to me, when we were 
 both as yet in darkness, 'William! God 
 will renew the world ; and you will live 
 to see it !' — See here the beginning of 
 what you then foretold." " Yes," an- 
 swered the pious old man ; " God is re- 
 newing the world. . . . O, my son, con- 
 tinue to preach boldly the holy Gospel 
 of Jesus Christ."^ 
 
 Lefevre, from an excess of prudence 
 doubtless, chose to remain incognito at 
 Strasburg. and took the name of Anthony 
 Peregrinus, whilst Roussel chose that of 
 Solnin. But the celebrated doctor could 
 not elude notice ; and soon the whole 
 
 * De omnibus doctrine praecipuis locis cum ip- 
 sis disseruerint. — (lb.) 
 
 t Missi a Margaretha regis Francisci sorore. 
 — (Melch. Ad. Vit. Capitonis, p. 90.) 
 
 t Farel a tous seigneurs, peuples et pasteurs. 
 
 § Quod et pius senex fatebatur ; meque horta- 
 baturi pergerem in annnntiatione sacri Evangelii. 
 — (Farellus Pellicano Hotting. H. L. vi. p. 17.) 
 
 77 
 
 city, even to the very children, saluted 
 him with marks of respect.* He did not 
 dwell by himself, but lodged in the same 
 house with Capito, Farel, Roussel, and 
 Vcdastus (known and loved for his reti- 
 ring diffidence,) and a certain converted 
 Jew named Simon. The houses of Capi- 
 to, (Ecolampadius, Zvvingle, and Lu- 
 ther, offered a kind of open table and 
 lodging. Such, in those days, was the 
 attraction of ' brotherly love.' Many 
 Frenchmen, besides, were residing in 
 this city on the banks of the Rhine, and 
 there composed a church in which Farel 
 often preached the doctrine of Salvation. 
 Such Christian communion soothed the 
 feeling of banishment from their native 
 land. 
 
 Whilst these brethren were thus en- 
 joying the asylum afforded them by bro- 
 therly love, those in Paris and other 
 parts of France were exposed to great 
 danger. Briconnet had recanted— Le- 
 fevre was beyond the frontier — all this 
 was something gained, but the Sorbonne 
 was still without those public examples 
 of punishment which it had advised. 
 Beda and his followers were without vic- 
 tims. One man there was who gave 
 them more annoyance than either Bri- 
 connet or Lefevre, and he was Louis 
 Berquin. The gentleman of Artois, more 
 fearless than his tutors, allowed no op- 
 portunity to pass of teasing the monks 
 and theologians, and unmasking their 
 fanaticism. Passing from the capital to 
 the provinces, he would collect the wri- 
 tings of Erasmus and of Luther. These 
 he would translate,! at other times him- 
 self composing controversial tracts, and 
 defending and disseminating the new 
 teaching with the zeal of a young con- 
 vert. Louis Berquin was denounced by 
 the bishop of Amiens. Beda seconded the 
 accusation, and the Parliament commit- 
 ted him to prison. " This one," said the 
 enemy, "shall not escape so easily as 
 Briconnet or Lefevre." But their bolts 
 and bars had no effect on Berquin. In 
 vain did the superior of the Carthusians 
 and other persons labour to persuade him 
 to apologise ; he declared he would not 
 retract an iota. "It seemed then," says 
 
 * Nam latere cupiunt et tamen pueris noli 
 sunt. — (Capito Zwingr. Epp. p. p. 439. 
 t Erasmi Ep. p. 923. 
 
610 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 a chronicler, u that no way remained but 
 to send him to the stake."* 
 
 Margaret, in consternation at what had 
 happened to Briconnet, dreaded to see 
 Berquin dragged to that scaffold which 
 the bishop had so shamefully eluded. Not 
 daring to visit him in his prison, she en- 
 deavoured to convey a few words of con- 
 solation to him — and he may have been 
 upon her heart — when the princess com- 
 posed that touching complaint in which 
 a prisoner thus addresses the Lord : 
 
 O refuge free to all who feel distress ! 
 Their help and stay ! — Judge of the fatherless ! 
 Exhaustless treasure of consoling grace ! 
 The iron doors, the moat, the massive wall 
 Keep far from me, — a lone, forgotten thrall — 
 Friend, kinsman, brother, — each familiar face : 
 Yet mercey meets even this extremity ; 
 • For iron doors can never shut out Thee ! — 
 Thou, Lord ! art with me here, — here in this dis- 
 mal placet 
 
 But Margaret did not rest there, she 
 immediately wrote to her brother to so- 
 licit a pardon for her attendant. Fortu- 
 nate might she deem herself if her efforts 
 were not too late to rescue him from the 
 hatred of his enemies. 
 
 While awaiting this victim, Beda re- 
 solved to strike terror into the adversa- 
 ries of the Sorbonne and monks, by 
 crushing the most celebrated man among 
 them. Erasmus had declared himself 
 against Luther : — But this mattered lit- 
 tle ; — if the ruin of Erasmus could be ac- 
 complished then beyond all doubt the 
 destruction of Farel, of Luther, and their 
 associates would be sealed. The surest 
 way of reaching our mark is to aim be- 
 yond it. Let the ecclesiastical power 
 only set its heel on the neck of the phi- 
 losopher of Rotterdam, and where was 
 the heretical doctor who could hope to 
 escape the vengeance of Rome ? The 
 attack had already been commenced by 
 Lecouturier, better known by his Latin 
 name of Sutor, who, from the solitude of 
 a Carthusian cell, launched against Eras- 
 mus a publication of the most violent 
 character, in which he called his adver- 
 saries, theologasters, and miserable apes, 
 and charged them with scandalous of- 
 fences, with heresy and blasphemy. 
 Handling subjects which he did not un- 
 
 * Actes des Martyrs, p. 103. 
 t Marguerites de la Marguerite des Princess- 
 es, 1. p. 445. 
 
 derstand, he reminded his readers, as 
 Erasmus sarcastically remarks, of the old 
 proverb : — " Ne sutor ultra crepidam." 
 
 Beda hastened to the assistance of his 
 confederate. He ordered Erasmus to 
 write no more ;* and himself taking up 
 the pen, which he had enjoined the 
 greatest writer of the age to lay down, 
 he made a selection of all the calumnies 
 which the monks had invented against 
 the philosopher, translated them into 
 French, and formed them into a book 
 which he circulated at court and in the 
 city, in the hope that all France would 
 join in the outcry he was raising.! This 
 book was the signal for a general onset ; 
 the enemies of Erasmus started up on 
 every side. Nicolas D'Ecmond, an old 
 Carmelite of Louvain, used to exclaim, as 
 often as he mounted the pulpit, " There 
 is no difference between Erasmus and 
 Luther, unless it be that Erasmus is the 
 greater heretic of the two;" J — and where- 
 ever the Carmelite might be, — at table 
 or on a journey, on the land or on the 
 water, — he was raving against Erasmus 
 the heresiarch and forger.§ The faculty 
 of Paris, excited by these clamours, drew 
 up a decree of censure against the illus- 
 trious writer. 
 
 Erasmus was astounded. Was this, 
 then, the fruit of all his politic forbear- 
 ance, — was it for this that he had even 
 engaged in hostilities against Luther? 
 He, with an intrepidity which no one 
 else had displayed, had flung himself into 
 the breach, — and was he now to be 
 trampled down only that the common 
 enemy might be reached more, safely 
 over his prostrate body? His indigna- 
 tion is raised at the thought, he turns 
 sharply round, and while yet warm from 
 his attack upon Luther, deals his retribu- 
 tive blows on the fanatical doctors who 
 have assailed him in the rear. Never 
 was his correspondence more active than 
 now. He takes a survey of his position, 
 and his piercing eye immediately discov- 
 ers in whose hands rests the balance 
 of his fate. He hesitates not an instant ; 
 
 * Primum jubet ut desinam scribere. — (Erasm. 
 Epp.'p. 921.) 
 
 t Ut totam Galliam in me concitaret. — (lb. p 
 886.) 
 
 t Nisi quod Erasmus esset major hasreticus. — 
 (Ibid. p. 915.) • 
 
 § Quoties in conviciis, in vehiculis, in navibus 
 . . .-(lb.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 611 
 
 — he will at once lay his complaint and 
 his protest at the feet of the Sorbonne, — 
 of the Parliament, — of the King-, — of the 
 Emperor himself. — " How was this fear- 
 ful flame of Lutheranism kindled ?" — 
 says he, writing to those among the di- 
 vines of the Sorbonne in whose imparti- 
 ality he still reposed some confidence : — 
 " How has it been fanned into fury, — 
 except such outrages as these which 
 Beda has committed ?* In war, — a sol- 
 dier who has done his duty receives a 
 reward from his generals, — but the only 
 reward that you, — the generals in this 
 war, — have to bestow upon me, — is to 
 deliver me up to the calumnies of Beda 
 and Lecouturier I" 
 
 " What !" he exclaims, addressing the 
 Parliament of Paris, u when I had these 
 Lutherans on my hands, — when, under 
 the auspices of the Emperor, the Pope 
 and the other princes, I was struggling 
 against them, even at the peril of my 
 life, must I be assailed behind my back 
 by the foul libels of Lecouturier and 
 Beda ? Ah, if evil fortune had not de- 
 prived us of king Francis, I might have 
 appealed to that avenger of the muses 
 against these insults of the barbarians.! 
 But now it rests with you to restrain 
 their malignity." 
 
 No sooner did an opportunity present 
 itself of conveying a letter to the king, 
 than he wrote to him also. His pene- 
 trating glance detected in these fanatical 
 doctors of the Sorbonne, the germs of the 
 League, the precursors of the three 
 Priests, who at a later period were to 
 set up the sixteen against the last of the 
 race of Valois : — his genius enabled him 
 to warn the king of future crimes and 
 miseries which the experience of his 
 successors would but too fully realize. — 
 " Religion," said he, " is their pretext, — 
 but their true aim is despotic power, to 
 be exercised even over princes. — They 
 are moving onward with a steady step, 
 though their path lies under ground. 
 Should the sovereign not be inclined to 
 submit himself in all things to their 
 guidance, they will immediately declare 
 
 * Hoc gravissimum Lutheri incendium, unde 
 natum, unde hue progressum, nisi ex Beddaicis 
 intemperiis. — (Erasm. Epp. p. 887.) 
 
 t Musarum vindicem adversus barbarorum in- 
 cursienes. — (Ibid. 2070.) 
 
 that he may be deposed by the Church ; 
 that is to say. by a few false monks, and 
 a few false divines conspiring together 
 against the public peace."* Erasmus, 
 when writing to Francis the First, 
 could not have touched a more sensitive 
 string. 
 
 Finally, that he might still more effec- 
 tually secure himself against the malice 
 of his enemies, Erasmus invoked the 
 protection of Charles the Fifth himself. 
 — "Invincible Emperor," said he, "a 
 horrible outcry has been raised against 
 me, by men who, under the pretence of 
 religion, are labouring to establish their 
 own tyrannical power, and to gratify 
 their own sensual appetites.! I am 
 fighting under your banner, and under 
 the standard of Jesus Christ. It is by 
 your wisdom and your authority that 
 peace must be restored to the Christian 
 world." 
 
 It was in language like this that the 
 prince of literature addressed himself to 
 the rulers of the age. The danger which 
 impended over his head was averted ; the 
 secular power interposed, and the vultures 
 were compelled to abandon the prey 
 which in fancy they had already clutch- 1 
 ed. They then turned their eyes else- 
 where in search of other victims, and 
 they were soon found. 
 
 It was in Lorraine first that blood was 
 appointed to flow afresh. From the ear- 
 liest davs of the Reformation, there had 
 been an alliance in fanaticism between 
 Paris and the country of the Guises. If 
 Paris was at peace for a while, Lorraine 
 took up the work, and then Paris began 
 again, to give time for Nancy and Metz 
 to recruit their strength. The first blow, 
 apparently, was destined to fall upon an 
 excellent man, one of the refugees of 
 Basle, a friend of Farel and Toussaint. 
 The Chevalier d'Esch, while residing at 
 Metz, had not been able to screen him- 
 self from the suspicions of the priests. It 
 was ascertained that he carried on a cor- 
 respondence with Christians of the Evan- 
 gelic Faith, and on that discovery he 
 was thrown into prison at Pont-a-Mous- 
 
 * Nisi princeps ipsorum voluntati per omnia 
 paruerit, dicetur fautor ha^reticorum et destitui 
 polerit per ecclesiam. — (Er. Epp. p. 1108.) 
 
 t Simulato religionis preetcxtu, ventris tyran- 
 nidisque suse, negotium agentes. — (Ibid. p. 962.) 
 
612 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 son, a place situated five miles from Metz, 
 on the banks of the Moselle.* The tidings 
 filled the French refugees, and the Swiss 
 themselves, with the deepest concern. 
 " Alas ! for that innocent heart !" ex- 
 claimed CEcolampadius : " I have full 
 confidence in the Lord," added he, " that 
 he will preserve this man to us, either 
 ia life as a preacher of righteousness, to 
 make known His name ; or in death to 
 confess him as a martyr." f But at the 
 same time CEcolampadius censured the 
 thoughtlessness, — the precipitancy, — and 
 what he termed the imprudent zeal for 
 which the French refugees were distin- 
 guished. " I wish," said he, " that my 
 dear friends, the worthy gentlemen of 
 France, would not be so eager to return 
 to their own country, until they have 
 made all due enquiries beforehand ; for 
 the devil lays his snares everywhere. 
 Nevertheless, let them obey the Spirit 
 of Christ, and may that Spirit never for- 
 sake them."| 
 
 There was reason, indeed, to tremble 
 for the fate of the chevalier. The ran- 
 cour of the enemy had broken out in 
 Lorraine with redoubled fury. Brother 
 Bonaventure Renel, the principal of the 
 Cordeliers, and the confessor of Duke 
 Anthony the Good, a man of an auda- 
 cious temper, and of very questionable 
 moral character, allowed that weak 
 prince, who reigned from 1508 to 1544, 
 a large measure of license in his pleas- 
 ures : and persuaded him on the other 
 hand, by way of atonement, as it were, 
 to exercise a merciless severity against 
 all innovators. " It is quite sufficient for 
 any one," said the prince, profiting by 
 the able instructions of Renel, " if he can 
 repeat the Pater and the Ave-Maria ; 
 the greatest doctors are those who occa- 
 sion the greatest disorders."^ 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1524, in- 
 formation was conveyed to the Duke's 
 court, that a pastor, named Schuch, was 
 preaching a new kind of doctrine in the 
 town of Saint Hippolyte, at the foot of 
 the Vosages. " Let them return to their 
 
 * Noster captus detinetur in Bundamosa quin- 
 que millibus a Metis. — (QZcol. Farello Epp. p. 
 201.) 
 
 + Vel vivum confessorem, vel mortuum marty- 
 rem servabit. — (Ibid.) 
 
 % Nollem carissimos dominos meos Gallos pro- 
 perare in Galliam. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Actes des Martyrs, p. 97. 
 
 duty," said Anthony the Good, " or I 
 will march against the town, and lay it 
 waste with fire and sword !"* 
 
 Hereupon the faithful pastor resolved 
 to devote himself for his flock : he re- 
 paired to Nancy, where the prince re* 
 sided. Immediately on his arrival, he 
 was lodged in a noisome prison, under 
 the custody of brutal and cruel men : — 
 and now at last brother Bonaventure had 
 the heretic in his power. It was he who 
 presided at the tribunal before which he 
 was examined. "Heretic!" cried he, 
 addressing the prisoner, "Judas ! Devil !" 
 Schuch, preserving the utmost tranquilli- 
 ty and composure, made no reply to 
 these insults ; but holding in his hand a 
 little Bible, all covered with notes which 
 he had written in it, he meekly and ear- 
 nestly confessed Jesus Christ and him 
 crucified ! On a sudden, he assumed a 
 more animated mien, — stood up boldly, 
 raised his voice as if moved by the Spirit 
 from on high, — and, looking his judges 
 in the face, denounced against them the 
 fearful judgments of God. 
 
 Brother Bonaventure and his compan- 
 ions, inwardly appalled, yet agitated with 
 rage, rushed upon him at once with ve- 
 hement cries, snatched away the Bible, 
 from which he read those menacing 
 words, — and " raging like so many mad 
 dogs," says the chronicler, " because they 
 could not wreak their fury on the doc- 
 trine, carried the book to their convent, 
 and burnt it there. "f 
 
 The whole court of Lorraine resound- 
 ed with the obstinacy and presumption 
 of the minister of St. Hippolyte ; and the 
 prince, impelled by curiosity to hear the 
 heretic, resolved to be present at his 
 final examination, — secretly, however, 
 and concealed from the view of the 
 spectators. But as the interrogatory was 
 conducted in Latin, he could not under- 
 stand it; only he was struck with the 
 stedfast aspect of the minister, who 
 seemed to be neither vanquished nor 
 abashed. Indignant at this obstinacy, 
 Anthony the Good started from his seat, 
 and said as he retired, — "Why dispute 
 any longer 1 He denies the sacrament 
 of the mass ; let them proceed to execu- 
 
 * Actes des Martyrs, p. 95. 
 t Actes des Martyrs, recueillisparCrespin, en 
 fr. p. 97. 
 
THE FRENCH— 1500— 1526. 
 
 613 
 
 tion against him."* Schuch was imme- 
 diately condemned to be burnt alive. 
 When the sentence was communicated 
 to him, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, 
 and mildly made answer ; " I was glad 
 when they said unto me, Let us go into 
 the house of the Lord."f 
 
 On the 19th August, 1525, the whole 
 city of Nancy was in motion. The bells 
 gave notice of the death of a heretic. 
 The mournful procession set out. It must 
 pass before the convent of the Cordeliers, 
 and there the whole fraternity were ga- 
 thered in joyful expectation before the 
 door. As soon as Schuch made his ap- 
 pearance, Father Bonaventure, pointing 
 to the carved images over the convent 
 gateway, cried out, " Heretic, pay honour 
 to God, his mother, and the saints!" — 
 "O hypocrites !" replied Schuch, standing 
 erect before those pieces of wood and 
 stone, " God will destroy you, and bring 
 your deceits to light !" 
 
 When the martyr reached the place 
 of execution his books were first burnt in 
 his presence, and then he was called upon 
 to recant ; but he refused, saying, " Thou, 
 God, hast called me, and thou wilt 
 strengthen me to the end ;"| — and im- 
 mediately he began with a loud voice, to 
 repeat the 51st Psalm, "Have mercy 
 upon me, O God ! according to thy lov- 
 ing-kindness !" Having mounted the 
 pile, he continued to recite the psalm 
 until the smoke and flames stifled his 
 voice. 
 
 Thus did the persecutors in France 
 and Lorraine behold a renewal of their 
 triumphs, — their counsels had at length 
 been followed. At Nancy the ashes of 
 a heretic had been scattered to the winds : 
 this seemed a challenge addressed to the 
 capital of France. What! should Beda 
 and Lecoulurier be the last to show their 
 zeal for the Pope ? Rather let one bla- 
 zing pile serve as the signal for another, 
 and heresy, swept from the soil of France, 
 would soon be driven back beyond the 
 Rhine. 
 
 But Beda was not to pursue his success- 
 ful career, until a contest, half serious, half 
 
 * Histoire de Francois ler par Gaillard, iv. p. 
 233. 
 
 t Psalm cxxii. 1. 
 
 t Eum auctorem vocationis sua? atque conser- 
 vatorem ad extremum usque spiritum recognovit. 
 —(Acta Mart. p. 202.) 
 
 ludicrous, had taken place between him 
 and one of those men with whom the 
 struggle against Popery was only a capri- 
 cious effort of the intellect, not the solemn 
 engagement and willing duty of the heart. 
 Among the learned men whom Bri- 
 connet had allured to his diocese was a 
 doctor of the Sorbonne, named Peter Ca- 
 roli, a man of a vain and frivolous cast 
 of mind, and as quarrelsome and litigious 
 as Beda himself. Caroli viewed the new 
 doctrine as the means of making an im- 
 pression, and of thwarting Beda, whose 
 ascendancy he could not endure. Ac- 
 cordingly on his return from Meaux to 
 Paris he caused a great sensation, by in- 
 troducing into every pulpit what was 
 called " the new way of preaching." 
 Then began a pernicious strife between 
 the two doctors ; it was blow for blow 
 and trick for trick. Beda cites Caroli 
 before the Sorbonne, and Caroli sum- 
 mons him before the episcopal court to 
 answer for an infringement of privilege. 
 The Sorbonne proceeds with the enquiry, 
 and Caroli gives intimation of an appeal 
 to the Parliament. A provisional sen- 
 tence excludes him from the pulpit, and 
 still he goes on preaching in all the 
 churches of Paris. Being absolutely for- 
 bidden to preach in any pulpit, he takes 
 to publicly expounding the Psalms in the 
 college of Cambray. The Sorbonne pro- 
 hibits him from continuing that practice, 
 but he asks permission to conclude the 
 exposition of the 22d Psalm which he 
 has begun. Finally, on this petition be- 
 ing rejected, he posts the following pla- 
 card on the college-gates : — " Peter Ca- 
 roli, being desirous to obey the injunctions 
 of the sacred faculty, has ceased to teach ; 
 he will resume his lectures, whenever it 
 shall please God, at the verse where he 
 left off: ' They have pierced my hands 
 and my feet.' " Thus had Beda at 
 length found an opponent with whom he 
 was fairly matched. If Caroli had de- 
 fended the truth in right earnest, the 
 stake would have been his reward ; but 
 he was of too carnal a spirit to expose 
 himself to the risk of death. How could 
 capital punishment be inflicted on a man 
 who laughed his judges out of counte- 
 nance ? Neither the episcopal court, nor 
 the parliament, nor the council, could 
 ever proceed to a definitive judgment in 
 his cause. Two such men as Caroli 
 
614 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 would have wearied out the activity of 
 Beda himself; — but two like him the 
 Reformation did not produce.* 
 
 This troublesome contest concluded, 
 Beda applied himself to matters of more 
 serious concern. Happily for the syndic 
 of the Sorbonne, there were men who 
 gave persecution a better hold of them 
 than Caroli. Bric^onnet, indeed, and 
 Erasmus, and Lefevre, and Berquin had 
 escaped him ; but since he cannot reach 
 these distinguished personages, he will 
 content himself with meaner victims. 
 The poor youth, James Pavanne, ever 
 since his abjuration at Christmas, 1524, 
 had done nothing but weep and sigh. He 
 was constantly seen with a gloomy brow, 
 his eyes fixed on the ground, groan- 
 ing inwardly, and muttering reproaches 
 against himself for having denied his 
 Lord and Saviour, f 
 
 Pavanne undoubtedly was the most 
 retiring and the most inoffensive of men ; 
 — but what of that? — he had been at 
 Meaux, and this, in those days, was suf- 
 ficient. " Pavanne has relapsed !" was 
 the cry : " the dog has returned to his 
 vomit, and the swine that was washed to 
 his wallowing in the mire." He was 
 seized immediately, cast into prison, and 
 after a while brought before the judges. 
 This was all that young Pavanne de- 
 sired. He felt his mind relieved as soon 
 as the fetters were fastened on his limbs, 
 and recovered all his energy in the open 
 confession of Jesus Christ!! The perse- 
 cutors "smiled when they saw that this 
 time nothing could disappoint them of 
 their victim, — no recantation, — no flight, 
 — no intervention of a powerful protec- 
 tion. The meekness of the youth, his 
 candour, his courage, were altogether un- 
 availing to appease the malice of his ene- 
 mies. He, on the contrary, looked on 
 them with affection, — for by loading him 
 with chains, they had restored his peace 
 of mind and his joy, — but that benevo- 
 lent look of his only hardened their 
 hearts the more. The proceedings against 
 him were conducted with all despatch, 
 
 * Gerdesius, Historia saeculi xvi. renovati p. 
 52. D'Argentre, Collectio Judiciorum de novis 
 erroribus ii. p. 21. — Gaillard, Hist, de Francois I. 
 torn. iv. p. 233. 
 
 + Animi factum suum detestantis dolorem, 
 Esepe declaraverit. — (Acta Mart. p. 203.) 
 
 t Puram religionis Christianas confessionem 
 addit.— (Ibid. p. 203.) 
 
 and a very short time had elapsed before 
 a pile was erected in the Place de Greve, 
 on which Pavanne made a joyful end, — 
 strengthening by his example all who in 
 that great city had openly or secretly em- 
 braced the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 But this was not enough for the Sor- 
 bonne. If men of mean condition only 
 are to be sacrificed, their number at least 
 must make amends for their want of rank. 
 The flames in the Place de Greve have 
 struck terror into Paris and into the 
 Avhole of France ; but another pile, kin- 
 dled on some other spot, will redouble 
 that terror. It will be the subject of 
 conversation at the court, in the colleges, 
 in the workshop of the artisan ; and to- 
 kens like these, better than all the edicts 
 that can be issued, will prove that Louisa 
 of Savoy, the Sorbonne, and the Parlia- 
 ment, are determined to sacrifice the 
 very last heretic to the anathemas of 
 Rome. 
 
 In the forest of Livry, three leagues 
 distant from Paris, and not far from the 
 site of an ancient abbey of the order of 
 St. Augustin, lived a hermit, who, hav- 
 ing chanced in his wanderings to fall in 
 with some of the men of Meaux, had re- 
 ceived the truth of the Gospel into his 
 heart.* The poor hermit had felt himself 
 rich indeed that day in his solitary re- 
 treat, when, along with the scanty dole 
 of bread which public charity had afford- 
 ed him, he brought home Jesus Christ 
 and his grace. He understood from that 
 time how much better it is to give than 
 to receive. He went from cottage to 
 cottage in the villages around, and as 
 soon as he crossed the threshold, began 
 to speak to the poor peasants of the Gos- 
 pel, and the free pardon which it offers 
 to every burthen ed soul, — a pardon in- 
 finitely more precious than any priestly 
 absolution.! The good hermit of Livry 
 was soon widely known in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Paris ; many came to visit 
 him at his poor hermitage, and he dis- 
 charged the office of a kind and faithful 
 
 * Cette semence de Faber et de ses disciples, 
 prise au grenier de Luther, germa dans le sot es- 
 prit d'un ermite qui se tenait pies la ville de Paris. 
 — (Hist. Catholique de notre temps par S. Fon- 
 taine, Paris 1562.) 
 
 t Lequel par les villages qu'il frequentait, sous 
 couleur de faire ses quetes, tenait propos here- 
 tiques. — (Hist. Catholique de notre temps par S. 
 Fontaine, Paris, 1562.) 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526, 
 
 615 
 
 missionary to the simple-minded in all 
 the adjacent districts. 
 
 It was not long before intelligence of 
 what was doing by the new evangelist 
 reached the Sorbonne, and the magis- 
 trates of Paris. The hermit was seized, 
 — dragged from his hermitage — from his 
 forest — from the fields he had daily tra- 
 versed, — thrown into a dungeon in that 
 great city which he had always shun- 
 ned, — brought to judgment, — convicted, 
 — and sentenced to "the exemplary pun- 
 ishment of being burnt by a slow fire."* 
 
 In order to render the example the 
 more striking, it was determined that he 
 should be burnt in the close of Notre 
 Dame ; before that celebrated cathedral, 
 which typifies the majesty of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. The whole of the 
 cleroy were convened, and a degree of 
 pomp was displayed equal to that of the 
 most solemn festivals.! A desire was 
 shown to attract all Paris, if possible, to 
 the place of execution. " The great bell 
 of the church of Notre Dame swinging 
 heavily," says an historian, " to rouse the 
 people all over Paris." And accordingly 
 from every surrounding avenue, the peo- 
 ple came flocking to the spot. The deep- 
 toned reverberations of the bell made 
 the workman quit his task, the student 
 cast aside his books, the shopkeeper for- 
 sake his traffic, the soldier start from the 
 guard-room bench, — and already the 
 close was filled with a dense crowd, 
 which was continually increasing.^ The 
 hermit, attired in the robes appropriated 
 to obstinate heretics, bareheaded, and 
 with bare feet, was led out before the 
 doors of the cathedral. Tranquil, firm, 
 and collected, he replied to the exhorta- 
 tions of the confessors, who presented 
 him with the crucifix, only by declaring 
 that his hope rested solely on the mercy 
 of God. The doctors of the Sorbonne, 
 who stood in the front rank of the spec- 
 tators, observing his constancy, and the 
 effect it produced upon the people, cried 
 aloud — " He is a man foredoomed to the 
 fires of hell."§ The clang of the great 
 
 * Histoire catholique de notre temps, par Fon- 
 taine. 
 
 t Avec une grande ceremonie. — (Histoire des 
 Egl. Ref. par. Theod. de Beze, i. p. 4.) 
 
 t Histoire des Egl. Ref. par Theod. de Beze, 
 i. p. 4. 
 
 § Histoire des Egl. Ref. par. Theod. de Beze, 
 L p. 4. 
 
 bell, which all this while was rung with 
 a rolling stroke, while it stunned the 
 ears of the multitude, served to heighten 
 the solemnity of that mournful spectacle. 
 At length the bell was silent, — and the 
 martyr having answered the last inter- 
 rogatory of his adversaries by saying 
 that he was resolved to die in the faith 
 of his Lord Jesus Christ, underwent his 
 sentence of being ' : burnt by a slow fire." 
 And so, in the cathedral close of Notre 
 Dame, beneath the stately towers erected 
 by the piety of Louis the younger, amidst 
 the cries and tumultuous excitement of a 
 vast population, died peaceably, a man 
 whose name history has not deigned to 
 transmit to us, — " the hermit of Livry." 
 
 While men were thus engaged in 
 destroying the first confessors of Jesus 
 Christ in France, God was raising up 
 others gifted with ampler powers for his 
 service. A modest student — a humble 
 hermit — might be dragged to the stake, 
 and Beda might almost persuade him- 
 self that the doctrine they proclaimed 
 would perish with them. But Provi- 
 dence has resources which the world 
 knows not of. The Gospel, like the 
 fabled bird of antiquity, contains within 
 itself a principle of life which the flames 
 can never reach, and from the ashes in 
 which it seemed to lie extinguished, it 
 springs afresh, pure and vigorous as ever. 
 Often, when the storm is at its height, 
 when the fiery bolt of persecution ap- 
 pears to have laid the truth prostrate, 
 and enduring, impenetrable darkness to 
 have closed over it, — even at that mo- 
 ment there comes a gleam of light, and 
 announces a great deliverance at hand. 
 So, when all earthly powers were leagued 
 together in France to effect the ruin of, 
 the Reformation, God was preparing an 
 instrument, apparently feeble, to main- 
 tain His rights at a future day, and with 
 more than human intrepidity to defend 
 His cause. Averting our eyes from the 
 persecutions and cruelties which have 
 succeeded each other so rapidly since 
 Francis I. became the prisoner of 
 Charles, — let us turn them on a child 
 who shall hereafter be called forth to . 
 take his station as a leader of a mighty 
 host in the holy warfare of Israel. 
 
 Among the inhabitants of the city and 
 university of Paris who listened to the 
 sound of the great bell, was a young 
 
616 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 scholar of sixteen, a native of Noyon, in 
 Picardy, of middle stature,* and pale, and 
 somewhat dark complexion, whose pow- 
 erful and sagacious mind was indicated 
 by the keenness and peculiar brightness 
 of his eye, and the animated expression 
 of his countenance. His dress, which 
 was extremely neat, but perfectly unos- 
 tentatious, corresponded to the modesty 
 and decorum of his character.! This 
 young man, whose name was John 
 Cauvin or Calvin, was a student at the 
 college of La Marche, of which Mathu- 
 rin Cordier, a man celebrated for his in- 
 tegrity, learning, and peculiar skill in 
 the instruction of youth, was at that time 
 the regent. Educated in all the super- 
 stitions of Popery, the student of Noyon 
 was blindly submissive to the Church, 
 dutifully observant of all the practices 
 she enjoined,! an & m % persuaded that 
 heretics well deserved the flames to 
 which they were delivered. The blood 
 which was then flowing in Paris was, 
 in his eyes, an additional aggravation of 
 the crime of heresy. But, although by 
 natural disposition timid, and, to use his 
 own words, soft and pusillanimous,^ he 
 was endowed with that uprightness of 
 mind, and that generosity of heart which 
 induce men to sacrifice everything to the 
 convictions of their conscience. Vainly, 
 therefore, were those appalling spectacles 
 presented to him in his youth ; vain was 
 the example of the murderous flames 
 kindled in the Place de Greve and in 
 the close of Notre Dame, for the destruc- 
 tion of the faithful followers of the Gos- 
 pel. The remembrance of such horrors 
 could not, afterwards, deter him from 
 entering On that " new way : ' which 
 seemed to lead only to the dungeon and 
 the scaffold. In other respects the char- 
 acter of the youthful Calvin afforded in- 
 dications of what he was hereafter to be- 
 come. The austerity of his morals was 
 the precursor of equal austerity in his 
 
 * Statura fuit mediocri, colore sub pallido et 
 nigricante, oculis ad mortem usque limpidis, qui- 
 que ingenii sagacitatem testarentur. — (Bezre Vi- 
 ta Calvini.) 
 
 ( t Cultu corporis neque culto neque sordido sed 
 qui singularem modestiam deceret. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Primo quidem quum superstitionibus Papatus 
 magis pertinaciter addictus essem. — (Calv. Prajf. 
 ad Psalm.) 
 
 § Ego qui natura timido, molli et pusillo animo 
 me esse fateor. — (Ibid.) 
 
 doctrine, and the scholar of sixteen al- 
 ready gave promise of a man who would 
 take up in earnest all that should be im- 
 parted to him, and would rigidly exact 
 from others what, in his own case, he 
 felt it so much a matter of course to per- 
 form. Silent and grave while attending 
 on the college lectures, taking no pleas- 
 ure in the sports and idle frolics which 
 others pursued during the hours of recre- 
 ation ; — shrinking in disgust from all 
 participation in vice,* he sometimes cen- 
 sured the disorders of his fellow-pupils 
 with severity — with a measure, even, of 
 acrimony. f Accordingly, a canon of 
 Noyon assures us that his companions 
 had surnamed him the " acc%sativeP% 
 He stood among them as the represen- 
 tative of conscience and duty, — so far 
 was he from being in reality what some 
 calumniators endeavoured to make him. 
 The pale aspect, the piercing eye of a 
 student of sixteen already inspired his 
 associates with more respect than the 
 black gowns of their masters ; and this 
 boy from Picardy, low in stature, and 
 timid in demeanour, who came day by 
 day to take his seat on the benches of 
 the college of La Marche, was, even 
 then, by the seriousness of his conversa- 
 tion and sobriety of his life, unconscious- 
 ly discharging the office of a minister 
 and a Reformer. 
 
 Nor was it in these particulars alone 
 that the stripling of Noyon evinced his 
 superiority to his compeers. His extreme 
 timidity sometimes restrained him from 
 manifesting the antipathy he felt to vani- 
 ty and to vice ; but in his studies he was 
 already exerting all the force of his ge- 
 nius, and all the intensity of his will, — 
 and any one who observed him, might 
 have predicted that his life would be con- 
 sumed in labour. The facility of his 
 comprehension was wonderful, — while 
 his class-fellows were advancing by pain- 
 ful steps, he was bounding lightly over 
 the course, — and the knowledge which 
 others were long in acquiring superfi- 
 cially, was instantaneously seized by his 
 youthful genius, and permanently im- 
 
 * Summam in moribus affectabat gravitatem 
 et paucorum hominum consuetudine utebatur. — 
 (Roemundi Hist. Uteres, vii. 10.) 
 
 t Severus omnium in suis sodalibus censor. — 
 (Beza; Vita. Calv.) 
 
 t Annales de l'Eglise de Noyon par Levas- 
 I seur, Chanoine, p. 1158. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 617 
 
 pressed on his memory. His masters, 
 therefore, were obliged to withdraw him 
 from the ranks, and introduce him singly 
 to the higher branches of learning.* 
 
 Among his fellow-students were the 
 young men of the family of Mommor, a 
 house reckoned among the first nobility 
 of Picardy. John Calvin was intimately 
 connected with these young noblemen, 
 especially with Claude, who at a later 
 period was abbot of St. Eloi, and to whom 
 he dedicated his Commentary on Seneca. 
 It was in their company that he had 
 come to Paris. His father, Gerard Cal- 
 vin, notary apostolic, and procurator-fis- 
 cal of the county of Noyon, secretary of 
 the diocese, and proctor of the chapter,! 
 was a man of judgment and ability, 
 whose talents had raised him to offices 
 which were sought after by the best fami- 
 lies ; and all the noblesse of the province, 
 but particularly the illustrious family of 
 Mommor, entertained the highest esteem 
 for him.| Gerard, who resided at No- 
 yon.§ had married a young woman from 
 Cambray, named Jane Lefrank, remark- 
 able for her beauty, and worthy of es- 
 teem for her humble piety, by whom he 
 had already had a son called Charles, 
 when on the 10th of July, 1509, she gave 
 birth to a second son, who received the 
 name of John, and was baptized in the 
 church of St. Godebert.[| A third son, 
 
 * Exculto ipsius ingenio quod ei jam turn erat 
 acerrimum,«ita profecit ut ceteris sodalibus in 
 grammatices curriculo relictis ad dialecticos et 
 aliarum quas vocant artium studium promovere- 
 tur. — (Beza.) 
 
 t Levasseur, docteur de la Sorbonne, annales 
 de 1'Eglise Cathedrale de Noyon, p. 1151. Dre- 
 lincourt, Defense de Calvin, p. 193. 
 
 I Erat is Gerardus non parvi judicii et consilii 
 homo, ideoque nobilibus ejus regionis plerisque 
 cams. — (Beza.) 
 
 § " On the spot where now stands a house, 
 distinguished by the sign of the Stag." — (Desmay, 
 Doct. de la Sorbonne. Vit. de Jean Calvin, he- 
 resiarque, p. 30. Levasseur, Ann. de Noyon, p. 
 1157.) 
 
 || The calumnious and extravagant tales which 
 have been circulated in regard to the person of 
 Calvin, may be traced to a very early origin. J. 
 Levasseur, who was afterwards dean of the chap- 
 ter of Noyon, relates that when his mother brought 
 him into the world, the birth of the child was pre- 
 ceded by the preternatural appearance of a swarm 
 of large flies, — " a sure presage that he would be 
 an evil speaker and slanderer." — (Annales de la 
 Cathedrale de Noyon, p. 115.) These absurd- 
 ities and others of the same stamp, which have 
 been invented to the prejudice of the Reformer, 
 78 
 
 named Anthony, who died young, and 
 two daughters, made up the entire fami- 
 ly of the procurator-fiscal of Noyon. 
 
 Gerard Calvin, living in habits of fa- 
 miliar intercourse with the ecclesiastical 
 dignitaries and chief men of the prov- 
 ince, was desirous that his children 
 should receive the same education as 
 those of the highest rank. John, in 
 whom he had perceived an early devel- 
 opment of talent, was brought up with 
 the children of the family of Mommor : 
 he lived in the house as one of them- 
 selves, and shared in the lessons of the 
 young Claude. The effect of early dis- 
 cipline and culture in such a family was 
 to impart to his intellectual character a 
 degree of refinement which otherwise it 
 could scarcely have acquired.* He was 
 afterwards sent to the college of Capettes, 
 an establishment within the city of No- 
 yon4 The child had but few recreations. 
 That severity, which was one feature in 
 the character of the son, found a place 
 likewise in the temperament of the father. 
 Gerard brought him up rigidly, — from 
 his earliest years he was obliged to bend 
 to the inflexible rule of duty, — which 
 after a little while became habitual to 
 him, — and thus the influence of the fa- 
 ther counteracted that of the family of 
 Mommor. Timid by nature, — with some- 
 thing, as he tells us himself, of rustic 
 bashfulness in his disposition,^ — and ren- 
 dered still more diffident by his father's 
 severity, John would often escape from 
 the splendid mansion of his protectors, to 
 bury himself in solitude and obscurity.^ 
 In hours of seclusion like this, his youth- 
 ful spirit grew familiar with lofty con- 
 ceptions. It appears that he sometimes 
 went to the neighbouring village of Pont 
 PEveque, where his grandfather inhab- 
 
 may be safely left to refute themselves without 
 any effort on our part. In our own day. those 
 among the Romish doctors who are not ashamed 
 to employ the weapons of calumny, make a se- 
 lection of these coarse ana ridiculous stories, not 
 daring to repeat them all ; yet they are all of 
 equal value. 
 
 * Domi vestree puer educatus, iisdem tecum 
 studiis initiatus primam vita? et literarum disci- 
 plinam familis vestne noblissimae acceptam re- 
 fero. — (Calv. Proef. in Senecam ad Claudium.) 
 
 t Desmay. Remarques, p. 31. — (Drelincourt, 
 Defense, p. 158.) 
 
 t Ego qui naturasubrusticus.-(Praef. ad Psalm.) 
 
 § Umbram et otium semper amavi . . . late- 
 Bras catare. — (Praef. ad Psalm.) 
 
618 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ited a cottage,* and where other relatives 
 also, who at a later period changed their 
 name through hatred of the heresiarch, 
 then offered a kindly welcome to the son 
 of the procurator-fiscal. But it was to 
 study, chiefly, that young Calvin devoted 
 his days. While Luther, who was to 
 act upon the mass of the people, was 
 brought up at first as a peasant's son, 
 Calvin, ordained to act chiefly as a theo- 
 logian and a reasoner, and to become the 
 legislator of the renovated Church, re- 
 ceived, even in his childhood, a more 
 liberal education.! 
 
 A spirit of piety evinced itself betimes 
 in the child's heart. One of his biog- 
 raphers tells us that he was taught, while 
 yet young, to pray in the open air, under 
 the vault of heaven. — a practice which 
 helped to awaken within his soul the sen- 
 timent of an omnipresent Deity. \ But 
 although Calvin may, even in his ear- 
 liest years, have heard the voice of God 
 addressed to his heart, no one in the city 
 of Noyon was more exact than he in the 
 observance of every rule established by 
 the Church. Gerard, therefore, remark- 
 ing the bent of his mind, conceived the 
 design of devoting his son to theology. § 
 The knowledge of his destination con- 
 tributed undoubtedly to impress upon his 
 mind that serious and theological cast by 
 which it was afterwards distinguished. 
 His intellect was formed by nature to 
 take a decided bias from the first, and to 
 nourish the most elevated thoughts at an 
 early age. The report that he was a 
 chorister boy at this lime is admitted by 
 his adversaries themselves to be destitute 
 of foundation ; but they confidently af- 
 firm that while yet a child, he was seen 
 in religious processions carrying, instead 
 of a cross, a sword with a cross-shaped 
 hilt || " A presage," they add, " of what 
 he was one day to become." " The 
 Lord has made my mouth like a sharp 
 
 * " It is reported that his grandfather was a 
 cooper." — (Drelincourt, p. 36. Levasseur ann. 
 de Noyon, p. 1151.) 
 
 t Henry, das Leben Calvins, p. 29. 
 
 t Calvin's Leben von Fischer, Leipzig, 1794. 
 The. author does not quote the authority on which 
 he relates this fact. 
 
 § Destinarat autem eum pater ab initio theo- 
 logiee studiis, quod in ilia etiam tenera state mi- 
 rum in modum religiosus esset. — (Bezos, Vita 
 Calv.) 
 
 || Levasseur, ann. de Noyon, pp. 1159, 1173. 
 
 sword," says the servant of the Lord, in 
 Isaiah. The same may be said of Cal- 
 vin. 
 
 Gerard was poor : the education of his 
 son was burthensome to him, and he 
 wished to attach him irrevocably to the 
 church. The Cardinal of Lorraine had 
 been appointed coadjutor to the Bishop 
 of Metz, when only four years old. It 
 was then a common practice to bestow 
 ecclesiastical titles and revenues upon 
 children. Alphonso of Portugal was 
 created a cardinal by Leo the Tenth, at 
 the age of eight: Odet de Chatillon re- 
 ceived the same dignity from Clement 
 the Seventh at the age of eleven ; and, at 
 a later period, the celebrated Mother An- 
 gelica, of Port Royal, was made coadju- 
 trix of that convent at the age of seven. 
 Gerard, who died a faithful Catholic, was 
 regarded with favour by Charles de 
 Hangest, bishop of Noyon, and his vicars- 
 general. Accordingly, the chaplaincy 
 of La Gesine having become vacant by 
 the resignation of the incumbent, the 
 bishop, on the 15th May, 1521, bestowed 
 that benefice on John Calvin, whose age 
 was then nearly twelve. He was in- 
 ducted by the chapter a week after. On 
 the eve of Corpus Christi, the bishop 
 solemnly cut the child's hair ;* and by 
 this ceremony of tonsure John was in- 
 vested with the clerical character, and be- 
 came capable of entering into sacred or- 
 ders, and holding- a benefice without re- 
 siding on the spot. 
 
 Thus was it ordered that Calvin, in 
 his childhood, should have personal ex- 
 perience of the abuses of the Church of 
 Rome. There was not a tonsured head 
 in the kingdom more sincerely pious 
 than the chaplain of La Gesine, and the 
 thoughtful child was himself perhaps a 
 little astonished at the operation per- 
 formed by the bishop and his vicars- 
 general. But in the simplicity of his 
 heart, he revered those exalted persona- 
 ges too highly to harbour the least sus- 
 picion, regarding the lawfulness of his 
 tonsure. He had enjoyed the distinction 
 about two years, when Noyon was visit- 
 ed with a terrible pestilence. Several of 
 the canons petitioned the chapter that 
 they might be allowed to quit the city. 
 Already many of the inhabitants had 
 
 * Vie de Calvin par Desmay, p. 31 ; Levas- 
 seur, p. 1158. ' 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 152G. 
 
 019 
 
 been struck by the " great death ;" and 
 Gerard began to reflect with alarm that 
 his son John, the hope of his age, might, 
 in a moment, be snatched from his ten- 
 derness by this scourge of God. The 
 children of the Mommor family were go- 
 ing to Paris to continue their studies. 
 This was the very opportunity that the 
 procurator-fiscal had always desired for 
 his son. Why should he separate John 
 from his fellow-pupils 1 On the 5th Au- 
 gust, 1523, therefore, he presented to the 
 chapter a petition that the young chap- 
 lain might have "liberty to go whither- 
 soever he would, during the continuance 
 of the plague, without losing his allow- 
 ances ; which was granted accordingly, 
 until the feast of St. Remigius."* Thus 
 it was that John Calvin, at the age of 
 fourteen, quitted his paternal home. Cal- 
 umny must be intrepid indeed, to attrib- 
 ute his departure to other causes, and, 
 in sheer wantonness, provoke that dis- 
 grace which justly recoils on all who 
 give currency to evil reports, after their 
 falsehood has been demonstrated. It 
 would appear, that on his arrival in Pa- 
 ris, Calvin was received into the house 
 of one of his uncles, Richard Cauvin, 
 who lived near the church of St. Ger- 
 main PAuxerrois. " And so, while fly- 
 ing from the plague," says the canon of 
 Noyon, " he encountered a more fatal 
 pestilence." 
 
 A new world opened itself to the 
 young man in this metropolis of litera- 
 ture. He determined to profit by his for- 
 tune, applied himself to study, and made 
 great progress in latinity. He became 
 intimately acquainted with the writings 
 of Cicero, and learned from that great 
 master to employ the language of the 
 Romans with an ease, a purity, an idio- 
 matic grace which excited the admiration 
 of his enemies themselves. But he also 
 discovered in that language a store of 
 wealth which he was afterwards to trans- 
 fer into his own. 
 
 Hitherto the Latin had been the sole 
 
 * The particulars here given rest on the testi- 
 mony of the priest, and vicar-general Desmay, 
 (Jean Calvin, heresiarqiie, p. 32,) and the can- 
 on Levasseur, (Ann. de Noyon, p. 1160,) who 
 found them, as they assure us, in the registers of 
 the chapter of Noyon. These Romish authors, 
 therefore, refute the inventions or inistkes of 
 Richelieu and other writers. — See the preface. 
 
 language of literature. It was, and even 
 to our own days it has continued, the 
 language of the Romish Church. The 
 modern tongues of Europe were created, 
 — at least they were emancipated, — by 
 the Reformation. The exclusive agency 
 of the priests was now at an end ; the 
 people were called upon to learn and to 
 know for themselves. In this single fact 
 was involved the abrogation of the lan- 
 guage of the priests — the inauguration 
 of the language of the people. It is not 
 to the Sor bonne alone, — it is not to a few 
 monks, a few divines, a few men of let- 
 ters, that the new doctrine is to be ad- 
 dressed ; it is to the noble, to the burgh- 
 er, to the artisan, — all men now are to 
 be preached to: nay, more, — all men 
 now are to become preachers ; wool- 
 combers and knights no less than curates 
 and doctors. A new language, there- 
 fore, is wanted, or, at any rate, the ordi- 
 nary language of the people must under- 
 go a mighty transformation, — must expe- 
 rience a happy deliverance from its 
 shackles : drawn from the common uses 
 of life, it must be indebted to a renovated 
 Christianity for its patent of nobility. 
 The Gospel, so long laid to sleep, is now- 
 awake again : it appeals to the nation at 
 large ; it kindles the most generous affec- 
 tions of the soul ; it opens the treasures 
 of heaven to a generation whose thoughts 
 were all confined within the petty circle 
 of the world below ; it agitates the 
 masses ; it speaks to them of God, of 
 man, of good and evil, of the Pope, of 
 the Bible, of a crown in heaven, — it 
 may be, also, of a scaffold upon earth. 
 The popular idiom, which hitherto had 
 been employed only by the chronicler 
 and the minstrel, was summoned, by the 
 Reformation, to act a new part, and con- 
 sequently to receive a new development. 
 Society finds a new world rising up 
 around it ; and for this new world there 
 must needs be new languages. The Ref- 
 ormation freed the French language 
 from the swaddling bands in which it had 
 hitherto been confined, and rearqd it to a 
 speedy and vigorous maturity. Since 
 then, that language has had full posses- 
 sion of all the exalted privileges that be- 
 long to a dialect conversant with the 
 operations of mind and the great con- 
 cerns of heaven, — privileges which, un- 
 der the tutelage of Rome, it had never 
 
620 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 enjoyed. True it is that the people form 
 their own language ; they, and they 
 alone, invent those happy words, — those 
 figurative and energetic phrases, which 
 give colouring and animation to human 
 speech. But there are latent powers in 
 language which they know not how to 
 elicit, and which men of cultivated intel- 
 lect can alone call into action. When 
 the time arrived for Calvin to engage in 
 discussion and controversy, he was forced, 
 by the exigency of the case, to enrich his 
 native tongue with modes of expression 
 hitherto unknown to it, — indicating the 
 dependence, the connection, the minute 
 diversity of ideas, the transition from one 
 to another, and the various steps in the 
 process of logical deductions. 
 
 The elements of all this were already 
 working in the brain of the young stu- 
 dent of the college of La Marche. This 
 child, who was to exert so powerful a 
 mastery over the human heart, was des- 
 tined to exhibit equal power in bending 
 and moulding to his will the idiom which 
 was to serve as his instrument. The 
 French of Calvin eventually became the 
 language of Protestant France, and when 
 we speak of Protestant France, we speak 
 of the most cultivated portion of the 
 French nation ; since out of that portion 
 arose those families of scholars and dig- 
 nified magistrates, who contributed so 
 much to the refinement of the national 
 character — out of that portion arose also 
 the society of Port Royal,* one of the 
 great agents by which the prose and even 
 the poetry of France have been modelled, 
 — a society which aimed at introducing 
 into the Catholicism of the Gallican 
 Church both the doctrine and the lan- 
 guage of the Reformation, and failing in 
 one of these objects, succeeded in the 
 other ; for who can deny that Roman 
 Catholic France had to learn from her 
 antagonists among the Jansenists and 
 Reformers how to handle those weapons 
 of style, without which it would have 
 been impossible for her to maintain her 
 ground against them?f 
 
 * M. A. Arnauld, the grandfather of Mother 
 Angelica, and of all the Arnaulds of Port Royal, 
 was a Protestant, — see " Port Royal, par M. 
 Sainte-Beuve." 
 
 t Etudes Liter, sur Calvin, par M. A. Sayers, 
 Geneve, 1839, art. iv. This work has been fol- 
 lowed by similar enquiries regarding Farel, Viret, 
 and Beza. 
 
 In the mean time, while the future Re- 
 former of religion and of language, was 
 ripening in the college of La Marche, all 
 was in commotion around that young 
 and thoughtful scholar, without his being 
 at all affected by the mighty movement 
 which agitated society. The flames that 
 consumed the hermit and Pavanne, shed 
 dismay over Paris. But the persecutors 
 were not satisfied ; a system of terror was 
 set on foot throughout the whole of 
 France. The friends of the Reformation 
 no longer dared to correspond with each 
 other, lest their letters should be inter- 
 cepted, and so betray to the vengeance 
 of the tribunals, not only those who had 
 written them, but those also to whom 
 they were addressed.* One man, how- 
 ever, was bold enough to undertake the 
 office of conveying intelligence of what 
 was passing in Paris and in France, to 
 the refugees at Basle, — by means of an 
 unsigned letter sewed up in his doublet. 
 He escaped the scattered parties of arque- 
 busiers, — the marechaussee of the differ- 
 ent districts, — the strict examinations of 
 the provosts and their lieutenants, — and 
 arrived at Basle with the doublet on his 
 back and its hidden deposit untouched. 
 The tidings of which he was the bearer, 
 struck terror into the hearts of Toussaint 
 and his friends. — "It is piteous to hear 
 of the cruelties they are committing yon- 
 der !"f — exclaims Toussaint. A little be- 
 fore this, two Franciscan friars had ar- 
 rived at Basle closely pursued by the offi- 
 cers of justice. One of these friars, named 
 John Prevost, had preached at Meaux, 
 and had afterwards been thrown into 
 prison in Paris.! — The accounts they 
 brought from the capital, as well as from 
 Lyons, through which city they had 
 passed on their way, excited the deepest 
 compassion in the minds of the refugees : 
 " May our Lord visit them with his 
 grace I" said Toussaint, writing to Farel ; 
 — " believe me when I tell you that at 
 times I am in great anxiety and tribula- 
 tion." 
 
 These excellent men did not lose heart, 
 however. In vain were all the Parlia- 
 ments on the watch ; in vain did the spies 
 
 * " Not a person dares to write to me." — (Tous- 
 saint to Farel, 4th Sept. 1525. MS. of Neuf- 
 chatel.) 
 
 t Toussaint to Farel, 4th Sept. 1525. 
 ,t Ibid. 21st July, 1525. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 621 
 
 of the Sorbonne and the monks creep 
 into churches and colleges, and even into 
 private families, to catch up any word of 
 Evangelic doctrine that might be drop- 
 ped there ; in vain did the king's gens 
 d' amies patrol the highways to intercept 
 everything that seemed to bear the im- 
 press of the Reformation ; — these French- 
 men, thus hunted and trodden on by 
 Rome and her myrmidons, had faith in 
 better days to come ; and even now, the 
 termination of what they called the Bab- 
 ylonish captivity was greeted by them 
 afar. " At length," said they, " the seven- 
 tieth year will arrive — the year of deliv- 
 erance, and liberty of spirit and con- 
 science will be ours."* But the seventy 
 years were to be extended to nearly three 
 centuries, and unheard-of calamities were 
 to be endured before these hopes should 
 be realized. It was not in man, how- 
 ever, that the refugees put their trust. 
 " They who have begun the dance," said 
 Toussaint, ' : will not stop short in the 
 middle of it." But they believed that 
 the Lord " knew those whom he had 
 chosen, and would accomplish the deliv- 
 erance of His people by the hand of His 
 power."! 
 
 The Chevalier d'Esch had actually 
 tasted the mercy of deliverance. Being 
 dismissed from the prison of Pont-a-Mous- 
 son, he had hastened to Strasburg ; but 
 his stay there was short. For " the hon- 
 our of God," wrote Toussaint to Farel, 
 " immediately prevail on our worthy 
 master,^: the Chevalier, to return as quick- 
 ly as possible, for our other brethren have 
 need of such a leader." In fact, the 
 French refugees had now fresh cause of 
 alarm. They were apprehensive that 
 the dispute respecting the Lord's Supper, 
 which had afflicted them so grievously 
 in Germany, would find its way across 
 the Rhine, and prove the source of new 
 troubles in France. Francis Lambert, 
 the monk of Avignon, after visiting Zu- 
 rich and Wittemberg, had arrived at 
 Metz, where he was regarded with a 
 measure of distrust, for it was feared that 
 
 * Sane venit annus septuagesimus, et tempus 
 appetit ut tandem vindicemur in libertatem spir- 
 itus et conscientiae. — (Ibid.) 
 
 tSed novit Dominusqoos elegerit.-(Toussaint 
 to Fare!, 21 July. 1525.) 
 
 t " Si nos magistrum in terris habere deceat," 
 he adds.— (Tossanus Farello, MS. of Neufchatel.) 
 
 he might introduce the sentiments of Lu- 
 ther, and by fruitless, and, as Toussaint 
 calls them, " monstrous" controversies, 
 impede the progress of the Reformation.* 
 Esch, therefore, returned to Lorraine, to 
 be again exposed to great dangers, " in 
 common with all in that region who 
 were seeking the glory of Christ."f 
 
 But Toussaint was not the man who 
 would invite others to join the battle, 
 while he himself kept aloof from it. De- 
 prived of the comfort of daily intercourse 
 with (Ecolampadius, reduced to the so- 
 ciety of an ill-nurtured priest, he had 
 sought more communion with Christ, 
 and had gained an accession of courage. 
 If he could not return to Metz, might he 
 not at least go to Paris % True, — the 
 smoke that ascended from the piles on 
 which Pavanne and the hermit of Livry 
 had been sacrificed was scarcely yet 
 cleared away, and its dark shadow might 
 seem to repel from the capital all whose 
 faith bore any resemblance to theirs. But 
 if, as he had heard, the terror that pre- 
 vailed in the colleges of Paris and amidst 
 her streets was such, that none dared 
 even to name the Gospel or the Refor- 
 mation, — was not this a reason why he 
 should repair thither"? Toussaint quit- 
 ted Basle, and took up his abode within 
 those perilous walls, heretofore the seat 
 of revelry and licentious pleasure, now 
 the stronghold of fanaticism. His desire 
 was to pursue his studies in Christian 
 literature, and at the same time to form a 
 connection with the brethren who were 
 in the colleges, particularly with those 
 who were in the college of Cardinal Le- 
 moine, where Lefevre and Farel had 
 taught.^ But he was not long left at 
 liberty to prosecute his design. The tyr- 
 anny of the parliamentary commissaries 
 and the doctors of the Sorbonne now 
 reigned supreme over the capital, and 
 whosoever was obnoxious to these was 
 sure to be accused of heresy. § A duke 
 and an abbot, whose names are not upon 
 
 * Vereor ne aliquid monstri alat. — (Ibid. 27 
 Sept. 1525.) 
 
 t Audio etiam equitem periclitari, simul et 
 omncs qui illic Christi gloriae favent. — (Ibid. 27 
 Dec. 1525.) 
 
 \ Fratres qui in collegio Cardinalis Monachi 
 sunt te salutant. — (Tossanus Farello, MS. of 
 Neufchatel.) 
 
 § Regnante hie tyrannide commissariorum et 
 theologorum. — (Ibid.) 
 
622 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 record, denounced Toussaint as a here- 
 tic ; and, one day, the king's sergeants 
 arrested the young Lorrainer, and threw 
 him into prison. Separated from all his 
 friends, and treated as a criminal, Tous- 
 saint felt his helplessness more as a sin- 
 ner than a captive. " O Lord !" cried he, 
 " withdraw not thy Spirit from me, for 
 without that Holy Spirit I am altogether 
 carnal, and a sink of iniquity." While 
 his body was held in chains, his heart 
 turned for solace to the remembrance of 
 those who were still at large to struggle 
 •for the Gospel. There was (Ecolampa- 
 dius, his father, "whose work," says he, 
 " we are in the Lord."* There was Le- 
 fevre, whom (obviously on account of his 
 age,) he deemed " unmeet to bear the 
 burthen of the Gospel ;"f there was Rous- 
 sel, "by whom he trusted that the Lord 
 would do great things ;"| and Vaugris, 
 who had manifested all the zeal " of the 
 most affectionate brother," in his efforts 
 to rescue him from the power of his ene- 
 mies. § There was Farel also, to whom 
 he wrote — " I entreat your prayers on 
 my behalf, that I may not faint in this 
 conflict."|j How effectual must he have 
 found the repetition of those beloved 
 names in awakening thoughts which 
 mitigated the bitterness of his captivity 
 — for he showed no signs of fainting. 
 Death, it is true, seemed to be impending 
 over his head, in a city where the' blood 
 of multitudes of his brethren was after- 
 wards to be poured out like water ;1" and, 
 on the other hand, offers of the most lav- 
 ish kind were made by the friends of his 
 mother, and of his uncle the dean of 
 Metz, as well as by the Cardinal of Lor- 
 raine, to induce him to recant.** But his 
 reply to such offers was — " I despise 
 them all. I know that God is now put- 
 
 * Pat rem nostrum cujus nos opus sumus in 
 Domino. — (Ibid.) This letter is without a date, 
 but it appears to have been written shortly after 
 the liberation of Toussaint, and it shows the 
 thoughts which occupied him at that period 
 
 t Faber est impar oneri evangelico ferendo. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 I Per Rufum magna operabitur Dominus. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 § Fidelissimi fratris officio functum. — (Tossa- 
 nus Farello, MS. of Neufchatel.) 
 
 || Commendo me vestris precibus, ne succum- 
 bam in hac militia. — (Ibid.) 
 
 IT Me periclitari de vita. — (Ibid.) 
 
 ** Offerebantur hie mihi conditiones amplis- 
 simae. — (Ibid.) 
 
 ting me to the trial. I would rather en- 
 dure hunger — I would rather be a very 
 abject in the house of the Lord, than 
 dwell with great riches in the palaces of 
 the ungodly."* At the same time he 
 made a clear and open confession of his 
 faith:. "I glory," he said, "in being 
 called a heretic by those whose lives and 
 doctrine I see to be directly opposite to 
 those of Christ." f And the young man 
 subscribed himself, " Peter Toussaint, 
 unworthy of his name of Christian." 
 
 Thus, in the absence of the monarch, 
 new attacks were levelled against the 
 Reformation. Berquin, Toussaint, and 
 many others were in bonds : Schuch, Pa- 
 vanne, and the hermit of Livry had been 
 put to death ; Farel, Lefevre, Roussel, 
 and many other defenders of sound doc- 
 trine were in exile ; and the tongues of 
 the most eloquent were chained. The 
 light of the Gospel waxed dim ; the storm 
 roared around, bending, and shaking as 
 if it would uproot that tree which the 
 hand of God had so recently planted on 
 the French soil. 
 
 To those humbler victims who had 
 already fallen, others of more note were 
 now to succeed. The enemy, failing in 
 their efforts when directed against per- 
 sons of distinction, had submitted to work 
 from beneath upwards ; hoping gradual- 
 ly to bring to bear on the more eminent 
 in station the sentence of condemnation 
 and death. It was a sort of counter- 
 march which answered the purpose they 
 had in view. Scarcely had the wind 
 scattered the ashes with which persecu- 
 tion strewed the Place de Greve and the 
 close of Notre Dame, when further blows 
 were struck. The excellent Messire An- 
 thony Du Blet, the " negociateur" of Ly- 
 ons, sunk under the persecutions of the 
 enemies of the truth ; as did also another 
 disciple, Francis Moulin. No detailed 
 account of their deaths has come down 
 to us.| Not stopping there, the persecu- 
 tors proceeded to take a higher aim. One 
 
 * Malo esurire et abjectus esse in domo Dom- 
 ini.— (Ibid.) 
 
 t Hac, hffic gloria mea quod habeor hsreti- 
 cus ab his quorum vitam et doctrinam video pug- 
 nare cum Christo. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Periit Franciscus Molinus ac Dubletus. — 
 (Erasm. Epp. p. 1109.) — Erasmus, in his letter 
 addressed to Francis I., in July, 1526, names all 
 those who, during the captivity of that prince, 
 fell victims to the Romish fanatics. 
 
THE FRENCH.— 1500— 1526. 
 
 623 
 
 there was whose eminent rank placed 
 her beyond their reach — but who might 
 yet be stricken in the persons of those 
 dear to her. — This was the Duchess of 
 Alencon. Michel d'Arende, her chap- 
 lain, — for the sake of whom Margaret 
 had dismissed her other preachers, and 
 who was accustomed in her presence to 
 publish a pure Gospel, — was singled out 
 for attack, and threatened with imprison- 
 ment and death.* About the same time 
 Anthony Papillon, for whom the prin- 
 cess had obtained the office of Chief 
 Master of Requests to the Dauphin, died 
 suddenly, and a report, generally preva- 
 lent even among the enemies, ascribed 
 his death to poison, t 
 
 The persecution was spreading through 
 the kingdom, and drawing nearer to the 
 person of Margaret. The isolated cham- 
 pions of truth were, one after another, 
 stretched upon the field. A few more 
 such victories, and the soil of France 
 would be purged -from heresy. Under- 
 hand contrivances and secret practices 
 took the place of clamour and the stake. 
 The war was conducted in open day ; 
 but it was decided that it should also be 
 carried on darkly and in secrecy. If, in 
 dealing with the common people, fanati- 
 cism employs the tribunal and the scaf- 
 fold, it has in reserve poison and the 
 dagger for those of more note. The 
 doctors of a celebrated school are but too 
 well known for having patronized the 
 use of such means ; and kings them- 
 selves have fallen victims to the steel of 
 the assassins. But if France has had in 
 every age its Seides, it has also had its 
 Vincents de Paul and its Fenelons. 
 Strokes falling in darkness and silence 
 were well fitted to spread terror on all 
 sides ; and to this perfidious policy and 
 these fanatical persecutions, in the interior 
 of the kingdom, were now added the fatal 
 reverses experienced beyond the frontier. 
 A dark cloud was spread over the whole 
 nation. Not a family, especially among 
 the higher classes, but was either mourn- 
 ing for a father, a husband, or a son, 
 who had fallen on the plains of Italy,! 
 or trembling for the liberty or life of one 
 
 * Pericfitatus est Michael Arantius. — (Ibid.) 
 t " Periit Papilio non sine gravi suspicione ve- 
 
 neni," says Erasmus. — (Ibid.) 
 
 X Gaillard Histoire de Francois ler torn. 2, p. 
 
 255. 
 
 of its members. The signal misfortunes 
 which had burst upon the nation diffused 
 everywhere a leaven of hatred against 
 the heretics. The people, the parlia- 
 ment, the Church, and even the throne, 
 were joined hand in hand. 
 
 Was there not enough -to bow the 
 heart of Margaret in the defeat at Pavia, 
 the death of her husband, and the cap- 
 tivity of her brother? Was she. doomed 
 to witness the final extinction of that soft 
 light of the Gospel in which her heart 
 had found such joy? News arrived 
 from Spain which added to the general 
 distress. Mortification and sickness had 
 reduced the haughty Francis to the brink 
 of the grave. If the king should con- 
 tinue a captive, or die, and the regency 
 of his mother be protracted for some 
 years, there was apparently an end of 
 all prospect of a Reformation. " But 
 when all seems lost," observed, at a later 
 period, the young scholar of Noyoa, 
 " God interposes to deliver and guard 
 His Church in His own wondrous 
 way."* The Church of France, which 
 was as if travailing in birth, was to have 
 a brief interval of ease before its pains 
 returned upon it ; and God made use of 
 a weak woman, — one who never openly 
 declared for the Gospel, — in order to give 
 to the Church this season of rest. Mar- 
 garet herself, at this time, thought more 
 of saving the king and the kingdom, 
 than of delivering the comparatively un- 
 known Christians, who were yet resting 
 many hopes upon her interference. f But 
 under the dazzling surface of human af- 
 fairs, God often hides the mysterious 
 ways in which He rules His people 
 A generous project was suggested to the 
 mind of the Duchess of Alencon ; it was, 
 to cross the sea, or traverse the Pyrenees, 
 and rescue Francis I. from the power 
 of Charles V. Such was the object to 
 which her thoughts were henceforth di- 
 rected. 
 
 Margaret announced her intention, 
 and France hailed it with grateful ac- 
 clamation. Her genius, her great repu- 
 tation, and the attachment existing be- 
 tween herself and her brother, helped 
 
 * Nam habet Deus modum, quo electos suos 
 mirabiliter custodiat, ubi omnia perdita videntur. 
 — (Calvinus in Ep. ad Rom. xi. 2.) 
 
 t . . . . Beneficio illustrissimce Ducus Alan- 
 conice. — (Toussaint & Farel.) 
 
624 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 much to counterbalance, in the eyes of 
 Louisa and of Duprat. her partiality for 
 the new doctrines. All eyes were turned 
 upon her, as the only person capable of 
 extricating the nation from its perilous 
 position. Let Margaret in person make 
 an appeal to the powerful emperor and 
 his ministers, and employ the admirable 
 genius with which she was gifted, in 
 the effort to give liberty to her brother 
 and her king. 
 
 Yet very various feelings existed 
 among the nobility and the people in 
 the prospect of the Duchess trusting her- 
 self in the centre of the enemies' coun- 
 cils, and among the stern soldiery of the 
 Catholic king. All admired, but with- 
 out sharing in her confidence and devo- 
 tedness: her friends had fears for her, 
 which, in the result, were but too near 
 being realized : but the evangelical par- 
 ty were full of hope. The king's cap- 
 tivity had been to them the occasion of 
 hitherto unprecedented severities — his 
 restoration to liberty they expected would 
 put a period to those rigours. Let the 
 king once find himself beyond the Span- 
 ish frontier, — and the gates of those pris- 
 on-houses and castles, wherein the serv- 
 ants of God's word were immured, would 
 instantly be set open. Margaret was 
 more and more confirmed in a project to 
 which she felt herself drawn by so many 
 and various motives. 
 
 My heart is fixed ; and not the heavens above 
 From its firm purpose can my spirit move ; 
 Nor hell, with all its powers, my course with- 
 stand, 
 For Jesus holds its keys within his hand.* 
 
 Her woman's heart was strengthened 
 with that faith which overcomes the 
 world, and her resolution was irrevoca- 
 bly settled. Preparation was according- 
 ly made for her journey. 
 
 •The archbishop of Embrun, afterwards 
 cardinal of Tournon, and the president 
 
 * Marguerites de la Marguerite des princesses, 
 torn. i. p 125. 
 
 of Selves, had already repaired to Madrid 
 to treat for the ransom of the king. They 
 were placed under the direction of Mar- 
 garet, as was also the bishop of Tarbes, 
 afterwards cardinal of Grammont ; full 
 powers being given to the Princess. At 
 the same time Montmorency, afterwards 
 so hostile to the Reformation, was de- 
 spatched in haste to Spain to solicit a 
 safe-conduct for the king's sister.* The 
 Emperor at first hesitated, alleging that 
 it was for his ministers to arrange terms. 
 — " One hour's conference between your 
 majesty, the king my master, and Ma- 
 dame d'Alen^on," remarked Selves, 
 " would forward matters more than a 
 month's discussion between the diploma- 
 tists."! Margaret, impatient to attain 
 her object, set out unprovided with a 
 safe-conduct, accompanied by a splendid 
 retinue.:}: She took leave of the court 
 and passed through Lyons, taking the 
 direction of the Mediterranean ; but on 
 her road she was joined by Montmoren- 
 cy, who was the bearer of letters from 
 Charles, guaranteeing her liberty for a 
 period of three months. She reached 
 Aigues-Mortes,^ and at that port the sis- 
 ter of Francis the First embarked on 
 board a vessel prepared for her. Led 
 by Providence into Spain rather for the 
 deliverance of nameless and oppressed 
 Christians, than for the liberation of the 
 powerful monarch of France, Margaret 
 committed herself to that sea whose 
 waves had borne her brother when 
 taken prisoner after the fatal battle of 
 Pavia. 
 
 * Memoires de Du Bellay, p. 124. 
 
 t Histoire de France, par Gamier, torn. xxiv. 
 
 t Pour taster au vif la volunte de l'esleu em- 
 
 pereur madame Marguerite, duchesse 
 
 d'Alencon, tres-notablemcnt accompaignee de 
 plusieurs ambassadeurs . . . . — (Les gestes de 
 Francoise de Valois, par E. Dolet, 1540.) 
 
 § Jam in itinere erat Margarita, Francisci so- 
 ror . . . . e fossis Marianis solvens, Barcinonem 
 primum, deinde Caesar Augustum appulerat — 
 (Belcarius, Rerum Gallicarum Comment, p. 565.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 625 
 
 BOOK XIII, 
 
 THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE, 1526—1529. 
 
 I. We have witnessed the commence- 
 ment, the struggles, the reverses, and the 
 progress of the Reformation ; but the con- 
 flicts that we have hitherto described have 
 been but partial ; we are entering upon 
 a new period, — that of general battles. 
 Spire (1529) and Augsburg (1530) are 
 two names that shine forth with more im- 
 mortal glory than Marathon, Pavia, or 
 Marengo. Forces that up to the present 
 time were separate, are now uniting into 
 one energetic band ; and the power of 
 God is working in these brilliant actions, 
 which open a new era in the history of 
 nations, and communicate an irresistible 
 impulse to mankind. The passage from 
 the middle ages to modern times has ar- 
 rived. 
 
 A great protest is about to be accom- 
 plished ; and although there have been 
 protestants in the Church from the very 
 beginning of Christianity, since liberty 
 and truth could not be maintained here 
 below, save by protesting continually 
 against despotism and error, Protestant- 
 ism is about to take a new step. It is 
 about to become a body, and thus attack 
 with greater energy that " mystery of 
 iniquity" which for ages has taken a 
 bodily shape at Rome, in the very temple 
 of God.* 
 
 But although we have to treat of pro- 
 tests, it must not however be imagined 
 that the Reformation is a negative work. 
 In every sphere in which anything great 
 is evolved, whether in nature or society, 
 there is a principle of life at work, — a 
 seed that God fertilizes. The Reforma- 
 tion, when it appeared in the sixteenth 
 century, did not, it is true, perform a new 
 work, for a reformation is not a forma- 
 tion ; but it turned its face toward the 
 beginnings of Christianity, thither were 
 its steps directed ; it seized upon them 
 with adoration, and embraced them with 
 affection. Yet it was not satisfied with 
 this return to primitive times. Laden 
 * 2 Thess. ii. 
 79 
 
 with its precious burden, it again crossed 
 the interval of ages, and brought back to 
 fallen and lifeless Christendom the sacred 
 fire that was destined to restore it to light 
 and life. In this twofold movement con- 
 sisted its action and its strength. After- 
 wards, no doubt, it rejected superannuated 
 forms, and combated error ; but this was, 
 so to speak, only the least of its works, 
 and its third movement. Even the pro- 
 test of which we have to speak had for its 
 end and aim the re-establishment of truth 
 and of life, and was essentially a positive 
 act. 
 
 This powerful and rapid twofold action 
 of reform, by which the apostolic times 
 were re-established at the opening of 
 modern history, proceeded not from man. 
 A reformation is not arbitrarily made, as 
 charters and revolutions are in some coun- 
 tries. A real reformation, prepared du- 
 ring many ages, is the work of the Spirit 
 of God. Before the appointed hour, the 
 greatest geniuses and even the most faith- 
 ful of God's servants cannot produce it : 
 but when the reforming time is come, 
 when it is God's pleasure to intervene in 
 the affairs of the world, the divine life 
 must clear a passage, and it is able to cre- 
 ate of itself the humble instruments by 
 which this life is communicated to the 
 human race. Then, if men are silent, 
 the very stones will cry out.* 
 
 It is to the protest of Spire (1529) that 
 we are now about to turn our eyes ; but 
 the way to this protest was prepared by 
 years of peace, and followed by attempts 
 at concord that we shall have also to de- 
 scribe. Nevertheless the formal estab- 
 lishment of Protestantism remains the 
 great fact that prevails in the history of 
 the Reformation from 1526 to 1529. 
 
 The Duke of Brunswick had brought 
 
 into Germany the threatening message of 
 
 Charles the Fifth. The Emperor was 
 
 about to repair from Spain to Rome to 
 
 ♦ Luke xix. 40. 
 
C26 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 come to an understanding with the Pope, 
 and from thence to pass into Germany to 
 constrain the heretics. The last sum- 
 mons was to be addressed to them by the 
 Diet of Spire, 1526.* The decisive hour 
 for the Reformation was about to strike. 
 
 On the 25th June, 1526, the diet open- 
 ed. In the instructions, dated at Seville, 
 23d March, the Emperor ordered that the 
 Church customs should be maintained 
 entire, and called upon the diet to punish 
 those who refused to carry out the edict 
 of Worms, f Ferdinand himself was at 
 Spire, and his presence rendered these or- 
 ders more formidable. Never had the 
 hostility which the Romish partisans enter- 
 tained against the evangelical princes, ap- 
 peared in so striking a manner. u The 
 Pharisees," said Spalatin, " pursue Jesus 
 Christ with violent hatred. "| 
 
 Never also had the evangelical princes 
 showed so much hope. Instead of pre- 
 senting themselves i\ ightened and trem- 
 bling, like guilty men, they were seen ad- 
 vancing, surrounded by the ministers of 
 the Word, with uplifted heads and cheer- 
 ful looks. Their first step was to ask for 
 a place of worship. The Bishop of Spire, 
 count-palatine of the Rhine, having in- 
 dignantly refused this strange request,^ 
 the princes complained of it as of an in- 
 justice, and ordered their ministers to 
 preach daily in the halls of their palaces. 
 An immense crowd from the city and the 
 country, which amounted to many thou- 
 sands, immediately filled them.|| In vain 
 on the feast days did Ferdinand, the ul- 
 tra-montane princes, and the bishops as- 
 sist in the pomps of the Roman worship 
 in the beautiful cathedral of Spire ; the 
 unadorned Word of God, preached in the 
 Protestant vestibules, engrossed the hear- 
 ers, and the Mass was celebrated in an 
 empty church. If 
 
 It was not only the ministers, but the 
 knights and the grooms, " mere idiots," 
 who, unable to control their zeal, every- 
 
 * See book £. chap. xiv. The Diet pf Spire, 
 held in 1 520, must not be confounded with that 
 of 1529, at which the protest took place. 
 
 I Sleidan, Hist Ref. book vi. 
 
 X Christum pharisseis vehementer fuisse invi- 
 sum. — (Seckend. ii. p. 46.) 
 
 § Fortiter interdixit. — (Cochlceus, p. 138.) 
 
 II Ingens concursus piebis et rusticorum. — 
 (Cochlceus.) Multis millibus hominum accur- 
 rentibus.— (Seckend. ii.p. 48.) 
 
 IT Populuia a ,sacris avertebant- — (Cochlceus, 
 g>. 138.) 
 
 where extolled the Word of the Lord.* 
 All the followers of the evangelical 
 princes wore these letters braided on their 
 right sleeves : V. D. M. I. M., that is to 
 say, " The word of the Lord endureth 
 for ever."f The same inscription might 
 be read on the escutcheons of the princes, 
 suspended over their hotels. The Word 
 of God — such from this moment was the 
 palladium of the Reform. 
 
 This was not all. The Protestants 
 knew that the mere worship was not suffi- 
 cient : the Landgrave had therefore called 
 upon the Elector to abolish certain " court 
 customs" which dishonoured the Gospel. 
 These two princes had consequently 
 drawn up an order of living which for- 
 bade drunkenness, debauchery, and other 
 vicious customs prevalent during a diet. J 
 
 Perhaps the Protestant princes some- 
 times put forward their dissent beyond 
 what prudence would have required. 
 Not only they did not go to Mass, and 
 did not observe the prescribed fasts, but 
 still further, on the meagre days, their at- 
 tendants were seen publicly bearing dish- 
 es of meat and game, destined for their 
 masters' tables, and crossing, says Coch- 
 lceus, in the presence of the whole audi- 
 tory, the halls in which the worship was- 
 celebrating. " It was," says this writer, 
 " with the intent of attracting the Catho- 
 lics by the savour of the meats and of the 
 wines."§ 
 
 The Elector in effect had a numerous 
 court : seven hundred persons formed his 
 retinue. One day he gave a banquet at 
 which twenty-six princes with their gen- 
 tlemen and councillors were present. 
 They continued playing until a very late 
 hour — ten at night. Everything in 
 Duke John announced the most powerful 
 prince of the empire. The youthful 
 Landgrave of Hesse, full of zeal and 
 knowledge, and in the strength of a first 
 christian love, made a still deeper im- 
 pression on those who approached him. 
 He would frequently dispute with the 
 
 * Ministri eorum, equitos et stabularii, idiota?, 
 petulanter jactabant verbum Domini. — (Cochlceus, 
 p. 138.) 
 
 t Verbum Domini Manet in jEternum. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Adversus inveteratos illos et impios usus ni- 
 tendum esse. — (Seek. ii. p. 46.) 
 
 § Ut complures allicerentur ad eorum sectam, 
 in ferculis portabantur carnes coctffi in diebus je- 
 junii, aperte in conspectu totius auditorii. — (Coch- 
 lceus, p. 138.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 152G— 1529. 
 
 627 
 
 bishops, and thanks to his acquaintance 
 with the Holy Scriptures, he easily stop- 
 ped their mouths.* 
 
 This firmness in the friends of the 
 Reformation produced fruits that sur- 
 passed their expectation. It was no 
 longer possible to be deceived : the spirit 
 that was manifested in these men was 
 the spirit of the Bible. Everywhere the 
 sceptre was falling from the hands of 
 Rome. '• The leaven of Luther," said a 
 zealous Papist, u sets all the people of 
 Germany in a ferment, and foreign na- 
 tions themselves are agitated by formida- 
 ble movements."! 
 
 It was immediately seen how great is 
 the strength of deep convictions. The 
 states that were well disposed towards 
 the Reform, but which had not ventured 
 to give their adhesion publicly, became 
 emboldened. The neutral states, which 
 demanded the repose of the empire, 
 formed the resolution of opposing the 
 edict of Worms, the execution of which 
 would have spread trouble through all 
 Germany, and the Papist states lost their 
 boldness. The bow of the mighty was 
 broken. | 
 
 Ferdinand did not' think proper, at so 
 critical a moment, to communicate to the 
 diet the severe instructions he had re- 
 ceived from Seville. § He substituted a 
 proposition of a nature to satisfy both 
 parties. 
 
 The laymen immediately recovered 
 the influence of which the clergy had 
 dispossessed them. The ecclesiastics re- 
 sisted a proposal in the college of princes 
 that the diet should occupy itself with 
 church abuses, but their exertions were 
 unavailing. Undoubtedly a non-political 
 assembly would have been preferable to 
 the diet, but it was already something 
 that religious matters were no longer to 
 be regulated solely by the priests. 
 
 * Annales SpaiatinL 
 
 t Germanise populi Lutherico fermento inesca- 
 ti, et in externis quoque nationibus, gravissimi 
 erant motus. — (Cochioeus, p. 13S.) 
 
 1 1 Samuel ii. 4. 
 
 § Some historians appear to think that these in- 
 structions were communicated in reality at the very 
 opening of the diet. Ranke shows that this was 
 not the 3 case; but adds, that he sees no reason 
 why the commissaries should have thought them- 
 selves authorized to make any other proposition. 
 The natives that I have assigned appear to me 
 the true ones. I shall state below why the com- 
 mes returned afierwaids to the imperial in- 
 structions. 
 
 The deputies from the cities having 
 received communication of this resolu- 
 tion, called for the abolition of every 
 usage contrary to the faith in Jesus 
 Christ In vain did the bishops exclaim 
 that, instead of abolishing pretended 
 abuses, they would do much betrl-r to 
 burn all the books with which Germany 
 had been inundated during the last eight 
 years. " You desire/' was the reply, 
 '•to bury all wisdom and kno 
 The request of the cities was agreed to.f 
 and the diet was divided into committees 
 for the abolition of abuses. 
 
 Then was manifested the profound 
 disgust inspired by the priests of Rome. 
 " The clergy," said the deputy from 
 Frankfort, -make a jest of the public 
 good, and look after their own interest? 
 - The laymen," said the deputy 
 from Duke George, " have the salvation 
 j of Christendom much more at heart than 
 the clergy."' 
 
 The commissions made their report : 
 people were astonished at it. Never had 
 j men spoken out so freely against the 
 ! pope and the bishops. The commission 
 i of the princes, in which the ecclesiastics 
 ; and the laymen were in equal numbers, 
 proposed a fusion of Popery and Re- 
 form. '• The Priests would do better to 
 ! marry.' 5 said they, " than to keep women 
 i of ill-fame in their houses : ever)' man 
 ! should be at liberty to communicate un- 
 I der one or both forms ; German and 
 Latin may be equally employed in the 
 J Lord's Supper and in Baptism ; as for 
 the other sacraments, let them be pre- 
 served, but let them be administered gra- 
 tuitously. Finally, let the Word of God 
 be preached according to the interpreta- 
 tion of the Church (this was the demand 
 of Rome), but always explaining Scrip- 
 ture by Scripture" (this was the great 
 principle of the Reformation). Thus the 
 first step was taken towards a national 
 union. Still a few more efforts, and the 
 whole German race would be walking 
 in the direction of the Gospel: 
 
 The evangelical Christians, at the 
 sight of this glorious prospect, redoubled 
 their exertions. u Stand fast in the doc- 
 
 * Omnes libros esse Mmboreadta. >e<i rejec- 
 tum est quia sic onuds dodrina et erodkio theo- 
 Iogica interitura esset. — (SeekenjL ii. p. 45.) 
 
 ~i Civitaiu 
 (Ibid.) 
 
628 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 trine," said the Elector of Saxony to his 
 councillors.* At the same time hawkers 
 in every part of the city were selling 
 Christian pamphlets, short and easy to 
 read, written in Latin and in German, 
 and ornamented with engravings, in 
 which the errors of Rome were vigor- 
 ously attacked.! One of these books 
 was entitled, The Papacy with its Mem- 
 bers fainted and described by Doctor Luther. 
 In it figured the pope, the cardinal, and 
 then all the religious orders, exceeding 
 sixty, each with their costumes and de- 
 scription in verse. Under the picture of one 
 of these orders were the following lines : 
 
 Greedy priests, see, roll in gold 
 Forgetful of the humble Jesu: 
 
 under another: 
 
 We forbid you to behold 
 
 The Bible, lest it should mislead you !t 
 
 and under a third : 
 
 We can fast and pray the harder 
 With an overflowing larder. § 
 
 a Not one of these orders," said Luther to 
 the reader, " thinks either of faith or 
 charity. This one wears the tonsure, 
 the other a hood ; this a cloak, that a 
 robe. One is white, another black, a 
 third gray, and a fourth blue. Here is 
 one holding a looking-glass, there one 
 with a pair of scissors. Each has his 
 playthings Ah! these are the palmer- 
 worms, the locusts, the canker-worms, and 
 the caterpillars which, as Joel saith, have 
 eaten up all the earth." |j 
 
 But if Luther employed the scourges 
 of sarcasm, he also blew the trumpet of 
 the prophets ; and this he did in a work 
 entitled The Destruction of Jerusalem. 
 Shedding tears like Jeremiah, he de- 
 nounced to the German people a ruin 
 like that of the Holy City, if like it they 
 rejected the Gospel.^I " God has im- 
 parted to us all his treasures," exclaimed 
 
 * Elector Saxoniffi conciliarios suos exhortatus 
 est, in doctrina ovangelica iirmi. — (Seckend. ii. p. 
 48.) 
 
 + Circumferebantur item libri Lutherani venales 
 per totam civitatem. — (Cochlceus, p. 138.) 
 
 \ Dass die Schrift sie nieht verftihre, 
 
 Durfl ihr keinen nich studir. — (L. Opp. 
 xix. p. 536.) 
 
 § Doch war ihr kuch nimmer leer. — (Ibid.) 
 
 |i L. Opp. xix. p. 535. Joel i. 4. 
 
 IT Ltbelli, parvuli quidem mole, sed virulentia 
 perquam grandes, se,rmo Lutheri Teuthonicus de 
 destructione Jerusalem. — (Cochlceus, p. 138.) 
 
 he ; " he became man, he has served us * 
 he died for us, he has risen again, and he 
 has so opened the gates of heaven, that 
 
 all may enter The hour of grace 
 
 is, come The glad tidings are pro- 
 claimed But where is the city, 
 
 where is the prince that has received 
 them ? They insult the Gospel : they 
 draw the sword, and daringly seize God 
 
 by the beard. f But wait He 
 
 will turn round ; with one blow will he 
 break their jaws, and all Germany will 
 be but one wide ruin." 
 
 These works had a very great sale4 
 It was not only the peasants and towns- 
 people who read them, but nobles also 
 and princes. Leaving the priests alone 
 at the foot of the altar, they threw them- 
 selves into the arms of the new Gospel. $ 
 The necessity of a reform of abuses was 
 proclaimed on the 1st of August by a 
 general committee. 
 
 Then Rome, which had appeared to 
 slumber, awoke. Fanatical priests, monks, 
 ecclesiastical princes, all beset Ferdinand. 
 Cunning, bribery, nothing was spared. 
 Did not Ferdinand possess the instruc- 
 tions of Seville % To refuse their publi- 
 cation was to effect the ruin of the 
 Church and of the empire. Let the 
 voice of Charles oppose its powerful veto 
 to the dizziness that is hurrying Germa- 
 ny along, said they, and Germany will 
 be saved ! Ferdinand made up his mind, 
 and at length, on the 3d August, publish- 
 ed the decree, drawn up more than four 
 months previously in favour of the edict 
 of Worms. || 
 
 The persecution was about to begin : 
 the reformers would be thrown into dun- 
 geons, and the sword drawn on the banks 
 of the Guadalquivir would pierce at last 
 the bosom of Reform. 
 
 The effect of the imperial ordinance 
 was immense. The breaking of an axle- 
 tree does not more violently check the 
 velocity of a railway train. The Elect- 
 
 * Wird Mensch, dienet uns, stirbt fur uns. — 
 (Luth. Opp. xiv. (L.) p. 226.) 
 
 t Greiffen Gott zu frech in den Bart. — (Ibid.) 
 Deo nimis ferociter barbani vallicant. — (Cochlce- 
 us.) 
 
 X Perquam plurima -vendebantur cxemplaria. — 
 (Cochlceus, p. 139.) 
 
 § Non solum plebs et rusticaturba. verum etiam 
 plcrique optimatum et nobilium trahebanturin fa- 
 vorem novi Evangelii, atque in odiuui antiquae r&- 
 ligionis. — (Cochlceus, p. 160.) 
 
 II Sleidan, Hist, de la Ref. liv. vi. pi 229. 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1536—1529. 
 
 629 
 
 or and the Landgrave announced that 
 they were about to quit the diet, and or- 
 dered their attendants to prepare for their 
 departure. At the same time the depu- 
 ties from the cities drew towards these 
 two princes, and the Reformation appear- 
 ed on the brink of entering immediately 
 upon a contest with the Pope and Charles 
 the Fifth. 
 
 But it was not yet prepared for a gen- 
 eral struggle. It was necessary for the 
 tree to send out its roots deeper, before 
 the Almighty unchained the stormy 
 winds against it. A spirit of blindness, 
 similar to that which in former times was 
 sent out upon Saul and Herod,* then 
 seized upon the great enemy of the Gos- 
 pel ; and thus was it that Divine Provi- 
 dence saved the reform in its cradle. 
 
 The first movement of trouble was 
 over. The friends of the Gospel began 
 to consider the date of the imperial in- 
 structions, and to weigh the new political 
 combinations which seemed to announce 
 to the world the most unlooked-for events. 
 " When the Emperor wrote these letters," 
 said the cities of Upper Germany, " he 
 was on good terms with the Pope, but 
 now everything is changed. It is even 
 asserted that he had told Margaret, his 
 deputy in the Low Countries, to proceed 
 gently with respect to the Gospel. Let 
 us send him a deputation." That was 
 not necessary. Charles had not waited 
 until now to form a different resolution. 
 The course of public affairs, taking a sud- 
 den turn, had rushed into an entirely new 
 path. Years of peace were about to be 
 granted to the Reform. 
 
 Clement VII., whom Charles was 
 about to visit, according to the instruc- 
 tions of Seville, in order to receive in 
 Rome itself and from his sacred hands the 
 imperial crown, and in return to give up 
 to the pontiff the Gospel and the Refor- 
 mation, — Clement VII., siezed with a 
 strange infatuation, had suddenly turned 
 against this powerful monarch. The 
 Emperor, unwilling to favour his ambi- 
 tion in every point, had opposed his claims 
 on the states of the Duke of Ferrara. 
 Clement immediately became exaspera- 
 ted, and cried out that Charles wished to 
 enslave the peninsula, but that the time 
 was come for re-establishing the indepen- 
 dence of Italy. This great idea of Ital- 
 * 1 Sam. ivi. 14-23 ; Matt. ii. 
 
 ian independence, entertained at that pe- 
 riod by a few literary men, had not, as 
 now, penetrated the mass of the nation. 
 Clement therefore hastened Jo have re- 
 course to political combinations. The 
 Pope, the Venetians, and the King of 
 France, who had scarcely recovered his 
 liberty, formed a holy league, of which the 
 King of England was by a bull proclaim- 
 ed the preserver and protectoT.* In June 
 1526, the Emperor caused the most favour- 
 able propositions to be presented to the 
 Pope ; but these advances were ineffect- 
 ual, and the Duke of Sessa, Charles's am- 
 bassador at Rome, returning on horseback 
 from his last audience, placed a court-fool 
 behind him, who, by a thousand monkey 
 tricks, gave the Roman people to under- 
 stand how they laughed at the projects of 
 the Pope. The latter responded to these 
 bravadoes by a brief, in which he threaten- 
 ed the Emperor with excommunication, 
 and without loss of time pushed his troops 
 into Lombardy, whilst Milan, Florence, 
 and Piedmont declared for the Holy 
 League. Thus was Europe preparing 
 to be avenged for the triumph of Pavia. 
 
 Charles did not hesitate. He wheeled 
 to the right as quickly as the Pope had 
 done to the left, and turned abruptly to- 
 wards the evangelical princes. " Let us 
 suspend the Edict of Worms," wrote he 
 to his brother ; " let us bring back Lu- 
 ther's partisans by mildness, and by a 
 good council cause the evangelical truth 
 to triumph." At the same time he de- 
 manded that the Elector, the Landgrave, 
 and their allies should march with him 
 against the Turks — or against Italy, for 
 the common good of Christendom. 
 
 Ferdinand hesitated. To gain the 
 friendship of the Lutherans was to forfeit 
 that of the other princes. The latter were 
 already beginning to utter violent threats.f 
 The Protestants themselves were not very 
 eager to grasp the Emperor's hand. " It 
 is God, God himself, who will save his 
 churches."! 
 
 What was to be done ? The edict of 
 Worms could neither be repealed nor 
 carried into execution. 
 
 * Sleidan, Hist de la Ref. liv. vi. ; Bullar. Mag. 
 roman. x. 
 
 t Ferdinandus. ut audio, graviter minatur. — 
 (Corp. Ref. i. p. 801.) 
 
 t Imperator pollicetur sed nemo his pro- 
 missis movetur. Spero Deum defensurum esse 
 suas Ecclesias. — (Ibid.) 
 
630 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 This strange situation led of necessity 
 to the desired solution : religious liberty. 
 The first idea of this occurred to the dep- 
 uties of the cities. " In one place," said 
 they, " the ancient ceremonies have been 
 preserved ; in another they have been 
 abolished ; and both think they are right. 
 Let us allow each one to do as he thinks 
 fit, until a council shall re-establish the 
 desired unity by the Word of God." 
 This idea gained favour, and the recess of 
 the diet, dated the 27th August, decreed 
 that a universal, or at least a national free 
 council should be convoked within a year, 
 that they should request the Emperor to 
 return speedily to Germany, and that, un- 
 til then, each state should behave in its 
 own territory in a manner so as to be 
 able to render an account to God and to 
 the Emperor.* 
 
 Thus they escaped from their difficulty 
 by a middle course ; and this time it was 
 really the true one. Each one main- 
 tained his rights, while recognising an- 
 other's. The diet of 1526 forms an 
 important epoch in history : an ancient 
 power, that of the middle ages, is shaken ; 
 a new power, that of modern times, is 
 advancing ; religious liberty boldly takes 
 its stand in front of Romish despotism ; a 
 lay spirit prevails over the sacerdotal 
 spirit. In this single step there is a com- 
 plete victory : the cause of the Reform is 
 won. 
 
 Yet it was little suspected. Luther, 
 on the morrow of the day on which the 
 recess was published, wrote to a friend : 
 " The diet is sitting at Spire in the Ger- 
 man fashion. They drink and gamble, 
 and there is nothing done except that."f 
 '• Le congres danse et ne marche pas,"! 
 has been said in our days. It is because 
 great things are often transacted under 
 an appearance of frivolity, and because 
 God accomplishes his designs unknown 
 even to those whom he employs as his 
 instruments. In this diet a gravity and 
 love of liberty of conscience were mani- 
 fested, which are the fruits of Christiani- 
 ty, and which in the sixteenth century 
 had its earliest, if not its most energetic 
 
 * Unusquisque in sua ditione ita se gereret ut 
 rationem Deo et imperatori retldere posset. — 
 (Seckend. ii. p. 41.) 
 
 t Potatur et luditur, prseterea nihil. — (L. Epp. 
 iii. p. 126.) 
 
 t The congress dances but does not move for- 
 ward. 
 
 development among the German na- 
 tions. 
 
 Yet Ferdinand still hesitated. Ma- 
 homet himself came to the aid of the 
 Gospel. Louis, king of Hungary and 
 Bohemia, drowned at Mohacz on the 
 29th August, 1526, as he was fleeing 
 from before Soliman II., had bequeathed 
 the crown of these two kingdoms to 
 Ferdinand. But the Duke of Bavaria, 
 the Waywode of Transylvania, and, 
 above all, the terrible Soliman, contested 
 it against him. This was sufficient to 
 occupy Charles's brother : he left Lu- 
 ther, and hastened to dispute the two 
 thrones. 
 
 II. The Emperor immediately reaped 
 the fruits of his new policy. No longer 
 having his hands tied by Germany, he 
 turned them against Rome. The Refor- 
 mation had been exalted and the Papacy 
 was to be abased. The blows aimed at 
 its pitiless enemy were about to open 
 a new career to the evangelical work. 
 
 Ferdinand, who was detained by his 
 Hungarian affairs, gave the charge of 
 the Italian expedition to Freundsberg, 
 that old general who had patted Luther 
 in a friendly manner on the shoulder as 
 the reformer was about to appear before 
 the diet of Worms.* This veteran, ob- 
 served a contemporary,f who " bore in 
 his chivalrous heart God's holy Gospel, 
 well fortified and flanked by a strong 
 wall," pledged his wife's jewels, sent 
 recruiting parties into all the towns of 
 Upper Germany, and owing to the 
 magic idea of a war against the Pope, 
 soon witnessed crowds of soldiers flocking 
 to his standard." " Announce," Charles 
 had said to his brother, — " announce 
 that the army is to march against the 
 Turks ; every one will know what 
 Turks are meant." 
 
 Thus the mighty Charles, instead of 
 marching with the Pope against the 
 Reform, as he had threatened at Seville, 
 marches with the Reform against the 
 Pope. A few days had sufficed to pro- 
 duce this change of direction : there are 
 few such in history in which the hand 
 of God is more plainly manifested. 
 Charles immediately assumed all the 
 airs of a reformer. On the 17th Septem- 
 
 * See book vii. chap. viii. 
 
 t Haug marschalk, surnamed Zeller. 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 631 
 
 ber, he addressed a manifesto to the 
 Pope,* in which he reproaches him for 
 behaving not like the father of the faith- 
 ful, but like an insolent and haughty 
 man ;f and declares his astonishment 
 that, being Christ's vicar, he should dare 
 to shed blood to acquire earthly posses- 
 sions, " which," added he, " is quite con- 
 trary 40 the evangelical doctrine."! Lu- 
 ther could not have spoken better. " Let 
 your holiness," continued Charles the 
 Fifth, " return the sword of St. Peter 
 into the scabbard, and convoke a holy 
 and universal council." But the sword 
 was much more to the pontiff's taste 
 than the council. Is not the Papacy, 
 according to the Romish doctors, the 
 source of the two powers ? Can it 
 not depose kings, and consequently 
 fight against them ?§ Charles prepared 
 to requite " eye for eye, and tooth for 
 tooth." || 
 
 Now began that terrible campaign 
 during which the storm burst on Rome 
 and on the Papacy that had been des- 
 tined to fall on Germany and the Gos- 
 pel. By the violence of the blows in- 
 flicted on the pontifical city, we may 
 judge of the severity of those that would 
 have dashed in pieces the reformed 
 churches. While we retrace so many 
 scenes of horror, we have constant need 
 of calling to mind that the chastisement 
 of the seven-hilled city had been predict- 
 ed by the Divine Scriptures.^! 
 
 In the month of November, Freunds- 
 berg, at the head of fifteen thousand 
 men, was at the foot of the Alps. The 
 old general, avoiding the military roads, 
 that were well guarded by the enemy, 
 flung himself into a narrow path, over 
 frightful precipices, that a few blows of 
 the mattock would have rendered im- 
 passable. The soldiers are forbidden to 
 look behind them ; nevertheless their 
 
 * Caroli Imperat. Rescriptum ad Clcmentis 
 Saptimi criminationes. — (Goldasti, Constitut. Im- 
 perials, i. p. 479.) 
 
 t Non jam pastoris seu communis patris lau- 
 dem, sed supcrbi et insolentis nomen. — (Ibid. p. 
 487.) 
 
 t Cum id ab evangclica doctrina, prorsus alie- 
 num vidctur. — (Ibid. p. 4S9.) 
 
 § Utriusquepotestatisapiccm Papa tenet. — (Tur- 
 recremata de Potestate Papali.) 
 
 II Exod. xxi. 24. 
 
 IT Revel, xviii. We should not, however, re- 
 strict this prediction to the incomplete sack of 
 1527, and from which the city soon recovered. 
 
 heads turn, their feet slip, and horse and 
 foot fall from time to time down the 
 abyss. In the most difficult passes, the 
 most sure-footed of the infantry lower 
 their long pikes to the right and left of 
 their aged chief, by way of barrier, and 
 Frcundsberg advances, clinging to the 
 lansquenet in front, and pushed on by 
 the one behind. In three days the Alps 
 are crossed, and on the 19th Novem- 
 ber the army reaches the territory of 
 Brescia. 
 
 The Constable of Bourbon, who since 
 the death of Pescara was commander-in- 
 chief of the imperial army, had just 
 taken possession of the duchy of Milan. 
 The Emperor having promised him this 
 conquest for a recompense, Bourbon was 
 compelled to remain there some time to 
 consolidate his power. At length, on the 
 12th February, he and his Spanish troops 
 joined the army of Freundsberg, which 
 was becoming impatient at his delays. 
 The Constable had many men, but no 
 money : he resolved therefore to follow 
 the advice of the Duke of Ferrara, that 
 inveterate enemy of the princes of the 
 Church, and proceed straight to Rome.* 
 The whole army received this news 
 with a shout of joy. The Spaniards 
 were filled with a desire of avenging 
 Charles the Fifth, and the Germans were 
 overflowing with hatred against the 
 Pope : all exulted in the hope of receiv- 
 ing their pay and of having their labours 
 richly recompensed at last by the treas- 
 ures of Christendom that Rome had 
 been accumulating for ages. Their 
 shouts re-echoed beyond the Alps, Every 
 man in Germany thought that the last 
 hour of the Papacy had now come, and 
 prepared to contemplate its fall. " The 
 Emperor's forces are triumphing in 
 Italy," wrote Luther ; " the Pope is visit- 
 ed from every quarter. His destruction 
 draweth nigh ; his hour and his end are 
 come."f 
 
 A few slight advantages gained by the 
 papal soldiers in the kingdom of Naples, 
 led to the conclusion of a truce that was 
 to be ratified by the Pope and by the 
 Emperor. At this news a frightful tu- 
 
 * Guicciardini, History of the Wars in Italy, 
 book xviii. p. 698. 
 
 t Papa ubique visitatur, ut destruatur; venit 
 enim finis et hora ejus. — (Luther to Haussmann, 
 10th January, 1527. Epp. iii. p. 156.) 
 
632 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 mult broke out in the Constable's army. 
 The Spanish troops revolted, compelled 
 him to flee, and pillaged his tent. Then 
 approaching the lansquenets, they began 
 to shout as loudly as they could, the 
 only German words they knew : Lance ! 
 lance ! money ! money !* These words 
 found an echo in the bosoms of the Im- 
 perialists ; they were moved in their 
 turn, and also began to cry with all their 
 might : Lance ! lance ! money ! money ! 
 Freundsberg beat to muster, and having 
 drawn up the soldiers around him and 
 his principal officers, calmly demanded 
 if he had ever deserted them. All was 
 useless. The old affection which the 
 lansquenets bore to their leader seemed 
 extinct. One chord alone vibrated in 
 their hearts: they must have pay and 
 war. Accordingly, lowering their lances, 
 they presented them, as if they would 
 slay their officers, and again began to 
 shout, " Lance ! lance ! money ! money !" 
 Freundsberg, whom no army however 
 large had ever frightened, — Freundsberg, 
 who was accustomed to say, " the more 
 enemies, the greater the honour," seeing 
 these lansquenets, at whose head he had 
 grown gray, aiming their murderous 
 steel against him, lost all power of utter- 
 ance, and fell senseless upon a drum, as 
 if struck with a thunderbolt. f The 
 strength of the veteran general Avas 
 broken for ever. But the sight of their 
 dying captain produced on the lansquenets 
 an effect that no speech could have made. 
 All the lances were upraised, and- the 
 agitated soldiers retired with downcast 
 eyes. Four days later, Freundsberg re- 
 covered his speech. " Forward," said he 
 to the Constable ; " God himself will 
 bring us to the mark." Forward ! for- 
 ward ! repeated, the lansquenets. Bourbon 
 had no other alternative: besides, neither 
 Charles nor Clement would listen to 
 any propositions of peace. Freundsberg 
 was carried to Ferrara, and afterwards to 
 his castle of Mindelheim, where he died 
 after an illness of eighteen months ; and 
 on the 18th April, Bourbon took the 
 highroad to Rome, which so many for- 
 
 * Lanz, lanz, gelt, gelt. 
 
 t Cum vero hastas ducibus obverterent indig- 
 natione et aegritudine animi oppressus, Frons- 
 bergius subito in deliquium incidit, ita ut in tym- 
 pano quod adstabat desidere cogeretur, nullum- 
 que verbuoi proloqui amplius posset. — (Seckend. 
 ii. p. 79.) 
 
 midable armies coming from the north 
 had already trodden. 
 
 Whilst the storm descending from the 
 Alps was approaching the eternal city, 
 the Pope lost his presence of mind, sent 
 away his troops, and kept only his body- 
 guard. More than thirty thousand Ro- 
 mans, it is true, capable of bearing arms, 
 paraded their bravery in the streets, drag- 
 ging their long swords after them, quar- 
 relling and fighting ; but these citizens, 
 eager in the pursuit of gain, had little 
 thought of defending the Pope, and de- 
 sired on the contrary that the magnificent 
 Charles would come and settle in Rome, 
 hoping to derive great profit from his 
 stay. 
 
 On the evening of the 5th May Bour- 
 bon arrived under the walls of the cap- 
 ital ; and he would have begun the as- 
 sault at that very moment if he had had 
 ladders. On the morning of the 6th the 
 army, concealed by a thick fog which 
 hid their movements,* was put in mo- 
 tion, the Spaniards marching to their sta- 
 tion above the gate of the Holy Ghost, 
 and the Germans below. f The Consta- 
 ble, wishing to encourage his soldiers, 
 seized a scaling-ladder, mounted the wall, 
 and called on them to follow him. At 
 this moment a ball struck him : he fell, 
 and expired an hour after. Such was 
 the end of this unhappy man, a traitor to 
 his king and to his country, and sus- 
 pected even by his new friends. 
 
 His death, far from checking, served 
 only to excite the army. Claudius 
 Seidenstucker, grasping his long sword, 
 first cleared the wall ; he was followed 
 by Michael Hartmann, and these two re- 
 formed Germans exclaimed that God 
 himself marched before them in the 
 clouds. The gates were opened, the 
 army poured in, the suburbs were taken, 
 and the Pope, surrounded by thirteen 
 cardinals, fled to the Castle of St. Angelo. 
 The Imperialists, at whose head was 
 now the Prince of Orange, offered him 
 peace on condition of his paying three 
 hundred thousand crowns. But Clement, 
 who thought that the Holy League was 
 on the point of delivering him, and who 
 
 * Guicciardini, vol. ii. p. 721. 
 
 r Since the new wall built by Urban VIII. 
 on the top of the Janiculum, the gates of the 
 Holy Ghost and of Seltimiana have become use- 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 633 
 
 fancied he already saw ' their leading 
 horsemen, rejected every proposition. 
 After four hours' repose, the attack was 
 renewed, and by an hour after sunset 
 the army was master of all the city. It 
 remained under arms and in good order 
 until midnight, the Spaniards in the 
 Piazza Navona, and the Germans in the 
 Campofiore. At last, seeing no demon- 
 strations either of war or peace, the sol- 
 diers disbanded and ran to pillage. 
 
 Then began the famous " Sack of 
 Rome." The Papacy had for centuries 
 put Christendom in the press. Prebends, 
 annates, jubilees, pilgrimages, ecclesias- 
 tical graces, — she had made money of 
 them all. These greedy troops, that for 
 months had lived in wretchedness, deter- 
 mined to make her disgorge. No one 
 was spared, the imperial not more than 
 the ultramontane party, the Ghibellines 
 not more than the Guelfs. Churches, 
 palaces, convents, private houses, basilics, 
 banks, tombs — every thing was pillaged, 
 even to the golden ring that the corpse 
 of Julius II. still wore on its finger. 
 The Spaniards displayed the greatest 
 skill ; they scented out and discovered 
 treasures in the most mysterious hiding- 
 places ; but the Neapolitans were still 
 more outrageous.* " On every side 
 were heard," says Guicciardini, " the 
 piteous shrieks of the Roman women 
 and of the nuns whom the soldiers drag- 
 ged away by companies to satiate their 
 lust."f 
 
 At first the Germans found a certain 
 pleasure in making the Papists feel the 
 weight of their swords. But ere long, 
 happy at finding food and drink, they 
 were more pacific than their allies. It 
 was upon those things which the Ro- 
 mans called " holy" that the anger of the 
 Lutherans was especially discharged. 
 They took away the chalices, the pyxes, 
 the silver remonstrances, and clothed their 
 servants and camp-boys with the sacer- 
 dotal garments.^ The Campofiore was 
 changed into an immense gambling- 
 house. The soldiers brought thither 
 golden vessels and bags full of crowns, 
 staked them upon one throw of the dice, 
 and after losing them, they went in search 
 
 * Jovius Vita Pompeii Colonnse, p. 191 ; Ranke, 
 Deutsche Gesch. ii. p. 398. 
 
 1" Guicciardini, ii. p. 724. 
 
 X Sacras vcstes profanis induebant lLxis. — 
 (Cochlceus, p. 156.) 
 
 80 
 
 of others. A certain Simon Baptista, 
 who had foretold the sack of the city, 
 had been thrown into prison by the 
 Pope ; the Germans liberated him, and 
 made him drink with them. But, like 
 Jeremiah, he prophesied against all. 
 " Rob, plunder," cried he to his liberators ; 
 " you shall however give back all ; the 
 money of the soldiers and the gold of the 
 priests will follow the same road." 
 
 Nothing pleased the Germans more 
 than to mock the papal court. " Many 
 prelates," says Guicciardini, " were para- 
 ded on asses through all the city of Rome."* 
 After this procession, the bishops paid 
 their ransom ; but they fell into the hands 
 of the Spaniards, who made them pay it 
 a second time.f 
 
 One day a lansquenet named Guil- 
 laume de Sainte Celle, put on the Pope's 
 robes, and placed the triple crown upon 
 his head ; others, adorning themselves 
 with the red hats and long robes of the 
 cardinals, surrounded him ; and all go- 
 ing in procession upon asses through the 
 streets of the city, arrived at last before 
 the castle of Saint Angelo, where Cle- 
 ment VII. had retired. Here the soldier- 
 cardinals alighted, and lifting up the 
 front of their robes, kissed the feet of the 
 pretended pontiff. The latter drank to 
 the health of Clement VII., the cardi- 
 nals kneeling did the same, and exclaim- 
 ed that henceforward they would be pi- 
 ous popes and good cardinals, who would 
 have a care not to excite wars, as all their 
 predecessors had done. They then form- 
 ed a conclave, and the Pope having an- 
 nounced to his consistory that it was his 
 intention to resign the Papacy, all hands 
 were immediatly raised for the election, 
 and they cried out " Luther is Pope ! Lu- 
 ther is Pope !"| Never had pontiff been 
 proclaimed with such perfect unanimity. 
 Such were the humours of the Ger- 
 mans. 
 
 The Spaniards did not let them off so 
 easily. Clement VII. had called them 
 "Moors," and had published a plenary 
 indulgence for whoever should kill any 
 of them. Nothing, therefore, could re- 
 
 * Wars of Italy, ii. p. 723. 
 
 t Eundem civem seu curialem haud raro, nunc 
 ab Hispanis, nunc a Germanis cere mutuato re- 
 dimi. — (Cochlceus, p. 156.) 
 
 t Milites itaque levasse manum ac exclamasse : 
 Lutherus Papa! Lutherus Papa '.—(Cochlceus, 
 p. 156.) 
 
634 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 strain their fury. These faithful Catho- 
 lics put the prelates to death in the midst 
 of horrible tortures, destined to extort 
 their treasures from them : they spared 
 neither rank, sex, nor age. It was not 
 until after the sack had lasted ten days, 
 and a booty of ten million golden 
 crowns had been collected, and from five 
 to eight thousand victims had perished, 
 that quiet began to be in some degree 
 restored. 
 
 Thus did the pontifical city expire in 
 the midst of a long and cruel pillage, 
 and that splendour with which Rome 
 from the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury had filled the world faded in a few 
 hours. Nothing could preserve this 
 haughty city from chastisement, not even 
 the prayers of its enemies. " I would 
 not have Rome burnt," Luther had ex- 
 claimed ; " it would be a monstrous 
 deed."* The fears of Melancthon Avere 
 still keener : " I tremble for the libraries," 
 said he, " we know how hateful books are 
 to Mars."f But in despite of these 
 wishes of the reformers, the city of Leo 
 X. fell under the judgment of God. 
 
 Clement VII., besieged in the castle of 
 Saint Angelo, and fearful that the enemy 
 would blow his asylum into the air with 
 their mines, at last capitulated. He re- 
 nounced every alliance against Charles 
 the Fifth, and bound himself to remain 
 a prisoner until he had paid the army 
 four hundred thousand ducats. The 
 evangelical Christians gazed with aston- 
 ishment on this judgment of the Lord. 
 u Such," said they, " is the empire of Je- 
 sus Christ, that the Emperor, pursuing 
 Luther on account of the Pope, is con- 
 strained to ruin the Pope instead of Lu- 
 ther. All things minister unto the Lord, 
 and turn against his adversaries."^ 
 
 III. And in truth the Reform needed 
 some years of repose that it might in- 
 crease and gain strength ; and it could 
 not enjoy peace, unless its great enemies 
 were at war with each other. The mad- 
 ness of Clement VII. was as it were the 
 lightning-conductor of the Reformation, 
 and the ruin of Rome built up the Gos- 
 
 * Romam nollem exustam, magnum enim por- 
 
 tcntum esset. — (Epp. iii. p. 221.) 
 
 t Metuo bibliothecis.— (Corp. Ref. i. p. 869.) 
 t Ut Caesar pro Papa Lutheruin persequens, 
 
 pro Luthero papam cogatur vastare. — (L. Epp. 
 
 xii. p. 188.) 
 
 pel. It was not only a few months' 
 gain; from 1526 to 1529 there was a 
 calm in Germany by which the Refor- 
 mation profited to organize and extend 
 itself. A constitution was now to be 
 given to the renovated Church. 
 
 I'he papal yoke having been broken, 
 the ecclesiastical order required to be re- 
 established. It was impossible to restore 
 their ancient jurisdiction to the bishops ; 
 for these continental prelates maintained 
 that they were, in an especial manner, 
 the Pope's servants. A new state of 
 things was therefore called for, under 
 pain of seeing the Church fall into anar- 
 chy. Provision was made for it. It was 
 then that the evangelic nations separated 
 definitely from that despotic dominion 
 which had for ages kept all the West in 
 bondage. 
 
 Already on two occasions the diet had 
 wished to make the reform of the Church 
 a national work ; the Emperor, the Pope, 
 and a few princes were opposed to it ; 
 the Diet of Spire had therefore resigned 
 to each state the task that it could not ac- 
 complish itself. 
 
 But what constitution were they about 
 to substitute for the papal hierarchy 1 
 
 They could, while suppressing the 
 Pope, preserve the Episcopal order : it 
 was the form most approximate to that 
 which was on the point of being de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 They might, on the contrary, recon- 
 struct the ecclesiastical order, by having 
 recourse to the sovereignty of God's 
 Word, and by re-establishing the rights 
 of the christian people. This form was 
 the most remote from the Roman hierar- 
 chy. Between these two extremes there 
 were several middle courses. 
 
 The latter plan was Zwingle's ; but 
 the reformer of Zurich had not fully 
 carried it out. He had not called upon 
 the christian people to exercise the sov- 
 ereignty, and had stopped at the council 
 of two hundred as representing the 
 Church.* 
 
 The step before which Zwingle had 
 hesitated might be taken, and it was so. 
 A prince did not shrink from what had 
 alarmed even republics. Evangelical 
 Germany, at the moment in which she 
 began to try her hand on ecclesiastical 
 constitutions, began with that which 
 * Supra, b. xi. ch. x. 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE, 152G— 1529. 
 
 635 
 
 trenched the deepest on the papal mon- 
 archy. 
 
 It was not, however, from Germany 
 that such a system could proceed. If the 
 aristocratic England was destined to cling 
 to the episcopal form, the docile Germany 
 was destined the rather to stop in a gov- 
 ernmental medium. The democratic ex- 
 treme issued from Switzerland and 
 France. One of Calvin's predecessors 
 then hoisted that flag which the power- 
 ful arm of the Genevese Reformer was 
 to lift again in after-years and plant in 
 France, Switzerland, Holland, Scotland. 
 and even in England, whence it was a 
 century later to cross the Atlantic and 
 summon North America to take its rank 
 among the nations. 
 
 None of the evangelical princes was so 
 enterprising as Philip of Hesse, who has 
 been compared to Philip of Macedon in 
 subtlety, and to his son Alexander in 
 courage. Philip comprehended that re- 
 ligion was at length acquiring its due 
 importance ; and far from opposing the 
 great development that was agitating the 
 people, he put himself in harmony with 
 the new ideas. 
 
 The morning-star had risen for Hesse 
 almost at the same time as for Saxony. 
 In 1517, when Luther was preaching in 
 Wittemberg the gratuitous remission of 
 sins, men and women were seen in Mar- 
 burg repairing secretly to one of the 
 ditches of the city, and there, near a soli- 
 tary loophole, listening to the words that 
 issued from within, and that preached 
 doctrines of consolation through the bars. 
 It was the voice of the Franciscan, James 
 Limburg, who having declared that, for 
 fifteen centuries, the priests had falsified 
 the Gospel of Christ, had been thrown 
 into this gloomy dungeon. These mys- 
 terious assemblies lasted a fortnight. On 
 a sudden the voice ceased ; these lonely 
 meetings had been discovered, and the 
 Franciscan, torn from his cell, had been 
 hurried away across the Lahnberg to- 
 wards some unknown spot. Not far from 
 the Ziegenberg, some weeping citizens 
 of Marburg came up with him, and has- 
 tily snatching aside the canvass that cov- 
 ered his car, they asked him, " Whither 
 are you going V '< Where God wills," 
 calmly replied the friar.* There was no 
 more talk of him, and it is not known 
 * Rommel, Phil, von Hesse, i. p. 128. 
 
 what became of him. These disappear- 
 ances are usual in the Papacy. 
 
 Scarcely had Philip prevailed in the 
 Diet of Spire, when he resolved on de- 
 voting himself to the Reformation of his 
 hereditary states. 
 
 His resolute character made him in- 
 cline towards the Swiss reform : it was 
 not therefore one of the moderates that 
 he required. He had formed a connex- 
 ion at Spire with James Sturm, the dep- 
 uty from Strasburg, who spoke to him of 
 Francis Lambert of Avignon, who was 
 then at Strasburg. Of a pleasing ex- 
 terior and decided character, Lambert 
 added to the fire of the South the perse- 
 verance of the North. He was the first 
 in France to throw off the cowl, and he 
 had never since then ceased to call for a 
 radical reform in the Church. " For- 
 merly," said he, " when I was a hypo- 
 crite, I lived in abundance ; now I con- 
 sume frugally my daily bread with my 
 small family ;* but I had rather be poor 
 in Christ's kingdom, than possess abun- 
 dance of gold in the dissolute dwellings 
 of the Pope." The Landgrave saw that 
 Lambert was such a man as he required, 
 and invited him to his court. 
 
 Lambert, desiring to prepare the re- 
 form of Hesse, drew up one hundred and 
 fifty-eight theses, which he entitled " par- 
 adoxes," and posted them, according to 
 the custom of the times, on the church 
 doors. 
 
 Friends and enemies immediately 
 crowded round them. Some Roman 
 catholics would have torn them down, 
 but the reformed townspeople kept watch, 
 and holding a synod in the public square, 
 discussed, developed, proved these propo- 
 sitions, and ridiculed the anger of the 
 Papists. 
 
 A young priest, Boniface Dornemann, 
 full of self-conceit, whom the bishop, on 
 the day of his consecration, had extolled 
 above Paul for his learning, and above 
 the Virgin for his chastity, finding him- 
 self too short to reach Lambert's placard, 
 had borrowed a stool, and surrounded by 
 a numerous audience, had begun to read 
 the propositions aloud. f 
 
 * Nunc cum familiola mea panem manduco et 
 pntum capio in mensura — (Lamberti Commen- 
 tarii de Sacro Conjugio.) . 
 
 t Cum statura homines hujusmodi esset ut in- 
 ter Pygmeeos internosci difficulter posset, sea- 
 
636 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " All that is deformed, ought to be re- 
 formed. The Word of God alone teach- 
 es us what ought to be so, and all re- 
 form that is effected otherwise is vain."* 
 
 This was the first thesis. " Hem !" 
 said the young priest, " I shall not at- 
 tack that." He continued. 
 
 " It belongs to the Church to judge on 
 
 matters of faith. Now the Church is 
 
 the congregation of those who are Uni- 
 ts o 
 
 ted by the same spirit, the same faith, the 
 same God, the same Mediator, the same 
 Word, by which alone they are govern- 
 ed, and in which alone they have life."f 
 
 " I cannot attack that proposition," said 
 the priest.:}; He continued reading from 
 his stool. 
 
 " The Word is the true key. The 
 kingdom of heaven is open to him who 
 believes the Word, and shut against him 
 who believes it not. Whoever, there- 
 fore, truly possesses the Word of God, 
 has the power of the keys. All other 
 keys, all the decrees of the councils and 
 popes, and all the rules of the monks, are 
 valueless." 
 
 Friar Boniface shook his head and 
 continued. 
 
 " Since the priesthood of the Law has 
 been abolished, Christ is the only immor- 
 tal and eternal priest, and he does not, 
 like men, need a successor. Neither the 
 Bishop of Rome nor any other person in 
 the world is his representative here be- 
 low. But all Christians, since the com- 
 mencement of the Church, have been 
 and are participators in his priesthood." 
 
 This proposition smelt of heresy. Dor- 
 nemann, however, was not discouraged ; 
 and whether it was from weakness of 
 mind, or from the dawning of light, at 
 each proposition that did not too much 
 shock his prejudices, he failed not to re- 
 peat : " Certainly, I shall not attack that 
 one !" The people listened in astonish- 
 ment, when one of them, — whether he 
 was a fanatical Romanist, a fanatical Re- 
 former, or a mischievous wag, I cannot 
 tell — tired of these continual repetitions, 
 exclaimed : " Get down, you knave, who 
 
 bellum sibidari postulabat, eoqueconscenso, coepit, 
 &c. — (Othon. Melandri Jocorum Cent.) 
 
 * Vana est omnis Reformatio quaj alioqui fit. — 
 (Paradoxa Lamberti : Sculteti Annal.) 
 
 t Ecclesia est congregatio eorum quos unit idem 
 spiritus. — (Paradoxa Lamberti: Sculteti Annal.) 
 
 t Hanc equidem haud impugnaverim. Illam 
 ne quidem attigerim. — (Othon. Mel. Joe. Cent.) 
 
 cannot find a word to impugn." Then 
 rudely pulling the stool from under him, 
 he threw the unfortunate clerk flat in the 
 mud.* 
 
 On the 21st October, at seven in the 
 morning, the gates of the principal 
 church of Homburg were thrown open, 
 and the prelates, abbots, priests, counts, 
 knights, and deputies of the towns, en- 
 tered in succession, and in the midst of 
 them was Philip, in his quality of first 
 member of the Church. 
 
 After Lambert had explained and pro- 
 ved his theses, he added : " Let him stand 
 forth who has anything to say against 
 them." There was at first a profound 
 silence ; but at length Nicholas Ferber, 
 superior of the Franciscans of Marburg, 
 who in 1524, applying to Rome's favour- 
 ite argument, had entreated the Land- 
 grave to employ the sword against the 
 heretics, began to speak with drooping 
 head, and downcast eyes ; but as he invo- 
 ked Augustin, Peter Lombard, and other 
 doctors to his assistance, the Landgrave 
 observed to him : " Do not put forward the 
 wavering opinions of men, but the Word 
 of God, which alone fortifies and strength- 
 ens our hearts." The Franciscan sat 
 down in confusion, saying : " This is not 
 the place for replying." The disputa- 
 tion, however, recommenced, and Lam- 
 bert, showing all the fire of the South, 
 so astonished his adversary, that the su- 
 perior, alarmed at what he called " thun- 
 ders of blasphemy and lightnings of im- 
 piety,"! sat down again, observing a sec- 
 ond time, " This is not the place for re- 
 plying." 
 
 In vain did the Chancellor Feige de- 
 clare to him that each man had the right 
 of maintaining his opinion with full lib- 
 erty ; in vain did the Landgrave himself 
 exclaim that the Church was sighing af- 
 ter truth : silence had become Rome's 
 refuge. " I will defend the doctrine of 
 purgatory," a priest had said prior to the 
 discussion ; " I will attack the paradoxes 
 under the sixth head (on the true priest- 
 hood)," had said another ;$ and a third 
 
 * Apagesis, nebulo ! qui quod impugnes infir- 
 mesqueinvenirehaud possis! hisquedictis scabel- 
 lum ei mux subtrahit, ut miser ille praeceps in 
 lutum ageretur— (Oth. Mel. Joe. Cent.) 
 
 t Fulcura impietatum, tonitrua blaspliemiarum. 
 
 t Erant enim prius qui dicerent : Ego asseram 
 purgatorium ; alius, Ego impugnabo paradoxa 
 tituli sexti, etc. — (Lamberti Epistola ad Colon ' 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 637 
 
 had exclaimed, " I will overthrow those 
 under the tenth head (on images) ;" but 
 now they were all dumb. 
 
 Upon this Lambert, clasping- his hands, 
 exclaimed with Zacharias : Blessed be the 
 Lord God cf Israel; for he hath visited and 
 redeemed his people. 
 
 After three days of discussion, which 
 had been a continual triumph for the 
 evangelical doctrine, men were selected 
 and commissioned to constitute the 
 churches of Hesse in accordance with 
 the Word of God. They were more than 
 three days occupied in the task, and then 
 their new constitution was published in 
 the name of the synod. 
 
 The first ecclesiastical constitution pro- 
 duced by the Reformation should have a 
 place in history, so much the more as it 
 was then set forward as a model for the 
 new Churches of Christendom.* 
 
 The autonomy or self-government of 
 the Church is its fundamental principle : 
 it is from the Church, from its represen- 
 tatives assembled in the name of the 
 Lord, that this legislation emanates ; 
 there is no mention in the prologue ei- 
 ther of state or of Landgrave.f Philip. 
 content with having broken for himself 
 and for his people the yoke of a foreign 
 priest, had no desire to put himself in 
 his place, and was satisfied with an ex- 
 ternal superintendence, necessary for the 
 maintenance of order. 
 
 A second distinctive feature in this 
 constitution is its simplicity both of gov- 
 ernment and worship. The assembly 
 conjures all future synods not to load the 
 Churches with a multitude of ordinances. 
 " seeing that where orders abound, disor- 
 der superabounds." They would not 
 even continue the organs in the churches, ! 
 because, said they, '• men should under- 
 stand what they "hear."| The more the 
 human mind has been bent in one direc- 
 tion, the more violent is the reaction in 
 the contrary direction when it is unbent. 
 The Church passed at that time from the 
 extreme of symbols to that of simplicity. 
 These are the principal features of this 
 constitution : — 
 
 * This constitution will be found in Schminke. 
 Monumenta Hassiaca, vol. ii. p. 588 : M Pro Haa- 
 siffi Ecclesiis, et si deinde nonnullae alicc ad idem 
 nostro exemplo provocarentur." 
 
 + Svnodus in nomine Domini congregata. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 I Ne homines non intelligant. — (Ibid. cap. 3.) 
 
 " The Church can only be taught and 
 governed by the Word of its Sovereign 
 Pastor. Whoever has recourse to any 
 other word shall be deposed and excom- 
 municated.' 
 
 a Every pious man, learned in the 
 Word of God, whatever be his condition, 
 may be elected bishop if he desire it, for 
 he is called inwardly of God. f 
 
 ' ; Let no one believe that by a bishop 
 we understand anything else than a sim- 
 ple minister of the Word of God.J 
 
 •• The ministers are servants, and con- 
 sequently they ought not to be lords, 
 princes, or governors. 
 
 " Let the faithful assemble and choose 
 their bishops and deacons. Each church 
 should elect its own pastor.^ . 
 
 k: Let those who are elected bishops be 
 consecrated to their office by the imposi- 
 tion of the hands of three bishops ; and 
 as for the deacons, if there are no minis- 
 ters present, let them receive the laying 
 on of hands from the elders of the 
 Church. || 
 
 " If a bishop causes any scandal to the 
 Church by his effeminacy, or by the 
 splendour of his garments, or by the lev- 
 ity of his conduct, and if, on being warn- 
 ed, he persists, let him be deposed by the 
 Church. •[ 
 
 - Let each church place its bishop in a 
 condition to live with his family, and to 
 be hospitable, as St. Paul enjoins ; but 
 let the bishops exact nothing for their 
 casual duties.** 
 
 '• On every Sunday let there be in some 
 suitable place an assembly of all the men 
 who are in the number of the saints, to 
 regulate with the bishop, according to 
 God's Word, all the affairs of the Church, 
 and to excommunicate whoever gives oc- 
 
 * Non admittimus verbum aliud quam ipsius 
 pastoris nostri. — (Schminke, Monumenta Hassia- 
 ca. cap. 2.) 
 
 t Si quis pius, in verbo sancto et excrcitatus, 
 doeere petit verbum sanctum, non repellatur, a 
 Deo enim interne mittitur. — (Ibid. cap. 23.) 
 
 : Ne quis putet, nos hie per episcopos, alios in- 
 telhgere, quam ministros Dei verbi. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § "Eli<Tat qufflvis ecclesia episcopum suum. — 
 (Ibid. cap. 23.) 
 
 II Manus imponant duo ex senioribus, nisi alii 
 episcopi intersint. — (Ibid. cap. 21.) 
 
 TT Deponat ecclesia episcopum suum, quod ad 
 earn spectet judicare de voce pastorum. — (Ibid, 
 cap. 23.) 
 
 ** Alat qusvis ecclesia episcopum suum sicqne 
 illi administret ut cum sua familia vivere possit 
 — (Schminke, Monumenta Hassiaca, cap. «J.) 
 
638 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 casion of scandal to the Church ; for the 
 Church of Christ has never existed with- 
 out exercising the power of excommuni- 
 cation.* 
 
 "As a weekly assembly is necessary 
 for the direction of the particular churches, 
 so a general synod should be held annu- 
 ally for the direction of all the churches 
 in the country, f 
 
 " All the pastors are its natural mem- 
 bers ; but each church shall further elect 
 from its body a man full of the Spirit and 
 of faith, to whom it shall intrust it pow- 
 ers for all that is in the jurisdiction of the 
 synod. | 
 
 " Three visiters shall be elected year- 
 ly, with commission to go through all the 
 churches, to examine those who have 
 been elected bishops, to confirm those 
 who have been approved of, and to pro- 
 vide for the execution of the decrees of 
 the synol" 
 
 It will no doubt be found that this first 
 evangelical constitution went in some 
 points to the extreme of ecclesiastical de- 
 mocracy ; but certain institutions had 
 crept in that were capable of increase and 
 of changing its nature. Six superinten- 
 dents for life were afterwards substituted 
 for these annual visiters (who, according 
 to the primitive institution, might be sim- 
 ple members of the church) ; and, as has 
 been remarked,^ the encroachments, 
 whether of these superintendents or of 
 the state, gradually paralyzed the activity 
 and independence of the churches of 
 Hesse. This constitution fared as did 
 that of the Abbe Sieyes, in the year 8, 
 which, being destined to be republican, 
 served through the influence of Napoleon 
 Bonaparte to establish the despotism of 
 the Empire. 
 
 It was not the less a remarkable work. 
 Romish doctors have reproached the Re- 
 formation for making the Church a too 
 interior institution. || In effect, the Refor- 
 
 * Fiat convcntus fidelium in congruo loco, ad 
 quein quotquot ex viris in sanctorum numcro ha- 
 bentur .... Christi ecclcsia.n nunquam fuisse sine 
 excommunieatione. — (Ibid. cap. 15.) 
 
 t Ut seme] pro toto Hessia celebretur synodus 
 apud Marpurirum tertia dominica post pascha. — 
 (Ibid. cap. 18.) 
 
 } Universi episcopi Qunelibet ecclesia con- 
 
 gregctur et eligat ex se ipsa unuai plenum fitfc et 
 Spiritu Dei.— (Ibid.) 
 
 § Rettig, Die Freie Kirche. 
 
 II This is the opinion set forth in the Symbolik 
 of Dr. Rjfihler, the most celebrated defender of tile 
 Romish doctrine among our contemporaries. 
 
 mation and Popery recognise two .ele- 
 ments in the Church, — the one exterior, 
 the other interior ; but while Popery 
 gives precedence to the former, the Re- 
 formation assigns it to the latter. If how- 
 ever it be a reproach against the Refor- 
 mation for having an inward Church 
 only, and for not creating an external 
 one, the remarkable constitution of which 
 we have just exhibited a few features, 
 will save us the trouble of reply. The 
 exterior ecclesiastical order, which then 
 sprung from the very heart of the Refor- 
 mation, is far more perfect than that of 
 Popery. 
 
 One great question presented itself: 
 Will these principles be adopted by all 
 the Churches of the Reformation ? 
 
 Everything seemed to indicate as much. 
 The most pious men thought at that time 
 that the ecclesiastical power proceeded 
 from the members of the Church. By 
 withdrawing from the hierarchical ex- 
 treme, they flung themselves into a de- 
 mocratical one. Luther himself had pro- 
 fessed this doctrine as early as 15:23. 
 The Calixtins of Bohemia, on seeing the 
 bishops of their country refuse them min- 
 isters, had gone so far as to take the first 
 vagabond priest. " If you have no other 
 means of procuring pastors," wrote Lu- 
 ther to them, " rather do without them, 
 and let each head of a family read the 
 Gospel in his own house, and baptise his 
 children, sighing after the sacrament of 
 the altar as the Jews at Babylon did for 
 Jerusalem.* The consecration of the 
 Pope creates priests — not of God, but of 
 the devil, ordained solely to trample Je- 
 sus Christ under foot, to bring his sacri- 
 fice to naught, and to sell imaginary holo- 
 causts to the world in his name.| Men 
 become ministers only by election and 
 calling, and that ought to be effected in 
 the following manner : — • 
 
 " First, seek God by prayer ;| then be- 
 ing assembled together with all those 
 whose hearts God has touched, choose 
 in the Lord's name him or them whom 
 you shall have acknowledged to be fitted 
 
 * Tutius enim et salubrius esset, quemlibet ' 
 patrem-familias sure domui legwe Evangelium. — 
 (L. Opp. lat. ii. p. 363.) 
 
 + Per ordines papisticos non saeerdotes Dei sed 
 sacerdotes Satanoe, tantuai ut Christum concul- 
 ceat.— -(Ibid. p. 364.) 
 
 ; Orationibus tu;u privatis turn publicis.— (IbidL 
 P . 3*fc} 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 639 
 
 for this ministry. After that, let the chief 
 men among you lay their hands on them, 
 and recommend them to the people and 
 to the Church."* 
 
 Luther, in thus calling upon the peo- 
 ple alone to nominate their pastors, sub- 
 mitted to the necessities of the times. It 
 was requisite to constitute the ministry ; 
 but the ministry having no existence, it 
 could not then have the legitimate part 
 that belongs to it in the choice of God's 
 ministers. 
 
 But another necessity, proceeding in 
 like manner from the state of affairs, was 
 to incline Luther to deviate from the 
 principles he had laid down. 
 
 The German Reformation can hardly 
 be said to have begun with the lower 
 classes, as in Switzerland and France ; 
 and Luther could scarcely find anywhere 
 that christian people, which should have 
 played so great a part in his new consti- 
 tution. Ignorant men, conceited towns- 
 people, who would not even maintain 
 their ministers — these were the members 
 of the Church. Now what could be done 
 with such elements 1 
 
 But if the people were indifferent, the 
 princes were not so. They stood in the 
 foremost rank of the battle, and sat on the 
 first bench in the council. The demo- 
 cratic organization was therefore compel- 
 led to give way to an organization con- 
 formable to the civil government. The 
 Church is composed of Christians, and 
 they are taken wherever they are found 
 — high or low. It was particularly in 
 high stations that Luther found them. He 
 admitted the princes as representatives of 
 the people ; and henceforward the in- 
 fluence of the state became one of the 
 principal elements in the constitution of 
 the evangelical Church. 
 
 In the mind of the Reformer, this 
 guardianship of the princes was only to 
 be provisional. The faithful being then 
 in minority, they had need of a guardian ; 
 but the era of the Church's majority 
 might arrive, and with it would come its 
 emancipation. 
 
 We may admit that this recourse to the 
 \ civil power was at that time necessary, 
 ;' but we cannot deny that it was also a 
 
 * Eligite quern et quos volueritis. Turn im- 
 positis super cos manibus, sint hoc ipso vestri 
 episcopi, vestri ininistri, seu pastores. — (L. Opp. 
 lat ii. p. 370.) 
 
 source of difficulties. We will point out 
 only one. When Protestantism became 
 an affair of governments and nations, it 
 ceased £> be universal. The new spirit 
 was capable of creating a new earth. But 
 instead of opening new roads, and of pur- 
 posing the regeneration of all Christen- 
 dom, and the conversion of the whole 
 world, the Protestants sought to settle 
 themselves as comfortably as possible in 
 a few German duchies. This timidity, 
 which has been called prudence, did im- 
 mense injury to the Reformation. 
 
 The organizing power being once dis- 
 covered, the Reformers thought of organ- 
 ization, and Luther applied to the task ; 
 for although he was in an especial man- 
 ner an assailant and Calvin an organizer, 
 these two qualities, as necessary to the 
 reformers of the Church as to the found- 
 ers of empires, were not wanting in either 
 of these great servants of God. 
 
 It was necessary to, compose a new 
 ministry, for most of the priests who had 
 quitted the Papacy were content to re- 
 ceive the watchword of Reform without 
 having personally experienced the sancti- 
 fying virtue of the Truth. There was 
 even one parish in which the priest 
 preached the Gospel in his principal 
 church, and sang mass in its succur- 
 sal.* But something more was want- 
 ing : a Christian people had to be crea- 
 ted. " Alas !" said Luther of some of the 
 adherents of the Reform, ' : they have 
 abandoned their Romish doctrines and 
 rites, and they scoff at ours."f 
 
 Luther did not shrink from before this 
 double necessity ; and he made provision 
 for it. Understanding that a general visita- 
 tion of the churches was necessary, head- 
 dressed the Elector on this subject, on the 
 22 1 October 1526. " Your highness, in 
 your quality of guardian of youth, and of 
 all those who- know not how to take care 
 of themselves," said he, " should compel 
 the inhabitants, who desire neither pas- 
 tors nor schools, to receive these means 
 of grace, as they are compelled to work 
 on the roads, on bridges, and such like 
 services.!; The papal order being abol* 
 
 * In ffide parochiali evangelico more docebat, in 
 filiali missi futbat. — (Seek. p. 102.) 
 
 t Sic enim sua papistica neglexerunt, et nostra 
 contemnunt. — (L. Epp. iii. p. 224.) 
 
 X Als oberster vormund der Jugend und aller 
 die es bedurfen, sal! sie mit Gewalt dazu hallen. 
 — (L. Epp. iii. p. 13u\) 
 
640 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ished it is your duty to regulate these 
 things ; no other person cares about them, 
 no ether can, and no other ought to do 
 so. Commission, therefore, four persons 
 to visit all the country ; let two of them 
 inquire into the tithes and church prop- 
 erty ; and let two take charge of the doc- 
 trine, schools, churches, and pastors." 
 We naturally ask, on reading these words, 
 if the church which was formed in the 
 first century, without the support of prin- 
 ces, could not in the sixteenth be reform- 
 ed without them ? 
 
 Luther was hot content with soliciting 
 in writing the intervention of the prince. 
 He was indignant at seeing the courtiers, 
 who in the time of the Elector Frederick 
 had shown themselves the inveterate ene- 
 mies of the Reformation, rushing now, 
 " sporting, laughing, skipping," as he 
 said, on the spoils of the Church. Ac- 
 cordingly, at the end of this year, the 
 Elector having come to Wittemberg, the 
 Reformer repaired immediately to the 
 palace, made his complaint to the prince- 
 electoral, whom he met at the gate, then 
 without caring about those who stopped 
 him, made his way by force into his fa- 
 ther's bedchamber, and addressing this 
 prince, who was surprised at so unexpect- 
 ed a visit, begged him to remedy the evils 
 of the Church. The visitation of the 
 churches was resolved upon, and Me- 
 lancthon was commissioned to draw up 
 the necessary instructions. 
 
 In 1526, Luther had published his 
 " German Mass," by which he signified 
 the order of church service in general. 
 " The real evangelical assemblies," he 
 said, " do not take place publicly, pell- 
 mell, admitting people of every sort ;* 
 but they are formed of serious Christians, 
 who confess the Gospel by their words 
 and by their lives,f and in the midst of 
 whom we may reprove and excommuni- 
 cate, according to the rule of Christ Je- 
 sus.;}: I cannot institute such assemblies, 
 for I have no one to place in them ;§ but 
 if the thing becomes possible, I shall not 
 be wanting in this duty." 
 
 It was also with a conviction that he 
 
 * Non publice, sive promiscue et admissa omnis 
 generis plebe. — (De Missa Germ.) 
 
 t Qui nomina sua in catalogum referrent, adds 
 he.— (Ibid.) 
 
 t Excommunicari qui Christiano more se non 
 gererent. — (De Missa Germ.) 
 
 § Neque emm habeo qui suit idonei. — (Ibid.) 
 
 must give the Church, not the best form 
 of worship imaginable, but the best pos- 
 sible, that Melancthon laboured at his In- 
 structions. 
 
 The German Reformation at that time 
 tacked about, as it were. If Lambert m 
 Hesse had gone to the extreme of a demo- 
 cratical system, Melancthon in Saxony 
 was approximating the contrary extreme 
 of traditional principles. A conservative 
 principle was substituted for a reforming 
 one. Melancthon wrote to one of the 
 inspectors :* " All the old ceremonies 
 that you can preserve, pray do so.f Do 
 not innovate much, for every innovation 
 is injurious to the people."! 
 
 They retained, therefore, the Latin 
 liturgy, a few German hymns being 
 mingled with it ;§ the communion in one 
 kind for those only who scrupled from 
 habit to take it in both ; a confession 
 made to the priest without being in any 
 way obligatory ; many saints' days, the 
 sacred vestments,|| and other rites, "in 
 which," said Melancthon, " there is no 
 harm, whatever Zwingle may say."^ 
 And at the same time they set forth with 
 reserve the doctrines of the Reformation. 
 
 It is but right to confess the dominion 
 of facts and circumstances upon these ec- 
 clesiastical organizations ; but there is a 
 dominion which rises higher still — that 
 of the Word of God. 
 
 Perhaps what Melancthon did was all 
 that could be effected at that time : but it 
 was necessary for the work to be one day 
 resumed and re-established on its primi- 
 tive plan, and this was Calvin's glory. 
 
 A cry of astonishment was heard .both 
 from the camp of Rome and from that 
 of the Reformation. " Our cause is be- 
 trayed," exclaimed some of the evangeli- 
 cal Christians : " the liberty is taken 
 away that Jesus Christ had given us."** 
 
 * Dr. Dewette thinks this letter is Luther's (L. 
 Epp. iii. p. 352). It appears clear to me, as also 
 to Dr. Bretschneider, that it is Melancthon's. 
 Luther never went so far in the way of concession. 
 
 t Observo quantum ex veteribus Cferemoniis 
 retineri potest, retineas. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 990.) 
 
 t Omnis novitas nocet in vulgo. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Non aboleas earn totam (the Latin mass): 
 satis est alicubi miscere Germanicas cantationes. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 II Ut retineantur vestes usitatse in sacris.— 
 (Corp. Ref. ad Jonam, 20th December 1527.) 
 
 IT Vel si Zwinglius ipse pradicaturus Bit — 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 910.) 
 
 ** Alii dicerent prodi causam. — (Camer. Vita 
 Melancthon, p. 107.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 641 
 
 On their part the Ultramontanists tri- 
 umphed in Melancthon's moderation : 
 they called it a retractation, and took ad- 
 vantage of it to insult the Reform. 
 Cochloeus published a u horrible" engra- 
 ving, as he styles it himself, in which, 
 from beneath the same hood was seen is- 
 suing a seven-headed monster represent- 
 ing Luther. Each of these heads had 
 different features, and all, uttering to- 
 gether the most frightful and contradic- 
 tory words, kept disputing, tearing, and 
 devouring each other.* 
 
 The astonished Elector resolved to 
 communicate Melancthon's paper to Lu- 
 ther. But never did the Reformer's res- 
 pect r for his friend show itself in a more 
 striking manner. He only made one or 
 two unimportant additions to this plan, 
 and sent it back accompanied with the 
 highest eulogiums. The Romanists said 
 that the tiger caught in a net was lick- 
 ing the hands that clipped his talons. 
 But it was not so. Luther knew that 
 the aim of Melancthon's labours was to 
 strengthen the very soul of the Reforma- 
 tion in all the churches of Saxony. That 
 was sufficient for him. He thought be- 
 sides, that in every thing there must be 
 a transition; and being justly convinced 
 that his friend was more than himself a 
 man of transition, he frankly accepted 
 his views. 
 
 The general visitation began. Luther 
 in Saxony, Spalatin in the districts of Al- 
 tenburg and Zwickau, Melancthon in 
 Thuringia, and Thuring in Franconia, 
 with ecclesiastical deputies and several 
 lay colleagues, commenced the work in 
 October and November 1528. 
 
 They purified the clergy by dismissing 
 every priest of scandalous life ;f.they as- 
 signed a portion of the church property 
 to the maintenance of public worship, 
 and they placed the remainder beyond the 
 reach of plunder ; they continued the 
 suppression of the convents ; they estab- 
 lished everywhere unity of instruction ; 
 and " Luther's greater and smaller cate- 
 chisms," which appeared in 1529, con- 
 tributed more perhaps than any other 
 writings to propagate throughout the new 
 churches the ancient faith of the Apos- 
 
 * Monstrosus ille Germanise partus, Lutherus 
 septiceps. — (Cochloeus, p. 169.) 
 
 t Viginti fere rudes et inepti, multique concu- 
 binarii et potatores deprehensi sunt. — (Seckend. 
 p. 102.) 
 
 ties ; they commissioned the pastors of 
 the great towns, under the title of super- 
 intendents, to watch over the churches 
 and the schools ; they maintained the 
 abolition of celibacy ; and the ministers 
 of the Word, become husbands and fa- 
 thers, formed the germ of a third estate, 
 whence in after-years were diffused in 
 all ranks of society learning, activity, 
 and light. This is one of the truest 
 causes of the intellectual and moral su- 
 periority that indisputably distinguishes 
 the evangelical nations. 
 
 The organization of the churches in 
 Saxony, notwithstanding its imperfec- 
 tions, produced for that time at least the 
 most important results. This was be- 
 cause the Word of God prevailed ; and 
 because, wherever this Word exercises 
 its power, secondary errors and abuses 
 are paralyzed. The very discretion that 
 was employed proceeded in reality from 
 a good principle. The reformers, unlike 
 the enthusiasts, did not utterly reject an 
 institution because it was corrupted. 
 They did not say, for example : " The 
 sacraments are disfigured, let us do with- 
 out them ! the ministry is corrupt, let us 
 reject it !" — but they rejected the abuse, 
 and restored the use. This prudence is 
 the mark of a work of God ; and if Lu- 
 ther sometimes permitted the chaff to re- 
 main along with the wheat, Calvin ap- 
 peared later, and more thoroughly 
 purged the Christian threshing-floor. 
 
 The organization which was at that 
 time accomplishing in Saxony, exerted a 
 strong - reaction on all the German em- 
 pire, and the doctrine of the Gospel ad- 
 vanced with gigantic strides. The de- 
 sign of God in turning aside from the 
 reformed states of Germany, the thun- 
 derbolt that he caused to fall upon the 
 seven-hilled city, was clearly manifest. 
 Never were years more usefully em- 
 ployed ; and it was not only to framing 
 a constitution that the Reformation de- 
 voted itself, it was also to extend its doc- 
 trine. 
 
 The duchies of Luneburg and Bruns- 
 wick, many of the most important impe- 
 rial cities, as Nuremberg, Augsburg. 
 Ulm, Strasburg, Gottingen, Gosslar. 
 Nordhausen, Lubeck, Bremen, and Ham- 
 burg, removed the tapers from the chap- 
 els, and substituted in their place the 
 brighter torch of the Word of God. 
 
642 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 In vain did the frightened canons al- 
 lege the authority of the Church. " The 
 authority of the Church," replied Kempe 
 and Zechenhagen, the reformer of Ham- 
 burg "cannot be acknowledged unless 
 the Church herself obeys her pastor Je- 
 sus Christ."* Pomeranus visited many 
 places to put a finishing hand to the Re- 
 form. 
 
 In Franconia, the Margrave George, 
 of Brandenburg, having reformed Ans- 
 pach and Bayreuth, wrote to his ancient 
 protector, Ferdinand of Austria, who had 
 knit his brows on hearing of his reform- 
 ing proceedings : " I have done this by 
 God's order ; for he commands princes to 
 take care not only of the bodies of their 
 subjects, but also of their souls."f 
 
 In East Friesland, on new-year's day, 
 1527, a Dominican named Resius, having 
 put on his hood,;J; ascended the pulpit at 
 Noorden, and declared himself ready to 
 maintain certain theses according to the 
 tenor of the Gospel. Having silenced 
 the Abbot of Noorden by the soundness 
 of his arguments, Resius took off his 
 cowl, laid it on the pulpit, and was re- 
 ceived in the nave by the acclamations of 
 the faithful. Ere long the whole of 
 Friesland laid aside the uniform of Po- 
 pery, as Resius had done. 
 
 At Berlin, Elizabeth, electress of Bran- 
 denburg, having read Luther's works, 
 felt a desire to receive the Lord's supper 
 in conformity with Christ's institution : a 
 minister secretly administered it at the 
 festival of Easter, 1528: but one of her 
 children informed the Elector. Joachim 
 was greatly exasperated, and ordered his 
 Avife to keep her room for several days ;§ 
 it was even said that he intended to shut 
 her up. || This princess, being deprived 
 of all religious support, and mistrusting 
 the perfidious manoeuvres of the Romish 
 priests, resolved to escape by flight ; and 
 she claimed the assistance of her brother, 
 Christian II. of Denmark, who was then 
 
 * Evangelici auctoritatem Ecelesioe non aliter 
 agnoscendam esse contendebant quara si vocem 
 pastoris Christi sequeretur. — (Seekend. i. p. 245.) 
 
 t Non modo quoad corpus, sed etiam quoad 
 animam. — (Seekend. ii. p. 121.) 
 
 t Resius, cucullum indutus, sucrgestum ascen- 
 dit. — (Scultet. Ann. p. 93.) 
 
 § Aliquot diebus a marito in cubiculo detenta 
 fuisse. — (Seekend. ii. p. 122.) 
 
 II Marchio statuerat earn immurare. — (L. Epp. 
 da Lenkium, iii. p. 296.) 
 
 residing at Torgau. Taking advantage 
 of a dark night, she quitted the castle in 
 a peasant's dress, and got into a rude 
 country-waggon that was waiting for her 
 at the gate of the city. Elizabeth urged 
 on the driver, when, in a bad road, the 
 wain broke down. The electress, hastily 
 unfastening a handkerchief she wore 
 round her head, flung it to the man, who 
 employed it in repairing the damage, and 
 ere long Elizabeth arrived at Torgau. 
 " If I should expose you to any risk," 
 said she to her uncle, the Elector of Sax- 
 ony, " I am ready to go wherever Provi- 
 dence may guide me." But John as- 
 signed her a residence in the castle of 
 Lichtenberg, on the Elbe, near Wittem- 
 berg. Without taking upon us to ap- 
 prove of Elizabeth's flight, let us ac- 
 knowledge the good that God's Provi- 
 dence drew from it. This amiable lady, 
 who lived at Lichtenberg, in the study 
 of His word, seldom appearing at court, 
 frequently going to hear Luther's ser- 
 mons, and exercising a salutary influence 
 over her children, who sometimes had 
 permission to see her, was the first of 
 those pious princesses whom the house 
 of Brandenburg has counted, and even 
 still counts, among its members. 
 
 At the same time, Holstein, Sleswick, 
 and Silesia decided in favour of the 
 Reformation : and Hungary, as well as 
 Bohemia, saw the number of its adherents 
 increase. 
 
 In every place, instead of a hierarchy 
 seeking its righteousness in the works of 
 man, its glory in external pomp, its 
 strength in a material power, the Church 
 of the Apostles reappeared, humble as in 
 primitive times, and like the ancient 
 Christians, looking for its righteousness, 
 its glory, and its power solely in the 
 blood of Christ and in the Word of 
 God.* 
 
 IV. All these triumphs of the Gospel 
 could not pass unperceived ; there was a 
 powerful reaction, and until political cir- 
 cumstances should permit a grand attack 
 upon the Reformation on the very soil 
 where it was established, and of perse- 
 cuting it by means of diets, and if neces- 
 sary by armies, they began to persecute 
 in detail in the Romish countries with 
 tortures and the scaffold. 
 
 * Revelation xii. 11. 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 643 
 
 On the 20th August, 1527, King Ferdi- 
 nand, hy the Edict of Ofen in Hungary, 
 published a tariff of crimes and penalties, 
 in which he threatened death by the 
 sword, by fire, or by water,* against who- 
 ever should say that Mary was a woman 
 like other women ; or partake of the sacra- 
 ment in an heretical manner; or conse- 
 crate the bread and wine, not being a 
 Romish priest ; and further, in the second 
 case, the house in which the sacrament 
 shou'd have been administered was to be 
 confiscated or rased to the ground. 
 
 Such was not the legislation of Lu- 
 ther. Link having asked him if it were 
 lawful for the magistrate to put the false 
 prophets to death, meaning the Sacrament- 
 arians, whose doctrines Luther attacked 
 with so much force,f the Reformer re- 
 plied : " I am slow whenever life is con- 
 cerned, even if the offender is exceeding- 
 ly guilty.}; I can by no means admit 
 that the false teachers should be put to 
 death ;§ it is sufficient to remove them." 
 For ages the Romish Church has bathed 
 in blood. Luther was the first to profess 
 the great principles of humanity and re- 
 ligious liberty. 
 
 They sometimes had recourse to more 
 expeditious proceedings than the scaffold 
 iteelf. George Winkler, pastor of Halle, 
 having been summoned before Arch- 
 bishop Albert in the spring of 1527, for 
 having administered the sacrament in 
 both kinds, had been acquitted. As this 
 minister was returning home along an 
 unfrequented road in the midst of the 
 woods, he was suddenly attacked by a 
 number of horsemen, who murdered 
 him, and immediately fled through the 
 thickets without taking anything from 
 his. person. || " The world," exclaimed 
 Luther, " is a cavern of assassins under 
 the command of the devil ; an inn, whose 
 landlord is a brigand, and which bears 
 this sign, Lies and Murder; and none 
 
 * Die sollen mit den Feuer Schwerdt oder 
 Wasser gestraft werden. — (Ferd. Mandat. L. 
 Opp. xix. p. 596.) 
 
 t Contra hostes sacramentarios strenue nobis- 
 cum certare. — (Epp. to Lenk, July 14, 1528.) 
 
 X Ego ad judicium sanguinis tardus sum, etiam 
 ubi mcritum abundat. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Nullo modo possum admittere falsos doctores 
 occidi. — (Epp. to Lenk, July 14, 1528.) 
 
 II Mox enim ut interfecerunt, aufugerunt per 
 avia loca, nihil praedae aut pecuniae capientes. — 
 (CochL p. 152.) 
 
 are more readily murdered therein than 
 those who proclaim Jesus Christ." 
 
 At Munich George Carpenter was led 
 to the scaffold for having denied that the 
 baptism of water is able by its own vir- 
 tue to save a man. " When you are 
 thrown into the fire," said some of his 
 brethren, " give us a sign by which we 
 may know that you persevere in the 
 faith." — " As long as I can open my 
 mouth, I will confess the name of the 
 Lord Jesus."* The executioner stretched 
 him on a ladder, tied a small bag of gun- 
 powder round his neck, and then flung 
 him into the flames. Carpenter imme- 
 diately cried out, " Jesus ! Jesus !" and 
 the executioner having turned him again 
 and again with his hooks,, the martyr 
 several times repeated the word Jesus, 
 and expired. 
 
 At Landsberg nine persons were con- 
 signed to the flames, and at Munich 
 twenty-nine were thrown into the water. 
 At Scherding, Leonard Keyser, a friend 
 and disciple of Luther, having been con- 
 demned by the bishop, had his head 
 shaved, and being dressed in a smock 
 frock, was placed on horseback. As the 
 executioners were cursing and swearing, 
 because they could not disentangle the 
 ropes with which he was to be bound, 
 he said to them mildly : " Dear friends, 
 your bonds are not necessary ; my Lord 
 Christ has already bound me." When he 
 drew near the stake, Keyser looked at 
 the crowd and exclaimed : " Behold the 
 harvest ! O Master, send forth thy labour- 
 ers !" He then ascended the scaffold and 
 said : ' ; O Jesu, save me ! I am thine." 
 These were his last words, f " Who am 
 I, a wordy preacher," exclaimed Luther, 
 when he received the news of his death, 
 •• in comparison with this great doer?"| 
 
 Thus the Reformation manifested by 
 such striking works the truth that it had 
 come to re-establish ; namely, that faith 
 is not, as Rome maintains, an historical, 
 vain, dead knowledge.^ but a lively 
 
 * Dum os aperire licebit, servatoris nostri no- 
 men profiteri nunquam interinittam. — (Scultet. ii. 
 p. 110.) 
 
 t Incenso jam igne, clara voce proclamavit : 
 Tuus sum Jesu! Salva me! — (Seckend. ii. p. 
 85.) 
 
 X Tam impar verbosus praedicator, illi tain po- 
 tenti verbi operator. — (L. Epp. iii. p. 1214.) 
 
 § Si quis dixerit fidem non esse veram fidem, 
 
644 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, 
 
 faith the work of the Holy Ghost, the 
 channel by which Christ fills the heart 
 with new desires and with new affections, 
 the true worship of the living God. 
 
 These martyrdoms filled Germany 
 with horror, and gloomy forebodings de- 
 scended from the thrones among the 
 ranks of the people. Around the do- 
 mestic hearth, in the long winter even- 
 ings, the conversation wholly turned on 
 prisons, tortures, scaffolds, and martyrs ; 
 and the slightest noise alarmed the old 
 men, women, and children. These nar- 
 ratives gained strength from mouth to 
 mouth ; the rumour of a universal con- 
 spiracy against the Gospel spread through 
 all the Empire. Its adversaries, taking 
 advantage of this terror, announced with 
 a mysterious air that they must look du- 
 ring this year (1528) for some decisive 
 measure against the Reform.* One 
 scoundrel resolved to profit by this state 
 of mind to satisfy his avarice. 
 
 No blows are more terrible to a cause 
 than those which it inflicts upon itself. 
 The Reformation, seized with a dizzi- 
 ness, was on the verge of self-destruction. 
 There is a spirit of error that conspires 
 against the cause of truth, beguiling by 
 subtlety ;f the Reformation was about to 
 experience its attacks, and to stagger un- 
 der the most formidable assault, — pertur- 
 bation of thought, and estrangement 
 from the ways of wisdom and of truth. 
 
 Otho of Pack, vice-chancellor to Duke 
 George of Saxony, was a crafty and dis- 
 sipated man ,| who took advantage of his 
 office, and had recourse to all sorts of 
 practices to procure money. The Duke 
 having on one occasion sent him to the 
 Diet of Nuremberg as his representative, 
 the Bishop of Merseburg confided to him 
 his contribution towards the imperial 
 government. The Bishop having been 
 afterwards called upon for this money, 
 Pack declared that he had paid it to a 
 citizen of Nuremberg, whose seal and 
 signature he produced. This paper was 
 a forgery ; Pack himself was the author 
 
 licet non fit viva, aut eum qui fidem sine charitate 
 habet, non essechristianum, anathemasit. — (Cone. 
 Frid. Sess. 6, p. 28.) 
 
 * Nescio quid mirariquod hoc anno contra ref- 
 ormationem expectandum sit. — (Seckend ii. p. 
 101.) 
 
 t 2 Corinthians xi. 3. 
 
 t Homo erat versutus, et praeterea prodigus, quo 
 Yitio ad alia inductus est.-^(Seckend. ii. p. 94.) 
 
 of it.* This wretch, however, put an 
 impudent face on the matter, and as he 
 was not convicted, he preserved the con- 
 fidence of his master. Erelong an op- 
 portunity presented itself of exercising 
 his criminal talent on a larger scale. 
 
 No one entertained greater suspicions 
 with regard to the Papists than the 
 Landgrave of IJesse. Young, suscepti- 
 ble, and restless, he was always on the 
 alert. In the month of February 1528, 
 Pack happening to be at Cassel to assist 
 Philip in some difficult business, the 
 Landgrave imparted to him his fears. 
 If any one could have had any knowledge 
 of the designs of the Papists, it must have 
 been the vice-chancellor, one of the 
 greatest enemies to the Reform. The 
 crafty Pack heaved a sigh, bent down 
 his eyes, and was silent. Philip imme- 
 diately became uneasy, entreated him, 
 and promised to do nothing that would 
 injure the Duke. Then Pack, as if he 
 had allowed an important secret to be 
 torn from him with regret, confessed that 
 a league against the Lutherans had been 
 concluded at Breslau on the Wednesday 
 following Jubilate Sunday, 12th May 
 1527; and engaged to procure the original 
 of this act for the Landgrave, who offered 
 him for this service a remuneration of ten 
 thousand florins. This was the greatest 
 transaction that this wretched man had 
 ever undertaken ; but it tended to no- 
 thing less than the utter overthrow of 
 the Empire. 
 
 The Landgrave was amazed : he re- 
 strained himself, however, wishing to see 
 the act with his own eyes before inform- 
 ing his allies. He therefore repaired to 
 Dresden. " I cannot," said Pack, " fur- 
 nish you with the original : the Duke al- 
 ways carries it about his person to read it 
 to other princes whom he hopes to gain 
 over. Recently at Leipsic, he showed it 
 to Duke Henry of Brunswick. But here 
 is a copy made by his highness's order." 
 The Landgrave took the document, 
 which bore all the marks of the most 
 perfect authenticity. It was crossed by a 
 cord of black silk, and fastened at both 
 ends by the seal of the ducal chancery. f 
 Above was an impression from the ring 
 Duke George always wore on his finger, 
 
 * It is still to be seen in theTecords at Dresden. 
 t Cui filum sericum circumligatum, et sigillum 
 cancellarise impressum erat. — (Seek. ii. p. 94.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 645 
 
 with the three quartering^ that Philip 
 had so often seen ; at the top, the coronet, 
 and at the bottom, the two lions. He 
 has no more doubts as to its authenticity. 
 But how can we describe his indignation 
 as he read this guilty document ? King 
 Ferdinand, the Electors of Mentz and of 
 Brandenburg, Duke George of Saxony, 
 the Dukes of Bavaria, the Bishops of 
 Salzburg, Wurtzburg, and Bamberg, 
 have entered into a coalition to call upon 
 the Elector of Saxony to deliver up the 
 arch-heretic Luther, with all the apostate 
 priests, monks, and nuns, and to re-estab- 
 lish the ancient worship. If he make 
 default, his states are to be invaded, and 
 this prince and his descendants are to be 
 for ever dispossessed. The same meas- 
 ure was next to be applied to the Land- 
 grave, only (" it was your father-in-law, 
 Duke George," said Pack to Philip, 
 •• who got this clause inserted") his states 
 shall be restored to him in consideration 
 of his youth, if he becomes fully recon- 
 ciled to the Holy Church. The document 
 stated moreover the contingents of men and 
 money to be provided by the confederates, 
 and the share they were to have in the 
 spoils of these two heretical princes.* 
 
 Many circumstances tended to confirm 
 the authenticity of this paper. Ferdi- 
 nand, Joachim of Brandenburg, and 
 George of Saxony, had in fact met at 
 Breslau on the day indicated, and an 
 evangelical prince, the Margrave George, 
 had seen Joachim leave Ferdinand's 
 apartments, holding in his hand a large 
 parchment to which several seals were 
 attached. The agitated Landgrave caus- 
 ed a copy to be taken of this document, 
 promised secrecy for a time, paid Pack 
 four thousand florins, and engaged to 
 make up the sum agreed upon, if he 
 would procure him the original. And 
 then, wishing to prevent the storm, he 
 hastened to Weimar to inform the Elec- 
 tor of this unprecedented conspiracy. 
 
 " I have seen," said he to John and his 
 son, " nay more — I have had in my hands, 
 a duplicate of this horrible treaty. Signa- 
 tures, seals — nothing was wanting.! Here 
 is a copy, and I bind myself to place the 
 original before your eyes. The most fright- 
 
 * Hortleber, De Bello Germanico, ii. p. 579. 
 
 t Nam is affirmahat se archetypon vidissc, 
 commemorabat ofpaytSas. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 
 986.) 
 
 ful danger threatens us — ourselves, our 
 faithful subjects, and the Word of God." 
 
 The Elector had no reason to doubt 
 the account the Landgrave had just given 
 him : he was stunned, confounded, and 
 overpowered. The promptest measures 
 alone could avert such unheard of 
 disasters: everything must -be risked to 
 extricate them from certain destruction. 
 The impetuous Philip breathed fire and 
 flames ;* his plan of defence was already 
 prepared. He presented it, and in the 
 first moment of consternation he carried 
 the consent of his ally, as it were by as- 
 sault. On the 9th March 1528, the two 
 princes agreed to employ all their forces 
 to defend themselves, and even to take 
 the offensive, and to sacrifice life, honour, 
 rank, subjects, and states, to preserve the 
 Word of God. The Dukes of Prussia, 
 Mecklenburg, Luneburg, and Pomerania, 
 the Kings of Denmark and Poland, and 
 the Margrave of Brandenburg, were to 
 be invited to enter into this alliance. 
 Six hundred thousand florins were des- 
 tined for the expenses of the war ; and to 
 procure them, they would raise loans, 
 pledge their cities, and sell the offerings 
 in the churches.! They had already be- 
 gun to raise a powerful army.| The 
 Landgrave set out in person for Nurem- 
 berg and Anspach. The alarm was gen- 
 eral in those countries ; the commotion 
 was felt throughout all Germany,^ and 
 even beyond it. John Zapolya, King of 
 Hungary, at that time a refugee at Cra- 
 cow, promised a hundred thousand flor- 
 ins to raise an army, and twenty thousand 
 florins a month for its maintenance. 
 Thus a spirit of error was misleading 
 the princes ; if it should carry away the 
 Reformers also, the destruction of the Ref- 
 ormation was not far distant. 
 
 But God was watching over them. 
 Supported on the rock of the Word, Me- 
 lancthon and Luther replied : " It is writ- 
 ten, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy 
 God." As soon as these two men whom 
 the danger threatened (for it was they 
 who were to be delivered up to the papal 
 
 * Mirab : liter incensus erat. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 
 986.) 
 
 t Venditisque templorum donariis. — (Seek. ii. 
 p. 95.) 
 
 I Magno studio validum comparaverunt ambo 
 exercitum. — (Cochl. p. 171.) 
 
 § Nonleviter cominotos esse nostrorum animos. 
 —(Corp. Ref. ii. p. 986.) 
 
646 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 power) saw the youthful Landgrave 
 drawing the sword, and the aged Elector 
 himselfputting his hand on the hilt, they 
 uttered a cry, and this cry, which was 
 heard in heaven, saved the Reform. 
 
 Luther, Pomeranus, and Melancthon 
 immediately forwarded the following ad- 
 vice to the Elector : " Above all things, 
 let not the attack proceed from our side, 
 and let no blood be shed through our 
 fault. Let us wait for the enemy, and 
 seek after peace. Send an ambassador to 
 the Emperor to make him acquainted 
 with this hateful plot." 
 
 Thus it was that the faith of the chil- 
 dren of God, which is so despised by 
 politicians, conducted them aright, at the 
 very moment when the diplomatists were 
 going astray. The Elector and his son 
 declared to the Landgrave that they 
 would not assume the offensive. Philip 
 was in amazement. " Are not the pre- 
 parations of the Papists worthy an at- 
 tack ?" asked he.* " What ! we will 
 threaten war, and yet not make it ! We 
 will inflame the hatred of our antagonists, 
 and leave them time to prepare their 
 forces ! No, no ; forward ! It is thus 
 we shall secure the means of an honour- 
 able peace." " If the Landgrave de- 
 sires to begin the war," replied the Re- 
 former, " the Elector is not obliged to ob- 
 serve the treaty ; for we must obey God 
 rather than men. God and the right are 
 above every alliance. Let us beware of 
 painting the devil on our doors, and in- 
 viting him as godfather.! But if the 
 Landgrave is attacked, the Elector ought 
 to go to his assistance ; for it is God's will 
 that we preserve our faith." This advice 
 which the Reformers gave, cost them 
 dear. Never did man, condemned to the 
 torture, endure a punishment like theirs. 
 The fears excited by the Landgrave were 
 succeeded by the terrors inspired by the 
 Papist princes. This cruel trial left them 
 in great distress. " I am worn away 
 with sorrow," cried Melancthon ; " and 
 this anguish puts me to the most horrible 
 torture.;}; The issue," added he, " will be 
 found on our knees before God."§ 
 
 * Landgravius praeparamenta adversariorum 
 pro agrcssione habebat. — (Seek. ii. p. 95.) 
 
 t Man darf den Teufel nicht iiber die Thiir 
 malen, noch ihn zu gevattern bitten. — (L. Epp. 
 iii. p. 321.) 
 
 t Curse vehementer cruciarunt.— (Corp. Ref. i. 
 p. 988.) § Eu yowwi dcov.— (Ibid. p. 988.) 
 
 The Elector, drawn in different direc- 
 tions by the theologians and the politi- 
 cians, at last took a middle course : he 
 resolved to assemble an army, "but 
 only," said he, " to obtain peace." Philip 
 of Hesse at length gave way, and forth- 
 with sent copies of the famous treaty to 
 Duke George, to the Dukes of Bavaria, 
 and to the Emperor's representatives, 
 calling upon them to renounce such cruel 
 designs. " I would rather have a limb 
 cut off," said he to his father-in-law, 
 " than know you to be a member of 
 such an alliance." 
 
 The surprise of the German courts, 
 when they read this document, is beyond 
 description. Duke George immediately 
 replied to the Landgrave that he had al- 
 lowed himself to be deceived by un- 
 meaning absurdities ; that he who pre- 
 tended to have seen the original of this 
 act was an infamous liar, and an incor- 
 rigible scoundrel ; and that he called 
 upon the Landgrave to give up his au- 
 thority, or else it might well be thought 
 that he was himself the inventor of this 
 impudent fabrication. King Ferdinand, 
 the Elector of Brandenburg, and all the 
 pretended conspirators made similar re- 
 plies. 
 
 Philip of Hesse. saw that he had been 
 deceived ;* his confusion was only ex- 
 ceeded by his anger. He had therefore 
 himself justified the accusations of his 
 adversaries who called him a hot-headed 
 young man, and had compromised to the 
 highest degree the cause of the Refor- 
 mation and that of his people. He said 
 afterwards, " If that had not happened, 
 it would no more happen now. Nothing 
 that I have done in all my life has 
 caused me greater vexation." 
 
 Pack fled in alarm to the Landgrave, 
 who caused him to be arrested ; and en- 
 voys from the several- princes whom this 
 scoundrel had compromised met at Cassel. 
 and proceeded to examine him. He 
 maintained that the original act of the al- 
 liance had really existed in the Dresden 
 archives. In the following year the 
 Landgrave banished him from Hesse, 
 showing by this action that he did not 
 fear him. Pack was afterwards discov- 
 ered in Belgium ; and at the demand of 
 Duke George, who had never shown 
 
 * Wir fuhlten dass wir betrogen waxen. — 
 (Hortleber, iv. p. 567.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 152G— 1529. 
 
 647 
 
 any pity towards him, he was seized, 
 tortured, and finally beheaded. 
 
 The Landgrave was unwilling- to have 
 taken up arms to no purpose. The arch- 
 bishop-elector, of Mentz was compelled, 
 on the 11th June, 1528, to renounce in 
 the camp of Herzkirchen all spiritual 
 jurisdiction in Saxony and Hesse.* This 
 was no small advantage. 
 
 Scarcely had the arms been laid aside, 
 before Luther took up his pen, and be- 
 gan a war of another kind. " Impious 
 princes may deny this alliance as long as 
 they please," wrote he to Link ; " I am 
 very certain that it is not a chimera. 
 These insatiable leeches will take no re- 
 pose until they see the whole of Ger- 
 many flowing with blood."f This idea 
 of Luther's was the one generally enter- 
 tained. " The document presented to 
 the Landgrave may be," it was said, 
 " Pack's invention ; but all this fabric of 
 lies is founded on some truth. If the 
 alliance has not been concluded, it has 
 been conceived."! 
 
 Melancholy were the results of this 
 affair. It inspired division in the bosom 
 of the Reformation, and fanned the ha- 
 tred between the two parties.^ The 
 sparks from the piles of Keyser, Winck- 
 ler, 'Carpenter, and so many other mar- 
 tyrs, added strength to the fire that was 
 already threatening to set the empire in 
 flames. It was under such critical cir- 
 cumstances, and with such menacing dis- 
 positions, that the famous Diet of Spire 
 was opened in March 1529. The Em- 
 pire and the Papacy were in reality pre- 
 paring to annihilate the Reformation, al- 
 though in a manner different from what 
 Pack had pretended. It was still to be 
 learnt whether there would be found in 
 the revived Church more vital strength 
 than there had been in so many sects 
 that Rome had easily crushed. Happily 
 the faith had increased, and the constitu- 
 tion given to the Church had imparted 
 greater power to its adherents. All 
 were resolved on defending a doctrine so 
 pure, and a church government so supe- 
 
 * Kopp. Hess. Gerichts. — Verf. i. p. 107. 
 
 t Sanguisugseinsatiabiles quicscere nolunt, nisi 
 Gennaniam sanguine madere sentiant. 14th June, 
 1528. 
 
 J Nonenirn prorsus confictares.— (Corp. Ref. i. 
 p. 988.) 
 
 § Hsc mina; apud inimicos odia auxerint. — 
 (Corp. Ref. i. p. 985.) 
 
 rior to that of Popery. During three 
 years of tranquillity, the Gospel tree had 
 struck its roots deep ; and if the storm 
 should burst, it would now be able to 
 brave it. 
 
 V. The sack of Rome, by exaspera- 
 ting the adherents of the Papacy, had 
 given arms to all the enemies of Charles 
 V. The French army under Lautrec 
 had forced the imperial army, enervated 
 by the delights of a new Capua, to hide 
 itself within the walls of Naples. Doria, 
 at the head of his Genoese galleys, had 
 destroyed the Spanish fleet, and all the 
 imperial power seemed drawing to an 
 end in Italy. But Doria suddenly de- 
 clared for the Emperor ; pestilence car- 
 ried off Lautrec and half of his troops ; 
 and Charles, suffering only from alarm, 
 had again grasped the power with a firm 
 resolution to unite henceforward closely 
 with the Pontiff, whose humiliation had 
 nearly cost him so dear. On his side 
 Clement VII., hearing the Italians re- 
 proach him for his illegitimate birth, and 
 even refuse him the title of Pope, said 
 aloud, that he would rather be the Em- 
 peror's groom than the sport of his peo- 
 ple. On the 29th June, 1528, a peace 
 between the heads of the Empire and of 
 the Church was concluded at Barcelona, 
 based on the destruction of heresy ; and 
 in November a diet was convoked to 
 meet at Spire on the 21st February, 1529. 
 Charles was resolved to endeavour at first 
 to destroy the Reform by a federal vote ; 
 but if this vote did not suffice, to employ 
 his whole power against it. The road 
 being thus traced out, they were about to 
 commence operations. 
 
 Germany felt the seriousness of the 
 position. Mournful omens filled every 
 mind. About the middle of January, a 
 great light had suddenly dispersed the 
 darkness of the night.* " What that fore- 
 bodes," exclaimed Luther, " God only 
 knows !" At the beginning of April 
 there was a rumour of an earthquake 
 that had engulfed castles, cities, and 
 whole districts in Carinthia and Istria, 
 and split the tower of St. Mark at Ven- 
 ice into four parts. u If that is true," 
 said the Reformer, " these prodigies are 
 the forerunners of the day of Jesus 
 
 * An aurora borealis. "Magnum chasma, quo 
 nox tota illuminabatui." — (L. Epp. iii. p. 420.) 
 
648 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Christ."* The astrologers declared that 
 the aspect of the quartiles of Saturn and 
 Jupiter, and the general position of the 
 stars, was ominous.f The waters of the 
 Elbe rolled thick and stormy, and stones 
 fell from the roofs of churches. " All 
 these things," exclaimed the terrified 
 Melancthon, " excite me deeply. "J 
 
 The letters of convocation issued by 
 the imperial government agreed but too 
 well with these prodigies. The Empe- 
 ror, writing from Toledo to the Elector, ac- 
 cused him of sedition and revolt. Alarm- 
 ing whispers passed from mouth to mouth 
 that were sufficient to cause the fall of 
 the weak. Duke Henry of Mecklen- 
 burg and the Elector-palatine hastily re- 
 turned to the side of Popery. 
 
 Never had the sacerdotal party ap- 
 peared in the diet in such numbers, or so 
 powerful and decided.^ On the 5th 
 March, Ferdinand, the president of the 
 diet, after him the Dukes of Bavaria, 
 and lastly the ecclesiastical Electors of 
 Mentz and Treves, had entered the gates 
 of Spire surrounded by a numerous arm- 
 ed escort. || On the 13th March, the 
 Elector of Saxony arrived, attended only 
 by Melancthon and Agricola. But Phil- 
 ip of Hesse, faithful to his character, en- 
 tered the city on the 18th March to the 
 sound of trumpets, and with two hundred 
 horsemen. 
 
 The divergence of men's minds soon 
 became manifest. A Papist did not meet 
 an Evangelical in the street without cast- 
 ing angry glances upon him, and secret- 
 ly threatening him with perfidious ma- 
 chinations.^! The Elector-palatine pass- 
 ed the Saxons without appearing to know 
 them ;** and although John of Saxony 
 was the most important of the electors, 
 none of the chiefs of the opposite party 
 visited him.. Grouped around their ta- 
 
 * Si vera sunt, diem Christi proecurrunt hsec 
 monstra.— (Ibid. p. 438.) 
 
 t Adspectum rtTpaydvoiv Saturniet Jovis. — (Corp. 
 Ref. i. p. 1075.) 
 
 t Ego non levitercommoveor his rebus. — (Ibid, 
 p. 1076.) 
 
 § Nunquam fuit tanta frequentia ullis conciliis 
 ipXupiuv quanta in his est. — (Corp. Ref. p. 1039.) 
 
 II Mogantinum et Trevirensem cum comitatu 
 armato. — (Seckend. ii. p. 129.) 
 
 IT Vultu significant quantum nos oderint, et 
 quid machinentur.— (Corp. Ref. i. p. 1040.) 
 
 ** Pfalz kennt kein Sachsen mehr.— (Epp. Al- 
 beiti Mansfeld.) 
 
 bles, the Roman-catholic princes seemed 
 absorbed in games of hazard.* 
 
 But erelong they gave positive marks 
 of their hostile disposition. The Elector 
 and the Landgrave were prohibited from 
 having the Gospel preached in their 
 mansions. It was even asserted at this 
 early period that John was about to be 
 turned out of Spire, and deprived of his 
 electorate.! " We are the execration and 
 the sweepings of the world," said Me- 
 lancthon ; " but Christ will look down 
 on his poor people, and will preserve 
 them. "| In truth God was with the wit- 
 nesses to his Word. The people of Spire 
 thirsted for the Gospel, and the Elector 
 wrote to his son on Palm Sunday : 
 " About eight thousand persons were 
 present to-day in my chapel at morning 
 and evening worship." 
 
 The Roman party now quickened 
 their proceedings : their plan was simple 
 but energetic. It was necessary to put 
 down the religious liberty that had exist- 
 ed for more than three years, and for that 
 purpose they must abrogate the decree 
 of 1526, and revive that of 1521. 
 
 On the 15th March the imperial com- 
 missaries announced to the diet that the 
 last resolution of» Spire, which left each 
 state free to act in conformity with the 
 inspirations of its conscience, having 
 given rise to great disorders, the Empe- 
 ror had annulled it by virtue of his su- 
 preme power. This arbitrary act, and 
 which had no precedent in the Empire, 
 as well as the despotic tone with which it 
 was accompanied, filled the evangelical 
 Christians with indignation and alarm. 
 " Christ," exclaimed Sturm, " has again 
 fallen into the hands of Caiaphas and 
 Pilate."^ 
 
 A commission was charged to examine 
 the imperial proposition. The Arch- 
 bishop of Salzburg, Faber, and Eck, that 
 is to say, the most violent enemies of the 
 Reformation, were among its members. 
 " The Turks are better than the Luther- 
 ans," said Faber, " for the Turks observe 
 
 * Adversse partes proceres alea tempus perdere. 
 — (L. Epp. iii. p. 438.) 
 
 t Alii exclusum Spirae, alii ademtum electora- 
 tum. — (Ibid.) 
 
 i Sed Christus respiciet et salvabit populum 
 pauperem. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 1040.) 
 
 § Christus est denuo in manibus Caiaphi et Pi- 
 lati. — (Jung Beytrage, p. 4.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 649 
 
 fast-days and the Lutherans violate them.* 
 If we must choose between the Holy 
 Scriptures of God and the old errors of 
 the Church, we should reject the former."! 
 " Every day in full assembly Faber casts 
 some new stone against the Gospellers," 
 says Melancthon.| " Oh, what an Iliad 
 I should have to compose," added he, 
 " if I Avere to report all these blasphe- 
 mies!" 
 
 v The priests called for the execution of 
 the Edict of Worms, 1521, and the evan- 
 gelical members of the commission, 
 among whom were the Elector of Saxo- 
 ny and Sturm, demanded on the contrary 
 the maintenance of the Edict of Spire, 
 1526. The latter thus remained within 
 the bounds of legality, whilst their adver- 
 saries were driven to coups d'etat. In 
 fact, a new order of things having been 
 legally established in the Empire, no one 
 could infringe it ; and if the diet pre- 
 sumed to destroy by force what had been 
 constitutionally established three years 
 before, the evangelical states had the 
 right of opposing it. The majority of 
 the. commission felt that the re-establish- 
 ment of the ancient order of things would 
 be a revolution no less complete than the 
 Reformation itself. How could they sub- 
 ject anew to Rome and to her clergy 
 those nations in whose bosom ihe Word 
 of God had been so richly spread abroad ? 
 For this reason, equally rejecting the de- 
 mands of the priests and of the Evangel- 
 icals, the majority came to a resolution 
 on the 24th March that every religious 
 innovation should continue to be inter- 
 dicted in the places where the Edict of 
 Worms had been carried out ; and that 
 in those where the people had deviated 
 from it, and where they could not con- 
 form to it without danger of revolt, they 
 should at least effect no new reform, they 
 should touch upon no controverted point, 
 they should not oppose the celebration of 
 the Mass, they should permit no Roman- 
 catholic to embrace Lutheranism,§ they 
 should not decline the Episcopal jurisdic- 
 
 * Voeiferatus est Turcos Luthcranis meliores 
 esse.— (Corp. Ref. p. 1041.) 
 
 t Malle abjicere scripturam quam veteres er- 
 rores Ecclesise. — (Ibid. p. 1046.) 
 
 X Faber lapidat nos quotidie pro concione. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 § Nee catholicos a libero religionis exercitio im- 
 pediri debere, neque cuiquam ex his licere Lu- 
 theranismum amplecti. — (Seckend. ii. p. 127.) 
 82 
 
 tion, and should tolerate no Anabaptists 
 or Sacramentarians. The status-quo and 
 no proselytism — such were the essentials 
 of this resolution. 
 
 The majority no longer voted as in 
 1526: the wind had turned against the 
 Gospel. Accordingly this proposition, 
 after having been delayed a few days by 
 the festival of Easter, was laid before the 
 diet on the 6th April, and passed on the 
 7th.* 
 
 If it became a law, the Reformation 
 could neither be extended into those 
 places where as yet it was unknown, nor 
 be established on solid foundations in 
 those where it already existed. The re- 
 establishment of the Romish hierarchy, 
 stipulated in the proposition, would infal- 
 libly bring back the ancient abuses ; and 
 the least deviation from so vexatious an 
 ordinance would easily furnish the Ro- 
 manists with a pretext for completing the 
 destruction of a work already so violently 
 shaken. 
 
 The Elector, the Landgrave, the Mar- 
 grave of Brandenburg, the Prince of An- 
 halt, and the Chancellor of Luneburg on 
 one side, and the deputies for the cities 
 on the other, consulted together. An en- 
 tirely new order of things was to proceed 
 from this council. If they had been an- 
 imated by selfishness, they would perhaps 
 have accepted this decree. In fact they 
 were left free, in appearance at least, to 
 profess their faith : ought they to demand 
 more 1 could they do so 1 Were they 
 bound to constitute themselves the cham- 
 pions of liberty of conscience in all the 
 world ? Never, perhaps, had there been 
 a more critical situation ; but these noble- 
 minded men came victorious out of the 
 trial. What ! should they legalize by 
 anticipation the scaffold and the torture ! 
 Should they oppose the Holy Ghost in 
 its work of converting souls to Christ ! 
 Should they forget their Master's com- 
 mand : " Go ye into all the icorld, ami 
 preach the Gospel to every creature ?" If 
 one of the states of the empire desired 
 some day to follow their example and be 
 reformed, should they take away its power 
 of doing so 1 Having themselves entered 
 the kingdom of heaven, should they shut 
 the door after them ? No ! rather endure 
 everything, sacrifice everything, even 
 their states, their crowns, and their lives ! 
 * Sleidan, i. p. 261. 
 
650 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " Let us reject this decree," said the 
 princes. " In matters of conscience the 
 majority has no power." — " It is to the 
 decree of 1526," added the cities, " that 
 we are indebted for the peace that the 
 empire enjoys: to abolish it would be to 
 fill Germany with troubles and divisions. 
 The diet is incompetent to do more than 
 preserve religious liberty until a council 
 meets." Such in fact is the grand attri- 
 bute of the state, and if in our days the 
 protestant powers should seek to influence 
 the Romish governments, they should 
 strive solely to obtain for the subjects of 
 the latter that religious liberty which the 
 Pope confiscates to his own advantage 
 wherever he reigns alone, and by which 
 he profits greatly in every evangelical 
 state. Some of the deputies proposed re- 
 fusing all assistance against the Turks, 
 hoping thus to force the Emperor to in- 
 terfere in this question of religion. But 
 Sturm called upon them not to mingle 
 political matters with the salvation of 
 souls. They resolved therefore to reject 
 the proposition, but without holding out 
 any threats. It was this noble resolu- 
 tion that gained for modern times liberty 
 of thought and independence of faith. 
 
 Ferdinand and the priests, who were 
 no less resolute, determined however on 
 vanquishing what they called a daring 
 obstinacy ; and they commenced with the 
 weaker states. They began to frighten 
 and divide the cities, which had hitherto 
 pursued a common course. On the 12th 
 April they were summoned before the 
 diet : in vain did they allege the absence 
 of some of their number, and ask for de- 
 lay. It was refused, and the call was 
 hurried on. Twenty-one free cities ac- 
 cepted the proposition of the diet, and 
 fourteen rejected it. It was a bold acton 
 the part of the latter, and was accomplish- 
 ed in the midst of the most painful suffer- 
 ings. " This is the first trial," said Pfar- 
 rer, second deputy of Strasburg ; " now 
 will come the second : we must either 
 deny the Word of God or — be burnt."* 
 
 A violent proceeding of Ferdinand im- 
 mediately commenced the series of hu- 
 miliations that were reserved for the 
 evangelical cities. A deputy of Stras- 
 burg should, in conformity with the de- 
 cree of Worms, have been a member of 
 
 * Das wort Gottcs zu wiederrufen oder aber 
 brennen. — (Jung Beytragc, p. 37.) 
 
 the imperial government from the com- 
 mencement of April. He was declared 
 excluded from his rights, until the Mass 
 should be re-established in Strasburg. 
 All the cities united in protesting against 
 this arbitrary act. 
 
 At the same time, the Elector-palatine 
 and King Ferdinand himself begged the 
 princes to accept the decree, assuring 
 them that the Emperor would be exceed- 
 ingly pleased with them. " We will 
 obey the Emperor, replied they calmly, 
 " in everything that may contribute to 
 maintain peace and the honour of God." 
 
 It was time to put an end to this strug- 
 gle. On the 18th April it was decreed 
 that the evangelical states should not be 
 heard again ; and Ferdinand prepared to 
 inflict the decisive blow on the morrow. 
 
 When the day came, the king appear- 
 ed in the diet, surrounded by the other 
 commissaries of the Empire, and by sev- 
 eral bishops. He thanked the Roman- 
 catholics for their fidelity, and declared 
 that the resolution having been definitive- 
 ly agreed to, it was about to be drawn up 
 in the form of an imperial decree. lie 
 then announced to the Elector and his 
 friends, that nothing more remained to 
 them than to submit to the majority. 
 
 The evangelical princes, who had not 
 expected so positive a declaration, were 
 excited at this summons, and passed, ac- 
 cording to custom, into an adjoining 
 chamber to deliberate. But Ferdinand 
 was not in a humour to wait for their 
 answer. He rose, and all the imperial 
 commissaries with him. Vain were all 
 endeavours to stop him. " I have receiv- 
 ed an order from his imperial majesty," 
 replied he ; "I have executed it. All 
 is over." 
 
 Thus Charles's brother notifies an or- 
 der to the christian princes, and then he 
 retires without caring even if there was 
 any reply to make. To no purpose they 
 sent a deputation entreating the King to 
 return. " It is a settled affair," repeated 
 Ferdinand ; " submission is all that re- 
 mains."* This refusal completed the 
 schism : it separated Rome from the 
 Gospel. Perhaps more justice on the part 
 of the Empire and of the Papacy might 
 have prevented the rupture that since 
 then has divided the Western Church. 
 
 * Die artikel weren beschlossen. — (Jung Beytr. 
 p. 90.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1528—1529. 
 
 651 
 
 VI. If the imperial party displayed 
 such contempt, it was not without a 
 cause. They felt that weakness was on 
 the side of the Reformation, and strength 
 on the side of Charles and of the Pope. 
 But the weak have also their strength ; 
 and this the evangelical princes were 
 aware of. As Ferdinand paid no atten- 
 tion to their reclamations, it remained for 
 them to pay none to his absence, to ap- 
 peal from the report of the diet to the 
 Word of God, and from the Emperor 
 Charles to Jesus Christ, the King of 
 kings and Lord of lords. 
 
 They resolved upon this step. A dec- 
 laration was drawn up to that effect, and 
 this was the famous Protest that hence- 
 forward gave the name of Protestant to 
 the renovated Church. The Elector and 
 his allies having returned to the common 
 hall of the diet, thus addressed the as- 
 sembled states : — * 
 
 " Dear Lords, Cousins, Uncles, and 
 Friends ! Having repaired to this diet on 
 the convocation of his majesty, and for 
 the common good of the Empire and of 
 Christendom, we have heard and learnt 
 that the decisions of the last diet con- 
 cerning our holy Christian Faith are to 
 be repealed, and that it is proposed to 
 substitute for them restrictive and oner- 
 ous resolutions. 
 
 " King Ferdinand and the other im- 
 perial commissaries, by affixing their 
 seals to the last Recess of Spire, had 
 promised, however, in the name of the 
 Emperor, to carry out sincerely and in- 
 violably all that it contained, and to per- 
 mit nothing that was contrary to it. In 
 like manner, also, you and we, electors, 
 princes, prelates, lords, and deputies of 
 the Empire, bound ourselves to main- 
 tain always and with all our might all 
 the articles of this decree. 
 
 u We cannot therefore consent to its 
 repeal. 
 
 " Firstly, because we believe that his 
 imperial majesty, as well as you and we, 
 are called to maintain firmly what has 
 been unanimously and solemnly re- 
 solved. 
 
 * There are two copiesof th is act ; one of them 
 is brief, and the other, which is longer, was trans- 
 mitted in writing to the imperial commissaries. 
 It is from the latter we extract the passages in 
 the text. They will both be found in Jung Bey- 
 triige, p. 91-105. See also Miiller's Historie der 
 Protestation, p. 52. 
 
 " Secondly, because it concerns the 
 glory of God and the salvation of our 
 souls, and that in such matters we ought 
 to have regard, above all, to the com- 
 mandment of God, who is King of kings 
 and Lord of lords ; each of us rendering 
 him account for himself, without caring 
 the least in the world about majority or 
 minority.* 
 
 " We form no judgment on that which 
 concerns you, most dear lords ; and we 
 are content to pray God daily that he 
 will bring us all to unity of faith, in 
 truth, charity, and holiness through Jesus 
 Christ, our Throne of Grace and our 
 only Mediator. 
 
 " But in what concerns us, adhesion to 
 your resolution (and let every honest 
 man be judge !) would be acting against 
 our conscience, condemning a doctrine 
 that we maintain to be christian, and 
 pronouncing that it ought to be abolished 
 in our states, if we could do so without 
 trouble. 
 
 " This would be to deny our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, to reject his holy Word, 
 and thus give him just reason to deny us 
 in turn before his Father, as he has 
 threatened. 
 
 " What ! we ratify this edict ! We as- 
 sert that when Alm'ghty God calls a 
 man to His knowledge, this man cannot 
 however receive the knowledge of God ! 
 Oh ! of what deadly backsliding should 
 we not thus become the accomplices, not 
 only among our own subjects, but also 
 among yours ! 
 
 " For this reason we reject the yoke 
 that is imposed on us. And although it 
 is universally known that in our states 
 the holy sacrament of the body and blood 
 of our Lord is becomingly administered, 
 we cannot adhere to what the edict pro- 
 poses against the Sacramentarians, see- 
 ing that the imperial edict did not speak 
 of them, that they have not been heard, 
 and that we cannot resolve upon such 
 important points before the next council. 
 
 " Moreover'' — and this is the essential 
 part of the protest — " the new edict de- 
 claring the ministers shall preach the 
 Gospel, explaining it according to the 
 writings accepted by the holy Christian 
 Church ; we think that, for this regu- 
 lation to have any value, we should first 
 
 * Ein jeglicher fur sich selbt vor Gott stehen. — 
 (Jung Beytriige, p. 96.) 
 
052 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 agree on what is meant by this true an 1 
 holy Church. Now, seeing that there is 
 greal diversity of opinion in this respect ; 
 that there is no sure doctrine but such as 
 is conformable to the Word of God ; that 
 the Lord forbids the teaching of any 
 other doctrine ; that each text of the 
 Holy Scriptures ought to be explained 
 by other and clearer texts ; that this 
 holy book is, in all things necessary for 
 the Christian, easy of understanding, and 
 calculated to scatter the darkness : we 
 are resolved, with the grace of God, to 
 maintain the pure and exclusive preach- 
 ing of his only Word, such as it is con- 
 tained in the biblical books of the Old 
 and New Testament, without adding any- 
 thing thereto that may be contrary to it.* 
 This Word is the only truth ; it is the 
 sure rule of all doctrine and of all life, 
 and can never fail or deceive us. He 
 who builds on this foundation shall stand 
 against all the powers of hell, whilst all 
 the human vanities that are set up against 
 it shall fall before the face of God. 
 
 '• For these reasons, most dear Lords, 
 Uncles, Cousins, and Friends, we earnest- 
 ly entreat you to weigh carefully our 
 grievances and our motives. If you do 
 not yield to our request, we Protest by 
 these presents, before God, our only Crea- 
 tor, Preserver, Redeemer, and Saviour, 
 and who will one day be our Judge, as 
 well as before all men and all creatures, 
 that we, for us and for our people, neither 
 eonsentjior adhere in any manner what- 
 soever to the proposed decree, in any 
 thing that is contrary to God, to his holy 
 Word, to our right conscience, to the sal- 
 vation of our souls, and to the last decree 
 of Spire. 
 
 " At the same time we are in expecta- 
 tion that his imperial majesty will behave 
 towards us like a christian prince who 
 loves God above all things ; and we de- 
 clare ourselves ready to pay unto him, 
 as well as unto you, gracious lords, all 
 the affection and obedience that are our 
 just and legitimate duty." 
 
 Thus, in presence of the diet, spoke out 
 those courageous men whom Christedom 
 will henceforward denominate The Pro- 
 testants. 
 
 They had barely finished when they 
 
 * Allein Gottes wort, lauter und rein, und 
 nichts das dawieder ist. — (Jung Beytracre p. 
 
 announced their intention of quitting 
 Spire on the morrow.* 
 
 This protest and declaration produced 
 a deep impression. The diet was rudely 
 interrupted and broken into two hostile 
 parties, — thus preluding war. The ma- 
 jority became the prey of the liveliest 
 fears. As for the Protestants relying, 
 jure h u ma no, upon the Edict of Spire, and 
 jure diri/to, upon the Bible, they were full 
 of courage and firmness. 
 
 The principles contained in this cele- 
 brated protest of the 19th April 1529, con- 
 stitute the very essence of Protestantism. 
 Now this protest opposes two abuses of 
 man in matters of faith : the first is the 
 intrusion of the civil magistrate, and the 
 second is the arbitrary authority of the 
 Church. Instead of these two abuses, 
 Protestantism sets up above the magis- 
 trate the power of conscience ; and above 
 the visible Church the authority of the 
 Word of God. It declines, in the first 
 place, the civil power in divine things, 
 and says with the Prophets and Apostles : 
 We must uheij God rather than man. In 
 presence of the crown of Charles the 
 Fifth, it uplifts the crown of Jesus Christ. 
 But it goes farther : it lays down the 
 principle, that all human teaching should 
 be subordinate to the oracles of God. 
 Even the primitive Church, by recognis- 
 ing the writings of the Apostles, had per- 
 formed an act of submission to this su- 
 preme authority, and not an act of au- 
 thority, as Rome maintains ; and the es- 
 tablishment of a tribunal charged with 
 the interpretation of the Bible, had ter- 
 minated only in slavishly subjecting man 
 to man in that which should be the most 
 unfettered — conscience and faith. In this 
 celebrated act of Spire no doctor appears, 
 and the Word £>f God reigns alone. Nev- 
 er has man exalted himself like the Pope ; 
 never have men kept in the back-ground 
 like the Reformers. 
 
 A Romish historian maintains that the 
 word Protestant signifies enemy of the Em- 
 peror and of the Pope.j If by this it is 
 meant that Protestantism, in matters of 
 faith, rejects the intervention both of the 
 Empire and of the Papacy, it is well. 
 Even this explanation, however, does not 
 
 * Also zu verritten urlaub genommen. — (Jung 
 Beytrage, p. 52.) 
 
 t Perduelles in Pontificem ac Csesarem. — (Pal- 
 lavicini, C.T.I, p. 217.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND TIIK CONFERENCE. 1520—1529. 
 
 653 
 
 exhaust the meaning of the won!, for 
 Protestantism rejected the authority of 
 man solely to place Jesus Christ on the 
 throne of the Church, and his Word in 
 the pulpit. Here has never been any- 
 thing more positive, and at the same time 
 more aggressive, than the position of the 
 Protestants at Spire. By maintaining 
 that their faith is alone capable of saving 
 the world, they defended with intrepid 
 courage the rights of Christian Pi 
 tism. We cannot abandon this Pro • ly- 
 tism without deserting the Prol 
 principle. 
 
 The Protestants of Spire were no1 
 content to exalt the truth : they defi nded 
 charity. Faber and the otheT Papal par- 
 tizans bad endeavoured to separate the 
 princes, who in general walked with Lu- 
 ther, from the cities that ranged them- 
 selves rather on the side of Zwingle. 
 CEcolampadius had immediately written 
 to Melancthon, and enlightened him on 
 the doctrines of the Zurich Reformer. 
 He had indignantly rejected the idea that 
 Christ was banished into a corner of 
 heaven, and had energetically declared 
 that, according to the Swiss Christians, 
 < !hrist was in every place upholding all 
 things hy the Word of his power.* 
 '•' With the visible symbols," he added, 
 "we give and we receive the invisible 
 grace, like all the faithful."! 
 
 These declarations were not useless. 
 There were at Spire two men who from 
 different motives opposed the efforts of 
 Faber, and seconded those of (Ecolam- 
 padius. The Landgrave, ever revolving 
 projects of alliance in his mind, felt 
 clearly that if the Christians of Saxony 
 and of Hesse allowed the condemnation 
 of the Churches of Switzerland and of 
 Upper Germany, they would by that 
 very means deprive themselves of power- 
 ful auxiliaries.! Melancthon, who was 
 far from desiring, as the Landgrave, a 
 diplomatic alliance, for fear that it would 
 hasten on a war. defended the great prin- 
 ciples of justice, and exclaimed : " To 
 what just reproaches should we not be 
 exposed, were we to recognise in our ad- 
 versaries the right of condemning a doc- 
 
 * TJbique ut et portet omnia verbo vertutis suae. 
 — (Hospin. Hist. Sacr. ii. p. 112.) 
 
 t X 'idiv yap tt)v aooarov pera rtiv cv/jp6\oiv oparwv. 
 
 — (Ibid.; 
 
 X Omni studio laborabat ut illos uniret. — (Seek, 
 ii. p. 127.) 
 
 trine without having heard those who 
 defend it!" The union of all evangeli- 
 cal Christians ifl therefore a principle of 
 primitive Prote tantii m 
 
 As Ferdinand had not heard the pro- 
 tesl of the 19th April, a deputation or the 
 evangelical states went the next day to 
 present it to him. The brother of Charles 
 the Fifth received ii at first, but imme- 
 diately after desired to return it. Then 
 was witnessed a Strange scene — the king 
 refusing to keep the protest, and the 
 deputies to take it back. At last the 
 latter, from respect, received it from Fer- 
 dinand's hands: but they laid it boldly 
 upon a table, and directly quitted the 
 hall. 
 
 The king and the imperial commis- 
 > tnained in presence of this formi- 
 dable writing. It was there — before 
 their eyes — a significant monument of 
 the courage and faith of the Protestants. 
 Irritated against this silent but mighty 
 witness, which accused his tyranny, and 
 left him the responsibility of all the evils 
 that were about to burst upon the Em- 
 pire, the brother of Charles the Fifth 
 called some of his councillors, and 
 ordered them instantly to carry back 
 this important document to the Protest- 
 ants. 
 
 All this was unavailing; the protest 
 had been enregistered in the annals of 
 the world, and nothing could erase it. 
 Liberty of thought and of conscience had 
 been conquered for ages to come. Thus 
 all evangelical Germany, foreseeing these 
 things, was moved at this courageous act, 
 and adopted it as the expression of its 
 will and of its faith. Men in every 
 quarter beheld in it not a political event, 
 but a christian action, and the youthful 
 el( ctoral prince, John Frederick, in this 
 respect the organ of his age, cried to the 
 Protestants of Spire : " May the Almighty, 
 who has given you grace to confess en- 
 ergetically, free] \-. and fearlessly, preserve 
 von in that christian firmness until the 
 day of eternity !"* 
 
 While the christians were filled with 
 joy, their enemies were frightened at 
 their own work. The very day on 
 which Ferdinand had declined to re- 
 ceive the protest, Tuesday, 20th April, at 
 
 * In eo mansuros esse, nee passuros ut ulla 
 horninum machinatione ab ea scntentia divelleren- 
 tur. — (Seckend. ii. p. 121.) 
 
654 
 
 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 one in the afternoon, Henry of Bruns- 
 wick and Philip of Baden presented 
 themselves as mediators, announcing, 
 however, that they were acting solely of 
 their own authority. They proposed that 
 there should be no more mention of the 
 decree of Worms, and that the first de- 
 cree of Spire should be maintained, but 
 with a few modifications ; that the two 
 parties, while remaining free until the 
 next council, should oppose every new 
 sect, and tolerate no doctrine contrary to 
 the sacrament of the Lord's body.* 
 
 On Wednesday, 21st April, the evan- 
 gelical states did not appear adverse to 
 these propositions ; and even those who 
 had embraced the doctrine of Zwingle 
 declared boldly that such a proposal 
 would not compromise their existence. 
 " Only let us call to mind," said they, 
 " that in such difficult matters we must 
 act, not with the sword, but with the sure 
 Word of God.f For, as Saint Paul 
 say? : What is not of faith is sin. If 
 therefore we constrain Christians to do 
 what they believe unjust, instead of 
 leading them by God's Word to ac- 
 knowledge what is good, we force them 
 to sin, and we incur a terrible responsi- 
 bility." 
 
 The fanatics of the Roman party 
 trembled as they saw the victory nearly 
 escaping from them ; for they rejected 
 all compromise, and desired purely and 
 simply the re-establishment of the Pa- 
 pacy. Their zeal overcame everything, 
 and the negotiations were broken off 
 
 On Thursday, 22d April, the diet as- 
 sembled at seven in the morning, and 
 the Recess was read precisely as it had 
 been drawn up before, without even 
 mentioning the attempt at conciliation 
 which had just failed. 
 
 Faber triumphed. Proud of having 
 the ear of kings, he tossed himself furi- 
 ously about, and one would have said, to 
 see him, relates an eye-witness, that he 
 was a Cyclops forging in his cavern the 
 monstrous chains with which he was 
 about to bind the Reform and the Re- 
 formers.:): The Papist princes, carried 
 
 * Vergleich artikel.— (Jung Bcytrage, p- 55.) 
 
 t In diesen Schweven Sachen, niehts mit Ge- 
 walt noch Schwerdt, sondern mit Gottes gewis- 
 sem wort.— (Ibid p. 59.) This document is from 
 the pen of Sturm. 
 
 * Cyclops ille nunc feroccm se facit— ("Corp. 
 Ref. i. p. 1062.) v l 
 
 away by the tumult, gave the spur, says 
 Melancthon, and flung themselves head- 
 long into a path filled with dangers.* 
 Nothing was left for the evangelical 
 Christians but to fall on their knees and 
 cry to the Lord. " All that remains for 
 us to do," repeated Melancthon, " is to 
 call upon the Son of God."f 
 
 The last sitting of the diet took place 
 on the 24th April. The princes renew- 
 ed their protest, in which fourteen free 
 and imperial cities joined : and they next 
 thought of giving their appeal a legal 
 form. 
 
 On Sunday, 25th April, two notaries, 
 Leonard Stetner of Freysingen and Pan- 
 grace Saltzmann of Bamberg, were seat- 
 ed before a small table in a narrow 
 chamber on the ground-floor of a house 
 situated in St. John's Lane, near the 
 church of the same name in Spire, and 
 around them were the chancellors of the 
 princes and of the evangelical cities, as- 
 sisted by several witnesses.^ 
 
 This little house belonged to an hum- 
 ble pastor, Peter Muterstatt, deacon of 
 St. John's, who, taking the place of the 
 Elector or of the Landgrave, had offered 
 a domicile for the important act that was 
 preparing. His name shall in conse- 
 quence be transmitted to posterity. The 
 document having been definitively drawn 
 up, one of the notaries began reading it. 
 " Since there is a natural communion be- 
 tween all men," said the Protestants, 
 "and since even persons condemned to 
 death are permitted to unite and appeal 
 against their condemnation ; how much 
 more are Ave, who are members of the 
 same spiritual body, the Church of the 
 Son of God, children of the same heav- 
 enly Father, and consequently brothers 
 in the Spirit,^ authorized to unite when 
 our salvation and eternal condemnation 
 are concerned." 
 
 After reviewing all that had passed in 
 the diet, and after intercalating in their 
 appeal the principal documents that had 
 reference to it, the Protestants ended by 
 
 * Utingrcdiantur lubricum isti iter, impingendo 
 stimulis calces. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t De quo reliquuin est ut invocemus Filium 
 Dei.— (Ibid.) 
 
 X Unten in einem Kleinen Stublein. — (Jung 
 Beytriige, p. 78. Instrumentum Appcllationis.) 
 
 § Membra unius corporis spiritualis Jesu Christi 
 et filii unius patris coelestis, idcoque fratres spir- 
 ituals. — (Seckend. ii. p. 130.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1520— 1529. 
 
 655 
 
 saying : " We therefore appeal for our- 
 selves, for our subjects, and for all who 
 receive or who shall hereafter receive 
 the Word of God, from all past, present, 
 or future vexatious measures, to his Im- 
 perial Majesty, and to a free and univer- 
 sal assembly of holy Christendom." 
 This document filled twelve' sheets of 
 parchment ; the signatures and seals 
 were affixed to the thirteenth. 
 
 Thus in the obscure dwelling of the 
 chaplain of St. John's was made the first 
 confession of the true christian union. 
 In presence of the holy mechanical unity 
 of the Pope, these confessors of Jesus 
 raised the banner of the living unity of 
 Christ ; and, as in the days of our Sa- 
 viour, if there were many synagogues 
 in Israel, there was at least but one sin- 
 gle temple. The Christians of Electo- 
 ral Saxony, of Luneburg, of Anhalt, of 
 Hesse and the Margravate, of Strasburg, 
 Nuremberg, Ulm, Constance, Lindau, 
 Memmingen, Kempten, Nordlingen, 
 Heilbron, Reutlingen, Isny, Saint Gall, 
 Weissenburg, and Windsheim, clasped 
 each other's hands on the 25th April, 
 near the church of St. John, in the face 
 of threatening persecutions. Among 
 them might be found those who, like 
 Zwingle, acknowledged in the Lord's 
 Supper the entirely spiritual presence of 
 Jesus Christ, as well as those who, like 
 Luther, admitted his corporeal presence. 
 There existed not at that time in the 
 evangelical body any sects, hatred, or 
 schism ; christian unity was a reality. 
 That upper chamber in which, during 
 the early days of Christianity, the apos- 
 tles with the women and the brethren 
 "continued with one accord in prayer 
 and supplication,"* and that lower cham- 
 ber where, in the first days of the Ref- 
 ormation, the renewed disciples of Jesus 
 Chist presented themselves to the Pope 
 and the Emperor, to the world and to 
 the scaffold, as forming but one body, are 
 the two cradles of the Church ; and it is 
 in this its hour of weakness and humili- 
 ation that it shines forth with the bright- 
 est glory. 
 
 After this appeal each one returrred si- 
 lently to his dwelling. Several tokens 
 excited alarm for the safety of the Prot- 
 estants. A short time previously Me- 
 lancthon hastily conducted through the 
 * Acts i. 14. 
 
 streets of Spire towards the Rhine his 
 friend Simon Grynams, pressing him to 
 cross the river. The latter was aston- 
 ished at such precipitation.* " An old 
 man of grave and solemn appearance, 
 but who is unknown to me," said Me- 
 lancthon, " appeared before me and said : 
 " In a minute officers of justice will be 
 sent by Ferdinand to arrest Grynseus." 
 As he was intimate with Faber, and had 
 been scandalized at one of his sermons, 
 Grynams had gone to him, and begged 
 him no longer to make war against the 
 truth. Faber had dissembled his anger, 
 but immediately after repaired to the 
 king, from whom he had obtained an or- 
 der against the importunate professor of 
 Heidelberg.f Melancthon doubted not 
 that God had saved his friend by sending 
 one of His holy angels to forewarn him. 
 Motionless on the banks of the Rhine he 
 waited until the waters of that stream 
 had rescued Grynams from his persecu- 
 tors. " At last," cried Melancthon, as he 
 saw him on the opposite side, " he is 
 torn from the cruel teeth of those who drink 
 innocent blood. "J When he retureed to 
 his house, Melancthon was informed that 
 the officers in search of Grynseus had 
 ransacked it from top to bottom. § 
 
 Nothing could detain the Protestants 
 longer in Spire. Accordingly, on the 
 morning after their appeal (Monday, 26th 
 April), the Elector, the Landgrave, and 
 the Dukes of Luneburg, quitted the city, 
 reached Worms, and then returned by 
 Hesse into their own states. The appeal 
 of Spire was published by the Landgrave 
 on the 5th, and by the Elector on the 
 13th May. 
 
 Melancthon had returned to Wittem- 
 berg on the 6th May, persuaded that the 
 two parties were about to draw the sword. 
 His friends were alarmed at seeing him 
 agitated, exhausted, and like one dead.|| 
 " It is a great event that has just taken 
 place at Spire," said he. " It is big with 
 
 * Miranti quae esset tantse festinationis causa. — 
 (Camerarius Vita Mel. p. 113.) 
 
 t Faber qui valJe ofl'enderetur orationi tali, dis- 
 simulare tamen omnia. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Ereptus quasi e faucibus eorum qui sitiunt 
 sanguinem innocentiuru. — (Mel. ad Camer. 23d 
 April, Corp. Ref. i. p. 1062.) 
 
 § Affluit armata qusedam manusad comprehen- 
 dum Gryn33ummissa. — (Camer. Vit. Mel. p. 113.) 
 
 II Ita fuit perturbatus ut primis diebus pene ex- 
 tinctus sit.— (Corp. Ref. i. p. 1067.) 
 
656 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 dangers, not only to the Empire, but also 
 to Religion itself.* All the pains of hell 
 oppress me."t 
 
 It was Melancthon's greatest affliction, 
 that all these evils were attributed to him, 
 as indeed he ascribed them himself. 
 " One single thing has injured us," said 
 he ; " our not having approved, as was 
 required of us, the edict against the Zwin- 
 glians." Luther did not take this gloo- 
 my view of affairs ; but he was far from 
 comprehending the force of the protest. 
 " The diet," said he, " has come to an 
 end almost without results, except that 
 those who scourge Jesus Christ have not 
 been able to satisfy their fury."| 
 
 Posterity has not ratified this decision, 
 and, on the contrary, dating from this 
 epoch the definitive formation of Prot- 
 estantism, it has hailed in the Protest of 
 Spire one of the greatest movements re- 
 corded in history. 
 
 Let us see to whom the chief glory of 
 this act belongs. The part taken by the 
 princes, and especially by the Elector of 
 Saxony, in the German Reformation, 
 must strike every impartial observer. 
 These are the true Reformers — the true 
 Martyrs. The Holy Ghost, that bloweth 
 where it listeth, had inspired them with 
 the courage of the ancient confessors of 
 the Church ; and the God of Election 
 was glorified in them. A little later 
 perhaps this great part played by the 
 princes might have produced deplorable 
 consequences : there is no grace of God 
 that man may not pervert. But nothing 
 should prevent us from rendering honour 
 to whom honour is due, and from adoring 
 the work of the eternal Spirit in these 
 eminent men who, under God, were in 
 the sixteenth century the saviours of 
 Christendom. 
 
 The Reformation had taken a bodily 
 form. It was Luther alone who had 
 said No at the Diet of Worms: but 
 Churches and ministers, princes and peo- 
 ple, said No at the Diet of Spire. 
 
 In no country had superstition, scho- 
 lasticism, hierarchy, and popery, been so 
 powerful as among the Germanic na- 
 
 * Non enim tantum imperium, sed religio etiam 
 periclitantur. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Omnes dolorcs inferni oppresserant me. — 
 (Ibid, and p. 1069.) 
 
 t Christo mastiges et Psycho-tyranni suum fu- 
 rorem non potuerunt explere. — (L. Epp. Linco, 
 6th May 1529.) 
 
 tions. These simple and candid people 
 had humbly Dent tneir neck to the yoke 
 that came from the banks of the Tiber. 
 But mere was in them a depth, a life, a 
 need of interior liberty, which, sanctified 
 by the Word of God, might render them 
 the most energetic organs of christian 
 truth. It was from them that was des- 
 tined to emanate the reaction against that 
 material, external, and legal system, 
 which had taken the place of Christiani- 
 ty ; it was they who were called to shat- 
 ter in pieces the skeleton which had been 
 substituted for the spirit and the life, and 
 restore to the heart of Christendom, ossi- 
 fied by the hierarchy, the generous beat- 
 ings of which it had been deprived for 
 so many ages. The Universal Church 
 will never forget the debt it owes to the 
 Princes of Spire and to Luther. 
 
 VII. The protest of Spire had still fur- 
 ther increased the indignation of the Pa- 
 pal adherents; and Charles the Fifth, 
 according to the oath he had made at 
 Barcelona, set about preparing " a suita- 
 ble antidote for the pestilential disease 
 with which the Germans were attacked, 
 and to avenge in a striking manner the 
 insult offered to Jesus Christ."* The 
 Pope, on his part, endeavoured to com- 
 bine all the other princes of Christendom 
 in this crusade ; and the peace of Cam- 
 bray, concluded on the 5th August, tend- 
 ed to the accomplishment of his cruel de- 
 signs. It left the Emperor's hands free 
 against the heretics. After having en- 
 tered their protest at Spire, it was neces- 
 sary for the Evangelicals to think of 
 maintaining it. 
 
 The Protestant states that had already 
 laid the foundations of an evangelical 
 alliance at Spire, had agreed to send 
 deputies to Rothach ; but the Elector, 
 staggered by the representations of Lu- 
 ther, who was continually saying to him, 
 "It is by keeping yourselves tranquil 
 and in quietness that you will be saved,"! 
 ordered his deputies to listen to the prop- 
 ositions of his allies, but to decide upon 
 nothing. They adjourned to a new con- 
 ference, which never took place. Lu- 
 ther triumphed ; for human alliances 
 
 * Illatamque Christo injuriam pro viribns ul- 
 ciscentur— (Dumont, Corp. Univ. Diplomatique, 
 iv. p. 1, 5.) 
 
 t Isaiah xxx. 15. L. Epp. iii. p. 454. 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 657 
 
 failed. " Christ the Lord will know how 
 to deliver us without the Landgrave, and 
 even against the Landgrave," said he to 
 his friends.* 
 
 Philip of Hesse, who was vexed at 
 Luther's obstinacy, was convinced that it 
 arose from a dispute about words. " They 
 will hear no mention of alliances because 
 of the Zwinglians," said he ; " well then, 
 let us put an end to the contradictions 
 that separate them from Luther." 
 
 The union of all the disciples of the 
 Word of God seemed in fact a necessary 
 condition to the success of the Reform. 
 Hoav could the Protestants resist the 
 power of Rome and of the Empire, if 
 they were divided % The Landgrave no 
 doubt wished to unite their minds, that 
 he might afterwards be able to unite 
 their arms ; but the cause of Christ was 
 not to triumph by the sword. If they 
 should succeed in uniting their hearts 
 and prayers, the Reform would then find 
 such strength in the faith of its children, 
 that Philip's spearmen would no longer 
 be necessary. 
 
 Unfortunately this union of minds, that 
 was now to be sought after above all 
 things, was a very difficult task. Luther 
 in 1519 had at first appeared not only to 
 reform, but entirely renovate the doctrine 
 of the Lord's Supper, as the Swiss did 
 somewhat later. " I go to the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper," he had said, "and 
 I there receive a sign from God that 
 Christ's righteousness and passion justify 
 me ; such is the use of the Sacrament."f 
 This discourse, which had gone through 
 several impressions in the cities of Upper 
 Germany, had prepared men's minds for 
 the doctrine of Zwingle. Accordingly 
 Luther, astonished at the reputation he 
 had gained, published this solemn decla- 
 ration in 1527: "I protest before God 
 and before the whole world that I have 
 never walked with the Sacramentarians." 
 
 Luther in fact was never Zwinglian 
 as regards the Communion. Far from 
 that, in 1519, he still believed in Tran- 
 substantiation. Why then should he 
 speak of a sign ? It was for this reason. 
 While, according to Zwingle, the bread 
 and wine are signs of the body and blood 
 
 * UnserHer. Christus, &c— (Ibid.) This con- 
 fidence of Luther shocks a Lutheran historian- 
 Plank, ii. p. 454. 
 
 t In the writing entitled, Doss d'use Worte 
 nochfeste Stehen.—(L. Opp. xix.) 
 83 • 
 
 of Christ, according to Luther, the very 
 body and blood of Jesus Christ are signs 
 of God's grace. These opinions are 
 widely different from one another. 
 
 Erelong this disagreement declared it- 
 self. In 1527 Zwingle in his Friendly 
 Exposition* repeated Luther's opinion 
 with mildness and respect. Unfortu- 
 nately the pamphlet of the Saxon Refor- 
 mer " against the enthusiasts" was then 
 issuing from the press, and in it Luther 
 expressed his indignation that his adver- 
 saries should dare to speak of christian 
 unity and peace. " Well !" exclaimed 
 he, " since they thus insult all reason, I 
 will give them a Lutheran warning.! 
 Cursed be this concord ! cursed be this 
 charity ! down, down with it, to the bot- 
 tomless pit of hell ! If I should murder 
 your father, your mother, your wife, your 
 child, and then, wishing to murder you, 
 I should say to you, Let us be at peace, 
 my dear friend ! what answer would you 
 make ? — It is thus that the enthusiasts 
 who murder Jesus Christ my Lord, God 
 the Father, and Christendom my mother, 
 wish to murder me also ; and then they 
 say, Let us be friends !" 
 
 Zwingle wrote two replies " to the 
 excellent Martin Luther," in a cold tone 
 and with a haughty calmness more diffi- 
 cult to pardon than the invectives of the 
 Saxon doctor. " We ought to esteem 
 you a vessel of honour, and we do so with 
 joy," said he, " notwithstanding your 
 faults." ' Pamphlet followed pamphlet, 
 Luther always writing with the same 
 impetuosity, and Zwingle with the same 
 coolness and irony. 
 
 Such were the doctors whom the Land- 
 grave undertook to reconcile. Already, 
 during the sitting of the Diet of Spire, 
 Philip of Hesse, who was afflicted at 
 hearino- the Papists continually repeat- 
 ing " You boast of your attachment to 
 the pure Word of God, and yet you are 
 nevertheless disunited,"! had made over- 
 tures to Zwingle in writing. He now 
 went /arther, and invited the theologians 
 of the different parties to meet at Marburg. 
 These invitations met with various recep- 
 tions. Zwingle, whose heart was large 
 
 * Arnica exegesis, id est, Expositio Eucharistfe 
 negotii ad M. Lutherum. — (Zw. Opp.) 
 
 t Eine Lutherische Warnung. — (L. Opp. xix. 
 p. 391. Wider die Schwarmgeister.) 
 
 X Inter nos ipsos de religionis doctiina non con- 
 sentire.— (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 287.) 
 
658 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 and fraternal, answered the Landgrave's 
 call • but Luther, who discovered leagues 
 and battles behind this pretended concord, 
 rejected it. 
 
 It seemed, however, that great difficul- 
 ties would detain Zwingle. To travel 
 from Zurich to Marburg, it was neces- 
 sary to pass through the territories of the 
 Emperor and of other enemies to the Re- 
 formation ; the Landgrave himself did 
 not conceal the dangers of the journey ;* 
 but in order to obviate these difficulties, 
 he promised an escort from Strasburg to 
 Hesse, and for the rest " the protection 
 of God."f These precautions were not 
 of a nature to reassure the Zurichers. 
 
 Reasons of another kind detained Lu- 
 ther and Melancthon. " It is not right," 
 said they, " that the Landgrave has so 
 much to do with the Zwinglians. Their 
 error is of such a nature that people of 
 acute minds are easily tainted by it. 
 Reason loves what it understands, partic- 
 ularly when learned men clothe their 
 ideas in a scriptural dress." 
 
 Melancthon did not stop here, but put 
 forth the very extraordinary notion of se- 
 lecting Papists as judges of the discussion. 
 " If there were no impartial judges," said 
 he, " the Zwinglians would have a good 
 chance of boasting of victory."! Thus, 
 according to Melancthon, Papists would 
 be impartial judges when the real pres- 
 ence was the subject of discussion ! He 
 went still farther. " Let the Elector," 
 he wrote on the *14th* May to the Prince 
 Electoral, " refuse to permit our journey 
 to Marburg, so that we may allege this 
 excuse." The Elector would not lend 
 himself to so disgraceful a proceeding ; 
 and the Reformers of Wittemberg found 
 themselves compelled to accede to the re- 
 quest of Philip of Hesse. But they did 
 so with these words : " If the Swiss do 
 not yield to us, all your trouble will be 
 lost ;" and they wrote to the theologians 
 among their friends who were convoked 
 by the Prince : " Stay away if you can ; 
 your absence will be very useful to us."& 
 Zwingle, on the contrary, who would 
 have gone to the end of the world, made 
 every exertion to' obtain from the magis- 
 
 * Viam Francofurdi capias, quani autem hac 
 periculosiorem esse putamus. — (Ibid. p. 312.) 
 
 t Juvante Deo tuti. — (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 329.) 
 
 t Papistische als unparteische. — (Corp. Ref. i. 
 p. 1066.) r 
 
 5 Si potes, noli adesse. — (L. Epp. iii. p. 501.) 
 
 trates of Zurich permission to visit Mar- 
 burg. " I am convinced," said he to the 
 secret council, " that if we doctors meet 
 face to face, the splendour of truth will 
 illuminate our eyes."* But the council 
 that had only just signed the first reli- 
 gious peace,f an d who feared to see war 
 burst out afresh, positively refused to al- 
 low the departure of the Reformer. 
 
 Upon this Zwingle decided for him- 
 self. He felt that his presence was neces- 
 sary for the maintenance of peace in 
 Zurich ; but it was the welfare of all 
 Christendom that summoned him to Mar- 
 burg. Accordingly, raising his eyes to- 
 wards heaven, he resolved to depart, 
 exclaiming, " O God ! Thou hast never 
 abandoned us ; Thou wilt perform thy 
 will for thine own glory.";): During the 
 night of the 31st August, Zwingle, who 
 was unwilling to wait for the Land- 
 grave's safe-conduct, prepared for his 
 journey. Rodolph Collin, the Greek 
 professor, was alone to accompany him. 
 The Reformer wrote to the Smaller and 
 to the Great Council : " If I- leave with- 
 out informing you, it is not because I 
 despise your authority, most wise lords ; 
 but because, knowing the love you bear 
 towards me, I foresee that your anxiety 
 will oppose my going." 
 
 As he was writing these words, a 
 fourth message arrived from the Land- 
 grave, more pressing still than the pre- 
 ceding ones. The Reformer sent the 
 prince's letter to the burgomaster with 
 his own ; he then quitted his house 
 privily by night,^ concealing his depart- 
 ure both from his friends, whose impor- 
 tunity he feared, and from his enemies, 
 whose snares he had good cause to dread. 
 He did not even tell his wife where he 
 was going, lest it should distress her. 
 He and Collin then mounted two horses 
 that had been hired for the purpose, || and 
 rode off rapidly in the direction of Basle. 
 
 During the day the rumour of Zwin- 
 gle's absence spread through Zurich, and 
 his enemies were elated. " He has fled 
 the country," said they ; " he has run 
 
 * Ut veritatis splendor oculos nostros feriat. — 
 (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 321.) 
 
 t See below, Book xvi. chap. ii. anno 1529. 
 
 X Dei nunquam fallentis, qui nos nunquam de- 
 seruit, gratiam reputavi. — (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 356.) 
 
 § Sabbati die, mane ante lueem, 1 Septembris. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 U Equis conductoriis. — (Zvr. Epp. ii. p. 361.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 away with a ?pack of scoundrels !" " As 
 he was crossing the river at Bruck," said 
 others, " the boat upset and he was 
 drowned." " The devil," affirmed many 
 with a malicious smile, " appeared to him 
 bodily and carried him ofT."* — " There 
 was no end to their stories," says Bullin- 
 ger. But the council immediately re- 
 solved on acceding to the wish of the Re- 
 former. On the very day of his depart- 
 ure- they appointed one of the councillors, 
 Ulric Funck, to accompany him to Mar- 
 burg, who forthwith set out with a do- 
 mestic and one arquebusier. Strasburg 
 and Basle in like manner sent statesmen 
 in company with their theologians, under 
 the idea that this conference would doubt- 
 less have also a political object. 
 
 Zwingle arrived safe and sound at 
 Basle,f and embarked on the river on the 
 6th September with (Ecolampadius and 
 several merchants. | In thirteen hours 
 they reached Strasburg, where the two 
 Reformers lodged in the house of Mat- 
 thew Zell, the cathedral preacher. Cath- 
 erine, the pastpr's wife, prepared the dish- 
 es in the kitchen, waited at table, accord- 
 ing to the ancient German manners,^ 
 and then sitting down near Zwingle, 
 listened attentively, and spoke with so 
 much piety and knowledge, that the lat- 
 ter soon ranked her above many doctors. 
 
 Zwingle, after discussing with the 
 Strasburg magistrates the means of re- 
 sisting the Romish league, and the or- 
 ganization to be given to the christian 
 confederacy, || quitted Strasburg ; and he 
 and his friends, conducted along by-roads, 
 through forests, over mountains and val- 
 leys, by secret but sure paths, at last ar- 
 rived at Marburg, escorted by forty Hes- 
 sian cavaliers.^! 
 
 Luther, on his side, accompanied by 
 Melancthon, Cruciger, and Jonas, had 
 stopped on the Hessian frontier, declaring 
 
 * Der Tufel vere by imm gesin — (BulJingii. p. 
 224.) 
 
 t Integer et sanus Basiliam pervenit— (Zw. 
 Epp. ii. p. 361.) 
 
 i Aliquos niercatorum fide digpos, comites. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 § Ich bin 14 Tag magd und Kochin gewesen. 
 — (Fussl. Beytr. v. p. 313.) See her remarkable 
 correspondence with the superintendent Rabus. 
 —(Ibid. p. 191-354.) . . 
 
 II De jure prssidendi concihis civitatum chnstia- 
 naum.— (Ibid, v. p. 3G4.) See book xvi. of this 
 History. 
 
 If Per devia et sylvas, montes et valles, tutiasi- 
 mos et occultos. — (Ibid. p. 368.) 
 
 that nothing should induce him to cross 
 it until he had a safe-conduct from the 
 Landgrave. This document being ob- 
 tained, Luther arrived at Alsfeld, where 
 the scholars, kneeling under the Re- 
 former's windows, chanted their pious 
 hymns. He entered Marburg on the 
 30th September, a day after the arrival 
 of the Swiss. Both parties went to inns ; 
 but they had scarcely alighted, before the 
 Landgrave invited them to come and 
 lodge in the castle, thinking by this 
 means to bring the opposing parties 
 closer together. Philip entertained them 
 in a manner truly royal.* u Ah !" said 
 the pious Jonas, as he wandered through 
 the halls of the palace. " it is not in hon- 
 our of the Muses, but in honour of God 
 and of his Christ, that we are so munifi- 
 cently treated in these forests of Hesse !" 
 After dinner, on the first day, CEcolam- 
 padius, Hedio, and Bucer, desirous of en- 
 tering into the prince's views, went and 
 saluted Luther. The latter conversed 
 affectionately with (Ecolampadius in the 
 castle-court ; but Bucer, witli whom he 
 had once been very intimate, and who 
 was now on Zwingle's side, having ap- 
 proached him, Luther said to him, smi- 
 ling, and making a sign with his hand : 
 " As for you, you are a good-for-nothing 
 fellow and a knave f"t 
 
 The unhappy Carlstadt, who had be- 
 gun all this dispute, was at that time in 
 Friesland, preaching the spiritual pres- 
 ence of Christ, and living in such destitu- 
 tion that he had been forced to sell his 
 Hebrew Bible to procure bread. The 
 trial had crushed his pride, and he wrote 
 to die Landgrave : " We are but one 
 body, one house, one people, one sacerdo- 
 tal race ; we live and die by one and the 
 same Saviour.J For this reason, I, poor 
 and in exile, humbly pray your highness, 
 by the blood of Jesus Christ, to allow me 
 to be present at this disputation." 
 
 But how bring Luther and Carlstadt 
 face to face ? and yet how repel the un- 
 happy man 1 The Landgrave, to extri- 
 cate himself from this difficulty, referred 
 him to the Saxon Reformer. Carlstadt 
 did not appear. 
 
 * Excepit in arce hospitio et mensa regali. — 
 (Corp. Ref. i. p. 1096.) 
 
 t Subridens aliquantulum respondit: hi ts n»- 
 quam et nebulo. — (Sculteti Anna! ad 1529.) 
 
 i State Papers of Cassel. 
 
660 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Philip of Hesse desired that, previous- 
 ly to the public conference, the theolo- 
 gians should have a private interview. 
 It was however considered dangerous, 
 says a contemporary, for Zwingle and 
 Luther, who were both naturally violent, 
 to contend with one another at the very 
 beginning : and as CEcolampadius and 
 Melancthon were the mildest, they Avere 
 apportioned to the roughest.* On Fri- 
 day the 1st October, after divine service, 
 Luther and CEcolampadius were con- 
 ducted into one chamber, and Zwingle 
 and Melancthon into another. The 
 combatants were then left to struggle two 
 and two. 
 
 The principal contest took place in 
 the room of Zwingle and Melancthon. 
 " It is affirmed," said Melancthon to 
 Zwingle, " that some among you speak 
 of God after the manner of the Jews, as 
 if Christ was not essentially God." " I 
 think on the Holy Trinity," replied 
 Zwingle, "with the Council of Nice 
 and the Athanasian creed." " Councils! 
 creeds ! What does that mean ?" asked 
 Melancthon. " Have you not contin- 
 ually repeated that you recognise no 
 other authority than that of Scrip- 
 ture?" "We have never rejected the 
 councils," replied the Swiss Reformer, ! 
 " when they are based on the authority 
 of the Word of God.f The four first j 
 councils are truly sacred as regards doc- 
 trine, and none of the faithful have ever 
 rejected them." This important decla- 
 ration, handed down to us by CEcolam- 
 padius, characterizes the Reformed the- 
 ology.:}: 
 
 " But you teach," resumed Melanc- 
 thon, " like Thomas Munster, that the 
 Holy Ghost acts quite alone, independ- 
 ently of the sacraments and of the Word 
 of God." " The Holy Ghost," replied 
 Zwingle, " works in us justification by 
 the Word, but by the Word preached 
 and understood, by the soul and the 
 marrow of the Word, by the mind and 
 will of God clothed in human lan- 
 guage."^ 
 
 * Abgetheilt zu den riihren. — (Bull. ii. p. 225.) 
 
 t Ubi unquam concilia rejicimus, verbi divini 
 auctoritati sufl'ultal — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 191.) 
 
 t The word Reformed is used to distinguish the 
 doctrine and the church of Zwingle and Calvin 
 from those of Luther. 
 
 § Mens ct medulla verbi, mens et voluntas Dei 
 atnicta tamen humanis verbis. — (Zw. Epp. iv. p. 
 173.) • 
 
 " At least," continued Melancthon, 
 " you deny original sin, and make sin to 
 consist only in actual and external works, 
 like the Pelagians, the philosophers, and 
 the Papists." 
 
 This was the principal difficulty. 
 " Since man naturally loves himself," 
 replied Zwingle, " instead of loving God ; 
 in that there is a crime, a sin that con- 
 demns him."* He had more than once 
 before expressed the same opinion ;f and 
 yet Melancthon exulted on hearing him : 
 " Our adversaries," said he afterwards, 
 " have given way on- all these points !" 
 
 Luther had pursued the same method 
 with CEcolampadius as Melancthon with 
 Zwingle. The discussion had in par- 
 ticular turned on baptism. Luther com- 
 plained that they would not acknowledge 
 that by this simple sign a man became a 
 member of the Church. " It is true," 
 said CEcolampadius, " that we require 
 faith — either an actual or a future faith. 
 Why should we deny it? Who is a 
 Christian, if it be not he who believes in 
 Christ ? However, I should be unwil- 
 ling to deny that the water of baptism is 
 in a certain sense a water of regenera- 
 tion ; for by it he whom the Church 
 knew not becomes its child. "| 
 
 These four theologians were in the 
 very heat of their discussions, when do- 
 mestics came to inform them that the 
 prince's dinner was on the table. Th£y 
 immediately rose, and Zwingle and Me- 
 lancthon meeting Luther and CEcolam- 
 padius, who were also quitting their 
 chamber, the latter approached Zwingle, 
 and whispered mournfully in his ear : 
 " I have fallen a second time into the 
 hands of Dr. Eck."§ In the language of 
 the Reformers nothing stronger could be 
 said. 
 
 It does not appear that the conference 
 between Luther and CEcolampadius 
 was resumed after dinner. Luther's 
 manner held out little hope ; but Melanc- 
 thon and Zwingle returned to the dis- 
 
 * Malum, peccatum.— (Ibid. p. 172.) 
 
 t De peccato originali ad Urb. Rhegium.— 
 (Ibid. iii. p. 632.) 
 
 t Atqueadeo ipse non negarim, aquam baptismi 
 esse aquam regenerantem : fitenim puer ecclesiEB, 
 qui dudum ab ecclesia non agnoscebatur. — (Zw. 
 Opp. iv. p. 193.) 
 
 § Lutherum fficolampadem ita excepit, ut ad 
 meveniens clam queratur, se denuo inEccium in- 
 cidisse. — (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 369.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526— 1529. 
 
 661 
 
 cussion, and the Zurich doctor finding 
 the Wittemberg professor escape hirn 
 like an eel, as he said, and take " like 
 Proteus a thousand different forms," 
 seized a pen in order to fix his antagonist. 
 Zwingle committed to writing whatever 
 Melancthon dictated, and then wrote his 
 reply, giving it to the other to read.* In 
 this manner they spent six hours, three 
 in the morning and three in the after- 
 noon, f They prepared for the general 
 conference. 
 
 Zwingle requested that it should be an 
 open one ; Luther opposed this. It was 
 resolved that the princes, nobles, dep- 
 uties, and theologians should be admitted ; 
 but a great crowd of citizens, and even 
 many scholars and gentlemen, who had 
 come from Frankfort, from the Rhine 
 districts, from Strasburg, from Basle and 
 other Swiss towns, were excluded. Brenz 
 speaks of fifty or sixty hearers ; Zwingle 
 of twenty-four only.J 
 
 On a gentle elevation, watered by the 
 Lahn, is situated an old castle, overlook- 
 ing the city of Marburg; in the distance 
 is seen the beautiful valley of the Lahn, 
 and beyond, the mountain-tops rising one 
 above another, until they are lost in the 
 horizon. It was beneath the vaults and 
 Gothic arches of an ancient hall in this 
 Castle, called the Knights' Hall, that the 
 conference was to take place. 
 
 On Saturday morning (2d October) the 
 Landgrave took his seat in the hall, sur- 
 rounded by his court, but so plainly 
 dressed that no one would have taken 
 him for a prince. He wished to avoid the 
 appearance of playing the part of a Con- 
 stantine in the affairs of the Church. Be- 
 fore him was a table which Luther, 
 Zwingle, Melancthon, and (Ecolampa- 
 dius approached. Luther, taking a piece 
 of chalk, bent over the velvet cloth 
 which covered it, and steadily wrote four 
 words in large characters. All eyes fol- 
 lowed the movement of his hand, and 
 soon they read Hoc est Corpus Meum.§ 
 Luther wished to have this declaration 
 
 * At Melancthon, cum nimis lubricus esset et 
 Protei in morem se in omnia transformaret, me 
 compulit, ut sumpto calamo manu armarem. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 f Istud colloquium sex in horas traximus. — 
 (Ibid. 370.) 
 
 t Quinquaginta aut sexaginta colloquio prae- 
 sentes. — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 201.) Pauci arbitrii ad 
 summum quatuor et viginti. — (Epp. ii. p. 370.) 
 
 § This is my body. — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 175.) 
 
 continually before him, that it might 
 strengthen his faith, and be a sign to his 
 adversaries. 
 
 Behind these four theologians were 
 seated their friends, — Hedio, Sturm, 
 Funck, Frey, Eberard, Than, Jonas, 
 Cruciger, and others besides. Jonas cast 
 an inquiring glance upon the Swiss: 
 u Zwingle," said he, " has a certain rus- 
 ticity and arrogance j* if he is well versed 
 in letters, it is in spite of Minerva and 
 of the Muses. In (Ecolampadius there 
 is a natural goodness and admirable 
 meekness. Hedio seems to have as 
 much liberality as kindness ; but I find 
 in Bucer the cunning of a fox, that 
 knows how to give himself an air of 
 sense and prudence." Men of moderate 
 sentiments often meet with worse treat- 
 ment than those of the extreme parties. 
 
 Other sentiments animated those who 
 contemplated this assembly from a dis- 
 tance. The great men who had led the 
 people in their footsteps on the plains of 
 Saxony, on the banks of the Rhine, and 
 in the lofty valleys of Switzerland, were 
 there met face to face : the Chiefs of 
 Christendom, separated from Rome, were 
 come together to see if they could re- 
 main one. Accordingly, from all parts 
 of Germany, prayers and anxious looks 
 were directed towards Marburg. " Illus- 
 trious princes of the Word,"f cried the 
 evangelical Church through the mouth 
 of the poet Cordus, "penetrating Lu- 
 ther, mild (Ecolampadius, magnanimous 
 Zwingle, pious Snepf, eloquent Melanc- 
 thon, courageous Bucer, candid Hedio, 
 excellent Osiander, valiant Brenz, amia- 
 ble Jonas, fiery Craton, Maenus, whose 
 soul is stronger than his body, great Dio- 
 nysius, and you Myconius — all you 
 whom Prince Philip, that illustrious 
 hero, has summoned, ministers and bish- 
 ops, whom the christian cities have sent 
 to terminate the schism, and to show us 
 the way of truth ; the suppliant Church 
 falls weeping at your feet, and begs you 
 by the bowels of Jesus Christ to bring 
 this matter to a happy issue, so that the 
 world may acknowledge in your resolu- 
 tion the work of the Holy Ghost him- 
 self.":}: ; 
 
 * In Zwinglio agreste quiddam est et arrogan- 
 tulum.— (Corp. Ref. i. p. 1097.) 
 
 t Insignes verbi proceres. — (Bull. ii. p. 236.) 
 t Et cupido supplex vobis Ecclesia voto 
 Vestroscaditflens ad pedes. — (Bull. ii. p. 236.) 
 
662 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The Landgrave's chancellor, John 
 Feio-c, having reminded them in the 
 prince's name that the object of this col- 
 loquy was the re-establishment of union, 
 « I protest," said Luther, " that I differ 
 from my adversaries with regard to the 
 doctrine of the Lord's Supper, and that I 
 shall always differ from them. Christ 
 has said, This is my body. Let them 
 show me that a body is not a body. I 
 reject reason, common sense, carnal ar- 
 guments, and mathematical proofs. God 
 is above mathematics.* We have the 
 Word of God ; we must adore it and 
 perform it !" 
 
 " It cannot be denied," said CEcolam- 
 padius, " that there are figures of speech 
 in the Word of God ; as John is Elias, 
 the rock was Christ, I am the viae. The 
 expression This is my body, is a figure of 
 the same kind." Luther granted that 
 there were figures in the Bible, but he 
 denied that this last expression was figu- 
 rative. 
 
 All the various parties, however, of 
 which the Christian Church is composed 
 see a figure in these words. In fact, the 
 Romanists delare that This is my body 
 signifies not only " my body," but also 
 " my blood," " my soul," and even " my 
 Divinity," and " Christ wholly."! These 
 words, therefore, according to Rome, are 
 a synecdoche, a figure by which a part is 
 taken for the whole. And, as regards 
 the Lutherans, the figure is still more evi- 
 dent.;}: Whether it be synecdoche, meta- 
 phor, or metonymy, there is still a figure. 
 
 In order to prove it, CEcolampadius 
 employed this syllogism : — 
 
 " What Christ rejected in the sixth 
 chapter of St. John, he could not admit 
 in the words of the Eucharist. 
 
 " Now Christ, who said to the people 
 of Capernaum, The flesh 'profiteth nothing, 
 rejected by those very words the oral 
 manducation of his body. 
 
 " Therefore he did not establish it at 
 the institution of his Supper." 
 
 Luther. — " I deny the minor (the 
 
 * Deum esse supra mathematicam. — (Zw. Opp. 
 iv. p. 175.) 
 
 t If any one denies that the body and blood 
 of our Saviour Jesus Christ, with his soul and 
 his divinity, and consequently the whole Jesus 
 Christ (totum Christum), is contained in the sa- 
 crament of the Eucharist, let him be anathema.— 
 (Council of Trent, Sess. 13.) 
 
 : Tota Christi persona. — (Form, concord, viii.) 
 
 second of these propositions) ; Christ has 
 not rejected all oral manducation, but 
 only a material manducation, like that 
 of the flesh of oxen or of swine."* 
 
 CEcolampadius. — " There is danger in 
 attributing too much to mere matter." 
 
 Luther. — " Every thing that God 
 commands becomes spirit and life. If it 
 is by the Lord's order that we lift up a 
 straw, in that very action we perform a 
 spiritual work. We must pay attention 
 to him who speaks, and not to what he 
 says. God speaks : Men, worms, listen ! 
 — God commands : let the world obey ! 
 and let us all together fall down and 
 humbly kiss the Word."f 
 
 CEcolampadius. — " But since we have 
 the spiritual eating, what need of the 
 bodily one ?" 
 
 Luther. — " I do not ask what need 
 we have of it ; but I see it written. Eat, 
 this is my body. We must therefore be- 
 lieve and do. We must do — we must 
 do \\ — If God should order me to eat 
 dung, I would do it, with the assurance 
 that it would be salutary."^ 
 
 At this point Zwingle interfered in 
 the discussion. "We must explain 
 Scripture by Scripture," said he. " We 
 cannot admit two kinds of corporeal 
 manducation, as if Jesus had spoken of 
 eating, and the Capernaites of tearing in 
 pieces, for the same word is employed in 
 both cases. Jesus says that to eat his 
 flesh corporeally profiteth nothing (John 
 vi. 63) ; whence it would result that he 
 had given ais in the Supper a thing that 
 would be useless to us. — Besides there 
 are certain words that seem to me rather 
 childish, — the dung, for instance. The 
 oracles of the demons were obscure, not 
 so are those of Jesus Christ." 
 
 Luther. — " When Christ says the flesh 
 profiteth nothing, he speaks not of his 
 own flesh, but of ours." 
 
 # # # * # 
 
 Zwingle. — " The. soul is fed with the 
 Spirit and not with the flesh." 
 
 Luther. — " It is with the mouth that we 
 eat the body ; the soul does not eat it."|| 
 
 * Qualis est carnis bovillae aut suillre. — (Scult. 
 p. 217.) 
 
 t Q.uum prcecipit quid, pareat mundus; et om- 
 nes osculemur verbum. — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 170.) 
 
 I Man mus es thun ssepe inculcabat. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Sijuberet fimum comedere, facerem. — (Ibid.) 
 
 II Anima non edit ipsum (corpus) corporaliter. 
 — (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 370.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 663 
 
 Zwingle. — " Christ's body is therefore 
 a corporeal nourishment, and not a spir- 
 itual." 
 
 Luther. — " You are captious." 
 
 Zwingle. — " Not so ; but you utter 
 contradictory things." 
 
 Luther. — " If God should present me 
 wild apples, I should eat them spiritually. 
 In the Eucharist, the mouth receives the 
 body of Christ, and the soul believes in 
 his words." 
 
 Zwingle then quoted a great number 
 of passages from the Holy Scripture, in 
 which the sign is described by the very 
 thing signified ; and thence concluded 
 that, considering our Lord's declaration 
 in St. John, The flesh profitcth nothing, we 
 must explain the words of the Eucharist 
 in a' similar manner. 
 
 Many hearers were struck by these ar- 
 guments. Among the Marburg profes- 
 sors sat the Frenchman Lambert ; his tall 
 and spare frame was violently agitated. 
 He had been at first of Luther's opinion,* 
 and was then hesitating between the two 
 Reformers. As he went to the confer- 
 ence, he said : " I desire to be a sheet of 
 blank paper, on which the finger of God 
 may write his truth." Erelong he ex- 
 claimed, after hearing Zwingle and (Eco- 
 lampadius: " Yes! the Spirit, that is what 
 vivifies !"f When this conversion was 
 known, the Wittembergers, shrugging 
 their shoulders, said, " Gallic fickleness !" 
 " What I" replied Lambert, " was St. 
 Paul fickle because he was converted 
 from Pharisaism 1 And have we our- 
 selves been fickle in abandoning the lost 
 sects of Popery ?" 
 
 Luther was, however, by no means 
 shaken. " This is my body" repeated he, 
 pointing with his' finger to the words 
 written before him. " This is my body. 
 The devil himself shall not drive me from 
 that. To seek to understand it, is to fall 
 away from the faith."| 
 
 " But, doctor," said Zwingle, " St. John 
 explains how Christ's body is eaten, and 
 you will be obliged at last to leave off 
 singing always the same song." 
 
 * See his Commentary on St. Luke (xxii. 19,20.) 
 t He added, that the body of Christ was in the 
 Eucharist neither mathematically or commensu- 
 rably, nor really (neque mathematice seu commen- 
 surative, neque re ipsa). — (Epist. Lamb, de Marb. 
 col.) 
 
 I Si interrogo, excido a fide. — (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 
 177.) 
 
 " You make use of unmannerly ex- 
 pressions," replied Luther.* The Wit- 
 tembergers themselves called Zwingle's 
 argument " his old song."f Zwingle 
 continued without being disconcerted : " I 
 ask you, doctor, whether Christ in the sixth 
 chapte»of St. John did not wish to reply to 
 the question that had been put to him ?" 
 
 Luther. — " Mr. Zwingle, you wish to 
 stop my mouth by the arrogancy of your 
 language. That passage has nothing to 
 do here." 
 
 Zwingle, hastily. — ' l Pardon me, doc- 
 tor, that passage breaks your neck." 
 
 Luther. — " Do not boast so much ! 
 You are in Hesse, and not in Switzer- 
 land. In this country we do not break 
 people's necks." 
 
 Then turning towards his friends, Lu- 
 ther complained bitterly of Zwingle ; as 
 if the latter had really wished to break 
 his neck. " He makes use of soldier-like 
 and blood-stained words," said he.| Lu- 
 ther forgot that he had employed a simi- 
 lar expression in speaking of Carlstadt.^ 
 
 Zwingle resumed : " In Switzerland 
 also there is strict justice, and we break 
 no man's neck without trial. That ex- 
 pression signifies merely that your cause 
 is lost and hopeless." 
 
 Great agitation prevailed in the 
 Knights' Hall. The roughness of the 
 Swiss and the obstinacy of the Saxon had 
 come into collision. The Landgrave, 
 fearing to behold the failure of his pro- 
 ject of conciliation, nodded assent to 
 Zwingle's explanation. " Doctor," said 
 he to Luther, " you should not be offend- 
 ed at such common expressions." It was 
 in vain : the agitated sea could not again 
 be calmed. The prince therefore arose, 
 and they all repaired to the banqueting 
 hall. After dinner they resumed their 
 tasks. 
 
 " I believe," said Luther, " that Christ's 
 body is in heaven, but I also believe that 
 it is in the sacrament. It concerns me 
 little whether that be against nature, pro- 
 vided that it is not against faith. (J Christ 
 is substantially in the sacrament, such as 
 he was born of the Virgin." 
 
 * Invidiose loqueris. — (Bull. ii. p. 228.) 
 
 t Veterem suam cantilenam. — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 
 221.) 
 
 X Verbum istud, tanquam castrense et cruen- 
 tum. — (Hospin. p. 131.) § Book ix. 
 
 II Non euro quod sit contra naturam, modo non 
 contra fidem. — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 178.) 
 
664 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 (Ecolamtadius, quoting a passage from 
 St. Paul : " We know not Jesus Christ 
 after the flesh."* 
 
 Luther. — " After the flesh means, in 
 this passage, after our carnal affections."! 
 
 GEcolampadius. — " You will not allow 
 that there is a metaphor in these»words, 
 This is my body, and yet you admit a sy- 
 necdoche." 
 
 Luther. — " Metaphor permits the ex- 
 istence of a sign only ; but it is not so 
 with synecdoche. If a man says he 
 wishes to drink a bottle, we understand 
 that he means the beer in the bottle. 
 Christ's body is in the bread, as a sword 
 in the scabbard,! or as the Holy Ghost 
 in the dove." 
 
 The discussion was proceeding in this 
 manner, when Osiander, pastor of Nu- 
 remberg, Stephen Agricola, pastor of 
 Augsburg, and Brenz, pastor of Halle in 
 Swabia, author of the famous Syngram- 
 ma, entered the hall. These also had 
 been invited by the Landgrave. But 
 Brenz, to whom Luther had written that 
 he should take care not to appear, had no 
 doubt by his indecision retarded his own 
 departure as well as that of his friends. 
 Places were assigned them near Luther 
 and Melancthon. " Listen, and speak if 
 necessary," they were told. They took 
 but little advantage of this permission. 
 " All of us, except Luther," said Melanc- 
 thon, "were silent personages."^ 
 
 The struggle continued. 
 
 When Zwingle saw that exegesis was 
 not sufficient for Luther, he added dog- 
 matical theology to it, and, subsidiarily, 
 natural philosophy. 
 
 u I oppose you," said he, " with this ar- 
 ticle of our faith : Ascendit in caelum — he 
 ascended into heaven. If Christ is in 
 heaven as regards his body, how can he 
 be in the bread ? The Word of God 
 teaches us that he was like his brethren 
 in all things (Heb. ii. 17). He therefore 
 cannot be in several places at once." 
 
 Luther. — " Were I desirous of reason- 
 ing thus, I would undertake to prove that 
 Jesus Christ had a wife ; that he had 
 black eyes, || and lived in our good coun- 
 
 * 2 Cor. v. 16. 
 t Procarnalibus affectibus.-(Zw. Opp. iv. p. 202.) 
 
 J Corpus est in pane sicut gladius in vagina. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 § Fuimus Kw<pa rpoVuTrn. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 1098.) 
 
 II Q.uod uxorem et nigros oculos habuisset. — 
 (Scultct. p. 225.) 
 
 try of Germany.* I care little about 
 mathematics." 
 
 " There is no question of mathematics 
 here," said Zwingle, "but of St. Paul, 
 who writes to the Philippians, poptpnv loi\ov 
 
 Luther, interrupting him. — " Read it 
 to us in Latin or in German, not in 
 Greek." 
 
 Zwingle (in Latin). — " Pardon me : 
 for twelve years past I have made use of 
 the Greek Testament only." Then con- 
 tinuing to read the passage, he concluded 
 from it that Christ's humanity is of a fi- 
 nite nature like our own. 
 
 Luther, pointing to the words written 
 before him. — " Most dear sirs, since my 
 Lord Jesus Christ says, Hoc est corpus 
 meum, I believe that his body is really 
 there." 
 
 Here the scene grew animated. Zwin- 
 gle started from his chair, sprung towards 
 Luther, and striking the table before him, 
 said to him :| 
 
 " You maintain then, doctor, that 
 Christ's body is locally in the Eucharist ; 
 for you say Christ's body is really there — 
 there — there" repeated Zwingle. " There 
 is an adverb of place. § Christ's body is 
 then of such a nature as to exist in a 
 place. If it is in a place, it is in heaven, 
 whence it follows that it is not in the 
 bread." 
 
 Luther. — " I repeat that I have no- 
 thing to do with mathematical proofs. 
 As soon as the words of consecration are 
 pronounced over the bread, the body is 
 there, however wicked be the priest who 
 pronounces them." 
 
 Zwingle. — " You are thus re-establish- 
 ing Popery. "|| 
 
 Luther. — " This is not done through 
 the priest's merits, but because of Christ's 
 ordinance. I will not, when Christ's 
 body is in question, hear speak of a par- 
 ticular place. I absolutely will not." 
 
 Zwingle. — " Must every thing, then, 
 exist precisely as you will it ?" 
 
 The Landgrave perceived that the dis- 
 
 * In Germania diuturnum contubernium egisse. 
 — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 202.) 
 
 t Having taken the form of a servant. — (Phil. 
 ii- "7.) 
 
 t Ibi Zwinglius illico prosiliens. — (Scultet. p. 
 
 § Da, da, da. Ibi est adverbium loci. — (Scul- 
 tet. p. 225.) 
 
 II Damit richtend ir das papstum uf. — (Zw. Opp. 
 hi. p. 57.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 665 
 
 cussion was growing hot ; and as the re- 
 past was waiting, he broke off the con- 
 test.* 
 
 The next day was Sunday, the 3d Oc- 
 tober. The conference was continued, 
 perhaps because of an epidemic (the 
 Sweating Sickness) that had just broken 
 out at Marburg, and did not allow of the 
 conference being prolonged. Luther, re- 
 turning to the discussion of the previous 
 evening, said : 
 
 " Christ's body is in the sacrament, but 
 it is not there as in a place." 
 
 Zwixgle. — " Then it is not there at 
 all." 
 
 Luther. — " Sophists say that a body 
 may very well be in several places at 
 once. The universe is a body, and yet 
 we cannot assert that it is in a particular 
 place." 
 
 Zwingle. — " Ah ! you speak of soph- 
 ists, doctor : really you are, after all, 
 obliged to return to the onions and flesh- 
 pots of Egypt, f As for what you say, that 
 the universe is in no particular place, I 
 beg all intelligent men to weigh this 
 proof." Then Zwingle, who, whatever 
 Luther said, had more than one arrow in 
 his quiver, after having established his 
 proposition by exegesis and philosophy, 
 resolved on confirming it by the testimo- 
 ny of the Fathers of the Church. 
 
 "Listen," said he, "to what Fulgen- 
 tius, bishop of Ruspa, in Numidia, said, in 
 the fifth century, to Trasamond, king of 
 the Vandals : ''The Son of God took the 
 attributes of true humanity, and did not 
 lose those of true Divinity. Born in time, 
 according to his mother, he lives in eter- 
 nity according to the Divinity that he 
 holds from the Father: coming from man, 
 he is man, and consequently in a place ; 
 proceeding from the Father, he is God, 
 and consequently present in every place. 
 According to his human nature, he was 
 absent from heaven while he was upon 
 earth, and he quitted the earth when he 
 ascended into heaven ; but, according 
 to his Divine nature, he remained in 
 heaven when he came down thence, and 
 he did not abandon the earth when he 
 returned thither.' "\ 
 
 * Coena instabatetdiremitcertamen.— (Ibid. iv. 
 
 p. 179.) 
 
 t Ad caepas et ollas iEgyptiacas.— (Zw. Opp. 
 ii. part 3, p. 57.) 
 
 X Secundum tmmanam substantiam, absens 
 coelo. cum esset in terra, et derelinquens terram 
 84 
 
 But Luther still replied : " It is writ- 
 ten, This is my body." Zwingle, becom- 
 ing impatient, said, " All that is idle 
 wrangling. An obstinate disputant might 
 also maintain this expression of our Sa- 
 viour to his mother, Behold thy son, point- 
 ing to St. John. Vain would be all ex- 
 planation ; he would not cease to cry, No, 
 no ! He said, Ecce films Urns, Behold thy 
 son, behold thy son ! Listen to a new 
 tes'timony ; it is from the great Augustin : 
 ' Let us not think,' says he, ' that Christ, 
 according to his human form, is present 
 in every place ; let us beware, in our en- 
 deavour to establish his Divinity, of ta- 
 king away his truth from his body. 
 Christ is now every where present like 
 God ; and yet, in consequence of his real 
 body, he is in a definite part of heav- 
 en.' "* 
 
 " St. Augustin," replied Luther, " is 
 not here speaking of the Eucharist. 
 Christ's body is not in the Eucharist as 
 in a place." 
 
 (Ecolampadius saw that he might take 
 advantage of this assertion of Luther's. 
 " The body of Christ," said he, " is not lo- 
 cally in the Eucharist, therefore no real 
 body is there ; for every one knows that 
 the essence of a body is its existence in a 
 place." 
 
 Here finished the morning's discus- 
 sion. 
 
 (Ecolampadius, upon reflection, felt 
 convinced that Luther's assertion might 
 be looked upon as an approximation. " I 
 remember," said he after dinner, " that the 
 doctor conceded this morning that Christ's 
 body was not in the sacrament as in a 
 place. Let us therefore inquire amica- 
 bly what is the nature of Christ's bodily 
 presence." 
 
 " You will not make me take a step 
 further," exclaimed Luther, who saw 
 where they wished to drag him ; " you 
 have Fulgentius and Augustin on your 
 side, but all the other Fathers are on 
 ours." 
 
 CEcolampadius, who seemed to the 
 Wittembergers to be vexatiously pre- 
 cise.! then said, "Name these doctors. 
 
 cum ascendisset in caelum— (Fulgentius to King 
 Trasamond, lib. ii.) 
 
 * In loco aliquo coeli propter veri corpons 
 modum— (Aug. Ep. p. 57.) 
 
 t Quern omnes sperassemus mitiorem, mteruum 
 videbatur paulo morosior, sed citra contumeliam. 
 — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 201.) 
 
666 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 We will take upon ourselves to prove 
 that they are of our opinion." 
 
 " We will not name them' to you,"* 
 said Luther. "It was in his youth," 
 added he, " that Augustin wrote what 
 you have quoted ; and, besides, he is an 
 obscure author." Then, retreating to the 
 ground which he had resolved never to 
 quit, he was no longer content to point 
 his finger at the inscription, Hoc est corpus 
 meum, but seized the velvet cover on 
 which the Avords were written, pulled it 
 off the table, held it up in front of Zwin- 
 gle and (Ecolampadius, and placing it 
 before their eyes,f " See !" said he, " see ! 
 This is our text ; you have not yet driven 
 us from it, as you had boasted, and we 
 care for no other proofs." 
 
 " If this be the case," said (Ecolampa- 
 dius, " we had better leave off the discus- 
 sion. But I will first declare, that, if we 
 quote the Fathers, it is only to free our 
 doctrine from the reproach of novelty, 
 and not to support our cause by their au- 
 thority." No better definition can -be 
 given of the legitimate use of the Doctors 
 of the Church. 
 
 There was no reason, in fact, for pro- 
 longing the conference. " As Luther 
 was of an intractable and imperious dis- 
 position," says even his great apologist 
 Seckendorf, " he did not cease from call- 
 ing upon the Swiss to submit simply to 
 his opinion."| 
 
 The Chancellor, alarmed at this ter- 
 mination of the colloquy, exhorted the 
 theologians to come to an understanding. 
 " I know but one means for that," said 
 Luther ; " and this it is : Let our adver- 
 saries believe as we do." " We cannot," 
 replied the Swiss. " Well then," replied 
 Luther, " I abandon you to God's j udg- 
 ment, and pray that he will enlighten 
 you." " We will do the same," added 
 (Ecolampadius. 
 
 While these words were passing, 
 Zwingle was silent, motionless, and 
 deeply moved ; and the liveliness of his 
 affections, of which he had given more 
 than one proof during the conference, 
 was then manifested in a very different 
 
 * Non nominabimus illos.— (Scultet. p. 228.) 
 t Da hub Luther die Sanimaten deck auf, und 
 
 Zeigt ihm den Spruch, den er mit kreyden hett 
 
 fur sich geschrieben.— (Osiander ; Niederer's 
 
 Nachrichten, ii. p. 114.) 
 
 t Lutherus vero ut erat fero et imperioso in- 
 
 genio. — (Seek. p. 136.) 
 
 manner. He burst into tears in the pres- 
 ence of all. 
 
 The conference was ended. It had 
 been in reality more tranquil than the 
 documents seem to show, or perhaps the 
 chroniclers appreciated such matters dif- 
 ferently from ourselves. " With the ex- 
 ception of a few sallies, all had passed off 
 quietly, in a courteous manner, and with 
 very great gentleness," says an eye-wit- 
 ness.* " During the colloquy no other 
 words than these were heard : ' Sir, and 
 very dear friend, your charity,' or other 
 similar expressions. Not a word of 
 schism or of heresy. It might have been 
 said that Luther and Zwingle were bro- 
 thers, and not adversaries."f This is the 
 testimony of Brenz. But these flpwers 
 concealed an abyss, and Jonas, also an 
 eye-witness, styles the conference "a 
 very sharp contest."^ 
 
 The contagion that had suddenly bro- 
 ken out in Marburg was creating fright- 
 ful ravages, and filled everybody with 
 alarm. fy Each one was anxious to leave 
 the city. " Sirs," remarked the Land- 
 grave, " you cannot separate thus." And 
 desirous of giving the doctors an oppor- 
 tunity of meeting one another with minds 
 unoccupied by theological debates, he in- 
 vited them all to his table. This was 
 Sunday night. 
 
 Philip of Hesse had all along shown 
 the most constant attention, and each one 
 imagined him to be on his side. "I 
 would rather place my trust in the sim- 
 ple words of Christ, than in the subtle 
 thoughts of man," Avas a remark he 
 made, according to Jonas ;|| but ZAvingle 
 affirmed that this prince thought now as 
 he did, although with regard to certain 
 persons he dissembled his opinions. Lu- 
 ther, sensible of the Aveakness of his de- 
 fence as to the declarations of the Fathers, 
 transmitted a note to Philip, in which 
 several passages were pointed out from 
 Hilary, Chrysostom, Cyprian, Irenaeus, 
 
 * Omnia humanissime et surnma cum mansue- 
 tudine transigebantur. — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 201.) 
 
 f Amicissime Domine, Vestra charitas, et id 
 
 genus Dixisses Lutheruin et Zwinglium non 
 
 adversaries. — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 201.) 
 
 I Acerrimo certamine. — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 1096.) 
 § Nisi Sudor Anglicus subito Marburgum inva- 
 
 sisset et terrore omnium animos percutisset. — 
 (Hospin. p. 131.) 
 
 II Dicitur palam proclamasse.— (Corp. Ref. p. 
 1097.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 667 
 
 and Ambrose, which he thought were in 
 his favour. 
 
 The time of departure drew near, and 
 nothing had been done. The Landgrave 
 toiled earnestly at the union, as Luther 
 wrote to his wife.* He invited the theo- 
 logians one after another into his closet ;f 
 he pressed, entreated, warned, exhorted, 
 and conjured them. " Think," said he, 
 "of the salvation of the christian repub- 
 lic, and remove all discord from its bo- 
 som.":}: Never had general at the head 
 of an army taken such pains to win a 
 battle. 
 
 A final general meeting took place, 
 and undoubtedly the Church has seldom 
 witnessed one of greater solemnity. Lu- 
 ther and Zwingle, Saxony and Switzer- 
 land, met for the last time. The Sweat- 
 ing Sickness was carrying off men around 
 them by thousands ;§ Charles the Fifth 
 and the Pope were uniting in Italy ; Fer- 
 dinand and the Roman-catholic princes 
 were preparing to tear in pieces the Pro- 
 test of Spire ; the thunder-cloud became 
 more threatening every day ; union alone 
 seemed capable of saving the Protestants, 
 and the hour of departure was about to 
 strike — an hour that would separate them 
 perhaps for ever. 
 
 " Let us confess our union in all things 
 in which we agree," said Zwingle ; " and 
 as for the rest, let us remember that we 
 are brothers. There will never be peace 
 between the Churches if, while we main- 
 tain the grand doctrine of salvation by 
 faith, we cannot differ on secondary 
 points." || Such is, in fact, the true prin- 
 ciple of christian union. The sixteenth 
 century was still too deeply sunk in scho- 
 lasticism to understand this : let us hope 
 that the nineteenth century will compre- 
 hend it better. 
 
 " Yes, yes !" exclaimed the Landgrave ; 
 " you agree ! Give then a testimony of 
 your unity, and recognise one another as 
 brothers." — " There is no one upon earth 
 with whom I more desire to be united, 
 
 * Da arbeit der Landgraf heftig. — (L. Epp. iii. 
 p. 512.) 
 
 t Unumquemque nostrum seorsim absque arbi- 
 tris. — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 203.) 
 
 t Compellans, rogans, monens, exhortans, pos- 
 tulans ut Reipublicffi Christians rationem habe- 
 remus, et discordiam e medio tolleremus. — (Ibid.) 
 
 §-Multa perierunt millia. — (Hospin. p. 131.) 
 
 II Quod nulla unquam Ecclesiarum pax consti- 
 tuta sit, si non in multis aliis dissentiendi a se 
 facultatem faciant. — (Scultet. p. 207.) 
 
 than with you," said Zwingle, approach- 
 ing the Wittemberg doctors.* (Ecolam- 
 padius, Bucer, and Hedio said the same. 
 
 " Acknowledge them ! acknowledge 
 them as brothers !" continued the Land- 
 grave, f Their hearts were moved ; 
 they were on the eve of unity : Zwingle, 
 bursting into tears, in the presence of 
 the Prince, the courtiers, and divines (it 
 is ' Luther himself who records this),^ 
 approaches Luther, and holds out his 
 hand. The two families of the Refor- 
 mation were about to be united : long 
 quarrels were about to be stifled in their 
 cradle ; but Luther rejects the hand that 
 is offered him : " You have a different 
 spirit from ours," said he. These words 
 communicate to the Swiss, as it were, an 
 electrical shock. Their hearts sunk 
 each time Luther repeated them, and he 
 did so frequently. It is he himself who 
 is -our informant. 
 
 A brief consultation took place among 
 the Wittemberg doctors. Luther, Me- 
 lancthon, Agricola, Brenz, Jonas, and 
 Osiander, conferred together. Convinced 
 that their peculiar doctrine on the Eucha- 
 rist was essential to salvation, they con- 
 sidered all those who rejected it as with- 
 out the pale of the faith. "What fol- 
 ly !"§ said Melancthon, who afterwards 
 almost coincided with Zwingle's senti- 
 ments : " they condemn us, and yet they 
 desire we should consider them as our 
 brothers !" " What versatility !" added 
 Brenz : " they accused us but lately of 
 worshipping a bread-god, and they now 
 ask for communion Avith us!"|| Then, 
 turning towards Zwingle and his friends, 
 the Wittembergers said : " You do not 
 belong to the communion of the Chris- 
 tian Church: Ave cannot acknowledge 
 you as brethren !"T 
 
 The Swiss were far from partaking of 
 this sectarian spirit. " We think," said 
 Bucer, " that your doctrine strikes at the 
 glory of Jesus Christ, who now reigns at 
 
 * Es werendt keine ltith uff Erden. — (Bull, ii- 
 p. 225.) 
 
 t Idque Princeps valde urgebat. — (L. Epp. iii. 
 p. 513.) 
 
 } Swinglius palam lacrymans coram Langravio 
 et omnibus. — (Hospin. p. 136.) 
 
 § Vide eorum stultitiam ! — (Corp. Ref. i. p. 
 1108.) 
 
 II Nos tanquam adoratores panificiDei traduxe- 
 rant. — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 203.) 
 
 IT Eos a communione Ecclesis Christiana alie- 
 nos esse. — (Ibid.) 
 
668 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the right hand of the Father. But see- 
 ing that in all things you acknowledge 
 your dependence on the Lord, we look at 
 your conscience, which compels you to 
 receive the doctrine you profess, and we 
 do not doubt that you belong to Christ." 
 
 « And we," said Luther — " we declare 
 to you once more that our conscience op- 
 poses our receiving you as brethren." — 
 " If such is the case," replied Bucer, " it 
 would be folly to ask it." 
 
 " I am exceedingly astonished that you 
 wish to consider me as your brother," 
 pursued Luther. " It shows clearly that 
 you do not attach much importance to 
 your own doctrine." 
 
 " Take your choice," said Bucer, pro- 
 posing a dilemma to the Reformer : 
 " either you should not acknowledge as 
 brethren those who differ from you in 
 any point — and if so, you will not find a 
 single brother in your own ranks*— or 
 ,else you will receive some of those who 
 differ from you, and then you ought to 
 receive us." 
 
 The Swiss had exhausted their solici- 
 tations. " We are conscious," said they, 
 " of having acted as if in the presence of 
 God. Posterity will be our witness."! 
 They were on the point of retiring : Lu- 
 ther remained like a rock, to the Land- 
 grave's great indignation. j The Hes- 
 sian divines, Kraft, Lambert, Snepf, Lon- 
 icer, and Melander, united their exertions 
 to those of the Prince. 
 
 Luther was staggered, and conferred 
 anew with his colleagues. " Let us be- 
 ware," said he to his friends, " of wiping 
 our noses too roughly, lest blood should 
 come."§ 
 
 Then turning to Zwingle and (Eco- 
 lampadius, they said : " We acknowledge 
 you as friends ; we do not consider you 
 as brothers and members of Christ's 
 Church. || But we do not exclude you 
 from that universal charity which we 
 owe even to our enemies."!! 
 
 * Nemo alteri vel inter ipsos frater erit. — (Zw. 
 Opp. iv. p. 194.) 
 
 t Id testabitur posteritas. — (Ibid.) 
 
 X Principi illud durum videbatur. — (Ibid. p. 
 203.) 
 
 § Ne nimis mungendo, sanguinem eliceremus. — 
 (L. Epp. in his letter written to Gerbellius on the 
 same day — Monday.) 
 
 II Agnoscere quidem velimus tanquam amicos, 
 sed non tanquam fratres. — (Zw. Opp. iv. p. 203.) 
 
 IT Charitate quae etiam hosti debetur. — (Ibid. p. 
 190.) 
 
 The hearts of Zwingle, CEcolampa- 
 dius, and Bucer, were ready to burst,* 
 for this concession was almost a new in- 
 sult. Nevertheless they resolved to ac- 
 cept what was offered them. " Let us 
 carefully avoid all harsh and violent 
 words and writings," said they ; " and 
 let each one defend himself without rail- 
 ing."! 
 
 Luther then advanced towards the 
 Swiss, and said : " We consent, and I of- 
 fer you the hand of peace and charity." 
 The Swiss rushed in great emotion to- 
 wards the Wittembergers, and all shook 
 hands.;}; Luther himself was softened : 
 christian charity resumed her rights in 
 his heart. " Assuredly," said he, " a 
 great portion of the scandal is taken away 
 by the suppression of our fierce debates ; 
 we could not have hoped for so much. 
 May Christ's hand remove the last obsta- 
 cle that separates us. § There is now a 
 friendly concord between us, and if we 
 persevere in prayer, brotherhood will 
 come." 
 
 It was desirable to confirm this impor- 
 tant result by a report. " We must let 
 the christian world know," said the Land- 
 grave, u that, except the manner of the 
 presence of the body and blood in the 
 Eucharist, you are agreed in all the arti- 
 cles of faith." || This was resolved on; 
 but who should be charged with drawing 
 up the paper? All eyes were turned 
 upon Luther. The Swiss themselves ap- 
 pealed to his impartiality. 
 
 Luther retired to his closet, lost in 
 thought, uneasy, and finding the task very 
 difficult. " On the one hand," said he, 
 " I should like to spare their weakness )% 
 but, on the other, I would not in the least 
 degree strike at the holy doctrine of 
 Christ." He did not know how to set 
 about it, and his anguish increased. He 
 got free at last. " I will draw up the ar- 
 ticles," said he, " in the most accurate 
 manner. Do I not know that whatever 
 
 * Indignissime affecti sunt. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Quisque suam sententiam doceat absque in- 
 vectivis. — (L. Epp. iii. p. 514.) 
 
 t Dedimus tamen manus pacis et caritatis. — 
 (Ibid. p. 513.) 
 
 § Utinam et ille reliquus scrupulus per Chris- 
 tum tandem tnllatur, — in his letter written to Ger- 
 bellius after leaving this meeting. 
 
 II Ut orbi Christiano notum fieret eos in omni- 
 bus fidei capitibus consentire. — (Hospin. p. 127.) 
 
 TT Het gem ihrer Schwachheit verschont. — (Nie- 
 derer Nachr. ii. p. 120.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 669 
 
 I write, they will never sign them ?"* 
 Erelong fifteen articles were committed 
 to paper, and Luther, holding them in his 
 hand, repaired to the theologians of the 
 two parties. 
 
 These articles are of importance. The 
 two doctrines that were evolved in Switz- 
 erland and in Saxony, independently of 
 each other, were brought together and 
 compared. If they were of man, there 
 would be found in them a servile uni- 
 formity, or a remarkable opposition. This 
 was not the case. A great unity Avas 
 found between the German and the Swiss 
 Reformations, for they both proceeded 
 from the same Divine teaching ; and a 
 diversity on secondary points, for it was 
 by man's instrumentality that God had 
 effected them. 
 
 Luther took his paper, and reading the 
 first article, said : 
 
 " First, we believe that there is one 
 sole, true, and natural God, Creator of 
 heaven and earth and of all creatures ; 
 and that this same God, one in essence and 
 in nature, is threefold in person, that is to 
 say, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as was 
 declared in the Niccne Council, and as all 
 the Christian Church professes." 
 
 To this the Swiss gave their assent. 
 
 They were agreed also on the divinity 
 and humanity of Jesus Christ ; on his 
 death and resurrection, on original sin, 
 justification by faith, the operation of the 
 Holy Ghost and of the Word of God, 
 baptism, good works, confession, civil or- 
 der, and tradition. 
 
 Thus far all were united. The Wit- 
 tembergers could not recover from their 
 astonishment.! The two parties had re- 
 jected, on the one hand, the errors of the 
 Papists, who make religion little more 
 than an outward form ; and, on the other, 
 those of the Enthusiasts, who speak ex- 
 clusively of internal feelings ; and they 
 were found drawn up under the same 
 banners between these two camps. But 
 the moment was come that would separ- 
 ate them. Luther had kept till the last 
 the article on the Eucharist. 
 
 The Reformer resumed : 
 
 " We all believe with regard to the 
 
 * Doch zuletz sprach er Ich will die artikel auf 
 aller pesste stellen, sy werdens doch nicht anne- 
 men. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Quod mirari non satis potuimus. — (Brentius, 
 Zw. Opp. iv. p. 203.) 
 
 Lord's Supper, that it ought to be cele- 
 brated in both kinds, according to the 
 primitive institution ; that the Mass is not 
 a work by which a Christian obtains par- 
 don for another man, whether dead or 
 alive ; that the sacrament of the altar is 
 the sacrament of the very body and very 
 blood of Jesus Christ ; and that the spir- 
 itual manducation of this body and blood 
 is specially necessary to every true Chris- 
 tian."* 
 
 It was now the turn of the Swiss to, be 
 astonished. Luther continued : 
 
 " In like manner, as to the use of the 
 sacrament, we are agreed that, like the 
 Word, it was ordained of Almighty 
 God, in order that weak consciences 
 might be excited by the Holy Ghost to 
 faith and charity." 
 
 The joy of the Swiss was redoubled. 
 Luther continued : " And although at 
 present Ave are not agreed on the ques- 
 tion whether the real body and blood of 
 Christ are corporeally present in the 
 bread and wine, yet both the interested 
 parties shall cherish more and more a 
 truly christian charity for one another, so 
 far as conscience permits ; and Ave Avill 
 all earnestly implore the Lord to conde- 
 scend by his Spirit to confirm us in the 
 sound doctrine."! 
 
 The Swiss obtained Avhat they had 
 asked : unity in diversity. It was im- 
 mediately resolved to hold a solemn 
 meeting for the signature of the arti- 
 cles. 
 
 They Avere read over again. (Eco- 
 lampadius, ZAvingle, Bucer, and Hedio, 
 signed them first on one copy ; while 
 Luther, Melancthon, Jonas, Osiander, 
 Brentz, and Agricola, Avrote their names 
 on the other ; both parties then signed 
 the copy of their adversaries, and this 
 important document Avas sent to the 
 press.:}; 
 
 Thus the Reformation had made a 
 
 * Quod spiritualis manducatiohujus corporis et 
 sanguinis unicuique Christiano praecipue neces- 
 saria sit. — (Scultet. p. 232.) 
 
 t Osiander (a Lutheran) employs the accusa- 
 tive, "in den rechten Verstand," which would in- 
 dicate a movement towards an object that we do 
 not possess: Bullinger and Scultet (both Reform- 
 ed divines) have the dative. 
 
 t Bullinger and others indicate the 3d October 
 as the day on which the articles were signed ; Osi- 
 ander, an eye-witness, and whose narrative is very 
 exact, says it was the 4th, which agrees with all 
 the other data. 
 
670 
 
 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 sensible step at Marburg-. The opinion 
 of Zwingle on the spiritual presence, 
 and of Luther on the bodily presence, 
 are both found in christian antiquity ; but 
 both the extreme doctrines have been al- 
 ways rejected : that of the Rationalists, 
 on the one hand, who behold in the Eu- 
 charist nothing but a simple commemo- 
 ration ; and of the Papists, on the other, 
 who adore in it a transubstantiation. 
 These are both errors ; while the doc- 
 trines of Luther and Zwingle, and the 
 medium taken 'by Calvin, already main- 
 tained by some of the Fathers, were con- 
 sidered in ancient times as different views 
 of the same truth. If Luther had yield- 
 ed, it might have been feared that the 
 Church would fall into the extreme of 
 Rationalism; if Zwingle, that it would 
 rush into the extreme of Popery. It is 
 a salutary thing for the Church that 
 these different views should be enter- 
 tained ; but it is a pernicious thing for 
 individuals to attach themselves to one 
 of them, in such a majmer as to anathe- 
 matize the others. " There is only this 
 little stumbling-block," wrote Melanc- 
 thon, " that embarrasses the Church of 
 our Lord."* All, — Romanists and Evan- 
 gelicals, Saxons and Swiss, admitted the 
 presence, and even the real presence of 
 Christ ; but here was the essential point 
 of separation : Is this presence effected 
 by the faith of the communicant, or by 
 the opus operatum of the priest? The 
 germs of Popery, Sacerdotalism, Pusey- 
 ism, are inevitably contained in this lat- 
 ter thesis. If it is maintained that a 
 wicked priest (as has been said) operates 
 this real presence of Christ by three 
 jvords, we enter the Church of the Pope. 
 Luther appeared sometimes to admit this 
 doctrine, but he has often spoken in a 
 more spiritual manner ; and taking this 
 great man in his best moments, we be- 
 iiold no more than an essential unity and 
 a secondary diversity in the two parties 
 of the Reformation. Undoubtedly the 
 Lord has left his Church outward seals 
 of his grace ; but he has not attached 
 salvation to these signs. The essential 
 point is the connexion of the faithful 
 with the Word, with the Holy Ghost, 
 with the Head of the Church. " This is 
 the great truth which the Reform pro- 
 
 * Hicunusin Ecclesia haeret scrupulus. — (Corp. 
 Ref. i. p. 1106.) 
 
 claims, and which Lutheranism itself rec- 
 ognises. After the Marburg conference, 
 the controversy became more moderate. 
 
 There was another advantage. The 
 evangelical divines at Marburg marked 
 with one accord their separation from 
 the Papacy. Zwingle was not without 
 fear (unfounded, no doubt) with regard 
 to Luther : these fears were dispersed. 
 " Now that we are agreed," said he, 
 " the Papists will no longer hope that 
 Luther will ever be one of them."* The 
 Marburg articles are the first bulwark 
 erected in common by the Reformers 
 against Rome. 
 
 It was not, then, in vain that, after the 
 protest of Spire, Philip of Hesse en- 
 deavoured, at Marburg, to bring together 
 the friends of the Gospel. But, if the 
 religious object was partially attained, 
 the political object almost entirely failed. 
 They could not arrive at a confederation 
 of Switzerland and Germany. Never- 
 theless, Philip of Hesse and Zwingle, 
 with a view to this, had numerous secret 
 conversations, which made the Saxons 
 uneasy, as they were not less opposed to 
 Zwingle's politics than to his theology. 
 " When you have reformed the peasant's 
 cap," said Jonas to him, " you will also 
 claim to reform the sable hat of princes." 
 
 The Landgrave, having collected all 
 the doctors at his table on the last day, 
 they shook hands in a friendly manner,f 
 and each one thought of leaving the 
 town. 
 
 On Tuesday the 5th October, the 
 Landgrave quitted Marburg early, and in 
 the afternoon of the same day Luther 
 departed, accompanied by his colleagues ; 
 but he did not go forth as a conqueror. 
 A spirit of dejection and alarm had taken 
 possession of his mind.| He writhed in 
 the dust, like a worm, according to his 
 own expression. He fancied he should 
 never see his wife and children again, 
 and cried out that he, " the consoler of 
 so many tortured souls, was now without 
 any consolation !"§ 
 
 This state might partly arise from Lu- 
 
 * Pontifici non ultra possunt sperare Lutheruui 
 suum fore. — (Zw. Opp. ii. p. 370.) 
 
 t Die Hand einander fruntlich gebotten. — (Bull, 
 ii. p. 236.) 
 
 t Ego vix et segre domum reversus sum. — (L. 
 Epp. iii.p. 520.) 
 
 § Sic me Yexante Angelo Satanse,-ut despera- 
 riui me vivum et salvum Tisurum meos. — (Ibid.) 
 
THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526—1529. 
 
 671 
 
 ther's want of brotherly feeling ; but it 
 had other causes also. Soliman had 
 come to fulfil a promise made to King 
 Ferdinand. The latter having demanded, 
 in 1528, the surrender ofBelgrade, the Sul- 
 tan had haughtily replied, that he would 
 bring the keys himself to Vienna. In 
 fact, the Grand Turk, crossing the fron- 
 tiers of Germany, had invaded countries 
 " on which the hoofs of the Mussulman 
 war-horses had never trod," and eight 
 days before the conference at Marburg, 
 he had covered with his innumerable 
 tents the plain and the fertile hills in the 
 midst of which rise the walls of Vienna. 
 The struggle had begun under ground, 
 the two parties having dug deep gal- 
 leries beneath the ramparts. Three differ- 
 ent times the Turkish mines were sprung ; 
 the walls were thrown down ;* " the 
 balls flew through the air like a flight 
 of small birds," says a Turkish histo- 
 rian ; "and there was a horrible banquet, 
 at which the genii of death joyously 
 drained their glasses."! 
 
 Luther did not keep in the background. 
 He had already written against the Turks, 
 and now he published a Battle Sermon. 
 " Mahomet," said he, " exalts Christ as 
 being without sin ; but he denies that he 
 was the true God ; therefore he is his 
 enemy. Alas ! to this hour the world is 
 such that it seems everywhere to rain dis- 
 ciples of Mahomet. Two men ought to 
 oppose the Turks : the first is Christian, 
 that is to say, Prayer ; the second is 
 Charles, that is to say, The sword." And 
 in another place, " I know my dear Ger- 
 mans well, fat and well-fed swine ; as 
 soon as the danger is removed, they think 
 only of eating and sleeping. Wretched 
 man ! if thou dost not take up arms the 
 Turk will come ; he will carry thee 
 away into his Turkey; he will there 
 sell thee like a dog ; and thou shalt serve 
 him night and day, under the rod and 
 the cudgel, for a glass of water and a 
 morsel of bread. Think on this ; be con- 
 verted, and implore, the Lord not to give 
 thee the Turk for thy schoolmaster."^ 
 
 The two arms pointed out by Luther 
 were, in reality, vigorously employed ; 
 
 * Ipsam urbem in tribus locis, suffoso solo et 
 pulvere supposito disjicit et patefecit. — (L. Epp. 
 iii. p. 518.) 
 
 t Dschelalsade, quoted by Ranke. 
 
 j Heer predigt wider die Turken. — (L. Opp. 
 (W.) xx. p. 2691.) 
 
 and Soliman, perceiving at last that he 
 was not the " soul of the universe," as his 
 poets had styled him, but that there was 
 a strength in the world superior to his 
 own, raised the siege of Vienna on the 
 16th October; and " the shadow of God 
 over the two worlds," as he called him- 
 self, " disappeared and vanished in the 
 Bosphorus." 
 
 But Luther imagined that, when re- 
 tiring from before the walls of Vienna, 
 " the Turk, or at least his god, who is 
 the devil," had rushed upon him ; and 
 that it was this enemy of Christ and of 
 Christ's servants that he was destined to 
 combat and vanquish in his frightful ag- 
 ony.* There is an immediate reaction 
 of the violated law upon him who vio- 
 lates it. Now Luther had transgressed 
 the royal law, which is charity, and he 
 suffered the penalty. At last he re-en- 
 tered Wittemberg, and flung himself into 
 the arms of his friends, " tormented by 
 the angel of death."f 
 
 Without, however, overlooking the es- 
 sential qualities of a Reformer that Lu- 
 ther manifested at Marburg, there are in 
 God's work, as in a drama, different parts. 
 What various characters we see among 
 the Apostles and among the Reformers ! 
 It has been said that the same characters 
 and the same parts were assigned to St. 
 Peter and to Luther, at the time of the 
 Formation and of the Reformation of the 
 Church. ;j: They were both in fact men 
 of the initiative, who start forward quite 
 alone, but around whom an army soon 
 collects at the sight of the standard which 
 they wave. 
 
 But there was perhaps in the Reform- 
 er a characteristic that was not found to 
 the same degree in the Apostle ; this is 
 firmness. 
 
 As for Zwingle, he quitted Marburg 
 in alarm at Luther's intolerance. " Lu- 
 theranism," wrote he to the Landgrave, 
 " will lie as heavy upon us as Popery."^ 
 He reached Zurich on the 19th October. 
 " The truth," said he to his friends, " has 
 prevailed so manifestly, that if ever any 
 
 * Forte ipsum Turcam partim in isto agone co- 
 gor ferre et vincere, saltern ejus Deurn, diabolum. 
 — (L. Epp. iii. p. 520.) 
 
 t Ano-elus Satanas, vel quisquis est diabolus 
 mortis ita me fatigat.— (L. Epp. iii. p. 515.) 
 
 J Dr. Vinet. 
 
 § Das Lutherthum werde so schwer, als das Paps- 
 thum.— (Zw. Epp. p. 374.) 
 
672 
 
 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 one has been defeated before all the 
 world, it is Luther, although he constant- 
 ly exclaimed that he was invincible."* On 
 his side, Luther spoke in a similar strain. 
 " It is through fear of their fellow-citi- 
 zens," added he, " that the S iviss, although 
 vanquished, are unwilling to retract."! 
 
 If it should be asked on which side.the 
 victory really was, perhaps we ought to 
 say that Luther assumed the air of a con- 
 queror, but Zwingle was so in reality. 
 The conference propagated through all 
 Germany the doctrine of the Swiss, which 
 had been little known there till that time, 
 and it was adopted by an immense num- 
 ber of persons. Among these were Laf- 
 fards, first rector of St. Martin's School at 
 Brunswick, Dionysius Melander, Justus 
 Lening, Hartmann, Ibach, and many 
 more. The Landgrave himself, a short 
 time before his death, declared that this 
 conference had induced him to renounce 
 the oral manducation of Christ. | 
 
 Still the dominant principle at this cel- 
 ebrated epoch was unity. The adversa- 
 ries are the best judges. The Roman- 
 catholics were exasperated that the Lu- 
 therans and Zwinglians had agreed on 
 all the essential points of faith. " They 
 have a fellow-feeling against the Catho- 
 lic Church," said they, " as Herod and 
 Pilate against Jesus Christ." The en- 
 
 * Lutherus impudens et contumax aperte est 
 victus. — (Zw. Epp. p. 370.) 
 
 t Metuebant plebem suam ad quam non licuis- 
 set reverti. — (Zw. Opp. ii. p. 19.) 
 
 I Rommels Anmerkungen, p. 227-229. 
 
 thusiastic sects said the same,* and tho 
 extreme hierarchial as well as the ex- 
 treme radical party deprecated equally 
 the unity of Marburg. 
 
 Erelong a greater agitation eclipsed 
 all these rumours, and events which 
 threatened the whole evangelical body, 
 proclaimed its great and intimate union 
 with new force. The Emperor, it was 
 everywhere said, exasperated by the Pro 
 test of Spire, has landed at Genoa with 
 the pomp of a conqueror. After having 
 sworn at Barcelona to reduce the heretics 
 under the power of the Pope, he is go- 
 ing to visit this pontiff, humbly to bend 
 the knee before him ; and he will rise 
 up only to cross the Alps and accomplish 
 his terrible designs. " The Emperor 
 Charles," said Luther, a few days after 
 the landing of this prince, " has determin- 
 ed to show himself more cruel against us 
 than the Turk himself, and he has alrea- 
 dy uttered the most horrible threats. Be- 
 hold the hour of Christ's agony and weak- 
 ness. Let us pray for all those who will 
 soon have to endure captivity and death."f 
 
 Such was the news that then agitated 
 all Germany. The grand question was, 
 whether the Protest of Spire could be 
 maintained against the power of the Em- 
 peror and of the Pope. This was seen 
 in the year 1530. 
 
 * Pontificiis et catabaptistis multum displicuit 
 consensus Marpurgi. — (Scultet. p. 208.) 
 
 t Carolus Cfesar multo atrocius minatur et 
 sffivire statuit in nos, quam Turca— (L. Epp. iii. 
 p. 324.) 
 
 BOOK XIV, 
 
 THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 I. The Reformation was accomplished 
 in the name of a spiritual principle. It 
 had proclaimed for its teacher the Word 
 of God ; for salvation, Faith ; for king, 
 Jesus Christ ; for arms, the Holy Ghost ; 
 and had by these very means rejected all 
 worldly elements. Rome had been es- 
 tablished by the law of a carnal command- 
 ment ; the Reformation, by the power of 
 an endless life* 
 
 * Hebrews vii. 16. 
 
 If there is any doctrine that distinguish- 
 es Christianity from every other religion, 
 it is its spirituality. A heavenly life 
 brought down to man — such is its work : 
 thus the opposition of the spirit of the 
 Gospel to the spirit of the world was the 
 great fact which signalized the entrance 
 of Christianity among the nations. But 
 what its Founder had separated, had soon 
 come together again ; the Church had 
 fallen into the arms of the world ; and 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 673 
 
 this criminal union had reduced it to the 
 deplorable condition in which it was 
 found at tlpe era of the Reformation. 
 
 Thus one of the greatest tasks of the 
 sixteenth century was to restore the spirit- 
 ual element to its rights. The Gospel of 
 the Reformers had nothing to do with 
 the world and with politics. While the 
 Roman hierachy had become a matter of 
 diplomacy and a court intrigue, the Re- 
 formation was destined to exercise no 
 other influence over princes and people 
 than that which proceeds from the Gos- 
 pel of peace. 
 
 If the Reformation, having attained a 
 certain point, became untrue to its nature, 
 began to parley and temporize with the 
 world, and ceased thus to follow up the 
 spiritual principle that it had so loudly 
 proclaimed, it was faithless to God and to 
 itself. 
 
 Henceforward its decline was at hand. 
 
 It is impossible for a society to prosper 
 if it be unfaithful to the principles it lays 
 down. Having abandoned what consti- 
 tuted its life, it can find naught but death. 
 
 It was God's will that this great truth 
 should be inscribed on the very threshold 
 of the temple He was then raising in 
 the world ; and a striking contrast was to 
 make this truth stand gloriously forth. 
 
 One portion of the Reform was to seek 
 the alliance of the world, and in this alli- 
 ance find a destruction full of desolation. 
 
 Another portion, looking up to God, 
 was haughtily to reject the arm of the 
 flesh, and by this very act of faith secure 
 a noble victory. 
 
 If three centuries have gone astray, it 
 is because they were unable to compre- 
 hend so holy and solemn a lesson. 
 
 It was in the beginning of September 
 1529 that Charles V., the victor by bat- 
 tles or by treaties over the Pope and the 
 King of France, had landed at Genoa. 
 The shouts of the Spaniards had saluted 
 him as he quitted the Iberian peninsula ; 
 but the dejected eyes, the bended heads, 
 the silent lips of the Italians given over 
 to his hands, alone welcomed him to the 
 foot of the Apennines. Everything led 
 to the belief that Charles would indemni- 
 fy himself on th'em for the apparent gen- 
 erosity with which he had treated the 
 Pope. 
 
 They were deceived. Instead of those 
 85 
 
 barbarous chiefs of the Goths and Huns, 
 or of those proud and fierce emperors, 
 who more than once had crossed the 
 Alps and rushed upon Italy, sword in 
 hand and with cries of vengeance, the 
 Italians saw among them a young and 
 graceful prince, with pale features, a del- 
 icate frame, and weak voice, of winning 
 manners, having more the air of a cour- 
 tier than a warrior, scrupulously perform- 
 ing all the«luties of the Romish religion, 
 and leading in his train no terrible co- 
 horts of German barbarians, but a bril- 
 liant retinue of Spanish grandees, -who 
 complacently paraded the pride of their 
 race and the splendour of their nation. 
 This prince, the victor of Europe, spoke 
 only of peace and amnesty ; and even the 
 Duke of Ferrara, who of all the Italian 
 princes had most cause of fear, having at 
 Modena placed the keys of the city in his 
 hands, heard from his friendly lips the 
 most unexpected encouragements. 
 
 Whence did this strange conduct pro- 
 ceed 1 Charles had shown plainly 
 enough, at the time of the captivity of 
 Francis I., that generosity towards his 
 enemies was not his dominant virtue. It 
 was not long before this mystery was ex- 
 plained. 
 
 Almost at the same time with Charles 
 there arrived in Italy, by way of Lyons 
 and Genoa, three German burgesses, 
 whose whole equipage consisted of six 
 horses.* These were John Ehinger, bur- 
 gomaster of Memmingen, who carried 
 his head high, scattered money around 
 him, and did not pride himself on great 
 sobriety ; Michael Caden, syndic of Nu- 
 remberg, a worthy, pious, and brave man, 
 but detested by the Count of Nassau, the 
 most influential of Charles's ministers ; 
 and, lastly, Alexis Frauentraut, secretary 
 to the Margrave of Brandenburg, who, 
 having married a nun, was in very bad 
 esteem among the Roman-catholics. 
 Such were the three men whom the 
 Protestant princes, assembled at Nurem- 
 berg, commissioned to bear to the Empe- 
 ror the famous Protest of Spire. They 
 had purposely chosen these deputies from 
 a middle station, under the impression 
 that they would incur less danger. f To 
 carry such a message to Charles V. was, 
 
 * Legatis attribuerunt equos sex. — (Seckend. 
 ii. p. 134.) 
 
 t Ut essent tutiores. — (Ibid. p. 133.) 
 
674 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to say the truth, a mission which few per- 
 sons cared to execute. Accordingly a 
 pension had been secured to the widows 
 of these envoys in case of misfortune. 
 
 Charles was on his way from Genoa 
 to Bologna, and staying at Piacenza, 
 Avhen the three Protestant deputies over- 
 took him. These plain Germans pre- 
 sented a singular contrast in the midst of 
 that Spanish pomp and Romish fervour 
 by which the young prince was surround- 
 ed. Cardinal Gattinara, the Emperor's 
 chancellor, who sincerely desired a reform 
 of the Church, procured them an audi- 
 ence of Charles V. for the 22d of Septem- 
 ber ; but they were recommended to be 
 sparing in their words, for there was 
 nothing the Emperor so much disliked 
 as a Protestant sermon. 
 
 The deputies were not checked by 
 these insinuations ; and after having 
 handed the protest to Charles, Frauen- 
 traut began to speak : " It is to the Su- 
 preme Judge that each one of us must 
 render an account," said he, <; and not to 
 creatures who turn at every wind. It is 
 better to fall into the most cruel necessity, 
 than to incur the anger of God. Our 
 nation will obey no decrees that are based 
 on any other foundation than the Holy 
 Scriptures."* 
 
 Such was the proud tone held by these 
 German citizens to the Emperor of the 
 West. Charles said not a word — it 
 would have been paying them too much 
 honour ; but he charged one of his secre- 
 taries to announce an answer at some fu- 
 ture time. 
 
 There was no hurry to send back these 
 petty ambassadors. In vain did they re- 
 new their solicitations daily. Gattinara 
 treated them with kindness, but Nassau 
 sent them away with bitter words. A 
 workman, the armourer to the court, hav- 
 ing to visit Augsburg to purchase arms, 
 begged the Count of Nassau to despatch 
 the Protestant deputies. " You may tell 
 them," replied the minister of Charles 
 V., "that we will terminate their busi- 
 ness in order that you may have travel- 
 ling companions." But the armourer 
 having found other company, they were 
 compelled to wait.f 
 
 * Neque suaruna esse virium aut officii, ut eos 
 ad impossibilia et noxia adigant. — (Seckend. ii. p. 
 134.) 
 
 ■f Hortleben, von den Ursachen des deutschen 
 Kriegu, p. 50. 
 
 These envoys endeavoured at least to 
 make a good use of their time. " Take 
 this book," said the Landgrave to Caden 
 at the very moment of departure, giving 
 him a French work bound in velvet, and 
 richly ornamented, " and deliver it to the 
 Emperor."* It was a summary of the 
 Christian Faith which the Landgrave 
 had received from Francis Lambert, and 
 which had probably been written by that 
 doctor. Caden sought an opportunity of 
 presenting this treatise ; and did so one 
 day, therefore, as Charles was going pub- 
 licity to Mass. The Emperor took the 
 book, and passed it immediately to a 
 Spanish bishop. The Spaniard began to 
 read it,f and lighted upon that passage 
 of Scripture in which Christ enjoins his 
 apostles not to exercise lordship. % The 
 author took advantage of it to maintain 
 that the minister, charged with spiritual 
 matters, should not interfere with those 
 which are temporal. The Papist prelate 
 bit his lips, and Charles, who perceived 
 it, having asked, " Well, what is the mat- 
 ter ?" the bishop in confusion had re- 
 course to a falsehood. § " This treatise," 
 replied he, " takes the sword from the 
 christian magistrate, and grants it only to 
 nations that are strangers to the faith." 
 Immediately there was a great uproar : 
 the Spaniards above all were beside 
 themselves. 
 
 " The wretches that have endeavoured 
 to mislead so young a prince," said they, 
 " deserve to be hung on the first tree by 
 the wayside !" Charles swore, in fact, 
 that the bearer should suffer the penalty 
 of his audacity. 
 
 At length, on the 12th October, Alex- 
 ander Schweiss, imperial secretary, trans- 
 mitted the Emperor's reply to the depu- 
 ties. It said that the minority ought to 
 submit to the decrees passed in diet, and 
 that if the Duke of Saxony and his al- 
 lies refused, means would not be wanting 
 to compel them.]| 
 
 Ehinger and Caden thereupon read 
 aloud the appeal to the Emperor drawn 
 up at Spire, whilst Frauentraut, who had 
 
 * Libellum elegantur ornatum. — (Scultet. p- 
 253.) 
 
 t Cum obiter legisset. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Luke xxii. 26. 
 
 § Falsoet maligne relatum esset. — (Seckend. ii. 
 p. 133.) 
 
 II Sibi non defore media quibus ad id compeller- 
 entur. — (Seckend. ii. p. 133.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 675 
 
 renounced his quality of deputy and as- 
 sumed that of a notary,* took notes of 
 what was passing. When the reading 
 was finished, the deputies advanced to- 
 wards Schweiss and presented the ap- 
 peal. The imperial secretary rejected 
 the document with amazement ; the dep- 
 uties insisted ; Schweiss continued firm. 
 They then laid the appeal on the table. 
 Schweiss was staggered ; he took the 
 paper, and carried it to the Emperor. 
 
 After dinner, just as one of the depu- 
 ties (Caden) had gone out, a tumult in 
 the hotel announced some catastrophe. 
 It was the imperial secretary who return- 
 ed duly accompanied. " The Emperor 
 is exceedingly irritated against you on 
 account of this appeal," said he to the 
 Protestants ; " and he forbids you, under 
 pain of confiscation and death, to leave 
 your hotel, to write to Germany, or to 
 send any message whatsoever."! Thus 
 Charles put ambassadors under arrest, as 
 he would the officers of his guard, desi- 
 rous in this manner of publishing his 
 contempt, and of frightening the princes. 
 
 Caden's servant slipped in alarm out 
 of the hotel, and ran to his master. The 
 latter, still considering himself free, wrote 
 a hasty account of the whole business to 
 the senate of Nuremberg, sent off his 
 letters by express, and returned to share 
 in the arrest of his colleagues.;}; 
 
 On the 23d of October, the Emperor 
 left Piacenza, carrying the three Ger- 
 mans with him. But on the 30th he re- 
 leased Ehinger and Frauentraut, who, 
 mounting their horses in the middle of 
 the night, rushed at full speed along a 
 route thronged with soldiers and robbers. 
 " As for you," said Granvelle to Caden. 
 " you will stay under pain of death. 
 The Emperor expects that the book you 
 presented to him will be given up to the 
 Pope."§ Perhaps Charles thought it 
 pleasant to shoAv the Roman Pontiff this 
 prohibition issued against the ministers 
 of God to mingle in the government of 
 nations. But Caden, profiting by the 
 confusion of the court, secretly procured 
 a horse, and fled to Ferrara, thence to 
 
 * Tabellionis sive notarii officium. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Sub capitis poena, ne pedem a diversario mo- 
 veant. — (Scckend. ii. p. 133.) 
 
 i A famulo certior factus, rem oranem senatui 
 aperiut. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Ut idem scriptum exhibeat quoque Pontiiici. 
 — (Scultet. p. 254.) 
 
 Venice, from which place he returned to 
 Nuremberg.* 
 
 The more Charles appeared irritated 
 against Germany, the greater moderation 
 he showed towards the Italians : heavy 
 pecuniary contributions were all that he 
 required. It was beyond the Alps, in 
 the centre of Christendom, by means of 
 these very religious controversies, that 
 he desired to establish his power. He 
 pressed on, and required only two things : 
 behind him, — peace; with him, — money. 
 
 On the 5th of November he entered 
 Bologna. Everything was striking about 
 him : the crowd of nobles, the splendour 
 of the equipages, the haughtiness of the 
 Spanish troops, the four thousand ducats 
 that were scattered by handfuls among 
 the people ;f but above all, the majesty 
 and magnificence of the young Emperor. 
 The two chiefs of Romish Christendom 
 were about to meet. The Pope quitted 
 his palace with all his court ; and Charles, 
 at the head of an army which would 
 have conquered the whole of Italy in a 
 few days, affecting the humility of a 
 child, fell on his knees, and kissed the 
 Pontiff's feet. 
 
 The Emperor and the Pope resided at 
 Bologna in two adjoining palaces, sepa- 
 rated by a single wall, through which a 
 doorway had been made, of which each 
 had a key ; and the young and politic 
 Emperor was often seen to visit the old 
 and crafty Pontiff, carrying papers in his 
 hand. 
 
 Clement obtained Sforza's pardon, who 
 appeared before the Emperor sick and 
 leaning on a staff. Venice also w r as for- 
 given : a million of crowns arranged 
 these two matters. But Charles could 
 not obtain from the Pope the pardon of 
 Florence. This illustrious city was sac- 
 rificed to the Medici, " considering," it 
 was said, " that it is impossible for Christ's 
 vicar to demand anything that is unjust." 
 
 The most important affair was the Re- 
 formation. Some represented to the Em- 
 peror that, victor over all his enemies, he 
 should carry matters with a high hand, 
 and constrain the Protestants by force of 
 arms.J Charles was more moderate ; he 
 
 * Silentio conscendit equum. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t In vulgus sparsum aurum quatuor millia du- 
 
 catorum. — (L. Epp. iii. p. 565.) 
 
 t Armiscogandos.— (Seckend.ii. p. 112; Maim- 
 
 bourg, ii. p. 194.) 
 
C7G 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 preferred weakening the Protestants by 
 the Papists, and then the Papists by the 
 Protestants, and by this means raising his 
 power above them both. 
 
 A wiser course was nevertheless pro- 
 posed in a solemn conference. " The 
 Church is torn in pieces," said Chancellor 
 Gattinara. " You (Charles) are the head 
 of the empire : you (the Pope) are the 
 head of the Church. It is your duty to 
 provide by common accord against un- 
 precedented wants. Assemble the pious 
 men of all nations, and let a free council 
 deduce from the Word of God a scheme 
 of doctrine such as may be received by 
 every people."* 
 
 A thunderbolt would not have so great- 
 ly startled Clement VII. The offspring 
 of an illegitimate union, and having ob- 
 tained the Papacy by means far from 
 honourable, and squandered the treasures 
 of the Church in an unjust war, this Pon- 
 tiff had a thousand personal motives for 
 dreading an assembly of Christendom. 
 " Large congregations," replied he, " serve 
 only to introduce popular opinions. It is 
 not with the decrees of councils, but with 
 the edge of the sword, that we should de- 
 cide controversies."! 
 
 As Gattinara still persisted : '" What !" 
 said the Pope, angrily interrupting him, 
 " you dare to contradict me, and to excite 
 your master against me !" Charles rose 
 up ; all the assembly preserved, the pro- 
 foundest silence, and the prince having 
 resumed his seat, seconded his chancellor's 
 request. Clement was satisfied with say- 
 ing that he would* reflect upon it. He 
 then began to work upon the young Em- 
 peror in their private conferences, and 
 Charles promised at last to constrain the 
 heretics by violence, while the Pope should 
 summon all other princes to his aid.| " To 
 overcome Germany by force, and then 
 erase it from the surface of the earth, is 
 
 * Oratio ds Congressu Bonordensi, in Melanc- 
 thonis Orationum, iv. p. 87, and Caelestinus Hist. 
 Concil. 1830, Augustas, i. p. 10. Respectable au- 
 thors, Walsh, Muller, and Beausobre, incorrectly 
 quote at full length the speeches delivered at this 
 conference. They are amplifications ; but to deny 
 that they have some historical foundation would 
 be flying to the opposite extreme. 
 
 t Non concilii decretis, sed armis controversias 
 dirimendas. — (Scultet. p. 248; Maimbourg the 
 Jesuit, ii. p. 177.) 
 
 • X Pontifex, ut cseteri Christiani principes, ipsos 
 pro viribus juvent. — (Guicciardini, xix. p. 908.) 
 
 the sole object of the Italians," they wrote 
 from Venice to the Elector.* 
 
 Such was the sinister news which, by 
 spreading alarm among the Protestants, 
 should also have united them. Unfortu- 
 nately a contrary movement was then 
 taking place. Luther and some of his 
 friends had revised the Marburg articles 
 in a sense exclusively Lutheran, and the 
 ministers of the Elector of Saxony had 
 presented them to the conference at 
 Schwabach. The Reformed deputies from 
 Ulm and Strasburg had immediately 
 withdrawn, and the conference was bro- 
 ken up. 
 
 But new conferences had erelong 
 become necessary. The express that 
 Caden had forwarded from Piacenza had 
 reached Nuremberg. Every one in 
 Germany understood that the arrest of 
 the princes' deputies was a declaration of 
 war. The Elector was staggered, and 
 ordered his chancellor to consult the the- 
 ologians of Wittemberg. 
 
 " We cannot on our conscience," re- 
 plied Luther on the 18th November, 
 " approve of the proposed alliance. We 
 would rather die ten times than see our 
 Gospel cause one drop of blood to be 
 shed.f Our part is to be like lambs of 
 the slaughter. The cross of Christ 
 must be borne. Let your highness be 
 without fear. We shall do more by our 
 prayers than all our enemies by their 
 boastings. Only let not your hands be 
 stained with the blood of your brethren ! 
 If the Emperor requires us to be given 
 up to his tribunals, we are ready to ap- 
 pear. You cannot defend our faith : 
 each one should believe at his own risk 
 and peril. "J 
 
 On the 29th November an evangel- 
 ical congress was opened at Smalkald, 
 and an unexpected event rendered this 
 meeting still more important. Ehinger, 
 Caden, and Frauentraut, who had es- 
 caped from the grasp of Charles V., ap- 
 peared before them.§ The Landgrave 
 had no further doubts of the success of 
 his plan. 
 
 He was deceived. No agreement be- 
 
 * Ut Germania vi et armis opprimatur, fundi- 
 tus deleatur et eradicetur. — (Cselestin. i. p. 42.) 
 
 t Lieber zehn mal todt seyn. — ("Epp. iii. p. 
 526.) V rr 
 
 t Auf sein eigen Fahr glauben. — (Ibid. p. 527.) 
 
 § Advenerantet gesta referebant. — (Seckend.ii. 
 p. 140; Sleidan. i.p. 235.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. J530. 
 
 677 
 
 tween contrary doctrines, no alliance be- 
 tween politics and religion — were Lu- 
 ther's two principles, and they still pre- 
 vailed. It was agreed that those who 
 felt disposed to sign the articles of 
 Schwabach, and those only, should meet 
 at Nuremberg on the 6th of January. 
 
 The horizon became hourly more 
 threatening. The Papists of Germany 
 wrote one to another these few but sig- 
 nificant words : " The Saviour is com- 
 ing."* " Alas !" exclaimed Luther, 
 " what a pitiless saviour ! He will de- 
 vour them all, as well as us." In effect, 
 two Italian bishops, authorized by 
 Charles V., demanded in the Pope's 
 name all the gold and silver from the 
 churches, and a third part of the eccle- 
 siastical revenues : a proceeding which 
 caused an immense sensation. " Let the 
 Pope go to the devil," replied a canon of 
 Paderborn, a little too freely.f "Yes, 
 yes !" archly replied Luther, " this is your 
 saviour that is coming !" The people 
 already began to talk of frightful omens. 
 It was not only the living who were agi- 
 tated : a child still in its mother's womb 
 had uttered horrible shrieks.^ " All is 
 accomplished," said Luther ; " the Turk 
 has reached the highest degree of his 
 power, the glory of the Papacy is de- 
 clining, and the world is splitting on 
 every side."^ The Reformer, dreading 
 lest the end of the world should arrive 
 before he had translated all the Bible, 
 published the prophesies of Daniel sepa- 
 rately, — " a work," said he, " for these 
 latter times." " Historians relate," added 
 he, " that Alexander the Great always 
 placed Homer under his pillow : the 
 prophet Daniel is worthy not only that 
 kings and princes should wear him un- 
 der their heads, but in their hearts ; for 
 he will teach them that the government 
 of nations proceeds from the power of 
 God. We are balanced in the hand of 
 the Lord, as a ship upon the sea, or a 
 cloud in the sky."|| 
 
 * Invicem scriptillant, dicentes : Salvator venit. 
 — (L. Epp. iii. p. 540.) 
 
 t Dat de Duwel dem Bawst int Lieff fare. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 t Infans in utero, audiente tota familia, bis vo- 
 ciferatus est. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Dedication of Daniel to John Frederick. — (L. 
 Epp. iii. p. 555.) 
 
 II Schwebt in seiner Macht, wie ein Schiff auf 
 dem Meer, ja wie eine Wolke unter dem Himmel. 
 — (L. Epp. iii. p. 555.) 
 
 Yet the frightful phantom that Philip 
 of Hesse had not ceased to point out to 
 his allies, and whose threatening jaws 
 seemed already opening, suddenly vanish- 
 ed, and they discovered in its place the 
 graceful image of the most amiable of 
 princes. 
 
 On the 21st January, Charles had sum- 
 moned all the states of the empire to 
 Augsburg, and had endeavoured to em- 
 ploy the most conciliatory language. 
 " Let us put an end to all discord," he 
 said, " let us renounce our antipathies, let 
 us offer to our Saviour the sacrifice of all 
 our errors, let us make it our business to 
 comprehend and weigh with meekness 
 the opinions of others. Let us annihilate 
 all that has been said or done on both 
 sides contrary to right, and let us seek 
 after christian truth. Let us all fight un- 
 der one and the same leader, Jesus Christ, 
 and let us strive thus to meet in one com- 
 munion, one church, and one unity."* 
 
 What language ! How was it that 
 this prince, who had hitherto spoken only 
 of the sword, should now speak only of 
 peace ? It will be said that the wise Gat- 
 tinara had had a share in it ; that the act 
 of convocation was drawn up under the 
 impression of the terror caused by the 
 Turkish invasion ; that the Emperor al- 
 ready saw with how little eagerness the Ro- 
 man Catholics of Germany seconded his 
 views ; that he wished to intimidate the 
 Pope ; that this language, so full of gra- 
 ciousness, was but a mask which Charles 
 employed to deceive his enemies ; that he 
 wished to manage religion in true impe- 
 rial fashion, like Theodosius and Constan- 
 tine, and seek first to unite both parties 
 by the influence of his wisdom and of 
 his favours, reserving to himself, if kind- 
 ness should fail, to employ force after- 
 wards. It is possible that each of these 
 motives may have exercised a certain in- 
 fluence on Charles, but the latter appears 
 to us nearer the truth, and more conform- 
 able to the character of this prince. 
 
 If Charles, however, gave way to in- 
 clinations of mildness, the fanatical Fer- 
 dinand was at hand to bring him back. 
 " I will continue negotiating without 
 coming to any conclusion," wrote he to 
 his brother ; " and should I even be re- 
 
 * Wie wir alle unter einem Christo seyn und 
 streiten. — (Forstenmanns, Urkundenbuch, i. p. 
 1) 
 
678 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 duced to that, do not fear ; pretexts will 
 not be wanting to chastise these rebels, 
 and you will find men enough, who will 
 be happy to aid you in your revenge."* 
 
 II. Charles, like Charlemagne in for- 
 mer times and Napoleon in latter days, 
 desired to be crowned by the Pope, and 
 had at first thought of visiting Rome for 
 that purpose ; but Ferdinand's pressing 
 letters compelled him to choose Bologna, f 
 He appointed the 22d February for re- 
 ceiving the iron crown as King of Lom- 
 bardy, and resolved to assume the golden 
 crown as Emperor of the Romans on the 
 24th of the same month — his birthday 
 and the anniversary of the battle of Pavia, 
 and which he thought was always fortu- 
 nate to him. | 
 
 The offices of honour that belonged to 
 the Electors of the Empire were given 
 to strangers : in the coronation of the 
 Emperor of Germany all was Spanish or 
 Italian. The sceptre was carried by the 
 Marquis of Montferrat, the sword by the 
 Duke of Urbino, and the golden crown 
 by the Duke of Savoy. One single Ger- 
 man prince of little importance, the 
 Count-palatine Philip, was present: he 
 carried the orb. After these lords came 
 the Emperor himself between two cardi- 
 nals ; then the members of his council. 
 All this procession defiled across a mag- 
 nificent temporary bridge erected between 
 the palace and the church. At the very 
 moment the Emperor drew near the 
 church of San Petronio, where the coro- 
 nation was to take place, the scaffolding 
 cracked behind him and gave way, so 
 that many of his train were wounded, and 
 the multitude fled in alarm. Charles 
 calmly turned back and smiled, not 
 doubting that his lucky star had saved 
 him. 
 
 At length Charles V. arrived in front 
 of the throne on which Clement VII. 
 was seated. But before being made Em- 
 peror, it was necessary that he should be 
 promoted to the sacred orders. The Pope 
 presented to him the surplice and the 
 amice to make him a canon of St. Peter's 
 and of St. John Lateranus, and immedi- 
 
 * Bucholz Geschichte Ferdinands, iii. p. 432. 
 
 t Sopravennero lettere di Germania che lo sol- 
 licittavano a transferirsi in quella provincia.^ 
 (Guicciardini, L. xx.) 
 
 t Natali suo quern semper felicem habuit. — 
 (Seckend. ii. p. 150.) 
 
 ately the canons of these two churches 
 stripped him of his royal ornaments, and 
 robed him with these sacred garments. 
 The Pope went to the altar and began 
 Mass ; and the new canon drew near to 
 wait upon him. After the offertory, the 
 imperial deacon presented the water to 
 the pontiff He then knelt down be- 
 tween two cardinals, and communicated 
 from the Pope's hand. The Emperor 
 now returned near his throne, where the 
 princes robed him with the imperial 
 mantle brought from Constantinople, all 
 sparkling with diamonds, and Charles 
 humbly bent the knee before Clement 
 VII. 
 
 The pontiff, having anointed him with 
 oil and given him the sceptre, presented 
 him with a naked sword, saying : "Make 
 use of it in defence of the Church against 
 the enemies of the faith !" Next taking 
 the golden orb, studded with jewels, 
 which the Count-palatine held, he said : 
 " Govern the world with piety and firm- 
 ness !" Last came the Duke of Savoy, 
 who carried the golden crown enriched 
 with diamonds. The Prince bent down, 
 and Clement put the diadem on his head, 
 saying : " Charles, Emperor invincible, 
 receive this crown which we place on 
 your head, as a sign to all the earth of 
 the authority that is conferred upon you." 
 
 The Emperor then kissed the white 
 cross embroidered on the Pope's red slip- 
 per and exclaimed: "I swear ever to 
 employ all my strength to defend the 
 Pontifical dignity, and the Church of 
 Rome."* 
 
 The two princes now took their seats 
 under the same canopy, but on thrones 
 of unequal height, the Emperor's being 
 half a foot lower than the pontiff's, and 
 the cardinal deacon proclaimed to the 
 people ' : The invincible Emperor, Defend- 
 er of the Faith." For the next half-hour 
 nothing was heard but the noise of mus- 
 ketry, trumpets, drums, and fifes, all the 
 bells of the city, and the shouts of the 
 multitude. Thus was proclaimed anew 
 the close union of politics with religion. 
 The mighty Emperor, transformed to a 
 Roman deacon, and humbly serving mass, 
 like a canon of St. Peter's, had typified 
 
 * Omnibus viribus, ingenio, et facultatibus suis 
 Pontificiffi dignitatis et Romanae Ecclesiae perpe- 
 tuum fore defensorem. — (Ccelestin. Hist. Comit. 
 Aug. 16.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 679 
 
 and declared the indissoluble union of the 
 Romish Church with the State. This is 
 one of the essential doctrines of Popery, 
 and one of the most striking characteris- 
 tics that distinguish it from the Evangeli- 
 cal and Christian Church. 
 
 Nevertheless, during all this ceremony 
 the Pope seemed ill at ease, and sighed as 
 soon as men's eyes ceased to be turned on 
 him. Accordingly, the French ambas- 
 sador wrote to his court that these four 
 months which the Emperor and Pope had 
 spent together at Bologna, would bear 
 fruit of which the King of France would 
 assuredly have no cause to complain.* 
 
 Scarcely had Charles V. risen from be- 
 fore the altar of San Petronio, than he 
 turned his face towards Germany, and 
 appeared on the Alps as the anointed of 
 the Papacy. The letter of convocation, 
 so indulgent and benign, seemed forgot- 
 ten : all things were made new since the 
 Pope's blessings : there was but one 
 thought in the imperial caravan, the ne- 
 cessity of rigorous measures ; and the le- 
 gate Campeggio ceased not to insinuate 
 irritating words into Charles's ear. " At 
 the first rumour of the storm that threat- 
 ens them," said Granvelle, " we shall see 
 the Protestants flying on every side, like 
 timid doves upon which the Alpine eagle 
 pounces."! 
 
 Great indeed was the alarm through- 
 out the Empire ; already even the affright- 
 ed people, apprehensive of the greatest 
 disasters, repeated everywhere that Luther 
 and Melancthon were dead. " Alas '" 
 said Melancthon, consumed by sorrow, 
 when he heard these reports, " the rumour 
 is but too true, for I die daily."J But 
 Luther, on the contrary, boldly raising the 
 eye of faith towards heaven, exclaimed : 
 " Our enemies triumph, but erelong to 
 perish." In truth the councils of the 
 Elector displayed an unheard-of boldness. 
 " Let us collect our troops," said they ; 
 " let us march on the Tyrol, and close the 
 passage of the Alps against the Emper- 
 or."§ Philip of Hesse uttered a cry of 
 joy when he heard of this. The sword 
 
 * Letter to M. L' Admiral, 25th February. — 
 (Legrand, Histoire du Divorce, iii. p. 386.) 
 
 t Tanquam columbsB, adveniente aquila, disper- 
 gentur. — (Rommel Anmerkungen, p. 236.) 
 
 I Ego famam de qua scribis intelligo nimis ve- 
 ram esse, morior enim quotidie. — (Corp. Ref. ii. 
 p. 122.) 
 
 § Cum copiis quas habitant per Tyrolensem di- 
 
 of Charles has aroused his indolent allies 
 at last. Immediately fresh courtiers from 
 Ferdinand were sent to hasten the arri- 
 val of Charles, and all Germany was in 
 expectation. 
 
 Before carrying out this gigantic de- 
 sign, the Elector desired to consult Lu- 
 ther once more. The Emperor in the 
 midst of the Electors was only the first 
 among his equals ; and independent 
 princes were allowed to resist another 
 prince, even if he were of higher rank 
 than themselves. But Luther, dreading 
 above all things the intervention of the 
 secular arm in church affairs, was led to 
 reply on the 6th March in this extraordi- 
 nary manner : " Our princes' subjects are 
 also the Emperor's subjects, and even 
 more so than princes are. To protect by 
 arms the Emperor's subjects against the 
 Emperor, would be as if the Burgomas- 
 ter of Torgau wished to protect by force 
 his citizens against the Elector." 
 
 "What must be done then? — Attend," 
 replied Luther. " If the Emperor de- 
 sires to march against us, let no prince 
 undertake our defence. God is faithful : 
 he will not abandon us." All prepara- 
 tions for war were immediately suspend- 
 ed, the Landgrave received a polite refu- 
 sal, and the confederation was dissolved. 
 It was the will of God that his cause 
 should appear before the Emperor with- 
 out league and without soldiers, having 
 faith alone for its shield. 
 
 Never perhaps has such boldness been 
 witnessed in feeble and unarmed men ; 
 but never, although under an appearance 
 of blindness, was there so much wisdom 
 and understanding. 
 
 The question next discussed in the 
 Elector's council was, whether he should 
 go to the diet. The majority of the coun- 
 cillors opposed it. u Is it not risking 
 everything," said they, " to go and shut 
 oneself up within the walls of a city with 
 a powerful enemy ?" Bruck and the 
 Prince-electoral were of a different opin- 
 ion. Duty in their eyes was a better 
 councillor than fear. " What !" said 
 they, " would the Emperor insist so much 
 on the presence of the princes at Augs- 
 burg only to draw them into a snare ? 
 We cannot impute such perfidy to him." 
 The Landgrave on the contrary seconded 
 
 tionem incedenti occurrere et Alpium transitum 
 impedire. — (Seckend. ii. p. 150.) 
 
680 
 
 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the opinion of the majority. " Remem- 
 ber Piacenza," said he. " Some unfore- 
 seen circumstance may lead the Emperor 
 to take all his enemies in one cast of the 
 net." 
 
 The Chancellor stood firm. " Let the 
 princes only comport themselves with 
 courage," said he, " and God's cause is 
 saved." The decision was in favour of 
 the nobler plan. 
 
 This diet was to be a lay council, or at 
 the very least a national convention.* 
 The Protestants foresaw that a few un- 
 important concessions would be made to 
 them at first, and then that they would 
 be required to sacrifice their faith. It 
 was therefore necessary to settle what 
 were the essential articles of christian 
 truth, in order to know whether, by what 
 means, and how far they might come to 
 an understanding with their adversaries. 
 The Elector accordingly had letters sent 
 on the 14th March to the four principal 
 theologians of Wittemberg, setting them 
 this task, all other business being laid 
 aside. f Thus, instead of collecting sol- 
 diers, this prince drew up articles : they 
 were the best armament. 
 
 Luther, Jonas, and Melancthon (Pome- 
 ranus remaining at Wittemberg), arrived 
 at Torgau in Easter week, asking leave 
 to deliver their articles in person to 
 Charles the Fifth.J " God forbid !" re- 
 plied the Elector, " I also desire to con- 
 fess my Lord." 
 
 John having then confided to Melanc- 
 thon the definitive drawing up of the 
 confession, and ordered general prayers 
 to be offered up, began his journey on 
 the 3d April, with one hundred and sixty 
 horsemen, clad in rich scarlet cloaks em- 
 broidered with gold. 
 
 Every man was aware of the dangers 
 that threatened the Elector, and hence 
 many in his escort marched with down- 
 
 * Cum Iisbc comitia pro concilio aut conventu 
 nationali haberi videantur. — (Seckend.ii. p. 17. — 
 Letter to the Elector, Corp. Ref. ii. p. 26.) 
 
 t Omnibus sepositis aliis rebus. — (L. Epp. iii. 
 p. 564.) 
 
 t Different projects will be found in Forsten- 
 manns Urkundenbuch, i. p. 63-108, and in the 
 Corp. Ref. iv. p. 973, sqq. Those that were pre- 
 sented were doubtless the Articulinon concedendi, 
 Articles not to be conceded. They treat of the 
 communion in both kinds, of celibacy, the mass, 
 orders, the pope, convents, confession, distinction 
 of meats, and of the sacraments. — (Corp. Ref. iv. 
 p. 981.) 
 
 cast eyes and sinking hearts. But Lu- 
 ther, full of faith, revived the courage of 
 his friends, by composing and singing 
 with his fine voice that beautiful hymn, 
 since become so famous : Eine vaste 
 Burg ist unser Govt. Our God is a strong 
 tower.* Never did soul that knew its 
 own weakness, but which, looking to 
 God, despises every fear, find such noble 
 accents. 
 
 "With our own strength we nought can do, 
 
 Destruction yawns on every side : 
 He fights for us, our champion true, 
 
 Elect of God to be our guide. 
 What is his name 1 The Anointed One, 
 
 The God of armies he; 
 Of earth and heaven the Lord alone — 
 With him, on field of battle won, 
 Abideth victory. 
 
 This hymn was sung during the diet, 
 not only at Augsburg, but in all the 
 churches of Saxony, and its energetic 
 strains were often seen to revive and in- 
 spirit the most dejected minds. | 
 
 On Easter-eve the troop reached Coburg, 
 and on the 23d April the Elector resumed 
 his journey ; but at the very moment of 
 departure Luther received an order to 
 remain. " Some one has said, Hold your 
 tongue, you have a harsh voice," wrote 
 he to one of his friends.J He submitted 
 however without hesitation, setting an 
 example of that passive obedience which 
 he advocated so boldly. The Elector 
 feared that Luther's presence would still 
 further exasperate his adversaries, and 
 drive Charles to extreme measures : the 
 city of Augsburg had also written to him 
 to that effect. But at the same time 
 John was anxious to keep the Reformer 
 within reach, that he might be able to 
 consult him. He was therefore left at 
 Coburg, in the castle overlooking the 
 town and the river Itz, in the upper story 
 on the south side. It was from this place 
 he wrote those numerous letters dated 
 from the region of birds ; and it was there 
 that for many months he had to maintain 
 with his old enemy of the Wartburg, 
 Satan, a struggle full of darkness and of 
 anguish. 
 
 * We have attempted a very feeble translation 
 of the second stanza. 
 
 t Qui tristem etiam et abjectum animum eri- 
 gere et exhilarare, et velut ci/Oobanageiv possent. — 
 (Scult. p. 270.) 
 
 t Sed erat qui diceret : Tace tu, habes malam 
 vocem. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 2.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 681- 
 
 On the 2d May the Elector reached 
 Augsburg ; it had been expected that he 
 would stay away, and, to the great aston- 
 ishment of all, he was the first at the 
 rendezvous.* He immediately sent Dol- 
 zig, marshal of the court, to meet the 
 Emperor and to compliment him. On 
 the 12th May, Philip of Hesse, who had 
 at last resolved on not separating himself 
 from his ally, arrived with an escort of 
 one hundred and ninety horsemen ; and 
 almost at the same time the Emperor en- 
 tered Innspruck, in the Tyrol, accompa- 
 nied by his brother, the queens of Hun- 
 gary and Bohemia, the ambassadors of 
 France, England, and Portugal, Cam- 
 peggio the papal legate, and other cardi- 
 nals, with many princes and nobles of 
 Germany, Spain, and Italy. 
 
 How bring back the heretics to obe- 
 dience to the Church? Such was the 
 great topic of conversation in this bril- 
 liant court among nobles and priests, 
 ladies and soldiers, councillors and am- 
 bassadors. They, or Charles at least, 
 were not for making them ascend the 
 scaffold, but they wished to act in such 
 a manner that, untrue to their faith, they 
 should bend the knee to the Pope. 
 Charles stopped at Innspruck to study 
 the situation of Germany, and ensure the 
 success of his schemes. 
 
 Scarcely was his arrival known when 
 a crowd of people, high and low, flocked 
 round him on every side, and more than 
 270,000 crowns, previously raised in 
 Italy, served to make the Germans un- 
 derstand the justice of Rome's cause. 
 " All these heretics," was the cry, " will 
 fall to the ground and crawl to the feet 
 of the Pope."f 
 
 Charles did not think so. He was, on 
 the contrary, astonished to see what 
 power the Reformation had gained. He 
 momentarily even entertained the idea 
 of leaving Augsburg alone, and of going 
 straight to Cologne, and there proclaim- 
 ing his brother King of the Romans.:]; 
 Thus, religious interests would have 
 given way to dynastic interests, at least 
 so ran the report. But Charles the 
 Fifth did not stop at this idea. The 
 
 * Mirantibus hominibus. — (Seek. ii. p. 153.) 
 t Zum kreutz kriechen werden. — (Mathcsius 
 Pred. p. 91.) The allusion is to the cross em- 
 broidered on the Pope's slipper. 
 
 t Iter Coloniam versus decrevisse. — (Epp. Zw. 
 May 13.) 
 
 86 
 
 question of the Reformation was there 
 before him, increasing hourly in strength, 
 and it could not be eluded. 
 
 Two parties divided the imperial 
 court. The one, numerous and active, 
 called upon the Emperor to revive simply 
 the edict of Worms, and, without hear- 
 ing the Protestants, condemn their 
 cause.* The legate was at the head of 
 this party. " Do not hesitate," said he to 
 Charles ; " confiscate their property, es- 
 tablish the inquisition, and punish these 
 obstinate heretics with fire and sword."t 
 The Spaniards, who strongly seconded 
 these exhortations, gave way to their ac- 
 customed debauchery, so that many of 
 them were arrested for seduction.]; This 
 was a sad specimen of the faith that they 
 wished to impose on Germany. Rome 
 has always thought lightly of morality. 
 
 Gattinara, although sick, had painfully 
 followed in Charles's train to neutralize 
 the influence of the legate. A deter- 
 mined adversary of the Roman policy, 
 he thought that the Protestants might 
 render important services to Christen- 
 dom. " There is nothing I desire so 
 much," said he, " as to see the Elector of 
 Saxony and his allies persevere courage- 
 ously in the profession of the Gospel, and 
 call for a free religious council. If they 
 allow themselves to be checked by prom- 
 ises or threats, I hesitate myself, I stag- 
 ger, and I doubt of the means of salva- 
 tion."^ The enlightened and honest 
 members of the Papal Church (and of 
 whom there is always a small number) 
 necessarily sympathize with the Refor- 
 mation. 
 
 Charles V., exposed to these contrary 
 influences, desired to restore Germany to 
 religious unity by his personal interven- 
 tion : for a moment he thought himself i 
 on the eve of success. 
 
 Amongst the persons who crowded to 
 Innspruck was the unfortunate Christian, 
 king of Denmark, Charles's brother-in- 
 law. In vain had he proposed to his 
 subjects undertaking a pilgrimage to 
 
 * AliicensentCaesarem debere, edicto proposito, 
 sine ulla cogitatione damnare causam nostram. — 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 57.) 
 
 t Instructio data Ccesari dal Reverendissimo 
 Campeggio. — (Ranke, iii. p. 288.) 
 
 j Sich die Spanier zu Inspruck unfliithig ge- 
 halten. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 56.) 
 
 § Semper vacillaturum de vera et certa salutis 
 adipiscendae ratione. — (Seek. ii. p. 57.) 
 
682 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 Rome in expiation of the cruelties of 
 Avhich he was accused : his people had 
 expelled him. Having repaired to Sax- 
 ony, to his uncle the Elector, he had 
 there heard Luther, and had embraced 
 the evangelical doctrines, as far at least as 
 external profession goes. This poor de- 
 throned king could not resist the elo- 
 quence of the powerful ruler of two 
 worlds, and Christian, won over by 
 Charles the Fifth, publicly placed him- 
 self again under the sceptre of the Roman 
 hierarchy. All the papal party uttered 
 a shout of triumph. Nothing equals 
 their credulity, and the importance they 
 attach to such valueless accessions. " I 
 cannot describe the emotion with which 
 this news has filled me," wrote Clement 
 VII. to Charles, his hand trembling with 
 joy ; " the brightness of your Majesty's 
 virtues begins at last to scatter the dark- 
 ness : this example will lead to number- 
 less conversions." 
 
 Things were in this state, when Duke 
 George of Saxony, Duke William of 
 Bavaria, and the Elector Joachim of 
 Brandenburg, the three German princes 
 who were the greatest enemies of the 
 Reformation, hastily arrived at Innspruck. 
 
 The tranquillity of the Elector, whom 
 they had seen at Augsburg, had alarmed 
 them, for they knew not the source 
 whence John derived his courage ; they 
 imagined that he was revolving in his 
 mind some perfidious design. " It is not 
 without reason," said they to Charles, 
 " that the Elector John has repaired the 
 first to Augsburg, and that he appeared 
 there with a considerable train : he wish- 
 es to seize your person. Act then with 
 energy, and allow us to offer your Majes- 
 ty a guard of six thousand horse."* Con- 
 ference upon conference immediately 
 took place. The Protestants were af- 
 frighted. " They are holding a diet at 
 Innspruck," said Melancthon, " on the 
 best means of having our heads."f But 
 Gattinara prevailed on Charles to pre- 
 serve his neutrality. 
 
 While all was thus agitated in the Ty- 
 rol, the Evangelical Christians, instead of 
 mustering in arms, as they were accused, 
 sent up their prayers to heaven, and the 
 
 * Ut mascule agerct, sex mille equit.um, pre- 
 sidium ei offerentes.-— (Seek. ii. p. 156.) 
 
 t Ibi habentur de nostris cervicibus comitia — 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 45.) 
 
 Protestant princes were preparing to ren- 
 der an account of their faith. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony held the first 
 rank among them. Sincere, upright, and 
 pure from his youth, early disgusted with 
 the brilliant tourneys in which he had at 
 first taken part, John of Saxony had joy- 
 fully hailed the day of the Reformation, 
 and the Gospel light had gradually pen- 
 etrated his serious and reflective mind. 
 His great pleasure was to have the Holy 
 Scriptures read to him during the latter 
 hours of the day. It is true that, having 
 arrived at an advanced age, the pious 
 Elector sometimes fell asleep, but he soon 
 awoke with a start, and repeated the last 
 passage aloud. Although moderate and 
 a friend of peace, he yet possessed an en- 
 ergy that was powerfully aroused by the 
 great interests of the faith. There is no 
 prince in the sixteenth century, and none 
 perhaps since the primitive times of the 
 Church, who has done so much as John 
 of Saxony for the cause of the Gospel. 
 Accordingly it was against him that the 
 first efforts of the Papists were directed. 
 
 In order to gain him over, they wished 
 to put in operation very different tac- 
 tics from those which had been previous- 
 ly employed. At Spire the Evangelicals 
 had met with angry looks in every quar- 
 ter ; at Augsburg, on the contrary, the 
 Papists gave them a hearty welcome ; 
 they represented as very trifling the dis- 
 tance that separated the two parties, and 
 in their private conversations uttered the 
 mildest language,' " seeking thus to make 
 the credulous Protestants take the bait," 
 says an historian.* The latter yielded 
 with simplicity to these skilful manoeu- 
 vres. 
 
 Charles the Fifth was convinced that 
 the simple Germans would not be able to 
 resist his star. " The King of Denmark 
 has been converted," said his courtiers to 
 him, " why should not the Elector follow 
 his example 1 Let us draw him into the 
 imperial atmosphere." John was imme- 
 diately invited to come and converse fa- 
 miliarly with the Emperor at Innspruck, 
 with an assurance that he might reckon 
 on Charles's particular favour. 
 
 The Prince-electoral, John Frederick, 
 who on seeing the advances of the Pa- 
 pists had at first exclaimed : " We con- 
 duct our affairs with such awkwardness, 
 * Seckendorf. 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 683 
 
 that it is quite pitiable !" allowed himself 
 to be caught by this stratagem. " The 
 Papist princes," said he to his father, " ex- 
 ert every mtans of blackening our char- 
 acters. Go to Innspruck in order to put 
 a stop to these underhand practices ; or if 
 you are unwilling, send me in your 
 place." 
 
 This time the prudent Elector mode- 
 rated his son's precipitancy, and replied 
 to Charles's ministers, that it was not 
 proper to treat of the affairs of the diet 
 in any other place than that which the 
 Emperor had himself appointed, and he 
 begged, in consequence, that his majesty 
 would hasten his arrival. This was the 
 first check that Charles met with. 
 
 III. Meantime Augsburg was filling 
 , more and more every day. Princes, 
 bishops, deputies, gentlemen, cavaliers, 
 soldiers in rich uniforms, entered by every 
 gate, and thronged the streets, the public 
 places, inns, churches, and palaces. All 
 that was most magnificent in Germany 
 was there about to be collected. The 
 critical circumstances in which the em- 
 pire and Christendom were placed, the 
 presence of Charles V. and his kindly 
 manners, the love of novelty, of grand 
 shows, and of lively emotions, tore the 
 Germans from their homes. All those 
 who had great interests to discuss, with- 
 out reckoning a crowd of idlers, flocked 
 from the various provinces of the empire, 
 and hastily made their way towards this 
 illustrious city.* 
 
 In the midst of this crowd the Elector 
 and the Landgrave were resolved to con- 
 fess Jesus Christ, and to take advantage 
 of this convocation in order to convert 
 the empire. Scarcely had John arrived 
 when he ordered one of his theologians 
 to preach daily with open doors in the 
 church of the Dominicans.! On Sunday 
 the 8th May, the same was done in the 
 church of St. Catherine ; on the 13th, 
 Philip of Hesse opened the gates of the 
 cathedral, and his chaplain Snepff there 
 preached the Word of Salvation ; and on 
 the following Sunday (May 15) this 
 prince ordered Cellarius, minister of 
 Augsburg and a follower of Zwingle, to 
 preach in the same temple. Somewhat 
 
 * Omnes alliciebat. — (Cochlaeus, p. 191.) 
 t Rogantibus Augustanis publice in templum 
 Dominicorum. — (Seek. Lat. p. 193.) 
 
 later the Landgrave firmly settled him- 
 self in the church of St. Ulric, and the 
 Elector in that of St. Catherine. These 
 were the two positions taken up by these 
 illustrious princes. Every day the Gos- 
 pel was preached in these places before 
 an immense and attentive crowd.* 
 
 The partisans of Rome were amazed. 
 They expected to see criminals endeav- 
 ouring to dissemble their faults, and they 
 met with confessors of Christ with up- 
 lifted heads and words of power. Desi- 
 rous of counterbalancing these preach- 
 ings, the Bishop of Augsburg ordered 
 his suffragan and his chaplain to ascend 
 the pulpit. But the Romish priests un- 
 derstood better how to say Mass than to 
 preach the Gospel. " They shout, they 
 bawl," said some. " They are stupid 
 fellows," added all their hearers, shrug- 
 ging their shoulders.! 
 
 The Romanists, ashamed of their own 
 priests, began to grow angry,! an( ^ un " 
 able to hold their ground by preaching, 
 they had recourse to the secular arm. 
 " The priests are setting wondrous ma- 
 chines at work to gain Caesar's mind," 
 said Melancthon.§ They succeeded, and 
 Charles made known his displeasure at 
 the hardihood of the princes. The 
 friends of the Pope then drew near the 
 Protestants and whispered into their ears 
 " that the Emperor, victor over the King 
 of France and the Roman Pontiff, would 
 appear in Germany to crush all the Gos- 
 pellers."|| The anxious Elector de- 
 manded the advice of his theologians. 
 
 Before the answer was ready, Charles's 
 orders arrived, carried by two of his most 
 influential ministers, the Counts of Nas- 
 sau and of Nuenar. A more skilful 
 choice could not have been made. These 
 two nobles, although devoted to Charles, 
 were favourable to the Gospel, which they 
 professed not long after. The Elector 
 was therefore fully disposed to listen to 
 their counsel. 
 
 On the 24th May, the two Counts de- 
 
 * Tiiodig in den kirchen, unverstort; dazu 
 kommt sehr viel Volks. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 53.) 
 
 t Clamant et vociferantur. Audires homines 
 stupidissimos atque etiam sensu communi caren- 
 tes.— (Ibid. p. 86.) 
 
 t Urebat hoc pontifices. — (Scultet. p. 271 .) 
 
 (, '0< dox'cpelt miris machinis oppugnant. — 
 (Corp. Ref.'ii. p. 70.) 
 
 II Evangelicos omnes obtriturum. — (Scultet. p. 
 269.) 
 
684 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 livered their letters to John of Saxony, 
 and declared to him that the Emperor 
 was exceedingly grieved that religious 
 controversies should disturb the good un- 
 derstanding that had for so many years 
 united the houses of Saxony and Aus- 
 tria;* that he was astonished at seeing 
 the Elector oppose an edict (that of 
 Worms) which had been unanimously 
 passed by all the states of the Empire ; 
 that the alliances he had made tended to 
 tear asunder the unity of Germany, and 
 might inundate it with blood. They re- 
 quired at last that the Elector would im- 
 mediately put a stop to the evangelical 
 preachings, and added, in a confidential 
 tone, that they trembled at the thought 
 of the immediate and deplorable conse- 
 quences that would certainly follow the 
 Elector's refusal. "This," said they, "is 
 only the expression of our own personal 
 sentiments." It was a diplomatic man- 
 oeuvre, the Emperor having enjoined 
 them to give utterance to a few threats, 
 but that solely on their own account. f 
 
 The Elector was greatly agitated. 
 ' : If his majesty forbids the preaching of 
 the Gospel," exclaimed he, " I shall im- 
 mediately return home."}: He waited 
 however for the advice of his theolo- 
 gians. 
 
 Luther's answer was ready first. " The 
 Emperor is our master," said he ; " the 
 town and all that is in it belong to him. 
 If your Highness should give orders at 
 Torgau for this to be done, and for that 
 to be left undone, the people ought not to 
 resist. I should prefer endeavouring to 
 change his majesty's decision by humble 
 and respectful solicitations ; but if he per- 
 sists, might makes right ; we have but 
 done our duty."§ Thus spoke the man 
 who has often been represented as a 
 rebel. 
 
 Melancthon and the others were near- 
 ly of the same opinion ; only they insist- 
 ed more on the necessity of representing 
 to the Emperor " that they did not speak 
 of controversy in their sermons, but were 
 content simply to teach the doctrine of 
 
 * These instructions may be found in Coelestin, 
 i. p. 50, and Forstemann Urk. i. p. 220, 
 
 t Quidquid duri Electori denuntiabant suo ve- 
 Iuti nomine et iniussi dicebant. — (Seek. ii. p. 
 156.) 
 
 t Den niichsten heim zu reiten.— (Corp. Ref. 
 ii. p. 88.) 
 
 § L. Epp. iv. p. 18. 
 
 Christ the Saviour.* Let us beware, 
 above all," continued they, " of abandon- 
 ing the place. Let your highness with 
 an intrepid heart cojifess in presence of 
 his majesty by what wonderful ways you 
 have attained to a right understanding of 
 the truth,! and do not allow yourself to 
 be alarmed at these thunder-claps that fall 
 from the lips of our enemies." To con- 
 fess the truth, such was the object to 
 which, according to the Reformers, every- 
 thing else should be subordinate. 
 
 Will the Elector yield to this first de- 
 mand of Charles, and thus begin, even 
 before the Emperor's arrival, that list of 
 sacrifices, the end of which cannot be 
 foreseen ? 
 
 No one in Augsburg was firmer than 
 John. In vain did the Reformers repre- 
 sent that they were in the Emperor's 
 city, and only strangers :| the Elector 
 shook his head. Melancthon in despair 
 wrote to Luther : '• Alas ! how untracta- 
 ble is our old man !"§ Nevertheless he 
 again returned to the charge. Fortu- 
 nately there was an intrepid man at the 
 Elector's right hand, the chancellor 
 Bruck, who feeling convinced that policy, 
 honour, and above all, duty, bound the 
 friends of the Reformation to resist the 
 menaces of Charles, said to the Elector : 
 " The Emperor's demand is but a worthy 
 beginning to bring about the definitive 
 abolition of the Gospel. || If we yield at 
 present, they will crush us by and by. 
 Let us therefore humbly beg his majesty 
 to permit the continuance of the sermons." 
 Thus, at that time, a statesman stood in 
 the foremost rank of the confessors of 
 Jesus Christ. This is one of the charac- 
 teristic features of this great age, and it 
 must not be forgotten, if we would un- 
 derstand its history aright. 
 
 On the 31st May, the Elector sent his 
 answer in writing to Charles's ministers. 
 " It is not true," it bore, " that the Edict 
 of Worms was approved of by the six 
 Electors. How could the Elector, my 
 brother, and myself, by approving it, 
 
 * Nullas materias disputabiles a nobis doceri. — 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 72.) 
 
 t Quo modo plane inenarrabili atque mirifico. 
 —(Ibid. p. 74.) 
 
 I In cujus urbe jam sumus hospites. — (Ibid. p. 
 46.) 
 
 § Sed noster senex difficilis est. — (Ibid.) 
 
 II Ein fiigsamer Anfang der Niderbrengung des 
 Evangelii. — (Ibid. p. 76. J 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 685 
 
 have" opposed the everlasting word of 
 Almighty God? Accordingly, succeed- 
 ing diets have declared this edict impos- 
 sible to be executed. As for the rela- 
 tions of friendship that I have formed, 
 their only aim is to protect me against acts 
 of violence. Let my accusers lay before 
 the eyes of his majesty the alliances they 
 have made ; I am ready to produce mine, 
 and the Emperor shall decide between 
 us. — Finally, As to the demand to sus- 
 pend our preachings, nothing is proclaim- 
 ed in them but the glorious truth of God, 
 and never was it so necessary to us. We 
 cannot therefore do without it !"* 
 
 This reply must necessarily hasten the 
 arrival of Charles ; and it was urgent 
 they should be prepared to receive him. 
 To explain what they believe, and then 
 be silent, was the whole plan of the 
 Protestant campaign. A confession was 
 therefore necessary. One man, of small 
 stature, frail, timid, and in great alarm, 
 was commissioned to prepare this instru- 
 ment of war. Philip Melancthon work- 
 ed at it night and day : he weighed every 
 expression, softened it down, changed it, 
 and then frequently returned to his first 
 idea. He was wasting away his strength ; 
 his friends trembled lest he should die 
 over his task ; and Luther enjoined him, 
 as early as the 12th of May, under pain 
 of anathema, to take measures for the 
 preservation of " his little body," and not 
 " to commit suicide for the love of God."f 
 a God is as usefully served by repose," 
 added he, " and indeed man never serves 
 him better than by keeping himself tran- 
 quil. It is for this reason God willed 
 that the Sabbath should be so strictly ob- 
 served.":}: 
 
 Notwithstanding these solicitations, 
 Melancthon's application augmented, and 
 he set about an exposition of the chris- 
 tian faith, at once mild, moderate, and as 
 little removed as possible from the doc- 
 trine of the Latin Church. At Coburg 
 he had already put his hand to the task, 
 and traced out in the first part the doc- 
 trines of the faith, according to the arti- 
 cles of Schwabach ; and in the second, 
 the abuses of the Church, according to 
 
 * Quo carere non possit. — (Seek. p. 156 ; Mul- 
 ler, Hist. Prot. p. 506.) 
 
 t Ut sub anathemate cogam te in regulas ser- 
 vanda corpusculi tui. — (L. Epp iv. p. 16.) 
 
 t Ideo enim Sabbatum voluit tarn rigide prse ce- 
 teris servari. — (Ibid.) 
 
 the articles of Torgau, making altogether 
 quite a new work. At Augsburg he 
 gave a more correct and elegant form to 
 this confession.* 
 
 The Apology, as it was then called, 
 was completed on the 1 1th May ; and 
 the Elector sent it to Luther, begging 
 him to mark what ought to be changed. 
 " I have said what I thought most use- 
 ful," added Melancthon, who feared that 
 his friend would find the confession too 
 weak ; " for Eck ceases not to circulate 
 against us the most diabolical calumnies, 
 and I have endeavoured to oppose an an- 
 tidote to his poisons."! 
 
 Luther replied to the Elector on the 
 15th May: "I have read Magister 
 Philip's Apology ; I like it well enough, 
 I have no corrections to make. Besides, 
 that would hardly suit me, for I cannot 
 walk so meekly and so silently. May 
 Christ our Lord grant that this work 
 may produce much and great fruit." 
 
 Each day, however, the Elector's 
 councillors and theologians, in concert 
 with Melancthon, improved the confes- 
 sion, and endeavoured to render it such 
 that the charmed diet should, in its own 
 despite, hear it to the very end.f 
 
 While the struggle was thus preparing 
 at Ausfsburof. Luther at Coburg-, on the 
 summit of the hill, " on his Sinai," as he 
 called it, raised his hands like Moses to- 
 wards heaven.^ He was the real general of 
 the spiritual war that was then waging ; 
 his letters ceased not to bear to the com- 
 batants the directions which they needed, 
 and numerous pamphlets issuing from 
 his stronghold, like discharges of muske- 
 try, spread confusion in the enemy's camp. 
 
 The place where he had been left was, 
 by its solitude, favourable to study and to 
 meditation. |[ "I shall make a Zion of 
 this Sinai," said he on the 22d April, 
 " and I shall. build here three tabernacles ; 
 one to the Psalms, one to the Prophets, 
 
 and one to Esop !" This last 
 
 word is a startling one. The association 
 belongs neither to the language nor the 
 
 * More rhetorically. Feci aliquando poropiKui- 
 reoov quam Coburgse scripseram. — (Corp. Ref. ii. 
 
 P- 40 ) 
 
 t Quia Eckius addidit <5<a/?oAi/<wrdrar <5ia/?oXa$ 
 
 contra nos. — (Corp. Ref. p. 45.) 
 
 X In Apologia qwotidie multa mutamus. — (Ibid, 
 p. 60.) 
 
 § Mathesius Predigten, p. 92. 
 
 II Longe amaenissimus et studiis commodissi- 
 mus. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 2.) 
 
686 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 spirit of the Apostles. It is true that 
 Esop was not to be his principal study : 
 the fables were soon laid aside, and truth 
 alone engaged Luther. " I shall weep, I 
 shall pray, I shall never be silent," wrote 
 he, " until I know that my cry has been 
 heard in heaven."* 
 
 Besides, by way of relaxation, he had 
 something better than Esop ; he had 
 those domestic joys whose precious treas- 
 ures the Reformation had opened to the 
 ministers of the Word. It was at this 
 time he wrote that charming letter to his 
 infant son, in which he describes a de- 
 lightful garden where children dressed in 
 gold are sporting about, picking up ap- 
 ples, pears, cherries, and plums ; they 
 sing, dance, and enjoy themselves, and 
 ride pretty little horses, with golden bri- 
 dles and silver saddles.f 
 
 But the Reformer was soon drawn 
 away from these pleasing images. About 
 this time he learnt that his father had 
 gently fallen asleep in the faith which is 
 in Jesus Christ. "Alas!" exclaimed he, 
 shedding tears of filial love, " it is by the 
 sweat of his brow that he made me what 
 I am. "J Other trials assailed him ; and 
 to bodily pains were added the phantoms 
 of his imagination. One night in partic- 
 ular he saw three torches pass rapidly be- 
 fore his eyes, and at the same moment he 
 heard claps of thunder in his head, which 
 he ascribed to the devil. His servant ran 
 in at the moment he fainted, and after 
 having restored him to animation, read 
 to him the Epistle to the Galatians. Lu- 
 ther, who had fallen asleep, said as he 
 awoke : " Come, and despite of the devil 
 let us sing the Psalm, Out of the depths 
 have I cried unto thee, O Lord." They 
 both sang the hymn. While Luther was 
 thus tormented by these internal noises, 
 he translated the prophet Jeremiah, and 
 yet he often deplored his idleness. 
 
 He soon devoted himself to other stud- 
 ies, and poured out the floods of his irony 
 on the mundane practices of courts. He 
 saw Venice, the Pope, and the King of 
 France, giving their hands to Charles V. 
 to crush the Gospel. Then, alone in his 
 
 * Orabo igitur et plorabo, non quieturus donee, 
 &c. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 2.) 
 
 t This letter,vvhich is a masterpiece of its kind, 
 may be found in Luther's Epp. iv. p. 41, and also 
 in Riddle's "Luther and his Times," p. 268. 
 
 I Per ejus sudores aluit et finxit qualis sum. — 
 (Epp. iv. p. 33.) 
 
 chamber in the old castle, he burst into 
 irresistible laughter. " Mr. Par-ma-foy, 
 (it was thus he designated Francis I.), In- 
 nomine- Domini (the Pope), and the Re- 
 public of Venice, pledge their goods and 
 
 their bodies to the Emperor Sanctis- 
 
 simumfadus. A most holy alliance tru- 
 ly ! This league between these four pow- 
 ers belongs to the chapter Non-credimus. 
 Venice, the Pope, and France become 
 imperialists ! But these are three per- 
 sons in one substance, filled with unspeak- 
 able hatred against the Emperor. Mr. 
 Par-ma-foy cannot forget his defeat at Pa- 
 via ; Mr. In-nomine-Domini is, 1st, an Ital- 
 ian, which is already too much ; 2d, a 
 Florentine, which is worse ; 3d, a bas- 
 tard — that is to say. a child of the devil ; 
 4th, he will never forget the disgrace of 
 the sack of Rome. As for the Venetians, 
 they are Venetians : that is quite enough ; 
 and they have good reason to avenge 
 themselves on the posterity of Maximil- 
 ian. All this belongs to the chapter Fir- 
 miter-credimus. But God will help the 
 pious Charles, who is a sheep among 
 wolves. Amen."* The former monk 
 of Erfurth had a surer political foresight 
 than many diplomatists of his age. 
 
 Impatient at seeing the diet put off from 
 day to day, Luther formed his resolution, 
 and ended by convoking it even at Co- 
 burg. " We are already in full assem- 
 bly," wrote he on the 28th April and the 
 9th May. " You might here see kings, 
 dukes, and other grandees, deliberating on 
 the affairs of their kingdom, and with in- 
 defatigable voice publishing their dogmas 
 and decrees in the air. They dwell not 
 in those caverns which you decorate with 
 the name of palaces ; the heavens are 
 their canopy ; the leafy trees form a floor 
 of a thousand colours, and their walls are 
 the ends of the earth. They have a hor- 
 ror of all the unmeaning luxury of silk 
 and gold ; they ask neither coursers nor 
 armour, and have all the same clothing 
 and the same colour. I have neither seen 
 nor heard their emperor ; but if I can un- 
 derstand them, they have determined this 
 
 year to make a pitiless war upon the 
 
 most excellent fruits of the earth. — Ah ! 
 my dear friends," said he to his mess- 
 mates,! to whom he was writing, " these 
 
 * To Gasp, of Teutleben, 19th June.— (L. Epp. 
 iv. p. 37.) 
 
 t An seine Tischgesellen. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 7.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 687 
 
 are the sophists, the Papists, who are as- 
 sembled before me in a heap, to make me 
 hear their sermons and their cries." — 
 These two letters, dated from the " empire 
 of ravens and crows" finish in the follow- 
 ing mournful strain, which shows us the 
 Reformer descending into himself after 
 this play of his imagination : " Enough 
 of jesting ! — jesting which is, however, 
 sometimes necessary to dispel the gloomy 
 thoughts that prey upon me."* 
 
 Luther soon returned to real life, and 
 thrilled with joy at beholding the fruits 
 that the Reformation was already bearing, 
 and which were for him a more powerful 
 " apology " than even the confession of 
 Melancthon. " Is there in the whole world 
 a single country to be compared to your 
 highness's states," wrote he to the Elector, 
 " and which possesses preachers of so pure 
 a doctrine, or pastors so fitted to bring 
 about the reign of peace ? Where do 
 we see, as in Saxony, boys and girls well 
 instructed in the Holy Scriptures and in 
 the Catechism, increasing in wisdom and 
 in stature, praying, believing, talking of 
 God and of Christ better than has been 
 done hitherto by all the universities, con- 
 vents, and chapters of Christendom ?"f 
 " My dear Duke John, says the Lord to 
 you, I commend this paradise to thee, the 
 most beautiful idiat exists in the world, 
 that thou mayst be its gardener." And 
 then he added : " Alas ! the madness of 
 the Papist princes changes this paradise 
 of God into a dirty slough, and corrupt- 
 ing the youth, peoples every day with 
 real devils their states, their tables, and 
 their palaces." 
 
 Luther, not content with encouraging 
 his prince, desired also to frighten his ad- 
 versaries. It was with this intent that he 
 wrote at that time an address to the mem- 
 bers of the clergy assembled at Augs- 
 burg. A crowd of thoughts, like lans- 
 quenets armed cap-a-pie, " rushed in to 
 fatigue and bewilder him ;"J and in fact 
 there is no want of barbed words in the 
 discourse he addresses to the bishops. 
 " In short," said he to them in conclusion, 
 " we know and you know that we have 
 
 * Sed serio et necessario joco qui mihi irruen- 
 tes cogitationes repelleret. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 14.) 
 
 t Eswachst jetz daher die zart Jugend von 
 Knablin un Maidlin. — (Ibid. p. 21.) 
 
 X Ut plurimos Lansknecktos. prorsus vi repel- 
 Iere cogar, qui insalutati non cessant obstrepcre. 
 — (L. Epp. iv. p. 10.) 
 
 the Word of God, and that you have it 
 not. O Pope ! if I live I shall be a pes- 
 tilence to thee ; and if I die, I shall be 
 thy death !"* 
 
 Thus was Luther present at Augs- 
 burg, although invisible ; and he effected 
 more by his words and by his prayers 
 than Agricola, Brenz, or Melancthon. 
 These were the days of travail for the 
 Gospel truth. It was about to appear in 
 the world with a might that was destined 
 to eclipse all that had been done since 
 the time of St. Paul ; but Luther only 
 announced and manifested the things 
 that God was effecting : he did not exe- 
 cute them himself. He was, as regards 
 the events of the Church, what Socrates 
 was to philosophy : " I imitate my moth- 
 er (she was a midwife)," this philosopher 
 was in the habit of saying ; " she does 
 not travail herself, but she aids others." 
 Luther — and he never ceased repeating 
 it — has created nothing ; but he has 
 brought to light the precious seed, hidden 
 for ages in the bosom of the Church. 
 The man of God is not he who seeks to 
 form his age according to his own pecu- 
 liar ideas, but he who, distinctly perceiv- 
 ing God's truth, such as it is found in his 
 Word, and as it is hidden in his Church, 
 brings it to his contemporaries with cour- 
 age and decision. 
 
 Never had these qualities been more 
 necessary, for matters were taking an 
 alarming aspect. On the 4th June died 
 Chancellor Gattinara, who was to 
 Charles the Fifth " what Ulpian was to 
 Alexander Severus," says Melancthon, 
 and with him all the human hopes of the 
 Protestants vanished. " It is God," Lu- 
 ther had said, " who has raised up for us 
 a Naaman in the court of the King of 
 Syria." In truth Gattinara alone resisted 
 the Pope. When Charles brought to 
 him the objections of Rome : " Remem- 
 ber," said the Chancellor, " that you are 
 master !" Henceforward every thing 
 seemed to take a new direction. The 
 Pope required that Charles should be 
 satisfied with being his " lictor," as Lu- 
 ther says, to carry out his judgments 
 against the heretics. f Eck, whose name 
 (according to Melancthon) was no bad 
 
 * Pestis eram vivus, moriens ero mors tua, Papa. 
 — (L. Opp. xx. p. 164.) ' • 
 
 t Tantum lictorem suum in hareticos. —(Epp. 
 iv.p. 10) 
 
688 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 imitation of the cry of Luther's crows, 
 heaped one upon another* a multitude 
 of pretended heretical propositions, ex- 
 tracted from the Reformer's writings. 
 There were four hundred and four, and 
 yet he made excuse that, heing taken 
 unawares, he was forced to restrict him- 
 self to so small a number, and he called 
 loudly for a disputation with the Luther- 
 ans. They retorted on these propositions 
 by a number of ironical and biting theses 
 on " wine, Venus, and baths, against 
 John Eck ;" and the poor Doctor became 
 the laughing-stock of everybody. 
 
 But others went to work more skilful- 
 ly than he. Cochlceus, Avho became 
 chaplain to Duke George of Saxony in 
 1527, begged an interview with Melanc- 
 thon, a for," added he, " I cannot converse 
 with your married ministers."! Melanc- 
 thon, who was looked upon with an evil 
 eye at Augsburg, and who had com- 
 plained of being more solitary there than 
 Luther in his castle,^ was touched by 
 this courtesy, and was still more fully 
 penetrated with the idea that things should 
 be ordered in the mildest manner possible. 
 
 The Romish priests and laymen made 
 a great uproar, because on fast days meat 
 was usually eaten at the Elector's court. 
 Melancthon advised his prince to restrain 
 the liberty of his attendants in this re- 
 spect. u This disorder," said he, " far 
 from leading the simple-minded to the 
 Gospel, scandalizes them." He added, 
 in his ill-humour : " A fine holiness truly, 
 to make it a matter of conscience to fast, 
 and yet to be night and day given up to 
 wine and folly !"§ The Elector did not 
 yield to Melancthon's advice ; it would 
 have been a mark of weakness of which 
 his adversaries would have known how 
 to take advantage. 
 
 On the 31st May, the Saxon confession 
 was at length communicated to the other 
 Protestant states, who required that it 
 should be presented in common in the 
 name of them all.|| But at the same time 
 
 * Magnum acervum conclusionum congessit. — 
 (Corp. Ref. p. 39.) 
 
 t Cum ux oralis presbyteris tuis privatim col- 
 loqui non intendinius. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 82.) 
 
 t Nos non minus sumus monachi quam vos in 
 ilia arce vestra. — (Ibid. p. 46.) 
 
 § Und dennoch Tag und Nacht voll und toll 
 sejn. — (Ibid. p. 79.) 
 
 II In gemein in aller Fursten und Stadte Na- 
 men.— (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 88.) 
 
 they desired to make their reservations 
 with regard to the influence of the state. 
 " It is to a council that we appeal," said 
 Melancthon ; " we will not receive the 
 Emperor as our judge ; the ecclesiastical 
 constitutions themselves forbid him to 
 pronounce in spiritual matters.* Moses 
 declares that it is not the civil magistrate 
 who decides, but the sons of Levi. St. 
 Paul also says (1 Cor. xiv.), ' let the others 
 judge,' which cannot be understood ex- 
 cept of an entire christian assembly ; and 
 the Saviour himself gives us this com- 
 mandment : ' Tell it unto the Church. 1 We 
 pledge, therefore, our obedience to the 
 Emperor in all civil matters ; but as for 
 the Word of God, it is liberty that we 
 demand." 
 
 All were agreed on this point ; but the 
 dissent came from another quarter. The 
 
 i Lutherans feared to compromise their 
 cause if they went hand in hand with 
 
 | the Zwinglians. " This is Lutheran 
 madness," replied Bucer : " it will perish 
 
 I of its own weight."! But, far from al- 
 lowing this madness " to perish," the re- 
 formed augmented the disunion by exag- 
 gerated complaints. " In Saxony they 
 are beginning to sing Latin hymns again," 
 said they ; " the sacred vestments are re- 
 sumed, and oblations are called for anew.;}; 
 We would rather be led to slaughter, 
 than be Christians after that fashion." 
 
 The afflicted Landgrave, says Bucer, 
 was " between the hammer and the an- 
 vil ;" and his allies caused him more un- 
 easiness than his enemies.^ He applied 
 to Rhegius, to Brenz, to Melancthon, 
 declaring that it was his most earnest 
 wish to see concord prevail among all the 
 Evangelical doctors. " If these fatal doc- 
 trines are not opposed," replied Melanc- 
 thon, " there will be rents in the Church 
 that will last to the end of the world. 
 Do not the Zwinglians boast of their full 
 coffers, of having soldiers prepared, and 
 of foreign nations disposed to aid them ? 
 Do they not talk of sharing among them 
 the rights and the property of the bish- 
 
 * Die constiivtiones canonicce den Kaysern ver- 
 bieten zu richten und sprechen in geistlichen sa- 
 chen. — (Ibid. p. 66.) 
 
 f De Lutheranis furoribus sua ipsi mole 
 
 ruent. — (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 432.) 
 
 I Hinc Latinae resumuntur cantiones. repetun- 
 tur sands vestes. — (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 457.) 
 
 § Cattus inter sacrum et saxum stat, et de 
 sociis magis quam hostibus solicitus est. — (Ibid.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 689 
 
 ops, and of proclaiming liberty 
 
 Good God ! shall we not think of pos- 
 terity, which, if we do not repress these 
 guilty seditions, will be at once without 
 throne and without altar?"* — ' ; No. no! 
 we are one," replied this generous prince, 
 who was so much in advance of his age ; 
 " we all confess the same Christ, we all 
 profess that we mus* eat Jesus Christ, by 
 faith, in the Eucha.ist. Let us unite." 
 All was unavailing. The time in which 
 true catholicity was to replace this secta- 
 rian spirit, of which Rome is the most 
 perfect expression, had not yet arrived. 
 
 IV. In proportion as the Emperor 
 drew near Augsburg, the anxieties of the 
 Protesta its continued increasing. The 
 burghers of this imperial city expected to 
 see it become the theatre of strange 
 events. Accordingly they said that if 
 the Elector, the Landgrave, and other 
 friends of the Reformation were not in 
 the midst of them, they would all desert 
 it.f ' : A great destruction threatens us," 
 was repeated on every side.t A haughty 
 expression of Charles above all disquiet- 
 ed the Protestants. " What do these 
 Electors want with me ?" he had said 
 impatiently ; ' : I shall do what I please !"§ 
 Thus arbitrary rule was the imperial 
 law destined to prevail in the diet. 
 
 To this agitation of men's minds was 
 added the agitation of the streets, or ra- 
 ther one led to the other. Masons and 
 locksmiths were at work in all the public 
 places and crossings, laboriously fastening 
 barriers and chains to the walls, that 
 might be closed or stretched at the first 
 cry of alarm. j| At the same time about 
 eight hundred foot and horse soldiers 
 were seen patrolling the streets, dressed 
 in velvet and silk.^I whom the magistrates 
 had enrolled in order to receive the Em- 
 peror with magnificence. 
 
 Matters were in this state, and it was 
 about the middle of May, when a num- 
 
 * Keine Kirche und kein Regiment. — (Corp. 
 Ref. ii. p. 95.) 
 
 t Wo Sachsen, Hessen, und andere Lutheris- 
 che nit hie waren. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 89.) 
 
 J Minatur nobis Satan grande exitium. — (Ibid, 
 p. 91) 
 
 § Er wolte es machen, wie es Ihm eben ware. — 
 (Ibid. p. S3.) 
 
 I 1 Neu aufgerichte Ketten und Stock. — (Ibid. 
 p. 66.) 
 
 1 Mit sammetundseide aufs kostuchstaus^es- 
 trichen. — (Ibid.) 
 
 87 
 
 ber of Spanish quartermasters arrived, 
 full of arrogance, and who looked with 
 contemptuous eyes on these wretched 
 burghers, entered their houses, conducted 
 themselves with violence, and even rude- 
 ly tore down the arms of some of the 
 princes.* The magistrates having dele- 
 gated councillors to treat with them, the 
 Spaniards made an insolent reply. 
 ' ; Alas !" said the citizens, u if the ser- 
 A-ants are so, what will their master be?" 
 The ministers of Charles were grieved 
 at their impertinence, and sent a German 
 quartermaster who employed the forms 
 of German politeness to make them for- 
 get this Spanish haughtiness. 
 
 That did not last long, and they soon 
 felt more serious alarm. The Council 
 of Augsburg were asked what was the 
 meaning of these chains and soldiers, and 
 they were ordered, in the Emperor's 
 name, to take down the one and disband 
 the other. The magistrates of the city 
 answered, in alarm. - For more than ten 
 years past we have intended putting up 
 these chains ;f and as for the soldiers, our 
 object is simply to pay due honour to his 
 majesty." After many parleys it was 
 agreed to dismiss the troops, and that the 
 imperial commanders should select afresh 
 a thousand men, Avho should make oath 
 to the Emperor, but be paid by the city 
 of Augsburg. 
 
 The imperial quartermasters then re- 
 sumed all their impertinence ; and no long- 
 er giving themselves the trouble of en- 
 tering the houses and the shops, they tore 
 down the signboards of the Augsburg 
 citizens, and wrote in their place how 
 many men and horses they would be re- 
 quired to lodge. | 
 
 Such were the preludes to the work of 
 conciliation that Charles V. had an- 
 nounced, and that he was so slow in be- 
 ginning. Accordingly his delay, attrib- 
 uted by some to the crowds of people 
 who surrounded him with their acclama- 
 tions ; by others, to the solicitations of the 
 priests, who opposed his entry into Augs- 
 burg until he had imposed silence on the 
 ministers ; and by others, finally,-' to the 
 lessons the Pope had given him in the 
 
 * Den jungen Fiirsten zu neubourg ihre wap- 
 pen abgerissen. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 55.) 
 
 t Vor zehn Jahren in Sinn gehalt. — (Ibid. p. 
 66.) 
 
 t Gehen nicht mehr in die Hauser und schrie- 
 ben an die Thur.— (Ibid. p. 89.) 
 
690 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 
 
 arts of policy and stratagem 1 ,* still more I alighted. Their sons, who had advanced 
 estranged the Elector and his allies., j beyond the bridge, perceiving the Em- 
 At last Charles, having quitted Inn 
 
 spruck two days after Gattinara's death, 
 arrived at Munich on the 10th June. 
 His reception was magnificent. At the 
 distance of two miles from the town a 
 temporary fortress, soldiers' huts, cannon, 
 horsemen, an assault, repeated explosions, 
 flames, shouts, whirlwinds of smoke, and 
 a terrible clashing of arms, all of which 
 was very agreeable to the Emperor ;f in 
 the city, theatres raised in the open air, 
 the Jewess Esther, the Persian Cambyses, 
 and other pieces not less famous, the 
 whole combined with splendid fireworks, 
 formed the reception given by the ad- 
 herents of the Pope to him whom they 
 style! their Saviour. 
 
 Charles was not far distant from Augs- 
 burg. As early as the 1 1th June, every 
 day and every hour, members of the im- 
 perial household, carriages, waggons, and 
 baggage entered this city, to the sound of 
 the clacking whip and of the horn ;| and 
 the burghers in amazement gazed with 
 dejected eyes on all this insolent train, 
 that fell upon their city like a flight of 
 locusts. § 
 
 At five o'clock in the morning of the 
 15th June,|| the Elector, the princes, and 
 their councilors, assembled at the town- 
 hall, and erelong arrived the imperial 
 commissaries, having an order for them 
 to go out and meet Charles. At three in 
 the afternoon the princes and deputies 
 quitted the city, and, having reached a 
 little bridge across the river Lech, they 
 there halted and waited for the Emperor. 
 The eyes of every member of the bril- 
 liant assemblage, thus stopping on the 
 smiling banks of an alpine torient, were 
 directed along the road to Munich. At 
 length, after waiting two or three hours, 
 clou Is of dust and a loud noise announc- 
 el the Emperor. Two thousand of^the 
 imperial guard marched 'first ; then 
 Charles having come to within fifty pa- 
 ces of the river, the Electors and princes 
 
 * Csesarem instruction arte pontificurn qucerere 
 cau.^as moi\B.— ( L. Epp. iv. p 31.) 
 
 t Das hit Kais. M ij. wohl gerMlon.— (Forste- 
 nwnn, Urkunden. i. p -21G. ) 
 
 ; All." stand die vVir. n% fo T Tross urn! vi,-l 
 gesinds nact einander harem. — [Corn. Ret', ii. p. 
 IK). ) 
 
 6 Finderi aber wenig Frenden Feuer.— {Ibid.) 
 
 II Zu ialagenm, u.n t'unf Uhr.— (F. Urkiffiden. 
 i. [>. 263.) 
 
 peror preparing to do the same, ran to 
 him and begged him to remain on horse- 
 back ;* but Charles dismounted without 
 hesitating,! and approaching the princes 
 with an amiable smile, shook hands with 
 them cordially. Albert of Mentz, in his 
 quality of arch-chancellor of the empire, 
 now welcomed the Emperor, and the 
 Count-palatine Frederick replied in be- 
 half of Charles. 
 
 While this was passing, three individ- 
 uals remained apart on a little elevation ;£ 
 these were the Roman Legate, proudly 
 seated on a mule, glittering with purple, 
 and accompanied by two other cardinals, 
 the Archbishop of Salzburg and the Bish- 
 op of Trent. The Nuncio, beholding all 
 these great personages on the road, raised 
 his hands, and gave them his blessing. 
 Immediately the Emperor, the King, and 
 the princes who submitted to the Pope, 
 fell on their knees ; the Spaniards, Ital- 
 ians, Netherlander, and Germans in 
 their train, imitated their movements, 
 casting however aside glance on the-Pro- 
 testants; who, in the midst of this humbly 
 prostrate crowd, alone remained standing.^ 
 Charles did not appear to notice this, but 
 he doubtless understood what it meant. 
 The Elector of Brandenburg then deliv- 
 ered a Latin speech to the legate. Ha 
 had been selected because he spoke this 
 language better than the princes of the 
 Church ; and accordingly, Charles, when 
 praising his eloquence, dily put in a 
 word about the negligence of the pre- 
 lates. || The Emperor now prepared to 
 remount his horse, when the prince- elec- 
 toral of Saxony, an I the young princes 
 of Luneburg, Mecklenburg, Bran ;en- 
 burg, and Anhalt rushed towards him to 
 aid him in getting into his saddle : one 
 held the bridle, another the stirrup, and 
 all were charmed at the magnificent ap- 
 pearance of their powerful sovereign. if 
 The procession began to move on. 
 
 * Ab Electoral?) filiis qui procurrerant rogatus. 
 
 — (Seek. ii. p. 101.) 
 
 t Mox at) < qui* descenderunt. — ( r 'ochlaeus ) 
 : Aufeinortgemckt, — (F. Lrknnden. i. p. '2. r >ti ) 
 § Pri iiU.n const.uitiai specimen. — (oeck. ii. p. 
 
 101.) 
 
 Ii Prol .torn. n autem negligentiam aceu<aret. — 
 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 U Pons seniientern jnnwes priivipes adjuvo- 
 
 runt. — illrid. and F. Lrknnden. i. p. 2br>.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 G91 
 
 First came two companies of lansque- 
 nets, com man Jed by Simon Seitz, a citizen 
 of Augsburg, who had made the campaign 
 of Italy, and was returning home laden 
 with gold.* Next advanced the house- 
 holds of the six electors, composed of 
 princes, counts, councillors, gentlemen, 
 and soldiers; the household of the Dukes 
 of Bavaria had slipped into their ranks, 
 and the four hundred and fifty horsemen 
 that composed it marched live abreast, 
 covered with bright cuirasses, wearing 
 red doublets, while over their heads float- 
 ed handsome many-coloured plumes. — 
 Bavaria was already in this age the main 
 support of Rome in Germany. 
 
 Immediately after came the households 
 of the Emperor and of his brother, in 
 striking contrast with this warlike show. 
 They were composeJ of Turkish, Polish, 
 Arabian, and other led horses ; then fol- 
 lowed a multitude of young pages, clal 
 in yellow or red velvet, with Spanish, 
 Bohemian, and Austrian nobles in robes 
 of silk and velvet ;f 'among these the Bo- 
 hemians had the most martial air, and 
 skilfully rode their superb and prancing 
 coursers. Last the trumpeters, drummers, 
 heralds, grooms, footmen, and the legate's 
 cross-bearers, announced the approach of 
 the princes. 
 
 In fact these powerful lords, whose con- 
 tentions had so often filled Germany with 
 confusion and war, now advanced riding 
 peacefully side by side. After the princes 
 appeared the electors ; and the Elector of 
 Saxony, according to custom, carried the 
 nakei and glittering imperial sword im- 
 mediately before the Emperor. 1; 
 
 Last came the Prince, on whom all eyes 
 were fixed. § Tinrty years of age, of dis- 
 tinguished port and pleasing features, 
 robed in golden garments that glittered 
 all over with precious stones,j| wearing a 
 small Spanish hat on the c.own of his 
 head,^I mounted on a beautiful Polish I 
 hackney of the most brilliant whiteness, ! 
 riding beneath a rich canopy of reJ, I 
 
 * Bekleit von gold. — (P. Urkunden, i. p. 258.) ' 
 t Viel sammete uncle seiden llocke. — (L. Opp. 
 
 xx. p. -201.) 
 
 J Noster princeps de more praetulit ensem. — 
 
 (Corp. ttef. ii. p. I IS.) 
 
 § Omniuai ooulos in seconvertit. — (Seek. ii. p. 
 
 163.0 
 
 I Totus gemnis coruseahat.— (Ibid.) 
 
 % b'tn kilen Spanisch Hiitlein. — (P. Urkunden, 
 
 white, and green damask borne by six 
 senators of Augsburg, and casting around 
 him looks in which gentleness was min- 
 gled with gravity, Charles excited the live- 
 liest enthusiasm, and every one exclaimed 
 that he was the handsomest man in the 
 empire, as well as the mightiest prince in 
 the world. 
 
 He had at first desired to place his 
 brother and the legate at his side ; but the 
 Elector of Mentz, followed by two hun- 
 dred guards arrayed in silk, had claimed 
 the Emperor's right hand ; and the Elec- 
 tor of Cologne, with a hundred well- 
 armed followers, had taken his station on 
 the left. King Ferdinand and the legate 
 were compelled to take their places be- 
 hind them, followed by the cardinals, am- 
 bassadors, and prelates, among whom was 
 remarked the haughty Bishop of Osma, 
 the Emperor's confessor. The imperial 
 cavalry and the troops of Augsburg clo- 
 sed the procession. 
 
 Never, according to the historians, had 
 anything so magnificent been seen in the 
 Empire ;* but Uiey advanced slowly, and 
 it was between eight and nine o'clock in 
 the evening before they reached the gates 
 of Augsburg. f Here they met the bur- 
 gom tster and councillors, who prostrated 
 themselves before Charles, and at the 
 same time the cannon from the ramparts, 
 the bells from all the steeples in full peal, 
 the noise of trumpets and kettle-drums, 
 and the joyful acclamations of the people 
 re-echoed with loud din. Stadion, bishop 
 of Augsburg, and his clergy robed in 
 white, struck up the A Ivenisti desirabllls ; 
 and six canons, advancing with a magni- 
 ficent canopy, prepared to conduct the 
 Emperor to the cathedral, when Charles's 
 horse, startled at this unusual sight, sud- 
 denly reared,! so that the Emperor with 
 difficulty mastered him. At length Charles 
 entered the basilick, which was orna- 
 mented with garlands and flowers, and 
 sud lenly illuminated by a thousand 
 torches. 
 
 The Emperor went up to the altar, 
 and falling on his knees, raised his 
 hands towards heaven.^ During the 
 
 * Antea in imperio non erat visa. — (Seek. ii. 
 p. lb\>.) 
 
 t Innvssus est in urbem intra octava:n et no- 
 na:n.— (Ibid, p. 114.) 
 
 ; Da eutsetzt sic.h K. M. Hengst fur solcheni 
 Hinel. — (F. Urkunden. i. p. i\\.) 
 
 § Ihr band auigehebt. — (IbiJ.) 
 
692 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Te Deum, the Protestants observed with 
 anxiety that Charles kept conversing in 
 a low tone with the Archbishop of 
 Mentz ; that he bent his ear to the legate 
 who approached to speak to him, and 
 nodded in a friendly manner to Duke 
 George. All this appeared to them of 
 evil omen ; but at the moment when the 
 priests sang the Te ergo quczsimus, Charles, 
 breaking off his conversations, suddenly 
 rose, and one of the acolytes running to 
 him with a gold-embroidered cushion, 
 the Emperor put it aside, and knelt on 
 the bare stones of the church. All the 
 assembly knelt with him ; the Elector 
 and the Landgrave alone remained 
 standing. Duke George, astonished at 
 such boldness, threw a threatening 
 glance at his cousin. The Margrave of 
 Brandenburg, carried away by the 
 crowd, had fallen on his knees ; but hav- 
 ing seen his two allies standing, he hast- 
 ily rose up again. 
 
 The Cardidal-archbishop of Salzburg 
 then proceeded to pronounce the ben- 
 ediction ; but Campeggio, impatient at 
 having as yet taken no part in the cer- 
 emony, hastened to the altar, and rudely 
 thrusting the archbishop aside, said 
 sharply to him :* " this office belongs to 
 me, and not to you." The other gave 
 way, the Emperor bent down, and the 
 Landgrave, with difficulty concealing a 
 smile, hid himself behind a candela- 
 brum. The bells now rang out anew, 
 the procqssion recommenced its march, 
 and the princes conducted the Emperor 
 to the Palatinate (the name given to the 
 bishop's palace), which had been pre- 
 pared for him. The crowd now dis- 
 persed : it was after ten at night. 
 
 The hour was come in which the par- 
 tisans of the Papacy flattered themselves 
 with the prospect of rendering the Pro- 
 testants untrue to their faith. The arri- 
 val of the Emperor, the procession of the 
 holy sacrament that was preparing, the 
 late hour, — all had been calculated be- 
 forehand ; " the nocturns of treason were 
 about to begin," said Spalatin. 
 
 A few minutes of general conversation 
 
 took place in the Emperor's apartments ; 
 
 the princes of the Romish party were 
 
 then allowed to retire ; but Charles had 
 
 1 given a sign to the Elector of Saxony, 
 
 * Catdinalem legatus castigatum abegit. — (Seek. 
 ii. p. 161.) 
 
 to the Landgrave of Hesse, to George of 
 Brandenburg, to the Prince of Anhalt, 
 and to the Duke of Luneburg to follow 
 him into his private chamber.* His 
 brother Ferdinand, who was to serve as 
 interpreter, alone went in with them. 
 Charles thought that so long as the Prot- 
 estant princes were observed, they would 
 not yield ; but that in a private and 
 friendly interview, he might obtain all 
 he desired of them. 
 
 " His majesty requests you to discon- 
 tinue the preachings," said Ferdinand. 
 On hearing these words the two old 
 princes (the Elector and the Margrave) 
 turned pale and did not ,speak ;f there 
 was a long silence. 
 
 At last the Landgrave said : a We en- 
 treat your majesty to withdraw your re- 
 quest, for our ministers preach only the 
 pure Word of God, as did the ancient 
 doctors of the Church, St. Augustin, St. 
 Hilary, and so many others. It will be 
 easy for your majesty to convince your- 
 self of it. We cannot deprive ourselves 
 of the food of the Word of God, and deny 
 his Gospel."| 
 
 Ferdinand, resuming the conversation 
 in French § (for it was in this language 
 that he conversed with his brother), in- 
 formed the Emperor of the Landgrave's 
 answer. Nothing was more displeasing 
 to Charles than these citations of Hilary 
 and Augustin ; the colour mounted to 
 his cheeks, and he was nearly getting 
 angry. || " His Majesty," said Ferdinand 
 in a more positive tone, " cannot desist 
 from his demand." — " Your conscience," 
 quickly replied the Landgrave, " has no 
 right to command ours."1f As Ferdinand 
 still persisted, the Margrave, who had been 
 silent until then, could contain himself 
 no longer ; and without caring for inter- 
 preters, stretched out his neck towards 
 Charles, exclaiming in deep emotion : 
 " Rather than allow the Word of the 
 Lord to" be taken from me, rather than 
 
 * Ad conclave suum. — (Corp. Ref. p. 10G and 
 114.) 
 
 t Die beede alte Fursten zum hochsten entsetz. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 t Se non posse cibo verbi Dei carere, nee sana 
 conscientia Evangelium negare. — (Corp. Ref. p. 
 115.) 
 
 § In Franzosischer Sprache. — (Ibid. p. 10/.) 
 
 P Sich darob etwas angerot und erhitzt. — (Corp. 
 | Ref. u. p. 115.) 
 
 If K. Si. gewissen sey aber kein Herrund mey- 
 I ster uber iih gewissen. — (Ibid. p. 115.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 693 
 
 deny my God, I would kneel before your 
 Majesty and have my head cut off!" As 
 he uttered these simple and magnani- 
 mous words, says a contemporary,* the 
 prince accompanied them with a signifi- 
 cant gesture, and let his hands fall on his 
 neck like the headsman's axe. The ex- 
 citement of the princes was at its height : 
 had it been necessary, they would all 
 four have instantly walked to the scaf- 
 fold. Charles was moved by it: sur- 
 prised and agitated, he hastily cried out 
 in his bad German, making a show of 
 checking the Landgrave : " Dear prince, 
 not the head ! not the head !" But he 
 had scarcely uttered these few words, 
 when he checked himself. 
 
 These were the only words that 
 Charles pronounced before the princes 
 during all the diet. His ignorance of 
 the German language, and sometimes 
 also the etiquette of the Escurial, com- 
 pelled him to speak only by the mouth 
 of his brother or of the Count-palatine. 
 As he was in the habit of consecrating 
 four hours daily to divine worship, the 
 people said : " He talks more with God 
 than with men." This habitual silence was 
 not favourable to his plans. They re- 
 quired activity and eloquence ; but in- 
 stead of that the Germans saw in the 
 dumb countenance of their youthful Em- 
 peror, a mere puppet, nodding his head 
 and winking his eyes. Charles some- 
 times felt very keenly the faults of this 
 position : " To be able to speak German," 
 said he, " I would willingly sacrifice any 
 other lahguage, even were it Spanish or 
 French, and more than that, one of my 
 states."! 
 
 Ferdinand saw that it was useless to 
 insist on the cessation of these meetings ; 
 but he had another arrow in his quiver. 
 The next day was the festival of Corpus 
 Chrisli, and by a custom that had never 
 as yet been infringed, all the princes and 
 deputies present at the diet were expected 
 to take part in the procession. What ! 
 would the Protestants refuse this act of 
 courtesy at the very opening of a diet to 
 which each one came in a conciliatory 
 spirit ? Have they not declared that the 
 body and blood of Christ are really in the 
 
 * Ut simpliciter, ita magnanimiter, says Brcnz. 
 —(Ibid) 
 
 t Es wire Spanisch oder Franzosisch und dazu 
 eines Landes minder.— (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 1 14.) 
 
 Host ? Do they not boast of their oppo- 
 sition to Zwingle, and can they stand 
 aloof, without being tainted with heresy? 
 Now, if they share in the pomp that sur- 
 rounds " the Lord's body ;" if they min 
 gle with that crowd of clergy, glittering 
 in luxury and swelling with pride, who 
 carry about the God whom they have 
 created ; if they are present when the 
 people bow down ; will they not irrevo- 
 cably compromise their faith ? The ma- 
 chine is well prepared ; its movements 
 cannot fail ; there is no more doubt ! 
 The craft of the Italians is about to tri- 
 umph over the simplicity of these Ger- 
 man boors ! 
 
 Ferdinand therefore resumes, and ma- 
 king a weapon of the very refusal that 
 he had just' met with : " Since the Em- 
 peror," said he, " cannot obtain from you 
 the suspension of your assemblies, he 
 begs at least that you will accompany 
 him to-morrow, according to custom, in 
 the procession of the Holy Sacrament. 
 Do so, if not from regard to him, at least 
 for the honour of Almighty God."* 
 
 The princes were still more irritated 
 and alarmed. " Christ," said they, " did 
 not institute his sacrament to be wor- 
 shipped." Charles perseveres in his de- 
 mand, and the Protestants in their re- 
 fusal.! Upon this the Emperor declares 
 that he cannot accept their excuse, that 
 he will give them time for reflection, and 
 that they must be prepared to reply early 
 on the morrow. 
 
 They separatad in the greatest agita- 
 tion. The Prince-electoral, who had 
 waited for his father in the first hall 
 along with other lords, sought, at the mo- 
 ment the princes issued from the Em- 
 peror's chamber, to read on their counte- 
 nance what had taken place. Judging 
 from the emotion depicted on their fea- 
 tures that the struggle had been severe, 
 he thought that his father was incurring 
 the greatest dangers, and accordingly, 
 grasping him by the hand, he dragged 
 him to the staircase of the palace, ex- 
 claiming in affright, as if Charles's satel- 
 lites were already at his heels, " Come, 
 come quickly !" 
 
 Charles, who had expected no such re- 
 
 * Et saltern in honorem Dei illud facerent — 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 116.) 
 
 t Persistit Caesar in postulatione, peTsisterunt 
 ill! in recusatioue. — (Ibid. 1 15.) 
 
694 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 sistancc, was in truth confounded, and the 
 'leg-ate endeavoured to exasperate him 
 still more.* Agitated, filled with anger 
 and vexation, and uttering the most ter- 
 rible threats,! the young Emperor paced 
 hastily to and fro the halls of his palace : 
 and unable to wait till the morrow for 
 the answer, he sent in the middle of the 
 night to demand the Elector's final de- 
 cision. " At present we require sleep," 
 replied the latter ; " to-morrow we will 
 let you know<our determination. "J As 
 for the Landgrave, he could not rest any 
 more than Charles. Scarcely had he re- 
 turned home, when he sent his chancel- 
 lor to the Nuremberg deputies, and had 
 them awoke to make them acquainted 
 with what had taken place.$ 
 
 At the same time Charles's demand 
 was laid before the theologians, and 
 Spalatin, taking the pen, drew up their 
 opinion during the night. " The sacra- 
 ment," it bore, " was not instituted to be 
 worshipped, as the Jews worshipped the 
 brazen image. || We are here to confess 
 the truth, and not for the confirmation of 
 abuses. Let us therefore stay away !" 
 This opinion strengthened the Evangeli- 
 cal princes in their determination ; and 
 the day of the 16th June began. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony feeling indis- 
 posed during the night, commissioned his 
 son to represent him ; and at seven 
 o'clock the princes and councillors re- 
 paired on horseback to the Emperor's 
 palace. - ! 
 
 The Margrave of Brandenburg was 
 their spokesman. " You know," said he 
 to Charles, " how, at the risk of our lives, 
 my ancestors and myself have supported 
 your august house. But, in the things 
 of God, the commands of God himself 
 oblige me to put aside all commandment 
 of man. We are told that death awaits 
 those who shall persevere in the sound 
 doctrine : I am ready to suffer it." He 
 then presented the declaration of the 
 
 * A see vitia Legati Romanensium captivi. — Corp. 
 Rcf. ii. p. 11G.) 
 
 t Hinc sccutaj sunt gravissimai mins, jactatre 
 saevissimce Ctesaris indignationes. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Quiete sibi opus esse dicens, responsum in 
 diem alterum distulit. — (Seek. ii. p. 162.) 
 
 § Hat mlchten uns aufwecken lassen. — (Corp. 
 Ref. ii. p. 10G.) 
 
 Ii Wie die Juden die Schlange haben an^ebe- 
 thet.— (Ibid. p. 111.) 
 
 IT Heutezu sieben Uhren sind gemeldetc Furs- 
 ten. — (Corp. Ref. iii. p. 107.) 
 
 Evangelical princes to the Emperor. 
 " We will not countenance by our pres- 
 ence," said they, " these impious human 
 traditions, which are opposed to the Word 
 of God. We declare, on the contrary, 
 without hesitation, and with one accord, 
 that we must expel them from the 
 Church, lest those of its members that 
 are still sound should be infected by this 
 deadly poison."* " If you will not ac- 
 company his majesty for the love of 
 God," said Ferdinand, " do so at least for 
 love of the Emperor, and as vassals of 
 the Empire.f His majesty commands 
 you." " An act of worship is in ques- 
 tion," replied the princes," our conscience 
 forbids it." Then Ferdinand and Charles 
 having conversed together in a low tone : 
 " His majesty desires to see," said the 
 king, " whether you will obey him or 
 not."| At the same time the Emperor 
 and his brother quitted the room ; but the 
 princes, instead of following him, as 
 Charles had hoped, returned full of joy 
 to their palaces. 
 
 The procession did not begin till noon. 
 Immediately behind the canopy under 
 which the Elector of Mentz carried the 
 Host, came the Emperor alone, with a 
 devout air, bearing a taper in his hand, 
 his head bare and shorn like a priest's, al- 
 though the noon-day sun darted on him 
 its most ardent rays.§ By exposing him- 
 self to these fatigues, Charles desired to 
 profess aloud his faith in what constitutes 
 the essence of Roman-catholicism. In 
 proportion as the spirit and the life had 
 escaped from the primitive Churches, 
 they had striven to replace them by forms, 
 shows, and ceremonies. The essential 
 cause of the Romish worship is found in 
 that decline of charity and faith which 
 catholic Christians of the first ages have 
 often deplored ; and the history of Rome 
 is summed up in this expression of St. 
 Paul, Having a form of godliness, but de- 
 nying the poiver thereof || But as the pow- 
 er was then beginning to revive in the 
 Church, the form began also to decline. 
 
 * Cselcstin. i. p. 82. 
 
 t Ut vassalli et principes imperii. — (Cochloeus 
 p. 192.) 
 
 X Sie wolle selien, ob sic I. M. gehorchsam les 
 sten oder nicht.— (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 108.) 
 
 § Clericaliter, detonso capillo. — (Zw. Epp. ii. p 
 471 .) Nudo capite sub meridiani solis ardoribus. 
 — (Pallavicini, i. p. 228.) 
 
 II 2 Timothy iii. 5. 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 695 
 
 Barely a hundred citizens of Augsburg 
 had joined in the procession of the 16th 
 June. It was no longer the pomp of for- 
 mer times : the christian people had 
 learned anew to love and to believe. 
 
 Charles, however, under an air of de- 
 votion concealed a wounded heart. The 
 legate was less able to command himself, 
 and said aloud that this obstinacy of the 
 princes would be the cause of great mis- 
 chief to the Pope.* When the procession 
 was over (it had lasted an hour), Charles 
 could no longer master his extreme irri- 
 tation ; and he had scarcely returned to 
 his palace, when he declared that he 
 would give the Protestant princes a safe- 
 conduct, and that on the very next day 
 these obstinate and rebellious men should 
 quit Augsburg ;f the diet would then 
 take such resolutions as were required for 
 the safety of the Church and of the Em- 
 pire. It was no doubt the legate who 
 had given Charles this idea, whose exe- 
 cution would infallibly have led to a re- 
 ligious war. But some of the princes of 
 the Roman party, desirous of preserving 
 peace, succeeded, though not without dif- 
 ficulty, in getting the Emperor to with- 
 draw his threatening order. | 
 
 V. Charles, being defeated on the sub- 
 ject of the procession, resolved to take his 
 revenge on the assemblies, for nothing 
 galled him like these sermons. The 
 crowd ceased not to fill the vast church 
 of the Franciscans, where a Zwinglian 
 minister of lively and penetrating elo- 
 quence was preaching on the Book of 
 Joshua.^ He placed the kings of Ca- 
 naan and the children of Israel before 
 them : his congregation heard them 
 speak and saw them act, and every one 
 recognized in Canaan the Emperor and 
 the Ultra-montane princes, and in the 
 people of God the adherents of the Re- 
 formation. In consequence, the faithful 
 quitted the church enthusiastic in their 
 faith, and filled with the desire of seeing 
 the abominations of the idolaters fall to 
 the ground. On the 16th June, the Pro- 
 testants deliberated on Charles's demand, 
 
 * Sarpi, Council of Trent, i. p. 99. 
 
 t Ut mox altera die, cum salvo-conductu, Lu- 
 therani abirent do:nu:n. — (Co^hl. p. 193.) 
 
 t Pacis et concorJix avidi, supplicarunt ejus 
 majest.iti ut sedita ira. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Maxhms populi concursus amplissima sode. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 and it was rejected by the majority. " It 
 is only a scare'erow," said they ; " the Pa- 
 pists only desire to see if the nail shakes 
 in the wall, and if they can start the hare 
 from the thicket." 
 
 The next morning (17th June) before 
 breakfast, the princes replied to the Em- 
 peror. " To forbid our ministers to 
 preach purely the holy Gospel would be 
 rebellion against God, who wills that his 
 Word be not bound. Poor sinners that 
 we are, we have need of this Divine 
 Word to surmount our troubles.* More- 
 over, his majesty has declared, that in 
 this diet each doctrine should be examin- 
 ed with impartiality. Now, to order us 
 henceforward to suspend the sermons, 
 would be to condemn ours beforehand." 
 
 Charles immediately convoked the 
 other temporal and spiritual princes, who 
 arrived at mid-day at the Palatine palace, 
 and remained sitting until the evening ;f 
 the discussion was exceedingly animated.- 
 " This very morning," said some of the 
 speakers, " the Protestant princes, as they 
 quitted the Emperor, had sermons de- 
 livered in public."| Exasperated at this 
 new affront, Charles with difficulty con- 
 tained himself. Some of the princes, 
 however, having entreated him to ac- 
 cept their mediation, he consented to it ; 
 but the Protestants were immovable. 
 Did these heretics, whom they imagined 
 to reduce so easily, appear in Augsburg 
 only to humiliate Charles ? The honour 
 of the chief of the Empire must be 
 saved at any cost. " Let us ourselves re- 
 nounce our preachers," said the princes ; 
 " the Protestants will not then persist in 
 keeping theirs !" 
 
 The commission proposed accordingly 
 that the Emperor should set aside both 
 Papist and Lutheran preachers, and 
 should nominate a few chaplains, with 
 authority to announce the pure Word of 
 God, without attacking either of the two 
 parties.^ " They shall be neutral men," 
 said they to the Protestants ; " neither 
 Faber nor his partisans shall be admit- 
 
 * Nee se illo animse nutrimento carere. — (Cce- 
 lestinus Hist. Comit. i. p. 88; Forst. Urkunden. i. 
 p. 283.) 
 
 r Ocesar a meridie. — (Seek. p. 165.) Den gan- 
 gen Tag. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 113.) 
 
 } Eo ipso die condones continuatffi. — (Sock- 
 end, p. 165.) 
 
 § Cffisare omnes tim papistarum quam evan- 
 gclicoru.n condones. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 11(3.) 
 
696 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ted." — " But they will condemn our doc- 
 trine." — " By no means. The preacher 
 shall do nothing but read the text of the 
 Gospels, Epistles, and a general confes- 
 sion of sins."* The evangelical states 
 required time to reflect upon it. 
 
 " We must accept it," said Melancthon ; 
 " for if our obstinacy should lead the 
 Emperor to refuse hearing our confes- 
 sion, the evil would be greater still." 
 
 " We are called to Augsburg," said 
 Agricola, " to give an account of our 
 doctrine, and not to preach."f 
 
 " There is no little disorder in the 
 city," remarked Spalatin. " The Sacra- 
 mentarians and Enthusiasts preach here 
 as well as we : we must get out of this 
 confusion." 
 
 " What do the Papists propose ?" said 
 other theologians ; " to read the Gospels 
 and Epistles without explanation. But 
 is not that a victory 1 What ! we pro- 
 test against the interpretations of the 
 Church ; and lo ! priests who are to read 
 the Word of God without their notes 
 and commentaries, that is to say, 
 transforming themselves into Protestant 
 ministers !" " O ! admirable wisdom of 
 the courtiers!" exclaimed Melancthon, 
 smiling.;); 
 
 To these motives were added the 
 opinions of the lawyers. As the Emperor 
 ought to be considered the rightful mag- 
 istrate of an imperial city, so long as he 
 made it his residence, all jurisdiction in 
 Augsburg really belonged to him. 
 
 "Well, then," said the Protestant 
 princes, " we agree to silence our preach- 
 ers, in the hope that we shall hear no- 
 thing offensive to our consciences, if it 
 were otherwise, we should feel ourselves 
 constrained to repel so serious an insult.^ 
 Besides," added the Elector, as he with- 
 drew, " we hope that if at any time we 
 desire to hear one of our chaplains in 
 our own palace, we shall be free to do 
 so." || 
 
 They hastened to the Emperor, who 
 desired nothing better than to come to an 
 
 * Qui tantum recitent Evangelium et epistolam 
 yzaiiuaTiKox. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 119.) 
 
 t Non sumus parochi Augustanorum, added he. 
 —(Corp. Ref. ii. p. 119.) 
 
 : Vide miram sapientiam Aulicorum. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Tit de renicdiis pronulsanda; iniurise content. 
 —(Seek, ii p. 105.) 
 
 II Ob je einer einen Prcdiger in seiner Herberg 
 fur sich predigen liess — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 113.) ° 
 
 understanding with the Protestants on 
 this subject, and who ratified everything. 
 
 This was Saturday. An imperial 
 herald was immediately sent out, who, 
 parading the streets of the city at seven 
 in the evening to the sound of trumpets,* 
 cried with all his might : " O yes, O 
 yes !f Thus ordains his imperial majes- 
 ty, our most gracious lord : no preacher 
 whatever shall preach in Augsburg ex- 
 cept such as his majesty shall have nom- 
 inated ; and that under penalty of incur- 
 ring the displeasure and punishment of 
 his majesty." 
 
 A thousand different remarks were ex- 
 changed in the houses of the citizens of 
 Augsburg. " We are very impatient," 
 said they, " to see the preachers appoint- 
 ed by the Emperor, and who will preach 
 (O ! unprecedented wonder !) neither 
 against the evangelical doctrine nor 
 against the doctrine of the Pope P'| 
 " We must expect," added another, " to- 
 behold some Tragelaph or some chimera 
 with the head of a lion, a goat's body, 
 and a dragon's tail."^ The Spaniards 
 appeared well satisfied with this agree- 
 ment, for many of them had never heard 
 a single sermon in their lives ; it was 
 not the custom in Spain ; but Zwingle's 
 friends were filled with indignation and 
 alarm. |j 
 
 At length Sunday the 19th of June be- 
 gan ; every one hastened to the churches, 
 and the faithful who filled them, with 
 eyes fixed on the priest and with atten- 
 tive ears,H prepared to listen to what 
 these new and strange preachers would 
 say.** It was generally believed that 
 their task would be to make an evangel- 
 ico-papistical discourse, and they were 
 very impatient to hear this marvel. But 
 
 " The mountain in labour, gave birth to a mouse !" 
 
 The preacher first read the common 
 
 * Per tubicines et heraldum. — (Sturmius, Zw. 
 Epp. p. 466.) 
 
 t Hort, Hort.— (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 124.) 
 
 t Omnes hunc avidissime expectant. — (Ibid. p. 
 116.) 
 
 § Chimasram aut Tragelaphum aliquem expec- 
 tamus. — (Ibid.) The Tragelaph is a fabulous an- 
 imal partaking of the nature of a goat and a stag. 
 Representations of it were common on drinking- 
 bowls and goblets among the ancient Greeks. 
 
 II Multos deterreat. — (Sturm to Zwingle, Epp. 
 p. 466.) 
 
 IT Arrectis auribus. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 116.) 
 
 ** Quid novi novus concionator allaturus sit. — 
 (Ibid. p. 117.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 697 
 
 prayer; he then added the Gospel of 
 the day, finished with a general confes- 
 sion of sins, and dismissed his congrega- 
 tion. People looked at one another in 
 surprise : " Verily," said they, " here is a 
 preacher that is neither Gospeller nor 
 Papist, but strictly textual."* At last all 
 burst into laughter; "and truly," adds 
 Brenz, " there was reason enough."! In 
 some churches, however, the chaplains, 
 after reading the Gospel, added a few 
 puerile words, void of Christianity and 
 of consolation, and in no way founded on 
 the holy Scripture.}: 
 
 After the so-called sermon, they pro- 
 ceeded to the Mass. That in the Cathe- 
 dral was particularly noisy. The Em- 
 peror was not present, for he was accus- 
 tomed to sleep until nine or ten o'clock.^ 
 and a late Mass was performed for him ; 
 but Ferdinand and many of the princes 
 were present. The pealing notes of the 
 organ, the resounding voices of the choir 
 — all were set to work, and a numerous 
 and motley crowd, rushing in at all the 
 doors, filled the aisles of the temple. 
 One might have said that every nation in 
 the world had agreed to meet in the 
 cathedral of Augsburg. Here were 
 Frenchmen, there Spaniards, Moors in 
 one place, Moriscos in another, on one 
 side Italians, on the other Turks, and 
 even, says Brenz, those who are called 
 Stratiots. || This crowd was no bad rep- 
 resentation of the medley of Popery. 
 
 One priest alone, a fervent Romanist, 
 dared to offer an apology for the Mass in 
 the Church of the Holy Cross. Charles, 
 wishing to maintain his authority, had 
 him thrown into the Grey Friars' prison, 
 whence they contrived to let him escape. 
 As for the Evangelical pastors of Augs- 
 burg, almost all left the city to bear the 
 Gospel elsewhere. The Protestant 
 princes were anxious to secure for their 
 churches the assistance of such distin- 
 
 * Sic habes concionatorcm neque evangelicum 
 neque papisticum, sed nudum textualcin. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Rident omnes, et certe res valde ridicula est. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 i Paucula qusdam, eaque puerilia et inepta, 
 nee Christiane, absque fundamento verbi Divini 
 et consolatione. — (Seek. ii. p. 105.) 
 
 § Dormire solet usque ad nonam aut decirnam. 
 —(Corp. Ref. ii. p. 117.) 
 
 II lbi videas hie Gallos, hie Hispanos, hie Ethi- 
 'opes, illic rtiain Ethiopissas, fiic Italos, illic etiam 
 Turcas, aut quos vocant Stratiotas. — (Corp. Ref. 
 ii. p. 117.) 
 
 88 
 
 guished men. Discouragement and 
 alarm followed close upon this step, and 
 even the firmest were moved. The 
 Elector was inconsolable at the privation 
 imposed upon him by the Emperor. 
 "Our Lord God," said he, heaving a 
 deep sigh, " has received an order to be 
 silent at the Diet of Augsburg."* From 
 that time forward Luther lost the good 
 opinion he had previously entertained of 
 Charles, and foreboded the stormiest fu- 
 ture. " See what will be the end of all 
 this," said he. " The Emperor, who has 
 ordered the Elector to renounce the as- 
 semblies, will afterwards command him 
 to renounce the doctrine ; the diet will 
 enter upon its paroxysm, and nothing will 
 remain for us but to rely upon the arm 
 of the Lord." Then giving way to all 
 his indignation, he added : " The Papists, 
 abandoned to devils, are transported with 
 rage ; and to live, they must drink 
 blood, f They wish to give themselves 
 an air of justice, by giving us one of ob- 
 stinacy. It is not with men that you 
 have to deal at Augsburg, but with the 
 very gates of hell." Melancthon him- 
 self saw all his hopes vanish. " All, ex- 
 cept the Emperor," said he, " hate us 
 with the most violent hatred. The dan- 
 ger is great, very great.} P ra y t0 
 
 Christ that he may save us !" But Lu- 
 ther, however full of sorrow he might 
 be, far from being cast down, raised his 
 head and endeavoured to reanimate the 
 courage of his brethren. " Be assured 
 and doubt not," wrote he to them, " that 
 you are the confessors of Jesus Christ, 
 and the ambassadors of the Great 
 King."§ 
 
 They had need of these thoughts, for 
 their adversaries, elated by this first suc- 
 cess, neglected nothing that might de- 
 stroy the Protestants, and taking another 
 step forward, proposed forcing them to 
 be present at the Romish ceremonies. || 
 " The Elector of Saxony," said the le- 
 gate to Charles, " ought in virtue of his 
 office of Grand-marshal of the Empire 
 
 * Hac ratione, Deo ej usque verbo silentium est 
 iinpositum. — (Seek. ii. p. 105) 
 
 t Ut nisi sanguinem biberint, vivere non pos- 
 sint.— (Seek. ii. p. 105.) 
 
 { Magnum omnino periculum est. — (Corp. Ref. 
 ii. p. 118.) 
 
 § Ea fides vivificabit et consolabitur vos, quia 
 Magni Regis estis legati. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 59.) 
 
 II Sarpi, Hist. Council of Trent, book i. p. 99. 
 
698 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to carry the sword before you in all the 
 ceremonies of the diet. Order him there- 
 fore to perform his duty at the Mass of 
 the Holy Ghost, which is to open the sit- 
 tings." The Emperor did so immediate- 
 ly, and the Elector, uneasy at this mes- 
 sage, called together his theologians: If 
 he refused, his dignky would be taken 
 away ; and if he obeyed, he would tram- 
 ple his faith under foot, thought he, and 
 would do dishonour to the Gospel. 
 
 But the Lutheran Divines removed 
 the scruples of their prince. " It is for 
 a ceremony of the Empire," said they, 
 " as Grand-Marshal, and not as a Chris- 
 tian, that you are summoned ; the Word 
 of God itself, in the history of Naaman, 
 authorizes you to comply with this invi- 
 tation."* The friends of Zwingle did 
 not think so ; their walk was more deci- 
 ded than that of Wittemberg. " The 
 martyrs allowed themselves to be put to 
 death," said they, " rather than burn a 
 grain of incense before the idols." Even 
 some of the Protestants hearing that the 
 Veni Spiritus was to be sung, said, wag- 
 ging their heads : " We are very much 
 afraid that the chariot of the Spirit, which 
 is the Word of God, having been taken 
 away by the Papists, the Holy Ghost, 
 despite their Mass, will never reach 
 Augsburg."f Neither these fears nor 
 these objections were listened to. 
 
 On Monday the 20th June, the Empe- 
 ror and his brother, with the electors and 
 princes of the Empire, having entered 
 the cathedral, took their seats on the 
 right side of the choir ; on the left were 
 placed the legate, the archbishops, and 
 bishops ; in the middle were the ambas- 
 sadors. Without the choir, in a gallery 
 that overlooked it, were ranged the Land- 
 grave and other Protestants, who pre- 
 ferred being at a distance from the Host.| 
 The Elector, bearing the sword, remained 
 upright near the altar at the moment of 
 the adoration. The acolytes, having 
 closed the gates of the choir immediately 
 after,§ Vincent Pompinello, archbishop 
 
 * 2' Kings v. 18. Exemplo Naamanis.— (Seek. 
 li. p. 107; Sarpi, p. 99.) 
 
 t'Ne ablato Spiritus vehiculo, quod est verbum 
 Dei, Spiritus Sanctus ad Augustam prse pedum 
 imbecillitate pervenire non possit.— (Corp. Ref. ii. 
 p. 116.). V P 
 
 } Abstinendo ab adoratione hostia?.— ("Seek ii. 
 p. 119.) V 
 
 § Erant enim chori fores clausaj, nee quisquam 
 orationi interfuit.— (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 120.) 
 
 of Salerno, preached the sermon. He 
 commenced with the Turks and their 
 ravages, and then, by an unexpected turn, 
 began suddenly to exalt the Turks even 
 above the Germans. " The Turks," 
 said he, " have but one prince whom they 
 obey ; but the Germans have many who 
 obey no one. The Turks live under 
 one sole law, one only custom, one only 
 religion ; but among the Germans, there 
 are some who are always wishing for 
 new laws, new customs, new religions. 
 They tear the seamless coat of Christ ; 
 they^ abolish by devilish inspirations the 
 sacred doctrines established by unani- 
 mous consent, and .substitute for them, 
 alas ! buffoonery and obscenity.* Mag- 
 nanimous Emperor, powerful King !" 
 said he. turning towards Charles and his 
 brother, " sharpen your swords, wield 
 them against these perfidious disturbers 
 of religion, and thus bring them back 
 into the fold of the Church, f There is 
 no peace for Germany so long as the 
 sword shall not have entirely eradicated 
 this heresy 4 O St. Peter and St. Paul ! 
 I call upon you ; upon you, St. Peter, in 
 order that you may open the stony hearts 
 of these princes with your keys ; and 
 upon you, St. Paul, that if they show 
 themselves too rebellious, you may aome 
 with your sword, and cut in pieces this 
 unexampled hardness !" 
 
 This discourse, intermingled with pane- 
 gyrics of Aristides, Themistocles, Scipio, 
 Cato, the Curtii and Scsvola, being con- 
 cluded, the Emperor and princes arose to 
 make their offerings. Pappenheim re- 
 turned the sword to the Elector, who had 
 intrusted it to him ; and the Grand-mar- 
 shal, as well as the Margrave, went to 
 the offertory, but with a smile, as it is re- 
 ported. § This fact is but little in har- 
 mony with the character of these princes. 
 
 At length they quitted the cathedral. 
 No one, except the friends of the nuncio, 
 was pleased with the sermon. Even the 
 Archbishop of Mentz was offended at it 
 " What does he mean," exclaimed he, 
 
 * Diabolica persuasione eliminant, et ad scur- 
 rilia ac impudicaquffiquededucunt. — (Pallavicini, 
 Hist. Trid. C. i. p. 23.) 
 
 t Exacuant gladios quos in perversos illos per- 
 turbatorcs.— (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 120.) 
 
 I Nisi eradicata fund it us per gladium hffiresi 
 ilia.— (Corp. Ref. ii p. 120.) 
 
 § ProtesUntes etiaru ad offerendum munuscula 
 in altari, ut moris erat, accessisse, sed cum riso.- - 
 (Spalat. Seek. ii. p. 107.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 699 
 
 "by calling on St. Paul to cut the Ger- 
 mans with his sword ?" Nothing but a 
 few inarticulate sounds had been heard in 
 the nave; the Protestants eagerly ques- 
 tioned those of their party who had been 
 present in the choir. " The more these 
 priests inflame people's minds, and the 
 more they urge their princes to bloody 
 wars," said Brenz at that time, " the more 
 we must hinder ours from giving way to 
 violence."* Thus spoke a minister of the 
 Gospel of peace after the sermon of the 
 priest of Rome. 
 
 After the mass of the Holy Ghost, the 
 Emperor entered his carriage,! and hav- 
 ing reached the town-hall, where the sit- 
 tings of the diet were to take place, he 
 took his seat on a throne covered with 
 cloth of gold, while his brother placed 
 himself on a bench in front of him ; then 
 all around them were ranged the Elect- 
 ors, forty-two sovereign princes, the depu- 
 ties from the cities, the bishops, and am- 
 bassadors, forming, indeed, that illustrious 
 assembly which Luther, six weeks before, 
 had imagined he saw sitting in the air.t 
 
 The Count-palatine read the imperial 
 proposition. It referred to two points ; 
 the war against the Turks, and the reli- 
 gious controversy. " Sacrificing my pri- 
 vate injuries and interests to the common 
 good," said the Emperor, " I have quitted 
 my hereditary kingdoms to pass, not 
 without great danger, into Italy, and from 
 thence to Germany. I have heard with 
 sorrow of the divisions that have broken 
 out here, and which, striking not only at 
 the imperial majesty, but still more, at the 
 commandments of Almighty God, must 
 engender pillage, conflagration, war, and 
 death. "§ At one o'clock the Emperor, 
 accompanied by all the princes, returned 
 to his palace. 
 
 On the same day the Elector gathered 
 around him all his co-religionists, whom 
 the Emperor's speech had greatly excit- 
 ed, and exhorted them not to be turned 
 aside by any threats from a cause which 
 was that of God himself. |j All seemed 
 
 * Ut nostras principes ab importuna violcntia 
 retineamus. — (Corp. Kef. ii. p. 120.) 
 
 t Imperator cu.n omnibus in curiam vectus est. 
 — (Sturm to Zw. Epp. ii. p. 430.) 
 
 X Ex volucrum monedularumque regno. — (L. 
 Epp. iv. p. 13.) 
 
 § Nicht anders dann zu Raub, Brandt, und 
 Krieg. — (F. Urkunden. i. p. 307.) 
 
 II Cohortatus est ad intrepidam causa? Dei as- 
 scntionem. — (Seek. -ii. p. lOd.) 
 
 penetrated with this expression of Scrip- 
 ture : " Speak the word, and it shall not 
 stand ; for God is with us."* 
 
 The Elector had a heavy burden to 
 bear. Not only had he to walk at the 
 head of the princes, but he had further to 
 defend himself against the enervating in- 
 fluence of Melancthon. It is not an ab- 
 straction of the state which this prince 
 presents to our notice throughout the 
 whole of this affair : it is the most noble 
 individuality. Early on Tuesday morn- 
 ing, feeling the necessity of that invisible 
 strength which, according to a beautiful 
 figure in the holy Scriptures, causes us to 
 ride upon the high places of the earth ; 
 and seeing, as was usual, his domestics, 
 his councillors, and his son assembled 
 around him, John begged them affection- 
 ately to withdraw.! He knew that it 
 was only by kneeling humbly before God 
 that he could stand with courage before 
 Charles. Alone in his chamber, he 
 opened and read, the Psalms,«thcn falling 
 on his knees, he offered up the most fer- 
 vent prayer to God \% next, wishing to 
 confirm himself in the immovable fidel- 
 ity that he had just vowed to the Lord, he 
 went to his desk, and there committed his 
 resolutions to writing. Dolzig and Me- 
 lancthon afterwards saw these lines, and 
 were filled with admiration as they read 
 them.§ 
 
 Being thus tempered anew in heaven- 
 ly thoughts, John took up the imperial 
 proposition, and meditated over it ; then, 
 having called in his son and the chancel- 
 lor Bruck, and Melancthon shortly after, 
 they all agreed that the deliberations of 
 the diet ought to commence with the 
 affairs of religion ; and his allies, who 
 were consulted, concurred in this advice. 
 
 The legate had conceived a plan 
 diametrically opposed to this. He de- 
 sired to stifle the religious question, and 
 for this end required that the princes 
 should examine it in a secret committee.|| 
 The Evangelical Christians entertained 
 no doubt that if the truth was proclaimed 
 
 * Isaiah viii. 10. 
 
 + Mane remotis omnibus consiliariis et ministris. 
 —(Seek. ii. p. 169.) 
 
 : Precibus ardentissimis a Deo successu.m ne- 
 gotii petiisset. — (Ibid. ) 
 
 § (iuas cum admiratione legisse dicuntur.— 
 (Seek. ii. p. 169.) 
 
 II Si acturi sunt secreto et inter sese, nulla pub- 
 lica disputatione vel audientia. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 
 43.) 
 
700 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 in the great council of the nation, it 
 would gain the victory ; but the more 
 they desired a public confession, the more 
 it was dreaded by the Pope's friends. 
 The latter wished to take their adversa- 
 ries by silence, without confession, with- 
 out discussion, as a city is taken by 
 famine without fighting and without a 
 storm : to gag the Reformation, and thus 
 reduce it to powerlessness and death, 
 were their tactics. To have silenced the 
 preachers was not enough : the princes 
 must be silenced also. They wished to 
 shut up the Reformation as in a dungeon, 
 and there leave it to die, thinking they 
 would thus get rid of it more surely than 
 by leading it to the scaffold. 
 
 This plan was well conceived : it now 
 remained to be put in execution, and for 
 that purpose it was necessary to persuade 
 the Protestants that such a method 
 would be the surest for them. The per- 
 son selected for this intrigue was Alphon- 
 so Valdez, secretary to Charles V., a 
 Spanish gentleman, a worthy individual, 
 and who afterwards showed a leaning 
 towards the Reformation. Policy often 
 makes use of good men for the most per- 
 fidious designs. It was decided that Val- 
 dez should address the most timid of the 
 Protestan ts — Mel ancthon. 
 
 On the 16th or 17th of June, immedi- 
 ately after the arrival of Charles, Valdez 
 begged Melancthon to call on him. 
 " The Spaniards," said he, " imagine that 
 the Lutherans teach impious doctrines 
 on the Holy Trinity, on Jesus Christ, on 
 the blessed Mother of God.* Accord- 
 ingly, they think they do a more meri- 
 torious work in killing a Lutheran than 
 in slaying a Turk." 
 
 " I know it," replied Melancthon, " and 
 I have not yet been able to succeed in 
 making your fellow-countrymen aban- 
 don that idea." 
 
 " But what, pray, do the Lutherans 
 desire ?" 
 
 " The Lutheran question is not so 
 complicated and so unseemly as his ma- 
 jesty fancies. We do not attack the 
 Catholic Church, as is commonly be- 
 lieved ;f and the whole controversy is 
 
 * Hispanis persuasum esse Lutheranos impie 
 de Sanctissima Trinitate.^fEx relatione Snalati 
 in Seek. ii. 1G5.) r 
 
 t Non adeo per eos Ecclesiam Catholicam op- 
 pugnari, quam vulgo putaretur— (Ibid. 100.) 
 
 reducible to these three points. The 
 two kinds in the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, the marriage of pastors, and the 
 abolition of private masses. If we could 
 agree on these articles, it would be easy 
 to come to an understanding on the 
 others." 
 
 " Well, I will report this to his majes- 
 ty." 
 
 Charles V. was charmed at this com- 
 munication. " Go," said he to Valdez, 
 " and impart these things to the legate, 
 and ask Master Philip to transmit to you 
 in writing a short exposition of what they 
 believe and what they deny." 
 
 Valdez hastened to Campeggio. 
 " What you relate pleases me tolerably," 
 said the latter. " As for the two kinds in 
 the sacrament, and the marriage of priests, 
 there will be means of accommodation ;* 
 but we cannot consent to the abolition of 
 private masses." This would have been 
 in fact cutting off one of the greatest reve- 
 nues of the Church. 
 
 On Saturday, June 18, Valdez saw Me- 
 lancthon again. " The Emperor begs 
 of you a moderate and concise exposi- 
 tion," said he, " and he is persuaded that it 
 will be more advantageous to treat of 
 this matter briefly and privately,! avoid- 
 ing all public hearing and all prolix dis- 
 cussion, which would only engender an- 
 ger and division." — " Well," said Melanc- 
 thon, " I will reflect upon it." 
 
 Melancthon was almost won over : a 
 secret conference agreed better with his 
 disposition. Had he not often repeated 
 that peace should be sought after above 
 'all things? Thus everything induced 
 the legate to hope that a public struggle 
 would be avoided, and that he might be 
 content, as it were, to send mutes against 
 the Reform, and strangle it in a dun- 
 geon.J 
 
 Fortunately the Chancellor and the 
 Elector Frederick did not think fit to en- 
 tertain the propositions with wMch 
 Charles had commissioned the worthy 
 Valdez. The resolution of these lay 
 members of the Church saved it from 
 
 ' * Mit beider Gestalt sacraments oder des Plaf- 
 fen und Monch Ehe.— (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 123.) 
 
 + Die Srche ineinerEngeundStille vorzuneh- 
 men. — (Ibid.) 
 
 J Coelestin, Hist. Comit. August, p. 193. In- 
 telligo hoc tuvs jip^cEpsas moliri, ut omnino nihil 
 agatur de negotiis ecclesiasticis. — (Corp. Ref.ii. p. 
 57.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 701 
 
 the false step its doctors were about to 
 take ; and the wiles of the Italians failed 
 against Evangelical firmness. Melanc- 
 thon was only permitted to lay the Con- 
 fession before the Spaniard, that he might 
 look into it, and in despite of the moder- 
 ation employed in it, Valdez exclaimed : 
 " These words are too bitter, and your 
 adversaries will never put up with 
 them !"* Thus finished the legate's man- 
 
 VI. Charles, compelled to resign him- 
 self to a public sitting, ordered on Wed- 
 nesday, 22d June, that the Elector and 
 his allies should have their Confession 
 ready for the ensuing Friday. The Roman 
 party were also invited to present a con- 
 fession of faith ; but they excused them- 
 selves, saying that they were satisfied 
 with the Edict of Worms. 
 
 The Emperor's order took the Protest- 
 ants by surprise, for the negotiations be- 
 tween Valdez and Melancthon had pre- 
 vented the latter from putting the finish- 
 ing stroke to the Confession. It was not 
 copied out fair ; and the conclusions, as 
 well as the exordium, were not definitively 
 drawn up. In consequence of this, the 
 Protestants begged the Archbishop of 
 Mentz to obtain for them the delay of a 
 day; but their petition was refused. f 
 They therefore laboured incessantly, even 
 during the night, to correct and transcribe 
 the Confession. 
 
 On Thursday, 23d June, all the Prot- 
 estant princes, deputies, councillors, and 
 theologians met early at the Elector's. 
 The Confession was read in German, 
 and all gave their adhesion to it, except 
 the Landgrave and the Strasburgers, 
 who required a change in the article on 
 the sacrament.| The princes rejected 
 their demand. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony was already 
 preparing to sign, when Melancthon 
 stopped him : he feared giving too polit- 
 ical a colouring to this religious busi- 
 ness. In his idea it was the Church that 
 should appear, and not the State. " It is 
 for the theologians and ministers to pro- 
 
 * Ac plane putarit irtKporeoov esse quam ut 
 ferre possent adversarii. — (Ibid. p. 140.) 
 
 t Dasselbige abgeschlagen. — (Corp. Rcf. ii. p. 
 127.) 
 
 t Argentinenses ambierunt aliquid ut except o 
 wrticulo sacramenti suaciperentur. — (Ibid. p. 155.) 
 
 pose these things," said he ;* a let us re- 
 serve for other matters the authority of 
 the mighty ones of the earth." — " God 
 forbid that you should exclude me," re- 
 plied the Elector ; " I am resolved to do 
 what is right without troubling myself 
 about my crown. I desire to confess the 
 Lord. My electoral hat and my ermine 
 are not so precious to me as the cross of 
 Jesus Christ. I shall leave on earth 
 these marks of my greatness ; but my 
 Master's cross will accompany me to 
 heaven." 
 
 How resist such christian language! 
 Melancthon gave way. 
 
 The Elector then approached, signed, 
 and handed the pen to the Landgrave, 
 who at first made some objections; how- 
 ever the enemy was at the door ; was 
 this the time for disunion? At' last he 
 signed, but with a declaration that the 
 doctrine of the Eucharist did not please 
 him.f 
 
 The Margrave and Luneburg having 
 joyfully subscribed their names, Anhalt 
 took the pen in his turn, and said, " I 
 have tilted more than once to please 
 others ; now, if the honour of my Lord 
 Jesus Christ requires it, I am ready to 
 saddle my horse, to leave my goods and 
 my life behind, and to rush into eternity, 
 towards an everlasting crown." Then, 
 having signed, this youthful prince said, 
 turning to the theologians : " Rather re- 
 nounce my subjects and my states, rather 
 quit the country of my fathers' staff in 
 hand, rather gain my bread by cleaning 
 the shoes of the foreigner, than receive any 
 other doctrine than that which is con- 
 tained in this Confession." Nuremberg 
 and Reutlingen alone of the cities sub- 
 scribed their signatures ;| and all resolv- 
 ed on demanding of the Emperor that 
 the Confession should be read publicly.^ 
 The courage of the princes surprised 
 every one. Rome had crushed the mem- 
 bers of the Church, and had reduced 
 them to a herd of slaves, whom she drag- 
 ged silent and humiliated behind her: 
 
 * Non prlncipum nomine edi sed decentium, 
 quithcologi vocantur. — (Camer. p. 120.) 
 
 t Landgravius subscribit nobiscum, sed tamen 
 dicit sibi, de sacramento, a nostris non satisfieri. 
 —(Corp. Ref. ii. p. 155.) 
 
 t Confessioni tantum subscripserunt Nurem- 
 berga et Reutlingen. — (Ibid.) 
 
 § Deeretum est ut publicse recitandss concessio 
 ab Imperatore peterctur. — (Seek. ii. p. 169.) 
 
702 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the Reformation enfranchised them, and 
 with their rights it restored to them their 
 duties. The priest no longer enjoyed 
 the monopoly of religion ; each head of 
 a family again became priest in his own 
 house, an J all the members of the Church 
 of God were thenceforward called to the 
 rank of confessors. The laymen are no- 
 thing, or almost nothing, in the sect of 
 Rome, but they are the essential portion 
 of the Church of Jesus Christ. Wherever 
 the priestly spirit is established, the 
 Church dies ; wherever laymen, as these 
 Augsburg princes, understand their duty 
 and their immediate dependence on 
 Christ, the Church lives. 
 
 The Evangelical theologians were 
 moved by the devotedness of the princes. 
 " When 1 consider their firmness in the 
 confession of the Gospel," said Brenz, 
 " the colour mounts to my cheeks. What 
 a disgrace that we, who are only beggars 
 beside them, are so afraid of confessing 
 Christ !"* Brenz was then thinking of 
 certain towns, particularly of Halle, of 
 which he was pastor, but no doubt also 
 of the theologians. 
 
 The latter, in truth, without being de- 
 ficient in devotedness, were sometimes 
 wanting in courage. Melancthon was 
 in constant agitation ; he ran to and fro, 
 slipping in everywhere (says Cuchlceus 
 in his Philippics), penetrating not only 
 the houses and mansions of private per- 
 sons, but also insinuating himself into 
 trie palaces of cardinals and princes, nay, 
 even into 'the couit of the Emperor; 
 and, whether at table or in conversation, 
 he spared no means of persuading every 
 person, that nothing was more easy 
 than to restore peace between the two 
 parties.f 
 
 One day he was with the Archbishop 
 of Salzburg, who in a long discourse 
 gave an eloquent description of the trou- 
 bles produced, as he said, by the Refor- 
 mation, an 1 ended with a peroration 
 •' written in blood," says M -Lincthon.J 
 Philip in agony had ventured during the 
 conversation to slip in the word Con- 
 science. " Conscience !" hastily inter- 
 rupted the archbishop, " Conscience ! — 
 
 * Rttbdre suffrin lor non medioeri, quod 1103, 
 
 pros ilii-; men li-'i. "'••■—( 3orp Kt'f. ii. p. 12V) 
 i Cufsit >"ii, hi«c in I", pcrreptins ae penetrans. 
 
 — (Co-.'il. Phil i in V ».)!.) 
 
 j Aill-iiit Kiriio. -n plum sanguine Buriptu.-n. 
 
 — (Corp. Rcf! ii. p. I-i. ) 
 
 What does that mean 1 I tell you plain- 
 ly that the Emperor will not allow con- 
 tusion to be thus brought upon the Em- 
 pire." — " Had I been in Melancthon's 
 place," said Luther, " I should have im- 
 mediately replied to the archbishop : And 
 our Emperor, ours, will not tolerate such 
 blasphemy." — " Alas I" said Melancthon. 
 "they are all as full of assurance as if 
 there was no God."* 
 
 Another day Melancthon was with 
 Campeggio, and conjured him to perse- 
 vere in the moderate sentiments he ap- 
 peared to entertain. And at another 
 time, as it would seem, he was with the 
 Emperor himself. \ "Alas!" said the 
 alarmed Zwinglians, "after having qual- 
 ified one half of the Gospel, Melancthon 
 is sacrificing the other."t 
 
 The will s of the Ultramontanists were 
 added to Philip's dejection, in order to 
 arrest the courageous proceedings of the 
 princes. Friday, 24th June, was the day 
 fixed for reading the Confession, but 
 measures were taken to prevent it. The 
 sitting of the diet did not begin till three 
 in the afternoon ; the legate was then 
 announced ; Charles went to meet him as 
 far as the top of tiie grand staircase, and 
 Campeggio, talcing his seat in front of 
 the Emperor, in King Ferdinand's place, 
 delivered a harangue in Ciceronian 
 style. " Never," said he, " has St. Peter's 
 bark been so violently tossed by so many 
 waves, whirlwin Is, and abysses.^ The 
 Holy Father has learnt these things with 
 pain, and desires to drag the Church 
 from these frightful gulfs. For the love 
 of Jesus Christ, for the safety of your 
 country an 1 for your own, O mighty 
 Prince ! get rid of these errors, deliver 
 Germany, and save Christendom !" 
 
 After a temperate reply from Albert 
 of Mentz, the legate quitted the town- 
 hall, an 1 the Evangelical princes stood 
 up ; but a fresh obstacle had been pro- 
 vided. Deputies from Austria, Carin- 
 thia. and Curniola, first received a hear* 
 
 * Securi sunt quasi nullus sit Dcus. — (Ibid. p. 
 
 15;>.) 
 
 i Melxn'.tlion a Ciesarc, Salishurgonsi it Oam- 
 pogio vocatus est. — (Zw. Rpp. ii. .p. \7.\.) 
 
 : Ux -u :: mitigarit turn multa, mi 4 et ivliijuo. 
 -(Ibid.) 
 
 § Me qui 1 unqriVn tni vinis sectirum turliiui- 
 IniH n ivi ■■.:• i Pi tn flu -tu ivcrit. — ( Sock. ii. p. I ISO.) 
 
 II Or-t'o v I.!,* lu'U-iris rt inisei-dbilis contra 
 
 Tuj\;ju5>-0 
 
 i-t. ii. p 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 703 
 
 Much time had thus elapsed. The 
 Evangelical princes, however, rose up 
 again, and the Chancellor Bruck said : 
 " It is pretended that new doctrines not 
 hased on Scripture, that heresies and 
 schisms are spread among the people by 
 us. Considering that such accusations 
 compromise not only our own good 
 name, but also the safety of our souls,* 
 we beg his majesty would have the 
 goodness to hear what are the doctrines 
 we profess." 
 
 The Emperor, no doubt by arrange- 
 ment with the legate, made reply that 
 it was too late ; besides, that this reading 
 would be useless ; and that the princes 
 should be satisfied with putting in their 
 Confession in writing. Thus the mine, 
 so skilfully prepared, worked admirably ; 
 the Confession, once handed to the Em- 
 peror, would be thrown aside, and the 
 Reformation would be forced to retire, 
 without the Papists having even conde- 
 scended to hear it, without defence, and 
 overwhelmed with contumely. 
 
 The Protestant princes, uneasy, and 
 agitated, insisted. " Our honour is at 
 stake," said they ; " our souls are endan- 
 gered.! We are accused publicly ; pub- 
 licly we ought to answer." Charles was 
 shaken ; Ferdinand leant towards, him, 
 arid whispered a few words in his ear ;| 
 the Emperor refused a second time. 
 
 Upon this the Elector and princes, in 
 still greater alarm, said for the third 
 time with emotion and earnestness :§ 
 " For the love of God, let us read our 
 Confession ! No person is insulted in 
 it." Thus were seen, on the one hand, 
 a few faithful men, desiring with loud 
 cries to confess their faith ; and on the 
 other, the great Emperor of the West, 
 surrounded by a crowd of cardinals, prel- 
 ates, and princes, endeavouring to stifle 
 tile manifestation of the truth. || It was 
 a serious, violent, and decisive struggle, 
 in which the holiest interests were dis- 
 cussed ! 
 
 * Vorum ctiam ad animre dispendium aut salu- 
 tem aeternani. — (Sock. ii. p. 1S;)>) 
 
 f Ihre Socle, F.hre und Giimpf bclangct. — 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 128.) 
 
 t Viderant enimcun subinde aliquid illi in au- 
 reni insusurrare. — (Seek, ii. p. 169.) 
 
 § Zum drittcn mal heftig angehalten.— (Corp. 
 Rcf. ii. p. L2H.1 
 
 II Circuaisistifbant O«osarem njagno numerocarr 
 dinalesct pruiLti ecclcsiastici. — (Seck.ii. p. 109.) 
 
 At last Charles appeared to yield : 
 "His majesty grants your request," was 
 the reply to the princes; "but as it is 
 now too late, he begs you to transmit him 
 your written Confession, and to-morrow, 
 at two o'clock, the diet will be prepared 
 to hear it read at the Palatine Palace." 
 
 The princes were struck with these 
 words, which, seeming to grant them 
 everything, in reality granted nothing. 
 In the first place, it was not in a public 
 sitting at the town-hall, but privately in 
 his own palace, that the Emperor was 
 willing to hear them ;* then they had no 
 doubt that if the Confession left their 
 hands it was all over with the public 
 reading. They therefore remained firm. 
 " The work has been done in great 
 haste," said they, and it was the truth ; 
 " pray leave it with us to-night, that we 
 may revise it." The Emperor was 
 obliged to yield, and the Protestants re- 
 turned to their hotels full of joy ; while 
 the legate and his fiends, perceiving that 
 the Confession was inevitable, saw the 
 morrow approach with anxiety continu- 
 ally increasing. 
 
 Among those who prepared to confess 
 the Evangelical truth, was one, however, 
 whose heart was filled with sadness : — it 
 was Melancthon. Placed between two 
 fires, he saw the Reformed, and many even 
 of his own friends, reproach his weakness; 
 while the opposite party detested what 
 they called his hypocrisy. His friend 
 Camerarius, who visited Augsburg about 
 this time, often found him plunged in 
 thought, uttering deep sighs, and shed- 
 ding bitter tears.f Brenz, moved with 
 compassion, coming to the unhappy 
 Philip, would sit down by his side and 
 weep with him ;| and Jonas, endeavour- 
 ing to console him in another manner, 
 exhorted him to take the Book of Psalms, 
 and cry to God with all his heart, ma-, 
 king use of David's words rather than 
 of his own. 
 
 One day intelligence arrived whdeh 
 formed a general topic of conveisation 
 in Augf-burg, and which, spreading ter- 
 ror among the partisans of the Pope, 
 gave a momentary relief to Melancthon. 
 
 * Nonquidem publico in prsetorio, sod privatim 
 in ualatio suo, — ( orp. Hof. ii. p. 12-1.) 
 
 * Non modo suspiranteni sed profundfltiten) 
 lacrymas consprxi.- -(Canw-r. p. I'il.j 
 
 !":':■( i it :ii:- ufisittebat hiEC scribonti, una lacry- 
 maiu.— (Corp. Ref ii. p. l'iti.) 
 
704 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 It. was said that a mule in Rome had 
 given birth to a colt with crane's feet. 
 " This prodigy," said Melancthon thought- 
 fully, " announces that Rome is near its 
 end;"* perhaps because the crane is a 
 bird of passage, and that the Pope's 
 mule thus gave signs of departure. Me- 
 lancthon had immediately written to Lu- 
 ther, who replied that he was exceeding- 
 ly rejoiced that God had given the Pope 
 so striking a sign of his approaching 
 fall.f It is good to call to memory these 
 puerilities of the age of the Reformers, 
 that Ave may better understand the high 
 range of these men of God in matters of 
 faith. 
 
 These idle Roman stones did not long 
 console Melancthon. On the eve of the 
 25th June, he was. present in imagination 
 at the reading of that Confession which 
 he had drawn up, which was about to be 
 proclaimed before the world, and in 
 which one word too many or too few 
 might decide on the approbation or the 
 hatred of the princes, on the safety or 
 ruin of the Reformation and of the Em- 
 pire. He could bear up no longer, and 
 the feeble Atlas, crushed under the bur- 
 den of the world upon his shoulders, 
 gave utterance to a cry of anguish. " All 
 my time here is spent in tears and 
 mourning," wrote he to Vitus Diedrich, 
 Luther's secretary in the castle of Co- 
 burg ;J and on the morrow he wrote to 
 Luther himself: "My dwelling is in 
 perpetual tears. § My consternation is 
 indescribable. || O my father ! I do not 
 wish my words to exaggerate my sor- 
 rows ; but, without your consolations, it 
 is impossible for me to enjoy here the 
 least peace." 
 
 Nothing in fact presented so strong a 
 contrast to the distrust and desolations of 
 Melancthon, as the faith, calmness, and 
 exultation of Luther. It was of ad- 
 vantage to him that he was not then in 
 the midst of the Augsburg vortex, and to 
 be able from his stronghold to set his foot 
 
 * Romae qusedam mula peperit, et partus habu- 
 it pedes gruis. Vides signifiV.ari exitium Romse 
 per schismata. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 1'26.) 
 
 X Gaudeo Papse signum datum in mula puer- 
 pera, ut citius pereat.— (L. Epp. iv. p. 4.) 
 
 t Hie consumitur omne mihi tempus in lacry- 
 mis et luctu. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 126.) 
 
 § Versamurhic in miserrimis curis et plane per- 
 petuis lacrymis. — (Ibid. p. 140.) 
 
 II Mira consternatio animorum nostroruin. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 with tranquillity upon the rock of God's 
 promises. He was sensible himself of 
 the value of this peaceful hermitage, as 
 he called it.* " I cannot sufficiently ad- 
 mire," said Vitus Diedrich, ''the firm- 
 ness, cheerfulness, and faith of this 
 man, so astonishing in such cruel 
 times." 
 
 Luther, besides his constant reading 
 of the Word of God,t did not pass a 
 day without devoting three hours at 
 least to prayer, and they were hours 
 selected from those the most favour- 
 able to study.! One day, as Diedrich 
 approached the Reformer's chamber, 
 he heard his voiee,§ and remained mo- 
 tionless, holding his breath, a few steps 
 from the door. Luther was praying, 
 and his prayer (said the secretary) was 
 full of adoration, fear, and hope, as when 
 one speaks to a friend or to a father. [| 
 " I know that thou art our Father and 
 our God," said the Reformer, alone in 
 his chamber, " and that thou wilt scat- 
 ter the persecutors of thy children, for 
 thou art thyself endangered with us. 
 All this matter is thine, and it is only by 
 thy constraint that we have put our hands 
 to'it. Defend us then, O Father !" The 
 secretary, motionless as a statue, in the 
 long gallery of the castle, lost not one of 
 the words that the clear and resounding 
 voice of Luther bore to his ears.^r The 
 Reformer was earnest with God, and 
 called upon him with so much unction 
 to accomplish his promises, that Diedrich 
 felt his heart glow within him.** " Oh !" 
 exclaimed he, as he retired, " How could 
 not these prayers but prevail in the des- 
 perate struggle at Augsburg !" 
 
 Luther might also have allowed him- 
 self to be overcome with fear, for he was 
 left in complete ignorance of what was 
 taking place in the diet. A Wittemberg 
 messenger, who should have brought him 
 
 * Ex eremo tacita. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 51.) It is 
 
 thus he dates his letter. 
 
 t Assidue autem il'.a diligentiore verbi Dei trac- 
 tatione alit. — (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 159.) 
 
 t Nullus abit dies, quin ut minimum tres horas 
 easque studiis optimas in orationibus ponat. — 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 § Semel mihi c'ontigit ut orantem eum audirein. 
 —(Ibid.) 
 
 II Tanta spe et fide ut cum patre et amico col- 
 loqui sentiat. — (Ibid.) 
 
 IT Turn orantem clara voce, procul stans, audivL 
 —(IWd.) 
 
 ** Ardebat mihi quoque animus singulari quo- 
 dam impetu.— (Corp. Ref. ii p. 159.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 705 
 
 forests of letters (according to his own 
 expression), having presented himself: 
 " Do you bring any letters?" asked Lu- 
 ther. " No I" " How are those gentle- 
 men ?" " Well !" Luther, grieved at 
 such silence, returned and shut himself 
 up in his chamber. 
 
 Erelong there appeared a courier on 
 horseback carrying despatches from the 
 Elector to Torgau. " Do you bring me 
 any letters ?" asked Luther. " No I" 
 " How are those gentlemen ?" continued 
 he, feafully. " Well !" " This is strange," 
 thought the Reformer. A waggon hav- 
 ing left Coburg laden with flour (for they 
 were almost in want of provisions at 
 Augsburg), Luther impatiently awaited 
 the return of the waggoner ; but he re- 
 turned empty. Luther then began to re- 
 volve the gloomiest thoughts in his mind, 
 not doubting that they were concealing 
 some misfortune from him.* At last an- 
 other individual, Jobst Nymptzen, having 
 arrived from Augsburg, Luther rushed 
 anew towards him, with his usual ques- 
 tion. " Do you bring me any letters ?" 
 He waited trembling for the reply. 
 u j\Jq p) a And how then are those gen- 
 tlemen ?" "Well!" The Reformer 
 withdrew, a prey to anger and to fear. 
 
 Then Luther opened his Bible, and to 
 console himself for the silence of men, he 
 conversed with God. There were some 
 passages of Scripture in particular that he 
 read continually. We point them out 
 below.f He did more ; he wrote with 
 his own hand many declarations of Scrip- 
 ture over the doors and windows, and on 
 the walls of the castle. In one place 
 were these words from the 1 18th Psalm : 
 / shall not die, but live, and declare the 
 works of the Lord. In another, those of 
 the 12th chapter of Proverbs : The way 
 of the wicked seduceth them ; and over his 
 bed, these words from the 4th Psalm : / 
 
 * Hie coepi cogitare tristia, suspirans, vos ali- 
 quid mali me celare velle. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 60.) 
 
 t 2 Tim. iii. 12; Philip, ii. 12, 13; John x. 17, 
 18; Matth. xvi. 18; Psalm xlvi. 1, 2; 1 John iv. 
 4; Psalm lv. 23; xxvii. 14; John xvi. 33; Luke 
 xvii. 5; Psalm xxxii. 11; cxlv. 18, 19; xci. 14, 
 15; Sirach. ii. 11; 1 Maccab. ii. 61; Matth. vi. 
 31; 1 Peter v. 6, 7; Matth. x. 28; Rom. iv. and 
 vi. ; Heb. v. and xi. ; 1 Sam. iv. 18; xxxi. 4-8; 
 ii. 30; 2 Tim. ii. 17, 18, 19; i. 12; Eph. iii. 20, 
 21. Among these passages will be observed two 
 verses taken from the Apocrypha, but whose 
 equivalents might easily be found in the Word of 
 God. 
 
 39 
 
 will both lay me down in peace and sleep ; 
 for thou, O Lord, only makest me dwell in 
 safety. Never perhaps did man so en- 
 viron himself with the promises of the 
 Lord, or so dwell in the atmosphere of 
 his Word and live by his breath, as Lu- 
 ther at Coburg. 
 
 At length letters came. " If the times 
 in which we live were not opposed to it, 
 I should have imagined some revenge," 
 wrote Luther to Jonas ; " but prayer 
 checked my anger, and anger checked 
 my prayer.* I am delighted at that 
 tranquil mind which God gives our 
 prince. As for Melancthon, it is his phi- 
 losophy that tortures him, and nothing 
 else. For our cause is in the very hands 
 of Him who can say with unutterable 
 pride : No one shall pluck it out of my hands. 
 I would not haye it in our hands, and it 
 would not be desirable that it were so.f 
 I have had many things in my hands, 
 and I have lost them all ; but whatever I 
 have been able to place in God's, I still 
 possess." 
 
 On learning that Melancthon's anguish 
 still continued, Luther wrote to him : and 
 these are words that should be preserved. 
 
 " Grace and peace in Christ ! in Christ, 
 I say, and not in the world, Amen. I 
 hate with exceeding hatred those extreme 
 cares which consume you. If the cause 
 is unjust, abandon it ; if the cause is just, 
 why should we belie the promises of Him 
 who commands us to sleep without fear ? 
 Can the devil do more than kill us? 
 Christ will not be wanting to the work 
 of justice and of truth. He lives; he 
 reigns; what fear, then, can we have? 
 God is powerful to upraise his cause if it 
 is overthrown, to make it proceed if it re- 
 mains motionless, and if we are not 
 worthy of it, he will do it by others. 
 
 " I have received your Apology,J and 
 I cannot understand what you mean, when 
 you ask what we must concede to the 
 Papists. We have already conceded too 
 much. Night and day I meditate on this 
 affair, turning it over and over, perusing 
 all Scripture, and the certainty of the 
 truth of our doctrine continually increas- 
 es in my mind. With the help of God, 
 
 * Sed orandi tempus non sinebat irasci, et ira 
 non sinebat orare. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 46.) 
 
 t Nee vellem, nee consultum esset, in nostra 
 manu esse. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 46.) 
 
 i The Confession revised and corrected. 
 
706 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 I will not permit a single letter of all that 
 we have said to be torn from us. 
 
 u The issue of this affair torments you, 
 because you cannot understand it. But 
 if you could, I would not have the least 
 share in it. God has put it in a ' common 
 place,' that you will not find either in your 
 rhetoric or in your philosophy : that place 
 is called Faith.* It is that in which sub- 
 sist all things that Ave can neither under- 
 stand nor see. Whoever wishes to touch 
 them, as you do, will have tears for his 
 sole reward. 
 
 " If Christ is not with us, where is he 
 in the whole universe 1 If we are not 
 the Church, where, I pray, is the Church ? 
 Is it the Dukes of Bavaria, is it Ferdinand, 
 is it the Pope, is it the Turk, who is the 
 Church 1 If we have not the Word of 
 God, who is it that possesses it ? 
 
 " Only we must have faith, lest the 
 cause of faith should be found to be with- 
 out faith, f 
 
 " If we fall, Christ falls with us, that is 
 to say, the Master of the world. I would 
 rather fall with Christ, than remain stand- 
 ing with Csesar." 
 
 Thus wrote Luther. The faith which 
 animated him flowed from him like tor- 
 Tents of living water. He was indefatiga- 
 ble ; in a single day he wrote to Melanc- 
 thon, Spalatin, Brenz, Agricola, and John 
 Frederick, and they were letters full of 
 life. He was not alone in praying, 
 speaking, and believing. At the same 
 moment, the Evangelical Christians ex- 
 horted one another everywhere to prayer.| 
 Such was the arsenal in which the wea- 
 pons were forged that the confessors of 
 Christ wielded before the Diet of Augs- 
 burg. 
 
 VII. At length the 25th June arrived. 
 This was destined to be the greatest day 
 of the Reformation, and one of the most 
 glorious in the history of Christianity 
 and of mankind. 
 
 As the chapel of the Palatine Palace, 
 where the Emperor had resolved to hear 
 the Confession, could contain only about 
 
 * Deus posuit earn in locum, quendam commu- 
 nem, quem in tua rhetorica non habcs nee in phil- 
 osophiatua; is vocatur_^Zes.— (L. Epp. iv. p. 53.) 
 
 t Tantum est opus fide, ne eausa fidei sit sine 
 Jide.— (Ibid, p. 61.) 
 
 t Wittembergse scribunt, tarn diligenter ibi Ec- 
 icksiain orare. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 69.) 
 
 two hundred persons,* before three 
 o'clock a great crowd was to be seen 
 surrounding the building and thronging 
 the court, hoping by this means to catch 
 a few words ; and many having gained 
 entrance to the chapel, all were turned 
 out except those who were not, at the 
 least, councillors to the princes. 
 
 Charles took his seat on the throne. 
 The Electors or their representatives 
 were on his right and left hand ; after 
 them the other princes and states of the 
 Empire. The legate had refused to ap- 
 pear in this solemnity, lest he should 
 seem by his presence to authorize the 
 reading of the Confession.! 
 
 Then stood up John Elector of Sax- 
 ony, with his son John Frederick, Philip 
 Landgrave of Hesse, the Margrave 
 George of Brandenburg, Wolfgang 
 Prince of Anhalt, Ernest Duke of 
 Brunswick-Luneburg, and his brother 
 Francis, and last of all the deputies of 
 Nuremberg and Reutlingen. Their air 
 was animated and their features radiant 
 with joy.J The apologies of the early 
 Christians, of Tertullian and Justin Mar- 
 tyr, hardly reached in writing the sov- 
 ereigns to whom they were addressed. 
 But now, to hear the new apology of re- 
 suscitated Christianity, behold that puis- 
 sant Emperor, whose sceptre, stretching 
 far beyond the columns of Hercules, 
 reaches the utmost limits of the world, 
 his brother the King of the Romans, 
 with electors, princes, prelates, deputies, 
 ambassadors, all of whom desire to de- 
 stroy the Gospel, but who are constrain- 
 ed by an invisible power to listen, and, 
 by that very listening, to honour the 
 Confession ! 
 
 One thought was involuntarily present 
 in the minds of the spectators, — the re- 
 collection of the Diet of Worms. § Only 
 nine years before, a poor monk stood 
 alone for this same cause in a hall of the 
 town-house at Worms, in presence of the 
 Empire. And now in his stead, behold 
 the foremost of the Electors, behold 
 princes and cities ! What a victory is 
 
 * Capiebat forsan ducentos. — (Jonas, Corp. Ref. 
 ii. p. 157.) 
 
 t Sarpi, Hist. Council. Trent, i. p. 101. 
 
 t Lseto et alacri animo et vultu. — (Scultet. i. p. 
 273.) 
 
 § Ante decennium in conventu Wormatensi. — 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 153.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 707 
 
 declared by this simple fact ! No doubt 
 Charles himself cannot escape from this 
 recollection. 
 
 The Emperor, seeing' the Protestants 
 stand up, motioned them to sit down ; 
 and then the two chancellors of the 
 Elector, Bruck and Bayer, advanced to 
 the middle of the chapel, and stood be- 
 fore the throne, holding in their hands, 
 the former the Latin, and the other the 
 German copy of the Confession. The 
 Emperor required the Latin copy to be 
 read.* " We are Germans," said the 
 Elector of Saxony, " and on German 
 soil ; I hope there lore your majesty will 
 allow us to speak German." If the 
 Confession had been read in Latin, a 
 language unknown to most of the 
 princes, the general effect would have 
 been lost. This was another means of 
 shutting the mouth of the Gospel. The 
 Emperor complied with the Elector's 
 demand. 
 
 Bayer then began to read the Evan- 
 gelical Confession, slowly, seriously, dis- 
 tinctly, with a clear, strong, and sonorous 
 voice, which re-echoed under the arched 
 roof of the chapel, and carried even to the 
 outside this great testimony paid to the 
 truth, f 
 
 " Most serene, most mighty, and invin- 
 cible Emperor and most gracious Lord," 
 said he, " we who appear in your pre- 
 sence, declare ourselves ready to confer 
 amicably with you on the fittest means of 
 restoring one sole, true, and same faith, 
 since it is for one sole and same Christ 
 that we fight. | And in case that these 
 religious dissensions cannot be settled 
 amicably, we then offer to your majesty 
 to explain our cause in a general, free, 
 and christian council."^ 
 
 This prologue being ended, Bayer con- 
 fessed the Holy Trinity, conformably with 
 the Nicene Council,|| original and here- 
 ditary sin, " which bringeth eternal death 
 to all who are not regenerated,"^! and the 
 
 * Caesar Latinum prelegi volebat. — (Seek. ii. p. 
 
 t Qui clare, distincte, tarde et voce adeo grandi 
 et sonora earn pronunciavit. — (Scultet. p. 276.) 
 
 t Ad unam veram concordem religionem, sicut 
 omnes sub uno Christo sumus et rnilitamus. — 
 (Confessio, Praefatio. Urkunden. i. p. 474.) 
 
 § Causam dicturos in tali generali, libero, et 
 Christiano concilio. — (Ibid. p. 479.) 
 
 II Ettamen tres sunt persons ej usdem essentias . 
 —{Ibid. p. 682.) 
 
 f Vitium originis, afferens aeternam mortem his 
 
 incarnation of the Son, " very God and 
 very man."* 
 
 " We teach moreover," continued he, 
 " that we cannot be justified before God 
 by our own strength, our merits, and our 
 works ; but that we are justified by Christ 
 through grace, through the means of 
 faith,t when we believe that our sins are 
 forgiven in virtue of Christ, who by his 
 death has made satisfaction for our sins : 
 this faith is the righteousness that God 
 imputes to the sinner. 
 
 " But we teach, at the same time, that 
 this faith ought to bear good fruits, and 
 that we must do all the good works com- 
 manded by God, for the love of God, and 
 not by their means to gain the grace of 
 God." 
 
 The Protestants next declared their 
 faith in the Christian Church, " which is," 
 said they, " the assembly of all true be- 
 lievers and all the saints,"{ in the midst 
 of whom there are, nevertheless, in this 
 life, many false Christians, hypocrites 
 even, and manifest sinners ; and they ad- 
 ded, " that it was sufficient for the real 
 unity of the Church that they were 
 agreed on the doctrine of the Gospel and 
 the administration of the sacraments, with- 
 out the rites and ceremonies instituted by 
 men being everywhere the same."§ — 
 They proclaimed the necessity of baptism, 
 and declared " that the body and blood of 
 Christ are really present and administer- 
 ed in the Lord's Supper to those who par- 
 take of it."|| 
 
 The Chancellor then successively con- 
 fessed the faith of the Evangelical Chris- 
 tians, touching confession, penance, the 
 nature of the sacraments, the government 
 of the Church, ecclesiastical ordinances, 
 political government, and the last judg- 
 ment. "As regards Free-will," contin- 
 ued he, " we confess that man's will has 
 
 qui non renascuntur. — (Confessio, Praefatio. Ur- 
 kunden. i. p. 483.) 
 
 * Unus Christus, vere Deus, et vere homo. — 
 (Ibid.) • 
 
 I Quod homines non possint justificari coram 
 Deo, propriis viribus, meritis, aut operibus, sed 
 gratis, propter Christum, per fidem. — (Ibid. p. 
 484.) 
 
 t Congregatio sanctorum etvere credentium. — 
 (Ibid. p. 487.) 
 
 § Ad veram unitatem Ecclesiae, satis est consen- 
 tire de doctrina Evangelii et administratione sacra- 
 mentorum, nee necesse est, &c. — (Ibid. p. 486.) 
 
 II Quod corpus et sanguis Christi, vere adsint 
 etdistribuantur vescentibus in coena Domini. — (F, 
 Urkund. i. p. 488.) 
 
708 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 a certain liberty of accomplishing civil 
 justice, and of loving the things that rea- 
 son comprehends ; that man can do the 
 good that is within the sphere of nature 
 — plough his fields, eat. drink, have a 
 friend, put on a coat, build a house, take 
 a wife, feed cattle, exercise a calling ; as 
 also he can, of his own movement, do 
 evil, kneel before an idol, and commit 
 murder. But we maintain that without 
 the Holy Ghost he cannot do what is 
 righteous in the sight of God." 
 
 Then, returning to the grand doctrine 
 of the Reformation, and recalling to mind 
 that the doctors of the Pope " have never 
 ceased impelling the faithful to puerile 
 and useless works, as the custom of 
 chaplets, invocations of saints, monastic 
 vows, processions, fasts, feast-days, brother- 
 hoods," the Protestants added, that as for 
 themselves, while urging the practice of 
 truly Christian works, of which little had 
 been said before their time,* " they 
 taught that man is justified by faith 
 alone ; not by that faith which is a 
 simple knowledge of the history, and 
 Avhich wicked men and even devils 
 possess, but by a faith which believes 
 not only the history, but also the effect 
 of the hislory ;f which believes that 
 throup-h Christ we obtain orace ; which 
 sees that in Christ we have a merciful 
 Father ; which knows this God ; which 
 calls upon him ; in a word, which is not 
 without God as the heathen are." 
 
 " Such," said Bayer, " is a summary of 
 the doctrine professed in our Churches, 
 by which it may be seen that this doctrine 
 is by no means opposed to Scripture, to 
 the universal Church, nor even to the 
 Romish Church, such as the doctors de- 
 scribe it to us ]% and since it is so, to re- 
 ject us as heretics is an offence against 
 unity and charity." 
 
 Here terminated the first part of the 
 Confession, the aim of which was to ex- 
 plain the Evangelical doctrine. The 
 Chancellor read with so distinct a voice, 
 
 * De quibus rebus olim parum docebant con- 
 cionatores; tantum puerilia et non necessaria 
 opera urgebant— (F. Urkund, i. p. 495.) 
 
 t Non tantum historise notitiam, sed fidem quse 
 credit non tantum historiam, sed etiam effectum 
 historise.— (F. Urkund. i. p. 498.) 
 
 X Nihil inesse quod discrepat a Scripturis vel 
 ab Ecclesia Catholica, vel ab Ecclesia Romana, 
 quatenus ex Scriptoribus nota est. — (Ibid. p. 
 501.) 
 
 that the crowd which was unable to enter 
 the hall, and which filled the court and 
 all the approaches of the episcopal palace, 
 did not lose a word.* This reading pro- 
 duced the most marvellous effect on the 
 princes who thronged the chapel. Jonas 
 watched every change in their counte- 
 nances,! and there beheld interest, aston- 
 ishment, and even approbation depicted 
 by turns. " The adversaries imagine 
 they have done a wonderful thing, by 
 forbidding the preaching of the Gospel," 
 wrote Luther to the Elector ; " and they 
 do nci see, poor creatures ! that by the 
 reading of the Confession in the presence 
 of the diet, there has been more preach- 
 ing than in the sermons of ten preachers. 
 Exquisite subtlety ! admirable expedient ! 
 Master Agricola and the other ministers 
 are reduced to silence ; but in their place 
 appear the Elector of Saxony, and the 
 other princes and lords, who preach be- 
 fore his imperial majesty, and the mem- 
 bers of the whole Empire, freely, to their 
 beard, and before their noses. Yes, 
 Christ is in the diet, and he does not keep 
 silence : the word of God cannot be bound. 
 They forbid it in the pulpit, and are for- 
 ced to hear it in the palace ; poor minis- 
 ters cannot announce it, and great princes 
 proclaim it ; the servants are forbidden to 
 listen to it, and their masters are compel- 
 led to hear it ; they will have nothing to 
 do with it during the whole course of the 
 diet, and they are forced to submit to hear 
 more in one day than is heard ordinarily 
 
 in a whole year When all else is 
 
 silent, the very stones cry out, as says 
 our Lord Jesus Christ."! 
 
 That part of the Confession destined to 
 point out errors and abuses still remained. 
 Bayer continued : he explained and de- 
 monstrated the doctrine of the two kinds ; 
 he attacked the compulsory celibacy of 
 priests, maintained that the Lord's Sup- 
 per had been changed into a regular fair, 
 in which it was merely a question of buy- 
 ing and selling, and that it had been re- 
 established in its primitive purity by the 
 Reformation, ajid was celebrated in the 
 Evangelical churches with entirely new 
 devotion and gravity. He declared that 
 
 * Verum etiam in area inferiori et vicinis locis 
 exaudiri potuerit. — (Scultet. p. 274.) 
 
 t Jonas scribit vidisse sevultus omnium de quo 
 mihi spondet narrationem coram. — (L. Epp. iv. p. 
 71.) 
 
 X L. Epp. iv. p. 82. 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 7C9 
 
 the Sacrament was administered to no 
 one who had not first made confession of 
 his faults, and he quoted this expression 
 of Chrysostom : " Confess thyself to God 
 the Lord, thy real Judge ; tell thy sin, 
 not with the tongue, but in thy consciene 
 and in thy heart." 
 
 Bayer next came to the precepts on the 
 distinction of meats and other Roman 
 usages. " Celebrate such a festival," said 
 he ; " repeat such a prayer, or keep such 
 a fast ; be dressed in such a manner, and 
 so many other ordinances of men — this 
 is what is now styled a spiritual and chris- 
 tian life ; while the good works prescribed 
 by God, as those of a father of" a family 
 who toils to support his wife, his sons, 
 and his daughters — of a mother who 
 brings children into the world, and takes 
 care of them — of a prince or of a magis- 
 trate who governs his subjects, are looked 
 upon as secular things, and of an imper- 
 fect nature." As for monastic vows in 
 particular, he represented that, as the 
 Pope could give a dispensation from 
 them, those vows ought therefore to be 
 abolished. 
 
 The last article of the Confession treat- 
 ed of the authority of the bishops : pow- 
 erful princes crowned with the episcopal 
 mitre were there ; the Archbishops of 
 Mentz, Cologne, Salzburg, and Bremen ; 
 the Bishops of Bamberg, Wurzburg, 
 Eichstadt, Worms, Spire, Strasburg, 
 Augsburg. Constance, Coire, Passau, 
 Liege, Trent, Brixen, and of Lebus and 
 Ratzburg, fixed their eyes on the humble 
 confessor. He fearlessly continued, and 
 energetically protesting against that con- 
 fusion of Church and State which had 
 characterized the Middle Ages, he called 
 for the distinction and independence of 
 the two societies. 
 
 " Many," said he, u have unskilfully 
 confounded the episcopal and the tempo- 
 ral power ; and from this confusion have 
 resulted great wars, revolts, and seditions.* 
 It is for this reason, and to reassure men's 
 consciences, that we find ourselves con- 
 strained to establish the difference which 
 exists between the power of the Church 
 and the power of the sword, f 
 
 * Nonnulli incommode commiscuerunt potesta- 
 tem ecclesiasticam et potestatem gladii ; et ex hac 
 confusione, &c. — (Urkunden. Confes. Augs. i. p. 
 539.) 
 
 t Coacti sunt ostendere discrimen ecclesiastics 
 potestatis et potestatis gladii. — (Ibid.) 
 
 " We therefore teach that the power 
 of the keys or of the bishops is, conform- 
 ably with the Word of the Lord, a com- 
 mandment emanating from God, to 
 preach the Gospel, to remit or retain 
 sins, and to administer the Sacraments. 
 This power has reference only to eternal 
 goods, is exercised only by the minister 
 of the Word, and does not trouble itself 
 with political administration. The po- 
 litical administration, on the other hand, 
 is busied with everything else but the 
 Gospel. The magistrate protects, not 
 souls, but bodies and temporal posses- 
 sions. He defends them against all at- 
 tacks from without, and, by making use 
 of the sword and of punishment, compels 
 men to observe civil justice and peace.* 
 
 " For this reason we must take particu- 
 lar care not to mingle the power of the 
 Church with the power of the State. | 
 The power of the Church ought never 
 to invade an office that is foreign to it ; 
 for Christ himself said: My kingdom is 
 not of this world. And again : Who made 
 me a judge over you 1 St. Paul said to the 
 Philippians : Our citizenship is in heaven.\ 
 And to the Corinthians : The weapons of 
 our warfare are not carnal, fod mighty 
 through God. 
 
 " It is thus that we distinguish the two 
 governments and the two powers, and 
 that we honour both as the most excel- 
 lent gifts that God has given here on 
 earth. 
 
 " The duty of the bishops is therefore to 
 preach the Gospel, to forgive sins, to ex- 
 clude from the Christian Church all who 
 rebel against the Lord, but without hu- 
 man power, and solely by the Word of 
 God.§ If the bishops act thus, the church- 
 es ought to be obedient to them according 
 to this declaration of Christ : Whoever 
 heareth you, heareth me. 
 
 u But if the bishops teach anything 
 chat is contrary to the Gospel, then the 
 churches have an order from God which 
 forbids them to obey (Matt. vii. 15 ; Ga- 
 
 * Politica administrate versatur enim circa 
 alias res quam Evangelium ; magistratus defendit 
 
 non mentes sed corpora et coercet homines 
 
 gladio. — (Urkund. Confess. Aug. i. p. 541.) 
 
 t Non lgitur commiscendae sunt potestates ec- 
 clesiastics et civilis. — (Ibid.) 
 
 J Greek, iru\iTevua. — (Philip, iii. 20. Scott and 
 Henry Comment.) 
 
 § Excludere a communjone Ecclesiae, sine vi 
 humana sed verbo. — (Urkund. Confes. Augs. i. 
 p. 544.) 
 
710 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 latians i. 8 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 8, 10). And St. 
 Augustin himself, in his letter against 
 Pertilian, writes : ' We must not obey 
 the catholic bishops, if they go astray, 
 and teach anything contrary to the canon- 
 ical Scriptures of God.' "* 
 
 After some remarks on the ordinances 
 and traditions of the Church, Bayer 
 came to the epilogue of the Confes- 
 sion. 
 
 " It is not from hatred that we have 
 spoken," added he, " nor to insult any 
 one ; but we have explained the doctrines 
 that we maintain to be essential, in order 
 that it may be understood that we admit 
 of neither dogma nor ceremony which is 
 contrary to the Holy Scriptures, and to 
 the usage of the universal Church." 
 " Bayer then ceased to read. He had 
 spoken for two hours: the silence and 
 serious attention of the assembly were 
 not once disturbed.! 
 
 This Confession of Augsburg will 
 ever remain one of the masterpieces of 
 the human mind enlightened by the 
 Spirit of God. 
 
 The language that had been adopted, 
 while it was perfectly natural, was the 
 result of a profound study of character. 
 These princes, these warriors, these poli- 
 ticians who were sitting in the Palatine 
 Palace, entirely ignorant as they were of 
 divinity, easily understood the Protestant 
 doctrine ; for it was not explained to them 
 in the style of the schools, but in that of 
 everyday life, and with a simplicity and 
 clearness that rendered all misunderstand- 
 ing impossible. 
 
 At the same time the power of argu- 
 mentation was so much the more remark- 
 able, as it was the more concealed. At 
 one time Melancthon (for it was really 
 he who spoke through the mouth of 
 Bayer) was content to quote a single pas- 
 sage of Scripture or of the Fathers in 
 favour of the doctrine he maintained ; 
 and at another he proved his thesis so 
 much the more strongly, that he appeared 
 only to be declaring it. With a single 
 stroke he pointed out the sad consequen- 
 ces that would follow the rejection of the 
 faith he professed, or with one word 
 
 * Nee catholicis episcopis consentiendum est, 
 sicuti forte falluntur, aut contra canonicas Dei 
 scripturas aliquid sentiunt. — (Urkund. Confes. 
 Augs. i. p. 544.) 
 
 t Mit grosser Stille und Ernst. — (Bruch's 
 Apologie, p. 59.) 
 
 showed its importance for the prosperity 
 of the Church ; so that while listening 
 to him, the most violent enemies were 
 obliged to acknowledge to themselves 
 that there was really something to say in 
 favour of the new sect. 
 
 To this force of reasoning the Apology 
 added a prudence no less remarkable. 
 Melancthon, while declining with firm- 
 ness the errors attributed to his party, did 
 not even appear to feel the injustice of 
 these erroneous imputations ; and while 
 pointing out those of Popery, he did not 
 say expressly they were those of his ad- 
 versaries ; thus carefully avoiding every 
 thing that might irritate their minds. In 
 this he showed himself wise as a serpent 
 and harmless as a dove. 
 
 But the most admirable thing of all is 
 the fidelity with which the Confession 
 explains the doctrines most essential to 
 salvation. Rome is accustomed to repre- 
 sent the Reformers as the creators of the 
 Protestant doctrines ; but it is not in the 
 sixteenth century that we must look for 
 the days of that creation. A bright 
 track of light, of which Wickliffe and 
 Augustin mark the most salient points, 
 carries us back to the Apostolic age : it 
 was then that shone in all their brilliancy 
 the creative days of Evangelical truth. 
 Yet it is true (and if this is what Rome 
 means, we fully concur in the idea) never 
 since the time of St. Paul had the Chris- 
 tian doctrine appeared with so much 
 beauty, depth, and life, as in the days of 
 the Reformation. 
 
 Among all these doctrines, that of the 
 Church, which had been so long disfig- 
 ured, appeared at this time in all its na- 
 tive purity. With what wisdom, in par- 
 ticular, the confessors of Augsburg pro- 
 test against that confusion of religion and 
 politics which since the deplorable epoch 
 of Constantine, had changed the king- 
 dom of God into an earthly and carnal 
 institution ! Undoubtedly what the Con- 
 fession stigmatizes with the greatest en- 
 ergy is the intrusion of the Church into 
 the affairs of the State, but can it be 
 thought that it was to approve the intru- 
 sion of the State in Church affairs ? The 
 evil of the Middle Ages was the having 
 enslaved the State to the Church, and 
 the confessors of Augsburg rose like one 
 man to combat it. The evil of the three 
 centuries which have passed away since 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 711 
 
 then, is to have subjected the Church to I 
 the State ; and we may believe that Lu- 
 ther and Melancthon would have found 
 against this disorder thunders no less 
 powerful. What they attack in a gene- 
 ral sense, is the confusion of the two so- 
 cieties ; what they demand, is their inde- 
 pendence, I do not say their separation. 
 If the Augsburg confessors were unwil- 
 ling that things from above should mo- 
 nopolize those of the earth, they would 
 have been still less willing for things of 
 earth to oppress those from heaven. 
 
 There is a particular application of 
 this principle, which the Confession 
 points out. It wills the bishops should 
 reprimand those who obey wickedness, 
 " but without human power, and solely 
 by the Word of God." It therefore re- 
 jects the use of the sword in the chastise- 
 ment of heretics. This we see is a prim- 
 itive principle, fundamental and essential 
 to the Reformation, as the contrary doc- 
 trine is a primitive principle, fundamental 
 and essential to the Papacy. If among 
 Protestants we find some writing, or even 
 some example opposed to this, it is but an 
 isolated fact, which cannot invalidate the 
 official principles of the Reform — it is 
 one of those exceptions which always 
 serve to confirm the rule. 
 
 Finally, the Augsburg Confession does 
 not usurp the rights of the Word of God ; 
 it desires to be its handmaid and not its 
 rival ; it does not found, it does not regu- 
 late the faith, but simply professes it. 
 " Our churches teach," it says ; and it will 
 be remembered that Luther considered 
 it only as a sermon preached by princes 
 and kings. Had it desired more, as has 
 since been maintained, by that very cir- 
 cumstance it would have been nullified. 
 Was, however, the Confession able to 
 follow in all things the exact path of 
 truth 1 We may be permitted to doubt 
 it. 
 
 It professes not to separate from the 
 teaching of the Catholic Church, and 
 even from that of the Romish Church — 
 by which is no doubt signified the an- 
 cient Roman Church — and rejects the 
 popish particularism which, for about 
 eight centuries, imprisoned men's con- 
 sciences. The, Confession, however, 
 seems overlaid with superstitious fears 
 when there is any question of deviating 
 from the views entertained by some of 
 
 the Fathers of the Church, of breaking 
 the toils of the hierarchy, and of acting, 
 as regards Rome, without blameable for- 
 bearance. This, at least, is what its au- 
 thor, Melancthon, professes. " We do 
 not put forward any dogma," said he, 
 " which is not founded on the Gospel or 
 on the teaching of the Catholic Church : 
 w t e are prepared to concede everything 
 that is necessary for the episcopal dig- 
 nity ;* and, provided that the bishops do 
 not condemn the Gospel, we preserve ail 
 the rites that appear indifferent to us. In 
 a word, there is no burden that we re- 
 ject, if we can bear it without guilt."f 
 
 Many will think, no doubt, that a little 
 more independence would have been prop- 
 er in this matter, and that it would have 
 been better to have passed over the ages 
 that have followed the times of the apos- 
 tles, and have frankly put in practice the 
 grand principle which the Reformation 
 had proclaimed : " There is for articles 
 of faith no other foundation than the 
 Word of God." J 
 
 Melancthon's moderation has been ad- 
 mired ; and, in truth, while pointing out 
 the abuses of Rome, he was silent on 
 what is most revolting in them, on their 
 disgraceful origin, their scandalous con- 
 sequences, and is content to show that 
 they are in contradiction to the Scripture. 
 But he does rffcre ; he is silent on the 
 divine right of the Pope, on the number 
 of the sacraments, and on other points 
 besides. His great business is to justify 
 the renovated, and not to attack the de- 
 formed, Church. " Peace, peace !" was 
 his cry. But if, instead of all this cir- 
 cumspection, the Reformation had ad- 
 vanced with courage, had wholly un- 
 veiled the Word of God, and had made 
 an energetic appeal to the sympathies of 
 reform then spread in men's hearts, 
 would it not have taken a stronger and 
 more honourable position, and would it 
 not have secured more extensive con- 
 quests ? 
 
 The interest that Charles the Fifth 
 showed in listening to the Confession 
 seems doubtful. According to some, he 
 endeavoured to understand that foreign 
 
 * Concessuros amnia quae ad dignitatem Epis- 
 coporum stabiliendani pertinent. — (Corp. Ref. ii. 
 p. 431.) 
 
 + Nullum detractavimus onus, quod sine sce- 
 lere suspici posset. — (Ibid.) 
 
 t Solum verbum Dei condit articulos Jidei. 
 
712 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 language ;* according to others, he fell 
 asleep.f It is easy to reconcile these 
 contradictory testimonies. 
 
 When the reading was finished, Chan- 
 cellor Briick, with the two copies in his 
 hand, advanced towards the Emperor's 
 secretary and presented them to him. 
 Charles the Fifth, who was wide awake 
 at this moment, himself took the two 
 Confessions, handed the German copy, 
 considered as official, to the elector of 
 Mentz, and kept the Latin one for him- 
 self4 He then made reply to the Elec- 
 tor of Saxony and to his allies that he had 
 graciously heard their confession ;§ but 
 as this affair was one of extreme im- 
 portance, he required time to deliberate 
 upon it. 
 
 The joy with which the Protestants 
 were filled shone in their eyes.|| God 
 had been with them ; and they saw that 
 the striking act which had so recently 
 been accomplished, imposed on them the 
 obligation of confessing the truth with 
 immovable perseverance. " I thrill with 
 joy," wrote Luther, " that my life was 
 cast in an epoch in which Christ is pub- 
 licly exalted by such illustrious confes- 
 sors and in so glorious an assembly. "IT 
 The whole Evangelical Church, excited 
 and renovated by this public confession 
 of its representatives, was then more in- 
 timately united to its divine Chief, and 
 baptized with a new baptism. " Since 
 the apostolic age," said they (these are 
 the words of a contemporary), " there 
 has never been a greater work or a more 
 magnificent confession."** 
 
 The Emperor, having descended from 
 his throne, approached the Protestant 
 princes, and begged them in a low tone 
 
 * Satis attentus erat Caesar. (Jonas in 
 Corp. Ref. ii. p. 1S4. 
 
 t Cum nostra confessio legeretur, obdormi- 
 vit. (Brentius in Corp. Ref. ii. p. 245.) 
 
 X The Latin copy, deposited in the archives 
 of the imperial house, should be found at 
 Brussels ; and the German copy, sent after- 
 wards to the Council of Trent, 'ought to be in 
 the Vatican. 
 
 § Gnedichlich vernohmen. (F. Urkunden, 
 ii. p. .3.) 
 
 II Cum incredibili protestantium gaudio. 
 (Seek. ii. p 170.) 
 
 IT Mihi vehementer placet vixisse in hanc 
 horam. (L. Epp. iv. p. 71.) 
 
 ** Grosser und hbher Werk. (Mathesius, 
 Hist. p. 93-9S.) 
 
 not to publish the Confession ;* they ac- 
 ceded to his request, and every one with- 
 drew. 
 
 VIII. The Romanists had expected 
 nothing like this. Instead of a hateful 
 controversy, they had heard a striking 
 confession of Jesus Christ ; the most hos- 
 tile minds were consequently disarmed. 
 " We would not for a great deal," was 
 the remark on every side, " have missed 
 being present at this reading, "f The 
 effect was so prompt, that for an instant 
 the cause was thought to be definitively 
 gained. The bishops themselves im- 
 posed silence on the sophisms and cla- 
 mours of the Fabers and the Ecks.:}: 
 " All that the Lutherans have said is 
 true," exclaimed the Bishop of Augs- 
 burg ; "we cannot deny it."§ — "Well, 
 doctor," said the Duke of Bavaria to 
 Eck, in a reproachful tone, " you had 
 given me a very different idea of this 
 doctrine and of this affair. "|| This was 
 the general cry ; accordingly the so- 
 phists, as they called them, were embar- 
 rassed. " But, after all," said the Duke 
 of Bavaria to them, " can you refute by 
 sound reasons the Confession made by 
 the Elector and his allies ?" — " With 
 the writings of the Apostles and Pro- 
 phets — no !" replied Eck ; " but with 
 those of the Fathers and of the Coun- 
 cils — yes !"H " I understand," quickly 
 replied the Duke ; " I understand. The 
 Lutherans, according to you, are in 
 scripture ; and we are outside." 
 
 The Archbishop Hermann, elector of 
 Cologne, the Count-palatine Frederick, 
 Duke Erick of Brunswick-Luneburg, 
 Duke Henry of Mecklenburg, and the 
 Dukes of Pomerania, were gained over 
 to the truth ; and Hermann sought ere- 
 long to establish it in his electorate. 
 
 * In still angeredet und gebethen. (Corp. 
 Ref. ii. p. 143.) 
 
 f Briicks Geschichte der Handl. in den Sa- 
 chen des Glaubens zu Augsbourg. (Forste- 
 mann Archiv. p. f)0.) 
 
 \ Multi episcopi ad pacem sunt inclinati 
 (L. Epp. iv. p. 70.) 
 
 § Ilia quae recitata sunt, vera sunt, sunt pura 
 Veritas ; non possumus inficiari. (Corp. Ref. 
 ii. p. 154.) 
 
 || So habman Im vor nicht gesagt. (Mathes. 
 Hist. p. 99.) 
 
 IT Mit Propheten und Aposteln schriften 
 nicht. (Ibid.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 713 
 
 The impression produced in other 
 countries by the Confession was perhaps 
 still greater. Charles sent copies to all 
 the courts ; it was translated into French, 
 Italian,* and even into Spanish and Por- 
 tuguese ; it circulated through all Eu- 
 rope, and thus accomplished what Luther 
 had said : " Our Confession will pene- 
 trate into every court, and the sound 
 thereof will go through the whole 
 earth. "f It destroyed the prejudices 
 that had been entertained, gave Europe 
 a sounder idea of the Reformntion, and 
 prepared the most distant countries to re- 
 ceive the seeds of the Gospel. 
 
 Then Luther's voice began to be 
 heard again. He saw that it was a de- 
 cisive moment, and that he ought now to 
 give the impulse that would gain religi- 
 ous liberty. He boldly demanded this 
 liberty of the Roman-catholic princes 
 of the diet ;:{: and at the same time endea- 
 voured to make his friends quit Augs- 
 burg. Jesus Christ had been boldly con- 
 fessed. Instead of that long series of 
 quarrels and discussions which was about 
 to become connected with this courageous 
 act, Luther would have wished for a 
 striking rupture, even should he seal with 
 his blood the testimony rendered to the 
 Gospel. The stake, in his idea, would 
 have been the real catastrophe of this 
 tragedy. " I absolve you from this diet, 
 in the name of the Lord,"§ wrote he to 
 his friends. " Now home, return home 
 again I say home ! Would to God that 
 I were the sacrifice offered to this new 
 council, as John Huss at Constance !"|| 
 
 But Luther did not expect so glorious 
 a conclusion : he compared the diet to a 
 drama. First, there had been the expo- 
 sition, then the prologue, afterwards the 
 action, and now he waited for the tragic 
 catastrophe, according to some, but which, 
 
 * Caesar sibi fecit nostram confessionem 
 reddi Italica et Gallica lingua. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 
 155.) The French translation will be found 
 in F'drstemann's Urkunden, i. p. 357. — Arti- 
 cles principaux de la foy. 
 
 f Perrumpet in omnes aulas Principum et 
 Regum. (L. Epp. iv. p. 96.) 
 
 % Epistle to the Elector of Mentz. (Ibid. 
 P. 74.) 
 
 § Igitur absolvo vos in nomine Domini ab 
 isto conventu. (L. Epp. iv. p. 96.) 
 
 || Vellem ego sacrificium esse hujus novis- 
 simi concilii, sicut Johannes Huss Constantiae. 
 (Ibid. p. 110.) 
 
 in his opinion, would be merely comic* 
 Everything, he thought, would be sacri- 
 ficed to political peace, and dogmas would 
 be set aside. This proceeding, which, 
 even in our own days, would be in the 
 eyes of the world the height of wisdom, 
 was in Luther's eyes the height of folly. 
 It was the intervention of Charles 
 which especially alarmed him. To with- 
 draw the Church from all secular influ- 
 ence, and the governments from all cle- 
 rical influence, was then one of the 
 dominant ideas of the great Reformer. 
 " You see," wrote he to Melancthon, 
 " that they oppose to our cause the same 
 argument as at Worms, to wit, still and 
 for ever the judgment of the Emperor. 
 Thus Satan is always harping on the 
 same string, and that emaciated strength j" 
 of the civil power is the only one which 
 this myriad-wiled spirit is able to find 
 against Jesus Christ." But Luther took 
 courage, and boldly raised his head. 
 " Christ is coming," continued he ; " he 
 is coming, sitting at the right hand .... 
 Of whom ? not of the Emperor, or we 
 should long ago have been lost, but of 
 God himself: let us fear nothing. Christ 
 is the King of kings and the Lord of 
 lords. If he loses this title at Augsburg, 
 he must also lose it in all the earth, and 
 in all the heavens." 
 
 Thus a song of triumph was, on the 
 part of the Confessors of Augsburg, the 
 first movement that followed this coura- 
 geous act, unique doubtless in the annals 
 of the Church. Some of their adversa- 
 ries at first shared in their triumph, and 
 the others were silent ; but a powerful 
 reaction took place erelong. 
 
 On the following morning, Charles 
 having risen in ill-humour and tired for 
 want of sleep, the first of his ministers 
 who appeared in the imperial apartments 
 was the Count-palatine, as wearied and 
 embarrassed as his master. " We must 
 yield something," said he to Charles ; 
 " and I would remind your majesty that 
 the Emperor Maximilian was willing to 
 grant the two kinds in the Eucharist, the 
 marriage of priests, and liberty with re- 
 spect to the fasts." Charles the Fifth 
 
 * Sed catastrophen illi tragicam, nos comi- 
 cam expectamus. (Ibid. p. 85.) 
 
 f Sic Satan chorda semper oberrat eadem, 
 et mille-artifex ille non habet contra Christum, 
 nisi unum illud elumbe robur. (Ibid. p. 100.) 
 
7.4 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 eagerly seized at this proposition as a 
 means of safety. But Granvelle and 
 Campeggio soon arrived, who induced 
 him to withdraw it. 
 
 Rome, bewildered for a moment by 
 the blow that had struck her, rose up 
 again with energy. " I stay with the 
 mother," exclaimed the Bishop of Wartz- 
 burg, meaning by it the Church of 
 Rome; "the mother, the mother!" 
 " My lord," wittily replied Brenz, " pray, 
 do not, for the mother, forget either the 
 Father or the Son !"— " Well ! I grant 
 it," replied the Archbishop of Salzburg j 
 to one of his friends, " I also should de- 
 sire the communion in both kinds, the 
 marriage of priests, the reformation of 
 the Mass, liberty as regards food and 
 
 other traditions But that it should 
 
 be a monk, a poor monk, who presumes 
 to reform us all, is what we cannot tole- 
 rate."* — " I should have no objection," 
 said another bishop, " for the Divine 
 worship to be celebrated everywhere as 
 it is at Wittemberg ; but we can never 
 consent that this new doctrine should is- 
 sue from such a corner, "f And Me- 
 lancthon insisting with the Archbishop 
 of Salzburg on the necessity of a reform 
 of the clergy : " Well ! and how can 
 you wish to reform us V said the latter 
 abruptly : " we priests have always 
 been good for nothing." This is one of 
 the most ingenuous confessions that the 
 Reformation has torn from the priests. 
 Every day fanatical monks and doctors, 
 brimful of sophisms, were seen arriving 
 at Augsburg, who endeavoured to in- 
 flame the hatred of the Emperor and of 
 the princes.^: " If we formerly had 
 friends," said Melancthon on the morrow 
 of the Confession, " now we possess them 
 no longer. We are here alone, aban- 
 doned by all, and contending against 
 measureless dangers."§ 
 
 Charles, impelled by these contrary 
 parties, affected a great indifference. 
 But without permitting it to be seen, he 
 endeavoured, meanwhile, to examine 
 this affair thoroughly. " Let there not 
 
 * Sed quod unus monachus debeat nos re- 
 formare omnes. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 155.) 
 
 t Aus dem Loch und Winckel. (L. Opp. 
 xx. p. 307 ) 
 
 % Quotidie confluunt hue sophistae ac mona- 
 chi. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 141.) 
 
 § Nos hie soli ac deserti. (Ibid.) 
 
 be a word wanting," he had said to his 
 secretary, when requiring from him a 
 French translation of the Confession. 
 " He does not allow anything to be ob- 
 served," whispered the Protestants one 
 to another, convinced that Charles was 
 gained ; " for if it were known, he would 
 lose his Spanish states : let us maintain 
 the most profound secresy." But the 
 Emperor's courtiers, who perceived these 
 strange hopes, smiled and shook their 
 heads. " If you have money," said 
 Schepper, one of the secretaries of state, 
 to Jonas and Melancthon, " it will be 
 easy for you to buy from the Italians 
 whatever religion you please ;* but if 
 your purse is empty, your cause is lost." 
 Then assuming a more serious tone : 
 " It is impossible," said he, " for the 
 Emperor, surrounded as he is by bish- 
 ops and cardinals, to approve of any 
 other religion than that of the Pope." 
 
 This was soon evident. On the day 
 after the confession (Sunday, 26th June), 
 before the breakfast hour,f all the depu- 
 tations from the imperial cities were col- 
 lected in the Emperor's antechamber. 
 Charles, desirous of bringing back the 
 states of the Empire to unity, began with 
 the weakest. "Some of the cities," said 
 the count palatine, " have not adhered to 
 the last Diet of Spire : the Emperor calls 
 upon them to submit to it." 
 
 Strasburg, Nuremburg, Constance, 
 Ulm, Reutlingen, Heilbronn, Memmin- 
 gen, Lindau, Kempten, Windsheim, Isny, 
 and Weissemburg, which were thus sum- 
 moned to renounce the famous protest, 
 found the moment curiously chosen. 
 They asked for time. 
 
 The position was complicated ; discord 
 had been thrown in the midst of the cities, 
 and intrigue was labouring daily to in- 
 crease it4 It was not oruv between the 
 Popish and the Evangelical cities that 
 disagreement existed ; but also between 
 the Zwinglian and the Lutheran cities, 
 and even among the latter, those which 
 had not adhered to the Confession of Augs- 
 burg manifested great ill-humour towards 
 
 * Nos, si pecuniam haberemus, facile reli- 
 gionem quam vellemus emturos ab Italis 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 156.) 
 
 t Heute vor dem morgenessen. (Ibid, p. 
 143.) 
 
 \ Es sind unter uns Stadten, viel practica 
 und Selt Sames wesens. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 151.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 715 
 
 the deputies of Reutlingen and Nurem- 
 berg. This proceeding of Charles the 
 Fifth was therefore skilfully calculated ; 
 for it was based on the old axiom, Divide 
 et impera. 
 
 But the enthusiasm of faith overcame 
 all these stratagems, and on the next 
 day (27th June), the deputies from the 
 cities transmitted a reply to the Emperor, 
 in which they declared that they could 
 not adhere to the Recess of Spire " with- 
 out disobeying God, and without com- 
 promising the salvation of their souls."* 
 
 Charles, who desired to observe a just 
 medium, more from policy than from 
 equity, wavered between so many con- 
 trary convictions. Desirous nevertheless 
 of essaying his mediating influence, he 
 convoked the states faithful to Rome on 
 Sunday, 26th June, shortly after his con- 
 ference with the cities. 
 
 All the princes were present : even 
 the Pope's legate and the most influential 
 Roman divines appeared at this council, 
 to the great scandal of the Protestants. 
 " What reply should be made to the Con- 
 fession ?" was the question set by Charles 
 the Fifth to the senate that surrounded 
 him.-j- 
 
 Three different opinions were proposed. 
 " Let us beware," said the men of the 
 Papacy, " of discussing our adversaries' 
 reasons, and let us be content with exe- 
 cuting the Edict of Worms against the 
 Lutherans, and with constraining them 
 by arms.":]: — " Let us submit the Con- 
 fession to the examination of impartial 
 judges," said the men of the Empire, 
 " and refer the final decision to the Em- 
 peror. Is not even the reading of the 
 Confession an appeal of the Protestants to 
 the imperial power?" Others, in the 
 last place (and these were the men of tra- 
 dition and of ecclesiastical doctrine), 
 were desirous of commissioning certain 
 doctors to compose a refutation, which 
 should be read to the Protestants and 
 ratified by Charles. 
 
 The debate was very animated : the 
 mild and the violent, the politic and the 
 fanatical, took a decided course in the 
 
 * Ohne Verletzung der gewissen gegen 
 Gott. (F. Urkunden. ii. p. 6.) 
 
 f Adversarii nostri jam deliberant quid ve- 
 lint respondere. (Corp. Ref. ii. 26th June.) 
 
 X Rem agendam esse vi, non audiendam cau- 
 sam. (Ibid. p. 154.) 
 
 assembly. George of Saxony and Joa- 
 chim of Brandenburg showed themselves 
 the most inveterate, and surpassed in this 
 respect even the ecclesiastical princes.* 
 " A certain clown, whom you know well, 
 is pushing them all from behind, "f wrote 
 Melancthon to Luther ; " and certain 
 hypocritical theologians hold the torch 
 and lead the whole band." This clown 
 was doubtless Duke George. Even the 
 Princes of Bavaria, whom the Confession 
 had staggered at first, immediately ral- 
 lied around the chiefs of the Roman 
 party. The Elector of Mentz, the Bishop 
 of Augsburg, the Duke of Brunswick, 
 showed themselves the least unfavourable 
 to the Evangelical cause. " I can by 
 no means advise his majesty to employ 
 force," said Albert. " If his majesty 
 should constrain their consciences, and 
 should afterwards quit the Empire, the 
 first victims sacrificed would be the 
 priests ; and who knows whether, in the 
 midst of these discords, the Turks would 
 not suddenly fall upon us?" But this 
 somewhat interested wisdom of the arch- 
 bishop did not find many supporters, and 
 the men of war immediately plunged into 
 the discussion with their harsh voices. 
 " If there is any fighting against the Lu- 
 therans," said Count Felix of Werden- 
 burg, " I gratuitously offer my sword, 
 and I swear never to return it to its scab- 
 bard until it has overthrown the strong- 
 hold of Luther." This nobleman died 
 suddenly a few days after, from the con- 
 sequences of his intemperance. Then 
 the moderate men again interfered : 
 " The Lutherans attack no one article 
 of the faith," said the Bishop of Augs- 
 burg ; " let us come to an arrangement 
 with them ; and to obtain peace, let us 
 concede to them the sacrament in both 
 kinds and the marriage of priests. I 
 would even yield more, if it were neces- 
 sary." Upon this great cries arose : 
 " He is a Lutheran," they exclaimed, 
 " and you will see that he is fully pre- 
 pared to sacrifice even the private 
 masses!" — " The masses! we must not 
 even think of it," remarked some with 
 an ironical smile ; " Rome will never 
 give them up, for it is they which main- 
 
 * Hi sunt duces, et quidem acerrimi alterius 
 partis. (Ibid.) 
 
 f Omnes unus gubernat rusticus. (Corp. 
 Ref. 26th June p. 176.) 
 
716 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tain her cardinals and her courtiers, with 
 their luxury and their kitchens."* The 
 Archbishop of Salzburg and the Elector 
 of Brandenburg replied with great vio- 
 lence to the motion of the Bishop of Augs- 
 burg. " The Lutherans," said they ab- 
 ruptly, " have laid before us a Confession 
 written with black ink on white paper. 
 Well ! If I were Emperor, I would an- 
 swer them with red m&."f — " Sirs," 
 quickly replied the Bishop of Augsburg, 
 " take care then that the red letters do 
 not fly in your faces !" The Elector of 
 Mentz was compelled to interfere and 
 calm the speakers. 
 
 The Emperor, desirous of playing the 
 character of an umpire, would have 
 wished the Roman party at least to have 
 placed in his hands an accusation against 
 the Reform : but all was now altered ; the 
 majority, becoming daily more compact 
 since the Diet of Spire, no longer sided 
 with Charles. Full of the sentiment of 
 its own strength, it refused to assume the 
 title of a party, and to take the Emperor 
 as a judge. " What are you saying," 
 cried they, " of diversity between the 
 members of the Empire ? There is but 
 one legitimate party. It is not a ques- 
 tion of deciding between two opinions 
 whose rights are equal, but of crushing 
 rebels, and of aiding those who have re- 
 mained faithful to the constitution of the 
 Empire." 
 
 This haughty language enlightened 
 Charles : he found they had outstripped 
 him, and that, abandoning his lofty posi- 
 tion of arbiter, he must submit merely 
 to be the executer of the orders of the 
 majority. It was this majority which 
 henceforward commanded in Augsburg. 
 They excluded the imperial councillors 
 who advocated more equitable views, and 
 the Archbishop of Mentz himself ceased 
 for a time to appear in the diet.:]: 
 
 The majority ordered that a refutation 
 of the Evangelical doctrine should be 
 immediately drawn up by Romish theo 
 logians. If they had selected for this 
 purpose moderate men like the Bishop 
 of Augsburg, the Reformation would still 
 
 * Cardinel, Churstusanen, Praclit und Kii- 
 chen. (Briick Apol. p. 63.) 
 
 t Wir wokten antvorten mit einer Schrift 
 mit Rubricken geschrieben. (Corp. Ref. ii 
 p. 147.) 
 
 X Non venit in senatum. (Corp. Ref ii p 
 175.) v 
 
 have had some chance of success with the 
 great principles of Christianity ; but it 
 was to the enemies of the Reform, to the 
 old champions of Rome and of Aristotle, 
 exasperated by so many defeats, that they 
 resolved to intrust this task. 
 
 They were numerous at Augsburg, and 
 were not held in great esteem. " The 
 princes," said Jonas, " have brought their 
 learned men with them, and some even 
 their unlearned and their foote."* Provost 
 Faber and Doctor Eck led the troop ; 
 behind them was drawn up a cohort of 
 monks, and above all of Dominicans, 
 tools of the Inquisition, and impatient to 
 recompense themselves for the oppro- 
 brium they had so long endured. There 
 was the provincial of the Dominicans, 
 Paul Hugo, their vicar, John Bourkard, 
 one of their priors, Conrad Koelein, who 
 had written against Luther's marriage ; 
 with a large body of Carthusians, Augus- 
 tines, Franciscans, and vicars of several 
 bishops. Such were the men who, to 
 the number of twenty, were commis- 
 sioned to refute Melancthon. 
 
 One might beforehand have augured 
 of the work by the workmen. Each one 
 understood that it was a question, not of 
 refuting the Confession, but of branding 
 it. Campeggio, who doubtless suggested 
 this ill-omened list to Charles, was well 
 aware that these doctors were incapable 
 of measuring themselves with Melanc- 
 thon ; but their names formed the most 
 decided standard of Popery, and announc- 
 ed to the world clearly and immediately 
 what the diet proposed to do. This was 
 the essential point. Rome would not 
 leave Christendom even hope. 
 
 It was, however, requisite to know 
 whether the diet, and the Emperor who 
 was its organ, had the right of pronounc- 
 ing in this purely religious matter. 
 Charles put the question both to the 
 Evangelicals and to the Romanists. § 
 
 "Your highness," said Luther, who 
 was consulted by the Elector, " may re- 
 ply with all assurance : Yes, if the Em- 
 peror wish it, let him be judge ! I will 
 bear everything on his part ; but let him 
 decide nothing contrary to the Word of 
 God. Your highness cannot put the Em- 
 
 * Quidam etiam su«s ineruditos et inep- 
 tos. 
 
 t See the document extracted from the ar- 
 chives of Bavaria in F. Urkunden. ii. p. 9. 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 717 
 
 peror above God himself'.* Does not the 
 first commandment say, Thou shall have 
 no other Gods before me /" 
 
 The reply of the Papal adherents was 
 quite as positive in a contrary sense. 
 " We think," said they, " that his ma- 
 jesty, in accord with the electors, princes, 
 and states of the Empire, has the right 
 to proceed in this affair, as Roman Em- 
 peror, guardian, advocate, and sovereign 
 protector of the Church and of our most 
 holy faith. "f Thus, in the first days of 
 the Reformation, the Evangelical Church 
 frankly ranged itself under the throne of 
 Jesus Christ, and the Roman Church un- 
 der the sceptre of kings. Enlightened 
 men, even among Protestants, have mis- 
 understood this double nature of Protest- 
 antism and Popery. 
 
 The philosophy of Aristotle and the 
 hierarchy of Rome, thanks to this alliance 
 with the civil power, were at length about 
 to see the day of their long-expected tri- 
 umph arrive. So long as the schoolmen 
 had been left to the force of their syllo- 
 gisms and of their abuse, they had been 
 defeated ; but now Charles the Fifth and 
 the diet held out their hands to them ; 
 the reasonings of Faber, Eck, and Wim- 
 pina were about to be countersigned by 
 the German chancellor, and confirmed 
 by the great seals of the Empire. Who 
 could resist them ? The Romish error 
 has never had any strength except by its 
 union with the secular arm ; and its vic- 
 tories in the Old and in the New World 
 are owing, even in our days, to state pa- 
 tronage.^ 
 
 These things did not escape the pierc 
 ing eye of Luther. He saw at once the 
 weakness of the argument of the Papist 
 doctors and the power of Charles's arm. 
 " You are waiting for your adversaries' 
 answer," wrote he to his friends in Augs- 
 burg ; " it is already written, and here it 
 is : The Fathers, the Fathers, the Fa- 
 thers ; the Church, the Church, the 
 Church ; usage, custom ; but of the 
 Scriptures nothing !"§ — " Then the 
 
 * Konnen den Kaiser nicht uber Gott setzen. 
 (L. Epp. iv. p. 83.) 
 
 t Romischen Kaiser, Vogt, Advocaten und 
 Obristen Beschirmer der kirken. (F. Urkun- 
 den. ii. p. 10.) 
 
 i Tahiti for instance. 
 
 § Patres, Patres, Patres ; Ecclesia, Ecclesia ; 
 usus, consuetudo, preeterea e Scriptura nihil. 
 (L Epp. iv. p. 96.) 
 
 Emperor, supported by the testimony of 
 these arbiters, will pronounce against 
 you ;* and then will you hear boastings 
 from all sides that will ascend up to hea- 
 ven, and threats that will descend even 
 to hell." 
 
 Thus changed the situation of the Re- 
 form. Charles was obliged to acknow- 
 ledge his weakness ; and, to save the 
 appearance of his power, he took a de- 
 cisive part with the enemies of Luther. 
 The Emperor's impartiality disappeared: 
 the state turned against the Gospel, and 
 there remained for it no other saviour 
 than God. 
 
 At first many gave way to extreme 
 dejection : above all, Melancthon, who 
 had a nearer view of the cabals of the 
 adversaries, exhausted moreover by long 
 vigils, fell almost into despair. f " In 
 the presence of these formidable evils," 
 cried he, "I see no more hope.":}: And 
 then, however, he added — " Except the 
 help of God." 
 
 The legate immediately set all his 
 batteries to work. Already had Charles 
 several times sent for the Elector and 
 the Landgrave, and had used every ex- 
 ertion to detach them from the Evangeli- 
 cal Confession. § Melancthon, uneasy 
 at these secret conferences, reduced the 
 Confession to its minimum, and entreated 
 the Elector to demand only the two kinds 
 in the Eucharist and the marriage of 
 priests. " To interdict the former of 
 these points," said he, " would be to 
 alienate a great number of Christians 
 from the communion ; and to interdict 
 the second would be depriving the Church 
 of all the pastors capable of edifying it. 
 Will they destroy religion and kindle 
 civil war, rather than apply to these 
 purely ecclesiastical constitutions a miti- 
 gation that is neither contrary to sound 
 morals nor to faith ?"|| The Protestant 
 princes begged Melancthon to go himself 
 and make these proposals to the legate. H 
 
 * Pronuntiabit Caesar contra vos. (Ibid.) 
 
 f Quadam tristitia et quasi desesperationn 
 vexatur. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 163.) 
 
 X Quid nobis sit sperandum in tantis odiis 
 inimicorum. (Ibid. p. 146.) 
 
 § Legati Norinberg ad Senatum. (Corp. 
 Ref. ii. p. 161.) 
 
 || Melancthon ad Due. Sax. Elect. (Ibid. p. 
 162.) 
 
 IT Principes nostri miserunt nos ad R. D. V. 
 (Ibid. p. 171.) 
 
718 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Melancthon agreed : he began to flat- 
 ter himself with success ; and, in truth, 
 there were, even among the Papists, in- 
 dividuals who were favourable to the 
 Reformation. There had recently ar- 
 rived at Augsburg, from beyond the 
 Alps, certain propositions tolerably Lu- 
 theran ;* and one of the Emperor's con- 
 fessors boldly professed the doctrine of 
 justification by faitlv cursing " those 
 asses of Germans, who cease not," said 
 he, "from braying against this truth, "f 
 One of Charles's chaplains approved even 
 the whole of the Confession. There 
 was something farther still ; Charles the 
 Fifth having consulted the grandees of 
 Spain, who were famous for their ortho- 
 doxy : " If the opinions of the Protes- 
 tants are contrary to the articles of the 
 faith," they had replied, " let your ma- 
 jesty employ all his power to destroy 
 this faction ; but if it is a question mere- 
 ly of certain changes in human ordin- 
 ances and external usages, let all violence 
 be avoided.":}: " Admirable reply !" ex- 
 claimed Melancthon, who persuaded him- 
 self that the Romish doctrine was at the 
 bottom in accordance with the Gospel. 
 
 The Reformation found defenders in 
 even still higher stations. Mary, sister 
 of Charles the Fifth, and widow of King 
 Louis of Hungary, arriving at Augs- 
 burg three days after the reading of the 
 Confession, with her sister-in-law the 
 Queen of Bohemia, Ferdinand's wife, 
 assiduously studied the Holy Scriptures ; 
 she carried them with her in the hunt- 
 ing parties, in which she found little 
 pleasure, and had discovered therein the 
 jewel of the Reform, — the doctrine of 
 gratuitous salvation. This pious princess 
 made her chaplain read evangelical ser- 
 mons to her, and often endeavoured, al- 
 though with prudence, to appease her 
 brother Charles with regard to the Pro- 
 testants. § 
 
 Melancthon, encouraged by these de- 
 monstrations, and at the same time 
 alarmed by the threats of war that the 
 adversaries did not cease from uttering, 
 
 * Pervenerunt ad nos propositiones quaedam 
 Italics satis Lutherans. (Ibid. p. 1G3.) 
 
 f Istis Germanis asinis, nobis in hac parte 
 obgannientibus. (Ibid.) 
 
 t Hispanici proceres praeclare et sapienter 
 responderunt Csesari. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 179.) 
 
 § *H aJtX^f) avTOKparopo{ studet nobis placare 
 fratrem. (Ibid. p. ]78.) 
 
 thought it his duty to purchase peace at 
 any cost, and resolved in consequence to 
 descend in his propositions as low as pos- 
 sible. He therefore demanded an inter- 
 view with the legate in a letter whose au- 
 thenticity has been unreasonably doubt- 
 ed.* At the decisive moment the heart 
 of the Reform champion fails — his head 
 turns — he staggers — he falls ; and in his 
 fall he runs the risk of dragging with 
 him the cause which martyrs have al- 
 ready watered with their blood. 
 
 Thus speaks the representative of the 
 Reformation to the representative of the 
 Papacy : — 
 
 " There is no doctrine in which we 
 differ from the Roman Church ;f we ve- 
 nerate the universal authority of the Ro- 
 man Pontiff", and we are ready to obey 
 him, provided he does not reject us, and 
 that of his clemency, which he is accus- 
 tomed to show towards all nations, he will 
 kindly pardon or approve certain little 
 things that it is no longer possible for us 
 
 to change Now then, will you 
 
 reject those who appear as suppliants 
 before you ? Will you pursue them 
 
 with fire and sword ? Alas ! 
 
 nothing draws upon us in Germany so 
 much hatred, as the unshaken firmness 
 with which we maintain the doctrines of 
 the Roman Church.:): But with the aid 
 of God, we will remain faithful, even 
 unto death, to Christ and to the Roman 
 Church, although you should reject 
 us."§ 
 
 Thus did Melancthon humble him- 
 self. God permitted this fall, that future 
 ages might clearly see how low the Re- 
 form was willing to descend in order to 
 maintain unity, and that no one might 
 doubt that the schism had come from 
 Rome ; but also assuredly that they 
 might learn how great in every import- 
 ant work is the weakness of the noblest 
 instruments. 
 
 Fortunately there was then another 
 man who upheld the honour of the Re- 
 formation. At this very time Luther 
 wrote to Melancthon : " There can be no 
 concord between Christ and Belial. As 
 
 * See the Corp. Ref. ii. p. 168. 
 
 t Dogma nullum habemus diversum ab Ec- 
 clesia Romana. (Ibid. p. 170.) 
 
 X Quam quia Ecclesiae Romans dogmata 
 summa constantia defendimus. (Ibid.) 
 
 § Vel si recusabitis nos in gratiam recipere. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 719 
 
 far as regards me, I will not yield a hair's 
 breadth.* Sooner than yield, I should 
 prefer suffering everything, even the 
 most terrible evils. Concede so much 
 the less, as your adversaries require the 
 more. God will not aid us until we are 
 abandoned by all. ""J" And fearing some 
 weakness on the part of his friends, 
 Luther added : " If it were not tempting 
 God, you would long ago have seen me 
 at your side !"^ 
 
 Never, in fact, had Luther's presence 
 been so necessary, for the legate had 
 consented to an interview, and Melanc- 
 thon was about to pay court to Campeg- 
 gio.§ 
 
 The 8th July was the day appointed 
 by the legate. His letter inspired Philip 
 with the most sanguine hopes. " The 
 cardinal assures me that he will accede 
 the usage of the two kinds, and the mar- 
 riage of priests," said he ; "I am eager 
 to visit him !"|| 
 
 This visit might decide the destiny of 
 the Church. If the legate accepted 
 Philip's ultimatum, the Evangelical coun- 
 tries would be replaced under the power 
 of the Romish bishops, and all would 
 have been over with the Reformation ; 
 but it was saved through the pride and 
 blindness of Rome. The Papists, be- 
 lieving it on the brink of the abyss, 
 thought that a last blow would settle it, 
 and resolved, like Luther, to concede 
 nothing, " not even a hair's breadth." 
 The legate, however, even while refus- 
 ing, assumed an air of kindness, and of 
 yielding to foreign influence. " I might 
 have the power of making certain con- 
 cessions, but it would not be prudent to 
 use it without the consent of the German 
 princes ;1T their will must be done ; one 
 of them in particular conjures the Em- 
 peror to prevent us from yielding the 
 least thing. I can grant nothing." The 
 Roman prince, with the most amiable 
 
 * At certe pro mea persona, ne pilum quidem 
 cedam. (L. Epp. iv. p. 88.) 
 
 f Neque enim juvabimur ni deserti prius 
 simus. (Ibid. p. 91.) 
 
 X Certe jamdudum coram vidissetis me. 
 (Ibid. p. 98.) 
 
 § Ego multos prehensare soleo etCampegium 
 etiam. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 193.) 
 
 || Propero enim ad Campegium. (Ibid. p. 
 174.) 
 
 V Se nihil posse decernere, nisi de voluntate 
 principum Germanise. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 174.) 
 
 smile, then did all he could to gain the 
 chief of the Protestant teachers. Me- 
 lancthon retired filled with shame at the 
 advances he had made, but still deceived 
 by Campeggio. " No doubt," said he, 
 " Eck and Cochlceus have been before- 
 hand with me at the legate's."* Luther 
 entertained a different opinion. n I do 
 not trust to any of these Italians," said 
 he ; " they are scoundrels. When an 
 Italian is good, he is very good ; but 
 then he is a black swan." 
 
 It was truly the Italians who were 
 concerned. Shortly after the 12th of 
 July arrived the Pope's instructions. 
 He had received the confession by ex- 
 press,"]" and sixteen days had sufficed for 
 the transmission, the deliberation, and 
 the return. Clement would hear no 
 mention either of discussions or of coun- 
 cil. Charles was to march straight to 
 the mark, to send an army into Germany, 
 and stifle the Reformation by force. At 
 Augsburg, however, it was thought best 
 not to go so quickly to work, and re- 
 course was had to other means. 
 
 " Be quiet ; we have them," said the 
 Romish doctors. Sensible of the reproach 
 that had been made against them, of 
 having misrepresented the Reformation, 
 they accused the Protestants themselves 
 as being the cause. " These it is," they 
 said, " who, to give themselves an air of 
 being in accord with us, now dissemble 
 their heresy ; but we will now catch 
 them in their own nets. If they confess 
 to not having inserted in their Confession 
 all that they reject, it will be proved thai 
 they are trifling with us. If, on the con- 
 trary, they pretend to have said every- 
 thing, they will by that very circumstance 
 be compelled to admit all that they have 
 not condemned." The Protestant princes 
 were therefore called together, and they 
 were asked if the Reformation was con- 
 fined to the doctrines indicated in the 
 Apology, or if there was something 
 more.:}: 
 
 The snare was skilfully laid. The 
 Papacy had not even been mentioned in 
 Melancthon's paper ; other errors besides 
 
 * Forte ad legatum veniebant Eccius et 
 Cochlceus. (Ibid. p. 175.) 
 
 f Nostra Confessio ad Romam per veredarios 
 missa est. (Corp. Ref. ii. pp. 18G, 219.) 
 
 \ An plura velimus Caesari praeponere con- 
 troversa quam fecerimus. (Ibid. p. 188.) \ 
 
720 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 had been omitted, and Luther himself 
 compained of it aloud. " Satan sees 
 clearly," said he, " that your Apology 
 has passed lightly over the articles of 
 purgatory, the worship of saints, and, 
 above all, of the Pope and of Antichrist." 
 The princes requested to confer with their 
 allies of the towns ; and all the Protestants 
 assembled to deliberate on this momentous 
 incident. 
 
 They looked for Melancthon's expla- 
 nation, who did not decline the responsi- 
 bility of the affair. Easily dejected 
 through his own anxiety, he became bold 
 whenever he was directly attacked. " All 
 the essential doctrines," said he, "have 
 been set forth in the Confession, and 
 every error and abuse that is opposed to 
 them has been pointed oqt. But was it 
 necessary to plunge into all those ques- 
 tions so full of contention and animosity, 
 that are discussed in our universities ? 
 Was it necessary to ask if all Christians 
 are priests, if the primacy of the Pope is 
 of right divine, if there can be indul- 
 gences, if every good work is a deadly 
 sin, if there are more than seven sacra- 
 ments, if they may be administered by a 
 layman, if divine election has any foun- 
 dation in our own merits, if sacerdotal 
 consecration impresses an indelible cha- 
 racter, if auricular confession is neces- 
 sary to salvation ? . . . . No, no ! all these 
 things are in the province of the schools, 
 and by no means essential to faith."* 
 
 It cannot be denied that in the ques- 
 tions thus pointed out by Melancthon 
 there were important points. However 
 that may be, the Evangelical committee 
 were soon agreed, and on the morrow 
 they gave an answer to Charles's minis- 
 ters, drawn up with as much frankness 
 as firmness, in which they said " that the 
 Protestants, desirous of arriving at a cor- 
 dial understanding, had not wished to 
 complicate their situation, and had pro- 
 posed not to specify all the errors that 
 had been introduced into the Church, but 
 to confess all the doctrines that were 
 essential to salvation ; that if, neverthe- 
 less, the adverse party felt itself urged 
 to maintain certain abuses^ or to put for- 
 ward any point not mentioned in the 
 Confession, the Protestants declared 
 themselves ready to reply in conformity 
 
 * Melancthonis Judicium. (Corp. Ref. ii 
 p. 182.) * 
 
 with the Word of God."* The tone of 
 this answer showed pretty clearly that 
 the Evangelical Christians did not fear 
 to follow their adversaries wherever the 
 latter should call them. Accordingly 
 the Roman party said no more on this 
 business. 
 
 IX. The commission charged to re- 
 fute the Confession met twice a day,-J- 
 and each of the theologians who com- 
 posed it added to it his refutation and his 
 hatred. 
 
 On the 13th July the work was finish- 
 ed. " Eck with his band,":): said Melanc 
 thon, " transmitted it to the Emperor. 
 Great was the astonishment of this prince 
 and of his ministers at seeing a work of 
 two hundred and eighty pages filled with 
 abuse. § " Bad workmen lose much 
 wood," said Luther, " and impious writ- 
 ers soil much paper." This was not all : 
 to the Refutation were subjoined eight 
 appendices on the heresies that Melanc- 
 thon had dissembled (as they said), and 
 wherein they exposed the contradictions 
 and " the horrible sects" to which Lu- 
 theranism had given birth. Lastly, not 
 confining themselves to this official an- 
 swer, the Romish theologians, who saw 
 the sun of power shining upon them, 
 filled Augsburg with insolent and abusive 
 pamphlets. 
 
 There was but one opinion on the Papist 
 Refutation ; it was found confused, violent, 
 thirsting for blood. || Charles the Fifth 
 had too much good taste not to perceive 
 the difference that existed between this 
 coarse work and the noble dignity of 
 Melancthon's Confession. He rolled, 
 handled, crushed, and so damaged the 
 280 pages of his doctors, that when he 
 returned them two days after, says Spa- 
 latin, there were not more than twelve 
 entire. Charles would have been ashamed 
 to have such a pamphlet read in the diet, 
 and he required, in consequence, that it 
 
 * Aus. Gottes Wort, weiter bericht zu thun. 
 (F. Urkundenbuch, ii. p. 19.) 
 
 t Bis die convenire dicuntur. (Zw. Epp. 
 ii. p. 472.) 
 
 t Eccius cum sua commanipulatione. (Corp 
 Ref. ii. p. 193.) 
 
 § Longum et plenum conviciis scriptum. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 || Adeo confusa, incondita, violenta, san- 
 guinolenta et crudelis ut puduerint. (Corp 
 Ref. ii. p. 198.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1030. 
 
 721 
 
 should bo drawn up anew, shorter and I 
 more moderate.* That was not easy, 
 " for the adversaries, confused and stupi- 
 fied," says Brenz, " by the noble sim- 
 plicity of the Evangelical Confession, 
 neither knew where to begin nor where to 
 end; they accordingly took nearly three 
 weeks to do their work over again. "f 
 
 Charles and his ministers had great 
 doubts of its success; leaving, therefore, 
 the theologians for a moment, they im- 
 agined another manoeuvre. " Let us 
 take each of the Protestant princes sepa- 
 rately," said they : " isolated, they will not 
 resist." Accordingly, on the 15th July, 
 the Margrave of Brandenburg was visit- 
 ed by his two cousins, the Electors of 
 Mentz and of Brandenburg, and by his 
 two brothers the Margraves Frederick 
 and John Albert. " Abandon this new 
 faith," said they to" him, "and return to 
 that which existed a century ago. If 
 you do so, there are no favours that you 
 may not expect from the Emperor ; if not, 
 dread his anger. "£ 
 
 Shortly after, the Duke Frederick of 
 Bavaria, the Count of Nassau, De Rogen- 
 dorf, and Truchses were announced to 
 the Elector on the part of Charles. " You 
 have solicited the Emperor," said they, 
 " to confirm the marriage of your son 
 with the Princess of Juliers, and to in- 
 vest you with the electoral dignity ; but 
 his majesty declares, that if you do not 
 renounce the heresy of Luther, of which 
 you are the principal abettor, he cannot 
 accede to your demand." At the same 
 time the Duke of Bavaria, employing the 
 most urgent solicitations, accompanied 
 with the most animated gestures^ and 
 the most sinister threats,|| called upon 
 the Elector to abandon his faith. " It is 
 asserted," added Charles's envoys, " that 
 you have made an alliance with the 
 Swiss. The Emperor cannot believe it : 
 and he orders you to let him know the 
 truth." 
 
 The Swiss ! it was the same thing as 
 
 * Hodie auctovibus ipsis Sophistis, a Caesar 
 rursus es« redditam ut emendetur et civilius 
 componatur. (Ibid ) 
 
 f Nostra confessione ita stupidos, attonitos, 
 etconfusos. (Ibid.) 
 
 J Corp. Ref. ii. p. 206 ; F. Urkund. ii. p. 9.1. 
 
 § Mit reden und Gebahrden prachtig erzeigt 
 (Ibid. p. 207.) 
 
 I! Minas diras promissis ingentibus adjiciens. 
 (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 4S4.) 
 
 91 
 
 rebellion. This alliance was the phan- 
 tom incessantly invoked at Augsburg to 
 alarm Charles the Fifth. And in reality 
 deputies or at least friends of the Swiss, 
 had already appeared in that city, and 
 thus rendered the position still more 
 serious. 
 
 Bucer had arrived two days before the 
 reading of the Confession, and Capita on 
 the day subsequent to it.* There was 
 even a report, that Zwingle would join 
 thern.f But for a long time all in Augs- 
 burg, except the Strasburg deputation, 
 were ignorant of the presence of these 
 doctors. £ It was only twenty-one days 
 after their arrival that Melancthon learnt 
 it positively,^ so great was the mystery 
 in which the Zwinglians were forced to 
 enshroud themselves. This was not 
 without reason : a conference with 
 Melancthon having been requested by 
 them: "Let them write," replied be; 
 " I should compromise our cause by an 
 interview with them." 
 
 Bucer and Capita in their retreat, 
 which was like a prison to them, had 
 taken advantage of their leisure to draw 
 up the Telrapolitan Confession, or the 
 confessions of the four cities. The depu- 
 ties of Strasburg, Constance, Nemmin- 
 gen, and Lindau, presented it to the Em- 
 peror. || These cities purged themselves 
 from the reproach of war and revolt that 
 had been continually objected against 
 them. They declared that their only 
 motive was Christ's glory, and professed 
 the truth " freely, boldly, but without 
 insolence and without scurrility. "IT 
 
 Zwingle about the same time caused 
 a private confession to be communicated 
 to Charles,** which excited a general 
 uproar. " Docs he not dare to say," 
 
 * Vehiihus hue, ego pridie solemnitatis Divi 
 Johannis, Capito die dominica sequente. (Zw. 
 Epp. ii. p. 472.) 
 
 f Rumor apud nos est, et te cum tuis Helve- 
 tiis comitia aivolaturum. (Ibid. pp. 431, 
 407.) 
 
 | Ita latent ut non quibuslibet sui copiam 
 faciant. (Corp. Ref. p. 196.) 
 
 § Capito et Bucerus adsunt. Id hodie certo 
 comperi. (Ibid.) 
 
 || Cingliana; civitates propriam Confessionem 
 obtulerunt Caesari. (Corp. Ref. p. 187.) This 
 Confession will be found in JViemeyer, Collec- 
 tio Confessionum, p. 740. 
 
 If Ingenue ac fortiter ; citra procaciam tamen 
 et sannas, id fateri et dicere quod res est 
 (Zw. Epp ii. p. 485.) 
 
 ** See Niemeyer Coll. Conf. p. 16.. 
 
722 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 exclaimed the Romanists, "that the 
 mitred and withered race (by which he 
 means the bishops) is in th-3 Church what 
 hump-backs and the scrofula are in the 
 body ?"* — " Does he not insinuate," said 
 the Lutherans ; " that we are beginning 
 to look back after the onions and garlic 
 of Egypt ?" — " One might say with 
 great truth that he had lost his senses," 
 exclaimed Melancthon.'j" " All ceremo- 
 nies, according to him, ought to be abo- 
 lished ; all the bishops ought to be sup 
 pressed. In a word, all is perfectly 
 Helvetic, that is to say, supremely bar- 
 barous." 
 
 One man formed an exception to this 
 concert of reproaches, and this was Lu- 
 ther. y Zwingle pleases me tolerably," 
 wrote he to Jonas, " as well as Bucer.":}: 
 By Bucer, he meant no doubt the Te- 
 trapolitan Confession : this expression 
 should be noted. 
 
 Thus three confessions laid at the 
 feet of Charles the Fifth, attested the 
 divisions that were rending Protestant- 
 ism. In vain did Bucer and Capito en- 
 deavour to come to an understanding with 
 Melancthon, and write to him : " We 
 will meet where you will, and when 
 you will ; we will bring Sturm alone 
 with us, and if you desire it, we will not 
 even bring him."§ All was unavailing. 
 It is not enough for a Christian to con- 
 fess Christ ; one disciple should confess 
 another disciple, even if the latter lies 
 under the s.hame of the world ; but they 
 did not then comprehend this duty. 
 " Schism is in the schism," said the 
 Romanists, and the Emperor flattered 
 himself with aneasy victory. " Return 
 to the Church," was the cry from every 
 side, " which means," interrupted the 
 Strasburgers, " let us put the bit in your 
 mouths, that we may lead you as we 
 please. "|| 
 
 All these things deeply afflicted the 
 
 * Pedatum et mitratum genu.3 Episcoporum, 
 id esset in Ecclesia, quod gibbi et strumata in 
 corpore. (Ibid.) Zwingle compares the 
 bishops to the dry and fruitless props that sup- 
 port the vines. 
 
 f Dicas simplicitcr mente captuin esse. 
 (Corp. Ref. p. 193.) 
 
 X Zvvinglius mihi sane placet, et Bucerus. 
 (L. Epp. iv. p. 110.) 
 
 § Veniemus quo et quando tu voles. (Corp. 
 Ref ii. p. 208.) 
 
 || Una tamen omnium vox : Revertimini ad 
 Ecclesiam. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 434.) 
 
 Elector, who was besides still under the 
 burden of Charles's demands and threats. 
 The Emperor had not once spoken to 
 him,* and it was everywhere said that 
 his cousin George of Saxony would be 
 proclaimed Elector in his stead. 
 
 On the 28th July, there was a great 
 festival at the court. Charles, robed in 
 his imperial garments, whose value was 
 said to exceed 200,000 gold ducats, and 
 displaying an air of majesty which im- 
 pressed respect and fear,-|- conferred on 
 many princes the investiture of their 
 dignities ; the Elector alone was exclu- 
 ded from these favours. Erelontr he 
 
 o 
 
 was made to understand more plainly 
 what was reserved for him, and it was 
 insinuated, that if he did not submit, the 
 Emperor would expel him from his 
 states, and inflict upon him the severest 
 punishment.^: 
 
 The Elector turned pale, for he 
 doubted not that such would certainly be 
 the termination. How with his small 
 territory could he resist that powerful 
 monarch who had just vanquished 
 France and Italy, and now saw Germa- 
 ny at his feet ? And besides, if he 
 could do it, had he the right ? Fright- 
 ful nightmares pursued John in his 
 dreams. He beheld himself stretched 
 beneath an immense mountain under 
 which he struggled painfully, while his 
 cousin George of Saxony stood on the 
 summit and seemed to brave him. 
 
 John at length came forth from this 
 furnace. " I must either renounce God 
 or the world," said he. " Well ! my 
 choice is, not doubtful. It is God who 
 made me Elector, — me, who was not 
 worthy of it. I fling myself into his 
 arms, and let him do with me what shall 
 seem good to him." Thus the Elector 
 by faith stopped the mouths of lions and 
 subdued kingdoms. § 
 
 All evangelical Christendom had taken 
 part in the struggle of John the Perse- 
 vering. It was seen that if lie should 
 now fall, all would fall with him ; and 
 they endeavoured to support him. " Fear 
 not," cried the Christians of Magdeburg, 
 
 'Colloquium ejus nondum frui potuisse. 
 (Seek. ii. p. 154.) 
 
 t Apparuit Csesar majestate insignitus 
 
 vestibus suis imperialibus. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 
 242.) 
 
 | Miiller, Gesch. der Protestation, p. 715. 
 
 § Hebrews xi. 33, 34 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 723 
 
 *' for your highness is under Christ's 
 banner."* "Italy is in expectation," 
 wrote they from Venice ; " if* for Christ's 
 glory you must die, fear nothing. "f 
 But it was from a higher source that 
 John's courage was derived. " I beheld 
 Satan as lightning fall from heaven," 
 said his Master.:]: The Elector, in like 
 manner, beheld in his dreams George 
 fall from the top of the mountain, and 
 lie dashed in pieces at his feet. 
 
 Once resolved to lose everything, John,- 
 free, happy, and tranquil, assembled his 
 theologians. These generous men de- 
 sired to save their master. " Gracious 
 lord," said Spalatin, " recollect that the 
 Word of God, being the sword of the 
 Spirit, must be upheld, not by the secular 
 power, but by the hand of the Al- 
 mighty. "§ — " Yes !" said all the doctors, 
 " we do not wish that, to save us, you 
 should risk your children* your subjects, 
 your states, your crown. . . . We will 
 rather give ourselves into the hands of 
 the enemy, and conjure him to be satis- 
 fied with our blood. "|| John, touched by 
 this language, refused, however, their 
 solicitations, and firmly repeated these 
 words, which had become his device : 
 " I also desire to confess my Saviour." 
 
 It was on the 20th July that he replied 
 to the pressing arguments by which 
 Charles had endeavoured to shake him. 
 He proved to the Emperor that, being 
 his brother's legitimate heir, he could 
 not refuse him the investiture, which, 
 besides, the Diet of Worms had secured 
 to him. He added, that he did not blindly 
 believe what his doctors said, but that, 
 having recognized the Word of God to 
 be the foundation of their teaching, he 
 confessed anew, and without any hesita- 
 tion, all the articles of the Apology. " I 
 therefore entreat your majesty," conti- 
 nued he, " to psrmit me and mine to ren- 
 der an account to God alone of w*hat con- 
 cerns the salvation of our souls. "If The 
 
 * Unter dern Heerpannyr Jesu Christi. 
 (Ibid. p. 134.) 
 
 t Etiamsi mors subeunda tibi foret ob Christi 
 gloriam. (Corp. Rcf. ii. 228. L. P. Roselli.) 
 
 J Luke x. IS. 
 
 § Gottes Wort keines wegs durch weltlich 
 Schwert. (F. Urkund ii. p. 82.) 
 
 || Sie wollen ihnea an ihrem Blute genii- 
 gen lassen. (Ibid. p. 90.) 
 
 1T Ff rstemann's Urkundenbuch, pp. 80-02, 
 113-119. 
 
 Margrave of Brandenburg made the 
 same reply. Thus failed this skilful 
 manoeuvre, by whicli the Romanists had 
 hoped to break the strength of the Re- 
 formation. 
 
 Six weeks had elapsed since the Con. 
 fession, and yet no reply. " The Pa- 
 pists, from the moment they heard the 
 Apology," it was said, "suddenly lost 
 their voice."* At length the Romish 
 theologians handed their revised and cor- 
 rected performance to the Emperor, and 
 persuaded this prince to present it in his 
 own name. The mantle of the state 
 seemed to them admirably adapted to 
 the movements of Rome. " These syco- 
 phants," said Melancthon, " have de- 
 sired to clothe themselves with the 
 lion's skin, to appear to us so much the 
 more terrible."")" All the states of the 
 Empire were convoked for the next clay 
 but one. 
 
 On Wednesday, 3d August, at two 
 o'clock in the afternoon, the Emperor, 
 sitting on his throne in the chapel of 
 the Palatinate Palace, surrounded by his 
 brother, and the electors, princes, and de- 
 puties, the Elector of Saxony and his 
 allies were introduced, and the Count 
 palatine, who was called " Charles's 
 mouthpiece," said to them : " His ma- 
 jesty having handed your Confession to 
 several doctors of different nations, illus- 
 trious by their knowledge, their morals, 
 and their impartiality, has read their re- 
 ply with the greatest care, and submits 
 it to you as his own, ordaining that all 
 the members and subjects of the Holy 
 Empire should accept it with unanimous 
 accord.":": 
 
 Alexander Schweiss then took the 
 papers and read the refutation. The 
 Roman party approved some articles of 
 the Confession, condemned others, and 
 in certain less salient passages, it dis- 
 tinguished between what must be re- 
 jected and what accepted. 
 
 It gave way on an important point ; 
 the opus operatwm. The Protestants 
 having said in their 13th Article that 
 
 o 
 
 * Papistas obmutuisse ad ipsorum Confes- 
 sionem. (Colch. p. 195.) 
 
 f Voluerunt sycophants theoloyi Xsovtvv il- 
 lam sibi circumdare, ut essent nobis formida- 
 biliores. (Corp. Ref. p. 252.) 
 
 { Velut suam suaque publica auctoritate ro- 
 bovatam, ab omnibus unanimi consensu accep- 
 tandam. (Urkundenbuch, ii. p. 144.) 
 
724 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 faitli was necessary in the Sacrament, 
 the Romish party assented to it ; thus 
 abandoning an error which the Papacy 
 had so earnestly defended against Luther 
 in that very city of Augsburg, by the 
 mouth of Cajetan. 
 
 Moreover, they recognised as truly 
 Christian the Evangelical doctrine on 
 the Trinity, on Christ, on baptism, on 
 eternal punishment, and on the origin of 
 evil. 
 
 But on all the other points, Charles, 
 his princes, and his theologians, declared 
 themselves immovable. They main- 
 tained that men are born with the fear 
 of God, that good works are meritorious, 
 and that they justify in union with faith. 
 They upheld the Seven Sacraments, the 
 Mass, transubstantiation, the withdrawal 
 of the cup, the celibacy of priests, the 
 invocation of saints, and they denied that 
 the Church was an assembly of the 
 saints. 
 
 This Refutation was skilful in some 
 respects, and, above all, in what con- 
 cerned the doctrine of works and i5f faith. 
 But on other points, in particular on the 
 withdrawal of the cup and the celibacy 
 of priests, its arguments were lamentably 
 weak, and contrary to the well known 
 facts of history. 
 
 While the Protestants had taken their 
 stand on the Scriptures, their adversaries 
 supported the divine origin of the hie- 
 rarchy, and laid down absolute submission 
 to its laws. Thus, the essential charac- 
 ter, which still distinguishes Rome from 
 the Reformation, stood prominently forth 
 in this first combat. 
 
 Among the auditors who filled the 
 chapel of the Palatinate Palace, conceak d 
 in the midst of the deputies of Nurem- 
 berg, was Joachim Camerarius, who, 
 while Schweiss was reading, leant over 
 his tablets and carefully noted down all 
 lie could collect. At the same time others 
 of the Protestants, speaking toone another, 
 were indignant, and even laughed, as one 
 of their opponents assuresus.* " Rcallv," 
 said they with one consent, "the whole 
 of this Refutation is worthy of Eck, Fa- 
 ber, and Cochloeus!" 
 
 As for Charles, little pleased with these 
 theological dissertations, he slept during 
 
 * Multi e Lutheranis ineptecachinnabantur. 
 (Cochlceus, p. 895.) 
 
 the reading ;* hut he awoke when 
 Schweiss had finished, and his awaken- 
 ing was that cf a lion. 
 
 The Count-palatine then declared that 
 his majesty found the articles of this Re- 
 futation orthodox, catholic, and conform- 
 able to the Gospel ; that he therefore re- 
 quired the Protectants to abandon their 
 Confession, now refuted, and to adhere to 
 all the articles that had just been set 
 forth ;'j" that, if they refused, the Emperor 
 would remember his office, and would 
 know how to show himself the advocate 
 and defender of the Roman Church. 
 
 This language was clear enough : the 
 adversaries imagined they had refuted 
 the Protestants by commanding the latter 
 to consider themselves beaten. Violence 
 — arms — war — were all contained in 
 these cruel words of Charles's minister. J 
 The princes represented that, as the Re- 
 futation adopted some of their articles 
 and rejected others, it required a careful 
 examination, and they cemscquently beg- 
 ged a copy should be given them. 
 
 The Romish party had along confer, 
 ence on this demand : night was at hand ; 
 the Count-palatine replied that, consider- 
 ing the late hour and the importance of 
 this affair, the Emperor would make 
 known his pleasure somewhat later. Tho 
 diet separated, and Charles the Fifth, ex- 
 asperated at the audacity of the Evange- 
 lical princes, says Cochlceus, returned in 
 ill-humour to his apartments. § 
 
 The Protestants, on the contrary, with- 
 drew full of peace ; the reading of the 
 Refutation having given them as much 
 confidence as that of the Confession it- 
 self. || They saw in their adversaries a 
 strong attachment to the hierarchy, but 
 a great ignorance of the Gospel — a cha- 
 racteristic feature of the Romish party ; 
 ] and this thought encouraged them. " Cer- 
 jtainly," said they, " the Church cannot 
 | be where there is no knowledge of 
 Christ. ' : 1T 
 
 * Iinporator iterum obdormivit. (Corp. Ref. 
 ii. P . 245.) 
 
 f Petiit Css^r ut omnes in illns articulos 
 consentiant. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 345.) 
 
 J Orationis summa atrox. (Ibid. p. 2")3.) 
 
 § Cassar non aequo animo ferebat eorum 
 contumaciam. (Cochl. p. 195.) 
 
 || Facti sunt erectiore animo. (Corp. Ref. 
 ii. p. 259.) 
 
 II Ecclesiam ibi non esse, ubi ignoratur 
 Christus. 
 
THE A ! ; CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 Melancthon alone was still alarmed jjtions," said they all, "-are inadmissible." 
 he walked by sight and not by faith, and, |— "The Papists present us with their 
 
 remembering the legate's smiles, he had 
 another interview with him, as early as 
 the 4th August, still demanding the cup 
 for the laity, and lawful wives for the 
 priests. " Than," said he, " our pastors 
 will place themselves again under the 
 government of hishops, and we shall be 
 able to prevent those innumerable sects 
 with which posterity is threatened."* 
 Melancthon's glance into the future is 
 remarkable : it does not, however, mean 
 that he, like many others, preferred a 
 dead unity to a living diversity. 
 
 Campeggio, now certain of triumphing 
 by the sword, disdainfully handed this 
 paper to Cochlceus, who hastened to re- 
 fute it. It is hard to say whether Me- 
 lancthon or Campeggio was the most in- 
 fatuated. God did not permit an ar- 
 rangement that would have enslaved his 
 Church. 
 
 Charles passed the whole of the 4th 
 and the morning of the 5th August in 
 consultation with the Ultramontane party. 
 " It will never be by discussion that we 
 shall come to an understanding," said 
 some ; " and if the Protestants do not 
 submit voluntarily, it only remains for 
 us to compel them." They nevertheless 
 decided, on account of the Refutation, to 
 adopt a middle course. During the 
 whole of the diet, Charles pursued a 
 skilful policy. At first he refused every- 
 thing, hoping to lead away the princes 
 by violence ; then he conceded a few un- 
 important points, under the impression 
 that the Protestants having lost all hope, 
 would esteem so much the more the little 
 he yielded to them. This was what he 
 did again under the present circumstances. 
 In the afternoon of the 5th, the Count- 
 palatine announced that the Emperor 
 would give them a copy of the Refuta- 
 tion, but on these conditions ; namely, 
 that the Protestants should not reply, 
 that they should speedily agree with the 
 Emperor, and that they would not print 
 or communicate to any one the Refuta- 
 tion that should be confided to them.f 
 
 This communication excited murmurs 
 among the Protestants. " These condi- 
 
 paper," added the Chancellor Brack, 
 " as the fox offered a thin broth to his 
 gossip the stork." 
 
 Tha savoury broth upon a plate by Reynard 
 
 was served up, 
 But Mistres3 Stork, with her long beak, she 
 
 could not get a sup.* 
 
 " If the Refutation," continued he, 
 " should come to be known without par- 
 ticipation (and how can we prevent it ?), 
 we shall be charged with it as a crime. 
 Let us beware of accepting so perfidious 
 an offer.f We already possess in the 
 notes of Camerarius several articles of 
 this paper, and if we omit any point, no 
 one will have the right to reproach us 
 with it." 
 
 On the next day (6th August) the 
 Protestants declared to the diet that they 
 preferred declining the copy thus offered 
 to them, and appealed to God and to his 
 Majesty.^ They thus rejected all that 
 the Emperor proposed to them, even what 
 he considered as a favour. 
 
 Agitation, anger, and affright, were 
 manifested on every branch of that 
 august assembly. § This reply of the 
 Evangelicals was war — was rebellion. 
 George of Saxony, the Princes of Bava- 
 ria, all the violent adherents of Rome, 
 trembled with indignation ; there was a 
 sudden, an impetuous movement, an ex- 
 plosion of murmurs and of hatred ; and 
 it might have been feared that the two 
 parties would have come to blows in the 
 very presence of the Emperor, if Arch- 
 bishop Albert, the Elector of Branden- 
 burg, and the Dukes of Brunswick, Po- 
 merania, and Mecklenburg, rushing be- 
 tween them, had not conjured the Pro- 
 testants to put an end to this deplorable 
 combat, and not drive the Emperor to 
 extremities. || The diet separated, their 
 hearts filled with emotion, apprehension, 
 and trouble. 
 
 * Quod nisi fist, quid in tot sectis ad postero- 
 futurum sit. (Corp. Rjf. ii. p. us.) 
 
 * Gluck vvie der Fuchs brauchet, da er den 
 Storeh zu gast lud. (Brfick, Apol. p. 74.) 
 
 f Quando exemplum per alios in vulgus ex- 
 ire poterat. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 76.) 
 
 J Das Sie es Gott and Kays. Maj. besehlen 
 murFten. (Urkund. ii. p. 1SI.) 
 
 § Und darob vvie man Spiiren mag, ein Ent- 
 zet zen gehabt. (Ibid.) 
 
 || Hi accedunt ad nostras principes et jubent 
 
 t P'Ui'kund. ii- p. 179; Corp. Rsf. ii. p. iomitt^re hoc eertamen, ne Caesar vehementius 
 2o3; Bruck, Apol. p. 72. jeemmoveatur. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 2,')4.) 
 
726 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Never had the diet proposed such fatal 
 alternatives. The hopes of agreement, 
 set forth in the edict of convocation, had 
 only been a deceitful lure : now the mask 
 was thrown aside ; submission or the 
 sword — such was the dilemma offered to 
 the Reformation. All announced that 
 the day of tentatives was passed, and that 
 they were beginning one of violence. 
 
 In truth, on the 6th July, the Pope 
 iiad assembled the consistory of cardi- 
 nals in his palace at Rome, and had 
 made known to them the Protestant ulti- 
 matum ; namely, the cup for the laity, 
 the marriage of priests, the omission of 
 the invocation of saints in the sacrifice 
 of the Mass, the use of ecclesiastical pro- 
 perty already secularized, and for the 
 rest, the convocation of a council. " These 
 concessions;," said the cardinals, "are 
 opposed to the religion, the discipline, 
 and the laws of the Church.* We reject 
 them, and vote our thanks to the Emperor 
 for the zeal which, he employs in bring- 
 ing back the deserters." The Pope 
 having thus decided, every attempt at 
 conciliation became useless. 
 
 Campeggio, on his side, redoubled in 
 zeal. Pie spoke as if in his person the 
 Pope himself were present at Augsburg.f 
 " Let the Emperor and the right-think- 
 ing princes form a league," said he to 
 Charles ; " and if these rebels, equally 
 insensible to threats and promises, obsti- 
 nately persist in their diabolical course, 
 then let his Majesty seize fire and sword, 
 let him take possession of all the pro- 
 perty of the heretics, and utterly eradi- 
 cate these venomous plants.:}: Then let 
 him appoint holy inquisitors, who shall 
 go on the track of the remnants of Re- 
 form, and proceed against them, as in 
 Spain against the Moors. Let him put 
 the university of Wittembcfg under ban, 
 burn the heretical books, and send back 
 the fugitive monks to their convents. 
 But this plan must be executed with 
 courage." 
 
 * Oppositas religioni, discipline, legibusque 
 Ecclesias. (Pallav. i. p. 234.) 
 
 f Als were der Papst sslbst gegenw'artig 
 gewest. (Biiick, Apol f>2.) 
 
 } Se alcuni perseverassero in questa dia- 
 betica via quella S. M. potva. mettere la mano 
 :il ferro e al foco et radicitus exlirpare. questa 
 venenata pianta. (Instructio data Caesari a reve- 
 rendissimo Campeggi in dicta Au^ustana. 
 1530.) 
 
 Thus the jurisprudence of Rome con- 
 sisted, according to a prophecy uttered 
 against the city which is seated on seven 
 hills, in adorning itself with pearls that it 
 had stolen, and in becoming drunk with 
 the blood of the saints.* 
 
 While Charles was thus urged on with 
 blind fury by the diet and the Pope, the 
 Protestant princes, restrained by a mute 
 indignation, did not open their mouths,f 
 and hence they seemed to betray a weak- 
 ness of which the Emperor was eager to 
 profit. But there was also strength con- 
 cealed under this weakness. " It only 
 remains for us," exclaimed Melancthon, 
 " to embrace our Saviour's knees." In 
 this they laboured earnestly. Melanc- 
 thon begged for Luther's prayers ; Brenz 
 for those of Lis own church : a general 
 cry of distress and of faith ran through 
 Evangelical Germany. " You shall 
 have sheep," said Brenz, " if you will 
 send us sheep : you know what I mean.":): 
 The sheep that were to be offered in 
 sacrifice were the prayers of the saints. 
 
 The Church was not wanting to itself. 
 " Assembled every day," wrote certain 
 cities to the Electors, " we beg for you 
 .strength, grace, and victory, — victory 
 full of joy." But the man of prayer and 
 faith was especially Luther. A calm 
 and sublime courage, in which firmness 
 shines at the side of joy — a courage that 
 rises and exults in proportion as the 
 danger increases — is what Luther's 
 letters at this time present in every line. 
 The most poetical images are pale beside 
 those energetic expressions which issue 
 in a boiling torrent from the Reformer's 
 soul. " I have recently witnessed two 
 miracles," wrote he on the 5th August 
 to Chancellor Bruck ; " this is the first. 
 As I was at my window, I saw the stars, 
 and the sky, and that vast and magnifi- 
 cent firmament in which the Lord has 
 placed them. I could nowhere discover 
 the columns on which the Master has 
 supported this immense vault, and yet the 
 heavens did not fall 
 
 " And here is the second. I beheld 
 thick clouds hanging above us like a vast 
 sea. I could neither perceive ground on 
 which they reposed, nor cords by which 
 
 * Revelation xvii and xviii. 
 t Tacita indignatio. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 254.) 
 % Habebitis oves, si oves ad nos mittatis : 
 intelligitis quae volo. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 24G.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 153(1. 
 
 727 
 
 they were suspended; and yet they did* replied his cousin the Elector Joachim, 
 
 not fall upon us, hut saluted us rapidly 
 and fled away. 
 
 " God," continued he, " will choose 
 the manner, the time, and the place suit- 
 ahle for deliverance, and he will not 
 
 " what is your stake ?" — " Certainly,' 
 replied the Margrave, " it is said I shall 
 be expelled from this country. Well ! 
 may God protect me !" One day Prince 
 Wolfean^" of Anhalt met Doctor Eck. 
 
 linger. What the men of blood have "Doctor," said he, "you are exciting 
 
 begun, they iiave not yet finished 
 
 Our rainbow is faint their clouds 
 
 are threatening the enemy comes 
 
 against us with frightful machines 
 
 But at last it will be seen to whom be- 
 longed the ballistse, and from what hands 
 the javelins are launched.* It is no 
 matter if Luther perishes: if Christ is 
 conqueror. Luther is conqueror also."f 
 
 Never had the Roman party, who did 
 not know what was the victory of faith, 
 imagined themselves more certain of 
 success. 
 
 The doctors having refuted the Con- 
 fession, the Protestants ought, they ima- 
 gined, to declare themselves convinced, 
 and all would then be restored to its 
 ancient footing : such was the Emperor's 
 plan of campaign. He therefore urges 
 and calls upon the Protestants ; but in- 
 stead of submitting, they announce a 
 refutation of the Refutation. Upon this 
 Charles looked at his sword, and all the 
 princes who surrounded him did the 
 same. 
 
 to war, but you will find those who will 
 not be behindhand with you. I have 
 broken many a lance for my friends in 
 my time. My Lord Jesus Christ is 
 assuredly worthy that I should do as 
 much for him." 
 
 At the sight of this resolution, each 
 one asked himself whether Charles, in- 
 stead of curing the disease, was not 
 augmenting it. Reflections, criticisms, 
 jests, passed between the citizens ; and 
 the good sense of the people manifested 
 in its own fashion what they thought of 
 the folly of their chief. We will adduce 
 one instance. 
 
 It is said that one day, as the Emperor 
 was at table with many Roman-catholic 
 princes, he was informed that some 
 comedians begged permission (according 
 to custom) to amuse their lordships. 
 Firs' appeared an old man wearing a 
 mask, and dressed in a doctor's robe, 
 who advanced with difficulty carrying a 
 bundle of sticks in his arms, some 
 straight and some crooked. He ap- 
 
 John of Saxony understood what that iproached the wide fireplace of the Gothic 
 
 hall, threw down his load in disorder, and 
 immediately withdrew.* Charles and 
 the courtiers read on his back the inscrip- 
 tion — John Reuchlin. Then appeared 
 another mask with an intelligent look, 
 who made every exertion to pair the 
 straight and the crooked pieces ;f but 
 finding his labours useless, he shook his 
 
 meant, but he remained firm. " The 
 straight line," said he (the axiom was 
 familiar to him), " is the shortest road." 
 It is this indomitable firmness that has 
 secured for him in history the name of 
 John the Persevering. He was not alone : 
 all those Protestant princes who had 
 grown up in the midst of courts, and 
 
 obedience to the Emperor, found at that 
 time in their faith a noble independence 
 that confounded Charles the Fifth. 
 
 who were habituated to pay an humble head, turned to the door, and disappeared 
 
 They read — Erasmus of Rotterdam. 
 
 Almost immediately after advanced a 
 
 monk with bright eye and decided gait, 
 
 With the design of gaining the Mar- [carrying a brasier of lighted coals. :j: Ha 
 
 quis of Brandenburg, they opened to himjput the wood in order, set fire to it, blew 
 
 the possibility of according him some I and stirred it up, so that the flame rose 
 
 possessions in Silesia on which he had bright and sparkling into the air 
 
 claims. " If Christ is Christ," replied! then retired, and on his hackwo- 
 
 he, " the doctrine that I have confessed 
 is truth." — " But do you know," quickly 
 
 * In fi-12 videbitur cujus toni (L. Epp. 
 
 iv. p. 133.) 
 
 f Vincat Christu3 modo, nihil refart si pereat 
 Lutherus, quia victors Christo victor erit. 
 (Ibid. p. 139.) 
 
 He 
 
 Were the 
 
 words — Martin Luther. 
 
 * Persona larva contecta, habitu dostorali 
 portabat steuem lignorum. (T. L. Fabriciud, 
 opp. omnia, ii. p. 131.) 
 
 f Hie eonabiturcurvarectis exequare lignis. 
 (T L. Fabricius, opp. omnia, p. ii. 231.) 
 
 X In azula ferens igncm et prunas. " (Ibid.) 
 
728 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Next approached a magnificent per-jannounced the gloomy future which 
 sona^e, covered with all the imperial in- 1 threatened the Reform. At Spire fcar- 
 si<mia, who, seeing the fire so bright, ! ful spectres, having the shape of monks, 
 drew his sword, and endeavoured by I with angry eyes and hasty steps, had ap- 
 violent thrusts to extinguish it ; but theipeared during the night. "What, do 
 more he struck, the fiercer burnt the you want?" they had been asked. — 
 
 flames, so that at last ho quitted the 
 place in indignation. His name, as it 
 would seem, was not made known 'to the 
 spectators, but all divined it. The gene- 
 ral attention was soon attracted by a new 
 character. A man, wearing a surplice 
 and a mantle of red velvet, with an alb 
 of white wool that reached to his heels, 
 and having a stole around his neck, 
 whose ends were ornamented with 
 pearls, advanced majestically. Behold- 
 ing the flames that already filled the 
 hearth, he clapped his hands in terror, 
 and looking around him sought to find 
 something to extinguish them. He sees 
 two vessels at the very extremity of the 
 hall, one filled with water, and the other 
 with oil. He rushes to them, seizes un- 
 wittingly on that containing the oil, and 
 throws it en the fire.* The flames then 
 spread with such violence that the mask 
 fled in alarm, raising his hands to hea- 
 ven ; on his back was read the name of 
 Leo X. 
 
 Tho mystery was finished ; but in- 
 stead of claiming their remuneration, the 
 pretended actors had disappeared. No 
 one asked the moral of this drama. 
 
 The lesson, however, proved useless ; 
 and the majority of the diet, assuming 
 at the same time the part assigned to 
 the Emperor and the Pope, began to pre- 
 pare the means necessary for extinguish- 
 ing the fire kindled by Luther. They ne- 
 gotiated in Italy with the Duke of Man-. 
 tua, who engaged to send a few regi- 
 ments of light cavalry across the Alps;")" 
 and in England with Henry VIII., who 
 had not forgotten Luther's reply, and 
 who promised Charles, through his am- 
 bassador, an immense subsidy to destroy 
 the heretics.! 
 
 At the same time frightful prodigies 
 
 * Currens it) amphovam oleo plenam. (T, 
 L. Fabricius, opp. omnia, ii. p. 232.) 
 
 t Che tentaao col Duca di IVIantona d' av'eve 
 il modo di condurre 1000 cavalli leggieri d 
 Italia in caso si facesse guerra in Germanica 
 (Nic. Tiefolo Relat.) 
 
 JCui (Caesari) ingentem vim pecuniae in 
 hoc sacrum bellum contra haereticos Anglus 
 promisisse fertur. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 484.) 
 
 " We are going," they replied, " to the 
 Diet of Augsburg !" The circumstance 
 had been carefully investigated, and was 
 found perfectly trustworthy.* "The 
 interpretation is not difficult," exclaimed 
 Melancthon : " Evil spirits are coming to 
 Augsburg to counteract our exertions, 
 and to destroy peace. They forebode 
 horrible troubles to us."f No one' 
 doubted this. " Everything is advanc- 
 ing towards war," said Erasmus.:}: 
 " The diet will not terminate," wrote 
 Brenz, " except by the destruction of all 
 Germany. "§ " There will be a slaugh- 
 ter of the saints," exclaimed Bucer, 
 
 which will be such that the massacres 
 of Diocletian will scarcely come up to 
 it. "|| War and blood ! — this was the 
 general cry. 
 
 Suddenly, on the night of Saturday, 
 6th August, a great disturbance broke 
 out in the city of Augsburg. 1f There 
 was running to and fro in the streets ; 
 messengers from the Emperor were gal- 
 loping in every direction ; the senate w as' 
 called together and received an order to 
 allow no one to pass the gates of the 
 city.** At the same time all were afoot 
 in the imperial barracks; the soldiers got 
 ready their arms ; the regiments were 
 drawn up, and at daybreak (about three 
 o'clock on Sunday morning) the Empe- 
 ror's troops, in opposition to the custom 
 constantly followed in the diet, relieved 
 the soldiers of the city and took possession 
 of the gates. At the same time it was 
 learnt that these gates would not be 
 opened, and that Charles had given or- 
 
 *Res et diligenter inquisita et explorata 
 maximeque a^Uviaros. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 259.) 
 
 f Monachorum Spirensium ^anfia plane sig- 
 nificat horribilem tumultuin (Ibid. p. 2fi0.) 
 
 \ Vides rem plane tendere ad bellum 
 (Corp. R 3 f. Aug. 12, p. 2GS.) 
 
 § Comitia no;i finientur nisi totius Germa- 
 nise malo et exitio. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 210.) 
 
 || Laniena sanctorum qualis vix Diocletian! 
 tempore fuit. (Buc. Ep. Aug. 14, 15.'>0.) 
 
 If Tumultum magnum fuisse in civitate. 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 277.) 
 
 ** Facto autem intempesta nocte Csesar 6e 
 natui mandavit, ne quenquam per portas urbis 
 su&2 emittant. (Ibid. p. 277.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. J 530. 
 
 729 
 
 ders to keep a strict watch upon thef justified himself; and (he Emperor said 
 Elector and his allies.* A terrible; that he accepted his replies, except with 
 awakening for those who still flattered [regard to the faith, and begged him to 
 
 themselves with seeing the religious de- 
 bates conclude peacefully ! Are not 
 these unheard-of measures the com- 
 mencement of wars and the signal of a 
 frightful massacre ? 
 
 X. Trouble and anger prevailed in 
 the imperial palace, and it was the Land- 
 grave who had caused them. Firm as- 
 a rock in the midst of the tempest with 
 which he was surrounded, Philip of 
 Hesse had never bent, his head to the 
 blast. One day, in a public assembly, 
 addressing the bishops, he had said to 
 them, " My lords, give peace to the Em- 
 pire ; we beg it of you. If you will not 
 do so, and if I must fall, be sure that I 
 will drag one or two of you with me." 
 They saw it was necessary -to employ 
 milder means with him, and the Emperor 
 endeavoured to gain him by showing a 
 favourable disposition with respect to the 
 county of Katzenellenbogen, about which 
 ,he was at variance with the country of 
 Nassau, and to Wurtemberg, which he 
 claimed for his cousin Ulric. On his 
 side Duke George of Saxony, his father- 
 in-law, had assured him that he would 
 make him his heir if he would submit 
 to the Pope. " They carried him to an 
 exceeding high mountain, whence they 
 showed him all the kingdoms of the 
 world and the glory thereof, "f says a 
 chronicler, but the Landgrave resisted 
 the temptation. 
 
 One day he heard that the Emperor 
 had manifested a desire to speak to him. 
 He leapt instantly on his horse and ap- 
 peared before Charles.:}: The latter, who 
 had with him his secretary Schweiss and 
 the Bishop of Constance, represented that 
 he had four complaints against him ; 
 namely, of having violated the Edict of 
 Worms, of despising the Mass, of having, 
 during his absence, excited all kinds of 
 revolt, and, finally, of having transmitted 
 to him a book in which his sovereign 
 rights were attacked. The Landgrave 
 
 * Daff man auf den Churfurst zu Sachsen 
 aufsshen haben soil. (Briick, Apol. p. 80.) 
 
 ■f Auf den hohen berg gefuhrt. (Lanze's 
 Chronik ) 
 
 | Von ihr selb3t gen Hof geritten. (Corp. 
 Ref. ii. p. 105.) 
 
 92 
 
 show himself in that respect entirely sub- 
 missive to his majesty. " What would 
 you say," added Charles, in a winning 
 tone, " if I elevated you to the regal dig- 
 nity ?* But, if you show yourself rebel- 
 lious to my orders, then I shall behave 
 as becomes a Roman Emperor." 
 
 These words exasperated the Land- 
 grave, but they did not move him. " I 
 am in the flower of my age," replied he, 
 " and I do not pretend to despise the joys 
 of life and the favour of the great ; but 
 to the deceitful goods of this world I shall 
 always prefer the ineffable grace of my 
 God." Charles was stupified ; he could 
 not understand Philip. 
 
 From this time the Landgrave had re- 
 doubled his exertions to unite the adher- 
 ents of Reform. The Zwinglian cities felt 
 that, whatever was the issue of the diet, 
 they would be the first victims, unless 
 the Saxons should give them their hand. 
 But this there was some difficulty in ob- 
 taining. 
 
 " It does not appear to me useful to 
 the public weal, or safe for the con- 
 science," wrote Melancthon to Bucer, 
 " to load our princes with all the hatred 
 your doctrine inspires. "f The Stras- 
 burgers replied, that the real cause of the 
 Papists' hatred was not so much the doc- 
 trine of the Eucharist as that of justifica- 
 tion by faith. " All we, who desire to 
 belong to Christ," said they, " are one, 
 and we have nothing to expect but 
 death, "t 
 
 This was true ; but another motive 
 besides checked Melancthon. If all the 
 Protestants united, they would feel their 
 strength, and war would be inevitable. 
 Therefore, then, no union ! 
 
 The Landgrave, threatened by the 
 Emperor, rejected by the theologians, be- 
 gan to ask himself what he did at Augs- 
 burg. The cup was full. Charles's re- 
 fusal to communicate the Romish Refu- 
 tation, except on inadmissible conditions, 
 made it run over. Philip of Hesse 
 
 * Quin et in regem te evehendum curabimug. 
 (Rommel, Philip der Gr. i p. 2f»S.) 
 
 t No3tros principes onerare invidia vestri 
 dogmatis. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 221.) 
 
 J Arctis?ime quoque inter nos conjuncti es- 
 semus, quotquot Christi esse vclumus. (Ibid 
 p. 233.) 
 
730 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 saw but one course to take — to quit the 
 city. 
 
 Scarcely had the Emperor made known 
 the conditions which he placed on the 
 communication of the reply, than on 
 Friday evening, 5th August, the Land- 
 grave, going alone to the Count-palatine, 
 Charles's minister, had begged for an 
 immediate audience with his majesty. 
 Charles, who did not care about it, pre- 
 tended to be busy, and had put off Philip 
 until the following Sunday.* But the 
 latter answered that he could not wait ; 
 that his wife, who was dangerously ill, 
 entreated him to return to Hesse without 
 delay ; and that, being one of the young- 
 est princes, the meanest in understand- 
 ing, and useless to Charles, he humbly 
 begged his majesty would permit him to 
 leave on the morrow. The Emperor re- 
 fused. 
 
 We may well understand the storms 
 this refusal excited in Philip's mind : 
 but he knew how to contain himself; 
 never had he appeared more tranquil ; 
 during the whole of Saturday (6th Au- 
 gust), he seemed occupied only with a 
 magnificent tourney in honour of the 
 Emperor and of his brother Ferdinand. j" 
 He prepared for it publicly ; his servants 
 went to and fro, but under that din of 
 horses and of armour, Philip concealed 
 very different designs. " The Land- 
 grave conducts himself with very great 
 moderation," wrote Melancthon to Lu- 
 ther, the same day.:}: " He told me 
 openly that, to preserve peace, he would 
 submit to conditions still harder than 
 those which the Emperor imposes on us, 
 and whatever he could accept without 
 dishonouring the Gospel, he would do so." 
 
 Yet Charles was not at ease. The 
 Landgrave's demand pursued him ; all 
 the Protestants might do the same, and 
 even quit Augsburg unexpectedly. The 
 clue, that he had hitherto so skilfully 
 held in his hands, was perhaps about to 
 be broken : it was better to be violent 
 than ridiculous. The Emperor there- 
 fore resolved on striking a decisive blow. 
 
 Cum imperator dilationem respondent^ 
 astu quodam aceepisset. (Corp. Ref. ii. pp. 
 234, 27H.) 
 
 f Ad ludos equestres in honorem Caesari in- 
 stituendos publice sese apparavit. (Seek. ii. 
 p. 172.) 
 
 t Landgvavius valde moderate se gent. 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 254.) 
 
 The Elector, the princes, the deputies, 
 are still in Augsburg : he must at every 
 risk prevent them from leaving it. Such 
 were the heavy thoughts that on the night 
 of the 6th August, while the Protestants 
 were calmly sleeping,* banished repose 
 from Charles's eyes ; and which made 
 him hastily arouse the councillors of 
 Augsburg, and send his messengers and 
 soldiers through the streets of the city. 
 
 The Protestant princes were still 
 slumbering, when they received on the 
 part of the Emperor, the unexpected 
 order to repair immediately to the Hall 
 of the Chapter, "j" 
 
 It was eight o'clock when they arrived. 
 They found there the electors of Bran- 
 denburg and Mentz, the Dukes of Sax- 
 ony, Brunswick, and Mecklenburg, the 
 Bishops of Salzburg, Spire, and Stras- 
 burg, George Truchses, the Margrave of 
 Baden's representative, Count Martin, of 
 (Elting, the Abbot of Weingarten, and 
 the Provost of Bamberg. These were 
 the commissioners nominated by Charles 
 to terminate this great affair. 
 
 It was the most decided among them r 
 Joachim of Brandenburg, who began to 
 speak. " You know," said he to the 
 Protestants, " with what mildness the 
 Emperor has endeavoured to re-establish 
 unity. If some abuses have crept into 
 the Christian Church, he is ready to 
 correct them, in conjunction with the 
 Pope. But how. contrary to the Gospel 
 are the sentiments you have adopted! 
 Abandon then your errors, do not any 
 longer remain separate from the Church, 
 and sign the Refutation without delay. :{: 
 If you refuse, then through your fault 
 how many souls will be lost, how much 
 blood shed, what countries laid waste, 
 what trouble in all the Empire ! And 
 you," said he, turning towards the Elec- 
 tor, " your electorate, your life, all will 
 be torn from you, and certain ruin will 
 fall upon your subjects, and even upon 
 their wives and children." 
 
 The Elector remained motionless. At 
 any time this language would have been 
 alarming : it was still more so now that 
 
 * Ego vero somno sopitus dulciter quiesce- 
 bam. (Corp. Raf. ii. p. 273.) 
 
 t Mane facto Cassar . . . convocavit nostros 
 pvincipes. (Ibid. p. 277 ; Bruck, Apol. p. 
 711.) 
 
 J Ut sentential quam in refutatione audivis- 
 sent subscribant. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 277.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 731 
 
 the city was almost in a state of siege. 
 " VVc now understand," said the Protes- 
 tants to one another, " why the imperial 
 guards occupy the gates of the city."* 
 It was evident, indeed, that the Emperor 
 intended violence. j" 
 
 The Protestants are unanimous : sur- 
 rounded with soldiers, at the very gates 
 of the prison, and beneath the thousaad 
 swords of Charles, they will remain firm. 
 
 day for which Philip had requested the 
 Emperor's leave of absence. He waits 
 until the commencement of the night, and 
 then, about eight o'clock, disguised in a 
 foreign dress, without bidding farewell to 
 any of his friends,* and taking every im- 
 aginable precaution,"!* he makes for the 
 gates of the city, about the time when 
 they are usually closed: Five or six 
 cavaliers followed him singly, and at a 
 
 All these threats will not make them take little distance.-}: In so critical a moment 
 
 one step back wards, "j:- It was important 
 for them, however, to consider their re- 
 ply. They begged for a few minutes' 
 delay, and retired. 
 
 To submit voluntarily, or to be reduc- 
 ed by force,*such was the dilemma Charles 
 proposed to the Evangelical Christians. 
 
 At the moment when each was anxious 
 
 will not these men-at-arms attract atten- 
 tion ? Philip traverses the streets with- 
 out danger, approaches the gate,§ passes 
 with a careless air through the midst of 
 the guard, between the scattered soldiers ; 
 no one moves, all remain idly seated, as 
 if nothing extraordinary was going on. 
 Philip has passed without being recog- 
 
 about the issue of this struggle, in which nised.|| His five or six horsemen come 
 the destinies of Christianity were con- through in like manner. Behold them all at 
 
 tending, an alarming rumour suddenly 
 raised the agitation of all minds to its 
 height. 
 
 The Landgrave, in the midst of his 
 preparations for the tournament, medi- 
 tated the most serious resolution. Ex- 
 cluded by Charles from every im porta at 
 deliberation, irritated at the treatment the 
 Protestants had undergone during this 
 diet,§ convinced that they had no more 
 chance of peace,|| not doubting that their 
 liberty was greatly endangered in Augs- 
 burg, and feeling unable to conceal under 
 the appearance of moderation the indig- 
 nation with which his soul was filled, be- 
 ing besides of a quick, prompt, and reso- 
 lute character, Philip had decided on 
 quitting the city and repairing to his states, 
 in order to act freely, and to serve as a 
 support to the Reform. 
 
 But what mystery was required! If 
 the Landgrave was taken in the act, no 
 doubt he would be put under arrest 
 This daring step might therefore become 
 the signal of those extreme measures 
 from which he longed to escape. 
 
 It was Saturday, the 6th August, the 
 
 fuarunt. 
 
 * 1'itelligis nunc cur ports munit 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 f Quia volabat Caesar nostros violentia ad 
 suam santantiarn cogera. (Ibid.) 
 
 t Sed h£ min3 nostros nihil commoverunt : 
 perstant in santantia, nac vel tantillum rece- 
 dunt. (Ibid.) 
 
 § Commotus indignitata actionum. (Corp. 
 Ref. ii. p. 23'J.) 
 
 || Spem pacid abjecisse. (Ibid.) 
 
 last in the open country. The little troop 
 immediately spur their horses, and flee 
 with headlong speed far from the walls 
 of the imperial city. 
 
 Yet Philip has taken his measures so 
 well, that no one as yet suspects his 
 departure. When during the night 
 Charles occupies the gates with his own 
 guards, he thinks the Landgrave still in 
 the city. IT When the Protestants were 
 assembled at eight in the morning in the 
 Chapter-hall, the princes of both parties 
 were a little astonished at the absence of 
 Philip of Hesse. They are accustomed, 
 however, to see him keep aloof; he is in 
 a pet, no doubt. No one imagines he is 
 h: tween twelve and fifteen leagues from 
 Augsburg. 
 
 After the termination of the conference, 
 and as eacl'i one was returning towards 
 his hotel, the Elector of Brandenburg 
 
 * Clam omnibus abit. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 2G0.) 
 f Multa cum cautela. (Seek. ii. p. 172.) 
 I Clam cum paucis equit.ibus. (Corp. Ref. 
 i p. 277 : Mit 5 oder G pferden. Ibid. p. 203.) 
 § Seckerdorf, and M. de Rommel no doubt 
 after him, say that 'the Landgrave went out 
 through a secret gate (porta urbis secretiori, 
 Seek. ii. p. 172 ; Rommel i p. 270.) I prefer 
 the contemporary evidence, particularly that of 
 Brenz, which says: Vesperi prius juam porta 
 urbis clauderentur, urba elapsus est. (Corp. 
 Ref ii. p. 277.) The chief magistrate of 
 Augsburg, who alone had the keys of the wick- 
 et, would never have dared to favour the de- 
 parture of the Landgrave. 
 
 || Ubi erat ilia ignotu3. (Corp. Raf. p. 2fil.) 
 IT Existimabat enim Cajsar adhuc praasto 
 adesse. (Ibid.) 
 
732 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 and Lis friends on the one hand, elated 
 at the speech they had delivered, the 
 Elector of Saxony and his allies on the 
 other, resolved to sacrifice everything, 
 inquiries were made at the Landgrave's 
 lodgings as to the reason of his absence ; 
 they closely question Salz, Nuszbicker, 
 Mayer, and Schnepf. At last the Hes- 
 sian councillors can no longer keep the 
 secret. " The Landgrave," said they, 
 " has returned to Hesse." 
 
 This news circulated immediately 
 through all the city ; and shook it like 
 the explosion of a mine. Charles especi- 
 ally, who found himself mocked, and 
 frustrated in his expectations — Charles, 
 who had not the least suspicion,* trem- 
 bled, and was enraged. "j" The Protes- 
 tants, whom the Landgrave had not 
 admitted to his secvet,:j: are as much as- 
 tonished as the Roman-catholics them- 
 selves, and fear that this inconsiderate 
 departure may be the immediate signal 
 for a terrible persecution. There was 
 only Luther, who, the moment he heard 
 of Philip's proceeding, highly approved 
 of it, and exclaimed : "Of a truth all 
 these delays and indignities are enough 
 to fatigue more than one Landgrave. "§ 
 
 The Chancellor of Hesse gave the 
 Elector of Saxony a letter that his master 
 had left for him. Philip spoke in this 
 ostensible document of his wife's health ; 
 but he had charged his ministers to 
 inform the Elector in private of the real 
 causes of his.departure. He announced, 
 moreover, that he had given orders to his 
 ministers to assist the Protestants in all 
 things, and exhort his allies to permit 
 themselves in no manner to- be turned 
 aside from the Word of God. JJ " As for 
 me," said he, " I shall fight for the Word 
 of God, at the risk of my goods, my 
 states, my subjects, and my life." 
 
 The effect of the Landgrave's departure 
 was instantaneous : a real revolution was 
 then effected in the diet. The Elector 
 
 * Cassare nihil suspicante. (Corp. Ref. ii. 
 p. 277^ 
 
 t Imperatorreinsperatacommotus. (Seek. 
 ii. p. 172.) 
 
 J Unwissend des Ch"<-f lir3 t 3 n von Sachsen 
 und unserer. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 233 ) 
 
 § Es mochte wohl isia mora et indignitas 
 nficheinen Landgraven muds machen. (L 
 Epp. iv. p. 134.) 
 
 || lit nullo modo a verbo Dei ab;trahi aut 
 terreri se patiatur. (Seek. ii. p. 172.) 
 
 cf Mentz and the bishops of Franconia, 
 Philip's near neighbours, imagined they 
 already saw him on their frontiers at the 
 head of a powerful army, find they 
 replied to the Archbishop of Salzburg, 
 who expressed astonishment at their 
 alarm : " Ah ! if you were in our place 
 you would do the same." Ferdinand, 
 knowing the intimate relations of Philip 
 with the Duke of Wurtemberg, trembled 
 for the estates of this prince, at that time 
 usurped by Austria ; and Charles the 
 Fifth, undeceived with regard to those 
 princes whom he had believed so timid, 
 and whom he had treated with so much 
 arrogance, had no doubt that this sudden 
 fit of Philip's had been maturely de- 
 liberated in the common council of the 
 Protestants. All saw a declaration of 
 war in the Landgrave's sudden departure. 
 They called to mind that at the moment 
 when they thought the least about it, 
 they might see him appear at the head 
 of his soldiers, on the frontiers of his 
 enemies, and no one was ready ; no one 
 even wished to be ready ! A thunder- 
 bolt had fallen in the midst of the diet. 
 They repeated the news to one another, 
 with troubled eyes and affrighted looks. 
 All was -confusion in Augsburg ; and 
 couriers bore afar, in every direction, 
 astonishment and consternation. 
 
 This alarm immediately converted the 
 enemies of the Reform. The violence 
 of Charles and of the princes was broken 
 in this memorable night as if by en- 
 chantment ; and the furious wolves were 
 suddenly transformed into meek and do- 
 cile lambs.* 
 
 It was still Sunday morning : Charle3 
 the Fifth immediately convoked the diet 
 for the afternoon. f "The Landgrave 
 has quitted Augsburg," said Count Fre- 
 derick from the Emperor ; " his majesty 
 flatters himself thai even the friends of 
 that prince were ignorant of his depar- 
 ture. It was without the Emperor's 
 knowledge, and even in defiance of his 
 express prohibition, that Philip of Hesse 
 has left, thus failing in all his duties. 
 He has wished to put the diet out of joint. $ 
 
 * Sed hanc violentiam ;ib : tu3 Landgravii in- 
 tarrupit (Corp. Ref. p. 277.) 
 
 f Nam cum paucis post horis resciscunf 
 Landgravium elapsum, convocant iterum nos- 
 tras (Ibid ) 
 
 X Zertrannuag dieses Reichstags zu verur- 
 sachen. (Ibid. p. 2G4.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 733 
 
 Bat the Emperor conjures you not to per- 1 prospect. Ho\v, with the enthusiasm 
 mit yourselves to be led astray by him, j that animated the Protestants, take up 
 and to contribute rather to the happy issue j arms against them ! Were not the abuses 
 of this national assembly. His majesty's of the Church everywhere acknowledged, 
 gratitude will thus be secured to you." and could the Roman princes be sure of 
 The Protestants replied, that the de- 'their own subjects? Besides, what 
 parture of the Landgrave had taken J would be the issue of a war but the in- 
 place without their knowledge ; that they crease of the Emperor's power? 
 
 had heard of it with pain, and that they 
 would have dissuaded him. Neverthe- 
 less they did not doubt that this prince 
 had solid reasons for such a step ; be- 
 sides he had left his councillors with full 
 powers, and that, as for them, they were 
 ready to do everything to conclude the 
 diet in a becoming manner. Then, con- 
 fident in their rights, and decided to re- 
 sist Charles's arbitrary act;:, they conti- 
 nued : " It is pretended that the gates 
 were closed on our account. We beg 
 your majesty to revoke this order, and to 
 prevent any similar orders being given 
 for the future." 
 
 Never was Charles the Fifth less at 
 ease : he had just spoken as a father, 
 and they remind him that a few hours 
 back he had acted like a tyrant. Some 
 subterfuge was requisite. " It is not 
 on your account," replied the Count- 
 
 Roman-catholic states, and the Duke of 
 Bavaria in particular, would have been 
 glad to see Charles at war with the Pro- 
 testants, in the hope that he would thus 
 consume his strength ; but it was, on the 
 contrary, with their own soldiers that 
 the Emperor designed- attacking the he- 
 retics. Henceforth they rejected the 
 instrumentality of arms as eagerly as 
 they had at first desired it. 
 
 Everything had thus changed in Augs- 
 burg : the Romish party was paralyzed, 
 disheartened, and even broken up. The 
 sword already drawn was hastily thrust 
 back into the sheath. Peace! peace! 
 was the cry of all. 
 
 XI. The diet now entered upon its 
 
 third phasis, and as the time of tentatives 
 
 had been followed by that of menaces ; 
 
 now that of arrangements was to suc- 
 
 palatine, " that the Emperor's soldiers ceed the period of menaces. New and 
 
 occupy the gates Beware of more formidable dangers were then to be 
 
 believing those who tell you so encountered by the Reform. Rome, 
 
 Yesterday there was a quarrel between seeing the sword torn from its hands, 
 two soldiers,* and a mob was collected, had seized the net, and enlacing her ad- 
 
 This is why the Emperor tool 
 that step. Besides, such things shall not 
 be done again without the Elector of 
 Saxony, in his quality of marshal of the 
 Empire, being first informed of them." 
 An order was given immediately to re- 
 open the gates 
 
 versaries with " cords of humanity and 
 bands of love," was endeavouring to drag 
 them gently into the abyss. 
 
 At eight o'clock in the morning of the 
 16th August, a mixed commission was 
 fr imed, which counted on each side two 
 princes, two lawyers, and three theolo- 
 
 No exertions were now spared by thejgians." In the Romish party, there were 
 Roman party to convince the Protestants Duke Henry of Brunswick, the Bishop 
 of their good-will: there was an unac- of Augsburg, the Chancellors of Baden 
 
 customed mildness in the language of the 
 Count-palatine and in the looks of 
 Charles. t The princes of the Papal 
 party, once so terrible, were similarly 
 transformed. They had been hastily 
 forced to speak out ; if they desired war, 
 they must begin it instantly. 
 
 But they shrunk back at this frightful 
 
 * Es haba ein Trabant mit einem andern ein 
 Unwill gehabt. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 205.) 
 
 f Nullo alio tempore mitius et benignius 
 quam tunc cum protestantibus egerit. (Seek. 
 . ii. p. 172.) 
 
 and Cologne, with Eck, Cochlceus, and 
 Wimpina; on the part of the Protestants, 
 were the Margrave George of Branden- 
 burg, the Prince Electoral of Saxony, the 
 Chancellors Briick and Heller, with Me- 
 lancthon, Brenz, and Schnepf.* 
 
 They agreed to take as basis the Con- 
 fession of the Evangelical states, and they 
 began to read it article by article. The 
 Romish theologians displayed an unex- 
 pected condescension. Out of twenty- 
 one dogmatical articles, there were only 
 
 * P. Urkundenbuch, ii. p. 210. 
 
734 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 adored ; and every one knows these* 
 verses of Cato's : 
 
 Si deus est animus, nobis ut carmina dicunt, 
 Hie tibi precipue pura sit mente colendus."* 
 
 £i Certainly," resumed the Rornish 
 theologians ; " it is only of works per- 
 formed with grace that we speak ; but we 
 say that in such* works there is something 
 confession. The Protestants rejected! meritorious." The Protestants declared 
 especially as impossible the enumeration they could not grant it 
 
 six or seven to which they made any ob- 
 jection. Original Sin stopped them some 
 time : at length they came to an under- 
 standing ; the Protestants admitted that 
 Baptism removed the guilt of the sin, and 
 the Papists agreed that it did not wash 
 away concupiscence. As for the Church, 
 they granted that it contained sanctified 
 men and sinners ; they coincided also on 
 
 ot all the sins prescribed by Pvome 
 Doctor Eck yielded this point.* 
 
 There remained three doctrines only 
 on which they differed. 
 
 The first was that of Penance. The 
 Ptomish doctors taught that it contained 
 three parts: contrition, confession, and 
 satisfaction. The Protestants rejected 
 the latter, and the Romanists clearly 
 perceiving that with satisfaction would 
 fall indulgences, purgatory, with other of 
 their doctrines and profits, vigorously 
 
 They had approximated however be- 
 yond all hope. The Roman theologians, 
 clearly understanding their position, had 
 purposed io appear agreed rather than be 
 so in reality. Every one knew, for in- 
 stance, that the Protestants rejected tran- 
 substantiation : but the Article of the 
 Confession on this point, being able to bo 
 taken in the Romish sense, the Papists 
 had admitted it. Their triumph was only- 
 deferred. The general expressions that 
 were used in all the controverted points, 
 
 maintained it. "We agree," said they, would permit somewhat later a Romish 
 
 that the penance imposed by the priest 
 does not procure remission of the guilt of 
 sin : but we maintain that it is necessary 
 to obtain remission of the penalty." 
 
 The second controverted point was the 
 Invocation of Saints ; and the third, and 
 principal one, was Justification by Faith. 
 It was of the greatest importance for the 
 Romanists to maintain the meritorious 
 influence of works : all their system, in 
 reality, was based on that. Eck there- 
 fore haughtily declared war on the asser- 
 tion that faith alone justifies. ' ; That 
 word sole" said he, " we cannot tolerate. 
 It generates scandals, and renders men 
 brutal and impious. Let us send back 
 the sole to the cobbler, "f 
 
 But the Protestants would not listen to 
 such reasoning ; and even when they put 
 the question to each other, Shall we 
 maintain that faith alone justifies us gra- 
 tuitously ? " Undoubtedly, undoubtedly," 
 exclaimed one of them with exaggeration, 
 "gratuitously and uselessly. "% They even 
 adduced strange authorities : " Plato," 
 said they, " declares that it is not by ex- 
 ternal works, but by virtue that God is 
 
 * Die Lund die man nicht wis32, die durff 
 man nicht beichten. (F. Urkunden, ii. p. 22S ) 
 
 f Man soil die Sole ein weil zum. Schuster 
 Schicken. (Urkund. ii. p. 225 ) This wretched 
 pun of Eck's requires no comment 
 
 % Omnino, omnino, addendum etiam frustra. 
 (Scultet. p. 2^8.) 
 
 interpretation to be given to the Con- 
 fession ; ecclesiastical authority would 
 declare this the only true one ; and Rome, 
 thanks to a few moments of dissimulation, 
 would thus reascend the throne. Have 
 we not seen in our own days the Thirty- 
 nine Articles of the Anglican Church 
 interpreted in accordance with the Coun- 
 cil of Trent? There are causes in which 
 falsehood is never awanting. This plot 
 was as skilfully executed, as it was pro- 
 foundly conceived. 
 
 The Commmissioners were on the 
 best terms with one another, and concord 
 seemed restored. One single uneasiness 
 disturbed that happy moment : the idea 
 of the Landgrave : " Ignorant that we 
 are almost agreed," said they, ' : this 
 young rnad-brain is doubtless already 
 assembling his army ; we must bring 
 him back, and make him a witness of 
 our cordial union." On the morning of 
 the 13th, one of the members of the Com- 
 mission (Duke Henry of Brunswick), ac- 
 companied by a councillor of the Em- 
 peror, set out to discharge this difficult 
 mission. f Duke George of Saxony sup- 
 plied his place as arbitrator. 
 
 * If God is a spirit, as the poets teach, hu 
 should be worshipped with a pure mind. 
 
 t Brunswigus coactus est abire irp-*s *■&* 
 uaxtSova quern timent contrahere exercitum. 
 (Scultet. p. 299.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 735 
 
 They now passed from the first part of 
 the Confession to the second : from doc- 
 trines to abuses. Here the Romish theo- 
 logians could not yield so easily, for if 
 they appeared to agree with the Protest- 
 ants, it was all over with the honour and 
 power of die hierarchy. It was ac- 
 cordingly for this period of the combat 
 that they had reserved their cunning and 
 their strength. 
 
 They began by approaching the Pro- 
 testants as near as they could, for the 
 more they granted, the more they might 
 draw the Reform to them and stifle it. 
 " We think," said they, " that with the 
 permission of his holiness, and the ap- 
 probation of his majesty, we shall be 
 able to permit, until the next council, the 
 communion in both kinds, wherever it is 
 practised already ; only, your ministers 
 should preach at Easter, that that is not 
 of Divine institution, and that Christ is 
 wholly in each kind.* 
 
 " Moreover," continued they, " as for 
 the married priests, desirous of sparing 
 the poor women whom they have seduced, 
 of providing for the maintenance of their 
 innocent children, and of preventing 
 every kind of scandal, we will tolerate 
 them until the next council, and we 
 shall tlfen see if it will not be right to 
 decree that married men may be admitted 
 to holy orders, as was the case in the 
 primitive Church for many centuries. | 
 
 " Finally, we acknowledge that the 
 sacrifice of the Mass is a mystery, a re- 
 presentation, a sacrifice of commemora- 
 tion, a memorial of the sufferings and 
 death of Christ, accomplished on the 
 cross. "$ 
 
 This was yielding -ieuch : but the turn 
 of the Protestants was come ; for if 
 Rome appeared to give, it was only to 
 take in return. 
 
 The grand question was the Church, 
 its maintenance and government : who 
 .should provide for it ? They could see 
 only two means : princes or bishops. If 
 they feared the bishops, they must decide 
 for the princes : if they feared the prin- 
 ces, they must decide for the bishops. 
 
 * Vorschlage des Anschlusses der Sieben des 
 Gegentheils. (Urk. ii. p. 251.) 
 
 f Wie von alters in der ersten Kirche etliche 
 Hundert Jahre, in Gebrauch gewesen. (Urk. 
 ii. p. 2">4.) 
 
 % Zu Errinnerung und Gedachtniss. (Ibid. 
 p. 203.) 
 
 They were at that time too distant from 
 the normal state to discover a third solu- 
 tion, and to perceive that the Church 
 ought to be maintained by the Church 
 itself — by the christian people. "Secu- 
 lar princes in the long-run will be defaul- 
 ters to the government of the Church," 
 said the Saxon divines in the opinion, they 
 presented on the 18th August; "they 
 are not fit to execute it, and besides it 
 would cost them too dear :* the bishops, 
 on the contrary, have property destined 
 to provide for this charge." 
 
 Thus the presumed incapacity of the 
 state, and the fear they entertained of its 
 indifference, threw the Protestants into 
 the arms of the hierarchy. 
 
 They proposed therefore to restore to 
 the bishops their jurisdiction, the main- 
 tenance of discipline, and the superinten- 
 dence of the priests, provided they did 
 not persecute the Evangelical doctrine, 
 and did not oppress the pastors with im- 
 pious vows and burdens". " We may 
 not," added they, " without strong rea- 
 sons rend that order by which the 
 bishops are over the priests, and which 
 existed in the Church from the beginning. 
 It is dangerous before the Lord to change 
 the order of (governments." Their arjju- 
 ment is not founded upon the Bible, as 
 may be seen, but upon ecclesiastical 
 discipline. 
 
 The Protestant divines went even 
 farther, and, taking a last step that 
 seemed decisive, they consented to ac- 
 knowledge the Pope as being (but of 
 human right) supreme bishop of Chris- 
 tendom. " Although the Pope is Anti- 
 christ, we may be under his government, 
 as the Jews were under Pharaoh, and in 
 later days under Caiaphas." We must 
 confess these two comparisons were not 
 flattering to the Pope. " Only," added 
 the doctors, " let the sound doctrine be 
 fully accorded to us." 
 
 The chancellor Briick alone appears 
 to have been conscious of the truth : he 
 wrote on the margin with a firm hand : 
 " We cannot acknowledge the Pope, be- 
 cause we say he is Antichrist, and be- 
 cause he claims the primacy of right 
 divine. "f 
 
 * 1st Ihmen auch nicht mo^lich. Dazu 
 Kostet es zu viel. (Urk. ii. p. 247 ) 
 
 j Cum dicimus eum Antichristum. (Urk 
 p. 247.) 
 
736 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Finally, the Protestant theologians! such concessions," said their affrighted 
 
 consented to agree with Rome as re- 
 gards indifferent ceremonies, fasts, and 
 forms of worship ; and the Elector en- 
 gaged to put under sequestration the ec- 
 clesiastical property already secularized, 
 until the decision of the next council. 
 
 Never was the conservative spirit of 
 Lutheranism more clearly manifested. 
 " We have promised our adversaries to 
 concede to them certain points of church 
 government, that may be granted with- 
 out wounding the conscience, 1 ' wrote 
 Melancthon.* But he began to be very 
 doubtful whether ecclesiastical conces- 
 sions would not drag with them doctrinal 
 concessions also. The reform was drift- 
 ing away still a few more fath- 
 oms, and" it was lost. Already disunion, 
 trouble, and affright began to spread 
 among its ranks. Melancthon has be- 
 come more childish than a child, said 
 one of his friends ;| and yet he was so 
 excited, that the Chancellor of Lunen- 
 burg having made some objections to 
 these unprecedented concessions, the 
 little Master of Arts proudly raised his 
 head, and said with a sharp and harsh 
 tone of voice : " He who dares assert 
 that the means indicated are not chris- 
 tian is a liar and a scoundrel. "| On 
 which the Chancellor immediately repaid 
 him in his own coin. These expres- 
 sions cannot, however, detract from Me- 
 lancthon's reputation for mildness. Af- 
 ter so many useless efforts, he was ex- 
 hausted, irritated, and his words cut the 
 deeper, as they were the less expected 
 from him. He was not the only one de- 
 moralized. Brenz appeared clumsy, 
 rude, and uncivil ; Chancellor Keller 
 had misled the pious Margrave of Bran- 
 denburg, and transformed the courage 
 of this prince into pusillanimity : no 
 other human support remained to the 
 Elector than his chancellor Bruck. And 
 even this firm man began to grow alarm- 
 ed at his isolation. 
 
 But he was not alone : the most ear 
 nest protests were received from with 
 out. " If it is true that you are making 
 
 * Nos politica quT.dim eoneessuros quse sine 
 offensione conscientkr. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 
 302.) 
 
 fPhilippus ist kindischer denn ein kind 
 warden. (Baumgartner, Ibid, p 363.) 
 
 t Der lujje als ein Bosewichst. (Ibid. p. 
 364.) 
 
 friends to the Saxon divines, " christian 
 liberty is at an end.* What is your 
 pretended concord ? a thick cloud that 
 you raise in the air to eclipse the sun 
 that was beginning to illumine the 
 Church. | Never will the christian 
 people accept conditions so opposed to 
 the Word of God ; and j'our only gain 
 will be fm - nishing the enemies of the 
 Gospel with a specious pretext to butcher 
 those who remain faithful to it." Among 
 the laymen these convictions were gene- 
 ral. " Better die with Jesus Christ," 
 said all Augsburg4 "than gain the fa- 
 vour of the whole world without him !" 
 
 No one felt so much alarm as Luther 
 at the moment when he saw the glorious 
 edifice that God had raised by his hands 
 on the point of falling to ruin in those of 
 Melancthon. The day on which this 
 news arrived, he wrote five letters, — to 
 the Elector, to Melancthon, to Spalatin, 
 to Jonas, and to Brenz, all equally filled 
 with courage and with faith. 
 
 " I learn," said he, " that you have 
 begun a marvellous work, namely, to put 
 Luther and the Pope in harmony ; but 
 the Pope is unwilling, and Luther begs 
 to be excused. § And if, in despite of 
 them, you succeed in this affair^ then 
 after your example I will bring together 
 Christ and Belial. 
 
 " The world I know is full of wran- 
 glers who obscure the doctrine of justifi- 
 cation by faith, and of fanatics who per- 
 secute it. Do not be astonished at it, but 
 continue to defend it with courage, for it 
 is the heel of the seed of the woman that 
 shall bruise the head of the serpent. j| 
 
 " Beware also of the jurisdiction of the 
 bishops, for fear we should have soon to 
 recommence a more terrible struggle than 
 the first. They will take our concessions 
 widely, very widely, always more widely, 
 and will give us theirs narrowly, very 
 narrowly, and always more narrowly .IT 
 
 * Actum est de Christiana libertate. (Baum- 
 gartner, Corp. Ref. ii. p. 295.) 
 
 f Quid ea concordia aliud esset quam natse 
 jam et divulgate luci obducere nubsm. (ibid. 
 p. 293".) 
 
 X Die gauge Stadt sagt. (Tbid p. 207.) 
 
 § Sed Papa nolet et Lutherus deprecatur. 
 (L. Epp. iv. p. 144,) 
 
 || Nam hie est ille unicus calcaneus seminis 
 antiquo serpenti adversantis. (Ibid. p. 151 ) 
 
 H Ipsi enim nostras concessiones large, lar* 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 737 
 
 All these negotiations are impossible, 
 unless the Pope should renounce his Pa- 
 pacy. 
 
 " A pretty motive indeed our adversa- 
 ries assign ! They cannot, say they, re- 
 strain their subjects, if we do not publish 
 everywhere that they have the truth for 
 them : as if God only taught his Word, 
 in order that our enemies might at plea- 
 sure tyrannize over their people. 
 
 " They cry out that we condemn all 
 the Church. No, wc do not condemn it ; 
 but as for them, they condemn all the 
 Word of God, and the Word of God is 
 more than the Church."* 
 
 This important declaration of the Re- 
 formers decides the controversy between 
 the Evangelical Christians and the Pa- 
 pacy : unfortunately we have often seen 
 Protestants return, on this fundamental 
 point, to the error of Rome, and set the 
 visible Church above the Word of God. 
 
 " I write to you now," continues Lu- 
 ther, " to believe with all of us (and that 
 through obedience to Jesus Christ), that 
 Campeggio is a famous demon.")" I can- 
 not tell how violently these conditions 
 agitate me which you propose. The plan 
 of Campeggio and the Pope has been to 
 try us first by threats, and then, if they 
 do not succeed, by stratagems ; you have 
 triumphed over the first attack, and sus- 
 tained the terrible coming of Caesar : 
 now, then, for the second. Act with 
 courage, and do not yield to the adversa- 
 ries except what can'be proved with evi- 
 dence from the very Word of God. 
 
 " But if, which Christ forbid ! you do 
 not put forward all the Gospel ; if, on 
 the contrary, you shut up that glorious 
 eagle in a sack ; Luther — doubt it not ! 
 — Luther will come and gloriously de- 
 liver the eagle. ^ As certainly as Christ 
 lives, that shall be done !" 
 
 Thus spoke Luther, but in vain : 
 everything in Augsburg was tending to- 
 wards approaching ruin ; Melancthon 
 had a bandage over his eyes that nothing 
 
 gius, larsjissime, suas vero, stricte, strictius, 
 atrictissime. (Ibid. p. 145.) 
 
 * Sed ab ipsis totum verbum Dei quod plus 
 quam ecclesia est damnari. (L. Epp. iv. p. 
 145.) 
 
 t Quod Campeggius est unus magnus et in- 
 ■ignis diabolus. (Ibid. p. 147.) 
 
 X Veniet, ne dubita, veniet Lutterus, hanc 
 aquilam liberaturus magnifice. (L. Epp. iv. 
 p. 155.) 
 
 93 
 
 could tear off. He no longer listened to 
 Luther, and cared not for popularity. 
 " It does not become us," said he, " to 
 be moved by the clamours of the vul- 
 gar :* we must think of peace and of 
 posterity. If we repeal the episcopal 
 jurisdiction, what will be the conse- 
 quence to our descendants ? The secu- 
 lar powers care nothing about the inter- 
 ests of religion. \ Besides too much dis- 
 similarity in the Churches is injurious 
 to peace : we must unite with the bishops, 
 lest the infamy of schism should over- 
 whelm us for ever. "J 
 
 They too readily listened to Melanc- 
 thon, and they vigorously laboured to 
 bind to the Papacy by the bonds of the. 
 hierarchy the Church that God had won- 
 derfully emancipated. Protestantism 
 rushed blindfold into the nets of its ene- 
 mies. Already serious voices announced 
 the return of the Lutherans into the 
 bosom of the Romish Church. " They 
 are preparing their defection, and are 
 passing over to the Papists," said Zwin- 
 gle.§ The politic Charles the Fifth so 
 acted that no haughty word should com- 
 promise the victory ; but the Roman 
 clergy could not master themselves : 
 their pride, their insolence increased every 
 day. " One would never believe," said 
 Melancthon, " the airs of triumph which 
 the Papists give themselves." There- 
 was good reason ! the agreement was on 
 the verge of conclusion : yet one or two 
 steps .... and then, woe to Reform ! 
 
 Who could prevent this desolating 
 ruin ? It was Luther who pronounced 
 the name towards which all eyes should 
 be turned : " Christ lives," said he,. 
 " and he by whom the violence of our 
 enemies has been conquered will give us 
 strength to surmount their wiles." This 
 was in truth the only resource, and it 
 did not fail the Reform. 
 
 If the Roman hierarchy had been wil- 
 ling, under certain admissible conditions, 
 to receive the Protestants who were ready 
 to capitulate, it was all over with them. 
 When once it held them in its arms, it 
 
 * Sed nos nihil decet vulgi clamoribus 
 moveri. (Corp. Ref. ii p. 303.) 
 
 t Profani jurisdictionem ecclesiasticmi et 
 similia negotia religionem non curent. (Ibid.) 
 
 J Ne schismatis infamia perpetuo labore- 
 mus. (Ibid.) 
 
 § Luthenni defectionem parant ad Papiatai 
 (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 401.) 
 
738 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 would have stifled them ; but God blind- 
 ed the Papacy, and thus saved his 
 Church. " No concessions," had de- 
 clared the Romish senate ; and Cam- 
 peggio, elated with his victory, repeated, 
 " No concessions !" He moved heaven 
 and earth to inflame the Catholic zeal of 
 Charles in this decisive moment. From 
 the Emperor he passed to the princes. 
 " Celibacy, confession, the withdrawal 
 of the cup, private masses !" exclaimed 
 he : " all these are obligatory : we must 
 have all." This was saying to the 
 Evangelical Christians, as the Samnites 
 to the ancient Romans : " Here are the 
 Caudine Forks : pass through them !" 
 
 The Protestants saw the yoke, and 
 shuddered. God revived the courage 
 of the confessors in their weakened 
 hearts. They raised their heads, and 
 rejected this humiliating capitulation. 
 The commission was immediately dis- 
 solved. 
 
 This was a great deliverance ; but 
 soon appeared a fresh danger. The 
 Evangelical Christians should have im- 
 mediately quitted Augsburg ; but, said 
 one of them,* "Satan, disguised as an 
 angel of light, blinded the eyes of their 
 understanding." They remained. 
 
 All was not yet lost for Rome, and the 
 spirit of falsehood and of cunning might 
 again renew its attacks. 
 
 It was believed at court that this disa- 
 greeable termination of the commission 
 was to be ascribed to some wrong-headed 
 individuals, and particularly to Duke 
 George. They therefore resolved to name 
 .another, composed of six members only : 
 on the one side, Eck, with the chancel- 
 lors of Cologne and Baden; on the other, 
 Melancthon, with the chancellors Briick 
 and Heller. The Protestants consented, 
 and all was begun anew. 
 
 The alarm then increased among the 
 most decided followers of the Reforma- 
 tion. " If we expose ourselves unceas- 
 ingly to new dangers, must we not suc- 
 cumb at last ?"f The deputies of Nu- 
 remberg in particular declared that their 
 city would never place itself again under 
 the detested yoke of the bishops. " It is 
 the advice of the undecided Erasmus that 
 
 * Baumgartner to Spengler. (Corp. Ref ii. 
 p. 3G3.) 
 
 t Fremuntet alii socii ac indigtntur regnum 
 Episcoporum restitui. (Ibid. p. 32S.) 
 
 Melancthon follows," said they. " Say 
 rather of Ahithophel " (2 Sam. xv.), re- 
 plied others. " However it may be," 
 added they ; " if the Pope had bought 
 Melancthon, the latter could have done 
 nothing better to secure the victory for 
 him."* 
 
 The Landgrave was especially indig- 
 nant at this cowardice. ' ; Melancthon," 
 wrote he to Zwingle, " walks backwards 
 like a crab."f From Fried wald, whither 
 he had repaired after his flight from 
 Augsburg, Philip of Hesse endeavoured 
 to check the fall of Protestantism. " W hen 
 we begin to yield, we always yield more," 
 wrote he to his ministers at Augsburg. 
 " Declare therefore to my allies that I 
 reject these perfidious conciliations. If 
 we are Christians, what, we should pur- 
 sue is, not our own advantage, but the 
 consolation of so many weary and afflict- 
 ed consciences, for whom there is no Sal- 
 vation if we take away the Word of God. 
 The bishops are not real bishops, for they 
 speak not according to the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. If we acknowledge them, what 
 would happen ? They would remove 
 our ministers, oppress the Gospel, re- 
 establish ancient abuses, and the last state 
 would be worse than the first. If the 
 Papists will permit the free preaching of 
 the pure Gospel, let us come to an un- 
 derstanding with them ; for the truth will 
 be the strongest, and will root out all the 
 rest. But if not! — No. This is the 
 moment, not to yield, but to remain firm 
 even to the death. Baffle these fearful 
 combinations of Melancthon, and tell, 
 from me, the deputies of the cities to be 
 men, and not women.:}: Let us fear no- 
 thing : God is with us." 
 
 Melancthon and his friends, thus at- 
 tacked, sought to justify themselves: on 
 the one hand, they maintained, that if 
 they preserved the doctrine it would 
 finally overthrow the hierarchy. But 
 then why restore it ? Was it not more 
 than doubtful whether a doctrine so en- 
 feebled would still retain strength suf- 
 ficient to shake the Papacy ? On the 
 other hand, Melancthon and his friends 
 pointed out two phantoms before which 
 
 * Si conductus quanta ipse voluisset pecunia 
 a Papa essct. (Corp. Ref ii. p. 333 ) 
 
 f Retro it, nt cancer. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 50fi.) 
 | Das sie nicht vvevber seyen sondern man- 
 ner. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 327.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 15m. 
 
 739 
 
 they shrunk in affright. The first was 
 war : it was, in their opinion, imminent. 
 " It is not only," said they, " numberless 
 temporal evils that it will bring with it, — 
 the devastation of Germany, murder, 
 violation, sacrilege, rapine ; but it will 
 produce spiritual evils more frightful 
 still, and will inevitably bring on the 
 perturbation of all religion."* The 
 second phantom was the supremacy of 
 the state. Melancthon and his friends 
 foresaw the dependence to which the 
 princes would reduce the Church, the 
 increasing secularization of its institu- 
 tions and of its* instruments, the spiritual 
 death that would result, and they shrunk 
 back with terror from the frightful pros- 
 pect. " Good men do not think that the 
 court should regulate the ministry of the 
 Church,"f said Brenz. " Have you not 
 yourselves experienced," added he ironi- 
 cally, " with what wisdom and mildness 
 these boors ('tis thus I denominate the 
 officials and prefects of the princes) treat 
 the ministers of the Church, and the 
 Church itself. Rather die seven times!" 
 — " I see," exclaimed Melancthon, " what 
 a Church we shall have if the ecclesias- 
 tical government is abolished. I discover 
 in the future a tyranny far more intolera- 
 ble than that which has existed to this 
 day."! Then, bowed down by the ac- 
 cusations that poured upon him from 
 every side, the unhappy Philip exclaim- 
 ed : "If it is I who have aroused this 
 tempest, I pray his majesty to throw me, 
 like Jonas, into the sea, and to drag me 
 out only to give me up to torture and to 
 the stake. "§ 
 
 The Romish episcopacy once recog- 
 nised, all seemed easy. In the Commis- 
 sion of Six, they conceded the cup to the 
 laity, marriage to the pastors, and the 
 article of prayer to saints appeared of 
 little importance. But they stopped at 
 three doctrines which the Evangelicals 
 could not yield. The first was the ne- 
 cessity of human satisfaction for the re- 
 
 * Confusio et perturbatio religionum. (Corp. 
 Ref ii. p. 3S2 ) 
 
 f Ut aula ministarium in ecclesia ordinet 
 bonis non videtur consultum. (Ibid. p. 332.) 
 
 % Video postea multo intolerabiliorem futu- 
 ram tyrannidem quam unquam antea fuisse. 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 334.) 
 
 § Si mea causa haec tempestas coacta est, 
 me statim vclut Jonam in mare ejiciat. (Ibid. 
 p. 3S2.) 
 
 mission of the penalties of sin ; the 
 second, the idea of something meritorious 
 in every good work ; the third, the utility 
 of private masses. " Ah !" quickly re- 
 plied Campeggio to Charles the Fifth, 
 " I would rather be cut in pieces than 
 concede anything about Masses."* 
 
 "What!" replied the politicians, 
 " when you agree on all the great doc- 
 trines of salvation, will you for ever rend 
 the unit)' of the Church for three such 
 trivial articles ? Let the theologians 
 make a last effort, and we shall see the 
 two parties unite, and Rome embrace 
 Wittemberg." 
 
 It was not so : under these three points 
 was concealed a whole system. On the 
 Roman side, they entertained the idea 
 that certain works gain the Divine favour, 
 independently of the disposition of him 
 who performs them, and by virtue of the 
 will of the Church. On the Evangeli- 
 cal side, on the contrary, they felt a con- 
 viction that these external ordinances 
 were mere human traditions, and that 
 the only thing which procured man the 
 Divine favour was the work that God ac- 
 complished by Christ on the cross ; while 
 the only thing that put him in possession 
 of this favour was the work of regene- 
 ration that Christ accomplishes by his 
 Spirit in the heart of the sinner. The 
 Romanists, by maintaining their three 
 articles, said : " the Church saves," 
 which is the essential doctrine of Rome ; 
 the Evangelicals, by rejecting them, 
 said : " Jesus Christ alone saves," which 
 is Christianity itself. This is the great 
 antithesis which then existed, and which 
 still separates the two Churches. With 
 these three points, which placed souls 
 under her dependence, Rome justly ex- 
 pected to recover everything ; and she 
 showed by her perseverance that she un- 
 derstood her position. But the Evange- 
 licals were not disposed to abandon 
 theirs. The Christian principle was 
 maintained against the ecclesiastical 
 principle which aspired to swallow it 
 up : Jesus Christ stood firm in presence 
 of the Church, and it was seen that 
 henceforward all conferences were su- 
 perfluous. 
 
 Time pressed : for two months and a 
 half Charles the Fifth had been labour- 
 
 * Er wollte sich ehe auf Stacker Zureisseu 
 lassen. (L. Opp. xx. p. 32S.) 
 
740 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ing in Augsburg, and his pride suffered 
 because four or five theologians checked 
 the triumphal progress of the conqueror 
 of Pavia. " What !" said they to him, 
 " a few days sufficed to overthrow the 
 King of France and the Pope, and you 
 cannot succeed with these Gospellers !" 
 They determined on breaking off the 
 conferences. Eck, irritated because 
 neither stratagem nor terror had been 
 effectual, could not master himself in the 
 presence of the Protestants. " Ah !" 
 exclaimed he, at the moment of separa- 
 tion, " why did not the Emperor, when 
 he entered Germany, make a general in- 
 quest about the Lutherans ? He would 
 then have heard arrogant answers, wit- 
 nessed monsters of heresy, and his zeal 
 suddenly taking fire, would have led him 
 to destroy all this faction.* But now 
 Burck's mild language and Melancthon's 
 concessions prevent him from getting so 
 angry as the cause requires." Eck said 
 these words with a smile ; but they ex- 
 pressed all his thoughts. The colloquy 
 terminated on the 30th of August. 
 
 The Romish states made their report 
 to the Emperor. They were face to face, 
 three steps only from each other, without 
 either side being able to approach nearer, 
 even by a hair's breadth. 
 
 Thus, then, Melancthon had failed ; 
 and his enormous concessions were found 
 useless. From a false love of peace, he 
 had set his heart on an impossibility. 
 Melancthon was at the bottom a really 
 christian soul. God preserved him from 
 his great weakness, and broke the clue 
 that was about to lead him to destruction. 
 Nothing could have been more fortunate 
 for the Reformation than Melancthon's 
 failure ; but nothing could, at the same 
 time, have been more fortunate for him- 
 self: his friends saw that though he was 
 willing to yield much, he could not go so 
 far as to yield Christ himself, and his de- 
 feat justified him in the eyes of the Pro- 
 testants. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony and the Mar- 
 graveof Brandenburg sent to beg Charles's 
 leave to depart. The latter refused at 
 first rather rudely, but at last he began 
 to conjure the princes not to create by 
 their departure new obstacles to the ar- 
 
 * Hsec inflammassent Imperatorem ad totam 
 hanc factionem delendam. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 
 335.) 
 
 rangements they soon hoped to be able 
 to conclude.* We shall see of what na- 
 ture these arrangements were. 
 
 They appeared to redouble their ex- 
 ertions. If they now let the clue slip, it 
 is lost for ever : they laboured according- 
 ly to reunite the two ends. There were 
 conferences in the gardens, conferences 
 at the churches, at St. George's, at St. 
 Maurice's, between the Duke of Bruns- 
 wick and John Frederick the Elector's 
 son, the Chancellors of Baden and of 
 Saxony, the Chancellor of Liege and Me- 
 lancthon ; but all these attempts were un- 
 availing. It was to other means they 
 were going to have recourse. 
 
 Charles the Fi fth had resolved to take the 
 affair in hand, and to cut the Gordian knot, 
 which neither doctor nor princes could 
 untie. Irritated at seeing his advances 
 spurned and his authority compromised, 
 he thought that the moment was come 
 for drawing the sword. On the 4th 
 September the members of the Roman 
 party, who were still endeavouring to 
 gain over the Protestants, whispered these 
 frightful intentions in Melancthon's ears. 
 " We scarcely dare mention it," said 
 they : " the sword is already in the Em- 
 peror's hands, and certain people exas- 
 perate him more and more. He is not 
 easily enraged, but once angry it is im- 
 possible to quiet him."f 
 
 Charles had reason to appear exacting 
 and terrible. He had at length obtained 
 from Rome an unexpected concession — a 
 council. Clement VII. had laid the 
 Emperor's request before a Congregation : 
 " How will men Avho reject the ancient 
 councils submit to a new one ?" they had 
 replied. Clement himself had no wish 
 for such an assembly. His birth and his 
 conduct made him equally dread it.:}: 
 However, his promises at the Castle of 
 St. Angelo and at Bologna rendered it 
 impossible for him to give a decided re- 
 fusal. He answered, therefore, that " the 
 remedy would be worse than the disease ;§ 
 
 * Antwort des Kaisers, &c. (Urkund. ii. 
 p. 313.) 
 
 t Nescio an ausim dicere, jam ferrum in 
 manu Caesaris esse. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 342.) 
 
 % In earn (concilii celebrationem) Pontificis 
 animus haud propendebatur. (Pallavicini. L 
 p. 251.) 
 
 § Al contrario, remedio e piu pericoloso 
 e per partorir maggiori mali. (Lettere de 
 Principe, ii. p. 197.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 741 
 
 but that if the Emperor, who was so good 
 a Catholic, judged a council absolutely 
 necessary, he would consent to it, under 
 the express condition, however, that the 
 Protestants should submit in the mean- 
 while to the doctrines and rites of the 
 Church." Then as the place of meeting 
 he appointed Rome ! 
 
 Scarcely had the news of this con- 
 cession spread abroad, than the fear of a 
 Reformation froze the Papal court. The 
 public charges of the Papacy, which were 
 altogether venal, immediately fell, says a 
 cardinal, and were offered at the lowest 
 price,* without even being able to find 
 purchasers.! The Papacy was com- 
 promised ; the merchandise was in great 
 danger ; and the price current imme- 
 diately declined on the Roman ex- 
 change. 
 
 On Wednesday, 7th September, at 
 two in the afternoon, the Protestant 
 princes and deputies having been intro- 
 duced into the chamber of Charles the 
 Fifth, the Count-palatine said to them, 
 "that the Emperor, considering their 
 small number, had not expected they 
 would uphold new sects against the 
 ancient usages of the Universal Church ; 
 that, nevertheless, being desirous of 
 appearing to the last full of kindness, he 
 would require of his Holiness the convo- 
 cation of a council ; but that in the 
 meanwhile they should return imme- 
 diately into the bosom of the Catholic 
 Church, and restore everything to its 
 ancient footing.":): 
 
 The Protestants replied on the morrow, 
 the 8th September, that they had not 
 stirred up new sects contrary to the Holy 
 Scriptures ;§ that, quite the reverse, if 
 they had not agreed with their adversa- 
 ries, it was because they had desired to 
 remain faithful to the Word of God ; 
 that by convoking in Germany a general, 
 free, and christian council, it would only 
 be doing what preceding diets had pro- 
 mised ; but that nothing should compel 
 
 * Evulgatus concilii rumor. . . .publica Roma 
 munera....jam in vilissimum pretium deci- 
 dissent. (Pallav. i. p. 251.) 
 
 t Che non se non trovano danari. (Lett, di 
 Prin. iii. p. 5.) 
 
 | Interim restitui debere omnia Papistis. 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 355. See also Erkldrung 
 des Kaisers Karl v. Urkunden, ii. p. 391.) 
 
 § Nit neue, Secten wieder die heilige 
 Schritft. (Bruck. Apol. p. 136.) 
 
 them to re-establish in their churches an 
 order of things opposed to the command- 
 ments of God." 
 
 It was eight in the evening when, after 
 a long deliberation, the Protestants were 
 again called in. " His majesty," said 
 George Truchses to them, " is equally 
 astonished, both that the Catholic mem- 
 bers of the commissions have accorded 
 so much, and that the Protestant mem- 
 bers have refused everything. What is 
 your party in the presence of his imperial 
 majesty, of his Papal holiness, of the 
 electors, princes, estates of the Empire, 
 and other kings, rulers, and potentates of 
 Christendom? It is but just that the 
 minority should yield to the majority. 
 Do you desire the means of conciliation 
 to be protracted, or do you persist in 
 your answer ? Speak frankly ; for if 
 you persist, the Emperor will imme- 
 diately see to the defence of the Church. 
 To-morrow at one o'clock you will bring 
 your final decision." 
 
 Never had such threatening words 
 issued from Charles's mouth. It was 
 evident he wished to subdue the Pro- 
 testants by terror ; but this end was not 
 attained. They replied the next day but 
 one — a day more having been accorded 
 them — that new attempts at conciliation 
 would only fatigue the Emperor and the 
 diet ; that they only required regulations 
 to maintain political peace until the as- 
 sembling of the council.* " Enough," 
 replied the redoubtable Emperor ; " I 
 will reflect upon it ; but in the mean 
 time let no one quit Augsburg." 
 
 Charles the Fifth was embarrassed in 
 a labyrinth from which he knew not how 
 to escape. The state had resolved to 
 interfere with the Church, and saw itself 
 compelled to have immediate recourse to 
 its ultima ratio — the sword. Charles 
 did not desire war, and yet how could he 
 now avoid it ? If he did not execute his 
 threats, his dignity was compromised, 
 and his authority rendered contemptible. 
 He sought an outlet on one side or the 
 other, but could find none. It therefore 
 only remained for him to close his eyes, 
 and rush forward without knowing what 
 might happen. These thoughts disturbed 
 him : these cares preyed upon him ; he 
 was utterly confounded. 
 
 * Urkunden. ii. p. 410 ; Bruck, Apol. p. 139. 
 
742 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 It was now that the Elector sent to 
 beg Charles would not be offended if he 
 left Augsburg. " Let him await my 
 answer," abruptly replied the Emperor ; 
 and the Elector having rejoined that he 
 would send his ministers to explain his 
 motives to his majesty : " Not so many 
 speeches," resumed Charles, with irrita- 
 tion ; " let the Elector say whether he 
 will stay or not !"* 
 
 A rumour of the altercation between 
 these two powerful princes having spread 
 abroad, the alarm became universal ; it 
 was thought war would break out imme- 
 diately, and there was a great cry in all 
 Augsburg. -\ It was evening : men were 
 running to and fro ; they rushed into the 
 hotels of the princes and of the Protes- 
 tant deputies, and addressed them with 
 the severest reproaches. " His imperial 
 majesty," said they, " is about to have 
 recourse to the most energetic measures !" 
 They even declared that hostilities had 
 begun : it was whispered that the com- 
 mander of Horneck (Walter of Kronberg), 
 elected by the Emperor grand-master of 
 the Teutonic order, was about to enter 
 Prussia with an army, and dispossess 
 Duke Albert, converted by Luther.:}: 
 Two nights successively the same tumult 
 was repeated. They shouted, they quar- 
 relled, they fought, particularly in and 
 before the mansions of the princes : the 
 war was nearly commencing in Augs- 
 burg. 
 
 At that crisis (12th September), John 
 Frederick, prince-electoral of Saxony, 
 quitted the city. 
 
 On the same day, or on the morrow, 
 Jerome VVehe, chancellor of Baden, and 
 Count Truchses on the one side ; Chan- 
 cellor Briick and Melancthon on the other, 
 met at six in the morning in the church 
 of St. Maurice. § 
 
 Charles, notwithstanding his threats, 
 could not decide on employing force. He 
 could no doubt by a single word to his 
 Spanish bands or to his German lansque- 
 nets have seized on these inflexible men, 
 and treated them like Moors. But how 
 
 * Kurtz mit Solchen worten ob er erwarten 
 wolte oder nicht? (Briick, Apol. p. 143.) 
 
 ■f Ein beschwerlich Geschrey zu Augsbourg 
 den selben abend ausgebrochen. (Ibid p. 145.) 
 
 X Man wiirde ein Kriegs-volk in Preussen 
 Schicken. (Briick, Apol. p. 143.) 
 
 § Ibid. p. 155-160. 
 
 could Charles, a Netherlander, a Spani- 
 ard, who had been absent ten years from 
 the Empire, dare, without raising all 
 Germany, offer violence to the favourites 
 of the nation ? Would not the Roman- 
 catholic princes themselves see in this 
 act an infringement of their privileges ? 
 War was unseasonable. " Lutheranism 
 is extending already from the Baltic to 
 the Alps," wrote Erasmus to the legate : 
 " You have but one thing to do : tolerate 
 it."* 
 
 The negotiation begun in the Church 
 of St. Maurice was continued between 
 the Margrave of Brandenburg and Count 
 Truchses. The Roman party only 
 sought to save appearances, and did not 
 hesitate, besides, to sacrifice everything. 
 It asked merely for a few theatrical de- 
 corations — that the Mass should be cele- 
 brated in the sacerdotal garment, with 
 chanting, reading, ceremonies, and its 
 two canons. | All the rest was referred 
 to the next council, and the Protestants, 
 till then, should conduct themselves so as 
 to render account to God, to the council, 
 and to his majesty. 
 
 But on the side of the Protestants the 
 wind had also changed. Now they will 
 no longer have peace with Rome : the 
 scales had at last fallen from their eyes, 
 and they discovered with affright the 
 abyss into which they had so nearly 
 plunged. Jonas, Spalatin, and even 
 Melancthon were agreed. " We have 
 hitherto obeyed the commandment of St. 
 Paul, Be at peace with all vien," said 
 they ; " now we mdst obey this com- 
 mandment of Christ, Beware ye of the 
 leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypo- 
 crisy. On the side of our adversaries is 
 nothing but cunning and perfidy, and 
 their only aim is to stifle our doctrine, 
 which is truth itself.^ They hope to 
 save the abominable articles of Purga- 
 tory, Indulgences, and the Papacy, be- 
 cause we have passed them by in si- 
 lence. § Let us beware of betraying 
 
 * A mare Baltico ad Helvetios. (Erasm. 
 Epp. xiv. p. 1 .) 
 
 f Ingewohnlichen Kleidungen mit Gesang 
 und Lesen. (Urk ii. p. 418.) The canon was 
 a frame of card-board placed on the altar be- 
 fore the priest, and which contained the Apos- 
 tles' Creed with various prayers. 
 
 | Estel List gefahiliche Tiicke, &c. (Jonas. 
 Urkund. ii. p 423.) 
 
 § Die grauliche artikel. (Spalat. Ibid. p. 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 743 
 
 Christ and his Word in order to please 
 antichrist and the devil."* 
 
 Luther at the same time redoubled his 
 entreaties to withdraw his friends from 
 Augsburg. " Return, return," cried he 
 to them ; " return, even if it must be so, 
 cursed by the Pope and the Emperor. -J- 
 You have confessed Jesus Christ, offered 
 peace, obeyed Charles, supported insults, 
 and endured blasphemies. I will can- 
 onize ycju, I, as faithful members of 
 Jesus Christ. You have done enough, 
 and more than enough : now it is for the 
 Lord to act, and he will act ! They 
 have our Confession, they have the 
 Gospel ; let them receive it, if they will ; 
 
 and if they will not, let them go . 
 
 If a war should come, let it come ! We 
 have prayed enough ; and we have dis- 
 cussed enough. The Lord is preparing 
 our adversaries as the victim for the 
 sacrifice ; he will destroy their magnifi- 
 cence, and deliver his people. Yes ! he 
 will preserve us even from Babylon, and 
 from her burning walls." 
 
 XII. Thus Luther gave the signal of 
 departure. They replied to the Refor- 
 mer's appeal, and all prepared to quit 
 Augsburg on Saturday, 17th September. 
 At ten at night Duke Ernest of Lune- 
 burg assembled the deputies of Nurem- 
 berg and the ministers of the Landgrave 
 in his hotel, and announced to them that 
 the Elector was determined to leave the 
 next morning, without informing any 
 one, and that he would accompany him. 
 " Keep the secret," said he to them, 
 " and know that, if peace cannot be pre- 
 served, it will be a trifling matter for me 
 to lose, combating with you, all that God 
 has given me."| 
 
 The - Elector's preparations betrayed 
 his intentions. In the middle of the night 
 Duke Henry of Brunswick arrived hast- 
 ily at his hotel, beseeching him to wait,§ 
 and, towards morning, Counts Truchses 
 
 428 ) De Primatu PaptE, de Purgatorio, de 
 Indulgentiis. (Melancthon, Cord. Ref. ii. p. 
 374.) 
 
 * Dem Teufel und antichrist zu gefallen. 
 (Urk. ii. p 431 ) 
 
 t Vel maledicti a Papa et Ceesare. (L. Epp. 
 iv. p. lf>2-171.) 
 
 $ Alles das, so Ihm Gots geben h'att, dorob 
 zu vertieren ein geringes ware. (Corp Ref. 
 ii. p. 379.) 
 
 § In der selben Nacht. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 
 379.) 
 
 and Mansfeldt announced that, on the 
 morrow between seven and eight, the 
 Emperor would give him his conge. 
 
 On Monday, 19th September, the Elec- 
 tor purposing to leave Augsburg imme- 
 diately after his audience with Charles, 
 breakfasted at seven o'clock, then sent 
 off his baggage and his cooks,* and or- 
 dered his officers to be ready at ten 
 o'clock. At the moment when John quit- 
 ted the hotel to wait upon the Emperor, 
 all the members of his household were 
 drawn up on each side booted and spur- 
 red ;f but, having been introduced to 
 Charles, he was requested to wait two, 
 four, or six days longer. 
 
 As soon as the Elector was alone with 
 his allies, his indignation burst forth, and 
 he even became violent. " This new 
 delay will end in nothing,":}: he said ; 
 " I am resolved to set out, happen what 
 may. It seems to me, from the manner 
 in which things are arranged, that I have 
 now completely the air of a prisoner." 
 The Margrave of Brandenburg begged 
 him to be calm. " I shall go," the Elec- 
 tor still replied. At last he yielded, and 
 having appeared again, before Charles the 
 Fifth, he said, " I will wait until Friday 
 next ; and, if nothing is done by that time, 
 I shall leave forthwith." 
 
 Great was the anxiety of the Protes- 
 tants during these four days of expecta- 
 tion. Most of them doubted not that, by 
 acceding to Charles's prayers, they had 
 delivered themselves into the hands of 
 their enemies. " The Emperor is deli- 
 berating whether he ouo;ht to hang- us or 
 let us live," wrote Brenz.§ Fresh ne- 
 gotiations of Truchses were without suc- 
 cess. || 
 
 All that now remained for the Empe- 
 ror was to draw up, in common with the 
 Romish states, the recess of the diet. 
 This was done ; and, that the Protestants 
 might not complain of its having been 
 prepared without their knowledge, he as- 
 sembled them in his palace on Thursday, 
 22d September, the day previous to that 
 fixed for the Elector's departure, and had 
 
 * Praemissis fere omnibus impedimentis una 
 cum cocis. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 3Sf>.) 
 
 f Gestiefelt und gespornt. (Ibid. p. 380.) 
 
 | Etvvas darob schwermiitig und hitzig er- 
 zeight. (Ibid. p. 380.) 
 
 § Adhuc delibsrat Caesar pendendum no 
 nobis sit, an diutius vivendum. (Corp. Ref. ii.) 
 
 f Urkunden. ii. p. 4!)5-472. 
 
744 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 his project read to them by the Count- 
 palatine. This project was insult and 
 war. The Emperor granted to the Elec- 
 tor, the five princes, and the six cities,* 
 a delay of six months, until the 15th 
 April next year, to come to an arrange- 
 ment with the Church, the Pope, the Em- 
 peror, and all the princes and monarchs 
 of Christendom. This was clearly an- 
 nouncing to them that the Romanists were 
 very willing to delay until the usual pe- 
 riod for bringing armies into the field. 
 
 Nor was this all : this delay was grant- 
 ed only on the express condition that the 
 Protestants should immediately join the 
 Emperor in reducing the Anabaptists, 
 and all those who opposed the holy sacra- 
 ment, by which were meant the Zwin- 
 glian cities. He wished by this means 
 to tie the hands of the Protestants, and 
 prevent the two families of the Reform 
 from uniting during the winter. 
 
 Finally, the Protestants were for- 
 bidden to make any innovations, to print 
 or sell anything on the objects of faith, 
 or to draw any one whatever to their sect, 
 " since the Confession had been soundly 
 refuted by the Holy Scriptures." Thus 
 they officially proclaimed the Reform a 
 sect, and a sect contrary to the Word of 
 God. 
 
 Nothing was more calculated to dis- 
 please the friends of the Gospel, who re- 
 mained in Charles's presence astonished, 
 alarmed, and indignant. f This had been 
 foreseen ; and, at the moment when the 
 Protestants were about to enter the Em- 
 peror's chamber, Truchses and Wehe, 
 making signs to them, mysteriously slip- 
 ped a paper into their hands, containing 
 a promise that, if, on the 15th April, the 
 Protestants required a prolongation of 
 the delay, their request would certainly 
 be granted4 But Bruck, to whom the 
 paper was given, was not deceived. " A 
 subtle ambuscade," said he ; "a master- 
 piece of knavery ! God will save his 
 own, and will not permit them to fall 
 into the snare. "§ This trick, in fact, 
 
 * Nuremberg and Rentlingen, to which were 
 added the cities of Kempten, Heilbrunn, 
 Windsheim, and Weissemberg. (Corp. Ref. ii. 
 p. 474-478.) 
 
 t Protestantes vehementer hoc decreto mi- 
 nime expectato territi. * (Seek. ii. p. 200.) 
 
 X Brack, Apologie, p 182. 
 
 § Betriige, meisterstuck, aber Gott errettet 
 die semen. (Ibid.) 
 
 served only still more to increase the 
 courage of the Protestants. 
 
 Bruck, without discussing the recess 
 in a political point of view, confined him- 
 self to what was principally at stake, the 
 Word of God. " We maintain," said 
 he, " that our Confession is so based on 
 the holy Word of God, that it is impos- 
 sible to refute it. We consider it as the 
 very truth of God, and we hope by it to 
 stand one day before the judgrnent-seat 
 of the Lord." He then announced that 
 the Protestants had refuted the Refuta- 
 tion of the Romish theologians, and hold- 
 ing in his hand the famous Apology of 
 the Confession of Augsburg written by 
 Melancthon, he stepped forward, and 
 offered it to Charles the Fifth. The 
 Count-palatine took it, and the Emperor 
 was already stretching out his hand, 
 when Ferdinand having whispered a 
 few words, he motioned the Count, who 
 immediately returned the Apology to 
 Doctor Bruck.* This paper and the 
 " Commonplaces," are the masterpieces 
 of the Reformer. The embarrassed 
 Emperor told the Protestants to come 
 again at eight the next morning. 
 
 Charles the Fifth, resolving to employ 
 every means to get his decree accepted, 
 began by entreaties ; and scarcely was 
 the Margrave of Brandenburg seated to 
 take his evening repast, when Truchses 
 and Wehe, appearing before him, used 
 every kind of discourse and argument, 
 but without success. j - 
 
 The next day (Friday, 23d Septem- 
 ber), the Evangelical princes and the 
 deputies of the cities, assembling at five 
 in the morning in the Margrave's hotel, 
 the recess was there read anew in the 
 presence of Truchses and Wehe, and 
 Chancellor Brack detailed seven rea- 
 sons for its rejection. " I undertake," 
 said Wehe, " to translate the recess into 
 German in such a manner that you can 
 accept it. As for the word sect, in par- 
 ticular, it is the clerk who placed it there 
 by mistake.":): The mediators retired 
 in haste to communicate to Charles the 
 complaints of the Protestants 
 
 * Auf Konig Ferdinandus wincke wieder 
 geben. (Apologie, p. 184.) 
 
 t Nach essen allerley Rede Disputation und 
 Persuasion furgewendt. (Urk. ii. p. 601.) 
 
 | Sondern vom Schreiber gesetzt, der dia 
 nicht geacht. (Urk. ii. p. 606.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 745 
 
 Charles and his ministers gave up 
 every idea of reconciliation, and hoped 
 for nothing except through fear. The 
 Protestants having arrived at eight 
 o'clock at the imperial palace, they were 
 made to wait an hour; the Elector of 
 Brandenburg then said to them in 
 Charles's name : " His majesty is asto- 
 nished beyond measure that you still 
 maintain your doctrine to be based on the 
 holy Scriptures. If you said the truth, 
 his majesty's ancestors, so many kings 
 and emperors, and even the ancestors of 
 the Elector of Saxony, would have been 
 heretics ! There is no Gospel, there is 
 no Scripture, that imposes on us the ob- 
 ligation of seizing by violence the goods 
 of another, and of saying afterwards that 
 we cannot conscientiously restore them. 
 It is for this reason," added Joachim, 
 after these words, which he had accom- 
 panied with a sardonic smile, " I am 
 commissioned to inform you, that if you 
 refuse the recess, all the Germanic states 
 will place their lives and their property 
 at the Emperor's disposal, and his ma- 
 jesty himself will employ the resources 
 of all his kingdoms to complete this 
 affair before leaving the Empire." 
 
 " We do. not accept it," replied the 
 Protestants firmly, — " His majesty also 
 has a conscience," then resumed the 
 Elector of Brandenburg, in a harsh tone ; 
 " and if you do not submit, he will con- 
 cert with the Pope and the other poten- 
 tates on the best means of extirpating this 
 sect and its new errors." But in vain 
 did they add threat to threat : the Pro- 
 testants remained calm, respectful, and 
 unshaken. " Our enemies, destitute of 
 all confidence in God !" said they, 
 " would shake like a reed in presence of 
 the Emperor's anger, and they imagine 
 that we should tremble in like manner ; 
 but we have called unto God, and he will 
 keep us faithful to his truth." 
 
 The Protestants then prepared to take 
 their final leave of the Emperor. This 
 prince, whose patience had been put to a 
 severe trial, approached to shake hands 
 according to custom : and beginning 
 with the Elector of Saxony, he said to 
 him in a low voice : " Uncle, uncle ! 
 I should never have expected this of 
 you." The Elector was deeply affected : 
 his eyes filled with tears : but, firm and 
 resolute, he bent his head and quitted 
 94 
 
 Charles without reply. It was now two 
 in the afternoon. 
 
 While the Protestants were returning 
 to their hotels, calm and happy, the Ro- 
 mish princes returned to theirs, confused 
 and dispirited, uneasy and divided. 
 They doubted not that the conge that had 
 just been given the Protestants would be 
 regarded by them as a declaration of 
 war, and that on quitting Augsburg, they 
 would rush to arms. This thought ter- 
 rified them. Accordingly, the Elector 
 of Saxony had hardly reached his palace, 
 when he saw Dr. Ruhel, councillor of 
 the Elector of Mentz, hastening towards 
 him, commissioned by his master to de- 
 liver this* message : " Although my bro- 
 ther the Elector (Joachim of Branden- 
 burg) has declared that all the states of 
 the Empire are ready to support the 
 Emperor against you, know that both 
 myself and the ministers of the Elector- 
 palatine and of the Elector of Treves 
 immediately declared to his majesty that 
 we do not adhere to this declaration, see- 
 ing that we think very favourably of 
 you.* I intended saying this to the Em- 
 peror in your presence, but you left so 
 precipitately, that I was unable." 
 
 Thus spoke the primate of the Ger- 
 man Church, and even the choice of his 
 messenger was significant : Dr. Ruhel 
 was Luther's brother-in-law. John beg- 
 ged him to thank his master. 
 
 As this envoy retired, there arrived 
 one of the gentlemen of Duke Henry of 
 Brunswick, a zealous Romanist. He 
 was at first refused admittance on ac- 
 count of the departure, but returned 
 hastily, just as Brlick's carriage was 
 leaving the court-yard of the hotel. Ap- 
 proaching the carriage-door, he said : 
 " The Duke informs the Elector that he 
 will endeavour to put things in a better 
 train, and will come this winter to kill a 
 wild boar with him."f Shortly after, 
 the terrible Ferdinand himself declared 
 that he would seek every means of pre- 
 venting an outbreak.:}: All these mani- 
 festations of the affrighted Roman-catho- 
 lics showed on which side was the real 
 strength. 
 
 At three o'clock in the afternoon the 
 
 * Wlhsten auch nicht andersdenn wohlund 
 gut. (Urk. p. 210.) 
 
 t Ein Sawe fahen helfen. (Ibid. 211.) 
 % Corp. Ref. ii. p. 397. 
 
746 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Elector of Saxony, accompanied by the 
 Dukes of Luneburg and the Princes of 
 Anhalt, quitted the walls of Augsburg 
 " God be praised," said Luther, " that 
 our dear prince is at last out of hell."* 
 
 As he saw these 'intrepid princes thus 
 escaping from his hands, Charles the 
 Fifth gave way to a violence that was 
 not usual with him."]" " They want to 
 teach me a new faith," cried he : " but 
 it is not with the doctrine that we shall 
 finish this matter : we must draw the 
 sword, and we shall then see who is the 
 strongest.^: There was a concert of in- 
 dignation around him. They were as- 
 tonished at the audacity of Briick, who 
 had dared call the Romanists — rferetics !§ 
 But nothing irritated them so much as 
 the spirit of proselytism which in those 
 glorious days characterized Evangelical 
 Germany ; and the anger of the Papists 
 was particularly directed against the 
 Chancellor of Luneburg, " who," said 
 they, "had sent more than a hundred 
 ministers into different places to preach 
 the new doctrine, and who had even 
 publicly boasted of it."|| — " Our adver- 
 saries thirst for our blood," wrote, as 
 they heard these complaints, the depu- 
 ties of Nuremberg, who remained almost 
 alone at Augsburg. 
 
 On the 4th October, Charles the Fifth 
 wrote to the Pope ; for it was from Rome 
 that the new crusade was to set out. 
 "The negotiations are broken off; our 
 adversaries are more obstinate than ever ; 
 and I am resolved to employ my strength 
 and my person in combating them. For 
 this reason I beg your holiness will de- 
 mand the support of all christian 
 princes." 
 
 The enterprise began in Augsburg it- 
 self. The day on which he wrote to the 
 Pope, Charles, in honor of St. Francis 
 of Assisi, whose feast it was, re-esta- 
 blished the Cordeliers in that city, and a 
 monk ascending the pulpit said : " All 
 those who preach that Jesus Christ alone 
 
 * Ein mal aus de Holle los ist. 
 p. 175.) 
 
 t Der Kaiser ist fast hitzig 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. 591.) 
 
 X Es gehoren die Fauste dar zu. 
 592 ; Urkund ii. p. 710.) 
 
 § Fur ketzer an^ezogen. (Ibid.) 
 
 || Bis in die Hundert Prediger in andere 
 Lande Schiken helfen daselbst die neue Lehre 
 zu predigen. (Urkund. ii. p. G4G.) 
 
 (L. Epp. iv. 
 im Handel. 
 (Ibid. p. 
 
 has made satisfaction for our sins, and 
 that God saves us without regard to our 
 works, are thorough scoundrels. There 
 are, on the contrary, two roads to salva- 
 tion : the common road, namely, the ob- 
 servance of the commandments ; and the 
 perfect road, namely, the ecclesiastical 
 state." Scarcely was the sermon finished 
 ere they began to remove the benches 
 placed in the church for the Evangelical 
 preaching, breaking them violently (for 
 they were fixed with chains), and throw- 
 ing them one upon another. Within 
 these consecrated walls two monks, in 
 particular, armed with hammers and 
 pincers, tossed their arms, and shouted 
 like men possessed. " From this fright- 
 ful uproar,"' exclaimed some, " one 
 would say they were pulling down a 
 house."* It was in truth the house of 
 God that they wished to begin destroying. 
 
 After the tumult was appeased, they 
 sang Mass ; then a Spaniard desiring to 
 recommence breaking the benches, and 
 being prevented by one of the citizens, 
 they began to hurl chairs at each other ; 
 one of the monks, leaving the choir, ran 
 up to them and was soon dragged into 
 the fray ; at length the captain of police, 
 arrived with his men, who distributed 
 their well-directed blows on every side. 
 Thus recommenced in Germany the re- 
 storation of Roman-catholicisin : popu- 
 ar violence lias often been one of its 
 most powerful allies. 
 
 On the 13th October the recess was 
 read to all the Romish states, and on the 
 same day they concluded a Roman 
 league, j" 
 
 Two cities had signed the Confession, 
 and two others had assented to it ; the 
 Imperialists hoped, however, that these 
 powerless municipalities, affrighted at 
 the imperial authority, would withdraw 
 from the Protestant union. But on the 
 17th October, instead of two or four 
 cities, sixteen imperial cities, among 
 which were the most important in Ger- 
 many, declared it was impossible to grant 
 any support against the Turks, so long 
 as public peace was not secured in Ger- 
 many itself4 
 
 * Ein alt Haus abbrechen. (Corp. Ref. ii. 
 
 p. 400.) 
 
 t Ratschlag, &c. (Urkund. ii. 737-740.) 
 \ Wo sie nicht einen gemeinen Friedens 
 
 versichert. (Corp. Ref. ii. pp. 411, 41G.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 747 
 
 An event more formidable to Charles 
 had just taken place. The unity of the 
 Reformation had prevailed. " We are 
 one in the fundamental articles of faith," 
 had said the Zwinglian cities, " and in 
 particular (notwithstanding some dis- 
 putes about words among our theologi- 
 ans), we are one in the doctrine of the 
 communion in the body and blood of our 
 Lord'. Receive us." The Saxon depu- 
 ties immediately gave their hands. No- 
 thing unites the children of God so much 
 as the violence jf their adversaries. 
 " Let us unite," said all, " for the con- 
 solation of our brethren and the terror 
 of our enemies."* 
 
 In vain did Charles, who was intent 
 on keeping up the division among the 
 Protestants, convoke the deputies of the 
 Zwinglian cities ; in vain, desiring to 
 render them odious, had he accused them 
 of fastening a consecrated wafer to a 
 wall and firing bullets at it ;f in vain 
 did he overwhelm them with fierce threats; 
 — all his efforts were useless. At length 
 the Evangelical party was one. 
 
 The alarm increased among the Roman 
 party, who resolved on fresh concessions. 
 " The Protestants call for public peace," 
 said they : " well then, let us draw up 
 articles of peace." But, on the 29th 
 October, the Protestants refused these 
 offers, because the Emperor enjoined 
 peace to all the world, without binding 
 himself. "An Emperor has the right to 
 command peace to his subjects," haugh- 
 tily answered Charles ; " but it has never 
 been heard that he commanded it to him- 
 self. "% 
 
 Nothing remained but to draw the 
 sword ; and for that Charles made every 
 preparation. On the 25th October, he 
 wrote to the cardinals at Rome : " We 
 inform you that we shall spare neither 
 kingdoms nor lordships ; and that we 
 shall venture even our soul and our 
 body to complete things so necessary." 
 
 Scarcely had Charles's letter been 
 Received, before his major-domo, Pedro 
 de la Cueva, arrived in Rome by express. 
 " The season is now too far advanced to 
 
 * Diesem Theil desto mehr Freude und 
 Trost und dem gegentheil Erschrecken. (Ur- 
 kund. ii. p. 728.) 
 
 ■f An ein« Wand geheftet und dazu ge- 
 8chossen. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 423.) 
 
 | These negotiations will be found in Fors- 
 termann's Urkunden, pp. 750-793. 
 
 attack the Lutherans immediately," said 
 he to the Pope ; " but prepare everything 
 for this enterprise. His majesty thinks 
 it his duty to prefer before all things the 
 accomplishment of your designs." Thus 
 Clement and the Emperor were also 
 united, and both sides began to concen- 
 trate their forces. 
 
 On the evening of the 11th Novem- 
 ber, the recess was read to the Protestant 
 deputies, and on the 12th they rejected 
 it, declaring that they did not acknow- 
 ledge the Emperor's power to command 
 in matters of faith.* The deputies of 
 Hesse and of Saxony departed immedi- 
 ately after, and on the 19th November 
 the recess was solemnly read in the pre- 
 sence of Charles the Fifth, and of the 
 princes and deputies who were still in 
 Augsburg. This report was more hos- 
 tile than the project communicated to 
 the Protestants. It bore, among other 
 things (this is only a sample of the ur- 
 banity of this official doctrine), that " to 
 deny free-will was the error not of a 
 man, but of a brute." — " We beg his 
 majesty," said the Elector Joachim, af- 
 te,r it was read, " not to leave Germany, 
 until by his cares one sole and same 
 faith be re-established in all the Em- 
 pire." 
 
 The Emperor replied, that he would 
 not go farther than his states of the Low 
 Countries. They desired deeds should 
 follow close upon words. It was then 
 nearly seven in the evening ; a few 
 torches, lighted here and there by the 
 ushers, and casting a pale light, alone 
 illuminated this assembly : they sepa- 
 rated without seeing each other ; and 
 thus ended, as it were by stealth, that 
 diet so pompously announced to the chris- 
 tian world. 
 
 On the 22d November, the recess was 
 made public, and two days after Charles 
 the Fifth set out for Cologne. The ruler 
 of two worlds had seen all his power 
 baffled by a few Christians ; and he who 
 had entered the imperial city in triumph, 
 now quitted it gloomy, silent, and dispi- 
 rited. The mightiest power of the earth 
 was broken against the power of God. 
 
 But the Emperor's ministers and offi- 
 cers, excited by the Pope, displayed so 
 much the more energy. The states of 
 the Empire were bound to furnish Charles 
 
 * Urkunden, ii. p. 823 ; Corp. Ref. ii. p. 437. 
 
748 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 for three years, 40,000 foot, 8000 horse, 
 and a considerable sum of money ;* the 
 Margrave Henry of Zenete, the Count of 
 Nassau, and other nobles, made consider- 
 able levies on the side of the Rhine ; a 
 captain going through the Black Forest 
 called its rude inhabitants to his standard, 
 and there enrolled six companies of lans- 
 quenets ; King Ferdinand had written to 
 all the knights of the Tyrol and of Wur- 
 temberg to gird on their cuirasses and to 
 seize their swords ; Joachim of Talheim 
 collected the Spanish bands in the Low 
 Countries, and ordered them towards the 
 Rhine ; Peter Scher solicited from the 
 Duke of Lorraine the aid of his arms ; 
 and another chief hastily moved the Spa- 
 nish army of Florence in the direction 
 of the Alps. There was every reason to 
 fear that the Germans, even the Roman- 
 catholics, would take Luther's part ; and 
 hence principally foreign troops were 
 levied. f Nothing but war was talked of 
 in Augsburg. 
 
 On a sudden a strange rumour was 
 heard.:}: The signal is given, said every 
 one. A free city, lying on the confines 
 of the Germanic and Roman world, — a 
 city at war with its bishop, in alliance 
 with the Protestants, and which passes 
 for reformed even before really being so, 
 has been suddenly attacked. A courier 
 from Strasburg brings this news to Augs- 
 burg, and it circulator-! throughout the 
 town with the rapidity of lightning. 
 Three days after Michaelmas, some armed 
 men, sent by the Duke of Savoy, pillag- 
 ed the suburbs of Geneva, and threaten- 
 ed to take possession of the city, and put 
 all to the edge of the sword. Every one 
 in Augsburg was amazed. " Ho!" ex- 
 claimed Charles the Fifth, in French, 
 " the Duke of Savoy has begun too 
 soon."§ It was reported that Magaret, 
 governor of the Low Countries, the Pope, 
 the Dukes of Lorraine and Guelders, and 
 even the King of France, were directing 
 their troops against Geneva. It was there 
 that the army of Rome intended fixing 
 its point d'appui. The avalanche was 
 
 * 40,000 zu Tuss und 8000 zu Ross. (Corp. 
 Ref. ii. p. 399.) 
 
 f Legati Norinb. ad Senatum, 11th October. 
 (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 402) ; Legati Sax. ad Elec- 
 torem, 10th October. (Urkund. ii. p. 711.) 
 
 X Shortly before the close of the diet. 
 
 § Hatt der Kayser unter andern in Franzo- 
 sisch geredet. (Ibid. p. 421.) 
 
 gathering on the first slopes of the Alps, 
 whence it would rush over all Switzer- 
 land, and then roll into Germany, bury- 
 ing the Gospel and the Reformation under 
 its huge mass.* 
 
 Never had this sacred cause appeared 
 to be in such great danger, and never in 
 reality had it gained so noble a triumph. 
 The coup de main attempted on those 
 hills, where six years later Calvin was 
 to take his station, and plant the standard 
 of Augsburg and of Nazareth, having 
 failed, all fears were dispelled, and the 
 victory of the confessors of Christ, for an 
 instant obscured, shone forth anew in all 
 its splendour. 
 
 While the Emperor Charles, surround- 
 ed by numerous train of princes, was 
 approaching the banks of the Rhine sad 
 and dispirited, the Evangelical Christians 
 were returning in triumph to their homes. 
 Luther was the herald of the victory 
 gained at Augsburg by Faith. " Though 
 our enemies should have around them, 
 beside them, with them, not only that 
 puissant Roman Emperor, Charles, but 
 still more the Emperor of the Turks and 
 his Mahomet," said he, " they could not 
 intimidate, they could not frighten me. 
 It is I who in the strength of God am 
 resolved to frighten and overthrow them. 
 They shall yield to me — they shall fall ! 
 and 1 shall remain upright and firm. My 
 life shall be their headsman, and my 
 
 death their hell !f God blinds them 
 
 and hardens their hearts ; he is driving 
 them towards the Red Sea : all the horses 
 of Pharaoh, his chariots and his horse- 
 men, cannot escape their inevitable des- 
 tiny. Let them go then, let them perish, 
 since they will it so !:}: As for us, the 
 Lord is with us." 
 
 Thus the Diet of Augsburg, destined 
 to crush the Reformation, was what 
 strengthened it for ever. It has been 
 usual to consider the peace of Augsburg 
 (1555) as the period when the Reform 
 was definitively established. That is 
 the date of legal Protestantism ; Evan- 
 gelical Christianity has another — the 
 autumn of 1530. In 1555 was the vic- 
 
 * Geneva expugnata, bellum etiam urbibus 
 Germanise Superioris inferretur. (Corp. Ref. 
 ii. p. 402.) 
 
 f Mein leben soil ihr Henker seyn. (L. 
 Opp. xx. p. 304.) 
 
 J Vadant igitur et pereant, quomodo sic vo- 
 lunt. (L. Epp. iv. p. 167.) 
 
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530. 
 
 749 
 
 tory of the sword and of diplomacy ; in 
 1530 was that of the Word of God and 
 of Faith ; and this latter victory is in our 
 eyes the truest and the firmest. The 
 evangelical history of the Reformation 
 in Germany is nearly finished at the 
 epoch we have reached, and the diplo- 
 matic history of legal Protestantism 
 begins. Whatever may be done now, 
 whatever may be said, the Church of 
 the first ages has reappeared ; and it has 
 reappeared strong enough to show that it 
 
 will live. There will still be conferen- 
 ces and discussions ; there will still be 
 leagues and combats ; there will even be 
 deplorable defeats; but all that is a 
 secondary movement The great move- 
 ment is accomplished : the cause of Faith 
 is won by Faith. The effort has been 
 made : the Evangelical doctrine has taken 
 roDt in the world, and neither the storms 
 of men, nor the powers of hell, will ever 
 be able to tear it up. 
 
SWITZERLAND-CONQUESTS. 
 
 ►745 
 
 BOOK XV. 
 
 SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 1526—1530. 
 
 I. The divisions which the Reforma- 
 tion disclosed within its bosom, on its 
 appearance before the Diet of Augsburg, 
 humbled it and compromised its exist- 
 ence ; but we must not forget that the 
 cause of these divisions was one of the 
 conditions of the existence of the regene- 
 rated Church. No doubt it would have 
 been desirable for Germany and Swit- 
 zerland to have agreed ; but it was of 
 still greater importance that Germany 
 and Switzerland should have each its ori- 
 ginal Reform. If the Swiss Reformation 
 had been only a feeble copy of the German, 
 there would have been uniformity, but 
 no duration. The tree, transplanted into 
 Switzerland, without having taken deep 
 root, would soon have been torn up by 
 the vigorous hand that was erelong about 
 to seize upon it. The regeneration of 
 Christianity in these mountains proceeded 
 from forces peculiar to the Helvetic 
 Church, and received an organization in 
 conformity with the ecclesiastical and 
 political condition of that country. By 
 this very originality it communicated a 
 -particular energy to the principles of the 
 Reformation, of much greater conse- 
 quence to the common cause than a ser- 
 vile uniformity. The strength of an 
 army arises in great measure from its be- 
 ing composed of soldiers of different arms. 
 
 The military and political influence of 
 Switzerland was declining. The new 
 developments of the European nations. 
 subsequent to the sixteenth century, were 
 about to banish to their native mountains 
 those proud Helvetians, who for so long 
 a period had placed their two-handed 
 swords in the balance in which the 
 destinies of nations were weighed. The 
 Reformation communicated a new in- 
 fluence in exchange for that which was 
 departing. Switzerland, where the Gos- 
 pel appeared in its simplest and purest 
 •form, was destined to give in these new 
 times to many nations of the two worlds 
 a more salutary and glorious impulse 
 
 than that which had hitherto proceeded 
 from its halberds and its arquebuses. 
 
 The history of the Swiss Reformation 
 is divided into three periods, in which 
 the light of the Gospel is seen spreading 
 successively over three different zones. 
 From 1519 to 1526 Zurich was the 
 centre of the Reformation, which was 
 then entirely German, and was propagat- 
 ed in the eastern and northern parts of 
 the Confederation. Between 1526 and 
 1532 the movement was communicated 
 from Berne : it is at once German and 
 French, and extended to the centre of 
 Switzerland from the gorges of the Jura 
 to the deepest valleys of the Alps. In 
 1532 Geneva became the focus of the 
 light ; and the Reformation, which was 
 here essentially French, was established 
 on the shores of the Leman lake, and 
 gained si rength in every quarter. It is 
 of the second of these periods — that of 
 Berne — of which we are now to treat. 
 
 Although the Swiss Reformation is not 
 yet essentially French, still the most 
 active part in it is taken by Frenchmen. 
 Switzerland Romande* is yoked to the 
 chariot of Reform, and communicates to 
 it an accelerated motion. In the period 
 we are about to treat of, there is a mix- 
 ture of races, of forces, and of characters, 
 from which proceeds a greater commo- 
 tion. In no part of the christian world 
 will the resistance be so stubborn ; but 
 nowhere will the assailants display so 
 mucli courage. This petty country of 
 Switzerland Romande, enclosed within 
 the colossal arms of the Jura and the 
 Alps, was for centuries one of the strong- 
 est fortresses of the Papacy. It is about 
 to be carried by storm ; it is going to 
 turn its arms against its ancient masters ; 
 and from these few hillocks, scattered at 
 the foot of the highest • mountains in 
 
 * The French part of Switzerland, compris- 
 ing the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchatel, 
 and part of those of Frifcurg, Berne, and Valais. 
 
746* 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Europe, will proceed the reiterated 
 shocks that will overthrow, even in the 
 most distant countries, the sanctuaries of 
 Rome, their images and their altars. 
 
 There are two movements in the 
 Church : one is effected inwardly, and 
 its object is its preservation ; the other 
 is effected outwardly, and the object 
 aimed at is its propagation. There is 
 thus a doctrinal Church and a missionary 
 Church. These two movements ought 
 never to be separated, and whenever they 
 are disunited, it is because the spirit of 
 man, and not the spirit of God pre- 
 vails. In the apostolic ages these 
 two tendencies were evolved at the 
 same time and with equal power. In 
 the second and third centuries the exter- 
 nal tendency prevailed ; after the Coun- 
 cil of Nice (325) the doctrinal movement 
 resumed the superiority ; at the epoch of 
 the irruption of the northern tribes the 
 missionary spirit revived ; but erelong 
 came the times of the hierarchy and of 
 the schoolmen, in which all doctrinal 
 powers warred within the Church to 
 found therein despotic government and 
 an impure doctrine — the Papacy. The 
 revival of Christianity in the sixteenth 
 century, which emanated from God, was 
 destined to renovate these two doctrines, 
 but by purifying them. Then indeed 
 the spirit of God acted at once externally 
 and internally. In the days of the Refor- 
 mation there were tranquil and internal 
 developments ; but there was also a more 
 powerful and aggressive action. Men of 
 God had for ages studied the Word, and 
 had peacefully explained its salutary 
 lessons. Such had been the work of 
 Vesalia, Goch, Groot, Radewin, Ruy- 
 brook, Tauler, Thomas a Kempis, and 
 John Wessel ; now, something more was 
 required. The power of action was to 
 be united with the power of thought. 
 The Papacy had been allowed all neces- 
 sary time for laying aside its errors ; 
 for ages men had been in expectation ; 
 it had been warned, it had been entreat- 
 ed ; all had been unavailing. Popery 
 being unwilling to reform itself, it be- 
 came necessary for men of God to take 
 its accomplishment upon themselves. 
 The calm and moderate influence of the 
 precursors of the Reform was succeeded 
 by the heroic and holy revolutionary 
 work of the Reformers : and the revolu- 
 
 tion they effected consisted in overthrow- 
 ing the usurping power to re-establish 
 the legitimate authority. " To every- 
 thing there is a season," says the Preacher, 
 " and a time to every purpose under 
 heaven : a time to plant, and a time to 
 pluck up that which is planted ; a time 
 to break down, and a time to build up."* 
 Of all Reformers, those who carried the 
 aggressive spirit to its highest degree 
 were the men who came from France, 
 and more especially Farel, whose labours 
 we have now to consider. 
 
 Never were such mighty effects ac- 
 complished by so puny a force. In the 
 government of God we pass in an instant 
 from the greatest to the least of things. 
 We now quit the haughty Charles V. 
 and all that court of princes over which 
 he presides, to follow the steps of a 
 schoolmaster ; and we leave the palaces 
 of Augsburg to take our seats in the 
 lowly cottages of Switzerland. 
 
 The Rhone, after issuing near St. 
 Gothard from the mountains of the Furka, 
 from beneath an immense sea of eternal 
 ice, rolls its noisy waters through a 
 rugged valley separating the two great 
 chains of the Alps ; then issuing from 
 the gorge of St. Maurice, it wanders 
 through a more smiling and fertile COUn- 
 try. The sublime Dent du Midi on the 
 south, the proud Dent de Morcles on the 
 north, picturesquely situated opposite 
 each other, point out from afar to the 
 traveller's eye the beginning of this lat- 
 ter basin. On the tops of these moun- 
 tains are vast glaciers and threatening 
 peaks, near which the shepherds in the 
 midst of summer lead their numerous 
 flocks to pasture ; while in the plain, the 
 flowers and fruits of southern climes 
 grow luxuriantly, and the laurel blooms 
 beside the most exquisite grapes. 
 
 At the opening of one of the lateral 
 valleys that lead into the Northern Alps, 
 on the banks of the Grande Eau that 
 falls in thunder from the glaciers of the 
 Diablerets, is situated the small town of 
 Aigle, one of the most southern in Swit- 
 zerland. For about fifty years it had 
 belonged to Berne, with the four parishes 
 (mandemens) which are under its juris- 
 diction, namely, Aigle, Bex, Allon, and 
 the chalets scattered in the lofty valley* 
 
 • Eccles. iii. 1,2,3. 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 f 747 
 
 of *he Ormonds. It is in this country that 
 the second epoch of the Swiss Reforma- 
 tion was destined to begin. 
 
 In the winter of 1526-1527, a foreign 
 schoolmaster, named Ursinus, arrived in 
 this humble district. He was a man 
 of middle stature, with red beard and 
 quick eyes, and who, to a voice of 
 thunder (says Beza), united the feelings 
 of a hero : his modest lessons were inter- 
 mingled with new and strange doctrines. 
 The benefices being abandoned by their 
 titularies to ignorant curates, the people, 
 who were naturally of rude and turbulent 
 habits, had remained without any cultiva- 
 tion. Thus did this stranger, who was 
 no other than Farel, meet with new obsta- 
 cles at every step. 
 
 Whilst Lefevre and most of his friends 
 had quitted Strasburg to re-enter France, 
 after the deliverance of Francis I., Farel 
 had turned his steps towards Switzerland ; 
 and on the very first day of his journey, 
 he received a lesson that he frequently 
 recalled to mind. 
 
 He was on foot, accompanied by a 
 single friend. Night had closed around 
 them, the rain fell in torrents, and the 
 travellers, in despair of finding their 
 road, had sat down midway, drenched 
 with rain.* " Ah !" said Farel, " God, 
 by showing me my helplessness in these 
 little things, has willed to teach me what 
 I am in the greatest, without Jesus 
 Christ !" At last Farel, springing up, 
 plunged into the marshes, waded through 
 the waters, crossed vineyards, fields, hills, 
 forests, and valleys, and at length reached 
 his destination, covered with mud and 
 soaked to the skin. 
 
 In this night of desolation, Farel had 
 received a new baptism. His natural 
 energy had been quelled ; he became, 
 for some time at least, wise as a serpent 
 and harmless as a dove ; and, as not 
 unfrequently happens to men of such dis- 
 position, he at first overstepped his aim. 
 Believing that he was following the ex- 
 ample of the Apostles, he sought, in the 
 words of CEcolampadius, " to circumvent 
 by pious frauds the old serpent that was 
 hissing around him."f He represented 
 
 * Gravabat nox, opprimebnt pluvia 
 
 coegit vise difficultas in media sedere via sub 
 pluvia. (Farel to Capito and Bucer ; Neucha- 
 tel, MS.) 
 
 f Piis artibus et apostolicis versatiis ad cir- 
 cumveniendum ilium opus est. (CEcol. to 
 95 
 
 himself to be a schoolmaster, and waited 
 until a door should be opened to him to 
 appear as a Reformer.* 
 
 Scarcely had Magister Ursinus quitted 
 the schoolroom and his primers, than, 
 taking refuge in his modest chamber, 
 he became absorbed in the Greek and 
 Hebrew Scriptures, and the most learned 
 treatises of the theologians. The strug- 
 gle between Luther and Zwingle was 
 commencing. To which of these two 
 chiefs should the French Reform attach 
 itself ? Luther had been known in 
 France for a much longer time than 
 Zwingle ; yet Farel decided in favour 
 of the latter. Mysticism had charac- 
 terized the Germanic nations during the 
 Middle Ages, and scholasticism those of 
 Roman descent. The French were in 
 closer relation with the dialectician 
 Zwingle than with the mystic Luther; 
 or rather, they were the mediators be- 
 tween the two great tendencies of the 
 Middle Ages; and, while giving to the 
 christian thought that correct form which 
 seems to be the province of southern 
 nations, they became the instruments of 
 God to spread through the Church the 
 fulness of life and of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 It was in this little chamber at Aigle 
 that Farel read the first publication ad- 
 dressed to the German by the Swiss 
 Reformer. f " With what learning," cries 
 he, " does Zwingle scatter the darkness ! 
 with what holy ingenuity he gains over 
 the wise, and what captivating meekness 
 he unites with a forcible erudition ! Oh, 
 that by the grace of God this work may 
 win over Luther, so that the Church 
 of Christ, trembling from such violent 
 shocks, may at length find peace !"J 
 
 The schoolmaster Ursinus, excited by 
 so noble an example, gradually set about 
 instructing the parents as well as the 
 children. He at first attacked the doc- 
 trine of purgatory, and next the invoca- 
 tion of Saints. " As for the Pope, he is 
 nothing," said he, "or almost nothing, 
 in these parts ;§ and as for the priests, 
 
 Farel, 27th December, 1526. Neuchatel 
 MS.) 
 
 * Ubi ostium patuerit, tunc adversaries 
 liberius obsistetur. (Ibid.) 
 
 t Pia et arnica ad Lutheri sermonem apologia. 
 (Opp. vol. ii. t. 2, p. 1.) 
 
 I Ut Christi succussa undique Ecclesia, pacis 
 non nihil sentiat. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 26.) 
 
 § Papa aut nullus aut modicus hie est. (Zw; 
 Epp. ii. p. 36.) 
 
748* 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 provided they annoy the people with all 
 that nonsense, which Erasmus knows so 
 well how to turn into ridicule, that is 
 enough for them." 
 
 Ursinus had been some months at 
 Aigle: a door was opened to him; a 
 llock had been collected there, and he 
 believed the looked for moment had ar- 
 rived. 
 
 Accordingly, one day the prudent 
 schoolmaster disappears. u 1 am Wil- 
 liam Farel," said he, " minister of the 
 Word of God." The terror of the priests 
 and magistrates was great, when they 
 saw in the midst of them that very man 
 whose name had already become so for- 
 midable. The schoolmaster quitted his 
 humble study ; he ascended the pulpit, 
 and openly preached Jesus Christ to the 
 astonished multitude. The work of Ur- 
 sinus was over : Farel was himself 
 again.* It was then about the month of 
 March or April, 1527, and in that beau- 
 tiful valley, whose slopes were brighten- 
 ing in the warm rays of the sun, all was 
 fermenting at the same time, the flowers, 
 the vineyards, and the hearts of this sensi- 
 ble but rude people. 
 
 Yet the rocks that the torrent meets as 
 it issues from the Diahlerets, and against 
 which it dashes at every step as it falls 
 from eternal snows, are more trifling 
 obstacles than the prejudice and hatred 
 that were shown erelong in this populous 
 valley to the Word of God. 
 
 The Council of Berne, by a license of 
 the 9th of March, had commissioned Fa- 
 rel to explain the Holy Scriptures to the 
 people of Aigle and its neighbourhood. 
 But the arm of the civil magistrate, by 
 thus mingling in religious affairs, served 
 only to increase the irritation of men's 
 minds. The rich and lazy incumbents, 
 the poor and ignorant curates, were the 
 first to cry out. " If this man," said they 
 one to another, " continues preaching, it 
 is all over with our benefices and our 
 Church."! 
 
 In the midst of this agitation, the bai- 
 liff of Aigle and the governor of the four 
 mandemens, Jacques de Roverea, instead 
 of supporting the minister of their excel- 
 lencies of Berne, eagerly embraced the 
 
 * The name of Ursinus was doubtless taken 
 from the bear (ursa), which was on the shield 
 of Berne. Ursinus meant Bernese. 
 
 t J. J. Hottinger, H. K. G., iii. p. 364. 
 
 cause of the priests. " The Emperor," 
 said they, " is about to declare war 
 against all innovators. A great army will 
 shortly arrive from Spain to assist the 
 Archduke Ferdinand.'"* Farel stood 
 firm. Upon this the bailiff and Roverea, 
 exasperated by such boldness, interdicted 
 the heretic from every kind of instruc- 
 tion, whether as minister or schoolmaster. 
 But Berne caused to he posted on the 
 doors of all the churches in the four 
 mandemens a new decree, dated the 3d 
 of July, in which their excellencies, ma- 
 nifesting great displeasure at this inter- 
 diction " of the very learned Farel from 
 the propagation of the Divine Word, I or- 
 dered all the officers of the state to allow 
 him to preach publicly the doctrines of 
 the Lord." 
 
 This new proclamation was the signal 
 of revolt. On the 25th July great crowds 
 assembled at Aigle, at Bex, atOllon, and 
 in the Ormonds, crying out, " No more 
 submission to Berne ! down with Farel !" 
 From words they soon proceeded to ac- 
 tions. At Aigle the insurgents, headed 
 by the fiery syndic, tore down the edict, 
 and prepared to fall upon the Reformed. 
 These, uniting with promptitude, sur- 
 rounded Farel, resolved to defend him. 
 The two parties met face to face, and 
 blood was near flowing. The firm coun- 
 tenance of the friends of the Gospel 
 checked the partisans of the priests, who 
 dispersed, and Farel, quitting Aigle for a 
 few days, carried his views farther. 
 
 In the middle of the beautiful valley 
 of the Leman, on hills which overlook 
 the lake, stands Lausanne, the city of the 
 bishop and of the Virgin, placed under 
 the patronage of the Dukes of Savoy. A 
 host of pilgrims, assembling from all the 
 surrounding places, knelt devoutly before 
 the image of Our Lady, and made costly 
 purchases at the great fair of indulgences 
 that was held in its precincts. Lausanne, 
 extending its episcopal crosier from its 
 lofty towers, pretended to keep the whole 
 country at the feet of the Pope. But the 
 eyes of many began to be opened, thanks 
 to the dissolute life of the canons and 
 priests. The ministers of the Virgin 
 
 * Ferdinando adventurum esse ingentem ex 
 Hispania exercitum. (Zwinglius, Epp. ii. 
 p. 64 ; dated 11 May, 1527.) 
 
 t Inhibita verbi divini propagatio. (Chou- 
 pard MS.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQl J ESTS. 
 
 749 
 
 were seen in public playing at games of 
 chance, which they seasoned with mock- 
 ery and blasphemy. They fought in the 
 churches ; disguised as soldiers, they de- 
 9Ci ttded by night from the cathedral hill, 
 and roaming through the streets, sword 
 in hand and in liquor, surprised, wound- 
 ed, and sometimes even killed the worthy 
 citizens ; they debauched married wo- 
 men, seduced young girls, changed their 
 residences into houses of ill-fame, and 
 heartlessly turned out their young chil- 
 dren to beg their bread.* Nowhere, 
 perhaps, was better exemplified the de- 
 scription of the clergy given us by one 
 of the most venerable prelates of the six- 
 teenth century : " Instead of training up 
 youth by their learning and holiness of 
 life, the priests train birds and dogs ; in- 
 stead of books, they have children ; they 
 sit with topers in the taverns, and give 
 way to drunkenness."! 
 
 Among the theologians in the court of 
 the bishop Sebastian of Montfaucon, was 
 Natalis Galeotto, a man of elevated rank 
 and great urbanity, fond of the society 
 of scholars, and himself #1111111 of learn- 
 ing,^: but nevertheless very z salous about 
 fasts and all the ordinances of the Church. 
 Farel thought that, if this man could be 
 gained over to the Gospel, Lausanne, 
 " slumbering at the foot of its steeples," 
 would perhaps awaken, and all the coun- 
 try with it. He therefore addressed him- 
 self to him. " Alas! alas !" said Farel, 
 " religion is no longer but an empty 
 mockery, since people, who think only of 
 their appetites, are the kings of the 
 Church. Christian people, instead of 
 celebrating in the sacrament the death 
 of the Lord, live as if they commemo- 
 rated Mercury, the god of fraud. In- 
 stead of imitating the love of Christ, they 
 emulate the lewdness of Venus ; and 
 when they do evil, they fear more the 
 presence of a wretched swineherd than 
 of Cod Almighty. "§ 
 
 * Histoire de la Reformation Suisse by Ru- 
 ch;it, i. p. •'!■'). 
 
 f Pro libros sibi liberos comparant, pro stu- 
 dio concubinas amant. (Trithcim Just. Vitae 
 Sacerdot.ilis, p. 7G5.) The play upon libros 
 and liberos (books and children) cannot be 
 conveyed in English. 
 
 J Urbanus, doctus, magnus, consuetudine 
 doctorum obligatus. (Farel to Galeotto, Neu- 
 chatel MS.) 
 
 § Fluris faciunt miserrimi subulci aspectum 
 
 But Galeotto made no reply, and Pare! 
 persevered, "Knock; cry out with all 
 your might," wrote he in a second Letter; 
 " redouble your attacks upon our Lord."* 
 Still there was no answer. Farel re- 
 turned to the charge a third time, and 
 Natalis, fearing to reply in person, com- 
 missioned ins secretary, who forwarded 
 a letter to Farel full of insulting lan- 
 guage. f For a season Lausanne was 
 inaccessible. 
 
 After having thus contended with a 
 priest, Farel was destined to struggle 
 with a monk. The two arms of the 
 hierarchy by which the Middle Ages 
 were governed had been chivalry and 
 monachism. The Latter still remained 
 fiir the service of the Papacy, although 
 falling into decay. " Alas !" exclaimed 
 a celebrated Carthusian, '■ what an oh- 
 stinate devil would fear to do, a reprobate 
 and arrogant monk will commit without 
 hesitation."^: 
 
 A mendicant friar, who dared not op- 
 pose the reformer in a direct manner at 
 Aigle, ventured into the village of No- 
 ville, situated on the low grounds depo- 
 sited by the Rhone as it falls into the 
 lake of Geneva. The friar, ascending 
 the pulpit, exclaimed, " It is the devil 
 himself who preaches by the mouth of 
 the minister, and all those who listen to 
 him will be damned." Then, taking 
 courage, he slunk along the hank of the 
 Rhone, and arrived at Aigle with a meek 
 and humble look, not to appear there 
 against Farel, whose powerful eloquence 
 terribly alarmed him, but to beg in be- 
 half of his convent a few barrels of the 
 most exquisite wine in all Switzerland. 
 He had not advanced many steps into the 
 town before he met the minister. At 
 this sight he trembled in every limb. 
 " Why did you preach in such a manner 
 at Noville?" demanded Farel. The 
 monk, fearful that the dispute would at- 
 tract public attention, and yet desirous 
 of replying to the point, whispered in his 
 ear, " I have heard say, that you are a 
 
 quam omnipotentis Dei. (Farel to Galeotto, 
 
 Neuchatel MS.) 
 
 * Pulsare, vociferari perge, nee prius cessa 
 
 quam,&c. (Ibid.) 
 
 t Naeniis totas iraplevit etconviciis. (Ibid.) 
 I Quod agere veretur ob^tinatus diabolus, 
 
 intrepide agit reprobus et. contumax monachus. 
 
 (Jacob von Juterbock ; de Negligentia Pre- 
 
 latorum.) 
 
750* 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 heretic and misleader of the people." 
 " Prove it," said Farel. Then the monk 
 " began to storm," says Farel,* and, 
 hastening down the street, endeavoured 
 to shake off his disagreeable companion, 
 " turning now this way, now that, like a 
 troubled conscience. "f A few citizens 
 beginning to collect around them, Farel 
 said to them, pointing to the monk, "You 
 see this fine father ; he has said from the 
 pulpit that I preach nothing but lies." 
 Then the monk, blushing and stammer- 
 ing, began to speak of the offerings of 
 the faithful (the precious wine of Yvorne, 
 for which he had come begging), and 
 accused Farel of opposing them. The 
 crowd had now increased in number, and 
 Farel, who only sought an opportunity 
 of proclaiming the true worship of God, 
 exclaimed, with a loud voice, " It is no 
 man's business to ordain any other way of 
 serving God than that which He has 
 commanded. We must keep his com- 
 mandments without turning either to the 
 right hand or to the left.4 Let us wor- 
 ship God alone in spirit and in truth, 
 offering to him a broken and a contrite 
 heart." 
 
 The eyes of all the spectators were 
 fixed on the two actors in this scene, the 
 monk with his wallet, and the reformer 
 with his glistening eye. Confounded by 
 Farel's daring to speak of any other 
 worship than that which the holy Roman 
 Church prescribed, the friar was out of 
 his senses ; he trembled, and was agitated, 
 becoming pale and red by turns. At 
 last, taking his cap off his head, from 
 under his hood, he flung it on the ground, 
 trampling it under foot, and crying : " I 
 am amazed that the earth does not gape 
 and swallow us up ! " § Farel 
 
 * Commenga de se tempester ; in the nar- 
 rative he gives of this adventure to the nuns 
 of Vevay. (Neuchatel MS.) 
 
 f Tournant maintenant de §a, maintenant de 
 la, comme fait la conscience mal assuree. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 X II n'appartient a personne vivante d'or- 
 donner autre maniere de faire service a. Dieu, 
 que celle qu'il a commandee. Nous devons 
 garder ses commandemens, sans tirer ni a la 
 dextre, ni a. la senestre. (Neuchatel MS.) 
 
 § Hors de sens, trembloit, s'agitoit, palissoit, 
 et rougissoit tour a tour. Enfin tirant son 
 bonnet de sa tete, hors du chaperon, il le rua 
 a terre, jettant et mettant son pied sus, en 
 s'ecriant: " Je suis esbahi comme la terre ne 
 nous abyme !" (Ibid.) 
 
 wished to reply, but in vain. The friar 
 with downcast eyes kept stamping on his 
 cap, " bawling out like one out of his 
 wits :" and his cries resounding through 
 the streets of Aigle, drowned the voice 
 of the reformer. At length one of the 
 spectators, who stood beside him, plucked 
 him by the sleeve, and said, " listen to 
 the minister, as he is listening to you." 
 The affrighted monk, believing himself 
 already half-dead, started violently and 
 cried out : " Oh, thou excommuniate ! 
 layest thou thy hand upon me ?" 
 
 The little town was in an uproar ; the 
 friar at once furious and trembling, Fa- 
 rel following up his attack with vigour, 
 and the people in confusion and amaze- 
 ment. At length the magistrate ap- 
 peared, ordered the monk and Farel to 
 follow him, and shut them up, " one in 
 one tower and one in another."* 
 
 On the Saturday morning Farel was 
 liberated from his prison, and conducted 
 to the castle before the officers of justice, 
 where the monk was already present. 
 The minister began to address them : 
 " My lords, to whom our Saviour enjoins 
 obedience without any exception, this 
 friar has said that the doctrine which I 
 preach is against God. Let him make 
 good his words, or, if he cannot, permit 
 your people to be edified." The violence 
 of the monk was over. The tribunal 
 before which he was standing, the cour- 
 age of his adversary, the power of the 
 movement which he could not resist, the 
 weakness of his cause — all alarmed him, 
 and he was now ready to make matters 
 up. " Then the friar fell upon his knees, 
 saying : My lords, I entreat forgiveness 
 of you and of God. Next turning to 
 Farel : And also, Magister, what I 
 preached against you was grounded on 
 false reports. I have found you to be a 
 good man, and your doctrine good, and I 
 am prepared to recall my words. "f 
 
 Farel was touched by this appeal, and 
 said : " My friend, do not ask forgive- 
 ness of me, for I am a poor sinner like 
 other men, putting my trust not in my 
 
 * L'un en une tour, et l'autre en l'autre. 
 (Neuchatel MS.) 
 
 t Lors le frere se jeta a genoux, disant : 
 Messeigneurs, je demande merci a Dieu et a 
 
 vous Et aussi, Magister, ce que j'ai 
 
 preche contre vous a ete par de faux rapports 
 &c. (Neuchatel MS.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 751 
 
 own righteousness, but in the death of 
 Jesus."* 
 
 One of the lords of Berne coming up 
 at this time, the friar, who already ima- 
 gined himself on the brink of martyr- 
 dom, began to wring his hands, and to 
 turn now towards the Bernese council- 
 lors, now towards the tribunal, and then 
 to Farel, crying, " Pardon, pardon !" — 
 " Ask pardon of our Saviour," replied 
 Farel. The lord of Berne added : 
 " Come to-morrow and hear the minis- 
 ter's sermon ; if he appears to you to 
 preach the truth, you shall ' confess it 
 openly before all ; if not, you will de- 
 clare your opinion : this promise in my 
 hand." The monk held out his hand, 
 and the judges retired. " Then the 
 friar went away, and I have not seen 
 him since, and no promises or oaths were 
 able to make him stay. "I Thus the 
 Reformation advanced in Switzerland 
 Romande. 
 
 But violent storms threatened to de- 
 stroy the work that was hardly begun. 
 Romish agents from the Valais and from 
 Savoy had crossed the Rhone at St. Mau- 
 rice, and were exciting the people to 
 energetic resistance. Tumultuous as- 
 semblages took place, in which danger- 
 ous projects were discussed ; the procla- 
 mations of the government were torn 
 down from the church-doors ; troops of 
 citizens paraded the city ; the drum beat 
 in the streets to excite the populace 
 against the reformer : everywhere pre- 
 vailed riot and sedition. Thus on the 
 16th February, Farel ascended the pulpit 
 for the first time after a short absence, 
 some Papist bands collected round the 
 gate of the church, raised their hands in 
 tumult, uttered savage cries, and com- 
 pelled the minister to break off in his 
 sermon. 
 
 The council of Berne thereupon de- 
 creed that the parishioners of the four 
 mandemens should assemble. Those of 
 Bex declared for the Reform ; Aigle 
 followed their example, but with indeci- 
 sion ; and in the mountains above Ollon, 
 the peasants not daring to maltreat Farel, 
 
 * Je suis pauvre pecheur comme les autres, 
 ayant ma fiance, non en ma justice, mais a la 
 mort de Jesus. (Ibid.) 
 
 f Puis quand le frere fut parti, depuis ne 
 l'ai vu, et nulles promesses ni sermens ne l'ont 
 pu faire demeurer. (Ibid.) 
 
 set their wives at him, who rushed upon 
 him with their fulling-clubs. But it was 
 especially the parish of the Ormonds 
 which, calm and proud at the foot of its 
 glaciers, signalized itself by its resist- 
 ance. A companion of Farel's labourers, 
 named Claude (probably Claude de Glon- 
 tinis), when preaching there one day 
 with great animation, was suddenly in- 
 terrupted by the ringing of the bells, 
 whose noise was such that one might 
 have said all hell was busy pulling them. 
 " In fact," says another herald of the 
 Gospel, Jacques Comralis, who chanced 
 to be present, " it was Satan himself, 
 who, breathing his anger into some of 
 his agents, filled the ears of the auditors 
 with all this uproar."* At another time, 
 some zealous Reformers having thrown 
 down the altars of Baal, according to the 
 language of the times, the evil spirit 
 began to blow with violence in all the 
 chalets scattered over the sides of the 
 mountains ; the shepherds issued preci- 
 pitously like avalanches, and fell upon 
 the Church and the Reformers. " Let 
 us only find these sacrilegious wretches," 
 cried the furious Ormondines ; " we will 
 hang them, — we will cut off their heads, 
 we will burn them, — we will throw 
 their ashes into the Great Water, "f 
 Thus were these mountaineers agitated, 
 like the wind that roars in their lofty 
 valleys with a fury unknown to the in- 
 habitants of the plains. 
 
 Other difficulties overwhelmed Farel. 
 His fellow-labourers were not all of them 
 blameless. One Christopher Ballista, 
 formerly a monk of Paris, had written 
 to Zvvingle : " I am but a Gaul, a barba- 
 rian,^: but you will find me a man pure 
 as snow, without any guile, of open heart, 
 through whose windows all the world 
 may see."§ Zwingle sent Ballista to 
 Farel, who was loudly calling for labour- 
 ers in Christ's vineyard. The fine lan- 
 guage of the Parisian at first charmed 
 
 * Sed Sathan per ejus servos, voluit aures 
 auditorum ejus sono cymbali implere. (Neu- 
 chatel MS.) 
 
 t Quo invento suspenderetur primum, deinde 
 dignus comburi, alterius capitis obtruncatione, 
 novissime in aquis mergeretur. (Neuchatel 
 MS.) 
 
 . \ Me quantumvis Galium et barbarum. (Zw. 
 Epp. ii. p. 205.) 
 
 § Absque ullo fuco, niveum, et aperti fenes- 
 tratique pectoris. (Ibid.) 
 
752 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the multitude ; but it was soon found 
 necessary to beware of these priests and 
 monks disgusted with Popery. " Brought 
 up in the slothfulness of the cloister, 
 gluttonous and lazy," says Farel, " Bal- 
 lista could not conform to the abstemi- 
 ousness and rude labours of the Evan- 
 gelists, and soon began to regret his 
 monk's hood. When he perceived the 
 people beginning to distrust him, he be- 
 came like a furious monster, vomiting 
 waggon-loads of threats."* Thus ended 
 his labours. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these trials, Farel 
 was not discouraged. The greater the 
 difficulties, the more his energy increased. 
 " Let us scatter the seed everywhere," 
 said he, "and let civilized France, pro- 
 voked to jealousy by this barbarous 
 nation, embrace piety at last. Let there 
 not be in Christ's body either fingers, or 
 hands, or feet, or eyes, or ears, or arms, 
 existing separately and working each for 
 itself, but let there be only one heart 
 that nothing can divide. Let not variety 
 in secondary things divide into many 
 separate members that vital principle 
 which is one and simple. f Alas ! the 
 pastures of the Church are trodden under 
 foot, and its waters are troubled ! Let 
 us set our minds to concord and peace. 
 When the Lord shall have opened heaven, 
 there will not be so many disputes about 
 bread and water.:}: A fervent charity — 
 that is the powerful battering-ram with 
 which we shall beat down those proud 
 walls, those material elements, with 
 which men would confine us."§ 
 
 Thus wrote the most impetuous of the 
 Reformers. These words of Farel, pre- 
 served for three centuries in the city 
 where he died, disclose to us more 
 clearly the intimate nature of the great 
 Revolution of the sixteenth century, than 
 all the venturesome assertions of its 
 
 Quam beatus liic venter incanduit ! quot 
 minarum plaustra ! Solent tales bellua;, &c 
 (Neuchatel MS.) 
 
 t Ne in digitos, manus, pedes, oculos, nares, 
 aures, brachia, cor quod unum est discindatur, 
 et quae in rebus est varietas, principium non 
 taciat multiplex. (Ibid.) 
 
 J An allusion to the controversies on ana- 
 baptism and the real presence. Non tanta erit 
 super aqua et pane contentio, nee super gra- 
 mme, solutaque obsidione. (Neuchatel MS.) 
 The sense of these latter words is obscure. 
 
 § Charitas fortissimus aries. (Farel to Bu- 
 cer, 10th May, 1529.) 
 
 Popish interpreters. Christian unity 
 thus from these earliest moments found a 
 zealous apostle. The nineteenth century 
 is called to resume the work which the 
 sixteenth century was unable to accom- 
 plish. 
 
 II. Of all the Swiss cantons, Berne 
 appeared the least disposed to the Re- 
 formation. A military state may be 
 zealous for religion, but it will be for 
 an external and a disciplined religion ; 
 it requires an ecclesiastical organization 
 that it can see, and touch, and manage 
 at its will. It fears the innovations and 
 the free movements of the Word of God : 
 it loves the form and not the life. Na- 
 poleon, by restoring religion in France 
 in the Concordat, has given us a me- 
 morable example of this truth. Such, 
 also, was the case with Berne. Its go- 
 vernment, besides, was absorbed by po- 
 litical interests, and although it had little 
 regard for the Pope, it cared still less to 
 see a Reformer put himself, as Zwingle 
 did, at the head of public affairs. As 
 for the people, feasting on the " butter 
 of their kine and milk of their sheep, 
 with fat of lambs,"* they remained 
 closely shut up within the narrow circle 
 of their material wants. Religious ques- 
 tions were not to the taste either of the 
 rulers or of their fellow-citizens. 
 
 The Bernese government, being with- 
 out experience in religious matters, had 
 proposed to check the movement of the 
 Reform by its edict of 1523. As soon 
 as it discovered its mistake, it moved to- 
 wards the cantons that adhered to the 
 ancient faith ; and while that portion of 
 the people whence the Great Council 
 was recruited, listened to the voice of 
 the Reformers, most of the patrician 
 families, who composed the Smaller 
 Council, believing their power, their in- 
 terests, and their honor menaced, at- 
 tached themselves to the old order of 
 things. From this opposition of the two 
 councils there arose a general uneasi- 
 ness, but no violent shocks. Sudden 
 movement, repeated starts, announced 
 from time to time that incongruous mat- 
 ters were fermenting in the nation ; it 
 was like an indistinct earthquake, which 
 raises the whole surface without causing 
 
 * Deut. xxxii., 14 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 753 
 
 any rents: then anon all returns to: Evangelical majority. The union of 
 
 apparent tranquillity.* Berne, which | Church and State, which had hitherto 
 
 was always decided in its politics, turnedl checked the progress of the Reform in 
 
 in religious matters at one time to the Switzerland, was now ahout to accelerate 
 
 right, and at another to the left ; and de- 
 clared that it would be neither Popish 
 nor Reformed. To gain time was, for 
 the new faith, to gain everything. 
 
 What was done to turn aside Berne 
 from the Reformation, was the very cause 
 of precipitating it into the new way. 
 The haughtiness with which the five 
 primitive cantons arrogated the guardian- 
 ship of their confederates, the secret 
 conferences to which Berne was not 
 even invited, and the threat of ad- 
 dressing the people in a direct manner, 
 deeply offended the Bernese oligarchs. 
 Thomas Murner, a Carmelite of Lucerne, 
 one of those rude men who act upon the 
 populace, but who inspire disgust in 
 elevated minds, made the cup run over. 
 Furious against the Zurich calendar, in 
 which the names of the saints had been 
 purposely omitted, he published in oppo- 
 sition to' it the "Almanack of Heretics 
 and Church-robbers," a tract filled with 
 lampoons and invectives, in which the 
 portraits of the Reformers and of their 
 adherents, among whom were many of 
 the most considerable men of Berne, 
 were coupled with the most brutal in- 
 scriptions, f Zurich and Berne in con- 
 junction demanded satisfaction, and from 
 this time the union 
 
 its movements. 
 
 The Reformer Ilaller was not alone 
 in Berne. Kolb had quitted the Car- 
 thusian monastery at Nuremberg, in 
 which he had been compelled to take 
 refuge, and had appeared before his com- 
 patriots, demanding no other stipend than 
 the liberty of preaching Jesus Christ. 
 Already bending under the weight of 
 years, his head crowned with hoary 
 locks, Kolb, young in heart, full of fire, 
 and of indomitable courage, presented 
 boldly before the chiefs of the nation 
 that Gospel which had saved him. Ilal- 
 ler, on the contrary, although only thir- 
 ty-five years old, moved with a mea- 
 sured step, spoke with gravity, and pro- 
 claimed the new doctrines with unusual 
 circumspection. The old man had taken 
 the young man's part, and the youth that 
 of the graybeard. 
 
 Zwingle, whose eye nothing escaped, 
 saw that a favourable hour for Berne was 
 coming, and immediately gave the sig- 
 nal. " The dove commissioned to ex- 
 amine the state of the waters is return- 
 ing with an olive-branch into the ark," 
 wrote he to Haller ; " come forth now, 
 thou second Noah, and take possession 
 of the land. Enforce, be earnest, and 
 of these two states 'fix deeply in the hearts of men the hooks 
 
 dailv became closer. 
 
 This change was soon perceived at 
 Berne. The elections of 1527 placed a 
 considerable number of friends of the 
 Reform in the Great Council ; and this 
 body, forthwith resuming its right to 
 nominate the members of the Smaller 
 Council, which had been usurped for 
 twenty years by the Bannerets and the 
 Sixteen, removed from the government 
 the most decided partisans of the Roman 
 hierarchy, and among others Gaspard de 
 Mulinen and Sebastian de Stein,:}: and 
 filled the vacancies with members of the 
 
 * Hundeshagen, Conflikte der Bernischen 
 Kirche, p. 19. 
 
 t Quum nudus-tertius Murneri Calendanum 
 legissem, partim ridendo hominis stultissimam 
 impudentiam. (CEcolamp. to Zwingle, Febr., 
 1527, Epp. ii. p. 20.) 
 
 % Mullinen e Senatoria digitate protrusus 
 est. Lapides quoque. (Haller to Zwingle, 
 April 25, 1527. Ibid. p. 49.) 
 
 and grapnels of the Word of God, so 
 that they can never again be rid of 
 them."* — "Your bears," wrote he to 
 Thomas ab Hofen, " have again put forth 
 their claws. Please God that they do 
 not draw them back until they have 
 torn everything in pieces that opposes 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 Haller and his friends were on the 
 point of replying to this appeal, when 
 their situation became complicated. 
 Some Anabaptist, who formed every- 
 where the extreme party, arriving in 
 Berne in 1527, led away the people from 
 the Evangelical preachers " on account 
 of the presence of idols."f Haller had 
 a useless conference with them. " To 
 
 * Aculeos ac hamos, sic in mortalium pec- 
 tora dimitte, ut etiam si velint, non possint. 
 (Zw. Epp. ii. p. tO.) 
 
 f Ne plebem dehortentur ab auditione con- 
 cionum nostrarum ob idolorum preesentiam. 
 (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 49.) 
 
754 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 what dangers is not Christianity ex- 
 posed," cried he, " wherever these furies 
 have crept in !"* There has never been 
 any revival in the Church, without the 
 hierarchical or radical sects immediately 
 endeavouring to disturb it. Haller, al- 
 though alarmed, still maintained his un- 
 alterable meekness. " The magistrates 
 are desirous of banishing them," said 
 he ; " but it is our duty to drive out 
 their errors, and not their persons. Let 
 us employ no other weapons than the 
 sword of the Spirit. "f It was not from 
 Popery that the Reformers had learnt 
 these principles. A public disputation 
 took place. Six Anabaptists declared 
 themselves convinced, and two others 
 were sent out of the country. 
 
 The decisive movement was drawing 
 near. The two great powers of the age, 
 the Gospel and the Papacy, were stirring 
 with equal energy ; the Bernese councils 
 were to speak out. They saw on the one 
 hand the five primitive cantons taking 
 daily a more threatening attitude, and 
 announcing that the Austrian would soon 
 reappear in Helvetia, to reduce it once 
 more into subjection to Rome ; and on 
 the other they tfeheld the Gospel every 
 day gaining ground in the Confederation. 
 Which was destined to prevail in Swit- 
 zerland — the lances of Austria or the 
 Word of God ? In the uncertainty in 
 which the councils were placed, they 
 resolved to side with the majority. Where 
 could they discover a firm footing, if no,t 
 there? Vox populi, vox Dei. "No one," 
 said they, " can make any change of his 
 own private authority : the consent of all 
 is necessary. ''£ 
 
 The government of Berne had to de- 
 cide between two mandates, both emanat- 
 ing from its authority : that of 1523, in 
 favour of the free preaching of the Gos- 
 pel, and that of 1526, in favour " of the 
 sacraments, the saints, the mother of God, 
 and the ornaments of the churches." 
 State messengers set out and traversed 
 every parish : the people gave their votes 
 against every law contrary to liberty, 
 and the councils, supported by the na- 
 
 * Consideravimus omnes periculum urbis 
 nostra; et totius Christianismi, ubi illae furiae 
 irrepserint. (Ibid. p. 50.) 
 
 t Nostrum est, omnio gladio spiritus refel- 
 lere. (Ibid.) 
 
 t Ut privafa auctoritate nemo quippiam im- 
 mutare praesumat. (Haller to Vadian). 
 
 tion, decreed that " the Word of God 
 should be preached publicly and freely, 
 even if it should be in opposition to the 
 statutes and doctrines of men." Such 
 was the victory of the Gospel and of the 
 people over the oligarchy and the priests. 
 
 Contentions immediately arose through- 
 out the canton, and eve,ry parish became 
 a battle-field. The peasants began to 
 dispute with the priests and monks, in 
 reliance on the Hbly Scriptures. " If 
 the mandate of our lords," said many, 
 " accords to our pastors the liberty of 
 preaching, why should it not grant the 
 flock the liberty of acting ?" — " Peace, 
 peace !" cried the councils, alarmed at 
 their own boldness. But the flocks reso- 
 lutely declared that they would send 
 away the Mass, and keep their pastors 
 and the Bible.* Upon this the Papal 
 partisans grew violent. " Heretics, ras- 
 cals, wantons," said the banneret Kuttlerf 
 to the good people of Emmenthal ; and 
 these peasants obliged him to make an 
 apology. The bailiff of Trachselvvald 
 was more cunning. Seeing the inhabit- 
 ants of Rudersweil listening with eager- 
 ness to the Word of God, which a pious 
 minister was preaching to them, he came 
 with fifers and trumpeters, and inter- 
 rupted the sermon, inviting the village 
 girls by words and by lively tunes to 
 quit the church for the dance. 
 
 These singular provocations did not 
 check the Reform. Six of the city com- 
 panies (the shoe-makers,, weavers, mer- 
 chants, bakers, stone-masons, and car- 
 penters) abolished in the churches and 
 convents of their district all masses, anni- 
 versaries, advowsons, and prebends. 
 Three others (the tanners, smiths, and 
 tailors) prepared to imitate them ;:j: the 
 seven remaining companies were unde- 
 cided, except the butchers, who were en- 
 thusiasts for the Pope. Thus the major- 
 ity of the citizens had embraced the 
 Gospel. Many parishes throughout the 
 canton had done the same ; and the 
 avoyer d'Erlach, the great adversary of 
 the Reformation, could no longer keey 
 the torrent within bounds. 
 
 * Incolas vallis Emmenthal Senatum adiisse 
 missamque missam fecisse. (Zw. Epp. ii. p 
 104.) 
 
 t Pueros, hereticos, et homines lascivos 
 (Ibid. p. 106,) 
 
 X Haller to Zwingle, 4th November, 1527 
 (Epp. ii. p. 105.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 755 
 
 Yet the attempt was made : the bailiffs] protested, therefore, in the name of the 
 were ordered to note the irregularities confederation against the proposed dis- 
 and dissolute lives of the monks and cussion. " Your ministers," wrote they 
 nuns; all women of loose morals were to Berne, "dazzled and confounded at 
 even turned out of the cloisters.* But Baden by the brightness of truth, would 
 it was not against these abuses alone that 'desire by this new discussion to hide 
 
 the Reformation was levelled ; it was 
 against the institutions themselves, and 
 against Popery on which they were 
 founded. The people must therefore de- 
 
 their shame ; but we entreat you to desist 
 from a plan so contrary to our ancient 
 alliances." — " [t is not we who have in- 
 fringed them," replied Berne ; " it is 
 
 cide. — "The Bernese clergy," said they, much rather your haughty missive that 
 "must be convoked, as at Zurich, and has destroyed them. We will not aban- 
 don the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 let the two doctrines be discussed in a 
 solemn conference. We will proceed 
 afterwards in conformity with the re- 
 sult." 
 
 On the Sunday following the festival 
 of Saint Martin (11th November), the 
 council and citizens unanimously resolved 
 that a public disputation should take 
 place at the beginning of the succeeding 
 
 Upon this the Roman cantons decided to 
 refuse all safe-conduct to those who should 
 proceed to Berne. This wits giving to- 
 ken of sinister intentions. 
 
 The four bishops of Lausanne, Con- 
 stance, Basle, and Sion, being invited to 
 the conference under pain of forfeiting 
 all their privileges in the canton of 
 
 year. " The glory of God and his Berne, replied that, since it was to be a 
 
 Word," said they, " will at length ap- 
 pear !" Bernese and strangers, priests 
 and laymen, all were invited by letter or 
 by printed notice to come and discuss 
 the controverted points, but by Scripture 
 alone, without the glosses of the ancients, 
 and renouncing all subtleties and abusive 
 language. f Who knows, said they, if 
 all the members of the ancient Swiss 
 confederation may not be thus brought 
 to unity of faith ? 
 
 Thus, within the walls of Berne, the 
 struggle was about to take place that 
 would decide the fate of Switzerland ; 
 for the example of the Bernese must ne- 
 cessarily lead with it a great part of the 
 Confederation. 
 
 The Five Cantons, alarmed at this in- 
 telligence, met at Lucerne, when they 
 were joined by Fribourg, Soleure and 
 Claris. There was nothing either in the 
 letter or in the spirit of the federal com- 
 pact to obstruct religious liberty. "Every 
 state," said Zurich, " is free to choose 
 the doctrine that it desires to profess." 
 The Waldstettes,^: on the contrary, wish- 
 ed to deprive the cantons of this inde- 
 pendence, and to subject them to the 
 federal majority and to the Pope. They 
 
 * J. J. Hottinge*, H. Kirchen, viii., p. 394. 
 
 ■(• Solam sacram Scripturam, absque veterum 
 glossematis. (Haller to Zwingle, 19th No- 
 vember 1527. Epp. ii. p. 113.) 
 
 X The inhabitants of the primitive demo- 
 cratic cantons, Schwytz, Uri, Uriderwald, and 
 Lucerne, to which Zug may be added 
 96 
 
 disputation according to the Scriptures, 
 they had nothing to do with it. Thus 
 did these priests forget the words of one 
 of the most illustrious Roman doctors of 
 the fifteenth century : " In heavenly 
 things man should be independent of his 
 fellows, and trust in God alone." * 
 
 The Romanist doctors followed the 
 example of the bishops. Eck, Murner, 
 Cochlosus, and many others said every- 
 where : " We have received the letter 
 of this leper, of this accursed heretic 
 Zwingle.f They want to take the Bible 
 for their judge ; but has the Bible a 
 voice against those who do it violence ? 
 We will not go to Berne ; we will not 
 crawl into that obscure corner of the 
 world ; we will not go and combat in 
 that gloomy cavern, in that school of he- 
 retics. Let these villains come out into 
 the open air, and contend with us on 
 level ground, if they have the Bible on 
 their side, as they say." The Emperor 
 ordered the discussion to be adjourned ; 
 but on the very day of its opening, the 
 council of Berne replied, that as every 
 one was already assembled, delay was 
 impossible. 
 
 Then, in despite of the doctors and 
 bishops, the Helvetic Church assembled 
 
 * John Goch, Dialogus de quatuor erroribus, 
 p. 237. 
 
 f Epistolam leprosi, damnati, haeretici Zwin- 
 glii accepi. (Eck to G. A. Zell, Zw. Epp. ii. 
 p. 126.) 
 
756 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to decide upon its doctrines. Had it a 
 right to do so 1 No ; — not if priests and 
 bishops were appointed, as Rome pre- 
 tends, to form a mystic bond between the 
 Church and our Lord ; Yes — if they 
 were established, as the Bible declares, 
 only to satisfy that law of order by vir- 
 tue of which all society should have a 
 directing power. The opinions of the 
 Swiss Reformers in this respect were not 
 doubtful. The grace which creates the 
 minister comes from the Lord, thought 
 they ; but the Church examines this 
 grace, acknowledges it, proclaims it by 
 the elders, and in every act in which 
 faith is concerned, it can always appeal 
 from the minister to the Word of God. 
 Try the spirits — prove all things, it says 
 to the faithful. The Church is the judge 
 of controversies ; * and it is this duty, in 
 which it should never be found wanting, 
 that it was now about to fulfil in the dis- 
 putation at Berne. 
 
 The contest seemed unequal. On one 
 side appeared the Roman hierarchy, a 
 giant which had increased in strength 
 during many centuries ; and on the 
 other, there was at first but one weak 
 and timid man, the modest Berthold Hal- 
 ler. " I cannot wield the sword of the 
 Word," said he in alarm to his friends. 
 " If you do not stretch out your hands to 
 me, all is over." He then threw himself 
 
 Zwingle did not hesitate. He de- 
 manded permission of the Council of 
 Zurich to visit Berne, in order to show 
 there " that his teaching was full of the 
 fear of God, and not blasphemous ; 
 mighty to spread concord through Swit- 
 zerland, and not to cause troubles and 
 dissension." * At the very time that 
 Haller received news of Zwingle's com- 
 ing, fficolampadius wrote to him : "I 
 am ready, if it be necessary, to sacrifice 
 my life. Let us inaugurate the new 
 year by embracing one another to the 
 glory of Jesus Christ." Other doctors 
 wrote to the same effect. " These, then," 
 cried Haller with emotion, '.' these are 
 the auxiliaries that the Lord sends to 
 my infirmity, to aid me in fighting this 
 rude battle ! " 
 
 It was necessary to proceed with cir- 
 cumspection, for the violence of the oli- 
 garchs and of the Five Cantons was well 
 known. f The doctors of Glaris, Schaff- 
 hausen, St. Gall, Constance, Ulm, Lindau 
 and Augsburg, assembled at Zurich, to 
 proceed under the same escort as Zwingle, 
 Pellican, Collin, Megander, Grossman, 
 the commander Schmidt, Bullinger, and 
 a great number of the rural clergy, 
 selected to accompany the reformer. 
 "When all this game traverses the coun- 
 try," said the pensioners, " we will go a- 
 hunting, and see if we cannot kill some, 
 
 trembling at the feet of the Lord, and or at least catch them and put them into 
 soon arose enlightened and exclaiming, | a cage " 
 
 "Faith in the Saviour gives me courage, 
 and scatters all my fears." "j" 
 
 Yet he could not remain alone: all his 
 looks were turned towards Zwingle : " It 
 was I took the bath at Baden," wrote 
 CEcolampadius to Haller, "and now it is 
 Zwingle who should lead off" the bear- 
 dance in Berne. "| — " We are between 
 the hammer and the anvil," wrote Hal- 
 ler to Zwingle ; " we hold the wolf by 
 the ears, and know not how to let him 
 go.§ The houses of De Watteville, Noll, 
 Tremp, and Berthold are open to you. 
 Come, then, and command the battle in 
 person." 
 
 * Judex controversiarum — 1 John iv. 1 ; 1 
 Thess. v. 21. 
 
 f Fides in Dominum me animat, ut nihil 
 verear. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 123.) 
 
 % An allusion to the dispute at Baden 
 celebrated bathing-place, and to the arms oft p. 123} 
 Berne. (Ibid. p. 118.) % Crescit, Domino gloria, mihi animus in 
 
 § Lupum auribus tenemus. (Zurich MS.) |hac pugna. (Zw. Epp. Vadiano.) 
 
 Three hundred chosen men, selected 
 from the companies of Zurich and from 
 the parishes within its precincts, donned 
 their breastplates and shouldered their 
 arquebuses ; but, in order not to give the 
 journey of these doctors the appearance 
 of a military expedition, they took neither 
 colours, fife, nor drum ; and the trum- 
 peter of the city, a civil officer, rode 
 alone at the head of the company. 
 
 On Tuesday the 2d of January they 
 set out. Never had Zwingle appeared 
 more cheerful. " Glory be to the Lord," 
 said he, " my courage increases every 
 day.":): The burgomaster Roust, the 
 town-clerk of Mangoldt, with Funck and 
 
 * Neque ad perturbationem nostra almse 
 Helvetiae. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 120.) 
 
 f Oligarchs in angulis obmurmurent. (Ibid 
 
SWITZERLAN D— CONQUESTS. 
 
 757 
 
 Jaekli, both masters of arts, and all four 
 delegated by the council, were on horse- 
 back near him. They reached Berne 
 on the 4th of January, having had only 
 one or two unimportant alarms. 
 
 The Cordeliers' Church was to serve 
 as the place of conference. Tillmann, 
 the city architect, had made arrange- 
 ments according to a plan furnished by 
 Zwingle.* A large platform had been 
 erected on which were placed two tables, 
 and around them sat the champions of 
 the two parties. On the evangelical 
 side were remarked, besides Haller, 
 Zwingle, and CEcolampadius, many dis- 
 tinguished men of the Reformed Church, 
 strangers to Switzerland, as Bucer, Ca- 
 pita, and Ambrose Blarer. On the side 
 of the papacy, Dr. Treger of Friburg, 
 who enjoyed a high reputation, appeared 
 to keep up the fire of the combat. As 
 for the rest, whether through fear or con- 
 tempt, the most famous Roman doctors 
 were absent. 
 
 The first act was to publish the regu- 
 lations of the conference. " No proof 
 shall be proposed that is not drawn from 
 the Holy Scriptures, and no explanation 
 shall be given of those scriptures, that 
 does not come from Scripture itself, ex- 
 plaining obscure texts by such as are 
 clear." After this, one of the secreta- 
 ries, rising to call over the roll, shouted 
 with a loud voice that re-echoed through 
 the church, — The Bishop of Constance ! 
 No one replied. He did the same for the 
 bishops of Zion, Basle, and Lausanne. 
 Neither of these prelates was present 
 at this meeting, either in person or by 
 deputy. The Word of God being des- 
 tined to reign alone, the Roman hierar- 
 chy did not appear. These two powers 
 cannot walk together. There were pre- 
 sent about three hundred and fifty Swiss 
 and German ecclesiastics. 
 
 On Tuesday, 7th January, 1528, the 
 burgomaster Vadianus, of St. Gall, one 
 of the presidents, opened the disputation. 
 After him the aged Kolb stood up, and 
 said : " God is at this moment agitating 
 the whole world, let us, therefore, hum- 
 ble ourselves before him," and he pro- 
 nounced with fervour a confession of 
 
 * Tillmannus urbis architectus locum juxta 
 tuam deformationem operabit. (Ibid. ii. p. 
 123.) 
 
 When this was done; the first thesis 
 was read. It was thus drawn up. "The 
 Holy Christian Church, of which Christ 
 is the sole head, is born of the Word of 
 God, abideth in it, and listeneth not to 
 the voice of a stranger." 
 
 Alexis Grat, a Dominican monk, — 
 " The word sole is not in Scripture. 
 Christ has left a vicar here below." 
 
 Haller. — " The vicar that Christ left 
 is the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Treger. — " See then to what a pass 
 things have come these last ten years. 
 This man calls himself a Lutheran, that 
 a Zwinglian ; a third, a Carlstadtian ; a 
 fourth an fficolampadist ; a fifth, an Ana- 
 baptist. ..." 
 
 Bucer. — " Whosoever preacheth Je- 
 sus as the only Saviour, we recognize as 
 our brother. Neither Luther, nor Zwin- 
 gle, nor CEcolampadius, desires the faith-- 
 ful to bear his name. Besides, you 
 should not boast so much of a mere ex- 
 ternal unity. When antichrist gained 
 the upperhand throughout the world, in 
 the East by Mahomet, in the West by 
 the Pope, he was able to keep the people 
 in unity of error. God permits divisions, 
 in order that those who belong to him 
 may learn to look not to men, but to the 
 testimony of the Word, and to the assur- 
 ance of the Holy Ghost in their hearts. 
 Thus then, dearly beloved brethren, to 
 the Scriptures, the Scriptures !* O 
 Church of Berne, hold fast to the teach- 
 ing of Him who said, Come unto me, and 
 not, Come unto my vicar /" 
 
 The disputation then turned succes- 
 sively on Tradition, the Merits of Christ, 
 Transubstantiation, the Mass, Prayer to 
 the Saints, Purgatory, Images, Celibacy, 
 and the Disorders of the Clergy. Rome 
 found numerous defenders, and among 
 others, Murer, priest of Rapperswyl, 
 who had said : " If they wish to bum 
 the two ministers of Berne, I will under- 
 take to carry them both to the stake." 
 
 On Sunday, the 19th of January, the 
 day on which the doctrine of the Mass 
 was attacked, Zwingle, desirous of act- 
 ing on the people also, went into the pul- 
 pit, and reciting the Apostles' Creed, 
 made a pause after these words : " He 
 ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the 
 right hand of God the Father Almighty ; 
 
 * Darum fromme Christen ! Zur Schrift, 
 zur Schrift ! (Acta Zw. ii. p. 92.) 
 
758 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 from thence he shall come to judge the 
 quick and the dead." "These three 
 articles," said he, " are in contradiction 
 to the Mass." All his hearers redoubled 
 their attention ; and a priest, clothed in 
 his sacerdotal vestments, who was pre- 
 paring to celebrate the holy sacrifice in 
 one of the chapels, stopped in astonish- 
 ment at Zwingle's words. Erect before 
 the consecrated altar on which lay the 
 chalice and the body of the Saviour, with 
 eyes fixed upon the reformer, whose 
 words electrified the people, a prey to 
 the most violent struggles, and beaten 
 down by the weight of truth, the agitated 
 priest resolved to sacrifice every thing 
 for it. In the presence of the whole as- 
 sembly, he stripped off his priestly orna- 
 ments, and throwing them on the altar, 
 he exclaimed : " Unless the Mass reposes 
 on a more solid foundation, I can cele- 
 brate it no longer!" The noise of this 
 conversion, effected at the very foot of 
 the altar, immediately spread through the 
 city,* and it was regarded as an import- 
 ant omen. So long as the Mass remains, 
 Rome has gained everything : as soon as 
 the Mass falls, Rome has lost all. The 
 Mass is the creative principle of the whole 
 system of Popery. 
 
 Three days later, on the 22d January, 
 was the feast of St. Vincent, the patron 
 of the city- The disputation that had 
 been carried on during Sunday was sus- 
 pended on that day. The canons asked 
 the council what they were to do. " Such 
 of you," replied the council, " as re- 
 ceive the doctrine of the theses ought 
 not to say Mass ; the others may per- 
 form divine worship as usual, "f Every 
 preparation was accordingly made for 
 the solemnity. On St. Vincent's eve 
 the bells from every steeple announced 
 
 * Das lachet menklich und ward durch die 
 gantzen Stadt kundt. (Bulling, i. p. 436.) 
 In this and other quotations, we preserve the 
 orthography of the times. 
 
 t Bullinger says, on the contrary, that the 
 council positively forbade the Mass. But Bul- 
 linger, who is a very animated writer, is not 
 always exact in diplomatic matters. The 
 council would not have come to such a resolu- 
 tion before the close of the discussion. Other 
 contemporary historians and official documents 
 leave no room for doubt on this point. Stet- 
 tler, in his Chronicle, pars ii. p. 6, ad an- 
 num 1528, details these proceedings as in the 
 text. 
 
 the festival to the inhabitants of Berne. 
 On the morrow the sacristans lit up the 
 tapers ; incense filled the temple, but no 
 one appeared. No priests to say Mass, 
 no faithful to hear it ! Already there 
 was a vast chasm in the Roman sanctu- 
 ary, a deep silence, as on the field of 
 battle, where none but the dead are 
 
 lying- 
 in the evening it was the custom for 
 the canons to chaunt vespers with great 
 pomp. The organist was at his post, but 
 no one else appeared. The poor man 
 left thus alone, beholding with sorrow 
 the fall of that worship by which he 
 gained his bread, gave' utterance to his 
 grief by playing a mourning-hymn in- 
 stead of the majestic Magnificat : " Oh, 
 wretched Judas, what hast thou done, 
 that thou hast thus betrayed our Lord ?" 
 After this sad farewell, he rose and went 
 out. Almost immediately, some men, 
 excited by the passions of the moment, 
 fell upon his beloved organ, an accom- 
 plice in their eyes of so many supersti- 
 tious rites, and their violent hands broke 
 it to pieces. No more Mass, no more 
 organ, no more anthems ! A new Sup- 
 per and new hymns shall succeed the 
 rites of Popery. 
 
 On the next day there was the same 
 silence. Suddenly, however, a band of 
 men with loud voices and hasty steps was 
 heard. It was the Butchers' Company 
 that, at this moment so fatal to Rome, 
 desired to support it. They advanced, 
 carrying small fir-trees and green 
 branches, for the decoration of their cha- 
 pel. In the midst of them was a foreign 
 priest, behind whom walked a few poor 
 scholars. The priest officiated ; the 
 sweet voices of the scholars supplied the 
 place of the mute organ, and the butchers 
 retired proud of their victory. 
 
 The discussion was drawing to a close : 
 the combatants had dealt vigorous blows. 
 Burgauer, pastor of St. Gall, had main- 
 tained the real presence in the. Host ; but 
 on the 19th January he declared himself 
 convinced by the reasonings of Zwingle, 
 fficolampadius, and Bucer ; and Mat- 
 thias, minister of Saengen, had done the 
 same. 
 
 A conference in Latin afterwards took 
 place between Farel and a Parisian doc- 
 tor. The latter advanced a strange ar- 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 759 
 
 gument. " Christians," said he, " are 
 enjoined to obey the devil ;* for it is said, 
 Submit unto thine adversary (Matt. v. 
 25) ; now, our adversary is the devil. 
 How much more, then, should we submit 
 to the Church !" Loud bursts of laugh- 
 ter greeted this remarkable syllogism. 
 A discussion with the Anabaptists termi- 
 nated the conference. 
 
 The two councils decreed that the Mass 
 should be abolished, and that every one 
 might remove from the churches the or- 
 naments he had placed there. 
 
 Immediately twenty-five altars and a 
 great number of images were destroyed 
 in the cathedral, yet without disorder or 
 bloodshed ; and the children began to 
 sing in the streets (as Luther informs 
 us) :f— 
 
 By the Word at length we're saved 
 From a God in a mortar brayed. 
 
 The hearts of the adherents of the 
 Papacy were filled with bitterness as they 
 heard the objects of their adoration fall 
 one after another. " Should any man," 
 said John Schneider, " take away the 
 altar of the Butchers' Company, I will 
 take away his life." Peter Thorman 
 eompai'ed the cathedral stripped of its 
 ornaments to a stable. " When the good 
 folks of the Oberland come to market," 
 added he, " they will be happy to put up 
 their cattle in it." And John Zehender, 
 member of the Great Council, to show 
 the little value he set on such a place of 
 worship, entered it riding on an ass, in- 
 sulting and cursing the Reform. A Ber- 
 nese, who chanced to be there, having 
 said to him, " It is by God's will that 
 these images have been pulled down," — 
 "Say rather by the devil's," replied 
 Zehender ; " when have you ever been 
 with God so as to learn his will ?" He 
 was fined twenty livres, and expelled 
 from the council 4 " What times ! what 
 manners ! " exclaimed many ; " what 
 culpable neglect ! How easy would it 
 have been to prevent so great a misfor- 
 tune ! Oh ! if our bishops had only been 
 willing to occupy themselves more with 
 
 * Nos tenemur obedire diabolo. (J. J. Hot- 
 tinger, iii. p. 405). 
 
 f Pusri in plateis cantant : se esse a Deo 
 pisto libsratos. (L. Epp. iii. p. 290). 
 
 X History of Berne, by Tillier, iii. p. 257. 
 
 learning and a little less with their mis- 
 tresses !"* 
 
 This Reform was necessary. When 
 Christianity in the fourth century had 
 seen the favour of princes succeed to per- 
 secution, a crowd of heathens rushing 
 into the church had brought with them 
 the images, pomps, statues, and demigods 
 of Paganism, and a likeness of the mys- 
 teries of Greece and Asia, and above all 
 of Egypt, had banished the Word of 
 Jesus Christ from the Christian oratories. 
 This Word returning in the sixteenth 
 century, a purification must necessarily 
 take place ; but it could not be done 
 without grievous rents. 
 
 The departure of the strangers was 
 drawing near. On the 28th January, 
 the day after that on which the images 
 and altars had been thrown down, while 
 their piled fragments still encumbered 
 here and there the porches and the aisles 
 of the cathedral, Zwingle crossing these 
 eloquent ruins, once more ascended the 
 pulpit in the midst of an immense crowd. 
 In great emotion, directing his eyes by 
 turns on these fragments and on the peo- 
 ple, he said : " Victory has declared for 
 the truth, but perseverance alone can 
 complete the triumph. Christ persevered 
 even until death. Fcrendo vincitur for- 
 tuna. Cornelius Scipio, after the disaster 
 at Cannas, having learnt that the generals 
 surviving the slaughter meditated quitting 
 Italy, entered the senate-house, although 
 not yet of senatorial age, drew his sword, 
 and constrained the affrighted chiefs to 
 swear that they would not abandon Rome. 
 Citizens of Berne, to you I address the 
 same demand : do not abandon Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 We may easily imagine the effect pro- 
 duced on the people by such words, pro- 
 nounced with Zwingle's energetic elo- 
 quence. 
 
 Then, turning towards the fragments 
 that lay near him : " Behold," said he, 
 " behold these idols ! Behold them con- 
 quered, mute, and shattered before us! 
 These corpses must be dragged to the 
 shambles, and the gold you have spent 
 upon these foolish images must hence- 
 forward be devoted to-comforting in their 
 misery the living images of God. Feeble 
 
 * Si studiorum quam scortorum nostri epi9- 
 copi amantiores essent. (Ruchat, i. p. 576. 
 Letter of J. de Munster, priest at Soleure.) 
 
760 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 souls, ye shed tears over these sad idols ; 
 do ye not see that they break, do ye not 
 hear that they crack like any other wood, 
 or like any other stone ? Look ! here is 
 one deprived of its head...(Zwingle point- 
 ed to the image, and all the people fixed 
 their eyes upon it) ; here is another 
 maimed of its arms.* If this ill usage 
 had done any harm to the saints that are 
 in heaven, and if they had the power 
 ascribed to them, would you have been 
 able, I pray, to cut off their arms and 
 their heads?" 
 
 "Now then," said the powerful orator 
 in conclusion, " stand fast in the liberty 
 wherewith Christ has made you free, and 
 be not entangled again with the yoke of 
 bondage (Gal. v. 1). Fear not ! That 
 God who has enlightened you, will 
 enlighten your confederates also, and 
 Switzerland, regenerated by the Holy 
 Ghost, shall flourish in righteousness and 
 peace." 
 
 The words of Zwingle were not lost. 
 The mercy of God called forth that of 
 man. Some persons condemned to die 
 for sedition, were pardoned, and all the 
 exiles were recalled. u Should we not 
 have done so," said the council, " had a 
 great prince visited us ? Shall we not 
 much more do so, now that the King of 
 kings and the Redeemer of our souls has 
 made his entry among us, bearing an 
 everlasting amnesty ?"f 
 
 The Romish cantons, exasperated at 
 the result of the discussion, sought to 
 harass the return of the doctors. On ar- 
 riving before Bremgarten, they found the 
 gates closed. The bailiff Schutz, who 
 had accompanied them with two hundred 
 men-at-arms, placed two halberdiers be- 
 fore Zwingle's horse, two behind him, 
 and one on each side ; then putting him- 
 self at the Reformer's left hand, while 
 the burgomaster Roust stationed himself 
 on the right, he ordered the escort to 
 proceed, lance in rest.:}: The avoyers of 
 the town being intimidated, came to a 
 parley ; the gates were opened ; the 
 escort traversed Bremgarten amidst an 
 immense crowd, and on the 1st February 
 
 * Hie liit einer, dem ist's houpt ab, dem 
 andern ein arm, &c. (Zw. Opp. ii. p. 228.) 
 
 t Da der Konig aller K6nige....(Haller, by 
 Kirchhofer, p. 439.) 
 
 X Mit iren Spyessen fur den hauffen. (Bull, 
 chr. i. p. 439.) 
 
 reached Zurich without accident, which 
 Zwingle re-entered, says Luther, like a 
 conqueror.* 
 
 The Roman -catholic party did not dis- 
 semble the check they had received. 
 " Our cause is falling," said the friends 
 of Rome.f " Oh ! that we had had men 
 skilled in the Bible ! The impetuosity 
 of Zwingle supported our adversaries ; his 
 ardour was never relaxed. That brute 
 has more knowledge than was imagined.:}: 
 Alas! alas! the greater party has van- 
 quished the better."§ 
 
 The Council of Berne, desirous of 
 separating from the Pope, relied upon the 
 people. On the 30th January, messen- 
 gers going from house to house convoked 
 the cit'zens ; and on the 2d February, 
 the burgesses and inhabitants, masters 
 and servants, uniting in the cathedral, 
 and forming but one family, with hands 
 upraised to heaven, swore to defend the 
 two councils in all they should undertake 
 for the good of the State or of the Church. 
 
 On the 7th February, 1528, the coun- 
 cil published a general edict of Reform, 
 and " threw for ever from the necks of 
 the Bernese the yoke of the four bishops, 
 who," said they, " know well how to 
 shear their sheep, but not how to feed 
 them. "|| 
 
 At the same time the Reformed doc- 
 trines were spreading among the people. 
 In every quarter might be heard earnest 
 and keen dialogues, written in rhyme by 
 Manuel, in which the pale and expiring 
 Mass, stretched on her deathbed, was 
 loudly calling for all her physicians, and 
 finding their advice useless, at last dic- 
 tating with a broken voice her last will 
 and testament, which the people received 
 with loud bursts of laughter. 
 
 The Reformation generally, and that 
 of Berne in particular, has been re- 
 proached as being brought about by po- 
 litical motives. But, on the contrary, 
 Berne, which of all the Helvetic states 
 was the greatest favourite of the court of 
 Rome — which had in its canton neither a 
 
 * Zwingel triumphator et imperator glorio- 
 sus. (L. Epp. iii. p. 290.) 
 
 t Ruunt res nostrae. (Letter of the priest 
 J. de Muller, an eye-witness of the discussion. 
 Rachat. i. p. 575.) 
 
 J Doctior tamen haec bellua est quam puta- 
 bam. (Ibid.) 
 
 § Vicitque pars major meliorem. (Ibid.) 
 
 H Bull. Chron. i. p. 466. 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 761 
 
 bishop to dismiss nor a powerful clergy 
 to humiliate — Berne, whose most influ- 
 ential families, the Weingartens, Manu- 
 els, Mays, were reluctant to sacrifice the 
 pay and the service of the foreigner, and 
 all whose traditions were conservative, 
 ought to have opposed the movement. 
 The Word of God was the power that 
 overcame this political tendency.* 
 
 At Berne, as elsewhere, it was neither 
 a learned, nor a democratic, nor a secta- 
 rian spirit that gave birth to the Reforma- 
 tion. Undoubtedly the men of letters, 
 the liberals, the sectarian enthusiasts, 
 rushed into the great struggle of the six- 
 teenth century ; but the duration of the 
 Reform would not have been long had it 
 received its life from them. The primi- 
 tive strength of Christianity, reviving 
 after ages of long and complete prostra- 
 tion, was the creative principle of the 
 Reformation ; and it was erelong seen to 
 separate distinctly from the false allies 
 that had presented themselves, to reject 
 an incredulous learning by elevating the 
 study of the classics, to check all dema- 
 gogic anarchy by upholding the princi- 
 ples of true liberty, and to repudiate the 
 enthusiastic sects by consecrating the 
 rights of the Word and of the christian 
 people. 
 
 But while we maintain that the Re- 
 formation was at Berne, as elsewhere, a 
 truly christian work, we are far from 
 saying that it was not useful to the can- 
 ton in a political sense. All the European 
 states that have embraced the Reforma- 
 tion have been elevated, while those 
 which have combated it have been low- 
 ered. 
 
 III. It now became a question of pro- 
 pagating throughout all the canton the 
 reform accomplished in the city. On 
 the 17th February, the council invited 
 the rural parishes to assemble on the 
 following Sunday to receive and delibe- 
 rate upon a communication. The whole 
 Church, according to the ancient usage 
 of Christendom, was about to decide for 
 itself on its dearest interests. 
 
 The assemblies were crowded ; all 
 conditions and ages were present. Be- 
 side the hoary and the trembling head of 
 the aged man might be seen the spark- 
 
 * Hundeshagen, conflicte der Bernerkirche, 
 p. 22. 
 
 ling eye of the youthful shepherd. The 
 messengers of the council first read the 
 edict of the Reformation. They next 
 proclaimed that those who accepted it 
 should remain, and that those who re- 
 jected it should withdraw. 
 
 Almost all the assembled parishioners 
 remained in their places. An immense 
 majority of the people chose the Bible. 
 In some few parishes this decision was 
 accompanied with energetic demonstra- 
 tions. At Arberg, Zofingen, Brugg, 
 Arau, and Buren, the images were burnt. 
 " At Stauffberg," it was said, " idols 
 were seen carrying idols, and throwing 
 one another into the flames."* 
 
 The images and the Mass had disap- 
 peared from this vast canton. " A great 
 cry resounded far and wide," writes 
 Bullingeivj- In one day Rome had fallen 
 throughout the country, without treach- 
 ery, violence, or seduction, by the 
 strength of truth alone. In some places, 
 however, in the Hasli, at Frutingen, 
 Unterseen, and Grindewald, the malcon- 
 tents were heard to say : " If they abolish 
 the Mass, they should also abolish tithes." 
 The Roman form of worship was pre- 
 served in the Upper Simmenthal, a proof 
 that there was no compulsion on the part 
 of the state. 
 
 The wishes of the canton being thus 
 manifested, Berne completed the Refor- 
 mation. All excesses in gambling, 
 drinking, and dancing, and all unbecom- 
 ing dress, were forbidden by proclama- 
 tion. The houses of ill-fame were de- 
 stroyed, and their wretched inhabitants 
 expelled from the city4 A consistory 
 was appointed to watch over the public 
 morals. 
 
 Seven days after the edict, the poor 
 were received into the Dominican clois- 
 ter, and a little later the convent of the 
 Island was changed into an hospital ; the 
 princely monastery of Konigsfield was 
 also devoted to the same useful purpose. 
 Charity followed everywhere in the steps 
 
 * Da tregt ein Gotz den andern in das f hiiwr. 
 (Bull. Chron. ii. p. 1.) A man whose busi- 
 ness it was to shear the flocks, and who had 
 been nicknamed Gotz-scherer (idol-shearer), 
 had made himself very distinguished among 
 those who carried the images to the fire. Such 
 was the origin of this popular legend, and it 
 is the key to many others. 
 
 t Das wyt und breit ein gross geschrey und 
 wunder gepa. (Bull. Chron. ii. p. 1.) 
 
 X J. J. Hottinger, iii. p. 414. 
 
762 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 of faith. "We will show," said the 
 council, " that we do not use the property 
 of the convents to our own advantage ;" 
 and they kept their word. The poor were 
 clothed with the priests' garments ; the 
 orphans were decorated with the orna- 
 ments of the Church. So strict were 
 they in these distributions, that the state 
 was forced to borrow money to pay the 
 annuities of the monks and nuns ; and 
 for eight days there was not a crown in 
 the public treasury.* Thus it was that 
 the State, as it has been continually re- 
 peated, grew rich with the spoils of the 
 Church ! At the same time they invited 
 from Zurich the ministers Hotimeister, 
 Megander, and Rhellican, to spread 
 throughout the canton the knowledge of 
 the classics and of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 At Easter the Lord's Supper was cele- 
 brated for the first time according to the 
 Evangelical rites. The two councils 
 and all the people, with few exceptions, 
 partook of it. Strangers were struck 
 with the solemnity of this first commu- 
 nion. The citizens of Berne and their 
 wives, dressed in decent garments, which 
 recalled the ancient Swiss simplicity, 
 approached Christ's table with gravity 
 and fervour ;f the heads of the state 
 showed the same holy devotion as the 
 people, and piously received the bread 
 from the hands of Berthold Haller. Each 
 one felt that the Lord was among them. 
 Thus Hoffmeister, charmed at this so- 
 lemn service, exclaimed : " How can the 
 adversaries of the Word refuse to em- 
 brace the truth at last, seeing that God 
 himself renders it so striking a testimo- 
 ny !"t 
 
 Yet everything was not changed . The 
 friends of the Gospel witnessed with pain 
 the sons of the chief families of the re- 
 public parading the streets in costly 
 garments, inhabiting sumptuous houses 
 in the city, dwelling in magnificent man- 
 sions in the country — true seignorial 
 abodes, following the chase with hound 
 and horn, sitting down to luxurious ban- 
 
 * Hoc unum tibi dico secretissime. (Haller 
 to Zwingle, 21st January, 1530.) 
 
 t Relucet enim in illorum vestitu et habitu 
 nescio quid veteris illius Helvetia: simplicita- 
 tis. (Hoffmeister to Zwingle. Zw. Epp. ii. 
 p. 167.) 
 
 X Ea res magnam spem mihi injecit de illis 
 lucrandis qui hactenus fuerunt male morigeri 
 Terbo (Ibid.) 
 
 quets, conversing in licentious language, 
 or talking with enthusiasm of foreign 
 wars and of the French party. " Ah !" 
 said that pious people, " could we but 
 see old Switzerland revive with its old 
 virtues !" 
 
 There was soon a powerful reaction. 
 The annual renewal of the magistrature 
 being about to take place, the councillor 
 Butschelbach, a violent adversary of the 
 Gospel, was ejected for adultery ; four 
 other senators and twenty members of. 
 the Great Council were also replaced by 
 friends of the Reformation and of public 
 morality. Emboldened by this victory, 
 the Evangelical Bernese proposed in the 
 diet that every Swiss should renounce 
 foreign service. At , these words the 
 warriors of Lucerne started under their 
 weighty armour, and replied with a 
 haughty smile : " When you have re- 
 turned to the ancient faith we will listen 
 to your homilies." All the members of 
 the government, assembled at Berne in 
 sovereign council, resolved to set the 
 example, and solemnly abjured the pay 
 of foreign princes. Thus the Reforma- 
 tion showed its faith by its works. 
 
 Another struggle took place. Above 
 the lake of Thunn rises a chain of steep 
 rocks, in the midst of which is situated a 
 deep cavern, where, if we may believe 
 tradition, the pious Breton, Beatus, came 
 in ancient times to devote himself to all 
 the austerities of an ascetic life ; but 
 especially to the conversion of the sur- 
 rounding district that was still heathen. 
 It was affirmed that the head of this saint, 
 who had died in Gaul, was preserved in 
 this cavern ; and hence it was visited by 
 pilgrims from every quarter. The pious 
 citizens of Zug, Schwytz, Uri, and Argo- 
 via, groaned, as they thought that the 
 holy head of the apostle of Switzerland 
 would hereafter remain in a land of here- 
 tics. The abbot of the celebrated con- 
 vent of Muri in Argovia and some of his 
 friends set out, as in ancient times the 
 Argonauts went in quest of the Golden 
 Fleece. They arrived in the humble 
 guise of poor pilgrims, and entered the 
 cavern ; one skilfully took away the 
 head, another placed it mysteriously in 
 his hood, and they disappeared. The 
 head of a dead man ! — and this was all 
 that Rome saved from the shipwreck. 
 But even this conquest was more than 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 703 
 
 doubtful. The Bernese, who had gained 
 information of this procession, sent three 
 deputies on the 18th May, who, accord- 
 ing to their report, found this famous 
 head, and caused it to be decently in- 
 terred before their eyes in the cemetery 
 belonging to the convent of Interlaken. 
 This contest about a skull characterizes 
 the Church that had just given way in 
 Berne before the vivifying breath of the 
 Gospel. Let the dead bury their dead. 
 
 The Reformation had triumphed in 
 Berne ; but a storm was gathering un- 
 perceived in the mountains, which threat- 
 ened to overthrow it. The State in union 
 with the Church recalled its ancient re- 
 nown. Seeing itself attacked by arms, 
 it took up arms in its turn, and acted with 
 that decision which had formerly saved 
 Rome in similar dangers. 
 
 A secret discontent was fermenting 
 among the people of the valleys and 
 mountains. Some were still attached to 
 the ancient faith ; others had only quitted 
 the Mass because they thought they 
 would be exempted from tithes. Ancient 
 ties of neighbourhood, a common origin, 
 and similarity of manners had united the 
 inhabitants of the Obwald (Unterwalden) 
 to those of the Hasli and of the Bernese 
 Oberland, which were separated only by 
 Mount Brunig and the high pass of the 
 Yoke. A rumour had been set afloat 
 that the government of Berne had pro- 
 faned the spot where the precious remains 
 of Beatus, the apostle of these mountains, 
 were preserved, and indignation immedi- 
 ately filled these pastoral people, who 
 adhere firmer than others to the customs 
 and superstitions of their forefathers. 
 
 But while some were excited by at- 
 tachment to Rome, others were aroused 
 by a desire for liberty. The subjects of 
 the monastery of Interlaken, oppressed 
 ' by the monkish rule, began to cry out, 
 ; ' We desire to become our own masters, 
 and no longer pay rent or tithes." The 
 provost of the convent in affright ceded 
 all his rights to Berne for the sum of 
 one hundred thousand florins ;* and a 
 bailiff, accompanied by several council- 
 lors, went and took possession of the 
 monaster)'. A report was soon spread 
 that they were about to transfer all the 
 
 * Totum regnum suum tradiderunt in manus 
 magistrate nostri. (Haller to Zwingle, 31st 
 March.) 
 
 97 
 
 property of the convent to Berne ; and 
 on the 21st. of April bands of men from 
 Grindehvald, Lauterbrunnen, Ringel- 
 berg, Brienz, and other places, crossed 
 the lake, or issued from their lofty val- 
 leys, and taking forcible possession of the 
 cloister, swore to go even to Berne in 
 quest of the goods which the citizens had 
 dared to talfe from them. 
 
 They were quieted for a time ; but in 
 the beginning of June, the people, at the 
 instigation of Unterwalden, again arose 
 in all the Hasli. The Landsgcmcinde* 
 having been convoked, it decided by a 
 majority of forty voices for the re-esta- 
 blishment of the Mass. The pastor 
 Jaekli was immediately expelled ; a few 
 men crossed the Bruni";, and brought 
 back some priests from Unterwalden, to 
 the sound of fifes and trumpets. They 
 were seen from afar descending the 
 mountain, and shouts, both loud and long, 
 replied to them from the bottom of the 
 valley. At last they arrived : — all em- 
 braced one another, and the people cele- 
 brated the Mass anew with great demon- 
 strations of joy. At the same time, the 
 people of Frutigen and of the fertile 
 valley of Adelboden assailed the cas- 
 tellan Reuter, carried off his flocks, and 
 established a Roman-catholic priest in the 
 place of their pastor. At Aeschi even 
 the women took up arms, drove out the 
 pastor from the church, and brought 
 back the images in triumph. The revolt 
 spread from hamlet to hamlet and from 
 valley to valley, and again took possession 
 of Interlaken. All the malcontents as- 
 sembled there on the 2"d October, and 
 swore, with hands upraised to heaven, 
 boldly to defend their rights and liberty. 
 
 Never, perhaps, had the republic been 
 in greater danger. All the kings of 
 Europe, and almost all the cantons of 
 Switzerland, were opposed to the Gospel. 
 The report of an army from Austria, 
 destined to interpose in favour of the 
 Pope, spread through the Reformed can- 
 tons. f Seditious meetings took place 
 every day4 and the people refused to 
 pay their magistrates either quit-rent, 
 
 * The assembly of all the people. 
 
 f Audisti nimirum quam se apparent Aus- 
 trian ad bellum, adversus quos ignoratur. 
 Suspicantur quidam in Helvetios. ((Ecol. to 
 Zw. Epp. ii. p. 161.) 
 
 \ Seditiosorum concursus sunt quotidiani. 
 (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 227.) 
 
7(34 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 service, tithes, or even obedience, unless 
 they shut their eyes to the designs of the 
 Roman-catholics. The council became 
 confused. Amazed and confounded, ex- 
 posed to the mistrust of some and to the 
 insults of others, they had the cowardice 
 to separate under the pretext of getting 
 in the vintage, and folding their arms, in 
 the presence of this great danger, waited 
 until a Messiah should descend from 
 heaven (says a reformer) to save the 
 republic* The ministers pointed out 
 the danger, forewarned and conjured 
 them ; but each one turned a deaf ear. 
 " Christ languishes in Berne," said Hal- 
 ler, " and appears nigh perishing."! The 
 people were all in commotion ; they as- 
 sembled, made speeches, murmured, and 
 shed tears ! Everywhere — in all their 
 tumultuous meetings — might be heard 
 this complaint of Manuel on Papists and 
 the Papacy 4 
 
 With rage our foes their hateful threats de- 
 nounce, 
 Because, Lord, we love Thee best of all ; 
 Because at sight of Thee the idols fall ; 
 And war and bloodshed, shuddering, we re- 
 nounce. 
 
 Beme was like a troubled sea, and 
 Haller, who listened to the roaring of the 
 waves, wrote in the deepest anguish : 
 " Wisdom has forsaken the wise, counsel 
 has departed from the councillors, and 
 energy from the chiefs and from the 
 people ! The number of the seditious 
 augments every day. Alas ! what can 
 the Bear, oppressed with sleep, oppose to 
 so many and to such sturdy hunters ?§ 
 If Christ withdraw himself, we shall all 
 perish." 
 
 These fears were on the point of being 
 realized. The smaller cantons claimed 
 to have the power of interfering in mat- 
 ters of faith without infringing the federal 
 compact. While six hundred men of 
 Uri kept themselves ready to depart, 
 eight hundred men of Unterwalden, bear- 
 ing pine-branches in their hats, symbols 
 of the old faith, with haughty heads and 
 gloomy and angry looks, crossed the 
 
 * Nunc, nunc suum Messiam advenisse spe- 
 rantes. (Ibid.) 
 
 t Ita languet Christus apud nos. (Ibid.) 
 
 X Dass wir hand d'Gotzen geworfen hin 
 (Hymn and Prayer.) 
 
 §Quid haec inter tot et tantos venatores 
 robustos. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 223.) 
 
 Brunig under the ancient banner of the 
 country, which was borne by Gaspard 
 de Flue, a very unworthy grandson of 
 the great Nicholas.* This was the first 
 violation of the national peace for many 
 years. Uniting at Hasli with the men 
 of Brienz, this little army crossed the 
 lake, passed under the cascades of Geis- 
 bach, and arrived at Unterseen, thirteen 
 hundred strong, and ready to march on 
 Berne to re-establish the Pope, the Idols, 
 and the Mass in that rebellious city. 
 In Switzerland, as in Germany, the Re- 
 formation at its outset met with a peasant 
 war. At the first success, new comba- 
 tants would arrive and pour through the 
 passes of the Brunig upon the unfaith- 
 ful republic. The army was only six 
 leagues from Berne, and already the 
 sons of Unterwalden were proudly bran- 
 dishing their swords on the banks of the 
 lake of Thum. 
 
 Thus were the federal alliances trod- 
 den under foot by those very persons 
 who aspired to the name of conservatives. 
 Berne had a right to repel this criminal 
 attack by force. Suddenly calling to 
 mind her ancient virtues, the city roused 
 herself, and vowed to perish rather than 
 tolerate the intervention of Unterwalden, 
 the restoration of the Mass, and the fiery 
 violence of the peasants. ■(• There was at 
 that moment in the hearts of the Bernese 
 one of those inspirations that come from 
 above, and which save nations as well as 
 individuals. " Let the strength of the 
 city of Berne," exclaimed the Avoyer d' 
 Erlach, " be in God alone, and in the 
 loyalty of its people." All the council 
 and the whole body of the citizens replied 
 by noisy acclamations. The great "banner 
 was hastily brought forth, the townspeo- 
 ple ran to arms, the companies assembled, 
 and the troops of the republic marched 
 out with the valiant avoyer at their 
 head. 
 
 Scarcely had the Bernese government 
 acted thus energetically, before it saw 
 the confidence of its friends increase, and 
 the courage of its adversaries diminish. 
 God never abandons a people who are 
 true to themselves. Many of the Ober- 
 
 * A celebrated hermit who prevented a 
 civil war in Switzerland in 1481. 
 
 t Quam missam reducem aut violentiam 
 villanorum pati. (Haller to Zwingle, 26th 
 October.) 
 
SWITZERLAND -CONQUESTS. 
 
 res 
 
 landers became intimidated, and deserted 
 the ranks of the revolt. At the same 
 time deputies from Basle and Lucerne 
 represented to Unterwalden thai it was 
 trampling the ancient alliances under 
 foot. The rebels, disheartened by the 
 firmness of the republic, abandoned Un- 
 ferseen, and retired to the convent of 
 Interlaken. And soon after, when they 
 beheld the decision of their adversaries, 
 distressed besides by the cold rains that 
 fell incessantly, and fearing that the 
 snow, by covering the mountains, would 
 prevent their return to their homes, the 
 men of Unterwalden evacuated Interla- 
 ken during the night. The Bernese, to 
 the number of five thousand men, entered 
 it immediately, and summoned the in- 
 habitants of the Hasli and of the baili- 
 wick of Interlaken to assemble on the 
 4th November in the plain that surrounds 
 the convent.* The day being arrived, 
 the Bernese army drew up in order of 
 battle, and then formed a circle within 
 which D'Erlach ordered the peasants to 
 enter. Hardly had he placed the rebels 
 on the left and the loyal citizens on the 
 right, before the muskets and artillery 
 fired a general discharge, whose report 
 re-echoing among the mountains, filled 
 the insurgents with terror, who thought 
 it the signal* of their death. But the 
 avoyer only intended to show they were 
 in the power of the republic. D'Erlach, 
 who addressed them immediately after 
 this strange exordium, had not finished 
 his speech, before they all fell on their 
 knees, and, confessing their crime, beg- 
 ged for pardon. The republic was satis- 
 fied : the rebellion was over. The ban- 
 ners of the district were carried to Berne, 
 and the Eagle of Interlaken, in union with 
 the Wild-goat of Hasli, hung for a time 
 beneath the Bear, as a trophy of this vic- 
 tory. Four of the chiefs were put to 
 death, and an amnesty was granted to the 
 remainder of the rebels. " The Bernese," 
 said.Zwingle, '• as Alexander of Macedon 
 in times of old, have cut the Gordian knot 
 with courage and with glory. "f Thus 
 thought the Reformer of Zurich ; but ex- 
 perience was one day to teach him, that 
 
 * Tradition says that it was on the spot 
 where the hotel of Interlaken now stands. 
 
 j- Bernenses pro sua dignitate nodum hunc 
 quemadmodum Alexander Macedo, Gordium 
 dissectari. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 243.) 
 
 to cut such knots is required a different 
 sword from that of Alexander and of 
 D'Erlach. However that may be, peace 
 was restored, and in the valleys of the 
 Hasli no other noise was heard than the 
 sublime tumult borne afar by the Reich- 
 enbacb and all the surrounding torrents, 
 as they pour from the mountain-tops theii 
 multitudinous and foaming waters. 
 
 While we repudiate on behalf of the 
 Church the swords of the Helvetic bands, 
 it would be unwise not to acknowledge 
 the political advantages of this victory. 
 The nobles had imagined that the Refor- 
 mation of the Church would endanger 
 the very existence of the State. They 
 now had a proof to the contrary : they 
 saw that when a nation receives the Gos- 
 pel, its strength is doubled. The gene- 
 rous confidence with which, in the hour 
 of danger, they had placed some oi the 
 adversaries of the Reformation at the 
 head of affairs and of the army, produced 
 the happiest results. All were now con- 
 vinced that the Reformation would not 
 trample old recollections underfoot: pre- 
 judices were removed, hatred was ap- 
 peased, the Gospel gradually rallied all 
 hearts around it, and the ancient and re- 
 markable saying was verified, which was 
 so often repeated by the friends and 
 enemies of that powerful republic — 
 " God is become a citizen of Berne." 
 
 IV. The reformation of Berne was 
 decisive for several cantons. The same 
 wind that had blown from on high with 
 so much power on the country of De 
 Watteville and Mailer, threw down " the 
 idols" in a great part of Switzerland. 
 In many places the people were indignant 
 at seeing the Reformation checked by 
 the timid prudence of diplomatists ; but 
 when diplomacy was put to flight at 
 Berne, the torrent so long restrained 
 poured violently onwards. 
 
 Vadianus, burgomaster of St. Gall, 
 who presided at the Bernese disputation, 
 had scarcely returned home, when the 
 citizens, with the authority of the magis- 
 trates, removed the images from the 
 church of St. Magnus, carried to the 
 mint a hand of the patron saint in silver, 
 with other articles of plate, and distri- 
 buted among the poor the money they 
 received in exchange ; thus, like Mary, 
 pouring their precious ointment on the 
 
766 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 head of Christ.* The people of St. Gall, 
 being curious to unveil the ancient 
 mysteries, laid their hands on the abbey 
 itself, on the shrines and crosses which 
 had so long been presented to their 
 adoration ; but instead of saintly relics, 
 they found, to their great surprise, noth- 
 ing but some resin, a few pieces of money, 
 several paltry wooden images, some old 
 rags, a skull, a large tooth, and a snail's 
 shell ! Rome, instead of that noble fall 
 which marks the ends of great characters, 
 sunk in the midst of stupid superstitions, 
 shameful frauds, and the ironical laugh- 
 ter of a whole nation. 
 
 Such discoveries unfortunately excited 
 the passions of the multitude. One eve- 
 ning some evil disposed persons, wishing 
 to alarm the poor nuns of St. Catherine, 
 who had obstinately resisted the Reform, 
 surrounded the convent with loud cries. 
 In vain did the nuns barricade the doors ; 
 the walls were soon scaled, and the good 
 wine, meat, confectionaries, and all the 
 far from ascetic delicacies of the cloister 
 became the prey of these rude jesters. 
 Another persecution awaited them. 
 Doctor Schappeler having been appointed 
 their catechist, they were recommended 
 to lay aside their monastic dress, and to 
 attend his heretical sermons " clothed 
 like all the world," said the sister Wibo- 
 rath. Some of them embraced the 
 Reform, but thirty others preferred exile. f 
 On the 5th February 1528, a numerous 
 synod framed the constitution of the 
 church of St. Gall. 
 
 The struggle was more violent at 
 
 broken at Matt, at Elm, at Bettschwan- 
 den, and as each man remained aloof in 
 his own house and village, there was no 
 longer in the canton either council of 
 state or tribunal of justice. At Schwan- 
 den, the minister Peter Rumelin, having 
 invited the Roman-catholics to a disputa- 
 tion with him in the church, the latter, 
 instead of discussing, marched in pro- 
 cession to the sound of drums round the 
 place of worship in which the Reformed 
 were assembled, and then rushing into 
 the pastor's house, which was situated in 
 the middle of the city, destroyed the 
 stoves and the windows : the irritated 
 Reformed took their revenge and broke 
 the images. On the 15th April? 1529, 
 an agreement was concluded, by virtue 
 of which every man was free to choose 
 between the Mass and the Sermon. 
 
 At Wesen, where Schwytz exercised 
 sovereignty conjointly with Glaris, the 
 deputies of the former canton threatened 
 the people. Upon this the young men 
 took the images out of the churches, 
 carried them to an open place near the 
 banks of the picturesque lake of Wallen- 
 stadt, above which soar the mountains of 
 the Ammon and of the Seven Electors, 
 and cried : " Look ! this road (that by 
 the lake) leads to Coire and to Rome ; 
 that (to the south) to Glaris ; this other 
 (to the west) to Schwytz ; and the fourth 
 (by the Ammon) to St. Gall. Take 
 which you please ! But if you do not 
 move off, you shall be burnt !" After 
 waiting a few moments, these young 
 people flung the motionless images into 
 
 Glaris. The seeds of the Gospel truth, | the fire, and the Schwytz deputies, eye- 
 
 which Zwingle had scattered there, had 
 prospered but little. The men in power 
 anxiously rejected every innovation, and 
 the people loved better "to leap and 
 dance, and work miracles, glass in hand" 
 as an old chronicle says, " than to busy 
 themselves about the Gospel." The 
 Landsgemeinde having pronounced, on 
 the 15th May 1528, "in favour of the 
 Mass by a majority of thirty-three voices, 
 the two parties were marked out with 
 greater distinctness : the images were 
 
 * War gemiinzet und den Armen ausgetheilt. 
 (J. J. Hottinger, iii. p. 415. St. Matthew 
 xxvi. 7.) 
 
 t Arx. Gesch. St. Gall, ii. p. 529. J. J. 
 Hottinger, p. 416. Miiller ; Hottinger, ii. p. 
 91. 
 
 witnesses of this execution, withdrew in 
 consternation, and filled the whole canton 
 with projects of vengeance that were but 
 too soon realized. 
 
 In the canton of Appenzell, where a 
 conference had been opened, there sud- 
 denly appeared a band of Roman-catho- 
 lics, armed with whips and clubs, and 
 crying out : " Where are these preach- 
 ers ? we are resolved to put them out of 
 the village !" These strange doctors 
 wounded the ministers and dispersed the 
 assembly with their whips. Out of the 
 eight parishes of the canton, six embraced 
 the Reform, and Appenzell became 
 finally divided into little sections, the 
 one Romanist and the other Reformed. 
 
 In the Grisons religious liberty was 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 767 
 
 proclaimed ; the parishes had the election 
 of their pastors, several castles were 
 rased to the ground to render all return 
 to arbitrary government impossible, 
 and the affrighted bishop went and hid 
 in the Tyrol his anger and his desire for 
 vengeance. " The Grisons," said 
 Zwingle, " advance daily. It is a nation 
 that by its courage reminds us of the 
 ancient Tuscans, and by its candour of 
 the ancient Swiss."* 
 
 Schaffhausen, after having long 
 "halted between two opinions," at the 
 summons of Zurich and of Berne removed 
 the images from its churches without 
 tumult or disorder. At the same time 
 the Reformation invaded Thurgovia, the 
 valley of the Rhine, and other bailiwicks 
 subordinate to these cantons. In vain 
 did the Roman- catholic cantons, that 
 were in the majority, protest against 
 it. " When temporal affairs are con- 
 cerned," replied Zurich and Berne, " we 
 will not oppose a plurality of votes ; but 
 the Word of God cannot be subjected to 
 the suffrages .of men." All the districts 
 that lie along the banks of the Thur, of 
 the Lake of Constance, and of the Upper 
 Rhine, embraced the Gospel. The in- 
 habitants of Mammeren, near the place 
 where the Rhine issues from the lake, 
 flung their images into the water. But 
 the statue of St. Blaise, after remaining 
 some time upright, and contemplating the 
 ungrateful spot whence it was banished, 
 swam across the lake to Catahorn, situ- 
 ated on the opposite shore, if we may 
 believe the account of a monk named 
 Lang.f Even while running away 
 Popery worked its miracles. 
 
 Thus were the popular superstitions 
 overthrown in Switzerland, and some- 
 times not without violence. Every great 
 development in human affairs brings 
 with it an energetic opposition to that 
 which has existed. It necessarily con- 
 tains an aggressive element, which ought 
 to act freely, and by that means open 
 the new path. In the times of the Re- 
 formation the doctors attacked the Pope, 
 and the people the images. The move- 
 ment almost always exceeded a just 
 moderation. In order that human nature 
 may take one step in advance, its pio- 
 
 * Gens animo veteres Tuscos referens, can- 
 dore veteres Helvetios. (Zw. Epp.) 
 t J. J. Hottinger, iii. p. 420. 
 
 neers must take many. Every super- 
 fluous step should be condemned, and 
 yet we must acknowledge their necessi- 
 ty. Let us not forgel this in the history 
 of the Reformation, and especially in 
 that of Switzerland. 
 
 Zurich was reformed ; Berne had just 
 become so : Basle still remained, before 
 the great cities of the Confederation were 
 gained over to the Evangelical faith. 
 The reformation of this learned city was 
 the most important consequence resulting 
 from that of the warlike Berne 
 
 For six years the Gospel had been 
 preached in Basle. The meek and 
 pious GEcolampadius was always waiting 
 for happier times. " The darkness," 
 said he, " is about to retire before the 
 rays of truth."* But his expectation 
 was vain. A triple aristocraey — the 
 superior clergy, the nobles, and the uni- 
 versity — checked the free expansion of 
 christian convictions. It was the middle 
 classes who were destined to effect the 
 triumph of the Reformation in Basle. f 
 Unhappily the popular wave invades 
 nothing without tossing up some foul 
 scum. 
 
 It is true that the Gospel had many 
 friends in the councils: but being nun 
 of a middle party, they tacked back- 
 wards and forwards like Erasmus, in- 
 stead of sailing straight to the port. 
 They ordered " the pure preaching of 
 the Word of God ;" but stipulated at 
 the same time that it should be " without 
 Lutheranism." The aged and pious 
 bishop Utenheim, who was living in re- 
 tirement at Bruntrut, tottered daily into 
 the church, supported by two domestics, 
 to celebrate Mass with a broken voice. 
 Gundelsheim, an enemy of the Reforma- 
 tion, succeeded him erelong ; and on the 
 23d September, followed by many exiles 
 and with a train of forty horses, he made 
 his triumphal entry into Basle, proposing 
 to restore everything to its ancient foot- 
 ing. This made GEcolampadius write 
 in alarm to Zwingle : " Our cause hangs 
 upon a thread." 
 
 But in the citizens the Reform found 
 a compensation for the disdain of the 
 great, and for the terrors inspired by the 
 
 * Sperabam enim tenebras veritatis radio 
 essuras tandem. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 136.) 
 f Major pars civitatis quas toto corde dolet 
 tantis nos dissidiis laborare. (Ibid. p. 36.) 
 
768 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 new bishop. They organized repasts 
 for fifty and a hundred guests each ; 
 (Ecolampadius and his colleagues took 
 their seats at these tables with the peo- 
 ple, where energetic acclamations and 
 reiterated cheers greeted the work of 
 the Reformation. In a short time even 
 the council appeared to incline to the 
 side of the Gospel. Twenty feast-days 
 were retrenched, and the priests were 
 permitted to refuse celebrating the Mass. 
 " It is all over with Rome," was now 
 the cry. But (Ecolampadius, shaking 
 his head, replied ; " I am afraid that, by 
 wishing to sit on the two stools, Basle 
 will at last fall to the ground."* 
 
 This was at the period of his return 
 from his discussion at Berne. He ar- 
 rived in time to close 'the eyes of his 
 pious mother ; and then the reformer 
 found himself alone, succumbing under 
 the weight of public and domestic cares ; 
 for his house was like an inn for all fu- 
 gitive Christians. " I shall marry a 
 Monica,"f he had often said, " or else I 
 shall remain a bachelor." He thought 
 he had now discovered the " christian 
 sister " he was in search of. , This was 
 Wilibrandis, daughter of one of the Em- 
 peror Maximilian's knights, and widow 
 of a master of arts named Keller, — 
 a woman already proved by many trials. 
 He married her, saying : " I look to the 
 ordinances of God, and not to the scowl- 
 ing faces of men." This did not pre- 
 vent the sly Erasmus from exclaiming : 
 " Luther's affair is called a tragedy, but 
 I maintain it is a comedy, for each act 
 of the drama ends in a wedding." 
 This witticism has been often repeated. 
 For a long time it was the fashion to 
 account for the Reformation by the de- 
 sire of the princes for the church-pro- 
 perty, and of the priests for marriage. 
 This vulgar method is now stigmatized 
 by the best Roman controversialists as 
 " a proof of a singularly narrow mind. 
 — The Reformation originated," add 
 they, " in a true and christian, although 
 unenlightened zeal."^; 
 
 * Vereorque ne dum semper utraque sella 
 sedere velit, utraque extrudatur aliquando. 
 (Z\v. Epp. ii. p. 157.) 
 
 f The name of St. Augustin's mother. 
 
 t See Mohler's Symbolik, both in the pre- 
 face and in the body of the work. This is 
 one of the most important writings produced 
 by Rome since the time of Bossuet. 
 
 The return of CEcolampadius had still 
 more important consequences for Basle 
 than it had for himself. The discussion 
 at Berne caused a great sensation there. 
 " Berne, the powerful Berne, is reform- 
 ing !" was passed from mouth to mouth. 
 " How, then ! " said the people one to 
 another, " the fierce bear has come out 
 
 of his den he is groping about 
 
 for the rays of the sun and Basle, 
 
 the city of learning — Basle, the adopted 
 city of Erasmus and of GCcolampadius, 
 remaining in darkness ! " 
 
 On Good Friday (10th April, 1528). 
 without the knowledge of the council 
 and OEcolampadius, five workmen of the 
 Spinners' Company entered the church 
 of St. Martin, which was that of the re- 
 former, and where the Mass was al- 
 ready abolished, and carried away all 
 the " idols." On Easter Monday, after 
 the evening sermon, thirty-four citizens 
 removed all the images from the church 
 of the Augustines. 
 
 This was going too far. Were they 
 desirous, then, of drawing Basle and its 
 councils from that just medium in which 
 they had till this moment so wisely halt- 
 ed ? The council met hastily on Tues- 
 day morning, and sent the five men to 
 prison ; but, on the intercession of the 
 burghers, they were released, and the 
 images suppressed in five other churches. 
 These half-measures sufficed for a time. 
 On a sudden the flame burst out anew 
 with greater violence. Sermons were 
 preached at St. Martin's and St. Leo- 
 nard's against the abominations of the 
 cathedral ; and at the cathedral the Re- 
 formers were called " heretics, knaves, 
 and profligates."* The Papists cele- 
 brated mass upon mass. The burgo- 
 master Meyer, a friend of the Reform, 
 had with him the majority of the people ; 
 the burgomaster Meltinger, an intrepid 
 leader of the |fartisans of Rome, pre- 
 vailed in the councils : a collision be- 
 came inevitable. " The fatal hour ap- 
 proaches," says GCcolampadius, " ter- 
 rible for the enemies of God." f 
 
 On Wednesday the 23d December, 
 two days before Christmas, three hun- 
 dred citizens from all the companies, 
 
 * Ketzer, schelmen, und bilben. (Bulling, 
 ii. p. 36.) 
 
 f Maturatur fatalis hora et tremenda hosti- 
 bus Dei. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 213.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 709 
 
 pious and worthy men, assembled in the 
 hall of the Gardeners' Company, and 
 there drew up a petition to the senate. 
 During this time the friends of Popery, 
 who resided for the most part in Little 
 Basle and the suburb of St. Paul, took 
 up arms, brandishing their swords and 
 lances against the Reformed citizens at 
 the very moment that these were bear- 
 ing their petition to the council, and en- 
 deavoured, although ineffectually, to bar 
 their road. Meltinger haughtily refused 
 to receive the petition, and charged the 
 burghers, on the faith of their civic oath, 
 to return to their homes. The burgo- 
 master Meyer, however, took the address, 
 and the senate ordered it to be read. 
 
 "Honoured, wise, and gracious Lords," 
 it ran, " we, your dutiful fellow-citizens 
 of the companies, address you as well- 
 beloved fathers, whom we are ready to 
 obey at the cost of our goods and of our 
 lives. Take God's glory to heart ; re- 
 store peace to the city ; and oblige all 
 the Pope's preachers to discuss freely 
 with the ministers. If the Mass be true, 
 we desire to have it in our churches ; 
 but if it is an abomination before God, 
 why, through love for the priests, should 
 we draw down His terrible anger upon 
 ourselves and upon our children ? " 
 
 Thus spoke the citizens of Basle. 
 There was nothing revolutionary either 
 in their language or in their proceedings. 
 They desired what was right with de- 
 cision, but also with calmness. All 
 might still proceed with order and de- 
 corum. But here begins a new period : 
 the vessel of Reform is about to enter the 
 port, but not until it has passed through 
 violent storms. 
 
 V. It was the bishop's partisans who 
 first departed from the legal course. 
 Filled with terror on learning that medi- 
 ators were expected from Zurich and 
 Berne, they ran into the city, crying 
 that an Austrian army was coming to 
 their aid, and collected stones in their 
 houses. The Reformed did the same. 
 The disturbance increased hourly, and 
 in the night of the 25th December the 
 Papists met under arms : priests with 
 arquebuse in hand were numbered 
 among their ranks. 
 
 Scarcely had the Reformed learnt this, 
 when some of them running hastily from 
 
 house to house, knocked at the doors and 
 awoke their friends, who, starting out of 
 
 bed, seized their muskets and repaired 
 to the Gardeners' Hall, the rendezvous 
 of their party. They soon amounted to 
 three thousand. 
 
 Both parties passed the night under 
 arms. At every moment a civil war, 
 and what is worse, " a war of hearths," 
 might break out. It was at last agreed 
 that each party should nominate dele- 
 gates to treat with the senate on this 
 matter. The Reformed chose thirty 
 men of respectability, courage, faith, 
 and experience, who took up their quar- 
 ters at the Gardeners' Hall. The par- 
 tisans of the ancient faith chose also a 
 commission, but less numerous and less 
 respectable : their station was at the 
 Fishmongers' Hall. The council was 
 constantly sitting. All the gates of the 
 city, except two, were closed ; strong 
 guards were posted in every quarter. 
 Deputies from Lucerne, Uri, Schaffhau- 
 sen, Zug, Schwytz, Mulhausen, and 
 Strasburg, arrived successively. The 
 agitation and tumult increased from hour 
 to hour. 
 
 It was necessary to put an end to so 
 violent a crisis. The senate, faithful to 
 its ideas of half-measures, decreed that 
 the priest should continue to celebrate 
 the Mass ; but that all, priests and mi- 
 nisters, should preach the Word of God, 
 and for this purpose should meet once 
 a-week to confer upon the holy Scrip- 
 tures. They then called the Lutherans 
 together in the Franciscan church, and 
 the Papists in that belonging to the Do- 
 minicans. The senate first repaired to 
 the former church, where they found 
 two thousand five hundred citizens as- 
 sembled. The secretary had hardly 
 read the ordinance before a great agita- 
 tion arose. "That shall not be," cried 
 one of the people.* " We will not put 
 up with the Mass, not even with a single 
 one !" cried another ; and all repeated, 
 No Mass, — no Mass, — we will die 
 sooner !"f 
 
 The senate having next visited the 
 Dominican church, all the Romanists, to 
 the number of six hundred, among whom 
 
 Quidam e plebe clamitabat : Hoc non fiet ! 
 (Zw Epp. ii. p. 255.) 
 
 f Nos plane ea non feremus, aut moriemur 
 ornnes. (Ibid.) 
 
770 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 were many foreign servants, cried out : 
 " We are ready to sacrifice our lives for 
 the Mass. We swear it, we swear it !" 
 repeated they with uplifted hands. " If 
 they reject the Mass — to arms ! to 
 arms !"* 
 
 The senate withdrew more embar- 
 rassed than ever. 
 
 The two parties were again assembled 
 three days after. CEcolampadius was 
 in the pulpit. "Be meek and tracta- 
 ble," said he; and he preached with 
 such unction that many were ready to 
 burst into tears. f The assembly offered 
 up prayers, and then decreed that it 
 would accept a new ordinance, by virtue 
 of which, fifteen days after Pentecost, 
 there should be a public disputation, in 
 which no arguments should be employed 
 but such as were drawn from the Word 
 of God : after this a general vote should 
 take place upon the Mass, that the ma- 
 jority should decide the question, and 
 that in the meanwhile the Mass should 
 be celebrated in three churches only ; it 
 being however understood, that nothing 
 should be taught there that was in oppo- 
 sition to the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 The Romanist minority rejected these 
 propositions : " Basle," said they, " is not 
 like Berne and Zurich. Its revenues 
 are derived in great measure from coun- 
 tries opposed to the Reformation !" The 
 priests having refused to resort to the 
 weekly conferences, they were suspend- 
 ed ; and during a fortnight there was 
 neither sermon nor mass at the cathedral, 
 or in the churches of St. Ulric, St. Peter, 
 and St. Theodore. 
 
 Those who remained faithful to Rome 
 resolved upon an intrepid defence. Mel- 
 tinger placed Sebastian Muller in the 
 pulpit at St. Peter's, from which he had 
 been interdicted, and this hot-headed 
 priest vented such abusive sarcasms 
 against the Reform, that several of the 
 Evangelicals, who were listening to the 
 sermon, were insulted and nearly torn in 
 pieces. 
 
 It was necessary to arouse Basle from 
 this nightmare, and strike a decisive 
 blow. " Let us remember our liberty," 
 
 * At altera pars minitabat praelia si missam 
 rejicerent. (Ibid.) 
 
 t Ut nemo non commoveretur et profecto 
 fere mi hi lacrymas excussisset (Zw Epp 
 ii. p. 255. 
 
 said the reformed citizens, " and what we 
 owe to the glory of Christ, to public jus- 
 tice, and to our posterity."* They then 
 demanded that the enemies of the Re- 
 formation, friends and relations of the 
 priests, who were the cause of all these 
 delays and of all these troubles, should 
 no longer sit in the councils until peace 
 was re-established. This was the 8th Fe- 
 bruary. The council notified that they 
 would return an answer on the morrow. 
 
 At six o'clock in the evening, twelve 
 hundred citizens were assembled in the 
 corn-market. They began to fear that 
 the delay required by the senate con- 
 cealed some evil design. " We must 
 have a reply this very night," they said. 
 The senate was convoked in great haste. 
 
 From that period affairs assumed a 
 more threatening attitude in Basle. 
 Strong guards were posted by the burgh- 
 ers in the halls of the different guilds ; 
 armed men patrolled the city, and bivou- 
 acked in the public places, to anticipate 
 the machinations of their adversaries ; j* 
 the chains were stretched across the 
 streets; torches were lighted, and resinous 
 trees, whose flickering light scattered the 
 darkness, were placed at intervals through 
 the town ; six pieces of artillery were 
 planted before the town hall ; and the 
 gates of the city, as well as the arsenal 
 and the ramparts, were occupied. Basle 
 was in a state of siege. 
 
 There was no longer any hope for the 
 Romish party. The burgomaster, Mel- 
 tinger, an intrepid soldier and one of the 
 heroes of Marignan, where he had led 
 eight hundred men into battle, lost cour- 
 age. In the darkness he gained the 
 banks of the Rhine with his son-in-law, 
 the councillor Eglof d'Offenburg, em- 
 barked unnoticed in a small boat, and 
 rapidly descended the stream amid the 
 fogs of the night4 Other members of 
 the council escaped in a similar manner. 
 
 This gave rise to new alarms. " Let 
 us beware of their secret manoeuvres," 
 said the people. " Perhaps they are 
 going to fetch the Austrians, with whom 
 they have so often threatened us !" The 
 
 * Cogitans quid glorias Christi, quid justitiffi 
 publicae, quidque posteritati suae deberet. 
 (CEcol. Zurich MS.) 
 
 t Ne quid forte ab adversariis insidiarum 
 strueretur. (Ibid.) 
 
 J Clam conscensa navicula fuga, nescio se- 
 natu, elapsus est. (OScol. Zurich MS.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 771 
 
 affrighted citizens collected arms from 
 every quarter, and at break of day they 
 had two thousand men on foot. The 
 beams of the rising sun fell on this reso- 
 lute but calm assembly. 
 
 It was midday. The senate had come 
 to no decision : the impatience of the 
 burghers could be restrained no longer. 
 Forty men were detached to visit the 
 posts. As this patrol was passing the 
 cathedral, they entered it, and one of the 
 citizens, urged by curiosity, opened a 
 closet with his halberd, in which some 
 images had been hidden. One of them 
 fell out, and was broken into a thousand 
 pieces against the stone pavement.* The 
 sight of these fragments powerfully 
 moved the spectators, who began throw- 
 ing down one after another all the images 
 that were concealed in this place. None 
 of them offered any resistance : heads, 
 feet, and hands — all were heaped in con- 
 fusion before the halberdiers. " I am 
 much surprised," said Erasmus, " that 
 they performed no miracle to save them- 
 selves ; formerly the saints worked fre- 
 quent prodigies for much smaller of- 
 fences !""j" Some priests ran to the spot, 
 and the patrol withdrew. 
 
 A rumour, however, having spread that 
 a disturbance had taken place in this 
 church, three hundred men came to the 
 support of the forty. " Why," said they, 
 " should we spare the idols that light up 
 the flames of discord ?" The priests in 
 alarm had closed the gates of the sanc- 
 tuary, drawn the bolts, raised barricades, 
 and prepared everything for maintaining 
 a siege. But the townspeople, whose 
 patience had been exhausted by the de- 
 lays of the council, dash against one of 
 the doors of the church : it yields to their 
 blows, and they rush into the cathedral. 
 The hour of madness has arrived. These 
 men are no longer to be recognized, as 
 they brandish their swords, rattle their 
 pikes, and utter formidable cries : are 
 they Goths, or are they fervent worship- 
 pers of God, animated by the zeal which 
 in times of yore inflamed the prophets 
 and the kings of Israel 1 However that 
 might be, these proceedings were disor- 
 derly, since public authority alone can 
 
 * Cum halpardis quasi per ludum aperirent 
 armarium idolorum, unumque idolum educe- 
 rent. (Ibid.) 
 
 t Erasm. Opp. p. 291. 
 98 
 
 interfere in public reforms. Images, 
 altars, pictures — all were thrown down 
 and destroyed. The priests who had 
 fled into the vestry, and there concealed 
 themselves, trembled in every limb at 
 the terrible noise made by the fall of their 
 holy decorations. The work of destruc- 
 tion was completed without one of them 
 venturing to save the objects of his wor- 
 ship, or to make the slightest remon- 
 strance. The people next piled up the 
 fragments in the squares and set fire to 
 them ; and during the chilly night the 
 armed burghers stood round and warmed 
 themselves at the crackling flame.* 
 
 The senate collected in amazement, 
 and desired to interpose their authority 
 and appease the tumult ; but they might 
 as well have striven to command the 
 winds. The enthusiastic citizens replied 
 to their magistrates in these haughty 
 words : " What you have not been able 
 to effect in three years, we will complete 
 in one hour."f 
 
 In truth the anger of the people was 
 no longer confined to the cathedral. 
 They respected all kinds of private pro- 
 perty ;% but they attacked the churches 
 of St. Peter, St. Ulric, St. Alban, and of 
 the Dominicans ; and in all these temples 
 " the idols" fell under the blows of these 
 good citizens of Basle, whom an extraor- 
 dinary zeal inflamed. Already they 
 were making preparations to cross the 
 bridge and enter Little Basle, which was 
 devoted to the cause of Popery, when the 
 alarmed inhabitants begged to be allowed 
 to remove the images themselves, and 
 with heavy hearts they hastily carried 
 them into the upper chambers of the 
 church, whence they hoped to be able 
 after a time to restore them to their old 
 position. 
 
 They did not stop at these energetic 
 demonstrations ; the most excited talked 
 of going to the town-hall, and of constrain- 
 ing the senate to accede to the wishes of 
 the people ; but the good sense of the ma- 
 jority treated these brawlers as they de- 
 served, and checked their guilty thoughts. 
 
 The senators now perceived the neces- 
 sity of giving a legal character to this 
 
 * Lignis imaginum usi sunt vigiles, pro ar- 
 cendo frigore nocturno. (Zurich MS.) 
 
 f De quo vos per triennium deliberastis, 
 nihil efficientes, nos intra horam omnem ab- 
 solvemus. (fficol. Capitoni, Basle MS.) 
 
 % Nulli enim vel obolum abstulerunt. (lb.) 
 
772 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 popular movement, and of thus changing 
 a tumultuous revolution into a durable 
 reformation.* Democracy and the Gos- 
 pel were thus established simultaneously 
 in Basle. The senate, after an hour's 
 deliberation, granted that in future the 
 burghers should participate in the elec- 
 tion of the two councils ; that from this 
 day the Mass and images should be abo- 
 lished throughout all the canton, and that 
 in every deliberation which concerned 
 the glory of God or the good of the state 
 the opinion of the guilds should betaken. 
 The people, delighted at having obtained 
 these conditions, which secured their po- 
 litical and religious liberty, returned joy- 
 ful to their houses. It was now the close 
 of day. -j- 
 
 On the morrow, Ash-Wednesday, it 
 was intended to distribute the ruins of the 
 altars and other ornaments of the Church 
 among the poor, to serve them for fire- 
 wood. But these unhappy creatures, in 
 their eagerness for the fragments, having 
 begun to dispute about them, they con- 
 structed great piles in the cathedral close 
 and set fire to them. " The idols," said 
 some wags, " are really keeping their 
 Ash- Wednesday to-day !" The friends 
 of Popery, turning away their horror- 
 stricken eyes from this sacrilegious sight, 
 says G5colampadius, shed tears of blood. 
 " Thus severely did they treat the idols," 
 continues the reformer, " and the Mass 
 died of grief in consequence."^: On the 
 following Sunday hymns in German were 
 sung at every church ; and on the 18th 
 February a general amnesty was pub- 
 lished. Everything was changed in 
 Basle. The last had become first, and 
 the first last. While G5colampadius, 
 who a few years before had entered the 
 city as a stranger, without resources and 
 without power, found himself raised to 
 the first station in the Church, Erasmus - , 
 disturbed in the quiet study whence dur- 
 ing so long a period he had issued his 
 absolute commands to the world of letters, 
 saw himself compelled to descend into 
 the arena. But this king of the schools 
 had no desire to lay down his sceptre be- 
 
 * Cedendum plebi. (OZcol. Capitoni, Basle 
 MS.) 
 
 t His conditionibus plebsketa domum rediit, 
 sub ipsum noctis crepusculum. (Ibid. Zu- 
 rich MS.) 
 
 t Ita saevitum est in idola, ac missa prse do- 
 lore expiravit. (OZcol. Cap. Zurich MS.) 
 
 fore the sovereign people. For a long 
 time he used to turn aside his head when 
 he met his friend fficolampadius. Be- 
 sides he feared by remaining at Basle to 
 compromise himself with his protectors. 
 " The torrent," said he, " which was 
 hidden underground has burst forth with 
 violence, and committed frightful ra- 
 vages.* My life is in danger : G5co- 
 lampadius possesses all the churches. 
 People are continually bawling in my 
 ears ; I am besieged with letters, cari- 
 catures, and pamphlets. It is all over : 
 I am resolved to leave Basle. Only 
 shall I or shall I not depart by stealth ? 
 The one is more becoming, the other more 
 secure." 
 
 Wishing as much as possible to make 
 his honour and his prudence agree, Eras- 
 mus desired the boatman with whom he 
 was to descend the Rhine to depart from 
 an unfrequented spot. This was opposed 
 by the senate, and the timid philosopher 
 was compelled to enter the boat as it lay 
 near the great bridge, at that time cover- 
 ed with a crowd of people. He floated 
 down the river, sadly bade adieu to the 
 city he had so much loved, and retired 
 to Fribursr in Brisgau with several other 
 learned men. 
 
 New professors were invited to fill the 
 vacant chairs in the university, and in 
 particular Oswald Myconius, Phrygio, 
 Sebastian Munster, and Simon Gryneeus. 
 At the same time was published an eccle- 
 siastical order and ja. confession of faith, 
 one of the most precious documents of 
 this epoch. 
 
 Thus had a great transformation been 
 effected without the loss of a single drop 
 of blood. Popery had fallen in Basle in 
 despite of the secular and spiritual power. 
 " The wedge of the Lord," says ffico- 
 lampadius, " has split this hard knot."f 
 
 We cannot, however, help acknow- 
 ledging that the Basle Reformation may 
 afford ground for some objections. Lu- 
 ther had opposed himself to the power of 
 the many. " When the people prick up 
 their ears, do not whistle too loud. It is 
 better to suffer at the hand of one tyrant, 
 that is to say, of a king, than of a thou- 
 
 * Basilica torrens quidem, qui sub terra labe- 
 batur, subito eruinpens, &c. (Er. Epp. ad 
 Pirkheimer, July, 1539.) 
 
 t Malo nodo suus cuneus obvenit. (fficol. 
 ICapit.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 773 
 
 sand tyrants, that is to say, of the people." I VI. The recoil of the discussion at 
 On this account the German Reformer Berne had overthrown Popery in a con- 
 
 has been reproached for acknowledging 
 no other policy than servilism. 
 
 Perhaps when the Swiss Reformation 
 is canvassed, a contrary objection will 
 be made against it, and the Reform at 
 Basle, in particular, will be looked upon 
 as a revolution. 
 
 The Reformation must of necessity 
 bear the stamp of the country in which 
 it was accomplished : it will be monar- 
 chical in Germany, republican in Switz- 
 erland. Nevertheless, in religion as in 
 politics, there is a great difference be- 
 tween reformation and revolution. 
 
 In neither of these spheres does Chris- 
 tianity desire either despotism, servitude, 
 stagnation, retrogression, or death. But 
 while looking for progress, it seeks to 
 accomplish it by reformation and not by 
 revolution. 
 
 Reformation works by the power of 
 the Word, of doctrine, cultivation and 
 truth ; while revolution, or rather revolt, 
 operates by the power of riot, of the 
 sword, and of the club. 
 
 Christianity proceeds by the inner 
 man, and charters themselves, if they 
 stand alone, cannot satisfy it. No doubt 
 constitutions are one of the blessings of 
 our age ; but it is not sufficient for these 
 securities to be committed to parchment ; 
 they must be written in the heart, and 
 guaranteed by the manners of the 
 people. 
 
 Such were the principles of the Swiss 
 Reformers, such were those of the Re- 
 form at Basle, and by these it is distin- 
 guished from a revolution. 
 
 There were, it is true, some excesses. 
 Never perhaps has a reformation been 
 accomplished among men without some 
 mixture of revolution. But it was doc- 
 trines, however, that were in question at 
 Basle : these doctrines had acted power- 
 fully on the moral convictions and on the 
 lives of the people ; the movement had 
 taken place within before it showed itself 
 without. But more than this : the Re- 
 formation was not satisfied with taking 
 away ; it gave more than it took ; and, 
 far from confining itself to the work of 
 destruction, it scattered rich blessings 
 over all the people.* 
 
 * Hagenbach, Vorlesungen, ii. pp. 125, 
 
 200. 
 
 siderable part of German Switzerland. 
 It was also felt in many of the churches 
 of French Switzerland, lying at the foot 
 of the Jura, or scattered amid the pine- 
 forests of its elevated valleys, and which 
 up to this time had shown the most abso- 
 lute devotion to the Roman pontiff. 
 
 Farel, seeing the Gospel established in 
 the places where the Rhone mingles its 
 sandy waters with the crystal Leman, 
 turned his eyes to another quarter. He 
 was supported by Berne. This state, 
 which possessed jointly with Frihurg the 
 bailiwicks of Morat, Orbe, and Granson, 
 and which had alliances with Lausanne, 
 Avenches, Payerne, Neuchatel, and Ge- 
 neva, saw that both its interest and its 
 duty alike called it to have the Gospel 
 preached to its allies and subjects. Fa- 
 rel was empowered to carry it among 
 them, always with reserve of the con- 
 sent of the respective governments. 
 
 One day, therefore, journeying to- 
 wards Morat, Farel arrived and preached 
 the Gospel at the foot of those towers and 
 battlements that had been attacked at 
 three different periods by the armies of 
 Conrad the Salic, Rodolph of Hapsburg, 
 and Charles the Bold. Erelong the 
 friends of the Reform amounted to a 
 great number. A general vote having 
 nevertheless declared in favour of the 
 Pope, Farel proceeded to Lausanne. 
 
 He was at first driven away by the 
 bishop and the clergy, but soon reap- 
 peared provided with a letter from the 
 lords of Berne. " We send him to you," 
 said their excellencies to the authorities 
 of the city, " to defend his own cause 
 and ours. Allow him to preach the 
 Word of God, and beware that you touch 
 not a hair of his head." 
 
 There was great confusion in the 
 councils. Placed between Berne and 
 the bishop, what could they do ? The 
 Council of Twenty- four, finding the mat- 
 ter very serious, convoked the Council 
 of Sixty ; and this body, excusing itself, 
 they convoked the Council of Two Hun- 
 dred, on the 14th November, 1529. But 
 these in their turn referred the business 
 to the smaller council. No one would 
 have anything to do with it. The inha- 
 bitants of Lausanne, it is true, com- 
 plained loudly of the holy members of 
 
774 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 their chapters, whose lives ' (they said) 
 were one long orgy ; but when their 
 eyes turned on the austere countenance 
 of Reform, they were still more terrified. 
 Besides, how deprive Lausanne of her 
 bishop, her court, and her dignitaries ? 
 What ! no more pilgrims in the church- 
 es, — no more suitors in the ecclesiastical 
 courts, — no more purchasers in the 
 markets, or boon companions in the ta- 
 verns ! The widowed and desolate Lau- 
 sanne would no longer behold the noisy 
 throng of people, that were at once her 
 wealth and her glory ! — Better far a dis- 
 order that enriches, than a Reform that 
 impoverishes ! Farel was compelled to 
 depart a second time. 
 
 He returned to Morat, and soon the 
 Word gained over the hearts of the 
 people. On feast-days, the roads from 
 Payerne and Avenches were covered 
 with merry bands, who laughingly said 
 to one another, " Let us go to Morat and 
 hear the preachers !" and exhorted each 
 other slily, as they went along the road, 
 " not to fall into the nets of the heretics." 
 But at night, all was changed. Grasped 
 by the strong hand of truth, these very 
 people returned, — some in deep thought, 
 others discussing with animation the doc- 
 trines they had. heard. The fire was 
 sparkling throughout all this district, and 
 spreading in every direction its long rays 
 of light. This was enough for Farel : 
 he required new conquests. 
 
 At a short distance from Morat lay one 
 of the strongholds of Popery — the Earl- 
 dom of Neuchatel. Joan of Hochberg, 
 who had inherited this principality from 
 her ancestors, had married, in 1504, 
 Louis of Orleans, Duke of Longueville. 
 This French nobleman having supported 
 the King of France in 1512, in a war 
 against the Swiss, the cantons had taken 
 possession of Neuchatel, but had restored 
 it to his widow in 1529. 
 
 Few countries could have presented 
 greater difficulties to the daring reform- 
 er. The princess of Longueville, resid- 
 ing in France in the suite of Francis I., 
 a woman of courtly habits, vain, extra- 
 vagant, always in debt, and thinking of 
 Neuchatel only as a farm that should 
 bring her in a large revenue, was de- 
 voted to the Pope and Popery. Twelve 
 canons with several priests and chaplains 
 formed a powerful clergy, at whose head 
 
 was the provost Oliver of Hochberg, na- 
 tural brother to the princess. Auxili- 
 aries full of zeal flanked this main army. 
 On the one side there was the abbey of 
 the Premonstrantes of Fontaine- Andre, 
 three quarters of a league beyond the 
 town, the monks of which, after having 
 in the twelfth century cleared the ground 
 with their own hands,* had gradually be- 
 come powerful lords ; and, on the%other 
 side, the Benedictines of the Island of 
 St. John, whose abbot, having beeli de- 
 posed by the Bernese, had taken refuge, 
 burning with hatred and vengeance, in 
 his priory at Corcelles. 
 
 The people of Neuchatel had a great 
 respect for ancient rights, and it was 
 easy to take advantage of this state of 
 feeling, considering the general igno- 
 rance, to maintain the innovations of 
 Popery. The canons improved the op- 
 portunity. For the instructions of the 
 Gospel they substituted pomps and shows. 
 The church, situated on a steep rock, 
 was filled with altars, chapels, and images 
 of saints ; and religion, descending from 
 this sanctuary, ran up and down the 
 streets, and was travestied in dramas and 
 mysteries, mingled with indulgences, 
 miracles, and debauchery.^ 
 
 The soldiers of Neuchatel, however, 
 who had made the campaign of 1529 
 with the Bernese army, brought back to 
 their homes the liveliest enthusiasm for 
 the Evangelical cause. It was at this 
 period that a frail boat, quitting the 
 southern bank of the lake, on the side 
 opposite Morat, and carrying a French- 
 man of mean appearance, steered to- 
 wards the Neuchatel shore. Farel, for it 
 was he, had learnt that the village of 
 Serriere, situated at the gates of Neu- 
 chatel, depended in spiritualities on the 
 evangelical city of Bienne, and that 
 Emer Beynon, the priest of the place, 
 " had some liking for the Gospel." The 
 plan of his campaign was immediately 
 drawn up. He appeared before parson 
 Emer, who received him with joy ; but 
 what could be done ? for Farel had been 
 interdicted from preaching in any church 
 whatever in the earldom. The poor 
 priest thought to reconcile everything by 
 
 * Propriis manibus. (Hist, of Neuchatel, 
 by F. de Chambrier, p. 13.) 
 
 f Memoires sur l'Eglise collegiale de Neu- 
 chatel, p. 240. 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 775 
 
 permitting Farel to mount on a stone in 
 the cemetery, and thus preach to the peo- 
 ple, turning his back upon the church.* 
 
 A great disturbance arose in Neucha- 
 tel. On one side the government, the 
 canons, and the priests, cried " Heresy !" 
 but, on the other, " some inhabitants of 
 Neuchatel, to whom God had given a 
 knowledge of the truth, "f flocked to 
 yerriere. In a short time these last could 
 not contain themselves : " Come," said 
 they to Farel, " and preach to us in the 
 town." 
 
 This was at the beginning of Decem- 
 ber. They entered by the gate of the 
 castle, and leaving the church on the hill 
 to the left, they passed in front of the 
 canons' houses, and descended through 
 the narrow streets inhabited by the citi- 
 zens. On reaching the market-cross, 
 Farel ascended a' platform and addressed 
 the crowd, which gathered together from 
 all the neighbourhood, — weavers, vine- 
 dressers, husbandmen, a worthy race, 
 possessing more feeling than imagination. 
 The preacher's exterior was grave, his 
 discourse energetic, his voice like thun- 
 der : his eyes, his features, his gestures, 
 all showed him a man of intrepidity. 
 The citizens, accustomed to run about 
 the streets after the mountebanks, were 
 touched by his powerful language. 
 " Farel preached a sermon of such great 
 efficacy," says a manuscript, " that he 
 gained over much people.":]: 
 
 Some monks, however, with shaven 
 crowns,§ glided among his hearers, seek- 
 ing to excite them against the heretical 
 minister. " Let us beat out his brains," 
 said some. " Duck him, duck him !" 
 cried others, advancing to throw Farel 
 into a fountain, which may still be seen 
 near the spot where he preached. But 
 the reformer stood firm. 
 
 This first preaching was succeeded by 
 others. To this Gospel missionary every 
 place was a church ; every stone, every 
 bench, every platform was a pulpit. 
 
 * M. de Perrot, ex-pastcr of Serriere, and 
 author of a work entitled " L'Eglise et la Re- 
 formation," has shown me the stone on which 
 Farel stood. 
 
 f " Aucuns de Neuchatel, auxquels Dieu 
 avaient donne connoissance de la verite," &c. 
 (Choupart MS.) 
 
 J Quoted in the Choupart MS. 
 
 § Rasorum remoramenta. (Farellus Molano, 
 Neuchatel MS.) 
 
 Already the cutting winds and the snows 
 of December should have kept the Neu- 
 chatelans around their firesides ; " the 
 canons made a vigorous defence ;"* and 
 in every quarter " the shorn crowns" 
 were in agitation, supplicating, menacing, 
 howling, and threatening, — but all was 
 useless. No sooner did this man of small 
 stature rise up in any place, with his 
 pale yet sunburnt complexion, with red 
 and unkempt beard, with sparkling eye 
 and expressive mouth, than the monks' 
 labour was lost : the people collected 
 around, for it was the Word of God that 
 fell from his lips.f All eyes were fixed 
 on him : with open mouth and attentive 
 ears they hung upon his words 4 And 
 scarcely does he begin to speak, when — 
 Oh ! wonderful work of God ! he himself 
 exclaims — this multitude believes as if it 
 had but one soul. 
 
 The Word of God carried the town, as 
 it were, at the first assault ; and throwing 
 down the devices Rome had taken ages 
 to compose, established itself in triumph 
 on the ruins of human traditions. Farel 
 saw in imagination Jesus Christ himself 
 walking in spirit through the midst of this 
 crowd, opening the eyes of the blind, 
 softening the hard heart, and working 
 
 miracles §, so that scarcely had he 
 
 returned to his humble residence before 
 he wrote to'-his friends with a heart full 
 of emotion : " Render thanks with me to 
 the Father of mercies, in that he has 
 shown his favour to those bowed down by 
 a weighty tyranny ;" and falling on his 
 knees, he worshipped God.|| 
 
 But during this time what were the 
 adherents of the Pope doing in Neucha- 
 tel? 
 
 The canons, members of the General 
 Audiences, of which they formed the 
 first estate, treated both priests and lay- 
 men with intolerable haughtiness. Lay- 
 ing the burden of their offices on poor 
 curates, they publicly kept dissolute 
 women, clothed them sumptuously, en- 
 dowed their children by public acts, 
 fought in the church, haunted the streets 
 
 * Contra tyrannica praecepta. (Far. Mol. 
 Neuchatel MS.) 
 
 f Ad verbum festinarent. (Ibid.) 
 
 % Avide audientes. (Ibid.) 
 
 § Quid Christus in suis egerit. (Ibid.) 
 
 || Gratias ergo, Fratres, mecum agite Patri 
 misericordiarum, quod sit propitius gravi pres- 
 sis tirannide. (Ibid.) 
 
776 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 by night, or went into a foreign country 
 to enjoy in secret the produce of their 
 avarice and of their intrigues. Some 
 poor lepers placed in a house near the 
 city were maintained by the produce of 
 certain offerings. The rich canons, in 
 the midst of their banquets, dared take 
 away the bread of charity from these 
 unhappy wretches. 
 
 The abbey of Fontaine-Andre was at 
 a little distance from the town. Now the 
 canons of Neuchatel and the monks of 
 Fontaine were at open war. These 
 hostile powers, encamped on their two 
 hills, disputed each other's property, 
 wrested away each other's privileges, 
 launched at one another the coarsest in- 
 sults, and even came to blows. " De- 
 baucher of women !" said the canons to 
 the abbot of Fontaine-Andre, who re- 
 turned the compliment in the same coin. 
 It is the Reformation which, through 
 faith, has re-established the moral law in 
 Christendom, — a law that Popery had 
 trodden under foot. 
 
 For a long time these conventual wars 
 had disturbed the country. On a sud- 
 den they cease. A strange event is 
 passing in Neuchatel, — the Word of God 
 is preached there. The canons, seized 
 with affright in the midst of their disor- 
 ders, look down from their lofty dwell- 
 ings on this new movement. The report 
 reaches Fontaine-Andre. The monks 
 and priests suspend their orgies and their 
 quarrels. The heathen sensualism that 
 had invaded the Church is put to the rout ; 
 Christian spiritualism has reappeared. 
 
 Immediately the monks and canons, so 
 long at war, embrace and unite against 
 the Reformer. " We must save reli- 
 gion," said they, meaning their tithes, 
 banquets, scandals, and privileges. Not 
 one of them could oppose a doctrine to 
 the doctrine preached by Farel : to insult 
 him was their sole weapon. At Corcel- 
 les, however, they went farther. As the 
 minister was proclaiming the Gospel 
 near the priory, the monks fell upon him ; 
 in the midst of them was the prior Ro- 
 dolph de Benoit, storming, exciting, and 
 striving to augment the tempest. He 
 even had a dagger in his hand, according 
 to one writer.* Farel escaped with 
 difficulty. 
 
 * Rosselet in Annotat. Farel Lebeu von 
 Kirchofer. 
 
 * 
 
 This was not enough. Popery, as it 
 always does, had recourse to the civil 
 power. The canons, the abbot, and the 
 prior, solicited the governor George de 
 Rive at the same time. Farel stood firm. 
 " The glory of Jesus Christ," said he, 
 " and the lively affection his sheep bear 
 to his Word, constrain me to endure 
 sufferings greater than tongue can de- 
 scribe."* Erelong, however, he was 
 compelled to yield. Farel again crossed 
 the lake ; but this passage was very dif- 
 ferent from the former. The fire was 
 kindled ! — On the 22d December he was 
 at Morat ; and shortly after at Aigle. 
 
 He was recalled hence. On the 7th 
 January, religion was put to the vote at 
 Morat, and the majority was in favour of 
 the Gospel. But the Romish minority, 
 supported by Friburg, immediately un- 
 dertook to recover its ancient position by 
 insults and bad treatment. " Farel ! 
 Farel !" cried the reformed party. f 
 
 A few days after this, Farel, accom- 
 panied by a Bernese messenger, scaled 
 that magnificent amphitheatre of moun- 
 tains above Vevay, whence the eye 
 plunges into the waters of the Leman ; 
 and soon he crossed the estates of Count 
 John of Gruyere, who was in the habit 
 of saying, " We must burn this French 
 Luther !"| Scarcely had Farel reached 
 the heights of St. Martin de Vaud,§ when 
 he saw the vicar of the place with two 
 priests running to meet him. " Heretic ! 
 devil !" cried they. But the knight, 
 through fear of Berne, remained behind 
 his walls, and Farel passed on. 
 
 The Reformer, not allowing himself to 
 be ^topped by the necessity of defending 
 himself in Morat, or by the inclemency 
 of the season, immediately carried the 
 Gospel to those beautiful hills that soar 
 between the smiling waters of lakes Mo- 
 rat and Neuchatel into the villages of the 
 Vully. This manoeuvre was crowned 
 with the most complete success. On the 
 15th February four deputies from the 
 Vully came to Morat to demand permis- 
 
 * At levia facit omnia Christus, added he. 
 Farel to Dumoulin, 15th December. (Neu- 
 chatel MS.) 
 
 t Choupart MS. (Chambrier, Hist, de Neu- 
 chatel, p. 293.) 
 
 X Missive of Berne to the Count of Gruyere, 
 5th and 16th January 1530. 
 
 § To the left of the modern road from Vevay 
 to Friburg. 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 777 
 
 sion to embrace the Reform, which 
 was immediately granted to them. " Let 
 our ministers preach the Gospel," said 
 their excellencies of Berne to the Fri- 
 burgers, " and we will let your priests 
 play their monkey tricks. We desire to 
 force no man."* The Reform restored 
 freedom of will to the christian people. 
 It was about this time that Farel wrote 
 his beautiful letter " To all lords, people, 
 and pastors," which we have so often 
 quoted, f 
 
 The indefatigable reformer now went 
 forward to new conquests. A chain of 
 rocks separates the Juran valley of Er- 
 guel, already evangelized by Farel, from 
 the country of the ancient Rauraci, and 
 a passage cut through the rock serves as 
 a communication between the two dis- 
 tricts. It was the end of April when 
 Farel, passing through the Pierrc-Per- 
 tui$ 7 % descended to the village of Tavan- 
 nes, and entered the church just as the 
 priest was saying Mass. Farel went 
 into the pulpit : the astonished priest 
 stopped, — the minister filled his hearers 
 with emotion, and seemed to them an 
 angel come down from heaven. Imme- 
 diately the images and the altars fell, and 
 " the poor priest who was chanting the 
 ?4ass could not finish it."§ To put down 
 Popery had required less time than the 
 priest had spent at the altar. 
 
 A great part of the bishopric of Basle 
 was in a few weeks gained over to the 
 Reformation. 
 
 During this time the Gospel was fer- 
 menting in Neuchatel. The young men 
 who had marched with Berne to deliver 
 Geneva from the attacks of Savoy, re- 
 counted in their jovial meetings the ex- 
 ploits of the campaign, and related how 
 the soldiers of Berne, feeling cold, had 
 taken the images from the Dominican 
 church at Geneva, saying : " Idols of 
 wood are of no use but to make a fire 
 with in winter." 
 
 Farel re-appeared in Neuchatel. || 
 
 * Missive of Berne, Choupart MS. 
 
 t A tous seigneurs, peuples, et pasteurs. 
 See above, Vol. III. book xii. 
 
 % Petra Pertusa. 
 
 § Done le pauvre pretre qui chantoit sa 
 messe ne la peut pas achever. (Old MS. 
 quoted in the Choupart MS.) 
 
 || Farellus suo more magna fortitudine jam- 
 jam agit. Megander to Zwingle, 6th Aug. 
 1530. 
 
 Being master of the lower part of the 
 town, he raised liis eyes to the lofty rocks 
 on which soared the cathedral and the 
 castle. The best plan, thought lie, is to 
 bring these proud priests down to us. 
 One morning Ins young friends spread 
 themselves in tin- streets, and posted up 
 Large placards healing these words : 
 •• All those who say Mass arc robbers, 
 murderers, and seducers of lite /n7>/>/e."* 
 Great was the uproar in Neuchatel. 
 The canons summoned their people, 
 called together their clerks, and march- 
 ing at the head of a large troop, armed 
 with swords and clubs, descended into the 
 jtown, tore down the sacrilegious placards, 
 and cited Farel before the tribunal as a 
 slanderer, demanding ten thousand 
 crowns damages. 
 
 The two parties appeared in court, and 
 this was all that Farel desired. " I con- 
 fess the fact," said he, " but I am justi- 
 fied in what I have done. Where are 
 there to be found more horrible murder- 
 ers, than these seducers who sell para- 
 dise, and thus nullify the merits of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ ? I will prove my 
 assertion by the Gospel." And he pre- 
 pared to open it, when the canons, flushed 
 with anger, cried out : " The common 
 law of Neuchatel, and not the Gospel, is 
 in question here ! Where are the wit- 
 nesses ?" But Farel, always returning 
 to that fearful assertion, proved by the 
 Word of God that the canons were really 
 guilty of murder and robbery. To plead 
 such a cause was to ruin Popery. The 
 court of Neuchatel, that had never heard 
 a similar case, resolved according to 
 ancient custom to lay it before the Coun- 
 cil of Besanqon,! which not daring to 
 pronounce the first estate of the General 
 xAudiences guilty of murder and robbery, 
 referred the matter to the Emperor and 
 to a general council. Bad causes gain 
 nothing by making a disturbance. 
 
 At every step they wished to drive him 
 back, Farel made one in advance. The 
 streets and the houses were still his tem- 
 ple. One day when the people of Neu- 
 chatel were around him, " Why," cried 
 they, " should not the Word of God be 
 proclaimed in a church ?" They then 
 hurried Farel along with them, opened 
 
 * De Chambrier, Hist, de Neuchatel, i. p. 
 293. 
 
 t Prendre les entraives. 
 
778 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 the doors of the Hospital Chapel, set the 
 minister in the pulpit, and a numerous 
 crowd stood silent before him. " In like 
 manner as Jesus Christ, appearing in a 
 state of poverty and humility, was born 
 in a stable at Bethlehem," said the Re- 
 former ; " so this hospital, this abode of 
 the sick and of the poor, is to-day become 
 his birthplace in the town of Neuchatel." 
 Then feeling ill at ease in the presence 
 of the painted and carved figures that 
 decorated the chapel, he laid his hands 
 on these objects of idolatry, removed them, 
 and broke them in pieces. 
 
 VII. At the distance of a league from 
 Neuchatel, beyond the mountain, extends 
 the Val de Ruz, and near its entrance, 
 in a precipitous situation, where roars an 
 impetuous torrent surrounded by steep 
 crags, stands the town of Valangin. An 
 old castle, built on a rock, raises its vast 
 walls into the air, overlooking the humble 
 dwellings of the townspeople, and extend- 
 ing its jurisdiction over five valleys of 
 these lofty and severe mountains at that 
 time covered with forests of pine, but 
 now peopled by the most active industry.* 
 
 In this castle dwelt Guillemette de 
 
 Popery, which anger had blinded, now Vergy, dowager-countess of Valangin, 
 
 took a step that it undoubtedly had a 
 right to take, but which destroyed it : it 
 had recourse to the secular arm, and the 
 governor sent a deputation to the Bernese 
 council, praying the removal of Farel 
 and his companions. 
 
 But almost at the same time deputies 
 from the townspeople arrived at Berne. 
 " Did not these hands bear arms at Inter- 
 laken and at Bremgarten to support your 
 Reformation ? and will you abandon us 
 in ours ?" 
 
 Berne hesitated. A public calamity 
 was at that time filling the whole city 
 with mourning. One of the most illus- 
 trious citizens of the republic, the Ban- 
 neret of Weingarten, attacked by the 
 plague, was expiring amid the tears of 
 his sons and of his fellow-citizens. Be- 
 ing informed of the arrival of the Neu- 
 chatelans, he rallied his waning strength : 
 " Go," said he, " and beg the senate in 
 my name to ask for a general assembly 
 of the people of Neuchatel for Sunday 
 next."f This message of the dying ban- 
 neret decided the council. 
 
 The deputies from Berne arrived in 
 Neuchatel on the 7th August. Farel 
 thought that during the debates he had 
 time to make a new conquest, and quitted 
 the city. His zeal can be compared only 
 to St. Paul's. His body was small and 
 feeble, but his activity was wholly apos- 
 tolic : danger and bad treatment wasted 
 him every day, but he had within him a 
 divine power that rendered him victo- 
 rious. 
 
 * Choupart MS. 
 
 t Wingarterus iste infectus peste apud sena- 
 tum nostrum, pia legatione. (Megander to 
 Zwingle.) 
 
 strongly attached to the Romish religion 
 and full of respect for the memory of her 
 husband. A hundred priests had chanted 
 high mass at the count's burial ; many 
 penitent young women had been married, 
 and large alms distributed ; the curate 
 of Locle had been sent to Jerusalem, and 
 Guillemette herself had made a pilgrim- 
 age for the repose for the soul of her de- 
 parted lord. 
 
 Sometimes, however, the Countess of 
 Gruyere and other ladies would come 
 and visit the widow of Vergy, who as- 
 sembled in the castle a number of young 
 lords. The fife and tambourine re-echoed 
 under its vaulted roofs, chattering groups 
 collected in the immense embrasures of 
 its Gothic windows, and merry dances 
 followed hard upon a long silence and 
 gloomy devotion. f There was but one 
 sentiment that never left Guillemette — 
 this was her hatred against the Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
 Guillemette and the priests had in fact 
 reason to tremble. The 15th August 
 was a great Romish festival — Our Lady 
 of August, or the Assumption. All the 
 faithful of the Val de Ruz were preparing 
 to keep it. This was the very day Fa- 
 rel selected. Animated by the fire and 
 courage of Elijah, he set out for Valan- 
 gin, and a young man, his fellow-coun- 
 tryman, and, as it would appear, a dis- 
 tant relation, Anthony Boyve, an ardent 
 Christian and a man of decided character, 
 went along with him.:): The two mis- 
 
 * Here are situated Chaux de Fonds, Locle, 
 &c. 
 
 t Chambrier, Hist, de Neuchatel, p. 276. 
 
 X Annals of Boyve and a family MS. — This 
 family has since given several pastors to the 
 church of Neuchatel. 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 779 
 
 sionaries climbed the mountain, plunged 
 into the pine forest, and then descending 
 again into the valley, they traversed 
 Valangin, where the vicinity of the cas- 
 tle did not give them much encourage- 
 ment to pause, and arrived at a vil- 
 lage, probably Boudevilliers, proposing 
 to preach the Gospel there.* 
 
 Already on all sides the people were 
 thronging to the church ; Farel and his 
 companion entered also with a small 
 number of the inhabitants who had heard 
 him at Neuchatel. The reformer im- 
 mediately ascended the pulpit, and the 
 priest prepared to celebrate the Mass. 
 The combat begins. While the voice of 
 Farel is preaching Jesus Christ and his 
 promises, the voices of the priests and of 
 the choir are chanting the missal. The 
 solemn moment approaches : the. ineffable 
 transubstantiation is about to take place: 
 the priest pronounces the sacred words 
 over the elements. At this instant the 
 people hesitate no longer; ancient habits, 
 an irresistible influence, draw them to- 
 wards the altar ; the preacher is desert- 
 ed ; the kneeling crowd has recovered its 
 
 old worship ; Rome is triumphant 
 
 Suddenly a young man springs from the 
 crowd, — traverses the choir, — rushes to 
 the altar, — snatches the host from the 
 hands of the priest, and cries, as he turns 
 towards the people : " This is not the 
 God whom you should worship. He is 
 above, — in heaven, — in the majesty of the 
 Father, and- not, as you believe, in the 
 hands of a priest, "f This man was An- 
 thony Boyve. 
 
 Such a daring act at first produced the 
 desired effect. The Mass was interrupt- 
 ed, the chantings ceased, and the crowd, 
 as if struck by a supernatural interven- 
 tion, remained silent and noiseless. Fa- 
 rel, who was still in the pulpit, immedi- 
 ately took advantage of this calm, and 
 proclaimed that Christ " whom the hea- 
 ven must receive until the times of 
 restitution of all things. ''t Then the 
 priests and choristers with their adher- 
 
 * There are two original manuscripts (both 
 quoted in the Choupart MS.) which give an 
 account of this transaction. One says that 
 Farel preached at Valangin, the other indicates 
 a village near Valangin. Ruchat has adopted 
 the former version ; I think the latter prefer- 
 able. The second MS. appears to me older 
 and more correct than tho first. 
 
 t Choupart MS. \ Acts iii. 21. 
 
 99 
 
 ents rushed to the towers, ran up into the 
 belfry, and sounded the tocsin. 
 
 These means succeeded : a crowd was 
 collected, and if Pare! had not retired, 
 his death and Boyve's would have been 
 inevitable. "But God," says the chro- 
 nicle, "delivered them." They crossed 
 the interval that separates Boudevilliers 
 from Valangin, and drew near the steep 
 gorges of the torrent of the Seyon. But 
 how traverse that town, which the tocsin 
 had already alarmed ? 
 
 Leaving Chaumont and its dark forests 
 to the left, these two heralds -of the Gos- 
 pel took a narrow path that wound be- 
 neath the castle : they were stealing 
 cautiously along, when suddenly a show- 
 er of stones assailed them, and at the 
 same time a score of individuals, — priests. 
 men, and women, — armed with clubs, 
 fell furiously upon them. " The priests 
 had not the gout either in their feet or 
 arms," says a chronicler ; "the ministers 
 were so beaten that they nearly lost their 
 lives."* 
 
 Madame de Vergy, who descended to 
 the terrace, far from moderating the 
 anger of the priests, cried out : " Drown 
 them ! — drown them ! throw them into 
 Seyon — these Lutheran dogs, who have 
 despised the Host !"f In fact, the priests 
 were beginning to drag the two heretics 
 towards the bridge. Never was Farel 
 nearer death. 
 
 On a sudden, from behind the last rock 
 that hides Valangin in the direction of 
 the mountain, there appeared " certain 
 good persons of the Val de Ruz coming 
 from Neuchatel":}: and descending into 
 the valley. " What are you doing V 
 asked they of the priests, with the in- 
 tention no doubt of saving Farel ; " put 
 them rather in a place of safety, that 
 they may answer for their proceedings ? 
 Would you deprive yourselves of the 
 only means in your power of discovering 
 those infected by the poison of heresy ?" 
 
 The priests left off at these words, and 
 conducted .the prisoners to the castle. 
 As they were passing before a little 
 
 * Les pretres n'avoient pas la goutte aux 
 pieds et aux bras, et ils les battirent tellement 
 que peu s'en fallut qu'ils ne perdissent la vie. 
 (Choupart MS.) 
 
 f A l'eau ! a l'eau ! jettez les dans le Seyon 
 ces chiens de Lutheriens qui ont meprise le 
 bon Dieu ! (Choupart MS.) 
 
 \ Choupart MS. 
 
780 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 chapel, containing an image of the Vir-I praises unto God." Messire de Bellegarde, 
 gin, "Kneel down," said they to Farel j ever ready to persecute the Gospel, was 
 and Boyve, showing them the statue ; | preparing for them a cruel end, when 
 " prostrate yourselves before Our Lady !"j some townsmen of Neuchatel arrived to 
 Farel began to admonish them ; "Wor-: claim them. Madame de Valangin 
 ship one God alone in spirit and in truth," 'dared not refuse, and at the demand of 
 
 said he to them, " and not dumb images 
 without life or power." But they, con- 
 tinues the chronicle, " greatly vexed at 
 his words and his firmness, inflicted on 
 him so many blows, that he was covered 
 
 the Bernese even instituted an inquiry, 
 " to put a good face on the matter," says 
 a manuscript. " Nevertheless that priest 
 who had beaten Farel most, never after 
 failed to eat daily at the lady's table, by 
 
 with blood, which even spilled on the | way of recompense."* But this was of 
 walls of the chapel. For a long time little consequence : the seed of truth had 
 
 after the traces of it might still be 
 seen."* 
 
 They resumed their march — they en- 
 tered the town — they climbed the steep 
 road that led to the esplanade where 
 Guillemette de Vergy and her attendants 
 waited for the "Lutherans;" so that, 
 continues the chronicle, " from beating 
 them thus continually, they conducted 
 them all covered with filth and blood to 
 the prisons, and let them down almost 
 lifeless into the dungeon (crolon) of the 
 castle of Valangin." Thus had Paul at 
 Lystra been stoned by the Jews, drawn 
 out of the" city, and left for dead.f The 
 Apostles and the Reformers preached the 
 same doctrine and suffered the same 
 treatment. 
 
 It mav perhaps be said, that Farel and 
 Bovve were too violent in their attack ; 
 but the Church of the Middle Ages, 
 which had fallen back into the legal 
 spirit of Judaism, and into all the cor- 
 ruptions that flow from it, needed an 
 energetic opposition to lead it again to 
 the principle of grace. Augustin and 
 St. Paul reappeared in the Church of the 
 sixteenth century ; and when we read of 
 Boyve rushing in great emotion on those 
 
 who were about to worship the bread of | At these words all his hearers arose. " To 
 the Mass, may we not recall to mind the 'the church !" cried they ; " to the church !" 
 
 been sown in the Val de Ruz. 
 
 At Neuchatel the Bernese supported 
 the Evangelical citizens. The governor, 
 whose resources were exhausted, sent 
 ambassadors to the princess, " begging 
 her to cross the mountains, to appease 
 her people, who were in terrible trouble in 
 consequence of this Lutheran religion.""}" 
 
 Meantime the ferment increased. The 
 townspeople prayed the canons to give up 
 the Mass : they refused ; whereupon the 
 citizens presented them their reasons in 
 writing, and begged them to discuss the 
 question with Farel. Still the same re- 
 fusal ! — " But, for goodness' sake, speak 
 either for or against !" It was all of no 
 use ! 
 
 On Sunday, the 23d of October, Farel, 
 who had returned to Neuchatel, was 
 preaching at the hospital. He knew 
 that the magistrates of the city had 
 deliberated on the expediency of conse- 
 crating the cathedral itself to the Evan- 
 gelical worship. " What then," said he, 
 " will you not pay as much honour to the 
 Gospel as the other party does to the 
 Mass ?....*.. And if this superstitious 
 act is celebrated in the high church, shall 
 not the Gospel be proclaimed there also ?" 
 
 action of St. Paul, rending his clothes, 
 and running in among the people, who 
 were desirous of worshipping " men of 
 like passions with themselves?"^: 
 
 Farel and Boyve, thrust into the 
 dungeons of the castle, could, like Paul 
 and Silas in the prison at Philippi, " sing 
 
 * Choupart MS. Mais eux rudement faches 
 de ses propos et Constance, lui donnerent tant 
 de coups, qu'ils le mirent tout en sang, jusques 
 la que son sang jailissoit sur les murailles de 
 la chapelle. On en voyoit long temps apres 
 encore les marques. 
 
 f Acts xiv. 19. t Ibid. 14. 
 
 Impetuous men are desirous of putting 
 their heads to work, to accomplish what 
 the prudence of the burgesses had pro- 
 posed.^: They leave the hospital, and 
 
 * Choupart MS. 
 
 f Letter from the Governor to the Princess. 
 
 j This is the conclusion I draw from various 
 papers, and in particular from the report of the 
 meeting held at Neuchatel by the Bernese de- 
 puties, in which the heads of the burgesses 
 declare, that it appeared to them a very good 
 matter to take down the altars, &c. Hitherto 
 only one phasis of this action has been seen, — 
 the popular movement ; and the other, namely, 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 781 
 
 take Farel with them. They climb the 
 steep street of the castle : in vain would 
 the canons and their frightened follow- 
 ers stop the crowd : they force a passage. 
 Convinced that they are advancing for 
 God's glory, nothing can check them. 
 Insults and shouts assail them from every 
 side, but in the name of the Truth they 
 are defending, they proceed : they open 
 the gates of the Church of our Lady ; 
 they enter, and here a fresh struggle 
 begins. The canons and their friends 
 assembled around the pulpit endeavour 
 to stop Farel ; birj; all is useless. They 
 have not to deal with a band of rioters. 
 God has pronounced in his Word, and 
 the magistrates themselves have passed 
 a definitive resolution. The townspeo- 
 ple advance, therefore, against the sacer- 
 dotal coterie ; they form a close battalion, 
 in the centre of which they place the re- 
 former. They succeed in making their 
 way through the opposing crowd, and at 
 last place the minister in the pulpit with- 
 out any harm befalling him.* 
 
 Immediately all is calm within the 
 church and without ; even the adversa- 
 ries are silent, and Farel delivers " one 
 of thg most effective sermons he had 
 hitherto preached." Their eyes are 
 opened ; their emotion increases ; their 
 hearts are melted ; the most obstinate 
 appear converted ; and from every part 
 of the old church these cries resound : 
 " We will follow the Evangelical religion, 
 both we and our children, and in it will 
 we live and die."f 
 
 Suddenly a whirlwind, as it were, 
 sweeps over this multitude, and stirs it 
 up like a vast sea. Farel's hearers 
 desire to imitate the pious King Josiah.J 
 " If we take away these idols from before 
 our eyes, will it not be aiding us," said 
 they, " in taking them from our own 
 hearts 1 Once these idols broken, how 
 many souls among our fellow-citizens, 
 now disturbed and hesitating, will be 
 decided by this striking manifestation of 
 the truth ! We must save them as it 
 were by fire."§ 
 
 This latter motive decides them, and 
 then begins a scene that fills the Roman- 
 ists with horror, and which must, accord- 
 
 the legal resolution of the magistrates of the 
 city, seems to have been overlooked. 
 * Choupart MS. t Ibid- 
 
 X 2 Chron. xxxiv. 7. § Choupart MS. 
 
 ing to them, bring down the terrible 
 judgment of God on the city. 
 
 The very spot where this takes place 
 would seem to add to its solemnity. To 
 the north th'e castle-walls rise above the 
 pointed crags of the gloomy but pictu- 
 resque valley of the Seyon, and the 
 mountain in front of the castle presents 
 to the eye little more than bare rocks, 
 vines, and black firs. But to the south, 
 beneath the terrace on which this tumul- . 
 tuous scene is passing, extend the wide 
 and tranquil waters of the lake with its 
 fertile and picturesque shores ; and in the 
 distance the continuous summits of the 
 higher Alps with their dazzling snows, 
 their immense glaciers, and gigantic 
 peaks, lie before the enraptured eye. 
 
 On this platform the people of Neu- 
 chatel were in commotion, paying little 
 attention to these noble scenes of nature. 
 The governor, whose castle adjoined the 
 church, was compelled to remain an idle 
 spectator of the excesses that he could 
 not prevent ; he was content to leave us 
 a description of them. " These daring 
 fellows," says he, " seize mattocks, 
 hatchets, and hammers, and thus march 
 against the images of the saints." They 
 advance — they strike the statues and the 
 altars — they dash them to pieces. The 
 figures carved in the fourteenth century 
 by the " imagers" of Count Louis are 
 not spared ; and scarcely do the statues 
 of the counts themselves, which were 
 mistaken for idols, escape destruction. 
 The townspeople collect all these frag- 
 ments of an idolatrous worship ; they 
 carry them out of the church, and throw 
 them from the top of the rock. The 
 paintings meet with no better treatment. 
 " It is \he devil," thought they with the 
 early Christians, " who taught the world 
 this art of statues, images, and all sorts 
 of likenesses."* They tear out the eyes 
 in the pictures of the saints, and cut off 
 their noses. The crucifix itself is thrown 
 down, for this wooden figure usurps the 
 homage that Jesus Christ claims in the 
 heart. One image, the most venerated 
 of all, still remains : it is our Lady of 
 Mercy, which Mary of Savoy had pre- 
 sented to the collegiated church ; but 
 Our Lady herself is not spared. A hand 
 
 * Diabolum saeculo intulisse artifices sta- 
 tuarum et imaginum et omnis generis simu- 
 lacrorum. (Tertullian, de idolatria, cap. 3.) 
 
782 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 more daring than the rest strikes it, as in 
 the fourth century, the colossal statue of 
 Serapis was struck.* " They have even 
 bored out the eyes of Our Lady of Mercy, 
 which the departed lady your mother had 
 caused to be made," wrote the governor 
 to the Duchess of Longueville. 
 
 The Reformed went still further : 
 they seized the patens in which lay the 
 corpus Domini, and flung them from the 
 top of the rock into the torrent ; after 
 which, being desirous of showing that 
 the consecrated wafers are mere bread, 
 and not God himself, they distributed 
 
 them one to another and ate them 
 
 At this sight the canons and chaplains 
 could no longer remain quiet. A cry 
 of horror was heard ; they ran up with 
 their adherents, and opposed force to 
 force. At length began the struggle 
 that had been so much dreaded. 
 
 The provost Oliver of Hochberg, the 
 canons Simon of Neuchatel and Pontus 
 of Soleilant, all three members of the 
 privy council, had repaired hastily to 
 the castle, as well as the other council- 
 lors of the princess. Until this moment 
 they had remained silent spectators of 
 the scene ; but when they saw the two 
 parties were coming to blows, they or- 
 dered all " the supporters of the Evan- 
 gelical doctrine " to appear before the 
 governor. This was like trying to chain 
 the winds. Besides, why should the 
 Reformers stop % They were not acting 
 without legitimate authority .f " Tell 
 the governor," replied the townspeople 
 haughtily, " that in the concerns of God 
 and of our souls he has no command 
 over us. "J 
 
 George de Rive then discovered that 
 his authority failed against a power su- 
 perior to his own. He must yield, and 
 save at least some remnants. He hast- 
 ened therefore to remove the images that 
 still remained, and to shut them up in 
 secret chambers. The citizens of Neu- 
 chatel allowed him to execute this mea- 
 sure. " Save your gods," thought they, 
 " preserve them under strong bars, lest 
 
 * Socrates v. 10. 
 
 t " Par les quatre du dit Neuchatel," by the 
 Four (the municipal authorities) of the said 
 Neuchatel, remarks the priest Besancenet. 
 See also the recess of the council held at 
 Neuchatel by MM. of Berne, 4th November, 
 1530. 
 
 J The Governor's letter to the Princess. 
 
 perchance a robber should deprive you 
 of the objects of your adoration."* By 
 degrees the tumult died away, the popu- 
 lar torrent returned within its channel, 
 and a little after, in commemoration of 
 this great day, they inscribed these words 
 on a pillar of the church : — 
 
 L'AN 1530, LE 23 OCTOBRE, FUT OTEE 
 ET ABATTUE L'lDOLATRIE DE CEANT 
 PAR LES BOURGEOIS. f 
 
 An immense revolution had been ef- 
 fected. Doubtless it would have been 
 better if the images had been taken 
 away and the Gospel substituted in their 
 place with calmness, as at Zurich ; but 
 we must take into consideration the dif- 
 ficulties that so profound and contested 
 a change brings with it, and make al- 
 lowance for the inexperience and ex- 
 cesses inseparable from a first explosion. 
 He who should see in this revolution its 
 excesses only, would betray a singularly 
 narrow mind. It is the Gospel that tri- 
 umphed on the esplanade of the castle. 
 It was no longer a few pictures or le- 
 gends that were to speak to the imagina- 
 tion of the Neuchatelans : the revelation 
 of Christ and of the Apostles, 'as ft had 
 been preserved in the Holy Scriptures, 
 was restored to them. In place of the 
 mysteries, symbols, and miracles of 
 Popery, the Reformation brought them 
 sublime tenets, powerful doctrines, holy 
 and eternal truths. Instead of a Mass, 
 void of God, and filled with human 
 puerilities, it restored to them the Supper 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, his invisible 
 yet real and mighty presence, his pro- 
 mises giving peace to the soul, and his 
 Spirit, which changes the heart, and is a 
 sure pledge of a glorious resurrection. 
 All is gain in such an exchange. 
 
 VIII. The governor and his trusty 
 friends had not, however, lost all hope. 
 " It is only a minority," said they at the 
 castle, " which has taken part in the de- 
 struction of the images ; the majority 
 of the nation still obeys the ancient doc- 
 
 * Cur vos sub validissimis clavibus. ingenti- 
 busque sub claustris conservatis, ne forte fur 
 aliquis irreptat ? (Arnobius contra gentes, vi. 
 p. 257.) 
 
 t On the 23d of October, 1530, idolatry was 
 overthrown and removed from the church by 
 the citizens. 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 763 
 
 trine." M. de Rive had yet to learn 
 that if, in a popular movement, only the 
 minority appears, it is in some oases he- 
 cause the majority, being of the same 
 mind with it, prefers leaving the action 
 to others. However that may be, the 
 governor, thinking himself upon sure 
 ground, resolved to put the preservation 
 of the Mass to the vote. If the majority 
 were doubtful, the combined influence 
 of the government and clergy would 
 make it incline to the side of Rome. 
 The friends of the Reformation per- 
 ceiving this trick, and feeling the neces- 
 sity of securing the integrity of the 
 votes, demanded the presence of Bernese 
 commissioners. This was at first re- 
 fused. But Neuchatel, divided into two 
 hostile parties, might at any time see her 
 streets run blood : De Rive therefore 
 called Berne to his aid. 
 
 Anthony Noll and Sulpice Archer, 
 both members of the council, . with 
 Jacques Tribolet, bailiff of the Isle of 
 St. John, all three devoted to the Reform, 
 made their entry into Neuchatel on the 
 4th November, — an eventful day for the 
 principality, and one which would de- 
 cide on its reformation. The deputies 
 proceeded to the castle, and there spoke 
 with haughtiness.* " Their excellencies 
 of Berne," said they to the governor, 
 " are much astonished that you should 
 oppose the true and pure Word of God. 
 Desist immediately, or else your state 
 and lordship may suffer for it. "y 
 
 George de Rive was amazed ; he had 
 thought to summon helpers, and he had 
 found masters. He made, however, an 
 attempt to escape from the strait in which 
 he was caught. The Roman-catholic 
 cantons of Lucerne, Friburg, and So- 
 leure, were also allies of the state. The 
 governor insinuated to the Bernese depu- 
 ties, that he might well claim their inter- 
 vention. At these words the deputies 
 indignantly arose, and declared to M. de 
 Rive, that if he did so, he might be the 
 cause of his sovereign's losing Neucha- 
 tel. The governor saw the impossibility 
 of escaping from the net into which he 
 had fallen. There remained no alterna- 
 tive but submission, and to watch the 
 
 * Trois ambassadeurs qui me tinrent assez 
 gros et rudes propos. (The Governor to the 
 Princess.) 
 
 j Ibid. 
 
 J current of events which it was impossible 
 for him to direct. 
 
 It was not thus with the canons and 
 the nobles. Not considering themselves 
 | beaten, they surrounded the Bernese ; 
 and mingling, as I hey always do in simi- 
 lar cases, religion and politics, endeavour 
 ed to shake them. "Do you not see,' 
 said they, "that unless we support the 
 spiritual power, we shall compromise 
 the civil power? The surest bulwark 
 of the throne is the altar ! These men, 
 whose defenders you have become, are 
 but a handful of mischief-makers : the 
 majority are for the Mass!" — "Turn 
 which way you like," replied one of the 
 stubborn Bernese, " even though the ma- 
 jority should be on your side, still you 
 must go that way ; never will our lord- 
 ships abandon the defenders of the Evan- 
 gelical faith."* 
 
 The people assembled at the castle for 
 the definitive vote. The destiny of Neu- 
 chatel was about to be decided. On one 
 hand were crowded around the governor 
 the privy council, the canons, and the 
 most zealous of the Romanists ; on the 
 other were to be seen the four aldermen, 
 the town-council, and a great number of 
 the citizens, gravely ascending the steep 
 avenue leading to the government-house, 
 and drawing up in front of their adver- 
 saries. On both sides there was the same 
 attachment to the faith they had em- 
 braced, the same decision ; but around 
 the canons were many anxious minds, 
 troubled hearts, and downcast eyes, while 
 the friends of the Reform advanced with 
 uplifted heads, firm looks, and hearts full 
 of hope. 
 
 George de Rive, wishing to gain over 
 their minds, began to address them. He 
 described the violence with which the 
 Reformed had broken the images, and 
 thrown down the altars ; " And yet," 
 continued he, " who founded this church ? 
 It was the piincess's predecessors, and 
 not the citizens. For which reason, I 
 demand that all those who have violently 
 infringed our sovereign's authority, be 
 obliged to restore what they have taken 
 away, so that the holy Mass, and the ca- 
 nonical hours may be celebrated anew."f 
 
 * Chambrier, Hist, de Neuchatel, p. 29G. 
 e governor's letter. Quand bien le plus 
 ra des votres, si passerez vous par la, &c.) 
 f Choupart MS. ; Reces du MM. de Berne. 
 
 (Th 
 sera 
 
784 
 
 rflSTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Upon this the prudho?nmes of Neucha- 
 tel advanced. They were not a troop of 
 young and giddy persons, as the Papists 
 had pretended ; they were grave citizens, 
 whose liberties were guaranteed, and 
 who had weighed what they had to say. 
 " By the illumination of the Holy Ghost," 
 replied they, " and by the holy doctrines 
 of the Gospel, which are taught us in the 
 Aire Word of God, we will show that the 
 Mass is an abuse, without any utility, 
 'and which conduces much more to the 
 damnation than to the salvation of souls. 
 And we are ready to prove that by taking 
 away the altars, we have done nothing 
 that was not right and acceptable to 
 God."* 
 
 Thus the two parties met face to face 
 with " great hatred and division," says 
 the Bernese report. The arbitrators 
 consulted together. The governor per- 
 sisted, feeling that this movement would 
 decide the future. A few votes would 
 suffice for the triumph of Rome, and he 
 reckoned on gaining them by his assur- 
 ance. " You should understand," said 
 he, " that the majority of this town, men 
 and women, adhere firmly to the ancient 
 faith. The others are hotheaded young 
 soldiers, vain of their persons, and puffed 
 up with the new doctrine."! — " Well !" 
 replied the Bernese deputies, " to prevent 
 all mischief, let us settle this difference 
 by the plurality of suffrages, in accord- 
 ance with the treaty of peace made at 
 Bremgarten between the cantons." 
 
 This was what the Reformed desired. 
 " The vote ! the vote !" cried they ac- 
 cording to the expression consecrated to 
 such cases.:}: But the lord of Prangins 
 and the priests, who had desired it when 
 they were alone, shrunk back in the 
 presence of Berne. " We ask for time," 
 said they. If the Reformed allowed 
 themselves to be cheated by these dila- 
 tory measures, it was all over. When 
 once the Bernese had quitted Neuchatel, 
 the governor and the clergy would easily 
 have the upperhand. They therefore 
 remained firm. " No, no !" said they, 
 
 * Choupart MS. ; Reces du MM. de Berne. 
 
 t Devez entendre que la pluspart de cette 
 ville, hommes et femmes, tiennent fermement 
 a l'ancienne foi. Les autres sont jeunes gens 
 de guerre, forts de leurs personnes, remplis de 
 la nouvelle doctrine, avants le feu a la tete. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 X Le plus, the majority. 
 
 " now ! — no delay ! — not a day ! not an 
 hour !" But the governor, in the face of 
 a proceeding that would decide the legal 
 fall of Popery, trembled, and obstinately 
 opposed the cries of the people. The 
 magistrates were already indignant, the 
 burghers murmured, and the most violent 
 looked at their swords. " They were 
 resolved to compel us, sword in hand," 
 wrote the governor to the princess. A 
 fresh storm was gathering over Neucha- 
 tel. Yet a few more minutes' resistance, 
 and it would burst forth upon the church, 
 the town, and the castle, destroying not 
 only statues, images, and altars, but 
 " there would have remained dead men," 
 said the lord of Rive.* He gave way in 
 trouble and affright. 
 
 At the news of this concession, the 
 partisans of Rome saw all their danger. 
 They confer, they concert their measures, 
 and in an instant their resolution is 
 taken: they are resolved to fight.j " My 
 lord," said they, turning to M. de Rive, 
 and touching the hilt of their swords, 
 "all of us who adhere to the holy Sacra- 
 ment are resolved to die martyrs for our 
 holy faith. "\ This demonstration did 
 not escape the notice of the young sol- 
 diers who had returned from the Gene- 
 vese war. One minute more and the 
 swords would have been drawn, and the 
 platform changed into a battlefield." 
 
 Monseigneur de Prangins, more wily 
 than orthodox, shuddered at the thought. 
 "I cannot suffer it," said he to the most 
 violent of his party ; " such an enterprise 
 would forfeit my mistress's state and 
 lordship. "§ — " I consent," said he to the 
 Bernese, " to take the votes, with reserve 
 nevertheless of the sovereignty, rights, 
 and lordship of Madame." — " And we," 
 replied the townspeople, " with the re- 
 serve of our liberties and privileges." 
 
 The Romanists, seeing the political 
 power they had invoked now failing them, 
 felt that all was lost. They will save 
 their honour at least in this great ship- 
 wreck ; they will subscribe their names, 
 that posterity may know who had re- 
 mained faithful to Rome. These proud 
 supporters of the hierarchy advance to- 
 wards the governor ; tears course down 
 their rough cheeks, betraying thus their 
 stifled anger. They write their signa- 
 
 * The Governor's letter to the Princess. 
 f Ibid. | Ibid. § Ibid. 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQ.UESTS. 
 
 765 
 
 tures as witnesses at the foot of the sol- 
 emn testament that Popery is now draw- 
 ing up in Neuchatel, in the presence of 
 the Bernese deputies. They then added, 
 with tears in their eyes, " that the names 
 and sui-names of the good and of the per- 
 verse had been written in perpetual me- 
 mory, and declared that they were still 
 good and faithful burghers of Madame, 
 and would do her service unto death."* 
 The reformed townspeople were con- 
 vinced that it was only by frankly bear- 
 ing testimony to their religious convic- 
 tions that they could discharge their debt 
 before God, their sovereign, and their 
 fellow-citizens. So that the Catholics 
 had scarcely protested their fidelity to- 
 wards their lady, when, turning towards 
 the governor, the Reformed cried out : 
 " We say the same in every other thing 
 in which it shall please our Mistress to 
 command us, save and except the Evan- 
 gelical faith, in which we will live and 
 
 die."t 
 
 Everything was then prepared for 
 taking the votes. The church of our 
 lady was opened, and the two parties ad- 
 vanced between the shattered altars, torn 
 pictures, mutilated statues, and all those 
 ruins of Popery, which clearly foretold 
 to its partisans the last and irrevocable 
 defeat it was about to undergo. The 
 three Lords of Berne took their station 
 beside the governor as arbitrators of the 
 proceedings and presidents of the assem- 
 bly, and the voting began. 
 
 George de Rive, notwithstanding the 
 despondency of his friends, was not alto- 
 gether without hope. All the partisans 
 of the ancient worship in Neuchatel had 
 been forewarned ; and but a few days 
 previously the Reformed themselves, by 
 refusing the voting, had acknowledged 
 the numerical superiority of their adver- 
 saries. But the friends of the Gospel in 
 Neuchatel had a courage and a hope 
 that seemed to repose on a firmer basis. 
 Were they not the victorious party, and 
 
 * Alors iceux dirent en pleurant que les 
 noms et les surnoms des bons et des pervers 
 fussent-ecrits en perpetuelle memoire, et qu'ils 
 protestoient etre bons et fideles bourgeois de 
 Madame, et lui faire service jusqu'^a la mort. 
 
 f Governor's letter. Nous disons le sem- 
 blable en toute autre chose ou il plaira a 
 Madame nous commander, sauf et reserve 
 icelle foi evangelique, dans laquelle nous 
 voulons vivre et mourir. 
 
 could they be vanquished in the midst 
 of their triumph ? 
 
 The two parties, however, moved for- 
 ward, confounded one with the other, 
 and each man gave his vote in silence. 
 They counted each other : the result ap- 
 peared uncertain ; fear froze each partv 
 by turns. At length the majority seemed 
 to declare itsejf; — they took out the 
 votes, — the result was proclaimed. A 
 majority of eighteen voices gave the vic- 
 tory to the Reformation, and the last blow 
 to the Papacy ! 
 
 The Bernese lords immediately hast- 
 ened to profit by this advantage. " Live 
 henceforth," said they, " in good under- 
 standing with one another ; let the Mass 
 be no longer celebrated ; let no injury be 
 done to the priests ; and pay to your 
 Lady, or to whomsoever they may be 
 justly due, all tithes, quit- rent, cense, and 
 revenues." These different points were 
 proclaimed by the assembly, and a re- 
 port was immediately drawn up, to which 
 the deputies, the governors, and the ma- 
 gistrates of the city of Neuchatel affixed 
 their respective seals.* 
 
 Farel did not appear in all this busi- 
 ness : one might have said that the re- 
 former was not at Neuchatel : the citi- 
 zens appealed only to the Word of God ; 
 and the governor himself, in his long re- 
 port to the princess, does not once men- 
 tion him. It was the Apostles of our 
 Lord, St. Peter, St. John, St. Paul, and 
 St. James, who by their divine writings 
 re-established the true foundations of the 
 Church in the midst of the people of 
 Neuchatel. The Word of God was the 
 law of the prudhommes of Neuchatel. 
 In vain will the Roman Church say, 
 " But these very Scriptures, — it is I who 
 give them to you ; you cannot therefore 
 believe in them without believing in me." 
 It is not from the Church of Rome that 
 the Protestant Church receives the Bible. 
 Protestantism has always existed in the 
 Church. It has existed alone in every 
 place where men have been engaged in 
 the study of the Holy Scriptures, of their 
 divine origin, of their interpretation, and 
 in their dissemination. The Protestant- 
 ism of the sixteenth century received the 
 Bible from the Protestantism of every 
 
 * Reces de MM. de Berne, MS. Et que 
 l'on paie a Madame ou a qui il sera du juste- 
 ment dimes, cens, rentes et revenus. 
 
78(3 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 ao-e. When Rome speaks of the hierar- 
 chy, she is on her own ground : as soon 
 
 ' as she speaks of the Scriptures, she is on 
 ours. If Farel had been put forward in 
 Neuchatel, he would not perhaps have 
 been able to stand against the Pope ; but 
 the Word of Christ alone was concerned, 
 and Rome must fall before Jesus. 
 
 Thus terminated, by a mutual contract, 
 /hat day at first so threatening. If the 
 
 /Reformed had sacrificed any of their 
 / convictions to a false peace, disorder 
 would have been perpetuated in Neu- 
 chatel. A bold manifestation of the truth 
 and the inevitable shocks that accompa- 
 nied it, far from destroying society, pre- 
 served it. This manifestation is the wind 
 that lifts the vessel from the rocks and 
 brings it into the harbour. 
 
 Fauche doubts not that it is a miracle of 
 the saint, and hastens to return to the 
 Mass. In vain does his neighbour Sauge 
 protest to him upon oath that, during the 
 night, he had made a hole in the statue, 
 filled it with gunpowder, and closed it 
 up again. Fauche will listen to nothing, 
 and resolves to flee from the vengeance 
 of the saints. He went and settled with 
 his family at Morteau in Franche Comte.* 
 Such are the miracles upon which the 
 divinity of Rome reposes ! 
 
 By degrees everything became settled : 
 some of the canons, as Jacques Baillod, 
 William de Pury, and Benedict Cham- 
 brier, embraced the Reformation. Others 
 were recommended by the governor to 
 the priory of Motiers, in the Val de 
 Travers ; and, in the middle of Novem- 
 
 The Lord of Prangins felt that, be- ber, at the time when the winds begin to 
 
 rage among the mountains, several 
 canons, surrounded by a few singing- 
 boys, — sad relics of the ancient, power- 
 ful, rich, voluptuous, and haughty chapter 
 of Neuchatel, painfully climbed up the 
 gorges of the Jura, and went to conceal 
 in these lofty and picturesque valleys the 
 disgrace of a defeat, which their long 
 disorders and their insupportable tyranny 
 had but too justly provoked. 
 
 During this time the new worship was 
 organized. In room of the high-altar 
 were substituted two marble tables to 
 receive the bread and wine ; and the 
 Word of God was preached from a pulpit 
 stripped of every ornament. The pre- 
 eminence of the Word, which character- 
 izes the Evangelical worship, replaced in 
 the church of Neuchatel the pre- 
 eminence of the sacrament, which char- 
 acterizes Popery. Towards the end of 
 the second century, Rome, that ancient 
 metropolis of all religions, after having 
 welcomed the christian worship in its 
 primitive purity, had gradually trans- 
 formed it into mysteries ; a magic power 
 had been ascribed to certain forms ; and 
 the reign of the sacrifice offered by the 
 priest had succeeded to the reign of the 
 Word of God* The preaching of Farel 
 had restored the Word to the rights 
 which belong to it ; and those vaulted 
 roofs, which the piety of Count Ulric II. 
 had, on his return from Jerusalem, dedi- 
 cated to the worship of the Virgin, served 
 at last, after four centuries, to nourish 
 
 * Boyve Annals, MS. 
 
 tween fellow-citizens, " it is better to 
 touch one another, even if it be by colli- 
 sion, than to avoid each other continu- 
 ally." The free explanation that had 
 taken place had rendered the opposition 
 of the two parties less irritating. " I 
 give my promise," said the governor, " to 
 undertake nothing against the vote of 
 this day, for I am myself a witness that 
 it has been honest, upright, without 
 danger, and without coercion."* 
 
 It was necessary to dispose of the 
 spoils of the vanquished party : the 
 governor opened the castle to them. 
 Thither were transported the relics, the 
 ornaments of the altars, the church 
 papers, and even the organ ; and the 
 Mass, expelled from the city, was there 
 mournfully chanted every day. 
 
 All the ornaments, however, did not 
 take this road. Some days after, as two 
 citizens, named Fauche and Sauge, were 
 going out together to their vineyards, 
 they passed a little chapel, in which the 
 latter had set up a wooden figure of St. 
 John. He said to his companion, " There 
 is an image I shall heat my stove with 
 to-morrow." And, in fact, as he returned, 
 he carried away the saint and laid it 
 down in front of his house. 
 
 The next morning he took the image 
 and put it on the fire. Immediately a 
 horrible explosion spread dismay through 
 this humble family. The trembling 
 
 * Ungefahrlich, ungezwringen, aufrecht und 
 redlich. (Berne to the Governor, 17th Dec. 
 1530.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 787 
 
 the faithful, as in the time of the Apostles, 
 " in the words of faith and of good doc- 
 trine."* 
 
 IX. The convention, drawn up under 
 the mediation of Berne, stipulated that 
 " the change should take place only in 
 the city and parish of Neuchatel." 
 Must the rest of the country remain in 
 darkness ? This was not Farel's wish, 
 and the zeal of the citizens, in its first 
 fervour, effectually seconded him. They 
 visited the surrounding villages, exhort- 
 ing some, combating others. Those who 
 were compelled to labour with their 
 hands during the day went thither at 
 night. " Now, I am informed," writes 
 the governor to the princess, " that they 
 are working at a reformation night and 
 day." 
 
 George de Rive, in alarm, convoked 
 the magistrates of all the districts in the 
 earldom. These good folks believed 
 that their consciences, as well as their 
 places, depended upon Madame de Lon- 
 gueville. Affrighted at the thought of 
 freely receiving a new conviction from 
 the Word of God, they were quite ready 
 to accept it from the countess as they 
 would a new impost. A sad helotism, 
 in which religion springs from the soil, 
 instead of descending from heaven ! 
 " We desire to live and die under the 
 protection of our lady," said the magis- 
 trates to the Lord of Rive, " without 
 changing the ancient faith, until it be so 
 ordered by lier. , '\ Rome, even after her 
 fall, could not receive a deeper insult. 
 
 These assurances of fidelity and the 
 absence of the Bernese restored De Rive's 
 confidence, and he secretly prepared a 
 reaction among the nobles and the lower 
 1 classes. There is in every historical 
 catastrophe, in the fall of great establish- 
 ments, and in the spectacle of their ruins, 
 something which excites and improves 
 the mind. This was what happened at 
 the period in question. Some were more 
 zealous for Popery after its fall than in 
 its day of power. The priests gliding 
 into the houses said Mass to a few friends 
 mysteriously called together around a 
 
 * 1 Tim. iv. 6. 
 
 f Choupart MS. Nous voulons vivre et 
 mourir sous la protection de Madame, sans 
 changer l'ancienne foi, jusqu' a ce que par elle 
 en soit ordonne. 
 
 100 
 
 temporary altar. If a child was born, 
 the priest noiselessly arrived, breathed on 
 the infant, made the sign of the cross on 
 its forehead and breast, and baptized it 
 according to the Roman ritual.* Thus 
 they were rebuilding in secret what had 
 been overthrown in the light of day. 
 At length a counter-revolution was 
 agreed upon ; and Christmas day was 
 selected for the restoration of Roman- 
 catholicism. While the Christians' songs 
 of joy should be rising to heaven, the 
 partisans of Rome were to rush into the 
 church, expel the heretical assembly, 
 overthrow the pulpit and the holy table, 
 restore the images, and celebrate the 
 Mass in triumph. Such was the plan 
 of the Neuchatelan vespers. "j" 
 
 The plot got wind. Deputies from 
 Berne arrived at Neuchatel on the very 
 eve of the festival. '• You must see to 
 this," said they to the governor : " if the 
 Reformed are attacked, we, their co- 
 burghers, will protect them with all our 
 power." The conspirators laid down their 
 arms, and the Christmas hymns were not 
 disturbed. 
 
 This signal deliverance augmented the 
 devotion and zeal of the friends of the 
 Gospel. Already Emer Beynon of Ser- 
 riere, where Farel had one day landed 
 from a small boat, ascending the pulpit*, 
 had said to his parishioners : " If I have 
 been a good priest, I desire by the grace 
 of God to be a still better pastor." It 
 was necessary for these words to be 
 heard from every pulpit. Farel recom- 
 menced a career of labours, fatigues, and 
 struggles, which the actions of the apos- 
 tles and missionaries alone can equal. 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1530, he 
 crossed the mountain in the middle of 
 winter, entered the church of Valangin, 
 went into the pulpit, and began to preach 
 at the very moment that Guillemette de 
 Vergy was coming to Mass. She en- 
 deavoured to shut the reformer's mouth, 
 but in vain, and the aged and noble dow- 
 ager retired precipitately saying : " I do 
 not think this is according to the old 
 Gospels ; if there are any new ones 
 that encourage this, I am quite amazed. "j: 
 The people of Valangin embraced the 
 
 * Berne to Neuchatel, 17th December. 
 T Berne to the Governor, 23d December. 
 \ Chambrier, Hist, de Neuchatel et Valan- 
 gin, p. 299. Je ne crois pas que ce soit selon 
 
788 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Gospel. The affrighted lieutenant ran 
 to Neuchatel, thence to Berne, and on 
 the 11th February 1521 laid his com- 
 plaint before the council ; but all was 
 useless. " Why," said their excellen- 
 cies of Berne to him, " why should you 
 disturb the water of the river ? let it flow 
 J?eely on." 
 
 Farel immediately turned to the pa- 
 /shes on the slopes between the lake and 
 Mount Jura. At Corcelles a fanatic 
 /crowd, well armed and led on by the 
 ' curate of Neuchatel, rushed into the 
 church where the minister was preach- 
 ing, and he did not escape without a 
 wound. At Bevay, the abbot John of 
 Livron and his monks collected a nume- 
 rous body of friends, surrounded the 
 church, and having thus completed the 
 blockade, entered the building, dragged 
 the minister from the pulpit, and drove 
 him out with blows and insults. Each 
 time he reappeared, they pursued him 
 as far as Auvernier with stones and gun- 
 shots. 
 
 While Farel was thus preaching in the 
 plain, he sent one of his brethren into the 
 valley ; it was John de Bely, a man of 
 good family from Crest in Dauphiny. 
 Beyond Valangin, at a little distance from 
 Fontaine, on the left side of the road to 
 Cernier, was a stone that remains to this 
 day. It was here in the open air, as if 
 in a magnificent temple, that this herald 
 of the Gospel began to proclaim salva- 
 tion by grace.* Before him stretched 
 the declivity of Chaumont, dotted with 
 the pretty villages of Fenin, Villars, 
 Sole, and Savagnier, and beyond, where 
 the mountains fell away, might be seen 
 the distant and picturesque chain of the 
 Alps. The most zealous of his hearers 
 entreated him to enter the church. . He 
 did so ; but suddenly the priest and his 
 curate " arrived with great noise." They 
 proceeded to the pulpit, dragged Bely 
 down ; and then turning to the women 
 and young persons of the place, " excited 
 them to beat him and drive him away."f 
 
 John de Bely returned to Neuchatel, 
 hooted and bruised, like his friend after 
 
 les vieux evangiles ; s'il y en a de nouveaux 
 qui fassent cela faire, j'en suis esbahie. 
 
 * It does not appear that Bely could have 
 stood and. preached on this stone, as is gene- 
 rally said, unless what now remains is but a 
 fragment of the original. 
 
 t MS. AA. in the Choupart MS. 
 
 the affair at Valangin ; but these evan- 
 gelists followed the traces of the Apostle 
 Paul, whom neither whips nor scourges 
 could arrest.* De Bely often returned 
 to Fontaine. The Mass was abolished 
 erelong in this village ; Bely was its 
 pastor for twenty-seven years ; his de- 
 scendants have more than once exercised 
 the ministry there, and now they form 
 the most numerous family of agricultur- 
 ists in the place. 
 
 Farel, after evangelizing the shores of 
 the lake to the south of Neuchatel, had 
 gone to the north and preached at St. 
 Blaise. The populace, stirred up by the 
 priests and the lieutenant, had fallen upon 
 him, and Farel escaped from their hands, 
 severely beaten, spitting blood, and 
 scarcely recognisable. His friends had 
 thrown him hurriedly into a boat, and 
 conveyed him to Morat, where his wounds 
 detained him for some time.j" 
 
 At the report of this violence the re- 
 formed Neuchatelans felt their blood boil. 
 If the lieutenant, the priest, and his flock 
 have bruised the body of Christ's ser- 
 vant, which is truly the altar of the living 
 God, why should they spare dead idols ? 
 Immediately , they rush to St. Blaise, 
 throw down the images, and. do the same 
 at the abbey of Fontaine-Andre, — a 
 sanctuary of the ancient worship. 
 
 The images still existed at Valangin, 
 but their last hour was about to strike. 
 A Frenchman, Anthony Marcourt, had 
 been nominated pastor of Neuchatel. 
 Treading in Farel's footsteps, he repaired 
 with a few of the citizens to Valangin on 
 the 14th June, a great holiday in that 
 town.;}: Scarcely had they arrived when 
 a numerous crowd pressed around the 
 minister, listening to his words. The 
 canons, who were on the watch in their 
 houses, and Madame de Vergy and M. 
 de Bellegarde from their towers, sought 
 how they could make a diversion against 
 this heretical preaching ? They could 
 not employ force because of Berne. 
 They had recourse to a brutal expedient, 
 worthy of the darkest days of Popery, 
 
 * 2 Cor. xi. 24, 25. 
 
 t De Perrot: L'Eglise et la Reformation, ii. 
 p. 233. 
 
 X This incident is generally -attributed to 
 Farel, but Choupart, following an older manu- 
 script, says, le ministre de Neuchatel, by 
 which title he always means Marcourt, and 
 never Farel. 
 
SWITZERLAND— CONQUESTS. 
 
 7v 
 
 and which, bv insulting the minister, 
 might divert (they imagined) the atten- 
 tion of the people, and change it into 
 shouts and laughter. A canon,* assisted 
 by the countess's coachman, went to the 
 stables and took thence two animals, 
 which they led to the spot where Mar- 
 court was preaching. We will throw a 
 veil over this scene : it is one of those 
 disgraceful subjects which the pen of 
 history refuses to transcribe. f But never 
 did punishment follow closer upon crime. 
 The conscience of the hearers was 
 aroused at the sight of this infamous 
 spectacle. The torrent, that such a pro- 
 ceeding was intended to check, rushed 
 out of its channel. The indignant peo- 
 ple, undertaking the defence of that re- 
 ligion which their opponents had wished 
 to insult, entered the church like an 
 avenging wave ; the ancient windows 
 were broken, the shields of the lords were 
 demolished,, the relics scattered about, the 
 books torn, the images thrown down, and 
 the altar overturned. But this was not 
 enough : the popular wave, after sweep- 
 ing out the church, flowed back again, 
 and dashed against the canons' houses. 
 Their inhabitants fled in consternation 
 into the forests, and everything was de- 
 stroyed in their dwellings. 
 
 Guillemette de Vergy and M. de Bel- 
 legarde, agitated and trembling behind 
 their battlements, repenting, but too late, 
 of their monstrous expedient, are the 
 only ones who have not yet suffered the 
 popular vengeance. Their restless eyes 
 watch the motions of the indignant towns- 
 people. The work is completed ! the 
 last house is sacked ! The burghers 
 consult together. — O horror ! — they turn 
 towards the castle, — they ascend the 
 hill, — they draw near. Is then the abode 
 of the noble counts of Arberg about to 
 be laid waste ? But no ! — " We come," 
 said the delegates standing near the gate 
 of the 'castle, " we are come to demand 
 justice for the outrage committed against 
 religion and its minister." They are 
 permitted to enter, and the trembling 
 countess orders the poor wretches to be 
 
 * Some historians say " the coachman of the 
 countess ;" but Choupart, on three different 
 occasions, writes a canon. The latter is no 
 doubt more revolting ; but there is nothing 
 incredible in it. 
 
 t De equo admissario loquitur qui equam 
 init. 
 
 punished who had acted solely by her 
 orders. But at the same time she sends 
 deputies to Berne, complaining of the 
 " great insults that had been offered 
 her."* Berne declared that the Re- 
 formed should pay for the damage ; but 
 that the countess should grant then the 
 free exercise of their worship. Jacques 
 Veluzat, a native of Champagne, was the 
 first pastor of Valangin. A little later 
 we shall see new struggles at the foot of 
 Mount Jura. 
 
 Thus was the Reformation established 
 at Valangin, as it had been at Neucha- 
 tel : the two capitals of these mountains 
 were gained to the Gospel. Erelong it 
 received a legal sanction. Francis, Mar- 
 quis of Rothelin, son of the Duchess of 
 Longueville, arrived in the principality 
 in March, 1531, with the intention of 
 playing on this small theatre the part of 
 a Francis 1. But he soon found out that 
 there are revolutions which an irresisti- 
 ble hand has accomplished, and that must 
 be submitted to. Rothelin excluded 
 from the estates of the earldom the ca- 
 nons who had hitherto formed the first 
 power, and replaced them by four ban- 
 nerets and four burgesses. Then, avail- 
 ing himself of the principle that all aban- 
 doned property falls to the state, he laid his 
 hands upon their rich heritage, and pro- 
 claimed freedom of conscience through- 
 out all the country. All the necessary 
 forms having been observed with Ma- 
 dame, the politic M. de Rive became re- 
 formed also. Such was the support 
 Rome received from the State, to which 
 she had looked for her deliverance. 
 
 A great energy characterized the Re- 
 formation of French Switzerland ; and 
 this is shown by the events we have just 
 witnessed. Men have attributed to Fa- 
 rel this distinctive feature of his work ; 
 but no man has ever created his own 
 times ; it is always, on the contrary, the 
 times that create the man. The greater 
 the epoch, the less do individualities pre- 
 vail in it. All the good contained in the 
 events we have just related came from 
 that Almighty Spirit, of which the strong- 
 est men are but weak instruments. All 
 the evil proceeded fcom the character of 
 the people ; and, indeed, it was almost 
 always Popery that began these scenes 
 
 * Curate of Bezancenet's chronicle. Des 
 grands vituperes qu'on lui avait faits. 
 
roo 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 of violence. Farel submitted to the in- 
 fluence of his time, rather than the time 
 received his. A great man may be the 
 personification and the type of the epoch 
 for which God destines him : he is never 
 its creator. 
 
 But it is time to quit the Jura and its 
 
 beautiful valleys, brightened by the ver- 
 
 al sun, to direct our step towards the 
 
 .lps of German Switzerland, along 
 
 which thick clouds and horrible tempests 
 are beginning to gather. The free and 
 courageous people, who dwell below the 
 eternal glaciers, or on the smiling banks 
 of the lakes, daily assume a fiercer as- 
 pect, and the collision threatens to be 
 sudden, violent, and terrible. We have 
 just been witnessing a glorious con- 
 quest : a dreadful catastrophe awaits us. 
 
 BOOK XVI. 
 
 SWITZERLAND— OATASTROPHE. 1528—1531. 
 
 I. It was the will of God that the very 
 gates of his revived Church there 
 should be two great examples to serve as 
 lessons for future generations. Luther 
 and the German Reformation, declining 
 the aid of the temporal power, rejecting 
 the force of arms, and looking for victory 
 only in the confession of the truth, were 
 destined to see their faith crowned with 
 the most brilliant success ; while Zwin- 
 gle and the Swiss Reformation, stretch- 
 ing out their hands to the mighty ones of 
 the* earth, and grasping the sword, were 
 fated to witness a ■ horrible, cruel, and 
 bloody catastrophe fall upon the Word 
 of God — a catastrophe which threatened 
 to engulf the Evangelical cause in the 
 most furious whirlpool. God is a jea- 
 lous God, and gives not his glory to 
 another ; he claims to perform his own 
 work himself, and to attain his ends sets 
 other springs in motion than those of a 
 skilful diplomacy. 
 
 We are far from forgetting that we 
 are called upon to relate facts and not to 
 discuss theories ; but there is a principle 
 which the history we are narrating sets 
 forth in capital letters : it is that profess- 
 ed in the Gospel, where it says : The 
 
 WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT CAR- 
 NAL, BUT MIGHTY THROUGH GOD ! Ill 
 
 maintaining this truth we do not place 
 ourselves on the ground of any particu- 
 lar school, but on that of universal con- 
 science and of the Word of God. 
 
 Of all carnal support that religion can 
 invoke, there is none more injurious to 
 it than arms and diplomacy. The latter 
 throws it into tortuous ways ; the former 
 hurries it into paths of bloodshed ; and 
 Religion, from whose brow has been torn 
 the double wreath of truth and meekness, 
 "presents but a degraded and humiliated 
 countenance that no person can, that no 
 person desires to recognise. 
 
 It was the very extension of the Re- 
 form in Switzerland that exposed it to 
 the dangers under which it sunk. So 
 long as it was concentrated at Zurich, it 
 continued a religious matter ; but when 
 it had gained Berne, Basle, Schaffhau- 
 sen, St. Gall, Glaris, Appenzell, and nu- 
 merous bailiwicks, it formed inter-canto- 
 nal relations ; and — here was the error 
 and misfortune — while the connexion 
 should have taken place between church 
 and church, it was formed between state 
 and state. 
 
 As soon as spiritual and political mat- 
 ters became mingled together, the latter 
 took the upperhand. Zwingle erelong- 
 thought it his duty to examine not only 
 doctrinal, but also federal questions ; and 
 the illustrious reformer might be seen, 
 unconscious of the snares beneath his 
 feet, precipitating himself into a course 
 strewn with rocks, at the end of which a 
 cruel death awaited him. 
 
 The primitive Swiss cantons had re- 
 signed the right of forming new alliances 
 
SWITZERLAND -CATASTROPHE. 
 
 791 
 
 without the consent of all ; but Zurich 
 and Berne had reserved the power. 
 Zwingle thought himself therefore quite 
 at liberty to promote an alliance with 
 the Evangelical states. Constance was 
 the first city that gave her adhesion. 
 But this christian co-burghery, which 
 might become the germ of a new confe- 
 deration, immediately raised up nume- 
 rous adversaries against Zwingle, even 
 among the partisans of the Reformation. 
 There was yet time : Zwingle might 
 withdraw from public affairs, to occupy 
 himself entirely with those of the Gos- 
 pel. But no one in Zurich had, like 
 him, that application to labour, that cor- 
 rect, keen, and sure eye, so necessary 
 for politicians. If he retired, the vessel 
 of the state would be left without a pilot. 
 Besides, he was convinced that political 
 acts alone could save the Reform. He 
 resolved, therefore, to be at one and the 
 same time the man of the State and of 
 the Church. The* registers prove that 
 in his latter years he took part in the 
 most important deliberations ; and he 
 was commissioned by the council of his 
 canton to write letters, compose procla- 
 mations, and draw up opinions. Already, 
 before the dispute with Berne, looking! 
 upon war as possible, he had traced out 
 a very detailed plan of defence, the ma- 
 nuscript of which is still in existence.* 
 In 1528 he did still more ; he showed in 
 a remarkable paper, how the republic 
 should act with regard to the Empire, 
 France, and other European states, and 
 with respect to the several cantons and 
 bailiwicks. Then, as if he had grown 
 grey at the head of the Helvetic troops 
 (and it is but just to remark that he had 
 lonfr lived among soldiers), he explained 
 the advantages there would be in sur- 
 prising the enemy ; and he described 
 even the nature of the arms, and the 
 manner of employing them. In truth, 
 an important revolution was then taking 
 place in the art of war. The pastor of 
 Zurich is at once the head of the state 
 and general of the army : this double — 
 this triple part of the reformer was the 
 ruin of the Reformation and of himself. 
 Undoubtedly we must make allowances 
 for the men of this age, who, being ac- 
 customed to see Rome wield two swords 
 for so many centuries, did not understand 
 
 * Escher et Hottinger, Archives, ii. p. 263. 
 
 that they must take up one and leave the 
 other. We must admire the strength 
 of that superior genius, which, while 
 pursuing a political course, in which the 
 greatest minds would have been absorb- 
 ed, ceased not however to display an in- 
 defatigable activity as pastor, preacher, 
 divine, and author. We must acknow- 
 ledge that the republican education of 
 Zwingle had taught him to confound his 
 country with his religion, and that there 
 was in this great man enough to fill up 
 many lives. We must appreciate that 
 indomitable courage which, relying upon 
 justice, feared not, at a time when Zurich 
 had but one or two weak cities for allies, 
 to confront the redoubtable forces of the 
 Empire and of the Confederation ; but 
 we should also see in the great and ter- 
 rible lesson that God gave him, a pre- 
 cept for all times and for every nation ; 
 and finally, understand what is so often 
 forgotten, " that the kingdom of Christ is 
 not of this world." 
 
 The Roman-catholic cantons, on hear- 
 ing of the new alliances of the Reformed; 
 felt a violent indignation. William of 
 Diesbach, deputy from Berne at the diet, 
 was forced to submit to the keenest re- 
 proaches. The sitting, for some time 
 interrupted, was resumed immediately 
 after his departure. " They may try to 
 patch up the old faith," said the Ber- 
 nese, as he withdrew, " it cannot, how- 
 ever, last any longer."* In truth, they 
 patched away with all their might, but 
 with a sharp and envenomed needle 
 that drew blood. Joseph Am Berg of 
 Schwytz and Jacques Stocker of Zug, 
 bailiffs of Thurgovia, treated with cru- 
 elty all who were attached to the Gos- 
 pel. They enforced against them fines, 
 imprisonment, torture, the scourge, con- 
 fiscation, and banishment ; they cut out 
 the ministers' tongues, beheaded them, 
 or condemned them to be burnt. f At 
 the same time they took away the Bibles 
 and all the evangelical books; and if 
 any poor Lutherans, fleeing from Austria, 
 crossed the Rhine and that low valley 
 where its calm waters flow between the 
 Alps of the Tyrol and of Appenzell, — if 
 these poor creatures, tracked by the lan- 
 
 * Mogen sie blatzen am alten Glauben. 
 (Hottinger, Zwingli, p 3S9.) 
 
 t Die Zungen geschlitzt, mit dem Schwerdt 
 richten und verbrannt. (Bull. ii. p. 31.) 
 
792 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 squenets, came to seek a refuge in Swit- 
 zerland, they were cruelly given up to 
 their persecutors. 
 
 The heavier lay the hands of the 
 bailiff on Thurgovia- and the Rhienthal, 
 the greater conquests did the Gospel 
 make. The Bishop of Constance wrote 
 to the Five Cantons, that if they did not 
 act with firmness, all the country would 
 embrace the Reform. In consequence 
 of this, the cantons convoked at Frauen- 
 feld all the prelates, nobles, judges, and 
 persons of note in the district ; and a 
 second meeting taking place six days 
 after (6th December 1528) at Weinfeld, 
 deputies from Berne and Zurich en- 
 treated the assembly to consider the 
 honour of God above all things, and in 
 no respect to care for the threats of the 
 world.* A great agitation followed 
 upon this discourse. At last a majority 
 called for the preaching of the Word of 
 God : the people came to the same de- 
 cision ; and the Rheinthal, as well as 
 Bremgarten, followed this example. 
 
 What was to be done ? The flood 
 had become hourly encroaching. Must 
 then the Forest Cantons open their val- 
 leys to it at last ? Religious antipathies 
 put an end to national antipathies ; and 
 these proud mountaineers, directing their 
 looks beyond the Rhine, thought of in- 
 voking the succour of Austria, which 
 they had vanquished at Morgarten and 
 at Sempach."(" The fanatical German 
 party that had crushed the revolted 
 Swabian peasants was all-powerful on 
 the frontiers. Letters were exchanged ; 
 messengers passed to and fro across the 
 river ; at last they took advantage of a 
 wedding in high rank that was to take 
 place at Feldkirch in Swabia, six leagues 
 from Appenzell. On the 16th February 
 1529, the marriage party, forming a 
 brilliant cavalcade, in the midst of which 
 the deputies of the Five Cantons were 
 concealed, made their entry into Feld- 
 kirch, and Am Berg had an immediate 
 interview with the Austrian governor. 
 " The power of the enemies of our an- 
 cient faith has so increased/' said the 
 Swiss, " that the friends of the Church 
 can resist them no longer. We there- 
 fore turn our eyes to that illustrious 
 
 * Die Eer Gottes, uwer Seelen Heil. 
 ling. Chron. ii. p. 28.) 
 t Ibid. p. 48. 
 
 (Bul- 
 
 prince who has saved in Germany the 
 faith of our fathers." 
 
 This alliance was so very unnatural, 
 that the Austrians had some difficulty in 
 believing it to be sincere. " Take hos- 
 tages," said the Waldstettes, " write the 
 articles of the treaty with your own 
 hands ; command, and we will obey ! " 
 — " Very good ! " replied the Austrians ; 
 " in two months you find us again at 
 Waldshut, and we will let you know our 
 conditions." 
 
 A rumour of these negotiations being 
 spread abroad excited great dissatisfac- 
 tion, even in the partisans of Rome. In 
 no place did it burst out with greater 
 force than in the council of Zug. The 
 opposing parties were violently agitated ; 
 they stamped their feet, they started 
 from their seats, and were nearly coming 
 to blows ; but hatred prevailed over 
 patriotism. The Waldstette deputies 
 appeared at Waldshut ; they suspended 
 the arms of their cantons by the side of 
 those of the oppressors of Switzerland ; 
 they decorated their hats with peacocks' 
 feathers (the badge of Austria), and 
 laughed, drank, and chattered with the 
 Imperialists. This strange alliance was 
 at last concluded.* " Whoever shall 
 form new sects among the people," it 
 ran, " shall be punished with death ; 
 and, if need be, with the help of Aus- 
 tria. This power, in case of emergency, 
 shall send into Switzerland six thousand 
 foot soldiers, and four hundred horse, 
 with all requisite artillery. If necessary, 
 the reformed cantons shall be blockaded, 
 and all provisions intercepted." To the 
 Romish cantons, then, belongs the initia- 
 tive of this measure so much decried. 
 Finally, Austria guaranteed to the 
 Waldstettes the possession, not only of 
 the common bailiwicks, but of all the 
 conquests that might be made on the left 
 bank of the Rhine. 
 
 Dejection and consternation imme- 
 diately pervaded all Switzerland. The 
 national complaint, which Bullinger has 
 preserved, was sung in every direc- 
 tion : — 
 
 Wail, Helvetians, wail, 
 
 For the peacock's plume of pride 
 To the forest-cantons' savage bull 
 
 In friendship is allied. 
 
 * Bullinger gives the treaty at full length. 
 (Chron. ii. p. 49-59.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 793 
 
 All the cantons not included in this 
 alliance, with the exception of Friburg, 
 assembled in diet at Zurich, and re- 
 solved to send a deputation to their moun- 
 tain confederates, with a view to recon- 
 ciliation. The deputation, admitted at 
 Schwytz in the presence of the people, 
 was able to execute its mission without 
 tumult. At Zug there was a cry of 
 " No sermon ! no sermon ! " At Altorf 
 the answer was : " Would to God that 
 your new faith was buried for ever ! " 
 At Lucerne they received this haughty 
 reply : " We shall know how to defend 
 ourselves, our children, and our chil- 
 dren's children, from the poison of your 
 rebellious priests." It was at Unter- 
 walden that the deputation met with the 
 worst reception. " We declare our al- 
 liance at an end," said they. " It is 
 we, — it is the other Waldstettes who are 
 the real .Swiss. We graciously admitted 
 you into our confederation, and now you 
 claim to become our masters ! — The 
 Emperor, Austria, France, Savoy, and 
 Valais will assist us ! " The deputies 
 retired in astonishment, shuddering as 
 they passed before the house of the se- 
 cretary of state, where they saw the 
 arms of Zurich, Berne, Basle, and Stras- 
 burg hanging from a lofty gibbet. 
 
 The deputation had scarcely returned 
 to Zurich and made their report, when 
 men's minds were inflamed. Zwingle 
 proposed to grant no peace to Unterwal- 
 den, if it would not renounce foreign ser- 
 vice, the alliance with Austria, and the 
 government of the common bailiwicks. 
 " No ! no !" said Berne, that had just 
 stifled a civil war in its own canton, " let 
 us not be so hasty. When the rays of 
 the sun shine forth, each one wishes to 
 set out ; but as soon as it begins to ruin, 
 every man loses heart ! The Word of 
 God enjoins peace. It is not with pikes 
 and lances that faith is made to enter the 
 heart. For this reason, in the name of 
 our Lord's sufferings, we entreat you to 
 moderate your anger." 
 
 This christian exhortation would have 
 succeeded, if the fearful news that reach- 
 ed Zurich, on the very day when the 
 Bernese delivered their moderate speech, 
 had not rendered it unavailing. 
 
 On Saturday the 22d May, Jacques 
 Keyser, a pastor and father of a family 
 in the neighbourhood of the GreifFensee, 
 
 after coasting the fertile shores of this 
 little lake, Crossed the rich pastures of 
 the bailiwick of Gruningen, passed near 
 the Teutonic house of Bubikon and the 
 convent of Ruti, and readied thai simple 
 and wild district bathed by the upper 
 part of Lake Zurich. Making his way 
 to Oberkirk, a parish in the. Gaster dis- 
 trict, between the two lakes of Zurich 
 and Wallenstadt, of which he had been 
 nominated pastor, and where he was to 
 preach on the morrow, he crossed on foot 
 the lengthened and rounded Hunks of 
 the Buchberg, fronting the picturesque 
 heights of the Amnion. He was confi- 
 dently advancing into those woods which 
 for many weeks he had often traversed 
 without obstruction, when he was sud- 
 denly seized by six men, posted there to 
 surprise him, and carried off' to Schwytz.' 
 " The bailiff's," said they to the magis- 
 trates, " have ordered all innovating 
 ministers to be brought befoYe the tribu- 
 nals : here is one that we bring you." 
 Although Zurich and Glaris interposed ; 
 although the government of Gaster, 
 where Keyser had been taken, did not 
 then belong to Schwytz ; the Landsge- 
 meinde desired a victim, and on the 29th 
 May they condemned the minister to be 
 bnrnt alive. On being informed of his 
 sentence, Keyser burst into tears.* But 
 when the hour of execution arrived, he 
 walked cheerfully to death, freely con- 
 fessed his faith, and gave thanks to the 
 Lord even with his latest breath. " Go 
 and tell them at Zurich how he thanks 
 us !" said one of the Schwytz magis- 
 trates, with a sarcastic smile, to the Zu- 
 rich deputies. Thus had a fresh martyr 
 fallen under the hands of that formidable 
 power that is " drunk with the blood of 
 the saints. "f 
 
 The cup was full. The flumes of 
 Keyser's pile became the signal of war. 
 Exasperated Zurich uttered a cry that 
 resounded through all the confederation. 
 Zwingle above all called for energetic 
 measures. Everywhere, — in the streets, 
 in the councils, and even in the pulpits, 
 — he surpassed in daring even the most 
 valiant captains. He spoke at Zurich, 
 — he wrote to Berne. " Let us be firm, 
 and fear not to take up arms," said he. 
 " This peace, which some desire so much, 
 
 * Weinet hafftig. 
 f Rev. xvii. 6. 
 
 (Bull ii. p. 149.) 
 
r94 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 is not peace, but war: while the war 
 that we call for is not war but peace.* 
 We thirst for no man's blood, but we will 
 clip the wings of the oligarchy .f If we 
 shun it, the truth of the Gospel and the 
 ministers' lives will never be secure 
 among us." 
 
 Thus spoke Zwingle. In every part 
 of Europe he beheld the mighty ones of 
 the earth aiding one another to stifle the 
 reviving animation of the Church ; and 
 he thought that without some decisive 
 and energetic movement, Christianity, 
 overwhelmed by so many blows, would 
 soon fall back into its ancient slavery. 
 Luther under similar circumstances ar- 
 rested the swords ready to be crossed, 
 and demanded that the Word of God alone 
 ^should appear on the field of battle. 
 Zwingle thought not thus. In his opinion 
 war was not revolt, for Switzerland had 
 
 f no master. " Undoubtedly," said he, 
 " we must t-ust in God alone ; but when 
 He gives us a just cause, we must also 
 know how to defend it, and, like Joshua 
 and Gideon, shed blood in behalf of our 
 country and our God." 
 
 I£ we adopt the principles of justice 
 which govern the rulers of nations, the 
 advice of Zwingle was judicious and irre- 
 proachable. It was the duty of the Swiss 
 magistrates to defend the oppressed 
 against the oppressor. But is not such 
 language, which might have been suita- 
 ble in the mouth of a magistrate, blama- 
 ble in a minister of Christ? Perhaps 
 Zwingle forgot his quality of pastor, and 
 considered himself only as a citizen, con- 
 sulted by his fellow-citizens ; perhaps he 
 wished to defend Switzerland, and not 
 the Church, by his counsels ; but it is a 
 question if he ought ever to have forgot- 
 ten the Church and his ministry. We 
 think we may go even further ; and while 
 granting all that may be urged in favour 
 of the contrary supposition, we may deny 
 
 . that the secular power ought ever to in- 
 terfere with the sword to protect the 
 faith. 
 
 To accomplish his designs, the re- 
 former needed even in Zurich the great- 
 est unity. But there were many men in 
 that city devoted to interests and super- 
 stitions which were opposed to him. 
 
 * Bellum cui nos instamus, pax est, non bel- 
 lum. (Vita Zwinglii per 0. Myconium.) 
 t Oligarchiae nervi succidantur. (Ibid.) 
 
 " How long," had he exclaimed in the 
 pulpit on the 1st December 1528, " will 
 you support in the council these unbe- 
 lievers, these impious men, who oppose 
 the Word of God ?"* They had decided 
 upon purging the council, as required by 
 the reformer; they had examined the 
 citizens individually ; and then had ex- 
 cluded all the hostile members. 
 
 II. On Saturday the 15th June 1529. 
 seven days after Keyser's martyrdom, all 
 Zurich was in agitation. The moment 
 was come when Unterwalden should send 
 a governor to the common bailiwicks : 
 and the images, having been burnt in 
 those districts, Unterwalden had sworn 
 to take a signal revenge. f Thus the 
 consternation had become general. 
 " Keyser's pile," thought they, " will be 
 rekindled in all our villages." Manv 
 of the inhabitants flocked to Zurich, and 
 on their alarmed and agitated features, 
 one might, in imagination, have seen re- 
 flected the flames that had just consumed 
 the martyr. 
 
 These unhappy people found a power- 
 ful advocate in Zwingle. The reformer 
 imagined that he had at last attained the 
 object that he never ceased to pursue — 
 the free preaching of the Gospel in 
 Switzerland. To inflict a final blow 
 would, in his idea, suffice to bring this 
 enterprise to a favourable issue. " Greedy 
 pensioners," said Zwingle to the Zurich- 
 ers, " profit by the.ignorance of the moun- 
 taineers to stir up these simple souls 
 against the friends of the Gospel. Let 
 us therefore be severe upon these haughty 
 chiefs. The mildness of the lamb would 
 only serve to render the wolf more fero- 
 cious.^: Let us propose to the Five Can- 
 tons to allow the free preaching of the 
 Word of the Lord, to renounce their 
 wicked alliances, and to punish the abet- 
 tors of foreign service. As for the Mass, 
 idols, rites, and superstitions, let no one 
 be forced to abandon them. It is for the 
 Word of God alone to scatter with its 
 powerful breath all this idle dust.§ Be 
 
 " Den rath reinigen. (Fussli Beytr'age, iv. 
 p.»91.) 
 
 t Den gotzen brand, an inen mitt der Hand 
 zu rachen. (Bull: Chron. ii. p. 193.) 
 
 J Lupus lenitate agni, magis magisque vorax 
 fit. (Zwing. Epp. ii. p. 296.) 
 
 § Dei verbum enim hos pulveres omnes facile 
 flatu suo disperget. (Ibid.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 795 
 
 firm, noble lords, and in despite of cer- 
 tain black horses, as black at Zurich as 
 they are at Lucerne,* but whoso malice 
 will never succeed in overturning the 
 chariot of Reform, we shall clear this 
 difficult pass, and arrive at the unity of 
 Switzerland and at unity of faith." Thus 
 Zwingle, while calling for force against 
 political abuses, asked only liberty for 
 the Gospel ; but he desired a prompt in- 
 tervention, in order that this liberty might 
 be secured to it. (Ecolampadius thought 
 the same : " It is not a time for delay," 
 said he, " it is not a time for parsimony 
 and pusillanimity ! So long as the venom 
 shall not be utterly removed from this 
 adder in our bosoms we shall be exposed 
 to the greatest dangers. "f 
 
 The council of Zurich, led away by 
 the reformer, promised the bailiwicks to 
 support religious liberty among them ; 
 and scarcely had they learnt that Antho- 
 ny ab Acker of the Unterwalden was 
 proceeding to Baden with an army, than 
 they ordered five hundred men to set out 
 for Bremgarten with four pieces of artil- 
 lery. This was the 5th June, and on 
 the same evening the standard of Zurich 
 waved over the convent of Mouri. 
 
 The war of religion had begun. The 
 horn of the Waldstettes re-echoed afar 
 in the mountains : men were arming in 
 every direction, and messengers were 
 sent off in haste to invoke the assistance 
 of the Valais and of Austria. Three 
 days later (Tuesday the' 8th June), six 
 hundred Zurichers, under the command 
 of Jacques Werdmuller, set out for Rap- 
 perschwyl and the district of Gaster ; 
 and, on the morrow, four thousand men 
 repaired to Cappel, under the command 
 of the valiant Captain George Berguer, 
 to whom Conrad Schmidt, pastor of Kuss- 
 nacht, had been appointed chaplain. 
 " We do not wish you to go to the war," 
 said Burgomaster Roust to Zwingle j 
 " for the Pope, the Archduke Ferdinand, 
 the Romish cantons, the bishops, the ab- 
 bots, and the prelates hate you mortally. 
 Stay with the council : we have need of 
 you." — "No!" replied Zwingle, who 
 was unwilling to confide so important an 
 enterprise to any one ; " when my bre- 
 thren expose their lives I will not remain 
 
 * The Pensioners. — Exceptis aliquot nigris 
 equis. (Zvving. Epp. ii. 298.) 
 
 t Venenum adomestico illo colubro. (Ibid.) 
 
 101 
 
 quietly at home by my fireside. Besides, 
 the army also requires a watchful eye, 
 that looks continually around it." Then, 
 taking down his glittering halberd, which 
 he had carried (as they say) at Marig- 
 nan, and placing it on his shoulder, the 
 reformer mounted his horse and set out 
 with the army.* The walls, towers. ;u\<\ 
 battlements were covered with a crowd 
 of old men, children, and women, among 
 whom was Anna, Zwingle's wife. 
 
 Zurich had called for the aid of 
 Berne ; but that city, whose inhabitants 
 showed little disposition for a religious 
 war, and which besides was not pleased 
 at seeing the increasing influence of Zu- 
 rich, replied, " Since Zurich has begun 
 the war without us, let her finish it in 
 like manner." The Evangelical states 
 were disunited at the very moment of 
 struggle. 
 
 The Romish cantons did not act thus. 
 It was Zug that issued the first summons ; 
 and the men of Uri, of Schwytz, and of 
 Unterwalden had immediately begun the 
 march. On the 8th June, the great ban- 
 ner floated before the townhouse of Lu- 
 cerne, and on the next day the army set 
 out to the sound of the antique horns that 
 Lucerne pretended to have received from 
 the Emperor Charlemagne. 
 
 On the 10th June, the Zurichers, who 
 were posted at Cappel, sent a herald at 
 daybreak to Zug, who was commissioned, 
 according to custom, to denounce to the 
 Five Cantons the rupture of the alliance. 
 Immediately Zug was filled with cries 
 and alarm. This canton, the smallest in 
 Switzerland, not having yet received all 
 the confederate contingents, was not in a 
 condition to defend itself. The people 
 ran to and fro, sent off messengers, and 
 hastily prepared for battle ; the warriors 
 fitted on their armour, the women shed 
 tears, and the children shrieked. 
 
 Already the first division of the Zurich 
 army, amounting to two thousand men, 
 under the command of William Thoming, 
 and stationed near the frontier below 
 Cappel, was preparing to march, when 
 they observed, in the direction of Baar, 
 a horseman, pressing the flanks of his 
 steed, and galloping up as fast as the 
 mountain which he had to ascend would 
 
 * Soudern sass auf ein Ross, und fuhrte 
 eine hubsche Helparten aufden Achseln. 
 (Fuss li. Beytr. iv. p. 103.) 
 
796 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 permit. It was Aebli, landamman of I deputies of the Zurich Council who came 
 Glaris. " The Five Cantons are pre- 'to give reality to his fears. Berne, 
 pared," said he, as he arrived, " but I] maintaining the character that it had so 
 
 have prevailed upon them to halt, if you 
 will do the same. For this reason I en- 
 treat my lords and the people of Zurich, 
 for the love of God and the safety of the 
 Confederation, to suspend their march at 
 the present moment." As he said these 
 words, the brave Helvetian shed tears.* 
 " In a few hours," continued he, " I 
 shall be back again. I hope, with God's 
 grace, to obtain an honourable peace, 
 and to prevent our cottages from being 
 filled with widows and orphans." 
 
 Aebli was known to be an honourable 
 man, friendly to the Gospel, and opposed 
 to foreign service : his words, therefore, 
 moved the Zurich captains, who resolved 
 to halt. Zwingle alone, motionless and 
 uneasy, beheld in his friend's interven- 
 tion the machinations of the advei'sary. 
 Austria, occupied in repelling the Turks, 
 and unable to succour the Five Cantons, 
 had exhorted them to peace. This, in 
 Zwingle's opinion, was the cause of the 
 propositions brought to them by the lan- 
 damman of Glaris. .So at the moment 
 Aebli turned round to return to Zug,"|" 
 Zwingle approaching him said with ear- 
 nestness, " Gossip landamman, you will 
 render to God an account of all this. 
 Our adversaries are caught in a sack : 
 this is why they give you sweet words. 
 By and by they will fall upon us una- 
 wares, and there will be none to deliver 
 us." Prophetic words, whose fulfilment 
 went beyond all foresight ! " Dear gos- 
 sip !" z-eplied the landamman, " I have 
 confidence in God that all will go well. 
 Let each one do his best." And he de- 
 parted. 
 
 Then, instead of advancing upon Zug, 
 the army began to erect tents along the 
 edge of the forest and the brink of the 
 torrent a few paces from the sentinels of 
 the Five Cantons ; while Zwingle, seated 
 in his tent, silent, and in deep thought, 
 anticipated some distressing news from 
 hour to hour. 
 
 He had not long to wait. It was the 
 
 * Das redt er mitt weynenden Ougen. (Bull, 
 ii. p. 169.) 
 
 t Alls nun der Amman wiederumm zu den 
 5 orten ryten wollt. (Bull. Chron. ii. p. 170.) 
 Zwingle was godfather to one of Aebli's 
 children. 
 
 often filled as representative of the fede- 
 ral policy, declared that if Zurich or the 
 cantons would not make peace, they 
 should know how to compel them ; this 
 state at the same time convoked a diet at 
 Arau, and sent five thousand men into 
 the field, under the command of Sebas- 
 tian Diesbach. Zwingle was struck 
 with consternation. 
 
 Aebli's message, supported by that of 
 Berne, was sent back by the council to 
 the army ; for, according to the princi- 
 ples of the time, " wherever the banner 
 waves, there is Zurich." — " Let us not 
 be staggered," cried the reformer, ever 
 decided and firm ; " our destiny depends 
 upon our courage ; to-day they beg and 
 entreat, and in a month, when we have 
 laid down our arms, they will crush us. 
 Let us stand firm in God. Before all 
 things, let us be just : peace will come 
 after that." But Zwingle, transformed 
 to a statesman, began to lose the influence 
 which he had gained as a servant of God. 
 Many could not understand him, and 
 asked if what they had heard was really 
 the language of a minister of the Lord. 
 " Ah !" said one of his friends, who per- 
 haps knew him best, Oswald Myconius, 
 " Zwingle certainly was an intrepid man 
 in the midst of danger ; but he always 
 had a horror of blood, even of his most 
 deadly enemies. The freedom of his 
 country, the virtues of ovir forefathers, 
 and, above all, the glory of Christ, were 
 the sole end of his designs.* — I speak the 
 truth, as if in the presence of God," 
 adds he. 
 
 While Zurich was sending deputies to 
 Arau, the two armies received reinforce- 
 ments. The men of Thurgovia and St. 
 Gall joined their banners to that of Zu- 
 rich ; the Valaisans and the men of St. 
 Gothard united with the Romanist can- 
 tons. The advanced posts were in sight 
 of each other at Thunn, Leematt, and 
 Goldesbrunnen, on the delightful slopes 
 of the Albis. 
 
 Never, perhaps, did Swiss cordiality 
 shine forth brighter with its ancient lus- 
 tre. The soldiers called to one another 
 in a friendly manner, shook hands, styled 
 
 * Libertas patriae, virtutes avita% et imprimis 
 gloria Christi. (Osw. Myc. De vita Zw.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 797 
 
 themselves confederates and brothers. 
 "We shall not fight," said they. "A 
 storm is passing over our heads, but we 
 will pray to God, and he will preserve us 
 from every harm." Scarcity afflicted 
 the army of the Five Cantons, While 
 abundance reigned in the camp of Zu- 
 rich.* Some young famishing Wald- 
 stettes one day passed the outposts : the 
 Zurichers made them prisoners, led them 
 to the camp, and then sent them back 
 laden With provisions, with still greater 
 good-nature than was shown by Henry 
 IV. at the siege of Paris. At another 
 time, some warriors of the Five Cantons, 
 having placed a' bucket filled with milk 
 On the frontier line, cried out to the Zu- 
 richers that they had no bread. The 
 latter came down immediately, and cut 
 their bread into the enemies' milk : then 
 the soldiers of the two parties began with 
 jokes to eat out of the same dish — some 
 on this side, some on that. The Zurich- 
 ers were delighted that, notwithstanding 
 the prohibition of their priests, the Wald- 
 stettcs ate with heretics. When- one of 
 the troop took a morsel that was on the 
 side of his adversaries, these sportively 
 struck him with their spoons, and said to 
 him : " Do not cross the frontier !" Thus 
 did these good Helvetians make war upon 
 one another ; and hence it was that the 
 Burgomaster Sturm of Strasburg, one of 
 the mediators, exclaimed : " You Confe- 
 derates are a s'ngular people"! When 
 you are disunited, you live still in har- 
 mony with one another, and your ancient 
 friendship never slumbers. "| 
 
 The most perfect order reigned in the 
 camp of Zurich. Every day Zwingle, 
 the commander Schmidt, Zink abbot of 
 Cappel, or some other minister, preached 
 among the soldiers. No oath or dispute 
 was heard ; every disorderly woman was 
 turned out of the camp ; prayers were 
 offered up before and after every meal ; 
 and each man obeyed his chiefs. There 
 were no dice, no cards, no games calcu- 
 lated to excite quarrels ; but psalms, 
 hymns, national songs, bodily exercise, 
 wrestling, or pitching the stone, were the 
 military recreations of the Zurichers. 1 
 
 * A measure of corn was sold for a florin, 
 and one of wine far a half-batz, about three 
 halfpence. (Bull. Chron. ii p IS2.) 
 
 t Wenn ihr schon uneins sind, so sind ir eins. 
 (Bull. Chron. ii. p. 183.) 
 
 f Sondern sang, sprang, wurf, und Stiess die 
 Steine. (Fussli Beyt. iv. p. 10ft.) 
 
 The spirit tliiii animated the reformer 
 had passed into the army. 
 
 The assembly at Amu, transported to 
 
 Steinhausen in the neighbourhood of the 
 two camps, decreed that eaeh army 
 should hear the complaints of the oppo- 
 site party. The reception of the depu- 
 ties of the Five Cantons by the Zurich- 
 ers was tolerably calm ; it was not so in 
 the other camp. 
 
 On the 15th June, fifty Zurichers, sur- 
 rounded by a crowd of peasants, pro- 
 ceeded on horseback to the Waldstettes. 
 The sound of the trumpet, the roll of the 
 drum, and repeated salvos of artillery 
 announced their arrival. Nearly twelve 
 thousand men of the smaller cantons, in 
 good order, with uplifted heads and ar- 
 rogant looks, were under arms. Eseher 
 of Zurich spoke first, and many persons 
 from the rural districts enumerated their 
 grievances after him, which the Wald- 
 stettes thought exaggerated. " When 
 have we ever refused you the federal 
 right?" asked they. " Yes, yes !" re- 
 plied Funk, Zwingle's friend ; " we 
 know how you exercise it. That pastor 
 (Keyser) appealed to it, and you referred 
 him — to the executioner !" " Funk, you 
 would have done better to have held your 
 tongue," said one of his friends. But 
 the words had slipped out ; a dreadful 
 tumult suddenly arose ; all the army of 
 the Waldstettes was in agitation ; the 
 most prudent begged the Zurichers to 
 retire promptly, and protected their de- 
 parture. 
 
 At length the treaty was concluded on 
 the 26th' June 1529. Zwingle did not 
 obtain all he desired. Instead of the free 
 preaching of the Word of God, the 
 treaty stipulated only liberty of con- 
 science ; it declared that the common 
 bailiwicks should pronounce for or 
 against the Reform by a majority of 
 votes. Without decreeing the abolition 
 of foreign pensions, it was recommended 
 to the Romish cantons to renounce the 
 alliance formed with Austria ; the Five 
 Cantons were to pay the expenses of the 
 war, Murner to retract his insulting 
 words, and an indemnity was secured to 
 Keyser's family.* 
 
 An incontrovertible success had just 
 crowned the warlike demonstration of 
 Zurich. The Five Cantons felt it. 
 
 * Supra, p. 753. The treaty is given entire 
 in Bullinger, ii. p. 1S5, and Ruchat, ii. 
 
798 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Gloomy, irritated, silently champing the 
 bit that had been placed in their mouths, 
 their chiefs could not decide upon giving 
 up the deed of their alliance with Aus- 
 tria. Zurich immediately recalled her 
 troops, the mediators redoubled their so- 
 licitations, and the Bernese exclaimed : 
 " If you do not deliver up this document, 
 we will ourselves go in procession and 
 tear it from your archives.'*' At last it 
 was brought to Cappel on the 26th June, 
 two hours after midnight. All the army 
 was drawn out at eleven in the forenoon, 
 and they began to read the treaty. The 
 Zurichers looked with astonishment at its 
 breadth and excessive length, and the 
 nine seals which had been affixed, one 
 of which was in gold. But scarcely had. 
 a few words been read, when Aebli. 
 snatching the parchment, cried out : 
 "Enough, enough!" — "Read it, read 
 it!" said the Zurichers; " we desire to 
 learn their treason !" But the' Bailiff of 
 Glaris replied boldly : " I would rather 
 be cut in a thousand pieces than permit 
 it." Then dashing his knife into the 
 parchment, he cut it in pieces in the pre- 
 sence of Zwingle and the soldiers,* and 
 threw the fragments to the secretary to 
 commit them to the flames. " This pa- 
 per was not Swiss," says Bullinger with 
 sublime simplicity. 
 
 The banners were immediately struck. 
 The men of Unterwalden retired in an- 
 ger ; those of Schwytz swore they would 
 for ever preserve their ancient faith ; 
 while the troops of Zurich returned in 
 triumph to their homes. But the most 
 opposite thoughts agitated Zwingle's 
 mind. " I hope," said he, doing violence 
 to his feelings, " that we bring back an 
 honourable peace to our dwellings. It 
 was not to shed blood that we set out.f 
 God has once again shown the great ones 
 of the earth that they can do nothing 
 against us." But when he gave way to 
 his natural disposition, a very different 
 order of thoughts took possession of his 
 mind. He was seen walking apart in 
 deep dejection, and anticipating the most 
 gloomy future. In vain did the people 
 surround him with joyful shouts. " This 
 
 * Tabellce foederis a praetore Pagi Glaronen- 
 sis gladio concisse et deletce, id quod ipse vidi. 
 (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 310.) 
 
 f Cum non caedem factum pvofecti sumus. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 peace," said he, " which you consider a 
 triumph, you will soon repent of, striking 
 your breasts." It was at this time that, 
 venting his sorrow, he composed, as he 
 was descending the Albis, a celebrated 
 hymn often repeated to the sound of mu- 
 sic in the fields of Switzerland, among 
 the burghers of the Confederate cities, 
 and even in the palaces of kings. The 
 hymns of Luther and of Zwingle play 
 the same part in the German and Swiss 
 Reformation as the Psalms in that of 
 France. 
 
 Do thou direct thy chariot, Lord, 
 
 And guide it at thy will ; 
 Without thy aid our strength is vain, 
 
 And useless all our skill. 
 Look down upon thy saints brought low, 
 
 And prostrate laid beneath the foe. 
 
 Beloved Pastor, who hast saved 
 
 Our souls from death and sin, 
 Uplift thy voice, awake thy sheep 
 
 That slumbering lie within 
 Thy fold, "and curb with thy right hand 
 The rage of Satan's furious band. 
 
 Send down thy peace, and banish strife, 
 
 Let bitterness depart ; 
 Revive the spirit of the past 
 
 In every Switzer's heart; 
 Then shall thy Church for ever sing 
 The praises of her heavenly King. 
 
 An edict, published in the name of the 
 Confederates, ordered the revival every- 
 where of the old friendship and brotherly 
 concord ; but decrees are powerless to 
 work such miracles. 
 
 This treaty of peace was nevertheless 
 favourable to the Reform. No doubt it 
 met with a violent opposition in some 
 places. The nuns of the vale of St. 
 Catherine in Thurgovia, deserted by 
 their priests and excited by some noble- 
 men beyond the Rhine, who styled them 
 in their letters, " Chivalrous women of 
 the house of God," sang Mass them- 
 selves, and appointed one of their num- 
 ber preacher to the convent. Certain 
 deputies from the Protestant cantons hav- 
 ing had an interview with them, the ab- 
 bess and three of the nuns secretly 
 crossed the river by night, carrying with 
 them the papers of the monastery and the 
 ornaments of the church. But such iso- 
 lated resistance as this was unavailing. 
 Already in 1529 Zwingle was able to 
 hold a synod in Thurgovia, which organ- 
 ized the church there, and decreed that 
 
SWITZERL.A ND— C VIV' 
 
 799 
 
 the property of the convents should be 
 consecrated to the instruction of pious 
 young men in sacred learning. Thus 
 concord and peace seemed at last to !pe 
 re-established in the Confederation. 
 
 III. When, however, the conqu 
 abandons himself to his triumph, in that 
 very confidence he often finds desl ru 
 Zurich and Zwingle were to exemplify 
 
 this mournful lesson of history. Taking- 
 advantage of the national peace, they re- 
 doubled their exertions for the triumph 
 of the Gospel. This was a legitimate 
 zeal, but it was not always wisely 
 directed. To attain the unity of Swit- 
 zerland by unity of faith was the object 
 of the Zuriehers ; but they forgot that, 
 by desiring to force a unity, it is broken 
 to pieces, and that freedom is the only 
 medium in which contrary elements can 
 be dissolved, and a salutary union estab- 
 lished. While Rome aims at unity by 
 anathemas, imprisonment, and the stake, 
 christian truth demands unity through 
 liberty. And let us not fear that, unity, 
 expanding each individuality beyond 
 measure, will produce by this means an 
 infinite multiplicity. While we urge 
 every mind to attach itself to the Word 
 of God, we give it up to a power capable 
 of restoring its diverging opinions to a 
 wholesome unity. 
 
 Zwingle at first signalized his victory 
 by legitimate conquests. He advanced 
 with courage. " His eye and his arm 
 were everywhere." " A few wretched 
 mischief-makers," says Salat, a Romanist 
 chronicler, " penetrating into the Five 
 Cantons, troubled men's souls, distributed 
 their frippery, scattered everywhere 
 little poems, little tracts, little testaments, 
 and ceased not from saying that the peo- 
 ple ought not to believe the priests."* 
 This was not all ; while the Reform was 
 destined to be confined around the lake 
 of the Waldstettes to a few fruitless 
 efforts, it made brilliant conquests among 
 the cantons, — the allies and subjects of 
 Switzerland ; and all the blows there in- 
 dicted on the Papacy re-echoed among 
 the lofty valleys of the primitive cantons, 
 and filled them with affright. Nowhere 
 had Popery shown itself more determined 
 than in the Swiss mountains. A mix- 
 
 * Die sectischen haltend vil elends Hiidel 
 volk gefunden, &-c. (Salat, Chron ) 
 
 i:i " of i- rctian 
 
 roughness existed : ! ; re. Rome was 
 
 [uer, and yet she beheld 
 
 ively 
 
 wrested from '• r. 
 
 In i 
 
 the citi ; shaffhausi 
 
 : God" (/<• Ion Dicu) from the 
 . 'Ot ui' :i 
 
 a the Roman 
 -' hip still counted in this city; then 
 ibolished the Mass, and stretched 
 out their hands to Zurich and to B>< 
 
 At Zurzack, near the confluence of the 
 Pvhine and the Aar, at the mon 
 the priest of the place, a man devoted to 
 the ancient worship, .was preaching with 
 zeal, a person named Tlifel (devil), rais- 
 ing his head, said to him : " Sir, you 
 are heaping insults on good men, and 
 you are loading the Pope and the saints of 
 the Roman calendar with honour ; pray 
 where do we find that in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures ?" This question, put in a serious 
 tone of voice, raised a sly smile on many 
 faces, and the people with their eyes 
 fixed on the pulpit awaited the reply. 
 The curate in astonishment and at his 
 wit's end, answered with a trembling 
 voice : " Devil is thy name ; thou actest 
 like the devil, and thou art the devil ! 
 For this reason I will have nothing to do 
 with thee." Then hastily leaving the 
 pulpit, he ran away as if Satan himself 
 had been behind him. Immediately the 
 images were torn down, and the Mass 
 abolished. The Roman-catholics sought 
 to console themselves by repeating every- 
 where : " At Zurzaek it was the devil 
 who introduced the Reformation."* 
 
 The priests and warriors of the Forest 
 Cantons beheld the overthrow of the 
 Romish faith in countries that lay nearer 
 to them. In the canton of Glaris, 
 whence by the steep passes of the Klaus 
 and the Pragel,f the Reform might sud- 
 denly fall upon Uri and Schwytz, two 
 men met face to face. At Mollis, Frido- 
 lin Brunner, questioning himself every 
 day by what means he could advance 
 the cause of Christ,:]: attacked the abuses 
 of the Church with the energy of his 
 
 * That der Tiiffel den ersten Angriff. 
 
 f This is the road by which the army of 
 Suwaroff escaped in 1799. 
 
 % Nam cotidie cogitare soleo quanam re 
 Christianum adjuvem profectum (Zw. Epp. 
 ii. p. 13.) 
 
800 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 friend Zwingle,* and endeavoured to 
 spread among the people, who were pas- 
 sionately fond of war, the peace and 
 charity of the Gospel. At Glaris, on the 
 contrary, Valentine Tschudi studied with 
 all the circumspection of his friend 
 Erasmus to preserve a just medium be- 
 tween Rome and the Reform. And 
 although, — thanks to the preaching of 
 Fridolin ! — the doctrines of purgatory, 
 indulgences, meritorious works, and 
 intercession of the saints, were looked at 
 by the Glaronais as mere follies and 
 fables, - }- they still believed with Tschudi 
 that the body and blood of Christ were 
 substantially in the bread of the Lord's 
 Supper. 
 
 At the same time a movement in oppo- 
 sition to the Reform was taking place in 
 that high and savage valley, where the 
 Linth, roaring at the foot of vast rocks 
 with jagged crests — enormous citadels 
 which seemed built in the air, — bathes 
 the villages of Schwunden and Ruti with 
 its waters. The Roman-catholics, alarm- 
 ed at the progress of the Gospel, and 
 wishing to save these mountains at least, 
 had scattered with liberal hands the 
 money they derived from their foreign 
 pensions ; and from that time violent 
 hatred had been seen to divide old friends, 
 and men who appeared to have been won 
 over to the Gospel basely sought for a 
 pretext to conceal a disgraceful flight.^ 
 " Peter§ and I," wrote Rasdorfer, pastor 
 of Ruti, in despair, " are labouring in 
 the vineyard, but, alas! the grapes we 
 gather are not employed for the sacrifice, 
 and the very birds do not cat them. We 
 iish, but after having toiled all night, we 
 find that we have only caught leeches. || 
 Alas ! we are casting pearls before dogs. 
 and roses before swine !" This spirit of 
 revolt against the Gospel soon descended 
 from these valleys with the noisy waters 
 
 Audeo ego intrepide omnem ecclesiee 
 abusum et omnia hnmana precepta in emmcia- 
 tione verbi Dei damnare. (Ibid.) 
 
 t Nugas esse et fabulas. (Ibid.) 
 
 f Jam a?re convicti palinodiam canunl. 
 (Zvv. Epp. ii. p. 292.) 
 
 § Pierre Rumelin, pastor of Schwanden. 
 
 || Tota enim nocte piscantes, sanguisugas, 
 aspendios cepirnus. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 13.) 
 Rasdorfer evidently alludes to what Pliny says 
 of a kind of vine termed Aspendios : E diverso 
 aspendios, damnata aris. Ferunt earn nee ab 
 alite ulla attingi. (Hist. Nat. lib. xiv. cap. 
 xviii. § 22.) 
 
 of the Linth as far as Glaris and Mollis. 
 " The council, as if it had been composed 
 only of silly women, shifted its sails 
 every day," said Rasdorfer ;* " one day 
 it will have the cowl, on the next it will 
 not."f Glaris, like a leaf carried along 
 by one of its torrents, and which the 
 waves and eddies drive in different direc- 
 tions, wavered, wheeled about, and was 
 nearly being swallowed up. 
 
 But this crisis Came to an end : the 
 Gospel suddenly regained strength, and 
 on Easter Monday 1530, a general as- 
 sembly of the people " put the Mass and 
 the altars to the vote." A powerful 
 party that relied upon the Five Cantons 
 vainly opposed the Reform. It was pro- 
 claimed, and its vanquished and discon- 
 certed enemies were forced to content 
 themselves, says Bullinger, with myste- 
 riously concealing a few idols, which 
 they reserved for better days. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Reform ad- 
 vanced in the exterior Rhodes of Appen- 
 zell,:j: and in the district of Sargans. But 
 what most exasperated the cantons that 
 remained faithful to the Romish doctrines, 
 was to see it pass the Alps and appear in 
 Italy, in those beautiful districts round 
 Lake Maggiore, where, near the embou- 
 chure of the Maggia, within the walls of 
 Locarno, in the midst of laurels, pome- 
 granates, and cypresses, flourished the 
 noble families of Orelli, Muralto, Mago- 
 ria, and Duni, and where floated since 
 1512 the sovereign standard of the can- 
 tons. "What!" said the Waldstettes, 
 " is it not enough that Zurich and Zwin- 
 gle infest Switzerland ! They have the 
 impudence to carry their pretended Re- 
 form even into Italy, — even into the 
 country of the Pope !" 
 
 Great irregularities prevailed there 
 among the clergy : " Whoever wishes to 
 ba damned must become a priest," was 
 a common saying. § But the Gospel 
 
 * Vertit vela indies senatus noster muliercu- 
 larum more. (Ibid.) 
 
 f Vult jam cucullum, post nonvult. (Ibid.) 
 That is, at one time it recognises, at another 
 rejects, the Abbot of Saint Gall. 
 
 X See Benedict Noll's letter to Zwingle, 
 Epp. ii. p. 635. 
 
 § St. Chorles Barromeo, Archbishop of Mi- 
 lan, snpprpssed somewhat later several con- 
 vents in this district : " Monialium non dicam 
 collegia, sed amantium contubernia," said lie. 
 (Die evangel Gem. in Locarno von F. Meyer, 
 i. p. 109.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— C ATASTROPHE. 
 
 801 
 
 succeeded in making its way even into 
 that district. A monk of Como, Egidio 
 a Porta, who had taken the cowl in 1511, 
 against the wishes of his family,* strug- 
 gled for years in the Augustine convent, 
 and nowhere found peace for his soul. 
 Motionless, environed, as it appeared to 
 him, with profound night, he cried aloud : 
 " Lord, what wilt thou that I should do ?" 
 Erelong the monk of Como thought he 
 heard these Words in his heart : " Go to 
 Ulric Zwingle and he will tell thee." 
 He rose trembling with emotion. " It is 
 you," wrote he to Zwingle immediately, 
 " but no ! it is not you, it is God who, 
 through you, will deliver me from the 
 nets of the hunters." " Translate the 
 New Testament into Italian," replied 
 Zwingle ; " I will undertake to get it 
 printed at Zurich." This is what Re- 
 form did for Italy more than three cen- 
 turies ago. 
 
 Egidio therefore remained. He com- 
 menced translating the Gospel ; but at 
 one time he had to beg for the convent, 
 at another to repeat his " hours," and 
 then to accompany one of the fathers on 
 his journeys. \ Everything that sur- 
 rounded him increased his distress. He 
 saw his country reduced to the greatest 
 misery by desolating wars, — men form- 
 erly rich, holding out their hands for 
 alms, — crowds of women driven by want 
 to the most shameful degradation. He 
 imagined that a great political deliver- 
 ance could alone bring about the reli- 
 gious independence of his fellow-coun- 
 trymen. 
 
 On a sudden he thought that this hap- 
 py hour was arrived. He perceived a 
 band of Lutheran lansquenets descending 
 the Alps. Their serried phalanxes, their 
 threatening looks were directed towards 
 the banks of the Tiber. At their head 
 marched Freundsberg, wearing a chain 
 of gold around his neck, and saying : 
 " If I reach Rome I will make use of it 
 to hang the Pope." " God wills to save 
 us," wrote Egidio to Zwingle : " write 
 to the constable ;J entreat him to deliver 
 
 * Subduxi memet a parentum patrocinio, 
 cucullumque nigrum ex anirno suscepi. (Zw. 
 Epp. i. p. 443.) 
 
 t Confratras nonnulli viri certe et pietate et 
 eruditione nequaquam contemptibiles. (Ibid 
 p. 533.) 
 
 % Bourbon, wbo commanded in Italy on be- 
 half of the Emperor. (Supra, book xii. p. 8I-) 
 101 
 
 the people over whom he rules, — to take 
 from the shaven crowns, whose God is 
 their belly, the wealth which renders 
 them so proud, — and to distribute it 
 among the people who arc dying of hun- 
 ger. Then let each one preach without 
 fear the pure Word of tlio Lord. — The 
 strength of Antichrist is near its fall !" 
 
 Thus, about the end of 1520, Egidio 
 already dreamt of the Reformation of 
 Italy. From that time his letters cease : 
 the monk disappeared. There can be 
 no doubt that the arm of Rome was able 
 to reach him, and that, like so many 
 others, he was plunged into the gloomy 
 dungeon of some convent. 
 
 In the spring of 1530, a new epoch 
 commenced for the Italian bailiwicks. 
 Zurich appointed Jacques Werdmliller 
 bailiff of Locarno ; he was a grave man, 
 respected by all, and who even in 1524 
 had kissed the feet of the Pope ; he had 
 since then been won over to the Gospel, 
 and had sat down at the feet of the Sa- 
 viour.* " Go," said Zurich, " and bear 
 yourself like a Christian, and in all that 
 concerns the Word of God conform to 
 the ordinances." Werdmuller met with 
 nothing but darkness in every quarter. 
 Yet, in the midst of this gloom, a feeble 
 glimmering seemed to issue from a con- 
 vent situated on the delightful shores of 
 Lake Maggiore. Among the Carmelites 
 at Locarno was a monk named Fontana, 
 skilled in the Holy Scriptures, and ani- 
 mated with the same spirit that had en- 
 lightened the monk of Como. The doc- 
 trine of salvation, " without money and 
 without price," which God proclaims in 
 the Gospel, filled him with love and joy. 
 " As long as I live," said he, " will I 
 preach upon the Epistles of St. Paul ;"f 
 for it was particularly in these Epistles 
 that he had found the truth. Two monks, 
 of whose names we are ignorant, shared 
 his sentiments. Fontana wrote a letter 
 ; ' to all the Church of Christ in Germa- 
 ny," which was forwarded to Zwingle. 
 We may imagine we hear that man of 
 Macedonia, who appeared in a vision to 
 Paul in the night, calling him to Europe, 
 and saying, "Come over and help us"% 
 — " O, trusty and well-beloved of Christ 
 
 * Luke x. 39. 
 
 f Se dum vivat satis de Epistolis Pauli con- 
 cionaturum esse. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 497.) 
 \ Acts xvi 9. 
 
802 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Jesus," cried the monk of Locarno to 
 Germany, " remember Lazarus, the beg- 
 gar, in the Gospel, — remember that hum- 
 ble Canaanitish woman, longing for the 
 crumbs that fell from the Lord's table ! 
 hungry as David, I have recourse to the 
 show-bread placed upon the altar. A 
 poor traveller devoured by thirst, I rush 
 to the springs of living water.* Plunged 
 in darkness, bathed in tears, we cry to 
 you who know the mysteries of God to 
 send us by the hands of the munificent 
 J. Werdmuller ail the writings of the 
 divine Zwingle, of the famous Luther, 
 of the skilful Melanethon, of the mild 
 QEcolampadius, of the ingenious Pornera- 
 nus, of the learned Lambert, of the ele- 
 gant Brenz, of the penetrating Bucer, of 
 the studious Leo, of the vigilant Hiitten, 
 and of the other illustrious doctors, if 
 there are any more. Excellent princes, 
 pivots of the Church, our holy mother, 
 make haste to deliver from the slavery 
 of Babylon a city of Lombardy that has 
 not yet known the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ. We are but three who have 
 combined together to fight on behalf of 
 the truth ;f but it was beneath the blows 
 of a small body of men, chosen by God 
 and not by the thousands of Gideon, that 
 Midian fell. Who knows if from a small 
 spark God may not cause a great confla- 
 gration V 
 
 Thus three men on the banks of the 
 Maggfa hoped at that time to reform 
 Italy. They uttered a call to which, for 
 three centuries, the Evangelical world 
 has not replied. Zurich, however, in 
 these days of its strength and of its faith, 
 displayed a holy boldness, and dared ex- 
 tend her heretical arms beyond the Alps. 
 Hence, Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden, and 
 all the Romanists of Switzerland gave 
 vent to loud and terrible threats, swear- 
 ing to arrest even in Zurich itself the 
 course of these presumptuous invasions. 
 
 But the Znrichers did not confine them- 
 selves to this : they gave the Confede- 
 rates more serious cause of fear by wag- 
 ing incessant war against the convents, 
 -—those cenin s of Ultramontane fanati- 
 cism. The extensive monastery of Wet- 
 
 "Debilis ct infirmus n.pud piscinam, salutem 
 mei et patrirc toto mentis affectu citissirns ex- 
 pecto. (Hottinger, stjcuI. in, pars 2, p. 619.) 
 
 t Confederati conjunctique in expeditionem 
 veritntis tres tantum numero sumus. (Hottin- 
 ger saecul. 16, pars 2, p. 630.) 
 
 tingen, around which roll the waters of 
 the Limmat, and which, by its proximity 
 to Zurich, was exposed more than any 
 other to the breath of Reform, was in 
 violent commotion. On the 23d August 
 1529. a great change took place ; the ice 
 was broken and the downfal complete. 
 The monks ceased to sing Mass ; they 
 cut off each other's beards, not without 
 shedding a few tears ; they laid down 
 their frocks and their hoods, and clothed 
 themselves in becoming secular dresses.* 
 Then, in astonishment at this metamor- 
 phosis, they listened devoutly to the ser- 
 mon which Sebastian Benli of Zurich 
 came and preached to them, and erelong 
 employed themselves in propagating the 
 Gospel, and in singing psalms in Ger- 
 man. Thus Wettingen fell into the cur- 
 rent of that river which seemed to be 
 everywhere reviving the Confederation. 
 The cloister, ceasing to be a house for 
 gaming, gluttony, and drunkenness, was 
 changed into a school. Two monks alone 
 in all the monastery remained faithful to 
 the cowl. 
 
 The commander of Mulinen, without 
 troubling himself about the threats of the 
 Romish cantons, earnestly pressed the 
 commandery of St. John at Hitzkirch 
 towards the Reformation. The question 
 was put to the vote, and the majority de- 
 clared in favour of the Word of God. 
 "Ah!" said the commander, "I have 
 been long pushing behind the chariot. "f 
 On the 4th September the commandery 
 was reformed. It was the same with that 
 of Wadenswyl, with the convent of Pfef- 
 fers, and others besides. Even at Mury 
 the majority declared for the Gospel ; but 
 the minority prevailed through the sup- 
 port of the Five Cantons.:): A new tri- 
 umph, and one of greater value, was des- 
 tined to indemnify the Reform, and to 
 raise the indignation of the Waldstettes 
 to the highest pitch. 
 
 The Abbot of St. Gall, by his wealth, 
 by the number of his subjects, and the 
 influence which he exercised in Switzer- 
 land, was one of the most formidable ad- 
 versaries of the Gospel. In 1529, there. 
 
 * Bekleitend sich in erbare gemeine Land- 
 skleyder. (Bull. Chron. ii. p. 221.) 
 
 t Diu me in hoc curru promovendo laboras- 
 se, priusqnam tam longe processit. (Zw. Epp. 
 
 " P- 334 -> ' . „ „ 
 
 t Das das minder must das meer sin. (Bull. 
 
 p. 241.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE 
 
 803 
 
 fore, at the moment when the army of 
 Zurich took the field against the Five 
 Cantons, the Abbot Francis of Ge ; 
 in alarm and at the brink of death, c 
 himself to be hastily removed into the 
 strong castle of Roixrschach, not thinking 
 himself secure except within its walls. 
 Four days after this, the illustrious Ya- 
 dianus, burgomaster of St. Gall, entered 
 the convent, and announced the intention 
 of the people to resume the use of their 1 
 cathedral-church, and to remove the' 
 images. The monks were astonished at 1 
 such audacity, and having in vain pro- 1 
 tested and cried for help, put their most! 
 precious eifects in a place of safety, and ; 
 fled to Einsideln. 
 
 Among these was Kilian Kouffi, head- j 
 steward of the abbey, a cunning and 
 active monk. and. like Zwingle, a native 
 of the Tockenburg. Knowing how im- 
 portent it was to find a successor to the 
 abbot, before the news of his death was! 
 bruited abroad, he came to an under- 
 standing with those who waited on the' 
 prelate ; and the latter dying on Tuesday' 
 in Holy Week, the meals were carried: 
 as usual into his chamber, and with 
 downcast eyes and low voice the attend- 
 ants made every inquiry about his health. ; 
 While this farce was going on round the! 
 dead body, the monks who had assembled 
 at Einsideln repaired in all haste to Rap- 
 perswyl, in the territory of St. Gall, and, 
 there elected Kilian, who had so skilfully; 
 managed the affair. The new abbot went 
 immediately to Rohrschach, and on Good 
 Friday he there proclaimed his own elec-j 
 tion and the death of his predecessor.' 
 Zurich and Glaris declared they would 
 not recognise him, unless he could prove; 
 by the Holy Scriptures that a monkish 
 life was in conformity with the Gospel. 
 " We are ready to protect the house of 
 God," said they ; " and it is for this rea- 
 son we require that it be consecrated 
 anew to the Lord. But we do not forget 
 that it is our duty also to protect the 
 people. It is in the bosom of a free peo- 
 ple that the free Church of Christ should 
 raise its head." At the same time the 
 ministers of St. Gall published forty-two 
 theses, in which they asserted that con- 
 vents were not " houses of God, but 
 houses of the devil."* The abbot, sup- 
 
 * Thesis S. 
 
 (Bull. 
 102 
 
 ii. p. 115.) 
 
 ported by Lucerne and Schwytz, which 
 with Zurich and Glaris exercised sove- 
 reign power in St. Gall, n plied that he 
 would not dispute about rights which he 
 held from kings .1:1! The two 
 
 natives of the Tockenburg, Zwingl 
 Kilian, were thi id St. 
 
 Gall, — the one claiming' the peopl 
 the abbey, and the other the abbey for 
 the people. The army of Zurich 1 
 approached Wyl, Kilian seized upon the 
 treasures and muniments of the convent, 
 and fled precipitately beyond the Rhine. 
 Then when peace was concluded, the 
 crafty monk clothed himself in a secular 
 dress, and crept my far as 
 
 Einsideln, whence on a sudden he made 
 all Switzerland re-echo with his cries. 
 Zurich replied only by publishing in 
 conjunction with Glaris a constitution, 
 by which a governor, " confirmed in the 
 evangelical faith," should preside over 
 the district, with a council of twelve 
 members, while the election of pastors 
 was left to the parishes.* Not long after- 
 wards, the abbot, expelled and a fugitive, 
 while crossing a river near Bregentz, 
 fell from his horse, got entangled in his 
 frock, and was drowned. Of the two 
 combatants from the Tockenburg, it was 
 Zwingle who gained the victory. 
 
 The convent was put up to sale, and was 
 purchased by the town of St. Gall, " with 
 the exception," says Bullinger, " of a 
 detached building, called Hell, where the 
 monks were left who had not embraced 
 the Reform."f The time having arrived 
 when the governor sent by Zurich was to 
 give place to one from Lucerne, the peo- 
 ple of St. Gall called upon the latter to 
 ■ to their constitution. " A gover- 
 nor has never been known," replied he, 
 " to make an oath to peasants ; it is the 
 peasants who should make an oath to the 
 governor !" Upon this he retired : the 
 Zurich governor remained, and the in- 
 ion of the Five Cantons against 
 Zurich, which so daringly assisted the 
 people of St. Gall in recovering their 
 liberties, rose to the highest paroxysm of 
 anger. 
 
 A. few victories, however, consoled in 
 
 * Die Pfarer soil den Gmeinden irs gfallens 
 zu erkiessen Zua;estelt syn. (Bull. ii. p. 208.) 
 
 t Alein was ein gebuw die Hell genampt, 
 das lies3 man den Munchen blyten. (Ibid. p. 
 271.) 
 
804 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 some degree the partisans of Rome. 
 Soleure was for a long time one of the 
 most contested battle fields. The citizens 
 and the learned were in favour of Reform : 
 the patricians and canons for Popery. 
 Philip Grotz of Zug was preaching the 
 Gospel there, and the council having 
 desired to compel him to say Mass, one 
 hundred Reformed appeared in the hall 
 of assembly on the 13th September 1529, 
 and with energy called for liberty of 
 conscience. Zurich and Berne having 
 supported this demand, it was granted to 
 them. 
 
 Upon this the most fanatical of the 
 Roman-catholics, exasperated at the con- 
 cession, closed the gates of the city, 
 pointed the guns, and made a show of 
 expelling the friends of the Reform. 
 The council prepared to punish these 
 agitators, when the Reformed, willing 
 to set an example of christian modera- 
 tion, declared they would forgive them.* 
 The Great Council then published 
 throughout the canton that the dominion 
 of conscience belonging to God alone, 
 and faith being the free gift of His 
 grace, each one might follow the religion 
 which he thought best. Thirty-four par- 
 ishes declared for the Reformation, and 
 only two for the Mass. Almost all the 
 rural districts were in favour of the 
 Gospel ; but the majority of the city 
 sided with the Pope.f Haller, whom 
 the Reformed of Soleure had sent for, 
 arrived, and it was a day of triumph for 
 them. It was in the middle of winter: 
 " To-day," ironically observed one of 
 the Evangelical Christians, " our patron 
 saint (St. Ours) will sweat !" And in 
 truth — oh ! wonderful ! — drops of mois- 
 ture fell from the holy image. It was 
 simply a little holy water that had frozen" 
 and then thawed. But the Romanists 
 would listen to no raillery on so illus- 
 trious a prodigy, reminding us of the 
 blood of St. Januarius at Naples. All 
 the city resounded with piteous cries, — 
 the bells were tolled, — a general pro- 
 cession moved through the streets, — and 
 high mass was sung in honour of the 
 heavenly prince who had shown in so 
 marvellous a manner the pangs he felt 
 
 * Ruchat, ii. p. 139. 
 
 t Major pars agri abolita superstitione a 
 parte nostra stat. Major et potior pars urbis a 
 papistis. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 489.) 
 
 for his dearly beloved. " It is the fat 
 minister of Berne (Haller) who is the 
 cause of the saint's alarm," said the 
 devout old women. One of them de- 
 clared that she would thrust a knife 
 into his body ; and certain Roman -catho- 
 lics threatened to go to the Cordeliers' 
 church and murder the pastors who 
 preached there. Upon this the Re- 
 formed rushed to that church and called 
 for a public discussion : two hundred of 
 their adversaries posted themselves at 
 the same time in the church of St. Ours 
 and refused the discussion. Neither of 
 the two parties was willing to be the 
 first to abandon the camp in which it was 
 entrenched. The senate wishing to clear 
 the two churches thus transformed into 
 citadels, announced that at Martinmas, 
 i. e. nine months later, a public dis- 
 cussion should take place. . But as the 
 Reformed found the delay too long, both 
 parties remained for a whole week more 
 under arms. Commerce was interrupted, 
 — the public offices were closed — mes- 
 sengers ran to and fro, — arrangements 
 were proposed ; — but the people were so 
 stiffnecked,* that no one would give 
 way. The city was in a state of siege. 
 At last all were agreed about the dis- 
 cussion, and the ministers committed 
 four theses to writing, which the canons 
 immediately attempted to refute. 
 
 Nevertheless they judged it a still bet- 
 ter plan to elude them. Nothing alarmed 
 the Romanists so much as discussion. 
 " What need have we of any ?" said 
 they. " Do not the writings of the two 
 parties declare their sentiments ?" The 
 conference was, therefore, put off until 
 the following year. Many of the Re- 
 formed, indignant at these delays, impru- 
 dently quitted the city ; and the councils, 
 charmed at this result, winch they were 
 far from expecting, hastily declared that 
 the people should be free in the canton, 
 but that in the city no one should attack 
 the Mass. From that time the Reformed 
 were compelled every Sunday to leave 
 Soleure and repair to the village of 
 Zuchsweil to hear the Word of God. 
 Thus Popery, defeated in so many places, 
 triumphed in Soleure. 
 
 Zurich and the other reformed cantons 
 attentively watched these successes of 
 
 * Tam durae cervicis populus eat. (Zw. 
 Epp. ii. p. 4-89.) 
 
SVVITZKRLAND-C Vi'AXTROPHK. 
 
 305 
 
 their adversaries, and lent a fearful ear 
 to the threats of the Roman-catholics, 
 who ceased not from announcing the 
 intervention of the Emperor ; when <>n a 
 sudden a report was heard that nine hun- 
 dred Spaniards had entered theGrisonsj 
 that they were led by the Chatelain oi 
 Musso, recently invested with the title 
 of marquis by Charles the Fifth; thai 
 the chatelain's brother-in-law, Didier d s 
 Enibs, was also marching against the 
 Swiss at the head of three thousand 
 imperial lansquenets ; and that, the Em- 
 perof himself was ready to support them 
 with all his forces. The Grisons ut 
 a cry of alarm. The Waldstetfc 
 mained motionless; but all the reformed 
 cantons assembled their troops; and e\e\ en 
 thousand men began their march.* The 
 Emperor and the Duke of Milan having 
 soon after declared that they* would not 
 support the chatelain, this adventurer 
 beheld his castle rased to the ground, 
 arid was compelled to retire to the banks 
 of the Sesia, giving guarantees of future 
 tranquillity ; while the Swiss soldiers re- 
 turned to their homes, fired with indigna- 
 tion against the Five Cantons, who by 
 their inactivity had infringed the federal 
 alliance. "j" "Our prompt and energetic 
 resistance," said they, " has undoubtedly 
 baffled their perfidiou^ designs ; but the 
 reaction is only adjourned. Although 
 the parchment of the Austrian alliance 
 has been torn in pieces, the alliance 
 itself still exists. The truth has freed 
 us, but soon the imperial lansquenets 
 will come and try to place us again 
 under the yoke of slavery. ' 
 
 Thus in consequence of so many vio- 
 lent shocks, the two parties that divided 
 Switzerland had attained the highest 
 degree of irritation. The gulf thai 
 separated them widened daily. The 
 clouds — the forerunners of the tempesrt 
 — drove swiftly along the mountains, 
 and gathered threateningly above the 
 valleys. Under these circumstances 
 Zwingle and Ids friends thought it their 
 duty to raise their voices, and if possible 
 to avert the storm. Thus Nicholas de 
 Flue had in former days thrown himself 
 between the hostile parties. 
 
 On the 5th September, 1530, the prin- 
 
 * Bull. Chron. ii. p. 357. 
 t Ward ein grosser Unwilt wicder sie. (Ibid. 
 p. 461.) 
 
 cipal ministers of Zurich, Heme, Basle, 
 and Strasburg, — CEcolampadius, ( lapito, 
 
 nl er, Leo Juda, and My<*>nius, — 
 were assembled at Zurich in Zwingle's 
 house. Desirous of taking a lolemn 
 step \\ Ith (lie Fh e ' ' r.'^i*. they drew 
 up an address thai w b i pr< enl id to the 
 
 lerates at the meeting of the I >iet 
 at Baden. However unfavourable the 
 deputies were, as ii body, to thi e hereti- 
 cal ministers, the) nevertheless listened 
 to this epistle, lint tn >t withoul signs of 
 impatience and. weariness." " Yen are 
 aware, gracious lords, that concord in- 
 
 ss die pow< r of states, and thai dis- 
 cord overthrows them. f You are your- 
 selves a proof of the first of these truths. 
 Setting out from a small beginning, you 
 have, 1>> a good understanding one with 
 another, arrived at a greal end. May 
 Cod condescend to prevent you also 
 from giving a striking proof of the se- 
 cond! Whence comes disunion, if not 
 from selfishness? and how can we de- 
 stroy this fatal passion, except by re- 
 ceiving from Cod the love of the com- 
 mon weal ? For this reason we conjure 
 you to allow the Word of Cod to be 
 freely preached among you, as did your 
 pious ancestors. When has there ever 
 existed a government, even among the 
 
 heathens, which saw not that the hand 
 of Cod alone Upholds a nation ? Do not 
 two drops of quicksilver unite so soon 
 as you remove that which separates 
 them I Away then with thai which se- 
 parates you from our cities, that is, the 
 absence of the Word oi' < lod ; and im- 
 mediately the Almighty ( iod will unite 
 us. as our fathers were united. Then 
 placed in vour mountains, as in the cen- 
 tre i.f Christendom, you will he an ex- 
 ample to it, its protection and its refuge; 
 and after having passed through this vale 
 of tears, being the terror oi the wicked 
 and the consolation of the faithful, you 
 will at last be established in eternal hap- 
 s." 
 
 Thus frankly did these men of God 
 address their brothers, the Waldstettes. 
 
 But their voice was not attended to. 
 " The ministers' sermon is rather long,"! 
 
 ' i, .eta -i epistola nostra in comitiis Ba- 
 densibus. ((Ecol. to Bucer. 28th December, 
 1530.') 
 
 f Wie init einhalligkeit Idnine Ding gross 
 wcrdsnd. (Zw. Opp. ii. p. 7S ) 
 
 \ Libellumsupplicem ad quinque pagosbre- 
 
806 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 said some of the deputies yawning and 
 stretching their arms, while others pre- 
 tended t& see in it fresh cause of com- 
 v plaint against the cities. 
 
 This proceeding of the ministers was 
 useless : the Waldstettes rejected the 
 Word of God, which they had been en- 
 treated to admit ; they rejected the 
 hands that were extended towards them 
 in the name of Jesus Christ. They 
 called for the Pope and not for the Gos- 
 pel. All hope of reconciliation ap- 
 peared lost. 
 
 Some persons, however, had at that 
 time a glimpse of what might have 
 saved Switzerland and the Reformation, 
 — the autonomy (self-government) of the 
 Church, and its independence of politi 
 cal interests. Had they been wise 
 enough to decline the secular power to 
 secure the triumph of the Gospel, it is 
 probable that harmony might have been 
 gradually established in the Helvetic 
 cantons, and that the Gospel would have 
 conquered by its Divine strength. ' The 
 power of the Word of God presented 
 chances of success that were not afforded 
 by pikes and muskets. The energy of 
 faith, the influence of charity, would 
 have proved a securer protection to 
 Christians against the burning piles of 
 Waldstettes than diplomatists and men- 
 at-arms. None of the Reformers un- 
 derstood this so clearly as CEcolampadius. 
 His handsome countenance, the serenity 
 of his features, the mild expression of 
 his eyes, his long and venerable beard, 
 the spirituality of his expression, a cer- 
 tain dignity that inspired confidence and 
 respect, gave him rather the air of an 
 apostle than of a reformer. It was the 
 power of the inner word that he particu- 
 larly extolled ; perhaps he even went 
 too far in spiritualism. But, however 
 that may be, if any man could have 
 saved Reform from the misfortunes that 
 were about to befall it — that man was 
 he. In separating from the Papacy, he 
 desired not to set up the magistrate in its 
 stead. " The magistrate who should 
 take away from the churches the au- 
 thority that belongs, to them," wrote he 
 to Zwingle, " would be more intolerable 
 than Antichrist himself (i. e. the Pope)."* 
 
 viorum vellent. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 511.) Fasti- 
 diunt tam sancta. (OEcol.) 
 
 * Intolerabilior enim Antichristo ipso ma- 
 
 — " The hand of the magistrate strikes 
 with the sword, but the hand of Christ 
 heals. Christ has not said, — If thy 
 brother will not hear thee, tell it to the 
 magistrate, but — tell it to the Church. 
 The functions of the State are distinct 
 from those of the Church. The State is 
 free to do many things which the purity 
 of the Gospel condemns."* CEcolampa- 
 dius saw how important it was that his 
 convictions should prevail among the 
 Reformed. This man, so mild and so 
 spiritual, feared not to stand forth boldly 
 in defence of doctrines then so novel. 
 He expounded them before a synod as- 
 sembly, and next developed them before 
 the senate of Basle. "j" It is a strange 
 circumstance that these ideas, for a mo- 
 ment at least, were acceptable to Zwin- 
 gle ;$ but they displeased an assembly 
 of the brethren to whom he communi- 
 cated them ; the politic Bucer above all 
 feared that this independence of the 
 Church would in some measure check 
 the exercise of the civil power. § The 
 exertions of fficolampadius to constitute 
 the Church, were not, however, entirely 
 unsuccessful. In February, 1531, a 
 diet of four reformed cantons (Basle, 
 Zurich, Berne, and St. Gall) was held 
 at Basle, in which it was agreed, that 
 whenever any difficulty should arise 
 with regard to doctrine or worship, an 
 assembly of divines and laymen should 
 be convoked, which should examine 
 what the Word of God said on the mat- 
 ter. || This resolution, by giving greater 
 unity to the renovated Church, gave it 
 also fresh strength. 
 
 IV. But it was too late to tread in 
 this path, which would have prevented so 
 many disasters. The Reformation had 
 already entered v °th all her sails set 
 upon the stormy ocean of politics, and 
 terrible misfortunes were gathering over 
 her. The impulse communicated to the 
 
 stratus, qui Ecclesiis auctoritatem suam adi- 
 mit. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 510.) 
 
 * Ipsorum functio alia est et ecclesiastica, 
 multaque ferre et facere potest qua? puritas 
 evangelica non agnoscit. (Ibid.) 
 
 f Orationis meas quam, 1 rat rum nomine, 
 coram senatu habui. (Ibid.) 
 
 \ Ut mihi magis ac rnagis arridet. (Ibid. p. 
 51S.) 
 
 § Ut non impediat alicubi magistratum 
 Christianum. (Bucer to Zw. p. 836.) 
 
 I J. J. Hottinger, iii. p. 554. 
 
SWITZERLAND-CATASTROPHE. 
 
 807 
 
 Reform came from another than (Eco- 
 lampadius. Zwingle's proud and pierc- 
 ing eyes, — his harsh features, — bis bold 
 step, — all proclaimed in him a resolute 
 mind and the man of action. Nurtured 
 in the exploits of the heroes of antiquity, 
 he threw himself, to save Reform, in the 
 footsteps of Demosthenes andtCato, rather 
 than in those of St. John and St. Paul. 
 His prompt and penetrating looks were 
 turned to the right and to the left, — to 
 the cabinets of kings and the councils of 
 the people, whilst they should have been 
 directed solely to God. We have already 
 seen, that as early as 1527, Zwingle, 
 observing how all the powers were rising 
 against the Reformation, had conceived 
 
 Zwingle played two parts al once — he 
 was a reformer ami a magistrate. But 
 
 these are two characters that ought not 
 more to be united than those of a minis- 
 ter and of a soldier. We will not blame 
 the soldiers, we will not blame the ma- 
 gistrates ; in forming leagues and draw- 
 ing the sword, they act according to their 
 point of view, although it is not the same 
 as ours ; but we will decidedly blame the 
 christian minister, who becomes a diplo- 
 matist or a general. 
 
 In October 1529, as we have already 
 observed, Zwingle repaired to Marburg, 
 whither he had been invited by Philip of 
 Hesse ; and while neither of them had 
 been able to come to an understanding 
 
 the plan of a co-burghery or Christian with Luther, the Landgrave and the Swiss 
 State,* which should unite all the friends; Reformer, animated by the same bold 
 of the Word of God in one holy and land enterprising spirit, soon agreed to- 
 powerful league. This was so much the i gether. 
 
 easier, as Zwingle's reformation had woni The two reformers differed not less in 
 over Strasburg, Augsburgh, Ulm, Reut-I their political than in their religious sys- 
 lingen, Lindau, Memmingen, and other tern. Luther, brought up in the cloister 
 towns of Upper Germany. Constance j and in monastic submission, was imbued 
 in December 1527, Berne in June 1528, i in youth with the writings of the fathers 
 St. Gall in November of the same year, , of the Church ; Zwingle, on the other 
 Bienne in 1529, Mulhausen in February, j hand, reared in the midst of Swiss liberty, 
 Basle in March, Schaffhausen in Septem-jhad, during those early years which de- 
 ber, and Strasburg in December, entered cide the course of aH the others, imbibed 
 
 into this alliance. ; This political phase 
 of Zwingle's character is in the eyes of 
 some persons his highest claim to glory 
 
 the history of the ancient republics. 
 Thus, while Luther was in favour of a 
 passive obedience, Zwingle demanded that 
 
 we do not hesitate to acknowledge it as the tyrants should be opposed, 
 his greatest fault. The Reformer, de-j These two men were the faithful re- 
 serting the paths of the Apostles, allowed J presentatives of their respective nations, 
 himself to be led astray by the perverse | In the north of Germany, the princes 
 example of Popery. The primitive I and nobility were the essential part of 
 Church never opposed their persecutors j the nation, and the people — strangers to 
 but by the dispositions of the Gospel of j all political liberty — had only to obey, 
 peace. Faith was the only sword by j Thus, at the epoch of the Reformation, 
 which it vanquished the mighty ones of j they were contented to follow the voice 
 the earth. Zwingle felt clearly that by of their doctors and chiefs. 
 
 entering into the ways of worldly politi- 
 cians, he was leaving those of a minister 
 of Christ : he therefore sought to justify 
 
 In Switzer- 
 land, in the south of Germany, and on 
 the Rhine, on the contrary, many cities, 
 after long and violent struggles, had won 
 himself. " No doubt, it is not by human their civil liberty ; and hence we see in 
 strength," said he, "it is by the'strength almost every place the people taking a 
 of God alone that the Word of the Lord decided part in the Reform of the Chureh. 
 should be upheld. But God often makes There was good in this; but evil was 
 use -of men as instruments to succour| close at hand. The Reformers, them- ( 
 men. Let us therefore unite, and from selves men of the people, who dared not 
 the sources of the Rhine to Strasburg let | act upon princes, might be tempted to 
 us form but one people and one alii- [ hurry away the people. It was easier 
 ance."t | for the Reformation to unite with republics 
 
 * Civitas Christiana. gen Strasbourg ein Volk und Bundniss wiirde. 
 
 fDass von oben hinab hie dises Rhyns, bisl(Zw. Opp. ii. p. 23.) 
 
808 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 than with kings. This facility nearly 
 proved its ruin. The Gospel was thus 
 to learn that its alliance is in heaven. 
 
 There was, however, one prince with 
 whom the reformed party of the free 
 states desired to be in union : this was 
 Philip of Hesse. It was he who in great 
 measure prompted Zwingle's warlike 
 pz*ojects. Zwingle desired to make him 
 some return, and to introduce his new 
 friend into the evangelical league. But 
 Berne, watchful to avert anything that 
 might irritate the Emperor and its an- 
 cient confederates, rejected this proposal, 
 and thus excited a lively discontent in 
 the " Christian City." — « What !" cried 
 they, " do the Bernese refuse an alliance 
 that would be honourable for us, accept- 
 able to Jesus Christ, and terrible to our 
 adversaries'?"* — "The Bear," said the 
 high-spirited Zwingle, " is jealous of the 
 Lion (Zurich) ; but there will be an end 
 to all these artifices, and victory will re- 
 main with the bold." It would appear, 
 indeed, according to a letter in cipher, 
 that the Bernese at last sided with Zwin- 
 gle, requiring only that this alliance 
 with a prince of the Empire should not 
 be made public. f 
 
 Still (Ecolampadius had not given way, 
 and his meekness contended, although 
 modestly, with the boldness of his im- 
 petuous friend. He was convinced that 
 faith was destined to triumph only by the 
 cordial union of all believers. A valua- 
 ble relief came to reanimate his exertions. 
 The deputies of the christian co-burgh- 
 ery, being assembled at Basle in 1580, 
 the envoys from Strasburg endeavoured 
 to reconcile Luther and Zwingle. (Eco- 
 lampadius wrote to Zwingle on the sub- 
 ject, begging him to hasten to Basle4 
 and not show himself too unyielding. 
 " To say that the body and blood of 
 Christ are really in the Lord's Supper, 
 may appear to many too hard an ex- 
 pression," said he, " but is it not softened, 
 when it is added — spiritually and not 
 bodily ?"§ 
 
 * Ipsis et nobis honestius, ob religionis et 
 caritatis causam, Christo gratius, ob conjunctas 
 vires utilius, hostibusque terribilius. (Zvv. 
 Epp. ii. p. 481.) 
 
 t Tantum recusaverunt aperte agere. (Ibid, 
 p. 487.) The cipher 3 appears to indicate the 
 Bernese. 
 
 X Si potes, mox advola. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 547 ) 
 
 § Christi corpus et sanguinem adeese vero 
 
 Zwingle was immovable. " It is to 
 flatter Luther that you hold such lan- 
 guage, and not to defend the truth.* 
 Edere est credere. .""J - Nevertheless there 
 were men present at the meeting, who 
 were resolved . upon energetic measures. 
 Brotherly love was on the eve of triumph- 
 ing : peace was to be obtained by union. 
 The Elector of Saxony himself proposed 
 a concord of all Evangelical Christians : 
 the Landgrave invited the Swiss cities to 
 accede to it. A report spread that Lu- 
 ther and Zwingle were about to make the 
 same confession of faith. Zwingle, call, 
 ing to mind the early professions of the 
 Saxon Reformer, said one day at table 
 before many witnesses, that Luther would 
 not think so erroneously about the Eu- 
 charist, if he were not misled by Me- 
 lancthon.:]: The union of the whole Re- 
 form seemed about to be concluded : it 
 would have vanquished by its own wea- 
 pons. But Luther soon showed that 
 Zwingle was mistaken in his expectation. 
 He required a written engagement by 
 which Zwingle and (Ecolampadius should 
 adhere to his sentiments, and the negotia- 
 tions were broken off in consequence. 
 Concord having failed, there remained 
 nothing but war. (Ecolampadius must 
 be silent, and Zwingle must act. 
 
 And in truth from that hour Zwingle 
 advanced more and more along that fatal* 
 path into which he was led by his cha- 
 racter, his patriotism, and his early ha- 
 bits. Stunned by so many violent shocks, 
 attacked by his enemies and by his bre- 
 thren, he staggered and his head grew 
 dizzy. From this period the reformer 
 almost entirely disappears, and we see in 
 his place the politician, the great citizen, 
 who, beholding a formidable coalition 
 preparing its chains for every nation, 
 stands up energetically against it. The 
 Emperor had just formed a close alliance 
 with the Pope. If his deadly schemes 
 were not opposed, it would be all over, in 
 Zwingle's opinion, with the Reformation, 
 
 in ccena fortasse cuipiam durius sonat, sed 
 mitigatur dum adjungitur animo non corpore. 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 * Hsec omnia fieri pro Luthero neque pro 
 veritate propugnandi causa. (Ibid, p 550.) 
 
 t To eat is to balieve. (Ibid.) 
 
 % Memini dudum Tiguri te dicentem cum 
 convivio me exciperes, Lutherum non adeo 
 perperam de Eucharistia sentire, nisi quod 
 Melanctbon ex alio eum cogeret. (Zw. Epp. 
 ii. p. 5G2.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHIC 
 
 H00 
 
 with religious and political liberty, and 
 evenwith the Confederation itself. " The 
 Emperor." said he, "is stirring up friend 
 against friend, enemy against enemy : 
 and then he endeavours to raise out of this 
 confusion the glory of the Papacy, am! 
 above all his own power. He excites the 
 Chatelain of Musso against the Grisons— 
 Duke George of Saxony against Duke 
 John — the Bishop of Constance against 
 the city — the Duke of Savoy against 
 Berne — the Five Cantons against Zurich 
 — and the Bishops of the Rhine against 
 the Landgrave ; then, when the confusion 
 shall have become general, he will fall 
 upon Germany, will offer himself as a 
 mediator, and ensnare princes and cities 
 by fine speeches, until he has them all 
 under his feet. Alas ! what discord, 
 what disasters, under the pretence of re- 
 establishing the Empire and restoring 
 religion !"* Zwinjde went farther. The 
 reformer of a small town in Switzerland, 
 rising to the most astonishing political 
 conceptions, called for a European alli- 
 ance against such fatal designs. The son 
 of a peasant of the Tockenburg held up 
 his head against the heir of so many 
 crowns. " That man must either be a 
 traitor or a coward," wrote he to a sena- 
 tor of Constance, " who is content to 
 stretch and yawn, when he ought to be 
 collecting men and arms on every side, 
 to show the Emperor that in vain he 
 strives to re-establish the Romish faith, to 
 enslave the free cities, and to subdue the 
 Helvetians.! He showed us only six 
 months ago how he would proceed. To- 
 day he will take one city in hand, to- 
 morrow another ; and so, step by step, 
 until they are all reduced. Then their 
 arms .will be taken away, their treasures, 
 their machines of war, and all their 
 
 power Arouse Lindau, and all your 
 
 neighbours ; if they do not awake, 
 public liberty will perish under the pre- 
 text of religion. We must place no con- 
 fidence in the friendship of tyrants. 
 Demosthenes teaches us that there is 
 nothing so hateful in their eyes as 
 rijK tojv ttoUuiv e\cvQepiat>X The Emperor 
 
 * Qu-e dissidia, quas turbas, quae mala, quas 
 clades ! (Zw. Epp ii. p. 429.) 
 
 \ Rominam fidem restituere, urbes liberas 
 capere, Helvetios in ordinem cogere. (Ibid. 
 March 1530 ) 
 
 | " The freedom of cities." These words 
 are in Greek in the original. 
 
 with one hand offers us I, read, but in the 
 other he conceals a stone."* And a few 
 months later Zwingle wrote to his friends 
 inConstance: "Be boldj fear not the 
 schemes of Charles. The razor will cut 
 him who is sharpening it."f 
 
 \ v. ay, then, with delay ! Should they 
 wail until Charles the Fifth claimed the 
 ancient castle of Hapsburg ? The Pa- 
 pacy and the Empire, it was said ;it Zu- 
 rich, are so confounded together,:}: that 
 one cannot exist or perish without the 
 other. "Whoever rejects Popery should 
 i I cl the Empire, and whoever rejects 
 the Emperor should reject the Pope. 
 
 It appears thatZuingle's thoughts even 
 went beyond a simple resistance. When 
 once the Gospel had ceased to be his 
 principal study, there v. as nothing that. 
 could arrest him. "A single individual," 
 said he, "must not take it into his head to 
 dethrone a tyrant ; this would be a revolt, 
 and the kingdom of God commands 
 peace, righteousness, and joy. But if a 
 whole people with common accord, or if 
 the majority at least, rejects him, without 
 committing any excess, it is God himself 
 who acts."§ Charles V. was at that time 
 a tyrant in Zwingle's eyes; and the re- 
 former hoped that Europe, awakening at 
 length from its long slumber, would be 
 the hand of God to hurl him from his 
 throne. 
 
 Never since the time of Demosthenes 
 and of the two Catos had the world seen 
 a more energetic resistance to the power 
 of its oppressors. Zwingle in a political 
 point of view, is one of the greatest cha- 
 racters of modern times : we must pay 
 him this honour, which is, perhaps, for a 
 minister of God, the greatest reproach. 
 Everything was prepared in his mind to 
 brin"- about a revolution that would have 
 changed the history of Europe. He 
 knew what he desired to substitute in 
 place of the power he wished to over- 
 throw. He had already cast his eyes 
 upon the prince who was to wear the^ im- 
 perial crown instead of Charles. It was 
 his friend the Landgrave. " Most gra- 
 
 * Caesar altera manu panem ostentat, altera 
 lapidem celat. (Zw. Epp. March 1530.) 
 
 f Incidet in cotem aliquando novacula. 
 (Ibid. p. 541.) 
 
 \ Bapst und Keyserthumen habend sich der- 
 ma-Ken in einandern geflickt. (Bull. ii. p. 
 343.) 
 
 § So ist es mit Gott. (Zw. Opp.) 
 
810 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 cious prince,'"' wrote he on the 2d No- 
 vember 1529, " I write to you as a child 
 to a lather ; it is because 1 hope that God 
 
 has chosen you for great events I 
 
 dare think, but 1 dare not speak of 
 
 them.* However, we must bell 
 
 the cat at last. "J" All that I can do 
 
 with my feeble means to manifest the 
 truth, to save the Universal Church, to 
 augment your power and the power of 
 those who love God — with God's help, I 
 will do." Thus was this great man led 
 astray. It is the will of God that there 
 be spots even in those who shine bright- 
 est in the eyes of the world, and that only 
 one upon earth shall say — " Which of 
 you convinced) me of sin V We are 
 now viewing the faults of the Reforma- 
 tion: they arise from the union of reli- 
 gion with politics. I could not take upon 
 myself to pass them by ; the recollection 
 of the errors of our predecessors La per- 
 haps the most useful legacy they have 
 bequeathed to us. 
 
 It appears already that at Marburg 
 Zwingle and the Landgrave had drawn 
 out the first sketch of a general alliance 
 against Charles V. The Landgrave had 
 undertaken to bring over the princes, 
 Zwingle the free cities of Southern Ger- 
 many and Switzerland. He went still 
 further, and formed a plan of gaining 
 over to this league the republics of Italy 
 — the powerful Venice at least — that she 
 might detain the Emperor beyond the 
 Alps, and prevent him from leading all 
 his forces into Germany. Zwingle, who 
 had earnestly pleaded against all foreign 
 alliances, and proclaimed on so many 
 occasions that the only ally of the Swiss 
 should be the arm of the Almighty, be- 
 gan now to look around for what he had 
 condemned, and thus prepared the way 
 for the terrible judgment that was about 
 to strike his family, his country, and his 
 Church. 
 
 He had hardly returned from Marburg, 
 and had made no official communication 
 to the great council, when he obtained 
 from the senate the nomination of an 
 ambassador to Venice. Great men, after 
 their first success, easily imagine that 
 
 * Spero Deum te ad rnagnas res quas 
 
 quidem cogitare sed non dicere licet. (Zw. 
 Epp. ii. p. GGG.) 
 
 t Sed fieri non potest quin tintinnabulum 
 aliquando feli adnectatur. (Ibid.) 
 
 i they can do everything. It was not a 
 statesman who was charged with this 
 mission, but one of Zwingle'" s friends, 
 who had accompanied him into Germany, 
 to the court of the future chief of the 
 Empire — the Greek professor, Rudolph 
 Collin, a bold and skilful man, and who 
 knew Italian. Thus the Reform stretched 
 its hands to the Doge and the Procurator 
 of St. Marc. The Bible was not enough 
 for it — it must have the Golden Book : 
 never did a greater humiliation befall 
 God's work. The opinion which Pro- 
 testants then entertained of Venice may, 
 however, partly excuse Zwingle. There 
 was in that city more independence of 
 the Pope, more freedom of thought, than 
 in all the rest of Italy. Luther himself 
 about this time wrote to Gabriel Zwil- 
 ling, pastor at Torgau : " With what joy 
 ;do I learn what you write to me concern- 
 ing the Venetians. God be praised and 
 glorified, for that they have received his 
 Word ! r: * 
 
 Collin was admitted, on the 26th De- 
 cember, to an audience with the Doge 
 and senate, who looked with an air of 
 astonishment at this schoolmaster, this 
 strange ambassador, without attendants, 
 and without parade. They could not 
 even understand his credentials, in so 
 singular a style were they drawn up, and 
 Collin was forced to explain their mean- 
 ing. " I am come to you," said he, " in 
 the name of the council of Zurich and 
 of the cities of the christian co-burghery 
 — free cities like Venice, and to which 
 common interests should unite you. The 
 power of the Emperor is formidable to 
 the Republics ; he is aiming at a univer- 
 sal monarchy in Europe ; if he succeeds, 
 all the free states will perish. We must 
 therefore check hirn."+ The Doge re- 
 plied that the Republic had just conclud- 
 ed an alliance with the Emperor, and 
 betrayed the distrust that so mysterious 
 a mission excited in the Venetian senate. 
 P>ut afterwards, in a private conference,! 
 the Doge, wishing to preserve a retreat 
 on both sides, added, that Venice grate- 
 fully received the message from Zurich, 
 
 * Laetua audio de Venetis qua? scribifl, quod 
 verbum Dei reccpcrint, Deo gratia ac gloria. 
 (7th March 152S. L. Epp. iii. p. 2S9.) 
 
 t P'ormidandam rebus-publicis potentiam 
 Caesaris, qua? omnino ad Europas monarchiam 
 vergit. (Zvv. Epp. ii. p. 4 15.) 
 
 J Postea privatim alia respondisse. (Ibid.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 811 
 
 and that a Venetian regiment, armed and 
 paid by the Republic itself, should he 
 
 always ready to support the Evangelical 
 Swiss. The chancellor, covered with 
 his purple robe, attended Collin to the 
 door, and, at the very gates of the ducal 
 palace, confirmed the promise of support. 
 The moment the Reformation passed the 
 magnificent porticos of St. Mure it was 
 seized with giddiness ; it could but stag- 
 ger onwards to the abyss. Tiny dis- 
 missed poor Collin by placing in his hands 
 a present of twenty crowns. The ru- 
 mour of these negotiations soon spread 
 abroad, and the less suspicious, Capito 
 for example, shook their heads, and 
 could see in this pretended agreement 
 nothing but the accustomed perfidy of 
 Venice.* 
 
 This was not enough. The cause of 
 the Reform was fated to drink the cup of 
 degradation to the very dregs. Zwingle, 
 seeing that his adversaries in the Empire 
 increased daily in numbers and in pow- 
 er, gradually lost his ancient aversion 
 for France ; and, although there was 
 now a greater obstacle than before be- 
 tween him and Francis I., — the blood of 
 his brethren shed by that monarch, — he 
 showed himself favourably disposed to a 
 union that he had once so forcibly con- 
 demned. 
 
 Lambert Maigret, a French general, 
 who appears to have had some leaning to 
 the Gospel — which is a slight excuse for 
 Zwingle — entered into correspondence 
 with the reformer, giving him to under- 
 stand that the secret designs of Charles 
 V. called for an alliance between the 
 King of France and the Swiss Repub- 
 lics.' " Apply yourself," said this diplo- 
 matist to him in 1530, " to a work so 
 agreeable to our Creator, and which, by 
 God's grace, will be very easy to your 
 Mightiness. "f Zwingle was at first^as- 
 tomshed at these overtures. " The King 
 of France," thought he, " cannot know 
 which way to turn.":}: Twice he took 
 no heed of this prayer ; but the envoy 
 of Francis I. insisted that the reformer 
 
 * Perfidiam adversus Caesarem, fidern videri 
 volunt. (Capito, Zw. Epp ii. p. 445.) 
 
 t Operi Creatori nostro acceptissimo, Domi- 
 nation i tuae facillimo, media gratia Dei. (Zw. 
 Epp. ii. p. 413.) 
 
 J Rcgem admodum desesperare et inopem 
 concilii esse, ut nesciat quo se vertat. (Ibid. 
 p. 414.) 
 
 103 
 
 should communicate' to him a plan of al- 
 liance. At the third »f the am- 
 lor, the simple child of tin- Tock- 
 i nburg mou 
 
 liis advances. (all, 
 
 it cannol be without French assistance ; 
 and why should no1 the Reformation con- 
 tract an alliance with Francis 1., the ob- 
 jecl of which would ho to establish a 
 power in the Empire that should in its 
 turn oblige the King to tolerate the Re- 
 form in his own dominions ? Everything 
 I to meet the wishes of Zwingle ; 
 tir- fall of the tyrant was at band, and 
 he would drag the Pope along with him. 
 He communicated the general s overtures 
 to the secret council, and Collin set out, 
 commissioned to bear the required pro- 
 ject to the French ambassador.* " In 
 ancient times/' it ran, " no kings or peo- 
 ple ever resisted the Roman Empire with 
 such firmness as those of France and 
 Switzerland. Let us not degenerate 
 from the virtues of our ancestors. His ^ 
 most Christian Majesty — all whose wish- 
 es are, that the purity of the Gospel may 
 remain undefiledf — engages therefore to 
 conclude an alliance with the christian 
 co-bur^hcry that shall be in accordance 
 with the Divine law, and that shall Ix: 
 submitted to the censure of the evange- 
 lical theologians of Switzerland." Then 
 followed an outline of the different arti- 
 cles of the treaty. 
 
 Lanzerant, another of the king's en- 
 voys, replied the same day (27th Febru- 
 ary) to this astonishing project of alli- 
 ance about to be concluded between the 
 reformed Swiss and the persecutor of the 
 French Reformed, under reserve of the 
 
 censure of the theologians 
 
 This was not what France desired : it 
 was Lombardy, and not the Gospel that 
 he kins wanted. For that purpose, he 
 needed the support of all the Swiss. But 
 an alliance which ranged the Roman-ca- 
 tholic cantons against him, would not 
 suit him. Being satisfied, therefore, for 
 the present with knowing the sentiment.-* 
 of Zurich, the French envoys began to 
 look coolly upon the Reformer's scheme. 
 " The matters you have submitted to us 
 
 * Bis negavi, at tertio misi, non sine consci- 
 entia Probulatarum. (Zw. Epp ii. p. 422.) 
 
 f Nihil enirn aeqai esse in votis Christianis- 
 simi Regis, atque ut Evangelii puritas illibata 
 permaneat. (Ibid. p. 417.) 
 
812 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 are admirably drawn up," said Lanze- 
 /jiant to the Swiss commissioner, " but I 
 can scarcely understand them, no doubt 
 because of the weakness of my mind. 
 
 We must not put any 
 
 seed into the ground, unless the soil be 
 properly prepared for it/' 
 
 Thus, the Reform acquired nothing 
 but shame from these propositions. Since 
 it had forgotten these precepts of the 
 Word of God : "Be ye not unequally 
 yoked together with unbelievers V* how 
 could it fail to meet with striking re- 
 verses ? Already Zwingle's friends be- 
 gan to abandon him. The Landgrave, 
 who had pushed him into this diplomatic 
 career, drew towards Luther, and sought 
 to check the Swiss Reformer, particular- 
 ly after this saying of Erasmus had 
 sounded in the ears of the great : " They 
 ask us to open our gates, ci'ying aloud — 
 
 the Gospel ! the Gospel ! 
 
 Raise the cloak, and under its mysteri- 
 ous folds you will find — democracy." 
 ** While the Reform, by its culpable 
 proceedings, was calling dow 7 n the chas- 
 tisement of Heaven, the Five Cantons, 
 that were to be the instruments of its 
 punishment, accelerated with all their 
 might those fatal days of anger and of 
 vengeance. They were irritated at the 
 progress of the Gospel throughout the 
 Confederation, while the peace they had 
 signed became every day more irksome 
 to them. " We shall have no repose," 
 said they, " until we have broken these 
 bonds and regained our former liber- 
 ty."! A general diet was convoked at 
 Baden for the 8th January, 1531. The 
 Five Cantons then declared that if jus- 
 tice was not done to their grievances, 
 particularly with respect to the abbey of 
 St. Gall, they would no more appear in 
 diet. " Confederates of Glaris, Schaff- 
 hausen, Friburg, Soleure, and Appen- 
 zell," cried they, " aid us in making our 
 ancient alliances respected, or we will 
 ourselves contrive the means of checking 
 this guilty violence ; and may the Holy 
 Trinity assist us in this work !"J 
 
 But they did not confine themselves to 
 threats. The treaty of peace had ex 
 
 * 2 Cor. vi. 13. 
 
 t Nitt ruwen bias 
 iBull. ii. p. 324.) 
 
 J Darzu helfe uns 
 (Bull. ii. p. 330.) 
 
 sy der banden ledig 
 die helig dryfaltikeit. 
 
 pressly forbidden all insulting language 
 — " for fear," it is said, " that by insults 
 and calumnies, discord should again be 
 excited, and greater troubles .than the 
 former should arise." Thus was con- 
 cealed in Ae treaty itself the spark 
 whence the conflagration was to proceed. 
 In fact, to restrain the rude tongues of 
 the Waldstettes was impossible. Two 
 Zurichers, the aged prior Ravensbuhler, 
 and the pensioner Gaspard Gbdli, who 
 had been compelled to renounce, thp one 
 his convent, and the other his pension, 
 especially aroused the anger of the peo- 
 ple against their native city. They used 
 to say everywhere in these valleys, and 
 with impunity, that the Zurichers were 
 heretics ; that there was not one of them 
 who did not indulge in unnatural sins, 
 and who was not a robber at the very 
 least;* — that Zwingle was a thief, a 
 murderer, and an arch-heretic ; and that, 
 on one occasion at Paris (where he had 
 never been, he had committed a horrible 
 offence, in which Leo Juda had been his 
 pander. - ]- " I shall have no rest," said a 
 pensioner, " until I have thrust my sword 
 up to the hilt in the heart of this impious 
 wretch." Old commanders of troops, 
 who were feared by all on account of 
 their unruly character ; the satellites 
 who followed in their train ; insolent 
 young people, sons of the first persons 
 in the state, who thought everything was 
 lawful against miserable preachers, and 
 their stupid flocks ; priests inflamed with 
 hatred, and treading in the footsteps of 
 these old captains and giddy young men, 
 who seemed to take the pulpit of a church 
 for the bench of a pot-house : all poured 
 torrents of insults on the Reform and its 
 adherents. " The townspeople," ex- 
 claimed with one accord these drunken 
 soldiers and these fanatic priests, " are 
 heretics, soul-stealers, conscience-slay- 
 ers!, and Zwingle — that horrible man, 
 who commits infamous sins — is the Lu- 
 theran God."X 
 
 They went still further. Passing from 
 words to deeds, the Five Cantons perse- 
 cuted the poor people among them who 
 
 * Es were kein Zurvcher er hatte chuy und 
 merchen gehygt. (Bull. p. 33(5.) 
 
 t Alls derzu Parys ein Esel gehygt; und 
 habe imm Leo Jud denaelben geliept. (Bull, 
 ii. p. 33G ) 
 
 X Der lutherisdben Gott. (Ibid. p. 337.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 813 
 
 loved the Word of God, flung them into 
 prison, imposed lines upon them, brutally 
 tormented them, and mercilessly expelled 
 them from their country. The people 
 of Schwytz did even worse. Not fear- 
 ing to announce their sinister designs, 
 they appeared at a Landsgemeinde wear- 
 ing pine-branches in their hats, in sign 
 of war, and no one opposed them. k - The 
 Abbot of St. Gall," said they, " is a 
 prince of the Empire, and holds his in- 
 vestiture from the Emperor. Do they 
 imagine that Charles V. will not avenge 
 him ?"— " Have not these heretics," said 
 others, " dared to form a Christian Fra- 
 ternity, as if old Switzerland was a hea- 
 then country ?" Secret councils were 
 continually held in one place or another.* 
 New alliances were sought with the Va- 
 lais, the Pope, and the Emperorf — bla- 
 mable alliances, no doubt, but such as 
 they might at least justify by the pro- 
 verb : " Birds of a feather go together ;" 
 which Zurich and Venice could not 
 say. 
 
 The Valaisans at first refused their 
 support : they preferred remaining neu- 
 ter ; but on a sudden their fanaticism 
 was inflamed. A sheet of paper was 
 found on an altar — such at least was the 
 report circulated in their valleys, — in 
 which Zurich and Berne were accused 
 of preaching that to commit an offence 
 against nature is a smaller crime than to 
 hear Mass \\ Who had placed this mys- 
 terious paper on the altar ? Came it 
 from man ? Did it fall from heaven ? . 
 
 They knew not ; but however 
 
 that might be, it was copied, circulated, 
 and read everywhere ; and the effects of 
 this fable, invented by some villain, says 
 Zwingle,§ was such that Valais immedi- 
 ately granted the support it had at first 
 refused ! The Waldstettes, proud of 
 their strength, then closed their ranks ; 
 their fierce eyes menaced the heretical 
 cantons ; and the winds bore from their 
 mountains to their neighbours of the 
 towns a formidable clang of arms. 
 
 * Radt schlagtend und tagentend heymlich 
 v. c. (Bull. ii. p. 336.) 
 
 t Niiwe frundschaften, by den Walliseren, 
 dem Bapst, und den Keysserischen. (Ibid.) 
 
 X Ut si quis rem obscsnam cum jumento 
 sive bove habeat, minus peccare quam si mis- 
 gam inaudiat. (Zw. Epp. p. G10.) 
 
 § Perfidorum ac sceleratorum hominum com- 
 mentum. (Ibid.) » 
 
 At the sight of thi ling mani- 
 
 festations th" evangelical cities were in 
 commotion. They first assembled at 
 Basle in February 1531, then at Zurich 
 in March. •• What is to be done .''" said 
 the deputies from Zurich, after setting 
 forth their grievances; "how can we 
 punish these infamous calumnies, and 
 force these threatening anus to fall '." — 
 •■ \\ e understand,'' replied Berne "that 
 you would have recourse to violence; 
 but think of these secrel and formidable 
 alliances thai are formingwith the Pop< , 
 the Emperor, the King of France, with 
 SO many princes, in a word with all the 
 priests' party, to accelerate our ruin ; — 
 think on the innocence of so many pious 
 souls in the Five ('anions, who deplore 
 these perfidious machinations; — think 
 how easy it is to begin a war, but that 
 no one can tell when it will end."* Sad 
 foreboding! which a catastrophe, beyond 
 all human foresight, accomplished hut too 
 soon. "Let us therefore send a deputa- 
 tion to the Five Cantons," continued 
 Berne ; " let us call upon them to punish 
 these infamous calumnies in accordance 
 with the treaty ; and if they refuse, let 
 us break off all intercourse with them." 
 — " What will be the use of this mis- 
 sion ?" asked Basle. "Do we not know 
 the brutality of this people ? And is it 
 not to be feared that the rough treatment 
 to which our deputies will be exposed, 
 may make the matter worse ? Let us 
 rather convoke a general diet." Schaff- 
 hausen and St. Gall having concurred 
 in this opinion, Berne summoned a diet 
 at Baden for the 10th April, at winch 
 deputies from all the cantons were assem- 
 bled. 
 
 Many of the principal men among the 
 Waldstettes disapproved of the violence 
 of the retired soldiers and of the monks. 
 They saw that these continually repeated 
 insults would injure their cause. " The 
 insults of which you complain," said 
 they to the diet, " afflict us no less than 
 you. We shall know how to punish 
 them, and we have already done so. 
 But there are violent men on both sides. 
 The other day a man of Basle having 
 met on the highroad a person who was 
 coming from Berne, and- having learnt 
 that he was going to Lucerne : — ' To go 
 
 * Aber sin end und ussgang mochte nieman 
 bald wiissen. (Bull. ii. p. 346.) 
 
814 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 from Berne to Lucerne,' exclaimed he, 
 ' is passing from a father to an arrant 
 knave !' " The mediating cantons in- 
 vited the two parties to banish every 
 cause of discord. 
 
 But the war of the Chatelain of Musso 
 having then broken out, Zwingle and 
 Zurich, who saw in it the first act of a 
 vasl conspiracy, destined to stifle the Re- 
 form in every place, called their allies 
 together. " We must waver no longer," 
 said Zwingle; "the rupture of the alli- 
 ance on the part of the Five Cantons, 
 and the unheard of insults with which 
 they load us, impose upon us the obliga- 
 tion of marching against our enemies,* 
 before the Emperor, who is still detained 
 by the Turks, shall have expelled the 
 Landgrave, seized upon Strasburg, and 
 subjugated even ourselves." All the 
 blood of the ancient Swiss seemed to boil 
 in this man's veins ; and while Uri, 
 Schwytz, and Unterwalden basely kissed 
 the hand of Austria, this Zu richer — the 
 greatest Helvetian of the age — faithful 
 to the memory of old Switzerland, but 
 not so to still holier traditions, followed in 
 the glorious steps of Stauflacher and 
 Winkelried. 
 
 The warlike tone of Zurich alarmed 
 its confederates. Basle proposed a sum- 
 mons, and then, in case of refusal, the 
 rupture of the alliance. Schaffhauscn 
 and St. Gall were frightened even at this 
 step : " The mountaineers, so proud, in- 
 domitable, and exasperated," said they, 
 " will accept with joy the dissolution of 
 the Confederation, and then shall we be 
 more advanced ?" Such was the pos- 
 ture of affairs, when, to the great aston- 
 ishment of all, deputies from Uri and 
 Sehywtz made their appearance. They 
 were coldly received ; the cup of honour 
 was not offered to them ; and they had to 
 walk, according to their own account, in 
 the midst of the insulting cries of the 
 people. They unsuccessfully endea- 
 voured to excuse their conduct. " We 
 have long been waiting," was the cold 
 reply of the diet, "to see your actions 
 and your words agree. "f The men of 
 Schwytz and of Uri returned in sadness 
 to their homes ; and the assembly broke 
 up, full of sorrow and distress. 
 
 * Sy gwaltig ze iibevziehen. (Bull. ii. p. 306.) 
 t Und wortt und werk mit einandern gan- 
 gen werind. (Bull. ii. p. 367.) 
 
 Zwingle beheld with pain the deputies 
 of the evangelical towns separating with- 
 out having come to any decision. He 
 no longer desired only a reformation of 
 the Church ; he wished for a transforma- 
 tion in the Confederacy ; and it was this 
 latter reform that he now was preaching 
 from the pulpit, according to what we 
 learn from Bullinger.* He was not the 
 only person who desired it. For a long 
 time the inhabitants of the most popu- 
 lous and powerful towns of Switzerland 
 had complained that the Waldstettes, 
 whose contingent of men and .money 
 was much below theirs, had an equal 
 share in the deliberations of the diet,, 
 and in the fruits of their victories. This 
 had been the cause of division after the 
 Burgundian War. The Five Cantons, 
 by means of their adherents, had the 
 majority. Now Zwingle thought that 
 the reins of Switzerland should be placed 
 in the hands of the great cities, and, 
 above all, in those of the powerful can- 
 tons of Berne and Zurich. New times, 
 in his opinion, called for new forms. It 
 was not sufficient to dismiss from every 
 public office the pensioners of foreign 
 princes, .and substitute pious men in 
 their place ; the federal compact must 
 be remodelled, and settled upon a more 
 equitable "basis. A national constituent 
 assembly would doubtless have responded 
 to his wishes. These discourses, which 
 were rather those of a tribune of the 
 people than of a minister of Jesus 
 Christ, hastened on the terrible cata- 
 strophe. 
 
 And indeed the animated words of the 
 patriot reformer passed from the church 
 where they had been delivered into the 
 councils and the halls of the guilds, into 
 the streets and the fields. The burning 
 words that fell from the lips of this man 
 kindled the hearts of his fellow-citizens. 
 The electric spark, escaping with noise 
 and commotion, was felt even in the 
 most distant cottage. The ancient tra- 
 ditions of wisdom and prudence seemed 
 forgotten. Public opinion declared itself 
 energetically. On the 29th and 30th 
 April, a number of horsemen rode hasti- 
 ly out of Zurich; they were 'envoys 
 from the council, commissioned to remind 
 
 * Trang gar haiTti™; uff eine gemeine Re- 
 formation gemeiner Eydgenoschaft. (Bull. ii. 
 p. 368.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTR< 
 
 815 
 
 all the allied cities of the encroachment 
 of the Five Cantons, and to call for a 
 prompt and definitive decision. Reach- 
 ing their several destinations, the mes- 
 sengers recapitulated the grievances.* 
 " Take care," said they in conclusion ; 
 "great dangers are impending overall 
 of us. The Emperor and King Ferdi- 
 nand are making vast preparations; 
 they are about to enter Switzerland with 
 large sums of money, and with a nu- 
 merous army." 
 
 Zurich joined actions to words. This 
 state,, being resolved to make every ex- 
 ertion to establish the free preaching of 
 the Gospel in those bailiwicks where it 
 shared the sovereignty with the Roman- 
 catholic cantons, desired to interfere by 
 force wherever negotiations could not 
 prevail. The federal rights, it must be 
 confessed, were trampled under foot at 
 St. Gall, in Thurgovia, in the Rhein- 
 thal ; and Zurich substituted arbitrary 
 decisions in their place, that excited the 
 indignation of the Waldstettes to the 
 highest degree. Thus the number of 
 enemies to the Reform kept increasing ; 
 the tone of the Five Cantons became 
 daily more threatening, and the inhabit- 
 ants of .the canton of Zurich, whom 
 their business called into the mountains, 
 were loaded with insults, and sometimes 
 badly treated. These violent proceed- 
 ings excited in turn the anger of the 
 reformed cantons. Zwingle traversed 
 Thurgovia, St. Gall, and the Tocken- 
 burg, everywhere organizing synods, 
 taking part in their proceedings, and 
 preaching before excited and enthusiastic 
 crowds. In all parts he met with con- 
 fidence and respect. At St. Gall an im- 
 mense crowd assembled under his win- 
 dows, and a concert of voices and instru- 
 ments expressed to the reformer the pub- 
 lic gratitude in harmonious songs. " Let 
 us not abandon ourselves," he repeated 
 continually, " and all will go well." It 
 was resolved that a meeting should be 
 held at Arau on the 12th May, to de- 
 liberate on a posture of affairs that daily 
 became more critical. This meeting 
 was to be the beginning of sorrows. 
 
 V. Zwingle 's scheme with regard to 
 the establishment of a new Helvetian 
 
 * They are to be found in Bullinger, ii. p. 
 368-376. 
 
 constitution did not pr< vail in tl 
 Arau. Perhaps it was thoughl belt 
 
 see the result of the crisis. Perh 
 more Christian, a more federal vi< w — 
 the hope of procuring the unity of Swit- 
 zerland by unity of faith— o< i i 
 men's minds more than the pre-eminence 
 of the cities. In truth, ifaqertain num. 
 ber of cantons remained with the Pope, 
 the unity of the Confederation was de- 
 stroyed, it might be for ever. But if all 
 the Confederation was brought over to 
 the same faith, the ancient 1 lelvetie unity 
 would be established on the strongest 
 and surest foundation. Now was the 
 time for acting — or never; and there 
 must be no fear of employing a violent 
 remedy to restore the whole body to 
 health. 
 
 Nevertheless, the allies shrunk back 
 at the thought of restoring religious 
 liberty or political unity by means of 
 arms ; and to escape from the difficulties 
 in which the Confederation was placed, 
 they sought a middle course between war 
 and peace. " There is no doubt," said 
 the deputies from Berne, " that the be- 
 haviour of the cantons with regard to the 
 Word of God fully authorizes an armed 
 intervention ; but the dangers that threaten 
 us on the side of Italy and the Empire — 
 the danger of arousing the lion from his 
 slumber — the general want and misery . 
 that afflict our people — the rich harvests 
 that will soon cover our fields, and that 
 the war would infallibly destroy — the 
 great number of pious men among the 
 Waldstettes, and whose innocent blood 
 would flow along with that of the guilty : 
 — all these motives enjoin us to leave the 
 sword in the scabbard. Let us rather 
 close our markets against the Five Can- 
 tons ; let us refuse them corn, salt, wine, 
 steel, and iron ; we shall thus impart 
 authority to the friends of peace among 
 them, and innocent blood will be spared."* 
 The meeting separated forthwith to carry 
 this intermediate proposition to the differ- 
 ent Evangelical cantons, and on the 15th 
 May again assembled at Zurich. 
 
 Convinced that the means apparently 
 the most violent were nevertheless both 
 the surest and the most humane, Zurich 
 resisted the Bernese proposition with all 
 its might. " By accepting this proposi- 
 
 * Und dadurch unshuldiez Bliit erspart 
 wurde. (Bull. ii. p. 3S3.) 
 
816 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 tion," said they, "we sacrifice the advan- 
 tages that we now possess, and we give 
 the Five Cantons time to arm themselves, 
 and to fall upon us first. Let us take 
 care that' the Emperor does- not then 
 attack us on one side, while our ancient 
 confederates attack us on the other ; a 
 just war is not in opposition to the Word 
 of God ; but this is contrary to it — taking 
 the bread from the mouths of the inno- 
 
 marched from fault to fault ; it pretended 
 to preach the Gospel to the poor, and 
 was now about to refuse them bread ! 
 
 On the Sunday following — it was 
 Whitsunday — the resolution was publish- 
 ed from the pulpits. Zwingle walked 
 towards his, where an immense crowd 
 was waiting for him. The piercing eye 
 of this great man easily discovered the 
 dangers of the measure in a political 
 
 cent as well as the guilty ; straitening point of view, and his christian heart 
 
 by hunger the sick, the aged. \ re 
 women, children, and all who are deeply 
 afflicted by the injustice of the Wald- 
 stettes.* We should beware of exciting 
 
 deeply felt all its cruelty. His soul was 
 overburdened, his eyes downcast. If at 
 this moment the true character of a 
 minister of the Gospel had awoke within 
 
 by this means the anger of the poor, and him ; — if Zwingle with his powerful 
 transforming into enemies many who at: voice had called on the people to humili- 
 the present time are our Mends and ouriation before God, to forgiveness of tres- 
 
 brothers ! 
 
 We must acknowledge that this lan- 
 guage, which was Zwingle's, contained 
 much truth. But the other cantons, and 
 Berne, in particular, were immoveable. 
 " When we have once shed the blood of 
 our brothers,"' said they. " we shall never 
 be able to re.store.life to those who have 
 lost it ; while, from the moment the 
 Waldstettes have given us satisfaction, 
 we shall be able to put an end to all these 
 severe measures. We are resolved not 
 to begin the war/' There were no 
 means of running counter to such a de- 
 claration. The Zurichers consented to 
 refuse supplies to the Waldstettes ; but 
 it was with hearts full of anguish, as if 
 they had foreseen all that this deplorable 
 measure would cost them."}" It was 
 agreed that the severe step that was now 
 about to be taken should not be suspended 
 except by common consent, and that, as 
 it would create great exasperation, each 
 one should hold himself prepared to repel 
 the attacks of , the enemy. Zurich and 
 Berne were commissioned to notify this 
 determination to the Five Cantons ; and 
 Zurich, discharging its task with, promp- 
 titude, immediately forwarded an order 
 to every bailiwick to suspend all commu- 
 nication with the Waldstettes, command- 
 ing them at the same time to abstain from 
 ill-usage and hostile language. Thus 
 the Reformation, "becoming imprudently 
 mixed up with political "combinations, 
 
 * Kranke alte shwangere wyber, kinder und 
 sunst betrabte. (Bull, ii. p. 3S4.) 
 
 t Schmerzlich und kummersachlieh. (Ibid. 
 p. 386.) 
 
 . and to prayer ; safety might yet 
 have dawned on " broken-hearted" Swit- 
 zerland. But it was not so. More and 
 more the Christian disappears in the 
 Reformer, and the citizen alone remains ; 
 but in that character he soars far above 
 all, and his policy is undoubtedly the 
 most skilful. He see* clearly that every 
 delay may ruin Zurich ; and after having 
 made his way throu gh the people, and 
 closed the book of theiHIrice of Peace, 
 he hesitates not to attacl? the resolution 
 which he has just communicated to the 
 people, and on the very festival of the 
 Holy Ghost to preach war. " He who 
 fears not to call his adversary a criminal," 
 says he in his usual forcible language, 
 " must be ready to follow the word with 
 a blow.* If he does not strike, he will 
 lie stricken. Men of Zurich ! you deny 
 food to the Five Cantons, as to evil-doers : 
 well ! let the blow follow the threat, 
 rather than reduce poor innocent crea- 
 tures to starvation. If, by not taking the 
 offensive, you appear to believe that 
 there is not sufficient reason for punish- 
 ing the Waldstettes, und yet you refuse 
 them food and drink, you will force them 
 by this line of conduct to take up arms, 
 to raise their hands, and to inflict punish- 
 ment upon you. This is the fate that 
 awaits you." 
 
 These words of the eloquent reformer 
 moved the whole assembly. Zwingle's 
 politic mind already so influenced and 
 misled all the people that there were few 
 souls christian enough to feel how 
 
 * Das er wortt und faust mitt einander gan 
 lasse. (Bull. ii. p. 388.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHK. 
 
 817 
 
 strange it was that on the very day when 
 they were celebrating the outpouring of 
 the Spirit of peace and love upon the 
 Christian Church, the mouth of a minis- 
 ter of God should utter a provocation to 
 war. They looked at this sermon only 
 in a political point of view : " It is a 
 seditious discourse; it is an excitement to 
 civil war !" said some. " No," replied 
 others, " it is the language that the 
 safety of the state requires !" All Zurich 
 was agitated. •' Zurich has too much fire," 
 said Berne. '•' Berne has too much cun- 
 ning," replied Zurich.* Zwingle's gloomy 
 prophecy was too soon to be fulfilled ! 
 
 No sooner had the reformed cantons 
 communicated to the Waldstettes this 
 pitiless decree than they hastened its exe- 
 cution ; and Zurich showed the greatest 
 strictness respecting it. Not only the 
 markets of Zurich and of Berne, but also 
 those of the free bailiwicks, those of St. 
 Gall, of the Tockenburg, of the district 
 of Sargans and of the valley of the Rhine, 
 a country partly under the sovereignty 
 of the Waldstettes, were shut against the 
 Five Cantons. A formidable power had 
 suddenly encompassed with barrenness, 
 famine, and death, the noble founders of 
 Helvetian liberty. Uri, Schwytz, Un- 
 terwalden, Zug, and Lucerne, were, as 
 it seemed, in the midst of a vast desert. 
 Their own subjects, thought they at 
 least, the communes that have taken the 
 oath of allegiance to them, would range 
 themselves on their side ! But no ; Brem- 
 garten, and even Mellingen, refused all 
 succour. Their last hope was in Wesen 
 and the Gastal. Neither Berne nor Zu- 
 rich have anything to do there ; Schwytz 
 and Glaris alone rule over them ; but the 
 power of their enemies has penetrated 
 everywhere. A majority of thirteen 
 votes had declared in favour of Zurich 
 at the Landsgemeinde of Glaris; and 
 Glaris closed the gates of Wesen and of 
 the Gastal against Schwytz. In vain did 
 Berne itself cry out : " How can you 
 compel subjects to refuse supplies to their 
 lords?" In vain did Schwytz raise its 
 voice in indignation ; Zurich immediately 
 sent to Wesen gunpowder and bul- 
 lets. It is upon Zurich, therefore, that 
 
 * It was Zwingle who characterized the two 
 cities : — 
 
 Bern : klage Zuiich ware zu hitzig: 
 Zurich : Bern ware zu witzig. — (Stettler.) 
 103 
 
 falls all the odium of a measure which 
 that city had at first so earnestly com- 
 bated. At Arau, at Bremgarterij at Mel- 
 lingen, in liw free bailiwicks, were se\. 
 eral carriages laden with provisions !I>.' 
 the Waldsti it' s. They were stopped, 
 unloaded, and upset: with them were 
 barricades erected on the roads Leading 
 to Lucerne, Schw\t/. and Zug. Air 
 a year of dearth had made provisions 
 scarce in the Five Cantons; — already 
 had a frightful epidemic, the Sweating 
 Sickness, scattered everywhere despond- 
 ency and death: hut now the hand of 
 man was joined to the hand of * I ■ I ; the 
 evil increased, and the poor inhabitants 
 of these mountains beheld unheard of ca- 
 lamities approach with hasty steps. 
 more bread for their children — no more 
 wine to revive their exhausted strength 
 — no more salt for their flocks and herds ! 
 Everything failed them that man requires 
 for subsistence.* One could not see such 
 things, and be a man, without a broken 
 heart. In the confederate cities, and out 
 of Switzerland, numerous voices were 
 raised against this implacable measure. 
 What good can result from it? Did aol 
 St. Paul write to the Romans : " If thine 
 enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, 
 give him drink : for in so doing thou 
 shalt heap coals of fire dh his head ?"f 
 And when the magistrates wished to con- 
 vince certain refractory communes of the 
 utility of the measure : " We desir 
 religious war," cried they. " If the 
 Waldstettes will not believe in God, 1" ! 
 them stick to the devil !" 
 
 But it was especially in the Five Can- 
 tons that earnest complaints were heard. 
 The most pacific individuals, and even 
 the secret partisans of the Reform, see- 
 ing famine invade their habitations, fell 
 the deepest indignation. The em i 
 of Zurich skilfully took advantage of this 
 disposition ; they fostered these mur- 
 murs ; and soon the cry of anger and 
 distress re-echoed from all the mountains. 
 In vain did Berne represent to the Wald- 
 stettes that it is more cruel to refuse men 
 the nourishment of the soul than to cut 
 off that of the body. " God," replied 
 these mountaineers in their despair, 
 
 * Deshalb sy bald gro9sen mangel erlittend 
 an allem dem das der Mensh gelaben soil. 
 (Ball. ii. p. 396.) 
 
 f Ibid. — Romans xii. 20. 
 
818 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 " God causes tne fruits of the earth to 
 grow freely for all men !"* They were 
 not content with groaning in their cot- 
 tages, and venting their indignation in 
 councils ; they filled all Switzerland with 
 complaints and menaces. f " They wish 
 to employ famine to tear us from our 
 ancient faith ; they wish to deprive our 
 wives and our children of bread, that they 
 may take from us the liberty we derive 
 from our forefathers. When did such 
 things ever take place in the bosom of 
 the Confederation ? Did we not see, in 
 the last war, the Confederates with arms 
 in their hands, and who were ready to 
 draw the sword, eating together from the 
 same dish ? They tear in pieces old 
 friendships — they trample our ancient 
 manners underfoot — they violate treaties 
 —they break alliances. . . . We invoke 
 the charters of our ancestors. Help ! 
 help ! . . . Wise men of our people, give 
 us your advice, and all you who know 
 how to handle the sling and the sword, 
 come and maintain with us the sacred 
 possessions, for which our fathers, de- 
 livered from the yoke of the stranger, 
 united their arms and their hearts." 
 
 At the same time the Five Cantons 
 s^nt into Alsace, Brisgau, and Swabia, 
 to obtain salt, wine, and bread ; but the 
 administration «f the cities was implaca- 
 ble ; the orders were everywhere given 
 and everywhere strictly executed. Zu- 
 rich and the other allied cantons inter- 
 cepted all communication, and sent back 
 to Germany the supplies that had been 
 forwarded to their brethren. These Five 
 Cantons were like a vast fortress, all the 
 issues from which are closely guarded 
 by watchful sentinels. The afflicted 
 Waldstettes, on beholding themselves 
 alone with famine between their lakes 
 and their mountains, had recourse to the 
 observances of their worship. All sports, 
 dances, and every kind of amusement 
 were interdicted ;t prayers wei'e directed 
 to be offered up ; and long processions 
 covered the roads of Einsideln and other 
 
 * Hartmann von Hallwyll to Albert of Mu- 
 linen, 7th August. 
 
 t Klagtend sich allent halben wyt und breit. 
 (Bull. ii. p. 397.) 
 
 J Stelltent ab spielen, Tanzen. — Tschudi der 
 Capeller krieg, 1531. This MS. is attributed 
 to Egidius Tschudi, who must have written it 
 in 1533, in favour of Five Cantons, and was 
 printed in the " Helvetia," vol, ii. p. 163. 
 
 resorts of pilgrims. They assumed the 
 belt, and staff, and arms of the brother- 
 hood to which they each belonged ; each 
 man carried a chaplet in his hands, and 
 repeated paternosters ; the mountains and 
 the valleys re-echoed with their plaintive 
 hymns. But the Waldstettes did still 
 more : they grasped their swords — .they 
 sharpened the points of their halberds — 
 they brandished their weapons in the di- 
 rection of Zurich and of Berne, and ex- 
 claimed with rage : " They block up 
 their roads, but we will open them with 
 our right arms !"* No one replied to 
 this cry of despair; but there is a just 
 Judge in heaven to whom vengeance be- 
 longs, and who will soon reply in a terri- 
 ble manner, by punishing those misguid- 
 ed persons, who, forgetful of christian 
 mercy, and making an impious mixture 
 of political and religious matters, pretend 
 to secure the triumph of the Gospel by 
 famine and by armed men. 
 
 Some attempts, however, were made 
 to arrange matters ; but these very efforts 
 proved a great humiliation for Switzer- 
 land and for the Reform. It was not the 
 ministers of the Gospel, it was France — 
 more than once an occasion of discord to 
 Switzerland — that offered to restore peace. 
 Every proceeding calculated to increase 
 ; ts influence among the cantons was of 
 service to its policy. On the 14th May, 
 Maigret and Dangertin (the latter of 
 whom had received the Gospel truth, and 
 consequently did not dare return to 
 France), - ! - after some allusions to the 
 spirit which Zurich had shown in this 
 affair — a spirit little in accordance with 
 the Gospel — said to the council : '" The 
 king our master has sent you two gentle- 
 men to consult on the means of preserv- 
 ing concord among you. If war and tu- 
 mult invade Switzerland, all the society 
 of the Helvetians will be destroyed.:): and 
 whichever party is the conqueror, he will 
 be as much ruined as the other." Zu- 
 rich having replied that if the Five Can- 
 tons would allow the free preaching of 
 the Word of God, the reconciliation would 
 be easy, the French secretly sounded the 
 
 * Trowtend auch die Straassen uff ?,u thun 
 mit gwalt. (Bull. ii. p. 397.) 
 
 t Ep. Rugeri ad Bulling., 12th November 
 1560. 
 
 X Universa societas Helvetiorum dilabetur, 
 si tumultus et bellum inter earn eruperit. 
 (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 604.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 819 
 
 Waldstettes, whose answer was: " We! course to war for maintaining liberty of 
 will never permit the preaching of the conscience in the common bailiwicks; 
 Word of God, as the people of Zurich but it was unjust — it was a usurpation, 
 
 to constrain the Five Cantons in amatter 
 
 understand it 
 
 These more or less interested exertions 
 of the foreigners having failed, a general 
 diet became the only chance of safety 
 that remained for Switzerland. One was 
 accordingly convoked at Bremgarten. 
 It was opened in presence of deputies 
 from France, from the Duke of Milan, 
 from the Countess of Neuchatel, from 
 the Grisons, Valais, Thurgovia, and the 
 district of Sargans ; and met on five dif- 
 ferent occasions, — on the 14th and 20th 
 June, on the 9th July, and the 10th and 
 23d August. The chronicler Bullinger, 
 who was pastor of Bremgarten, delivered 
 an oration at the opening, in which he 
 earnestly exhorted the Confederates to 
 union and peace. 
 
 A gleam of hope for a moment cheered 
 Switzerland. The blockade had become 
 less strict; friendship and good neigh- 
 bourhood had prevailed in many places 
 over the decrees of the state. Unusual 
 roads had been opened across the wildest 
 mountains to convey supplies to the Wald- 
 stettes. Provisions were concealed in bales 
 of merchandise ; and while Lucerne im- 
 prisoned and tortured its own citizens, 
 who were found with the books of the 
 Zurichers,f Berne punished but slightly 
 the peasants who had been discovered 
 bearing food for Unterwalden and Lu- 
 cerne ; and Glaris shut its eyes on the 
 frequent violation of its orders. The 
 voice of charity, that had been momen- 
 tarily stifled, pleaded with fresh energy, 
 the cause of their confederates before the 
 reformed cantons. 
 
 But the Five Cantons were inflexible. 
 " We will not listen to any proposition 
 before the raising of the blockade," said 
 they. " We will not raise it," replied 
 Berne and Zurich, " before th# Gospel is 
 allowed to be freely preached, not only 
 in the common bailiwicks, but also in the 
 Five Cantons." This was undoubtedly 
 going too far, even according to the 
 natural law and the principles of the 
 Confederation. The councils of Zurich 
 might consider it their duty to have re- 
 
 * Responderunt verbi Dei predicationem non 
 laturos, quomodo nos intelligamus. (Zw. Epp. 
 ii. p 007.) 
 
 t Bull. ii. p. 30. 
 
 104 
 
 that concerned their own territory. Ne- 
 vertheless the mediators succeeded, no), 
 without much trouble, in drawing up a 
 plan of conciliation that seemed to har- 
 monize with the wishes of both parties, 
 The conference was broken up, and this 
 project was hastily transmitted to the 
 different states for their ratification. 
 
 The diet met again a few days after ; 
 but the Five Cantons persisted in the it- 
 demand, without yielding in any one 
 point. In vain did Zurich and Berne 
 represent to them, that, by persecuting 
 the Reformed, the cantons violated the 
 treaty of peace ; in vain did the medi- 
 ators~exhaust their strength in warnings 
 and entreaties. The parties appeared at 
 one time to approximate, and then on a 
 sudden they were more distant and more 
 irritated than ever. The Waldstettes at 
 last brake up the third conference by de- 
 claring, that far from opposing the Evan- 
 gelical truth, they would maintain it, as 
 it had been taught by the Redeemer, by 
 his holy Apostles, by the Four Doctors, 
 and by their holy mother, the Church — a 
 declaration that seemed a bitter irony to 
 the deputies from Zurich and Berne. 
 Nevertheless Berne, turning towards Zu- 
 rich as they were separating, observed : 
 " Beware of too much violence, even 
 should they attack you !" 
 
 This exhortation was unnecessary. 
 The strength of Zurich had passed away. 
 The first appearance of the Reformation 
 and of the Reformers had been greeted 
 with joy. The people, who groaned 
 under a twofold slavery, believed they 
 saw the dawn of libery. But their minds, 
 abandoned for ages to superstition and 
 ignorance, being unable immediately to 
 realize the hopes they had conceived, a 
 spirit of discontent soon spread among^ 
 the masses. The change by which 
 Zwingle, ceasing to be a man of the 
 Gospel, became the man of the State, 
 took away from the people the enthu- 
 siasm necessary to resist the terrible 
 attacks they would have to sustain. 
 The enemies of the Reform had a fair 
 chance against it, so soon as its friends 
 abandoned the position that gave them 
 strength. Besides, Christians could not 
 
820 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 have recourse to famine and to war to 
 secure the triumph of the Gospel, with- 
 out their consiences becoming troubled. 
 The Zurichers " walked not in the Spirit, 
 but in the fesh ; now, the works of the 
 fiesh are hatred, variance, emulations, 
 wrath, strife, seditions."* The danger 
 without was increasing, while within, 
 hope, agreement, and courage were far 
 from being augmented : men saw on the 
 contrary the gradual disappearance of that 
 harmony and lively faith which had been 
 the strength of the Reform. The Refor- 
 mation hud grasped the sword, and that 
 very sword pierced its heart. 
 
 Occasions of discord were multiplied 
 in Zurich. By the advice of Zwingle, 
 the number of nobles Avas diminished in 
 the two councils, because of their opposi- 
 tion to the Gospel ; and this measure 
 spread discontent among the most hon- 
 ourable families of the canton. The 
 millers and bakers were placed under 
 certain regulations, which the dearth 
 rendered necessary, and a great part of 
 the townspeople attributed this proceed- 
 ing to the sermons of the Reformer, and 
 became irritated against him. Rodolph 
 Lavater, bailiffof Kibourg, was appointed 
 captain-general, and the officers who 
 were of longer standing than he were 
 offended. Many who had been formerly 
 the most distinguished by their zeal for 
 the Reform, now openly opposed the 
 cause they had supported. The ardour 
 with which the ministers of peace de- 
 manded war, spread in every quarter a 
 smothered dissatisfaction, and many per- 
 sons gave vent to their indignation. This 
 unnatural confusion of Churcli and State 
 which had corrupted Christianity after 
 the age of Constantine, was hurrying 
 on the ruin of the Reformation. The 
 majority of the Great Council, ever 
 ready to adopt important and salutary 
 resolutions, was abolished. The old 
 .magistrates, who were still at the head 
 of affairs, allowed themselves to be car- 
 ried away by feelings of jealousy against 
 men whose non-official influence pre- 
 vailed over theirs. All those who hated 
 the doctrine of the Gospel, whether from 
 love of the world or from love to the 
 Pope, boldly raised their heads in Zurich. 
 The partisans of the monks, the friends 
 
 * Galatians, v. 19, 20. 
 
 of foreign service, the malcontents of 
 every class, coalesced in pointing out 
 Zwingle as the author of all the suffer- 
 ings of the people. 
 
 Zwingle was heart-broken. He saw 
 that Zurich and the Reformation were 
 hastening to their ruin, and he could not 
 check them. How could he do so, since, 
 without suspecting it, he had been the 
 principal accomplice in these disasters ? 
 What was to be done % Shall the pilot 
 remain in the ship which he is no longer 
 permitted to save ? There was but one 
 means of safety for Zurich and for 
 Zwingle. He should have retired from 
 the political stage, and fallen back on 
 that kingdom, tvhich is not of this world ; 
 he should, like Moses, have kept his 
 hands and his heart night and day 
 raised towards heaven, and energetically 
 preached repentance, faith, and peace. 
 But religious and political matters were 
 united in the mind of this great man by 
 such old and dear ties, that it was im- 
 possible for him to distinguish their line 
 of separation. This confusion had be- 
 come his dominant idea ; the Christian 
 and the citizen were for him one and 
 the same character ; and hence it re- 
 sulted, that all resources of the state — 
 even cannons and arquebuses — were to 
 be placed at the service of the Truth. 
 When one peculiar idea thus seizes upon 
 a man, we see a false conscience formed 
 within him, which approves of many 
 things condemned by the Word of God. 
 
 This was now Zwingle's condition. 
 War appeared to him legitimate and 
 desirable ; and if that was refused, he 
 had only to withdraw from public ,-$fe : 
 he was for everything or nothing. He 
 therefore, on the 26th July, appeared be- 
 fore the Great Council, with dimmed eyes 
 and disconsolate heart : " It is now eleven 
 years," said he, "since I have been 
 preaching the Gospel among you, and 
 that I have warned you faithfully and 
 paternally of the woes that are hanging 
 over you ; but no attention is paid to my 
 words ; the friends of foreign alliances, 
 the enemies of the Gospel, are elected 
 to the council, and while you refuse to 
 follow my advice, 1 am made responsi- 
 ble for every misfortune. I cannot ac- 
 cept such a position, and I ask for my 
 dismissal." The reformer retired bathed 
 in tears. 
 
SWITZERLAND -CATASTROPHK. 
 
 821 
 
 The council shuddered as they heard 
 these words. All the old feelings of 
 respect which they had so long enter- 
 tained for Zwingle were revived ; to lose 
 him now was to ruin Zurich. The burgo- 
 master and the other magistrates received 
 orders to persuade him to recall his fatal 
 resolution. The conference took place 
 on the same day ; Zwingle asked time 
 for consideration. For three clays and 
 three nights he sought the road that he 
 should follow. Seeing the dark storm 
 that was collecting from all quarters, he 
 considered whether he ought to quit Zu- 
 rich and seek refuge on the lofty hills 
 of the Tockenburg, where he had been 
 reared, when his country and his Church 
 were on the point of being assailed and 
 beaten down by their enemies, like corn 
 by the hailstorm. He groaned arid cried 
 to the Lord. He would have put away 
 the cup of bitterness that was presented 
 to his soul, but could not gather up the 
 resolution. At length the sacrifice was 
 accomplished, and the victim was placed 
 shuddering upon the altar. Three days 
 after the first conference, Zwingle re- 
 appeared in the council : " I will stay 
 with you," said he, " and I will labour 
 for the public safety — until death !" 
 
 From this moment he displayed new 
 zeal. On the one hand, he endeavoured 
 to revive harmony and courage in Zu- 
 rich ; on the other, he set about arousing 
 and exciting the allied cities to increase 
 and concentrate all the forces of the Re- 
 formation. Faithful to the political cha- 
 racter he imagined he had received from 
 God himself — persuaded that it was in 
 the doubts and want of energy of the 
 Bernese that he must look for the cause 
 of all the evil, the Reformer repaired to 
 Bremgarten with Collin and Steiner, du- 
 ring the fourth conference of the diet, 
 although he incurred great danger in the 
 attempt. He arrived secretly by night, 
 and having entered the house of his 
 friend and disciple, Bullinger, he invited 
 the deputies of Berne (J.J. de Watteville 
 and Jur Hag) to meet him there with the 
 greatest secresy, and prayed them in the 
 most solemn tone earnestly to reflect up- 
 on the dangers of the Reform. " I fear," 
 said he, " that in consequence of our un- 
 belief, this business will not succeed. By 
 refusing supplies to the Five Cantons, we 
 have begun a work that will be fatal to 
 
 us. What is to be done? Withdraw 
 the prohibition ? The cantons will thou 
 be more insolenl and haughty than ever. 
 Enforce it? They will take the offensive, 
 
 and if their attack succeed, you will he- 
 hold our fields red with the blood of the 
 believers, the doctrine of truth casl down, 
 the Church of Christ laid waste, all so- 
 cial relations overthrown, our adversaries 
 more hardened and irritated against the 
 Gospel, and crowds of priests and monks 
 again fill our rural districts, streets, and 
 temples And yet," added Zwin- 
 gle, after a few instant.-; of emotion and 
 silence. " that also will have an end." 
 The Bernese were filled with agitation 
 by the solemn voice of the reformer. 
 " We see," replied they, " all that is to 
 be feared for our common cause, and we 
 will employ -every care to prevent such 
 great disasters." — "I who write these 
 things was present and heard them," adds 
 Bullinger.* 
 
 It was feared that if the presence of 
 Zwingle at Bremgarten became known 
 to the deputies of the Five Cantons, they 
 would not restrain their violence. Du- 
 ring this nocturnal conference three of 
 the town-councillors were stationed as 
 sentinels in front of Bullinger's house. 
 Before daybreak, the reformer and his 
 two friends, accompanied by Bullinger 
 and the three councillors, passed through 
 the deserted streets leading to the gate 
 on the road to Zurich. Three different 
 times Zwingle took leave of Bullinger, 
 who was erelong to be his successor. 
 His mind was filled with a presentiment 
 of his approaching death ; he could not 
 tear himself from that young friend whose 
 face he was never to see again ; he 
 blessed him amidst floods of tears. " O 
 my dear Henry !" said he, " may God 
 protect you ! Be faithful to our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and to his Church !" At 
 length they separated ; but at that very 
 moment, says Bullinger, a mysterious 
 personage, clad hi a robe as white as 
 snow, suddenly appeared, and after fright- 
 ening the soldiers who guarded the gate, 
 plunged suddenly into the water, and 
 vanished. Bullinger, Zwingle, and their 
 friends did not perceive it ; Bullinger 
 himself sought for it all around, but to 
 
 * These words are in Latin : Haec ipse, qui 
 hsc scribo, ab illis audivi, praesens colloquio. 
 (Bull. ii. p. 49 ) 
 
822 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 no purpose ;* still the sentinels persisted 
 in the reality of this frightful apparition. 
 Bullinger in great agitation returned in 
 darkness and in silence to his house. 
 His mind involuntarily compared the de- 
 parture of Zwingle and the white phan- 
 tom ; and he shuddered at the frightful 
 omen which the thought of this spectre 
 impressed upon his mind. 
 
 Sufferings of another kind pu 
 Zwingle to Zurich. He had thought that 
 by consenting to remain at the head of 
 affairs, he would recover all his ancient 
 influence. But he was deceived : the 
 people desired to see him there, and yet 
 they would not follow him. The Zu- 
 richers daily became more and more in- 
 disposed towards the war which they had 
 at first demanded, and identified them- 
 selves with the passive system of Berne. 
 Zwingle remained for some time stupe- 
 fied and motionless before this inert mass, 
 which his most vigorous exertions could 
 not move. But soon discovering in every 
 quarter of the horizon the prophetic signs, 
 precursors of the storm about to burst 
 upon the ship of which he was the pilot, 
 he uttered cries of anguish, and showed 
 the signal of distress. " I see," exclaim- 
 ed he one day to the people from the 
 pulpit, whither he had gone to give utter- 
 ance to his gloomy forebodings, — " I see 
 that the most faithful warnings cannot 
 save you : you will not punish the pen- 
 sioners of the foreigner They 
 
 have too firm a support among us ! A 
 chain is prepared — behold it entire — it 
 unrolls link after link, — soon they will 
 bind me to it, and more than one pious 
 
 Zuricher with me It is against 
 
 me they are enraged ! I am ready ; I 
 submit to the Lord's will. But these 
 
 people shall never be my masters 
 
 As for thee, O Zurich, they will give 
 thee thy reward ; they will strike thee 
 on the head. Thou wiliest it. Thou 
 refusest to punish them ; well ! it is they 
 who will punish thee.f But God will 
 not the less preserve his Word, and their 
 haughtiness shall come to an end." Such 
 was Zwingle's cry of agony ; but the 
 immobility of death alone replied. The 
 
 * Ein menschen ineinschneeweissen Kleid. 
 (Bull. ii. p. 49.) 
 
 t Straal'en willt sy nitt, des werden sy dich 
 straafen. (Bull. ii. p. 52.) 
 
 hearts of the Zurichers were so hardened 
 that the sharpest arrows of the reformer 
 could not pierce them, and they fell at his 
 feet blunted and useless. 
 
 But events were pressing on, and jus- 
 tified all his fears. The Five Cantons 
 had rejected every proposition that had 
 been made to them. " Why do you talk 
 of punishing a few wrongs ?" they had 
 replied to the mediators ; " it is a ques- 
 tion of quite another kind. Do you not 
 require that we should receive back 
 among us the heretics whom we have 
 banished, and tolerate no other priests 
 than those who preach conformably to 
 the Word of God ? We know what 
 that means. No — no — we will not 
 abandon the religion of our fathers ; and 
 if we must see our wives and our chil- 
 dren deprived of food, our hands will 
 know how to conquer what is refused to 
 us : to that we pledge our bodies — our 
 goods — our lives." It was with this 
 threatening language that the deputies 
 quitted the Diet of Bremgarten. They 
 had proudly shaken the folds of their 
 mantles, war had fallen from them. 
 
 The terror was general, and the 
 alarmed citizens beheld everywhere 
 frightful portents, terrific signs, appar- 
 ently foreboding the most horrible events. 
 It was not only the white phantom that 
 had appeared at Bremgarten at Zwingle's 
 side : the most fearful omens, passing 
 from mouth to mouth, filled the people 
 with the most gloomy presentiments. 
 The history of these phenomena, how- 
 ever strange it may appear, characterizes 
 the period of which we write. 
 
 On the 26th July, a widow chancing 
 to be alone before her house in the village 
 of Castelenschloss, suddenly beheld a 
 frightful spectacle — blood springing from 
 the earth all around her!* She rushed 
 
 in alarm into the cottage but, oh 
 
 horrible ! blood is flowing everywhere — 
 from the wainscot and from the stones ;f 
 — it falls in a stream from a basin on a 
 shelf, and even the child's cradle over- 
 flows with it. The woman imagines that 
 the invisible hand of an assassin has 
 been at work, and rushes in distraction 
 
 * Ante et post earn puvns sanguis ita acritev 
 ex dura terra effluxit, ut ex vena incisa. (Zvv. 
 Epp. ii. p. G27.) 
 
 t Sed etiam sanguis ex terra, lignis, et lapi- 
 dibus effluxit. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 627.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 823 
 
 out of doors, crying murder ! murder!* 
 The villagers and the monks of a neigh- 
 bouring convent assemble at the cry — 
 they succeed in partly effacing the 
 bloody stains ; but a little later in the 
 day, the other inhabitants of the house, 
 sitting down in terror to eat their even- 
 ing meal under the projecting ea^-es, 
 suddenly discover blood bubbling up in 
 a pond — blood flowing from the loft — 
 blood covering all the walls of the house. 
 Blood — blood — everywhere blood ! The 
 bailiff of Schenkenberg and the pastor 
 of Dalheim arrive — inquire into the mat- 
 ter — and immediately report it to the 
 lords of Berne and to Zwingle. 
 
 Scarcely had this horrible recital — 
 the particulars of which are faithfully 
 preserved in Latin and in German — 
 filled all minds with the idea of a horri- 
 ble butchery, than in the western quar- 
 ter of the heavens there appeared a 
 frightful comet,f whose immense train 
 of a pale yellow colour turned towards 
 the south. At the time of its setting, 
 this apparition shone in the sky like the 
 fire of a furnace.:): One night — on the 
 15th August as it would appear^ — Zwin- 
 gle and George Muhler, formerly abbot 
 of Wettingen, being together in the 
 cemetery of the cathedral, both fixed their 
 eyes upon this terrific meteor. " This 
 ominous* globe," said Zwingle, " is come 
 to light the path ( that leads to my grave. 
 It will be at. the cost of my life and of 
 many good men with me. Although I 
 am rather shortsighted, I foresee great 
 calamities in the future. || The Truth 
 and the Church will mourn ; but Christ 
 will never abandon us." It was not 
 only at Zurich that this flaming star 
 
 * Ut eadem excurrerct ciedem clamitans. 
 (Zw. Ep. ii. p. 627.) 
 
 f Ein gar eschrocklicher comet. (Bull. ii. 
 p. 4(5.) It was Halley's comet, that returns 
 about every 7G vears. It appeared last in 
 1835. 
 
 \ Wie ein fhuwr in einer ess. (Ibid.) Per- 
 haps Bollinger alludes in this way to the phe- 
 nomenon remarked by Appian, astronomer to 
 Charles V., who observed this comet at In- 
 goldstadt, and who says that the tail disap- 
 peared as the nucleus approached the hori- 
 zon. In 1456, its appearance had already ex- 
 cited great terror. 
 
 § Cometam jam tribus noctibus viderunt 
 apud nos alii, ego una tantum, puto 15 Au- 
 gust!. (Zw. Epp. p. 634.) 
 
 || Ego cseculus non unam calamitatem ex- 
 pecto. (Ibid. p. 626.) 
 
 spread consternation. Vadianus being 
 one night on an eminence in the neigh- 
 bourhood of St. Gall, surrounded by his 
 friends and disciples, after having ex- 
 plained to them the names of the stars 
 and the miracles of the Creator, stopped 
 before this comet, which denounced the 
 anger of God ; and the famous Theo- 
 phrasius declared thai it foreboded not 
 only great bloodshed, but most especially 
 the death of learned and illustrious men. 
 This mysterious phenomenon prolonged 
 its frightful visitation until the 3d Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 When once the noise of these omens 
 was spread abroad, men could no longer 
 contain themselves. Their imaginations 
 were excited ; they heaped fright upon 
 fright : each place had its terrors. Two 
 banners waving in the clouds had been 
 seen on the mountain of the Brunig ; at 
 Zug a buckler had appeared in the hea- 
 vens ; on the banks of the Reuss, re- 
 iterated explosions were heard during 
 the night ; on the lake of the Four Can- 
 tons, ships carrying aerial combatants 
 cruised about in every direction. War 
 — war ; — blood — blood ! — these were the 
 general cries. 
 
 In the midst of all this agitation, 
 Zwingle alone seemed tranquil. H^ 
 rejected none of these presentiments, but 
 he contemplated them with calmness". 
 " A heart that fears God," said he, " cares 
 not for the threats of the world. To 
 forward the designs of God, whatever 
 may happen, — this is his task. A car- 
 rier who has a long road to go must 
 make up his mind to wear his waggon 
 and his gear during the journey. If he 
 carry his merchandise to the appointed 
 spot, that is enough for him. We are 
 the waggon and the gear of God. There 
 is not one of the articles that is not worn, 
 twisted, or broken; but our great Driver 
 will not the less accomplish by our means 
 his vast designs. Is it not to those who 
 fall upon the field of battle that the no- 
 blest crown belongs ? Take courage, 
 then, in the midst of all these dangers, 
 through which the cause of Jesus Christ 
 must pass. Be of good cheer ! although 
 we should never here below see its 
 triumphs with our own eyes. The 
 Judge of the combat beholds us, and it is 
 he who confers the crown. Others will 
 enjoy upon earth the fruits of our labours; 
 
824 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 while we, already in heaven, shall enjoy 
 an eternal reward."* 
 
 Thus spoke Zwingle, as he advanced 
 calmly towards the threatening noise of 
 the tempest, which, by its repeated 
 flashes and sudden explosions, foreboded 
 death. 
 
 VI. The Five Cantons, assembled in 
 diet at Lucerne, appeared full of deter- 
 mination, and war was decided upon. 
 " We will call upon the cities to respect 
 our alliances," said they, " and if they 
 refuse, we will enter the common baili- 
 wicks by force to procure provisions, and 
 we will unite our banners in Zug to 
 attack the enemy." The Waldstettes 
 were not alone. The Nuncio, being 
 solicited by his Lucerne friends, had re 
 quired that auxiliary troops, paid by the 
 Pope, should be put in motion towards 
 Switzerland, and he announced their near 
 arrival. 
 
 These resolutions carried terror into 
 Switzerland ; the mediating cantons met 
 again at Arau, and drew up a plan that 
 should leave the religious question just 
 as it had been settled by the treaty of 
 1529. Deputies immediately bore these 
 propositions to the different councils 
 Lucerne haughtily rejected them. " Tell 
 tnose who sent you," was the reply 
 " that we do not acknowledge them as 
 our schoolmasters. We would rather 
 die than yield the least thing to the pre- 
 judice of our faith." The mediators 
 returned to Arau, trembling and discour- 
 aged. This useless attempt increased 
 the disagreement among the Reformed, 
 and gave the Waldstettes still greater 
 confidence. Zurich, so decided for the 
 reception of the Gospel, now became 
 daily more irresolute ! The mem- 
 bers of the council distrusted each 
 other ; the people felt no interest in this 
 war ; and Zwingle, notwithstanding his 
 unshaken faith in the justice of his cause, 
 had no hope for the struggle that was 
 about to take place. Berne, on its side, 
 did not cease to entreat Zurich to avoid 
 precipitation. " Do not let us expose 
 ourselves to the reproach of too much 
 haste, as in 1529," was the general 
 remark in Zurich. " We have sure 
 
 * Zw. Opp. Comment, in Jeremiam. This 
 work was composed the very year of Zwingle's 
 death. 
 
 friends in the midst of the Waldstettes ; 
 let us wait until they announce to us, 
 as they have promised, some real danger." 
 
 It was soon believed that these tempo- 
 rizers were right. In fact the alarming 
 news ceased. That constant rumour of 
 war, which incessantly came from the 
 Waldstettes, discontinued. There were 
 no more alarms — no more fears ! Deceit- 
 ful omen ! Over the mountains and 
 valleys of Switzerland hangs that gloomy 
 and mysterious silence, the forerunner of 
 the tempest. 
 
 Whilst they were sleeping at Zurich, 
 the Waldstettes were preparing to con- 
 quer their rights by force of arms. The 
 chiefs, closely united to each other by 
 common interests and dangers, found a 
 powerful support in the indignation of the 
 people. In a diet of the Five Cantons, 
 held at Brunnen on the banks of the 
 Lake of Lucerne, opposite Grutli, the 
 alliances of the Confederation were read ; 
 and the deputies, having been summoned 
 to declare by their votes whether they 
 thought the war just and lawful, all 
 hands were raised with a shudder. Im- 
 mediately the Waldstettes had prepared 
 their attack with the profoundest mystery. 
 All the passes had been guarded — all 
 communication between Zurich and the 
 Five Cantons had been rendered impos-' 
 sible. The friends upon wlfom the 
 Zurichers had reckoned on the banks of 
 the Lakes Lucerne and Zug, and who 
 had promised them intelligence, were 
 like prisoners in their mountains. The 
 terrible avalanche was about to slip from 
 the icy summits of the mountain, and to 
 roll into the valleys, even to the gates of 
 Zurich, overthrowing everything in its 
 passage, without the least forewarning of 
 its fall. The mediators had returned 
 discouraged to their cantons. A spirit 
 of imprudence and of error — sad fore- 
 runner of the fall of republics as well as 
 of kings — had spread over the whole city 
 of Zurich. The council had at first 
 given the order to call out the militia ; 
 then, deceived by the silence of the 
 Waldstettes, it had imprudently revoked 
 the decree, and Lavater, the commander 
 of the army, had retired in discontent to 
 Rybourg, and indignantly thrown far 
 from him that sword which they had 
 commanded him to leave in the scabbard. 
 Thus the winds were about to be un- 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 825 
 
 chained from the mountains ; the waters (name of the Fivf Cantons, letters of per- 
 of the great deep, aroused by a terrible petual alliance.* The majority saw in 
 
 this step nothing but a trick ; bul Zwingle 
 
 earthquake, were about to open ; and 
 yet the vessel of the state, sadly aban- 
 doned, sported up and down with indiffer 
 ence over the frightful gulf, — its yards 
 struck, its sails loose and motionless — 
 without compass or crew — without pilot, 
 watch, or helm. 
 
 Whatever were the exertions of the 
 Waldstettes, they could not entirely 
 stifle the rumour of war, which from 
 chalet to chalet called all their citizens 
 to arms. God permits a cry of alarm — 
 a single one, it is true — to resound in the 
 ears of the people of Zurich. On the 
 4th October, a little boy, who knew not 
 what he was doing, succeeded in cross- 
 ing the frontier of Zug, and presented 
 himself with two loaves at the gate of 
 the reformed monastery of Cappel, situ- 
 ated in the farthest limits of the canton 
 of Zurich. He was led to the abbot, to 
 whom the child gave the loaves without 
 saying a word. The superior, with 
 whom there chanced to be at this time a 
 councillor from Zurich, Henry Peyer, 
 sent by his government, turned pale at 
 the sight. " If the Five Cantons intend 
 entering by force of arms into the free 
 bailiwicks," had said these two Zurichers 
 to one of their friends in Zug, " you will 
 send your son to us with one loaf; but 
 you will give him two if they are march- 
 ing at once upon the bailiwicks and upon 
 Zurich." The abbot and the councillor 
 wrote with all speed to Zurich. " Be 
 upon your guard ! take up arms," said 
 they ; but no credit was attached to this 
 information. The council were at that 
 time occupied in taking measures to pre- 
 vent the supplies that had arrived from 
 Alsace from entering the cantons. 
 Zwingle himself, who had never ceased 
 to announce war, did not believe it. 
 " These pensioners are really clever 
 fellows," said the reformer. " Their 
 preparations may be after all nothing 
 but a French manoeuvre.* 
 
 He was deceived — they were a reality. 
 Four days were to accomplish the ruin 
 of Zurich. Let us retrace in succession 
 the history of these disastrous moments. 
 
 On Sunday, 8th October, a messenger 
 appeared at Zurich, and demanded, in the 
 
 * Dise ire Rustung mochte woll eine fran- 
 sjasische prattik sein. (Bull. ii. p. 86 ) 
 
 began to discern the thunderbolt in the 
 black cloud that was drawing near. He 
 was in the pulpit: if was the last time he 
 was destined to appear in it ; and as if he 
 iiad scon a formidable spectre of Rome 
 rise frightfully above the ^.lps, calling 
 upon him and upon bis people to abandon 
 the faith : — "No, no!" cried he, "never 
 will I deny my Redeemer ! ,: 
 
 At the same moment a messenger ar- 
 rived in haste from Mulincn, commander 
 of the Knights-hospitallers of St. John at 
 Hitzkylch. " On Friday, 6th October," 
 said he to the councils of Zurich, " the 
 people of Lucerne planted their banner 
 in the Great Square. f Two men that I 
 sent to Lucerne have been thrown into 
 prison. To-morrow morning, Monday, 
 9th October, the Five Cantons will enter 
 the bailiwicks. Already the country- 
 people, frightened and fugitive, are run- 
 ning to us in crowds." — " It is an idle 
 story," said the councils.:): Nevertheless 
 they recalled the commander-in-chief 
 Lavater, who sent off a trusty man, ne- 
 phew of James Winckler, with orders 
 to repair to Cappel, and if possible as far 
 as Zug, to reconnoitre the arrangements 
 of the cantons. 
 
 The Waldstettes were in reality as- 
 sembling round the banner of Lucerne. 
 The people of this canton ; the men of 
 Schwytz, Uri, Zug, and Unterwalden ; 
 refugees from Zurich and Berne, with a 
 few Italians, formed the main body of the 
 army, which had been raised to invade 
 the free bailiwicks. Two manifestoes 
 were published — one addressed to the 
 cantons, the other to foreign princes and 
 nations. 
 
 The Five Cantons energetically set 
 forth the attacks made upon the treaties, 
 the discord sown throughout the Confe- 
 deration, and finally the. refusal to sell 
 them provisions — a refusal whose only 
 aim was (according to them) to excite 
 the people against the magistrates, and to 
 establish the Reform by force. " It is 
 
 * Die ewige Bund abgefordert. (J. J. Hot- 
 tinger, ii i - p. 577.) According to Bullinger, 
 this did not take place until Monday. 
 
 f Ire paner in den Brunnen gesteckt. (Bull, 
 ii. p. 86.) 
 
 J Ein gepoch und progcrey und unt darauff 
 setzend. (Ibid.) 
 
826 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 not true," added they, ."that — as they 
 cease not to cry out — we oppose the 
 preaching of the truth and the reading 
 of the Bible. As obedient members gj" 
 the Church, we desire to receive all that 
 our holy mother receives. But we re- 
 ject all the books and the innovations of 
 Zwingle and his companions."* 
 
 Hardly had the messengers charged 
 with these manifestoes departed before 
 the first division of the army began to 
 march, and arrived in the evening in the 
 free bailiwicks. The soldiers having 
 entered the deserted churches, and hav- 
 ing seen the images of the saints removed 
 and the altars broken, their anger was 
 kindled ; they spread like a torrent over 
 the Vhole country, pillaged everything 
 they met with, and were particularly en- 
 raged against the houses of the pastors, 
 where they destroyed the furniture with 
 oaths and maledictions. At the same 
 time the division that was to form the 
 main army marched upon Zug, thence to 
 move upon Zurich. 
 
 Cappel, at three leagues from Zurich, 
 and about a league from Zug, was the 
 first place they would reach in the Zu- 
 rich territory, after crossing the frontier, 
 of the Five Cantons. Near the Albis, 
 between two hills of similar height, the 
 Granges on the north, and the Ifclsberg 
 on the south, in the midst of delightful 
 pastures, stood the ancient and wealthy 
 convent of the Cistertians, in whose 
 church were the tombs of many ancient 
 and noble families of these districts. The 
 Abbot Wolfgang Joner, a just and pious 
 man, a great friend of the arts and let- 
 ters, and. a distinguished preacher, had 
 reformed his convent in 1527. Full of 
 compassion, rich in good works, particu- 
 larly towards the poor of the canton of 
 Zug and the free bailiwicks, he was held 
 in great honour throughout the whole 
 country. -j- He predicted what would be 
 the termination of the war ; yet as soon 
 as danger approached, he spared no la- 
 bour to serve his country. 
 
 It was on Sunday night that the abbot 
 received positive intelligence of the pre- 
 parations at Zug. He paced up and down 
 
 * AIs wir vertruwen Gott und der Welt 
 antwurt zu geben. (Bull, ii p. 101.) 
 
 t That armen liiten vil guts und by 
 
 aller Erbarkeit in grossern ansahen. (Bull. 
 iii. p. 151.) 
 
 his cell with hasty steps ; sleep fled from 
 his eyes ; he drew near his lamp, and 
 addressing his intimate friend, __ Peter 
 Simmler, who succeeded him, and who 
 was then residing at Kylchberg, a village 
 on the borders of the lake, atid about a 
 league from the town, he hastily wrote 
 these words : " The great anxiety and 
 trouble which agitate me prevent me 
 from busying myself with the manage- 
 ment of the house, and induce me to 
 write to you all that is preparing. The 
 
 time is come the scourge of God 
 
 appears.* After many journeys 
 
 and inquiries, we have learnt that the 
 FiveCantons will march to-day (Monday) 
 to seize upon Hitzkylch, while the main 
 army assembles its banners at Baar, be- 
 tween Zug and Cappel. Those from 
 the valley of the Adige and the Italians 
 will arrive to-day or to-morrow." This 
 letter, through some unforeseen circum- 
 stance, did not reach Zurich till the 
 evening. 
 
 Meanwhile the messenger whom La- 
 vater had sent — the nephew of J. Winck- 
 ler — creeping on his belly, gliding un- 
 perceived past the sentinels, and clinging 
 to the shrubs that overhung the preci- 
 pices, had succeeded in making his way 
 where no road had been cleared. On 
 arriving near Zug, he had discovered 
 with alarm the banner and the militia 
 hastening from all sides at beat of drum : 
 then traversing again these unknown 
 •passes, he had returned to Zurich with 
 this information. f 
 
 It was high time that the bandage 
 should fall from the eyes of the Zurich- 
 ers ; but the delusion Was to endure to 
 the last. The council which was called 
 together met in small number. " The 
 Five Cantons," said they, " are making 
 a little noise to frighten us, and to make 
 us raise the blockade.":}: The council, 
 however, decided on sending Colonel 
 Rodolph Dumysen and Ulric Funk to 
 Cappel, to see what was going on ; and 
 each one, tranquillized by this unmean- 
 ing step, retired to rest. 
 
 They did not slumber long. Every 
 
 * Die Zyt ist hie, das die nit gottes sich vvil 
 erzeigen. (Bull. p. S7.) 
 
 f Naben den Wachten, durch umwag und 
 gestrupp. (Bull. iii. p. 37.) 
 
 X Sy machtend alein ein geprog. (Ibid, p 
 103.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 827 
 
 hour brought fresh messengers of alarm 
 to Zurich. " The banners of four can- 
 tons are assembled at Zug," said they. 
 " They are only waiting for Uri. The 
 people of the free bailiwicks are flock- 
 ing to Cappel, and demanding arms. 
 Help ! help !" 
 
 Before the break of day the council 
 was again assembled, and it ordered the 
 convocation of the Two Hundred. An 
 old man, whose hair had grown gray on 
 the battle-field and in the council of the 
 state — the banneret John Schweizer — 
 raising his head enfeebled by age, and 
 darting the last beam, as it were, from 
 his eyes, exclaimed, " Now — at this 
 very moment, in God's name, send 
 an advanced guard to Cappel, and let the 
 army, promptly collecting round the 
 banner, follow it immediately." He 
 said no more ; but the charm was not 
 yet broken. " The peasants of the free 
 bailiwicks,'"' said some, " we know to be 
 hasty, and easily carried away. They 
 make the matter greater than it really 
 is. The wisest plan is to wait for the 
 report of the councillors." In Zurich 
 there was no longer either arm to defend 
 or head to advise. 
 
 It was seven in the morning, and the 
 assembly was still sitting, when Ro- 
 dolph Gwerb, pastor of Rifferschwyl. 
 near Cappel, arrived in haste. " The 
 people of the lordship of Knonau," said 
 he, " are crowding round the convent, j 
 and loudly calling for chiefs and for aid. i 
 The enemy is approaching. Will our' 
 lords of Zurich (say they) abandon 
 themselves, and us with them ? Do they 
 wish to give us up to slaughter ?" The 
 pastor, who had witnessed these mourn- 
 ful scenes, spoke with animation. The 
 councillors, whose infatuation was to be 
 prolonged to the end, were offended at 
 his message. " They want to make us 
 act imprudently," replied they, turning 
 in their arm-chairs. 
 
 They had scarcely ceased speaking 
 before a new messenger appears, wear- 
 ing on his features the marks of the 
 greatest terror : it was Schwyzer, land- 
 lord of the " Beech Tree" on Mount Al- 
 bis. " My lords Dumysen and Funck," 
 said he, " have sent me to you with all 
 speed to announce to the council that the 
 Five Cantons have seized upon Hytz- 
 kilch, and that they are now collecting 
 105 
 
 all their troops at Baar. My lords re. 
 main in the bailiwicks to aid the fright- 
 ened inhabitants." 
 
 This time the most confident turned 
 pale. Terror, so long restrained, passed 
 like a flash of lightning through every 
 heart.* Hytzkilch was in the power of 
 the enemy, and the war was begun. 
 
 It was resolved to expedite to Capprl 
 a flying camp of six hundred men with 
 six guns; but the command was intrust- 
 ed to George Goldli, whose brother was 
 in the army of the Five Cantons, and he 
 was enjoined to keep on the defensive 
 Goldli and his troops had just left tin- 
 city, when the captain-general Lavater, 
 summoning into the hall of the Smaller 
 Council the old banneret Schweizer, 
 William Toning, captain of the ajque- 
 busiers, J. Dennikon, captain of the ar- 
 tillery, Zwingle, and some others, said to 
 them, " Let us deliberate promptly on 
 the means of saving the canton and the 
 city. Let the tocsin immediately call 
 out all the citizens." The captain-ge- 
 neral feared that the councils would 
 shrink at this proceeding, and he wished 
 to raise the Landsturm by the simple 
 advice of the army and of Zwingle. 
 " We cannot take it upon ourselves," 
 said they, " the two councils are still 
 sitting ; let us lay this proposition before 
 them." They hasten towards the place 
 of meeting ; but, fatal mischance ! there 
 were only a few members of the Smaller 
 Council on the benches. " The consent 
 of the Two Hundred is necessary," said 
 they. Again a new delay, and the ene- 
 mv is on the march. Two hours after 
 noon the Great Council met again, but 
 only to make long and useless speeches. f 
 At length the resolution was taken, and 
 at seven in the evening the tocsin began 
 to sound in all the country districts. 
 Treason united with this dilatoriness, and 
 persons who pretended to be envoys from 
 Zurich stopped the Landsturm in many 
 places, as being contrary to the opinion 
 of the council. A great number of citi- 
 zens went to sleep again. 
 
 It was a fearful night. The thick 
 darkness — a violent storm — the alarm- 
 bell ringing from every steeple — the peo- 
 
 * Dieser Bottschaft erschrack menklich 
 iibel. (Bull. iii. p. 104.) 
 
 t Ward so vil und lang darim gerad schlagt 
 (Bull. iii. p. 104.) 
 
828 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 [>le running to arms — the noise of swords 
 and guns — the sound of trumpets and of 
 drums, combined with the roaring of the 
 tempest, the distrust, discontent, and even 
 treason, which spread affliction in every 
 quarter — the sobs of women and of chil- 
 dren — the cries which accompanied 
 many a heart-rending adieu — an earth- 
 quake which occurred about nine o'clock 
 at night, as if nature herself had shud- 
 dered at the blood that was about to be 
 spilt, and which violently shook the 
 mountains and valleys :* all increased 
 the terrors of this fatal night, — a night to 
 be followed by a still more fatal day. 
 
 While these events were transpiring, 
 the Zurichers encamped on the heights 
 of Cappel to the number of about one 
 thousand men, fixed their eyes on Zug 
 and upon the lake, attentively watching 
 every movement. On a sudden, a little 
 before night, they perceived a few barks 
 filled with soldiers coming from the side 
 of Arth, and rowing across the lake 
 towards Zug. Their number increases 
 — one boat follows another — soon they 
 distinctly hear the bellowing of the bull 
 (the horn) of Uri,f and they discern the 
 banner. The barks draw near Zug ; 
 they are moored to the shore, which is 
 lined with an immense crowd. The 
 warriors of Uri and the arquebusiers of 
 the Adige spring up and leap on shore, 
 where they are received with acclama- 
 tions, and take up their quarters for the 
 night : behold the enemies assembled ! 
 The council are informed with all speed. 
 
 The agitation was still greater at Zu- 
 rich than at Cappel : the confusion was 
 increased by uncertainty. The enemy 
 attacking them on different sides at once, 
 they knew not where to carry assistance. 
 Two hours after midnight five hundred 
 men with four guns quitted the city for 
 Bremgarten, and three or four hundred 
 men with five guns for Wadenshwyl. 
 They turned to the right and to the left, 
 while the enemy was in front. 
 
 Alarmed at its own weakness, the 
 council resolved to apply without delay 
 to the cities of the christian co-burghery. 
 " As this revolt," wrote they, " has no 
 
 * Ein startrer Erdbidem, der das Land, auch 
 Berg und Thai gwaltiglich ershutt. (Tschudi, 
 Helvetia, ii. p. 186.) 
 
 f Vil schiffen uff Zag faren, und hort man 
 luyen den Uri Stier. (Bull. iii. p. 109.) 
 
 other origin than the Word of God, we 
 entreat you once — twice — thrice, as loud- 
 ly, as seriously, as firmly, and as ear- 
 nestly, as our ancient alliances and our 
 christian co-burghery permit and com- 
 mand us to do — to set forth without de- 
 lay with all your forces. Haste ! haste ! 
 haste ! Act as promptly as possible* — 
 the danger is yours as well as ours." 
 Thus spake Zurich ; but it was already 
 too late. 
 
 At break of day the banner was raised 
 before the town-house ; instead of flaunt- 
 ing proudly in the wind, it hung droop- 
 ing down the staff — a sad omen that 
 filled many minds with fear. Lavater 
 took up his station under the standard ; 
 but a long period elapsed before a few 
 hundred soldiers could be got together."]" 
 In the square and in all the city disorder 
 and confusion prevailed. The troops, 
 fatigued by a hasty march or by long 
 waiting, were faint and discouraged. 
 
 At ten o'clock, only 700 men were 
 under arms. The selfish, the lukewarm, 
 the friends of Rome and of the foreign 
 pensioners, had remained at home. A 
 few old men who had more courage than 
 strength — several members of the two 
 councils who were devoted to the holy 
 cause of God's Word — many ministers 
 of the Church who desired to live and 
 die with the Reform — the boldest of the 
 townspeople and a certain number of 
 peasants, especially those from the neigh- 
 bourhood of the city — such were the de- 
 fenders who, wanting that moral force 
 so necessary for victory, incompletely 
 armed, without uniform, crowded in 
 disorder around the banner of Zurich. 
 
 The army should have numbered at 
 least 4000 men ; they waited still ; the 
 usual oath had not been administered ; 
 and yet courier after courier arrived, 
 breathless and in disorder, announcing 
 the terrible danger that threatened Zu- 
 rich. All this disorderly crowd is agi- 
 tated — they no longer wait for the com- 
 mands of their chiefs, and many without 
 taking the oath rush through the gates. 
 About 200 men thus set out in confu- 
 sion. All those who remained prepared 
 to depart. 
 
 * Ylentz, ylentz, ylentz, uffs aller schnellist. 
 (Bull. iii. p. 110.) 
 
 t Sammlet sich doch das volck gmachsam 
 (Ibid. p. 112.) 
 
SWITZERLAND-CATASTROPHE. 
 
 820 
 
 Then was Zvv ingle seen to issue from 
 a house before which a caparisoned 
 horse was stamping impatiently ; it was 
 his own. His look was firm, but dim- 
 med by sorrow. He parted from his 
 wife, his children, and his numerous 
 friends, without deceiving himself, and 
 with a bruised heart.* He observed the 
 thick waterspout, which, driven by a 
 terrible wind, advanced whirling towards 
 him. Alas ! he had himself called up 
 this hurricane by quitting the atmosphere 
 of the Gospel of peace, and throwing 
 himself into the midst of political pas- 
 sions. He was convinced that he would 
 be the first victim. Fifteen days before 
 the attack of the Waldstettes, he had 
 said from the pulpit : " I know what is 
 the meaning of all this : — it is all about 
 me. All this comes to pass — in order 
 that I may die."f The council, accord- 
 ing to an ancient custom, had called upon 
 him to accompany the army as its chap- 
 lain. Zwingle did not hesitate. He 
 prepared himself without surprise and 
 without anger, — with the calmness of a 
 Christian who placed himself confidently 
 in the hands of his God. If the cause 
 of Reform was doomed to perish, he was 
 ready to perish with it. Surrounded by 
 his weeping wife and friends — by his 
 children who clung to his garments to 
 detain him, he quitted that house where 
 he had tasted so much happiness. At 
 the moment that his hand was upon his 
 horse, just as he was about to mount, the 
 animal violently started back several 
 paces, and when he was at last in the 
 saddle, it refused for a time to move, 
 rearing and prancing backwards, like 
 that horse which the greatest captain of 
 modern times had mounted as he was 
 about to cross the Niemen. Many in 
 Zurich at that time thought with the sol- 
 dier of the Grand Army when he saw 
 Napoleon on the ground : " It is a bad 
 omen ! a Roman would go back !"j 
 Zwingle having at last mastered his 
 horse, gave the reins, applied the spur, 
 started forward, and disappeared. 
 
 At eleven o'clock the flag was struck, 
 
 * Anna Rheinhard par G. Meyr of Knonau. 
 (Bull. iii. p. 33.) 
 
 fUt ego tollar fiunt omnia. (De vita et 
 obitu Zwinglii, Myconius.) 
 
 % Segur : "Hist, de Napoleon et de la Grande 
 Armee, i. p. 142. 
 
 and all who remained in the square — 
 about 500 men — began their march 
 
 along with it. The greater pari were 
 torn with difficulty from the arms of 
 their families, and walked sad and silent, 
 as if they were going to the Bcaffold in- 
 stead of battle. There was no order — 
 no plan ; the men were isolated and 
 scattered, some running before, some 
 after the colours, their extreme confu- 
 sion presenting a fearful appearance ;* 
 so much so, that those who remained he- 
 hind — the women, the children, and the 
 old men, filled with gloomy forebodings, 
 beat their breasts as they saw them pass, 
 and many years after, the remembrance 
 of this day of tumult and mourning drew 
 this groan from Oswald Myconius : 
 " Whenever I recall it to mind, it is as 
 if a sword pierced my heart." Zwingle, 
 armed according to the usage of the 
 chaplains of the Confederation, rode 
 mournfully behind this distracted multi- 
 tude. Myconius, when he saw him, was 
 nigh fainting. f Zwingle disappeared, 
 and Oswald remained behind to weep. 
 
 He did not shed tears alone ; in all 
 quarters were heard lamentations, and 
 every house was changed into a house 
 of prayer.:}: In the midst of this univer- 
 sal sorrow, one woman remained silent ; 
 her only cry was a bitter heart, her only 
 language the mild and suppliant eye of 
 faith: — this was Anna, Zwingle's wife. 
 She had seen her husband depart — her 
 son, her brother, a great number of inti- 
 mate friends and near relations, whose 
 approaching death she foreboded. But 
 her soul, strong as that of her husband, 
 offered to God the sacrifice pf her holiest 
 affections. Gradually the defenders of 
 Zurich precipitate their march, and the 
 tumult dies away in the distance. 
 
 VII. This night, which was so stormy 
 in Zurich, had not been calmer at Cappel. 
 They had received the most alarming re- 
 ports one after another. It was necessa- 
 ry to take up a position that would allow 
 the troops assembled round the convent 
 
 * Nullus ordo, nulla consilia. nullae mentes, 
 tanta animorum dissonantia, tam horrenda fa- 
 des ante et post signa sparsim currentium 
 hominum. (De vita et ob. Zwinglii.) 
 
 f Quern ut vidi repentino dolore cordis vix 
 consistebam. (Ibid.) 
 
 X Manebamus non certe sine jugibus suspi- 
 riis, non sine precibus, ad Deum. (Ibid.) 
 
830 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to resist the enemy's attack until the ar-| stranger to whom our hands«have been 
 rival of the reinforcements that were ex- extended, and all the disorders in which 
 
 pected from the city. They cast their 
 eyes on a small hill, which lying to the 
 north towards Zurich, and traversed by 
 the highroad, presented an uneven but 
 sufficiently extensive surface. A deep 
 ditch that surrounded it on three sides 
 defended the approaches ; but a small 
 bridge, that was the only issue on the 
 side of Zurich, rendered a precipitate re- 
 treat very dangerous. On the south-west 
 was a wood of beech-trees ; on the south, 
 in the direction of Zug, was the high- 
 road and a marshy valley. " Lead us 
 to the Granges," cried all the soldiers. 
 They were conducted thither. The ar- 
 tillery was stationed near some ruins. 
 The line of battle was drawn up on the 
 side of the monastery and of Zug, and 
 sentinels were placed at the foot of the 
 slope. 
 
 Meantime, the signal is given at Zug 
 and Baar : the drums beat : the soldiers 
 of the Five Cantons take up their arms. 
 A universal feeling of joy animates them. 
 The churches are opened, the bells ring, 
 and the serried ranks of the cantons en- 
 ter the cathedral of St. Oswald ; Mass is 
 celebrated ; the Host is offered up for 
 the sins of the people, and all the army 
 begin their march at nine o'clock, with 
 banners flying. The avoyer John Golder 
 commands the contingent of Lucerne ; 
 the landamman Jacques Troguer, that 
 of Uri ; the landamman Rychmut, a 
 mortal enemy of the Reformation, that 
 of Schwytz; the landamman Zellger,that 
 of Unterwalden ; and Oswald Dooss that 
 of Zug. Eight thousand men march in 
 order of battle : all the picked men of 
 the Five Cantons are there. Fresh and 
 active after a quiet night, and having only 
 one short league to cross before reaching 
 the enemy, these haughty Waldstettes 
 advance with a firm and regular step 
 under the command of their chiefs. 
 
 On reaching the common meadow of 
 Zug, they halt to take the oath : every 
 hand is upraised to heaven, and all swear 
 to avenge themselves. They were about 
 to resume their march, when some aged 
 men made signs to them to stop. " Com- 
 rades," they said, " we have long offended 
 God. Our blasphemies, our oaths, our 
 wars, our revenge, our pride, our drunk- 
 enness, our adulteries, the gold of the 
 
 we have indulged, have so provoked his 
 anger, that if he should punish us to-day, 
 we should only receive the desert of our 
 crimes." The emotion of the chiefs had 
 passed into the ranks. All the army 
 bend the knee in the midst of the plain ; 
 deep silence prevails, and every soldier, 
 with bended head, crosses himself de- 
 voutly, and repeats in a low voice five 
 paters, as many aves, and the credo. One 
 might have said that they were for a time 
 in the midst of a vast and stilly desert. 
 Suddenly the noise of an immense crowd 
 is again heard. The army rises up. 
 " SoMiers," said the captains, "you know 
 the cause of this war. Bear your wives 
 and your children continually before 
 your eyes." 
 
 Then the chief usher [grand sautier) 
 of Lucerne, wearing the colours of the 
 canton, approaches the chiefs of the army: 
 they place in his hands the declaration 
 of war, dated on that very day, and 
 sealed with the arms of Zug. He then 
 sets off on horseback, preceded by a 
 trumpeter, to carry this paper to the 
 commander of the Zurichers. 
 
 It was eleven in the morning. The 
 Zurichers soon discovered the enemy's 
 army, and cast a sorrowful glance on the 
 small force they were able to oppose to 
 it. Every minute the danger increased. 
 All bent their knees, their eyes were 
 raised to heaven, and every Zuricher 
 uttered a cry from the bottom of his heart, 
 praying for deliverance from God. As 
 soon as the prayer was ended, they got 
 ready for battle. There were at that 
 time about twelve hundred men under 
 arms. 
 
 At noon the trumpet of the Five Can- 
 tons sounded not far from the advanced 
 posts. Goldli, having collected the mem- 
 bers of the two councils who happened 
 to be with the army, as well as the com- 
 missioned and non-commissioned officers, 
 and having ranged them in a circle, or- 
 dered the secretary Rheinhard to read 
 the declaration of which the Sautier of 
 Lucerne was the bearer. After the 
 reading, Goldli opened a council of war. 
 " We are few in number, and the forces 
 of our adversaries are great," said Lan- 
 dolt, bailiff of Marpac, " but I will here 
 await the enemy in the name of God." 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 831 
 
 "Wait!" cried the captain of the hal- 
 berdiers, Rodolph Zigler ; " impossible ! 
 let us rather take advantage of the ditch 
 that cuts the road to effect our retreat, 
 and let us everywhere raise a levee en 
 masse." This was in truth the only 
 means of safety. But Rudi Gallmann, 
 considering every step backwards as an 
 act of cowardice, cried out, stamping his 
 feet forcibly on the earth, and casting a 
 fiery glance around him, " Here — here 
 shall be my grave !"* — " It is now too 
 late to retire with honour," said other 
 officers. "This day is in the hands of 
 God. Let us suffer whatever he lays 
 upon us." It was put to the vote. 
 
 The members of the council had 
 scarcely raised their hands in token of 
 assent, when a great noise was heard 
 around them. " The captain ! the cap- 
 tain !" cried a soldier from the outposts 
 who arrived in haste. " Silence, silence !" 
 replied the ushers, driving him back ; 
 "they are holding a council!" — "It is 
 no longer time to hold a council," replied 
 the soldier. " Conduct me immediately 
 to the captain.". ..." Our sentinels are 
 falling back," cried he with an agitated 
 voice, as he arrived before Goldli. " The 
 enemy is there — they are advancing 
 through the forest with all their forces 
 and with great tumult." He had not 
 ceased speaking, before the sentinels, 
 who were in truth retiring on all sides, 
 ran up, and the army of the Five Can- 
 tons was soon seen climbing the slope of 
 Ifelsberg in face of the Granges, and 
 pointing their guns. The leaders of the 
 Waldstettes were examining the position, 
 and seeking to discover by what means 
 their army could reach that of Zurich. 
 The Zurichers were asking themselves 
 the same question. The nature of the 
 ground prevented the Waldstettes from 
 passing below the convent, but they could 
 arrive by another quarter. Ulric B ai- 
 der, under bailiff of Husen in the canton 
 of Zurich, fixed his anxious look on the 
 beech-wood. " It is thence that the 
 enemy will fall upon us !" " Axes — 
 axes !" immediately cried several voices ; 
 " let us cut down the trees !"f Goldli, 
 the abbot, and several others, were op 
 
 * Da, da mus min Rilchhof sin. (Bull. ii. 
 p. 118) 
 
 t Ettliche schriiwend nach Achsen das man 
 das Waldi verhallte. ) (Bull. iii. p. 118.) 
 
 posed to this : "If we stop up the wood, 
 by throwing down tlie trees, we shall 
 ourselves be unable to work our guns in 
 that direction," s;ii<l they. — " Well ! at 
 least let us place sonic arquebusiera in 
 that quarter." — "We arc already s> 
 small a number," replied the captain, 
 " that it will be imprudent to divide the 
 forces." Neither wisdom nor courage 
 were to save Zurich. They once morel 
 invoked the help of God, and waited in 
 expectation. 
 
 At one o'clock the Five Cantons fired 
 the first gun : the ball passing over the 
 convent, fell below the Granges ; a 
 second passed over the line of battle ; a 
 third struck a hedge close to the ruins. 
 The Zurichers, seeing the battle was be- 
 gun, replied with courage ; but the slow- 
 ness and awkwardness with which the 
 artillery was served in those days pre- 
 vented any great loss being inflicted on 
 either side. When the enemy perceived 
 this, they ordered their advanced guard 
 to descend from Ifelsberg and to reach 
 the Granges through the meadow ; and 
 soon the whole army of the Cantons ad- 
 vanced in this direction, but with diffi- 
 culty and over bad roads. Some arque- 
 busiers of Zurich came and announced 
 the disorder of the Cantons. " Brave 
 Zurichers," cried Rudi Gallmann, " if we 
 attack them now, it is all over with them." 
 At these words some of the soldiers pre- 
 pared to enter the wood on the left, to fall 
 upon the disheartened Waldstettes. But 
 Goldli perceiving this movement, cried 
 out : " Where are you going ? — do you 
 not know that we have agreed not to 
 separate ?" He then ordered the skir- 
 mishers to be recalled, so that the wood 
 remained entirely open to the enemy. 
 They were satisfied with discharging a 
 k\v random shots from time to time to 
 prevent the Cantons from establishing 
 themselves there. The firing of the 
 artillery continued until three o'clock, 
 and announced far and wide, even to 
 Bremgarten and Zurich, that the battle 
 had begun. 
 
 In the meanwhile the great banner of 
 Zurich and all those who surrounded it, 
 among whom was Zwingle, came ad- 
 vancing in disorder towards the Albis. 
 For a year past the gaiety of the re- 
 former had entirely disappeared : he was 
 grave, melancholy, easily moved, having 
 
832 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 a weight on his heart that seemed to 
 crush it. Often would he throw himself 
 weeping at the feet of his Master, and 
 seek in prayer the strength of which he 
 stood in need. No one had ever ob- 
 served in him any irritation ; on the con- 
 trary, he had received with mildness the 
 counsels that had been offered, and had 
 remained tenderly attached to men 
 whose convictions were not the same as 
 his own. He was now advancing mourn- 
 fully along the road to Cappel ; and John 
 Maaler of Winterthour, who was riding 
 a few paces behind him, heard his groans 
 and sighs, intermingled with fervent 
 prayers. If any one spoke to him, he 
 was found firm and strong in the peace 
 that proceeds from faith ; but he did not 
 conceal his conviction that he should 
 never see his family or church again. 
 Thus advanced the forces of Zurich. A 
 woful march ! resembling rather a funeral 
 procession then an army going to battle. 
 
 As they approached they saw express 
 after express gallopping along the road 
 from Cappel, begging the Zurichers to 
 hasten to the defence of their brothers.* 
 
 At Adliswil, having passed the bridge 
 under which flow the impetuous waters 
 of the Sihl, and traversed the village 
 through the midst of women, children, 
 and old men, who, standing before their 
 cottages, looked with sadness on this 
 disorderly troop, they began to ascend 
 the Albis. They were about half way 
 from Cappel when the first cannon-shot 
 was heard. They stop, they listen : a 
 second, a third succeeds. . . . There is no 
 longer any doubt. The glory, the very 
 existence of the republic are endangered, 
 and they are not present to defend it ! 
 The blood curdles in their veins. On a 
 sudden they arouse, and each one begins 
 to run to the support of his brothers. But 
 the road over the Albis was much 
 steeper than it is in our days. The 
 badly harnessed artillery could not 
 ascend it ; the old men, the citizens, 
 little habituated to marching, and covered 
 with weighty armour, advanced with 
 difficulty : and yet they formed the 
 greater portion of the troops. They 
 were seen stopping one after another, 
 panting and exhausted, along the sides 
 
 * Dan ein Manung uffdie atider, von Cappel 
 kamm. (Bull. iii. p. 1]3.) 
 
 of the road near the thickets and ravines 
 of the Albis, leaning against a beech or 
 an ash tree, and looking with dispirited 
 eyes to the summit of the mountain co- 
 vered with thick pines. 
 
 They resume their march, however ; 
 the horsemen and the most intrepid of 
 the foot-soldiers hasten onwards, and 
 having reached the " Beech Tree," on 
 the top of. the mountain, halt to take 
 council. 
 
 What a prospect then extended before 
 their eyes ! Zurich, the lake and its 
 smiling shores — those orchards, those 
 fertile fields, those vine-clad hills, almost 
 the whole of the canton. Alas ! soon, 
 perhaps, to be devastated by the Forest- 
 bands. 
 
 • Scarcely had these noble-minded men 
 begun to deliberate, when fresh messen- 
 gers from Cappel appear before them 
 and exclaim, " Hasten forwards ! " At 
 these words many of the Zurichers pre- 
 pared to gallop towards the enemy.* 
 Toning, the captain of the arquebusiers, 
 stopt them. " My good friends," cried 
 he to them, " against such great forces 
 what can we do alone ? Let us wait 
 here until our people are assembled, and 
 then let us fall upon the enemy with the 
 whole army." — " Yes, if we had an 
 army," bitterly replied the captain-gene- 
 ral, who, in despair of saving the repub- 
 lic, thought only of dying with glory ; 
 " but we have only a banner and no sol- 
 diers." — "Flow can we stay calmly 
 upon these heights," said Zwingle, 
 " while we hear the shots that are fired 
 at our fellow-citizens ? In the name of 
 God I will march towards our warriors, 
 prepared to die in order to save them."")" 
 — " And I too," added the aged banneret 
 Schweizer. "As for you," continued 
 he, turning with a contemptuous look to- 
 wards Toning, " wait till you are a little 
 recovered." — " I am quite as much re- 
 freshed as you," replied Toning, the co- 
 lour mantling on his face, " and you 
 shall soon see whether I cannot fight." 
 All hastened their steps towards the field 
 of battle. 
 
 The descent is rapid ; they plunge 
 
 * Uff rossen h'aftig ylttend zum augriff. 
 (Bull. iii. p. 113.) 
 
 f Ich will Kacht, in den namen Gotts, zu 
 den biderben luten und willig mitt und under 
 inen sterben. (Ibid. p. 123.) . 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 83H 
 
 into the woods, pass through the village I paring the skilful manoeuvre that was to 
 
 of Husen, and at length arrive near the 
 Granges. It was three o'clock when 
 the banner crossed the narrow bridge 
 that led thither ; and there were so few- 
 soldiers round it that every one trembled 
 as he beheld this venerated standard thus 
 exposed to the attacks of so formidable 
 an enemy. The army of the Cantons 
 was at that moment deploying before the 
 eyes of the new-comers. Zwingle gazed 
 upon this terrible spectacle. Behold, 
 then, these phalanxes of soldiers ! — a 
 few minutes more, and the labours of 
 eleven years will be destroyed perhaps 
 for ever!.... 
 
 A citizen of Zurich, one Leonard 
 Bourkhard, who was ill-disposed towards 
 the reformer, said to him in a harsh tone, 
 " Well, Master Ulric, what do you say 
 about this business? Are the radishes 
 salt enough ?...who will eat them now ?"* 
 " I," replied Zwingle, " and many a 
 brave man who is here in the hands of 
 God ; for we are his in life and in 
 death."— "And I too — I will help eat 
 them," resumed Bourkhard immediately, 
 ashamed of his brutality, — " I will risk 
 my life for them." And he did so, and 
 many others With him, adds the chroni- 
 cle. 
 " It was four o'clock ; the sun was 
 sinking rapidly ; the Waldstettes did not 
 advance, and the Zurichers began to 
 think that the attack would be put off 
 till the morrow. In fact, the chiefs of 
 the Five Cantons seeing the great banner 
 of Zurich arrive, the night near at hand, 
 and the impossibility of crossing under 
 the fire of the Zurichers the marsh and 
 the ditch that separated the combatants, 
 were looking for a place in which their 
 troops might pass the night. " If, at 
 this moment, any mediators had appear- 
 ed," says Bullinger, " their proposals 
 would have been accepted." 
 
 The soldiers, observing the hesitation 
 of their chiefs, began to murmur loudly. 
 " The big ones abandon us," said one. 
 " The captains fear to bite the fox's tail," 
 said another. " Not to attack them," 
 cried they all, " is to ruin our cause." 
 During this time a daring man was pre- 
 
 * Sind die Ruben gesaltzen ! wer will sie 
 ausessen. (J. J. Hott. iii. p. 383.) 
 
 decide the late of the day. A warrior 
 of Uri, John Jauch, formerly bailiff of 
 
 Sargans, a good marksman and expe- 
 rienced soldier, having taken a few men 
 with him, moved towards the right of the 
 army of the Five Cantons, crept into 
 the midst of the clump of beech-trees 
 that, by forming a semicircle to the east, 
 unite the hill of [felsberg to thai of the 
 Granges,* found the u 1 empty, ar- 
 rived to within a (vw paces of'tiie Zu- 
 riehers, and there, hidden b (hind the 
 trees, remarked unperceived the small- 
 ness of their numbers, and their want of 
 caution. Then, stealthily retiring, he 
 went to the chiefs at the very moment 
 the discontent was on the point of burst- 
 ing out. " Now • is the time to attack 
 the enemy," cried he. " Dear gossip," 
 replied Troquer, captain-in-chief of Uri, 
 " you do not mean to say that wo should 
 set to work at so late an hour ; besides, 
 the men are preparing their quarters, 
 and everybody knows what it cost our 
 fathers at Naples and Marignan for hav- 
 ing commenced the attack a little before 
 night. And then it is Innocents' day, 
 and our ancestors have never given bat- 
 tle on a feast-day. "f— "Don't think 
 about the Innocents of the calendar," 
 replied Jauch, " but let us rather remem- 
 ber the innocents that we have left in our 
 cottages." Gaspard Goldli of Zurich, 
 brother of the commander of the Granges, 
 added his entreaties to those of the war- 
 rior of Uri. " We must either beat the 
 Zurichers to-night," said he, "or be 
 beaten by them to-morrow. Take your 
 choice." 
 
 All was unavailing ; the chiefs were 
 inflexible, and the army prepared to take 
 up its quarters. Then the warrior of 
 Uri, understanding like his fellow-coun- 
 tryman Tell that great evils require 
 great remedies, drew his sword and 
 cried : " Let all true confederates follow 
 me."t Then hastily leaping to his sad- 
 
 * This wood no longer connects the two 
 hills. The present pastor of Cappel told me 
 that when first he went into that district the 
 wood was much more extensive than it is at 
 present. 
 
 t Au einem solchen Tag Blut ze vergiessen. 
 (Tschudi, Helv. ii. p. 189.) 
 
 J Welche redlicher Eidgnossen wart sind, 
 die louffind uns nach. (Bull. iii. p. 525.) 
 
834 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 die, he spurred his horse into the forest ;* 
 and immediately arquebusiers, soldiers 
 from the Adige, and many other war- 
 riors of the Five Cantons, especially 
 from Unterwalden — in all about 300 men, 
 rushed into the wood after him. At this 
 sight Jauch no longer doubts of the vic- 
 tory of the Waldstettes. He dismounts 
 and falls upon his knees, " for," says 
 Tschudi, "he was a man who feared 
 God." All his followers do the same, 
 and together invoke the aid of God, of 
 his holy mother, and of ail the heavenly 
 host. They then advance ; but soon the 
 warrior of Uri, wishing to expose no one 
 but himself, halts his troops, and glides 
 from tree to tree to the verge of the wood. 
 Observing that the enemy was as incau- 
 tious as ever, he rejoins his arquebusiers, 
 leads them stealthily forward, and posts 
 them silently behind the trees of the 
 forest,! enjoining them to take their aim 
 so as not to miss their men. During 
 this time the chiefs of the Five Cantons, 
 foreseeing that this rash man was about 
 to bring on the action, decided against 
 their will, and collected their soldiers 
 around the banners. 
 
 VIII. The Zurichers, fearing that the 
 enemy would seize upon the road that 
 led to their capital, were then directing 
 part of their troops and their guns to a 
 low hill by which it was commanded. 
 At the very moment that the invisible 
 arquebusiers stationed among the beech 
 trees were taking their aim, this detach- 
 ment passed near the little wood. The 
 deepest silence prevails in this solitude : 
 each one posted there picks out the man 
 he desires to bring down, and Jauch ex- 
 claims : " In the name of the Holy Tri- 
 nity — of God the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost — of the Holy Mother of 
 God, and of all the heavenly host — 
 fire !" At the word the deadly balls 
 issue from the wood, and a murderous 
 carnage in the ranks of Zurich follows 
 this terrible discharge. The battle, 
 which had begun four hours ago, and 
 which had never appeared to be a seri- 
 ous attack, now underwent an unfore- 
 
 * Sass ylends wiederum uff sin Ross. (Tschu 
 di, Helv. ii. p. 191.) 
 
 •f- Zertheilt die Hagken hinter die Baum im 
 Wald in grosser Stjtle. (Tschudi, Helv. ii. p. 
 191.) 
 
 seen change. The sword was not again 
 to be returned to the scabbard until it 
 had been bathed in torrents of blood. 
 Those of the Zurichers who had not 
 fallen at this first discharge, lie flat on 
 the ground, so that the balls pass over 
 their heads ; but they soon spring up, 
 saying : " Shall we allow ourselves to be 
 butchered ? No ! let us rather attack 
 the enemy !" Lavater seizes a lance, 
 and rushing into the foremost rank ex- 
 claims : " Soldiers, uphold the honour 
 of God and of our lords, and behave 
 like brave men !" Zwingle, silent and 
 collected, like nature before the bursting 
 of the tempest, was there also halberd in 
 hand. " Master Ulric," said Bernard 
 Sprungli, "speak to the people and 
 encourage them." " Warriors !" said 
 Zwingle, " fear nothing. If we are this 
 day to be defeated, still our cause is 
 good. Commend yourselves to God !" 
 The Zurichers quickly turn the artil- 
 lery they were dragging to another quar- 
 ter, and point it against the wood ; but 
 their bullets, instead of striking the ene- 
 my, only reach the top of the trees, and 
 tear off a few branches that fall upon the 
 skirmishers.* 
 
 Rychmuth, the landamman of 
 Schwytz, came up at a gallop to recall 
 the volunteers ; but seeing the battle be- 
 gun, he ordered the whole army to ad- 
 vance. Immediately the five banners 
 moved forward. 
 
 But already Jauch's skirmishers, rush- 
 in o- from among the trees, had fallen im- 
 petuously upon the Zurichers, charging 
 with their long and pointed halberds. 
 "Heretics! sacrilegists !" cried they, 
 " we have you at last !" — " Man-sellers, 
 idolaters, impious Papists !" replied the 
 Zurichers, " is it really you ?" At first 
 a shower of stones fell from both par- 
 ties and wounded several ; immediately 
 they come to close quarters. The re- 
 sistance of the Zurichers was terrible. f 
 Each struck with the sword or with the 
 halberd : at last the soldiers of the Five 
 Cantons were driven back in disorder. 
 The Zurichers advanced, but in so doing 
 lost the advantages of their position, 
 and got entangled in the marsh. Some 
 
 * Denn das die Aest auf sie fielent. (Tschu- 
 di, p. 182.) 
 
 f Der angriff' war hart und wahrt dcr Wie- 
 derstand ein gute Wyl. (Tschudi, p. 192.) 
 
SWITZERLAND-CATASTROPHE. 
 
 835 
 
 Roman-catholic historians pretend that 
 this flight of their troops was a strata- 
 gem to draw the Zurichers into the 
 snare.* 
 
 In the mean time the army of the 
 Five Cantons hasten through the wood. 
 Burning with courage and with anger, 
 they eagerly quicken their steps ; from 
 the midst of the beech-trees there re- 
 sounded a confused and savage noise — a 
 frightful murmur ; the ground shook ; 
 one might have said that the forest was 
 uttering a horrible roar, or that witches 
 were holding their nocturnal revels. f 
 In vain do the bravest of the Zurichers 
 offer an intrepid resistance : the Wald- 
 stettes have the advantage in every quar- 
 ter. " They are surrounding us," cried 
 some. " Our men are fleeing," said 
 others. A man from the canton of Zug, 
 mingling with the Zurichers, and pre- 
 tending to be of their party, exclaims : 
 " Fly, fly, brave Zurichers, you are be- 
 trayed !" Thus everything is against 
 Zurich. Even the hand of Him who is 
 the disposer of battles, turns against this 
 people. Thus was it also in times of 
 old that God frequently chastised his 
 own people of Israel by the Assyrian 
 sword. A panic terror seizes upon the 
 bravest, and the disorder spreads every- 
 where with frightful rapidity. 
 
 In the meanwhile the aged Schweizer 
 had raised the great banner with a firm 
 hand, and all the picked men of Zurich 
 were drawn up around it ; but soon their 
 ranks were thinned. John Kammli, 
 charged with the defence of the stand- 
 ard, having observed the small number 
 of combatants that remained upon the 
 field of battle, said to the banneret : 
 " Let us lower the banner, my lord, and 
 save it, for our people are flying shame- 
 fully :" — " Warriors, remain firm," re- 
 plied the aged banneret, whom no dan- 
 ger had ever shaken. The disorder 
 augmented — the number of fugitives 
 increased every minute ; the old man 
 stood fast, amazed and immoveable as 
 an aged oak beaten by a frightful hur- 
 ricane. He received unflinchingly the 
 
 * Catholici autem, positis insidiis, retroces- 
 serunt, fugam simulantes. (Cochlceus, Acta 
 Luth. p. 214.) 
 
 f Der Boden erzittert ; und nit anders war, 
 denn als ob der Wald lut bruelete. (Tschudi, 
 p. 123.) 
 
 106 
 
 blows that fell upon him, and alone re- 
 sisted the terrible storm. Kammli seized 
 him by the arm : " My lord," said he 
 again, "lower the banner, or else we 
 shall lose it : there is no more glory to 
 be reaped here !" The banneret, who 
 was already mortally wounded, exclaim- 
 ed : " Alas ! must the city of Zurich be 
 so punished !" Then, dragged off by s > 
 Kammli, who held him by the arm, he 
 retreated as far as the ditch. The 
 weight of years, and the wounds with 
 which he was covered, did not permit 
 him to cross it. He fell in the mire at 
 the bottom, still holding the glorious 
 standard, whose folds dropped on the 
 other bank. 
 
 The enemy ran up with loud shouts, 
 being attracted by the colours of Zu- 
 rich, as the bull by the gladiator's flag. 
 Kammli seeing this, unhesitatingly leaps 
 to the bottom of the ditch, and lays hold 
 of the stiff and dying hands of his chief, 
 in order to preserve the precious ensign, 
 which they tightly grasped. But it is in 
 vain ; the hands of the aged Schweizer 
 will not loose the standard. " My lord 
 banneret !" cried this faithful servant, "it 
 is no longer in your power to defend it." 
 The hands of the banneret, already stiff- 
 ened in death, still refuse ; upon which 
 Kammli violently tears away the sacred 
 standard, leaps upon the other bank, and 
 rushes with his treasure far from the 
 steps of the enemy. The last Zurichers 
 at this moment reach the ditch, they fall 
 one after another upon the expiring ban- 
 neret, and thus hasten his death. 
 
 Kammli, however, having received a 
 wound from a gun-shot, his march was 
 retarded, and soon the Waldstettes sur- 
 round him with their swords. The Zu- 
 richer, holding the banner in one hand, 
 and his sword in the other, defends him- 
 self bravely. One of the Waldstettes 
 catches hold of the staff — another seizes 
 the flag itself and tears it. Kammli with 
 one blow of his sword cuts down the 
 former, and striking around him, calls 
 out : " To the rescue, brave Zurichers ! 
 save the honour and the banner of our 
 lords." The assailants increase in num- 
 ber, and the warrior is about to fall, 
 when Adam Nseff of Wollenwyd rushes 
 up sword in hand, and the head of the 
 Waldstette who had torn the colours rolls 
 upon the plain, and his blood gushes out 
 
836 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 upon the flag of Zurich. Dumysen, 
 member of the Smaller Council, supports 
 Naeff with his halberd, and both deal 
 such lusty blows, that they succeed in 
 disengaging the standard-bearer. He, 
 although dangerously wounded, springs 
 forward, holding the blood-stained folds 
 of the banner in one hand, which he 
 carries off hastily, dragging the staff be- 
 hind him. With fierce look and fiery 
 eye, he thus passes sword in hand through 
 the midst of friends and enemies : he 
 crosses plains, woods, and marshes, every- 
 where leaving traces of his blood, which 
 flows from numerous wounds. Two of 
 his enemies, one from Schwytz, the other 
 from Zug — were particularly eager in 
 his pursuit. " Heretic ! villain !" cried 
 they, " surrender and give us the ban- 
 ner." — " You shall have my life first," 
 replied the Zuricher. Then the two 
 hostile soldiers, who were embarrassed 
 by their cuirasses, stopped a moment to 
 take them off. Kammli took advantage 
 of this to get in advance : he ran ; Hu- 
 ber, Dumysen, and Dantler of Naenikon 
 were at his side. They all four thus 
 arrived near Husen, half-way up the Al- 
 bis. They had still to climb the steepest 
 part of the mountain. Huber falls cover- 
 ed with wounds. Dumysen, the colonel- 
 general, who had fought as a private 
 soldier, almost reaches the church of 
 Husen, and there he falls lifeless : and 
 two of his sons, in the flower of youth, 
 soon lie stretched on the battle-field 
 that has drunk their father's blood. 
 Kammli takes a few steps further ; but 
 halts erelong, exhausted and panting, near 
 a hedge that he would have to clear, and 
 discovers his two enemies, and other 
 Waldstettes running from all sides, like 
 birds of prey, towards the wavering 
 standard of Zurich. The strength of 
 Kammli sinks rapidly, his eyes grow dim, 
 thick darkness surrounds him : a hand 
 of lead fastens him to the ground. Then, 
 mustering all his expiring strength, he 
 flings the standard on the other side of 
 the hedge, exclaiming : " Is there any 
 brave Zuricher near me ? Let him pre- 
 serve the banner and the honour of our 
 lords ! As for me, I can do no more !" 
 Then casting a last look to heaven, he 
 adds : " May God be my helper !" He 
 fell exhausted by this last effort. Dantzler, 
 who came up, flung away his sword, 
 
 sprung over the hedge, seized the banner, 
 and cried, " With the aid of God, I will 
 carry it off." He then rapidly climbed 
 the Albis, and at last placed the ancient 
 standard of Zurich in safety. God, on 
 whom these warriors fixed all their hopes, 
 had heard their prayers, but the noblest 
 blood of the republic had been spilt. 
 
 The enemy were victorious at all 
 points. The soldiers of the Five Can- 
 tons, and particularly those of Unterwal- 
 den, long hardened iu the wars of the 
 Milanese, showed themselves more mer- 
 ciless towards their confederates than 
 they had ever been towards foreigners. 
 At the beginning of the battle, Goldli 
 had taken flight, and soon after he quitted 
 Zurich for ever. Lav ate r, the captain- 
 general, after having fought valiantly, 
 had fallen into the ditch. He was 
 dragged out by a soldier, and had 
 escaped. 
 
 The most distinguished men of Zurich 
 fell one after another under the blows of 
 the Waldstettes.* Budi Gallmann found 
 the glorious tomb he had wished for, and 
 his two brothers stretched beside him left 
 their father's house desolate. Toning, 
 captain of the arquebusiers, died for his 
 country as he had foretold. All the 
 pride of the population of Zurich, seven 
 members of the Smaller Council, nine- 
 teen members of the Two Hundred, 
 sixty-five citizens of the town, four hun- 
 dred* and seventeen from the rural dis- 
 tricts : the father in the midst of his .chil- 
 dren, — the brother surrounded by his 
 brothers, — lay on the field. 
 
 Gerold Meyer of Knonau, son of Anna 
 Zwingle ; at that time twenty-two years 
 of age, and already a member of the 
 council of Two Hundred, — a husband 
 and a father, — had rushed into the fore- 
 most ranks with all the impetuosity of 
 youth. " Surrender, and your life shall 
 be spared," cried some of the warriors 
 of the Five Cantons, who desired to save 
 him. " It is better for me to die with 
 honour than to yield with disgrace," re- 
 plied the son of Anna, and immediately 
 struck by a mortal blow, he fell and ex- 
 pired not far from the castle of his an- 
 cestors. 
 
 * Optimi et docti viri, qu'os necessitas trax- 
 erat in commune periculum patriae et ecclesia? 
 veritatisque defensandse, quam et suo sanguine 
 redemerunt. (Pell. Vit. MS. p. 6). 
 
SWITZERLAND-CATASTROPHE. 
 
 837 
 
 The ministers were those who paid 
 proportionally the greatest tribute on 
 this bloody day. The sword that was 
 at work on the heights of Cappel thirsted 
 for their blood : twenty-five of them fell 
 beneath its stroke. The Waldstettes 
 trembled with rage when they discover- 
 ed one of these heretical preachers, and 
 sacrificed him with enthusiasm, as a 
 chosen victim, to the Virgin and' the 
 saints. There has, perhaps, never been 
 any battle in which so many men of the 
 Word of God have bitten the dust. 
 Almost everywhere the pastors had 
 marched at the head of their flocks. 
 One might have said that Cappel was an 
 assembly of christian churches rather 
 than an army of Swiss companies. The 
 Abbot Joner, receiving a mortal wound 
 near the ditch, expired in sight of his 
 own monastery. The people of Zug, in 
 pursuit of the enemy, uttered a cry of 
 anguish as they passed his body, remem- 
 bering all the good he had done them.* 
 Schmidt of Kunrach, stationed on the 
 field of battle in the midst of his par- 
 ishioners, fell surrounded by forty of 
 their bodies.f Geroldseck, John Hal- 
 ler, and many other pastors, at the head 
 of their flocks, suddenly met in a terrible 
 and unforeseen manner the Lord whom 
 they had preached. 
 
 But the death of one individual far 
 surpassed all others. Zwingle was at 
 the post of danger, the helmet on his 
 head, the sword hanging at his side, the 
 battle-axe in his hand. J Scarcely had 
 the action begun, when, stooping to con- 
 sole a dying man, says J. J. Hottinger, 
 a stone hurled bv the vigorous arm of a 
 Waldstette struck him on the head and 
 closed his lips. Yet Zwingle arose, 
 when two other blows which struck him 
 successively on the leg,§ threw him down 
 again. Twice more he stands up ; but 
 a fourth time he receives a thrust from a 
 lance, he staggers, and sinking beneath 
 so many wounds, falls on his knees. 
 Does not the darkness that is spreading 
 
 * Es klagtend inn insonders die Ziiger. 
 (Bull. iii. p. 151.) 
 
 ' f Uffder Walstett warder funden, under und 
 by sinen Kussnachern. (Ibid. p. 147.) 
 
 t The chaplains of the Swiss troops still 
 wear a sword. Zwingle did not make use of 
 his arms. 
 
 § Hatt anch in den Schenklen yween Stiche. 
 (Tschudi, Helv. ii. p. 194.) 
 
 around him announce a still thicker 
 darkness that is about to cover the 
 Church ? Zwingle turns away from 
 such sad thoughts; once more he uplifts 
 that head which had been so bold, and 
 gazing with calm eye upon the trickling 
 blood, exclaims : " What evil is this ? 
 They can indeed kill the body, but they 
 cannot kill the soul !"* These were his 
 last words. 
 
 He had scarcely uttered them ere he 
 fell backwards. There under a tree 
 (Zwingle's Pear-tree) in a meadow, he 
 remained lying on his back, with clasped 
 hands and eyes upturned to heaven.")" 
 
 While the bravest were pursuing the 
 scattered soldiers of Zurich, the strag- 
 glers of the Five Cantons had pounced 
 like hungry ravens on the field of battle. 
 Torch in hand, these wretches prowled 
 among the dead, casting looks of irrita- 
 tion around them, and lighting up the 
 features of their expiring victims by 
 the dull glimmering of these funereal 
 torches. They turned over the bodies 
 of the wounded and the dead ; they 
 tortured and they stripped them.:}: If 
 they found any who were still sensible, 
 they cried out, " Call upon the saints 
 and confess to our priests !" If the 
 Zurichers, faithful to their creed, re- 
 jected these cruel invitations, these men, 
 who were as cowardly as they were 
 fanatical, pierced them with their lances, 
 or dashed out their brains with the butt- 
 ends of their arquebuses. The Roman- 
 catholic historian, Salat of Lucerne, 
 makes a boast of this. " They were 
 left to die like infidel dogs, or were slain 
 with the sword, or the spear, that they 
 might go so much the quicker to the 
 devil, with whose help they had fought 
 so desperately. "§ If any of the soldiers 
 of the Five Cantons had recognised a 
 Zuricher against whom they had any 
 
 * In genua prolapsum dixisse : " Ecquid 
 hoc infortunii ? Age ! corpus quidem occjdere 
 possunt, animam non possunt." (Osw. My- 
 conius, Vit. Zw.) 
 
 f Was er nach lebend, lag an dem Ruggen 
 und hat seine beide hand zamen gethan, wie 
 die betenden, sach mit synem angen obsich in 
 hymel. (B. iii. p. 136.) 
 
 J Ein gross pliinderen, ein ersuchen und 
 usgiessen der todten und der wunden. (Bull. 
 iii. p. 135.) 
 
 § Damit sie desto eher zum Teufel, damit 
 sie mit alien vieren fechtend, gefiihrt wiirdend. 
 (Salat.) 
 
838 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 grudge, with dry eyes, disdainful mouth, 
 and features changed by anger, they 
 drew near the unhappy creature, writh- 
 ing in the agonies of death, and said : 
 " Well ! has your heretical faith pre- 
 served you ? Ah ha ! it was pretty 
 clearly seen to-day who had the true 
 
 faith To-day we have dragged 
 
 your Gospel in the mud, and you too, 
 even you are covered with your own 
 blood. God, the Virgin, and the saints 
 have punished you." Scarcely had 
 they uttered these words before they 
 plunged their swords into their enemy's 
 bosom. " Mass or death !" was their 
 watchword. 
 
 Thus triumphed the Waldstettes ; but 
 the pious Zurichers who expired on the 
 field of battle called to mind that they 
 had for God one who has said : " If ye 
 endure chastening, God dealeth with you 
 as with sons ; for what son is he whom 
 the father chasteneth not V — " Though 
 he slay me, yet will I trust in Mm:' 9 ' It 
 is in the furnace of trial that the God 
 of the Gospel conceals the pure gold of 
 bis most precious blessings. This pun- 
 ishment was necessary to turn aside the 
 Church of Zurich from the " broad 
 ways" of the world, and lead it back to 
 the " narrow ways" of the Spirit and the 
 life. In a political history, a defeat like 
 that of Cappel would be styled a great 
 misfortune ; but in a history of the 
 Church of Jesus Christ, such a blow, 
 inflicted by the hand of the Father him- 
 self, ought rather to be called a great 
 blessing. 
 
 Meanwhile Zwingle lay extended under 
 the tree, near the road by which the mass 
 of the people was passing. The shouts 
 of the victors, the groans of the dying, 
 those flickering torches borne from corpse 
 to corpse, Zurich humbled, the cause of 
 Reform lost, — all cried aloud to him that 
 God punishes his servants when they 
 have recourse to the arm of man. If 
 the German Reformer had been able to 
 approach Zwingle at this solemn moment, 
 and pronounce these oft-repeated words : 
 " Christians fight not with sword and 
 arquebus, but with sufferings and the 
 cross,"* Zwingle would have stretched 
 out his dying hand, and said, " Amen !" 
 
 * Christen sind nicht die fur sich selbst mit 
 dem Schwerdt oder Biichsen streiten, sondern 
 mit dem Kreuz und Leyden. (Luth. Opp.) 
 
 Two of the soldiers who were prowling 
 over the field of battle, having come near 
 the reformer without recognising him, 
 '• Do you wish for a priest to confess 
 yourself?" asked they. Zwingle, with- 
 out speaking (for he had not strength), 
 made signs in the negative. " If you 
 cannot speak," replied the soldiers, " at 
 least think in thy heart of the Mother of 
 God, and call upon the saints !" Zwingle 
 again shook his head, and kept his eyes 
 still fixed on heaven.* Upon this the 
 irritated soldiers began to curse him. 
 
 No doubt," said they, «" you are one 
 of the heretics of the city !" One of 
 them, being curious to know who it was, 
 stooped down and turned Zwingle's head 
 in the direction of a fire that had been 
 lighted near the spot."|" The soldier im- 
 mediately let him fall to the ground. " I 
 think," said he, surprised and amazed, 
 " I think it is Zwingle !" At this moment 
 Captain Fockinger of Unterwalden, a 
 veteran and a pensioner, drew near : he 
 had heard the last words of the soldier. 
 " Zwingle !" exclaimed he ; " that vile 
 heretic Zwingle ! that rascal, that 
 traitor !" Then raising his sword, so 
 long sold to the stranger, he struck the 
 dying Christian on the throat, exclaiming 
 in a violent passion, " Die, obstinate 
 heretic !" Yielding under this last blow, 
 the reformer gave up the ghost : he was 
 doomed to perish by the sword of a mer- 
 cenary. " Precious in the sight of the 
 Lord is the death of his saints." The 
 soldiers ran to other victims. All did 
 not show the same barbarity. The 
 night was cold ; a thick hoar-frost 
 covered the fields and the bodies of the 
 dying. The Protestant historian, Bull- 
 inger, informs us that some Waldstettes 
 gently raised the wounded in their arms, 
 bound up their wounds, and carried them 
 to the fires lighted on the field of battle. 
 " Ah !" cried they, " why have the Swiss 
 thus slaughtered one another !" 
 
 The main body of the army had 
 remained on the field of battle near the 
 standards. The soldiers conversed 
 around the fires, interrupted from time 
 to time by the cries of the dying. Du- 
 ring this time the chiefs assembled in 
 
 * Und sach uber sich in Hymel. (Bull, iii. 
 p. 136.) 
 
 t Veyn Fuwr besach. (Tschudi, Helv. n. 
 p. 194.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 839 
 
 the convent sent messengers to carry the 
 news of their signal victory to the con- 
 federate cantons, and to the Roman- 
 catholic powers of Germany. 
 
 At length the day appeared. The 
 Waldstettes spread over the field of battle, 
 running here and there, stopping, con- 
 templating, struck with surprise at the 
 sight of their most formidable enemies 
 stretched lifeless on the plain ; but some- 
 times also shedding tears as they gazed 
 on corpses which reminded them of old 
 and sacred ties of friendship. At length 
 they reached the pear-tree under which 
 Zwingle lay dead, and an immense 
 crowd collected around it. His counte- 
 nance still beamed with expression and 
 with life. " He has the look," said 
 Bartholomew Stacker of Zug, who had 
 loved him, " he has the look of a living 
 rather than of a dead man.* Such he 
 was when he kindled the people by the 
 fire of his eloquence." All eyes were 
 fixed upon the corpse. John Schonbrun- 
 ner, formerly canon of Zurich, who had 
 retired to Zug at the epoch of the Refor- 
 mation, could not restrain his tears ; 
 " Whatever may have been thy creed," 
 said he, " I know, Zwingle, that thou 
 hast been a loyal confederate ! May thy 
 soul rest with God !" 
 
 But the pensioners of the foreigner, on 
 whom Zwingle had never ceased to make 
 war, required that the body of the heretic 
 should be dismembered, and a portion 
 sent to each of the Five Cantons. " Peace 
 be to the dead ! and God alone be their 
 Judge !" exclaimed the avoyer Golder 
 and the landamman Thoss of Zug. Cries 
 of fury answered their appeal, and com- 
 pelled them to retire. Immediately the 
 drums beat to muster ; the dead body 
 -was tried, and it was decreed that it 
 should be quartered for treason against 
 the Confederation, and then burnt for 
 heresy. The executioner of Lucerne 
 carried out the sentence. Flames con- 
 sumed Zwingle's disjointed members ; 
 the ashes of swine were mingled with 
 his: and a lawless multitude rushing 
 upon his remains, flung them to the four 
 winds of heaven. f 
 
 * NichteinemTodten sonderneinem Leben- 
 den gleich. (Zwingli for dass Volk von J. J. 
 Hottinger.) 
 
 t Tschudi Helvet. ii. p. 195. "Cadaver 
 Zwinglii in quatuor partes secatur, in ignem 
 
 Zwingle was dead. A great light hud 
 been extinguished in the Church of God. 
 Mighty by the Word as were the other 
 reformers, he had been more so than 
 they in action ; but this very power had 
 been his weakness, and he had fallen 
 under the weight of his own strength. 
 Zwingle was not forty -eight years old 
 when he died. If the might of God 
 always accompanied the might of man, 
 what would he not have done for the 
 Reformation in Switzerland, and even in 
 the Empire ! But he had wielded an 
 arm that God had forbidden ; the helmet 
 had covered his head, and he had grasped 
 the halberd. His more devoted friends 
 were themselves astonished, and ex- 
 claimed : " we know not what to say ! . . . 
 a bishop in arms !"* The bolt had fur- 
 rowed the cloud, the blow had reached 
 the reformer, and his body was no more 
 than a handful of dust in the palm of a 
 soldier. 
 
 IX. Frightful darkness hung over 
 Zurich during the night that followed 
 the afflicting day of Cappel. It was 
 seven in the evening when the first news 
 of the disaster arrived. . . . Vague but 
 alarming reports spread at first with the 
 rapidity of lightning. It was known 
 that a terrible blow had been inflicted, 
 but not of what kind ; but soon a few- 
 wounded men, who arrived from the 
 field of battle, cleared up the frightful 
 mystery. " Then," said Bullinger, 
 whom we shall allow to speak, " there 
 arose suddenly a loud and horrible cry 
 of lamentation and tears, bewailing and 
 groaning " The consternation was so 
 much the greater that no one had ex- 
 pected this disaster. " There is not 
 enough for a breakfast," had said some 
 haughty worldly men ; " With one blow 
 we shall be masters of the Five Chalets" 
 had said another ; and an old soldier 
 added with disdainful sneer, " We shall 
 soon have scattered these five dunghills." 
 The christian portion, convinced that 
 Zurich was fighting in a good cause, had 
 not doubted that victory would be on the 
 side of truth. . . . Thus their first stupe- 
 
 conjicitur, in cinerem resolvitur." (Myc. de 
 Vit. Zw.) 
 
 * Ego nihil certe apud me possum statuere, 
 maxime de Episcopo in armis. (Zuickius Eco- 
 lampadio, 8th November 1531, Zurich MS.) 
 
840 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 faction was succeeded by a violent out- 
 burst of rage. With blind fury the mob 
 accused all their chiefs, and loaded with 
 insults even those Who had defended their 
 country at the price of their blood. An 
 immense crowd — agitated, pale, and be- 
 wildered, filled all the streets of the city. 
 They meet, they question and reply ; 
 they question again, and the answer can- 
 not be heard, for the shouts of the people 
 interrupted or drowned the voice of the 
 speakers. The councillors who had re- 
 mained in Zurich, repaired in haste to 
 the town-hall. The people, who had 
 already assembled there in crowds, look- 
 ed on with threatening eyes. Accusa- 
 tions of treason burst from every mouth, 
 and the patricians were pointed out to 
 the general indignation. They must have 
 victims. " Before going to fight against 
 the enemy on the frontiers," said the mob, 
 " we should defend ourselves against those 
 who are within our walls." Sorrow and 
 fear excited the minds of all. That savage 
 instinct of the populace, which in great 
 calamities leads them, like a wild beast, 
 to thirst for blood, was violently aroused. 
 A hand from the midst of the crowd 
 points out the council-hall, and a harsh 
 and piercing voice exclaims : " Let us 
 chop off the heads of some of the men 
 who sit in these halls, and let their blood 
 
 On a sudden, grief succeeded to rage, 
 and sobs choked the utterance of the 
 most furious. All those whose relatives 
 had marched to Cappel, imagine that 
 they are among the number of the vic- 
 tims. Old men, women, and children, 
 go forth in the darkness by the glimmer- 
 ing light of torches, with haggard eyes 
 and hurried steps ; and as soon as some 
 wounded man arrives, they question him 
 with trembling voice about those whom 
 they are seeking. To some they reply : 
 " I saw him fall close by my side. — He 
 was surrounded by so many enemies," 
 they say to others, " that there was no 
 chance of safety for him."* At these 
 words the distracted family drop their 
 torches, and fill the air with shrieks and 
 groans. 
 
 Anna Zwingle had heard from her 
 house the repeated discharges of artil- 
 lery. As wife and mother, she had 
 passed in expectation many long hours 
 of anguish, offering fervent prayers to 
 heaven. At length the most terrible ac- 
 counts, one after another, burst upon her. 
 
 In the midst of those whose cries of 
 despair re-echoed along the road to 
 Cappel, was Oswald Myconius, who in- 
 quired with anxiety what had become 
 of his friend. Soon he hears one of the 
 unfortunates who had escaped from the 
 
 ascend to heaven, to beg for mercy in (massacre, relating to those around him 
 
 behalf of those whom they have slain." 
 
 But this fury is nothing in comparison 
 with that which breaks out against the 
 ministers, against Zwingle, and all those 
 Christians who were the cause (say they) 
 of the ruin of the country. Fortunately 
 the sword of the Waldstettes had with- 
 drawn them from the rage of their fel- 
 low-citizens ; nevertheless, there still 
 remained some who could pay for the 
 others. Leo Juda, whom Zwingle's 
 death was about to raise to the head of 
 religious affairs, had scarcely recovered 
 from a serious illness ; it is on him they 
 rush. They threaten, they pursue him ; 
 a few worthy citizens carry him off and 
 hide him in their houses. The rage of 
 these madmen is not appeased : they 
 continue shouting that atonement must 
 be made for the slaughter at Cappel, by 
 a still more frightful slaughter within the 
 very walls of the city. But God placed 
 a curb in the mouths of these infuriate 
 beasts of prey, and subdued them. 
 
 that Zwingle had fallen If Zwingle 
 
 is no more ! Zwingle is dead ! The 
 cry is repeated : it runs through Zurich 
 with the rapidity of lightning, and at 
 length reaches the unhappy widow. 
 Anna falls on her knees. But the loss 
 of her husband is not enough ; God has 
 inflicted other blows. Messengers fol- 
 lowing each other at short intervals an- 
 nounce to her the death of her son Ge- 
 rold of Knonau, of her brother the bai- 
 liff of Reinhardt, of her son-in-law An- 
 tony Wirz, of John Lustchi the husband 
 of her dear sister, as well as of all her 
 most intimate friends. This woman re- 
 mains alone — alone with her God ; alone 
 with her young children, who, as they 
 see her tears, weep also, and throw 
 
 * Dermassen umbgaben mit Tygenden, dass 
 kein Hoffnung der rettung uberig. (Bull iv. 
 p. 163). 
 
 t Ut igitur mane videram exeuntem, ita sub 
 n'octem audio nuntium, pugnatum quidem 
 acriter, tamen infeliciter, et Zwinglium nobis 
 periisse. (Myc. Vit. Zw.) 
 
SWITZERLAND-CATASTROPHE. 
 
 841 
 
 into their mo- 
 
 themselves disconsolate 
 ther's arms. 
 
 On a sudden the alarm-bell rings. 
 The council, distracted by the most con- 
 trary opinions, has at last resolved to 
 summon all the citizens towards the 
 Albis. But the sound of the tocsin re 
 echoing through the darkness, the la- 
 mentable stories of the wounded, and 
 the distressful groans of bereaved fami 
 lies, still further increased the tumult. 
 A numerous and disorderly troop of 
 citizens rushed along the road to Cappel . 
 Among them is the Valaisan, Thomas 
 Plater. Here he meets with a man that 
 has but one hand,* — there with others 
 who supported their wounded and bleed 
 ing heads with both hands ; — further 
 still is a soldier whose bowels protrude 
 from his body. In front of these un 
 happy creatures peasants are walking 
 with lighted torches, for the night is 
 very dark. Plater wishes to return ; 
 but he cannot, for sentinels placed on 
 the bridge over the Sihl allow persons to 
 quit Zurich, but permit no one to re-en- 
 ter. 
 
 On the morrow the news of the dis- 
 graceful treatment of Zwingle's corpse 
 aroused all the anger of Zurich ; and 
 his friends, uplifting their tear-bedimmed 
 eyes, exclaimed, " These men may fall 
 upon his body ; they may kindle their 
 
 piles, and brand his innocent life 
 
 but he lives — this invincible hero lives in 
 eternity, and leaves behind him an im- 
 mortal monument of glory that no flames 
 can destroy. j" God, for whose honour he 
 has labored, even at the price of his 
 blood, will make his memory eternal." 
 " And I," adds Leo Juda, " I, upon whom 
 he has heaped so many blessings, will 
 endeavour, after so many others, to de- 
 fend his renown and to extol his virtues." 
 Thus Zurich consecrated to Zwingle a 
 funeral oration of tears and sighs, of 
 gratitude and cries of anguish. Never 
 was there a funeral speech more elo- 
 quent ! 
 
 Zurich rallied her forces. John Stei- 
 ner had collected on the Albis some 
 scattered fragments of the army for the 
 
 * Ettlich kamen, hatten nur eine hand, 
 (-.ibensbeschreibung Plateri, p. 297.) 
 
 t Vivit adhunc, et aeternum vivit fortissimus 
 herog. (Leonis Judae exhort, ad Chr. Sect. 
 Enchiridio Psalm. Zwinglii praemissa.) 
 
 defence of the pass : they bivouacked 
 around their fires on the summit of the 
 mountain, and all were in disorder. Pla- 
 ter, benumbed with cold (it is himself 
 who gives us the account), had drawn 
 off his boots to warm his feet at the watch- 
 fire. On a sudden an alarm is given, 
 the troop is hastily drawn up, and, while 
 Plater is getting ready, a trumpeter, who 
 had escaped from the battle, seizes his 
 halberd. Plater takes it back, and sta- 
 tions himself in the ranks; before him 
 stands the trumpeter, without hat or shoes, 
 and armed with a long pole. Such is 
 the army of Zurich. 
 
 The chief captain Lavater rejoined the 
 army at daybreak. Gradually the allies 
 came up; 1200 Grisons, under the or- 
 ders of the captain-general Frey of Zu- 
 rich, 1500 Thurgovians, 600 Tocken- 
 burgers, and other auxiliaries besides, 
 soon formed an army of 12,000 men. 
 All, even children, ran to arms. The 
 council gave orders that these young 
 folks,* should be sent back to share in 
 the domestic duties with the women. 
 
 Another reverse erelong augmented 
 the desolation of the Reformed party. 
 While the troops of Berne, Zurich, Basle, 
 and Bienne, amounting to 24,000 men, 
 were assembling at Bremgarten,the Five 
 Cantons intrenched themselves at Baar, 
 near Zug. But Zwingle was wanting to 
 the Reformed army, and he would have 
 been the only man capable of inspiring 
 them with courage. A gust of wind 
 having thrown down a few fir-trees in the 
 forest where the Zurichers were encamp- 
 ed, and caused the death of some of their 
 soldiers, they failed not to see in this the 
 signal for fresh reverses. 
 
 Nevertheless, Frey called loudly for 
 battle ; but the Bernese commandant 
 Diesbach refused. Upon this the Zurich 
 captain set off in the night of the 23d 
 October at the head of 4000 men of Zu- 
 rich, Schaffhausen, Basle, and St. Gall ; 
 and, while the Bernese were sleeping 
 quietly, he turned the Waldstettes, drove 
 their outposts beyond the Sihl, and took 
 his station on the heights that overlook 
 the Goubel. His imprudent soldiers, 
 believing victory to be certain, proudly 
 waved their banners, and then sunk into 
 a heavy sleep. The Waldstettes had 
 
 brood. (Bull. Chr. 
 
 in. p 
 
 Jungen fasels, young 
 176.) 
 
842 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 observed all. On the 24th October, at 
 two in the morning, by a bright moon- 
 light, they quitted their camp in profound 
 silence, leaving their fires burning, and 
 wearing their white shirts over their 
 dresses that they might recognise one 
 another in the obscurity. Their watch- 
 word was " Mary, the mother of God." 
 They glided stealthily into a pine forest, 
 near which the Reformed troops were 
 encamped. The men stationed at the 
 advanced guard of the Zurichers having 
 perceived the enemy, ran up to the fires 
 to arouse their friends, but they had 
 scarcely reached the third fire before 
 the Waldstettes appeared, uttering a 
 frightful shout.* " Har. . .Har. . .Har 
 . . .Har !. . . .Where are these impious 
 
 heretics ? Har. . . Har. . .Har. 
 
 . .Har V The army of the cities at first 
 made a vigorous resistance, and many 
 of the white-shirts fell covered with blood j 
 but this did not continue long. The 
 bravest, with the valiant Frey at their 
 head, having bitten the dust, the rout be- 
 came general, and 800 men were left on 
 the field of battle. 
 
 In the midst of these afflictions the 
 Bernese remained stubborn and motion- 
 less. Francis Kolb, who, notwithstand- 
 ing his advanced age, had accompanied 
 the Bernese contingent as chaplain, re- 
 proached in a sermon the negligence and 
 cowardice of his party. " Your ances- 
 tors," said he, " would have swam across 
 the Rhine, and you — this little stream 
 stops you ! They went to battle for a 
 word, and you even the Gospel cannot 
 move. For us it only remains to commit 
 our cause to God." Many voices were 
 raised against the imprudent old man, 
 but others took up his defence ; and the 
 captain, Jacques May, being as indignant 
 as the aged chaplain at the delays o his 
 fellow-citizens, drew his sword, and 
 thrusting it into the folds of the Bernese 
 banner, pricked the bear that was repre- 
 sented on it, and cried out in the presence 
 of the whole army, "You knave, will you 
 not show your claws V > \ But the bear 
 remained motionless. 
 
 The whole of the Reformation was 
 compromised. Scarcely had Ferdinand 
 
 * Mit einem grossen grusamen geschrey. 
 (Bull. iii. p. 201.) 
 
 f Betz, Betz, willt dan nicht kretzen ! (Bull. 
 iii. p. 215.) 
 
 received intelligence of the death of the 
 arch?heretic Zwingle, and of the defeat 
 at Cappel, than with an exclamation of 
 joy, he forwarded these good news to his 
 brother the Emperor Charles the Fifth. 
 " This is the first of the victories destined 
 to restore the faith," he had written. 
 After the defeat at the Goubel, he wrote 
 again, saying that if the Emperor were 
 not so near at hand, he would not hesi- 
 tate, however weak he might be, to rush 
 forward in person, sword in hand, to ter- 
 minate so righteous an enterprise. " Re- 
 member," said he, " that you are the first 
 prince in Christendom, and that you will 
 never have a better opportunity of cover- 
 ing yourself with glory. Assist the can- 
 tons with your troops ; the German sects 
 will perish, when they are no longer sup- 
 ported by heretical Switzerland."* — 
 " The more I reflect," replied Charles, 
 " the more I am pleased with your ad- 
 vice. The imperial dignity with which 
 I am invested, the protection that I owe 
 to Christendom and to public order, in a 
 word, the safety of the house of Austria, 
 — everything appeals to me !" 
 
 Already about two thousand Italian 
 soldiers, sent by the Pope and command- 
 ed by the Genoese De l'Isola, had un- 
 folded their seven standards, and united 
 near Zug with the army of the Five 
 Cantons. Auxiliary troops, diplomatic 
 negotiations, and even missionaries to 
 convert the heretics, were not spared. 
 The Bishop of Veroli arrived in Switzer- 
 land in order to bring back the Lutherans 
 to the Roman faith by means of his friends 
 and of his money .f The Roman politi- 
 cians hailed the victory at Cappel as the 
 signal of the restoration of the Papal au- 
 thority, not only in Switzerland, but 
 throughout the whole of Christendom.^: 
 At last this presumptuous Reformation 
 was about to be repressed. Instead of 
 the great deliverance of which Zwingle 
 had dreamt, the imperial eagle let loose 
 by the Papacy was about to pounce on all 
 Europe, and strangle it in its talons. The 
 
 * Que se perdo deslar i camino para remedi- 
 ar las quiebras de nuestra fe y ser Va. Md. 
 Senor de Allemana. (Ferdinand to Charles 
 V. 11th November 1531.) 
 
 f Con proposita di rimover Lutheriani dalla 
 loro mala opinione, con mezzo di alcuni suoi 
 amici e con denari. (Report of Basadonna, 
 Archbishop of Venice.) 
 
 % Ranke, Deutshe Geschichte, iii. p. S67. 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 84y 
 
 cause of liberty had perished on the! indubitable Christian faith, renouncing 
 Albis.. all evil intention, tricks, and stratagems. 
 
 But the hopes of the Papists were And, on our side, we of the Five Can- 
 
 vain : the cause of the Gospel, although 
 humbled at this moment, was destined 
 finally to gain a glorious victory. A 
 cloud may hide the sun for a time : 
 but the cloud passes and the sun re- 
 appears. Jesus Christ is always the 
 same, and the gates of hell, which tri- 
 umphed on the field of Cappel, cannot 
 prevail against his Church. 
 
 Nevertheless everything seemed ad- 
 vancing towards a grand catastrophe. 
 The Tockenburgers made peace and re- 
 tired. The Thurgovians followed them ; 
 and next the people of Gaster. The 
 evangelical army was thus gradually 
 disbanded. The severity of the season 
 was joined to these dissensions. Con- 
 tinual storms of wind and rain drove the 
 soldiers to their homes. 
 
 Upon this the Five Cantons with the 
 undisciplined bands of the Italian gene 
 
 tons, agree to leave our confederates of 
 Zurich and their allies in possession of 
 their faith."* At the same time, Rap- 
 perswyl, Gaster, Wesen, Bremgarten, 
 Mellingen, and the common bailiwicks, 
 were abandoned to the Five Cantons. 
 
 Zurich had preserved its faith ; and 
 that was all. The treaty having been 
 read and approved of, the plenipotentia- 
 ries got off their horses, fell upon their 
 knees, and called upon the name of God. f 
 Then the new captain-general of the 
 Zurichers, Escher, a hasty and eloquent 
 old man, rising up, said as he turned to- 
 wards the Waldstettes : " God be praised 
 that I can again call you my well-be- 
 loved confederates ! " and approaching 
 them, he shook hands successively with 
 Golder, Hug, Troger, Rychmut, Mar- 
 quart, Zellger, and Toss, the terrible vic- 
 tors at Cappel. All eyes were filled 
 
 ral Isola threw themselves on the left with tears4 Each took with trembling 
 
 bank of the lake of Zurich. The alarm- 
 bell was rung on every side ; the pea- 
 sants retired in crowds into the city, 
 with their weeping wives, their fright- 
 ened children, and their cattle that filled 
 the air with sullen lo wings. A report 
 too was circulated that the enemy in- 
 tended laying siege to Zurich. The 
 country-people in alarm declared that if 
 the city refused to treat, they would treat 
 on their own account. 
 
 The peace party prevailed in the coun- 
 cil ; deputies were elected to negotiate. 
 " Above all things, preserve the Gospel, 
 and then our honour, as far as may be 
 possible ! ; ' Such were their instruc- 
 tions. On the 16th November, the de- 
 puties from Zurich arrived in a meadow 
 situated near the frontier, on the banks 
 of the Sihl, in which the representatives 
 of the Five Cantons awaited them. They 
 proceeded to the deliberations. " In the 
 name of the most honourable, holy, and 
 divine Trinity," began the treaty, " First- 
 ly, we the people of Zurich bind our- 
 selves and agree to leave our trusty and 
 well-beloved confederates of the Five 
 Cantons, their well-beloved co-burghers 
 of the Valais, and all their adherents 
 lay and ecclesiastic, in their true* and 
 
 * By ihren wahren ungez wyfflten christen- 
 lichen glauben. (Tschudi, p. 247.) 
 107 
 
 hand the bottle suspended at his side, and 
 offered a draught to one of the chiefs of 
 the opposite party. Shortly after a simi- 
 lar treaty was concluded with Berne. 
 
 X. The restoration of Popery imme- 
 diately commenced in Switzerland, and 
 Rome showed herself every where proud, 
 exacting, and ambitious. 
 
 After the battle of Cappel, the Romish 
 minority at Glaris had resumed the up- 
 perhand. It marched with Schwyt/. 
 against Wesen and the district of the 
 Gaster. On the eve of the invasion, at 
 midnight, twelve deputies came and 
 threw themselves at the feet of the 
 Schwytzer chiefs, who were satisfied 
 with confiscating the national banners 
 of these two districts, with suppress- 
 ing their tribunals, annulling their 
 ancient liberties, and condemning somr 
 to banishment, and others to pay a 
 heavy fine. Next the mass, the altars. 
 and images were everywhere re-establish- 
 ed, and exist until the present day.§ 
 Such was the pardon of Schwytz ! 
 
 * By ihren Glauben. (Ibid.) 
 
 t Knuwet mencklich wider und batket. 
 (Bull. iii,p. 253.) 
 
 J Und luffend ihnen alien die Angen uber. 
 (Tschudi, p. 245.) 
 
 § Es wiirdent mass, altar und gotren vieder 
 uff gericht. (Bull. iii. p. 277.) 
 
844 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 It was especially on Bremgarten, Mel- 
 lingen, and the free bailiwicks that the 
 Cantons proposed to inflict a terrible ven- 
 geance. Berne having recalled its ar- 
 my, Mutschli, the avoyer of Bremgarten, 
 followed Diesbach as far as Arau. In 
 vain did the former remind the Bernese 
 that it was only according to the orders 
 of Berne and Zurich that Bremgarten 
 had blockaded the Five Cantons. " Bend 
 to circumstances," replied the general. 
 On this the wretched Mutschli, turning 
 away from the pitiless Bernese, exclaim- 
 ed, " The prophet Jeremiah has well 
 said, — Cursed be he that trusteth in man /" 
 The Swiss and Italian bands entered fu- 
 riously into these flourishing districts, 
 brandishing their weapons, inflicting 
 heavy fines on all the inhabitants, com- 
 pelling the Gospel ministers to flee, and 
 restoring everywhere at the point of the 
 sword, mass, idols, and altars. 
 
 On the other side of the lake the mis- 
 fortune was still greater. On the 18th 
 November, while the Reformed of Rap- 
 perschwyl were sleeping peacefully in 
 reliance on the treaties, an army from 
 Schwytz silently passed the wooden 
 bridge nearly 2000 feet long which 
 crosses the lake, and was admitted into 
 the city by the Romish party. On a 
 sudden the Reformed awoke at the loud 
 pealing of the bells, and the tumultuous 
 voices of the Catholics : the greater part 
 quitted the city. One of them, however, 
 by name Michael Wohlgemuth, barri- 
 caded his house, placed arquebuses at 
 every window, and repelled the attack. 
 The exasperated enemy brought up some 
 heavy pieces of artillery, besieged this 
 extemporaneous citadel in regular form, 
 and Wohlgemuth was soon taken and put 
 to death in the midst of horrible tortures. 
 
 Nowhere had the struggle been more 
 violent than at Soleure : the two parties 
 were drawn up in battle-array on each 
 side of the Aar, and the Romanists had 
 already discharged one ball against the 
 opposite bank, another was about to fol- 
 low, when the avoyer Wenge, throwing 
 himself on the mouth of the cannon, cried 
 out earnestly : " Fellow-citizens, let there 
 be no bloodshed, or else let me be your 
 first victim !" The astonished multitude 
 dropped their arms ; but seventy Evange- 
 lical families were obliged to emigrate, and 
 Soleure returned under the Papal yoke. 
 
 The deserted cells of St. Gall, Muri, 
 Ensideln, Wettingen, Rheinau, St. Ca- 
 therine, Hermetshwyll and Guadenthall 
 witnessed the triumphant return of Be- 
 nedictines, Franciscans, Dominicans, and 
 all the Romish militia ; priests and 
 monks, intoxicated with their victory, 
 overran country and town, and prepared 
 for new conquests. 
 
 The wind of adversity was blowing 
 with fury : the Evangelical Churches 
 fell one after another, like the pines in 
 the forest whose fall before the battle of 
 the Goubel had raised such gloomy pre- 
 sentiments. The Five Cantons, full of 
 gratitude to the Virgin, made a solemn 
 pilgrimage to her temple at Ensideln. 
 The chaplains celebrated anew their 
 mysteries in this desolated sanctuary ; 
 the abbot, who had no monks, sent a 
 number of youths into Swabia to be 
 trained up in the rules of the order, and 
 this famous chapel, which Zwingle's 
 voice had converted into a sanctuary for 
 the Word, became for Switzerland, what 
 it has remained until this day, the cen- 
 tre of the power and of the intrigues of 
 the Papacy. 
 
 But this was not enough. At the 
 very time that these flourishing churches 
 were falling to the ground, the Reform 
 witnessed the extinction of its brightest 
 lights. A blow from a stone had slain 
 the energetic Zwingle on the field of bat- 
 tle, and the rebound reached the pacific 
 GScolampadius at Basle, in the midst of 
 a life that was wholly evangelical. The 
 death of his friend, the severe judgments 
 with which they pursued his memory, 
 the terror that had suddenly taken the 
 place of the hopes he had entertained of 
 the future — all these sorrows rent the 
 heart of fficolampadius, and soon his 
 head and his life inclined sadly to the 
 tomb. " Alas !" cried he, " that Zwin- 
 gle, whom I have so long regarded as 
 my right arm, has fallen under the blows 
 of cruel enemies !"* He recovered, 
 however, sufficient energy to defend the 
 memory of his brother. " It was not," 
 said he, " on the heads of the most guilty 
 that the wrath of Pilate and the tower of 
 Siloam fell. The judgment began in 
 the house of God ; our presumption has 
 
 * Zwinglium nostrum, quern pro manu 
 altera nunc multo tempore habui. (Zurich 
 MS.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 845 
 
 been punished ; let our trust be placed 
 now on the Lord alone, and this will be 
 an inestimable gain." CEcolampadius 
 declined the call of Zurich to take the 
 place of Zwingle. " My post is here," 
 said he, as he looked at Basle. 
 
 He was not destined to hold it long. 
 Illness fell upon him in addition to so 
 many afflictions ; the plague was in the 
 city ; a violent inflammation attacked 
 him,* and erelong a tranquil scene suc- 
 ceeded the tumult of Cappel. A peace- 
 ful death calmed the agitated hearts of 
 the faithful, and replaced by sweet, tran- 
 quil, and heavenly emotions, the terror 
 and distress with which a terrible dis 
 aster had filled them. 
 
 On hearing of the danger of (Eco 
 lampadius, all the city was plunged into 
 mourning ; a crowd of men of every 
 age and of every rank rushed to his 
 house. " Rejoice," said the reformer 
 with a meek look, "I am going to a place 
 of everlasting joy." He then com- 
 memorated the death of our Lord with 
 his wife, his relations, and domestics, 
 who shed floods of tears. " This sup- 
 per," said the dying man, "is a sign of 
 my real faith in Jesus Christ my Re- 
 deemer." 
 
 On the morrow he sent for his col- 
 leagues : " My brethren," said he, " the 
 Lord is there ; he calls me away. Oh ! 
 my brethren, what a black cloud is ap- 
 pearing on the horizon — what a tempest 
 is approaching ! Be steadfast : the 
 Lord will preserve his own." He then 
 held out his hand, and all these faithful 
 ministers clasped it with veneration. 
 
 On the 23d November, he called his 
 children around him, the eldest of whom 
 was barely three years old. " Eusebius 
 Irene, Alethea," said he to them, as he 
 took their little hands, " love God who is 
 your Father." Their mother having 
 promised for them, the children retired 
 with the blessing of the dying servant of 
 God. The night that followed this scene 
 was his last. All the pastors were around 
 his bed : " What is the news ?" asked 
 CEcolampadius of a friend who came in. 
 " Nothing," was the reply. " Well," 
 said the faithful disciple of Jesus, " I 
 
 will tell you something new." His friends 
 
 *Ater carbunculus quovis carbunculo in 
 domo Dei splendidiorem perditit. (J. J. Hot- 
 tinger, iii. p. 634.) 
 
 awaited in astonishment. " In a short 
 time I shall be with the Lord Jesus." 
 One of his friends now asking him if he 
 was incommoded by the light, he replied, 
 putting his hand on his heart : " There 
 is light enough here." The day began 
 to break ; he repeated in a feeble voice 
 the 51st Psalm : Have mercy upon me, 
 O Lord, according to thy loving kindness. 
 Then remaining silent, as if he wished 
 to recover strength, he said, " Lord Jesus, 
 help me !" The ten pastors fell on thoir 
 knees around his bed with uplifted hands; 
 at this moment the sun rose, and darted 
 his earliest rays on a scene of sorrow so 
 great and so afflicting with which the 
 Church of God was again stricken.* 
 
 The death of this servant of the Lord 
 was like his life, full of light and peace. 
 CEcolampadius was in an especial degree 
 the Christian spiritualist and biblical di- 
 vine. The importance he attached to 
 the study of the books of the Old Testa- 
 ment imprinted one of its most essential 
 characters on the reformed theology. f 
 Considered as a man of action, his mo- 
 deration and meekness placed him in the 
 second rank. Had he been able to exert 
 more of this peaceful spirit over Zwingle, 
 great misfortunes might perhaps have 
 been avoided. But like all men of meek 
 disposition, his peaceful character yielded 
 too much to the energetic will of the 
 minister of Zurich ; and he thus renounc- 
 ed, in part at least, the legitimate in- 
 fluence that he might have exercised 
 over the reformer of Switzerland and of 
 the Church. 
 
 Zwingle and CEcolampadius had fallen. 
 There was a great void and great sorrow 
 in the Church of Christ. Dissensions 
 disappeared before these two tombs, and 
 nothing could be seen but tears. Luther 
 himself was moved. On receiving the 
 news of these two deaths, he called to 
 mind the days he had passed with Zwingle 
 and CEcolampadius at Marburg ; and 
 the blow inflicted on him by their sudden 
 
 De Joannis (Ecolampadis obitu, per Si- 
 monem Gryneum. (Epp. (Ecol. et Zwinglii, 
 libri iv.) 
 
 f See his Commentaries on Isaiah (1525), 1st 
 chapter; on Ezekiel (1527); Haggai, Zacha- 
 riah, Malachi (1527) ; Daniel (1530) ; and the 
 commentaries published after his death, with 
 interpretations on Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, 
 Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, and the 1st and 
 2d chapters of Micah. 
 
846 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 decease was such, that many years after jlakes, and even to their highest valleys. 
 
 'Now the noise was less, but the effect 
 greater. The Five Cantons, in close 
 alliance with Friburg and Soleure, form- 
 ed a perpetual league for the defence of 
 the ancient christian faith with the Bishop 
 of Sion and the tithings of the Valais ; 
 and henceforward carried their measures 
 in the federal affairs with boldness. But 
 
 deep conviction was formed at that 
 period in the hearts of the Swiss Reform- 
 ed. " Faith comes from God," said 
 they ; " its fortune does not depend on 
 the life or death of a man. Let our 
 adversaries boast of our ruin, we will 
 boast only in the Cross."* " God reigns," 
 wrote Berne to Zurich, " and he will not 
 permit the bark to founder." This con- 
 viction was of more avail than the victory 
 of Cappel. 
 
 Thus the Reformation, that had devi- 
 ated from the right path, was driven back 
 by the very violence of the blow into its 
 primitive course, having no other power 
 than the Word of God. An inconceiva- 
 ble infatuation had taken possession of 
 the friends of the Bible. They had for- 
 gotten that puv warfare is not carnal ; 
 and they had, appealed to arms and to 
 battle. But God reigns: he punishes 
 the churches ''and. the people who turn 
 aside from his ways." 'We have thus 
 taken a few stones, and piled them as a 
 monument on the battle-field of Cappel, 
 in order to remind the Church of the 
 great lesson which this terrible catastro- 
 phe teaches. As we bid farewell to this 
 sad scene, we inscribe on these monu- 
 mental stones, on the one side, these 
 words from God's Book : " Some trust in 
 chariots, and some in horses : but we will 
 remember the name of the Lord our God. 
 They are brought down and fallen : but 
 we are risen and stand upright." And 
 on the other, this declaration of the Head 
 of the Church : " My kingdom is not of 
 this ivorld." If, from the ashes of the 
 martyrs at Cappel, a voice could be 
 heard, it would be these very words of 
 the Bible that these noble confessors 
 would address, after three centuries, to the 
 Christians of our days. That the Church 
 has no other king than Jesus Christ ; that 
 she ought not to meddle with the policy 
 
 * Gloriantibus adversariis ruinam, new in 
 cruce gloriemur. (Ad GEcolamp. 29th Novem- 
 ber 1531. Zurich MS.) 
 
 he said to Bullinger : " Their death 
 filled me with such intense sorrow, that 
 1 was near dying myself."* 
 
 The youthful Henry Bullinger, threat- 
 ened with the scaffold, had been com- 
 pelled to flee from Bremgarten, his native 
 town, with his aged father, his colleagues, 
 and sixty of the principal inhabitants, 
 who abandoned their houses to the pillage 
 of the Waldstettes.f Three days after 
 this, he was preaching in the cathedral 
 of Zurich : "No! Zwingle is not dead !" 
 exclaimed Myconius ; " or, like the 
 phoenix, he has risen again from his 
 ashes." Bullinger was unanimously 
 chosen to succeed the great reformer. 
 He adopted Zwingle's orphan children, 
 Wilhelm, Regula, and Ulric, and 
 endeavoured to supply the place of their 
 father. This young man, scarcely 
 twenty-eight years of age, and who pre- 
 sided forty years with wisdom and bless- 
 ing over this church, was everywhere 
 greeted as the apostle of Switzerland.:}: 
 
 Yet as the sea roars long after the 
 violent tempest has subsided, so the peo- 
 ple of Zurich were still in commotion. 
 Many were agitated from on high. They 
 came to themselves ; they acknowledged 
 their error ; the weapons of their warfare 
 had been carnal ; they were now of a 
 contrite and humble spirit ; they arose 
 and went to their Father and confessed 
 their sin. In those days there was a 
 great mourning in Zurich. Some, how- 
 ever, stood up with pride, protested by 
 the mouth of their ministers against the 
 work of the diplomatists, and boldly stig- 
 matized the shameful compact. " If the 
 shepherds sleep, the dogs must bark," 
 exclaimed Leo Juda in the cathedral of 
 Zurich. " My duty is to give warning 
 of the evil they are about to do to my 
 Master's house. "§ 
 
 Nothing could equal the sorrow of this 
 city, except the exultation of the Wald- 
 stettes. The noise of drums and fifes, 
 the firing of guns, the ringing of bells, 
 had long resounded on the banks of their 
 
 * Decujusmortedoloremconcepi itaut 
 
 eorum casus me pene exanimaverit. (L. Epp. 
 t. p. 112.) 
 
 { Ne a quinque pagis aut obtruncarer aut 
 comburerem. (Bull, ad Myc. November 1531.) 
 
 X Haller ad Bulling. 1536. 
 
 § Ich mus bellen. (Bull. Hi. p 321.) 
 
SWITZERLAND— CATASTROPHE. 
 
 647 
 
 of the world, derive from it her inspira- 
 tion, and call for its swords, its prisons, 
 its treasures; that she will conquer by 
 the spiritual powers which God has de- 
 posited in her bosom, and, above all, by 
 the reign of her adorable Head ; that she 
 must not expect upon earth thrones and 
 mortal triumphs ; but that her march is 
 like that of her King, from the mango r 
 to the cross, and from the cross to the 
 crown : — such is the lesson to be read on 
 the blood-stained page that has crept into 
 our simple and evangelical narrative.* 
 
 But if God teaches his people great 
 lessons, he also gives them great deliver- 
 ances. The bolt had fallen from heaven. 
 The Reformation seemed to be no more 
 than a lifeless body cumbering the ground, 
 
 * Zvvingle's Pear Tree having perished, a 
 large rock has been placed over the spot where 
 this illustrious reformer died ; and on it are 
 engraved suitable inscriptions, different, how- 
 ever, from those in the text. 
 
 and whose dissevered limbs were about 
 to be reduced to ashes. But God raises 
 up the dead. New and more glorious 
 destinies were awaiting the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ at the foot of the Alps. At 
 the south-western extremity of Switzer- 
 land, in a great valley which the white 
 giant of the mountains points out from 
 afar; on the banks of the Leman lake, 
 at the spot where tin 1 Rhone, clear and 
 blue as the sky above it, rolls its majestic 
 waters; on a small hill that the foot of 
 Caesar had once trod, and on which the 
 steps of another conqueror, of a Gaul, of 
 a Picardine* were destined ere long to 
 leave their ineffaceable and glorious 
 traces, stood an ancient city, as yet cov- 
 ered with the dense shadows of Popery ; 
 but which God was about to raise to be 
 a beacon to the Church, and a bulwark 
 to Christendom. 
 
 * John Calvin of Noyon. 
 
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