History of the Great Reformation Part 22

[378] Ein fugsamer Anfang der Niderbrengung des Evangelii.--(Ibid. p.

76.)

[Sidenote: THE ELECTOR'S REPLY.]

On the 31st May, the Elector sent his answer in writing to Charles's ministers. "It is not true," it bore, "that the Edict of Worms was approved of by the six Electors. How could the Elector, my brother, and myself, by approving it, have opposed the everlasting word of Almighty G.o.d? Accordingly, succeeding diets have declared this edict impossible to be executed. As for the relations of friendship that I have formed, their only aim is to protect me against acts of violence.

Let my accusers lay before the eyes of his majesty the alliances they have made; I am ready to produce mine, and the Emperor shall decide between us.--Finally, As to the demand to suspend our preachings, nothing is proclaimed in them but the glorious truth of G.o.d, and never was it so necessary to us. We cannot therefore do without it!"[379]

[379] Quo carere non possit.--(Seck. p. 156; Muller, Hist. Prot. p.

506.)

This reply must necessarily hasten the arrival of Charles; and it was urgent they should be prepared to receive him. To explain what they believe, and then be silent, was the whole plan of the Protestant campaign. A confession was therefore necessary. One man, of small stature, frail, timid, and in great alarm, was commissioned to prepare this instrument of war. Philip Melancthon worked at it night and day: he weighed every expression, softened it down, changed it, and then frequently returned to his first idea. He was wasting away his strength; his friends trembled lest he should die over his task; and Luther enjoined him, as early as the 12th of May, under pain of anathema, to take measures for the preservation of "his little body,"

and not "to commit suicide for the love of G.o.d."[380] "G.o.d is as usefully served by repose," added he, "and indeed man never serves him better than by keeping himself tranquil. It is for this reason G.o.d willed that the Sabbath should be so strictly observed."[381]

[380] Ut sub anathemate cogam te in regulas servandi corpusculi tui.--(L. Epp. iv. p. 16.)

[381] Ideo enim Sabbatum voluit tam rigide prae caeteris servari.--(Ibid.)

[Sidenote: PREPARATION OF THE CONFESSION.]

Notwithstanding these solicitations, Melancthon's application augmented, and he set about an exposition of the christian faith, at once mild, moderate, and as little removed as possible from the doctrine of the Latin Church. At Coburg he had already put his hand to the task, and traced out in the first part the doctrines of the faith, according to the articles of Schwabach; and in the second, the abuses of the Church, according to the articles of Torgau, making altogether quite a new work. At Augsburg he gave a more correct and elegant form to this confession.[382]

[382] More rhetorically. Feci aliquande ??t?????te??? quam Coburgae scripseram.--(Corp. Ref. ii. p. 40.)

The Apology, as it was then called, was completed on the 11th May; and the Elector sent it to Luther, begging him to mark what ought to be changed. "I have said what I thought most useful," added Melancthon, who feared that his friend would find the confession too weak; "for Eck ceases not to circulate against us the most diabolical calumnies, and I have endeavoured to oppose an antidote to his poisons."[383]

[383] Quia Eckius addidit d?a?????t?tas d?a????

contra nos.--(Corp. Ref. p. 45.)

Luther replied to the Elector on the 15th May: "I have read Magister Philip's Apology; I like it well enough, I have no corrections to make. Besides, that would hardly suit me, for I cannot walk so meekly and so silently. May Christ our Lord grant that this work may produce much and great fruit."

Each day, however, the Elector's councillors and theologians, in concert with Melancthon, improved the confession, and endeavoured to render it such that the charmed diet should, in its own despite, hear it to the very end.[384]

[384] In Apologia quotidie multa mutamus.--(Ibid. p. 60.)

[Sidenote: LUTHER'S SINAI.]

While the struggle was thus preparing at Augsburg, Luther at Coburg, on the summit of the hill, "on his Sinai," as he called it, raised his hands like Moses towards heaven.[385] He was the real general of the spiritual war that was then waging; his letters ceased not to bear to the combatants the directions which they needed, and numerous pamphlets issuing from his stronghold, like discharges of musketry, spread confusion in the enemy's camp.

[385] Mathesius Predigten, p. 92.

The place where he had been left was, by its solitude, favourable to study and to meditation.[386] "I shall make a Zion of this Sinai,"

said he on the 22d April, "and I shall build here three tabernacles; one to the Psalms, one to the Prophets, and one----to Esop!" This last word is a startling one. The a.s.sociation belongs neither to the language nor the spirit of the Apostles. It is true that Esop was not to be his princ.i.p.al study: the fables were soon laid aside, and truth alone engaged Luther. "I shall weep, I shall pray, I shall never be silent," wrote he, "until I know that my cry has been heard in heaven."[387]

[386] Longe amaenissimus et studiis commodissimus.--(L. Epp. iv. p. 2.)

[387] Orabo igitur et plorabo, non quieturus donec, &c.--(L. Epp. iv.

p. 2.)

Besides, by way of relaxation, he had something better than Esop; he had those domestic joys whose precious treasures the Reformation had opened to the ministers of the Word. It was at this time he wrote that charming letter to his infant son, in which he describes a delightful garden where children dressed in gold are sporting about, picking up apples, pears, cherries, and plums; they sing, dance, and enjoy themselves, and ride pretty little horses, with golden bridles and silver saddles.[388]

[388] This letter, which is a masterpiece of its kind, may be found in Luther's Epp. iv. p. 41, and also in Riddle's "Luther and his Times,"

p. 268.

[Sidenote: LUTHER'S MERRIMENT.]

But the Reformer was soon drawn away from these pleasing images. About this time he learnt that his father had gently fallen asleep in the faith which is in Jesus Christ. "Alas!" exclaimed he, shedding tears of filial love, "it is by the sweat of his brow that he made me what I am."[389] Other trials a.s.sailed him; and to bodily pains were added the phantoms of his imagination. One night in particular he saw three torches pa.s.s rapidly before his eyes, and at the same moment he heard claps of thunder in his head, which he ascribed to the devil. His servant ran in at the moment he fainted, and after having restored him to animation, read to him the Epistle to the Galatians. Luther, who had fallen asleep, said as he awoke: "Come, and despite of the devil let us sing the Psalm, _Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord_." They both sang the hymn. While Luther was thus tormented by these internal noises, he translated the prophet Jeremiah, and yet he often deplored his idleness.

[389] Per ejus sudores aluit et finxit qualis sum.--(Epp. iv. p. 33.)

He soon devoted himself to other studies, and poured out the floods of his irony on the mundane practices of courts. He saw Venice, the Pope, and the King of France, giving their hands to Charles V. to crush the Gospel. Then, alone in his chamber in the old castle, he burst into irresistible laughter. "Mr. _Par-ma-foy_, (it was thus he designated Francis I.), _Innomine-Domini_ (the Pope), and the Republic of Venice, pledge their goods and their bodies to the Emperor......_Sanctissimum fdus_. A most holy alliance truly! This league between these four powers belongs to the chapter _Non-credimus_, Venice, the Pope, and France become _imperialists_!......But these are three persons in one substance, filled with unspeakable hatred against the Emperor. Mr.

_Par-ma-foy_ cannot forget his defeat at Pavia; Mr. _In-nomine-Domini_ is, 1st, an Italian, which is already too much; 2d, a Florentine, which is worse; 3d, a b.a.s.t.a.r.d--that is to say, a child of the devil; 4th, he will never forget the disgrace of the sack of Rome. As for the Venetians, they are Venetians: that is quite enough; and they have good reason to avenge themselves on the posterity of Maximilian. All this belongs to the chapter _Firmiter-credimus_. But G.o.d will help the pious Charles, who is a sheep among wolves. Amen."[390] The former monk of Erfurth had a surer political foresight than many diplomatists of his age.

[390] To Gasp. of Teutleben, 19th June.--(L. Epp. iv. p. 37.)

[Sidenote: CONDITION OF SAXONY.]

Impatient at seeing the diet put off from day to day, Luther formed his resolution, and ended by convoking it even at Coburg. "We are already in full a.s.sembly," wrote he on the 28th April and the 9th May.

"You might here see kings, dukes, and other grandees, deliberating on the affairs of their kingdom, and with indefatigable voice publishing their dogmas and decrees in the air. They dwell not in those caverns which you decorate with the name of palaces; the heavens are their canopy; the leafy trees form a floor of a thousand colours, and their walls are the ends of the earth. They have a horror of all the unmeaning luxury of silk and gold; they ask neither coursers nor armour, and have all the same clothing and the same colour. I have neither seen nor heard their emperor; but if I can understand them, they have determined this year to make a pitiless war upon----the most excellent fruits of the earth.--Ah! my dear friends," said he to his messmates,[391] to whom he was writing, "these are the sophists, the Papists, who are a.s.sembled before me in a heap, to make me hear their sermons and their cries."--These two letters, dated from the "_empire of ravens and crows_," finish in the following mournful strain, which shows us the Reformer descending into himself after this play of his imagination: "Enough of jesting!--jesting which is, however, sometimes necessary to dispel the gloomy thoughts that prey upon me."[392]

[391] An seine Tischgesellen.--(L. Epp. iv. p. 7.)

[392] Sed serio et necessario joco qui mihi irruentes cogitationes repelleret.--(L. Epp. iv. p. 14.)

[Sidenote: TRAVAIL OF THE GOSPEL.]

Luther soon returned to real life, and thrilled with joy at beholding the fruits that the Reformation was already bearing, and which were for him a more powerful "apology" than even the confession of Melancthon. "Is there in the whole world a single country to be compared to your highness's states," wrote he to the Elector, "and which possesses preachers of so pure a doctrine, or pastors so fitted to bring about the reign of peace? Where do we see, as in Saxony, boys and girls well instructed in the Holy Scriptures and in the Catechism, increasing in wisdom and in stature, praying, believing, talking of G.o.d and of Christ better than has been done hitherto by all the universities, convents, and chapters of Christendom?"[393] "My dear Duke John, says the Lord to you, I commend this paradise to thee, the most beautiful that exists in the world, that thou mayst be its gardener." And then he added: "Alas! the madness of the Papist princes changes this paradise of G.o.d into a dirty slough, and corrupting the youth, peoples every day with real devils their states, their tables, and their palaces."

[393] Eswachst jetz daher die zart Jugend von Knablin un Maidlin.--(Ibid. p. 21.)

Luther, not content with encouraging his prince, desired also to frighten his adversaries. It was with this intent that he wrote at that time an address to the members of the clergy a.s.sembled at Augsburg. A crowd of thoughts, like lansquenets armed cap-a-pie, "rushed in to fatigue and bewilder him;"[394] and in fact there is no want of barbed words in the discourse he addresses to the bishops. "In short," said he to them in conclusion, "we know and you know that we have the Word of G.o.d, and that you have it not. O Pope! if I live I shall be a pestilence to thee; and if I die, I shall be thy death!"[395]

[394] Ut plurimos Lansknecktos, prorsus vi repellere cogar, qui insalutati non cessant obstrepere.--(L. Epp. iv. p. 10.)

[395] Pestis eram vivus, moriens ero mors tua, Papa.--(L. Opp. xx. p.

164.)

Thus was Luther present at Augsburg, although invisible; and he effected more by his words and by his prayers than Agricola, Brenz, or Melancthon. These were the days of travail for the Gospel truth. It was about to appear in the world with a might that was destined to eclipse all that had been done since the time of St. Paul; but Luther only announced and manifested the things that G.o.d was effecting: he did not execute them himself. He was, as regards the events of the Church, what Socrates was to philosophy: "I imitate my mother (she was a midwife)," this philosopher was in the habit of saying; "she does not travail herself, but she aids others." Luther--and he never ceased repeating it--has created nothing; but he has brought to light the precious seed, hidden for ages in the bosom of the Church. The man of G.o.d is not he who seeks to form his age according to his own peculiar ideas, but he who, distinctly perceiving G.o.d's truth, such as it is found in his Word, and as it is hidden in his Church, brings it to his contemporaries with courage and decision.

[Sidenote: HUMAN HOPES FAIL.]

Never had these qualities been more necessary, for matters were taking an alarming aspect. On the 4th June died Chancellor Gattinara, who was to Charles the Fifth "what Ulpian was to Alexander Severus," says Melancthon, and with him all the human hopes of the Protestants vanished. "It is G.o.d," Luther had said, "who has raised up for us a Naaman in the court of the King of Syria." In truth Gattinara alone resisted the Pope. When Charles brought to him the objections of Rome: "Remember," said the Chancellor, "that you are master!" Henceforward every thing seemed to take a new direction. The Pope required that Charles should be satisfied with being his "lictor," as Luther says, to carry out his judgments against the heretics.[396] Eck, whose name (according to Melancthon) was no bad imitation of the cry of Luther's crows, heaped one upon another[397] a mult.i.tude of pretended heretical propositions, extracted from the Reformer's writings. There were _four hundred and four_, and yet he made excuse that, being taken unawares, he was forced to restrict himself to so small a number, and he called loudly for a disputation with the Lutherans. They retorted on these propositions by a number of ironical and biting theses on "wine, Venus, and baths, against John Eck;" and the poor Doctor became the laughing-stock of everybody.

[396] Tantum lictorem suum in haereticos.--(Epp. iv. p. 10.)

[397] Magnum acervum conclusionum congessit.--(Corp. Ref. p. 39.)

[Sidenote: THE CHURCH, THE JUDGE.]