History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume III Part 8

But at the same time nothing appeared to him more urgent than to secure for others the liberty that he claimed for himself. He had not two weights and two measures. "Beware of throwing them into prison,"

wrote he to Spalatin. "Let not the prince dip his hand in the blood of these new prophets."[113] Luther went far beyond his age, and even beyond many other reformers, on the subject of religious liberty.

[113] Ne princeps ma.n.u.s cruentet in prophetis. L. Epp. ii. 135.

Circ.u.mstances were becoming every day more serious in Wittemberg.[114]

[114] Ubi fiebant omnia in dies difficiliora. Camer. Vita Mel. p. 49.

[Sidenote: CARLSTADT AND THE IMAGES.]

Carlstadt rejected many of the doctrines of the new prophets, and particularly their sentiments on baptism; but there is a contagion in religious enthusiasm that a head like his could not easily resist.

From the arrival of the men of Zwickau in Wittemberg, Carlstadt accelerated his movements in the direction of violent reforms. "We must fall upon every unG.o.dly practice, and overthrow them all in a day," said he.[115] He brought together all the pa.s.sages of Scripture against images, and inveighed with increasing energy against the idolatry of Rome. "They fall down--they crawl before these idols,"

exclaimed he; "they burn tapers before them, and make them offerings......Let us arise and tear them from the altars!"

[115] Irruendum et demoliendum statim. Ibid.

These words were not uttered in vain before the people. They entered the churches, carried away the images, broke them in pieces, and burnt them.[116] It would have been better to wait until their abolition had been legally proclaimed; but some thought that the caution of the chiefs would compromise the Reformation itself.

[116] Die Bilder zu sturmen und aus den Kirchen zu werfen. Math. p.

81.

To judge by the language of these enthusiasts, there were no true Christians in Wittemberg save those who went not to confession, who attacked the priests, and who ate meat on fast days. If any one was suspected of not rejecting all the rites of the Church as an invention of the devil, he was set down as a worshipper of Baal. "We must form a Church," cried they, "composed of saints only!"

The citizens of Wittemberg laid before the council certain articles which it was forced to accept. Many of the articles were conformable to evangelical morals. They required more particularly that all houses of public amus.e.m.e.nt should be closed.

[Sidenote: VANDALISM--MOURNFUL CONSEQUENCES.]

But Carlstadt soon went still farther: he began to despise learning; and the old professor was heard from his chair advising his pupils to return home, to take up the spade, to guide the plough, and quietly cultivate the earth, because man was to eat bread in the sweat of his brow. George Mohr, the master of the boys' school at Wittemberg, led away by the same fanaticism, called to the a.s.sembled citizens from the window of his schoolroom to come and take away their children. Why should they study, since Storch and Stubner had never been at the university, and yet they were prophets?......A mechanic, therefore, was as good as all the doctors in the world, and perhaps better, to preach the Gospel.

Thus arose doctrines in direct opposition to the Reformation, which had been prepared by the revival of letters. It was with the weapon of theological learning that Luther had attacked Rome; and the enthusiasts of Wittemberg, like the fanatical monks with whom Erasmus and Reuchlin had contended, presumed to trample all human learning under foot. If this vandalism succeeded in holding its ground, the hopes of the world were lost; and another irruption of barbarians would extinguish the light that G.o.d had kindled in Christendom.

The results of these strange discourses soon showed themselves. Men's minds were prejudiced, agitated, diverted from the Gospel; the university became disorganized; the demoralized students broke the bonds of discipline and dispersed; and the governments of Germany recalled their subjects.[117] Thus the men who desired to reform and vivify every thing, were on the point of ruining all.[118] One struggle more (exclaimed the friends of Rome, who on all sides were regaining their confidence),--one last struggle, and all will be ours!

[117] Etliche Fursten ihre Bewandten abgefordert. Corp. Ref. i. 560.

[118] Perdita et funditus diruta. Camer. Vit. Mel. p. 52.

[Sidenote: A REMEDY WANTED--LUTHER CALLED FOR.]

Promptly to check the excesses of these fanatics was the only means of saving the Reformation. But who could do it? Melancthon? He was too young, too weak, too much agitated himself by these strange apparitions. The elector? He was the most pacific man of his age. To build castles at Altenburg, Weimar, Lochau, and Coburg; to adorn churches with the beautiful pictures of Lucas Cranach; to improve the singing in the chapels; to advance the prosperity of his university; to promote the happiness of his subjects; to stop in the midst of the children whom he met playing in the streets, and give them little presents:--such were the gentle occupations of his life. And now in his advanced age, would he contend with fanatics--would he oppose violence to violence? How could the good and pious Frederick make up his mind to this?

The disease continued to spread, and no one stood forward to check it.

Luther was far from Wittemberg. Confusion and ruin had taken hold of the city. The Reformation had seen an enemy spring from its own bosom more formidable than popes and emperors. It was on the very verge of the abyss.

Luther! Luther! was the general and unanimous cry at Wittemberg. The citizens called for him earnestly; the professors desired his advice; the prophets themselves appealed to him. All entreated him to return.[119]

[119] Lutherum revocavimus ex heremo suo magnis de causis. Corp. Ref.

i. 566.

We may imagine what was pa.s.sing in the reformer's mind. All the terrors of Rome were nothing in comparison with what now wrung his heart. It is from the very midst of the Reformation that its enemies have gone forth. It is preying upon its own vitals; and that doctrine which alone brought peace to his troubled heart becomes the occasion of fatal disturbances to the Church.

[Sidenote: LUTHER DOES NOT HESITATE.]

"If I knew," he had once said, "that my doctrine injured one man, one single man, however lowly and obscure (which it cannot, for it is the Gospel itself), I would rather die ten times than not retract it."[120] And now a whole city, and that city Wittemberg, is falling into disorder! True, his doctrine has no share in this; but from every quarter of Germany voices are heard accusing him of it. Pains more keen than he had ever felt before a.s.sail him now, and new temptations agitate him. "Can such then be the end of this great work of the Reformation?" said he to himself. Impossible!--he rejects these doubts. G.o.d has begun,......G.o.d will perfect the work. "I creep in deep humility to the grace of the Lord,"[121] exclaimed he, "and beseech him that his name may remain attached to this work; and that if anything impure be mixed up with it, he will remember that I am a sinful man."

[120] Mochte ich ehe zehn Tode leyden. _Wieder Emser._ L. Opp. xviii.

613.

[121] Ich krieche zu seiner Gnaden. L. Opp. xviii. 615.

The news communicated to Luther of the inspiration of these new prophets, and of their sublime interviews with G.o.d, did not stagger him one moment. He knew the depth, the anguish, the humiliation of the spiritual life: at Erfurth and Wittemberg he had made trial of the power of G.o.d, which did not so easily permit him to believe that G.o.d appeared to his creatures and conversed with them. "Ask these prophets," wrote he to Melancthon, "whether they have felt those spiritual torments, those creations of G.o.d, that death and h.e.l.l which accompany a real regeneration......[122] And if they speak to you only of agreeable things, of tranquil impressions, of devotion and piety, as they say, do not believe them, although they should pretend to have been transported to the third heaven. Before Christ could attain his glory, he was compelled to suffer death; and in like manner the believer must go through the bitterness of sin before he can obtain peace. Do you desire to know the time, place, and manner in which G.o.d talks with men? Listen: _As a lion so hath he broken all my bones: I am cast out from before his face, and my soul is abased even to the gates of h.e.l.l_......No! The Divine Majesty (as they pretend) does not speak directly, so that men may see it; for _no man can see my face and live_."

[122] Quaeras num experti sint spirituales illas angustias et nativitates divinas, mortes infernosque. L. Epp. ii. 215.

[Sidenote: LUTHER'S DANGER.]

But his firm conviction of the delusion under which these prophets were labouring, served but to augment Luther's grief. Has the great truth of salvation by grace so quickly lost its charms that men turn aside from it to follow fables? He begins to feel that the work is not so easy as he had thought at first. He stumbles at the first stone that the deceitfulness of the human heart had placed in his path; he is bowed down by grief and anxiety. He resolves, at the hazard of his life, to remove it out of the way of his people, and decides on returning to Wittemberg.

At that time he was threatened by imminent dangers. The enemies of the Reformation fancied themselves on the very eve of destroying it.

George of Saxony, equally indisposed towards Rome and Wittemberg, had written, as early as the 16th of October 1521, to Duke John, the elector's brother, to draw him over to the side of the enemies of the Reformation. "Some," said he, "deny that the soul is immortal. Others (and these are monks!) attach bells to swine and set them to drag the relics of St. Anthony through the streets, and then throw them into the mire.[123] All this is the fruit of Luther's teaching! Entreat your brother the elector either to punish the unG.o.dly authors of these innovations, or at least publicly to declare his opinion of them. Our changing beard and hair remind us that we have reached the latter portion of our course, and urge us to put an end to such great evils."

[123] Mit Schweinen und Sch.e.l.len......in Koth geworfen. Weimar. Ann.

Seck. p. 482.

After this George departed to take his seat in the imperial government at Nuremberg. He had scarcely arrived when he made every exertion to urge it to adopt measures of severity. In effect, on the 21st of January, this body pa.s.sed an edict, in which it complained bitterly that the priests said ma.s.s without being robed in their sacerdotal garments, consecrated the sacrament in German, administered it without having received the requisite confession from the communicants, placed it in the hands of laymen,[124] and were not even careful to ascertain that those who stood forward to receive it were fasting.

[124] In ihre lasche Hande reiche. L. Opp. xviii. 285.

Accordingly the imperial government desired the bishops to seek out and punish severely all the innovators within their respective dioceses. The latter hastened to comply with these orders.

[Sidenote: DEPARTURE FROM THE WARTBURG.]

Such was the moment selected by Luther for his reappearance on the stage. He saw the danger; he foreboded incalculable disasters.

"Erelong," said he, "there will be a disturbance in the empire, carrying princes, magistrates, and bishops before it. The people have eyes: they will not, they cannot be led by force. All Germany will run blood.[125] Let us stand up as a wall to preserve our nation in this dreadful day of G.o.d's anger."

[125] Germaniam in sanguine natare. L. Epp. ii. 157.

CHAPTER VIII.

Departure from the Wartburg--New Position--Luther and Primitive Catholicism--Meeting at the Black Bear--Luther's Letter to the Elector--Return to Wittemberg--Sermon at Wittemberg--Charity--The Word--How the Reformation was brought about--Faith in Christ--Its Effects--Didymus--Carlstadt--The Prophets--Interview with Luther--End of the Struggle.

Such were Luther's thoughts; but he beheld a still more imminent danger. At Wittemberg, the conflagration, far from dying away, became fiercer every day. From the heights of the Wartburg, Luther could perceive in the horizon the frightful gleams, the signal of devastation, shooting at intervals through the air. Is not he the only one who can give aid in this extremity? Shall he not throw himself into the midst of the flames to quench their fury? In vain his enemies prepare to strike the decisive blow; in vain the elector entreats him not to leave the Wartburg, and to prepare his justification against the next diet. He has a more important task to perform--to justify the Gospel itself. "More serious intelligence reaches me every day," wrote he. "I shall set out: circ.u.mstances positively require me to do so."[126]

[126] Ita enim res postulat ipsa. Ibid. 135.