97t 



LUTHER, MARTIN. 



LUTHER, MARTIN. 



830 



in the affirmative. Being next asked whether he would 

 or maintain them, he begged for time to consider of his 

 r, and was allowed one day. The folio wing day he appeared 

 gain before the assembly , and said that his writings were of various 

 character, that in some he had treated only of Christian faith and 

 piety, and these could contain nothing objectionable ; that in some he 

 had exposed the inventions of men and the usurpations of the popes, 

 and these he could not retract ; that in others, which were directed 

 against the defenders of the pope, he might have expressed himself in 

 an unbecoming manner, but that he could not retract the substance 

 however censurable the manner of it ; that, being a man, he was liable 

 to error, and that he was ready, if convicted by the testimony of the 

 Scriptures, to commit a portion or tho whole of his publications to 

 the dainea. And he repeated what he had already said on another 

 occasion, that both pope and council were liable to error, and had in 

 fact often erred. He had formerly quoted the council of Constance 

 as an instance of his assertion. 



On the following day Charles V. told the diet that, attached as he 

 was to the Roman Catholic Church, he should ever defend its doctrines 

 and constitution ; that he could hear Luther no more ; and that he 

 should dismiss him, and afterwards treat him as a heretic. This 

 decision was also that of the majority. Some were for trying persuasion 

 and entreaty with a mau who, like Luther, could not be frightened 

 into submission; but entreaty was likewise of no avail, for Luther 

 refused to retract a single proposition unless proved to be erroneous 

 by the authority of the Scripture. He was then ordered to leave 

 Worms, with a written promise of security for twenty-one days. He 

 left on the 26th of April, but on entering a forest his carriage was 

 stopped by a party of armed horsemen in masks, who placed him on 

 horseback, and rode off with him to the solitary caitle of Wartburg, 

 situated on a mountain. This was another contrivance of his kind 

 protector the Elector of Saxouy. The greatest secrecy was observed 

 concerning the place of his retreat, and it was purposely reported about 

 that his enemies had carried him off. A month after his departure an 

 imperial edict appeared, placing Luther under the ban of the empire, 

 ordering him to be seized and retained in prison at the emperor's 

 pleasure, and imprisonment and confiscation were denounced against 

 any one who aided and abetted him. But the edict could not be 

 enforced. The Elector of Saxony was Luther's friend ; few, if any, of 

 the other electors or priuces were his enemies, and the popular voice 

 was for him ; for the Germans in general, although few of them under- 

 stood the subject-matter of Luther's polemics, were weary of the abuses 

 and encroachment's of the ecclesiastical power. 



In his asylum at Wartburg Luther wrote several treatises against 

 auricular confession, against monastic vows, clerical celibacy, and 

 prayers for the dead ; against the Sorbonne of Paris, which had con- 

 demned his works, and which he exposed to public ridicule. His 

 writings spread and produced a wonderful effect in Saxony. Hundreds 

 of monks quitted their convents and married. The Augustin friars 

 of Wittenberg abolished the mass. Carlostadt, a disciple of Luther, 

 but more intemperate than his master, accompanied by a band ot 

 reformers, demolished the images in the church of All Saints at 

 Wittenberg, and next proposed to banish all books from the university 

 except the Bible. He also affected to obey to the letter the sentence 

 pronounced on Adam by going to work in the fields for some hours 

 daily. Even the polished Melancthon followed the example, and went 

 to work in a baker's shop. 



Luther, in his retirement, heard of these follies ; he perceived that 

 fanaticism was spoiling his cause; and he resolved immediately, 

 without heeding his own danger, to return to Wittenberg (1522). He 

 rebuked Carlostadt, who retorted, calling him an idolater because he 

 believed in the real presence in the sacrament, and a courtier for living 

 on terms of intimacy with princes. At last they parted in anger : 

 Carlostadt was banished from Saxony as a seditious person by the 

 elector for inculcating the principles of natural equality, and he went 

 to join Zuingli in Switzerland. 



Luther was now the acknowledged leader and oracle of the reformers 

 of Germany, and as such he continued to the end of his life. The doc- 

 trines which he gradually asserted were expounded and fixed by his 

 disciple Melaucthon in the Confession of Augsburg, and are such as 

 are generally recognised by the term Protestant. At the close of 1522 

 he published his German version of the New Testament. In 1523 he 

 preached against the mass. He had already replied, in his usually 

 scurrilous style of polemics, to the treatise in defence of the sacraments 

 written by Henry VIII. of England. It must be observed however 

 that the coarse vituperations which shock the reader in Luther's con- 

 troversial works wore not peculiar to him, being commonly used by 

 scholars and divines of the middle ages in their disputations. The 

 invectives of Valla, Filelfo, I'oggio, and other distinguished scholars, 

 against each other are notorious; and this bad taste continued in 

 practice long after Luther down to the 17th century, and traces of it 

 are found in writers of the 18th, even in some of the works of the 

 polished and courtly Voltaire. 



In 1524 Luther threw off bis monastic dress, and definitively con- 

 demned monastic institutions. Convents both of men and women 

 were now rapidly suppressed throughout North Germany, and their 

 property was seized by the secular power : indeed there can be no 

 doubt that the hojie of plunder contributed greatly to the encourage- 



ment which the princes and electors gave to the new doctrines. The 

 insurrection of the ' Wiodertaufer," or Anabaptists, led by a fiiuati.- 

 named Muutzer, which assumed the character of a peasant war against 

 all property and law, gave great concern to Luther, who was taunted 

 by many with being the source from which all those aberrations flowed. 

 He preached against the fanatics, he tried to mediate, he besought t 

 peasants to lay down their arms, and at the same time he told tin- 

 princes to redress the grievances of the poor ; but the insurgents were 

 too far gone in their career of bloodshed and devastation, and nothing 

 but the sword could put a stop to it. Luther was sorely grieved 

 throughout the rest of his life at the renewed disorders of the Ana- 

 baptists and other fanatics on one side, and on the other at the selfish- 

 ness, worldliness, and corruption of all classes. He fancied at times 

 that the end of the world must be nigh, for the world had fallen into 

 decrepitude; avidity and self-interest were the ruling passions. 

 'Luther's ' Table-Talk,' aad his ' Letters.') 



In 1525 Luther married Catherine de Bora, a young nun who had 

 eft her convent the year before. He had long before condemned the 

 obligation of cleric il celibacy, as well as that resulting from monastic 

 , as being human devices unknown to the original church, 

 riago in its purity," he wrote, " is a state of simplicity and 

 peace." When Luther married he was poor, for amidst the great 

 change from the old to the new system of church discipline, his 

 salary, which was charged upon the revenues of monastic property, 

 was by no means regularly paid, and Luther was not a man to ask 

 money of his friends. In the same year his steady and considerate 

 patron Frederic of Saxony died ; but John, his successor, not only 

 continued to favour Luther, but made open profession of his doctrine-, 

 and commissioned him to prepare a new church service for his domi- 

 nions, in addition to which Luther wrote a larger and a small 

 catechism for the use of schools, in a style admirably suited to youth. 

 Besides the Elector of Saxony, the Elector Palatine, the Landgrave 

 of Hesse, the Duke of Deux 1'onta, the Margrave of Brandenburg and 

 grand-master of Prussia, and also many cities in other parts of the 

 empire, openly embraced Luther's reformation. In Switzerland how- 

 ever another reformer, Zuingli, who had begun, like Luther, by 

 opposing indulgences, had also effected a reformation, but he incul- 

 cated tenets different in some respects from those of Luther, especially 

 on the subject of the real presence in the sacrament, which Luther 

 admitted, and Zuingli entirely denied. Luther was vexed at this 

 division, especially as several towns of Germany, Strasbourg, Ulm, 

 Meiningen, Lindau, Constance, and others, adopted /uiugli's tenets. 



In March 1529, a diet was convoked at Spoyer, in which tho Roman 

 Catholics endeavoured to enforce the edict of Worms, but the oppo- 

 sition of the Elector of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Margrave 

 of Brandenburg, and the deputies of the imperial cities, caused its 

 rejection. The Roman Catholics then endeavoured to separate the 

 reformers ; they drew up a decree, apparently directed a^ainat those 

 who denied the real presence, but so worded as to include the 

 Lutherans also, wiio refused their sanction to it. It was on this 

 occasion that the reformed princes and deputies delivered a formal 

 " Protestation " against the decree, dated Speyer, 19th of April 

 which was signed by John, elector of Saxouy, George, umrgrave of 

 Brandenburg, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, Ernest and Francis, dukes 

 of Lilneburg, Wolfgang, prince of Auhalt, and the deputies of fourteen 

 cities. From this protestation arose the name of "Protestants," 

 which in its origin was applied to the Lutherans. 



The Landgrave of Hesse, wishing if possible to bring about a union 

 among all reformers, succeeded in appointing a conference between 

 Luther and Melaucthon on one vide and Zuingli and (Ecolampadius 

 on the other at Marburg. The conference turned chiefly on the subject 

 of the real presence, but it produced no approximation among the 

 opposite parties. They separated neither in friendliness nor hostility, 

 and both parties retained their favourite tenets. In 1530 a diet was 

 convoked at Augsburg by Charles Y., who attended it in person, and 

 there the Lutherans presented their confession of faith, which was 

 drawn up by Mulanuthuu and approved by Luther. 



In 1534 Luther completed his greatest work, tho German version of 

 the Bible, which is much admired for its elegance, force, and precision, 

 and which has rendered the Scriptures really popular in Germany. 



The remaining years of Luther's Ufa were passed in comparative 

 quiet, chiefly at Wittenberg, in the duties of his professorship, in 

 writing religious and controversial tracts, and in epistolary corre- 

 spondence. He was consulted by tho Protestant princes and clergy 

 upon all important matters, and listened to with deference. The 

 pacification of Niiraberg in 1532 had left the Lutheran princes, states, 

 and towns in full possession of their religious liberties ; and that peace 

 was not openly interrupted till after Luther's death. Luther had 

 the satisfaction of seeing his doctrines spread farther and farther 

 through Germany, throughout Saxony and Brandenburg, to Moravia 

 and Bohemia, Denmark, and Sweden. He also effected a reconciliation 

 with the so-called Sacramentarians of Strasbourg, Ulm, and other 

 towns, by means of Bucer, so that all reformed Germany was united 

 under one banner. The Helvetic reformed churches however continued 

 separate from his. 



At the beginning of 1546 Luther repaired from Wittenberg to 

 Eisleben for the purpose of reconciling the counts Mausfcld, whose 

 subject he was born. He attended several conferences for that bene- 



