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LUSTRATION LUTHER. 



tended from the Tapus to the sea of Calabria. The 

 inhabitants were warlike, and the Romans conquered 

 them with great difficulty. They generally lived 

 upon plunder, and were rude and unpolished in their 

 manners. See Spain, and Portugal. 



LUSTRATION; purification; in particular the 

 solemn purification or consecration of the Roman 

 people, by means of an expiatory sacrifice (sacri- 

 Jicium lustrale), which was performed after every 

 census. (See Census.) The name may be derived 

 from lucre, in the sense of solvere, for, on this occa- 

 sion, all public taxes were paid by the farmers-general 

 to the censor; or from lustrare (to expiate), because, 

 after the census, an expiatory sacrifice was offered 

 for the whole Roman people. The sacrifice consisted 

 of a bull, a sow, and a sheep or ram (suovetaurilia). 

 The ram was dedicated to Jupiter, the swine to 

 Ceres, and the bull to Mars. This solemn act was 

 called lustrum condere. As this lustration took place 

 at the end of every five years, lustrum came to signify 

 a period of five years. 



LUSTRE. See Lustration. 



LUTE (in Italian, Unto ; French, luth ; German, 

 laule, perhaps from the German lauten, to sound) is 

 an instrument which originated from the ancient lyre. 

 Some, however, think that it was introduced into 

 Spain by the Moors, where it was called laoud ; and 

 from thence into Italy, where it received the name 

 of liuto. The chelys, or testudo, of the Romans, was 

 probably a similar instrument. It is a stringed instru- 

 ment, formerly much in use, anciently containing only 

 five rows of strings, but to which six, or more, were 

 afterwards added. The lute consists of four parts, 

 viz., the table; the body, which has nine or ten sides; 

 the neck, which has as many stops or divisions; and 

 the head, or cross, in which the screws for turning it 

 are inserted. In playing this instrument, the per- 

 former strikes the strings with the fingers of the right 

 hand, and regulates the sounds with those of the left. 

 The notes ot the lute are generally written on six 

 lines, and not on five. There were formerly various 

 kinds in use. The lute, simply constructed, is called 

 the French lute ; if it has two necks, one of which 

 sustains the base notes, it is called a theorbo ; if the 

 strings of the theorbo are doubled, it is called an arch- 

 lute. The difficulty of playing upon this instrument, 

 as well as that of tuning it, is probably the reason 

 that it has gone out of use. 



LUTHER, MARTIN, the great ecclesiastical re- 

 former, was born at Eisleben, November 10, 1483. 

 Hans Luther, his father, a miner, removed with his 

 family to Mansfield, in 1484, and was appointed to 

 a seat in the council. Martin was educated in the 

 deepest respect for religion, and, at the age of four- 

 teen, was sent to the school at Magdeburg ; but 

 receiving no assistance there, he was sent, in 1498, 

 to Eisenach. At first he obtained his support by 

 singing songs at the doors, like many other poor 

 scholars ; but he was soon taken under the care of a 

 maternal relation in easy circumstances. At school, 

 he made rapid progress in Latin and other studies; 

 in 1501, entered the university of Erfurt; in 1503, 

 received the degree of master, and delivered lectures 

 on the physics and ethics of Aristotle. About this 

 time, he discovered, in the library of the university, 

 a Latin Bible, and found, to his no small delight, 

 that it contained more than the excerpts in common 

 use. He was destined by his father to the law; but 

 his more intimate acquaintance with the Bible, of 

 which the clergymen of that time knew only the 

 Gospels and Epistles, induced him to turn his atten- 

 tion to the study of divinity. The impression pro- 

 duced on him by the death of his friend Alexis, who 

 expired at his side, on a journey from Mansfield to 

 Erfurt, by a stroke of lightning or the blow of an 



assassin, uniting with the effect of his early religious 

 education and his poverty, decided him to devote 

 himself to the monastic life. Contrary to the wishes 

 of his father, he filtered the monastery of the Augus- 

 tines, at Erfurt, in 1505, and submitted patiently to 

 all the penances and humiliations which the superiors 

 of the order imposed upon novices. But he always 

 regarded himself as an unprofitable servant. Pure 

 and innocent as he was, lie tortured himself with 

 bitter reproaches, and was attacked by a severe fit 

 of sickness; during which, one of the elder brothers 

 consoled his troubled heart, and promised him the 

 forgiveness of his sins through faith in Jesus Christ. 

 This doctrine, almost forgotten in the zeal of the 

 clergy for good works, as they called them, and in 

 the traffic in indulgences, brought a new light into 

 the soul of Luther. He was also encouraged by the 

 paternal mildness of Staupitz, the provincial of the 

 order, who, perceiving his extraordinary talents and 

 acquirements, delivered him from the menial duties 

 of the cloister, and encouraged him to continue his 

 theological studies. 



In 1507, he was consecrated priest, and, in 1508, 

 by the influence of his patron, Staupitz, he was made 

 professor of philosophy in the new university of 

 Wittenberg. In this sphere of action, his powerful 

 mind soon showed itself. He threw oft' the fetters of 

 the scholastic philosophy, so intimately connected 

 with the papal hierarchy, asserted the rights of rea- 

 son, and soon collected a large number of disciples. 

 In 1510, he visited the court of pope Leo X., at 

 Rome, on business intrusted to his order. This 

 journey revealed to him the irreligion and corruption 

 of the clergy at Rome, and destroyed his reverence 

 for the sanctity of the pope. After his return, he 

 became a preacher at Wittemberg, and, in 1512, he 

 was made a doctor in theology. As such, his oath 

 bound him, as he thought, to the fearless defence of 

 the Holy Scriptures. His profound learning, which 

 embraced an intimate acquaintance with the ancient 

 classics, the fathers of the church, and the spirit of 

 the Greek and Hebrew languages, together with the 

 fame of his eloquence, soon made Luther known to 

 the principal scholars, and esteemed as a powerful 

 advocate of the new light which was breaking upon 

 the world. Great, therefore, was the attention 

 excited by his ninety-five propositions, given to the 

 world October 31, 1517, and intended to put an end 

 to the sale of indulgences, by the Dominican Tetzel. 

 Luther was compelled to this course solely by the 

 love of truth, and by his indignation against the traffic 

 in indulgences, the unhappy effects of which had 

 appeared already in his congregation at Wittemberg. 

 Ambition or hatred of the Dominicans had no influence 

 in producing this measure. His propositions were 

 condemned as heretical as soon as they appeared. 

 Hogstraaten, a Dominican at Cologne, doctor Eck 

 at Ingolstadt, and Prierias, an officer of the Roman 

 court, immediately began an attack upon Luther; 

 but neither their invectives, nor the papal summons 

 to Rome, which he did not obey, nor the mild exhor- 

 tations of the cardinal Cajetan, at Augsburg, in 1518, 

 and of the nuncio Miltitz,at Altenburg, in 1519, with 

 alluring offers from the pope himself, were sufficient 

 to induce him to recant. He replied to his opponents 

 with boldness and determination, and even after his 

 dispute with Eck at Leipsic, in 1519, he still main- 

 tained the invalidity of indulgences, and of the papal 

 supremacy. No one answered him, and he appealed 

 with justice from the decision of Cajetan, to the pope, 

 and from the pope to a general council. 



In 1520, Luther and his friends were excommuni- 

 cated. His writings were burned at Rome, Cologne, 

 and Louvain. Indignant at this open act of hostility 

 after his modest letter, in which he had showed him- 



