History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume II Part 7

_Luther._--"If the reverend doctor would attack me, he should first reconcile these contrary statements of Augustine. It is undeniable that St. Augustine has again and again said that the rock was Christ, and he may perhaps have once said that it was Peter himself. But even should St. Augustine and all the Fathers say that the apostle is the rock of which Christ speaks, I would combat their view on the authority of an apostle, in other words, divine authority;[107] for it is written, '_No other foundation can any man lay than that is laid, namely, Jesus Christ._'[108] Peter himself calls Christ, '_the chief and corner stone on which we are built up a spiritual house_.'"[109]

[107] "Resistam eis ego unus, auctoritate apostoli, id est iure divino." (L. Op. Lat. i, p. 237.)

[108] 1 Cor. iii, 11.

[109] 1 Peter, ii, 4, 5.

_Eck._--"I am astonished at the humility and modesty with which the reverend doctor undertakes single-handed to combat so many distinguished Fathers, and to know better than sovereign pontiffs, councils, doctors, and universities.... It would, certainly, be astonishing that G.o.d should have concealed the truth from so many saints and martyrs ... and not revealed it until the advent of the reverend father!"

[Sidenote: ECK'S STRATEGEM. THE HUSSITES.]

_Luther._--"The Fathers are not against me. The distinguished doctors, St. Augustine, and St. Ambrose, speak as I do. '_Super isto articulo fidei, fundata est ecclesia_,'[110] says St. Ambrose, when explaining what must be understood by the rock on which the church is built. Let my opponent then bridle his tongue. To express himself as he does is to stir up strife, not to discuss like a true doctor."

[110] On this article of faith the Church is founded. (L. Op. Lat. i, p. 254.)

Eck had not expected that his opponent would possess so much knowledge of the subject, and be able to disentangle himself from the labyrinth in which he tried to bewilder him. "The reverend doctor," said he, "has entered the lists after carefully studying his subject. Your highnesses will excuse me for not presenting them with such exact researches. I came to debate and not to make a book." Eck was astonished, but not beaten. Having no more arguments to give, he had recourse to a mean and despicable artifice, which, if it did not vanquish his opponent, would at least subject him to great embarra.s.sment. If the charge of being a Bohemian, a heretic, a Hussite fastens upon Luther, he is vanquished, for the Bohemians were detested in the Church. The scene of discussion was not far from the frontiers of Bohemia. Saxony, which, immediately after the condemnation of John Huss by the Council of Constance, had been subjected to all the horrors of a long and ruinous war, was proud of the resistance which she had then given to the Hussites. The university of Leipsic had been founded to oppose their tenets, and the discussion was in presence of n.o.bles, princes, and citizens, whose fathers had fallen in that celebrated struggle. To make out that Luther was at one with Huss was almost like giving him the finishing blow, and this was the stratagem to which the doctor of Ingolstadt had recourse. "From primitive times downwards," says he, "it was acknowledged by all good Christians, that the Church of Rome holds its primacy of Jesus Christ himself and not of man. I must confess, however, that the Bohemians, while obstinately defending their errors, attacked this doctrine. The venerable father must pardon me if I am an enemy of the Bohemians, because they are the enemies of the Church, and if the present discussion has reminded me of these heretics; for, ... according to my weak judgment, ... the conclusions to which the doctor has come are all in favour of their errors. It is even affirmed that the Hussites loudly boast of this."[111]

[111] Et, ut fama est, de hoc plurimum gratulantur. (L. Op. Lat. i, p.

250.)

[Sidenote: LUTHER ON HUSS. SENSATION.]

Eck had calculated well. All his partizans received the insinuation with acclamation, and an expression of applause was general throughout the audience. "These slanders," said the Reformer at a later period, "tickled their fancy much more agreeably than the discussion itself."

_Luther._--"I love not a schism and I never shall. Since the Bohemians, of their own authority, separate from our unity, they do wrong even were divine authority decisive in favour of their doctrine; for at the head of all divine authority is charity and the unity of the Spirit."[112]

[112] Nunquam mihi placuit, nec in aeternum placebit quodc.u.mque schisma ... c.u.m supremum jus divinum sit charitas et unitas Spiritus (Ibid.)

It was at the morning sitting, on the 5th July, that Luther thus expressed himself. Shortly after, the meeting adjourned for dinner.

Luther felt uneasy. Had he not gone too far in thus condemning the Christians of Bohemia? Have they not maintained the doctrine which Luther is maintaining at this hour? He sees all the difficulty of the step before him. Will he declare against the Council which condemned John Huss, or will he abjure the grand idea of an universal Christian Church, an idea deeply imprinted on his mind? Resolute Luther hesitated not. "I must do my duty come what may." Accordingly, when the a.s.sembly again met at two o'clock, he rose and said firmly:--

"Certain of the tenets of John Huss and the Bohemians are perfectly orthodox. This much is certain. For instance, 'That there is only one universal church,' and again, 'That it is not necessary to salvation to believe the Roman Church superior to others.' Whether Wickliffe or Huss has said so I care not.... It is the truth."

[Sidenote: ECK'S PLEASANTRY.]

This declaration of Luther produced an immense sensation in the audience. The abhorred names of Huss and Wickliffe p.r.o.nounced with eulogium by a monk in the heart of a Catholic a.s.sembly!... A general murmur was heard. Duke George himself felt as much alarmed, as if he had actually seen the standard of civil war, which had so long desolated the states of his maternal ancestors, unfurled in Saxony.

Unable to conceal his emotion, he struck his thigh, shook his head, and exclaimed, loud enough to be heard by the whole a.s.sembly, "The man is mad!"[113] The whole audience was extremely excited. They rose to their feet, and every one kept talking to his neighbour. Those who had fallen asleep, awoke. Luther's opponents expressed their exultation, while his friends were greatly embarra.s.sed. Several persons, who till then had listened to him with pleasure, began to doubt his orthodoxy.

The impression produced upon the mind of the duke by this declaration was never effaced; from this moment he looked upon the Reformer with an unfavourable eye, and became his enemy.[114]

[113] Das walt die Sucht!

[114] Nam adhuc erat Dux Georgius mihi non inimicus, quod sciebam certo. (L. Op. in Praef.) For I was well a.s.sured that Duke George was not yet my enemy.

Luther was not intimidated by this explosion of disapprobation One of his leading arguments was, that the Greeks had never recognised the pope, and yet had never been declared heretics; that the Greek Church had subsisted, was subsisting, and would subsist without the pope, and was a Church of Christ as much as the Church of Rome. Eck, on the contrary, boldly affirmed that the Christian Church and the Roman Church were one and the same; that the Greeks and Orientals, by abandoning the Church, had also abandoned Christian faith, and unquestionably were heretics. "What!" exclaimed Luther, "Are not Gregory of Nanzianzen, Basil the Great, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, and an immense number of other Greek bishops in bliss? and yet they did not believe that the Church of Rome was superior to other churches!... It is not in the power of the pontiff of Rome to make new articles of faith. The Christian believer has no other authority than the Holy Scriptures--they alone const.i.tute _divine law_. I pray the ill.u.s.trious doctor to admit that the pontiffs of Rome were men, and have the goodness not to make G.o.ds of them."[115]

[115] Nec potest fidelis Christia.n.u.s cogi ultra Sacram Scripturam, quae est proprie jus divinum. (L. Op. Lat. i, 252.) Nor can a Christian believer be forced beyond the Sacred Scripture, which is properly divine law.

Eck had recourse to one of those witticisms which at small cost give a little air of triumph to the person employing them.

"The reverend father," says he, "not being well versed in the culinary art, makes an odd mixture of Greek saints and heretics, so that the perfume of holiness in the one disguises the poison in the other."[116]

[116] "At Rev. Pater, _artis coquinariae_ minus instructus, commiscet sanctos graecos c.u.m schismaticis et haereticis, ut fuco sanct.i.tatis Patrum, haereticorum tueatur perfidiam." (Ibid.) But the Rev. Father, imperfectly skilled in the culinary art, confounds Greek saints with schismatics and heretics, that by the sanct.i.ty of the Fathers he may disguise the perfidy of the heretics.

_Luther_--(_hastily interrupting Eck_.)--"The worthy doctor is impertinent. I do not hold that there is any communion between Christ and Belial."

[Sidenote: THE COURT FOOL. LUTHER AT Ma.s.s.]

Luther had taken a large step in advance. In 1516, and 1517, he had only attacked the discourses of the venders of indulgences, and had respected the decrees of the popes. At a later period he had rejected these decrees, but had appealed from them to a council. Now he had discarded this last authority also, declaring that no council can establish a new article of faith, or claim to be infallible. Thus all human authorities had successively fallen before him. The sand brought along by the rain and the floods had disappeared; and now, for building up the ruins of the Lord's house, there remained only the eternal rock of the Word of G.o.d. "Venerable father!" said Eck to him, "if you believe that a council, lawfully a.s.sembled, can err, you are to me only a heathen man and a publican."

Such were the discussions between the two doctors. The audience were attentive but occasionally began to flag, and hence were pleased with any incident which enlivened the scene and gave them a momentary relaxation. The gravest matters have their comic interludes; and so it was at Leipsic.

Duke George, according to the custom of the time, had a court fool, to whom some wags said, "Luther maintains that a court fool may marry.

Eck maintains the contrary." On this the fool took a great dislike to Eck, and, every time he came into the hall with the servants of Duke George, eyed the theologian with a menacing air. The chancellor of Ingolstadt, not disdaining to descend to pleasantry, one day shut one eye, (the fool was blind of one,) and with the other began to squint at the poor creature, who, in a perfect rage, let fly a volley of abuse. "The whole a.s.sembly," says Peiffer, "burst into laughter." This amusing incident somewhat relieved their minds from the stretch on which they had been kept.[117]

[117] L. Op. (W.) xv, 1440.--2 Loscher, iii, p. 281.

At the same time, both in the town and in the churches scenes occurred which showed how much the partisans of Rome were horrified at Luther's bold a.s.sertions. An outcry was raised against him, especially in the convents attached to the pope.

Luther had one day walked into the church of the Dominicans, before high ma.s.s. The only persons present were some monks, saying low ma.s.s at the side altars. No sooner was it told in the cloister that the heretic Luther was in the church than the monks came down in all haste, laid hold of the _ostensorium_, and carrying it into the tabernacle shut it up, carefully watching it, lest the holy sacrament should be profaned by the heretical eye of the Augustin of Wittemberg.

At the same time, those who were saying ma.s.s hastily gathered up their articles, quitted the altar, ran across the church, and took refuge in the sacristy, "just," says a historian, "as if the devil had been at their heels."

[Sidenote: SAYING OF DUKE GEORGE. CLOSE OF THE DISCUSSION.]

The discussion became the general subject of conversation. In the inns, at the university, and the court, every one gave his opinion.

Duke George, whatever his irritation may have been, did not obstinately shut his ears against conviction. One day, when Eck and Luther were dining with him, he interrupted their conversation, saying, "Let the pope be pope, whether by divine or human law; at all events he is pope."[118] Luther was much pleased with the expression.

"The prince," says he, "never would have uttered it, if my arguments had not made some impression on him."

[118] Ita ut ipse Dux Georgius inter prandendum, ad Eccium et me dicat: "Sive sit jure humano, sive sit jure divino, papa; ipse est papa." (L. Op. in Praef.)

The discussion on the primacy of the pope had lasted during five days.

On the 8th of July, the doctrine of purgatory was discussed, and occupied two days. Luther was still a believer in the existence of purgatory; but he denied that the doctrine, as held by the schoolmen and his opponent, was taught either in the Scriptures or by the Fathers. "Our Doctor Eck," said he, referring to the superficial knowledge of his opponent, "has to-day run over the Holy Scriptures almost without touching them, just as an insect skims the water."

On the 11th July indulgences were discussed. "It was mere sport and burlesque," says Luther. "Indulgences gave way at once, and Eck was almost entirely of my opinion."[119] Eck himself said, "Had I not disputed with Doctor Martin on the primacy of the pope, I could almost agree with him."[120]

[119] L. Op. (L.) xvii, 246.

[120] So wollt'er fast einig mit mir gewest seyn. (Ibid.)

The discussion afterwards turned on repentance, absolution by the priest, and satisfactions. Eck, as usual, quoted the schoolmen, the dominicans, and the canons of the pope. Luther closed the discussion with these words:--

"The reverend doctor flees before the Holy Scriptures, as the devil does before the cross. For my part, with all due deference to the Fathers, I prefer the authority of Scripture, and recommend it to our judges."[121]

[121] Videtur fugere a facie Scripturarum, sicut diabolus crucem.

Quare, salvis reverentiis Patrum, praefero ego auctoritatem Scripturae, quod commendo judicibus futuris. (L. Op. Lat. i, p. 291.)

This closed the debate between Eck and Luther, but Carlstadt and the doctor of Ingolstadt continued for two days longer to discuss the subject of human merit and good works. On the 16th July, the whole proceeding, after having lasted twenty days, was closed by a discourse from the rector of Leipsic. The moment the discourse was finished, thrilling music burst forth, and the whole concluded with the _Te Deum_.

But, during this solemn chant, the feelings of the audience no longer were what they had been during the _Veni Spiritus_. The presentiments which several persons had expressed seemed to be actually realised.