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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF
Library of
Dean Charles R. Brown

MARTIN LUTHER
THE MAN AND HIS WORK

GT6

Copyright, 1910, 1911, by
The Century Co.

Published October, ign

The DeVinne Press

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O WHOSE INSIGHT AND HUMAN SYMPATHIES HAVE
HELPED ME TO INTERPRET ONE OF
$ THE MOST HUMAN OF THE
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER DJi_„
._ PAGE
i Boyhood and Youth  3
11 Life as a Monk  22
in Visit to Rome  37
iv Preacher, Professor, and District-
vicar  46
v The Awakening Reformer .... 66
vi The Attack on Indulgences .... 76
vn The Gathering Storm  101
vm The Beginning of the Conflict with
Rome  111
ix The Leipsic Debate  131
x The Developing Controversialist . . 147
xi The National Reformer  158
xn The Prophet of a New Faith . . . 172
xiii The Final Break with Rome . . . 181
xiv The Diet of Worms  191
xv At the Wartburg  210
xvi The Conflict with Radicalism . . . 228
vii

viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
xvn The Peasants' War  250
xviii The Break with Humanism .... 262
xix Marriage  273
xx Home Life  289
xxi The Formation of a New Church . 305
xxn Luther and Zwingli  325
xxiii At Coburg  336
xxiv Religion and Politics  348
xxv The Bigamy of the Landgrave Philip 361
xxvi The End and After  368

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Luther in 1526  Frontispiece FACING PAGE
Martin Luther's Father  4
Martin Luther's Mother  7
House at Eisleben shown as Luther's Birthplace ... 10
Bronze Statue of Martin Luther in Eisleben .... 13
The Lilie Inn at Erfurt, which Luther is said to have
frequented  17
The University at Erfurt, where Luther was a student 20
Johann von Staupitz  29
Cloister of the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt ... 32
Chapel of the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt ... 32
Pope Alexander VI  39
Pope Julius II  42
Present Appearance of the Market-place at Wittenberg 50
George Spalatin  55
Christopher Scheurl, the Jurist  58
Wittenberg on the Elbe, Saxony  63
Lucas Cranach, painted by himself  64
Pope Leo X, by Raphael  81
Albert, Prince of Brandenburg, Elector and Archbishop
of Mayence  85
Present Appearance of the Castle Church in Wittenberg 92
Dr. Pfeffinger  102
Frederick the Wise  I07

x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Exterior of the Cathedral at Augsburg  i*9
Cloisters of the Cathedral at Augsburg  119
Conrad Peutinger, the Augsburg Humanist  122
Exterior of the Fugger House at Augsburg  129
Jacob Fugger of Augsburg  *29
Maximilian I, Emperor of Germany  134
Francis I of France, defeated Candidate for the Im
perial Throne of Germany  139
Duke George of Saxony  •  *44
Ulrich von Hutten  167
The Ruins of Ebernburg, the Stronghold of Franz von
Sickingen  170
Franz von Sickingen  170
Luther in 1520  180
His earliest known likeness
Philip Melanchthon  189
Luther in 1521  197
The Luther Memorial at Worms  204
The Cathedral at Worms, which was standing in Lu
ther's time  204
Luther's Appearance while secluded in the Wartburg . 212
Western Side of the Wartburg  221
Pope Hadrian VI . . . . . .  230
Thomas Miinzer  235
A Letter from Luther to Thomas Cromwell .... 260
Erasmus  269
Luther's Wife, Katharine von Bora, in middle life . . 276
Luther's Wife, Katharine von Bora, in 1526 .... 285
Present Appearance of the Martin Luther House in
Wittenberg  292
Bugenhagen, 1537  301

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Ulrich Zwingli  326
Marburg Castle from the South  331
The Fortress of Coburg  „ 338
Luther's Room in the Coburg  351
Pope Paul III  355
Elector John Frederick, 1531  356
Landgrave Philip of Hesse in 1534  . . 365
Martin Luther in 1533  366
Martin Luther  370
Charles V, King of Spain and Emperor of Germany . 375
The House in Luther's Native Town, Eisleben, in which
he died  378
The Graves of Luther and Melanchthon in the Castle
Church at Wittenberg  383

MARTIN LUTHER

MARTIN LUTHER
THE MAN AND HIS WORK

CHAPTER I
boyhood and youth
GREAT men need not that we praise them; the
need is ours that we know them. They are our
common heritage. Whether we be of their faith or of
another, whether our fathers fought with them or with
their enemies, whether we stand where they stood or
have traveled far on ways they dreamed not of, we are
the richer that they lived.
This shall be a plain and literal tale. If its hero will
but speak for himself and we may enter into some
degree of intimacy and gain some measure of acquain
tance with him as he was, this writing will not be vain.
He was very human, this hero of ours, fiery-tem
pered, passionate, imperious, lovable withal, warm
hearted, and generous to a fault. Full of contradictions,
he had the frankness and carelessness of genius, and
what he was he showed, and what he thought he said,
without concealment or diplomacy. Like a Cromwell
or a Napoleon in his masterful will, he was like our
own Lincoln in his human sympathies, his simplicity of
character, his transparent honesty. Like him he was

4 MARTIN LUTHER
too in his quickness of perception, his quaint humor,
and his homeliness of speech.
He came, as so many of the world's great men come,
of peasant stock. "I am a peasant's son; my father,
my grandfather, and my great-grandfather were genu
ine peasants," he was accustomed to say, not without
a touch of pride, and in spite of his opinion that ".there
is as little sense in boasting of one's ancestry as in the
devil's priding himself on his angelic lineage." He
was of the common people and was glad of it. It was
one of the secrets of his power. "Rich folks' children,"
he once remarked, "seldom turn out well. They are
complacent, arrogant, and conceited, and think they
need to learn nothing because they have enough to live
on, anyway. On the contrary, poor men's sons must
labor to lift themselves out of the dust and must endure
greatly. And because they have nothing to boast about
or pride themselves upon, they trust God, control them
selves, and keep still. The poor fear God, therefore
He gives them good heads that they may study, become
educated and intelligent, and be able to assist princes,
kings, and emperors with their wisdom."
Luther's family was not of the lowest class. For
generations his ancestors had owned their house and
farm in the village of Mohra on the western side of
the Thuringian hills. There are still Luthers in the
same tiny hamlet, changed perhaps as little as the place
itself. Common custom, admirably careful of those
most needing care, made the youngest child heir
of the ancestral home, and Hans Luther, an older .son,
after marrying Margarethe Ziegler, a maiden of good
family from the neighboring town of Eisenach, went
out to seek his fortune in the larger world. Sign of
character that, and promise of more heroic venture in
his first-born. It does not need the wilds of a new-

From the painting by Lucas Cranach in the Wartburg-, Eisenach
MARTIN LUTHER'S FATHER

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 5
found land and leagues of untracked forest to make
the pioneer. From Mohra to Eisleben, the principal
town in the county of Mansfeld, where Hans and
Margarethe first tried their fate, was only a scant four
score miles, but it was the cast of the die. A new
home and a new life were theirs at once. The Mohra
boy became the founder of a new branch of his house
in a new land, and the farmer's son became a miner.
It was a rich and beautiful country. "Whom the Lord
loves He gives a home in the county of Mansfeld,"
runs an old proverb, and what was more to the point
in the eyes of Hans, mining was a prosperous industry
in the copper-veined hills of the eastern Harz.
In Eisleben the first child was born on the night of
the tenth of November, 1483. He was baptized the
next day and named Martin in honor of the saint
whose feast it was. Honor enough for any saint, and
honor enough it might seem for any town. But where
he first saw the light he came back to die, and Eisleben
still shows with reverent pride both house of birth and
house of death. Little she saw of him in the interval,
for when he was only six months old the hope of better
fortune led his parents to the neighboring town of
Mansfeld. Here they lived to a good old age, a sturdy
couple, "spare, small, and brown"; and here the boy
grew up under the shadow of dark and wooded cliffs
crowned by the castle of the counts of Mansfeld and
pierced by the shafts of the mines. It was a thriving,
busy place; a place of rude and arduous toil, with
fortunes, as fortunes went in that day, often easily
made and more easily lost.
For Hans and Margarethe worldly success came but
slowly. The means of the growing family were scant
enough. Often the mother was reduced to the un
wonted necessity of carrying home from the forest

6 MARTIN LUTHER
fuel for the hearth. But in time the days of narrow
circumstance passed. Industry, frugality, and integ
rity ultimately triumphed. Hans became the propri
etor of two furnaces of his own and the possessor of
a comfortable house in the principal street, and at his
death left a property by no means contemptible for the
time and place. He was a substantial man, with the
self-respect and pride of one who has bettered himself
in life by his own exertions.
It is often easy, in looking back, to find even in
humble parents traits that account more or less satis
factorily for the genius of a child far greater than
themselves. But it is only the child's career that makes
such traits conspicuous. No one, we may believe,
would have selected Hans and Margarethe for the par
ents of one of history's greatest figures. And yet the
honesty and sturdy common sense which made the
father a trusted friend of the counts of Mansfeld, and
a trusted counselor of the town, the vigor, courage,
and self-reliance which enabled him to win and keep
success, the sanity and independence which marked
his attitude toward religion, as toward other things in
life, gather significance in the light of what came after.
It was a characteristic reply he made to a priest who
was offering consolation as he lay critically ill, and
was exhorting him to make his peace with God by giv
ing money to the clergy : "I have many children. I will
leave my property to them ; they need it more." Pious
he was, in his way, and a loyal member of the church,
but he put the ordinary human obligations and respon
sibilities above all else and to them he was always
faithful. Significant also were the cheerful temper and whole
some humor of the mother. She looked always on
the brighter side of life, and met even bitter expe-

Copied from the original portrait by E. A. Schmidt
MARTIN LUTHER'S MOTHER
From the painting by Lucas Cranach in the Wartburg, Eisenach

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 7
riences with a smile. It was a favorite saying of hers,
which Martin loved to repeat, "If the world smiles not
on you and me the fault is ours." She was imaginative
and sensitive, the prey of all sorts of conflicting emo
tions, and she lived in devout and fearsome bondage
to much that her husband must have laughed at. Mans
feld, with its somber woods and cavernous hills, was
a congenial haunt of gnomes and fairies. Of the
blacker sort they were apt to be. "In the mines," as
Luther once said, "the devil teases and deceives
people, makes a racket, and calls up specters before
their eyes until they think they see a great h,eap of ore
and pure silver where there is none at all. For if he
can bewitch and fool men even above ground, by clear
day, in the light of the sun, so that things look other
than they are, he can do it still better in the mines."
Margarethe felt the spell of the evil spirits, and their
terror long lingered with the boy Martin. On one
occasion she thought herself and her children be
witched by an unfriendly neighbor, and there was
much ado to escape the curse.
Her oldest born was his mother's boy. When he
reached maturity he looked remarkably like her in face
and figure; and like her he was in temperament and
disposition, with the stability and strength of his
father's homely sense and obstinate will. In later
years his mother used to say with pride that he was a
dependable boy, the monitor of his brothers and sisters,
to whom they all looked up, the inseparable companion
and peculiar champion of his next younger brother,
James. Martin was not a pampered child. Hans and Mar
garethe took their parental responsibilities seriously
and interpreted them rigorously. Both at home and in
school discipline was harsh and sympathy scant for

8 MARTIN LUTHER
childish fun and frolic. The rule was that of the rod.
Looking back upon his childhood, the grown man
could see little of joy or cheer in it. Public opinion,
when he was young, was much stricter, he tells us,
than in later days in the matter of games, card-playing,
dancing, theater-going, and sports of various kinds,
and his parents were of the strictest. They believed in
work, not play. On one occasion, for taking a trivial
nut, he was beaten by his mother until the blood came.
Reflecting upon it in later years, he was accustomed to
assert with emphasis that discrimination and modera
tion ought to be specially exercised in the government
of children. With them "the apple ought always to
lie beside the rod." And the serious effect upon the
character of an over-strenuous discipline he depicted
in the words, "Where such fear enters a man in child
hood, it can hardly be rooted out again as long as he
lives. As he once trembled at every word of his father
and mother, to the end of his life he is afraid of a
rustling leaf."
It is difficult to associate such consequences with the
great reformer, whose courage was his most conspicu
ous trait, but he spoke out of his own experience, and
knew whereof he spoke. Though he recognized that his
parents loved him and meant well by him, their sever
ity made so painful an impression on him that in later
life he held them responsible for his unhappy resolution
to become a monk, and in his treatment of his own
children he tried to make up to them for the sympathy
he had lacked and the harshness he had suffered. And
yet he is not the only boy by any means in that day, or
this, who has been angered by a beating, and has found
it hard to be reconciled again to his father. And if
fifteen whippings in a single morning at school are
rather more than most are called upon to endure, in

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 9
Martin's case there may well have been exceptional
provocation. A merry, high-spirited boy he doubtless
was, mischievous, perhaps, and fond of practical jokes,
as in later years. Stupid and vicious he certainly was
not, and kindlier handling, as he often said, would
equally have met the need. Without doubt he was
treated as well as other boys of his class. That he was
to become a great man nobody then realized, and yet it
is only because he was a great man that we know any
thing about his boyhood trials and grievances, and, as
he himself appreciated, there are worse things, after
all, than rough treatment.
The public school, where he started so young that he
often had to be carried to and fro by an older com
panion, was poor enough. In such a town it is apt to
be. The methods were crude and the instructors ineffi
cient, and, as was too often the case, they tried to make
up for their own shortcomings by domineering treat
ment of the pupils under their care. The schools in his
boyhood were "hell and purgatory," Luther once said.
But the grown man who later condemned both school
and teachers unsparingly judged them from the van
tage-ground of a larger world and an improved sys
tem ; for in education, as in many other things, a new
world was in the making while he lived. Whereas in
his youth, he once declared, it took almost a lifetime
to acquire enough Latin to say mass, now children
studied it with pleasure and mastered the language
easily and rapidly. "Is it not known to everybody," he
wrote, with his customary vehemence, "that boys are
now so well prepared that in their fifteenth or eigh
teenth year they have more knowledge than they could
formerly get in all the high schools and cloisters put
together? What did they learn in those days except
to be donkeys, logs, and blocks ? They studied twenty

10 MARTIN LUTHER
and even forty years, and then knew neither Latin nor
German." That Martin was sent away to school to the city of
Magdeburg at thirteen, instead of being kept at home
to aid in the support of the family, speaks volumes
both for the boy and for his parents. It is true he once
confessed that he was not a success at mining. Not
altogether to his regret, Satan had begrudged him the
gift of discovering the hidden metal. Evidently he had
been obliged to try his hand at it while still a young
lad. His want of skill may have had something to do
with the decision to give him a schooling, but his men
tal gifts were the determining factor. Great things
were expected of him, and his father at least looked
forward to the time when he should hold the honorable
and lucrative position of legal adviser to the counts of
Mansfeld. His own advance in life gave him a natural
desire to see his eldest son rise still higher in the social
scale. Hans was no common miner, and Martin was
no common boy. The son's promise and the father's
hopes went hand in hand.
After the not uncommon fashion of the day, he car
ried little with him to Magdeburg beyond his parents'
blessing. Both there and in Eisenach, where he was
sent a year later, he begged and sang his way to food
and schooling. In Eisenach he sang his way to more
than both — the love and care of a woman's heart. His
beautiful eyes and voice first won the attention of Frau
Cotta, and she took him into her own home. Through
out his life both friends and foes always noticed his
eyes — dark and deep, as if harboring wonderful and
mysterious thoughts. And his voice in song and speech
alike possessed a quality to magnetize and charm. It
is little enough we know of the pretty idyl of his life
in the well-to-do Cotta family. Here he had his first

HOUSE AT EISLEBEN SHOWN AS LUTHER'S BIRTHPLACE. IT WAS
PARTLY DESTROYED BY FIRE AND REBUILT LATE
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH n
taste of culture and refinement and of the gentler
graces of life. From his foster-mother he learned the
beautiful proverb, "On earth no dearer thing than
woman's love to whom 't is given to possess," and he
used often to repeat it in later years as a memento of
his happy Eisenach days.
The influence of Martin's new environment was life
long. His intimate friendship with gentlefolk served
to temper such roughness and uncouthness as he
brought from the peasant's home and the mining town,
and fitted him for association with the greater world.
As a man he always showed extraordinary ease and
freedom in dealing with men of all classes. This was
certainly due at least in part to these formative years.
In Eisenach, too, he found school and teachers to his
liking. Trebonius, the principal, can have been no
common pedagogue. Upon entering the presence of
his classes he always removed his scholar's cap and
insisted his teachers should do the same, because of the
mayors, chancellors, doctors, and rulers of the future
who occupied the benches. The teaching was of the
best, and was in sharp contrast to the sort that Martin
had hitherto enjoyed, or suffered. He here came in
contact with the new humanistic spirit and methods for
the first time, and he distinguished himself among his
fellow-pupils for his aptitude in language and litera
ture. In the congenial atmosphere of home and school
he developed rapidly and used his social advantages to
so good effect and made such progress in his studies
that at seventeen he entered the University of Erfurt,
the greatest of the German universities of the day,
attractive enough to win many friends, and well
enough prepared to take his bachelor's degree at the
end of a year.
Here he encountered new experiences. Erfurt was

12 MARTIN LUTHER
a rich and populous city, in the heyday of its pros
perity, "plagued," as one of its preachers said, "with
plenty, as other places with want," proud of its wealth,
its fame, its stately buildings, prouder still of its uni
versity whose occasions were gala-days for the whole
town. Nothing else brings such joy in life, Luther
thought, as comes to the new graduate when, examina
tions successfully passed, he is escorted through the
streets in triumph by his fellow-students, with banners,
torches, and music, and is hailed Magister by the citi
zens that line the route. Splendid days those, when
the scholar was held in honor by all the world — stir
ring days they were, too, in university life. The new
humanism, with its devotion to classical learning, was
making rapid headway and was disputing the suprem
acy with the dominant scholasticism of the age. It was
not a time of stagnation. Champions of the one and
the other system were battling in friendly, sometimes
hostile, rivalry.
Erfurt boasted the presence of some of the greatest
representatives of both. Here one could study phi
losophy with Trutvetter, and the classics with Maternus,
and hither, to study with one or both, or with others
scarcely less famous, young men came from all parts
of the country and even from abroad. It was a cur
rent saying, "Who would study rightly must go to
Erfurt," and Luther himself, whose pride at being one
of its graduates was lifelong, declared with pardonable
exaggeration that the other universities were no more
than primary schools beside it. Into its stimulating
atmosphere he brought an eagerness and thirst for
knowledge which set him rapidly forward. At the
same time he threw himself with enthusiasm into the
life of the place. He carried a sword according to
common student custom, and dressed as his fellows

BRONZE STATUE OF MARTIN LUTHER IN EISLEBEN
By Siemering, unveiled in 1883 on the four-hundredth anniversary of Luther's birth

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 13
did. His father's circumstances had so improved that
he was able to keep him in comfort, and did not stint
him for money. Martin was no recluse. He was a
lovable, companionable fellow, witty and talkative. "I
say more in a day than the Emperor Charles in a
year," he once remarked in commenting upon the grav
ity and sobriety of the young monarch. Fond of joke
and jest he was too, and devoted to music, for which
he had a natural gift. When laid up for a short time
by an accident, he found an old lute in his chamber,
and before he was able to be out again learned to play
it well enough to make it a lifelong joy. Speaking of
music in later years, he called it one of the most beauti
ful and lordly gifts of God, ranking it next after theol
ogy in importance. And on one occasion he exclaimed
enthusiastically, "He who is musical is equal to any
thing." Martin's intimates were not all scholars, by any
means. He tells an amusing tale of a room-mate he
had for a couple of years who never did any studying.
Repeatedly admonished for his indolence, he sat down
one day book in hand, and after glaring at it for half
an hour, threw it on the floor and stamped on it in
anger, with the exclamation, "You would make me a
fool, would you? From studeo [to study] comes
stultum [foolish]. Study always breeds the fool."
Evidently there was more than mere study in our
hero's college life. And yet there is no sign that he
indulged in wildness or dissipation. That kind of
thing was never particularly to his liking, and he had
better and more important business on hand.
He came into intimate relations with a little circle of
"poets," as they called themselves, who gave much of
their time to the cultivation of the art of fine writing
after classic models, and met regularly to hear and criti-

14 MARTIN LUTHER
cize one another's effusions. But he found himself more
attracted by philosophy than by literature. Fair progress
was made in his humanistic studies, but he never cared
as much for form as for substance, and grammar he
always found irksome. The way he went about the
learning of Hebrew some years later was characteristic
of his general attitude, and, it may be added, of his
good sense. He paid little attention to grammatical
details, but read rapidly and copiously until he entered
into the spirit of the language, and could read it with
pleasure and sympathy.
Latin was the language of the class-room in Erfurt,
as everywhere else, and it became a second mother
tongue to him, as to all the scholars of the day; but
classical elegance in composition he never attained.
He often apologized for the rusticity and barbarity of
his Latin style, comparing himself in his correspon
dence with scholarly friends to a goose among swans.
Nor was this mere affectation of modesty, for he never
hesitated to boast of his knowledge of philosophy in
contrast with the ignorance of his contemporaries,
friends and foes alike. His mastery of his mother
tongue shows what he might have been as a Latin
stylist had he cared to make the effort. Even as it was
he wrote the language with fluency and with a vigor
and raciness seldom equaled by the best writers of his
day. He could use it well enough for all practical pur
poses ; for more than this he cared little.
He did not learn Greek until later and then only for
the Bible's sake. He was not singular in this. Few
even yet were carrying their classical zeal so far, and
the single teacher of Greek Erfurt boasted in his student
days— great center of humanistic culture though it was
— left the university during his first year. He loved the
old Latin authors, both moralists and poets. He read

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 15
them extensively and stored his retentive memory with
apt quotations which in after years he used to good
effect. One of the chief regrets of his days of con
troversy was his lack of leisure for such reading. The
practical wisdom of the ancients interested him most.
He was always a student of life. History and biog
raphy he was particularly fond of, and often lamented
the small attention given to both in the training of the
young. The reigning philosophy of the day was that of the
schoolmen, and to this he chiefly gave himself. Logic
absorbed a large part of the attention both of teachers
and pupils. Continual disputation sharpened the stu
dents' wits and gave them skill in debate. Martin
profited greatly by this exercise. He became one of
the most powerful and resourceful disputants of the
day, and always recognized with gratitude the value
of the training he had enjoyed. With the schoolmen,
theology and metaphysics went hand in hand, and if
form commonly meant more than substance, still their
study opened before the eager mind of the young
student all sorts of questions concerning the origin and
constitution of the universe, both spiritual and physical,
and with these questions he loved to busy himself. He
was known among his companions as "The Philos
opher," and his philosophical attainments were before
long the admiration of teachers and students alike.
The impression he made is illustrated by the remark
of the father of one of his intimates when Martin was
complaining of poor health and fearing an early
death : "Do not be afraid, my dear Baccalaureus. You
will live to be a great man." The words were casual
enough, no doubt, but they carry significance in the
light of their fulfilment, as they did to Luther himself,
who remembered and repeated them long after.

i9 MARTIN LUTHER
He did not particularly distinguish himself in his
work for the bachelor's degree. When he took it in the
summer of 1502, he was only thirtieth in a class of
fifty-seven. But two and a half years later, when he
got his M.A., he stood second in a class of seventeen.
The pride of the father over his son's success was al
most pathetic. He habitually addressed the young
magister, home for a recess after the degree was won,
with the ceremonious "you" of formal intercourse in
stead of the familiar "thou" of ordinary conversation.
His general education finished, Martin took up at
once, in accordance with his father's long-cherished
project, the study of law. But he had little liking for
it. In later years he could not say enough in dispraise
of the law and in contempt of the legal profession.
The toilsome gathering of precedents particularly irked
him, and he seemed to think it the lawyer's chief end
to devise means of defeating justice. "Jurists," he
declared, "commonly dispute and discuss about words.
They alter the facts and fail to go to the bottom of
them that the truth may be discovered. They say a
great deal and use many words, but without under
standing." "They take the money of the poor, and
with the tongue thresh out both their pocket and their
purse." They made bad Christians, he thought, and
few of them would be saved. But in this he put them
in no worse case than the speculative theologians. He
once remarked boastingly that if he had studied law
two years he would have known more about it than a
certain famous lawyer of the day. Without doubt he
would have distinguished himself, had he kept at it;
but the whole thing was little to his liking, and he soon
turned his back upon it. He did it in no ordinary way.
Luther's life was full of startling and unexpected
crises, and the first and most startling of them all came

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THE LILIE INN AT ERFURT, WHICH LUTHER IS
SAID TO HAVE FREQUENTED

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 17
in the summer of 1505, after he had been a law-student
for only a few weeks. He had just been home for
a brief visit. His progress in his work had been all
that could be desired, and his parents' pride and hope
were higher than ever, when suddenly, to the con
sternation of everybody and to the wrath of his father,
who was already thinking of an honorable marriage
for him which should still further improve his pros
pects, he threw it all up and went into a monastery.
The immediate occasion of this extraordinary step was
a terrific thunder-storm which overtook him just out
side the town when he was returning from his visit
home. In mortal dread of death, he threw himself
on the ground, crying to the patron saint of the miners,
to whom he had often turned in seasons of distress :
"Help, dear Saint Anna ! I will become a monk."
The vow so rashly made he hastened to put into
execution. Fearing lest he might repent, he made his
preparations as rapidly as he could, sold his books,
including the costly "Corpus Juris" with which he had
been equipped for professional study by his proud
father, gave a farewell dinner to his friends, and, in
spite of their pleas and protestations, entered the
Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, on the morning of
the seventeenth of July, when he was only twenty-one
years old.
This was the most momentous event in Luther's
career. Upon it hinged all that followed. It cut his
life in twain. Nothing could be more extreme than the
contrast between university and convent ; nothing more
unexpected than such a denouement for the brilliant
young law-student. And yet his conduct was natural
enough. One of the commonest and most normal facts
in human history is the experience we call conversion,
a profound crisis which overturns everything and

18 MARTIN LUTHER
brings to the surface what has hitherto lain dormant
or unnoticed ; which changes the direction of one's life,
and reshapes one's career. In all ages and in all re
ligions the experience has been familiar. Some forms
of faith make more of it than others, and sometimes
it occurs quite apart from all religious interest and
motive. But it is essentially the same even though its
outward fashion varies widely.
To such an experience the young Luther was pecul
iarly susceptible. He was a serious-minded boy. He
had been piously trained, and religion was a very real
thing to him. His imagination was peopled with angels
and demons, and his life was lived in constant depen
dence upon the aid and protection of the saints. He
was emotional by temperament, subject to fits of de
pression, and exposed to attacks of anxiety and dread
as to his fate which at times almost drove him wild.
Even as a child he was frequently distressed by his
sins and terrified by the fear of eternal punishment.
The harsh treatment he was early subjected to had
given him a timorous conscience and made him abnor
mally apprehensive. His friends had little inkling of
his unquiet frame of mind, but a fellow-student reports
that once when he was washing his hands the future
reformer remarked, "The longer we wash, the un-
cleaner we are." The words sound apocryphal in this
connection, but in any case it is evident enough that
beneath the smooth surface of his daily life there were
troubled waters.
In the spring of 1505 the reaction after his hard
study for the master's degree, his growing distaste for
the legal profession, the death of a student friend,
all united to make him particularly sensitive and im
pressionable. The crisis came suddenly, as it often
comes, and secret forebodings and half -articulate im
pulses in a moment crystallized into a clearly formed

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 19
purpose, and the solemn vow was registered — a vow of
devotion to a new career which has taken countless
young Catholics into the priesthood or the monastery
and countless young Protestants into the ministry or
the mission field.
That, in Luther's case, it should have been the mon
astery was inevitable. There religion was taken most
seriously, and, to one like him, nothing less would
answer. For centuries it had appealed with subtle and
persuasive eloquence to the finest and most sensitive
spirits. If things went wrong, if the world seemed
empty, as empty enough it often seems to the most
gifted and eager young souls as they stand hesitating
on its threshold, the call of the solitary life, the life of
the spirit,. invested as it was with a halo of sanctity,
came with almost irresistible fascination. Resisted it
might be, but all too often only at the expense of the
higher visions and the finer ideals of youth. The
realization of its spiritual purpose might be crude
enough in current monasticism and rude indeed the
awakening of many a trusting young neophyte. In
Luther's day its reputation was by no means unsullied.
By many a humanist the follies and stupidities and im
moralities of the monks were castigated in rollicking
jest or in bitter satire. It was a current proverb,
"What the devil is ashamed to do, a monk does without
shame," and to a contemporary bishop was attributed
the saying, "Into the monastery with him! He is
worth nothing either to God or man !"
But of all this Luther was little aware. In Mansfeld
the clergy bore an excellent reputation and were held
in general respect. His father was their friend, and his
mother a reverent admirer. In Magdeburg he had been
under the instruction of members of a semi-monastic
order, the Brethren of the Common Life, and while
there was profoundly impressed by the spectacle of a

20 MARTIN LUTHER
prince of Anhalt, emaciated by prolonged fasting, who
went through the streets in monastic garb begging
bread for the convent and staggering under the weight
of the sack he carried. The sight of him, Luther says,
aroused deep reverence in the onlookers and made
them ashamed of their worldly way of living. In
Eisenach there was a Franciscan monastery which had
received large gifts from the family of Frau Cotta.
Here Martin was kindly received, and among its in
mates he found benefactors and lifelong friends. In
Erfurt, with all its humanistic leanings, religious devo
tion was unbounded, and there were no fewer than
eight monasteries in the city. To the young Luther,
as to many of his friends, the monastic calling seemed
the holiest of all, and the glamour of its sanctity was
untarnished by suspicion or dislike.
He must frequently have thought of doing just what
he now did. The vow that sprang to his lips in a
moment of terror was only the utterance of a half-
formed purpose, often entertained, perhaps as often
struggled against. He spoke of it afterward as an
unwilling vow, forced upon him by a sign from heaven,
and his friends likened his experience to the mirac
ulous conversion of the apostle Paul. But it was no
mere precipitate resolution, made in haste and repented
at leisure. Sudden as it seemed even to himself, it had
been long preparing, and once in the monastery, he felt
at home and took up the monastic life with profound
relief as well as with unwavering devotion and exem
plary zeal.
Of all the monasteries in Erfurt, the Augustinian
bore the highest reputation for theological learning and
for public service. Its rules were not as severe as
some, and the young convert evidently did not choose
it from mere blind zeal for his soul's salvation. Its
inmates were the principal preachers of the town, and

re

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i/[«i;o(ivi. tr^fir

THE UNIVERSITY AT ERFURT, WHERE LUTHER WAS A STUDENT

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 21
were noted for charity and good works. Here he
believed he could put his talents to the best use, and
the event proved that he was right.
Fired with enthusiasm, he passed within the convent
doors and was buried to the world, as he believed, for
ever. His friends were stupefied. The happy, light-
hearted companion, with his frank good-fellowship
and his contagious merriment, how unfitted he seemed
for the monastic career ! But he was made for religion,
little as they suspected it, and thenceforth, to the end
of his days, his life was professionally and in reality
a religious life. What had hitherto been not lacking,
but secondary, now became primary and controlling
and dominated all his thought and activity.
The surprising thing about Luther's entrance into
the monastery was not the fact itself, but the lateness
of the conversion leading to it. The experience he
passed through is apt to come earlier in life, if it comes
at all. But Luther was later than most men in some of
the other experiences of his life as well as this, and it
was a happy thing for him that it was so. That the
coming reformer spent his most impressionable years
not within the walls of a cloister, but in the bracing
and expanding atmosphere of a great university, min
gling intimately with some of the brightest and most
eager minds of his age, sharing in their ambitions,
their labors, and their pleasures, was of incalculable
benefit to him and to the Protestant Church, whose
founder he became. Not in the monastery merely did
he get his training, and not out of its retired sanctity
alone did the great movement come. The larger world
had a hand in making it and him. Though set apart
by his monastic vow for more than fifteen years, he
never lost his touch with human interests. Devout and
zealous monk as he was, he was always more a man
than a monk.

CHAPTER II
LIFE AS A MONK
TO a young man of twenty-one who for four years
had breathed the free air of a great university,
and gone his own independent way, the monastic life
must have been peculiarly irksome. Hedged about it
was by the most minute and exacting rules. The con
vent was a training-school for manners as well as for
virtue and piety, and its regulations concerned the pet
tiest details of conduct. How to walk, to stand, to
speak, to dress, to eat, as well as how to pray — all was
carefully prescribed, and not a moment of the day was
left unprovided for. From the time of rising, long
before dawn, until the hour when lights must be out
and all in bed, nothing was left to individual choice,
and the novitiate at least was never alone, for all his
duties and devotions were performed under the con
stant supervision of others.
Humility and obedience were the virtues chiefly
aimed at. That the neophyte should be divested of all
pride and self-confidence, and should learn to have no
will of his own, was an indispensable preparation for
the true monastic life. "The monks," Luther says,
"sought to try one's obedience by requiring that un
reasonable, burdensome, childish, and foolish things
be done with willing and joyful hearts." Partly with
this in view, partly as a result of the natural desire of
the older monks to see their younger brethren undergo

LIFE AS A MONK 23
as much as they had endured, the most menial em
ployments were laid upon them. They were compelled
to sweep, scrub, and do kitchen and chamber work, and
if they showed disinclination to their tasks, only the
more was exacted of them.
The Augustinian was a mendicant order, and beg
ging was a part of its creed. It was doubtless some
thing of a trial to the young and brilliant master of
arts to go through the familiar streets clad in monastic
garb, with a sack on his back, begging bread from
house to house. At any rate, whatever he thought of
it, according to his friend and biographer Mathesius,
it seemed to the university authorities too great an
indignity to be put on one of their graduates, and at
their solicitation he was allowed to confine his begging
to the outlying villages. From his own lips, so far as
we can learn, were heard no complaints of the duties
laid upon him and of the humiliations to which he was
subjected. He performed his tasks without murmur
ing, and submitted without protest to the chastening
experiences of his new surroundings.
It may well be believed that his reputation and
attainments did not make his association with the other
inmates of the convent any easier. "My cloister bro
thers," he once remarked, "were annoyed at me because
I was a student. They said, 'As with me, so with
thee; put the sack on his neck.'" His enemies at a
later date accused him of overweening pride and self-
conceit, and he was apparently never very popular
with the Erfurt monks. Perhaps he was not so ami
able and companionable as he might have been, for the
contrast between the ambitious, eager, and talented
friends he had left and most of those with whom he
was now thrown was very marked. Earnest as he was
in his desire to give himself to religion, and willingly

24 MARTIN LUTHER
as he assumed the burdens and endured the discipline
of his self-chosen calling, he could hardly find it easy
to recognize his new brethren as his equals and to
reconcile himself to lifelong association with them;
and if he held more or less aloof, it was only natural
in the circumstances. But, despite all, his resolution
did not waver. He was given plenty of time and op
portunity to change his mind and return to the world.
He was not allowed to become a novitiate until autumn,
and more than a year elapsed before he took the irrev
ocable vow and was enrolled as a full member of the
order. Until then he might at any time have with
drawn. Thereafter to do so was a crime in the eyes
both of church and state.
The solemn ceremony attending the taking of the
threefold vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience pro
duced upon him an impression never effaced. Before
the assembled monks he was obliged to swear : "I,
Brother Martin, make profession and promise obedi
ence to Almighty God, to the Holy Virgin Mary, to
the Holy Father Augustine, and to thee the prior of
this convent, who standest in the place of the General
of the Order, to live until death in poverty and chas
tity, according to the rule of the said Father Augus
tine." In later years he repeatedly recalled this oath with
trembling, and the ease and light-heartedness with
which many of his friends and followers severed their
monastic ties, when the great break with Catholicism
came, shocked him exceedingly even after he himself,
with much searching of heart, had turned his back
upon the convent life.
The Erfurt cloister was one of the principal theo
logical schools of the Augustinian order, and thither
young monks came from far and near to pursue their

LIFE AS A MONK 25
studies. To his superiors Luther seemed fitted for the
career of a theologian both by his natural ability and
by his university training, and accordingly as soon as
he had taken the vow he began to prepare himself for
the priesthood. He was ordained in the spring of
1509, and on the second of May conducted mass for
the first time. According to common custom, the event
was celebrated with much pomp. "The first mass,"
Luther says, "was regarded as a great affair. It
brought in much money, until it fairly rained gold. It
was a regular net to catch offerings and presents. The
canonical hours were celebrated with torches. The
young priest danced with his mother, if she was still
alive, while the onlookers fairly wept for joy. If she
was dead, he said a mass for her and freed her from
purgatory." In Luther's case a banquet was given in the monas
tery, to which his family and friends were invited, and
he and his father met for the first time since his last
visit home on the eve of his withdrawal from the
world. Wishing to honor the occasion duly, and per
haps to impress the monks with his importance, Hans
Luther appeared upon the scene with a cavalcade of
twenty horses, a number of friends from Mansfeld,
and a substantial present for the monastery. It had
taken him a long time to forgive his son and receive
him again into favor. His disappointment and anger
were too deep to be easily assuaged. His friends had
done everything they could to bring about a reconcilia
tion, reminding him that the best one has is none too
good to offer to the Lord and that he ought to be proud
to give his oldest and most promising son; but Hans
was obdurate and refused to be mollified or comforted.
Finally the death of two of his younger boys and the
unfounded report that Martin, too, had succumbed to

26 MARTIN LUTHER
the plague softened the stern old miner's heart. Even
now, however, he was only partly resigned to the situa
tion, and he did not hesitate to let it be known. At the
banquet his feelings found expression in the impatient
exclamation, "I must sit here and eat and drink when
I should much rather be anywhere else." When Mar
tin tried to justify himself, he remarked dryly, "Have
you not heard a child should honor his father and
mother?" While to the protest that he had been driven
into the monastery by a sign from heaven, his only
reply was, "God grant it was not a lying and devilish
specter." These words of his father Luther never forgot.
They caused him much anguish of spirit. Doubts of
the wisdom and righteousness of his course began to
trouble him, and he gave himself with increasing ardor
and devotion to the duties of his new calling, trying to
still his conscience and win the approval of God. If
up to this time the novelty of the monastic life, the
multitudinous tasks it involved, and the constant asso
ciation with others by night and by day, had kept him
from thinking much about himself, he now began to
suffer a return of his old anxiety and depression. The
rules required the monk, after his novitiate was past,
to be much alone, engaged in prayer and self-examina
tion. Luther was given a cell of his own, a seven-by-
nine room quite bare of ornaments and comforts, with
a single small window looking out upon the graveyard
of the convent. Daily confession was a part. of his
duty, and the introspection thus promoted, good as it
might be for many a man, was the worst possible
thing for one of his disposition. Periods of despon
dency and despair a youthful genius such as he would
have had to suffer anywhere: in the solitude of the
cloister they were doubly frequent and severe. His

LIFE AS A MONK 27
need was to be doing things. Inaction always chafed
and fretted him, and for one of his heroic mold,
who was built for large and strenuous deeds, the petty
employments of the monastery, when the halo of the
place had somewhat paled, were only mockery. Not
content with them, he gave himself to hard study and
particularly to ascetic practices of the most extreme
kind. Like many another monk denied the legitimate
exercise of his powers in a larger field, he sought satis
faction in heroic deeds of self-mortification. He once
said : "If ever a monk gained heaven by his monkery,
I must have done so. All the brethren who knew me
will bear me witness. For I should have martyred my
self, if I had kept it up longer, with watching, praying,
reading, and other labors."
It was characteristic of him that he did not leave
it to others to prescribe how he should live. He had
chosen the monastic career despite his father's very
different plans for him, and in the convent, faithful as
he was in discharging the required duties, he was not
content therewith, but must go his own independent
way, marking out the path of holiness for himself.
He fasted for days at a time, and spent night after
night without sleep, until wakefulness became a con
firmed habit and at times fears were entertained for
his reason. If he had had anything but an iron consti
tution, he could not have stood what he did. As it
was, he permanently injured his health, and laid up
much physical suffering for his later years.
His ascetic practices gained- him a reputation for
piety far beyond the walls of the monastery. He was
held up as a model of holiness to monks and nuns of
other and distant convents, and the odor of his sanc
tity penetrated even to the outer world. With it all
his anxiety and distress only increased. He had en-

28 MARTIN LUTHER
tered the monastery not, like many another, because he
coveted the solitary life or craved holiness and longed
to give himself to religious exercises, but from fear of
the divine wrath. This made him abnormally appre
hensive and prevented him from finding joy and satis
faction in his self-imposed tasks. He was beset always
with anxiety lest he was not doing enough to propitiate
an angry Deity, and he knew nothing of the delight of
quiet meditation upon spiritual things and intimate
fellowship with a gracious God. The harder he tried
to take the divine favor by storm, the greater became
his despair. Instead of winning the righteousness he
was feverishly pursuing, he found his offenses multiply
ing day by day. Not that he was really growing worse,
but in the monastery many things were considered
wicked with which the ordinary man had no concern.
At the time he said his first mass he was so overcome
with dread lest he make a mistake in word or gesture,
and thus commit a mortal sin, that he almost fled from
the altar. The experience is a common one with those
who have some public duty to perform for the first
time, but mistakes in such a case are not usually inter
preted as sins. It was Luther's religious reading of
the situation that made it particularly harrowing.
And not simply was the sacred ceremony of the
mass beset with danger to his sensitive conscience, the
minute monastic code of manners and morals offered
him abundant opportunity for sin. Nothing could well
be ethically more unwholesome than to interpret any
violation of its thousand and one precepts as an offense
against God, and it is not surprising that the young
monk who was thus interpreting them grew more and
more morbid. Above all, he was troubled because he
could not control his thoughts and feelings. Not exter
nal acts alone seemed evil, but wandering mind and

JOHANN VON STAUPITZ
Portrait in possession of the Benedictine Convent of St. Peter
at Salzburg

LIFE AS A MONK 29
unruly emotions and especially the all too frequent
lack of real joy and exultation in his devotions.
His unhappiness, to be sure, was not constant.
Speaking of his own experiences at a later time he
once said : "I know a man who has often, though only
for brief periods, suffered the pains of hell such as no
tongue or pen could describe and no one could believe,
if he had not himself felt them. If they had lasted for
a half or even a tenth part of an hour, he would have
perished altogether and his bones would have crumbled
to ashes." In the very nature of the case such agony
could not continue indefinitely. There were periods
when he was well satisfied with himself and enjoyed
peace with God and his own conscience; seasons, too,
when he was thinking of other things and sharing in
the every-day interests of convent life. We get many
hints in his writings that the Erfurt monastery was the
scene, as we should expect it to be, of much good-
fellowship and pleasant recreation. In the common
room there was plenty of mirth and jollity. Stories
and jokes enlivened the conversation, and relieved even
for him the tension of monastic discipline. It was a
motto of the shrewd and urbane nobleman Von Stau-
pitz, Vicar-General of the Augustinian order, who was
a welcome guest at many a princely board, "Reverent
in worship, merry at table," and though the cloister
rules enjoined silence at meals, the spirit of the motto
was doubtless observed by his monks. Luther himself
had too keen a sense of fun not to enjoy this side of
life. He has preserved for us many amusing monastic
tales, often grotesque, sometimes coarse, which he
heard in his convent days. The devil figures largely in
them. Without his satanic highness we cannot imagine
how the brothers could have got along. He filled the
place sometimes assigned to the monks themselves in

30 MARTIN LUTHER
similar tales which passed current outside the monas
tery walls.
But in spite of all the good-fellowship and common
human pleasures, Luther's distress was continually
recurring. Very likely his periods of mental suffering
loomed unduly large in his memory as he looked back
upon them in later years. Unconsciously he may easily
have exaggerated their frequency and intensity. But
the experiences he recounts are just what might have
been expected in one of his temperament and disposi
tion, and there can be no doubt they were severe and
excruciating enough. His reading of Paul and Augus
tine, in the course of his theological study, gave rise to
the fear that he was one of the reprobate and his suffer
ings the agony of the damned — a fear which has fre
quently brought torment to morbid and overwrought
souls. Instead of loving God, he turned away from
Him in horror and wished there were no God. Even
Christ was read in the same somber terms, and the
sight of a crucifix frightened him, he says, like a
thunderbolt. His state of mind gave his superiors much concern.
Few were able to understand him. Some thought him
unbalanced in mind; others suspected he was under
the control of evil spirits. In later days his enemies
pointed to his unhappy experiences in the convent as
proof of demoniacal possession, and he himself inter
preted them as assaults of his lifelong antagonist, the
devil. Now and then he found help from one or another
brother. Having complained to his preceptor of the
troubles he was enduring, he was comforted by the
reply, "Son, what are you doing? Do you not know
that the Lord Himself has commanded us to hope?"
On another occasion an old confessor, when he found

LIFE AS A MONK 31
him tormenting himself with all sorts of sins that were
no sins, brought him up sharply with the admonition :
"You are a fool. God is not angry with you ; it is you
who are angry with God." But it was from Staupitz
permanent relief came. He was greatly interested
in Luther's case, and conceived a strong admira
tion and affection for the passionate and perturbed
young spirit. He once remarked that he had never felt
any such troubles, but so far as he could see, they were
more necessary to Brother Martin than food and drink.
When Luther wrote him, "Oh, my sin, my sin, my
sin !" he replied : "You wish to be without sin, and you
have no real sin. Christ is the forgiveness of genuine
sins like parricide, blasphemy, sacrilege, adultery, and
so on. Those are true sins. You must have a cata
logue with real sins written in it if Christ is to help
you. You must not go about with such trifles and
trumpery and make a sin out of every inadvertence."
He told Luther frankly he did not know what to do for
him, but his influence was very helpful, nevertheless.
He succeeded in delivering him from the fear that he
was reprobate by convincing him that his distresses
were sent him for his own good, in order to train him
for an important career ; and what was still more, he
led him to believe that God was merciful and forgave
freely the one who threw himself on Christ in faith and
ceased to trust in his own merits. This was no new
idea. On the contrary, it had been the comfort of
multitudes of pious souls in every age, but, driven by
the harsh discipline of his early life to see God only
in the aspect of a stern judge, Luther had hitherto been
altogether blind to it. Gradually, under Staupitz's
tutelage, his eyes were opened, and a new gospel
dawned upon his gaze.
His liberation from despair was not immediate, nor

32 MARTIN LUTHER
was it accomplished by a mere word. Long after
ward, when faith in God's forgiving love had com
pletely displaced his early notions, he still suffered
at times from religious depression, and had to contend,
as he thought, with the assaults of Satan, in the shape
of bitter doubts and fears. It was more than a new
gospel he needed — engrossing occupation, release from
constant thought of self, opportunity for work and
service fitted to his powers. This, too, Staupitz under
stood, and soon summoned him to a new field and to
the absorbing tasks of a busy and useful life.
The University of Wittenberg was founded in 1502
by the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise. In the
division of Saxony in 1485 between the two brothers
Ernest and Albert, — when Ernest fixed the shares, and
Albert took his choice between them, — the electoral
dignity fell to the older son, but Leipsic, with its uni
versity, to the younger. Electoral Saxony was thus
left without a university, and to repair the loss Freder
ick established his in 1502. The new institution owed
its charter to the emperor, not to the pope, and enjoyed
a greater degree of academic freedom than would
otherwise have been the case ; but there was no thought
of making it a harbor of radical ideas, and its profes
sors were obliged to take the common oath that they
would teach nothing contrary to the established doc
trines of the church. The elector was fortunate in
securing some of the celebrated teachers of the day,
among them the learned physician and humanist
Pollich of Leipsic and the scholastic philosopher Trut-
vetter of Erfurt. In fact, both the old and the new
learning were fairly represented, and the infant uni
versity bore good promise of prosperity and usefulness.
The prospectus of 1507 shows that the noble art of

CLOISTER OF THE AUGUSTINIAN MONASTERY IN ERFURT,
APPROXIMATELY AS IT WAS IN LUTHER'S TIME

CHAPEL OF THE AUGUSTINIAN MONASTERY IN ERFURT

LIFE AS A MONK 33
advertising is not a monopoly of modern times.
"Those who are eager for knowledge should come to
Wittenberg. The air is excellent, the plague is entirely
past, and living is cheap, costing only eight gold gulden
a year. There one can learn not only science, but also
the best manners. The university, moreover, has re
ceived from pope and emperor all the privileges and
advantages enjoyed by the most ancient schools, and
one may be assured that not even Padua or Bologna,
the mother of them all, possesses a greater number of
learned men."
Wittenberg, which shared with Torgau the honor of
being an electoral residence, was selected as the site
of the university partly because the funds of the
wealthy castle church could be used for its sup
port, partly because there was an Augustinian mon-
. astery there which could be relied upon for teachers
of philosophy and theology. Its ecclesiastical con
nections were therefore very close. Staupitz was one
of Frederick's chief advisers in the matter, and he
assumed a professorship and became the first dean of
the theological faculty. In furtherance of the elector's
plan, he called to Wittenberg competent monks from
other places to aid in the work of instruction. He also
made the convent a school for advanced theological
training such as the Erfurt monastery had long been,
and, as a result, young Augustinians came in large
numbers to complete their studies and to enjoy at the
same time the advantages of the new university.
Among those drafted for the work of instruction
was the young Luther, who was brought thither in the
autumn of 1508 to.teach Aristotelian logic and ethics.
A few months afterward he wrote his friend Braun of
Eisenach that philosophy was distasteful to him and
he much preferred theology— "that theology, namely,
[yale DivSrF school!

34 MARTIN LUTHER
which explores the kernel of the nut, the heart of the
wheat, and the marrow of the bone." The contrast
between this and his early love of philosophy is worthy
of notice, and shows the influence of his years in the
monastery. His wish to teach theology was already in
the way of being gratified, for a few days before he
wrote he took the bachelor's degree, giving him
the right to lecture on certain biblical books assigned
by the faculty. There is an entry in the university
records to the effect that he failed to pay the required
fee. Later he himself appended the explanation that
he had no money to pay it with. He was still bound by
his oath of perpetual poverty; he lived in the monas
tery and received nothing for his teaching. His inabil
ity to meet the requirements in this matter is therefore
not surprising, and was probably not counted to his
discredit. It cannot be doubted that, in summoning him to
Wittenberg, Staupitz was moved by the desire to take
him out of himself and give him an engrossing occupa
tion in the midst of new scenes; but of course the
appointment would have been impossible had he not
already given promise of fitness for the place. He had
been a faithful and zealous student, and the reputation
brought with him from the university had been en
hanced by his growing attainments both in philosophy
and theology. He was very diligent in the study of
William of Occam and other schoolmen and, according
to his friend Melanchthon, almost knew by heart the
writings of Peter D'Ailly and Gabriel Biel. The latter,
but recently deceased, was the pride of the University
of Erfurt and the favorite schoolman of the age in
Germany. Luther's studies also embraced the writings of the
church fathers and particularly the Bible, to which he

LIFE AS A MONK 35
was becoming more and more attached. It was in his
twentieth year, he tells us, that he first saw a complete
copy of the Scriptures in the university library at
Erfurt. He had hitherto supposed they embraced only
the lessons read in the public services, and was de
lighted to find much that was quite unfamiliar to him.
His ignorance, it may be remarked, though not excep
tional, was his own fault. The notion that Bible
reading was frowned upon by the ecclesiastical authori
ties of that age is quite unfounded. To be sure, it was
not considered part of a Christian's duty, as it is in
many Protestant churches, and few homes possessed
a copy of the Scriptures ; but they were read regularly
in church, and their study was no more prohibited to
university students of that day than of this, and was
probably as little practised by most of them then as
now. The theological professors of Erfurt differed widely
in their estimate of Bible-study. Some favored it,
ascribing to the biblical writers an authority superior
to the fathers and schoolmen; others advised against
it, because everything of value in the Bible could be
found in the writings of the theologians, and its study
was apt to foster pride and promote a seditious and
revolutionary spirit. Staupitz heartily believed in it,
and made it an important part of the requirement in
the theological course of the Erfurt monastery. A red-
leather copy of the Vulgate was put into Luther's
hands soon after he entered the convent, and he studied
it with such diligence that he knew it, so he says, from
cover to cover and could tell exactly where every pas
sage was to be found.
At the time he took up his work in Wittenberg it
was a small and mean town of some three thousand
inhabitants. It was walled and somewhat strongly

36 MARTIN LUTHER
fortified, and the elector, who was an indefatigable
builder, had beautified it with a number of imposing
structures; but it still resembled a poor village rather
than a city, and the contrast with Erfurt was extreme.
The country, moreover, was flat and sandy, very unlike
the beautiful Thuringian hills, from which Luther had
come. His first impressions were distinctly unfavor
able. He wondered why a university should have been
established in so unpromising a place, and was sure
it was due to the sins of the early settlers that they
were cursed with such a land. He found the people
cold and inhospitable as well as ignorant and boorish.
The place lay, he thought, on the very edge of civiliza
tion, and a few miles to the north and east would have
meant pure barbarism. But it was here he made his
home for the greater part of his life, and it was here
the Reformation had its birth.

CHAPTER III
VISIT TO ROME
IN the autumn of 151 1, after his return from a stay
of nearly two years in Erfurt, whither he had gone
apparently to teach theology in his old monastery,
Luther was suddenly despatched to Rome by Staupitz.
The Vicar-General's plans for effecting certain changes
in the administration of the Augustinian order in Ger
many were opposed by some of the convents, and he
consequently wished to lay the matter before the curia.
The monastic rules required the brethren to travel two
by two, and Luther went as the companion of an older
monk, who was intrusted with the chief responsibility
for the business in hand. That Luther was selected
to accompany him was another mark of his superior's
favor, for a journey to Rome was one of the rarest
and most highly coveted privileges that could fall to
the lot of any monk. Not merely the natural interest
attaching to foreign travel, but the opportunity to visit
scenes made sacred by apostles and martyrs, and to
gain the boundless merit awaiting the believing pilgrim
to the many illustrious shrines of the Eternal City,
made a journey to Rome an event in the life of the
pious equaled only by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
The fortunate young monk set out with eager enthu
siasm, and traveled with open ears and eyes. The
fascination of the goal did not prevent his seeing and
hearing many things on the way. The journey was
37

38 MARTIN LUTHER
made on foot, the two companions walking one behind
the other, with bowed heads, murmuring their prayers
as they went, and food and lodging were found in the
monasteries that everywhere lined the principal routes
of travel. It was a tramp of twelve or thirteen weeks,
as a rule, going and coming. The two monks traveled
leisurely, and took five months for the trip, including
four full weeks in Rome. We have no connected
account of the journey, but Luther referred to it
frequently in later years, and it is interesting to notice
the things he particularly saw and heard.
He found the Southern Germans obliging and hos
pitable and contrasted them with the unfriendly
Saxons, who, when a traveler appeared, would greet
him with the words : "My dear sir, I don't know what
I can give you to eat. My wife is away from home,
and I cannot put you up." The scenery of Switzerland
apparently moved him little, — the age had not awak
ened to its beauty and grandeur, — but he noticed the
countless herds of cattle, the industry and frugality of
the people, and the good roads making travel easy.
"In Switzerland," he once remarked, "they have the
shortest miles."
In Italy he had many of the sensations of one visit
ing for the first time a country of an older and more
mellow civilization than his own. In comparison with
the Italian peninsula, the Germany of that age was
rude and uncouth enough. He was astounded at the
wealth and luxury of the people, who had more de
licious things to eat on fast days than the Germans on
feast days, and he was particularly envious because of
the elegance of their clothing. It pained his eyes, he
remarked years afterward, to see his own countrymen
in trousers like a ruffled pigeon, hopping about in a
short coat like a magpie.

POPE ALEXANDER VI
Detail from a painting in Rome by Pinturicchio

VISIT TO ROME 39
He was much struck with the fruitfulness of the
land and could not say enough of its high state of
cultivation and the superior methods of agriculture
employed. The size of the grapes, peaches, and other
fruits excited his admiration, and the olives and
lemons which grew in the most unpromising places
became the text for many a sermon of later years. The
Po, whose like he had never seen, he called a prince
among rivers— "A merry water, with the Alps and
the Apennines on either side." For all the beauty and
fertility of the country, the air, he discovered, was
very treacherous. One night he and his companion
slept with open windows and awoke in the morning
with fever and a raging thirst, and found themselves
obliged to drink water, "deadly as it was," because
they could not endure even the smell of wine. They
were finally cured, he avers, by eating a couple of
pomegranates. The sweetness of the Italian language delighted him,
and he picked up many expressions which he remem
bered as long as he lived. He was a natural linguist,
but admits he could not vie with the Flemish, of whom
it was said, "If they were carried through Italy or
France in a sack, they would learn the language on
the way." Like many another traveler in a foreign
land, he thought the Italians knew their own tongue
very imperfectly, and was outraged by the bad Latin
of the monks, whom he condemned as a set of igno
ramuses because, it may be supposed, they spoke it
otherwise than he !
He was greatly impressed with the hospitals and
other charitable institutions. "In Italy," he said, "the
hospitals are very well fitted out and excellently built.
The food and drink are good, the servants diligent, the
physicians learned, the beds and clothing beautifully

40 MARTIN LUTHER
clean, and the rooms finely painted. As soon as a
patient is brought in, his garments are removed and an
accurate record of them made by a notary, and they
are carefully kept for him until he has recovered. He
is clothed in a white frock and laid in a beautiful, well-
made bed with clean sheets. Soon two physicians are
called, and attendants appear with food and drink in
clean dishes and glasses which they do not touch even
with the tips of their fingers. Women of good birth
are also on hand, carefully veiled that they may not be
recognized, who spend several days in turn caring for
the sick, and then return home. All this I saw in
Florence, so well kept were the hospitals there. The
foundling asylums are also similarly managed. Chil
dren are nourished, trained, and educated in the best
possible fashion, and are well clothed and most care
fully watched over." A fine tribute, this, to the Ital
ians, and an illuminating commentary on the conditions
that must have existed by contrast in Germany.
The characters and manners of the people also inter
ested him. He found them much more temperate than
the Germans, but tricky, cunning, and suspicious, not
open and trustful like his own countrymen. Their
more formal and conventional social customs seemed
unpleasant to him in comparison with the greater free
dom and familiarity of the Germans, and pointed, he
thought, to a corruption of morals unknown in the
North. One seems almost to hear a New England
Puritan speaking of the impressions of his first trip
to Europe. The pride of the people and their con
tempt for the Germans, whom they laughed at for their
stolidity, simplicity, and lack of culture, greatly an
noyed him. In revenge he speaks with the utmost
scorn of the nervousness and excitability of the Italians,
and the noise they made over the smallest trifles.

VISIT TO ROME 41
It was like him to take the brothers sharply to task,
as he is reported to have done in one of the convents
where he stopped overnight, for their lax observance
of the prescribed rules of fasting. As a result of his
well-meant efforts, he almost lost his life, escaping only
by the aid of a friendly porter. The incident did not
increase his confidence either in the piety or the virtue
of the Italians. He brought back, indeed, a very poor
opinion of the religious and moral condition of the
country. Vice was shamefully prevalent, the churches
were almost deserted, and the use of the phrase "a
good Christian" to denote a harmless but weak-minded
person seemed typical of the general attitude.
Approaching Rome from the north, the traveler by
the highroad catches his first glimpse of the city some
half-dozen miles away, where the road slopes gradu
ally toward the Tiber. Here Luther, overcome with
emotion, threw himself on his knees and cried : "Hail,
Holy Rome ! Thrice holy thou in whom the blood of
the martyrs has been poured out !" Over the Milvian
bridge the two companions made their way and entered
the city by the Porta Flaminia. Just inside it stood the
Augustinian monastery, where they were to stay, and
the church of Maria del Popolo, where, according to
tradition, Brother Martin said his first mass within
the city walls. A contemporary guide-book intended
for the use of pilgrims, a copy of which was very
likely in his hands as he went about the city, gives a
very characteristic account of the origin of the church :
Where the church is, there once stood a great walnut-
tree in which devils made their home. Whoever hap
pened to pass by they vilified and slandered, and no one
knew who did it. It was revealed to St. Pascal the pope
that he should cut down the tree and build a church in its
place to the honor of our dear Lady. The pope therefore

42 MARTIN LUTHER
went to the Porta Flaminia with a great procession of
clergy and laity and rooted the tree out of the earth.
Under it there was found a coffin containing the body of
the wicked Nero, who put St. Peter and St. Paul to death
with many other Christians. The same Nero set fire to
Rome in twelve places that he might see how great a
conflagration it would make. The Romans consequently
wished to put him in prison, but he stabbed himself, and
was buried in the above-mentioned place. Afterward
Pope Pascal burned to ashes the body of the wicked Nero
and the walnut-tree, and exorcised ail the devils that were
in the tree, and built a church, which was called Maria
del Popolo because of the multitude of people there.
The business which brought the two monks to Rome
seems not to have taken much of Luther's time. He
praises the admirable methods of the curia and its
celerity and skill in despatching business, but he was
interested chiefly in other things, and during his four
weeks in the city he was an eager and indefatigable
sight-seer. For Italian art, then at the zenith of its glory, he
had little appreciation. It could hardly be expected that
he would, and he never pretended an interest he did not
feel. For ancient Rome he had more of an eye. Then, as
now, only broken fragments of it remained. Rome, he
said, "is like a dead carcass compared with its former
state, for houses now stand where were roofs in other
days, so deep is the debris. This can beclearly seen by the
banks of the Tiber, which are piled two spear-lengths
high with rubbish." He spent two weeks visiting all
the ruins, at the peril of his life, for they were a
favorite haunt of brigands, who levied heavy toll of
purse and limb upon pious and worldly alike. The
Pantheon, the Colosseum, the baths of Diocletian, and
the aqueducts spanning the Campagna with their

From a photograph by Anderson
POPE JULIUS II, AFTER THE PAINTING BY RAPHAEL IN THE
UFFIZI GALLERY, FLORENCE

VISIT TQ ROME 43
gaunt arches, interested him most. He wondered that
the ancients were able to accomplish so much, and to
attain so high a degree of civilization, without a know
ledge of the true God, and the transformation of the
heathen Pantheon into a Christian church gave him
congenial food for moralizing. And yet he was alive
to the greatness of the old world, and his admiration
for it speaks through all he says. If he did not bring
to Rome the enthusiastic devotion to the classical an
tique that marked the humanists of the day, he at least
had a knowledge of human history and a fondness for
it which made its dead monuments alive with interest.
But he was more devotee than sight-seer, and the
greater part of his stay in Rome was spent in visiting
churches and other sacred places and in performing
acts of religious devotion. The city's chief interest
for him lay not in its art treasures or antiquities, but in
the "hundreds of thousands" of martyrs who had con
secrated it with their blood. Their relics he sought
diligently in church and catacomb, and from the sight
of them he hoped to gain rich spiritual blessings. He
climbed on his knees the Scala Santa, reputed to have
been brought from Pilate's palace in Jerusalem, where
it was trodden by Christ at the time of his trial, and
the ascent of which insured years of indulgence to the
pious and believing pilgrim. He made a general con
fession of all the sins of his past life, an act already
performed twice, but promising in Rome far greater
rewards of grace, and he said mass ten times during
his stay in the city. He even wished his father and
mother were dead that he might be able to release
them from purgatory by his penitential exercises. He
was troubled with no doubts, but ran, as he said, from
holy place to holy place, greedily swallowing all that
was told him, however improbable or absurd. "O

44 MARTIN LUTHER
dear God," he cried, "what did I not believe ! Every
thing seemed true, and nothing was so preposterous or
false that I did not accept it gladly." His pious heart
was torn with emotion or kindled with ecstasy as he
visited the scenes hallowed by apostles and martyrs
and gazed upon their sacred relics. Never more credu
lous and simple-minded believer set foot in the holy
city and reveled in its wealth of pious memories.
He saw much, it is true, to trouble and distress him.
The city was perhaps no worse than other great capi
tals, but it was the first he had visited and its corrup
tion pained and amazed him. Then, too, the monks
he met were much less reverent than the simple-
hearted German, and made light of many things he
held dear. It was not unnatural that they should take
delight in shocking the unsophisticated young pilgrim,
and doubtless they painted Roman life in lurid colors
before his astonished eyes. He was told extraordinary
tales about the debauchery and vice of great church
dignitaries, including the late Pope Alexander VI of
notorious memory — tales which lost nothing in the tell
ing. But he was too devout a soul, too absorbed in the
sacred treasures of the holy city, and too engrossed
in the task of securing divine favor by works of pen
ance, to think much about such tales. If others were
not all they should be, he would do his duty the more
faithfully. Distrust of the church or questions as to
the sanctity and authority of the papacy did not enter
his mind. In later years he not infrequently spoke
sharply of the worldly and warlike character of the
great soldier and statesman Julius II, who was pope
at the time of his Roman visit, but when in the holy
city, we may be sure, he thought of him only with
devout reverence. It was of this period of his life he
said long afterward, "I was so filled, yes, so intoxicated

VISIT TO ROME 45
with the pope's teaching that I should have been ready
with great eagerness to murder, or at least to approve
and assist in the murder of all that did not obey and
submit to him in every last syllable."
The significance of his visit to Rome has been
greatly exaggerated by most historians. The presence
of the founder of Protestantism in the very strong
hold of the papacy which he afterward so earnestly,
opposed seems full of dramatic possibilities, and it is
easy, especially for those who paint contemporary
Catholicism only in the darkest colors, to think it must
have aroused his reforming spirit and started him upon
his great work. But the truth is the Roman journey
was no more than an interesting episode in his life,
and though it doubtless enriched his mind and broad
ened his outlook, as all travel does, it had nothing
whatever to do with his career as a reformer. That
career had other and altogether different roots. To
be sure, when the break with Rome came, it was easier
to attack the pope because of what he had seen and
heard in the papal capital, for things then took on a
new aspect, and idle tales to which he had hardly
given heed were made to justify an enmity all the
more bitter because of the devotion it succeeded. In
this mood he once declared he would not take a
hundred thousand gulden for the experiences of his
Roman visit; but when he said it he was thinking of
the incidents which meant least to him when he was
actually there and made scarcely any impression at
the time upon his reverent soul.
He gained, indeed, all he had hoped from his pil
grimage, and returned as devout as ever and with a new
enthusiasm for Holy Mother Church, which the sight
of the countless mementos of a long and glorious past
could not but kindle in his sensitive and passionate heart.

CHAPTER IV
PREACHER, PROFESSOR, AND DISTRICT-VICAR
IN the spring of 15 12, Luther was back again in Wit
tenberg, enriched by the experiences of his Italian
journey and prepared to give himself with new en
thusiasm to his university work. He was already a
marked man. That he had seen the sacred city greatly
enhanced his reputation with his brother monks, and
the signal favor of Staupitz naturally attracted atten
tion to him. He was evidently proving his ability,
for new duties and responsibilities were laid upon him
by his patron, and he was advanced rapidly to one posi
tion of influence after another.
In October, having completed the requirements and
engaged in the customary disputations, he was given
the doctorate of theology by the University of Witten
berg. During his recent stay in Erfurt he had taken
the degree of Sententiarius, a necessary step in the line
of promotion to the doctorate. As Sententiarius he was
expected to lecture upon the "Sentences" of Lombard,
the great theological text-book of the Middle Ages,
and he did so for a year and a half before setting out
upon his Italian journey. There still exists a copy of
Lombard's work with marginal notes made at this time
by Luther himself. These as well as similar notes in
certain volumes of Augustine's works show how in
dependent he already was in his way of looking at
things and how confident of the correctness of his
46

PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 47
opinions. Of deviation from catholic orthodoxy there
is no sign, but there are many severe words about
theologians whom he disagreed with, giving a fore
taste of the vivid imagination and picturesque language
characterizing all his polemic. He already had the
reputation of being unduly critical and contentious,
and the Erfurt monks, we are told, were not altogether
sorry when he left them permanently.
The doctorate to which he was promoted in Witten
berg gave him the right to teach the whole subject of
theology without limitations of any kind except those
imposed by loyalty to university and church. The
doctor's oath ran as follows :
I swear obedience and due reverence to the dean and
masters of the theological faculty, and promise to do all I
can to promote the welfare of the university and particu
larly of the theological faculty ; not to take the degree else
where ; not to teach vain and foreign doctrines which are
condemned by the church and hurt pious ears, but to in
form the dean within eight days if I know of their being
taught by any one ; to maintain the customs, liberties, and
privileges of the theological faculty to the best of my
ability, God helping me, and the holy evangelists.
The degree was a costly affair, and, at the solicita
tion of Staupitz, the elector defrayed the expense. One
of the earliest autographs of Luther we possess is his
receipt for the sum of fifty gulden, which he had to
walk all the way to Leipsic to fetch for himself, almost
returning home without it, in his impatience at the red-
tape involved. Unnecessary formalities always an
noyed him, and if he had had his way, he would have
made short shrift of the elaborate bureaucratic methods
Of the day.
That he took the doctor's degree in Wittenberg in-

48 MARTIN LUTHER
stead of Erfurt brought down upon him the wrath of
the authorities of the latter university, who felt they
had a claim on him as their own Magister and Senten
tiarius, and resented his going elsewhere for the high
est degree. As a matter of fact, he ought to have ob
tained a dispensation from them before taking it in
Wittenberg. His failure to do so, probably due to
mere carelessness, was thoroughly characteristic, for
he often showed a disregard of the conventionalities
and proprieties that made him many enemies. In this
particular case, the bad feeling in Erfurt was overcome
only after years, and as a result of humble apologies
on his part and of the good offices of common friends.
Although it was the natural and obvious thing for
a Sententiarius to take the doctor's degree, Luther did
it very unwillingly, and only in obedience to the im
perative command of Staupitz, who wished to retire
from his professorship and make his protege his
successor. This fact explains the young scholar's
reluctance. For the duties and responsibilities of his
superior's chair he felt, as was not unnatural, scarcely
qualified. At the age of twenty-nine to succeed his
famous teacher and patron, whom he held in un
bounded reverence, might well seem to almost any one
too large a task.
Despite his hesitancy to take the degree, he was al
ways proud of it. As a doctor of theology, he claimed it
gave him not only the right, but the duty, to teach the
truth as he found it, and in later years he continually
appealed to it in justification of his innovations. That
he had not sought the degree, but had taken it against
his will, called thereto, as he later believed, by God,
gave him all the more confidence in his course. "Who
compelled the Lord to make me a doctor? Since He
did it of His own will, let come what may !"

PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 49
In addition to his duties as professor, he also had
regular preaching to do. Practice in preaching was a
necessary part of his preparation for the doctor's de
gree, but greatly as he loved it afterward, when he was
accustomed to find the hour spent in the pulpit the most
beautiful of all the day, he dreaded to begin, and Stau
pitz was obliged to use pressure to compel him to do so,
dragging him into it by the hair, as Luther once re
marked. Years afterward, talking to a young theolo
gian who found preaching a great burden, he said:
"Yes, my dear fellow, it was the same with me. I
shrank from it just as you do ; but I had to undertake
it. I was forced to it, and I began in the refectory,
before the brothers. Oh, how frightened I was! I
had fifteen arguments with which I tried to persuade
Dr. Staupitz, under this very pear-tree, to let me off,
but they did no good. Finally when I said, 'You are
trying to kill me; I cannot live three months,' he re
plied : 'Very well, in God's name. The Lord has large
affairs on hand, and needs wise men up yonder.' "
Despite his trepidation at seeing so many heads be
fore him, as he once put it, the preacher's gift was his.
Vivid imagination, picturesqueness of style, fluency of
speech, personal magnetism, passionate earnestness,
and an uncommon knowledge of the religious emotions
born of his own heart-searching experiences — all these
he had. He knew, too, the great secret of effective
preaching, simplicity. "I preach as simply as I can,"
he once remarked, "that common men, children, and
servants may understand; for the learned already
know it all, and I do not preach for them." No
wonder he made an impression upon those who heard
him and his reputation grew apace. He was soon
in demand as a supply in the city church, and in 15 14
became the regular incumbent of its pulpit. The little

SO MARTIN LUTHER
town of Wittenberg had never heard his like before.
Few towns indeed had, for he was one of the great
preachers of history. Beginning modestly, his power
steadily increased until he held his congregations in the
hollow of his hand. We have hundreds of sermons
from his pen, after the first few years unconventional
and unsystematic for the most part, often conversa
tional and almost casual in style, and sometimes com
monplace enough, but again rich in matter, glowing
with genius, and inimitable in their appeal to the heart
of the common man. He did not hesitate to repeat
himself, and upon certain great themes he loved to
preach over and over again. "The time and the oc
casion," as he said, "make a preacher. I cannot allow
myself to be bound to particular words. I often say
the same things in different words."
During this period his influence in the Augustinian
order was also steadily advancing. In the summer of
1512, he was made subprior of the Wittenberg con
vent, and not long afterward was placed in full charge
of theological instruction within its walls. His success
as a teacher was very great, and young monks came in
increasing numbers to put themselves under his tute
lage, until he had to protest that the cOnvent was over
taxed and could not accommodate all that were sent
to him.
In 1515, when only thirty-one years old, he was
appointed district-vicar of the order for a term of
three years, and had to look after the interests and
superintend the affairs of eleven monasteries. The
knowledge and experience thus gained were of incal
culable benefit to him. The administrative duties of
the position were very onerous, and required him to be
much away from Wittenberg and to give his attention
to all sorts of matters, from the appointment and re-

PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THE MARKET-PLACE AT WITTENBERG
At the left is the city hall, dating from the sixteenth century; in the background rise the towers of the
city church; and at the right is College Street, leading to the Luther House. The nearest statue in
the market-place is that of Melanchthon, that of Luther being in the middle ground

PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 51
moval of priors to the repair of buildings and the audit
ing of accounts. He was at once business manager of
the convents under his charge and spiritual adviser to
their inmates.
He was a strict disciplinarian, as is shown, for in
stance, by the following passage from a letter to the
provost of a monastery of another order concerning a
brother who had committed some serious offense.
It is difficult for me to advise you what to do with him,
for I am ignorant of your statutes. If they do not pro
vide life imprisonment or capital punishment for such a
crime, it seems to me he should receive as severe a pen
alty as they allow, for it is not you who punish, but justice
and law, whose minister, not lord, you are. Do not be
dissuaded by the fact that you are as great a sinner or a
greater. It is enough to confess this to God. But here
for the sake of edification we must nearly always punish
those better than we, teach those more learned, rule those
more worthy, that the Lord's words may be fulfilled,
"The princes of the Gentiles rule over them as over in
feriors, but the princes of believers minister to them as
to superiors," for He says, "He who is the greater among
you let him be your servant," etc. Therefore preserve
humility and gentleness of heart toward him, but treat
him rigorously, for power is not thine, but God's, while
humility ought to be not God's, but thine.

At the same time he had a warm regard for his
monks, and showed uncommon sympathy and kindness
toward offenders. Witness this letter to the Augus
tinian prior in Mayence :
I am sorry to hear that a certain brother, George Baum-
gartner, from our cloister in Dresden, who fled, alas ! be
cause guilty of shameful conduct, has taken refuge with
you. I thank you for your faithfulness and kindness in

52 MARTIN LUTHER
receiving him, that the scandal might be stopped. He is
my lost sheep and belongs to me ; mine it is to seek him
and to restore the erring one, if it please the Lord Jesus.
So I beg you by our common faith in Chri9t and by the
order of St. Augustine that, if you can, you will send him
to me to Dresden or Wittenberg, or will lovingly persuade
him to return of his own free will. I shall receive him
with open arms if he comes. He need have no fear of
my displeasure. I know, I know, that offenses must
come, and It is no marvel when a man falls, but it is a
miracle when he recovers himself and remains steadfast.
Peter fell that he might know he was human. To-day
even the cedars of Lebanon fall, though while they stand
they reach the heavens. Yes, even an angel in heaven
fell,— a wonder it was indeed, — and Adam fell in para
dise. So is it surprising the reed should bend before the
storm and the smoking flax be extinguished ?
The amount of work entailed by his various respon
sibilities is indicated clearly enough in a letter to Lang,
written in 1516.
I almost need two secretaries, for I do hardly any
thing1 the whole day long; but write letters. It may be I
continually repeat myself in consequence ; if so, you will
understand why. I am lecturer in the cloister and reader
at meals ; I am daily asked to preach in the parish church ;
I am director of studies ; I am vicar, which means being
prior eleven times over ; inspector of fish-ponds at Leitz-
kau ; advocate of the Herzbergers' cause at Torgau ; I am
lecturing on Paul, and gathering material on the Psalms
—all this besides my letter-writing, which, as I have said,
takes the greater part of my time. Rarely do I have time
to observe the hours of prayer, or to say mass, and I am
plagued besides by temptations of the world, the flesh, and
the devil. Behold what a man of leisure I am ! . . .
You write that you began to lecture on the Sentences
yesterday. I shall begin to expound the Epistle to the
Galatians to-morrow, although I fear, with the plague

PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 53
here, I shall not be able to continue. Already it has
robbed us of two or three, but not in one day. The smith
opposite has just buried a son who was in good health
yesterday, and another is infected. Yes, it is here, and is
beginning to rage with violence, especially among the
young. You counsel me to flee to you for refuge in com
pany with Brother Bartholomew. But why ? I hope the
world will not come to an end, though Brother Martin
perish. If the plague spread, I shall send the brothers
away. As for me, seeing I have been placed here, my
vows of obedience demand that I remain until ordered
elsewhere. Not that I do not fear death, for I am not
the apostle Paul, but only a reader of the apostle ; but I
hope the Lord will deliver me from my fear.
Despite all the occupations to which he refers, he
still had to discharge his religious duties as a monk.
Seven times a day he was required to engage in his
devotions, and they consumed much time. He once
remarked that when it proved quite impossible, as it
often did, to observe the canonical hours day by day,
he would shut himself in his cell on Saturday and make
up in a single day for all the omissions of the week.
This kind of thing, of course, tended to weaken the
hold of his monastic ties upon him. Evidently consci
entious as he still was, his life was no longer primarily
that of a monk. He was a teacher, a preacher, and an
administrator, and his various functions took him out
into the world and brought him into as intimate con
tact with men and affairs as if he had never seen the
inside of a monastery. He often lamented it, and
longed for the quiet and seclusion of the Erfurt days ;
but there can be no doubt he was much happier and his
life far more wholesome as it was.
With all his labors, he was not without social recrea
tion. His vivacity and enthusiasm, his contagious hu-

54 MARTIN LUTHER
mor, his fascinating conversation, his novel way of
looking at men and things, and his personal charm, all
combined to give him warm admirers wherever he
went, and in Wittenberg the circle of his friends was
large and apparently included everybody worth know
ing in the little city. An amusing note of invitation
to his old and intimate friend George Spalatin, the
elector's chaplain, gives us an interesting glimpse of
the social side of his life.
Greeting. Come with the father confessor and his
friend about nine o'clock. If the Lord Christopher, the
ambassador, is with you, bring him, too. The duty of
inviting him has been intrusted to my Otto. Farewell,
but see that you also procure wine for us ; for you know
you are coming from the castle to the monastery, not
from the monastery to the castle.
It is this same Spalatin whose praise of Luther is
the earliest explicit testimony we have to his character
and ability. Writing in 15 14 to their common friend
Lang, he spoke of Luther's rare combination of the
keenest judgment with great learning and purity of
character. For many years he was an important figure
in Luther's life. He had belonged to the literary
circle in Erfurt, where the two first met, and for a
long time was freer in his views than his friend, though
he was cooler and more cautious, a man of the world
rather than a religious zealot, and would never have
thought of devoting himself to the work of reform.
When the great controversy came, he stood with
Luther, but he did what he could to restrain his im
petuosity and to keep him from going too far. A tact
ful courtier and a wise counselor, he held an important
place at court, and his influence with the elector was
great. He did much to promote Luther's credit with

Fioin an old print

GEORGE SPALATIN

PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 55
the prince, and was commonly the medium of com
munication between the two. In fact, he was an^jn-
valuable as well as a dearly loved friend, and Luther's
correspondence with him, covering many of the most
critical years of his life, is one of our most important
and interesting sources of information.
The famous painter, Lucas Cranach, who stood very
high in the community and was for a time burgomaster
of the town, though considerably older than Luther,
was also one of his intimates. He was not merely an
artist, but a prosperous business man, whose printing
establishment and apothecary shop materially added
to the financial returns from his studio. He had come
to Wittenberg originally on Frederick's invitation to
fill the position of court painter, and was ultimately
raised to the nobility. From his brush we have many
faithful, if not inspired, portraits of some of the lead
ing notables of the day, including the reformer him
self, whom he painted frequently. With him and his
family Luther enjoyed the closest friendship as long
as he lived, and the stately home of the prosperous
artist was one of his favorite resorts.
He was on terms of affectionate intimacy, too, with
many of his colleagues, among others the brilliant and
impetuous theologian Carlstadt, the more sober and
solid Nicholas von Amsdorf, the punctilious and cau
tious ecclesiastical lawyer Jerome Schurf, and the lib
eral and cultivated jurist Christopher Scheurl. To the
latter, who early left Wittenberg to become city coun
cilor of Nuremberg, Luther once wrote in a playful
mood : "The money I realized by the sale of the books
you sent I have given, in accordance with your direc
tions, to the poor— that is, to myself and the brethren,
for I have never known anybody poorer than I."
In his relations with all his friends, Luther's com-

56 MARTIN LUTHER
manding personality asserted itself unmistakably. He
dominated every circle he belonged to, and his inti
mates, as time passed, recognizing more and more his
superior genius and capacity for leadership, fell natur
ally, whether older or younger, into the position of
followers. To be sure, many were offended by him,
and thought him arrogant and overbearing, but in
most of those who knew him there was steadily grow
ing affection and loyalty.
Curiously enough, Luther never met the Elector
Frederick, near as were the palace and the monastery,
and intimate as were his relations with some of the
members of the court. It was like him not to seek
the acquaintance of his prince, for he was the last man
to curry favor with the great. Frederick thought
highly of him, and showed him many marks of favor.
Soon after Luther's arrival in Wittenberg, he had been
assured by Staupitz that the young scholar would yet
be an honor to his darling university, and as early as
1 5 12 he had heard him preach and been much im
pressed. But at first there was no reason for summon
ing him to court, and after Luther had gained world
wide prominence, the elector's native prudence kept
him from identifying himself too intimately with the
reformer's affairs.
On Luther's part, natural loyalty was enhanced by
genuine respect for his sovereign. Writing to Spalatin
in 1 518, he expressed his thanks "to the most illustri
ous prince for the fine and truly princely gift of veni
son which he sent our new graduates, and which I told
them came from him. The mind of the most kindly
and generous prince, as you justly call him, has pleased
me especially, for man, too, loves a cheerful giver."
The following are a few of his many references to
him in later days :

PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 57
The Elector Frederick was a wise, judicious, capable,
and skilful ruler, who hated all display, hypocrisy, and
sham. He led a pure life and never married. . . . Such
a pious, God-fearing, prudent prince is a great gift from
God. He was a real father to the fatherland, he ruled
well, and kept both cellar and garret full. He held his
officials and servants to a strict account. When he visited
one of his own castles, he paid for his food and lodging,
like any other guest, that the stewards might not after
ward put in exorbitant bills for his entertainment. Thus
it came about that he left his land large treasures and
supplies. . . . He gathered in with shovels and gave out
with spoons. . . . He had the custom of allowing his
counselors to express their opinions and then doing the
exact opposite, yet with such reason that they could say
nothing. This he did not learn, nor was he trained to it,
but he had the gift naturally, and although many tried to
influence and control him, he put out his horns and would
have none of it. Often when his counselors gave him
advice which seemed good, he yet obstinately refused to
take it. Why he did so, only himself knew; but it was
surely at God's suggestion, for he was born one of God's
miracles.

Despite Luther's admiration for his prince, he did
not hesitate to express himself frankly about him or
to him. In the year 15 16, in a letter to Spalatin, he
remarked :
Many things please your prince and glitter in his eyes
which displease God and are held of no account by Him.
I do not deny he is exceedingly wise in secular affairs,
but in those pertaining to God and the soul's salvation I
consider him, as well as Pfeffinger, sevenfold blind. I do
not say this in a corner to malign them, nor do I wish you
to keep it quiet. I am prepared whenever opportunity
occurs to say it to their faces.

58 MARTIN LUTHER
The following letter to Frederick himself, written
something over a year later, is characteristically di
rect and outspoken :
My most gracious and dear lord, Duke Frederick, Elec
tor of Saxony ; most gracious lord and prince. As your
grace promised me some time ago, through Hirsfelder, a
new gown, I now wish to remind your grace of it. But I
beg, gracious lord, as before, that if Pfeffinger is to ar
range the matter, he will do it in reality and not with fine
speeches merely, for he can spin good words, but they do
not make good cloth.
It has also been told me, gracious lord, by the prior at
Erfurt, who had it from your grace's confessor, that your
grace is displeased with Dr. Staupitz, our dear and
worthy father, because of something he has written.
When he was here and visited your grace at Torgau, I
spoke about it to him and expressed my regret at your
displeasure, and although we talked at length about your
grace I could not discover that he thought of your grace
in any but the most affectionate fashion. He remarked
finally, "I do not believe I have ever done anything to
displease my most gracious lord except to love him too
much." Therefore I beg you, gracious lord, in his behalf
and partly at his suggestion, that you will count on his
good will and faithfulness as in the past.
Also, gracious prince, that I may show my loyalty to
your grace and earn my court dress, I have heard that
your grace, after the collection of the present tax, intends
to levy another and perhaps heavier one. If your grace
will not despise a poor beggar's prayer, I entreat that
this, for God's sake, may not be done ; for I and many
who love your grace are deeply distressed because the
present tax has robbed your grace's last days of so much
good fame and affection. God has endowed your grace
with large wisdom, so that you see further in these
matters than I, and perhaps any of your grace's subjects,
but it may well be— so indeed God wills it— that great

From an old print

CHRISTOPHER SCHEURL, THE
JURIST

PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 59
wisdom sometimes learns from less in order that no one
may depend on himself, but on God our Lord alone.
May He preserve your grace in health for our good, and
afterward give your grace eternal salvation. Amen.
Your grace's obedient chaplain, Dr. Martin Luther of
Wittenberg.

During all these years, despite multiplying duties
and distractions, Luther's chief work, and most ab
sorbing interest, was his university teaching. The
chair he was appointed to in succession to Staupitz
was a biblical chair. There were three regular foun
dations in the theological faculty, devoted to instruc
tion respectively in Thomas Aquinas, in Gabriel Biel,
and in the Bible. The last was undoubtedly due to
Staupitz himself, and its establishment was very
timely, in view of the growing interest of the age in
biblical study. It was thus not on his own initiative
that Luther took the Bible instead of the theology of
the schoolmen as the subject of his teaching, though
his taste and training made the work peculiarly con
genial. As a rule, professors of theology preferred to
give themselves to dogmatics and considered the teach
ing of the Bible rather the work of beginners. But
Luther's interest was identical with that of his emi
nent predecessor, as Staupitz well knew when he de
cided upon him as his successor.
The new incumbent interpreted the duties of his
chair strictly, and to the end of his life lectured upon
the Bible alone. At first he contented himself with
expounding the text of the Vulgate, the traditional
Latin version of the Catholic church, but he soon felt
the need of going back to the original tongues, realiz
ing, as he said, that "the farther from the spring, the
more water loses taste and strength," and he therefore

60 MARTIN LUTHER
took up the study of both Hebrew and Greek with his
friend Lang, who had long been an enthusiastic human
ist and an accomplished linguist. Though Luther
never became a great expert in either language, he read
both easily, and made large use of them in his biblical
work. The energy of the man in thus acquiring two
new languages while in the midst of the active work of
teaching and preaching was genuinely characteristic.
Erasmus's famous edition of the Greek New Testa
ment appeared in 1516. Luther was lecturing at the
time upon Paul's Epistle to the Romans and he showed
his conscientiousness and his desire to be fully up to
date in his work by immediately making the new Greek
text the basis of his comments in the class-room. He
was always alive, indeed, to the progress of scholarship
in his chosen field.
In his methods of teaching he was original and un
conventional in the extreme. He was continually re
ferring to the events of the day and viewing them in
the light of the particular writer he was interpreting.
He drew largely upon the every-day experiences of his
students for illustrative material, and even made con
siderable use of their vernacular speech. Latin was
the regular language of the class-room, but he did not
hesitate, unacademic as it was, to introduce German
words and phrases whenever he could thus make the
Bible text more vivid and expressive, much as one
might indulge in colloquialisms or slang to-day. Of
course he was criticized. At the same time, his work
took on a reality and an interest elsewhere quite un
known, and his reputation as a teacher grew apace.
His instruction was by no means scientific in char
acter. The Bible was a practical book to him, and
in his interpretation it was always its practical value
upon which he laid chief stress. Often he was as

PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 61
much interested in making it religiously valuable to
his students as in getting at its original meaning.
He treated the Old Testament in the most unhistorical
fashion, finding types and prophecies of Christ in every
part of it; and into the most unlikely passages both of
Old Testament and New he read his gospel of the
forgiving love of God revealed in Christ. But the
very fact that he interpreted the whole Bible from a
single point of view, together with his enthusiasm, his
skill in rendering the text into the vernacular, and the
novelty of his methods, made a tremendous impression.
He soon became the most popular teacher in the uni
versity, and gained an ever larger following among
the students. Here, they felt, was a real man, who in
sisted on going to the heart of things, and was bound
by no narrow conventions and traditional sophistries.
Even his colleagues came frequently to hear him, and
the famous scholar, Dr. Martin Pollich, predicted he
would yet completely revolutionize the teaching of
theology. To do this, indeed, soon became his chief ambition.
More and more as time passed he grew impatient with
the prevailing scholastic methods and with the school
men themselves, to whom they were due. Theology,
he believed, ought to be vital and practical instead of
philosophical and speculative, as they had made it. He
had no quarrel as yet with their doctrines, — he was
orthodox, as they, too, were, — but their spirit was not
his. His exclusively practical interest in theology was
typical of his general attitude. Speculation as such,
science as an end in itself, truth for truth's sake, never
appealed to him ; only matters immediately bearing on
life and character he felt to be worthy the attention of
a serious man.
His knowledge of the greatest schoolmen, Thomas

62 MARTIN LUTHER
Aquinas, Bonaventura, and the like, was very limited
and he was never altogether just to them. He viewed
scholasticism too exclusively in the light of its later
exponents, such as William of Occam and Gabriel Biel.
For Aquinas, had he known him well, he would have
felt less antipathy than for the latter. The "Angelic
Doctor" was much more of an Augustinian than they,
while at the same time, with all his formalism and in
terest in speculation, he was a good deal of a mystic
and made communion with God the supreme end of
theology. But Luther read him only through the eyes
of his later interpreters and so included him in the
common condemnation. As a matter of fact, even had
he known him better he could not have found him
permanently congenial, for Thomas was a philosophi
cal theologian, and read Christianity principally in
intellectual terms, while Luther was exclusively practi
cal. Moreover, the careful balancing of opinions, and
the drawing of fine distinctions, in which Thomas as
well as the other schoolmen chiefly delighted, were alto
gether foreign to his impetuous genius. He was always
more preacher than scholar. As a rule, he saw only one
side of a question, and he instinctively put things in
extreme and paradoxical fashion.
The presiding genius of medieval scholasticism was
Aristotle, and Luther's growing distaste for the scho
lastic spirit and method resulted not unnaturally in a
growing dislike for the great Stagirite. His formal
logic he found empty and barren, and the matters
of chief interest to the inquiring mind of the Greek
sage he cared little about, while for the questions he
thought really important no satisfactory answers were
to be found in the peripatetic philosophy. "Wilt thou
know what Aristotle teaches ?" he once exclaimed. "I
will tell thee frankly. A potter can make a pot out

WITTENBERG ON THE ELBE, SAXONY (AFTER A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGRAVING BASED ON DRAWINGS
MADE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY)
At the left is seen the castle, and adjoining it the small tower of the castle church. In the middle of the picture rise the
towers of the city church near the market-place. At the extreme right of the picture is the Augustinian monastery where
Luther lived. A httle to the left, now used as infantry barracks, is the old university. As a fortress, Wittenberg was sub
jected to the rigors of war, and was not dismantled until 1875.

PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 63
of clay; this a smith cannot do unless he has learned
how. If there is anything higher in Aristotle, do not
believe a word I say." "In the universities," he re
marked on another occasion, "the Bible and Christian
faith are little taught, and only the blind heathen Aris
totle reigns. It pains me greatly that the damnable,
proud, cunning heathen has led astray and fooled so
many of the best Christians with his false words. God
has plagued us with him because of our sins."
It is significant of his controlling interest that he
ranked Cicero much higher than Aristotle.
Cicero handled the finest and best questions in philos
ophy : Whether there be a God ? What God is ? Whether
He takes an interest in human affairs ? And he holds that
there must be an eternal Spirit. Aristotle was a skilful
and cunning dialectician, who followed the right method
in his teaching; but the facts and their meaning he did
not elucidate, as Cicero did. He who would learn the true
philosophy should read Cicero.
He was particularly pleased with Cicero's arguments
for the existence of God, while Aristotle's disbelief
in divine creation and providence, and in the immortal
ity of the soul, made him, as he thought, quite unfit
to be a teacher of Christians. At this time Luther
measured every writer by the standard of Christian
orthodoxy, and, estimated thus, Aristotle could hardly
seem other than a blasphemer. The detached and
scientific attitude of the schoolmen, enabling them to
use the Aristotelian philosophy without being troubled
with the religious beliefs of its author, was not his.
His practical interest made such a frame of mind quite
impossible. He was by no means the first to attack Aristotle and
the schoolmen. The revolt. against traditional methods

64 MARTIN LUTHER
had begun long before his day and was steadily gaining
strength, particularly where the influence of the new
humanism was felt. But his opposition was exclus
ively religious and very unlike that of most of his
contemporaries. The difference is seen in his com
plaint that the schoolmen, following their master Aris
totle, made too much of human reason, while one of
their chief faults in the eyes of the humanists was the
irrationality and antiquated nature of their teaching.
The difference is seen also in his condemnation of the
naturalism of the pagan philosopher. Because Aris
totle emphasized human ability and free will instead of
man's impotence and constant need of divine grace,
his moral teaching, Luther thought, was peculiarly
dangerous and was the worst of his many sins. That
the reformer thus reached by his own independent path
a position very common in his day was characteristic
of him. Over and over again the same thing hap
pened, and in it lies one- of the secrets of the tremenT
dous influence he wielded.
In February, 15 17, he sent his friend Lang a paper
full, as he said, of blasphemies and curses against
Aristotle, Porphyry, and the dogmatic theologians,
asking him to show it to his old teacher Trutvetter and
others. He realized the radical character of his atti
tude. That it would excite criticism he was well
aware, and both now and later, as his letters show, he
was almost boyishly eager to know what his friends
would say. In May he wrote Lang, "Our theology and
that of St. Augustine, by the grace of God, are making
excellent progress and gaining control in our univer
sity. Aristotle is gradually declining, and his per
manent extinction is not far off." This was no idle
boast. He was actually winning over to his own point
of view one colleague after another, and his influence

From the original painting in the Uflizi Gallery, Florence
LUCAS CRANACH, PAINTED BY HIMSELF

PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 65
in the Wittenberg faculty was daily increasing. Even
beyond Wittenberg, too, his ideas were gaining
ground. Under his direction, in September, 15 17, a
number of theses denouncing Aristotle's influence in
theology were defended by one of his pupils in a dis
putation for the master's degree. Upon reading them
Christopher Scheurl, then residing in Nuremberg,
wrote that a great change in theological studies was
in prospect, and soon it would be possible to become a
theologian without either Aristotle or Plato. In this
he was only giving voice to an opinion shared by many
of his acquaintances, whose admiration for the young
Wittenberg professor was steadily growing.
In some places, on the other hand, Luther was ac
quiring a bad name for himself, and especially with his
old teachers at Erfurt his reputation was not improv
ing. They not unnaturally thought him over-proud,
self-conceited, and presumptuous, and were incensed to
see him emancipating himself more and more from the
traditions in which he had been trained and from the
authorities whom he had been taught to reverence.

CHAPTER V
THE AWAKENING REFORMER
LUTHER'S interest in the reformation of theolog-
j ical study did not prevent him from concerning
himself with many other matters needing betterment.
As time passed, his eyes were increasingly opened to
existing evils in one and another sphere, and wherever
he found them, he was quick to attack them. He had
the true reformer's conscience — the sense of responsi
bility for others as well as for himself, and the true
reformer's vision of the better things that ought to be.
He was never a mere faultfinder, but he was endowed
with the gifts of imagination and sympathy, leading
him to feel himself a part of every situation he was
placed in, and with the irrepressible impulse to action
driving him to take upon himself the burden of it.
In any crowd of bystanders he would have been first
to go to the rescue where need was, and quickest to see
the need not obvious to all. The aloofness of the mere
observer was not his ; he was too completely one with
all he saw to stand apart and let it go its way alone.
Fearful and distrustful of himself he long was, but
his timidity was only the natural shrinking before new
and untried duties of a soul that saw more clearly and
felt more keenly than most. The imperative demands
inevitably made upon him by every situation led him
instinctively to dread putting himself where he could
not help responding to the call of unfamiliar tasks;
66

THE AWAKENING REFORMER 67
but once there, the summons was irresistible, and he
threw himself into the new responsibilities with a for-
getfulness of self possible only to him who has denied
its claims, and with a fearlessness possible only to him
who has conquered fear. He might interpret his con
fidence as trust in God, won by the path of a complete
contempt of his own powers; but however understood,
it gave him an independence and a disregard of con
sequences which made his conscience and his vision
effective for reform.
As a preacher in the Wittenberg church he soon
abandoned the all-too-common custom of delivering
mere essays on speculative theology, and turned his
attention to questions of immediate practical concern.
The moral conditions of university life, and particu
larly the relations between the students and the young
women of the town, left much to be desired. The citi
zens had not yet adjusted themselves to the new situa
tion arising from the presence of hundreds of young
and often unruly fellows in the quiet little city, and
they found themselves helpless before the growing
demoralization. Luther soon became familiar with
existing conditions, and began to speak his mind about
them in no uncertain terms. He denounced parents
for the laxity of their discipline, and called upon the
university and city authorities to take the matter ac
tively in hand. He brought down upon himself the
enmity of many, both for his plain speaking and his
fancied invasion of the sacred liberties of university
life; but he succeeded in bringing about a great im
provement and won the lasting gratitude and confi
dence of the better citizens. Before long he was the
most powerful influence for righteousness in town and
university, as he continued to be to the end of his life.
But he did not confine himself to conditions in Wit-

68 MARTIN LUTHER
tenberg. In the spring of 1515 he was appointed to
preach at the triennial convention of his order, meeting
in Gotha, and instead of choosing some theological or
philosophical theme appropriate to the occasion, which
might give him opportunity to display his ability and
learning, as most young men would have done, he
preached a simple but effective sermon on the vice of
slander, sadly prevalent in monasticism, as he knew
from his own experience. His wealth of imagery, his
command of epigram, and his power of invective, ap
pear very strikingly in this discourse, as also his pen
chant for homely and coarse figures, but the most
notable thing about it is the practical interest dictating
both selection of subject and mode of treatment, and
his fearlessness in handling the conditions attacked.
The sermon attracted wide attention and gained the
favorable notice of one of the leading humanists of the
day, the celebrated Rufus Mutianus of Gotha. It evi
dently made a strong impression also on many of the
assembled monks, for it was at this convention Luther
was appointed district-vicar.
It was characteristic of his type of mind that he
was not only alive to the shortcomings of his own class,
but was glad to have them exposed by anybody. Eras
mus's frequent attacks upon the vices and follies of
monks and priests struck a responsive chord in his
heart, and were read with no little pleasure. He was
not of those who see only good in the party to which
they belong, and defend it against all comers. On the
contrary, he welcomed the freest criticism both from
within and from without as salutary and helpful, and
did not hesitate to publish to the whole world his
own strictures upon conditions prevailing within the
circles he knew best. Such a man was bound to find
fresh food for criticism with every passing year, and

THE AWAKENING REFORMER 69
was sure ultimately to become a thorn in the side of all
thick-and-thin supporters of the existing order.
Meanwhile his thought was beginning to dwell upon
the condition of the church at large and upon evils
everywhere all too common. In an interesting letter
written in reply to an inquiry from Spalatin as to his
opinion of the merits of the famous Reuchlin con
troversy, which had been started by the Dominicans
of Cologne, the great heresy-hunters of the day, he
wrote :
My brother John Lang has asked in your name what I
think of the cause of the innocent and most learned John
Reuchlin against his Cologne rivals, and whether he is
guilty of heresy. You know I have a great esteem and
affection for the man, and my judgment is liable to sus
picion because, as we say, I am not free and neutral.
Nevertheless, as you ask me, I will say what I think, that
there is nothing dangerous in what he has written. I
wonder greatly at his opponents, because they involve so
plain an affair in difficulties worse than a Gordian knot,
when he protests solemnly and repeatedly that he is not
setting up articles of faith, but simply expressing his
judgment. These two things absolve him in my opinion
so completely from suspicion that even if he had made a
collection of all heresies in his report, I should hold him
sound and pure in the faith. For if such expressions of
opinion are not free from danger, it is to be feared these
inquisitors will begin to swallow camels and strain out
gnats, and will pronounce the orthodox heretics, whatever
they say. What is it they are doing but trying to cast out
Beelzebub without the finger of God ? It is this I often
mourn and lament, that we Christians are wise abroad
and foolish at home. There are a hundred worse evils in
all the streets of Jerusalem, and every place is full of
spiritual idols. These intestine foes ought to be opposed
with all our might, but we leave them alone and concern

70 MARTIN LUTHER
ourselves with foreign matters. It is certainly the devil
who persuades us to neglect our own affairs for others
which we cannot mend. I protest, is it possible to think
of anything more foolish ? Are there not enough terrible
evils on which these unhappy men of Cologne may exer
cise their wisdom, zeal, and charity, that they find it nec
essary to start an inquiry about matters so remote ?
The letter is instructive both for its outspoken de
fense of the famous humanist and Hebraist at a time
when many liberals, for fear of consequences, hesitated
to express an opinion, and also for the concern it shows
for the moral and religious condition of Christendom.
In 151 5 there appeared the first instalment of the
famous "Letters of Obscure Men," one of the cleverest
and most amusing satires of the age. They were pub
lished anonymously, but the principal author is now
known to have been an Erfurt humanist and former
student friend of Luther's, Crotus Rubianus. They
exposed the ignorance and obscurantism of Reuchlin's
enemies in most merciless and telling fashion and
brought upon them wide-spread contempt. While
Luther deprecated the flippant tone of the work, he
sympathized with the author's purpose, for he felt as
impatient as any liberal with the reactionary attitude
of Reuchlin's scholastic opponents and was as eager
to see them overthrown.
His lectures on the Epistle to the Romans, delivered
in 1515-1516 and only recently recovered, abound in
dark pictures of the state of the church at large. Priests
and laymen, higher and lower ecclesiastics, secular and
monastic clergy, the extortions of the Roman curia and
the morals of the capital of Christendom, all come in
for severe denunciation in phraseology typically vigor
ous and paradoxical.
In 1 5 16, learning that the elector was thinking of

THE AWAKENING REFORMER 71
having Staupitz made a bishop, he wrote Spalatin
urging him to use his influence against the plan, on the
ground that the vicar-general was much too good for
the position :
Those happy times are gone by when it was a fortunate
thing to be a bishop. Now 'there is no more miserable
place, with its reveling and carousing after the manner
of Sodom and Rome. You see this well enough when
you compare the life and work of the old bishops with
those of our day. The best of them are immersed in pub
lic wars, while their homes have become a very hell of
insatiable greed.
The language is characteristically exaggerated,
though it could be matched over and over again in the
writings of the day. Such a judgment of contempo
rary prelates was altogether too sweeping and severe;
but, like his lectures on the Epistle to the Romans, it
shows the awakening spirit of the reformer, and con
trasts most strikingly with the simple and devout faith
of the Roman pilgrim. The traveling he was doing as
district-vicar, and the responsibility the position laid
upon him for the spiritual welfare of others, were
opening his eyes as the Italian journey had not done,
and he was becoming aware of evils to which he had
hitherto been quite blind.
The same year he preached in the Wittenberg church
a series of sermons on the Decalogue, taking occasion
to attack in no uncertain terms many prevalent super
stitions. Astrology, witchcraft, saint- worship, reli
gious pilgrimages, and the popular beliefs current in
every age concerning lucky and unlucky days, omens,
signs, and charms, were considered in great detail and
with an extraordinary wealth of illustration, furnish
ing us much interesting information about the popular

72 MARTIN LUTHER
beliefs of the time. Astrology he makes merry sport
over, his lack of faith in it contrasting favorably with
the credulity of many of the leading men of his day.
"My dear Astrology," he calls it, "which would gladly
be an art if its inborn folly did not prevent it." The
existence of witches he could not doubt, — nobody did
then,— and he was in favor of punishing them without
mercy and even burning them at the stake; but he
spoke disapprovingly of the excesses to which the be
lief in witchcraft was carried, and tried to distinguish
between genuine and spurious manifestations.
His attitude toward saint-worship is especially in
structive. He did not condemn the practice, — he was
a loyal son of the church and recognized its legitimacy
and value, — but he complained that it had degenerated
into a mere selfish scramble after temporal goods,
while the true adoration of the saints, consisting in
imitating their perfections and praising God for His
gifts to them, was almost wholly forgotten. "We
honor them," he exclaimed, "and call upon them only
when we have a pain in our legs or our head, or when
our pockets are empty." One saint, he went on to say,
was invoked for protection against fire, another against
pestilence, another against thunder-storms, another
against this or that illness — blindness, toothache, and
the like. Each trade and occupation had its patron
saint, and in looking to them for wealth or fortune all
thought of higher things had been abandoned.
He was obliged to recognize that the church ap
proved the practice of appealing to the saints for help
in bodily distresses and temporal need, but she pre
served the proper order, he declared, for 'she prayed
first for grace and forgiveness of sins, and what he
condemned was not the desire for earthly goods, but
the putting them before everything else. The common

THE AWAKENING REFORMER 73
abuse had gone so far, he believed, that it would be
better if the festivals of the saints were altogether
abandoned and their very names forgotten.
The custom of making religious pilgrimages he also
criticized sharply. Its rapid growth during recent
years, one of the characteristic phenomena of the
age, he attributed to the devil. It had resulted, he
complained, in the wide-spread neglect of household
duties and of the ordinary means of grace, and had
brought demoralization into many homes and com
munities. "If you have a wife or servants," he re
marked, "who claim they are driven by the Spirit
to go upon a pilgrimage, hear my advice : take a good
oaken cross and sanctify them with a few lusty strokes
on the back, and you will see how the devil is exorcised
by this finger of God." To be sure, he did not wish to
oppose a time-honored practice approved by the church.
"Let any one go on a pilgrimage who feels compelled
to, but let him learn that God can be served at home a
thousand times better by giving the money the journey
would cost to the poor, or to wife and children, and
bearing one's cross with patience."
Luther was not the first to attack these and similar
practices. Within a few years many voices had been
raised in like criticism or condemnation, and some of
the things he said were only reflections of their writ
ings. But his utterances were none the less significant
of his own development. He was not simply imitating
others— this he never did. He was being taught by
his own experience and observation, as well as by his
reading, and that he was coming to conclusions already
reached by others meant all the more for his future
influence. For the abuses and excesses he was denouncing he
held the clergy responsible. He had begun by criti-

74 MARTIN LUTHER
cizing his fellow-monks. Under the influence of a
growing recognition of the evils of the world outside
the monasteries he soon went on to condemn the clergy
at large. Because they had not done their duty in
preaching the true Gospel of Christ superstition had
spread widely, and true faith in God and dependence
upon Him were all too little known. Evidently while
the reforming spirit was growing in him he was gain
ing increasing clearness as to the remedy needed, and
the restraint imposed by his inborn respect for existing
authorities was proving less and less of a hindrance.
Though he was not yet as widely known in the
learned world as Carlstadt and some other colleagues,
his official position as district-vicar of the Augus
tinian order, and his local fame as the most popular
professor in the university, gave his opinions consider
able weight, and many were listening with interest to
what he had to say. In Wittenberg itself his standing
was so high he could say and do what he pleased with
out forfeiting the respect and affection of town and
university; but there were some even there who
thought him too censorious, and others who shook
their heads over his utterances and feared he was be
coming heretical, while in places less devoted to him
he was beginning to be looked upon with suspicion and
dislike as a dangerous radical.
At the same time, in all he was doing he was in no
way transgressing the limits of orthodoxy or putting
himself out of harmony with the church. He was only
attacking practical abuses, as any earnest preacher
might have done, and as many were doing. Anything
like heresy or schism he was still wholly opposed to.
It seemed to him as to most others to argue only pride
and self-confidence. The following passage from a
sermon preached in the summer of 1516 throws an

THE AWAKENING REFORMER 75
interesting light upon his attitude at the time and
reveals his loyal devotion to the pope :
Unless Christ had given all his power to a man there
would have been no perfect church, because no order,
since whoever wished could say he was ordained by the
Holy Spirit. Thus the heretics did, each one setting up
his own principle, until there were as many churches as
persons. Christ wishes to exercise no power except
through the man to whom he has committed it, that he
may gather all into one. This power he has so strength
ened as to excite against it all the forces of earth and
hell; as he says, "The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it," by which he means, they will fight and be
stirred up but will not conquer, that it may be known the
power is of God and not of man. They therefore who
renounce this unity and order have no reason to pride
themselves on great illuminations and wonderful works
as do our Picards and other schismatics. For obedience
is better than the sacrifices of fools who know not what
evil they do.
There is no sign that he was passing in these days
through a mental struggle or consciously breaking with
his past. He was developing steadily and naturally,
assuming each task as it was laid upon him and ad
dressing himself to one evil after another as he became
aware of them. It was a happy, busy time, and he was
growing daily in power and in the consciousness of
power. He had immured himself in a convent, ex
pecting to spend his whole life apart from the world,
but he had become instead a public figure who was
counting for something far beyond his cloister and the
boundaries of his order, while day by day his interests
were multiplying and his horizon was widening.

CHAPTER VI
THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES
THE pious Elector Frederick the Wise was an in
defatigable relic-hunter, and his castle church of
All Saints contained more than five thousand sacred
objects gathered from all parts of Christendom. There
still exists a catalogue of them, illustrated with draw
ings by the famous Wittenberg painter Lucas Cranach.
A gruesome collection it was, for the most part, — a lock
of St. Elizabeth's hair, a portion of St. Euphemia's
head, two fingers and a hand of the Holy Innocents, a
tooth of St. Beatrice, a piece of St. Juliana's leg, and
the like, — but it had cost a large amount of time and
money, and Frederick was as proud of it as any mod
ern art-collector of his pictures and statuary. The
church was a favorite place of pilgrimage, for large
indulgence was to be gained from the sight of its holy
treasures and from contributions to its support. On
October 13, 15 16, the eve of the anniversary of its
dedication, Luther preached from its pulpit on the sub
ject of indulgences, attacking their abuse in sharp
terms, to the great annoyance of the elector. It was a
characteristic thing to do. To criticize indulgences,
even in the most guarded fashion, in the castle church,
on the day of all days when its stores of grace were dis
pensed in largest measure, was an act whose boldness
was equaled only by its tactlessness. It is not strange
the elector was offended. The only cause of wonder
76

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 77
is that he seems not to have laid it up against the
preacher, for we hear of his annoyance only through
a casual remark of Luther's made long afterward, and
we find the critic preaching again upon the same sub
ject from the same pulpit on another festival in Febru
ary, 15 17.
He had already referred to the matter in connection
with his strictures upon pilgrimages, complaining,
with the exaggeration all too characteristic of him:
"When it is evening the pilgrims to this or that
shrine, or to the celebration of this or that saint's
day, return home with full indulgence ; that is, full of
beer and wine, full of unchastity, and other horrid
vices." Even now he did not question the legitimacy
of indulgences, but he attacked the abuses to which
they almost inevitably led on the part of the ecclesias
tical authorities as well as of the people. Thus he said :
Concerning indulgences, although they are the very
merits of Christ and his saints, and are therefore by all
means to be received with reverence, they are nevertheless
made the most shameful agents of avarice. For who
seeks through them the salvation of souls and not rather
the contents of the purse? . . . Indulgences promote a
servile righteousness, for they do nothing but teach the
people to fear, to flee, to shudder at the punishment of sin
instead of the sin itself, when they ought rather to be
exhorted to love punishment and to embrace the cross.
Would that I lied when I say indulgences are rightly
named, because to indulge is to permit, and indulgence is
impunity and permission to sin, and license to avoid the
cross of Christ.
Liable to such abuses as they were, in that age they
served too important a purpose to be lightly dispensed
with, for upon them religion depended in no small

78 MARTIN LUTHER
measure for support. Without them the erection of
many a church, monastery, and hospital would have
been impossible, and the permanent endowments of
such institutions often consisted of the indulgence
they were privileged to grant the pilgrims to their
shrines or the contributors to their support.
Severely as the doctrine has been denounced by
Protestant theologians, it was in reality only the recog
nition of one of the commonest of human instincts —
the attempt to make amends for questionable conduct
by religious practices. This is not confined to any one
communion, but in the Catholic Church it is most en
couraged. One of the striking things about Cathol
icism, it may be remarked in passing, and one of the
secrets of its age-long hold upon a large portion of the
race, is its extraordinary humanness, the way it recog
nizes and makes a place for common human impulses,
putting even the least worthy of them to some use.
Inevitably pernicious results will sometimes follow,
and follow they did in the wake of the indulgence
traffic as carried on in the later Middle Ages.
That traffic was based ultimately upon the Catholic
penitential system which is as old as the second cen
tury. According to ancient and modern Catholic be
lief forgiveness for sins committed after baptism can
be secured only through the sacrament of penance.
This requires repentance, confession to a priest, and
the performance of acts involving some labor or sacri
fice on the part of the penitent, such as fasting, alms
giving, or going upon a pilgrimage. The absolution
pronounced by the priest in the confessional insures
release from guilt and eternal punishment, but satis
faction must still be rendered in the form of works of
penance. If not enough of these are done before
death they must be continued in purgatory until the

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 79
debt is fully discharged. Only then is the penitent
believer prepared to enter heaven. In the early Middle
Ages the custom grew up of permitting the substitution
of some other form of penance for that regularly pre
scribed by the church. This permission constituted
what later came to be called an indulgence. Large use
was made of it in connection with the crusades, when
in order to encourage enlistment in the crusading
armies pope after pope assured the soldiers of the
cross that their service would be accepted in full dis
charge of the penance otherwise required of them.
This was later extended to those who equipped and
sent substitutes in their place, or in other ways con
tributed to the support of the crusading forces.
After the crusades had ceased, granting indulgences
in return for the payment of money was continued and
the funds raised were employed to promote all sorts
of sacred ends. In the thirteenth century a doctrinal
basis for the practice was found by one of the great
schoolmen. The church, he taught, was in possession
of a treasury of merits composed of the good deeds of
Christ and His saints, upon which the pope could draw
for the advantage of penitents meeting any conditions
he might fix. Later the benefit of indulgences was
extended to souls in purgatory, and the privilege of
securing their release from its pains was granted to
their surviving friends and relatives upon the payment
of a certain sum.
Theoretically indulgences affected only the tem
poral satisfaction required of the penitent either here
or in purgatory, but this was not always kept clearly
in mind, and often they were supposed to release the
purchaser from all the consequences of his misdeeds, a
popular misconception sometimes connived at by the
authorities.

80 MARTIN LUTHER
The whole indulgence traffic, particularly as it ex
isted in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, was
harmful in the extreme. There was the constant
temptation, on the one hand, to employ it to raise funds
for selfish ends, and, on the other hand, to substitute
the mere payment of money for true penitence and
amendment of life. Both temptations were frequently
yielded to, and the result was wide-spread and growing
demoralization. Looking back upon that period, Catholics of to-day
are as severe as Protestants in their condemnation of
the situation, and while indulgences are still given
under certain conditions, granting them for money was
long ago prohibited, and has since been unknown in the
Catholic Church.
It was the money abuse that chiefly aroused the in
dignation of Luther and many other good Catholics;
for he was by no means the only one in his own or
earlier days to criticize indulgences. Among others,
his own superior, Staupitz, had spoken very sharply
about them, a fact to which Luther later appealed in
support of his own conduct. But all these criticisms
left unmolested the penitential system out of which
indulgences had grown. That system was rooted in
the very heart of traditional Catholicism; to attack it
was to put oneself outside the pale of the historic faith.
This was the last thing Luther thought of doing. As
yet he was playing only upon the surface, all unaware
of the volcanic depths beneath.
Meanwhile, in order to raise funds for the rebuild
ing of St. Peter's Church at Rome, Pope Leo X, fol
lowing the example of his predecessor, Julius II, pro
claimed a so-called "plenary indulgence," phrased in
very sweeping terms and offering to believing pur
chasers all sorts of benefits, including remission of

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POPE LEO X, BY RAPHAEL
THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 81
sins, freedom from the necessity of penance, and the
release of their deceased friends from purgatory.
The young Archbishop and Elector of Mayence,
Albert of Brandenburg, a Hohenzollern prince, being
in need Of a large amount of money to pay Rome for
the privilege of assuming the archbishopric, when he
already held two other sees, made an arrangement
with the pope whereby he was to superintend the traffic
in a part of Germany, receiving half the proceeds in
reward for his services. He engaged for his chief
agent a Dominican prior, John Tetzel by name, a man
of learning and reputation and a preacher of great
popular power, who had already abundantly proved
his ability to raise money for sacred ends. Such a
passage as the following from one of his sermons
shows how he appealed to the emotions of his au
dience :
Do you not hear your dead parents crying out "Have
mercy upon us ? We are in sore pain and you can set us
free for a mere pittance. We have borne you, we have
trained and educated you, we have left you all our prop
erty, and you are so hard-hearted and cruel, that you leave
us to roast, in the flames when you could so easily release
us." Tetzel took general charge of affairs and appointed
many other preachers to aid him in the work. Elabo
rate arrangements were made for the campaign, and
everything possible was done to attract and impress the
people. According to an eye-witness, when the agent
appeared in a town he was met by priests, monks, city
councilors, teachers, scholars, men, women, maidens,
and children, who escorted him in procession with ban
ners, candles, and singing, the papal bull being carried
in state upon a velvet or golden cushion, and a red
cross being set up in the church, with the pope's arms

82 MARTIN LUTHER
above it. "In short, God Himself could not have been
more magnanimously received."
The parish clergy were directed to prepare their
flocks for the approaching visit of Tetzel or his as
sistants, and they were carefully instructed both how
to preach and how to deal with their parishioners in
the confessional, that eagerness for the grace of Christ
dispensed through the indulgences might be enhanced.
We are inevitably reminded of the way modern revi
valists have often planned their campaigns and had the
ground made ready in advance. Indeed, the effects
aimed at by Tetzel, and the methods employed to pro
duce them, were not unlike those seen in great revival
seasons to-day. To arouse the conscience and deepen
the conviction of sin, and then to lead the awakened
and anxious soul to look for help to a supernatural
power — this was what he undertook to do, and he
knew well how to do it.
It is true, the comparison between the indulgence
traffic and the modern revival should not be carried too
far, for the former was poisoned by the greed for gain
almost inevitably attaching to it. But it must not be
forgotten that, despite the evils shared with many such
religious campaigns, and the greater evils peculiar to
itself, it was still approved, as it had been for centuries,
by multitudes of pious and God-fearing men.
In Luther's day, however, disapproval of it was
steadily growing. As frequently happens, particularly
in periods of social upheaval, when the public con
science is apt to be peculiarly sensitive, the excessive
abuse of a time-honored practice, whose legitimacy had
hitherto been taken for granted, was leading men to
question the practice itself, and many complaints of
the harm it was doing both religiously and morally
were heard even from devout churchmen and promi
nent ecclesiastics.

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 83
On economic grounds, too, hostility was spreading.
The traffic, it was felt, was taking large sums of money
from the pockets of the people without giving them
any tangible returns. As a rule, every new papal in
dulgence was hailed with gratitude by the masses, and
the pope only met the popular wish in proclaiming
them ; but this was the fifth witnessed by that genera
tion, and many were beginning to realize that the thing
had been overdone, and were growing heartily tired
of it. There were still those glad enough to buy, espe
cially women and children; but most heads of families
were waxing impatient at having their hard-earned
savings frequently drawn upon, and particularly hated
to see their money, as in the present case, go to swell
the coffers of the Fuggers, the great money-lenders of
the day, who had advanced a large sum to the arch
bishop, and to whose reimbursement his share of the
proceeds, as everybody knew, was to be devoted. It is
noticeable that Tetzel had frequently to complain of
bad coins given for the letters of pardon, with the
evident intention of satisfying importunate wives and
neighbors without incurring unnecessary expense.
The Elector of Saxony, unwilling to have his sub
jects pay the debts of the Elector of Mayence, and
desiring to protect his own ecclesiastical foundations,
refused to allow Albert's agents to enter his domin
ions; but in the spring of 15 17, Tetzel appeared at
Jiiterbog, a small town lying just across the border,
twenty miles northeast of Wittenberg. Many of
Luther's flock found their way thither, and returned
with letters of indulgence and with very exaggerated
and demoralizing notions as to their efficacy. When he
refused to accept them in the confessional in lieu of
repentance and penance, he was complained of to Tet
zel and threatened with prosecution for heresy and

84 MARTIN LUTHER
contumacy. Writing about the matter to Staupitz a
few months later, he said :
I remember, Reverend Father, having learned from
you, as by a voice from heaven, that penance is not genu
ine unless it spring from a love of righteousness and
God. Just when my heart was full of this thought,
behold, new indulgences began to be proclaimed through
the country in the most noisy fashion, while no effort
was made to incite the soul to war against sin. The
preachers neglected altogether the need of true penance,
and emphasized in ways never before heard not so much
as its least valuable part, which is known as satisfaction,
but the complete remission even of that. Finally, they
taught impious and false and heretical doctrines in so
authoritative, not to say foolhardy, a manner, that if
any one even whispered a contrary opinion, he was im
mediately denounced as a heretic, condemned to the
flames, and declared worthy of eternal damnation.
Many years afterward, in one of his typical polemic
works, he gave the following account of the affair:
It happened in the year 15 17 that a Dominican monk,
John Tetzel by name, a great ranter, went up and down
selling grace for gold as dear or as cheap as he could.
The Elector Frederick had once saved his life in Inns
bruck, for he had been condemned by the emperor Maxi
milian to be drowned in the river Inn, for his virtue's
sake, you may well believe. This the man confessed
frankly, being reminded of it by the elector long after
ward when he began to slander us Wittenbergers.
I was at the time a preacher in the cloister and a young
doctor fresh from the forge, ardent and merry in the
holy Scriptures. When many people from Wittenberg
ran after indulgences to Jiiterbog and Zerbst, and I, so
truly as my Christ has redeemed me, did not know what
indulgences were,— as, for that matter, nobody did,— I

From the painting by Lucas Cranach, in St. Petersburg
ALBERT, PRINCE OF BRANDENBURG, ELECTOR AND ARCHBISHOP OF MAYENCE

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 85
began to preach gently that it was certain there were
better things to do than buy indulgences. I had already
preached against them to the same effect here in the
castle, and incurred the Elector Frederick's ill will, for
he was very fond of his castle church. But to come to
the true cause of the Lutheran uproar, I let the matter go
on as it would until news reached me of the shocking and
horrible things Tetzel was preaching — as, for instance,
that he had received such grace and power from the pope
that he could even forgive a person who had violated the
Mother of God, if the proper amount were put in the
box; that the red cross of indulgence, with the pope's
arms, when set up in church, was as powerful as the
cross of Christ ; that in heaven he would not change places
with St. Peter himself, for he had saved more souls with
indulgences than the apostle with his preaching; that
there was no need of sorrow or repentance or confession
of sins, if indulgences were bought. He sold indulgences
also for future sins, and all was done in the most shame
ful fashion, for money's sake alone.
Where Luther got the grotesque tale about Tetzel
related at the beginning of this passage we do not
know. At any rate it may be dismissed as quite devoid
of truth. Tetzel seems to have been a man without
particularly high ideals or sensitive conscience, but
there is no adequate ground for the accusations of
dishonesty and immorality so frequently brought
against him. He gained an unenviable notoriety from
the controversy precipitated by Luther, and all sorts
of slanderous stories were naturally told about him.
That he preached the many abominable things cur
rently reported and repeated here in part by Luther
may also be denied. We still have some of his sermons
and other writings and they furnish no justification
for such charges. At the same time, though the spe
cific counts in Luther's indictment are without support,

86 MARTIN LUTHER
the impression made upon the common people by
Tetzel and his agents was quite bad enough. The bene
fits of indulgences were magnified beyond all warrant,
and in the effort to attract purchasers, assurances were
given which could not fail to work mischief and pro
mote moral callousness and indifference.
That Luther should feel profoundly outraged by
the whole sorry business was inevitable. He was,
above everything, downright and sincere, instinctively
hostile to all duplicity and pretense, while the indul
gence traffic, as appeared more clearly than ever in
Tetzel's campaign, was through and through a sham;
on the one side, greed for gain consciously masquerad
ing under the form of regard for the people's good;
on the other, the insidious and subtle self-deception
of imagining that anything but reality counts in the
moral realm — the effort to salve one's conscience by
hollow acts of devotion and to escape by the payment
of money the inevitable consequences of one's deeds.
Clear-eyed and intolerant of all sophistry, Luther
hated it with a growing hatred; and the pretended
piety of the whole transaction incensed him only the
more. Religion was the most sacred of all affairs to him.
For its sake he had long ago broken with his father
and abandoned a career of great worldly promise, and
in his religious life he had passed through the most
agonizing and exalted experiences possible to a human
soul. To make it a matter of buying and selling, to
offer divine grace for gold, and to attempt to purchase
the forgiveness and favor of God— all this was to
befoul the holiest of all relationships; and, like the
prophets of old, his pious soul waxed hot within him.
It would seem, in view of it all, that he must at
once attack Tetzel with his wonted energy and disre-

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 87
gard of consequences; but strangely enough, he held
his peace. Quick as he had hitherto been to denounce
any evil confronting him, now, in the face of the
worst and most crying abuse yet encountered, he took
careful counsel with himself. Tetzel soon left the
neighborhood and passed on to other places, but Luther
continued to deliberate in silence. For more than six
months, though plied with questions from far and
near as to his opinion of the traffic, he made no sign,
but set himself to study quietly the whole subject of
indulgences. The present campaign, he saw clearly
enough, was far more demoralizing than anything he
had preached against in the castle church; but it was
carried on under the auspices of the primate of Ger
many and of the pope himself, and it would not do to
attack it recklessly and indiscriminately. He must dis
cover, if he could, the right and wrong of the whole
matter. His character and training made the situation pecul
iarly difficult. Had he been a humanist, he would
have laughed the whole thing to scorn as an exploded
superstition beneath the contempt of an intelligent
man; had he been a scholastic theologian, he would
have sat in his study and drawn fine distinctions to
justify the traffic without bothering himself about its
influence upon the lives of the vulgar populace. But
he was neither humanist nor schoolman. He had a
conscience which made indifference impossible, and a
simplicity and directness of vision which compelled
him to brush aside all equivocation and go straight
to the heart of things. With it all he was at once a
devout and believing son of the church, and a practical
preacher profoundly concerned for the spiritual and
moral welfare of the common people.
Here was a case where the ecclesiastical authorities

88 MARTIN LUTHER
he had always reverenced were sanctioning a practice
the demoralizing consequences of which were becoming
ever clearer to him. He could not wash his hands of
the matter, and yet he could not grapple with it with
out involving the highest dignitaries of the church he
loved and honored. He must have suffered agonies
during that critical summer of 1517, striving to recon
cile positions essentially irreconcilable, struggling to
keep his faith and yet be true to his conscience which
threatened it with shipwreck, torn by a conflict of loy
alties whose inconsistency he was just beginning to
realize. His distress can hardly have been less severe
than in his convent days at Erfurt. But there was only
one possible outcome for a man who had fought him
self through the earlier crisis as he had done, and had
since been standing for what he deemed right, maugre
neighbors, students, colleagues, princes, and prelates.
Wait as he might, he must ultimately enter upon the
conflict, whatever the consequences to himself or
others. But even when his mind was made up and the die
cast, he proceeded in a way that seems at first sight as
strange as his long delay. Instead of thundering
against Tetzel from the pulpit or publishing a polemic
pamphlet such as no one but he could write, or issuing
an open letter to the archbishop calling him sharply to
account, as he was quite capable of doing, he invited
the theologians of Wittenberg and the neighborhood
to a disputation. It was a common custom to celebrate
important anniversaries of the castle church by theolog
ical debates, and on October 31, just a year after he
had first preached upon indulgences from its pulpit,
adopting the usual method of announcing such a de
bate, he posted a placard on the church door giving
notice of the proposed disputation, and stating the

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 89
theses he intended to defend. There were ninety-five
of them, written in Latin in his own hand, and they
were preceded by this announcement :
In the desire, and with the purpose, of elucidating the
truth, a disputation will be held on the subjoined proposi
tions at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Rever
end Father Martin Luther, Augustinian monk, master of
arts and of sacred theology, and ordinary lecturer upon
the same in that place. He therefore asks those who can
not be present and discuss the subject orally to do so by
letter in their absence.
The theses themselves reveal at once the professor
and the preacher. The Latin language and the method
of argumentation proclaim the professor, but the vivid,
direct, and often picturesque style betrays the preacher.
He might elect to throw his criticisms into scholastic
form, but he felt it to be no scholastic question he was
discussing, and the earnestness of a practical appeal
crept into the document in spite of him.
That he chose to bring the indulgence traffic to pub
lic debate does not mean that he was afraid to speak
his mind categorically or was still in doubt about the
right or wrong of the matter. On the contrary, he
was quite clear upon all but a few minor and unim
portant details. He desired a debate simply because he
wished to give the demand for reform, already fully
determined upon, the support of a formal university
decision. Reinforcement, rather than enlightenment,
was what he sought.
The subject of indulgences was very difficult and
complicated. Upon many of the matters connected with
it the church had never pronounced itself officially, and
the opinions of theologians were greatly divided. Had
he been troubled only by the flagrant abuses of venders

90 MARTIN LUTHER
and buyers, a debate would have been superfluous ; but
he had become convinced that both the practice and
the principles underlying it were wrong, and the evils
could not be mended without laying the ax at the root
of the tree. Upon such a question theologians alone
were regarded as competent to express an opinion, and
hence he appealed to them. He declared himself will
ing to yield completely if his theses should meet with
defeat, but he was confident of his ground and sure
they must prevail. He was therefore in earnest in his
wish for a debate, and resolved to use as a weapon of
reform the victory he was convinced would follow.
The theses themselves are abundant proof of this.
There is no sign of doubt or uncertainty, no beating
about the bush, no confusion of the main issue by irrel
evant questions, but a direct assault both upon the
theory and practice of indulgences. If hitherto he had
criticized only their abuse, now he attacked indulgences
themselves in the most outspoken fashion. He com
plained that they were nets wherewith to catch money,
and hindered the proclamation of the true gospel.
Christians should be taught, he went on to say, that he
who neglects any one in need in order to save money
for their purchase brings down upon himself the anger
of God; and unless he has superfluous wealth, is
bound to keep what he has for the use of his own
household instead of lavishing it upon pardons. More
over, he so minimized their effects and limited their
scope as virtually to deprive them of all value.
The final blow was struck in the thirty-sixth and
thirty-seventh theses, in the sweeping assertions:
"Every Christian who feels true compunction has of
right plenary remission of punishment and guilt with
out letters of indulgence" ; and "Every true Christian,
whether living or dead, has a share in all the benefits

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 91
of Christ and the church, given him by God, even with
out such letters." Certainly where this was believed,
little hope could remain of finding a market for the
spiritual wares Tetzel had to offer.
But the theses were not simply an attack upon in
dulgences. They went much further and cut much
deeper, for they repudiated the principles upon which
the whole practice rested. In the very first thesis it
is declared, "Christ wished the entire life of believers
to be repentance." And the conclusion is drawn that
the outward acts of penance, everywhere regarded
-as satisfactions for sin, were only the natural expres
sion of inner penitence, suggesting that the divine
forgiveness is not conditioned in any way upon satis
faction, but upon repentance alone. This meant the
implicit rejection not only of indulgences, but of the
whole penitential system accepted in the Catholic
Church both east and west since the second century.
The matter was not carried further in the theses, but
it is clear enough where Luther stood and how far he
had traveled from the Catholicism he had been born
and bred in.
He did not realize the irreconcilable difference be
tween himself and the church, nor did he appreciate
his complete lack of harmony with the pope, though
he may have suspected it, for he was no longer a mere
naive and inexperienced young monk. But, however
that may be, he expressed the conviction, "If pardons
were preached according .to the spirit and mind of the
pope, all the questions raised about them would be re
solved with ease, nay, would not exist"; and though
he had emptied them of all value, he yet declared,
"Bishops and curates are bound to receive the commis
saries of apostolic indulgences with all reverence," and,
"He who speaks against their truth, let him be

92 MARTIN LUTHER
anathema." He felt himself driven to oppose those
who preached "their own dreams in place of the pope's
commission," and to exert himself "against the wan
tonness and license of the preachers," but in this he
believed he was only showing himself loyal both to
church and pope. His divided attitude was entirely
natural, and simply shows how sincere he was and
how seriously he took the situation.
He sent a copy of his theses to the Archbishop of
Mayence with a letter of explanation, in which he said :
Pardon me, most reverend Father in Christ, most il
lustrious Prince, that I, the dregs of humanity, have the
temerity to address a letter to your Sublimity. The Lord
Jesus is my witness that, conscious of my insignificance
and wickedness, I have long put off what I now do with a
bold face, moved by a sense of the duty I owe you, most
reverend Father in Christ. May your Highness deign to
look upon one who is but dust, and understand my wish
for your pontifical forbearance. In your most illustrious
name there are carried about papal indulgences for the
building of St. Peter's. I do not so much complain of the
utterances of the preachers, which I have not heard, as of
the false opinions everywhere entertained by the common
people; for the poor creatures believe that if they buy
indulgences, they are sure of salvation, that souls fly out
of purgatory as soon as they throw their money into the
box, and that the grace is so great that there is no sin
which cannot be absolved thereby. . . .
In addition, most reverend Father in the Lord, in
the instructions for the use of the agents published in
your name it is said, doubtless without your Reverence's
knowledge and consent, that one of the principal benefits
to be had from indulgences is the inestimable gift of
God whereby man is reconciled to Him and all the pun
ishments of purgatory blotted out, and that to those who
buy pardons contrition is unnecessary. What can I do,

PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THE CASTLE CHURCH
IN WITTENBERG

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 93
most excellent Patron and most illustrious Prince, but
pray your Reverence, through the Lord Jesus Christ, to
look into the matter and do away wholly with those in
structions and command the preachers to adopt another
style of discourse, lest perchance some one may finally
arise and refute them in print, to the confusion of your
most illustrious Highness. This I should greatly deplore ;
but I fear it may be done unless matters be speedily
mended. The mingled respect and menace of this extraordi
nary letter are very interesting. Evidently Luther
realized that he had to deal not merely with Tetzel and
his agents but with the Primate of Germany himself.
His views on penance and indulgences, he doubtless
knew well enough, were out of harmony with those
prevailing in high quarters, but he apparently still
hoped, even if not very confidently, that his attack
might not mean a break with the rulers of the church,
that rather than have the whole subject of indulgences
thrown open to public debate they would be glad to
disavow responsibility and lay the blame for all the
abuses upon their subordinates. At any rate, he left this
way of escape open to the Archbishop, and assumed
as long as he could his own essential harmony with
the constituted authorities in his struggle for reform.
Whatever their attitude might ultimately prove to be,
he was at least sure he held the true Christian faith
and was a loyal son of the church. Commenting upon
the theses shortly afterward, he declared: "Although
friends have been saying for some time that I am a
heretic and blasphemer because I do not interpret the
teaching of church and Scriptures in a Catholic sense,
nevertheless, relying upon my own conscience, I be
lieve they are mistaken and I truly love the church
of Christ and desire to honor it."

94 MARTIN LUTHER
He had been for some time engaged in opposing
the schoolmen. In the theory of indulgences and even
in the penitential system itself — though, as a matter
of fact, the latter was much older than they — he saw
only another evidence of their nefarious influence; and
it is not surprising that he could think himself an
orthodox Catholic even while taking the radical posi
tions he did. His own bishop, Scultetus of Branden
burg, to whom he sent a copy of the theses, declared
he found nothing heterodox in them. To be sure, he
was a man of humanistic leanings and more or less
out of sympathy with scholasticism; but he was a strict
disciplinarian, and would not for a moment have toler
ated an attack upon church or pope.
Luther also sent the theses to his friend Lang, re
questing him to communicate them to the Erfurt pro
fessors, as he had already done with his attack upon
Aristotle. He wrote as follows :
Behold, I am sending you some more paradoxes, my
most reverend Father in Christ. If your theologians are
offended at them and say, as all are saying concerning
me, that I express my judgment and condemn the opin
ions of others too rashly and proudly, I reply through
you that I should be greatly pleased at their ripe and
sober modesty if they really exhibited it in fact instead
of simply finding fault with my levity and precipitancy.
For it is easy, as I see, to censure this vice in me. . . .
So far as my boldness or modesty is concerned I know
for certain, that if I am modest the truth will not be made
more worthy by my modesty, or if I am bold, more un
worthy by my boldness. This alone I ask of you
and your theologians, that without troubling themselves
about my character, they express their opinion of my
statements and conclusions, and, if they find any errors
in them, tell me what they are. For who does not know
that without pride, or at least the appearance of pride

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 95
and the suspicion of contentiousness, nothing new can be
done? However great your humility in attempting the
unusual, you are always accused of pride by those who
think otherwise. Why were Christ and all the martyrs
put to death, and learned doctors visited with hatred, but
because they were thought arrogant and contemptuous
of ancient things, or proposed novel ways without taking
the advice of those who were expert in the old? I do
not wish them to expect me to be so humble— that is, so
hypocritical — as to submit whatever I say to their advice
and decision. What I do, I wish to do not by man's will
or counsel, but by God's. If it be of God, who shall stop
it? If it be not of God, who can forward it? Not my
will, nor theirs, nor ours, but Thine be done, Holy Father
who art in Heaven, Amen.

In this letter, written but a few days after the posting
of the theses, he first signed himself, with a play upon
his name such as the humanists loved to indulge in,
Martinus Eleutherius (Martin the Free) , for some time
a favorite form of subscription in letters to intimate
friends. It throws an interesting light upon his state
of mind. He had been troubled and perplexed for
many months ; when finally a decision was reached and
the decisive step taken, he felt a sense of exhilaration
all the greater because of the preceding struggle. He
had not rushed precipitately into the conflict; he had
weighed the matter carefully and held back as long as
he could ; but once committed to the attack, the joy of
battle was upon him, and there was no yielding until
victory was won.
The reception accorded his theses was very diverse.
Tetzel was naturally angered by them, and many
others not financially interested in the traffic, as he was,
were shocked and distressed. Most of Luther's own
friends were greatly alarmed, and, even though sym-

96 MARTIN LUTHER
pathizing with his attitude, felt he had gone altogether
too far. Referring to the matter long afterward, he
said: God brought me forward wonderfully, and led me into
the game quite without my knowledge more than twenty
years ago. Things went very poorly at first. The day
after the festival of All Saints in the year 15 17, when I
had ventured to oppose the grave and public error of in
dulgences, Dr. Jerome Schurf, while we were walking
together to Kemberg, took me sharply to task, exclaim
ing: "You would write against the pope? What do you
hope to accomplish by it ? They will not suffer it." And
I replied, "What if they must suffer it ?"
He had evidently expected the disapproval of his
friends, for he kept his own counsel and told nobody
of his intentions. "In the beginning of my career,"
he once remarked, "when I wrote against indulgences
and their abuse, I received from Heaven the gift of
depending upon myself instead of others." His col
leagues, as is apt to be the case, found fault with him
because they feared he would bring the university into
disrepute and decrease the attendance, and his brother
monks were distressed at the scandal they foresaw he
was preparing for the Augustinian order. "When I
first attacked indulgences, and all the world opened
their eyes and thought I had attempted too much, my
prior and subprior, troubled by the cry of heresy, came
and begged me not to bring disgrace upon the order.
But when I replied, 'Dear fathers, if it be not begun
in God's name, it will soon come to naught, but if it
be, let Him look after it,' they had nothing more to
say." On the other hand, in many circles the theses met
with warm approval. Duke George of Saxony, pos-

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 97
sessing, like his cousin Frederick, ecclesiastical foun
dations supported by indulgences, was greatly annoyed
at the papal competition, and, though later one of
Luther's bitterest enemies, expressed himself at the
time as delighted with the theses. The Elector Fred
erick, while guarded in his utterances, as was his wont,
was evidently pleased with the daring young monk and
glad to have a check put upon Tetzel's traffic. The
theses, it is true, were fitted to discredit indulgences al-
1 together, and so interfere also with some of his own
institutions; but he took no exception to Luther's ac
tion, and public opinion in some quarters even credited
him with being himself the instigator of the attack,
his willingness to see a neighboring elector, with whom
he was not on the best of terms, inconvenienced being
assumed as a matter of course. At any rate, though
this assumption was unwarranted, he stood by his
monk and professor even when the attack grew bitter
est, and refused to deliver him over to his foes.
But most surprising to Luther himself, and histori
cally of greater importance than anything else, was the
tremendous chorus of approval that arose from the
nation at large. To his great astonishment, the theses
were at once translated into German and read by all
classes of people in all parts of the country. In the
polemic work quoted on page 84 he observed :
In fourteen days the theses ran through all Germany ;
for the whole world was complaining of indulgences,
especially as preached by Tetzel. When all the bishops
and doctors were silent and nobody ventured to bell the
cat, — for the Dominican heresy-hunters had frightened
every one with the threat of the stake, and Tetzel him
self had persecuted certain priests who had criticized his
shameless methods, — then I became famous, because at
last some one had appeared who dared to take hold of the

98 MARTIN LUTHER
business. But the glory of it was not agreeable to me,
for I myself did not know what indulgences were, and the
song threatened to become too high for my voice.
Writing in the spring of 1518 to Christopher
Scheurl, who had sent him from Nuremberg a copy
of the theses with a German translation, he said :
You wonder I did not send them to you, but it was not
my plan or my wish to have them get into general cir
culation. I intended first to discuss them with a few in
this neighborhood, that, if condemned by the judgment of
others, they might be suppressed, or, if approved, might
be published. But now, contrary to my expectation, they
are being repeatedly translated, so that I repent having
given birth to them. Not that I am averse to having the
truth made known to the people, for there is nothing I
desire more; but this is not the best way to instruct
them. For there are certain points I am in doubt about,
and I should have said some things in a very different
way and with greater assurance, or should have omitted
them altogether, if I had seen what was to happen.
He had no idea that the impatience and discontent
of the people were as wide-spread as they proved to be.
He had not looked to them, nor had he counted on their
support. He had indeed the scholar's inbred contempt
for the opinions of the uneducated. But their en
thusiastic response to an appeal not meant for them,
when those to whom it was addressed showed them
selves indifferent or hostile, changed the whole situa
tion. He gained a following, and the people gained a
leader. Hitherto he had been monk, professor,
preacher, district-vicar; now he sprang in a moment
into national prominence. The hearts of men in all
parts of the land turned toward him, and his heart

THE ATTACK ON INDULGENCES 99
turned toward them. For the religious principles un
derlying the theses they cared little, for the arguments
sustaining them still less. They saw only that here
was a man, muzzled by none of the prudential con
siderations closing the mouths of many in high places,
who dared to speak his mind plainly and emphatically,
and was able to speak it intelligently and with effect
upon a great and growing evil deplored by multitudes.
It is such a man the people love and such a man they
trust. He might regard his theses only as propositions for
debate, but they were widely interpreted as a direct
and uncompromising attack. And they were applauded
not merely because of dislike for the indulgence traffic,
but also because of discontent with the encroach
ments of the papacy in many lines and hostility to
the overmastering influence of a foreign power in
national affairs. Restlessness over the situation was
becoming steadily more and more wide-spread. The
promise for the future involved in Luther's stand ap
pealed to the nation and aroused its enthusiasm. "Ho,
ho, he is come who will do what is needed !" some one
is reported to have cried when he read the theses, and
his exclamation well voiced the feeling of multitudes
as they looked with admiration on the daring monk and
thrilled with sympathy for his act. Just what was to
happen nobody knew ; a break with papacy and church
few anticipated; but that a man had appeared who
could be counted on to grapple with existing evils and
to lead the way toward a better state of things multi
tudes felt even if but dimly.. From this time on
Luther always had the people in mind, appealed to
them, and regarded himself as their spokesman, while
they listened eagerly to all he had to say and were
quick to follow where he led.

too MARTIN LUTHER
It is the fashion nowadays to belittle the importance
of his act in posting the theses, — the modern historian
looks with suspicion upon all dramatic incidents, — but
it made him a popular leader and for such a leader as
he was yet to be Germany had long been waiting.

CHAPTER VII
THE GATHERING STORM
"T HOPED the pope would protect me, for I had so
A fortified my theses with proofs from the Bible and
papal decretals that I was sure he would condemn
Tetzel and bless me. But when I expected a benedic
tion from Rome, there came thunder and lightning in
stead, and I was treated like the sheep who had roiled
the wolf's water. Tetzel went scot-free, and I must
submit to be devoured."
Thus Luther describes the treatment received from
Rome, and the description is in no way overdrawn. At
first the cultivated and liberal humanist who enjoyed
the papacy under the name of Leo X thought the affair
of no importance, and dismissed it as a mere monk's
quarrel. Luther was told that he remarked sarcasti
cally upon hearing of the theses : "A drunken German
wrote them. When he is sober he will think differ
ently." Whether the report is true or not, the words
are entirely in keeping with what we know of Leo's
character. After a time, however, it became clear that
the theses were having their effect, and the sale of in
dulgences was rapidly falling off. From the beginning
the campaign had not gone as well as had been hoped,
and the sums obtained in Germany, usually the best
market for such wares, fell far short of the wishes of
archbishop and pope. Little as they might care about
the right or wrong of Luther's criticism, they were

102 MARTIN LUTHER
both deeply interested in the financial side of the traf
fic, and anything affecting it unfavorably, they agreed,
must be suppressed. In a monarchy like the papacy,
constitutional safeguards availed little. Theoretically
the question of indulgences was at least in part an open
one, and in the absence of conciliar decisions, wide
differences of opinion were legitimate; but whether
legitimate or not, any opinion was bound to be
frowned upon if it seriously curtailed the papal in
come. The matter was first taken up by the Archbishop of
Mayence, who threatened the Wittenberg monk with
condemnation for heresy, evidently expecting he would
be frightened and immediately recant. But Luther was
made of other stuff, and though such a response to his
theses was not what he had looked for, he was above
being terrified even by so august an ecclesiastic. See
ing that his threat availed nothing, and apparently
loath to involve himself in a possible quarrel with
Staupitz and the Augustinian order, the easy-going
archbishop finally washed his hands of the whole mat
ter and referred the case to Rome. There the situa
tion did not seem at first to call for ecclesiastical action,
and the pope contented himself with requesting the
general of the Augustinian order, resident in Rome,
to silence his troublesome monk.
Meanwhile Tetzel, who had the best opportunity of
observing the effects of the theses, felt it necessary to
take active measures to counteract them. Early in
1 518, the new university of Frank fort-on-the-Oder,
where the rivalry with Wittenberg was keen, conferred
upon him the degree of doctor of theology, and his
promotion was made the occasion for a great demon
stration by the Dominicans, who assembled to do him
honor three hundred strong. Tetzel employed the

From an old print

DR. PFEFFINGER

THE GATHERING STORM 103
opportunity thus offered to publish a series of counter-
theses, dealing with indulgences, and subsequently an
other dealing with the power of the pope. The second
set out in clear and emphatic fashion the doctrine of
papal infallibility, held by a party in the church ever
since the later Middle Ages, but given dogmatic defini
tion only at the Vatican Council of 1870. Christians
should be taught, it is said, that "The authority of the
pope is superior to that of the universal church and
council, and his statutes must be humbly obeyed" ; that
"The pope cannot err in those things which are of
faith and necessary to salvation" ; and that "They who
speak slightingly of the honor and authority of the
pope are guilty of blasphemy." Nothing could well
be more extreme than this. Where such a notion pre
vailed, of course the criticism of indulgences or of any
other practice approved by the pope must be regarded
as illegitimate, and Luther's protestations of devotion
to the welfare of the church could avail him little.
While hostility was steadily growing in many quar
ters, the Wittenberg students showed their sympathy
with their favorite professor by publicly burning
Tetzel's theses on indulgences in the market-place.
Writing to his friend Lang in March, 15 18, Luther
said: The indulgence-sellers are thundering mightily against
me from the pulpit, and as they have not bad enough
names to call me by, they add threats, assuring the people
that I shall most certainly be burned within a fortnight,
or a month at most. They are also publishing counter-
theses until I fear they may burst with the immensity of
their wrath. If by chance you have heard about the
burning of Tetzel's theses, I will give you the facts, that
you may not be misled by exaggerated reports such as are
wont to get abroad in a case like this. When the students

104 MARTIN LUTHER
learned that a man had come from Halle, sent by Tetzel,
the author of the theses, being deeply disgusted as they
are at the old sophistical studies and exceedingly devoted
to the Holy Scriptures, perhaps also desiring to show
their partiality to me, they immediately got hold of him
and threatened him for daring to bring such a document
here. Buying some copies and seizing others, they burned
all he had, to the number of eight hundred, having pre
viously announced that those who wished to attend the
conflagration and funeral of Tetzel's theses should gather
in the market-place at two o'clock. All this they did
without the knowledge of the prince, senate, rector, or
any of us. The grave injury done the man by our sup
porters displeases me as well as every one else. I am
without blame, but I fear the whole affair will be laid at
my door. It has caused much talk, especially among
Tetzel's adherents, and no little righteous indignation.
What will come of it I do not know, except that my posi
tion is made still more dangerous.
A little later he wrote his old teacher, Trutvetter of
Erfurt :
I wonder you can believe I had anything to do with
the burning of Tetzel's theses. Do you think that I, a
monk and theologian, have so lost all common sense as
to inflict such a grave injury on a man of his position in
a place not belonging to me? But what can I do when
everybody believes all sorts of things about me? Can I
stop the mouths of all the world ? Let anybody say, hear,
and believe anything he pleases. I will do whatever the
Lord gives me to do, and, God willing, never will I be
afraid, or venture beyond what He commands.
Despite the storm gathering about his head, Luther
went on as usual with his regular work, paying no
attention to his enemies' attacks and interesting himself
in university affairs as if nothing uncommon had hap-

THE GATHERING STORM 105
pened. One of the extraordinary things about the man
was the way he could detach himself from the conflict
even when it had grown hottest, and could teach and
preach and write as if all were serene. Often when in
the thick of the fight he would produce a scriptural
commentary or a devotional work such as might be ex
pected to come only from the pen of one whose whole
life was spent in quiet study or in the calm of religious
meditation; and this even after he had developed into
one of the most active, vigorous, and unresting com
batants the world has ever seen.
During the months succeeding the posting of the
theses, he said little in public about the matter on
everybody's lips. In the spring he published a German
tract on indulgences which annoyed the Roman au
thorities even more than the theses because addressed
directly to the populace. At the request of his bishop,
he promptly stopped its sale, and also withheld an
elaborate commentary he had been preparing on the
theses, preferring, as he said in dutiful monastic
phrase, to obey rather ,than to work miracles, even if
he could. The bishop saw, however, that the hope of
putting an end to the agitation by keeping Luther quiet
was vain, and soon withdrew his request and left the
Wittenberg professor his freedom of action.
In May the triennial convention of the Augustinian
order in Germany met at Heidelberg, and Luther went
to report upon his administration as district-vicar and
turn over his office to a successor. Friends advised
him not to go for fear he would meet with trouble, and
the elector only reluctantly gave him permission to
make the journey, writing Staupitz: "Doctor Martin
Luther having been summoned by you and other offi
cials of the Augustinian order to a convention at
Heidelberg is ready to obey and attend the meeting,

106 MARTIN LUTHER
though we do not willingly grant him leave to be ab
sent from the university. As you once informed us
you would make of the man a doctor of our own with
whom we should yet be very much pleased, we do not
like to have him long away from his lectures, and we
hope you will see to it that he returns to us without
delay." Luther himself had no other thought than to attend,
as his office required him to do, and he left Wittenberg
the middle of April, traveling on foot by way of Co
burg and Wurzburg. Writing to Spalatin en route, he
said: I think you have heard from our Pfeffinger all we
talked about when I met him in the village of Judenbach.
It was a comfort to me, among other things, to have the
chance of making the rich man poorer by a few coins.
For you know how I like to incommode the rich, if in
any way I conveniently can, especially if they are friends.
He took pains to pay for the dinner even of two unknown
companions, at the cost for all of us of ten groschen.
Even now, if I can, I shall get the treasurer of our illus
trious prince here in Coburg to pay our expenses ; but if
he is unwilling, we live nevertheless at the prince's cost.
. . . All is going well, thanks be to God ! though I must
confess that I sinned in traveling on foot. The sin, to be
sure, needs no letters of indulgence, for my contrition is
perfect, and fullest satisfaction has already been imposed
upon me. I am exceedingly fatigued, and empty wagons
are never to be found ; so I am crushed, I repent, I render
satisfaction enough and to spare.
Although he traveled at his own expense, the frugal
elector provided an escort who went most of the way
with him. Luther wished to reward the man for his.
faithfulness, but being too poor to do so adequately,
took pains to write Spalatin from Wurzburg, request-

From a copy painted by E. A. Schmidt
FREDERICK THE WISE
After the portrait by Lucas Cranach in the Grand Ducal
Museum at Weimar

THE GATHERING STORM 107
ing him to see that something additional was given him
on his return home. A small matter this, but it illus
trates his thoughtfulness for others. He was generous
to a fault, and when, as frequently happened, he had
nothing left to give, he would go to any amount of
trouble and write numberless appeals for those in need.
Letters of introduction from the elector, couched in
the warmest terms, were given our traveler, addressed
to prominent persons along the route, and he was
everywhere received hospitably and with marked con
sideration. The Bishop of Wurzburg, a man of hu
manistic sympathies, went out of his way to do him
honor and afterward wrote Frederick, urging him to
stand by his professor, whatever happened, and to
allow no harm to come to him.
The trip was of great benefit to Luther. He got
away from the anxiety and solicitude of the Witten
berg circle, and found himself treated with respect and
his conduct applauded by men of position and influence
both within and without his order. The fears of his
own prior were not shared by the members of the con
vention, and he could count, as he discovered, on the
warm support of many of his brethren. He was ap
pointed to conduct the disputation held as usual on
such occasions, and carefully avoiding the subject of
indulgences, took the opportunity to expound and
defend his Pauline and Augustinian theology, to the
admiration of his hearers. One of them, the young
Dominican Martin Bucer, himself later a reformer,
describing the affair in a letter to a friend, spoke of
Luther's "wonderful suavity in replying and incom
parable patience in listening," traits, it should be re
marked, not always observed in him. The same
auditor declared enthusiastically that the Wittenberg
professor agreed in all things with Erasmus, but sur-

108 MARTIN LUTHER
passed him in teaching openly and freely what Eras
mus only insinuated. Though not altogether correct,
there was some truth in this opinion, and before long
it was shared by many others, to the great annoyance
of the eminent humanist.
Writing to Spalatin of his Heidelberg stay, Luther
said: The most illustrious prince Wolfgang, Count Pala
tine, with Master Jacob Symler and the court chamber
lain Hazius, treated me uncommonly well. For he enter
tained me with Father Staupitz and our Lang, now
district-vicar, and we had a good time together, con
versing pleasantly and agreeably, eating and drinking, and
viewing all the treasures of the little chapel, as also the
instruments of war, and most of the beauties of the truly
royal and remarkable castle. Master Jacob could not say
enough about the letters of our prince, exclaiming in his
Neckar dialect, "You have, by God, a splendid recom
mendation." Nothing was lacking which kindness could
suggest. The doctors also heard my disputation with
pleasure, and debated with me so modestly that they made
themselves very dear to me. For although the theology
seemed strange to them, they discussed it acutely and
skilfully, with the exception of the fifth and youngest
doctor, who drew a laugh from everybody when he said,
"If the peasants were to hear such things, they would
surely stone you to death."
Luther was particularly pleased with the enthusias
tic support of a number of the younger monks and
began to realize that the hope of reform lay in the
rising generation rather than in those grown old in the
traditional system. He returned home greatly cheered
and strengthened, looking better, according to his
friends, than he had for a long time, and ready to take
up the campaign with new vigor. The effect upon his

THE GATHERING STORM 109
Wittenberg acquaintances and colleagues was also
marked. They began to be proud of what he had done
as they saw what others thought of him, and to rally to
his support with a heartiness hitherto quite lacking.
The circle of his intimates was enlarged before the
end of the summer, when there came to Wittenberg
from the University of Tubingen a young man, scarcely
more than a boy, who was to be his most valued asso
ciate and principal helper in his great work. Philip
Melanchthon was a grand-nephew of the humanist and
Hebraist Reuchlin, and one of the most precocious
geniuses of that precocious age. He was already an
accomplished classical scholar and a humanist of con
siderable repute when, at the age of twenty-one, he
was called to the University of Wittenberg to become
its first professor of Greek. There he speedily fell
under the domination of Luther's stalwart personality
and threw himself into his cause with all the enthusi
asm of youth. Invaluable services he performed for
the new faith, and though not always fully in sym
pathy with his greater colleague or duly appreciative
of him, for the most part he proved himself a most
efficient aide. He was of special use at first in draw
ing the attention of his fellow-humanists to Luther and
his work. With many of them his support of the new
movement counted for a great deal, and tended to off
set in some degree Luther's oft-expressed contempt
for human reason and his rough-and-ready methods
in controversy. One of the greatest scholars and
teachers of the century, Melanchthon immensely en
hanced the fame of the university, and his class-room
was thronged with students of many nationalities. His
title of Praeceptor Germaniae was fairly won, for he
did more than any other man to reform the educa
tional system of the country.

no MARTIN LUTHER
Nothing could be more striking than the contrast
between the two colleagues, closely associated for more
than a quarter of a century— the robust, fearless war
rior, man of action, and leader of men, and the delicate,
cautious, almost effeminate scholar, naturally a stu
dent and recluse, dragged into the arena of conflict
against his will, and never quite at home in it. Luther
himself draws an apt comparison in the following
words : "I was born to fight with mobs and devils, and
so my books are very stormy and warlike. I must
remove trees and stumps, cut away thorns and thickets,
and fill up quagmires. I am the rough woodsman who
must blaze the way and clear the path. But Master
Philip comes along gently and quietly; builds and
plants, sows and waters, with joy, according to the
gifts God has richly bestowed upon him."
Luther's lifelong affection for Melanchthon is one
of the most beautiful things about the great reformer.
Older by fourteen years, and of far more massive and
heroic mold, he yet felt an admiration for the younger
man which he was never tired of expressing. "This
little Greek surpasses me even in theology," he wrote
his friend Lang in 15 19, and similar praise was con
tinually upon his lips. It speaks more for his personal
affection, and the simplicity and generosity of his na
ture, than for his penetration, that for some time he
regarded Melanchthon as a greater man than himself
and thought of him as the coming prophet for whose
work he was only preparing the way, declaring even
as late as 1529 that he was not worthy to unloose the
latchet of bis shoe. The event proved his mistake.
He had gained a useful lieutenant, but his was still the
commanding figure, and he remained sole leader till
the end.

CHAPTER VIII
THE BEGINNING OF THE CONFLICT WITH ROME
WHILE Luther was attending quietly to his duties
as professor and preacher, the Dominicans, tra
ditional rivals of the Augustinians, and old-time watch
dogs of the orthodox faith, were bestirring themselves
at Rome, endeavoring to induce the pope to proceed
with vigor against the audacious monk. The efforts
of the Augustinian general to silence him had proved
unavailing. Luther stood so well with Staupitz and
other leading Augustinians in Germany that the ma
chinery of the order could not easily be employed
against him. An ecclesiastical procedure therefore
seemed necessary, both the financial situation and the
importunity of the Dominicans making decisive action
of some sort imperative.
In May the master of the papal palace, Sylvester
Prierias, was called upon for a preliminary report.
Instead of presenting a dispassionate statement of the
case, he prepared and published an elaborate scholastic
reply to the theses, filled with bitter personal abuse of
Luther, and setting forth in most uncompromising
fashion the high papal theory already defended by
Tetzel. He looked upon the Wittenberg professor
with great contempt, and boasted that his book, evi
dently expected to crush him completely, had been
written in three days. Referring to the matter long
afterward Luther said : xn

112 MARTIN LUTHER
The pope never caused me unhappiness except at the
beginning, when Sylvester wrote against me and put on
the title-page of his book, "Master of the Sacred Palace."
Then I thought, "Horrors ! will it come to this, that the
affair will be brought before the pope?" But our Lord
God gave me grace, for the bacchant wrote such poor
stuff I could only laugh at it.
As a matter of fact, the book was not in the least
fitted to break the force of Luther's strictures upon
indulgences, and could carry no weight except with
those already in sympathy with the extreme views of
its author. The pope himself is reported to have ex
pressed his dissatisfaction with it and the wish that
Prierias had taken three months instead of three days
for it.
Not to be outdone by his Italian antagonist, Luther
wrote a reply in two days. It .was a brief and scornful
document, and made short work of the theory of papal
absolutism. It closed with the contemptuous words:
Behold, my reverend Father, I have composed this
reply hastily and in two days, for the things brought for
ward by you seemed very trifling. I have therefore
written without premeditation whatever came into my
head. If you wish to respond again take care to bring
your Thomas better armed into the arena, lest perchance
you may next time be received less mildly than now.
For I have controlled myself that I might not render evil
for evil. Farewell.
A few days later he wrote Staupitz :
If Sylvester, that sylvan sophist, goes on and provokes
me with another attack, I will not jest again, but will
give my brain and my pen free course, and will show
him there are those in Germany who understand him and
his Roman wiles. This I hope may soon happen.

CONFLICT WITH ROME 113
About the same time he published the long-delayed
commentary on the theses, containing many statements
more radical than any hitherto made. The work was
dedicated to Leo in a letter couched in terms of humble
submission. "Wherefore, blessed Father, prostrate at
the feet of thy Blessedness I offer myself with all I am
and have. Restore to life, kill, call, recall, approve,
reprove, as it shall please thee. Thy voice I will recog
nize as the voice of Christ, presiding and speaking in
thee." The contrast between this and the brusque declara
tion in the body of the work, "I am not moved in the
least by what pleases or displeases the supreme pontiff ;
he is a man like others," need not cause surprise. In
Luther's situation such a divided state of mind was
entirely natural, at one moment humbly submissive, at
the next, when thinking only of his own opinions,
boldly defiant. But looking back in later years upon
these early days of conflict he deeply regretted what
he called his weakness and ignorance in showing him
self submissive to the pope and addressing him so
bashfully and reverently.
Whatever the writer's state of mind, the dedicatory
letter counted for nothing when the book itself de
nounced unsparingly that particular doctrine of the
papacy which was coming to be looked upon as a nec
essary article of faith. The conflict had begun with an
attack on indulgences, but it was rapidly developing
into a war against papal authority. Not that Luther
thought as yet of attacking the papacy,— he was still a
devout and loyal subject of the pope, — but, like many
others, he was strenuously opposed to a theory destroy
ing all independence, either of thought or action, for
the church as a whole. Unfortunately, the theory was
shared by the pope himself and by the Roman author i-

114 MARTIN LUTHER
ties, and, as the event proved, they were bound to
crush any one openly attacking it.
Anticipating possible excommunication, Luther
preached in the late spring, and published some weeks
afterward, a sermon on the ban, declaring that exclu
sion from the church could harm no one provided he
retained his Christian faith and character, for the true
communion of the church is spiritual and internal, and
no one can be put without its pale except by his own
act. Referring to it in a letter to his old friend Wen-
ceslaus Link, he remarked:
I have recently preached a sermon to the people con
cerning the force of excommunication. In it I attacked
in passing the tyranny and ignorance of that most sordid
crowd of officials, commissaries, and vicars. All wonder
they have never before heard such things, and now we
are all waiting to see what farther harm will come to me
because of the new fire I have kindled. Thus it goes
with the word and the sign of the truth, when it is con
tradicted. I wanted to take up the subject in a public
disputation, but the report of it got abroad and so troub
led many great people that my superior, the Bishop of
Brandenburg, sent a messenger requesting me to post
pone the debate. This I did, and still do, especially since
my friends also advise it. See what a monster I am,
whose very attempts are intolerable !
The sermon made him many enemies particularly in
the ruling classes. It was widely felt that he was
undermining the safeguards of society. Even the Em
peror Maximilian, usually tolerant enough, although
he had recently told Frederick's counselor Pfeffinger
that Luther's theses were not to be despised and the
elector would better take good care of him, for he
might some day be useful, now wrote the pope urging

CONFLICT WITH ROME 115
him to silence the dangerous monk before he did worse
damage. In September, Spalatin, who was at the Diet of
Augsburg in attendance upon the elector, wrote
Luther :
I cannot tell you how much harm your work concern
ing the ban has done you, and what hatred it seems to
have caused. I greatly wonder it should have been sent
here, all the more because there was subjoined to it a
most bitter epigram against Roman avarice— I speak of
my own knowledge. When this reached here it was put
into the hands of both the apostolic legates, and I fear
has been transmitted to Rome to your great detriment.
But God will be present to aid his own. Nevertheless,
have a care that you do not stir up the hornets too much
by discourse, debate, and published writings.
Formal proceedings against Luther were finally set
on foot at the papal court, and on the seventh of
August he received an imperative summons to appear
in Rome within sixty days to answer the charge of
heresy. The situation was now becoming serious. It
was quite evident he could not expect even justice in
Rome. The trial must prove a farce, and inevitably
result in his condemnation. Indeed, one of the three
judges appointed to try his case was his antagonist
Prierias. Luther realized the gravity of the situation
and at once wrote as follows to Spalatin :
Greeting. Your good offices, my Spalatin, I am now in
especial need of, as for that matter the honor of almost
our whole university is too. What I ask is this, that
you labor with the most illustrious Prince and Doctor
Pfeffinger to have our Prince and His Imperial Majesty
secure from the supreme Pontiff my remission or the
transfer of my case to Germany, as I have written our
Prince. For you see how craftily and maliciously the

116 MARTIN LUTHER
Dominicans, my murderers, work for my destruction. I
have written to the same effect to Lord Pfeffinger that by
his own good offices and those of his friends this favor
may be secured from his Imperial Majesty and the Prince.
It is necessary to act quickly. They have given me very
little time, as you will see from this Lernsean citation,
with its hydras and monsters. Therefore if you love me
and hate iniquity, you will see to it that the counsel and
aid of the Prince are sought at once, and will inform me,
or rather our reverend Father Vicar, John Staupitz, who
is perhaps already with you at Augsburg, or will be soon.
For he is staying at Salzburg and has promised to be at
Nuremberg for the Feast of the Assumption. Finally, I
beg you not to be troubled or distressed about me. The
Lord with the temptation will provide a way of escape.
Again a fortnight later, he wrote :
I do not yet see how I can escape the threatened judg
ment unless the Prince comes to my aid. On the other
hand, I should much rather remain under perpetual cen
sure than have the Prince gain an evil name on my ac
count. Believe, therefore, that as I offered myself before
I am still ready, and persuade any others you think best
to believe the same. I will never be a heretic. I may err
in disputation, but I wish to assert nothing, nor hereafter
to be taken captive by the opinions of men. It seems
advisable to our learned and wise friends that I should
ask from our Prince Frederick a safe-conduct, as it is
called, through his dominions. When he refuses it, as I
know he will, I shall have an excellent excuse, so they
say, for not going to Rome. If therefore you are willing
and will procure from the most illustrious Prince in my
name a written reply, refusing me a safe-conduct and
leaving me to go if I wish at my own risk, you will best
serve me.
In a letter written about the same time to his su
perior Staupitz, he said: "See how insidiously I am

CONFLICT WITH ROME 117
attacked. Everywhere I am hedged about with thorns ;
but Christ lives and reigns yesterday, and to-day, and
forever. . . . Pray for me that in this time of tempta
tion I be not too joyful and too confident." A very
human touch this last! Joy in battle he always felt,
and was never so happy as when in the midst of the
fray. Meanwhile, moved perhaps by Luther's sermon on
the ban, and by reports of the growing radicalism of
his utterances, the pope decided not to wait until the
sixty days were gone, but to have him arrested at once
and held for trial, and the elector was called upon to
turn him over to Cardinal Cajetan, the papal legate at
the Diet of Augsburg. This Frederick was unwilling
to do. Though he disclaimed all sympathy with here
tics and heresy, he was yet determined that his most
famous professor, the chief ornament of his university,
should enjoy fair play. He therefore endeavored to
have his case transferred to Germany, where there was
more likelihood of securing justice. His support was
of incalculable benefit to Luther. Without it he would
have been destroyed at the very beginning, before his
great reforming work was fairly under way. Frederick
was the most highly respected and influential prince in
Germany, and the pope, particularly just at this junc
ture, could ill afford to offend him. The Emperor
Maximilian was endeavoring to secure the irhperial
succession for his grandson Charles, but Leo, foresee
ing that his own power would be greatly curtailed if
the King of Spain, already possessed of large territory
in Italy, should also become Emperor of Germany,
supported the candidature of Francis I of France as
the lesser of two evils. In these circumstances it was
of the utmost importance to remain on friendly
terms with so influential an elector as Frederick. He

118 MARTIN LUTHER
therefore yielded so far at least as to commission Caje-
tan, one of the leading theologians of the day, to hear
Luther's case at Augsburg instead of arresting him
and sending him to Rome unheard.
Luther was accordingly directed by the elector to
appear at Augsburg and answer for himself before the
legate. This was not what he had wished. He had
hoped for a trial before some German tribunal, not
already prejudiced against him, and his friends urged
him not to go, warning him that the whole thing was a
ruse and he would certainly be arrested and forfeit his
life. But he felt in duty bound to obey the elector's
mandate, and, though he was far from well, made the
journey on foot, arriving in Augsburg on the seventh
of October, and putting up in the Carmelite monastery
of St. Anne, the prior of which was a former Witten
berg student. His mood during the journey is shown
by the following passage in a letter written from
Nuremberg : "I have found some men so pusillanimous
in my cause that they have even undertaken to tempt
me not to go to Augsburg. But I continue firm. The
will of the Lord be done. Even at Augsburg, even in
the midst of his enemies, Jesus Christ reigns. Let
Christ live, let Martin die, and every sinner." Years
afterward he remarked that he saw only the stake be
fore him when he set out from Wittenberg, and was
troubled to think what a disgrace he would be to his
dear parents.
In Augsburg he was warmly received by some of the
leading men of the town and was entertained at dinner
by the city councilor Conrad Peutinger, a humanist
of patrician birth, whose fame among his brother
humanists was great and whose library was one of the
wonders of the age. Augsburg, an important imperial
j city, was then at the height of its prosperity. It was

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CLOISTERS OF THE CATHEDRAL AT AUGSBURG
CONFLICT WITH ROME 119
the home of the Fuggers, the principal financial mag
nates of the day, the bankers of emperors and popes,
and the fiscal agents in charge of all the great indul
gence campaigns of that age. According to tradition
the papal legate made the palatial residence of Jacob
Fugger, the head of the house, his stopping-place, and
Luther appeared before him there.
A few days after his arrival he wrote his colleague
Melanchthon :
Nothing new or wonderful is happening here, except
that the city is full of my name, and everybody desires to
see the Herostratus who has kindled so great a fire. Play
the man as you are doing, and teach the young rightly.
I am going to be sacrificed for you and them, if it please
the Lord. I prefer to perish and even to lose forever your
most delightful companionship— a thing most grievous
to me-^rather than revoke what I have rightly said, and
be an occasion of loss to the best studies. With these
most ignorant and bitter enemies of literature and educa
tion Italy has fallen into palpable Egyptian darkness. For
they are all ignorant of Christ and his affairs. These
men, nevertheless, we have as lords and masters in faith
and practice.
The impatience of Roman rule thus expressed is
very significant. It was already wide-spread in Ger
many, and Luther's awakening sense of the situation
was prophetic of what he was yet to do for his native
land. At the Diet of Augsburg, which had closed
shortly before he arrived in the city, hostility to the
papacy found most emphatic utterance. It was no new
thing. For many generations the avarice of the
Roman curia had provoked the complaints of Christen
dom. In all sorts of ways, and by the most devious
paths, money flowed to Rome, and the wealth of the
nations was drained for its support. Sovereign of the

120 MARTIN LUTHER
states of the church, a small territory able at best to
sustain only a modest court, the pope was at the same
time a world ruler and kept up the pomp and circum
stance of the greatest of potentates. To Christendom
at large he must look for funds to meet the needs of
his government and of the thousands of retainers
thronging his court. It was inevitable that the venera
tion naturally felt toward the head of the church
should be tempered with impatience at a foreign
power whose maintenance heavily taxed the peoples of
Europe. No country felt the burden more than
Germany. With its historic devotion to the holy see,
with its numerous and wealthy ecclesiastical states,
with the conflicting interests of its various principali
ties, and with the weakness of its central government,
making common action impossible, it offered abundant
opportunities for spoliation.
It had long been growing clear to German princes
and people that they were being exploited by a race
which despised them for their very submission, and
national pride was beginning to take fire everywhere.
At the Diet of 1510 a long and ominous list of griev
ances against the papacy was formulated, and at Augs
burg, in 15 18, the bitterness was equally marked. The
old plea that money was needed for the defense of
Christendom against the Turks was urged both by
emperor and pope, but the Diet was obdurate, believing
that so far at least as the pope was concerned the plea
was only a pretext, and the money would go to line the
pockets of his relatives and retainers. In these circum
stances it was hardly to be expected that Luther should
find the papal legate in particularly good humor, or
disposed to treat him with leniency. It would seem as
if the temper of the Diet might have warned him of
the necessity of handling the case of the Wittenberg

CONFLICT WITH ROME 121
professor with circumspection; but he evidently did
not realize the gravity of the situation and did not
dream, as, for that matter, Luther did not, that the
affair would yet assume national importance.
Luther's interviews with him proved exceedingly
unsatisfactory. The cardinal refused to enter into the
merits of the case, insisting quite in the spirit of
Prierias and Tetzel that it was the monk's duty to
submit unquestioningly to the authority of the pope
and to recant unconditionally. This Luther naturally
refused to do, and when he undertook to defend his
positions, a protracted and heated discussion ensued,
which served .only to confirm him in his own views and
to convince the legate of his obduracy and heresy. The
remark attributed to Cajetan by an early biographer
of Luther is probably apocryphal: "I do not wish to
talk further with this beast, for he has deep eyes, and
his head is full of amazing speculations" ; but his im
pression of the Wittenberg professor was very unfa
vorable, as is shown by his account of the affair sent to
the Elector Frederick, and Luther's opinion of the
cardinal is recorded in a letter written from Augsburg
to his colleague Carlstadt. "He is perhaps a famous
Thomist, but he is an obscure and ignorant theologian
and Christian, and therefore as well fitted to manage
this affair as an ass to play the harp." Long after
ward Luther declared his break with the pope might
have been avoided had a more conciliatory policy been
adopted by the legate, and a papal ambassador is re
ported to have accused Cajetan of ruining the cause by
using violence instead of diplomacy. But neither re
mark does justice to the fundamental difference of
principle between Luther and the papacy— a difference
fully apparent only some time later, but already realized
by Cajetan. As a convinced and consistent supporter

122 MARTIN LUTHER
of the theory of papal absolutism he really followed
the only course possible in the circumstances when he
demanded unconditional submission.
Successive interviews having proved quite futile,
Luther was finally dismissed with the command not to
appear again until he was prepared to recant. In re
sponse to the request of his superior Staupitz, and his
boyhood friend Wenceslaus Link, whom Cajetan in
duced to labor with the refractory monk, he then wrote
the cardinal a letter of apology :
Most reverend Father in Christ, I confess, as I have
confessed before, that I was certainly too indiscreet, as
they say, and too bitter and irreverent toward the name
of the supreme Pontiff. And although I was most
strongly provoked to this irreverence, nevertheless I now
know I ought to have handled the case more modestly,
humbly, and reverently, and not answered a fool accord
ing to his folly. I am most sincerely sorry and beg par
don, and 1 will make it known to the people from the
pulpit, whenever I have opportunity, as I have already
often done, and will henceforth take care to act and
speak differently by the mercy of God. I also promise
most willingly not to deal with the subject of indulgences,
and to be silent when the present affair is ended, provided
similar speech or silence be imposed also on those who
incited me to this tragedy.
But at the same time he again refused to recant, de
claring :
So far as concerns the truth of my opinions I would
most gladly revoke everything in accordance with your
command and advice as well as my vicar's, if my con
science in any way permitted it. For I know I ought
to be persuaded by no precept, counsel, or kindness to
say or do anything against my conscience.
Nothing came of the letter, and when Staupitz found

From the painting by Christopher Amberger

CONRAD PEUTINGER. THE AUGSBURG HUMANIST

CONFLICT WITH ROME 123
him fully determined not to yield he absolved him from
his vow of monastic obedience, whether for Luther's
sake, or to relieve himself and the Augustinian order
from responsibility for the dangerous monk, is not
clear. After waiting a few days for further develop
ments, Luther was smuggled out of the city by his
friends, who had heard rumors of his impending ar
rest, and made his way hurriedly back to Wittenberg
on horseback. At the close of the first day's ride of
nearly forty miles, completely exhausted by the un
accustomed exercise, he tumbled half dead on the floor
of the stable. As he later said, he rode "without
trousers, boots, spurs, or sword," to the great amuse
ment of Count Albert of Mansfeld, whom he visited
at Grafenthal on his way home. He arrived at Wit
tenberg on the last day of October "full of joy and
peace," as he wrote Spalatin the same day, "so that I
wonder this trial of mine should seem so great a thing
to many great men." He left behind him in Augsburg
another letter to the cardinal and an appeal duly signed
and executed from the pope-illr-informed to the pope-
to-be-better-informed, demanding that the process
against him be begun anew and unprejudiced judges
be substituted for those already named.
That the seriousness of the situation did not wholly
absorb him, or dampen the buoyancy of his spirits, is
shown by the following playful note to Melanchthon,
written shortly after his return home apropos cf a
dinner he gave as dean of the theological faculty to a
newly made doctor.
To Philip Melanchthon, Schwarzerd, Greek, Latin,
Hebrew, German, never barbarian. Greeting. To-day
you despised both me and the new doctor, so-called. May
the Muse and Apollo forgive you for it. Although it
was not altogether my affair, I have pardoned you. But

124 MARTIN LUTHER
unless you show yourself punctually to Dr. Andrew Carl
stadt and Licentiate Amsdorf,and especially to the Rector,
not even Greek will be able to excuse you, much less the
little brother Martin, as Cajetan calls me. The new
doctor thinks, as he says jestingly, that as a barbarian he
is held in contempt by a Greek. Take care what you do,
for I have promised you will surely come this time. You
will do me a kindness if you come, but I should very
much like to have you bring with you Dr. Veit and John
Schwertfeger, for this evening I shall be host to my
best and dearest friends. Use your influence and my
command, if the little brother counts for anything, that
they may come with you. Farewell.
Little brother Martin Eleutherius.
Within a week after the dinner, on November 28,
expecting speedy condemnation from Rome, he drew
up another formal appeal, this time from the pope to a
general council. The appeal was a master stroke of
policy. It arrayed upon his side opponents of papal
absolutism whatever their attitude toward indulgences.
From time immemorial a general council had been re
garded as supreme in the church, the only final and in
fallible authority in faith and practice. But during
the later Middle Ages papal absolutism had steadily
grown, and in the early fifteenth century, in the
struggle between the papacy and the great reforming
councils, the former had won a complete victory. Dis
credited as the conciliar party was in Luther's time, the
general council still remained the one hope of all
deprecating the unlimited power of the pope. To ap
peal from pope to council was to put oneself on the
side of multitudes of devout Catholics of the highest
standing, particularly in Germany and France; and
inevitably Luther's case at once assumed in many eyes
the aspect of a struggle between the newer papal claims

CONFLICT WITH ROME 125
and the older principle of representative government.
As a result, the particular reform interesting Luther
was widely lost sight of in the larger issue, and the
bold professor came to be regarded as a champion of
the rights of the church against the usurpations of the
pope. In such a struggle, loyal and orthodox Catholics
were as likely to be with him as against him. His
appeal served to rally and consolidate forces of Cath
olic devotion long existent, but for some time past
without the power of effective and concerted expres
sion. Greatly annoyed at the outcome of the Augsburg
interview, Cajetan wrote a sharp letter to Frederick,
assuring him Luther's teachings were heretical, re
minding him of his duty as a loyal son of the church,
and calling upon him to deliver the refractory profes
sor to the Roman authorities or expel him from his
dominions. The elector referred the letter to Luther,
who immediately returned it, with his own version of
the Augsburg interview, and with the request that he
be not sent to Rome, where his life would scarcely be
safe for an instant. He offered to leave Saxony, if
Frederick felt embarrassed by his presence, but sug
gested that the cardinal be told to put his proofs in
writing and not content himself with merely denounc
ing Brother Martin as a heretic. In an admirably
firm and temperate reply to Cajetan, the elector
followed Luther's suggestion, writing in part as fol
lows: There are many scholars in our principality, in the
university and elsewhere, from whom we have not yet
been able to learn with certainty that Martin's teaching is
impious, unchristian, and heretical, though there are some
who have opposed him on private grounds, because his
learning has injured them pecuniarily ; but even they have

126 MARTIN LUTHER
as yet proved nothing against him. For if we had ade
quate evidence that Martin's teaching were impious and
unsettling, we should ourselves know by Almighty God's
help and grace what to do without being exhorted and
admonished. For we are determined in this whole affair
to act as becomes a Christian prince who desires to con
sult both his honor and his conscience with the aid of
God. . . . Since Martin offers to submit his case to the
judgment of certain universities, and to stand trial in
some safe place, and to surrender himself obediently for
instruction and guidance, when his cause has been heard,
we think he ought to be allowed to do so, or at least that
his errors should be indicated in writing. This we also
ask, that we may know on what ground he is to be re
garded as heretical, and may be able to proceed accord
ingly. For we think that when he is not yet convicted, he
ought not to be reputed and written down a heretic.
Finally we would not willingly permit ourselves to be
drawn into error or to be counted disobedient by the holy
apostolic see.
Opposition to the papal absolutism of the Roman
party, which made the mere word of the pope sufficient
to determine heresy, here speaks in decided though
respectful terms. Against such absolutism Frederick
could evidently be counted on to stand firm, whatever
his views as to the right or wrong of his famous pro
fessor's reforming efforts.
Luther was delighted with the elector's reply, as he
might well be. With such a prince to see he had fair
play, he could feel the ground firm beneath his feet;
and Frederick's attitude made it clear enough to the
Roman authorities that to crush Luther summarily was
quite out of the question.
Force having failed, diplomacy was resorted to. The
papal chamberlain Carl von Miltitz, a Saxon noble
man and agent of the Saxon princes in Rome, was

CONFLICT WITH ROME 127
despatched to Germany to discover how the land lay,
and, if possible, induce the elector to yield to the wishes
of the pope. His instructions gave him considerable
latitude. He was to seize Luther and send him to
Rome if he could, but if not, to accomplish the desired
end in some more indirect fashion. He was commis
sioned to bestow upon the elector the golden rose, the
most coveted decoration in the gift of the pope. Apro-
— -~pGS of this, Luther repeats a tale brought from Rome,
that when it was proposed to offer Frederick the
golden rose on condition he surrender the monk, one
of the cardinals angrily exclaimed : "Are you all chil
dren or idiots that you propose to buy the monk from
the prince?" and tore up the document containing the
proposal. Whether the report was true or not, at any
rate the gift just at this juncture might easily be con
strued as an attempt to bribe the elector ; and' though
he had long desired it, he accepted it now with marked
coolness. Arrived in Germany, Miltitz speedily discovered the
situation to be much more serious than had been imag
ined at Rome. He found the whole country stirred
up over Luther's case, and not more than one German
out of every four on the pope's side. An army of
twenty-five thousand men, be confessed, would be in
sufficient to carry Luther off to Rome. It was quite
evident the time for suppressing him by force or
threats had passed, and the adroit envoy, interpreting
his mission more broadly than had been intended, at
once decided that the only course was to gain him by
flattery and promises of favor. He apparently let it
be known quietly to Luther's friends that ecclesiastical
preferment, possibly even a bishopric, would be his
reward if he yielded. At least Pfeffinger, who was
with Miltitz in Nuremberg, was sure the Wittenberg

128 MARTIN LUTHER
professor might have any dignity he wished, as Chris
topher Scheurl was careful to inform Luther in a very
interesting letter of the twentieth of December. A
couple of years later, it may be added, at the Diet of
Worms, the Elector Frederick told some of his fellow-
princes that he knew to a certainty Martin could have
a rich archbishopric, or a cardinal's hat, if he would
only recant.
Finding such hints of no avail, early in January,
1 5 19, Miltitz secured a personal interview with Luther
himself. He met him with assurances of respect and
protestations of affection, and succeeded in persuading
him to agree to have his case submitted to the Arch
bishop of Treves, and to abide by his decision. Luther
further promised, as he had already offered to do at
Augsburg, to say no more upon the subject of indul
gences, and to refrain from all controversy if his op
ponents would do the same. The one thing the curia
most desired was to put an end to the discussion. The
more public attention was called to the matter, the
worse for the indulgence traffic, so long unpopular in
many quarters. If the Wittenberg professor could not
be induced to retract, the next best thing, as Miltitz
rightly saw, was to secure his silence; and out of con
sideration for the peace of the church Luther entered
cheerfully into a conditional agreement to remain
quiet. He was prevailed upon at the same time to write
a humble letter to the pope, though it was apparently
never sent, perhaps because not submissive enough to
suit Miltitz, and he also published a pamphlet for cir
culation among the people, warning them against put
ting too radical an interpretation upon his utterances
and exhorting them to loyalty and obedience.
To call all this a retraction on Luther's part, and to
accuse him of cowardice or undue regard for his own

EXTERIOR OF THE FUGGER HOUSE AT AUGSBURG

From a woud-en^raviujr by Hans Burkmair
JACOB FUGGER OF AUGSBURG

CONFLICT WITH ROME 129
safety is entirely to misunderstand him. The situation
was very natural and reveals the genuine humanness
of the Wittenberg monk. It was never difficult to
work upon his feelings, and the wily German knew
how to make an effective appeal to his ingrained devo
tion and his long-time habit of cloisteral obedience. It
was a monastic principle that chief regard must always
be had to the good of the church, and for its sake
even the truth must often remain unspoken. When
Luther was assured that the welfare of the institution
he loved was threatened, naturally enough everything
else shrank for the moment into insignificance. Like
many another man of his temperament,' he could never
be driven, but he could very easily be led. Miltitz,
despite the questionable reputation he enjoyed, was the
only person who showed any understanding of the
man he was dealing with.
It is a further evidence of the papal envoy's appre
ciation of the situation that he recognized the need of
publicly admitting the justice of Luther's criticisms and
doing something to mend the evils he had attacked.
Tetzel, he decided, must be made a scapegoat of, and
so he summoned him to appear and answer for his
conduct. The pope, according to Scheurl, had already
expressed his indignation at some of the most offen
sive utterances attributed to the indulgence preacher,
and whether rightly or wrongly, the Roman authorities
from this time on held him accountable for all the
trouble. When Tetzel informed Miltitz that the wrath of the
people made it unsafe for him to obey the summons,
the papal envoy sought him out in Leipsic, where he
had sheltered himself in a monastery, and passed con
demnation upon him for immorality of long standing
and for alleged dishonesty in connection with the in-

130 MARTIN LUTHER
dulgence funds. Tetzel felt his disgrace keenly, and
did not long survive. It was like Luther to write him
a letter of sympathy before his death, telling him not
to take the matter too much to heart ; the fault was not
his, for "the child had another father altogether." The
responsibility for the abuses attaching to the indul
gence traffic, formerly attributed to Tetzel, or at worst
to Archbishop Albert, he now began to see belonged to
the papacy itself. Possibly his recent stay in Augs
burg, where the anti-papal attitude of the Diet was
on everybody's lips, had opened his eyes to the real
situation. At any rate, thenceforth he laid the fault at
Rome's door, and held the pope himself, or the curia,
chiefly responsible for the evils he condemned.
The diplomatic success scored by Miltitz proved,
after all, only temporary. When the impressions of
the interview had somewhat faded, and he had leisure
to think the matter over calmly by himself, Luther
reverted not unnaturally to his earlier state of mind.
He became aware once more of the gravity of the
issue, and began to feel with considerable chagrin
that.under the spell of the courtly nobleman's blandish
ments — his "Judas kiss and crocodile tears" as he ir
reverently called them in a letter to a friend — he had
gone too far and yielded too much. When his oppo
nents, paying no attention to Miltitz's efforts, gave
him the opportunity to break silence, as they soon did,
it is not surprising he entered the arena again more
determined and more radical in his views than ever.

CHAPTER IX
THE LEIPSIC DEBATE
THE summer of 15 19 witnessed two events each in
its way of cardinal importance for the career of
Luther and the progress of the Reformation— the elec
tion of an emperor of Germany and the Leipsic debate.
The Emperor Maximilian died unexpectedly on
the twelfth of January. The two most prominent can
didates for the imperial throne were his grandson
Charles, King of Spain and the Netherlands, and King
Francis I of France. Maximilian had already been
laying the wires for Charles's election, but the pope
favored the candidacy of Francis. The election lay
in the hands of three ecclesiastical and four secular
princes, the archbishops of Treves, Mayence, and
Cologne, the electors of Brandenburg and Saxony, the
Count Palatine, and the King of Bohemia. Large
sums of money were spent by the candidates and
their supporters in forwarding their interests, and
Frederick the Wise was apparently the only one of
the seven who was above accepting bribes. It looked
for a time as if the prize would go to the highest
bidder, but as the possibility of Francis's election be
came imminent, national feeling asserted itself, and
demanded an emperor of German blood. Pressure
proved too strong to be resisted, and when the sup
porters of Francis found it impossible to secure his
election, they compromised on Frederick the Wise,
131

132 MARTIN LUTHER
easily the most influential and respected of German
princes, and the pope's original choice for the position.
Feeling his resources unequal to the task, Frederick
declined the proffered crown and threw the weight of
his influence upon the side of Charles, who was elected
on the twenty-eighth of June.
Not for centuries had such power been lodged in the
hands of a single man. Inheriting the crown of Spain
and the Netherlands and large possessions in Italy from
his Spanish mother, his Hapsburg father brought him
Austria and Burgundy, and now the empire of Ger
many was added. Great things were expected of him
by his new subjects, particularly by the members of
the young German party. Their watchword was "Ger
many for the Germans," and they hoped for the crea
tion of a strong and united nation, sufficient unto itself
and independent of all foreign control. In Germany,
as in many other parts of Europe, the new spirit of
nationalism was running high, and everywhere it gave
rise to a growing impatience with the papacy, for the
latter's cosmopolitanism seemed to many the greatest
obstacle to national development. The pope's support
of the candidature of Francis only made matters worse
and increased the hostility to his interference in Ger
man affairs.
The election of Charles was hailed with enthusiasm,
and hope everywhere ran high. But those who ex
pected much were doomed to disappointment. Instead
of putting himself at the head of the national move
ment and devoting his energies to the building up of a
strong and independent empire, he treated Germany
only as an appanage of Spain, where alone his heart
lay. Though German blood flowed in his veins, he
was by temperament and training far. more Spanish
than German. He had little understanding of his Teu-

THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 133
tonic subjects, or sympathy with them, and to their
new hopes and aspirations he was altogether blind.
Germany was hardly more than a pawn in his political
game, and when he needed the support of the papacy,
he was quite willing to use his power to suppress heresy
and schism in the empire, as he was equally ready,
even though a devout and orthodox Catholic, to permit
both to flourish when he wished to bring the pope to
terms. The Lutheran movement thus proved fre
quently of no little advantage to him, but of real
sympathy with it he never showed a trace, and his
general policy was hostile to it.
At the time of Charles's election, Luther shared the
common mood, and his countrymen's enthusiasm for
the young ruler was reflected in his writings. Over
and over again not only then, but years afterward, he
spoke in terms of warm admiration of the emperor,
and it was long before he could bring himself to believe
that he would disappoint the nation's hopes.
In the meantime, while the intrigues preceding the
election were distracting the attention of the princes of
Germany, Luther was preparing himself all uncon
sciously to fill the place of popular leader declined by
Charles. As yet his work was almost exclusively reli
gious and theological, and its wider implications were
nowhere understood, but as the event proved the struc
ture ultimately reared was the more permanent because
of the solidity and depth of the foundations he was
laying. His break with the papacy, a necessary step in
his progress toward national leadership, was becoming
more and more imminent during the early months of
1 519, and was greatly hastened by the second of the
two notable events of that year, the Leipsic disputation.
The ablest Catholic theologian of the day in Ger
many was Dr. John Eck of the University of Ingol-

134 MARTIN LUTHER
stadt. Some three years younger than Luther, he took
his master's degree at the University of Tubingen at
the early age of fourteen, while Luther was still only
an undergraduate. Interested in mathematics, geogra
phy, physics, philosophy, and law, as well as theology,
he was a man of uncommon learning and extraor
dinary attainments in many fields. For a time he was
generally reckoned a member of the growing human
istic party, and was on terms of intimacy with many of
its leaders. Luther spoke of him with marked respect
in some of his earlier letters, and frequently sent him
greetings through common friends. But the appear
ance of the ninety-five theses led to a permanent break
and the alinement of Eck upon the side of reaction.
He criticized them severely in a paper intended for
private circulation called "Obelisks." Outraged that
a man he supposed his friend should attack him with
out giving him any warning, Luther replied with
considerable asperity in a similar paper entitled "Aster
isks." Thenceforth, although the forms of friendship
were observed for a while, there was growing enmity
between the two men.
In May, 1518, Luther's friend Carlstadt, who had
some time before committed himself publicly and
enthusiastically to the Augustinian theology of his
younger colleague, assailed Eck in an extended series
of theses, and the controversy, thus opened, was car
ried on vigorously for months. The Wittenberg fac
ulty finally invited Eck, an experienced, one might
almost say a professional, disputant, to meet Carlstadt
in public debate, and after protracted negotiations
Leipsic was agreed upon as the scene of the dispu
tation. In the winter Eck published the theses he purposed
to defend, and sent a copy of them to Luther. Instead

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THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 135
of dealing with the matters in dispute between himself
and Carlstadt, they had to do wholly with Luther's
teachings, showing it was he whom Eck wished to
meet. Indeed, in the letter accompanying the theses
he said :
As Carlstadt is your champion, but you are the prin
cipal, who have disseminated throughout Germany dog
mas which seem to my small and feeble judgment false
and erroneous, it is fitting that you also should come and
either defend your own positions or disprove mine. . . .
You see from the inclosed document that the proposi
tions have been aimed not so much at Carlstadt as at your
teachings. Luther felt much aggrieved at this new and public
attack, made as it was under cover of the approaching
debate with Carlstadt and despite renewed protesta
tions of friendship. In deference to Miltitz, he had
maintained strict silence, and had even allowed a recent
pamphlet of Prierias to pass unnoticed; but Eck's as
sault was too serious to be ignored. He was the first
German theologian of any importance to come out in
open opposition, and Luther felt that his own honor
and the honor of the university required him to meet
his antagonist in debate. Considering himself absolved
from his promise of silence by what had happened, he
decided to join Carlstadt in the approaching disputa
tion, leaving to his colleague the defense of the Augus
tinian theology, and devoting himself to the points
specifically impugned in Eck's theses.
He found considerable difficulty in getting Duke
George's permission to take part. It seemed almost an
affront to the papal see to allow him to appear in Leip
sic and defend propositions he had already been called
upon to recant. But he was very eager, and wrote a

136 MARTIN LUTHER
number of urgent letters to the duke. Finally, Carl
stadt was authorized to bring with him such friends as
he pleased, and under cover of this indirect permission,
Luther appeared and bore his share in the debate.
Like Tetzel and Prierias, Eck was a believer in papal
absolutism and infallibility, and he took occasion in his
final thesis to declare the pope successor of Peter and
universal vicar of Christ, thus challenging Luther to
debate the question of his supremacy. The matter, as
Luther saw clearly enough, was of fundamental impor
tance and its discussion sooner or later inevitable. He
therefore spent the months preceding the debate in the
most diligent study of the whole topic. As he gathered
his material, he became convinced of the nullity of
the papal claims. He discovered the untrustworthiness
of many of the documents appealed to in their support,
and was led to the conclusion that the whole structure
was based on fraud and was of comparatively recent
growth. The conclusion, as a matter of fact, was quite
unwarranted. Papal supremacy was much older than
he thought, and was due in no small part to natural
causes. But his opinion was not surprising in the cir
cumstances, and was shared by many others. As a
consequence, his bitterness steadily increased, and it
became more and more difficult for him to distinguish
between the current theory and the papal institution
itself. Writing to his friend Lang on the third of
February, he said :
Our Eck is waging new wars against me, and it will
come to pass that I shall do with Christ's aid what I
have long had in mind; namely, attack sometime tha
Roman scarecrows in a serious book. For hitherto I
have only sported and played with the Roman affair,
although they complain loudly as if it were real earnest.

THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 137
Before the end of the month he wrote Christopher
Scheurl :
Our Eck, after beautifully hiding his madness against
me until now, has finally let it be seen. Behold what
kind of a man he is! But God is in the midst of the
gods, and knows what He purposes to bring out of this
tragedy. Neither Eck nor I can serve our own ends in
this affair. The counsel of God, so I believe; will be
accomplished. I have often said that hitherto I have
been playing; now at length serious things against the
Roman pontiff and Roman arrogance are under way.
The same day he wrote the humanist Willibald
Pirkheimer :
The Lord drags me and not unwillingly do I follow.
If the Roman curia has mourned over dying indulgences
what will it do when its decretals, if God will, are ex
piring? Not that I would boast before the victory, trust
ing in my own powers, but I have faith that the mercy
of God will be wroth at human traditions. The power
and majesty of the supreme pontiff I will guard and
defend, but I will not bear corruptions of the sacred
scriptures. A few days later he declared in a letter to Spalatin :
I am studying the papal decretals in preparation for
my disputation, and, between us, I am ignorant whether
the pope is antichrist himself or his apostle, so miserably
is Christ — that is, the truth— corrupted and crucified by
him in his decretals.
Already in December, in writing to his friend Link
about the meeting with Cajetan at Augsburg, he had
said: I send you my account of the Augsburg interview,
couched in sharper terms than the legate wished ; but my

138 MARTIN LUTHER
pen is already pregnant with much greater matters. I do
not know where my ideas come from. The affair, in my
judgment, is not yet begun, much less is it nearing its
end, as the Romans hope. I will send you my trifles, that
you may see whether I rightly divine that the antichrist,
of whom Paul speaks, reigns in the Roman curia. I
think I am able to show that he is worse to-day than
the Turk.

The idea was not a novel one. In the Middle Ages
the word "antichrist" was frequently used by disputants
as a term of opprobrium for political or ecclesiastical
opponents of whatever sort, and long before Luther's
time it had been repeatedly applied to the pope by those
who saw in the political power and worldly interests
of the papacy the profanation of a holy office and the
betrayal of Christ. This it was that led Luther to
the same condemnatory judgment. Not the personal
character of the popes, but the secularization of the
papacy chiefly aroused his resentment. As he discov
ered how consciously and deliberately and often by
what devious means its political power had been at
tained, his anger waxed hot within him. In another
letter to Spalatin, written about the same time, he says :
Many things I suppress and hold back for the sake of
the prince and our university. If I were elsewhere, I
should vomit them out against Rome, or rather Babylon,
the devastator of Bible and church. The truth about the
Bible and the church, my Spalatin, cannot be discussed
without offending this beast. Therefore do not hope that
I shall be quiet and undisturbed unless you wish me to
give op theology altogether. Let our friends think me
mad. This affair will not have an end, if it be of God,
until all my friends desert me, as his disciples and ac
quaintances deserted Christ, and truth be left alone,

From a carbon print by Braun & Co. of the painting by Clouet in the Louvre
FRANCIS I OF FRANCE, DEFEATED CANDIDATE FOR THE IMPERIAI,
THRONE OF GERMANY

THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 139
which will save itself by its own power and not by mine
nor thine nor any man's. This hour I have expected
from the beginning. ... If I perish, the world will lose
nothing. The Wittenbergers, by the grace of God, have
already progressed so far they do not need me at all.
What will you ? I, worthless man that I am, fear I may
not be counted worthy to suffer and die for such a cause.
That felicity belongs to better men, not to so vile a
sinner.

He evidently realized the seriousness of the outlook.
Insubordination to the pope, it was generally believed,
could have only one result, the condemnation and
death of the rebel. He was hastening on, it seemed,
to certain destruction. His friends were in terror, and
urged him to be careful. Carlstadt, radical and im
petuous as he was, tried to hold him back. He was
ready and eager to defend the Augustinian theology,
but was not prepared to attack the pope, and his
younger colleague's course sorely alarmed him.
But Luther was not to be dissuaded. Expediency
meant little to him, his own reputation and safety still
less. When once convinced that a certain evil needed
mending, no other consideration, however important,
could long hold him back. He would often restrain
himself for the sake of others when he would not for
his own, but the restraint could be only temporary, and
the deed had at length to be done, whatever it cost
either them or him.
The great Leipsic debate began on the twenty-sev
enth of June in the hall of the Pleissenburg, Duke
George's palace, in the presence of the duke himself
and many other distinguished personages. A number
of professors and two hundred students from Witten
berg were in attendance, and the latter kept the town

140 MARTIN LUTHER
well stirred up with their noisy and not always orderly
demonstrations in support of the Wittenberg cham
pions. Peter Mosellan, a Leipsic professor of humanistic
sympathies, gives us a vivid description of the partici
pants in the debate. The following pen-picture of Lu
ther, then thirty-five years old, is worth quoting :
Martin is of medium height and slender form, with a
body so wasted both with cares and study that you can
almost count all his bones. He is just in the prime of
life, with a clear and penetrating voice. His learning
and his knowledge of Scripture are admirable, and he
has almost everything at command. He knows enough
Greek and Hebrew to decide between different interpreta
tions. Nor is he wanting in matter, for he has a great
forest both of ideas and words. Judgment, perhaps, and
discretion you might miss in him. In his life and man
ners he is polite and affable, not in the least stoical or
supercilious, and he is able to adapt himself to all occa
sions. In company he is a gay and merry jester, alert
and good-humored, everywhere and always with a bright
and cheerful face, however terribly his enemies threaten
him, so that you find it difficult to believe the man could
undertake so arduous a task without divine aid. But
there is one thing nearly all count a vice in him: he is
a little more imprudent and biting in reproof than is
either safe in one who goes new ways in theology or
decorous in a theologian, a fault which I am not sure
does not attach to all that have learned late.
During the first week the debate was between Eck
and Carlstadt, and Luther entered the fray only on
the fourth of July. It was for this both Eck and the
spectators had been eagerly waiting, and the disputa
tion now assumed for the first time the aspect of a real
and serious struggle. The disputants began at once

THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 141
with the fundamental question of the nature of papal
authority. Luther was very careful and moderate in
his utterances. He did not deny the supremacy of the
pope. He claimed only that he ruled by human, not
divine, right, and a Christian might therefore be saved
even if he refused to submit to his authority. This,
Eck at once declared, sounded very like the opinion of
John Hus, who had been condemned by the Council of
Constance and burned at the stake a hundred years
before. The spread of Hus's views in Bohemia, his native
land, had led to civil war and cost Germany much blood
and treasure. The Bohemian heresy had become the
synonym of riot and revolution, and to accuse Luther
of sympathy with it was to hold him up to general
execration. He felt the gravity of the accusation, and
at first repelled it angrily. "Never," he retorted, "have
I taken pleasure in any schism whatsoever, nor will
I to the end of time. The Bohemians have done wrong
in voluntarily separating from our communion, even
if they have divine right on their side; for the highest
divine right is love and unity of the Spirit."
But after thinking the matter over, he declared, "It
is certain that among the articles of John Hus and the
Bohemians are many most Christian and evangelical,
and these the universal church cannot condemn."
This was the climax of the debate. Luther's words
were heard with horror by his enemies and with con
sternation by his friends. From the duke they elicited
an angry oath audible to the whole assembly. Seeing
the effect produced, Luther tried to qualify his state
ment and make it less offensive ; but he had expressed
his real opinion, as everybody saw, and explanation
did not help the matter.
A couple of days later, in response to Eck's con-

142 MARTIN LUTHER
tinued appeal to the authority of the Council of Con
stance, he declared: "I shall not be moved until the
most excellent doctor proves that a council is unable
to err, has not erred, and does not err. For a council
cannot make divine right of what is not by its nature
such, nor can it make that heresy which is not against
divine right."
To which Eck replied : "The Reverend Father begs
me to prove that a council cannot err. I am ignorant
what he means by this unless he wishes to throw sus
picion on the praiseworthy Council of Constance.
This I say to you, Reverend Father, if you believe that
a council lawfully assembled errs and has erred, you
are to me as a heathen and a publican."
Eck was fully justified in taking this position, for to
deny or doubt the infallibility of a general council was
to reject the one ultimate authority depended upon for
centuries by Catholic Christians. That Luther took
his stand upon the Bible did not help the matter. Ac
cording to Catholic belief, the church alone could prop
erly interpret the Bible, and to set the teaching of the
one in opposition to the other was nothing less than
heresy. The remainder of the debate, dealing with purga
tory, indulgences, penance, and related matters, was of
little importance, and the attention of the spectators
flagged. It is significant of the change wrought in a
year and a half that the discussion of indulgences
aroused scant interest. Eck was quite ready to ad
mit the justice of many of his opponent's strictures
upon the practice, and Luther declared there never
would have been any trouble if the ecclesiastical au
thorities had taken this attitude in the beginning. The
conflict had been carried so much further, and had
come to involve so much graver things, that agreement

THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 143
or disagreement about the matter originally in dispute
counted for little. Luther had been driven by his oppo
nents, and led by his own study and reflection, to posi
tions so radical as to make his earlier criticism of
abuses seem of small importance. He might be ortho
dox in every other respect, and accept without question
all the doctrines and practices of the church, but to
deny its infallible authority was to put himself outside
the Catholic pale. Unless he repented and recanted,
his excommunication was a foregone conclusion.
The debate from Luther's point of view was not a
success. He had hoped much from it, and returned
home greatly disappointed. Despite his own and his
supporters' claims, the victory was really Eck's, not
his, and it was fairly won. No other outcome was
possible, and the result might have been foreseen. Lu
ther made a much better showing against the powerful
and resourceful debater than Carlstadt, but even his
skill was unequal to the task of defending an essen
tially indefensible position. He committed the mistake
of supposing that the radical views reached under the
influence of his own religious experience were in har
mony with the faith of the church. It is a common
mistake. Some men, when they find themselves out of
sympathy with the prevailing beliefs of the institution
wherein they have been born and bred, at once turn
their backs upon it. Others of a more sanguine tem
perament, or with more of the reformer's instinct,
read its faith in the light of their own opinions, and
endeavor to call their fellows back to what they believe
its real platform. When, as is very apt to happen,
a conflict comes and they try to defend as orthodox
what they were originally led to accept as true, they
only invite defeat. Luther maintained at Leipsic not
merely that his interpretation of the papacy was correct,

144 MARTIN LUTHER
but that it was orthodox, and in this, as Eck showed,
he was wrong. There remained only the alternative of
abandoning his interpretation and accepting the tradi
tional view or of foregoing the claim of orthodoxy.
Consciously and deliberately he chose the latter course,
and in doing so broke decisively with all his past.
Eck repeatedly protested that he held all his opinions
subject to correction by the ecclesiastical authorities,
but Luther avowed submission to no one. Only to the
clear teaching of the divine word would he bow, and
he would read it with his own and not with other men's
eyes. In his attack on indulgences he had appealed
from the indulgence-venders to the pope ; at Augsburg,
from the pope-ill-informed to the pope-to-be-better-
informed; and soon afterward from the pope to a
council. Now, when the decision of a council was
cited against him, he declined to be bound by it, and
took his stand upon the sole authority of the Scriptures.
But even this was not final. The Bible itself, he main
tained, has to be used with discrimination, for parts of
it do not teach Christian truth. He really substituted
for all external authorities the enlightened conscience
of the individual Christian. The Bible he read for him
self and admitted the claim of no council or body of
men to read it for him. This, in principle, though he
never fully realized it, and seldom acted upon it, meant
the right of private judgment in religious things, and
in it lay the promise of a new age.
It was not skepticism or indifference to religion that
enabled Luther thus to stand upon his own feet.
Rather it was the vividness of his religious experience,
making him sure of acceptance with God. Because of
this he found it possible to dispense with the traditional
authorities. Had he not come into conflict with the
rulers of the church, he might have lived to the end

From the painting by L.ucas Cranacls

DUKE GEORGE OF SAXONY

THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 145
of his days quite unaware of any difference between
himself and his fellow-Christians. Many another had
passed through a religious experience similar to his
and had lived and died content in the communion of
the Catholic Church. There was nothing in his faith
to cause a break. But when it became impossible to
speak his mind about abuses and remain within the
Roman fellowship, he discovered his faith was such
that he could get along outside. He justified his
attitude not by declaring the church unnecessary, —
even when most radical he was still conservative, —
but by interpreting it as the community of Chris
tian believers wherever found and however governed.
Greeks, Bohemians, and others condemned by Rome
he now regarded as members of the universal church,
and in their communion he felt it possible to enjoy all
the blessings of Christianity. He did not for a moment
imagine that the Roman Church was not a true church,
but he came to feel that it was not the only one, and if
forced without its pale, he would still be a member of
the Christian family.
The significance of the Leipsic debate for Luther's
own development it is impossible to exaggerate. It
meant the final parting of the ways. It showed him
clearly where he stood and emancipated him once and
for all from the delusion that he was in harmony with
the papal Church and could remain permanently
within it. His condemnation 'he saw must follow in
due time, and while Miltitz was still hopeful, and was
industriously laying plans for compromise and con
ciliation, Luther himself was preparing for the break
he knew could not long be delayed.
It shows the distance traveled and the lessons learned
from the experiences of the last two years that he was
neither crushed nor apparently greatly distressed by
10

146 MARTIN LUTHER
the outlook. His development had been gradual, and
he was fully prepared to take the final step when con
fronted by it. He had not foreseen the outcome, and,
as he often said, would never have dared to begin had
he known whither he was going; but he was driven
against his will from point to point, and could not turn
back without denying his faith. History presents no
more striking example of the iron logic of events.

CHAPTER X
THE DEVELOPING CONTROVERSIALIST
THOUGH startled when he first discovered his
agreement with Hus, as he did at the Leipsic dis
putation, Luther soon recovered his equanimity, and
was heartened rather than dismayed by the discovery.
During the summer he received letters from prominent
Bohemians expressing their joy in him and his work
and likening his place in Saxony to that of Hus in
Bohemia. Instead of denying all sympathy with the
condemned heretic, as he would have done a few weeks
before, he acknowledged the letters with thanks, and
after reading for the first time some of Hus's writings,
declared, with his usual impulsiveness and frank gener
osity : "Hitherto I have unconsciously held and taught
all the doctrines of John Hus. John Staupitz has also
taught them in like ignorance. Briefly we are all Hus
sites without knowing it." Evidently he had come to
look upon the generally hated. Bohemians as allies, and
felt confirmed in his own position rather than fright
ened from it because it was shared by them.
The same sympathy with outsiders appeared in the
Leipsic debate itself, when he referred to the Eastern
Church in support of his contention that submission
to the pope was not necessary to salvation. Most of
the Greek fathers either knew nothing of papal su
premacy or consciously rejected it. In them he found
kindred spirits, and thenceforth was always fond of

148 MARTIN LUTHER
appealing to them. His attitude was not a sign, as is
often said, of his native breadth of view, — liberality
was not one of his virtues, — but of the instinctive feel
ing of comradeship with others like himself in opposi
tion. He began to think of himself not merely as a
single individual engaged in a petty contest of his own,
but as one of a long line of fighters against ecclesi
astical tyranny and corruption. His consciousness ex
panded, and his work came to seem of national and
even world-wide meaning.
He always had an uncommonly vivid sense of ful
filling the divine will in everything he undertook. Now
the conviction dominated him more completely than
ever. Henceforth he believed himself one of God's
chosen instruments, called to carry on the labors of the
great leaders who had fought and fallen in earlier days.
Martyrdom he was in constant expectation of, looking
forward to the fate that had overtaken so many. But
he was inspired rather than oppressed by the thought,
and rejoiced in the opportunity to suffer as they had
suffered. He also saw more clearly than before the difficul
ties of the task he was engaged in. Others had tried
to do what he was now attempting, and had failed.
Even this did not dishearten him. He believed the
times were fast growing ripe. Either he or some one
else for whom he was preparing the way — his col
league Melanchthon, for instance — he was sure would
yet accomplish the hitherto impossible. Fantastic no
tions that the end of the world was at hand, notions
very common in that day, began to find lodgment in his
mind, and were never afterward altogether abandoned.
It was a time of feverish excitement, not altogether
conducive to calm and deliberate thought.
The months succeeding the Leipsic disputation were

THE CONTROVERSIALIST 149
very busy ones. His mental powers were at their
height and he worked to the very limit of his strength.
He was more active with his pen than ever, continu
ally sending pamphlets to the press and occasionally
books of considerable bulk. The titles of his publica
tions for the year 15 19 number nearly thirty, many of
them to be sure only sermons or brief tracts, but
among them two large Scripture commentaries and a
sizable book on the power of the pope. In one of his
letters he complained of his inability to publish as rap
idly as he wished because of the limitations of the
printing-office, and a little later informed a friend that
he kept three presses going all the time. It was his
habit to send copy to the printer day by day, and he
was nearly always reading the proof of the earlier
pages of a book while writing the later. Often the
preface was in type before the work itself was even
begun. It is surprising not that much of his published
work bears the marks of haste, but that so many of his
writings still richly repay reading after the lapse of
four centuries.
Newspapers were then unknown and the place they
now occupy was filled by brief pamphlets. Since the
recent invention of printing the latter had multiplied
rapidly and were read with great avidity. Of this
means of reaching the public ear Luther made most
effective use, becoming in a short time the most active
and influential pamphleteer in Germany and giving a
tremendous impetus to the new form of popular litera
ture. He had, as he once remarked, a quick hand and
a ready memory, and all he wrote flowed from his pen
without effort. His speed was the despair of friends
and foes alike. It is amusing to see how often, when
requested by Spalatin or the elector or some other
anxious sympathizer to refrain from a publication

ISO MARTIN LUTHER
likely to make trouble, he replied that their protests
were too late, for the deed was already done. The
physical and mental vitality of the man was one of
the most amazing things about him and one of the
secrets of his tremendous power.
He was indefatigable in controversy, determined to
let no attack go unanswered. Hearing that the Uni
versity of Erfurt, which had been asked, with the
University of Paris, to pass judgment on the Leipsic
debate, was about to give a decision against him, he
wrote his old friend Lang in October :
The Leipsic people assert that your Erfurters have
reached a conclusion adverse to us and favorable to Eck.
If this be so I hope it will prove of advantage to you that
your people have meddled without cause in a matter that
is none of their business. I have resolved in a Latin and
German defense to brand their judgment with infamy
before the whole world, and for the sake of protecting
the truth I will publicly show its injustice or its igno
rance as soon as it is announced, and in doing so I shall
be innocent of their blood. My mind is made up not to
leave a single syllable of my theses undefended. The
will of God be done.
A little later, learning that the report was incorrect
and the university had declined to pronounce any judg
ment, he wrote Lang again :
I am glad your Erfurters have refused to render a
decision. For it is already in vain we have disputed, and
even a judgment from the Parisians will accomplish noth
ing except to give me an opportunity of speaking against
the Roman antichrist with the aid of God.
The attacks upon him during these months were
many and severe. Though he frequently expressed

THE CONTROVERSIALIST 151
regret at being obliged to waste so much time in
controversy and interrupt more important work, he
really welcomed the attacks as invitations to let his
views be known, and many a reply was rather a state
ment of his own doctrines than an answer to his an
tagonists. For the latter, he often contented himself
with personal abuse instead of reasoned argument.
"Never," he politely assured one of his assailants,
"have I seen a more ignorant ass than you, though you
particularly boast of having studied dialectics for many
years. I greatly rejoice to be condemned by so obscure
ahead." His treatment of opponents, which grew more bitter
with the passing years, has always been a ground of
offense to his enemies and of confusion to his friends.
After the not uncommon fashion of the day, error
in opinion was taken as a sign of moral obliquity, and
the inexhaustible stores of his rich and racy vocabulary
were freely drawn upon to portray the characters of
those venturing to oppose him. From the beginning
profoundly convinced of his own divine call, he iden
tified his cause with God's and always attributed the
hostility of his enemies to the promptings of Satan,
who filled their hearts with hatred for God and all His
works. In these circumstances the outbreaks of his
fiery temper were justified as heaven-sent. In 1531,
more than ten years after his final break with Rome,
in a pamphlet entitled "Against the Traitor at Dres
den," he wrote :
This shall be my glory and honor, and I will have it
so, that henceforth they will say of me that I am full of
bad words, of scolding and cursing against the papists.
I have often humbled myself for more than ten years,
and used the very best language, but have only increased
their wrath, and the peasants have been the more puffe-1

152 MARTIN LUTHER
up by my supplications. Now, however, because they
are obdurate and have determined to do nothing good,
but only evil, so that there is no longer any hope, I will
hereafter heap curses and maledictions upon the villains
until I go to my grave, and no good word shall they
heaf from me again. I will toll them to their tombs with
my thunder and lightning. For I cannot pray without
at the same time cursing. If I say, "Hallowed be
Thy name," I have to add, "Cursed, damned, reviled be
the name of the papists and of all who blaspheme Thy
name." If I say, "Thy kingdom come," I have to add,
"Cursed, damned, destroyed be the papacy, together with
all the kingdoms of the earth, which oppose Thy king
dom." If I say, "Thy will be done," I have to add,
"Cursed, damned, reviled, and destroyed be all the
thoughts and plans of the papists and of every one who
strives against Thy will and counsel." Thus I pray aloud
every day and inwardly without ceasing, and with me all
that believe in Christ. And I feel sure that my prayer
will be heard. Nevertheless I have a kind, friendly,
peaceable, and Christian heart toward every one, as even
my worst enemies know.
His violence has been excused by appealing to the
prevailing tone of contemporary polemics, but the ex
cuse is insufficient. Though his form of expression
might have been different in another century, the man
he was would have been violent and vituperative in
any. Passionate and high-tempered, to speak or write
calmly about an antagonist was an impossibility to him.
As he once remarked in a letter to a friend : "That I
am vehement is not to be wondered at. If you were
what I am you too would be vehement." Anger he al
ways recognized as his greatest fault, but he believed
it a very good thing in its place. He liked to be angry
in a good cause, he once remarked. It refreshed him
like a thunderstorm, and he could write much better

THE CONTROVERSIALIST 153
for it. As a matter of fact, he seldom deliberated over
his controversial productions, but dashed them off
while his wrath was at its hottest, and, printing always
as he wrote, he never had the opportunity or took the
pains to revise and moderate his language after the
first flush of indignation had passed.
When Spalatin found fault, in 1520, with the strong
language of a reply to the Bishop of Meissen, he wrote :
Greeting. Good God ! how excited you are, my Spala
tin! You seem even more stirred up than I and the
others. Do you not see that my patience in not replying
to Emser's and Eck's five or six wagon-loads of curses
is the sole reason why the framers of this document
have dared to attack me with such silly and ridiculous
nonsense? For you know how little I cared that my
sermon at Leipsic was condemned and suppressed by a
public edict; how I despised suspicion, infamy, injury,
hatred. Must these audacious persons even be permitted
to add to these follies scandalous pamphlets crammed
full of falsehoods and blasphemies against gospel
truth? Do you forbid even to bark at these wolves?
The Lord is my witness how I restrained myself
lest I should not treat with reverence this accursed and
most impotent document issued in the bishop's name.
Otherwise I should have said things those heads ought
to hear, and I will yet, when they acknowledge their
authorship by beginning to defend themselves. I beg,
if you think rightly of the gospel, do not imagine its
cause can be accomplished without tumult, scandal, and
sedition. Out of the sword you cannot make a feather,
nor out of war, peace. The word of God is a sword, war,
ruin, destruction, poison, and, as Amos says, it meets the
children of Ephraim like a bear in the way and a lioness
in the woods.
I cannot deny that I have been more vehement than is
seemly. But since they knew this, they ought not to have

154 MARTIN LUTHER
stirred up the dog. How difficult it is to temper one's
passions and one's pen you can judge even from your
own case. This is the reason I have always disliked to
engage in public controversy; but the more I dislike it,
the more I am involved against my will, and that only
by the most atrocious slanders brought against me and
the word of God. If I were not carried away thereby
either in temper or pen, even a heart of stone would be
moved by the indignity of the thing to take up arms;
and how much more I, who am both passionate and pos
sessed of a pen not altogether blunt! By these mon
strosities I am driven beyond modesty and decorum. At
the same time, I wonder where this new religion came
from, that whatever you say against an adversary is re
garded as slander. What do you think of Christ? Was
he a slanderer when he called the Jews an adulterous
and perverse generation, the offspring of vipers, hypo
crites, sons of the devil ? And what about Paul when he
used the words dogs, vain babblers, seducers, ignorant,
and in Acts xiii so inveighed against a false prophet that
he seems almost insane: "Oh, thou full of all deceit and
of all craft, thou son of the devil, enemy of truth"?
Why did he not gently flatter him, that he might convert
him, rather than thunder in such a way? It is not pos
sible, if acquainted with the truth, to be patient with in
flexible and ungovernable enemies of the truth. But
enough of this nonsense. I see that everybody wishes I
were gentle, especially my enemies, who show themselves
least so of all. If I am too little gentle, I am at least
simple and open, and therein, as I believe, surpass them,
for they dispute only in a deceitful fashion. Farewell,
and be not afraid.

Twenty years and more later, referring to one of his
bitterest and most scathing invectives, he remarked :
I have read my book over again, and wonder how it
happened that I was so moderate. I ascribe it to the

THE CONTROVERSIALIST 155
state of my head, which was such that my mind was
prevented from working more freely and actively.
His violence was not merely a matter of tempera
ment but also of deliberate choice. As he once re
marked, when criticized for his sharp words :
Our Lord God must begin with a pelting thunder
storm, afterward it rains gently and so soaks into the
ground. A willow or hazel twig you can cut with a
bread-knife, but for a hard oak you must have an ax
and then you can hardly fell it and split it.
He was better acquainted than most men with the
common people of his day, and he knew strong lan
guage was needed to move and arouse them. He was
working not to win a reputation, but to stir up a
nation, and while many others were appealing to a
small and select circle of the cultured, vast multitudes
were hanging on his words. His fiercest onslaughts
carried terror and joy to the ends of Christendom, and
by them no less than by his inimitable appeals to the
finer sentiments he swayed and dominated the masses.
Often he went beyond all reason and broke the canons
of good taste recognized even in that free-spoken age ;
but he was not engaged in a parlor exhibition, and he
would have cared as little for our criticisms of his
style of fighting as he did for the criticisms of his
contemporaries. Had he been other than he was, he
might have been better liked by many a delicate soul,
but he could not have wielded the influence he did.
He needs no apologies from us. As well apologize for
the fury of the wind as for the vehemence of Martin
Luther. But if we would do justice to this extraordinary

156 MARTIN LUTHER
man, it must be remembered that the conflict he was
engaged in did not keep him from performing his
ordinary duties with his accustomed vigor and effec
tiveness. He did more than a man's full work quite
apart from his controversy, though the latter, it would
seem, was alone enough to absorb all his attention and
tax all his powers. He preached regularly in the city
church and the convent, lectured as usual in the uni
versity, and gave a surprising amount of attention to
administrative matters, concerning himself even with
the pettiest details of faculty business. He also worked
steadily upon the interpretation of the Bible, continuing
the publication of his careful and laborious exposition
of the Psalms, which excited the admiration even of an
Erasmus, and issuing in the autumn his famous com
mentary on Galatians, designed particularly to bring
his new interpretation of the gospel to the attention of
the learned world. In addition he printed many moral
and religious pamphlets, containing no trace whatever
of the stress and strain of conflict, and wrote beautiful
letters and tracts for the solace and inspiration of the
sick and suffering.
A couple of brief passages may be quoted from his
quaint little book, entitled "Tesseredecas," because con
taining in two contrasted tables seven pictures of the
evils Christians are called on to suffer and seven of the
blessings with which God consoles them. It was written
in September, in the midst of battle and under the pres
sure of strenuous labors, for the comfort of the Elector
Frederick, who was lying grievously ill.
When you regard as sacred relics, and love, kiss, and
embrace the coat, the vessels, the water-jars, and all the
things Christ touched and used, why do you not much
more love, embrace, and kiss pains, worldly evils, igno
miny, and death ? For these he not only made sacred, but

THE CONTROVERSIALIST 157
bathed and blessed them with his blood, enduring them
with willing heart and deepest devotion.
When Jacob heard that his son Joseph was a ruler in
Egypt, like one awaking out of deep sleep he believed it
not until the wagons sent by Joseph proved the truth of
all his sons told him. Thus it would be indeed difficult
to believe so great blessings are given us unworthy crea
tures in Christ, if he had not revealed himself to his dis
ciples in manifold ways, and taught us also to believe by
use and experience as if we saw the very wagons. A
wagon bringing rich comfort it is that Christ has been
made to us by God righteousness, sanctification, redemp
tion, and wisdom. For I am a sinner, but I am borne
in his righteousness given to me ; I am impure, but his
holiness is my sanctification wherein I sweetly ride ; I am
foolish, but his wisdom carries me ; worthy of damnation
I am, but his liberty is my redemption, a wagon most
secure. Luther showed the simplicity of his nature when
he soon afterward asked the manuscript of this tract
back from Spalatin, hoping to derive from its perusal
consolation in his own troubles.

CHAPTER XI
THE NATIONAL REFORMER
WHILE enemies were springing up on all sides to
denounce Luther for his attitude toward papacy
and church his fame was rapidly growing and his
friends and supporters were steadily multiplying. Par
ticularly important was the recognition received from
leading humanists both at home and abroad. They
were the liberals of the day, devoted to the new cul
ture of the age and eager to welcome anything prom
ising release from the yoke of ecclesiastical bigotry
and theological obscurantism. As early as the autumn
of 1 518, speaking of Albrecht Diirer, Lazarus Spen-
gler, and other celebrated lights of Nuremberg, Chris
topher Scheurl remarked : "Nearly all the conversation
at table concerns a certain Martin. Him they celebrate,
adore, and champion. For him they are prepared to
endure everything." A few months later he wrote
Eck, expostulating with him for his attack on Luther :
You are bringing upon yourself, unless I am mistaken,
the strong disfavor and hatred of most followers of
Erasmus and Reuchlin, nearly all friends of learning, and
even modern theologians. I have recently traveled
through a number of important dioceses and everywhere
found a great many adherents of Martin. The clergy's
love for the man is astonishing. They are flying to him
in flocks, like jackdaws and starlings. They subscribe
to his opinions, they applaud him, they bless him.
158

THE NATIONAL REFORMER 159
About the same time Luther received letters from
John Froben, the publisher of Basel, and from Wolf
gang Capito, a well-known humanist, informing him
that he had many warm and influential friends in
Switzerland and along the Rhine, and that his books
were widely read not only there, but also in Italy,
France, Spain, and England.
Even the great Erasmus spoke of him in a friendly
way, and guarded as his utterances were, for he early
realized the difference between Luther's spirit and his
own, his attitude was generally interpreted as sympa
thetic, and greatly enhanced Luther's credit with men
of modern tendencies.
The Leipsic debate still further increased his repu
tation. The humanist Mosellan had expected to hear
only old and threadbare themes discussed in traditional
scholastic fashion, and was surprised and delighted at
Luther's attitude, as he was careful to inform his corre
spondents. Luther's enemies, humanists everywhere
now began to realize, were theirs and his struggle
a renewal of the Reuchlin conflict between the repre
sentatives of the old and the new learning. In such a
battle it could not be doubtful where their sympathies
would lie.
In October he received a couple of notable letters
from an acquaintance of his Erfurt student days, the
humanist Crotus Rubeanus, principal author of the
famous "Letters of Obscure Men." Crotus was in
Italy at the time, and gave Luther first-hand informa
tion of the efforts there on foot to crush him. He also
hailed him in enthusiastic terms as a father of the
fatherland, "worthy of a golden statue and an annual
feast." This recognition of the national importance of Lu
ther's work, taken with the unconcealed contempt for

160 MARTIN LUTHER
the Roman curia which breathes in the letters of
Crotus, was full of significance. It foreshadowed an
alliance between Luther and another group of Germans
who were chiefly interested in economic and political
reform. The leading spokesman of the group was
Ulrich von Hutten, one of the most interesting and pic
turesque figures of the age. Son of a poor knight, and,
on account of his delicate physique, destined for the
priesthood, he early ran away and spent the remainder
of his brief life in wandering from place to place, at
times in abject poverty, again enjoying the favor
and protection of the great. He was a poet of no mean
gifts and an enthusiastic humanist. While in Italy, in
1 5 17, he ran across Lorenzo Valla's significant work
on the Donation of Constantine which proved that
famous document a forgery. For centuries canonists
had made the Emperor Constantine's alleged gift to
Pope Sylvester one of the bases of the papal claim to
political sovereignty over the western world. To show
the gift a mere fiction was to strike a severe blow at the
prestige of the papacy. Upon Hutten Valla's work
made a great impression. He republished it with a
fiery preface of his own, and was thenceforth one
of the most active opponents of the Roman see. Ger
many's subjection to it, he became convinced, was the
principal cause of all the ills of his native land, and
he exchanged the career of a mere litterateur for that
of a political agitator. Before long he was widely
recognized as the most influential member of the young
German party and the chief leader in the movement for
throwing off the Roman yoke.
At Augsburg, in 15 18, Hutten did much to arouse
the enmity of the members of the diet to the holy see.
He had no interest as yet in Luther or his cause. He
looked with contempt upon the whole thing as a mere

THE NATIONAL REFORMER 161
monk's quarrel. But after the Leipsic debate, perhaps
under the influence of his old friend Crotus, he saw
in the Wittenberg professor the most formidable
opponent the papacy had yet encountered and thought
of him as a possible ally. At the time he was in the
service of Archbishop Albert of Mayence and there
were difficulties in the way of forming an acquaintance
with Luther; but he sent him greetings, and in the
spring of 1520, through the intervention of common
friends, the two men got into communication with each
other, and, though only temporary, their friendship,
while it lasted, was of great importance for them both.
It opened Hutten's eyes to the religious issues involved
in the national movement, and Luther's to the impor
tance of that movement for his own cause. Hitherto,
while not blind to the economic and social evils of the
day, as many passages in his earlier writings show,
Luther's thought was largely occupied with educational
and religious questions. Now he began to concern him
self with other matters altogether, and to dream of a
reformation which should affect every phase of na
tional life.
Hutten's friendship for Luther also brought the re
former the support of many other German noblemen,
and gave him a feeling of personal security and inde
pendence quite unknown before. In his letters of 1520
he referred frequently and with great satisfaction to
his new allies. Writing to Spalatin in July he said :
I inclose a letter from the Franconian knight, Syl
vester Schaumberg, and should be glad, if it is not too
much trouble, to have the prince mention it in his com
munication to the Cardinal of St. George, that they may
know, even if they drive me out of Wittenberg, with
their detestable attacks, they will accomplish nothing, but
will only make their case worse. For now not merely in
11

1 62 MARTIN LUTHER
Bohemia, but in the heart of Germany itself, there are
those able and willing to protect the exile in spite of them
and all their thunders. There is danger that, once under
their protection, I shall be much more severe in attacking
the Romanists than if I remain under the dominion of
the prince, engaged in the work of teaching. This with
out doubt will occur unless God prevents. I shall not
then be obliged to consider the prince, whom I have
hitherto respected on many occasions, even when pro
voked. Let them know I frequently refrain from at
tacking them not because of my own modesty or their
tyranny or merit, but because of the name and authority
of the prince, as well as the common good of the Witten
berg students. As for me, the die is cast. Rome's fury
and favor are alike despised. Never will I be( reconciled,
or commune with her.
Not simply Schaumberg, but also no less a person
than Franz von Sickingen, friend and protector of
Hutten, and the most powerful and widely feared
knight of Germany, offered the reformer an asylum
and assured him of his warm interest. Sickingen and
Schaumberg, Luther wrote to Spalatin, had freed him
altogether from the fear of men.
Under the influence of his newly formed connection
with such warriors as these, Luther even went so far
as to give expression to sentiments of a decidedly vio
lent sort. In June, referring to a new attack by
Prierias, he wrote :
It seems to me, if the fury of the Romanists goes on
in this fashion, no remedy is left except for emperor,
kings, and princes to arm themselves and attack these
pests of the whole world, and settle the affair no longer
with words, but with the sword. For what do these lost
men, deprived even of common sense, say? Exactly
what was predicted of antichrist, as if we were more

THE NATIONAL REFORMER 163
irrational than blockheads. If we punish thieves with
the halter, brigands with the sword, heretics with fire,
why do we not still more attack with every sort of
weapon these masters of perdition, these cardinals, these
popes, and all this crowd of Roman Sodom, who corrupt
the church of God unceasingly? Why do we not bathe
our hands in their blood that we may rescue ourselves
and our children from this general and most dangerous
conflagration ?
And in a letter to Spalatin written on the thirteenth
of November he expressed the wish that Hutten's plan
to intercept and capture the papal legates on their way
to the Diet of Worms might have been carried out.
To be sure, too much should not be made of such
utterances. They are exceptional in Luther's writings.
As a rule, he earnestly deprecated physical violence and
armed revolution. In January, 1521, he declared
himself entirely out of sympathy with Hutten's warlike
plans, writing to Spalatin :
You see what Hutten desires. I do not wish to battle
for the gospel with violence and murder, and I have
written the man to that effect. By the word the world
has been conquered and the church preserved, and by
the word it will be repaired. Antichrist also, as he began
without violence, will without violence be overthrown by
the word.
And a little later :
I am without blame, for I have striven to bring it
about that the German nobility should check the Roman
ists, as they are well able to do, with resolutions and
edicts, not with the sword. For to attack the unarmed
masses of the clergy would be like making war upon
women and children.

164 MARTIN LUTHER
In 1522, in his bitter pamphlet "Against the so-
called Spiritual Estate of Pope and Bishops," after de
claring that every one who did what he could to uproot
the episcopate and destroy its authority was a child of
God and a true Christian, he added :
I do not mean that the bishops should be overthrown
with fist and sword. They are not worth such punish
ment, nor would anything be accomplished by it. On
the contrary, as Daniel teaches, the antichrist is to be
overcome without force, every one using God's word
against him until he falls into contempt and perishes of
himself. But in 1520 the reformer was evidently feeling the
influence of his new friends and entering rather reck
lessly into their warlike ideas. Gradually he steadied
himself again and realized that the cause he was inter
ested in would only be hindered by violence and war.
Thenceforth he was unalterably opposed to both.
The most notable fruit of Luther's awakened interest
in national reform was his famous "Address to the
German Nobility," published in August, 1520. In the
dedicatory letter to his colleague Amsdorf he says :
The time for silence is past and the time to speak is
come, as the preacher Solomon says. In conformity with
our resolve I have put together a few points concerning
the reformation of the Christian estate in order to lay
them before the Christian nobility of Germany in case it
may please God to help His church by means of the
laity, since the clergy whom this task rather befitted have
grown quite careless. I send it all to your worship to
judge, and to amend where needed. I am well aware
that I shall not escape the reproach of taking far too
much upon me in presuming, despised and insignificant

THE NATIONAL REFORMER 165
man as I am, to address such high estates on such
weighty subjects, as if there were no one in the world
but Dr. Luther to have a care for Christianity and to
give advice to such wise people. I offer no excuse. Let
who will blame me. Perhaps I still owe God and the
world another folly. This debt I have now resolved
honestly to discharge, if I can, and to be court fool for
once. If I fail, I have at least one advantage, that no
one need buy me a cap or shave my poll. But it remains
to be seen which shall hang the bells on the other. I
must fulfil the proverb "When anything is to be done in
the world a monk must be in it were it only as a painted
figure." I beg you to excuse me to the moderately wise for I
know not how to deserve the favor and grace of the
overwise. Often I have sought it with much labor, but
henceforth will neither have nor care for it. God help us
to seek not our glory but His alone.
The work itself was a ringing appeal to the German
Emperor, princes, and nobility to take in hand the
reformation of Germany, religious, ethical, social, and
economic. Because of the claim of pope and hierarchy
that the civil power had no jurisdiction in the matter,
and no one but they could reform the church, a terrific
onslaught was made upon them. The current criticisms
of the avarice and extortion of the curia and the cur
rent impatience at its spoliation of Germany were given
passionate expression. "Do we still wonder," he ex
claimed, "why princes, noblemen, cities, convents, land,
and people grow poor ? We should rather wonder that
we have anything left to eat." "Oh, noble princes and
lords, how long will you suffer your land and your peo
ple to be the prey of these ravening wolves?"
The incompatibility between the spiritual office and
temporal power of the pope was also depicted in vivid
fashion :

166 MARTIN LUTHER
How can the government of the empire consist with
preaching, prayer, study, and the care of the poor?
These are the true employments of the pope. Christ im
posed them with such insistence that he forbade to take
either coat or scrip, for he that has to govern a single
house can hardly perform these duties. Yet the pope
wishes to rule an empire and remain pope.
Luther conceded that the bishop of Rome might still
be the spiritual head of Christendom whom all should
honor and obey in spiritual things so long as he was
true to Christ. But he would have his temporal power
brought altogether to an end and would deprive him of
all administrative authority over the church in Ger
many. The management of its affairs, the appointment
and deposition of its officials, the trial of ecclesiastical
cases, the granting of dispensations and the like, he
would put into the hands of the German ecclesiastical
authorities presided over by the primate of Germany,
the Archbishop of Mayence. The new national feeling,
growing rapidly in Luther's day, here found utterance.
In religion, as in everything else, the nation, he be
lieved, should manage its own affairs and live its own
life. But freedom from a foreign yoke was not, in his
opinion, all Germany needed. The false claims of
the clergy must be exposed and their usurped power
taken from them. They possessed no prerogatives not
belonging of right to all Christians. They were only
ministers appointed to serve in religious things, and
were subject to the people, not lords over them. Civil
rulers "ordained of God for the punishment of the bad
and protection of the good" were supreme in their own
lands and the clergy were as completely under their
jurisdiction as anybody else. If the existing ecclesi
astical authorities failed to do their duty and left the

From an old print

ULRICH VON HUTTEN

THE NATIONAL REFORMER 167
church unreformed, the civil rulers must take the mat
ter in hand and force a reformation in spite of hier
archy and pope. Liberty from the domination of the
spiritual power, from dependence upon its offices and
from dread of its penalties, was one of the watchwords
of the book. In it a new age was foreshadowed.
No less important was Luther's declaration of free
dom from bondage to exclusively religious duties.
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the book
is its complete break with what may be called the
monastic ideal of life. As in his important "Sermon
on Good Works," published some months before, he
complained again of the over-emphasis of religion. It
sounds strange enough to hear a monk insisting that
such common human virtues as find play in the ordinary
relationships of life are far more important than any
religious exercises. This difference in the estimate of
life was more decisive than any difference of doctrine
between Luther and the Roman Church, at this or any
subsequent time. In it was wrapped up the promise of
a new world.
The Address to the German Nobility was not simply
an appeal for reformation and an attack upon the
forces that were hindering it, but also a program of
reform on a large scale. All sorts of evils were dealt
with, and the range of topics was very wide. Amaze
ment has often been expressed that a monk should
possess so extensive a knowledge of men and things.
The amazement is misplaced. Luther had long been a
public man in touch with the movements of the day and
in correspondence with leaders of thought in many
parts of Germany and abroad. It would have been sur
prising had he not known what men were thinking and
talking about. As a matter of fact, he said little that
was new. More than any other of his important works

168 MARTIN LUTHER
the Address to the Nobility reflected the ideas of his
contemporaries. Not Hutten alone, but many besides,
had attacked the evils of the day, religious, ecclesiasti
cal, social, and economic, as severely and as intelli
gently as he. And so far as his constructive program
went it was as vague and unpractical as any of theirs.
There was much homely good sense in his proposals
of reform — the abolishment of the mendicant orders,
the reduction of festivals and holidays, the abandon
ment of enforced clerical celibacy, the improvement of
schools and universities, the regulation of beggary,
and the like — but some of his suggestions were quite
impracticable and revealed a vast ignorance particu
larly of economics and politics.
He wanted to put a bridle on the Fuggers, the great
money-lenders of the day.
How is it possible that in a single man's lifetime such
great and kingly wealth can be collected together if all
be done rightly and according to God's will? I am not
skilled in accounts, but I do not understand how a hun
dred gulden can gain twenty in a year or how one can
gain another, and that not from the soil or cattle, where
success depends not on the wit of men but on the bless
ing of God.
In this he was only giving voice to the common and
oft-expressed sentiment of the knights and nobles, the
rural magnates of the age, whose prosperity and pres
tige were threatened by the extension of trade and
the growth of cities. Like them, he was opposed to
commerce and in favor of agriculture, and he sup
ported his position as he always did by appealing to
the Bible.
This I know well, it were much more godly to increase
agriculture and lessen commerce, and they do best who,

THE NATIONAL REFORMER . 169
according to the Scriptures, till the ground to get their
living. As is said to all of us in Adam, "Cursed be the
earth. When thou workest in it it shall bring forth
thistles and thorns to thee, and in the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat thy bread."

The greatest misfortune of the Germans he be
lieved was the growing custom of mortgaging their
property. But for this many a man would have to leave unbought
his silk, velvet, jewelry, spices, and all sorts of luxuries.
The system has not been in force more than a hundred
years and has already brought poverty, misery, and de
struction on almost all princes, foundations, cities, no
bles, and heirs. If it continue for another hundred years
Germany will be left without a farthing, and we shall be
reduced to eating one another. The devil invented this
system and the pope has done injury to the whole world
by sanctioning it.
The reigning extravagance in food and dress like
wise troubled him, and he wished to see it controlled by
legislation. At the same time he thought the nation
could do without its elaborate system of laws and could
best be governed by wise princes using only the Bible
as their guide.
He always had great confidence in the ability of civil
rulers to set everything right in the social and economic
sphere if they only had the inclination. In 1539, when
the price of food stuffs was unwontedly high in Wit
tenberg, and there was much complaint in consequence,
he wrote the elector urging him to come to the rescue
and fix lower prices by law. In 1524, in a very inter
esting little book on Trade and Usury, he depicted in
detail what he regarded as the worst evils in the com-

170 MARTIN LUTHER
mercial life of the day, complaining of international
trade, which only impoverishes a country, and de
nouncing monopolies, corners, trusts, buying and sell
ing on margins, and the like, in language that sounds
very familiar to-day. The remedy, he thought, lay
wholly in the hands of the government.
Kings and princes should look into the matter and
prevent such practices by law. But I hear they have a
share in them, as is said in Isaiah, "Your princes have
become the companions of robbers." They hang the
thieves who have stolen a gulden or less, while they are
hand and glove with those who rob the whole world,
according to the proverb, "Great thieves hang little
thieves." In all this there is a curious mixture of wisdom and
naivete which is perhaps only what we might expect.
Keen sighted as he was for the evils of the day his
training and experience had not fitted him to play the
role of a statesman or economist and he showed his
limitations very clearly. Society he rightly saw was
all too little governed by Christian principles, but like
many another he had an implicit faith in the possi
bility of righting all wrongs by legislation and fondly
imagined every evil could be mended by restoring the
more primitive conditions of an earlier day.
For all his lack of worldly knowledge he had one
merit not shared by all venturing into unfamiliar fields.
He recognized his own ignorance. "I know," he
wrote, "that I have sung a lofty strain, that I have
proposed many things that will be thought impossible
and attacked many points too sharply. But what was
I to do? I was bound to say it. If I had the power,
this is what I should do." Thus he closes his discus
sion, and the words from such a man are very signifi-

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FRANZ VON SICKINGEN

THE NATIONAL REFORMER 171
cant. Ordinarily he was sure enough of himself and
let it be known to everybody. Evidently his confidence
was not mere self-conceit, the fond persuasion that he
was always right. It was a confidence felt only in his
native sphere and justified by his long and hard experi
ence therein.
The Address to the Nobility produced a tremendous
sensation and had an enormous sale. Most of its ideas
had been expressed many times before, but Luther had
his own inimitable way of putting things, and the very
fact it was he who said them meant a great deal for
the circulation of the book. Men were already listen
ing eagerly to all he had to say, and his venture into
the field of national reform met with a wide and in
stant response. It is not recorded that the work
brought him reputation as a statesman and led princes
to seek his counsel in political affairs, but it did show
them he was a power to be reckoned with, and it gave
new standing to the cause of national independence
and regeneration.

CHAPTER XII
THE PROPHET OF A NEW FAITH
AT the end of his Address to the German Nobility
Ix. Luther remarked : "I know still another song con
cerning Rome. If they wish to hear it I will sing it
and will pitch it high. Do you understand, dear Rome,
what I mean ?"
This new work appeared a few weeks later under
the title "The Babylonian Captivity of the Church." It
dealt with the traditional sacramental system, repre
senting it as a bondage from which Christendom must
be freed if the needed reformation were to come.
Unlike the former work, it was written in Latin, as
befitted a theological discussion, and appealed pri
marily to theologians instead of the general public.
Doctrinally it was far and away the most radical book
Luther had yet published, and was alone enough to
make his condemnation for heresy imperative. None
of his other works so excited the hostility of Catholic
theologians, or drew so many replies from them. Even
King Henry VIII of England thought it worth while
to write an answer to it, for which he was rewarded
by the pope with the title of Defender of the Faith
and by Luther with one of the most scathing and in
sulting rejoinders ever addressed to a king.
The sacramental system was the very heart of tra
ditional Catholicism. Supernatural means by which
alone the Church dispensed the divine grace intrusted
172

THE PROPHET OF A NEW FAITH 173
to her, the sacraments, it had been believed since the
second century, were absolutely essential to salvation.
As their validity depended ordinarily upon their per
formance by duly ordained priests, Christians were
obliged to rely altogether upon priestly ministrations
and were quite helpless alone. The authority of church
and hierarchy over the faith and life of Christendom
was rooted in this fact and to deny it was to attack
Catholicism at its most vital spot. Deny it Luther did,
and with emphasis. Every Christian, he claimed, is
truly a priest in the sight of God, and need depend on
no one else for divine grace. And what was more,
the sacraments themselves, he insisted, are mere signs
of the forgiving love of God in Christ. Unless their
message be believed they are of no help, and if it be
believed without them they may be dispensed with.
Thus while recognizing their value as aids to faith he
freed Christians from slavish dependence on them and
on church and priesthood as well. Never was man
more independent of external and factitious means, or
franker and more fearless in declaring their needless-
ness. Splendidly regardless of consequences either to
himself or to others he proclaimed his message of
emancipation in ringing terms.
The work was a declaration of freedom such as
alone made his own position tenable. It was of a
piece with his sermon on the ban, published two years
earlier, and in harmony with the religious point of view
attained long before as a result of his youthful strug
gles in the convent. Out of despair due to a vivid
sense of the wrath of God he had been rescued by the
recognition of divine love, and the ensuing peace was
the salvation he sought. A present reality it was, not
simply a future hope, a state of mind and so the fruit
of faith not of works. To one thus already saved

174 MARTIN LUTHER
sacraments and hierarchy were of secondary impor
tance. Though Luther long remained unconscious of
his inner independence of them, when the conflict came
and he was threatened with their loss he discovered he
could do without them, and the discovery proved a new
charter of liberty for himself and in the end for mul
titudes of others.
That charter found its clearest and most beautiful
expression in a wonderful little tract, one of the
world's great religious classics, published almost im
mediately after the work on the sacraments and en
titled The Freedom of a Christian Man. At its very
beginning were placed the paradoxical statements :
A Christian man is a most free lord of all things and
subject to no one ; a Christian man is a most dutiful ser
vant of all things and subject to every one.
What he meant by the former appears in such words
as these :
Every Christian is by faith so exalted above all things
that in spiritual power he is completely lord of all. Noth
ing whatever can do him any hurt, but all things are sub
ject to him and are compelled to be subservient to his
salvation. . . . This is a spiritual power ruling in the
midst of enemies and mighty in the midst of distresses.
And it is nothing else than that strength is made perfect
in weakness, and in all things I am able to gain salvation,
so that even the cross and death are compelled to serve
me and work together for salvation. For this is a high
and illustrious dignity, a true and almighty power, a
spiritual empire, in which there is nothing so good, noth
ing so bad as not to work together for my good if only
I believe. ... A Christian man needs no work, no law
for salvation, for by faith he is free from all law and
in perfect freedom does gratuitously all he does, seeking

THE PROPHET OF A NEW FAITH 175
neither profit nor salvation, but only what is well-pleasing
to God, since by the grace of God he is already satisfied
and saved through his faith.
And what he meant by the second of his paradox
ical statements appears with equal clearness in the fol
lowing passages :
Though he is thus free from all works yet he ought
again to empty himself of this liberty, take on the form
of a servant, be made in the likeness of men, be found in
fashion as a man, serve, help, and in every way act
toward his neighbor as he sees that God through Christ
has acted and is acting toward him. All this he should
do freely and with regard to nothing but the good pleas
ure of God; and he should reason thus: Lo, to me, an
unworthy, condemned, and contemptible creature, alto
gether without merit, my God of His pure and free mercy
has given in Christ all the riches of righteousness and
salvation, so that I am no longer in want of anything
except faith to believe this is so. For such a Father there
fore, who has overwhelmed me with these inestimable
riches of His, why should I not freely, gladly, with a
whole heart and eager devotion, do all that I know will
be pleasing and acceptable in his sight? I will therefore
give myself as a sort of Christ to my neighbor, as Christ
has given himself to me, and will do nothing in this life
except what I see to be needful, advantageous, and whole
some for my neighbor, since through faith I abound in
all good things in Christ. . . . Man does not live for
himself alone in this mortal body, in order to work on its
account, but also for all men on earth ; nay, he lives only
for others and not for himself. For to this end he brings
his own body into subjection that he may be able to serve
others more sincerely and freely. ... It is the part of
a Christian to take care of his body for the very purpose
that by its soundness and well-being he may be able to
labor and to acquire and save property for the aid of

176 MARTIN LUTHER
those who are in want, that thus the strong member may
serve the weak, and we may be sons of God, thoughtful
and busy one for the other, bearing one another's burdens
and so fulfilling the law of Christ. Behold, here is the
truly Christian life, here is faith really working by love,
when it applies itself with joy and love to the work of
freest servitude, in which it serves others freely and spon
taneously, itself abundantly satisfied with the fullness and
riches of its own faith.
The chief fault of traditional Catholic ethics was its
divided ideal. It too taught devotion to others and
self-sacrificing labor for their good, but it made this
simply a part of the Christian's duty. Holiness and
righteousness were also demanded of him, and fre
quently the two parallel and independent ideals seemed
to clash and one had to be sacrificed to the other. The
great significance of Luther's ethical teaching, so
clearly enunciated in the passages just quoted, was his
subordination of all human duties to the one end of
human service. He did not for a moment lose sight of
the other moral virtues. Purity, righteousness, tem
perance, frugality, all had their place, but as means
not end. That one may better serve his fellow-men,
for this he strives to be a better man.
The effects of this principle were epochal. For cen
turies the ideal Christian life had been commonly iden
tified with that of the monk or nun, who lived apart
from the distractions and pleasures of the world in
religious devotion and in the exercise of rigorous self-
discipline. To be in the midst of society, to engage
in worldly occupations, to marry and enjoy the delights
of home, all this was legitimate, but less noble than a
life of celibacy and seclusion. Other-worldliness was
the dominant note of traditional Christian piety. Not
to make a man a good citizen of this world, but to pre-

THE PROPHET, OF A NEW FAITH 177
pare him for citizenship in another was thought to be
the supreme aim of Christianity; and hence the more
unworldly this life could be made the more Christian
it seemed. In opposition to this Luther taught the
sanctity of ordinary human callings. The Christian
is already a saved man, and his life on earth is as
sacred as in heaven. He may express as truly here
as there his character as a son of God, not by with
drawing from the world and giving himself wholly to
religious practices, but by doing the daily task faith
fully and joyfully, with trust in God and devotion to
His will.
In how practical and homely a fashion Luther ap
plied this principle to every-day life is seen in such
passages as the following, culled from one or another
of his sermons :
What you do in your house is worth as much as if you
did it up in Heaven for our Lord God. For what we do
in our calling here on earth in accordance with His word
and command He counts as if it were done in heaven for
Him. ... In whatever calling God has placed you do
not abandon it when you become a Christian. If you are
a servant, a maid, a workman, a master, a housewife, a
mayor, a prince, do whatever your position demands.
For it does not interfere with your Christian faith and
you can serve God rightly in any vocation. . . . There
fore we should accustom ourselves to think of our posi
tion and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on
its own account, but because of the word and the faith
from which our obedience flows. No Christian should
despise his position if he is living in accordance with the
word of God, but should say, "I believe in Jesus Christ,
and do as the ten commandments teach, and pray that
our dear Lord God may help me thus to do." That is a
right holy life, and cannot be made holier even if one
fast oneself to death. ... It looks like a great thing
12

178 MARTIN LUTHER
when a monk renounces everything, goes into a cloister,
lives a life of asceticism, fasts, watches, prays and the like.
Works in abundance are there. But God's command is
lacking, and so they cannot be gloried in as if done for
Him. On the other hand it looks like a small thing when
a maid cooks, and cleans, and does other housework. But
because God's command is there, even such a lowly em
ployment must be praised as a service of God, far sur
passing the holiness and asceticism of all monks and nuns.
Here there is no command of God. But there God's com
mand is fulfilled, that one should honor Father and
Mother and help in the care of the home.
The theme of Luther's tract on Christian freedom
was not even liberty as an ultimate end, as though it
were a good in itself, without regard to the use made
of it, but liberty as a means to the service of others.
Just because a Christian is a most free lord of all and
subject to no one, he can be a most dutiful servant of
all and subject to every one. It was a profound ob
servation of Luther's, based upon his own monastic
experience, that so long as one is troubled and anxious
about one's own fate single-minded devotion to others
is very difficult. To be freed from concern for one
self, he felt, was the first requisite of genuine Christian
living, for the Christian life meant not chiefly growth
in character and piety, but unselfish labor for others'
good. As he said later in one of his sermons : "What
is it to serve God and do His will ? Nothing else than
to show mercy to one's neighbor, for it is our neigh
bor needs our service, God in heaven needs it not."
Religion he saw, as commonly understood, had
added burdens instead of removing them. From such
burdens he would set men free, making religion wholly
subservient to common human duty and service. And
he would set them free not only from the trammels of

THE PROPHET OF A NEW FAITH 179
religious obligation— skepticism and unbelief might do
that equally well— but also from anxiety about the
present, by giving them faith in their Father God,
whose world this is and in whose hands all things are
working for His children's good. Freedom from the
fear both of present and of future was Luther's gospel,
a freedom making possible the living of a serene and
confident and wholesome life of usefulness.
The contrast between all this and traditional Cath
olic thought was as wide as the poles. Catholicism pro
ceeded on the assumption that man is naturally bad
and needs to be held under strict control to keep him
from expressing his badness in wicked deeds. To be
come confident, to gain the assurance of salvation, to
be set free from fear of eternal punishment was re
garded as the most dangerous thing in the world. That
life here is a probation for the life to come must be
kept constantly before the minds of men lest they
grow careless and indifferent. Fear, not peace, is alone
safe for fallen and corrupt humanity.
To Luther, on the contrary, a state of fear and
apprehension made true Christian living, ideal living
of any kind, quite impossible. Virtue must be disin
terested, or it is not true virtue. The man who is
righteous for the sake of gaining reward or escaping
punishment is not really righteous. Such selfish mo
tives may be necessary for the natural man, but the
Christian is moved by an altogether different impulse.
Having seen the vision of God's gracious love in
Jesus Christ he is eager to show his gratitude in ser
vice. He does not need the pressure of fear to keep
him right ; he needs to be liberated from fear in order
that he may be able to give himself unselfishly and
undividedly to the doing of God's will. From such
fear the gospel of a present salvation through faith in

180 MARTIN LUTHER
God had set Luther himself free, and he preached it to
the world as the great liberator from bondage of every
kind. Control to keep men from being themselves Cathol
icism offered; freedom to be themselves Luther
preached. Not trust in man led him thus to set man
free, but trust in the gospel. He retained the tradi
tional estimate of the native depravity of the human
race, but he had so tremendous a confidence in the
power of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ that he
was sure where it was apprehended men would haste
to do God's will. The experiences of later years did
much to weaken this confidence. The great disillusion
ment of his life was the discovery that the preaching
of the true gospel often left men no better than it
found them. But he never lost faith in the gospel it
self, and to the end of his days he regarded it as his
great work and his supreme duty to bring it to the
knowledge of men in ever clearer and more convincing
form. Not in the national reformer but in the religious
prophet we are to see the real and permanent Luther.
While he might . concern himself with questions of
moral, social, and economic reform, the one thing
which always interested him most was his gospel of a
present salvation through faith in God, bringing peace
and confidence and spiritual freedom. To the end of
his life he was above all the prophet of this faith.

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LUTHER IN 1520
HIS EARLIEST KNOWN LIKENESS

CHAPTER XIII
THE FINAL BREAK WITH ROME
THE year 1520, which saw the publication of
Luther's greatest reformation tracts, witnessed
also his complete and permanent break with the Roman
Church. At the Leipsic debate he had shown himself
sharply at variance with it, and while Miltitz and
others were still hoping for reconciliation Eck saw the
hope was vain and no course left the church but to
condemn the dangerous heretic. Early in the spring
of 1520 Eck betook himself to Rome with the express
purpose of convincing the authorities of the need of
decisive action. With devotion to the faith was per
haps associated, as many of his contemporaries
believed, the desire for personal glory and aggrandize
ment, but his conduct was consistent throughout and
much more to his credit than the vacillating and tem
porizing policy of the holy see. To be sure it was
possible for him as a mere theologian to disregard
considerations that must weigh heavily with the
Roman authorities. They too knew that Luther was
a heretic, but he had the backing of the most impor
tant prince in Germany and of an aroused public senti
ment not to be lightly disregarded. Month after month
they waited, hoping that by the use of pressure of one
kind and another they might yet succeed in forcing him
to recant, or that his growing radicalism might bring
reaction in Germany and cost him the elector's support.
Finally formal process was once more instituted and
181

1 82 MARTIN LUTHER
condemnation definitely settled upon. Realizing the
gravity of the situation the curia went about the
matter in the most careful way. No such summary
proceedings as had been indulged in a couple of years
before were now thought of. Nothing could better
show the strength of the feeling against the papacy in
Germany than the hesitation of the Roman authorities
at this time. Even after a carefully selected commis
sion was at work upon the matter, as late as May,
1520, its sessions were suspended, when a report
reached the Vatican that there was still some hope of
an easier way out of the difficulty, and the decisive
step was finally taken only in June, when the hope was
seen to be groundless.
The papal bull Exurge Domine, published on the
fifteenth of that month, condemned forty-one proposi
tions drawn from Luther's writings, forbade the read
ing of his books and called upon Christians everywhere
to burn them, threatened with the ban everybody who
should support or protect him, suspended him from
the ministry, and announced his definitive excommuni
cation, if he did not repent and recant within sixty days
after the publication of the bull in Germany. As is apt
to be the case, the document gave little hint of Luther's
real interest or of the fundamental differences between
him and the church. Propositions concerning the
sacraments, indulgences, excommunication, the author
ity of the pope, the condemnation of Hus, free will,
purgatory, and the mendicant orders, were condemned,
as was also Luther's statement that to burn heretics is
against the will of the Spirit. The list of errors might
easily have been made more formidable by any one
intimately acquainted with the reformer's writings, but
it seemed to the papal commission quite sufficient for
the purpose.

THE FINAL BREAK WITH ROME 183
The bull clearly reflected the difficulties of the situa
tion. In its phraseology it was a mild document, in
striking contrast with Luther's heated denunciations
of the holy see. Full of pathos it was too, and almost
apologetic in tone :
So far as concerns Martin himself, good God, what
have we omitted, what have we not done, what have
we neglected of paternal charity, that we might recall
him from his errors? After we had summoned him,
desiring to deal more mildly with him, we urged and
exhorted him, through our legate and by letter, to
renounce his errors, or to come without any hesitation
or fear— for perfect love should cast out fear— and
after the example of our Saviour and the blessed
Apostle Paul, talk not secretly but openly and face to
face. To this end we offered him a safe conduct and
money for the journey. If he had done this he would
certainly, we believe, have seen his errors and repented.
Nor would he have found so many evils in the Roman
curia which, relying upon the empty rumors of its ene
mies, he vituperates much more than is seemly. We
should also have taught him more clearly than light that
the holy Roman pontiffs, though he abuses them beyond
all modesty, have never erred in their canons or consti
tutions. Luther's disobedience and contumacy were then re
cited and his appeal to a future council was condemned
with special emphasis in accordance with a constitu
tion of Pius II and Julius II threatening any one thus
appealing with punishment for heresy.
With a singular disregard for the demands of the
situation, betrayed not infrequently in the curia's deal
ings with Luther, Eck was appointed one of two
commissioners to publish the bull in Germany. At
best it was bound to be unpopular there, and Eck's

1 84 MARTIN LUTHER
connection with it served only to discredit it the more,
giving currency to the belief that it was a partizan
document, wrung from the papal see by Luther's prin
cipal antagonist. To make matters worse Eck was given
authority to insert in the bull the names of a limited
number of Luther's supporters, an opportunity he used
to revenge himself upon some of his own antagonists,
among them the famous humanist Willibald Pirk-
heimer, author of the stinging satire "Der abgehobelte
Eck." As might have been expected, the reception ac
corded the bull in Germany was far from cordial.
Coming "bearded, bulled, and moneyed," as Luther put
it, Eck found himself almost everywhere an object of
hatred and contumely. In many places the bull was
treated with open contempt, in others its publication
was delayed or prevented altogether on technical
grounds of one kind and another.
To be sure, there were those who welcomed it
warmly, and here and there its provisions were put
into immediate effect. Whole wagon-loads of Luther's
books were burned at Cologne, Mayence, and some
other towns. It had also the desired effect in leading
not a few of his adherents, real or supposed, to re
nounce all connection with him. Eck had the satis
faction, for instance, of seeing Pirkheimer, Spengler,
and others of the Nuremberg group sue humbly for
pardon and seek his good offices in their behalf.
Staupitz, although not named in the bull, had to
suffer for his known sympathy with the Wittenberg
heretic. The relations between the two had been
strained for some time. Luther's radicalism greatly
distressed the older man and led to a growing estrange
ment. Already in the spring of 15 19 the reformer com
plained in a letter to Lang that Staupitz had completely

THE FINAL BREAK WITH ROME 185
forgotten him, and in the fall of the same year he ap
pealed to his beloved superior in the following affecting
words :
You forsake me too much. I have sorrowed for you
like a weaned child for its mother. I beseech you praise
the Lord even in me a sinner. Last night I dreamed of
you. I thought you were leaving me, and as I was weep
ing and lamenting most bitterly, you waved your hand
and told me to be quiet for you would return.
For a time, indeed, communication was resumed be
tween the two old friends but was soon interrupted
again. In August, feeling unequal to the strain put
upon him by his position as vicar in the troublous days
upon which the Augustinian order had fallen, Staupitz
resigned his office, and soon afterward retired to Salz
burg, where he ultimately joined the Dominicans. He
hoped his retirement would bring him peace, but he
was not allowed to escape so easily. The pope called
upon him to join in the condemnation of Luther's here
sies. Sorely stricken by the necessity laid upon him,
he wrote pathetically to his successor, Wenceslaus
Link, "Martin has undertaken a dangerous, task and is
carrying it on with high courage under the guidance
of God. But I stammer, and am a child in need of
milk." Finally he yielded, at least so far as to declare his
complete submission to the pope, and with this the
curia was satisfied. The following protest from Lu
ther shows how deeply the younger man was grieved
by the weakness of his old superior :
This is no time for fear, but for crying aloud, when
our Lord Jesus Christ is condemned, cast off, and blas
phemed. As you exhorted me to humility I exhort you
to pride. You have too much humility as I have too

1 86 MARTIN LUTHER
much pride. The affair indeed is serious. We see Christ
suffering. If hitherto we were obliged to be silent and
humble, now when our most excellent Saviour, who has
given himself for us, is mocked in all the world, I beseech
you shall we not fight for him ? Shall we not expose our
lives? My father, the danger is greater than many sup
pose. Here the gospel word applies, Whosoever confess-
eth me before men, him will I also confess before my
Father. How little Luther was himself disturbed or thrown
off his balance by the pope's condemnation is shown
by the fact that his beautiful tract on The Freedom of
a Christian Man, in all its noble serenity, was written
just at the time Eck was publishing the papal bull in
Germany. The tract was dedicated to the pope in a
long and remarkable letter penned at the solicitation
of Miltitz, and at his request dated back from October
to September 6 that it might not seem to have been
called forth, as it actually was not, by the bull itself.
The letter was of a very different tone from the two
previously addressed to the pope. While protesting
his regard for Leo's own person, Luther spoke in
sharp terms of the corruption of the papal see, and of
the evils it was bringing upon Christendom. The
humble monk had traveled far who could calmly ad
dress the supreme head of the church, the world's
greatest potentate, in such words as the following :
Therefore, Leo, my father, beware of listening to those
sirens who make you out to be not simply a man, but
partly a god, so that you can command and require what
ever you will. It will not happen so, nor will you pre
vail. A servant of servants you are, and above all men
in a most pitiable and perilous position. Let not those
deceive you who pretend you are lord of the world ; who
will not allow any one to be a Christian without your

THE FINAL BREAK WITH ROME 187
authority ; who babble of your having power over heaven,
hell, and purgatory. They are your enemies and are seek
ing your soul to destroy it, as Isaiah says, "My people,
they that call thee blessed are themselves deceiving thee."
They are in error who raise you above councils and the
universal church. They are in error who attribute to you
alone the right of interpreting Scripture. All these are
seeking to set up their own impieties in the church under
your name, and alas, Satan has gained much through
them in the time of your predecessors. In short, believe
not those who exalt you, but those who humiliate you.
The arrival of the papal bull in Wittenberg was
greeted with joy by Luther and taken as a summons to
renewed conflict. On the twentieth of October he
wrote a friend :
You would scarcely believe how pleased I am that ene
mies rise up against me more than ever. For I am never
prouder or bolder than when I dare to displease them.
Let them be doctors, bishops, or princes, what difference
does it make? If the word of God were not attacked by
them it would not be God's word.
At first he pretended to think the bull a forgery of
Eck's and poured out the vials of his wrath upon it in
a tract entitled "The New Eckian Bulls and Lies." A
little later, accepting it as genuine, he commented upon
it briefly in a pamphlet, "Against the Bull of Anti
christ," and at the elector's request, at greater length,
in his important "Ground and Reason of all the Arti
cles unjustly condemned in the Roman Bull." In the
latter work he said :
Even if it were true, as they assert, that I have put my
self forward on my own responsibility, they would not be
excused thereby. Who knows whether God has called and
awakened me for this ? Let them fear Him and beware

1 88 MARTIN LUTHER
lest they despise God in me. ... I do not say I am a
prophet, but I do say they have all the greater reason to
fear I am one, the more they despise me and esteem them
selves. If I am not a prophet I am at any rate sure the
word of God is with me and not with them, for I always
have the Bible on my side, they only their own doctrine.
It is on this account I have the courage to fear them so
little, much as they despise and persecute me.
Both of these pamphlets appeared in Latin as well
as German, and in referring to the longer one, in a
letter to Spalatin, Luther defended the greater severity
of the Latin version with the remark that it seemed
necessary "to introduce a little salt for Latin stom
achs." On November 17 he renewed his appeal from the
pope to a general council declaring, in his usual violent
fashion, that the former was an unrighteous judge, a
heretic and apostate, an enemy of the Holy Scriptures,
and a slanderer of church and council. He also called
upon emperors, princes, and all civil officials to support
his appeal and oppose what he styled the unchristian
conduct of the pope.
Finally, on December 10, he broke permanently with
the papal see and gave dramatic expression to his re
nunciation of the pope's authority by publicly burning
the bull and the canon law in the presence of a large
concourse of professors and students. Melanchthon
announced the event in the following placard, posted
upon the door of the City Church :
Whoever is devoted to gospel truth, let him be on
hand at nine o'clock by the Church of the Holy Cross,
outside the walls, where according to ancient and apos
tolic custom the impious books of papal law and scho
lastic theology will be given to the flames. For the

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THE FINAL BREAK WITH ROME 189
audacity of the enemies of the gospel has gone so far as
to burn the devout and evangelical books of Luther.
Come, reverent and studious youth, to this pious and
religious spectacle, for perhaps now is the time when
antichrist shall be revealed.
In a defense published soon afterward Luther jus
tified the burning of the canon law because it taught
among other things the supremacy of the pope and
his absolute authority over Bible, church, and Chris
tian conscience. Again, as so often, there was re
vealed the kinship in principle between his revolt and
the many other uprisings against unlimited and uncon
stitutional monarchy through which freedom has been
won for the modern world.
Luther's bold act was not the result of a sudden and
hasty impulse. He had announced his intention
months before, and though the project was known to
the elector and many friends, no objection seems to
have been made by any of them. Writing about it to
Staupitz he said he had done the deed in trembling and
prayer, but after it was over felt more pleased than at
any other act of his life.
Speaking of the matter to the students the next day,
he told them, according to the report of one of his
hearers, that salvation was impossible for those sub
mitting to the rule of the pope; and in March he wrote
a friend: "I am persuaded of this, that unless a man
fight with all his might, and if need be unto death,
against the statutes and laws of the pope and bishops,
he cannot be saved." This soon became a common
feeling among his adherents. From the assurance that
salvation is possible apart from the pope both he and
they went on to the still more radical belief that it was
impossible with the pope. The latter was not a logical
deduction from the former. It was only the instinctive

190 MARTIN LUTHER
repayment of condemnation by condemnation. But it
found its justification in the conviction, long growing
and now full blown, that the pope was antichrist. The
basis was thus given, not for the possibility merely, but
for the necessity of a new church. Catholic exclusive-
ness was matched by Lutheran, and the new movement
was prepared to meet the old on its own ground. Prot
estants have happily long outgrown the bitterness and
narrowness of the early days, but it may well be
doubted whether anything less would have sufficed
then to stand the strain.
On January 3, 1521, the period of grace named in
the previous bull having more than elapsed, the pope
took formal action against Luther in the bull Decet
Romanum Pontificem, pronouncing him excommuni
cate, declaring him guilty of the crime of lese-majesty,
and condemning him to all the spiritual and temporal
penalties imposed upon heretics by the canons of the
church.

CHAPTER XIV
THE DIET OF WORMS
IN excommunicating Luther the pope had done his
worst. It remained to be seen whether his action
would be given effect by the civil power. In ordinary
circumstances there would have been no doubt. To be
condemned as a heretic meant certain death at the
hands either of the ecclesiastical or civil government.
But the present case was unusual. Luther had the back
ing of the most important prince in Germany, the sup
port of a large body of nobles, the confidence of many
of the lower clergy, and the devotion of great masses of
the population. Quite apart from sympathy with him
and his views it was widely felt that his appeal from the
pope to a council should have been heeded, and there
were those who doubted whether the pope after all had
the right to condemn any one for heresy without con
ciliar support. The situation was very complicated.
The outcome was by no means certain, all the less so
in view of the diverse political interests represented in
the empire. It was just the kind of a case, beset suffi
ciently with doubt, to offer the best possible excuse for
political bargaining, and the emperor and princes made
good use of the opportunity.
In January, 1521, the first imperial diet of Charles's
reign met in the free city of Worms, one of the most
ancient and famous towns of Germany, situated on the
left bank of the upper Rhine. There is still extant a
191

192 MARTIN LUTHER
remarkable series of despatches addressed to the Vice-
Chancellor at Rome by the papal legate Jerome Ale
ander, containing a vivid account of the diet itself
and an interesting picture of the general situation.
The following facts and impressions reported by
Aleander are perhaps worth repeating. Legions of
poor noblemen under Hutten's lead were enlisted
against the pope, and the great majority of lawyers,
canonists, grammarians, poets, priests, and monks, to
gether with the masses of the common people, in fact,
nine tenths of all Germany, were on Luther's side, and
the other tenth against the curia. Even where the
Wittenberg professor was not understood, he was sup
ported because of the general hatred of Rome. Multi
tudes thought they could remain good Christians and
orthodox Catholics while renouncing allegiance to the
pope. Even those opposed to Luther, including the
greatest princes and prelates, dared not come out
against him for fear of Hutten and Sickingen, every
where recognized as his allies. No books but his were
sold in Worms, and his picture was everywhere to be
seen, often with the Holy Ghost hovering over khis
head. The people thought him sinless and infallible
and attributed miraculous power to him. Only tbe
emperor was on the side of Rome. If he were to yield
in the least all Germany would fall away from the
papacy. And even he hesitated to bring pressure to
bear upon the princes out of consideration for the
Elector of Saxony and from a desire to retain in his
own hands the means of inducing the pope to yield
to his wishes in other matters.
We are reminded in this connection that some time
before, while Charles was still in the Netherlands, his
ambassador at Rome advised him to show favor to a
certain Martin Luther whom the pope greatly feared.

THE DIET OF WORMS 193
We get also in these despatches a frank account of
the negotiations carried on and the devious means em
ployed by Aleander and his fellow legate Caracciolo
in their efforts to secure Luther's condemnation and
maintain the authority of Rome. Flattery, threats,
and bribery were freely used, and Aleander did not
hesitate to avow his own falsehoods for the good of
the cause. A most interesting picture it is of the skil
ful use of political methods such as have been employed
in every age of the world and for all sorts of ends.
Aleander complained frequently of his own unpopu
larity and the shabby treatment accorded him by the
populace, causing him often to fear for his life. At
the same time he felt called upon to defend himself
against the accusation of living voluptuously and luxu
riously, averring that he was so poorly housed as nearly
to freeze to death and had had no new clothes for ten
years. In general his reports, at least during the
earlier part of his stay in Worms, were gloomy and
despondent enough. It may well be that he exagger
ated the difficulties in order to enhance the value of his
services, but his account bears for the most part the
marks of truth and is a fairly accurate picture of the
situation from a Roman point of view.
The despatches also contain some interesting pen
portraits of the leading actors in the great events of
those weeks. Luther, the antichrist, as Aleander calls
him, is of course spoken of with uniform hatred and
contempt. A hard drinker, and too much of an igno
ramus to be the author of the books ascribed to him,
he is represented as merely a tool of Hutten and his
associates, like them interested to overthrow all author
ity, civil as well as ecclesiastical. Hutten himself would
like to be the chief leader of the whole movement if he
could only count on the support of the people as Luther
13

194 MARTIN LUTHER
can. The real motive underlying all his efforts and
those of his followers is the desire to seize for them
selves the property of the clergy. Sickingen, a man of
unusual ability, is greatly feared by everybody and is
really king in Germany. Albert of Mayence is a good
Catholic and at heart loyal to the pope, but sadly lack
ing in firmness and courage. The Elector Frederick,
at first spoken of as an excellent prince, pious and de
vout, but with councilors more Lutheran than Luther
himself, is later called "the infamous Saxon," and
inelegantly compared to a fat hog, with the eyes of a
dog, which rarely look any one straight in the face. He
is also dubbed a basilisk and a fox who supports Luther
only because of the fame and prosperity he brings the
university and town of Wittenberg. The frankness of
the despatches makes them interesting reading, and the
bitter prejudice of the legate, preventing him from
seeing any good in Luther and his friends, need not be
wondered at. Indeed his attitude was in no way differ
ent from Luther's own. The latter too was seldom able
to see any good in his opponents.
Late in November, in response to the Elector Fred
erick's insistence that Luther be not condemned with
out a hearing, the emperor requested him to bring his
professor to the diet and let him answer for himself
before a commission of learned and judicious men.
Luther was eager to appear and defend his cause.
When the elector inquired through Spalatin if he were
willing to go, he wrote the latter on the twenty-first
of December :
If I am summoned I will do what in me lies to be
carried there sick, if I cannot go well. For it is not to be
doubted, if the emperor summons me I am summoned
by the Lord. If they use force, as is probable, for they
do not wish me to come that I may be instructed, my

THE DIET OF WORMS 195
cause shall be commended to the Lord, for He lives and
reigns who preserved the three children in the furnace
of the Babylonian king. If He is unwilling to preserve
me my life is a small thing compared with Christ's, who
was wickedly slain to the disgrace of all and the harm of
many. . . . Expect anything of me except flight or re
cantation. I will not flee, much less recant. So may the
Lord Jesus strengthen me.

In the meantime, fearing the effect of Luther's pres
ence in Worms, and incensed at the proposal to give
a condemned heretic the opportunity to defend his
views, Aleander induced the emperor to withdraw his
request and deny Luther a hearing. For a long time
it was uncertain what would be done. But when the
members of the diet persistently refused to assent to
various measures the emperor had at heart until Luther
was permitted to appear before them, the case was
finally compromised in spite of Aleander's protests.
The excommunicated professor was to be summoned
and required to recant his doctrinal heresies. If he
refused he was to be condemned without further ado.
If he consented his criticisms of ecclesiastical abuses
were to be considered by the diet and such action taken
as might seem advisable.
Accordingly an imperial summons was issued on
March 6 requiring him to appear within six weeks and
guaranteeing him safe conduct both in going and re
turning. To Aleander's disgust the summons was
phrased in respectful terms, and an imperial herald, of
known Lutheran sympathies, was despatched to Wit
tenberg to escort the heretic to Worms in state. The
honorable treatment accorded the reformer was an ac
knowledgment of the important position he occupied
in the eyes of Germany.

196 MARTIN LUTHER
The herald found him ready and eager to go, and
in spite of the dangers attending the journey, for im
perial safe-conducts had been violated before, and in
spite of the serious issues hinging upon it, he left
Wittenberg for Worms on April 2, 1521, in good
spirits and with a light heart.
He was accompanied by his colleague Nicholas Ams-
dorf, an Augustinian brother, John Petzensteiner, and
one of his students, a young Pomeranian nobleman,
Peter Swaben. Instead of traveling on foot as he
usually did, he rode in state with his companions in a
covered wagon. The city magistrates provided the con
veyance and the university added funds for the jour
ney. Condemned heretic though he was, town after
town showed him distinguished honor as he passed
through. According to the papal legate Aleander his
entire journey was nothing less than a triumphal pro
cession. At Leipsic the city council sent him a gift of
wine. At Erfurt, where his old friend Crotus was rec
tor of the university, he was met outside the walls by
an imposing deputation, and was greeted with an ora
tion by the rector and a poem by Eoban Hess, the
most celebrated poet of the day.
Early in his journey he was unpleasantly surprised
to learn of the imperial mandate requiring the seques
tration of his books. He was alarmed, he says, and
trembled at the news, for it showed that the emperor
was against him and he could hope for little from his
own appearance at the diet. But his resolution to
proceed remained unshaken.
According to his friend Myconius, when warned that
he would be burned to ashes by the cardinals and
bishops at Worms, and reminded of the fate met by
Hus at Constance, he replied, "Even if they kindled. a
fire as high as heaven from Wittenberg to Worms, I

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LUTHER IN 1521
The second earliest known likeness of Luther

THE DIET OF WORMS 197
would appear in the name of the Lord, in obedience
to the imperial summons, and would walk into behe
moth's mouth, between his great teeth, and confess
Christ." Though Myconius is not a very trustworthy
reporter, the words have a genuine ring.
Equally characteristic of another of Luther's fa
miliar moods was his laughing reply to a similar
prophecy, recorded by another friend and biographer,
Ratzeberger : "Nettles would n't be so bad, one could
stand them, but to be burned with fire, yes, that would
be too hot."
From Frankfort, where he stopped over night, Lu
ther wrote Spalatin, who was already at Worms with
the elector :
We are coming, my Spalatin, although Satan has tried
to stop me with more than one sickness. The whole way
from Eisenach here I have been miserable and am still
in a way not before experienced. Charles's mandate I
know has been published to frighten me. But Christ
lives, and we will enter Worms in spite of all the gates
of hell and powers of the air. I send a copy of the im
perial letter. I have thought it well to write no more
letters until I arrive and see what is to be done, that
Satan may not be puffed up, whom I am minded rather
to terrify and despise. Arrange a lodging for me there
fore. Farewell.
A year later, in a letter to the elector, he remarked :
"The devil saw clearly the mood I was in when I went
to Worms. Had I known as many devils would set upon
me as there were tiles on the roofs, I should have
sprung into the midst of them with joy." Long after
ward, in talking about his journey, he repeated the
same words, and added : "For I was undismayed and
feared nothing, so foolish can God make a man ! I am
not sure I should now be so joyful."

198 MARTIN LUTHER
At Oppenheim, some thirty miles from Worms, he
was met by Martin Bucer, the young Dominican whose
enthusiastic admiration he had won at Heidelberg.
Bucer brought a message from Franz von Sickingen
inviting Luther to stop over at his castle, the Ebern
burg, for an interview with the emperor's confessor
Glapion, who had been sent thither for the purpose.
What Glapion's exact design was is uncertain. The pa
pal legates and imperial counselors feared the effects of
Luther's presence at the diet and would have liked to
prevent his coming. Glapion perhaps hoped to induce
him to remain away altogether, or, as Luther believed,
simply to delay him until his safe-conduct had expired.
At any rate the traveler declined the invitation and sent
the confessor word that if he had anything to say he
could see him at Worms.
He reached his journey's end about ten o'clock on
the morning of Tuesday, the sixteenth of April. His
coming was announced by a trumpeter, and though it
was the hour of the midday meal, the whole town
poured out to see him. Aleander sent one of his
attendants to witness the great heretic's arrival, and
afterward wrote the papal vice-chancellor :
About a hundred horsemen, presumably Sickingen's,
accompanied him to the city gate. Sitting in a wagon
with three companions, he entered the city, surrounded
by some eight riders, and took up his lodging in the
neighborhood of his Saxon prince. When he alighted, a
priest threw his arms about him, touched his garments
three times, and went away exulting, as if he had handled
a relic of the greatest of saints. I suspect it will soon
be said he works miracles. This Luther, as he stepped
from the wagon, looked about with his demoniac eyes and
said, "God will be with me." Then he entered a cham
ber where many gentlemen visited him, with ten or twelve

THE DIET OF WORMS 199
of whom he dined, and after dinner everybody ran in
to see him.
In spite of the pressure he was under, Luther took
time the next morning to visit a sick nobleman who
had expressed the desire to see him. After offering
him spiritual consolation, he heard him confess, and
administered the sacrament. It was a thoroughly char
acteristic act, for he was never too busy to heed such
calls. Always to the end of his days he remained a
devoted and self-sacrificing pastor and spiritual guide.
At four in the afternoon he appeared before the
diet, sitting at the time in the bishop's palace, where
the Emperor Charles and his brother Ferdinand were
staying. The hall was filled with a large and dis
tinguished company of princes, noblemen, high eccle
siastics, representatives of the various states and free
cities of Germany, and ambassadors of foreign powers,
including . two from England. It was an impressive
occasion, fraught with consequence not only for Lu
ther himself, but for the empire and the world as well.
The case of the condemned monk, it is true, was only
one of many items of business to engage the atten
tion of the diet, and doubtless most of the members
were far more interested in other matters of local or
national concern. Few realized the seriousness of the
situation, and fewer still appreciated the world-wide
significance of his appearance before the German em
peror and estates. But all were curious to see and
hear the man who had made such a stir, and it is not
surprising that the hall was crowded, as well as the
streets outside.
Aleander was scandalized to see the Wittenberg
monk enter the hall with a smiling face and let his
eyes rove over the assembled company instead of

200 MARTIN LUTHER
exhibiting the humility and fear appropriate to one
in his situation. The humanist Peutinger, a delegate
from the city of Augsburg, where he had entertained
Luther at the time of his appearance before Cajetan,
happened to be standing near and was greeted cheerily
with the words, "What, you here, too, Herr Doctor?"
Peutinger afterward saw him frequently during his
stay in Worms, and reported to the Augsburg authori
ties that he found him always in excellent spirits.
As soon as he had reached his place, Luther was
peremptorily required to say whether he acknowledged
as his own a pile of some twenty books collected by
the diligence of Aleander and arranged upon a table
before him, and whether he would retract the whole
or any part of their contents. He wondered, as he
later remarked, where so many of his writings had
been picked up; but when their titles had been read,
he promptly acknowledged them as his own, adding
that he had written many others besides. In reply to
the second question, he asked for time to consider the
matter, since faith and salvation and the divine word
were involved, and to answer without premeditation
might work injury to the word and endanger his own
soul. The papal legates and imperial counselors were
surprised and annoyed, but after some hesitation he
was granted a delay of twenty- four hours.
Much speculation has been indulged in as to the rea
son for this request. In one of the many extant reports
of the occasion from the pen of the Frankfort repre
sentative, Furstenberg, Luther is said to have spoken
in a low voice, as if he were frightened and confused.
This has led to the common assumption that he was
overawed by the august assembly and too much upset
to take a firm stand such as might ordinarily have been
expected of him. It would perhaps not be surprising

THE DIET OF WORMS 201
if he were. For the first time face to face with the
leading princes of the empire and the greatest sov
ereign of the world, almost any man might be par
doned if he were dazzled by the spectacle and discon
certed by the hostility shown in the abrupt demand for
a retraction. But the evidence is insufficient to sup
port the conclusion. No one else, so far as we are
aware, shared Fiirstenberg's opinion that Luther was
frightened, though many who have left reports of the
occasion had a much better opportunity than he to ob
serve the monk's attitude.
We must not be misled by the dramatic contrasts of
the scene— a poor monk of peasant birth standing
alone against the world. If he had been standing alone,
the emperor and diet would never have wasted their
time with him. He was no mere individual, on trial
for his life, but the champion of a great and growing
party, of political, as well as religious, importance.
Nor was he a simple-minded, inexperienced monk,
thrust suddenly into the lime-light of publicity, but a
seasoned warrior, long aware of the national signifi
cance of the battle he was engaged in. At Worms he
had a host of influential supporters, and was sur
rounded by sage counselors. It is impossible to sup
pose he entered the hall ignorant of what he had to
expect and without a carefully arranged plan of pro
cedure. Apparently the plan did not altogether please
Luther himself, for he frequently complained in later
days that under the influence of his friends he was
milder at Worms than he would have liked to be.
Doubtless his supporters were greatly divided as to
the best way to meet the situation, and many of them
must have hoped some compromise could be reached
whereby the crushing of the whole movement might be
prevented. Very likely he was induced to ask for

202 MARTIN LUTHER
delay until there was time for further discussion, in
the light of the impression made by his first appear
ance. During the following night we are told he was
in constant consultation with his friends, so that he'
got no sleep at all. And when he appeared before the
diet the next day, firm as his final answer was, it was
phrased very carefully, and in such a way as to give
as little offense as possible.
Speaking in a louder voice than at his first appear
ance, so as to be heard by everybody in the hall, he
apologized for any lack of respect he might have
shown the members of the diet the previous day,
through ignorance of the forms and customs of the
great world, and then gave his answer to the crucial
question at considerable length, first in German and
afterward in Latin.
His writings he divided into three groups. Some of
them, he said, concerned faith and morals, and were so
simple and evangelical that even his enemies confessed
them harmless and worthy to be read by Christian peo
ple. Others attacked the pope, and these he could not
'retract without giving support and encouragement to
his abominable tyrannies. Still others were directed
against individuals who opposed his gospel and de
fended the papacy. In these he confessed he had often
been more violent than was seemly, for he did not claim
to be a saint; but if he withdrew them, impiety under
his protection would prevail more widely than ever. At
the same time, repeating the words of Christ, "If I
have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil," he pro
fessed himself ready to submit and recant provided
he were proved wrong. If his teachings were out of
harmony with the Bible, he would be the first to throw
his books into the fire.
When reproved for not speaking to the point, and

THE DIET OF WORMS 203
asked to give a categorical answer without horns,
whether he would recant or not, he replied :
Since, then, your Majesty and Lordships demand a
simple response, I will give one with neither horns nor
teeth to this effect. Unless convinced by the testimony
of Scripture or by clear reason— for I believe neither
pope nor councils alone, since it is certain they have
often erred and contradicted themselves,— having been
conquered by the Scriptures referred to and my con
science taken captive by the word of God, I cannot and
will not revoke anything, for it is neither safe nor right
to act against one's conscience. God help me. Amen.
A discussion ensued touching the authority of coun
cils, when the emperor, as it was already growing late,
interrupted the colloquy and abruptly closed the
session. Arrived at his lodgings, Luther threw up his hands,
according to the report of an eye-witness, and cried
with joy, "I am through, I am through !" The strain
must have been tremendous even for him, and his relief
that it was all over and he had held his ground without
flinching was proportionately great. A few days later,
in a letter to his friend Lucas Cranach, he made the
following characteristic comment upon the whole af
fair : "In my opinion the emperor ought to have gath
ered a number of doctors and conquered the monk by
argument. Instead of that, I was simply asked, 'Are
the books yours?' 'Yes,' 'Will you recant them?'
'No.' 'Then begone.' Oh, we blind Germans, how
childishly we act and how contemptible we are to allow
the Romans to make such fools of us !"
The impression made by Luther upon the members
of the diet was very diverse. The Venetian ambassa
dor wrote: "Martin has hardly fulfilled the expecta-

204 MARTIN LUTHER
tions which all had. He appears neither blameless in
life nor gifted with wisdom. He is uneducated and
has nothing to distinguish him except his rashness."
According to Aleander's report, written at the close of
the first day, many even of those friendly to him, after
seeing him, thought him crazy or possessed, while
others considered him a pious man, full of the Holy
Spirit. Later the legate wrote that his coming had had
excellent results. The emperor saw in him only a
dissolute and demented man, and exclaimed disdain
fully, "He will never make a heretic of me." In fact,
his appearance and conduct had destroyed altogether
the reputation he had hitherto enjoyed.
On the contrary, according to another eye-witness,
Luther conducted himself so bravely, Christianly, and
honorably that the Romanists would have been very
thankful if he had not come.
The Elector Frederick was delighted with him, and
said privately to Spalatin, "The father, Dr. Martin,
spoke well before the emperor and all the princes and
estates of the realm in Latin and German. He is much
too bold for me."
In pursuance of the agreement reached before he
was summoned, the emperor wished to have sentence at
once passed upon the refractory heretic; but some of
the influential members of the diet thought it possible,
in view of his promise to retract if he were convinced
of his errors, that he might yield to instruction or per
suasion. At any rate, to condemn him without making
an effort to show him wrong, it was felt, would lead the
populace to think him unfairly treated. There were
those, too, who hoped his great influence might be used
to promote the reformation of ecclesiastical abuses. As
at previous diets, impatience with the exactions of the
curia found frequent expression at Worms, and even

THE LUTHER MEMORIAL AT WORMS
About Luther, the central figure, are seated four precursors of the Reformation: Hus, Savon
arola, Wyclif, and Peter Waido; the standing figuie at the right of Luther is Melanchthon,
and a figure of Reuchlin, at the left, is hidden by the statue of Frederick the Wise, at the cor
ner, with uplifted sword; the outside figure, at the right, is Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse.

THE CATHEDRAL AT WORMS, WHICH WAS STANDING IN LUTHER'S TIME

THE DIET OF WORMS 205
so good a Catholic as Duke George of Saxony pre
sented a long list of grievances. A committee ap
pointed to consider the matter drew up a document
containing a hundred and two gravamina against the
papacy and clergy, and, though never acted upon by the
diet, it showed clearly enough the temper of many of
the members. With Luther's doctrinal innovations few
of them were in sympathy. They had little enough
idea of what they were, but they feared their unsettling
effects and were sure they ought not to be tolerated.
Hus and the Bohemian uprising were constantly before
their minds, and the dread of similar trouble in Ger
many acted continually as a check.
With Luther himself the situation was reversed. He
was willing to yield in the matter of ecclesiastical
abuses, and keep silent for the sake of the peace of the
church, but he would not dissemble his doctrinal be
liefs. He had attacked the pope, he said, not because
of his bad life, but of his false teaching. The word of
God, he insisted, must not be bound, and preach it he
would as he understood it, whatever the consequences
might be. With such convictions it was quite impos
sible for him to enter into the sort of compromise many
of the princes wished. Matters in their opinion of
minor concern he considered of fundamental impor
tance, and they ultimately discovered, to their great
disgust, that he was quite intractable. So long as there
was hope that he could be controlled and made use of,
they were anxious to protect him, but when it became
evident that he would go his own independent way and
bring about changes they did not like, they dropped
him altogether.
But, in the meantime, the emperor having finally
consented, in spite of Aleander's protests, to grant a
brief delay, negotiations with Luther were carried on

206 MARTIN LUTHER
under the lead of the Archbishop of Treves, a liberal
and fair-minded prelate and a personal friend of
the Elector Frederick. A series of interviews was
held, which must have proved more trying to Lu
ther than his appearance before the diet. Every
form of persuasion was brought to bear upon him.
His patriotism, his loyalty to the emperor, and his love
for the church were appealed to. Theological argu
ment was tried and biblical scholarship invoked, but
all to no purpose. At one time it was believed be was
about to yield, and the archbishop was much encour
aged; but the belief was due to a misunderstanding,
and it was soon discovered that nothing could be done.
From the pen of John Cochlseus, a Frankfort theo
logian, later one of Luther's principal opponents and
author of the first unfriendly biography of the re
former, we have a long and interesting account of a
protracted discussion he had with Luther and his
friends. Visiting them in their lodgings, he attempted
single-handed to meet the whole company in debate,
and was obliged to submit to considerable banter and
to suffer some hard knocks from those present. The
interview was enlivened by a tilt between Cochlseus and
the Wittenberg Augustinian Petzensteiner. When
Cochlseus addressed him contemptuously as "Little
Brother," and asked him disdainfully if he thought
there were no wise men except in Wittenberg, Luther,
who happened to enter the room at the moment, quieted
the threatened disturbance with the jocose remark,
"My brother thinks he is wiser than all of us, especially
when he has been drinking hard." The words brought
a laugh and restored the company's good humor.
At another point Cochlaeus asked Luther whether
he had received a revelation, and after some hesita
tion the reformer replied in the affirmative, to the no

THE DIET OF WORMS 207
small scandal of the Frankfort theologian, who accused
him of contradicting himself and asserting at one mo
ment what he denied at another. As a matter of fact,
the question was not an easy one to answer. Luther
firmly believed his gospel came from God, and yet he
naturally hesitated to claim supernatural illumination,
and as a rule was careful not to do so. But all his con
duct was that of a man believing in divine inspiration
and aware of his own divine call. The two disputants
finally separated in a friendly spirit, but Cochlseus
assured Luther of his intention to write against him,
and the latter promised to answer him to the best of
his ability.
After a week of futile effort on the part of the Arch
bishop of Treves and others called in to assist him, the
reformer begged to be allowed to depart, and on
Friday, the twenty-sixth of April, left Worms with
an imperial safe-conduct good for twenty days. He
was ordered not to preach on the way home, but re
fused to be bound by the prohibition.
After his departure, Aleander was intrusted by the
emperor with the task of preparing an edict of con
demnation. That the papal legate should be called
upon to do this was an interesting indication of
Charles's attitude. The young sovereign was a devout
Catholic, and though in political matters he might deal
with the pope as with any other civil ruler, when legal
effect was to be given the papal condemnation, he rec
ognized the pope's representative as the proper person
to formulate the decision. The result was not a brief
and summary state document, but an elaborate account
of Luther's errors and of the means employed to bring
him to reason. Particular stress was laid upon his
alleged anarchical principles and his incitement of the
masses to uproar, bloodshed, and war. Evidently the

208 MARTIN LUTHER
need was felt, as in the bull Exurge Domine, of justi
fying the action before the people of Germany, whose
devotion to Luther had been the chief obstacle in the
way of his condemnation.
The edict put Luther unconditionally under the ban
of the empire, and thenceforth to the end of his life
he remained an outlaw. He was to be seized wherever
found and sent to the emperor, or held in safe-keeping
until his fate was decided upon. All his books were
ordered burned, and to publish, sell, buy, or read any
of his writings was strictly forbidden. To support or
follow him was to involve oneself in his guilt, and to
befriend or hold communication with him openly or
secretly was to commit the crime of lese-majesty. The
document was approved by the emperor on the eighth
of May and received his signature on the twenty-sixth
of the month. It was not submitted to the diet, but
it had the assent of the leading princes still on the
ground, the Elector of Saxony having left Worms
some time before, and in view of the earlier decision
to condemn Luther if he did not recant, its proclama
tion was entirely in order.
Aleander was overjoyed at the outcome of the diffi
cult and complicated affair. He had spent many anx
ious months over it, and when it was finally brought
to a successful completion, his exultation knew no
bounds. He even broke into poetry in the despatch
announcing the final decision, and his satisfaction
with the emperor was expressed in glowing terms. "I
cannot refrain," he exclaimed, "from adding a few
words about this most glorious emperor, whom I have
always spoken of in my despatches as the best man in
the world. As appears more clearly day by day, he is
superior to every one else in wisdom as well as in
goodness. Daily can be seen in his acts a judgment

THE DIET OF WORMS 209
more than human." Though Charles had purposely
postponed the adoption of the edict and had often acted
as if opposed to the wishes of the pope, Aleander de
clared it was simply in order to secure the assent of
the princes to other matters of the utmost importance.
The delay, he thought, had really proved of great
benefit, and the effect of the edict was far better than
if it had been published at the opening of the diet.

CHAPTER XV
AT THE WARTBURG
LUTHER'S appearance at Worms, to which he had
j looked forward as a splendid opportunity to pro
claim his gospel before the princes and lords of Ger
many, and from which, in his faith in the power of
the spoken word, he had expected great things, appar
ently resulted in a complete victory for his enemies
and in the destruction of the cause he had at heart.
Condemned by church and state, it looked as if the
end had come both for him and for his work. His only
possible course, it would seem, was to flee the country
and make his way to some land like Bohemia, where
neither emperor nor pope held sway, and whence he
might easily continue his agitation and scatter his writ
ings over Germany. This Aleander and many others
actually feared he would do ; but the Elector Frederick,
true to his policy of supporting his professor without
too openly incurring blame for his heresies, formed
other plans for him. According to Spalatin, while
Frederick was fond of Luther, and would have been
very sorry to see any harm befall him, he was at this
time somewhat faint-hearted and unwilling to incur
the anger of the emperor. He therefore conceived the
idea of concealing his condemned professor for a time,
and secured his assent before he left Worms, though
Luther would much have preferred to remain in the
open.

AT THE WARTBURG 211
Writing from Frankfort on the morning of Sunday,
the twenty-eighth of April, to his friend Lucas Cra
nach, Luther remarked, "I am allowing myself to be
shut up and hidden; I don't know where. Though I
should rather have suffered death at the hands of the
tyrants, especially the raging Duke George of Saxony,
I must not despise the advice of good people until the
hour comes."
The same evening, after arriving at Friedberg, he
wrote, at Spalatin's request, a long letter in Latin to
the emperor and in Germany to the electors, princes,
and estates of the realm, explaining and defending his
course. As so often before, he asserted again his readi
ness to yield if he were convicted out of the Scriptures,
and expressed in the warmest terms his love for the
Fatherland and his conviction that he was acting for
its good. This conviction, indeed, did much to sustain
him during all the troubles of these years. "I was born
for my Germans," he once exclaimed, "and them I
serve." He was received by one after another of the towns
through which he passed as warmly as on his way to
Worms. At Hersfeld he was welcomed by the city
council and handsomely entertained by the Benedictine
abbot, who insisted on his preaching in the convent,
although Luther warned him it might cost him his
position. He also preached at Eisenach, where the
parish priest, fearing possible consequences to himself,
went through the formality of filing a protest before
a notary, privately excusing himself to Luther for
doing so.
After being hospitably treated in the little city where
he had spent the happiest years of his boyhood, he left,
on the third of May, to visit his relatives in the near-by
village of Mohra, his father's birthplace, where many

212 MARTIN LUTHER
of his kindred still lived. The next afternoon he
started on again, taking a road through the forest
in the direction of Waltershausen and Gotha. Shortly
before dark, not far from the castle of Altenstein, the
travelers were suddenly set upon by a company of
armed horsemen. Most of Luther's companions, in
cluding the imperial herald, had already been got rid
of on one or another pretext, and only Amsdorf and
Brother Petzensteiner were with him. The latter at
once took to his heels and made his way on foot to
Waltershausen. Amsdorf, who had been forewarned
of what was to happen, was permitted to return with
the driver to Eisenach. Luther himself was taken
back through the forest by devious paths to the Wart
burg, one of the strongholds of the Elector Frederick,
where he arrived late at night, half dead from fatigue.
The large and imposing castle, already more than
four hundred years old and crowded with historical
memories and legendary tales, stood upon the wooded
heights just beyond the confines of Eisenach, com
manding the town itself and the beautiful Thuringian
country for many miles round. There, in honorable
captivity, Luther made his home for nearly a year,
while the great movement which owed so much to him
went on without him.
His disappearance was the signal for a tremendous
outcry in all parts of Germany. In the absence of
accurate information, rumors flew thick and fast.
Many believed he was held in confinement by his ene
mies. Some thought he had been carried off by Sick
ingen, others that he had been murdered, and circum
stantial tales were told of the finding of his body in this
or that spot. When the news reached Albrecht Durer,
who was traveling at the time in the Netherlands, he
made a long entry in his diary expressing in impas-

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From a photograph by the Berlin Photographische Gesellschaft, of the painting by
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LUTHER'S APPEARANCE
WHILE SECLUDED IN THE WARTBURG
AT THE WARTBURG 213
sioned terms his devotion to Luther and his sorrow
at his death. "O God, is Luther dead, who will hence
forth proclaim the gospel so clearly to us? O God,
what might he not still have written for us in ten or
twenty years !"
According to a report repeated by Luther himself,
a Romanist wrote the Archbishop of Mayence, "We
are rid of Luther, as we wished to be ; but the people
are so stirred up that I suspect we shall scarcely escape
with our lives unless with lighted candles we seek him
everywhere and bring him back."
Aleander, as well as many others, guessed the truth,
but neither he nor any one else knew where the con-
' demned monk was hidden. Even the elector remained
in ignorance of his whereabouts, that he might be able
publicly to deny all knowledge of what had become
of him.
The identity of the captive was carefully concealed.
He allowed his hair and beard to grow, put on the
costume of a knight, wore a gold chain, carried a
sword, and engaged occasionally in the sports and
occupations of a young nobleman. He went by the
name of Junker Georg, and was generally supposed to
be a knight living in temporary retirement. He had
some difficulty in maintaining the character he had
assumed, and in his rides and walks the attendant who
always accompanied him frequently had much ado to
keep him from betraying himself by his interest in
books, so foreign to one of his supposed class, and by
his tendency to enter into theological discussion with
those he happened to meet.
His letters to his friends dated from "the region of
the birds," from "the desert," or from "the Island of
Patmos," show how lonely he was and how eager for
news of the progress of events in Wittenberg and else-

214 MARTIN LUTHER
where. To be set aside as he was, and unable to go on
with the great work, was a sore trial. He wrote to
Melanchthon, begging to know what he thought of his
retirement, and expressing fear lest it be supposed he
had fled from the conflict in cowardice. To his friend
Agricola he wrote: "I am an extraordinary captive,
sitting here willing and unwilling at the same time.
Willing, because the Lord wills thus ; unwilling, because
I should prefer to stand publicly for the»word, but not
yet am I worthy."
At first he was very impatient, but gradually, amaz
ing as it seems in one like him, he grew accustomed to
his enforced confinement, and even felt relief at being
once more by himself, as in the earlier monastic days,
and apart from the strife and turmoil of recent years.
"What is going on in the world I care nothing for,"
he wrote Spalatin. "Here I sit in quiet."
The largeness and generosity of his nature were
strikingly shown in his complete freedom from petty
jealousy and from regard for his own importance. His v
letters, frank as they are, reveal no trace of annoyance
because the movement he had started was going on as
prosperously under the lead of others. On the con
trary, he was continually rejoicing to find himself un
necessary to it, and when his friends lamented his
absence and longed for his return, he kept assuring
them. with unmistakable sincerity that the cause was
better off without him. "I rejoice so greatly in your
fullness," he wrote Amsdorf, "that I bear my absence
most tranquilly. For I see it is not you who need me,
but I who need you." To Spalatin he wrote :
I am pleased with the news from Wittenberg, and give
thanks to Christ who has raised up others in my place so
that I see they now have no need of me, though Philip

AT THE WARTBURG 215
gives way too much to his affections and bears the cross
more impatiently than becomes a disciple, still less such
a master.

And to Melanchthon himself :
You are already full, you reign without me, nor do I
see why you desire me so greatly, or what need you have
of my labors. You seem to invent difficulties, for your
affairs go better in my absence than when I am present.
Although I should most gladly be with you, since you
have all you need I should not be reluctant to go to
Erfurt or Cologne or wherever else the Lord might think
good to open a door for me to preach. How great is the
harvest everywhere, and there are no laborers. But you
are all laborers. We ought not to think of ourselves but
of our brethren scattered everywhere, lest perchance we
live for ourselves, that is, for the devil, and not for
Christ. The following passage from his "Warning against
Uproar," written while he was still at the Wartburg,
may be quoted in this connection :
I beg that my name may be passed over in silence, and
that men will call themselves not Lutheran but Christian.
What is Luther ? My teaching is not mine. I have been
crucified for nobody. Saint Paul would not suffer Chris
tians to bear the name of Paul or Peter, but only of Christ.
How does it happen that I, a poor stinking carcass, have
the children of Christ called after my unholy name ? Not
so, dear friends ! Let us root out party names and call
ourselves Christians, for it is Christ's gospel we have.
Nevertheless, as was not unnatural, he began now to
suffer a return of the mental depression of his earlier
days. For some years he had apparently been almost

216 MARTIN LUTHER
free from it; but being again by himself and without
absorbing activities, he fell frequently into deep de
spondency. Writing to Melanchthon but a fortnight
after reaching the Wartburg, he exclaimed: "I con
gratulate Dr. Lupine on his happy death. Would that
we too might live no longer! The wrath of God,
which in my leisure I am daily observing more and
more, is such that I doubt whether He will save any
body except infants from this kingdom of Satan. Our
God has so deserted us !" But how rapidly his mood
changed, as it always did, is shown by the beautiful
words with which the letter closed: "Again farewell.
Among the birds, singing sweetly in the branches, and
praising God day and night with all their might."
Occasionally in his Wartburg letters he referred to
the visitations of Satan he was called upon to endure.
"You can believe that I am exposed to a thousand
devils in this indolent solitude," he wrote his friend
Nicholas Gerbel in November. Upon the basis of such
casual remarks and of the somewhat highly colored
tales recounted in later years to his credulous table
companions, a whole crop of ghostly legends has
grown up about the chambers he occupied in the lonely
castle. Exaggerated as they are, the mental struggles
they suggest were not altogether a fiction. Doubts and
fears about the wisdom of his course he could not
wholly escape. What if he were all wrong and were
deceiving and leading to perdition the multitudes who
were looking to him for leadership? "Are you alone
wise, and has all the world gone wrong until you came
to set it right ?" was a taunt that caused him not a few
anxious hours. Though his letters contain many
splendid expressions of faith, the unwavering confi
dence of later years he had apparently not yet attained.
Relief and recreation he found frequently in out-

AT THE WARTBURG ¦ 217
of-door excursions, in the course of which he now
and then visited the surrounding towns and mingled
unrecognized with the crowds in market-place and
inn. On one occasion he even took part in a two-days'
hunt. His description of it in a letter to Spalatin is
beautifully characteristic :
Last week I followed the chase for two days that I
might taste that bitter-sweet pleasure of heroes. We
caught two hares and three poor little partridges — a
worthy occupation indeed for men of leisure ! Even there
among the nets and dogs I reflected upon theology, and
great as was the pleasure of the scene, I was made sor
rowful and wretched by the thoughts it suggested. For
what else did it signify than the devil, who pursues these
innocent little beasts with his snares and impious dogs of
teachers, the bishops and theologians? Only too sensible
I was of this sad picture of simple and believing souls.
A still more dreadful symbol followed. When by my
exertions a little hare had been preserved alive, and con
cealing him in my sleeve I had withdrawn to one side,
the dogs found the poor beast and bit it through my coat,
breaking its leg and strangling it. Thus the pope and
Satan rage that they may destroy even saved souls re
gardless of my efforts. I have had enough of such
hunting. It is sweeter, in my opinion, to slay with darts
and arrows bears, wolves, wild boars, foxes, and impious
teachers such as these. But I comfort myself with the
thought that it is a symbol of salvation when hares and
harmless beasts are caught by a man rather than by
bears, wolves, rapacious hawks, and similar bishops and
theologians. For in the latter case they are devoured, as
it were, for hell, in the former for heaven. I have writ
ten this pleasantry to remind you that you hunters at
court will also be hunted in paradise whom Christ, the
best of hunters, shall scarcely with the greatest effort
seize and save. When you are having sport in the chase,
it is you who are sported with.

218 MARTIN LUTHER
Relief from mental distress Luther found still
oftener in work. Though he was continually com
plaining of his indolence and lack of occupation, and
though he suffered much from ill health, due prob
ably to the unaccustomed richness of his fare, he
really did an enormous amount of study and writing.
"Here I sit with nothing to do, like a free man among
prisoners," he wrote Amsdorf ; but for an idle man he
accomplished extraordinary things. Though his place
of concealment was kept a secret from the world at
large, he did not hesitate to publish freely on all sorts
of questions, and it was not long before enemies and
friends alike knew the reformer was still alive and in
touch with all that was going on.
His writings were of various kinds, — devotional
tracts, popular sermons, Scripture expositions, and
polemic pamphlets. In a critique of another papal bull,
which had included him with many notable heretics of
the past in a common condemnation, he attacked both
the office and person of the pope in the coarsest and
most abusive fashion. It was evidently his deliberate
intention to give the German people courage to break
with Rome by pouring scorn and contempt upon the
papacy. And yet, with all his bitterness, he showed
his conscientiousness and a somewhat remarkable fair
ness of mind when there came into his hands, early in
1 52 1, a book by a young Bohemian scholar attempting
to prove that Saint Peter was never in Rome. Greatly
as the acceptance of this thesis would have strength
ened his polemic, Luther rejected it as unproven.
One of the most interesting incidents of his stay at
the Wartburg was his tilt with Archbishop Albert of
Mayence. Made bold by Luther's disappearance from
the scene, the archbishop ventured to open a new sale
of indulgences at Halle, where he had gathered an

AT THE WARTBURG 219
extraordinary collection of relics, beside which the
treasures of the castle church at Wittenberg paled into
insignificance. From the proceeds of this new traffic
he hoped to replenish his exhausted exchequer and also
to build a university at Halle to rival the one at Wit
tenberg. When the matter came to Luther's know
ledge, he sat down in the first flush of indignation to
write a severe tract "Against the Idol at Halle," in
forming Spalatin of what he was doing. The elector
promptly protested and ordered Luther to leave the
Archbishop of Mayence alone. The one thing Fred
erick did not want was to have his professor get em
broiled again with so prominent a prince of the realm.
He was secretly defying the emperor and diet in pro
tecting Luther, but he hoped the excitement would
soon quiet down and the whole affair be forgotten.
If the condemned monk were again to break the peace
in such a fashion, Frederick's policy would be al
together shattered, and his position, he felt, would
become intolerable. His command, communicated
through Spalatin, drew from Luther the following
fiery protest :
A more displeasing letter I have scarcely ever read than
your last one, so that I not only put off answering it, but
even determined not to reply at all. In the first place, I
will not endure what you say, that the prince will not
permit Mayence to be written against or the public peace
disturbed. Rather I will lose you and the prince himself
and every creature. For if I have withstood his creator
the pope, why should I yield to his creature ? Beautifully
indeed you say that the public peace must not be dis
turbed while you suffer the eternal peace of God to be
broken by the impious and sacrilegious acts of that son of
perdition. Not so, Spalatin ! Not so, Prince ! For the
sake of Christ's sheep, this most terrible wolf must be

220 MARTIN LUTHER
resisted with all one's powers, as an example to others.
Therefore I send the little book against him, finished be
fore your letter came. I have not been moved by what
you write to make any alterations, although I have sub
mitted it to the pen of Philip that he may change it as
he sees fit. Beware you do not return the book to Philip,
or dissuade him from publishing it. It is settled that you
will not be listened to.
A few weeks later he took matters into his own
hands and wrote Archbishop Albert one of his charac
teristic letters, threatening to pillory him before all the
world if he did not at once put an end to his new indul
gence campaign.
Your Electoral Grace perhaps thinks that, now I am
off the scene, you are safe from me and the monk is
smothered by his Imperial Majesty. However that may
be, your Electoral Grace shall know that I will do
what Christian love demands, regardless of the gates of
hell, to say nothing of the unlearned, popes, cardinals,
and bishops. ... It has become so clear that indulgences
are mere knavery and deception, and Christ alone
ought to be preached to the people, that your Electoral
Grace cannot excuse yourself on the ground of ignorance.
Let me remind your Electoral Grace of the beginning.
What a terrible fire was kindled by a little despised
spark, when all the world felt so secure, and thought a
single poor beggar was far too small for the pope, and
was undertaking an impossible thing. But God pro
nounced his judgment and gave the pope and all his
creatures quite enough to do, and contrary to everybody's
expectation brought the game to such a pass that the
pope's prosperity will hardly be restored, but affairs will
daily grow worse with him, that God's work may be seen
therein. . . . Therefore your Electoral Grace is hereby
finally informed, if the idol is not done away with,
I shall be unavoidably compelled, for the sake of divine

Iroin a photograph by Verlagsaiistalt Carl Jagemann, Eisenach
WESTERN SIDE OF THE WARTBURG
The building at the left is the Ritterhaus, at the right end of which are the Luther rooms

AT THE WARTBURG 221
doctrine and Christian salvation, to attack your Electoral
Grace openly as well as the pope, to denounce the under
taking merrily, to lay at the door of the Bishop of
Mayence all the old enormities of Tetzel, and to show the
whole world the difference between a bishop and a wolf.
... I have no pleasure in your Electoral Grace's shame
and humiliation, but if a stop is not put to the profaning
and desecrating of God's truth, I and all Christians are in
duty bound to maintain His honor, although the whole
world, to say nothing of a poor man, a cardinal, be there
by disgraced. I shall not keep still, and even if I do not
succeed, I hope you bishops will no longer sing your little
song with joy. You have not yet got rid of all those
whom Christ has awakened against your idolatrous
tyranny. Within a fortnight I shall expect your Electoral
Grace's favorable reply, for at the expiration of that
time my little book "Against the Idol at Halle" will be
issued if a public answer be not received.
The wholesome respect in which Luther's pen was
held is shown by the complete submission of the fright
ened ecclesiastic. At the end of three weeks he wrote
the irate monk an apologetic letter full of expressions
of personal humility, assuring him that the traffic had
been already stopped and promising to do nothing un
becoming a pious clergyman and Christian prince. His
surrender led the reformer to suppress the book against
him, and it was ultimately published only in a revised
form and under another title as a general attack upon
pope and bishops.
Far and away the most important fruit of Luther's
stay at the Wartburg was his translation of the New
Testament, begun at Melanchthon's solicitation in De
cember, and completed in less than three months.
After a careful revision it was hurried through the

222 MARTIN LUTHER
press, and in September appeared in its first edition in
a large folio volume embellished with many woodcuts.
It was soon followed by a translation of successive
books of the Old Testament, until, in 1534, the whole
Bible was issued together. Even then Luther did not
stop, but went on revising and improving until his
death, and no fewer than ten editions of the complete
work were published during his lifetime.
He was not the first to put the Scriptures into the
German language. Vernacular translations were very
common and had a wide circulation among the people.
During the previous half -century, eighteen German
editions of the whole Bible had been published, and
some of Luther's own acquaintances were engaged in
the task of translating before he began. Writing in
December to his friend Lang, who had recently issued
a German version of the Gospel of Matthew, he urged
him to go on with the work, expressing the wish that
every town might have its own translator, and thus the
Bible be better understood by the people.
That he had many predecessors diminishes in no de
gree the importance of Luther's work. Though his
was not the first German Bible, it soon won its way to
general favor and crowded all others out of use.
The contrast with the earlier versions was very
great. They were based on the Latin Vulgate, the
official Bible of the Catholic Church, and smacked
largely of their source. Written in a curious Latinized
German, most of them were unattractive and some
times almost unintelligible. Luther translated his New
Testament direct from the Greek, and his Old Testa
ment from the Hebrew. Besides getting nearer to the
original, he was thus able to avoid the deleterious influ
ence of the Latin, and produce a translation genuinely
German in style and spirit.

AT THE WARTBURG 223
His qualifications for the work were many. Though
not one of the great philologists of the day, he had
an excellent knowledge of both Hebrew and Greek,
and a very unusual faculty, quite out of proportion
to his grammatical attainments, for getting at the
meaning of an author and divining the sense of obscure
and difficult passages. After his return from the
Wartburg he also had the constant assistance of Me
lanchthon and other eminent linguists of Wittenberg.
His long and intimate acquaintance with the Bible
likewise stood him in good stead. Ever since his
Erfurt days he had been a diligent student of it and
had fairly saturated himself with its spirit and con
tents. His profound religious experience gave him a
sympathy with it he could have gained in no other way.
He found his own innermost feelings expressed in it,
and his translation of many a passage was as truly the
free and spontaneous expression of his own heart as
the reproduction of the words of another. He doubt
less had this in mind when he wrote : "Translating is
not everybody's gift. It demands a genuinely pious,
true, industrious, reverent, Christian, learned, expe
rienced, and practised heart. Therefore I hold that no
false Christian or sectary can translate correctly, as
appears, for instance, in the Worms edition of the
prophets. Great labor was employed in its preparation,
and my German was closely imitated; but the trans
lators were Jews, with little loyalty to Christ, and so
their art and industry were vain."
His intimate contact in the confessional with the re
ligious emotions, aspirations, and weaknesses of his
fellows had also thrown light upon his own experiences
and sharpened his insight into the hearts of men. He
had a profound knowledge of human nature, as his
letters, sermons, and tracts abundantly show, and it

224 MARTIN LUTHER
enabled him to understand as few have understood the
most widely and variously human of all the world's
books. Most important of all was his extraordinary ac
quaintance with the German language. It is not often
a writer of the first rank gives himself to the trans
lation of another's work. Such a writer Luther was,
and his version remains one of the great classics of the
world. He had a command of idiomatic, racy, col
loquial German seldom equaled and never surpassed,
and he undertook to make the Bible really a German
book. In a tract on the subject of translating, defending
his work against the strictures of his enemies, he re
marked, "I have tried to talk German, not Latin and
Greek" ; and again, "You must not get your German
from the Latin, as these asses do, but you must get
it from the mother in the home, the child in the street,
the common man in the market-place." The difficulties
of the task he indicated in the words, "In translating
I have always made the effort to write pure and clear
German; and it has often happened that we have
sought a fortnight or even three and four weeks for a
single word, and then sometimes not found it." Writ
ing to a friend in March, 1522, he said: "I also have
undertaken to translate the Bible. It is good for me,
for otherwise I might have died with the fond per
suasion that I was learned." To Wenceslaus Link he
wrote : "How great and laborious a task it is to force
Hebrew writers to talk German! How they strive
against it and rebel at being compelled to forsake their
native manner and follow the rough German style ! It
is just as if a nightingale were made to give up its own
sweet melody and imitate the song of the cuckoo,
though disliking it extremely." And to Spalatin : "Job

AT THE WARTBURG 225
seems to endure our translating as little as the consola
tions of his friends."
Luther did not try to transport his readers back into
Bible days, but to bring the Bible down to their own
day. It was not a scholar's book he aimed to produce,
done so literally that it might be retranslated into the
original languages, but a people's book, so idiomatic
and modern that its readers might forget it was written
in a foreign tongue, in a distant land, and in an age
long past. He therefore allowed himself many lib
erties with the text, to the great scandal of his critics,
often substituting the name of a more for a less famil
iar object, and adding words freely where needed to
bring out the sense, as he understood it, or to make the
scene vivid and real. The result of his efforts was a
Bible translation which, after the lapse of four cen
turies, still stands unapproached in its vital and com
pelling power.
Luther himself was not unaware of the merits of his
work. Speaking of it on one occasion he remarked:
"I do not want to boast — the work speaks for itself —
but it is so good and precious that it is better than all
the Greek and Latin versions, and you will find more in
it than in all the commentaries, for we have cleared the
stumps and stones out of the way that others may read
in it without hindrance." But he underestimated its
lasting popularity: "When I die every schoolmaster,
every teacher, every parish clerk will want to make a
translation of his own. Our version will no longer be
used. All our books will be thrown away, Bible and
postil as well. For the world must have something
new." The German employed by him was not his own
creation, but it owed him much. The dialects of the
day were many and various, so that people living only

226 MARTIN LUTHER
a few score miles apart, as he once remarked, could
scarcely understand each other. But a common diplo
matic language had already developed, and become the
medium of official communication between all the prin
cipalities of the land. This he made the basis of his
written German. "I use no special dialect of my own,"
he once said, "but the common Germari language, that
I may be understood by all alike. I use the speech of
the Saxon chancery, which is followed by all the
princes and kings of Germany."
Formal, stilted, and clumsy enough it was as em
ployed in the state documents of the day, but he
greatly modified and enriched it, making it more
flexible and colloquial, and enlarging its vocabulary
from the language of the people,, spoken and written.
He had a wide knowledge of current literature, devo
tional and otherwise, and an enormous fund of popu
lar saws and proverbs, and his style, as a rule, was not
only simple and clear, but wonderfully vivid and pic
turesque. It was no exaggeration when a contempo
rary declared, "Dr. Martin is a real German Cicero.
He has not only taught us the true religion, but has
reformed the German tongue, and there is no writer
on earth who equals him in it." His writings did
much to promote the spread of the German he used
and to give the whole country a common language.
He was not the only agent in promoting this develop
ment, but he did more than any other single man, and
above all books his German Bible contributed most.
Even more than the oneness of language promoted
by it was the unity of sentiment to which it contributed.
Divided the land was still, and torn for many a day
with conflicts more bitter than it had ever known, but
the Luther Bible went on generation by generation
nourishing similar ideals and serving as few other

AT THE WARTBURG 227
agencies to unify the spirit of the German-speaking
race. Thus the reformer's enforced retirement bore rich
fruit. Set aside from his active work as leader of the
Reformation, he employed the quiet weeks of winter
solitude in the lonely castle in a stupendous task, which,
had he done nothing else, would alone have won for
him the lasting gratitude of his native land.

CHAPTER XVI
THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM
WHILE Luther was in retirement at the Wart
burg, events were moving rapidly in Witten
berg. Left to themselves, some of his associates and
followers proceeded to put his principles into imme
diate practice and to break with traditional custom at
many points. Hitherto, despite the radicalism of his
utterances, the externals of the old system had re
mained untouched. But this state of things could not
continue permanently. His doctrine of salvation by
faith alone, making all efforts vain to win the divine
favor by acts of special merit, his principle of Chris
tian liberty, releasing believers from dependence on
hierarchy and sacraments, and his denial that pope or
council or any other ecclesiastical authorities had the
right to lay upon Christians obligations not required in
the word of God — all these could not fail to bear fruit
in action.
The first break came in connection with the celibacy
of the clergy, from time immemorial a rock of offense
to would-be reformers. In the spring of 1521, certain
priests among Luther's following ventured to marry,
and in the summer his colleague Carlstadt published
a book attacking not only clerical celibacy, but also
monastic vows. Luther himself believed priests had
the right to marry, if they chose, on the theory that
celibacy was unjustly required of them by a tyrannical
church; but he regarded monasticism in a different
228

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 229
light. He remembered the solemnity of his own vow,
taken freely and without compulsion, and though he
had for some time looked with disfavor upon the
monastic life, a voluntary promise, he felt, ought to be
kept, be the consequences what they might.
But when led by the situation in Wittenberg to ex
amine the matter more carefully, he soon came to the
^conclusion that monks were as free to marry as priests.
The monastic vow, he decided, was itself wrong, and
therefore not binding. It meant dependence upon
works for salvation, neglect of the service of one's
fellows, and permanent bondage to a law, thus vio
lating Christian faith, love, and liberty. His con
demnation of monasticism was undoubtedly far too
sweeping, and his estimate of it unjust to many a
devout and noble soul; but he was consistent in pro
nouncing the institution, with its irrevocable vows,
fundamentally at variance with his gospel of Christian
freedom, and its common emphasis out of line with
his interpretation of the Christian life.
He defended his position in two series of theses, and
a little later, when a number of monks left the Witten
berg convent and renounced monasticism, he wrote an
elaborate work justifying their course and fortifying
their consciences. The book was preceded by an inter
esting letter of dedication, addressed to his father,
explaining and apologizing for his entrance into the
monastery. He had taken the vow against his father's
will, and hence, as he now confessed, in violation of
his duty to God.
"And so," he exclaimed, "will you even now drag
me out of monasticism? But that you may not boast,
the Lord has anticipated you and has dragged me out
Himself. For what difference does it make whether I
wear cowl and tonsure, or lay them off? Do tonsure

230 MARTIN LUTHER
and hood make the monk? 'All is yours,' says Paul ;
'but ye are Christ's.' And shall I belong to the hood,
and not rather the hood to me? My conscience has
become free, and that is the most complete freedom.
Therefore I am a monk, and yet not a monk; a new
creature, not the pope's, but Christ's."
Meanwhile, at the instance of Carlstadt and other
radicals, among whom Gabriel Zwilling, an eloquent
and fiery inmate of the Augustinian convent, was the
most extreme and influential of all, there speedily fol
lowed many innovations in the religious services at
Wittenberg. While in themselves of no great impor
tance, they were attended in many cases with uproar
and riot and outraged the feelings of the more sober
and conservative spirits in the town. Ominous they
were, too, because largely identical with 'changes made
in Bohemia under Hussite influence, thus seeming to
presage the same revolution and bloodshed as had
devastated that kingdom.
Early in December, while the movement was still in
its incipiency, the exiled Luther made a hurried and
secret visit to Wittenberg to see what was going on.
He found the situation less serious than he had feared,
writing Spalatin, "Everything I see and hear greatly
pleases me. May the Lord strengthen those who wish
us well." The students, he saw, were chiefly respon
sible for the riots, and he regarded all the troubles as
largely the result of a temporary excitement which
would soon spend itself.
But he thought it worth while, as he informed Spala
tin, because of the many reports of the wide-spread
roughness of his followers, to write a vigorous tract
upon his return to the Wartburg, warning them against
uproar and violence. All changes in the existing system,
he insisted, must be made in an orderly fashion and by

From an old print

POPE HADRIAN VI

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 231
the civil authorities, not by private individuals. Up
roar, he maintained, is always bad, and out of evil
only evil comes. The devil was trying to discredit the
new movement by inciting its adherents to such con
duct. As for himself, Luther declared, he would sup
port the side attacked, however bad it might be, rather
than those who attacked it, however good their cause.
Only with the word was the work of reformation to
be accomplished. As the evils of the old system were
exposed, they would disappear of themselves. "Pay
no more money," he exclaimed, "for bulls, candles,
bells, pictures, churches, but declare that the Christian
life consists in faith and love, and keep doing it for
two years, and you will see what happens to pope,
bishop, cardinal, priest, monk, nun, bells, steeples,
masses, vigils, cowl, cap, shaven poll, rules, statutes,
and the whole swarm and rabble of the pope's govern
ment. They will vanish like smoke."
Late in December there appeared in Wittenberg cer
tain fanatical spirits who claimed supernatural illumi
nation, and upon the basis of what they thought divine
inspiration preached the complete overturning of the
existing system, religious, economic, and social. They
came from the Saxon town of Zwickau, some eighty
miles south of Wittenberg, not far from the Bohemian
border. Probably under the influence of similar move
ments in Bohemia, Zwickau early became the center of
a prophetic demonstration which spread widely and
gained many adherents, especially among the lower
classes. All social distinctions were decried, manual
labor was insisted on as alone legitimate, education
was denounced, and divine revelation, vouchsafed
chiefly to the ignorant and untutored, was looked to as
the sole guide of life. In Wittenberg even Melanch
thon was deeply impressed by the newcomers, while

232 MARTIN LUTHER
Carlstadt and others were completely carried away,
and proceeded to put their principles into immediate
practice, to the great scandal of many in town and
university. The town authorities had approved, more or less
hesitantly, a number of the innovations urged by Carl
stadt, but had not thereby succeeded in satisfying the
most extreme radicals, and things were gradually get
ting beyond their control. Wittenberg was gaining
a very bad name, and the university was losing many
of its best and most sober-minded students. The theo
logical faculty, to which Frederick turned for counsel,
was all at sea. The innovators had much to say for
themselves. Carlstadt was a prominent professor, and
most of the radical leaders were men of devotion and
exemplary piety. They appealed to the authority of
the Scriptures or to the immediate illumination of the
Spirit, and it was difficult to show them wrong. It was
also dangerous, so many felt, including the pious elec
tor himself, to resist what might be the will of God.
When Luther learned what was going on, with his
usual good sense he wrote his colleague Amsdorf early
in January :
Do not be too easily moved by the Zwickau prophets.
The thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy and the fifth of
First John make it certain that you sin not if you put
them off, and first prove their spirits whether they be of
God. In the meantime, the Lord will show what is to be
done. It seems to me at first sight strong cause for sus
picion that they pretend to revelations from on high.
And to Melanchthon :
So far as the prophets are concerned I do not approve
your timidity, for you are greater than I in spirit as well
as in learning. First of all, when they bear testimony to

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 233
themselves they are not immediately to be listened to, but
are to be tested according to the advice of John. And if
you are not able to prove them you have the counsel of
Gamaliel to wait and see. For I have as yet heard of
nothing said or done by them which Satan cannot do or
imitate. Inquire for me whether they can show their
credentials. For God never sends any one, not even his
own Son, without giving him a commission through men,
or approving him by visible signs. The prophets of old
had their authority from prophetic law and order as we
have ours through men. I will never acknowledge them
if they claim to have been called by a mere revelation.
In February, learning of the perplexity and anxiety
of the elector over the growing difficulties, he wrote
him as follows :
For many years your Electoral Grace has been col
lecting sacred relics in every land. Now God has heard
your wish and has sent you without cost or labor a whole
cross with nails, spears, and scourges. I congratulate you
on your new relics. Do not be frightened. Stretch out
your arms trustfully. Let the nails pierce deep, and be
thankful and glad. It must be thus with those who would
follow God's word. Not only do Annas and Caiaphas
rage, but Judas is among the apostles, and Satan among
the children of God. May your Grace only be prudent
and wise, and judge not according to the appearance of
things. Be not faint-hearted. The matter has not yet
reached the pass the devil desires. Though I am a fool,
believe me a little. I understand such attacks of Satan.
Therefore, I do not fear him, to his great sorrow. It is
only the beginning. Let the world cry out and condemn.
Let fall who may, even St. Peter and the apostles ! They
will come back on the third day, when Christ rises again.
Through one of his officials, the elector immediately
replied, asking what Luther thought he ought to do

234 MARTIN LUTHER
in the circumstances, for he did not wish to attempt
anything against the will of God and His holy word ;
but things were in the greatest confusion in Witten
berg, and nobody knew who was cook and who waiter.
In the same connection he protested strongly against
Luther's returning to Wittenberg, as the latter pur
posed to do. Much as he would hate to deliver him
over to the emperor, if he appeared openly in Witten
berg, while still under the ban of the empire, he could
not possibly refuse to do so without bringing serious
evils upon his land and people.
Despite his protest, the reformer, who had in the
meantime been urgently requested by the town coun
cil to return home, started for Wittenberg the day
after receiving the elector's communication. On the
way he replied to it in the following fashion :

Your Electoral Grace knows, or, if you do not, I now
inform you, that I received the gospel not from men, but
from Heaven alone, through our Lord Jesus Christ, so
that I might boast and subscribe myself, as I henceforth
will, a servant and evangelist. That I offered to be heard
and judged was not because I was in doubt, but from
over-humility, to win others. But now, perceiving that
my humility will result in bringing contempt upon the
gospel, and the devil will take possession of the whole
place if I give him even a hand's breadth, I am compelled
by my conscience to act otherwise. I have done enough
for your Electoral Grace in yielding to you this year.
For the devil knows very well that I have not done it out
of fear. Looking into my heart, he saw clearly, when I
went to Worms, that had I known as many devils would
set upon me as there are tiles on the roofs I would
have sprung into the midst of them with joy. ... I
write thus that you may know I come to Wittenberg
under the protection of a far higher power than the elec
tor, and I have no mind to seek shelter from your Grace.

From an old print

THOMAS MUNZER

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 235
Indeed, I believe I can protect your Grace better than
you can protect me. If I thought you could and would
protect me, I would not come. No sword can help in
this affair. God must act alone without man's care or aid.
Therefore who believes most will be of most protection
here. And since I suspect your Electoral Grace is still
weak in faith, I can by no means regard you as the
man who can guard or rescue me. Since your Grace
desires to know what to do in this affair and fancies
you have done too little, I answer respectfully that you
have already done altogether too much, and should do
nothing. For God will not and cannot endure either your
care and effort or mine. He wishes it left to Him and to
no one else. May your Grace act accordingly. If your
Grace believes this, you will be secure and will have
peace. If you do not, I do, and I must leave you to
sorrow in your unbelief, as it becomes all unbelievers to
suffer. Since I will not obey your Grace, you are excused
in the sight of God if I am imprisoned or killed. Before
men your Grace should conduct yourself as follows : as an
elector you should be obedient to the higher powers and
permit his Imperial Majesty to rule body and goods in
your cities and lands in accordance with the law of the
empire, and you should offer no opposition and interpose
no hindrance if he tries to arrest or slay me. For no one
ought to withstand the authorities save he who has ap
pointed them. Else is it uproar and against God. I hope,
however, they will have the good sense to recognize that
your Grace was born in too lofty a cradle to be yourself
my executioner. If you leave the door open and see that
they are unmolested if they come themselves, or send
their messengers to fetch me, you will have been obedient
enough. They cannot demand more of your Electoral
Grace than to know whether Luther be with you, and that
they can learn without anxiety, trouble, or personal dan
ger to your Grace. For Christ has not taught me to harm
others by being a Christian. But should they be so lack
ing in intelligence as to ask your Electoral Grace to lay
hands on me yourself, I will then tell your Grace what to

236 MARTIN LUTHER
do. I will keep your Grace safe from harm and danger
to body, goods, and soul on my account, whether your
Grace believes it or not. Herewith I commend your Elec
toral Grace to the grace of God. If necessary, we will
very soon talk further. I have written this letter in haste
that your Electoral Grace may not be distressed by the
news of my arrival, for I must comfort everybody and
harm nobody, if I would be a true Christian. It is an
other man than Duke George with whom I have to do.
He knows me well, and I know him not ill. If your Elec
toral Grace believed, you would see the glory of God;
but since you do not yet believe, you have as yet seen
nothing. To God be love and honor forever. Amen !
The elector was obliged to content himself with a
letter, written by Luther at his request, explaining the
reasons for the return to Wittenberg and relieving
Frederick from all responsibility. This he wished to
show his fellow-princes in case he was blamed for his
disregard of the Worms decree in allowing the con
demned monk to go on with his work in Wittenberg.
While desiring to protect Luther, he preferred to pose
as incompetent rather than to avow his sympathy
openly. But however he might veil his attitude, the
important fact is that he continued to protect him.
Eloquent testimony it was to his confidence in his
heretical professor. Annoyed though he must have
been at Luther's defiant return, he permitted him to
resume his work and take up his old position in church
and university as if nothing had happened. He could
easily have stopped him by putting him under arrest.
An outlaw, as the reformer was, and under the ban
of the empire, it was only by the elector's grace he
remained free at all. Had his prince's favor been
withdrawn, his career would speedily have come to an
end. But it was never withdrawn, and despite papal

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 237
bull and imperial ban the bold monk went on unmo
lested. Returning from the Wartburg, Luther stopped over
night in the Black Bear inn at Jena, where he was*seen
by two Swiss students on their way to Wittenberg to
study theology. The following account of the scene,
given by one of them, John Kessler, in a book on the
Reformation, throws an attractive light on Luther's
kindliness and affability :
In the inn we found a man alone at table with a book
before him. He greeted us cordially and invited us to
come and sit with him, for as our shoes were very muddy
we were ashamed to enter the room and had set ourselves
down on a bench by the door. He urged us to drink so
that we could not refuse him. When we perceived his
friendliness and amiability, we took seats at his table, as
he had invited us to, and ordered a measure of wine that
we might ask him to drink in return. We had no other
idea than that he was a knight, for according to the cus
tom of the country he wore a red cap, with hose and
doublet, and had a sword at his side which he held by
the hilt with his right hand while his left clasped the
book. Soon he asked where we came from, but after answer
ing his own question— "You are Swiss" — he continued,
"What part of Switzerland do you live in ?"
We told him St. Gall. He went on, "If you are bound,
as I understand, for Wittenberg, you will find some good
countrymen there, Dr. Jerome Schurf and his brother
Augustine." We said we had letters to them. Then we asked him,
"Do you know, sir, whether Martin Luther is now at
Wittenberg, or where he is ?"
"I have trustworthy information," he replied, "that he
is not there at present, but will be soon. Philip Melanch
thon, however, is there. He teaches Greek and there are

238 MARTIN LUTHER
others who teach Hebrew." He then advised us earnestly
to study both languages, for they were especially neces
sary to an understanding of the Holy Scriptures.
'"IJiank God," we said, "for we are determined, if our
lives are spared, to see and hear Luther. For we under
took this journey on his account, having been told that
he wishes to destroy the priesthood together with the
mass as a groundless superstition. As our parents brought
us up from boyhood to be priests, we want to know what
sort of instruction he will give us and by what right he
proposes to do such things." . . .
Again he asked us, "What do they think of Luther in
Switzerland ?"
"There are many opinions, sir," we replied, "as every
where else. Some cannot praise him enough and thank
God truth has been revealed and error exposed through
him. But some damn him as an intolerable heretic, par
ticularly the clergy."
"I can well imagine," he remarked, "it is the clergy."
Conversing thus with us, he was so friendly that my
companion picked up the book lying before him and
examined it. As it proved to be a Hebrew Psalter he
laid it down again, and we began to wonder who the man
might be. . . .
After a little while the landlord called me to the door.
I was alarmed, thinking I had done something amiss.
But he said, "I perceive you would really like to see and
hear Luther ; it is he who is sitting by you."
I took it as a joke and said, "Oh, come, Mr. Landlord,
you wish to play the fool with me and satisfy my curi
osity with Luther's phantom."
He replied, "It is certainly he, but do not act as if you
recognized him."
Though I did not believe him, I let him have his way,
and, returning to the room, told my companion what he
had said. He too could not credit it and thought the
landlord had perhaps said, "Hutten." As the knight's cos
tume and bearing seemed more like Hutten than the monk

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 239
Luther, I let myself be persuaded, for the two names
sound somewhat alike. I therefore talked the rest of
the time as if he were Sir Ulrich von Hutten, knight.
Meantime two merchants came in to spend the night,
and after taking off their wraps one of them laid an
unbound book on the table. When Martin asked what
book it was he answered, "It is Dr. Luther's interpreta
tion of some of the Gospels and Epistles, which has just
been printed. Have you not seen it ?"
"I shall soon," Martin replied.
Then the landlord called us to supper, and when we
asked him to let us have something by ourselves he re
plied, "Sit down with the gentlemen; I will treat you
well." When Martin heard it he said, "Come on, I will
pay for the supper." While we were eating together he
uttered many pious and gracious words, so that the two
merchants as well as we were more interested in what he
said than in what we ate. Among other things he com
plained, with a sigh, of the princes and lords who were
then assembled at the Diet of Nuremberg on account of
the religious difficulty and the burdens of Germany, but
were disposed to do nothing but waste valuable time with
costly tournaments, sleigh-riding, debauchery, pomp, and
unchastity, when piety and earnest prayer to God were
most needed. "But such are our Christian princes !" He
also expressed the hope that evangelical truth would bear
more fruit in our children and descendants, who were not
poisoned by the papacy but nourished by the pure word
of God, than in their parents, in whom error was so firmly
planted it could not be easily rooted out. . . .
After supper the merchants went out to the stable to
look after their horses, while Martin remained with us
in the room. We thanked him for the honor he had done
us and for his kindness in paying for the meal, letting
him see we thought he was Ulrich von Hutten. He de
clared, however, that he was not, and when the landlord
appeared he said to him, "I have become a nobleman to
night, for these Swiss imagine I am Ulrich von Hutten."

240 MARTIN LUTHER
The landlord replied, "You are not he, but Martin
Luther." He laughed merrily, exclaiming, "They take me for
Hutten and you take me for Luther; I shall soon be
Marcolfus." Then taking up a large mug of beer, according to the
custom of the country, he said, "Swiss, let us have one
more friendly drink for health's sake."
When I was about to take the mug from him he
changed it and ordered wine, remarking, "The beer is
new to you; drink the wine." Then he stood up, threw
his cloak over his shoulder and bade us good-night, offer
ing his hand and adding, "When you reach Wittenberg
give my regards to Dr. Jerome Schurf." We replied we
should gladly do so if he would tell us what name to say.
He answered, "Say only he who is to come sends
greetings." . . .
The Saturday following we called on Dr. Jerome
Schurf to present our letters of introduction. When we
entered the room we found Martin, looking just as he
had at Jena, and with him Philip Melanchthon, Justus
Jonas, Nicholas Amsdorf, and Dr. Augustine Schurf, who
were telling him what had happened at Wittenberg during
his absence. He greeted us with a laugh ; and, pointing
at one of them, said, "This is the Philip Melanchthon of
whom I told you."
Elsewhere in the same work on the Reformation the
Swiss describes Luther's personal appearance in the
following words :
When I saw Martin in 1522, in his forty-first year,
he was moderately fleshy, so upright in carriage that he
bent backward rather than forward, with face raised
toward heaven, and with deep brown-black eyes, flashing
and sparkling like a star, so that you could not easily bear
their gaze. ... By nature he was a friendly and affable
man, but n<jt given to fleshly lust or unseemly pleasures,

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 241
while his earnestness was so mingled with joy and kind
liness that it was a pleasure to live with him.
Arrived in Wittenberg on March 6, 1 522, Luther at
once took command, and speedily brought order out
of chaos. Never was the power of the man more
strikingly exhibited than at this critical juncture of
his career. Hitherto he had been a radical iconoclast,
striking right and left at existing principles and prac
tices. Now he gave himself to the much more difficult
task of controlling and moderating the forces he him
self had set in motion. In a time of wide-spread
discontent it is comparatively easy to inflame the
smoldering passions of men and lead the populace in a
more or less unreasoning assault upon existing institu
tions; but to control the tremendous forces thus let
loose, and so to guide them that they do not merely
spend themselves in impotent fury, but lend their
strength to the building of a new and stable structure,
is another matter altogether. And yet we should en
tirely misunderstand Luther if we imagined that at
this great crisis of his career he turned his back upon
his past and became another man. It is most illu
minating to see how calmly and confidently he met the
situation now confronting him. Though the radicals,
as he declared, were doing his cause more harm than
all his papal opponents, he was not dismayed or thrown
off his balance. Nor did he repudiate the principles
hitherto governing him, and seek refuge in other and
safer ways. Moving straight ahead in the path he
had long been traveling, he simply applied to the new
situation the same gospel that had made him an icono
clast, showing how, by its very nature, it conserved as
well as destroyed.
Beginning on the Sunday after his return, he
16

242 MARTIN LUTHER
preached in the city church on eight successive days,
handling one question after another frankly, vigor
ously, and with the greatest common sense. Violence
of every kind he strenuously opposed. By the word
alone can superstition be overcome and the old system
reformed. In one of the sermons he remarked :
Take me as an example. I only preached and wrote
God's word and did nothing else. But this accomplished
so much that while I slept and while I drank Wittenberg
beer with Philip and Amsdorf, the papacy grew weaker
and suffered more damage than any prince or emperor
ever inflicted. I did nothing ; the word did it all. If I had
wished to make trouble, I could have plunged Germany
into a sea of blood. Yes, I could have started such a
game at Worms that the emperor himself would have
been unsafe. But what would that have been ? A fool's
game. He did not stop with the denunciation of physical
violence. Christian liberty, he reminded his followers,
as he had clearly shown nearly two years before in his
beautiful tract on the freedom of a Christian man, was
not an end in itself, but only a means to a higher end
— the service of one's fellows in self-forgetful love.
Faith, he insisted, is nothing unless followed by love,
and not our own rights, but our brother's good, should
be always foremost in our thoughts. He acknowledged
frankly his dislike for many of the ceremonies and
customs of the past. Too often they had no warrant
in Scripture, and served only to bind the conscience
and obscure the gospel. At the same time he declared
the Christian life consists neither in refraining from
nor engaging in external religious practices, but in
faith and love. Far better to retain indifferent things
than to offend weak consciences and imperil the sue-

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 243
cess of the cause by forcibly setting them aside. He
had now, as always, a splendid disregard of externals
and a magnificent insight into the real essentials. Mere
uniformity he cared nothing about. Because the mo
nastic life, or private confession, or fasting, was good
for one person was no reason to require it of all. Let
those who found such things helpful, as he himself
continued to find the confessional helpful, employ
them freely ; but let them not insist upon others doing
the same. He believed when the gospel was every
where accepted and understood, all things inconsistent
therewith would fall of themselves. In the meantime
he would have liberty for the old as well as for the
new. But in the meantime, too, he would do all he
could to instruct Christians in the truly important
things, and thus wean them as rapidly as possible from
trust in the formal and external.
Before Luther finished his sermons, the lawyer
Jerome Schurf wrote the elector :
Dr. Martin's coming and preaching have given both
learned and unlearned among us great joy and gladness.
For we poor men who had been vexed and led astray
have again been shown by him, with God's help, the way
of truth. Daily he incontrovertibly exposes the errors
into which we were miserably led by the preachers from
abroad. It is evident that the Spirit of God is in him
and works through him, and I am convinced he has re
turned to Wittenberg at this time by the special provi
dence of the Almighty.
Under Luther's direction many of the changes in the
worship of the city church made during his absence
were abandoned, and the old forms for the most part
restored. Calm was reestablished, and the town again
speedily resumed its normal aspect. Early in May he

244 MARTIN LUTHER
could write Spalatin, with great relief, "Here there is
nothing but love and friendship."
More important than the return to the old order
was the public stand Luther now took against social
and economic revolution, and his emphatic denial that
his gospel meant the violent overthrow of the existing
religious system. The consequence was a great re
vulsion of feeling toward him on the part of many of
the princes of Germany. They saw that he was less
radical than they had supposed; that he stood for
order, not anarchy; and that he was able to control
the seething masses as nobody else could. When at the
Diet of Nuremberg, in the autumn of 1522, the at
tempt was made by the representatives of the devout
and pious Pope Adrian VI, successor of Leo X, to in
duce the German rulers to take steps for the more
vigorous enforcement of the Edict of Worms, the
majority refused to give their consent. Though the
edict had been adopted only a year and a half before,
the situation was so changed that they now declined to
reaffirm it, and left it to the conscience of each prince
to execute it as far as he pleased, while they appealed
to a general council for the final settlement of the
matter. Thus the whole question, already decided both
by pope and diet, was again thrown open, and a quasi
and temporary license given to the new movement.
In the meantime its organization was proceeding
steadily. Town after town took the management of
religious affairs into its own hands and adopted new
forms better fitted to the principles of the Reformation.
Luther was continually appealed to for counsel, and
his help was sought in securing preachers of the right
stamp to take the place of those out of sympathy with
the new order of things. He was becoming more and
more the bishop, or general overseer, of the churches

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 245
accepting the Reformation, and all sorts of adminis
trative problems were constantly upon his mind. His
correspondence during 1522 and the following years
had to do increasingly with such matters. He also
traveled widely, visiting places in need of advice and
bringing his wisdom to bear upon the many difficult
questions that were emerging month by month.
The constant temptation, as in Wittenberg, was to
go too fast, and he was obliged often to remonstrate
with the authorities and urge upon them the considera
tions governing his own conduct. But as time passed
and the influence of his principles spread, he approved
both for Wittenberg and elsewhere more radical
changes than at first. In 1523 we hear him fre
quently declaring that the prejudices of the weak had
been long enough regarded, and the time had come to
do away with many of the more obnoxious forms and
customs of the past. Even now he was surprisingly
conservative. Many of his followers wished to cast
aside everything not sustained by direct warrant of
Scripture ; but he took the position, and maintained it
to the end of his life, that the old was to be left un
molested whenever it did not contradict or obscure the
gospel of Christ. He also continued to oppose hasty
and violent innovations of every kind. Usually his
advice was followed, but occasionally, particularly in
places at a distance from Wittenberg, he was unable to
control the more radical spirits and had to witness
changes he "greatly disliked. He did not hesitate in
such cases to express himself with the same sharpness
as against his papal opponents. Carlstadt, who
left Wittenberg in disgust in 1523, and Thomas Miin-
zer, a clergyman of Zwickau and the principal leader
of the fanatical prophets of that neighborhood, made
him most trouble. They denounced him as a tyrant,

246 MARTIN LUTHER
declared him recreant to his own principles and untrue
to the word of God, and strove in every way to under
mine his influence and force a radical reform.
In Orlamunde, a little town not far from Zwickau,
he had a humiliating, if somewhat amusing, experi
ence in the autumn of 1 524. Carlstadt was for a time
pastor there, and gained a large following. Under his
influence, images were destroyed, convents forcibly
closed, and one after another of the old customs arbi
trarily set aside. In the course of a tour of visitation,
Luther appeared upon the scene, and in an extended
interview with the authorities of the town tried to
convince them of the error of their ways. They de
fended themselves warmly, insisting they were truer
to the word of God than he. If to be true to it means
to follow it slavishly in all its parts, they were cer
tainly right. But in contrast with their narrow liter
alism, Luther's moderation and common sense appear
to great advantage. He would not allow himself to be
carried to fanatical extremes even by his own principle
of loyalty to the Bible. In the course of the discus
sion, a shoemaker justified the destruction of images
by a Scriptural argument so picturesque and far
fetched that Luther was nearly overcome with laugh
ter and was quite unable to answer. As a matter of
fact, he produced no impression upon his interlocutors,
and only confirmed them in the opinion that he was
inconsistent and half-hearted in the work of reforma
tion. He wrote afterward : "I was glad enough not to
be driven out of Orlamunde with stones and mud, for
some of them blessed me with the words, 'Get out, in
the name of a thousand devils, and break your neck
before you leave !' "
Meanwhile there occurred an event which served
only to confirm Luther in his attitude toward violence.

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 247
and anarchy. Franz von Sickingen, whose offers of
support had meant a great deal to him not long before,
and to whom he had dedicated a book on the confes
sional, written in the early days of his stay at the
Wartburg, began war in the summer of 1522 upon an
old enemy, the Elector and Archbishop of Treves.
The campaign was intended to be only the beginning
of a general struggle to curtail the power of the great
princes of the realm and restore to the nobles their
rapidly waning influence. Its controlling motive was
certainly political and economic, but Sickingen claimed
to be a champion of the Reformation, interested to pro
mote the true gospel, and announced his purpose to
revolutionize ecclesiastical and religious conditions.
He undoubtedly hoped thus to enlist the support of
Luther's sympathizers, but the hope proved vain. The
real significance of the affair was generally understood,
and the Archbishop of Treves was supported by the
Count Palatine and the young Landgrave Philip of
Hesse, both of them already favorably inclined toward
Luther and his cause.
Sickingen's campaign was a complete failure. He
was obliged to return to his stronghold, the Landstuhl,
where he was besieged in the spring of 1523, and
where he died of his wounds on the seventh of May,
just after the castle was taken by his enemies. His
defeat foreshadowed the speedy dissolution of the
knights' revolutionary party, and their influence in
German affairs was permanently broken.
Ulrich von Hutten, who had done much to encour
age the formation of the party, survived his old friend
and protector only a few months. He departed before
the beginning of Sickingen's last campaign, and in Au
gust, 1523, after wandering from place to place, died
in poverty at Zurich, befriended by the Swiss reformer

248 MARTIN LUTHER
Zwingli, but deserted by all his old friends. Melanch
thon spoke bitterly and contemptuously of him after
his death. Happily, so far as we are aware, Luther
did not follow his example, but we search his writings
in vain for an expression of regret at the death of his
erstwhile champion and confidant. The cause meant
so much to him that he found it difficult to think kindly
of any one who hindered or brought disrepute upon it,
as Hutten's incendiary writings and final loss of pres
tige had done.
It was well Sickingen's attempt miscarried. His
success would have meant at least a partial return to a
state of society already largely outgrown and quite
unsuited to the demands of the new age ; and had the
Reformation become identified with the class interests
of the nobles, it would have perished with them in the
fall that was bound to come ultimately, if not then.
Naturally, the affair was used by Luther's enemies
to discredit his whole movement. Now the rival em
peror was fallen, the anti-pope, it was confidently pre
dicted, would soon follow. There was some apparent
justification for this attitude. Luther's famous Ad
dress to the German Nobility, written in 1520, and his
occasional warlike declarations of the same year, which
still echoed in the dedication of his book on the con
fessional, had led many to identify his cause with that
of the nobles, and Sickingen's avowed plan to promote
the Reformation was taken to mean he had Luther's
support, and was fighting the reformer's battles as
well as his own.
Melanchthon complained of this as early as January,
1 523, denouncing Sickingen's campaign as a dishonor
able act of robbery and declaring that Luther was
greatly distressed by it. Luther himself had very little
to say on the subject. In a letter of December, 1522,
to his friend Link, he wrote: "Franz von Sickingen

THE CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM 249
has declared war against the Palatinate. It will be a
very bad affair." Beyond this casual remark we have
no reference to the matter in his writings ; but when a
rumor of Sickingen's death reached him, he wrote
Spalatin he hoped it was false. Upon its confirmation
a day or two later, he added : "The true and miserable
history of Franz Sickingen I heard and read yesterday.
God is a just but wonderful judge." Half a dozen
years later, in a letter to the Landgrave of Hesse he
classed the deceased knight with the hated Carlstadt
and Miinzer as an insurrectionist, including all three
in a common condemnation.
Despite the effort of his opponents to hold Luther
responsible for Sickingen's abortive attempt, its con
trolling motive was too apparent and too completely in
line with the warlike knight's entire career to furnish
an adequate ground for a serious attack upon the
reformer, and probably the affair lost him few friends
or supporters. On the other hand, it very likely af
fected his own attitude, serving to confirm his convic
tion that the preaching of the gospel is incompatible
with the use of physical force. He saw more clearly
than ever the undesirability and impossibility of pro
moting the Reformation by the sword. It may be, had
Sickingen been victorious, Luther would have seen
the hand of God in his victory, as he did in his defeat,
and would have been led to tolerate, if not actively to
favor, such warlike measures. His somewhat incon
sistent utterances seem to show that while feeling the
unchristian character of war and violence, he was yet
not sure it might not be God's will in the present junc
ture, as occasionally in the past, to put an end to
existing evils by the sword. But if he was really in
doubt, Sickingen's fate settled the question for him.
Thenceforth he insisted always on the use of peaceful
measures only.

CHAPTER XVII
THE PEASANTS* WAR
MUCH more disastrous in its effects upon the Ref
ormation was the Peasants' War. This greatest
tragedy of the age had been long preparing. Fre
quently during recent generations the unhappy condi
tion of the peasant class had led to more or less
serious outbreaks, but none of them compared in im
portance with the tremendous uprising of 1525. Lu
ther was not responsible for it, nor did it begin among
his disciples. It was only the repetition on a large
scale of many similar attempts, and the interests un
derlying all of them were not religious, as with him,
but economic. At the same time it was due in no small
part to him that this particular movement surpassed in
magnitude any seen in Germany before or since. His
attacks upon many features of the existing order, his
criticisms of the growing luxury of the wealthier
classes, his denunciations of the rapacity and greed of
great commercial magnates and of the tyranny and
corruption of rulers both civil and ecclesiastical, all
tended to inflame the populace and spread impatience
and discontent. His gospel of Christian liberty also
had its effect. For the spiritual freedom he taught,
multitudes substituted freedom from political oppres
sion, from social injustice, and from economic bur
dens. Then, too, the extraordinary response he had
met with, the confusion all Germany had been thrown
into by the Reformation, and the wide-spread weaken-
250

THE PEASANTS' WAR 251
ing of respect for traditional authority resulting there
from, made this seem a peculiarly favorable time for
the peasants to press their claims.
Early in 1525 a series of twelve brief articles was
published in southwestern Germany, containing a very
moderate statement of the demands of the peasants,
as, for instance, the privilege of electing their own
pastors, the abolition of villeinage, freedom to hunt
and fish and to supply themselves with fuel from the
forest, reduction of exorbitant rents, extra payment
for extra labor, and restoration to the community of
lands unjustly appropriated by private persons. With
such demands as these no one could justly find fault.
They involved social reform only, not revolution, and
looked for the most part simply to the more equitable
adjustment of existing conditions.
At first. there was apparently no thought of violence.
The peasants were a harmless and peaceable folk. But
here and there they gathered in large numbers to pre
sent their grievances and impress the rulers with the
magnitude of the movement. Unfortunately, instead
of listening sympathetically to their complaints, some
of the princes, fearing the effects of such demonstra
tions, treated the assembled peasants as insurrectionists
and dispersed them with the sword, maltreating and
killing them without mercy. Their harshness and
cruelty added fuel to the flames, and the inevitable re
sult was a rapid growth of revolutionary sentiment and
the spread of a desire for retaliation. The demands of
the peasants became more extreme and unreasonable,
and their peaceful intentions widely gave way to
thoughts of war. Fantastic and impossible notions of
a society wherein they should be in complete control
took possession of their minds. Communistic ideas
of a radical type gained currency, and the desire grew

252 MARTIN LUTHER
to overthrow the whole social structure and destroy
all inequalities in property, employment, and rank.
Thomas Miinzer and other fanatical religious leaders
threw themselves into the movement, and preached a
new social order in which there should be no rulers or
subjects, no rich or poor, no cities or commerce, no art
or science, but all should live in primitive simplicity
and equality. What was more, they summoned the
peasants and the proletariate of the cities to bring in
the new order by the sword. In fiery and impassioned
discourse they told the people it was God's will they
should everywhere kill and destroy without mercy
until all the mighty were laid low and the promised
kingdom of God established. Social and religious
ideals became inextricably mingled. Counting confi
dently upon supernatural aid, multitudes without dis
cipline or adequate military preparation threw them
selves blindly into a conflict for which, as the event
proved, they were wholly unequipped.
During all this time the peasants' attitude toward
Luther was very diverse. Miinzer and many other
radicals hated him, and could not say enough against
him; but there were also those who regarded him as
the great prophet of the new era of social justice and
economic well-being they were trying to usher in. His
was a name to conjure with, and they made the most
of it. They appealed to his gospel and quoted his
writings in support of their programs. They called
themselves his followers, and declared it their purpose
to put his principles into practice. And whatever was
true of the leaders, by the great mass of the peasants
themselves it was doubtless honestly believed that
Luther was with them, and that they could count on
his sympathy and support.
But they utterly mistook their man. For a while he

THE PEASANTS' WAR 253
paid no attention to the more or less spasmodic out
breaks in different parts of the country; but as they
began to grow serious, he came out in April, 1525, with
a brief tract entitled, "An Exhortation to Peace in
Response to the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peas
ants." Had he been a demagogue, he would have
catered to popular passion and spurred the excited
peasants on to war. Had he been a politician, he would
have kept still and refrained from taking sides until
he saw what the outcome was to be. But he was
neither the one nor the other, and he spoke his mind
in frankest fashion, sparing neither prince nor peasant.
Both sides, he declared, were alike in the wrong, and
with his usual vigor and fearlessness he called them
both sharply to account, the former for their tyranny
and oppression, the latter for their threats of violence.
He informed the princes they had God against them,
not merely the peasants, and if they did not cease ex
ploiting their subjects, they would suffer the divine
vengeance. On the other hand, he exhorted the peas
ants to present their grievances in an orderly way,
without uproar or show of force. Their complaints
might be well founded, but violence was not thereby
justified. Only the constituted authorities had the
right to use the sword, and he who attacked them on
any ground whatever was worse than those whom he
attacked. The doctrine of the divine right of civil
rulers, already stated more than once by Luther, here
again found emphatic expression.
It was still worse of the peasants, it seemed to him,
to seek justification for their conduct in the gospel of
Christ. If they wished to fight for their rights like
ordinary men, well and good, but he would not stand
by in silence while they used Christ's name in support
of their course and brought scandal upon the gospel.

254 MARTIN LUTHER
Christianity comports only with passive resistance. If
they really wished to follow Christ, they would drop
the sword and resort to prayer. The gospel has to do
with spiritual, not temporal, affairs. Even to condemn
slavery on Christian grounds is to turn spiritual free
dom into physical, and reduce the gospel to a fleshly
thing. Earthly society cannot exist without inequali
ties ; the true Christian finds his Christian liberty and
his opportunity for Christian service in the midst of
them and in spite of them. To this familiar* Pauline
point of view, discouraging every sort of social revolu
tion, unexpected as it might seem in the author of the
radical Address to the German Nobility published five
eventful years earlier, Luther thenceforth always re
mained true.
But he did not stop with this summary treatment of
the matter, dismissing the whole thing with a mere
exhortation to Christian resignation. Recognizing the
justice of many of the peasants' complaints, he went
on to propose the arbitration of their grievances. The
suggestion was eminently wise, but it showed how little
sympathy he had with social change or reconstruction.
At best, arbitration could do no more than promote
justice in the working of the existing system. It could
not effect its overthrow. Had Luther's advice been
followed, much bloodshed would have been avoided
and the more moderate demands of the peasants might
have had some chance of satisfaction. But it was
wholly disregarded. Whatever was true of the princes,
and some of them actually did show themselves ready
enough to redress the worst grievances, the peasants
were by this time too much inflamed and their leaders
far too radical to listen to such counsel. The depreda
tions committed by them have without doubt been
grossly exaggerated; but they were bad enough as it

THE PEASANTS' WAR 255
was, and consternation and alarm were spreading rap
idly among the middle and upper classes.
In the course of an extended tour through Thurin-
gia, when the excitement was at its height, Luther saw
many evidences of the riotous activities of the insur
rectionists, and outraged by what he witnessed, he
came out early in May with another and still more
powerful pamphlet "Against the Murderous and
Thieving Mobs of Peasants." In some quarters rulers
were in doubt as to their duty. Perplexed by their
subjects' appeal to the gospel and to the word of God
they were at a loss how to meet the situation. But
in Luther's mind there was no question. Consistently
with the principle frequently laid down and reiterated
in the previous tract, he denounced the mutinous
peasants in unsparing terms for their resort to arms.
More than three years before, in his protest against
uproar and violence, he had said he would support
those attacked, however bad they might be, rather than
the aggressors, however good their cause. Now he
suited his action to his words, and turned upon the
peasants with a fury all his own.
The pamphlet opened with the strong words :
In my previous book I did not judge the peasants, for
they offered to listen to instruction and yield to the right.
But before I could do anything, forgetting their offer,
they rushed forward and plunged into the affair with
clenched fists. They rob and rage and act like mad dogs.
It is easy enough to see now what they had in their false
minds. The proposals they made in the twelve articles
on the basis of the gospel were evidently nothing but lies.
And a little later :
Our peasants want to share the goods of others and
keep their own. Fine Christians they are! I doubt

256 MARTIN LUTHER
whether there are any devils left in hell, for they all
seem to have entered into the peasants, and passion has
gone beyond all bounds.
He called upon the rulers, to whom God had in
trusted the sword for the punishment of the wicked, to
put down the warring rebels with a stern hand. They
were public enemies, and, like mad dogs, were to be
killed without mercy. He even went so far in the
vehemence of his wrath as to declare that if any ruler,
actuated with the desire of doing God's will in the
matter, died in the attempt to suppress the uprising,
he was a true martyr and entitled to eternal bliss, while
the warring peasant was doomed to hell. To be sure,
not all were to be treated with equal severity. Mercy
was to be shown to those deluded and misled by others,
and if they surrendered, they were to be pardoned and
spared. But the ringleaders and those responsible for
riot and uproar were to be visited with speedy ven
geance, and at any cost the rebellion was to be sum
marily crushed.
The tract seemed over-harsh and cruel even to
many of his friends, and a few weeks later he de
fended his attitude in an open letter to the Chancellor
of Mansfeld, who had addressed him upon the subject.
The letter is much longer than the tract itself, and dis
cusses the whole matter in detail, but there is no change
of position at any point, and the language is, if any
thing, even more severe. "People say," he remarked,
"there you see Luther's spirit. He teaches bloodshed
without mercy. The devil must speak through him.
Well and good. If I were not accustomed to be
judged and condemned, I might be troubled by such
words." And again: "If any one says I am unkind
and unmerciful, I answer, mercy has nothing to do

THE PEASANTS' WAR 257
with the matter. We speak now concerning the word
of God. He will have honor shown the king and
will have rebels destroyed, and yet He is certainly as
merciful as we are." "It is better to cut off a member
without any mercy than to let the whole body perish."
His indignation at the peasants led him to speak of
them in very contemptuous terms, as, for instance:
"What is more ill-mannered than a foolish peasant or
a common man when he has enough and is full and
gets power in his hands?" "The severity and rigor of
the sword are as necessary for the people as eating and
drinking, yes, as life itself." "The ass needs to be
beaten, and the populace needs to be controlled with a
strong hand. God knew this well, and therefore He
gave the rulers not a fox's tail, but a sword."
Luther's treatment of the peasants has brought upon
him severer criticism than any other act of his life,
but the criticism is in part at least misplaced. It must
be recognized, to be sure, and we may reproach him for
it, if we please, that he had very little interest in social
reform. He was so absorbed in religion that he failed
adequately to realize the social and economic evils of
the day, and his calling and associations had been such
as to give him sympathy with the middle rather than
with the lower classes of society, with the bourgeoisie
rather than with the proletariate and peasantry. Had
he appreciated the evil conditions under which the
latter lived, and set himself earnestly at work to im
prove them, he might have accomplished much. But
it may fairly be doubted whether the era of social
amelioration in which modern reformers are pro
foundly and justly interested would thereby have been
hastened. Freedom from the traditional religious and
ecclesiastical bondage was a necessary condition of lib
erty in other spheres. Had it been subordinated to
17

258 MARTIN LUTHER
alien ends, or made only one feature of a larger pro
gram, it would perhaps have remained unrealized. Not
the peasants alone, but all classes of the population,
must become convinced that religion was possible apart
from Rome before the old absolutism could be per
manently broken, and anything less than exclusive
attention to the inculcation of that lesson might well
have resulted in failure.
But this is neither here nor there. The fact remains,
lament it as many may, that Luther was a religious, not
a social, reformer. Despite his temporary venture into
another field in the summer of 1520, he now recog
nized, as he had for some years, that he was called to
work in the religious field alone. Whether rightly or
wrongly, he had become firmly convinced the Christian
spirit could be trusted to work out all needed social
changes. In the meantime he was interested only to
insure free course for that spirit. To this end he sub
ordinated everything else, and his treatment of the
peasants, when riot and bloodshed had taken the
place of peaceful measures, far from being unworthy
of him and revealing inconsistency and selfish policy
on his part, exhibited in the strongest light his native
independence and strength of character. Order must
be restored, he felt, at any hazard. Not religion alone
was imperiled, but the necessary sanctions of all human
life were threatened with destruction, and every sane
and right-thinking man must hurry to the rescue.
Had he sympathized adequately with the wrongs of
the peasants, it may be thought he could have pre
vented affairs from reaching such a pass and could
have kept the movement from degenerating into
anarchy. However that may be, and his experience
with the fanatics at Orlamunde and elsewhere gives
little ground for the supposition, at any rate, the situa-

THE PEASANTS' WAR 259
tion being what it was in his part of the world in May,
1525, he did the one thing needed, and he did it with
his usual vigor and effectiveness. As always, he was
unnecessarily forcible in his language. But to criticize
his choice of words in such a crisis is ridiculous. His
attitude in the existing situation was essentially sound
and does credit both to his wisdom and his courage.
At a time when weakness and hesitancy marked the
conduct of most of those who should have acted
promptly and firmly, unblinded by sentiment and un
moved by personal considerations, he came out boldly
and decisively for the one course possible in the cir
cumstances. Though he knew it would cost him his
popularity and alienate great masses of those hitherto
devoted to him, without hesitating for a moment he
spoke the word needed to unite the forces of conserva
tion and bring order out of chaos. He was right when
he declared that firm and united action on the part of
the authorities at the very beginning of the uprising
would have spared much bloodshed. He was right,
too, in doing what he could to secure that action at the
earliest possible moment.
When the princes took the matter jointly in hand,
the rebellion was quickly crushed. Here and there
trouble continued for months, but the movement as a
whole was suppressed before the end of the summer.
It was put down in many places with a heavy hand, as
Luther had advised, while the mercy he recommended
was unfortunately not always shown to those who
capitulated. A lamentable tragedy it was. The destruction of
property both at the hands of the marauding peasants
and of the avenging soldiery was very great. Large
districts of country were devastated, and thousands
lost their lives. As is apt to happen when violence and

260 MARTIN LUTHER
uproar get control, the general movement toward the
amelioration of the lower classes was temporarily
retarded. It was not wholly checked, to be sure. In
some places great and permanent advances were made.
And despite the wide-spread disrepute brought upon
the cause by the war, and the strengthening of the rul
ing classes by their all too easy victory, the uprising
was undoubtedly, after all, only a step in the progress
of democracy.
It seems a lasting pity that by the failure of its
leaders to show sympathy with the peasants in their
struggle the Reformation permanently alienated mul
titudes of them and became almost exclusively identi
fied with the interests of the middle and upper strata
of society. But they were not necessarily to blame.
The class division was, perhaps, in the circumstances,
unavoidable, and if so, the identification of the new
religious movement with the peasantry and proletariate
would certainly have meant its speedy extinction.
Upon Luther himself the effects were permanent.
He was hardened and embittered. He had to endure
the chagrin of seeing thousands of his supporters turn
away from him, many driven into Catholicism by the
apparent demonstration of the destructive effects of
his work, many into Anabaptism by what seemed his
recreancy to the common cause and his cruel desertion
of his own disciples. He ceased to be the popular hero
of Germany, and became to multitudes, especially in
the south and west, an object of hatred and execration.
He never regretted his action. He had done what the
crisis demanded, and would have done the same again
in like circumstances. But the tragedy sobered him
and robbed him of some of his earlier buoyancy and
hopefulness. His confidence in the people was per
manently shattered, and thenceforth it always seemed

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A LETTER FROM LUTHER TO THOMAS CROMWELL,
HENRY THE EIGHTH'S MINISTER

THE PEASANTS' WAR 261
necessary to hold them firmly in check and control
them with a strong hand. The culminating event in a
succession of similar experiences covering more than
three years, the war led him to realize the dangers of
radicalism and to draw more narrowly the bounds
within which the Reformation was thenceforth to
move. We may be thankful he was able to disentangle
his cause from the perilous alliance with radicalism
and revolution and to carry it forward despite friends
and foes; but the disentanglement cost both him and
Protestantism dear, and we may well deplore the situ
ation which made it necessary.

CHAPTER XVIII
THE BREAK WITH HUMANISM
ONE of the tragedies of Luther's career, in its
effects scarcely less unfortunate than the peasants'
war, was the alienation of the great mass of humanists,
many of them at first his warmest admirers and sup
porters. The liberals of the day, they were opposed,
as he too was, to scholasticism and ultramontanism.
They were also interested to reform educational ideals
and methods, and some of them religion and morals as
well. Their cause and his thus seemed for some time
identical, and he was generally regarded as a rising
champion of the newer learning.
The acknowledged prince of living humanists was
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. Born in 1467 and
enjoying already before Luther came into public notice
a world-wide reputation as scholar and writer, he exer
cised during the first quarter of the sixteenth century
an influence in the commonwealth of European letters
equaled by no other man. He was forced into the
monastic life against his will when but a boy, and
although later released by a papal dispensation, re
tained a lifelong aversion to monasticism and a life
long contempt for the average monk. The supersti
tions and vices both of monks and priests he castigated
in merciless fashion, above all in his famous satire
"The Praise of Folly," gaining thereby with marry the
name of a mere scoffer at sacred things, with others
the fame of a reformer. 262

THE BREAK WITH HUMANISM 263
Inconsistent as much of his mockery and persiflage
seems with any serious purpose, he was really pro
foundly interested in religious reform. In his "Hand
book of a Christian Soldier" he set forth in fascinating
style the program of an ethical Christianity, simplified
by the stripping off of unessential accessories of ritual
and dogma, and consisting chiefly in imitating Jesus
in unselfish labor for one's fellows. "Back to Christ"
was his program, as of so many other reform
ing spirits of the age, and on its behalf he employed
his great learning in editing the texts of the New
Testament and the works of some of the early fathers,
thus performing a lasting service to biblical and pa
tristic scholarship.
Though ready enough to attack existing evils with
caustic wit and biting sarcasm, and though deeply con
cerned in the purification of the Christian system, he
was essentially a scholar and a man of letters, not a
warrior. He not only shrank instinctively from vio
lence and tumult, but earnestly deprecated them as
tending always to do more harm than good. Evils he
believed could be eradicated only by a slow and grad
ual process. Education, not revolution, was the one
effective method of reform. He therefore remained
to the end of his days within the Catholic fold, de
clining to be dragged into open conflict with the eccle
siastical authorities and refusing to countenance re
bellion and schism.
When Luther's theses on indulgences came to his
notice, he praised the acumen and boldness of the
Wittenberg monk, and for some years followed his
career with interest. He spoke favorably of him to
the Elector Frederick as well as to many others, and
did what he could to prevent his condemnation at the
Diet of Worms, not so much, to be sure, on Luther's

264 MARTIN LUTHER
account as from general hostility to the use of force
in dealing with matters of faith.
He was not blind to the fact that Luther's spirit and
ideals were different from his own. At the very be
ginning he detected the note of passion in the Saxon
reformer's writings and feared he would go too far.
He was careful to express his sympathy very guard
edly and to disavow all responsibility for the Witten-
berger's acts, even declaring repeatedly that he had not
read his writings and hence could form no judgment
as to the right or wrong of his opinions. Luther's
radical work on "The Babylonian Captivity of the
Church" seemed a grave blunder to him, and he was
particularly irritated to have it laid by many at his
own door before its real authorship was generally
known. He had carefully avoided attacking the doc
trines of the Catholic system and thus incurring the
charge of heresy, believing that if the ethical ele
ments of Christianity were put in the forefront the
existing dogmas would insensibly lose importance and
cease to do harm. To pursue the opposite course he
saw was to precipitate war and make quiet and peace
ful amelioration impossible. Even now he refrained
from openly opposing Luther, but in conversation and
letters he let his growing disapproval of his course be
clearly known, and after the papal bull appeared in
1520 he wrote an obsequious letter to the pope, dis
claiming all sympathy with the condemned heretic.
Luther, too, felt at an early day the difference be
tween Erasmus's spirit and his own. Although shar
ing the general admiration for the great humanist's
learning and ability, he wrote his friend Lang in the
spring of 1517:
I am reading our Erasmus and my liking for him is
daily decreasing, I am pleased indeed to see how con-

THE BREAK WITH HUMANISM 265
stantly and learnedly he censures monks as well as
priests and exposes their inveterate and somnolent ig
norance. But I fear he does not sufficiently advance the
grace of Christ, concerning which he is much more ig
norant than d'fitaples. Human things count more with
him than divine.
In March, 15 19, when the storm was gathering
about his head and he was beginning to feel the need
of allies in the war against the common foe, he wrote
at Melanchthon's instigation his first letter to Eras
mus, expressing his veneration in strong terms and
saying nothing of his disagreements with him. Later,
as the conflict waxed warm, and the necessity of taking
sides grew more imperative, his impatience with the
attitude of the great humanist increased, and he too
let his dissatisfaction be widely known. Ultimately
his hatred and contempt became so bitter that he could
hardly speak of him with moderation. It was impos
sible for him to do justice to the older man. Con
vinced as he was of the necessity of strong measures,
he was quite unable to appreciate Erasmus's attitude,
and to the latter's great annoyance laid his conduct
wholly to levity and skepticism, or to cowardice and
self-interest. In 1533 he referred to him as a "foe of
all religions and particularly of Christ; a perfect ex
ample and image of Epicurus and Lucian." In this
condemnation he set the fashion for his followers, and
Erasmus has ever since received scant credit for sincer
ity and seriousness of purpose. Of a different kind
was Luther's somewhat amusing judgment expressed
in the following epigram : "Philip has both matter and
words, Erasmus words without matter, Luther matter
without words, Carlstadt neither matter nor words."
Realizing Erasmus's tremendous influence and recog
nizing his great services to the cause of letters, Luther

266 MARTIN LUTHER
wished no open controversy with him and exercised
an unusual degree of self-restraint in the effort to
avoid giving him open occasion of offense. Erasmus
was equally averse to a conflict with the Wittenberg
reformer. Unsympathetic as he was with Luther's
aims and impatient with his methods, to attack him
openly meant only to strengthen the hands of a party
in the church to which he was no less bitterly opposed.
His was the trying situation of every moderate man
when the battle is on between two enemies fighting
for extreme positions, both alike alien to him.
Had he been a less important personage, he might
have remained silent, but all Europe was eager to
know where he stood, and at length, forced to it by im
portunate friends and by the conviction that he must
publicly take sides or be included in a common con
demnation, he came out in the autumn of 1524, despite
a letter of protest from Luther himself, with a work
on "The Freedom of the Will" in which the reformer's
doctrine of human bondage was subjected to sharp
though formally courteous criticism.
In attacking this particular position, Erasmus
singled out the one point where Luther differed most
widely at the same time with Romanists and human
ists. In most of his departures from the traditional
faith more or less secret if not avowed sympathy must
be felt with him by the modern spirits of the day, but
in denying the freedom of the human will and in
insisting upon absolute divine control he was not only
rejecting the basis for the Catholic belief that the
Christian must earn his salvation by meritorious works,
but was also flying in the face of the modern tendency
to emphasize the natural ability and independence of
man. Here at least orthodox and liberals must agree
to think him wrong.

THE BREAK WITH HUMANISM 267
Luther recognized Erasmus's book as the most tell
ing of all the attacks made upon him, and long after
ward declared it was the only one he had ever read
through. He wrote some of his friends of his purpose
to reply to it as soon as he had leisure, but his answer
was deferred for more than a year, when he finally
'published a large book on "The Bondage of the Will,"
the most carefully written and in his own opinion the
best of all his works. In replying to the great littera
teur he felt the importance of adopting a tone unlike
his usual one, and the whole discussion moves on a
high plane. The style is careful and the personalities
so frequently indulged in are almost wholly lacking.
It is an example of dignified polemic such as we might
wish had been commoner with him.
But in the subject-matter itself there was no com
promise. Nothing could be more extreme than his
statement of the theory of determinism. Regarding
it as a fundamental doctrine, inextricably bound up
with his gospel of salvation by faith alone, he de
fended it with all the earnestness and vigor he was
capable of; while he took the pains to denounce in
sweeping terms any dependence upon human reason
as impious and heathen. To accept unquestioningly
God's revelations of truth, however irrational they
may appear, is as much a duty as to submit uncom
plainingly to His absolute decrees, however harsh they
seem. Nowhere does the difference between Luther's re
ligious principles and those of the typical humanist ap
pear more clearly than in this book. What we know as
the evangelical type of Christian experience, with its
renunciation of all self-confidence, is as far as possible
from the rationalistic, with its emphasis upon the
moral and intellectual ability of man. Luther was a

268 MARTIN LUTHER
genuine evangelical. And if Erasmus was not a
thoroughgoing rationalist, as his book on free will,
with its recognition of the constant need of divine
grace, abundantly shows, his spirit was akin to that of
the rationalists of all ages. Religious and ethical as
the great humanist really was, to Luther he appeared
no better than a heathen; while to Erasmus Luther's
Christianity seemed benighted to the last degree.
The controversy between the two great men was
very unfortunate. It completed the break between hu
manism and the Reformation. Luther's violence had
alienated some of his admirers, and his program of
ecclesiastical revolution had driven others from his
side. It now became apparent to everybody that his
principles and ideals were wholly unlike those of the
humanists, and it seemed necessary to choose between
the two. Many remained faithful to the reformer,
counting his cause the more important. But to not a
few humanism was still dearer, and they turned their
backs on him forever. He lost in 1525 the devotion
and confidence of the peasants ; the same fateful year
confirmed the alienation of the leading intellectuals.
Once more the new movement was narrowed and its
appeal circumscribed.
In these years the complaint was very, frequently
heard that tbe Reformation had put a stop to all intel
lectual development and sadly retarded learning and
culture. Instead of bringing greater freedom and en
lightenment, it had promoted narrowness and bigotry,
substituting religious controversy for the quiet pursuit
of the humanities and for the peaceful growth of a
higher civilization.
There was, no doubt, some truth in this complaint,
as Luther himself realized. But though his controlling
interest was religious, not intellectual, and the aims

From a carbon print by Braun & Co. of the painting
bv Holbein in the Louvre

THE BREAK WITH HUMANISM 269
of the Reformation were other than those of the hu
manists, he had as keen an appreciation as anybody
of the importance of education and did all he could
to prevent ignorance and barbarism among his fol
lowers. In the spring of 1523 he wrote the humanist
Eoban Hess :
Do not be troubled by the notion that letters will be
overthrown by our theology and we Germans become
more barbarous than ever. Some people fear where there
is no fear. Without the knowledge of letters pure the
ology, I am persuaded, will in the future be unable to
flourish, as in the past it has most miserably fallen and
lain in ruins whenever literature has declined. Never, I
can see, has there been a signal revelation of the word of
God unless, as by a John the Baptist, the way was pre
pared for it by a revival of languages and letters. No
youthful crime would I decry more than the failure to
study poetry and rhetoric. It is my earnest wish that
there may be as many poets and rhetoricians as possible,
for by these studies, I perceive, as by no other means men
are made apt for undertaking and skilfully pursuing
sacred employments.
In his "Address to the German Nobility" he empha
sized the need of a reformation of schools and uni
versities and called upon the civil rulers to take it in
hand. In 1524 he published an open letter addressed
to all the city councils of Germany, urging the imme
diate erection of public schools and public libraries,
setting forth the tremendous importance of popular
education, on secular, not merely religious grounds,
and laying upon the municipal authorities the respon
sibility for its maintenance, hitherto largely borne by
the church.
Even if we had no souls, and schools and languages
were not needed for God's sake and the Bible's, there

270 MARTIN LUTHER
would still be ground enough for establishing the best
possible schools both for boys and girls, for the world
needs fine and capable men and women to conduct its
affairs, that the men may rule land and people wisely and
the women keep house and train their children and ser
vants as they should. Such men are made of boys and
such women of girls, and hence it is necessary to educate
the boys and girls properly. As I have already said, the
common man does nothing to help. He cannot and will
not and does not know how. Princes and lords should
do it, but they have to go sleigh-riding, drink, and play
at masquerades, and are burdened with multiform and
important duties of cellar, kitchen, and chamber. And
even if some of them were well disposed, they would be
afraid to take hold lest they be regarded as fools or
heretics. And so, dear magistrates, the thing remains
wholly in your hands.
Public schools, he insisted, should be established for
instruction especially in the ancient languages — Latin,
Greek, and Hebrew — and in history, mathematics, and
music. So far as I am concerned, if I had children, and could
manage it, I would make them learn not only languages
and history, but music and the whole of mathematics as
well. What is it all but mere child's play ? And yet the
Greeks trained their children in it and thereby raised a
wonderfully capable people, skilful in all sorts of things.
How sorry I am that I did not read more poetry and
history and that they were not taught me! Instead of
them, I had to spend my time on devil's filth, the philos
ophers and sophists, with great labor and damage, so that
I had enough to get rid of.
In good humanistic fashion he advised that the texts
used in the schools should not be limited to Christian
authors. He would have heathen writers studied as

THE BREAK WITH HUMANISM 271
well for training in language and literature. For the
physical sciences he made no place in school or uni
versity curriculum, but in this he was not singular.
They had not yet dawned upon the horizon of the ad
vocates either of the older or the newer learning. Nor
was he alive to the significance of the awakening sci
entific interest of the day. The following passage
from the "Table Talk," referring to his contemporary
Copernicus, who had a disciple in the Wittenberg
faculty in the person of the mathematician Rheticus,
illustrates Luther's general attitude, which was shared,
it may be remarked, by most men of the century, in
cluding many of its greatest thinkers :
A new astrologer was mentioned who wished to prove
that the earth moves and revolves instead of the heavens,
the firmament, the sun and the moon; just as when one
sitting in a wagon or ship imagines he is still and the
earth and the trees are marching by. So it is nowadays.
Who would be wise must not allow himself to be pleased
by anything which others do ; he must do something origi
nal and claim his way of doing it is best of all. The fool
wishes to revolutionize the whole science of astronomy.
But, as the Holy Scriptures show, Joshua commanded the
sun to stand still, not the earth.
In 1530, in a very important pamphlet, entitled
"That Children Should be Kept in School," he re-
emphasized the necessity of an elementary education
for everybody, girls as well as boys, and advocated
compulsory school attendance. In this work he also
pleaded with people of wealth to found scholarships
for the support of indigent students of exceptional
promise who were fitted for a more advanced training.
In much of this he was laying foundations upon
which our modern educational systems are built in no

272 MARTIN LUTHER
small part. In spite of his break with humanism and
his primary interest in religious reform, he rendered
incalculable services to the cause of popular and secu
lar education. The University of Wittenberg re
mained for many decades a noble monument to his
influence as well as to Melanchthon's. It was the first
European institution to teach the three ancient lan
guages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and already before
his death it was the greatest university of Germany.
The little Saxon town, long distinguished as the
Athens of the empire, was resorted to by aspiring
scholars from all parts of the world. Late in the cen
tury the fugitive philosopher Giordano Bruno found
there a hospitable welcome, and spent two of the hap
piest and most active years of his life within its walls.

CHAPTER XIX
MARRIAGE
NOT far from the banks of the Mulde, just above
the town of Grimma, stand the ruins of the
wealthy Cistercian convent of Nimbschen. In 1523
one of its inmates was Katharine von Bora, daughter
of a nobleman, Hans von Bora, whose modest estates
lay only a few miles to the west. She was born on
January 29, 1499, probably in the little village of
Lippendorf, where her father had a residence. Her
mother died and her father married again when Kath
arine was but a small child, and after spending some
time away at school, she was set apart for the religious
life, and put into the convent at Nimbschen when only
nine or ten years old.
Like many another, this particular convent drew its
inmates chiefly from the daughters of the local nobil
ity. At the time of Katharine's entrance, one of her
relatives was abbess, and her father's sister was among
the nuns. The residents numbered more than forty,
and included many young girls like herself in training
for the religious life. Though not of her own choos
ing, she grew into the life naturally, as her companions
did, and was quite ready to take the veil when she
reached the age of sixteen.
The discipline of the convent was not over-strict,
and Katharine and her sister nuns were apparently
happy and contented until the influence of Luther's
is 273

274 MARTIN LUTHER
movement began to be felt. The convent, with the
neighboring town of Grimma, lay within the bor
ders of electoral Saxony, in a region permeated with
the new ideas. As early as 1522, the prior of the
Augustinian monastery at Grimma, a relative of two
of the Nimbschen nuns, renounced monasticism with
a number of his monks. It was perhaps the contagion
of their example that led some of the inmates of the
near-by convent to wish for freedom, and when their
relatives refused to do anything for them, they ap
pealed to Luther for help. Their consciences, enlight
ened by the gospel, did not permit them, so they
claimed, to live longer as nuns, and hence he felt in
duty bound to come to their assistance. A Torgau
friend, Leonard Koppe, who had business dealings
with the convent, was commissioned to arrange the
escape. On Easter eve, 1523, a number of nuns, in
cluding Magdalen von Staupitz, a sister of Luther's
old superior, and Katharine von Bora, left the place
secretly, and made their way hurriedly to Wittenberg,
where they arrived on Tuesday of Easter week.
A month later a Wittenberg student wrote his old
teacher, Beatus Rhenanus: "I have no other news to
write except that a few days ago a wagon landed here
full and loaded down with vestal virgins, as they call
them, who desire as much to marry as to live. May
God provide them husbands, that they may not in
course of time fall into worse evils !"
As Luther had helped the nuns to escape, he felt
responsible for their welfare, and put them up tem
porarily in the Wittenberg cloister, already emptied
of most of its monks. Immediately after their arrival,
he wrote Spalatin of his plans for them, expressing
the hope that he could find homes for some of them
and husbands for others. At the same time he asked

MARRIAGE 275
for money to support them until they were properly
disposed of, for he was too poor to help them himself.
Luther's colleague Amsdorf also wrote Spalatin :
Not nine, but twelve nuns escaped. Nine of them have
come to us. They are beautiful and ladylike, and all are
of noble birth and under fifty years of age. The oldest
of them, the sister of my gracious lord and uncle, Dr.
Staupitz, I have selected, my dear brother, as your wife,
that you may boast of your brother-in-law, as I boast
of my uncle. But if you wish a younger one, you may
have your choice among the most beautiful of them. If
you desire to give something to the poor, give it to them,
for they are destitute, and deserted by their friends. I
pity the creatures. They have neither shoes nor clothes.
My dearest brother, I beg, if you can get something for
them from the court, you will supply them with food
and clothing. You must make haste, for they are in
great poverty and anxiety, but very patient. I wonder
indeed how they can be so brave and merry when in such
distress and want.
Within a short time six of the nuns were taken in
charge by relatives or friends, while three of them
remained in Wittenberg, two sisters finding a home
with the Cranachs, and Katharine von Bora with the
family of a prominent lawyer, Philip Reichenbach.
Katharine was a girl of considerable spirit, and
apparently held her head high. When she reached
Wittenberg a former student, Jerome Baumgartner,
son of a patrician family of Nuremberg, was visiting
Melanchthon. He and Katharine speedily fell in love,
and it was hoped a match could be arranged between
them; but he returned home in June, and perhaps be
cause of the objections of his family to his marriage
with an escaped nun, the affair was broken off. Nearly
a year and a half later Luther still hoped they might

276 MARTIN LUTHER
yet marry and wrote Baumgartner: "If you wish to
keep your Kathe von Bora, make haste before she is
given to another who is at hand. She has not yet
conquered her love for you, and I should certainly
rejoice to see you joined to each other." Whether
Baumgartner replied to this letter, we do not know.
At any rate, nothing came of it, though Luther, and
Katharine, too, for that matter, remained his friends
as long as they lived.
The new suitor referred to by Luther was the theolo
gian Casper Glatz, rector of Wittenberg University.
Not finding him to her liking, Katharine refused him,
and in March, 1525, when the wealthy bachelor Ams
dorf, then pastor of the city church in Magdeburg,
was visiting Luther, she begged him to urge the latter
not to force her into a marriage which was distasteful
to her. At the same time she naively assured him that
while she was unwilling to marry Glatz, she would take
either Amsdorf himself or Luther, if she were asked.
Amsdorf, feeling no inclination to marry either then
or later, passed the information on to Luther, who
began to think of Katharine, apparently for the first
time, as a possible wife for himself.
He had not been attracted by her at first. She
seemed over-proud. And if he had been in a mood to
marry at the time, he would have preferred her friend
Ave von Schonfeld, as he remarked years afterward.
But Katharine's suggestion seemingly had its effect.
He began to regard ber in a new light, and within a
few weeks had made up his mind to marry her himself.
She was not beautiful, as her existing portraits abun
dantly show, but Erasmus once spoke of her, probably
on the authority of Wittenberg friends, as wonder
fully charming, and she was at any rate a girl of strong
character and unusual gifts. She was highly thought

LUTHER'S WIFE, KATHARINE VON BORA,
IN MIDDLE LIFE
From a medallion made in 1540 and now
in the church at Kieritzsch

MARRIAGE 277
of in Wittenberg, where she was known among her
young companions by the name of Catharine of Siena,
and the best people in town were her warm friends.
When the exiled King Christian of Denmark was vis
iting Lucas Cranach in the autumn of 1523, he pre
sented her with a gold ring which she prized as long
as she lived. She was certainly no ordinary girl, and
her remark to Amsdorf shows her own appreciation of
the fact.
Luther himself had for a long time been gradually
growing accustomed to the thought of marrying. One
after another of his followers had renounced his
priestly or monastic vows and taken a wife, and he
had been repeatedly urged to do the like. Others were
putting his principles into practice, why should he hold
back ? It was hoped he would marry a wealthy woman
of some prominent family, and more than one eligible
young lady was warmly recommended to him by his
friends. In the summer of 1521 he wrote Spalatin
from the Wartburg: "Good God! will our Witten-
bergers give wives even to the monks ? But they shall
not force a wife on me!" In his Church Postils of
1522, after attacking the monastic vow, he remarked:
"I hope I have come so far that by God's grace I can
remain as I am. At the same time, I am not yet over
the fhountain, and do not venture to boast of my conti
nence." We hear no further references to the matter
until November, 1524, when he wrote Spalatin:
I thank Argula for what she writes me concerning
my marrying. I do not wonder at such gossip, for all
sorts of reports are circulated about me. Thank her in
my name, and tell her I am in God's hands, a creature
whose heart he is able to change and change again, to
kill and make alive every hour and moment. But so long
as I am in my present mood I shall not marry. Not that

278 MARTIN LUTHER
1 do not feel my sex, for my heart is neither wood nor
stone; but my inclination is against marriage, for I am
in daily expectation of death and of punishment suited
to a heretic. I will not on this account set bounds to
God's work in me, nor will I rely upon my own heart.
But I hope he will not let me live long.
Although in 1521 he had admonished Spalatin not
to marry, and so incur tribulation of the flesh, in April,
1525, he wrote him :
Why do you not proceed to get married ? I am urging
others with so many arguments that I am myself almost
persuaded ; for our enemies do not cease to condemn this
way of living, and our wiseacres daily laugh at it.
A few days later he wrote again, in a jocular vein :
So far as my marriage is concerned, about which you
write, do not be surprised at my not marrying, celebrated
lover as I am. Rather wonder that I who write so
much about marriage, and have so much to do with wo
men, am not already a woman myself, to say nothing of
taking one for a wife. But if you desire me for an
example, behold I have given you a most signal one.
For I have had three wives at once, and loved them so
ardently that I have lost two of them, who have taken
other husbands. The third I scarcely hold on my left
arm, and am perhaps about to lose her, too. Tardy lover
as you are, you dare not be the husband even of one wife.
But take care lest it happen that I, with a mind strongly
set against marriage, yet anticipate your most imminent
espousals, for God is accustomed to do what one least
hopes. Joking aside, I say this that I may induce you
to do what you have in mind.
On the fourth of May, in a letter to the Mansfeld
councilor John Ruhel, concerning the riotous conduct
of the peasants, he remarked, in passing :

MARRIAGE 279
If I can manage it, to spite the devil, I will yet marry
my Kathe before I die, if I hear that the peasants go on
as they are doing. I hope they will not take from me
my courage and my joy.
On the second of June he wrote an open letter to the
Archbishop of Mayence, urging him to marry and
turn his dominions into a secular principality. The
next day he sent a copy of the letter to Ruhel with a
note in which he said :
If his Electoral Grace should again ask, as I have
heard he has, why I also do not take a wife, when I am
inciting every one else to do it, tell him I am still afraid
I am not clever enough. But if my marriage would be
an inducement to his Grace, I should be ready to set him
the example, for I have already had it in mind, before
departing this life, to enter the married state, which I
regard as commanded by God.
Ten days later, on Tuesday, June 13, he and Kath
arine were married in the cloister, in tbe presence only
of Jonas, dean of the castle church; Bugenhagen, the
city pastor; Apel, a colleague of the law faculty; and
the town councilor Lucas Cranach and his wife. In a
letter written the next day to Spalatin, who was at the
time in Torgau, Jonas announced the event, speaking
of the mingled emotions with which he had witnessed
it, and added : "To-day he gave a small breakfast. A
fitting service I suppose will be held in due time, when
you also will be present." Two days later Bugenhagen
wrote Spalatin : "Malicious talk has brought it to pass
that Dr. Martin has unexpectedly become a husband.
After a few days we have thought these sacred nup
tials should be celebrated before all the world by a
public ceremony, to which you also without doubt will
be invited."

280 MARTIN LUTHER
Accordingly, a fortnight later, on the twenty-sev
enth of the month, a service was held in the city
church, and a wedding- feast was given in the cloister,
Luther's father and mother, with a large circle of
friends, being present. A few extracts from the invi
tations sent out for this occasion are worth quoting
for the light they throw upon the mood he was in
and the motives prompting him to marry.
To Ruhel and two other Mansfeld councilors he
wrote :
What an outcry, dear sirs, I have caused with my book
against the peasants ! All is forgotten that God has done
for the world through me. Lords, priests, peasants, and
everybody else are now against me, and threaten me with
death. Well and good, since they are so mad and foolish,
I have determined before my death to be found in the
state ordained of God, and so far as I can to rid myself
entirely of my former popish life, and make them still
madder and more foolish, all for a parting gift. For
I have a presentiment that God will one day give me His
grace. So, at my dear father's desire, I have now mar
ried, and have done it in haste that I might not be hin
dered by these talkers. A week from Tuesday I purpose
giving a small party, which I want you as good friends
to know about, and I beg you will add your blessing.
Because the country is in such a turmoil, I do not venture
to urge you to be present. But if you can and will kindly
come of your own accord with my dear father and
mother, you may imagine it will give me special pleasure.
I shall also be delighted in my poverty to see any good
friends you may bring with you, only asking you to let
me know by this messenger.
To Spalatin :
I have stopped the mouths of those who slandered me
and Katharine Bora. If I can manage to give a ban
quet as a witness to this marriage of mine, you must

MARRIAGE 281
not only be present, but also lend your aid, if there
should be need of provisions. Meanwhile, give us your
benediction and your good wishes. I have brought my
self into such contempt by my marriage that I hope the
angels are laughing and all the demons weeping.
To Amsdorf :
The report is true that I married Katharine suddenly
that I might not be compelled to hear the noisy talk cus
tomary on such an occasion. I hope I shall still live
for a little while, and this last service I did not wish to
refuse my father, who asked it of me. At the same time
I wished to confirm what I had taught by my deed, for
I find so many pusillanimous despite the light of the
gospel. Thus God has willed and done. For I am not
passionately in love, but I esteem my wife And hence
to celebrate my marriage I shall give a banquet next
Tuesday, when my parents will be present. I want espe
cially to have you here; wherefore I now invite you,
and beg you will not stay away if you can possibly help it.
To Marshal von Dolzigk :
Doubtless you have heard the news of my venture upon
the sea of matrimony. Although it seems strange enough
to me, and I can hardly believe it myself, the witnesses
are so positive that I am obliged in honor to credit
them. I have therefore undertaken, with my father and
mother and other good friends, to set a stamp upon the
affair and make it certain by a banquet to be given next
Tuesday. If convenient, I beg you will kindly support
me with venison, and will be present yourself and help
seal the affair with joy, and do whatever else the circum
stances demand.
To Leonard Koppe :
Suddenly and unexpectedly God has taken me captive
in the bonds of holy matrimony, so that I must confirm
it with a banquet on Tuesday. That my father and

282 MARTIN LUTHER
mother and all my good friends may be the merrier, my
Lord Katharine and I beg you will send us as soon as
possible, at my expense, a keg of the best Torgau beer
you can find. I will pay all the costs. I would have sent
a wagon, but I did not know whether I could find what
I wanted. For it must be seasoned and cool, that it may
taste well. If it is not good, I have determined to punish
you by making you drink it all yourself. In addition,
I hope you and your Audi will not stay away, but will
appear in good spirits. Bring with you Master Gabriel
and his wife, if you can do it without expense to him,
for I well know he is almost as poor as I am.
Luther's marriage raised a great hue and cry. The
union of a renegade monk with an escaped nun, violat
ing as it did their own personal vows, and ecclesiastical
and civil law as well, seemed to many to throw a sin
ister light upon the whole reform movement. Now,
they declared, the significance of the Reforma
tion was revealed to all the world, and it was clear
what Luther had had in mind from the beginning.
Satirical attacks appeared in great numbers. Slander
ous tales were spread about him and his bride. Even
many of his friends were thrown into consternation,
and feared he had dealt a death-blow to the cause.
The lawyer Jerome Schurf, when he heard the rumor
that Luther was contemplating marriage, remarked:
"If this monk takes a wife, the whole world and the
devil himself will laugh, and all the work he has ac
complished will come to naught." Others, though wish
ing to see him married, regretted he had chosen Kathe
rather than some woman of wealth and position. The
time, too, seemed to almost everybody particularly
inopportune. His prince and supporter, the Elector
Frederick, had died only a month before, and all
Saxony was still mourning him, as Luther was, too,

MARRIAGE 283
for that matter. Moreover, the peasants' war was not
yet ended, and the whole country was in an uproar.
In these circumstances many not unnaturally felt as
though the great reformer's mind and heart should
have been full of other things than marriage.
But Luther, as usual, was unmoved by the criti
cisms of his friends and the attacks of his foes, and
never regretted what he had done. His reasons for
the step were many. The varying accounts he gives
of them are doubtless all true to the facts. His mo
tives were complicated, as might be expected, and he
could not himself have analyzed them fully. He had
long believed and taught that marriage was higher
than celibacy, and the conviction had been forcing itself
upon him that he ought sometime to put his principle
into practice, and thus bear public testimony to his
own attitude and give his followers the benefit of his
example. He had at first no personal inclination to the
step. He had had very little to do with women, and
was so absorbed in his great work that marriage was
the last thing he cared for. But the unhappy experi
ences of the spring of 1525 led him to believe the end
of the world, or, at any rate, his own death, immi
nent, and he began to think it time to marry, if he was
ever to do so. His naturally belligerent temper, ex
cited to an unusual pitch at this time, also urged him
on. The more his enemies raged against him, the
more he loved to provoke them. Many men in his
position — Melanchthon, for instance — would have
avoided all unnecessary grounds of offense; but Lu
ther was of a different type. Though he would do
nothing his conscience disapproved, he was glad
enough when his deeds offended those opposed to him.
As he often said, he never felt so confident he was
right as when they denounced his conduct.

284 MARTIN LUTHER
It is not surprising, the situation being what it was,
that Katharine's suggestion to Amsdorf should find
him in a receptive mood. To marry a nun would only
make his testimony the stronger and the hostility of
his opponents the more bitter. As if all this were not
enough, he visited his parents in Mansfeld late in
April, and was impressed with his father's eager desire
that his oldest son, now finally freed from his mo
nastic bonds, should marry, as he had wished him to
do long years before. To please him thus became an
added motive for the step. And it may be he felt he
owed something to Katharine herself, whom he had as
sisted to escape from the convent, and for whom he
had failed as yet to find a husband. Perhaps he was
thinking of this when he once remarked that he mar
ried his Kathe out of pity.
When he came to an understanding with Kathe we
do not know. He probably met with no obstacles
from her after he had decided to press his suit, and his
courtship, it may fairly be presumed, was brief and
matter of fact enough. Neither he nor Kathe was
violently in love. Her willingness to accept either
him or Amsdorf shows that her own heart was not
deeply engaged, and Luther himself no doubt correctly
described his feelings toward her in the letter to Ams
dorf already quoted. But a protracted engagement
was the last thing he desired. Constantly under the
eyes of the whole world as he was, with enemies and
friends observing his every movement, he naturally
wished the matter concluded as speedily as possible.
Years later he remarked :
It is very dangerous to put off your wedding, for Satan
gladly interferes and makes great trouble through evil
talkers, slanderers, and friends of both parties. If I had
not married quickly and secretly, and taken few into my

From the painting by Lucas Cranach
luther's wife, Katharine von bora, in 1526

MARRIAGE 285
confidence, every one would have done what he could to
hinder me; for all my best friends cried, "Not this one,
but another."

Melanchthon, who was kept in the dark until the
wedding was over, was almost beside himself with
annoyance. On the sixteenth of June he wrote the
following characteristic letter to an intimate friend :
On the thirteenth of June, without informing any of
his friends of his intention, Luther unexpectedly married
Von Bora. The customary ceremony took place in the
evening, Bugenhagen and Lucas the painter and Apel
alone being invited to the feast. You will perhaps won
der that in this unhappy time, while good and right-
minded men are everywhere sore distressed, he does not
sorrow with them, but rather, as it seems, lives voluptu
ously and tarnishes his reputation, when Germany spe
cially needs his wisdom and strength. I suppose it has
happened in this wise. The man is very accommodating,
and the nuns fell upon him and plotted against him with
all their wiles. Perhaps his much association with them,
though he is honorable and high-minded, softened or
even inflamed him. In this way he seems to have fallen
into this untimely alteration of his mode of living. But
the rumor that he misbehaved with her beforehand is an
evident lie. Now the deed is done, you ought not to
take it ill or find fault with it. I suppose marriage is a
natural necessity; and the married life, though humble,
is at the same time holy and more pleasing to God than
celibacy. Because I see that Luther himself is in some
what low spirits and disturbed over the change, I try
as earnestly and wisely as possible to encourage him, for
he has as yet done nothing deserving to be called un
worthy or inexcusable. I still have evidences of his
piety, and so cannot condemn him. Besides, I should
prefer to have him humble rather than exalted and lifted
up. The latter is dangerous not only for the clergy, but

286 MARTIN LUTHER
for all other men as well. For success becomes the occa
sion of evil thoughts, not only, as the rhetorician says,
to the foolish, but also to the wise. Then, too, I hope
his marriage will make him more sober, and lead him to
give up the buffoonery we have often blamed him for;
since, according to the proverb, another life will bring
another mode of living. I write thus at length that you
may not be troubled overmuch by the incredible affair.
For I know you care for Luther's reputation and regret
to see it lowered. I exhort you to take the matter calmly,
for in the Holy Scriptures marriage is said to be hon
orable, and to marry is probably a necessity. God has
related for us many errors of the old saints, wishing us
to prove His word and not to depend on man's reputation
or person, but only on His word. He is most godless
who on account of the mistake of the teacher despises
the teaching.
Luther evidently understood his friend, and had
good reason for not taking him into his confidence.
But despite Melanchthon's impatience at the event, he
was soon reconciled to the new order of things, and
became a stanch friend and warm admirer of Frau
Kathe. Luther himself, though not at first deeply in love,
grew very fond of his wife, and cherished her warmly
to the end of his life. We have only a few of the
many letters he wrote her. They contain no particular
endearments beyond the greeting "Meine herzliebe
Kathe" in one case, and the signature "Dein Liebchen"
in others. But they show clearly the good terms on
which husband and wife lived and the sympathy and
understanding they could count upon from each other.
In the summer of 1526 he wrote a friend: "Kathe
sends greetings, and thanks you for thinking her
worthy of such a kind letter. She is well, by the grace
of God, and is in all things more compliant, obedient,

MARRIAGE 287
and obliging than I had dared to hope,— thanks be to
God! — so that I would not exchange my poverty for
the wealth of Croesus." Some years later, referring
to his marriage, he remarked : "It has turned out well,
God be thanked! For I have a pious and true wife,
on whom her husband's heart can rely." To Kathe
herself he once said: "Kathe, you have a pious hus
band who loves you. You are an empress." And on
other occasions he declared he held her dearer than
the kingdom of France and the dominions of Venice,
and even loved her better than his own life. To be
sure, he did not think her perfect. He recognized her
faults as well as his own. He was hot-tempered, and
she had a quick tongue, and often hard words passed
between them. "If I were to marry again," he once
exclaimed, "I would hew me an obedient wife out of
stone, for I doubt whether any wives are obedient."
But despite temporary ebullitions, he and Kathe lived
for the most part on good terms, and he found her
congenial notwithstanding the great difference in their
temperaments and interests.
The following words throw a flood of light upon
the experiences of his married life :
Ah, dear Lord, marriage is not an affair of nature, but
a gift of God. It is the sweetest and dearest, yes, purest
life. It is far better than celibacy when it turns out
well ; but when it turns out ill, it is hell. For though all
women as a rule know the art of taking a man captive
with tears, lies, and persuasions, and are able to distort
everything and employ fair words, nevertheless, when
truth and faith, children and fruits of love are there,
and marriage is regarded as holy and divine, then it is
indeed a blessed state. How eagerly I longed for my
dear ones as I lay deadly ill at Schmalkalden ! I thought
I should never again see wife and children here. How

288 MARTIN LUTHER
I mourned over the separation ! I am convinced that the
natural longing and love a husband has for his wife
and parents for their children are greatest of all in those
who are dying. Now that I am by God's grace well
again, I cherish my wife and children so much the more.
No one is so spiritual as not to feel such inborn love
and longing. For the union and communion of man and
wife are a great thing.
Luther's ideas about women were not modern. She
was the weaker vessel, he maintained, and was made to
be subject to the man. Her true life was in the home.
The faithful, obedient, and efficient wife fulfilled the
highest ideal of womanhood. The eloquent descrip
tion of a virtuous woman in the thirty-first chapter of
Proverbs he regarded as valid for his own time and
all times. Of the so-called emancipation of the sex
he knew nothing, and would have been entirely out of
sympathy with it, had he heard of it. But he per
formed an incalculable service in dignifying married
life and ascribing to it a sacredness above the career
of monk or nun. Instead of a temptation to a less
perfect way of living, as woman was too commonly
represented by the religious teachers of the Middle
Ages, he saw in her one ordained of God to be the
companion and helpmate of man, and in their union,
not in their separation, he found the ideal life. Re
ligion had been making too much of the abnormal.
Luther's greatest service to the modern world lay in
his recognition of the normal human relationships as
the true sphere for the development of the highest
religious, as of the highest moral, character.

CHAPTER XX
HOME LIFE
LUTHER'S marriage took place in the cloister where
j he had lived ever since he came to Wittenberg.
Here he and Kathe made their home for the rest of
their lives. It was a roomy building and had accom
modated at one time as many as forty monks. While
Luther was at the Wartburg, its inmates, under the
influence of his teaching, began to renounce monas
ticism and to return to the world. He himself had no
inclination to follow their example. Writing to Link
in December, 1521, he said, "Do thou meanwhile con
tinue with Jeremiah in the ministry of Babylon, for
I also will remain in this habit and rite unless the
world become another."
The exodus went on steadily until in 1523 only
Luther himself and the prior Brisger remained in resi
dence. Although criticized and laughed at both by
enemies and friends for not putting his own principles
into practice, and turning his back upon the monastic
life, he continued for a long time to observe the con
vent rules and to keep up the required devotions. But
gradually one after another of the traditional cere
monies and practices fell into abeyance, until finally
the building ceased to be a monastery in aught but
name. At the same time the traditional monastic hos
pitality was still maintained, and the place was overrun
with escaped monks and others temporarily in need.
In 1523 Luther laid off the monastic dress when in
19 . 289

290 MARTIN LUTHER
the convent, but continued to wear it in public, "to
strengthen the weak and to spite the pope," as he
remarked in a letter to a friend. Finally, in October,
1524, he discarded it altogether, and appeared thence
forth in the ordinary costume of a university professor.
In December of the same year, when he and Brisger
proposed to vacate the monastery and let it be devoted
to other purposes, the elector virtually made Luther
a present of the building, with the court in front and
the garden behind, and put a small house belonging to
it at the disposal of Brisger. The gift to Luther was
legally confirmed seven years later by Frederick's suc
cessor, the Elector John. The building in which Lu
ther was married, and where he continued to live for
the rest of his life, was thus no longer a cloister, but
his own private dwelling.
While the monastery was still flourishing, he de
pended entirely upon it for his support, as all the other
monks did. But with the exodus of most of its in
mates, and with the waning respect for monasticism in
Wittenberg and its neighborhood, the income of the
monastery from begging and from the voluntary gifts
of the faithful was greatly reduced, and it was found
difficult even to collect the rents and other taxes legally
due, as Luther frequently complained in letters to the
elector and Spalatin. The situation was finally met by
giving him a salary for his university work, and for
the rest of his life this remained his only regular source
of income. For his services as preacher in the city
church he received nothing, and in accordance with a
not uncommon custom of the day he refused to take
money for his books, though more than one publisher
made a fortune out of them. His salary at first
amounted to a hundred gulden, intrinsically equal to
fifty dollars of our money, but probably the equivalent

HOME LIFE 291
in purchasing power of six or eight hundred dollars
to-day. When he married it was doubled, and some
years later another hundred was added, making, with
the payments in kind regularly allowed him by the
elector, an assured income of about four hundred
gulden. This was the same amount received by Me
lanchthon, and was unusually large for a university
professor of the day.
In addition, gifts of all sorts poured in not only
from the elector and the town council of Wittenberg,
but from admirers in all parts of the world. Occa
sionally he had to protest that he was given too much,
as, for instance, in the following letter to the Elector
John, written in 1 529 :
I have long delayed thanking your Electoral Grace for
the clothes and the gown you sent me. I respectfully
beg" your Electoral Grace not to believe those who say
I am in want. I have, unfortunately, especially from
your Electoral Grace, more than I can conscientiously
bear. It does not become me as a preacher to have a
superfluity, nor do I desire it. I feel your Grace's all too
mild and gracious favor so much that I am beginning to
be afraid. For I should not like to be in this life among
those to whom Christ says, "Woe unto you rich; you
have your reward." Besides, to speak humanly, I do
not want to be burdensome to your Electoral Grace. I
know your Grace has to give to so many that nothing
remains over; for too much destroys the sack. The
brown cloth is too splendid, but, in order to show my
gratitude to your Electoral Grace, I will wear the black
coat in your honor, although it is too costly for me ; and
if it were not your Grace's gift, I should never wear
such a garment. I beg your Electoral Grace will hence
forth wait until I ask, that I may not be prevented by
your Grace's anticipation of my wants from begging for
others who are much more worthy of such favor.

292 MARTIN LUTHER
As this letter suggests, he was continually asking
gifts for others, but he did it rarely for himself, and
as a rule only when venison or wine was needed for
some social festivity. Not infrequently he sent to the
town vaults for wine without asking anybody's per
mission, but the council apparently took it in good part
and made no objection. They knew the city owed its
growth and prosperity largely to him, and frequently
showed their appreciation of the fact. He would not
consent to be relieved from taxation, but scarcely a
year passed that he was not voted substantial gifts of
one kind and another.
Despite it all, the early years of his married life
were full of money troubles. He was very free with
what he had, giving away his last gulden without hesi
tation, and when there was no more money, tableware
and household ornaments, presented to Kathe or him
self by admiring friends, would often go to relieve the
wants of the needy. He frequently complained hu
morously of his own soft-heartedness and gullibility,
lamenting that anybody could take him in with a
smooth story.
Kathe kept as firm a hand on him as she could, and
many a gulden was saved which would otherwise have
found its way into the pocket of some friend or
stranger. On the occasion of Agricola's marriage, he
wrote him he was sending as a wedding-present a vase
received sometime before from another friend ; but in
a postscript he had to inform him that Kathe had hid
den it away, so it could not be found.
Curiously enough, a wedding-gift of twenty-five
gulden was sent him by Archbishop Albert of Mayence.
Luther himself declined to receive it — it was his boast
that he never took presents of money — but the more
thrifty Kathe accepted it without his knowledge, and

PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THE MARTIN LUTHER HOUSE IN WITTENBERG,
WHICH WAS A PART OF THE OLD AUGUSTINIAN MONASTERY

HOME LIFE t 293
when he learned of it, he did not know whether to be
more annoyed or amused.
Now and then he got into trouble through indorsing
notes for his friends when he had no money of his
own to lend. In order that he might not altogether
impoverish himself, Lucas Cranach and other capital
ists of the town finally refused to honor his signature,
and this way of helping the needy was thus closed to
him. He was rather deeply in debt when he married, and
it took some time for Kathe, by judicious management,
to straighten out his tangled affairs. In 1527 his
own imprudence, he wrote Brisger, made it neces
sary for him to plunge still deeper into debt and to
pawn some silver goblets. A little later he could an
nounce that all his debts were paid, but he not infre
quently had to lament the burden of new ones. "I
justly remain in the catalogue of the poor," he once
remarked, "for I keep too large an establishment."
Gradually, despite his free-handedness, a certain mea
sure of worldly prosperity was attained through
Kathe's energy and economy, and they were able to
make considerable improvements in the Wittenberg
house, and to buy an orchard, a hop-garden, and some
other pieces of land in the neighborhood, where Kathe
raised cattle and did farming on a small scale. Finally
Luther purchased from her brother a farm at Zulsdorf,
a part of the small family inheritance, not far from
her birthplace. In the management of this she took
particular delight. One of her husband's letters to her
opens with the playful greeting, "To the rich wife at
Zulsdorf, Frau Doctor Luther, in the body at home at
Wittenberg, but in spirit busy at Zulsdorf."
Even then petty economies were still necessary, and
ready money was often entirely lacking. As late as

294 MARTIN LUTHER
1540 he had to go for weeks without his nightly glass
of beer because there was none left in the house and
no money to buy more with. In 1542, when he made
his will, he carefully reckoned up his possessions, and
wrote out detailed accounts covering a number of
years. We still have some of the original pages, deco
rated with amusing rhymes, ruefully lamenting his
extravagance and making sport of his lack of business
capacity. At his death he left a respectable property,
perhaps amounting, all told, to eight thousand gulden ;
but most of it was unproductive, and Kathe found con
siderable difficulty in making both ends meet. She
once complained that he might have been a rich man
had he wished ; but wealth was the last thing he cared
for, and with his disposition he could hardly have
compassed it had he tried.
Kathe was a vigorous and efficient housewife. The
monastery had been sadly neglected before she became
its mistress. Luther had lived very carelessly, often
leaving his bed unmade, as he once remarked, for a
year at a time, and tumbling into it at night too tired
from his strenuous labors to notice the difference. His
marriage brought order into the place, and trans
formed the bare and cheerless monastery into a real
home. In 1536, after a visit to Wittenberg, Wolfgang
Capito of Strasburg wrote him: "My greetings to
your wife, Lady Katharine, best of women ! When I
have returned home I will send her something to re
member me by. I love her with all my heart. She was
born to look after your health, that you may the longer
serve the church which has come into existence through
you." .
Luther's own personal habits changed little. He
remained negligent about his dress, as he had always
been, and his study continued a wilderness of disorder.

HOME LIFE 295
Desks, tables, chairs, and every available spot were
covered with books, letters, and manuscripts, and he
often lost things altogether in the confusion of the
place. Even before his marriage he kept a dog, which
frequently played havoc with his papers. He was also
careless about his food. Before Kathe came upon the
scene he ate very irregularly, often forgetting his
meals altogether. His bodily needs, indeed, meant
little to him. As he once wrote Melanchthon, when
he could not get meat and wine, he contented himself
with bread and water. On the other hand, he was
often as imprudent in his eating as in his fasting.
Kathe set a bountiful table, and whatever the condition
of his health, and despite her protests, he was apt to
eat anything that seized his fancy, bad as it might be
for him. In 1539 he remarked: "I don't bother about
the doctors. They give me a year to live, and I will
not make my life miserable, but will eat and drink,
in God's name, whatever tastes good." His irregu
lar habits and strenuous labors combined with the
ascetic practices of his early years to undermine his
health. He was a sufferer from severe kidney and
liver trouble during most of his life, and had to endure
a great deal from headaches, which often completely
incapacitated him for work.
A masterful person Kathe was, with a mind and
will of her own. The cloister she made her particular
domain, and ruled it with a strong hand. Strength and
energy, indeed, were her prominent characteristics.
Among her neighbors she bore the reputation of being
a capable but somewhat over-thrifty housewife, and
while generally respected, she was not generally liked.
To many she seemed proud and domineering. As the
wife of the great reformer, it was not unnatural she
should hold her head high and expect her will to count

296 MARTIN LUTHER
in the little university city. Luther once compared her
to Moses and himself to Aaron, and he often spoke of
her jestingly as "My Lord Kathe." In October, 1535,
he wrote his friend Jonas: "My Lord Kathe greets
you. She rides about, cultivates the fields, raises and
buys cattle, brews beer, and the like. At the same time
she has begun to read the Bible, and I have promised
her fifty florins if she finishes before Easter. She is
very earnest about it, and has already reached the fifth
book of Moses." Her reason for taking up the read
ing of the Bible at this particular time, it may be re
marked, was the recent appearance of Luther's German
version in its first complete edition.
With all his playful raillery, her husband valued her
highly for just those practical qualities he lacked him
self, and he was very glad to turn the management of
family affairs wholly over to her. Though we hear of
her chiefly as a housewife, she was not simply that.
While her tastes were 'not intellectual or literary, she
had a fair education, and knew enough Latin to fol
low and bear her share in the table conversation, com
monly carried on in a curious mixture of German and
Latin intelligible only to one acquainted with both. A
pious woman she was, too, and deeply interested in
Luther's great reforming work. As his references to
theological and ecclesiastical affairs in some of his let
ters to her show, he took her into his confidence and
talked matters over freely with her. Evidently she
understood and appreciated what was going on, and at
times made her influence felt even in important affairs,
as when she induced him, so he says, against his will,
to engage in open controversy with the great Eras
mus. Their home was the center of a very active social
life. Not only his colleagues and neighbors were fre-

HOME LIFE 297
quently with them, but guests from abroad were nu
merous ; for Wittenberg was more and more the Mecca
of Christians from all parts of Europe, and Luther's
hospitality to all comers was generous and abundant.
Among the regular members of his large household,
besides a number of nephews and nieces and other poor
relatives, were many university students. Following a
custom common among the Wittenberg professors,
Kathe began immediately after her marriage to take
student boarders, and kept up the practice to the end
of her life. It is to some of them we owe the interest
ing records of Luther's table-talk, through which we
catch many fascinating glimpses of his home life. Be
ginning in a small way, early in the thirties, certain of
them finally got into the habit of writing down,, under
his very eyes and while he was talking, the substance
of his conversation. At times his dining-room must
have presented the aspect of a class-room, with the
auditors diligently transcribing the lecturer's words of
wisdom. It might seem as if the effect would have
been to take all spontaneity and naturalness out of his
talk, but this was by no means the case. Even the most
carefully edited collections are full of informal and
unstudied expressions of opinion on every conceivable
subject, grave and gay, serious and trivial, while some
of the original records more recently recovered show
that he talked as freely and unconsciously as if no
faithful scribes were waiting upon his words. Often
the talk, as we have it, sounds commonplace enough,
but again it flashes with brilliancy and reveals rare
wisdom and insight.
The records of course have to be used with caution,
for we cannot always be sure he was rightly under
stood or correctly reported, but frequently we run upon
characteristic sayings which could have come from no

298 MARTIN LUTHER
one else, and which enrich and add to the vividness of
our portrait of the man.
His conversation was apt to be much freer than
would be at all admissible to-day. In that respect he
was a child of his age, for high and low alike were less
careful in speech then than now. To be sure, he was
often coarser than even the loose standards of the day
approved. His humor was broad rather than subtle
and delicate, and to men of the type of Erasmus and
Melanchthon it often seemed only buffoonery. To the
end of his life he retained many of the characteristics
of a peasant, and he wielded in talk, as in controversy,
an ax rather than a Damascus blade. But with all his
lack of refinement, he was essentially a wholesome and
clean-minded man. Despite the many unquotable
things he said and wrote to illustrate a point or enforce
an argument or give sting to his polemic, there is sur
prisingly little vulgarity or obscenity for its own sake
either in his table-talk or in his writings.
Pure he was in life, too. Attacks of course were
made upon his moral character by his enemies, and all
sorts of unsavory stories were told about him. But
for none of them can a shred of evidence be found,
though he lived for twenty-five years in a blaze of pub
licity, observed of all the world and spied upon by
countless critics. The most his bitter enemies, the radi
cals, who lived near by and knew him well, could urge
against him when they tried to blacken his character
was his liking for society, his fondness for playing the
lute, his luxurious living, and, strange to say, his fine
dressing, for on state occasions, it seems, he was fond
of wearing starched cuffs and a gold chain.
The radicals were the Puritans of the day, and their
standards were very rigorous. Luther himself was
certainly not a Puritan. He believed in innocent plea-

HOME LIFE 299
sure of all sorts, and had no desire to make of Witten
berg what Calvin later made of Geneva. He encour
aged gymnastic sports because they strengthened the
body and decreased over-drinking and similar vices.
He played at bowls himself, and was something of an
expert at chess according to his friend Mathesius. In
1534, in accepting an invitation to visit Prince Joachim
of Anhalt with some other friends, he wrote: "Your
Grace must look out for Master Francis at chess. He
thinks he can play very well, but I will wager a beauti
ful rose he cannot play as well as he pretends. He
knows how to assign their places to the knights, to
seize the castles, and to hoodwink the peasants
(pawns), but the lady is his master in the game, per
haps elsewhere as well." He particularly liked to see
young people enjoy themselves, and heartily approved
of dancing and private theatricals for them. Music he
was very fond of and passed many a happy evening
singing and playing with his friends. He was also not
indifferent to pictures, and had a Madonna in his
chamber, to the great scandal of the Protestant rigor-
ists. His chief relaxation he always found in social inter
course. Particularly when depressed, as he often was,
he sought comfort and relief in the society of his
friends, and was continually prescribing the same
remedy for like depression in others. He once re
marked : "When Eve went walking by herself in Para
dise the devil tempted and led her astray"; and on
another occasion he declared he would rather asso
ciate with his swineherd and the swine than stay
alone. Light conversation, jesting, and story-telling
he thought especially good for low spirits, and often
indulged in them, he said, just on that account. He
also advised hearty eating and drinking for many a

300 MARTIN LUTHER
one, though not for everybody. To one of his young
table companions, Jerome Weller, who was subject to
frequent attacks of the blues, he wrote : "Whenever the
devil vexes you with such thoughts immediately seek
the society of men, or drink more freely, or joke, or
talk nonsense, or do some other hilarious thing. Why
do you think I drink so much, converse with such free
dom, and eat so often, if not to make sport of the devil
and vex him when he is trying to vex and make sport
of me?"
When in the mood he could be a fascinating com
rade, and many were the merry hours spent at table
with colleagues and friends. Speaking once of his
faith in the gospel and of his confidence in his divine
call, he added : "But when I consider my own weak
ness, how I eat and drink, and at times am merry and
a good table companion, I begin to be in doubt." On
another occasion, when entertaining some of his col
leagues at dinner, he called the company's attention
to a large wine-glass encircled with three rings. The
first, he said, represented the Ten Commandments, the
second the Creed, and the third the Lord's Prayer.
Having emptied it at a single draft, he filled it again
and passed it to Agricola, something of a fanatic on
the subject of faith, who was able to get no further
than the Ten Commandments, to Luther's great
amusement. Beer and wine he partook of freely, as was the cus
tom of his countrymen, and his table conversation
may often have been less restrained in consequence;
but his enemies exaggerated when they accused him of
being a hard drinker. While he never criticized the
moderate use of wine and beer, he always severely
denounced over-indulgence in them, not sparing even
his own elector, John Frederick, who, with all his

Painted by Lucas Cranach

BUGENHAGEN, 1537

HOME LIFE 301
piety, was prone to frequent intoxication. According
to Melanchthon, Luther was always abstemious both
in food and drink, and often, when absorbed in work,
fasted completely for days at a time. An immoderate
drinker, at any rate, he certainly was not. Had he
been, he could not possibly have kept up year after
year, day in and day out, to the very end of his life,
his tremendous and unremitting labors. Almost super
human they seem, as we look back upon them. Only
a man of extraordinary self-control and constant con
centration of purpose could have accomplished what
he did.
Despite his public labors, which continued unabated,
Luther showed himself no little of a family man. He
did considerable gardening, and took a great interest
in getting rare plants from distant parts of the country.
Not long after his marriage he wrote Spalatin : "I have
planted a garden and dug a well, and both have turned
out successfully. Come, and you shall be crowned
with lilies and roses." He provided himself with a
carpenter's bench and a turning-lathe, securing through
his friend Link in Nuremberg the best tools to be had,
and he proved not unskilful in making useful articles
for the house. He continued to mend his own clothes,
not, as he declared, for the sake of economy, but be
cause the tailors were so poor. On one occasion, Kathe
had to complain, he cut up one of the children's gar
ments to patch his own trousers with.
Instead of working night and day, as before his mar
riage, he now permitted himself more leisure of an
evening, and confined his study and writing chiefly to
the daytime. It was his custom, so he remarked in
1537, to go to bed regularly at nine o'clock, an ex
traordinary contrast to the late hours kept in earlier
years. When the children came, he loved to spend

302 MARTIN LUTHER
such time as he could spare with them, and they were
devotedly attached to him. From Torgau he once
wrote to Kathe: "Although it is market season here,
I can find nothing in this city for the children. Have
something on hand if I should fail to bring anything
home for them."
In 1530, while at Coburg during the meeting of the
Diet of Augsburg, he wrote his four-year-old son the
following charming letter :
To my dear son, Hans Luther: Grace and peace in
Christ, my darling little son. I am very glad to hear
that you are studying well and praying diligently. Go
on doing so, my little son, and when I come home I will
bring you a beautiful present.
I know a lovely, pretty garden, where there are many
children. They wear golden coats, and pick up fine
apples, pears, cherries, and plums under the trees. They
sing and jump and are very merry. They also have
beautiful little horses with bridles of gold and saddles
of silver. I asked the man who owned the garden who
the children were. He answered, "These are the chil
dren who gladly pray and study and are good." Then
I said, "Dear man, I also have a son named Hans
Luther. Would n't he like to come into the garden and
eat such beautiful apples and pears and ride such fine
horses and play with these children!" Then the man
said, "If he prays and studies gladly, and is good, he
too shall come into the garden, and Lippus and Jost with
him. And when they are all here they shall have whis
tles and drums and lutes, and all sorts of things to make
music with, and they shall dance and shoot with little
crossbows." And he showed me a beautiful meadow
in the garden fixed for dancing. Gold whistles were
hung there, and drums and silver crossbows. But it was
still early and the children had not yet eaten, so I
could n't wait for the dance, and I said to the man:
"Dear sir, I will go as fast as I can and write it all to

HOME LIFE 303
my dear son Hans, that he may study and pray well and
be good and so come into this garden. But he has an
Aunt Lena whom he will have to bring with him." Then
the man said, "Very well, go and write it to him."
Therefore, dear little son Hans, study and pray
bravely, and tell Lippus and Jost to do so too, and you
shall all come into the garden with each other. The dear
God take care of you. Greet Aunty Lena and give her
a kiss for me. Your loving father,
Martin Luther.
April 22, 1530.
His marriage was blessed with six children, Hans,
who was named after Luther's father; Elizabeth;
Magdalen, after Kathe's aunt, who made her home
with her niece; Martin; Paul, named for Luther's
favorite apostle ; and Margaret, for his mother. Hans,
Martin, Paul, and Margaret survived their parents.
In spite of his father's dislike for the legal profession
and oft-expressed hope that none of his sons would
enter it, Hans studied law and spent his life in a minor
government position. Paul, the ablest of the three
boys, studied medicine and had a successful and hon
orable career as court physician to the Electors of
Saxony. Only Martin took up theology, and his
health was so poor that he was unable to engage in
active work and died at thirty-four. The reformer's
hope of leaving a son who would be a great theologian
and continue the campaign against the pope was thus
doomed to disappointment. His daughter Margaret
married a Wittenberg student of noble birth, and both ¦
she and her brother Paul have descendants still living.
Luther's oldest daughter, Elizabeth, died in infancy.
Immediately afterward, in a letter to a friend, he
wrote : "My little Elizabeth, my wee daughter, is dead.

304 MARTIN LUTHER
It is wonderful how sorrowful she has left me. My
soul is almost like a woman's, so moved am I with
misery. I could never have believed that the hearts of
parents are so tender toward their children. Pray the
Lord for me !"
The great grief of his life was the death, in 1542, of
his favorite child, Magdalen, when thirteen years of
age. She was a sweet and gentle character, and her
parents' hearts were wrapped up in her. As she lay
dying, a friend tells us, Luther threw himself on the
floor beside her bed, weeping bitterly and praying for
her restoration ; but she passed away in his arms, while
Kathe stood apart, overcome with emotion. For all his
Christian faith and the consolations of the gospel he
had brought to many others in similar affliction, he
realized now, as he never had before, the clamorous
insistence of human grief. "It is strange," he ex
claimed, "to know she is certainly well and at peace,
and yet to be so sorrowful." Her parents never ceased
mourning her. Not long before his death, Luther
wrote a friend : "It is extraordinary how the loss of
my Magdalen continues to oppress me. I cannot for
get her."
Despite these afflictions, Luther's married life, tak
ing it as a whole, was genuinely happy. Few of the
world's greatest men have been privileged to enjoy for
many years the solace and comfort of home and family
as he did. It seems at first almost incongruous. The
modern world's foremost prophet living the life of a
family man and interesting himself in the petty affairs
of a German professor's home! But it helped to keep
him human, and it should help us to realize his human-
ness.

CHAPTER XXI
THE FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH
IN renouncing allegiance to the pope and following
the lead of Luther, the church in Saxony and else
where became in reality a new institution, going its
own way and living its own life. But from Luther's
point of view it was simply the old church with certain
unessential and disturbing accessories stripped off.
This fact explains the leisurely and almost casual way
in which the new movement was organized and new
churches were formed.
When Luther was condemned as a heretic, his ac
tivities both as professor and preacher should have
ceased at once. But the papal bull counted for so
little in Wittenberg that he could go on teaching and
preaching as if nothing had happened. The imperial
ban was taken more seriously by the elector, who in
duced Luther to go into retirement for a season ; but in
the spring of 1522, despite Frederick's protest, the
reformer was back again in Wittenberg, carrying on
his work in university and church just as before. The
elector might have closed the doors of the university
to him, and the town council might have refused to let
him preach in the city church, but they preferred, in
tacit defiance of pope and emperor, to keep their hands
off, and allow him to go on unmolested.
The circumstances being what they were, the estab-
ao 305

306 MARTIN LUTHER
lishment of a new church seemed quite unnecessary.
From the beginning it was reformation, not revolution,
Luther wished — the old church brought into conform
ity with the word of God, not a new church indepen
dent of the old. At first he hoped that the ecclesiastical
rulers, both pope and bishops, would cooperate with
him in accomplishing the needed reforms. When they
refused, and he found their authority blocking the
way, he became convinced that they were not a neces
sary part of the church. Even without them it re
mained intact. As he continued to preach and
administer the sacraments in Wittenberg, he was still,
he believed, within the church of his fathers, and to
effect changes in its doctrine, discipline, and worship
in defiance of pope and bishops was not to found a
new church, but only to purify the old. No declaration
of independence, no explicit renunciation of existing
authorities, no formal constitution was needed, but
simply quiet and gradual alterations as the new prin
ciples seemed to demand them and the new situation to
justify them.
Had Luther been forced out of the existing organi
zation, he might have felt compelled to gather his fol
lowers into a new society, and they might have formed
an independent sect, as some of the Protestants later did
in England and elsewhere. But the necessity was not
upon him, for, in spite of papal bull and imperial ban,
he was left in reality unmolested in the church he was
in and was even allowed to reform it as he saw fit.
To be sure, the ecclesiastical rulers withheld their
consent; but without the elector's support they were
powerless, and their fulminations went for naught.
Though the reformer was in active rebellion against
them, and his conduct in open violation of law, the
Saxon government was on his side. His rebellion

THE FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH 307
was therefore crowned with success, and the local
ecclesiastical institution, with all its belongings, was
wrenched from the pope's control.
After 1522 much of Luther's time was spent in the
laborious task of organizing the new movement in
Saxony and elsewhere. The work was often of a
prosaic character. The dramatic interest attaching to
the earlier years was largely lacking, and the heroism
of the warrior and the inspiration of the prophet had
little opportunity to show themselves. And yet the
achievements of this period in the reformer's life must
not be thought lightly of.
It is commonly said that he was not a constructive
genius, and his prowess as a fighter is praised at the
expense of his skill as a builder. But to belittle the
latter is to mistake appearance for reality. Indifferent
he was to the details of organization and willing to let
many things take their course, but he had the one great
gift, rare enough then as always, of distinguishing the
important from the unimportant and knowing what to
insist upon despite all opposition and criticism. Often
his clearsightedness and iron firmness alone prevented
shipwreck. In his great days of conflict with the papacy he
seemed a radical theorist, eager to carry his principles
to their logical conclusions and to force their universal
application, whatever the consequences might be. But
when it came to the organization of the new movement
he frequently showed an extraordinary amount of
practical sense and a surprising willingness to accept
what was attainable and to postpone, or waive alto
gether, cherished measures that proved impracticable.
At the same time he stood like a rock for certain things
he deemed indispensable, preferring, as he frequently
said, to lose all he had gained and start over again

308 MARTIN LUTHER
from the beginning rather than to build on insecure
foundations. We may disagree with many of the positions he
took; we may count unimportant in our day and
generation not a few of the matters he thought essen
tial, and may deplore his failure to put some of his
most advanced principles into more consistent practice ;
but, the situation being what it was, it would be diffi
cult to conceive how any other course than that he
followed could have conserved the new movement and
enabled it to maintain itself permanently despite foes
without and dissensions within.
For some time no new ecclesiastical government was
formally substituted for the old. In the city church
of Wittenberg such changes as were made under
Luther's direction had the approval of the town coun
cil, and no other permission was asked. The Bishop of
Brandenburg, within whose jurisdiction Wittenberg
lay, was entirely ignored, but he was not unfriendly to
Luther and made no serious protest. In many other
towns similar independence was shown, the municipal
authorities taking things into their own hands and
reforming as they saw fit. Sometimes the elector also
lent his aid, as, for instance, in 1 522, when, at Luther's
solicitation, he supported the town council of Alten-
burg in appointing an evangelical pastor in accordance
with the wishes of the people but against the protest
of the authorities of the church. "It is the business
of the Altenburg council," Luther wrote the elector,
"and of your Electoral Grace as well, to keep false
preachers out, and to permit, or if necessary, compel
the installation of a proper preacher, seals, letters,
custom, law to the contrary notwithstanding." This
did not mean the formal recognition of state control.
It meant only that, when ecclesiastical rulers refused

THE FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH 309
to take up the work of reformation, civil rulers must
come to the rescue. Not official duty, but Christian
love, required them to do what they could to provide
for the religious welfare of their subjects.
Except on rare occasions, the Elector Frederick kept
his hands off and took no active part in the work of
reformation; but with the accession of his brother
John, in May, 1525, the situation was changed. He
was devoted heart and soul to Luther's cause and was
glad to let it be known. Abandoning Frederick's pol
icy of non-interference and ostensible neutrality, he
took an active and open share in pushing the work in
Saxony. One of the principal difficulties the new
movement had to face was the lack of adequate finan
cial support. In many cases those in control of eccle
siastical livings were out of sympathy with the
Reformation and refused to employ the funds for
the support of evangelical preachers. In other cases
the abolition of indulgences, private masses, and the
like, greatly reduced the income of the churches, and
too little was left to maintain a regular incumbent. In
the summer of 1525, Luther advised the new elector
not to respect the right of patronage when it operated
to the disadvantage of the Reformation, and in the
autumn he urged him to use his authority to prevent
the complete impoverishment of the churches and to
turn existing funds to the support of the gospel. Thus
he wrote on the thirty-first of October:
As the university is now in good order and the subject
of worship has been taken in hand, there are two other
matters demanding the attention of your Grace as civil
ruler. The first is the wretched condition of the parishes.
No one gives, no one pays. Offerings have ceased, and
regular incomes are lacking altogether or are too meager.
The common man respects neither preacher nor pastor,

310 MARTIN LUTHER
so that unless the parishes and pulpits are taken in hand
by your Grace, and proper support provided, in a short
time there will be no homes for the clergy left, and no
schools or pupils. Thus God's word and service will fall
to the ground. Therefore may your Grace permit God
to make still further use of you, and may you be his true
instrument, to your Grace's comfort and satisfaction of
conscience. For to this God certainly calls you through
us and through the existing need. Your Grace will find
a way of doing it. There are cloisters, foundations, en
dowments, and funds enough, if your Grace will appro
priate them to this purpose. God will also add his bless
ing, and will give the business success.
A year later he wrote the elector again :
Since all of us, particularly rulers, are commanded
above everything else to educate the young, who are daily
born and are growing up among us, and to keep them in
order and in the fear of God, schools and preachers and
pastors are necessary. If the parents won't see to it, let
them go to the devil. If the young remain uncared for
and uneducated, the fault is the government's. More
over, the land becomes full of wild and loose persons, so
that not only God's command, but our common need,
obliges us to find some way to meet the situation. Since
papal and clerical law and order are now at an end in
your Grace's realm, and all cloisters and foundations have
fallen into the hands of your Grace as chief ruler, you
have also the duty and responsibility of looking after these
affairs. For there is no one else who can or should
do it. . . .
Where a city or village has sufficient means, your Grace
has the right to require them to support schools, pulpits,
and churches. If they will not do it for their own good,
it is the duty of your Grace, who are the chief guardian
of the young and of all in need, to compel them by force
to do it, just as they are compelled to contribute money

THE FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH 311
and labor for the building of bridges and roads and for
other needed improvements.
About the same time, at the suggestion of others,
Luther urged upon the elector the appointment of a
commission to visit the churches throughout the coun
try and to report on their condition and needs. The
visitation began early in 1526, and, after being carried
on for a time in a somewhat desultory fashion, was
finally carefully organized and became a most impor
tant agency in the reformation of Saxony. The visit
ors did not confine themselves to the financial status
of the churches, but took up the whole matter of life,
worship, and doctrine. They did much to improve
religious conditions and to give strength and homoge
neity to the new movement. As they were named by
the elector and reported to him, the control of the
church by the civil government received an added
impetus. In his preface to a book of instructions prepared by
Melanchthon for the use of the visitors, Luther wrote :
Now that the gospel, by the rich and unspeakable grace
of God, has mercifully been restored to us, and shines so
clearly that we can see how deranged, distracted, and
torn Christendom is, we should have liked to erect again
the genuine office of bishop and visitor, which is greatly
needed. But as none of us was called, or had a clear
commission thereto, and St. Peter will have nothing done
among Christians unless it be certain it is God's work,
there was no one to undertake it rather than another.
And so, wishing to do only what we were sure of, we
kept to the law of love, which is laid upon all Christians
alike, and humbly and earnestly begged the serene, high
born, Prince John, Duke of Saxony, etc., our most gra
cious lord, ordained of God to be our country's prince
and our earthly ruler, that out of Christian love — for by

312 MARTIN LUTHER
civil law he is not bound thereto— and for the sake of
God, the good of the gospel, and the benefit and salvation
of the poor Christians in his dominions, he would gra
ciously summon and appoint certain qualified persons to
this office, which by God's good pleasure his Grace has
kindly done.
The visitation of the churches of his diocese had
always been one of the most important, though widely
neglected, functions of the bishop, and the new com
missioners, under the elector's authorization, were
therefore assuming episcopal duties and prerogatives.
As Luther remarked, when referring to the matter in
a letter to Amsdorf, "We are visitors ; that is, bishops."
The visitors found things in a very deplorable state.
For a long time the religious interests of the people
had been sadly neglected, and the Reformation had
not done much to mend the situation. Rather it had
brought wide-spread demoralization, and "had broken
down respect for the old sanctions, without as yet
supplying new ones to take their place. Luther him
self was loud in his complaints of what he found.
Thus he wrote Spalatin, in 1529:
Everywhere the condition of the churches is most
miserable. The peasants learn nothing, know nothing,
and do nothing except abuse their liberty. They do not
pray at all, nor do they go to confession or communion.
They act as if they were wholly free from religion. As
they neglected their own papal usages, they now despise
ours. Dreadful it is to contemplate the administration of
the Roman bishops.
His experiences as a visitor only increased his dis
trust of the common people already sown in his heart
by the peasants' war. He became more than ever

THE FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH 313
convinced that they were not fit for self-government
and needed to be controlled with a strong hand in
religious as well as in civil affairs. To the end of his
life he retained his belief in the universal priesthood
of believers, so beautifully expressed in his book on
Christian liberty, and the church he defined as a com
munity of true Christians already saved, completely
free, and needing no rulers and no laws. But though
he had this ideal always in mind, he was too practical,
and too much concerned for the welfare of the mass
of men, to become absorbed in the formation of such
a select community of saints. He would be glad to
have a company of genuine Christians meet for mu
tual edification and inspiration, but he would not have
them separate themselves from the larger church, and,
forming an independent sect, live in selfish communion
with kindred souls. The church existed for the sake
of the world, not for the sake of its own members.
Its great mission was to proclaim the gospel to unbe
lievers and half -believers. The last thing he wished
was to substitute for the existing church, to which all
sorts of people flocked, whatever their spiritual state,
a small and private conventicle accessible only to the
elect. On the contrary, he would gather all he could
into the churches day by day, and so reach as many
as possible with the Christian message.
He did draw a distinction between the indifferent
masses and genuine Christians. To the Lord's Supper
he would admit only the latter, thus making it a means
of testifying publicly to their Christian faith. But
baptism, he insisted, should continue as heretofore to
be administered to every child in the community, that
all might share in the promise of forgiveness, and
none grow up alien to the church. Thus, whatever his
theory of a true spiritual company of saints, for all

314 MARTIN LUTHER
practical purposes the church continued, as it had
been, a public institution, constituting an integral part
of the life of the community.
Luther's notion of the church as established to
proclaim the gospel made it necessary, so he thought,
to see that it actually did proclaim the true, and not a
false, gospel. To permit its ministers to go on op
posing the word of God and leading the people astray
was to destroy the church altogether by making it a
curse instead of a blessing to the community. Ac
cordingly, as early as 1522 we find him insisting that
only evangelical preachers should be allowed to minister
in the churches, and those opposing the gospel should
be removed from their positions. "For it is not unjust,"
he declared in a letter of that year to Count John
Henry of Schwarzburg, "but the highest justice, to
drive the wolf out of the sheep fold, and not to mind
if he be disemboweled in the process. A preacher is
paid to do good, not harm. If he does harm, he
thereby forfeits his stipend."
In 1526, in a letter to the Elector John, he went so
far as to say that only one kind of preaching should
be tolerated in any town. When preachers disagree,
discord is sown among the people, and it is the duty
of the civil ruler to prevent all uproar and tumult.
In the matter of religious rites and ceremonies he
was more liberal. Here he was quite willing the
widest variety should reign even in a single com
munity. In 1524, a clerical friend urged the conven
ing of a synod to agree upon a common form of
worship for all the churches in sympathy with the new
movement ; but Luther opposed the plan as tending to
produce mechanical conformity and infringe liberty in
unessential matters. A little over a year later, in
response to numerous requests, he published his

THE FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH 315
"Deutsche Messe," or "German Order of Worship,"
not as a law to govern the services, but as an indication
of what was done in the Wittenberg church. "First
of all," he said, "I beg those who examine this order
of worship, and desire to follow it, not to make out of
it a binding rule or constrain any one's conscience,
but in accordance with Christian liberty to use it as
they please when, where, and as long as it proves
adapted to their needs."
The book, he went on to say, was not intended for
those already Christians, — they had their own spir
itual worship and needed none of his help, — but for
those who wished to become Christians and particu
larly for the young and immature. "For their sakes
you must read, sing, pray, write, and versify. If it
would do any good, I should be glad to have all the
bells ring and organs play and everything make a
noise that could." And a little farther on: "Let us
not be too proud and despise such child's play. When
Christ wished to attract men, he had to become a man ;
and if we would attract children, we must become
children with them."
He recommended the use of German in the ser
vices, but, curiously enough, with the interest of a
pedagogue rather than a pastor, he wished to retain
some Latin as a help to pupils in the Schools. For the
same reason, he said, he would be glad to introduce
Greek and Hebrew, if they were as generally studied
as Latin!
More important for the future of the evangelical
cause than any of his labors over details of organiza
tion and worship were some of the products of his
pen, upon which German Protestantism has nourished
itself from that day to this. His Bible translation has
been already spoken of. In 1529 appeared his large

316 MARTIN LUTHER
and small catechisms, the latter containing a most
beautiful summary of Christian faith and duty, wholly
devoid of polemics of every kind and so simple and
concise as to be easily understood and memorized by
every child. It has formed the basis of the religious
education of German youth ever since. Though pre
ceded by other catechisms from the pen of this and
that colleague or disciple, it speedily displaced them
all, not simply because of its authorship but because
of its superlative merit, and has alone maintained it
self in general use. The versatility of the reformer in
adapting himself with such success to the needs of the
young and immature is no less than extraordinary.
Such a little book as this it is that reveals most clearly
the genius of the man.
Some of his many hymns have also had permanent
influence. He was greatly interested in the production
of good German songs for use in the services of the
church, and he enlisted the aid of everybody he could
to enrich evangelical hymnody. It was characteristic
of him that he liked strong and rugged rather than
smooth and musical verse, and was fond of unsym-
metrical rhythms and stanzas closing with an un-
rhymed line. He frequently lamented his own lack of
poetic gifts. As a matter of fact, most of his hymns
are prosaic and commonplace enough, but some of
them show inspiration of a high order, and "Ein' feste
Burg," the noblest of them all, with its splendid music
from an unknown hand, has sung itself into the lives
and hearts of multitudes of Protestants of his own and
other lands.
In spite of the reformer's desire not to enforce
uniformity of worship and not to make the order he
employed a law for other churches, the example of
Wittenberg was generally followed throughout Sax-

THE FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH 317
ony, and the evangelical services in all parts of the
country were much alike. In general they were similar
to the Catholic services they had displaced. In his
"Deutsche Messe" Luther declared nothing ought to
be changed unless it violated the word of God or was
harmful in itself. Gowns, candles, altars, the eleva
tion of the host, festivals, fast-days, and many other
things, he would allow to remain unmolested. Not
that they were all ideal, but the people were accus
tomed to them, and it did no harm to retain them. In
1 528 he wrote a friend :
I condemn no ceremonies but those opposed to the
gospel. All others I retain intact in our church. For the
font stands, and baptism is administered with the same
rites as heretofore, though the language used is the ver
nacular. I even leave the images undisturbed, except
those destroyed by the rioters before my return. We also
celebrate mass in the customary vestments and forms,
only adding certain German songs, and substituting the
vernacular in the words of consecration. I do not by any
means want the Latin mass done away, nor would I have
permitted the use of German had I not been compelled to.
In short, I hate nobody worse than him who upsets free
and harmless ceremonies and turns liberty into necessity.
As late as 1541 he could inform Chancellor Briick:
Our services, God be praised ! are so conducted as re
gards unessential things that a layman from Italy or
Spain, not understanding German, would be compelled to
say, on seeing our mass, choir, organs, bells, and the like,
that ours is a true papal church, not at all or very little
different from what he has in his own country.
Writing in 1539 to a Berlin clergyman who was
troubled by the many Catholic ceremonies retained in

318 MARTIN LUTHER
the worship of the newly established evangelical church
of Brandenburg, he said :
In God's name make your processions with a silver or
gold cross and with cowl and mantle of velvet, satin, or
linen. And if your lord, the elector, does not find one
hood or cassock enough, put on three, as Aaron the high
priest wore three richly adorned garments from which
the priestly robes under the papacy got their name. And
if his electoral Grace does not find one circuit or proces
sion enough, with its ringing and singing, make seven, as
Joshua marched about Jericho with the children of Israel,
shouting and blowing trumpets. And if your lord, the
margrave, would enjoy it, let his electoral Grace leap
and dance in front of the procession with harps, kettle
drums, cymbals, and bells, as David did before the ark
when it was brought into the city of Jerusalem.
At the same time, though tolerant of the greater
part of the old worship, Luther condemned certain
features of it as wholly inconsistent with the gospel.
Chief among these was the traditional form of cele
brating the mass, which represented it as a sacrifice
and good work. He early revised the service in such
a way as to remove this objection, congratulating him
self that it was in Latin, and the change would there
fore not greatly disturb the common people. The
withholding of the cup from the laity he also disliked,
as many others did, because out of harmony with
Christ's words of institution. But he regarded this as
less of a scandal, and for some time was willing to
tolerate it in many places for the sake of weak con
sciences. In 1525 he went so far as to insist that Catholic
worship — meaning particularly the sacrifice of the
mass, which was its very heart— should be prohibited

THE FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH 319
altogether in Saxony. The government, he asserted
repeatedly, is charged with the responsibility of pun
ishing and putting a stop to open blasphemy and pro
fanity of all kinds. Within the category of such
crimes he classed engaging in Roman Catholic wor
ship, as well as teaching doctrines contrary to "a
public article of the creed clearly grounded in the
Bible and everywhere believed."
Even this was not enough. The prohibition of
Catholic worship and of the preaching of false doc
trine he wished to have supplemented by the require
ment of compulsory attendance upon the established
services. In 1529 he wrote :
Since the decalogue and the catechism teach also civic
and domestic duties, and these need to be frequently in
culcated, such persons, whether they believe the gospel
or not, should be required to attend the services, that they
may learn how to behave themselves in public and private
and may not do others harm by their contempt of civic
and domestic instruction. For if they wish to live in
society, they should hear and learn its laws, even though
unwillingly, not only on their own account, but for the
sake of their children and servants.
Little enough place for freedom would seem to be
left where such ideas prevailed, but as long as he lived
Luther avowed himself in favor of full liberty of
conscience. "Thoughts are tax-free," he exclaimed in
the words of an old proverb. "Heresy is a spiritual
thing. It cannot be slain with the sword, burned with
fire, or drowned with water. Over the soul God can
and will let no one rule except Himself alone," he
declared in his work on civil rulers published in 1523.
Again and again, while insisting most earnestly upon
the necessity of prohibiting false teaching and Cath-

320 MARTIN LUTHER
olic worship, he asserted with equal emphasis complete
freedom of faith. Writing to the Elector John early
in 1 526, he said :
They are not obliged to believe; only open scandal
is forbidden them. ... In their chambers they may wor
ship whom they wish and as many gods as they please,
but publicly they shall not so blaspheme the true God
and lead people astray.
And to a friend he wrote in 1529 :
Although no one is to be compelled to believe, no one,
on the other hand, is to be permitted to blaspheme the
doctrine, but he must give his reasons and listen to argu
ment. If his grounds stand the test, well and good. If
not, he must keep his mouth shut and believe in private
what he pleases. So it is done in Nuremberg and here in
Wittenberg. For, when it is possible, opposing doctrines
are not to be tolerated under one government, that trouble
may be avoided.
Clearly Luther's was not the Catholic principle. Un
belief and heresy were not crimes deserving punish
ment. Only the public teaching of them was to be
forbidden. Consistently therewith, he always refused
to approve the traditional death penalty for heresy.
Those who persisted in inculcating false doctrines and
openly carrying on Catholic worship should be ex
cluded from the country, but no other punishment
should be inflicted upon them. There were Catholic
lands where they could find things to their liking.
Thither they ought to betake themselves, and not to
be allowed to disturb the public peace. In the same
way he repeatedly exhorted his followers in Catholic
countries to refrain from disobeying and defying the
authorities. If their consciences did not permit them
to do as they were bid by their rulers, they should

THE FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH 321
quietly withdraw, and seek a home in evangelical ter
ritory. Luther's attitude toward non-conformity in
doctrine and worship was thus very unlike the tra
ditional Catholic attitude. To exile non-conformists
for the sake of public peace and order, mistaken
though the policy may be, is an altogether different
matter from imprisoning or executing them for the
crime of sacrilege or treason. With all his intolerance,
Luther prepared the way, in some degree at least, for
the toleration of modern days. And, in any case, it
may fairly be doubted whether any larger measure of
freedom would have been possible in that period of
strife; whether the infant movement, the forces ar
rayed against it being what they were, could have
maintained itself without the strong measures of self-
protection he advocated.
In 1 526 an imperial diet met at Spires, on the upper
Rhine. Though largely in the minority, the evan
gelical princes and the representatives of certain free
cities let their sympathy with the Reformation be
clearly known and insisted that the Edict of Worms
could not be carried out. Pope Clement VII, who
had succeeded the luckless Adrian in 1523, was in
league with King Francis against the emperor, and
Charles was too much occupied to pay any serious
attention to German affairs. As a result, the diet
agreed upon a compromise, postponing the final settle
ment of the religious question, and providing that in
the meantime, so far as concerned the Edict of
Worms, each ruler should conduct himself in such a
way as to be able to defend his course before God and
the emperor. Though not an official authorization of
the Reformation, this action strengthened the hands
of the Elector of Saxony and other evangelical
princes. It was widely interpreted as laying upon
21

322 MARTIN LUTHER
them the responsibility of continuing the work already
begun and organizing the church within their respec
tive territories as they saw fit. Therein the Prot
estant state churches of Germany were already
foreshadowed. For a time it looked as if the Reformation would
sweep the entire country and a national German church
be the result of Luther's labors; but the hostility of
the emperor and of many princes of the realm made
this impossible. Instead of one national church tak
ing the place of the historic Catholic institution, there
came into existence a number of separate and inde
pendent bodies, bound together by devotion to a great
leader, by the acceptance of the same standards, and
by common hostility to Rome, but each subject to the
local state government and controlled thereby. Of
independency, or separation of church and state, there
was none. With the generally prevalent belief that
only one form of religion should anywhere be toler
ated, and with Roman Catholicism intrenched in most
of the states of Germany, a new church could gain a
permanent foothold only where made a state affair
and backed by the civil power. The princes in sym
pathy with the Reformation could therefore do noth
ing else than follow the example of Saxony and
organize an evangelical state church each for himself.
The spread of the Reformation as an organized
movement depended upon them. Where, they refused
to accept it, while evangelical sentiment might exist,
evangelical churches were impossible. When they
were won over, a state church was constructed as a
matter of course, and Catholicism was put under the
ban. The people had little to say in the matter either
way. The great mass of them, indeed, had small in
terest in it. The pope's prestige had long been low in

THE FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH 323
Germany ; but to break with him, it had been generally
believed, was to put oneself outside the Christian
church and imperil one's eternal salvation. The net
result of Luther's work was the establishment of a
non-papal church, still in possession of the means of
grace, and so like the old as to appeal to the same
emotions and inspire the same confidence. Few were
so devoted to the papacy that they felt compelled to
turn their backs upon the church they had been
brought up in when it ceased to avow allegiance to
Rome. Few were so devoted to the principles of
Luther that they could not find their religious needs
satisfied in a church still under papal control. Lu
theran sentiment might prevail more widely here,
Catholic sentiment more widely there; but in every
case the ruler determined whether his state should
stand by the old or throw in its fortunes with the new.
Cujus regio, ejus religio (Whose the rule, his the
religion) became the universal formula.
Many and various were the motives leading one and
another ruler to embrace the Reformation. There
were those like the electors of Saxony, Frederick the
Wise,' John the Constant, and John Frederick the
Magnanimous, who were honestly convinced of the
truth of Luther's gospel, and ready, if necessary, to
sacrifice personal and political advantage to the main
tenance of his cause ; but there were others who were
moved by considerations of a different kind. Regard
for the wishes of their people, impatience with
ecclesiastical encroachments and clerical corruption,
hostility to pope or emperor, desire for political inde
pendence, the wish to be on the winning side, the hope
of possible advantages in any change, greed of gain
looking with covetous eyes upon the property of the
church — all these had their place.

324 MARTIN LUTHER
As time passed, the evangelical states multiplied
rapidly. At Luther's death the greater part of north
ern Germany was officially Protestant, while most of
southern Germany remained Catholic. Despite the
varying fortunes of the two confessions in the re
ligious wars which followed, and the liberty ulti
mately won everywhere, the prevailing complexion of
North and South is still much as it was then. Nothing
else was to be expected. More and more, as time
passed, patriotism and local pride tended to promote
loyalty to the established religion and contempt for the
rival faith.

CHAPTER XXII
LUTHER AND ZWINGLI
HAND in hand with the organization of the Lu
theran movement went its segregation from
other and parallel movements. The radicals were
repudiated in the early twenties, the break with hu
manism soon followed, and later came the split be
tween the German and Swiss Protestants, for which
Luther was wholly responsible. His intolerance ap
peared most clearly not in his attitude toward Catholic
doctrine and worship, but in his dealings with other
evangelicals who disagreed with him or walked in
different paths. As time passed, he grew more im
patient of dissent and more insistent upon complete
agreement. This was not a mere consequence of ad
vancing years, for he showed it in his dealings with
Carlstadt and the radicals as early as 1522, when he
was still under forty. It was in part temperamental,
the natural accompaniment of his strong convictions
and masterful will, in part the result of his growing
interest in the consolidation of the new movement.
A free-lance he had been for years; now he was be
coming an organization man, and he felt the need of
harmony and cooperation within the ranks of the
evangelicals. Characteristically it seldom occurred to
him to promote peace by waiving any of his own prin
ciples or prejudices. Peace was to be had, as a rule,
only by all his followers and associates accepting his
325

326 MARTIN LUTHER
opinions and living by his ideals. His general attitude
in the matter appears clearly enough from the follow
ing passage of the "Table Talk" :
They have plagued us in their books and writings with
the word "charity": "You Wittenbergers have no char
ity !" When we ask what charity is, they say, "That we
should be harmonious in doctrine and abandon these
quarrels over religion." Yes, do you hear? There are
two tables, the first and the second. Charity belongs to
the second table; there it is above all works. But it is
said, "Fear God and hear His word." About this they
care nothing. Christ says, "He that has loved mother and
father more than me is not worthy of me." Charity you
ought to have toward relatives and servants. Love, love,
and be kind to mother and father. But "he that has loved
them more than me"! When the "me" comes charity
ceases. And so I am glad to be called obstinate, proud,
pig-headed, uncharitable, and what they please, so long
as I am not a participant with them. From that may God
preserve me !
The most notable example of Luther's intolerance
was his attitude toward the famous Swiss reformer
Ulrich Zwingli. Beginning his reforming work inde
pendently, Zwingli soon felt the influence of the Wit
tenberg monk, and accepted a considerable part of his
religious teaching. In practical matters more of a
radical than Luther, he broke more completely with
Catholic rites and ceremonies, among other things
rejecting the notion of the real presence in the
Eucharist and making the Supper only a memorial
feast. To Luther this seemed the worst of heresies,
and a warm controversy broke out, which continued
for many years. Personal considerations doubtless
had much to do with his attitude. The growth of the
Swiss reformer's influence in southwestern Germany,

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ULRICH ZWINGLI
Painted by Hans Asper

LUTHER AND ZWINGLI 327
resulting in the alienation of many of Luther's follow
ers, could hardly fail to prove irritating, and that
Zwingli's doctrine was identical with Carlstadt's did
not particularly commend it to him. In December,
1524, he wrote Amsdorf :
Carlstadt's venom crawls far. Zwingli at Zurich, Leo
Jude, and many others have accepted his opinion, con
stantly asserting that the bread of the sacrament is in no
wise different from that sold in the market.
And a few weeks later he wrote another friend :
Carlstadt, wholly given over to the demons, rages
against us in many little books, full of the poison of
death and hell. He denies that the sacrament is the body
and blood of Christ. I am now replying to him, though
with his secret machinations he has tricked many of the
populace in many places. ... In His own good time
God will find Carlstadt, who, I think, has sinned the sin
unto death.
But there were deeper reasons for the disagreement.
The belief in the real presence supplied too potent a
guaranty of the gospel of God's forgiving love in
Christ to be willingly abandoned by Luther, and his
conviction that it was explicitly taught in the New
Testament gave him warrant for insisting upon it as
a necessary article of faith. As a matter of fact, the
disagreement over the sacrament was only a symptom
of a general difference of spirit and interest. Zwingli
was a humanist, and his horizon was broader than
Luther's and his emphasis on Christianity less exclu
sive. Though for the most part in formal agreement
with the Wittenberg reformer, he was not so con-
trollingly religious, and his evangelicalism was of a
less extreme type. He had large political plans, and

328 MARTIN LUTHER
hoped to secure a permanent place for Protestantism
in Europe by a coalition of the German Protestant
states with Switzerland and France against the em
peror and the pope. More a man of the world than
Luther, he cared as much for changing the map of
Europe as for saving the souls of men.
At a second diet of Spires held in 1529, when pope
and emperor were once more at peace, drastic meas
ures were adopted to check the farther spread of
the Reformation. As a consequence, five evangelical
princes, including the Elector of Saxony and the
Landgrave of Hesse, together with the representatives
of fourteen free cities, signed a formal protest, from
which the name "Protestant" comes. In this protest
they criticized the diet for reversing by a majority
vote the unanimous action of 1526, and declared them
selves unable to submit to its decision; for in matters
affecting the honor of God and the salvation of the
soul their consciences, they claimed, required them to
obey God rather than man.
In order to consolidate the anti-papal forces and
prevent their division into permanently hostile camps
just at the time they were threatened by the common
foe, Philip of Hesse, the political genius among the
evangelical princes, conceived the idea of arranging
a meeting between Luther and Zwingli, where they
could discuss their differences and possibly come to
some agreement. He had long been favorably dis
posed toward the Swiss reformer, and believed if Lu
ther understood him better he would be willing to
waive the matters in controversy for the sake of the
general cause. He therefore invited both of them,
with other representatives of the two parties, to a
conference at Marburg, his principal seat of residence.
Luther was opposed to the conference and expected no

LUTHER AND ZWINGLI 329
good from it, as he frankly informed the landgrave in
the following characteristic letter :
To the serene, high-born Prince and Lord, Philip,
Landgrave of Hesse, Count of Katzenellenbogen, Nidda,
and Ziegenhain, my gracious Lord : Grace and peace from
Christ, serene, high-born Prince, gracious Lord. I have
received with pleasure your Grace's letter, written, I
doubt not, with a gracious and Christian mind toward me,
in which you fix Michael's day for my coming to Mar
burg to talk with the opposite party in friendly and pri
vate fashion. I have also read the letter of my most
gracious Lord, Duke John, Elector, in which his Grace
is earnestly concerned to answer your Grace favorably
for the good of the cause, that God may show His favor,
and the division among us over the sacrament may be
done away. I believe with, all my heart that your Grace
has the very best intentions, and I am therefore ready to
perform for your Grace the service you ask, even though
it will come to nothing, as I fear, and will perhaps prove
dangerous for us. For I also desire peace, about which
others have so much to say with tongue and pen, while
their conduct is such as to give no hope of it.
All the more I will take this opportunity of saying
frankly to your Grace what I think. It looks to me as
if the other side were seeking through your Grace's zeal
to gain something which will result in no good, namely,
to be able to boast afterward of having done everything
they could, even to influencing so great a prince, and load
us with reproach on your Grace's account, as if we had
no liking for peace or truth. God grant I may not be a
true prophet! I have had experience of such tricks for
twelve years and have often been badly burned.
For if it be not a stratagem, and they are really in ear
nest, they ought not to adopt such a spectacular course
and make use of great and mighty princes who have other
things to do. All this was not needed, for we are not so
exalted, nor so wild and barbarous, that they could not

330 MARTIN LUTHER
long ago have shown us in writing their boasted love of
peace and truth. Accordingly, if your Grace is willing to
do it, I should be glad, since your Grace wishes to take
a hand in the affair, to have inquiry made of the other
side whether they are disposed to yield their opinion, that
the evil may not at length become worse. For your Grace
can easily see that all conference will be in vain if both
sides come with the determination to give up nothing.
All I have seen hitherto leads me to think they will stand
by their position even after they have rightly understood
our reasons, as I know well I cannot yield when I
have heard theirs, for I am certain they are wrong. If,
then, we separate still unreconciled, not only will your
Grace's expense and trouble and our time and labor be
wasted, but they will also continue their boasting as here
tofore, and thus compel us to answer them again. So it
were better to leave things as they are. For, in a word, I
can expect nothing good from the devil, however fine an
appearance he puts on.
So far as concerns your Grace's fear that bloodshed
may follow such disunity, your Grace knows well that if
it come by God's will, we shall be guiltless of it. It
is not a new thing for sectaries to cause bloodshed.
They have shown it in Francis von Sickingen, and in
Carlstadt and Miinzer, while we, by God's grace, were
afterward found wholly blameless. May Christ our Lord
trample Satan under His feet and ours. Amen.
Your Grace's obedient
Martin Luther.
June 23, 1529.
As the Landgrave, however, in spite of this letter,
persisted in his plan, Luther finally yielded to his im
portunity and promised to be present. Writing in
July to a friend named Brismann, he remarked :
The Landgrave of Hesse has invited us to Marburg on
St. Michael's day, in the hope of promoting harmony be-

MARBURG CASTLE FROM THE SOUTH

LUTHER AND ZWINGLI 331
tween us and the sacramentarians. Philip and I, after
long refusing and vainly holding back, were at length
compelled by his insistence to promise we would come.
I don't yet know whether the project will be carried out.
We have no hope of a good result, but suspect the whole
thing is a trap to give them the glory of victory.
The colloquy was actually held from the first to the
fourth of October in Philip's castle at Marburg, which
still crowns the hill above the town. There were
many theologians of both parties present, Luther and
Melanchthon being the chief representatives of Wit
tenberg; Zwingli and GLcolampadius, of Switzerland.
As might have been expected, in view of Luther's
attitude, the meeting failed altogether to bring about
the desired result. Taking his stand upon the literal
interpretation of the words "This is my body," he
refused to budge, though plied with all sorts of argu
ments. His contempt for human reason, avowed in
his early attacks upon Aristotle and repeated over and
over again since, was never more strikingly exhibited.
Rational considerations, drawn from the nature of a
physical body, counted for naught, and were peremp
torily brushed aside as heathenish. Nothing could
better have shown the diversity of interest between the
two men than this colloquy. Luther was right in de
claring Zwingli's spirit different from his. For
Zwingli, with his more advanced views and broader
outlook, it was easy to tolerate his antagonist and
cooperate with him ; for Luther it was impossible. It
must be recognized, too, that while the former, like the
Landgrave Philip, hoped for a great political league
against emperor and pope, Luther, opposed on prin
ciple to armed resistance, was altogether averse to it.
The motive driving the others to seek peace and har
mony was therefore not his.

332 MARTIN LUTHER
In reading the reports of the Marburg colloquy, we
are inevitably reminded of the great Leipsic debate of
eleven years before. As Eck then insisted upon blind
and unquestioning submission to the authority of the
church, Luther now insisted on the same kind of sub
mission to the authority of the Bible. The servant
should not question the will of his master; he should
simply shut his eyes and obey. No wonder Oecolam
padius complained that he was a second Eck. The role
of conservative was now his instead of Eck's, and
though the authority to which he appealed was differ-
ent, his attitude toward it was the same.
Although the conference at Marburg failed to ac
complish what Philip hoped for, it was not wholly
without benefit. Luther discovered, to his surprise,
that Zwingli was less heretical than he had supposed.
At the request of those present he drew up a confession
of faith consisting of fifteen articles, and while its
wording was not altogether satisfactory to the Swiss
theologians, they were able to agree to the whole of it
with the exception of a portion of the article on the
sacrament. Luther was entirely wrong in taking their
assent as an indication of a change of faith, and he
was unjust in concluding that their convictions meant
little to them. Their action showed only an honest
desire for peace and a commendable willingness to
overlook mere verbal differences.
On his way home Luther wrote Agricola :
We were magnificently received by the Prince of Hesse
and splendidly entertained. There were present CEcolam-
padius, Zwingli, Bucer, and Hedio, with three excellent
men, Jacob Sturm of Strasburg, Ulrich Funk of Zurich,
and another from Basel. They begged most humbly for
peace. The discussion lasted for two days. I replied to
both CEcolampadius and Zwingli, insisting upon the

LUTHER AND ZWINGLI 333
words "This is my body." All their objections I refuted.
The day before we had a friendly discussion in private, I
with Qicolampadius, Philip with Zwingli. In the mean
time there arrived Andrew Osiander, John Brenz, and
Stephen of Augsburg. To sum it all up, the men are
unskilful and inexperienced in debate. Although they
perceived their arguments proved nothing, they were un
willing to yield in the one matter of Christ's bodily pres
ence, more, as I think, from fear and shame than from
wickedness. In everything else they backed down, as
you will see from the published report. At the end they
asked us at least to recognize them as brethren, and this
the prince earnestly urged; but it was quite impossible.
Nevertheless, we gave them the hand of peace and char
ity, agreeing that bitter words and writings should be
stopped, and each should teach his own opinion without
invective, but not without argument and defense. So
we parted.
This agreement unfortunately did not put an end to
the controversy. The old asperities soon reappeared
in the writings of both Luther and Zwingli. Though
the latter was less bigoted than the former and readier
to unite forces with him, there was little to choose
between the two men in the matter of temper and style
of polemic. Arrived home, Zwingli spoke very con
temptuously of his antagonist's arguments and loudly
claimed he had completely vanquished him, to the
older reformer's great disgust. Writing the following
June to Jacob Probst of Bremen, Luther said :
In boasting that I was vanquished at Marburg the
sacramentarians act as is their wont. For they are not
only liars, but falsehood, deceit, and hypocrisy itself, as
Carlstadt and Zwingli show both in deeds and words.
They revoked at Marburg, as you can see from the ar
ticles drawn up there, the things hitherto taught in their

334 MARTIN LUTHER
pestilential books concerning baptism, the use of the
sacraments, and the preaching of the word. We revoked
nothing. But when they were conquered also in the
matter of the Lord's Supper they were unwilling to re
nounce their position, even though they could see it was
untenable, for they feared their people, to whom they
could not have returned if they had recanted.
In the autumn of 1531, while performing a chap
lain's duties, Zwingli was killed in a battle between
Zurich and the Swiss Catholic cantons. Commenting
soon afterward upon the sad and untimely event,
Luther wrote his friend Link, with no sign of re
lenting :
We see the judgment of God a second time — first in
the case of Miinzer, and now of Zwingli. I was a prophet
when I said, God will not long endure these mad and
furious blasphemies with which they overflow, laughing at
our God made bread, and calling us carnivora, savages,
drinkers of blood, and other horrible names.
In 1536, through the efforts of the Strasburg theo
logian, Martin Bucer, peace was finally concluded be
tween the Lutherans of Saxony and the Protestants of
southwestern Germany, whose sympathies had hitherto
been decidedly Zwinglian. The death of the Swiss re
former had made union with Wittenberg seem im
perative to Bucer and his associates, and at the same
time by removing the fear of Swiss ascendancy had
rendered it easier for Luther to waive his objections to
it. After a week's conference at Wittenberg, during
which the theologians of southwestern Germany made
many concessions and succeeded in convincing Luther
of their belief in the real presence, despite their differ
ent way of expressing their faith, the Wittenberg con-

LUTHER AND ZWINGLI 335
cord was signed by both parties on the twenty-ninth of
May. Though efforts were later made to include the
Protestants of Switzerland in the same agreement,
they were without result. The Swiss remained loyal to
Zwingli, while Luther persisted in thinking them
heretical. The old asperities continued, and one of
Luther's latest books was an exposition of his doctrine
of the Eucharist, full of the bitterest denunciations of
the sacramentarians, as Zwingli's followers were com
monly called.
The whole controversy was most unfortunate.
Though we can easily understand Luther's attitude, it
is difficult to excuse it. As in too many other cases,
difference of opinion gave rise to personal hatred and
vindictiveness, which the great reformer was unhap
pily unable, as many a one has been unable in similar
circumstances, to distinguish from zeal for God's glory
and devotion to His cause.

CHAPTER XXIII
AT COBURG
IN 1530, another imperial diet met at Augsburg, and
the Emperor Charles appeared in Germany for the
first time since the diet of Worms. As he let it be
known that he would insist upon a final settlement of
the religious question, the Protestant princes came
prepared for the worst. Being still under the imperial
ban, Luther could not appear at Augsburg, nor was it
felt desirable he should, for conciliation, not con
troversy, was the need of the hour. Accordingly, while
Melanchthon and other theologians accompanied the
elector to the diet, he was left behind at Coburg, on
the Saxon frontier, about a hundred and thirty miles
from Augsburg. Writing to the humanist Eoban
Hess of Nuremberg, whom his friends were expecting
to see on their way to Augsburg, he said :
. I send you, my Eoban, four epistles at once. Living
and speaking epistles they are, yes, and most eloquent —
Justus, Philip, Spalatin, and Agricola. I should gladly
have been the fifth, but there was one who said, "Shut
up ; you have a bad voice."
Upon arriving at the imposing castle of Coburg,
where he was to reside, as the event proved, for nearly
six months, he wrote Melanchthon :
We have at length come to our Sinai, dearest Philip,
but out of this Sinai we will make a Zion, and will build
three tabernacles, one for the psalter, one for the proph-
336

AT COBURG 337
ets, and one for ^Esop. But this by the way. The place
is very agreeable, and most convenient for study, except
that your absence darkens it. . . . There is nothing lack
ing suitable to a life of solitude. The great building
crowning the summit is wholly mine, and I have keys to
all the rooms. They say more than thirty men eat here,
among them twelve night-watchmen, and two scouts in
each tower.
A few days later he wrote the inmates of his house
at Wittenberg the following charming letter, revealing
a side of his nature not often seen :
To my dear table-companions, Peter and Jerome Wel
ler, and Henry Schneidewin, and others at Wittenberg,
severally and jointly: Grace and peace in Christ Jesus,
dear sirs and friends. I have received the letter you all
wrote and have learned how everything is going. That
you may hear in turn how we are doing, I would have you
know that we, namely, I, Master Veit, and Cyriac, did
not go to the diet at Augsburg, but have come to another
diet instead.
There is a grove just under our window like a small
forest. There the jackdaws and crows are holding a
diet. They ride in and out, and keep up a racket day and
night without ceasing, as if they were all crazy-drunk.
Young and old chatter together in such a fashion that I
wonder voice and breath hold out. I should like to know
whether there are any such knights and warriors still left
with you. It seems as if they must have gathered here
from all the world.
I have not yet seen their emperor ; but the nobility and
bigwigs constantly flit and gad about before our eyes, not
very expensively clothed, but simply, in one color, all
alike black, and all alike gray-eyed. They all sing the
same song, but there is an agreeable contrast between
young and old, great and small. They care nothing for
grand palaces and halls, for their hall is vaulted with the
22

338 MARTIN LUTHER
beautiful, broad sky, its floor is paved with lovely green
branches, and its walls are as wide as the world. They
do not ask for horses or armor; they have feathered
chariots to escape the hunters. They are high and
mighty lords, but I don't yet know what they are de
ciding. So far as I have been able to learn from an
interpreter, they plan a great war against wheat, barley,
oats, malt, and all sorts of grain, and many a one will
show himself a hero and do valiant deeds.
So we sit here in the diet, listening and looking on with
great pleasure, as the princes and lords with the other
estates of the realm so merrily sing and feast. It gives
us special delight to see in how knightly a fashion they
strut about, polish their bills, and fall upon the de
fenses that they may conquer and acquit themselves
honorably against corn and malt. We wish them fortune
and health, that they may all be impaled on a spit to
gether. Methinks they are none other than the sophists and
papists with their preaching and writing. All of them I
must have in a crowd before me that I may hear their
lovely voices and sermons, and see how useful a tribe
they are, destroying everything on earth, and for a
change chattering to kill time.
To-day we heard the first nightingale, for she was
afraid to trust our April. We have had lovely weather
and no rain except a little yesterday. It is perhaps other
wise with you. God bless you ! Take good care of the
house. From the Diet of the Malt-Robbers, April 28, 1530.
Martin Luther, Doctor.
Worthy to be placed beside this is the following
humorous protest against the conduct of his old and
faithful servant Wolf, written some four years later:
To our gracious lord, Dr. Martin Luther, preacher at
Wittenberg: We, thrushes, blackbirds, chaffinches, lin
nets, goldfinches, together with other pious and honor-

From a photograph by the Photoglob, Zurich
THE FORTRESS OF COBURG

AT COBURG 339
able birds who are to journey this autumn over Witten
berg, beg to advise your Reverence that we have been
credibly informed that one named Wolfgang Sieberger,
your servant, having determined upon an act of great
and cruel boldness out of anger and hatred for us, has
paid a high price for some old worn-out nets, that he
may rig up a snare and take away not only from our
friends the finches, but also from all of us, the liberty
given us by God to fly in the air and gather grains of corn
on the ground. He also seeks our bodies and lives, al
though we have done nothing to harm him and have not
earned such a serious and sudden attack from him. Since
all this, as you can well imagine, is very hard for us,
poor free birds, who have no barns, nor houses, nor any
thing in them, we humbly and civilly beg you to induce
your servant to abandon his designs, or, if that be im
possible, persuade him to strew corn on the traps the
evening before and not get up and visit them before eight
in the morning. We will then make our journey over
Wittenberg. If he will not do it, but insists so cruelly on
seeking our lives, we will pray God that he may be re
paid by finding in his trap, when morning comes, frogs,
locusts, and snails instead of us, and at night be overrun
with mice, fleas, lice, and bedbugs, and so forget us and
not take away our freedom of flight. Why does he not
employ such wiles against the sparrows, swallows, mag
pies, daws, ravens, mice, and rats, which do you so much
mischief, steal, rob, and carry off corn, oats, malt, and
barley ? We do none of these things, but seek only little
crumbs and scattered grains of corn. We place our
cause before the bar of reason. Is it not unjust for him
to plan such harsh measures against us? However, we
hope in God that as so many of our brothers and friends
have preserved their lives in spite of him, we too may
escape his torn and dirty nets which we saw yesterday.
Given under our customary seal and quill, in our resi
dence beneath the sky, among the trees.
Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither

340 MARTIN LUTHER
do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly
Father f eedeth them. Are ye not much better than they ?
While he was at Coburg his father, who had been
ill for some months, passed away, to Luther's great
grief. Writing Melanchthon on the fifth of June, he
said: To-day Hans Reinicke writes me that my dear parent,
Hans Luther, senior, departed this life the Sunday before
Whitsuntide, at one o'clock. His death has thrown me
into sorrow as I recall not only our natural relationship
but also the great love I bore him, for from him my
Creator gave me whatever I have. Although it is a
solace to me to know that he fell asleep softly, strong in
the faith of Christ, nevertheless misery and the memory
of his most delightful companionship have stricken my
heart so that I have scarcely ever so despised death. But
"the righteous is taken away from the evils to come and
enters into rest." How often we die before we really die !
I succeed now to the heritage of his name, being almost
the oldest Luther of my race. To me also is now due not
only the opportunity but the right of following him
through death into the kingdom of Christ, which He, on
whose account we are more miserable than all men and a
reproach to the whole world, will graciously give to us
all. I will not write more now, for I am sad. Worthy
and pious it is for me, a son, to mourn such a parent, by
whom, through God's mercy, I was begotten, and by
whose labors I was brought up and made what I am. I
rejoice that he lived in these times and saw the light of
truth. God be blessed forever in all His works and coun
sels. Amen.
A year later his mother followed his father to the
grave. Luther was unable to go to Mansfeld, but he
comforted her in her last illness with a long letter, the
only one we have addressed to his mother. It is unex
pectedly formal and conventional in tone, suggesting a

AT COBURG 34i
somewhat surprising lack of intimacy between the
two; but it closes with a genuinely human touch: "All
your children, as well as my Kathe, are praying for
you. Some weep ; some eat and say, 'Grandmother is
very sick.' God's grace be with us all !"
Arrived in Augsburg, Melanchthon, at the elector's
request, began work at once upon a defense of the
Protestant cause to be presented to the emperor and
diet. The result was the famous Augsburg Confes
sion, the first of the great Protestant symbols. The
purpose was to make as favorable an impression as
possible, and the confession was therefore framed in
such a way as to magnify the agreements and mini
mize the differences between Protestants and Catholics.
The evangelical faith found definite expression in it,
but the emphasis was laid upon the common Catholic
doctrines accepted by both parties, and in the matter
of forms and customs repeated attention was called to
the conservative character of the changes made.
When the document was sent to Luther for his in
spection, he wrote the elector: "I have read Master
Philip's apology. It pleases me very well, and I have
no improvements or changes to make. Nor would it
do for me to make any, for I cannot walk so softly
and lightly."
On the twenty-fifth of June the confession was
read before the diet. The Catholics were greatly sur
prised at its moderation, and began to hope the Prot
estants would yield altogether. Making the most of
their conciliatory temper, they tried to secure all man
ner of concessions from them. Loving peace above
everything, and greatly alarmed at the hostile attitude
of the emperor, Melanchthon gave up one thing after
another, until he was accused by many of his asso
ciates of weakly betraying the whole cause. He felt

342 MARTIN LUTHER
the responsibility of his position very keenly, and was
almost beside himself with worry. Luther, in his
far-away castle, though suffering much from ill
health as at the Wartburg nine years before, grew
firmer and more confident the greater the fear and
anxiety of his friends at the diet. He encouraged,
comforted, exhorted, and admonished them as only
he could. We still have a hundred and twenty-five of
his Coburg letters, among them some of the finest he
ever wrote. The following passages will serve to
show his attitude and state of mind.
To Melanchthon he wrote on the twenty-seventh of
June: I vehemently hate the miserable anxieties with which
you write you are consumed. That they reign in your
heart is due not to the magnitude of the affair, but to the
magnitude of our unbelief. For this same affair was
greater in the time of John Hus and of many others than
in our time. And though it were great, its Author and
Controller is also great, for it is not our cause. Why,
then, do you thus torment yourself perpetually and with
out respite ? If the cause be false, let us revoke it. But
if it be true, why do we make Him a liar who gives us
such promises and commands us to be of a quiet and
restful heart ?
On the twenty-ninth he wrote him again :
I am pondering this affair day and night, reflecting
upon it, turning it over and over, arguing, reviewing the
whole Bible, and the certitude of our doctrine constantly
grows upon me. I am more and more confirmed in it,
so that, if God will, I will allow no more of it to be taken
from me, let come what may.
And the next day :
In private conflicts I am weaker, you more bold. On
the other hand, in such public affairs you are as I am in

AT COBURG 343
private, while I am as you are in private, if that should
be called private which goes on between me and Satan.
You despise your own life, but fear for the general cause,
while I am in good enough spirits over the latter, for I
know certainly it is just and true, is Christ's and God's,
and so need not grow pale over its sins, as I, little saint,
when by myself am compelled to grow pale and tremble.
Therefore I am almost a care-free spectator, and take no
account of these threatening and ferocious papists. If
we fall, Christ, the ruler of the world, will fall with us.
And if he falls, I would rather fall with Christ than stand
with Caesar.
Early in August he wrote Chancellor Bruck :
Recently I have seen two miracles. As I looked out of
the window, I saw the stars in heaven and God's whole
beautiful sky, and nowhere were any pillars in sight, sup
porting it. But the heavens fell not, and the sky still
stands. There are people who look for the pillars and
want to grasp and feel them. Since they cannot, they
fidget and tremble, as if the heavens would certainly fall,
for no other reason but because they neither touch nor
see the pillars. Could they lay hold of them, the heavens
would stand firm.
Again I saw big, thick clouds floating overhead, so
heavy they were like a great sea. And I saw no foun
dation whereon they rested, and no vessel containing
them. Yet they did not fall on us, but greeted us with a
sour countenance and flew away. When they were gone,
the rainbow appeared, at once the floor supporting them
and the roof protecting us. A weak, thin, slight floor
and roof it was, almost hidden by the clouds, more like
a ray of light shining through painted glass than a mighty
floor, so that you could hardly help being afraid for the
foundation as well as for the great mass of water. Nev
ertheless, this frail phantom carried the burden and shel
tered us. There are those, again, who notice the weight

344 MARTIN LUTHER
and size of the water and clouds more than this thin,
slender, and light phantom, and are afraid. They would
like to feel the rainbow's strength. Because they cannot,
they fear the clouds will cause an everlasting flood.
This, I venture to write your Honor in jest, and yet
not in jest, for I have been specially pleased to hear that
your Honor, above all the others, has good courage and
a confident heart in this our trial. I had hoped at least
political peace could be preserved, but God's thoughts are
far above our thoughts. It is right, too, since, as St. Paul
says, He hears and does better than we ask or think. For
we know not how to pray. If He were to hear our
prayer that the emperor should grant us peace, perhaps
this would be worse, not better, than we think, and the
emperor, not God, would have the glory. But now He
will himself give us peace, that the glory may be His
alone, to whom it belongs. . . .
They are not half through with what they have begun,
these men of blood. Nor are they all at home again, or
where they would like to be. Our rainbow is weak, their
clouds are mighty ; but in the end it will be seen whose
are the thunders.
Three weeks later he wrote Melanchthon again :
You write that Eck has been compelled by you to con
fess we are justified by faith. Would that you had com
pelled him not to lie! Eck, forsooth, may confess that
righteousness is of faith, but meanwhile he defends all
the abominations of the papacy; he kills, he persecutes,
he condemns those professing this doctrine, nor does he
yet repent, but goes right on. The same is done by all
our enemies. With them, if it please Christ, seek condi
tions of peace, and labor in vain, until they find a chance
to destroy us. . . .
So far as concerns what you write about the restora
tion of obedience to the bishops in the matter of juris
diction and ceremonies, take care you do not give more
than you have, lest we be compelled hereafter to wage a

AT COBURG 345
more difficult and dangerous war for the defense of the
gospel. I know you always except the gospel in these
compacts, but I fear they will accuse us in the future of
perfidy and inconstancy if we do not keep to what they
wish. For they will interpret our concessions largely,
more largely, most largely; their own narrowly, more
narrowly, most narrowly.
In short, the negotiations looking to harmony in doc
trine wholly displease me. For harmony is clearly quite
impossible unless the pope be willing to abolish his
papacy. It was enough to give a reason for our faith and
ask for peace. How can we hope to convert them to the
truth? We have come to hear whether they approve our
teaching or not, leaving them free to remain as they are.
And we ask whether they will approve or disapprove. If
they disapprove, what good does it do to seek concord
with enemies ? If they approve, what is the use of trying
to keep the old abuses? But since our doctrines are
certainly condemned by them, for they do not repent,
but insist on retaining their own, why do we not see the
deceit and falsehood in all they are attempting? You
cannot say that their efforts are prompted by the Holy
Spirit when there is no penitence, faith, or piety in them.
May the Lord, who has begun His work in you, perfect
it. To Him I commend you with all my heart.
Finally, on the twentieth of September, he wrote his
friend Justus Jonas :
I am almost bursting with wrath and indignation. I
beg you will abruptly break off negotiations with them
and return home. They have the confession, they have
the gospel. If they will, let them accept it. If they will
not, let them go where they belong. If war comes as a
consequence, come it will; we have prayed and done
enough. The concessions made by Melanchthon proved, after
all, of no avail. The Catholic leaders would yield

346 MARTIN LUTHER
nothing, and most of the Protestants refused to in
dorse Melanchthon's course. Some of them, indeed,
were so incensed at him that Luther had to come to
his rescue and defend him against their wrath. On
the third of August a confutation of the Augsburg
Confession was read before the diet, and declared by
the emperor to represent his own faith. He insisted
upon its acceptance by all the princes, for he would
allow no schism, so he announced, in Germany.
On the twenty-second of September, with the ap
proval of the Catholic majority, he laid before the
Protestants the decision of the diet, declaring their
confession unsatisfactory and giving them until the
fifteenth of April to repent and submit.
On the first of October Luther wrote Lazarus
Spengler of Nuremberg:
The Augsburg decision, my dear sir and friend, of
which you have written Master Veit, was told me ver
bally and in writing by my gracious lord Duke Ernest of
Luneburg. That, I take it, is called worldly wisdom.
There it can be seen that our Christ, though condemned
by them, is yet so mighty that he can rain not only water
but also fools. What else was to be expected, when they
rage against God's manifest wisdom, than that they would
blaspheme God and mock us, as the second psalm says?
But it will not end there. They must also experience the
next little verse, "He will speak to them in His wrath."
They will have it so; let it be as they wish. We are
guiltless and have done enough. Their blood be upon
their own heads.
A couple of days later he wrote the Elector John :
Grace and peace in Christ, most serene, high-born
Prince, most gracious Lord ! I rejoice with all my heart
that your Grace, by the grace of God, has come out of the

AT COBURG 347
hell at Augsburg. Though the disfavor of men looks
sour not only to God, but to the devil as well, we yet hope
God's grace, already ours, will be still more richly with
us. They are in God's hands as well as we, that is cer
tain, and they will neither do nor accomplish anything
unless He wills it. They cannot hurt a hair of our heads,
or of any one's, unless God compels it. I have com
mended the cause to my Lord God. He began it ; that I
know. He will also continue it ; that I believe. It is not
in man's power to start or create such a doctrine. Since
it is God's, and all depends on His power and skill, not
ours, I will watch to see who they are that wish to op
pose and defy God Himself. Let things go as they please,
in God's name. It is written in the fifty-fifth psalm,
"Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half
their days." They must be allowed to begin and to
threaten, but to finish and bring to a successful issue, that
they cannot. Christ our Lord strengthen your Grace in
a firm and joyful mind ! Amen !

CHAPTER XXIV
RELIGION AND POLITICS
IN the winter following the adjournment of the Diet
of Augsburg, certain Protestant princes and the
representatives of a number of free cities met in the
city of Schmalkalden to form a defensive league for
mutual protection against the emperor and the Catho
lic princes, who, it was feared, would attempt to com
pel submission with the sword. Hitherto Luther had
consistently opposed armed resistance to the emperor,
not because he disapproved of war as such, for as a
German patriot he warmly advocated war against the
Turks, but because he believed in submission to lawful
rulers in all circumstances and whatever their charac
ter. But after the Diet of Augsburg the elector's law
yers succeeded in convincing him, as they had already
convinced their prince, that in certain contingencies
resistance was legal. He consequently withdrew his
objections, and threw upon them the responsibility of
determining what those contingencies were. The argu
ments of the Landgrave of Hesse, laid before Luther
in a letter of October 21, may also have had something
to do with his change of attitude. In February, 1531,
writing to his friend Lazarus Spengler, he justified the
change as follows :
Master Veit has informed me you are troubled by the
report that I have recanted my former advice not to re
sist the emperor. I am not aware of any recantation. It
is true they disputed sharply with us at Torgau, and since
348

RELIGION AND POLITICS 349
some of them wished to do what they thought best with
out consulting us, we were obliged to let it go at that.
But when we finally insisted that the principle, "Force
may be met by force," was not enough, they declared that
imperial law permitted violent resistance to the authori
ties in cases of notorious injustice. Whether this was so
or not we said we did not know ; but if the emperor had
thus bound himself, we would leave him to his fate, and
they might see to it. For since our doctrine says, "Ren
der unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," and Caesar
has decreed that he may be resisted in cases of notorious
injustice, we ought not to alter or criticize his law. The
affair then reduced itself to this syllogism : whatever Cae
sar, or the law of Caesar, decrees, must be obeyed; but
the law decrees that he must be resisted in such a case;
therefore he must be resisted. Now, we have always
taught the major premise, that the authorities must be
obeyed in civil affairs; but we do not assert the minor
premise, nor do we know anything about it. Wherefore
we drew no conclusion, but referred the whole matter to
the jurists.
Evidently the pressure of events was too much for
Luther. It was not to be expected that the Protestant
states, aware of their strength and with so aggressive
a prince as Philip of Hesse among their leaders, would
permanently follow the policy of passive resistance
hitherto advocated by the reformer. He therefore
made the best of the situation, and allowed himself to
be convinced by somewhat flimsy arguments. The
appeal to the law was only a pretext. The Protestants
would doubtless have protected themselves against
armed attack quite without regard to the legality of
their action. Luther showed common sense, if not
consistency, in accepting the technical plea of the law
yers and making the best of a situation he was power
less to mend.

350 MARTIN LUTHER
Later he went still further, as appears, for instance,
from the following memorandum of 1539, signed by
himself and other theologians :
Doubtless every father is bound to protect wife and
child as far as he can against violent death, and there is
no difference between a private murderer and the empe
ror, when the latter goes beyond his office and makes use
of unjust force, particularly force notoriously unjust ; for
by natural law open violence does away with all duty
between subject and ruler. The present case is of this
sort, since the emperor wishes to compel his subjects to
blasphemy and idolatry. Thus Constantine overthrew his
ally and brother-in-law Licinius, who refused to give up
his tyranny, although Licinius was practising tyranny
only in his own dominions. All this, as I have said, is
without doubt right and Christian, and we are bound to
confess it in danger and death. But it is all to be under
stood as referring to defense. How can a man use his
body and his miserable life in a better and more praise
worthy way than in such service of God, for the rescue
of divine honor, and the protection of poor Christendom,
as David, Hezekiah, and other holy kings and princes
did? Such affairs are worth venturing body and life for.
The other question is whether the defender is bound to
wait until his enemy actually begins the attack. Our an
swer to this is, When the ban is pronounced against one
or more allies the enemy has already declared war and
the defender has the right to anticipate attack, as both
natural and written law prescribe, according to the rule
referred to above. For the gospel does not forbid, but
confirms, the ruler's office and natural law.
The complete change of attitude is very interesting,
showing to what a degree the necessities of the devel
oping political situation had influenced the originally
simple-minded and unworldly monk.

From a photograph by Wilhelm Ernst & Son, Berlin
LUTFIER'S ROOM IN THE COBURG

RELIGION AND POLITICS 351
The spring of 1531 found the emperor in no posi
tion to enforce the decision of the Diet of Augsburg
and compel the Protestants to recant and submit.
Banded together as they were, the evangelical states
presented too strong a front to be attacked with im
punity, while among the Catholic rulers there was too
much jealousy of the growing power of the house of
Hapsburg to enable the emperor to count upon their
united support. Meanwhile the need of internal har
mony became ever more imperative. On the east,
Germany was menaced with a Turkish invasion, from
which the territory of the emperor's brother Ferdinand
of Austria must suffer most. On the west, Charles's
old enemy Francis was continually threatening war,
and an alliance between him and the Schmalkald
league seemed not improbable. In these circum
stances a conflict with the Protestant princes of Ger
many was the last thing the emperor desired. In the
summer of 1532, to Luther's great satisfaction and to
the decided advantage of the evangelical cause, there
was concluded the religious peace of Nuremberg, sus
pending all hostilities and leaving the adherents of the
new faith unmolested until a general council should
decide the questions in dispute between them and their
opponents. When some of the Protestant rulers hesi
tated to accept anything less than permanent and un
conditional peace, and demanded other concessions
which the emperor was unwilling to grant, Luther
assumed the unaccustomed role of moderator, writing
to the Elector John :
His imperial Majesty has done enough, and the guilt
and shame will be ours if we refuse the offer of peace.
God greets us graciously; if we do not thank Him, we
shall sin grievously, and enjoy no good fortune.

352 MARTIN LUTHER
And to the Crown-prince John Frederick :
I am afraid if we let such an opportunity for peace go
by, so good a one will never come again. As the proverb
says, "Opportunity has a head full of hair in front, but
bald behind." This the papists discovered when they
would not yield at Augsburg.
The emperor hoped a council could soon be secured,
but year after year went by without its meeting, and
the status quo continued virtually undisturbed until
after Luther's death.
During this period Protestantism spread very rap
idly. With the passing away of the older princes,
many of them Luther's bitter enemies, there came upon
the scene a new generation imbued with Protestant
ideas, and the reformer had the joy of seeing one after
another state join the ranks of the evangelicals. Most
satisfactory of all was the winning of ducal Saxony,
where until almost the end of Luther's life there ruled
to his great annoyance old Duke George the Bearded,
one of the most determined and influential opponents
of the Reformation. The death of his two sons threw
the succession to his brother Henry, already an avowed
evangelical, and despite George's last desperate ef
fort to prevent the Protestantizing of his realm by
making the emperor's brother Ferdinand his heir,
Henry came to the throne in 1539, and the country,
already honeycombed with Lutheran doctrine, at once
officially embraced the Reformation. On the twenty-
second of May Luther entered Leipsic in company with
his elector, and had the satisfaction of occupying the
pulpit of the principal church, where he had been re
fused permission to preach twenty years before, at the
time of his great debate with Eck.
Other states followed in rapid succession the exam-

RELIGION AND POLITICS 353
pie of ducal Saxony. For a time it looked as if all
Germany would soon be won to the new faith and
ecclesiastical unity be reestablished by the complete
disappearance of Catholicism.
In 1534, Pope Clement VII was succeeded by Paul
III, and the project of holding a council, consistently
opposed by Clement, for fear his authority and rev
enues would be curtailed, was taken up in earnest by
the new pope. Recognizing the existence of many
abuses within the church, he hoped to stem the grow
ing tide of revolt in Germany, France, England, and
elsewhere, and also to put a stop to doctrinal heresy,
by yielding to the emperor's importunity and taking
seriously in hand the work of reform on Catholic
principles and along Catholic lines.
In 1535 he sent a legate, Pietro Paolo Vergerio, to
Germany to inform the princes of his plan of holding
a council somewhere outside of Germany, and, if pos
sible, to secure their promise to attend. Vergerio could
not restrain his curiosity to see the great heresiarch,
and early in November took occasion to stop over in
Wittenberg and secure an interview with him. Writ
ing to his friend Justus Jonas, a few days afterward,
Luther remarked :
The legate of the Roman pontiff suddenly appeared in
this very town. Now he is with the margrave. The man
seems to fly, not ride. But would that you had been pres
ent ! When I declined an invitation to supper in the eve
ning after the bath, he invited me and Bugenhagen to
breakfast. We went and ate with him in the castle, but
what was said it is not lawful for a man to utter. I
played the Luther during the whole meal, and as the Eng
lishman Anthony was also invited, I acted as his repre
sentative, with the most aggravating words, as he has
written you. When I see you I will tell you about it.
23

354 MARTIN LUTHER
In preparation for the interview, which occurred on
a Sunday morning, Luther put on his best clothes and
had his hair dressed with unusual care, informing the
surprised barber that he wished to look as young as
possible that Vergerio might think: "The devil! if
Luther has made so much trouble while still young,
what will he do when he gets old ?" To the barber's
protest that he would offend the legate, he . replied :
"That is just what I want to do. They have offended
us enough, and you must deal thus with serpents and
foxes." His effort to appear young was a success, for accord
ing to Vergerio though he was over fifty, he looked
only forty. But his costume made a decidedly bizarre
impression on the Italian, who wrote a friend :
Because it was Sunday, the crazy man wore his best
clothes, consisting of a gown of dark camel's-hair, with
sleeves trimmed with satin, and a rather short coat of
serge bordered with fox-skin. He had a number of rings
on his fingers, a heavy gold chain around his neck, and a
cap on his head such as priests wear.
The personal appearance of the heretic Vergerio
described as follows :
He has a rather coarse face, but he tries to give it as
soft and sensitive an expression as possible. His speech
is moderately rapid and not much roughened by German.
His Latin is so poor that it seems clear he cannot be the
author of the books which go by his name, and which
have a certain pure flavor of Latinity and eloquence. He
confessed himself his unfamiliarity with Latin, but
claimed he knew well how to talk in his mother tongue.
His eyes are wide open, and the more I looked at them
the more I felt they were like the eyes of a possessed per
son I once saw, fiery and restless, betraying the delirium
and fury within.

mF
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**CjL.
Ha
ftfl
W s-
WF*k
-'•'/'^iB|
ftS
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POPE PAUL III
From a carbon print by Braun, Clement & Cie.
of the portrait by Titian
RELIGION AND POLITICS 355
From the legate's report of the interview we can see
that Luther's account of his conduct in his letter to
Jonas was not overdrawn. He treated the Italian
ecclesiastic with scant courtesy, and said all he could to
shock him. At the same time, to Vergerio's surprise
he promised to attend the council, wherever it might be
held and whatever the danger involved.
In February, 1537, a council in the meantime having
been actually called to meet at Mantua, representatives
of the Schmalkald league gathered at Schmalkalden to
consider what attitude to take in the matter. The
question was not an easy one. At an earlier day the
evangelicals had frequently demanded a general coun
cil, where their positions could be frankly and freely
discussed, but the pope had consistently opposed the
plan. Now that the council had finally been sum
moned, they could with ill grace decline to accept an
invitation to attend. Though Luther would have been
the last one to submit his teachings to its judgment
and yield obedience to its decision, believing the pope
to be no more in favor of such an assembly than
his predecessors, and convinced, rightly as the event
proved, that it would be again indefinitely postponed,
he favored accepting the invitation, that the Protes
tants might not be held responsible for its failure to
meet. On the other hand, the Elector John Frederick, who
had succeeded his father in 1532 and was an even
more zealous disciple of Luther and supporter of the
new faith, was quite unwilling to follow such a course.
He even wished to hold an opposition council where
Protestant principles might find public and authoritative
expression before all the world. True to his general
policy, Luther disapproved this aggressive plan as
savoring of wanton and unnecessary schism, and it was
finally, though reluctantly, abandoned by the elector.

356 MARTIN LUTHER
That the reformer's attitude was not at all a sign of
growing friendliness toward Rome is shown by a docu
ment which he drew up at this time in anticipation of
the meeting at Schmalkalden. It was prepared at the
elector's request and contained a statement of the
matters needing to be maintained at any cost against
the Catholics. Written in Luther's usual style, it was
in striking contrast with the Augsburg Confession.
The differences between the two communions were set
forth in sharp and uncompromising fashion, and no
effort whatever was made to conciliate opponents. The
elector hoped to have it adopted at Schmalkalden, but
as it contained characteristic statements about the
Lord's Supper calculated to alienate the sacramen
tarians and destroy the harmony recently established
between the two wings of German Protestantism, Me
lanchthon, in Luther's absence, succeeded in having
it shelved altogether, and it was not even discussed at
the conference. Luther's associates were so careful of
his feelings, or perhaps so afraid of his wrath, that
they apparently never told him of its fate. At any
rate, he published it the next year as the official plat
form of the Schmalkald league, and sometime later it
attained the dignity of a doctrinal symbol of the
Lutheran church.
Though Luther attended the conference at Schmal
kalden, in company with Melanchthon and other theo
logians, he was kept from active participation in it by
a serious attack of illness which almost cost him his
life, and the discussion went on without him. In his
absence, realizing that they could hope for nothing
from a council held on Italian soil, under the control
of the pope, and unwilling in any case, at the advanced
stage the new movement had reached, to submit it to
arbitration, the princes finally voted to decline the in-

ELECTOR JOHN FREDERICK, 153I
From a carbon print by Braun, Clement & Cie.
of the portrait by Cranach

RELIGION AND POLITICS 357
vitation and go their own independent way. The act
was full of significance, clearly showing that they no
longer regarded their churches as a part of the Roman
communion or in fellowship with it.
Meanwhile, finding his long-cherished plan for heal
ing the religious schism in Germany completely shat
tered, the emperor undertook to treat with the Protes
tants on his own account and to discover some basis of
union independent of the pope. In 1540 successive
conferences were held at Hagenau and at Worms, and
finally, in the spring of 1541, at Ratisbon, where an
imperial diet was in session, attended by the emperor
in person.
The attitude of the two parties had completely
changed since the Diet of Augsburg. There the evan
gelicals were seeking toleration and were willing to
yield much for the sake of peace. Now the overtures
came from the emperor, while the leading Protestants,
including even Melanchthon, were disposed to hold
back and doubt the possibility of an agreement. Never
theless after a number of interviews between Catholic
and Protestant theologians, Melanchthon and Bucer
being the chief spokesmen of the latter, a preliminary
agreement was reached upon a number of points, and
it seemed to many as if a satisfactory basis of union
might at length be found.
Luther's attitude toward the negotiations is abun
dantly shown in the following passages from his let
ters. To the Elector Joachim of Brandenburg, who
had sent him the draft of a document which it was
hoped could be made the basis of an agreement, he
wrote on the twenty-first of February :
I have read the document carefully, and in response to
your Grace's request for my opinion, I beg to say that,
whoever the authors are, they mean very well, but their

358 MARTIN LUTHER
propositions are quite impracticable, and cannot be ac
cepted by pope, cardinals, and bishops. For who can
compel these ecclesiastics, since the pope claims to be free
and above all laws, whether old or new ?
In truth, gracious sir, it is vain to attempt such expe
dients and compromises. We can never escape the pope
and his train until God is allowed to finish doing what
He will with him. For everybody knows they will give
up nothing, but will stand where they are and keep every
thing they have.
To Chancellor Bruck he wrpte on the fourth of
April :
If harmony be desired in religion, the beginning must
be made with fundamentals such as doctrine and sacra
ment. When an agreement is reached in these, other and
indifferent matters will take care of themselves, as has
happened in our churches. God will then be in the con
cord, and quiet and peace will last. But if essentials are
passed by and unimportant things discussed, God is for
gotten, and if peace is concluded it is without Him and
worse than none. It is just as Christ said : "A new patch
on an old garment only makes the rent worse, and the
new wine bursts the old wine-skins." Either make the
whole thing new, or let the rent remain, as we have done.
Otherwise all is vain. I fear the landgrave allows him
self to be led and would like to carry us all with him.
But, in my opinion, he has already dragged us far enough
in his business. He shall drag me no farther. Rather I
will take the whole cause again on my own shoulders and
stand alone as in the beginning. We know it is God's af
fair. He began it, He has himself managed it hitherto, and
He will bring it to completion. Who will not follow Him
may remain behind. The emperor, the Turks, and all the
devils shall win nothing here, let come what may. I am
disgusted to see them treat this affair as if it were a
worldly, imperial, Turkish, princely matter, wherein hu-

RELIGION AND POLITICS 359
man reason is to decide everything. It is rather an affair
wherein God and the devil together with their angels are
themselves working. Who believes it not will accomplish
nothing good.
The same day he wrote Melanchthon :
I see they think this cause is a sort of human comedy,
when it is really a tragedy between God and Satan, where
Satan's interests flourish, while God's decline. But a
catastrophe will come, as always since the beginning of
time, and the omnipotent Author of this tragedy will
Himself liberate us. I write in anger and indignation at
their wantonness in an affair like this.
In June he wrote his friend Link :
I have heard no news concerning the concord between
Christ and Belial at Ratisbon. I predicted that the con
cord would be of this sort, for the anger of God has
come upon the papacy and the hour of its judgment is at
hand. And about the same time he wrote Melanchthon
again :
I hope you will soon return, for it is in vain you have
been there and negotiated with those lost souls.
As a matter of fact, as Luther clearly foresaw would
be the case, all the negotiations finally proved futile.
Nothing else was to be expected. Even had an agree
ment been reached upon most of the doctrines and
practises in dispute, it must have broken down because
of the irreconcilable difference touching the authority
of the Roman church. However willing the conferees
might be to subscribe to ambiguous statements leaving

360 MARTIN LUTHER
room for all sorts of differences of opinion, there could
be no compromise at this point. An infallible church,
as the pope himself declared, could be content with
nothing less than complete submission. The emperor
hoped the differences could be glossed over, in the inter
est of peace and political unity, but he failed to realize
the radical character of the division, and all his efforts
came to naught.

CHAPTER XXV
THE BIGAMY OF THE LANDGRAVE PHILIP
JUST when the Schmalkald league was at the height
of its power an incident occurred which brought
great discredit upon the Reformation and entailed
very disastrous consequences— the second marriage of
the Landgrave Philip of Hesse. Early in 1540, while
his wife Christine, daughter of the recently deceased
Duke George of Saxony, was still living, he secretly
married, with Christine's consent, Margaret von der
Sale, one of his sister's ladies-in-waiting. By the law
of the empire bigamy was a crime, and when the act
became known, he was in an embarrassing position,
and felt obliged to protect himself by making con
cessions to the emperor, which seriously hampered his
activities and permanently weakened the Schmalkald
league. The way was thus paved for the untoward
defeat of 1546, from which Protestantism never fully
recovered. Of chief interest to us is Luther's connection with
the unfortunate affair. Finding Margaret's mother
unwilling to give her consent to the irregular marriage
until the approval of the elector of Saxony and of
some of the leading Protestant theologians had been
secured, Philip laid his case before Luther and Me
lanchthon. Concealing his main reason for desiring
their assent, he informed them that his conscience,
as seems really to have been the case, had long been
361

362 MARTIN LUTHER
seriously troubled by the flagrant immorality in which
he had been living for many years, and which he found
it quite impossible to avoid except by taking another
wife, for his present wife was not only repulsive to
him, but was also in poor health and unable to follow
him about on his inevitable journeys. After consider
able hesitation the reformers finally gave their consent
on condition the affair be kept strictly secret.
Nearly twenty years before in his work on the
"Babylonian Captivity of the Church" Luther had
declared bigamy better than divorce. In 1531, when
his approval was sought by King Henry VIII of Eng
land for his divorce from Catharine of Aragon, he
emphatically declined to give it, because of the injus
tice to wife and child. At the same time he suggested
the possibility of bigamy, already thought of by Pope
Clement VII as a conceivable substitute for the pro
jected divorce.
Some of the radical Anabaptists undertook to in
troduce polygamy, appealing to the patriarchal order
of society in justification of their position. Even
among Luther's followers and associates there was no
little uncertainty about the matter, as was not alto
gether surprising when the old order of things was
undergoing revision at so many points, including the
marriage of monks, priests, and near relatives. But
Luther himself was unalterably opposed to any such
revolution. Monogamy he considered, under ordinary
circumstances, alone tolerable in a Christian commu
nity, and held that no Christian ruler has any moral
right to legalize polygamy. At the same time, finding
no explicit prohibition in the Bible, he believed excep
tions might be allowed in certain extreme cases such as
are now generally recognized in Protestant countries
as justifying divorce.

LANDGRAVE PHILIP'S BIGAMY 363
Writing Chancellor Briick about the matter in 1524,
he said :
I confess I am not able to forbid anybody to take more
than one wife if he wishes to do so, nor do the sacred
Scriptures forbid him. But I do not want this custom
introduced among Christians, for it behooves them to
give up things which are permitted, that scandal may be
avoided and honorable living promoted, as Paul every
where demands.
And in 1526, when asked for an opinion upon the
subject by the Landgrave Philip, he replied :
It is my earnest warning and counsel that Christians
especially shall have no more than one wife, not only
because it is a scandal, which a Christian should avoid
most diligently, but also because there is no word of
God here to show that God approves it in Christians.
Heathen and Turks may do as they please. Some of the
patriarchs had many wives, but they acted under neces
sity, like Abraham and Jacob ; and afterward many kings
did the same, inheriting the wives of their friends ac
cording to the Mosaic law. It is not enough for the
Christian to appeal to the conduct of the fathers. As
they had, he too must have a divine word for what he
does to make him certain. For where no necessity ex
isted, the patriarchs had only one wife, like Isaac, Joseph,
Moses, and many others. Therefore I cannot advise it.
On the contrary, I must oppose it, especially in Chris
tians, unless there be need, as for instance if the wife be
a leper, or be taken away from the husband in some other
way. When Philip appealed to him in 1540 he was moved
by the landgrave's representations of his moral condi
tion and distress of conscience to think this a case in
which an exception might fairly be made. More se-

364 MARTIN LUTHER
vere in his condemnation of sexual irregularity than
the common opinion of his day, to continue in sin
seemed worse than to take a second wife, and he
advised the prince accordingly. He was quite aware
that he could not suspend the law of the realm in
Philip's favor, and make a legal marriage of an illicit
relation by any dispensation he might give. Assuming
the role of a father confessor, already familiar to him
for nearly thirty years, he simply undertook to relieve
the landgrave's burdened conscience by pronouncing
his secret union with another woman justifiable in
the sight of God. In the sight of others, he insisted,
the union could be nothing but concubinage, and for
Philip publicly to treat a concubine as a wife, and to
claim he was legally married to her, would be a wan
ton defiance of the law of the realm. Rather than con
sent to such a course he would withdraw his dispensa
tion and openly acknowledge he had played the fool in
giving what he had no right to give. All through he
was moved not by personal considerations, but by a
mistaken regard, at first for the spiritual welfare of
the landgrave, and afterward for the public good.
It was of course of the very essence of such a rela
tion that it be kept secret, and when Philip was dis
posed to let it be publicly known, in order to save the
reputation of his new bride, Luther objected strenu
ously, exhorting him to deny it flatly, if taxed with it,
and declaring he would not hesitate to do the same.
The proposed denial of the marriage, which seems
to throw so sinister a light upon the whole affair, Lu
ther justified somewhat sophistically by an appeal to
the traditional maxim of the inviolability of the con
fessional, requiring the priest, if necessary, to tell an
untruth rather than divulge its secrets. He justified it
also by the more fundamental principle that the su-

LANDGRAVE PHILIP OF HESSE IN I534
From a woodcut of Hans Brosamer after an engraving
by Lucas Cranach

LANDGRAVE PHILIP'S BIGAMY 365
preme ethical motive is regard for our neighbor's good,
and it is better to lie than to do him harm. To this
principle, taught by not a few ethical teachers of our
own as well as other ages, he gave frequent expression.
After rumors of the marriage, had got abroad, Me
lanchthon was almost beside himself with mortifica
tion, and a serious illness into which he fell on his way
to Hagenau, in the summer of 1540, was attributed by
him and his friends to remorse over his part in the
unsavory affair. Luther took it more coolly, as was
to be expected. When the news of Melanchthon's ill
ness reached him he remarked :
Philip is almost consumed with grief, and has fallen
into a tertian fever. Why does the good man so torment
himself over this affair ? He cannot mend it by his solici
tude. I wish I were with him. I know the softness of
his genius. He sorrows too deeply over this scandal. I
have a thick skin for things of this kind ; I am a peasant
and a hard Saxon. I believe I am called to go to him.
... It is fine when we have something to do; then we
have ideas. At other times we only guzzle and gorge.
How our papists will exult ! But let them exult to their
own destruction. Our cause is good and our life guilt
less, for we are of those who act seriously. If the Mace
donian has sinned, it is a sin and a scandal. We have
given him over and over again the best and most holy
answers. Our innocence they will see, but they have not
wished to see it.
Writing to Melanchthon on the eighteenth of June
he said :
I beseech you through Christ be of an easy and quiet
mind. Let them do whatever they want to and let them
bear their own burdens and not accuse us alone; for
knowing us to be candid and sincere they cannot convict
us of any crime except a too facile pity and humanity.

366 MARTIN LUTHER
Believing he had acted in good faith, even though
foolishly, Luther cared little for the loss of reputation
involved. He did deeply regret the harm done the
cause, as many utterances show, but even this he com
forted himself by throwing off upon the Lord, as was
his wont.
If any one asks, "Does the affair please you ?" I answer,
"No, if I were able to change it; but since I cannot, I
bear it with a tranquil mind." I commend it to the dear
God. He will preserve His church as it now stands that
it may remain in unity of faith and doctrine and in whole
some confession of the word. If it only does not become
worse ! I would not so please the devil and all the papists
as to bother myself about the matter. God will make it
all right. To Him we commend the whole cause.
The unfortunate experience did not lead Luther to
abandon the principles which had governed his treat
ment of the landgrave's case, nor did he ever admit he
had done wrong in advising Philip as he had. At the
same time, in replying to a book in defense of polyg
amy, published in 1541 by a subservient Hessian
clergyman who wrote under the pseudonym of Neobu-
lus, he used language which showed he was sensitive
upon the subject and felt special need of reiterating his
belief in the illegality of polygamy. "Whoever," he
exclaimed, "following this scoundrel and his book,
takes more than one wife, and wishes to give it the
sanction of law, may the devil bless him with a bath in
the abyss of hell! Amen. This, God be praised, I
know well how to maintain even if it were to snow
nothing but Neobuli and devils a whole year long. No
one shall make me a law out of it. That I will not
permit." Regarded from any point of view, the landgrave's

From a photograph by the Berlin Photographic Co. ol the painting by Lucas Cranach
MARTIN LUTHER IN 1 533

LANDGRAVE PHILIP'S BIGAMY 367
bigamy was a disgraceful affair, and Luther's consent
the gravest blunder of his career. He acted conscien
tiously, but with a lamentable want of moral discern
ment and a singular lack of penetration and foresight.
To approve a relationship so derogatory to the women
involved, and so subversive of the most sacred safe
guards of society, showed too little fineness of moral
feeling and sureness of moral conviction; while to be
so easily duped by the dissolute prince was no more
creditable to his perspicacity than thinking such an
affair could be kept secret to his sagacity.
It was a case where personal liking and undue re
gard for the success of the cause warped his judgment
and blinded his usually keen sight. Though he dis
approved many of Philip's acts, the brilliant and
aggressive personality of the prince always attracted
him, and made him more compliant than it was his
habit to be; while the landgrave's threat to appeal to
the pope for the needed dispensation, if the reformers
refused their consent, alarmed him for the credit of
Protestantism and the fortunes of the Schmalkald
league. If Luther's attitude after the affair was over was
thoroughly characteristic, his yielding to the land
grave's request in the beginning was quite unlike him.
Fully to explain it, account must be taken of his train
ing as a priest and of his long experience as a pastoral
guide. Holding bigamy not to be wrong in itself, else
God had not permitted it to Abraham, his concern for
the conscientious scruples of the landgrave and for the
salvation of his soul could blind him to other evils of
far greater consequence. It was not the only time his
professional training and career narrowed his vision
and hindered his usefulness as a reformer.

CHAPTER XXVI
THE END AND AFTER
THE evening of Luther's life set in early. Though
only forty-six years of age when the Diet of
Augsburg met in 1530, he thought of himself after
that time as an old man, and until his death, in 1546,
lived in almost constant expectation of the end. The
heroic period of his life, when with prophetic inspira
tion he was proclaiming a new gospel, and with the
enthusiasm of an apostle was daily braving death for
his faith, was long past. Successful in breaking the
control of the pope over a large part of Germany, his
victory, in freeing him from danger, deprived him of
the excitement incident thereto, and left him no em
ployment adequate to his powers.
His health, too, was very poor, and he suffered much
from all sorts of ailments. Possessed of a naturally
vigorous constitution, his tremendous labors and care
less way of living brought on grave troubles at an early
day, from which he was never afterward wholly free.
Indigestion was almost a lifelong burden. Serious
kidney affections again and again caused him acute
suffering. Gout, rheumatism, sciatica, asthma, and
catarrh were frequent plagues. For many years he
was afflicted with well-nigh uninterrupted headaches,
and a good night's sleep was a rare luxury. After
1530 his letters contain many references to weakness
of the heart, severe attacks of vertigo, and continual
368

THE END AND AFTER 369
buzzing in the ears. During the last ten years of his
life his physicians were in constant expectation of a
stroke of apoplexy. Most of the time he was living,
so everybody recognized, at the limit of his strength,
liable to break at any moment.
More and more, as time passed, he withdrew from
active participation in the laborious work of organiz
ing and visiting the new churches, and left that task
to others. Conferences of various sorts were contin
ually held, but it came to be an understood thing that
some other Wittenberg divine should attend in his
place, and only in cases of grave importance was his
presence expected. Upon his colleague Melanchthon
the chief responsibility fell for this kind of work.
That he found it no light matter is shown by his
pathetic remark, on setting out for Hagenau in the
summer of 1540, "We have lived in synods, and in
them we shall die."
In February, 1537, at the Schmalkald conference,
Luther was seized in the midst of the negotiations
with a severe attack of his old enemy the stone, and
for some days his life was despaired of. Loath to
expire under the eyes of the papal legate present at
Schmalkalden, he begged to be sent home to die; but
on the way his sufferings were relieved, and though
recovery was slow, before the end of the spring he
was once more in comparatively good health. The
whole year, however, was marked by more than usual
weakness, and his literary output was smaller than at
any time since 15 16.
He did not make light of his maladies and suffer
ings. On the contrary, he expected to die whenever
he felt particularly miserable, except now and then
when he was sure his life would be preserved to finish
some special piece of work, or, it might be, to spite the
' 24

370 MARTIN LUTHER
papists. Seeing in every pain and discomfort the
direct assaults of Satan, he got a religious satisfaction
out of them not shared by everybody. But with all
his belief in their supernatural origin he faithfully
took the many vile and powerful remedies all too
freely prescribed to him, and when asked if it were not
ungodly to do so, as Carlstadt claimed, he replied : "Do
you eat when you are hungry? If you do, you may
also use medicine, which is God's creature as truly as
food and drink and whatever else we need for sustain
ing life."
In constant expectation of death, as he was for
many years, he was in no fear of it. When the uni
versity on a number of occasions moved temporarily
to some other place, on account of the plague with
which Wittenberg was frequently visited, he always
remained behind, despite the protests of colleagues and
friends, and ministered to the people more actively
than ever. In 1527 he did manful labor in the midst
of the worst epidemic experienced during that genera
tion, and in the summer of 1535, when the rumor got
abroad that the pest was raging in Wittenberg, he
wrote the elector in the following humorous vein :
Your Grace's chancellor, Dr. Briick, has told me of
your Grace's kind invitation, if the plague should be
come bad here. I thank your Grace sincerely for your
thoughtful proposal, and will let you know if things get
serious. But the bailiff Hans Metzsch is my trusty wea
thercock. He has a regular vulture's scent for the pesti
lence, and would smell it if it were five cubits under
ground. While he remains in town I cannot believe the
pest is here. It is true one or two houses have had ill
ness, but the air is not yet poisoned, for there have been
no deaths and no new cases since Tuesday. However, as
the dog-days are at hand and the young fellows are

MARTIN LUTHER
Painted in the year he died by Lucas Cranach

THE END AND AFTER 37*
frightened, I have given them a holiday to quiet their
fears until we see what is to happen. I notice they are
pleased enough over such alarms, for some of them catch
boils from their school bags, some the colic from their
books, some the scurvy from their pens, and some the
gout from their papers. Others have found their ink
moldy, or have devoured their mothers' letters and caught
homesickness from them. There may be more of this
kind of weakness than I can say. No doubt there is dan
ger, if parents and magistrates don't come to the rescue
with every possible remedy, of a high rate of mortality
from such diseases, until we shall have no preachers, pas
tors, or teachers, but only hogs and dogs, which is what
the papists are industriously working for.
About the same time he wrote a Torgau friend :
I wish my letter might at least reach Torgau, for your
city is so terribly afraid of us Wittenbergers. Your fear,
indeed, is well justified, for yesterday a whole child died
here, so that there was not left a live hair on its body, and
four children were born. I fancy the devil is holding
carnival with such vain alarms, or a kermess is going on
in hell, that he should be so greedy of ghosts.
Reading his letters to intimate friends, we get the
impression that he must have been wholly incapaci
tated during most of his later life ; but the products of
his toil still exist to prove us mistaken. He found it
increasingly difficult to work in the morning, and his
regular hours of labor grew shorter and shorter. Yet
he continued to accomplish an amount of work that
would have taxed the powers of most men in perfect
health. When not actually on his back he was com
monly lecturing twice a day and preaching three or
four times a week, and in 1537 Chancellor Brack, who
heard him frequently, reported to the elector that he

372 MARTIN LUTHER
had never preached with such power and effectiveness.
He also kept up his writing and publishing, pouring
forth from the hundreds of presses which Wittenberg
now boasted, as against the one when he began his
work, polemic and other pamphlets and books, if not
in the same profusion as formerly, still in very respect
able numbers.
In 1545, the year before his death, he was almost as
active with his pen as ever, making new literary plans,
and writing against his old enemies the papists as
eagerly and vigorously as in earlier days. There is
little sign of flagging powers in these later writings.
The same Luther still speaks in them, with all the raci-
ness and humor, biting satire and coarse vituperation,
of his best days.
The daily burden of correspondence was also enor
mous, having grown steadily with the years. There
are extant more than three thousand letters from his
pen, half of them dating after 1530, and how small a
proportion they are of those he actually wrote is
shown, for instance, by his reference to ten letters
written one evening in 1544, only two of which have
been preserved. All sorts of questions, important and
unimportant, were laid before him by Protestants in
every part of the world. If a parish anywhere in
northern Germany was without a minister, or a clergy
man without a position, he was immediately appealed
to for assistance. His aid was likewise sought even
in cases unrelated to religion. He was asked to inter
cede for persons who had suffered injustice from the
civil authorities, or thought they had ; to patch up quar
rels between great folk and small; to recommend
needy people to the elector, or it might be to some
other prince; to write letters of comfort to mourners
he had never even seen. Most troublesome of all were

THE END AND AFTER 373
the innumerable marriage cases which he had to deal
with. They cost him an infinite amount of annoyance
and worry, and hundreds of memoranda and letters.
Despite the multiplicity of his occupations, his clos
ing years were far from happy. As time passed, he
became more censorious, impatient, and bitter. He
seems to have been troubled less frequently than in
earlier life with doubts as to his own spiritual condi
tion and divine mission, but he grew correspondingly
despondent over the results of his labors and the un-
worthiness of his followers. Instead of finding the
world transformed into a paradise by his gospel, he
saw things continuing much as before, and his heart
grew sick with disappointment. The first flush of
enthusiasm passed, and the joy of battle gone, he had
time to observe the results of his work, and they were
by no means to his liking. He never doubted the truth
of the gospel he preached, but he despaired more and
more of the possibility of making the world better,
falling back, as Jesus had done before him, upon the
approaching end of the world, when the Son of man
would appear in glory and smite his enemies with the
rod of his wrath.
Conditions even in Wittenberg itself were little to
his liking. In this center of gospel light he felt there
should be a devotion and purity seen nowhere else.
Instead, as the town grew in size and importance, and
manners lost somewhat of their earlier simplicity, it
seemed to his exaggerated sensibilities that everything
was going rapidly to the bad.
In the summer of 1545, his health being particularly
poor, he left Wittenberg for a few weeks, seeking
change and rest. As often happens when away from
home, conditions began to look blacker to him than
ever. All sorts of tales were told him by officious busy-

374 MARTIN LUTHER
bodies. As a result he fell into a state of disgust, to
which the following letter to his wife, written from
Leipsic late in July, bears abundant testimony :
Grace and peace, Dear Kathe. Hans will tell you all
about our trip, though I am not yet certain whether he
will remain with me. If he does, Dr. Caspar Cruciger
and Ferdinand will tell you. Ernest von Schonfeld enter
tained us finely at Lobnitz, and Henry Scherle still more
finely at Leipsic. I should be very glad if I could arrange
not to return to Wittenberg. My heart has grown cold,
so that I no longer like to be there. I wish you would
sell garden and land, house and farm. The large house
I should like to give back to my gracious lord, and you
would do best to settle at Zulsdorf while I am still alive
and able to help you improve the place, with the salary
which I hope my gracious lord will continue to me for at
least the closing year of my life. After my death the
four elements will hardly endure you at Wittenberg. So
it were better to do while I am alive what would have to
be done afterward anyway. Perhaps Wittenberg, as is
fitting with its present regime, will catch not St. Virus's
or St. John's dance, but the beggars' or Beelzebub's dance.
For matrons and maidens haVe begun to expose their
persons in a shameless way, while there is no one to pun
ish and hinder them, and God's word is mocked. Away
from this Sodom! I have heard more in the country
than I knew about in Wittenberg. I have consequently
tired of the town, and will not return, God helping me.
Day after to-morrow I go to Merseburg, for Prince
George has urgently invited me. So I will travel about
and eat the bread of beggars before I will martyr and
plague my poor old remaining days with the disorderly
doings at Wittenberg, to the sacrifice of my hard and
costly labors. If you wish, tell Dr. Bugenhagen and Mas
ter Philip of my determination, and ask the former to say
farewell tp Wittenberg in my name, for I cannot longer
endure the anger and displeasure. Herewith I commend
you to God. Amen.

From the painting by Titian
CHARLES V, KING OF SPAIN AND EMPEROR OF GERMANY

THE END AND AFTER 375
It was not the first time Luther had thought of leav
ing Wittenberg. Only a year before, annoyed by dis
agreements in the university, he had with difficulty
been dissuaded from turning his back upon the place
forever. The renewal of the plan threw Melanchthon
and other friends into a fit of consternation. A dele
gation was immediately sent after him with urgent
messages from the university and from the elector as
well. The angry man was finally pacified, and before
the end of August returned home to take up his accus
tomed duties. We have no evidence that such despon
dency troubled him again, but late in November he
closed his last course of university lectures with the
words: "This completes the dear book of Genesis.
Our Lord God grant that others may do it better after
me. I can do no more ; I am weak. Pray for me that
He will give me a good and blessed end !"
A few weeks later he wrote a friend : "Old, decrepit,
lazy, worn out, cold, and now one-eyed, I write, my
Jacob, I who hoped that there might at length be
granted to me, already dead, a well-earned rest. As
if I had never accomplished, written, said, or done
anything, I am overwhelmed with writing, speaking,
undertaking, and completing things. But Christ is all
in all, powerful and efficient, blessed forever. Amen."
In December, in company with Melanchthon, he
visited Mansfeld, his boyhood home, in response to an
invitation from the Mansfeld counts, who desired the
good offices of the Wittenberg theologians in settling
a dispute of long standing. Before the end of the
year he was obliged to return without accomplishing
his mission; but late in January, despite his poor
health and the inclemency of the weather, he made
the journey again, this time to the neighboring city of
Eisleben. Melanchthon being too ill to leave home,

376 MARTIN LUTHER
Luther was accompanied by his friend Justus Jonas
and by his three sons, who went with him to visit their
relatives in Mansfeld. From Halle he wrote his wife
on the twenty-fifth of January :
At eight o'clock to-day we arrived at Halle, but did not
go on to Eisleben, for there met us a great Anabaptist,
with waves and ice-floes, which covered the whole land
and threatened us with rebaptism. We could not turn
back because of the Mulde, and so had to lie still at Halle
between the waters. Not that we thirsted after them. On
the contrary, we took good Torgau beer and good Rhine
wine instead, refreshing and comforting ourselves ' with
them while we waited to see whether the Saale would
again break out in wrath. As the drivers and attendants
as well as we were timid, we did not care to trust our
selves to the waters and tempt God. For the devil has a
grudge against us and dwells in the water and is better
avoided than provoked. Nor is it necessary to give the
pope and his scum a fool's pleasure. I did not suppose
the Saale could boil in such a fashion and rush pell-mell
over stone walls and everything. No more now; but
pray for us and keep pious. I believe, had you been here,
you would have advised us to do just what we have done,
and so we should have followed your counsel yet once
again. Upon reaching Eisleben, he wrote Melanchthon :
On the way here I was seized with vertigo and with
the illness you are accustomed to call a tremor of the
heart. Walking beyond my strength, I fell into a sweat
and afterward, as I was sitting in the wagon in my damp
shirt, the cold seized upon the muscle of my left arm.
The consequence was compression of the heart and suffo
cation in breathing, which is the fault of my age. Now
I am well enough, but how long I shall remain so I don't
know, for old age is not to be trusted.

THE END AND AFTER 377
The same day he wrote Kathe :
Grace and peace in Christ, and my poor old love, impo
tent as I know it is, dear Kathe. I was seized with weak
ness just before reaching Eisleben by my own fault. But
if you had been there, you would have laid it to the Jews
or their God, for we had to pass through a near-by vil
lage , where many Jews lived. Perhaps they blew hard on
me. Here in Eisleben, too, there are more than fifty of
them now resident. True it is, as I was near the village,
such a cold wind blew from behind upon my head,
through my cap, that my skull was almost turned to ice.
This perhaps contributed to my vertigo. But now, God
be thanked! I am in good condition, only the beautiful
women so tempt me that I neither shrink from nor fear
any unchastity.
In Eisleben he lodged in the house of an old friend,
the town clerk, where he was shown every attention
and carefully watched over as an ill and infirm man.
Jonas and others slept in the same room with him, and
he was never without some one close at hand. He
had frequent attacks of weakness, obliging him to
resort to powerful stimulants, as often in Wittenberg,
but he slept well at night, and on the whole was fairly
comfortable. The business which had called him to Eisleben
proved very annoying and cost a great deal of time and
labor. On the sixth of February he wrote Melanch
thon: Here we sit, lazy and busy at once, my Philip — lazy, for
we accomplish nothing ; busy, because we suffer infinitely,
being exercised by the iniquity of Satan. Among so many
ways we strike upon one which offers hope. This again
Satan obstructs. Then we enter upon another, thinking
the whole thing finished. Once more Satan sets up an
obstacle. A third has been attempted which seems most

378 MARTIN LUTHER
sure and quite unable to fail. But the event will prove
the fact. I beg you to ask Dr. Pontanus to request the
prince to call me home for some important reason, that
in this way I may be able to force them to reach an agree
ment. For I feel they will not suffer me to depart while
affairs are still unsettled. I will give them yet a week.
After that I want to be threatened by letters from the
prince. To-day is almost the tenth since we began upon
the dispute about the new city. I believe it could be built
with much less trouble. Distrust is so great on both sides
that every syllable is suspected of containing poison. You
might think it a war or a mania of words. This we have
to thank the lawyers for. They have taught and still
teach the world so many equivocations, contradictions,
and calumnies, that their speech is more confused than
the whole of Babel ; for there no one was able to under
stand any one else ; here no one wants to. O sycophants,
O sophists, O pests of the human race !
Three days later he wrote Kathe again :
Grace and peace in Christ, most holy Frau Doctor. We
thank you most heartily for your great anxiety which
keeps you from sleeping. For since you began worrying
about us a fire in our lodging, just before my door, almost
devoured us. And yesterday, without doubt because of
your care, a stone fell straight upon my crown and was
crushed as if in a mouse-trap. Plaster and lime were
dripping overhead in my chamber for two days, till I
summoned some men, who moved the stone with a couple
of fingers and it fell down, as long as a pillow and two
handbreadths wide. This was intended to repay your
holy care, but the dear holy angels prevented. I fear,
unless you stop being anxious, the earth will finally swal
low us and all the elements persecute us. Have you so
learned the catechism and the creed ? Pray, and let God
do the watching; for it is said, "Cast thy care upon the
Lord, who careth for thee."

THE HOUSE IN LUTHER'S NATIVE TOWN, EISLEBEN,
IN WHICH HE DIED

THE END AND AFTER 379
He preached upon a number of occasions while in
Eisleben, for the last time in his life on the fourteenth
of February, Saint Valentine's Sunday. Because of
weakness he was obliged to cut the sermon short and
stop before he wished to.
The same day he wrote the last letter we have from
his pen, as follows :
Grace and peace in the Lord, dear Kathe. We hope to
come home this week, God willing. He has shown great
grace here, for the counts, through their councilors, have
settled almost everything, with the exception of two or
three points, among them that the two brothers Count
Gebhard and Count Albert shall again be brothers. To
day I am to undertake this, inviting them to dine with
me, that they may talk together, for hitherto they have
had nothing to say to each other and have written very
bitterly in their letters. The young lords and ladies,
on the other hand, are merry, go sleigh-riding together
with fools' bells, play at masquerading, and are in good
spirits, even Count Gebhard's son. Thus we must believe
that God hears prayer.
I am sending you the trout given me by the Countess
Albert. She rejoices with all her heart over the recon
ciliation. Your little sons are still in Mansfeld. James
Luther will take good care of them. We eat and drink
here like lords, and are cared for all too well, so that we
are in danger of forgetting you at Wittenberg. I am not
troubled by the stone, but Dr. Jonas's leg has become very
bad, and has broken out on the shinbone. God will grant
His help. You may tell all this to Master Philip, Dr.
Bugenhagen, and Dr. Cruciger.
The rumor has reached here that Dr. Martin has been
carried off, as is reported at Leipsic and Magdeburg.
This is the invention of those busybodies, your country
men. Some say the emperor is thirty miles from here,
at Soest in Westphalia ; some that the Frenchman is rais-

380 MARTIN LUTHER
ing troops and the landgrave, too. But let them say and
sing what they please. We will await what God will do.
Herewith I commend you to God. Eisleben, Valentine's
Sunday, 1546. M. Luther, Doctor.

The annoying business of the counts of Mansfeld
having been completed, he planned to start home on
Thursday, the eighteenth of February; but the day
before he was not feeling well, and though he was as
merry and talkative as usual at his meals, he had a
spasm of the chest in the afternoon, and had to be
rubbed with hot cloths, and again in the evening when
he was going to bed. At one o'clock he awoke in
severe pain and called out : "O Lord God how I suffer !
Dear Dr. Jonas, I believe I am going to remain here in
Eisleben, where I was born and baptized." Physicians
were immediately summoned, and the counts of Mans
feld with other friends hastily appeared upon the
scene. Every known means was employed to relieve
and restore him, but after uttering a brief prayer, he
fell into a stupor from which he was with difficulty
aroused by Jonas's question, "Reverend Father, do
you stand firm by Christ and the doctrine you have
preached ?" After replying, "Yes," in a faint voice, he
became again unconscious, and passed quietly away
between two and three o'clock in the morning, in the
sixty-third year of his age.
One of the attending physicians pronounced the
immediate cause of death a stroke of apoplexy. This,
according to the somewhat untrustworthy report of the
town apothecary, was confirmed the next day by an ex
amination of the body. The other physician, think
ing it impossible, as he said, that so saintly a man
should die of a stroke, gave heart disease as the cause.

THE END AND AFTER 381
His judgment was accepted by Melanchthon, and, de
spite the physician's curious reasoning, seems to be
justified by the recorded symptoms.
The counts of Mansfeld wished to have the reformer
buried in Eisleben, where he was born ; but the Elector
of Saxony insisted on having the body sent back to
Wittenberg, the scene of his labors. By way of Halle
and Bitterfeld, escorted by two Mansfeld counts and
a great cavalcade of horsemen, and greeted en route
by mourning thousands, the body reached Wittenberg
on Monday, the twenty-second of February, where
the largest crowd ever seen in the little city gathered
to welcome the dead hero home.
He was buried in the castle church, where his elec
tors Frederick the Wise and John the Constant already
lay, and where his co-worker Melanchthon was placed
beside him fourteen years later.
His great work had long been done, and though he
died before reaching the full span of human days, he
left his task complete. Longer life would have added
nothing to his fame and little to the fruits of his labor.
Dying when he did, he was spared the horrors of the
Schmalkald war, which broke out only a few months
after his death, and for a time threatened the very
existence of Protestantism. Foreseeing the impending
troubles, he longed to be taken away before they came.
But with all the despondency of his later years over the
existing situation and the immediate future of Protes
tantism, his faith in the ultimate victory of Christ's
cause never wavered, nor his assurance that Christ's
cause was his.
To estimate the work of such a man as Martin Luther
is not easy. To a degree true of few great men he was
a child of his age and its mouthpiece. And yet out of

382 MARTIN LUTHER
his own native genius and personal experience he gave
the age what it lacked, and for lack of which it would
have failed to realize its destiny. The sixteenth cen
tury would have been altogether different had he not
lived. Of none of his contemporaries can the same
be said. Many were the forces making for change
quite independent of him, and what he accomplished
seems at first sight so inevitable that it must have come
even without him. But there were insuperable
obstacles, and there was no one save himself able to re
move them.
The great thing he did was to break the dominance
of the Roman Catholic Church in western Europe.
He was not a modern in his interests and sympathies.
Far less enlightened than Erasmus, to many a present-
day man of liberal culture he is far less congenial.
Conservative and intolerant, he introduced a regime of
religious bigotry, for a long time as narrow and as
blighting to intellectual growth as Roman Catholicism
at its worst. Our ideals of liberty were not his.
Nevertheless, with all his medievalism, the modern
world owes more to him than to any other. There
were many then, and there have been many since,
enamoured of the fair dream of modern culture and
democracy developing under the aegis of the one holy
Catholic Church — many who see in Erasmus and his
fellow-humanists the true reformers of the sixteenth
century, and consider their program of peaceful and
gradual transformation vastly better than that of the
violent monk of Wittenberg, with its aftermath of
bigotry, division, and war. But the break which they
deplore was the one thing most needed. The authority
of the Catholic Church had to be destroyed before true
liberty could come. And to destroy it was no easy
matter. Even such a polemic as Luther was, the most

THE GRAVES OF LUTHER AND MELANCHTHON IN THE
CASTLE CHURCH AT WITTENBERG
Luther's grave is marked by the raised tomb on the pavement in the foreground at the right near
the pulpit, while Melanchthon's grave is similar on the left side of the pavement.

THE END AND AFTER 383
gifted and effective history has seen, would have failed
utterly had he not offered the world something as satis
fying to take the place of the institution he attacked.
The world was not prepared to do without religion
and the church. Skepticism and unbelief, common
enough in every age, could not be the resort of the
mass of men. The existing church might be honey
combed with evils a thousand times worse than those
from which it suffered in Luther's days, but so long as
it met men's religious needs and promised them salva
tion, it must retain its hold upon them, and they must
put up with its defects. What Luther did — and this it
is gives him his supreme title to greatness — was to
convince a large part of Europe that religious consola
tion and the soul's salvation were to be found else
where. The rise of Protestantism meant not ' merely the
modification of this or that doctrine, ceremony, and
custom, but a revolution, where a revolution is hardest
of all to achieve— in the sphere of religion. It meant
trusting oneself to new guides and staking one's eter
nal destiny on untried supports. Only a prophet could
lead the way in such a revolution — a prophet aglow
with religious enthusiasm, strong in faith, eloquent in
speech, endowed with a transcendent gift of leadership.
His very conservatism was an indispensable element in
Luther's success. Keeping much of the old, he was
able to satisfy the inherited needs of his followers and
retain their confidence unshaken, while he broke with
the infallible, saving papal church. Others, like Me
lanchthon, were willing, or even eager, to remain
within the Catholic fold, if evangelical doctrine and
certain evangelical practices could be preserved. But
Luther, the one real prophet of the Reformation, knew
better. He was fighting to maintain the thing that

384 MARTIN LUTHER
chiefly mattered — assurance of peace and salvation
apart from pope and papal church. This assurance
alone made the coming of the modern age possible.
Whether he put something better in place of the old,
or something worse, is neither here nor there. That
he put anything in its place which satisfied multitudes
of devout and serious men, and has continued for cen
turies to satisfy them, is the one important thing.
Ecclesiastical unity was the curse of western Eu
rope. Fortunately the Reformation did not mean the
mere displacement of the old church by a new one
equally Catholic. It meant the rise of many churches,
and thus the gradual dissipation of the belief in any
one institution alone in possession of life and salvation.
In the conflict of the sects, Protestant with Catholic,
and Protestant with Protestant, freedom had a chance
to grow and spread.
Even had Protestantism meant only the creation of
another infallible institution to rival the old and limit
its influence, it would have been a blessing; but happily
it denied infallibility to any church, and thus gave the
modern world its great charter of liberty. To be sure,
infallibility was still claimed for the Bible, but belong
ing as it did to an age long past and a civilization long
outgrown, it had to be continually read anew in the
light of the present, and with its ever-shifting reinter-
pretation it served less and less to shackle the minds
of men and impede the march of intellectual progress.
Fearing the excesses of the Anabaptists and other
radicals, Luther might become as intolerant as any
papist, insisting on the recognition of the Augsburg
Confession and similar documents as authoritative
statements of Bible truth. But in the very nature of
the case this could be only temporary. The great prin
ciple imbedded in the very heart of Protestantism was

THE END AND AFTER 385
bound to reassert itself, and break the bonds forged
for it even by the reformers.
Luther's service to the modern world was not ex
hausted in the religious and intellectual liberty he did
so much to make possible. In breaking with the Ro
man church, he broke also with the traditional prin
ciple of ecclesiastical control over civil affairs. The
state is wholly independent of the church, he taught,
and its sphere is altogether different. Many other
Protestants, while recognizing this, and denying the
right of the church to rule the state, insisted upon
making the Bible the supreme law book in civil as well
as in religious affairs. But this, too, Luther denounced
as mischievous. The Bible, like the church, has to do
with religion, not politics. The state is to be governed
according to natural reason. Statesmen, not theolo
gians, are to be its guides.
The political implications of such a position as this
are almost incalculable. With democracy, it is true,
Luther had little sympathy. In his distrust of the
masses he did more to promote than to limit the power
of princes. But in restoring to the state its own
rightful prerogatives, and releasing it from the un
wholesome dominance of ecclesiasticism and religious
fanaticism, he took a step without which the political
freedom of the present day would be quite incon
ceivable. It is not that his teaching in this matter was
original or singular, but that he stamped it upon Protes
tantism and started the new faith upon its career,
claiming political authority even less than religious
infallibility. In another and even more important way Luther
served the modern world. He gave Protestantism a
new conception of the relation of religion and life.
Instead of finding its highest manifestation apart from
25

386 MARTIN LUTHER
the ordinary relationships and occupations of this
world, it is in them, according to Luther, that religion
best expresses itself. Denying the possibility of gain
ing special merit by any particular practices and em
ployments, and asserting the equal sacredness of all
callings, he changed the whole tone of society. With
the peculiar sanctity of the religious life went the domi
nance of the priest and of priestly ideals, and a new
lay culture took the place of the clerical culture of the
Middle Ages, to the immense advantage of society at
large. Mendicancy, about which monasticism had
thrown a noxious halo, ceased to be respectable, and a
vast amount of unemployed energy was turned into use
ful channels, to the great economic benefit of Protes
tant lands. The supreme Christian duty was declared
to be labor for the good of one's fellows, instead of
concern for the salvation of one's own soul, and a jus
tification was thus given to social service the worth of
which Christendom is only now beginning to realize.
Other- worldliness, beautiful as its fruit might be in
saintly character and spiritual devotion, lay like a
blight upon medieval society, making the wisest men
too blind to the secrets of the universe and too indiffer
ent to its hidden capabilities, and making the best men
too careless of the welfare of the masses — health,
cleanliness, comfort, education, life, and liberty.
When Luther asserted the religious value of even the
most secular employments, and declared that piety
finds its highest exercise not in serving God, who does
not need our service, but our neighbor, who does, he
contributed mightily to the progress of modern civi
lization and well-being. This earth and human life
upon it gained an independent interest and value not
attaching to them since ancient times, and the scien
tific, industrial, and social development of modern

THE END AND AFTER 387
days, resuming the interrupted advance of the classical
world, was given its guaranty.
The revolution in this sphere, it is true, was the
direct result of older and wider forces, and Luther
was obscurant enough in his attitude toward the awak
ening science of his day; but in denying the identity
of religion with asceticism and other worldliness, he
removed the greatest barrier in the way of the modern
spirit, and made its growing prevalence possible.
As the great prophets are not only they who speak
for God, but who discern the currents of their age and
anticipate the world's development, so Luther, wedded
to the old, as he was in many ways, was also a prophet
of the future, foretelling liberation from ecclesiastical
domination and from the bondage of religious fear, a
new interest in the present world and its employments,
and a new concern for human welfare. Backward
enough he was both in applying his own principles
and in appreciating their implications, but it is the
function of the prophet to announce and to forward
more than he himself understands or even desires.
From every point of view Luther was a prophet. It is
the one name which best describes him.
But, after all, the overmastering impression upon
any one who has followed day by day the course of
Luther's life is not the extent of his influence and the
reach of his prophetic vision, but the greatness of his
personality. Full of faults he was, faults of temper
and of taste, — passionate, domineering, obstinate,
prejudiced, violent, vituperative, and coarse, — but he
was a man through and through, — a man of heroic
mold, courageous, strong, masterful, frank, sincere,
and generous, as far from petty jealousy and cowardly
duplicity as from priggishness and cant. Deadly in
earnest, and yet with the rare and saving grace of hu-

388 MARTIN LUTHER
mor, which guarded him from the danger of taking
trivial things too seriously, relieved the strain both for
himself and his followers in times of greatest stress,
and gave him entrance to the hearts of men the wide
world over. Born to rule, though he never held offi
cial position, and owed nothing to his station, though
he died as he had lived, a mere preacher and professor
of theology in a small and out-of-the-way town, he
dominated more than half the western world, and the
whole of it is changed because he lived.
He was built on no ordinary scale, this redoubtable
German. He was of titanic stature, and our common
standards fail adequately to measure him. But his
life lies open to all the world, as do few other lives in
history. To know it as we may is well worth an effort.

INDEX

INDEX

Address to the German nobil
ity, 164 ff., 248 ff., 254, 269
Adrian VI, Pope, 244, 321
^Esop, 337
Against the Idol at Halle, 219,
221
Against the Murderous and
Thieving Mobs of Peasants,
253
Against the so-called Spiritual
Estate of Pope and Bishops,
164
Agricola, Stephen, 214, 292,
300, 332, 336
Albert, Archbishop and Elector
of Mayence, 81, 83, 92 ff.,
102, 130, 161, 166, 194, 213,
218 ff., 279, 292
Albert, Count of Mansfeld,
123, 379
Albert, Duke of Saxony, 32
Aleander, Jerome, 192 ff., 195 ff.,
198 ff., 204 ff., 207 ff., 213
Alexander VI, Pope, 44
Alps, 39
Altenburg, 308
Altenstein, Castle of, 212
Amsdorf, Nicholas von, 55,
124, 164, 196, 212, 214, 218,
232, 240, 242, 275, 281, 284,
312. 327
Anabaptists, 362, 384
Anhalt, Prince of, 20
Anna, Saint, 17
Antichrist, 138, 162, 190, 193
Apel, John, 279, 285
Apennines, 39
Aquinas, Thomas, 59, 62
Argula. See Staufen
Aristotelian logic, 33
Aristotle, 62 ff., 94, 331
Asterisks, 174

Astrology, 71 ff.
Augsburg, 116, 137, 144, 160,
336, 34i, 347
Augsburg Confession, 341,346,
356, 384
Augsburg Diet of 15 10, 120
Augsburg Diet of 1518, 115 ff.,
130
Augsburg Diet of 1530, 302,
336 ff., 368
Augustine, Saint, 30, 46, 152,
162
Augustinian Theology, 64,, 107,
134 ff., 139
Babylon, 289
Babylonian Captivity of the
Church, 172, 264, 362
Baptism, 313
Barnes, Anthony, 353
Bartholomew. See Bernhardt
Basel, 159, 332
Baumgartner, George, 51
Baumgartner, Jerome, 275, 276
Beckman, Otto, 54
Bernhardi, Bartholomew, 53
Bible, 14, 34, 35, 59 ff., 63, 84,
93, 101, 104, 138, 142, 156,
202 ff., 286, 296, 319, 332, 342,
362, 385
Bible, translation of, 221 ff.,
296, 315
Biel, Gabriel, 34, 59, 62
Bitterfeld, 381
Bohemia, 141, 145, 147, 162,
205, 210, 230 ff.
Bohemia, King of, 131
Bologna, 33
Bonaventura, 62
Bondage of the Will, 267
Bora, Hans von, 273
Bora, Katharine von, 273 ff.,

39'

392

INDEX

289, 292 ff., 301 ff., 341. 374,
376 ff., 378, 379
Bora, Magdalen von, 303
Brandenburg, Bishop of, 114,
308
Brandenburg, Elector of, 131,
3i8
Braun, John, 33
Brenz, John, 333
Brethren of the Common Life,
19
Brisger, Eberhard, 289, 290, 293
Brismann, John, 330
Briick, Gregory, Chancellor,
317. 343. 358, 362 ff., 370, 371
Bruno, Giordano, 272
Bucer, Martin, 107, 198, 332,
334, 357
Bugenhagen, John, 279, 285,
353, 374, 379
Burkard, Francis, of Weimar,
299
Cajetan, Thomas, Cardinal,
117 ff., 121 ff., 137, 200
Calvin, John, 299
Campagna, Roman, 42
Capito, Wolfgang, 159, 294
Caracciolo, 193
Carlstadt, Andreas Bodenstein
von, 55, 74, 121, 124, 134 ff.,
139 ff., 143, 228, 230, 232,
245 ff., 249, 265, 325, 327, 330,
333, 370
Catechisms, Large and Small,
316
Catharine of Aragon, 362
Ceremonies, Religious, 314, 317
Charles V, Emperor of Ger
many, 13, 117, 131 ff-, 133,
191, 197, 199, 203 ff., 207 ff.,
219, 234, 242, 321, 336, 350 ff.,
351
Christian, King of Denmark,
277
Christine, Wife of Philip of
Hesse, 361
Church, Luther's Doctrine of,
314
Church Postils, 277
Cicero, 63, 226
Civil Rulers, 319

Clement VII, 321, 353, 362
Coburg, 106, 302, 336 ff.
Cochlaeus, John, 206 ff.
Cologne, 69, 70, 184, 215
Cologne, Elector of, 131
Constance, Council of, 141 ff.,
196
Constantine, Roman Emperor,
160, 350
Copernicus, Nicholas, 271
Cotta, Frau, 10, 20
Cranach, Frau, 279
Cranach, Lucas, 55, 76,203,211,
275, 277, 279, 285, 293
Cromwell, Oliver, 3
Crotus, Rubeanus, 70, 159 ff.,
196
Cruciger, Caspar, 374, 379
Cujus regio, ejus religio, 323
Cyriac. See Kaufmann, Cyriac
D'Ailly, Peter, 34
Decet Romanum Pontificem,
Papal Bull, 190
Democracy, 385
D'Etaples, Le Favre, 265
Deutsche Messe, 315, 317
Devil, 70, 73, 151, 169, 197,
216 ff., 233, 256, 284, 310, 330,
343, 347, 358, 359, 366, 370,
371, 377
Dietrich, Veit, 124, 337, 346,
348
Diocletian, Baths of, 42
Dominicans, 69, 81, 84, 97, 102,
m, 116, 185
Donation of Constantine, 160
Dresden, 51 ff., 151
Diirer, Albrecht, 158, 212
Eastern Church, 147
Ebernburg, Castle of, 198
Eck, John, 133 ff., 153, 158, 181,
183 ff., 186 ff., 332, 344, 352
Education, 269 ff.
Ein' feste Burg, 316
Eisenach, 4, 10 ff., 20, 197 ff.,
211 ff.
Eisleben, 5, 375 ff., 379 ff.
Emser, Jerome, 153
England, 199
Epicurus, 265

INDEX

393

Erasmus, Desiderius, 60, 68,
107 ff., 156, 158 ff., 262 ff.,
276, 296, 298, 382
Erfurt, 11 ff., 14, 17, 20, 23,
24, 29, 33, 36 ff., 46, 47, 53,
54, 58, 76, 88, 196, 215, 223
Erfurt, University of, 11, 35,
48, 150
Ernest, Duke of Liineburg, 346
Ernest, Elector of Saxony, 32
Eucharist, 326, 327, 335
Exhortation to Peace in re
sponse to the Twelve Articles
of the Swabian Peasants, 253
Exurge JDomine, Papal Bull,
182, 200
Ferdinand of Austria, 199, 351,
352, 374
Florence, 40
France, 39, 287, 328
Francis I, of France, 117,
131 ff., 321, 351
Francis, Master. See Burkard,
Francis
Frankfort-on-the-Main, 197,
211
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Uni
versity of, 102
Frederick the Wise, Elector of
Saxony, 32 ff., 55 ff., 70, 76,
83 ff., 97, 107, H4, 116 ff.,
121, 125 ff., 131 ff., 149, 156,
181, 186, 192, 194, 197, 204,
206, 208, 210, 212, 219, 232 ff.,
236, 247, 263, 282, 290, 305,
306, 308, 309, 323, 381
Freedom of a Christian Man,
174 ff., 186, 313
Freedom of the Will, 266
Friedberg, 211
Froben, John, 159
Fuggers, The, 83, 119, 168
Funk, Ulrich, 332
Furstenberg, 200, 201
Galatians, Commentary on, 156
Galatians, Epistle to, 52
Gebhard, Count of Mansfeld,
379
Geneva, 299
George, Duke of Saxony, 96,

135, 139, 205, 211, 236, 352,
361
George, Prince of Anhalt, 374
Gerbel, Nicholas, 216
Glapion, John, 198
Glatz, Casper, 276
Gotha, 68, 212
Grafenthal, 123
Greeks, 145
Grimma, 273, 274
Ground and Reason of all the
Articles unjustly Condemned
in the Roman Bull, 187
Hagenau, 357, 365, 369
Halle, 104, 218 ff., 376, 381
Handbook of a Christian Sol
dier, 263
Hapsburg, House of, 351
Hedio, Caspar, 332
Heidelberg, 105, 108, 198
Henry, Duke of Saxony, 352
Henry VIII of England, 172,
362
Herostratus, 119
Hersfeld, 211
Herzbergers, 52
Hess, Eoban, 196, 269, 336
Hohenzollern, 81
Humanism, 12, 119, 262 ff., 325,
382
Hus, John, 141, 147, 182, 196,
205, 230, 342
Hutten, Ulrich von, 160 ff., 168,
192 ff., 238 ff., 247 ff.
Hymn Writing, 316
Indulgences, 76 ff.
Ingolstadt, University of, 133
Inn, River, 84
Innsbruck, 84
Intolerance, 325, 326
Italians, 41
Italy, 38 ff., 117
Jacob. See Probst
Jena, 237, 240
Jeremiah, 289
Jews, 377
Joachim, Elector of Branden
burg, 357
Joachim, Prince of Anhalt, 299

394

INDEX

John, Elector of Saxony, 290,
291, 300, 309 ff., 314, 320, 321,
323, 328, 329, 34i, 346, 35i,
381
John Frederick, Elector of
Saxony, 323, 352, 353, 355,
361, 370, 381
John Henry, Count of Schwarz-
burg, 314
Jonas, Justus, 240, 279, 296,
336, 345, 353, 355, 376, 379,
380
Jonas, Justus, Jr., 302, 303
Jost. See lonas, Justus, Jr.
Jude, Leo, 327
Judenbach, 106
Julius II, Pope, 44, 80, 183
Junker, Georg, 213
Jurists, 16, 378 '
Jiiterbog, 83 ff.
Katharine von Bora. See
Bora, Katharine von
Kaufmann, Cyriac (Luther's
nephew), 337
Kemberg, 96
Kessler, John, 237
Koppe, Leonard, 274, 281
Landstuhl, Castle of, 247
Lang, John, 52, 54, 60, 64, 69,
94, 107, 108, no, 136, 150,
184, 189, 222, 264
Latin Style, 14
Leipsic, 32, 47, 129, 196, 352,
374, 379
Leipsic Debate, 131 ff., 150, 159,
161, 181, 331, 332
Leitzkau, 52
Lena, Aunt. See Bora, Mag
dalen von
Leo X, Pope, 86, 101, 113, 117,
186, 244
Letters of Obscure Men, 70,
159
Liberty of Conscience, 319 ff.
Licinius, Roman Emperor, 350
Lincoln, Abraham, 3
Link, Wenceslaus, 114, 122, 137,
185, 224, 249, 289, 301, 334,
359
Lippendorf, 273

Lippus. See Melanchthon,
Philip, Jr.
Lobnitz, 374
Lombard, Sentences of, 46, 52
Lord's Supper, 313, 356
Lucian, the Satirist, 265
Lupine, Peter, 216
Luther, Elizabeth, 303
Luther, Hans, Sr., 4 ff., 10, 25,
280, 340
Luther, Hans (son), 302, 303,
374
Luther, James, 379
Luther, Katharine. See Bora,
Katharine von
Luther, Magdalen, 303, 304
Luther, Margaret (mother),
4 ff-, 340
Luther, Margaret, 280, 303
Luther, Martin, passim; par
ents, 4 ff. ; birth, 5 ; education,
9 ff. ; monastic life, 17 ff. ; or
dination, 25 ff. ; moves to
Wittenberg, 34 ff.; returns to
Erfurt, 37; visits Rome,
37 ff. ; takes degree of Sen
tentiarius, 46; of Doctor of
Theology, 47; becomes pro
fessor, 48; preacher in Wit
tenberg, 48; district vicar,
50; reforms university study,
61 ff. ; at Heidelberg, 105 ff. ;
at Augsburg, 118 ff.; Leipsic
Debate, 131 ff. ; conduct in
controversy, 151 ff. ; excom
municated by pope, 182;
burns papal bull, 188; at
Worms, 198 ff. ; at the Wart
burg, 210 ff. ; translates New
Testament, 221 ; conflict with
radicals, 229 ff. ; returns to
Wittenberg, 241 ; personal
appearance, 240, 354; con
troversy with Erasmus,
262 ff. ; services to education,
268 ff. ; marriage, 273 ff. ;
gives up monastic life,
289 ff. ; income, 290 ff. ; per
sonal habits, 295 ff. ; family,
301 ff. ; work as organizer of
evangelical church, 306 ff. ;
controversy with Zwingli and

INDEX

395

the Sacramentarians, 325 ff. ;
stay at Coburg, 336 ff. ; atti
tude toward question of
armed resistance to the em
peror, 348 ff.; attitude to
ward the Council of Mantua,
355; at Schmalkalden, 356;
attitude toward Ratisbon
conference, 357 ff. ; ill health,
368 ff. ; visits Eisleben, 375 ff. ;
death and burial, 380; in
fluence, 381 ff.
Luther, Martin, Jr., 303
Luther, Paul, 303
Magdeburg, 10, 19, 276, 379
Mansfeld, 5, 6, 10, 19, 25, 278,
280, 284, 340, 375 ff-, 379
Mansfeld, Chancellor of, 256
Mansfeld, Counts of, 375, 380,
381
Mantua, 35s
Marburg, Colloquy of, 328 ff.
Marcolfus, 240
Maria del Popolo, Church of,
41 ff.
Mass, Catholic, 318
Maternus. See Pistoris
Mathesius, John, 23, 299
Maximilian, Emperor of Ger
many, 84, 114, 117, 131
Mayence, 184
Mayence, Archbishop of. See
Albert
Mayence, Augustinian Prior
of, 51
Meissen, Bishop of, 153
Melanchthon, Philip, 34, 109 ff.,
119, 123, 148, 188, 214 ff., 221,
223, 231 ff., 237, 240, 242,
248, 265, 272, 275, 283, 285,
286, 291, 295, 298, 301, 311,
331 ff., 336, 340 ff-, 356, 357,
359, 361, 365, 369, 374 ff-, 379,
381, 383
Melanchthon, Philip, Jr., 302,
303
Merseburg, 374
Miltitz, Carl von, 126 ff., 135,
145, 181, 186
Milvian Bridge, 41
Mohra, 4ff., 211

Monogamy, 362
Mosellan, Peter, 140, 159
Mulde, River, 273, 376
Miinzer, Thomas, 245, 249, 252,
330, 334
Music, 13, 270, 299
Mutianus, Rufus, 68
Myconius, Frederick, 196 ff.
Napoleon, 3
Neobulus, 366
Nero, 42
Netherlands, 212
New Eckian Bulls and Lies,
The, 187
New Testament, 263, 327
New Testament, Translation
of, 222 ff.
Nimbschen, 273, 274
Ninety-five Theses, 89 ff., 263
Ninety-five Theses, Commen
tary on, 113
Nuremberg, 55, 116, 118, 127,
158, 275, 320, 346, 351
Nuremberg, Diet of, 239, 244
Obelisks, 134
Occam, William of, 34, 62
CEcolampadius, John, 331 ff.
Old Testament, Translation of,
222
Oppenheim, 198
Orlamunde, 246, 258
Osiander, Andrew, 333
Otto. See Beckman.
Padua, 33
Palatinate, Count of, and Elec
tor, 131, 247
Pantheon, 42 ff.
Papacy, 59 ff., 63, 93, 99, 102,
104, 113 ff-, 124, 165 ff., 307,
323, 344, 345
Paris, University of, 150
Pascal, Pope, 41 ff.
Paul the Apostle, 20, 30, 42,
52 ff., 138, 215, 344
Paul III, Pope, 352, 363
Pauline Theology, 107
Peasants' War, 250 ff., 283, 312
Pest, 370

396

INDEX

Peter the Apostle, 42, 52, 85,
215, 218
Petzensteiner, John, 196, 206,
212
Peutinger, Conrad, 118, 200
Pfeffinger, Degenhard, 57 ff.,
106, 1 14 ff ., 127
Philip, Landgrave of Hesse,
247 ff., 328 ff., 348, 349, 361 ff.,
380
Picards, 75
Pilgrimages, 71
Pirkheimer, Willibald, 137, 184
Pistoris, Maternus, 12
Pius II, Pope, 183
Plato, 65
Pleissenburg, Palace of, 139
Po, River, 39
Pollich, Martin, 32, 61
Polygamy, 362
Pontanus, Dr., 378
Porphyry, 64
Porta Flaminia, 41, 42
Praise of Folly, 262
Prierias, Sylvester, in ff., 122,
135 ff ., 162
Probst, Jacob, 333, 375
Psalms, 52
Psalms, Exposition of, 156
Puritans, 298
Radicals, 228 ff., 298, 325, 384
Ratisbon, 357, 359
Ratzeberger, Matthew, 197
Reichenbach, Philip, 275
Reinicke, Hans, 340
Relics, 76
Reuchlin, John, 69 ff., 109,
158 ff.
Rhenanus, Beatus, 274
Rhine, 376
Romans, Epistle to, 60, 70 ff.
Rome, 37 ff., 41 ff., 101, 102,
m, 115 ff-, 124, 138, 166, 181,
218, 258, 356
Rfihel, John, 278 ff.
Saale, River, 376
Sacramentarians, 335
Sacraments, 306
St. Gall, 237

St. Peter's Church at Rome,
80, 92
Saint Worship, 71
Sale, Margaret von der, 361
Salzburg, 116, 185
Satan. See Devil
Scala, Santa, 43
Schaumberg, Sylvester von,
lOlff.
Scherle, Henry, 374
Scheurl, Christopher, 54, 55,
65, 98, 129 ff., 137, 158
Schmalkalden, 287, 348, 351,
355, 356, 369
Schmalkald League, 351, 355,
361, 367, 369
Schmalkald War, 381
Schneidewin, Henry, 337
Schonfeld, Ave von, 276
Schonfeld, Ernest von, 374
Schoolmen, 15, 34
Schurf, Augustine, 237, 240
Schurf, Jerome, 55, 96, 237,
240, 243, 282
Schwarzburg, John Henry,
Count of, 314
Schwertfeger, John, 124
Scultetus, Bishop of Branden
burg, 94, 114
Sermon on Good Works, 167
Sermon on the Ban, ii4ff.
Services, Religious, 317
Sickingen, Francis von, 162,
192, 194, 198, 212, 247 ff., 330
Sieberger, Wolfgang, 338, 339
Siena, Catharine of, 277
Soest, 379
Spalatin, George, 54, 56 ff., 69,
71, 106, 108, 115, 123, 137 ff.,
149, 153, 157, 161 ff., 188, 194,
197, 204, 210 ff., 214, 217, 219,
224, 230, 244, 274, 275, 277 ff.,
290, 301, 312, 336
Spengler, Lazarus, 158, 184,
346, 348
Spires, Diet of 1526, 321, 328
Spires, Diet of 1529, 328
Staufen, Argula von, 277
Staupitz, John von, 29, 32 ff.,
37, 46 ff., 56, 58 ff., 71, 80, 84,
102, 105, 108, in ff., 116, 122,
147, 184 ff., 189, 275

INDEX

397

Staupitz, Magdalen von, 274
Stephen, Doctor, of Augsburg,
333
Strasburg, 334
Sturm, Jacob, 332
Sylvester, Pope, 160
Symler, Jacob, 108
Swaben, Peter, 196
Switzerland, 38, 238, 328, 331,
335
Table Talk, 271, 297, 326
Tesseredecas, 156
Tetzel, John, 81 ff., 91 ff-, 101 ff.,
m, 121 ff., 129 ff., 136, 221
That Children Should be Kept
in School, 271
Thuringia, 255
Tiber, River, 41 ff.
Toleration, 321
Torgau, 33, 52, 58, 274, 279,
282, 302, 348, 371, 376
Trade and Usury, 169
Trebonius, John, 11
Treves, Archbishop of, 128,
131, 206 ff., 247
Trutvetter, Judocus, 12, 32, 64,
104
Tubingen, University of, 109,
134
Turks, 120, 138, 348, 358, 363
Twelve Articles of Peasants,
The, 251
Valla, Lorenzo, 160
Vatican, 182
Vatican Council _ of 1870, 103
Veit. See Dietrich.
Venice, 287
Vergerio, Pietro Paolo, 353 ff.

Visitation of Churches, 311,
312
Waltershausen, 212
Warning against Uproar, 215
Wartburg, Castle of, 210 ff.,
228, 230, 237, 247, 277, 289,
342
Weller, Jerome, 300, 337
Weller, Peter, 337
Witchcraft, 71 ff.
Wittenberg, 33 ff., 46 ff., 54 ff.,
74, 83 ff., 88 ff., 102, 139, 169,
187, 194, 195, 214, 228 ff., 274,
275, 277, 289 ff., 297, 299,
305, 306, 308, 316, 320, 331,
334, 337 ff-, 353, 370 ff-, 379,
3Sl
Wittenberg, University of, 32,
46, 48, 65, 109, 272
Wolfgang, Count Palatine, 188
Women, Luther's Idea of, 288
Worms, 191 ff., 195, 197, 198,
201, 207, 208, 210, 211, 234,
242, 357
Worms, Diet of, 128, 163,
191 ff., 219, 263, 336
Worms, Edict of, 236, 244, 321
Wurzburg, 106
Wurzburg, Bishop of, 107
Zerbst, 84
Ziegler, Margarethe. See Lu
ther, Margaret
Zulsdorf, 293, 374
Zurich, 247, 327, 334
Zwickau, 231, 245
Zwickau Prophets, 232
Zwilling, Gabriel, 230, 282
Zwingli, Ulrich, 248, 325 ff.

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