History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume III Part 2

[28] Cervicem esse objectandam publico furori. Ibid. 89.

[29] Nihil magis opto, quam furoribus adversariorum occurrere, objecto jugulo. Ibid. 1.

[Sidenote: HOPE--SICKNESS.]

Gentler thoughts, however, brought a truce to such anxiety. Everything was not storm and tempest for Luther; from time to time his agitated mind found tranquillity and comfort. Next to the certainty of G.o.d's help, one thing consoled him in his sorrows; it was the recollection of Melancthon. "If I perish," wrote he, "the Gospel will lose nothing:[30] you will succeed me as Elisha did Elijah, with a double portion of my spirit." But calling to mind Philip's timidity, he exclaimed with energy: "Minister of the Word! keep the walls and towers of Jerusalem, until you are struck down by the enemy. As yet we stand alone upon the field of battle; after me, they will aim their blows at you."[31]

[30] Etiam si peream, nihil peribit Evangelio. L. Epp. ii. 10.

[31] Nos soli adhuc stamus in acie: te quaerent post me. Ibid. 2.

The thought of the final attack Rome was about to make on the infant Church, renewed his anxieties. The poor monk, solitary and a prisoner, had many a combat to fight alone. But a hope of deliverance speedily dawned upon him. It appeared to him that the a.s.saults of the Papacy would raise the whole German nation, and that the victorious soldiers of the Gospel would surround the Wartburg and restore the prisoner to liberty. "If the pope," said he, "lays his hand on all those who are on my side, there will be a disturbance in Germany; the greater his haste to crush us, the sooner will come the end of the pope and his followers. And I......I shall be restored to you.[32] G.o.d is awakening the hearts of many, and stirring up the nations. Only let our enemies clasp our affair in their arms and try to stifle it; it will gather strength under their pressure, and come forth ten times more formidable."

[32] Quo citius id tentaverit, hoc citius et ipse et sui peribunt, et ego revertar. Ibid. 10.

[Sidenote: SICKNESS--HIS FRIENDS' ANXIETY.]

But sickness brought him down from those high places on which his courage and his faith had placed him. He had already suffered much at Worms; his disease increased in solitude.[33] He could not endure the food at the Wartburg, which was less coa.r.s.e than that of his convent; they were compelled to give him the meagre diet to which he had been accustomed. He pa.s.sed whole nights without sleep. Anxieties of mind were superadded to the pains of the body. No great work is ever accomplished without suffering and martyrdom. Luther, alone upon his rock, endured in his strong frame a pa.s.sion that the emanc.i.p.ation of the human race rendered necessary. "Seated by night in my chamber I uttered groans, like a woman in her travail; torn, wounded, and bleeding"[34]......then breaking off his complaints, touched with the thought that his sufferings are a blessing from G.o.d, he exclaimed with love: "Thanks be to Thee, O Christ, that thou wilt not leave me without the precious marks of thy cross!"[35] But soon, growing angry with himself, he cried out: "Madman and hard-hearted that I am! Woe is me! I pray seldom, I seldom wrestle with the Lord, I groan not for the Church of G.o.d![36] Instead of being fervent in spirit, my pa.s.sions take fire; I live in idleness, in sleep, and indolence!" Then, not knowing to what he should attribute this state, and accustomed to expect everything from the affection of his brethren, he exclaimed in the desolation of his heart: "O my friends! do you then forget to pray for me, that G.o.d is thus far from me?"

[33] Auctum est malum, quo Wormatiae laborabam. Ibid. 17.

[34] Sedeo dolens, sicut puerpera, lacer et saucius et cruentus. L.

Epp. ii. 50, 9th Sept.

[35] Gratias Christo, qui me sine reliquiis sanctae crucis non derelinquit. Ibid.

[36] Nihil gemens pro ecclesia Dei. Ibid. 22, 13th July.

Those who were around him, as well as his friends at Wittemberg and at the elector's court, were uneasy and alarmed at this state of suffering. They feared lest they should see the life they had rescued from the flames of the pope and the sword of Charles V. decline sadly and expire. Was the Wartburg destined to be Luther's tomb? "I fear,"

said Melancthon, "that the grief he feels for the Church will cause his death. A fire has been kindled by him in Israel; if he dies, what hope will remain for us? Would to G.o.d, that at the cost of my own wretched life, I could retain in the world that soul which is its fairest ornament![37]--Oh! what a man!" exclaimed he, as if already standing on the side of his grave; "we never appreciated him rightly!"

[37] Utinam hac vili anima mea ipsius vitam emere queam. Corp. Ref. i.

415, 6th July.

[Sidenote: LUTHER'S LABOURS--CONFESSION.]

What Luther denominated the shameful indolence of his prison was a task that almost exceeded the strength of one man. "I am here all the day," wrote he on the 14th of May, "in idleness and pleasures (alluding doubtless to the better diet that was provided him at first). I am reading the Bible in Hebrew and Greek; I am going to write a treatise in German on Auricular Confession; I shall continue the translation of the Psalms, and compose a volume of sermons, so soon as I have received what I want from Wittemberg. I am writing without intermission."[38] And yet this was but a part of his labours.

[38] Sine intermissione scribo. L. Epp. ii. 6, 16.

His enemies thought that, if he were not dead, at least they should hear no more of him; but their joy was not of long duration, and there could be no doubt that he was alive. A mult.i.tude of writings, composed in the Wartburg, succeeded each other rapidly, and the beloved voice of the reformer was everywhere hailed with enthusiasm. Luther published simultaneously works calculated to edify the Church, and polemical tracts which troubled the too eager exultation of his enemies. For nearly a whole year, he by turns instructed, exhorted, reproved, and thundered from his mountain-retreat; and his amazed adversaries asked one another if there was not something supernatural, some mystery, in this prodigious activity. "He could never have taken any rest," says Cochlus.[39]

[39] c.u.m quiescere non posset. Cochl. Act. Luth. p. 39.

But there was no other mystery than the imprudence of the partisans of Rome. They hastened to take advantage of the edict of Worms, to strike a decisive blow at the Reformation; and Luther, condemned, under the ban of the empire, and a prisoner in the Wartburg, undertook to defend the sound doctrine, as if he were still victorious and at liberty. It was especially at the tribunal of penance that the priests endeavoured to rivet the chains of their docile paris.h.i.+oners; and accordingly the confessional was the object of Luther's first attack. "They bring forward," said he, "these words of St. James: _Confess your faults to one another_. Singular confessor! his name is _One Another_. Whence it would follow that the confessors should also confess themselves to their penitents; that each Christian should be, in his turn, pope, bishop, priest; and that the pope himself should confess to all!"[40]

[40] Und der Pabst musse ihm beichten. L. Opp. xvii. 701.

[Sidenote: REPLY TO LATOMUS--LUTHER'S PROMENADES.]

Luther had scarcely finished this tract when he began another. A theologian of Louvain, by name Latomus, already notorious by his opposition to Reuchlin and Erasmus, had attacked the reformer's opinions. In twelve days Luther's refutation was ready, and it is a masterpiece. He clears himself of the reproach that he was wanting in moderation. "The moderation of the day," said he, "is to bend the knee before sacrilegious pontiffs, impious sophists, and to say to them: Gracious lord! Excellent master! Then, when you have so done, you may put any one you please to death; you may even convulse the world, and you will be none the less a man of moderation......Away with such moderation! I would rather be frank and deceive no one. The sh.e.l.l may be hard, but the kernel is soft and tender."[41]

[41] Cortex meus esse potest durior, sed nucleus meus mollis et dulcis est. Ibid. Lat. ii. 213.

As Luther's health continued feeble, he thought of leaving the place of his confinement. But how could he manage it? To appear in public would be exposing his life. The back of the mountain on which the fortress stood was crossed by numerous footways, bordered by tufts of strawberries. The heavy gate of the castle opened, and the prisoner ventured, not without fear, to gather some of the fruit.[42] By degrees he grew bolder, and in his knight's garb began to wander through the surrounding country, attended by one of the guards of the castle, a worthy but somewhat churlish man. One day, having entered an inn, Luther threw aside his sword, which enc.u.mbered him, and hastily took up some books that lay there. His nature got the better of his prudence. His guardian trembled for fear this movement, so extraordinary in a soldier, should excite suspicions that the doctor was not really a knight. At another time the two comrades alighted at the convent of Reinhardsbrunn, where Luther had slept a few months before on his road to Worms.[43] Suddenly one of the lay-brothers uttered a cry of surprise. Luther was recognised. His attendant perceived it, and dragged him hastily away; and already they were galloping far from the cloister before the astonished brother had recovered from his amazement.

[42] Zu zeiten gehet er in die Erdbeer am Schlossberg. Mathes. p. 33.

[43] Vol. II. p. 226.

[Sidenote: A HUNTING-PARTY.]

The military life of the doctor had at intervals something about it truly theological. One day the nets were made ready--the gates of the fortress opened--the long-eared dogs rushed forth. Luther desired to taste the pleasures of the chase. The huntsmen soon grew animated; the dogs sprang forward, driving the game from the covers. In the midst of all this uproar, the Knight George stands motionless: his mind is occupied with serious thoughts; the objects around him fill his heart with sorrow.[44] "Is not this," says he, "the image of the devil setting on his dogs--that is, the bishops, those representatives of Antichrist, and urging them in pursuit of poor souls?"[45] A young hare was taken: delighted at the prospect of liberating it, he wrapped it carefully in his cloak, and set it down in the midst of a thicket; but hardly had he taken a few steps before the dogs scented the animal and killed it. Luther, attracted by the noise, uttered a groan of sorrow, and exclaimed: "O pope! and thou, too, Satan! it is thus ye endeavour to destroy even those souls that have been saved from death!"[46]

[44] Theologisabar etiam ibi inter retia et canes......tantum misericordiae et doloris miscuit mysterium. L. Epp. ii. 43.

[45] Quid enim ista imago, nisi Diabolum significat per insidias suas et impios magistros canes suos......Ibid.

[46] Sic saevit Papa et Satan ut servatas etiam animas perdant. Ibid.

44.

[Sidenote: COMMENCEMENT OF THE REFORM.]

CHAPTER III.

Commencement of the Reform--Marriage of Feldkirchen--The Marriage of Monks--Theses--Tract against Monachism--Luther no longer a Monk.

While the doctor of Wittemberg, thus dead to the world, was seeking relaxation in these sports in the neighbourhood of the Wartburg, the work was going on as if of itself: the Reform was beginning; it was no longer restricted to doctrine, it entered deeply into men's actions.

Bernard Feldkirchen, pastor of Kemberg, the first under Luther's directions to attack the errors of Rome,[47] was also the first to throw off the yoke of its inst.i.tutions. He married.

[47] Vol. I. p. 219.

The Germans are fond of social life and domestic joys; and hence, of all the papal ordinances, compulsory celibacy was that which produced the saddest consequences. This law, which had been first imposed on the heads of the clergy, had prevented the ecclesiastical fiefs from becoming hereditary. But when extended by Gregory VII. to the inferior clergy, it was attended with the most deplorable results. Many priests had evaded the obligations imposed upon them by the most scandalous disorders, and had drawn contempt and hatred on the whole body; while those who had submitted to Hildebrand's law were inwardly exasperated against the Church, because, while conferring on its superior dignitaries so much power, wealth, and earthly enjoyment, it bound its humbler ministers, who were its most useful supporters, to a self-denial so contrary to the Gospel.

[Sidenote: THE MARRIAGE OF MONKS.]

"Neither popes nor councils," said Feldkirchen and another pastor named Seidler, who had followed his example, "can impose any commandment on the Church that endangers body and soul. The obligation of keeping G.o.d's law compels me to violate the traditions of men."[48] The re-establishment of marriage in the sixteenth century was a homage paid to the moral law. The ecclesiastical authority became alarmed, and immediately fulminated its decrees against these two priests. Seidler, who was in the territories of Duke George, was given up to his superiors, and died in prison. But the Elector Frederick refused to surrender Feldkirchen to the Archbishop of Magdeburg. "His highness," said Spalatin, "declines to act the part of a constable." Feldkirchen therefore continued pastor of his flock, although a husband and a father.

[48] Coegit me ergo ut humanas traditiones violarem, necessitas servandi juris divini. Corp. Ref. i. 441.

The first emotion of the reformer when he heard of this was to give way to exultation: "I admire this new bridegroom of Kemberg," said he, "who fears nothing, and hastens forward in the midst of the uproar."

Luther was of opinion that priests ought to marry. But this question led to another,--the marriage of monks; and here Luther had to support one of those internal struggles of which his whole life was composed; for every reform must first be won by a spiritual struggle. Melancthon and Carlstadt, the one a layman, the other a priest, thought that the liberty of contracting the bonds of wedlock should be as free for the monks as for the priests. The monk Luther did not think so at first.

One day the governor of the Wartburg having brought him Carlstadt's theses on celibacy: "Gracious G.o.d!" exclaimed he, "our Wittembergers then will give wives even to the monks!"......This thought surprised and confounded him; his heart was troubled. He rejected for himself the liberty that he claimed for others. "Ah!" said he indignantly, "they will not force _me_ at least to take a wife."[49] This expression is doubtless unknown to those who a.s.sert that Luther preached the Reformation that he might marry. Inquiring for truth, not with pa.s.sion, but with uprightness of purpose, he maintained what seemed to him true, although contrary to the whole of his system. He walked in a mixture of error and truth, until error had fallen and truth remained alone.