History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, Volume 3
by J. H. Merle d'Aubigné · English · Gutenberg #41253 · 1,130,027 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, Volume 3
Author: J. H. Merle d'Aubigné
Translator: H. White
Release date: October 31, 2012 [eBook #41253]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, VOLUME 3 ***
Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
Variations in spelling (christian and Christian), punctuation and
hyphenation have been retained except in obvious cases of
typographical error.
* * * * *
HISTORY
OF
THE REFORMATION
OF THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
BY J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNÉ, D. D.,
PRESIDENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL OF GENEVA, AND VICE-PRESIDENT
OF THE SOCIETE EVANGELIQUE.
TRANSLATED
BY H. WHITE,
B.A. TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; M.A. AND PH. DR. HEIDELBERG.
THE TRANSLATION CAREFULLY REVISED BY DR. D'AUBIGNÉ, WHO HAS ALSO
MADE VARIOUS ADDITIONS NOT HITHERTO PUBLISHED.
VOL. III.
PUBLISHED BY THE
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK.
1848.
PREFACE TO VOLUME THIRD.
A spirit of examination and inquiry is in our days continually urging
the literary men of France, Switzerland, Germany, and England to
search after the original documents which form the basis of Modern
History. I desire to add my mite to the accomplishment of the
important task which our age appears to have undertaken. Hitherto I
have not been content simply with reading the works of contemporary
historians: I have examined eye-witnesses, letters, and original
narratives; and have made use of some manuscripts, particularly that
of Bullinger, which has been printed since the appearance of the
Second Volume of this Work in France.[1]
[1] Bullinger's Chronik, Frauenfeld, 1838-1840.
But the necessity of having recourse to unpublished documents became
more urgent when I approached (as I do in the Twelfth Book) the
history of the Reformation in France. On this subject we possess but
few printed memoirs, in consequence of the perpetual trials in which
the Reformed Church of that country has existed. In the spring of 1838
I examined, as far as was in my power, the manuscripts preserved in
the public libraries of Paris, and it will be seen that a manuscript
in the Royal Library, hitherto I believe unknown, throws much light on
the early stages of the Reformation; and in the autumn of 1839 I
consulted the manuscripts in the library belonging to the consistory
of the pastors of Neufchatel, a collection exceedingly rich with
regard to this period, as having inherited the manuscripts of Farel's
library; and through the kindness of the Chatelain of Meuron I
obtained the use of a manuscript life of Farel written by Choupard,
into which most of these documents have been copied. These materials
have enabled me to reconstruct an entire phasis of the Reformation in
France. In addition to these aids, and those supplied by the Library
of Geneva, I made an appeal, in the columns of the _Archives du
Christianisme_, to all friends of history and the Reformation who
might have any manuscripts at their disposal; and I here gratefully
acknowledge the different communications that have been made to me, in
particular by M. Ladevèze, pastor at Meaux. But although religious
wars and persecutions have destroyed many precious documents, a number
still exist, no doubt, in various parts of France, which would be of
vast importance for the history of the Reformation; and I earnestly
call upon all those who may possess or have any knowledge of them,
kindly to communicate with me on the subject. It is felt now-a-days
that these documents are common property; and on this account I hope
my appeal will not be made in vain.
It may be thought that in writing a general History of the
Reformation, I have entered into an unnecessary detail of its first
dawnings in France. But these particulars are almost unknown, the
events that form the subject of my Twelfth Book, occupying only four
pages in the _Histoire Ecclesiastique des Eglises réformées au Royaume
de France_, by Theodore Beza; and other historians have confined
themselves almost entirely to the political progress of the nation.
Unquestionably the scenes that I have discovered, and which I am now
about to relate, are not so imposing as the Diet of Worms.
Nevertheless, independently of the christian interest that is
attached to them, the humble but heaven-descended movement that I have
endeavoured to describe, has probably exerted a greater influence over
the destinies of France than the celebrated wars of Francis I. and
Charles V. In a large machine, not that which makes the greatest show
is always the most essential part, but the most hidden springs.
Complaints have been made of the delay that has taken place in the
publication of this third volume; and some persons would have had me
keep back the first until the whole was completed. There are,
possibly, certain superior intellects to which conditions may be
prescribed; but there are others whose weakness must give them, and to
this number the author belongs. To publish a volume at one time, and
then a second whenever I was able, and after that a third, is the
course that my important duties and my poor ability allow me to take.
Other circumstances, moreover, have interposed; severe afflictions
have on two occasions interrupted the composition of this third
volume, and gathered all my affections and all my thoughts over the
graves of beloved children. The reflection that it was my duty to
glorify that adorable Master who addressed me in such powerful
appeals, and who vouchsafed me such Divine consolation, could alone
have given me the courage required for the completion of my task.
I thought these explanations were due to the kindness with which this
Work has been received both in France and England, and especially in
the latter country. The approbation of the Protestant Christians of
Great Britain, the representatives of evangelical principles and
doctrines in the most distant parts of the world, is most highly
valued by me; and I feel a pleasure in telling them that it is a most
precious encouragement to my labours.
The cause of truth recompenses those who embrace and defend it, and
such has been the result with the nations who received the
Reformation. In the eighteenth century, at the very moment when Rome
thought to triumph by the Jesuits and the scaffold, the victory
slipped from her grasp. Rome fell, like Naples, Portugal, and Spain,
into inextricable difficulties; and at the same time two Protestant
nations arose and began to exercise an influence over Europe that had
hitherto belonged to the Roman-catholic powers. England came forth
victorious from those attacks of the French and Spaniards which the
pope had so long been stirring up against her, and the Elector of
Brandenburg, in spite of the wrath of Clement XI., encircled his head
with a kingly crown. Since that time England has extended her dominion
in every quarter of the globe, and Prussia has taken a new rank among
the continental states, while a third power, Russia, also separated
from Rome, has been growing up in her immense deserts. In this manner
have evangelical principles exerted their influence over the countries
that have embraced them, and _righteousness hath exalted the nations_
(Prov. xiv. 34). Let the evangelical nations be well assured that to
Protestantism they are indebted for their greatness. From the moment
they abandon the position that God has given them, and incline again
towards Rome, they will lose their glory and their power. Rome is now
endeavouring to win them over, employing flattery and threats by
turns; she would, like Delilah, lull them to sleep upon her
knees,......but it would be to cut off their locks, that their
adversaries might put out their eyes and bind them with fetters of
brass.
Here, too, is a great lesson for that France with which the author
feels himself so intimately connected by the ties of ancestry. Should
France, imitating her different governments, turn again towards the
papacy, it will be, in our belief, the signal of great disasters.
Whoever attaches himself to the papacy will be compromised in its
destruction. France has no prospect of strength or of greatness but by
turning towards the Gospel. May this great truth be rightly
understood by the people and their leaders!
It is true that in our days popery is making a great stir. Although
labouring under an incurable consumption, she would by a hectic flush
and feverish activity persuade others and herself too that she is
still in full vigour. This a theologian in Turin has endeavoured to do
in a work occasioned by this History, and in which we are ready to
acknowledge a certain talent in bringing forward testimonies, even the
most feeble, with a tone of candour to which we are little accustomed,
and in a becoming style, with the exception, however, of the culpable
facility with which the author in his twelfth chapter revives
accusations against the reformers, the falsehood of which has been so
authentically demonstrated and so fully acknowledged.[2]
[2] La Papauté considérée dans son origine et dans son développement
au moyen âge, ou réponse aux allégations de M. Merle D'Aubigné dans
son Histoire de la Réformation au seizième siècle, par l'abbé C.
Magnin, docteur en théologie. Genève, chez Berthier-Guers, 1840.
As a sequel to his Biography of Luther, M. Audin has recently
published a Life of Calvin, written under the influence of lamentable
prejudices, and in which we can hardly recognise the reformers and the
Reformation. Nevertheless, we do not find in this author the shameful
charges against Calvin to which we have just alluded; he has passed
them over in praiseworthy silence. No man that has any self-respect
can now venture to bring forward these gross and foolish calumnies.
Perhaps on some other occasion we shall add a few words to what we
have already said in our First Book on the origin of popery. They
would here be out of place.
I shall only remark, in a general way, that it is precisely the
_human_ and very rational causes that so clearly explain its origin,
to which the papacy has recourse to prove its _divine_ institution.
Thus christian antiquity declares that the universal episcopacy was
committed to all the bishops, so that the bishops of Jerusalem,
Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Rome, Carthage, Lyons, Arles, Milan,
Hippo, Cæsarea, &c., were interested and interfered in all that took
place in the christian world. Rome immediately claims for herself that
duty which was incumbent on all, and reasoning as if no one but
herself were concerned in it, employs it to demonstrate her primacy.
Let us take another example. The christian churches, established in
the large cities of the empire, sent missionaries to the countries
with which they were connected. This was done first of all by
Jerusalem; then by Antioch, Alexandria, and Ephesus; afterwards by
Rome: and Rome forthwith concludes from what she had done after the
others, and to a less extent than the others, that she was entitled to
set herself above the others. These examples will suffice.
Let us only remark further, that Rome possessed alone in the West the
honour that had been shared in the East by Corinth, Philippi,
Thessalonica, Ephesus, Antioch, and in a much higher degree by
Jerusalem;[3] namely, that of having one apostle or many among its
first teachers. Accordingly, the Latin Churches must naturally have
felt a certain respect towards Rome. But the Eastern Christians, who
respected her as the Church of the political metropolis of the empire,
would never acknowledge her ecclesiastical superiority. The famous
General Council of Chalcedon ascribed to Constantinople, formerly the
obscure Byzantium, the same privileges (τἁ ἱσα πρεσβεἱα) as
to Rome, and declared that she ought to be elevated _like her_. And
hence when the papacy was definitively formed in Rome, the East would
not acknowledge a master of whom it had never heard mention; and,
standing on the ancient footing of its catholicity, it abandoned the
West to the power of the new sect which had sprung up in its bosom.
The East even to this day calls herself emphatically catholic and
orthodox; and whenever you ask one of the Eastern Christians, whom
Rome has gained by her numerous concessions, whether he is a catholic?
"No," replies he directly, "I am papistian (a papist)."[4]
[3] St. Epiphany says, that our Lord committed to James the Elder at
Jerusalem his throne on earth (τὁν θρὁνον αὑτου ἑπι
τἡς γἡς): and speaking of the bishops assembled at Jerusalem,
he declares that the whole world (παντα κοσμον) ought to
submit to their authority. Epiph. Hæres., 70, 10; 78, 7.
[4] Journal of the Rev. Joseph Wolff. London 1839, p. 225.
If this History has been criticized by the Romish party, it seems also
to have met with others who have regarded it in a purely literary
light. Men for whom I feel much esteem appear to attach greater
importance to a literary or political history of the Reformation, than
to an exposition grounded on its spiritual principles and its interior
springs of action. I can well understand this way of viewing my
subject, but I cannot participate in it. In my opinion, the very
essence of the Reformation is its doctrines and its inward life. Every
work in which these two things do not hold the chief place may be
showy, but it will not be faithfully and candidly historical. It would
be like a philosopher who, in describing a man, should detail with
great accuracy and picturesque beauty all that concerns his body, but
should give only a subordinate place to that divine inhabitant, the
soul.
There are no doubt great defects in the feeble work of which I here
present another fragment to the christian public; and I should desire
that it were still more copiously imbued with the spirit of the
Reformation. The better I have succeeded in pointing out whatever
manifests the glory of Christ, the more faithful I shall have been to
history. I willingly adopt as my law those words, which an historian
of the sixteenth century, a man of the sword still more than of the
pen, after writing a portion of the history of that Protestantism in
France which I do not purpose narrating, addresses to those who might
think of completing his task: "I would give them that law which I
acknowledge myself: that, in seeking the glory of this precious
instrument, their principal aim should be that of the arm which has
prepared, employed, and wielded it at His good pleasure. For all
praise given to princes is unseasonable and misplaced, if it has not
for leaf and root that of the living God, to whom alone belong honour
and dominion for ever and ever."[5]
[5] As the French original does not indicate the source whence this
quotation is taken, it may not be improper to mention that it will be
found in the _Histoire Universelle_ of Theodore Agrippa D'Aubigné, 3
vols folio, Amsterdam 1626. D'Aubigné was then a refugee at Geneva,
and in the preface to this work, which contains a history of the world
and more especially of France and French Protestantism during his
lifetime, he bequeaths to his children the task of completing the
history he had partially traced out, and prescribes to them (in the
passage quoted above) the spirit in which it should be performed. He
little thought that two centuries and a half would pass away before
his legacy would be accepted and the history of Protestantism
completed. [_Note by the Translator._]
CONTENTS.
BOOK IX.
FIRST REFORMS. 1521 AND 1522.
CHAPTER I.
Progress of the Reformation--New Period--Usefulness of
Luther's Captivity in the Wartburg--Agitation in Germany--
Melancthon and Luther--Enthusiasm Page 1
CHAPTER II.
Luther in the Wartburg--Object of his Captivity--Anxiety--
Sickness--Luther's Labours--On Confession--Reply to Latomus--
His daily Walks 8
CHAPTER III.
Commencement of the Reform--Marriage of Feldkirchen--The
Marriage of Monks--Theses--Tract against Monachism--Luther
no longer a Monk 16
CHAPTER IV.
Archbishop Albert--The Idol of Halle--Luther's Indignation--
Alarm of the Court--Luther's Letter to the Archbishop--Albert's
Reply--Joachim of Brandenburg 21
CHAPTER V.
Translation of the Bible--Wants of the Church--Principles of
the Reformation--Temptations of the Devil--Luther's Works
condemned by the Sorbonne--Melancthon's Reply--Luther Visits
Wittemberg 28
CHAPTER VI.
Fresh Reforms--Gabriel Zwilling on the Mass--The University--
Melancthon's Propositions--The Elector--Monastic Institutions
attacked--Emancipation of the Monks--Disturbances--Chapter of
the Augustine Monks--Carlstadt and the Mass--First Celebration
of the Lord's Supper--Importance of the Mass in the Romish
System 34
CHAPTER VII.
False Reform--The New Prophets--The Prophets at Wittemberg--
Melancthon--The Elector--Luther--Carlstadt and the Images--
Disturbances--Luther is called for--He does not hesitate--
Dangers 46
CHAPTER VIII.
Departure from the Wartburg--New Position--Luther and Primitive
Catholicism--Meeting at the Black Bear--Luther's Letter to the
Elector--Return to Wittemberg--Sermon at Wittemberg--Charity--The
Word--How the Reformation was brought about--Faith in Christ--Its
Effects--Didymus--Carlstadt--The Prophets--Interview with
Luther--End of the Struggle 56
CHAPTER IX.
Translation of the New Testament--Faith and Scripture--
Opposition--Importance of this Publication--Necessity for
a systematic Arrangement--Melancthon's Loci Communes--Original
Sin--Salvation--Free Will--Effects of the Loci Communes 74
CHAPTER X.
Opposition--Henry VIII.--Wolsey--The Queen--Fisher--Thomas
More--Luther's Books burnt--Henry's Attack on Luther--
Presented to the Pope--Its Effect on Luther--Energy and
Violence--Luther's Reply--Answer by the Bishop of Rochester--
Reply of Thomas More--Henry's Proceedings 83
CHAPTER XI.
General Movement--The Monks--How the Reformation was carried
on--Unlearned Believer--The Old and the New Doctors--Printing
and Literature--Bookselling and Colportage 96
CHAPTER XII.
Luther at Zwickau--The Castle of Freyberg--Worms--Frankfort--
Universal Movement--Wittemberg the Centre of the Reformation--
Luther's Sentiments 104
BOOK X.
AGITATION, REVERSES, AND PROGRESS. 1522-1526.
CHAPTER I.
Political Element--Want of Enthusiasm at Rome--Siege of
Pampeluna--Courage of Ignatius--Transition--Luther and Loyola--
Visions--Two Principles 111
CHAPTER II.
Victory of the Pope--Death of Leo X.--The Oratory of Divine
Love--Adrian VI.--Plan of Reform--Opposition 120
CHAPTER III.
Diet of Nuremberg--Soliman's Invasion--The Nuncio calls for
Luther's Death--The Nuremberg Preachers--Promise of Reform--
Grievances of the Nation--Decree of the Diet--Fulminating
Letter of the Pope--Luther's Advice 125
CHAPTER IV.
Persecution--Exertions of Duke George--The Convent at Antwerp--
Miltenberg--The Three Monks of Antwerp--The Scaffold--The
Martyrs of Brussels 135
CHAPTER V.
The New Pope, Clement VII.--The Legate Campeggio--Diet of
Nuremberg--Demand of the Legate--Reply of the Diet--A Secular
Council projected--Alarm and Exertions of the Pope--Bavaria--
League of Ratisbon--Severity and Reforms--Political Schism--
Opposition--Intrigues of Rome--Decree of Burgos--Rupture 142
CHAPTER VI.
Persecution--Gaspard Tauber--A Bookseller--Cruelties in
Wurtemberg, Salzburg, and Bavaria--Pomerania--Henry of Zuphten 151
CHAPTER VII.
Divisions--The Lord's Supper--Two Extremes--Hoen's Discovery--
Carlstadt--Luther--Mysticism of the enthusiasts--Carlstadt at
Orlamund--Luther's Mission--Interview at Table--The Conference
of Orlamund--Carlstadt banished 156
CHAPTER VIII.
Progress--Resistance against the Ratisbon Leaguers--Meeting
between Philip of Hesse and Melancthon--The Landgrave converted
to the Gospel--The Palatinate--Luneburg--Holstein--The
Grand-Master at Wittemberg 166
CHAPTER IX.
Reforms--All Saints Church--Fall of the Mass--Learning--
Christian Schools--Learning extended to the Laity--The
Arts--Moral Religion--Esthetical Religion--Music--Poetry--
Painting 170
CHAPTER X.
Political Ferment--Luther against Rebellion--Thomas Munzer--
Agitation--The Black Forest--The twelve Articles--Luther's
Opinion--Helfenstein--March of the Peasants--March of the
Imperial Army--Defeat of the Peasants--Cruelty of the Princes 179
CHAPTER XI.
Munzer at Mulhausen--Appeal to the People--March of the
Princes--End of the Revolt--Influence of the Reformers--
Sufferings--Changes--Two Results 192
CHAPTER XII.
Death of the Elector Frederick--The Prince and the
Reformer--Roman-catholic Alliance--Plans of Charles the
Fifth--Dangers 199
CHAPTER XIII.
The Nuns of Nimptsch--Luther's Sentiments--The Convent
dissolved--Luther's Marriage--Domestic Happiness 203
CHAPTER XIV.
The Landgrave--The Elector--Prussia--Reformation--
Secularisation--The Archbishop of Mentz--Conference at
Friedwalt--Diet--Alliance of Torgau--Resistance of the
Reformers--Alliance of Magdeburg--The Catholics redouble
their Exertions--The Emperor's Marriage--Threatening
Letters--The two Parties 210
BOOK XI.
DIVISIONS.
SWITZERLAND--GERMANY. 1523-1527.
CHAPTER I.
Unity in Diversity--Primitive Fidelity and Liberty--Formation
of Romish Unity--Leo Juda and the Monk--Zwingle's Theses--The
Disputation of January 220
CHAPTER II.
Papal Temptations--Progress of the Reformation--The Idol at
Stadelhofen--Sacrilege--The Ornaments of the Saints 227
CHAPTER III.
The Disputation of October--Zwingle on the Church--The
Church--Commencement of Presbyterianism--Discussion on
the Mass--Enthusiasts--The Language of Discretion--Victory--
A Characteristic of the Swiss Reformation--Moderation--
Oswald Myconius at Zurich--Revival of Literature--Thomas
Plater of the Valais 231
CHAPTER IV.
Diet of Lucerne--Hottinger arrested--His Death--Deputation
from the Diet to Zurich--Abolition of religious Processions--
Abolition of Images--The Two Reformations--Appeal to the People 239
CHAPTER V.
New Opposition--Abduction of Œxlin--The Family of the
Wirths--The Populace at the Convent of Ittingen--The Diet
of Zug--The Wirths apprehended and given up to the Diet--
Their Condemnation 246
CHAPTER VI.
Abolition of the Mass--Zwingle's Dream--Celebration of the
Lord's Supper--Fraternal Charity--Original Sin--The Oligarchs
opposed to the Reform--Various Attacks 254
CHAPTER VII.
Berne--The Provost Watteville--First Successes of the
Reformed Doctrines--Haller at the Convent--Accusation and
Deliverance--The Monastery of Königsfeldt--Margaret Watteville
to Zwingle--The Convent opened--Two Champions--Clara May and
the Provost Watteville 259
CHAPTER VIII.
Basle--Œcolampadius--He visits Augsburg--Enters a
Convent--Retires to Sickingen's Castle--Returns to Basle--
Ulrich Hütten--His Plans--Last Effort of Chivalry--Hütten
dies at Ufnau 267
CHAPTER IX.
Erasmus and Luther--Vacillations of Erasmus--Luther to
Erasmus--Erasmus's Treatise against Luther on Free Will--
Three Opinions--Effect upon Luther--Luther on Free Will--
The Jansenists and the Reformers--Homage to Erasmus--His
Anger--The Three Days 274
CHAPTER X.
The Three Adversaries--Source of Truth--Grebel--the fanatics
and Zwingle--Constitution of the Church--Prison--The Prophet
Blaurock--Fanaticism at Saint Gall--Schucker and Family--
Discussion at Zurich--The Limits of the Reformation--
Punishment of the fanatics 286
CHAPTER XI.
Progression and Immobility--Zwingle and Luther--Luther's
Return to Scholasticism--Respect for Tradition--Occam--
Contrary Tendency in Zwingle--Beginning of the Controversy--
Œcolampadius and the Swabian Syngramma--Strasburg mediates 294
CHAPTER XII.
The Tockenburg--An Assembly of the People--Reformation--The
Grisons--Disputation at Ilantz--Results--Reformation at Zurich 305
CHAPTER XIII.
The Oligarchs--Bernese Mandate of 1526 in Favour of the
Papacy--Discussion at Baden--Regulations of the Discussion--
Riches and Poverty--Eck and Œcolampadius--Discussion--
Zwingle's Share in the Discussion--Vaunts of the Romanists--
Abusive Language of a Monk--Close of the Disputation 310
CHAPTER XIV.
Consequences at Basle, Berne, Saint Gall, and other Places--
Diet at Zurich--The small Cantons--Threats against Berne--
Foreign Support 318
BOOK XII.
THE FRENCH. 1500-1526.
CHAPTER I.
Universality of Christianity--Enemies of the Reform in
France--Heresy and Persecution in Dauphiny--A country
Mansion--The Farel Family--Pilgrimage to the Holy Cross--
Immorality and Superstition--William desires to become a
Student 324
CHAPTER II.
Louis XII. and the Assembly of Tours--Francis and Margaret--
Learned Men--Lefevre--His Courses at the University--Meeting
between Lefevre and Farel--Farel's Hesitation and Researches--
First Awakening--Lefevre's Prophecy--Teaches Justification by
Faith--Objections--Disorder of the Colleges--Effects on
Farel--Election--Sanctification of Life 332
CHAPTER III.
Farel and the Saints--The University--Farel's Conversion--
Farel and Luther--Other Disciples--Date of the Reform in
France--Spontaneous Rise of the different Reforms--Which
was the first?--Lefevre's Place 343
CHAPTER IV.
Character of Francis I.--Commencement of Modern Times--
Liberty and Obedience--Margaret of Valois--The Court--
Briçonnet, Count of Montbrun--Lefevre commends him to
the Bible--Francis I. and "his Children"--The Gospel
brought to Margaret--Conversion--Adoration--Margaret's
Character 349
CHAPTER V.
Enemies of the Reformation--Louisa--Duprat--Concordat of
Bologna--Opposition of the Parliament and the University--
The Sorbonne--Beda--His Character--His Tyranny--Berquin,
the most learned of the Nobility--The Intriguers of the
Sorbonne--Heresy of the three Magdalens--Luther condemned
at Paris--Address of the Sorbonne to the King--Lefevre quits
Paris for Meaux 358
CHAPTER VI.
Briçonnet visits his Diocese--Reform--The Doctors persecuted
in Paris--Philiberta of Savoy--Correspondence between
Margaret and Briçonnet 367
CHAPTER VII.
Beginning of the Church at Meaux--The Scriptures in French--
The Artisans and the Bishop--Evangelical Harvest--The Epistles
of St. Paul sent to the King--Lefevre and Roma--The Monks
before the Bishop--The Monks before the Parliament--Briçonnet
gives way 376
CHAPTER VIII.
Lefevre and Farel persecuted--Difference between the Lutheran
and Reformed Churches--Leclerc posts up his Placards--Leclerc
branded--Berquin's Zeal--Berquin before the Parliament--
Rescued by Francis I.--Mazurier's Apostacy--Fall and Remorse
of Pavanne--Metz--Chatelain--Peter Toussaint becomes
attentive--Leclerc breaks the Images--Leclerc's Condemnation
and Torture--Martyrdom of Chatelain--Flight 389
CHAPTER IX.
Farel and his Brothers--Farel expelled from Gap--He preaches
in the Fields--The Knight Anemond of Coct--The Minorite--
Anemond quits France--Luther to the Duke of Savoy--Farel
quits France 408
CHAPTER X.
Catholicity of the Reformation--Friendship between Farel and
Œcolampadius--Farel and Erasmus--Altercation--Farel demands
a Disputation--Theses--Scripture and Faith--Discussion 416
CHAPTER XI.
New Campaign--Farel's Call to the Ministry--An Outpost--
Lyons--Sebville at Grenoble--Conventicles--Preaching at
Lyons--Maigret in Prison--Margaret intimidated 423
CHAPTER XII.
The French at Basle--Encouragement of the Swiss--Fears of
Discord--Translating and Printing at Basle--Bibles and
Tracts disseminated in France 432
CHAPTER XIII.
Progress at Montbeliard--Resistance and Commotion--Toussaint
leaves Œcolampadius--The Image of Saint Anthony--Death of
Anemond--Strasburg--Lambert's Letter to Francis I.--Successive
Defeats 438
CHAPTER XIV.
Francis made Prisoner at Pavia--Reaction against the
Reformation--Margaret's Anxiety for her Brother--Louisa
consults the Sorbonne--Commission against the Heretics--
Briçonnet brought to Trial--Appeal to the Parliament--Fall--
Recantation--Lefevre accused--Condemnation and Flight--Lefevre
at Strasburg--Louis Berquin imprisoned--Erasmus attacked--
Schuch at Nancy--His Martyrdom--Struggle with Caroli--Sorrow
of Pavanne--His Martyrdom--A Christian Hermit--Concourse
at Notre Dame 446
CHAPTER XV.
A Student of Noyon--Character of young Calvin--Early
Education--Consecrated to Theology--The Bishop gives him
the Tonsure--He leaves Noyon on Account of the Plague--The
two Calvins--Slanders--The Reformation creates new Languages--
Persecution and Terror--Toussaint put in Prison--The
Persecution more furious--Death of Du Blet, Moulin, and
Papillon--God saves the Church--Margaret's Project--Her
Departure for Spain 473
HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.
BOOK IX.
FIRST REFORMS. 1521 AND 1522.
CHAPTER I.
Progress of the Reformation--New Period--Usefulness of
Luther's Captivity in the Wartburg--Agitation in
Germany--Melancthon and Luther--Enthusiasm.
[Sidenote: PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION.]
For four years an old doctrine had been again proclaimed in the
Church. The great tidings of _salvation by grace_, published in
earlier times in Asia, Greece, and Italy, by Paul and his brethren,
and after many ages re-discovered in the Bible by a monk of
Wittemberg, had resounded from the plains of Saxony as far as Rome,
Paris, and London; and the lofty mountains of Switzerland had
re-echoed its powerful accents. The springs of truth, of liberty, and
of life, had been re-opened to the human race. Thither had the nations
hastened in crowds, and drunk gladly; but those who had there so
eagerly quenched their thirst, were unchanged in appearance. All
within was new, and yet everything _without_ seemed to have remained
the same.
The constitution of the Church, its ritual, its discipline, had
undergone no change. In Saxony, and even at Wittemberg, wherever the
new ideas had penetrated, the papal worship continued with its usual
pomp; the priest before the altar, offering the host to God, appeared
to effect an ineffable transubstantiation; monks and nuns entered the
convents and took their eternal vows; the pastors of the flocks lived
without families; religious brotherhoods met together; pilgrimages
were undertaken; believers hung their votive offerings on the pillars
of the chapels; and all the ceremonies, even to the most insignificant
observances of the sanctuary, were celebrated as before. There was a
new life in the world, but it had not yet created a new body. The
language of the priest formed the most striking contrast with his
actions. He might be heard thundering from the pulpit against the
mass, as being an idolatrous worship; and then might be seen coming
down to the altar, and scrupulously performing the pomps of this
mystery. In every quarter the new Gospel sounded in the midst of the
ancient rites. The priest himself did not perceive this strange
contradiction; and the people, who had admiringly listened to the bold
language of the new preachers, devoutly practised the old observances,
as if they were never to lay them aside. Everything remained the same,
at the domestic hearth and in social life, as in the house of God.
There was a new faith in the world, but not new works. The sun of
spring had shone forth, but winter still seemed to bind all nature;
there were no flowers, no foliage, nothing outwardly that gave token
of the change of season. But these appearances were deceitful; a
vigorous sap was circulating unperceived below the surface, and was
about to change the aspect of the world.
It is perhaps to this prudent progress that the Reformation is
indebted for its triumphs. Every revolution should be accomplished in
the mind before it is carried out externally. The inconsistency we
have noticed did not even strike Luther at first. It seemed to him
quite natural that the people, who read his works with enthusiasm,
should remain devoutly attached to the abuses which they assailed. One
might almost fancy he had sketched his plan beforehand, and had
resolved to change the mind before changing the forms. But this would
be ascribing to him a wisdom the honour of which belongs to a higher
Intelligence. He carried out a plan that he had not himself conceived.
At a later period he could recognise and discern these things: but he
did not imagine them, and did not arrange them so. God led the way: it
was Luther's duty to follow.
[Sidenote: A NEW ERA.]
If Luther had begun by an external reform; if, as soon as he had
spoken, he had attempted to abolish monastic vows, the mass,
confession, and forms of worship, most assuredly he would have met
with a vigorous resistance. Man requires time to accommodate himself
to great revolutions. But Luther was by no means the violent,
imprudent, daring innovator that some historians have described.[6]
The people, seeing no change in their customary devotions, fearlessly
abandoned themselves to their new teacher. They were even surprised at
the attacks directed against a man who still left them their mass,
their beads, their confessor; and attributed them to the low jealousy
of obscure rivals, or to the cruel injustice of powerful adversaries.
Yet Luther's opinions agitated their minds, renewed their hearts, and
so undermined the ancient edifice that it soon fell of itself, without
human agency. Ideas do not act instantaneously; they make their way in
silence, like the waters that, filtering behind the rocks of the Alps,
loosen them from the mountain on which they rest; suddenly the work
done in secret reveals itself, and a single day is sufficient to lay
bare the agency of many years, perhaps of many centuries.
[6] Hume and others.
A new era was beginning for the Reformation. Already truth was
restored in its doctrine; now the doctrine is about to restore truth
in all the forms of the Church and of society. The agitation is too
great for men's minds to remain fixed and immovable at the point they
have attained. Upon those dogmas, now so mightily shaken, were based
customs that were already tottering to their fall, and which must
disappear with them. There is too much courage and life in the new
generation for it to continue silent before error. Sacraments, public
worship, hierarchy, vows, constitution, domestic and public life,--all
are about to be modified. The ship, slowly and laboriously
constructed, is about to quit the docks and to be launched on the open
sea. We shall have to follow its progress through many shoals.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: USEFULNESS OF LUTHER'S CAPTIVITY.]
The captivity of the Wartburg separates these two periods. Providence,
which was making ready to give so great an impulse to the
Reformation, had prepared its progress by leading into profound
retirement the instrument destined to effect it. The work seemed for a
time buried with the workman; but the seed must be laid in the earth,
that it may bring forth fruit; and from this prison, which seemed to
be the reformer's tomb, the Reformation was destined to go forth to
new conquests, and to spread erelong over the whole world.
Hitherto the Reformation had been centred in the person of Luther. His
appearance before the Diet of Worms was doubtless the sublimest day of
his life. His character appeared at that time almost spotless; and it
is this which has given rise to the observation, that if God, who
concealed the reformer for ten months within the walls of the
Wartburg, had that instant removed him for ever from the eyes of the
world, his end would have been as an apotheosis. But God designs no
apotheosis for his servant; and Luther was preserved to the Church, in
order to teach, by his very faults, that the faith of Christians
should be based on the Word of God alone. He was transported suddenly
far from the stage on which the great revolution of the sixteenth
century was taking place; the truth, that for four years he had so
powerfully proclaimed, continued in his absence to act upon
Christendom: and the work, of which he was but the feeble instrument,
henceforward bore the seal not of man, but of God himself.
[Sidenote: AGITATION IN GERMANY.]
Germany was moved at Luther's captivity. The most contradictory
rumours were circulated in the provinces. The reformer's absence
excited men's minds more than his presence could have done. In one
place it was said that friends from France had placed him in safety on
the other bank of the Rhine;[7] in another, that he had fallen by the
dagger of the assassin. Even in the smallest villages inquiries were
made about Luther; travellers were stopped and questioned; and groups
collected in the public places. At times some unknown orator would
recount in a spirit-stirring narrative how the doctor had been carried
off; he described the cruel horsemen tying their prisoner's hands,
spurring their horses, and dragging him after them on foot, until his
strength was exhausted, stopping their ears to his cries, and forcing
the blood from his limbs.[8] "Luther's body," added he, "has been seen
pierced through and through."[9] As they heard this, the listeners
uttered cries of sorrow. "Alas!" said they, "we shall never see or
hear that noble-minded man again, whose voice stirred our very
hearts!" Luther's friends trembled with indignation, and swore to
avenge his death. Women, children, men of peace, and the aged, beheld
with affright the prospect of new struggles. Nothing could equal the
alarm of the partisans of Rome. The priests and monks, who at first
had not been able to conceal their exultation, thinking themselves
secure of victory because one man was dead, and who had raised their
heads with an insulting air of triumph, would now have fled far from
the threatening anger of the people.[10] These men, who, while Luther
was free, had given the reins to their fury, trembled now that he was
a captive.[11] Aleander, especially, was astounded. "The only
remaining way of saving ourselves," wrote a Roman-catholic to the
Archbishop of Mentz, "is to light torches and hunt for Luther through
the whole world, to restore him to the nation that is calling for
him."[12] One might have said that the pale ghost of the reformer,
dragging his chains, was spreading terror around, and calling for
vengeance. "Luther's death," exclaimed some, "will cause torrents of
blood to be shed."[13]
[7] Hic.....invalescit opinio, me esse ab amicis captum e Francia
missis. L. Epp. ii. 5.
[8] Et inter festinantes cursu equites ipsum pedestrem raptim tractum
fuisse ut sanguis e digitis erumperet. Cochlœus, p. 39.
[9] Fuit qui testatus sit, visum a se Lutheri cadaver
transfossum......Pallavicini, Hist. Conc. Trid. i. 122.
[10] Molem vulgi imminentis ferre non possunt. L. Epp. ii. 13.
[11] Qui me libero insanierunt, nunc me captivo ita formidant ut
incipiant mitigare. Ibid.
[12] Nos vitam vix redempturos, nisi accensis candelis undique eum
requiramus. Ibid.
[13] Gerbelii Ep. in MS. Heckelianis. Lindner, Leb. Luth. p. 244.
[Sidenote: ENTHUSIASM.]
In no place was there such commotion as in Worms itself; resolute
murmurs were heard among both people and princes. Ulrich Hütten and
Hermann Busch filled the country with their plaintive strains and
songs of battle. Charles V. and the nuncios were publicly accused. The
nation took up the cause of the poor monk, who, by the strength of his
faith, had become their leader.
[Sidenote: MELANCTHON AND LUTHER.]
At Wittemberg, his colleagues and friends, and especially Melancthon,
were at first sunk in the deepest affliction. Luther had imparted to
this young scholar the treasures of that holy theology which had from
that time wholly occupied his mind. Luther had given substance and
life to that purely intellectual cultivation which Melancthon had
brought to Wittemberg. The depth of the reformer's teaching had struck
the youthful Hellenist, and the doctor's courage in maintaining the
rights of the everlasting Gospel against all human authority had
filled him with enthusiasm. He had become a partner in his labours; he
had taken up the pen, and with that purity of style which he derived
from the study of the ancients, he had successively, and with a hand
of power, lowered the authority of the fathers and councils before the
sovereign Word of God.
Melancthon showed the same decision in his learning that Luther
displayed in his actions. Never were there two men of greater
diversity, and at the same time of greater unity. "Scripture," said
Melancthon, "imparts to the soul a holy and marvellous delight: it is
the heavenly ambrosia."[14]--"The Word of God," exclaimed Luther, "is
a sword, a war, a destruction; it falls upon the children of Ephraim
like a lioness in the forest." Thus, one saw in the Scriptures a power
to console, and the other a violent opposition against the corruptions
of the world. But both esteemed it the greatest thing on earth; and
hence they agreed in perfect harmony. "Melancthon," said Luther, "is a
wonder; all men confess it now. He is the most formidable enemy of
Satan and the schoolmen, for he knows their foolishness, and Christ
the rock. The little Grecian surpasses me even in divinity; he will be
as serviceable to you as many Luthers." And he added that he was ready
to abandon any opinion of which Philip did not approve. On his part,
too, Melancthon, filled with admiration at Luther's knowledge of
Scripture, set him far above the fathers of the Church. He would make
excuses for the jests with which Luther was reproached, and compared
him to an earthen vessel that contains a precious treasure beneath its
coarse exterior. "I should be very unwilling to reprove him
inconsiderately for this matter," said Melancthon.[15]
[14] Mirabilis in iis voluptas, immo ambrosia quædam cælestis. Corp.
Ref. i. 128.
[15] Spiritum Martini nolim temere in hac causa interpellare. Ibid. i.
211.
[Sidenote: MELANCTHON'S SORROW.]
But now, these two hearts, so closely united, were separated. These
two valiant soldiers can no longer march side by side to the
deliverance of the Church. Luther has disappeared; perhaps he is lost
for ever. The consternation at Wittemberg was extreme: like that of an
army, with gloomy and dejected looks, before the blood-stained body of
their general who was leading them on to victory.
Suddenly more comforting news arrived. "Our beloved father lives,"[16]
exclaimed Philip in the joy of his soul; "take courage and be firm."
But it was not long before their dejection returned. Luther was alive,
but in prison. The edict of Worms, with it terrible proscriptions,[17]
was circulated by thousands throughout the empire, and even among the
mountains of the Tyrol.[18] Would not the Reformation be crushed by the
iron hand that was weighing upon it? Melancthon's gentle spirit was
overwhelmed with sorrow.
[16] Pater noster carissimus vivit. Corp. Ref. i. 389.
[17] Dicitur parari proscriptio horrenda. Ibid.
[18] Dicuntur signatæ chartæ proscriptionis bis mille missæ quoque ad
Insbruck. Ibid.
But the influence of a mightier hand was felt above the hand of man;
God himself deprived the formidable edict of all its strength. The
German princes, who had always sought to diminish the power of Rome in
the empire, trembled at the alliance between the emperor and the pope,
and feared that it would terminate in the destruction of their
liberty. Accordingly, while Charles in his journey through the Low
Countries greeted with an ironical smile the burning piles which
flatterers and fanatics kindled on the public places with Luther's
works, these very writings were read in Germany with a continually
increasing eagerness, and numerous pamphlets in favour of the reform
were daily inflicting some new blow on the papacy. The nuncios were
distracted at seeing this edict, the fruit of so many intrigues,
producing so little effect. "The ink with which Charles V. signed his
arrest," said they bitterly, "is scarcely dry, and yet the imperial
decree is everywhere torn in pieces." The people were becoming more
and more attached to the admirable man who, heedless of the thunders
of Charles and of the pope, had confessed his faith with the courage
of a martyr. "He offered to retract," said they, "if he were refuted,
and no one dared undertake the task. Does not this prove the truth of
his doctrines?" Thus the first movement of alarm was succeeded in
Wittemberg and the whole empire by a movement of enthusiasm. Even the
Archbishop of Mentz, witnessing this outburst of popular sympathy,
dared not give the Cordeliers permission to preach against the
reformer. The university, that seemed on the point of being crushed,
raised its head. The new doctrines were too firmly established for
them to be shaken by Luther's absence; and the halls of the academy
could hardly contain the crowd of hearers.[19]
[19] Scholastici quorum supra millia ibi tunc fuerunt. Spalatini
Annales, 1521, October.
CHAPTER II.
Luther in the Wartburg--Object of his
Captivity--Anxiety--Sickness--Luther's Labours--On
Confession--Reply to Latomus--His daily Walks.
[Sidenote: OBJECT OF LUTHER'S CAPTIVITY.]
Meantime the Knight George, for by that name Luther was called in the
Wartburg, lived solitary and unknown. "If you were to see me," wrote
he to Melancthon, "you would take me for a soldier, and even _you_
would hardly recognise me."[20] Luther at first indulged in repose,
enjoying a leisure which had not hitherto been allowed him. He
wandered freely through the fortress, but could not go beyond the
walls.[21] All his wishes were attended to, and he had never been
better treated.[22] A crowd of thoughts filled his soul; but none had
power to trouble him. By turns he looked down upon the forests that
surrounded him, and raised his eyes towards heaven. "A strange
prisoner am I," exclaimed he, "captive with and against my will!"[23]
[20] Equitem videres ac ipse vix agnosceres. L. Epp. ii. 11.
[21] Nunc sum hic otiosus, sicut inter captivos liber. L. Epp. ii. 3,
12th May.
[22] Quanquam et hilariter et libenter omnia mihi ministret. Ibid. 13,
15th August.
[23] Ego mirabilis captivus qui et volens et nolens hic sedeo. Ibid.
4, 12th May.
"Pray for me," wrote he to Spalatin; "your prayers are the only thing
I need. I do not grieve for any thing that may be said of me in the
world. At last I am at rest."[24] This letter, as well as many others
of the same period, is dated from the island of Patmos. Luther
compared the Wartburg to that celebrated island to which the wrath of
Domitian in former times had banished the Apostle John.
[24] Tu fac ut pro me ores: hac una re opus mihi est. Quicquid de me
fit in publico, nihil mœror; ego in quiete tandem sedeo. Ibid. 10th
June 1521.
In the midst of the dark forests of Thuringia the reformer reposed
from the violent struggles that had agitated his soul. There he
studied christian truth, not for the purpose of contending, but as a
means of regeneration and life. The beginning of the Reformation was
of necessity polemical; new times required new labours. After cutting
down the thorns and the thickets, it was requisite to sow the Word of
God peaceably in the heart. If Luther had been incessantly called upon
to fight fresh battles, he would not have accomplished a durable work
in the Church. Thus by his captivity he escaped a danger which might
possibly have ruined the Reformation,--that of always attacking and
destroying without ever defending or building up.
[Sidenote: PEACE--ANGUISH.]
This humble retreat had a still more precious result. Uplifted by his
countrymen, as on a shield, he was on the verge of the abyss; the
least giddiness might have plunged him into it headlong. Some of the
first promoters of the Reformation both in Germany and Switzerland,
ran upon the shoal of spiritual pride and fanaticism. Luther was a man
very subject to the infirmities of our nature, and he was unable to
escape altogether from these dangers. The hand of God, however,
delivered him for a time, by suddenly removing him from the sphere of
intoxicating ovations, and throwing him into an unknown retreat. There
his soul was wrapt in pious meditation at God's footstool; it was
again tempered in the waters of adversity; its sufferings and
humiliation compelled him to walk, for a time at least, with the
humble; and the principles of a christian life were thenceforward
evolved in his soul with greater energy and freedom.
Luther's calmness was not of long duration. Seated in loneliness on
the ramparts of the Wartburg, he remained whole days lost in deep
meditation. At one time the Church appeared before him, displaying all
her wretchedness;[25] at another, directing his eyes hopefully towards
heaven, he could exclaim: "Wherefore, O Lord, hast thou made all men
in vain?" (Psalm lxxxix. 48.) And then, giving way to despair, he
cried with dejection: "Alas! there is no one in this latter day of his
anger, to stand like a wall before the Lord, and save Israel!"
[25] Ego hic sedens tota die faciem Ecclesiæ ante me constituo. L.
Epp. ii. 1.
Then recurring to his own destiny, he feared lest he should be accused
of deserting the field of battle;[26] and this supposition weighed
down his soul. "I would rather," said he, "be stretched on coals of
fire, than lie here half-dead."[27]
[26] Verebar ego ne aciem deserere viderer. Ibid.
[27] Mallem inter carbones vivos ardere, quam solus semivivus, atque
utinam non mortuus putere. Ibid. 10.
Transporting himself in imagination to Worms and Wittemberg, into the
midst of his adversaries, he regretted having yielded to the advice of
his friends, that he had quitted the world, and that he had not
presented his bosom to the fury of men.[28] "Alas!" said he, "there is
nothing I desire more than to appear before my cruelest enemies."[29]
[28] Cervicem esse objectandam publico furori. Ibid. 89.
[29] Nihil magis opto, quam furoribus adversariorum occurrere, objecto
jugulo. Ibid. 1.
[Sidenote: HOPE--SICKNESS.]
Gentler thoughts, however, brought a truce to such anxiety. Everything
was not storm and tempest for Luther; from time to time his agitated
mind found tranquillity and comfort. Next to the certainty of God's
help, one thing consoled him in his sorrows; it was the recollection
of Melancthon. "If I perish," wrote he, "the Gospel will lose
nothing:[30] you will succeed me as Elisha did Elijah, with a double
portion of my spirit." But calling to mind Philip's timidity, he
exclaimed with energy: "Minister of the Word! keep the walls and
towers of Jerusalem, until you are struck down by the enemy. As yet we
stand alone upon the field of battle; after me, they will aim their
blows at you."[31]
[30] Etiam si peream, nihil peribit Evangelio. L. Epp. ii. 10.
[31] Nos soli adhuc stamus in acie: te quærent post me. Ibid. 2.
The thought of the final attack Rome was about to make on the infant
Church, renewed his anxieties. The poor monk, solitary and a prisoner,
had many a combat to fight alone. But a hope of deliverance speedily
dawned upon him. It appeared to him that the assaults of the Papacy
would raise the whole German nation, and that the victorious soldiers
of the Gospel would surround the Wartburg and restore the prisoner to
liberty. "If the pope," said he, "lays his hand on all those who are
on my side, there will be a disturbance in Germany; the greater his
haste to crush us, the sooner will come the end of the pope and his
followers. And I......I shall be restored to you.[32] God is awakening
the hearts of many, and stirring up the nations. Only let our enemies
clasp our affair in their arms and try to stifle it; it will gather
strength under their pressure, and come forth ten times more
formidable."
[32] Quo citius id tentaverit, hoc citius et ipse et sui peribunt, et
ego revertar. Ibid. 10.
[Sidenote: SICKNESS--HIS FRIENDS' ANXIETY.]
But sickness brought him down from those high places on which his
courage and his faith had placed him. He had already suffered much at
Worms; his disease increased in solitude.[33] He could not endure the
food at the Wartburg, which was less coarse than that of his convent;
they were compelled to give him the meagre diet to which he had been
accustomed. He passed whole nights without sleep. Anxieties of mind
were superadded to the pains of the body. No great work is ever
accomplished without suffering and martyrdom. Luther, alone upon his
rock, endured in his strong frame a passion that the emancipation of
the human race rendered necessary. "Seated by night in my chamber I
uttered groans, like a woman in her travail; torn, wounded, and
bleeding"[34]......then breaking off his complaints, touched with the
thought that his sufferings are a blessing from God, he exclaimed with
love: "Thanks be to Thee, O Christ, that thou wilt not leave me
without the precious marks of thy cross!"[35] But soon, growing angry
with himself, he cried out: "Madman and hard-hearted that I am! Woe is
me! I pray seldom, I seldom wrestle with the Lord, I groan not for the
Church of God![36] Instead of being fervent in spirit, my passions
take fire; I live in idleness, in sleep, and indolence!" Then, not
knowing to what he should attribute this state, and accustomed to
expect everything from the affection of his brethren, he exclaimed in
the desolation of his heart: "O my friends! do you then forget to pray
for me, that God is thus far from me?"
[33] Auctum est malum, quo Wormatiæ laborabam. Ibid. 17.
[34] Sedeo dolens, sicut puerpera, lacer et saucius et cruentus. L.
Epp. ii. 50, 9th Sept.
[35] Gratias Christo, qui me sine reliquiis sanctæ crucis non
derelinquit. Ibid.
[36] Nihil gemens pro ecclesia Dei. Ibid. 22, 13th July.
Those who were around him, as well as his friends at Wittemberg and at
the elector's court, were uneasy and alarmed at this state of
suffering. They feared lest they should see the life they had rescued
from the flames of the pope and the sword of Charles V. decline sadly
and expire. Was the Wartburg destined to be Luther's tomb? "I fear,"
said Melancthon, "that the grief he feels for the Church will cause
his death. A fire has been kindled by him in Israel; if he dies, what
hope will remain for us? Would to God, that at the cost of my own
wretched life, I could retain in the world that soul which is its
fairest ornament![37]--Oh! what a man!" exclaimed he, as if already
standing on the side of his grave; "we never appreciated him rightly!"
[37] Utinam hac vili anima mea ipsius vitam emere queam. Corp. Ref. i.
415, 6th July.
[Sidenote: LUTHER'S LABOURS--CONFESSION.]
What Luther denominated the shameful indolence of his prison was a
task that almost exceeded the strength of one man. "I am here all the
day," wrote he on the 14th of May, "in idleness and pleasures
(alluding doubtless to the better diet that was provided him at
first). I am reading the Bible in Hebrew and Greek; I am going to
write a treatise in German on Auricular Confession; I shall continue
the translation of the Psalms, and compose a volume of sermons, so
soon as I have received what I want from Wittemberg. I am writing
without intermission."[38] And yet this was but a part of his labours.
[38] Sine intermissione scribo. L. Epp. ii. 6, 16.
His enemies thought that, if he were not dead, at least they should
hear no more of him; but their joy was not of long duration, and there
could be no doubt that he was alive. A multitude of writings, composed
in the Wartburg, succeeded each other rapidly, and the beloved voice
of the reformer was everywhere hailed with enthusiasm. Luther
published simultaneously works calculated to edify the Church, and
polemical tracts which troubled the too eager exultation of his
enemies. For nearly a whole year, he by turns instructed, exhorted,
reproved, and thundered from his mountain-retreat; and his amazed
adversaries asked one another if there was not something supernatural,
some mystery, in this prodigious activity. "He could never have taken
any rest," says Cochlœus.[39]
[39] Cum quiescere non posset. Cochl. Act. Luth. p. 39.
But there was no other mystery than the imprudence of the partisans of
Rome. They hastened to take advantage of the edict of Worms, to strike
a decisive blow at the Reformation; and Luther, condemned, under the
ban of the empire, and a prisoner in the Wartburg, undertook to defend
the sound doctrine, as if he were still victorious and at liberty. It
was especially at the tribunal of penance that the priests endeavoured
to rivet the chains of their docile parishioners; and accordingly the
confessional was the object of Luther's first attack. "They bring
forward," said he, "these words of St. James: _Confess your faults to
one another_. Singular confessor! his name is _One Another_. Whence
it would follow that the confessors should also confess themselves to
their penitents; that each Christian should be, in his turn, pope,
bishop, priest; and that the pope himself should confess to all!"[40]
[40] Und der Pabst müsse ihm beichten. L. Opp. xvii. 701.
[Sidenote: REPLY TO LATOMUS--LUTHER'S PROMENADES.]
Luther had scarcely finished this tract when he began another. A
theologian of Louvain, by name Latomus, already notorious by his
opposition to Reuchlin and Erasmus, had attacked the reformer's
opinions. In twelve days Luther's refutation was ready, and it is a
masterpiece. He clears himself of the reproach that he was wanting in
moderation. "The moderation of the day," said he, "is to bend the knee
before sacrilegious pontiffs, impious sophists, and to say to them:
Gracious lord! Excellent master! Then, when you have so done, you may
put any one you please to death; you may even convulse the world, and
you will be none the less a man of moderation......Away with such
moderation! I would rather be frank and deceive no one. The shell may
be hard, but the kernel is soft and tender."[41]
[41] Cortex meus esse potest durior, sed nucleus meus mollis et dulcis
est. Ibid. Lat. ii. 213.
As Luther's health continued feeble, he thought of leaving the place
of his confinement. But how could he manage it? To appear in public
would be exposing his life. The back of the mountain on which the
fortress stood was crossed by numerous footways, bordered by tufts of
strawberries. The heavy gate of the castle opened, and the prisoner
ventured, not without fear, to gather some of the fruit.[42] By
degrees he grew bolder, and in his knight's garb began to wander
through the surrounding country, attended by one of the guards of the
castle, a worthy but somewhat churlish man. One day, having entered an
inn, Luther threw aside his sword, which encumbered him, and hastily
took up some books that lay there. His nature got the better of his
prudence. His guardian trembled for fear this movement, so
extraordinary in a soldier, should excite suspicions that the doctor
was not really a knight. At another time the two comrades alighted at
the convent of Reinhardsbrunn, where Luther had slept a few months
before on his road to Worms.[43] Suddenly one of the lay-brothers
uttered a cry of surprise. Luther was recognised. His attendant
perceived it, and dragged him hastily away; and already they were
galloping far from the cloister before the astonished brother had
recovered from his amazement.
[42] Zu zeiten gehet er in die Erdbeer am Schlossberg. Mathes. p. 33.
[43] Vol. II. p. 226.
[Sidenote: A HUNTING-PARTY.]
The military life of the doctor had at intervals something about it
truly theological. One day the nets were made ready--the gates of the
fortress opened--the long-eared dogs rushed forth. Luther desired to
taste the pleasures of the chase. The huntsmen soon grew animated; the
dogs sprang forward, driving the game from the covers. In the midst of
all this uproar, the Knight George stands motionless: his mind is
occupied with serious thoughts; the objects around him fill his heart
with sorrow.[44] "Is not this," says he, "the image of the devil
setting on his dogs--that is, the bishops, those representatives of
Antichrist, and urging them in pursuit of poor souls?"[45] A young
hare was taken: delighted at the prospect of liberating it, he wrapped
it carefully in his cloak, and set it down in the midst of a thicket;
but hardly had he taken a few steps before the dogs scented the animal
and killed it. Luther, attracted by the noise, uttered a groan of
sorrow, and exclaimed: "O pope! and thou, too, Satan! it is thus ye
endeavour to destroy even those souls that have been saved from
death!"[46]
[44] Theologisabar etiam ibi inter retia et canes......tantum
misericordiæ et doloris miscuit mysterium. L. Epp. ii. 43.
[45] Quid enim ista imago, nisi Diabolum significat per insidias suas
et impios magistros canes suos......Ibid.
[46] Sic sævit Papa et Satan ut servatas etiam animas perdant. Ibid.
44.
[Sidenote: COMMENCEMENT OF THE REFORM.]
CHAPTER III.
Commencement of the Reform--Marriage of Feldkirchen--The
Marriage of Monks--Theses--Tract against Monachism--Luther
no longer a Monk.
While the doctor of Wittemberg, thus dead to the world, was seeking
relaxation in these sports in the neighbourhood of the Wartburg, the
work was going on as if of itself: the Reform was beginning; it was no
longer restricted to doctrine, it entered deeply into men's actions.
Bernard Feldkirchen, pastor of Kemberg, the first under Luther's
directions to attack the errors of Rome,[47] was also the first to
throw off the yoke of its institutions. He married.
[47] Vol. I. p. 219.
The Germans are fond of social life and domestic joys; and hence, of
all the papal ordinances, compulsory celibacy was that which produced
the saddest consequences. This law, which had been first imposed on
the heads of the clergy, had prevented the ecclesiastical fiefs from
becoming hereditary. But when extended by Gregory VII. to the inferior
clergy, it was attended with the most deplorable results. Many priests
had evaded the obligations imposed upon them by the most scandalous
disorders, and had drawn contempt and hatred on the whole body; while
those who had submitted to Hildebrand's law were inwardly exasperated
against the Church, because, while conferring on its superior
dignitaries so much power, wealth, and earthly enjoyment, it bound its
humbler ministers, who were its most useful supporters, to a
self-denial so contrary to the Gospel.
[Sidenote: THE MARRIAGE OF MONKS.]
"Neither popes nor councils," said Feldkirchen and another pastor
named Seidler, who had followed his example, "can impose any
commandment on the Church that endangers body and soul. The obligation
of keeping God's law compels me to violate the traditions of
men."[48] The re-establishment of marriage in the sixteenth century
was a homage paid to the moral law. The ecclesiastical authority
became alarmed, and immediately fulminated its decrees against these
two priests. Seidler, who was in the territories of Duke George, was
given up to his superiors, and died in prison. But the Elector
Frederick refused to surrender Feldkirchen to the Archbishop of
Magdeburg. "His highness," said Spalatin, "declines to act the part of
a constable." Feldkirchen therefore continued pastor of his flock,
although a husband and a father.
[48] Coegit me ergo ut humanas traditiones violarem, necessitas
servandi juris divini. Corp. Ref. i. 441.
The first emotion of the reformer when he heard of this was to give
way to exultation: "I admire this new bridegroom of Kemberg," said he,
"who fears nothing, and hastens forward in the midst of the uproar."
Luther was of opinion that priests ought to marry. But this question
led to another,--the marriage of monks; and here Luther had to support
one of those internal struggles of which his whole life was composed;
for every reform must first be won by a spiritual struggle. Melancthon
and Carlstadt, the one a layman, the other a priest, thought that the
liberty of contracting the bonds of wedlock should be as free for the
monks as for the priests. The monk Luther did not think so at first.
One day the governor of the Wartburg having brought him Carlstadt's
theses on celibacy: "Gracious God!" exclaimed he, "our Wittembergers
then will give wives even to the monks!"......This thought surprised
and confounded him; his heart was troubled. He rejected for himself
the liberty that he claimed for others. "Ah!" said he indignantly,
"they will not force _me_ at least to take a wife."[49] This
expression is doubtless unknown to those who assert that Luther
preached the Reformation that he might marry. Inquiring for truth, not
with passion, but with uprightness of purpose, he maintained what
seemed to him true, although contrary to the whole of his system. He
walked in a mixture of error and truth, until error had fallen and
truth remained alone.
[49] At mihi non obtrudent uxorem. L. Epp. ii. 40.
[Sidenote: STRUGGLE WITH MONACHISM.]
There was, indeed, a great difference between the two questions. The
marriage of priests was not the destruction of the priesthood; on the
contrary, this of itself might restore to the secular clergy the
respect of the people; but the marriage of monks was the downfall of
monachism. It became a question, therefore, whether it was desirable
to disband and break up that powerful army which the popes had under
their orders. "Priests," wrote Luther to Melancthon, "are of divine
appointment, and consequently are free as regards human commandments.
But of their own free will the monks adopted celibacy; they are not
therefore at liberty to withdraw from the yoke they voluntarily
imposed on themselves."[50]
[50] Me enim vehementer movet, quod sacerdotum ordo, a Deo institutus,
est liber, non autem monachorum qui sua sponte statum eligerunt. L.
Epp. ii. 34.
The reformer was destined to advance, and carry by a fresh struggle
this new position of the enemy. Already had he trodden under foot a
host of Roman abuses, and even Rome herself; but monachism still
remained standing. Monachism, that had once carried life into so many
deserts, and which, passing through so many centuries, was now filling
the cloisters with sloth and often with licentiousness, seemed to have
embodied itself and gone to defend its rights in that castle of
Thuringia, where the question of its life and death was discussed in
the conscience of one man. Luther struggled with it: at one moment he
was on the point of gaining the victory, at another he was nearly
overcome. At length, unable longer to maintain the contest, he flung
himself in prayer at the feet of Jesus Christ, exclaiming: "Teach us,
deliver us, establish us, by Thy mercy, in the liberty that belongs to
us; for of a surety we are thy people!"[51]
[51] Dominus Jesus erudiat et liberet nos, per misericordiam suam, in
libertatem nostram. To Melancthon, on Celibacy, 6th August 1521. Ibid.
40.
[Sidenote: VICTORY--THESES.]
He had not long to wait for deliverance; an important revolution was
effected in the reformer's mind; and again it was the doctrine of
justification by faith that gave him victory. That arm which had
overthrown the indulgences, the practices of Rome, and the pope
himself, also wrought the downfall of the monks in Luther's mind and
throughout Christendom. Luther saw that monachism was in violent
opposition to the doctrine of salvation by grace, and that a monastic
life was founded entirely on the pretended merits of man. Feeling
convinced, from that hour, that Christ's glory was interested in this
question, he heard a voice incessantly repeating in his conscience:
"Monachism must fall!"--"So long as the doctrine of justification by
faith remains pure and undefiled in the Church, no one can become a
monk," said he.[52] This conviction daily grew stronger in his heart,
and about the beginning of September he sent "to the bishops and
deacons of the Church of Wittemberg," the following theses, which were
his declaration of war against a monastic life:--
[52] L. Opp. (W.) xxii. 1466.
"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Rom. xiv. 23).
"Whosoever maketh a vow of virginity, chastity, of service to God
without faith, maketh an impious and idolatrous vow,--a vow to the
devil himself.
"To make such vows is worse than the priests of Cybele or the vestals
of the pagans; for the monks make their vows in the thought of being
justified and saved by these vows; and what ought to be ascribed
solely to the mercy of God, is thus attributed to meritorious works.
"We must utterly overthrow such convents, as being the abodes of the
devil.
"There is but one order that is holy and makes man holy, and that is
Christianity or faith.[53]
"For convents to be useful they should be converted into schools,
where children should be brought up to man's estate; instead of which
they are houses where adult men become children, and remain so for
ever."
[53] Es ist nicht mehr denn eine einige Geistlichkeit, die da heilig
ist, und heilig macht......L. Opp. xvii. 718.
[Sidenote: LUTHER REJECTS MONACHISM.]
We see that Luther would still have tolerated convents as places of
education; but erelong his attacks against these establishments
became more violent. The immorality and shameful practices that
prevailed in the cloisters recurred forcibly to his thoughts. "I am
resolved," wrote he to Spalatin on the 11th of November, "to deliver
the young from the hellish fires of celibacy."[54] He now wrote a book
against monastic vows, which he dedicated to his father:--
[54] Adolescentes liberare ex isto inferno cœlibatus. L. Opp. ii.
95.
"Do you desire," said he in his dedication to the old man at
Mansfeldt, "do you still desire to rescue me from a monastic life? You
have the right, for you are still my father, and I am still your son.
But that is no longer necessary: God has been beforehand with you, and
has Himself delivered me by his power. What matters it whether I wear
or lay aside the tonsure and the cowl? Is it the cowl--is it the
tonsure--that makes the monk? _All things are yours_, says St. Paul,
_and you are Christ's_. I do not belong to the cowl, but the cowl to
me. I am a monk, and yet not a monk; I am a new creature, not of the
pope, but of Jesus Christ. Christ, alone and without any go-between,
is my bishop, my abbot, my prior, my lord, my father, and my master;
and I know no other. What matters it to me if the pope should condemn
me and put me to death? He cannot call me from the grave and kill me a
second time......The great day is drawing near in which the kingdom of
abominations shall be overthrown. Would to God that it were worth
while for the pope to put us all to death! Our blood would cry out to
heaven against him, and thus his condemnation would be hastened, and
his end be near."[55]
[55] Dass unser Blut möcht schreien, und dringen sein Gericht, dass
sein bald ein Ende würde. L. Epp. ii. 105.
The transformation had already been effected in Luther himself; he was
no longer a monk. It was not outward circumstances, or earthly
passions, or carnal precipitation that had wrought this change. There
had been a struggle: at first Luther had taken the side of monachism;
but truth also had gone down into the lists, and monachism had fallen
before it. The victories that passion gains are ephemeral; those of
truth are lasting and decisive.
CHAPTER IV.
Archbishop Albert--The Idol of Halle--Luther's
Indignation--Alarm of the Court--Luther's Letter to the
Archbishop--Albert's Reply--Joachim of Brandenburg.
[Sidenote: ARCHBISHOP ALBERT.]
While Luther was thus preparing the way for one of the greatest
revolutions that were destined to be effected in the Church, and the
Reformation was beginning to enter powerfully into the lives of
Christians, the Romish partisans, blind as those generally are who
have long been in possession of power, imagined that, because Luther
was in the Wartburg, the Reform was dead and for ever extinct; and
fancied they should be able quietly to resume their ancient practices,
that had been for a moment disturbed by the monk of Wittemberg.
Albert, elector-archbishop of Mentz, was one of those weak men who,
all things being equal, decide for the truth; but who, as soon as
their interest is put in the balance, are ready to take part with
error. His most important aim was to have a court as brilliant as that
of any prince in Germany, his equipages as rich, and his table as well
furnished: the traffic in indulgences served admirably to obtain this
result. Accordingly, the decree against Luther had scarcely issued
from the imperial chancery, before Albert, who was then residing with
his court at Halle, summoned the vendors of indulgences, who were
still alarmed at the words of the reformer, and endeavoured to
encourage them by such language as this: "Fear nothing, we have
silenced him; let us begin to shear the flock in peace; the monk is a
prisoner; he is confined by bolts and bars; this time he will be very
clever if he comes again to disturb us in our affairs." The market was
reopened, the merchandise was displayed for sale, and again the
churches of Halle re-echoed with the speeches of the mountebanks.
But Luther was still alive, and his voice was powerful enough to pass
beyond the walls and gratings behind which he had been hidden.
Nothing could have roused his indignation to a higher pitch. What! the
most violent battles have been fought; he has confronted every danger;
the truth remained victorious, and yet they dare trample it under
foot, as if it had been vanquished!......That voice shall again be
heard, which has once already put an end to this criminal traffic. "I
shall enjoy no rest," wrote he to Spalatin, "until I have attacked the
idol of Mentz with its brothel at Halle."[56]
[56] Non continebor quin idolum Moguntinum invadam, cum suo lupanari
Hallensi. L. Epp. ii. 59, 7th October.
[Sidenote: THE IDOL OF HALLE.]
Luther set to work immediately; he cared little about the mystery with
which some sought to envelop his residence in the Wartburg. He was
like Elijah in the desert forging fresh thunderbolts against the
impious Ahab. On the first of November he finished his treatise
_Against the New Idol of Halle_.
Intelligence of Luther's plans reached the archbishop. Alarmed and in
emotion at the very idea, he sent about the middle of October two of
his attendants (Capito and Auerbach) to Wittemberg to avert the storm.
"Luther must moderate his impetuosity," said they to Melancthon, who
received them cordially. But Melancthon, although mild himself, was
not one of those who imagine that wisdom consists in perpetual
concession, tergiversation, and silence. "It is God who moves him,"
replied he, "and our age needs a bitter and pungent salt."[57] Upon
this Capito turned to Jonas, and endeavoured through him to act upon
the court. The news of Luther's intention was already known there, and
produced great amazement. "What!" said the courtiers: "rekindle the
fire that we have had so much trouble to extinguish! Luther can only
be saved by being forgotten, and yet he is rising up against the first
prince in the empire!"--"I will not suffer Luther to write against the
Archbishop of Mentz, and thus disturb the public tranquillity," said
the elector.[58]
[57] Huic seculo opus esse acerrimo sale. Corp. Ref. i. 463.
[58] Non passurum principem, scribi in Moguntinum. L. Epp. ii. 94.
[Sidenote: LUTHER'S INDIGNATION.]
Luther was annoyed when these words were repeated to him. Is it not
enough to imprison his body, but they will also enchain his mind, and
the truth with it?......Do they fancy that he hides himself through
fear, and that his retirement is an avowal of defeat? He maintains
that it is a victory. Who dared stand up against him at Worms and
oppose the truth? Accordingly when the captive in the Wartburg had
read the chaplain's letter, informing him of the prince's sentiments,
he flung it aside, determined to make no reply. But he could not long
contain himself; he took up the epistle and wrote to Spalatin: "The
elector will not suffer!......and I too will not suffer the elector
_not_ to permit me to write......Rather would I destroy yourself, the
elector, nay, the whole world for ever![59] If I have resisted the
pope, who is the creator of your cardinal, why should I give way
before his creature? It is very fine, forsooth, to hear you say that
we must not disturb the public tranquillity, while you allow the
everlasting peace of God to be disturbed!......Spalatin, it shall not
be so! Prince, it shall not be so![60] I send you a book I had already
prepared against the cardinal when I received your letter. Forward it
to Melancthon."
[59] Potius te et principem ipsum perdam et omnem creaturam. L. Epp.
ii. 94.
[60] Non sic, Spalatine; non sic, princeps. Ibid.
Spalatin trembled as he read this manuscript; again he represented to
the reformer how imprudent it would be to publish a work that would
force the imperial government to lay aside its apparent ignorance of
Luther's fate, and punish a prisoner who dared attack the greatest
prince in the empire and the Church. If Luther persevered in his
designs, the tranquillity would again be disturbed, and the
Reformation perhaps be lost. Luther consented to delay the publication
of his treatise; he even permitted Melancthon to erase the most
violent passages.[61] But, irritated at his friend's timidity, he
wrote to the chaplain: "The Lord lives and reigns, that Lord in whom
you court-folks do not believe, unless he so accommodate His works to
your reason, that there is no longer any necessity to believe." He
then resolved to write direct to the cardinal.
[61] Ut acerbiora radat. Ibid. 110.
[Sidenote: LETTER TO THE ARCHBISHOP.]
It is the whole body of Romish bishops that Luther thus brings to the
bar in the person of the German primate. His words are those of a bold
man, ardent in zeal for the truth, and who feels that he is speaking
in the name of God himself.
* * * * *
"Your electoral highness," wrote he from the depth of the retreat in
which he was hidden, "has set up again in Halle the idol that swallows
the money and the souls of poor Christians. You think, perhaps, that I
am disabled, and that the emperor will easily stifle the cries of the
poor monk......But know that I shall discharge the duties that
christian charity has imposed upon me, without fearing the gates of
hell, and much less the pope, his bishops, and cardinals.
"For this reason my humble prayer is, that your electoral highness
would remember the beginning of this affair--how a tiny spark kindled
a terrible conflagration. All the world was at that time in a state of
security. This poor begging friar (thought they), who unaided would
attack the pope, is too weak for such an undertaking. But God
interposed; and he caused the pope more labour and anxiety than he had
ever felt since he had taken his place in the temple of God to
tyrannize over the Church. This same God still lives: let none doubt
it.[62] He will know how to withstand a cardinal of Mentz, even were
he supported by four emperors; for He is pleased above all things to
hew down the lofty cedars and to abase the haughty Pharaohs.
"For this reason I inform your highness by letter, that if the idol is
not thrown down, I must, in obedience to God's teaching, publicly
attack your highness, as I have attacked the pope himself. Let your
highness conduct yourself in accordance with this advice; I shall wait
a fortnight for an early and favourable reply. Given in my wilderness,
the Sunday after St Catherine's day, (15th November) 1521.
"From your electoral highness's devoted and obedient servant, MARTIN
LUTHER."
[62] Derselbig Gott lebet noch, da zweifel nur niemand an......L. Epp.
ii. 113.
[Sidenote: ALBERT'S REPLY.]
This letter was sent to Wittemberg, and from Wittemberg to Halle,
where the cardinal-elector was then residing; for no one dared
intercept it, foreseeing the storm that would be aroused by so daring
an act. But Melancthon accompanied it by a letter addressed to the
prudent Capito, in which he endeavoured to prepare the way for a
favourable termination of this difficult business.
It is impossible to describe the feelings of the youthful and weak
archbishop on receiving the reformer's letter. The work announced
_against the idol of Halle_ was like a sword suspended over his head.
And, at the same time, what anger must have been kindled in his heart
by the insolence of this peasant's son,--this excommunicated monk, who
dared make use of such language to a prince of the house of
Brandenburg,--the primate of the German Church? Capito besought the
archbishop to satisfy the monk. Alarm, pride, and the voice of
conscience which he could not stifle, struggled fearfully in Albert's
bosom. At last dread of the book, and perhaps remorse also, prevailed;
he humbled himself: he put together all he thought calculated to
appease the man of the Wartburg, and a fortnight had barely elapsed
when Luther received the following letter, still more astonishing than
his own terrible epistle:--
"My dear Doctor,--I have received and read your letter, and
have taken it in good part. But I think the motive that has
led you to write me such an epistle has long ceased to exist.
I desire, with God's help, to conduct myself as a pious
bishop and a christian prince, and I confess my need of the
grace of God. I do not deny that I am a sinner, liable to sin
and error, sinning and erring daily. I am well assured that
without God's grace I am worthless and offensive mire, even
as other men, if not more so. In replying to your letter, I
would not conceal this gracious disposition; for I am more
than desirous of showing you all kindness and favour, for
love of Christ. I know how to receive a christian and
fraternal rebuke.
"With my own hand. ALBERT."
[Sidenote: WEAKNESS AND STRENGTH.]
Such was the language addressed to the excommunicated monk of the
Wartburg by the Elector-archbishop of Mentz and Magdeburg,
commissioned to represent and maintain in Germany the constitution of
the Church. Did Albert, in writing it, obey the generous impulses of
his conscience, or his slavish fears? In the first case, it is a noble
letter; in the second, it merits our contempt. We would rather suppose
it originated in the better feelings of his heart. However that may
be, it shows the immeasurable superiority of God's servants over all
the great ones of the earth. While Luther alone, a prisoner and
condemned, derived invincible courage from his faith, the archbishop,
elector and cardinal, environed with all the power and favours of the
world, trembled on his throne. This contrast appears continually, and
is the key to the strange enigma offered by the history of the
Reformation. The Christian is not called upon to count his forces, and
to number his means of victory. The only thing he should be anxious
about is to know whether the cause he upholds is really that of God,
and whether he looks only to his Master's glory. Unquestionably he has
an inquiry to make; but this is wholly spiritual,--the Christian looks
at the heart, and not the arm; he weighs the justice of his cause, and
not its outward strength. And when this question is once settled, his
path is clear. He must move forward boldly, were it even against the
world and all its armed hosts, in the unshaken conviction that God
himself will fight for him.
The enemies of the Reformation thus passed from extreme severity to
extreme weakness; they had already done the same at Worms; and these
sudden transitions are of continual occurrence in the battle that
error wages against truth. Every cause destined to fall is attacked
with an internal uneasiness which makes it tottering and uncertain,
and drives it by turns from one pole to the other. Steadiness of
purpose and energy are far better; they would thus perhaps precipitate
its fall, but at least if it did fall it would fall with glory.
[Sidenote: JOACHIM OF BRANDENBURG.]
One of Albert's brothers, Joachim I., elector of Brandenburg, gave an
example of that strength of character which is so rare, particularly
in our own times. Immovable in his principles, firm in action, knowing
how to resist when necessary the encroachments of the pope, he opposed
an iron hand to the progress of the Reformation. At Worms he had
insisted that Luther should not be heard, and that he ought to be
punished as a heretic, in despite of his safe-conduct. Scarcely had
the edict of Worms been issued, when he ordered that it should be
strictly enforced throughout his states. Luther could appreciate so
energetic a character, and making a distinction between Joachim and
his other adversaries, he said: "We may still pray for the Elector of
Brandenburg."[63] The disposition of this prince seemed to have been
communicated to his people. Berlin and Brandenburg long remained
closed against the Reformation. But what is received slowly is held
faithfully.[64] While other countries, which then hailed the Gospel
with joy,--Belgium for instance, and Westphalia,--were soon to abandon
it, Brandenburg, the last of the German states to enter on the narrow
way of faith, was destined in after-years to stand in the foremost
ranks of the Reformation.
[63] Helwing, Gesh. der Brandeb. ii. 605.
[64] Hoc enim proprium est illorum hominum (ex March. Brandeburg), ut
quam semel in religione sententiam approbaverint, non facile deserant.
Leutingeri Opp. i. 41.
Luther did not read Cardinal Albert's letter without a suspicion that
it was dictated by hypocrisy, and in accordance with the advice of
Capito. He kept silence, however, being content with declaring to the
latter, that so long as the archbishop, who was hardly capable of
managing a small parish, did not lay aside his cardinal's mask and
episcopal pomp, and become a simple minister of the Word, it was
impossible that he could be in the way of salvation.[65]
[65] Larvam cardinalatus et pompam episcopalem ablegare. L. Epp. ii.
132.
CHAPTER V.
Translation of the Bible--Wants of the Church--Principles of
the Reformation--Temptations of the Devil--Luther's Works
condemned by the Sorbonne--Melancthon's Reply--Luther Visits
Wittemberg.
[Sidenote: TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.]
While Luther was thus struggling against error, as if he were still in
the midst of the battle, he was also labouring in his retirement of
the Wartburg, as if he had no concern in what was going on in the
world. The hour had come in which the Reformation, from being a mere
theological question, was to become the life of the people; and yet
the great engine by which this progress was to be effected was not yet
in being. This powerful and mighty instrument, destined to hurl its
thunderbolts from every side against the proud edifice of Rome, throw
down its walls, cast off the enormous weight of the Papacy under which
the Church lay stifled, and communicate an impulse to the whole human
race which would not be lost until the end of time,--this instrument
was to go forth from the old castle of the Wartburg, and enter the
world on the same day that terminated the reformer's captivity.
[Sidenote: WANTS OF THE CHURCH.]
The farther the Church was removed from the time when Jesus, the true
Light of the world, was on the earth, the greater was her need of the
torch of God's Word, ordained to transmit the brightness of Jesus
Christ to the men of the latter days. But this Divine Word was at that
time hidden from the people. Several unsuccessful attempts at
translation from the Vulgate had been made in 1477, 1490, and in 1518;
they were almost unintelligible, and from their high price beyond the
reach of the people. It had even been prohibited to give the German
Church the Bible in the vulgar tongue.[66] Besides which, the number
of those who were able to read did not become considerable until there
existed in the German language a book of lively and universal
interest.
[66] Codex Diplom. Ecclesiæ Magunt. iv. 460.
Luther was called to present his nation with the Scriptures of God.
That same God who had conducted St. John to Patmos, _there_ to write
his revelation, had confined Luther in the Wartburg, _there_ to
translate His Word. This great task, which it would have been
difficult for him to have undertaken in the midst of the cares and
occupations of Wittemberg, was to establish the new building on the
primitive rock, and, after the lapse of so many ages, lead Christians
back from the subtleties of the schoolmen to the pure fountain-head of
redemption and salvation.
The wants of the Church spoke loudly; they called for this great work;
and Luther, by his own inward experience, was to be led to perform it.
In truth, he discovered in faith that repose of the soul which his
agitated conscience and his monastic ideas had long induced him to
seek in his own merits and holiness. The doctrine of the Church, the
scholastic theology, knew nothing of the consolations that proceed
from faith; but the Scriptures proclaim them with great force, and
there it was that he had found them. Faith in the Word of God had made
him free. By it he felt emancipated from the dogmatical authority of
the Church, from its hierarchy and traditions, from the opinions of
the schoolmen, the power of prejudice, and from every human ordinance.
Those strong and numerous bonds which for centuries had enchained and
stifled Christendom, were snapped asunder, broken in pieces, and
scattered round him; and he nobly raised his head freed from all
authority except that of the Word. This independence of man, this
submission to God, which he had learned in the Holy Scriptures, he
desired to impart to the Church. But before he could communicate them,
it was necessary to set before it the revelations of God. A powerful
hand was wanted to unlock the massive gates of that arsenal of God's
Word from which Luther had taken his arms, and to open to the people
against the day of battle those vaults and antique halls which for
many ages no foot had ever trod.
[Sidenote: LUTHER'S DESIRE--PRINCIPLES OF THE REFORM.]
Luther had already translated several fragments of the Holy
Scripture; the seven penitential Psalms had been his first task.[67]
John the Baptist, Christ himself, and the Reformation had begun alike
by calling men to repentance. It is the principle of every
regeneration in the individual man, and in the whole human race. These
essays had been eagerly received; men longed to have more; and this
voice of the people was considered by Luther as the voice of God
himself. He resolved to reply to the call. He was a prisoner within
those lofty walls; what of that! he will devote his leisure to
translating the Word of God into the language of his countrymen.
Erelong this Word will be seen descending from the Wartburg with him;
circulating among the people of Germany, and putting them in
possession of those spiritual treasures hitherto shut up within the
hearts of a few pious men. "Would that this one book," exclaimed
Luther, "were in every language, in every hand, before the eyes, and
in the ears and hearts of all men!"[68] Admirable words, which, after
a lapse of three centuries, an illustrious body,[69] translating the
Bible into the mother-tongue of every nation upon earth, has
undertaken to realize. "Scripture without any comment," said he again,
"is the sun whence all teachers receive their light."
[67] Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 147.
[68] Et solus hic liber omnium lingua, manu, oculis, auribus, cordibus
versaretur. L. Epp. ii. 116.
[69] The Bible Society.
Such are the principles of Christianity and of the Reformation.
According to these venerable words, we should not consult the Fathers
to throw light upon Scripture, but Scripture to explain the Fathers.
The reformers and the apostles set up the Word of God as the only
light, as they exalt the sacrifice of Christ as the only
righteousness. By mingling any authority of man with this absolute
authority of God, or any human righteousness with this perfect
righteousness of Christ, we vitiate both the foundations of
Christianity. These are the two fundamental heresies of Rome, and
which, although doubtless in a smaller degree, some teachers were
desirous of introducing into the bosom of the Reformation.
[Sidenote: THE BIBLE IN THE STEAD OF MAN.]
Luther opened the Greek originals of the evangelists and apostles, and
undertook the difficult task of making these divine teachers speak his
mother tongue. Important crisis in the history of the Reformation!
from that time the Reformation was no longer in the hands of the
reformer. The Bible came forward; Luther withdrew. God appeared, and
man disappeared. The reformer placed THE BOOK in the hands of his
contemporaries. Each one may now hear the voice of God for himself; as
for Luther, henceforth he mingles with the crowd, and takes his
station in the ranks of those who come to draw from the common
fountain of light and life.
[Sidenote: TEMPTATIONS OF THE DEVIL.]
In translating the Holy Scriptures, Luther found that consolation and
strength, of which he stood so much in need. Solitary, in ill health,
and saddened by the exertions of his enemies and the extravagances of
some of his followers,--seeing his life wearing away in the gloom of
that old castle, he had occasionally to endure terrible struggles. In
those times, men were inclined to carry into the visible world the
conflicts that the soul sustains with its spiritual enemies; Luther's
lively imagination easily embodied the emotions of his heart, and the
superstitions of the Middle Ages had still some hold upon his mind, so
that we might say of him, as it has been said of Calvin with regard to
the punishment inflicted on heretics: there was yet a remnant of
popery in him.[70] Satan was not in Luther's view simply an invisible
though real being; he thought that this adversary of God appeared to
men as he had appeared to Jesus Christ. Although the authenticity of
many of the stories on this subject contained in the Table-talk and
elsewhere is more than doubtful, history must still record this
failing in the reformer. Never was he more assailed by these gloomy
ideas than in the solitude of the Wartburg. In the days of his
strength he had braved the devil in Worms; but now all the reformer's
powers seemed broken and his glory tarnished. He was thrown aside;
Satan was victorious in his turn, and in the anguish of his soul
Luther imagined he saw his giant form standing before him, lifting
his finger in threatening attitude, exulting with a bitter and hellish
sneer, and gnashing his teeth in fearful rage. One day especially, it
is said, as Luther was engaged on his translation of the New
Testament, he fancied he beheld Satan, filled with horror at his work,
tormenting him, and prowling round him like a lion about to spring
upon his prey. Luther, alarmed and incensed, snatched up his inkstand
and flung it at the head of his enemy. The figure disappeared, and the
missile was dashed in pieces against the wall.[71]
[70] Michelet, in his _Mémoires de Luther_, devotes more than thirty
pages to the various accounts of these Satanic visitations.
[71] The keeper of the Wartburg still carefully directs the
traveller's attention to the spots made by Luther's inkstand.
Luther's sojourn in the Wartburg began to be insupportable to him. He
felt indignant at the timidity of his protectors. Sometimes he would
remain a whole day plunged in deep and silent meditation, and awakened
from it only to exclaim, "Oh, that I were at Wittemberg!" At length he
could hold out no longer; there has been caution enough; he must see
his friends again, hear them, and converse with them. True, he runs
the risk of falling into the hands of his enemies, but nothing can
stop him. About the end of November, he secretly quitted the Wartburg,
and set out for Wittemberg.[72]
[72] Machete er sich heimlich aus seiner Patmo auf. L. Opp. xviii.
238.
A fresh storm had just burst upon him. At last the Sorbonne had spoken
out. That celebrated school of Paris, the first authority in the
Church after the pope, the ancient and venerable source whence
theological teaching had proceeded, had given its verdict against the
Reformation.
The following are some of the propositions condemned by this learned
body. Luther had said, "God ever pardons and remits sins gratuitously,
and requires nothing of us in return, except that in future we should
live according to righteousness." And he had added, "Of all deadly
sins, this is the most deadly, namely, that any one should think he is
not guilty of a damnable and deadly sin before God." He had said in
another place, "Burning heretics is contrary to the will of the Holy
Ghost."
[Sidenote: MELANCTHON'S REPLY TO THE SORBONNE.]
To these three propositions, and to many others besides, which they
quoted, the theological faculty of Paris replied, "Heresy!--let him be
accursed!"[73]
[73] Determinatio theologorum Parisiensium super doctrina Lutherana.
Corp. Ref. i. 366-388.
But a young man, twenty-four years of age, of short stature,
diffident, and plain in appearance, dared take up the gauntlet which
the first college in the world had thrown down. They knew pretty well
at Wittemberg what should be thought of these pompous censures; they
knew that Rome had yielded to the suggestions of the Dominicans, and
that the Sorbonne was led away by two or three fanatical doctors who
were designated at Paris by satirical nicknames.[74] Accordingly, in
his Apology, Melancthon did not confine himself to defending Luther;
but, with that boldness which characterizes his writings, he carried
the war into the enemy's camp. "You say he is a Manichean!--he is a
Montanist!--let fire and faggot repress his foolishness! And who is
Montanist? Luther, who would have us believe in Holy Scripture alone,
or you, who would have men believe in the opinions of their
fellow-creatures rather than in the Word of God?"[75]
[74] Damnarunt triumviri _Beda_, _Quercus_, et _Christophorus_. Nomina
sunt horum monstrorum etiam vulgo nunc nota _Belua_, _Stercus_,
_Christotomus_. Zwinglii Epp. i. 176.
[75] Corp. Ref. i. 396.
[Sidenote: VISIT TO WITTEMBERG.]
To ascribe more importance to the word of a man than to the Word of
God was in very truth the heresy of Montanus, as it still is that of
the pope and of all those who set the hierarchical authority of the
Church or the interior inspirations of mysticism far above the
positive declarations of the Sacred Writings. Accordingly the youthful
master of arts, who had said, "I would rather lay down my life than my
faith,"[76] did not stop there. He accused the Sorbonne of having
obscured the Gospel, extinguished faith, and substituted an empty
philosophy in the place of Christianity.[77] After this work of
Melancthon's, the position of the dispute was changed; he proved
unanswerably that the heresy was at Paris and Rome, and the catholic
truth at Wittemberg.
[76] Scias me positurum animam citius quam fidem. Ibid.
[77] Evangelium obscuratum est, fides extincta......Ex Christianismo,
contra omnem sensum spiritus, facta est quædam philosophica vivendi
ratio. Ibid. 400.
Meanwhile Luther, caring little for the condemnations of the Sorbonne,
was proceeding in his military equipment to the university. He was
greatly distressed by various reports which reached him on the road of
a spirit of impatience and independence that was showing itself among
some of his adherents.[78] At length he arrived at Wittemberg without
being recognised, and stopped at Amsdorff's house. Immediately all his
friends were secretly called together;[79] and Melancthon among the
first, who had so often said, "I would rather die than lose him."[80]
They came!--What a meeting!--what joy!--The captive of the Wartburg
tasted in their society all the sweetness of christian friendship. He
learnt the spread of the Reformation, the hopes of his brethren; and,
delighted at what he saw and heard,[81] offered up a prayer,--returned
thanks to God,--and then with brief delay returned to the Wartburg.
[78] Per viam vexatus rumore vario de nostrorum quorundam
importunitate. L. Epp. ii. 109.
[79] Liess in der Stille seine Freunde fodern. L. Opp. xviii. 238.
[80] Quo si mihi carendum est, mortem fortius tulero. Corp. Ref. i.
453, 455.
[81] Omnia vehementer placent quæ video et audio. L. Epp. ii. 109.
CHAPTER VI.
Fresh Reforms--Gabriel Zwilling on the Mass--The
University--Melancthon's Propositions--The Elector--Monastic
Institutions attacked--Emancipation of the
Monks--Disturbances--Chapter of the Augustine
Monks--Carlstadt and the Mass--First Celebration of the
Lord's Supper--Importance of the Mass in the Romish System.
[Sidenote: FRESH REFORMS--GABRIEL ZWILLING.]
Luther's joy was well founded. The work of the Reformation then made a
great stride. Feldkirchen, always in the van, had led the assault; now
the main body was in motion, and that power which carried the
Reformation from the doctrine it had purified into the worship, life,
and constitution of the Church, now manifested itself by a new
explosion, more formidable to the papacy than even the first had been.
Rome, having got rid of the reformer, thought the heresy was at an
end. But in a short time everything was changed. Death removed from
the pontifical throne the man who had put Luther under the ban of the
Church. Disturbances occurred in Spain, and compelled Charles to visit
his kingdom beyond the Pyrenees. War broke out between this prince and
Francis I., and as if that were not enough to occupy the emperor,
Soliman made an incursion into Hungary. Charles, thus attacked on all
sides, was forced to forget the monk of Worms and his religious
innovations.
About the same time, the vessel of the Reformation, which, driven in
every direction by contrary winds, was on the verge of foundering,
righted itself, and floated proudly above the waters.
It was in the convent of the Augustines at Wittemberg that the
Reformation broke out. We ought not to feel surprise at this: it is
true the reformer was there no longer; but no human power could drive
out the spirit that had animated him.
For some time the Church in which Luther had so often preached
re-echoed with strange doctrines. Gabriel Zwilling, a zealous monk and
chaplain to the convent, was there energetically proclaiming the
Reformation. As if Luther, whose name was at that time everywhere
celebrated, had become too strong and too illustrious, God selected
feeble and obscure men to begin the Reformation which that renowned
doctor had prepared. "Jesus Christ," said the preacher, "instituted
the sacrament of the altar in remembrance of his death, and not to
make it an object of adoration. To worship it is a real idolatry. The
priest who communicates alone commits a sin. No prior has the right to
compel a monk to say mass alone. Let one, two, or three officiate, and
let the others receive the Lord's sacrament under both kinds."[82]
[82] Einem 2 oder 3 befehlen Mess zu halten und die andern 12 von
denen, das Sacrament _sub utraque specie_, mit empfahen. Corp. Ref. i.
460.
[Sidenote: THE PRIOR--THE UNIVERSITY.]
This is what Friar Gabriel required, and this daring language was
listened to approvingly by the other brethren, and particularly by
those who came from the Low Countries.[83] They were disciples of the
Gospel, and why should they not conform in everything to its commands?
Had not Luther himself written to Melancthon in the month of August:
"Henceforth and for ever I will say no more private masses?"[84] Thus
the monks, the soldiers of the hierarchy, emancipated by the Word,
boldly took part against Rome.
[83] Der meiste Theil jener Parthei Niederländer seyn. Corp. Ref. i.
476.
[84] Sed et ego amplius non faciam missam privatam in æternum. L. Epp.
ii. 36.
At Wittemberg they met with a violent resistance from the prior.
Calling to mind that all things should be done with order, they gave
way, but with a declaration that to uphold the mass was to oppose the
Gospel of God.
The prior had gained the day: one man had been stronger than them all.
It might seem, therefore, that this movement of the Augustines was one
of those caprices of insubordination so frequently occurring in
monasteries. But it was in reality the Spirit of God itself which was
then agitating all Christendom. A solitary cry, uttered in the bosom
of a convent, found its echo in a thousand voices; and that which men
would have desired to confine within the walls of a cloister, went
forth and took a bodily form in the very midst of the city.
[Sidenote: MELANCTHON'S PROPOSITION.]
Rumours of the dissensions among the friars soon spread through the
town. The citizens and students of the university took part, some
with, some against the mass. The elector's court was troubled.
Frederick in surprise sent his chancellor Pontanus to Wittemberg with
orders to reduce the monks to obedience, by putting them, if
necessary, on bread and water;[85] and on the 12th of October, at
seven in the morning, a deputation from the professors, of which
Melancthon formed a part, visited the convent, exhorting the brothers
to attempt no innovations,[86] or at least to wait a little longer.
Upon this all their zeal revived: as they were unanimous in their
faith, except the prior who combated them, they appealed to Scripture,
to the understanding of believers, and to the conscience of the
theologians; and two days after handed in a written declaration.
[85] Wollen die Mönche nicht Mess halten, sie werden's bald in der
Küchen und Keller empfinden. Corp. Ref. i. 461.
[86] Mit dem Mess halten keine Neuerung machen. Ibid.
The doctors now examined the question more closely, and found that the
monks had truth on their side. They had gone to convince, and were
convinced themselves. What ought they to do? their consciences cried
aloud; their anxiety kept increasing: at last, after long hesitation,
they formed a courageous resolution.
On the 20th of October, the university made their report to the
elector. "Let your electoral highness," said they, after setting forth
the errors of the mass, "put an end to every abuse, lest Christ in the
day of judgment should rebuke us as he did the people of Capernaum."
Thus it is no longer a few obscure monks who are speaking; it is that
university which for several years has been hailed by all the wise as
the school of the nation; and the very means employed to check the
Reformation are those which will now contribute to its extension.
Melancthon, with that boldness which he carried into learning,
published fifty-five propositions calculated to enlighten men's minds.
"Just as, looking at a cross," said he, "is not performing a good
work, but simply contemplating a sign that reminds us of Christ's
death;
"Just as looking at the sun is not performing a good work, but simply
contemplating a sign that reminds us of Christ and of his Gospel;
"So, partaking of the Lord's Supper is not performing a good work, but
simply making use of a sign that reminds us of the grace that has been
given us through Christ.
"But here is the difference, namely, that the symbols invented by men
simply remind us of what they signify; while the signs given us by
God, not only remind us of the things themselves, but assure our
hearts of the will of God.[87]
[87] Signa ab hominibus reperta admonent tantum; signa a Deo tradita,
præterquam quod admonent, certificant etiam cor de voluntate Dei.
Corp. Ref. i. 478.
[Sidenote: THE ELECTOR.]
"As the sight of a cross does not justify, so the mass does not
justify.
"As the sight of a cross is not a sacrifice either for our sins or for
the sins of others, so the mass is not a sacrifice.
"There is but one sacrifice,--but one satisfaction,--Jesus Christ.
Besides him, there is none.
"Let such bishops as do not oppose the impiety of the mass be
accursed."
Thus spoke the pious and gentle Philip.
The elector was amazed. He had desired to reduce some young
friars,--and now the whole university, Melancthon himself, rose in
their defence. To wait seemed to him in all things the surest means of
success. He did not like sudden reforms, and desired that every
opinion should make its way without obstruction. "Time alone," thought
he, "clears up all things and brings them to maturity." And yet in
spite of him the Reformation was advancing with hasty steps, and
threatened to carry everything along with it. Frederick made every
exertion to arrest its progress. His authority, the influence of his
character, the reasons that appeared to him the most convincing, were
all set in operation. "Do not be too hasty," said he to the
theologians; "your number is too small to carry such a reform. If it
is based upon the Gospel, others will discover it also, and you will
put an end to abuses with the aid of the whole Church. Talk, debate,
preach on these matters as much as you like, but keep up the ancient
usages."
Such was the battle fought on the subject of the mass. The monks had
bravely led the assault; the theologians, undecided for a moment, had
soon come to their support. The prince and his ministers alone
defended the place. It has been asserted that the Reformation was
accomplished by the power and authority of the elector; but far from
that, the assailants shrunk back at the sound of his voice, and the
mass was saved for a few days.
[Sidenote: MONACHISM ATTACKED.]
The heat of the attack had been already directed against another
point. Friar Gabriel still continued his heart-stirring sermons in
the church of the Augustines. Monachism was now the object of his
reiterated blows; if the mass was the stronghold of the Roman
doctrines, the monastic orders were the support of her hierarchy.
These, then, were the two first positions that must be carried.
"No one," said Gabriel, according to the prior's report, "no dweller
in the convents keeps the commandments of God; no one can be saved
under a cowl;[88] every man that enters a cloister enters it in the
name of the devil. The vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, are
contrary to the Gospel."
[88] Kein Mönch werde in der Kappe selig. Corp. Ref. i. 433.
This extraordinary language was reported to the prior, who avoided
going to church for fear he should hear it.
"Gabriel," said they, "desires that every exertion should be made to
empty the cloisters. He says if a monk is met in the streets, the
people should pull him by the frock and laugh at him; and that if they
cannot be driven out of the convents by ridicule, they should be
expelled by force. Break open, pull down, utterly destroy the
monasteries (says he), so that not a single trace of them may remain;
and that not one of those stones that have contributed to shelter so
much sloth and superstition may be found in the spot they so long
occupied."[89]
[89] Dass man nicht oben Stück von einem Kloster da sey gestanden,
merken möge. Ibid. 483.
The friars were astonished; their consciences told them that Gabriel's
words were but too true, that a monkish life was not in conformity
with the will of God, and that no one could dispose of their persons
better than themselves.
[Sidenote: FERMENT IN WITTEMBERG.]
Thirteen Augustines quitted the convent together, and laying aside the
costume of their order, assumed a lay dress. Those who possessed any
learning attended the lectures of the university, in order one day to
be serviceable to the Church; and those whose minds were uncultivated,
endeavoured to gain a livelihood by the work of their own hands,
according to the injunctions of the apostle, and the example of the
good citizens of Wittemberg.[90] One of them, who understood the
business of a joiner, applied for the freedom of the city, and
resolved to take a wife.
[90] Etliche unter den Bürgern, etliche unter den Studenten, says the
prior in his complaint to the Elector. Ibid.
If Luther's entry into the Augustine convent at Erfurth had been the
germ of the Reformation, the departure of these thirteen monks from
the convent of the Augustines at Wittemberg was the signal of its
entering into possession of Christendom. For thirty years past Erasmus
had been unveiling the uselessness, the folly, and the vices of the
monks; and all Europe laughed and grew angry with him: but sarcasm was
required no longer. Thirteen high-minded and bold men returned into
the midst of the world, to render themselves profitable to society and
fulfil the commandments of God. Feldkirchen's marriage had been the
first defeat of the hierarchy; the emancipation of these thirteen
Augustines was the second. Monachism, which had arisen at the time
when the Church entered upon its period of enslavement and error, was
destined to fall at the dawning of liberty and truth.
This daring step excited universal ferment in Wittemberg. Admiration
was felt towards those men who thus came to take their part in the
general labours, and they were received as brethren. At the same time
a few outcries were heard against those who persisted in remaining
lazily sheltered behind the walls of their monastery. The monks who
remained faithful to their prior trembled in their cells; and the
latter, carried away by the general movement, stopped the celebration
of the low masses.
[Sidenote: DISTURBANCES--AUGUSTINE CHAPTER.]
The smallest concession in so critical a moment of necessity
precipitated the course of events. The prior's order created a great
sensation in the town and university, and produced a sudden explosion.
Among the students and citizens of Wittemberg were found some of those
turbulent men whom the least excitement arouses and hurries into
criminal disorders. They were exasperated at the idea of the low
masses, which even the superstitious prior had suspended, still being
said in the parish church; and on Tuesday the 3d of December, as the
mass was about to be read, they ran up to the altars, took away the
books, and drove the priests out of the chapel. The council and
university were annoyed, and met to punish the authors of these
misdeeds. But the passions once aroused are not easily quelled. The
Cordeliers had not taken part in this movement of the Augustines. On
the following day, the students posted a threatening placard on the
gates of their convent; after that forty students entered their
church, and although they refrained from violence, they ridiculed the
monks, so that the latter dared not say mass except in the choir.
Towards evening the fathers were told to be upon their guard: "The
students (it was said) are resolved to attack the monastery!" The
frightened religioners, not knowing how to shelter themselves from
these real or supposed attacks, hastily besought the council to
protect them; a guard of soldiers was sent, but the enemy did not
appear. The university caused the students who had taken part in these
disturbances to be arrested. It was discovered that some were from
Erfurth, where they had become notorious for their insubordination.[91]
The penalties of the university were inflicted upon them.
[91] In summa es sollen die Aufruhr etliche Studenten von Erffurth
erweckt haben. Corp. Ref. i. 490.
And yet the necessity was felt of inquiring carefully into the
lawfulness of monastic vows. A chapter of Augustine monks from Misnia
and Thuringia assembled at Wittemberg in the month of December. They
came to the same opinion as Luther. On the one hand they declared that
monastic vows were not criminal, but on the other that they were not
obligatory. "In Christ," said they, "there is neither layman nor monk;
each one is at liberty to quit the monastery or to stay in it. Let him
who goes forth beware lest he abuse his liberty; let him who remains
obey his superiors, but through love." They next abolished mendicancy
and the saying of masses for money; they also decreed that the best
instructed among them should devote themselves to the teaching of the
Word of God, and that the rest should support their brethren by the
work of their own hands.[92]
[92] Corp. Ref. i. 456. The editors assign this decree to the month of
October before the friars had quitted the convent at Wittemberg.
[Sidenote: CARLSTADT AND THE MASS.]
Thus the question of vows appeared settled; but that of the mass was
undecided. The elector still resisted the torrent, and protected an
institution which he saw standing in all Christendom. The orders of so
indulgent a prince could not long restrain the public feeling.
Carlstadt's head in particular was turning in the midst of the general
ferment. Zealous, upright, and bold, ready, like Luther, to sacrifice
everything for the truth, he was inferior to the reformer in wisdom
and moderation; he was not entirely exempt from vain-glory, and with a
disposition inclined to examine matters to the bottom, he was
defective in judgment and in clearness of ideas. Luther had dragged
him from the mire of scholasticism, and directed him to the study of
Scripture; but Carlstadt had not acknowledged with his friend the
all-sufficiency of the Word of God. Accordingly he was often seen
adopting the most singular interpretations. So long as Luther was at
his side, the superiority of the master kept the scholar within due
bounds. But now Carlstadt was free. In the university, in the church,
everywhere in Wittemberg, this little dark-featured man, who had never
excelled in eloquence, might be heard proclaiming with great fervour
ideas that were sometimes profound, but often enthusiastic and
exaggerated. "What madness," exclaimed he, "to think that one must
leave the Reformation to God's working alone! A new order of things is
beginning. The hand of man should interfere. Woe be to him who lags
behind, and does not climb the breach in the cause of the Almighty."
The archdeacon's language communicated to others the impatience he
felt himself. "All that the popes have ordained is impious," said
certain upright and sincere men who followed his example. "Let us not
become partakers in those abominations by allowing them to subsist any
longer. What is condemned by the Word of God ought to be put down in
the whole of Christendom, whatever may be the ordinances of men. If
the heads of the State and of the Church will not do their duty, let
us do ours. Let us renounce all negotiations, conferences, theses, and
disputations, and let us apply the effectual remedy to so many evils.
"We need a second Elijah to throw down the altars of Baal."
[Sidenote: THE LORD'S SUPPER.]
The re-establishment of the Lord's Supper, in this moment of ferment
and enthusiasm, unquestionably could not present the solemnity and
holiness of its first institution by the Son of God, on the eve of his
death, and almost at the foot of the cross. But if God now made use of
weak and perhaps passionate men, it was nevertheless his hand that
revived in the Church the feast of his love.
In the previous October, Carlstadt had already celebrated the Lord's
Supper in private with twelve of his friends, in accordance with
Christ's institution. On the Sunday before Christmas he gave out from
the pulpit that on the day of our Lord's circumcision (the first day
of the year) he would distribute the eucharist in both kinds (bread
and wine) to all who presented themselves at the altar; that he would
omit all useless forms,[93] and in celebrating this mass would wear
neither cope nor chasuble.
[93] Und die anderen _Schirymstege_ alle aussen lassen. Corp. Ref. i.
512.
The affrighted council entreated the councillor Beyer to prevent such
a flagrant irregularity; and upon this Carlstadt resolved not to wait
until the appointed day. On Christmas-day, 1521, he preached in the
parish church on the necessity of quitting the mass and receiving the
sacrament in both kinds. After the sermon he went to the altar;
pronounced the words of consecration in German, and then turning
towards the attentive people, said with a solemn voice: "Whosoever
feels the burden of his sins, and hungers and thirsts for the grace of
God, let him come and receive the body and blood of our Lord."[94] And
then, without elevating the host, he distributed the bread and wine to
all, saying: "This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and
everlasting Covenant."
[94] Wer mit Sünden beschwert and nach der Gnade Gottes hungrig und
durstig. Ibid. 540.
[Sidenote: IMPORTANCE OF THE MASS.]
Antagonist sentiments prevailed in the assembly. Some, feeling that a
new grace from God had been given to the Church, approached the altar
in silence and emotion. Others, attracted chiefly by the novelty, drew
nigh with a certain sense of agitation and impatience. Five
communicants alone had presented themselves in the confessional: the
rest simply took part in the public confession of sins. Carlstadt gave
a public absolution to all, imposing on them no other penance than
this: "Sin no more." They finished by singing the _Agnus Dei_.[95]
[95] Wenn man communicirt hat, so singt man: _Agnus Dei_ carmen. Corp.
Ref. i. 540.
No one opposed Carlstadt; these reforms had already obtained general
assent. The archdeacon administered the Lord's Supper again on New
Year's day, and on the Sunday following, and from that time it was
regularly celebrated. Einsidlen, one of the elector's councillors,
having reproached Carlstadt with seeking his own glory rather than the
salvation of his hearers: "Mighty lord," replied he, "there is no form
of death that can make me withdraw from Scripture. The Word has come
upon me with such promptitude......Woe be to me if I preach it
not!"[96] Shortly after, Carlstadt married.
[96] Mir ist das Wort fast in grosser Geschwindigkeit eingefallen.
Ibid. 545.
In the month of January 1522, the council and university of Wittemberg
regulated the celebration of the Lord's Supper according to the new
ritual. They were, at the same time, engaged on the means of reviving
the moral influence of religion; for the Reformation was destined to
restore simultaneously faith, worship, and morality. It was decreed
not to tolerate mendicants, whether they were begging friars or not;
and that in every street there should be some pious man commissioned
to take care of the poor, and summon open sinners before the
university and the council.[97]
[97] Keinen offenbaren Sünder zu dulden......Ibid. 540.
[Sidenote: IN THE ROMISH SYSTEM.]
Thus fell the mass--the principal bulwark of Rome; thus the
Reformation passed from simple teaching into public worship. For three
centuries the mass and transubstantiation had been peremptorily
established.[98] From that period everything in the Church had taken a
new direction; all things tended to the glory of man and the worship
of the priest. The Holy Sacrament had been adored; festivals had been
instituted in honour of the sublimest of miracles; the adoration of
Mary had acquired a high importance; the priest who, on his
consecration, received the wonderful power of "making the body of
Christ," had been separated from the laity, and had become, according
to Thomas Aquinas, a mediator between God and man;[99] celibacy had
been proclaimed as an inviolable law; auricular confession had been
enforced upon the people, and the cup denied them; for how could
humble laymen be placed in the same rank as priests invested with the
most august ministry? The mass was an insult to the Son of God: it was
opposed to the perfect grace of His cross, and the spotless glory of
His everlasting kingdom. But if it lowered the Saviour, it exalted the
priest, whom it invested with the unparalleled power of reproducing in
his hand, and at his will, the Sovereign Creator. From that time the
Church seemed to exist not to preach the Gospel, but simply to
reproduce Christ bodily.[100] The Roman pontiff, whose humblest
servants created at pleasure the body of God himself, sat as God in
the temple of God, and claimed a spiritual treasure, from which he
drew at will indulgences for the pardon of souls.
[98] By the Council of Lateran, in 1215.
[99] Sacerdos constituitur medius inter Deum et populum. Th. Aquin.
Summa, iii. 22.
[100] Perfectio hujus sacramenti non est in usu fidelium, sed in
consecratione materiæ. Ibid. Quest. 80.
Such were the gross errors which, for three centuries, had been
imposed on the Church in conjunction with the mass. When the
Reformation abolished this institution of man, it abolished these
abuses also. The step taken by the archdeacon of Wittemberg was
therefore one of a very extended range. The splendid festivals that
used to amuse the people, the worship of the Virgin, the pride of the
priesthood, the authority of the pope--all tottered with the mass. The
glory was withdrawn from the priests, to return to Jesus Christ, and
the Reformation took an immense stride in advance.
CHAPTER VII.
False Reform--The New Prophets--The Prophets at
Wittemberg--Melancthon--The Elector--Luther--Carlstadt and
the Images--Disturbances--Luther is called for--He does not
hesitate--Dangers.
[Sidenote: FALSE REFORM.]
Prejudiced men might have seen nothing in the work that was going on
but the effects of an empty enthusiasm. The very facts were to prove
the contrary, and demonstrate that there is a wide gulf between a
Reformation based on the Word of God and a fanatical excitement.
Whenever a great religious ferment takes place in the Church, some
impure elements always appear with the manifestations of truth. We see
the rise of one or more false reforms proceeding from man, and which
serve as a testimony or countersign to the real reform. Thus many
false messiahs in the time of Christ testified that the real Messiah
had appeared. The Reformation of the sixteenth century could not be
accomplished without presenting a similar phenomenon. In the small
town of Zwickau it was first manifested.
In that place there lived a few men who, agitated by the great events
that were then stirring all Christendom, aspired at direct revelations
from the Deity, instead of meekly desiring sanctification of heart,
and who asserted that they were called to complete the Reformation so
feebly sketched out by Luther. "What is the use," said they, "of
clinging so closely to the Bible? The Bible! always the Bible! Can the
Bible preach to us? Is it sufficient for our instruction? If God had
designed to instruct us by a book, would he not have sent us a Bible
from heaven? It is by the Spirit alone that we can be enlightened. God
himself speaks to us. God himself reveals to us what we should do, and
what we should preach." Thus did these fanatics, like the adherents of
Rome, attack the fundamental principle on which the entire
Reformation is founded--the all-sufficiency of the Word of God.
[Sidenote: THE NEW PROPHETS--THEIR PREACHING.]
A simple clothier, Nicholas Storch by name, announced that the angel
Gabriel had appeared to him during the night,[101] and that after
communicating matters which he could not yet reveal, said to him:
"Thou shalt sit on my throne." A former student of Wittemberg, one
Mark Stubner, joined Storch, and immediately forsook his studies; for
he had received direct from God (said he) the gift of interpreting the
Holy Scriptures. Another weaver, Mark Thomas, added to their number;
and a new adept, Thomas Munzer, a man of fanatical character, gave a
regular organization to this rising sect. Storch, desirous of
following Christ's example, selected from among his followers twelve
apostles and seventy-two disciples. All loudly declared, as a sect in
our days has done, that apostles and prophets were at length restored
to the Church of God.[102]
[101] Advolasse Gabrielem Angelum. Camerarii Vita. Mel. p. 48.
[102] Breviter, de sese prædicant viros esse propheticos et
apostolicos. Corp. Ref. i. 514. The author alludes to the followers of
Irving.--TR.
The new prophets, pretending to walk in the footsteps of those of old,
began to proclaim their mission: "Woe! woe!" said they; "a Church
governed by men so corrupt as the bishops cannot be the Church of
Christ. The impious rulers of Christendom will be overthrown. In five,
six, or seven years, a universal desolation will come upon the world.
The Turk will seize upon Germany; all the priests will be put to
death, even those who are married. No ungodly man, no sinner will
remain alive; and after the earth has been purified by blood, God will
then set up a kingdom; Storch will be put in possession of the supreme
authority, and commit the government of the nations to the
saints.[103] Then there will be one only faith, one only baptism. The
day of the Lord is at hand, and the end of the world draweth nigh.
Woe! woe! woe!" Then declaring that infant baptism was valueless, the
new prophets called upon all men to come and receive from their hands
the true baptism, as a sign of their introduction into the new Church
of God.
[103] Ut rerum potiatur et instauret sacra et respublicas tradat
sanctis viris tenendas. Camerar. Vita. Mel. p. 45.
[Sidenote: THE NEW PROPHETS.]
This language made a deep impression on the people. Many pious souls
were stirred by the thought that prophets were again restored to the
Church, and all those who were fond of the marvellous threw themselves
into the arms of the extravagants of Zwickau.
But scarcely had this old delusion, which had already appeared in the
days of Montanism and in the Middle Ages, found followers, when it met
with a powerful antagonist in the Reformation. Nicholas Hausmann, of
whom Luther gave this powerful testimony, "What we preach, he
practises,"[104] was pastor of Zwickau. This good man did not allow
himself to be misled by the pretensions of the false prophets. He
checked the innovations that Storch and his followers desired to
introduce, and his two deacons acted in unison with him. The fanatics,
rejected by the ministers of the Church, fell into another
extravagance. They formed meetings in which revolutionary doctrines
were professed. The people were agitated, and disturbances broke out.
A priest, carrying the host, was pelted with stones;[105] the civil
authority interfered, and cast the ringleaders into prison.[106]
Exasperated by this proceeding, and eager to vindicate themselves and
to obtain redress, Storch, Mark Thomas, and Stubner repaired to
Wittemberg.[107]
[104] Quod nos docemus, ille facit.
[105] Einen Priester der das Venerabile getragen mit Steinen geworfen.
Seck. p. 482.
[106] Sunt et illic in vincula conjecti. Mel. Corp. Ref. i. 513.
[107] Huc advolarunt tres viri, duo lanifices, literarum rudes,
literatus tertius est. Ibid.
They arrived there on the 27th of December 1521. Storch led the way
with the gait and bearing of a trooper.[108] Mark Thomas and Stubner
followed him. The disorder then prevailing in Wittemberg was
favourable to their designs. The youths of the academy and the
citizens, already profoundly agitated and in a state of excitement,
were a soil well fitted to receive these new prophets.
[108] Incedens more et habitu militum istorum quos _Lanzknecht_
dicimus. L. Epp. ii. 245.
[Sidenote: THE NEW PROPHETS AT WITTEMBERG.]
Thinking themselves sure of support, they immediately called on the
professors of the university, in order to obtain their sanction. "We
are sent by God to instruct the people," said they. "We have held
familiar conversations with the Lord; we know what will happen;[109]
in a word, we are apostles and prophets, and appeal to Dr. Luther."
This strange language astonished the professors.
[109] Esse sibi cum Deo familiaria colloquia, videre futura......Mel.
Electori, 27th Dec. 1521. Corp. Ref. i. 514.
"Who has commissioned you to preach?" asked Melancthon of his old
pupil Stubner, whom he received into his house. "The Lord our
God."--"Have you written any books?"--"The Lord our God has forbidden
me to do so." Melancthon was agitated: he grew alarmed and astonished.
"There are, indeed, extraordinary spirits in these men," said he; "but
what spirits?......Luther alone can decide. On the one hand, let us
beware of quenching the Spirit of God, and, on the other, of being led
astray by the spirit of Satan."
Storch, being of a restless disposition, soon quitted Wittemberg.
Stubner remained. Animated by an eager spirit of proselytism, he went
through the city, speaking now to one, then to another; and many
acknowledged him as a prophet from God. He addressed himself more
particularly to a Swabian named Cellarius, a friend of Melancthon's,
who kept a school in which he used to instruct a great number of young
people, and who soon fully acknowledged the mission of the new
prophets.
Melancthon now became still more perplexed and uneasy. It was not so
much the visions of the Zwickau prophets that disturbed him, as their
new doctrine on baptism. It seemed to him conformable with reason, and
he thought that it was deserving examination; "for" said he, "we must
neither admit nor reject any thing lightly."[110]
[110] Censebat enim neque admittendum neque rejiciendum quicquam
temere. Camer. Vita Mel. p. 49.
Such is the spirit of the Reformation. Melancthon's hesitation and
anxiety are a proof of the uprightness of his heart, more honourable
to him, perhaps, than any systematic opposition would have been.
[Sidenote: LUTHER ON THE NEW PROPHETS.]
The elector himself, whom Melancthon styled "the lamp of
Israel,"[111] hesitated. Prophets and apostles in the electorate of
Saxony as in Jerusalem of old! "This is a great matter," said he; "and
as a layman, I cannot understand it. But rather than fight against
God, I would take a staff in my hand, and descend from my throne."
[111] Electori lucernæ Israel. Camer. Vita Mel. p. 513.
At length he informed the professors, by his councillors, that they
had sufficient trouble in hand at Wittemberg; that in all probability
these pretensions of the Zwickau prophets were only a temptation of
the devil; and that the wisest course, in his opinion, would be to let
the matter drop of itself; nevertheless that, under all circumstances,
whenever his highness should clearly perceive God's will, he would
take counsel of neither brother nor mother, and that he was ready to
suffer everything in the cause of truth.[112]
[112] Darüber auch leiden was S. C. G. leiden sollt. Ibid. p. 537.
Luther in the Wartburg was apprized of the agitation prevailing in the
court and at Wittemberg. Strange men had appeared, and the source
whence their mission proceeded was unknown. He saw immediately that
God had permitted these afflicting events to humble his servants, and
to excite them by trials to strive more earnestly after
sanctification.
"Your electoral grace," wrote he to Frederick, "has for many years
been collecting relics from every country. God has satisfied your
desire, and has sent you, without cost or trouble, a whole _cross_,
with nails, spears, and scourges......Health and prosperity to the new
relic!......Only let your highness fearlessly stretch out your arm,
and suffer the nails to enter your flesh!......I always expected that
Satan would send us this plague."
But at the same time nothing appeared to him more urgent than to
secure for others the liberty that he claimed for himself. He had not
two weights and two measures. "Beware of throwing them into prison,"
wrote he to Spalatin. "Let not the prince dip his hand in the blood of
these new prophets."[113] Luther went far beyond his age, and even
beyond many other reformers, on the subject of religious liberty.
[113] Ne princeps manus cruentet in prophetis. L. Epp. ii. 135.
Circumstances were becoming every day more serious in Wittemberg.[114]
[114] Ubi fiebant omnia in dies difficiliora. Camer. Vita Mel. p. 49.
[Sidenote: CARLSTADT AND THE IMAGES.]
Carlstadt rejected many of the doctrines of the new prophets, and
particularly their sentiments on baptism; but there is a contagion in
religious enthusiasm that a head like his could not easily resist.
From the arrival of the men of Zwickau in Wittemberg, Carlstadt
accelerated his movements in the direction of violent reforms. "We
must fall upon every ungodly practice, and overthrow them all in a
day," said he.[115] He brought together all the passages of Scripture
against images, and inveighed with increasing energy against the
idolatry of Rome. "They fall down--they crawl before these idols,"
exclaimed he; "they burn tapers before them, and make them
offerings......Let us arise and tear them from the altars!"
[115] Irruendum et demoliendum statim. Ibid.
These words were not uttered in vain before the people. They entered
the churches, carried away the images, broke them in pieces, and burnt
them.[116] It would have been better to wait until their abolition had
been legally proclaimed; but some thought that the caution of the
chiefs would compromise the Reformation itself.
[116] Die Bilder zu stürmen und aus den Kirchen zu werfen. Math. p.
81.
To judge by the language of these enthusiasts, there were no true
Christians in Wittemberg save those who went not to confession, who
attacked the priests, and who ate meat on fast days. If any one was
suspected of not rejecting all the rites of the Church as an invention
of the devil, he was set down as a worshipper of Baal. "We must form a
Church," cried they, "composed of saints only!"
The citizens of Wittemberg laid before the council certain articles
which it was forced to accept. Many of the articles were conformable
to evangelical morals. They required more particularly that all houses
of public amusement should be closed.
[Sidenote: VANDALISM--MOURNFUL CONSEQUENCES.]
But Carlstadt soon went still farther: he began to despise learning;
and the old professor was heard from his chair advising his pupils to
return home, to take up the spade, to guide the plough, and quietly
cultivate the earth, because man was to eat bread in the sweat of his
brow. George Mohr, the master of the boys' school at Wittemberg, led
away by the same fanaticism, called to the assembled citizens from the
window of his schoolroom to come and take away their children. Why
should they study, since Storch and Stubner had never been at the
university, and yet they were prophets?......A mechanic, therefore,
was as good as all the doctors in the world, and perhaps better, to
preach the Gospel.
Thus arose doctrines in direct opposition to the Reformation, which
had been prepared by the revival of letters. It was with the weapon of
theological learning that Luther had attacked Rome; and the
enthusiasts of Wittemberg, like the fanatical monks with whom Erasmus
and Reuchlin had contended, presumed to trample all human learning
under foot. If this vandalism succeeded in holding its ground, the
hopes of the world were lost; and another irruption of barbarians
would extinguish the light that God had kindled in Christendom.
The results of these strange discourses soon showed themselves. Men's
minds were prejudiced, agitated, diverted from the Gospel; the
university became disorganized; the demoralized students broke the
bonds of discipline and dispersed; and the governments of Germany
recalled their subjects.[117] Thus the men who desired to reform and
vivify every thing, were on the point of ruining all.[118] One
struggle more (exclaimed the friends of Rome, who on all sides were
regaining their confidence),--one last struggle, and all will be ours!
[117] Etliche Fürsten ihre Bewandten abgefordert. Corp. Ref. i. 560.
[118] Perdita et funditus diruta. Camer. Vit. Mel. p. 52.
[Sidenote: A REMEDY WANTED--LUTHER CALLED FOR.]
Promptly to check the excesses of these fanatics was the only means of
saving the Reformation. But who could do it? Melancthon? He was too
young, too weak, too much agitated himself by these strange
apparitions. The elector? He was the most pacific man of his age. To
build castles at Altenburg, Weimar, Lochau, and Coburg; to adorn
churches with the beautiful pictures of Lucas Cranach; to improve the
singing in the chapels; to advance the prosperity of his university;
to promote the happiness of his subjects; to stop in the midst of the
children whom he met playing in the streets, and give them little
presents:--such were the gentle occupations of his life. And now in
his advanced age, would he contend with fanatics--would he oppose
violence to violence? How could the good and pious Frederick make up
his mind to this?
The disease continued to spread, and no one stood forward to check it.
Luther was far from Wittemberg. Confusion and ruin had taken hold of
the city. The Reformation had seen an enemy spring from its own bosom
more formidable than popes and emperors. It was on the very verge of
the abyss.
Luther! Luther! was the general and unanimous cry at Wittemberg. The
citizens called for him earnestly; the professors desired his advice;
the prophets themselves appealed to him. All entreated him to
return.[119]
[119] Lutherum revocavimus ex heremo suo magnis de causis. Corp. Ref.
i. 566.
We may imagine what was passing in the reformer's mind. All the
terrors of Rome were nothing in comparison with what now wrung his
heart. It is from the very midst of the Reformation that its enemies
have gone forth. It is preying upon its own vitals; and that doctrine
which alone brought peace to his troubled heart becomes the occasion
of fatal disturbances to the Church.
[Sidenote: LUTHER DOES NOT HESITATE.]
"If I knew," he had once said, "that my doctrine injured one man, one
single man, however lowly and obscure (which it cannot, for it is the
Gospel itself), I would rather die ten times than not retract
it."[120] And now a whole city, and that city Wittemberg, is falling
into disorder! True, his doctrine has no share in this; but from every
quarter of Germany voices are heard accusing him of it. Pains more
keen than he had ever felt before assail him now, and new temptations
agitate him. "Can such then be the end of this great work of the
Reformation?" said he to himself. Impossible!--he rejects these
doubts. God has begun,......God will perfect the work. "I creep in
deep humility to the grace of the Lord,"[121] exclaimed he, "and
beseech him that his name may remain attached to this work; and that
if anything impure be mixed up with it, he will remember that I am a
sinful man."
[120] Möchte ich ehe zehn Tode leyden. _Wieder Emser._ L. Opp. xviii.
613.
[121] Ich krieche zu seiner Gnaden. L. Opp. xviii. 615.
The news communicated to Luther of the inspiration of these new
prophets, and of their sublime interviews with God, did not stagger
him one moment. He knew the depth, the anguish, the humiliation of the
spiritual life: at Erfurth and Wittemberg he had made trial of the
power of God, which did not so easily permit him to believe that God
appeared to his creatures and conversed with them. "Ask these
prophets," wrote he to Melancthon, "whether they have felt those
spiritual torments, those creations of God, that death and hell which
accompany a real regeneration......[122] And if they speak to you only
of agreeable things, of tranquil impressions, of devotion and piety,
as they say, do not believe them, although they should pretend to have
been transported to the third heaven. Before Christ could attain his
glory, he was compelled to suffer death; and in like manner the
believer must go through the bitterness of sin before he can obtain
peace. Do you desire to know the time, place, and manner in which God
talks with men? Listen: _As a lion so hath he broken all my bones: I
am cast out from before his face, and my soul is abased even to the
gates of hell_......No! The Divine Majesty (as they pretend) does not
speak directly, so that men may see it; for _no man can see my face
and live_."
[122] Quæras num experti sint spirituales illas angustias et
nativitates divinas, mortes infernosque. L. Epp. ii. 215.
[Sidenote: LUTHER'S DANGER.]
But his firm conviction of the delusion under which these prophets
were labouring, served but to augment Luther's grief. Has the great
truth of salvation by grace so quickly lost its charms that men turn
aside from it to follow fables? He begins to feel that the work is not
so easy as he had thought at first. He stumbles at the first stone
that the deceitfulness of the human heart had placed in his path; he
is bowed down by grief and anxiety. He resolves, at the hazard of his
life, to remove it out of the way of his people, and decides on
returning to Wittemberg.
At that time he was threatened by imminent dangers. The enemies of the
Reformation fancied themselves on the very eve of destroying it.
George of Saxony, equally indisposed towards Rome and Wittemberg, had
written, as early as the 16th of October 1521, to Duke John, the
elector's brother, to draw him over to the side of the enemies of the
Reformation. "Some," said he, "deny that the soul is immortal. Others
(and these are monks!) attach bells to swine and set them to drag the
relics of St. Anthony through the streets, and then throw them into
the mire.[123] All this is the fruit of Luther's teaching! Entreat
your brother the elector either to punish the ungodly authors of these
innovations, or at least publicly to declare his opinion of them. Our
changing beard and hair remind us that we have reached the latter
portion of our course, and urge us to put an end to such great evils."
[123] Mit Schweinen und Schellen......in Koth geworfen. Weimar. Ann.
Seck. p. 482.
After this George departed to take his seat in the imperial government
at Nuremberg. He had scarcely arrived when he made every exertion to
urge it to adopt measures of severity. In effect, on the 21st of
January, this body passed an edict, in which it complained bitterly
that the priests said mass without being robed in their sacerdotal
garments, consecrated the sacrament in German, administered it without
having received the requisite confession from the communicants, placed
it in the hands of laymen,[124] and were not even careful to ascertain
that those who stood forward to receive it were fasting.
[124] In ihre laïsche Hände reiche. L. Opp. xviii. 285.
Accordingly the imperial government desired the bishops to seek out
and punish severely all the innovators within their respective
dioceses. The latter hastened to comply with these orders.
[Sidenote: DEPARTURE FROM THE WARTBURG.]
Such was the moment selected by Luther for his reappearance on the
stage. He saw the danger; he foreboded incalculable disasters.
"Erelong," said he, "there will be a disturbance in the empire,
carrying princes, magistrates, and bishops before it. The people have
eyes: they will not, they cannot be led by force. All Germany will run
blood.[125] Let us stand up as a wall to preserve our nation in this
dreadful day of God's anger."
[125] Germaniam in sanguine natare. L. Epp. ii. 157.
CHAPTER VIII.
Departure from the Wartburg--New Position--Luther and
Primitive Catholicism--Meeting at the Black Bear--Luther's
Letter to the Elector--Return to Wittemberg--Sermon at
Wittemberg--Charity--The Word--How the Reformation was
brought about--Faith in Christ--Its
Effects--Didymus--Carlstadt--The Prophets--Interview with
Luther--End of the Struggle.
Such were Luther's thoughts; but he beheld a still more imminent
danger. At Wittemberg, the conflagration, far from dying away, became
fiercer every day. From the heights of the Wartburg, Luther could
perceive in the horizon the frightful gleams, the signal of
devastation, shooting at intervals through the air. Is not he the only
one who can give aid in this extremity? Shall he not throw himself
into the midst of the flames to quench their fury? In vain his enemies
prepare to strike the decisive blow; in vain the elector entreats him
not to leave the Wartburg, and to prepare his justification against
the next diet. He has a more important task to perform--to justify the
Gospel itself. "More serious intelligence reaches me every day," wrote
he. "I shall set out: circumstances positively require me to do
so."[126]
[126] Ita enim res postulat ipsa. Ibid. 135.
[Sidenote: NEW POSITION--LUTHER AND PRIMITIVE CATHOLICITY.]
Accordingly, he rose on the 3d of March with the determination of
leaving the Wartburg for ever. He bade adieu to its time-worn towers
and gloomy forests. He passed beyond those walls where the
excommunications of Leo X. and the sword of Charles V. were unable to
reach him. He descended the mountain. The world that lay at his feet,
and in the midst of which he is about to appear again, would soon
perhaps call loudly for his death. But it matters not! he goes forward
rejoicing: for in the name of the Lord he is returning among his
fellow-men.[127]
[127] So machte er sich mit unglaublicher Freudigkeit des Geistes, im
Nahmen Gottes auf den Weg. Seck. p. 458.
Time had moved on. Luther was quitting the Wartburg for a cause very
different from that for which he had entered it. He had gone thither
as the assailant of the old tradition and of the ancient doctors; he
left it as the defender of the doctrine of the apostles against new
adversaries. He had entered it as an innovator, and as an impugner of
the ancient hierarchy; he left it as a conservative and champion of
the faith of Christians. Hitherto Luther had seen but one thing in his
work,--the triumph of justification by faith; and with this weapon he
had thrown down mighty superstitions. But if there was a time for
destroying, there was also a time for building up. Beneath those ruins
with which his strong arm had strewn the plain,--beneath those
crumpled letters of indulgence, those broken tiaras and tattered
cowls,--beneath so many Roman abuses and errors that lay in confusion
upon the field of battle, he discerned and discovered the primitive
Catholic Church, reappearing still the same, and coming forth as from
a long period of trial, with its unchangeable doctrines and heavenly
accents. He could distinguish it from Rome, welcoming and embracing it
with joy. Luther effected nothing new in the world, as he has been
falsely charged; he did not raise a building for the future that had
no connexion with the past; he uncovered, he opened to the light of
day the ancient foundations, on which thorns and thistles had sprung
up, and continuing the construction of the temple, he built simply on
the foundations laid by the apostles. Luther perceived that the
ancient and primitive Church of the apostles must, on the one hand, be
restored in opposition to the Papacy, by which it had been so long
oppressed; and on the other, be defended against enthusiasts and
unbelievers, who pretended to disown it, and who, regardless of all
that God had done in times past, were desirous of beginning an
entirely new work. Luther was no longer exclusively the man of one
doctrine,--that of justification,--although he always assigned it the
highest place; he became the man of the whole Christian theology; and
while he still believed that the Church was essentially the
congregation of saints, he was careful not to despise the visible
Church, and acknowledged the assembly of the elect as the kingdom of
God. Thus was a great change effected, at this time, in Luther's
heart, in his theology, and in the work of renovation that God was
carrying on in the world. The Roman hierarchy might perhaps have
driven the reformer to extremes; the sects which then so boldly raised
their heads brought him back to the true path of moderation. The
sojourn in the Wartburg divides the history of the Reformation into
two periods.
[Sidenote: MEETING AT THE BLACK BEAR.]
Luther was riding slowly on the road to Wittemberg: it was already the
second day of his journey, and Shrove Tuesday. Towards evening a
terrible storm burst forth, and the roads were flooded. Two Swiss
youths, who were travelling in the same direction as himself, were
hastening onwards to find a shelter in the city of Jena. They had
studied at Basle, and the celebrity of Wittemberg attracted them to
that university. Travelling on foot, fatigued, and wet through, John
Kessler of St. Gall and his companion quickened their steps. The city
was all in commotion with the amusements of the carnival; balls,
masquerades, and noisy feasting engrossed the people of Jena; and when
the two travellers arrived, they could find no room at any of the
inns. At last they were directed to the _Black Bear_, outside the city
gates. Dejected and harassed, they repaired thither slowly. The
landlord received them kindly.[128] They took their seats near the
open door of the public room, ashamed of the state in which the storm
had placed them, and not daring to go in. At one of the tables sat a
solitary man in a knight's dress, wearing a red cap on his head and
breeches over which fell the skirts of his doublet; his right hand
rested on the pommel of his sword, his left grasped the hilt; and
before him lay an open book, which he appeared to be reading with
great attention.[129] At the noise made by the entrance of these two
young men, he raised his head, saluted them affably, and invited them
to come and sit at his table; then presenting them with a glass of
beer, and alluding to their accent, he said: "You are Swiss, I
perceive; but from what canton?"--"From St. Gall."--"If you are going
to Wittemberg, you will there meet with a fellow-countryman, Doctor
Schurff."--Encouraged by this kind reception, they added: "Sir, could
you inform us where Martin Luther is at present?"--"I know for
certain," replied the knight, "that he is not at Wittemberg; but he
will be there shortly. Philip Melancthon is there. Study Greek and
Hebrew, that you may clearly understand the Holy Scriptures."--"If God
spare our lives," observed one of the young men, "we will not return
home without having seen and heard Doctor Luther; for it is on his
account that we have undertaken this long journey. We know that he
desires to abolish the priesthood and the mass; and as our parents
destined us to the priesthood from our infancy, we should like to know
clearly on what grounds he rests his proposition." The knight was
silent for a moment, and then resumed: "Where have you been studying
hitherto?"--"At Basle."--"Is Erasmus of Rotterdam still there? what is
he doing?" They replied to his questions, and there was another pause.
The two Swiss knew not what to think. "Is it not strange," thought
they, "that this knight talks to us of Schurff, Melancthon, and
Erasmus, and on the necessity of learning Greek and Hebrew."--"My dear
friends," said the unknown suddenly, "what do they think of Luther in
Switzerland?"--"Sir," replied Kessler, "opinions are very divided
about him there as everywhere else. Some cannot extol him enough; and
others condemn him as an abominable heretic."--"Ha! the priests, no
doubt," said the stranger.
[128] See the narrative of Kessler, with all its details, and in the
simple language of the times, in _Bernet, Johann Kessler_, p. 27.
Hahnhard Erzählungen, iii. 300, and Marheinecke Gesch. der Ref. ii.
321, 2d edition.
[129] In einem rothem Schlöpli, in blossen Hosen und
Wamms......Hahn-hard Erzählungen, iii. 300, and Marheinecke Gesch. der
Ref. ii. 321, 2d edition.
The knight's cordiality had put the students at their ease. They
longed to know what book he was reading at the moment of their
arrival. The knight had closed it, and placed it by his side. At last
Kessler's companion ventured to take it up. To the great astonishment
of the two young men, it was the Hebrew Psalter! The student laid it
down immediately, and as if to divert attention from the liberty he
had taken, said: "I would willingly give one of my fingers to know
that language."--"You will attain your wish," said the stranger, "if
you will only take the trouble to learn it."
A few minutes after, Kessler heard the landlord calling him; the poor
Swiss youth feared something had gone wrong; but the host whispered to
him: "I perceive that you have a great desire to see and hear Luther;
well! it is he who is seated beside you." Kessler took this for a
joke, and said: "Mr. Landlord, you want to make a fool of me."--"It is
he in very truth," replied the host; "but do not let him see that you
know him." Kessler made no answer, but returned into the room and took
his seat at the table, burning to repeat to his comrade what he had
just heard. But how could he manage it? At last he thought of leaning
forward, as if he were looking towards the door, and then whispered
into his friend's ear: "The landlord assures me that this man is
Luther."--"Perhaps he said Hütten," replied his comrade; "you did not
hear him distinctly."--"It may be so," returned Kessler; "the host
said: It is Hütten; the two names are pretty much alike, and I mistook
one for the other."
At that moment the noise of horses was heard before the inn; two
merchants, who desired a lodging, entered the room; they took off
their spurs, laid down their cloaks, and one of them placed beside him
on the table an unbound book, which soon attracted the knight's
notice. "What book is that?" asked he.--"A commentary on some of the
Gospels and Epistles by Doctor Luther," replied the merchant; "it is
just published."--"I shall procure it shortly," said the knight.
At this moment the host came to announce that supper was ready. The
two students, fearing the expense of such a meal in company with the
knight Ulrich of Hütten and two wealthy merchants, took the landlord
aside, and begged him to serve them with something apart. "Come
along, my friends," replied the landlord of the Black Bear; "take your
place at table beside this gentleman; I will charge you
moderately."--"Come along," said the knight, "I will settle the
score."
During this meal, the stranger knight uttered many simple and edifying
remarks. The students and the merchants were all ears, and paid more
attention to his words than to the dishes set before them. "Luther
must either be an angel from heaven or a devil from hell," said one of
the merchants in course of conversation; "I would readily give ten
florins if I could meet Luther and confess to him."
When supper was over, the merchants left the table; the two Swiss
remained alone with the knight, who, taking a large glass of beer,
rose and said solemnly, after the manner of the country: "Swiss, one
glass more for thanks." As Kessler was about to take the glass, the
unknown set it down again, and offered him one filled with wine,
saying: "You are not accustomed to beer."
He then arose, flung a military cloak over his shoulders, and
extending his hand to the students, said to them: "When you reach
Wittemberg, salute Doctor Schurff on my part."--"Most willingly,"
replied they; "but what name shall we give?"--"Tell him simply," added
Luther, "He that is to come salutes you." With these words he quitted
the room, leaving them full of admiration at his kindness and good
nature.
Luther, for it was really he, continued his journey. It will be
remembered that he had been laid under the ban of the empire; whoever
met and recognised him, might seize him. But at the time when he was
engaged in an undertaking that exposed him to every risk, he was calm
and serene, and conversed cheerfully with those whom he met on the
road.
[Sidenote: LUTHER TO THE ELECTOR.]
It was not that he deceived himself: he saw the future big with
storms. "Satan," said he, "is enraged, and all around are plotting
death and hell.[130] Nevertheless, I go forward, and throw myself in
the way of the emperor and of the pope, having no protector save God
in heaven. Power has been given to all men to kill me wherever they
find me. But Christ is the Lord of all; if it be his will that I be
put to death, so be it!"
[130] Furit Satanas; et fremunt vicini undique, nescio quot mortibus
et infernis. L. Epp. ii. 153.
On that same day, Ash-Wednesday, Luther reached Borna, a small town
near Leipsic. He felt it his duty to inform the prince of the bold
step he was about to take; and accordingly alighted at the Guide Hotel
and wrote the following letter:--
"Grace and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ!
"Most serene Elector, gracious Lord! The events that have taken place
at Wittemberg, to the great reproach of the Gospel, have caused me
such pain that if I were not confident of the truth of our cause, I
should have given way to despair.
"Your highness knows this, or if not, be it known to you now, that I
received the Gospel not from men but from heaven, through our Lord
Jesus Christ. If I called for discussion, it was not because I had any
doubts of the truth, but in humility, and in the hope to win over
others. But since my humility is turned against the Gospel, my
conscience compels me now to act otherwise. I have sufficiently given
way to your highness by passing this year in retirement. The devil
knows well that I did so not through fear. I should have entered Worms
had there been as many devils in the city as tiles on the house-tops.
Now Duke George, with whom your highness frightens me, is yet much
less to be feared than a single devil. If that which is passing at
Wittemberg were taking place at Leipsic (the duke's residence), I
would immediately mount my horse to go thither, although (may your
highness pardon these words) for nine whole days together it were to
rain nothing but Duke Georges, and each one nine times more furious
than he is. What does he think of in attacking me? Does he take Christ
my Lord for a man of straw?[131] O Lord, be pleased to avert the
terrible judgment which is impending over him!
[131] Er hält meinen Herrn Christum für ein Mann aus Stroh geflochten.
L. Epp. ii. 139.
"Be it known to your highness that I am going to Wittemberg under a
protection far higher than that of princes and electors. I think not
of soliciting your highness's support, and, far from desiring your
protection, I would rather protect you myself. If I knew that your
highness could or would protect me, I would not go to Wittemberg at
all. There is no sword that can further this cause. God alone must do
everything without the help or concurrence of man. He who has the
greatest faith is he who is most able to protect. But I observe that
your highness is still weak in faith.
"But since your highness desires to know what you have to do, I will
answer with all deference: your highness has already done too much,
and ought to do nothing at all. God will not and cannot endure either
your cares and labours or mine. Let your highness's conduct be guided
by this.
"As for what concerns me, your highness must act as an elector; you
must let the orders of his imperial majesty take their course in your
towns and rural districts. You must offer no resistance if men desire
to seize or kill me;[132] for no one should resist dominions except He
who has established them.
[132] Und ja nicht wehren......so sie mich fahen oder tödten will. L.
Epp. ii. 140.
"Let your highness leave the gates open, and respect safe-conducts, if
my enemies in person or their envoys come in search of me into your
highness's states. Everything shall be done without trouble or danger
to yourself.
"I have written this letter in haste, that you may not be made uneasy
at hearing of my arrival. I have to do with a very different man from
Duke George. He knows me well, and I know him pretty well.
"Given at Borna, at the inn of the Guide, this Ash-Wednesday 1522.
"Your electoral highness's
"Very humble servant,
"MARTIN LUTHER."
[Sidenote: RETURN TO WITTEMBERG--LUTHER'S FRIENDS.]
It was thus Luther drew nigh to Wittemberg. He wrote to his prince,
but not to excuse himself. An imperturbable confidence filled his
heart. He saw the hand of God in this cause, and that was sufficient
for him. The heroism of faith can never be carried farther. One of the
editions of Luther's works has the following remark in the margin of
this letter: "This is a wonderful writing of the third and last
Elias!"[133]
[133] Der wahre, dritte und lezte Elias......L. Opp. (L.) xviii. 271.
Luther re-entered Wittemberg on Friday the 7th March, having been five
days on the way from Eisenach. Doctors, students, and citizens, all
broke forth in rejoicings; for they had recovered the pilot who alone
could extricate the vessel from the reefs among which it was
entangled.
The elector, who was at Lockau with his court, felt great emotion as
he read the reformer's letter. He was desirous of vindicating him
before the diet: "Let him address me a letter," wrote the prince to
Schurff, "explaining the motives of his return to Wittemberg, and let
him say also that he returned without my permission." Luther
consented.
"I am ready to incur the displeasure of your highness and the anger of
the whole world," wrote he to the prince. "Are not the Wittembergers
my sheep? Has God not intrusted them to me? And ought I not, if
necessary, to expose myself to death for their sakes? Besides, I fear
to see a terrible outbreak in Germany by which God will punish our
nation. Let your highness be well assured and doubt not that the
decrees of heaven are very different from those of Nuremberg."[134]
This letter was written on the very day of Luther's arrival at
Wittemberg.
[134] L. Epp. ii. 143. Luther was forced to alter this expression at
the elector's request.
[Sidenote: LUTHER'S TASK--INTREPIDITY.]
The following day, being the eve of the first Sunday in Lent, Luther
visited Jerome Schurff. Melancthon, Jonas, Amsdorff, and Augustin
Schurff, Jerome's brother, were there assembled. Luther eagerly
questioned them, and they were informing him of all that had taken
place, when two foreign students were announced, desiring to speak
with Dr. Jerome. On entering this assembly of doctors, the two young
men of St. Gall were at first abashed; but they soon recovered
themselves on discovering the knight of the Black Bear among them. The
latter immediately went up to them, greeted them as old acquaintances,
and smiled as he pointed to one of the doctors: "This is Philip
Melancthon, whom I mentioned to you." The two Swiss remained all day
with the doctors of Wittemberg, in remembrance of the meeting at Jena.
One great thought absorbed the reformer's mind, and checked the joy he
felt at meeting his friends once more. Unquestionably the character in
which he was now to appear was obscure; he was about to raise his
voice in a small town of Saxony, and yet his undertaking had all the
importance of an event which was to influence the destinies of the
world. Many nations and many ages were to feel its effects. It was a
question whether that doctrine which he had derived from the Word of
God, and which was ordained to exert so mighty an influence on the
future development of the human race, would be stronger than the
destructive principles that threatened its existence. It was a
question whether it were possible to reform without destroying, and
clear the way to new developments without annihilating the old. To
silence fanatical men inspired by the energy of a first enthusiasm; to
master an unbridled multitude, to calm it down, to lead it back to
order, peace, and truth; to break the course of the impetuous torrent
which threatened to overthrow the rising edifice of the Reformation,
and to scatter its ruins far and wide:--such was the task for which
Luther had returned to Wittemberg. But would his influence be
sufficient for this? The event alone can show.
The reformer's heart shuddered at the thought of the struggle that
awaited him. He raised his head as a lion provoked to fight shakes his
long mane. "We must now trample Satan under foot, and contend against
the angel of darkness," said he. "If our adversaries do not retire of
their own accord, Christ will know how to compel them. We who trust in
the Lord of life and of death are ourselves lords of life and of
death."[135]
[135] Domini enim sumus vitæ et mortis. L. Epp. ii. 150.
[Sidenote: SERMON AT WITTEMBERG.]
But at the same time the impetuous reformer, as if restrained by a
superior power, refused to employ the anathemas and thunders of the
Word, and became an humble pastor, a gentle shepherd of souls. "It is
with the Word that we must fight," said he; "by the Word must we
overthrow and destroy what has been set up by violence. I will not
make use of force against the superstitious and unbelieving. Let him
who believeth draw nigh! let him who believeth not keep afar off! no
one must be constrained. Liberty is the very essence of faith."[136]
[136] Non enim ad fidem et ad ea quæ fidei sunt, ullus cogendus
est......L. Epp. ii. 151.
The next day was Sunday. On that day the doctor, whom for nearly a
year the lofty ramparts of the Wartburg have concealed from every eye,
will reappear before the people in the pulpit of the church. It was
rumoured in Wittemberg that Luther was come back, that he was going to
preach. This news alone, passing from mouth to mouth, had already
given a powerful diversion to the ideas by which the people were
misled. They are going to see the hero of Worms. The people crowded
together, and were affected by various emotions. On Sunday morning the
church was filled with an attentive and excited crowd.
Luther divines all the sentiments of his congregation; he goes up into
the pulpit; there he stands in the presence of the flock that he had
once led as a docile sheep, but which had broken from him like an
untamed bull. His language was simple, noble, yet full of strength and
gentleness: one might have supposed him to be a tender father
returning to his children, inquiring into their conduct, and kindly
telling them what report he had heard about them. He candidly
acknowledged the progress they had made in faith; and by this means
prepared and captivated their minds. He then continued in these
words:--
"But we need something more than faith; we need charity. If a man who
bears a sword in his hand be alone, it is of little consequence
whether it be sheathed or not; but if he is in the midst of a crowd,
he should act so as to wound nobody.
[Sidenote: CHARITY--THE WORD.]
"What does a mother do to her infant? At first she gives it milk,
then some very light food. If she were to begin by giving it meat and
wine, what would be the consequence?......
"So should we act towards our brethren. My friend, have you been long
enough at the breast? It is well! but permit your brother to drink as
long as yourself.
"Observe the sun! He dispenses two things, light and heat. There is no
king so powerful as to bend aside his rays; they come straight to us;
but heat is radiated and communicated in every direction. Thus faith,
like light, should always be straight and inflexible; but charity,
like heat, should radiate on every side, and bend to all the wants of
our brethren."
Luther having thus prepared his hearers, began to press them more
closely:
"The abolition of the mass, say you, is in conformity with Scripture:
Agreed! But what order, what decency have you observed? It behoved you
to offer up fervent prayers to the Lord, and apply to the public
authority; then might every man have acknowledged that the thing was
of God."
Thus spake Luther. This dauntless man, who at Worms had withstood the
princes of the earth, produced a deep impression on the minds of his
hearers by these words of wisdom and of peace. Carlstadt and the
prophets of Zwickau, so great and powerful for a few weeks, and who
had tyrannized over and agitated Wittemberg, had shrunk into pigmies
beside the captive of the Wartburg.
"The mass," continued he, "is a bad thing; God is opposed to it; it
ought to be abolished; and I would that throughout the whole world it
were replaced by the Supper of the Gospel. But let no one be torn from
it by force. We must leave the matter in God's hands. His Word must
act, and not we. And why so, you will ask? Because I do not hold men's
hearts in my hand, as the potter holds the clay. We have a right to
speak; we have not the right to act. Let us preach: the rest belongs
unto God. Were I to employ force, what should I gain? Grimace,
formality, apeings, human ordinances, and hypocrisy......But there
would be no sincerity of heart, nor faith, nor charity. Where these
three are wanting, all is wanting, and I would not give a pear-stalk
for such a result.[137]
[137] Ich wollte nicht einen Birnstiel drauf geben. L. Opp. (L.)
xviii. 225.
[Sidenote: HOW THE REFORMATION WAS EFFECTED.]
"Our first object must be to win men's hearts; and for that purpose we
must preach the Gospel. To-day the Word will fall in one heart,
to-morrow in another, and it will operate in such a manner that each
one will withdraw from the mass and abandon it. God does more by his
Word alone than you and I and all the world by our united strength.
God lays hold upon the heart; and when the heart is taken, all is won.
"I do not say this for the restoration of the mass. Since it is down,
in God's name there let it lie! But should you have gone to work as
you did? Paul, arriving one day in the powerful city of Athens, found
there altars raised to false gods. He went from one to the other, and
observed them without touching one. But he walked peaceably to the
middle of the market-place, and declared to the people that all their
gods were idols. His language took possession of their hearts, and the
idols fell without Paul's having touched them.
"I will preach, discuss, and write; but I will constrain none, for
faith is a voluntary act. See what I have done! I stood up against the
pope, indulgences, and papists, but without violence or tumult. I put
forward God's Word; I preached and wrote--this was all I did. And yet
while I was asleep, or seated familiarly at table with Amsdorff and
Melancthon, drinking and gossiping over our Wittemberg beer, the Word
that I had preached overthrew popery, so that neither prince nor
emperor has done it so much harm. And yet I did nothing: the Word
alone did all. If I had wished to appeal to force, the whole of
Germany would perhaps have been deluged with blood. But what would
have been the result? Ruin and desolation both to body and soul. I
therefore kept quiet, and left the Word to run through the world
alone. Do you know what the devil thinks when he sees men resort to
violence to propagate the Gospel through the world? Seated with folded
arms behind the fire of hell, Satan says, with malignant looks and
frightful grin: 'Ah! how wise these madmen are to play my game!' But
when he sees the Word running and contending alone on the field of
battle, then he is troubled, and his knees knock together; he shudders
and faints with fear."
[Sidenote: SATAN--THE LORD'S SUPPER.]
Luther went into the pulpit again on Tuesday; and his powerful voice
resounded once more through the agitated crowd. He preached again on
the five succeeding days. He took a review of the destruction of
images, distinction of meats, the institution of the Lord's Supper,
the restoration of the cup, the abolition of confession. He showed
that these points were of far less importance than the mass, and that
the originators of the disorders that had taken place in Wittemberg
had grossly abused their liberty. He employed by turns the language of
christian charity and bursts of holy indignation.
He inveighed more especially against those who partook thoughtlessly
of Christ's Supper. "It is not the outward manducation that maketh a
Christian," said he, "but the inward and spiritual eating that worketh
by faith, and without which all forms are mere show and grimace. Now
this faith consists in a firm belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God; that having taken our sins and iniquities upon himself, and
having borne them on the cross, he is himself their sole and almighty
atonement; that he stands continually before God, that he reconcileth
us with the Father, and that he hath given us the sacrament of his
body to strengthen our faith in this unspeakable mercy. If I believe
in these things, God is my defender; with him, I brave sin, death,
hell, and devils; they can do me no harm, nor disturb a single hair of
my head. This spiritual bread is the consolation of the afflicted,
health to the sick, life to the dying, food to the hungry, riches to
the poor. He who does not groan under his sins must not approach that
altar: what can he do there? Ah! let our conscience accuse us, let our
hearts be rent in twain at the thought of our sins, and then we shall
not so presumptuously approach the holy sacrament."
[Sidenote: DISCRETION AND COURAGE.]
The crowd ceased not to fill the temple; people flocked from the
neighbouring towns to hear the new Elijah. Among others, Capito spent
two days at Wittemberg, and heard two of the doctor's sermons. Never
had Luther and Cardinal Albert's chaplain been so well agreed.
Melancthon, the magistrates, the professors, and all the inhabitants,
were delighted.[138] Schurff, charmed at the result of so gloomy an
affair, hastened to communicate it to the elector. On Friday the 15th
March, the day on which Luther delivered his sixth sermon, he wrote:
"Oh, what joy has Dr. Martin's return diffused among us! His words,
through Divine mercy, every day are bringing back our poor misguided
people into the way of truth. It is clear as the sun that the Spirit
of God is in him, and that by His special providence he returned to
Wittemberg."[139]
[138] Grosse Freude und Frohlocken unter Gelahrten und Ungelahrten. L.
Opp. xviii. 266.
[139] Aus sonderlicher Schickung des Allmächtigen......Ibid.
In truth, these sermons are models of popular eloquence, but not of
that which in the times of Demosthenes, or even of Savonarola, fired
men's hearts. The task of the Wittemberg orator was more difficult. It
is easier to rouse the fury of a wild beast than to allay it. Luther
had to soothe a fanaticized multitude, to tame its unbridled passions;
and in this he succeeded. In his eight discourses, the reformer did
not allow one offensive word to escape him against the originators of
these disorders,--not one unpleasant allusion. But the greater his
moderation, the greater also was his strength; the more caution he
used towards these deluded men, the more powerful was his vindication
of offended truth. How could the people of Wittemberg resist his
powerful eloquence? Men usually ascribe to timidity, fear, and
compromise, those speeches that advocate moderation. Here there was
nothing of the sort. Luther appeared before the inhabitants of
Wittemberg, braving the excommunication of the pope and the
proscription of the emperor. He had returned in despite of the
prohibition of the elector, who had declared his inability to defend
him. Even at Worms, Luther had not shown so much courage. He
confronted the most imminent dangers; and accordingly his words were
not disregarded: the man who braved the scaffold had a right to exhort
to submission. That man may boldly speak of obedience to God, who, to
do so, defies all the persecution of man. At Luther's voice all
objections vanished, the tumult subsided, seditious cries were heard
no longer, and the citizens of Wittemberg returned quietly to their
dwellings.
[Sidenote: DIDYMUS--CARLSTADT--THE PROPHETS.]
Gabriel Didymus, who had shown himself the most enthusiastic of all
the Augustine friars, did not lose one of the reformer's words. "Do
you not think Luther a wonderful teacher?" asked a hearer in great
emotion. "Ah!" replied he, "I seem to listen to the voice, not of a
man, but of an angel."[140] Erelong Didymus openly acknowledged that
he had been deceived. "He is quite another man," said Luther.[141]
[140] Imo, inquit, angeli, non hominis vocem mihi audisse videor.
Camer. p. 12.
[141] In alium virum mutatus est. L. Epp. ii. 156.
It was not so at first with Carlstadt. Despising learning, pretending
to frequent the workshops of the Wittemberg mechanics to receive
understanding of the Holy Scriptures, he was mortified at seeing his
work crumble away at Luther's appearance.[142] In his eyes this was
checking the reform itself. Hence his air was always dejected, gloomy,
and dissatisfied. Yet he sacrificed his self-love for the sake of
peace; he restrained his desires of vengeance, and became reconciled,
outwardly at least, with his colleague, and shortly after resumed his
lectures in the university.[143]
[142] Ego Carlstadium offendi, quod ordinationes suas cessavi. Ibid.
177.
[143] Philippi et Carlstadii lectiones, ut sunt optimæ. Ibid. 284.
[Sidenote: CONFERENCE BETWEEN LUTHER AND THE PROPHETS.]
The chief prophets were not at Wittemberg when Luther returned.
Nicholas Storch was wandering through the country; Mark Stubner had
quitted Melancthon's hospitable roof. Perhaps their prophetic spirit
had disappeared, and they had had _neither voice nor answer_,[144] so
soon as they learnt that the new Elijah was directing his steps
towards this new Carmel. The old schoolmaster Cellarius alone had
remained. Stubner, however, being informed that the sheep of his fold
were scattered, hastily returned. Those who were still faithful to
"the heavenly prophecy" gathered round their master, reported
Luther's speeches to him, and asked him anxiously what they were to
think and do.[145] Stubner exhorted them to remain firm in their
faith. "Let him appear," cried Cellarius, "let him grant us a
conference,--let him only permit us to set forth our doctrine, and
then we shall see......"
[144] 1 Kings xviii. 29.
[145] Rursum ad ipsum confluere......Camer. p. 52.
[Sidenote: END OF THE CONTEST--IMPORTANCE AND RESULTS.]
Luther cared little to meet such men as these; he knew them to be of
violent, impatient, and haughty disposition, who could not endure even
kind admonition, and who required that every one should submit at the
first word, as to a supreme authority.[146] Such are enthusiasts in
every age. And yet, as they desired an interview, the doctor could not
refuse it. Besides, it might be of use to the weak ones of the flock
were he to unmask the imposture of the prophets. The conference took
place. Stubner opened the proceedings, explaining in what manner he
desired to regenerate the Church and transform the world. Luther
listened to him with great calmness.[147] "Nothing that you have
advanced," replied he at last gravely, "is based upon Holy
Scripture.--It is all a mere fable." At these words Cellarius could
contain himself no longer; he raised his voice, gesticulated like a
madman, stamped, and struck the table with his fist,[148] and
exclaimed, in a passion, that it was an insult to speak thus to a man
of God. Upon this Luther observed: "St. Paul declares that the proofs
of his apostleship were made known by miracles; prove yours in like
manner."--"We will do so," answered the prophets.[149] "The God whom I
worship," said Luther, "will know how to bridle your gods." Stubner,
who had preserved his tranquillity, then fixed his eyes on the
reformer, and said to him with an air of inspiration, "Martin Luther!
I will declare what is now passing in thy soul......Thou art beginning
to believe that my doctrine is true." Luther, after a brief pause,
exclaimed: "God chastise thee, Satan!" At these words all the
prophets were as if distracted. "The Spirit, the Spirit!" cried they.
Luther, adopting that cool tone of contempt and cutting and homely
language so familiar to him, said, "I slap your _spirit_ on the
snout."[150] Their clamours now increased; Cellarius, in particular,
distinguished himself by his violence. He foamed and trembled with
anger.[151] They could not hear one another in the room where they met
in conference. At length the three prophets abandoned the field and
left Wittemberg the same day.
[146] Vehementer superbus et impatiens......credi vult plena
auctoritate, ad primam vocem......L. Epp. ii. 179.
[147] Audivit Lutherus placide. Camer. p. 52.
[148] Cum et solum pedibus et propositam mensulam manibus feriret.
Ibid.
[149] Quid pollicentes de mirabilibus affectionibus. Ibid. p. 53.
[150] Ihren Geist haue er über die Schnauze. L. Opp. Altenburg. Ausg.
iii. 137.
[151] Spumabat et fremebat et furebat. L. Epp. ii. 179.
Thus had Luther accomplished the work for which he had left his
retreat. He had made a stand against fanaticism, and expelled from the
bosom of the renovated Church the enthusiasm and disorder by which it
had been invaded. If with one hand the Reformation threw down the
dusty decretals of Rome, with the other it rejected the assumptions of
the mystics, and established, on the ground it had won, the living and
unchangeable Word of God. The character of the Reformation was thus
firmly settled. It was destined to walk for ever between these two
extremes, equally remote from the convulsions of the fanatics and the
death-like torpor of the papacy.
A whole population excited, deluded, and unrestrained, had at once
become tranquil, calm, and submissive; and the most perfect quiet
again reigned in that city which a few days before had been like the
troubled sea.
Perfect liberty was immediately established at Wittemberg. Luther
still continued to reside in the convent and wear his monastic dress;
but every one was free to do otherwise. In communicating at the Lord's
table, a general absolution was sufficient, or a particular one might
be obtained. It was laid down as a principle to reject nothing but
what was opposed to a clear and formal declaration of Holy
Scripture.[152] This was not indifference; on the contrary, religion
was thus restored to what constitutes its very essence; the sentiment
of religion withdrew from the accessory forms in which it had well
nigh perished, and transferred itself to its true basis. Thus the
Reformation was saved, and its teaching enabled to continue its
development in the bosom of the Church in charity and truth.
[152] Gans klare und gründliche Schrift.
CHAPTER IX.
Translation of the New Testament--Faith and
Scripture--Opposition--Importance of this
Publication--Necessity for a systematic
Arrangement--Melancthon's Loci Communes--Original
Sin--Salvation--Free Will--Effects of the Loci Communes.
[Sidenote: TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.]
Tranquillity was hardly established when the reformer turned to his
dear Melancthon, and demanded his assistance in the final revision of
the New Testament which he had brought with him from the
Wartburg.[153] As early as the year 1519 Melancthon had laid down the
grand principle, that the Fathers must be explained according to
Scripture, and not Scripture according to the Fathers.[154] Meditating
more profoundly every day on the books of the New Testament, he felt
at once charmed by their simplicity and impressed by their depth.
"There alone can we find the true food of the soul," boldly asserted
this man so familiar with all the philosophy of the ancients.
Accordingly he readily complied with Luther's invitation; and from
that time the two friends passed many long hours together studying and
translating the inspired Word. Often would they pause in their
laborious researches to give way to their admiration. Luther said one
day, "Reason thinks, Oh! if I could once hear God speak! I would run
from one end of the world to the other to hear him......Listen then,
my brother man! God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, speaks
to thee."
[153] Verum omnia nunc elimare cœpimus, Philippus et ego. L. Epp.
ii. 176.
[154] See Vol. II. p. 71.
[Sidenote: EFFECTS OF THE TRANSLATION--EDITIONS.]
The printing of the New Testament was carried on with unexampled
zeal.[155] One would have said that the very workmen felt the
importance of the task in which they were engaged. Three presses were
employed in this labour, and ten thousand sheets, says Luther, were
printed daily.[156]
[155] Ingenti labore et studio. L. Epp. ii. 236.
[156] Ante Michaelis non absolvetur, quanquam singulis diebus decies
millia chartarum sub tribus prelis excudant......Ibid.
At length, on the 21st of September 1522, appeared the complete
edition of three thousand copies, in two folio volumes, with this
simple title: THE NEW TESTAMENT--GERMAN--WITTEMBERG. It bore no name
of man. Every German might henceforward procure the Word of God at a
moderate price.[157]
[157] A florin and a half, about half a crown.
The new translation, written in the very tone of the holy writings, in
a language yet in its youthful vigour, and which for the first time
displayed its great beauties, interested, charmed, and moved the
lowest as well as the highest ranks. It was a national work; the book
of the people; nay more--it was in very truth the Book of God. Even
opponents could not refuse their approbation to this wonderful work,
and some indiscreet friends of the reformer, impressed by the beauty
of the translation, imagined they could recognise in it a second
inspiration. This version served more than all Luther's writings to
the spread of Christian piety. The work of the sixteenth century was
thus placed on a foundation where nothing could shake it. The Bible,
given to the people, recalled the mind of man, which had been
wandering for ages in the tortuous labyrinth of scholasticism, to the
Divine fountain of salvation. Accordingly the success of this work was
prodigious. In a short time every copy was sold. A second edition
appeared in the month of December; and in 1533 seventeen editions had
been printed at Wittemberg, thirteen at Augsburg, twelve at Basle, one
at Erfurth, one at Grimma, one at Leipsic, and thirteen at
Strasburg.[158] Such were the powerful levers that uplifted and
transformed the Church and the world.
[158] Gesch. d. deutsch. Bibel Uebersetz.
[Sidenote: SCRIPTURE AND FAITH.]
While the first edition of the New Testament was going through the
press, Luther undertook a translation of the Old. This labour, begun
in 1522, was continued without interruption. He published this
translation in parts as they were finished, the more speedily to
gratify public impatience, and to enable the poor to procure the book.
From Scripture and faith, two sources which in reality are but one,
the life of the Gospel has flowed, and is still spreading over the
world. These two principles combated two fundamental errors. Faith was
opposed to the Pelagian tendency of Roman-catholicism; Scripture, to
the theory of tradition and the authority of Rome. Scripture led man
to faith, and faith led him back to Scripture. "Man can do no
meritorious work; the free grace of God, which he receives by faith in
Christ, alone saves him." Such was the doctrine proclaimed in
Christendom. But this doctrine could not fail to impel Christendom to
the study of Scripture. In truth, if faith in Christ is everything in
Christianity, if the practices and ordinances of the Church are
nothing, it is not to the teaching of the Church that we should
adhere, but to the teaching of Christ. The bond that unites to Christ
will become everything to the believer. What matters to him the
outward link that connects him with an outward church enslaved by the
opinions of men?......Thus, as the doctrine of the Bible had impelled
Luther's contemporaries towards Jesus Christ, so in turn the love they
felt to Jesus Christ impelled them to the Bible. It was not, as has
been supposed in our days, from a philosophical principle, or in
consequence of doubt, or from the necessity of inquiry, that they
returned to Scripture; it was because they there found the Word of Him
they loved. "You have preached Christ to us," said they to the
reformer, "let us now hear him himself." And they seized the pages
that were spread before them, as a letter coming from heaven.
[Sidenote: OPPOSITION--THE NEW TESTAMENT BURNT.]
But if the Bible was thus gladly received by those who loved Christ,
it was scornfully rejected by those who preferred the traditions and
observances of men. A violent persecution was waged against this work
of the reformer's. At the news of Luther's publication, Rome trembled.
The pen which had transcribed the sacred oracles was really that
which Frederick had seen in his dream, and which, reaching to the
Seven Hills, had shaken the tiara of the papacy.[159] The monk in his
cell, the prince on his throne, uttered a cry of anger. Ignorant
priests shuddered at the thought that every citizen, nay every
peasant, would now be able to dispute with them on the precepts of our
Lord. The King of England denounced the work to the Elector Frederick
and to Duke George of Saxony. But as early as the month of November
the duke had ordered his subjects to deposit every copy of Luther's
New Testament in the hands of the magistrates. Bavaria, Brandenburg,
Austria, and all the states devoted to Rome, published similar
decrees. In some places they made sacrilegious bonfires of these
sacred books in the public places.[160] Thus did Rome in the sixteenth
century renew the efforts by which paganism had attempted to destroy
the religion of Jesus Christ, at the moment when the dominion was
escaping from the priests and their idols. But who can check the
triumphant progress of the Gospel? "Even after my prohibition," wrote
Duke George, "many thousand copies were sold and read in my states."
[159] Vol. I. p. 265.
[160] Qui et alicubi in unum congesti rogum publice combusti sunt.
God even made use of those hands to circulate his Word that were
endeavouring to destroy it. The Romanist theologians, seeing that they
could not prohibit the reformer's work, published a translation of the
New Testament. It was Luther's version, altered here and there by the
publishers. There was no hindrance to its being read. Rome as yet knew
not that wherever the Word of God is established, there her power is
shaken. Joachim of Brandenburg permitted all his subjects to read any
translation of the Bible, in Latin or in German, provided it did not
come from Wittemberg. The people of Germany, and those of Brandenburg
in particular, thus made great progress in the knowledge of the truth.
[Sidenote: IMPORTANCE OF THIS PUBLICATION.]
The publication of the New Testament in the vulgar tongue is an
important epoch in the Reformation. If Feldkirchen's marriage was the
first step in the progress of the Reformation from doctrine into
social life; if the abolition of monastic vows was the second; if the
re-establishment of the Lord's Supper was the third,--the publication
of the New Testament was perhaps the most important of all. It worked
an entire change in society: not only in the presbytery of the priest,
in the monk's cell, and in the sanctuary of our Lord; but also in the
mansions of the great, in the houses of the citizens, and cottages of
the peasants. When the Bible began to be read in the families of
Christendom, Christendom itself was changed. Then arose other habits,
other manners, other conversations, and another life. With the
publication of the New Testament, the Reformation left the School and
the Church to take possession of the hearths of the people.
The effect produced was immense. The Christianity of the primitive
Church, drawn by the publication of the Holy Scriptures from the
oblivion of centuries in which it had lain, was thus presented before
the eyes of the nation; and this view was sufficient to justify the
attacks that had been made against Rome. The simplest men, provided
they knew how to read, women, mechanics (our informant is a
contemporary and violent opponent of the Reformation) eagerly studied
the New Testament.[161] They carried it about with them; soon they
knew it by heart, and the pages of this book loudly proclaimed the
perfect unison of Luther's Reformation with the Divine revelation.
[161] Ut sutores, mulieres, et quilibet idiotæ......avidissime
legerent. Cochlœus, p. 50.
And yet it was only by fragments that the doctrine of the Bible and of
the Reformation had been set forth hitherto. A certain truth had been
put forward in one writing; a certain error attacked in another. On
one vast plain lay scattered and confused the ruins of the old edifice
and the materials of the new: but the new edifice was wanting. The
publication of the New Testament undoubtedly satisfied this want. The
Reformation could say, as it gave this book: Here is my system! But as
every man is at liberty to assert that his system is that of the
Bible, the Reformation was called
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