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sJVUi^t AM^

MARTIN LUTHER

GUSTAV FREYTAG-

TRANSLATED BY

HENRY E. O. HEINEMANN

DES CHRISTEN HERZ AUF ROSEN GEHT,
WENN'S MITTEN UNTERM KREUZE STEHT.
— LUTHER'S MOTTO.

CHICAGO
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
(London: 17 Johnson's Court, Fleet St., E. C.)
1897

TRANSLATION COPYRIGHTED BY
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.
1896
8B3£<§

The arrangement of the material together with the selection of the illustrations
and the division into chapters has been made by the Open Court Publishing Co.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

The Reformer . . . .
Luther's Father
The Spirit of the Age
The Traffic in Indulgences
Luther the Monk . . . .
The Rupture with the Church .
The Conflict . . . . .
Battles Within and Battles Without
Accepting the Summons .
The Diet of Worms . . ...
The Hero of the Nation ....
The Outlaw of the Wartburg
A Contemporary's Description of Luther
Problems and Tasks ...
Political and Social Complications
Luther's Marriage . . ...
Luther's Private Life ....
Struggles with the Devil .
The Tragic Element in Luther's Life
A Letter of Luther to the Prince-Elector of Saxony

i
5
8
13
2428
33
40
455060
69 74
83
9297
104
113 117
123

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

BETWEEN PAGES

Frontispiece. Martinus Luther. (After Lucas Cranach.)
Title-page. Luther's Coat of Arms, being a cross upon
a rose, illustrating Luther's motto.
Luther as a Chorister in the House of Frau Cotta . . 6 and 7
Fac-simile of an Indulgence. (From Kostlin.) . 12 " 13
The Pope Selling Indulgences. (Hans Holbein's wood
cut.)  16 " 17
Trade in Pardons. (Title picture of a pamphlet by
Hans Schwalb, published in 1521.) . . 16 " 17
Tetzel. (Reproduced from Castelar's "La revolucion
religiosa.") . . . 20 " 21
Luther Entering the Monastery. (After Gustav Konig.) 24 " 25
Luther as a Monk. (After the woodcut of Lucas
Cranach.) . , . . . 26 " 27
Nailing the Theses to the Church door. (Reproduced
from Castelar's " La revolucion religiosa. ") . 28 " 29
Luther Lecturing at the University. (After Gustav
Konig. ) .
Philip Melanchthon
Pope Leo X.
Erasmus
Burning the Papal Bull. (After Lessing. )
Luther's Entrance into Worms. (After Spangenberg.) 48
Ready to Face the Diet. (After Gustav Konig.)
Before the Diet of Worms. (After Werner.)

30 '

' 3i

32 << 33

34 " 35

36 " 37

44 '

' 45

48 •

' 49

50 '

' 5i

52 '

' 53

VI MARTIN LUTHER.

BETWEEN PAGES

Frederick the Wise, Prince-Elector of Saxony. (After
Albrecht Durer. ) . . . . . 56 " 57
The Wartburg in the Sixteenth Century. (Woodcut
by H. W. Muller.) . . . 68 " 69
The Outlaw of the Wartburg . 72 " 73
Luther as Younker George. (After the woodcut of
Lucas Cranach) . . . . 76 " 77
Luther's Wife. (After Lucas Cranach.)  96 " 97
Luther Praying for Melanchthon's Life. (After Gustav
Konig.) .  104 " 105
Luther at the Coffin of his Daughter Magdalen. (After
Gustav Konig.) ... . . . . 106 " 107
Luther in the Bosom of his Family. (After Spangen
berg.) . .  . 108 " 109
The Age of the Reformation. (After Kaulbach.) . .122 "123
Luther's Handwriting. (Psalm 34.) [A manuscript
page of his Bible translation, now in the Library
at Berlin.] . . 124 " 125

THE REFORMER.

A /T ANY well-meaning men still cherish regret that cer-
-**- * -*- tain great evils of their old church led to the great
schism of the Reformation. Even the enlightened Catholic
still looks upon Luther and Zwingli simply as zealous here
tics whose wrath caused ecclesiastical dissensions. Such
a view should be abandoned. All Christian denominations
have good reason to be grateful to Luther, for to him they
owe a purified faith which satisfies the heart and soul
and enriches their lives. The heretic of Wittenberg is a
reformer for the Catholic quite as much as for the Protes
tant. Not only because in the struggle with him the teach
ers of the Catholic Church outgrew their ancient scholas
ticism and fought for their sacraments with new weapons
taken from his language, culture, and moral worth; nor
only for the reason that he had shattered into fragments
the church of the middle ages, and compelled his enemies
in the Council of Trent to erect an apparently new and
more solid structure within the old forms and dimensions ;
but still more because he gave such powerful expression to
the common foundation of all Christian creeds, to human
bravery, piety, sincerity and heartiness, that in religion
and language, in civil order and moralnry, in the bent of

<S MARTIN LUTHER.
the popular soul, in science and poetry, a great deal of
his nature is even now immanent in us and shared by all
Teutonic races to-day. Some of those things which in his
stubborn fights Luther defended against both reformed
and Catholics, have been condemned by the freer intelli
gence of the present age. His doctrine, wrung from a pas
sionate, high-strung, reverential soul in convulsive strug
gles, failed, in some not unimportant particulars, to hit
the right point ; at times he was harsh, unjust, even cruel
towards his adversaries ; but such things should no longer
perplex us, for all the limitations of his nature and cul
ture are overwhelmed by the wealth of bliss which flowed
from his great heart into the life of mankind.
Nevertheless, we are told, he should not have fallen
away from the church ; his act divided Christendom into
two camps, and, with varying battle cries, the old quarrel
lasts down into our own days. Those who think thus may
assert with equal justice that the holy, mystical apostasy
from Judaism was not necessary ; why did not the Apos
tles reform the venerable high -priesthood of Zion? They
may maintain that the Englishman Hampden would have
done better to pay the ship-money and instruct the Stu
arts peaceably ; that the Prince of Orange committed a
crime when he refused to lay his head and sword, like
Egmont, into the hands of Alva ; that Washington was a
traitor because he did not surrender himself and his army
to the English. They may condemn as a crime everything
great and new in thought and life that ever broke forth in
the struggle against the old.
To few mortals was it given to exercise so great an
influence upon both their contemporaries and posterity.

THE REFORMER. 3
But, like every great human life, that of Luther impresses
the beholder like an overwhelming tragedy if the chief
points of it are placed side by side. It appears tripartite,
like the careers of all heroes of history who were permit
ted to reach the fulness of their lives. In the beginning,
the personality of the man is unfolding, and we see him
powerfully controlled by the forces of his environments.
Even incompatible opposites are sought to be assimilated,
but in the inmost core of his nature, thoughts and convic
tions gradually harden into resolution ; a sudden deed
flashes forth, the individual enters on the struggle with
the world. Then follows another period of vigorous ac
tivity, rapid development, great conquests. The influence
of the one upon the many extends more and more, his
might draws the nation into his course, he becomes her
hero, her standard, and the vitality of millions appears
concentrated in one man. But the spirit of a nation will
not, for any length of time, tolerate the exclusive control
of one single individual. However great the force, how
ever lofty the aims, the life, the power, and the wants of
the nation are more manifold. The everlasting conflict be
tween the man and the people appears. The soul even of
the people is finite, and, in the sight of the infinite, a lim
ited personality, but as compared to the individual it ap
pears boundless. The man is compelled by the logical
sequence of his thoughts and actions, all the spirits of his
own deeds force him into a rigidly confined course. The
soul of the nation, however, requires for its life incompat
ible opposites and a ceaseless working in the most diver
gent directions. Many things which the individual could
not receive within his own nature arise to do battle against

** MARTIN LUTHER.
him. The reaction of the world sets in — feebly at first,
from various sides, in different lines of thought, with lit
tle justice, then more strongly and with ever-growing suc
cess. At last, the spiritual kernel of the individual life is
confined within a school — his school ; it is crystallised into
a particular element of the culture of the nation. Ever is
the closing part of a great life filled with secret resigna
tion, bitterness, and silent suffering.
Thus with Luther. The first of these periods ex
tended down to the day when he published the theses, the
second to his return from the Wartburg, the third to his
death and the beginning of the Smalkald war.
The author of these pages does not intend to describe
Luther's life, but only to tell briefly how he grew and
what he was. Many things about him appear strange and
uncouth, when viewed at a distance, but his picture has
the remarkable quality of becoming bigger and more lov
able the closer it is approached. And it would, from be
ginning to end, fill a good biographer with admiration,
sympathy, and also some good humor.

LUTHER'S FATHER.

LUTHER rose from the great fountain of all national
strength, the free peasantry. From Moehra, a
village in the mountain forests of Thuringia, where his
relations filled half the surrounding country, his father
moved northward into the Mansfeld region to engage in
mining. His father, Hans Luther, was short of stature, solid
and strong, resolute and gifted with an unusual amount
of common sense, and had, after a hard struggle, acquired
a fair competency. He ruled strictly in his house. Even
late in life Luther remembered ruefully the severe punish
ments he suffered as a boy, and the pain they inflicted on
his tender child's heart.
Old Hans Luther maintained some influence over the
life of his son down to the time of his death in 1530. When,
at the age of twenty-two years, Martin secretly entered a
monastery, the old man's anger was violent, for he had
thought of providing for his son by a good marriage. And
when, at last, friends succeeded in reconciling the irate
father, when he confronted his son, who pleaded that a
terrible apparition had compelled him to the secret vow to
enter a monastery, the father broke out into the petulant

6 MARTIN LUTHER.
words : ' 'May God grant, that it was not a cheat or a spec
tre sent by the Devil."
He still further tore the heart of the monk by the an
gry question: "You thought to obey the bidding of God
when you took orders, did you not also hear that children
should obey their parents?" The sting of the words ran
kled deeply in the heart of the son. And many years later,
when he lived on the Wartburg, expelled from the church,
outlawed by the Emperor, he wrote to his father the pa
thetic words: "Do you still wish to take me from the
monkish life? You are still my father ; I am still your
son ; on your side is the divine commandment and the
power, on mine is human wrong-doing. And lo, that you
might not boast before God He anticipated you, He took
me out Himself!" From that time, the old man felt as if
his son had been given back to him. Old Hans at one
time calculated on a grandson for whom he wanted to
work. He reverted to that idea stubbornly, disregarding
the rest of the world. Before long he urged his son to
marry, and his persuasion was not the least powerful in
fluence to which Luther yielded. And when the father,
having reached a ripe old age and the honor of a council
man of Mansfeld, was lying on his death -bed and the
minister, bending over the man who was passing away,
asked if he would die in the purified faith on Christ and
the Holy Gospel, old Hans gathered his strength for the
last time and said, curtly: "A scoundrel who does not
believe in it!" Luther, in telling about it in later years,
was wont to add admiringly : ' ' He was a man of the good
old time." The son received the news of his father's death in the

LUTHER AS A CHORISTER IN THE HOUSE OF FRAU COTTA,

LUTHER'S FATHER. 7
fortress of Coburg. Gazing at the letter in which his wife
had enclosed the picture of his youngest daughter, Mag
dalen, he spoke to his companions only the brief words :
"Well, my father is dead, too," then rising and taking
his psalter, he went to his chamber and prayed and wept
so hard that, as the faithful Veit Dietrich reports, his head
was dull the next day — but he came forth with his mind
composed. The same day he wrote to Melanchthon with
muck emotion about the cordial affection of the father and
his intimate intercourse with him. "Never have I despised
death so much as to-day. So many times do we die before
we finally die. Now I am the oldest of my race and I have
a right to follow him."
From such a father the son received for his life those
qualities which remained the foundation of his nature —
truthfulness, persevering will, a sincere confidence in, and
prudent treatment of, men and affairs. Rough was his in
fancy, much that was harsh did he experience in the Latin
school and as a chorister, but he also met with kindness
and love, especially in the house of Frau Cotta. And Lu
ther retained that which is more easily preserved in the
smaller circles of life, a heart full of faith in the goodness
of human nature and of reverence for all that is great on
this earth. At the University of Erfurt his father was able
to assist him more liberally ; he felt the vigor of youth and
was a merry companion with harp and song.

THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.

THE corruption of the world had waxed huge, the op
pression of the poor was beyond endurance, gross
sensuality held sway, clergy and laity were dominated by
insatiable greed. Who would punish the young squire for
ill-treating the peasant? Who protect the poor citizen
against the powerful family of the rich councilman ? Hard
was the toil of the man of the people from morning
till night, through winter and summer. There was the
plague, failure of crops, and famine. Inscrutable the order
of the world, and a dearth of love in the life on earth. Sal
vation from misery was in God alone. Before Him all
the things of the earth were petty and as naught ; Emperor
and Pope and the wisdom of man were transient as the
flowers of the fields. If God was merciful he could save man
from the troubles of this life and compensate him by ever
lasting bliss for his sufferings here below. But how could
such grace be won? What virtue of weak humanity durst
hope to earn the infinite treasure of divine favor? Man
was damned from the time of Adam to will the good and
work the evil. Vain was his best virtue ; he was cursed
with original sin, and it was through no merit of his own
if God showed him mercy.

THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 9
In such wise the human heart wrestled in anguish in
those days. But forth from the sacred documents of the
Scripture, which were to the people as a dark legend,
there sounded from afar the word: "Christ is Love."
The ruling church knew- little of such love. In its creed,
God stood far removed from the human soul, the image of
Him on the Cross was hidden behind countless saints and
blessed martyrs, all of whom were needed to intercede
with the wrathful God. Yet the nature of the Teuton fer
vently demanded a cordial relation with the Almighty, he
yearned with irrepressible force to win the love of God.
He who gave himself to penance, wrestling in ardent
prayer and without cessation for the love of God, could
feel the highest happiness in merging, yielding himself to
God while on earth, and had the hope of bliss in heaven.
But the hierarchy no longer taught individual endeavor
for the grace of God. The Pope claimed to be the ad
ministrator of the inexhaustible deserts of Christ, and
the church taught that the prayers of the saints for sinful
humanity had helped to pile up an infinite treasure of
good works, prayers, fasts, and penances for the good of
others, all of which treasures were administered by the
Pope, who could give of them to whomsoever he wished
to free from sin. And, likewise, if a number of the faith
ful would associate themselves together in a pious society,
the Pope could grant to such a brotherhood the dispensa
tion that the deserts of the saints and the surplus of pious
devotional works, prayers, masses, pilgrimages, penances,
donations, might pass from one to another.
Thus there arose, under the patronage of mediating
saints, the pious brotherhoods in which association could

10 MARTIN LUTHER.
effect that which was impossible for the weak individual.
Their number was great. As late as 1530 Luther com
plains that they are innumerable. How crude and wretched
was their mechanism may be shown by an example, se
lecting the brotherhood of the 11,000 virgins, called St.
Ursula's Ship, of which Prince-Elector Frederick the Wise
was a founder and charter member. According to its con
stitution, this society had collected in spiritual treasures
that were to help the brethren in acquiring eternal bliss,
the following articles : 6,455 masses, 3,550 full psalters,
200,000 rosaries, 200,000 Te Deums, 1,600 Gloria in Excel-
sis Deo; furthermore, 11,000 prayers for the patroness St.
Ursula, and 630 times 11,000 Paternosters and Ave-Ma-
rias; also, for the knights, 50 times 10,000 Paternosters
and Ave-Marias, etc. The entire power of this treasure for
salvation was for the benefit of the members of the broth
erhood. Many spiritual institutions and private individ
uals had earned especial merit by large contributions to
the treasure of prayers. Upon the reorganisation of the
society, Prince-Elector Frederick donated a fine silver Ur
sula. A layman earned membership if, in the course of
his life, he once said 11,000 Paternosters and Ave-Marias.
If he spoke thirty-two a day he earned it in a year ; if six
teen, in two years ; if eight, in four years. If one was
prevented from absolving this quantity of prayer by mar
riage, business concerns, or illness, he could join by hav
ing eleven masses read for himself, etc. Still, this frater
nity was one of the best, for the members were not
required to pay cash ; it was meant to be a society of poor
people who wanted to help one another to Heaven by pray
ing. And yet, after all is said, it cannot be denied that

THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 11
these pious societies, in the beginning of the sixteenth
century, touched the soul more nearly than anything else
that the decaying church of the Middle Ages offered to the
people. On the other hand, the traffic in pardons and in
dulgences was the foulest spot on the sick body of the
church. In their capacity as conservators of the accumu
lated infinite treasures of Christ's merits, the Popes sold
orders on this treasury to the faithful for money. True,
the better idea that even the Pope could not really forgive
sins, but only remit the penance prescribed by the church,
never quite disappeared in the church itself. But those
who thus taught, isolated men of the universities or can
did ministers of scattered congregations, did well to take
care not to develop their teachings into open contradic
tion against the business of the traffickers in pardons.
For what was the true doctrine of the church to the Popes
of the fifteenth century, who, almost without exception,
were atrocious villains and unbelieving heathens? Woe
to him who doubted that the Popes had the right to part
him from God, to open or close to him the gates of
Heaven! It was money they demanded without end,
money for women and boys, for their children and rela
tions, for their princely households. And there prevailed
an awful community of self-interest between themselves,
the bishops, and the fanatical party in the begging frater
nities. Nothing made Huss of Hussinetz so insufferable
as his fight against pardons and indulgences. The doctrine
of repentance and grace drove the great Wessel from Paris
into an unhappy exile, and it was pardon-mongering
monks that allowed the venerable Johannes Vesalia to die
in the dungeon of the monastery at Mayence, him who

12 MARTIN LUTHER.
first uttered the great words. "Wherefore should I be
lieve that which I know?"
It is well known how rankly the traffic in pardons
and indulgences grew early in the sixteenth century and
how shamelessly the infamous swindle was carried on.
When Tetzel entered a city with his box he rode with a
great suite of monks and priests, a well-fed, haughty Do
minican. The bells were tolled, clergy and laity went
reverently to meet him and conducted him to the church.
There, in the nave, his great red cross was erected with
the wreath of thorns and the nail holes, and sometimes
the faithful people were favored with the sight of the red
blood of the Crucified Christ moving on the cross. Next
to the wreath were the flags of the church bearing the
coat-of-arms of the Pope with the threefold crown ; before
the cross stood the notorious chest strongly enforced with
iron bands ; on one side a pulpit on which the monk with
rude eloquence explained the miraculous power of his in
dulgences and exhibited a great parchment of the Pope
from which dangled many seals ; on the other side the
money table with blank pardons, writing material, and
money baskets, and there it was that the clerical assist
ants sold eternal bliss to the people crowding around.
The evils in the church were without number ; against
all of them an outraged moral sense revolted, but the cen
tre of the whole movement was the fight against the means
of grace which made a loathsome mockery of the needs of
the popular heart. And the appearance of so many re
formers will be understood aright only if it is looked upon
as a reaction of the heart against insincerity, heartless-
ness, and continued outrage upon the holiest ideals.

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FAC-SIMILE OF AN INDULGENCE. (From Kostlin.)

THE TRAFFIC IN INDULGENCES.

THROUGHOUT Northern Europe opposition was
stirring. But the man was not yet found who
was destined to feel in fearful, long-continued struggle
within his own soul all the sufferings and all the yearn
ings of the people, in order to become the leader in whom
they saw with enthusiasm the embodiment of their own
inmost nature. We know little of the struggles which
Luther underwent prior to the time when he entered the
monastery. They hardened his convictions until his soul
was matured and ready to speak out boldly. But it is
probably fair to judge by analogy, and happily we have
direct information of an experience which was doubtless
similar to that of Luther and typical of what was passing,
with greater or less clearness of insight, in the popular
mind in general.
Frederick Mecum, latinised Myconius, was the son
of a respectable citizen of Lichtenfels, in Upper Franco-
nia, born in 1491. At the age of thirteen years he was
sent to the Latin school of the then rising mountain city
of Annaberg. He there experienced what is here told in
his own words, and, in 1510, a youth of nineteen years,,
went into a monastery. Being a Franciscan, he was one of

14 MARTIN LUTHER.
the earliest, most zealous and loyal adherents of the pro
fessors of Wittenberg. He left the order, became a
preacher of the reformed church in Thuringia, finally par
son and overseer at Gotha, where he carried the Reforma
tion through and died in 1546.
The relation of Myconius to Luther was curious.
He not only was a modest and intimate friend of the lat
ter' s in many relations of private life, but his friendship
with Luther was filled until death with a poetic charm that
transfigured his entire life. In the most fateful time of
his youth, seven years before Luther began the Reforma
tion, the image of the great man appeared to him in a
dream and calmed the doubts of his agitated heart, and it
was in the transfiguration of that dream that the faithful,
pious scholar thenceforth saw his great friend at all hours.
Still another circumstance lends peculiar interest to
the personality of Myconius. Although the gentle, deli
cately organised man was totally unlike his daring friend,
there is a remarkable similarity in the early lives of the
two. And many things that remain unknown in Luther's
youth are explained by what Myconius tells of his own
early years. Both were poor scholars of a Latin school,
both were driven into monasteries by inward struggles and
youthful enthusiasm, both failed to find that peace which
they fervently sought, but found, instead, fresh doubts,
greater struggles, years of torment, of anxious uncer
tainty. Both were driven to revolt by the insolent Tet
zel, who inflamed their souls with indignation and deter
mined the entire direction and activity of their subsequent
lives. At last, both died in the same year, Myconius
seven weeks later than Luther, after having been, five

THE TRAFFIC IN INDULGENCES. 15
years before, recalled to life from a deadly illness by a
conjuring letter from Luther.
Although he published little, Frederick Myconius
left, besides theological writings, a chronicle of his time
in which his own activity and the affairs of Gotha are de
scribed most minutely. The dream which he had the first
night after entering the monastery is well known and has
been printed frequently. The Apostle Paul, who then ap
peared as his guide, had the face and voice of Luther, as
Myconius thought in after years. This long dream is told
in Latin. The introductory narrative, however, has been
preserved in a manuscript of the ducal library of Gotha
in a contemporaneous German form. The following has
been translated from the manuscript, being shortened only
in a few places :
"Johannes Tetzel, of Pirna, in Meissen, a Domini
can monk, was a great crier and trader in indulgences
or pardons of the Pope of Rome. He remained, with this
purpose, for two years in the new city of Annaberg, and
so deluded the people that they all believed there was no
other way to gain pardon for their sins and everlasting
life than justification by our works, which justification, he
said, nevertheless was impossible. But he said there was
one way remaining, namely, to buy it for money from the
Pope of Rome, that is, to buy the indulgence of the Pope,
which, he said, was forgiveness of sins and a sure entry
into everlasting life. Here I could tell wonder upon won
der and incredible things about what preachings I heard
those two years at Annaberg from Tetzel. For I attended
his preaching diligently, and he preached every day. I
even could repeat his sermons to others, with all gestures

16 MARTIN LUTHER.
and explanations, not scoffing at him, but being greatly
in earnest. For I held all his utterances to be oracles and
divine sayings which must be believed, and that which
came from the Pope I held as though it came from Christ
himself. "Finally, about the time of Pentecost, in the year of
our Lord, 1510, he threatened to lay down the red cross
and close the gate of Heaven and extinguish the sun, and
it would never happen again that for so little money could
be had forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. Yea, it
was not to be hoped that so long as the world stood, such
graciousness of the Pope would come there again. He
also urged that every one should care well for the salva
tion of his own soul and those of his friends, both de
ceased and living, for now had come the day of salvation
and the pleasing time. And he said : ' Let no one neg
lect his own salvation, for unless you have the letters of
the Pope you cannot be absolved and pronounced free by
any man from many sins and " reserved cases." ' On the
gates and the walls of the church were publicly posted
printed letters in which it was stated that in order to give
the people a testimonial of gratitude for its devotion,
thenceforth the letters of pardon and complete power
should not be sold so high as in the beginning, and at
the end of the letter, at the bottom, was written: '.Pau-
peribus dentur gratis ' — to the poor the letters of pardon
should be given for nothing, without money, for the sake
of God. ' ' Thereupon I began to bargain with the commis
sioners of this traffic in pardons, but, in truth, I was

THE POPE SELLING INDULGENCES. (Hans Holbein's woodcut.)

TRADE IN PARDONS. (Title-picture of a pamphlet by Hans Schwalb, published in 1521.)

THE TRAFFIC IN INDULGENCES. 17
moved and impelled thereto by the Holy Ghost, although
I knew not, at the time, what I did.
' ' My dear father taught me in my childhood the Ten
Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Christian
Faith, and compelled me to pray at all times. For he
said we had everything from God alone, gratis, for noth
ing, and He would govern and lead us if we prayed dili
gently. Of the indulgences and Roman pardons, he said
they were only nets with which money was filched and
taken out of the pockets of the simple-minded, and men
could surely not buy or bring about forgiveness of sins
and everlasting life with money. But the priests and
clergy became angry and scolded when such things were
said. Since, then, I heard nothing in the sermons every
day but the great glory of the pardons, I remained in
doubt which to believe more, my dear father or the priests
as teachers of the church. I stood in doubt, but still I be
lieved more the priests than the instructions of my father.
But one thing I would not allow, that the forgiveness of
sins could not be obtained except when it was bought
with money, particularly by the poor. Hence I was
pleased wonderfully with the clause at the end of the
Pope's letter, ' pauperibus gratis dentur propter Deum.'1
"And when, three days later, they wanted to lay
down the cross with great pomp and hew down the steps
and ladders to Heaven, the spirit moved me that I went
to the commissioners and asked them for letters forgiving
my sins ' from mercy for the poor. ' I said I was a sinner
and poor and required pardon for my sins given as a mat
ter of grace. The second day, about the time of vespers,
I entered the house of Hans Pflock, where Tetzel was, to-

18 MARTIN LUTHER.
gether with the confessors and throngs of priests, and I
addressed them in the Latin tongue and asked them to
allow me, a pauper, according to the order of the Pope's
letter, to beg absolution of all my sins free of charge and
for God's sake, etiam nullo casu reservato, without reser
vation of a single case, and that they should give me ht-
eras testimoniales of the Pope, or testimony in writing.
The priests were astonished at my Latin speech, for that
was a rare thing in those days, especially among young
boys, and they went from the room into the chamber ad
joining, where the commissioner, Tetzel, was. They an
nounced my request and also begged for me that he might
give me the letters of pardon without charge. At last,
after a long consultation, they return and bring me this
answer : ' Dear son, we have submitted your prayer to
the commissioner with diligence, and he admits he would
gladly grant your prayer, but he cannot, and, though he
would, the concession would be null and void. For he
showed us that it was written clearly in the Pope's letter
that those will surely share in the ample and gracious in
dulgences and treasures of the church and the deserts of
Christ qui porrigerent mamim adjutricem, who help with
the hand, that is, who give money.' And they said all
that in German words, for there was not one among them
who could have spoken three words with me in Latin.
"On the other hand, I prayed again, and proved
from the published letter of the Pope that the holy father,
the Pope, commanded that such letters be given to the
poor free of charge, for God's sake, and especially as
there was added ad mandatum domini papae proprium,
i. e., by the Lord, the Pope's, own command.

THE TRAFFIC IN INDULGENCES. 19
"So they go in again and beg the proud, haughty
monk to grant my prayer and dismiss me with the par
don, as I was a prudent and eloquent youth and worthy
that something special above others be done for me. But
they come out again and once more bring the answer, '•/•?
manu auxiliatrice ,' of the helping hand, which alone
was powerful for a holy pardon. But I remain firm, and
say that they do me, a pauper, wrong ; whom neither God
nor the Pope wanted to exclude from grace, him they re
jected for the sake of a few pennies which I did not have.
Then began a dispute. I was asked to give a small
amount, that the helping hand might not be wanting, if
it was but a groat. I said : ' I have not even that ; I am
poor.' Finally, it came down to this, that I should give
but six pennies. I again replied that I had not a single
penny. They urged me and spoke among themselves. At
last I heard that they were anxious about two things :
first, they should by no means let me depart without a
letter of pardon, for it might be a trick devised by some
one else and might lead to evil consequences, since it
was written clearly in the Pope's letter that it should be
given to the poor free of charge. Nevertheless, something
should be taken from me that the others might not hear
that the letters of pardon were given for nothing so that
the whole lot of students and beggars would come and all
would want their letters free. They need not have had
any care about that, for the poor beggars sought more for
bread to still their hunger.
"After having held their council, they come to me
again, and one gives me six pennies, that I should give
them to the commissioner. By this contribution I would

20 MARTIN LUTHER.
also be a builder of the church of St. Peter at Rome, also
a slayer of the Turk, and would have a share in the grace
of Christ and the indulgences. But I said freely, being
moved by the spirit, if I wanted to buy indulgences and
pardons for money, I might sell a book and buy them
with my own money. But I wanted to have them given
freely, for God's sake, or the commissioners should ac
count before God for having neglected and trifled away
the salvation of my soul on account of six pennies, since
both God and the Pope wanted my soul to attain forgive
ness of all my sins, freely, out of His grace. This I said,
and knew not, in truth, how it stood with the letters of
pardon. "At last, after a long talk, the priests asked me who
sent me to them and who trained me to discuss such
things with them. So I told them the whole plain truth,
how it was that I was admonished or induced by no man
nor persuaded by any adviser, but that I had made my
prayer alone, without any man's advice, and only trust
ing and confiding in the gracious pardon of sins freely
given, and that in all my lifetime I never spoke or treated
with such great men. For I was by nature timid, and if
I had not been compelled by the great thirst for the grace
of God I should not have dared such a great thing or min
gled with such persons and asked such a thing of them.
Then the letters were promised again, but so that I should
buy them at six pennies, which were to be given me freely
for my person. But I remained steadfast that the letters
of pardon should be given to me free of charge by him
who had the power to give them ; if not, I would commend

TETZEL. (Reproduced from Castelar's "La revolucion religiosa.")

THE TRAFFIC IN INDULGENCES. 21
and commit the matter to God. And thus I was dismissed
by them. " The holy thieves were, nevertheless, sad on account
of this bargain. I was partly sad because I failed to get
a letter of pardon, and partly I was glad that there was
still One in Heaven who would forgive the sins of the
penitent sinner without money or loan, according to the
passage which I had often sung in church: 'As I live,
saith the Lord, I want not the death of the sinner, but
that he be converted and live.' O dear Lord and God,
Thou knowest that I do not lie in this matter or invent
anything out of myself.
' ' With all this I was so moved that as I walked home
to my lodgings I was fain to melt and dissolve into tears.
So I arrive in my lodgings, go to my chamber and take
the crucifix, which always lay on the little table in my
study, and, setting it on a seat, I drop down on the floor
in front of it. I cannot here describe it, but at that time
I could feel the spirit of prayer and of grace which Thou,
O my Lord and God, didst pour out over me. The sum
of it all was this : I prayed that Thou, dear Lord, wouldst
be my father, that Thou wouldst forgive my sin, I gave
myself up to Thee completely that Thou shouldst make
of me whatever might please Thee, and, since the priests
would not be merciful to me without money, that Thou
wouldst be my gracious God and Father.
' ' Then I felt that my whole heart was transformed ;
I felt vexed at all things in the world, and it seemed I
was weary of this life. One thing only I wished, to live
for God that I might please Him. But who was there
then that might have taught me how to go about it?

22 MARTIN LUTHER.
For the Word, the Life, and the Light of men, was buried
throughout the world in deepest darkness of human laws
and the altogether foolish 'good works.' About Christ
they were silent; nothing was known of Him, or if He
was remembered He was pictured to us as a cruel, terri
ble judge, whom His mother and all the saints in Heaven
could scarcely, with tears of blood, conciliate and make
merciful, and even so, he would, for every mortal sin,.
thrust the men who did penance into the torments of pur
gatory for seven years. The torment of purgatory was in
no wise different from the tortures of Hell except that it
would not last forever. But the Holy Ghost gave me
hope that God would be merciful to me.
"And then I began and counselled for some days-
within myself how I might begin a changed condition
of my life. For I saw the sin of the world and the entire
human race; I saw my manifold sin, which was very
great. I had also heard something of the secret great
sanctity and the pure, innocent life of the monks, serv
ing God day and night, separated from all the evil life of
the world, living soberly, piously, chastely, holding mass,.
singing psalms, fasting and praying forever. I had seen
this apparent life, but did not know or understand that it
was the greatest idolatry and hypocrisy.
" I communicated my counsel to my instructor, Mas
ter Andreas Staff elstein, the supreme regent of the school,
who advised me at once to enter the Franciscan monas
tery, which was being rebuilt at that time. And, that I
might not become changed in purpose by long delay, he
at once went with me personally to the monks, praised my
ability and character, and boasted that I was the only one:

THE TRAFFIC IN INDULGENCES. 23
among his scholars who he was confident would be a right
godly man.
' ' I wanted to impart my purpose to my parents and
hear their opinions, being an only son and heir. But
the monks taught me from Jerome I should leave father
and mother and not regard them, and run to the Cross of
Christ. They also adduced the saying of Christ : ' No
one is fit for the Kingdom of God who lays the hand on
the plow and looks behind him.' All these things urged
and commanded that I turn monk. I will not here speak
of many bonds and ties with which they bound and tied
my conscience. For they said I could never be saved un
less I speedily accepted and used the grace offered by
God. Thereupon, being more willing to die than to forego
the grace of God and eternal life, I at once took the vow
and promised to return to the monastery in three days
and begin the year of probation, as they call it in the
monastery, i. e., I would become a pious, devout, and
God-fearing monk.
"In the year of Christ 1510, July 14, at two o'clock
in the afternoon, I entered the monastery, accompanied
by my teacher and a few of my schoolmates and some
very devout matrons, whom I had partly told the cause
why I entered holy orders. And thus I blessed those
who accompanied me to the monastery, all, amid tears,
wishing me the grace of God and all blessings. And so
I went into the monastery. Dear Lord, Thou knowest
that this is all true. I sought not idleness, nor care of
the belly, nor the semblance of great sanctity, but I
wanted to please Thee ; it was Thee I wanted to serve.
"Thus, at that time, I groped in great darkness."

LUTHER THE MONK.

LITTLE is known of Luther's early life beyond this,
that he came near death, and, during a thunder
storm, "heard himself called by a terrible apparition from
Heaven." In fear of death he vowed to enter a monastery,
and carried out his resolution speedily and clandestinely.
We are justified in believing that Luther was in a
frame of mind similar to Myconius when he entered the
monastery, except that his sentiments were more pro
foundly stirred, his struggles fiercer. At odds with his
father, full of terror at the thought of eternity which he
could not understand, intimidated by the wrath of God,
he entered, with almost convulsive energy, on a life of
renunciation, devotion, and penance. He found no peace.
All the highest questions of life assailed his unsupported,
secluded soul with tremendous force. The need of feel
ing himself at one with God and the world was unusually
strong and passionate in him ; faith gave him only that
which was unintelligible, bitter, repellent. To his nature
the mysteries of the moral order of the world were of the
greatest importance. That the good were persecuted
while the bad were fortunate, that God damned the race
of men with the awful curse of sin because an ignorant

LUTHER ENTERING THE MONASTERY. (After Gustav KOnig.)

LUTHER THE MONK. 25
woman bit into an apple, and that, on the other hand, the
same. God bore our sins with love, indulgence, and pa
tience ; that Christ on one occasion sent away honest peo
ple with harshness, and another time received harlots,
publicans, and murderers — " the wisdom of human reason
must become foolishness in the face of such things." At
such times he would complain to his spiritual adviser,
Staupitz: " Dear Doctor, the Lord proceeds so horribly
with men ; who can serve Him if He strikes about Him
self so recklessly? " If the answer was made, "How else
could he subdue the stubborn heads?" that intelligent
argument could not console the youth.
Impelled by an ardent desire to find the incompre
hensible God, he tortured himself by the closest analysis
of all his thoughts and dreams. Every worldly thought,
all the impulses of youthful blood, became to him abom
inable wrongs ; he began to despair of himself ; he wres
tled in endless prayer, fasted and mortified the flesh. On
one occasion, the brothers were obliged to force an en
trance to his cell, in which he had lain for days in a con
dition not far remote from insanity. The warmest sym
pathy moved Staupitz as he looked upon these convulsive
torments , and he would attempt to comfort him by rather
rude speeches. Once, when Luther had written to him:
"O my sin, sin, sin!" the spiritual adviser answered:
" ' You want to be without sin and have no real sin. Christ
is the pardon of real sins, as murdering one's parents,
etc. If Christ is to help you, you should have a register
enumerating the real sins, and not approach Him with
such trifles and doll sins and make of every bubble
a sin."

20 MARTIN LUTHER.
The manner in which Luther rose from his despair
decided his entire future life. The God whom he served
was at that time a God of terror ; His wrath could be ap
peased only by the means of Grace indicated by the old
church, consisting, in the foremost place, in continual
confession, regulated by endless directions and forms that
appeared vacant and frosty to the soul. Prescribed ac
tions and the exercise of so-called good works did not
bring to the youth a feeling of real conciliation and peace
of mind. At last a word from his spiritual adviser struck
him like an arrow : ' * Only that is true penance which
begins by love of God. Love of God and elevation of soul
is not the result of the means of Grace taught by the
church, but must precede them."
This thought from Tauler' s school became to the
youth the foundation of a new moral relation of the soul
to God. It was a sacred find to him. The transforma
tion of the soul itself was the principal thing. That was
the aim to strive for. From the innermost corner of every
human heart should come repentance, penance, concilia
tion. He himself, and each man, could raise himself to
God. At last he surmised what free prayer was. The
place of the remote divine power which he had previously
been seeking in a hundred formulae and childish confes
sions was now taken by an all-loving protector to whom
he could address himself each hour joyfully and in tears,
to whom he could carry every complaint, every doubt,
who took an unceasing interest in him, cared for him,
granted or refused his heart-felt prayers, Himself affec
tionate as a kind father. Thus he learned to pray, and
how fiery his prayers became ! Now he lived quietly to-

LUTHER AS A MONK. (After the woodcut of Lucas Cranach.)

LUTHER THE MONK. 27
gether with the dear Lord whom he had found at last,
in daily, hourly communion. Conversation with the Su
preme Being became more intimate to him than that with
the dearest beings of this earth. When he had poured out
his whole soul before Him there would come over him
tranquillity and sacred peace, a feeling of unutterable af
fection, he felt himself a part of God. And that relation
remained to him from that time to the end of his days.
He no longer needed the wide outside paths of the old
church ; with his God in his heart he could defy the
whole world.
He began to believe that those taught a false doc
trine who laid so much stress on works of penance that
besides them nothing remained but a cold satisfaction
and circumstantial confession. And, subsequently, when
he learned from Melanchthon that the Greek word for
"repentance" (Metanoia) , meant, even linguistically,
the transformation of the soul, it appeared to him a won
derful revelation. On this foundation rests the confident
faith with which he set up the words of the Scriptures
against the ordinances of the church.
In such manner did Luther in the monastery grad
ually work his way to spiritual emancipation. His en
tire subsequent teaching, the fight against the trade in
pardons, his imperturbable steadfastness, his method of
interpreting the Scriptures, rest upon the internal pro
cess by which, as a monk, he found his God. And it
may well be said that with Luther's prayers in his cell
began the new era of history. Soon, life was to lay him
under the sledge-hammer to harden the pure metal of
his soul.

THE RUPTURE WITH THE CHURCH.

IT WAS with reluctance that Luther in 1508 accepted
the professorship of dialectics at the new University
of Wittenberg. He would have preferred to teach that
theology which even then he held to be the true one. It
is well known how in 1510 he went to Rome on business
of the order, how he remained in the holy city full of de
votion and piety, what an abomination were to him the
heathen practices of the Latins, the corruption of morals
and worldliness of the clergy. There it was that while
reading mass his devotion was disturbed by ribald jests
which the Roman members of his order interjected. He
never forgot the fiendish words as long as he lived.
But however deeply the corruption of the hierarchy
stirred his emotions, it nevertheless comprised all his
hopes ; there was no God and no hereafter outside of it.
The lofty idea of the Catholic Church and its victories of
fifteen hundred years fettered the minds of even the
strongest. And when, clad in the garments of the Ro
man priesthood, he visited, at the risk of his life, the
ruins of ancient Rome and stood amazed before the
gigantic columns of the temples destroyed, according to
tradition, by the Goths, the warlike man from the mount-

iilxr-'

NAILING THE THESES TO THE CHURCH DOOR. (Reproduced from Castelar's " La revolucion religiosa.")

THE RUPTURE WITH THE CHURCH. 29
ains of the ancient Hermunduri little dreamed that it
would be his destiny to shatter the temples of mediaeval
Rome more thoroughly, fiercely, grandly than had been
done in bygone ages by the cousins of his forefathers.
Luther still returned from Rome a faithful son of the
great mother, all heretical practices, for instance those of
the Bohemians, being offensive to him. After his return
he took a warm part in the controversy of Reuchlin
against the judges of heresy at Cologne, and about 1512
he was a partisan of the Humanists. But even then he
felt that something stood between him and that school.
Some years later when at Gotha, he failed to visit the
venerable Mutianus Rufus, although he sent a very
courteous letter of excuse. And soon after he was of
fended in the dialogues of Erasmus by the inner chill-
ness and the worldly tone in which the theological sin
ners were scoffed at. In the profane worldliness of the
Humanists the soul of Luther, so happy in its faith, never
felt truly at home, and that pride which subsequently of
fended the sensitive Erasmus in a letter meant to be con
ciliatory, probably dwelt in his soul even at that early
time. The forms of Luther's literary modesty during
that time make the impression that it was compelled
from a firm spirit by the power of Christian humility.
For, in his faith he then felt sure and great. As
early as 1516 he wrote to Spalatin who represented his
connexion with the Prince-Elector Frederick the Wise,
that the Elector was the wisest man in all the affairs of
this world, but where God and salvation were concerned
he was struck with seven-fold blindness.
Luther had cause for this utterance, for the provi-

30 MARTIN LUTHER.
dence of that well-poised prince was manifested, among
other things, by the prudent endeavors to gather the
means of grace recommended by the church. Thus, he
had a peculiar fancy for relics, and at that time Staupitz,
vicar of the Augustine-Eremites of Saxony, was engaged
along the Rhine and elsewhere collecting treasures of
relics for the Elector. This absence of the superior
officer was important for Luther who had to take his
place. He was already a man of authority in his order.
Although a professor of theology since 1512, he still
lived in his monastery at Wittenberg, and, as a rule,
wore his monk's hood. He visited the thirty monasteries
of his congregation, deposed priors, issued severe repri
mands on lax discipline, and urged severity towards fallen
monks. Yet he still retained something of the pious
simplicity of the brother of the monastery.
For it was in that sense that on October 31, 1517,
after he had affixed the theses against. Tetzel at the
church door, he wrote, full of confidence and simple hon
esty, to the protector of the dealer in indulgences, Arch
bishop Albrecht of Mayence. Full of the ingenuous pop
ular faith in the intelligence and good intentions of the
highest rulers, Luther thought — as he often said in later
times — that it needed but to represent honestly to the
princes of the church the disadvantage and immorality of
such abuses. But how childish did this zeal of the monk
appear to the smooth and refined princes of the church !
What aroused the profound indignation of the honest man
was all finished, disposed of, laid aside, from the point of
view of the Archbishop. The sale of indulgences was an
evil which had been deplored a hundred times, but it was

LUTHER LECTURING AT THE UNIVERSITY. (After Gustav Konig.)

THE RUPTURE WITH THE CHURCH. 31
unavoidable, as many institutions are to the politician
which, while not good in themselves, must be sustained
for the sake of a great interest. The greatest inter
est to the Archbishop and the curia was their temporal
dominion, which was gained and supported by money.
made in that manner. The great interest of Luther and
the people was truth. This was the parting of the ways.
Luther entered the struggle full of faith, a loyal son
of the church, full of devotion to the authorities of the
church. But, again, he had within him that which con
firmed him against too powerful an influence from such au
thority, a secure relation with his God. He was thirty-
four years old at that time, in the prime of his powers, of
medium size, of slender but strong body, which seemed
tall by the side of the small, delicate, boyish figure of
Melanchthon. In a countenance showing the traces of
night vigils and internal struggles, there glowed the fiery
eyes whose powerful radiance was difficult to bear. A re
spected man, not only in his order but also at the univer
sity ; not a great scholar, for he learned Greek from Me
lanchthon the following year and Hebrew immediately
after; he possessed no extensive book learning and never
was ambitious to shine as a Latin poet. But he was as
tonishingly well read in the Scriptures and some fathers
of the church, and what he absorbed he digested with Ger
man thoroughness. He was indefatigable as a minister
of his congregation, a zealous preacher, a warm friend,
having recovered an honest cheerfulness at that time,
of assured bearing, courteous and adroit, his intercourse
marked by conscious assurance which often transfigured
his features with a happy humor. Small events of the

32 MARTIN LUTHER.
day readily moved or disturbed him ; he was irritable and
wept easily, but if a great call approached him and he had
overcome the first nervous excitement — which, for in
stance, embarrassed him in his first appearance at the
diet of Worms — he possessed a wonderful equanimity and
assurance. He knew not fear ; his leonine nature even
took enjoyment in the most dangerous situations. Acci
dental danger of life which he incurred, insidious attacks
of his enemies, were scarcely held worthy of mention at
that time.
The foundation of this superhuman heroism, as it
were, was again his firm personal relationship to his God.
He had long periods when he desired martyrdom, smiling
and inwardly happy, to serve the truth and his God.
Still the future held terrible struggles in store for
him, but they were not of the kind in which he was met
by men. It was the Devil himself he had to beat down
for years, again and again; he overcame the anguish
and torments of Hell which was busily at work to ob
scure his understanding. Such a man might be killed,
but could hardly be conquered.

PHILIP MELANCHTHON.

THE CONFLICT.

THAT period of the struggle which follows next, from
the beginning of the controversy over the sale of in
dulgences to the departure from the Wartburg, the period
of his greatest victories and of an immense popularity, is
perhaps best known, and yet it seems that his character,
as it was during that period is not yet judged aright
Nothing is more remarkable during that time than
the manner in which Luther gradually became estranged
from the Roman Church. He was modest in life and
without ambition ; he clung with most profound reverence
to the lofty idea of the church, the community of the
faithful for fifteen hundred years. And yet in four short
years he was to be separated from the faith of his fathers,
torn away from the soil in which he was so firmly rooted.
And during all that time he would stand alone in the
struggle, alone, or at least with but a few loyal compan
ions — since 1518 with Melanchthon. He was to encounter
all the dangers of the fiercest war, not only against count
less enemies, but also against the anxious warnings of
honest friends and protectors. Thrice the Roman party
tried to silence him by the mission of Cajetanus, the per
suasive arts of Miltitz, the untimely assiduity of the quar-

34 MARTIN LUTHER.
relsome Eck ; thrice he spoke himself to the Pope in let
ters which are among the most valuable documents of
those years. Then came the divorce; he was cursed and
outlawed ; according to old university usage he burned the
challenge, and with it the possibility of retreat.
With cheerful confidence he went to Worms that the
princes of his nation might decide whether he should die
or live among them thenceforth without Pope or church,
according to the Scriptures only.
At first, when he had issued in print the theses against
Tetzel, he was astonished at the tremendous attention
they aroused in the empire, the venomous hatred of his
enemies, and the expressions of joyful recognition which
he received on many hands. Was his action such an un
heard-of thing? What he had uttered was believed by all
the best men of the church. When the Bishop of Bran
denburg sent the Abbot of Lehnin to him with the re
quest that Luther should suppress the publication of his
German sermon on "Absolution and Grace," no matter
how just his position was, the friar of the poor Augustin-
ian monastery was deeply moved that such great men
spoke kindly and cordially to him, and he was inclined
rather to give up the publication than to appear like a
strange freak of nature to disturb the peace of the church.
He endeavored zealously to controvert the rumor that the
Prince-Elector occasioned his quarrel with Tetzel. ' ' They
want to involve the innocent prince in the hatred that pur
sues me." He was willing to do anything to preserve the
peace, before Cajetanus and with Miltitz ; only one thing
he would not do, he could not recant. what he had said
against the un-Christian extension of the sale of indul-

POPE LEO X.

THE CONFLICT. 35
gen ces. Yet it was recantation alone that the hierarchy
demanded of him. For a long time he continued to desire
peace, penance, retreat to the peaceful activity of his cell,
and yet again and again an untruthful assertion of the
adversaries set his blood on fire, and each contradiction
was followed by a new, a sharper blow of his weapon.
Even in the first letter to Leo X., of May 30, 1518,
the heroic assurance of Luther is striking. As yet he is
the faithful son of the church, as yet he lays himself at
the feet of the Pope, offers him his whole life and being,
and promises to honor his voice as the voice of Christ,
whose vicegerent the head of the church is. But even
from this humility, which became the member of the mo
nastic order, there flashes forth the violent words : " If I
have merited death I do not refuse to die." And in
the letter itself, how vigorous are the terms in which he
describes the coarseness of the sellers of pardons ! There
was honest surprise why his theses made so much stir,
those sentences so hard to understand and involved in
enigmatical forms according to ancient usage. And good
humor sounds through the manly words : ' ' What shall I
do? I cannot recant. In our century full of genius and
beauty that might crowd a Cicero into a corner, I, an un
learned, narrow man, without refinement of culture! But
necessity compels, the goose must chatter among the
swans." The following year nearly all the friends of Luther
united to bring about a reconciliation. Staupitz and
Spalatin, back of them the Prince-Elector, scolded,
begged, and urged. The papal chamberlain Miltitz him
self praised Luther's disposition, whispered to him that he

36 MARTIN LUTHER.
was perfectly right, implored, drank with him, and kissed
him. True, Luther thought he knew that the courtier
had the secret mission to carry him prisoner to Rome if
possible. But the mediators happily found the point
where the stubborn man agreed with them heartily, viz.,
that respect for the church must be maintained and its
unity left undisturbed. Luther promised to keep still
and to leave the decision of the controverted points to
three respectable bishops. In this position he was urged
to write a letter of excuse to the Pope. But even this
letter of March 3, 1519, undoubtedly passed upon by the
mediators and wrung from the writer, is characteristic of
the progress Luther had made. Of humility which our
theologians read in it, it contains very little, but shows a
careful diplomatic attitude throughout. Luther regrets
that he had been charged with lack of reverence whereas
that which he had done was intended to protect the honor
of the Roman Church ; he promises to keep silent about
pardons and indulgences in the future, provided his ad
versaries would do likewise ; he promises to publish an
address to the people admonishing them to obey the Ro
man Church sincerely and not to become estranged from
it because its opponents had been insolent and himself
rude. But all these submissive words fail to cover the
chasm which already separates his mind from the Roman
spirit. And it sounds like cold irony when he writes :
" What shall I do, most Holy Father? I lack all advice.
I cannot bear the weight of your wrath and yet I know
not how I can escape it. They demand of me a recanta
tion. If it could effect what is intended by it I should

ERASMUS.

THE CONFLICT. 37
recant without a doubt. But the opposition of my adver
saries has spread my writings further than I ever had
hoped ; they sit too deeply in the souls of men. In our
Germany there now flourish talent, culture, free judg
ment. Should I recant, I should cover the church with
still greater obloquy in the judgment of my countrymen.
And it is they, my adversaries, that have brought dis
grace upon the Roman Church among us." Finally he
concludes politely : ' ' Should I be able to do more I shall
without doubt be quite ready for it. Christ save your
Holiness. M. Luther."
Much may be read behind this temperate restraint.
Even if the vain Eck had not at once forced the entire
University of Wittenberg into the fight, this letter could
scarcely be taken in Rome as a sign of repentance and
submission. Rome had spoken and Luther stood condemned.
Yet once more Luther showed the spirit of reconciliation
that characterises the deepest sentiments of his heart. A
second time appealing directly to the Pope, he wrote that
celebrated great letter, which at the request of the inde
fatigable Miltitz he dated back to September 6, 1520, in
order to be able to ignore the bull of excommunication.
It is the beautiful reflexion of a resolute spirit who, at
once grand in sincerity and noble in disposition, from his
lofty standpoint entirely overlooks his adversary. With
genuine sympathy he speaks of the person and the diffi
cult position of the Pope, but it is the sympathy of a
stranger ; still, he ruefully deplores the church, but one
feels that he has outgrown it himself. It is a letter of
divorce, cutting keenness coupled with a positive attitude

38 MARTIN LUTHER.
and silent sorrow ; thus does a man part from that which
he once loved and has found unworthy. To the media
tors this letter was to be the last bridge, for Luther it
was spiritual emancipation.
Luther himself had become a different man in these
years. In the first place, he had acquired firm self-reli
ance in his intercourse with the mighty ones of this earth
and at a high price acquired an insight into the politics
and private character of those who governed. To the
peaceful character of his sovereign there was nothing, at
bottom, more painful than this bitter theological con
troversy which at times promoted his policies, but always
disturbed him mentally. Forever the court sought to
restrain the men of Wittenberg, and ever Luther took
care that it was too late. Whenever the faithful Spalatin
warned against a new polemic step the answer came back
to him that there was no help, the sheets were printed
and already in many hands and beyond recall.
In his intercourse with his adversaries, also, Luther
acquired the assurance of a tried champion. He still felt
bitterly that in the spring of 1518 Jerome Emser at Dres
den insidiously led him to a supper at which he was
obliged to fight with angry enemies, particularly when
he learned that a begging Dominican friar had listened at
the door and spread the tale in the city the next day,
that Luther was completely smothered and that the lis
tener could scarcely restrain himself from leaping into
the room and spitting in the heretic's face.
At the first meeting with Cajetanus he still sank
humbly down at the feet of the prince of the church;
after the second meeting he permitted himself to think

THE CONFLICT. 39
that the Cardinal was as fit for his business " as an ass for
harp playing." The courteous Miltitz was treated with
corresponding politeness. The Romanist had hoped to
tame the German bear; soon the courtier got into that
position which fitted him : he became the tool of Luther.
And in the disputation of Leipsic with Eck, the favorable
impression which the sincere and firm manner of Luther
created was the best counterbalance against the compla
cent assurance of his adroit adversary.

BATTLES WITHIN AND BATTLES WITHOUT.

THE time when Luther was driven into a struggle
with the greatest power on earth was for him a
period of terrible suffering. Close to the elation of victory
lay mortal anxiety, torturing doubt, and fearful tempta
tion. He alone with a few, in arms against all Christen
dom, in ever more implacable hostility to the mightiest
power which still embraced all that was sacred to him
from his youth. If, after all, he erred in this thing or
that? He was responsible for every soul that he carried
along with him. And whither? What was there outside
of the church? Annihilation, destruction in this life and
hereafter. If adversaries and timid friends cut his heart
with reproaches and warnings, incomparably greater was
the torment, the secret gnawing, the uncertainty which
he durst not confess to anybody.
In prayer alone he found peace. Whenever his soul,
fervently seeking God, soared in mighty upward flight,
there came to him fulness of strength, composure, and
serenity. But in the hours of depression, when his im
pressionable soul quivered under contrary impressions,
then he felt embarrassed, divided, under the bane of an
other power which was inimical to his God.

BATTLES WITHIN AND BATTLES WITHOUT. 41
From his childhood he knew how busily the evil
spirits hover about man ; from Scripture he had learned
that the Devil works upon the purest, to destroy them.
On his path, also, lurked busy devils to weaken, to entice
him, to make countless others miserable through him.
He saw them work in the angry features of the Cardinal,
in the sneering face of Eck, yea, in the thoughts of his
own soul. He knew how powerful they were in Rome.
In his youth he had been tormented by apparitions,
now they returned. Out of the dark shadow of his study the
spectre of the tempter raised its claws against his reason,
even in the form of the Saviour did the Devil approach the
praying man, radiant as the Prince of Heaven with five
wounds, as the old church pictured Him. But Luther
knew that Christ appears to poor mortals only in His
words or in such humble form as He hung on the Cross.
And he gathered himself up indignantly and cried out
to the apparition: "Get thee gone, thou blaspheming
devil," and the apparition vanished.
Thus the strong heart of the man labored in wild in
surrection for long years with ever fresh force. It was a
ceaseless struggle between reason and illusion. But ever
he rose victor, the primary strength of his healthy na
ture overcame. In long prayer, often lasting for hours,
the stormy billows of emotion were smoothed., his mas
sive understanding and his conscience ever led him from
doubt to certainty. He felt this emancipating process as
a merciful inspiration of his God. And after such mo
ments his anxious fear gave way to a perfect indifference
to the judgment of men ; he became immovable and inex
orable.

42 MARTIN LUTHER.
Altogether different appears his personality in the
struggle with the enemies of this earth. With scarcely
an exception he there displays secure superiority, most
especially in his literary disputes.
Gigantic was the literary activity which he devel
oped. Up to 1517 he had published little, from that time
forward he became at once not only the most fertile but
also the most popular writer of Germany. The swing
of his style, the power of demonstration, the fire and pas
sion of his convictions carried everything before them.
No one had ever spoken thus to the people. His language
adapted itself to every mood, to every key, now terse and
condensed and sharp as steel. Again in ample breadth, a
mighty river, his words penetrated the people. His im
agery and striking comparisons made the most difficult
things intelligible. His was a wonderful creative power.
He handled language with sovereign facility. No
sooner did he seize the pen, than his mind worked with the
greatest freedom. His sentences exhale the serene warmth
which filled him. The full charm of heartfelt joy in the
work is poured over them. And his power is not the
least manifest in the attacks which he directed at individ
ual opponents. But it is also closely allied with the impro
priety which caused apprehensions even in his admiring
contemporaries. He loved to play with his adversaries, his
fancy clothes the figure of the enemy with a grotesque
mask, and this picture of his fancy he taunts, scoffs, and
thrusts at with turns of speech that do not sound temperate
and not always proper. But it is in this very invective that
his good humor, as a rule, conciliates the reader, though
not those whom he hits. Petty spitefulness he scarcely

BATTLES WITHIN AND BATTLES WITHOUT. 43
ever shows, not infrequently, however, an indelible good
humor. At times, it is true, he gets into the real artist's pas
sion ; he forgets the dignity of the reformer and pinches
like a naughty child, nay, like a spiteful goblin. How
he plucked all his opponents to pieces ! Now, as by the
blows of a club swung by a wrathful giant, again with a
fool's bauble.
He loved to ridicule the names of his adversaries.
Thus they lived in the circle of Wittenberg as beasts or as
fools. Eck became Dr. Geek,* Murnerf received a cat's
head and claws ; Emser, who had his coat of arms, a goat's
head, painted on most of his polemic writings, was mal
treated as a he-goat ; the Latin name of the recreant Hu
manist Cochlaeust was re-translated and Luther greeted
him as a snail with an impenetrable coat of mail and — it is
painful to relate — even called him snotnose. Worse, and
terrifying even to his contemporaries, was the violent
recklessness with which he inveighed against hostile
princes. Towards the cousin of his sovereign, Duke
George of Saxony, he often exhibited an unavoidable
forbearance. Each considered the other a prey to the
Devil, but secretly each respected the manly worth of
the other. Again and again they got into disputes, lit
erary ones, also; but again and again Luther prayed
heartily for the soul of his neighbor. On the other hand,
the arbitrary wickedness of Henry VIII. of England was
* Geek = coxcomb.
f " Murr," a familiar designation of a cat. We must add here that this was the
custom of the age, for Murner himself never fails to represent his own picture in
his satires with a cat's head and cat's claws.
X Latin cochlea, meaning a snail.

44 MARTIN LUTHER.
loathsome to the inmost heart of the German reformer,
he inveighed against him most shockingly and intermin
ably. And even during the last years he treated the
violent Henry of Brunswick like a naughty schoolboy.
Harlequin was the most harmless among the many char
acters in which he produced him.
If such an effusion of his stared him in the face in print
when it was too late, and if friends made complaint, he
would be vexed at his rudeness, scold himself, and be sin
cerely penitent ; but repentence helped little, for at the
next opportunity he fell into the same error. And Spala
tin had some cause to look with suspicion upon a projected
publication, even when Luther intended to write very
mildly and tamely. His opponents could not equal him in
vigor. They called him names with equal good-will, but
they lacked mental freedom. Unfortunately, it can hardly
be denied that this seasoning of the moral dignity of his
nature often made his writings particularly irresistible to
the common people of the sixteenth century.

ACCEPTING THE SUMMONS.

IN THE autumn of 1517 Luther got into a quarrel with
a dissolute Dominican friar ; in the winter of 1520 he
burned the papal bull. In the spring of 1518 he had pros
trated himself at the feet of the Pope, the vicegerent of
Christ; in the spring of 1521 he declared at the Diet of
Worms, before the Emperor and the princes and papal
legates, that he did not believe either the Pope or the
Councils alone, but only the testimony of the Holy Scrip
tures and rational thought.
Luther knew since December, 1520, that his case was
to be heard at the Diet, called to meet at Worms, and he
also knew that the cardinal-delegate, Aleander, was cease
lessly urging the Emperor to be severe with him, that the
Emperor himself was not favorably disposed towards the
bold monk, whose heretical books he had burned in the
Netherlands. The Prince - Elector of Saxony reached
Worms early in January, and found the Emperor pres
ent. The great men of the empire gathered slowly and
tardily. It was not until the end of February, 1521, that
the diet could be opened.
The intelligence which came from Worms to Witten
berg, travelling about as long as a letter from Europe to

46 MARTIN LUTHER.
America does to-day, took on a less favorable tone. The
Emperor and Luther's enemies thought it improper that
the excommunicated friar should be admitted to the Diet
at all, and Prince-Elector Frederick and the other princes
of the empire who thought it was wrong, or, at least, im
prudent, on account of the popular excitement, to con
demn him without a hearing, were obliged to put forth
the greatest efforts to obtain the concession that the her
etic was asked if he would recant and that he secured a
safe-conduct. Thus it was not unknown to Luther that imperial
outlawry threatened him, and his death was probable.
Naturally such a prospect should have impaired somewhat
the cheerfulness and literary productiveness of even the
most virile man. But in his case the reverse was true.
Scarcely at any other time in his life did he write so
much and such a variety of matter as during those
months. He tock his old literary opponent, Ambrosius
Catharinus, by the collar, and, with even greater energy,
the tedious Emser, of Leipsic, whom he scored, ridiculed,
and cuffed in a series of little books. The Pope, the le
gates, and their courtesans were represented with harsh
humor in wood-cuts by his friend, Lucas Cranach, con
trasting the humility of the suffering Christ with the
splendor of the clergy. He also labored indefatigably for
education and the ministry of souls. Besides some ser
mons and the Instructions for Penitents this period brought
the first part of the Postils, one of his principal works,
he worked on his exegesis of the Book of Psalms and
on the fine and soulful book, Explanation of Mary'1 s Song
of Praise.

ACCEPTING THE SUMMONS. 47
At last the imperial herald, Caspar Sturm, who was
called ' ' Germania ' ' in the heraldic language of the Lat
ins, brought the letter of safe-conduct to Wittenberg and
rode ahead of the waggon of Luther, who started for
Worms on April 2 with Amsdorf and two other compan
ions. In the cities of Thuringia the people crowded about
his waggon offering their good wishes. At Erfurt, the
Humanists, who were the ruling party at that university,
met him in a great procession on horseback and gave a
brilliant feast.
But through all these enthusiastic acclamations there
sounded a shrill note of discord. The Emperor had prom
ised safe-conduct for the journey both ways, and the
princes through whose domains he travelled, had also sent
letters to protect him. Nevertheless, the Emperor did
not want the excommunicated friar to reach Worms, and,
in order to deter him, he issued an order in advance of
the hearing and had it proclaimed in the cities that all of
Luther's books should be given up to the authorities.
Luther found the proclamation posted in the cities. His
friends at Worms were alarmed. Spalatin sent him a warn
ing that the fate of Huss was in store for him ; even the
herald asked if he still insisted on continuing his journey.
Luther himself was startled, but could not be turned
aside. He sent answer to Spalatin that Huss was burned,
but the truth was not burned, and he would go to Worms
though there were as many devils as tiles on the roofs.
Milder means, also, were tried to divert him. The
Emperor's confessor, Glapio, went to Sickingen at Ebern-
burg, apparently of his own free will, and advised most
urgently that Luther should avoid Worms and go to

48 MARTIN LUTHER.
Ebernburg to seek an understanding with him first. If
Luther had accepted this proposition it would have been
impossible to keep within the time for which he was pro
tected by the safe-conduct. Luther replied to the well-
meaning bearer of the message that if the Emperor's
confessor desired to speak with him he could be found
at Worms. When he drove into Worms, on the last day of the
term allowed for the journey, he was escorted by a caval
cade of a hundred horsemen, most of them Saxon gen
tlemen, who had come to meet him, while the people
crowded the streets and watched him with curiosity ; and
his quarters, which were assigned him in the house of the
order of St. John, were visited until late into the night
by noble callers who were full of curiosity and sympathy.
The next day he was cited before the Diet.
It was a disagreeable surprise to the papist party that
Luther had the courage to come. It was inconvenient to
the Emperor also. It was necessary, then, to calm the ex
citement which his presence created among the Germans,
by a speedy decision. On the other hand, his friends
and a majority of the princes who desired a compromise
and a friendly settlement of the dangerous dispute, did
not want to have the matter treated hastily. Chief among
these was the Prince-Elector, Frederick the Wise, whose
prudent manner could not suffer any violent and su
perficial proceeding, particularly as such a course would
put himself in a most unpleasant situation with the em
pire. He required time to satisfy his conscience and come
to a decision. His confidential advisers knew that it would
be simply a question of recantation and that there was

LUTHER'S ENTRANCE INTO WORMS. (After Spangenberg.)

ACCEPTING THE SUMMONS. 49
no possibility of any discussion or debate before the
Diet. Luther, however, had declared positively that he
would recant nothing. He was required, first of all, to
satisfy his sovereign and all who were inclined to medi
ate by asking for time to reflect upon so grave and diffi
cult a matter. It was a mere question of postponing the
final decision, but Luther was obliged, whether he would
or not, to conform to this requirement.

THE DIET OF WORMS.

IT WAS on April 17, at four o'clock in the afternoon,
that Luther was escorted to the Diet by the imperial
marshal, Ulrich von Pappenheim, and the herald. The
people crowded the streets and climbed on the roofs to see
Luther, so that he was taken by side streets to the Epis
copal Court, where the Diet was in session. This court,
according to popular tradition, was in ancient times the
royal palace of Gun ther, King of the Burgundians, and it
was there that the King, with the gloomy Hagen, devised
the secret plot against the life of the sunny hero Sieg
fried. Since that time the celebrated building has been
destroyed by the French. The princes and other partici
pants in the Diet sat in the main hall, which opened along
one side on an ante-room, so that they could be seen from
without and probably parts of their speeches could be
heard. But the princes themselves were not wont to
speak during the sessions. This was done by their coun
cillors, and the princes retired for private conference when
the time came for taking a decision.
Tradition tells us that on the threshold of the hall
George von Frundsberg, the famous general of the im
perial army, laid his hand on Luther's shoulder and said

READY TO FACE THE DIET. (After Gustav Kenig.)

THE DIET OF WORMS. 51
kindly: "My dear monk, thou goest to an encounter
which I and many foremost leaders of battle never have
faced. If thou art right and sure of thy cause, God speed
thee, and be comforted. God will not forsake thee."
When Luther was led in, Pappenheim cautioned him
that he could say nothing before the august assembly ex
cept in answer to questions. When he entered he did not
kneel down, as was expected of a monk when appearing
before the majesty of the Emperor, but stood bolt up
right. In front of him he saw the pale face and sombre
glance of the young Emperor ; he saw the expression of
anxiety in the kind face of his sovereign, the Elector,
and found himself in the presence of all those illustrious
princes and gentlemen of whose dispositions and opinions
he had heard so much in late years.
The official of the Archbishop of Treves began as
speaker for the Emperor: "His Imperial Majesty has
sent his mandate and summons to you, Martinus Luther,
to appear before the present Diet, that you may first give
answer if you confess to the books which have appeared
everywhere in the Holy Roman Empire under your title
and name, and if you wrote them as they here lie before
your eyes." He pointed to a pile of books lying on a
bench. Jerome Schurf, who, with five other doctors, was
Luther's legal adviser, called out: "Let the titles be
read," and Luther repeated the request.
The official read the titles of those books which
for years had excited the nation as was never done by
the publications of any man, either before or since.
Then he continued : "Furthermore, if you confess to the
books, His Imperial Majesty demands that you shall re-

52 MARTIN LUTHER.
cant them here and now, and therefore asks whether you
will do so or not, since there is mixed in them much evil
and erroneous teachings which may cause excitement and
discontent in the common, simple people. Consider and
take this to heart."
Luther's reply was about as follows: "Most illus
trious Emperor : Having appeared here in obedience to
your gracious bidding, I will answer, in the first place, to
the matter presented : The books whose titles have just
been read, and some others, which were written for the
instruction of the people, I confess to, and shall adhere to
such confession to the end of my days. In the second
place, however, since your Imperial Majesty requires that
I recant their contents, I would answer that this is truly
a great matter, for it concerns everlasting life and relates
to One who is more than any one in this assembly ; it is
His affair and action. That I may not, therefore, mislead
the poor Christian people and myself, I beg and ask that
your Imperial Majesty grant me a term for reflexion and
consideration. ' '
The Emperor and the princes joined in a short con
sultation. A majority insisted that the delay be granted,
and the official announced to Luther that the Emperor's
mercy would grant him time to reflect until four o'clock
the next day. Luther left with the words : "I shall con
sider the matter. ' '
In this session he spoke low and with humility, and,
his enemies said, indistinctly. It may be that the first
impression of the assembly embarrassed him. Assuredly
it was a greater burden to him that he could not speak
out freely all that he wanted.

BEFORE THE DIET OF WORMS. (After Werner.)

THE DIET OF WORMS. 53
The delay was short. The desire of the enemies to
be rid of the disturber was too great. The question was
what effect a refusal of Luther would produce. For he de
clared again after returning to his lodgings that he would
not recant a single stroke.
On April 18 he was again called for at four o'clock,
and had to wait in the crowd for about two hours. But
when he entered the meeting this time, he was quite him
self again and utterly indifferent to the opinion of men.
He greeted the assembly according to the manners of the
court, by bending both knees a trifle. He spoke respect
fully but firmly, and his voice, which was clear and high,
as once upon a time was that of Charlemagne, was heard
all over the hall. In a well-considered speech he greeted
the Emperor and the assembly, and first begged pardon
if in word, gesture, or manner he violated the manners of
court-life, since he was not brought up at any princely
court, but in the corners of monasteries. " In simplicity
of mind I have written and taught up to this time, and
sought nothing else on earth than the glory of God and
the instruction of those who believe in Christ."
Then he continued : "To the two questions which
have been put to me I will answer in this wise : I con
fess, as I did yesterday, that the books enumerated were
written by me and were issued in my name, unless by
fraud or the ignorance of others something was altered or
wrongly extracted in the printing, for I confess only to
that which came from myself. Now, my books are not of
one kind, for in some I treated quite simply and accord
ing to the Gospels, of faith and morals. These books
must be held useful everi by my adversaries and worthy

54 MARTIN LUTHER.
of being read by Christians. Even the angry and cruel
bull of the Pope calls some of my books harmless, al
though it condemns them contrary to reason. If I were
to begin to recant these writings, on which both friends
and enemies are agreed, I should be in conflict with the
general and harmonious opinion.
' ' The second series of my books is directed against
popery and the actions of the papists, against those who,
with evil teachings and example, have destroyed and cor
rupted the Christian world, miserably oppressed, bur
dened, and tortured the consciences of the faithful, also
devoured the goods and possessions of the great German
nation by incredible tyranny and rank injustice. Should
I recant these books I should do nothing else than to
strengthen such tyranny and unchristian practices and
throw open to them not the windows alone, but the doors
also, that they could continue to rage and work evil, and
their most impudent and criminal rancor would be con
firmed and fastened upon the poor, miserable people to a
degree that would be intolerable. This would be partic
ularly the case if it could be said that such increase of
misfortune happened at the order and upon the desire of
your Imperial Majesty and the entire Roman Empire.
O my dear Lord, what an infamous cloak of villainy and
tyranny I should become by such a recantation !
' ' The third kind of my books are written against
certain individuals who tried to protect Roman tyranny
and to eradicate the form of serving God which I taught.
I confess that against these adversaries I was more vio
lent than was proper for I do not make myself out a saint,
nor did I fight for myself, but for the honor of Christ,

THE DIET OF WORMS. 55
These books, likewise, I cannot recant, for my recanta
tion and retreat would strengthen the tyrannical wrath
and mad government of the enemies.
"My Lord Jesus Christ, when questioned by the
high priest about his teachings, and, being struck on the
cheek by a servant, said: 'If I have spoken evil, bear
witness of the evil.' Since the Lord did not refuse to
listen to an argument against his teachings, even from the
lowliest slave, how much more is it becoming in me, an
erring man, to desire and expect that some one may give
me witness against my teachings. Hence, I implore the
highest and the lowest, by the mercy of God, to prove my
error and overcome me with the evangelical and prophetic
writings. If I am instructed in that regard I will be the
very first to throw my books into the fire.
' ' Yesterday I was admonished earnestly to reflect
that discord, riot, and rebellion may grow out of my
teachings in the world. I have considered and weighed
it sufficiently. In truth, it is most joyful to me to see
that on account of the divine word there will be dissen
sion in the world, for that is the consequence and the fate
which is prepared by the Word of God. The Lord Him
self said : ' I came not to send peace but a sword, for I
am come to set a man at variance against his father.'
Let us beware, therefore, lest we condemn the Word of
God, under the pretext of adjusting the quarrels of par
ties, that a flood of insufferable evil may not come over us
and lest the noble youth, Emperor Charles, have an un
happy beginning of his reign. I say this not as though
my teaching and warning was needed by such great heads,
but because I owe it to my native land to do her this ser-

CO MARTIN LUTHER.
vice. And thus I commend myself to the mercy of the
Emperor and beg that your Imperial Majesty may not
suffer me to fall into disfavor through the ill opinion of
my enemies." Thus spoke on April 18, 1521, a man from the com
mon people before the Emperor and all the princes about
the government of the highest spiritual lord of the Chris
tian world. The polite modesty of the opening, the care
with which he distinguished his books, appeared as good
address even to his enemies. But soon after, he stood in
the assembly a stranger from another world, like a hero of
old swinging his iron club among a lot of delicate knights.
His comfortable assurance in describing the heads of the
clergy as frivolous villains, and the final warlike asser
tion : "It is most joyful to me to see how rebellion rises,"
before the august assembly which feared nothing more
than dissension among the people, was not the language
of a penitent speaking for his neck, but the proud utter
ance of a ruler chosen for victory or ruin.
It was a weird effect that the daring words and the
demon-like eyes of the man made upon the official, and
he attempted to instruct and reprimand him : "In your
answer there were thrusts and biting attacks, but no open
declaration. What you teach has been said by Huss and
other heretics, and that teaching has already been con
demned at the Council of Constance, with sufficient rea
son, by Pope and Emperor. I demand a simple, plain an
swer: Will you recant or not? If you recant, your
innocent little books will be preserved ; if you do not
recant, no regard will be had for what else you may have
written in a Christian sense, and you will give his Impe-

CHRISTO * SACRWA.
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FREDERICK THE WISE, PRINCE-ELECTOR OF SAXONY. (After Albrecht Dttrer.)

THE DIET OF WORMS. 57
rial Majesty cause to do with you as was done with Huss
and others." It was then that Luther spoke the familiar words :
"Since his Imperial Majesty requires a simple and
straight answer, I will give an answer that is neither of
fensive nor biting. I do not believe in either the Pope or
the councils alon,e, since it is plain that they have erred
repeatedly and contradicted themselves. Unless I am
overcome with the testimony of the Scripture or with
clear and transparent reasons, I will and shall not recant
a single word, for it is wicked and dangerous to act con
trary to conscience."
The official and Luther spoke Latin first, then re
peated their words in German. After the words of Luther
there was excitement and murmuring in the hall, and the
following Latin speeches of the two champions were not
heard all through the meeting. The angry Emperor
again asked, through the official, if Luther dared assert
that the councils had erred. And when Luther answered :
"Councils can err and have erred, and the one of Con
stance decided contrary to the clear and lucid text of the
Scripture, which I will demonstrate," the Emperor had
heard enough. Amazed at such audacity, he gave the
signal to close the proceedings and break up the meeting.
In response to the hostile gesture of the Emperor and
amid the clamor of his enemies, Luther finally exclaimed
in German the words which, according to the form handed
down by his theological friends in the editions of his
works, were: "Here I am. I cannot do otherwise. God
help me. Amen!" In reality they were probably ut-

58 MARTIN LUTHER.
tered in this way : "I cannot do otherwise. May God
come to my aid. Amen. Here I am."
It was the two days of the 17th and. 18th of April,
1521, that the two men looked in one another's faces who
have split the life of the western world in two, the great
enemies who in the great-grandchildren of their spirit
have fought each other down into the present time, the
Burgundian Hapsburger and the German peasant's son,
emperor and professor, the one who spoke German only
to his horse, the other the translator of the Bible and cre
ator of the new German language, the one the predecessor
of the patrons of the Jesuits, author of the house-policy
of the Hapsburgs, the other the precursor of Lessing, the
great poets, historians, and philosophers. It was an hour
big with fate for the history of the world when the young
Emperor, lord over one-half of the world, spoke the con
temptuous words : ' ' That fellow shall not make a her
etic of me." For it was at that time that there began
the struggle of his house with the spirit of the people, a
struggle of over three centuries, victories and defeats on
both sides. As far as human judgment may read the
workings of Providence in the fate of nations, we of to
day have at last seen the final outcome.
It was the first and only time, too, in German his
tory, that a man from the people so firmly defended, in
peril of death, the demands of his conscience before the
Emperor and the Diet. The effect of his steadfastness
upon the princes was great, immeasurably great upon the
people. When Frederick the Wise came to his chamber
from the assembly he said to his intimates, full both of
admiration and of care: " Doctor Martinus spoke well,

THE DIET OF WORMS. 59
in Latin and in German. He is much too courageous for
me." Even among those princes who looked upon his
teachings with indifference or dislike, respect and awe of
the brave man increased.
Luther, upon returning from the grand assemblage
to his lodgings, raised his hands to Heaven and joyfully
exclaimed: "I am through, I am through!" He had
escaped out into the open from the hedge of thorns with
which it was sought to surround him.
At last Luther was free. But what a freedom it was !
He was banned by the Pope and outlawed by the Em
peror. Nevertheless, he was free — free within himself,
but free as the beast of the forest, a fugitive ; and at
his heels howled a bloodthirsty pack of enemies. He
had arrived at the climax of his life, and the powers
against which he had rebelled, yea, the thoughts which
he himself had stirred up in the people, thenceforth worked
against his life and teachings.

THE HERO OF THE NATION.

THE clouds lower ; the storm breaks ; the whole na
tion is agitated by electric flashes. The words of
the Augustinian monk of Wittenberg crash and roll like
peals of thunder, and every blow means progress, means
victory. Even to-day, after a lapse of three centuries and
a half, the tremendous commotion of the nation attracts us
with irresistible magic. Never, as long as the German
people has lived, did its inmost nature reveal itself at once
so pathetically and so superbly. All the fine features of
the national soul and character burst into bloom during
that time; enthusiasm, resignation, a profound moral
wrath, searching inquiry within the human mind after
the sublime, and serious pleasure in systematic thought.
Each individual took part in the controversy. The way
faring pedlar disputed at the evening hearthfire for or
against pardons and indulgences, the countryman in the
most remote valley heard with amazement of the new her
etic whom his spiritual father cursed in every sermon.
The bag of the begging monk remained empty, for the
women of the village no longer gave cheese and eggs.
The tract literature swelled into an ocean, a hundred
printing presses were busy spreading the numerous po-

THE HERO OF THE NATION. 61
lemic writings, both learned and popular. At every par
ish church, in every chapter, the divided parties wrangled.
At all points resolute clergymen declared for the new doc
trine, weaker ones wrestled in anxious doubt, the gates
of monasteries were thrown open and the cells speedily
emptied. Every month brought something new, some
thing unheard-of, to the people.
It was no longer a quarrel among priests, as Hutten
had at first contemptuously called the controversy of the
men of Wittenberg with Tetzel. It had become a war of
the nation against Roman domination and its supporters.
In ever mightier outlines rises the figure of Luther before
the eyes of his contemporaries. Outlawed, cursed, per
secuted by Pope and Emperor, by princes and prelates,
four years suffice to make him the idolised hero of the
people. His journey to Worms is described in the style
of the Scripture, and the over-zealous compare him to the
martyrs of the New Testament. But the cultured classes,
also, are drawn into the battle in spite of themselves.
Even Erasmus smiles approval, and the soul of Hutten
is ablaze for the justice of the new gospel. He no longer
writes Latin. In forceful German words, wilder and more
impetuous than the men of Wittenberg, with a fire that
consumes him, the knight fights his last feuds for the son
of the peasant.
This portraiture of Luther, the man in whom for half
a generation was concentrated the best life of the people,
touches us very nearly. But before we try to understand
his soul, let us briefly indicate how his nature affected un
prejudiced contemporaries, and first, the testimony of a
sober and clear mind who never had close personal rela-

62 MARTIN LUTHER.
tions with Luther, and, subsequently, in an intermediate
position between the men of Wittenberg and the reformers
of Switzerland, had ample cause to be dissatisfied with
Luther's stubbornness. He was a friar from the old Bene
dictine monastery of Alpirsbach, in the wildest part of
the Black Forest, Ambrosius Blaurer, born at Constance,
of a noble family, and thirty years old at the time under
discussion. He had left the monastery July 8, 1522, and
taken refuge with his family. Upon the request of his
abbot, the Gpvernor of the principality of Wiirtemberg
demanded of the Mayor and Council of Constance his ex
tradition to the monastery. Blaurer published a defence
from which the following is taken. Shortly afterwards he
became preacher in Constance and composed religious
hymns ; after the last restoration of Duke Ulrich he was
one of the reformers of Wiirtemberg and died at a ripe
old age and weary' of action at Winterthur, an irreproach
able, worthy, temperate man. What he commends and
condemns in Luther may be taken as the general opinion
entertained by serious minds of those years :
" I call upon God and my conscience to witness that
it was not wantonness or any other unworthy motive that
caused me to leave the monastery, as they are now crying
in the streets, that monks and nuns leave their orders to
the detriment of monastic peace and discipline in order to
live in the license of the flesh and give the reins to their
wantonness and worldly passions. What caused me to
escape was honorable, weighty, and great troubles and
urgent admonitions of my conscience, based on, and di
rected by, the Word of God. And I am confident that the
occasion and all the circumstances of my escape do not

THE HERO OF THE NATION. 63
indicate levity, frivolity, or any improper purpose; for I
laid off neither hood nor cloak from my person except a
few days after my escape, for the sake of safety, until I
reached my place of refuge. Nor did I go to the wars nor
elope with a pretty woman, but, without delay, as speedily
as possible, went to my dear mother and my relatives, who
are of undoubted Christian character and stand in such
respect of probity in the city of Constance that they would
not advise or aid me towards any improper undertaking.
"Moreover, I trust that my past life and conduct
will readily turn aside from me any suspicion of im
proper, wanton purpose. For while I do not presume
anything before God, I may justly boast before men,
since necessity now demands it, that I have by respect
able conduct kept a good reputation and esteem, much
love and favor in the monastery, at school, here, and
wherever I have been. So did even the message from
Wiirtemberg, in your hearing, give me the praise that
there was no complaint or ill report of me in the monas
tery of Alpirsbach on account of my character or conduct,
but that I carried myself well and piously, except that, as
they say, I gave too much heed to the seductive and ac
cursed doctrine of Martin Luther ; that I read and kept
his writings and taught accordingly, against the prohibi
tion of the abbot, publicly in the monastery and in my
sermons to the laity ; and that when I was enjoined not to
do so, I poured the doctrine secretly and in corners into
the souls of some inmates of the monastery. With such
commendation of my fathers and fellow-members I am en
tirely content and well satisfied, and will answer for this
one misdeed as a Christian, and on the strength of the

64 MARTIN LUTHER.
Word of God, and I hope that my excuse will assist not
only myself but others also in turning aside a false and
groundless suspicion.
"During the last few years, when the writings and
books of Martin Luther were issued and became known,
they also came to my hands before they were prohibited
and condemned by spiritual and temporal authority. And,
like other newly printed publications, I looked at and
read them. At first such doctrine appeared somewhat
strange and curious, even rude and in conflict with long-
established theology and wise teachings of the school,
also with some ordinances of the papal spiritual law and
in contradiction to old, and, as I then deemed, laudable
traditions and usages handed down to us by our forefa
thers. But observing, nevertheless, clearly that this man
everywhere in his teachings inserted lucid, plain passages
of the Holy Scripture by which all other human teach
ings should be judged, accepted, or rejected, I wondered
much and was thereby induced to read such teachings not
once or twice, but often, with diligence and earnest atten
tion, and to reflect upon and compare them with the scrip
ture of the Gospels to which they frequently appeal. But
the longer and more assiduously I did so, the more I
understood how this very learned and enlightened man
treated the Holy Scripture with such great dignity, how
altogether purely and delicately he handled it, how he
cited it at all points wisely and appropriately, how dain
tily and skilfully he compared it and connected its parts,
explaining and making intelligible the obscure and diffi
cult texts by comparing other passages that were clear
and transparent, and I saw his treatment of the Scripture

THE HERO OF THE NATION. 65
showed the greatest mastery and gave the most profitable
help for thoroughly understanding it, so that every intelli
gent layman who looks at his books rightly and reads
them diligently can clearly understand that this doctrine
has a perfectly true, Christian, and firm foundation. For
that reason it struck my soul keenly and went deep into
my heart, and, gradually, the mist of many old misunder
standings has dropped from my eyes. For this doctrine
did not become suspicious to me like those of many other
scholars and teachers which I had read before, since it
aims not at either dominion, fame, or temporal pleasure,
but presents to us simply the poor, despised, crucified
Christ, and teaches a pure, modest, tranquil life agree
able in all things to the teachings of Christ, which is also
the reason why it is insufferable and too onerous for the
haughty, puffed-up doctors who seek in the Scripture
rather their own honor and glory than the spirit of God,
and to the priests who covet power and rich benefices.
Therefore, I will rather lose my body and life and all my
fortune than be moved from my position ; not on account
of Luther, who is personally strange and unknown to me
except by his writings — he also, is human, and there
fore subject to mistake and error like other men — but on
account of the Divine Word which he carries in him so
transparent and clear, and proclaims and elucidates with
such victorious and triumphant success and with such can
did and unterrified spirit.
' ' The enemies try to embitter this honey for us by
the fact that Luther is so irritable, violent, and harsh,
and lays hands with such frivolousness on his adversa
ries, especially the great princes, and lords temporal and

66 MARTIN LUTHER.
spiritual, that he scolds and blasphemes them and so
readily forgets brotherly love and Christian humility. In
that respect he has often displeased me also, and I would
not lead anybody to do as he does in that regard. Nev
ertheless, I would not reject his good Christian doctrine
on that account or even condemn him personally because
I cannot comprehend his mind and the secret judgment
of God which perhaps by this one defect will draw many
people away from his doctrine. And since he wants to
defend not his own cause, but the Word of God, there is
room for much indulgence, and this thing may be con
strued as the zealous wrath of God. Even Christ, the
source and mirror of all gentleness, often rudely assailed
the stubborn, flinty-hearted Pharisees before all others,
cursing them and calling them false hypocrites, whited
sepulchres, blind and leaders of the blind, and children
of the Devil, as the history of the Gospels shows. Per
haps Luther would be glad to give a great title to many
if he could do so with truth. But he may think it inap
propriate to call gracious those whose minds are dark
ened, or good shepherds those who are ravenous wolves,
or merciful those who know not mercy. For, without a
doubt, had not God been more merciful to him than they,
his body would no longer be on earth. But, be that as
it may, I will not defend it here. We will reject the scof
fing and scolding and gratefully accept the earnestness of
his Christian writings for our betterment.
"As I persisted freely in my well-founded purpose
and would not be deterred by any human prohibition, be
ing a Christian, the ill-will of the Lord of Alpirsbach and
several men of his monastery grew steadily and violently

THE HERO OF THE NATION. 67
against me, and the sword of the wrath qf God began to
cut and cause discord among the brothers. Finally, I
was commanded by the highest authority to desist from
my purpose and not to speak on this subject to others in
the monastery who were favorable to me and inclined to
Christian doctrine. Moreover, I was not to preach or
read in the monastery, but be in every respect like all
other brethren. I wished not to resist, but was willing
gladly to suffer such violence in Christian patience, but
with the reservation that for myself I should not be pro
hibited from reading and keeping what, according to my
knowledge and insight, was in accordance with Holy
Writ and profitable for my salvation; also, that if others
should ask me and need such advice I should afford them
teachings, writings, books, and brotherly instruction.
For so I was commanded by the Lord, my God, and I
would hold His command higher than all human obedi
ence. But this proposition was viewed with much disfa
vor and called intolerable sin ; the daily discord increased,
the peace of the monastery was undermined and shaken.
One said he would no longer remain in this school of her
etics, another that the Lutherans must leave the mon
astery or he would depart, a third pretended that the
house of God suffered ill report and worldly disadvan
tage for my sake, as there was a belief that they were all
of my opinion, a fourth spoke of flogging, a fifth of
something else, so that it was impossible to tolerate the
matter longer, or remain in such discord without violat
ing my conscience. Hence I begged of my abbot and
monastery earnestly and with greatest assiduity a gra
cious and free furlough ; I would maintain myself for a

68 MARTIN LUTHER.
year or two without expense to the house of God at some
school or elsewhere, and see if in the meantime by divine
interposition the cause of our dissension should come to a
peaceable issue, so that we could come together again
united in evangelical doctrine with kind and entirely broth
erly love. " But this being also refused by them, I escaped from
the monastery advisedly after having taken counsel with
wise, learned, prudent, and pious gentlemen and friends."
Thus far Ambrosius Blaurer.
While Brother Ambrosius was still looking with anx
ious care from the window of his cell over the pines of the
Black Forest, another man entered into the gate of a
stately castle in the Thuringian forest. Beneath, lay the
gloomy dragon's hole, before him the long ridge of the
charmed Hoersel mountain, in which dwelt Venus, the
fair devil, to whom the Pope, through his unwillingness
to forgive sins, had once upon a time driven the penitent
knight Tannhauser. But the withered staff which the
Pope on that occasion planted in the ground turned green
and fresh over night ; God Himself had refuted the Pope.
Poor, penitent man, relying on his child-like faith, no
longer needs the Roman bishop to find pity and mercy
with his Heavenly Father, and the bad Pope himself must,
according to the legend, go down into the cave of the old
dragon.

THE WARTBURG IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. (Woodcut by H. W. Mailer.)

THE OUTLAW OF THE WARTBURG.

THE Emperor was more concerned than ever that an
end be made of the stubborn heretic, for he had
just made an alliance with the Pope and taken the obli
gation to root out the false doctrine of Luther. But most
of the German princes, and notably the Archbishop of
Treves himself, demanded further negotiations in private
circles, where personal influence would count, and a re
gard for the unconciliatory disposition of the Germans
compelled the Emperor to yield a second time.
It was now Luther's task to withstand the shrewd
and earnest appeals of those whom he himself esteemed.
In those negotiations many concessions were made to
him, but he must recognise the supreme judgment of a
general council. He insisted upon his assertion that even
a council could err, as it did err at Constance. At last,
Richard of Treves saw that nothing could be gained by
negotiation with such a man. Luther himself begged to
be dismissed, and the mediators left him with respectful
adieus. The hours of these noiseless discussions con
tributed nothing to the settlement of the dispute, and, in
parting, Luther spoke the devout words: "As it pleased
the Lord, so has it come about ; the name of the Lord be
praised ! ' '

70 MARTIN LUTHER.
Great elation and joy possessed his mind at the won
derful victory of his cause, which he had sustained before
the Emperor and the princes of the realm. It was in vain
that enemies tried, by finding fault with his appearance
and bearing, to detract from the great impression. He
had become a hero to the people, who looked up to him
with adoration and anxious sympathy. All prudent men
saw that this teacher of the people, if he lived, would be
come a mighty power, not only for the doctrine of the
Church but also for the political fortunes of the empire.
The greatest care of his friends was to save him from
destruction. At Worms , Luther was informed that he must disap
pear for a time. The habits of the Frankish knights,
among whom he had loyal admirers , suggested the idea
of having him seized by men-at-arms. Prince-Elector
Frederick counselled with his faithful men about the ab
duction. And it was quite in keeping with the character of
that prince that he did not want to know the place where
Luther was to be kept in order to be able to confirm his
ignorance by oath in case of necessity. Nor was it easy
to win Luther's favor for the plan, for his brave heart
had long since overcome worldly fear, and it was with an
enthusiastic joy, in which there was much fanaticism and
some humor, that he looked upon the attempts of the Ro
manists to remove from this world him over whom Another
was disposing Who only spoke through his mouth.
There are many passages to show how complacently
he looked upon death. Here is one written during the
Wartburg period in the introduction to the Gospel-Read
ing of the Ten Lepers (Sept. 17, 1521): "Poor friar

THE OUTLAW OF THE WARTBURG. 71
that I am, I have once more lighted a fire, I have bitten a
great hole in the pockets of the papists because I assailed
the confessional. Where shall I now hide myself and
where will they now get enough sulphur, pitch, fire, and
wood to destroy the venomous heretic? They will have
to take out the church windows, since some holy fathers
and gentlemen of the cloth preach that they must have air
to proclaim the Gospel, i. e. , to malign Luther, to cry mur
der and spit fire. What else could they preach to the poor
people? Each one must preach as he can. But ' Kill,
kill, kill the heretic ! ' they cry. ' He wants to turn all
things upside down and upset the whole clerical profes
sion, on which all Christendom rests.' Now, I hope, if I
am worthy of it, they will succeed and kill me and over
me fill the measure of their fathers. But it is not yet
time, my hour is not yet come, I must first stir the wrath
of the viper brood more fiercely and honestly deserve
death from them, that they may have cause to perform a
great service to God upon me."
Reluctantly Luther submitted to the plan of his
friends. The secret was not easily kept, however adroitly
the abduction to the Wartburg was planned. At first only
Melanchthon, among the men of Wittenberg, knew of his
whereabouts. Now, Luther was not at all the man to sub
mit even to the best-meant intrigues. There soon began
a busy running of messengers between the Wartburg and
Wittenberg ; no matter what care was employed in trans
mitting the letters, it was difficult to disprove the rumor.
Luther, on the Wartburg, learned sooner than the
men of Wittenberg what happened in the great world ; he
received intelligence of all the new happenings of his uni-

72 MARTIN LUTHER.
versity and tried to sustain the courage of his friends
and to guide their policy. Truly touching are his efforts
to encourage Melanchthon, whose impractical nature felt
painfully the absence of his strong friend. "It will go
along without me," wrote Luther, " only have courage,
I am no longer necessary to you ; if I come forth and
cannot again return to Wittenberg, I shall go into the
world. You are the man to hold the fortress of the Lord
against the Devil, without me."
His letters were addressed "from the air," "from
Patmos," "from the desert," "among the birds which
sing sweetly from the trees and praise God with all their
might day and night."
Once he tried to be crafty. In a missive to Spalatin
he enclosed a decoy letter ; it was believed, he wrote, with
out reason, that he was on the Wartburg ; he was living
among loyal brothers ; it was remarkable that no one
thought of Bohemia; there was added a thrust — not a
malicious one — at Duke George of Saxony, his most zeal
ous enemy. Spalatin was to lose this letter with careful
negligence so that it might reach the hands of his adver
saries. But in such diplomacy he was not consistent, for
as soon as his leonine nature was aroused by a piece of
intelligence he would forthwith resolve to depart for Er
furt or Wittenberg.
He bore the idleness of his sojourn hard. He was
treated with the greatest attention by the commander of
the castle, and this care was shown, as was then the cus
tom, in the first place, by the loyal keeper furnishing his
best in the matter of food and drink. The rich life, the
lack of exercise, the fresh mountain air into which the

THE OUTLAW OF THE WARTBURG.

THE OUTLAW OF THE WARTBURG. 73
theologian was transplanted, had their effects on soul and
body. He had brought from Worms a bodily ailment;
then there came hours of dark melancholy unfitting him
even for work.
Two days in succession he joined in the chase. But
his heart was with the few hares and partridges that were
being driven into the nets by the throng of men and
dogs. "Innocent little beasts! That is the papists' fash
ion of hunting." To save the life of a little hare he folded
it up in the sleeve of his coat, but the dogs came and
broke its legs within the folds of the protecting coat.
" So does Satan," said he, " chafe against the souls which
I try to save."

A CONTEMPORARY'S DESCRIPTION OF
LUTHER.

AN EXCELLENT REPORT of the personality of
Luther in the days of his residence on the Wartburg
is still extant in Johannes Kessler's Sabbata, a chronicle
of the years 1523-1539, edited by E. Gotzinger. When
travelling with a friend from Switzerland to Saxony, Kess-
ler met Luther, who had left the Wartburg for a short
time and was secretly riding towards Wittenberg in the
garb of a knight. Their meeting is so vividly described
by the young student that it should not be omitted here.
Johannes Kessler, born about 1502, the son of poor
burghers of St. Gall, Switzerland, attended the monastery
school of that place, studied theology at Basel, and in
the early spring of 1522 went with a companion to Wit
tenberg to continue his studies under the reformers. In
the winter of 1523 he returned home, and, since the new
doctrine had no abiding place yet in that country and he
was very poor, he resolved to learn a trade. He turned
saddler. A little congregation soon gathered about him,
he taught, preached, worked in his shop, and wrote books,
finally became a school teacher, librarian, and member of
the board of education. His was a modest, gentle, pure

A CONTEMPORARY'S DESCRIPTION OF LUTHER. 75
nature, with a heart full of love and mild warmth. He
took no active part in the theological controversies of his
age. His tale begins :
' ' While travelling to Wittenberg to study the Holy
Scripture we came to Jena, in the Thuringian land, in a
thunder-storm which, Heaven knows, raged furiously,
and after much inquiry in the city for a night's lodging
we failed to secure any, being refused everywhere. For
it was Shrove-Tuesday, when little care was taken of pil
grims and strangers. We turned to go out of the city and
continue our journey in hope of finding a village where
we could be lodged. Under the gate we met a respecta
ble man who accosted us kindly and asked whither we
were bound so late, as we could not before night reach
any house or shelter where we would be kept. Moreover,
the road was easily missed and we might be lost. So he
advised us to remain.
"We answered: ' Dear father, we called at allthe
inns to which we were directed hither and thither, but
everywhere we were turned away and denied lodging,
hence we must needs go on our way.' Whereupon he
asked if we had inquired at the Black Bear. We said :
' We did not see it. Tell us, kind sir, where shall we
find it?' He showed it to us, a little outside of the city.
And when we saw the Black Bear, lo, while all other inn
keepers had previously denied us lodging, this one came
to the door, received us, and kindly offered to lodge us,
and led us into the room.
"There we found a man sitting alone at the table,
and before him lay a little book. He greeted us kindly,
bade us come near and sit at the table with him. For our

76 MARTIN LUTHER.
shoes — if I may be permitted to say so — were so covered
with dirt and mud that for shame we did not enter the
room merrily, but stealthily sat down on a bench near the
door. He offered us to drink, which we could not refuse.
So, seeing his kindness and cordiality, we sat down at his
table, as he had bidden, and had a measure of wine served
that we might return the compliment and offer him to
drink. We thought nothing else than that he was a
horseman who sat there according to the custom of the
country, with a red leather cap, in hose and doublet, with
out armor, a sword at his side, the right hand on the pom
mel, the left grasping the hilt. His eyes were black and
deep set, shining and sparkling like stars, so that one
might not well bear to look into them.
" But he soon began to ask whence we came, answer
ing himself, however : ' You are Swiss. From what part
of Switzerland?' We replied: ' From St. Gall.' Then
he said : ' If you go from here to Wittenberg, as I hear
is your intention, you will find good countrymen, Dr.
Jerome Schurf and his brother, Dr. Augustin.'
"We said: 'We have letters to them.' Then we
asked him again : ' Sir, can you inform us if Martin Lu
ther is at present staying in Wittenberg or at what place
else he is?'
' ' Said he : 'I have certain information that Luther
is not at Wittenberg just at present, but he is soon to
go there. Philippus Melanchthon is there, however; he
teaches the Greek language, as others also teach the He
brew. In good faith, I will counsel you to study both,
for they are necessary to understand the Holy Scripture.'
"Said we: 'God be praised. For if God gives us

LUTHER AS YOUNKER GEORGE. (After the woodcut of Lucas Cranach.)

A CONTEMPORARY'S DESCRIPTION OF LUTHER. 77
life we will not stop till we see and hear this man. For
his sake we have undertaken this journey, since we heard
that he wants to upset the priesthood and the mass as not
being based on a solid foundation. Since we have been
educated and destined by our parents from childhood to
be priests, we would fain hear what manner of instruction
he would give us and by what right he means to carry out
his purpose.' "After such words he asked : ' Where did you study
so far?' We answered: 'At Basel.' Then he said: 'How
is it at Basel? Is Erasmus Roterdamus there yet? What
does he do?'
" ' Sir,' we said, ' we know nothing else than that all
is well there. Erasmus is there, also, but what he does
is unknown and hidden from all, since he keeps himself
very quiet and secret.'
* ' These speeches seemed very strange to us in the
horseman, that he could speak of the two Schurf s, of
Philippus and Erasmus, likewise of the need of both the
Greek and the Hebrew tongues. Furthermore, he spoke
a few Latin words between, so that it would seem to us he
was a different person from a common horseman.
" 'Dear sirs,' he asked us, 'what do they think of
Luther in the Swiss country?'
" ' Sir, there, as everywhere, there are various opin
ions. Some cannot extol him enough and thank God that
He revealed His truth through him and made known the
errors ; others, above all the clergy, condemn him as an in
tolerable heretic. '
" He said : ' I can imagine it well, it is the priests.'
" With such conversation we began to feel at home,

78 MARTIN LUTHER.
so that my companion picked up the book lying before
him and opened it. It was a Hebrew psalter. He laid
it down again quickly and the horseman put it away.
Thence arose still more doubt as to who he was. And
my companion said : ' I would give a finger off my hand
if I understood that language. ' ' You will understand
it well enough if you are industrious,' said the stranger;
' I also desire to learn it better, and practise it daily.'
' ' In the meantime the day went down ; it became
very dark, and the innkeeper came to the table. When
he heard our great desire for Mr. Luther he said : ' Dear
boys, if you had been here two days ago you would have
been gratified, for here at this table he sat, at that place,'
pointing with his finger. We were much vexed and angry
that we had been delayed and vented our ill-humor on the
muddy and bad roads which had hindered us. Yet we
said : ' We are glad, however, that we sit in the house
and at the table where he sat.' The innkeeper laughed
and went out.
"After a little while the innkeeper called me out be
fore the door. I was frightened and thought of what I
might have done that was improper or had given offence.
"And the landlord said to me: 'Since I see that
you honestly desire to see and hear Luther — it is he that
sits with you.'
" I took the words for a jest and said : 'Mine host,
you are making sport of me and want to satisfy my desire
by an illusion.' He replied: ' It is he, assuredly. But
do not act as though you knew or recognised him. I al
lowed the landlord to be right, but could not believe it. I
returned into the room and sat down at the table. I was

A CONTEMPORARY'S DESCRIPTION OF LUTHER. 79
anxious to tell my companion what the landlord said. At
last I turned to him and whispered secretly : ' The land
lord told me that man was Luther.' Like myself, he
would not believe it, and said : ' Perhaps he said it was
Hutten and you did not understand him right?' Since
the horseman's garb and his manner also reminded me
more of Hutten, the knight, than of Luther, the monk, I
was easily persuaded that he said: 'It is Hutten,' the
beginnings of the two names sounding alike. What I
said after that, therefore, was uttered as though I was
speaking to Sir Huldrich ab Hutten, the knight.
"During all this, there entered two merchants who
also wanted to remain over night, and after undressing
and laying aside their outer garments and spurs, one of
them laid by his side an unbound book. Martinus asked
what the book was. He said: "It is Doctor Luther's
explication of some gospels and epistles, only recently
printed and issued. Did you never see it?' Martinus
replied : ' They will reach me soon. ' The landlord said :
'Now sit down at the table, we will eat.' But we spoke
and asked the landlord to be indulgent with us and give
us something apart. But the landlord said : ' My dear
lads sit at the table with the gentlemen, I will serve you
in proper manner.' Martinus hearing this, said : ' Come
with us, I will settle the bill with the landlord.'
"During the meal Martinus spoke many pious,
kindly discourses, that the merchants and ourselves at
tended more to his words than to the food. Among other
things, he complained with a sigh that just then the
princes and lords were assembled at the Diet at Nurem
berg on account of the Word of God, the pending contro-

80 MARTIN LUTHER.
versies, and the burdens of the nation, but were inclined
to nothing more than spending their time in costly tour
neys, sleigh rides, immoral practices, and ostentatious
pageantries, whereas piety and earnest prayers to God
would be of much greater help. ' But such are our Chris
tian princes.' Further, he said he hoped that the truth
of the Gospels would bear more fruit among our children
and posterity, who would not be poisoned by the errors of
popery but would stand upon the clear truth and the Word
of God, than among the parents in whom error was so
deeply rooted that it could not well be eradicated.
"Afterwards the merchants also stated their own
opinions, and the elder one said: 'I am a simple, plain
layman, and not expert in these controversies, but this I
say : As the matter appears to me, Luther must be either
an angel from Heaven or a devil from Hell. I am minded
to spend ten florins for his sake that I may confess to him,
for I believe he would and could well enlighten my con
science.' In the meantime the landlord came to us and
said: ' Have no care for the bill, Martinus settled for the
supper for you.' This made us very happy, not for the
sake of the money and the pleasure of the meal, but that
this man had entertained us as guests. After supper the
merchants arose and went into the stable to provide for
the horses. Meanwhile, Martinus remained alone with us
in the room. We thanked him for his kindness and the
honor done us and gave him to understand that we thought
he was Ulrich ab Hutten. But he said : ' I am not he.'
' ' The landlord came in and Martinus said : ' I have
become a nobleman this night, for these Swiss take me
for Ulrich ab Hutten.' Said the landlord: 'You are

A CONTEMPORARY'S DESCRIPTION OF LUTHER. 81
not he, but you are Martinus Luther.' He smiled and
said, jesting: 'They take me for Hutten and you for
Luther, soon I shall be Marcolfus.'* And after such con
versation he took a tall beer glass and said, after the
fashion of the country: 'My Swiss friends, let us drink
one friendly draught for a blessing. ' And as I was about
to take the glass from him he changed the glass and of
fering me a glass of wine instead, said: 'You are unac
customed to beer, drink this wine.' With that he arose,
threw the cloak over his arm and took his leave. He of
fered us his hand and said : ' When you reach Witten
berg, give my love to Dr. Jerome Schurf.' Said we:
'We shall gladly do so, but how shall we name you that
he may understand your greeting?' Said he : ' Say noth
ing more than this : He who is coming sends his greet
ing, and he will understand the words at once.' So he
left us and went to rest.
' ' The merchants returned to the room and ordered
the landlord to bring them another drink, over which they
held much conversation with respect to the guest who had
sat with them and who he might be. The landlord inti
mated that he took him to be Luther, and the merchants
were soon convinced and regretted that they had spoken
awkwardly of him. They said they would rise earlier in
the morning before he rode off, and would beg him not to
be angry with them nor remember it with ill-feeling that
they did not recognise him. So it was done, and they
found him in the morning in the stable. But Martinus
replied : ' You said last night at the evening meal you
*A popular comical figure, not unlike the Punch and Judy o modern times.
See Dialogue of Solomon and Saturn (Marcolf).

82 MARTIN LUTHER.
would spend ten florins on account of Luther to confess to
him. If you ever come to confess to him you will see
and be sure whether I am Martinus Luther.' Further
than that he did not disclose his identity, but mounted
soon after and rode towards Wittenberg.
"The same day we travelled towards Naumburg, and
as we came to a village — it lies at the foot of a mountain
which is called Orlamunde, and the village is named Nass-
hausen — there was a stream flowing through the village
which had overflowed with excessive rains so that no one
could ride across on horseback. We stopped in that vil
lage and by accident met the two merchants at the inn,
who entertained us as guests for the sake of Luther.
"The following Saturday, the day before the first
Sunday in Lent, we entered the house of Dr. Jerome
Schurf to deliver our letters. As we were called into the
room, lo, we found the horseman Martinus, just as in
Jena. And with him were Philippus Melanchthon, Jus
tus Jodocus Jonas, Nicolaus Amsdorf, and Dr. Augustin
Schurf, who were telling him what had happened at Wit
tenberg during his absence. He greeted us and laughed,
pointed with his finger and said: 'This is Philip Me
lanchthon, of whom I have told you.' "
In the ingenuous story of Kessler nothing is more
remarkable than the serene unconcern of the mighty man
who rode through Thuringia, outlawed and accursed, his
heart filled with passionate anxiety for the greatest dan
ger threatening his doctrine — the fanaticism of his own
partisans.

PROBLEMS AND TASKS.

LUTHER had cast aside all the authority of the
Church; now he stood alone, shuddering; only
one last thing was left to him — the Scripture.
The old Church had represented Christianity in a
continuous development. A living tradition of councils
and decrees of the Popes, running along beside the Scrip
ture, had kept the faith in constant motion ; like a conveni
ent river, it had adapted itself to the sharp angles of na
tional character, of great needs of the times. True, this
lofty idea of an eternally living organism was not pre
served in its pristine purity, the best part of its life had
vanished, the empty shell only was preserved, the ancient
democratic Church had been transformed into the irre
sponsible dominion of a few, soiled with all the vices of a
conscienceless aristocracy, in crying opposition to reason
and the popular heart. That which Luther could substi
tute would set man free from a chaos of soulless malfor
mation. But it threatened other dangers.
What was the Bible? Between the oldest and the
latest work of the holy book there lay, perhaps, two thou
sand years. Even the New Testament was not written
by Christ Himself, not even in all cases by such as had

84 MARTIN LUTHER.
heard the holy doctrine from His mouth. It was compiled
long after His death. Some things in it might have been
handed down inaccurately. The whole was written in a
strange language difficult to understand. Even the great
est intelligence incurred the liability of misconstruction
unless the grace of God illumined the commentator even
as it had illumined the apostles. The old Church had
found a short remedy, the sacrament of the priestly office
gave the required illumination, nay, the holy father even
claimed the divine power of deciding the right, although
his will might be in conflict with the Scriptures. The re
former had nothing but his feeble human knowledge and
his prayer. First, it was inevitable that he must employ his rea
son ; even towards Holy Writ a certain amount of criti
cism was necessary. It did not remain hidden from Lu
ther that the books of the New Testament were of differ
ent value ; it is known that he did not esteem Revelation
very highly, and that the Epistle of James was held by
him to be an "epistle of straw." But his opposition to
details never made him doubt the whole. Immovable
stood his faith that the Holy Scripture, with the excep
tion of a few books, contained divine revelation down to
the word and the letter. It was to him the dearest thing
on earth, the foundation of all his knowledge ; he so com
pletely entered into it that he lived amidst its figures as
in the present. The more threatening the feeling of his
responsibility, the more ardent the fervor with which he
clung to the Scripture. And a strong instinct for the ra
tional and expedient helped him to surmount many dan
gers, his shrewdness had nothing of the hairsplitting

PROBLEMS AND TASKS. 85
sophistry of the old teachers ; he despised unnecessary
subtleties, and, with admirable tact, would willingly leave
undetermined what appeared unessential. But unless he
would become either infidel or insane, nothing was left
but to base the new doctrine on words and conditions of
civilisation which had life fifteen hundred years before his
time. And yet in some cases he became a victim of that
which his opponent Eck called the black letter.
. Under such compelling influences his method was
formed. If he had a question to solve, he collected all
those passages of the Scripture which seemed to contain
an answer ; he tried searchingly to understand each pas
sage in its context, then drew the sum of them. That in
which they agreed was placed in advance ; where they de
viated from one another he modestly tried to find a solu
tion that united even the conflicting things. The result
he fixed inwardly among temptations, by fervent prayer.
With such a procedure he was bound, at times, to ar
rive at results that could be contested even by the ordi
nary human understanding. When he undertook, in 1522,
for instance, to place marriage on a new moral foundation
from the Scriptures, the reason and needs of the people
were certainly on his side in subjecting to a sharp analy
sis the eighteen grounds of the spiritual law for preventing
or dissolving marriage, and condemning the improper fa
vor shown to the rich over the poor. But it was, never
theless, odd if Luther tried to prove from the Bible alone
what degrees of relationship were allowed or prohibited,
especially as he also referred to the Old Testament in
which several peculiar marriages were concluded without
contradiction from old Jehovah. Without a doubt, God

86 MARTIN LUTHER.
had permitted his chosen ones repeatedly to have two
wives. It was the same method that in 1529, during the ne
gotiations with the followers of Zwingli, made him so
stubborn, at the time when he wrote on the table in front
of him " this is my body," and looked with a dark frown
upon the tears and the outstretched hands of Zwingli.
Never was he more narrow, yet never more mighty ;
a terrible man who had wrung his convictions from doubt
and the Devil by the most violent inward struggles. It
was an imperfect process, and his adversaries directed
their attacks upon it not without success. With it his doc
trine underwent the fate of all human wisdom. But in
this method there was also a strong spiritual process in
which his own reason, the culture and popular needs of
his time were asserted more powerfully than he himself
suspected. And it became the starting-point from which
conscientious research has worked up to the highest spir
itual liberty.
Together with this great trial there came to the ex
iled monk on the Wartburg smaller temptations ; he had
long since, by almost superhuman mental activity, over
come those things which, as impulses of the senses, were
looked upon with great suspicion ; now nature reasserted
itself vigorously, and he repeatedly asks Melanchthon to
pray for h;m on that score.
At this particular juncture, fate ordained that the
restless mind of Karlstadt at Wittenberg should take up
the question of the marriage of priests, and in an essay
on celibacy he came to the conclusion that priests and
monks were not bound by the vow of celibacy. The men

PROBLEMS AND TASKS. 87
of Wittenberg generally assented, first Melanchthon, who
was least hampered in regard to this question, never hav
ing himself been consecrated and having been married for
two years. Thus there were thrown into Luther's soul
from without thoughts and moral problems the threads of
which were destined to stretch over his entire subsequent
life. What of genuine joy and worldly happiness was
vouchsafed to him thereafter depended upon the answer he
found for this question. What made it possible for him to
endure the later years was the happiness of his home ; from
that point the flower of his rich heart was destined to un
fold. So mercifully did fate at that particular time send
to the lonely one the message which was to link him
afresh and more closely with his people.
And his treatment of this question again is charac
teristic. His devout soul and the conservative feature of
his entire nature rebelled against the hasty and superfi
cial manner of Karlstadt's argument. It is safe to assume
that many of the very things which he felt within himself
made him suspicious whether the Devil was not using this
delicate question to tempt the children of God. And yet,
just at that time during his imprisonment, he felt extreme
pity for the poor monks in the restraint of the monastery.
He searched the Scriptures : the marriage of priests was
easily disposed of. But of the monks there was not a
word in the Bible. "The Scripture is silent, man is un
certain." Then occurred to him the ridiculous notion that his
own closest friends might marry, and he wrote to the cau
tious Spalatin : ' ' Good God, our Wittenberg friends want
to give wives to the monks, too! Well, they shall not

88 MARTIN LUTHER.
hang one about my neck," and he warns him ironically:
" Take good care that you do not yourself marry." But
the problem occupied him continually, nevertheless. A
man lives fast in such great times. Gradually, by Me-
lanchthon's argument, and, we may assume, after fervent
prayer, he arrived at certainty. What turned the scale,
though unconsciously to him, was the final conclusion
that it had become rational and necessary for a better
moral foundation of social life, to open the monaster
ies. Nearly three months he had wrestled with the ques
tion ; on November 1, 1521, he wrote the above-mentioned
letter to his father.
The effect of his words upon the people was beyond
measure ; everywhere there was a stir in the corridors ;
from nearly all monastery gates slipped monks and nuns ;
at first singly, in clandestine flight; soon, whole monas
teries disbanded.
In the following spring, when Luther, with greater
care in his heart, returned to Wittenberg, the runaway
nuns and monks caused him much trouble. Secret let
ters were forwarded to him from all parts, frequently from
excited nuns who, when children, had been sent to con
vents by hard-hearted parents and now, without money
or protection, sought the help of the great reformer. It
was not unnatural that they crowded to Wittenberg.
There came nine nuns from the aristocratic convent of
Nimbschen, among them a Staupitz, two Zeschaus, and
Catharine of Bora ; again there were sixteen nuns to be
cared for, and so on. He pitied the poor people very
much ; he wrote in their behalf, and ran around to place
them in respectable families.

PROBLEMS AND TASKS. 89
At times, there was too much of it for him, the
throngs of escaped monks molesting him particularly.
He complains : ' ' They want to marry at once and are
the most unskilful men for any work." By his bold solu
tion of a difficult question he gave great offence ; he had
painful sensations himself, for while among those who
were returning to civil society in a tumult there were
high-minded men, there were also coarse and bad ones.
But all those things did not confuse him for a moment.
It was his way that opposition only made him more
resolute. When in 1524 he published the story of the suffer
ings of a nun, Florentina of Oberweimar, he repeated in
the dedication what he had preached so often : ' ' God often
proclaims in the Scriptures that he wants no enforced ser
vice and no one shall become His unless he do so wil
lingly and lovingly. God help us ! Why should we be
so unreasonable? Should we not use our understanding
and our ears? I say it again, God wants no enforced ser
vice ; I say it a third time, I say it a hundred thousand
times, God wants no enforced service."
Thus Luther entered the last period of his life. His
disappearance in the Thuringian forest had caused tre
mendous excitement. The adversaries trembled at the
wrath which arose in the cities and in the country against
those who were called his murderers. But the interrup
tion of his public activity was fatal to him, notwithstand
ing. As long as he was at Wittenberg, the centre of the
fight, his work, his pen had ruled with overshadowing
power over the great movement of the spirits in South

90 MARTIN LUTHER.
and North, now the movement worked arbitrarily in dif
ferent directions , in many heads .
One of the oldest companions of Luther began the
confusion, Wittenberg itself became the scene of an ad
venturous movement, and Luther could tarry no longer
in the Wartburg. Once before he had been in Witten
berg secretly, now he returned there publicly, against the
wishes of the Prince-Elector. And then he began a heroic
struggle against old friends and against the conclusions
drawn from his own teachings. His work was more than
that of a man. He fulminated unremittingly from the pul
pit, in the study his pen was flying. But he was unable to
bring back every apostate mind, he himself could not pre
vent the mob in the cities from raging with rude irrever
ence against institutions of the old Church and against
hated persons, the excitement of the people from causing
political storms, the knight from rising against the prince,
the peasant against the knight. And what was more, he
could not prevent the spiritual liberty which he had ob
tained for himself and others frcm producing in pious and
learned men an independent judgment with regard to faith
and life, a judgment conflicting with his own convictions.
There came the stormy years of iconoclasm, of anabap-
tism, of the peasant wars, the miserable quarrel about the
sacrament. How often the form of Luther rose, during
that time, gloomy and mighty, above the quarrelling peo
ple, how often did the contrariness of men and secret
doubts of his own fill him with anxious care for the future
of Germany !
For, in a savage age, accustomed to kill with fire and
sword, this man conceived those spiritual battles loftier

PROBLEMS AND TASKS. 91
and purer than all else. Any employment of physical
force was hateful to him even during the time of his
greatest personal danger ; he would not be protected by
his sovereign, nay, he wanted no human protection for
his doctrine. He fought with a sharp quill against his
enemies, but the only pyre which he lighted was for a
paper; he hated the Pope as he did the Devil, but he al
ways preached peace and Christian tolerance towards pa
pists ; he suspected many of being in secret league with
the Devil, but he never burned a witch. In all Catholic
countries the fires blazed over those who professed the new
faith, even Hutten was strongly suspected of having cut
off the ears of some monks ; Luther had hearty compassion
for the humiliated Tetzel, and wrote him a letter of con
solation. So humane was his sentiment.

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COMPLICATIONS.

OBEDIENCE to the authorities as being instituted
by God was Luther's main political principle ; only
when the service of his God demanded it did contradiction
blaze up. On his departure from Worms he was ordered
not to preach, he who had just been outlawed. But while
he did not allow his preaching to lag, the honest man
was still filled with fear that it might be construed as dis
obedience. His conception of the constitution of the em
pire was still quite ancient and quite popular. As the sub
ject must obey the authorities, so the princes and electors
must obey the Emperor according to the law of the em
pire. In the person of Charles V. he took a human interest
throughout his life, not alone during that early time when
he greeted him as the " dear, sweet youth," but even later,
when he knew well that the Spanish Burgundian allowed
the German Reformation no more than political tolera
tion. "He is pious and quiet " ; said he of the Emperor,
' ' he speaks in a year not so much as I do in a day ; he is
a child of fortune." He readily praised the Emperor's
moderation, modesty, and forbearance. When he had be
gun to condemn the policy of the Emperor, and in secret

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COMPLICATIONS. 93
mistrusted his character, he took care that among the
guests of his table the ruler of the empire was spoken of
reverentially, and said to the younger ones apologetically :
"A politician cannot be so candid as we clergymen."
As late as 1530 it was his opinion that it was wrong
on the part of the Prince-Elector to resist the Emperor
with armed force; it was 1537 before he reluctantly sub
mitted to the freer view of his circle — but still the en
dangered prince must not begin the attack. So vivid
remained in the man of the people the time-honored tra
dition of a firm, well-organised, federated state at a time
when the proud structure of the old Saxon and Frankish
emperors was crumbling so fast.
Yet in such loyalty to the empire there was not a
trace of a slavish disposition ; when his sovereign once in
duced him to write a letter intended for publication, his
veracity rebelled -against the address to the Emperor,
"most gracious lord," saying the Emperor was not gra
ciously disposed towards him. And in his frequent in
tercourse with the nobility he showed a reckless candor
which more than once became terrible to the courtiers.
He told his own sovereign the truth, in all humility, in
such a manner as only a great character dared and only a
good-hearted one could listen to.
On the whole, he thought little of the German princes,
however much he esteemed some individually. Frequent
and just are his complaints of their incapacity, their licen
tiousness, their vices. He also liked to speak of the
nobility with irony ; the awkwardness of most of them dis
pleased him exceedingly. And he felt a democratic aver
sion for the hard and selfish lawyers who carried on the

94 MARTIN LUTHER.
business of the princes, striving for favor and tormenting
the poor people ; he opened to the best of them only a
very doubtful prospect of the grace of God.
On the other hand, his whole heart was with the op
pressed; he sometimes scolded the peasants, their stub
bornness, their greed in selling grain, but he also often
praised their class, looked with hearty compassion on their
burdens and remembered that he originally was one of
them. But all those things were of the temporal govern
ment ; he was in the service of the spiritual. The popu
lar view was firmly entrenched in his mind that two
governing powers must rule the people side by side, the
power of the Church and the force of the princes. And he
was amply justified in proudly contrasting his province of
duties and rights with temporal politics. In his spiritual
domain there was public spirit, self-sacrifice, a wealth of
ideal life ; in the temporal government he found every
where narrow self-seeking, robbery, fraud, and weakness.
He angrily contended that the authorities should not pre
sume to direct what belonged to the minister and the au
tonomy of his congregation. He judged all politics from
the interest of his creed according to the law of the Bible.
Where the word of the Scripture seemed to him to be en
dangered by temporal politics he raised his voice, reck
ing not whom it hurt.
It was not his fault that he was strong and the princes
were weak, and no reproach can attach to him, the monk,
the professor, the minister, if the league of Protestant
princes stood helpless in the face of the shrewd diplomacy
of the Emperor as a herd of deer. He was clearly con-

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COMPLICATIONS. 95
scious that Italian politics were not his affair ; if the ac
tive Landgrave of Hesse, on one occasion did not follow
his spiritual advice, Luther esteemed him all the more for
it in secret. " He has a head of his own, he is success
ful, he has an understanding of worldly affairs."
Since Luther's return to Wittenberg a flood of de
mocracy was roaring among the people. Luther had
opened the monasteries, now there was a demand for the
adjustment of other social evils, the distress of the peas
ants, the church tithes, the traffic in benefices, the bad
administration of the law. Luther's honest heart sympa
thised with this movement. He admonished and scolded
the landlords and princes. But when the wild floods of
the peasant wars began to deluge his work, when their
bloody violence outraged his soul and he felt that visiona
ries and rioters exercised sway over the bands of peas
ants and threatened extinction to his teachings, he hurled
himself against the rude masses in the highest wrath.
Fierce and warlike sounded his appeal to the princes, the
thing most horrible to him had happened, the gospel of
love was disgraced by the arbitrary insolence of those
who called themselves his adherents.
His policy was the true one in this point, also ; there
was in Germany, unfortunately, no better power than
that of the princes ; on them rested, in spite of all, the fu
ture of the fatherland. Neither the serf peasantry, nor
the robber knights, nor the disunited imperial cities stand
ing like islands in the roaring billows, afforded any guar
anty. He was quite right in the matter, but the same
hard-headed, inflexible nature which up to that time had
made his fights against the hierarchy so popular, was now

96 MARTIN LUTHER.
turned against the people itself. A cry of amazement and
horror ran through the masses. He was a traitor. He
who for eight years had been the favorite and hero of the
people became suddenly the faithless, most hated man.
Again his safety and his life were threatened ; even five
years later it was dangerous for him, on account of the
peasants, to travel to Mansfeld to his sick father. The
fury of the masses also worked against his doctrine, the
hedge -preachers and the new apostles treated him as a
lost, depraved man. He was excommunicated, he was
outlawed, he was cursed by the people.

LUTHER'S WIFE. (After Lucas Cranach.)

LUTHER'S MARRIAGE.'

MANY well-meaning men had disapproved his assault
on celibacy and convent life. The country noble
men threatened to seize the outlaw in the highway because
he had destroyed the nunneries into which, as in found
lings' homes, the legitimate children of the poor nobility
were thrown in early youth. The Roman party triumphed,
the new heresy was deprived of that which had made it
powerful up to that time. Luther's life and doctrine
seemed to be doomed to destruction.
At this juncture, Luther decided to marry.
For two years, Catharine von Bora had lived in the
house of the city clerk, afterwards Mayor Reichenbach of
Wittenberg, a strong, stately girl; like many others, the
forsaken daughter of a family belonging to the country no
bility of Meissen. Twice Luther had endeavored to se
cure a husband for her, as he had, with paternal care,
done for several of her associates. At last Catharine de
clared she would marry no man unless Luther himself or
his friend Amsdorf.
Luther was astonished, but he decided quickly. Ac
companied by Lucas Cranach, he asked for her hand and
was married on the spot. Then he invited his friends to

98 MARTIN LUTHER.
the wedding dinner, asked at court for the venison which
the sovereign was wont to present to his professors at
weddings, and received the table wine as a wedding pres
ent from the city of Wittenberg.
Luther's mind at that time is a curious study. His
entire being was at the highest tension, the wild primitive
power of his nature worked in all directions ; he was
shaken to his inmost depths by the misery of burned vil
lages and the bodies of the slain which he saw all about
him. Had he been a fanatic in his ideas he might have
ended, then, in despair. But above the stormy unrest
which is perceptible in him up to his marriage, there
shone to him like a pure light, just at that time, the con
viction that he was the guardian of divine right, and in
order to defend civil order and morals it was for him to
lead the opinions of men, not to follow them.
However violently he declaimed in special things, he
appears particularly conservative at this particular time,
more firmly resolved within himself than ever. Besides,
it is true, he was of opinion that he was not destined to
live much longer, and during many hours he longingly
awaited martyrdom. Thus he was in perfect accord with
himself when he concluded his marriage. He had con
vinced himself completely of the necessity and scriptural
propriety of marriage ; for the last few years he had urged
all his acquaintances to marry, finally even an old oppo
nent, the Archbishop of Mayence.
He gives two reasons himself that influenced him in
his determination to marry. He had deprived his father
of his son for many years, it was to him like an atone
ment to leave to old Hans a grandson when he should die.

Luther's marriage. 99
There was also defiance ; the adversaries triumphed that
Luther was humiliated and all the world was offended at
him ; he wanted to give them still more offence in his good
cause. His was a vigorous nature, but there was in him not
a trace of coarse sensuality. And we may assume that
the best reason, which he confesses to no friend, was,
after all, the decisive one. For a long time the talk of
the people had known more than himself, now he knew
himself that Catharine regarded him with favor. " I am
not in love nor in passion, but I like her," he writes to
one of his dearest friends.
And this marriage, concluded in opposition to the
opinion of his contemporaries and the scornful howls of
his adversaries, became an alliance to which we owe as
much as to the years when he, a clergyman of the old
Church, had borne arms for his theological convictions.
For, from that time a husband, father, and citizen, he be
came also the reformer of the domestic life of his nation,
and those very blessings emanating from his days on
earth, in which Protestants and Catholics to-day have an
equal share, came from the marriage between an excom
municated monk and a runawa}^ nun.
For he was destined to work twenty-one laborious
years more in developing his nation, and his greatest
work, the translation of the Bible, was finished during
that time ; in this work, which he completed in company
with his friends of Wittenberg, he acquired the fullest
control over the language of the people, which by this
work, for the first time, developed its wealth and power.
We know with what grand purpose he undertook

100 MARTIN LUTHER.
that work, he wanted to create a book for the people, he
industriously studied forms of speech, proverbs, and tech
nical terms living in the mouth of the people. The Hu
manists often wrote an awkward involved style with un
wieldy sentences, a degenerate reminiscence of the Latin
style. Now, the nation received for daily reading a work
expressing in simple words the most profound wisdom
and the best spiritual treasures of the time.
Together with the other works of Luther, the Bible
became the foundation of the New-German language.
And this language in which our whole literature and
spiritual life found its expression, has become an inde
structible possession which even in the saddest times,
and though disfigured and defaced, has yet served to re
mind the several German tribes that they are one. And
even at the present time the language of culture, poe
try, and science which Luther created is the bond that
holds together all German minds in union.
Nor did Luther render less important services for the
civil life of the Germans. Domestic devotion, marriage,
and education of children, municipal life and school affairs,
manners, recreations, all sentiments of the heart, all social
pleasures were consecrated by his teachings and writings.
Everywhere he strove to set new goals and to lay deeper
foundations. Not a department of human duty about
which he did not compel the people to reflect. His influ
ence spread far and wide among the people by his nu
merous sermons and short writings, and also by countless
letters in which he gave advice and consolation to special
inquirers. If he urged his contemporaries unremittingly to ex-

luther's marriage. 101
amine whether a desire of the heart was justified or not,
what the father owed to the child, the subject to the au
thorities, the councilman to the citizens ; the progress
made through him was so great for the reason that here
also he emancipated the conscience of the individual and
substituted everywhere spiritual self-control in place of
external compulsion against which selfishness had previ
ously defiantly rebelled. How finely he comprehended
the necessity of developing children by school education,
especially in the dead languages, how warmly he recom
mended his beloved music for introduction in the schools,
how great his foresight became when he admonished the
councilmen to found public libraries. And again, how
conscientiously he sought to secure rights for the hearts
of lovers in engagements and marriages, as against hard
parental authority. His horizon, it is true, was bounded
by the words of the Scripture, but ever through his
preaching, action, scolding, there sounds the beautiful
keynote of his broadly human nature, the need of liberty
and courtesy, of love and morality. He overthrew the
old sacrament of marriage but he shaped more highly,
nobly, freely the spiritual relations between husband and
wife. He attacked the clumsy convent schools, and every
where in village and city, wherever his influence reached,
better institutions of culture for the youth grew up. He
abolished the mass and Latin church hymns ; in return,
he gave the regular sermon and the church hymn to both
admirers and opponents.
The great importance which Luther's teaching ac
quired not only in the heart of the people but in the po
litical affairs of the empire became apparent in Luther's

102 MARTIN LUTHER.
life as early as nine years after the days of Worms.
At Worms he was looked upon as a solitary, damnable
heretic with whose death the dangerous, false doctrine
would cease In 1530 at the Diet of Augsburg the princes
and estates of the Empire who had renounced their ad
herence to the old Church, submitted to the Emperor a
confession of faith which became the basis of a secure
political position for Protestantism. In spite of all the
clauses appended, it was in fact the first treaty of peace
which the victorious new doctrine concluded with the Holy
Roman Empire.
It was a strange dispensation that honest Luther, as
he had done at the Wartburg in years gone by, once
more awaited the result in hiding at another fortified
place of his sovereign, the fortress of Coburg, in the
dress and with the beard of a knight, and once more he
dated his letters mysteriously from the wilderness, or
from the kingdom of the birds, encouraging Melanchthon
to remain steadfast. For, while his friends and fellow-
laborers were engaged in composing the Confession of
Augsburg, he who was still an outlaw could not be led
into the hands of Catholic lords or under the eyes of the
Emperor who had outlawed him.
This sentence of outlawry of 1521 had, however, lost
its force. A few months after it had been pronounced, the
growing excitement of the people and the immoderate zeal
of other malcontents forced the enemies of Luther to ad
mit that it would be very fortunate if Luther, who had dis
appeared, were still alive. Since that time he had risen
against the socialistic agitation among the people with
equal might as against popery ; and by the magic of his

luther's marriage. 103
strong character as well as the wealth of his soulful senti
ment he had done so much for law and order among the
people that even his adversaries felt some of the good
effects. He had met with great successes, but at the same
time he found the limits of his influence. At Worms he
was the only one, the true representative of the popular
conscience and the spiritual leader of the whole power
ful movement which was rising in the people. In 1530
he was the head and leader of a great party, but only a
party, beside which other factions and parties were aris
ing. Even within the old Church the respect for pub
lic opinion had become greater, and faith was more sin
cere and heartfelt. Beside Luther's, the teachings of
Zwingli had also gained ground, and among the lower
classes the ideas of the Anabaptists worked against him
as against the structure of the old Church.
Nor did Luther himself escape change. He was no
longer the martyr longing for death, but the prudent ad
viser of princes and a zealous, severe architect of his new
Church. And the man who at the Wartburg wrestled in
scruples of conscience over the celibacy of monks, was
writing not only explanations of Biblical texts but loving
letters, full of good humor, to his own home, to the com
panions of his table, and to his little son, about the diet
of jack-daws that crowded around the towers of the fortress
of Coburg, and about a beautiful heavenly garden in
which pious children sing and play, ride horses with
golden reins, and shoot with the crossbow. The apostle
of the new gospel became a great spiritual paterfamilias
to the people.

LUTHER'S PRIVATE LIFE.

AS THE YEARS advanced, Luther felt ever more
keenly the divine nature of all that the world of
fered which was sweet, good, and hearty. In that sense
he was always pious and always wise, both out in nature
and in his innocent pleasantry with his companions , while
teasing his wife, or holding his children in his arms. Full
of joy at its splendor he stood before a tree hanging full
of fruit : "If Adam had not fallen, we should always have
admired all trees." Astonished, he took a big pear in
his hand: "Lo, six months ago it was lower under the
ground than it is long and big now, and was hidden in
the extreme end of the root. These minute and least ob
served creatures are the greatest wonders. God is in the
smallest creature, as in the leaf of a tree or a blade of
grass." Two little birds made a nest in Dr. Luther's garden
and flew home in the evening, often frightened by pas
sers-by; he called to them: "Oh, you dear little birds,
do not fly away, I love you with all my heart if you
could only believe me. But thus we also lack faith in
our God." He took great pleasure in the company of honest men ;

LUTHER PRAYING FOR MELANCHTHON'S LIFE. (After Gustav Konig.)

luther's private life. 105
he then drank wine merrily, and the conversation coursed
lively over big things and small. He judged with splen
did humor his enemies and acquaintances, laughed and
told merry stories, and when he got into discussions would
rub his hands over his knee, which gesture was peculiar to
him. Often he would sing to himself, play the lute, or di
rect a chorus . Whatever made men honorably merry was
pleasing to him, his favorite art was music ; he judged
leniently of dancing and — fifty years before Shakespeare
— spoke benevolently of comedy, for he said that it teaches
like a mirror how each should conduct himself.
When he sat together with Melanchthon, it was Mas
ter Philip, the mild, the scholar, who would add a wise
qualification to the too daring assertions of his strong
friend. If there was talk of rich people and Frau Cath
arine could not refrain from observing longingly : "Had
my lord been so inclined he could have become very
rich," Melanchthon answered gravely : "That is impos
sible, for those who work for the general good cannot fol
low their own advantage."
There was one subject, however, about which the
two men were apt to get into disputes. Melanchthon
was very fond of astrology, while Luther looked upon
that science with sovereign contempt. On the other
hand, by his method of Biblical exegesis — and also, by
secret political cares — Luther had reached the conviction
that the end of the world was near at hand, which, again,
appeared very doubtful to the learned Melanchthon. So,
when Melanchthon began to speak about celestial signs
and aspects and explained Luther's successes by the fact
that he was born under the sign of the sun, Luther ex-

106 MARTIN LUTHER.
claimed: "I care not so much about your Sol. I am a
peasant's son. My father, grandfather, and great-grand
father were honest peasants." — "Yes," replied Melanch
thon, "in the village, too, you would have been a leader,
either chief officer of the village or head farm-hand over
the others . ' ' — ' ' But , ' ' exclaimed Luther triumphantly ,
<lI have become a bachelor of arts, a master, a monk, —
that was not written in the stars ; then I pulled the
Pope's hair and he pulled mine, I took a nun to wife and
begat children with her. Who saw those things in the
stars?" And again Melanchthon continued in his astro
logical interpretations, beginning about Emperor Charles
and declared it was ordained that he should die in 1584.
Then Luther burst out violently : ' ' The world will not
endure as long as that. For if we beat back the Turk, the
prophecy of Daniel will be fulfilled and the end at hand.
Then the day of judgment is surely at our doors."
When Melanchthon fell dangerously ill, Luther vis
ited him. On seeing the signs of approaching death
in the face of his dear friend and co-worker, Luther
turned toward the window and prayed that the Lord
should spare his faithful servant's life. Then he ad
dressed the patient, saying: "Be of good cheer, Philip,
thou shalt not die ! ' ' Melanchthon recovered and Luther
wrote triumphantly that " with God's help he would have
brought the Master Philip back from the grave."
How amiable he is as the father of his family!
When his little children stood at the table and looked
longingly at the fruit and peaches he said : ' ' Who wants
to see the image of one that is happy in hope, he has
here the true counterfeit. Oh, that we might behold the

LUTHER AT THE COFFIN OF HIS DAUGHTER MAGDALEN. (After Gustav KOnig.)

LUTHER'S PRIVATE LIFE. 107
day of doom thus merrily ! Adam and Eve no doubt had
much better fruit, ours are mere crab-apples by compari
son. The serpent, too, I think, was then a most beauti
ful creature, kindly and charming; it still wears its little
crown, but after the curse it lost its feet and its hand
some body." So he watched his little son of three years
playing and talking to himself: "This child is like a
drunken man, it knows not that it lives, and yet it lives
securely and merrily on, skipping and jumping. Such
children like to be in large wide apartments where they
have room." And he drew the child to him : "You are
our Lord's little fool, under his grace and forgiveness of
sins, not under the law ; you are not afraid, you are se
cure and care about nothing; as you act, is the uncor
rupted way. Parents are always fondest of the youngest
children ; my little Martin is my dearest treasure, such
little children require most the care and love of the par
ents. Hence, the love of parents always descends in the
simplest way. How must Abraham have felt when he
was about to sacrifice his youngest and dearest son? He
could not have said anything about it to Sarah. That
errand must have been hard to him."
His beloved daughter Magdalen lay at the point of
death, and he complained: "I love her very dearly, but,
dear Lord, since it is Thy will, that Thou wilt take her
hence, I will gladly know her to be with Thee. Mag
dalen, my little daughter, you would gladly remain here
with your father and you will also gladly go to the Fa
ther beyond?" And the child said: "Yes, dear father,
as Godwills." And when she died, the father knelt by the bedside

108 MARTIN LUTHER.
weeping bitterly, and prayed that God might save her.
And she went to sleep in her father's arms.
And when the people came to help bury the body,
and spoke to the doctor according to the custom, he said:
"I am happy in the spirit, but the flesh is not satisfied;
this parting vexes one above all measure. It is strange
to know that she is in peace and happiness, and yet to be
so sad." His dominus or lord Catharine, as he was fond of call
ing his wife in letters to friends, speedily developed into an
efficient housewife. And she had no little trouble. Little
children, the husband often ailing, a number of boarders,
teachers and poor students, an ever open house, from
which scholarly or noble guests were seldom absent ; and
with all that, a scanty household and a husband who
would rather give than receive, and who, in his zeal,
on one occasion, when she was lying in childbed, even
took the silverware given to the children by their god
parents in order to give alms. In 1527, Luther was un
able to advance eight florins to his former prior and
friend Briesger. Sadly he wrote to him: "Three little
silver cups (wedding presents) are in pawn for fifty flo
rins, the fourth has been sold, the year has brought debts
of one hundred florins. Lucas Cranach refuses to take
my bail any longer so that I may not ruin myself com
pletely." Sometimes Luther declined presents, even such as
were offered by his sovereign ; but it appears that his re
gard for wife and children instilled in him some practical
ideas in later years. When he died, his estate amounted,
approximately, to eight or nine thousand florins, com-

LUTHER IN THE BOSOM OF HIS FAMILY (After Spangenberg )

LUTHER'S PRIVATE LIFE. 109
prising a little country place, a big garden, and two
houses. It was surely the merit of Frau Catharine prin
cipally. From the way in which Luther treated her we see
how happy his domestic life was. If he made allusions
to the profuse talk of women he had little cause, for he
was not a man himself by any means that could be called
chary of words. If she is heartily glad to be able to serve
up all kinds of fish from the little lake in their garden ,
the doctor in turn is happy at her joy and does not fail to
append to it a pleasing reflexion on the happiness of
modest wants. Or, if reading the psalter becomes too
tedious for her and she replies that she hears enough of
sanctification, that she reads much every day and can
also speak about it, but that God only wants her to act
accordingly, the doctor at this sensible answer sighs:
"So does dissatisfaction with the word of God begin,
there will come many new books and the Scriptures will
be thrown into the corner again."
But this firm relationship of two good persons was,
for a long time, not without secret suffering. We can
only surmise at what was gnawing at the heart of the
wife if, as late as 1527, in a dangerous illness, Luther
took a last farewell of her with the words : ' ' You are my
honored and legitimate wife, so you shall assuredly es
teem yourself."
Similarly as with those dear to him, Luther also
conversed with the high powers of his faith. All the
good figures from the Bible were to him like true friends,
his vivid imagination had shaped their natures familiarly
and he loved to picture to himself their circumstances

110 MARTIN LUTHER.
with the ingenuousness of a child. When Veit Dietrich
asked him what kind of a person the apostle Paul might
have been, Luther quickly replied: "He was an insig
nificant, slim little man like Philippus Melanchthon."
The Virgin Mary was to him a graceful picture. " She
was a fine girl," he said admiringly, "she must have
had a good voice." And the Saviour he loved best to
imagine as a child in the house of his parents, carrying
the meal to the father in the wood-yard, and Mary asking
as he staid too long : "Where have you been so long, my
little one?" The Saviour should not be imagined on the
rainbow with a halo, not as the executor of the law — that
conception is too lofty and terrible for man — only as the
poor sufferer living among sinners and dying for them.
His God, also, was to him, at all times, master of
the house and father. He loved to delve into the econ
omy of nature. He indulges in astonished reflexion how
much wood God must create. "No one can calculate
what God needs only to feed the sparrows and useless
birds ; they cost him more in a year than the income of
the King of France. And then, think of all the other
things." "God understands all trades. In his tailoring he
makes for the stag a coat that lasts a hundred years. As
a shoemaker he gives him shoes for his feet, and in the
sun he is a cook."
" He could well get rich if he desired, if he stopped
the sun, enclosed the air, if he threatened death to the
Pope, the Emperor, the bishops, and doctors unless they
paid him a hundred thousand florins at once. But he does
not do so, and we are ungrateful beasts."

LUTHER'S PRIVATE LIFE. Ill
And he seriously reflects where the food for so many
people comes from. Old Hans Luther had asserted there
were more men than sheaves of grain ; the doctor, on the
contrary, believed that more sheaves grew than men, but
more men than shocks of grain ; a shock yields scarcely
a bushel and a man cannot live on that for a year.
Even a heap of manure invited cordial reflexion:
" God has to clear away as much as he has to create. If
he did not continually clean up, men would long since
have filled up the world with refuse."
And if God often punishes the pious more severely
than the impious, he acts like a serious master of the
house who thrashes his son more frequently than the
hired servant. But while he silently gathers a treasure
as an inheritance for the son, the hired man is at last
discharged. And cheerfully he draws the conclusion : "If
our Lord and Master can pardon me for having vexed him
for well nigh twenty years by reading masses, he can also
put to my credit that at times I have quaffed a good drink
in his honor. May the world construe it as it pleases."
He also wondered a great deal that God was so
angry with the Jews. "For fifteen hundred years they
have been praying violently, with earnestness and great
zeal, as their little books of prayer show, and all through
that time he does not answer them with a little word. If
I could pray as they pray I would give two hundred flo
rins' worth of books. It must be a great, unutterable
wrath. Oh, dear Lord, rather punish with pestilence
than keep so silent."
Like a child, Luther prayed every morning and even
ing, often in the day, even during meals. Prayers which

112 MARTIN LUTHER.
he knew by heart, he repeated again and again with fer
vent devotion, preferring the Lord's Prayer ; then again he
recited to God the little catechism ; he always carried the
psalter with him, which served him as his book of prayer.
When he was in passionate anxiety his prayer became a
storm, a wrestling with God, the power, greatness, and
holy simplicity of which it is difficult to compare with
other human emotions. At such times he was the son
lying in despair at the feet of his father, or the faithful
servant imploring his sovereign. For his conviction was
unchangeable that it was possible to influence the resolu
tions of God by prayers and admonitions. And thus in
his prayer there is an alternate outpouring of emotion and
complaint, nay, serious exhortations.

STRUGGLES WITH THE DEVIL.

AS GOD was the source of all that was good, so to
Luther the Devil was the cause of all that was
noxious and evil. Luther came from a cottage in which
there was still felt, as in the ancient times, the awful
presence of the spirits of the pine forests and the sombre
cleft of the earth which was held to give access to the veins
of metal in the mountains. Surely the imagination of the
boy was often engaged with obscure traditions of ancien.
heathen beliefs. He was accustomed to feel supernatural
powers in the terrors of nature as in the lives of men.
When he turned monk these recollections of childhood
darkened into the Biblical idea of the Devil, but the busy
tempter who lurked everywhere in the life of man always
retained, in Luther's belief, somewhat of the nature of the
spirits of ancient Teutonic heathendom.
In Luther's Table Talks, which were taken down by
his companions, the Devil causes the dangerous storms,
while an angel produces the pleasant winds, even as in
ancient Teutonic belief a giant eagle sat at the boundary
of the world and caused the winds by flapping his wings.
Or, he sits under a bridge in the form of a nixie and
draws girls into the water whom he forces into marriage.

114 MARTIN LUTHER.
He serves in the convent as a domestic sprite, blows the
fire into a blaze as a goblin, as a dwarf he puts his change
lings into the cradles of men, as a nightmare he misleads
the sleepers to climb the roof, and as a noisy hobgoblin
tumbles things around in the rooms. By this last thing
he particularly disturbed Luther several times.
The ink spot in the Wartburg is not sufficiently au
thenticated, but Luther did tell of a disagreeable noise
which Satan made at that place by night with a bag of
hazel nuts.
In the monastery at Wittenberg, also, when Luther
studied in the refectory at night the Devil kept up a noise
in the church hall below him until Luther packed up his
books and went to bed. Afterwards he was vexed because
he did not defy the "buffoon."
He did not care much about this kind of deviltry.
He called those which manifested themselves in such a
way bad devils. He held that there were innumerable
devils. " Not all of them little devils, but there are land
devils and devil princes who are experienced and have
practised for a very long time, over five thousand years,
and have become most shrewd and cunning." "We,"
he said, "have the big devils, who are doctors of divin
ity; the Turks and papists have bad and petty devils,
who are not theological but juridical devils." Everything
bad on earth, all diseases, came from them.
Luther had a strong suspicion that the dizziness
which troubled him for a long time was not natural. As
to fires, "wherever a fire blazes up, there sits every time
a little devil and blows into the flame." Failure of crops
and war — ' ' and if God had not given us the dear holy

STRUGGLES WITH THE DEVIL. 115
angels for guardians and arquebusiers who are drawn up
about us like a bulwark of waggons it would soon be all
over with us."
Being quick to picture characteristic things in detail,
he knew that the Devil was haughty and could not bear
to be treated with contempt. He therefore often gave the
advice to drive him off by ridicule and mocking questions.
Satan was also a mournful spirit and could not tolerate
cheerful music.
The most terrible work of the Devil, according to
Luther, was that which he did within the human soul.
There he inspired not only impure thoughts, but also
doubt, melancholy, and sadness. All that he uttered so
firmly and cheerfully first weighed with fearful force on
Luther's sensitive conscience. At night, especially, when
he awoke, the Devil stood sneering at his couch and whis
pered terrifying things to him, and his mind struggled
for liberty, often in vain, for a long time. And it is re
markable how this son of the sixteenth century proceeded
in such internal struggles. Sometimes a certain gesture
by which in those days both prince and peasant expressed
sovereign contempt helped where nothing else would help.
But his rising good humor did not always set him free.
Every new research into the Scripture, every important
sermon on a new subject threw him into fresh struggles
of conscience. At such times he would become so excited
that his mind was incapable of methodical thought, and
he would live in fear for days at a time. While the ques
tion of monks and nuns occupied him, he found a passage
in the Bible which, as he thought in his excitement, proved
him in the wrong. His heart sank in his bosom ; he was al-

116 MARTIN LUTHER.
most strangled by the Devil. Bugenhagen happening to
visit him, Luther led him out into the hallway and showed
him the threatening passage. And Bugenhagen, proba
bly himself infected by the hasty manner of his friend,
also began to doubt, without suspecting the torments
which Luther suffered. Then, for the first time, Luther
became frightened. A terrible night passed. Next morn
ing Bugenhagen entered once more. "I am very angry,"
he said, " I have just examined the text carefully, and find
the passage has altogether a different meaning." "And
it is true," Luther related later, " it was a ridiculous ar
gument. Yes, ridiculous for him who is in possession of
his senses and not in temptation."
He often complained to his friends of the terrors of
these struggles which the Devil caused him. " He never
was so fearful and angry from the beginning as he is now
at the end of the world. I feel him very plainly. He
sleeps closer to me than my Katie — that is, he gives run
more unrest than she does joy."
Luther did not weary of calling the Pope the Anti
christ, and the papal practices devilish. But upon closer
examination there will be discovered, even back of this
hatred of the Devil, that indelible piety in which the loyal
soul of the man was bound to the old Church. What be
came scruples to him were often only pious recollections
from the time of his youth which stood in violent opposi
tion to the changes he had undergone as a man.

THE TRAGIC ELEMENT IN LUTHER'S LIFE.

NO MAN is transformed entirely by the great thoughts
and acts of his later life as a man. We are not
made quite new by new activity ; our inner life is made
up of the sum of all the thoughts and emotions that we
have ever had. He who is chosen by fate to create the
greatest new things by destroying great things that are
old, will destroy and ruin, at the same time, part of his
own life. He must violate duties to fulfil greater duties.
The more conscientious he is, the more deeply will he
feel in his inmost nature the incision he has made into
the order of the world. That is the secret pain, nay, the
repentance, of every great historical character. There
have been few mortals who felt this pain so deeply as
Luther. And the great thing in him is just this, that he
was never prevented by such pain from doing the boldest
acts. To us, however, this appears as a tragic element
in his inner life.
And another tragic element, the most fateful for him,
lay in the attitude which he was compelled himself to oc
cupy with reference to his own teachings. He had left to
his people only the authority of the Scripture ; with fervor
he clutched its words as the only safe anchor for the

118 MARTIN LUTHER.
human race. Before him, the Pope and his hierarchy had
interpreted, misconstrued, supplemented the words of
the Scripture; now he was placed in a similar position.
Together with a circle of dependent friends, he was com
pelled to assume the prerogative of rightly understanding
the words of the Scripture and applying them properly to
the life of his time. It was a superhuman task, and he
who took it upon himself must of necessity become the
victim of some of the evils against which he had himself
made such a grand fight in the Catholic Church.
Firmly linked and brazen was the structure of his
mind ; he was created a ruler if ever mortal man was , but
the very gigantic and demon-like quality of his will must
at times make him a tyrant. If, nevertheless, on several
important occasions, he practised toleration, either b}.
self-restraint or with inward freedom, it was but the happy
influence of his good nature that made itself felt. But
not infrequently he became the pope of the Protestants.
There was no choice for him or for his people.
In recent times, he has been blamed for having done
so little to invite the cooperation of the laity by a Presby
terian constitution. Never was reproach more unjust.
What was possible in Switzerland with vigorous, free com
munities of peasants, was entirely impracticable in Ger
many. The citizens of the bigger cities alone possessed
the intelligence and strength to control the Protestant
clergy ; but almost nine-tenths of the evangelical denom
ination consisted of down-trodden farming people, who
were, as a rule, indifferent and obstinate and had become
savage since the peasant wars. The new Church was

THE TRAGIC ELEMENT IN LUTHER'S LIFE. 119
obliged to force its discipline upon them as upon neglected
children. Whoever doubts these assertions, may look at the
reports of inspections and observe the incessant com
plaints of the various reformers at the rudeness of their
poor congregations. •
But still other things pressed upon the great man.
The ruler of the souls of the German people sat in a lit
tle town among poor university professors and students,
among feeble citizens of whom he often had occasion to
complain. He was not spared the inconveniences of life
in a little provincial town, the distasteful disputes with
petty scholars and clumsy neighbors ; and there was much
in his nature that made him particularly irritable at such
things. No man carries in himself with impunity the
consciousness of being a preferred instrument of God ; he
who lives thus no longer fits into the narrow and small
structure of civil society.
Had not Luther been, at the bottom of his heart,
modest, and in intercourse with others infinitely good-
natured, he must have seemed insufferable to the sober
people of common sense who stood cool beside him. Thus
it happened only occasionally that he had a violent con
flict with the citizens, the municipal authorities, the legal
faculty of his university, the councilors of his sovereign.
He was not always right, but he almost invariably car
ried his point against them, for seldom did any one dare
defy his ponderous wrath.
In addition, he was a victim of severe bodily ail
ments. During the last years of his life their frequent
recurrence had exhausted even his immense vitality ; he

120 MARTIN LUTHER.
felt it most painfully and prayed incessantly to his God
to take him unto himself. He was not yet an old man in
years, but he appeared old to himself, old and hoary, and
not at home in a strange terrestrial world. These partic
ular years, not rich in great events, made difficult by po
litical and municipal quarrels, filled with bitterness and
hours of mourning, should fill with sympathy all who con
template the life of the great man without prejudice. The
blaze of his life had warmed his entire people, called forth
in millions the beginnings of a higher human develop
ment, and the blessings remained to millions. He felt at
last little else himself than the torments. Once he had
hoped joyfully to die as a martyr, now he desired the re
pose of the grave like a persistent, weary workman of
many years. That, also, is a tragic fate.
But his greatest pain lay in the attitude which he
himself was forced to take toward his own doctrine. He
had founded a new church on his pure gospel, had given
incomparably greater worth to the mind and conscience of
the people. About him blossomed a new life, increased
prosperity, many valuable arts, painting and music, com
fortable enjoyment of life, finer culture among the citizen
classes. And yet there was something in the air, weird
and boding destruction. The rulers were in fierce dis
cord, foreign powers on the march against the people, the
Emperor from Spain, the Pope from Rome, the Turk from
the Mediterranean ; the visionaries and rioters powerful,
the hierarchy not yet fallen. His very gospel, had it ce
mented the nation together for greater unity and power?
Greater was the discord become, upon the worldly inter
ests of certain princes would the future of his church de-

THE TRAGIC ELEMENT IN LUTHER'S LIFE. 121
pend. And he knew even the best ones among them.
Something horrible was approaching, the Scripture was
about to be fulfilled, the day of doom was at hand. After
that, however, God will build a new world, more beauti
ful, splendid, and pure, full of peace and bliss, a world in
which there would no more be a devil, where every hu
man soul would find more pleasure in the flowers and
fruit of the new trees of heaven than the present genera
tion takes in gold and silver, where the finest of the arts,
music, would sound in tones much more enchanting than
the most magnificent song of good chanters in this world.
There the good would find all their dear ones again whom
they had lost here below.
The yearning of the human heart for ideal purity of
existence grew ever more irresistible in him. If he ex
pected the end of the world it was a faint recollection of
the people from its remotest antiquity still hanging in the
mental sky of the new reformer. And yet it was, at the
same time, a prophetic foreboding of the near future. It
was not the end of the world that was preparing, but the
Thirty Years' War.
Thus Luther died.
When the hearse with Luther's body drove through
the Thuringian lands all the bells tolled in village and
city, and people crowded sobbing around his coffin. It was
a good part of the strength of the people that was buried
with this man. And Philip Melanchthon said in the
church of the castle at Wittenberg over the body :
' ' Every one who understood him aright must witness
that he was a very kind man, in all speech gracious,
kind, and lovable, and not at all forward, stormy, self-

122 MARTIN LUTHER.
willed, or quarrelsome. And yet there was an earnestness
and bravery in his words and actions, as should be in
such a man. His heart was true and free of guile. The
severity which he used in his writings against enemies of
the doctrine came not from a quarrelsome or spiteful
mind, but from great earnestness and zeal for the truth.
He showed great courage and manliness and was not
frightened by a little rushing sound. He was not intimi
dated by threats, danger, or terror. He was also of such
high and keen understanding that he alone could, in con
fused, obscure, and difficult disputes, see quickly what was
to be advised and done. Nor was he, as some perhaps
have thought, so inattentive as not to have learned how it
stood everywhere about the government. He knew right
well how the government is constituted, and paid atten
tion with special diligence to the minds and wishes of the
people with whom he had to do. But we should keep this,
our dear father, in our memories steadily and forever and
never leave him from our hearts."
Such was Luther. A titanic nature, his mind hard
to move and sharply limited, his will powerful and well
tempered, his morality pure, his heart full of love. Be
cause after him no other man arose strong enough to be
a leader of the nation, the German people lost their do
minion on the earth for centuries. But the spiritual su
premacy of the German race rests upon him. But Luther's
influence is not limited to the history of his own people ;
he is the central figure of the age of the Reformation, and
his spirit is still moving in the life of all the Protestant
nations.

7-.O

«oIi.w«wX h

O <

A LETTER OF LUTHER TO THE PRINCE
ELECTOR OF SAXONY.

jP'O LET LUTHER, in conclusion, speak for himself,
-*- there may be subjoined here a letter to the Prince-
Elector Frederick the Wise, written in those days in
which Luther had his whole strength most powerfully
concentrated. The prudent Prince had ordered him to
remain at the Wartburg, as he could not protect him at
Wittenberg, for the angry Duke of Saxony, his cousin,
would at once insist upon executing the sentence against
the outlawed Luther. Luther wrote thus to his sovereign :
' ' Most serene and august Prince-Elector, most gra
cious Lord : — Your Princely Grace's writing and gracious
warning reached me Friday evening, when I meant to
ride away Sunday morning. That your Princely Grace
has the very best intentions, requires neither proof nor
witness for me, for I hold myself convinced thereof as far
as human knowledge goes.
"But in my affair, most gracious lord, I answer
thus : Your Princely Grace knows, or, if you do not
know, I herewith make known to you, that I have the
Gospel, not from men, but alone from Heaven, through
our Lord Jesus Christ,' so that I could well have praised

124 MARTIN LUTHER.
and written myself a servant and evangelist, which I
mean to do from this time forward. That I offered my
self for hearing and judgment, however, was done not be
cause I doubted the truth, but from excessive humility,
to win over the others. I have done enough for your
Princely Grace by having vacated my place this year to
please your Princely Grace. For the Devil knows very
well that I did it through no fear. He saw my heart well
when I arrived at Worms, for had I known that as many
devils were in wait for me as there are tiles on the roofs,
I should still have leaped among them with joy.
" Now, Duke George is very unlike even to a single
devil. And since the Father of inscrutable mercy has bj'
the Gospel made us joyful masters over all devils and
death and has given us the wealth of confidence that we
may say to him, ' Dearly beloved Father,' your Princely
Grace may yourself conjecture that it would be the high
est disgrace to such a Father if we did not have confi
dence in Him that we are also masters of Duke George's
wrath. As for myself, I know well I would ride right
into his Leipsic — your Princely Grace will pardon my
foolish speech — though it should, for nine days, rain only
Dukes George, and each one was nine times as furious as
this one. He thinks my Master Christ a man wattled to
gether of straw, which this my master and myself may
well suffer for a while. But I will not conceal from your
Princely Grace that I have prayed and wept for Duke
George not once but very often that God might enlighten
him. I will pray and weep once more, afterwards never
more. And I beg your Princely Grace will also help and
have prayers said that we may turn from him the misfor-

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LUTHER'S HANDWRITING.

A LETTER OF LUTHER'S. 125
tune which, O Lord God! is moving upon him without
intermission. I might strangle Duke George quickly
with a word if that would end the matter.
' This is written to your Princely Grace in the
thought that you know that I am coming to Wittenberg
under much higher protection than that of the Prince-
Elector. Nor is it in my mind to require protection from
your Princely Grace. Nay, I deem I could protect your
Princely Grace more than you could protect me. Even if
I knew your Princely Grace could and would protect me
I should not come ; in this matter no sword can either
counsel or help ; God must here work alone without any
human assistance. Hence, he who believes best will here
protect best.
"Since, then, I feel that your Princely Grace is still
very weak in the faith, I can nowise regard your Princely
Grace as the man who could protect or save me.
' ' Since your Princely Grace desires to know what to
do in this matter, particularly as you think you have done
far too little, I answer most humbly your Princely Grace
has already done entirely too much and ought to do noth
ing. For God will not and cannot suffer your care and
action or mine. He wants it left to Himself and none
other. Your Princely Grace may govern yourself accord
ingly. ' ' If your Princely Grace believe this you will be se
cure and have peace; if you do not believe, still I believe
and must allow the lack of faith of your Princely Grace to
torment itself with that care which all who lack faith
justly suffer. Since, then, I will not follow your Princely
Grace, you will be excused before God should I be cap-

126 MARTIN LUTHER.
tured or killed. Before men, your Princely Grace should
conduct yourself in this wise. As a prince-elector, you
should be obedient to authority and allow imperial
majesty to do in your cities and lands in regard to life
and property as is proper according to the laws of the
empire, and must not defend yourself or resist, nor seek
opposition or any obstacle against that power should it
want to take or kill me. For no one shall break that
power but He alone that instituted it, otherwise it is re
bellious and is against God. I hope, however, they will
use reason and understand that your Princely Grace was
born in too lofty a cradle to become my jailor. If your
Princely Grace leave the gate open and observe the safe-
conduct of the Prince-Elector, if the enemies themselves
come to fetch me, or their emissaries, your Princely Grace
will have done enough to satisfy obedience. They can
not require more of your Princely Grace than that they
want to learn of the whereabouts of Luther from your
Princely Grace. And that they shall have without care,
labor, or danger to your Princely Grace. For Christ did
not teach me to be a Christian to the injury of another.
Should they be so unreasonable, however, as to order that
your Princely Grace yourself lay hands on me, I shall
then tell you what is to be done. I will secure your
Princely Grace from injury and danger of body, goods,
and soul in my cause, whether your Princely Grace be
lieve this or not.
" So I commend your Princely Grace to the mercy of
God ; we will discuss further measures when it becomes
necessary. For I have made this writing ready hurriedly
that your Princely Grace may not be seized with sadness

A LETTER OF LUTHER'S. 127
at the rumor of my arrival, for I must and shall become a
solace to all and not an injury if I would be a true Chris
tian. He is another than Duke George with Whom I am
treating ; He knows me quite well and I know Him not
ill. If your Princely Grace had faith you would see the
glory of God. But because you do not yet believe, you
have not yet seen anything. God be loved and praised
forevermore. Amen.
"Given at Borna, in presence of the guide on Ash
Wednesday, A. D. 1522.
"Your Princely Grace's humble servant,
"Martin Luther."

INDEX.

Age of the Reformation, 122.
Amsdorf, Nicolaus, 47, 82, 97.
Anabaptists, 103.
Answer to the Diet, 53.
Astrological interpretations, Melanch-
thon's, 106.
Augsburg, Confession of, 102.
Bible, the, 83, 109.
Blaurer, Ambrosius, 62, 68.
Bora. See Catharine.
Brotherhoods, pious, 9.
Brunswick, Henry of, 44.
Burned the papal bull, 45.
Cajetanus, 33, 34, 38.
Catharine of Bora, 88, 97, 99, 105, 108,
109.
Catharinus, Ambrosius, 46.
Catholic Church, Reformer of the, I.
Charles, Em-j^ror, 106.
Chase, 73.
Chorister, 7.
Coburg, 103.
Cochlaeus, 43.
Confession of Augsburg, 10a.
Cotta, Frau, 7.
Cranach, Lucas, 46, 97, 108.
Devil, the, 113, 124.
Diet of Worms, 48, 50.
Dietrich, Veit, 7.
Eck, 34, 37, 41, 43. 85.
Emser, Jerome, 38, 43, 45.
Erasmus, 29.
Estate, Luther's, 108.

Father, Luther's, 5, 96.
Florentina, 89.
Frederick the Wise, Prince- Elector, 10,
2g, 46, 48, 58.
Frundsberg, 50.
George, Duke, of Saxony, 72, 127.
Glapio, 47.
Hampden, 2.
Hans Luther, 5, 6, 98, in.
Hapsburger, 58.
Henry VIII., 43.
Hesse, Landgrave of, 95.
Huss, n, 47.
Hutton, 61, 79, 80, 91.
Indulgences, n.
Ink Spot, 1 14.
Jonas, Jodocus, 82.
Karlstadt, 86.
Kessler, Johannes, 74.
Landgrave of Hesse, 95.
Leo X., letter to, 35.
Letter, to Leo X., 35 ; to the Pope, 36,
37 ; to the Prince-Elector of Saxony,
123.
Letters, Luther's, to his little son, 103.
Magdalen, 107.
Mary, the Virgin, no.
Mayence, Archbishop of, 98.
Mecum, Frederick (Myconius), 13 et
seq. , 24.

130

MARTIN LUTHER.

Melanchthon, Philip, 7, 27, 31, 33, 71,
72, 76, 82, 86, 88, 102, 105, 121 ; his
astrological interpretations, 106.
Miltitz, 33, 34, 37, 39.
Murner, 43.
Myconius, Frederick (Mecum), 13 et
seq., 24.
Nimbschen, 88.
Papal bull, burned, 45.
Pappenheim, Ulrich von, 50, 51.
Pardons, 11.
Paterfamilias, 103.
Paul, Apostle, no.
Periods, three, 3.
Pope, letter to the, 36, 37.
Prayers, in, 112
Professor, at Wittenberg, 28 ; of theol
ogy. 30.
Reformation, Age of the, 122.
Reichenbach, Mayor, 97.
Reuchlin, 29.
Richard of Treves, 6g.
Rufus, Mutianus, 29

Satan, 73.
School education, 101.
Schurf, Augustin, 76, 82.
Schurf, Jerome, 76, 81, 82.
Sickingen, 47.
Spalatin, 29, 35, 38, 47, 72, 87.
Staupitz, 25, 30, 35, 88.
Sturm, Caspar, 47.
Swiss students, 76.
Tauler, 26.
Tetzel, 12, 14, 15, 18, 34, 61, 91.
Theses, 30.
Tripartite careers, 3.
Turks, the, 114.
Virgin Mary, the, no.
Wartburg, 71.
Wittenberg, 37.
Wittenberg professor, 28.
Worms, Diet of, 48, 50.
Zeschaus, 88.
Zwingli, 86, 103.

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