& 
 
 A-o. 
 
 X 
 
 y<* 
 
 •c 
 
 ii%ff §CHOOW^ 
 
7 - ill^lto.tfyL 
 
  
 
 \ A 
 
 * * 
 
* • 
 
 
 
>%f 
 
 I 
 
 v^f I 
 
 Eng a ,J^-,\V"m): Smith 
 
 1AMHH 1LUJTIEI2E1B, 
 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 MARTIN LUTHER 
 
 TO WHICH IS PREFIXED 
 
 AN EXPOSITORY ESSAY ON THE LUTHERAN 
 REFORMATION. 
 
 BY REY. GEORGE CUBITT.^ 
 
 WITH 
 
 EORGE CUBITT. 
 
 AN APPENDIX,* • ^ I 
 
 CONTAINING A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS 
 OCCURRING DURING THE PERIOD OF LUTHER'S LIFE. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 
 
 200 MULBERRY-STREET. 
 
 1853. 
 
G$ 
 
 <T 
 
 #?.* 
 
EXPOSITORY ESSAY 
 
 LUTHERAN REFORMATION 
 
 There are three different methods in which the exa- 
 mination of an event like the Reformation — if it should 
 not be rather called a series of progressing and devel- 
 oped events — may be conducted. By the first, its 
 principles might be investigated and tested. Such an 
 examination would suppose the proper character of the 
 facts to be as yet unascertained ; and would have for 
 its object the resolution of the events into their ori- 
 ginating and component principles, and the comparison 
 of these with some previously-acknowledged standard, 
 that so a definite sentence might be pronounced upon 
 the whole series. This would be the method of ori- 
 ginal INVESTIGATION. 
 
 By the second, the series might be examined for the 
 avowed purpose of praise or censure. The examiner 
 would in this case acknowledge himself to be an advo- 
 cate ; and assuming certain principles and rules as the 
 foundation of his sentences, he would proceed to show 
 that, according to these, the events considered were 
 correct or erroneous, right or wrong. This would be 
 the method of advocacy ; and provided that, at the 
 very outset, the standard of judgment is fairly delivered, 
 it is a method which the examiner has not only a right 
 
 816504. 
 
4 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 to employ, but which he may often employ with ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 But there is a third method, somewhat different from 
 either of the others. It may, for the sake of distinc- 
 tion, be termed the method of exposition. In this 
 case, the examiner may be supposed previously to 
 have so considered the subject as to have made up his 
 mind upon it. The facts have all been examined, and 
 are associated with settled judgments of approval or 
 blame. An Essay constructed on this principle will 
 aim chiefly at information. The writer will not con- 
 ceal from his readers that he has a decided opinion on 
 the subject which he is about to bring before them, and 
 may very properly assume that, on all the leading prin- 
 ciples of the case, their opinions coincide with his own. 
 What he seeks to do is to make that coincidence more 
 complete by a careful explanation. He will endeavour, 
 therefore, to give such a statement of the leading facts 
 of the case as shall make the' development of their 
 principles an easier task, and enable the reader to dis- 
 tinguish between what are only accidental adjuncts, and 
 what are rationally and properly effects and results. 
 
 To this last-mentioned class the present Essay is in- 
 tended to belong. It is not intended to be polemic. The 
 writer is a Protestant, and he writes for Protestants. 
 Facts, of course, are facts, and are to be considered as 
 such ; but their character supposes some acknowledged 
 standard ; and, in the present case, that standard is, 
 the written word of God. Assuming that Luther was 
 essentially right, the object of the folloAving remarks 
 is rather statement and development, than defence 
 Where, indeed, it appears to be necessary, renewed 
 investigation will be instituted ; sincere and earnest 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 5 
 
 advocacy will be employed ; but the chief object will 
 be to furnish such an exposition of the facts, principles, 
 and results furnished, or suggested, by the history of 
 Dr. Martin Luther, the great German reformer, as 
 shall assist the general reader in forming a decided 
 op'nion of the Reformation itself. 
 
 Some preliminary observations, showing the neces- 
 sity of ecclesiastical reform in the time of Luther, as 
 well as the principles on which alone it could safely 
 be conducted, will be called for in the very first in- 
 stance. The Wittenberg professor effected great and 
 lasting changes ; and the all-important question on the 
 subject is, Were those changes only heretical innova- 
 tions ; or were they movements in return to a primitive, 
 a lost, but necessary purity ? 
 
 And such an inquiry is the more important, for that 
 it has been recently shown, both more clearly and more 
 impressively than ever, that the discontents which in 
 the mind of Luther ripened into opposition, and pro- 
 duced eventual separation, were not confined to him. 
 Ranke has shown that there were in Italy ecclesiastics, 
 and ecclesiastics high in office, whose opinions on 
 doctrinal subjects very nearly coincided with those of 
 Luther ; and who therefore could not but believe that 
 the visible church had become unfaithful to her high 
 trust, and was no longer the pillar and ground of the 
 truth. And with these men, religious doctrine was not 
 mere intellectual opinion, much less the adoption of 
 certain verbal propositions which they were, from their 
 official situation, bound to support. In reality, those 
 opinions which approached most nearly to the belief of 
 Luther and his associates will be found to refer not so 
 much to the great facts of religion, (as compendiously 
 
6 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 stated, for instance, in the Apostles' Creed,) as to the 
 real nature of religion itself, and to the rule and extent 
 of the obedience which is, by divine appointment, 
 made necessary to salvation. 
 
 But while such men as Cardinal Pole seem to have 
 thought that the primary opinions of Luther were not 
 so erroneous as polemics like Eccius described them, 
 they likewise seem to have thought that the principles 
 on which the visible union of the church in their day 
 depended had an importance which placed them far 
 above all other subjects of controversy, and required 
 that they should be supported even at the risk of dark- 
 ening what they acknowledged to be light from heaven. 
 Luther, on the other hand, regarded what he believed 
 to be the truth as being superior to every other con- 
 sideration. When the alternative was presented, that 
 he should either suppress what he was persuaded was 
 true, or renounce his connection with Rome, his deci- 
 sion was soon declared. His language was, in effect, 
 " Whatever else is retained or renounced, the truth of 
 God must be both held and preached." 
 
 It may be useful to notice the issue of the resolution 
 of those divines to whom allusion has just been made. 
 They regarded the church as a corporate body, con- 
 stituted by the visible succession of a certain class of 
 ecclesiastical officers ; and that — for this the history 
 of this visible succession most absolutely requires — 
 without any reference to the personal character and 
 religious opinions of the officers themselves, or even 
 to the mode of their election. The episcopal succes- 
 sion, as the line was marked by the succession of the 
 bishops of Rome, was believed to constitute the very prin- 
 ciple on which the church itself was supposed to rest. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 7 
 
 And although the divines in question might not have 
 said that visible union with this church was all that was 
 necessary to salvation, yet undoubtedly they made this 
 union so far necessary as to make it the foundation on 
 which alone the superstructure could be reared. They 
 did not say that all should be saved who were in the 
 church, but they did say that out of the church there 
 could be no salvation. Union with the church, there- 
 fore, considered as an external society, formed (not by 
 lineal, as the Levitical priesthood, but) by official suc- 
 cession, they regarded as the first and most necessary 
 requisite for securing eternal salvation. And their 
 conduct was consistent with their opinions. They 
 thought with Luther on the nature and condition of 
 justification ; but, by a strange confusion of mind, in- 
 stead of carrying out the opinion to its proper conse- 
 quences, they looked at another, and a very different 
 one ; and by the rules suggested by this, they chose to 
 govern themselves. 
 
 The consequence might have been foreseen. The 
 practical opinion became, ere long, not only the pre- 
 vailing, but the exclusive one. At the Council of Trent 
 these ecclesiastics endeavoured to make their voice 
 heard, and to procure for the truth which they believed 
 the solemn recognition of the church. But they had 
 not the slightest measure of success. The Papists 
 saw, intuitively, that with the doctrine of justification 
 )y faith, those which related to the church were utterly 
 'nconsistent ; and as these latter were held even by 
 ^he more evangelical members of the council, they 
 rere taken as proclaimed by the general voice ; and 
 len, this being assumed as truth, the other was de- 
 » lared to be error ; and thus, whatever had remained 
 
8 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 in the Roman Church of evangelical doctrine, as to the 
 justification of the sinner before God, was totally and 
 finally excluded. What Pole and his associates 
 believed to be truth, was declared to be error, and 
 anathematized as such. And if those views of eccle- 
 siastical order in which all the adherents of the Papacy 
 agreed were correct, the council was right. With 
 those views, the doctrine of justification by faith is 
 altogether incompatible ; the majority of the members 
 of the council, therefore, seeing this, and assuming the 
 validity of their own principles, decided against it. 
 They were clear-sighted enough to perceive that the 
 Lutheran opinion of justification belonged to a system 
 of religion very different from that which themselves 
 had embraced, and that in putting down, ostensibly, a 
 single doctrine, they were putting down a regular col- 
 lection of principles and results. From that time, 
 supposing the position occupied and defended by Lu- 
 ther to be correct, the Church of Rome has been not 
 only unevangelical, but anti-evangelical. The truth 
 which in Luther's judgment constituted the gospel is 
 not only not tolerated, but condemned. The holders of 
 justification by faith are anathematized ; so that they 
 who consistenly follow out the teachings of the Papacy, 
 as directed by the Council of Trent, adopt a rule utterly 
 at variance with that laid down in what is believed to 
 be the first written apostolical Epistle ; and concerning 
 which, the Spirit, by whom the author wrote, explicitly 
 declares that its observance constitutes the living church 
 of the Lord Christ, — " And as many as walk according 
 to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon 
 the Israel of God." 
 
 To this, therefore, did the efforts come of those who, 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 9 
 
 while they valued apostolical truth, made it subsenient 
 to ecclesiastical order and visible unity. What they 
 believed to be true, the church declared to be false ; 
 and it was only by an indulgent connivance, which a 
 zealous promulgation of their opinions would have for- 
 feited, that they were not personally excommunicated. 
 
 Exactly opposite to this were the convictions of 
 Luther, and the conduct to which they led. It was a 
 governing principle with him that the truth of God 
 must be not only maintained, but declared. Others 
 regarded it as subordinate ; he as supreme. His first 
 obedience was due to it. Wherever it led, there was 
 he to follow. Whatsoever disruptions it occasioned, 
 to whatsoever perils it exposed, it was the pillar of the 
 cloud on which his eye was fixed, and by the move- 
 ments of which all his own were regulated. 
 
 And this supremacy of truth was not an arbitrary 
 appointment, a capricious conception of his own, but 
 was deeply founded in the essential nature of the gos- 
 pel. Men are not saved merely as being integral 
 members in that visible ecclesiastical corporation which 
 is called the church. Whatever may be their other 
 duties in relation to it, and by whatever rules they may 
 be governed, union with it is not the immediate and 
 proximate condition of salvation. The church, even 
 in its spiritual character, and purest form, is not to be 
 put in the place of Christ. " God hath given unto us 
 eternal life, and this life is in his Son." This is not 
 merely a truth, but the truth. It is the substance of 
 the gospel. " This is the record." And therefore it 
 is not said, that he that hath the church, hath life ; but 
 " he that hath the Son." Every particular congrega- 
 tion of Christians ought to bear, as on a pillar, the in- 
 1* 
 
10 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 scription which directs men to Christ ; but that pillar is 
 for the inscription, not the inscription for the pillar. And 
 the inscription is not for ornament, but use. It is to 
 tell men where and how they may be saved. The 
 society which does not declare and support the truth, 
 is not its pillar and ground ; and, therefore, not the 
 church. In its best sense, it teaches the way to Christ ; 
 but it is in an unrivalled sense that Christ says, " I am 
 the way ; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." 
 Men come to the Father that they may be saved ; saved 
 with a present salvation : and this salvation is God's 
 act, God's performance. Here, in fact, is the chain. 
 It is God " that justifieth the ungodly." But for this, 
 they must " call upon the name of the Lord." This is 
 coming unto God ; and, to use the words of one of the 
 standards of the Anglican Church, " the first coming 
 unto God is through faith, whereby we be justified be- 
 fore God." Now, that we may thus come to " God in 
 Christ" for remission of sins, we must, to a certain 
 extent, rightly believe concerning God, and his Son, 
 and the prescribed method of human salvation. Doc- 
 trinal belief itself is not so much necessary for its own 
 sake ; it is necessary that men may have the answer 
 to the question, " What must I do to be saved ?" That 
 they may be saved, they are to call on the name of the 
 Lord ; that they may do this, they must properly be- 
 lieve concerning him; and that they may properly 
 believe the truth, the truth in its close connection with 
 their personal salvation must be taught them. 
 
 Here was the difference between Luther and the 
 Romanists : the latter said, in effect, (for to this did 
 their doctrines of the sacraments and absolution prac- 
 tically come,) " God has committed to the church the 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 11 
 
 power of saving you. We minister life to you in one 
 sacrament, and nourishment in another ; and, if we 
 judge well of your penitence, we absolve you from 
 your trespasses. The church now does all these things 
 in the name of Christ ; and as representing Christ, and 
 being, during his absence, in his room and stead ; the 
 church, therefore, is the way, the truth, and the life. 
 The church saves all that dutifully conform themselves 
 to its will." This was Romanism ; and on these prin- 
 ciples the knowledge of religious truth may certainly 
 be taken as of very subordinate consequence. But in 
 opposition to all this, Luther declared that God was 
 Saviour ; and that the office of the church was not to 
 communicate salvation, but to show how men might 
 receive it at the hands of God ; that is, that the great 
 duty of the church was to make known the truth ; to 
 say, with the Baptist, " Behold the Lamb of God, which 
 taketh away the sin of the world." At all hazards, 
 therefore, did he resolve to spread what he believed to 
 be the truth. x\nd why ? Not that he considered him- 
 self to have made discoveries by which his name might 
 be immortalized ; not that he might be regarded as the 
 founder of a new school, and receive the homage of his 
 disciples as its head. This, indeed, was often imputed 
 to him by men who neither understood him nor the 
 subjects which the controversy involved ; but it is im- 
 possible to study the writings and history of Luther, 
 and suppose that he was influenced by this desire of 
 intellectual laudation and dominancy. He knew how 
 to be submissive and yielding, and even tender ; but it 
 was always on the understanding that what he con- 
 sidered as the gospel, the gospel as described in the 
 Epistle to the Galatians, and important for the reasons 
 
12 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 assigned there, — that this gospel was untouched, un- 
 impeded. The language of his preaching, of his 
 writing, of his correspondence and conversation, was 
 all of a piece. By this he explained his conduct ; by 
 this he justified it. In effect, his various declarations 
 amounted to this : " We must teach men to know 
 Christ, that by Christ they may be saved." One key, 
 therefore, to the exposition of Luther's conduct and 
 character is found in his unconquerable resolution to 
 declare the truth according to Christ's gospel ; and 
 this, because of his deep and settled conviction of the 
 importance of that truth in all its references to the 
 salvation of man. 
 
 If the views just now exhibited be at all correct ; if 
 it be so that truth and salvation are thus to be associ- 
 ated in our conceptions ; then will it immediately 
 follow, that so far is ignorance from being the mother, 
 that she is the bane, of devotion ; that a time of reli- 
 gious ignorance and error will be a time of relaxed 
 morals, of spreading corruption, and at length of daring 
 and abandoned impiety. If the carnal mind be enmity 
 against God, (and this is the plain language of Scrip- 
 ture, admitted by both Romanist and Protestant,) and 
 if it can only be subdued by the grace and truth of the 
 gospel ; then, whenever these remedies are sparingly 
 and negligently administered, and even for the n.ost 
 part not administered at all, the disease will increase, 
 till the symptoms, which mark its aggravated character 
 and growing power, become overwhelmingly frightful. 
 And this had long been the state of Christendom when 
 Luther was born. The whole head was sick; the 
 whole heart was faint. From the sole of the foot unto 
 the head there was no soundness in it, but wounds,. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 13 
 
 and bruises, and putrefying sores : they had not been 
 closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oint- 
 ment. The demoralization and corruption of society 
 were at their height. Not only were the means of 
 checking immorality not employed, but that which was 
 originally designed to be the cure of all human dis- 
 orders had become their great promoter. Ignorance 
 and superstition had enslaved the people at large ; ancl 
 in the higher circles of life vice had only become 
 somewhat less brutal, and often more extensive by 
 being more luxuriant. The bulk of the clergy were 
 ignorant and depraved. The established and rigidly- 
 enforced celibacy of the priestly order had produced 
 the results that might have been anticipated. That 
 the law of man might be observed, the law of God was 
 violated ; and these violations met with general con- 
 nivance. The foundations of morality were thus under- 
 mined, and the ligaments which bound society together 
 we're almost severed. Dark indeed was the age that 
 immediately preceded the Reformation. Darkness had 
 covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. 
 
 The popedom itself was regarded with a strange 
 mixture of feeling. While the belief prevailed that 
 the priestly act could communicate spiritual life and 
 nourishment, it was not possible to regard the posses- 
 sors of such power without awe. And when to this 
 was added the supposed right to bind and loose, the 
 awe at once sunk and expanded into terror. The 
 more educated might sometimes despise what they 
 wished to dare ; but unless they held in their hand a 
 sword which even Rome cared not to brave, their con- 
 tempt might not show itself in any overt act. The 
 prince could not set at naught the terrors of the Papal 
 
14 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 interdict, unless his subjects thought and felt with him- 
 self; and, in an age of ignorance and superstition, this 
 was seldom likely to be the case. However, when 
 pressed in argument, the priestly disputant might dis- 
 tinguish between the curse of the law and the censures 
 of the church, the bulk of the people connected together 
 the notions of priestly absolution and divine pardon. 
 
 But while the Papal power was feared, it was like- 
 wise despised. It had not virtue enough to make itself 
 respected, and the circumstances of the Papacy, for 
 several hundred years, had been such as to keep its 
 vices full in public view. For ages the Papal throne 
 had been filled by men whose characters only differed 
 in the forms which their impiety assumed. By many 
 of them even shame had been thrown away. 
 
 And, that all this might work out its own proper re- 
 sults, priestly ambition led to the Papal schism. For 
 a long series of years there were two, sometimes three, 
 popes ; and however holy any one of them might be to 
 those of his own " obedience," yet the rest — the only 
 word that fitly describes the historical fact is — the rest 
 were considered as fair game for invective. 
 
 But it was not invective only. Let the publications 
 elicited by the Council of Constance be read ; the 
 council which, a hundred years before Luther, advised 
 Sigismund to a breach of the public faith, burned John 
 Huss and Jerome of Prague, and deposed three popes. 
 Let all the invective and satire which political enmity 
 might occasion be erased, and only the solemn language 
 of private piety, or of public ecclesiastical censure, be 
 retained as evidence, and enough will remain to show 
 that the hierarchy was pressed down by its monstrous 
 vices, and that the heads of the church were the heads 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 15 
 
 of its wickedness. And the council itself was the 
 worthy representative of the morality of the day. John 
 Huss and Jerome of Prague, men of irreproachable 
 character, but reputed heresiarchs, they burned. John 
 XXIII., a monster seldom equalled even in the Papacy, 
 and scarcely surpassed by Alexander VI., the notorious 
 Borgia, they dismissed to splendour, affluence, and a 
 bishopric ! 
 
 Nor was the succession materially altered in its 
 character for the half century preceding the Reforma- 
 tion. Sixtus IV. (1471) became infamous by taking 
 part in a conspiracy against the house of Medici, and 
 by licensing houses of ill-fame at Rome, for the sake 
 of revenue. Alexander VI., (1492,) as Borgia, has 
 passed into a proverb ; Julius, who preceded Leo, was 
 an iron-handed political warrior ; Leo himself an ele- 
 gant, good-natured, and voluptuous infidel. And such 
 as was the sovereign, such were the courtiers. Chris- 
 tianity appears to have existed at Rome as a cause 
 committed to the professional care of certain advocates, 
 and which they were bound, both in honour and by 
 interest, professionally to maintain. But professional 
 advocacy is consistent with a fearful quantity of actual 
 unbelief. And this was plainly seen both in the Roman 
 court and throughout Italy. A blind superstition and a 
 semi-enlightened infidelity almost divided the country 
 between them. When the splendid and munificent 
 patronage of the Medici at Florence promoted the 
 revival of classical literature, the philosophers and 
 poets thought more of Plato and Cicero, than Paul, or 
 Peter, or John. And whether Leo did or did not actu- 
 ally use the language which the often-repeated anec- 
 dote attributes to him, " How profitable to us is this 
 
16 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 fable of Christ!" yet it is beyond all doubt that the 
 expression would only have been in perfect keeping 
 with all that is known of his principles and character. 
 Of the corruption of the Roman ecclesiastical court 
 under the predecessor of Leo, Luther was permitted to 
 be a witness. When he visited Rome, in 1510, on the 
 business of his order, the see had not a more dutiful 
 son than himself. Secession from the church, as he 
 then regarded the church, was a thought which not his 
 wildest dreams would have suggested. And even when 
 he saw the desolating abominations, he saw not how 
 they were to be removed. But he did see them. Julius 
 himself, the successor of the holy apostles, (!!) was a 
 profane soldier; and throughout the city ignorance, 
 profligacy, and a contempt for those very things of 
 which the forms were so carefully preserved, were 
 universally spread and manifested. When he said 
 mass at Rome, as he was requested to do during his 
 visit, he went through the service like a man who was 
 in earnest, and was laughed at for his rustic sincerity. 
 On one occasion, some other priests, likewise engaged 
 in mass-reading, had read seven before he had finished 
 his one. " Quick, quick," said one of them to him ; 
 " send our lady her son back again speedily." Nor 
 were the higher ecclesiastics less corrupt than the in- 
 ferior priesthood. At their tables they indulged in 
 obscene jests and coarse buffoonery ; and their senti- 
 ment on religion itself, — opinion it cannot be termed, 
 they were not serious enough for deliberately-formed 
 opinion, — but their sentiment on the subject is placed 
 in broad day by the fact, which Luther has recorded, 
 that they have boasted in his presence of what, accord- 
 ing to their own profession, was the most awfully-sacri- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 17 
 
 legious mockery of which men could be guilty. In the 
 place of the usual sacramental words, they would use 
 these : " Panis es, et panis manebis : vinum es, et vinum 
 manebis. Bread thou art, and bread thou shalt remain: 
 wine thou art, and wine thou shalt remain." " Then," 
 added they significantly, " we elevate the pyx, and all 
 the people worship !" If they believed according to 
 their profession, they were cold-blooded, intentional 
 soul-murderers : and if they did not so believe, — as 
 who can even fancy that they did ? — there is no lan- 
 guage that can sufficiently describe their disgusting 
 hypocrisy. 
 
 But what must have been the state of that ecclesi- 
 astical corporation to whose head could be applied the 
 epigram : — 
 
 " Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum ; 
 Vendere jure potest, emerat ipse prius." 
 
 u The pope sells altars, Christ, and keys, 
 And thus to sell he ought ; 
 Of right he sells as he may please, 
 What first of all he bought." 
 
 And thus was the whole Roman Church overspread 
 and steeped with simony, infidelity, and imposture ; 
 with ignorance, superstition, and immorality. The 
 form of godliness might be there, though even this was 
 disfigured with rites and ceremonies borrowed from 
 heathenism, and from the abrogated Levitical law of 
 the Jews ; but the power was more than absent, — it 
 was denied. The two great marks of the predicted 
 apostacy were therefore now furnished by what was 
 called the Roman Church. The man of sin was found 
 sitting as God, in the temple of God; and religion 
 
 
18 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 consisted in the form of godliness retained, while its 
 power was denied. 
 
 In such a state, the professing church was neither 
 the light of the world, nor the salt of the earth. Re- 
 formation, therefore, was necessary. 
 
 But how was it to be accomplished 1 Up to the time 
 of Luther, all attempts had failed. The Council of 
 Constance had, indeed, asserted the subordination of 
 the pope ; but when the great schism had ceased, and 
 the undisputed possessor of the Roman chair had leisure 
 once more to direct his attention to the aggrandize- 
 ment of his see, Papal policy gradually prevailed against 
 what was regarded as conciliar usurpation ; and Papal 
 power, with all its pretended reverence for antiquity, 
 refused, practically, the restraints of the ancient dis- 
 cipline, as interfering with the free exercise of its uni- 
 versal authority. 
 
 No wonder that all former attempts had failed. 
 They left the source of the evil not only untouched, 
 but uninfluenced and dominant. 
 
 Two facts must never be overlooked in this case. 
 First, All the practical evil there is in the world comes 
 from the original evil of man's fallen nature : and, 
 second, All the practical good there is in the world 
 proceeds from the grace of God, through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. As in the human body, while alive, the 
 laws of life counteract, in many most important in- 
 stances, those physical laws to which it would other- 
 wise be subject ; so in the professing church, — its 
 practical holiness will be in proportion to the extent 
 and strength of its spiritual life. When the powers 
 of life in the body are in a state of extreme languor 
 and decline, the tendency of physical laws to exert 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 19 
 
 their natural power is plainly perceptible ; and when 
 life departs, the restraining counteracting power is re • 
 moved, and the body follows the ordinary tendencies 
 of matter. Thus is it in the church. When its 
 spirituality decays, its power of resisting inward and 
 outward evil proportionably diminishes. The abuses 
 in the Roman Church, of which all Europe justly com- 
 plained, resulted from the loss of spirituality. Men 
 were not taught the true way of salvation ; they there- 
 fore did not seek for it. It was impossible, " the 
 world," " the flesh," and " the devil," being what they 
 are, but that in such a state of things dissoluteness of 
 manners should prevail and increase. And the cure 
 could only be effectual which went directly to that in 
 which the disease originated. New laws, prohibiting 
 abuses, however minute and stringent, would have done 
 little even in their first and compulsory enactment ; 
 and they would soon have been swept away, either by 
 evasion or direct repeal. 
 
 Among the remarkable circumstances of the Lutheran 
 Reformation, one of the most remarkable is, that no 
 reforming intention, properly so called, is to be found 
 in its first movements. There is a mistaken philosophy 
 which seems perpetually occupied in preventing its 
 scholars from referring to God in any other character 
 than that of a metaphysical abstraction, having no ap- 
 preciable value in moral calculations ; which, on this 
 particular subject, vaguely speaks of Luther as being 
 produced by the spirit of the age. All this is pure 
 hypothesis. It is unsupported by a single fact. Luther 
 was not a man of the world. He was no politician. 
 To those abuses which, subsequently, the German 
 Diets presented as nuisances which required abate- 
 
20 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 ment, he does not appear, even when he began to act 
 as a reformer, to have directed his attention at all. 
 
 The truth is, that the Lutheran Reformation can only- 
 then be understood when the Christian doctrines of 
 providence, and the spiritual reign of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ in his church, are recollected, and their princi- 
 ples distinctly, and most decisively and firmly, applied. 
 It was a revival of religion, effected by the direct inter- 
 ference of God himself. It is not true that all direct 
 interference is miraculous. Miraculous interposition 
 sets aside or controls nature ; but there is an interposi- 
 tion not less direct, which works along with nature, 
 and by means of it. Such an interposition is evidently 
 supposed by the important maxim of the administration 
 of the divine government, which is given by the pro- 
 phet Isaiah, chap, lix, 19, "When the enemy shall 
 come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up 
 a standard against him." And this lifting up of the 
 standard, to which all the loyal would flock, is con- 
 nected with a remarkable promise of the Redeemer's 
 presence in his church ; a spiritual presence, of course, 
 and manifested by its fruits of peace, and joy, and 
 righteousness : " And the Redeemer shall come to 
 Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in 
 Jacob" verse 20. Compare this with the solemn 
 language of Christ himself, John xiv, 21, 23, "He 
 that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it 
 is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be loved 
 of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest 
 myself to him. If a man love me, he will keep my 
 words : and my Father will love him, and we will come 
 to him, and make our abode with him." This is the 
 spiritual presence of Christ in his church ; and it was 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 21 
 
 by this that Luther was shown to have been God's 
 honoured instrument of reclaiming the wanderer to the 
 true fold. 
 
 Luther is not to be regarded as concentrating in 
 himself the spirit of the age, and acting accordingly. 
 He cannot be understood, — in fact, he is not under- 
 stood, — either in his character or conduct, except by 
 those who view him, with all his subordinate errors 
 and imperfections, as a spiritual Christian, and as God's 
 instrument for checking the progress of the enemy, and 
 rolling back the tide of error and sin. Luther did not 
 begin by complaining of the ignorance that prevailed ; 
 nor of the bondage in which men were held. He did 
 not begin by asserting the true rights of conscience ; 
 no, nor even by proclaiming the supremacy of God's 
 word, and vindicating the sacred privilege of perusing 
 the Scriptures against all opposers. He had himself 
 been brought to understand, and personally to enjoy, 
 the essential principle of religion, subjectively considered. 
 He had felt the accusations of conscience, as instructed 
 by the holy law of God. He had sought for peace in 
 the religious practice of the day, and he had sought for 
 it in vain. At length, he was shown that religion for 
 fallen man was founded in " salvation ;" and that the 
 gate of salvation was " the remission of sins," or justi- 
 fication. This justification he saw, from the Scriptures, 
 and especially from the writings of St. Paul, to be 
 attainable by faith alone ; a relying, appropriating, 
 spiritual faith, fixing directly on the blood of Christ, 
 acknowledging that we are saved most freely by the 
 grace of God, and rejoicing in the efficiency and ful- 
 ness of the grace which saves. This faith Luther had 
 exercised, and its blessed fruits he had himself expe- 
 
22 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 rienced. He knew what it was to be justified by faith, 
 and to have peace "with God through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 And here was his preparation for the work in which 
 he was afterward called to engage. Dr. Robertson 
 most strangely misrepresents the obvious facts of the 
 case, when he represents Luther as beginning by 
 opposing the sale of indulgences, and as being led, by 
 the studies which he found necessary for the success- 
 ful prosecution of his task, to examine the subject of 
 justification. Exactly the reverse is the fact ; the fact 
 testified by the clearest declarations of his personal 
 history. He studied the question of justification first. 
 And he studied it not as a scholastic subject, but as 
 being most intimately connected with personal obliga- 
 tions and privileges. He not only studied it, as a truth 
 which the Scriptures teaqh ; but he experienced it, as a 
 blessing which the Scriptures promise. 
 
 And thus was Luther prepared in his cell for the 
 work he had to do in the world, by the Spirit of God . 
 blessing his devout perusal of Scripture, his earnest 
 prayers, his deep and penitential sorrow of spirit, and 
 his conversation with his religious friends. And thus, 
 too, did the Spir it of God lift up the standard against 
 the enemy. /Understanding the true doctrines of re- 
 pentance and faith, he saw the practical mischief of 
 indulgences, as they were then hawked about, and 
 puffed, and sold by the Papal emissaries. At first he 
 saw no further, and went no further. But his opponents 
 compelled him to advance, however reluctant. He had 
 thus to examine the whole question ; and then its sup- 
 ports ; and so on, till the whole scheme of Papalism 
 was before him. He set out with the doctrine of justi- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 23 
 
 fication by faith, regarded as the very gate of salvation, 
 as leading to all spiritual happiness and holiness. He 
 knew he was thus far right, and he worked his 
 way by careful, honest, and prayerful inquiry ; using 
 in that inquiry all proper human helps, and valuing 
 them in proportion as he found them more and more 
 free from the taintings of the mystery of iniquity : but 
 he rested in the Bible alone. "This," he said, "is 
 the true antiquity. It is here that God speaks." Like 
 the other reformers, he knew the value of the early 
 fathers, and was able to make good use of them, both 
 in study and controversy ; but as the standard of reli- 
 gious belief, to which even that which the fathers say 
 must be referred, " the Bible, the Bible alone, was 
 
 THE RELIGION" OF LUTHER. 
 
 This, then, is the light in which we view the Lu- 
 theran Reformation. We see in it a remarkable illus- 
 tration of the rule of the divine government quoted 
 above. The enemy had come in as a flood, and the 
 deluge seemed likely to be universal. Human embank- 
 ments were all swept away by it. The means by 
 which it was sought to impede its progress, only occa- 
 sioned its waves to rise the higher, and gather weight 
 and force, till these new obstructions shared the fate of 
 all former ones. Everything tended to the aggrandize- 
 ment of Rome, till Luther brought the doctrine of 
 justification by faith to bear upon the question of in- 
 dulgences. And as the same spear that detected the 
 audacious fiend, seeking to hide himself in the squalid 
 reptile, compelled him, when revealed, to give way; 
 so did the power of this doctrine drive back the evils 
 whose proper character it had so completely exposed. 
 The Spirit of the Lord had now lifted up the standard, 
 
24 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 and the tokens of the Redeemer's gracious presence 
 in his church began to be experienced. The raging 
 of the enemy, too, proved that he felt the efficiency of 
 the check now opposed to his further progress. In all 
 ages the faithful administration of the true gospel of 
 Jesus Christ has been God's great instrument in the 
 revival of his work, when, by the sinful carelessness 
 of men, it has been suffered to fall into a state of inac- 
 tivity and decay. 
 
 It is of the highest importance that the proper cha- 
 racter of the Reformation, as being originally a revival 
 of spiritual religion, effected by the faithful announce- 
 ment of evangelical truth, be distinctly understood. It 
 is true, that as many of the grievances fastened on 
 Germany by the Roman usurpation were of a political 
 nature, and therefore felt in all their weight by the 
 various governments of the empire, so it was to be 
 expected that its different princes' would gladly avail 
 themselves of the first outbreak of opposition, that their 
 own demand for redress might be strengthened. Mixed 
 up, therefore, with the early Reformation, and not un- 
 frequently modifying its character, and influencing its 
 direction, we may expect to find worldly considerations 
 and political movements. These, however, rather ac- 
 companied, than constituted, the Reformation. The 
 Reformation itself was begun by a spiritual man, acting 
 upon spiritual principles, and aiming at spiritual objects. 
 Luther was not a worldly politician, but a true Chris- 
 tian. It is impossible to read his writings, and study 
 his history, provided the nature of spiritual religion be 
 itself understood, without seeing that he earnestly de- 
 sired the promotion of religion in the world ; not only 
 as believing that thus would the social welfare of men 
 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 25 
 
 be advanced, but (and this was his chief object) that 
 their spiritual and eternal salvation might be secured. 
 Political consequences of great importance have doubt- 
 less resulted from the movements of Luther ; but it 
 was not for political results that he laboured, (jf ever 
 man felt himself to be a minister of Jesus Christ, bound 
 to a faithful delivery of the divine message, whoever 
 might be pleased, whoever displeased, Martin Luther 
 was that man. i) He fejt himsel ic be providentially 
 called to expose abuses by which the name of Christ 
 was dishonoured, and the eternal interests of men put 
 in jeopardy. These abuses he took care to describe 
 according to what he knew was their actual character 
 and tendency. He could not talk of the innocency of 
 errors that imperilled souls. He could not deal with 
 bold hypocrisy as a mere mistake of the judgment. 
 And he was the more decided in his movements, and 
 the bolder in his expressions, for that he felt that any 
 mistakes he might make would be practically neutral- 
 ized by the caution and forbearance of his coadjutor 
 and friend, Philip Melancthon. Luther was not the 
 passionate, worldly, disputing politician, mixing theo- 
 logy with his polemical engagements. That occa- 
 sionally his earnestness made him harsh, and, for the 
 time, overbearing, may as easily be admitted, as that 
 the caution and forbearance of Melancthon exposed 
 him to the attacks of timidity and cowardice. But 
 these occasional outbreaks show rather the man's 
 natural temperament than his actual and Christian 
 character. Besides, the customs of the age allowed a 
 far greater latitude in controversial language than is 
 conceded by the rules of modern debate. Harshness 
 of polemic expression does not always indicate harsh- 
 
 til 
 
26 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 ness of temper ; nor does even an occasional outbreak 
 of passion (most mourned, perhaps, by the individual 
 himself) prove that resentment and anger are the pre- 
 vailing dispositions of the mind. Luther himself was 
 a Christian man ; and the work in which he engaged 
 was, so far as himself and his immediate associates 
 were engaged, a Christian work. 
 
 Laying on one side, therefore, the secondary and 
 political results of the Reformation, as being — though 
 they present a magnificent subject, of contemplation* — 
 foreign to the present inquiry ; and likewise laying on 
 one side what may be termed the political adjuncts of 
 the Reformation ; against many of which Luther con- 
 tended, and to all of which he sought to give as far as 
 possible a truly spiritual character ; looking at the work 
 itself, in its origin and in its objects, we again call it a 
 revival of spiritual religion, effected by the faithful 
 enunciation of divine truth. 
 
 The history of Luther, we think, can scarcely be 
 studied without a clear perception of the fact that, by 
 his means, there was a broad distinction made between 
 what may be termed the religion of extemalism, and 
 the religion of spirituality. When the English re- 
 formers began to advance the doctrine of justification 
 by faith, their Romanist adversaries replied, that, even 
 if it were true, it was needless to preach it in England, 
 for that all the people there had already been justified 
 in their baptism. Justification was thus described as 
 a general blessing, the actual possession of which was 
 ministered by baptism. This was — and indeed still 
 
 * Viller's " Essay on the Spirit and Influence of the Reforma- 
 tion of Luther" should be studied on this particular branch of 
 the subject. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 27 
 
 is — the essence of Popery, the supposed admission to 
 spiritual blessings by the performance of external rites. 
 Whereas the reformers everywhere went forth, not 
 undervaluing the sacraments of Christ's ordination; 
 making them, in fact, all the more venerable, by re- 
 storing them to their original number and position ; but 
 these holy men everywhere went forth preaching that 
 justification consisted in the forgiveness of sins ; that 
 this was to be received by faith in Christ ; that this 
 faith did not consist in the mere belief of Christian 
 doctrines, however correct and extensive it might be, 
 but in appropriation and reliance, its object being the 
 infinitely-meritorious sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Religion, in a word, as taught by them, was personal 
 and spiritual ; its distinctive sign being justification by 
 faith alone. 
 
 If, then, the Reformation which began by the preach- 
 ing of Luther has been a blessing to the world, the 
 only way to preserve the blessing, and to render it 
 more complete and extensive, is by the faithful main- 
 tenance, and energetic delivery, of its grand principle, 
 and characteristic sign, — justification by faith. Unless 
 the standard be kept lifted up, the ebbing tide will turn 
 once more. The doctrines of Tridentine Popery, and 
 the doctrines necessarily connected with the primary 
 one of personal justification by faith, can never coalesce. 
 They belong to totally different schemes of religion ; 
 and one of them must be false. One of them must 
 inevitably be another gospel. True Protestants 
 who understand the nature of the system revived by 
 Luther, see in it that gospel which St. Paul preached, 
 and concerning which he said, " It pleased God by 
 the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 
 
28 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 And seeing this, they will likewise see that thus only 
 can Protestantism itself be preserved, thus only can 
 its blessings be extended ; even by this same clear and 
 impressive statement of the distinguishing truths of the 
 gospel. The holy law of God must be preached, that 
 men may see they need salvation, and that they cannot 
 save themselves. And then, after the example of Lu- 
 ther, there must be a faithful, that is, a clear and an 
 earnest, declaration of the gospel ; namely, the offer 
 of pardon, and peace, and spiritual influence, in and 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ, to be received by a 
 living, spiritual faith in his all-atoning merits. Let all 
 Protestant pulpits be characterized by the faithful 
 ministrations of their occupants. Let justification by 
 faith, and all that it implies, be powerfully and con- 
 sistently proclaimed ; and though of late the enemy 
 has been loud in his vauntings, and (if he is to be be- 
 lieved) is again advancing as a flood., let but the pulpits 
 of the land resound with the old Protestant preaching 
 of that wholesome and most comfortable doctrine of 
 justification by faith only, and, even were their boast- 
 ings true, all occasion for them would rapidly vanish. 
 Let the standard be lifted up, and the enemy shall be 
 driven back. Popery never dares trust herself to the 
 combat when she can avoid it. The opposing doctrine 
 is never allowed in Papal countries the liberty which 
 Papal demagogues demand in Protestant countries. 
 We repeat it, let the standard be lifted up, and the 
 enemy shall be driven back. Popery can never pre- 
 vail, unless Protestantism become unfaithful and inert. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 If we were required to select a period in the modern 
 history of Europe in which the wise and beneficent 
 providence of the Almighty might be thought to have 
 been most conspicuously manifested, in bending to its 
 own will the tendencies of human action, and causing 
 " all things to work together " for the preparation and 
 unfolding of a great moral revolution in the condition 
 of the world, we should probably fix upon that lapse 
 of time which extended from the latter part of the 
 eleventh to the sixteenth century. It is, indeed, a 
 matter of peculiar and delightful interest to observe 
 how, during that period, events which, to mere human 
 foresight, would seem to have promised the most oppo- 
 site results, were surely, though insensibly, under- 
 mining the strength of that vast system of spiritual 
 tyranny and falsehood which imprisoned and oppressed 
 the moral reason of men, and laying the foundations 
 of a B ^formation, the magnitude and immortal value 
 of whose consequences can never be fully appreciated 
 on this side of the grave. 
 
 When the celebrated Peter the Hermit travelled the 
 countries of Europe, inviting monarchs and their iron- 
 clad subjects to league themselves in a frantic expedi- 
 tion for the recovery of the holy sepulchre, — holding 
 out to them, as a chief inducement, the promise of par- 
 don for past, and impunity for future, sins, — who could 
 
30 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 have seen, in the insane fanaticism, the ferocious zeal 
 and arrogant pretensions of that crazy enthusiast, the 
 germ of an evil that was to smite the fabric of corrup- 
 tion out of which 'it sprang? whg could have then an- 
 ticipated the growth of a practice which was destined, 
 by awakening the indignant resistance and holy scorn 
 of a great and noble spirit, instrumentally to subserve 
 the highest interests of humanity ; to shake the throne 
 of the oppressor ; to break the spell of a corrupt eccle- 
 siastical domination; and to rescue the word of God 
 itself from that oblivion to which it had been long and 
 basely consigned 1 
 
 Of indulgences, the sale of which was the proximate 
 occasion of the dispute between Luther and the Roman 
 Church, we find no record prior to the pontificate of 
 Gregory III. By that pope, as by Victor and Urban 
 II., they would appear to have been originally and ex- 
 clusively used for the purpose which we have indicated ; 
 namely, that of exciting the superstitious chivalry of 
 the age to embark in that series of splendid absurdities, 
 (from which nevertheless so many mighty consequences 
 issued,) which are known to history by the name of the 
 Crusades. Pope Clement XII., however, finding how 
 largely advantageous to the consolidation and nr^'nte- 
 nance of the Papal power this monstrous inve tion 
 might be rendered, extended the granting of indulgences 
 to all persons who assisted to extirpate heretics ; thus 
 setting a premium upon the indiscriminate murder of 
 dissentients from the Roman creed and ritual ! It is 
 easy to perceive how the use of auricular confession, 
 and priestly absolution, led the way to this wilder blas- 
 phemy and ampler usurpation. The assumption, by the 
 church, of the divine prerogative, to forgive sins, and 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 31 
 
 the general submission of the ignorant and rude war- 
 riors of the middle ages to that impious assumption, 
 naturally enough suggested to a crafty and ambitious 
 hierarchy the wider purposes of aggrandizement, to 
 which the authority, so audaciously usurped, might be 
 applied. As a source of revenue, indeed, nothing could 
 have been contrived better adapted to yield an inex- 
 haustible fund to the exchequer of the Vatican. Of all 
 the articles that financial ingenuity ever imagined to 
 tax, none so fruitful as vice can be conceived. And 
 when we recollect how utterly the popular judgment, 
 throughout Europe, had succumbed to the fiction of the 
 divine right and consequent infallibility of the head of 
 the Roman Church, we cease to be astonished at the 
 insolent impiety of the pontiffs, who, in the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries, had recourse to such flagitious 
 and profligate means of raising money for the erection 
 of that matchless cathedral at Rome, which is not more 
 a prodigy of art, and a stupendous token of the genius 
 of its architects and decorators, than it is a monument 
 of the profound depravity, darkness, and credulous 
 superstition of the whole European community, and a 
 record of the revival of pure and unadulterated Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Julius II., in whose reign, as pope, (1503-1513,) 
 was commenced the building of St. Peter's, issued in- 
 dulgences to all persons who should contribute toward 
 the expenses of that marvellous structure. The ordi- 
 nary revenues of the Papacy, enormous as they were 
 could hardly have sufficed, in many years, for the com- 
 pletion of so vast and gorgeous an edifice. But when 
 to Julius, himself a liberal encourager of the fine arts, 
 succeeded (1513) the luxurious and princely Leo X., 
 
32 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 the superb prodigality and ostentatious magnificence 
 with which it was his delight to surround himself, ren- 
 dered more urgent the demand for extraordinary sup- 
 plies, to meet the prodigious expenditure required for 
 the completion of the cathedral. Accordingly, in the 
 year 1517, Leo, following up the project of his pre- 
 decessor, sent forth a bull, offering to every one who 
 would purchase, at the appointed price, indulgences, 
 which assumed not only to remit past transgressions, 
 but to give license for future immoralities.* 
 
 The personal character of this pope has been, in a 
 great measure, rescued from the infamy that justly at- 
 taches to it, by the kind of halo which their munificent 
 patronage of letters and the arts has thrown around the 
 names of the whole family of the Medici. With all 
 the eminent powers of intellect, and the fine taste, 
 which he undoubtedly possessed, he seems to have 
 been little better than a refined sensualist — a life-long 
 reveller in a species of magnificent voluptuousness, 
 which was only redeemed from utter brutality and 
 
 * In the " Tax-Book of the Holy Apostolic Church," pub- 
 lished at Rome, in 1514, the authorship of which is imputed to 
 Pope Innocent III., the following rates of charge for various 
 offences are specified : — For fornication, if attended with circum- 
 stances of aggravation, six groats : for incest, five groats : for a 
 priest keeping a concubine, seven groats : for a layman commit- 
 ting murder, five groats : for laying violent hands on a priest, 
 nine groats : for counterfeiting the pope's hand-writing, seventeen 
 or eighteen groats. Setting aside the iniquity of the whole sys- 
 tem of indulgence for any species of crime, the ethical scale, 
 which considers incest and murder as crimes of less weight than 
 forgery of the pontiff's name, or personal maltreatment of a 
 priest, may serve to give us some idea of the execrable morality 
 of the Vatican. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 33 
 
 grossness by a large and bright imagination. That he 
 was selfish, profligate, and addicted to scandalous im- 
 purities of life, is undeniable ; and while we agree with 
 his English historian in acquitting him of deliberate 
 and sordid avarice, and of the malversation which has 
 been charged upon him, of the pontifical revenues, we 
 are persuaded, from the whole tenor of his public and 
 private conduct, his reckless disregard of all forms and 
 semblance of ecclesiastical propriety and decency in 
 the selection of the individuals whom he appointed to 
 dispose of the indulgences, and his subsequent indif- 
 ference, until indifference could no longer be affected, 
 to the proceedings, arguments, and protestations of 
 Luther, that he was, in his heart, without doubt, as 
 were many of his contemporaries in the priesthood, a 
 thorough unbeliever, not only in the peculiar and absurd 
 dogmas of his own church, but in many, if not all, of 
 the cardinal truths of the Christian religion. 
 
 This man it was, who, having promulgated his bull 
 for the unlimited sale of indulgences, with a singular 
 and unaccountable fatuity, devolved the conduct of that 
 unhallowed traffic upon some of the most abandoned, 
 ignorant, and worthless persons that ever dishonoured 
 the cowl and tonsure. As a matter of mere policy, 
 this was a gross and flagrant error ; for the passage of 
 the rescripts of pardon through such hands could not 
 fail to derogate from the popular opinion of their worth, 
 and weaken the respect in which their author, by rea- 
 son of his office, was generally held. But when such 
 men as Tetzel and Arcumboldo were put forward as 
 the disposers and champions of the indulgences, chal- 
 lenging for them a prospective efficacy, which the pope, 
 in his brief, had not ventured to claim, and alleging 
 2* 
 
34 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 that they would avail to protect their purchasers from 
 the penalty of crimes, the very mention of which must 
 have outraged every honest and undoubting Romanist, 
 it necessarily happened that those who entertained 
 misgivings as to the real existence of a right in the 
 sovereign pontiff to grant such dispensations, were 
 driven to fortify their previous suspicions, to look nar- 
 rowly at the grounds on which the exorbitant pretensions 
 of the indulgence-mongers rested, and in the end to 
 discover their total futility and contrarience to reason 
 and to revelation. 
 
 Such was the effect of this revolting farce, this hide- 
 ous imposture, upon the mind of Luther. Previously 
 aware, as we shall see hereafter, of the fearful omis- 
 sions and concealment of great part of the whole truth 
 of God which obtained in the Romish Church, he was 
 thus brought into immediate collision with one of the 
 most tremendous of the unwarranted additions which 
 that church had dared to append to the revealed ex- 
 pression of his will. By a singular providence, one 
 of those remarkable arrangements for which the whole 
 world, through all time, and beyond all time, will have 
 reason to be deeply thankful, he had been guided to a 
 convent, where he had access to a solitary copy, in 
 Latin, of the Bible. To the arbitration of that Bible 
 did he, in a devout and fervent spirit, submit the entire 
 subject of dispute; and the issue was — the Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The precise date of the great reformer's birth was, 
 during his lifetime, and for some years after his de- 
 cease, frequently brought into question. Some of his 
 enemies betook themselves to astrological calculations, 
 for the purpose of showing that certain portentous as- 
 pects of the heavenly bodies had given warning of the 
 advent of the great heresiarch, as he was styled ; • and 
 when it was found that this curious sort of ex post facto 
 evidence of his iniquity, deduced from a foregone and 
 dubious prophecy, was not quite borne out by the actual 
 position of the stars on the true day of his entrance 
 into the world, two of these sapient astrologers, Jerome 
 Carden and Florimond de Redmond, were pleased to 
 dispense with fact altogether, and to fix the commence- 
 ment of his " lease of life" upon the 22d of October, 
 1483 ; for no other reason than that they were thus 
 enabled to bring his nativity under the dire combina- 
 tion, in which they affected to read a premonition of 
 his infamy and wickedness. Another writer, and a 
 Romish prelate, Gauricus by name, subtracts a whole 
 year, and maintains that Luther's birth occurred in 
 
36 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 October, 1484. "Five planets," says this author, 
 " being in conjunction under Scorpio, in the ninth sta- 
 tion, which was by the Arabians allotted to religion, 
 made him a sacrilegious and profane heretic. From 
 the direction of the horoscope toward the conjunction 
 of Mars, he died without religion. His most impious 
 soul sailed away to hell, to be there eternally tormented 
 with fiery whips by Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera."* 
 Of the last-mentioned and not very amiable lady, in- 
 deed, one of his monkish calumniators makes him out 
 to have been the son ; alleging that " he was born of 
 Megara, one of the Furies, and sent from hell into Ger- 
 many "\ 
 
 From these ridiculous figments, which would else 
 be too trivial to be worth noticing, we may form some 
 conception of the strange jumble of barbarous and 
 pagan legends which, having formed the basis of all 
 the doctrinal errors of their faith, had come, in process 
 of time, to be intimately mixed up with the prevalent 
 and contemptible theology of the Romish clergy ; as 
 well as of the impotent and imbecile malignity with 
 which they sought to inflame the public mind against 
 the man who had torn the veil from some of their most 
 odious impositions, and exposed the hollowness of their 
 impudent and tyrannical pretensions. 
 
 It was on the 10th day of November, 1483, that 
 Martin Luther first saw the light, at the small town 
 of Eisleben, in the county of Mansfeldt, in Upper 
 Saxony. His father, John Luther, Lutter, or Luder, 
 and Margaret Linderman, his mother, were both of 
 
 * Lucus Gauricus, in Tractatu Astrologico, &c, fol. 60 
 t Cajetanus, Hirud., lib. i. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 37 
 
 them natives of the same district. They resided in 
 the inconsiderable village of Meza, distant only a few 
 miles from the place of the reformer's birth. To that 
 place his mother, who, according to the very general 
 custom of her country, eked out the scanty resources 
 of her family by personal labour in the fields, had re- 
 paired, in order to be present at an annual fair, when 
 ehe was seized with the pains of premature labour, and 
 gave birth to her child in a house which a few years 
 afterward was burnt to the ground. Subsequently it 
 was rebuilt at the expense of the town, and is at pre- 
 sent converted into a public school, to which is ap- 
 pended an institution for the relief and maintenance of 
 the poor. 
 
 The father of Luther was employed as a workman 
 in the mines, which abound in his native province ; an 
 occupation of the humblest rank, and yielding in those 
 days only a miserable pittance as the reward of severe 
 toil. But, poor as were Luther's parents, they, with a 
 laudable ambition which has never been rare in Ger- 
 many, determined to procure for him the best educa- 
 tion within their reach. With this view, they placed 
 him under the care of one George iEmilius, of whom 
 little is known, except that he was a respectable 
 scholar, and an ecclesiastic. Some rudimental instruc- 
 tion Luther would appear to have received under the 
 domestic roof; where, we are told, he so far profited 
 by the exemplary piety and general conduct of his 
 nearest relatives, as to evince, from a very early age, 
 tokens of a disposition as remarkable for its conscien- 
 tious and unusual seriousness, as were his aptitude and 
 diligence for the native vigour of understanding which 
 they disclosed. His first regular preceptor, however, 
 
38 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 was iEmilius, who, if we may judge from the subse- 
 quent and rapid progress of his illustrious pupil in every 
 branch of learning, must have discharged his duty with 
 ability and zeal. At the age of fourteen Luther was 
 removed to a public school at Magdeburg, in which, 
 conformably to a usage which has commonly obtained 
 among students of all classes in various parts of Ger- 
 many, he supported himself for upward of fifteen months 
 by literal begging. At the close of that term he was 
 transferred to a larger, and somewhat celebrated, estab- 
 lishment, at Eisenach, in Thuringia. There he re- 
 mained for four years, subsisting and defraying the 
 expenses incident to the prosecution of his studies by 
 the eleemosynary assistance of the inhabitants. " Let 
 no one," he says, in reference to this portion of his 
 history, " let no one in my presence despise those poor 
 people who go from door to door, saying, ' Bread, for 
 the sake of God !' (Panem, propter Deum !) for I my- 
 self have been a poor mendicant, and have received 
 bread at the doors of many a house, especially in 
 Eisenach, the town of my lore." On these occasions, 
 when pressed with hunger, he would join some of his 
 fellow-scholars in singing in the streets to obtain a 
 morsel of bread. His voice was good, and he was 
 strongly attached to music ; so that, with his com- 
 panions, he not unfrequently furnished a pleasing street- 
 concert ; but, in return, he often received only harsh 
 words. Once, in particular, he had been repulsed from 
 three houses, and was about to return fasting to his 
 lodging, when he was noticed by a pious woman, 
 named Ursula, the wife of Conrad Cotta, a burgher of 
 the place. He was himself fearing that he should have 
 to renounce his studies, and go to work with his father 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 39 
 
 in the mines of Mansfeldt : but this good woman pitied 
 his forlorn appearance, and not only relieved his pre- 
 sent wants, but, having introduced him to her husband, 
 the honest burgher was so much pleased with him, that 
 in a few days afterward he took him to live in his 
 house. 
 
 He now enjoyed a much more tranquil life. Freed 
 from the painful pressure of want, he pursued his 
 studies with increased ardour ; and by seeing the hand 
 of a kind and watchful providence, his confidence in 
 God was strengthened, and his love for prayer in- 
 creased. He likewise learned to play on the flute, 
 and on the lute ; and as his adoptive mother was very 
 fond of music, he thus endeavoured to minister to her 
 gratification who had ministered to his wants. Indeed, 
 to his old age his love for music continued ; and some 
 of the best of the old German hymns, together with 
 their tunes, were composed by him. 
 
 In 1501, having achieved considerable distinction 
 by his acquisitions in all the customary departments of 
 letters and science, Luther, being then in his eighteenth 
 year, entered himself of the University of Erfurt, a city 
 of great antiquity, and no small importance, in the 
 Thuringian province. This university, which had 
 been founded rather more than a hundred years before, 
 having been favoured with the special countenance of 
 the princely houses of Brunswick and Saxony, which 
 successively claimed the sovereignty of Thuringia after 
 the decadence of its native landgraves, had attained to 
 an eminent reputation among the great schools of cen- 
 tral Europe. Devoting himself with characteristic 
 energy to his studies, the future reformer very soon 
 rose into collegiate distinction as one of the most 
 
40 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 accomplished scholars of the day. " The whole uni- 
 versity," says Melancthon, " admired his genius." The 
 arbitrary and strange collection of antiquated notions 
 and laborious technicalities which the schoolmen, in 
 their blind servility to the opinions of Aristotle, had 
 dignified with the comprehensive name of philosophy, 
 had, as may easily be supposed, but small charms for 
 so masculine an intellect as was that of Luther. That 
 he did not utterly neglect to cultivate a familiarity with 
 the formal rules, the solemn phantasies, and elaborate 
 pedantry of this mass of superannuated errors, is evi- 
 dent from the whole style and quality of his writings. 
 And, indeed, we may observe, in passing, that with all 
 its fallacies and crude imaginations, its radical hostility 
 to the true spirit and method of philosophical induction, 
 the scholastic system had, at least, the advantage of 
 trying the strength of the faculties, and reducing them 
 into habitual subjection to a discipline that was bene- 
 ficial in proportion to its stringency. Not only did it 
 minister to the development and ripening of the logical 
 understanding, but it also induced a certain dialectic 
 skill, an agility of mind, an artificial keenness of dis- 
 crimination, and a nicety of fence, which were of 
 singular value in the conduct of all subtle discussions. 
 In these respects, which, in truth, were the only re- 
 claiming virtues of the Aristotelian philosophy under 
 its monastic gloss, few men more amply profited by 
 an acquaintance with the formularies of that fanciful 
 philosophy than did Luther. He gathered from them 
 his best weapon in the great contest which was coming: 
 that power of close, shrewd, clear, and pungent argu- 
 mentation, and that home -thrust of a fatal proof, which 
 left his antagonist no chance of evasion or escape ; 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 41 
 
 while to the hearts and consciences of others it carried 
 conviction with the celerity and sureness of an electric 
 shock. 
 
 It is by no means easy to account for the extra- 
 ordinary reverence in which the dreaming and baseless 
 theories of the Stagyrite were held by the ecclesiastical 
 authorities of the middle ages. That this reverence 
 must have flowed, collaterally, from the same causes 
 which had mingled so much of mythological fiction 
 with the tenets of the Church of Rome, is, perhaps, 
 the best proximate solution we can arrive at. But that 
 the absurd figments of Aristotle, — such, for example, 
 as that, for doubting which, Galileo, a century later than 
 the time of Luther, was twice imprisoned ; namely, that 
 the heavens were as brass, and the stars set in them as 
 diamonds, — that such follies should have been dealt 
 with as things of equal sacredness with the most solemn 
 declarations of holy writ, relative to the being and 
 character of the Deity, and the means of human salva- 
 tion, must be regarded as another and melancholy 
 illustration of the depth of moral darkness and abase- 
 ment into which that corrupt church had lapsed. To 
 quarrel with any of the physical doctrines of Aristotle, 
 or dispute the soundness of his ethics, was to incur 
 the reproach of heresy; and while the Scriptures 
 were, even to the great body of the monastic clergy 
 themselves, a sealed and unknown book, a man's 
 eternal safety was represented to depend upon his faith 
 in the most trivial and transparent blunders of an illus- 
 trious heathen speculator. The great Lord Bacon has 
 well said, in a passage which may be used as a fine 
 retort of the imputation of this sort of bastard and con- 
 strictive heresy : " So much the more does this vanity 
 
42 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 require to be curbed and reprehended, because out of 
 the unsound admixture of human with divine things is 
 brought forth not only a fantastical philosophy, but also 
 a heretical religion"* 
 
 Consistently with this exorbitant estimation of the 
 works of Aristotle, the general course of reading for 
 students in theology was mainly confined to the writings 
 of Thomas Aquinas, which affected to treat of the capi- 
 tal truths of religion in due form of logic, and thus to 
 press into the service of the altar the entities and defi- 
 nitions of the Stagyrite. Disgusted with the technical 
 jargon and unprofitable subtleties which overlaid the 
 cramped and barren divinity of Aquinas, Luther's fa- 
 vourite employment, during the two years of his resi- 
 dence at Erfurt, was the study of the fathers and the 
 early history of the church, together with the principal 
 classical authors, as Cicero and Virgil. But he was 
 not a mere scholar. According to the light he pos- 
 sessed, he saw the need of divine assistance, and con- 
 nected his studies with his devotions. He began the 
 day with prayer ; he then went to an early service at 
 the church, and returned home to pursue his scholastic 
 career. 
 
 While he was thus diligently seeking the acquisition 
 of knowledge, one of those circumstances occurred 
 which, apparently accidental and even trivial, yet lead 
 to a long train of important consequences. Amidst all 
 the studies of the young scholar, there was one on 
 which he had not yet entered, but in which he was one 
 
 * " Tanto magis hsec vanitas inhibenda venit, et coercenda, 
 quia, ex divinorum et humanorum, malesana admixtione, non 
 solum educitur philosophia phantastica, sed etiam religio haere- 
 tica." — Nov. Org. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 43 
 
 day to excel. On one occasion, when he had been 
 about two years at Erfurt, and was in his twentieth 
 year, being in the library of the college, and opening 
 the books there one after the other in order to read the 
 names of the authors, he opened a Latin work which 
 he had never before seen. It was the Bible. He was 
 astonished to find that the passages which were read 
 to the people on Sundays and saints' days were but the 
 fragments of a great whole. He read with eager atten- 
 tion ; and frequently returned afterward to what was to 
 him a most delightful employment, earnestly desiring 
 to possess such a work for himself. Little did he at 
 that time think that from him was Germany soon to 
 receive that book as a gift for all her children. In this 
 same year (1503) he took his first academical degree. 
 But at one time it appeared as though his health were 
 to be the price of his success in study. He had a 
 serious fit of illness, chiefly, it should seem, of a nerv- 
 ous character, and in all probability produced by the 
 excessive labour he had undergone in preparing for his 
 examinations. He received much benefit from a visit 
 paid him by an aged priest, who cheered his spirits, 
 and said to him, " Take courage : you will not die this 
 time. God will make you one who shall comfort many 
 others. He lays his cross upon those whom he loves; 
 and they who bear it patiently gain much wisdom." 
 
 In 1505 he was made master of arts. The cere- 
 mony was performed, according to custom, with very 
 great pomp. There was a procession with torches, 
 and a magnificent festival. And when all this was 
 over, it became necessary for him to decide as to what 
 profession he would embrace, as the means of sup- 
 porting himself. After consulting with his friends, his 
 
44 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 choice fell upon the civil law, which, in those days, 
 afforded to young men of ardour and ability, whose 
 birth was humble, the best, indeed the only, prospect 
 of raising themselves to public distinction. This was 
 not, however, the path by which he was to pass 
 through life. A young man, with whom he had been 
 very intimate, was assassinated. The sudden death 
 of his friend very seriously affected his own mind. 
 He thought of death and judgment, and was filled with 
 painful apprehension. His conscience was not at rest. 
 Soon after he visited his father at Mansfeldt ; and, on 
 his return to Erfurt, was overtaken by a violent storm. 
 A thunderbolt struck the earth almost by his side. 
 He thought the hour of his death was come, and he 
 felt that to the fear of death he was in bondage. Risen 
 from the earth, he solemnly determined henceforward 
 to seek after holiness as eagerly as hitherto he had 
 pursued knowledge ; and to do this, he resolved to 
 embrace the monastic life, that by the strict perform- 
 ance of religious duties he might obtain peace of con- 
 science, and secure the salvation of his soul. On the 
 17th of August, 1505, therefore, he entered the con- 
 vent of the hermits of St. Augustine, at Wittenberg, in 
 Saxony ; a place which his memory has endeared to 
 the thoughts of every devout Protestant in the world. 
 
 For nearly two years Luther continued in the con- 
 vent before he was ordained priest ; and these, perhaps, 
 were the most eventful years of his life. He submitted 
 to all the self-abasing duties which his situation exacted 
 from him : he devoted to study as much time as he 
 could command for the purpose ; reading the more 
 pious among the schoolmen, giving much attention to 
 the fathers, especially Augustine, and, as there was a 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 45 
 
 copy of the Bible in his convent, diligently pursuing 
 the inquiries which his first perusal of the word of 
 God at Erfurt had suggested. 
 
 In addition to these occupations of his time, he de- 
 voted much of it to religious duties, and practised the 
 ordinary austerities to an extraordinary degree. He 
 contented himself with the poorest food, and would 
 sometimes go three or four days together without 
 eating or drinking. His great object was, by these 
 outward works, completely to subdue and eradicate all 
 inward evil, and to procure a settled peace of con- 
 science. He himself said, at a subsequent period, 
 " If ever a monk entered into heaven by his monkish 
 merits, certainly I should have obtained an entrance 
 there. All the monks who knew me will confirm this ; 
 and if it had lasted much longer, I should have become 
 literally a martyr, through watchings, prayer, reading, 
 and other labours." 
 
 But with all his studies, labours, and austerities, he 
 was wretched. His conscience became more and 
 more enlightened by the word of God. He saw no 
 righteousness in himself, neither without nor within. 
 He regarded the least sin as a crime ; and no sooner 
 had he detected it, than he laboured to expiate it by 
 the strictest self-denial. He thus gradually discovered 
 that all merely human efforts were unavailing. " I 
 tormented myself to death," he said subsequently, " to 
 procure peace for my conscience in the sight of God ; 
 but, encompassed about with thick darkness, no peace 
 could I find." Sometimes his meditations on the divine 
 justice and wrath awakened such terrors in him, that 
 his bodily powers failed him, and he sometimes lay 
 motionless, as if dead. He was indeed found one day 
 
46 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 on the floor of his cell, without any signs of life. 
 These sufferings led him to study the Scriptures yet 
 more earnestly, if by any means his fears and pains 
 might be removed. 
 
 The vicar-general of the Augustines for all Ger- 
 many was John Staupitz, a man not only of learning, 
 but of piety. He had passed through struggles similar 
 to those which now harassed Luther, and in the 
 Scriptures of the New Testament he had been enabled 
 to find the true way of peace. He was, however, a 
 man of much gentleness and indecision ; and one who, 
 though he wished that things had been in a better 
 state, was not willing to take any steps toward their 
 amendment. Visiting the convent, he was told of the 
 young monk, whom he called before him, and obtained 
 from him an account of his state. In the course of 
 the conversation, Luther said, " It is in vain that I 
 make promises to God : sin is always too strong for 
 me." He had obtained light ; but he had as yet nei- 
 ther peace nor power. Staupitz told him the only 
 way. " Look," said he, " to the wounds of Jesus 
 Christ, to the blood which he has shed for you : it is 
 there you will see the mercy of God. Instead of thus 
 torturing yourself for your sins, cast yourself into the 
 arms of your Redeemer. Trust in the righteousness 
 of his life, and the expiation of his death." But Lu- 
 ther objected to this, that he was not as yet turned to 
 God, — converted. " I must be changed," said he, 
 " before God can receive me." His guide knew the 
 way better, and told him that there could be no real 
 conversion while man feared God as a severe judge. 
 " In order to be filled with the love of that which is 
 good," said he, " you must be filled with the love of 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 47 
 
 God. If you wish to be really converted, seek it not 
 in these mortifications and penances. You must love 
 Him who has first loved you." Speaking afterward 
 to Staupitz, on this very conversation, he said, (in 
 May, 1518,) " Your word was fastened in my soul as 
 a sharp and powerful arrow."* New light had broken 
 in upon his mind. He studied the Scriptures, and 
 found that Staupitz had spoken the truth. He had a 
 measure of peace, but his faith was extremely weak, 
 nor had he fully renounced the habit of looking to him- 
 self. " O my sin, my sin !" he exclaimed on one occa- 
 sion, before Staupitz. The reply was, " Would you 
 be only the semblance of a sinner, and have only the 
 semblance of a Saviour ?" He added, " Know that 
 Jesus Christ is the Saviour of real and great sinners, 
 even of those who are utterly deserving of condemna- 
 tion." 
 
 Staupitz likewise gave him many valuable directions 
 as to his studies. He advised him to derive his di- 
 vinity from the word of God, rather than from the sys- 
 tems of the schools ; and, to aid him in so doing, made 
 him what was to him, and in those days, a most valuable 
 present ; — he gave him a copy of the Bible. Luther 
 now had one of his own ; and from that time he studied 
 the Scriptures with increasing zeal, especially the 
 Epistles of St. Paul. 
 
 He was now " not far from the kingdom of God," 
 and foretastes of its peace and joy had been vouch- 
 safed, to preserve him from despair ; but his con- 
 science had not yet fully found rest. His body again 
 began to yield to the exercises of his mind. He was 
 attacked with a malady that brought him to the brink 
 
 * Hsesit hoc verbum tuum in me, sicut sagitta potentis acuta. 
 
48 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 of the grave ; and in the prospect of death, his former 
 anguish and fears returned. His own sinfulness, and 
 God's holiness, disturbed his mind. This time it was 
 by a very humble instrument that God gave him com- 
 fort. On one occasion, while in his cell, he was visit- 
 ed by an aged monk, to whom he opened his heart. 
 The old monk directed him to the Apostles' Creed, 
 and repeated the article, " The forgiveness of sins." 
 " You must not only believe that David's or Peter's 
 sins are forgiven. The commandment of God is, that 
 we believe that our own sins are forgiven." He added, 
 " This is what St. Bernard says in his discourse on the 
 Annunciation. The testimony which the Holy Ghost 
 applies to your heart is this, ' Thy sins are forgiven 
 thee.'" 
 
 It is plain that Luther was directed by the old monk 
 to such a faith as should be personal and appropriating, 
 and connected with the testimony of the Holy Ghost 
 to the forgiveness of sins. Whether they clearly per- 
 ceived the distinction between the faith which must 
 precede the testimony, and the testimony itself, is not 
 directly apparent. Faith exercised in order to pardon, 
 does not, in its own nature, imply the testimony of par- 
 don. The one is prior ; the other is subsequent. 
 Still, the two are so closely and immediately connect- 
 ed, that in times of such obscurity as those in which 
 Luther and the old monk were conversing, the wonder 
 is that they saw things so clearly as they did. But it 
 was the work of God, bringing his servant to the state 
 of a son. Luther saw that he was not only to acknow- 
 ledge, generally, that Christ was the sole and suffi- 
 cient Saviour, but that he had to trust in him for the 
 forgiveness of his own sins, and to look for the testi- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 49 
 
 mony of the Holy Ghost that he was pardoned, in 
 connection with his faith. It is possible that some 
 degree of confusion might rest on his views, but his 
 experience was clear and sound. 
 
 The comfort he had received to his spirit restored 
 health to his body. He had obtained new life in more 
 than one sense. He quickly arose from his sickbed ; 
 every day he prayed for help from above, and every 
 day renewed strength was imparted to his soul. 
 
 It would not be right to pass from this deeply-inte- 
 resting period of Luther's life, without reflecting on the 
 remarkable fact which is presented to us. In the 
 depth of -the darkness of that miserable age, a poor 
 monk had found peace with God by faith in Christ ; 
 and thus he became the means of instructing the man, 
 who, because instructed in that one point, was enabled, 
 as an instrument of God's mercy, to pour forth light 
 and life on every hand. The suggesting principle of 
 the Lutheran Reformation has often been misappre- 
 hended. One object which the single-minded monk 
 contemplated was the restoration of the word of God 
 to its undivided supremacy, as the rule of faith and 
 practice ; but even this was but in the order of means 
 to that which was really and properly his end, and 
 without which, the Reformation itself would not have 
 been attempted, and cannot be understood. Luther's 
 great object was to point to Christ as the only Saviour 
 and Intercessor, and to call on men to receive salva- 
 tion as most freely given, for the alone worthiness of 
 the Lord Jesus. Pardon, and peace of conscience, 
 and power to love and serve God, obtained by the 
 faith which acknowledged the grace of God in Christ 
 to be all in all, were Luther's grand themes : at once 
 3 
 
50 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 the objects for which he contended, and the armoury 
 which supplied him with the weapons with which he 
 won the victory. In the triumphs of the Reformation, 
 the rights of conscience, civil freedom, intellectual 
 disenthralment and life, all participated ; but the real 
 victory consisted in the establishment of that spiritual 
 religion, whose ineffaceable sign is, justification by 
 faith alone. Luther became a reformer, not because 
 he had found the Bible at Erfurt, and studied it at 
 Wittenberg, though these were steps in the wonderful 
 process ; but he became a reformer because he had 
 found peace of conscience, and power over sin, by 
 faith in the merits of Christ ; because he had found, 
 to quote the language of Bernard, "the testimony 
 which the Holy Ghost applied to his heart, ' Thy sins 
 are forgiven thee.'" 
 
 Having now been in the cloister nearly two years, 
 Luther resolved to proceed with his purpose of devoting 
 himself exclusively to a religious life : he was there- 
 fore ordained priest on the 2d of May, 1507, by Jerome, 
 bishop of Brandenburg. Hitherto his father had not 
 forgiven the disappointment he had experienced in his 
 son's withdrawal from secular pursuits, and the conse- 
 quent extinction of all prospects of secular aggrandize- 
 ment. He accepted, however, his son's invitation to 
 be present at the ceremony of his ordination, and the 
 reconciliation was complete. 
 
 After his ordination, following the advice of Staupitz, 
 he frequently made short excursions to the parishes 
 and convents of the neighbourhood, partly to occupy 
 his mind, and partly for the sake of his health ; seek- 
 ing, at the same time, to accustom himself to preaching. 
 The time, however, was approaching when a wider 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 51 
 
 sphere of action was to open around him. His evi- 
 dently great abilities, his eloquence, his various learn- 
 ing, together with the austere purity of his morals, 
 which had procured for him the universal respect of 
 the people of Wittenberg, recommended him to the 
 notice of Frederic, the elector of Saxony ; and when, 
 in the year 1508, that enlightened prince established 
 the University of Wittenberg, by the advice of Staupitz, 
 he invited Luther to be one of the professors. 
 
 To the duties of this new situation he applied him- 
 self with exemplary diligence. He devoted much time 
 to the study of the Greek and Hebrew languages, and 
 daily lectured upon the Holy Scriptures. He began 
 with the book of Psalms, and then proceeded to St. 
 Paul's Epistle to the Romans. In lecturing upon this 
 latter portion of sacred writ, he spoke under the influ- 
 ence of strong personal emotion. He had himself felt 
 the power of the truths which he had to expound, and 
 he knew their value and sweetness. He appeared 
 before the attendants on his lectures, not as a rhetori- 
 cian who coloured his words* to make them acceptable, 
 but as a scribe well instructed unto the kingdom of 
 
 * In Luther's days, the " liberal arts" were supposed to be 
 seven. They were divided into two classes, three in one, four 
 in the other. These classes were respectively called the Trivium, 
 and the Quadrivium. The division is marked out in the follow- 
 ing lines : — 
 
 Gram, loquitur ; Dia. verba docet ; Rhe. verba colorat : 
 
 Mus. canit ; Ar. numerat ; Geo. ponderat ; As. colit astra. 
 
 Grammar speaks ; Logic teaches to use words ; and Rhetoric 
 to colour them. 
 
 Music sings ; Arithmetic reckons ; Geometry weighs ; Astro, 
 nomy studies the stare. 
 
52 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 God, speaking from the fulness of his heart. So ably 
 was he considered to discharge the duties of his ap- 
 pointment, that his fame went abroad throughout Ger- 
 many, and attracted pupils from all parts of the country. 
 The very professors attended Luther's lectures. One 
 of the most eminent among them (Mellerstadt) said of 
 him, " This monk will put all the doctors to the rout ; 
 he will introduce a new style of doctrine, and will 
 reform the whole church. He builds upon the word 
 of Christ ; and no one in this world can either resist 
 or overthrow that word, though it should be attacked 
 by the weapons of philosophers, sophists, Scotists, 
 Albertists, and Thomists." 
 
 Staupitz also pressed him to preach. Luther already 
 felt the greatness of the work of the pulpit, and shrunk 
 from it, ably as he discharged the duties of the pro- 
 fessor's chair. " It is no light thing," said he, " to 
 speak to men in God's stead." He yielded, however, 
 and crowds soon nocked to hear him. He was in 
 earnest ; he preached precisely those truths which 
 always find their way to the heart ; and, encumbered 
 as they yet were by " the wood, and the hay, and the 
 stubble," yet spoken, warmly and colloquially, by one 
 whose object was, not to attract attention to himself, 
 but to awaken a right feeling in his hearers, they 
 produced, to a very considerable extent, the effect 
 which he contemplated. Even Bossuet acknowledges 
 that " he had a lively and impetuous eloquence, which 
 delighted and captivated his auditory." Thus, at the 
 age of twenty-seven, was the youthful student, profes 
 sor, and preacher occupied, obtaining for himself gene- 
 ral approbation and esteem, and especially the entire 
 confidence of his own order, among whom he dwelt ; 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 53 
 
 for he was still an Augustine monk. The Jesuit 
 Maimbourg himself acknowledges that " he acquitted 
 himself in his various engagements so as to gain great 
 applause, and to render himself considerable among 
 his brethren." Providence was preparing him for a 
 great work. The seeds of divine knowledge were 
 sown in his heart, and the effect was a powerful, 
 honest, uncompromising attachment to the truth ; so 
 that he stood ready to admit whatever truth presented, 
 and to cast away whatever truth condemned. And 
 thus did he become, ultimately, the honoured instru- 
 ment of directing the attention of the nations to the 
 true bread of immortal life, the food without which 
 they die. 
 
54 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 In the year 1510 Luther visited Rome, being de- 
 puted by his brethren of the Augustinian order to attend 
 the pope on their behalf, and arrange before him cer- 
 tain differences which had arisen between them and 
 the vicar-general of the pontificate. Astounded at 
 the pomp and prodigality which reigned in the Papal 
 court, and greatly revolted by the indecorum and licen- 
 tiousness which prevailed among the clergy, as well 
 as by their careless and indecent manner of performing 
 the public services of the church, his first definite con- 
 ception of ecclesiastical abuses may be dated from 
 this epoch. Upon all occasions throughout his after- 
 life, he affirmed the scenes he witnessed in this jour- 
 ney had filled him with horror and amazement. " At 
 Rome," he says, " I heard them say mass in such a man- 
 ner that I detest them : for at the communion-table I 
 heard courtesans laugh and boast of their wickedness ; 
 and others, concerning the bread and wine of the altar, 
 saying, ' Bread thou art, and bread thou shalt remain ; 
 wine thou art, and wine thou shalt remain.'" He 
 adds, that the effect on his own feelings of what he 
 then saw of the depraved condition of the church was 
 such as he would not have foregone for a thousand 
 florins. But for the scandalous exhibitions which 
 then met his eye, it is possible that the preaching 
 of indulgences by Tetzel, some few years after- 
 ward, in Saxony, might not have forced upon him 
 so keen a sense of the effrontery and flagrant impiety 
 of the pope, in sanctioning such practices upon the 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 55 
 
 credulity of the populace, — practices which tended yet 
 more effectually to vitiate their morals than to drain 
 their purses. 
 
 While at Rome, he several times said mass himself, 
 and went through the service with the seriousness 
 with which the truly devout mind engages in all the 
 services of religion, much more in those which it 
 believes to be the most solemn. On these occasions, 
 however, the Italian priests laughed at the simplicity 
 of the German monk, who appeared to be a believer 
 in earnest ; and they even called upon him to hasten 
 his performance, and in language proving the heartless 
 infidelity which reigned among them. " Quick, quick," 
 said one of the priests ; " send our lady her son back 
 speedily !" 
 
 One of the most remarkable occurrences, however, 
 of this visit to Rome, was that which produced a deep- 
 ened impression of the indissoluble connection between 
 peace of mind and living faith in Christ. 
 
 One day, wishing to obtain an indulgence promised 
 by the pope to any one who should ascend Pilate's 
 staircase on his knees, the poor Saxon monk was 
 slowly climbing the steps, which he was told had been 
 miraculously transported from Jerusalem to Rome. 
 While he was going through this work, to which his 
 yet only partially-liberated mind ascribed some degree 
 of merit, the words, "The just shall live by faith," 
 were applied with great light and power to his inmost 
 soul. He was struck with shame at his own supersti- 
 tion and debasement, started up, and fled from the scene 
 of his folly, leaving the work unfinished. But the 
 impression remained. He saw more clearly than ever, 
 that the believed gospel was the power of God to actual 
 
56 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 salvation, — to pardon, and peace, and holiness ; and thus 
 did he return from Rome possessing that weapon by 
 which alone the might of Rome could be subdued, and 
 the pride of Rome brought down. 
 
 In the month of October, 1512, by desire, and at the 
 charge, of the elector Frederic, Luther was invested 
 with the degree of doctor of divinity. This honour 
 he at first objected to receive, on the ground of his 
 youth ; but his scruples were overruled by some of 
 his friends in the university, who persuaded him, pro- 
 bably with very little apprehension of the emphatic 
 truth of their prediction, that " he must submit to be 
 thus dignified, because the Almighty had signal services 
 to be performed by his instrumentality in the church.'''' 
 Stimulated to increased diligence and exertion by 
 this new elevation, he persevered in his devotion to 
 the study of the Scriptures, and gained additional 
 esteem among his learned contemporaries, by his Com- 
 mentaries on the Psalms, and the Epistle to the 
 Romans. Especially by these works he commended 
 himself to the more favourable regard of the Saxon 
 prince-elector ; a man whose fine sagacity appreci- 
 ated the extraordinary energy of Luther's character, 
 and perhaps, to some extent, anticipated the result of 
 his labours and indomitable probity of mind. 
 
 From his letters, written in the year 1516, we learn 
 that he then acted as vicar of the Augustine fraternity, 
 in Thuringia and Misnia ; a promotion which he most 
 likely owed to the good offices of his friend Staupitz, 
 the principal of the convent at Wittenberg. In the 
 discharge of his vicarial functions, he became known 
 to George of Saxony, successor to the elector Fre- 
 deric, before whom he preached at Dresden. In the 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 57 
 
 course of the same year he made his first appearance 
 as a controversial writer, having engaged in a dissen- 
 sion with Jodocus, his former tutor at Erfurt, relative 
 to the Aristotelian system of philosophy. So bitterly 
 did his opponent resent the inexpiable sin of disputing 
 the authority of Aristotle, that when Luther next visited 
 Erfurt, he refused to hold any intercourse with a 
 person who had so grievously offended. In this case 
 Luther's conduct was marked by the same fearless 
 spirit, and unswerving honesty, which characterized 
 his whole career. The estrangement of his friend 
 could not deter him from speaking out what he believed 
 to be the truth. He wrote a second letter to the Erfurt 
 professor, which is remarkable, not merely for its feli- 
 citous expression, its tone of forcible expostulation, 
 and veiled contempt for the unreasonable acerbity and 
 prejudice of his antagonist, but still more so, as dis- 
 closing the first preconception of the great work of 
 renovation which he was destined to accomplish. In 
 this letter he observes, with singular emphasis, that 
 although the church stood in need of being extensively 
 reformed, that reformation could never be effected until 
 the whole process and scheme of education, then pre- 
 valent in Christendom, should be amended. 
 
 Within twelve months from the date of this corres- 
 pondence, Luther set up his famous propositions. Leo 
 X., impatient for the completion of the great metropoli- 
 tan edifice at Rome, was not content with merely 
 authorizing the public sale of indulgences, but, with a 
 view to expedite the enrichment of his coffers, he hit 
 upon an expedient which would have far better suited 
 the genius of a Hebrew stock-jobber, than it consisted 
 with the responsibilities and station of a grave and 
 3* 
 
58 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 sovereign ecclesiastic. The details of the whole 
 transaction were, to the last degree, infamous. Let- 
 ting out the different countries of Europe to the highest 
 bidder, he received a price beforehand for the exclu- 
 sive right to dispose of these dispensations within 
 certain districts. The arrangement was precisely 
 similar to that which in this country is daily entered 
 into between commissioners of the high-road and the 
 lessees of turnpikes, the former party assigning to the 
 renter the tolls accruing within a specified period, in 
 consideration of a stipulated sum of money being paid 
 in advance. The inevitable tendency of this vicious 
 and disgraceful proceeding, this farming-out of the 
 spiritual tollage of the Christian world, was to exaspe- 
 rate the avarice, and degrade the character, of those 
 clerical dignitaries who were rich enough to purchase 
 the privilege of selling the pontifical pardons. Apart 
 from all preliminary considerations of the iniquitous 
 delusion upon which it based, the entire bargain, 
 regarded as a simple matter of business, was, in fact, 
 a mere and most execrable piece of gambling. Albert, 
 archbishop of Magdeburg, who was also hereditary 
 elector of Mentz, an astute and not unlearned prelate, 
 but whose covetousness appears to have, in this in- 
 stance, overreached his foresight, had contracted for 
 the sale of dispensations throughout Germany, in the 
 hope, doubtless, of deriving from it an ample compen- 
 sation for his advance to the pope. With the appro- 
 bation of Leo, he nominated as commissaries for the 
 disposal of the indulgences, two Dominican friars, 
 Accumboldo, and John Tetzel, — men whose names 
 are saved from oblivion only by the importance of the 
 results which their acts mainly assisted to develop. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 59 
 
 Both of these agents were persons of gross ignorance, 
 and notorious depravity of conduct. In that age of 
 abandoned churchmen, it would probably have been 
 difficult to find a more accomplished specimen of the 
 general corruption, insolence, and moral worthlessness 
 of the Romish priesthood, than was Tetzel. Con- 
 victed, some years before, of adultery, under circum- 
 stances of peculiar aggravation, he had been condemned 
 to be thrown into the river Inn ; and was reprieved only 
 at the intercession of the elector Frederic. Profligate 
 in their manners, as they were unprincipled in heart 
 and life, the very terms in which these unworthy com- 
 missaries announced their mission were revolting and 
 indecent. Among other things, they published that 
 their commission was so large as to afford impunity 
 even to one who should violate (if that were possible) 
 the " mother of God " herself ! In short, it is hard to 
 say which was the more shocking, the blasphemous ab- 
 surdity of their pretensions, or the brutal obscenity of 
 imagination indicated by the language in which those 
 pretensions were couched. 
 
 That the appearance of such men, claiming to be 
 clothed with such plenary authority from their ecclesi- 
 astical superior, and making such indecorous pro- 
 clamation, should have stirred the anger of the consci- 
 entious and devout Luther, occasions no surprise. 
 The wonder is rather that, spite of the numerous abuses 
 which had overgrown the Roman doctrine and cere- 
 monial, the whole body of the German clergy should 
 not have risen as one man to protest against this 
 odious and glaring impiety. Luther, indeed, would 
 seem to have at first persuaded himself that Tet- 
 zel and his colleague had exceeded their commis- 
 
CO 
 
 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 sion; and that neither the supreme pontiff, nor the 
 territorial diocesan, were cognizant of their publica- 
 tions. Unaware of the negotiation which had taken 
 place between the prince-archbishop and the Roman 
 see, he looked upon the actual dispensers of the far- 
 famed indulgences as bringing, by their monstrous 
 declarations, a gratuitous reproach upon religion, and 
 offending hardly less against the canons of the church 
 than against the law of God. It is to be remembered 
 that at the time in question, and for long after, Luther 
 had no thought of separation from communion with 
 the Roman Church. He still held in awe the existing 
 ecclesiastical constitution, and had never suffered him- 
 self to doubt of the legitimate sovereignty of the suc- 
 cessors of St. Peter. That he also clung at this 
 period to some general notion of the infallibility of the 
 church is tolerably certain ; though it is worthy of 
 observation, that he appears to have considered that 
 infallibility to have resided, not (as has since been 
 contended) in the individual pope for the time being, 
 but in the decretals and declared opinions of the an- 
 cient councils. This, no doubt, was the original shape 
 of the doctrine ; — a doctrine indeed which, in any 
 shape, is open to most serious objection ; but which, 
 under this mitigated and more reasonable aspect, does 
 not involve the frightful consequences that would flow 
 from an admission of its other and more dangerous 
 form. 
 
 Tetzel had been forbidden by the princes of Saxony, 
 who were indignant at his shameful traffic, to enter 
 their dominions ; but he approached as nearly as pos- 
 sible, and set up what was, in fact, his booth and stall, 
 at Juterboch, distant only four miles from Wittenberg. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 61 
 
 The people flocked there in crowds ; for the indulgence 
 promised relief from indefinite suffering, and was 
 scarcely distinguishable from (we fear was not intend- 
 ed to be distinguished from) the most absolute pardon. 
 And thus was the matter brought to a crisis. Luther's 
 views of ecclesiastical power placed it, not in su- 
 premacy, but in subordination. With him, salvation 
 by the grace of God, through the merit of Christ, to be 
 apprehended and appropriated by faith, was the princi- 
 ple to which the whole system of confession, penance, 
 and absolution was but the appendage. Whatever 
 became of the last, the first was to be maintained. 
 
 This was the state of his mind when the matter was 
 brought before him in a practical form, calling for dis- 
 tinct and immediate decision. One day he was in the 
 confessional at Wittenberg. Several residents of the 
 town presented themselves, who confessed they had 
 been guilty of great irregularities ; but to the exhorta- 
 tions of the confessor they replied by pleading the 
 indulgences they had purchased. He immediately 
 began to dissuade them from the confidence he at once 
 saw they were reposing in these ecclesiastical licenses ; 
 and they, some angry that what they had purchased 
 should be of such little value, others alarmed lest what 
 they had rested upon should fail them, hastened back 
 to Tetzel, and told him that one of the Augustine 
 monks had been warning them against his letters. 
 Tetzel was enraged, and, even in the pulpit, used the 
 most fearful expressions on the subject ; declaring 
 that he was ordered by the pope to burn the heretic* 
 who should dare to oppose these holy indulgences. 
 
 Thus commenced the Reformation. In these 
 apparently trivial circumstances began one of the 
 
I 
 
 62 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 mightiest and most momentous changes that the world 
 had ever witnessed. These were the beginning, says 
 Melancthon, of this controversy, in which Luther 
 dreamed not of the changes that would ensue.* 
 
 At the same time, it is evident that Luther could 
 not conceal from himself, the moment he considered 
 the subject practically, the unscriptural nature and 
 abomination of the practice of granting indulgences. 
 He therefore resolved to raise his voice in his place 
 in the university against the revival of this imposition. 
 He likewise wrote two letters, one to the bishop of the 
 diocess, the other to the archiepiscopal prince of Mentz, 
 within whose jurisdiction Tetzel was carrying on his 
 nefarious traffic ; pointing out the demoralizing ten- 
 dency of such a commerce, and supplicating their inter- 
 ference to put a stop to it. Receiving no answer to 
 either of these communications, and strong in his con- 
 viction that the right and truth were with him, he 
 resolved to have recourse to means more decisive than 
 mere personal remonstrances and cautions to those 
 with whom he was immediately connected. 
 
 Accordingly, he ascended the pulpit, and though 
 affectionately, yet with great fidelity, warned the peo- 
 ple against trusting to these indulgences, and neglect- 
 ing the weightier matters of the divine law. His 
 hearers were much affected by his discourse, which 
 was printed, read with eagerness, and produced a deep 
 impression. Tetzel, however, continued both his traffic 
 and abuse ; and this led to what was, decidedly, the 
 first open act of the Reformation. The feast of All- 
 Saints was a very important day at Wittenberg, as the 
 
 * Hsec initia fuerunt hujus controversial, in qua Lutherus nihil 
 suspicans aut somnians d© futura mutatione rituum, etc. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 63 
 
 church which the elector had built was well stored 
 with relics ; and whoever on that day visited it and 
 confessed himself, obtained a plenary indulgence. To 
 this church Luther boldly repaired on this celebrated 
 day, October 31st, 1517, and affixed to the door ninety- 
 five theses, or propositions, against indulgences ; thus, 
 in the usual way, challenging discussion on the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 In these " conclusions" the light which had shone 
 on Luther's own mind was plainly apparent ; but as 
 yet, in himself, it was mingled with much obscurity, and 
 even error. Doctrines, however, were now propounded 
 to the people which threatened the whole Papal sys- 
 tem, though he who propounded them saw not as yet 
 whither they tended. 
 
 Thus he says, — 
 
 VI. " The pope cannot remit any condemnation ; 
 but can only declare and confirm the remission that 
 God himself has given, except only in cases that be- 
 long to him. If he does otherwise, the condemnation 
 continues the same." 
 
 VIII. " The laws of ecclesiastical penance can only 
 be imposed on the living, and in no wise respect the 
 dead." 
 
 XXV. "The same power that the pope has over 
 purgatory in the church at large, is possessed by every 
 bishop and every curate in his own particular diocess 
 and parish." 
 
 XXXVII. " Every true Christian, dead or living, is 
 a partaker of all the riches of Christ, or of the church, 
 by the gift of God, and without any letter of indul- 
 gence." 
 
 XXXVIII. " Yet we must not despise the pope's 
 
64 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 distributive and pardoning power ; for his pardon is a 
 declaration of God's pardon." 
 
 XCIV. " We must exhort Christians to endeavour 
 to follow Christ, their Head, under the cross, through 
 death and hell." 
 
 XCV. " For it is better through much tribulation to 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven, than to gain a carnal 
 serenity by the consolations of a false peace." 
 
 Some of these " conclusions " show what were the 
 practices of the venders of Papal indulgences, and the 
 pitch of corruption to which the whole systemhad arisen. 
 
 XXVII. " Those persons preach human inventions 
 who pretend that, at the very moment when the money 
 sounds in the strong box, the soul escapes from pur- 
 gatory." 
 
 XXXII. " Those who fancy themselves sure of 
 their salvation by indulgences, will go to the devil with 
 those who teach them this doctrine." 
 
 XLII. " We must teach Christians that the pope 
 neither expects nor wishes us to compare the act of 
 preaching indulgences with any charitable work what- 
 soever." 
 
 XLIII. "We must teach Christians, that he who 
 gives to the poor, or lends to the needy, does better 
 than he who buys an indulgence." 
 
 XLV. " We must teach Christians, that he who 
 sees his neighbour in want, and, notwithstanding that, 
 buys an indulgence, does not in reality acquire the 
 pope's indulgence, and draws down on himself the 
 anger of God." 
 
 LIII. " They are the enemies of the pope and of 
 Christ, who, to favour the preaching of indulgences 
 forbid the preaching of the word of God." 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 65 
 
 The general tendency of these propositions was 
 evidently not merely to weaken the effect of the in- 
 dulgences, but to expose their fraudulent character, 
 and at the same time to weaken the very foundations 
 of the authority whence they were supposed to be 
 derived. In the protest with which the paper was 
 connected, Luther declared that he put forth his theses 
 only as doubtful propositions, in respect to which he 
 solicited the information of the learned. He like- 
 wise added (what was, indeed, an established cus- 
 tom on such occasions) a solemn declaration, that 
 he did not wish to say or affirm anything that was 
 not founded on the Holy Scriptures, the fathers of the 
 church, and the rights and decretals of the court of 
 Rome. 
 
 These propositions, thus accompanied, after they 
 had been affixed to the door of the church, he forthwith 
 printed, and put them in free circulation. And now it 
 was that the wonderful power of the press became 
 evident. Had it not been for this, a few copies in 
 manuscript would have been circulated, and after 
 the excitement of the moment, the whole matter would 
 have subsided into its fonner quiescence. But copies 
 were multiplied, and created for themselves an in- 
 creasing demand. Their power increased by moving 
 onward, and soon was their influence felt, where only 
 the press could have made it felt, through the entire 
 mass of the community. 
 
 Luther himself had no conception of the effects 
 which his publication produced. He saw an actually- 
 existing evil in the manner in which indulgences were 
 preached and received, and against that evil, and that 
 alone, he resolutely addressed himself. As far as he 
 
66 LIFE OF MARTIN LtJTHER. 
 
 knew the truth, he was resolved to follow it ; and it 
 was this which led him onward. In his mind, submis- 
 sion to truth was one part of submission to the will of 
 God. It was an essential branch of religion. With 
 him truth was not only not to be opposed, but not even 
 to be concealed. 
 
 Luther, therefore, did not suppose that he was 
 attacking the church, or calling the pope to account. 
 He appears sincerely to have believed that, by these 
 indulgences, not only was the religion of simple-hearted 
 people, but the credit of the pope, endangered. As to 
 the low falsehood invented by some enemies of Luther 
 after his death, and which even Cardinal Pallavicini 
 calls a calumny, that Luther's opposition originated 
 in his jealousy, as a Franciscan, of the Dominicans, 
 whose order had the German market for indulgences ; 
 it will be sufficient thus to mention it, and to say that 
 it is one of those calumnies which no opponent, having 
 any regard for his own character, or seeking to obtain 
 hearers except among those whom superstition has 
 first blinded and then brutalized, will attempt to revive. 
 Luther sought to remedy a present evil ; but he went 
 into the contest with a perfectly honest mind, resolved 
 to follow the truth whithersoever it might lead him. 
 Speaking afterward of these transactions, he called 
 God to witness that he had engaged in them as by 
 mere accident, and not by any preconceived plan.* 
 
 Still, this publication of his theses was an act which, 
 if we take into account the array of influence and 
 power by which he saw that the system of indulgences 
 was supported, has seldom been paralleled for moral 
 
 * " Casu enim, non voluntate nee studio, in has turbas incidi ; 
 Detim ipsum tester." 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 67 
 
 intrepidity and decision. The far-seeing monk could 
 not but perceive the possibility of a collision where a 
 collision was most to be dreaded, and where his own 
 feelings would most desire to avoid it. But his was 
 the true courage which fearlessly attended to present 
 duty, leaving the future in the hands of God. 
 
 It may further be remarked of these " conclusions," 
 that the whole series is throughout written with con- 
 spicuous ability. Of all the propositions, characterized 
 as they uniformly are by a peculiar felicity and strength 
 of diction, the most pungent, as well as that which 
 best illustrates the fearlessness and generous energy 
 of the man, is one in which he declares, that as to the 
 building of St. Peter's by the profits arising from the 
 distribution of indulgences, the pope, who was " richer 
 than the richest Crassus," could, if he pleased, finish 
 it with his own funds : but that even if he had not the 
 means of completing the church, it would be far better 
 to sell it as it stood, for the relief of those who, for its 
 erection, were defrauded into the purchase of worth- 
 less and ineffectual dispensations, or to burn the whole 
 pile to the ground, than thus to build it up with the 
 blood and substance of the poor. 
 
 Tetzel, who, when these celebrated propositions 
 issued from the press^ was at Frankfort, acting as in- 
 quisitor, and prosecuting his trade in pardons, exaspe- 
 rated at the tenor of a document which threatened to 
 deprive him of his occupation, and still more by the 
 opprobrium which Luther had publicly cast upon him, 
 published a set of counter propositions, in which, says 
 Luther, " he maintained the most insolent and impious 
 doctrines relative to the infallibility and pretended 
 power of the pope, and railed against heresiarchs, by 
 
68 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 which title he designated me and my friends ; winding 
 up his insolence by publicly burning my theses in 
 Frankfort." 
 
 Among the counter theses which Tetzel put forth, 
 and declared himself ready to defend, are the follow- 
 ing :— 
 
 III. " Christians should be taught, that the pope, in 
 the plenitude of his power, is superior to the universal 
 church, and superior to councils ; and that entire sub- 
 mission is due to his decrees." 
 
 IV. " Christians should be taught, that the pope 
 alone has the right to decide in questions of Christian 
 doctrine ; that he alone, and no other, has power to 
 explain, according to his judgment, the sense of Holy 
 Scripture, and to approve or condemn the words and 
 works of others." 
 
 V. " Christians should be taught, that the judgment 
 of the pope, in things pertaining to Christian doctrine 
 and necessary to the salvation of mankind, can in no 
 case err." 
 
 XVII. " Christians should be taught, that there are 
 many things which the church regards as certain arti- 
 cles of the Catholic faith, although they are not found 
 either in the inspired Scripture or in the early fathers." 
 
 No sooner did the news of the scorn which had 
 been put upon their eminent and revered instructer 
 come to the ears of the students at Wittenberg, than 
 they assembled in great numbers, and retaliated upon 
 '"etzel, by committing his publication to the flames, 
 amid the cheers and hootings of many of the older 
 citizens. " I was not grieved," Luther adds, " that 
 such a collection of extravagance and absurdity met 
 with its just fate ; but I did regret the manner in which 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 69 
 
 the thing was done ; and solemnly affirm that I knew no- 
 thing of it, neither did the elector or the magistrates." 
 Other opponents now began to take the field against 
 Luther. Foremost among them was John Eck, vice- 
 chancellor of the university of Ingolstadt, a town in 
 Bavaria. The virulence of this personage's eloquent, 
 but not very argumentative, attack, however, rendered 
 it innocuous to any but his own party. Luther treated 
 him with profound and merited contempt. Another 
 assailant, and one who, if not much more formidable 
 in point of argument, was so, at least, in virtue of his 
 official station, was Sylvester Prierias, also a Domini- 
 can, and master of the apostolical palace at Rome, 
 part of whose duty consisted in the licensing of books. 
 With the arrogance and supercilious complacency 
 proper to his censorial functions, Prierias summa- 
 rily disposed of the Wittenberg memorial, by pro- 
 nouncing all its arguments to be alike heretical. In 
 his reply, Luther, with admirable skill, exposes the 
 exquisite silliness and impertinence of thus concluding 
 a question, ex cathedrd and in limine ; which, however, 
 he observes, in recurring to this passage of his history, 
 "is the usual method of reasoning on the part of the 
 Roman tyrants." He laid down in this production 
 two noble principles. " The first is this passage of 
 St Paul : ' If any one preach unto you another gospel 
 than that is preached, though he should be an angel 
 from heaven, let him be accursed.' The second is 
 from St. Augustine writing to Jerome : ' I have learn- 
 ed to render to the inspired Scriptures alone the 
 homage of a firm belief that they have never erred ; 
 as to others, I do not believe in the things they teach, 
 simply because it is they who teach them.' " He con- 
 
70 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 eludes his reply by referring to the threatening lan- 
 guage which Prierias had used : " You say that the 
 pope is both pontiff and emperor, and that he can em- 
 ploy the secular arm to compel obedience. Do you 
 thirst for blood, then ? I protest to you that these 
 rodomontades and menaces of yours give me not the 
 slightest alarm. For what if I were to lose my life 1 
 Christ still lives ; Christ, my Lord, and the Lord of 
 all, blessed for ever. Amen." This was the secret 
 of Luther's courage from first to last. He most en- 
 tirely saw and felt that the truth advocated by him 
 was not his, but Christ's ; and he as much believed in 
 the actual defence of truth by the power of Christ, as 
 though he had every moment had the glorious vision 
 present with him of the heavens opened, and Christ 
 Jesus sitting at the right hand of God, and there, in 
 calm but resistless majesty, maintaining his own cause. 
 The apostolical licenser, so far from being silenced 
 by the castigation he had received, put forth a second 
 and still more objectionable pamphlet ; in which he 
 contended not only that the Papal authority was su- 
 perior to that of councils, and the ancient canons of 
 the church, but also that the true interpretation of the 
 sacred writings themselves was altogether dependant 
 upon the mere dictum of the pope. To such blas- 
 phemy and unflinching imposture, Luther avers that 
 he deemed it unnecessary to give any further answer ; 
 contenting himself with a brief and pithy declara- 
 tion, that the book of Prierias was, from beginning 
 to end, so totally made up of impiety and falsehood, 
 that it could only have been written at the instigation 
 of the devil, if, indeed, Satan was not its veritable 
 author ; and that if the pope and cardinals approved 
 

 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 71 
 
 of such productions, Rome must surely be the seat 
 of all abominations, and the synagogue of antichrist. 
 " Blasphemous, dissolute, and unhappy Rome," he ex- 
 claimed, " the wrath of God, which thou hast deeply 
 merited, is come upon thee ; thou habitation of impuri- 
 ties, and very pantheon of impiety !" 
 
 The next adversary who entered the lists upon the 
 side of Papacy was a certain long-breathed and very 
 dull writer, who laboured under the ponderous name of 
 Hoogenstraaten. This priest, we apprehend, must 
 have been afflicted with a constitutional itching for 
 disputation. With as little knowledge of the sub- 
 jects he assumed to deal with as ever a poor intellect 
 brought to a forlorn undertaking, he could not refrain 
 from thrusting his barren lucubrations into collision 
 with the efforts of the mightiest spirits of his age. It 
 was not Luther alone upon whose path he foisted the 
 leaden abortions of his brain ; nor did he confine his 
 labours to polemical divinity. Other distinguished 
 writers, and, among the rest, Erasmus, were honoured 
 with his controversial hostility. He was one of those 
 literal-minded, narrow-hearted compounds of frozen 
 stolidity, to whom the solemn pedantries and congenial 
 prejudices of an outworn system are an inheritance 
 and birthright ; about whom they cling as an appropri- 
 ate garment ; and who, by original defect of sensi- 
 bility, are precluded from all sympathy with noble im- 
 pulses and liberal thought. More honest, as of blunter 
 faculties, and fully more bitter than were his coadju- 
 tors, he recommended to the pope to reconvert Luther 
 by imprisonment and fire ; it never having occurred to 
 him that the disparity of intellectual grasp and vigor 
 between himself and Luther inferred, a priori, a pro- 
 
72 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 bability of the latter being right, while he was in the 
 wrong. A greater power of stringing together sen- 
 tences of obscure meaning and no worth, never man 
 possessed than did Hoogenstraaten. If he had written 
 his own somewhat ominous appellation over and over 
 again, some thousands of times, his volumes would 
 have been of about the same value to the Roman hie- 
 rarchy, and, in all likelihood, just as long remembered 
 in the world of letters. 
 
 The list of the reformer's earliest antagonists closes 
 with the names of Enisen, — an author whose asperi- 
 ties were abundantly countervailed by his insignifi- 
 cance, and who is now generally forgotten, — and the 
 cardinal Cajetan, of whom we shall have more to say 
 hereafter. To all of these Luther responded at much 
 length, and with a store of Scriptural and theological 
 learning which was, for the time, even more extraor- 
 dinary than were the logical force, the breadth of illus- 
 tration, and singular variety of intelligence, which his 
 polemical works exhibit. In reviewing the produc- 
 tions of tins first set of opponents to the incipient Re- 
 formation, it is really curious to observe with what 
 extreme feebleness, what spiteful imbecility and fatu- 
 ous self-exposure, they conducted the vindication of 
 their cause, and avowed themselves the champions of 
 that ignorance and servile bigotry which their writings 
 betokened. "I know not," says Erasmus, in one of 
 his epistles, " how it has happened ; but certain it is, 
 that they who first contended against him were not 
 less the foes of learning than of Luther. Hence the 
 friends of learning were the less adverse to him, be- 
 cause, by aiding his adversaries, they would have done 
 injury to their own cause." 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 73 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Luther was now in his thirty-fifth year. He had 
 published his theses concerning indulgences, and the 
 loud and angry replies that were immediately poured 
 forth proved that the arrow which the monk had sent 
 forth at a venture had struck between the joints of the 
 harness, and inflicted a wound, if not on a vital, yet on 
 an extremely-sensitive part. Before entering on the 
 description of the contests that followed, of the extent 
 and consequences of which it is plain that he had no- 
 thing like an adequate conception, it will be proper to 
 consider the principles on which he acted, and the ob- 
 jects at which he aimed. The labours of the man 
 will be enveloped in complete obscurity, unless the 
 man himself, as he really was at this period of his life, 
 be well understood. 
 
 That he was a Christian, in the highest sense of 
 the term, the foregoing narrative will have evinced : 
 he was possessed, therefore, of godly sincerity. He 
 not only believed that he was right, — that is, he was 
 no hypocrite, — but, which is far more important, he 
 aesired and intended to be right. He was willing to 
 do the will of God, and therefore he was anxious 
 to know it. He believed that the opinions he had 
 formed were correct, and when assailed, he defended 
 them ; but he defended them because he regarded 
 them as portions of divine truth, not because they were 
 his own. Nor is this distinction a merely verbal one. 
 He who defends his opinions because they are his, 
 maintains the position which he occupies for the sake 
 4 
 
74 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 of the honour which he connects with successful argu- 
 ment. He contends for victory ; he is prompted by 
 pride. And the means which he employs will be in 
 no small degree influenced by the end which he seeks. 
 Aiming at victory rather than truth, the arguments he 
 uses will be such as appear calculated to secure the 
 one, rather than to discover the other. But he who 
 defends his opinions because he believes them to be 
 portions of divinely-revealed truth, defends them be- 
 cause of their intrinsic excellence and value ; and 
 therefore he will always be ready to listen to the argu- 
 ments which seem to show that he is mistaken. He 
 contends for the truth because he loves the truth ; and 
 he loves the truth because he knows that nothing else 
 can impart heavenly wisdom, and contribute to the real 
 well-being of the immortal mind. He will neither be 
 changeable nor obstinate. What he believes to be 
 the truth, he will always have the courage to main- 
 tain ; what he discovers to be error, he will always 
 have the honesty to renounce. 
 
 Such at this time was Luther. To know the truth 
 for himself, and to make the truth known to others, 
 were the governing desires, they might almost be 
 called, the ruling passions, of his whole soul. 
 
 And the truth which he desired to know and teach, 
 he sought in its proper source, the Holy Scriptures. 
 These he studied for himself; these he laboured to 
 explain to others. When his own opinions were as- 
 sailed, the Scriptures furnished him with weapons of 
 defence ; and when he became the assailant, they 
 supplied weapons of attack. " To the law and the 
 testimony" was his unwavering appeal. The Bible 
 was for him both the fountain and standard of truth. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 75 
 
 When called to the combat, he was careful to " fight 
 the good fight of faith," and not less careful to com- 
 bat with " the sword of the Spirit, which is the word 
 of God." 
 
 But the most important aspect of Luther's character 
 yet remains to be considered. In saying that he was 
 truly a spiritual man, — that he was under the gospel 
 what such as Nathanael were under the law, " Israel- 
 ites indeed, in whom was no guile," — we say no more 
 than may be said of many who lived and died in the 
 communion of the Roman Church. The celebrated 
 Thomas a Kempis may be mentioned as belonging to 
 a very important class of religionists, sincerely devoted 
 to the service of God. But, while their piety was 
 undoubted, their sentiments on some most important 
 subjects were exceedingly incorrect. The system to 
 which they belonged almost unavoidably occasioned 
 this. The doctrines of penance and absolution can 
 scarcely fail of diverting the attention from the great 
 evangelical method of a sinner's justification, forensic- 
 ally considered ; and as neither the practice of penance 
 nor the reception of absolution was sufficient to give 
 peace to the sincere and awakened conscience, other 
 methods were sought which gave to the whole piety a 
 distinctive character. To the law of God, such men 
 as Kempis devoutly attended ; and their remarks and 
 directions on subjects connected with obedience and 
 self-denial are often not only correct but invaluable. 
 But even their obedience did not give them peace ; 
 for, as they went on to know more of the law, and 
 more of themselves, the imperfection of their best per- 
 formances was continually before them, and the peace 
 they found not in doing, they sought, but not more sue- 
 
76 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 cessfully, in suffering. They sought, in fact, to make 
 atonement for their own sins, and by physical austeri- 
 ties utterly to subdue the motions of the flesh. 
 
 This, at first, was Luther's state ; and we have not 
 only seen the fact, but the method, of his deliverance. 
 He was led to study the gospel as well as the law, 
 and to acquaint himself with the differences between 
 them. He had fully entered into the subject opened 
 to the mind by such declarations as, " By grace ye 
 are saved ;" and, " Being justified by faith, we 
 
 HAVE PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JeSUS 
 
 Christ." He considered the atonement of Christ as 
 the only foundation of a sinner's hope, and studied it, 
 therefore, both deeply and practically. He had a clear 
 and distinct perception of the revelation of the expi- 
 atory and vicarious character of the sufferings of 
 Christ ; and, following out the doctrine in all its Scrip- 
 tural ramifications, he had arrived at what he after- 
 ward called "the article of a standing or falling 
 church," that as without pardon there could be no 
 peace of conscience, so pardon itself was the free and 
 most merciful gift of God, which the penitent sinner 
 was to receive by faith in Christ, and which by that 
 faith alone he could receive. Faith, he saw, was re- 
 quired, because that faith was the distinct acknow- 
 ledgment that pardon was given for the sake of 
 Christ's atonement. By this faith Luther had himself 
 found the peace and the power which asceticism had 
 never been able to convey ; and in this faith he con- 
 tinued to live, as in this faith he eventually expired. 
 
 It was to be expected, therefore, that to this great 
 subject his preaching and teaching should bear expli- 
 cit, faithful, and constant testimony. And thus it was. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 77 
 
 His works are characterized by it ; and he deals with 
 the subject with an earnestness which proves the over- 
 whelming importance which he attached to it. A few 
 citations from one of the best-known English transla- 
 tions of his works, his " Commentary on the Epistle to 
 the Galatians," will prove this. 
 
 The favourite subject of Luther was the different 
 operations of the law and the gospel. He fully under- 
 stood the effect of the law on the awakened conscience 
 of the sinner, according to the apostle's declaration, 
 " For the law worketh wrath." To produce, therefore, 
 a conviction of sin, he would have the law employed. 
 " Among those," he says, " which are not of the num- 
 ber of God's people, the greatest point of wisdom is to 
 know, and earnestly to urge, the law, and the active 
 righteousness." But this being secured, the conscience 
 being thoroughly aroused, the elevated purity of the law, 
 and the entire corruption and weakness of man, being 
 clearly seen, deeply felt, and unreservedly acknow- 
 ledged; and the question, "What must I do to be 
 saved?" being extorted by the pressure of guilt, set 
 home to the heart with all the force of a divine com- 
 mandment, — another mode of address is required. Lu- 
 ther thoroughly understood this. He knew, both from 
 study and experience, that from the contemplation of 
 the law, considered in its proper character, as authori- 
 tative direction, no peace could be derived to the sin- 
 ner. " True it is," he says, " that of all things in the 
 world the law is most excellent : yet it is not able to 
 quiet a troubled conscience, but increaseth its terrors, 
 and driveth it to desperation." In describing " the true 
 way to Christianity," he assigns the reason of this, as 
 indeed it had before been assigned by the apostle iu 
 
78 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 saying that the law "was weak through the flesh." 
 " Now the true way to Christianity is this, that a man 
 do first acknowledge himself by the law to be a sinner, 
 and that it is impossible for him to do any good work. 
 For the law saith, ' Thou art an evil tree, and therefore 
 all that thou thinkest, speakest, or doest, is against 
 God.' Thou canst not, therefore, deserve grace by thy 
 works ; which if thou go about to do, thou doublest thy 
 offence ; for since thou art an evil tree, thou canst not 
 but bring forth evil fruits, that is to say, sins. When 
 a man is thus taught and instructed by the law, then is 
 he terrified and humbled; then he seeth indeed the 
 greatness of his sin, and cannot find in himself one 
 spark of the love of God ; therefore he justifieth God 
 in his word, and confesseth that he is guilty of death 
 and eternal damnation. The first part, then, of Chris- 
 tianity is the preaching of repentance, and the know- 
 ledge of ourselves." Again : " The law requireth per- 
 fect obedience unto God, and condemneth all those that 
 do not accomplish the same. Now it is certain that 
 there is no man living which is able to perform this 
 obedience, which, notwithstanding, God rightly re- 
 quireth of us. The law, therefore, justifieth not, but 
 condemneth, according to that saying, ' Cursed is he 
 that abideth not in all things that are written in this 
 book.' " " For the law always accuseth and terrifieth, 
 saying, ' Thou didst never accomplish all that is com- 
 manded in the law ; but accursed is he that hath not 
 done all things contained therein.' Wherefore these 
 terrors remain still in the conscience, and remain more 
 and more." And thus, in effect, is the law established 
 The greater is the excellence of the law, the greater 
 is the evil of sin. If to give the law were right, so it 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 79 
 
 is to require obedience. A holy lawgiver can admit 
 no compromise with sin. Man must therefore obey 
 the law, or be condemned by it. But, if the Scriptures 
 be received as a standard, man now, through what is 
 emphatically termed " the fall," is incapable of render- 
 ing the required obedience without divine assistance ; 
 which supposes an interposition of grace, for which, 
 of course, the law makes no provision. The law con- 
 demns him. How then can he be justified ? That is, 
 how shall the sin which the law declares, detects, and 
 condemns, be pardoned 1 Most assuredly not by God 
 as administering the law, and governing by means of it. 
 
 Two great facts the Scriptures reveal on this sub- 
 ject : first, that the forgiveness of sins is the free gift 
 of God's mercy ; and, secondly, that for a demonstra- 
 tion and exposition of his governing righteousness, the 
 incarnate Son of God, offering himself on the cross as 
 a sacrifice for sin, and suffering in the place of the 
 sinner, is " set forth as a propitiation." Here, there- 
 fore, is another economy, another house-law, which the 
 sovereign Father of the human family imposes. He 
 thus constitutes his throne " the throne of grace," and 
 administers mercy not arbitrarily, but according to a 
 plan devised by wisdom and effected by love. The 
 proper type of the eternal Lord is found, not in his 
 descent on Sinai as lawgiver, but in the symbol of his 
 merciful presence in the temple, the Shekinah on the 
 mercy-seat. 
 
 The question resolves itself to this, How is man to 
 approach the mercy-seat 1 How is he to come to God 
 for pardon, the pardon which constitutes him righteous 
 by the removal of guilt? Had he had no guilt to be 
 removed, righteousness would have been the natural 
 
80 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 result of his own obedience ; but now, having con- 
 tracted the guilt, he must be reckoned, accounted, dealt 
 with as righteous ; in other words, righteousness must 
 be imputed to him. 
 
 Luther had studied the subject thoroughly ; and he 
 clearly saw that the condition on which pardon was 
 received was in perfect agreement with the manner in 
 which pardon was offered. It was to be so received 
 as to declare, on the part of the receiver, the rich, the 
 free, the unmerited mercy from which it proceeded. 
 In Scriptural language, he saw that it was of faith, be- 
 cause it was of grace ; and therefore that faith itself was 
 a direct trust in Christ, as the atoning sacrifice for the 
 sins of mankind. On this point he speaks both clearly 
 and strongly. " This heavenly righteousness is given 
 us of God, without our works or deservings." " Where- 
 fore the afflicted and troubled conscience hath no re- 
 medy against desperation and eternal death, unless it 
 take hold of the forgiveness of sins by grace, freely 
 offered in Christ Jesus." "We say that there is no- 
 thing in us that is able to deserve grace and the for- 
 giveness of sins ; but we preach that we obtain this 
 grace by the free mercy of God only for Christ's sake." 
 In reference to the favourite doctrine of the Papists, 
 that faith justified as it was connected and furnished 
 with charity, he says, " That faith which apprehendeth 
 Christ the Son of God, and is furnished with him, is the 
 faith which justifieth." "Faith therefore justifieth, 
 because it apprehendeth and possesseth this treasure." 
 
 Wherefore it is a great matter by faith to lay hold 
 upon Christ, bearing the sins of the world. And this 
 faith alone is counted for righteousness." " This is 
 the true way to become a Christian, even to be justified 
 

 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 81 
 
 by faith in Jesus Christ, without the works of the 
 law." 
 
 That in thus speaking of faith, he overlooked not the 
 proper necessity of good works, in their right order, 
 innumerable passages from his works might be quoted 
 to prove. As an example, one brief but very compre- 
 hensive paragraph may be given. " We grant that we 
 must teach also good works and charity, but it must be 
 done in time and place ; that is to say, when the ques- 
 tion is concerning works, and toucheth not this article 
 of justification. But here the question is, by what 
 means we are justified and attain eternal life 1 To this 
 we answer, with St. Paul, that by faith only in Christ 
 we are pronounced righteous, and not by the works of 
 the law." He strove laboriously to keep the distinc- 
 tion in view. " We do not here dispute whether we 
 ought to do good works ; whether the law be holy, good, 
 and just ; whether it ought to be kept, or not ; for this 
 is another manner of question. But our question is 
 concerning justification, and whether the law do justify 
 us, or no." He thus connects the two : " Faith taketh 
 hold of Christ. And whosoever shall be found having 
 this confidence in Christ apprehended in the heart, him 
 will God account for righteous. This is the mean, and 
 this is the merit, whereby we attain the remission of 
 sins and righteousness. ' Because thou believest in 
 me,' saith the Lord, * and thy faith layeth hold upon 
 Christ, whom I have freely given unto thee, that he 
 might be thy Mediator and High Priest, therefore, be 
 ihou justified and righteous.' Wherefore God doth 
 accept or account us as righteous only for our faith in 
 Christ. When we have thus taught faith in Christ, 
 then do we teach also good works. Because thou hast 
 4* 
 
82 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 laid hold upon Christ by faith, through whom thou art 
 made righteous, begin now to work well ; love God 
 and thy neighbour ; call upon God ; give thanks unto 
 him ; praise him ; confess him. These are good works 
 indeed, which flow out of this faith and this cheerful- 
 ness conceived in the heart, for that we have remission 
 of sins freely by Christ. And what cross or affliction 
 doth afterward ensue, they are easily borne, and cheer- 
 fully suffered. For the yoke that Christ layeth upon 
 us is sweet, and his burden easy. When sin is par- 
 doned, and the conscience delivered from the burden 
 and sting of sin, then may a Christian bear all things 
 easily. Because he feeleth all things within sweet 
 and comfortable, therefore he doeth and suffereth all 
 things willingly. But when a man walketh in his own 
 righteousness, whatsoever he doeth is grievous and 
 tedious unto him, because he doeth it unwillingly." 
 
 Of this " doctrine of grace and salvation," he says, 
 that " it approveth and establisheth civil government, 
 household government, and all kinds of life that are 
 ordained and appointed of God. It rooteth up all doc- 
 trines of error, sedition, confusion, and such like ; and 
 it putteth away the fear of sin and death. And, to be 
 short, it dis cover eth all the subtle sleights and works 
 of the devil, and openeth the benefits and love of God 
 toward us in Christ." 
 
 Thus viewing the gospel method of justifying the 
 ungodly, it will not be wondered that he regarded it as 
 the chief cardinal doctrine to be exhibited by preachers 
 to their hearers. " For if we neglect the article of 
 justification, we lose all together. Therefore, most 
 necessary it is, chiefly, and above all things, that we 
 teach and repeat this article continually, like as Moses 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 83 
 
 says of his law ; for it cannot be beaten into our ears 
 enough, or too much." " This is the truth of the gos- 
 oel. It is the principal article of all Christian doctrine, 
 wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. 
 Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know 
 this article ourselves, and teach it unto others con- 
 tinually." " As touching charity, we ought to be soft, 
 and more flexible than the reed or leaf that is shaken 
 with the wind, and ready to yield to everything. As con- 
 cerning faith, we ought to be invincible, and more hard, 
 if need be, than the adamant stone. Wherefore, God 
 assisting me, my forehead shall be more hard than all 
 men's foreheads. Here I take upon me this title, accord- 
 ing to the proverb, Cedo nulli, 1 1 give place to none.'" 
 
 These quotations may be closed by one which sums 
 up the whole, and shows his accuracy and carefulness : 
 " So we at this day do not reject fasting and other good 
 exercises as damnable things ; but we teach that by 
 these exercises we do not obtain remission of sins. 
 When the people hear this, by and by they judge us 
 to speak against good works. And this opinion the 
 Papists do confirm and increase by their preachings 
 and writings. But they lie, and do us great wrong. 
 For many years past, there was never any that taught 
 more sound and godly doctrine as touching good works 
 than we do at this day." 
 
 The nature of Luther's attack on the Papacy will 
 now be clearly understood. Others before him had 
 seen, acknowledged, and lamented the gross corrup- 
 tions which were spread over the whole church, affect- 
 ing both head and members ; and the abuses which 
 they attempted not to deny, they had often sought to 
 remove. But they saw not the source whence the 
 
84 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 whole corruption proceeded. Even among the more 
 thoughtful, justification was confounded with sanctifica- 
 tion ; and by the few who held justification by faith at 
 all, faith was only regarded as a germinant principle of 
 obedience ; that is to say, of righteousness in heart and 
 life. These earlier complainants, therefore, only struck 
 at separate branches of corruption ; and to their other 
 complaints this was soon added, that all their efforts 
 were in vain. 
 
 Luther, on the contrary, ascertained first of all the 
 great truth which the church was required to hold ; and 
 all that contravened this, he judged, for that reason, to 
 be error. He struck at the root rather than at the 
 branches ; and by striking at the root, struck most 
 effectually at the branches. He saw that remission of 
 sins was God's gift, through the all-perfect merits of 
 the only Saviour, and received by a faith which had 
 that Saviour, in his redeeming character, as its direct 
 object. This he knew to be right ; and all that was 
 inconsistent with it he knew to be wrong. With the 
 principles thus furnished him, he entered upon the 
 question of indulgences ; and with the same principles 
 he proceeded in those further inquiries which his op- 
 ponents forced upon him. These principles, too, he 
 traced, carefully and slowly, to their legitimate results ; 
 and the unavoidable consequence was, that a religious 
 system rose before him utterly at variance with the 
 Papacy, but which, at first to his great astonishment, 
 he found clearly taught in the Scriptures of truth. And 
 this was enough for him who took this ground, " Nei- 
 ther ought any doctrine to be taught or heard in the 
 church beside the pure word of God, that is to say, the 
 Holy Scripture." 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 85 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 We have already pointed out the falsehood of the ab- 
 surd story by which some of the lower advocates of the 
 Papacy have sought to reproach the memory of Luther, 
 and to destroy his reputation for single-mindedness and 
 integrity, by representing his opposition to Tetzel as 
 proceeding from jealousy and envy. We have shown 
 that it was occasioned by his devotion to the truth of 
 God, which the traffic conducted by Tetzel virtually 
 denied, and which that unhappy man actually denied 
 both in his preaching, and by the theses which he pre- 
 tended to have established. At first, this opposition 
 referred to Tetzel alone, and to the propositions which 
 he had undertaken to support ; but as others, who came 
 to the aid of this seller of Papal indulgences, chose to 
 attack his assailant, it soon became evident that Luther 
 must either retire from the position which he had taken 
 up, or that he must defend it against all comers. As 
 he had not undertaken his task from the love of dis- 
 putation, but from devotion to the truth of the gospel, 
 he felt himself obliged in conscience to persevere. No 
 matter by whom he might be attacked ; truth was to be 
 defended. No matter what new views might open be- 
 fore him ; truth was to be obediently followed. Nor 
 was controversy all. Toward the close of 1517, Tet- 
 zel, the inquisitor, in one of the suburbs of Frankfort, 
 after a solemn procession, first inveighed most furiously 
 against Luther from the pulpit, declaring that he ought 
 to be burned alive as a heretic, and then cast his pro- 
 
 * 
 
86 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 positions and sermons into the fire. A century before, 
 notwithstanding the plighted faith of the emperor Sigis- 
 mund, the Council of Constance had condemned John 
 Huss to the flames, whither, in a very brief space, he 
 was followed by Jerome of Prague. But by none of 
 these things was "Luther moved. They who only judge 
 of him from the warmth of his language, and regard 
 him as a bold though successful innovator, form an 
 erroneous conception* of his character. He was bold, 
 but he was steady. He thought with serious calmness ; 
 and then he acted not only with vigour, but, if neces- 
 sary, with daring. His was the courage of conscience. 
 Before all things, and at the hazard of all things, truth 
 was to be defended and spread ; and by the mainte- 
 nance and diffusion of truth men were to be taught 
 how they might serve God, and save their souls. Tip 
 to a certain point he knew that he was right ; and he 
 now stood prepared to learn the further lessons which 
 might open before him. As far as he knew the truth, 
 he obeyed it, preached it, contended for it; and ere 
 long he became a memorable instance for the illustra- 
 tion of the scripture, " Then shall ye know, if ye foL 
 low on to know the Lord." 
 
 The court of Rome was too closely connected with 
 Tetzel, and too deeply implicated in his schemes, to 
 allow him to be attacked with impunity. The pope 
 seems at first to have regarded the controversy with' 
 that good-humoured contempt which his skeptical in- 
 difference would be very likely to occasion. But they 
 who were on the spot perceived more distinctly the 
 real posture of affairs. They saw plainly that if Lu- 
 ther were not silenced, the sale of indulgences would 
 cease. They could not conceal from themselves that 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 87 
 
 his conversion or his punishment had become essential 
 to the safety of their own cause. Even the emperor 
 Maximilian was convinced that the controversy was riot 
 a merely wrangling dispute, but one that, unless checked, 
 threatened serious and extensive innovation. He wrote, 
 therefore, to the pope, assuring him that his interference 
 had now become necessary. 
 
 Humanly speaking, everything depended on the 
 character of Papal interposition. Luther's opinions 
 on the supremacy of the bishop of Rome had under- 
 gone no change whatever. He regarded the pope as 
 the earthly and visible monarch of the church ; and it 
 would have been easy for Leo to interfere in such a 
 manner as to secure his continued allegiance. A very 
 little cunning might have prevented the incipient Re- 
 formation from advancing another step. But they did 
 not understand Luther at Rome. He might not as yet 
 see far, but he saw clearly as far as he saw at all. 
 The consequences of his principles were not before 
 him, but the principles themselves were. It is a re- 
 markable circumstance that his attention was so long 
 directed, and almost exclusively, to those great truths 
 which involve the most important consequences. These 
 he studied. With their evidences he made himself 
 thoroughly acquainted. And when assailed by Tetzel, 
 Hochstraten, Prierias, and subsequently by Eck,* they 
 all felt that he stood as on a rock, though they knew 
 not the secret of his strength. His grand principle 
 was, the attainment of evangelical righteousness and 
 peace by faith in the blood of Christ; and, for the 
 defence of this great principle, he appealed directly to 
 
 * Latinized into Eckius, or Eccius. 
 
88 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 the Scriptures, as the word of God, and the standard 
 of truth. 
 
 Thus opened the year 1518. While the Roman 
 court was deliberating on the information which its 
 correspondents had communicated, the advocates of 
 the established system were doing all in their power, 
 not indeed meaning this, to show Luther what conse- 
 quences unavoidably followed the principles he had 
 embraced. Eck, especially, contributed to this. He 
 was professor of divinity at Ingolstadt, and argued on 
 the principles of the scholastic divinity ; but his wea- 
 pons were worse than useless in contest with an oppo- 
 nent who, in that age, could say, " The sovereign 
 pontiff is a man, and may be deceived ; but God is 
 truth, and deceived he cannot be."* So again, arguing 
 against the scholastic doctor, and supposing that he 
 would readily allow it to be the height of audacity for 
 any one to teach as the philosophy of Aristotle, what 
 he was not able to prove by the authority of Aristotle, 
 he presses home the rule as equally applicable to the 
 doctrines of religion : — " Much rather is it the most 
 impudent audacity to assert in the church, and among 
 Christians, what Christ has never taught. "f 
 
 It deserves notice, that about the same time he pub- 
 lished several popular tracts, designed to instruct the 
 simple and unlearned in what appeared to him to be 
 the true principles of religion. Thus, as he had ) 
 preached at Wittenberg sermons on the Lord's prayer J 
 
 * Homo est summus Pontifex, falli potest ; sed Veritas est Deus, 
 qui falli non potest. 
 
 T Longe ergo impudentissima omnium temeritas est, aliquid in 
 ecclesia asserere, et inter Christianos, quod non docuit Christus. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 89 
 
 and ten commandments not long before, he now printed 
 them, that they might " run through the land." 
 
 Early in 1518 the order to which he belonged held 
 its chapter at Heidelberg. While there, he wrote some 
 theses, which, according to the custom of the age, he 
 offered to maintain by public disputation. These, that 
 he might produce the deeper impression, he proposed 
 in the form of " paradoxes." Thus, — " 1. The law of 
 God is a salutary rule of life ; and yet it cannot help 
 man in his search after righteousness, but, on the con- 
 trary, impedes him." "26. The law says, * Do this,' 
 and it is not done. Grace says, ' Believe in him,' and 
 immediately all is done."* The disputations were 
 numerously attended, the deepest interest was excited, 
 and among the auditors seed was sown which bore in- 
 valuable fruit. Bucer, then a young man, and chaplain 
 to the elector Palatine, heard the Wittenberg professor 
 with fixed attention, and received the light of truth and 
 grace. Two other young men, of the names of Brentz 
 and Snepf, were affected in like manner, and before 
 long became helpers to the cause of the infant Re- 
 formation. 
 
 Returning from Heidelberg, he wrote some explana- 
 tions, solutions he termed them, of the theses he had 
 before published. In these he speaks very respectfully 
 of Leo ; but the man who could write thus, — " It is 
 impossible for a man to be a Christian without having 
 Christ ; and if he has Christ, he has at the same time 
 all that is in Christ. Christ lays his hand upon us, 
 and we are healed ; he casts his mantle on us, and we 
 
 * Lex dicit, Fac hoc ; et nunquam fit. Gratia dicit, Crede in 
 hunc ; et jam facta sunt omnia. 
 
90 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 are clothed; he is the glorious Saviour, blessed for 
 ever," — could not long continue a Romanist. In fact, 
 he repeated with firmness, that every Christian who 
 truly repented had remission of sins without any in- 
 dulgence ; that the pope could only do what might be 
 done by the lowest priest, — declare the forgiveness 
 that God had already granted ; that the treasury of the 
 merits of saints was a pure fiction; and that Holy 
 Scripture was the sole rule of faith. 
 
 Still fearing to act wrong, on the 30th of May he 
 wrote to the pope. In this letter he adverts to the 
 demoralized state of the church, the fearful effects of 
 the sale of indulgences, and his own part in the con- 
 troversy. He speaks of himself as maintaining the 
 nonour of the church, not as promoting heresy. " I 
 cannot retract what I have said," was still his language ; 
 but he nevertheless most pathetically appeals to Leo, 
 and calls on him to decide in the fear of God. " Where- 
 fore, most blessed father, I present myself prostrate at 
 the feet of your blessedness, with all that I am and 
 have : vivify, slay ; call, recall ; approve, condemn, as 
 it may please you. I will acknowledge your voice as 
 that of Christ presiding and speaking in you. If I 
 have merited death, I will not refuse to die." 
 
 This submissive language, however, was of no avail. 
 Already had attempts been made to deprive him of the 
 favour and protection of Duke Frederic ; and pending 
 the consideration of the remonstrances which he had 
 addressed in his own defence to Leo, a weightier in- 
 fluence had been busy in fomenting the Papal wrath 
 against him. The emperor Maximilian, a monarch 
 not at all conspicuous either for his virtues or abilities, 
 but yet generally good-humoured and easy, began to 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 91 
 
 take alarm at the rapid spread of the Lutheran, innova- 
 tions in various parts of his dominions. He had been, 
 indeed, one of the most zealous instigators in the pope's 
 interposition ; and now stimulated him to the adoption 
 of harsher processes. In a strain of fierce and blun- 
 dering invective, this prince took occasion to denounce 
 Luther and his supporters, in the diet of the empire, 
 which was holden at Augsburg in the summer of 1518 ; 
 and on the 7th of August he was served with a citation 
 to appear, within sixty days, at Rome, there to defend 
 himself from the charges that were laid against him. 
 The bishop of Ascula, Girolamo de Genutiis, by whom, 
 in his capacity of auditor of the chamber, the summons 
 had been executed, was further instructed earnestly to 
 exhort the elector Frederic to maintain inviolate his 
 allegiance to the church, and to afford no countenance 
 to one who was at least most seriously suspected of 
 heresy. 
 
 Impatient for the extirpation of the liberal notions 
 which, emanating from Wittenberg, were fast scatter- 
 ing themselves through the empire, Maximilian now 
 despatched a missive to Leo, prompting him to pro- 
 ceed with greater vigour in the cause, and engaging to 
 see carried into effect, so far as his own power ex- 
 tended, whatever severities the pope, in his wisdom, 
 might be pleased to authorize. On the receipt of the 
 emperor's epistle, Leo, regardless of the sixty days 
 allowed for Luther's appearance to the previous cita- 
 tion, immediately directed his legate at the imperial 
 court, Thomas de Vio, cardinal of Gaeta, to cite the 
 refractory monk of Wittenberg before him ; and, should 
 he persist in his heresies, to detain him prisoner until 
 further orders. To complete the scandal of this pro- 
 
92 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 ceeding, two of the bitterest of Luther's adversaries 
 were nominated to the duty of hearing his defence, 
 Silvester de Prierias and the bishop of Ascula. • To 
 have obeyed the mandate which required him to plead 
 before a tribunal so iniquitously constituted, would have 
 been to imperil, in his own person, the cause of reli- 
 gious truth. Availing himself, therefore, of the irregu- 
 larity of the second citation, he represented to the pope 
 the manifest injustice of the proposed form of trial ; 
 complaining, too, of the hardship of abridging the time 
 for preparation permitted to him by the original sum- 
 mons to Rome. This expostulation, backed as it was 
 by the prayer of the University of Wittenberg, and the 
 personal interest of the elector, who contended that it 
 was the ascertained privilege of the German states to 
 have all questions of ecclesiastical subjection tried on 
 their own soil, so far succeeded as to induce Leo X. to 
 waive the two former citations, and issue a third, com- 
 manding Luther to repair to Augsburg, to be there 
 heard before the cardinal of Gaeta. To that city, a 
 place memorable for the conference that was now at 
 hand, and doubly illustrated by the famous confession, 
 of which, a few years later, it witnessed the solemn 
 publication, did Luther journey on foot, in solitude and 
 poverty. The world saw, in this meeting, onl^the 
 arraignment of an obscure, presumptuous, and enthusi- 
 astic priest before the delegate of the highest authority 
 on earth ; and little did the Papal minister imagine, as 
 he entered Augsburg, with all the pomp and circum- 
 stance appropriate to his mission and official dignity, 
 amid the reverent greetings of the civil powers, that 
 the coming investigation was to be, in effect, only the 
 first act in the public crimination of the superb and 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 93 
 
 tyrannous hierarchy of which he was the occasional 
 representative ; or that the various grandeur which 
 surrounded him was but prophetic of the approaching 
 sunset and final declension of the spiritual despotism 
 of Rome. But upon both parties was there an eye v 
 fixed, which seeth not as men see ; a power overruling 
 the event, which had decreed that the humble and 
 poor should be exalted, and the lofty brought down to 
 the dust. v 
 
94 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The cardinal of Gaeta, usually known in history as 
 Cardinal Cajetan, was one of the most respectable of 
 the ecclesiastics who were prominently engaged in 
 opposition to the inchoate Reformation. He was able 
 to conduct himself with great kindness and courtesy 
 of manner ; but he was known to be most thoroughly 
 devoted to all the claims of the Roman court, as well 
 as to all the doctrines of the Roman Church, in those 
 grosser forms in which they were then generally re- 
 ceived. His instructions were to bring Luther to 
 recantation, if it were possible ; but, if he continued 
 obstinate, to keep him in safe custody till he could pre- 
 sent him for trial before a Roman tribunal, in the eccle- 
 siastical metropolis itself. Luther had heard some 
 reports of this, but he was not deterred by them from 
 proceeding. Stopping at Nuremberg, on his way to 
 Augsburg, while some encouraged him, others, alarmed 
 on his account, wished him to turn back. In a letter 
 which he wrote while tarrying at Nuremberg for a 
 brief space, he not only shows his unconquerable re- 
 solution, but the source from which his courage and 
 strength were derived. " I have found," he says, 
 " certain persons very fearful on my account, who en- 
 deavour to persuade me not to go on to Augsburg. But 
 I continue fixed. Let the will of the Lord be done. 
 Even at Augsburg, and in the very midst of his enemies, 
 Jesus Christ reigns. Let Christ live, and Martin, and 
 any other sinner, die ; as it is written, Exalted be the 
 God of my salvation. Farewell. Persevere standing ; 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 95 
 
 for cither by God or by men we must certainly be re- 
 jected. But God is true, and man a liar."* Thus 
 early did he take his ground as a man of one object, 
 one aim, one care. Whatever became of himself, all 
 his desire was that the name of God might be honoured, 
 and the truth of Christ triumphantly spread. He might 
 be warm from natural temperament, but he was courage- 
 ous from principle. His friends, however, would not 
 allow him to appear before Cajetan till he had obtained 
 an ample safe-conduct for going and returning : the 
 infamous quibble in the case of Huss was not forgotten. 
 In the mean time, while waiting for the necessary 
 document, one of the Italians called on him, and ap- 
 peared anxious that he should at once and privately 
 wait upon the cardinal ; but Luther, happily, allowed 
 himself to be governed by his advisers. 
 
 The safe-conduct being received, Luther presented 
 himself before Cajetan ; and, according to established 
 etiquette, not only knelt, but literally prostrated him- 
 self before him ; continuing thus till he was bid to rise. 
 The cardinal was courteous, but decided. Luther was 
 to retract. But he understood not the man. Courte- 
 ously, but with equal decision, the monk required the 
 cardinal to show him wherein he had erred. In reply, 
 
 * Homines aliquot pusillanimes in mea causa inveni, ita ut 
 me tentare quoque cceperint, ne adirem Augustam. Verum ego 
 persto fixus. Fiat voluntas Domini. Etiam Augusts, etiam in 
 medio inimicorum suorum, dominatur Jesus Christus. Vivat 
 Christus; moriatur Martinus, et omnis peccator, sicut scriptum 
 est, Exaltetur autem Deus salutis meae. Valete bene, et perse- 
 verate stantes ; quia necesse est vel ab hominibus vel a Deo repro- 
 bari. Sed est Deus verax, homo autem mendax. — Weismann 
 quotes this letter as having himself read it in MS. Hist. Sac. 
 N. T., sec. xvi, § 44, vii. 3. 
 
96 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 he was told that he must retract these two proposi- 
 tions : — " The treasure of indulgences does not consist 
 of the merits and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 — The man who receives the holy sacrament must 
 have faith in the grace offered him." The parties 
 were now completely at issue. "You are wrong," 
 said Cajetan, " and must recant." " Prove that I am 
 wrong, and I will," said the undaunted professor of 
 Wittenberg. Several interviews took place, in which, 
 at first, Cajetan thought to secure an easy victory by 
 repeating the usual Papal common-places in support 
 of the subjects in debate, but he was utterly unprepared 
 for Luther's appeal to the word of God. Unable to fix 
 mistake on a single proposition, he laid aside the con- 
 troversialist, and assumed the tone of the superior and 
 judge. He lost his temper, threatened to send Luther 
 to Rome, and abruptly terminated the discourse by for- 
 bidding Luther to appear in his presence again, unless 
 he were prepared fully to abandon his errors. 
 
 This, perhaps, was one of the most critical periods 
 of the Reformation. Luther was not yet well-informed 
 on many subjects with which he subsequently became 
 acquainted. His respect for the pope, in regard to his 
 office, was high, and his desire of peace strong. He 
 was willing to make any concessions that did not in- 
 volve the truth which he knew and felt that he had 
 embraced. It is important, to the right explanation of 
 some of his proceedings while at Augsburg, that the 
 actual state of his mind be understood. He was ac- 
 customed to acknowledge that he " did not learn all his 
 divinity at once, but was constrained to sink deeper 
 and deeper ;" and among the subjects thus only gra- 
 dually perceived, the supremacy of the Roman see was 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 97 
 
 one. " The pope said,   Although Christ be the head 
 of the church, yet, notwithstanding, there must be a 
 visible and corporeal head of the church on earth.' 
 With this I could have been well content, in case he 
 
 HAD BUT TAUGHT THE GOSPEL PURELY AND CLEARLY, 
 
 and had not brought forward human inventions and lies 
 instead thereof."* Luther's first object was the truth 
 of the gospel, — the truth by which men are to be 
 saved, — evangelical truth. Could this have been 
 secured, he would never have thought of assailing the 
 Papal monarchy. 
 
 Cajetan, when Luther had departed, felt dissatisfied 
 with himself. Instead of persuading Luther to recant, 
 he had made him a more determined opponent ; and he 
 had allowed him to escape from his power, without 
 being able to induce him to undertake a journey to 
 Rome. He sent, therefore, for Staupitz, the friend of 
 Leo, and the head of his order, and begged him to use 
 his utmost influence to persuade him to submit. Stau- 
 pitz, with others, advised Luther to make some con- 
 cessions ; and thus persuaded, on the 17th of October, 
 soon after the final interview, he wrote to Cajetan in 
 very submissive terms, retracting all roughnesses of 
 expression, referring all matters to the pope, and offer- 
 ing to be silent, provided silence on the other side was 
 observed also. Speaking of those days, in after-life, 
 he said, " If the cardinal had handled me with more 
 discretion at Augsburg, and had dealt kindly with me 
 when I fell at his feet, then it had never come thus 
 far ; for at that time I saw very few of the pope's errors 
 which now I see. Had he been silent, so had I pro- 
 bably held my peace."! 
 
 * Table-talk. t Table-talk. 
 
 5 
 
98 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 To this submissive letter Cajetan sent no reply. It 
 contained no retractation, and nothing short of this 
 would he accept. Luther, therefore, not feeling him- 
 self any longer safe at Augsburg, drew up an appeal 
 from the pope ill-informed, to the pope better-informed : 
 and early in the morning of the 19th of October he 
 left the city, on a horse which had been prepared for 
 him, and returned as rapidly as possible to Wittenberg. 
 
 Cajetan now wrote to the elector Frederic, claiming 
 the victory in the discussions that had taken place, and 
 calling on the duke either to send the refractory monk 
 a prisoner to Rome, or at least to banish him from the 
 ducal territories. Frederic would do neither. As yet 
 he knew little or nothing of Luther's doctrines ; but he 
 knew his virtues and reputation, and he saw how great 
 were the benefits he had conferred on the recently- 
 founded university. Frederic knew, too, the griev- 
 ances under which Germany laboured and groaned 
 through the Papal administration, and its tyrannous 
 rapacity. He contented himself, therefore, with a 
 reply in general terms, amounting to what Luther had 
 so repeatedly declared : " Prove the errors which you 
 allege." 
 
 Matters now proceeded more rapidly, and all in one 
 direction. In November Leo published an edict, not, 
 indeed, mentioning Luther's name, but deciding what 
 may be termed the indulgence question ; re-asserting 
 all that had been claimed, and all that Luther had con- 
 troverted. The pope was thus gradually drawing the 
 attention of the reformer to ulterior questions. In the 
 same month he solemnly and formally appealed from 
 the decisions of the pope to a general council, the 
 representative of the Catholic Church, and the pope's 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 99 
 
 superior. And thus closed the year 1518. Much light 
 had been diffused through Germany on the agitated 
 questions, and very many were the admirers of the 
 professor of Wittenberg. Esteemed and beloved by 
 the students and officers of the university, of which 
 he was a principal light and ornament, his most stre- 
 nuous efforts were directed, and not unsuccessfully, to 
 the advancement of divine truth. And in this work he 
 was aided by one, then little more than a youth, who 
 became subsequently one of his most valuable coad- 
 jutors in the work of reformation, and whose name, 
 only second to his own, seems naturally to occur in 
 connection with it. Born at Bretten, in the Palatinate, 
 in 1497, Philip Schwarzerd had clearly established 
 his character as a scholar. In 1514 he was made 
 doctor; and in 1518, the University of Wittenberg, 
 having for its professor of divinity Doctor Martin 
 Luther, had for its professor of ancient languages a 
 youth little more than twenty-one years of age, pleasing 
 in appearance, but diminutive in person, that young 
 man being Philip Melancthon. 
 
100 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 When the year 1519 opened, all things appeared to 
 threaten the unflinching reformer with an unfavourable 
 crisis. Leo had decided the question of indulgences 
 against him ; and as he had been prompted to inter- 
 ference by the emperor himself, it was not likely that 
 the secular power would refuse its aid to the ecclesi- 
 astical. Frederic, too, though aware of Luther's value, 
 and most affectionately disposed toward him, had not 
 yet examined the religious part of the question so as to 
 have his own conscience engaged on the side of these 
 innovations, as they were described by their opponents ; 
 nor was it to be expected that a single elector should 
 undertake to resist the forces of the whole empire. 
 
 But He, who is as wonderful in counsel as he is 
 mighty in working, so ordered and overruled the course 
 of events, that the occurrences of the next few months 
 visibly served the cause, the extinction of which just 
 before had appeared all but certain. Toward the close 
 of the year 1518, the declining health of Maximilian 
 set on foot a multitude of intrigues, in various quarters, 
 having for their object to ensure the election of some 
 favoured competitor for the imperial crown. Pending 
 the fermentation consequent on these negotiations, ard 
 the busy outlook for the conservation of its own inter- 
 ests by the Roman hierarchy, Luther's contumacy was 
 suffered to remain unnoticed. The interval was not 
 lost to the reformers. Availing themselves of the mo- 
 mentary abeyance of the vigilant malignity of their 
 adversary, they spared no effort to scatter far and wide 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHLR. 
 
 101 
 
 a knowledge of their arguments and doctrines. The 
 emperor's death, which occurred in February, 1519, 
 devolved a temporary and vicarial supremacy upon the 
 elector Frederic, under whose friendly and liberal 
 administration the Lutheran opinions gained converts 
 daily Magnanimously declining for himself the prof- 
 fered throne, Frederic threw his influence with the 
 electoral body into the scale opposed to the pretensions 
 of the French monarch, Francis ; and, by thus pro- 
 curing the preference of his illustrious rival, established 
 an effectual and peculiar interest in the councils of the 
 successful candidate. Upon the elevation of Charles 
 V., both of the contending parties in the great religious 
 struggle were alike and naturally solicitous to propi- 
 tiate his countenance. The pope, indeed, affected to 
 have been chiefly instrumental in securing his nomina- 
 tion, and on the credit of this pretended service founded 
 a claim to the cordial co-operation of the new emperor 
 in crushing the spiritual insurrection which had sprung 
 up at Wittenberg. Some misgiving of the policy of 
 his last decretal, mixed, perhaps, with an anticipation 
 of adverse promptings on the part of the prince elector, 
 who was known to stand high in the imperial regard, 
 seem, nevertheless, to have awakened Leo to the pru- 
 dence of again trying what the intervention of a saga- 
 cious and more temperate mediator could accomplish 
 toward a reconciliation of the difference with Luther. 
 With this view he selected, as his legate extraordinary, 
 for the settlement of the questions recently and still in 
 agitation, Charles, Count Miltitz, a Saxon nobleman, 
 who, having served for some years as a soldier of the 
 church, had been subsequently raised to the dignities 
 of councillor and apostolic chamberlain. Upon the 
 
102 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 various accomplishments and diplomatic address of his 
 ambassador Leo appears to have relied with confidence, 
 for the speedy and amicable adjustment of the unusual 
 kind of warfare in which he was involved ; while he 
 trusted that the distinguished reputation and Saxon 
 birth of Miltitz would bespeak a favourable predisposi- 
 tion in the elector toward himself and his projects, 
 and influence the reforming party to comply with his 
 demands, by abandoning their obnoxious principles. 
 Another circumstance, which was not unlikely to ren- 
 der the new emissary peculiarly acceptable to that 
 party, was the intercession which, at the request of 
 the University of Wittenberg, he had previously used 
 to obtain for Luther a hearing within the German ter- 
 ritory. It is, moreover, not improbable that among the 
 motives which prompted the choice of a civil negotiator 
 in preference to a churchman, was a hope of thereby 
 evading those interminable subtleties and disputations 
 in which an ecclesiastical nuncio would have been 
 sure to get entangled, to the imminent hazard of widen- 
 ing the breach, and still further exacerbating the temper 
 of the recusants. That in this arrangement there is 
 evidence of the native and indolent lenity of Leo's 
 character, and of considerable reluctance to be hurling 
 at his humble opponent the thunders of the spiritual 
 power, we have no wish to insinuate a doubt ; but we 
 think we see in it, at the same time, no unequivocal 
 indications of that shrinking from the test of argument, 
 investigation, and publicity, which is the sure attend- 
 ant and betrayer of every form of tyranny. 
 
 Among the solemn fooleries of the palmy days of 
 the pontificate, was a custom (which, for aught we 
 know, may have survived the wreck of the Roman 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 103 
 
 Church's grandeur) of annually presenting to some 
 eminent personage a consecrated rose, as a token of 
 the pope's particular esteem. Of this signal mark of 
 favour, Frederic was understood, or rather was pre- 
 sumed, to be ambitious ; though, in all probability, there 
 were few men in Europe who less cared to accept it. 
 To him, therefore, did Leo this year commission his 
 native subject, the count Miltitz, to carry the sacred 
 bauble, together with an epistolary commendation of 
 its prescriptive value, as a symbol of the especial 
 favour of the church, and a strenuous exhortation to 
 promote the satisfactory discharge of the mission of 
 the bearer. The envoy's reception at the electoral 
 court was anything but auspicious. The consecrated 
 trifle, for which time had been when kings would have 
 contended almost to the death, Frederic declined to 
 undergo the usual ceremony of publicly receiving, and 
 requested that it might be delivered to one of the offi- 
 cers of his household to be conveyed to him. Nor 
 did the high recommendations which the Papal nuncio 
 brought with him to Pfeffinger and Spalatin, two of the 
 prince's ministers, and both friends of Luther, avail to 
 remove the distrust of the pope's intentions, which the 
 last exorbitant and ill-judged proclamation had aroused. 
 To the expostulations and attempts of Miltitz to enlist 
 him on the side of the church, Frederic listened with 
 evident disinclination ; and at last replied, as coldly as 
 decidedly, that he would be no party to the oppression 
 of a man whom he had heretofore considered blameless. 
 Thus foiled in what was really, though not ostensibly, 
 the primary purpose of his embassy, to wean the elector 
 from his suspected predilection for the Lutheran cause, 
 Miltitz saw that the only chance of winning back the 
 
104 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 protesting champion to his ancient allegiance, lay in the 
 dubious practicability of persuading him to lend an ear 
 to the covert concessions and pacific overtures of Leo. 
 Accordingly he sought, and, not without difficulty, (for 
 Luther had by this time armed and made up his mind 
 to the struggle which he deemed to be inevitable,) at 
 last gained admittance to a personal interview at Al- 
 tenberg. Conformably to his instructions, he abstained 
 from all approach to the debate of theological points, 
 and confined his endeavours to the single object of 
 persuading Luther to desist from his vehement oppug- 
 nance to the see of Rome. Admitting, and professing 
 to deplore, the numerous abuses which had flowed 
 from the publication of the indulgences, he even went 
 so far as to summon before him Tetzel, the original 
 provoker of the whole series of discords that for three 
 years had disturbed the public peace, and so severely 
 reprehended him for his past virulence and misconduct, 
 that the unhappy Dominican is said to have soon 
 afterward died of an illness occasioned by his vexation 
 and alarm at the threats and reproaches which were 
 heaped upon him.* Count Miltitz and the reformer 
 met again in the castle of Liebenwer, and a third time 
 at Lichtenberg ; when the sagacity and earnest en- 
 treaties of the former at length prevailed on Luther 
 once more to address the pope in a strain of great 
 
 * It should not be omitted, that Luther wrote to Tetzel, as 
 soon as he heard of his sickness, offering him a frank oblivion of 
 their former quarrel, and expressing his regret for any asperities 
 of language which he might have used. At the same time, he 
 exhorted his old, but now fallen, antagonist to keep up his spirits, 
 and especially to fear nothing from the writer's resentment. 
 Tetzel, however, did not live to acknowledge or repay the hon- 
 ourable kindness of his opponent. 
 
** 
 
 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 105 
 
 humility ; supplicating pardon for trie irreverence and 
 irascibility which he was thought to have exhibited 
 before ; deprecating any needless disturbance of the 
 peace of the church, and binding himself to refrain 
 from subsequent disputation on the subject of indul- 
 gences, provided that his opponents also should be, on 
 their side, compelled to cease from dicussion, and that 
 it should be understood that the church was not respon- 
 sible for their actions. Luther was still anxious to pre- 
 serve the visible unity of the church, and did not as 
 yet see how deeply the fundamental errors which he 
 attacked had penetrated. His letter to Leo (written in 
 March, 1519,) is rather deprecatory than refractory : it 
 afforded, however, ground for reconciliation, had his 
 opponents been willing to be silent. But as they were 
 resolved to concede nothing, so Luther was led to ex- 
 amine everything ; and he thus discovered errors and 
 corruptions where, even when at an earlier period he 
 saw mistakes, he was willing to believe them to be only 
 venial ones. 
 
 But what a conscious humiliation, and defect of moral 
 strength, must a few months of study and eloquent re- 
 sistence have wrought in the secret heart of the mag- 
 nificent and haughty Leo, when stipulations such as 
 these could be proposed to him, under the implied 
 sanction of his own representative, as indispensable 
 preliminaries to the capitulation of a disobedient friar, 
 too poor to purchase a surplice,* and residing in a re- 
 mote province of his spiritual empire ! 
 
 * For within a few weeks from this period, we find him request- 
 ing the elector to provide him with two, a white and a black 
 one, to enable him to make a decent appearance at Leipsic ; he 
 being destitute of the means of buying them. 
 5* 
 
 
106 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 The pope, however, did not think it prudent to re- 
 ject even these provisional submissions from a man in 
 whose invincible fortitude and energy of character, 
 surrounded as he was by an applauding circle of able 
 and devoted friends, were visible the seeds of a much 
 larger and more aggressive enmity than it was at all 
 desirable to invite. The mild and approving tone of 
 Leo's reply encouraged the hopes of Miltitz that, by 
 Iris mediation, would at last be effected the conclusion 
 of those feuds which had so long vexed the general 
 repose of Christendom. But events were in progress 
 which tended to precipitate the crisis, and to extinguish 
 those hopes for ever. 
 
 Carlostadt, archdeacon of the cathedral at Witten- 
 berg, (whose real name was Andrew Bodenstein,) 
 having published a thesis in defence of the opinions 
 maintained by Luther, had again called into the field 
 of polemical battle the learned and astute, but intempe- 
 rate and vindictive, Doctor John Eccius, or Eck. Af- 
 ter expending on each other the customary amenities 
 of theological strife, it was ultimately agreed between 
 the combatants that they should meet in the city of 
 Leipsic, to decide the controversy by oral disputation, 
 in presence of George, duke of Saxony, uncle to 
 the elector Frederic, and other illustrious personages ; 
 Hoffmann, the principal of the University of Leipsic, 
 being, by mutual consent, elected to sit as umpire. As 
 the duke, on the first application to him for that pur- 
 pose, declined to permit Luther to take an active part 
 in the debate, he tells us that he expected to have been 
 only a spectator. But to have suffered him to remain 
 silent would have frustrated the great object of the 
 challenge ; a challenge which indeed had been thrown 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEP.. - 107 
 
 out by Eck, in the expectation that, by it, he should 
 gain incidentally an opportunity of engaging Luther, 
 and winning to his own merits the grateful attention of 
 the pontifical court. Eck therefore made it his busi- 
 ness to procure for him a license similar to that which 
 had been previously extended to Carlostadt ; and Lu- 
 ther was not the man to balk the pugnacity of an 
 assailant, whose eminent talents were eclipsed only by 
 the fanatical remorselessness of his intolerance, and 
 the frantic vehemences of his temper. 
 
 Few passages in Luther's life have been more com- 
 monly misconstrued than his sentiments and conduct 
 on the occasion of this far-famed dispute. It has been 
 taken for granted that, equally with Carlostadt, who 
 was his friend and follower, he stood pledged to pre- 
 cisely the same propositions which the latter upheld 
 against the attacks of Eck. But the fact is, that the 
 argument between those persons was expressly con- 
 fined to a single issue, relating to the freedom of the 
 human will. The limitation of their mutual reasoning 
 to this particular and exclusive topic had been pre- 
 arranged by the conflicting parties before Luther could 
 have had any thought of being personally drawn into 
 the arena. It is to be remembered, too, that neither 
 had the two reforming divines been both included in 
 the original challenge, nor did Luther attempt to inter- 
 fere in any way with the contest, which lasted for six 
 days, on the old and much-vexed problem of the moral 
 liberty of mankind. It was not until that contest had 
 closed that he opposed himself to the Romanist advo- 
 cate ; and then it will be found that the subjects to 
 which he addressed his discourse were widely differ- 
 ent from the abstruse perplexities of the antecedent 
 
108 . LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 question. We lay peculiar stress upon these circum- 
 stances, because we have been at some pains to satisfy 
 ourselves that, up to the date of the Leipsic contro- 
 versy, Luther had never been committed to the predes- 
 tinarian creed. It is very generally supposed that in 
 the former part of his career, as in the latter and soli- 
 1ary instance of his grand dispute with Erasmus, the 
 father of the Reformation leaned to the faith of Augus- 
 tine, respecting the divine decrees ; a supposition 
 which has not unnaturally arisen from the known 
 determination of the .early belief of Melancthon, and 
 others of his fellow-labourers. That Luther, in the 
 outset of his theological investigations, received a bias 
 in that direction from the works of Augustine, is very 
 probable. But to any one who will be at the trouble 
 to consult the various writings of the reformer, it will 
 appear that, even in those places which afford the 
 most inviting and appropriate opportunities for intro- 
 ducing the notion of predestination, he had hitherto 
 uniformly shrunk from an avowal of that dogma. We 
 have, besides, his own confession, that he regarded the 
 metaphysical subtleties which of necessity invest the 
 doctrine as unprofitable, and not altogether free from 
 danger ; a statement that agrees far better with his 
 aboriginal aversion to the mazes of the scholastic logic, 
 than with his subsequent and short-lived adhesion to a 
 tenet which, from that logic, draws its armour, and 
 least vulnerable proofs. Nor let it be objected to us 
 that the silence of Luther on this point infers nothing 
 against his alleged approbation of a sentiment which 
 was even then stoutly maintained by more than one of 
 his adherents. It is strikingly inconsistent with the 
 unflinching sincerity and outspoken plainness of his 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 109 
 
 character, to assume that, on a topic which lay so 
 obvious, and which, moreover, might have so nearly 
 and so easily allied itself to the very foundations 
 of his speculative divinity, he should have remained 
 invariably mute, had he inclined to the affirmative 
 view of the question. On the other hand, there were 
 many reasons which might fairly, as we apprehend 
 they in effect did, operate to prevent the utterance 
 of a peremptory denial of the predestinative scheme. 
 In the first place, we cannot doubt that, in common 
 with his conventual brethren, Luther cherished an 
 extraordinary reverence for the memory and teach- 
 ings of Augustine. To have openly abjured a doctrine, 
 upon which a father, who was almost their oracle, had 
 so strenuously insisted as the basis of the Scriptural 
 theory of justification, would have been gratuitously to 
 run the hazard, by alarming an amiable prejudice, of 
 alienating from his infant councils some of the best and 
 brightest of his monastic allies. With Carlostadt the 
 case was different. He was an emeritus disciple of 
 the Aristotelian metaphysic before he became a Lu- 
 theran in religion. His theology was cast in the 
 genuine scholastic mould ; his reason habitually over- 
 laid with the cumbrous and constricting forms of the 
 syllogistic method, — a method which to Luther was 
 uncongenial and abhorrent. It was like armour on the 
 limbs of a Scythian giant. It cramped the muscular 
 play and robust activity of his understanding. He loved 
 to handle things without the intervention of the scales 
 of the gauntlet ; to test them, not by the pedantic rules 
 of artificial demonstration, but by their impression on 
 the natural sensibilities of the heart and conscience. 
 Logic with him was not the mere formal art of com- 
 
110 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 birring and expressing dependant propositions, though 
 in the practical uses of that art few men were more 
 expert, but a native and abiding canon of the intelligent 
 being. He knew, in short, what the schoolmen had all 
 along lost sight of, that there are certain truths of con- 
 sciousness and feeling which have a deeper import, 
 and a more obligatory sacredness, than belongs to any 
 of the clearest results of mere ratiocination; which 
 are, in fact, the axioms of moral science, the prelimi- 
 nary data and conditions of every form of human 
 knowledge.* 
 
 * Thus, for example, our consciousness of being is a truth an- 
 tecedent and superior to all acquired information. A mathema- 
 tical axiom — for example, that the whole is equal to its parts, 
 and vice versa — is propounded to me. I apprehend its truth. 
 But this apprehension presupposes an anterior truth, namely, that 
 I, the subject apprehending, exist. But that truth is not demon- 
 strable. Why ? For the same reason that neither is the mutual 
 equality of the whole and its constituent parts susceptible of de- 
 monstration. It is a truth in limine, and indispensable to other and 
 secondary truth: as thus, If I am not, then it is not true that I 
 apprehend. The canon involved in this formula is fatal to the 
 necessitarian argument. The freedom of the will is a truth 
 transcendental and preliminary, and necessarily assumed in every 
 truth of morals. It is useless to dispute about it, and absurd : 
 if it be false, the very idea of truth is a fabrication and a dream. 
 But after all, why conjure up fantastical personations, and in our 
 so-called philosophy represent ourselves to be made up of a collec- 
 tion of various faculties, which can only be dealt with as so many 
 individual and separate things ? What do we mean by will ? 
 The most ordinary form of speech is the most philosophically 
 exact, "/will :" not the will (that is a something which is not 
 /, but only pertaining to me) wills, — but /; the self, the man 
 Upon this favourite problem of the schoolmen, — the liberty of 
 the will, — what pages of elaborate folly have been given to the 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. Ill 
 
 But another and principal cause of the misconcep- 
 tion which, in our judgment, has obtained in relation 
 to the actual opinion at this time of Luther, regarding 
 the freedom of man's conduct, has been the miserable 
 ignorance of evangelical divinity, and the consequent 
 inability of many of his historians to comprehend the 
 real significance and gist of his doctrine as to the justifi- 
 catory efficacy of faith. It is truly lamentable, and, we 
 had almost said, vexatious, to think how much of perverse 
 misapprehension on this simple and vital article of our 
 holy religion still lingers in the Christian world. Men 
 will persist in fancying an opposition between faith 
 and works, and arguing that to affirm the exclusive 
 necessity of the first, dispenses with the performance 
 and the obligation of the latter. It might as wisely 
 be concluded that to rear an oak, you must not only 
 sow the acorn, but with it plant the stem, and into 
 the stem graft the branches ; as it is frequently urged, 
 that besides, and as a separable thing fronyfaith, there 
 must be practical obedience to the moral law, in order 
 
 world ! The usual mode of attempting to show the subjection, 
 that is, the non-existence, of the will, is by referring the instant 
 determination to some extraneous motive; about as circular and 
 self-destructive an argument as ever the genius of sophisms in- 
 vented. But what if, in sin, in all moral derelictions, there is, 
 strictly speaking, no will, — mere and absolute negation of will? 
 Yet such is the truth. All nature moves under the dominion of 
 necessity; effect follows cause, inevitably and continually. Man, 
 a being endowed with power, stands alone amidst the ever- 
 whirling machinery, to guide himself. Circumstance acts upon 
 him, and he falls. Say you, by his own will ? No, for will is 
 action ; and he acts not. He is acted upon ; he submits to be 
 impelled, instead of willing to resist. 
 
112 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER; 
 
 to salvation. Luther knew better. He had learned 
 not to put asunder what God, in the nature of things, 
 had joined together. By the deeds of the law he held 
 that no flesh living could be justified. " Good works," 
 he observes, " do not constitute a good man ; but a 
 good, or justified man, that is, a man having true and 
 living faith, necessarily performs good works." The 
 stigma of excluding acts of holiness and charity from 
 the duty of a Christian believer has so often been cast 
 upon the doctrine in question, and so often and effec- 
 tually repelled, that it may seem superfluous to say 
 more in this place, than that it can originate only in 
 an utter misconception of the very nature and design 
 of Christianity. As did our Saviour himself, and the 
 apostles, so Luther taught that the moral quality of 
 every action of men's lives depended on the principle 
 from which it sprang, and the intimate spirit of the 
 agent ; that a mere external and ostensible compliance 
 with the specific precepts of social morality argued no 
 necessary rectitude and purity of heart ; and that the 
 effectual and required observance of the law could be 
 fulfilled only by the presence and operation of that 
 catholic love — the love of God generating love of man 
 — which faith procures, and, by infusing into the soul, 
 hallows and regenerates it. That this view naturally 
 associates itself with the idea of the personal election 
 of the saints, involving, as of necessity that idea does 
 involve, the passive instrumentality and bondage of the 
 will, was the mutual assumption of Carlostadt and 
 Eck. The Papist disputant, indeed, feeling his 
 strength upon the negative side of the consequence, 
 was the more solicitous to tie his opponent down to 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 113 
 
 this single issue, as upon it Carlostadt had imprudently- 
 suspended the decision of the whole preliminary con- 
 troversy. Both parties indeed were miserably crip- 
 pled by the antagonist errors upon which they verged. 
 The assertion by Eck, who displayed great dialectical 
 skill, coupled with more than his customary eloquence, 
 of the voluntary co-operation of the human being with 
 divine grace in every act of holiness or virtue, was 
 vitiated by his reliance on the intrinsic merit of good 
 works : while Carlostadt virtually concluded his own 
 refutation of the alleged efficacy of an outward and 
 literal observance of the decalogue, by admitting that 
 his argument conducted to a corollary which implied 
 not only the absence of any meritorious property in the 
 legal obedience of men, but dispensed with the obliga- 
 tions of the moral law altogether. It is here that the 
 radical vice of the necessitarian theology always be- 
 comes conspicuous and revolting ; nor did the subtle 
 and prompt genius of the Romanist doctor fail to take 
 advantage of this vulnerable place in his adversary's 
 logic. The result of this prefatory discussion is 
 allowed by most writers to have been not particularly 
 favourable to Carlostadt ; and from the cautious tone 
 in which Luther more than once alludes to it, confess- 
 ing that " on some points" Eck was victorious, we may 
 gather additional confirmation of our belief that he was, 
 at the time, by no means a decided advocate of predes- 
 tination. In truth, we are disposed to think, that he 
 had not so far refused to determine whether to admit or 
 to reject the notion; and perhaps the impression left 
 upon his judgment by the controversial speeches of 
 Eck was, to some extent, a type of the future and more 
 
114 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 permanent effect of the powerful reasoning of Erasmus. 
 Certain it is that, although the subsequent discourse 
 of Carlostadt and Melancthon availed to remove his 
 doubts for a while, and to thrust him forward into the 
 van of the contest with that eminent scholar, the abler 
 of his prompters lived to retract his predestinarian 
 opinions, acknowledging himself convinced by the 
 labours of his illustrious opponent, — and Luther, to 
 direct the inquirer, as to his own definitive conviction, 
 to the works of his friend Philip. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 115 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 At the time of the death of the emperor Maximilian, 
 the infant Reformation appeared to be in imminent 
 danger. It seemed to be very doubtful whether the 
 duke of Saxony would be able any longer to protect 
 his favourite professor against his now thoroughly- 
 aroused opponents, when the change of affairs, produced 
 by the vacancy of the empire, gave to Frederic a power 
 which he before did not possess, and at the same time 
 made it the interest of Leo to conciliate his regard. 
 The threatening storm, therefore, passed away. 
 
 After the conferences with Miltitz, the danger, 
 though of a different kind, was not less perilous to the 
 cause of truth. To the question of indulgences, Lu- 
 ther, understanding as he did so thoroughly the doc- 
 trine of justification, was decidedly and conscientiously 
 opposed ; but he did not as yet clearly perceive the 
 connection between the Papal system and the corrup- 
 tion which had overspread the whole western church. 
 He had therefore written respectfully to Leo, and de- 
 clared his willingness to accept of peace upon terms 
 which would have left all the roots of corruption as 
 firmly fixed in the soil as ever, and most of its branches 
 flourishing as visibly as before. It was necessary 
 that Luther should study questions which he had 
 hitherto regarded, to a considerable degree at least, as 
 sacred. He had glanced at them, and his glances had 
 awakened suspicions which yet he was unwilling to 
 indulge. But the time was approaching for him to 
 examine the subject to its foundations, and thus either 
 to verify his suspicions, or to discard them. 
 
116 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 Eck had challenged Carlostadt ; but the propositions 
 which he undertook to defend were such as he knew 
 would bring Luther (by whom, together with Melanc- 
 thon, Carlostadt was to be accompanied to Leipsic) 
 into the controversial arena. One of these asserted 
 the constant supremacy of the bishop of Rome as the 
 successor of St. Peter, and the vicar of Jesus Christ. 
 Luther, on the other hand, was studying the decretals, 
 and light was arising in his mind. Writing to Spala- 
 tin, and informing him of his studies, he adds : " Let 
 me whisper it in your ear : I know not whether the 
 pope be antichrist himself, or his apostle."* And 
 when he read the propositions of Eck, he saw at once 
 that, though Carlostadt was mentioned, they were 
 really aimed at himself. " But God reigns," said he. 
 " He knows what he designs to bring out of this tra- 
 gedy. It matters little how it affects Doctor Eck or 
 me. The purpose of God must be fulfilled. . Thanks 
 to Eck, this which has hitherto been but a trifle, will 
 in the end become a serious matter, and strike a fatal 
 blow against the tyranny of Rome." He published, 
 in his turn, some counter propositions, in which he 
 asserted the foundations of the Roman primacy to be 
 laid in the decretals of the pontiffs themselves, and to 
 be without warrant of Scripture. Writing to the 
 elector, he said : " God knows that it was my sincere 
 intention to keep silence, and that I was rejoiced to 
 see the contest brought to a close. I was so scrupu- 
 lous in my adherence to the treaty concluded with the 
 pope's commissary, that I did not answer Silvester 
 Prierias, notwithstanding the taunts of my adversaries, 
 
 * Nescio an papa sit antichristus ipse, vel apostolus ejus. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 117 
 
 and the advice of my friends. But now Doctor Eck 
 attacks me ; and not me only, but the whole University 
 of Wittenberg. I cannot allow truth to be thus loaded 
 with opprobrium." The sword now drawn was not 
 again returned to its scabbard. Tetzel himself, who 
 was still alive, saw from his retreat to what this dis- 
 cussion tended. " It is the devil," said he, " that is 
 urging it on." 
 
 The discussion opened on the 27th of June. The 
 ancient hymn, " Veni, Creator Spiritus," was'sung by 
 both parties ; and then, Eck and Carlostadt having 
 taken their places, the dispute commenced. The 
 principal subjects of debate were those which are con- 
 nected with the moral agency of man, and the influ- 
 ence of divine grace. The dispute continued for seve- 
 ral days ; Eck maintaining the Pelagian view of the 
 question, while his opponent supported opinions more 
 conformable to those of Augustine. In a verbal discus- 
 sion, chiefly governed by the rules of the scholastic 
 logic, it was easy for each to claim the victory. 
 
 On the 4th of July, Luther, having been urged to it 
 by his opponents, and having obtained the consent of 
 the duke of Saxony, took the place of Carlostadt. 
 The contention now began to assume a more serious 
 character. One of the first topics debated was the 
 supremacy of the pope. Luther, we have seen, had 
 been driven, both by the severe denunciations of the 
 holy see, and by the reckless imprudence of his adver- 
 saries, to examine the grounds of that mighty fiction, 
 and finally to conclude that the pre-eminence of the 
 bishops of Rome had no foundation in divine authority. 
 It was to the overthrow of this proposition that Eck 
 directed all the brilliant and specious artillery of his 
 
118 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 rhetoric, and all the forces of his acute and ardent 
 intellect. But he had now to deal with a stronger foe 
 than in the preceding struggle. Less ingenius, per- 
 haps, and versatile, but more direct and simple, as well 
 as more learned, Luther also excelled his bold and 
 certainly able challenger as much in nerve and grasp 
 of understanding, as in fervid devotion and self-oblivious 
 integrity of purpose. Confident in his own resources, 
 Eck was stimulated to draw upon them to the utmost 
 by the hope of some high ecclesiastical reward for his 
 prowess in vindication of the church. But Luther had 
 taken his stand on ground from which no ability, no 
 power of sarcasm or vituperation could dislodge him. 
 With sufficient readiness of retort to disarm the sting 
 of his antagonist's taunts, prompt to repay insult with 
 scorn, and meet irony with satirical invective, Luther's 
 qualifications, as an actual debater, were of the most 
 effective description. In mere eloquence, it was not 
 easy to say which of the contending orators deserved 
 the palm. Eck, we think, had the advantage of copi- 
 ousness and boldness, and perhaps of a somewhat apter 
 wit ; while the excellence of Luther's discourse lay in 
 its massive strength, its tone of fearless sincerity, and 
 the pregnant simplicity of the argument which it de- 
 veloped. The objections which were urged by Luther 
 to the primacy of the pope, are at the present day 
 so familiar to all Protestant readers as almost to 
 preclude them from duly estimating the perspicacity 
 and independence of the mind which, steadily keeping 
 in view the cardinal principles of Christian polity and 
 obligation, could emancipate itself from the trammels 
 of a servitude sanctioned by the universal submission 
 of ages. It is worth remarking, that in his negation 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 119 
 
 of the divine origin of the Papal autocracy, Luther 
 gave the first hint of a tendency to the opinion which 
 he ultimately adopted relative to episcopal jurisdictions 
 generally, and in conformity with which he discarded 
 the office, or rather the name of bishop from the con- 
 stitution of his own church. 
 
 But it was not alone the assumed elevation of the 
 Roman pontiffs that came within the strife of these po- 
 lemical wrestlers. Among other and almost equally- 
 important subjects commanding their attention, was the 
 Popish doctrine of the purgatorial state of being after 
 death ; upon which Luther now first declared that no 
 proof of the existence of such a state could be deduced 
 from Scripture. A third question turned upon the 
 primitive ground of quarrel, the indulgences ; and out 
 of this grew some collateral points, regarding the na- 
 ture of repentance, and the remission of punishment 
 by the pope. The contest was prolonged for ten days, 
 and was closed by Luther with these remarkable 
 words : " He flees from the Scriptures as the devil 
 does from the cross : whereas I, saving the respect 
 due to the fathers, prefer the authority of Scripture, 
 which I commend to those who are about to decide 
 between us."* Hoffmann, the arbiter, too prudent to 
 attempt to decide between the opposing leaders, sug- 
 gested that the final determination of the matters which 
 had been mooted should be referred to the Universities 
 of Erfurt and Paris. In the interim, each party, as is 
 usual on all similar occasions, claimed the victory. 
 Eck, indeed, wrote to his friend and partisan Hoogen- 
 
 * Videtur fugere a facie Scripturarum, sicut diabolus crucem. 
 Quare, salvia reverentiis patrum, praefero ego auctoritatem Scrip- 
 ture, quod commendo judicious futuris. 
 
120 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 I 
 
 straaten a vain-glorious account of his assumed triumph, 
 arrogating to himself the credit of having effectually 
 conquered the audacious and rash gentleman of Wit- 
 tenberg. To this narrative, Melancthon promptly pub- 
 lished a severe reply ; which again drew from Eck a 
 still more virulent rejoinder. A new and violent enemy 
 to the reformers also started forth in the person of 
 Jerome Emser, a licentiate of theology at Leipsic, 
 whose letter to Zaok of Prague, detailing the particu- 
 lars of the recent controversy, remains a curious spe- 
 cimen of the scurrilous acerbities which defiled the 
 sentimental differences of the time. An imbittered 
 literary warfare ensued, which soon involved in its 
 vortex many of the most famous names in Europe ; 
 and among the rest, Luther and Erasmus. Whatever 
 may be thought of the immediate result of this memo- 
 rable conflict, it cannot be doubted that the ultimate 
 effect was eminently unfavourable to the interests of 
 the Papacy. It served to cherish and encourage that 
 awakening spirit of inquiry which, once directed to the 
 abuses of the dominant church, was sure, eventually, to 
 favour the reformers ; an event which not even the suc- 
 ceeding and grave condemnation of the Lutheran opi- 
 nions by the theological faculty of Paris could avert. 
 
 Nor should it be forgotten that from among the au- 
 ditors many became attached to the principles of Lu- 
 ther, while some, in no long space of time, began both 
 to preach them and to write in their defence. 
 
 And it was at this discussion that Prince George 
 of Anhalt, then a youth of only twelve years of age, 
 pursuing his studies under a private tutor, received 
 those impressions which made him, in the course of 
 a few years, one of the most devoted and consistent, 
 
 4k 
 
flfc 
 
 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 121 
 
 as well as one of the firmest and most enlightened, 
 friends of the Reformation. Melancthon, too, though 
 he took no part in the discussion, was closely observant 
 of its progress. It has been already remarked,, that he 
 replied to the publication in which Eck claimed the 
 victory : it deserves to be noted that this was his first 
 work in divinity. Hitherto he had attended chiefly 
 to literature : henceforward he became the able coad- 
 jutor of Luther as a theologian. 
 
 On the return of Luther to Wittenberg, Miltitz again 
 renewed his importunities, and with increased earnest- 
 ness endeavoured to promote a speedy reconciliation of 
 the recusant party to the Roman court. The recent 
 collision, however, had not only roused the feelings of 
 Luther and his chief assistants, but, by bringing pal- 
 pably and prominently under their notice the most 
 odious features of the pontifical creed, had greatly 
 deepened their abhorrence of the system, and stimu- 
 lated them to an uncompromising and more resolute 
 resistance. Miltitz, who saw all the expected fruits 
 of his skilful diplomacy about to disappear, waxed 
 urgent in his expostulations, and offered larger conces- 
 sions than he had before proposed. Acknowledging 
 the justice of many of the heaviest charges of corrup- 
 tion which had been laid against the church, he spared 
 no artifice of personal blandishment and sedulous per- 
 suasion to entice Luther to agree to some terms of 
 pacification. Unfortunately for his embassy, as hap- 
 pily for the world, the unyielding energy of the reform- 
 er's spirit was now fully aroused. He would listen to 
 no further overtures : he peremptorily declined to treat 
 even for a temporary suspension of hostilities ; and at 
 once assumed an atitude of irrevocable defiance, by 
 6 
 
122 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 launching at the pope a memorial, in the form of a 
 letter, which is one of the most extraordinary records 
 of the possible height of human daring that ever as- 
 tonished the insolence, and braved the uttermost malice, 
 of despotic power. This document has been the 
 theme of inexhaustible vituperation by the Papists ; 
 nor have some professing Protestants scrupled to con- 
 demn it, as not merely evincing an uncourteous and 
 ungrateful disposition on the part of its author, but as 
 conveying deliberate and gratuitous insult to the reg- 
 nant pontiff individually. We think otherwise. We 
 can find no indication of a wish to be ironically caus- 
 tic in those expressions of admiration and respect for 
 the personal accomplishments of Leo X. with which 
 the letter abounds ; and as to the vigorous denuncia- 
 tions of the vices of the Papal rule, and the flagitious 
 depravities exhibited by its prominent abettors, we 
 have no sympathy with the puling liberality that would 
 fain have them cancelled. The manifesto (for such, 
 in fact, it may be considered) is doubtless a most pun- 
 gent and forcible diatribe against the various imposture, 
 hypocrisy, cupidity, and baseness which infested every 
 part of the ecclesiastical regime. Truly did Luther 
 say, that " the Roman Church, once the holiest of all 
 churches, had degenerated into a licentious den of 
 thieves, and had become abandoned to all sensuality, 
 the very kingdom of sin, and death, and hell, the wick- 
 edness of which could hardly be conceived even by 
 antichrist himself." But while thus fearlessly de- 
 scribing the rampant iniquity which reigned through 
 every department of the spiritual empire, the writer 
 everywhere addresses the pope himself in terms ot 
 compliment and approbation : compares him to Daniel 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 123 
 
 in the den of lions, and Ezekiel among the scorpions ; 
 reminds him of the infamous practices perpetrated by- 
 others under the pretence of his official sanction ; and, 
 disdaining all belief of his actual participation in the 
 crimes of his flatterers and minions, invokes him to 
 descend from his perilous eminence, to banish from 
 his councils those enemies of his reputation who sur- 
 round him, and repudiate honours which are fit only to 
 be enjoyed by the " Iscariots and sons of perdition." 
 These expressions have been construed into mere 
 taunting sarcasms, poured out in the fiery irritation of 
 a vehement temperament, and studiously adapted to 
 wound the pride and outrage the just feelings of the 
 mitred autocrat of Rome. That such was not their real 
 designation, is evident from the observation that, " be- 
 sides the pope, there were only four learned and virtu- 
 ous cardinals" in the whole conclave ; a statement which, 
 as no one surely will affect to torture it into an ironical 
 disparagement of those prelates, is conclusive as to the 
 sincerity of Luther's laudations of their arch-superior. 
 But it is said that, whatever may have been the 
 appreciation by Luther of the individual character of 
 Leo, to level at him, in the face of the whole world, a 
 missive laden with fierce criminations of the hierarchy 
 over which he presided, was an act of unjustifiable and 
 flagrant insolence. Against this judgment, also, we 
 decidedly protest. Similar proceedings have, before 
 now, occurred in civil revolutions, without exciting the 
 offended wonder of the persons who are forward in 
 condemning Luther. Indeed, we are not aware that 
 any of the great assertors of political freedom have 
 ever been censured for calling on the head of the exe- 
 cutive government to remedy those evils in the admin- 
 
124 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 istration of a corrupt state of which he was presumed 
 to be neither the originator nor the guardian. The 
 numerous remonstrances delivered, as well by indivi- 
 duals as by public bodies, to Louis XVI. during the 
 inceptive stages of the French Revolution, which, while 
 crowded with professions of attachment to the monarch, 
 demanded the prompt mitigation of particular abuses, 
 and even in some instances the immediate removal from 
 office of certain alleged offenders against the rights of 
 the people, are clearly cases in point ; the circumstan- 
 tial differences being all in Luther's favour. The 
 constitutional theory of our own country distinctly re- 
 cognises the precise distinction between the sovereign 
 and his ministers, which Luther, with a felicitous pre- 
 conception of a principle so important to the stability 
 and regular operation of an organized polity, assumed 
 to obtain between the pontiff and the depraved creatures 
 of ecclesiastical corruption. It concedes to the popular 
 organ the privilege of approaching the throne, to repre- 
 sent, in appropriate terms, the existence of any specific 
 grievances, be they real or imaginary ; and supplicating 
 the dismissal of an administration which is thought to 
 have shown itself either reluctant or unable to amend 
 them. Remembering to what uses this privilege has 
 been applied within the last century, and on what occa- 
 sions it has been recently suggested to exercise it, we 
 confess that we read with surprise the condemnatory 
 strictures on the conduct of Luther, of some of those 
 writers who have loudly insisted on the adoption of a 
 parallel course under circumstances of infinitely lighter 
 provocation. 
 
 But it is not to be forgotten that the proximate influ- 
 ences which wrought upon the mind of Luther, in con- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 125 
 
 nection with the publication of this celebrated epistle 
 directly tended to impress him with a conviction of 
 Leo's personal innocence, and disapproval of many of 
 the most shameless indecencies of the inferior priest- 
 hood and their servile adherents. The compromise 
 which had so nearly resulted from the negotiations of 
 Miltitz, shows that Luther gave credence to the ambas- 
 sador's disclaimer for his master of all disposition to 
 authorize, or even to suffer the continuance of, not a 
 few of the abominations which clung to the confes- 
 sional, and the traffic in indulgences. Now presuming, 
 as he must have presumed, that the nuncio would hardly 
 have exceeded his instructions, and believing Leo to 
 be sincerely bent on carrying into effect his proposed 
 reforms, it seems to us not only that Luther was amply 
 justified in denouncing to the pope those crying and 
 enormous depravities which the recent discussion had 
 more palpably than ever disclosed, but that in separating 
 between that personage individually, and the pestilent 
 system of which he was ostensibly the head, he dis- 
 covered anything but a desire to give causeless insult, 
 or to expectorate the venom of an irascible and unre- 
 lenting nature. That the effect of Luther's address 
 upon the pontiff was at once to excite the only dormant 
 malignity of arbitrary power, and for ever extinguish 
 the last vestige of forbearance, is unquestionably true. 
 But this fact proves only that if Miltitz, in his endea- 
 vours to bring about a permanent pacification, had not 
 made much larger overtures than he was authorized to 
 make, Leo X. had, from the beginning, been acting 
 with the proverbial duplicity and Punic faith of the 
 popedom. The former is, perhaps, the most probable, 
 as well as the most charitable, supposition ; but there 
 
126 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 is certainly no reason to conclude that Luther so much 
 as suspected that the Papal diplomatist had overstepped 
 his ministerial authority. On the contrary, we may be 
 assured that had such a suspicion ever crossed the im- 
 agination of the reformer, he would, much sooner than he 
 did, have cut short the negotiation, and flung off his lin- 
 gering allegiance to the sceptred tyranny of the Vatican. 
 Luther concludes the memorable declaration on 
 which we have been commenting with an exhortation 
 to the pope to beware of listening to the seductive flat- 
 teries of those, his courtiers and dependants, who, set- 
 ting him above the voice of general councils, and of 
 the whole church, would persuade him to fancy him- 
 self a kind of deity, the lord of the whole world, with- 
 out whose presence and sanction the Christian religion 
 would itself be worthless. " Those men," says he, 
 " are your foes, and are seeking to destroy your soul : 
 * the people who thus call thee blessed, deceive them- 
 selves.' They are in error who ascribe to you, and to 
 you alone, the exclusive power to interpret the Scrip- 
 tures ; while, under the protection of your assumed 
 authority, they labour to disseminate throughout the 
 church their own blasphemous inventions. Satan, I 
 grieve to say, has accomplished much by such agents 
 under your predecessors." But the most important pas- 
 sage in the whole composition is that which announces 
 the entire hopelessness of any further attempts either to 
 terrify or cajole him into submission ; and conveys his 
 immortal avowal of a fundamental principle of the Re- 
 formation : " Let no one, most holy father, imagine that 
 I will sing a palinode, unless he wishes to arouse a still 
 greater tempest. I will admit of no restraint in 
 
 INTERPRETING THE WORD OF GOD," 
 
LIFE OF MARTTN LUTHER. 127 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Open war was now declared between Luther and the 
 pontificate. Instigated by the malignant promptings of 
 the offended dignitaries who surrounded him, and espe- 
 cially by the representations of the cardinal of Gaeta, 
 both of whom were severely mentioned in Luther's 
 letter, the pope proceeded to call together a congre- 
 gation of theologians, prelates, and canonists, to deter- 
 mine what steps should be taken for the suppression 
 of the Saxon heresiarch and his opinions. In thus 
 associating with himself the most eminent churchmen 
 of the day, he was probably influenced as much by a 
 wish to give an air of peculiar solemnity to the subse- 
 quent edict, as by any respect which he entertained 
 for the aggregate wisdom of his counsellors, or for the 
 suggestions of the Universities of Louvaine and Co- 
 logne, which had recently remonstrated with him upon 
 the danger of permitting the Lutheran errors to remain 
 longer unproscribed. The assembly met at Rome, in 
 the summer of 1520 ; but, except upon one point, 
 namely, the necessity of immediately discharging upon 
 Luther the anathemas of the church, there was but 
 little show of unanimity among its members. The 
 proper method of promulgating the pontifical denuncia- 
 tion was keenly debated ; as were even the minute 
 details of its phraseology and precise form. These 
 important matters being at length, and after much de- 
 liberation, satisfactorily adjusted, the thunderbolt which 
 had been forged with so much pomp and labour by 
 
128 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 these ecclesiastical Cyclops, was launched against 
 Luther on the 15th of June. 
 
 This bull, which may be regarded as having com- 
 pleted the severance of the Lutheran party from the 
 Church of Rome, is one of the most remarkable illus- 
 trations that history presents of the insolent self-exalta- 
 tion and insane security which often precede the final 
 downfall of a declining power. In the magnitude and 
 impious absurdity of its pretensions to universal empire, 
 on the part of the pope, it surpasses even the most 
 exorbitant of its prototypes. Imploring the Almighty 
 to arise and avenge his own cause, it invokes St. Peter 
 and St. Paul, and the innumerable army of the saints, 
 to be urgent in their intercessions for the prosperity 
 and concord of the church. It then goes on to con- 
 'demn, as scandalous, heretical, and damnable, forty-one 
 propositions taken from Luther's writings ; forbidding 
 all persons, upon pain of excommunication, to either 
 preach or listen to them. Next follows a recital of 
 the exemplary forbearance of the holy see ; its various 
 and persevering efforts to reclaim the offender ; and a 
 vehement tirade against him for his ingratitude and 
 obstinate recusancy. To these statements succeeds a 
 charge of flagrant contumacy, in appealing to a general 
 council in the teeth of the decretals of Pius II. and 
 Julius II., together with an imputation of having slan- 
 dered the immaculate Papacy. After a few blas- 
 phemies about " imitating the omnipotent God, who 
 desireth not the death of a sinner," &c, the pope pro- 
 ceeds to exhort Luther to return, like the penitent 
 prodigal, to the bosom of the church ; and calls upon 
 him and his adherents to read a public recantation, and 
 commit their books to the flames, within the space of 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 129 
 
 sixty days. Failing to comply with this requisition, 
 they are pronounced to be incorrigible and accursed 
 heretics, whom all princes and magistrates are en- 
 joined to apprehend, and send to Rome, or banish from 
 the country in which they shall be found. The towns 
 where they reside are laid under an interdict; and 
 every one who shall oppose the publication and execu- 
 tion of the bull is excommunicated in " the name of 
 the almighty God, and of the holy apostles, St. Peter 
 and St. Paul." 
 
 Of about coeval date with this decisive proclamation, 
 was a letter written by Leo to the elector Frederic, 
 having reference to the same subject, the errors, name- 
 ly, of that " son of iniquity," as he is described, Martin 
 Luther. The Saxon prince received his holiness's 
 communication while he was in attendance at the im- 
 perial court. Justly estimating the hollow professions 
 of friendship which it contained, as well as the insidi- 
 ous intimation intended to be given by its affected 
 commendations of his attachment to the church, and 
 horror of the Lutheran tenets, Frederic appears to have 
 resolved henceforth to lend a more overt and determi- 
 nate protection to Luther than he had hitherto accord- 
 ed. The University of Wittenberg, seizing the tempo- 
 rary absence of their sovereign as a pretext, refused 
 to publish the pontifical bull ; while - the appointment 
 of Eck, Luther's intemperate and industrious enemy, 
 officially to promulgate that instrument in Germany, 
 threw an apparent scandal both on the instrument itself, 
 and on the motives by which its authors had been 
 governed in the fabrication and issuing of so extreme 
 and minatory a decree. 
 
 Meanwhile, the combined influence of the pope and 
 6* 
 
130 LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 his confederates was diligently exerted to inveigle the 
 young emperor (who was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 October 23d, 1520,) into making common cause with 
 them against the Wittenberg schismatics. Happily 
 the credit of Frederic " the "Wise" was as yet sufficient 
 to countervail the inimical designs of the Papal autho- 
 rity. Ever disposed to insist upon the independence 
 of the Germanic federacy, and consequently to look 
 with a jealous eye upon the encroachments on that in- 
 dependence which were threatened by interventions 
 made under the pretence of enforcing ecclesiastical 
 discipline, that prince had, not improbably, been 
 strengthened in his hostility to the projects of the su- 
 preme pontificate by considerations which Melancthon 
 had lately stated with much emphasis in his reply to 
 Eck. This amiable scholar, in his learned exposition 
 of the all-grasping usurpations of the Roman see, had 
 recalled to the memory of his countrymen the histori- 
 cal circumstances connected with the assumed juris- 
 diction of the pope over the German Church ; and 
 demonstrated, that not only was that jurisdiction a 
 thing of mere sufferance and tacit concession, on the 
 part of the imperial states, but that the express letter 
 of the ancient canon law gave the cognizance of all 
 accusations, such as those with which Luther had been 
 visited, to the diet of the empire, in their character of 
 provincial councils. Acting upon this politic sugges- 
 tion, Frederic employed the weight which his eminent 
 services assured to him among the advisers of the 
 emperor, in bringing the latter to afford the reform- 
 ing chief an opportunity of making good his defence 
 before the regular tribunal of his country. To this 
 advice Charles was, perhaps, not the less disposed to 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 131 
 
 lend a favourable ear, that his prophetic sagacity al- 
 ready foresaw the extent of future danger to his own 
 crown which might arise from too large an allowance 
 of ecclesiastical intervention in the domestic affairs of 
 his dominions ; while the instinctive jealousy of suc- 
 cessful ambition warned him to brook no assumption 
 by the pontiff of a participant sovereignty within the 
 Germanic territory. At the same time, he was de- 
 sirous of securing the friendship of the pope to aid him 
 in the now evidently approaching contest with his un- 
 successful rival for the imperial crown, Francis I., the 
 French king. On his arrival in Germany, therefore, 
 from his patrimonial dominions, he had appointed a 
 diet of the empire to be held on the 6th of January, 
 1521, in which the new opinions, as they were termed, 
 which threatened to break the unity of the church, and 
 to disturb the public peace, might be considered, and a 
 proper decision formed. 
 
 The electoral prince of Saxony had not delayed to 
 transmit to Rome an epistolary vindication of himself 
 from certain suspicions of an entire adhesion to the 
 Lutheran opinions, which had brought him into bad 
 odour with the conclave. In this justification, which 
 throughout evinces tokens of admirable sagacity, he, 
 with consummate art, introduces those topics which 
 were best adapted to deter the pope from resorting to 
 extreme measures. Not content with simply disclaim- 
 ing an absolute patronage of the reformers, and deny- 
 ing that he had personally read their publications, he 
 informs Leo that he had the assurances of many learned 
 and pious men that the Lutheran doctrines were sound 
 and godly ; that Luther would, ere this, have quitted 
 Saxony, had not Miltitz represented that under the con- 
 
132 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 trol of the elector and the university he was less likely 
 to perform extensive mischief than he would elsewhere 
 be ; and that, above all, many of the educated laity 
 having imbibed the sentiments of Luther, and addicted 
 themselves to the study of the Scriptures, any harsh 
 exercise of ecclesiastical power would certainly endan- 
 ger the public peace, and in all probability be produc- 
 tive of irreparable disaster. 
 
 Nor had Luther himself been idle pending these 
 transactions. In the very month (June, 1520,) which 
 saw the publication at Rome of the bull of excommu- 
 nication, he issued " An Address to the Christian No- 
 bility of the German Nation," exposing the nefarious 
 artifices and prevalent corruption of the Romish Church ; 
 a tract which was received with such extraordinary 
 avidity, that in less than eight weeks from the date of 
 its publication, four thousand copies were in circula- 
 tion throughout the empire. The signal sensation 
 created by this work so greatly exhilarated him, that 
 he wrote to Spalatin to let the elector know, and 
 communicate the intelligence to Rome, that the pope 
 would gain nothing by procuring him to be expelled 
 from Wittenberg, as he should then be in a condition 
 to offer a more obstinate resistance than before, under 
 still higher protection, and in the very heart of the 
 yet untainted Catholicism of Germany. Upon the 
 appearance of Eck, (in October, 1520,) armed with 
 the damnatory bull, the popular enthusiasm began to 
 show itself on Luther's side. The busy malice of the. 
 new nuncio was everywhere decried. In some places 
 the copies which he distributed of the pope's decretal 
 were torn from the walls on which they had been post- 
 ed, and placards threatening him with bodily chastise- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 133 
 
 ment substituted in their room. The students of more 
 than one university rose against him ; and from some 
 towns the populace compelled him to retire. For a 
 while Luther affected to regard this bull as a mere 
 trick, a spurious invention devised by the malignant 
 ingenuity of Eck, for the purpose of injuring and de- 
 grading a victorious antagonist. But satisfied at last 
 of the authenticity of the document, he reiterated his 
 appeal to a general council ; which was soon followed 
 up by a series of caustic and unsparing animadversions 
 on the " Execrable Bull of Pope Leo X., Antichrist." 
 In the preface to this production, he accuses Eck of 
 having been the principal instigator of the bull which 
 he was now commissioned to publish ; and describes 
 him as a " most noted hypocrite and liar," a " mon- 
 ster," and an incarnation of the very spirit of antichrist. 
 The substance of the commentary which ensues con- 
 sists of a bitter vituperation of the pollutions and in- 
 iquity of the Papal metropolis, which he pronounces 
 to be the seat and chosen strong-hold of Satan. In 
 one part, he even goes the length of acquainting the 
 pope that he has no desire to be absolved from the 
 censures levelled against him ; and that he is prepared 
 to maintain his doctrine at the hazard of his life ; add- 
 ing to these announcements a contemptuous threat, that 
 if the pontiff and his slaves continue to molest him, he 
 will not fail to consign them all, in succession, pope, 
 cardinals, bishops, and their atrocious bull, to their 
 father, the devil ; only trusting that they may be libe- 
 rated together at the second coming of the Saviour. 
 " Farewell," he concludes, " farewell, O Rome, thou 
 thrice accursed abomination ! Thou art filled with so 
 much of impiety and foolishness, as are unworthy even 
 
134 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 to be refuted. By these thy infamous proceedings thou 
 hast openly manifested the base spirit in which thou 
 hast promulgated this detestable decree." 
 
 To the appeal was also appended a writing of con- 
 siderable bulk, entitled, " An Affirmation of all the Ar- 
 ticles maintained by Martin Luther, and condemned 
 by the Bull of Leo X. ;" which was inscribed to one 
 of his friends, Fabius Felix, a knight of the empire. 
 Among other things which these various publications 
 imbodied and enforced, was a general protest against 
 the bull, grounded on the four following reasons : — 
 First, that he stood condemned without having been 
 permitted to defend his conduct ; secondly, that he 
 was required to deny that faith was essential to the 
 efficacious reception of the sacrament ; thirdly, that 
 the pope exalted his own opinions above the word of 
 God ; and lastly, that Leo had declined to convoke a 
 council of the church. 
 
 His active and inveterate enemy, Eck, having found 
 means, spite of the popular odium which in some dis- 
 tricts attached to his movements, to induce the autho- 
 rities of Louvaine, Cologne, and other towns, both in 
 Germany and Flanders, to assist at the public crema- 
 tion of the reformer's w r orks, Luther at length retaliated 
 in kind. Having beforehand given general notice of 
 his intention on the 10th of December, 1520, he 
 assembled a large concourse of people, composed of 
 citizens and members of the University of Wittenberg, 
 escorted by whom, he repaired to a spot lying without the 
 walls, where a scaffold had previously been erected, and 
 all preparations made for the ceremony. Here, assisted 
 by the doctors and students of his college, he laid in or- 
 der a species of funeral pile, which, having lighted with 
 
LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER. 135 
 
 his own hand, he cast into the fire, by turns, the Abridg- 
 ment of the Canon Law, the Decrees of Gratian, the 
 Extravagants of Clement VI. and Julius II., and, last 
 of all, the obnoxious bull of the reigning pope, exclaim- 
 ing, as the blaze took hold upon the pestilential page, 
 " Because ye have troubled the Holy One of God, thus 
 shall ye be consumed with eternal jire /" The contro- 
 versial productions of Eck and Enser shared the same 
 fate ; and, looking to the mischievous tendency of the 
 various delusions which the records then destroyed 
 were written to inculcate, it may almost be permitted 
 us to regret that every remaining copy of them in 
 the world has not perished in the same appropriate 
 manner. • 
 
 The succeeding day witnessed the delivery, in the 
 great church of Wittenberg, of one of those stirring 
 appeals to the sympathies and reason of a vast audi- 
 ence, by which, more than by any, the most elaborate 
 and effective, diatribes from the pen, the heart of mul- 
 titudes is bowed as the heart of one man to the will of 
 the teacher. After referring to the recent conflagration, 
 he adjured them to renounce, with their whole spirit, 
 the pontifical tyranny, as a thing utterly irreconcilable 
 with the kingdom of Christ, and warring against the 
 safety of their souls. He then selected from the de- 
 cretals thirty propositions, which he denounced as 
 heretical, and worthy only to be burned ; and wound 
 up a discourse which, for fiery eloquence and indelible 
 effect upon the feeling of an immense congregation, has 
 perhaps never been surpassed, by vigorously exhorting 
 those who heard him to abjure all the cunningly-devised 
 fables of a system whose advocates were for ever 
 " speaking lies in hypocrisy ;" and to give heed to the 
 
136 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 ^whole word of inspiration, which alone was able to 
 make them wise unto salvation. 
 
 Such was the reputation of this sermon, that tidings 
 of it were conveyed to Rome, together with the news 
 of the burning of the pontifical statutes. This last and 
 undisguised contumacy was there regarded as an out- 
 rage which placed the offender beyond the pale of 
 reclamation or forgiveness ; and accordingly, upon the 
 6th of January, 1521, sentence of final excommunica- 
 tion was thundered against Luther. In the second 
 bull, which proclaimed this doom, he was declared a 
 heretic, a son of perdition, and an eternal outcast, ex- 
 pelled the communion of the faithful, and delivered 
 over to S«tan. Like its precursor, the new edict was 
 circulated through all the countries of Europe, and 
 variously received in different provinces. In Ger- 
 many, the general sentiment regarding it was one of 
 unmixed contempt for its arrogant impotence and folly. 
 Nothing, it is probable, could have so clearly indicated 
 the present weakness and approaching decadence of 
 the Roman strength, as did the virtual inefficacy of a 
 commination which, half a century before, might have 
 shaken a monarch from the throne of a hundred ances- 
 tors. But the days of darkness were passing away. 
 Printing by moveable types had been invented, and 
 learning had been extensively revived. And while, as 
 was then customary, strong language was used by Lu- 
 ther to express vehement feeling, yet this was only 
 mixed up with arguments numerous and weighty, 
 which carried conviction on every hand, and led mul- 
 titudes to exclaim, " With this man is found the truth 
 of the gospel : his cause, therefore, is the cause of 
 God." 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 137 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 An eventful period, not only for Luther, nor even for 
 the church of Christ, but also for the whole human 
 race, was now approaching. The first diet of the 
 empire under the new reign had been appointed, and 
 one of the principal subjects of consideration was to 
 be the conduct of Luther. According to the provisions 
 of the Golden Bull, Nuremberg should have been the 
 place of assembly ; but the plague having appeared 
 there, the members were required to meet at Worms. 
 Frederic repaired thither in company with the emperor, 
 who had earnestly requested him to bring along with 
 him the Wittenberg professor ; but the elector, wish- 
 ing to delay the appearance of Luther till various pre- 
 liminaries had been adjusted, declined to comply. The 
 diet assembled in January, according to the appointment 
 of Charles when he first landed from Spain, and at 
 once proceeded to the discussion of the important mat- 
 ters on which their decision was required. 
 
 Having deputed Caraccioli, an apostolic notary, who, 
 a few years later, was elevated to the rank of cardinal, 
 to bear to the emperor the customary congratulations 
 of the popedom on his accession, Leo considered the 
 Lutheran revolt to be of sufficient importance to de- 
 mand the nomination of a second representative, spe- 
 cially delegated to superintend the extermination of the 
 Wittenberg heresies. This duty, a duty as hopeless 
 as it was invidious, he devolved upon Girolamo Ale- 
 ander, a distinguished ecclesiastic, than whom a man 
 of finer faculties, of bolder spirit, and more entire devo- 
 
138 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 tion to the interests of the Papacy, could hardly have 
 been found among the ranks of its ablest and ambitious 
 servants. Presenting himself at the coronation of 
 Charles, the theological legate, as was his style, fol- 
 lowed in the imperial train, from Aix-la-Chapelle to 
 Cologne, where he caused the books of Luther to be 
 burnt, though not without some demonstrations of popu- 
 lar hostility. Thence he repaired to the ancient city, 
 which was honoured by the assemblage of the federal 
 potentates of the empire. The opportunities which 
 his attendance on the emperor threw open to him, he 
 did not fail to turn to skilful account, by bespeaking 
 the promised aid of his own views of many of the 
 electoral sovereigns ; while, on the side of Luther, the 
 princes of Bavaria and Saxony stood alone and unsup- 
 ported. One of the ostensible purposes for which the 
 diet had expressly been convoked, was the condition 
 of the Germanic Church. Upon this subject Aleander 
 brought to bear all his eminent talents, in a speech of 
 three hours' duration, and of such singular power as to 
 have won the admiration even of those most adverse 
 to the policy which he recommended. " In the course 
 of his oration," says the biographer of Leo X., " he 
 asserted that the opposition of Luther was not confined 
 to the pope and the Roman see, but was directed 
 against the most sacred dogmas of the Christian faith ; 
 that Luther had denied the power of the supreme pon- 
 tiff, and even of a general council, to decide in matters 
 of doctrine, — without which, it was evident that there 
 would be as many opinions on the sense of Scripture, 
 as there were readers ; that by impugning the doctrine 
 of a free agency, and preaching up that of a certain 
 uncontrollable necessity, a door was opened for al] 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 139 
 
 kinds of wickedness and licentiousness, as it would be 
 thought a sufficient excuse to allege that such crimes 
 were inevitable. After discussing these and many 
 similar topics, he concluded by observing that the 
 Roman court had laboured during four years, without 
 effect, to subdue this detestable heresy ; and that no- 
 thing now remained but to entreat the interference of 
 the emperor and the German princes, who might, by 
 an imperial edict, expose both it and its author to 
 merited execration and contempt." 
 
 It will be seen that in this harangue, Aleander art- 
 fully took advantage of Luther's apparent acquiescence 
 in the positions maintained by Carlostadt, to inflame 
 against him the prejudices of the diet. It was his 
 policy to lead the assembly, at once, and before the 
 excitement produced by his eloquent declamation had 
 subsided, to place the reformer under the ban of the 
 empire, and thus to extinguish a rebellion which, 
 gathering strength daily, the Papal bull was impotent 
 to suppress. The prudent and calm sagacity of the 
 elector Frederic, however, defeated the hopes of the 
 legate. Professing to give no opinion on the intrinsic 
 propriety of Luther's sentiments and conduct, he in- 
 sisted that there would be scandalous injustice in pro- 
 ceeding either to condemn those sentiments, or coerce 
 their reputed author, without first calling him before 
 them, and legally interrogating him as to the alleged 
 fact of his having taught the offensive dogmas that 
 were said to be contained in his books. To Aleander, 
 the universal approbation with which the assembled 
 princes received this proposition was a sore disappoint- 
 ment ; for he was too well aware of the probable effect 
 of the personal presence and eloquent intrepidity of 
 
140 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 Luther, to regard with indifference a project which 
 threatened to supersede the predisposition of the diet 
 in favour of his own schemes. The proposal, hov 
 ever, emanated from too high a quarter, and was, 
 besides, too reasonable in itself, to be rejected. It 
 was therefore resolved that Luther should be forthwith 
 summoned to attend, and answer for himself, under 
 protection of a safe-conduct from the emperor. When 
 the mandate requiring him to bring himself before the 
 diet reached Wittenberg, it occasioned not a little alarm 
 to the reforming party. Many of them, in terror for 
 their leader's safety, entreated him to disregard the 
 citation; reminding him of the fate of Huss, who, 
 betrayed by similar pretences, had forfeited his life by 
 a too rash confidence in the good faith of his persecu- 
 tors, at the Council of Constance. Himself not igno- 
 rant of the peril he was about to encounter, it would 
 have inferred small dishonour to his habitual fortitude 
 if he had hesitated to obey the command of a body of 
 whom the majority were well known to be inveterately 
 opposed to both his cause and person. But to all the 
 persuasions of his friends Luther was deaf. "I am 
 called," said he ; " it is ordered and decreed that I 
 appear in that city. I will neither recant nor flee. I 
 will go to Worms, in spite of all the gates of hell, and 
 the prince of the power of the air." 
 
 Without delay, he prepared to accompany the impe- 
 rial herald who had been sent to escort him to the 
 scene of his trial and his triumph. Not a few of the 
 m6st conspicuous members of his own university 
 attended him ; and such was the general veneration 
 which his character and fearless assertion of the prin- 
 ciples of religious freedom had awakened, that the 
 
 Sflttl 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 141 
 
 whole journey resembled an ovation. In every town 
 through which he passed, multitudes thronged to catch 
 a glimpse of the man who had so bravely lifted his 
 voice against the oppressions and depravity of the armed 
 see of Rome : and had mere ambition or human vanity 
 mingled with the higher impulses that guided, and the 
 feelings that sustained his heart, those passions might 
 have been even surfeited with the applause which hung 
 upon his progress. 
 
 The Papal emissaries meanwhile were exerting their 
 utmost influence to procure the immediate condemna- 
 tion of Luther ; or, failing in this, to prevent his ap- 
 pearance before the princes of the empire. Devoted 
 as they were to the Papacy, they knew how much the 
 church stood in need of reform, and how heavily its 
 numerous abuses pressed upon all ranks, so that even 
 those who were most opposed to doctrinal alterations, 
 earnestly desired amendments utterly at variance with 
 the interests of the Roman court, and were ready to 
 embrace the first opportunity of securing them. Nor 
 were they ignorant of the power of Luther's eloquence, 
 or of the weight and force of his arguments. They 
 had no wish to grapple with him in debate, nor to gain 
 any more such victories as that of which Eck boasted 
 at Leipsic. Their efforts, therefore, were unremitting 
 to win the young emperor to their schemes ; and the 
 friends of Luther were so much alarmed, that they 
 wrote to him, even after he had left Wittenberg, be- 
 seeching him to return. He received the letter at 
 Oppenheim, whither he had arrived in his way to 
 Worms. His answer lives in the memory of every 
 Protestant Christian in the world : " In the name of 
 the Lord, I will be there ; I will enter into the very 
 
142 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 mouth of Behemoth, and there acknowledge Christ. 
 Into that place will I go, though there be in 
 
 IT AS MANY DEVILS AS THERE ARE TILES UPON THE 
 
 houses " On his entry into Worms, (April 16th, 1521,) 
 Luther was again surrounded by a multitude of spec- 
 tators, eager to testify their admiration of his singular 
 resoluteness and constancy. As he approached the 
 hall where the diet held its sittings, on the ensuing 
 morning, various expressions of approving sympathy, 
 coupled with exhortations to acquit himself with his 
 usual courage, were addressed to him by the crowd. 
 " Monk," said Frundberg, an old captain in the imperial 
 army, laying his hand on the reformer's shoulder, " be- 
 ware what you do : you are in more danger than any 
 of us have ever braved upon the field of battle : but if 
 you are in the right road, go forward in God's name, 
 and be sure that he will not forsake you !" 
 
 Arraigned before this august senate of the empire, 
 with its ascending orders of principalities and powers, 
 the calm magnanimity of the man never abandoned 
 him for a moment. His dignified bearing, and the se- 
 rene self-possession which a sense of the grandeur of 
 his cause assured to him, commanded the respect of even 
 his bitterest enemies ; and it deserves to be commem- 
 orated, that his treatment upon this, the greatest and 
 most critical occasion of his life, when the curse of 
 excommunication already branded him, was expressive 
 of far more deference and respect than that which 
 he had experienced in his former interviews with Ca- 
 jetan at Augsburg. Upon a table, in the centre of the 
 room of audience, lay copies of those works of Luther 
 which the recent bull assumed to convict of heresy. In 
 front of him sat, as canonical assessors, the two legates, 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 143 
 
 Aleander and Caraccioli ; while above them was the 
 young emperor, in whose bold ambition the hopes and 
 fears of nations had already read auguries of his future 
 renown, surrounded by the ecclesiastical nobility and 
 feudal barons of the Germanic states. A more im- 
 posing tribunal never, perhaps, clothed itself with the 
 judicial function, or proceeded, under legal form, to 
 perpetrate upon an individual, strong only in his own 
 integrity, an act of injustice that was surpassed by no- 
 thing but the folly and national degradation which it 
 involved. 
 
 The duty of interrogating Luther, as to the charges 
 preferred against him, fell to the lot of the imperial 
 orator, Eyk, who was also vicar-general of the arch- 
 bishop of Treves. The similitude of names, which, 
 indeed, under the Latin form, Eccius, are identical, has 
 led some writers carelessly to confound this official with 
 the early and persevering adversary of the Reforma- 
 tion, Eck, of scurrilous memory. By direction of the 
 emperor, Luther was asked, first, whether he acknow- 
 ledged the books which had been so widely circulated 
 throughout Germany under his name ; and, secondly, 
 whether he would now retract or disavow their con- 
 tents. In these inquiries, the real point at issue was 
 assumed ; namely, that the tenets avowed by Luther 
 were heretical, and worthy to be punished. Before 
 he could reply, SchurfT, one of his Wittenberg asso- 
 ciates, demanded the names of the works in question ; 
 and their titles being enumerated by the orator, Luther 
 answered, that of the volumes then before the diet, 
 some were merely designed to inculcate the Christian 
 faith and morals, which he was allowed, even by his 
 accusers, to have done- in a Scriptural and profitable 
 
144 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 manner. To retract those portions of his writings, 
 would, he stated, be equivalent to a denial of princi- 
 ples upon which all parties agreed, and which were, 
 indeed, essential to the order and welfare of society. 
 In others of his productions he had waged war against 
 the abuses of the Papacy, and those spurious doctrines 
 by means of which the priesthood had, for centuries, 
 impoverished the people, fettered their reason, de- 
 praved their moral sense, and assisted to destroy their 
 souls. To recall the sentiments to which he had 
 given expression on these matters would only tend to 
 aggravate the burden which was already insupportable, 
 and lend his aid to perpetuate a tyranny which was as 
 odious to himself as it was grinding and destructive to 
 the poor. The remainder of his publications, having 
 been chiefly composed in the heat of controversy with 
 writers who had attempted to vindicate the pollutions 
 of the Romish Church, and to suppress the true faith 
 of Christianity, might, he admitted, have been charac- 
 terized by a too vehement and acrimonious spirit. At 
 the same time, he contended that even such of his 
 tracts as belonged to the latter class he was not bound 
 to cancel ; inasmuch, as by so doing he might be 
 thought to afford, at least, a tacit approbation of prac- 
 tices which were abhorrent to all Scripture and reli- 
 gion. " I am, indeed," he continued, " only a man ; 
 I pretend to no infallibility ; nor can I better defend 
 the opinions which I hold than in the words of my 
 divine Saviour, who, when he was interrogated of his 
 doctrine by the high priest, and smitten by a slave, 
 said, ' If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil.' 
 If the Lord himself, he who could not err, did not hes- 
 itate to invite the testimony against his word of even 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 145 
 
 a rude menial, how much more ought I, who am but 
 dust and ashes, and who may easily fall into error, to 
 be willing to hear what any man can advance against 
 the doctrine I have taught. By the mercy of God, 
 therefore, I adjure your imperial majesty, and the 
 illustrious princes here present, to bid any person, who 
 is able, be he of high or of low degree, to examine me 
 as to my belief ; and show, if it be possible, by the 
 Scriptures of the prophets and apostles, that I have 
 been deceived. Convince me from Scripture that I 
 have erred, and, not content with merely retracting my 
 errors, I will be the first to cast the books which con- 
 tain them into the flames." 
 
 This characteristic address was delivered in a low 
 and humble tone, without any vehemence or violence, 
 but with gentleness and mildness, and in a manner 
 unequivocally expressive of the respect due to those 
 before whom he stood, on account of their rank and 
 station. He was no passionate enthusiast. His feel- 
 ings were strong ; but he held them in perfect con- 
 trol. When, for the interests of truth, he saw that it 
 was the time to speak forth the deep and mighty in- 
 dignation of his soul against those corruptions which, 
 if he were right, hindered the access of the sinner to 
 his Saviour, obscured the glory of the most high God, 
 and were the occasion of the spiritual slaughter of 
 multitudes, he did so upon principle. And if some- 
 times he exceeded the limits which controversialists 
 are now expected to observe, be it remembered that 
 he was only a man, and that a larger license was al- 
 lowed than at present : let it likewise be remembered 
 that, if he were right, no language is sufficient to ex- 
 press the mischief which the Papacy occasioned, nor 
 7 
 
146 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 the atrocity of those crimes of which its determined 
 abettors were guilty. If he rightly understood the 
 Scripture, instead of saving souls from death, their life 
 was spent in destroying them. 
 
 On the present occasion, however, his address was 
 calm, though earnest ; and, though full of caution, yet 
 sincere, manly, and respectful. When he had finished 
 speaking, he was told by Eyk that he had only travel- 
 led from the question, to which he was expected to 
 give an unequivocal and direct reply. It was then 
 that the mighty heart of the reformer, filled with a 
 feeling of the profound responsibilities of his situation, 
 and supported, surely, by a more than human energy, 
 conceived an answer which, for pregnant solemnity 
 and calm heroism, is, beyond all other words in mo- 
 dern history, sublime. " Since, then," he said, " your 
 imperial majesty, and your highnesses, now assembled, 
 require a plain, simple, and brief answer, I will render 
 one, without reservation or evasion. Unless I shall 
 be convinced by the testimony of Scripture, or by 
 other and manifest reasons, (for upon the authority of 
 popes and councils alone I cannot rely, since it is clear 
 that they have often erred, and even contradicted one 
 another,) I neither can nor will revoke anything that I 
 have written, seeing that to act against conscience is 
 neither safe nor honest. Here I stand : I can do 
 no other : God help me ! Amen." 
 
 Great and brave man ! If ever was illustrated the 
 admonition and the promise of our Saviour to his dis- 
 ciples, that when they should stand accused before 
 magistrates and powers for his sake, it should be given 
 them in the same hour what they should speak, it was 
 in the case of Luther, at the Diet of Worms. Upon his 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 147 
 
 words hung not alone the intellectual and religious 
 liberties of Europe, but, indeed, humanly speaking, we 
 may add, the circulation of the gospel in the world, 
 and the eternal happiness of millions, who, but for the 
 unflinching intrepidity of Luther, might never have had 
 access to the records of divine truth. He himself, 
 when referring to this event not long before his death, 
 seems to have been astonished at his own firmness. 
 " It is thus," he remarked, " that God gives us strength 
 for the occasion : but I doubt whether I should now 
 be equal to such a task." 
 
 Some private conferences with the archbishop of 
 Treves, and others of the more liberal members of the 
 diet, ensued, in which various efforts were made to 
 shake the constancy of Luther, and induce him to re- 
 scind some, at least, of his obnoxious declarations ; 
 and when, at length, the prelate, finding him inexorable, 
 demanded what remedy he would propose for the dis- 
 sensions which had so long divided and imbittered the 
 puplic mind of Germany, he responded in the words 
 of Gamaliel, upon a very similar occasion, " If this 
 work be of men, it will come to naught ; but if it be 
 of God, ye cannot overthrow it." Persons were not 
 wanting to incite the emperor to violate the pledge of 
 security under which Luther had been drawn to 
 Worms ; but the more independent members of the 
 diet instantly took the alarm. " The death of John 
 Huss," exclaimed the elector palatine, "has brought 
 too many calamities on Germany for us to think of 
 again erecting a like scaffold." Even Duke George 
 of Saxony, firmly as he adhered to the ancient sys- 
 tem, exclaimed, " The German princes will not endure 
 the violation of a safe-conduct. Such perfidy befits 
 
148 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 not the ancient good faith of the Germans."* Even 
 the subtle and ambitious Charles, cold as he was in 
 reference to genuine Christian virtue, uniting the 
 phlegm of the Spaniard and Fleming with the cun- 
 ning and dissimulation of the Italian, saw that it 
 would not do to stain the commencement of his rule 
 by an outrage of such perfidious atrocity ; and, perhaps 
 apprehensive of the consequences, he contented him- 
 self with ordering the reformer to quit the city, which 
 he did on the 26th of April. 
 
 * It was reserved for more modern times, for the O'Learys of 
 Popery to deny that the safe-conduct was violated : a denial in- 
 volving as direct a breach of truth, as the violation itself was of 
 all Christian honour and integrity. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 149 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The description given of Luther in the penal edict 
 of Worms is characteristic of the malignant ingenuity 
 of his Papist foes. By way of justifying the severe 
 denunciations which ensue, he is there represented, 
 not only as a rebel against the pontifical tiara, and a 
 contumacious heretic, but as a wretch who, himself 
 leading, instructed others also to lead a sensual and 
 licentious life ; who openly despised all laws, whether 
 of divine or human origin ; and was, in short, little 
 better than the incarnate spirit of evil, arrayed in the 
 habiliments of an Austinian friar. On account of these 
 and kindred enormities, sentence of outlawry, within 
 the imperial dominions, is decreed to take effect upon 
 him after twenty-one days from the date of his depart- 
 ure from the diet. All persons who might thereafter 
 be guilty of reading, printing, or distributing any of his 
 writings, or who, in any manner whatsoever, should 
 countenance, harbour, or abet him, were to incur the 
 same penalty which attached to himself ; while every 
 subject of the emperor was charged to aid in capturing 
 or destroying him. 
 
 This act of secular excommunication was, however 
 destined to be fully as innocuous as had been the ec- 
 clesiastical proscription which it proposed to carry into 
 execution. The herald who, by direction of the em- 
 peror, escorted Luther on his way homeward as far as 
 Friedberg, had scarcely quitted him, when (on the 3d 
 ol May, 1521,) his party was suddenly surrounded by 
 a number of armed horsemen, wearing masks, who 
 
150 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER 
 
 seized and hurried him away, through the forest of 
 Thuringia, to the old castle of Wartburg, a fortress situ- 
 ated among the mountains, not far from Eisenach, 
 which had formerly been a residence of the land- 
 graves of the district. Whether this seizure was made 
 in accordance with a scheme which had been pre- 
 viously concerted between the reformer and his watch- 
 ful prince and patron, the elector, is unknown ; but as 
 it was clearly the object of Frederic to keep himself 
 out of sight in the transaction, and by leaving the 
 friends of Luther in ignorance of his precise destina- 
 tion, to deprive his enemies of all possible clew to it, 
 we are not much inclined to believe that Luther was 
 privy to the design. Be that as it may, the circum- 
 stance is at least illustrative of the provident care of 
 the electoral sovereign for the life and interests of his 
 illustrious subject. 
 
 During his seclusion in the mountain fortress of 
 Wartburg, Luther was neither idle nor forgetful of the 
 infant cause to which he had dedicated all the ener- 
 gies of his active and virtuous mind. From that re- 
 treat, which he called " Patmos," " the Desert," and 
 other names indicative of solitude and exile, issued his 
 "Tract on Auricular Confession," one of the most 
 valuable of his minor works ; which was followed by 
 a " Letter to the Students of Erfurt," on respect to the 
 clergy ; and several other treatises, written with his 
 accustomed vigour. But of all the labours which en- 
 gaged him in this season of retirement, the most memo- 
 rable is his masterly exposure of the sinfulness and 
 folly of monastic vows ; a discourse which well de- 
 serves to be known, as an antidote to the unnatural 
 pretexts upon which the whole system of conventual 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 151 
 
 life is founded. The interest with which these per- 
 formances were received by the German nation was, 
 no doubt, vividly enhanced by the curious sympathy 
 which their author's disappearance had excited. But 
 notwithstanding his exemplary diligence during the 
 nine months of his sojourn at Wartburg, the monotony 
 of his pursuits conspired, with a fear of injury occur- 
 ring to the new-born Reformation at Wittenberg, to 
 render him impatient of the friendly restraint that was 
 laid upon him. 
 
 Meantime, the Augustinians of that city, reassured 
 by the appearance of these tracts, and the letters which 
 from time to time found their way to Melancthon and 
 the chief members of their body, took the first step to- 
 ward effecting a general change in the ceremonial of 
 public worship, by allowing the communicants to par- 
 take of both elements in the sacrament, (the Roman 
 ritual withholding the cup from the laity,) and abolish- 
 ing the private celebration of masses. To the latter of 
 these reforms, which disposed of one of the most lucra- 
 tive and disgraceful sources of revenue to the Roman 
 clergy, succeeded an abandonment of the usage of beg- 
 ging for the order ; and, finally, a formal recognition 
 of the guilt and worthlessness of conventual vows, and 
 the enforced celibacy of priests. 
 
 While the fruits of his former exertions were thus 
 disclosing themselves at Wittenberg, and while other 
 places in Germany were preparing to imitate the ex- 
 ample of that town, a new and remarkable antagonist 
 had started against Luther, in the character of a re- 
 spondent to the dissertation on the " Babylonish Cap- 
 tivity ot the Church." Henry VIII. of England, who, 
 in early life, had cultivated an acquaintance with the 
 
152 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 scholastic divinity, and especially with the solemn per- 
 plexities of Thomas Aquinas, scandalized at the irre- 
 verent dealing of Luther with his favourite theologian, 
 resolved to inflict due chastisement on the Saxon 
 heresiarch, and with that view composed his Treatise 
 on the Seven Sacraments. This composition, which 
 has long been forgotten, was not without the merit of 
 a certain dialectical ingenuity, mixed with much native 
 shrewdness, and considerable learning. As the off- 
 spring of a kingly pen, it was hailed at Rome with 
 rapturous applause, and rewarded by the pope in full 
 consistory, conferring upon the royal author the title of 
 " Defender of the Faith ;" a title which subsequent 
 events converted into a monument of the short-sighted- 
 ness of the infallible popedom, and which, since the 
 days of Elizabeth, has been borne with better right by 
 his successors on the British throne. But while the 
 sacred college thus recorded its admiration of the royal 
 disputant, Luther replied to him with the most con- 
 temptuous acerbity. He treated the king, indeed, with 
 far less show of forbearance and civility than any 
 other of his numerous opposers. The tone of his re- 
 joinder is so singularly and unnecessarily severe, as to 
 have sometimes drawn upon him considerable cen- 
 sure. If, however, we consider that he might naturally 
 look upon Henry VIII. as a gratuitous intruder on the 
 province of polemical speculation, and further, that he 
 had probably anticipated for his tenets a more auspi- 
 cious reception in England, the bold asperity of his 
 strictures on the ponderous trifle of his crowned assail- 
 ant will be seen to furnish little matter of surprise. 
 
 The months which Luther spent in his " Patmos " 
 were very eventful ones. Leo wished to avail himself 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 153 
 
 of the rivalry between Charles and Francis, so as to 
 expel the French from Italy ; hoping, at the same 
 time, that the power of the emperor would be so re- 
 duced in the contest, that he, too, would be confined 
 to his ultramontane provinces. Charles, likewise, had 
 been successful in attaching Cardinal Wolsey to his 
 interests, and thus of securing the friendship of Henry 
 VIII. Wolsey aspired to the Papacy, and the re- 
 served, artful, ambitious, and unprincipled emperor had 
 bribed him, by leading him to expect, on the next 
 vacancy, that the whole influence of Germany and 
 Spain, in the conclave, should be exerted in his behalf. 
 For a time the plansof Leo were successful. The 
 imperial forces in Italy defeated those of France, bat- 
 tle after battle. And as at the same time Spain was 
 agitated by civil commotions of the most serious cha- 
 racter, the attention of Charles was diverted from the 
 religious affairs of Germany, while that of Leo was 
 chiefly directed to his political schemes in favour of 
 Italy. The principles of the Reformation, therefore, 
 were spreading, germinating, and bearing fruit, almost 
 without notice ; certainly without those checks which, 
 under less favourable circumstances, they would have 
 experienced. This was indeed the hand of God ; 
 and these providential opportunities were prolonged 
 by the death of Leo, early in December, 1521, and 
 by the intrigues which followed, and which resulted 
 in the election of Adrian of Utrecht to the Papal 
 throne. The new pontiff had been the tutor of 
 Charles, and was now his regent in Spain. Some 
 time elapsed, therefore, before his election could be 
 notified to him ; and even then, a considerable period 
 elapsed before he entered Rome, and engaged per- 
 7* 
 
154 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 sonally in the direction of ecclesiastical and public 
 affairs. 
 
 Luther, meanwhile, although in retirement, was not, 
 as we have seen, idle. It was while at Wartburg 
 that he prepared his first sketch of a translation of the 
 New Testament, and the five books of Moses. But 
 from this undertaking he was for a short time diverted 
 by circumstances which suddenly recalled him from 
 the obscurity of his mountain retreat. Not unobserv- 
 ant of the changes which, during his absence, had 
 been brought about in Wittenberg, he appears to have 
 been apprehensive of the zeal of his followers outrun- 
 ning their discretion ; and hence had arisen various 
 misgivings which, for some few months before he 
 finally resolved to return, and take the direction of 
 affairs into his own hands, had not a little disturbed 
 his peace. But when at length intelligence reached 
 him of the appointment to the university, in which he 
 still retained his official rank, of a professor of the 
 canon law, (that law which was the very implement 
 and mainstay of the Roman predominance,) he felt that 
 no amount of personal risk ought any longer to detain 
 him in his voluntary captivity. To the great delight, 
 therefore, of his partisans, early in March, 1522, after 
 a concealment of ten months, he returned to Witten- 
 berg, where, notwithstanding the satisfaction which 
 he must have realized in finding how firmly his doc- 
 trines had become rooted in the public mind, his pre- 
 sence was by no means undesirable or needless. It 
 would seem that Carlostadt and others, in their eager- 
 ness to abolish all remnant of the ancient superstition, 
 had proceeded to extremities which Luther was far 
 from deeming either necessary or expedient. Among 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 155 
 
 other things, hasty reformers had swept the churches of 
 the pictures and images which had long adorned ther* 
 and which Luther (while none of his disciples moi-e 
 loudly than himself condemned the sin of offering to 
 those effigies idolatrous honours) would have retained for 
 the present as suitable emblems and monumental tokens 
 of the capital events in sacred history. The shrines of 
 saints, and everything else which ostensibly tended to 
 perpetuate the actual worship either of the idol, or its 
 archetype, he was resolutely bent on removing ; but 
 he held, nevertheless, that the visible representation 
 of passages in the life of the Saviour and apostles 
 was capable of being turned to good account, as a 
 mode of impressing on the popular feelings and imagi- 
 nation many of the cardinal and most interesting facts 
 connected with the mysterious story of man's redemp- 
 tion. But another and more serious point of difference 
 between the reformer and his injudicious ally, Carlo- 
 stadt, was the indiscriminate administration, by the 
 latter, of the eucharist to all who desired to participate 
 of that sacrament. Adhering to his original and em- 
 phatic opinion, of the necessity of faith to the benefi- 
 cial reception of the sacred elements, Luther consider- 
 ed also that there was something akin to profanation 
 in admitting persons to communicate without solemn 
 preparation, and an assurance of their individual wor- 
 thiness and aptitude to profit by the ordinance. But, 
 apart from this wise and wholesome caution, he was 
 at variance with his former colleague and supporter on 
 the anxious question of the real presence. The literal 
 existence in the bread and wine, of the body and blood 
 of Christ, Carlostadt utterly repudiated ; while Luther, 
 on the other hand, rejecting the Popish notion of the 
 
156 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 absolute transformation of the material signs into the 
 veritable substance of the divine person whose medi- 
 atorial death they were designed to commemorate, still 
 held that substance to be actually attendant on, and in 
 some unintelligible manner blended with, the conse- 
 crated symbols. This singular and unreasonable con- 
 ception of the quality and import of the sacrament of 
 the Lord's supper was one of the few vestiges of an 
 outworn and abandoned creed which haunted the mas- 
 culine sense of the chief reformer. It was, in fact, 
 only a mitigated, and not less delusive form of the Ro- 
 manist error ; and it must be confessed that had the 
 idea of consubstantiation been far better authenticated 
 than it could be shown to be, and of vastly graver mo- 
 ment as an article of faith, no consideration could have 
 fully justified the ungenerous and harsh, not to say 
 oppressive, means which Luther made use of to repress 
 the supposed heterodoxy of Carlostadt. It is not 
 indeed literally true, as sometimes has been alleged, 
 that, unsatisfied with displacing that rash innovator 
 from his pastoral charge, Luther procured his ejection 
 from the university. On the contrary, it was at his 
 own will that Carlostadt resigned his offices of pro- 
 fessor and archdeacon, and withdrew from Wittenberg ; 
 but not until those places had been rendered intolerable, 
 by a series of annoyances which, to say the least of 
 them, bordered on contumely and persecution. It is 
 with unaffected regret that we record a passage so 
 little in concord with the general height and dignity 
 of Luther's character. But without seeking to palliate 
 what admits of no vindication, we are bound to state 
 that the final motive of a conduct so unworthy of the 
 liberator of his country and his race must be sought 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 157 
 
 for in that sensitive and vigilant jealousy of tne grand 
 solemnities of religion, which, seeing in Carlostadt a 
 tendency to divest a principal and hallowed rite of its 
 appropriate sanctity, and to bring it down to the level of 
 a mere ceremonial usage, was but too liable to be push- 
 ed into austerity and excess. If we duly weigh the 
 delicate and critical posture of the young church of the 
 Reformation, and bear in mind the imminent peril of 
 doing too much, — of removing things worthy of holiest 
 and perpetual preservation along with the abuses that 
 have gathered over and enshrouded them, — which is 
 incident to every transition from a state of general pra- 
 vation to one of renovated purity and health, we may 
 be taught to judge tenderly of the influences which, in 
 a situation of exquisite difficulty and some danger, be- 
 trayed a noble heart into the rare commission of osten- 
 sible injustice. 
 
 On his return to Wittenberg, Luther had judged it 
 proper to write to the elector an account of the reasons 
 which had drawn him forth from his place of safety 
 and concealment. His letter is a fine specimen of the 
 native courage which distinguished him, ennobled and 
 invigorated by a reverent confidence in the providen- 
 tial protection of a Being higher than the kings of this 
 world. In it he expresses his conviction that in 
 coming again among his people, he was following the 
 indications of that divine will which he ever sought to 
 make the rule and guide of his motions. In his ab- 
 sence, he observes, that Satan had been busy with his 
 flock, and alludes particularly to his grand project of 
 a translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular 
 tongue ; in executing which, he states himself to be 
 in want of the assistance of his learned and pious 
 

 158 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 brethren. With the aid chiefly of Melancthon, that 
 gigantic and beneficent enterprise was, by dint of ex- 
 emplary and indefatigable industry, completed within 
 the space of a few succeeding months ; and the year 
 1523 is illustrious in the annals of Christendom for the 
 publication of the first entire version of the Old and 
 New Testaments, in a living language, that was ever 
 given to any of the countries of continental Europe. 
 
 The general character of the Lutheran Bible is well 
 known, and the work has always been held in high 
 esteem for its faithful transcription of the meaning and 
 spirit of the original. With extreme simplicity and 
 idiomatic plainness of expression, it reflects the pre- 
 cise and often profound significance of the sacred 
 canon with a rare and admirable felicity ; and, on the 
 whole, it may, perhaps, be justly thought to have fallen 
 short of the excellence of no similar work extant, ex- 
 cept our own incomparable translation of the same 
 hallowed pages. The version of the Psalms, espe- 
 cially, belongs to the highest order of meritorious tra- 
 ductions. It evinces such an intimate familiarity with 
 the involved power and subtle implications which 
 characterize the phrase of those inspired poems ; such 
 an apt appreciation of the pregnant and suggestive in- 
 timations which belong to the style of the Hebrew 
 lyrics ; and such a deep, sympathetic intelligence of 
 their informing purpose, and the labouring conception 
 of their writers, ever oppressed and almost overwhelm- 
 ed by the intrinsic majesty of the thoughts that arose 
 within them, as could have been experienced only by 
 minds endowed with a more than common measure of 
 innate poetry, and enriched by a wise and devout cul- 
 ture of those sensibilities which minister to the vir- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 159 
 
 tual efficacy and manifest loveliness of genuine, prac- 
 tical religion. This portion of the work, which, in 
 truth, is pervaded not more visibly by evidences of 
 various and sound learning, than by tokens of a self- 
 diffident humility and earnest regard for the spiritual 
 information and welfare of its readers, might, from its 
 internal indications, have been ascribed almost entirely 
 to Melancthon, (with whose understood qualities of 
 heart it is in beautiful accordance,) had we not distinct 
 testimony that, in a larger degree than were any other 
 parts of the whole performance, it was the unassisted 
 product of Luther's own meditations and ability. The 
 exquisite facility and gracefulness with which the so- 
 lemn imagery of the royal singer of Israel is transfused 
 into the German idiom are not a little remarkable when 
 we remember that the hymns and other original poetry 
 of Luther are uniformly disfigure^by the faults of 
 ruggedness, inelegance, and the substitution of rude 
 strength for harmonious sweetness. The English 
 reader may form some apprehension of the merit and 
 precise nature of the value of Luther's version of the 
 Psalms, when he is told that in point of beauty, sus- 
 tained dignity, and energetic brevity of language, com- 
 mensurate to the deeper force of the Hebrew model, 
 it bears a very discoverable affinity to the fine transla- 
 tion of Isaiah by Bishop Lowth. 
 
 Of the remaining books of the Old Testament, though 
 the sense of the original Scripture is everywhere 
 transferred with scrupulous fidelity, the "Wittenberg 
 version betrays comparatively little of that extraordi- 
 nary opulence of expression, and uplifting of the trans- 
 lator's spirit to the full height of his " great argument," 
 which the transcript of the Psalms develops. It is 
 
160 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 however, as we have said, marked throughout by sin- 
 gular and cauti&us accuracy, and general adherence to 
 the best-authenticated copies of the prophetic writings. 
 Its gravest blemishes, which, after all, are but of small 
 account, consist in an occasional preference, without 
 sufficient cause shown, to the text of the Septuagint, 
 and sometimes of the Latin Vulgate ; faults which may 
 well be pardoned to men who were, in truth, the very 
 pioneers of modern Hebrew scholarship, and the reno- 
 vators of all the illustrative and collateral branches of 
 Biblical literature. The place which their Bible has 
 maintained for upward of three centuries in the esti- 
 mation of Protestant Europe constitutes the surest 
 voucher for its fidelity and excellence ; while it is open 
 to no dispute that many passages of the original Scrip- 
 ture are in that translation given with an adequacy and 
 striking manifestation of the real import of Hebraic 
 obscurities, which'has seldom been transcended. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER 161 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The death of Leo X., which occurred, as we have 
 seen, at the close of 1521, had been followed by the 
 very unexpected elevation to the pontificate of Adrian, 
 cardinal of Utrecht ; a man whose learning and reli- 
 gion were such as the cloister could produce. Cor- 
 dially satisfied of the validity of the Papal empery, 
 and resolute to uphold it in its integrity and splendour, 
 the new pope was, nevertheless, aware that under its 
 shadow there had grown up a mass of clerical abuses 
 and corruptions which, reflecting scandal on the Ro- 
 man creed, had weakened, and in many cases alienated, 
 the affections of all classes of the Christian communi- 
 ty, and had thus prepared the way for the more willing 
 reception of doctrines such as tliose preached by 
 Luther. In order, therefore, to cure the evils, the ex- 
 istence of which he acknowledged, he projected cer- 
 tain administrative reforms, adapted to restrain the 
 indecent cupidity and profligate licenses that disgraced 
 the body of the priesthood. At the same time he pro- 
 posed to disallow that indiscriminate prostitution of 
 indulgences which, under his immediate predecessors, 
 had universally prevailed. Had Leo, in the primal 
 vigour of his faculties, and with the full influence of 
 his eminent fame, addressed himself to such a task, 
 not only is it certain that he might to a great extent 
 have succeeded in curbing for a time the ostentatious 
 impiety which brought the church into general odium ; 
 but it is also probable that by a vigorous enforcement 
 of stringent discipline, and an unequivocal excision 
 
162 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 of the dispensatory prerogative, he would indefinitely 
 have postponed the Reformation. But Adrian, though 
 sincere, and even earnest in his desire to remedy 
 abuses, to remove corruptions, and to promote the 
 general amendment of the church, soon discovered that 
 it was more easy to promise than to perform. Too many 
 of his own court were interested in the continuance 
 of the evils which he acknowledged and deplored, for 
 him to obtain their concurrence in the reforms which 
 he intended, but was thus unable to effect. He, as far 
 as he understood it, looked at religion, and wished to 
 promote its interests. They thought of nothing less. 
 What to the people were abuses, were to them sources 
 of wealth ; and it was not in the power of the aged 
 pontiff to infuse his own spirit into the ambitious, lux- 
 urious, avaricious, and, in only too many instances, 
 skeptical carding and prelates by whom he was sur- 
 rounded, and wrariout whose cordial c.o-operation he 
 himself was utterly powerless. It is one of the most 
 remarkable circumstances of that remarkable period, 
 that the only pope who appeared to be sincerely reli- 
 gious (however mistaken, on the principles of Luther, 
 his religious views might be) was for that very reason 
 despised and opposed. Rome did not want a Chris- 
 tian pope ; and when Adrian talked of endeavouring to 
 restore the ancient discipline, the cardinals listened 
 with contemptuous astonishment, pursued their own 
 course, and compelled the unhappy head of the Chris- 
 tian world to regret his elevation to a throne which 
 his honesty rendered him unfit to fill. The only effects 
 of his acknowledgment of clerical abuses were, on the 
 one hand, to strengthen the cause of Lutheran reform, 
 by furnishing the reformers with admissions of the 
 

 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 163 
 
 truth and justice of their often-repeated charges ; and, 
 on the other, to complete the alienation of his selfish 
 and dishonest, but astucious, counsellors. One of the 
 subjects mooted in the preparatory consultations of the 
 pontificate was the old sin of indulgences. Deciding 
 to publish a bull, declarative of the real sentiments of 
 the see in relation particularly to those monstrous pro- 
 fanities, the pope was warmly advised by Cajetan to 
 explain them to be nothing more than dispensations 
 from penances imposed by ecclesiastical authority. 
 But this advice, the most prudent that could have been 
 given, was overruled partly by the stolid sincerity of 
 Adrian's private belief in their larger validity, and still 
 more effectually by the anticipative fears of the cleri- 
 cal courtiers, who, in the abrogation of the Clementine 
 doctrine respecting the plenary efficacy of the Papal 
 pardons, beheld an omen of the approaching downfall 
 of their power, in its very citadel and centre. The 
 universal pravation of manners which, having rioted 
 for ages in the strong-hold of the Papacy, had been fos- 
 tered into a broader and shameless licentiousness, under 
 the luxurious prodigality of the late pontiff, had, in 
 truth, so utterly outrooted every vestige of moral re- 
 straint from the entire population of Italy, that to have 
 cut away, or even to have limited, the pretended power 
 of absolution, would have been equivalent to a seve- 
 rance of the church's last hold on the seared con- 
 science and effete sensibilities of the multitude. Stimu- 
 lated by long tolerance, and the example of a thousand 
 of the princely impostors who scarcely veiled the 
 immoralities that defiled their ecclesiastical rank under 
 a semblance of outward decorum, the public profligacy 
 had waxed flagrant and obscene. Vice had put on a 
 
164 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 bolder front, and walked, stark and blushless, in the 
 sunshine. Pardon or no pardon, tax or no tax, by the 
 church, crime was a thing too dominant and general to 
 be held in check by the legitimate terrors of religion. 
 It had gained a mastery so wide, an ascendence over 
 the habitual hopes, thoughts, and projects of all classes, 
 so binding and impulsive, that it was sure, at all events, 
 to revel unrestricted and regardless, whether the privi- 
 lege to sin with impunity should continue to be sold or 
 not. At the same moment, there still lingered in the 
 general and enslaved condition of the popular feeling 
 enough of hereditary deference for the claims of the 
 popedom, mingled with some faint relics of that super- 
 stitious foreboding of future pain which is never absent 
 from a state of ignorant, but not unconscious, impurity 
 of life, to beget a custom of submitting to be mulcted 
 in the price of supposititious exemption from penal 
 liability and danger. The people would have remain- 
 ed vicious as they were, spite of the abolition of 
 these precious immunities ; for the whole frame and 
 being of Italian society was steeped to the very lips 
 in various and inveterate pollution ; while the excision 
 of so lucrative an article of commerce would have pro- 
 digiously impaired the revenues of the Catholic pri- 
 mate ; and, shutting up all hope of any appreciable 
 advantage to be derived from a form of obedience to 
 the church, would also have imperilled the loss of Italy, 
 by mere force of indifference and skepticism, as Ger- 
 many had been already lost by a renovation of the 
 pure truth of Christianity. 
 
 Such being the ominous doubts which overhung the 
 meditations of the sacred college, Adrian at length be- 
 thought him of addressing the emperor, recalling to his 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 165 
 
 memoiy the disastrous prevalence of heresy among his 
 subjects, and prompting him to put in force the vigor- 
 ous edict of Worms. Too much occupied with the 
 double business of allaying a formidable insurrection 
 which had recently arisen in his native kingdom, and 
 attempting to forestall the threatened mischances of a 
 war that as yet showed few signs of soon taking a de- 
 cisive turn in his favour, to give personal heed to the 
 exhortations of the pope, Charles was, nevertheless, 
 well-disposed to sanction what means soever, for the 
 suppression of the growing Reformation, his brother, 
 and temporary viceroy, the archduke Ferdinand, should 
 think proper to employ. The latter prince, although 
 not untainted with the acerb bigotry which has so 
 commonly and unamiably marked the royal house of 
 Spain, was probably careless of the rise of the Luthe- 
 ran party, except so far as it might indirectly affect 
 the political views of his imperial relation. Pending 
 the instant aspect of the war with Francis I., it was 
 of material importance to propitiate a continuance of 
 that friendly disposition on the part of the holy see 
 which Leo had, just before his death, decidedly exhi- 
 bited toward Charles V. ; and while the numerous ob- 
 ligations conferred on Adrian by his former sovereign 
 ensured a general leaning of that pontiff to the interests 
 of the emperor, the position of affairs in Europe was by 
 far too critical to allow of any trifling with the wishes 
 of a man whose office bestowed on him the power, if 
 once displeased, to work irreparable mischief to his 
 benefactor. 
 
 But if considerations of this kind may be supposed 
 to have whetted the vague and unintelligent animosity 
 of the archduke, as of his brother, to the Lutheran 
 
166 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 cause, there were circumstances in the domestic state 
 of the empire which made an attempt to enforce the 
 decree of the Diet of Worms too dangerous a measure 
 to be rashly adventured on. Galled and outwearied 
 by the numerous exactions and severe oppression 
 heaped upon them by their feudal masters, the peasant- 
 ry of Suabia, Wirtemberg, Flanders, and other districts, 
 had for some years manifested occasional symptoms 
 of that spirit of furious resistance which was only to 
 be quenched eventually in savage and sanguinary battle. 
 Similar demonstrations were now menaced, especially 
 in Suabia and Thuringia, where the popular discon- 
 tents were not a little fomented by the frantic declama- 
 tions, and pretensions to prophetic inspiration, of a 
 certain fanatical preacher, of the name of Thomas 
 Munzer. This person, who was originally a Thurin- 
 gian curate, had been one of the earliest and most en- 
 thusiastic followers of Luther ; and, more lately, a 
 strenuous promoter of the ill-timed intemperances of 
 Carlostadt. One of the main inducements to the re- 
 former to quit the secure privacy of Wartburg, had been 
 the wild professions by this man and some kindred 
 lunatics at Wittenberg, of being specially inspired by 
 the Holy Ghost. Melancthon, indeed, with an excess 
 of self-diffidence which is not often combined with so 
 many noble ingredients as were mingled in his nature, 
 and which was perhaps his characteristic defect, had 
 hesitated to take upon himself the risk of pronouncing 
 these pretensions to be spurious and delusive ; alleg- 
 ing that only Luther himself was competent to deter- 
 mine how far they were entitled to credit. For this 
 inaction and timidity in such a case he was severely 
 reproached by his more energetic leader, who, mi«d- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 167 
 
 ful of the apostolic injunction, to " try the spirits," lost 
 no time in rebuking the hallucinations of a perverse 
 and weak imagination. Of that rebuke, (which, how- 
 ever, does not appear to have been couched in terms 
 of peculiar harshness,) Munzer would seem to have 
 retained, through the rest of his life, an imbittered and 
 vindictive remembrance ; as the various pamphlets 
 which emanated from his pen during the next two 
 or three years were crowded with passages of insane 
 scurrility and venomous detraction from the just repu- 
 tation of his quondam guide and chieftain. 
 
 These events, coupled with the somewhat inauspi- 
 cious complexion of public affairs throughout all Europe, 
 had the effect of teaching the imperial vice-regent the 
 necessity of being extremely cautious how he proceeded 
 to counteract the increasing prevalence of the Lutheran 
 faith. All things considered, Ferdinand concluded that 
 the most prudent course would be, by the authority and 
 with the approbation of the emperor, to convoke another 
 meeting of the diet ; which consequently assembled at 
 Nuremberg, in November, 1522. 
 
 By this time the New Testament had been translated 
 into the German language, and was read by all classes 
 with avidity. Several free cities likewise, as Nurem- 
 berg, Frankfort, and Hamburg, having embraced the 
 opinions of Luther, had abolished the mass ; and the 
 elector of Bradenberg, the prince of Anhalt, and the 
 dukes of Brunswick and Lunenberg, had become the 
 avowed patrons of the reformer, and countenanced the 
 preaching of evangelical doctrines to their subjects. 
 
 When the diet assembled in November, (1522,) at 
 Nuremberg, the Papal nuncio, Cheregato, admitted, on 
 behalf of Adrian, the existence of numerous corruptions 
 
168 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 in the church, and promised their amendment. He 
 then demanded, on behalf of the pope, that the rescript 
 of Worms should be put in execution forthwith, and 
 rigorously. But the diet, in reply, referred to the in- 
 crease of the followers of Luther, and to the prevailing 
 discontent at the exactions of Rome. They requested 
 that a general council might be held in one of the free 
 cities of the empire ; and presented a list of a hundred 
 grievances, of which they required redress. The Re- 
 cess of the Diet, published in March, 1523, enjoined 
 all to wait with patience for a general council, and 
 admonished preachers to abstain from mere matters of 
 controversy, and to confine themselves to the plain and 
 instructive truths of religion. 
 
 In the mean time, the disputes between the emperor 
 and the French king left the former little leisure to 
 attend to the religious affairs of Germany: Luther, 
 therefore, and his friends, continued actively engaged 
 in investigating, publishing, and defending the truth. 
 To the admissions of Adrian, and to the official list of 
 grievances presented by the diet of the empire, they 
 appealed in proof of the correctness of their own asser- 
 tions and complaints. 
 
 The diet had called for a general council. Whether 
 this requisition would have been successful, even had 
 Adrian continued to sway the ecclesiastical sceptre, is 
 very doubtful. But even though a free, wise, honest, 
 and dispassionate assembly might have promoted the 
 religious pacification of Germany, there would have 
 been great, if not insurmountable, difficulty in consti- 
 tuting such a tribunal from the ecclesiastics of the 
 period. The period, too, had gone by for conciliating 
 the reformers, and reclaiming them to the church of 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 169 
 
 Rome. The dispute had become one of fundamental 
 principle. Even had Adrian conceded some adminis- 
 trative reforms, the system that remained would have 
 been altogether at variance with that which was now 
 held by Luther. But the trial was not made. In the 
 latter part of the year, the honest but mistaken pontiff 
 departed this life ; and the estimation in which he was 
 held at Rome will easily be gathered from the circum- 
 stance that during the night which succeedel his de- 
 cease the populace adorned the house of his chief 
 physician with garlands, and placed on its front 
 the significant inscription, To the deliverer of his 
 country. 
 
 8 
 
170 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 One of the disappointed candidates for the pontifical 
 dignity, on the decease of Leo X., it has been already 
 stated, had been our own celebrated and ambitious 
 countryman, Wolsey. The grand competition had, 
 indeed, been predicted to lie between him and the 
 cardinal de Medici, when the over-anxiety of either 
 party in the conclave, to defeat the hopes of its rival, 
 issued in the election of Adrian. 9 
 
 Charles, during his visit to England, in the year 
 1520-1, foreseeing the importance of establishing an 
 alliance with Henry VIII., as a subsidiary means of 
 harassing the movements of the French king, appears 
 to have won to his purpose the full influence of the 
 cardinal of York, by promising to support his preten- 
 sions to the ecclesiastical purple, in the event of Leo's 
 demise. That Charles ever intended to fulfil this pro- 
 mise is exceedingly doubtful : that he never actually 
 attempted to promote the elevation of the aspiring 
 Englishman is certain. Probably he feared to assist 
 in raising to a position so formidable as ,was then the 
 Roman primacy, a man whose genius and diplomatic 
 subtlety were not exceeded by the egregious arrogance 
 which provoked his ultimate degradation. 
 
 The close of Adrian's short tenure of the pontificate 
 threw open another opportunity of contesting the sceptre 
 of the church ; and the unhappy Wolsey was again 
 tempted to seek possession of the more than regal 
 authority attached to it. Had he, upon this second 
 occasion, been cordially supported by the emperor, it is 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 171 
 
 not unlikely that the British prelate might have realized 
 the consummation of those superb anticipations which, 
 failing him in this instance, were doomed to be still 
 more emphatically frustrated before his death. De- 
 ceived by Charles V., as by more than one of the rest 
 of his expected friends, Wolsey had the mortification 
 to witness the success of his former antagonist, who, 
 as a near, though illegitimate relation of Leo X., and 
 possessing a character very different from the honest 
 simplicity of Adrian, was peculiarly acceptable to the 
 Italian people. To the English cardinal, indeed, the 
 promotion of Adrian proved doubly unfortunate, inas- 
 much as it not only precluded him during the life-time 
 of that pontiff from the eminent station which he 
 coveted, but, by exasperating the popular aversion of 
 the provinces adjacent to the seat of the Papal govern- 
 ment to an ultramontane ruler, provided the majority of 
 the conclave with a plausible excuse for refusing him 
 their suffrage. The bastard son of Julian de Medici 
 accordingly succeeded without difficulty to the vacant 
 throne of St. Peter's. The hale constitution and com- 
 parative youth of Clement were such as to leave but 
 small chance of any future opening to the sacred chair 
 for a personage who, but for his exorbitant vanity and 
 lust of domination, might, at least, have had a place, 
 through all ages, in the foremost rank of British patriots 
 and statesmen. 
 
 Than between Clement VII., on the one side, with 
 his keen faculties, his hereditary boldness, and Machia- 
 vellian policy, and the senile imbecility, upon the other, 
 of the pope whom he succeeded, a broader contrast can 
 hardly be imagined. What the latter had regarded as 
 matters of exigent and cordial desideration, for their 
 
172 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 own sake, — the purgation of the church, and prompt 
 removal of all the more flagrant causes of complaint 
 against the practical working of her corrupt economy, 
 — Clement would never have troubled himself withal, 
 had not the actual posture of things in Germany, and 
 elsewhere, imperatively called for speedy and ostensi- 
 ble, if not real, effectual, and permanent, alteration. 
 But once aroused to serious deliberation and remedial 
 effort, the blood of an illustrious ancestry flowed too 
 warmly, though in an illegitimate current, through his 
 veins, to suffer him to forfeit, by procrastination, the 
 advantages of time, or the force of his own high name 
 and public repute, by infirmity of purpose or ambiguous 
 operation. That something must be done, and that as 
 swiftly as prudently, to prop the fractured and tottering 
 fabric of ecclesiastical domination, was palpably evi- 
 dent to the acute perceptions of the now regnant 
 pontiff. Nor is it easy for us, with our just and deep 
 horror of the system that acknowledged Clement for 
 its arch-minister and organ, fairly to estimate the prac- 
 tical sagacity, the nice calculation of the varying power 
 of human motives, the shrewd talent of accommodation 
 to existing urgencies, and, above all, the wondrous per- 
 fection in the art of giving feasible semblance to an 
 illusory and hollow affectation of probity, which cha- 
 racterized the projects of ecclesiastical reform avowed 
 by this worthy scion of the wiliest family in Europe. 
 If we may suffer our imagination to clothe that creature 
 of fraud and falsehood — of crouching superstition in its 
 subjects, and tyrannical aggression on the side of its 
 administrative officers — with an ideal personality ; or 
 to conceive of Clement VII. as a sort of incarnation, 
 for the time being, of its proper spirit and propensions, 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 173 
 
 under the action of a particular species of extraneous 
 impulses ; the popedom will be seen to have resembled, 
 at the period in question, some individual and hoary- 
 hypocrite, who having, by a long series of ingenious 
 deceptions and covert treachery, raised himself to the 
 unjust possession of enormous affluence and power, 
 begins to feel that the elaborate contrivances of years 
 of perfidy and guilt are crumbling about his ears. In 
 such cases, when they occur (as only too often they 
 do occur) in private life, it is amazing how vast an 
 amount of genius, of rich and multiform ability, is not 
 uncommonly expended in the desperate endeavour to 
 reunite the broken threads in the complex tissue of 
 villany, to stave off detection, and prevent the impend- 
 ing ruin. In this respect, especially, the parallel holds 
 good : for although it would consist neither with cha- 
 rity, nor absolute fairness, to impute to Clement, pre- 
 eminently and apart from his advisers, a clear and 
 adequate consciousness of the pravity of the Roman 
 see, or a mere interested desire to perpetuate the im- 
 posture and the wrong which he thoroughly compre- 
 hended, and knew to be indefensible ; it is but true, 
 strictly and lamentably true, that having drunk so 
 deeply of the demoralizing influences of a corrupt po- 
 lity, as to have indefinitely dulled and darkened his 
 moral sense, he had, besides, and not unwillingly, so 
 identified his reason and his very nature with the 
 intimate and base quality of the church he ruled, as to 
 present an image of that church, in its crowned pomp 
 and purple-clothed grandeur, grappling corruption to its 
 bosom, and wrestling to preserve every fragment of error 
 that was not utterly rent away and scattered to the winds, 
 as with the frantic affection of a bereaved mother. 
 
174 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 When Clement ascended the pontifical throne, Ger- 
 many was agitated by other discontents and conflicts 
 than those which arose from theological controversies. 
 Society was passing into a new condition and form ; 
 and states of social transition are seldom states of quiet- 
 ness. The ancient feudal system existed in many of 
 its forms, but its overthrow was certain ; and the rather 
 so, as its decrepitude was oppressively tyrannical. 
 Throughout Europe, the peasantry, as well as the in- 
 habitants of cities, were demanding relief from the 
 burdens occasioned by the remaining customs of feu- 
 dalism ; and, in many instances, claiming to have an 
 acknowledged political existence. In Germany great 
 discontents existed among the peasants, who appear to 
 have been, in too many instances, oppressed beyond 
 human endurance. They were, practically, serfs, at- 
 tached to the soil, and regarded only as the medium 
 through which the baronial proprietors had to procure 
 the wealth which they expected their estates to furnish, 
 and which was generally expended far from those from 
 whose incessant toil it had been wrung. Nobles and 
 clergy, with but few exceptions, seem to have been 
 engaged in this work of oppression. Instead of feudal 
 service from the vassal, gifts and contributions were in 
 perpetual demand ; and the cultivators of the ground 
 felt themselves condemned to the deepest poverty, and 
 to wearing and hopeless toil. 
 
 From these circumstances sprang what is termed 
 " the war of the peasants," and which the enemies of 
 Protestantism and Luther have not been backward in 
 ascribing to his own revolt from the ancient authority 
 of the church. Unfortunately for this charge, the in- 
 surrection broke out in parts of Germany to which the 
 
LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER. 175 
 
 opinions of Luther had not extended ; and during the 
 year 1524 was chiefly confined to the Suabian territo- 
 ries. The origin of the movement — which at its out- 
 break, and during its progress, was marked by a fero- 
 city evidently excited by long-suppressed hatred, and 
 which sought to revenge the wrongs which had, as 
 was alleged, driven them to rebellion — was entirely 
 political. Had Luther never preached, these disturb- 
 ances would still have burst forth. In fact, they do not 
 seem at first to have engaged his attention. Subjects 
 with which himself was more immediately concerned 
 occupied his thoughts, and filled up all his time. 
 
 In the spring of 1524 the ancient city of Nurem- 
 berg was honoured by a second session, held within 
 its walls, of the Imperial Diet. At this meeting, Cam- 
 peggio, an Italian cardinal and favourite of the pope, 
 attended as legate, to bespeak, once more, the strenu- 
 ous co-operation of the princes in extirpating the Lu- 
 theran faith. Personally known, and not unacceptable, 
 to most of the members of the diet, this nuncio, by dint 
 of argument, persuasion, and the subtle application of 
 those interested incentives which the servants of the 
 Church of Rome have never wanted either skill or 
 aptitude to use, prevailed upon the assembly to pass a 
 new decree condemnatory of the tenets and proceed- 
 ings of the reformers, accompanied by a resolution 
 that the rescript of 1521 should be vigorously put in 
 force. But while thus ostensibly yielding to the wishes 
 of the popedom, as intimated by the cardinal-legate, 
 the German princes were, by no means, hearty or 
 united in devotion to the church. On the contrary, 
 those among them who were not deficient in political 
 shrewdness, cherished a secret willingness to sacrifice 
 
176 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 the interests of the hierarchy as a means of ultimately 
 enriching themselves, and, in the mean time, of dis- 
 arming the popular dissatisfaction, which had now 
 reached a height premonitory of an immediate out- 
 burst of civil war. Balancing these considerations 
 against the probable consequences of a cordial concur- 
 rence in the proposals of the Papal envoy, the more 
 crafty spirits of the diet continued to clog their seem- 
 ing compliance with a counter demand that the pope, 
 with the consent of the emperor, should, as early as 
 possible, convene a general council, to be holden in 
 some part of Germany, to consider of the best method 
 of promptly and effectually redressing certain griev- 
 ances which notoriously attached to the operation of 
 the ecclesiastical system. It was further determined 
 that, in the following November, the diet should again 
 assemble at Spires, to concert measures for the con- 
 servation of the public tranquillity, and definitively to 
 settle the precise reforms to be required from the ex- 
 pected council. Notwithstanding a message from the 
 emperor, whom the continuance of the war with Francis 
 still kept at a distance from the seat of their delibera- 
 tions, the federal legislators, careless of their sove- 
 reign's expressed disapprobation of the decisions of 
 their former meeting at Nuremberg, and equally inat- 
 tentive to his protest that he would not sanction the 
 agitation of church questions elsewhere than in a 
 formal council, determined to avail themselves of so 
 favourable an opportunity publicly to apprize the pon- 
 tificate of the reformations they were prepared to insist 
 on. That with these promptings of mere policy, there 
 mingled a conviction that the re-enactment of the anti- 
 Lutheran edict was virtually nugatory, it is impossible 
 

 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 177 
 
 to doubt, when we recollect that, during the sitting of 
 the diet, no less a number than four thousand persons 
 were known to have partaken of the eucharist in both 
 kinds ; thus openly repudiating the authority and doc- 
 trine of the Papacy, in the very presence of the pon- 
 tiff's representative, and his secular allies. 
 
 Campeggio, understanding the real character of the 
 decision to which the diet had come, withdrew, on its 
 conclusion, in April, to Ratisbon ; where he was 
 speedily joined by those of the dietary nobles who 
 continued steadfast in their adherence to the church. 
 The Papal nuncio there laid the foundations of the 
 first league that was formed in Germany for the avow- 
 ed purpose of upholding a particular form of faith and 
 ecclesiastical discipline. At the suggestion of the car- 
 dinal, several of the Germanic dukes and other poten- 
 tates entered into a confederacy with a number of the 
 prelates of the empire, binding themselves to maintain, 
 by every available means, the creed and ceremonial 
 of the Roman Church. This compact is the more 
 worthy to be noticed, inasmuch as it constituted the 
 pattern and exemplar of those future unions which 
 eventually consolidated and assured the religious liber- 
 ties of the Protestant states. 
 
 Luther himself was pursuing his course actively and 
 diligently at Wittenberg ; endeavouring, in conjunction 
 with him who may indeed be called his friend, Melanc- 
 thon, to imbue the minds of the university students with 
 truth, to spread the same truth by their pulpit dis- 
 courses, and to promote its influence and extension by 
 their epistolary correspondence. In the year 1519 he 
 had published his " Commentary" on the Epistle of 
 St. Paul to the Galatians. This, having again exam- 
 
178 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 ined it, and made what alterations he saw fitting, lie 
 re-published in the beginning of the present year. Its 
 title, in his collected works,* is, "In Epistolam Pauli 
 ad Galatas D. Mart. Lutheri Commentarius, pro u i- 
 versae Scripturae methodo perutilis. Anno XXIlil, 
 ab Autore denuo recognitus." And in a marginal note, 
 by the editor of the collection, he says, "Anno 1519, 
 D. M. L. primum Commentarium in Epistolam ad 
 Galatas edidit : anno autem 24 recognovit." To this 
 particular epistle, indeed, he appears to have been 
 strongly attached. The reasons are obvious. The 
 grand subject of the epistle, justification by faith, was 
 the pole-star of all his observations ; and the earnest- 
 ness with which St. Paul reproved the Galatians, as 
 well as the very strong terms in which he denounced 
 the preachers of another gospel, would suit well with 
 the warmth of his own feelings, and the emphasis of 
 the language which he employed to express them. He 
 was, in fact, somewhat in danger of dwelling so much 
 on this epistle, as not to make even the necessary dis- 
 tinctions in the application of the term " law." His 
 strong sense at once seized upon the principle on which 
 the apostle's argumentation rested. He saw that in 
 no sense could the law justify the man who had broken 
 it. To unsinning man it would have given direction 
 during the continuance of probation, and at its close, 
 in case of unswerving obedience, declared the pro- 
 mised recompense to be due. But to the sinner it 
 could only minister wrath. Justification was not within 
 the range of its instrumentality. And, for the most 
 part, m some of the strongest (and even strangest) ex- 
 pressions which Luther permitted himself to indulge 
 * Tom. II. (Ed. 1582, Jena.) 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. ' 179 
 
 on subjects connected with grace and debt, the law 
 and faith, he was careful to show that he only spoke 
 of the law as attempted to be made the means of a 
 sinner's justification. Still, he sometimes employed 
 expressions which, however he might himself under- 
 stand them, were not only misunderstood by his ene- 
 mies, who eagerly embraced every opportunity of cen- 
 sure, but also by some of the more unstable of his own 
 disciples, to whose Antinomian opinions they appeared 
 to give support. Some of his expressions would ap- 
 pear to be inconsistent with the adoption and enforce- 
 ment of the divine law by Him to whom " all power 
 is given in heaven and earth ;" and, fancying that 
 he saw contradiction (where in reality none exists) be- 
 tween the Epistles of Paul and James, he at one time 
 inclined to reconcile them by making the latter give 
 way ; a method of reconciliation only differing in ap- 
 plication from theirs who require the former to yield. 
 The wonder is, that a man in Luther's circumstances 
 should have avoided error so thoroughly as was really 
 the case. On no subjects are clearness of thought, 
 and guarded distinctness of expression, more neces- 
 sary than on those which had so recently been brought 
 before the mind of the reformer, and which he had not 
 only to preach for the edification of individuals, but to 
 defend against errors all but universally prevalent. 
 He had to preach practical truth controversially. He 
 had to show that pardon was to be apprehended and 
 received only by the faith of a penitent heart, fixing 
 directly on the gift of God, and the atonement and in- 
 tercession of Christ. He had to show that no works 
 might come in the place of faith ; nay, that when em- 
 ployed as substitutes for faith, they might become posi- 
 
180 ' LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 tively injurious. Thus to preach faith without even 
 seeming to make void the law was no easy task for a 
 man who received the truth in its calorific as well as 
 its luminous rays, and who sometimes sought to awaken 
 attention by presenting the truth itself in the form of 
 startling paradox. But He who raised him up, enabled 
 him to stand, and guided him in the right way. He 
 was careful to point out the real nature of "good 
 works," Scripturally considered, and to enforce a 
 steady and constant reference to the divine commands. 
 He was anxious, likewise, to exalt the Lord Jesus 
 Christ as the only Saviour, the only Mediator ; and 
 to show that conscience could have no peace except 
 by " faith in his blood." And if to this subject he 
 appeared at any time to attach comparatively greater 
 importance than to some others, let the period in 
 which he lived, and the methods by which men 
 were taught to seek for reconciliation with God and 
 mental tranquillity, be remembered and understood, 
 and the wisdom which guided him will be undeniably 
 apparent. 
 
 Subsequently to the republication which has sug- 
 gested these observations, he preached a course of 
 sermons on the Epistle to the Galatians, which, being 
 taken down by different hearers, and collected together, 
 were afterward published, and form that " Commentary 
 on Galatians" which is usually known in England. 
 The opening and close of the preface to this may be 
 given, as strikingly descriptive of the man : — " I my- 
 self can scarcely believe that I was so plentiful in 
 words when I did publicly expound this epistle, as this 
 book showeth me to have been. Notwithstanding, I 
 perceive all the cogitations which I find in this treatise, 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 181 
 
 by so great diligence of the brethren gathered together, 
 to be mine. For in my heart this one article reigneth, 
 even the faith of Christ ; from whom, by whom, and unto 
 whom, all my divine studies, day and night, have re- 
 course, to and fro, continually." And having alluded 
 to the opposition of Papists and those who were then 
 called Anabaptists, he thus exhorts the minister of 
 Christ, and encourages him to fidelity : " And here- 
 withal let him comfort himself that there is no peace 
 between Christ and Belial, or between the seed of the 
 serpent and the seed of the woman. Yea, let him re- 
 joice in the troubles which he suffereth by these sects 
 and seditious spirits, continually springing up one after 
 another. For this is our rejoicing, even the testimony 
 of our conscience, that we be found standing and fight- 
 ing in the behalf of the seed of the woman against the 
 seed of the serpent. Let him bite us by the heel, and 
 spare not. We again will not cease to crush his head 
 by the grace and help of Christ, the principal bruiser 
 thereof, who is blessed for ever." 
 
 One or two of his " annotations " may be given, as 
 illustrating the spirit in which he wrote. 
 
 Upon the words, " Who gave himself for our sins" 
 (chap, i, ver. 4,) he thus comments : " The apostle 
 sa^s, who gave, that is, a gratuitous gift to the unde- 
 serving ; not, he dispensed a reward to the worthy. 
 So in Romans v, ' We were reconciled to God by the 
 death of his Son.' 
 
 " Then again, he gave — what 1 not gold, nor silver, 
 not men ; no, not even the whole host of angels ; but 
 that than which there is nothing, than which he had 
 nothing, greater ; he gave himself ! Himself for our 
 sins ; a gift so inestimable for what was so despicable 
 
182 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 and odious. the condescension and love of God ! 
 which with very excellent words are here so aptly set 
 forth to us, illustrating the delightful mercy of God our 
 Father. Where are now the proud boasters of free 
 will ? where the erudition of moral philosophy 1 where 
 the virtue of laws, whether divine or human 1 Such 
 were our sins, that by such a price alone could they 
 be taken away ; and all that we do by will, by laws, 
 by doctrines, to render ourselves righteous, will only 
 produce a false show of virtue, and incurable hypocrisy. 
 Our sins will remain uncovered ; and what can virtue 
 profit, if sin be unpardoned 1 
 
 " Nor is the pronoun our to be contemptuously over- 
 looked. It will profit thee nothing to believe, generally, 
 that Christ died for the sins of others, while thou 
 doubtest whether he died for thine. Even devils and 
 wicked men can believe that Christ died for sins. 
 But with a constant faith thou must trust in him for 
 thyself, reckoning that thou art one of those for whose 
 sins he was delivered. This is the faith which shall 
 justify thee, and cause Christ to live, dwell, and reign 
 in thee." 
 
 Referring to the expression in the fourteenth verse of 
 the same chapter, "traditions of my fathers" he says, 
 " Wherefore, unless the doctrine of faith, which puri- 
 fies the heart, and which justifies, be clearly made 
 known, all the learning of all our teachers is but as 
 the traditions of our fathers. The precept, indeed, 
 shows us what things are to be done ; but when these 
 are found to be impossible, then the doctrine of faith, 
 the gospel, teaches us to flee to the grace of God, and 
 to implore God himself, our Master and Teacher, that 
 he would, by the finger of his Spirit, inscribe in our 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 183 
 
 hearts his own letters, living, luminous, and burning ;* 
 that thus illumined and enkindled, we may cry, Abba, 
 Father. And this is not human tradition, but divine 
 learning." 
 
 On St. Paul's rebuke of the insincerity of St. Peter, 
 referred to in the second chapter of the epistle, after 
 speaking of the different views that had been taken of 
 the subject, he breaks out in one of his bold and cha- 
 racteristic exclamations : " But I do not like all this 
 excusing and praising. It is better that Peter and 
 Paul should be confessed to have fallen into unbelief, 
 yea, to have come under the very anathema of which 
 Paul has been speaking, than that a single jot of the 
 gospel should perish." 
 
 The paradoxical and hazardous way in which he 
 sometimes allowed himself to speak has been men- 
 tioned. A brief instance occurs in the note on ver. 17, 
 chap, ii, " Christ is not a legislator, but a fulfiller of 
 the law. Every legislator is a minister of sin, because 
 he gives occasion of sin by the law. Whence the old 
 law was not given by God himself, but by the ministry 
 of angels ; but the new, that is, grace, he gave by 
 himself, sending his Holy Spirit from heaven." 
 
 But such bold assertions arose not from want of 
 judgment. Seldom has the principle of the difference 
 between the Old and New Testament dispensations, 
 and at the same time their agreement, been more hap- 
 pily expressed than by four words in his notes on the 
 twentieth Psalm, published during the preceding year. 
 After saying, " Another sacrifice, but the same faith 
 and the same spirit in all ages, places, works, and per- 
 
 * Suas literas, vivas, et lucentes, et ardentes ; quibus illuminati 
 et accensi, clamemus, Abba, Pater, 
 
]84 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 sons ;" he adds, " Externa variant ; interna manent," 
 " The external expression of principle may vary, but 
 the internal principle remains the same." The pious 
 Christian, in the devotional perusal of the Psalms of 
 David, enjoys the fellowship of saints. 
 
 It was in communicating information on subjects of 
 the greatest moment that Luther was occupied, while 
 the two political rivals, Charles and Francis, were 
 cherishing their schemes of ambition, and striving for 
 the mastery. The pope, too, desirous of establishing 
 his own temporal power more fully in Italy, so con- 
 ducted himself as that the imperial court, though loud 
 in professing allegiance to the sovereign pontiff, seem- 
 ed glad of occurrences which disturbed his attention, 
 weakened his influence, and threatened to reduce his 
 sway to such matters as were purely spiritual. Thus 
 did the opponents of truth, by their mutual disputes, 
 growing out of their inordinate ambition, hinder them- 
 selves from meeting the rising and advancing Reforma- 
 tion with an opposition which, had it been united, 
 humanly speaking, could scarcely have failed of being 
 successful. 
 
 Toward the close of the year, Erasmus, who had 
 contributed in various ways to prepare at least the 
 learned mind of the age for the preaching of Luther, 
 became his opponent ; publishing his Treatise on 
 Free-will. Of its publication he thus speaks in a let-' 
 ter to the bishop of London, Cuthbert Tonstall : " The 
 die is cast. My pamphlet on Free-will is gone forth ; 
 very moderately written, but which, unless I am much 
 deceived, will excite great disturbance." That he re 
 garded the step as placing him in a new relation to 
 the reformers, seems plain from his use of the poetical 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 185 
 
 proverb, " Jacta est alea," not only to his Episcopal 
 correspondent, but in a letter written the same day to 
 Henry "VIII. : " The die is cast. My pamphlet on 
 Free-will is given to the world. A bold exploit, as 
 matters are now in Germany. I expect stoning almost. 
 Outrageous replies will be flying about my head. But 
 I console myself in the example of your majesty, who, 
 in their irrational violence, was not at all spared." 
 The philosopher was mistaken, so far as the immedi- 
 ate publication of angry replies was anticipated by 
 him. Luther's " Treatise" on the subject was not 
 given to the public till the latter end of the following 
 year. 
 
 
186 LIFE OF MARTIN L OTHER. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Luther's greatest trouble, in this part of his career, 
 came not from his ancient enemies. The insurrec- 
 tionary spirit had now extended to those parts of Ger- 
 many in which the great principles of the Reformation 
 had been preached. To convince the public generally 
 of the errors of the ancient system, the word of God 
 was read, arguments were founded upon it, and the 
 Scriptural exhortation was repeated, " Prove all things : 
 hold fast that which is good." But it was not to be 
 expected that, while the good seed was sown, the 
 enemy would bring no tares. They who heard the 
 reformers, heard of the right of private judgment ; and 
 by many it would be perverted into the right to think 
 as they pleased. In all ages there are those who are 
 prepared for enthusiasm by ignorance and self-conceit ; 
 and for fanaticism by self-conceit and violent passion. 
 In the age in which the Reformation broke out, though 
 the means of instruction were multiplied, yet the mass 
 of the people were awakened in a state of gross and 
 most melancholy darkness. And these were men pos- 
 sessing all the faults of human nature, and liable to all 
 the errors and perversions which, by whatever outward 
 circumstances excited and modified, have their source 
 and support in the deceitfulness and wickedness of the 
 human heart. A self-conceited, half-enlightened man, 
 hearing of the impossibility of salvation by the law ; of 
 the efficacy of faith in Christ ; of the vanity of mere 
 human learning, untaught of God ; of the power of the 
 teaching of the Holy Ghost ; of the equal brotherhood 
 
 A 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 187 
 
 of all Christian believers, considered as such ; and of 
 the true rights of conscience, as founded on personal 
 responsibility to God ; would soon be able, with these 
 elements, distorted and corrupted, to construct a system, 
 half enthusiasm, half imposture, and utterly removed 
 from the holy religion of which its professors, never- 
 theless, so loudly boasted. Even in 1522 Luther had 
 held two or three conferences with some men of this 
 class, who had begun to occasion very serious disturb- 
 ances ; and he felt this the more, that his enemies, as 
 was to be expected, represented these errors as the 
 natural consequences of what they chose to describe 
 as innovations in religion. The persons who were 
 introduced to Luther spoke of their visions and inspira- 
 tions ; but he, after listening attentively to what they 
 had to say, told them that their views were utterly un- 
 supported by Scripture. This, however, did not at all 
 convince them that they were wrong ; and they left 
 him, pitying his ignorance, and elated with their own 
 fancied triumph. 
 
 When the " war of the rustics " had extended itself 
 to the countries where the Reformation had been 
 preached, the mischief of these true enthusiasts began 
 to assume a more serious character. Political injuries, 
 real or supposed ; the desire of obtaining political privi- 
 leges ; in a word, the various passions excited among 
 those who yield themselves to insurrectionary impulses, 
 became connected with feelings supposed to be derived 
 from heaven itself. Violence thus was consecrated by 
 religion ; and men who violated the commands of God 
 in their lives, and whose entire spirit was in opposition 
 to the divine will, said, in effect, like Jehu of old time, 
 " Come and see my zeal for the Lord." But such are 
 
188 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 men when self-will is elevated to an idol, and human 
 passion attributed to divine inspiration. 
 
 The truly fanatical preachers, Storck and Stubner, 
 under the direction of the notorious Munzer, had already 
 leagued themselves with the exasperated mobs which 
 an overwrought oppression had at last stung into rebel- 
 lion. After inciting the populace of Zwickau, in Mis- 
 nia, where he had fixed his home, to the perpetration 
 of some disgraceful outrages, such as robbing the 
 churches of their internal decorations, and forcibly ex- 
 pelling from the altar priests engaged in celebrating 
 public worship, Munzer had caused himself to be elected 
 to the presidency of a kind of civil council, in which 
 he asssumed to regulate the domestic affairs of the 
 town by special inspiration from heaven. It is curious, 
 in the history of fanaticism, to observe how insensibly 
 the meanest and most sordid impulses of a selfish vanity 
 will sometimes mingle with the visionary excitements 
 of a shattered understanding. Reckless as he was, 
 and in the main, we have no doubt, sincere, that is, 
 believing himself to be right, this desperate dreamer 
 had no sooner tasted the brief luxury of power, than 
 he commenced to decry the right of all earthly magis- 
 trates to wield authority over himself and his deluded 
 followers. In this mischievous phantasy, his own 
 crazy judgment probably placed some vague reliance ; 
 for he who had previously fancied himself to be en- 
 dowed with the gift of prophecy was not likely to 
 startle at the less impious suggestion, by the insane 
 spirit that tormented him, of a privilege to be superior 
 to all worldly control. Hallucinations of nearly the 
 same order are far from being rare among all classes 
 of enthusiasts, as well political as religious. By more 
 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 189 
 
 than one learned speculator on the springs of human 
 action, they have, not very charitably, been considered 
 to infer some primal and deliberate dishonesty in the 
 minds which they pervade and overthrow. But the 
 truest solution is, that they are akin to the half-con- 
 scious knavery in which many an utter madman finds 
 a chuckling and strange delight. Without enough of 
 rational and distinct perception clearly to discriminate 
 the quality of the impelling motive, there yet hangs 
 about the intellectual wreck a sort of shadowy reminis- 
 cence of departed impressions, which serves only to 
 intensify the pleasure of the illusion, by mixing with 
 it something of the sweetness of " stolen waters." 
 
 From its very complexion, this species of crazy self- 
 deceit and elevation is eminently contagious. Apart 
 from the sheer self-esteem which it both engenders and 
 feeds, it finds an apt predisposition and a potent ally 
 in the bosoms of an unhappy multitude of human crea- 
 tures. In looking over the records of superstitious in- 
 sanity, it is observable that the huge mass of persons 
 who, in conformity with the lessons of some original 
 propagator of the frenzy, have dreamed themselves into 
 a conceit of their own personal visitation by preter- 
 natural and uplifting revelations from heaven, have had 
 their lot in the lowest and most destitute grades of 
 society. Their condition, generally, in this life has 
 been one of abject wretchedness. They were the 
 people to whom the very lees of human misery had 
 been a portion ; and that among such a people there 
 should always be awake an inordinate craving not only 
 for excitement, as the handmaid of forgetfulness, where 
 memory is bitterness and sorrow, but also for some 
 warm, some earth-renouncing consolation, peculiar to 
 
190 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 themselves, and exceeding the common consolations 
 of our race, in a proportion commensurate with the 
 ostensible excess, beyond the ordinary pangs of men, 
 of their own burden of suffering and humiliation. That 
 such a morbid appetence should exist, and bare the 
 avenues of the mind to the access of an exalting and 
 oblivious fanaticism, can hardly stir the wonder of any 
 one who has had much experience of the pains, and 
 scorns, and struggles of the poor. Not, therefore, to 
 the doctrines taught by Luther are the lamentable ex- 
 cesses of this fanaticism to be ascribed. They will 
 be misunderstood by none who know the native cor- 
 ruption of the human heart, and its strength of halluci- 
 nating passion. And when they recollect the political 
 circumstances in which Luther found German society, 
 and the ignorance, and consequent exposure to error, 
 by which the whole mass was pervaded, the whole 
 subject will appear to be less one of astonishment than 
 of lamentation. The actual state of society being per- 
 ceived, transition to another and better condition might 
 have been expected to be accompanied, as indeed it 
 was, by the movements of a fanaticism which, though 
 utterly to be condemned, prove that men are at length 
 awakened from their sleep, and will soon live, if pro- 
 per guidance be afforded them, as those who arc alive 
 from the dead, and awake to righteousness through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 Nor may the consideration of this subject, to which 
 attention has so frequently been directed, as presented 
 by some of the most remarkable circumstances con- 
 nected with the early years of the Reformation, be 
 dismissed without a passing reference to the conduct 
 of the clergy of that very church whose members have 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 191 
 
 pointed to this fanatical Antinomianism, and, represent- 
 ing it as the proper effect of the preaching of Luther, 
 have constructed an argument for the purpose of prov- 
 ing him to have been in the wrong. A moment's 
 reflection on the form of their argument might have 
 shown them that, if it were conclusive at all, it pressed 
 with equal force on the predicted consequences of the 
 preaching of Jesus Christ himself. Familiarity with 
 the book which records his discourses would have 
 brought to their recollection the memorable words, 
 " Think not that I am come to send peace on earth : I 
 came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come 
 to set a man at variance against his father, and the 
 daughter against the mother, and the daughter-in-law 
 against the mother-in-law." There were evil passions 
 in the breast which even the preaching of Christ might 
 be the occasion of kindling into a flame as unnatural 
 as it was devastating : but was that preaching either 
 erroneous or unseasonable ? 
 
 The impiety and venality of Rome at the time in 
 which Luther began to preach were unquestionable. 
 Adrian, " in his instructions to the nuncio Chieregato," 
 had avowed " fully and distinctly the evils that had 
 crept into the church. ' We know,' said he, ' that for 
 a long time many abominations have existed near the 
 holy see ; abuses of spiritual things ; excess in the 
 exercise of authority ; everything has been turned into 
 evil. From the head the corruption has spread into 
 the members, from the pope to the prelates ; we have 
 all gone astray, there is none of us that have done good, 
 no, not one.'"* 
 
 But what was he to do ? He promised, indeed, to 
 * Ranke, vol. i, p. 94. 
 
192 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 eradicate abuses, and sought to redeem the pledges he 
 had given. The performance, however, he found to 
 be beyond his power. " Abuse strikes too deep a 
 root ; it has grown with the growth, it lives with the 
 life of the body to which it clings." "If he wished to 
 suppress the revenues hitherto enjoyed by the curia, 
 in which he detected an appearance of simony, he 
 could not do so without violating the fairly-acquired 
 rights of those whose offices depended on these reve- 
 nues ; offices which they had generally purchased. If 
 he meditated a change in the dispensations of marriage, 
 and a repeal of certain existing prohibitions, he was 
 met by representations that church discipline would 
 thereby be injured and enfeebled. In order to check 
 the monstrous abuse of indulgences, he was very de- 
 sirous of introducing the old penances ; but the peni- 
 tentiaria remarked to him that he would thus incur the 
 danger of losing Italy, while striving to secure Ger- 
 many?* 
 
 The consequences were inevitable. " In such a 
 state of things, genuine Christian-mindedness and faith 
 were out of the question ; there arose, indeed, a direct 
 opposition to them. While the common people sunk 
 into an almost pagan superstition, and looked for sal- 
 vation to mere ceremonial practices, the opinions of 
 the upper classes were of an anti-religious tendency. 
 How astonished was the youthful Luther when he 
 visited Italy ! At the very moment that the offering 
 Df the mass was finished, the priests uttered words of 
 blasphemy which denied its efficacy. It was the tone 
 of good society in Rome to question the evidences of 
 Christianity. ' No one passed,' says P. Ant. Bandino, 
 * Ranke, vol. i, p. 96. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 193 
 
 ' for an accomplished man, who did not entertain here- 
 tical notions about Christianity : at the court the ordi- 
 nances of the Catholic Church, and passages of holy 
 writ, were spoken of only in a jesting manner ; the 
 mysteries of the faith were despised.'"* 
 
 That which is purchased for profit will always be 
 made to produce all the gain that can be derived from 
 it ; and thus venality in the church inevitably led to 
 oppression. The higher orders in the church (like 
 the nobility, who sought revenue in the room of the 
 decaying services of feudalism) sought to obtain from 
 those whom they regarded as their vassals the largest 
 possible quantity of wealth ; and their example was 
 only too extensively followed by the inferior clergy. 
 The " hundred grievances " presented by the German 
 diet furnished a specimen of the rapacity of which the 
 whole empire complained ; and which, when evil pas- 
 sion was once aroused, pointed to the objects of dis- 
 like, and furnished an excuse for violence. Let man 
 be studied, and the voice of history, and how deeply 
 soever we may deplore the crimes committed by the 
 rustics and fanatics of Germany, they will excite no 
 astonishment. 
 
 The commotions thus more particularly excited by 
 Munzer were not brought to a close till the beginning 
 of the summer of 1525. This unhappy man, of low 
 extraction, but combining much cunning with the semi- 
 information that he had received during the course of 
 his education for the priesthood, aided by others less 
 able, perhaps, but not less frantic than himself, took 
 advantage of the movements which had already been 
 stirred up, and contrived to recommend a theological 
 * Ranke, vol. i, pp. 72, 74. 
 9 
 
194 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 system which he had put together to the irritated mul- 
 titude, and to make the insurrection in some respects 
 a war of religion. 
 
 While this incendiary was gathering around him the 
 banded hordes of a desperate population, Luther, indig- 
 nant at the busy malignity of Duke George of Saxony 
 and his advisers, who were earnest in their endeavours 
 to procure an active execution of the edict of Worms, 
 sent forth perhaps that boldest of all his publications, 
 " A Treatise on the Secular Power." In bitterness 
 and pungency of invective it would be hard to exceed 
 this tract. Alluding to a severe mandate, which the 
 emperor had been recently persuaded to issue against 
 him, he invites every good Christian to join him in 
 praying for the conversion of the imperial princes, who, 
 he says, must have been sent among the people as a 
 scourge from God. Charles V. he calls " a poor and 
 miserable creature ;" and describes the general body 
 of the Germanic nobles as " maxime fatui, pessimi 
 nebulones super terram."* In stern and fearless tones, 
 he warns the federal oppressors, from the supreme 
 monarch downward, that by hurling such denuncia- 
 tions at the restorers of the gospel, they were invoking 
 the divine anger on themselves ; that nothing could 
 more surely tend to arouse popular resistance ; and 
 that, even then, while the Turk menaced the frontiers 
 of the empire, the horrors of civil war were suspended 
 over their heads. The strong and contemptuous lan- 
 guage of the discourse on the secular authority, together 
 with its monitory predictions of the coming revolt, have 
 been construed by some of the reformer's Papist ca- 
 
 * " For the most part insane, and the basest scoundrels on the 
 earth." 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 3 95 
 
 lumniators into an evidence of collusion with the insur- 
 gent fanatics, or connivance at their meditated outrages. 
 A charge more utterly at variance with notorious truth 
 was never framed ; for at the same moment when Lu- 
 ther was thus visiting with merited chastisement and 
 scorn the usurpations of. an imperial despot, and an 
 unprincipled nobility, he omitted upon no occasion to 
 denounce in terms still more emphatic the rebellion of 
 the sectarian democracy. " The peasantry," he ob- 
 serves, " ought to be destroyed, rather than the magis- 
 trates and princes, because there is no divine authority 
 for the people taking the sword. Neither toleration 
 nor mercy is due to the peasants : they are worthy 
 only of the just anger of God and man ; and should be 
 treated like mad dogs." In fact, the duty of abstain- 
 ing from resistance to constituted authorities by force 
 of arms was uniformly taught by Luther, to an extent 
 which, in the present age, would be considered as 
 amounting to servility and feebleness of spirit. 
 
 In all this, however, as well as in a reply to the 
 elector, who, doubtless at the instigation of some of 
 his alarmed fellow-sovereigns, had remonstrated with 
 Luther on the extreme license of expression which 
 pervaded the book on Secular Powers, and as in al- 
 most every remarkable act of his life, we recognise the 
 constancy, the clearness, and the strength of the great 
 reformer's trust in the protective providence of heaven. 
 " It is no hard thing," he writes, " for Christ to defend 
 Christ, in this cause of mine ; a cause with which the 
 elector has been led to concern himself solely by the 
 influence and direction of the Almighty. If I saw any 
 means of withdrawing myself, without loss and disho- 
 nour to the truth, my life itself would be a sacrifice not 
 
196 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 to be regretted. I have well pondered my situation 
 for now more than a year ; and should I be dragged 
 to the extreme punishment of death, that will be only 
 a mode of deliverance for me. But since we are not 
 able to penetrate the designs of God, let us keep our- 
 selves ever assured, by saying, Thy will be done." 
 
 Whatever may have been the general effect of the 
 last-named work, it was, like many other portions of 
 Luther's writings, eagerly laid hold of, as affording 
 something like a pretext for some of the inferior nobili- 
 ty to be active in directing the hostility of the peasants 
 mainly against the electoral princes and the hierarchy; 
 a policy of which, in numerous instances, the real 
 motive was nothing more than a hope of at once di- 
 verting popular fury from them, the minor barons, and 
 participating in the promised spoil of their wealthier 
 and more powerful neighbours. 
 
 Meanwhile, Melancthon, who had been often and 
 unsuccessfully importuned by his illustrious friend to 
 publish his long-written Annotations on the Epistle to 
 the Romans, was astonished to receive a printed copy 
 of them, prefaced by an apologetic letter from Luther 
 for having secretly possessed himself of the manuscript, 
 and committed it to the press. " Martin Luther," so 
 runs the preface, " to Philip Melancthon, grace and 
 peace in Christ. ' Be angry, and sin not. Commune 
 with your heart upon your bed, and be still.' I am 
 the person who has dared to publish your commentary, 
 and now send you your own work. If you are pleased 
 with it, all will be well : but if not, it is enough that 
 you please us. If I have done wrong, the fault is your 
 own. Why did you not publish it yourself ? I threaten 
 you, further, to steal and publish your notes on tne 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 197 
 
 Book of Genesis and the Gospels of St. Matthew and 
 St. John, if you do not anticipate me by giving them 
 to the world." 
 
 About the same period occurred the escape of Cathe- 
 rine de Bora, (afterward the amiable wife of Luther,) 
 and eight of her companions, from the convent of 
 Nimpsch. The flight of these nuns from the unna- 
 tural restrictions of the cloister, under a full persuasion 
 of the sinfulness and folly of their self-abstraction 
 from society, drew from the reformer his exposition of 
 the unauthorized and inobligatory nature of conventual 
 " vows of virginity :" a work than which none has 
 been more diligently suppressed by the Church of 
 Rome, wherever her jurisdiction is acknowledged. 
 
 Among the events occurring at this part of Luther's 
 history, the commencement of the sacramental contro- 
 versy, and the expulsion of Carlostadt from the domin- 
 ions of the elector Frederic, may be briefly noted. 
 On relinquishing his appointments in the church and 
 University of Wittenberg, the ex-professor and arch- 
 deacon of that city had retired to the principality of 
 Altenberg, where his zeal and learning drew to his 
 side a number of the burghers, who, espousing his 
 views of the communion, and his horror of paintings 
 and images in churches, had incurred the electoral 
 displeasure by raising tumults and disorder in the 
 town. 
 
 Having been summoned to return to Wittenberg, and 
 there resume his duties as a preacher, but failing to 
 comply with the summons, he was soon afterward 
 ordered to withdraw himself from Saxony. To his 
 supporters in Altenberg he wrote that he was chased, 
 without having been heard or conquered, hy Martin Lu- 
 
198 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 ther. The same accusation of having instigated the 
 elector to banish his former friend has been reiterated 
 against Luther by many adverse and some friendly 
 historians ; but the charge is altogether gratuitous. 
 The reformer himself more than once explicitly denied 
 that he had in any manner intervened to direct his 
 sovereign's anger toward Carlostadt ; and indeed the 
 only circumstance which has given a colour to the im- 
 putation, is that of Luther having once written to the 
 elector, beseeching him to lend no countenance to the 
 exorbitant professions of the Anabaptists. With this 
 sect, however, Carlostadt had, notwithstanding the 
 seditious tendencies and flagrant hallucinations which 
 dishonoured it, condescended in some measure to con- 
 nect himself ; making a hollow and ambiguous pretence 
 of subscribing generally to the wild and flagitious in- 
 sanities which it held for doctrines. 
 
 That Luther, when he wrote to the electoral prince 
 of Saxony the letter just mentioned, was aware of his 
 ancient companion's connection with Munzer's enthu- 
 siasts, does not appear; while the blunt intrepidity, 
 and customary plainness of speech, which were never 
 known to abandon the reformer, forbid us to believe 
 that in the admonitory suggestions of that letter a covert 
 petition was couched for the expatriation of a petulent, 
 but not powerless, doctrinal antagonist. Remember- 
 ing the overstrained austerity of Luther's dealings, 
 upon one occasion, with this the most unhappy of his 
 pristine coadjutors, — an excess to which it is only too 
 probable were to be traced the subsequent errors of 
 Carlostadt's career, — it is satisfactory to know that 
 when, a few months later, the revolted peasants, with 
 their visionary ringleaders, were effectually suppress- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 199 
 
 ed, Luther did not fail to use his best exertions to 
 procure a revocation of the mandate which had driven 
 into exile the alienated friend of his youth. The result 
 of the reformer's intercession on behalf of Carlostadt 
 was a permission to the latter to settle, according to 
 his wish, at Kemberg ; where he died in indigence, 
 and deep sorrow for his past errors, in 1542. His ce- 
 cession (not, it is true, unprovoked, but still most inju- 
 dicious and unworthy) from the principles, as well as 
 the society, of his primitive colleagues, proved a source 
 of life-long disaster and unhappiness to himself, while 
 it deprived the Reformation of an auxiliary who might 
 have rendered estimable service ; and, neutralizing 
 even the best of his subsequent and individual labours 
 in the cause, has left a shadow on his name. 
 
 It may be added to this account of the reformer and 
 his labours during the year 1524, that, toward its close, 
 he laid aside the monastic habit, which hitherto he had 
 worn ; renouncing likewise the monastic life, to which 
 he no longer considered himself as bound : the engage- 
 ments he had formerly contracted being plainly unlaw- 
 ful, imposing an unauthorized restraint upon true 
 Christian liberty, and opening the way for numerous 
 and very fearful evils. 
 
200 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The year 1525 was marked at its very commence- 
 ment by wars and tumults. The Imperialists had in- 
 vaded France in the autumn of the preceding year ; 
 but, through the judicious measures adopted by Fran- 
 cis, they had been obliged to retreat with great loss, 
 so that the emperor was in no condition to attempt to 
 coerce his great German vassals. The king of France, 
 not satisfied with freeing his own dominions from a 
 foreign foe, followed his rival into Italy, and besieged 
 Pavia ; before which place his troops were encamped 
 when the year opened. The siege had already lasted 
 more than two months, and the town still held out, be- 
 ing gallantly defended by the imperial general, Antonio 
 de Leyva, an officer of high rank, and patient, but at 
 the same time enterprising courage. The rigour of 
 the season made the task of the besiegers more diffi- 
 cult ; but they persevered with great ardour ; and had 
 Francis acted with ordinary judgment, the town must 
 have yielded. But highly gifted as he was, and, for 
 the most part, of a noble and generous spirit, he was 
 the creature of impulse and passion. Not long before, 
 by a series of persecutions equally bitter and unjust, 
 he had so exasperated the constable Bourbon as to 
 drive him to go over to the emperor, whose power he 
 thus very effectually increased, while that of Francis 
 was proportionably weakened. Having secured the 
 neutrality of the pope, instead of bending all his force 
 to the reduction of Pavia, he detached no less than six 
 thousand men from the besieging army for the invasion 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 201 
 
 of Naples. The imperial generals wisely took no 
 notice of this. They knew that if Francis were un- 
 successful in the Milanese, the Neapolitan invasion 
 would come to nothing. They directed their whole 
 attention, therefore, to the besieging army, now so in- 
 judiciously diminished ; and the event proved how 
 sound was the judgment they had formed on the real 
 state of affairs. 
 
 In February the imperial troops, under Pescara and 
 Bourbon, approached the French camp. The more 
 cautious of the advisers of Francis recommended him 
 to retreat, for that in a short time the imperial army 
 would, from the difficulties of its position, either be dis- 
 banded or greatly reduced ; while himself, occupying 
 some strong post, might wait for reinforcements and 
 supplies from France, and be ready to take advantage 
 of the first favourable opportunity for attacking the Im- 
 perialists. Counsel like this did not agree with the 
 ardent feelings of the monarch. Retreat, he thought, 
 would obscure his fame. He resolved to fight ; and 
 the consequence was the battle of Pavia, (fought on 
 February 3d, 1525,) from the effects of which he never 
 fully recovered. His army was totally beaten, and he 
 himself taken prisoner, and, after a short time, sent to 
 Spain, where he continued in captivity the whole of the 
 year. But even these favourable occurrences left little 
 more leisure to his fortunate rival for attending to the 
 internal state of the various German principalities. 
 He had to adopt measures for securing and improving 
 the opportunities of extending success afforded by the 
 victory of Pavia ; and the Italian princes, and the pope 
 himself, jealous of his power, threw in his way all the 
 obstacles they could command. Louisa of Savoy, the 
 
202 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 mother of Francis, to whom he had committed the 
 government in his absence, rose with the exigency of 
 her condition. Charles, though accustomed to great 
 self-restraint, had yet been so elated by the battle of 
 Pavia, and the captivity of a great monarch, that he 
 seems to have forgotten his usual caution, and to have 
 fancied his position much stronger than in reality it 
 was. He had therefore treated Henry of England 
 with coolness ; and, supposing that he no longer need- 
 ed the good offices of the aspiring and irritable Wol- 
 sey, he withdrew his former expressions of friendship. 
 The king and his minister were thus alike exaspe- 
 rated ; and Louisa, discovering this, hastened to im- 
 prove the favourable opportunity, and induced Henry 
 to conclude with her a defensive treaty, and to engage 
 that he would use his best offices for the release of 
 Francis from his imprisonment. The attention of the 
 ambitious emperor was thus directed to so many ob- 
 jects, that, as in former years, Luther anism, though not 
 overlooked, and though "his disapprobation was often 
 strongly expressed, had nevertheless time both to 
 strike its roots deep in the soil, and to spread its 
 branches more widely. 
 
 The insurrectionary movements of the German pea- 
 santry, now connected with the fanatical adherents of 
 Munzer, came this year to their crisis. In its earlier 
 days the revolt broke out in Thuringia, a province sub- 
 ject to the elector of Saxony. In other parts of Ger- 
 many the usual consequences of insurrection had 
 occurred. Its first movements had been successful, 
 and the passions of the revolters had led to all kinds 
 of violence. Eventually, however, the power of the 
 nobles, when fully brought to bear on their undisci- 
 
 • 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 203 
 
 plined opponents, had been sufficient to reduce them 
 to their former subjection. But in Thuringia, where 
 Munzer commanded in person, religious fanaticism 
 lent its aid to the spirit of revolt, and the struggle con- 
 tinued till the opening of summer. He stimulated his 
 deceived and wretched adherents to depose the magis- 
 trates in every town of which they obtained posses- 
 sion; and compelled all persons, whether nobles or 
 burghers, upon pain of death, to put on the common 
 habiliments of the labouring populace, and to renounce 
 all their titles of distinction. For some months the 
 lenient temper of the elector, combined with other cir- 
 cumstances, which drew away his attention from these 
 disturbances, permitted the Anabaptist demagogue to 
 pursue his revolutionizing course without hinderance 
 or molestation. But at length the height to which his 
 crazy insolence had risen, and the large accessions of 
 numerical support which every day brought to his 
 cause, called for the vigorous interference of the prince- 
 palatine to check the progress of disorder, and rescue 
 a fine tract of territory from total devastation. In con- 
 junction therefore with the duke of Brunswick and the 
 landgrave of Hesse-Homberg, Frederic had assembled 
 a considerable body of troops, and prepared to inflict 
 summary vengeance on the invaders of the public 
 safety. Before having recourse, however, to an armed 
 assault, these princes, with a prudent and commenda- 
 ble humanity, made trial of negotiation, inviting the 
 inflamed peasants to return peaceably to their homes, 
 and assuring them of prompt and effectual relief from 
 the pressure of their genuine causes of discontent. 
 Fearful of the doom which was not unlikely to await 
 himself, in case of his desertion by the infuriate rabble 
 
204 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 who surrounded him, Munzer would listen to no over- 
 tures ; but, rejecting all terms of compromise, inveigh- 
 ed against the faithlessness of the secular princes, and 
 incited his lawless partisans to a still wilder enthusi- 
 asm, and more impudent atrocity. To crush the re- 
 bellious mob by the strong arm of military power was 
 thus made inevitable ; and accordingly, in May, 1525, 
 the electoral forces marched upon the rebel camp at 
 Frankenhausen. The fanatical chieftain, who appears 
 to have been not overburdened with personal bravery, 
 was at first desirous of saving himself by flight ; but 
 finding that the army of the princes had, by surround- 
 ing his position, cut off all chance of escape, he ga- 
 thered courage from necessity to lead his disciples 
 into battle. The opening of the struggle was preluded 
 by an act of gratuitous barbarity, which, as having 
 deeply exasperated the electoral commanders, can 
 alone account for the terrific slaughter which ensued. 
 Anxious to the last to spare the lives of his deluded 
 subjects, the elector John (who had just succeeded his 
 brother) despatched a young nobleman of his suite, to 
 offer pardon to the insurgent peasantry, on condition 
 of laying down their weapons, and surrendering their 
 leaders. To these proposals the multitude, in mo- 
 mentary terror of the bristling array which hedged them 
 in on every side, betrayed a disposition to yield ; when 
 Munzer, animated by the urgent danger to himself, ad- 
 dressed them in one of those phrenetic effusions which 
 had often before stirred them to deeds of rapine and 
 of blood. Exhorting them to rely fearlessly upon the 
 omnipotent aid of God, he gave them a vehement as- 
 surance of entire safety and victory in the impending 
 contest, told them of miracles that should be wrought 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 205 
 
 in their favour, and confidently vowed to receive all 
 the enemy's bullets harmless in his own mantle. 
 While he spoke, a rainbow (the symbol which was 
 emblazoned on their banners) appeared in the heavens. 
 " See," cried the enthusiast, " the token which God 
 sends you ! Behold the pledge of your triumph, and 
 the destruction of the wicked !" The last words suf- 
 ficed to kindle the fanaticism of his hearers into fury. 
 They fell upon the unhappy envoy who awaited their 
 answer to the proposals of his sovereign, and tore him 
 to pieces, amidst mingled hymns and execrations. In 
 a paroxysm of fanatical rage and desperation, they 
 rushed into the combat, singing with a vaunting and 
 wild energy, which appropriately signified their reco- 
 vered recklessness of life and pain, " Come, Holy 
 Ghost," &c. Their song was the paean of a self- 
 immolating frenzy; for, of eight thousand peasants, 
 whom the morning sun saw collected at Frankenhau- 
 sen, more than five thousand perished in the conflict. 
 Munzer himself was captured, and condemned to be 
 executed as a traitor ; a fate which he encountered 
 with a singular lack of heroism for one who had mainly 
 helped to set an empire in a blaze of sedition. 
 
 So terminated the career of this extraordinary mad- 
 man ; and with it the perilous revolt which his ravings 
 had fomented. In those parts of Germany where the 
 Reformation took root, the beneficent offices of a pure 
 Christianity speedily disclosed themselves in the ame- 
 liorated condition of the inferior grades of the social 
 fabric. But throughout the rest of the electoral prin- 
 cipalities the seeds of future insurrection were so 
 thickly sown, that the wars, foreign and internal, of 
 the next century may be regarded as events which, 
 
206 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 by diverting popular attention from the sores of the 
 community, abridging the actual power of the church 
 and the feudal aristocracy to enforce the full sum of 
 their old rapacity, and gradually wearing out the last 
 fetters of a barbarous allodial servitude, conferred no 
 insubstantial benefit on the Germanic nations, and pre- 
 served them from the recurrence of a worse species 
 of contest. The struggles of the palatinate, indeed, 
 and the Protestant league, were something in the na- 
 ture of revolts, justified by religious persecution, and 
 the grasp of an illegitimate authority. But they were 
 altogether on too large a scale, and under conduct too 
 liberal and wise, to bear any analogy to that harass- 
 ing, unconcerted, and spasmodic warfare which, had 
 the current of affairs flowed in a direction different 
 from the precise course it took, might have at once 
 converted the history of the empire into a narrative of 
 incendiary risings, and the perpetual fluctuations of 
 democratic passion ; and, by thus keeping the public 
 mind in constant disunion and alarm, materially em- 
 barrassed the progress of the Reformation. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 207 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Only ten days before the defeat of the insurgents at 
 Frankenhausen, on the 5th of May, 1525, Frederic, 
 justly surnamed " the Wise," expired ; having given 
 satisfactory testimony in his last moments of his per- 
 sonal appreciation of the great and vital truths which 
 he had eminently contributed to bring into wide circu- 
 lation. Against the memory of this virtuous and able 
 prince it has sometimes been alleged that his habitual 
 caution was excessive, and bordered on defect of moral 
 courage. The grounds of this charge are, the letter 
 written by him, in 1522, to Leo X., deprecating the 
 displeasure of that pontiff, and professing his inno- 
 cence of an active adhesion to the Lutheran cause ; his 
 failure to avow himself the patron of the reformers, 
 after the Diet of Worms ; and, generally, the undivulged 
 and covert protection which he accorded to them. A 
 more erroneous estimate of a noble character than is 
 here implied, it would be difficult to conceive. So far 
 from manifesting the timorous disposition which this 
 accusation imputes to him, the letter of Frederic to the 
 pope is admirable for its dispassionate maintenance of 
 that grand principle of justice, that no man ought to be 
 condemned without a candid and full hearing. Be- 
 yond this sentiment, — a sentiment which, under all 
 the circumstances of the case, was sufficiently distaste- 
 ful to the holy see, — the elector had the temerity to 
 warn the pope of danger to be incurred by the severi- 
 ties then in contemplation against Luther. The moral 
 boldness of these admonitions, the happier condition 
 
208 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 of the European family in our own times leads some 
 of us to undervalue. The enormous influence of the 
 pontifical crown is too much left out of sight ; while 
 the involuntary and almost invincible subjugation bound 
 upon individual minds, by the force of ancestral exam- 
 ple, and the lessons of early life, is equally forgotten. 
 These things considered, the electoral remonstrance 
 ought, we think, to be viewed as indicative of more 
 than common intrepidity. So deep, it is to be remem- 
 bered, and so universal was the veneration of the sup- 
 posed sanctity and supremacy of the church, that even 
 Luther had never yet suffered himself to doubt of her 
 authority. The fountain and abode of that authority, 
 whether it properly resided in the pontiff, or in the re- 
 presentative council of the whole body of Christendom, 
 he had indeed newly begun to question : but that there 
 was present, somewhere in the ecclesiastical constitu- 
 tion, an appellate jurisdiction and power of ultimate 
 decision in matters of belief, and that of such power 
 the pope was the appropriate and highest organ, had 
 net been brought into dispute. But in judging of the 
 elector's conduct, we must also recollect, that for seve- 
 ral years he was placed in the very difficult position 
 of having to shield from assaults, which he felt to be 
 unjust, both in their object and their method, men whose 
 doctrines he had not absolutely determined to embrace. 
 Well persuaded that in their theological notions the 
 truth lay with the reformers, and cordially approving 
 of their emendations of the Saxon ritual, it was not till 
 near the close of his existence that he was able to 
 shake off every vestige of an inherited allegiance to 
 the ecclesiastical sovereignty. At the Diet of Worms 
 he strenuously and successfully protested against the 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 209 
 
 proscription of Luther, unheard in his own vindication ; 
 and when, by the artful shaping of the interrogatories , 
 and the prejudices of the imperial tribunal, the masterly 
 and brave defence of the reformer was rendered nugato- 
 ry, he found means to defeat the malice of the church- 
 men and their secular confederates. It is, moreover, an 
 ascertained fact, that before that period Frederic had 
 extorted from the emperor a distinct pledge never to 
 use the sword for the cure of supposed errors in reli- 
 gion ; a pledge which, though the Punic faith of Charles 
 V. often contemplated its violation, was surely dictated 
 by a calm and patriotic heroism, that, sustained by a 
 clear sense of duty, could dare to set at naught the ful- 
 minations of the Vatican. 
 
 But other and abundant reasons were not wanting 
 to justify the actual policy of the elector. An open 
 and premature profession of the reformed faith, so far 
 from benefiting the original advocates of that better 
 and regenerate creed, would have served only, by dis- 
 crediting their illustrious friend in the imperial regard, 
 additionally to jeopardize their individual safety and 
 their common object. By standing where he did stand, 
 — mediate between the hostile parties, — careful, on 
 one side, to give no occasion for suspicion or attack 
 by the emperor, and, on the other, equally resolved to 
 allow of no invasion of the liberties of his native sub- 
 jects, the sagacious elector secured for the Lutheran 
 teachers the fair field, and practical immunity from 
 the touch of persecution, which was all they needed. 
 These points ascertained, as by the provident wisdom 
 of Frederic they were, the inherent rectitude of the 
 reformer's doctrine had free scope and opportunity to 
 become known in Germany, and being known, to be 
 
210 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 fairly tried against the immemorial corruptions which 
 it denounced. It would have been far easier to act a 
 part less wary and prudential. The electoral prince 
 might undoubtedly, at any moment, have proclaimed 
 his cordial attachment to the inceptive Reformation , 
 he might have expressly abjured the pontifical sway, 
 and formally abrogated, in his own dominions, the Ro- 
 man ritual. But besides that so peremptory a repudia- 
 tion of the ancient and general belief of the German 
 federacy would have been construed into a virtual re- 
 nouncement of the imperial constitution, by the assump- 
 tion of a power unknown to its theory and provisions ; 
 besides the inexpediency, not to say madness, of thus 
 challenging the warm antagonism of the emperor, and 
 adding to the superstitious intolerance of every Papal 
 client in the diet the rancour of political jealousy ; the 
 advantages to have been in any way derived from such 
 a proceeding are more than questionable. According 
 to all human calculation, it is certain that had the elec- 
 tor of Saxony thus placed himself ostentatiously in the 
 front of the struggle, the principles of the reformed 
 religion would not have gained so swift and safe an 
 access as, in fact, they did gain, to other regions than 
 were subject to his own favourable rule. The times, 
 in short, were not ripe, till near the end of Frederic's 
 life, for a demonstration so unusual and decisive. The 
 course of events, shortly after his demise, conducted 
 his brother and successor to a situation less delicate, 
 and demanding, not indeed a more resolute, (for the 
 peculiar praise of Frederic's whole line of conduct is 
 its singular unity and fixedness of purpose, under cir- 
 cumstances which powerfully tended to beget infirmity 
 and vacillation,) but a more overt and ostensible sup- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 211 
 
 port from the electorate, to the salient and renovated 
 form of Christianity, which had waxed great under its 
 shadow. In looking back upon the memorable era 
 now in view, we are struck by the large space which 
 the name of this generous and wise prince fills in his- 
 tory; a name illustrated by no associations of con- 
 quest, no palpable pre-eminence over the electoral 
 sovereigns of circumjacent provinces, nor by any of 
 the chivalrous splendours which hang about the me- 
 mory of so many of his contemporaries, but conspi- 
 cuous in the simple and quiet grandeur of a broad intel- 
 lect and a noble heart. Without a stain upon the 
 brightness of his public reputation, the vices and the 
 foibles incident to princely rank seem to have found no 
 lurking-place, no congenial weakness, in his nature. 
 Even " that last infirmity of noble minds," ambition, 
 would appear to have "held no empire over him. Up- 
 right as he was benevolent, and inaccessible to the 
 proffered blandishments of a supreme station, his re- 
 fusal of the imperial crown was an act of deliberate 
 and pure disinterestedness, which, we do not fear to 
 say, has no example in the annals of Europe. Me- 
 lancthon, in his funeral oration, has well described 
 him as a prince whose accomplishments were equalled 
 only by his moral worth. But the eloquent and uni- 
 versal sorrow of his subjects was a finer, a more touch- 
 ing and appropriate, tribute to his virtues, than even 
 the graceful eulogy of the Wittenberg professor. 
 
 While the " war of the peasants " raged in Germany, 
 the Swiss reformers, Zuinglius and QEcolampadius, 
 through whose labours the gospel had obtained a home 
 among the Alps, made many converts to their doctrine 
 of the eucharist. Among the rest, Bucer, a man of 
 
212 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 high and various endowments, who may be taken to 
 have been the Protestant apostle of the Upper Rhine, 
 had followed their example in denying the corporeal 
 presence. Zuinglius, the originator of the Helvetic 
 Reformation, had, from the first, leaned to the true in- 
 terpretation of the sacramental institute ; and, on the 
 appearance of Carlostadt's earliest argument upon the 
 subject, had given his sanction to the view developed 
 in that publication. Meantime, GEcolampadius, who 
 in 1521 insisted on the literal acceptation of the Sa- 
 viour's words concerning the elements in the last sup- 
 per, had read a recantation, and sustained his amended 
 opinion with much force of reasoning and illustration. 
 Tt was not, however, until the year 1525 that the sen- 
 timents of the Helvetian divines were thrust so promi- 
 nently forward as to attract the public notice of Luther. 
 In that year, a book, bearing the name of Zuinglius, 
 and purporting to be a commentary " De vera et falsa 
 Religione," issued from the press of Zurich, in which 
 it was strongly contended that the material types in the 
 holy communion were neither transmuted, as the Pa- 
 pists held, into the corporeal substance of the Redeemer, 
 nor pervaded, and, as it were, impregnated, by that sub- 
 stance ; but only symbols and commemorative tokens 
 of the great piacular oblation for the sin of the world. 
 In this treatise Luther is not referred to by name 
 although it is clear that the negation of the consub- 
 stantiative theory was pointedly aimed at that last 
 modification and relic of Popery which clung to him. 
 Foremost among the Lutherans to combat the Swiss 
 doctrine was Buganhagen, better known as Pomeranus. 
 But though he was generally an acute thinker, and a 
 not unlearned theologian, the reply of Pomeranus is 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 213 
 
 remarkable neither for controversial skill, nor felicity 
 in the exposition of the very vulnerable tenet which he 
 advocated. The divines of Zurich and Basle rejoined 
 with a prompt and overwhelming force, which brought 
 up the Saxon arch-reformer himself to the succour of 
 his defeated partisan. In a work which Luther pub- 
 lished in 1526, as well as in a sermon of proximate 
 date, he maintains the actual union of the human per- 
 sonality of Christ with the consecrated signs of his 
 sacrificial self-surrender, with singular peremptoriness 
 and vigour. Laying peculiar emphasis on the express 
 declaration of our Saviour to his disciples, " This is 
 my body," &c, he affirmed the attempt to explain that 
 declaration as a mere metonymy to be fraught with 
 peril to many of the cardinal verities of the evangelical 
 system, inasmuch as it would establish a precedent for 
 frittering away the obvious import of Scripture by me- 
 taphorical and arbitrary constructions. Both of these 
 compositions were severally answered by GEcolampa- 
 dius and Zuinglius, who with considerable ability ex- 
 posed the manifold absurdities involved in Luther's 
 dogma of consubstantiation. 
 
 In all the writings, on either side, to which this dis- 
 pute gave rise, there is not a little of that polemical 
 vehemence which was characteristic of the age. Of 
 the personal acrimony and recriminative insults which 
 defiled the earlier discussions with the Papal cham- 
 pions, it is, however, satisfactory to observe, that no 
 trace occurs in the records of the sacramental contro- 
 versy. Though indulging in a license of reproach, and 
 a pungency of sarcastic rebuke, to which the dialectical 
 exhibitions of our own times present no parallel, as the 
 customs of society show no toleration, all # parties mu- 
 
214 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 tually regarded one another with the respect due to men 
 who, with high talents and large acquisitions, were 
 earnest and sincere in their search after truth. The 
 whole discussion does indeed furnish matter of regret, 
 as it prevented that cordial union of the reformers of 
 adjacent countries which the exigences of their com- 
 mon cause required, as well in formal as in more essen- 
 tial points. It is, nevertheless, consolatory to remark 
 what purity of motive actuated the dissentient leaders ; 
 while the solitary remnant of speculative error which 
 lingered in the Lutheran theology was in some mea- 
 sure redeemed by that spirit of reverent cautiousness 
 which it betokened. Nothing perhaps was more de- 
 monstrative of Luther's mission from heaven, than his 
 perpetual and devout (although, in this one instance, 
 mistaken) care not to let the smallest particle of evan- 
 gelical doctrine be inadvertently so confounded with 
 the multiform abuses woven around it by the craft and 
 impiety of the popedom, as to share, along with those 
 abuses, the rejecting scorn of honest and enlightened 
 men. 
 
 The habit and the principles which were thus ap- 
 parent, even in the maintenance of the single erroneous 
 article in the reformer's creed, constitute one of the 
 surest tests of a true providential designation to the 
 work of restoring, to a world overshadowed with dark- 
 ness and moral desolation, the vitality and light of truth. 
 
 It was in this year that Luther entered the " holy 
 estate of matrimony." If the subject were not too 
 serious for any approach to playfulness, it would be 
 most amusing to witness the pretended horror of the 
 opponents of the reformer when they refer to this event. 
 Maimbourg, for instance, whose whole work is that of 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 215 
 
 a violent partisan, whose object was by any means to 
 blast the character of the subject of his history, states, 
 that " in that very year which witnessed a public cala- 
 mity," (the war of the peasants,) " of which Luther, if 
 not the immediate cause, was at least the occasion, he 
 was so blinded by an infamous passion, for which even 
 his friends blushed, that with a bold and hardened front 
 he celebrated his nuptials." Among some nuns, it seems, 
 who had believed it to be their duty to renounce their 
 conventual engagements, was one whose personal at- 
 tractions strongly wrought upon the mind of Luther.* 
 While the elector Frederic lived, who was averse to 
 
 * Hujus pulchritudinem Lutherus observavit, et ejusque amore 
 vehementur captus est. — Maimbourg wishes to represent the 
 whole affair as one of unbridled passion. Luther married the 
 object of his affection, notwithstanding she had lived two entire 
 years at Wittenberg, "cum licentia, inter juvenes academicos :" 
 a slander for which there was not the slightest foundation, 
 whether this ppetended historian invented it himself or not. He 
 must have placed great reliance upon the prejudiced credulity of 
 his readers, when he ventured to write thus. But he wrote for 
 what are called " Catholic countries." What was the reformer's 
 crime? Attached to a beautiful, talented, well-born female, he 
 married her. Maimbourg was not ignorant of the conduct of 
 the clergy, of the cardinals, of the popes ; and his manner of 
 writing amply justifies the accusation often brought against 
 Rome, that to break the disciplinary regulations of the church is 
 a greater sin than to break the law of God. The priest who 
 violates his vow may be forgiven, if he only does it by breaking 
 the law of God ; but if he enter a state which the Scriptures 
 declare to be " honourable in all," he is straightway (be it again 
 said, with pretended horror) reprehended as the mere slave of 
 passion. Conscious of the hypocritical character of his paragraphs, 
 the Jesuit must have laughed in his sleeve while penning them, 
 and hoping to make the bulk of his readers believe what he well 
 knew to be false. 
 
216 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 all great changes, Luther dared not venture on such a 
 step as marriage ! But " as soon as the eyes of that 
 prince were closed he felt himself placed at full liberty ; 
 as knowing that the new elector, in his idolatrous re- 
 gard for this false prophet, would permit him to act as 
 he pleased." It was by such a style of writing as this 
 that the calm and cautious Seckendorff was moved to 
 say, that the professions of modesty with which the 
 Jesuit opens his history were to be considered rather 
 as affected, or even as ironical, than as serious and 
 sincere. 
 
 It was in the month of June, 1525, that this marriage 
 of Luther with Catharine de Bora, the escaped nun of 
 Nimpsch, took place : an event the more interesting 
 that it set the seal of example to their mutual abnega- 
 tion of the celibate vow. This lady was the daughter 
 of one of the minor nobles of the Saxon palatinate, 
 whose want of fortune adequate to his rank had con- 
 demned her, early in life, to the cloister. After her 
 flight from the conventual durance, in which she had 
 passed some seven or eight years, she was supported, 
 at Luther's instance, as were also her companions, by 
 the electoral bounty. The immediate cause of her 
 renouncing the veil having been Luther's treatise on 
 the obligation of the monastic oath, it was not unnatural 
 that when brought into daily contact with the author 
 of a work which to her had been the signal of restored 
 liberty, and in some sort made dependant upon his pro- 
 tection, the warm and grateful regard engendered by 
 these circumstances should ripen into personal affec- 
 tion. Luther himself, entertaining a high opinion of 
 her character, had promoted the suit of his friend Glass, 
 the reformed pastor of Orlamunde, who was passion- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 217 
 
 ately attached to her ; but from becoming the wife of 
 that divine, Catharine recoiled. It has not uncom- 
 monly been represented, that this marriage was an 
 arrangement of mere convenience, involving little of 
 attachment on either side. We are mistaken, however, 
 if the delicate hint given by the emancipated recluse 
 to Amsdorff, on his proposing to her to unite herself to 
 the curate of Orlamunde, did not betray a cordial and 
 decided preference for Luther. The gentle and half- 
 playful intimation that even he, the mediator in the 
 business, or his illustrious friend, would have been a 
 more agreeable selection, is just one of those equivocal 
 and disguised betrayals in which an amiable and re- 
 tiring woman may be supposed to have allowed the 
 secret of her affections to escape her. So at least 
 Luther seems to have thought ; for although he had 
 previously encouraged other suitors to address his fair 
 disciple, probably under an impression that a conjugal 
 connection with himself could hardly be desirable to 
 her, he now, with a promptitude indicative of any feel- 
 ing rather than indifference, offered her his hand. 
 Admiration of her virtues, coupled as they were with 
 the possession of accomplishments that rarely adorned 
 the feminine intellect in those days, he had always and 
 fervently professed. We are also told that she was 
 beautiful, a charm to which Luther's enthusiasm for 
 music and the arts proves him to have been exquisitely 
 sensible. 
 
 This alliance, which Luther states to have been in 
 accordance with the earnest wish of his father, and 
 which was the main earthly solace of a life led in the 
 midst of a thousand difficulties and heart-burnings, was 
 generally, but somewhat unreasonably, censured, even 
 10 
 
218 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 by his friends. Not that they saw cause to be dissa- 
 tisfied with the particular choice which he had made ; 
 on the contrary, every one allowed the excellence of 
 Catherine de Bora ; but because they looked upon his 
 marriage with any person as unseasonable, and were 
 apprehensive lest the endearing and new ties of coming 
 years should warp the mind of their apostle from its 
 former vigilance in guarding and directing the salient 
 spirit of the Reformation. Melancthon, indeed, writing 
 to Camerarius upon the subject, intimates^a hope that, 
 ill-timed as he considered the recent union to have 
 been, the fiery and stern spirit of Luther migl^t, in the 
 bland atmosphere of domestic love, be soothed and 
 purged from its constitutional asperities. 
 
 The Papists, on the other hand, were ready, with a 
 variety of slanderous inventions, to feed fat the ancient 
 grudge they bore to the reformer, by piling the same 
 obloquy upon the head of his young bride which they 
 had long been used to cast upon himself. Among many 
 and equally malignant absurdities, his defamers raked 
 up the prophecy of some nameless astrological dotard 
 of the dark ages, who had foretold that antichrist 
 should be the issue of a perjured vestal and an apostate 
 monk : a prediction which, as Erasmus, with the covert 
 and sly irony in which he delighted, took occasion to 
 remark, had been so often accomplished, that Europe 
 must have seen many hundred editions of antichrist 
 before either Luther or his wife were born. 
 
 Marriage, however, produced no relaxation in the 
 arduous labours of the reformer. The refreshment 
 which he derived from the society of his new associate, 
 and who proved to be indeed a " help meet for him," 
 only strengthened him for renewed application to hi3 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 219 
 
 beloved employments. He this year wrote Annotations 
 on the Book of Deuteronomy ; in the preface to which 
 he evinced the sound judgment with which he con- 
 sidered the books of the Old Testament generally. 
 " What else is the New Testament," he asks, " but, in 
 effect, an open declaration of the various sentences and 
 promises of the Old, all now fulfilled and completed by 
 Jesus Christ ?" He fails not, of course, to bring for- 
 ward his favourite subject, genuine obedience to God, 
 springing from "the faith which worketh by love." 
 Thus, on the fifth verse of the sixth chapter he writes : 
 " When he says, ' Thou shalt love the Lord,' he excites 
 to a free and cheerful service of ,God. For when I love 
 God, then do I will all things that God wills ; nor is any- 
 thing more sweet than to hear and do the things which 
 God commands. As by faith we receive all things freely 
 from God, so by love we do all things freely for God." 
 The reader is almost tempted to smile when he 
 finds him most correctly, but at the same time most 
 adroitly, referring to the principles which justified his 
 own earnestness and zeal : " If I love God with my 
 whole heart, nothing will more offend me than any 
 contemptuous treatment of the commands of God. So 
 did Paul mourn and weep to the Corinthians and Ga- 
 lations, when he saw the glory of God trampled upon. 
 But where are they now who would lament to see the 
 name of God trampled under foot throughout the whole 
 world?" Very significant also is the brief remark 
 pointedly applicable to many of the objectors to his re- 
 cent marriage : " How perverse are they who are so 
 careful to exact obedience to their own sayings and 
 appointments, but who suffer the precepts of God to 
 be neglected !" 
 
220 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 The same month which saw the illustrious elector- 
 palatine laid in the grave, witnessed also the first im- 
 position of unepiscopal hands upon an evangelical 
 preacher (Rorarius) at Wittenberg. By this ordina- 
 tion Luther gave a further proof of his daily increasing 
 departure from the prescriptive usages of the Romish 
 hierarchy. In the prosecution of his war against the 
 various corruptions of the Papacy, he had been drawn 
 onward, step by step, in a keen investigation of the 
 origin of the pontifical supremacy. Of that investiga- 
 tion, one incident result was a conviction in his own 
 mind that the episcopal office, as it then existed, and 
 with the claims which it then put forth, was only of 
 human institution, and that it was not the exlusively- 
 appointed method of conveying ecclesiastical authority 
 for the exercise of the functions of the ministry. It is 
 one thing to believe that the episcopal form of church 
 government is a lawful one, and that there are passages 
 of Scripture which abundantly justify the exercise of 
 inspection and authority over both churches and minis- 
 ters by one person, himself only a minister like his 
 brethren, and placed, perhaps, by themselves in au- 
 thority over them for the sake both of peace and order, 
 and a more efficient government ; — it is one thing to 
 believe that such a mode of government is lawful, is 
 useful, is countenanced by Scripture ; but another, and 
 a very different thing, to suppose that the bishop is an 
 officer appointed by Christ himself, by whom only cer- 
 tain ministerial functions are to be performed, and who 
 constitutes, solely and exclusively, the principle of visi- 
 ble ecclesiastical union. The office itself, as implying 
 ministerial and extended oversight, is undoubtedly of 
 high antiquity in the Christian church, and may easily 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 221 
 
 be conceived to be one of great spiritual advantage ; 
 but surely it forfeits its real dignity, and endangers its 
 strongest claim, in the approbation of thoughtful Chris- 
 tians, when it assumes to be the sole depository of 
 some authority delegated from Christ, necessary to the 
 existence of the church, and essential to the validity 
 of the ministerial character, and the efficacy of the 
 ministerial functions. Not on this ground did men 
 like Jewell rest their arguments in its favour. " I 
 grant," said that eminent writer and ornament of the 
 English Episcopal bench, " that the primates had au- 
 thority over other inferior bishops. Howbeit, they had 
 it by agreement and custom, but neither by Christ, nor 
 by Peter or Paul, nor by any right of God's word. 
 St. Hierome saith, ' Let bishops understand that they 
 are above priests rather of custom than of any truth or 
 right of Christ's institution, and that they ought to rule 
 the church together.' And again, ' Therefore a priest 
 and a bishop are both one thing ; and before that, by 
 the inflaming of the devil, parts were taken in religion, 
 and then words were uttered among the people, I am 
 of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Peter, the churches 
 were governed by the common advice of the priests.' 
 And St. Augustine saith, ' The office of a bishop is 
 above the office of a priest,' (not by authority of the 
 Scriptures, but) ' after the names of honour which the 
 custom of the church hath now obtained.' " 
 
 The position which Luther took was such as might 
 have been expected from his strong sense and habitual 
 reference to the sacred volume. He took the general 
 ground, that by the ministry were candidates for the 
 ministry to be examined and sent forth. That this 
 examination and authorization had been confined to 
 
222 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 the bishops or overseers, he saw to be a matter of 
 by-law, of ecclesiastical regulation. Whereas, it was 
 plain that upon him and his coadjutors devolved the 
 duty of supplying with an efficient ministry the churches 
 which he had reformed or raised up. He preached 
 the word of God ; converts were multiplied ; they re- 
 quired spiritual supervision ; and from the men who 
 were their fathers in the Lord they had a right to 
 look for it. And in this there was succession, even 
 visibly, so far as the ministry was concerned ; but 
 especially there was fellowship with the apostles by 
 identity of doctrine, of spirit, of labour. And there 
 was fellowship with Christ by direct and personal 
 faith on their part, and by the gift of the Spirit, and 
 the recognition of their labours, on his part. They 
 who were one with Christ had, in and through Christ, 
 part in the communion of saints, and in the true fel- 
 lowship of the universal church. 
 
 This was the solid and liberal position which Lu- 
 ther assumed. Not, surely, ignorant of the writings 
 of the fathers, nor recklessly bent on rearing up a new 
 fabric according to the mere dictates of his own ca- 
 price, he could find, neither in those writings, nor in 
 the far more estimable remains of their inspired pre- 
 decessors, no imperative rule laid down, no absolute 
 model of the form of a Christian community prescribed 
 for universal imitation. Persuaded that a precise 
 moulding of the young church of the Reformation to 
 the literal shape, and the internal discipline, which 
 existed in the days of primeval Christianity, was in no 
 respect binding upon him, his clear and strong sense 
 perceived that the best constitution of a religious body 
 was that which, recognising original principles, and 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 223 
 
 adapting itself to instant circumstances, tended most to 
 develop and to keep alive practical and fervent piety 
 in its members ; while his masculine self-reliance, and 
 habit of acting on conviction, outweighed whatever 
 vestiges of predilection for an ancient usage may have 
 lingered in his thoughts. Nor did he fail to appreciate 
 and gratefully acknowledge the provident wisdom 
 which, foreseeing the emergence of events, such as 
 had recently occurred in Germany, had left Christians, 
 in all ages, free to adopt such particular modes of 
 church government as should be suitable to the actual 
 conditions of their time. In truth, Luther appears to 
 have willingly postponed the regular digest and forma- 
 tion of a new scheme of polity until those circumstan- 
 tial hints, which he well knew to be no issues of 
 chance, had so multiplied around him, as to indicate 
 the exact figure and organization into which it would 
 be most expedient finally to conform the Christian 
 society that was springing up under his pastoral care. 
 The ordination to which we have adverted was the 
 first overt expression of his entire liberation from the 
 superstitions regarding the episcopal consecration of 
 priests ; but it was not till some years later that, after 
 deliberating long, and taking anxious and frequent 
 counsel with the wisest of his pious associates, he de- 
 finitively fixed upon a plan for the framework and 
 mechanism of the evangelical church. 
 
 The remainder of the year was not spent by Luther 
 in idleness. The emperor was now in Spain, busily 
 . engaged in those plans to which the prolonged cap- 
 tivity of his rival gave rise. And the additional power 
 which he had thus acquired, had awakened the fears 
 of Clement, who, that he might protect the interests 
 
224 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 of Italy in general, and of the holy see in particular, 
 was not unwilling to join the league that the queen- 
 mother of France was seeking to form in behalf of her 
 imprisoned son. Ferdinand, who ruled in his brother's 
 name in Germany, was not ignorant of this, and was 
 not, on his part, unwilling to play the Protestants 
 against the pope. Seeming to condemn them, even 
 the* power that might have been opposed to them was 
 not exerted ; and thus the mutual jealousies of the 
 head of the empire and the head of the church gave 
 opportunity to the reformers to apply themselves, with 
 their wonted assiduity, to the work of their providen- 
 tial vocation. 
 
 Toward the close of the year, Luther replied to the 
 treatise published by Erasmus the year before. He 
 did not enter so much into metaphysical distinctions, 
 as into what appeared to him to be the great facts of 
 Scripture. Whatever Erasmus might say, as a phi- 
 losopher, on human power, he met by the saying of 
 Christ, " Without me ye can do nothing ;" and by that 
 of St. Paul, " It is God that worketh in us to will 
 and to do." He asserted the bondage of the will by 
 reason of sin ; and declared that man could " do all 
 things" only through "Christ strengthening him." 
 
 Erasmus himself presents a melancholy example of 
 talents, not indeed totally hidden and buried, but yet 
 withheld from the object in favour of which they would 
 have been most successfully employed. He possessed 
 what, for the day, were immense stores of learning,^ 
 and he saw, and at the same time keenly animadverted 
 upon, the vices of the Papal system. W T hether inten- 
 tionally or not, he had pointed out the absolute neces- 
 sity of reform ; but when the work of reform com- 
 
 ft 
 
 s 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 225 
 
 menced, lie could not persuade himself to join in its 
 labours, and to expose himself to its dangers. He 
 was rather a man of learning than of religion. He 
 saw the disease, but he understood not the remedy. 
 Nor was he willing either to exasperate his learned 
 friends, or to submit to the obloquy of innovation. He 
 had, indeed, given to the world those vivid descriptions 
 of the reigning corruptions of the priesthood which 
 stimulated the desire of change, in many instances, 
 into a passion ; and his caustic and satirical denunci- 
 ations were, in point of fact, as thoroughly opposed to 
 Romanism, as the more serious and argumentative, 
 though equally bitter, invectives of Luther himself. 
 But he shrunk from the tumult he had contributed to 
 excite. Though conversant with religious subjects, 
 he had not imbibed the religious spirit ; nor could he 
 at all understand the fervent and entire devotion of 
 Luther to the cause of truth, considered as the cause 
 of God and his Christ. The errors and mistakes of 
 the great reformer, who was yet only a man, he, in his 
 leisure and coolness, could easily detect ; and some 
 atonement for his attacks on the Papacy he now en- 
 deavoured to make, by attacking Luther likewise. 
 He himself disclosed his own character when he said 
 that he had not courage to be a martyr. Profess- 
 ing to condemn the manner and style of Luther, he in 
 reality condemned the very substance of his cause when 
 he said, " Although Luther had never written anything 
 which was not in itself good, I should nevertheless 
 have been much offended by the seditious freedom of 
 his manner. / would rather be wrong in some particu- 
 lars, than make such a disturbance in the world for the 
 sake of truth" 
 
 10* 
 
 M. 
 
226 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 Such was Erasmus . The centuries that have elapsed 
 since his removal have amply illustrated the providen- 
 tial law, " Them that honour me I will honour." As 
 contributing to a restored literature, Erasmus is re- 
 membered by a few : as having been the great instru- 
 ment of reviving religion, Luther is remembered by all 
 to whom religious truth and purity are dear. Erasmus 
 sought to win the favour of both parties, by attacking 
 the opponents of each; and eventually he lost the 
 esteem and confidence of all. 
 
 Before the year ended, Luther addressed concili- 
 atory letters to some of his opponents, and, among 
 them, to Henry VIII. of England. To him he said, 
 "I teach nothing else but faith in Jesus Christ the 
 Son of God, who for us suffered, and was raised up, 
 that he might accomplish our salvation, as the Gospels 
 and apostolical Epistles testify. For this is the head 
 and foundation of my doctrine, on which I afterward 
 proceed to build, teaching charity to our neighbour, 
 obedience to the civil magistrate, and the crucifixion 
 of the body of sin, as it is prescribed by Christian 
 doctrine." Luther, in fact, had lost none of his zeal 
 by becoming a family man. To the work that Provi- 
 dence had opened before him he was as ardently de- 
 voted as ever, and as plainly as ever did the blessing 
 of God rest on his labours. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 227 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Duke John of Saxony having succeeded to the elec- 
 torate, gave his warm adherence to the cause of the 
 Reformation. During the life-time of his elder bro- 
 ther, he had held much intercourse with the heads of 
 the Lutheran party ; and profiting by their instruc- 
 tions, as well as by the example of his more aged 
 relation, he was no sooner elevated to the supreme 
 power, than he resolved to employ all his influence in 
 upholding and carrying on the work of purification in 
 the national church. To this end he issued a commis- 
 sion, appointing Luther, Melancthon, Justus Jonas, and 
 the chief of the Wittenberg divines, together with certain 
 eminent civilians, to visit and inquire into the state of 
 the religious institutions of the country. The conse- 
 quences of this visitation, which the reformers had 
 long sought to bring about, were, to the people at 
 large, among the most sensibly beneficial effects of the 
 new order of things. The permanent stipends of the 
 clergy being reduced nearly to a common level, while the 
 burden of tithes was mitigated, and all those subsidiary 
 emoluments resolutely cut away, which, consisting 
 principally of fees for confession, and other illegal 
 offices, had borne heavily upon the poorer classes, a 
 searching reform through all the details of the adminis- 
 tration of religion was carried into effect. Another 
 and no less advantageous alteration was the breaking 
 up of the monastic fraternities, and the appropriation 
 of a small part of their ample funds to the uses of a 
 system of popular education, which, however, had the 
 
228 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 grave faults of being neither well digested, nor suffi- 
 ciently extensive. Notwithstanding the general desire 
 of the elector John to tread in the footsteps of his 
 brother, and especially to follow up those measures 
 of correction which the latter had contemplated, he 
 was unfortunately wanting in the moderation, fore- 
 thought, and resolution which so admirably character- 
 ized that sovereign. Without the firmness and ability 
 necessary to withstand the arts by which not a few of 
 the privileged rank sought to enrich themselves at the 
 expense of the public interest, he suffered a large pro- 
 portion of the lands and property of the monasteries to 
 pass into the hands of the nobility ; a change which, 
 though it did not entirely neutralize the relief afforded 
 to the inferior population of the country, by the dimi- 
 nution of the church's demands, and the distribution 
 of' her treasure, was in itself equally inequitable and 
 impolitic. A considerable amount was thus added to 
 the revenues of an aristocracy already deeply guilty 
 of oppression, which in strict justice ought to have 
 been applied to ameliorate the moral and social condi- 
 tion of the people. It is true, that to some considera- 
 ble extent the peasantry were indirectly benefited by 
 the transition, inasmuch as the augmented resources 
 of their lords enabled them to dispense with several 
 of the severest imposts of past years ; but, while 
 the too prevalent exhaustion and sordid poverty of 
 the labouring masses should have commanded far 
 more ample and immediate redress than they received, 
 it may be doubted whether, in any event, the barons 
 would have been the proper depositaries of any sur- 
 plus of wealth confiscated to the state. 
 
 But if, in this arrangement, the new elector betray- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 229 
 
 ed a conspicuous defect of energy and just determina- 
 tion, he was frequently in danger of erring on the 
 opposite score of impetuosity, and of obstinate ad- 
 herence to his own opinions, which sometimes border- 
 ed on illiberality, and even perverseness. In his 
 eagerness to be rid of all traces of the ancient super- 
 stition, he would have prohibited, under rigid penalties, 
 the celebration of the mass within the precincts of the 
 electorate, had not Luther interposed to dissuade him 
 from thus bringing the odium of persecution on the 
 very infancy of a faith which, reposing on the word 
 of God, and asserting the universal responsibility of 
 man, maintained a coextensive liberty of conscience. 
 Even to the expostulations of the man who had been 
 the first to lay bare the rottenness and various impos- 
 ture of the Church of Rome he would yield no further 
 than to grant a reluctant toleration to the private per- 
 formance of the ceremony. The same infirmities were 
 again manifested in the premature formation of a league 
 for mutual defence with the landgrave of Hesse ; who 
 having, like himself, zealously adopted the principles of 
 the reformers, would have needed little prompting to at- 
 tempt to propagate them by the sword. Against that 
 compact the Lutheran divines raised their united voice, 
 admonishing the contractors as well of the probability 
 of their alliance being construed by the Papal minions 
 of the imperial court into a species of challenge to still 
 more hostile activity, as of the utter faithlessness it 
 disclosed in that providential wisdom which had so 
 remarkably shielded the Reformation from the perils 
 that hung upon its birth. In addition to these warn- 
 ings, they deprecated the idea of resorting to secular 
 force for the defence of religious opinions ; and insist- 
 

 230 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 ed that an appeal to arms would, under any combina- 
 tion of circumstances, be alike inexpedient and unjus- 
 tifiable. It will be thought by many, that, in this 
 instance, the remonstrants carried their aversion to the 
 use of the carnal weapon in protection of moral truth 
 greatly too far. But if the abstract notions implied in 
 their protest involved rather too much of passive sub- 
 mission to be in harmony with the modem theory of 
 human rights, there can at least be no question that, 
 in regard to the particular case to which their obser- 
 vations pointed, if they were wrong at all, their error 
 lay on the safer side, and evinced more fully the 
 strength of their religious principles. As to the two 
 princes, they took small heed of the objections of their 
 spiritual counsellors. Stimulated by the hostile exam- 
 ple of their mutual relation, George of Saxony, whose 
 inveteracy against the reformers age only served to 
 whet, they lost no time in binding themselves by treaty 
 to assist one another in protecting the independence 
 of their respective territories, and the supposed inter- 
 ests of their common faith. The ostensible object of 
 this treaty was no doubt commendable ; but neither 
 can it be denied that the needless temerity and pre- 
 paration for assault which it discovered had precisely 
 the effect which Luther and his coadvisers had fore- 
 seen. It was a contract which, by its anticipative 
 provision against contingent dangers, awoke the jealous 
 forecast of the Romish faction, and invited the on- 
 slaught which it proposed to avert. True, the time 
 came, and that at no great distance from the date of 
 this precocious league, when there remained no alter- 
 native for the Protestant rulers but that of uncompro- 
 mising resistance to the mandates of the emperor and 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 231 
 
 the diet ; but whether the arrival of that crisis was not 
 accelerated, while the means available for a successful 
 opposition were in a proportional degree curtailed, by 
 thus forestalling them, may be a question with those 
 who look deeper than the surface for the final springs 
 of every great historical movement. 
 
 In connection with this transaction, Philip of Hesse 
 assumed for his own section of the Reformed Church 
 the title of Evangelical ; a denomination of which no 
 one was more ready than Luther himself to advise the 
 general adoption by his adherents throughout Germany. 
 
 Shortly before these matters came into agitation, 
 the pope, displeased with the inaction of the imperial 
 Papists, and alarmed by the ambitious designs of 
 Charles V. on northern Italy, had withdrawn his coun- 
 tenance from the emperor, and concluded a treaty of 
 neutrality with his rival, Francis. The momentary 
 successes of the French sovereign in the Milanese, 
 and the approaching defection from the imperial inte- 
 rest of the Florentine republic, encouraged him to ex- 
 pect that by balancing the power of one monarch 
 against the meditated invasions of the other, he should 
 be able to maintain the attitude of an arbiter between 
 them, and preserve the influence of the triple crown 
 inviolate and supreme. In this hope, he endeavoured 
 to negotiate a general peace ; but upon terms which, 
 stipulating for the independence of the Italian provinces, 
 were peremptorily rejected by the emperor. The 
 refusal of Charles to accede to the proposed adjust- 
 ment of this quarrel with the king of France was the 
 signal for Florence to abandon the imperial standard, 
 and subscribe the paction which Francis was then on 
 the point of concluding with the pontiff. Thus de- 
 
 
232 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 prived of his two most powerful allies, at a moment 
 when the aspect of the war was anything but propi- 
 tious, Charles V. had neither leisure nor inclination to 
 run the hazard of attempting to coerce the increasing 
 strength of the reformers. His continued absence 
 from the scene of their proceedings was another cir- 
 cumstance in favour of the Evangelical party, as it not 
 merely precluded him from personally intermeddling 
 with their operations, but kept in abeyance a sanction 
 which, had he been present in Germany, would have 
 aggravated, to a formidable extent, the power of their 
 oppugners. 
 
 The calculations of the pontificate were, however, 
 totally defeated by the capture of Francis at the battle 
 of Pavia ; a result as unexpected as it was decisive, 
 and which at once raised the emperor to a position 
 which entitled him to dictate, at his own pleasure, the 
 conditions of pacification. It is not improbable that, 
 after this event, Charles would have exerted himself 
 vigorously to put down the Reformation, had he not 
 cherished a vindictive remembrance of the pontiff's 
 readiness to desert him, on the first occasion which 
 the contest afforded of seeking to recover the ancient 
 and effective predominance of the see of Rome. Irri- 
 tated by what he, not unreasonably, deemed an act 
 of dastardly perfidiousness, while, nevertheless, he had 
 no wish to see the empire overrun with the Lutheran 
 opinions, he was content simply to instruct the arch- 
 duke Ferdinand to convene another assembly of the 
 diet, for the purpose of once more considering how to 
 accomplish a settlement, alike satisfactory and con- 
 clusive, of the religious disagreements which divided 
 the judgment of the country. In obedience to this 
 

 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 233 
 
 direction, the archduke of Austria again convoked the 
 diet to meet at Augsburg, in November, 1525. The 
 meeting, however, was so thinly attended that, after 
 having been formally opened, the session was ad- 
 journed to the following midsummer, to be then held 
 at Spires. 
 
 When that period arrived, the success of the re- 
 formers' principles was more than ever apparent from 
 the testimony of the Roman Catholic members of the 
 diet, who, with bitter vexation, complained of the im- 
 possibility of carrying into effect the decree of Worms ; 
 and insisted that, since the pope had so long delayed 
 to comply with the demand of a former senate, it was 
 incumbent on the emperor to use the authority which 
 rested in him as suzerain of the electoral fiefs, by calling 
 together, on his own responsibility, a general council 
 for the effectual arbitration of all theological dissen- 
 sions. The open celebration in the dietary city of the 
 Evangelical worship, and the bold reiteration by the 
 confederate princes of Hesse and Saxony of complaints 
 against the state of the Roman Church in Germany, 
 did indeed excite some of the more violent clients of 
 the Papacy to press for a reinforcement of the law 
 pronounced upon the Lutherans in a previous year. 
 But the archduke, aware of the relations presently sub- 
 sisting between his imperial brother and the holy see, 
 would not permit the assembly to disperse until they 
 had recorded a resolution, inviting the emperor, within 
 twelve months from the date of that sitting, to convene 
 a council of theologians and prelates, in which he him- 
 self should preside ; and impowering each of the Ger- 
 manic states, in the mean time, to take such order in 
 matters of religion as its rulers might approve ; they 
 
234 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 being held responsible to the future convocation for 
 their exercise of the discretion so intrusted to them. 
 
 This resolution (which, being in the nature of a tem- 
 porary and provisional decree, has, from that circum- 
 stance, been styled the Interim) was eminently adapted 
 to promote the oncarriage of the Reformation. Besides 
 suspending for an indefinite period the legal proscrip- 
 tion which had long hung over the Evangelical doc- 
 trine, it revived a principle of national self-sovereignty, 
 which, striking at the base of the pontifical usurpations, 
 was certain, in the course of years, to grow in favour 
 with the community at large, and gradually to under- 
 mine the structure of ecclesiastical despotism. Though 
 often afterward suppressed, kept out of sight, and 
 even sometimes expressly disavowed, by many of the 
 princes, this principle was never again totally eradi- 
 cated from the German mind. It was a point of union, 
 around which, on every appropriate occasion, the 
 common feeling of the empire was prone to gather. 
 It arrayed the sentiment of patriotism on the side of 
 the reforming champions; and, under-flowing all the 
 schisms and distractions of a century, slowly, but 
 steadily, swept out of the country the effective predo- 
 minance of the Papal sceptre. 
 
 The year 1526 was remarkable for the providential 
 facilities which it afforded for the promotion of the 
 work which Luther had so much at heart ; and he was 
 neither unobservant of the opportunity, nor slow to avail 
 himself of it. In the beginning of the year a treaty 
 was signed at Madrid between Francis and Charles, 
 greatly to the disadvantage of the royal captive. He 
 bound himself, however, by a solemn oath to observe 
 it ; and was in consequence restored to liberty and his 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 235 
 
 kingdom. The power of Charles now became more 
 than ever an object of apprehension to Clement, one 
 of whose favourite schemes was the restoration to 
 Italy of political independence. Negotiations were 
 commenced, therefore, with the French king, which 
 issued in the formation of a confederacy against the 
 ambitious designs and threatening power of Charles. 
 Of this alliance, Henry VIII. was declared " the pro- 
 tector ;" and because the pope appeared as one of its 
 members, it was denominated " the Holy League." By 
 his apostolical authority, as it was termed, Clement 
 absolved Francis from the obligation to observe the 
 oath which he had taken to perform faithfully all to 
 which he had consented in the treaty of Madrid. 
 Francis, likewise, was willing to afford not only coun- 
 tenance, but aid, to the Protestant ^princes and cities 
 of Germany in their dispute with the emperor. Thus, 
 indirectly, but not very remotely, the head of the 
 church was affording political support to the very cause 
 which his adherents sought, by all ecclesiastical 
 means, to annihilate. 
 
 Nor was the conduct of the pope less advantageous 
 to the Protestants in another way. A modern histo- 
 rian has stated this very clearly ; and has pointed out, 
 at the same time, the important bearing of the whole 
 upon the as yet infant Reformation : — "At the moment 
 when the troops of Clement VII. marched into Upper 
 Italy, the diet had met at Spires, in order to come to a 
 definite resolution concerning the errors of the church. 
 That the imperial party, that Ferdinand of Austria, 
 who commanded in the emperor's place, and who him- 
 self entertained views on Milan, should feel any great 
 interest in upholding the Papal power on the one side 
 
236 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 the Alps, while they were vehemently attacked by 
 that power on the other, would have been contrary to 
 the nature of things. Whatever had been the former 
 intentions or professions of the imperial court, all shovr 
 of respect or amity was put an end to by the open war 
 which had broken out between them. Never did the 
 towns declare themselves more freely ; never did the 
 princes press more earnestly for redress of their griev- 
 ances. The proposition was made to burn the books 
 which contained the new ordinances, and to acknow- 
 ledge no rule but the Holy Scriptures. Although 
 there was some opposition, yet never was a more in- 
 dependent decision taken. Ferdinand signed a decree 
 of the empire, in virtue of which the states were at 
 liberty to guide themselves in matters of religion, as 
 each could answer it to God and the emperor, — that 
 is, to act according to his own judgment : a decision 
 in which no reference whatever was made to the pope, 
 and which may be regarded as the beginning of the 
 real Reformation, the establishment of a new church 
 in Germany. This decree was immediately adopted 
 in Saxony, Hesse, and the neighbouring countries. 
 The Protestant party thence gained an immense step, 
 — it acquired a legal existence."* 
 
 The fear of the Turks, likewise, operated as a pow- 
 erful diversion in favour of the Lutheran princes. For 
 many years the empire had been threatened on its 
 eastern frontier ; and the provinces of that part of 
 Europe had often been laid waste by hordes of Asiatic 
 barbarians, then in little more than the prime of their 
 ruthless power, and whose situation at Constantinople 
 gave them ready access to the countries through which 
 * Ranke's " History of the Popes," &c., vol. i, p. 106. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 237 
 
 Ohe Danube passed. This very year, Solyman II., in 
 revenge for the maltreatment of his ambassadors by 
 the king of Hungary at the advice of a priest, had in- 
 raded that kingdom, and defeated the forces of the 
 monarch, at Mohacz : Lewis was himself slain in the 
 fight, and twelve thousand of his troops perished with 
 him. Solyman was now triumphant, and threatened 
 to continue his westerly march, and to overrun Chris- 
 tendom. This was not the time, therefore, for the em- 
 peror to hazard a rupture with his powerful vassals. 
 Disunited, it would not be possible for the empire to 
 withstand its potent foe, when, even united, his prowess 
 was so justly an object of dread. 
 
 In the midst of conjectures like these, the enlighten- 
 ed band at Wittenberg continued their labours without 
 intermission, and with extending success. Luther 
 very earnestly recommended that diligent attention 
 should be paid to catechising, particularly requiring that 
 the catechisms should contain the ten commandments, 
 the creed, and the Lord's prayer. He was not con- 
 tent with the mere committal of the words to memory, 
 but admonished the catechisers, whether in the church 
 or in the house, that they should be careful, by suitable 
 explanations and questionings, to acquaint the youthful 
 mind with the truths presented for its instruction. 
 
 He likewise carefully pursued his Biblical studies, 
 writing those Annotations on the prophetical books 
 which were published the following year. And with 
 all this was connected diligent and earnest preaching, 
 in which it is plain that he sought to instruct his hear- 
 ers in the truth of God, and to persuade them to a full 
 evangelical submission to the will of God. Speaking 
 of a collection of discourses, referred to the present 
 
238 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 year, his principal biographer (SeckendorfT) gives what 
 seems to be a correct account of his preaching gene- 
 rally : — " These sermons appear to have been, if not 
 all, yet certainly the greater part of them, delivered 
 extempore, and without much premeditation : both ex- 
 pressing the mind of the speaker, and adapted to win 
 the attention of the hearer. Their style was plain, and 
 often might be considered irregular and bold. But 
 there is a great and admirable copiousness, and a 
 thorough soundness of doctrine, fitting them for giving 
 instruction in the mysteries of the faith, for amend- 
 ment of manners, for consoling the afflicted, and for 
 refuting and guarding against the errors of the day." 
 He well understood the connection between preach- 
 ing the truth and salvation. Referring to such fanatics 
 as Munzer, who wanted to separate the Spirit from the 
 word, he says : " God was able to divide the sea by 
 the wind alone, without the rod of Moses ; but he will- 
 ed that it should be employed. So when the word of 
 God is preached, and when the mind is smitten by this 
 rod, God sends the Spirit ; but he sends it not without 
 the word." The pope he represents as consulting for 
 souls by instituting pilgrimages, by the invocation of 
 saints, by the publication of indulgences. " In this 
 way," he says, " does he seek to make Christians. 
 He has done nothing at all. No one can thus be con- 
 strained to be a believer. He is not a Christian who 
 is called in this manner, but whom God makes one. 
 God causes the gospel to be preached in all congre- 
 gations ; but to whom he gives his Spirit and another 
 mind, him he makes a Christian. But now, all over 
 the world, they seek to make men Christians by force 
 and violence. ' If thou wilt not be made a Christian, 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 239 
 
 say they, ' we will burn thy house for thee.' " Secken- 
 dorff well observes that he condemned all violence, 
 whether the persecuting compulsion of Rome, or the 
 fanatical outbreaks of the rustics under Munzer. All 
 this he thought was excited by the devil, to hinder the 
 success of the gospel, and the fall of the Papacy. This 
 was to be effected, he believed, in another way than 
 by the destruction of monasteries and castles, even by 
 the constant preaching of the truth, through which 
 alone was it to be expected that God would illuminate 
 the heart, and dispel the clouds that obscured the cause 
 of righteousness and purity. 
 
 Thus, while all Christendom appeared to be both 
 shadowed and agitated, this servant of God, unhesi- 
 tating in his faith, pursued his way with a mingled 
 serenity and earnestness, which proved that he well 
 understood the reposing influence and prompting power 
 of a genuine belief. Satisfied that his cause was the 
 cause of God, he had no fears as to its issue ; but, for 
 the same reason, he allowed no shrinking from the 
 path of duty, no trifling in its performance. Misgiv- 
 ings he had none : the whole force of his mighty and 
 ardent spirit, therefore, was expended upon his work. 
 
240 LWE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Pfrhaps the next period of Luther's life, reckoning 
 from the diet held at Spires in 1526, when the sus- 
 pensive decree was passed which, according to Ranke, 
 gave a legal existence to the Reformation, and extending 
 to the diet likewise held at Spires in 1529, when it 
 received the name by which it has since been dis- 
 tinguished, was one of the most important. The poli- 
 tical events of this period were various and agitating ; 
 some of them most remarkable in their character, and 
 all of them tending (as at this distant day, and with 
 fuller knowledge of events, we are able to perceive) to 
 the furtherance of the holy and benevolent cause with 
 which Luther had connected and identified himself. 
 
 Most remarkable it is, that about this time com- 
 menced, on the part of our own eighth Henry, the 
 indulgence of those doubts respecting the lawfulness 
 of his marriage with his brother's widow, which have 
 produced such permanent and important results. First 
 of all, by the most Catholic of all Catholic courts, the 
 court of Spain, had this question been started, affecting 
 as it did the legitimacy of Mary, who was then con- 
 templated as the bride of a Spanish prince. Henry, 
 very likely, entertained these doubts because of the 
 promise which they seemed to give of liberty for the 
 indulgence of his own passions ; but they certainly 
 presented a grave question of law, which might be 
 discussed irrespectively of the motives which impelled 
 the mind of the king. The pope was placed in a most 
 pitiable position. If he decided againt the validity of 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 241 
 
 the scruple, Henry was offended; if in its favour, 
 Charles. In the one case, his English, in the other 
 his German, influence was threatened. The more 
 remote position of England appears at last to have 
 decided the movements of the holy and infallible see. 
 Charles was a near neighbour, closely connected with 
 Italian affairs, both as emperor and as king of Spain ; 
 Henry lived at a distance, and his influence on conti- 
 nental affairs was less immediate. He decided for 
 Charles. Germany was not regained ; but England 
 was lost. 
 
 The Turks, too, pressed hard upon the empire, dis- 
 united as it was by religious differences. In fact, the 
 power of Charles was far greater in appearance than 
 in reality. His empire, though so widely extended, 
 was not at all consolidated ; and instead of the strength 
 of one portion uniting to the strength of the rest, each, 
 by its separateness, tended to hinder the efficacious 
 acting of the rest ; and thus, in politics, the mathema- 
 tical axiom, " The whole is equal to all its parts," be- 
 came not only inapplicable, but, if an index at all, an 
 index by way of opposition and contrariety. The king 
 of Spain and the emperor of Germany only united the 
 disadvantages of each position ; and the realization of 
 the full strength of either, separately, much less of both 
 combined, proved, in fact, to be completely impossible. 
 
 If anything connected with war, and its inseparably 
 concomitant miseries, could be ludicrous, the farce of 
 religious attachment to the Papacy, and its farrago of 
 Catholic verities and usages, played by the emperor, in 
 the year 1527, would be ludicrous indeed. Injured by 
 his sovereign, the king of France, the constable Bour- 
 bon had deserted his cause ; and, won by the promises 
 11 
 
242 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 of Charles, (who always promised freely, because he 
 appears not to have had one particle even of what men 
 call honour, and which impels to an honourable per- 
 formance of promise, in his whole constitution,) he had 
 resolved to win for himself the nominal fitness for the 
 sovereignty which seemed to be within his grasp, by 
 some daring deed which should exalt his name to an 
 equality with the high station to which he aspired. 
 To some bold undertaking he w T as likewise impelled 
 by the want of money to pay his troops, who had be- 
 come discontented and threatening. In the spring of 
 1527 he resolved, therefore, upon marching directly to 
 Rome, which, strong in the opinion of its own sanctity, 
 apprehended no warlike invasion. Early in May, how- 
 ever, Bourbon, the Catholic, the representative of the 
 Catholic king of Spain and emperor of Germany, ap- 
 peared, in hostile demonstration, before the walls of 
 pontifical Rome. Giving his troops no leisure for 
 reflection, he soon led them to the attack. He himself 
 was slain in mounting one of the scaling-ladders ; but 
 the assault was successful. Rome was taken, and 
 sacked ; and while the city was delivered to the un- 
 bridled passions of a ferocious soldiery, the pope, taking 
 refuge in the castle of St. Angelo, was besieged there 
 by the forces of his well-beloved son, the king of 
 Spain, the emperor of Germany, the successor to the 
 imperial crown of the Cesars. 
 
 This siege of Rome by the imperial forces, and the 
 surrender, a few weeks after, of the pope, who had 
 sought refuge from personal captivity in the supposed 
 impregnable fortress of the city, placed, for a time, the 
 destinies of Catholic Europe in the hands of Charles 
 V. The general horror which attached to this sacn- 
 
LII'E OF MARTIN LUTHER. 243 
 
 lege, while it caused the emperor to dissemble his satis- 
 faction at the event, and barred him from appropriating 
 all the political advantages on which he had counted, 
 had the effect of establishing between him and the 
 pontificate a mutual and permanent mistrust, which was 
 not unpropkious to the reformers of the German em- 
 pire. It was not, however, to be expected that the 
 temporal princes who continued to acknowledge the 
 authority of the triple crown would submit to a pro- 
 tracted restraint upon their ghostly sovereign and 
 primate. After extorting from him a reluctant agree- 
 ment to such conditions of prospective support as he 
 could safely venture to impose, Charles therefore sought 
 to conclude a peace with his consecrated prisoner. By 
 way of smoothing the road to that consummation, and 
 at the same time expiating his recent outrage on the 
 church, in the person of its supreme lord and repre- 
 sentative, he resolved to exert his whole domestic 
 power to put down the innovating sect which had 
 arisen in the imperial precincts. Accordingly, he 
 again gave directions to the archduke of Austria for 
 the holding of another diet, for the specific purpose of 
 deliberating on the religious affairs of the country. 
 An antecedent and most injudicious movement on the 
 part of the impetuous landgrave of Hesse, and his 
 contracted ally, the prince John of Saxony, had un- 
 fortunately served to excite among a majority of the 
 electoral senators a feeling prejudicial to the cause 
 which these two rulers had espoused. Yielding too 
 ready credence to a report which had gone abroad of 
 preparations being in progress on the part of some of 
 the Papal confederates for an armed effort to suppress 
 the advancing Reformation, Philip had called upon the 
 
244 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 elector, in pursuance of their joint compact, to raise an 
 army for the resistance of any such attempt. The 
 rumour, however, proving to have been without founda- 
 tion, the mere fact of the Evangelical princes having 
 causelessly assumed a warlike attitude, could hardly 
 fail to tell against the Lutheran interest in the diet. 
 Nor was this the only circumstance tending to excite 
 keener and fresh hostility to the reforming party. The 
 emperor's late invasion of the individual liberty of the 
 pontiff, an act unprecedented for canonical impiety, 
 was deemed to have reflected on the loyalty of the 
 Germanic Church a scandal which could only be re- 
 moved by some equivalent and signal manifestation of 
 subservience to the wishes of the popedom. Influenced 
 by these considerations, the diet, under the vice-impe- 
 rial direction of the archduke Ferdinand, rescinded the 
 provisional decree which had passed during its last 
 session, and, in spite of all that could be urged against 
 so flagrant a contempt of justice, enacted that the pro- 
 scriptive edict of 1521 should be rigidly enforced 
 through all those districts which had been visited by 
 the contagious spirit of ecclesiastical innovation. 
 
 Against this determination the sovereign princes, 
 John of Saxony, Ernest and Francis, dukes of Bruns- 
 wick-Lunenberg, Wolfgang, of Anhalt, George, mar- 
 grave of Brandenberg, and Philip, landgrave of Hesse- 
 Homberg, subscribed and published a formal protest, 
 which will be ever memorable in the history of the 
 Christian world, as having bestowed upon the advo- 
 cates of divine truth the distinctive title of Protest- 
 ants ; an appellation which, invested as it is with 
 sacred and endearing memories, with a thousand asso- 
 ciations of moral bravery and unconquerable truth. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 245 
 
 illustrated by acts of matchless heroism, and baptized 
 with the blood of saints, derives its noblest and immortal 
 dignity from the mighty revolution it commemorates, — 
 
 the LIBERATION OF THE HUMAN MIND FROM THE DO- 
 MINION OF ERROR, AND ITS CONSECRATION TO THE 
 ACKNOWLEDGED SUPREMACY OF DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 This protest, which appeared on the 19th of April, 
 1529, was succeeded, on the 26th of the same month, 
 by a temperate but firm appeal from the decision of the 
 diet to the emperor, in his double capacity of grand 
 regulator of the secular concerns of the electoral fiefs, 
 and president of the provincial councils of the church. 
 It was not long before several of the free towns of 
 Germany, including the great cities of Strasburg, Ulm, 
 and Nuremberg, declared their adhesion to the princi- 
 ples avowed by the dissentient princes. Delegates 
 were then chosen from the more prominent ranks of 
 the reformers, to carry this appeal, along with the pro- 
 testation upon which it built, to the presence of Charles 
 himself. But before the two kindred documents reached 
 him, the autocrat of Spain and Germany had made out 
 his reconciliation with the pope, and bound himself to 
 recover to the Roman see the estranged allegiance of 
 his subjects, even if, by the failure of the ghostly wea- 
 pons of the Papacy, he should be obliged to have re- 
 course to the strong arm. When the deputies presented 
 themselves before him at Placenza, he received them 
 in a manner singularly ungracious ; and with an air of 
 offended haughtiness announced to them his entire 
 approbation of the dietary act, and resolute intention 
 to coerce the Protestants, should they still persist in 
 their recusancy. The appeal to his own crown he 
 affected to resent as a deliberate contempt of the juris 
 
246 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 diction of the diet, and even ordered the bearers of that 
 instrument into confinement. But these truculent 
 demonstrations were probably designed rather to lull 
 suspicion in the pontiff, as to the sincerity of his pro- 
 fessed devotion to the service of the church, than to 
 premonish a resort to those extreme severities which 
 he menaced. After a detention of seventeen days, the 
 Lutheran representatives, who had, meantime, reite- 
 rated their appeal to a free council, were again set at 
 large. 
 
 The necessity of forming a new combination, on a 
 more extended basis, was now more than ever pressed 
 upon the reforming powers by the prompt and fiery 
 prince of Hesse. Against that project, however, Lu- 
 ther and his brethren still persisted to remonstrate ; 
 alleging as one principal reason of their continued dis- 
 approval of the scheme, the disunion which obtained 
 among the several members of the proposed confede- 
 racy, in regard to the substantive incorporation of 
 Christ with the sacramental elements. To obviate this 
 preliminary objection, the impatient landgrave set him- 
 self to bring about a conference between the Saxon 
 and the Swiss theologians, in the hope that they might, 
 by mutual concession, fix upon some common form of 
 stating the disputed doctrine. The debate which en- 
 sued at Marpurg (October, 1529) ended, after a keen 
 encounter of wits, and much laborious expenditure of 
 scholastic learning, in each party retaining its own 
 previous convictions. The main conduct of the strife 
 lay with Zuinglius, Bucer, and QEcolampadius, on one 
 side, and on the other, Lutber, Eberhard, and Melanc- 
 thon. At the outset of the discussion (Ecolampadius 
 dwelt with marked emphasis and skill upon the unity 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 247 
 
 of our Lord's body, which, he argued, having been 
 carried to heaven after the resurrection, could not re- 
 turn to the earth, far less could it be present at the 
 same instant in more places than one. To this rea- 
 soning Luther opposed the literal expression of the 
 Saviour, " This is my body," and the equally distinct 
 assertion of St. Paul, " I have received of the Lord ;" 
 passages which he averred to be neither ambiguous 
 nor metaphorical. Bucer retorted that the answer was 
 a mere petitio principii ; and then arose a long interlo- 
 cutory pleading on the terms of the dispute, and the 
 exact shape of the issue to be raised. It strikes us 
 as a thing to be noted, that throughout the contro- 
 versy none of the Swiss party should have pointedly 
 alluded to the very obvious fact, (a fact which at once 
 defeats Luther's proposition, and is indeed decisive of 
 the question,) that at the very moment when the words 
 instituting the eucharist were uttered, Christ was still 
 visibly present in his corporeal humanity before the 
 assembled disciples. Those words, so confidently re- 
 lied upon by the German divine, were actually spoken 
 by the bodily organs of the Redeemer, so that in their 
 literal import they could not possibly be true. It was 
 not the bread, nor the cup, which spoke. The frag- 
 ment of food held in the hand could neither be the 
 body of which that hand so holding was a member, 
 nor in any way suffused, imbued, or consubstantiated 
 with that body. Nor could the wine then shining in 
 the chalice be the blood which was at the same time 
 flowing through the arterial channels, and pervading 
 the physical structure, of the speaker. The affirma- 
 tion and the command were enunciated by a human 
 being, clothed with material flesh ; and unless the con- 
 
248 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 stituent molecules of that flesh are taken to have been 
 exempted from the law which, inhering in all matter, 
 precludes the multiple existence of the same identical 
 atoms, it is necessarily impossible to attach any other 
 than a figurative meaning to the language used by our 
 Lord, in ordaining the paschal sacrament. Let it be 
 observed, too, that the absolute materiality of the cor- 
 poral substance of the man, Christ Jesus, is of essen- 
 tial and profound importance to be held in view ; for 
 without it, the veritable human being of the divine 
 Mediator disappears ; and with the genuine humanity, 
 perishes the fitness and the adequacy of his sacrifice. 
 Some persons, who assuredly give no credence to the 
 real presence, are, nevertheless, not inapt to lapse into 
 an error nearly akin to it. There are men around us, 
 men deficient neither in intelligence nor piety, who 
 conceive of the very body, the organic system and ex- 
 terior tegument of the manhood of the Messiah, as 
 endowed with some inherent principle of immunity 
 from the immutable conditions of all natural existence. 
 But the supposition is pregnant with consequential 
 danger to one of the most vital truths of Christianity. 
 He who imagines for the physical shrine, in which the 
 incarnate God lived on earth, and which died upon the 
 cross, a native and peculiar property, excepting it from 
 the ligations and the liabilities of our own flesh and 
 blood, stumbles upon a fancy which, if it were true, 
 would rob the common nature of man of the consecra- 
 tion and the glory it receives from having been worn 
 by the resurgent, as by the suffering, Deity; would 
 deprive the faithful of their consolation, and defraud 
 the universe of its hope. 
 
 While these grave subjects were in deliberation 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 249 
 
 among an ever-increasing body of his people, the empe- 
 ror Charles V. was honoured by the pope with a solemn 
 inauguration to the throne of the Cesars ; a formality 
 which the pressure of the times had postponed to an 
 unusual distance from the period of his election. The 
 ceremony was performed at Bologna, where the em- 
 peror remained, in constant and familiar intercourse 
 with his holiness, for the space of a month after his 
 installation. During that term of renewed confidence 
 and friendship, Charles took occasion to urge upon the 
 Catholic primate the propriety of summoning an eccle- 
 siastical council ; as both Clement and his near prede- 
 cessors in the apostolic seat had repeatedly promised. 
 It was no part, however, of the immediate policy of 
 the pontiff to make so critical a concession to the de- 
 mand, which was fast becoming general, for a reform 
 within the church. With his accustomed dexterity in 
 evading disagreeable requirements, an art in which few 
 of the crowned archpriests of Rome have excelled 
 Clement VII., he contrived to divert his imperial con- 
 queror from that suit ; pointing his attention to the 
 eastern frontiers of the empire, threatened as they still 
 were with a new irruption of the Turks, under their 
 victorious sultan, Solyman ; and to the internal dis- 
 affections which, fomented by the virulent enthusiasm 
 of a remnant of the Anabaptist demagogues, gave inti- 
 mation of the too probable renewal of those disastrous 
 revolts which had before desolated various districts of 
 Germany. 
 
 Nor was it without abundant show of reason that the 
 
 emperor's thoughts were thus directed to the perilous 
 
 and instant embarrassments which menaced his reign. 
 
 Notwithstanding the recent and far-celebrated relief 
 
 11* 
 
250 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 of Vienna, and the immediate abandonment, by the 
 Turkish armies, of the Austrian territory ; Solyman, 
 by his creature, John Zapolya, whom he had himself 
 crowned at Buda, still held possession of nearly the 
 whole kingdom of Hungary. Ferdinand, in terror for 
 his own archducal diadem, began to wax urgent in his 
 advocacy of toleration for the Lutherans, in the expecta- 
 tion, doubtless, of thus winning aid from some of the 
 Evangelical magnates. Disturbances were rife in nu- 
 merous parts of Flanders ; while in more than one of 
 the other great countries of the empire fresh troubles 
 were to be hourly apprehended. Discord and mutin- 
 ous dissatisfaction had become imminent in the impe- 
 rial fiefs ; and, in short, a general dislocation of the 
 national union seemed to be impending. At this junc- 
 ture, Charles returned from his long tour of conquest 
 and ambition, to find the very heart and flower of the 
 Germanic estates torn with intestine feuds, and seem- 
 ing about to go to pieces, even while the lingering 
 propinquity of a common and barbarous enemy pleaded 
 for unanimity and energetic concert. 
 
 To devise prompt and efficacious remedies for a 
 political condition so complex and inauspicious was 
 no easy task. Fettered by his engagement with the 
 pope, while the twofold dread of a civil war among 
 the electoral estates, and of invasion from without, 
 rendered the extreme alternative of that imprudent en- 
 gagement difficult to be fulfilled ; the emperor, on re- 
 suming in his own person the federal administration, 
 had recourse once more to the deliberations of the 
 diet. The venerable city of Augsburg was nominated 
 for the scene of those consultations which were to be 
 decisive both of the fate of the Reformation, and the 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 251 
 
 future integrity of the combined principalities. Thither 
 the grave urgency of the topics to be considered, and 
 the attraction of the imperial presence, drew a much 
 larger number of the senatorial lords than had attended 
 any meeting of their body since the important session 
 of Worms. 
 
 And well might the reformers themselves feel, even 
 painfully, their dangerous position. Since the pillage 
 of Rome by the imperial forces, and the captivity of 
 the head of the church, Charles had become anxious 
 to show himself not the less Catholic for having im- 
 prisoned the centre of Catholic unity. So far as his 
 own ambitious plans were concerned, he did not fail to 
 extract (so far as treaties could be said to extract) as 
 much gain as possible from his advantageous circum- 
 stances ; but he was at the same time willing to prove 
 to the pope, at the expense of others, how decidedly 
 and zealously religious he was. He insisted, in his 
 conversations with the pope, on a council, hoping, no 
 doubt, to regain some of the earlier imperial preroga- 
 tives over the Papacy ; but he was willing that this 
 council should be called, not* so much for any serious 
 reformation in the doctrine and discipline of the church, 
 as for the extirpation of the Lutheran heresy. And 
 as to the mode of extirpation, examples had been 
 afforded which evinced that the Papal party had not 
 forgotten the way to deal with heretics, or changed 
 their principles since the days of John Huss and Je- 
 rome of Prague. In the Netherlands, where Charles 
 was not so encumbered in his proceedings, the fires 
 of persecution had been already kindled for the Luthe- 
 rans. And in Bavaria, in 1527, a priest, named Leon- 
 ard Cesar, had been burnt alive " for the Evangelical 
 
252 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 doctrine," although powerful intercessions were made 
 on his behalf. Luther was greatly distressed by this 
 event, although he solemnly rejoiced before God for the 
 unshaken constancy and holy triumph with which the 
 martyr had closed his life. Leonard had taken the 
 ground occupied by the reformers ; and when pressed 
 to recant, that he might save his life, he refused, unless 
 they would show that what he believed was contrary 
 to the Scriptures. At the stake, he besought the peo- 
 ple to pray for themselves, and for him, that with an 
 unyielding faith he might die. The lire being kindled, 
 with a Qlear voice, he exclaimed, " Lord Jesus, I am 
 thine ; save me ;" and soon after expired. 
 
 But while Luther felt for the man, he had no fears 
 for the cause. Indeed, in the whole character of the 
 reformer nothing is more observable than the com- 
 pleteness of the persuasion which possessed his mind, 
 that the cause in which he was engaged was the cause 
 of truth, and therefore the cause of Christ. That Christ 
 would maintain his own cause, in whatever mysteries 
 his proceedings might be enveloped, he never appears 
 to have for a moment doubted. All he desired was to 
 be himself more devoted to the cause which he knew 
 to be right, and to be enabled to defend and maintain 
 it by methods suited to his own nature. Much of Lu- 
 ther's character appears in a letter which he wrote to 
 a friend after the martyrdom of Leonard. 
 
 " O miserable Luther, so unlike Leonard ! I, a ver- 
 bose preacher of the word ; he, a mighty doer of it. 
 O that I were prepared, I will not say, with double, 
 but even half his spirit, to conquer Satan, and surren- 
 der my life ! Blessed be God, who, among so many 
 ministers, at least one glorious spectacle of his grace 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 253 
 
 nas shown to us, unworthy as we are. Pray for me, 
 my brother Michael, that Christ may enable me to imi- 
 tate our Leonard. Not only king, but Cesar, he was 
 deservedly called ; because he conquered him to whose 
 power there is no equal here on earth. He was not 
 only priest, but high priest, yea, and true pope, in that 
 his own body he presented as a living and holy sacri- 
 fice, acceptable to God. And very rightly was he 
 called Leonhard, that is, strength of a lion; for so was 
 he, bold and undaunted." 
 
 When Luther, at various times, expressed his strong 
 conviction of the necessity of Christian courage and 
 resolution, he did so from the perfect knowledge that 
 he had of the spirit of Papacy, and its favourite me- 
 thods of settling controversies. He well knew that 
 hitherto nothing but the repeated concurrences of cir- 
 cumstances so remarkable as to exhibit the wonder- 
 working providence of God had prevented the em- 
 ployment of the usual means of conviction and conver- 
 sion employed by Rome. He well knew that the 
 more sincere was the religion of his opponents, the 
 more likely were they to have recourse to the most 
 energetic measures. Assuming the absolute truth of 
 their own system and the soul-destroying influence of 
 heresy, seeming cruelty would in their sight be real 
 mercy. The removal of the infected, refusing to sub- 
 mit to the sanatory process which might be prescribed, 
 would be mercy to the rest. And as to employ these 
 measures was considered as the duty of the church, 
 so to lend the aid of secular force was alike considered 
 the duty of the state. Subsequently, the Council of 
 Trent made it the duty of rulers to employ their utmost 
 power to cause " the true faith." to be received by 
 
254 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 their subjects ; and the confiscations, banishments, 
 and martyrdoms that followed, evinced the sense in 
 which the profession of the faith according to the 
 Tridentine Creed was understood. 
 
 And at the Diet of Augsburg did the Papal legate 
 seek earnestly to induce the emperor to lose no time 
 in checking the progress of Lutheranism, by employ- 
 ing at once, and with decision, the power which he 
 possessed. Charles had promised the pope that he 
 would lend all his might for the reduction of the Pro- 
 testants, and he seemed to be earnestly bent on doing 
 as he had said. As he journeyed through Italy into 
 Germany, to preside at the approaching diet, he was ac- 
 companied by several members of the Roman court, and 
 by them his resolution was sought to be sustained and 
 confirmed. Whatever the suspicions of Luther might 
 have been, so far as they related to the wishes and 
 counsel of the Papal party, they could not exceed the 
 fact as it then existed, and has since transpired. Pro- 
 fessor Ranke distinctly states that " the legate who 
 had been sent to accompany the emperor, Cardinal 
 Campeggio, had conceived bold projects, perilous in 
 the highest degree to Germany."* The professor de- 
 scribes what these projects were, first mentioning the 
 source from which he has derived his information : 
 " A memorial presented by him to the emperor, at the 
 time of the Diet of Augsburg, and containing an expo- 
 sition of these projects, is still extant. With regret 
 and repugnance, but as a tribute to truth, I must say a 
 few words on it." His few words are these : — 
 
 " Cardinal Campeggio did not content himself with 
 lamenting religious errors ; he commented more par- 
 * History of the Popes, &c, vol. i, p. 3. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 255 
 
 ticularly on their political consequences. He repre- 
 sented, that not only in the imperial cities was the 
 authority and dignity of the nobility lowered by the 
 Reformation ; not only could no prince, ecclesiastical 
 or even secular, any longer obtain due obedience ; but 
 the majesty of the emperor himself was disregarded. 
 The question was, how was the evil to be met ? 
 
 " The secret of the means he proposed was not very 
 profound. Nothing was requisite, he thought, but that 
 the emperor should conclude a treaty with the well- 
 disposed princes ; they should then proceed to work 
 upon the recusants by promises or by threats. If they 
 remained stubborn, what was to be done ? The em- 
 peror had a right ' to extirpate this poisonous plant with 
 fire and sword.'' The main thing would be to confis- 
 cate their property, secular and ecclesiastical, in Ger- 
 many, as well as in Hungary and Bohemia ; for against 
 heretics this is lawful and right. If the mastery over 
 them were once obtained, holy inquisitors were to he 
 appointed to track out every remnant of them, and 
 proceed against them by the same means as were used 
 against the Moors in Spain. Besides this, the Uni- 
 versity of Wittenberg was to be excommunicated ; all 
 those who studied there were to be declared unworthy 
 the favour of pope or emperor ; the books of heretics to 
 be burnt ; the monks who had quitted their convents to 
 be sent back to them ; and not a single schismatic to 
 be tolerated at any court. But first a sweeping con- 
 fiscation was necessary. ' Even if your majesty,' 
 says the legate, ' confines yourself to the leaders of 
 the party, you may extract from them a large sum of 
 money, which is indispensable to carry on the war 
 against the Turks.' 
 
256 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 " Such," continues Professor Ranke, " is the tone 
 of this project ; such are its principles. How does 
 every word breathe of oppression, carnage, and plun- 
 der ! We cannot wonder that Germany expected the 
 worst from an emperor arriving under such guidance, 
 or that the Protestants took counsel among themselves 
 as to the degree of resistance they might lawfully 
 use."* 
 
 It was well that the emperor stood in fear of the 
 Turks, to meet whom he required the united strength 
 of the empire. Besides, both himself and his brother 
 Ferdinand were deeply interested in the preservation 
 of their Austrian dominions, which were chiefly threat- 
 ened by these their formidable foes. In 1529, Soly- 
 man II. had marched as far as Yienna, to which city 
 he had laid siege ; and though he was obliged to raise 
 it at the end of about five weeks, yet as he had access 
 to the very centre of the Austrian territories by the 
 whole line of the Danube, this was enough to show 
 Charles the danger of exasperating the Protestant 
 princes of Germany on the one side, when he had 
 such an active and potent foe on the other. It was 
 thus that the persecuting tendencies of the two brothers, 
 though stimulated By ecclesiastical superstition and 
 bigotry, were laid under efficient restraint, and time 
 
 * History of the Popes, &c, vol. i, p. 113. This is Professor 
 Ranke's foot-note : — " They ventured to call such a mere sketch, 
 an instruction : • Instructio data Csesari a reverend 1 *"). Campeg- 
 gio in Dieta Augustana, 1530.' I found it in a Roman library, in 
 the hand-writing of the time, and beyond all doubt authentic." 
 In his appendix (vol. iii, p. 52) he calls it, " that blood-thirsty 
 scheme for the destruction of the Protestants ;" and gives some 
 extracts from it, in the original Italian, justifying his severe 
 censure. 
 
* 
 
 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 257 
 
 afforded for the " good seed" to strike its roots deeply, 
 and to grow beyond the power of extirpation. 
 
 Luther, in the mean time, though anything but igno- 
 rant of his danger, was neither alarmed nor anxious. 
 He had not merely studied the word of God with an 
 honest mind, so as to arrive at a settled conviction of 
 the truth of the doctrines which he had embraced, but 
 " he knew," likewise, " in whom he had believed." 
 The belief of the existence of Christ's kingdom in the 
 earth was with him a settled principle ; an element 
 of his intellectual being. His view of the almighty 
 Saviour and Sovereign, as having " prepared his 
 throne in the heavens," so that " his kingdom ruleth 
 over all," was so clear and distinct, that he was like 
 the young man whose eyes " the Lord opened," so 
 that " he saw, and behold the mountain was full of 
 horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." And, 
 as his faith was strong and settled, so was it strength- 
 ened by that spirit of earnest prayer which he con- 
 tinually cherished. Luther cannot be understood if 
 viewed only as a reformer who wished to revive neg- 
 lected or forgotten truth, and to bring men back to the 
 simplicity and spirituality of primitive Christian wor- 
 ship : his faith, if the distinction may be made, rested 
 not in the truths of religion, considered as doctrines 
 to be apprehended by the intellect, though all his 
 writings, and his care to instruct others both by cate- 
 chising and preaching, show that he did not neglect 
 thus to view them ; there was nothing blind or enthu- 
 siastic in his faith ; but, passing through the truths 
 taught, he rested not till he arrived at the objects 
 which they revealed, and there he found repose. He 
 trusted m God ; his mind was stayed upon God ; and 
 
258 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 hence came the peace which he enjoyed. His natural 
 temper was anything rather than careless. Full of 
 ardour and activity, it predisposed him both for self- 
 confidence in prosperity, and anxiety in darkness and 
 danger. But all this was counteracted by the views 
 which he took of the presence and dominion of God. 
 God, he knew, would maintain his own cause. While, 
 therefore, without intermission, he employed all the 
 means which he had reason to believe the nature and 
 urgency of the cause demanded, the whole burden of 
 his care he cast upon God ; always, and especially in 
 every exigency, making his requests known unto God 
 by prayer and supplication. 
 
 Under these circumstances, in March, 1530, the 
 Diet of Augsburg was opened. Not ignorant of the 
 wishes of their opponents, and of the agreement which 
 the emperor had formed with the pope, the Protestant 
 princes began to consult seriously on the measures by 
 which the independence of their several administra- 
 tions might best be secured. Luther, of course, was 
 consulted ; but his Christian principles would not 
 allow him to entertain the question of resistance to the 
 head of the empire, till the necessity for doing so be- 
 came invincible. Even Maimbourg acknowledges 
 this, though plainly with the view of censuring more 
 strongly the Smalcaldic League, which subsequently 
 the Protestants were compelled to form. " Luther," 
 he says, " conducted himself on this occasion in a 
 manner worthy of a good man. He wrote to the 
 princes to divert them from their purpose, telling them 
 that the cause of religion was to be defended, not by 
 the force of arms, but by sound arguments, by Christian 
 patience, and by firm faith in the omnipotent God." 
 
LTFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 259 
 
 "At the same time," proceeds trie Jesuit, "he pub- 
 lished a short tract, full of quotations from sacred 
 Scripture, by which the soul might be comforted and 
 supported under the afflictions and dangers of the pre- 
 sent life. He likewise reduced to German metre the 
 forty-sixth Psalm,   God is our refuge and strength,' 
 and had it set to music, that, during the continuance 
 of the diet, it might be sung in all the Lutheran 
 churches." 
 
 It was thus that this true reformer sought to prepare 
 for coming events. The princes who had embraced 
 the doctrines of the Reformation were sovereign in 
 their respective states, but yet so as to be subordinate 
 to the whole empire, and its actual governor. As yet, 
 therefore, Luther believed that as their sovereignty was 
 not directly invaded, they had no right to set themselves 
 in opposition to their acknowledged chief. He saw 
 the gathering storm, but for this he well knew how to 
 provide. There is something noble and animating in 
 the idea of the multitudes who had received the clearer 
 expositions of divine truth, many of whom experienced 
 the blessings which were set before them, joining, 
 whenever they met together for the worship of God, in 
 this acknowledgment of their dependance on him, this 
 renewed expression of their devoted trust. When from 
 these congregations the voice of thanksgiving and con- 
 fidence arose, " God is our refuge and strength, a very 
 present help in trouble ; therefore will we not fear 
 though the earth be removed," — the cry would come 
 up to the Lord in his holy temple, and his eye would 
 be fixed on the cause thus humbly and earnestly com- 
 mended to his notice. 
 
 In the deliberations of the diet, the schism then 
 
260 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 dividing the churches of Germany was allowed to have 
 precedence of all other matters. The elector John, 
 warned by a previous message from the emperor of 
 the displeasure which his adherence to the Protestant 
 secession and armed league with the landgrave of 
 Hesse had provoked, took the precaution to prevent 
 Luther from being present at the dietary sitting, appre- 
 hensive that the boldness of his tone and bearing might 
 only serve to irritate the haughty temper of the German 
 monarch. At the same period he provided himself 
 with a written statement, which had some months be- 
 fore been compiled by the reformer, with the assistance 
 of Pomeranus, Justus Jonas, and others, comprising, 
 under seventeen heads, the substance of the Evan- 
 gelical tenets, in relation both to faith and discipline. 
 This statement, usually known under the name of " the 
 Articles of Torgau," from the place whence it was 
 dated, furnished the basis of that enlarged exposition 
 which Melancthon, a few weeks later, prepared ; and 
 which, having been strongly approved by Luther, was 
 submitted to the diet as a " confession" of the reformed 
 doctrine. The emperor's communication to the elector 
 also required a private conference to be had between 
 them, prior to the opening of the federal legislature ; 
 but from complying with this mandate the Saxon ruler 
 excused himself, on the plea, that such an interview 
 would awake jealousy in the rest of the great vassals. 
 Notice was then conveyed to him, that the Protestant 
 ministers would not be suffered to perform divine ser- 
 vice in any of the churches of Augsburg, pending the 
 sittings of the diet. Against the last prohibition, the 
 reformed princes, by the concurrent advice of their 
 divines, united in petitioning the imperial throne. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER 261 
 
 Charles, however, was inexorable ; and the counsel of 
 Luther prevailed to hold the Evangelical preachers 
 silent during the continuance of the session. 
 
 On the 25th of June, 1530, the Confession of 
 Augsburg was publicly read before the diet. The 
 original subscribers to that reverend document were 
 the cities of Reutlingen and Nuremberg, together with 
 the six princes who had signed the protest of the pre- 
 ceding year. The " serene" assembly heard it, says 
 Mosheim, " with the deepest attention and recollection 
 of mind. It confirmed some in the principles they had 
 embraced, and surprised others ; while many, who be- 
 fore this time had little or no idea of the religious sen- 
 timents of Luther, were now not only convinced of 
 their innocence, but were, moreover, delighted with 
 their simplicity and purity." " By the grace of God," 
 exclaimed Pontanus, one of the Lutheran doctors, as 
 he handed the Latin translation to the emperor's secre- 
 tary, " this confession shall prevail, in spite of the gates 
 of hell.". 
 
 A similar record of their sentiments having been 
 given in by Bucer, on behalf of the Swiss Protestants, 
 some of the more violent abettors of the Papal faction 
 recommended the immediate and forcible interposition 
 of the emperor, to stop the progress of opinions so 
 widely at variance with established usage and belief. 
 But the prevalent feeling of the diet being favourable 
 to the adoption of a more lenient course, the Romish 
 theologians were instructed to draw up a refutation of 
 the articles included in the two Evangelical memorials, 
 taking special care to avoid the use of all offensive ex- 
 pressions. Beyond this limitation the forbearance of 
 the emperor could not be brought to extend. Faber, 
 
262 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 archbishop of Vienna, having of his own accord under- 
 taken to demolish the Swiss confession, the business 
 of constructing a formal examination and disproof of 
 the Lutheran declaration devolved on Eck, the old and 
 fierce vituperator of its authors, and his worthy col- 
 league the notorious Cochlaeus. " Doctor," inquired 
 the duke of Bavaria, a stanch and keen Papist, address- 
 ing the former, " can you confute that paper out of the 
 Bible ?" " No," replied the unhesitating churchman ; 
 " to rebut those statements by Scripture is impossible ; 
 but it may easily be done from the fathers :" a speech 
 which aptly imbodies the uniform rule and secret of 
 the pontifical divinity. 
 
 The instrument composed upon this notable admis- 
 sion, and which assumed to be a confutation of the 
 reformer's manifesto, is justly described by Melancthon, 
 in a letter to his friend and leader, as " puerile " and 
 " most foolish." Such, however, was not the judgment 
 of the emperor concerning it ; for, after causing the 
 voluminous replication to be read at full length in the 
 diet, he expressed his entire assent to the principles it 
 set forth, and signified his sovereign pleasure that the 
 princes who had heretofore sanctioned the Reformation, 
 should forthwith conform their opinions and their wor- 
 ship to the general practice of the empire. To these 
 announcements was added a monitory hint, that, as 
 defender of the Germanic Church, he would no longer 
 tolerate the Lutheran schism. 
 
 So favourable an impression had, however, been 
 produced on some of the Roman Catholic members of 
 the diet, by the moderation and ostensible rectitude of 
 the opinions developed in the Evangelical confessions, 
 that they were desirous to prevent the execution of the 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 263 
 
 threat implied in the imperial speech, by effecting an 
 accommodation between the hostile religionists. The 
 project was indeed more benevolent than wise ; but, 
 with characteristic urbanity and kindliness of disposi- 
 tion, Melancthon, on the part of his reforming brethren, 
 consented to make a last and hopeless attempt to con- 
 ciliate their adversaries. It was consequently arranged 
 that a certain number of persons, from either party, 
 should be named to discuss the differences which 
 obtained between them. After conferring for several 
 successive days, numerous explanations and conces- 
 sions being made upon both sides, the deputies finally 
 split, beyond all chance of agreement, on the ques- 
 tions of justification, and of ecclesiastical abuses. On 
 these points, into which the whole controversy between 
 the Popish and reformed religions may in fact be sum- 
 marily resolved, the division was peremptory and de- 
 finitive. A second conference, in which the disputants 
 were limited to six of each party, had a similar issue : 
 and the Protestant delegates, reassured of the utter 
 futility of all further endeavours to propitiate the clients 
 of the Papacy, once more demanded that the two capi- 
 tal subjects of contention should be referred to the ad- 
 judication of a council. 
 
 Apprized of the result of these discussions, the 
 emperor, in angry terms, intimated his dissatisfaction 
 with their conduct to the Lutheran electors, and impe- 
 ratively demanded their immediate submission to the 
 see of Rome, and the precise forms of worship estab- 
 lished in the empire. On the 22d of September the 
 diet promulgated a species of provisional enactment, 
 termed a recess; granting a space of five months to 
 the German Evangelicals for conforming to the impe- 
 
264 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 rial ritual ; and requiring them, meantime, to be active 
 in extirpating trie errors of the Anabaptists and of 
 Zuinglius. The latter clause, we suspect, had its rise 
 in the politic wish of the emperor to save himself both 
 the trouble and the danger of a forcible intervention, 
 by arraying one section of the reformers against an- 
 other, and thus driving all of them to seek, by the offer 
 of renewed fealty, to strengthen themselves by the 
 support of the pontificate. If such were really his 
 motrves, they show indeed a want of generous sympa- 
 thy, and a wretched misapprehension of the influences 
 which actuated the parents of the Reformation. That 
 for the moment he really did entertain some such de- 
 lusive expectation, we are the more convinced by the 
 fact of his having shortly after (when time enough had 
 passed to open his eyes to the mistake) procured an- 
 other and far more severe edict to be promulgated ; 
 which, though it repeated his promise to intercede with 
 the pope for the convocation of a council, revived the 
 infamous decree of Worms, and denounced vengeance 
 on those states and cities whose allegiance should con- 
 tinue to be withdrawn from the visible head of the church. 
 That which encouraged Luther in the midst of such 
 trials and threatening calamities, was the conviction, 
 which all his observations strengthened, that what he 
 knew to be the "work of God" was prospering and 
 extending. In a letter written to the elector of Saxony, 
 on the 22d of May, 1530, he speaks of the youth of 
 the electorate as growing up well instructed in the 
 catechism, and in the word of God. " It gives me 
 great and singular pleasure," he says, " when I see 
 that boys and girls can now understand and speak 
 better concerning God and Christ, than formerly could 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 265 
 
 have been done by the colleges," monasteries, and 
 schools of the Papacy, or than they can do even yet.' 
 
 " There is thus," he continues, " planted in youi 
 highness's dominions a very pleasant paradise, to 
 which there is nothing similar in the whole world. 
 And by planting this paradise, God most evidently de- 
 monstrates his mercy and favour to your highness. It 
 is as though he should say, ' Most beloved Prince John, 
 I commend these children to thee, as my most pre- 
 cious treasure : they are my celestial paradise of 
 pleasant plants. Be thou a father to them. I place 
 them under thy protection and rule, and honour thee, 
 by making thee the president and patron of this hea- 
 venly garden.' " 
 
 In the course of the diet, Melancthon had written 
 to him a letter full of fears for the cause in which they 
 were engaged. Luther, in reply, reproves him for his 
 unbelief, and expresses the ground of his own confi- 
 dence. " If it be false," he writes, " that God has 
 given his Son for us, then the devil, or whoever you 
 please, may be said to be in my place ; but if it be 
 true, what need is there of our care and solicitude, our 
 sadness and trepidation ? As though He who gave us 
 his Son, would not help us in these lighter matters ; 
 or as though the devil were stronger than He. In 
 private griefs and struggles thou art stronger than I ; 
 but in public difficulties the strength is mine. On the 
 contrary, such thou art in public, as I am in private ; 
 if that should be called private which occurs between 
 Satan and me. Thou fearest nothing for thyself ; thou 
 fearest all for the public : while I, for the public cau&e, 
 am quite at ease, because I know it to be the just and 
 true cause of Christ and God. I am therefore a quiet 
 12 
 
266 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 and secure spectator. If we are ruined, Christ will 
 be ruined with us ; Christ the ruler of the world. 
 And let it be so. Better sink with Christ than 
 reign with Cesar. I beseech thee by Christ, that 
 thou neglect not those promises and consolations of 
 which the Psalms and Evangelists are full. Cast thy 
 care upon God ; wait upon the Lord ; be of good 
 courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. ' Be of 
 good cheer,' said Christ, ' I have overcome the world.' 
 If the world be conquered, shall we fear it as though 
 it were victor ? This is not good : I know it is weak- 
 ness of faith. Let us pray, with the apostles,   Lord, 
 increase our faith !' " 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 267 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The final decree of trie Diet of Augsburg, which was 
 not agreed to until after most of the Evangelical members 
 had quitted the city, at once broke down the last rem- 
 nant of unwillingness on the part of the reformers to 
 arm for the defence of the truth, and of their own most 
 sacred rights. Even Luther himself, deeply as he had 
 hitherto protested against all anticipative preparations 
 for withstanding persecution by force, now gave his 
 approbation to the immediate adjustment between the 
 Protestant states of a plan for mutual protection against 
 the threatened invasion of their religious liberty. In 
 the spring of the following year he published two 
 works, asserting, in strong phrase, that to resist attacks, 
 such as were indicated by the recent edict, was a 
 solemn and imperative duty, which the reformed sove- 
 reigns would not be true to themselves or to their 
 country if they failed to discharge. The lawyers of 
 Saxony, almost to a man, did themselves honour by 
 declaring that the emperor, besides threatening an in- 
 fraction of the independence and internal freedom of 
 the several estates which acknowledged the Protestant 
 religion, had usurped a jurisdiction in things purely 
 ecclesiastical, which was foreign to the federal con- 
 stitution. 
 
 Scarcely was the decree issued, when the landgrave 
 of Hesse, with the impetuous promptitude which dis- 
 tinguished all his movements, entered into a defensive 
 alliance with the imperial city of Strasburg, and the 
 cantons of Basle and Zurich. Only three or four 
 
268 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 months elapsed before, at the instigation of the same 
 prince, a meeting of the Evangelical rulers took place ; 
 in which, after mature deliberation, the basis of an 
 armed confederacy was provisionally adjusted. An 
 adjourned consultation, held in June, 1531, at Frankfort- 
 sur-Maine, was shortly succeeded by the definitive 
 conclusion of the treaty, which is known to history 
 under the title of the League of Smalcalde. This 
 famous paction bound the subscribing powers to main- 
 tain, each of them, for the space of six years, a mili- 
 tary force, ready, in the event of any aggression on 
 the part of the emperor, to afford assistance to the par- 
 ticular principality or town which might happen to 
 become the scene of attempted violence. The princes, 
 at the same time, put forth a manifesto, embracing a 
 statement of their demands in regard to the convening 
 of a general and free council, and the effectual purga- 
 tion of the Imperial Church ; accompanied with a calm 
 but resolute denial of the authority of the emperor in 
 matters of religion, and an exposition of the purpose 
 and the grounds of their mutual compact. 
 
 It was not without alarm that Charles contemplated 
 these ominous proceedings. In the vain assurance 
 that the reformers were to be subdued by terror, he 
 had committed the grand blunder of stretching his 
 power too far. Nor could a more inauspicious mo- 
 ment for such an error have been chosen. With 
 the remembrance of defeat, captivity, and ungenerous 
 treatment still sore upon him, Francis I. watched with 
 an evil eye the accumulation of those difficulties which 
 were gathering thick around his rival and recent op- 
 pressor. Waiting only for a favourable opportunity to 
 attack the empire, with a strength increased propor- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 269 
 
 tionably to his vindictive sense of injury and humilia- 
 tion, the French king had contracted an alliance with 
 Henry VIII. of England, which, under cover of a vague 
 determination to preserve a balance of power in Eu- 
 rope, thinly disguised intentions hostile to the German 
 autocrat. With both of these monarchs the confede- 
 rates of Smalcalde opened negotiations ; soliciting their 
 support in repelling those encroachments on their in- 
 dependence and constitutional prerogatives which the 
 emperor proposed to attempt. The promises, eagerly 
 given, of aid from the two kings, and the consequent 
 existence, in the centre of his own territory, of a nu- 
 merous and banded interest, which, formidable in itself, 
 was doubly to be dreaded from its connection with his 
 most potent enemies, were circumstances well adapted 
 to fill Charles with apprehension and dismay. The 
 alienation of so large a body of his subjects, headed 
 by the ablest princes of the land, he could not but 
 regard with serious disquietude. Occurring, as it did, 
 at an hour when the continuance of the Turkish war, 
 and the recollection of the past successes and indomi- 
 table energy of the sultan, afforded ample occasion 
 both of embarrassment and misgiving, that alienation 
 was an event which called for instant reparation. 
 There were other motives, likewise, operating to im- 
 press on the imperial mind the necessity of promptly 
 recovering the good-will which his own imprudence 
 and imperious folly had estranged. Charles at this 
 time was bent on securing to his own family the suc- 
 cession to his throne, by the elevation of his brother 
 Ferdinand to the dignity of king of the Romans ; a 
 titular distinction conferred by the unanimous voice of 
 the electors, which, by prescription, amounted to a 
 
270 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 recognition of the future emperor. To accomplish 
 this scheme, it was essential to win the consent of the 
 princes of Brandenberg and Saxony, to whom the 
 archduke was, in some measure, personally obnoxious ; 
 and who, having refused to vote for his election, were 
 not likely to be moved from their express determina- 
 tion so long as the penal rigours lately denounced 
 against the religious body they upheld should be suf- 
 fered to remain in force. 
 
 Urged by these considerations, and not improbably 
 reluctant, for other reasons, to provoke the perilous 
 outburst of a religious war, Charles V. solicited the 
 friendly intervention between himself and the sub- 
 scribers to the treaty of Smalcalde, of the elector pala- 
 tine and the archbishop of Mentz. Through their 
 mediation a compromise was at length negotiated. On 
 the 25th of July, 1531, the pacification of Nuremberg 
 (as it has been termed) was signed, and ratified at a 
 diet held at Ratisbon in the following month. By this 
 agreement, the Protestants were left free to use their 
 own ceremonial of devotion, and to profess the reformed 
 doctrine, until the rule of faith should be absolutely 
 settled either by a council assembled within six 
 months, or by a diet of the empire, to be specially 
 holden for that purpose. The conditions of this paci- 
 fication stipulated for an immediate repeal, by the em- 
 peror, of the decrees of Worms and Augsburg; the 
 reformers, for their part, agreeing to aid in the prose- 
 cution of the war against the Turks, and to confirm the 
 archduke of Austria in possession of the Roman crown. 
 To the pope this negotiation gave extreme dissatisfac- 
 tion. It formed another in the interminable series of 
 delays which was ever frustrating the execution of 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 271 
 
 those malignant designs which doomed Luther and his 
 immortal fellow-labourers to destruction. It was, not- 
 withstanding, far enough from providing full security 
 for the safe on-going of the Reformation. It esta- 
 blished only a hollow and momentary truce, not a sub- 
 stantial and enduring peace ; but he is something 
 worse than blind who does not see, in the perpetual 
 emergence of such barriers to persecution, springing 
 up, as they did, out of passions and combinations 
 which had no overt or definable affinity to the cause, 
 the presence and the overruling power of Him, who, 
 holding the angels of his churches in his right hand, 
 rebukes the malice that would injure them, even by 
 the issues of its own deeds, and repeats in the arrange- 
 ment of his providence the admonition recorded in his 
 word, " Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets 
 no harm." While the diet was sitting at Ratisbon, 
 and the Nuremberg pacification was before the princes 
 of the empire, news arrived that Solyman, at the head 
 of three hundred thousand men, had invaded Hungary. 
 Charles at once ratified the agreement ; the Protestant 
 and Catholic princes came forward with their troops, 
 and the emperor, in August, 1531, marched to meet 
 the invader with such an army, that the Turks 
 withdrew at his approach, and retired again to Con- 
 stantinople. Thus, seemingly at the moment of im- 
 pending danger, did those circumstances occur which 
 once more left the reformers free to prosecute their 
 plans. 
 
 The elector John of Saxony did not long survive 
 the conclusion of this temporary reconcilement. He 
 died in August, 1531. His son and successor, John 
 Frederic, though inferior in talent and prudential fore- 
 
272 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 cast, was, nevertheless, not without a portion of the 
 tranquil and fearless magnanimity of the uncle whose 
 name, jointly with that of his father, he bore. W.i*h 
 the ardour and zeal natural to his age, the young elec- 
 tor united also not a little of that penetration and po- 
 litical address which had honourably characterized the 
 most eminent member of his family. Those qualities, 
 so estimable in themselves, had their value much 
 enhanced by the ripe and swift judgment which dic- 
 tated their uses ; and which, coupled as it was with a 
 certain prepared energy and readiness for action, set a 
 stamp of more than common worth upon the whole 
 character of the new sovereign. Raised virtually to 
 the station of chief protector of the Protestant faith, he 
 acquitted himself successfully and well. Neither un- 
 conscious of the responsibilities attached to his posi- 
 tion, nor shrinking from their pressure, he bent the 
 forces of a clear understanding and a vigorous will to 
 the service of the noble cause which he was called to 
 sustain and foster. 
 
 The youthful ruler had but shortly been settled on 
 the throne of his ancestors, when it became evident, 
 from the suspicious coldness of the imperial court, that 
 Charles had no sincere care to observe the terms of 
 his engagement with the Evangelical League. Bare 
 toleration they enjoyed ; but it was rather from terror of 
 the opposition which an active oppression was likely to 
 arouse, than from any scrupulous or cordial regard for 
 the pledged honour of the emperor. Numerous indi- 
 cations betrayed a desire to elude the strict fulfilment 
 of the treaty of Nuremberg, if not by direct and tangi- 
 ble infringement of its articles, by so cold and stingy 
 a compliance with the bare letter of their stipulations, 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 273 
 
 as inferred a willingness to seize the first occasion to 
 annul them altogether. Awake to the significance of 
 this heartless and reluctant amity, the elector omitted 
 no exertion to draw close the bonds of friendship be- 
 tween the contracted princes, and to multiply their 
 available resources, in case of need. By this show 
 of timely precaution, Charles was again admonished 
 of the impolicy of dealing perfidiously with the chief- 
 tains of a body which, by the year 1532, had spread 
 itself over nearly half of the dependencies of the em- 
 pire ; he set himself in earnest, therefore, to wring 
 from the pontiff the convocation of a council, without 
 longer evasion or delay. 
 
 On the way to visit his Italian conquests, in the 
 early part of 1533, the emperor sought a conference 
 with the pope at Bologna, and urged his spiritual ally 
 to yield at once to the wishes of all Catholic Europe, 
 and put an end to the Lutheran secession, by summon- 
 ing a general assembly of the Papal theologians and 
 prelates. To have refused to act on a suggestion so 
 powerfully recommended, and so precisely in unison 
 with the known and universal anxiety of every Chris- 
 tian state, would have rekindled the anger of the Ger- 
 man monarch ; an anger which, having before smarted 
 under its inflictions, the crafty and unheroical pontiff 
 had learned to dread even more, perhaps, than he 
 trembled to incur the general odium which such a re- 
 fusal would have drawn upon him. He discovered, 
 too, that Charles was not again to be diverted from his 
 aim by any of those dexterous shifts which, in a former 
 instance, had turned aside the pressure of the same pro- 
 position. Thus cut off from every pretext for further 
 procrastination, while his attempted and side way avoid- 
 12* 
 
274 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 ances of the demand were no longer suffered to avail, 
 Clement professed a ready and even eager acquies- 
 cence, and affected to consult with his august suitor 
 as to the best means of rendering the proposed council 
 satisfactory as a tribunal to all parties interested, and 
 of investing its decisions with practical and sufficient 
 efficacy. Nothing, however, could be further from his 
 real intentions than to comply with the imperial prayer. 
 To elude the embarrassments incident to that solicita- 
 tion, he resolved, with the aptitude of a life-long prac- 
 tice in duplicity, so to hamper the entire project, as 
 indefinitely to postpone, if not finally to defeat, its exe- 
 cution. Under colour of endeavouring to adjust the 
 preliminary arrangements requisite for the holding of 
 an assembly which he never meant to convene, he 
 offered to them certain bases for the constitution and 
 appellate authority of the proposed council, to which, 
 as was rightly foreseen, the objections on their side 
 were various and insurmountable. With the very 
 thought of such delusive negotiations leading to any 
 kind of agreement between himself and the seceders 
 from the Papacy all along absent from his heart, he 
 contrived to protract the solemn farce, until, in Septem- 
 ber, 1534, death put a period to his hypocritical labours 
 and nefarious ingenuity. 
 
 Luther, in the meanwhile, had been pursuing his 
 usual course of studying, teaching, and preaching. 
 His life, during these years, presents scarcely any in- 
 cidents. His path of duty was very uniform, and he 
 sceadily pursued it. To the establishment of funda- 
 mental truth he appears chiefly to have devoted him- 
 self ; while to his coadjutor and friend, Melancthon, 
 he left, for the most part, the task of amplifying, guard- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 275 
 
 ing, and of stating publicly, and with sufficient ele- 
 gance and care, what he had himself, in the course of 
 his studies, been enabled to perceive. Indeed, nothing 
 is more remarkable, nothing more instructive, in the 
 character of these two great men, than their unbroken 
 friendship for each other, and their mutual subserviency 
 and subordination. Their conjoint position in refer- 
 ence to the work of God cannot be attentively con- 
 sidered without the discovery of one of the most im- 
 portant of the laws of divine Providence. God has 
 made man for dependance on himself, his Maker, and 
 constant Preserver ; he has made him, likewise, for 
 such union with his fellows as always implies mutual 
 dependance, and affectionate co-operation. No one 
 man is able to do everything. If for one particular 
 service his peculiar constitution eminently fits him, by 
 that very peculiarity he may be unfitted for some 
 other, and not less necessary, branch ; which, that it 
 may not be omitted, has to be performed by another 
 person. And often does it occur that by the union of 
 two, whose mental constitutions greatly differ, more 
 may be done than the sum of their labours carried on 
 separately would produce. Luther and Melancthon 
 did more by labouring in conjunction, than Luther and 
 Melancthon could have done by labouring separately ; 
 especially if each, in all that he did, had jealously kept 
 in view the honour to be obtained by his own acknow- 
 ledged superiority in his own providential department 
 of labour. Luther could do what Melancthon could 
 not do ; Melancthon could do what Luther could not 
 do. But more than this. Peculiar fitness may border 
 on peculiar unfitness ; and this, if not unchecked, may 
 interfere materially with the efficiency even of the 
 
276 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 efforts for which the individual is best prepared. That 
 the public may have the full benefit of his providential 
 endowments, it is necessary that they be stimulated to 
 the point up to which their efficiency extends, and that 
 they be checked just when that efficiency is about to 
 become injurious. It is delightful to see these two 
 devoted men so uniting as to harmonize with each 
 other. Melancthon knew how to check what might 
 have been the undue ardour of Luther ; Luther knew 
 how to excite the cautious timidy of Melancthon. 
 Each was aware of his own deficiency, and each saw 
 how well his own deficiency was met by the peculiar 
 excellence of the other. Instead of an unhallowed 
 rivalry between them, each delighted to exalt the 
 other. Melancthon knew how to eulogize the holy 
 resolution and boldness of Luther ; Luther knew how 
 to eulogize the cautious and examining timidity of Me- 
 lancthon. Each knew what he could do, and what he 
 could not do ; and each was willing — was willing ? 
 was more than willing, was desirous — that what he 
 could not do by himself, should be done by the assist- 
 ance of his friend. And the reason was plain. Each 
 looked at the cause of Christ, and not at his own 
 honour. If the interests of religion were promoted, and 
 Luther were the instrument, Melancthon rejoiced ; if 
 Melancthon were the instrument, Luther rejoiced. 
 And let it be again observed, that thus was the sum of 
 their labour greater than their separated endeavours 
 could have produced. Luther's share would have had 
 to be taken with the drawbacks occasioned by his pe- 
 culiar defects ; and so as to Melancthon. But labour- 
 ing in affectionate union, each assisted to check the 
 tendency to evil which existed in the other, and to re- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 277 
 
 duce it to its lowest practical influence ; and the con- 
 sequence was, that each furnished a larger share of 
 usefulness than he could otherwise have contributed. 
 More glory was brought to God ; more service was 
 performed for the church. And why? Because each 
 delighted to honour the other, and to see the other 
 honoured. Luther was always gratified to hear Me- 
 lancthon praised, and to see Melancthon employed ; and 
 so was Melancthon as to Luther. Instead of a jealous 
 sensitiveness about his own fame, producing a foolish 
 and sinful rivalry, each acknowledged the gifts of the 
 other, and both were willing to employ them conjointly, 
 for the honour of the Giver. 
 
 And this was according to the design of God. As 
 man is, the talents of Luther and Melancthon could 
 not have been united in one person. They were dis- 
 tributed, therefore, that the share of each might be 
 more efficient. And when these two excellent men 
 agreed to labour in harmony, they set an example of 
 obedience to the Scriptural injunctions, — " Look not 
 every man on his own things, but every man, also, on 
 the things of others: — in honour preferring one an- 
 other ;" — which for clearness and power has never 
 been surpassed, seldom equalled. And they were 
 themselves benefited by this. Each was more useful 
 by the aid of the other ; and thus each has a larger 
 degree of honour than would have fallen to his share 
 had he laboured alone, and sought to obscure his rival's 
 fame, lest his own should be shaded They crucified 
 their own corrupt nature, and sought to have " that 
 mind in them which had been before in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ." They were fellow-helpers to the truth, where 
 they might have been unholy rivals ; and as they thus 
 
278 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 honoured God, God has honoured them. Each shines 
 in his own distinguishing light ; and yet by shining in 
 conjunction, the light of each is increased. 
 
 The ardour of Luther in defence of what he regard- 
 ed as the cardinal doctrine of divine revelation, passing 
 years rather increased than diminished. Thus, in 
 1531, he wrote, " This article (namely, that faith with- 
 out any work justifies before God) shall be overturned 
 neither by emperor nor king ; neither by Turk nor Tar- 
 tar : the pope cannot subvert it ; nor the whole body 
 of cardinals, or bishops, or monks, or nuns. Princes 
 and dynasties cannot put it down. No, nor all the 
 world, even though all the devils should contribute their 
 help. They who try to put it down shall have the 
 infernal fire for the reward of their contradiction. Thus 
 say I, Doctor Martin Luther, the Spirit of God moving 
 me ; and this is the true gospel of Christ." 
 
 This doctrine he goes on to prove by a simple yet 
 very striking argumeut, and one which is very illus- 
 trative of his own peculiar mode of thinking. Quoting 
 the Apostles' Creed, he says, "I believe in Jesus 
 Christ, crucified, dead, and buried. I find not that any 
 other died for sin, or can take it away. If, therefore, 
 no other died for our sins, then all men, with all their 
 works, are to be excluded from having any part in the 
 remission of sins, and justification. Neither does Christ 
 deliver from sin otherwise than as he is apprehended 
 by faith, and this cannot be done by works. But if 
 fanh, before works follow, apprehends Christ, it is of 
 necessity true that by faith alone we appropriate re 
 demption to ourselves ; in other words, by faith alone 
 we are justified. After faith, indeed, good works fol- 
 low as its fruit. This is our doctrine. Thus does the 
 
LTFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 279 
 
 Holy Spirit, thus does the whole Christian church, 
 teach. In this, by the grace of God, we are resolved 
 to persist. Amen." 
 
 His eulogy on the deceased elector is very charac- 
 teristic. " I will not praise him," he says, " for his 
 great virtues. I acknowledge that he was a sinner, as 
 we all are, and that he had need of forgiveness of sin. 
 Nor will I represent him as though he had been a man 
 free from every spot. And yet he was one of the best 
 and most humane of men, without any guile ; in whom 
 none could note either pride, or anger, or envy ; who 
 forgave most readily, and who carried his mildness and 
 lenity to a fault. If sometimes in his government he 
 erred, what wonder 1 princes are but men, and where 
 private men have one devil about them, they have ten." 
 
 In the year 1532 he preached a sermon on expect- 
 ing and desiring the coming of Christ. In this he ex- 
 presses, in the most pathetic language, the grief that he 
 felt for the prevailing wickedness of the age, and de- 
 clares that his whole comfort was derived from the 
 hope that a better state of things should one day be 
 established. " O my God," he exclaimed, " were there 
 not that day to be looked for, I should choose rather 
 not to have been born." He refers to the opposition 
 which the revived gospel continued to receive from its 
 persecuting adversaries. He refers, likewise, to the 
 evils which were too plainly evident even where a 
 purer faith was professed. " Even among ourselves, 
 we have to bear with false, fraudulent, and lying men. 
 Where is discipline, honesty, reverence? Do men 
 become always the worse for being preached to and 
 reproved ? Certainly it seems as if from our most be- 
 loved, our most precious gospel, we had hitherto gained 
 
280 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 nothing but contempt, and ignominy, and diabolical 
 hatred. These are the things that penetrate and tear 
 the heart of true Christians. Why, therefore, do we 
 not cry to the Lord day and night, that he would over- 
 turn all these things, and put an end to this impious state 
 of things, and its calamities ? Most miserable should 
 we be, unless we were able to hope for deliverance." 
 
 No one who understands human nature will mistake 
 the meaning of the holy reformer. He did not over- 
 look the good that God had been pleased to effect by 
 the instrumentality of himself and his fellow-labourers. 
 He not only saw it, but rejoiced in it, and gave glory 
 to God on account of it. But he saw that there were 
 those who, while they professed" to receive the truth, 
 yielded not to its sanctifying power ; while others had 
 turned back to their crooked ways, and brought re- 
 proach on the cause which they had espoused. And 
 he may be pardoned if, experiencing the saving opera- 
 tion of the truth of God himself, he felt a melancholy 
 disappointment when he saw so many who had received 
 the truth, but who proved, by their conduct, that their 
 heart and conscience were not affected by it. He had 
 looked at the power of God's word, and had hoped 
 better things of men. His disappointment was bitter ; 
 but let not its object be mistaken. It was not that 
 Evangelical truth had done nothing, but that it had not 
 done all that he had desired and hoped. Others who 
 have been employed in the great work of God, when 
 any particular revival of it has been vouchsafed, have 
 made similar complaints. 
 
 Paul III., on whom the sacred college next devolved 
 the Roman primacy, displayed upon his first accession 
 a less treacherous readiness to abate the corruptions 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 281 
 
 of the pontifical court, and concede to the general voice 
 some of the principal reforms for which it clamoured. 
 That he was thoroughly honest in his professions of 
 anxiety for the immediate convention of a council is 
 exceedingly dubious. But, whatever were his secret 
 meditations on this head, there can be no question that 
 the only form he contemplated of such a meeting was 
 one which would have made it a mere instrument of 
 the tyranny and hatreds of the Papal see. Composed 
 as he prescribed that it should be composed, that meet- 
 ing would have presented the anomalous spectacle, 
 which in after-years was actually realized by the 
 Council of Trent, of a deliberative body being at once 
 witness and criminal, sitting in judgment on themselves. 
 It would have been, in effect, neither more nor less 
 than an organized machine to echo and record the 
 foregone conclusions of the popedom, in regard as well 
 to its own dogmas and internal polity, as to the alleged 
 heresies of. the reformers. That the jurisdiction of a 
 court so constituted would never be acknowledged by 
 the Evangelical teachers, Paul must have known, when 
 he despatched Verger, an ecclesiastic of superior ability 
 and high rank, into Germany, as legate extraordinary, 
 to ascertain the exact construction of the council re- 
 quired by the Protestants, and the conditions upon 
 which they would submit to be bound by its determina- 
 tions. The truth is, that the single object which the 
 pope sought to accomplish by calling this oft-promised 
 assembly of divines, was to exterminate that revived 
 purity and ennobling power of Christianity which had 
 struck off the fetters of a base and outworn superstition, 
 and given back to the defrauded spirit of mankind its 
 native and immortal freedom. 
 
282 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 In the whole eventful history of Luther, no indivi- 
 dual occurrence more palpably illustrates the victory 
 of religious truth than does the embassy of Verger. 
 What a contrast is here presented to the insolent and 
 haughty scorn which hung upon the outset of his 
 career! How different the mission of this nuncio 
 from those of Cajetan and Aleandro! In the short 
 .space of fifteen years, the feeble and obscure monk of 
 Wittenberg, struggling with poverty, and thrice excom- 
 municated, — the man cited like a felon before cardinals 
 and princes, — is lifted to a moral eminence so con- 
 spicuous and commanding, so high above all hope of 
 touching him, even with the fulminations of ecclesias- 
 tical wrath, that the supreme lord of the whole Chris- 
 tian world, he at whose feet monarchs bowed in 
 homage, and who claimed to be God's vicegerent upon 
 earth, is seen humbling himself so far before this de- 
 spised and outcast rebel, as to send a prelate of distinc- 
 tion in the church to ascertain his present, sentiments 
 and purpose in relation to the grand tribunal of the 
 assembled hierarchy ! Such was the tacit confession 
 of that substantial dignity, that real and holy elevation, 
 which an unflinching advocacy of the pure word of 
 God had bestowed upon the liberator of the hu- 
 man INTELLECT, AND THE TRANSLATOR OF THE BlBLE. 
 
 When the pope's nuncio arrived at Wittenberg, Lu- 
 ther willingly attended, and conversed with him on the 
 subject of the intended council. " It is now," he said, 
 " useless to hold a council : if you do so, no object of 
 importance will be accomplished by it. Tonsures and 
 robes, and trivial matters of that sort, will be discussed, 
 instead of the great points of justification, faith, and 
 Christian unity. In matters of doctrine, I, and those 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 283 
 
 who think with me, have no need of any light that a 
 council could afford us. Our opinions are fixed : and 
 the only use of a council would be to settle the belief 
 of persons who are ignorant and weak enough to take 
 their notions from other men. Nevertheless, if a 
 council is to be really assembled, I will attend, even 
 although I should know beforehand that it would surely 
 send me to the flames." 
 
 " And where," asked the legate, " would you prefer 
 this council to be held ?" 
 
 " Anywhere you please," was the ready response of 
 Luther. " Let it be at Petavia, Florence, or Mantua, 
 or wherever else you choose : it is indifferent to me. 
 In whatever place it may sit, I will be there." * * * 
 " Suppose," said Verger, " the pope should visit you 
 at Wittenberg." " Let him come, by all means," an- 
 swered the reformer. " But would you have him come 
 alone, or with an army at his back ?" " As he will," 
 replied Luther : " in either case we shall be ready for 
 him." * * As the speaker rose to depart, the nun- 
 cio, in a tone half-humorous and half-warning, added, 
 " Do not forget, doctor, to be in readiness for the coun- 
 cil." " Have no fear of that, my lord bishop," said the 
 other : " depend upon it, I will be present at the coun- 
 cil, though I know that it will be at the risk of my 
 neck." 
 
 More than one interview afterward took place be- 
 tween Verger and the elector, accompanied by the 
 prince of Hesse ; but all their conferences came to 
 nothing ; and the council, though it continued during 
 the remainder of Luther's lifetime to be always talked 
 of, and was at last actually summoned, did not assemble 
 at Trent until a few months after his death. 
 
284 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 It was pending the perfidious negotiations of Clemen' 
 VII. relative to a council which he never intended tc 
 hold, that the pontificate received another and mortal 
 blow from the abjuration of its authority by Henry VIII. 
 in England. The annals of Europe supply, indeed, 
 no more memorable example of the manner in which 
 the divine Governor of the world, extracting good out 
 of evil, causes even the baseness and the wrath of 
 man to praise him, than appears in the consequences 
 of an act prompted by the mere and desperate impa- 
 tience of the most truculent tyrant that ever wielded 
 the British sceptre. Exasperated at the delay and 
 ultimate refusal of his suit for a dispensation from his 
 conjugal vow to Catharine, aunt to Charles V., and 
 aware that the true motive of that refusal was sub- 
 servience to the wishes of his wife's imperial relation, 
 the English despot had conceived a momentary lust 
 of vengeance upon Charles, as the real and successful 
 thwarter of his heartless designs. It became, accord- 
 ingly, his eager policy to offer assistance and support 
 to the Protestant confederates of the empire. Sympa- 
 thy with the principles on which their union was 
 founded Henry had none ; nor care for that purity of 
 Christian doctrine which they were sworn to preserve. 
 His hope was only to find means, by connecting him- 
 self with the German reformers, to harass and wound 
 the emperor ; thus giving vent to the vindictive passion 
 which harboured in his bosom. 
 
 The League of Smalcalde having, in the mean time, 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 285 
 
 been extended and renewed, the king of England de- 
 spatched Fox, bishop of Hereford, attended by several 
 other clergymen, as his ambassador, to propose to the 
 contracted princes to accept of his alliance in the quality 
 of protector of their covenant. To this proposal the 
 consent of those princes was not hard to be obtained, 
 upon the stipulation that their intended defender should 
 promote the adoption, in his kingdom, of the senti- 
 ments imbodied in the Confession of Augsburg. The 
 British monarch would readily have agreed to the con- 
 dition ; but finding, as he very soon did find, that the 
 Evangelical allies were resolute to limit the scope of 
 their combination to measures purely defensive of their 
 own freedom of conscience, and would engage in no 
 conspiracy having for its object to embarrass and de- 
 grade the emperor, he broke off the treaty ; and gradu- 
 ally, as a good understanding was restored between 
 himself and Charles, ceased to take any further con- 
 cern in the affairs of Lutheran Germany. 
 
 The negotiation, however, notwithstanding its pro- 
 per business was thus totally defeated, had a collateral 
 issue, which, unforeseen, and as little coveted, by its 
 savage and proud inviter, has ever since proved emi- 
 nently beneficial to the moral interests of his country. 
 During the winter of 1536-7, Fox and his suite were 
 detained at Wittenberg ; where their daily intercourse 
 and free discussion of religious questions with Luther 
 and his learned associates aided greatly to enlighten 
 and expand the views of the English divines. To this 
 circumstance may partly be ascribed the singular clear- 
 ness and rapidity with which the doctrines of the Re- 
 formation developed themselves in our own land. 
 Their daily and familiar conversations, throughout 
 
286 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 several months, with the first teachers of the restored 
 and simple gospel, gave to the British envoys the 
 advantage of starting, as theological instructers, from 
 those advanced points of Christian knowledge to which 
 the Saxon reformers had fought their way through 
 years of discouragement and doubt, impeded as well 
 by the long-lingering prejudices of education and habit 
 in themselves, as by the force of ignorance, prescrip- 
 tion, and authority, together with a thousand kindred 
 hinderances, in others. In the well-known Concord 
 of Wittenberg, which, about the same period, achieved 
 a final reconciliation of the differences between the 
 Lutheran and Swiss Protestants, we may also trace 
 the pattern of those broad and comprehensive state- 
 ments of the cardinal truths of Christianity which com- 
 pose the established creed of the Church of England : 
 statements as admirable for their lucid and precise 
 expression of the essential points of faith, as for 
 their scrupulous avoidance of all immaterial topics of 
 dispute. 
 
 The restoration of harmony between the two sec- 
 tions of the Evangelical community was hailed by 
 Luther with a heartfelt satisfaction. Retaining his 
 peculiar opinions relative to the bodily admixture of 
 Christ with the eucharist, he had not to learn that uni- 
 formity of credence among a multitude of men, taught 
 to think for themselves, was neither to be rationally 
 expected, nor made a pretext for holding back that 
 fraternal charity which is the parent of the genuine 
 oneness of the church. The fate of Zuinglius, who, 
 since the date of the disputation at Marpurg, had fallen 
 bravely fighting for the invaded rights of judgment in 
 his countrymen, and the melancholy death of CEco- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 287 
 
 lampadius, whom grief for the loss of his friend had 
 brought to a premature grave, appear to have deeply- 
 touched the underflowing tenderness of Luther's nature. 
 So keenly, indeed, were his sympathies aroused by 
 these events, that, in spite of his former and emphatic 
 protest against a confederation of parties who disagreed 
 upon the sacramental question, he was among the first 
 to approve of the Protestant towns of Switzerland 
 being included in the second and more powerful alliance 
 of SmaLcalde. 
 
 After having received from various quarters many 
 smaller accessions of force, that alliance was in 1538 
 amply strengthened by the adhesion of Christian III., 
 king of Denmark. At the junction of this sovereign, 
 in a compact already formidable, both from the number 
 of its members and the military resources which some 
 of them commanded, the Catholic potentates suddenly 
 took alarm. Affecting to be apprehensive of some in- 
 tended aggression by the associated Protestants, the 
 princes of Brunswick and Bavaria united with Duke 
 George of Saxony in effecting a new combination, 
 with the emperor at its head, for the maintenance of 
 the ancient religion in the Germanic estates. Under 
 the name of the Holy Alliance, this counter-league 
 was concluded at Nuremberg, within six months after 
 the last extension of the Lutheran treaty ; and thus 
 were laid the primitive foundations of those mutually 
 hostile arrayals of the two great classes of religionists, 
 which, in the end, gave birth to struggles apparently 
 destined to terminate only in the dismemberment of the 
 empire. 
 
 Happily for that portion of the Saxon province which 
 acknowledged his dominion, the following year saw 
 
288 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 the duke George — an adversary to the Reformation, as 
 pertinacious and remorseless as he was inconsistent- 
 laid in the tomb of his fathers. His brother Henry, 
 who inherited the ducal crown, was a being of different 
 mould, an ardent lover both of the reformed doctrine 
 and its advocates. With a considerate but not uncor- 
 dial energy, he proceeded, as rapidly as circumstances 
 would permit, to invert the entire policy of the pre- 
 ceding reign ; and gradually to work those needful 
 changes in the religious institutions of his principality, 
 which, by an obstinate and perverse bigotry of the late 
 sovereign, he had been deterred from using any effort 
 to accomplish, though avowedly convinced of their 
 necessity. Not content with a mere recognition of 
 the Creed of Augsburg, he commenced a general and 
 keen examination into the instant posture of the 
 church ; the application of its revenues derived from 
 vested property; and the personal emoluments and 
 moral character of the clergy. By suppressing monas- 
 teries, and prohibiting the mendicancy of the friars, 
 as well as by filling the ranks of the parochial priest- 
 hood with pious and learned pastors, Henry, before the 
 close of his short reign, had laid the groundwork of 
 those broader and effectual meliorations which that 
 ablest scion of the ducal house of Saxony, his son 
 Maurice, lived to outcarry and confirm. By the decease 
 of the prince George, the Protestants were doubly 
 gainers. Not only was the adverse confederacy shorn 
 of its most vigorous agent, but the power so lost to the 
 Papists was, with all the increase which a better cause 
 and a far abler organ could bestow, transferred to the 
 opposite party. The archduke Ferdinand, enraged at 
 the withdrawal from the Romanist interest of a strength 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 289 
 
 so considerable as was that of the Saxon dukedom, 
 endeavoured to intimidate the lord of that district 
 from pursuing the labour of ecclesiastical purgation ; 
 but, though far advanced in years, and beginning to 
 bend under the weight of physical infirmity, Henry 
 retained too much of the characteristic intrepidity of 
 his race to be terrified from his purpose by the threats 
 of the insolent Austrian. Regardless of those menaces, 
 he proclaimed a solemn festival to be held at Leipsic, 
 in 1539, at which, in the presence of his grand-nephew 
 the elector, accompanied by the principal officers of 
 the University of Wittenberg, the Evangelical faith 
 was publicly acknowledged as the future religion of the 
 state. At this great national sacrament, which finally 
 established the unmixed oracles of revealed truth as 
 the general standard of devotion and belief throughout 
 the whole of his native province, Luther himself offi- 
 ciated. He whom God had gifted with the glorious 
 distinction of unsealing the long-hidden covenant of 
 human redemption, was thus additionally honoured to 
 assist in the consecration of a sovereign and his sub- 
 jects to that King of kings, and Saviour of all people, 
 the records of whose mercy, and the declarations of 
 whose will, he had been the first to restore to them. 
 
 After the return of Verger to Rome, the Protestant 
 leaders had received notice to be in readiness to attend 
 a council, to be convened at Mantua. Preparations 
 were therefore made for laying before the assembled 
 wisdom of the church a full exposition of the theologi- 
 cal convictions of the reformers, along with a memo- 
 rial imbodying their demands for a reconstruction of 
 the polity and ceremonial of the pontifical system, and 
 a searching purification of the manners of the ecclesi- 
 13 
 
290 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 astical body. The professed intention to hold such a 
 meeting was, however, only one of the many and in- 
 genious delusions by which the pope sought at once to 
 amuse the German purists, and to ascertain the pro- 
 bable amount of their resolution and their force. The 
 advisers of this scheme can hardly be supposed to have 
 anticipated that the accused parties would consent to 
 repair to the very centre of the arch accuser's peculiar 
 dominions, there to take their trial before a tribunal com- 
 posed of his own creatures, and presided over by him- 
 self. The electoral confederates of Smalcalde peremp- 
 torily refused to entertain the thought of submitting to 
 so indecent an outrage on all forms of justice ; and 
 the project, consequently, like so many similar ones, 
 came to nothing. The only effect of this proposed 
 convention, was the compilation, by Luther, of another 
 and elaborate series of articles, comprising a more 
 ample vindication than had yet been produced of the 
 doctrinal principles of the Reformation, and an equally 
 full catalogue of those errors and corruptions in the 
 Papacy which loudly called for prompt excision. 
 These articles, which are composed with more than 
 ordinary care, have since been enrolled among the 
 standing records of the true creed of the Evangelical 
 church in Germany. 
 
 But while the pontiff, by thus fighting off the long- 
 expected correction of ecclesiastic abuses, was yearly 
 widening a breach which had already become incura- 
 ble, the position of the empire, imperilled by the con- 
 tinued predominance of the Turkish power in Hungary, 
 and the ever-impending mutinies of the lower orders 
 at home, drove the emperor to make another effort to 
 accommodate matters between the German Papists 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 291 
 
 and their Lutheran opponents. For that purpose, hav- 
 ing first appointed a preliminary conference to take 
 place at Spires, he ordered the controverted points to be 
 once more discussed, by certain divines, on either side, 
 before himself, at the diet which was again about to sit 
 at Ratisbon. When that diet met, some hope of mutual 
 conciliation arose from the introduction of an anony- 
 mous publication, generally called the " First Interim," 
 which assumed to assign certain practicable grounds of 
 compromise. But this expectation soon proved itself 
 to be abortive. After a laborious debate, conducted 
 mainly by Melancthon, as counsel for the Protestants, 
 and the Romanist advocate Eck, the impossibility of 
 softening down the reciprocal opposition of the divided 
 parties, and approximating to each other opinions which 
 so radically differed, became manifest. Charles, in 
 despair, abandoned the attempt, and referred the whole 
 business to the adjudication of some future diet, or of 
 the often-promised but still distant council. 
 
 But the increasing embarrassment of his political 
 relations, rendered still more urgent by the recent failure 
 of his expedition to Africa, and the danger of an imme- 
 diate renewal of hostilities with France, compelled 
 him, in the year 1544, again to bring the subject of 
 the pending spiritual quarrel under the considera- 
 tion of the dietary senate, at Spires. By this time a 
 new element of difficulty was likely to emerge from a 
 sharp difference which had lately obtained between 
 the young duke Maurice of Saxony, and his cousin the 
 elector. The former, disapproving of the policy pur- 
 sued by the combined reformers, withdrew his adhe- 
 rence from the League of Smalcalde : and it seemed 
 not improbable that the vehement irritation of his 
 
292 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 princely relative would be productive of an open rup- 
 ture between them. By the intervention of the land- 
 grave of Hesse, such extremities, however, were 
 fortunately averted ; and the emperor saw himself re- 
 luctantly obliged to purchase the assistance of the great 
 Protestant vassals, by granting to them the benefit of 
 an absolute toleration and indemnity until either a gene- 
 ral or provincial council should actually be convoked. 
 It was then agreed, that at the reassembling of the diet, 
 at Worms, in the commencement of the succeeding 
 year, each of the dissentient bodies should submit a 
 general project for the reorganization of the imperial 
 church. But before that time arrived, Paul III., start- 
 led at the near prospect of a measure which, invading 
 his dearest prerogative, would have taken the whole 
 affair out of his hands, issued his circular letters com- 
 manding the grand congregation of the Papal hierarchy, 
 to be held at Trent. Of this decisive proceeding, the 
 king of the Romans availed himself, as a ground for 
 recommending, in the name of his brother, that the 
 question should be referred to the more appropriate 
 tribunal which was about to be convened. That sug- 
 gestion the Protestants, however, prudently rejected ; 
 not without some severe reclamations on the score of 
 the emperor's faithlessness in seeking to evade the 
 execution of a plan which, more than any other ar- 
 rangement hitherto projected, promised to yield general 
 satisfaction, and effectual redress. In truth, Charles 
 had no other intention than indefinitely to stave off the 
 Augaean task of purging the national church, until he 
 should be in a condition, backed by the decisions of 
 the coming council, to disarm the Evangelical confede- 
 racy, and put to flight the dream of a thorough ecclesi- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 293 
 
 astical renovation. It is even said, that in an interview 
 with the cardinal-legate Farnese, he announced his 
 resolution shortly to take arms against the Lutherans : 
 but that he had then absolutely made up his mind to 
 venture on so critical a step is extremely doubtful. By 
 way of amusing the reformers, while, in effect, he 
 merely contrived to hold their too SUnguine expecta- 
 tions in abeyance, he directed another of those useless 
 conferences, of which too many had already occurred, 
 to be holden at Ratisbon, in the month of January, 
 1546. The contending theologians again came to- 
 gether, and prolonged their unproductive disputations 
 till the middle of the following March; when they 
 once more separated, hopeless of any future possibility 
 of mutual agreement. 
 
 During these more public events, Luther himself 
 was busily engaged in his usual employments. The 
 only relaxation he allowed himself was that which the 
 bosom of his own family afforded him, in the exercise 
 and expression of those domestic affections which in 
 him only glowed less ardently than his zeal for the 
 continued triumphs of divine truth, and the con- 
 tinued and well-guarded prosperity of the cause of 
 God. His own religious opinions had long ago be- 
 come clear, systematic, consistent, and fixed ; and his 
 great work now was to defend what he had embraced, 
 and to establish and enforce the practical conclusions 
 which opened before his own devoted spirit. The 
 more he studied Holy Scripture, the stronger did his 
 conviction become of the vast importance of truth. 
 Thus, in 1534, he writes : " Because the Papists have 
 the administration of the sacraments, and the seat of 
 office, therefore do they claim to be the church of God 
 
294 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 This is their strongest argument against us, by which 
 they think we are to be completely overwhelmed. 
 * Can you reckon yourselves to be the church,' say 
 they, ' you who are so few and small ; while we are 
 so many, and so great, and are placed in the chair 
 of office V We simply reply, ' If ye be ever so many, 
 ever so great, if ye believe not in Christ, if ye confide 
 not in his righteousness, we care nothing. Ye are not 
 the church because ye have the office of the church ; 
 for it is written that even in the holy place the abomina- 
 tion of desolation may stand, and that antichrist shall 
 have his seat in the temple of God. Therefore is the 
 church to be shown from its faith in Christ, and not 
 from its offices, or its multitude. This is the true 
 touchstone, this the undeniably certain rule." 
 
 He saw, too, as clearly as ever, that the grand argu- 
 ment against the Papacy was that which was derived 
 from our free justification before God, for the alone 
 merits of Christ, and by faith in his name. " By this 
 one argument," he writes in the same year, " we over- 
 turn the Papacy. If Christ was wounded for our 
 offences, then is the pope antichrist; for he teaches 
 that we must, by various methods of satisfaction, make 
 expiation for our sins." 
 
 Nor did he lose sight of the sanctifying tendency of 
 divine truth. The enemies of the Reformation accused 
 him of being a disturber of the public peace ; but his 
 indignant reply was, " At this day we are the conser- 
 vators of kingdoms, republics, laws, and whatsoever 
 good things are constituted by God. We who teach 
 the word of God, retain and uphold them all. There 
 are none who so adorn the magistracy, or domestic 
 life, as we do. This our very opponents see, and are 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 295 
 
 compelled to acknowledge. And yet they call us dis- 
 turbers, forsooth !" 
 
 Perhaps his greatest trial was one to which, sooner 
 or later, all are exposed who are the honoured instru- 
 ments of reviving religion by the faithful ministration 
 of Scriptural truth, and especially of such truth as, 
 notwithstanding its importance, has fallen into neglect, 
 and even contemptuous denial. Such faithful minis- 
 trations will not be ineffectual. When the good seed 
 is sown, good fruit will be produced. But there is an 
 enemy who, when his plans of casting the truth into 
 oblivion are broken up, will seek to bring it into dis- 
 repute by sowing his tares with the wheat. In some 
 instances the truth will be embraced, so far as intel- 
 lectual acknowledgment is concerned, but the heart 
 will remain as worldly as ever, and the fruits of a 
 worldly temper will be as plentiful as ever in the life : 
 these fruits will be triumphantly exhibited by the oppo- 
 nents of reviving religion as the natural results of the 
 preaching which they condemn. Nor is this the 
 worst of the case. Enthusiasts and impostors will 
 spring up, by whom the truth will be perverted ; it may 
 be, most outrageously perverted ; and then these tares 
 — for such they are, tares of the devil's own sowing — 
 will be seized on with avidity, and shown with even dia- 
 bolical exultation as specimens of the entire system, 
 which is to be judged accordingly. Ignorant men, 
 weak in judgment, strong in passion, in every revival 
 of religion, have appeared, disturbing and perverting 
 the doctrines of the gospel, and eventually forming out 
 of them a system in which corrupt nature luxuriates ; 
 and some plot in the garden of the Lord is not only 
 overspread with mildew and blight, but the place of 
 
296 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 the fruits of righteousness is supplied, with fearful ra- 
 pidity and disgusting rankness, with the " fruits of the 
 flesh," often in their very worst form. Such there 
 w ere in the churches under apostolic superintendence ; 
 and such had already afforded unholy exultation to the 
 opponents of the infant Reformation. In the years 
 1533, 1534, and 1535, a more violent outbreak than 
 ever filled the minds of Luther and his friends with 
 grief, and gave to his enemies a plausible occasion of 
 triumph of which they were not slow to avail them- 
 selves. 
 
 The conduct and fate of Thomas Munzer in 1525 
 have been already noticed. But though the mischiefs 
 of which he was the ostensible occasion were check- 
 ed, they still continued to exist. The scattered adhe- 
 rents of Munzer retired to various parts of Germany 
 and Switzerland, and, though more covertly, scarcely 
 less zealously, endeavoured to spread their opinions, 
 and to gain disciples. Many were, no doubt, to a con- 
 siderable extent sincere ; but their principles were not 
 the less mistaken, nor the tendency of their conduct 
 less injurious. The Romanists have cast the blame 
 of all their mistakes and excesses on the preaching of 
 Luther. The very opposite statement would be the 
 more correct. The preaching of Luther might be the 
 proximate occasion of the outbreak of the evil; the 
 cause of the evil itself is to be sought elsewhere. 
 
 The German peasants had been kept by their Italian 
 ecclesiastical superiors in a state of the most deplorable 
 and debasing ignorance. Not permitted to reason on 
 religion, all was to be received with the most implicit 
 faith ; and their ignorance was regarded, not perhaps 
 as the author, but as the best nurse, of their devotion. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 297 
 
 And then these ignorant men were still men ; men 
 with all the mental and corporeal activities of human 
 nature ; men who were not only not exempt from the 
 ordinary corruption of human nature, but in whom that 
 very corruption had been allowed to grow up without 
 the restraining influence of those real remedies which 
 are provided in the gospel, the power of God unto sal- 
 vation to every one that believeth. 
 
 Nor must the fact be overlooked, that the Scriptures 
 do most distinctly declare that Satan has a cause and 
 kingdom in this world. Unhappily, a proud philosophy, 
 chiefly fostered in these latter days by Socinian errors, 
 has chosen to set itself against the admission of the 
 fact, and to treat all allusions to it with a ridicule which 
 shows that though they may not actually sit in the chair 
 of the scorner themselves, they have learned to em- 
 ploy, and to take pleasure and pride in employing, the 
 phrases of its occupants. But be their ridicule as keen 
 as they choose to make it, to the believer in divine 
 revelation it is plain that Satan has a cause opposed to 
 the kingdom of Christ ; and that he is, with a cease- 
 less and subtle activity, so resolutely engaged in pro- 
 moting it, that the employment of warlike terms is not 
 only allowable, but even necessary, as furnishing the 
 closest analogies for the adumbration of the confessedly 
 mysterious subject. When, therefore, the beloved dis- 
 ciple had the visions of the future opened to his view, 
 part of his description is given in the remarkable sen- 
 tence, which, however (and unavoidably) obscure as 
 to its particular application, is yet perfectly intelligible 
 in its general significance, " And there was war in 
 
 HEAVEN." 
 
 In perfect accordance with such analogies as are 
 13* 
 
298 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 thus suggested, are the terms employed in Scripture, 
 which call on us, for instance, to put on the whole 
 armour of God, that we may not only resist the devil, 
 but overcome those malignant and subtle methods by 
 which he seeks to circumvent us, and so to accomplish 
 our ruin. And there is a well-known parable which 
 represents the upspringing of the tares, the children 
 of the wicked one, as following hard upon that of the 
 wheat, the children of the kingdom ; and which repre- 
 sents this as the work of the enemy. A revival of 
 religion, therefore, may always look to be rapidly fol- 
 lowed by a crop of tares. 
 
 Thus was it in Germany at the time the leading 
 events of which are now to be described and explained. 
 A chapter of ecclesiastical history is here opened 
 which ought always to present the facts in connection 
 with the principles of which they were the develop- 
 ment, and with the important lessons which they teach. 
 
 When Luther began to preach as the truth is in 
 Jesus, his doctrines were largely received in such love 
 and obedience as soon exhibited their proper nature 
 and character. But there were those who perverted 
 and corrupted what they had heard, and who thus 
 became the ready instruments of Satan for bringing 
 reproach on the cause of reviving truth, and thus far 
 impeding, if not altogether preventing, its progress. 
 
 In the earliest days of the Christian church, it is 
 most evident, from the Epistles, that the two grand 
 subjects, the perversion of which occasioned so much 
 mischief, even when apostolic superintendence was 
 exercised, were those of Christian liberty and divine 
 inspiration. Ignorant and unregenerate men not re- 
 ceiving the truth in that humble submissiveness which, 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 299 
 
 issuing in repentance toward God and faith toward our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, would have led to the spiritual 
 sanctiflcation of their hearts and lives, received it for 
 the purpose of gratifying their own pride, and their 
 love of disputation, display, and fancied superiority. 
 Indeed, they rather received the phrases intended to 
 make known the truth, than the truth itself ; and these 
 they soon explained according to the unsubdued cor- 
 ruption of their nature, so as to render that corruption 
 far more active and prolific than before. Hearing the 
 words "liberty" and "freedom" they explained them 
 to mean the right of doing as they pleased, and espe- 
 cially of casting away the fetters, as they would term 
 them, of their civil and ecclesiastical leaders : and 
 hearing of the " inspiration of the Spirit" they would 
 refer to it all the thoughts and desires and purposes of 
 their own minds when in a state of passionate excite- 
 ment. Had we the minute details of the early history 
 of the churches as implied, necessarily implied, in the 
 epistolary statements of the New Testament, even the 
 atrocities of the Munster Anabaptists would furnish no 
 exception to the maxim of Solomon, " There is nothing 
 new under the sun." 
 
 The occasions of these outbreaks of evil have already 
 been indicated. They were the same which the enemy 
 had employed in the days of the apostles. Luther 
 preached on Christian liberty and divine inspiration, 
 and there were men of ignorant minds, but of strong 
 and easily-excited passions, who perveted these sub- 
 jects, as had been done by those of whom Peter, and 
 Jude, and our Lord, in his addresses to the Asiatic 
 churches, complained. The followers of Munzer easily 
 found disciples among the ignorant peasantry who sur- 
 
300 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 rounded them ; and when the progress of time had 
 allowed the doctrines to take root, and become mature 
 and fruitful, then did they quit their secrecy, and 
 astonish and terrify society at large by the atrocious 
 and daring conduct in which they indulged. 
 
 At Munster they had succeeded in gaining so many 
 proselytes, that they now began to think of giving to 
 their system a regular form of government. As yet 
 they had not avowed their most dangerous doctrines, 
 and therefore, for a time, even the senate and magis- 
 tracy of the city were carried away by the torrent ; 
 and the opposing Catholic party were obliged to sub- 
 mit to a compromise by which a certain number of 
 churches were given up to these sectaries. The peace 
 that was thus restored was, however, as brief as it was 
 unsound. Opportunity was given them for that self- 
 indulgence which rapidly unfolded the real character 
 of their principles ; and that which might have been 
 anticipated speedily took place. A man, not less igno- 
 rant than the rest, but more cunning ; equally enthu- 
 siastic, and more perfectly free from all the restraints 
 of humility and modesty ; possessing violent passions, 
 and concentrating all those passions so entirely on 
 himself as to have no feeling of which self was not the 
 object ; in whom a vulgar and most perfectly-developed 
 impudence supplied the place of courage, and some- 
 times even aped the appearances of magnanimity ; — 
 such a man soon came forward ; and that he might 
 himself assume the reins, and hold them with an iron 
 hand, he began by promising a greater degree of liberty, 
 and stimulating his followers to seize upon it. This 
 man was the celebrated John of Leyden, a tailor, 
 utterly uneducated, and who had heard the truths of 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 301 
 
 the gospel only to misunderstand and pervert them. 
 Claiming a high degree of inspiration, he asserted the 
 necessity of rebaptizing all who would obtain salvation, 
 and made these assertions so as to excite the easily- 
 moved minds of his disciples, who ran about the streets 
 warning every one who would escape destruction to 
 save himself by being baptized.* 
 
 The next movement was one of violence. That full 
 liberty might be enjoyed, the Anabaptists attacked the 
 other inhabitants of the city, of which they soon ob- 
 tained the possession. And now commenced the reign 
 of the wildest fanaticism. John of Leyden had him- 
 self proclaimed king of all the earth, and sent forth 
 emissaries to proclaim his dominion. He next abro- 
 gated the laws of marriage, pretending a revelation 
 from heaven on the subject ; and of his own teaching 
 he immediately furnished the example, by marrying 
 three wives. Further description is needless. Fero- 
 city, licentiousness, and a daring impiety, under the 
 garb of religion, domineered for months over this un- 
 happy city. 
 
 In the mean time, the princes of Germany were not 
 idle. The bishop of Munster, its temporal sovereign, 
 had been expelled at an early stage of these dreadful 
 proceedings. By him, aided by his brother rulers, the 
 place was besieged ; and though defended with great ob- 
 stinacy, the fanatical monarch giving promise after pro- 
 mise of ultimate success, and thus animating his vassals 
 by a religious enthusiasm, always burning furiously, and 
 on which fresh supplies of inflammatory material were 
 continually poured, yet the perseverance of the be- 
 
 * Hence their name of Anabaptists. They are not to be con- 
 founded in any degree with the modern Baptists. 
 
302 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 siegers at length prevailed. Even enthusiasm began 
 to give way when the horrors of famine were expe- 
 rienced ; and the deluded multitude, sinking in death, 
 unable, through physical weakness, to sustain the fury 
 of their former enthusiasm, awoke from their dream, 
 and saw themselves the victims of a vile and diabolical 
 hypocrisy. John himself, however, securing supplies 
 in his own palace, and knowing well the fate that 
 awaited him should the city be taken, exerted his ut- 
 most vigilance ; stimulating the dying embers of enthu- 
 siasm, and using the power which had been given him 
 as the depositary of the liberty of all his followers, so 
 as to keep down the stirrings of discontent. It was 
 the reign of terror. One of his queens, having ex- 
 pressed her sympathy with the suffering inhabitants, 
 and doubted whether the luxuries of life should be 
 enjoyed in the palace while the inhabitants were dying 
 of hunger in the streets, was summoned before him, 
 and her head was immediately struck from her shoul- 
 ders. And thus were the genuine fruits of the self- 
 willed enthusiasm of ignorance, passion, and pride, 
 now fully disclosed in disorder and sensuality, in 
 tyranny and blood. The city, however obstinately 
 defended, was taken by storm on the 25th of June, 
 1535. John of Leyden fell alive into the hands of his 
 captors ; and, according to the dreadful custom of the 
 age, he was put to death by the most horrible forms of 
 punishment. After other inflictions, the executioners 
 tore his flesh piecemeal from his living body with red- 
 hot pincers. 
 
 The period during which these excesses were com- 
 mitted in Munster was an exceedingly anxious one to 
 Luther. Well did he know that his always watchful 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 303 
 
 adversaries would ascribe all these evils to his preach- 
 ing. When the attack came, he was therefore prepared 
 for it; and, as usual, stood boldly on his defence. 
 Good-humouredly complaining of his unhappiness, 
 that he could fully satisfy no one, he says, that the 
 Papists regarded him as the very head of all the 
 fanatics ; while the fanatics proclaimed him to be no 
 better than another pope. In one brief paragraph he 
 places the question in its proper light, and disposes of 
 it with a power which none could resist who were 
 honest like himself. " ' Behold,' say they, ' what fine 
 things come out of this Lutheranism !' But they prove 
 nothing by all their smart sayings. Did not the devils 
 themselves proceed out of the society of holy angels, 
 whom God created good 1 Sinners and sin have pro- 
 ceeded from Adam and Eve, who, before their fall, 
 were truly to be reckoned good. Did not Judas go 
 forth from among the disciples ? And has not John 
 said, ' They went out from us, but they were not of 
 us f Most manifest it is that heretics grow up among 
 Christians, from whom they depart, and not among 
 Gentiles and heathen people. And does not the Church 
 of Rome claim to be considered as holy, though we 
 Lutherans, whom she so heartily condemns, went out 
 from her fellowship 1 Why, then, should there not be 
 the same law for us as for her ? And why should we 
 not be reckoned, at all events, harmless, even though 
 these Anabaptists went forth from among us ?" 
 
 But while he thus met the objections of the Papists, 
 he was careful to give full publicity to his opinion 
 of the Munster fanatics, and their proceedings. " Lu- 
 ther," says Sleidan, " among other things which he 
 set forth in the vulgar tongue about this time, wrote 
 
304 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 also of this tragedy of Minister : ' Albeit that for the 
 contempt of the gospel, the reproach of God's holy- 
 name, and the shedding of innocent blood, Germany 
 hath justly deserved to be plagued, yet hath God hitherto 
 restrained the force and violence of Satan, and hath 
 not permitted him to have the reins at liberty, but he 
 mercifully admonisheth us, and by this tragedy of 
 Munster, nothing at all artificial, calleth us to amend- 
 ment of life. For unless God had bridled him and 
 holden him back, I doubt not but that that most subtle 
 fiend, and wily artificer, would have handled the 
 matter far otherwise. But now that God hath made 
 a restraint, he rageth and turmoileth, not so much as 
 he would, but so much as he is permitted. For the 
 wicked spirit, that seeketh the subversion of the Chris- 
 tian faith, goeth not this way to work, to persuade to 
 the marriage of many wives. For seeing both the un- 
 lawfulness and the filthy beastliness of the thing, he 
 perceiveth well enough that men would abhor it. In- 
 deed, civil policy and government may be through this 
 means disturbed ; but the kingdom of Christ must be 
 attempted through other means and engines. He that 
 would circumvent and deceive men, may not affect rule 
 and government, and play the tyrant ; for all men dis- 
 avow this, and see plainly what his intent is. He 
 must attain thereto by secret means, and, as it were, 
 by certain by-paths. To go in old and ill-favoured 
 apparel, to look with a grave countenance, to hang 
 down the head toward the ground, to fast, to handle no 
 money, to abstain from eating flesh, to abhor matri- 
 mony, to eschew bearing office as a profane thing, to 
 refuse government, and to profess a wonderful lowli- 
 ness of mind, this, I say, is the ready way and means 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 305 
 
 to deceive even them that are right wise. But it is 
 overmuch impudence for a man to take upon himself 
 to be a king, and for his fleshly lust to marry as many 
 wives as he fancieth : this, sure, is not the policy of 
 any skilful devil, but of one that is rude and ignorant 
 or, if he be expert, then God hath bound him so in a 
 chain, that he cannot work more craftily. Wherefore, 
 there is no great fear of this so ungodly a devil. 1 
 would to God that in the whole world there were no 
 craftier devil than this of Munster. So that God would 
 not take his word from us, I believe there are but few 
 that would give any credit to so gross and so drunken 
 a master. And yet, surely, when God's wrath is kin- 
 dled, there is no error so absurd or unsavoury to which 
 the devil cannot persuade, as we see happened in the 
 doctrine of Mohammed ; for, albeit, it is altogether 
 foolish, yet the light of God's word being quenched, it 
 took force and strength, and is spread abroad in such 
 ample manner as you see. Satan can raise up a great 
 flame, through God's permission, of a very small spark: 
 neither is there any better way to quench the fire, than 
 by the word of God. But our princes and bishops go 
 the contrary way to work ; for they hinder the doctrine 
 of the gospel, by which only the minds and hearts of 
 men can be healed ; and in the mean time, they exer- 
 cise cruel punishment to bring the body from the devil, 
 while they leave him the better part of man, which is 
 the heart and the soul : which thing shall have like 
 success with them as it had with the Jews in times 
 past, who thought to quench Christ by his cross and 
 passion.' " 
 
 Calm, logical argument was not the way by which 
 Luther sought to put down such barefaced wickedness 
 
306 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 With honest inquirers after truth, whatever their errors 
 may be, patient and affectionate instruction must be 
 employed ; but the blasphemous iniquities of the Mun- 
 ster king of the world, as he styled himself, who, while 
 the people were perishing with famine, " had his store- 
 houses furnished at home, not only for necessity, but 
 also for riot and voluptuousness ;" and who, when one 
 of his "queens" expressed her pity for the sufferings 
 which she could not but see, though she was not per- 
 mitted to relieve them, had her into the market-place, 
 and publicly " stroke off her head," — iniquities of this 
 sort are to be boldly and unsparingly exposed. And 
 thus Luther went to work with them. He wrote for 
 the common people ; and such addresses as these could 
 not fail of impressing their readers.* " In case* every- 
 thing ought to be despised and cast away that wicked 
 men give or have, I marvel surely why they do not as 
 well contemn gold, silver, and other riches, taken from 
 the wicked, and invent some new metal, or other de- 
 vice." " If the marriages of this former time were to 
 be accounted for whoredom and adultery, because they 
 were contracted, as they say, of such as wanted faith, 
 I pray you do not they grant themselves to be whore- 
 sonnes, all the pack of them ? Now if they be bastards 
 and misbegotten, tell me, why do they enjoy the lands 
 and patrimony of the city and of their ancestors ? Rea- 
 
 * The nervous English of the first translation, published only- 
 five years after Sleidan's original work, and some five and twenty- 
 after these Munster enormities, is here quoted. Munster was 
 taken in 1535. Sleidan's Latin " Commentaries" were published 
 in 1555; and John Daus had his translation printed in 1560; 
 dedicating his book to " his singular good lord, Francis, earl of 
 Bedford, Lord Russell," &r 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 307 
 
 son would that this their new kind of matrimony should 
 provide them new possessions and riches, which might 
 have a more honest title. For it is not seemly that so 
 holy and godly a people as they do pretend to be, 
 should live of the unlawful and bastardly goods of har- 
 lots ; much less take them from others by violence and 
 plain robbery." 
 
 It was about this time that those expository lectures 
 on the Epistle to the Galatians which are best known 
 in England, and which had been taken dow r n by cer- 
 tain of his hearers, were retouched and published by 
 himself. What are properly his " Commentaries " on 
 the epistle, had been published before ; but as this was 
 with him a favourite portion of God's word, he delivered 
 a series of popular lectures upon it ; and these, which 
 appear to have been spoken extemporaneously, and 
 were, "by great diligence of the brethren, gathered 
 together," constitute what is usually (though not with 
 strict propriety) styled, " A Commentary of Master 
 Doctor Martin Luther upon the Epistle of St. Paul to 
 the Galatians." He wrote a preface for the volume, 
 in which he refers both to Anabaptists and Romanists ; 
 traces their errors to the malice and subtlety of Satan ; 
 and shows the only remedy to be the faithful enuncia- 
 tion of the truth of the gospel. He says, " The con- 
 clusion and end is, to hope for no quietness or end of 
 complaint, so long as Christ and Belial do not agree. 
 If one heresy die, by and by another springeth up ; for 
 the devil doth neither slumber nor sleep. I myself, 
 which (though I be nothing) have been now in the 
 ministry about twenty years, can truly witness that 1 
 have been assailed by more than twenty sects, of which 
 some are already destroyed ; other some, as the parts 
 
308 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 and members of worms or bees that are cut in sunder, 
 do yet pant for life. But Satan, the god of all dissen- 
 sion, stirreth up daily new sects ; and, last of all, which 
 of all other I should never have foreseen nor suspected, 
 he hath raised up a sect of such as teach that the ten 
 commandments ought to be taken out of the church, 
 and that men should not be terrified by the law, but 
 gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ. 
 As though we were ignorant, or had never taught, that 
 afflicted and broken spirits must be comforted by Christ ; 
 but that the hard-hearted Pharisee, unto whom the 
 grace of God is preached in vain, must be terrified by 
 the law. And they themselves also are forced to de- 
 vise and imagine certain revelations of God's wrath 
 against unbelievers ; as though the law could be any- 
 thing else but a revealing of God's wrath against im- 
 piety. But let the minister of Christ know that so 
 long as he teacheth Christ purely, there shall not be 
 wanting perverse spirits, yea, even among ourselves, 
 which shall seek, by all means possible, to trouble the 
 church of Christ. And herewithal let him comfort 
 himself, that there is no peace between Christ and 
 Belial, or between the seed of the serpent and the 
 seed of the woman. Yea, let him even rejoice in the 
 troubles which he suffereth by these seditious spirits ; 
 for this is our rejoicing, even the testimony of our 
 conscience, that we be found standing and fighting in 
 the behalf of the seed of the woman, against the seed 
 of the serpent. Let him bite us by the heel, and spare 
 not ; we again icill not cease to crush his head, by the 
 grace and help of Christ, the principal bruiser thereof, 
 who is blessed for ever." 
 
 During the remainder of his life Luther continued 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 309 
 
 to occupy himself in study and labour as diligently as 
 at any former period. Placed by divine Providence at 
 the head of the Reformation, in cases of difficulty all 
 eyes were turned to him. Respected for his unwaver- 
 ing piety, and beloved for the tenderness and affection 
 which he manifested, the most decided confidence was 
 likewise reposed in him for the wisdom which guided 
 the utterance of his opinions, and for the undeniable 
 integrity which he maintained, as well in his intellectual 
 as in his moral character. 
 
 As an instance of the watchful care which he exer- 
 cised over the churches which he had been the instru- 
 ment of planting, the reason may be quoted, which he, 
 in conjunction with Melancthon and Pomeranus, as- 
 signed for disapproving a small treatise, written by a 
 certain pastor in Thuringia, of the name of Thomas 
 Neagorgus, and for advising the author not to publish 
 it. To inquiries on the subject, they "wisely and 
 piously replied." They stated that they had found 
 the subject of predestination very dangerously treated 
 in it ; and that the writer said that the elect did not 
 lose the Spirit of God, even though they fell into mani- 
 fest crimes. They declared that they had unanimously, 
 always, and in all churches, taught the contrary ; 
 namely, that if any holy and faithful person knowingly 
 and willingly sinned against the precepts of God, he 
 was to be considered as no longer holy, but as having 
 rejected the Spirit of God. If, indeed, he should re- 
 pent and return, then God would observe the sworn 
 promise of his grace : " As I live, saith the Lord God, 
 I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that 
 the wicked turn from his way, and live." He will, 
 therefore, receive the returning sinner afresh into his 
 
310 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 favour, and will light up in his heart true faith, by the 
 gospel, and the Holy Spirit. They add, " that it is not 
 commanded that we should inquire if we are elected ; 
 but that we should know, and firmly hold, that he who 
 finally perseveres in penitence and faith, is to be con- 
 sidered as elect, and to be saved, according to the 
 solemn saying of Christ, Matt, x, 22, ' He that endureth 
 to the end shall be saved.' This doctrine," they say, 
 " is clear, and has no tendency to render the fallen 
 secure, but compels them to fear the wrath of God : for 
 most certain it is, that God is offended with all sins, 
 whether the elect or the non-elect fall into them. Hu- 
 man reason pictures an unrighteous will of God, as 
 though he were a mere tyrant, who approves the acts 
 of certain persons, whether they be good or bad ones, 
 while others he hates whatsoever they do. Such a 
 will ought not to be attributed to God ; for it is the 
 saying of eternal truth, ' Thou hatest all workers of 
 iniquity,' Psalm v, 5. God, indeed, accepts those saints 
 in whom sin still remains, but even this is not without 
 a great price of redemption, namely, the sacrifice of 
 Christ ; because of which we are received into favour 
 if we believe, and so long as we believe.'' 1 Seckendorf 
 adds : " He refutes also the objection taken from the 
 case of David, Psalm li, as though he had retained the 
 Holy Spirit while in his sin of adultery and murder. 
 And in the same writing, many things more, to the 
 same effect, he very excellently advances ; from which 
 it appears plainly what he really thought on this ques- 
 tion, and in what sense the stronger expressions which 
 he has elsewhere employed are to be taken. And 
 thus," continues Seckendorf, " what I have often de- 
 clared, and which can scarcely be repeated and incul- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 311 
 
 cated too frequently, is most clearly and impressively 
 established, that the doctrine of Luther requires, when 
 the question does not relate immediately to the justifi- 
 cation of a sinner, that with faith there be conjoined 
 purity of conscience, and, at the very least, abstinence 
 from all known and wilful sin." 
 
 To a few miscellaneous observations and occur- 
 rences in the closing years of Luther's life will refer- 
 ence now be made, that the persevering uniformity of 
 his character may be evidently apparent. He continued 
 to labour, for labour was pleasant to him ; and like all 
 who religiously study the word of God, the more he 
 studied it, the more he perceived of its wonderful 
 excellences, and the more anxiously desirous he was 
 to open to others, for their spiritual benefit, the blessed 
 truths which, in the progress of his diligent and prayer- 
 ful researches, had been unfolded to his own mind. 
 But while these pursuits exhibited the diligent minister 
 of God's word, there were occasions which served to 
 show the man ; the man in whom nature was not 
 destroyed by grace, but sanctified, and thus illustrated 
 and adorned. In the year 1540 Melancthon had a very 
 severe and alarming attack of illness. He appears, 
 indeed, to have been completely subdued by his mental 
 labours and exercises. Excited by his work, and 
 eagerly intent upon the objects that were from time to 
 time presented, he overlooked the symptoms of failing 
 energy, till, while on a journey, his nervous system 
 gave way, and he sunk at once, thoroughly exhausted, 
 and, as maybe gathered from Luther's subsequent lan- 
 guage, most painfully dispirited. Luther was sent for ; 
 and when he arrived he found his friend apparently at 
 the very last gasp. His eyes were failing, his under- 
 
312 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 standing nearly lost, the power of speech and hearing 
 almost gone, his countenance was sunken and deathly ; 
 he noticed no one, and took neither food nor drink. 
 Luther, seeing him, was overwhelmed with consterna- 
 tion. Addressing himself to the companions of his jour- 
 ney, he exclaimed, " O my good God! that Satan should 
 have been permitted to spoil so fine an instrument." 
 But he knew his refuge. Turning his face to the 
 window, he poured out his heart before God with the 
 earnestness and importunacy of one who delighted in 
 prayer, and had often experienced its blessedness and 
 success. Seckendorf says that he could not express 
 in Latin the holy boldness of Luther on this occasion, 
 and only gives its substance.* He seemed to be plead- 
 ing with God, placing before him all the promises that 
 prayer should be heard which might be alleged from 
 Scripture, and almost enforcing them upon him. " Thou 
 must hear and answer me," he said, " if thou wiliest 
 to maintain my trust in thy promises." 
 
 Glassius, as quoted by Seckendorf, then proceeds to 
 describe what followed. Taking the hand of Melanc- 
 thon, whose case he seems thoroughly to have under- 
 stood, he addressed him in language directly aiming at 
 the removal of his depression, saying what he said not 
 only with the affectionate earnestness of a friend, and 
 the true sympathy of a Christian brother, but with the 
 oolemn authority of the minister of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. " Be of good courage, my Philip," he said ; 
 " for thou shalt not die : although God has always 
 sufficient reason for slaying us, yet he wills not the 
 
 * Parrhesia hsec vix exprimi Latine potest ; sensus est, &c. 
 Itaque cogebatur (ait) me exaudire, si fiduciam meam in pro- 
 missiones suas conservare vellet. 
 

 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 313 
 
 death of a sinner, but that he should turn from his way 
 and live. He delights in our life, and not in our death. 
 If the greatest sinners that ever lived in the world, that 
 is to say, Adam and Eve, he called and received into 
 his favour, much less will he cast thee away, or allow 
 thee to perish in thy sin and grief. Wherefore, give 
 no place to this spirit of sadness, nor become a homi- 
 cide to thyself; but trust thou in God, who is able to 
 kill and to make alive." 
 
 While he thus spoke, Melancthon began to revive 
 There can be no doubt but that, as, on the one hand, 
 physical exhaustion had prepared the way for mental 
 depression, so, on the other, the bodily disorder was 
 greatly aggravated by the mental suffering, the removal 
 of which was thus necessary to the patient's recovery. 
 In his weakness, he had looked at his own unworthi- 
 ness, his natural sinfulness, his unfaithfulness ; and 
 looking at these only, a settled gloom had spread over 
 his whole spirit, and now threatened his very life. 
 Luther spoke to him in the name of the Lord, and 
 called him away from himself to the contemplation of 
 the infinite goodness of his redeeming God, as declared 
 in sacred Scripture. The sick man had the only 
 remedy thus brought nigh to him ; and, by the blessing 
 of God, it was effectual. He received with thankful- 
 ness and faith the encouraging declaration of his friend. 
 He took heart ;* the restored quietness of his mind 
 soothed and allayed the irritation of his nerves ; the 
 crisis of his disorder passed away favourably, and from 
 that time he gradually regained strength, till he was 
 fully restored to his former health. Subsequently, re- 
 
 * Haec dum ita proloquitur, reviviscere quasi et spiritum ducere 
 Philippus incipit, &c. 
 
 14 
 
314 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 ferring to the circumstances, in a letter to a friend, he de- 
 clares his belief that he should have died but for this visit 
 of Luther, who thus recalled him from impending death.* 
 
 A similar instance of Luther's sympathy with his 
 friend is furnished by a letter which, in January, 1541, 
 he wrote to Frederic Myconius, superintendent of 
 Gotha, then dangerously ill. The letter, only part of 
 which is given by Seckendorf, is said by him to be 
 full of suitable consolation for a person supposed to be 
 drawing near to death, and to express that full and 
 unshaken reliance which he felt and cherished that 
 his prayers should not be unheard. 
 
 Among other things, he says, " I pray and beseech 
 our Lord Jesus, our life, our salvation, and our health, 
 that he would not add this to my other afflictions, that 
 I should see thee, or some other of our friends, break- 
 ing through the veil, and pressing into their rest, while 
 I am left behind, still dwelling among devils, while 
 you go before. I pray that our Lord would visit me 
 with thy sickness, and put me in thy place ; com- 
 manding me, exhausted, as I am, and past service, to 
 lay down this now useless tabernacle." And in the 
 foot of the same letter he writes, " Farewell, my Fre- 
 deric. May our Lord not suffer me to hear of thy re- 
 moval, myself still living ; but may he make thee my 
 survivor. This I desire ; this I will. And let my 
 will be done. Amen ! Because this my will seeks 
 neither my own pleasure nor profit, but only the glory 
 of God's name. Once more, farewell. We pray for 
 thee with our whole soul, and are most grievously 
 troubled and afflicted by thy sickness." 
 
 * Fuissem extinctus, nisi adventu Lutheri ex media morte re- 
 vocatus essem. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 315 
 
 Luther's prayer was heard. Myconius not only re- 
 covered from what was then supposed to be a despe- 
 rate sickness, but he did actually, though by only a 
 short space, survive his great leader. He died on the 
 7th of April, 1546, one month after Luther. 
 
 That the work of this venerable servant of God 
 was almost done, became, indeed, increasingly evident. 
 He had lived most temperately, or he could not have 
 lived as long as he did ; but he had not spared him- 
 self, and his labours had been far more wearing and ex- 
 hausting than had they been only physical. With his 
 robust constitution, under ordinary circumstances, the 
 utmost limits of human life might have been reached ; 
 but he felt as deeply and acutely, as he laboured unre- 
 mittingly ; and therefore, though he lived temperately, 
 yet he lived fast, and was an old man many years be- 
 fore he would have been so in the usual order of na- 
 ture. And he was aware of this, and therefore looked 
 forward with holy desire to what he believed to be the 
 nearly-approaching period of rest from his labours, 
 though, at the same time, the old spirit was strong 
 within him, and while life lasted he delighted to 
 labour. Thus, in 1542, writing to Anthony Lanter- 
 bach, he says, " Let us go on, preaching, praying, and 
 bearing. There is a reward for our work, and we do 
 not labour in vain." He then requests his friend to 
 pray for him, that in good time he might fall asleep, 
 saying, " I have fought a good fight, I have finished 
 my course." And in February, 1544, he concludes a 
 letter to Spalatinus by saying, " Farewell in the Lcrd : 
 and pray for me, that I may happily remove out of this 
 body of sin and death."* 
 
 * Ut feliciter migrem ex corpore, &c. 
 
316 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The fruitless conference of Ratisbon was interrupted 
 while in progress by an event which the Romanists 
 hailed with a satisfaction hardly less vivid than was 
 the grief of their more virtuous antagonists. The sud- 
 den removal of their venerable guide and father from 
 the scene of his earthly labours filled the hearts of 
 Protestant Europe with a common and awful sorrow. 
 For some years past the health of the great reformer 
 had been breaking up. In addition to the inroads on 
 his constitution of that cruel disorder, the stone, — a 
 complaint which his sedentary habits tended greatly 
 to aggravate, — his physical strength had long been 
 sapped by the toils of a mind impatient of the restraints 
 and weakness of its material minister. The numerous 
 and keen anxieties incident to that work which was 
 the one absorbing business of his life had further con- 
 tributed to wear down a frame already shattered by 
 the accesses of various disease ; while the frequent 
 and dark fits of despondency, induced by nervous ex- 
 haustion, had also lent their aid to stimulate, by reac- 
 tion, the activity of those morbid causes from which 
 they sprang. Shortly after his marriage, Luther had 
 been seized with one of those excruciating paroxysms 
 of his original malady, which are, perhaps, beyond all 
 other forms of bodily suffering, the most terrific. From 
 the effects of this severe illness he appears never to 
 have thoroughly rallied. As age drew on, such spas- 
 modic seizures, though generally less violent, oftener 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 317 
 
 recurred than in former years ; every fresh attack 
 leaving him spoiled of some fragment of his corporeal 
 vigour. During the last few months of his existence, 
 infirmities fell thick upon him. His sight failed ; and 
 notwithstanding the robust energy which had charac- 
 terized his prime of manhood, he describes himself, at 
 the age of sixty-three, as "very old, and feeble, and 
 having only one eye." 
 
 In this state, he complied with an invitation from 
 the counts of Mansfeldt, and set out, early in 1546, for 
 his native town of Eisleben, to arbitrate some disputes 
 which had recently arisen between those noblemen 
 regarding their several rights of property in certain of 
 the mines of that neighbourhood. 
 
 The voluntary submission of the disputing lords to 
 the judgment of an umpire who, born one of the hum- 
 blest of their own vassals, was eminent only in virtue 
 of a grand intellect and a holy cause, constituted as 
 remarkable a tribute to his singular ability and worth as 
 could have graced the last days of the reformer. On 
 his arrival at Eisleben, he was met by the two counts, 
 with a retinue of a hundred horsemen, and escorted to 
 the lodging which they had prepared for his reception. 
 Every token of an affectionate veneration awaited 
 him. His table was supplied by the noblemen whose 
 differences he was called to adjust ; and the whole 
 population of the place, with an honourable pride in 
 the high and sacred achievements of their immortal 
 fellow-townsman, vied with each other in manifesting 
 their united and grateful esteem. But the reverent 
 joy which his presence, in the scene of his birth, 
 awakened, was soon to be exchanged for a mourning as 
 universal and heartfelt as ever followed the translation 
 
318 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 of an illustrious spirit from the cares and pains of this 
 world to a region of happier and purer being. 
 
 The fatigue of so long a journey, undertaken in the 
 depth of an inclement winter, and protracted by a flood, 
 rendering the usual roads impassable, proved too much 
 for the enfeebled health of the reformer. For some 
 few days, the delight of visiting the home of his youth, 
 and the hope of reconciling the feudal superiors, whom 
 he loved with a remnant of the clan-feeling of an older 
 period, infused new animation into the pulses of a 
 heart which was prone to throb with every generous 
 and fine emotion. But the dullness of the grave was 
 at hand. As the month of February advanced, he be- 
 came unable to leave the house. On the 16th of that 
 month, when obliged to confine himself to his own 
 apartments, he observed to his friend Jonas, who, with 
 Celius, the Protestant curate of Eisleben, was in at- 
 tendance on him, " Here I was born and baptized : 
 what if I should remain to die here also ?" On the 
 evening of the 17th he complained of a painful oppres- 
 sion on the chest ; but conversed during supper with 
 his customary cheerfulness, expounding more than one 
 striking passage of Scripture ; and declaring, with a 
 peculiar emphasis, that if he might only be permitted 
 to succeed in his endeavours to reconcile the proprie- 
 tors of his native country, he would return home, and 
 die content. At eleven o'clock he retired to his bed, 
 complaining of the increased weight at his breast ; but, 
 unable to rest, he soon rose again, and was assisted 
 into the adjoining room. Count Albert, of Mansfeldt, 
 and his lady, summoned by Jonas, now arrived ; and 
 two physicians were called in, who came immediately, 
 but in vain. Aware that he was dying, Luther now 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 319 
 
 prayed aloud, saying, " my heavenly Father, God of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all consolation, 
 I thank thee for having revealed to me thy well-beloved 
 Son, in whom I trust, whom I have acknowledged, and 
 preached, and loved ; but whom the pope, and they 
 who have no religion, persecute and oppose. To thee, 
 O Jesus Christ, I commend my soul ! I am casting 
 off this earthly body, and passing from this life ; but I 
 know that with thee I shall abide eternally." He then 
 recited the words of the psalmist : " Into thy hands I 
 commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, O God of 
 truth !" These words he repeated three times, his 
 voice growing fainter with each repetition. Cordials 
 were administered, in the hope of reviving him ; but 
 had so little effect, that it was with extreme difficulty 
 that he could articulate an answer to the questions 
 which his friends addressed to him. Only when Jonas, 
 perceiving that the end was near, said, " Dearest fa- 
 ther, do you verily confess Jesus Christ, the Son of 
 God, our Saviour and Redeemer ?" he made a great 
 effort, and replied in a tone sufficiently distinct to be 
 heard by every person present, " Yes." It was the 
 last word of the expiring saint. The coldness of death 
 gathered on his face and forehead ; his breath came 
 heavily ; and with eyes closed, and his hands clasped, 
 he remained apparently unconscious of what passed 
 around him, until, between two and three o'clock, the 
 tide of mortal life ebbed back, leaving the mighty 
 spirit landed in eternity. 
 
 Thus, in his sixty-fourth year, died Martin Luther, 
 uttering forth with his latest breath his confidence in 
 that Saviour whom in this world it was his highest 
 glory to have made known to a deluded, faithless, and 
 
320 EIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 forgetful generation. When the tidings of his death 
 were communicated to Melancthon, that greatest of his 
 surviving associates, he burst into tears, exclaiming, in 
 the language of Elisha, " My father, my father, the 
 chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof !" 
 
 It was the wish of the counts of Mansfeldt to have 
 interred the body of Luther in the town of his nativity ; 
 but the elector directed the burial to be at Wittenberg. 
 After lying for two days in the church of St. Andrew, 
 in Eisleben, — where Jonas preached over it a dis- 
 course from the text, " If we believe that Jesus died 
 and rose again, even so them also which sleep in 
 Jesus will God bring with him," — the corpse was at- 
 tended on the road to Wittenberg by the prince of 
 Anhalt, and the principal nobility of the adjacent dis- 
 tricts, including many ladies, together with a prodigious 
 concourse of the common people. On its arrival at 
 the gate of the city of Halle, the procession was met 
 by the clergy and senate ; followed by a multitude so 
 dense, that its progress through the streets was diffi- 
 cult. As it passed along, the vast crowd sung the one 
 hundred and thirtieth Psalm ; and every man pressed 
 before his neighbour to catch a glimpse only of the 
 bier. 
 
 On the 22d of February the cavalcade reached 
 Wittenberg. The whole body of the senators, accom- 
 panied by the professors and students of the university, 
 with almost the entire population of the city and its 
 suburbs, received it at the barrier. The body, pre- 
 ceded by the barons of Mansfeldt and their suite, and 
 followed by the family of the illustrious deceased, was 
 thence conveyed to the cathedral church. There 
 Pomeranus delivered a sermon appropriate to the 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 321 
 
 occasion; after which the celebrated funeral oration 
 of Melancthon did justice to the memory of the dead, 
 while it bespoke alike the grief, the genius, and the 
 ardent piety of the speaker. The coffin was then 
 lowered into the grave by the hands of several distin- 
 guished members of the university. 
 
 The tomb of Luther, in the cathedral of Wittenberg, 
 bears the following inscription : — 
 
 MARTINI- LUTHERI- S' THEOLO- 
 GIZE- D- CORPUS- H- L- S- E- QUI 
 
 AN- CHRISTI- MD- XLVI- XII 
 
 CAL- MARTII- EYSLEBII- IN PA- 
 
 TRIA. S- M- O- C- V- ANN- LXII1 
 
 M- II D- X. * 
 
 The character of Luther is a study and exemplar for 
 all ages. Considered only as the visible spring of 
 those vast and beneficent results which have flowed 
 from its manifestations, that character would, indeed, 
 form one of the grand resting-places of inquiry to the 
 philosophical historian. When we remember to what 
 a prodigious height of guilt and power the arch-pontifi- 
 cate had erected itself, before the reign of Leo X., and 
 with the elevation and tyrannical force of those days 
 contrast its subsequent declension and present impo- 
 tence, we cannot but be smitten with a mingled senti- 
 ment of awe and admiration . It is truly not to be thought, 
 
 * Here lies interred the body of Martin Luther, Doctor of Di- 
 vinity, who died at Eisleben, the place of his birth, on the 18th 
 of February, in the year of Christ 1546, having lived 63 years, 
 3 months, and 10 days. 
 
 14* 
 
322 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 without amazement, that the superb fabric of a fraudu- 
 lent ambition, the throne of a despotism which clothed 
 itself with the thunders of Omnipotence, and assumed 
 to wield the final destinies of men, should have been 
 shaken and abased by the efforts of one who, born in 
 obscurity, wrestling through the far greater portion of 
 his life with the oppressions of disease and poverty, 
 and unaided by a solitary advantage of worldly dis- 
 tinction, was, nevertheless, enabled to arouse the 
 chained spirit of Europe from its ghastly and long 
 dream of superstition, and revive within the hearts of 
 nations that vital liberty of thought, without which the 
 mere external forms of freedom are but a fiction and a 
 shadow. 
 
 Nor do we here assert for Luther anything like an 
 invidious pre-eminence over his faithful and illustrious 
 abettors. Their labours be it far from us to depreciate, 
 or in any way to derogate from their just praise, as it 
 still lives in all the churches of Protestant Christen- 
 dom. All that we claim for the great master spirit of 
 the Reformation is the honour due to the originator, 
 the guide, and superintending regulator of a movement 
 which has had no parallel, for breadth and grandeur, 
 since the age when, in the strength of their divine 
 commission, the first apostles went through all regions, 
 turning the world upside down. That such peculiar 
 and high honour truly belonged to Luther, his surviving 
 brethren were the prompt and eloquent witnesses. 
 Conscious of their own deep obligations to his counsel 
 and instructions, and unforgetful of that wise and 
 dauntless energy which, evoked by his example in 
 themselves, had never flinched from the utterance of 
 the truth, no matter at what extremity of individual 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 323 
 
 hazard, those worthy assistants of so noble a leader 
 bore ample and emphatic testimony to his extraordi- 
 nary gifts and virtue. Indeed, it cannot be denied, 
 that while the Reformation conspicuously, above every 
 other event in modern history, shows the active pre- 
 sence of a more than human power, overruling circum- 
 stances, and adapting agents, with a wisdom as benefi- 
 cent as it was unerring ; that event also bears, through 
 all its various relations, and especially in the determi- 
 nation and distinctive frame of intellect which it im- 
 pressed upon the mass of European society, the 
 very stamp and effigies of the genius and the soul of 
 Luther. 
 
 The moral feature which, on the face of Luther's 
 biography, at once arrests our admiring sympathy, is 
 the singular and sustained intrepidity of his conduct. 
 In estimating the value and the sources of this quality, 
 it is not to be doubted, that along the whole current of 
 his life, as well as in those critical moments when it 
 is scarcely too much to say that the fate of the hu- 
 man mind, through all future time,4iung upon his reso- 
 lution, there was a hand upholding the reformer, and a 
 " spirit of courage" breathed into his being, of which 
 the heroism of this world knows nothing. Nor may 
 we question that the same afflating influence could 
 have wrought an equal boldness in creatures whose 
 constitutional timidity was excessive and effeminate. 
 But admitting, as we cordially do admit, the invigora- 
 tion of the man by an inspired and heavenly energy, 
 ever adequate to the exigency of the instant occasion, 
 we cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that, by original 
 privilege of nature, Luther was invested with a force 
 of temperament, and an indomitable courage, which 
 
324 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 have never been excelled. Neither does this state- 
 ment at all derogate from that reference of his acts to 
 the final direction of a higher and sovereign Disposer, 
 upon which no one more earnestly than himself in- 
 sisted. It is surely not dishonourable to the providen- 
 tial sway and foresight of that Being from whom is 
 the preparation of the heart, to believe, that he so con- 
 stituted the moral being of Luther, as to render it a 
 congenial and apt instrument for the work to which it 
 was specifically designated. 
 
 In tracing the developments of this daring and awe- 
 less principle, we are again struck by the adaptation 
 of circumstantial causes to elicit, at once, and, by ex- 
 ertion, to enliven and to aggrandize, its power. It has 
 been shrewdly observed of the first Cesar, that his 
 early privation of the care and guidance of a father had 
 a beneficial effect upon his character and destiny, in- 
 asmuch as it threw him so entirely on his own intimate 
 resources as to bring out a habit of self-dependance 
 which Avas ultimately of essential service in promoting 
 his magnificent successes. The actual conditions of 
 the youth of Luther, though widely different in them- 
 selves, were not without a similar tendency. With 
 an understanding of prodigious grasp and penetration, 
 opened out and quickened by an education far superior 
 to the scanty instruction of his parents and companions, 
 the reaches of his thought, and the tastes peculiar to 
 knowledge, set him apart from those who, in the ordi- 
 nary course of things, should have ruled his actions, 
 and dictated his choice. Hence his mind grew into 
 solidity, and learned to rely upon itself, on its own 
 promptings and deliberate judgment. The extreme 
 poverty in which he passed his younger days was 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 325 
 
 another circumstance aiding to induce and to confirm 
 the same habitual trust in his own individual energies. 
 It thrust into operation the active forces, as informa- 
 tion had expanded and given impulse to the intellectual 
 faculty. Luther was thus taught not only to be swift 
 and self-assured in his decisions, but ready and strong 
 in execution. To resolve, and to be doing, were, with 
 him, the business of one and the same instant. He 
 allowed no interval of hesitation, no plausible delay, 
 under pretence of reconsidering the matter presently 
 in hand, to cheat him of his purpose. There was, 
 therefore, an inflexible steadfastness about him, and a 
 forthright promptitude of will, which were of inappre- 
 ciable utility in his contest with the minions of the 
 popedom. If, in mature age, these properties some- 
 times gave an air of hardness to his resolutions, and 
 made him cling, with exorbitant tenacity to the opinions 
 which he had once avowed, the cases of error were 
 so few, and the fault in itself so venial, as to be only 
 the dust in the balance when weighed against the 
 mighty conquest which they mainly contributed to 
 achieve for freedom and religion. 
 
 But with this rooted and firm self-confidence there 
 was associated a depth and candour of feeling, which 
 is not often to be found in the same combination. 
 The men of practical vigour, and decisive temper, are, 
 for the most part, those who have little of the softer 
 and milky attributes of humanity in their composition. 
 Their sensibilities are dull, their attachments rare and 
 cold. Generally, they are encrusted with a certain 
 ruggedness, a stern and hard exterior, which seems 
 both to shut up the inner passions as in an impervious 
 case, and to be almost invulnerable to the touch of 
 
326 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 sympathy from others. Such men are, rarely, in a 
 large degree, accessible to the benign influences of 
 social charity ; still less have they of the fine senses 
 which imagination grafts upon the ever-stirring appe- 
 tence for love from without. All that the Avorld has of 
 beautiful, and delicate, and tender, of the touching and 
 the grand, is but as sweet sounds to the deaf, or colour 
 to the blind. Even if, as will sometimes happen, the 
 cardinal affections should be deep and big in persons 
 of this energetic and determined stamp, they have com- 
 monly only a narrow range ; they seldom wander far 
 from the homestead and the hearth, or embrace crea- 
 tures who have no claims but those of kindred warmth, 
 and sympathetic mutuality. In short, it is one of the 
 rarest things in actual life to see people of that reso- 
 lute and stirring temperament which vanquishes diffi- 
 culty, and succumbs not to terror, endowed with much 
 of that idealized fervour which the Greeks called 
 enthusiasm ; a word of which only they who have the 
 thing can ever hope to apprehend the full and precise 
 import. 
 
 But with this subtle essence, this genial enthusiasm, 
 the whole spirit of Luther, through all its functions, 
 was animated and imbued. His affections, friendships, 
 tastes and occupations, even his enmities, were im- 
 pregnated and pervaded by it. It gave tenderness to 
 the endearments of his domestic circle, and won to him 
 the fraternal confidence of his associates. The pas- 
 sages which record his emotions as a parent, his grief 
 for the death of his daughter Madeline, (who was taken 
 from him in her childhood,) and, among others, the ex- 
 quisite letter which he wrote to his eldest son, then 
 only fourteen years of age, during the session of the 
 

 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 327 
 
 Diet of Augsburg, manifest an overflowing of paternal 
 love, as affecting as it is grateful. The great and 
 strong heart which had glowed with so mighty an in- 
 dignation at the profligacies of ecclesiastical misrule, — 
 which had quailed not under the» fiercest denounce- 
 ments of the mitred tyranny of Rome, and throbbed 
 only with a more heroic pulse before the arrayed ma- 
 lignity of the emperor and his satellites at Worms, — > 
 beats, in these instances, with the tenderness of in- 
 fancy, and the yearnings of a mother. When Melahc- 
 thon, himself one of the kindliest of human beings, 
 lay on the bed of sickness, Luther tended him with 
 something more than the solicitude of a brother. The 
 sufferer, on his recovery, tells us that but for the con- 
 solations and the ministering sympathy of his friend, 
 he should certainly have died. So when Tetzel, ter- 
 rified and broken-hearted, was at the point of death, 
 deserted and condemned by those whose battle he had 
 fought, Luther, oblivious of the inexpiable rancour with 
 which that person had assailed him, writes to the 
 expiring monk a letter full of comfort and forgiveness. 
 He was indeed one of the few who have ever really 
 possessed the high-souled generosity that knows how 
 
 " Debellare superbos, — parcere victis." 
 
 Then his love for the scenes of his younger life, 
 Eisenach, where he was at school, which he calls, in 
 years long after, his " own beloved town," and his 
 birth-place, Eisleben, together with the anxious wish 
 that haunted his very death-bed, to secure the happi- 
 ness and tranquillity of his native district, touchingly 
 bespeak the genuine and deep susceptibility of all the 
 "fair humanities" and loveliest impressions of our kind. 
 
328 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 Over all his personal tastes, too, reigned the same 
 fine spirit of a manly and alive sensibility, not exube- 
 rant and bordering on that degenerate and sickly appe- 
 tite for the pathetic which scorns the " daily food" and 
 the common-places «of living experience ; but cordial, 
 discriminative, and intelligent. Of beauty, in its mani- 
 fold shapes and evanescent hues, whether in nature or 
 art, few of his contemporaries had an apter apprecia- 
 tion. To this faculty, his affectionate intercourse with 
 the* painter Carnac, and protection of the artificial 
 embellishments of the Saxon churches from that mer- 
 ciless lust of destruction, which seized the unhappy 
 Carlostadt, would abundantly testify, had we no other 
 evidence that he actually possessed it. His passion 
 for music is well known ; and the solemn flow of that 
 noble harmony which he adapted to the hundredth 
 Psalm has made familiar to all ears his admirable feli- 
 city in composition. There is, perhaps, no species of 
 mental fabrication which so faithfully expresses the 
 ruling qualities of the artist's mind, as does the work 
 of musical combination. In the productions of Luther, 
 in this sort, we read a transcript of the subdued, but 
 not sad, solemnity, and the august imagery, of the He- 
 brew prophets, which habitually overhung the thoughts 
 of the composer. There is a character of deep night 
 about them, a vague suggestion of the grave, and a 
 memory of the stars. Simple as they are, — and, for 
 devotional purposes, the simpler always the better, — 
 they show the writer to have reached a preconception 
 of the austere grandeur and dramatic manifestation of 
 the logical subject, which are the unapproached excel- 
 lences of the labours of Mozart and Handel. We 
 could wish, indeed, that the mere mechanical stringers 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 329 
 
 of crotchets and quavers, who, in this country, manu- 
 facture what are called psalm-tunes, would only strive 
 to acquire a perception of the symbolical propriety — 
 the melodious utterance of a feeling accordant with the 
 awful holiness of divine worship — which so observably 
 characterizes the sacred harmonies of Luther. We 
 might then hope to be saved the pain of having our 
 ears pierced, in church or chapel, with the groaning 
 and shrieking psalmody which so often defiles some 
 of the noblest stanzas that were ever written by an 
 uninspired poet. 
 
 We have lingered on these milder traits of the great 
 reformer's nature, because it has been the fashion with 
 many writers to dwell with an unfriendly affectation 
 of charity and candour upon the vehemences of his 
 controversial displays, as if they really inferred an 
 acerb and ruthless disposition. To read the lamenta- 
 tions of some of his biographers over the alleged 
 licenses of his style in disputation ; their lachrymose 
 regrets for the intemperance, not to say scurrility, into 
 which, forsooth, he occasionally suffered his irritation 
 to betray him ; one would almost suppose that Luther 
 had sinned against every canon of fair argumentation 
 and retort, by converting his polemical writings into 
 the mere equipage of personal virulence and slander. 
 These amiable sentimentalists, who thus weep for the 
 absence of forbearing civility, which, being then un- 
 born, would never yet have seen the light but for that 
 culture of the social charities which is one of the fra- 
 grant fruits of the principles of the Reformation, forget 
 that in the days of Luther courtesy formed no part of 
 the rules of literary battle. The encounter was with 
 sharp lances ; and they who provoked attack were 
 
330 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 bound to take the wounds they might receive in the 
 onslaught without flinching or complaint. But, the 
 custom of the age apart, there was a justifying need 
 for the fiery tone of Luther ; and he knew it. As he 
 said himself, he would have spoken thunder, could he 
 have exchanged the tamer language of this world for 
 the voices of the heavens. Had his publications been 
 less caustic, they would have proved inefficacious : the 
 bull of excommunication probably would never have 
 been published ; nor the truth of God vindicated as it 
 was at Worms and Augsburg. But let any reader, 
 who has taken up with this shallow prejudice, only 
 turn to the pages of any of the most bitter of his nume- 
 rous philippics, and find, if he can, a single example 
 of unjust personality, or venomous recrimination, out 
 of the direct and legitimate current of his discourse. 
 True it is that he branded Tetzel, Eck, and others of 
 his earlier antagonists, with the unenviable titles of 
 impostors, liars, and blasphemers ; that in good round 
 phrase he proclaimed Leo X. to be in league with the 
 devil to destroy the souls of his vassals ; and that even 
 the polished Erasmus did not escape his pungent in- 
 vective. But who will now dare to say that the ruffianly 
 recklessness evinced by some of those adversaries, 
 their violations of all decorum and civilized usage, 
 invasions of those sacred privacies of domestic life 
 which the wretch who should now venture to profane 
 would be hounded out of society ; — who, we ask, can 
 bring to his remembrance the outrages of every kind 
 which were heaped upon him, and still say tha the 
 very harshest epithets ever applied by Luther to his 
 assailants amounted to an adequate retaliation for their 
 crimes against himself? The polite and learned priest 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 331 
 
 of Rotterdam, to whom, as a moral being, it would be 
 doing infinite injustice to place him in comparison even 
 with Eck, the best of all the remaining host of Luther's 
 opposers ; even that eminent personage, with his silken 
 horror of the rout created by the man of Wittenberg for 
 the sake of truth, stooped to the baseness of stabbing 
 his ancient friend by a libel, not on himself alone, but 
 equally impugning the honour of his wife. 
 
 For ourselves we confess that we have small pa- 
 tience for the weak and idle outcry in regard to the 
 excessive violence of Luther. No doubt his indigna- 
 tion spake out broadly, and with no silver note ; but 
 we have read our history awrong, if ever the pride and 
 power of a time-strengthened structure of depravity 
 and despotism were broken down by the smooth phrases 
 of courtly breeding. There was a task to be done so 
 gigantic as to verge on utter hopelessness. It was no 
 common tone, chastened down to the whispering fret- 
 fulness of etiquette, that could have stirred the dead 
 heart of nations grown gray in an immemorial slavery. 
 The voice needed to be both loud and stern which was 
 to call up the latent humanity of a world held prostrate 
 and bound for ages under the armed mastery of Rome. 
 It was neither a single nor a subdued sound of the 
 trumpet ; but a blast, sharp and vehement, and seven 
 times reiterated, that brought down the walls of Jericho. 
 
 But, allowing for some latitude of judgment, on this 
 point, there can be no denial that the exasperate recla- 
 mations of Luther were, under the provocations that 
 awaited him, a necessity of his nature. The very in- 
 tensity of his emotions, and the fervid vitality which 
 steeped his entire organization of mind, enlivened and 
 imbittered his indignant defiances of the corrupt power 
 
332 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 that sought to overrule and crush him. His loathing 
 of the vast and sacrilegious usurpation against which 
 he fought, was but a reflux of the generous ardour that 
 shed over his blander moods a lustre and a life of 
 happiness. To have tamed the out-blazing anger which 
 he poured on the arch-see and its defenders, the rush 
 of his blood, and the whole frame-work of his being, 
 must have been first stopped and remodelled. If, after 
 all, some shade of reproach must, on account of a sup- 
 posed defect of self-command, mingle with our vene- 
 ration of a character otherwise so illustrious, let it at 
 least be recollected, that in the fault itself (if fault it 
 were) we see the flashes of a burning and clear sin- 
 cerity, which is worth a thousand of the strait proprie- 
 ties of manners. 
 
 And let it never be forgotten, in examining this part 
 of Luther's history, that the matter of strife was not a 
 mere question of opinion, but reached to the very es- 
 sence of the gospel, and deeply affected the whole 
 work of human salvation. When controversy refers 
 only to what is consistent with what St. Paul terms, 
 emphatically and exclusively, (in the first chapter of 
 the Epistle to the Galatians,) the gospel which he had 
 preached, and which answers the all-important ques- 
 tion, What must I do to be saved 1 then let it be calm 
 in feeling and courteous in expression, and let our op- 
 ponent be regarded as our brother. But if Luther was 
 right, the case had occurred which the apostle himself 
 describes, and on which the inspiring Spirit led him to 
 pronounce an unequivocal decision, " Though we, or 
 an angel from heaven, or any man, preach any othei 
 gospel unto you than that which we have preached 
 unto you, and that ye have received, let him be ac- 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 333 
 
 cursed." The Roman system which Luther attacked 
 was exactly another gospel ; and as such, and with a 
 proper feeling of the dishonour done to God, and the 
 peril in which souls were placed by its means, did it 
 require to be attacked. It was not an erroneous opinion 
 which Luther assailed, so much as a moral corruption ; 
 and his antagonists were those who, knowing that the 
 word of God was against them, sought to defend them- 
 selves by mysterious traditions, and who employed 
 against their assailants all the terrors of the civil 
 power, — confiscation and imprisonment, stripes, and a 
 horrible death. Of such a system, and of its abettors, 
 the truth could only be spoken in terms which described 
 not merely their intellectual errors, but their moral guilt ; 
 and such terms, with a deep feeling of their justice, 
 were those which Luther employed. 
 
 There is another aspect under which the natural 
 history of the reformer's mind challenges a still warmer 
 reverence, and more grateful eulogy. We have had 
 occasion, as we passed along, to remark upon the 
 nameless fascination which the shadowy and mystic 
 grandeur of antiquity exercises over a vivid and far- 
 reaching imagination. With all high thinkers, indeed, 
 there is a certain prescriptive and almost infrangible 
 spell in things, not unpleasing in themselves, upon 
 which time has laid its old and solemnizing tinctures. 
 Be it not sneeringly objected, that the feeling is vision- 
 ary and pootical : amidst the cold and hard realities of 
 an on-going existence, it is not, perhaps, the worse for 
 that ; certainly not the less potential. But Luther 
 had a rich fund of poetry in his nature. The vague 
 distances in which the origin of the Papal polity lost 
 itself, had, for his thoughts, a charm like the hazy 
 
334 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 depths of a landscape, and one which it was no easy 
 matter to shake off. Add to this, that the Roman 
 Church lavished upon her ceremonies all the exquisite 
 appliances of art, and wound around them those seduc- 
 tive appeals to the ideal faculty, through the medium 
 of the senses, which seem to lift the soul into oblivion 
 of the clay ; that sculpture gave its forms, animate with 
 the mute passion of a moment, seized and set fast, as 
 in a purer incarnation ; that the mirrored life of paint- 
 ing looked down from altars reeking with sweet per- 
 fumes, and radiant faces shone from the pictured can- 
 vass with a benignant holiness upon the worshipper ; 
 while music revelled in luxurious flexions along aisles 
 vocal with litanies of penitence, that, mixing with the 
 tide of " numerous sound," were borne aloft, as if car- 
 ried by it from *the earth. Ponder then the natural 
 effect of these combined influences on a spirit keenly 
 alive to their impressions ; think how easily the rapt 
 elevation they induce might have been allowed to throw 
 a redeeming beauty around the offices of that church 
 in whose communion he was born, and to interpose a 
 dazzling veil between the reformer and the abuses 
 which he stood forth to combat ; and then we come to 
 know something of the might and magnitude of the 
 moral reason of Luther, which could fling aside blan- 
 dishments so congenial to the passionate sentiment of 
 a German, with a poet's heart, and nobly guide him- 
 self by his sole conviction of the right, and the immu- 
 table behest of the Most High. 
 
 And here we are brought back to the predominant 
 quality of the reformer's state of intellect, and the key 
 to all his greatness. It was that settled and well-poised 
 supremacy of the logical understanding which kept 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 335 
 
 sway over a mind fall of many and bright powers. 
 Away from all moral impulses, this just order of the 
 thinking man imparted to his acts a steadiness and an 
 onward energy which were the image and reflection 
 of the compact strength within. Other minds, with 
 as much native vigour, and more brilliancy, there have 
 been, whose faculties, wanting this cohesion, consis- 
 tence, and consolidated unity, were dissipated, and 
 grew unproductive. • 
 
 But when the Bible unrolled its hallowed pages to 
 the eyes of Luther, and conscience purged by divine 
 illumination and instruction waxed clear and peremp- 
 tory in its biddings, the mission came to him as to a 
 giant already armed for the fight that lay before him. 
 It is not easy to imagine a more affecting demonstra- 
 tion of the far-prescient benevolence and overswaying 
 operation of the divine will, than appears in this pre- 
 construction of an organ so singularly fitted as was the 
 vigorous humanity of Luther to work out the instru- 
 mental regeneration of a people perishing in the dark- 
 ness of an aged and ghostly bondage. Of the struggle 
 that ensued, of Luther's persevering fidelity in the 
 discharge of his sacred trust, of his holy bravery in the 
 hour of uttermost peril, and the vigilant care of Provi- 
 dence, which, ever holding him in charge, supported, 
 led, and shielded him to the end, we have drawn a 
 rapid and imperfect sketch. Of many of those bene- 
 fits which, under God's blessing, have flowed from his 
 exertions, including that practical recognition of the 
 Christian morality which is the spring and bond of 
 social freedom, we live in an enjoyment so continuous 
 and familiar, as to be sometimes in danger of growing 
 thankless and forgetful But the final and completed 
 
336 LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 results of the conquest which dawned upon him in this 
 world, and of which the young morning is with us, will 
 be revealed only in the broad daylight of eternity. 
 
 Of Luther, on the whole, it may be said, that a 
 firmer spirit, a mind more resolutely honest, self-obli- 
 vious, and unswerving, has never — except in the case 
 of Him who wrapped the fulness of the Godhead in 
 human flesh — been permitted to shed dignity upon our 
 fallen nature. Other men have pulled down tyrants 
 and stirred empires to revolt against oppression. In 
 some rare instances, neither avarice nor ambition has 
 fixed a stain upon their fame. But where in all his- 
 tory is the individual who, raised from lowest poverty 
 and personal insignificance to be the counsellor of 
 princes and the teacher of mankind, was, equally with 
 Luther, proof against all temptations to turn aside from 
 the even walk of probity and severe disinterestedness ? 
 Mere affluence, indeed, he might not have coveted. 
 Unused to the voluptuous appendages of wealth, and 
 careless of external decoration, they might have had 
 but few or no attractions for him. But when it is re- 
 flected, that at one period the Protestant churches of 
 all Germany lay at his feet, supplicating him to reor- 
 ganize their system and government, the bright integ- 
 rity of his soul shines out conspicuous and sublimely. 
 To have grasped at power, when it was thus delivered 
 up into his hands, would have been yielding only to a 
 natural and proud infirmity. Had he built up a hierar- 
 chy, in which some station of pre-eminent control 
 should have been reserved for his own occupancy, who 
 could have reasonably withstood, or even, with osten- 
 sible justice, have reproached him ? But his ambition 
 was of a diviner stamp. It pointed not to the glittering 
 
LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 337 
 
 furniture of earthly state, or the gathering of subject 
 crowds around his seat; but to that assured reward 
 of the righteous which, commencing in the triumph of 
 the truths they speak on earth, is consummated in a 
 happier region, by the gift of a crown that fadeth not 
 away. Are we asked for the memorials of Luther's 
 virtue, and the proof that his designation was of God ? 
 Look forth upon the world, now rising in the freshness 
 and moral beauty of an awakened Christianity ; let the 
 eye rest on England, with its myriad temples, and the 
 ear be gladdened with its sabbath bells ; count the 
 houses of prayer which have sprung up amidst the 
 forest wildernesses of America ; think of Ethiopia 
 stretching out her hands to her Redeemer, and the arid 
 boundlessness of African deserts grown vocal with his 
 praise ; of the Indian widow snatched from the flame, 
 and the babe rescued from the flood ; remember the 
 tottering throne of the prophet, and the prostration of 
 the Roman antichrist ; and see in these the tokens and 
 the seal of Luther's commission from heaven, and the 
 wide consequences of the Reformation. In a sense 
 fully as much nobler as it is more extensive than their 
 original purport, we may apply to the reformer the 
 words of that fine inscription in our own metropolitan 
 cathedral, commemorative of its builder : — 
 
 "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice." 
 15 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The following table of occurrences, comprised in the period in- 
 tervening between the birth and death of Luther, will not only- 
 aid the reader in the orderly recollection of the leading facts of 
 the reformer's own history, but will present him with a view of 
 the general character and progress of events ; and thus suggest 
 useful considerations as to the state of society, both civil and 
 ecclesiastical. A single glance will show that the Wittenberg 
 professor lived in stirring times. The winter had passed away, 
 and everywhere might be seen the evidences of active vegeta- 
 tion, though few could even conjecture what fruits the harvest 
 would supply. Of one kind of seed alone can the results be 
 certainly predicted. " All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of 
 man as the flower of grass ; the grass withereth, and the flower 
 thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth for 
 ever. And this is the word, which by the gospel is preached 
 unto you." 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1483. (Nov. 10.) Martin Luther born, at Eisleben, in Saxony. 
 
 1484. Ulrich Zuingle born, in Switzerland. 
 
 1485. Accession of Henry VII. to the throne of England. 
 
 1486. The Portuguese sail as far as the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 1487. A crusade againt the Waldenses ; the pope encouraging 
 
 it by the promise of a plenary indulgence. 
 
 1490. A German translation of the Vulgate. 
 
 Attempt of Pope Innocent VIII. to impose the tenth penny 
 upon the French clergy ; but opposed by the University 
 of Paris. 
 
 1491. Siege and capture of Grenada by Ferdinand and Isabella; 
 
 and the consequent termination of the Moorish domi- 
 nion in Spain. 
 
340 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella order the Jews to depart from their 
 
 respective states; and obtain from the pope, as a re. 
 compense, the title of Catholic. 
 Columbus discovers America. (The West Indies.) 
 The profligate and abandoned Cardinal Borgia made pope. 
 His pontificate was signalized by his vices ; his chief 
 aim being to enrich his children, especially the notori- 
 ous Cesar Borgia, not less wicked than his father, and 
 more audacious. 
 
 1493. Death of the emperor Frederic III., and election of Maxi- 
 
 milian I. 
 Alexander VI. publishes a bull, dividing between Spain 
 and Portugal the countries which their respective navi- 
 gators might discover in either hemisphere. 
 
 1494. First knowledge of algebra in Europe. 
 
 Charles VIII. (of France) invades Naples. Thus began 
 those wars on account of Italy, which continued, with 
 few intervals of peace, till 1559 ; and which had, indi- 
 rectly, a most important influence on the progress of 
 the Reformation. 
 
 1496. The University of Aberdeen founded. 
 
 Cabot discovers (for England) the island of Newfound- 
 land. 
 
 1497. Melancthon born. 
 
 Americus Vespucius, a Florentine, lands on the American 
 
 continent ; which afterward is known by his name. 
 The University of Copenhagen founded. 
 
 1498. Vasco de Gama doubles the Cape of Good Hope, and sails 
 
 to India. 
 Jerome Savonarola, a Dominican, who had ventured to 
 speak against the pope, and to preach the necessity of 
 religious amendments, burnt, for heresy, at Florence. 
 
 1499. The University of Alcala (Complutum) founded. 
 
 1500. The Portuguese discover Brazil. 
 
 ,1501. Martin liUther enters the university at Erfurt. 
 
 1502. University of Wittenberg founded. 
 
 1503. The pope (Alexander) killed accidentally, by taking the 
 
 poison he had prepared for one of his cardinals. 
 
APPENDIX. 341 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1504. Complaints against the grievances of the court of Rome, 
 
 urged by the Germans to their emperor. 
 
 1505. Luther enters the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt, and 
 
 becomes acquainted there with true evangelical doctrine. 
 
 1506. University of Frankfort-on-the-Oder founded by Joachim, 
 
 elector of Brandenburg. 
 Julius II. lays the first stone of St. Peter's at Rome. 
 (Finished 1614.) 
 
 1508. Luther a ppointed professor of philosophy in the University 
 
 of Wittenberg. 
 
 1509. Accession of Henry VIII. in England. Wolsey (after- 
 
 ward cardinal) high in favour with him. 
 
 1510. Calvin born, in France . 
 
 Luther goes to Rome on a deputation from his order. 
 All he saw there revolting to his feelings. 
 
 1511. Maximilian and the king of France call for a general 
 
 council. 
 Goa, in India, conquered for the king of Portugal, by 
 
 Albuquerque. 
 The pope convokes the Lateran Council at Rome. (Con- 
 
 eluded in March, 1517.) 
 
 1512. Luther made doc tor in divinity. 
 
 1513. John de Medici elected pope ; takes the name of Leo X. 
 
 1515. Accession of Francis I. to the French throne. 
 
 1516. Accession of Charles V. to the Spanish throne. Union of 
 
 the Spanish monarchy under him. 
 
 1517. The dissolution of the Lateran Council, having had twelve 
 
 sessions. It was entirely a Papal one, and condemned 
 
 the principles established at the Councils of Constance 
 
 and Basil, relating to the subordination of the pope to a 
 
 general council. The Papal supremacy appeared to 
 
 /** be fully and finally established. 
 
 ( Leo X. publishes his " indulgences." Tetzel their sales- 
 
 V man in Germany. 
 
 \ (Oct. 31.) Luther publishes his theses aga inst these in- 
 \ ciulgences. 
 
 1518. AnoTEeTedTtion of the Bible in German, translated from 
 
 the Vulgate. 
 
342 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1518. Melancthon, Greek professor at Wittenberg. 
 
 7~ Luthe r appears before Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg, and 
 
 appeals to the"bnpy "belter Informed."-*-*. rr 
 
 Leonardo de Vinci, painter, Florentine school. 
 (Nov. 9.) Leo publishes a bull confirming the doctrine of 
 indulgences. 
 
 1519. Death of Maximilian, and election of Charles V., in pre- 
 
 ference to his competitor, Francis I. of France. 
 (Jan.) Conference of Luther with Miltitz. 
 Discovery of Mexico, by the Spaniards. 
 Magellan, the Portuguese, first circumnavigates the 
 
 globe. 
 (June.) Disputation, at Leipsic, between Luther and Eccius. 
 Zuingle preaching at Zurich against the corruptions of the 
 
 Papacy. 
 V Luther publishes his first commentary on the Galatians. 
 
 15 20. Various publ ications by Luther. In August he begins to 
 
 attack the Papal system : before, he had only attacked 
 certain erroneous doctrines, which he did not consider 
 as belonging to the Roman Church. 
 
 The interview, on " The Field of the Cloth of Gold," be- 
 tween Henry VIII. and Francis jL 
 
 The Complutensian edition of the Bible published, under 
 the auspices of Cardinal Ximenes. 
 
 Raphael d'Urbino, painter, Roman school. 
 
 1521. Solyman II. takes Belgrade. 
 
 First war between Charles V. and Francis I. 
 i (April.) Luther before the Diet of Worms. I 
 
 Luth er conveyed to the castle of Wartburg, where he be- 
 
 gins his translation of the Bible into -German. 
 Melancthon first publishes his Loci Communes. 
 Gustavus Vasa, in Sweden. 
 , Henry VIII. of England writes against Luther, and is de- 
 clared bv Leo, "defender of the faith." 
 Erasmus endeavours to pursue a middle course-; pleases 
 . neither Leo no r Luther. 
 . Principles of Reformation in France, but condemned by 
 the Sorbonne ; extend to Denmark and Transylvania. 
 
APPENDIX. 343 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1521. Ignatius Loyola receives the wound in battle, during the 
 
 cure of which he embraces the notions for which he 
 afterward became so famous. 
 Erasmus settles at Basle. The University of Geneva 
 founded. 
 
 1522. (March.) Adrian, the Fleming, preceptor to Charles V., 
 
 elected pope on the death of Leo X. 
 Rhodes conquered by the Turks, under Solyman. 
 Diet at Nuremberg. Calls for a general council ; and 
 
 transmits a list of grievances to Rome. 
 (Sept.) Luther's New Testament published at Wittenberg. 
 The Portuguese establish a settlement at Macao. 
 Revolt of Bourbon against Francis. 
 
 1523. Reformation introduced into Sweden. 
 
 The insurrection of the peasants in Germany begins. 
 Headed, after a time, by Thomas Munzer, a fanatic. 
 
 Public disputation at Zurich between Zuingle and the 
 Romanists. Zuingle's " Short and simple Introduc- 
 tion to the Doctrine of the Gospel" published. 
 
 Reformation had made some progress in the Netherlands. 
 A Dutch translation of the Bible published. Eras- 
 mus completes his Paraphrase of the New Testament. 
 
 (Nov.) Death of Pope Adrian. Succeeded by Clement 
 VII. 
 
 1524. The doctrines of Luther gain ground in Prussia. Are in. 
 r ~~ tfoduceoTiiTRS Scotland . 
 
 Diet of Nuremberg. After it, at Ratisbon, Cardinal Cam- 
 peggio endeavours to establish a league between seve- 
 ral princes and bishops to uphold the Church of Rome. 
 This the first league of the German princes. 
 
 Beginning of the sacramental controversy : Luther main- 
 taining consubstantiation ; Carlostadt denying it. John 
 Staupitz. Melancthon, professor of divinity at Wit- 
 tenberg. Loyola studying at Barcelona : reading Kem- 
 pis very attentively. First Danish translation of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 Invasion of France by the Imperialists, under the revolted 
 Bourbon. 
 
344 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. D 
 
 1525. Battle of Pavia. Francis taken prisoner. Carried to 
 
 Madrid. 
 
 Death of Frederic the Wise, elector of Saxony, Luther's 
 first protector. 
 
 Albert of Brandenburg embraces Lutheranism ; is ac- 
 knowledged by Poland hereditary duke of Teutonic 
 Prussia. 
 
 The peasant insurgents put down. Munzer taken and 
 beheaded. 
 
 Zuingle engages in the sacramental controversy, teach- 
 ing similarly to Carlostadt. 
 
 Marriage of Luther with Catherine de Bora. 
 
 "Solyman spreading his victorious armies over Western 
 Asia. He besieges and takes Bagdad from the Persians. 
 
 Lutherans persecuted, and, in some places, burnt. 
 
 1526. Treaty between Charles and Francis. 
 
 The elector of Saxony and landgrave of Hesse enter into 
 
 an engagement (at Torgau) for mutual support. 
 The pope enters into an alliance (the Holy League) with 
 
 France, Venice, and Milan, against Charles. 
 Reformation established in Prussia. Tyndal's English 
 
 translation of the New Testament. Luther's German 
 
 Liturgy, and order of public worship. 
 
 1527. War between Francis and Charles. The Imperialists, 
 
 under Bourbon, (who is slain,) take and sack Rome. 
 The pope taken prisoner. 
 
 Many of the writings of the reformers circulated in Italy, 
 and meet with much acceptance. University of Mar- 
 purg founded. • 
 
 Henry VIII. begins to express his doubts of the lawful- 
 ness of the marriage between himself and his brother's 
 widow. 
 
 Solyman invades Hungary. 
 
 1528. Visitation of the churches in Saxony. Melancthon fur- 
 
 nishing the visitation articles. 
 Patrick Hamilton burnt at St. Andrew's, for heresy. Re- 
 formation widely extended in Germany and Switzer- 
 land. 
 
APPENDIX. 345 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1529. Solyman invades Hungary, and advances to Vienna, which 
 
 he besieges. Had to raise the siege ; but acquired 
 permanent possession of Moldavia and Wallachia. 
 
 DJet of Spires ; passes a decree unfavourable to the Re- 
 formation. The reforming princes protest : hence the 
 name of Protestants. 
 
 Treaty between Charles and the pope ; the emperor agree- 
 ing to bring the German heretics to obedience to the 
 Roman see. 
 
 (Oct.) Conferences at Marpurg between Saxon and Swiss 
 divines. 
 
 Divorce cause of Henry VIII. transferred to Rome. Dis- 
 grace of Cardinal Wolsey. 
 
 Violent persecutions in the Netherlands and France. 
 
 1530. Knights of St. John receive a grant of Malta from the 
 
 emperor. 
 
 The Lutheran princes form the Smalcaldic League. Diet 
 of Augsburg. Articles of religion (" Articles of Tor- 
 gau") drawn up previously by the Lutherans. At the 
 diet, other articles, drawn up by Melancthon, with these 
 as their basis, presented ; constituting " The Augsburg 
 Confession." The final decree of the diet is against 
 the reformers. 
 
 Various universities declare Henry's marriage unlawful. 
 The clergy in convocation acknowledge Henry supreme 
 head of the church. 
 
 1531. Religious war in Switzerland. Zuingle slain. Bullinger, 
 
 his successor, completes the establishment of a reformed 
 discipline and worship in Zurich. Michael Servetus 
 publishes his treatise, " De Trinitatis Erroribus." 
 
 1532. Pacification of Nuremberg, between the emperor and Pro- 
 
 testants. Sale of indulgences at Geneva. Farel banish- 
 ed the city for preaching evangelical doctrines. Calvin, 
 beginning to make himself known in Paris by his reli- 
 gious opinions, is obliged to flee. 
 
 1533. Cranmer made archbishop of Canterbury. The king's 
 
 divorce publicly declared. In Scotland, the reformers 
 violently persecuted. 
 
 15» 
 
 
346 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1533. Conquest of Peru, for the Spaniards, by Pizarro. 
 
 1534. Abolition of Papal supremacy in England by the parlia- 
 
 ment. 
 Luther's translation of the Bible, three volumes folio, 
 
 published. 
 Ignatius Loyola forms a religious society, in Paris, for the 
 
 defence of Catholicism. 
 Fanatical Anabaptists take possession of Munster. Death 
 
 of Clement. Paul III. elected pope. 
 Several Protestants burnt at Paris. 
 
 1535. Francis negotiating with the Smalcaldic League. 
 Charles V. goes into Northern Africa ; is victorious there. 
 Mines of Potosi discovered by the Spaniards. 
 Reformation at Geneva. Calvinism, and a democratic 
 
 form of government, established there. 
 
 Lutheranism definitely established in Denmark. 
 
 Cromwell, vicegerent in England. 
 
 Melancthon publishes a new edition of his Loci Com- 
 munes; far less Augustinian (or Calvinistic) than be- 
 fore. Calvin's "Institutes" published. Luther's second 
 commentary on the Galatians. 
 
 Olivetan translates the Bible into French, for the French 
 Protestants. Coverdale's English Bible. 
 
 1536. War between Charles and Francis again. The Imperial- 
 
 ists invade France, unsuccessfully. 
 
 First Helvetic Confession published. Calvin settles at 
 Geneva. Reformation advancing in England. A Bible 
 ordered to be set up in churches to be read by the peo- 
 ple. Dissolution of monasteries in England. 
 
 Death of Erasmus. Imperialists defeated by the Turks in 
 Hungary. 
 
 1537. Religious agitations in England. The " Institution of a 
 
 Christian Man" published; and "Matthew's" English 
 Bible. 
 
 1538. Charles and Francis conclude a truce for ten years. Chris- 
 
 tian III., of Denmark, and other princes, join the Smal- 
 caldic League. 
 
 
APPENDIX. 347 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1539. An insurrection at Ghent, on account of a supposed inva- 
 
 sion of their privileges by Charles. In England, the 
 Act of the " Six Articles " passed. Cranmer complies ; 
 but Latimer and Shaxton resign their bishoprics.- Final 
 suppression of the English monasteries. 
 
 1540. Francis negotiating with the Protestant princes. Crom- 
 
 well disgraced, &c, in England, and the Papal cause 
 seems reviving. Some burnt for opposing Popery; 
 others, for denying the king's supremacy. 
 
 The " Society of Jesus " (that is, the Jesuits) formally esta- 
 blished by Paul III. 
 
 University of Lausanne founded. 
 
 Francis Guicciardini, the historian, died. 
 
 1541. Francis Xavier, and other Jesuits, go from Portugal to the 
 
 East Indies as missionaries. 
 Solyman invades Hungary ; Charles engages in a counter 
 
 invasion of Algiers ; but his fleet is dispersed by storms, 
 
 and the whole expedition fails. 
 Death of Ludovicus Vives, (commentator on Augustine,) 
 
 of Pagninus, (Hebrew scholar,) and of Carlostadt. 
 
 1542. Another war between Francis and Charles. 
 
 Paul III. convokes a council at Trent ; but is opposed by 
 Charles, who publishes a manifesto against it. 
 
 1543. The Spaniards take possession of the Isles of St. Lazarus, 
 
 discovered by Magellan, and call them the Philip- 
 pines. 
 
 Turks powerful and successful in Hungary. Reformation 
 established in Brunswick Wolfenbuttel ; and suppressed 
 by persecution at Metz. 
 
 Death of Eccius. 
 
 "Necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian Man" 
 published in England. Henry VIII. takes the title of 
 king of Ireland. 
 
 1544. Peace between Francis and Charles. They agree to join 
 
 their influence with the pope for a general council. 
 The Reformation completed in Sweden. It continues to 
 spread in Germany. 
 
 
348 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1545. The Council of Trent formally opened ; though no busi- 
 
 ness transacted. 
 In France, at Cabrieres and Merindol, cruel persecutions 
 
 of the Waldenses, by order of Francis. 
 Reformation of the Lower Palatinate. 
 •Luther's commentaries on Hosea, Joel, &c, published. 
 
 1546. Struggle in Scotland ; the crown and clergy against, nobles 
 
 and people for, the Reformation. 
 (Jan. to March.) Ineffectual conferences between Romish 
 
 and Protestant divines, at Ratisbon. 
 (February 18th.) Death of Martin Luther. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWEE 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 • , RENEWALS ONLY— TEL NO. 642-3405 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 *AR21 1969 q£ 
 
 RECEIVED 
 
 «*<l5'69-5p M 
 
 LOAN DEPT 
 JUL 2 9 1969 3 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ElVE p 
 
 ji)Ur60-8 
 
 UOAN ! "■ 
 
 C pi0l88S4a 
 
 Cf 
 
 [J * 
 
 2£$g-gj>it 
 
 A^IGUUD 
 
 (J605 
 
 57810)476— A-32 1 L0 * B m J 
 

 f-smKummrY^w-^-^- . l. _ _>v _^ a. 
 
 LIBRARY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE BEFORE CLOSING TIME 
 ON LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW 
 
 >^\ 
 
 LIBRARY USE . 
 
 ,71370 24 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 &J<*S 
 
 
 j fiEC'DLD WW 
 
 l??t -ft AH 4% 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 mfsi^miH U-lSSg/gSL*.