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diff --git a/40615.txt b/40615.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..63b274d --- /dev/null +++ b/40615.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20196 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of the Reformation (Vol. 1 of 2) +by Thomas M. Lindsay + + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no +restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under +the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or +online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license + + + +Title: A History of the Reformation (Vol. 1 of 2) + +Author: Thomas M. Lindsay + +Release Date: August 29, 2012 [Ebook #40615] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION (VOL. 1 OF 2)*** + + + + + + International Theological Library + + A History of The Reformation + + By + + Thomas M. Lindsay, M.A., D.D. + + Principal, The United Free Church College, Glasgow + + In Two Volumes + + Volume I + + The Reformation in Germany From Its Beginning to the Religious Peace of + Augsburg + + Edinburgh + + T. & T. Clark + + 1906 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Series Advertisement. +Dedication. +Preface. +Book I. On The Eve Of The Reformation. + Chapter I. The Papacy. + § 1. Claim to Universal Supremacy. + § 2. The Temporal Supremacy. + § 3. The Spiritual Supremacy. + Chapter II. The Political Situation. + § 1. The small extent of Christendom. + § 2. Consolidation. + § 3. England. + § 4. France. + § 5. Spain. + § 6. Germany and Italy. + § 7. Italy. + § 8. Germany. + Chapter III. The Renaissance. + § 1. The Transition from the Mediaeval to the Modern World. + § 2. The Revival of Literature and Art. + § 3. Its earlier relation to Christianity. + § 4. The Brethren of the Common Lot. + § 5. German Universities, Schools, and Scholarship. + § 6. The earlier German Humanists. + § 7. The Humanist Circles in the Cities. + § 8. Humanism in the Universities. + § 9. Reuchlin. + § 10. The "Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum." + § 11. Ulrich von Hutten. + Chapter IV. Social Conditions. + § 1. Towns and Trade. + § 2. Geographical Discoveries and the beginning of a World Trade. + § 3. Increase in Wealth and luxurious Living. + § 4. The Condition of the Peasantry. + § 5. Earlier Social Revolts. + § 6. The religious Socialism of Hans Boehm. + § 7. Bundschuh Revolts. + § 8. The Causes of the continuous Revolts. + Chapter V. Family And Popular Religious Life in the Decades Before the + Reformation. + § 1. Devotion of Germany to the Roman Church. + § 2. Preaching. + § 3. Church Festivals. + § 4. The Family Religious Life. + § 5. A superstitious Religion based on Fear. + § 6. A non-Ecclesiastical Religion. + § 7. The "Brethren." + Chapter VI. Humanism And Reformation. + § 1. Savonarola. + § 2. John Colet. + § 3. Erasmus. +Book II. The Reformation. + Chapter I. Luther to the Beginning of the Controversy About + Indulgences. + § 1. Why Luther was successful as the Leader in a Reformation. + § 2. Luther's Youth and Education. + § 3. Luther in the Erfurt Convent. + § 4. Luther's early Life in Wittenberg. + § 5. Luther's early Lectures in Theology. + § 6. The Indulgence-seller. + Chapter II. From The Beginning of the Indulgence Controversy to the + Diet of Worms. + § 1. The Theory and Practice of Indulgences in the Sixteenth + Century. + § 2. Luther's Theses. + § 3. The Leipzig Disputation. + § 4. The Three Treatises. + § 5. The Papal Bull. + § 6. Luther the Representative of Germany. + Chapter III. The Diet Of Worms. + § 1. The Roman Nuncio Aleander. + § 2. The Emperor Charles V. + § 3. In the City of Worms. + § 4. Luther in Worms. + § 5. Luther's first Appearance before the Diet of Worms. + § 6. Luther's Second Appearance before the Diet. + § 7. The Conferences. + § 8. The Ban. + § 9. Popular Literature. + § 10. The Spread of Luther's Teaching. + § 11. Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt. + § 12. Luther back in Wittenberg. + Chapter IV. From The Diet of Worms to the Close Of the Peasants' War. + § 1. The continued spread of Lutheran Teaching. + § 2. The beginnings of Division in Germany. + § 3. The Peasants' War. + § 4. The Twelve Articles. + § 5. The Suppression of the Revolt. + § 6. Luther and the Peasants' War. + § 7. Germany divided into two separate Camps. + Chapter V. From The Diet Of Speyer, 1526, To The Religious Peace Of + Augsburg, 1555. + § 1. The Diet of Speyer, 1526. + § 2. The Protest. + § 3. Luther and Zwingli. + § 4. The Marburg Colloquy. + § 5. The Emperor in Germany. + § 6. The Diet of Augsburg 1530. + § 7. The Augsburg Confession. + § 8. The Reformation to be crushed. + § 9. The Schmalkald League. + § 10. The Bigamy of Philip of Hesse. + § 11. Maurice of Saxony. + § 12. Luther's Death. + § 13. The Religious War. + § 14. The Augsburg Interim. + § 15. Religious Peace of Augsburg. + Chapter VI. The Organisation Of Lutheran Churches. + Chapter VII. The Lutheran Reformation Outside Germany. + Chapter VIII. The Religious Principles Inspiring The Reformation. + § 1. The Reformation did not take its rise from a Criticism of + Doctrines. + § 2. The universal Priesthood of Believers. + § 3. Justification by Faith. + § 4. Holy Scripture. + § 5. The Person of Christ. + § 6. The Church. +Index. +Footnotes + + + + + + + [Cover Art] + +[Transcriber's Note: The cover image was produced by the submitter at +Distributed Proofreading, and is being placed into the public domain.] + + + + + +SERIES ADVERTISEMENT. + + +_The International Theological Library._ + +UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF + +THE REV. CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., D.LIT., + +_Professor of Theological Encyclopaedia and Symbolics, Union Theological +Seminary, New York;_ + +AND + +THE LATE REV. STEWART D. F. SALMOND, D.D., + +_Principal, and Professor of Systematic Theology and New Testament +Exegesis, United Free Church College, Aberdeen._ + +_This Library is designed to cover the whole field of Christian Theology. +Each volume is to be complete in itself, while, at the same time, it will +form part of a carefully planned whole. It is intended to form a Series of +Text-Books for Students of Theology. The Authors will be scholars of +recognised reputation in the several branches of study assigned to them. +They will be associated with each other and with the Editors in the effort +to provide a series of volumes which may adequately represent the present +condition of investigation._ + + ------------------------------------- + +THIRTEEN VOLUMES OF THE SERIES ARE NOW READY, VIZ.:-- + +An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament. By S. R. DRIVER, +D.D., D.Litt., Regius Professor of Hebrew, and Canon of Christ Church, +Oxford. _Seventh Edition._ 12s. + +Christian Ethics. By NEWMAN SMYTH, D.D., Pastor of the First +Congregational Church, New Haven, Conn. _Third Edition._ 10s. 6d. + +Apologetics. By the late A. B. BRUCE, D.D., Professor of New Testament +Exegesis, Free Church College, Glasgow. _Third Edition._ 10s. 6d. + +History of Christian Doctrine. By G. P. FISHER, D.D., LL.D., Professor of +Ecclesiastical History, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. _Second +Edition._ 12s. + +A History of Christianity In the Apostolic Age. By ARTHUR CUSHMAN +MCGIFFERT, Ph.D., D.D., Professor of Church History, Union Theological +Seminary, New York. 12s. + +Christian Institutions. By A. V. G. ALLEN, D.D., Professor of +Ecclesiastical History, Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass. +12s. + +The Christian Pastor. By WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D.D., LL.D., Pastor of +Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio. 10s. 6d. + +The Theology of the New Testament. By GEORGE B. STEVENS, D.D., LL.D., +Professor of Systematic Theology in Yale University, U.S.A. 12s. + +The Ancient Catholic Church. By ROBERT RAINY, D.D., Principal of The New +College, Edinburgh. 12s. + +Old Testament History. By H.P. SMITH, D.D., Professor of Biblical History, +Amherst College, U.S.A. 12s. + +The Theology of the Old Testament. By the late A.B. DAVIDSON, D.D., LL.D. +Edited by the late Principal SALMOND, D.D. 12s. + +Doctrine of Salvation. By GEORGE B. STEVENS, D.D., LL.D., Professor of +Systematic Theology, Yale University. 12s. + +The Reformation. (Vol. I.--In Germany.) By T. M. LINDSAY, D.D., Principal +of the United Free Church College, Glasgow. 10s. 6d. + +VOLUMES IN PREPARATION:-- + +The Reformation. (Vol. II.--In Lands beyond Germany.) By T.M. LINDSAY, +D.D., Principal of the United Free Church College, Glasgow. + +The Literature of the New Testament. By JAMES MOFFATT, D.D., United Free +Church, Dundonald, Scotland. + +Contemporary History of the Old Testament. By FRANCIS BROWN, D.D., D.Lit., +Professor of Hebrew and Cognate Languages, Union Theological Seminary, New +York. + +The Early Latin Church. By CHARLES BIGG, D.D., Regius Professor of Church +History, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. + +Canon and Text of the New Testament. By CASPAR RENE GREGORY, D.D., LL.D., +Professor in the University of Leipzig. + +Contemporary History of the New Testament. By FRANK C. PORTER, Ph.D., Yale +University, New Haven, Conn. + +Philosophy of Religion. By ROBERT FLINT, D.D., LL.D., Emeritus Professor +of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. + +Later Latin Church. By E. W. WATSON, M.A., Professor of Church History, +King's College, London. + +The Christian Preacher. By W. T. DAVISON, D.D., Tutor in Systematic +Theology, Richmond College, Surrey. + +The Greek and Oriental Churches. By W. F. ADENEY, D.D., Principal of +Lancashire College, Manchester. + +Biblical Archaeology. By G. BUCHANAN GRAY, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, +Mansfield College, Oxford. + +The History of Religions. By GEORGE F. MOORE, D.D., LL.D., Professor in +Harvard University. + +Doctrine of God. By WILLIAM N. CLARKE, D.D. Professor of Systematic +Theology, Hamilton Theological Seminary, N.Y. + +Doctrine of Christ. By H.R. MACKINTOSH, Ph.D., Professor of Systematic +Theology, The New College, Edinburgh. + +Doctrine of Man. By WILLIAM P. PATERSON, D.D., Professor of Divinity, +University of Edinburgh. + +Canon and Text of the Old Testament. By F.C. BURKITT, M.A., University +Lecturer on Palaography, Trinity College, Cambridge. + +The Life of Christ. By WILLIAM SANDAY, D.D., LL.D., Lady Margaret +Professor of Divinity, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. + +Christian Symbolics. By C. A. BRIGGS, D.D., D.Lit., Professor of +Theological Encyclopedia and Symbolics, Union Theological Seminary, New +York. + +Rabbinical Literature. By S. SCHECHTER, M.A., President of the Jewish +Theological Seminary, N.Y. + + + + + +DEDICATION. + + +TO + +THE REV. GEORGE CLARK HUTTON, D.D. + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This History of the Reformation has been written with the intention of +describing a great religious movement amid its social environment. The +times were heroic, and produced great men, with striking individualities +not easily weighed in modern balances. The age is sufficiently remote to +compel us to remember that while the morality of one century can be judged +by another, the men who belong to it must be judged by the standard of +their contemporaries, and not altogether by ours. The religious revival +was set in a framework of political, intellectual, and economic changes, +and cannot be disentangled from its surroundings without danger of +mutilation. All these things add to the difficulty of description. + +My excuse, if excuse be needed, for venturing on the task is that the +period is one to which I have devoted special attention for many years, +and that I have read and re-read most of the original contemporary sources +of information. While full use has been made of the labours of +predecessors in the same field, no chapter in the volume, save that on the +political condition of Europe, has been written without constant reference +to contemporary evidence. + +A History of the Reformation, it appears to me, must describe five +distinct but related things--the social and religious conditions of the age +out of which the great movement came; the Lutheran Reformation down to +1555, when it received legal recognition; the Reformation in countries +beyond Germany which did not submit to the guidance of Luther; the issue +of certain portions of the religious life of the Middle Ages in +Anabaptism, Socinianism, and Anti-Trinitarianism; and, finally, the +Counter-Reformation. + +The second follows the first in natural succession; but the third was +almost contemporary with the second. If the Reformation won its way to +legal recognition earlier in Germany than in any other land, its +beginnings in France, England, and perhaps the Netherlands, had appeared +before Luther had published his _Theses_. I have not found it possible to +describe all the five in chronological order. + +This volume describes the eve of the Reformation and the movement itself +under the guidance of Luther. In a second volume I hope to deal with the +Reformation beyond Germany, with Anabaptism, Socinianism, and kindred +matters which had their roots far back in the Middle Ages, and with the +Counter-Reformation. + +The first part of this volume deals with the intellectual, social, and +religious life of the age which gave birth to the Reformation. The +intellectual life of the times has been frequently described, and its +economic conditions are beginning to attract attention. But few have cared +to investigate popular and family religious life in the decades before the +great revival. Yet for the history of the Reformation movement nothing can +be more important. When it is studied, it can be seen that the evangelical +revival was not a unique phenomenon, entirely unconnected with the +immediate past. There was a continuity in the religious life of the +period. The same hymns were sung in public and in private after the +Reformation which had been in use before Luther raised the standard of +revolt. Many of the prayers in the Reformation liturgies came from the +service-books of the mediaeval Church. Much of the family instruction in +religious matters received by the Reformers when they were children was in +turn taught by them to the succeeding generation. The great Reformation +had its roots in the simple evangelical piety which had never entirely +disappeared in the mediaeval Church. Luther's teaching was recognised by +thousands to be no startling novelty, but something which they had always +at heart believed, though they might not have been able to formulate it. +It is true that Luther and his fellow-Reformers taught their generation +that Our Lord, Jesus Christ, filled the whole sphere of God, and that +other mediators and intercessors were superfluous, and that they also +delivered it from the fear of a priestly caste; but men did not receive +that teaching as entirely new; they rather accepted it as something they +had always felt, though they had not been able to give their feelings due +and complete expression. It is true that this simple piety had been set in +a framework of superstition, and that the Church had been generally looked +upon as an institution within which priests exercised a secret science of +redemption through their power over the sacraments; but the old +evangelical piety existed, and its traces can be found when sought for. + +A portion of the chapter which describes the family and popular religious +life immediately preceding the Reformation has already appeared in the +_London Quarterly Review_ for October 1903. + +In describing the beginnings of the Lutheran Reformation, I have had to go +over the same ground covered by my chapter on "Luther" contributed to the +second volume of the _Cambridge Modern History_, and have found it +impossible not to repeat myself. This is specially the case with the +account given of the theory and practice of Indulgences. It ought to be +said, however, that in view of certain strictures on the earlier work by +Roman Catholic reviewers, I have gone over again the statements made about +Indulgences by the great mediaeval theologians of the thirteenth and +fifteenth centuries, and have not been able to change the opinions +previously expressed. + +My thanks are due to my colleague, Dr. Denney, and to another friend for +the care they have taken in revising the proof-sheets, and for many +valuable suggestions which have been given effect to. + +Thomas M. Lindsay. + +_March, 1906._ + + + + + +BOOK I. ON THE EVE OF THE REFORMATION. + + + + +Chapter I. The Papacy.(1) + + + +§ 1. Claim to Universal Supremacy. + + +The long struggle between the Mediaeval Church and the Mediaeval Empire, +between the priest and the warrior,(2) ended, in the earlier half of the +thirteenth century, in the overthrow of the Hohenstaufens, and left the +Papacy sole inheritor of the claim of ancient Rome to be sovereign of the +civilised world. + + + _Roma caput mundi regit orbis frena rotundi._ + + +Strong and masterful Popes had for centuries insisted on exercising powers +which, they asserted, belonged to them as the successors of St. Peter and +the representatives of Christ upon earth. Ecclesiastical jurists had +translated their assertions into legal language, and had expressed them in +principles borrowed from the old imperial law. Precedents, needed by the +legal mind to unite the past with the present, had been found in a series +of imaginary papal judgments extending over past centuries. The forged +decretals of the pseudo-Isidor (used by Pope Nicholas I. in his letter of +866 A.D. to the bishops of Gaul), of the group of canonists who supported +the pretensions of Pope Gregory VII. (1073-1085),--Anselm of Lucca, +Deusdedit, Cardinal Bonzio, and Gregory of Pavia,--gave to the papal claims +the semblance of the sanction of antiquity. The Decretum of Gratian, +issued in 1150 from Bologna, then the most famous Law School in Europe, +incorporated all these earlier forgeries and added new ones. It displaced +the older collections of Canon Law and became the starting-point for +succeeding canonists. Its mosaic of facts and falsehoods formed the basis +for the theories of the imperial powers and of the universal jurisdiction +of the Bishops of Rome.(3) + +The picturesque religious background of this conception of the Church of +Christ as a great temporal empire had been furnished by St. Augustine, +although probably he would have been the first to protest against the use +made of his vision of the City of God. His unfinished masterpiece, _De +Civitate Dei_, in which with a devout and glowing imagination he had +contrasted the _Civitas Terrena_, or the secular State founded on conquest +and maintained by fraud and violence, with the Kingdom of God, which he +identified with the visible ecclesiastical society, had filled the +imagination of all Christians in the days immediately preceding the +dissolution of the Roman Empire of the West, and had contributed in a +remarkable degree to the final overthrow of the last remains of a cultured +paganism. It became the sketch outline which the jurists of the Roman +Curia gradually filled in with details by their strictly defined and +legally expressed claim of the Roman Pontiff to a universal jurisdiction. +Its living but poetically indefinite ideas were transformed into clearly +defined legal principles found ready-made in the all-embracing +jurisprudence of the ancient empire, and were analysed and exhibited in +definite claims to rule and to judge in every department of human +activity. When poetic thoughts, which from their very nature stretch +forward towards and melt in the infinite, are imprisoned within legal +formulas and are changed into principles of practical jurisprudence, they +lose all their distinctive character, and the creation which embodies them +becomes very different from what it was meant to be. The mischievous +activity of the Roman canonists actually transformed the _Civitas Dei_ of +the glorious vision of St. Augustine into that _Civitas Terrena_ which he +reprobated, and the ideal Kingdom of God became a vulgar earthly monarchy, +with all the accompaniments of conquest, fraud, and violence which, +according to the great theologian of the West, naturally belonged to such +a society. But the glamour of the City of God long remained to dazzle the +eyes of gifted and pious men during the earlier Middle Ages, when they +contemplated the visible ecclesiastical empire ruled by the Bishop of +Rome. + +The requirements of the practical religion of everyday life were also +believed to be in the possession of this ecclesiastical monarchy to give +and to withhold. For it was the almost universal belief of mediaeval piety +that the mediation of a priest was essential to salvation; and the +priesthood was an integral part of this monarchy, and did not exist +outside its boundaries. "No good Catholic Christian doubted that in +spiritual things the clergy were the divinely appointed superiors of the +laity, that this power proceeded from the right of the priests to +celebrate the sacraments, that the Pope was the real possessor of this +power, and was far superior to all secular authority."(4) In the decades +immediately preceding the Reformation, many an educated man might have +doubts about this power of the clergy over the spiritual and eternal +welfare of men and women; but when it came to the point, almost no one +could venture to say that there was nothing in it. And so long as the +feeling remained that there might be something in it, the anxieties, to +say the least, which Christian men and women could not help having when +they looked forward to an unknown future, made kings and peoples hesitate +before they offered defiance to the Pope and the clergy. The spiritual +powers which were believed to come from the exclusive possession of +priesthood and sacraments went for much in increasing the authority of the +papal empire and in binding it together in one compact whole. + +In the earlier Middle Ages the claims of the Papacy to universal supremacy +had been urged and defended by ecclesiastical jurists alone; but in the +thirteenth century theology also began to state them from its own point of +view. Thomas Aquinas set himself to prove that submission to the Roman +Pontiff was necessary for every human being. He declared that, under the +law of the New Testament, the king must be subject to the priest to the +extent that, if kings proved to be heretics or schismatics, the Bishop of +Rome was entitled to deprive them of all kingly authority by releasing +subjects from their ordinary obedience.(5) + +The fullest expression of this temporal and spiritual supremacy claimed by +the Bishops of Rome is to be found in Pope Innocent IV.'s _Commentary on +the Decretals_(6) (1243-1254), and in the Bull, _Unam Sanctam_, published +by Pope Boniface VIII. in 1302. But succeeding Bishops of Rome in no way +abated their pretensions to universal sovereignty. The same claims were +made during the Exile at Avignon and in the days of the Great Schism. They +were asserted by Pope Pius II. in his Bull, _Execrabilis et pristinis_ +(1459), and by Pope Leo X. on the very eve of the Reformation, in his +Bull, _Pastor AEternus_ (1516); while Pope Alexander VI. (Rodrigo Borgia), +acting as the lord of the universe, made over the New World to Isabella of +Castile and to Ferdinand of Aragon by legal deed of gift in his Bull, +_Inter caetera divinae_ (May 4th, 1493).(7) + +The power claimed in these documents was a twofold supremacy, temporal and +spiritual. + + + +§ 2. The Temporal Supremacy. + + +The former, stated in its widest extent, was the right to depose kings, +free their subjects from their allegiance, and bestow their territories on +another. It could only be enforced when the Pope found a stronger +potentate willing to carry out his orders, and was naturally but rarely +exercised. Two instances, however, occurred not long before the +Reformation. George Podiebrod, the King of Bohemia, offended the Bishop of +Rome by insisting that the Roman See should keep the bargain made with his +Hussite subjects at the Council of Basel. He was summoned to Rome to be +tried as a heretic by Pope Pius II. in 1464, and by Pope Paul II. in 1465, +and was declared by the latter to be deposed; his subjects were released +from their allegiance, and his kingdom was offered to Matthias Corvinus, +the King of Hungary, who gladly accepted the offer, and a protracted and +bloody war was the consequence. Later still, in 1511, Pope Julius II. +excommunicated the King of Navarre, and empowered any neighbouring king to +seize his dominions--an offer readily accepted by Ferdinand of Aragon.(8) + +It was generally, however, in more indirect ways that this claim to +temporal supremacy, _i.e._ to direct the policy, and to be the final +arbiter in the actions of temporal sovereigns, made itself felt. A great +potentate, placed over the loosely formed kingdoms of the Middle Ages, +hesitated to provoke a contest with an authority which was able to give +religious sanction to the rebellion of powerful feudal nobles seeking a +legitimate pretext for defying him, or which could deprive his subjects of +the external consolations of religion by laying the whole or part of his +dominions under an interdict. We are not to suppose that the exercise of +this claim of temporal supremacy was always an evil thing. Time after time +the actions and interference of right-minded Popes proved that the +temporal supremacy of the Bishop of Rome meant that moral considerations +must have due weight attached to them in the international affairs of +Europe; and this fact, recognised and felt, accounted largely for much of +the practical acquiescence in the papal claims. But from the time when the +Papacy became, on its temporal side, an Italian power, and when its +international policy had for its chief motive to increase the political +prestige of the Bishop of Rome within the Italian peninsula, the moral +standard of the papal court was hopelessly lowered, and it no longer had +even the semblance of representing morality in the international affairs +of Europe. The change may be roughly dated from the pontificate of Pope +Sixtus IV. (1471-1484), or from the birth of Luther (November 10th, 1483). +The possession of the Papacy gave this advantage to Sixtus over his +contemporaries in Italy, that he "was relieved of all ordinary +considerations of decency, consistency, or prudence, because his position +as Pope saved him from serious disaster." The divine authority, assumed by +the Popes as the representatives of Christ upon earth, meant for Sixtus +and his immediate successors that they were above the requirements of +common morality, and had the right for themselves or for their allies to +break the most solemn treaties when it suited their shifting policy. + + + +§ 3. The Spiritual Supremacy. + + +The ecclesiastical supremacy was gradually interpreted to mean that the +Bishop of Rome was the _one_ or universal bishop in whom all spiritual and +ecclesiastical powers were summed up, and that all other members of the +hierarchy were simply delegates selected by him for the purposes of +administration. On this interpretation, the Bishop of Rome was the +absolute monarch over a kingdom which was called spiritual, but which was +as thoroughly material as were those of France, Spain, or England. For, +according to mediaeval ideas, men were spiritual if they had taken orders, +or were under monastic vows; fields, drains, and fences were spiritual +things if they were Church property; a house, a barn, or a byre was a +spiritual thing, if it stood on land belonging to the Church. This papal +kingdom, miscalled spiritual, lay scattered over Europe in diocesan lands, +convent estates, and parish glebes--interwoven in the web of the ordinary +kingdoms and principalities of Europe. It was part of the Pope's claim to +_spiritual_ supremacy that his subjects (the clergy) owed no allegiance to +the monarch within whose territories they resided; that they lived outside +the sphere of civil legislation and taxation; and that they were under +special laws imposed on them by their supreme spiritual ruler, and paid +taxes to him and to him alone. The claim to spiritual supremacy therefore +involved endless interference with the rights of temporal sovereignty in +every country in Europe, and things civil and things sacred were so +inextricably mixed that it is quite impossible to speak of the Reformation +as a purely religious movement. It was also an endeavour to put an end to +the exemption of the Church and its possessions from all secular control, +and to her constant encroachment on secular territory. + +To show how this claim for spiritual supremacy trespassed continually on +the domain of secular authority and created a spirit of unrest all over +Europe, we have only to look at its exercise in the matter of patronage to +benefices, to the way in which the common law of the Church interfered +with the special civil laws of European States, and to the increasing +burden of papal requisitions of money. + +In the case of bishops, the theory was that the dean and chapter elected, +and that the bishop-elect had to be confirmed by the Pope. This procedure +provided for the selection locally of a suitable spiritual ruler, and also +for the supremacy of the head of the Church. The mediaeval bishops, +however, were temporal lords of great influence in the civil affairs of +the kingdom or principality within which their dioceses were placed, and +it was naturally an object of interest to kings and princes to secure men +who would be faithful to themselves. Hence the tendency was for the civil +authorities to interfere more or less in episcopal appointments. This +frequently resulted in making these elections a matter of conflict between +the head of the Church in Rome and the head of the State in France, +England, or Germany; in which case the rights of the dean and chapter were +commonly of small account. The contest was in the nature of things almost +inevitable even when the civil and the ecclesiastical powers were actuated +by the best motives, and when both sought to appoint men competent to +discharge the duties of the position with ability. But the best motives +were not always active. Diocesan rents were large, and the incomes of +bishops made excellent provision for the favourite followers of kings and +of Popes, and if the revenues of one see failed to express royal or papal +favour adequately, the favourite could be appointed to several sees at +once. Papal nepotism became a byword; but it ought to be remembered that +kingly nepotism also existed. Pope Sixtus V. insisted on appointing a +retainer of his nephew, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, to the see of +Modrus in Hungary, and after a contest of three years carried his point in +1483; and Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, gave the archbishopric of +Gran to Ippolito d'Este, a youth under age, and after a two years' +struggle compelled the Pope to confirm the appointment in 1487. + +During the fourteenth century the Papacy endeavoured to obtain a more +complete control over ecclesiastical appointments by means of the system +of _Reservations_ which figures so largely in local ecclesiastical affairs +to the discredit of the Papacy during the years before the Reformation. +For at least a century earlier, Popes had been accustomed to declare on +various pretexts that certain benefices were _vacantes apud Sedem +Apostolicam_, which meant that the Bishop of Rome reserved the appointment +for himself. Pope John XXII. (1316-1334), founding on such previous +practice, laid down a series of rules stating what benefices were to be +reserved for the papal patronage. The ostensible reason for this +legislation was to prevent the growing evil of pluralities; but, as in all +cases of papal lawmaking, these _Constitutiones Johanninae_ had the effect +of binding ecclesiastically all patrons but the Popes themselves. For the +Popes always maintained that they alone were superior to the laws which +they made. They were _supra legem_ or _legibus absoluti_, and their +dispensations could always set aside their legislation when it suited +their purpose. Under these constitutions of Pope John XXII., when sees +were vacant owing to the invalidation of an election they were _reserved_ +to the Pope. Thus we find that there was a disputed election to the see of +Dunkeld in 1337, and after some years' litigation at Rome the election was +quashed, and Richard de Pilmor was appointed bishop _auctoritate +apostolica_. The see of Dunkeld was declared to be reserved to the Pope +for the appointment of the two succeeding bishops at least.(9) This system +of _Reservations_ was gradually extended under the successors of Pope John +XXII., and was applied to benefices of every kind all over Europe, until +it would be difficult to say what piece of ecclesiastical preferment +escaped the papal net. There exists in the town library in Trier a MS. of +the _Rules of the Roman Chancery_ on which someone has sketched the head +of a Pope, with the legend issuing from the mouth, _Reservamus omnia_, +which somewhat roughly represents the contents of the book. In the end, +the assertion was made that the Holy See owned all benefices, and, in the +universal secularisation of the Church which the half century before the +Reformation witnessed, the very Rules of the Roman Chancery contained the +lists of prices to be charged for various benefices, whether with or +without cure of souls; and in completing the bargain the purchaser could +always procure a clause setting aside the civil rights of patrons. + +On the other hand, ecclesiastical preferments always implied the holders +being liferented in lands and in monies, and the right to bestow these +temporalities was protected by the laws of most European countries. Thus +the ever-extending papal _reservations_ of benefices led to continual +conflicts between the laws of the Church--in this case latterly the Rules +of the Roman Chancery--and the laws of the European States. Temporal rulers +sought to protect themselves and their subjects by statutes of _Praemunire_ +and others of a like kind,(10) or else made bargains with the Popes, which +took the form of _Concordats_, like that of Bourges (1438) and that of +Vienna (1448). Neither statutes nor bargains were of much avail against +the superior diplomacy of the Papacy, and the dread which its supposed +possession of spiritual powers inspired in all classes of people. A +Concordat was always represented by papal lawyers to be binding only so +long as the goodwill of the Pope maintained it; and there was a +deep-seated feeling throughout the peoples of Europe that the Church was, +to use the language of the peasants of Germany, "the Pope's House," and +that he had a right to deal freely with its property. Pious and patriotic +men, like Gascoigne in England, deplored the evil effects of the papal +_reservations_; but they saw no remedy unless the Almighty changed the +heart of the Holy Father; and, after the failures of the Conciliar +attempts at reform, a sullen hopelessness seemed to have taken possession +of the minds of men, until Luther taught them that there was nothing in +the indefinable power that the Pope and the clergy claimed to possess over +the spiritual and eternal welfare of men and women. + +To Pope John XXII. (1316-1334) belongs the credit or discredit of creating +for the Papacy a machinery for gathering in money for its support. His +situation rendered this almost inevitable. On his accession he found +himself with an empty treasury; he had to incur debts in order to live; he +had to provide for a costly war with the Visconti; and he had to leave +money to enable his successors to carry out his temporal policy. Few Popes +lived so plainly; his money-getting was not for personal luxury, but for +the supposed requirements of the papal policy. He was the first Pope who +systematically made the dispensation of grace, temporal and eternal, a +source of revenue. Hitherto the charges made by the papal Chancery had +been, ostensibly at least, for actual work done--fees for clerking and +registration, and so on. John made the fees proportionate to the grace +dispensed, or to the power of the recipient to pay. He and his successors +made the _Tithes_, the _Annates_, _Procurations_, Fees for the bestowment +of the _Pallium_, the _Medii Fructus_, _Subsidies_, and _Dispensations_, +regular sources of revenue. + +The _Tithe_--a tenth of all ecclesiastical incomes for the service of the +Papacy--had been levied occasionally for extraordinary purposes, such as +crusades. It was still supposed to be levied for special purposes only, +but necessary occasions became almost continuous, and the exactions were +fiercely resented. When Alexander VI. levied the _Tithe_ in 1500, he was +allowed to do so in England. The French clergy, however, refused to pay; +they were excommunicated; the University of Paris declared the +excommunication unlawful, and the Pope had to withdraw. + +The _Annates_ were an ancient charge. From the beginning of the twelfth +century the incoming incumbent of a benefice had to pay over his first +year's income for local uses, such as the repairs on ecclesiastical +buildings, or as a solatium to the heirs of the deceased incumbent. From +the beginning of the thirteenth century prelates and princes were +sometimes permitted by the Popes to exact it of entrants into benefices. +One of the earliest recorded instances was when the Archbishop of +Canterbury was allowed to use the _Annates_ of his province for a period +of seven years from 1245, for the purpose of liquidating the debts on his +cathedral church. Pope John XXII. began to appropriate them for the +purposes of the Papacy. His predecessor Clement V. (1305-1314) had +demanded all the _Annates_ of England and Scotland for a period of three +years from 1316. In 1316 John made a much wider demand, and in terms which +showed that he was prepared to regard the _Annates_ as a permanent tax for +the general purposes of the Papacy. It is difficult to trace the stages of +the gradual universal enforcement of this tax; but in the decades before +the Reformation it was commonly imposed, and averages had been struck as +to its amount.(11) "They consisted of a portion, usually computed at +one-half, of the estimated revenue of all benefices worth more than 25 +florins. Thus the archbishopric of Rouen was taxed at 12,000 florins, and +the little see of Grenoble at 300; the great abbacy of St. Denis at 6000, +and the little St. Ciprian Poictiers at 33; while all the parish cures in +France were uniformly rated at 24 ducats, equivalent to about 30 florins." +Archbishoprics were subject to a special tax as the price of the +_Pallium_, and this was often very large. + +The _Procurationes_ were the charges, commuted to money payments, which +bishops and archdeacons were authorised to make for their personal +expenses while on their tours of visitation throughout their dioceses. The +Popes began by demanding a share, and ended by often claiming the whole of +these sums. + +Pope John XXII. was the first to require that the incomes of vacant +benefices (_medii fructus_) should be paid over to the papal treasury +during the vacancies. The earliest instance dates from 1331, when a demand +was made for the income of the vacant archbishopric of Gran in Hungary; +and it soon became the custom to insist that the stipends of all vacant +benefices should be paid into the papal treasury. + +Finally, the Popes declared it to be their right to require special +_subsidies_ from ecclesiastical provinces, and great pressure was put on +the people to pay these so-called free-will offerings. + +Besides the sums which poured into the papal treasury from these regular +sources of income, irregular sources afforded still larger amounts of +money. Countless dispensations were issued on payment of fees for all +manner of breaches of canonical and moral law--dispensations for marriages +within the prohibited degrees, for holding pluralities, for acquiring +unjust gains in trade or otherwise. This demoralising traffic made the +Roman treasury the partner in all kinds of iniquitous actions, and Luther, +in his address _To the Nobility of the German Nation respecting the +Reformation of the Christian Estate_, could fitly describe the Court of +the Roman Curia as a place "where vows were annulled, where the monk gets +leave to quit his Order, where priests can enter the married life for +money, where bastards can become legitimate, and dishonour and shame may +arrive at high honours; all evil repute and disgrace is knighted and +ennobled." "There is," he adds, "a buying and a selling, a changing, +blustering and bargaining, cheating and lying, robbing and stealing, +debauchery and villainy, and all kinds of contempt of God that Antichrist +could not reign worse." + +The vast sums of money obtained in these ways do not represent the whole +of the funds which flowed from all parts of Europe into the papal +treasury. The Roman Curia was the highest court of appeal for the whole +Church of the West. In any case this involved a large amount of law +business, with the inevitable legal expenses; but the Curia managed to +attract to itself a large amount of business which might have been easily +settled in the episcopal or metropolitan courts. This was done in +pursuance of a double policy--an ecclesiastical and a financial one. The +half century before the Reformation saw the overthrow of feudalism and the +consolidation of kingly absolutism, and something similar was to be seen +in the Papacy as well as among the principalities of Europe. Just as the +kingly absolutism triumphed when the hereditary feudal magnates lost their +power, so papal absolutism could only become an accomplished fact when it +could trample upon an episcopate deprived of its ecclesiastical +independence and inherent powers of ruling and judging. The Episcopate was +weakened in many ways,--by exempting abbacies from episcopal control, by +encouraging the mendicant monks to become the rivals of the parish clergy, +and so on,--but the most potent method of degrading it was by encouraging +people with ecclesiastical complaints to pass by the episcopal courts and +to carry their cases directly to the Pope. Nationalities, men were told, +had no place within the Catholic Church. Rome was the common fatherland, +and the Pope the universal bishop and judge ordinary. His judgment, which +was always final, could be had directly. In this way men were enticed to +take their pleas straight to the Pope. No doubt this involved sending a +messenger to Italy with a statement of the plea and a request for a +hearing; but it did not necessarily involve that the trial should take +place at Rome. The central power could delegate its authority, and the +trial could take place wherever the Pope might appoint. But the conception +undoubtedly did increase largely the business of the courts actually held +in Rome, and caused a flow of money to the imperial city. The Popes were +also ready to lend monies to impoverished litigants, for which, of course, +heavy interest was charged. + +The immense amount of business which was thus directed into the papal +chancery from all parts of Europe required a horde of officials, whose +salaries were provided partly from the incomes of _reserved_ benefices all +over Europe, and partly from the fees and bribes of the litigants. The +papal law-courts were notoriously dilatory, rapacious, and venal. Every +document had to pass through an incredible number of hands, and pay a +corresponding number of fees; and the costs of suits, heavy enough +according to the prescribed rule of the chancery, were increased immensely +beyond the regular charges by others which did not appear on the official +tables. Cases are on record where the _briefs_ obtained cost from +twenty-four to forty-one times the amount of the legitimate official +charges. The Roman Church had become a law-court, not of the most +reputable kind,--an arena of rival litigants, a chancery of writers, +notaries, and tax-gatherers,--where transactions about privileges, +dispensations, buying of benefices, etc., were carried on, and where +suitors went wandering with their petitions from the door of one office to +another. + +During the half century which preceded the Reformation, things went from +bad to worse. The fears aroused by the attempts at a reform through +General Councils had died down, and the Curia had no desire to reform +itself. The venality and rapacity increased when Popes began to sell +offices in the papal court. Boniface IX. (1389-1404) was the first to +raise money by selling these official posts to the highest bidders. "In +1483, when Sixtus IV. (1471-1484) desired to redeem his tiara and jewels, +pledged for a loan of 100,000 ducats, he increased his secretaries from +six to twenty-four, and required each to pay 2600 florins for the office. +In 1503, to raise funds for Caesar Borgia, Alexander VI. (1492-1503) +created eighty new offices, and sold them for 760 ducats apiece. Julius +II. formed a 'college' of one hundred and one scriveners of papal briefs, +in return for which they paid him 74,000 ducats. Leo X. (1513-1521) +appointed sixty chamberlains and a hundred and forty squires, with certain +perquisites, for which the former paid him 90,000 ducats and the latter +112,000. Places thus paid for were personal property, transferable on +sale. Burchard tells us that in 1483 he bought the mastership of +ceremonies from his predecessor Patrizzi for 450 ducats, which covered all +expenses; that in 1505 he vainly offered Julius II. (1503-1513) 2000 +ducats for a vacant scrivenership, and that soon after he bought the +succession to an abbreviatorship for 2040."(12) When Adrian VI. +(1522-1523) honestly tried to cleanse this Augean stable, he found himself +confronted with the fact that he would have to turn men adrift who had +spent their capital in buying the places which any reform must suppress. + +The papal exactions needed to support this luxurious Roman Court, +especially those taken from the clergy of Europe, were so obnoxious that +it was often hard to collect them, and devices were used which in the end +increased the burdens of those who were required to provide the money. The +papal court made bargains with the temporal rulers to share the spoils if +they permitted the collection.(13) The Popes agreed that the kings or +princes could seize the _Tithes_ or _Annates_ for a prescribed time +provided the papal officials had their authority to collect them, as a +rule, for Roman use. In the decades before the Reformation it was the +common practice to collect these dues by means of agents, often bankers, +whose charges were enormous, amounting sometimes to fifty per cent. The +collection of such extraordinary sources of revenue as the Indulgences was +marked by even worse abuses, such as the employment of pardon-sellers, who +overran Europe, and whose lies and extortions were the common theme of the +denunciations of the greatest preachers and patriots of the times. + +The unreformed Papacy of the closing decades of the fifteenth and of the +first quarter of the sixteenth century was the open sore of Europe, and +the object of execrations by almost all contemporary writers. Its abuses +found no defenders, and its partisans in attacking assailants contented +themselves with insisting upon the necessity for the spiritual supremacy +of the Bishops of Rome. + + + "Sant Peters schifflin ist im schwangk + Ich sorge fast den untergangk, + Die wallen schlagen allsit dran, + Es wuert vil sturm und plagen han."(14) + + + + +Chapter II. The Political Situation.(15) + + + +§ 1. The small extent of Christendom. + + +During the period of the Reformation a small portion of the world belonged +to Christendom, and of that only a part was affected, either really or +nominally, by the movement. The Christians belonging to the Greek Church +were entirely outside its influence. + +Christendom had shrunk greatly since the seventh century. The Saracens and +their successors in Moslem sovereignty had overrun and conquered many +lands which had formerly been inhabited by a Christian population and +governed by Christian rulers. Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, and +North Africa westwards to the Straits of Gibraltar, had once been +Christian, and had been lost to Christendom during the seventh and eighth +centuries. The Moslems had invaded Europe in the West, had conquered the +Spanish Peninsula, had passed the Pyrenees, and had invaded France. They +were met and defeated in a three days' battle at Tours (732) by the Franks +under Charles the Hammer, the grandfather of Charles the Great. After they +had been thrust back beyond the Pyrenees, the Spanish Peninsula was the +scene of a struggle between Moslem and Christian which lasted for more +than seven hundred years, and Spain did not become wholly Christian until +the last decade of the fifteenth century. + +If the tide of Moslem conquest had been early checked in the West, in the +East it had flowed steadily if slowly. In 1338, Orchan, Sultan of the +Ottoman Turks, seized on Gallipoli, the fortified town which guarded the +eastern entrance to the Dardanelles, and the Moslems won a footing on +European soil. A few years later the troops of his son Murad I. had seized +a portion of the Balkan peninsula, and had cut off Constantinople from the +rest of Christendom. A hundred years after, Constantinople (1453) had +fallen, the Christian population had been slain or enslaved, the great +church of the _Holy Wisdom_ (St. Sophia) had been made a Mohammedan +mosque, and the city had become the metropolis of the wide-spreading +empire of the Ottoman Turks. Servia, Bosnia, Herzogovina (the Duchy, from +_Herzog_, a Duke), Greece, the Peloponnesus, Roumania, Wallachia, and +Moldavia were incorporated in the Moslem Empire. Belgrade and the island +of Rhodes, the two bulwarks of Christendom, had fallen. Germany was +threatened by Turkish invasions, and for years the bells tolled in +hundreds of German parishes calling the people to pray against the coming +of the Turk. It was not until the heroic defence of Vienna, in 1529, that +the victorious advance of the Moslem was stayed. Only the Adriatic +separated Italy from the Ottoman Empire, and the great mountain wall with +the strip of Dalmatian coast which lies at its foot was the bulwark +between civilisation and barbarism. + + + +§ 2. Consolidation. + + +In Western Europe, and within the limits affected directly or indirectly +by the Reformation, the distinctive political characteristic of the times +immediately preceding the movement was consolidation or coalescence. +Feudalism, with its liberties and its lawlessness, was disappearing, and +compact nations were being formed under monarchies which tended to become +absolute. If the Scandinavian North be excluded, five nations included +almost the whole field of Western European life, and in all of them the +principle of consolidation is to be seen at work. In three, England, +France, and Spain, there emerged great united kingdoms; and if in two, +Germany and Italy, there was no clustering of the people round one +dynasty, the same principle of coalescence showed itself in the formation +of permanent States which had all the appearance of modern kingdoms. + +It is important for our purpose to glance at each and show the principle +at work. + + + +§ 3. England. + + +By the time that the Duke of Richmond had ascended the English throne and +ruled with "politic governance" as Henry VII., the distinctively modern +history of England had begun. Feudalism had perished on the field of the +battle of Bosworth. The visitations of the Black Death, the gigantic +agricultural labour strike under Wat Tylor and priest Ball, and the +consequent transformation of peasant serfs into a free people working for +wages, had created a new England ready for the changes which were to +bridge the chasm between mediaeval and modern history. The consolidation of +the people was favoured by the English custom that the younger sons of the +nobility ranked as commoners, and that the privileges as well as the +estates went to the eldest sons. This kept the various classes of the +population from becoming stereotyped into castes, as in Germany, France, +and Spain. It tended to create an ever-increasing middle class, which was +not confined to the towns, but permeated the country districts also. The +younger sons of the nobility descended into this middle class, and the +transformation of the serfs into a wage-earning class enabled some of them +to rise into it. England was the first land to become a compact +nationality. + +The earlier portion of the reign of Henry VII. was not free from attempts +which, if successful, would have thrown the country back into the old +condition of disintegration. Although the king claimed to unite the rival +lines of York and Lancaster, the Yorkists did not cease to raise +difficulties at home which were eagerly fostered from abroad. Ireland was +a Yorkist stronghold, and Margaret, the dowager Duchess of Burgundy, the +sister of Edward IV., exercised a sufficiently powerful influence in +Flanders to make that land a centre of Yorkist intrigue. + +Lambert Simnel, a pretender who claimed to be either the son or the nephew +of Edward IV. (his account of himself varied), appeared in Ireland, and +the whole island gathered round him. He invaded England, drew to his +standard many of the old Yorkists, but was defeated at Stoke-on-Trent in +1487. This was really a formidable rebellion. The rising under Perkin +Warbeck, a young Burgundian from Tournay, though supported by Margaret of +Burgundy and James IV. of Scotland, was more easily suppressed. A popular +revolt against severe taxation was subdued in 1497, and it may be said +that Henry's home difficulties were all over by the year 1500. England +entered the sixteenth century as a compact nation. + +The foreign policy of Henry VII. was alliance with Spain and a +long-sighted attempt to secure Scotland by peaceful means. It had for +consequences two marriages which had far-reaching results. The marriage of +Henry's daughter Margaret with James IV. of Scotland led to the union of +the two crowns three generations later; and that between Katharine, the +third daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and the son of Henry +VII. came to be the occasion, if not the cause, of the revolt of England +from Rome. Katharine was married to Arthur, Prince of Wales, in 1501 +(November 14th). Prince Arthur died on January 14th, 1502. After +protracted negotiation, lengthened by the unwillingness of the Pope (Pius +III.) to grant a dispensation, Katharine was contracted to Henry, and the +marriage took place in the year of Prince Henry's accession to the crown. +Katharine and Henry were crowned together at Westminster on June 28th, +1509. + +England had prospered during the reign of the first Tudor sovereign. The +steady increase in wool-growing and wool-exporting is in itself testimony +to the fact that the period of internal wars had ceased, for sheep +speedily become extinct when bands of raiders disturb the country. The +growth in the number of artisan capitalists shows that money had become +the possession of all classes in the community. The rise of the companies +of merchant adventurers proves that England was taking her share in the +world-trade of the new era. English scholars like Grocyn and Linacre +(tutor in Italy of Pope Leo X. and in England of the Prince of Wales) had +imbibed the New Learning in Italy, and had been followed there by John +Colet, who caught the spirit of the Renaissance from the Italian Humanists +and the fervour of a religious revival from Savonarola's work in Florence. +The country had emerged from Mediaevalism in almost everything when Henry +VIII., the hope of the English Humanists and reformers, ascended the +throne in 1509. + + + +§ 4. France. + + +If England entered on the sixteenth century as the most compact kingdom in +Europe, in the sense that all classes of its society were welded together +more firmly than anywhere else, it may be said of France at the same date +that nowhere was the central authority of the sovereign more firmly +established. Many things had worked for this state of matters. The Hundred +Years' War with England did for France what the wars against the Moors had +done for Spain. It had created a sense of nationality. It had also made +necessary national armies and the raising of national taxes. During the +weary period of anarchy under Charles VI. every local and provincial +institution of France had seemed to crumble or to display its inefficiency +to help the nation in its sorest need. The one thing which was able to +stand the storms and stress of the time was the kingly authority, and this +in spite of the incapacity of the man who possessed it. The reign of +Charles VII. had made it plain that England was not destined to remain in +possession of French territory; and the succeeding reigns had seen the +central authority slowly acquiring irresistible strength. Charles VII. by +his policy of yielding slightly to pressure and sitting still when he +could--by his inactivity, perhaps masterly,--Louis XI. by his restless, +unscrupulous craft, Anne of Beaujeu (his daughter) by her clear insight +and prompt decision, had not only laid the foundations, but built up and +consolidated the edifice of absolute monarchy in France. The kingly power +had subdued the great nobles and feudatories; it had to a large extent +mastered the Church; it had consolidated the towns and made them props to +its power; and it had made itself the direct lord of the peasants. + +The work of consolidation had been as rapid as it was complete. In 1464, +three years after his succession, Louis XI. was confronted by a formidable +association of the great feudatories of France, which called itself the +_League of Public Weal_. Charles of Guyenne, the king's brother, the Count +of Charolais (known as Charles the Bold of Burgundy), the Duke of +Brittany, the two great families of the Armagnacs, the elder represented +by the Count of Armagnac, and the younger by the Duke of Nemours, John of +Anjou, Duke of Calabria, and the Duke of Bourbon, were allied in arms +against the king. Yet by 1465 Normandy had been wrested from the Duke of +Guyenne; Guyenne itself had become the king's in 1472; the Duke of Nemours +had been crushed and slain in 1476; the Count of Charolais, become Duke of +Burgundy, had been overthrown, his power shattered, and himself slain by +the Swiss peasant confederates, and almost all his French _fiefs_ had been +incorporated by 1480; and on the death of King Rene (1480) the provinces +of Anjou and Provence had been annexed to the Crown of France. The great +feudatories were so thoroughly broken that their attempt to revolt during +the earlier years of the reign of Charles VIII. was easily frustrated by +Anne of Beaujeu acting on behalf of the young king. + +The efforts to secure hold on the Church date back from the days of the +Council of Basel, when Pope Eugenius was at hopeless issue with the +majority of its members. In 1438 a deputation from the Council waited upon +the king and laid before him the conciliar plans of reform. Charles VII. +summoned an assembly of the French clergy to meet at Bourges. He was +present himself with his principal nobles; and the meeting was also +attended by members of the Council and by papal delegates. There the +celebrated Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges was formally presented and agreed +upon. + +This Pragmatic Sanction embodied most of the cherished conciliar plans of +reform. It asserted the ecclesiastical supremacy of Councils over Popes. +It demanded a meeting of a Council every ten years. It declared that the +selection of the higher ecclesiastics was to be left to the Chapters and +to the Convents. It denied the Pope's general claim to the reservation of +benefices, and greatly limited its use in special cases. It did away with +the Pope's right to act as Ordinary, and insisted that no ecclesiastical +cases should be appealed to Rome without first having exhausted the lower +courts of jurisdiction. It abolished the _Annates_, with some exceptions +in favour of the present Pope. It also made some attempts to provide the +churches with an educated ministry. All these declarations simply carried +out the proposals of the Council of Basel; but they had an important +influence on the position of the French clergy towards the king. The +Pragmatic Sanction, though issued by an assembly of the French clergy, was +nevertheless a royal ordinance, and thereby gave the king indefinite +rights over the Church within France. The right to elect bishops and +abbots was placed in the hands of Chapters and Convents, but the king and +nobles were expressly permitted to bring forward and recommend candidates, +and this might easily be extended to enforcing the election of those +recommended. Indefinite rights of patronage on the part of the king and of +the nobles over benefices in France could not fail to be the result, and +the French Church could scarcely avoid assuming the appearance of a +national Church controlled by the king as the head of the State. The +abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction was always a bait which the French +king could dangle before the eyes of the Pope, and the promise to maintain +the Pragmatic Sanction was always a bribe to secure the support of the +clergy and the _Parlements_ of France. + +In 1516, Francis I. and Leo X. agreed on a Concordat, the practical effect +of which was that the king received the right to nominate to almost all +the higher vacant benefices in France, while the Popes received the +_Annates_. The results were not beneficial to the Church. It left the +clergy a prey to papal exactions, and it compelled them to seek for +promotion through subserviency to the king and the court; but it had the +effect of ranging the monarch on the side of the Papacy when the +Reformation came. + +It can scarcely be said that France was a compact nation. The nobility +were separated from the middle and lower classes by the fact that all +younger sons retained the status and privileges of nobles. In ancient +times they had paid no share of the taxes raised for war, on the ground +that they rendered personal service, and the privilege of being free from +taxation was retained long after the services of a feudal militia had +disappeared. The nobility in France became a caste, numerous, poor in many +instances, and too proud to belittle themselves by entering any of the +professions or engaging in commerce. + +Louis XI. had done his best to encourage trade, and had introduced the +silkworm industry into France. But as the whole weight of taxation fell +upon the rural districts, the middle classes took refuge in the towns, and +the peasantry, between the dues they had to pay to their lords and the +taxation for the king, were in an oppressed condition. Their grievances +were set forth in the petition they addressed, in the delusive hope of +amelioration, to the States-General which assembled on the accession of +Charles VIII. "During the past thirty-four years," they say, "troops have +been ever passing through France and living on the poor people. When the +poor man has managed, by the sale of the coat on his back, and after hard +toil, to pay his _taille_, and hopes he may live out the year on the +little he has left, then come fresh troops to his cottage, eating him up. +In Normandy, multitudes have died of hunger. From want of cattle, men and +women have to yoke themselves to the carts; and others, fearing that if +seen in the daytime they will be seized for not having paid their +_taille_, are compelled to work at night. The king should have pity on his +poor people, and relieve them from the said _tailles_ and charges." This +was in 1483, before the Italian wars had further increased the burdens +which the poorest class of the community had to pay. + +The New Learning had begun to filter into France at a comparatively early +date. In 1458 an Italian of Greek descent had been appointed to teach +Greek by the University of Paris. But that University had been for long +the centre of mediaeval scholastic study, and it was not until the Italian +campaigns of Charles VIII., who was in Italy when the Renaissance was at +its height, that France may be said to have welcomed the Humanist +movement. A Greek Press was established in Paris in 1507, a group of +French Humanists entered upon the study of the authors of classical +antiquity, and the new learning gradually displaced the old scholastic +disciplines. French Humanists were perhaps the earliest to make a special +study of Roman Law, and to win distinction as eminent jurists. Francis, +like Henry VIII. of England, was welcomed on his accession as a Humanist +king. Such was the condition of France in the beginning of the sixteenth +century. + + + +§ 5. Spain. + + +Spain had for centuries been under Mohammedan domination. The Moslems had +overrun almost the whole country, and throughout its most fertile +provinces the Christian peasantry lived under masters of an alien faith. +At the beginning of the tenth century the only independent Christian +principalities were small states lying along the southern shore of the Bay +of Biscay and the south-western slopes of the Pyrenees. The Gothic and +Vandal chiefs slowly recovered the northern districts, while the Moors +retained the more fertile provinces of the south. The political conditions +of the country at the close of the fifteenth century inevitably reflected +this gradual reconquest, which had brought the Christian principalities +into existence. In 1474, when Isabella (she had been married in 1469 to +Ferdinand, the heir to Aragon) succeeded her brother Henry IV. in the +sovereignty of Castile, Spain was divided into five separate +principalities: Castile, with Leon, containing 62 per cent.; Aragon, with +Valentia and Catalonia, containing 15 per cent.; Portugal, containing 20 +per cent.; Navarre, containing 1 per cent.; and Granada, the only +remaining Moslem State, containing 2 per cent. of the entire surface of +the country. + +Castile had grown by almost continuous conquest of lands from the Moslems, +and these additions were acquired in many ways. If they had been made in +what may be termed a national war, the lands seized became the property of +the king, and could be retained by him or granted to his lords spiritual +and temporal under varying conditions. In some cases these grants made the +possessors almost independent princes. On the other hand, lands might be +wrested from the aliens by private adventurers, and in such cases they +remained in possession of the conquerors, who formed municipalities which +had the right of choosing and of changing their overlords, and really +formed independent communities. Then there were, as was natural in a +period of continuous warfare, waste lands. These became the property of +those who settled on them. Lastly, there were the dangerous frontier +lands, which it was the policy of king or great lord who owned them to +people with settlers, who could only be induced to undertake the perilous +occupation provided they received charters (_fueros_), which guaranteed +their practical independence. In such a condition of things the central +authority could not be strong. It was further weakened by the fact that +the great feudatories claimed to have both civil administration and +military rule over their lands, and assumed an almost regal state. +Military religious orders abounded, and were possessed of great wealth. +Their Grand Masters, in virtue of their office, were independent military +commanders, and had great gifts, in the shape of rich commandries, to +bestow on their followers. Their power overshadowed that of the sovereign. +The great ecclesiastics, powerful feudal lords in virtue of their lands, +claimed the rights of civil administration and military rule like their +lay compeers, and, being personally protected by the indefinable sanctity +of the priestly character, were even more turbulent. Almost universal +anarchy had prevailed during the reigns of the two weak kings who preceded +Isabella on the throne of Castile, and the crown lands, the support and +special protection of the sovereign, had been alienated by lavish gifts to +the great nobles. This was the situation which faced the young queen when +she came into her inheritance. It was aggravated by a rebellion on behalf +of Juanna, the illegitimate daughter of Henry IV. The rebellion was +successfully crushed. The queen and her consort, who was not yet in +possession of the throne of Aragon, then tried to give the land security. +The previous anarchy had produced its usual results. The country was +infested with bands of brigands, and life was not safe outside the walls +of the towns. Isabella instituted, or rather revived, the Holy Brotherhood +(_Hermandad_), a force of cavalry raised by the whole country (each group +of one hundred houses was bound to provide one horseman). It was an army +of mounted police. It had its own judges, who tried criminals on the scene +of their crimes, and those convicted were punished by the troops according +to the sentences pronounced. Its avowed objects were to put down all +crimes of violence committed outside the cities, and to hunt criminals who +had fled from the towns' justice. Its judges superseded the justiciary +powers of the nobles, who protested in vain. The Brotherhood did its work +very effectively, and the towns and the common people rallied round the +monarchy which had given them safety for limb and property. + +The sovereigns next attacked the position of the nobles, whose mutual +feuds rendered them a comparatively easy foe to rulers who had proved +their strength of government. The royal domains, which had been alienated +during the previous reign, were restored to the sovereign, and many of the +most abused privileges of the nobility were curtailed. + +One by one the Grand Masterships of the Crusading Orders were centred in +the person of the Crown, the Pope acquiescing and granting investiture. +The Church was stripped of some of its superfluous wealth, and the civil +powers of the higher ecclesiastics were abolished or curtailed. In the end +it may be said that the Spanish clergy were made almost as subservient to +the sovereign as were those of France. + +The pacification and consolidation of Castile was followed by the conquest +of Granada. The Holy Brotherhood served the purpose of a standing army, +internal feuds among the Moors aided the Christians, and after a +protracted struggle (1481-1492) the city of Granada was taken, and the +Moorish rule in the Peninsula ceased. All Spain, save Portugal and Navarre +(seized by Ferdinand in 1512), was thus united under Ferdinand and +Isabella, the Catholic Sovereigns as they came to be called, and the civil +unity increased the desire for religious uniformity. The Jews in Spain +were numerous, wealthy, and influential. They had intermarried with many +noble families, and almost controlled the finance of the country. It was +resolved to compel them to become Christians, by force if necessary. In +1478 a Bull was obtained from Pope Sixtus IV. establishing the Inquisition +in Spain, it being provided that the inquisitors were to be appointed by +the sovereign. The Holy Office in this way became an instrument for +establishing a civil despotism, as well as a means for repressing heresy. +It did its work with a ruthless severity hitherto unexampled. Sixtus +himself and some of his successors, moved by repeated complaints, +endeavoured to restrain its savage energy; but the Inquisition was too +useful an instrument in the hands of a despotic sovereign, and the Popes +were forced to allow its proceedings, and to refuse all appeals to Rome +against its sentences. It was put in use against the Moorish subjects of +the Catholic kings, notwithstanding the terms of the capitulation of +Granada, which provided for the exercise of civil and religious liberty. +The result was that, in spite of fierce rebellions, all the Moors, save +small groups of families under the special protection of the Crown, had +become nominal Christians by 1502, although almost a century had to pass +before the Inquisition had rooted out the last traces of the Moslem faith +in the Spanish Peninsula. + +The death of Isabella in 1504 roughly dates a formidable rising against +this process of repression and consolidation. The severities of the +Inquisition, the insistence of Ferdinand to govern personally the lands of +his deceased wife, and many local causes led to widespread conspiracies +and revolts against his rule. The years between 1504 and 1522 were a +period of revolutions and of lawlessness which was ended when Charles V., +the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, overcame all resistance and +inaugurated a reign of personal despotism which long distinguished the +kingdom of Spain. Spanish troubles had something to do with preventing +Charles from putting into execution in Germany, as he wished to do, the +ban issued at Worms against Martin Luther. + + + +§ 6. Germany and Italy. + + +Germany and Italy, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, had made +almost no progress in becoming united and compact nations. The process of +national consolidation, which was a feature of the times, displayed itself +in these lands in the creation of compact principalities rather than in a +great and effective national movement under one sovereign power. It is a +commonplace of history to say that the main reason for this was the +presence within these two lands of the Pope and the Emperor, the twin +powers of the earlier mediaeval ideal of a dual government, at once civil +and ecclesiastical. Machiavelli expressed the common idea in his clear and +strenuous fashion. He says that the Italians owe it to Rome that they are +divided into factions and not united as were Spain and France. The Pope, +he explains, who claimed temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction, +though not strong enough to rule all Italy by himself, was powerful enough +to prevent any other Italian dynasty from taking his place. Whenever he +saw any Italian power growing strong enough to have a future before it, he +invited the aid of some foreign potentate, thus making Italy a prey to +continual invasions. The shadowy lordship of the Pope was sufficient, in +the opinion of Machiavelli, to prevent any real lordship under a native +dynasty within the Italian peninsula. In Germany there was a similar +impotency. The German king was the Emperor, the mediaeval head of the Holy +Roman Empire, the "king of the Romans." Some idea of what underlay the +thought and its expression may be had when one reads across Albert Duerer's +portrait of Maximilian, "Imperator Caesar Divus Maximilianus Pius Felix +Augustus," just as if he had been Trajan or Constantine. The phrase +carries us back to the times when the Teutonic tribes swept down on the +Roman possessions in Western Europe and took possession of them. They were +barbarians with an unalterable reverence for the wider civilisation of the +great Empire which they had conquered. They crept into the shell of the +great Empire and tried to assimilate its jurisprudence and its religion. +Hence it came to pass, in the earlier Middle Ages, as Mr. Freeman says, +"The two great powers in Western Europe were the Church and the Empire, +and the centre of each, in imagination at least, was Rome. Both of these +went on through the settlements of the German nations, and both in a +manner drew new powers from the change of things. Men believed more than +ever that Rome was the lawful and natural centre of the world. For it was +held that there were of divine right two Vicars of God upon earth, the +Roman Emperor, His Vicar in temporal things, and the Roman Bishop, His +Vicar in spiritual things. This belief did not interfere with the +existence either of separate commonwealths, principalities, or of national +Churches. But it was held that the Roman Emperor, who was the Lord of the +World, was of right the head of all temporal States, and the Roman Bishop, +the Pope, was the head of all the Churches." This idea was a devout +imagination, and was never actually and fully expressed in fact. No +Eastern nation or Church ever agreed with it; and the temporal lordship of +the Emperors was never completely acknowledged even in the West. Still it +ruled in men's minds with all the force of an ideal. As the modern nations +of Europe came gradually into being, the real headship of the Emperor +became more and more shadowy. But both headships could prevent the +national consolidation of the countries, Germany and Italy, in which the +possessors dwelt. All this is, as has been said, a commonplace of history, +and, like all commonplaces, it contains a great deal of truth. Still it +may be questioned whether the mediaeval idea was solely responsible for the +disintegration of either Germany or Italy in the sixteenth century. A +careful study of the conditions of things in both countries makes us see +that many causes were at work besides the mediaeval idea--conditions +geographical, social, and historical. Whatever the causes, the +disintegration of these two lands was in marked contrast to the +consolidation of the three other nations. + + + +§ 7. Italy. + + +In the end of the fifteenth century, Italy contained a very great number +of petty principalities and five States which might be called the great +powers of Italy--Venice, Milan, and Florence in the north, Naples in the +south, and the States of the Church in the centre. Peace was kept by a +delicate and highly artificial balance of powers. Venice was a commercial +republic, ruled by an oligarchy of nobles. The city in the lagoons had +been founded by trembling fugitives fleeing before Attila's Huns, and was +more than a thousand years old. It had large territories on the mainland +of Italy, and colonies extending down the east coast of the Adriatic and +among the Greek islands. It had the largest revenue of all the Italian +States, but its expenses were also much the heaviest. Milan came next in +wealth, with its yearly income of over 700,000 ducats. At the close of the +century it was in the possession of the Sforza family, whose founder had +been born a ploughman, and had risen to be a formidable commander of +mercenary soldiers. It was claimed by Maximilian as a fief of the Empire, +and by the Kings of France as a heritage of the Dukes of Orleans. The +disputed heritage was one of the causes of the invasion of Italy by +Charles VIII. Florence, the most cultured city in Italy, was, like Venice, +a commercial republic; but it was a democratic republic, wherein one +family, the Medici, had usurped almost despotic power while preserving all +the external marks of republican rule. + +Naples was the portion of Italy where the feudal system of the Middle Ages +had lingered longest. The old kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples and +Sicily) had, since 1458, been divided, and Sicily had been politically +separated from the mainland. The island belonged to the King of Aragon; +while the mainland had for its ruler the illegitimate son of Alphonso of +Aragon, Ferdinand, or Ferrante, who proved a despotic and masterful ruler. +He had crushed his semi-independent feudal barons, had brought the towns +under his despotic rule, and was able to hand over a compact kingdom to +his son Alphonso in 1494. + +The feature, however, in the political condition of Italy which +illustrated best the general tendency of the age towards coalescence, was +the growth of the States of the Church. The dominions which were directly +under the temporal power of the Pope had been the most disorganised in all +Italy. The vassal barons had been turbulently independent, and the Popes +had little power even within the city of Rome. The helplessness of the +Popes to control their vassals perhaps reached its lowest stage in the +days of Innocent VIII. His successors Alexander VI. (Rodrigo Borgia, +1492-1503), Julius II. (Cardinal della Rovere, 1503-1513), and Leo X. +(Giovanni de Medici, 1513-1521), strove to create, and partly succeeded in +forming, a strong central dominion, the States of the Church. The troubled +times of the French invasions, and the continual warfare among the more +powerful States of Italy, furnished them with the occasion. They pursued +their policy with a craft which brushed aside all moral obligations, and +with a ruthlessness which hesitated at no amount of bloodshed. In their +hands the Papacy appeared to be a merely temporal power, and was treated +as such by contemporary politicians. It was one of the political States of +Italy, and the Popes were distinguished from their contemporary Italian +rulers only by the facts that their spiritual position enabled them to +exercise a European influence which the others could not aspire to, and +that their sacred character placed them above the obligations of ordinary +morality in the matter of keeping solemn promises and maintaining treaty +obligations made binding by the most sacred oaths. In one sense their aim +was patriotic. They were Italian princes whose aim was to create a strong +Italian central power which might be able to maintain the independence of +Italy against the foreigner; and in this they were partially successful, +whatever judgment may require to be passed on the means taken to attain +their end. But the actions of the Italian prince placed the spiritual Head +of the Church outside all those influences, intellectual, artistic, and +religious (the revival under Savonarola in Florence), which were working +in Italy for the regeneration of European society. The Popes of the +Renaissance set the example, only too faithfully followed by almost every +prince of the age, of believing that political far outweighed all moral +and religious motives. + + + +§ 8. Germany. + + +Germany, or the Empire, as it was called, included, in the days of the +Reformation, the Low Countries in the north-west and most of what are now +the Austro-Hungarian lands in the east. It was in a strange condition. On +the one hand a strong popular sentiment for unity had arisen in all the +German-speaking portions, and on the other the country was cut into +sections and slices, and was more hopelessly divided than was Italy +itself. + +Nominally the Empire was ruled over by one supreme lord, with a great +feudal assembly, the Diet, under him. + +The Empire was elective, though for generations the rulers chosen had +always been the heads of the House of Hapsburg, and since 1356 the +election had been in the hands of seven prince-electors--three on the Elbe +and four on the Rhine. On the Elbe were the King of Bohemia, the Elector +of Saxony, and the Elector of Brandenburg; on the Rhine, the Count +Palatine of the Rhine and the Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Koeln. + +This Empire, nominally one, and full of the strongest sentiments of unity, +was hopelessly divided, and--for this was the peculiarity of the +situation--all the elements making for peaceful government, which in +countries like France or England supported the central power, were on the +side of disunion. + +A glance at the map of Germany in the times of the Reformation shows an +astonishing multiplicity of separate principalities, ecclesiastical and +secular, all the more bewildering that most of them appeared to be +composed of patches lying separate from each other. Almost every ruling +prince had to cross some neighbour's land to visit the outlying portions +of his dominions. It must also be remembered that the divisions which can +be represented on a map but faintly express the real state of things. The +territories of the imperial cities--the lands outside the walls ruled by +the civic fathers--were for the most part too small to figure on any map, +and for the same reason the tiny principalities of the hordes of free +nobles are also invisible. So we have to imagine all those little mediaeval +republics and those infinitesimal kingdoms camped on the territories of +the great princes, and taking from them even the small amount of unity +which the map shows. + +The greater feudal States, Electoral and Ducal Saxony, Brandenburg, +Bavaria, the Palatinate, Hesse, and many others, had meetings of their own +Estates,--Councils of subservient nobles and lawyers,--their own Supreme +Courts of Justice, from which there was no appeal, their own fiscal +system, their own finance and coinage, and largely controlled their clergy +and their relations to powers outside Germany. Their princes, hampered as +they were by the great Churchmen, thwarted continually by the town +republics, defied by the free nobles, were nevertheless actual kings, and +profited by the centralising tendencies of the times. They alone in +Germany represented settled central government, and attracted to +themselves the smaller units lying outside and around them. + +Yet with all these divisions, having their roots deep down in the past, +there was pervading all classes of society, from princes to peasants, the +sentiment of a united Germany, and no lack of schemes to convert the +feeling into fact. The earliest practical attempts began with the union of +German Churchmen at Constance and the scheme for a National Church of +Germany; and the dream of ecclesiastical unity brought in its train the +aspiration after political oneness. + +The practical means proposed to create a German national unity over lands +which stretched from the Straits of Dover to the Vistula, and from the +Baltic to the Adriatic, were the proclamation of a universal Land's Peace, +forbidding all internecine war between Germans; the establishment of a +Supreme Court of Justice to decide quarrels within the Empire; a common +coinage, and a common Customs Union. To bind all more firmly together +there was needed a Common Council or governing body, which, under the +Emperor, should determine the Home and Foreign Policy of the Empire. The +only authorities which could create a governmental unity of this kind were +the Emperor on the one hand and the great princes on the other, and the +two needed to be one in mutual confidence and in intention. But that is +what never happened, and all through the reign of Maximilian and in the +early years of Charles we find two different conceptions of what the +central government ought to be--the one oligarchic and the other +autocratic. The princes were resolved to keep their independence, and +their plans for unity always implied a governing oligarchy with serious +restraint placed on the power of the Emperor; while the Emperors, who +would never submit to be controlled by an oligarchy of German princes, and +who found that they could not carry out their schemes for an autocratic +unity, were at least able to wreck any other. + +The German princes have been accused of preferring the security and +enlargement of their dynastic possessions to the unity of the Empire, but +it can be replied that in doing so they only followed the example set them +by their Emperors. Frederick III., Maximilian, and Charles V. invariably +neglected imperial interests when they clashed with the welfare of the +family possessions of the House of Hapsburg. When Maximilian inherited the +imperial Burgundian lands, a fief of the Empire, through his marriage with +Mary, the heiress of Charles the Bold, he treated the inheritance as part +of the family estates of his House. The Tyrol was absorbed by the House of +Hapsburg when the Swabian League prevented Bavaria seizing it (1487). The +same fate fell on the Duchy of Austria when Vienna was recovered, and on +Hungary and Bohemia; and when Charles V. got hold of Wuertemberg on the +outlawry of Duke Ulrich, it, too, was detached from the Empire and +absorbed into the family possessions of the Hapsburgs. There was, in +short, a persistent policy pursued by three successive Emperors, of +despoiling the Empire in order to increase the family possessions of the +House to which they belonged. + +The last attempt to give a constitutional unity to the German Empire was +made at the Diet of Worms (1521)--the Diet before which Luther appeared. +There the Emperor, Charles V., agreed to accept a _Reichsregiment_, which +was in all essential points, though differing in some details, the same as +his grandfather Maximilian had proposed to the Diet of 1495. The Central +Council was composed of a President and four members appointed by the +Emperor, six Electors (the King of Bohemia being excluded), who might sit +in person or by deputies, and twelve members appointed by the rest of the +Estates. The cities were not represented. This _Reichsregiment_ was to +govern all German lands, including Austria and the Netherlands, but +excluding Bohemia. Switzerland, hitherto nominally within the Empire, +formally withdrew and ceased to form part of Germany. The central +government needed funds to carry on its work, and especially to provide an +army to enforce its decisions; and various schemes for raising the money +required were discussed at its earlier meetings. It was resolved at last +to raise the necessary funds by imposing a tax of four per cent. on all +imports and exports, and to establish custom-houses on all the frontiers. +The practical effect of this was to lay the whole burden of taxation upon +the mercantile classes, or, in other words, to make the cities, who were +not represented in the _Reichsregiment_, pay for the whole of the central +government. This _Reichsregiment_ was to be simply a board of advice, +without any decisive control so long as the Emperor was in Germany. When +he was absent from the country it had an independent power of government. +But all important decisions had to be confirmed by the absent Emperor, +who, for his part, promised to form no foreign leagues involving Germany +without the consent of the Council. + +As soon as the _Reichsregiment_ had settled its scheme of taxation, the +cities on which it was proposed to lay the whole burden of providing the +funds required very naturally objected. They met by representatives at +Speyer (1523), and sent delegates to Spain, to Valladolid, where Charles +happened to be, to protest against the scheme of taxation. They were +supported by the great German capitalists. The Emperor received them +graciously, and promised to take the government into his own hands. In +this way the last attempt to give a governmental unity to Germany was +destroyed by the joint action of the Emperor and of the cities. It is +unquestionable that the Reformation under Luther did seriously assist in +the disintegration of Germany, but it must be remembered that a movement +cannot become national where there is no nation, and that German +nationality had been hopelessly destroyed just at the time when it was +most needed to unify and moderate the great religious impulses which were +throbbing in the hearts of its citizens. + +Maximilian had been elected King of the Romans in 1486, and had succeeded +to the Empire on the death of his father, Frederick III., in 1493. His was +a strongly fascinating personality--a man full of enthusiasms, never +lacking in ideas, but singularly destitute of the patient practical power +to make them workable. He may almost be called a type of that Germany over +which he was called to rule. No man was fuller of the longing for German +unity as an ideal; no man did more to perpetuate the very real divisions +of the land. + +He was the patron of German learning and of German art, and won the +praises of the German Humanists: no ruler was more celebrated in +contemporary song. He protected and supported the German towns, encouraged +their industries, and fostered their culture. In almost everything ideal +he stood for German nationality and unity. He placed himself at the head +of all those intellectual and artistic forces from which spread the +thought of a united Germany for the Germans. On the other hand, his one +persistent practical policy, and the only one in which he was almost +uniformly successful, was to unify and consolidate the family possessions +of the House of Hapsburg. In this policy he was the leader of those who +broke up Germany into an aggregate of separate and independent +principalities. The greater German princes followed his example, and did +their best to transform themselves into the civilised rulers of modern +States. + +Maximilian died somewhat unexpectedly on January 12th, 1519, and five +months were spent in intrigues by the partisans of Francis of France and +young Charles, King of Spain, the grandson of Maximilian. The French party +believed that they had secured by bribery a majority of the Electors; and +when this was whispered about, the popular feeling in favour of Charles, +on account of his German blood, soon began to manifest itself. It was +naturally strongest in the Rhine provinces. Papal delegates could not get +the Rhine skippers to hire boats to them for their journey, as it was +believed that the Pope favoured the French king. The Imperial Cities +accused Francis of fomenting internecine war in Germany, and displayed +their hatred of his candidature. The very Landsknechten clamoured for the +grandson of their "Father" Maximilian. The eyes of all Germany were turned +anxiously enough to the venerable town of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, where, +according to ancient usage, the Electors met to select the ruler of the +Holy Roman Empire. On the 28th of June (1519) the alarm bell of the town +gave the signal, and the Electors assembled in their scarlet robes of +State in the dim little chapel of St. Bartholomew, where the conclave was +always held. The manifestation of popular feeling had done its work. +Charles was unanimously chosen, and all Germany rejoiced,--the good +burghers of Frankfurt declaring that if the Electors had chosen Francis +they would have been "playing with death." + +It was a wave of national excitement, the desire for a _German_ ruler, +that had brought about the unanimous election; and never were a people +more mistaken and, in the end, disappointed. Charles was the heir of the +House of Hapsburg, the grandson of Maximilian, his veins full of German +blood. But he was no German. Maximilian was the last of the real German +Hapsburgs. History scarcely shows another instance where the mother's +blood has so completely changed the character of a race. Charles was his +mother's son, and her Spanish characteristics showed themselves in him in +greater strength as the years went on. When he abdicated, he retired to +end his days in a Spanish convent. It was the Spaniard, not the German, +who faced Luther at Worms. + + + + +Chapter III. The Renaissance.(16) + + + +§ 1. The Transition from the Mediaeval to the Modern World. + + +The movement called the Renaissance, in its widest extent, may be +described as the transition from the mediaeval to the modern world. All our +present conceptions of life and thought find their roots within this +period. + +It saw the beginnings of modern science and the application of true +scientific methods to the investigation of nature. It witnessed the +astronomical discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo, the foundation of +anatomy under Vessalius, and the discovery of the circulation of the blood +by Harvey. + +It was the age of geographical explorations. The discoveries of the +telescope, the mariner's compass, and gunpowder gave men mastery over +previously unknown natural forces, and multiplied their powers, their +daring, and their capacities for adventure. When these geographical +discoveries had made a world-trade a possible thing, there began that +change from mediaeval to modern methods in trade and commerce which lasted +from the close of the fourteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth +century, when the modern commercial conditions were thoroughly +established. The transition period was marked by the widening area of +trade, which was no longer restricted to the Mediterranean, the Black and +the North Seas, to the Baltic, and to the east coasts of Africa. The rigid +groups of artisans and traders--the guild system of the Middle Ages--began +to dissolve, and to leave freer space for individual and new corporate +effort. Prices were gradually freed from official regulation, and became +subject to the natural effects of bargaining. Adventure companies were +started to share in the world-trade, and a beginning was made of dealing +on commissions. All these changes belong to the period of transition +between the mediaeval and the modern world. + +In the art of governing men the Renaissance was the age of political +concentration. In two realms--Germany and Italy--the mediaeval conceptions of +Emperor and Pope, world-king and world-priest, were still strong enough to +prevent the union of national forces under one political head; but there, +also, the principle of coalescence may be found in partial operation,--in +Germany in the formation of great independent principalities, and in Italy +in the growth of the States of the Church,--and its partial failure +subjected both nationalities to foreign oppression. Everywhere there was +the attempt to assert the claims of the secular powers to emancipate +themselves from clerical tutelage and ecclesiastical usurpation. While, +underlying all, there was the beginning of the assertion of the supreme +right of individual revolt against every custom, law, or theory which +would subordinate the man to the caste or class. The Swiss peasantry began +it when they made pikes by tying their scythes to their alpenstocks, and, +standing shoulder to shoulder at Morgarten and Sempach, broke the fiercest +charges of mediaeval knighthood. They proved that man for man the peasant +was as good as the noble, and individual manhood asserted in this rude and +bodily fashion soon began to express itself mentally and morally. + +In jurisprudence the Renaissance may be described as the introduction of +historical and scientific methods, the abandonment of legal fictions based +upon collections of false decretals, the recovery of the true text of the +Roman code, and the substitution of civil for canon law as the basis of +legislation and government. There was a complete break with the past. The +substitution of civil law based upon the lawbooks of Justinian for the +canon law founded upon the Decretum of Gratian, involved such a breach in +continuity that it was the most momentous of all the changes of that +period of transition. For law enters into every human relation, and a +thorough change of legal principles must involve a revolution which is +none the less real that it works almost silently. The codes of Justinian +and of Theodosius completely reversed the teachings of the canonists, and +the civilian lawyers learned to look upon the Church as only a department +of the State. + +In literature there was the discovery of classical manuscripts, the +introduction of the study of Greek, the perception of the beauties of +language in the choice and arrangement of words under the guidance of +classical models. The literary powers of modern languages were also +discovered,--Italian, English, French, and German,--and with the discovery +the national literatures of Europe came into being. + +In art a complete revolution was effected in architecture, painting, and +sculpture by the recovery of ancient models and the study of the +principles of their construction. + +The manufacture of paper, the discovery of the arts of printing and +engraving, multiplied the possession of the treasures of the intelligence +and of artistic genius, and combined to make art and literature +democratic. What was once confined to a favoured few became common +property. New thoughts could act on men in masses, and began to move the +multitude. The old mediaeval barriers were broken down, and men came to see +that there was more in religion than the mediaeval Church had taught, more +in social life than feudalism had manifested, and that knowledge was a +manifold unknown to their fathers. + +If the Renaissance be the transition from the mediaeval to the modern +world,--and it is scarcely possible to regard it otherwise,--then it is one +of those great movements of the mind of mankind that almost defy exact +description, and there is an elusiveness about it which confounds us when +we attempt definition. "It was the emancipation of the reason," says +Symonds, "in a race of men, intolerant of control, ready to criticise +canons of conduct, enthusiastic of antique liberty, freshly awakened to +the sense of beauty, and anxious above all things to secure for themselves +free scope in spheres outside the region of authority. Men so vigorous and +independent felt the joy of exploration. There was no problem they feared +to face, no formula they were not eager to recast according to their new +conceptions."(17) It was the blossoming and fructifying of the European +intellectual life; but perhaps it ought to be added that it contained a +new conception of the universe in which religion consisted less in a +feeling of dependence on God, and more in a faith on the possibilities +lying in mankind. + + + +§ 2. The Revival of Literature and Art. + + +But the Renaissance has generally a more limited meaning, and one defined +by the most potent of the new forces which worked for the general +intellectual regeneration. It means the revival of learning and of art +consequent on the discovery and study of the literary and artistic +masterpieces of antiquity. It is perhaps in this more limited sense that +the movement more directly prepared the way for the Reformation and what +followed, and deserves more detailed examination. It was the discovery of +a lost means of culture and the consequent awakening and diffusion of a +literary, artistic, and critical spirit. + +A knowledge of ancient Latin literature had not entirely perished during +the earlier Middle Ages. The Benedictine monasteries had preserved +classical manuscripts--especially the monastery of Monte Cassino for the +southern, and that of Fulda for the northern parts of Europe. These +monasteries and their sister establishments were schools of learning as +well as libraries, and we read of more than one where the study of some of +the classical authors was part of the regular training. Virgil, Horace, +Terence and Martial, Livy, Suetonius and Sallust, were known and studied. +Greek literature had not survived to anything like the same extent, but it +had never entirely disappeared from Southern Europe, and especially from +Southern Italy. Ever since the days of the Roman Republic in that part of +the Italian peninsula once called Magna Graecia, Greek had been the +language of many of the common people, as it is to this day, in districts +of Calabria and of Sicily; and the teachers and students of the mediaeval +University of Salerno had never lost their taste for its study.(18) But +with all this, the fourteenth century, and notably the age of Petrarch, +saw the beginnings of new zeal for the literature of the past, and was +really the beginning of a new era. + +Italy was the first land to become free from the conditions of mediaeval +life, and ready to enter on the new life which was awaiting Europe. There +was an Italian language, the feeling of distinct nationality, a +considerable advance in civilisation, an accumulation of wealth, and, +during the age of the despots, a comparative freedom from constant changes +in political conditions. + +Dante's great poem, interweaving as it does the imagery and mysticism of +Giacchino di Fiore, the deepest spiritual and moral teaching of the +mediaeval Church, and the insight and judgment on men and things of a great +poet, was the first sign that Italy had wakened from the sleep of the +Middle Ages. Petrarch came next, the passionate student of the lives, the +thoughts, and emotions of the great masters of classical Latin literature. +They were real men for him, his own Italian ancestors, and they as he had +felt the need of Hellenic culture to solace their souls, and serve for the +universal education of the human race. Boccaccio, the third leader in the +awakening, preached the joy of living, the universal capacity for +pleasure, and the sensuous beauty of the world. He too, like Petrarch, +felt the need of Hellenic culture. For both there was an awakening to the +beauty of literary form, and the conviction that a study of the ancient +classics would enable them to achieve it. Both valued the vision of a new +conception of life derived from the perusal of the classics, freer, more +enlarged and joyous, more rational than the Middle Ages had witnessed. +Petrarch and Boccaccio yearned after the life thus disclosed, which gave +unfettered scope to the play of the emotions, to the sense of beauty, and +to the manifold activity of the human intelligence. + +Learned Greeks were induced to settle in Italy--men who were able to +interpret the ancient Greek poets and prose writers--Manuel Chrysoloras (at +Florence, 1397-1400), George of Trebizond, Theodore Gaza (whose Greek +_Grammar_ Erasmus taught from while in England), Gemistos Plethon, a +distinguished Platonist, under whom the Christian Platonism received its +impulse, and John Argyropoulos, who was the teacher of Reuchlin. The men +of the early Renaissance were their pupils. + + + +§ 3. Its earlier relation to Christianity. + + +There was nothing hostile to Christianity or to the mediaeval Church in the +earlier stages of this intellectual revival, and very little of the +neo-paganism which it developed afterwards. Many of the instincts of +mediaeval piety remained, only the objects were changed. Petrarch revered +the MS. of Homer, which he could not read, as an ancestor of his might +have venerated the scapulary of a saint.(19) The men of the early +Renaissance made collections of MSS. and inscriptions, of cameos and of +coins, and worshipped them as if they had been relics. The Medicean +Library was formed about 1450, the Vatican Library in 1453, and the age of +passionate collection began. + +The age of scholarship succeeded, and Italian students began to interpret +the ancient classical authors with a mysticism all their own. They sought +a means of reconciling Christian thought with ancient pagan philosophy, +and, like Clement of Alexandria and Origen, discovered it in Platonism. +Platonic academies were founded, and Cardinal Bessarion, Marsiglio Ficino, +and Pico della Mirandola became the Christian Platonists of Italy. Of +course, in their enthusiasm they went too far. They appropriated the whole +intellectual life of a pagan age, and adopted its ethical as well as its +intellectual perceptions, its basis of sensuous pleasures, and its joy in +sensuous living. Still their main thought was to show that Hellenism as +well as Judaism was a pathway to Christianity, and that the Sibyl as well +as David was a witness for Christ. + +The Papacy lent its patronage to the revival of literature and art, and +put itself at the head of the movement of intellectual life. Pope Nicolas +V. (1447-1455) was the first Bishop of Rome who fostered the Renaissance, +and he himself may be taken as representing the sincerity, the simplicity, +and the lofty intellectual and artistic aims of its earliest period. +Sprung from an obscure family belonging to Saranza, a small town near +Spezzia, and cast on his own resources before he had fairly quitted +boyhood, he had risen by his talents and his character to the highest +position in the Church. He had been private tutor, secretary, librarian, +and through all a genuine lover of books. They were the only personal +luxury he indulged in, and perhaps no one in his days knew more about +them. He was the confidential adviser of Lorenzo de Medici when he founded +his great library in San Marco. He himself began the Vatican Library. He +had agents who ransacked the monasteries of Europe, and he collected the +literary relics which had escaped destruction in the sack of +Constantinople. Before his death his library in the Vatican contained more +than 5000 MSS. He gathered round him a band of illustrious artists and +scholars. He filled Rome with skilled and artistic artisans, with +decorators, jewellers, workers in painted glass and embroidery. The famous +Leo Alberti was one of his architects, and Fra Angelico one of his +artists. Laurentius Valla and Poggio Bracciolini, Cardinal Bessarion and +George of Trebizond, were among his scholars. He directed and inspired +their work. Valla's critical attacks on the Donation of Constantine, and +on the tradition that the Twelve had dictated the Apostles' Creed, did not +shake his confidence in the scholar. The principal Greek authors were +translated into Latin by his orders. Europe saw theology, learning, and +art lending each other mutual support under the leadership of the head of +the Church. Perhaps Julius II. (1503-1513) conceived more definitely than +even Nicolas had done that one duty of the head of the Church was to +assume the leadership of the intellectual and artistic movement which was +making wider the thought of Europe,--only his restless energy never +permitted him leisure to give effect to his conception. "The instruction +which Pope Julius II. gave to Michelangelo to represent him as Moses can +bear but one interpretation: that Julius set himself the mission of +leading forth Israel (the Church) from its state of degradation, and +showing it--though he could not grant possession--the Promised Land at least +from afar, that blessed land which consists in the enjoyment of the +highest intellectual benefits, and the training and consecration of all +the faculties of man's mind to union with God."(20) + +The classical revival in Italy soon exhausted itself. Its sensuous +perceptions degenerated into sensuality, its instinct for the beauty of +expression into elegant trifling, and its enthusiasm for antiquity into +neo-paganism. It failed almost from the first in real moral earnestness; +scarcely saw, and still less understood, how to cure the deep-seated moral +evils of the age. + +Italy had given birth to the Renaissance, but it soon spread to the more +northern lands. Perhaps France first felt the impulse, then Germany and +England last of all. In dealing with the Reformation, the movement in +Germany is the most important. + +The Germans, throughout the Middle Ages, had continuous and intimate +relations with the southern peninsula, and in the fifteenth century these +were stronger than ever. German merchants had their factories in Venice +and Genoa; young German nobles destined for a legal or diplomatic career +studied law at Italian universities; students of medicine completed their +studies in the famous southern schools; and the German wandering student +frequently crossed the Alps to pick up additional knowledge. There was +such constant scholarly intercourse between Germany and Italy, that the +New Learning could not fail to spread among the men of the north. + + + +§ 4. The Brethren of the Common Lot. + + +Germany and the Low Countries had been singularly prepared for that +revival of letters, art, and science which had come to Italy. One of the +greatest gifts bestowed by the Mystics of the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries on their native land had been an excellent system of school +education. Gerard Groot, a disciple of the Flemish mystic Jan van +Rysbroeck, had, after long consultations with his Master, founded a +brotherhood called the _Brethren of the Common Life_,(21) whose aim was to +better the religious condition of their fellow-men by the multiplication +of good books and by the careful training of the young. They were to +support themselves by copying and selling manuscripts. All the houses of +the Brethren had a large room, where a number of scribes sat at tables, a +reader repeated slowly the words of the manuscript, and books were +multiplied as rapidly as was possible before the invention of printing. +They filled their own libraries with the best books of Christian and pagan +antiquity. They multiplied small tracts containing the mystical and +practical theology of the _Friends of God_, and sent them into circulation +among the people. One of the intimate followers of Groot, Florentius +Radewynsohn, proved to be a distinguished educationalist, and the schools +of the Order soon became famous. The Brethren, to use the words of their +founder, employed education for the purpose of "raising spiritual pillars +in the Temple of the Lord." They insisted on a study of the Vulgate in +their classes; they placed German translations of Christian authors in the +hands of their pupils; they took pains to give them a good knowledge of +Latin, and read with them selections from the best known ancient authors; +they even taught a little Greek; and their scholars learned to sing the +simpler, more evangelical Latin hymns. + +The mother school was at Deventer, a town situated at the south-west +corner of the great episcopal territory of Utrecht, now the Dutch province +of Ober-Yessel. It lies on the bank of that branch of the Rhine (the +Yessel) which flowing northwards glides past Zutphen, Deventer, Zwolle, +and loses itself in the Zuyder Zee at Kampen. A large number of the more +distinguished leaders of the fifteenth century owed their early training +to this great school at Deventer. During the last decades of the fifteenth +century the headmaster was Alexander Hegius (1433-1498), who came to +Deventer in 1471 and remained there until his death.(22) The school +reached its height of fame under this renowned master, who gathered 2000 +pupils around him,--among them Erasmus, Conrad Mutti (Mutianus Rufus), +Hermann von Busch, Johann Murmellius,--and, rejecting the older methods of +grammatical instruction, taught them to know the niceties of the Latin +tongue by leading them directly to the study of the great writers of +classical antiquity. He was such an indefatigable student that he kept +himself awake during the night-watches, it is said, by holding in his +hands the candle which lighted him, in order to be wakened by its fall +should slumber overtake him. The glory of Deventer perished with this +great teacher, who to the last maintained the ancient traditions of the +school by his maxim, that learning without piety was rather a curse than a +blessing. + +Other famous schools of the Brethren in the second half of the fifteenth +century were Schlettstadt,(23) in Elsass, some miles from the west bank of +the Rhine, and about half-way between Strassburg and Basel; Munster on the +Ems, the Monasterium of the earlier Middle Ages; Emmerich, a town on the +Rhine near the borders of Holland, and Altmarck, in the north-west. +Schlettstadt, under its master Ludwig Dringenberg, almost rivalled the +fame of Deventer, and many of the members of the well-known Strassburg +circle which gathered round Jacob Wimpheling, Sebastian Brand, and the +German Savonarola, John Geiler von Keysersberg, had been pupils in this +school. Besides these more famous establishments, the schools of the +Brethren spread all over Germany. The teachers were commonly called the +_Roll-Brueder_, and under this name they had a school in Magdeburg to +which probably Luther was sent when he spent a year in that town. Their +work was so pervading and their teaching so effectual, that we are +informed by chroniclers, who had nothing to do with the Brethren, that in +many German towns, girls could be heard singing the simpler Latin hymns, +and that the children of artisans could converse in Latin. + + + +§ 5. German Universities, Schools, and Scholarship. + + +The desire for education spread all over Germany in the fifteenth century. +Princes and burghers vied with each other in erecting seats of learning. +Within one hundred and fifty years no fewer than seventeen new +universities were founded. Prag, a Bohemian foundation, came into +existence in 1348. Then followed four German foundations, Vienna, in 1365 +or 1384; Heidelberg, in 1386; Koeln, in 1388; and Erfurt, established by +the townspeople, in 1392. In the fifteenth century there were Leipzig, in +1409; Rostock, on the shore of what was called the East Sea, almost +opposite the south point of Sweden, in 1419; Cracow, a Polish foundation, +in 1420; Greifswald, in 1456; Freiburg and Trier, in 1457; Basel, in 1460; +Ingolstadt, founded with the special intention of training students in +obedience to the Pope, a task singularly well accomplished, in 1472; +Tuebingen and Mainz, in 1477; Wittenberg, in 1502; and +Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, in 1507. Marburg, the first Reformation University, +was founded in 1527. + +The craving for education laid hold on the burgher class, and towns vied +with each other in providing superior schools, with teachers paid out of +the town's revenues. Some German towns had several such foundations. +Breslau, "the student's paradise," had seven. Nor was the education of +girls neglected. Frankfurt-on-the-Main founded a high school for girls +early in the fifteenth century, and insisted that the teachers were to be +learned ladies who were not nuns.(24) Besides the classrooms, the towns +usually provided hostels, where the boys got lodging and sometimes +firewood (they were expected to obtain food by begging through the streets +of the town), and frequently hospitals where the scholars could be tended +in illness.(25) + +These possibilities of education attracted boys from all parts of the +country, and added a new class of vagrants to the tramps of all kinds who +infested the roads during the later Middle Ages. The wandering scholar, +with his yellow scarf, was a feature of the era, and frequently not a +reputable one. He was usually introduced as a character into the +_Fastnachtspiele_, or rude popular carnival comedies, and was almost +always a rogue and often a thief. Children of ten and twelve years of age +left their villages, in charge of an older student, to join some famous +school. But these older students were too often mere vagrants, with just +learning enough to impose upon the simple peasantry, to whom they sold +charms against toothache and other troubles. The young children entrusted +to them by confiding parents were often treated with the greatest cruelty, +employed by them to beg or steal food, and sent round to the public-houses +with cans to beg for beer. The small unfortunates were the prisoners, the +slaves, of their disreputable masters, and many of them died by the +roadside. We need not wonder that Luther, with his memory full of these +wandering students, in after days denounced the system by which men spent +sometimes "twenty and even forty years" in a so-called student life, which +was often one of the lowest vagrancy and debauchery, and in the end knew +neither German nor Latin, "to say nothing," he adds with honest +indignation, "of the shameful and vicious life by which our worthy youth +have been so grievously corrupted." Two or three of the autobiographies of +these wandering students have survived; and two of them, those of Thomas +Platter and of Johann Butzbach, belong to Luther's time, and give a vivid +picture of their lives.(26) + +Germany had no lack of schools and universities, but it can scarcely be +said that they did more than serve as a preparation for the entrance of +the Renaissance movement. During the fifteenth century all the +Universities were under the influence of the Church, and Scholasticism +prescribed the methods of study. Very little of the New Learning was +allowed to enter. It is true that if Koeln and perhaps Ingolstadt be +excepted, the Scholastic which was taught represented what were supposed +to be the more advanced opinions--those of John Duns Scotus, William of +Occam, and Gabriel Biel, rather than the learning of Thomas Aquinas and +other great defenders of papal traditions; but it lent itself as +thoroughly as did the older Scholastic to the discussion of all kinds of +verbal and logical subtleties. Knowledge of every kind was discussed under +formulae and phrases sanctioned by long scholastic use. It is impossible to +describe the minute distinctions and the intricate reasoning based upon +them without exceeding the space at our disposal. It is enough to say that +the prevailing course of study furnished an imposing framework without +much solid content, and provided an intellectual gymnastic without much +real knowledge. A survival can be seen in the Formal Logic still taught. +The quantity of misspent ingenuity called forth to produce the figures and +moods, and bestowed on discovering and arranging all possible moods under +each figure and in providing all with mnemonic names,--_Barbara, Celarent, +Darii, Ferioque prioris_, etc.,--affords some insight into the scholastic +methods in use in these universities of the fifteenth century. + +Then it must be remembered that the scholarship took a +quasi-ecclesiastical form. The universities were all monastic +institutions, where the teachers were professional and the students +amateur celibates. The scholars were gathered into hostels in which they +lived with their teachers, and were taught to consider themselves very +superior persons. The statutes of mediaeval Oxford declare that God created +"clerks" with gifts of intelligence denied to mere lay persons; that it +behoved "clerks" to exhibit this difference by their outward appearance; +and that the university tailors, whose duty it was to make men +_extrinsecus_ what God had made them _intrinsecus_, were to be reckoned as +members of the University. Those mediaeval students sometimes assumed airs +which roused the passions of the laity, and frequently led to tremendous +riots. Thus in 1513 the townsfolk of Erfurt battered in the gates of the +University with cannon, and after the flight of the professors and +students destroyed almost all the archives and library. About the same +time some citizens of Vienna having jeered at the sacred student dress, +there ensued the "Latin war," which literally devastated the town. This +pride of separation between "clerks" and laity culminated in the great +annual procession, when the newly capped graduates, clothed in all the +glory of new bachelors' and masters' gowns and hoods, marched through the +principal streets of the university town, in the midst of the university +dignitaries and frequently attended by the magistrates in their robes. +Young Luther confessed that when he first saw the procession at Erfurt he +thought that no position on earth was more enviable than that of a newly +capped graduate. + +Mediaeval ecclesiastical tradition brooded over all departments of +learning; and the philosophy and logic, or what were supposed to be the +philosophy and logic, of Aristotle ruled that tradition. The reverence for +the name of Aristotle almost took the form of a religious fervour. In a +curious mediaeval _Life of Aristotle_ the ancient pagan thinker is declared +to be a forerunner of Christ. All who refused to accept his guidance were +heretics, and his formal scheme of thought was supposed to justify the +refined sophisms of mediaeval dialectic. His system of thought was the +fortified defence which preserved the old and protected it from the +inroads of the New Learning. Hence the hatred which almost all the German +Humanists seem to have had for the name of Aristotle. The attitudes of the +partisans of the old and of the new towards the ancient Greek thinker are +represented in two pictures, each instinct with the feeling of the times. +In one, in the church of the Dominicans in Pisa, Aristotle is represented +standing on the right with Plato on the left of Thomas Aquinas, and rays +streaming from their opened books make a halo round the head of the great +mediaeval theologian and thinker. In the other, a woodcut published by Hans +Holbein the younger in 1527, Aristotle with the mediaeval doctors is +represented descending into the abodes of darkness, while Jesus Christ +stands in the foreground and points out the true light to a crowd of +people, among whom the artist has figured peasants with their flails. + + + +§ 6. The earlier German Humanists. + + +When the beginnings of the New Learning made their appearance in Germany, +they did not bring with them any widespread revival of culture. There was +no outburst, as in Italy, of the artistic spirit, stamping itself upon +such arts as painting, sculpture, and architecture, which could appeal to +the whole public intelligence. The men who first felt the stirrings of the +new intellectual life were, for the most part, students who had been +trained in the more famous schools of the _Brethren of the Common Life_, +all of whom had a serious aim in life. The New Learning appealed to them +not so much a means of self-culture as an instrument to reform education, +to criticise antiquated methods of instruction, and, above all, to effect +reforms in the Church and to purify the social life. One of the most +conspicuous of such scholars was Cardinal Nicolas Cusanus(27) (1401-1464). +He was a man of singularly open mind, who, while he was saturated with the +old learning, was able to appreciate the new. He had studied the classics +in Italy. He was an expert mathematician and astronomer. Some have even +asserted that he anticipated the discoveries of Galileo. The instruments +with which he worked, roughly made by a village tinsmith, may still be +seen preserved in the Brother-house which he founded at his birthplace, +Cues, on the Mosel; and there, too, the sheets, covered with his long +calculations for the reform of the calendar, may still be studied. + +Another scholar, sent out by the same schools, was John Wessel of +Groeningen (1420-1489), who wandered in search of learning from Koeln to +Paris and from Paris to Italy. He finally settled down as a canon in the +Brotherhood of Mount St. Agnes. There he gathered round him a band of +young students, whom he encouraged to study Greek and Hebrew. He was a +theologian who delighted to criticise the current opinions on theological +doctrines. He denied that the fire of Purgatory could be material fire, +and he theorised about indulgences in such a way as to be a forerunner of +Luther.(28) "If I had read his books before," said Luther, "my enemies +might have thought that Luther had borrowed everything from Wessel, so +great is the agreement between our spirits. I feel my joy and my strength +increase, I have no doubt that I have taught aright, when I find that one +who wrote at a different time, in another clime, and with a different +intention, agrees so entirely in my view and expresses it in almost the +same words." + +Other like-minded scholars might be mentioned, Rudolph Agricola(29) +(1442-1485), Jacob Wimpheling(30) (1450-1528), and Sebastian Brand +(1457-1521), who was town-clerk of Strassburg from 1500, and the author of +the celebrated _Ship of Fools_, which was translated into many languages, +and was used by his friend Geiler of Keysersberg as the text for one of +his courses of popular sermons. + +All these men, and others like-minded and similarly gifted, are commonly +regarded as the precursors of the German Renaissance, and are classed +among the German Humanists. Yet it may be questioned whether they can be +taken as the representatives of that kind of Humanism which gathered round +Luther in his student days, and of which Ulrich von Hutten, the stormy +petrel of the times of the Reformation, was a notable example. Its +beginnings must be traced to other and less reputable pioneers. Numbers of +young German students, with the talent for wandering and for supporting +themselves by begging possessed by so many of them, had tramped down to +Italy, where they contrived to exist precariously while they attended, +with a genuine thirst for learning, the classes taught by Italian +Humanists. There they became infected with the spirit of the Italian +Renaissance, and learned also to despise the ordinary restraints of moral +living. There they imbibed a contempt for the Church and for all kinds of +theology, and acquired the genuine temperament of the later Italian +Humanists, which could be irreligious without being anti-religious, simply +because religion of any sort was something foreign to their nature. + +Such a man was Peter Luders (1415-1474). He began life as an ecclesiastic, +wandered down into Italy, where he devoted himself to classical studies, +and where he acquired the irreligious disposition and the disregard for +ordinary moral living which disgraced a large part of the later Italian +Humanists. While living at Padua (1444), where he acted as private tutor +to some young Germans from the Palatinate, he was invited by the Elector +to teach Latin in the University of Heidelberg. The older professors were +jealous of him: they insisted on reading and revising his introductory +lecture: they refused him the use of the library; and in general made his +life a burden. He struggled on till 1460. Then he spent many years in +wandering from place to place, teaching the classics privately to such +scholars as he could find. He was not a man of reputable life, was greatly +given to drink, a free liver in every way, and thoroughly irreligious, +with a strong contempt for all theology. He seems to have contrived when +sober to keep his heretical opinions to himself, but to have betrayed +himself occasionally in his drinking bouts. When at Basel he was accused +of denying the doctrine of Three Persons in the Godhead, and told his +accusers that he would willingly confess to four if they would only let +him alone. He ended his days as a teacher of medicine in Vienna. + +History has preserved the names of several of these wandering scholars who +sowed the seeds of classical studies in Germany, and there were, +doubtless, many who have been forgotten. Loose living, irreligious, their +one gift a genuine desire to know and impart a knowledge of the ancient +classical literature, careless how they fared provided only they could +study and teach Latin and Greek, they were the disreputable apostles of +the New Learning, and in their careless way scattered it over the northern +lands. + + + +§ 7. The Humanist Circles in the Cities. + + +The seed-beds of the German Renaissance were at first not so much the +Universities, as associations of intimates in some of the cities. Three +were pre-eminent,--Strassburg, Augsburg, and Nuernberg,--all wealthy imperial +cities, having intimate relations with the imperial court on the one hand +and with Italy on the other. + +The Humanist circle at Nuernberg was perhaps the most distinguished, and it +stood in closer relations than any other with the coming Reformation. Its +best known member was Willibald Pirkheimer(31) (1470-1528), whose training +had been more that of a young Florentine patrician than of the son of a +German burgher. His father, a wealthy Nuernberg merchant of great +intellectual gifts and attainments, a skilled diplomatist, and a +confidential friend of the Emperor Maximilian, superintended his son's +education. He took the boy with him on the journeys which trade or the +diplomatic business of his city compelled him to make, and initiated him +into the mysteries of commerce and of German politics. The lad was also +trained in the knightly accomplishments of horsemanship and the skilful +use of weapons. He was sent, like many a young German patrician, to Padua +and Pavia (1490-1497) to study jurisprudence and the science of diplomacy, +and was advised not to neglect opportunities to acquire the New Learning. +When he returned, in his twenty-seventh year, he was appointed one of the +counsellors of the city, and was entrusted with an important share in the +management of its business. In this capacity it was necessary for him to +make many a journey to the Diet or to the imperial court, and he soon +became a favourite with the Emperor Maximilian, who rejoiced in converse +with a mind as versatile as his own. No German so nearly approached the +many-sided culture of the leading Italian Humanists as did this citizen of +Nuernberg. On the other hand, he possessed a fund of earnestness which no +Italian seems to have possessed. He was deeply anxious about reformation +in Church and State, and after the Leipzig disputation had shown that +Luther's quarrel with the Pope was no mere monkish dispute, but went to +the roots of things, he was a sedate supporter of the Reformation in its +earlier stages. His sisters Charitas and Clara, both learned ladies, were +nuns in the Convent of St. Clara at Nuernberg. The elder, who was the +abbess of her convent, has left an interesting collection of letters, from +which it seems probable that she had great influence over her brother, and +prevented him from joining the Lutheran Church after it had finally +separated from the Roman obedience. + +Pirkheimer gave the time which was not occupied with public affairs to +learning and intercourse with scholars. His house was a palace filled with +objects of art. His library, well stocked with MSS. and books, was open to +every student who came with an introduction to its owner. At his banquets, +which were famous, he delighted to assemble round his table the most +distinguished men of the day. He was quite at home in Greek, and made +translations from the works of Plato, Xenophon, Plutarch, and Lucian into +Latin or German. The description which he gives, in his familiar letters +to his sisters and intimate friends, of his life on his brother-in-law's +country estate is like a picture of the habits of a Roman patrician of the +fifth century in Gaul. The morning was spent in study, in reading Plato or +Cicero; and in the afternoon, if the gout chanced to keep him indoors, he +watched from his windows the country people in the fields, or the +sportsman and the fisher at their occupations. He was fond of entertaining +visitors from the neighbourhood. Sometimes he gathered round him his upper +servants or his tenants, with their wives and families. The evening was +usually devoted to the study of history and archaeology, in both of which +he was greatly interested. He was in the habit of sitting up late at +night, and when the sky was clear he followed the motions of the planets +with a telescope; for, like many others in that age, he had faith in +astrology, and believed that he could read future events and the destinies +of nations in the courses of the wandering stars. + +In all those civic circles, poets and artists were found as members--Hans +Holbein at Augsburg; Albert Duerer, with Hans Sebaldus Beham, at Nuernberg. +The contemporary Italian painters, when they ceased to select their +subjects from Scripture or from the Lives of the Saints, turned +instinctively to depict scenes from the ancient pagan mythology. The +German artists strayed elsewhere. They turned for subjects to the common +life of the people. But the change was gradual. The Virgin ceased to be +the Queen of Heaven and became the purest type of homely human motherhood, +and the attendant angels, sportive children plucking flowers, fondling +animals, playing with fruit. In Lucas Cranach's "Rest on the Flight to +Egypt" two cherubs have climbed a tree to rob a bird's nest, and the +parent birds are screaming at them from the branches. In one of Albert +Duerer's representations of the Holy Family, the Virgin and Child are +seated in the middle of a farmyard, surrounded by all kinds of rural +accessories. Then German art plunged boldly into the delineation of the +ordinary commonplace life--knights and tournaments, merchant trains, street +scenes, pictures of peasant life, and especially of peasant dances, +university and school scenes, pictures of the camp and of troops on the +march. The coming revolution in religion was already proclaiming that all +human life, even the most commonplace, could be sacred; and contemporary +art discovered the picturesque in the ordinary life of the people--in the +castles of the nobles, in the markets of the cities, and in the villages +of the peasants. + + + +§ 8. Humanism in the Universities. + + +The New Learning made its way gradually into the Universities. Classical +scholars were invited to lecture or settle as private teachers in +university towns, and the students read Cicero and Virgil, Horace and +Propertius, Livy and Sallust, Plautus and Terence. One of the earliest +signs of the growing Humanist feeling appeared in changes in one of the +favourite diversions of German students. In all the mediaeval Universities +at carnival time the students got up and performed plays. The subjects +were almost invariably taken from the Scriptures or from the Apocrypha. +Chaucer says of an Oxford student, that + + + "Sometimes to shew his lightnesse and his mastereye + He played Herod on a gallows high." + + +At the end of the fifteenth century the subjects changed, and students' +plays were either reproductions from Plautus or Terence, or original +compositions representing the common life of the time. + +The legal recognition of Humanism within a University commonly showed +itself in the institution of a lectureship of Poetry or Oratory--for the +German Humanists were commonly known as the "Poets." Freiburg established +a chair of Poetry in 1471, and Basel in 1474; in Tuebingen the stipend for +an Orator was legally sanctioned in 1481, and Conrad Celtis was appointed +to a chair of Poetry and Eloquence in 1492. + +Erfurt, however, was generally regarded as the special nursery of German +university Humanism ever since Peter Luders had taught there in 1460. From +that date the University never lacked Humanist teachers, and a Humanist +circle had gradually grown up among the successive generations of +students. The permanent chief of this circle was a German scholar, whose +name was Conrad Mut (Mudt, Mutta, and Mutti are variations), who Latinised +his name into Mutianus, and added Rufus because he was red-haired. This +Mutianus Rufus was in many respects a typical German Humanist. He was born +in 1472 at Homburg in Hesse, had studied at Deventer under Alexander +Hegius, had attended the University of Erfurt, and had then gone to Italy +to study law and the New Learning. He became a Doctor of Laws of Bologna, +made friends among many of the distinguished Italian Humanists, and had +gained many patrons among the cardinals in Rome. He finally settled in +Gotha, where he had received a canonry in the Church. He did not win any +distinction as an author, but has left behind him an interesting +collection of letters. His great delight was to gather round him promising +young students belonging to the University of Erfurt, to superintend their +reading, and to advise them in all literary matters. While in Italy he had +become acquainted with Pico della Mirandola, and had adopted the +conception of combining Platonism and Christianity in an eclectic +mysticism, which was to be the esoteric Christianity for thinkers and +educated men, while the popular Christianity, with its superstitions, was +needed for the common herd. Christianity, he taught, had its beginnings +long before the historical advent of our Lord. "The true Christ," he said, +"was not a man, but the Wisdom of God; He was the Son of God, and is +equally imparted to the Jews, the Greeks, and the Germans."(32) "The true +Christ is not a man, but spirit and soul, which do not manifest themselves +in outward appearance, and are not to be touched or seized by the +hands."(33) "The law of God," he said in another place, "which enlightens +the soul, has two heads: to love God, and to love one's neighbour as one's +self. This law makes us partakers of Heaven. It is a natural law; not hewn +in stone, as was the law of Moses; not carved in bronze, as was that of +the Romans; not written on parchment or paper, but implanted in our hearts +by the highest Teacher." "Whoever has eaten in pious manner this memorable +and saving Eucharist, has done something divine. For the true Body of +Christ is peace and concord, and there is no holier Host than neighbourly +love."(34) He refused to believe in the miraculous, and held that the +Scriptures were full of fables, meant, like those of AEsop, to teach moral +truths. He asserted that he had devoted himself to "God, the saints, and +the study of all antiquity"; and the result was expressed in the following +quotation from a letter to Urban (1505), one of his friends and pupils at +Erfurt: "There is but one god and one goddess; but there are many forms +and many names--Jupiter, Sol, Apollo, Moses, Christ, Luna, Ceres, +Proserpina, Tellus, Mary. But do not spread it abroad; we must keep +silence on these Eleusinian mysteries. In religious matters we must employ +fables and enigmas as a veil. Thou who hast the grace of Jupiter, the best +and greatest God, shouldst in secret despise the little gods. When I say +Jupiter, I mean Christ and the true God. But enough of these things, which +are too high for us."(35) Such a man looked with contempt on the Church of +his age, and lashed it with his scorn. "I do not revere the coat or the +beard of Christ; I revere the true and living God, who has neither beard +nor coat."(36) In private he denounced the fasts of the Church, +confession, and masses for the dead, and called the begging friars "cowled +monsters." He says sarcastically of the Christianity of his times: "We +mean by faith not the conformity of what we say with fact, but an opinion +about divine things founded on credulity and a persuasion which seeks +after profit. Such is its power that it is commonly believed that to us +were given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever, therefore, despises +our keys, shall feel our nails and our clubs (_quisquis claves contemserit +clavum et clavam sentiet_). We have taken from the breast of Serapis a +magical stamp to which Jesus of Galilee has given authority. With that +figure we put our foes to flight, we cozen money, we consecrate God, we +shake hell, and we work miracles; whether we be heavenly minded or earthly +minded makes no matter, provided we sit happily at the banquet of +Jupiter."(37) But he did not wish to revolt from the external authority of +the Church of the day. "He is impious who wishes to know more than the +Church. We bear on our forehead," he says, "the seal of the Cross, the +standard of our King. Let us not be deserters; let nothing base be found +in our camp."(38) The authority which the Humanists revolted against was +merely intellectual, as was the freedom they fought for. It did not belong +to their mission to proclaim a spiritual freedom or to free the common man +from his slavish fear of the mediaeval priesthood; and this made an +impassable gulf between their aspirations and those of Luther and the real +leaders of the Reformation movement.(39) + +The Erfurt circle of Humanists had for members Heinrich Urban, to whom +many of the letters of Mutianus were addressed, Petreius Alperbach, who +won the title of "mocker of gods and men" (_derisor deorum et hominum_), +Johann Jaeger of Dornheim (Crotus Rubeanus), George Burkhardt from Spalt +(Spalatinus), Henry and Peter Eberach. Eoban of Hesse (Helius Eobanus +Hessus), the most gifted of them all, and the hardest drinker, joined the +circle in 1494. + +Similar university circles were formed elsewhere: at Basel, where Heinrich +Loriti from Glarus (Glareanus), and afterwards Erasmus, were the +attractions; at Tuebingen, where Heinrich Bebel, author of the _Facetiae_, +encouraged his younger friends to study history; and even at Koeln, where +Hermann von Busch, a pupil of Deventer, and Ortuin Gratius, afterwards the +butt of the authors of the _Epistolae obscurorum virorum_, were looked upon +as leaders full of the New Learning. + +As in Italy Popes and cardinals patronised the leaders of the Renaissance, +so in Germany the Emperor and some princes gave their protection to +Humanism. To German scholars, who were at the head of the new movement, +Maximilian seemed to be an ideal ruler. His coffers no doubt were almost +always empty, and he had not lucrative posts at his command to bestow upon +them; the position of court poet given to Conrad Celtes and afterwards to +Ulrich von Hutten brought little except coronation in presence of the +imperial court with a tastefully woven laurel crown;(40) but the character +of Maximilian attracted peasantry and scholars alike. His romanticism, his +abiding youthfulness, his amazing intellectual versatility, his +knight-errantry, and his sympathy fascinated them. Maximilian lives in the +folk-song of Germany as no other ruler does. The scheme of education sung +in the _Weisskunig_, and illustrated by Hans Burgmaier, entitled him to +the name "the Humanist Emperor." + + + +§ 9. Reuchlin. + + +The German Humanists, whether belonging to the learned societies of the +cities or to the groups in the Universities, were too full of +individuality to present the appearance of a body of men leagued together +under the impulse of a common aim. The Erfurt band of scholars was called +"the Mutianic Host"; but the partisans of the New Learning could scarcely +be said to form a solid phalanx. Something served, however, to bring them +all together. This was the persecution of Reuchlin. + +Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), like Erasmus after him, was very much a man +by himself. He entered history at first dramatically enough. A party of +Italian Humanists had met in the house of John Argyropoulos in Rome in +1483. Among them was a young unknown German, who had newly arrived with +letters of introduction to the host. He had come, he explained, to study +Greek. Argyropoulos gave him a Thucydides and asked him to construe a page +or two into Latin. Reuchlin construed with such ease and elegance, that +the company exclaimed that Greece had flown across the Alps to settle in +Germany. The young German spent some years in Italy, enjoying the +friendship of the foremost Italian scholars. He was an ardent student of +the New Learning, and on his return was the first to make Greek thoroughly +popular in Germany. But he was a still more ardent student of Hebrew, and +it may almost be said of him that he introduced that ancient language to +the peoples of Europe. His _De Rudimentis Hebraicis_ (1506), a grammar and +dictionary in one, was the first book of its kind. His interest in the +language was more than that of a student. He believed that Hebrew was not +only the most ancient, but the holiest of languages. God had spoken in it. +He had revealed Himself to men not merely in the Hebrew writings of the +Old Testament, but had also imparted, through angels and other divine +messengers, a hidden wisdom which has been preserved in ancient Hebrew +writings outside of the Scriptures,--a wisdom known to Adam, to Noah, and +to the Patriarchs. He expounded his strange mystical theosophy in a +curious little book, _De Verbo Mirifico_ (1494), full of out-of-the-way +learning, and finding sublime mysteries in the very points of the Hebrew +Scriptures. Perhaps his central thought is expressed in the sentence, "God +is love; man is hope; the bond between them is faith.... God and man may +be so combined in an indescribable union that the human God and the divine +man may be considered as one being."(41) The book is a _Symposium_ where +Sidonius, Baruch, and Capnion (Reuchlin) hold prolonged discourse with +each other. + +Reuchlin was fifty-four years of age when a controversy began which +gradually divided the scholars of Germany into two camps, and banded the +Humanists into one party fighting in defence of free inquiry. + +John Pfefferkorn (1469-1522), born a Jew and converted to Christianity +(1505), animated with the zeal of a convert to bring the Jews wholesale to +Christianity, and perhaps stimulated by the Dominicans of Koeln (Cologne), +with whom he was closely associated, conceived an idea that his former +co-religionists might be induced to accept Christianity if all their +peculiar books, the Old Testament excepted, were confiscated. During the +earlier Middle Ages the Jews had been continually persecuted, and their +persecution had always been popular; but the fifteenth century had been a +period of comparative rest for them; they had bought the imperial +protection, and their services as physicians had been gratefully +recognised in Frankfurt and many other cities.(42) Still the popular +hatred against them as usurers remained, and manifested itself in every +time of social upheaval. It was always easy to arouse the slumbering +antipathy. + +Pfefferkorn had written four books against the Jews (_Judenspiegel_, +_Judenbeichte_, _Osternbuch_, _Jeudenfeind_) in the years 1507-1509, in +which he had suggested that the Jews should be forbidden to practise +usury, that they should be compelled to listen to sermons, and that their +Hebrew books should be confiscated. He actually got a mandate from the +Emperor Maximilian, probably through some corrupt secretary, empowering +him to seize upon all such books. He began his work in the Rhineland, and +had already confiscated the books of many Jews, when, in the summer of +1509, he came to Reuchlin and requested his aid. The scholar not only +refused, but pointed out some irregularities in the imperial mandate. The +doubtful legality of the imperial order had also attracted the attention +of Uriel, the Archbishop of Mainz, who forbade his clergy from rendering +Pfefferkorn any assistance. + +Upon this Pfefferkorn and the Dominicans again applied to the Emperor, got +a second mandate, then a third, which was the important one. It left the +matter in the hands of the Archbishop of Mainz, who was to collect +evidence on the subject of Jewish books. He was to ask the opinions of +Reuchlin, of Victor von Karben (1422-1515), who had been a Jew but was +then a Christian priest, of James Hochstratten (1460-1527), a Dominican +and Inquisitor to the diocese of Koeln, a strong foe to Humanism, and of +the Universities of Heidelberg, Erfurt, Koeln, and Mainz. They were to +write out their opinions and send them to Pfefferkorn, who was to present +them to the Emperor. Reuchlin was accordingly asked by the Archbishop to +advise the Emperor "whether it would be praiseworthy and beneficial to our +holy religion to destroy such books as the Jews used, excepting only the +books of the Ten Commandments of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalter of +the Old Testament?" Reuchlin's answer was ready by November 1510. He went +into the matter very thoroughly and impartially. He divided the books of +the Jews into several classes, and gave his opinion on each. It was out of +the question to destroy the Old Testament. The Talmud was a collection of +expositions of the Jewish law at various periods; no one could express an +opinion about it unless he had read it through; Reuchlin had only been +able to procure portions; judging from these, it was likely that the book +did contain many things contrary to Christianity, but that was the nature +of the Jewish religion which was protected by law; it did contain many +good things, and ought not to be destroyed. The Cabala was, according to +Reuchlin, a very precious book, which assured us as no other did of the +divinity of Christ, and ought to be carefully preserved. The Jews had +various commentaries on the books of the Old Testament which were very +useful to enable Christian scholars to understand them rightly, and they +ought not to be destroyed. They had also sermons and ceremonial books +belonging to their religion which had been guaranteed by imperial law. +They had books on arts and sciences which ought to be destroyed only in so +far as they taught such forbidden arts as magic. Lastly, there were books +of poetry and fables, and some of them might contain insults to Christ, +the Virgin, and the Apostles, and might deserve burning, but not without +careful and competent examination. He added that the best way to deal with +the Jews was not to burn their books, but to engage in reasonable, gentle, +and kindly discussion. + +Reuchlin's opinion stood alone: all the other authorities suggested the +burning of Jewish books, and the University of Mainz would not exempt the +Old Testament until it had been shown that it had not been tampered with +by Jewish zealots. + +The temperate and scholarly answer of Reuchlin was made a charge against +him. The controversy which followed, and which lasted for six weary years, +was so managed by the Dominicans, that Reuchlin, a Humanist and a layman, +was made to appear as defying the theologians of the Church on a point of +theology. Like all mediaeval controversies, it was conducted with great +bitterness and no lack of invective, frequently coarse enough. The +Humanists saw, however, that it was the case of a scholar defending +genuine scholarship against obscurantists, and, after a fruitless +endeavour to get Erasmus to lead them, they joined in a common attack. +Artists also lent their aid. In one contemporary engraving, Reuchlin is +seated in a car decked with laurels, and is in the act of entering his +native town of Pforzheim. The Koeln theologians march in chains before the +car; Pfefferkorn lies on the ground with an executioner ready to +decapitate him; citizens and their wives in gala costume await the hero, +and the town's musicians salute him with triumphant melody; while one +worthy burgher manifests his sympathy by throwing a monk out of a window. +The other side of the controversy is represented by a rough woodcut, in +which Pfefferkorn is seen breaking the chair of scholarship in which a +double-tongued Reuchlin is sitting.(43) The most notable contribution to +the dispute, however, was the publication of the famous _Epistolae +Obscurorum Virorum_, inseparably connected with the name of Ulrich von +Hutten. + + + +§ 10. The "Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum." + + +While the controversy was raging (1514), Reuchlin had collected a series +of testimonies to his scholarship, and had published them under the title +of _Letters from Eminent Men_.(44) This suggested to some young Humanist +the idea of a collection of letters in which the obscurantists could be +seen exposing themselves and their unutterable folly under the parodied +title of _Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum_. The book bears the same relation +to the scholastic disputations of the later fifteenth century that _Don +Quixote_ does to the romances of mediaeval chivalry. It is a farrago of +questions on grammar, etymology, graduation precedence, life in a country +parsonage, and scholastic casuistry. Magister Henricus Schaffsmulius +writes from Rome that he went one Friday morning to breakfast in the Campo +dei Fiori, ordered an egg, which on being opened contained a chicken. +"Quick," said his companion, "swallow it, or the landlord will charge the +chicken in the bill." He obeyed, forgetting that the day was Friday, on +which no flesh could be eaten lawfully. In his perplexity he consulted one +theologian, who told him to keep his mind at rest, for an embryo chicken +within an egg was like the worms or maggots in fruit and cheese, which men +can swallow without harm to their souls even in Lent. But another, equally +learned, had informed him that maggots in cheese and worms in fruit were +to be classed as fish, which everyone could eat lawfully on fast days, but +that an embryo chicken was quite another thing--it was flesh. Would the +learned Magister Ortuin, who knew everything, decide for him and relieve +his burdened conscience? The writers send to their dear Magister Ortuin +short Latin poems of which they are modestly proud. They confess that +their verses do not scan; but that matters little. The writers of secular +verse must be attentive to such things; but their poems, which relate the +lives and deeds of the saints, do not need such refinements. The writers +confess that at times their lives are not what they ought to be; but +Solomon and Samson were not perfect; and they have too much Christian +humility to wish to excel such honoured Christian saints. The letters +contain a good deal of gossip about the wickedness of the poets +(Humanists). These evil men have been speaking very disrespectfully about +the Holy Coat at Trier (Treves); they have said that the Blessed Relics of +the Three Kings at Koeln are the bones of three Westphalian peasants. The +correspondents exchange confidences about sermons they dislike. One +preacher, who spoke with unseemly earnestness, had delivered a plain +sermon without any learned syllogisms or intricate theological reasoning; +he had spoken simply about Christ and His salvation, and the strange thing +was that the people seemed to listen to him eagerly: such preaching ought +to be forbidden. Allusions to Reuchlin and his trial are scattered all +through the letters, and the writers reveal artlessly their hopes and +fears about the result. It is possible, one laments, that the rascal may +get off after all: the writer hears that worthy Inquisitor Hochstratten's +money is almost exhausted, and that he has scarcely enough left for the +necessary bribery at Rome; it is to be hoped that he will get a further +supply. It is quite impossible to translate the epistles and retain the +original flavour of the language,--a mixture of ecclesiastical phrases, +vernacular idioms and words, and the worst mediaeval Latin. Of course, the +letters contain much that is very objectionable: they attack the character +of men, and even of women; but that was an ordinary feature of the +Humanism of the times. They were undoubtedly successful in covering the +opponents of Reuchlin with ridicule, more especially when some of the +obscurantists failed to see the satire, and looked upon the letters as +genuine accounts of the views they sympathised with. Some of the mendicant +friars in England welcomed a book against Reuchlin, and a Dominican prior +in Brabant bought several copies to send to his superiors. + +The authorship of these famous letters is not thoroughly known; probably +several Humanist pens were at work. It is generally admitted that they +came from the Humanist circle at Erfurt, and that the man who planned the +book and wrote most of the letters was John Jaeger of Dornheim (Crotus +Rubeanus). They were long ascribed to Ulrich von Hutten; some of the +letters may have come from his pen--one did certainly. These _Epistolae +Obscurorum Virorum_, when compared with the _Encomium Moriae_ of Erasmus, +show how immeasurably inferior the ordinary German Humanist was to the +scholar of the Low Countries.(45) + + + +§ 11. Ulrich von Hutten. + + +Ulrich von Hutten,(46) the stormy petrel of the Reformation period in +Germany, was a member of one of the oldest families of the Franconian +nobles--a fierce, lawless, turbulent nobility. The old hot family blood +coursed through his veins, and accounts for much in his adventurous +career. He was the eldest son, but his frail body and sickly disposition +marked him out in his father's eyes for a clerical life. He was sent at +the age of eleven to the ancient monastery of Fulda, where his precocity +in all kinds of intellectual work seemed to presage a distinguished +position if he remained true to the calling to which his father had +destined him. The boy, however, soon found that he had no vocation for the +Church, and that, while he was keenly interested in all manner of studies, +he detested the scholastic theology. He appealed to his father, told him +how he hated the thought of a clerical life, and asked him to be permitted +to look forward to the career of a scholar and a man of letters. The old +Franconian knight was as hard as men of his class usually were. He +promised Ulrich that he could take as much time as he liked to educate +himself, but that in the end he was to enter the Church. Upon this, +Ulrich, an obstinate chip of an obstinate block, determined to make his +escape from the monastery and follow his own life. How he managed it is +unknown. He fell in with John Jaeger of Dornheim, and the two wandered, +German student fashion, from University to University; they were at Koeln +together, then at Erfurt. The elder Hutten refused to assist his son in +any way. How the young student maintained himself no one knows. He had +wretched health; he was at least twice robbed and half-murdered by +ruffians as he tramped along the unsafe highways; but his indomitable +purpose to live the life of a literary man or to die sustained him. At +last family friends patched up a half-hearted reconciliation between +father and son. They pointed out that the young man's abilities might find +scope in a diplomatic career since the Church was so distasteful to him, +and the father was induced to permit him to go to Italy, provided he +applied himself to the study of law. Ulrich went gladly to the land of the +New Learning, reached Pavia, struggled on to Bologna, found that he liked +law no better than theology, and began to write. It is needless to follow +his erratic career. He succeeded frequently in getting patrons; but he was +not the man to live comfortably in dependence; he always remembered that +he was a Franconian noble; he had an irritable temper,--his wretched health +furnishing a very adequate excuse. + +It is probable that his sojourn in Italy did as much for him as for +Luther, though in a different way. The Reformer turned with loathing from +Italian, and especially from Roman wickedness. The Humanist meditated on +the greatness of the imperial idea, now, he thought, the birthright of his +Germany, which was being robbed of it by the Papacy. Henceforward he was +dominated by one persistent thought. + +He was a Humanist and a poet, but a man apart, marked out from among his +fellows, destined to live in the memories of his nation when their names +had been forgotten. They might be better scholars, able to write a finer +Latinity, and pen trifles more elegantly; but he was a man with a purpose. +His erratic and by no means pure life was ennobled by his sincere, if +limited and unpractical, patriotism. He wrought, schemed, fought, +flattered, and apostrophised to create a united Germany under a reformed +Emperor. Whatever hindered this was to be attacked with what weapons of +sarcasm, invective, and scorn were at his command; and the _one_ enemy was +the Papacy of the close of the fifteenth century, and all that it implied. +It was the Papacy that drained Germany of gold, that kept the Emperor in +thraldom, that set one portion of the land against the other, that gave +the separatist designs of the princes their promise of success. The Papacy +was his Carthage, which must be destroyed. + +Hutten was a master of invective, fearless, critically destructive; but he +had small constructive faculty. It is not easy to discover what he meant +by a reformation of the Empire--something loomed before him vague, grand, a +renewal of an imagined past. Germany might be great, it is suggested in +the _Inspicientes_ (written in 1520), if the Papacy were defied, if the +princes were kept in their proper place of subordination, if a great +imperial army were created and paid out of a common imperial fund,--an army +where the officers were the knights, and the privates a peasant infantry +(_landsknechts_). It is the passion for a German Imperial Unity which we +find in all Hutten's writings, from the early _Epistola ad Maximilianum +Caesarem Italiae fictitia_, the _Vadiscus, or the Roman Triads_, down to the +_Inspicientes_--not the means whereby this is to be created. He was a born +foeman, one who loved battle for battle's sake, who could never get enough +of fighting,--a man with the blood of his Franconian ancestors coursing +hotly through his veins. Like them, he loved freedom in all +things--personal, intellectual, and religious. Like them, he scorned ease +and luxury, and despised the burghers, with their love of comfort and +wealth. He thought much more highly of the robber-knights than of the +merchants they plundered. Germany, he believed, would come right if the +merchants and the priests could be got rid of. The robbers were even +German patriots who intercepted the introduction of foreign merchandise, +and protected the German producers in securing the profits due to them for +their labour. + +Hutten is usually classed as an ally of Luther's, and from the date of the +Leipzig Disputation (1519), when Luther first attacked the Roman Primacy, +he was an ardent admirer of the Reformer. But he had very little sympathy +with the deeper religious side of the Reformation movement. He regarded +Luther's protest against Indulgences in very much the same way as did Pope +Leo X. It was a contemptible monkish dispute, and all sensible men, he +thought, ought to delight to see monks devour one another. "I lately said +to a friar, who was telling me about it," he writes, " 'Devour one +another, that ye may be consumed one of another.' It is my desire that our +enemies (the monks) may live in as much discord as possible, and may be +always quarrelling among themselves." He attached himself vehemently to +Luther (and Hutten was always vehement) only when he found that the monk +stood for freedom of conscience (_The Liberty of a Christian Man_) and for +a united Germany against Rome (_To the Christian Nobility of the German +Nation respecting the Reformation of the Christian Estate_). As we study +his face in the engravings which have survived, mark his hollow cheeks, +high cheek-bones, long nose, heavy moustache, shaven chin, whiskers +straggling as if frayed by the helmet, and bold eyes, we can see the rude +Franconian noble, who by some strange freak of fortune became a scholar, a +Humanist, a patriot, and, in his own way, a reformer. + + + + +Chapter IV. Social Conditions.(47) + + + +§ 1. Towns and Trade. + + +It has been already said that the times of the Renaissance were a period +of transition in the social as well as in the intellectual condition of +the peoples of Europe. The economic changes were so great, that no +description of the environment of the Reformation would be complete +without some account of the social revolution which was slowly +progressing. It must be remembered, however, that there is some danger in +making the merely general statements which alone are possible in this +chapter. The economic forces at work were modified and changed in +countries and in districts, and during decades, by local conditions. Any +general description is liable to be qualified by numerous exceptions. + +Beneath the whole mediaeval system lay the idea that the land was the only +economic basis of wealth. During the earlier Middle Ages this was largely +true everywhere, and was specially so in Germany. Each little district +produced almost all that it needed for its own wants; and the economic +value of the town consisted in its being a corporation of artisans +exchanging the fruits of their industries for the surplus of farm produce +which the peasants brought to their market-place. But the increasing trade +of the towns, developed at first along the greater rivers, the arteries of +the countries, gradually produced another source of wealth; and this +commerce made great strides after the Crusades had opened the Eastern +markets to European traders. Trade, commerce, and manufactures were the +life of the towns, and were rapidly increasing their importance. + +In mediaeval times each town was an independent economic centre, and the +regulation of industry and of trade was an exclusively municipal affair. +This state of matters had changed in some countries before the time of the +Reformation, and statesmen had begun to recognise the importance of a +national trade, and to take steps to further it; but in Germany, chiefly +owing to its hopeless divisions, the old state of matters remained, and +the municipalities continued to direct and control all commercial and +industrial affairs. + +The towns had originally grown up under the protection of the Emperor, or +of some great lord of the soil, or of an ecclesiastical prince or +foundation, and the early officials were the representatives of these +fostering powers. The descendants of this early official class became +known as the "patricians" of the city, and they regarded all the official +positions as the hereditary privileges of their class. The town population +was thoroughly organised in associations of workmen, commonly called +"gilds," which at first concerned themselves simply with the regulation +and improvement of the industry carried on, and with the education and +recreations of the workers. But these "gilds" soon assumed a political +character. The workmen belonging to them formed the fighting force needed +for the independence and protection of the city. Each "gild" had its +fighting organisation, its war banner, its armoury; and its members were +trained to the use of arms, and practised it in their hours of recreation. +The "gilds" therefore began to claim some share in the government of the +town, and in most German cities, in the decades before the Reformation, +the old aristocratic government of the "patricians" had given place to the +more democratic rule of the "gilds." The chief offices connected with the +"gilds" insensibly tended to become hereditary in a few leading families, +and this created a second "patriciat," whose control was resented by the +great mass of the workmen. Nuernberg was one of the few great German cities +where the old "patricians" continued to rule down to the times of the +Reformation. + +These "gilds" were for the most part full of business energy, which showed +itself in the twofold way of making such regulations as they believed +would insure good workmanship, and of securing facilities for the sale of +their wares. All the workmen, it was believed, were interested in the +production of good articles, and the bad workmanship of one artisan was +regarded as bringing discredit upon all. Hence, as a rule, every article +was tested in private before it was exposed for public sale, and various +punishments were devised to check the production of inferior goods. Thus +in Bremen every badly made pair of shoes was publicly destroyed at the +pillory of the town. Such regulations belonged to the private +administration of the towns, and differed in different places. Indeed, the +whole municipal government of the German cities presents an endless +variety, due to the local history and other conditions affecting the +individual towns. While the production was a matter for private regulation +in each centre of industry, distribution involved the towns in something +like a common policy. It demanded safe means of communication between one +town and another, between the towns and the rural districts, and safe +outlets to foreign lands. It needed roads, bridges, and security of +travel. The towns banded themselves together, and made alliances with +powerful feudal nobles to secure these advantages. Such was the origin of +the great Hanseatic League, which had its beginnings in Flanders, spread +over North Germany, included the Scandinavian countries, and grew to be a +European power.(48) The less known leagues among the cities of South +Germany did equally good service, and they commonly secured outlets to +Venice, Florence, and Genoa, by alliances with the peasantry in whose +hands were the chief passes of the Alps. All this meant an opposition +between the burghers and the nobles--an opposition which was continuous, +which on occasion flamed out into great wars, and which compelled the +cities to maintain civic armies, composed partly of their citizens and +partly of hired troops. It was reckoned that Strassburg and Augsburg +together could send a fighting force of 40,000 men into the field. + +The area of trade, though, according to modern ideas, restricted, was +fairly extensive. It included all the countries in modern Europe and the +adjacent seas. The sea-trade was carried on in the Mediterranean and Black +Seas, in the Baltic and North Seas, and down the western coasts of France +and Spain. The North Sea was the great fishing ground, and large +quantities of dried fish, necessary for the due keeping of Lent, were +despatched in coasting vessels, and by the overland routes to the southern +countries of Europe. Furs, skins, and corn came from Russia and the +northern countries. Spain, some parts of Germany, and above all England, +were the wool-exporting countries. The eastern counties of England, many +towns in Germany and France, and especially the Low Countries, were the +centres of the woollen manufactures. The north of France was the great +flax-growing country. In Italy, at Barcelona in Spain, and at Lyons in +France, silk was produced and manufactured. The spices and dried fruits of +the East, and its silks and costly brocades and feathers, came from the +Levant to Venice, and were carried north through the great passes which +pierce the range of the Alps. + +Civic statesmen did their best, by mutual bargains and the establishment +of factories, to protect and extend trading facilities for their townsmen. +The German merchant had his magnificent _Fondaco dei Tedeschi_ in Venice, +his factories of the Hanseatic League in London, Bruges, Bergen, and even +in far-off Novgorod; and Englishmen had also their factories in foreign +parts, within which they could buy and sell in peace. + +The perils of the German merchant, in spite of all civic leagues, were at +home rather than abroad. His country swarmed with Free Nobles, each of +whom looked upon himself as a sovereign power, with full right to do as he +pleased within his own dominions, whether these were an extensive +principality or a few hundred acres surrounding his castle. He could +impose what tolls or customs dues he pleased on the merchants whose +heavily-laden waggons entered his territories. He had customary rights +which made bad roads and the lack of bridges advantages to the lord of the +soil. If an axle or wheel broke, if a waggon upset in crossing a dangerous +ford, the bales thrown on the path or stranded on the banks of the stream +could be claimed by the proprietor of the land. Worse than all were the +perils from the robber-knights--men who insisted on their right to make +private war even when that took the form of highway robbery, and who +largely subsisted on the gains which came, as they said, from making their +"horses bite off the purses of travellers." + +In spite of all these hindrances, a capitalist class gradually arose in +Germany. Large profits, altogether apart from trade, could be made by +managing, collecting, and forwarding the money coming from the universal +system of Indulgences. It was in this way that the Fuggers of Augsburg +first rose to wealth. Money soon bred money. During the greater part of +the Middle Ages there was no such thing as lending out money on interest, +save among the Italian merchants of North Italy or among the Jews. The +Church had always prohibited what it called usury. But Churchmen were the +first to practise the sin they had condemned. The members of +ecclesiastical corporations began to make useful advances, charging an +interest of from 7 to 12 per cent.--moderate enough for the times. +Gradually the custom spread among the wealthy laity, who did not confine +themselves to these reasonable profits, and we find Sebastian Brand +inveighing against the "Christian Jews," who had become worse oppressors +than the Israelite capitalists whom they copied. + +But the great alteration in social conditions, following change in the +distribution of wealth, came when the age of geographical discovery had +made a world commerce a possible thing. + + + +§ 2. Geographical Discoveries and the beginning of a World Trade. + + +The fifteenth century from its beginning had seen one geographical +discovery after another. Perhaps we may say that the sailors of Genoa had +begun the new era by reaching the Azores and Madeira. Then Dom Henrique of +Portugal, Governor of Ceuta, organised voyages of trade and discovery down +the coast of Africa. Portuguese, Venetian, and Genoese captains commanded +his vessels. From 1426, expedition after expedition was sent forth, and at +his death in 1460 the coast of Africa as far as Guinea had been explored. +His work was carried on by his countrymen. The Guinea trade in slaves, +gold, and ivory was established as early as 1480; the Congo was reached in +1484; and Portuguese ships, under Bartholomew Diaz, rounded the Cape of +Good Hope in 1486. During these later years a new motive had prompted the +voyages of exploration. The growth of the Turkish power in the east of +Europe had destroyed the commercial colonies and factories on the Black +Sea; the fall of Constantinople had blocked the route along the valley of +the Danube; and Venice had a monopoly of the trade with Egypt and Syria, +the only remaining channels by which the merchandise from the East reached +Europe. The great commercial problem of the times was how to get some hold +of the direct trade with the East. It was this that inspired Bristol +skippers, familiar with Iceland, with the idea that by following old Norse +traditions they might find a path by way of the North Atlantic; that sent +Columbus across the Mid-Atlantic to discover the Bahamas and the continent +of America; and that drove the more fortunate Portuguese round the Cape of +Good Hope. Young Vasco da Gama reached the goal first, when, after +doubling the Cape, he sailed up the eastern coast of Africa, reached +Mombasa, and then boldly crossed the Indian Ocean to Calicut, the Indian +emporium for that rich trade which all the European nations were anxious +to share. The possibilities of a world commerce led to the creation of +trading companies; for a larger capital was needed than individual +merchants possessed, and the formation of these companies overshadowed, +discredited, and finally destroyed the gild system of the mediaeval trading +cities. Trade and industry became capitalised to a degree previously +unknown. One great family of capitalists, the Welser, had factories in +Rome, Milan, Genoa, and Lyons, and tapped the rich Eastern trade by their +houses in Antwerp, Lisbon, and Madeira. They even tried, unsuccessfully, +to establish a German colony on the new continent--in Venezuela. Another, +the Fuggers of Augsburg, were interested in all kinds of trade, but +especially in the mining industry. It is said that the mines of Thuringia, +Carinthia, and the Tyrol within Germany, and those of Hungary and Spain +outside it, were almost all in their hands. The capital of the family was +estimated in 1546 at sixty-three millions of gulden. This increase of +wealth does not seem to have been confined to a few favourites of fortune. +It belonged to the mass of the members of the great trading companies. Von +Bezold instances a "certain native of Augsburg" whose investment of 500 +gulden in a merchant company brought him in seven years 24,500 gulden. +Merchant princes confronted the princes of the State and those of the +Church, and their presence and power dislocated the old social relations. +The towns, the abodes of these rich merchants, acquired a new and powerful +influence among the complex of national relations, until it is not too +much to say, that if the political future of Germany was in the hands of +the secular princes, its social condition came to be dominated by the +burgher class. + + + +§ 3. Increase in Wealth and luxurious Living. + + +Culture, which had long abandoned the cloisters, came to settle in the +towns. We have already seen that they were the centres of German Humanism +and of the New Learning. The artists of the German Renaissance belonged to +the towns, and their principal patrons were the wealthy burghers. The rich +merchants displayed their civic patriotism in aiding to build great +churches; in erecting magnificent chambers of commerce, where merchandise +could be stored, with halls for buying and selling, and rooms where the +merchants of the town could consult about the interests of the civic +trade; in building _Artushoefe_ or assembly rooms, where the patrician +burghers had their public dances, dinners, and other kinds of social +entertainments; in raising great towers for the honour of the town. They +built magnificent private houses. AEneas Sylvius tells us that in Nuernberg +he saw many burgher houses that befitted kings, and that the King of +Scotland was not as nobly housed as a Nuernberg burgher of the second rank. +They filled these dwellings with gold and silver plate, and with costly +Venetian glass; their furniture was adorned with delicate wood-carving; +costly tapestries, paintings, and engravings decorated the walls; and the +reception-room or _stube_ was the place of greatest display. The towns in +which all this wealth was accumulated were neither populous nor powerful. +They cannot be compared with the city republics of Italy, where the town +ruled over a large territory: the lands belonging to the imperial cities +of Germany were comparatively of small extent. Nor could they boast of the +population of the great cities of the Netherlands. Nuernberg, it is said, +had a population of a little over 20,000 in the middle of the fifteenth +century. Strassburg, a somewhat smaller one. The population of +Frankfurt-on-the-Main was about 10,000 in 1440.(49) The number of +inhabitants had probably increased by one-half more in the decades +immediately preceding the Reformation. But all the great towns, with their +elaborate fortifications, handsome buildings, and massive towers, had a +very imposing appearance in the beginning of the sixteenth century. + +There was, however, another side to all this. There was very little +personal "comfort" and very little personal refinement among the rich +burghers and nobles of Germany--much less than among the corresponding +classes in Italy, the Netherlands, and France. The towns were badly +drained, if drained at all; the streets were seldom paved, and mud and +filth accumulated in almost indescribable ways; the garbage was thrown out +of the windows; and troops of swine were the ordinary scavengers. The +increase of wealth showed itself chiefly in all kinds of sensual living. +Preachers, economists, and satirists denounce the luxury and immodesty of +the dress both of men and women, the gluttony and the drinking habits of +the rich burghers and of the nobility of Germany. We learn from Hans von +Schweinichen that noblemen prided themselves on having men among their +retainers who could drink all rivals beneath the table, and that noble +personages seldom met without such a drinking contest.(50) The wealthy, +learned, and artistic city of Nuernberg possessed a public waggon, which +every night was led through the streets to pick up and convey to their +homes drunken burghers found lying in the filth of the streets. The +_Chronicle of the Zimmer Family_ relates that at the castle of Count +Andrew of Sonnenberg, at the conclusion of a carnival dance and after the +usual "sleeping drink" had been served round, one of the company went to +the kennels and carried to the ball-room buckets of scraps and slops +gathered to feed the hounds, and that the lords and ladies amused +themselves by flinging the contents at each other, "to the great +detriment," the chronicler adds, "of their clothes and of the room."(51) A +like licence pervaded the relations between men and women, of which it +will perhaps suffice to say that the public baths, where, be it noted, the +bathing was often promiscuous, were such that they served Albert Duerer and +other contemporary painters the purpose of a "life school" to make +drawings of the nude.(52) The conversation and behaviour of the nobles and +wealthy burghers of Germany in the decades before the Reformation +displayed a coarseness which would now be held to disgrace the lowest +classes of the population in any country.(53) + +The gradual capitalising of industry had been sapping the old "gild" +organisation within the cities; the extension of commerce, and especially +the shifting of the centre of external trade from Venice to Antwerp, in +consequence of the discovery of the new route to the Eastern markets, and +above all, the growth of the great merchant companies, whose world-trade +required enormous capital, overshadowed the "gilds" and destroyed their +influence. The rise and power of this capitalist order severed the poor +from the rich, and created, in a sense unknown before, a proletariat class +within the cities, which was liable to be swollen by the influx of +discontented and ruined peasants from the country districts. The +corruption of morals, which reached its height in the city life of the +first quarter of the sixteenth century, intensified the growing hatred +between the rich burgher and the poor workman. The ostentatious display of +burgher wealth heightened the natural antipathy between merchant and +noble. The universal hatred of the merchant class is a pronounced feature +of the times. "They increase prices, make hunger, and slay the poor folk," +was a common saying. Men like Ulrich von Hutten were prepared to justify +the robber-knights because they attacked the merchants, who, he said, were +ruining Germany. Yet the merchant class increased and flourished, and with +them, the towns which they inhabited. + + + +§ 4. The Condition of the Peasantry. + + +The condition of the peasantry in Germany has also to be described. The +folk who practise husbandry usually form the most stable element in any +community, but they could not avoid being touched by the economic +movements of the time. The seeds of revolution had long been sown among +the German peasantry, and peasant risings had taken place in different +districts of south-central Europe from the middle of the fourteenth down +to the opening years of the sixteenth centuries. It is difficult to +describe accurately the state of these German peasants. The social +condition of the nobles and the burghers has had many an historian, and +their modes of life have left abundant traces in literature and +archaeology; but peasant houses and implements soon perished, and the +chronicles seldom refer to the world to which the "land-folk" belonged, +save when some local peasant rising or the tragedy of the Peasants' War +thrust them into history. Our main difficulty, however, does not arise so +much from lack of descriptive material--for that can be found when +diligently sought for--as from the varying, almost contradictory statements +that are made. Some contemporary writers condescend to describe the +peasant class. A large number of collections of _Weisthuemer_, the +consuetudinary laws which regulated the life of the village communities, +have been recovered and carefully edited;(54) folk-songs preserve the old +life and usages; many of the _Fastnachtspiele_ or rude carnival dramas +deal with peasant scenes; and Albert Duerer and other artists of the times +have sketched over and over again the peasant, his house and cot-yard, his +village and his daily life. We can, in part, reconstruct the old peasant +life and its surroundings. Only it must be remembered that the life varied +not only in different parts of Germany, but in the same districts and +decades under different rural proprietors; for the peasant was so +dependent on his over-lord that the character of the proprietor counted +for much in the condition of the people. + +The village artisan did not exist. The peasants lived by themselves apart +from all other classes of the population. That is the universal statement. +They carried the produce of their land and their live-stock to the nearest +town, sold it in the market-place, and bought there what they needed for +their life and work. + +They dwelt in villages fortified after a fashion; for the group of houses +was surrounded sometimes by a wall, but usually by a stout fence, made +with strong stakes and interleaved branches. This was entered by a gate +that could be locked. Outside the fence, circling the whole was a deep +ditch crossed by a "falling door" or drawbridge. Within the fence among +the houses there was usually a small church, a public-house, a house or +room (_Spielhaus_) where the village council met and where justice was +dispensed. In front stood a strong wooden stake, to which criminals were +tied for punishment, and near it always the stocks, sometimes a gallows, +and more rarely the pole and wheel for the barbarous mediaeval punishment +"breaking on the wheel." + +The houses were wooden frames filled in with sun-dried bricks, and were +thatched with straw; the chimneys were of wood protected with clay. The +cattle, fuel, fodder, and family were sheltered under the one large roof. +The timber for building and repairs was got from the forest under +regulations set down in the _Weisthuemer_, and the peasants had leave to +collect the fallen branches for firewood, the women gathering and +carrying, and the men cutting and stacking under the eaves. All breaches +of the forest laws were severely punished (in some of the _Weisthuemer_ the +felling of a tree without leave was punished by beheading); so was the +moving of landmarks; for wood and soil were precious. + +Most houses had a small fenced garden attached, in which were grown +cabbages, greens, and lettuce; small onions (ciboelle, _Scottice_ syboes), +parsley, and peas; poppies, garlic, and hemp; apples, plums, and, in South +Germany, grapes; as well as other things whose mediaeval German names are +not translatable by me. Wooden beehives were placed in the garden, and a +pigeon-house usually stood in the yard. + +The scanty underclothing of the peasants was of wool and the outer dress +of linen--the men's, girt with a belt from which hung a sword, for they +always went armed. Their furniture consisted of a table, several +three-legged stools, and one or two chests. Rude cooking utensils hung on +the walls, and dried pork, fruits, and baskets of grain on the rafters. +The drinking-cups were of coarse clay; and we find regulations that the +table-cloth or covering ought to be washed at least once a year! Their +ordinary food was "some poor bread, oatmeal porridge, and cooked +vegetables; and their drink, water and whey." The live-stock included +horses, cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and hens.(55) + +The villagers elected from among themselves four men, the _Bauernmeister_, +who were the Fathers of the community. They were the arbiters in disputes, +settled quarrels, and arranged for an equitable distribution of the +various feudal assessments and services. They had no judicial or +administrative powers; these belonged to the over-lord, or a +representative appointed by him. This official sat in the justice room, +heard cases, issued sentences, and exercised all the mediaeval powers of +"pit and gallows." The whole list of mediaeval punishments, ludicrous and +gruesome, were at his command. It was he who ordered the scolding wife to +be carried round the church three times while her neighbours jeered; who +set the unfortunate charcoal-burner, who had transgressed some forest law, +into the stocks, with his bare feet exposed to a slow fire till his soles +were thoroughly burnt; who beheaded men who cut down trees, and ordered +murderers to be broken on the wheel. He saw that the rents, paid in kind, +were duly gathered. He directed the forced services of ploughing, sowing, +and harvesting the over-lord's fields, what wood was to be hewn for the +castle, what ditches dug, and what roads repaired. He saw that the +peasants drank no wine but what came from the proprietor's vineyards, and +that they drank it in sufficient quantity; that they ground their grain at +the proprietor's mill, and fired their bread at the estate bakehouse. He +exacted the two most valuable of the moveable goods of a dead peasant--the +hated "death-tax." There was no end to his powers. Of course, according to +the _Weisthuemer_, these powers were to be exercised in _customary_ ways; +and in some parts of Germany the indefinite "forced services" had been +commuted to twelve days' service in the year, and in others to the payment +of a fixed rate in lieu of service. + +This description of the peasant life has been taken entirely from the +_Weisthuemer_, and, for reasons to be seen immediately, it perhaps +represents rather a "golden past" than the actual state of matters at the +beginning of the sixteenth century. It shows the peasants living in a +state of rude plenty, but for the endless exactions of their lords and the +continual robberies to which they were exposed from bands of sturdy rogues +which swarmed through the country, and from companies of soldiers, who +thought nothing of carrying off the peasant's cows, slaying his swine, +maltreating his womenkind, and even firing his house. + +The peasants had their diversions, not always too seemly. On the days of +Church festivals, and they were numerous, the peasantry went to church and +heard Mass in the morning, talked over the village business under the +lime-trees, or in some open space near the village, and spent the +afternoon in such amusements as they liked best--eating and drinking at the +public-house, and dancing on the village green. In one of his least known +poems, Hans Sachs describes the scene--the girls and the pipers waiting at +the dancing-place, and the men and lads in the public-house eating calf's +head, tripe, liver, black puddings, and roast pork, and drinking whey and +the sour country wine, until some sank under the benches; and there was +such a jostling, scratching, shoving, bawling, and singing, that not a +word could be heard. Then three young men came to the dancing-place, his +sweetheart had a garland ready for one of them, and the dancing began; +other couples joined, and at last sixteen pairs of feet were in motion. +Rough jests, gestures, and caresses went round. + + + "Nach dem der Messner von Hirschau, + Der tanzet mit des Pfarrhaus Frau + Von Budenheim, die hat er lieb, + Viel Scherzens am Tanz mit ihr trieb." + + +The men whirled their partners off their feet and spun them round and +round, or seized them by the waist and tossed them as high as they could; +while they themselves leaped and threw out their feet in such reckless +ways that Hans Sachs thought they would all fall down. + +The winter amusements gathered round the spinning house. For it was the +custom in most German villages for the young women to resort to a large +room in the mill, or to the village tavern, or to a neighbour's house, +with their wool and flax, their distaffs and spindles, some of them old +heirlooms and richly ornamented, to spin all evening. The lads came also +to pick the fluff off the lasses' dresses, they said; to hold the small +beaker of water into which they dipped their fingers as they span; and to +cheer the spinsters with songs and recitations. After work came the +dancing. On festival evenings, and especially at carnival times, the lads +treated their sweethearts to a late supper and a dance; and escorted them +home, carrying their distaffs and spindles.(56) All the old German love +folk-songs are full of allusions to this peasant courtship, and it is not +too much to say that from the singing in the spinning house have come most +of the oldest folk-songs. + +These descriptions apply to the German peasants of Central and South +Germany. In the north and north-east, the agricultural population, which +was for the most part of Slavonic descent, had been reduced by their +conquerors to a serfdom which had no parallel in the more favoured +districts. + + + +§ 5. Earlier Social Revolts. + + +It was among the peasants of German descent that there had been risings, +successful and unsuccessful, for more than a century. The train for +revolution had been laid not where serfdom was at its worst, but where +there was ease enough in life to allow men to think, and where freedom was +nearest in sight. It may be well to refer to the earlier peasant revolts, +before attempting to investigate the causes of that permanent unrest which +was abundantly evident at the beginning of the sixteenth century. + +The first great successful peasant rebellion was the fight for freedom +made by the people of the four forest cantons in Switzerland. The weapons +with which they overthrew the chivalry of Europe, rude pikes made by tying +their scythes to their alpenstocks, may still be seen in the historical +museums of Basel and Constance. They proved that man for man the peasant +was as good as the noble. The free peasant soldier had come into being. +These free peasants did not really secede from the Empire till 1499, and +were formally connected with it till 1648. The Emperor was still their +over-lord. But they were his free peasants, able to form leagues for their +mutual defence and for the protection of their rights. Other cantons and +some neighbouring cities joined them, and the Swiss Confederacy, with its +flag, a white cross on a red ground, and its motto, "Each for all and all +for each," became a new nation in Europe. During the next century +(1424-1471) the peasants of the Rhaetian Alps also won their freedom, and +formed a confederacy similar to the Swiss, though separate from it. It was +called the _Graubund_. + +The example of these peasant republics, strong in the protection which +their mountains gave them, fired the imagination of the German peasantry +of the south and the south-west of the Empire, and the leaders of lost +popular causes found a refuge in the Alpine valleys while they meditated +on fresh schemes to emancipate their followers. We have evidence of the +popularity of the Swiss in the towns and country districts of Germany all +through the fifteenth and into the sixteenth century.(57) + +But while the social tumults and popular uprisings against authority, +which are a feature of the close of the Middle Ages, are usually and +rightly enough called peasant insurrections, the name tends to obscure +their real character. They were rather the revolts of the poor against the +rich, of debtors against creditors, of men who had scanty legal rights or +none at all against those who had the protection of the existing laws, and +they were joined by the poor of the towns as well as by the peasantry of +the country districts. The peasants generally began the revolt and the +townsmen followed; but this was not always the case. Sometimes the mob of +the cities rose first and the peasants joined afterwards. In many cases, +too, the poorer nobles were in secret or open sympathy with the +insurrectionary movement. On more than one occasion they led the +insurgents and fought at their head. The union of poor nobles and peasants +had made the Bohemian revolt successful. + +It must also be remembered that from the end of the fourteenth century on +to the beginning of the sixteenth, however varied the cries and watchwords +of the insurgents may be, one persistent note of detestation of the +priests (the _pfaffen_) is always heard; and, from the way in which Jews +and priests are continually linked together in one common denunciation, it +may be inferred that the hatred arose more from the intolerable pressure +of clerical extortion than from any feeling of irreligion. The tithes, +great and small, and the means taken to exact them, were a galling burden. +"The priests," says an English writer, "have their tenth part of all the +corn, meadows, pasture, grass, wood, colts, lambs, geese, and chickens. +Over and besides the tenth part of every servant's wages, wool, milk, +honey, wax, cheese, and butter; yea, and they look so narrowly after their +profits that the poor wife must be countable to them for every tenth egg, +or else she getteth not her rights at Easter, and shall be taken as a +heretic." As matter of fact, many of these tithes, extorted in the name of +the Church, did not go into the pockets of the clergy at all, but were +seized by the feudal superior and went to increase his revenues. Popular +feeling, however, seldom discriminates, and feudal and clerical dues were +regarded as belonging to one system of intolerable oppression. Besides, +the rapacity of Churchmen went far beyond the exaction of the tithes. "I +see," said a Spaniard, "that we can scarcely get anything from Christ's +ministers but for money; at baptism money, at bishoping money, at marriage +money, for confession money--no, not extreme unction without money! They +will ring no bells without money, no burial in the church without money; +so that it seemeth that Paradise is shut up from them that have no money. +The rich is buried in the church, the poor in the churchyard. The rich man +may marry with his nearest kin, but the poor not so, albeit he be ready to +die for love of her. The rich may eat flesh in Lent, but the poor may not, +albeit fish perhaps be much dearer. The rich man may readily get large +Indulgences, but the poor none, because he wanteth money to pay for +them."(58) + +In spite of this hatred of the priests, it will be found that almost every +insurrectionary movement was impregnated by some sentiment of enthusiastic +religion, with which was blended some confused dream that the kingdom of +God might be set up on earth, if only the priests were driven out of the +land. This religious element drew some of its strength from the Lollard +movement in England and from the Taborite in Bohemia, but after 1476 it +had a distinctly German character. Its connection with what may almost be +called the epidemic of pilgrimages, the strongly increased veneration for +the Blessed Virgin, and the injunctions laid upon the confederates in some +of the revolutionary movements to repeat so many _Pater Nosters_ and _Ave +Marias_, seem to lead to the conclusion that much of that revival of an +enthusiastic and superstitious religion which marked the last half of the +fifteenth century may be regarded as an attempt to create a popular +religion apart from priests and clergy of all kinds. + +One of the earliest of these popular uprisings occurred at Gotha in 1391, +when the peasantry of the neighbourhood and many of the burghers of the +town rose against the exactions of the Jews, and demanded their expulsion. +It was an insurrection of debtors against usurers, and was in the end put +down by the majority of the citizens. From this date onwards to 1470 +similar risings took place in many parts of Germany, prompted by the same +or like causes--the exactions of Jews, priests, or nobles. The years +1431-1432 saw a great Hussite propaganda carried on all over Europe. +Countries were flooded with Hussite proclamations, and traversed by +Hussite emissaries. Paul Crawar was sent to Scotland, and others like him +to Spain, to the Netherlands, and to East Prussia. They taught among other +things that the Old Testament law about tithes had no place within the +Christian Church, and that Christian tithes were originally free-will +offerings,--a statement peculiarly acceptable to the German peasantry. All +Germany had learnt by this time how Bohemian peasants, trained and led by +men belonging to the lesser nobility, had routed in two memorable +campaigns the imperial armies led by the Emperor himself, and how they had +begun even to invade Germany. The chroniclers speak of the anxiety of the +governing classes, civic and rural, when they recognised the strength of +the feelings excited by this propaganda. The Hussite doctrine of tithes +appears hereafter in most of the peasant programmes. + +A still more powerful impulse to revolts was given by the tragic fate of +Charles the Bold of Burgundy. Charles was the ideal feudal autocrat. He +was looked up to and imitated by the feudal princes of Germany in the +fifteenth as was Louis XIV. by their descendants in the end of the +seventeenth century. The common people regarded him as the typical feudal +tyrant, and the hateful impression which his arrogance, his +vindictiveness, and his oppression of the poor made upon them comes out in +the folk-songs of the period: + + + "Er schazt sich kuenig Alexander gleich; + Er wolt bezwingen alle Reich, + Das wante Got in kurzer stund." + + +He even came to be considered by them as one of the Antichrists who were +to appear, and for years after his death at Nancy (1477) many believed +that he was alive, expiating his sins on a prolonged pilgrimage. + +When this great potentate, who was believed to have boasted that there +were three rulers--God in heaven, Lucifer in hell, and himself on earth--was +defeated at Granson, routed at Morat, routed and slain at Nancy, and that +by Swiss peasants, the exultation was immense, and it was believed that +the peasantry might inherit the earth.(59) + + + +§ 6. The religious Socialism of Hans Boehm. + + +During the last years of this memorable Burgundian war a strange movement +arose in the very centre of Germany, within the district which may be +roughly defined as the triangle whose points were the towns of +Aschaffenburg, Wuerzburg, and Crailsheim, in the secluded valleys of the +Spessart and the Taubergrund. A young man, Hans Boehm (Boeheim, Boehaim), +belonging to the very lowest class of society, below the peasant, who +wandered from one country festival or church ale to another, and played on +the small drum or on the dudelsack (rude bagpipes), or sang songs for the +dancers, was suddenly awakened to a sense of spiritual things by the +discourse of a wandering Franciscan. He was utterly uneducated. He did not +even know the Creed. He had visions of the Blessed Virgin, who appeared to +him in the guise of a lady dressed in white, called him to be a preacher, +and promised him further revelations, which he received from time to time. +His home was the village of Helmstadt in the Tauber valley; and the most +sacred spot he knew was a chapel dedicated to the Virgin at the small +village of Niklashausen on the Tauber. The chapel had been granted an +indulgence, and was the scene of small pilgrimages. Hans Boehm appeared +suddenly on the Sunday in Mid-Lent (March 24th, 1476), solemnly burnt his +rude drum and bagpipes before the crowd of people, and declared that he +had hitherto ministered to the sins and vanities of the villagers, but +that henceforth he was going to be a preacher of grace. He had been a lad +of blameless life, and his character gave force to his words. He related +his visions, and the people believed him. It was a period when an epidemic +of pilgrimage was sweeping over Europe, and the pilgrims spread the news +of the prophet far and wide. Crowds came to hear him from the neighbouring +valleys. His fame spread to more distant parts, and chroniclers declare +that on some days he preached to audiences of from twenty to thirty +thousand persons. His pulpit was a barrel set on end, or the window of a +farmhouse, or the branch of a tree. He assured his hearers that the +holiest spot on earth, holier by far than Rome, was the chapel of Our Lady +at Niklashausen, and that true religion consisted in doing honour to the +Blessed Virgin. He denounced all priests in unmeasured terms: they were +worse than Jews; they might be converted for a while, but as soon as they +went back among their fellows they were sure to become backsliders. He +railed against the Emperor: he was a miscreant, who supported the whole +vile crew of princes, over-lords, tax-gatherers, and other oppressors of +the poor. He scoffed at the Pope. He denied the existence of Purgatory: +good men went directly to heaven and bad men went to hell. The day was +coming, he declared, when every prince, even the Emperor himself, must +work for his day's wages like all poor people. He asserted that taxes of +all kinds were evil, and should not be paid; that fish, game, and meadow +lands were common property; that all men were brethren, and should share +alike. When his sermon was finished the crowd of devotees knelt round the +"holy youth," and he, blessing them, pardoned their sins in God's name. +Then the crowd surged round him, tearing at his clothes to get some scrap +of cloth to take home and worship as a relic; and the Niklashausen chapel +became rich with the offerings of the thousands of pilgrims. + +The authorities, lay and clerical, paid little attention to him at first. +Some princes and some cities (Nuernberg, for example) prohibited their +subjects from going to Niklashausen; but the prophet was left untouched. +He came to believe that his words ought to be translated into actions. One +Sunday he asked his followers to meet him on the next Sunday, bringing +their swords and leaving their wives and children at home. The Bishop of +Wuerzburg, hearing this, sent a troop of thirty-four horsemen, who seized +the prophet, flung him on a horse, and carried him away to the bishop's +fortress of Frauenberg near Wuerzburg. His followers had permitted his +capture, and seemed dazed by it. In a day or two they recovered their +courage, and, exhorted by an old peasant who had received a vision, and +headed by four Franconian knights, they marched against Frauenberg and +surrounded it. They expected its walls to fall like those of Jericho; and +when they were disappointed they lingered for some days, and then +gradually dispersed. Hans himself, after examination, was condemned to be +burnt as a heretic. He died singing a folk-hymn in praise of the Blessed +Virgin. + +His death did not end the faith of his followers. In spite of severe +prohibitions, the pilgrimages went on and the gifts accumulated. A +neighbouring knight sacked the chapel and carried away the treasure, which +he was forced to share with his neighbours. Still the pilgrimages +continued, until at last the ecclesiastical authorities removed the priest +and tore down the building, hoping thereby to destroy the movement. + +The memory of Hans Boehm lived among the common people, peasants and +artisans; for the lower classes of Wuerzburg and the neighbouring towns had +been followers of the movement. A religious social movement, purely +German, had come into being, and was not destined to die soon. The effects +of Hans Boehm's teaching appear in almost all subsequent peasant and +artisan revolts.(60) Even Sebastian Brand takes the Niklashausen pilgrims +as his type of those enthusiasts who are not contented with the +revelations of the Old and New Testaments, but must seek a special prophet +of their own: + + + "Man weis doch aus der Schrift so viel, + Aus altem und aus neuem Bunde, + Es braucht nicht wieder neuer Kunde. + Dennoch wallfahrten sie zur Klausen + Des Sackpfeifers von Nicklashausen."(61) + + +And the Niklashausen pilgrimage was preserved in the memories of the +people by a lengthy folk-song which Liliencron has printed in his +collection.(62) + +From this time onwards there was always some tinge of religious enthusiasm +in the social revolts, where peasant and poor burghers stood shoulder to +shoulder against the ruling powers in country and in town. + +The peasants within the lands of the Abbot of Kempten, north-east of the +Lake of Constance, had for two generations protested against the way in +which the authorities were treating them (1420-1490). They rose in open +revolt in 1491-1492. It was a purely agrarian rising to begin with, caused +by demands made on them by their over-lord not sanctioned by the old +customs expressed in the _Weisthuemer_; but the lower classes of the town +of Kempten made common cause with the insurgents. Yet there are distinct +traces of impregnation with religious enthusiasm not unlike that which +inspired the Hans Boehm movement. The rising was crushed, and the leaders +who escaped took refuge in Switzerland. + + + +§ 7. Bundschuh Revolts. + + +In the widespread social revolt which broke out in Elsass in 1493, the +peasants were supported by the towns; demands were made for the abolition +of the imperial and the ecclesiastical courts of justice, for the +reduction of ecclesiastical property, for the plundering of Jews who had +been fattening upon usury, and for the curbing of the power of the +priests. The Germans had a proverb, "The poor man must tie his shoes with +string," and the "tied shoe" (_Bundschuh_), the poor man's shoe, became +the emblem of this and subsequent social revolts, while their motto was, +"Only what is just before God." This rebellion, which was prematurely +betrayed, did not lack prominent leaders. One of them was Hans Ulman, the +burgomeister of Schlettstadt, who died on the scaffold affirming the +justice of the demands which he and his companions had made, and +predicting their future triumph. + +In 1501 the peasants of Kempten and the neighbouring districts again rose +in rebellion, and were again joined by the poorer townspeople. In the year +following, 1502, a revolt was planned having for its headquarters the +village of Untergrombach, near Speyer; it spread into Elsass, along the +Neckar and down the Rhine. The _Bundschuh_ banner was again unfurled. It +was made of blue silk, with a white cross, the emblem of Switzerland, in +the centre. It was adorned with a picture of the crucified Christ, a +_Bundschuh_ on the one side, and a kneeling peasant on the other. The +motto was again, "Only what is just before God." Every associate promised +to repeat five times a day the Lord's Prayer and the _Ave Maria_. The +patron saints were declared to be the Blessed Virgin and St. John. The +movement was strongly anti-clerical. The leaders taught that there could +be no deliverance from oppression until the priests were driven from the +land, and until the property of the nobles and the priests was confiscated +and their power broken. Tithes, feudal exactions of all kinds, and all +social inequalities were denounced; water, forest and pasture lands were +declared to be the common property of all. The leaders recognised the rule +of the Emperor as over-lord, but denounced all intermediate jurisdictions. +The plan was to raise the peasants and the townspeople throughout all +Germany, and to call upon the Swiss to aid them in winning their +deliverance from oppression. The revolt was put down with savage cruelty; +most of the leaders were quartered. Many escaped to Switzerland, and lay +hid among the Alpine valleys. + +One of these was Joss Fritz, who had been a soldier (_landsknecht_)--a man +with many qualities of leadership. He had tenacity of purpose, great +powers of organisation, and gifts of persuasion. He vowed to restore the +_Bundschuh_ League. He remained years in hiding in Switzerland, maturing +his plans. Then he returned secretly to his own people. He seems to have +secured an appointment as forester to a nobleman whose lands lay near the +town of Freiburg in the Breisgau; and there, in the small village of +Lehen, he began to weave together again the broken threads of the +_Bundschuh_ League. He mingled with the poorer people in the taverns, at +church ales, on the village greens on festival days. He spoke of the +justice of God and the wickedness of the world. He expounded the old +principles of the _Bundschuh_ with some few variations. Indiscriminate +hatred of priests seems to have been abandoned. Most of the village +priests were peasants, and suffered, like them, from overbearing +superiors. The parish priest of Lehen became a strong supporter of the +_Bundschuh_, and told his parishioners that all its ideas could be proved +from the word of God. Joss Fritz won over to his side the "gilds" of +beggars, strolling musicians, all kinds of vagrants who could be useful. +They carried his messages, summoned the people to his meetings in quiet +spaces in the woods, and were active assistants. At these meetings Joss +Fritz and his lieutenant Jerome, a journeyman baker, expounded the +Scriptures "under the guidance of the Holy Spirit simply," and proved all +the demands of the _Bundschuh_ from the word of God. + +When the country seemed almost ripe for the rising, Joss Fritz resolved to +prepare the banner as secretly as possible. It was easy to get the blue +silk and sew the white cross on its ground; the difficulty was to find an +artist sympathetic enough to paint the emblems, and courageous enough to +keep the secret. The banner was at last painted. The crucified Christ in +the centre, a peasant kneeling in prayer on the one side and the +_Bundschuh_ on the other, the figures of the Virgin Mary and St. John, and +the pictures of the Pope and the Emperor. The motto, "O Lord, help the +righteous," was added, and the banner with its striking symbolism was +complete. The League had the old programme with some alterations:--no +masters but God, the Pope, and the Emperor, no usury, all debts to be +cancelled, and the clauses mentioned above. The leaders boasted that their +league extended as far as the city of Koeln (Cologne), and that the Swiss +would march at their head. But the secret leaked out before the date +planned for the general rising; and the revolt was mercilessly stamped out +(1512-1513). Its leader escaped with the _Bundschuh_ banner wound round +his body under his clothes. In four years he was back again at his work +(1517). In a very short time his agents, the "gild" of beggars, wandering +minstrels, poor priests, pilgrims to local shrines, pardon-sellers, +begging friars, and even lepers, had leagued the peasantry and the poorer +artisans in the towns in one vast conspiracy which permeated the entire +district between the Vosges and the Black Forest, including the whole of +Baden and Elsass. The plot was again betrayed before the plans of the +leaders were matured, and the partial risings were easily put down; but +when the authorities set themselves to make careful investigations, they +were aghast at the extent of the movement. The peasants of the country +districts and the populace of the towns had been bound together to avenge +common wrongs. The means of secret communication had been furnished by +country innkeepers, old _landsknechts_, pedlars, parish priests, as well +as by the vagrants above mentioned; and the names of some of the +subordinate leaders--"long" John, "crooked" Peter, "old" Kuntz--show the +classes from which they were drawn. It was discovered that the populace of +Weisenburg had come to an agreement with the people of Hagenau (both towns +were in Elsass) to slay the civic councillors and judges and all the +inhabitants of noble descent, to refuse payment of all imperial and +ecclesiastical dues, and that the Swiss had promised to come to their +assistance. + +One might almost say that between the years 1503 and 1517 the social +revolution was permanently established in the southern districts of the +Empire, from Elsass in the west to Carinthia and the Steiermarck in the +east. It is needless to describe the risings in detail. They were not +purely peasant rebellions, for the townspeople were almost always +involved; but they all displayed that mingling of communist ideas and +religious enthusiasm of which the _Bundschuh_ banner had become the +emblem, and which may be traced back to the movement under Hans Boehm as +its German source, and perhaps to the earlier propaganda of the Hussite +revolutionaries or Taborites. The later decades of the fifteenth and the +earlier years of the sixteenth century were a time of permanent social +unrest. + + + +§ 8. The Causes of the continuous Revolts. + + +If we ask why it was that the peasants, whose lot, according to the +information given in the _Weisthuemer_, could not have been such a very +hard one, were so ready to rise in rebellion during the last quarter of +the fifteenth century, the answer seems to be that there must have been a +growing change in their circumstances. Some chroniclers have described the +condition of the peasants in the end of the fifteenth and in the beginning +of the sixteenth century, and they always dwell upon their misery. John +Boehm, who wrote in the beginning of the sixteenth century, says that +"their lot was hard and pitiable," and calls them "slaves."(63) Sebastian +Frank (1534), Sebastian Munster (1546), H. Pantaleone (1570), an Italian +who wrote a description of Germany, all agree with Boehm. Frank adds that +the peasants hate every kind of cleric, good or bad, and that their speech +is full of gibes against priests and monks; while Pantaleone observes that +many skilled workmen, artisans, artists, and men of learning have sprung +from this despised peasant class. There must have been a great change for +the worse in the condition of the poorer dwellers both in town and in +country. + +So far as the townsmen are concerned, nothing need be added to what has +already been said; but the causes of the growing depression of the +peasantry were more complicated. The universal testimony of contemporaries +is that the gradual introduction of Roman law brought the greatest change, +by placing a means of universal oppression in the hands of the over-lords. +There is no need to suppose that the lawyers who introduced the new +jurisprudence meant to use it to degrade and oppress the peasant class. A +slight study of the _Weisthuemer_ shows how complicated and varied was this +consuetudinary law which regulated the relations between peasant and +over-lord. It was natural, when great estates grew to be principalities, +whether lay or clerical, that the over-lords should seek for some +principle of codification or reduction to uniformity. It had been the +custom for centuries to attempt to simplify the ruder and involved German +codes by bringing them into harmony with the principles of Roman law, and +this idea had received a powerful impetus from the Renaissance movement. +But when the bewildering multiplicity of customary usages which had +governed the relations of cultivators to over-lords was simplified +according to the ideas of Roman law, the result was in the highest degree +dangerous to the free peasantry of Germany. The conception of strict +individual proprietorship tended to displace the indefinite conception of +communal proprietorship, and the peasants could only appear in the guise +of tenants on long leases, or serfs who might have some personal rights +but no rights of property, or slaves who had no rights at all. The new +jurisprudence began by attacking the common lands, pastures, and forests. +The passion for the chase, which became the more engrossing as the right +to wage private war grew more and more dangerous, led to the nobles +insisting on the individual title to all forest lands, and to the +publication of such forest laws as we find made in Wuertemberg, where +anyone found trespassing with gun or cross-bow was liable to lose one eye. +The attempt to reduce a free peasantry in possession of communal property +to tenants on long lease, then to serfs, and, lastly, to slaves, may be +seen in the seventy years' struggle between the Abbots of Kempten and +their peasants. These spiritual lords carried on the contest with every +kind of force and chicanery they could command. They enlarged illegally +the jurisdiction of their spiritual courts; they prevented the poor people +who opposed them from coming to the Lord's Table; they actually falsified +their title-deeds, inserting provisions which were not originally +contained in them. + +The case of the Kempten lands was, no doubt, an extreme one, though it +could be matched by others. But the point to be noticed is the immense +opportunities for oppression which were placed in the hands of the +over-lords by the new jurisprudence, and the temptation to make use of +them when their interests seemed to require it, or when their peasantry +began to grow refractory or became too prosperous. The economic changes +which were at work throughout the fifteenth century gave occasion for the +use of the powers which the new jurisdiction had placed at the disposal of +landlords. The economic revolution from the first impoverished the nobles +of Germany; while, in its beginnings and until after the great rise in +prices, it rather helped the peasantry. They had a better market for their +produce, and they so profited by it that the burghers spoke of denying +them the right of free markets, on the ground that they had begun to usurp +the place of the merchants and were trafficking in gold by lending money +on interest. The competition in luxurious dress and living, which the +impoverished nobles carried on with the rich burghers, made the former +still poorer and more reckless. We read of a noble lady in Swabia who, +rather than be outshone at a tournament, sold a village and all her rights +over it in order to buy a blue velvet dress. The nobles, becoming poorer +and poorer, saw their own peasants making money to such an extent that +they were, comparatively speaking, much better off than themselves, so +that in Westphalia it was said that a peasant could get credit more easily +than five nobles. + +Moreover, the peasants did not appear to be as submissive to their lords +as they once had been. Nor was it to be wondered at. The creation of the +_landsknechts_ had put new thoughts into their heads. The days of the old +fighting chivalry were over, and the strength of armies was measured by +the number and discipline of the infantry. The victories of the Swiss over +Charles the Bold had made the peasant or artisan soldier a power. Kings +and princes raised standing armies, recruited from the country districts +or from among the wilder and more restless of the town population. The +folk-songs are full of the doings of these plebeian soldiers. When the +_landsknecht_ visited his relations in village or in town, swaggered about +in his gorgeous parti-coloured clothes, his broad hat adorned with huge +feathers, his great gauntlets and his weapons; when he showed a gold chain +or his ducats, or a jewel he had won as his share of the booty; when his +old neighbours saw his dress and gait imitated by the young burghers,--he +became a centre of admiration, and his relations began to hold themselves +high on his account. They acquired a new independence of character, a new +impatience against all that prevented them from rising in the world. It +has scarcely been sufficiently noted how most of the leaders in the +plebeian risings were disbanded _landsknechts_.(64) + +The new jurisprudence was a very effectual instrument in the hands of an +impoverished landlord class to ease the peasant of his superfluous wealth, +and to keep him in his proper place. It was used almost universally, and +the peasant rebellions were the natural consequences. But the more +determined peasant revolts, which began with the _Bundschuh_ League, arose +at a time when life was hard for peasant and artisan alike. + +The last decade of the fifteenth century and the first of the sixteenth +contained a number of years in which the harvest failed almost entirely +over all or in parts of Germany. They began with 1490, and in that year +contemporary writers, like Trithemius, declare that the lot of the poor +was almost unbearable. The bad harvests of 1491 and 1492 made things +worse. In 1493, the year which saw the foundation of the _Bundschuh_, the +state of matters may be guessed from the fact that men came all the way +from the Tyrol to the upper reaches of the Main, where the harvest was +comparatively good, bought barley there for five times its usual price, +carried it on pack-horses by little frequented paths to their own country, +and sold it at a profit. + +In 1499 the Swiss refused to submit to the imperial proposals for +consolidating the Empire. Maximilian or his government in the Tyrol +resolved to punish them, and the Swabian League were to be the +executioners. The Swiss, highly incensed, had declared that if they were +forced into war it would be a war of extermination. They were as bad as +their word. An eye-witness saw whole villages in the wasted districts +forsaken by the men, and the women gathered in troops, feeding on herbs +and roots, and seeing with the apathy of despair their ranks diminish clay +by day.(65) The Swiss war was worse than many bad harvests for the Hegau +and other districts in South Germany. + +In 1500 the harvest failed over all Germany; 1501 and 1502 were years when +the crops failed in a number of districts; and in 1503 there was another +universally bad harvest. These years of scarcity pressed most heavily on +the peasant class. In some districts of Brandenburg, peasants were found +in the woods dead of starvation, with the grass which they had been trying +to eat still in their mouths. Cities like Augsburg and Strassburg bought +grain, stored it in magazines, and kept the poor alive by periodical +distributions. This cycle of famine years from 1490 to 1503 was the period +when the most determined and desperate social risings took place, and +largely explains them.(66) + +Our description of the social conditions existing during the period which +ushered in the Reformation has been confined to Germany. The great +religious movement took its origin in that land, and it is of the utmost +importance to study the environment there. But the universal economic +changes were producing social disturbances everywhere, modified in +appearance and character by the special conditions of the various +countries of Europe. The popular risings in England, which began with the +gigantic labour strike under Wat Tyler and priest Ball, and ended with the +disturbances during the reign of Edward VI., were the counterpart of the +social revolt in Germany. + +From all that has been said, it will be evident that on the eve of the +Reformation the condition of Europe, and of Germany in particular, was one +of seething discontent and full of bitter class hatreds,--the trading +companies and the great capitalists against the "gilds," the poorer +classes against the wealthier, and the nobles against the towns. This +state of things is abundantly reflected in the folk-songs of the period, +which best reveal the intimate feelings of the people. For it was an age +of song everywhere, and especially in Germany. Nobles and knights, +burghers and peasants, _landsknechts_ and Swiss soldiers, priests and +clerks, lawyers and merchants--all expressed the feelings of their class +when they sang; and the folk-songs give us a wonderful picture of the +class hatreds which were rending asunder the old conditions of mediaeval +life, and preparing the way for a new world. + +This social ferment was increased by a sudden and mysterious rise in +prices, affecting first the articles of foreign produce, to which the +wealthier classes had become greatly addicted, and at last the ordinary +necessaries of life. The cause, it is now believed, was not the debasing +of the coinage, for that affected a narrow circle only; nor was it the +importation of precious metals from America, for that came later; it was +rather the increased output of the mines in Europe. Whatever the cause, +the thing was to contemporaries an irritating mystery, and each class in +society was disposed to blame the others for it. We have thus at the +beginning of the sixteenth century a restless social condition in Germany, +caused in great measure by economic causes which no one understood, but +whose results were painfully manifest in the crowds of sturdy beggars who +thronged the roads--the refuse of all classes in society, from the broken +noble and the disbanded mercenary soldier to the ruined peasant, the +workman out of employment, the begging friar, and the "wandering student." +It was into this mass of seething discontent that the spark of religious +protest fell--the one thing needed to fire the train and kindle the social +conflagration. This was the society to which Luther spoke, and its +discontent was the sounding-board which made his words reverberate. + + + + +Chapter V. Family And Popular Religious Life in the Decades Before the +Reformation.(67) + + + +§ 1. Devotion of Germany to the Roman Church. + + +The real roots of the spiritual life of Luther and of the other Reformers +ought to be sought for in the family and in the popular religious life of +the times. It is the duty of the historian to discover, if possible, what +religious instruction was given by parents to children in the pious homes +out of which most of the Reformers came, and what religious influences +confronted and surrounded pious lads after they had left the family +circle. Few have cared to prosecute the difficult task; and it is only +within late years that the requisite material has been accumulated. It has +to be sought for in autobiographies, diaries, and private letters; in the +books of popular devotion which the patience of ecclesiastical +archaeologists is exhuming and reprinting; in the references to the pious +confraternities of the later Middle Ages, and more especially to the +_Kalands_ among the artisans, which appear in town chronicles, and whose +constitutions are being slowly unearthed by local historical societies; in +the police regulations of towns and country districts which aim at curbing +the power of the clergy, and in the edicts of princes attempting to +enforce some of the recommendations of the Councils of Constance and +Basel; in the more popular hymns of the time, and in the sermons of the +more fervent preachers; in the pilgrim songs and the pilgrim guide-books; +and in a variety of other sources not commonly studied by Church +historians. + +On the surface no land seemed more devoted to the mediaeval Church and to +the Pope, its head, than did Germany in the half century before the +Reformation. A cultivated Italian, Aleander, papal nuncio at the Diet of +Worms, was astonished at the signs of disaffection he met with in +1520.(68) He had visited Germany frequently, and he was intimately +acquainted with many of the northern Humanists; and his opinion was that +down to 1510 (the date of his last visit) he had never been among a people +so devoted to the Bishop of Rome. No nation had exhibited such signs of +delight at the ending of the Schism and the re-establishment of the "Peace +of the Church." The Italian Humanists continually express their wonder at +the strength of the religious susceptibilities of the Germans; and the +papal Curia looked upon German devotion as a never-failing source of Roman +revenue. The Germans displayed an almost feverish anxiety to profit by all +the ordinary and extraordinary means of grace. They built innumerable +churches; their towns were full of conventual foundations; they bought +Indulgences, went on pilgrimages, visited shrines, reverenced relics in a +way that no other nation did. The piety of the Germans was proverbial. + +The number of churches was enormous for the population. Almost every tiny +village had its chapel, and every town of any size had several churches. +Church building and decoration was a feature of the age. In the town of +Dantzig 8 new churches had been founded or completed during the fifteenth +century. The "holy" city of Koeln (Cologne) at the close of the fifteenth +century contained 11 great churches, 19 parish churches, 22 monasteries, +12 hospitals, and 76 convents; more than a thousand Masses were said at +its altars every day. It was exceptionally rich in ecclesiastical +buildings, no doubt; but the smaller town of Brunswick had 15 churches, +over 20 chapels, 5 monasteries, 6 hospitals, and 12 Beguine-houses, and +its great church, dedicated to St. Blasius, had 26 altars served by 60 +ecclesiastics. So it was all over Germany. + +Besides the large numbers of monks and nuns who peopled the innumerable +monasteries and convents, a large part of the population belonged to some +semi-ecclesiastical association. Many were tertiaries of St. Francis; many +were connected with the Beguines: Koeln (Cologne) had 106 Beguine-houses; +Strassburg, over 60, and Basel, over 30. + +The churches and chapels, monasteries and religious houses, received all +kinds of offerings from rich and poor alike. In those days of unexampled +burgher prosperity and wealth, the town churches became "museums and +treasure-houses." The windows were filled with painted glass; weapons, +armour, jewels, pictures, tapestries were stored in the treasuries or +adorned the walls. Ancient inventories have been preserved of some of +these ecclesiastical accumulations of wealth. In the cathedral church in +Bern, to take one example, the head of St. Vincentius, the patron, was +adorned with a great quantity of gold, and with one jewel said to be +priceless; the treasury contained 70 gold and 50 silver cups, 2 silver +coffers, and 450 costly sacramental robes decked with jewels of great +value. The luxury, the artistic fancy, and the wealth which could minister +to both, all three were characteristic of the times, were lavished by the +Germans on their churches. + + + +§ 2. Preaching. + + +On the other hand, preaching took a place it had never previously held in +the mediaeval Church. Some distinguished Churchmen did not hesitate to say +that it was the most important duty the priest could perform--more +important than saying Mass. It was recognised that when the people began +to read the Bible and religious books in the vernacular, it became +necessary for the priests to be able to instruct their congregations +intelligently and sympathetically in sermons. Attempts were made to +provide the preachers with material for their sermon-making. The earliest +was the _Biblia Pauperum_ (the Bible for the _Pauperes Christi_, or the +preaching monks), which collects on one page pictures of Bible histories +fitted to explain each other, and adds short comments. Thus, on the +twenty-fifth leaf there are three pictures--in the centre the Crucifixion; +on the left Abraham about to slay Isaac, with the lamb in the foreground; +and on the left the Brazen Serpent and the healing of the Plague. More +scholarly preachers found a valuable commentary in the _Postilla_ of the +learned Franciscan Nicolas de Lyra (Lira or Lire, a village in Normandy), +who was the first real exegetical scholar, and to whom Luther was in later +days greatly indebted.(69) + +Manuals of Pastoral Theology were also written and published for the +benefit of the parish priests,--the most famous, under the quaint title, +_Dormi Secure_ (sleep in safety). It describes the more important portions +of the service, and what makes a good sermon; it gives the Lessons for the +Sunday services, the chief articles of the Christian faith, find adds +directions for pastoral work and the cure of souls. It is somewhat +difficult to describe briefly the character of the preaching. Some of it +was very edifying and deservedly popular. The sermons of John Herolt were +printed, and attained a very wide circulation. No fewer than forty-one +editions appeared. Much of the preaching was the exposition of themes +taken from the Scholastic Theology treated in the most technical way. Many +of the preachers seem to have profaned their office in the search after +popularity, and mingled very questionable stories and coarse jokes with +their exhortations. The best known of the preachers who flourished at the +close of the fifteenth century was John Geiler of Keysersberg (in Elsass +near Colmar), the friend of Sebastian Brand, and a member of the Humanist +circle of Strassburg. The position he filled illustrates the eagerness of +men of the time to encourage preaching. A burgher of Strassburg, Peter +Schott, left a sum of money to endow a preacher, who was to be a doctor of +theology, one who had not taken monk's vows, and who was to preach to the +people in the vernacular; a special pulpit was erected in the Strassburg +Minster for the preacher provided by this foundation, who was John Geiler. +His sermons are full of exhortations to piety and correct living. He +lashed the vices and superstitions of his time. He denounced relic +worship, pilgrimages, buying indulgences, and the corruptions in the +monasteries and convents. He spoke against the luxurious living of Popes +and prelates, and their trafficking in the sale of benefices. He made +sarcastic references to the papal decretals and to the quibblings of +Scholastic Theology. He paints the luxuries and vices he denounced so very +clearly, that his writings are a valuable mine for the historian of +popular morals. He was a stern preacher of morals, but his sermons contain +very little of the gospel message. As we read them we can understand +Luther's complaint, that while he had listened to many a sermon on the +sins of the age, and to many a discourse expounding scholastic themes, he +had never heard one which declared the love of God to man in the mission +and work of Jesus Christ. + + + +§ 3. Church Festivals. + + +The Church itself, recognising the fondness of the people for all kinds of +scenic display, delighted to gratify the prevailing taste by magnificent +processions, by gorgeous church ceremonial, by Passion and Miracle Plays. +Such scenes are continually described in contemporary chronicles. The +processions were arranged for Corpus Christi Day, for Christmas, for +Harvest Thanksgivings, when the civic fathers requested the clergy to pray +for rain, or when a great papal official visited the town. We hear of one +at Erfurt which began at five o'clock in the morning, and, with its visits +to the stations of the Cross and the services at each, did not end till +noon. The school children of the town, numbering 948, headed the +procession, then came 312 priests, then the whole University,--in all, 2141 +persons,--and the monks belonging to the five monasteries followed. The +Holy Sacrament carried by the chief ecclesiastics, and preceded by a large +number of gigantic candles, occupied the middle of the procession. The +town council followed, then all the townsmen, then the women and maidens. +The troop of maidens was 2316 strong. They had garlands on their heads, +and their hair flowed down over their shoulders; they carried lighted +candles in their hands, and they marched modestly looking to the ground. +Two beautiful girls walked at their head with banners, followed by four +with lanterns. In the centre was the fairest, clad in black and barefoot, +carrying a large and splendid cross, and by her side one of the town +councillors chosen for his good looks. Everything was arranged with a view +to artistic effect.(70) + +The Passion and Miracle Plays(71) were of great use in instructing the +people in the contents of Scripture, being almost always composed of +biblical scenes and histories. They were often very elaborate; sometimes +more than one hundred actors were needed to fill the parts; and the plays +were frequently so lengthy that they lasted for two or three days. The +ecclesiastical managers felt that the continuous presentation of grave and +lofty scenes and sentiments might weary their audiences, and they mixed +them with lighter ones, which frequently degenerated into buffoonery and +worse. The sacred and severe pathos of the Passion was interlarded with +coarse jokes about the devil; and the most solemn conceptions were +profaned. These Mysteries were generally performed in the great churches, +and the buildings dedicated to sacred things witnessed scenes of the +coarsest humour, to the detriment of all religious feeling. The more +serious Churchmen felt the profanation, and tried to prohibit the +performance of plays interlarded with rude and indecent scenes within the +churches and churchyards. Their interference came too late; the rough +popular taste demanded what it had been accustomed to; sacred histories +and customs coming down from a primitive heathenism were mixed together, +and the people lost the sense of sacredness which ought to attach itself +to the former. The Feast of the Ass, to mention one, was supposed to +commemorate the Flight to Egypt. A beautiful girl, holding a child in her +lap, was seated on an ass decked with splendid trappings of gold cloth, +and was led in procession by the clergy through the principal streets of +the town to the parish church. The girl on her ass was conducted into the +church and placed near the high altar, and the Mass and other services +were each concluded by the whole congregation braying. There is indeed an +old MS. extant with a rubric which orders the priest to bray thrice on +elevating the Host.(72) At other seasons of popular licence, all the parts +of the church service, even the most solemn, were parodied by the profane +youth of the towns.(73) + +All this, however, tells us little about the intimate religious life and +feelings of the people, which is the important matter for the study of the +roots of the great ecclesiastical revolt. + +When the evidence collected from the sources is sifted, it will be found +that the religious life of the people at the close of the fifteenth and +beginning of the sixteenth centuries is full of discordant elements, and +makes what must appear to us a very incongruous mosaic. If classification +be permissible, which it scarcely is (for religious types always refuse to +be kept distinct, and always tend to run into each other), one would be +disposed to speak of the simple homely piety of the family circle--the +religion taught at the mother's knee, the _Kinderlehre_, as Luther called +it; of a certain flamboyant religion which inspired the crowds; of a calm +anti-clerical religion which grew and spread silently throughout Germany; +of the piety of the praying-circles, the descendants of the fourteenth +century Mystics. + + + +§ 4. The Family Religious Life. + + +The biographies of some of the leaders of the Reformation, when they +relate the childish reminiscences of the writers, bear unconscious witness +to the kind of religion which was taught to the children in pious burgher +and peasant families. We know that Luther learned the Creed, the Ten +Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. He knew such simple evangelical hymns +as "Ein kindelein so lobelich,"(74) "Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist," +and "Crist ist erstanden." Children were rocked to sleep while the mothers +sang: + + + "Ach lieber Heere Jhesu Christ + Sid Du ein Kind gewesen bist, + So gib ouch disem Kindelin + Din Gnod und ouch den Segen den. + Ach Jhesu, Heere min, + Behuet diz Kindelin. + + Nun sloff, nun sloff, min Kindelin, + Jhesus der sol din buelli sin, + Der well, daz dir getroume wol + Und werdest aller Tugent vol. + Ach Jhesus, Heere min, + Behuet diz Kindelin."(75) + + +These songs or hymns, common before the Reformation, were sung as +frequently after the break with Rome. The continuity in the private +devotional life before and after the advent of the Reformation is a thing +to be noted. Few hymns were more popular during the last decade of the +fifteenth century than the "In dulci Jubilo" in which Latin and German +mingled. The first and last verses were: + + + "In dulci jubilo, + Nun singet und seid froh! + Unsers Herzens Wonne + Leit in praesepio, + Und leuchtet als die Sonne + Matris in gremio. + Alpha es et O, + Alpha es et O! + + Ubi sunt gaudia? + Nirgends mehr denn da, + Da die Engel singen + Nova cantica, + Und die Schellen klingen + In regis curia. + Eya, waer'n wir da, + Eya, waer'n wir da!" + + +This hymn continued to enjoy a wonderful popularity in the German +Protestant churches and families until quite recently, and during the +times of the Reformation it spread far beyond Germany.(76) In the +fifteenth-century version it contained one verse in praise of the Virgin: + + + "Mater et filia + Du bist, Jungfraw Maria. + Wir weren all verloren + Per nostra crimina, + So hat sy uns erworben + Celorum gaudia. + Eya, waer'n wir da, + Eya, waer'n wir da!" + + +which was either omitted in the post-Reformation versions, or there was +substituted: + + + "O Patris charitas, + O Nati lenitas! + Wir weren all verloren + Per nostra crimina, + So hat Er uns erworben + Coelorum gaudia. + Eya, waer'n wir da, + Eya, waer'n wir da."(77) + + +Nor was direct simple evangelical instruction lacking. Friedrich Mecum +(known better by his Latinised name of Myconius), who was born in 1491, +relates how his father, a substantial burgher belonging to Lichtenfels in +Upper Franconia, instructed him in religion while he was a child. "My dear +father," he says, "had taught me in my childhood the Ten Commandments, the +Lord's Prayer, and the Creed, and constrained me to pray always. For, said +he, 'Everything comes to us from God alone, and that _gratis_, free of +cost, and He will lead us and rule us, if we only diligently pray to +Him.' " We can trace this simple evangelical family religion away back +through the Middle Ages. In the wonderfully interesting Chronicle of +Brother Salimbene of the Franciscan Convent of Parma, which comes from the +thirteenth century, we are told how many of the better-disposed burghers +of the town came to the convent frequently to enjoy the religious +conversation of Brother Hugh. On one occasion the conversation turned upon +the mystical theology of Abbot Giaocchino di Fiore. The burghers professed +to be greatly edified, but said that they hoped that on the next evening +Brother Hugh would confine himself to telling them the _simple words of +Jesus_. + +The central thought in all evangelical religion is that the believer does +not owe his position before God, and his assurance of salvation, to the +good deeds which he really can do, but to the grace of God manifested in +the mission and the work of Christ; and the more we turn from the thought +of what we can do to the thought of what God has done for us, the stronger +will be the conviction that simple trust in God is that by which the +pardoning grace of God is appropriated. This double conception--God's grace +coming down upon us from above, and the believer's trust rising from +beneath to meet and appropriate it--was never absent from the simplest +religion of the Middle Ages. It did not find articulate expression in +mediaeval theology, for, owing to its enforced connection with Aristotelian +philosophy, that theology was largely artificial; but the thought itself +had a continuous and constant existence in the public consciousness of +Christian men and women, and appeared in sermons, prayers, and hymns, and +in the other ways in which the devotional life manifested itself. It is +found in the sermons of the greatest of mediaeval preachers, Bernard of +Clairvaux, and in the teaching of the most persuasive of religious guides, +Francis of Assisi. The one, Bernard, in spite of his theological training, +was able to rise above the thought of human merit recommending the sinner +to God; and the other, Francis, who had no theological training at all, +insisted that he was fitted to lead a life of imitation simply because he +had no personal merits whatsoever, and owed everything to the marvellous +mercy and grace of God given freely to him in the work of Christ. The +thought that all the good we can do comes from the wisdom and mercy of +God, and that without these gifts of grace we are sinful and worthless--the +feeling that all pardon and all holy living are free gifts of God's grace, +was the central thought round which in mediaeval, as in all times, the +faith of simple and pious people twined itself. It found expression in the +simpler mediaeval hymns, Latin and German. The utter need for sin-pardoning +grace is expressed and taught in the prayer of the _Canon of the Mass_. It +found its way, in spite of the theology, even into the official agenda of +the Church, where the dying are told that they must repose their +confidence upon Christ and His Passion as the sole ground of confidence in +their salvation. If we take the fourth book of Thomas a Kempis' _Imitatio +Christi_, it is impossible to avoid seeing that his ideas about the +sacrament of the Supper (in spite of the mistakes in them) kept alive in +his mind the thought of a free grace of God, and that he had a clear +conception that God's grace was freely given, and not merited by what man +can do. For the main thought with pious mediaeval Christians, however it +might be overlaid with superstitious conceptions, was that they received +in the sacrament a _gift_ of overwhelming greatness. Many a modern +Christian seems to think that the main idea is that in this sacrament one +_does_ something--makes a profession of Christianity. The old view went a +long way towards keeping people right in spite of errors, while the modern +view does a great deal towards leading them wrong in spite of truth. + +All these things combine to show us how there was a simple evangelical +faith among pious mediaeval Christians, and that their lives were fed upon +the same divine truths which lie at the basis of Reformation theology. The +truths were all there, as poetic thoughts, as earnest supplication and +confession, in fervent preaching or in fireside teaching. When mediaeval +Christians knelt in prayer, stood to sing their Redeemer's praises, spoke +as a dying man to dying men, or as a mother to the children about her +knees, the words and thoughts that came were what Luther and Zwingli and +Calvin wove into Reformation creeds, and expanded into that experimental +theology which was characteristic of the Reformation. + +When the printing-press began in the last decades of the fifteenth century +to provide little books to aid private and family devotion, it is not +surprising, after what has been said, to find how full many of them were +of simple evangelical piety. Some contained the Lord's Prayer, the Ten +Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, and occasionally a translation or +paraphrase of some of the Psalms, notably the 51st Psalm. Popular +religious instructions and catechisms for family use were printed. The +Catechism of Dietrich Koelde (written in 1470) says: "Man must place his +faith and hope and love on God alone, and not in any creature; he must +trust in nothing but in the work of Jesus Christ." The +_Seelenwurzgartlein_, a widely used book of devotion, instructs the +penitent: "Thou must place all thy hope and trust on nothing else than on +the work and death of Jesus Christ." The _Geistliche Streit_ of Ulrich +Krafft (1503) teaches the dying man to place all his trust on the "mercy +and goodness of God, and not on his own good works." Quotations might be +multiplied, all proving the existence of a simple evangelical piety, and +showing that the home experience of Friedrich Mecum (Myconius) was shared +in by thousands, and that there was a simple evangelical family religion +in numberless German homes in the end of the fifteenth century. + + + +§ 5. A superstitious Religion based on Fear. + + +When sensitive, religiously disposed boys left pious homes, they could not +fail to come in contact with a very different kind of religion. Many did +not need to quit the family circle in order to meet it. Near Mansfeld, +Luther's home, were noted pilgrimage places. Pilgrims, singly or in great +bands, passed to make their devotions before the wooden cross at +Kyffhaeuser, which was supposed to effect miraculous cures. The Bruno +Quertfort Chapel and the old chapel at Welfesholz were pilgrimage places. +Sick people were carried to spots near the cloister church at Wimmelberg, +where they could best hear the sound of the cloister bells, which were +believed to have a healing virtue. + +The latter half of the fifteenth century witnessed a great and +widespreading religious revival, which prolonged itself into the earlier +decades of the sixteenth, though the year 1475 may perhaps be taken as its +high-water mark. Its most characteristic feature was the impulse to make +pilgrimages to favoured shrines; and these pilgrimages were always +considered to be something in the nature of satisfactions made to God for +sins. With some of the earlier phenomena we have nothing here to do. + +The impetus to pilgrimages given after the great Schism by the celebration +in 1456 of the first Jubilee "after healing the wounds of the Church"; the +relation of these pilgrimages to the doctrines of Indulgences which, +formulated by the great Schoolmen of the thirteenth century, had changed +the whole penitential system of the mediaeval Church, must be passed over; +the curious socialist, anti-clerical, and yet deeply superstitious +movement led by the cowherd and village piper, Hans Boehm, has been +described. But one movement is so characteristic of the times, that it +must be noticed. In the years 1455-1459 all the chroniclers describe great +gatherings of children from every part of Germany, from town and village, +who, with crosses and banners, went on pilgrimage to St. Michael in +Normandy. The chronicler of Luebeck compares the spread of the movement to +the advance of the plague, and wonders whether the prompting arose from +the inspiration of God or from the instigation of the devil. When a band +of these child-pilgrims reached a town, carrying aloft crosses and banners +blazoned with a rude image of St. Michael, singing their special pilgrim +song,(78) the town's children were impelled to join them. How this strange +epidemic arose, and what put an end to it, seems altogether doubtful; but +the chronicles of almost every important town in Germany attest the facts, +and the contemporary records of North France describe the bands of +youthful pilgrims who traversed the country to go to St. Michael's Mount. + +During these last decades of the fifteenth century, a great fear seems to +have brooded over Central Europe. The countries were scourged by incessant +visits of the plague; new diseases, never before heard of, came to swell +the terror of the people. The alarm of a Turkish invasion was always +before their eyes. Bells tolled at midday in hundreds of German parishes, +calling the parishioners together for prayer against the incoming of the +Turks, and served to keep the dread always present to their minds. Mothers +threatened their disobedient children by calling on the Turk to come and +take them. It was fear that lay at the basis of this crude revival of +religion which marks the closing decades of the fifteenth century. It gave +rise to an urgent restlessness. Prophecies of evil were easily believed +in. Astrologers assumed a place and wielded a power which was as new as it +was strange. The credulous people welcomed all kinds of revelations and +proclamations of miraculous signs. At Wilsnack, a village in one of the +divisions of Brandenburg (Priegnitz), it had been alleged since 1383 that +a consecrated wafer secreted the Blood of Christ. Suddenly, in 1475, +people were seized with a desire to make a pilgrimage to this shrine. +Swarms of child-pilgrims again filled the roads--boys and girls, from eight +to eighteen years of age, bareheaded, clad only in their shirts, shouting, +"O Lord, have mercy upon us"--going to Wilsnack. Sometimes schoolmasters +headed a crowd of pilgrims; mothers deserted their younger children; +country lads and maids left their work in the fields to join the +processions. These pilgrims came mostly from Central Germany (1100 from +Eisleben alone), but the contagion spread to Austria and Hungary, and +great bands of youthful pilgrims appeared from these countries. They +travelled without provisions, and depended on the charity of the peasants +for food. Large numbers of these child-pilgrims did not know why they had +joined the throng; they had never heard of the _Bleeding Host_ towards +which they were journeying; when asked why they had set out, they could +only answer that they could not help it, that they saw the red cross at +the head of their little band, and had to follow it. Many of them could +not speak, all went weeping and groaning, shivering as if they had a fit +of ague. An unnatural strength supported them. Little boys and girls, some +of them not eight years old, from a small village near Bamberg, were said +to have marched, on their first setting forth, all day and the first night +the incredible distance of not less than eighty miles! Some towns tried to +put a stop to these pilgrimages. Erfurt shut its gates against the +youthful companies. The pilgrimages ended as suddenly as they had +begun.(79) + +Succeeding years witnessed similar astonishing pilgrimages--in 1489, to the +"black Mother of God" in Altoetting; in 1492, to the "Holy Blood" at +Sternberg; in the same year, to the "pitiful Bone" at Dornach; in 1499, to +the picture of the Blessed Virgin at Grimmenthal; in 1500, to the head of +St. Anna at Dueren; and in 1519, to the "Beautiful Mary" at Regensburg. + +Apart altogether from these sporadic movements, the last decades of the +fifteenth century were pre-eminently a time of pilgrimages. German princes +and wealthy merchants made pilgrimages to the Holy Land, visited the +sacred places there, and returned with numerous relics, which they stored +in favourite churches. Frederick the Wise, the Elector of Saxony, to be +known afterwards as the protector of Luther, made such a pilgrimage, and +placed the relics he had acquired in the Castle Church (the Church of All +Saints) in Wittenberg. He became an assiduous collector of relics, and had +commissioners on the Rhine, in the Netherlands, and at Venice, with orders +to procure him any sacred novelties they met with for sale.(80) He +procured from the Pope an Indulgence for all who visited the collection +and took part in the services of the church on All Saints' Day; for it is +one of the ironies of history that the church on whose door Luther nailed +his theses against Indulgences was one of the sacred edifices on which an +Indulgence had been bestowed, and that the day selected by Luther was the +yearly anniversary, which drew crowds to benefit by it.(81) + +A pilgrimage to the Holy Land was too costly and dangerous to be indulged +in by many. The richer Germans made pilgrimages to Rome, and the great +pilgrimage place for the middle-class or poorer Germans was Compostella in +Spain. Einsiedeln, in Switzerland, also attracted yearly swarms of +pilgrims. + +Guide-books were written for the benefit of these pious travellers, and +two of them, the most popular, have recently been reprinted. They are the +_Mirabilia Romae_ for Roman pilgrims, and the _Walfart und Strasse zu Sant +Jacob_ for travellers to Compostella. These little books had a wonderful +popularity. The _Mirabilia Romae_ went through nineteen Latin and at least +twelve German editions before the year 1500; it was also translated into +Italian and Dutch. It describes the various shrines at Rome where pilgrims +may win special gifts of grace by visiting and worshipping at them. Who +goes to the Lateran Church and worships there has "forgiveness of all +sins, both guilt and penalty." There is "a lovely little chapel" (probably +what is now called the Lateran Baptistry) near the Lateran, where the same +privileges may be won. The pilgrim who goes with good intention to the +High Altar of St. Peter's Church, "even if he has murdered his father or +his mother," is freed from all sin, "guilt as well as penalty," provided +he repents. The virtues of St. Croce seem to have been rated even higher. +If a man leaves his house with the intention of going to the shrine, even +if he die by the way, all his sins are forgiven him; and if he visits the +church he wins a thousand years' relief from Purgatory.(82) + +Compostella in Spain was the people's pilgrimage place. Before the +invention of printing we find traces of manuscript guides to travellers, +which were no doubt circulated among intending pilgrims, and afterwards +the services of the printing-press were early called in to assist. In the +Spanish archives at Simancas there are two single sheets, one of which +states the numerous Indulgences for the benefit of visitors at the shrine +of St. James, while the other enumerates the relics which are to be seen +and visited there. It mentions thirty-nine great relics--from the bones of +St. James, which lay under the great altar of the cathedral, to those of +St. Susanna, which were interred in a church outside the walls of the +town.(83) These leaflets were sold to the pilgrims, and were carried back +by them to Germany, where they stimulated the zeal and devotion of those +who intended to make the pilgrimage. Our pilgrim's guide-book, the +_Walfart und Strasse zu Sant Jacob_,(84) deals almost exclusively with the +road. The author was a certain Hermann Kuenig of Vach, who calls himself a +_Mergen-knecht_, or servant of the Virgin Mary. The well-known pilgrim +song, "Of Saint James" (_Von Sant Jacob_), told how those who reached the +end of their journey got, through the intercession of St. James, +forgiveness from the guilt and penalty (_von Pein und Schuldt_) of all +their sins; it tells the pilgrims to provide themselves with two pairs of +shoes, a water-bottle and spoon, a satchel and staff, a broad-brimmed hat +and a cloak, both trimmed with leather in the places likeliest to be +frayed, and both needed as a protection against wind and rain and +snow.(85) It charges them to take permits from their parish priests to +dispense with confession, for they were going to foreign lands where they +would not find priests who spoke German. It warns them that they might die +far from home and find a grave on the pilgrimage route. Our guide-book +omits all these things. It is written by a man who has made the pilgrimage +on foot; who had observed minutely all the turns of the road, and could +warn fellow-pilgrims of the difficulties of the way. He gives the +itinerary from town to town; where to turn to the right and where to the +left; what conspicuous buildings mark the proper path; where the traveller +will find people who are generous to poor pilgrims, and where the +inhabitants are uncharitable and food and drink must be paid for; where +hostels abound, and those parts of the road on which there are few, and +where the pilgrims must buy their provisions beforehand and carry them in +their satchels; where sick pilgrims can find hospitals on the way, and +what treatment they may expect there;(86) at what hostels they must change +their money into French and Spanish coin. In brief, the booklet is a +mediaeval "Baedeker," compiled with German accuracy for the benefit of +German pilgrims to the renowned shrine of St. James of Compostella. This +little book went through several editions between 1495 and 1521, and is of +itself a proof of the popularity of this pilgrimage place. In the last +decades of the fifteenth century there arose a body of men and women who +might be called professional pilgrims, and who were continually on the +road between Germany and Spain. A pilgrimage was one of the earliest +so-called "satisfactions" which might be done vicariously, and the +Brethren of St. James (_Jacobs-Brueder_) made the pilgrimage regularly, +either on behalf of themselves or of others. + +Many of these pilgrims were men and women of indifferent character,(87) +who had been sent on a pilgrimage as an ecclesiastical punishment for +their sins. The _Chronicles of the Zimmer Family_(88) gives several cases +of criminals, who had committed murder or theft or other serious crimes +between 1490 and 1520, who were sent to Santiago as a punishment. Even in +the last decades of the fifteenth century, when the greater part of the +pilgrims were devout in their way, it was known only too well that +pilgrimages were not helpful to a moral life. Stern preachers of +righteousness like Geiler of Keysersberg and Berchtold of Regensburg +denounced pilgrimages, and said that they created more sins than they +yielded pardons.(89) Parish priests continually forbade their women +penitents, especially if they were unmarried, from going on a pilgrimage. +But these warnings and rebukes were in vain. The prevailing terror had +possessed the people, and they journeyed from shrine to shrine seeking +some relief for their stricken consciences. + +A marked characteristic of this revival which found such striking outcome +in these pilgrimages was the thought that Jesus was to be looked upon as +the Judge who was to come to punish the wicked. His saving and +intercessory work was thrust into the background. Men forgot that He was +the Saviour and the Intercessor; and as the human heart craves for someone +to intercede for it, another intercessor had to be found. This gracious +personality was discovered in the Virgin Mother, who was to be entreated +to intercede with her Son on behalf of poor sinning human creatures. The +last half of the fifteenth century saw a deep-seated and widely-spread +craving to cling to the protection of the Virgin Mother with a strength +and intensity hitherto unknown in mediaeval religion. It witnessed the +furthest advance that had yet been made towards what must be called +Mariolatry. This devotion expressed itself, as religious emotion +continually does, in hymns; a very large proportion of the mediaeval hymns +in praise of the Virgin were written in the second half of the fifteenth +century--the period of this strange revival based upon fear. Dread of the +Son as Judge gave rise to the devotion to the Mother as the intercessor. +Little books for private and family devotion were printed, bearing such +titles as the _Pearl of the Passion_ and the _Little Gospel_, containing, +with long comments, the words of our Lord on the cross to John and to +Mary. She became the ideal woman, the ideal mother, the "Mother of God," +the _mater dolorosa_, with her heart pierced by the sword, the sharer in +the redemptive sufferings of her Son, retaining her sensitive woman's +heart, ready to listen to the appeals of a suffering, sorrowful humanity. +We can see this devotion to the Virgin Mother impregnating the social +revolts from Hans Boehm to Joss Fritz. The theology of the schools followed +in the wake of the popular sentiment, and the doctrine of the Immaculate +Conception was more strictly defined and found its most strenuous +supporters during the later decades of this fifteenth century. + +The thought of motherly intercession went further; the Virgin herself had +to be interceded with to induce her to plead with her Son for men sunk in +sin, and _her_ mother (St. Anna) became the object of a cult which may +almost be said to be quite new. Hymns were written in her praise.(90) +Confraternities, modelled on the confraternities dedicated to the Blessed +Virgin, were formed in order to bring the power of the prayers of numbers +to bear upon her. These confraternities spread all over Germany and beyond +it.(91) It is almost possible to trace the widening area of the cult from +the chronicles of the period. The special cult of the Virgin seems to have +begun, at least in its extravagant popular form, in North France, and to +have spread from France through Germany and Spain; but so far as it can be +traced, this cult of St. Anna, "the Grandmother," had a German origin, and +the devotion manifested itself most deeply on German soil. Even the +Humanist poets sang her praises with enthusiasm, and such collectors of +relics as Frederick of Saxony and the Cardinal Archbishop of Mainz +rejoiced when they were able to add a thumb of St. Anna to their store. +Luther himself tells us that "St. Anna was his idol"; and Calvin speaks of +his mother's devotion to the saint. Her name was graven on many a parish +church bell, and every pull at the ropes and clang of the bell was +supposed to be a prayer to her to intercede. The Virgin and St. Anna +brought in their train other saints who were also believed to be the true +intercessors. The three bells of the church in which Luther was baptized +bore the following inscriptions carved deeply in the brass:--"God help us; +Mary have mercy. 1499." "Help us Anna, also St. Peter, St. Paul. 1509." +"Help us God, Mary, Anna, St. Peter, Paul, Arnold, Stephan, Simon. 1509." +The popular religion always represented Jesus, Mecum (Myconius) tells us, +as the stern Judge who would convict and punish all those who had not +secured righteousness by the intercession of the saints or by their own +good works. + +This revival of religion, crude as it was, and based on fear, had a +distinct effect for good on a portion of the clergy, and led to a great +reformation of morals among those who came under its influence. The papal +Schism, which had lasted till 1449, had for one of its results the +weakening of all ecclesiastical discipline, and its consequences were seen +in the growing immorality which pervaded all classes of the clergy. So far +as one can judge, the revival of religion described above had not very +much effect on the secular clergy. Whether we take the evidence from the +chronicles of the time or from visitations of the bishops, the morals of +the parish priests were extremely low, and the private lives of the higher +clergy in Germany notoriously corrupt. The occupants of episcopal sees +were for the most part the younger brothers of the great princes, and had +been placed in the religious life for the sake of the ecclesiastical +revenues. The author of the _Chronicles of the Zimmer Family_ tells us +that at the festive gatherings which accompanied the meetings of the Diet, +the young nobles, lay and clerical, spent most of their time at dice and +cards. As he passed through the halls, picking his way among groups of +young nobles lying on the floor (for tables and chairs were rare in these +days), he continually heard the young count call out to the young bishop, +"Play up, parson; it is your turn." The same writer describes the retinue +of a great prelate, who was always accompanied to the Diet by a concubine +dressed in man's clothes. Nor were the older Orders of monks, the +Benedictines and their offshoots, greatly influenced by the revival. It +was different, however, with those Orders of monks who came into close +contact with the people, and caught from them the new fervour. The +Dominicans, the great preaching Order, were permeated by reform. The +Franciscans, who had degenerated sadly from their earlier lives of +self-denial, partook of a new life. Convent after convent reformed itself, +and the inmates began to lead again the lives their founder had +contemplated. The fire of the revival, however, burnt brightest among the +Augustinian Eremites, the Order which Luther joined, and they represented, +as none of the others did, all the characteristics of the new movement. + +These Augustinian Eremites had a somewhat curious history. They had +nothing in common with St. Augustine save the name, and the fact that a +Pope had given them the rule of St. Augustine as a basis for their +monastic constitution. They had originally been hermits, living solitary +lives in mountainous parts of Italy and of Germany. Many Popes had desired +to bring them under conventual rule, and this was at last successfully +done. They shared as no other Order had done in the revival of the second +half of the fifteenth century, and exhibited in their lives all its +religious characteristics. No Order of monks contained such devoted +servants of the Virgin Mother. She was the patron along with St. +Augustine. Her image stood in the chapter-house of every convent. The +theologians of the Augustinian Eremites vied with those of the Franciscans +in spreading the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. They did much to +spread the cult of the "Blessed Anna." They were devoted to the Papacy. +One of their learned men, John of Palz, one of the two professors of +theology in the Erfurt Convent when Luther entered it as a novice, was the +most strenuous defender of the doctrine of Attrition and of the religious +value of Indulgences. With all this their lives were more self-denying +than those of most monks. They cultivated theological learning, and few +Universities in Germany were without an Augustinian Eremite who acted as +professor of philosophy or of theology. They also paid great attention to +the art of preaching, and every large monastery had a special preacher who +attracted crowds of the laity to the convent chapel. Their monasteries +were usually placed in large towns; and their devout lives, their +learning, and the popular gifts of their preachers, made them favourites +with the townspeople. They were the most esteemed Order in Germany. + +These last decades of the fifteenth century were the days of the +resuscitation of the mendicant Orders and the revival of their power over +the people. The better disposed among the princes and among the wealthier +burghers invariably selected their confessors from the monks of the +mendicant Orders, and especially from the Augustinian Eremites. The +chapels of the Franciscans and of the Eremites were thronged, and those of +the parish clergy were deserted. The common people took for their +religious guides men who shared the new revival, and who proved their +sincerity by self-denying labours. It was in vain that the Roman Curia +published regulations insisting that every parishioner must confess to the +priest of the parish at least once a year, and that it explained again and +again that the personal character of the ministrant did not affect the +efficacy of the sacraments administered by him. So long as poorly clad, +emaciated, clean-living Franciscan or Eremite priests could be found to +act as confessors, priests, or preachers, the people deserted the parish +clergy, flocked to their confessionals, waited on their serving the Mass, +and thronged their chapels to listen to their sermons. These decades were +the time of the last revival of the mendicant monks, who were the +religious guides in this flamboyant popular religion which is so much in +evidence during our period. + + + +§ 6. A non-Ecclesiastical Religion. + + +The third religious movement which belongs to the last decades of the +fifteenth and the earlier decades of the sixteenth century was of a kind +so different from, and even contrary to, what has just been described, +that it is with some surprise that the student finds he must recognise its +presence alongside of the other. It was the silent spread of a quiet, +sincere, but non-ecclesiastical religion. Historians usually say nothing +about this movement, and it is only a minute study of the town chronicles +and of the records of provincial and municipal legislation that reveals +its power and extent. It has always been recognised that Luther's father +was a man of a deeply religious turn of mind, although he commonly +despised the clergy, and thought that most monks were rogues or fools; but +what is not recognised is that in this he represented thousands of quiet +and pious Germans in all classes of society. We find traces of the silent, +widespreading movement in the ecclesiastical legislation of German +princes, in the police regulations, and in the provisions for the support +of the poor among the burghers; in the constitutions and practices of the +confraternities among the lower classes, and especially among the artisans +in the towns; and in the numerous translations of the Vulgate into the +vernacular. + +The reforms sketched by the Councils of Constance and of Basel had been +utterly neglected by the Roman Curia, and in consequence several German +princes, while they felt the hopelessness of insisting on a general +purification of the Church, resolved that these reforms should be carried +out within their own dominions. As early as 1446, Duke William of Saxony +had published decrees which interfered with the pretensions of the Church +to be quite independent of the State. His regulations about the observance +of the Sunday, his forbidding ecclesiastical courts to interfere with +Saxon laymen, his stern refusal to allow any Saxon to appeal to a foreign +jurisdiction, were all more or less instances of the interference of the +secular power within what had been supposed to be the exclusive province +of the ecclesiastical. He went much further, however. He enacted that it +belonged to the secular power to see that parish priests and their +superiors within his dominions lived lives befitting their vocation--a +conception which was entirely at variance with the ecclesiastical +pretensions of the Middle Ages. He also declared it to be within the +province of the secular power to visit officially and to reform all the +convents within his dominions. So far as proofs go, it is probable that +these declarations about the rights of the civil authorities to exercise +discipline over the parish priests and their superiors remained a dead +letter. We hear of no such reformation being carried out. But the +visitation of the Saxon monasteries was put in force in spite of the +protests of the ecclesiastical powers. Andreas Proles would never have +been able to carry out his proposals of reform in the convents of the +Augustinian Eremites but for the support he received from the secular +princes against his ecclesiastical superiors in Rome. The Dukes Ernest and +Albrecht carried out Duke William's conceptions about the relation of the +civil to the ecclesiastical authorities in their ordinances of 1483, and +the Elector Frederick the Wise was heir to this ecclesiastical policy of +his family. + +The records of the Electorate of Brandenburg, investigated by Priebatsch +and described by him in the _Zeitschrift fuer Kirchengeschichte_(92) +testify to the same ideas at work there. A pious prince like Frederick II. +of Brandenburg removed unworthy Church dignitaries and reinstituted them, +thus taking upon himself the oversight of the Church. Appeals to Rome were +forbidden under penalties. Gradually under Frederick and his successors +there arose what was practically a national Church of Brandenburg, which +was almost completely under the control of the civil power, and almost +entirely separated from Roman control. + +The towns also interfered in what had hitherto been believed to be within +the exclusive domain of the ecclesiastical authorities. They recognised +the harm which the numerous Church festivals and saints' days were doing +to the people, and passed regulations about their observance, all of them +tending to lessen the number of the days on which men were compelled by +ecclesiastical law to be idle. When Luther pleaded in his _Address to the +Nobility of the German Nation_ for the abolition of the ecclesiastical +laws enforcing idleness on the numerous ecclesiastical holy days, he only +suggested an extension and wider application of the police regulations +which were in force within his native district of Mansfeld. + +This non-ecclesiastical feeling appears strongly in the change of view +about Christian charity which marks the close of the fifteenth century. + +Nothing shows how the Church of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries +had instilled the mind of Jesus into the peoples of Europe like the zeal +with which they tried to do their duty by the poor, the sick, and the +helpless. Institutions, founded by individuals or by corporations, for the +purpose of housing the destitute abounded, and men and women willingly +dedicated themselves to the service of the unfortunate. + + + "The Beguins crowned with flapping hats, + O'er long-drawn bloodless faces blank, + And gowns unwashed to wrap their lank + Lean figures,"(93) + + +were sisters of mercy in every mediaeval town. Unfortunately the lessons of +the Church included the thought that begging was a Christian virtue; while +the idea that because charity is taught by the law of Christ, its exercise +must be everywhere superintended by ecclesiastics, was elevated to a +definite principle of action, if not to something directly commanded by +the law of God. The Reformation protested against these two ideas, and the +silent anticipation of this protest is to be found in the +non-ecclesiastical piety of the close of the fifteenth century. + +The practice of begging, its toleration and even encouragement, was almost +universal. In some of the benevolent institutions the sick and the +pensioners were provided from the endowment with all the necessaries of +life, but it was generally thought becoming that they should beg them from +the charitable. The very fact of begging seemed to raise those who shared +in it to the level of members of a religious association. St. Francis, the +"imitator of Christ," had taught his followers to beg, and this great +example sanctified the practice. It is true that the begging friars were +always the butt of the satirists of the close of the fifteenth century. +They delighted to portray the mendicant monk, with his sack, into which he +seemed able to stuff everything: honey and spice, nutmegs, pepper, and +preserved ginger, cabbage and eggs, poultry, fish, and new clothes, milk, +butter, and cheese; cheese especially, and of all kinds--ewe's milk and +goat's milk, hard cheese and soft cheese, large cheeses and small +cheeses--were greedily demanded by these "cheese hunters," as they were +satirically called. On their heels tramped a host of semi-ecclesiastical +beggars, all of them with professional names--men who begged for a church +that was building, or for an altar-cloth, or to hansel a young priest at +his first Mass; men who carried relics about for the charitable to +kiss--some straw from the manger of Bethlehem, or a feather from the wing +of the angel Gabriel; the Brethren of St. James, who performed continual +and vicarious pilgrimages to Compostella, and sometimes robbed and +murdered on the road; the Brethren of St. Anthony, who had the special +privilege of wearing a cross and carrying a bell on their begging visits. +These were all ecclesiastical beggars. The ordinary beggars did their best +to obtain some share of the sanctity which surrounded the profession; they +carried with them the picture of some saint, or placed the cockle-shell, +the badge of a pilgrim, in their hats, and secured a quasi-ecclesiastical +standing.(94) Luther expressed not merely his own opinion on this plague +of beggars in his _Address to the Nobility of the German Nation_, but what +had been thought and partially practised by quiet laymen for several +decades. Some towns began to make regulations against promiscuous begging +by able-bodied persons, provided work for them, seized their children, and +taught them trades--all of which sensible doings were against the spirit of +the mediaeval Church. + +The non-ecclesiastical religious feeling, however, appears much more +clearly when the history of the charitable foundations is examined. The +invariable custom during the earlier Middle Ages was that charitable +bequests were left to the management of the Church and the clergy. At the +close of the fifteenth century the custom began to alter. The change from +clerical to lay management was at first probably due mainly to the +degeneracy of the clergy, and to the belief that the funds set apart for +the poor were not properly administered. The evidences of this are to be +found in numerous instances of the civic authorities attempting, and +successfully, to take the management of charitable foundations out of the +hands of ecclesiastical authorities, and to vest them in lay management. +But this cannot have been the case always. We should rather say that it +began to dawn upon men that although charity was part of the law of +Christ, this did not necessarily mean that all charities must be placed +under the control of the clergy or other ecclesiastical administrators. +Hence we find during the later years of the fifteenth century continual +instances of bequests for the poor placed in the hands of the town council +or of boards of laymen. That this was done without any animus against the +Church is proved by the fact that the same testator is found giving +benefactions to foundations which are under clerical and to others under +lay management. Out of the funds thus accumulated the town councils began +a system of caring for the poor of the city, which consisted in giving +tokens which could be exchanged for so much bread or woollen cloth, or +shoes, or wood for firing, at the shops of dealers who were engaged for +the purpose. How far this new and previously unheard of lay management, in +what had hitherto been the peculiar possession of the clergy, had spread +before the close of the fifteenth century, it is impossible to say. No +archaeologist has yet made an exhaustive study of the evidence lying buried +in archives of the mediaeval towns of Germany; but enough has been +collected by Kriegk(95) and others to show that it had become very +extensive. The laity saw that they were quite able to perform this +peculiarly Christian work apart from any clerical direction. + +Another interesting series of facts serves also to show the growth of a +non-ecclesiastical religious sentiment. The later decades of the fifteenth +century saw the rise of innumerable associations, some of them definitely +religious, and all of them with a religious side, which are unlike what we +meet with earlier. They did not aim to be, like the praying circles of the +Mystics or of the _Gottesfreunde, ecclesiolae in ecclesia_, strictly +non-clerical or even anti-clerical. They had no difficulty in placing +themselves under the protection of the Church, in selecting the ordinary +ecclesiastical buildings for their special services, and in employing +priests to conduct their devotions; but they were distinctively lay +associations, and lived a religious life in their own way, without any +regard to the conceptions of the higher Christian life which the Church +was accustomed to present to its devout disciples. Some were associations +for prayer; others for the promotion of the "cult" of a special saint, +like the confraternities dedicated to the Virgin Mother or the +associations which spread the "cult" of the Blessed Anna; but by far the +largest number were combinations of artisans, and resembled the workmen's +"gilds" of the Roman Empire. + +Perhaps one of the best known of these associations formed for the purpose +of encouraging prayer was the "Brotherhood of the Eleven Thousand +Virgins," commonly known under the quaint name of _St. Ursula's Little +Ship_. The association was conceived by a Carthusian monk of Cologne, and +it speedily became popular. Frederick the Wise was one of its patrons, his +secretary, Dr. Pfeffinger, one of its supporters; it numbered its +associates by the thousand; its praises were sung in a quaint old German +hymn.(96) No money dues were exacted from its members. The only duty +exacted was to pray regularly, and to learn to better one's life through +the power of prayer. This was one type of the pious brotherhoods of the +fifteenth century. It was the best known of its kind, and there were many +others. But among the brotherhoods which bear testimony to the spread of a +non-ecclesiastical piety none are more important than the confraternities +which went by the names of _Kalands_ or _Kalandsgilden_ in North Germany +and _Zechen_ in Austria. These associations were useful in a variety of +ways. They were unions for the practice of religion; for mutual aid in +times of sickness; for defence in attack; and they also served the purpose +of insurance societies and of burial clubs. It is with their religious +side that we have here to do. It was part of the bond of association that +all the brethren and sisters (for women were commonly admitted) should +meet together at stated times for a common religious service. The +brotherhood selected the church in which this was held, and so far as we +can see the chapels of the Franciscans or of the Augustinian Eremites were +generally chosen. Sometimes an altar was relegated to their exclusive use; +sometimes, if the church was a large one, a special chapel. The +interesting thing to be noticed is that the rules and the modes of +conducting the religious services of the association were entirely in the +hands of the brotherhood itself, and that these laymen insisted on +regulating them in their own way. Luther has a very interesting sermon, +entitled _Sermon upon the venerable Sacrament of the holy true Body of +Christ and of the Brotherhoods_, the latter half of which is devoted to a +contrast between good brotherhoods and evil ones. Those brotherhoods are +evil, says Luther, in which the religion of the brethren is expressed in +hearing a Mass on one or two days of the year, while by guzzling and +drinking continually at the meetings of the brotherhood, they contrive to +serve the devil the greater part of their time. A true brotherhood spreads +its table for its poorer members, it aids those who are sick or infirm, it +provides marriage portions for worthy young members of the association. He +ends with a comparison between the true brotherhood and the Church of +Christ. Theodore Kolde remarks that a careful monograph on the +brotherhoods of the end of the fifteenth century in the light of this +sermon of Luther's would afford great information about the popular +religion of the period. Unfortunately, no one has yet attempted the task, +but German archaeologists are slowly preparing the way by printing, chiefly +from MS. sources, accounts of the constitution and practices of many of +these Kalands. + +From all this it may be seen that there was in these last decades of the +fifteenth and in the earlier of the sixteenth centuries the growth of what +may be called a non-ecclesiastical piety, which was quietly determined to +bring within the sphere of the laity very much that had been supposed to +belong exclusively to the clergy. The _jus episcopale_ which Luther +claimed for the civil authorities in his tract on the _Liberty of the +Christian Man_, had, in part at least, been claimed and exercised in +several of the German principalities and municipalities; the practice of +Christian charity and its management were being taken out of the hands of +the clergy and entrusted to the laity; and the brotherhoods were making it +apparent that men could mark out their religious duties in a way deemed +most suitable for themselves without asking any aid from the Church, +further than to engage a priest whom they trusted to conduct divine +service and say the Masses they had arranged for. + +The appearance of numerous translations of the Scriptures into the +vernacular, unauthorised by the officials of the mediaeval Church, and +jealously suspected by them, appears to confirm the growth and spread of +this non-ecclesiastical piety. The relation of the Church of the Middle +Ages, earlier and later, to vernacular translations of the Vulgate is a +complex question. The Scriptures were always declared to be the supreme +source and authority for all questions of doctrines and morals, and in the +earlier stages of the Reformation controversy the supreme authority of the +Holy Scriptures was not supposed to be one of the matters in dispute +between the contending parties. This is evident when we remember that the +_Augsburg __ Confession_, unlike the later confessions of the Reformed +Churches, does not contain any article affirming the supreme authority of +Scripture. That was not supposed to be a matter of debate. It was reserved +for the Council of Trent, for the first time, to place _traditiones sine +Scripto_ on the same level of authority with the Scriptures of the Old and +New Testaments. Hence, many of the small books, issued from convent +presses for the instruction of the people during the decades preceding the +Reformation, frequently declare that the whole teaching of the Church is +to be found within the books of the Holy Scriptures. + +It is, of course, undoubted that the mediaeval Church forbade over and over +again the reading of the Scriptures in the Vulgate and especially in the +vernacular, but it may be asserted that these prohibitions were almost +always connected with attempts to suppress heretical or schismatic +revolts.(97) + +On the other hand, no official encouragement of the reading of the +Scriptures in the vernacular by the people can be found during the whole +of the Middle Ages, nor any official patronage of vernacular translations. +The utmost that was done in the way of tolerating, it can scarcely be said +of encouraging, a knowledge of the vernacular Scriptures was the issue of +Psalters in the vernacular, of Service-Books, and, in the fifteenth +century, of the _Plenaria_--little books which contained translations of +some of the paragraphs of the Gospels and Epistles read in the Church +service accompanied with legends and popular tales. Translations of the +Scriptures were continually reprobated by Popes and primates for various +reasons.(98) It is also unquestionable that a knowledge of the Scriptures +in the vernacular, especially by uneducated men and women, was almost +always deemed a sign of heretical tendency. "The third cause of heresy," +says an Austrian inquisitor, writing about the end of the thirteenth +century, "is that they translate the Old and New Testaments into the +vulgar tongue; and so they learn and teach. I have heard and seen a +certain country clown who repeated the Book of Job word for word, and +several who knew the New Testament perfectly."(99) A survey of the +evidence seems to lead to the conclusion that the rulers of the mediaeval +Church regarded a knowledge of the vernacular Scriptures with grave +suspicion, but that they did not go the length of condemning entirely +their possession by persons esteemed trustworthy, whether clergy, monks, +nuns, or distinguished laymen. + +Yet we have in the later Middle Ages, ever since Wiclif produced his +English version, the gradual publication of the Scriptures in the +vernaculars of Europe. This was specially so in Germany; and when the +invention of printing had made the diffusion of literature easy, it is +noteworthy that the earliest presses in Germany printed many more books +for family and private devotion, many more _Plenaria_, and many more +editions of the Bible than of the classics. Twenty-two editions of the +Psalter in German appeared before 1509, and twenty-five of the Gospels and +Epistles before 1518. No less than fourteen (some say seventeen) versions +of the whole Bible were printed in High-German and three in Low-German +during the last decades of the fifteenth and the earlier decades of the +sixteenth century--all translations from the Vulgate. The first was issued +by John Metzel in Strassburg in 1466. Then followed another Strassburg +edition in 1470, two Augsburg editions in 1473, one in the Swiss dialect +in 1474, two in Augsburg in 1477, one in Augsburg in 1480, one in Nuernberg +in 1483, one in Strassburg in 1485, and editions in Augsburg in 1487, +1490, 1507, and 1518. A careful comparison of these printed vernacular +Bibles proves that the earlier editions were independent productions; but +as edition succeeded edition the text became gradually assimilated until +there came into existence a German Vulgate, which was used +indiscriminately by those who adhered to the mediaeval Church and those who +were dissenters from it. These German versions were largely, but by no +means completely, displaced by Luther's translation. The Anabaptists, for +example, retained this German Vulgate long after the publication of +Luther's version, and these pre-Reformation German Bibles were to be found +in use almost two hundred years after the Reformation.(100) + +Whence sprang the demand for these vernacular versions of the Holy +Scriptures? That the leaders of the mediaeval Church viewed their existence +with alarm is evident from the proclamation of the Primate of Germany, +Berthold of Mainz, issued in 1486, ordering a censorship of books with +special reference to vernacular translations of the Scriptures.(101) On +the other hand, there is no evidence that these versions were either +wholly or in great part the work of enemies of the mediaeval Church. The +mediaeval _Brethren_, as they called themselves (Waldenses, Picards, +Wiclifites, Hussites, etc., were names given to them very indiscriminately +by the ecclesiastical authorities), had translations of the Scriptures +both in the Romance and in the Teutonic languages as early as the close of +the thirteenth century. The records of inquisitors and of councils prove +it. But there is no evidence to connect any of these German versions, +save, perhaps, one at Augsburg, and that issued by the Koburgers in +Nuernberg, with these earlier translations. The growing spread of education +in the fifteenth century, and, above all, the growth of a +non-ecclesiastical piety which claimed to examine and to judge for itself, +demanded and received these numerous versions of the Holy Scriptures in +the vulgar tongue.(102) The "common man" had the word of God in his hands, +could read, meditate, and judge for himself. The effect of the presence of +these vernacular Scriptures is apt to be exaggerated.(103) The Humanist, +Conrad Celtes, might threaten the priests that the Bible would soon be +seen in every village tavern; but we know that in these days of early +printing a complete Bible must have been too expensive to be purchased by +a poor man. Still he could get the Gospels or the Epistles, or the +Psalter; and there is evidence, apart from the number of editions, that +the people were buying and were studying the Scriptures. Preachers were +exhorted to give the meaning of the passages of Scripture read in Church +to prevent the people being confused by the different ways in which the +text was translated in the Bibles in their possession. Stories were told +of peasants, like Hans Werner, who worsted their parish priests in +arguments drawn from Scripture. The ecclesiastical authorities were +undoubtedly anxious, and their anxiety was shared by many who desired a +reformation in life and manners, but dreaded any revolutionary movement. +It was right that the children should be fed with the Bread of Life, but +Mother Church ought to keep the bread-knife in her hands lest the children +cut their fingers. Some publishers of the translations inserted prefaces +saying that the contents of the volumes should be understood in the way +taught by the Church, as was done in the _Book of the Gospels_, published +at Basel in 1514. But in spite of all a lay religion had come into being, +and laymen were beginning to think for themselves in matters where +ecclesiastics had hitherto been considered the sole judges. + + + +§ 7. The "Brethren." + + +There was another type of religious life and pious association which +existed, and which seems in one form or other to have exercised a great +influence among the better class of artisans, and more especially among +the printers of Augsburg, Nuernberg, and Strassburg. + +It is probable that this type of piety had at least three roots. + +(_a_) We can trace as far back as the closing years of the thirteenth +century, in many parts of Germany, the existence of nonconformists who, on +the testimony of inquisitors, lived pious lives, acted righteously towards +their neighbours, and believed in all the articles of the Christian faith, +but repudiated the Roman Church and the clergy. Their persecutors gave +them a high character. "The heretics are known by their walk and +conversation: they live quietly and modestly; they have no pride in dress; +their learned men are tailors and weavers; they do not heap up riches, but +are content with what is necessary; they live chastely; they are temperate +in eating and drinking; they never go to taverns, nor to public dances, +nor to any such vanities; they refrain from all foul language, from +backbiting, from thoughtless speech, from lying and from swearing." The +list of objections which they had to usages of the mediaeval Church are +those which would occur to any evangelical Protestant of this century. +They professed a simple evangelical creed; they offered a passive +resistance to the hierarchical and priestly pretensions of the clergy; +they were careful to educate their children in schools which they +supported; they had vernacular translations of the Scriptures, and +committed large portions to memory; they conducted their religious service +in the vernacular, and it was one of the accusations made against them +that they alleged that the word of God was as profitable when read in the +vernacular as when studied in Latin. It is also interesting to know that +they were accused of visiting the leper-houses to pray with the inmates, +and that in some towns they had schools for the leper children.(104) They +called themselves the _Brethren_. The societies of the _Brethren_ had +never died out. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries they were +continually subject to local and somewhat spasmodic persecutions, when the +ecclesiastical could secure the aid of the secular authorities to their +schemes of repression, which was not always possible. They were strongly +represented among the artisans in the great cities, and there are +instances when the civic authorities gave them one of the churches of the +towns for their services. The liability to intermittent persecution led to +an organisation whereby the _Brethren_, who were for the time being living +in peace, made arrangements to receive and support those who were able to +escape from any district where the persecution raged. These societies were +in correspondence with their brethren all over Europe, and were never so +active as during the last decades of the fifteenth and the first quarter +of the sixteenth century. + +(_b_) As early as the times of Meister Eckhart (d. 1327), of his disciples +Tauler (d. 1361) and Suso (d 1366), of the mysterious "Friend of God in +the Oberland" and his associates (among them the Strassburg merchant +Rulman Merswin (d. 1382)), and of the Brussels curate John Ruysbroeck (d. +1381), the leaders of the mediaeval Mystics had been accustomed to gather +their followers together into praying circles; and the custom was +perpetuated long after their departure. How these pious associations +continued to exist in the half century before the Reformation, and what +forms their organisation took, it seems impossible to say with any +accuracy. The school system of the _Brethren __ of the Common Lot_, which +always had an intimate connection with the _Gottesfreunde_, in all +probability served to spread the praying circles which had come down from +the earlier Mystics. It seems to have been a custom among these _Brethren +of the Common Lot_ to invite their neighbours to meet in their schoolrooms +or in a hall to listen to religious discourses. There they read and +expounded the New Testament in the vernacular. They also read extracts +from books written to convey popular religious instruction. They +questioned their audience to find out how far their hearers understood +their teaching, and endeavoured by question and answer to discover and +solve religious difficulties. These schools and teachers had extended all +over Germany by the close of the fifteenth century, and their effect in +quickening and keeping alive personal religion must have been great. + +(_c_) Then, altogether apart from the social and semi-political propaganda +of the Hussites, there is evidence that ever since the circulation of the +encyclic letter addressed by the Taborites in November 1431 to all +Christians in all lands, and more especially since the foundation of the +_Unitas Fratrum_ in 1452, there had been constant communication between +Bohemia and the scattered bodies of evangelical dissenters throughout +Germany. Probably historians have credited the Hussites with more than +their due influence over their German sympathisers. The latter had arrived +at the conclusion that tithes ought to be looked upon as free-will +offerings, that the cup should be given to the laity, etc., long before +the movements under the leadership of Wiclif and of Huss. But the +knowledge that they had sympathisers and brethren beyond their own land +must have been a source of strength to the German nonconformists. + +Our knowledge of the times is still too obscure to warrant us in making +very definite statements about the proportionate effect of these three +religious sources of influence on the small communities of _Brethren_ or +evangelical dissenters from the mediaeval Church which maintained a +precarious existence at the close of the Middle Ages. There is one curious +fact, however, which shows that there must have been an intimate +connection between the Waldenses of Savoy and France, the _Brethren_ of +Germany, and the _Unitas Fratrum_ of Bohemia. They all used the same +catechism for the instruction of their children in divine things. So far +as can be ascertained, this small catechism was first printed in 1498, and +editions can be traced down to 1530. It exists in French, Italian, German, +and Bohemian. The inspiration drawn from the earlier Mystics and +_Gottesfreunde_ is shown by the books circulated by the _Brethren_. They +made great use of the newly discovered art of printing to spread abroad +small mystical writings on personal religion, and translations of portions +of the Holy Scriptures. They printed and circulated books which had been +used in manuscript among the Mystics of the fourteenth century, such as +the celebrated _Masterbook_, single sermons by Tauler, Prayers and Rules +for holy living extracted from his writings, as well as short tracts taken +from the later Mystics, like the _Explanation of the Ten Commandments_. It +is also probable that some of the many translations of the whole or +portions of the Bible which were in circulation in Germany before the days +of Luther came from these praying circles. The celebrated firm of Nuernberg +printers, the Koburgers, who published so many Bibles, were the German +printers of the little catechism used by the _Brethren_; and, as has been +said, the Anabaptists, who were the successors of these associations, did +not use Luther's version, but a much older one which had come down to them +from their ancestors. + +The members of these praying circles welcomed the Lutheran Reformation +when it came, but they can scarcely be said to have belonged to it. Luther +has confessed how much he owed to one of their publications, _Die deutsche +Theologie_; and what helped him must have benefited others. The +organisation of a Lutheran Church, based on civil divisions of the Empire, +gave the signal for a thorough reorganisation of the members of these old +associations who refused to have anything to do with a State Church. They +formed the best side of the very mixed and very much misunderstood +movement which later was called Anabaptism, and thus remained outside of +the two great divisions into which the Church of the Reformation +separated. This religious type existed and showed itself more especially +among the artisans in the larger towns of Germany. + +It must not be supposed that these four classes of religious sentiment +which have been found existing during the later decades of the fifteenth +and the early decades of the sixteenth centuries can always be clearly +distinguished from each other. Religious types cannot be kept distinct, +but continually blend with each other in the most unexpected way. Humanism +and Anabaptism seem as far apart as they can possibly be; yet some of the +most noted Anabaptist leaders were distinguished members of the Erasmus +circle at Basel. Humanism and delicate clinging to the simple faith of +childhood blended in the exquisite character of Melanchthon. Luther, +_after_ his stern wrestle with self-righteousness in the convent at +Erfurt, believed that, had his parents been dead, he could have delivered +their souls from purgatory by his visits to the shrines of the saints at +Rome. The boy Mecum (Myconius) retained only so much of his father's +teaching about the _free_ Grace of God that he believed an Indulgence from +Tetzel would benefit him if he could obtain it without paying for it. +There is everywhere and at all times a blending of separate types of +religious faith, until a notable crisis brings men suddenly face to face +with the necessity of a choice. Such a crisis occurred during the period +we call the Reformation, with the result that the leaders in that great +religious revival found that the truest theology after all was what had +expressed itself in hymns and prayers, in revivalist sermons and in +fireside teaching, and that they felt it to be their duty as theologians +to give articulate dogmatic expression to what their fathers had been +content to find inarticulately in the devotional rather than in the +intellectual sphere of the mediaeval religious life. + +Such was the religious atmosphere into which Luther was born, and which he +breathed from his earliest days. Every element seems to have shared in +creating and shaping his religious history, and had similar effects +doubtless on his most distinguished and sympathetic followers. + + + + +Chapter VI. Humanism And Reformation.(105) + + + +§ 1. Savonarola. + + +When the Italian Humanism seemed about to become a mere revival of ancient +Paganism, with its accompaniments of a cynical sensualism on the one hand, +and the blindest trust in the occult sciences on the other, a great +preacher arose in Florence who recalled men to Christianity and to +Christian virtue. + +Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian, a countryman of Giaocchino di Fiore, +of Arnold of Brescia, of Francis of Assisi, of John of Parma, and, like +them, he believed himself to be favoured with visions apocalyptic and +other. He belonged to a land over which, all down through the Middle Ages, +had swept popular religious revivals, sudden, consuming, and transient as +prairie fires. When a boy, he had quivered at seeing the pain in the world +around him; he had shuddered as he passed the great grim palaces of the +Italian despots, where the banqueting hall was separated from the dungeon +by a floor so thin that the groans of the prisoners mingled with the +tinkle of the silver dishes and the wanton conversation of the guests. He +had been destined by his family for the medical profession, and the lad +was set to master the writings of Thomas Aquinas and the Arabian +commentaries on Aristotle--the gateway in those days to a knowledge of the +art of healing. The _Summa_ of the great Schoolman entranced him, and +insensibly drew him towards theology; but outwardly he did not rebel +against the lot in life marked out for him. A glimpse of a quiet +resting-place in this world of pain and evil had come to him, but it +vanished, swallowed up in the universal gloom, when Roberto Strozzi +refused to permit him to marry his daughter Laodamia. There remained only +rest on God, study of His word, and such slight solace as music and +sonnet-writing could bring. His devotion to Thomas Aquinas impelled him to +seek within a Dominican convent that refuge which he passionately yearned +for, from a corrupt world and a corrupt Church. There he remained buried +for long years, reading and re-reading the Scriptures, poring over the +_Summa_, drinking in the New Learning, almost unconsciously creating for +himself a philosophy which blended the teachings of Aquinas with the +Neo-Platonism of Marsiglio Ficino and of the Academy, and planning how he +could best represent the doctrines of the Christian religion in harmony +with the natural reason of man. + +When at last he became a great preacher, able to sway heart and +conscience, it should not be forgotten that he was mediaeval to the core. +His doctrinal teaching was based firmly on the theology of Thomas Aquinas. +His intellectual conception of faith, his strong belief in the divine +predestination and his way of expressing it, his view of Scripture as +possessing manifold meanings, were all defined for him by the great +Dominican Schoolman. He held strongly the mediaeval idea that the Church +was an external political unity, ruled by the Bishop of Rome, to whom +every human soul must be subject, and whom everyone must obey save only +when commands were issued contrary to a plain statement of the evangelical +law. He expounded the fulness of and the slight limitations to the +authority of the Pope exactly as Thomas and the great Schoolmen of the +thirteenth century had done, though in terms very different from the +canonists of the Roman Curia at the close of the Middle Ages. Even his +appreciation of the Neo-Platonist side of Humanism could be traced back to +mediaeval authorities; for at all times the writings of the +pseudo-Dionysius had been a source of inspiration to the greater +Schoolmen. + +His scholarship brought him into relation with the Humanist leaders in +Florence, the earnest tone of his teaching and the saintliness of his +character attracted them, his deep personal piety made them feel that he +possessed something which they lacked; while no Neo-Platonist could be +repelled by his claim to be the recipient of visions from on high. + +The celebrated Humanists of Florence became the disciples of the great +preacher. Marsiglio Ficino himself, the head of the Florentine Academy, +who kept one lamp burning before the bust of Plato and another before an +image of the Virgin, was for a time completely under his spell. Young +Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's whole inner life was changed through his +conversations with the Prior of San Marco. He reformed his earlier +careless habits. He burnt five books of wanton love-songs which he had +composed before his conversion.(106) He prayed daily at fixed hours, and +he wrote earnestly to his nephew on the importance of prayer for a godly +life: + + + " 'I stir thee not,' he says, 'to that prayer that standeth in + many words, but to that prayer which in the secret chamber of the + mind, in the privy-closet of the soul, with every affect speaketh + to God; which in the most lightsome darkness of contemplation not + only presenteth the mind to the Father, but also uniteth it with + Him by unspeakable ways which only they know who have assayed. Nor + care I how long or how short thy prayer be; but how effectual, how + ardent, and rather interrupted and broken between with sighs, than + drawn on length with a number of words.... Let no day pass but + thou once at the leastwise present thyself to God in prayer.... + What thou shalt in thy prayer ask of God, both the Holy Spirit + which prayeth for us and also thine own necessity shall every hour + put in thy mind.' "(107) + + +He studied the writings of Thomas Aquinas, which contained the favourite +theology of Savonarola, and spoke of the great Schoolman as a "pillar of +truth."(108) He handed over the third part of his estates to his nephew, +and lived plainly on what remained, that he might give largely in +charity.(109) He made Savonarola his almoner, who on his behalf gave alms +to destitute people and marriage portions to poor maidens.(110) He had +frequent thoughts of entering the Dominican Order, and + + + "On a time as he walked with his nephew, John Francis, in a garden + at Ferrara, talking of the love of Christ, he broke out with these + words: 'Nephew,' said he, 'this will I show thee; I warn thee keep + it secret; the substance I have left after certain books of mine + are finished, I intend to give out to poor folk, and, fencing + myself with the crucifix, barefoot, walking about the world, in + every town and castle I purpose to preach Christ.' "(111) + + +It is also recorded that he made a practice of scourging himself; +especially "on those days which represent unto us the Passion and Death +that Christ suffered for our sake, he beat and scourged his own flesh in +remembrance of that great benefit, and for cleansing his old +offences."(112) But above all things he devoted himself to a diligent +study of the Holy Scriptures, and commended the practice to his nephew: + + + " 'Thou mayest do nothing more pleasing to God, nothing more + profitable to thyself, than if thine hand cease not day and night + to turn and read the volumes of Holy Scripture. There lieth + privily in them a certain heavenly strength, quick and effectual, + which, with a marvellous power, transformeth and changeth the + readers' mind into the love of God, if they be clean and lowly + entreated.' "(113) + + +The great Platonist forsook Plato for St. Paul, whom he called the +"glorious Apostle."(114) When he died he left his lands to one of the +hospitals in Florence, and desired to be buried in the hood of the +Dominican monks and within the Convent of San Marco. + +Another distinguished member of the Florentine Academy, Angelo Poliziano, +was also one of Savonarola's converts. We find him exchanging confidences +with Pico, both declaring that love and not knowledge is the faculty by +which we learn to know God: + + + " 'But now behold, my well-beloved Angelo,' writes Pico, 'what + madness holdeth us. Love God (while we be in this body) we rather + may, than either know Him, or by speech utter Him. In loving Him + also we more profit ourselves; we labour less and serve Him more. + And yet had we rather always by knowledge never find that thing we + seek, than by love possess that thing which also without love were + in vain found.' "(115) + + +Poliziano, like Pico, had at one time some thoughts of joining the +Dominican Order. He too was buried at his own request in the cowl of the +Dominican monk in the Convent of San Marco. + +Lorenzo de Medici, who during his life had made many attempts to win the +support of Savonarola, and had always been repulsed, could not die without +entreating the great preacher to visit him on his deathbed and grant him +absolution. + +Italian Humanism was for the moment won over to Christianity by the Prior +of San Marco. Had the poets and the scholars, the politicians and the +ecclesiastics, the State and the Church, not been so hopelessly corrupt, +there might have been a great renovation of mankind, under the leadership +of men who had no desire to break the political unity of the mediaeval +Church. For it can scarcely be too strongly insisted that Savonarola was +no Reformation leader in the more limited sense of the phrase. The +movement he headed has much more affinity with the crude revival of +religion in Germany in the end of the fifteenth century, than with the +Reformation itself; and the aim of the reorganisation of the Tuscan +congregation of the Dominicans under Savonarola has an almost exact +parallel in the creation of the congregation of the Augustinian Eremites +under Andreas Proles and Johann Staupitz. The whole Italian movement, as +might be expected, was conducted by men of greater intelligence and +refinement. It had therefore less sympathy than the German with +pilgrimages, relics, the niceties of ceremonial worship, and the cult of +the vulgarly miraculous; but it was not the less mediaeval on these +accounts. It was the death rather than the life and lifework of Savonarola +that was destined to have direct effect on the Reformation soon to come +beyond the Alps; for his martyrdom was a crowning evidence of the +impossibility of reforming the Church of the Middle Ages apart from the +shock of a great convulsion. "Luther himself," says Professor Villari, +"could scarcely have been so successful in inaugurating his Reform, had +not the sacrifice of Savonarola given a final proof that it was hopeless +to hope in the purification of Rome."(116) + + + +§ 2. John Colet. + + +While Savonarola was at the height of his influence in Florence, there +chanced to be in Italy a young Englishman, John Colet, son of a wealthy +London merchant who had been several times Lord Mayor. He had gone there, +we may presume, like his countrymen Grocyn and Linacre, to make himself +acquainted with the New Learning at its fountainhead. There is no proof +that he went to Florence or ever saw the great Italian preacher; but no +stranger could have visited Northern Italy in 1495 without hearing much of +him and of his work. Colet's whole future life in England bears evidence +that he did receive a new impulse while he was in Italy, and that of such +a kind as could have come only from Savonarola. What Erasmus tells us of +his sojourn there amply confirms this. Colet gave himself up to the study +of the Holy Scriptures; he read carefully those theologians of the ancient +Church specially acceptable to the Neo-Platonist Christian Humanists; he +studied the pseudo-Dionysius, Origen, and Jerome. What is more remarkable +still in a foreign Humanist come to study in Italy, he read diligently +such English classics as he could find in order to prepare himself for the +work of preaching when he returned to England. The words of Erasmus imply +that the impulse to do all this came to him when he was in Italy, and +there was no one to impart it to him but the great Florentine. + +When Colet returned to England in 1496, he began to lecture at Oxford on +the Epistles of St. Paul. His method of exposition, familiar enough after +Calvin had introduced it into the Reformed Church, was then absolutely +new, and proves that he was an original and independent thinker. His aim +was to find out the _personal_ message which the writer (St. Paul) had +sent to the Christians at Rome; and this led him to seek for every trace +which revealed the personality of the Apostle to the Gentiles. It was +equally imperative to know what were the surroundings of the men to whom +the Epistle was addressed, and Colet studied Suetonius to find some +indications of the environment of the Roman Christians. He had thus +completely freed himself from the Scholastic habit of using the Scriptures +as a mere collection of isolated texts to be employed in proving doctrines +or moral rules constructed or imposed by the Church, and it is therefore +not surprising to find that he never lards his expositions with quotations +from the Fathers. It is a still greater proof of his daring that he set +aside the allegorising methods of the Schoolmen,--methods abundantly used +by Savonarola,--and that he did so in spite of his devotion to the writings +of the pseudo-Dionysius. He was the first to apply the critical methods of +the New Learning to discover the exact meaning of the books of the Holy +Scriptures. His treatment of the Scriptures shows that however he may have +been influenced by Savonarola and by the Christian Humanists of Italy, he +had advanced far beyond them, and had seen, what no mediaeval theologian +head been able to perceive, that the Bible is a personal and not a +dogmatic revelation. They were mediaeval: he belongs to the Reformation +circle of thinkers. Luther, Calvin, and Colet, whatever else separates +them, have this one deeply important thought in common. Further, Colet +discarded the mediaeval conception of a mechanical inspiration of the text +of Scripture, in this also agreeing with Luther and Calvin. The +inspiration of the Holy Scriptures was something mysterious to him. "The +Spirit seemed to him by reason of its majesty to have a peculiar method of +its own, singularly, absolutely free, blowing where it lists, making +prophets of whom it will, yet so that the spirit of the prophets is +subject to the prophets."(117) + +Colet saw clearly, and denounced the abounding evils which were ruining +the Church of his day. The Convocation of the English Church never +listened to a bolder sermon than that preached to them by the Dean of St. +Paul's in 1512--the same year that Luther addressed an assembly of clergy +at Leitzkau. The two addresses should be compared. The same fundamental +thought is contained in both--that every true reformation must begin with +the individual man. Colet declared that reform must begin with the +bishops, and that once begun it would spread to the clergy and thence to +the laity; "for the body follows the soul; and as are the rulers in a +State, such will the people be." He urged that what was wanted was the +enforcement of ecclesiastical laws which were already in existence. +Ignorant and wicked men were admitted to holy orders, and there were laws +prohibiting this. Simony was creeping "like a cancer through the minds of +priests, so that most are not ashamed in these days to get for themselves +great dignities by petitions and suits at court, rewards and promises"; +and yet strict laws against the evil were in existence. He proceeded to +enumerate the other flagrant abuses--the non-residence of clergy, the +worldly pursuits and indulgences of the clergy; the scandals and vices of +the ecclesiastical law-courts; the infrequency of provincial councils to +discuss and remedy existing evils; the wasting of the patrimony of the +Church on sumptuous buildings, on banquets, on enriching kinsfolk, or on +keeping hounds. The Church had laws against all these abuses, but they +were not enforced, and could not be until the bishops amended their ways. +His scheme of reform was to put in operation the existing regulations of +Canon Law. "The diseases which are now in the Church were the same in +former ages, and there is no evil for which the holy fathers did not +provide excellent remedies; there are no crimes in prohibition of which +there are not laws in the body of Canon Law." Such was his definite idea +of reform in this famous Convocation sermon. + +But he had wider views. He desired the diffusion of a sound Christian +education, and did the best that could be done by one man to promote it, +by spending his private fortune in founding St. Paul's school, which he +characteristically left in charge of a body of laymen. He longed to see a +widespread preaching in the vernacular, and believed that the bishops +should show an example in this clerical duty. It is probable that he +wished the whole service to be in the vernacular, for it was made a charge +against him that he taught his congregation to repeat the Lord's Prayer in +English. Besides, he had clearly grasped the thought, too often forgotten +by theologians of all schools, that the spiritual facts and forces which +lie at the roots of the Christian life are one thing, and the intellectual +conceptions which men make to explain these facts and forces are another, +and a much less important thing; that men are able to be Christians and to +live the Christian life because of the former and not because of the +latter. He saw that, while dogma has its place, it is at best the alliance +of an immortal with a mortal, the union between that which is unchangeably +divine and the fashions of human thought which change from one age to +another. For this reason he thought little of the Scholastic Theology of +his days, with its forty-three propositions about the nature of God and +its forty-five about the nature of man before and after the Fall, each of +which had to be assented to at the risk of a charge of heresy. "Why do you +extol to me such a man as Aquinas? If he had not been so very arrogant, +indeed, he would not surely so rashly and proudly have taken upon himself +to define all things. And unless his spirit had been somewhat worldly, he +would not surely have corrupted the whole teaching of Christ by mixing it +with his profane philosophy." The Scholastic Theology might have been +scientific in the thirteenth century, but the "scientific" is the human +and changing element in dogma, and the old theology had become clearly +unscientific in the sixteenth. Therefore he was accustomed to advise young +theological students to keep to the Bible and the Apostles' Creed, and let +divines, if they liked, dispute about the rest; and he taught Erasmus to +look askance at Luther's reconstruction of the Augustinian theology. + +But no thinking man, however he may flout at philosophy and dogma, can do +without either; and Colet was no exception to the general rule. He has +placed on record his detestation of Aquinas and his dislike of Augustine, +and we may perhaps see in this a lack of sympathy with a prominent +characteristic of the theology of Latin Christianity from Tertullian to +Aquinas and Occam, to say nothing of developments since the Reformation. +The great men who built up the Western Church were almost all trained +Roman lawyers. Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine, Gregory the Great (whose +writings form the bridge between the Latin Fathers and the Schoolmen) were +all men whose early training had been that of a Roman lawyer,--a training +which moulded and shaped all their thinking, whether theological or +ecclesiastical. They instinctively regarded all questions as a great Roman +lawyer would. They had the lawyer's craving for exact definitions. They +had the lawyer's idea that the primary duty laid upon them was to enforce +obedience to authority, whether that authority expressed itself in +external institutions or in the precise definitions of the correct ways of +thinking about spiritual truths. No branch of Western Christendom has been +able to free itself from the spell cast upon it by these Roman lawyers of +the early centuries of the Christian Church. + +If the ideas of Christian Roman lawyers, filtering slowly down through the +centuries, had made the Bishops of Rome dream that they were the +successors of Augustus, at once Emperor and Pontifex Maximus, master of +the bodies and of the souls of mankind, they had also inspired the +theologians of the Mediaeval Church with the conception of an intellectual +imperialism, where a system of Christian thought, expressed with legal +precision, could bind into a comprehensive unity the active intelligence +of mankind. Dogmas thus expressed can become the instruments of a tyranny +much more penetrating than that of an institution, and so Colet found. In +his revolt he turned from the Latins to the Greeks, and to that thinker +who was furthest removed from the legal precision of statement which was +characteristic of Western theology. + +It is probable that his intercourse with the Christian Humanists of Italy, +and his introduction to Platonists and to Neo-Platonism, made him turn to +the writings of the pseudo-Dionysius; but it is certain that he believed +at first that the author of these quaint mystical tracts was the Dionysius +who was one of the converts of St. Paul at Athens, and that these writings +embodied much of the teaching of the Apostle to the Gentiles, and took the +reader back to the first generation of the Christian Church. After he had +learned from Grocyn that the author of the _Celestial_ and the +_Terrestrial Hierarchies_ could not have been the convert of St. Paul, and +that the writings could not be earlier than the sixth century, he still +regarded them as evidence of the way in which a Christian philosopher +could express the thoughts which were current in Christianity one thousand +years before Colet's time. The writings could be used as a touchstone to +test usages and opinions prevalent at the close of the Middle Ages, when +men were still subject to the domination of the Scholastic Theology, and +as justification for rejecting them. + +They taught him two things which he was very willing to learn: that the +human mind, however it may be able to feel after God, can never comprehend +Him, nor imprison His character and attributes in propositions--stereotyped +aspects of thoughts--which can be fitted into syllogisms; and that such +things as hierarchy and sacraments are to be prized not because they are +in themselves the active sources and centres of mysterious powers, but +because they faintly symbolise the spiritual forces by which God works for +the salvation of His people. Colet applied to the study of the writings of +the pseudo-Dionysius a mind saturated with simple Christian truth gained +from a study of the Holy Scriptures, and especially of the Epistles of St. +Paul; and the very luxuriance of imagination and bewildering confusion of +symbolism in these writings, their elusiveness as opposed to the precision +of Thomas Aquinas or of John Duns the Scot, enabled him the more easily to +find in them the germs of his own more definite opinions. + +When one studies the abstracts of the _Hierarchies_(118)--which Colet wrote +out from memory--with the actual text of the books themselves, it is +scarcely surprising to find how much there is of Colet and how little of +Dionysius.(119) + +While it is impossible to say how far Colet, and the Christian Humanists +who agreed with him, would have welcomed the principles of a Reformation +yet to come, it can be affirmed that he held the same views on two very +important points. He did not believe in a priesthood in the mediaeval nor +in the modern Roman sense of the word, and his theory of the efficacy and +meaning of the sacraments of the Christian Church was essentially +Protestant. + +According to Colet, there was no such thing as a mediatorial priesthood +whose essential function it was to approach God on men's behalf and +present their offerings to Him. The duty of the Christian priesthood was +ministerial; it was to declare the love and mercy of God to their +fellow-men, and to strive for the purification, illumination, and +salvation of mankind by constant preaching of the truth and diffusion of +gospel light, even as Christ strove. He did not believe that priests had +received from God the power of absolving from sins. "It must be needfully +remarked," he says, "lest bishops be presumptuous, that it is not the part +of men to loose the bonds of sins; nor does the power belong to them of +loosing or binding anything,"--the truth Luther set forth in his Theses +against Indulgences. + +Colet is even more decided in his repudiation of the sacramental theories +of the mediaeval Church. The Eucharist is not a sacrifice, but a +commemoration of the death of our Lord, and a symbol of the union and +communion which believers have with Him, and with their fellow-men through +Him. Baptism is a ceremony which symbolises the believer's change of heart +and his vow of service to his Master, and signifies "the more excellent +baptism of the inner man"; and the duty of sponsors is to train children +in the knowledge and fear of God.(120) + +We are told that the Lollards delighted in Colet's preaching; that they +advised each other to go to hear him; and that attendance at the Dean's +sermons was actually made a charge against them. Colet was no Lollard +himself; indeed, he seems to have once sat among ecclesiastical judges who +condemned Lollards to death;(121) but the preacher who taught that tithes +were voluntary offerings, who denounced the evil lives of the monks and +the secular clergy; who hated war, and did not scruple to say so; whose +sermons were full of simple Bible instruction, must have recalled many +memories of the old Lollard doctrines. For Lollardy had never died out in +England: it was active in Colet's days, leavening the country for the +Reformation which was to come. + +Nor should it be forgotten, in measuring the influence of Colet on the +coming Reformation, that Latimer was a friend of his, that William Tyndale +was one of his favourite pupils, and that he persuaded Erasmus to turn +from purely classical studies to edit the New Testament and the early +Christian Fathers. + + + +§ 3. Erasmus. + + +Erasmus, as has often been said, was a "man by himself;" yet he may be +regarded as representing one, and perhaps the most frequent, type of +Christian Humanism. His character will always be matter of controversy; +and his motives may, without unfairness, be represented in an unfavourable +light,--a "great scholar but a petty-minded man," is a verdict for which +there is abundant evidence. Such was the final judgment of his +contemporaries, mainly because he refused to take a definite side in the +age when the greatest controversy which has convulsed Western Europe since +the downfall of the old Empire seemed to call on every man to range +himself with one party or other. Our modern judgment must rest on a +different basis. In calmer days, when the din of battle has almost died +away, it is possible to recognise that to refuse to be a partisan _may_ +indicate greatness instead of littleness of soul, a keener vision, and a +calmer courage. We cannot judge the man as hastily as his contemporaries +did. Still there is evidence enough and to spare to back their verdict. +Every biographer has admitted that it is hopeless to look for truth in his +voluminous correspondence. His feelings, hopes, intentions, and actual +circumstances are described to different correspondents at the same time +in utterly different ways. He was always writing for effect, and often for +effect of a rather sordid kind. He seldom gave a definite opinion on any +important question without attempting to qualify it in such a manner that +he might be able, if need arose, to deny that he had given it. No man knew +better how to use "if" and "but" so as to shelter himself from all +responsibility. He had the ingenuity of the cuttle-fish to conceal himself +and his real opinions, and it was commonly used to protect his own skin. +All this may be admitted; it can scarcely be denied. + +Yet from his first visit to England (1498) down to his practical refusal +of a Cardinal's Hat from Pope Adrian VI., on condition that he would +reside at Rome and assist in fighting the Reformation, Erasmus had his own +conception of what a reformation of Christianity really meant, and what +share in it it was possible for him to take. It must be admitted that he +held to this idea and kept to the path he had marked out for himself with +a tenacity of purpose which did him honour. It was by no means always that +of personal safety, still less the road to personal aggrandisement. It led +him in the end where he had never expected to stand. It made him a man +despised by both sides in the great controversy; it left him absolutely +alone, friendless, and without influence. He frequently used very +contemptible means to ward off attempts to make him diverge to the right +or left; he abandoned many of his earlier principles, or so modified them +that they were no longer recognisable. But he was always true to his own +idea of a reformation and of his life-work as a reformer. + +Erasmus was firmly convinced that Christianity was above all things +something practical. It had to do with the ordinary life of mankind. It +meant love, humility, purity, reverence,--every virtue which the Saviour +had made manifest in His life on earth. This early "Christian philosophy" +had been buried out of sight under a Scholastic Theology full of +sophistical subtleties, and had been lost in the mingled Judaism and +Paganism of the popular religious life, with its weary ceremonies and +barbarous usages. A true reformation, he believed, was the moral +renovation of mankind, and the one need of the age was to return to that +earlier purer religion based on a real inward reverence for and imitation +of Christ. The man of letters, like himself, he conceived could play the +part of a reformer, and that manfully, in two ways. He could try, by the +use of wit and satire, to make contemptible the follies of the Schoolmen +and the vulgar travesty of religion which was in vogue among the people. +He could also bring before the eyes of all men that earlier and purer +religion which was true Christianity. He could edit the New Testament, and +enable men to read the very words which Jesus spoke and Paul preached, +make them see the deeds of Jesus and hear the apostolic explanations of +their meaning. He could say: + + + "Only be teachable, and you have already made much way in this + (the Christian) Philosophy. It supplies a spirit for a teacher, + imparted to none more readily than to the simple-minded. Other + philosophies, by the very difficulty of their precepts, are + removed out of the range of most minds. No age, no sex, no + condition of life is excluded from this. The sun itself is not + more common and open to all than the teaching of Christ. For I + utterly dissent from those who are unwilling that the Sacred + Scriptures should be read by the unlearned translated into their + vulgar tongue, as though Christ had taught such subtleties that + they can scarcely be understood even by a few theologians, or as + though the strength of the Christian religion consisted in men's + ignorance of it. The mysteries of kings it may be safer to + conceal, but Christ wished His mysteries to be published as openly + as possible. I wish that even the weakest woman should read the + Gospel--should read the Epistles of Paul. And I wish these were + translated into all languages, so that they might be read and + understood, not only by Scots and Irishmen, but also by Turks and + Saracens. To make them understood is surely the first step. It may + be that they might be ridiculed by many, but some would take them + to heart. I long that the husbandman should sing portions of them + to himself as he follows the plough, that the weaver should hum + them to the tune of his shuttle, that the traveller should beguile + with their stories the tedium of his journey."(122) + + +The scholar who became a reformer could further make plain, by editing and +publishing the writings of the earlier Christian Fathers, what the oldest +Christian Theology had been before the Schoolmen spoiled it. + +The conception that a reformation of Christianity was mainly a renovation +of morals, enabled the Christian Humanist to keep true to the Renaissance +idea that the writers of classical antiquity were to be used to aid the +work of ameliorating the lot of mankind. The Florentine circle spoke of +the inspiration of Homer, of Plato, and of Cicero, and saw them labouring +as our Lord had done to teach men how to live better lives. Pico and +Reuchlin had gone further afield, and had found illuminating anticipations +of Christianity, in this sense and in others, among the Hebrews, the +Egyptians, and perhaps the Brahmins. Erasmus was too clear-sighted to be +drawn into any alliance with Oriental mysticism or cabalistic +speculations; but he insisted on the aid which would come from the +Christian reformer making full use of the ethical teaching of the wise men +of Greece and Rome in his attempt to produce a moral renovation in the +lives of his fellows. Socrates and Cicero, each in his own day and within +his own sphere, had striven for the same moral renovation that +Christianity promised, and, in this sense at least, might be called +Christians before Christ. So persuaded was Erasmus of their affinity with +the true spirit of Christianity, that he declared that Cicero had as much +right to a high place in heaven as many a Christian saint, and that when +he thought of the Athenian martyr he could scarcely refrain from saying, +_Sancte Socrates, Ora pro nobis_. + +It must be remembered also that Erasmus had a genuine and noble horror of +war, which was by no means the mere shrinking of a man whose nerves were +always quivering. He preached peace as boldly and in as disinterested a +fashion as did his friend John Colet. He could not bear the thought of a +religious war. This must not be forgotten in any estimate of his conduct +and of his relation to the Reformation. No man, not even Luther, scattered +the seeds of revolution with a more reckless hand, and yet a thorough and +steadfast dislike to all movements which could be called revolutionary was +one of the most abiding elements in his character. He hated what he called +the "tumult." He had an honest belief that all public evils in State and +Church must be endured until they dissolve away quietly under the +influence of sarcasm and common sense, or until they are removed by the +action of the responsible authorities. He was clear-sighted enough to see +that an open and avowed attack on the papal supremacy, or on any of the +more cherished doctrines and usages of the mediaeval Church, must end in +strife and in bloodshed, and he therefore honestly believed that no such +attack ought to be made. + +When all these things are kept in view, it is possible to see what +conception Erasmus had about his work as a reformer, with its +possibilities and its limitations. He adhered to it tenaciously all his +life. He held it in the days of his earlier comparative obscurity. He +maintained it when he had been enthroned as the prince of the realm of +learning. He clung to it in his discredited old age. No one can justify +the means he sometimes took to prevent being drawn from the path he had +marked out for himself; but there is something to be said for the man who, +through good report and evil, stuck resolutely to his view of what a +reformation ought to be, and what were the functions of a man of letters +who felt himself called to be a reformer. Had Luther been gifted with that +keen sense of prevision with which Erasmus was so fatally endowed, would +he have stood forward to attack Indulgences in the way he did? It is +probable that it would have made no difference in his action; but he did +not think so himself. He said once, "No good work comes about by our own +wisdom; it begins in dire necessity. I was forced into mine; but had I +known then what I know now, ten wild horses would not have drawn me into +it." The man who leads a great movement of reform may see the distant, but +has seldom a clear vision of the nearer future. He is one who feels the +slow pressure of an imperious spiritual power, who is content with one +step at a time, and who does not ask to see the whole path stretching out +before him. + +Erasmus lost both his parents while he was a child, and never enjoyed the +advantages of a home training. He was driven by deceit or by +self-deception into a monastery when he was a lad. He escaped from the +clutches of the monastic life when he was twenty years of age, broken in +health, and having learned to know human nature on its bad side and to +trade on that knowledge. He was one of the loneliest of mortals, and +trusted in no one but himself. With one great exception, he had no +friendship which left an enduring influence on his character. From +childhood he taught himself in his own way; when he grew to manhood he +planned and schemed for himself; he steadfastly refused to be drawn into +any kind of work which he did not like for its own sake; he persistently +shunned every entanglement which might have controlled his action or +weighted him with any responsibility. He stands almost alone among the +Humanists in this. All the others were officials, or professors, or +private teachers, or jurists, or ecclesiastics. Erasmus was nothing, and +would be nothing, but a simple man of letters. + +Holbein has painted him so often that his features are familiar. Every +line of the clearly cut face suggests demure sarcasm--the thin lips closely +pressed together, the half-closed eyelids, and the keen glance of the +scarcely seen blue eyes. The head is intellectual, but there is nothing +masculine about the portrait--nothing suggesting the massiveness of the +learned burgher Pirkheimer; or the jovial strength of the Humanist +_landsknecht_ Eobanus Hessus; or the lean wolf-like tenacity of Hutten, +the descendant of robber-knights; or the steadfast homely courage of +Martin Luther. The dainty hands, which Holbein drew so often, and the +general primness of his appearance, suggest a descent from a long line of +maiden aunts. The keen intelligence was enclosed in a sickly body, whose +frailty made continuous demands on the soul it imprisoned. It needed warm +rooms with stoves that sent forth no smell, the best wines, an easy-going +horse, and a deft servant; and to procure all these comforts Erasmus wrote +the sturdiest of begging letters and stooped to all kinds of flatteries. + +The visit which Erasmus paid to England in 1498 was the turning-point in +his life. He found himself, for the first time, among men who were his +equals in learning and his superiors in many things. "When I listen to my +friend Colet," he says, "it seems to me like listening to Plato himself. +Who does not marvel at the complete mastery of the sciences in Grocyn? +What could be keener, more profound, and more searching than the judgment +of Linacre? Has Nature ever made a more gentle, a sweeter, or a happier +disposition than Thomas More's?" He made the acquaintance of men as full +of the New Learning as he was himself, who hated the Scotist theology more +bitterly than he did, and who nevertheless believed in a pure, simple +Christian philosophy, and were earnest Christians. They urged him to join +them in their work, and we can trace in the correspondence of Erasmus the +growing influence of Colet. The Dean of St. Paul's made Erasmus the +decidedly Christian Humanist he became, and impressed on him that +conception of a reformation which, leaving external things very much as +they were, undertook a renovation of morals. He never lost the impress of +Colet's stamp. + +It would appear from one of Erasmus' letters that Colet urged him to write +commentaries on some portions of the New Testament; but Erasmus would only +work in his own way; and it is probable that his thoughts were soon turned +to preparing an edition of the New Testament in Greek. The task was long +brooded over; and he had to perfect himself in his knowledge of the +language. + +This determination to undertake no work for which he was not supremely +fitted, together with his powers of application and acquisition, gave +Erasmus the reputation of being a strong man. He was seen to be unlike any +other Humanist, whether Italian or German. He had no desire merely to +reproduce the antique, or to confine himself within the narrow circle in +which the "Poets" of the Renaissance worked. He put ancient culture to +modern uses. Erasmus was no arm-chair student. He was one of the keenest +observers of everything human--the Lucian or the Voltaire of the sixteenth +century. From under his half-closed eyelids his quick glance seized and +retained the salient characteristics of all sorts and conditions of men +and women. He described theologians, jurists and philosophers, monks and +parish priests, merchants and soldiers, husbands and wives, women good and +bad, dancers and diners, pilgrims, pardon-sellers, and keepers of relics; +the peasant in the field, the artisan in the workshop, and the vagrant on +the highway. He had studied all, and could describe them with a few deft +phrases, as incisive as Duerer's strokes, with an almost perfect style, and +with easy sarcasm. + +This application of the New Learning to portray the common life, combined +with his profound learning, made Erasmus the idol of the young German +Humanists. They said that he was more than mortal, that his judgment was +infallible, and that his work was perfect. They made pilgrimages to visit +him. An interview was an event to be talked about for years; a letter, a +precious treasure to be bequeathed as an heirloom. Some men refused to +render the universal homage accorded by scholars and statesmen, by princes +lay and clerical. Luther scented Pelagian theology in his annotations; he +scorned Erasmus' wilful playing with truth; he said that the great +Humanist was a mocker who poured ridicule upon everything, even on Christ +and religion. There was some ground for the charge. His sarcasm was not +confined to his _Praise of Folly_ or to his _Colloquies_. It appears in +almost everything that he wrote--even in his Paraphrases of the New +Testament. + +That such a man should have felt himself called upon to be a reformer, +that this Saul should have appeared among the prophets, is in itself +testimony that he lived during a great religious crisis, and that the +religious question was the most important one in his days. + +The principal literary works of Erasmus meant to serve the reformation he +desired to see are:--two small books, _Enchiridion militis christiani_ (_A +Handbook of the Christian Soldier_, or _A Pocket Dagger for the Christian +Soldier_--it may be translated either way), first printed in 1503, and +_Institutio Principis Christiani_ (1518); his _Encomium Moriae_ (_Praise of +Folly_, 1511); his edition of the _New Testament_, or _Novum Instrumentum_ +(1516), with prefaces and paraphrases; and perhaps many of the dialogues +in his _Colloquia_ (1519). + +Erasmus himself explains that in the _Enchiridion_ he wrote to counteract +the vulgar error of those who think that religion consists in ceremonies +and in more than Jewish observances, while they neglect what really +belongs to piety. The whole aim of the book is to assert the individual +responsibility of man to God apart from any intermediate human agency. +Erasmus ignores as completely as Luther would have done the whole mediaeval +thought of the mediatorial function of the Church and its priestly order. +In this respect the book is essentially Protestant and thoroughly +revolutionary. It asserts in so many words that much of the popular +religion is pure paganism: + + + "One worships a certain Rochus, and why? because he fancies he + will drive away the plague from his body. Another mumbles prayers + to Barbara or George, lest he fall into the hands of his enemy. + This man fasts to Apollonia to prevent the toothache. That one + gazes upon an image of the divine Job, that he may be free from + the itch.... In short, whatever our fears and our desires, we set + so many gods over them, and these are different in different + nations.... This is not far removed from the superstition of those + who used to vow tithes to Hercules in order to get rich, or a cock + to AEsculapius to recover from an illness, or who slew a bull to + Neptune for a favourable voyage. The names are changed, but the + object is the same."(123) + + +In speaking of the monastic life, he says: + + + " 'Love,' says Paul, 'is to edify your neighbour,' ... and if this + only were done, nothing could be more joyous or more easy than the + life of the 'religious'; but now this life seems gloomy, full of + Jewish superstitions, not in any way free from the vices of laymen + and in some ways more corrupt. If Augustine, whom they boast of as + the founder of their order, came to life again, he would not + recognise them; he would exclaim that he had never approved of + this sort of life, but had organised a way of living according to + the rule of the Apostles, not according to the superstition of the + Jews."(124) + + +The more one studies the _Praise of Folly_, the more evident it becomes +that Erasmus did not intend to write a satire on human weakness in +general: the book is the most severe attack on the mediaeval Church that +had, up to that time, been made; and it was meant to be so. The author +wanders from his main theme occasionally, but always to return to the +insane follies of the religious life sanctioned by the highest authorities +of the mediaeval Church. Popes, bishops, theologians, monks, and the +ordinary lay Christians, are all unmitigated fools in their ordinary +religious life. The style is vivid, the author has seen what he describes, +and he makes his readers see it also. He writes with a mixture of light +mockery and bitter earnestness. He exposes the foolish questions of the +theologians; the vices and temporal ambitions of the Popes, bishops, and +monks; the stupid trust in festivals, pilgrimages, indulgences, and +relics. The theologians, the author says, are rather dangerous people to +attack, for they come down on one with their six hundred conclusions and +command him to recant, and if he does not they declare him a heretic +forthwith. The problems which interest them are: + + + "Whether there was any instant of time in the divine generation? + ... Could God have taken the form of a woman, a devil, an ass, a + gourd, or a stone? How the gourd could have preached, wrought + miracles, hung on the cross?"(125) + + +He jeers at the Popes and higher ecclesiastics: + + + "Those supreme Pontiffs who stand in the place of Christ, if they + should try to imitate His life, that is, His poverty, His toil, + His teaching, His cross, and His scorn of this world ... what + could be more dreadful!... We ought not to forget that such a mass + of scribes, copyists, notaries, advocates, secretaries, + mule-drivers, grooms, money-changers, procurers, and gayer persons + yet I might mention, did I not respect your ears,--that this whole + swarm which now burdens--I beg your pardon, honours--the Roman See + would be driven to starvation."(126) + + +As for the monks: + + + "The greater part of them have such faith in their ceremonies and + human traditions, that they think one heaven is not reward enough + for such great doings.... One will show his belly stuffed with + every kind of fish; another will pour out a hundred bushels of + psalms; another will count up myriads of fasts, and make up for + them all again by almost bursting himself at a single dinner. + Another will bring forward such a heap of ceremonies that seven + ships would hardly hold them; another boast that for sixty years + he has never touched a penny except with double gloves on his + hands.... But Christ will interrupt their endless bragging, and + will demand--'Whence this new kind of Judaism?' + + "They do all things by rule, by a kind of sacred mathematics; as, + for instance, how many knots their shoes must be tied with, of + what colour everything must be, what variety in their garb, of + what material, how many straws'-breadth to their girdle, of what + form and of how many bushels' capacity their cowl, how many + fingers broad their hair, and how many hours they sleep...."(127) + + +He ridicules men who go running about to Rome, Compostella, or Jerusalem, +wasting on long and dangerous journeys money which might be better spent +in feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. He scoffs at those who buy +Indulgences, who sweetly flatter themselves with counterfeit pardons, and +who have measured off the duration of Purgatory without error, as if by a +water-clock, into ages, years, months, and days, like the multiplication +table.(128) Is it religion to believe that if any one pays a penny out of +what he has stolen, he can have the whole slough of his life cleaned out +at once, and all his perjuries, lusts, drunkennesses, all his quarrels, +murders, cheats, treacheries, falsehoods, bought off in such a way that he +may begin over again with a new circle of crimes? The reverence for relics +was perhaps never so cruelly satirised as in the Colloquy, _Peregrinatio +Religionis Ergo_. + +It must be remembered that this bitter satire was written some years +before Luther began the Reformation by an attack on Indulgences. It may +seem surprising how much liberty the satirist allowed himself, and how +much was permitted to him. But Erasmus knew very well how to protect +himself. He was very careful to make no definite attack, and to make no +mention of names. He was always ready to explain that he did not mean to +attack the Papacy, but only bad Popes; that he had the highest respect for +the monastic life, and only satirised evil-minded monks; or that he +reverenced the saints, but thought that reverence ought to be shown by +imitating them in their lives of piety. He could say all this with perfect +truth. Indeed, it is likely that with all his scorn against the monks, +Erasmus, in his heart, believed that a devout Capuchin or Franciscan monk +lived the ideal Christian life. He seems to say so in his Colloquy, +_Militis et Carthusiani_. He wrote, moreover, before the dignitaries of +the mediaeval Church had begun to take alarm. Liberal Churchmen who were +the patrons of the New Learning had no objection to see the vices of the +times and the Church life of the day satirised by one who wrote such +exquisite latinity. In all his more serious work Erasmus was careful to +shelter himself under the protection of great ecclesiastics. + +Erasmus was not the only scholar who had proposed to publish a correct +edition of the Holy Scriptures. The great Spaniard, Cardinal Ximenes, had +announced that he meant to bring out an edition of the Holy Scriptures in +which the text of the Vulgate would appear in parallel columns along with +the Hebrew and the Greek. The prospectus of this Complutensian Polyglot +was issued as early as 1502; the work was finished in 1517, and was +published in Spain in 1520 and in other lands in 1522. Erasmus was careful +to dedicate the first edition of his _Novum Instrumentum_, (1516) to Pope +Leo X., who graciously received it. He sent the second edition to the same +Pope in 1519, accompanied by a letter in which he says: + + + "I have striven with all my might to kindle men from those + chilling argumentations in which they had been so long frozen up, + to a zeal for theology which should be at once more pure and more + serious. And that this labour has so far not been in vain I + perceive from this, that certain persons are furious against me, + who cannot value anything they are unable to teach and are ashamed + to learn. But, trusting to Christ as my witness, whom my writings + above all would guard, to the judgment of your Holiness, to my own + sense of right and the approval of so many distinguished men, I + have always disregarded the yelpings of these people. Whatever + little talent I have, it has been, once for all, dedicated to + Christ: it shall serve His glory alone; it shall serve the Roman + Church, the prince of that Church, but especially your Holiness, + to whom I owe more than my whole duty." + + +He dedicated the various parts of the _Paraphrases_ of the New Testament +to Cardinal Campeggio, to Cardinal Wolsey, to Henry VIII., to Charles V., +and to Francis I. of France. He deliberately placed himself under the +protection of those princes, ecclesiastical and secular, who could not be +suspected of having any revolutionary designs against the existing state +of things in Church or in State. + +In all this he was followed for the time being by the most distinguished +Christian Humanists in England, France, and Germany. They were full of the +brightest hopes. A Humanist Pope sat on the throne of St. Peter, young +Humanist kings ruled France and England, the Emperor Maximilian had long +been the patron of German Humanism, and much was expected from his +grandson Charles, the young King of Spain. Erasmus, the acknowledged +prince of Christian learning, was enthusiastically supported by Colet and +More in England, by Buddaeus and Lefevre in France, by Johann Staupitz, +Cochlaeus, Thomas Murner, Jerome Emser, Conrad Mutianus, and George +Spalatin in Germany. They all believed that the golden age was +approaching, when the secular princes would forbid wars, and the +ecclesiastical lay aside their rapacity, and when both would lead the +peoples of Europe in a reformation of morals and in a re-establishment of +pure religion. Their hopes were high that all would be effected without +the "tumult" which they all dreaded, and when the storm burst, many of +them became bitter opponents of Luther and his action. Luther found no +deadlier enemies than Thomas Murner and Jerome Emser. Others, like George +Spalatin, became his warmest supporters. Erasmus maintained to the end his +attitude of cautious neutrality. In a long letter to Marlianus, Bishop of +Tuy in Spain, he says that he does not like Luther's writings, that he +feared from the first that they would create a "tumult," but that he dare +not altogether oppose the reformer, "because he feared that he might be +fighting against God." The utmost that he could be brought to do after the +strongest persuasions, was to attack Luther's Augustinian theology in his +_De Libero Arbitrio_, and to insinuate a defence of the principle of +ecclesiastical authority in the interpretation of Scripture, and a proof +that Luther had laid too much stress on the element of "grace" in human +actions. He turned away from the whole movement as far as he possibly +could, protesting that for himself he would ever cling to the Roman See. + +The last years of his life were spent in excessive literary work--in +editing the earlier Christian Fathers; he completed his edition of Origen +in 1536, the year of his death. He settled at Louvain, and found it too +hotly theological for his comfort; went to Basel; wandered off to +Freiburg; then went back to Basel to die. After his death he was compelled +to take the side he had so long shrunk from. Pope Paul IV. classed him as +a notorious heretic, and placed on the first papal "Index" "all his +commentaries, notes, scholia, dialogues, letters, translations, books, and +writings, even when they contain nothing against religion or about +religion." + +We look in vain for any indication that those Christian Humanists +perceived that they were actually living in a time of revolution, and were +really standing on the edge of a crater which was about to change European +history by its eruption. Sir Thomas More's instincts of religious life +were all mediaeval. Colet had persuaded him to abandon his earlier impulse +to enter a monastic order, but More wore a hair shirt next his skin till +the day of his death. Yet in his sketch of an ideal commonwealth, he +expanded St. Paul's thought of the equality of all men before Christ into +the conception that no man was to be asked to work more than six hours a +day, and showed that religious freedom could only flourish where there was +nothing in the form of the mediaeval Church. The lovable and pious young +Englishman never imagined that his academic dream would be translated into +rude practical thoughts and ruder actions by leaders of peasant and +artisan insurgents, and that his _Utopia_ (1515), within ten years after +its publication, and ten years before his own death (1535), would furnish +texts for communist sermons, preached in obscure public-houses or to +excited audiences on village greens. The satirical criticisms of the +hierarchy, the monastic orders, and the popular religious life, which +Erasmus flung broadcast so recklessly in his lighter and more serious +writings, furnished the weapons for the leaders in that "tumult" which he +had dreaded all his days; and when he complained that few seemed to care +for the picture of a truly pious life, given in his _Enchiridion_, he did +not foresee that it would become a wonderfully popular book among those +who renounced all connection with the See of Rome to which the author had +promised a life-long obedience. The Christian Humanists, one and all, were +strangely blind to the signs of the times in which they lived. + +No one can fail to appreciate the nobility of the purpose to work for a +great moral renovation of mankind which the Christian Humanists ever kept +before them, or refuse to see that they were always and everywhere +preachers of righteousness. When we remember the century and a half of +wars, so largely excited by ecclesiastical motives, which desolated Europe +during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, few can withhold their +sympathy from the Christian Humanist idea that the path of reformation lay +through a great readjustment of the existing conditions of the religious +life, rather than through ecclesiastical revolution to a thorough-going +reconstruction; although we may sadly recognise that the dynastic +struggles of secular princes, the rapacity and religious impotence of +Popes and ecclesiastical authorities, and the imperious pressure of social +and industrial discontent, made the path of peace impossible. But what +must fill us with surprise is that the Christian Humanists seemed to +believe with a childlike innocence that the constituted authorities, +secular and ecclesiastical, would lead the way in this peaceful reform, +mainly because they were tinged with Humanist culture, and were the +patrons of artists and men of learning. Humanism meant to Pope Leo X. and +to the young Archbishop of Mainz additional sources of enjoyment, +represented by costly pictures, collections of MSS., and rare books, the +gratification of their taste for jewels and cameos, to say nothing of less +harmless indulgences, and the adulation of the circle of scholars whom +they had attracted to their courts; and it meant little more to the +younger secular princes. + +It is also to be feared that the Christian Humanists had no real sense of +what was needed for that renovation of morals, public and private, which +they ardently desired to see. Pictures of a Christian life lived according +to the principles of reason, sharp polemic against the hierarchy, and +biting mockery of the stupidity of the popular religion, did not help the +masses of the people. The multitude in those early decades of the +sixteenth century were scourged by constant visitations of the plague and +other new and strange diseases, and they lived in perpetual dread of a +Turkish invasion. The fear of death and the judgment thereafter was always +before their eyes. What they wanted was a sense of God's forgiveness for +their sins, and they greedily seized on Indulgences, pilgrimages to holy +places, and relic-worship to secure the pardon they longed for. The +aristocratic and intellectual reform, contemplated by the Christian +Humanists, scarcely appealed to them. Their longing for a certainty of +salvation could not be satisfied with recommendations to virtuous living +according to the rules of Neo-Platonic ethics. It is pathetic to listen to +the appeals made to Erasmus for something more than he could ever give: + + + " 'Oh! Erasmus of Rotterdam, where art thou?' said Albert Duerer. + 'See what the unjust tyranny of earthly power, the power of + darkness, can do. Hear, thou knight of Christ! Ride forth by the + side of the Lord Christ; defend the truth, gain the martyr's + crown! As it is, thou art but an old man. I have heard thee say + that thou hast given thyself but a couple more years of active + service; spend them, I pray, to the profit of the gospel and the + true Christian faith, and believe me the gates of Hell, the See of + Rome, as Christ has said, will not prevail against thee.' "(129) + + +The Reformation needed a man who had himself felt that commanding need of +pardon which was sending his fellows travelling from shrine to shrine, who +could tell them in plain homely words, which the common man could +understand, how each one of them could win that pardon for himself, who +could deliver them from the fear of the priest, and show them the way to +the peace of God. The Reformation needed Luther. + + + + + +BOOK II. THE REFORMATION. + + + + +Chapter I. Luther to the Beginning of the Controversy About +Indulgences.(130) + + + +§ 1. Why Luther was successful as the Leader in a Reformation. + + +Reformation had been attempted in various ways. Learned ecclesiastical +Jurists had sought to bring it about in the fifteenth century by what was +called _Conciliar Reform_. The sincerity and ability of the leaders of the +movement are unquestioned; but they had failed ignominiously, and the +Papacy with all its abuses had never been so powerful ecclesiastically as +when its superior diplomacy had vanquished the endeavour to hold it in +tutelage to a council. + +The Christian Humanists had made their attempt--preaching a moral +renovation and the application of the existing laws of the Church to +punish ecclesiastical wrong-doers. Colet eloquently assured the Anglican +Convocation that the Church possessed laws which, if only enforced, +contained provisions ample enough to curb and master the ills which all +felt to be rampant. Erasmus had held up to scorn the debased religious +life of the times, and had denounced its Judaism and Paganism. Both were +men of scholarship and genius; but they had never been able to move +society to its depths, and awaken a new religious life, which was the one +thing needful. + +History knows nothing of revivals of moral living apart from some new +religious impulse. The motive power needed has always come through leaders +who have had communion with the unseen. Humanism had supplied a +superfluity of teachers; the times needed a prophet. They received one; a +man of the people; bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh; one who +had himself lived that popular religious life with all the thoroughness of +a strong, earnest nature, who had sounded all its depths and tested its +capacities, and gained in the end no relief for his burdened conscience; +who had at last found his way into the presence of God, and who knew, by +his own personal experience, that the living God was accessible to every +Christian. He had won the freedom of a Christian man, and had reached +through faith a joy in living far deeper than that which Humanism boasted. +He became a leader of men, because his joyous faith made him a hero by +delivering him from all fear of Church or of clergy--the fear which had +weighed down the consciences of men for generations. Men could _see_ what +faith was when they looked at Luther. + +It must never be forgotten that to his contemporaries Luther was the +embodiment of personal piety. All spoke of his sensitiveness to religious +impressions of all kinds in his early years. While he was inside the +convent, whether before or after he had found deliverance for his troubles +of soul, his fellows regarded him as a model of piety. In later days, when +he stood forth as a Reformer, he became such a power in the hearts of men +of all sorts and ranks, because he was seen to be a thoroughly pious man. +Albert Duerer may be taken as a type. In the great painter's diary of the +journey he made with his wife and her maid Susanna to the Netherlands +(1520),--a mere summary of the places he visited and the persons he saw, of +what he paid for food and lodging and travel, of the prices he got for his +pictures, and what he paid for his purchases, literary and artistic,--he +tells how he heard of Luther's condemnation at Worms, of the Reformer's +disappearance, of his supposed murder by Popish emissaries (for so the +report went through Germany), and the news compelled him to that pouring +forth of prayers, of exclamations, of fervent appeals, and of bitter +regrets, which fills three out of the whole forty-six pages. The Luther he +almost worships is the "pious man," the "follower of the Lord and of the +true Christian faith," the "man enlightened by the Holy Spirit," the man +who had been done to death by the Pope and the priests of his day, as the +Son of God had been murdered by the priests of Jerusalem. The one thing +which fills the great painter's mind is the personal religious life of the +man Martin Luther.(131) + +Another source of Luther's power was that he had been led step by step, +and that his countrymen could follow him deliberately without being +startled by any too sudden changes. He was one of themselves; he took them +into his confidence at every stage of his public career; they knew him +thoroughly. He had been a monk, and that was natural for a youth of his +exemplary piety. He had lived a model monastic life; his companions and +his superiors were unwearied in commending him. He had spoken openly what +almost all good men had been feeling privately about Indulgences in plain +language which all could understand; and he had gradually taught himself +and his countrymen, who were following his career breathlessly, that the +man who trusted in God did not need to fear the censures of Pope or of the +clergy. He emancipated not merely the learned and cultivated classes, but +the common people, from the fear of the Church; and this was the one thing +needful for a true reformation. So long as the people of Europe believed +that the priesthood had some mysterious powers, no matter how vague or +indefinite, over the spiritual and eternal welfare of men and women, +freedom of conscience and a renovation of the public and private moral +life was impossible. The spiritual world will always have its anxieties +and terrors for every Christian soul, and the greatest achievement of +Luther was that by teaching and, above all, by example, he showed the +common man that he was in God's hands, and not dependent on the blessing +or banning of a clerical caste. For Luther's doctrine of Justification by +Faith, as he himself showed in his tract on the _Liberty of a Christian +Man_ (1520), was simply that there was nothing in the indefinite claim +which the mediaeval Church had always made. From the moment the common +people, simple men and women, knew and felt this, they were freed from the +mysterious dread of Church and priesthood; they could look the clergy +fairly in the face, and could care little for their threats. It was +because Luther had freed himself from this dread, because the people, who +knew him to be a deeply pious man, saw that he was free from it, and +therefore that they need be in no concern about it, that he became the +great reformer and the popular leader in an age which was compelled to +revise its thoughts about spiritual things. + +Hence it is that we may say without exaggeration that the Reformation was +embodied in Martin Luther, that it lived in him as in no one else, and +that its inner religious history may be best studied in the record of his +spiritual experiences and in the growth of his religious convictions. + + + +§ 2. Luther's Youth and Education. + + +Martin Luther was born in 1483 (Nov. 10th) at Eisleben, and spent his +childhood in the small mining town of Mansfeld. His father, Hans Luther, +had belonged to Moehra (Moortown), a small peasant township lying in the +north-east corner of the Thuringian Wald, and his mother, Margarethe +Ziegler, had come from a burgher family in Eisenach. It was a custom among +these Thuringian peasants that only one son, and that usually the +youngest, inherited the family house and the croft. The others were sent +out one by one, furnished with a small store of money from the family +strong-box, to make their way in the world. Hans Luther had determined to +become a miner in the Mansfeld district, where the policy of the Counts of +Mansfeld, of building and letting out on hire small smelting furnaces, +enabled thrifty and skilled workmen to rise in the world. The father soon +made his way. He leased one and then three of these furnaces. He won the +respect of his neighbours, for he became, in 1491, one of the four members +of the village council, and we are told that the Counts of Mansfeld held +him in esteem. + +In the earlier years, when Luther was a child, the family life was one of +grinding poverty, and Luther often recalled the hard struggles of his +parents. He had often seen his mother carrying the wood for the family +fire from the forest on her poor shoulders. The child grew up among the +hard, grimy, coarse surroundings of the German working-class life, +protected from much that was evil by the wise severity of his parents. He +imbibed its simple political and ecclesiastical ideas. He learned that the +Emperor was God's ruler on earth, who would protect poor people against +the Turk, and that the Church was the "Pope's House," in which the Bishop +of Rome was the house-father. He was taught the Creed, the Ten +Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. He sang such simple evangelical hymns +as "Ein Kindelein so lobelich," "Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist," and +"Crist ist erstanden." He was a dreamy, contemplative child; and the +unseen world was never out of his thoughts. He knew that some of the +miners practised sorcery in dark corners below the earth. He feared an old +woman who lived near; she was a witch, and the priest himself was afraid +of her. He was taught about Hell and Purgatory and the Judgment to come. +He shivered whenever he looked at the stained-glass window in the parish +church and saw the frowning face of Jesus, who, seated on a rainbow and +with a flaming sword in His hand, was coming to judge him, he knew not +when. He saw the crowds of pilgrims who streamed past Mansfeld, carrying +their crucifixes high, and chanting their pilgrim songs, going to the +Bruno Quertfort chapel or to the old church at Wimmelberg. He saw +paralytics and maimed folk carried along the roads, going to embrace the +wooden cross at Kyffhaueser, and find a miraculous cure; and sick people on +their way to the cloister church at Wimmelberg to be cured by the sound of +the blessed bells. + +The boy Luther went to the village school in Mansfeld, and endured the +cruelties of a merciless pedagogue. He was sent for a year, in 1497, to a +school of the Brethren of the Common Lot in Magdeburg. Then he went to St. +George's school in Eisenach, where he remained three years. He was a "poor +scholar," which meant a boy who received his lodging and education free, +was obliged to sing in the church choir, and was allowed to sing in the +streets, begging for food. The whole town was under the spell of St. +Elizabeth, the pious landgravine, who had given up family life and all +earthly comforts to earn a mediaeval saintship. It contained nine +monasteries and nunneries, many of them dating back to the days of St. +Elizabeth; her good deeds were emblazoned on the windows of the church in +which Luther sang as choir-boy; he had long conversations with the monks +who belonged to her foundations. The boy was being almost insensibly +attracted to that revival of the mediaeval religious life which was the +popular religious force of these days. He had glimpses of the old homely +evangelical piety, this time accompanied by a refinement of manners Luther +had hitherto been unacquainted with, in the house of a lady who is +identified by biographers with a certain Frau Cotta. The boy enjoyed it +intensely, and his naturally sunny nature expanded under its influence. +But it did not touch him religiously. He has recorded that it was with +incredulous surprise that he heard his hostess say that there was nothing +on earth more lovely than the love of husband and wife, when it is in the +fear of the Lord. + +After three years' stay at Eisenach, Luther entered the University of +Erfurt (1501), then the most famous in Germany. It had been founded in +1392 by the burghers of the town, who were intensely proud of their own +University, and especially of the fact that it had far surpassed other +seats of learning which owed their origin to princes. The academic and +burgher life were allied at Erfurt as they were in no other University +town. The days of graduation were always town holidays, and at the +graduation processions the officials of the city walked with the +University authorities. Luther tells us that when he first saw the newly +made graduates marching in their new graduation robes in the middle of the +procession, he thought that they had attained to the summit of earthly +felicity. The University of Erfurt was also strictly allied to the Church. +Different Popes had enriched it with privileges; the Primate of Germany, +the Archbishop of Mainz, was its Chancellor: many of its professors held +ecclesiastical prebends, or were monks; each faculty was under the +protection of a tutelary saint; the teachers had to swear to teach nothing +opposed to the doctrines of the Roman Church; and special pains were taken +to prevent the rise and spread of heresy. + +Its students were exposed to a greater variety of influences than those of +any other seat of learning in Germany. Its theology represented the more +modern type of scholastic, the Scotist; its philosophy was the nominalist +teaching of William of Occam, whose great disciple, Gabriel Biel (d. +1495), had been one of its most celebrated professors; the system of +biblical interpretation, first introduced by Nicholas de Lyra(132) (d. +1340), had been long taught at Erfurt by a succession of able masters; +Humanism had won an early entrance, and in Luther's time the Erfurt circle +of "Poets" was already famous. The strongly anti-clerical teaching of John +of Wessel, who had lectured in Erfurt for fifteen years (1445-1460), had +left its mark on the University, and was not forgotten. Hussite +propagandists, Luther tells us, appeared from time to time, whispering +among the students their strange, anti-clerical Christian socialism. +While, as if by way of antidote, there came Papal Legates, whose +magnificence bore witness to the might of the Roman Church. + +Luther had been sent to Erfurt to learn Law, and the Faculty of Philosophy +gave the preliminary training required. The young student worked hard at +the prescribed tasks. The Scholastic Philosophy, he said, left him little +time for classical studies, and he attended none of the Humanist lectures. +He found time, however, to read a good many Latin authors privately, and +also to learn something of Greek. Virgil and Plautus were his favourite +authors; Cicero also charmed him; he read Livy, Terence, and Horace. He +seems also to have read a volume of selections from Propertius, Persius, +Lucretius, Tibullus, Silvius Italicus, Statius, and Claudian. But he was +never a member of the Humanist circle; he was too much in earnest about +religious questions, and of too practical a turn of mind. + +The scanty accounts of Luther's student days show that he was a +hardworking, bright, sociable youth, and musical to the core. His +companions called him "the Philosopher," "the Musician," and spoke of his +lute-playing, of his singing, and of his ready power in debate. He took +his various degrees in unusually short time. He was Bachelor in 1502, and +Master in 1505. His father, proud of his son's success, had sent him the +costly present of a _Corpus Juris_. He may have begun to attend the +lectures in the Faculty of Law, when he suddenly plunged into the Erfurt +Convent of the Augustinian Eremites. + +The action was so sudden and unexpected, that contemporaries felt bound to +give all manner of explanations, and these have been woven together into +accounts which are legendary.(133) Luther himself has told us that he +entered the monastery because he _doubted of himself_; that in his case +the proverb was true, "Doubt makes a monk." He also said that his resolve +was a sudden one, because he knew that his decision would grieve his +father and his mother. + +What was the doubting? We are tempted in these days to think of +intellectual difficulties, and Luther's doubting is frequently attributed +to the self-questioning which his contact with Humanism at Erfurt had +engendered. But this idea, if not foreign to the age, was strange to +Luther. His was a simple pious nature, practical rather than speculative, +sensitive and imaginative. He could play with abstract questions; but it +was pictures that compelled him to action. He has left on record a series +of pictures which were making deeper and more permanent impression on him +as the years passed; they go far to reveal the history of his struggles, +and to tell us what the doubts were which drove him into the convent. The +picture on the window in Mansfeld church of Jesus sitting on a rainbow, +with frowning countenance and drawn sword in His hand, coming to judge the +wicked; the altar-piece at Magdeburg representing a great ship sailing +heavenwards, no one within the ship but priests or monks, and in the sea +laymen drowning, or saved by ropes thrown to them by the priests and monks +who were safe on board; the living picture of the prince of Anhalt, who to +save his soul had become a friar, and carried the begging sack on his bent +shoulders through the streets of Magdeburg; the history of St. Elizabeth +blazoned on the windows of the church at Eisenach; the young Carthusian at +Eisenach, who the boy thought was the holiest man he had ever talked to, +and who had so mortified his body that he had come to look like a very old +man; the terrible deathbed scene of the Erfurt ecclesiastical dignitary, a +man who held twenty-two benefices, and whom Luther had often seen riding +in state in the great processions, who was known to be an evil-liver, and +who when he came to die filled the room with his frantic cries. Luther +doubted whether he could ever do what he believed had to be done by him to +save his soul if he remained in the world. That was what compelled him to +become a monk, and bury himself in the convent. The lurid fires of Hell +and the pale shades of Purgatory, which are the permanent background to +Dante's Paradise, were present to Luther's mind from childhood. Could he +escape the one and gain entrance to the other if he remained in the world? +He doubted it, and entered the convent. + + + +§ 3. Luther in the Erfurt Convent. + + +It was a convent of the Augustinian Eremites, perhaps the most highly +esteemed of monastic orders by the common people of Germany during the +earlier decades of the sixteenth century. They represented the very best +type of that superstitious mediaeval revival which has been already +described.(134) It is a mistake to suppose that because they bore the name +of Augustine, the evangelical theology of the great Western Father was +known to them. Their leading theologians belonged to another and very +different school. The two teachers of theology in the Erfurt convent, when +Luther entered in 1505, were John Genser of Paltz, and John Nathin of +Neuenkirchen. The former was widely known from his writings in favour of +the strictest form of papal absolutism, of the doctrine of _Attrition_, +and of the efficacy of papal _Indulgences_. It is not probable that Luther +was one of his pupils; for he retired broken in health and burdened with +old age in 1507.(135) The latter, though unknown beyond the walls of the +convent, was an able and severe master. He was an ardent admirer of +Gabriel Biel, of Peter d'Ailly, and of William of Occam their common +master. He thought little of any independent study of the Holy Scriptures. +"Brother Martin," he once said to Luther, "let the Bible alone; read the +old teachers; they give you the whole marrow of the Bible; reading the +Bible simply breeds unrest."(136) Afterwards he commanded Luther on his +canonical obedience to refrain from Bible study.(137) It was he who made +Luther read and re-read the writings of Biel, d'Ailly, and Occam, until he +had committed to memory long passages; and who taught the Reformer to +consider Occam "his dear Master." Nathin was a determined opponent of the +Reformation until his death in 1529; but Luther always spoke of him with +respect, and said that he was "a Christian man in spite of his monk's +cowl." + +Luther had not come to the convent to study theology; he had entered it to +save his soul. These studies were part of the convent discipline; to +engage in them, part of his vow of obedience. He worked hard at them, and +pleased his superiors greatly; worked because he was a submissive monk. +They left a deeper impress on him than most of his biographers have cared +to acknowledge. He had more of the Schoolman in him and less of the +Humanist than any other of the men who stood in the first line of leaders +in the Reformation movement. Some of his later doctrines, and especially +his theory of the Sacrament of the Supper, came to him from these convent +studies in d'Ailly and Occam. But in his one great quest--how to save his +soul, how to win the sense of God's pardon--they were more a hindrance than +a help. His teachers might be Augustinian Eremites, but they had not the +faintest knowledge of Augustinian experimental theology. They belonged to +the most pelagianising school of mediaeval Scholastic; and their last word +always was that man must work out his own salvation. Luther tried to work +it out in the most approved later mediaeval fashion, by the strictest +asceticism. He fasted and scourged himself; he practised all the ordinary +forms of maceration, and invented new ones; but all to no purpose. For +when an awakened soul, as he said long afterwards, seeks to find rest in +work-righteousness, it stands on a foundation of loose sand which it feels +running and travelling beneath it; and it must go from one good work to +another and to another, and so on without end. Luther was undergoing all +unconsciously the experience of Augustine, and what tortured and terrified +the great African was torturing him. He had learned that man's goodness is +not to be measured by his neighbour's but by God's, and that man's sin is +not to be weighed against the sins of his neighbours, but against the +righteousness of God. His theological studies told him that God's pardon +could be had through the Sacrament of Penance, and that the first part of +that sacrament was sorrow for sin. But then came a difficulty. The older, +and surely the better theology, explained that this godly sorrow +(_contritio_) must be based on love to God. Had he this love? God always +appeared to him as an implacable Judge, inexorably threatening punishment +for the breaking of a law which it seemed impossible to keep. He had to +confess to himself that he sometimes almost hated this arbitrary Will +which the nominalist Schoolmen called God. The more modern theology, that +taught by the chief convent theologian, John of Paltz, asserted that the +sorrow might be based on meaner motives (_attritio_), and that this +attrition was changed into contrition in the Sacrament of Penance itself. +So Luther wearied his superiors by his continual use of this sacrament. +The slightest breach of the most trifling conventual regulation was looked +on as a sin, and had to be confessed at once and absolution for it +received, until the perplexed lad was ordered to cease confession until he +had committed some sin worth confessing. His brethren believed him to be a +miracle of piety. They boasted about him in their monkish fashion, and in +all the monasteries around, and as far away as Grimma, the monks and nuns +talked about the young saint in the Erfurt convent. Meanwhile the "young +saint" himself lived a life of mental anguish, whispering to himself that +he was "gallows-ripe." Writing in 1518, years after the conflict was over, +Luther tells us that no pen could describe the mental anguish he +endured.(138) Gleams of comfort came to him, but they were transient. The +Master of the Novices gave him salutary advice; an aged brother gave him +momentary comfort. John Staupitz, the Vicar-General of the Congregation, +during his visits to the convent was attracted by the traces of hidden +conflicts and sincere endeavour of the young monk, with his high +cheek-bones, emaciated frame, gleaming eyes, and looks of settled despair. +He tried to find out his difficulties. He revoked Nathin's order that +Luther should not read the Scriptures. He encouraged him to read the +Bible; he gave him a _Glossa Ordinaria_ or conventual ecclesiastical +commentary, where passages were explained by quotations from eminent +Church Fathers, and difficulties were got over by much pious allegorising; +above all, he urged him to become a good _localis_ and _textualis_ in the +Bible, _i.e._ one who, when he met with difficulties, did not content +himself with commentaries, but made collections of parallel passages for +himself, and found explanations of one in the others. Still this brought +at first little help. At last Staupitz saw the young man's real +difficulty, and gave him real and lasting assistance. He showed Luther +that he had been rightly enough contrasting man's sin and God's holiness, +and measuring the depth of the one by the height of the other; that he had +been following the truest instincts of the deepest piety when he had set +over-against each other the righteousness of God and the sin and +helplessness of man; but that he had gone wrong when he kept these two +thoughts in a _permanent_ opposition. He then explained that, according to +God's promise, the righteousness of God might become man's own possession +in and through Christ Jesus. God had promised that man could have +fellowship with Him; all fellowship is founded on personal trust; and +trust, the personal trust of the believing man on a personal God who has +promised, gives man that fellowship with God through which all things that +belong to God can become his. Without this personal trust or faith, all +divine things, the Incarnation and Passion of the Saviour, the Word and +the Sacraments, however true as matters of fact, are outside man and +cannot be truly possessed. But when man trusts God and His promises, and +when the fellowship, which trust or faith always creates, is once +established, then they can be truly possessed by the man who trusts. The +just live by their faith. These thoughts, acted upon, helped Luther +gradually to win his way to peace, and he told Staupitz long afterwards +that it was he who had made him see the rays of light which dispelled the +darkness of his soul.(139) In the end, the vision of the true relation of +the believing man to God came to him suddenly with all the force of a +personal revelation, and the storm-tossed soul was at rest. The sudden +enlightenment, the personal revelation which was to change his whole life, +came to him when he was reading the _Epistle to the Romans_ in his cell. +It came to Paul when he was riding on the road to Damascus; to Augustine +as he was lying under a fig-tree in the Milan garden; to Francis as he +paced anxiously the flag-stones of the Portiuncula chapel on the plain +beneath Assisi; to Suso as he sat at table in the morning. It spoke +through different words:--to Paul, "Why persecutest thou Me?";(140) to +Augustine, "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for +the flesh";(141) to Francis, "Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass in +your purses, no wallet for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor +staff";(142) to Suso, "My son, if thou wilt hear My words."(143) But +though the words were different, the personal revelation, which mastered +the men, was the same: That trust in the All-merciful God, who has +revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, creates companionship with God, and that +all other things are nothing in comparison with this fellowship. It was +this contact with the Unseen which fitted Luther for his task as the +leader of men in an age which was longing for a revival of moral living +inspired by a fresh religious impulse.(144) + +It is not certain how long Luther's protracted struggle lasted. There are +indications that it went on for two years, and that he did not attain to +inward peace until shortly before he was sent to Wittenberg in 1508. The +intensity and sincerity of the conflict marked him for life. The +conviction that he, weak and sinful as he was, nevertheless lived in +personal fellowship with the God whose love he was experiencing, became +the one fundamental fact of life on which he, a human personality, could +take his stand as on a foundation of rock; and standing on it, feeling his +own strength, he could also be a source of strength to others. Everything +else, however venerable and sacred it might once have seemed, might prove +untrustworthy without hereafter disturbing Luther's religious life, +provided only this one thing remained to him. For the moment, however, +nothing seemed questionable. The inward change altered nothing external. +He still believed that the Church was the "Pope's House"; he accepted all +its usages and institutions--its Masses and its relics, its indulgences and +its pilgrimages, its hierarchy and its monastic life. He was still a monk +and believed in his vocation. + +Luther's theological studies were continued. He devoted himself especially +to Bernard, in whose sermons on the _Song of Solomon_ he found the same +thoughts of the relation of the believing soul to God which had given him +comfort. He began to show himself a good man of business with an eye to +the heart of things. Staupitz and his chiefs entrusted him with some +delicate commissions on behalf of the Order, and made quiet preparations +for his advancement. In 1508 he, with a few other monks, was sent from +Erfurt to the smaller convent at Wittenberg, to assist the small +University there. + + + +§ 4. Luther's early Life in Wittenberg. + + +About the beginning of the century, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony +and head of the Ernestine branch of his family, had resolved to establish +a University for his dominions. Frederick had maintained close relations +with the Augustinian Eremites ever since he had made acquaintance with +them when a schoolboy at Grimma, and the Vicar-General, John Staupitz, +along with Dr. Pollich of Mellerstadt, were his chief advisers. It might +almost be said that the new University was, from the beginning, an +educational establishment belonging to the Order of monks which Luther had +joined. Staupitz himself was one of the professors, and Dean of the +Faculty of Theology; another Augustinian Eremite was Dean of the Faculty +of Arts; the Patron Saints of the Order of the Blessed Virgin and St. +Augustine were the Patron Saints of the University; St. Paul was the +Patron Saint of the Faculty of Theology, and on the day of his conversion +there was a special celebration of the Mass with a sermon, at which the +Rector (Dr. Pollich) and the whole teaching staff were present. + +The University was poorly endowed. Electoral Saxony was not a rich +principality; some mining industry did exist in the south end, and Zwickau +was the centre of a great weaving trade; but the great proportion of the +inhabitants, whether of villages or towns, subsisted on agriculture of a +poor kind. There was not much money at the Electoral court. A sum got from +the sale of Indulgences some years before, which Frederick had not allowed +to leave the country, served to make a beginning. The prebends attached to +the Church of All Saints (the Castle Church) supplied the salaries of some +professors; the others were Augustinian Eremites, who gave their services +gratuitously. + +The town of Wittenberg was more like a large village than the capital of a +principality. In 1513 it only contained 3000 inhabitants and 356 rateable +houses. The houses were for the most part mean wooden dwellings, roughly +plastered with clay. The town lay in the very centre of Germany, but it +was far from any of the great trade routes; the inhabitants had a good +deal of Wendish blood in their veins, and were inclined to be sluggish and +intemperate. The environs were not picturesque, and the surrounding +country had a poor soil. Altogether it was scarcely the place for a +University. Imperial privileges were obtained from the Emperor Maximilian, +and the University was opened on the 18th of October 1502. + +One or two eminent teachers had been induced to come to the new +University. Staupitz collected promising young monks from many convents of +his Order and enrolled them as students, and the University entered 416 +names on its books during its first year. This success seems to have been +somewhat artificial, for the numbers gradually declined to 56 in the +summer session of 1505. Staupitz, however, encouraged Frederick to +persevere. + +It was in the interests of the young University that Luther and a band of +brother monks were sent from Erfurt to the Wittenberg convent. There he +was set to teach the Dialectic and Physics of Aristotle,--a hateful +task,--but whether to the monks in the convent or in the University it is +impossible to say. All the while Staupitz urged him to study theology in +order to teach it. It was then that Luther began his systematic study of +Augustine. He also began to preach. His first sermons were delivered in an +old chapel, 30 feet long and 20 feet wide, built of wood plastered over +with clay. He preached to the monks. Dr. Pollich, the Rector, went +sometimes to hear him, and spoke to the Elector of the young monk with +piercing eyes and strange fancies in his head. + +His work was interrupted by a command to go to Rome on business of his +Order (autumn 1511). His selection was a great honour, and Luther felt it +to be so; but it may be questioned whether he did not think more of the +fact that he would visit the Holy City as a devout pilgrim, and be able to +avail himself of the spiritual privileges which he believed were to be +found there. When he got to the end of his journey and first caught a +glimpse of the city, he raised his hands in an ecstasy, exclaiming, "I +greet thee, thou Holy Rome, thrice holy from the blood of the martyrs." + +When his official work was done he set about seeing the Holy City with the +devotion of a pilgrim. He visited all the famous shrines, especially those +to which Indulgences were attached. He listened reverently to all the +accounts given of the relics which were exhibited to the pilgrims, and +believed in all the tales told him. He thought that if his parents had +been dead he could have assured them against Purgatory by saying Masses in +certain chapels. Only once, it is said, his soul showed revolt. He was +slowly climbing on his knees the _Scala Santa_ (really a mediaeval +staircase), said to have been the stone steps leading up to Pilate's house +in Jerusalem, once trodden by the feet of our Lord; when half-way up the +thought came into his mind, _The just shall live by his faith_; he stood +upright and walked slowly down. He saw, as thousands of pious German +pilgrims had done before his time, the moral corruptions which disgraced +the Holy City--infidel priests who scoffed at the sacred mysteries they +performed, and princes of the Church who lived in open sin. He saw and +loathed the moral degradation, and the scenes imprinted themselves on his +memory; but his home and cloister training enabled him, for the time +being, in spite of the loathing, to revel in the memorials of the old +heroic martyrs, and to look on their relics as storehouses of divine +grace. In later days it was the memories of the vices of the Roman Court +that helped him to harden his heart against the sentiment which surrounded +the Holy City. + +When Luther returned to Wittenberg in the early summer of 1512, his +Vicar-General sent him to Erfurt to complete his training for the +doctorate in theology. He graduated as Doctor of the Holy Scripture, took +the Wittenberg Doctor's oath to defend the evangelical truth vigorously +(_viriliter_), was made a member of the Wittenberg Senate, and three weeks +later succeeded Staupitz as Professor of Theology. + +Luther was still a genuine monk, with no doubt of his vocation. He became +sub-prior of the Wittenberg convent in 1512, and was made the District +Vicar over the eleven convents in Meissen and Thuringia in 1515. But that +side of his life may be passed over. It is his theological work as +professor in Wittenberg University that is important for his career as a +reformer. + + + +§ 5. Luther's early Lectures in Theology. + + +From the beginning his lectures on theology differed from those ordinarily +given, but not because he had any theological opinions at variance with +those of his old teachers at Erfurt. No one attributed any sort of +heretical views to the young Wittenberg professor. His mind was intensely +practical, and he believed that theology might be made useful to guide men +to find the grace of God and to tell them how, having acquired through +trust a sense of fellowship with God, they could persevere in a life of +joyous obedience to God and His commandments. The Scholastic theologians +of Erfurt and elsewhere did not look on theology as a practical discipline +of this kind. Luther thought that theology ought to discuss such matters, +and he knew that his main interest in theology lay on this practical side. +Besides, as he has told us, he regarded himself as specially set apart to +lecture on the Holy Scriptures. So, like John Colet, he began by +expounding the Epistles of St. Paul and the Psalms. + +Luther never knew much Hebrew, and he used the Vulgate in his prelections. +He had a huge widely printed volume on his desk, and wrote out the heads +of his lectures between the printed lines. Some of the pages still survive +in the Wolfenbuettel Library, and can be studied.(145) + +He made some use of the commentaries of Nicholas de Lyra, but got most +assistance from passages in Augustine, Bernard, and Gerson,(146) which +dealt with practical religion,(147) His lectures were experimental. He +started with the fact of man's sin, the possibility of reaching a sense of +pardon and of fellowship with God through trust in His promises. From the +beginning we find in the germ what grew to be the main thoughts in the +later Lutheran theology. Men are redeemed apart from any merits of their +own; God's grace is really His mercy revealed in the mission and work of +Christ; it has to do with the forgiveness of sins, and is the fulfilment +of His promises; man's faith is trust in the historical work of Christ and +in the verity of God. These thoughts were for the most part all expressed +in the formal language of the Scholastic Theology of the day. They grew in +clearness, and took shape in a series of propositions which formed the +common basis of his teaching: man wins pardon through the free grace of +God: when man lays hold on God's promise of pardon he becomes a new +creature; this sense of pardon is the beginning of a new life of +sanctification; the life of faith is Christianity on its inward side; the +contrast between the law and the gospel is something fundamental: there is +a real distinction between the outward and visible Church and the ideal +Church, which latter is to be described by its spiritual and moral +relations to God after the manner of Augustine. All these thoughts simply +pushed aside the ordinary theology as taught in the schools without +staying to criticise it. + +In the years 1515 and 1516, which bear traces of a more thoroughgoing +study of Augustine and of the German mediaeval Mystics, Luther began to +find that he could not express the thoughts he desired to convey in the +ordinary language of Scholastic Theology, and that its phrases suggested +ideas other than those he wished to set forth. He tried to find another +set of expressions. It is characteristic of Luther's conservatism, that in +theological phraseology, as afterwards in ecclesiastical institutions and +ceremonies, he preferred to retain what had been in use provided only he +could put his own evangelical meaning into it in a not too arbitrary +way.(148) Having found that the Scholastic phraseology did not always suit +his purpose, he turned to the popular mystical authors, and discovered +there a rich store of phrases in which he could express his ideas of the +imperfection of man towards what is good. Along with this change in +language, and related to it, we find evidence that Luther was beginning to +think less highly of the monastic life with its _external_ renunciations. +The thought of predestination, meaning by that not an abstract +metaphysical category, but the conception that the whole believer's life, +and what it involved, depended in the last resort on God and not on man, +came more and more into the foreground. Still there does not seem any +disposition to criticise or to repudiate the current theology of the day. + +The earliest traces of _conscious_ opposition appeared about the middle of +1516, and characteristically on the practical and not on the speculative +side of theology. They began in a sermon on Indulgences, preached in July +1516. Once begun, the breach widened until Luther could contrast "our +theology"(149) (the theology taught by Luther and his colleagues at +Wittenberg) with what was taught elsewhere, and notably at Erfurt. The +former represented Augustine and the Holy Scriptures, and the latter was +founded on Aristotle. In September 1517 he raised the standard of +theological revolt, and wrote directly against the "Scholastic Theology"; +he declared that it was Pelagian at heart, and buried out of sight the +Augustinian doctrines of grace; he lamented the fact that it neglected to +teach the supreme value of faith and of inward righteousness; that it +encouraged men to seek escape from what was due for sin by means of +Indulgences, instead of exhorting them to practise the inward repentance +which belongs to every genuine Christian life. + +It was at this interesting stage of his own religious development that +Luther felt himself forced to oppose publicly the sale of Indulgences in +Germany. + +By the year 1517, Luther had become a power in Wittenberg both as a +preacher and as a teacher. He had become the preacher in the town church, +from whose pulpit he delivered many sermons every week, taking infinite +pains to make himself understood by the "raw Saxons." He became a great +preacher, and, like all great preachers, he denounced prevalent sins, and +bewailed the low standard of morals set before the people by the higher +ecclesiastical authorities; he said that religion was not an easy thing; +that it did not consist in the decent performance of external ceremonies; +that the sense of sin, the experience of the grace of God, and the fear of +God and the overcoming of that fear through the love of God, were all +continuous experiences. + +His exegetical lectures seemed like a rediscovery of the Holy Scriptures. +Grave burghers of Wittenberg matriculated as students in order to hear +them. The fame of the lecturer spread, and students from all parts of +Germany crowded to the small remote University, until the Elector became +proud of his seat of learning and of the man who had made it prosper. + +Such a man could not keep silent when he saw what he believed to be a +grave source of moral evil approaching the people whose souls God had +given him in charge; and this is how Luther came to be a Reformer. + +Up to this time he had been an obedient monk, doing diligently the work +given him, highly esteemed by his superiors, fulfilling the expectations +of his Vicar-General, and recognised by all as a quiet and eminently pious +man. He had a strong, simple character, with nothing of the quixotic about +him. Of course he saw the degradation of much of the religious life of the +times, and had attended at least one meeting where those present discussed +plans of reformation. He had then (at Leitzkau in 1512) declared that +every true reformation must begin with individual men, that it must reveal +itself in a regenerate heart aflame with faith kindled by the preaching of +a pure gospel. + + + +§ 6. The Indulgence-seller. + + +What drew Luther from his retirement was an Indulgence proclaimed by Pope +Leo X., farmed by Albert of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz, and +preached by John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, who had been commissioned by +Albert to sell for him the _Papal Letters_, as the Indulgence tickets were +called. It had been announced that the money raised by the sales would be +used to build the Basilica of St. Peter to be a tomb worthy of the great +Apostle, who rested, it was said, in a Roman grave. + +The Indulgence-seller had usually a magnificent reception when he entered +a German town. Frederick Mecum (Myconius), who was an eye-witness, thus +describes the entrance of Tetzel into the town of Annaberg in Ducal +Saxony: + + + "When the Commissary or Indulgence-seller approached the town, the + Bull (proclaiming the Indulgence) was carried before him on a + cloth of velvet and gold, and all the priests and monks, the town + council, the schoolmasters and their scholars, and all the men and + women went out to meet him with banners and candles and songs, + forming a great procession; then all the bells ringing and all the + organs playing, they accompanied him to the principal church; a + red cross was set up in the midst of the church, and the Pope's + banner was displayed; in short, one might think they were + receiving God Himself." + + +The Commissary then preached a sermon extolling the Indulgence, declaring +that "the gate of heaven was open," and that the sales would begin. + +Many German princes had no great love for the Indulgence-sellers, and +Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, had prohibited Tetzel from entering his +territories. But the lands of Ernestine (Electoral) and Albertine (Ducal) +Saxony were so mixed up that it was easy for the Commissary to command the +whole population of Electoral Saxony without actually crossing the +frontier. The "Red Cross" had been set up in Zerbst in Ducal Saxony a few +miles to the west, and at Jueterbogk in the territory of Magdeburg a few +miles to the east of Wittenberg, and people had gone from the town to buy +the Indulgence. Luther believed that the sales were injurious to the moral +and religious life of his townsmen; the reports of the sermons and +addresses of the Indulgence-seller which reached him appeared to contain +what he believed to be both lies and blasphemies. He secured a copy of the +letter of recommendation given by the Archbishop to his Commissary, and +his indignation grew stronger. Still it was only after much hesitation, +after many of his friends had urged him to interfere, and in deep distress +of mind, that he resolved to protest. When he had determined to do +something he went about the matter with a mixture of caution and courage +which were characteristic of the man. + +The Church of All Saints (the Castle Church) in Wittenberg had always been +intimately connected with the University; its prebendaries were +professors; its doors were used as a board on which to publish important +academic documents; and notices of public academic "disputations," common +enough at the time, had frequently appeared there. The day of the year +which drew the largest concourse of townsmen and strangers to the church +was All Saints' Day, the first of November. It was the anniversary of the +consecration of the building, and was commemorated by a prolonged series +of services. The Elector Frederick was a great collector of relics, and +had stored his collection in the church.(150) He had also procured an +Indulgence to benefit all who came to attend the anniversary services and +look at the relics. + +On All Saints' Day, Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of +the church. It was a strictly academic proceeding. The Professor of +Theology in Wittenberg, wishing to elucidate the truth, offered to +discuss, either by speech or by writing, the matter of Indulgences.(151) +He put forth ninety-five propositions or heads of discussion which he +proposed to maintain. Academic etiquette was strictly preserved; the +subject, judged by the numberless books which had been written on it, and +the variety of opinions expressed, was eminently suitable for debate; the +Theses were offered as subjects of debate; and the author, according to +the usage of the time in such cases, was not supposed to be definitely +committed to the opinions expressed. + +The Theses, however, differed from most programmes of academic discussions +in this, that everyone wanted to read them. A duplicate was made in +German. Copies of the Latin original and the translation were sent to the +University printing-house, and the presses could not throw them off fast +enough to meet the demand which came from all parts of Germany. + + + + +Chapter II. From The Beginning of the Indulgence Controversy to the Diet +of Worms.(152) + + + +§ 1. The Theory and Practice of Indulgences in the Sixteenth Century. + + +The practice of _Indulgences_ pervaded the whole penitential system of the +later mediaeval Church, and had done so from the beginning of the +thirteenth century. Its beginnings go back a thousand years before +Luther's time. + +In the ancient Church, lapse into serious sin involved separation from the +Christian fellowship, and readmission to communion was only to be had by +public confession made in presence of the whole congregation, and by the +manifestation of a true repentance in performing certain +_satisfactions_,(153) such as the manumission of slaves, prolonged +fasting, extensive almsgiving, etc. These _satisfactions_ were the open +signs of heartfelt sorrow, and were regarded as at once well-pleasing to +God and evidence to the Christian community that the penitent had true +repentance, and might be received back again into their midst. The +confession was made to the whole congregation; the amount of +_satisfaction_ deemed necessary was estimated by the congregation, and +readmission was also dependent on the will of the whole congregation. It +often happened that these _satisfactions_ were mitigated or exchanged for +others. The penitent might fall sick, and the fasting which had been +prescribed could not be insisted upon without danger of death; in such a +case the external sign of sorrow which had been demanded might be +exchanged for another. Or it might happen that the community became +convinced of the sincerity of the repentance without insisting that the +whole of the prescribed _satisfaction_ need be performed.(154) These +exchanges and mitigations of _satisfactions_ were the small beginnings of +the later system of Indulgences. + +In course of time the public confession of sins made to the whole +congregation was exchanged for a private confession made to the priest, +and instead of the public _satisfaction_ imposed by the whole +congregation, it was left to the priest to enjoin a _satisfaction_ or +external sign of sorrow which he believed was appropriate to the sin +committed and confessed. The substitution of a private confession to the +priest for a public confession made to the whole congregation, enlarged +the circle of sins confessed. The _secret_ sins of the heart whose +presence could be elicited by the questions of the confessor were added to +the open sins seen of men. The circle of _satisfactions_ was also widened +in a corresponding fashion. + +When the imposition of _satisfactions_ was left in the hands of the +priest, it was felt necessary to provide some check against the +arbitrariness which could not fail to result. So books were published +containing lists of sins with the corresponding appropriate +_satisfactions_ which ought to be demanded from the penitents. If it be +remembered that some of the sins mentioned were very heinous (murders, +incests, outrages of all kinds), it is not surprising that the appropriate +_satisfactions_ or _penances_, as they came to be called, were very severe +in some cases, and extended over a course of years. From the seventh +century there arose a practice of commuting _satisfactions_ or penances. A +penance of several years' practice of fasting might be commuted into +saying so many prayers or psalms, into giving a definite amount of alms, +or even into a money fine--and in this last case the analogy of the +_Wehrgeld_ of the Germanic tribal codes was frequently followed.(155) +These customary commutations were frequently inserted in the +_Penitentiaries_ or books of discipline. This new custom commonly took the +form that the penitent, who visited a certain church on a prescribed day +and gave a contribution to its funds, had the penance, which had been +imposed upon him by the priest in the ordinary course of discipline, +shortened by one-seventh, one-third, one-half, as the case might be. This +was in every case the commutation or relaxation of the penance or outward +sign of sorrow which had been imposed according to the regulations of the +Church, laid down in the _Penitentiaries (relaxatio de injuncta +poenitentia)._ This was the real origin of Indulgences, and these earliest +examples were invariably a relaxation of ecclesiastical penalties which +had been imposed according to the regular custom in cases of discipline. +It will be seen that Luther expressly excluded this kind of Indulgence +from his attack. He declared that what the Church had a right to impose, +it had a right to relax. It was at first believed that this right to relax +or commute imposed penances was in the hands of the priests who had charge +of the discipline of the members of the Church; but the abuses of the +system by the priests ended by placing the power to grant Indulgences in +the hands of the bishops, and they used the money procured in building +many of the great mediaeval cathedrals. Episcopal abuse of Indulgences led +to their being reserved for the Popes. + +Three conceptions, all of which belong to the beginning of the thirteenth +century, combined to effect a great change on this old and simple idea of +Indulgences. These were--(1) the formulation of the thought of a _treasury +of merits_ (_thesaurus meritorum_); (2) the change of the _institution_ +into the _Sacrament_ of Penance; and (3) the distinction between +_attrition_ and _contrition_ in the thought of the kind of sorrow God +demands from a real penitent. + +The conception of a storehouse of merits (_thesaurus meritorum_ or +_indulgentiarum_) was first formulated by Alexander of Hales(156) in the +thirteenth century, and his ideas were accepted, enlarged, and made more +precise by succeeding theologians.(157) Starting with the existing +practice in the Church that some penances (such as pilgrimages) might be +vicariously performed, and bringing together the several thoughts that the +faithful are members of one body, that the good deeds of each of the +members are the common property of all, and therefore that the more sinful +can benefit by the good deeds of their more saintly brethren, and that the +sacrifice of Christ was sufficient to wipe out the sins of all, +theologians gradually formulated the doctrine that there was a common +storehouse which contained the good deeds of living men and women, of the +saints in heaven and the inexhaustible merits of Christ, and that all +these merits accumulated there had been placed under the charge of the +Pope, and could be dispensed by him to the faithful. The doctrine was not +very precisely defined by the beginning of the sixteenth century, but it +was generally believed in, taught, and accepted. It went to increase the +vague sense of supernatural, spiritual powers attached to the person of +the Bishop of Rome. It had one important consequence on the doctrine of +Indulgences. They might be the payment out of this treasury of an absolute +equivalent for the _satisfaction_ due by the penitent for his sins; they +were no longer merely the substitution of one form of penance for another, +or the relaxation of a penance enjoined. + +The _institution_ of Penance contained within it the four practices of +_Sorrow_ for the sins committed (_contritio_); the _Confession_ of these +sins to the priest; _Satisfaction_, or the due manifestation of sorrow in +the ways prescribed by the Church through the command of the confessor; +and the _Pardon_ (_absolutio_) pronounced by the priest in God's name. The +pardon followed the _satisfaction_. But when the _institution_ became the +_Sacrament of Penance_, the order was changed: absolution followed +confession and came before satisfaction, which it had formerly followed. +Satisfaction lost its old meaning. It was no longer the outward sign of +sorrow and the necessary precedent of pardon or absolution. According to +the new theory, the absolution which immediately followed confession had +the effect of removing the whole guilt of the sins confessed, and with the +guilt the whole of the eternal punishment due. This cancelling of guilt +and of eternal punishment did not, however, forthwith open the gates of +heaven to the pardoned sinner. It was felt that the justice of God could +not permit the baptized sinner to escape from all punishment whatever. +Hence it was said that although eternal punishment had disappeared with +the absolution, there remained temporal punishment due for the sins, and +that heaven could not be entered until this temporal punishment had been +endured.(158) Temporal punishments might be of two kinds--those endured in +this life, or those suffered in a place of punishment after death. The +penance imposed by the priest, the satisfaction, now became the temporal +punishment due for sins committed. If the priest had imposed the due +amount, and if the penitent was able to perform all that had been imposed, +the sins were expiated. But if the priest had imposed less than the +justice of God actually demanded, then these temporal pains had to be +completed in Purgatory. This gave rise to great uncertainty; for who could +feel assured that the priest had calculated rightly, and had imposed +satisfactions or temporal penalties which were of the precise amount +demanded by the justice of God? Hence the pains of Purgatory threatened +every man. It was here that the new idea of Indulgences came in to aid the +faithful by securing him against the pains of Purgatory, which were not +included in the absolution obtained in the _Sacrament of Penance_. +Indulgences in the sense of relaxations of imposed penances went into the +background, and the really valuable Indulgence was one which, because of +the merits transferred from the storehouse of merits, was an equivalent in +God's sight for the temporal punishments due for sins. Thus, in the +opinion of Alexander of Hales, of Bonaventura,(159) and, above all, of +Thomas Aquinas, the real value of Indulgences was that they procured the +remission of penalties due after absolution, whether these penalties were +penances imposed by the priest or not; and when the uncertainty of the +imposed penalties is remembered, the most valuable of all Indulgences were +those which had regard to the unimposed penalties; the priest might make a +mistake, but God did not blunder. + +While Indulgences were always connected with satisfactions, and changed +with the changes in the meaning of the latter term, they were not the less +influenced by a distinction which came to be drawn between _attrition_ and +_contrition_, and by the application of the distinction to the theory of +the Sacrament of Penance. During the earlier Middle Ages and down to the +thirteenth century, it was always held that _contrition_ (sorrow prompted +by love) was the one thing taken into account by God in pardoning the +sinner. The theologians of the thirteenth century, however, began to draw +a distinction between this godly sorrow and a certain amount of sorrow +which might arise from a variety of causes of a less worthy nature, and +especially from servile fear. This was called _attrition_; and it was held +that this _attrition_, though of itself too imperfect to win the pardon of +God, might become perfected through the confession heard by the priest, +and in the sacramental absolution pronounced by him. Very naturally, +though perhaps illogically, it was believed that an imperfect sorrow, +though sufficient to procure absolution, and, therefore, the blotting out +of eternal punishment, merited more temporal punishment than if it had +been sorrow of a godly sort. But it was these temporal penalties +(including the pains of Purgatory) that Indulgences provided for. Hence, +Indulgences appealed more strongly to the indifferent Christian, who knew +that he had sinned, and at the same time felt that his sorrow was not the +effect of his love to God. He knew that his sins deserved _some_ +punishment. His conscience, however weak, told him that he could not sin +with perfect impunity, and that something more was needed than his +perfunctory confession to a priest. He felt that he must do +_something_--fast, or go on a pilgrimage, or purchase an Indulgence. It was +at this point that the Church intervened to show him how his poor +performance could be transformed by the power of the Church and its +treasury of merits into something so great that the penalties of Purgatory +could be actually evaded. His cheap sorrow, his careless confession, need +not trouble him. Hence, for the ordinary indifferent Christian, +_Attrition_, _Confession_, and _Indulgence_ became the three heads of the +scheme of the Church for his salvation. The one thing that satisfied his +conscience was the burdensome thing he had to do, and that was to procure +an Indulgence--a matter made increasingly easy for him as time went on. + +It must not be supposed that this doctrine of _Attrition_, and its evident +effect in deadening the conscience and in lowering the standard of +morality, had the undivided support of the theologians of the later Middle +Ages, but it was the doctrine taught by most of the Scotist theologians, +who took the lead in theological thinking during these times. It was set +forth in its most extravagant form by such a representative man as John of +Paltz in Erfurt; it was preached by the pardon-sellers; it was eagerly +welcomed by _indifferent_ Christians, who desired to escape the penalties +of sin without abandoning its enjoyments; it exalted the power of the +priesthood; and it was specially valuable in securing good sales of +Indulgences, and therefore in increasing the papal revenues. It lay at the +basis of the whole theory and practice of Indulgences, which confronted +Luther when he issued his _Theses_. + +History shows us that gross abuses had always gathered round the practice +of Indulgences, even in their earlier and simpler forms. The priests had +abused the system, and the power of issuing Indulgences had been taken +from them and confined to the bishops. The bishops, in turn, had abused +the privilege, and the Popes had gradually assumed that the power to grant +an Indulgence belonged to the Bishop of Rome exclusively, or to those to +whom he might delegate it; and this assumption seemed both reasonable and +salutary. The power was at first sparingly used. It is true that Pope +Urban II., in 1095, promised to the Crusaders an Indulgence such as had +never before been heard of--a complete remission of all imposed canonical +penances; but it was not until the thirteenth and fourteen centuries that +Indulgences, now doubly dangerous to the moral life from the new theories +which had arisen, were lavished even more unsparingly than in the days +when any bishop had power to grant them. From the beginning of the +fourteenth century they were given to raise recruits for papal wars. They +were lavished on the religious Orders, either for the benefit of the +members or for the purpose of attracting strangers and their gifts to +their churches. They were bestowed on cathedrals and other churches, or on +individual altars in churches, and had the effect of endowments. They were +joined to special collections of relics, to be earned by the faithful who +visited the shrines. They were given to hospitals, and for the upkeep of +bridges and of roads. Wherever they are met with in the later Middle Ages, +and it would be difficult to say where they are not to be found, they are +seen to be associated with sordid money-getting, and, as Luther remarked +in an early sermon on the subject, they were a very grievous instrument +placed in the hand of avarice. + +The practice of granting Indulgences was universally prevalent and was +universally accepted; but it was not easy to give an explanation of the +system, in the sense of showing that it was an essential element in +Christian discipline. No mediaeval theologian attempted to do any such +thing. Bonaventura and Thomas Aquinas, the two great Schoolmen who did +more than any others to provide a theological basis for the system, tell +us quite frankly that it is their business to accept the fact that +Indulgences do exist as part of the penitentiary discipline of the Church, +and, accepting it, they thought themselves bound to construct a reasonable +theory.(160) The practice altered, and new theories were needed to explain +the variations. It is needless to say that these explanations did not +always agree; and that there were very great differences of opinion about +what an Indulgence really effected for the man who bought it. + +Of all these disputed questions the most important was: Did an Indulgence +give remission for the guilt of sin, or only for certain penalties which +followed the sinful deed? This is a question about which modern Romanists +are extremely sensitive. + +The universal answer given by all defenders of Indulgences who have +written on the subject since the Council of Trent, is that guilt (_culpa_) +and eternal punishment (_poenae eternae_) are dealt with in the Sacrament of +Penance, and that Indulgences relate only to temporal punishments, +including under that designation the pains of Purgatory. This modern +opinion is confirmed by the most eminent authorities of the mediaeval +Church. It has been accepted in the description of the theory of +Indulgences given above, since it has been said that the principal use of +Indulgences was to secure against Purgatory. But these statements do not +exhaust the question. Mediaeval theology did not create Indulgences, it +only followed and tried to justify the practices of the Pope and of the +Roman Curia,--a rather difficult task. The question still remains whether +some of the Papal Bulls promulgating Indulgences did not promise the +removal of guilt as well as security against temporal punishments. If +these be examined, spurious Bulls being set aside, it will be found that +many of them make no mention of the need of previous confession and of +priestly absolution; that one or two expressly make mention of a remission +of guilt as well as of penalty; and that many (especially those which +proclaim a Jubilee Indulgence) use language which inevitably led +intelligent laymen like Dante to believe that the Popes did proclaim the +remission of guilt as well as of penalty. Of course, it may be said that +in those days the distinction between guilt (_culpa_) and penalty (_poena_) +had not been very exactly defined, and that the phrase _remission of sins_ +was used to denote both remission of guilt and remission of penalty; still +it is difficult to withstand the conclusion that, even in theory, +Indulgences had been declared to be efficacious for the removal of the +guilt of sin in the presence of God. + +These questions of the theological meaning of an Indulgence, though +necessary to understand the whole situation, had after all little to do +with Luther's action. He approached the whole matter from the side of the +practical effect of the proclamation of an Indulgence on the minds of +common men who knew nothing of refined theological distinctions; and the +evidence that the common people did generally believe that an Indulgence +did remove the guilt of sin is overwhelming. Contemporary chroniclers are +to be found who declare that Indulgences given to Crusaders remit the +guilt as well as the punishment; contemporary preachers assert that +plenary Indulgences remit guilt, and justify their opinion by declaring +that such Indulgences were supposed to contain within them the Sacrament +of Penance. The popular guide-books written for pilgrims to Rome and +Compostella spread the popular idea that Indulgences acquired by such +pilgrimages do remit guilt as well as penalty. The popular belief was so +thoroughly acknowledged, that even Councils had to throw the blame for it +on the pardon-sellers, or, like the Council of Constance, impeached the +Pope and compelled him to confess that he had granted Indulgences for the +remission of guilt as well as of penalty. This widespread popular belief +of itself justified Luther in calling attention to this side of the +matter. + +Moreover, it is well to see what the theory of the most respected +theologians actually meant when looked at practically. Since the +formulation of the Sacrament of Penance, the theory had been that all +guilt of sin and all eternal punishment were remitted in the priestly +absolution which followed the confession of the penitent. The Sacrament of +Penance had abolished guilt and Hell. But there remained the actual sins +to be punished, because the justice of God demanded it, and this was done +in the temporal pains of Purgatory. The "common man," if he thought at all +about it, may be excused if he considered that guilt and Hell, taken away +by the one hand, were restored by the other. There remained for him the +sense that God's justice demanded _some_ punishment for the sins he had +committed; and if this was not guilt according to theological definition, +it was probably all that he could attain to. He was taught and believed +that punishment awaited him for these actual sins of his; and a punishment +which might last thousands of years in Purgatory was not very different +from an eternal punishment in his eyes. The Indulgence came to him filled +as he was with these vague thoughts, and offered him a sure way of easing +his conscience and avoiding the punishment he knew he deserved. He had +only to pay the price of a _Papal Ticket_, perform the canonical good deed +required, whatever it might be, and he was assured that his punishment was +remitted, and God's justice satisfied. This may not involve the thought of +the remission of guilt in the theological sense of the word, but it +certainly misled the moral instincts of the "common man" about as much as +if it did. It is not surprising that the common people made the +theological mistake, if mistake it was, and saw in every plenary +Indulgence the promise of the remission of guilt as well as of +penalty,(161) for with them remission of guilt and quieting of conscience +were one and the same thing. It was this practical moral effect of +Indulgences, and not the theological explanation of the theory, which +stirred Luther to make his protest. + + + +§ 2. Luther's Theses.(162) + + +Luther's _Theses_ are singularly unlike what might have been expected from +a Professor of Theology. They lack theological definition, and contain +many repetitions which might have been easily avoided. They are simply +ninety-five sturdy strokes struck at a great ecclesiastical abuse which +was searing the consciences of many. They look like the utterances of a +man who was in close touch with the people; who had been greatly shocked +at reports brought to him of what the pardon-sellers had said; who had +read a good many of the theological explanations of the practice of +Indulgence, and had noted down a few things which he desired to +contradict. They read as if they were meant for laymen, and were addressed +to their common sense of spiritual things. They are plain and easily +understood, and keep within the field of simple religion and plain moral +truths. + +The _Theses_ appealed irresistibly to all those who had been brought up in +the simple evangelical faith which distinguished the quiet home life of so +many German families, and who had not forsaken it. They also appealed to +all who had begun to adopt that secular or non-ecclesiastical piety which, +we have seen, had been spreading quietly but rapidly throughout Germany at +the close of the Middle Ages. These two forces, both religious, gathered +round Luther. The effect of the _Theses_ was almost immediate: the desire +to purchase Indulgences cooled, and the sales almost stopped. + +The Ninety-five _Theses_ made six different assertions about Indulgences +and their efficacy: + +i. An Indulgence is and can only be the remission of a merely +ecclesiastical penalty; the Church can remit what the Church has imposed; +it cannot remit what God has imposed. + +ii. An Indulgence can never remit guilt; the Pope himself cannot do such a +thing; God has kept that in His own hand. + +iii. It cannot remit the divine punishment for sin; that also is in the +hands of God alone. + +iv. It can have no efficacy for souls in Purgatory; penalties imposed by +the Church can only refer to the living; death dissolves them; what the +Pope can do for souls in Purgatory is by prayer, not by jurisdiction or +the power of the keys. + +v. The Christian who has true repentance has already received pardon from +God altogether apart from an Indulgence, and does not need one; Christ +demands this true repentance from every one. + +vi. The Treasury of Merits has never been properly defined, it is hard to +say what it is, and it is not properly understood by the people; it cannot +be the merits of Christ and of His saints, because these act of themselves +and quite apart from the intervention of the Pope; it can mean nothing +more than that the Pope, having the power of the keys, can remit +ecclesiastical penalties imposed by the Church; the true Treasure-house of +merits is the Holy Gospel of the grace and glory of God. + +The Archbishop of Mainz, finding that the publication of the _Theses_ +interfered with the sale of the Indulgences, sent a copy to Rome. Pope +Leo, thinking that the whole thing was a monkish quarrel, contented +himself with asking the General of the Augustinian Eremites to keep his +monks quiet. Tetzel, in conjunction with a friend, Conrad Wimpina, +published a set of counter-theses. John Mayr of Eck, professor at +Ingolstadt, by far the ablest opponent Luther ever had, wrote an answer to +the _Theses_ which he entitled _Obelisks_;(163) and Luther replied in a +tract with the title _Asterisks_. At Rome, Silvester Mazzolini (1460-?) of +Prierio, a Dominican monk, papal censor for the Roman Province and an +Inquisitor, was profoundly dissatisfied with the _Ninety-five Theses_, and +proceeded to criticise them severely in a _Dialogue about the Power of the +Pope; against the Presumptuous Conclusions of Martin Luther_. The book +reached Germany by the middle of January 1518. The Augustinian Eremites +held their usual annual chapter at Heidelberg in April 1518, and Luther +heard his _Theses_ temperately discussed by his brother monks. He found +the opposition to his views much stronger than he had expected; but the +discussion was fair and honest, and Luther enjoyed it after the ominous +silence kept by most of his friends, who had thought his action rash. When +he returned from Heidelberg he began a general answer to his opponents. +The book, _Resolutiones_, was probably the most carefully written of all +Luther's writings. He thought long over it, weighed every statement +carefully, and rewrote portions several times. The preface, addressed to +his Vicar-General, Staupitz, contains some interesting autobiographical +material; it was addressed to the Pope; it was a detailed defence of his +_Theses_.(164) + +The _Ninety-five Theses_ had a circulation which was, for the time, +unprecedented. They were known throughout Germany in a little over a +fortnight; they were read over Western Europe within four weeks "as if +they had been circulated by angelic messengers," says Myconius +enthusiastically. Luther was staggered at the way they were received; he +said that he had not meant to determine, but to debate. The controversy +they awakened increased their popularity. In the _Theses_, and especially +in the _Resolutiones_, Luther had practically discarded all the practices +which the Pope and the Roman Curia had introduced in the matter of +Indulgences from the beginning of the thirteenth century, and all the +ingenious explanations Scholastic theologians had brought forward to +justify these practices. The readiest way to refute him was to assert the +power of the Roman Bishop; and this was the line taken by his critics. +Their arguments amount to this: the power to issue an Indulgence is simply +a particular instance of the power of papal jurisdiction, and Indulgences +are simply what the Pope proclaims them to be. Therefore, to attack +Indulgences is to attack the power of the Pope, and that cannot be +tolerated. The Roman Church is virtually the Universal Church, and the +Pope is practically the Roman Church. Hence, as the representative of the +Roman Church, which in turn represents the Church Universal, the Pope, +when he acts officially, cannot err. Official decisions are given in +actions as well as in words, custom has the force of law. Therefore, +whoever objects to such a long-established system as Indulgences is a +heretic, and does not deserve to be heard.(165) + +But the argument which appealed most powerfully to the Roman Curia was the +fact that the sales of the _Papal Tickets_ had been declining since the +publication of the _Theses_. Indulgences were the source of an enormous +revenue, and anything which checked their sale would cause financial +embarrassment. Pope Leo X. in his "enjoyment of the Papacy" lived +lavishly. He had a huge income, much greater than that of any European +monarch, but he lived beyond it. His income amounted to between four and +five hundred thousand ducats; but he had spent seven hundred thousand on +his war about the Duchy of Urbino; the magnificent reception of his +brother Julian and his bride in Rome (1514) had cost him fifty thousand +ducats; and he had spent over three hundred thousand on the marriage of +his nephew Lorenzo (1518). Voices had been heard in Rome as well as in +Germany protesting against this extravagance. The Pope was in desperate +need of money. It is scarcely to be wondered that Luther was summoned to +Rome (summons dated July 1518, and received by Luther on August 7th) to +answer for his attack on the Indulgence system. To have obeyed would have +meant death. + +The peremptory summons could be construed as an affront to the University +of Wittenberg, on whose boards the _Ninety-five Theses_ had been posted. +Luther wrote to his friend Spalatin (George Burkhardt of Spalt, +1484-1545), who was chaplain and private secretary to the Elector +Frederick, suggesting that the prince ought to defend the rights of his +University. Spalatin wrote at once to the Elector and also to the Emperor +Maximilian, and the result was that the summons to Rome was cancelled, and +it was arranged that the matter was to be left in the hands of the Papal +Legate in Germany, Thomas de Vio, Cardinal Cajetan(166) (1470-1553), and +Luther was ordered to present himself before that official at Augsburg. +The interview (October 1518) was not very satisfactory. The cardinal +demanded that Luther should recant his heresies without any argument. When +pressed to say what the heresies were, he named the statement in the 58th +Thesis that the merits of Christ work effectually without the intervention +of the Pope, and that in the _Resolutiones_ which said that the sacraments +are not efficacious apart from faith in the recipient. There was some +discussion notwithstanding the Legate's declaration; but in the end Luther +was ordered to recant or depart. He wrote out an appeal from the Pope +ill-informed to the Pope well-informed, also an appeal to a General +Council, and returned to Wittenberg. + +When Luther had posted his _Theses_ on the doors of the Church of All +Saints, he had been a solitary monk with nothing but his manhood to back +him; but nine months had made a wonderful difference in the situation. He +now knew that he was a representative man, with supporters to be numbered +by the thousand. His colleagues at Wittenberg were with him; his students +demonstratively loyal (they had been burning the Wimpina-Tetzel +counter-theses); his theology was spreading among all the cloisters of his +Order in Germany, and even in the Netherlands; and the rapid circulation +of his _Theses_ had shown him that he had the ear of Germany. His first +task, on his return to Wittenberg, was to prepare for the press an account +of his interview with Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg, and this was published +under the title, _Acta Augustana_. + +Luther was at pains to take the people of Germany into his confidence; he +published an account of every important interview he had; the people were +able to follow him step by step, and he was never so far in advance that +they were unable to see his footprints. The immediate effect of the _Acta +Augustana_ was an immense amount of public sympathy for Luther. The +people, even the Humanists who had cared little for the controversy, saw +that an eminently pious man, an esteemed teacher who was making his +obscure University famous, who had done nothing but propose a discussion +on the notoriously intricate question of Indulgences, was peremptorily +ordered to recant and remain silent. They could only infer that the +Italians treated the Germans contemptuously, and wished simply to drain +the country of money to be spent in the luxuries of the papal court. The +Elector Frederick shared the common opinion, and was, besides, keenly +alive to anything which touched his University and its prosperity. There +is no evidence to show that he had much sympathy with Luther's views. But +the University of Wittenberg, the seat of learning he had founded, so long +languishing with a very precarious life and now flourishing, was the apple +of his eye; and he resolved to defend it, and to protect the teacher who +had won renown for it. + +The political situation in Germany was too delicate, and the personal +political influence of Frederick too great, for the Pope to act rashly in +any matter in which that prince took a deep interest. The country was on +the eve of an election of a King of the Romans; Maximilian was old, and an +imperial election might occur at any time; and Frederick was one of the +most important factors in either case. So the Pope resolved to act +cautiously. The condemnation of Luther by the Cardinal-Legate was held +over, and a special papal delegate was sent down to Germany to make +inquiries. Every care was taken to select a man who would be likely to be +acceptable to the Elector. Charles von Miltitz, a Saxon nobleman belonging +to the Meisen district, a canon of Mainz, Trier, and Meissen, a papal +chamberlain, an acquaintance of Spalatin's, the Elector's own agent at the +Court of Rome, was sent to Germany. He took with him the "Golden Rose" as +a token of the Pope's personal admiration for the Elector. He was +furnished with numerous letters from His Holiness to the Elector, to some +of the Saxon councillors, to the magistrates of Wittenberg, in all of +which Luther figured as a child of the Devil. The phrase was probably +forgotten when Leo wrote to Luther some time afterwards and called him his +dear son. + +When Miltitz got among German speaking people he found that the state of +matters was undreamt of at the papal court. He was a German, and knew the +Germans. He could see, what the Cardinal-Legate had never perceived, that +he had to deal not with the stubbornness of a recalcitrant monk, but with +the slow movement of a nation. When he visited his friends and relations +in Augsburg and Nuernberg, he found that three out of five were on Luther's +side. He came to the wise resolution that he would see both Luther and +Tetzel privately before producing his credentials. Tetzel he could not +see. The unhappy man wrote to Miltitz that he dared not stir from his +convent, so greatly was he in danger from the violence of the people. +Miltitz met Luther in the house of Spalatin; he at once disowned the +speeches of the pardon-sellers; he let it be seen that he did not think +much of the Cardinal-Legate's methods of action; he so prevailed on Luther +that the latter promised to write a submissive letter to the Pope, to +advise people to reverence the Roman See, to say that Indulgences were +useful in the remission of canonical penances. Luther did all this; and if +the Roman Curia had supported Miltitz there is no saying how far the +reconciliation would have gone. But the Roman Curia did not support the +papal chamberlain, and Miltitz had also to reckon with John Eck, who was +burning to extinguish Luther in a public discussion. + +The months between his interview at Augsburg (October 1518) and the +Disputation with John Eck at Leipzig (June 1519) had been spent by Luther +in hard and disquieting studies. His opponents had confronted him with the +Pope's absolute supremacy in all ecclesiastical matters. This was one of +Luther's oldest inherited beliefs. The Church had been for him "the Pope's +House," in which the Pope was the house-father, to whom all obedience was +due. It was hard for him to think otherwise. He had been re-examining his +convictions about justifying faith and attempting to trace clearly their +consequences, and whether they did lead to his declarations about the +efficacy of Indulgences. He could come to no other conclusion. It became +necessary to investigate the evidence for the papal claim to absolute +authority. He began to study the Decretals, and found, to his amazement +and indignation, that they were full of frauds; and that the papal +supremacy had been forced on Germany on the strength of a collection of +Decretals many of which were plainly forgeries. It is difficult to say +whether the discovery brought more joy or more grief to Luther. Under the +combined influences of historical study, of the opinions of the early +Church Fathers, and of the Holy Scriptures, one of his oldest landmarks +was crumbling to pieces. His mind was in a whirl of doubt. He was +half-exultant and half-terrified at the result of his studies; and his +correspondence reveals how his mood of mind changed from week to week. It +was while he was thus "on the swither," tremulously on the balance, that +John Eck challenged him to dispute at Leipzig on the primacy and supremacy +of the Roman Pontiff. The discussion might clear the air, might make +himself see where he stood. He accepted the challenge almost feverishly. + + + +§ 3. The Leipzig Disputation.(167) + + +Leipzig was an enemies' country, and his Wittenberg friends would not +allow Luther to go there unaccompanied. The young Duke Barnim, who was +Rector of the University of Wittenberg, accompanied Carlstadt and Luther, +to give them the protection of his presence. Melanchthon, who had been a +member of the teaching staff of Wittenberg since August 1518, Justus +Jonas, and Nicholas Amsdorf went along with them. Two hundred Wittenberg +students in helmets and halberts formed a guard, and walked beside the two +country carts which carried their professors. An eye-witness of the scenes +at Leipzig has left us sketches of what he saw: + + + "In the inns where the Wittenberg students lodged, the landlord + kept a man standing with a halbert near the table to keep the + peace while the Leipzig and the Wittenberg students disputed with + each other. I have seen the same myself in the house of + Herbipolis, a bookseller, where I went to dine ... for there was + at table a Master Baumgarten ... who was so hot against the + Wittenbergers that the host had to restrain him with a halbert to + make him keep the peace so long as the Wittenbergers were in the + house and sat and ate at the table with him." + + +The University buildings at Leipzig did not contain any hall large enough +for the audience, and Duke George lent the use of his great +banqueting-room for the occasion. The discussions were preceded by a +service in the church. + + + "When we got to the church ... they sang a Mass with twelve voices + which had never been heard before. After Mass we went to the + Castle, where we found a great guard of burghers in their armour + with their best weapons and their banners; they were ordered to be + there twice a day, from seven to nine in the morning and from two + to five in the afternoon, to keep the peace while the Disputation + lasted."(168) + + +First, there was a Disputation between Carlstadt and Eck, and then, on the +fourth of July, Eck and Luther faced each other--both sons of peasants, met +to protect the old or cleave a way for the new. + +It was the first time that Luther had ever met a controversialist of +European fame. John Eck came to Leipzig fresh from his triumphs at the +great debates in Vienna and Bologna, and was and felt himself to be the +hero of the occasion. + + + "He had a huge square body, a full strong voice coming from his + chest, fit for a tragic actor or a town crier, more harsh than + distinct; his mouth, eyes, and whole aspect gave one the idea of a + butcher or a soldier rather than of a theologian. He gave one the + idea of a man striving to overcome his opponent rather than of one + striving to win a victory for the truth. There was as much + sophistry as good reasoning in his arguments; he was continually + misquoting his opponents' words or trying to give them a meaning + they were not intended to convey." + + +"Martin," says the same eye-witness, + + + "is of middle height; his body is slender, emaciated by study and + by cares; one can count almost all the bones; he stands in the + prime of his age; his voice sounds clear and distinct ... however + hard his opponent pressed him he maintained his calmness and his + good nature, though in debate he sometimes used bitter words.... + He carried a bunch of flowers in his hand, and when the discussion + became hot he looked at it and smelt it."(169) + + +Eck's intention was to force his opponent to make some declaration which +would justify him in charging Luther with being a partisan of the mediaeval +heretics, and especially of the Hussites. He continually led the debate +away to the Waldensians, the followers of Wiclif, and the Bohemians. The +audience swayed with a wave of excitement when Luther was gradually forced +to admit that there might be some truth in some of the Hussite opinions: + + + "One thing I must tell which I myself heard in the Disputation, + and which took place in the presence of Duke George, who came + often to the Disputation and listened most attentively; once Dr. + Martin spoke these words to Dr. Eck when hard pressed about John + Huss: 'Dear Doctor, the Hussite opinions are not all wrong.' + Thereupon said Duke George, so loudly that the whole audience + heard, 'God help us, the pestilence!' (Das walt, die Sucht), and + he wagged his head and placed his arms akimbo. That I myself heard + and saw, for I sat almost between his feet and those of Duke + Barnim of Pomerania, who was then the Rector of Wittenberg."(170) + + +So far as the dialectic battle was concerned, Eck had been victorious. He +had done what he had meant to do. He had made Luther declare himself. All +that was now needed was a Papal Bull against Luther, and the world would +be rid of another pestilent heretic. He had done what the more politic +Miltitz had wished to avoid. He had concentrated the attention of Germany +on Luther, and had made him the central figure round which all the +smouldering discontent could gather. As for Luther, he returned to +Wittenberg full of melancholy forebodings. They did not prevent him +preparing and publishing for the German people an account of the +Disputation, which was eagerly read. His arguments had been historical +rather than theological. He tried to show that the acknowledgment of the +supremacy of the Bishop of Rome was barely four hundred years old in +Western Europe, and that it did not exist in the East. The Greek Church, +he said, was part of the Church of Christ, and it would have nothing to do +with the Pope; the great Councils of the Early Christian centuries knew +nothing about papal supremacy. Athanasius, Basil, the Gregories, Cyprian +himself, had all taken Luther's own position, and were heretics, according +to Eck. Luther's speeches at Leipzig laid the foundation of that modern +historical criticism of institutions which has gone so far in our own +days. + +In some respects the Leipzig Disputation was the most important point in +the career of Luther. It made him see for the first time what lay in his +opposition to Indulgences. It made the people see it also. His attack was +no criticism, as he had at first thought, of a mere excrescence on the +mediaeval ecclesiastical system. He had struck at its centre; at its ideas +of a priestly mediation which denied the right of every believer to +immediate entrance into the very presence of God. It was after the +Disputation at Leipzig that the younger German Humanists rallied round +Luther to a man; that the burghers saw that religion and opposition to +priestly tyranny were not opposite things; and that there was room for an +honest attempt to create a Germany for the Germans independent of Rome. +Luther found himself a new man after Leipzig, with a new freedom and wider +sympathies. His depression fled. Sermons, pamphlets, letters from his +tireless pen flooded the land, and were read eagerly by all classes of the +population. + + + +§ 4. The Three Treatises.(171) + + +Three of these writings stand forth so pre-eminently that they deserve +special notice: _The Liberty of a Christian Man_, _To the Christian +Nobility of the German Nation_, and _On the Babylonian Captivity of the +Church_. These three books are commonly called in Germany the _Three Great +Reformation Treatises_, and the title befits them well. They were all +written during the year 1520, after three years spent in controversy, at a +time when Luther felt that he had completely broken from Rome, and when he +knew that he had nothing to expect from Rome but a sentence of +excommunication. His teaching may have varied in details afterwards, but +in all essential positions it remained what is to be found in these books. + +The tract on _The Liberty of a Christian Man_, "a very small book so far +as the paper is concerned," said Luther, "but one containing the whole sum +of the Christian life," had a somewhat pathetic history. Miltitz, hoping +against hope that the Pope would not push things to extremities, had asked +Luther to write out a short summary of his inmost beliefs and send it to +His Holiness. Luther consented, and this little volume was the result. It +has for preface Luther's letter to Pope Leo X., which concludes thus: "I, +in my poverty, have no other present to make you, nor do you need to be +enriched by anything but a spiritual gift." It was probably the last of +the three published (Oct. 1520), but it contains the principles which +underlie the other two. + +The booklet is a brief statement, free from all theological subtleties, of +the priesthood of all believers which is a consequence of the fact of +justification by faith alone. Its note of warning to Rome, and its +educational value for pious people in the sixteenth century, consisted in +its showing that the man who fears God and trusts in Him need not fear the +priests nor the Church. The first part proves that every spiritual +possession which a man has or can have must be traced back to his faith; +if he has faith, he has all; if he has not faith, he has nothing. It is +the possession of faith which gives liberty to a Christian man; God is +with him, who can be against him? + + + "Here you will ask, 'If all who are in the Church are priests, by + what character are those whom we now call priests to be + distinguished from the laity?' I reply, By the use of those words + _priests_, _clergy_, _spiritual person_, _ecclesiastic_, an + injustice has been done, since they have been transferred from the + remaining body of Christians to those few who are now, by a + hurtful custom, called ecclesiastics. For the Holy Scripture makes + no distinction between them, except that those who are now + boastfully called Popes, Bishops, and Lords, it calls ministers, + servants, and stewards, who are to serve the rest in the ministry + of the Word, for teaching the faith of Christ and the liberty of + believers. For though it is true that we are all equally priests, + yet cannot we, nor ought we if we could, all to minister and teach + publicly." + + +The second part shows that everything that a Christian man does must come +from his faith. It may be necessary to use all the ceremonies of divine +service which past generations have found useful to promote the religious +life; perhaps to fast and practise mortifications of the flesh; but if +such things are to be really profitable, they must be kept in their proper +place. They are good deeds not in the sense of making a man good, but as +the signs of his faith; they are to be practised with joy because they are +done for the sake of the God who has united Himself with man through Jesus +Christ. + +Nothing that Luther has written more clearly manifests that combination of +revolutionary daring and wise conservatism which was characteristic of the +man. There is no attempt to sweep away any ecclesiastical machinery, +provided only it be kept in its proper place as a means to an end. But +religious ceremonies are not an end in themselves; and if through human +corruption and neglect of the plain precepts of God's word they hinder +instead of help the true growth of the soul, they ought to be swept away; +and the fact that the soul of man needs absolutely nothing in the last +resort but the word of God dwelling in him, gives men courage and calmness +in demanding their reformation. + +Luther applied those principles to the reformation of the Church in his +book on the _Babylonian Captivity of the Church_ (Sept.-Oct. 1520). He +subjected the elaborate sacramental system of the Church to a searching +criticism, and concluded that there are only two, or perhaps three, +scriptural sacraments--the Eucharist, Baptism, and Penance. He denounced +the doctrine of Transubstantiation as a "monstrous phantom" which the +Church of the first twelve centuries knew nothing about, and said that any +endeavour to define the precise manner of Christ's Presence in the +sacrament is simply indecent curiosity. Perhaps the most important +practical portion of the book deals with the topic of Christian marriage. +In no sphere of human life has the Roman Church done more harm by +interfering with simple scriptural directions: + + + "What shall we say of those impious human laws by which this + divinely appointed manner of life has been entangled and tossed up + and down? Good God! it is horrible to look upon the temerity of + the tyrants of Rome, who thus, according to their caprices, at one + time annul marriages and at another time enforce them. Is the + human race given over to their caprice for nothing but to be + mocked and abused in every way, that these men may do what they + please with it for the sake of their own fatal gains? ... And what + do they sell? The shame of men and women, a merchandise worthy of + these traffickers, who surpass all that is most sordid and most + disgusting in their avarice and impiety." + + +Luther points out that there is a clear scriptural law on the degrees +within which marriage is unlawful, and says that no human regulations +ought to forbid marriages outside these degrees or permit them within. He +also comes to the conclusion that divorce _a mensa et thoro_ is clearly +permitted in Scripture; though he says that personally he hates divorce, +and "prefers bigamy to it." + +The appeal _To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation_ made the +greatest immediate impression. It was written in haste, but must have been +long thought over. Luther began the introduction on June 23rd (1520); the +book was ready by the middle of August; and by the 18th, four thousand +copies were in circulation throughout Germany, and the presses could not +print fast enough for the demand. It was a call to all Germany to unite +against Rome. + +It was nobly comprehensive: it grasped the whole situation, and summed up +with vigour and clearness all the German grievances which had hitherto +been stated separately and weakly; it brought forward every partial +proposal of reform, however incomplete, and quickened it by setting it in +its proper place in one combined scheme. All the parts were welded +together by a simple and courageous faith, and made living by the moral +earnestness which pervaded the whole. + +Luther struck directly at the imaginary mysterious semi-supernatural power +supposed to belong to the Church and the priesthood which had held Europe +in awed submission for so many centuries. Reform had been impossible, the +appeal said, because the walls behind which Rome lay entrenched had been +left standing--walls of straw and paper, but in appearance formidable. +These sham fortifications are: the _Spiritual Power_ which is believed to +be superior to the temporal power of kings and princes, the conception +that _no one can interpret Scripture but the Pope_, the idea that _no one +can summon a General Council but the Bishop of Rome_. These are the +threefold lines of fortification behind which the Roman Curia has +entrenched itself, and the German people has long believed that they are +impregnable. Luther sets to work to demolish them. + +The Romanists assert that the Pope, bishops, priests, and monks belong to +and constitute the _spiritual estate_, while princes, lords, artisans, and +peasants are the _temporal estate_, which is subject to the spiritual. But +this _spiritual estate_ is a mere delusion. The real _spiritual estate_ is +the whole body of believers in Jesus Christ, and they are spiritual +because Jesus has made all His followers priests to God and to His Christ. +A cobbler belongs to the _spiritual estate_ as truly as a bishop. The +clergy are distinguished from the laity not by an indelible character +imposed upon them in a divine mystery called ordination, but because they +have been set apart to do a particular kind of work in the commonwealth. +If a Pope, bishop, priest, or monk neglects to do the work he is there to +do, he deserves to be punished as much as a careless mason or tailor, and +is as accountable to the civil authorities. The _spiritual priesthood of +all believers_, the gift of the faith which justifies, has shattered the +first and most formidable of these papal fortifications. + +It is foolish to say that the _Pope alone can interpret Scripture_. If +that were true, where is the need of Holy Scriptures at all? + + + "Let us burn them, and content ourselves with the unlearned + gentlemen at Rome, in whom the Holy Ghost alone dwells, who, + however, can dwell in pious souls only. If I had not read it, I + could never have believed that the devil should have put forth + such follies at Rome and find a following." + + +The Holy Scripture is open to all, and can be interpreted by all true +believers who have the mind of Christ and approach the word of God humbly +seeking enlightenment. + +The third wall falls with the other two. It is nonsense to say that _the +Pope alone can call a Council_. We are plainly taught in Scripture that if +our brother offends we are to tell it to the Church; and if the Pope +offends, and he often does, we can only obey Scripture by calling a +Council. Every individual Christian has a right to do his best to have it +summoned; the temporal powers are there to enforce his wishes; Emperors +called General Councils in the earlier ages of the Church. + +The straw and paper walls having been thus cleared away, Luther proceeds +to state his indictment. There is in Rome one who calls himself the Vicar +of Christ, and who lives in a state of singular resemblance to our Lord +and to St. Peter, His apostle. For this man wears a triple crown (a single +one does not content him), and keeps up such a state that he needs a +larger personal revenue than the Emperor. He has surrounding him a number +of men, called cardinals, whose only apparent use is that they serve to +draw to themselves the revenues of the richest convents, endowments, and +benefices in Europe, and spend the money thus obtained in keeping up the +state of a great monarch in Rome. When it is impossible to seize the whole +revenue of an ecclesiastical benefice, the Curia joins some ten or twenty +together, and mulcts each in a good round sum for the benefit of the +cardinal. Thus the priory of Wuerzburg gives one thousand gulden yearly, +and Bamberg, Mainz, and Trier pay their quotas. The papal court is +enormous,--three thousand papal secretaries, and hangers-on innumerable; +and all are waiting for German benefices, whose duties they never fulfil, +as wolves wait for a flock of sheep. Germany pays more to the Curia than +it gives to its own Emperor. Then look at the way Rome robs the whole +German land. Long ago the Emperor permitted the Pope to take the half of +the first year's income from every benefice--the _Annates_--to provide for a +war against the Turks. The money was never spent for the purpose destined; +yet it has been regularly paid for a hundred years, and the Pope demands +it as a regular and legitimate tax, and uses it to pay posts and offices +at Rome. + + + "Whenever there is any pretence of fighting the Turk, they send + out commissions for collecting money, and often proclaim + Indulgences under the same pretext.... They think that we, + Germans, will always remain such great fools, and that we will go + on giving money to satisfy their unspeakable greed, though we see + plainly that neither _Annates_ nor _Indulgence-money_ nor + anything--not one farthing--goes against the Turks, but all goes + into their bottomless sack, ... and all this is done in the name + of Christ and of St. Peter." + + +The chicanery used to get possession of German benefices for officials of +the Curia, the exactions on the bestowal of the _pallium_, the trafficking +in exemptions and permissions to evade laws ecclesiastical and moral, are +all trenchantly described. The most shameless are those connected with +marriage. The Curial Court is described as a place + + + "where vows are annulled; where a monk gets leave to quit his + cloister; where priests can enter the married life for money; + where bastards can become legitimate, and dishonour and shame may + arrive at high honours, and all evil repute and disgrace is + knighted and ennobled; where a marriage is suffered that is in a + forbidden degree, or has some other defect.... There is a buying + and selling, a changing, blustering, and bargaining, cheating and + lying, robbing and stealing, debauchery and villainy, and all + kinds of contempt of God, that Antichrist himself could not reign + worse." + + +The plan of reform sketched includes--the complete abolition of the power +of the Pope over the State; the creation of a national German Church, with +an ecclesiastical Council of its own to be the final court of appeal for +Germany, and to represent the German Church as the Diet did the German +State; some internal religious reforms, such as the limitation of the +number of pilgrimages, which were destroying morality and creating a +distaste for honest work; reductions in the mendicant orders and in the +number of vagrants who thronged the roads, and were a scandal in the +towns. + + + "It is of much more importance to consider what is necessary for + the salvation of the common people than what St. Francis, or St. + Dominic, or St. Augustine, or any other man laid down, especially + as things have not turned out as they expected." + + +He proposes the inspection of all convents and nunneries, and permission +given to those who are dissatisfied with their monastic lives to return to +the world; the limitation of ecclesiastical holy days, which are too often +nothing but scenes of drunkenness, gluttony, and debauchery; a married +priesthood, and an end put to the degrading concubinage of the German +priests. + + + "We see how the priesthood is fallen, and how many a poor priest + is encumbered with a woman and children, and burdened in his + conscience, and no one does anything to help him, though he might + very well be helped.... I will not conceal my honest counsel, nor + withhold comfort from that unhappy crowd who now live in trouble + with wife and children, and remain in shame with a heavy + conscience, hearing their wife called a priest's harlot, and their + children bastards.... I say that these two (who are minded in + their hearts to live together in conjugal fidelity) are surely + married before God." + + +The appeal concludes with some solemn words addressed to the luxury and +licensed immorality of the German towns. + +None of Luther's writings produced such an instantaneous effect as this. +It was not the first programme urging common action in the interests of a +united Germany, but it was the most complete, and was recognised to be so +by all who were working for a Germany for the Germans. + +The three "Reformation treatises" were the statement of Luther's case laid +before the people of the Fatherland, and were a very effectual antidote to +the Papal Bull excommunicating him, which was ready for publication in +Germany. + + + +§ 5. The Papal Bull. + + +The Bull, _Exurge Domine_, was scarcely worthy of the occasion. The Pope +seems to have left its construction in the hands of Prierias, Cajetan, and +Eck, and the contents seem to show that Eck had the largest share in +framing it. Much of it reads like an echo of Eck's statements at Leipzig a +year before. It began pathetically: "Arise, O Lord, plead Thine own cause; +remember how the foolish man reproacheth Thee daily; the foxes are wasting +Thy vineyard, which Thou hast given to Thy Vicar Peter; the boar out of +the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it." +St. Peter is invoked, and the Pope's distress at the news of Luther's +misdeeds is described at length. The most disturbing thing is that the +errors of the Greeks and of the Bohemians were being revived, and that in +Germany, which had hitherto been so faithful to the Holy See. Then came +forty-one propositions, said to be Luther's, which are condemned as +"heretical or scandalous, or false or offensive to pious ears, or seducing +to simple minds, and standing in the way of the Catholic faith."(172) All +faithful people were ordered to burn Luther's books wherever they could +find them. Luther himself had refused to come to Rome and submit to +instruction; he had even appealed to a General Council, contrary to the +decrees of Julius II. and Pius II.; he was therefore inhibited from +preaching; he and all who followed him were ordered to make public +recantation within sixty days; if they did not, they were to be treated as +heretics, were to be seized and imprisoned by the magistrates, and all +towns or districts which sheltered them were to be placed under an +interdict. + +Among the forty-one propositions condemned was one--that the burning of +heretics was a sin against the Spirit of Christ--to which the Pope seemed +to attach special significance, so often did he repeat it in letters to +the Elector Frederick and other authorities in Germany. The others may be +arranged in four classes--against Luther's opinions about Indulgences; his +statements about Purgatory; his declarations that the efficacy of the +sacraments depended upon the spiritual condition of those who received +them; that penance was an outward sign of sorrow, and that good works +(ecclesiastical and moral) were to be regarded as the signs of faith +rather than as making men actually righteous; his denial of the later +_curial_ assertions of the nature of the papal monarchy over the Church. +Luther's opinions on all these points could be supported by abundant +testimony from the earlier ages of the Church, and most of his criticisms +were directed against theories which had not been introduced before the +middle of the thirteenth century. The Bull made no attempt to argue about +the truth of the positions taken in its sentences. There was nothing done +to show that Luther's opinions were wrong. The one dominant note running +all through the papal deliverance was the simple assertion of the Pope's +right to order any discussion to cease at his command. + +This did not help to commend the Bull to the people of Germany, and was +specially unsuited to an age of restless mental activity. The method +adopted for publishing it in Germany was still less calculated to win +respect for its decisions. The publication was entrusted to John Eck of +Ingolstadt, who was universally recognised as Luther's personal enemy; and +the hitherto unheard of liberty was granted to him to insert at his +pleasure the names of a certain number of persons, and to summon them to +appear before the Roman Curia. He showed how unfit he was for this +responsible task by inserting the names of men who had criticised or +satirised him--Adelmann, Pirkheimer, Carlstadt, and three others.(173) + +Eck discovered that it was an easier matter to get permission from the +Roman Curia to frame a Bull against the man who had stopped the sale of +Indulgences, and was drying up a great source of revenue, than to publish +the Bull in Germany. It was thought at Rome that no man had more influence +among the bishops and Universities, but the Curia soon learnt that it had +made a mistake. The Universities stood upon their privileges, and would +have nothing to do with John Eck. The bishops made all manner of technical +objections. Many persons affected to believe that the Bull was not +authentic; and Luther himself did not disdain to take this line in his +tract, _Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist_. Eck, who had come down +to Germany inflated with vanity, found himself mocked and scorned. +Pirkheimer dubbed him _gehobelter Eck_, Eck with the swelled head, and the +epithet stuck. Nor was the publication any easier when the pretence of +unauthenticity could be maintained no longer. The University of Wittenberg +refused to publish the Bull, on the ground that the Pope would not have +permitted its issue had he known the true state of matters, and they +blamed Eck for misinforming His Holiness: the Council of Electoral Saxony +agreed with the Senate; and their action was generally commended. Spalatin +said that he had seen at least thirty letters from great princes and +learned men of all districts in Germany, from Pomerania to Switzerland, +and from the Breisgau to Bohemia, encouraging Luther to stand firm. Eck +implored the bishops of the dioceses surrounding Wittenberg--Merseburg, +Meissen, and Brandenburg--to publish the Bull. They were either unwilling +or powerless. + +Luther had been expecting a Bull against him ever since the Leipzig +Disputation. His correspondence reveals that he met it undismayed. What +harm could a papal Bull do to a man whose faith had given him fellowship +with God? What truth could there be in a Bull which clearly contradicted +the Holy Scriptures? St. Paul has warned us against believing an angel +from heaven if he uttered words different from the Scriptures, which are +our strength and our consolation; why should we pin our faith to a Pope or +a Council? The Bull had done one thing for him, it had made him an +excommunicated man, and therefore had freed him from his monastic vows. He +could leave the convent when he liked, only he did not choose to do so. +When he heard that his writings had been burnt as heretical by order of +the Papal Legates, he resolved to retaliate. It was no sudden decision. +Eleven months previously he had assured Spalatin (January 1520) that if +Rome condemned and burnt his writings he would condemn and burn the papal +Decretal Laws. On December 10th (1520) he posted a notice inviting the +Wittenberg students to witness the burning of the papal Constitutions and +the books of Scholastic Theology at nine o'clock in the morning.(174) A +multitude of students, burghers, and professors met in the open space +outside the Elster Gate between the walls and the river Elbe. A great +bonfire had been built. An oak tree planted long ago still marks the spot. +One of the professors kindled the pile; Luther laid the books of the +Decretals on the glowing mass, and they caught the flames; then amid +solemn silence he placed a copy of the Bull on the fire, saying in Latin: +_As thou hast wasted with anxiety the Holy One of God, so may the eternal +flames waste thee_ (_Quia tu conturbasti Sanctum Domini, ideoque te +conturbet ignis eternus_). He waited till the paper was consumed, and then +with his friends and fellow-professors he went back to the town. Some +hundreds of students remained standing round the fire. For a while they +were sobered by the solemnity of the occasion and sang the _Te Deum_. Then +a spirit of mischief seized them, and they began singing funeral dirges in +honour of the burnt Decretals. They got a peasant's cart, fixed in it a +pole on which they hung a six-foot-long banner emblazoned with the Bull, +piled the small cart with the books of Eck, Emser, and other Romish +controversialists, hauled it along the streets and out through the Elster +Gate, and, throwing books and Bull on the glowing embers of the bonfire, +they burnt them. Sobered again, they sang the _Te Deum_ and finally +dispersed. + +It is scarcely possible for us in the twentieth century to imagine the +thrill that went through Germany, and indeed through all Europe, when the +news sped that a poor monk had burnt the Pope's Bull. Papal Bulls had been +burnt before Luther's days, but the burners had been for the most part +powerful monarchs. This tune it was done by a monk, with nothing but his +courageous faith to back him. It meant that the individual soul had +discovered its true value. If eras can be dated, modern history began on +December 10th, 1520. + + + +§ 6. Luther the Representative of Germany. + + +Hitherto we have followed Luther's personal career exclusively. It may be +well to turn aside for a little to see how the sympathy of many classes of +the people was gathering round him. + +The representatives of foreign States who were present at the Diet of +Worms, of England, Spain, and Venice, all wrote home to their respective +governments about the extraordinary popularity which Luther enjoyed among +almost every class of his fellow-countrymen; and, as we shall see, the +despatches of Aleander, the papal nuncio at the Diet, are full of +statements and complaints which confirm these reports. This popularity had +been growing since 1517, and there are traces that many thoughtful men had +been attracted to Luther some years earlier. The accounts of Luther's +interview with Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg, and his attitude at the +Leipzig Disputation, had given a great impulse to the veneration with +which people regarded him; but the veneration itself had been quietly +growing, apart from any striking incidents in his career. The evidence for +what follows has been collected chiefly from such private correspondence +as has descended to us; and most stress has been laid on letters which +were not addressed to Luther, and which were never meant to be seen by +him. Men wrote to each other about him, and described the impression he +was making on themselves and on the immediate circle of their +acquaintances. We learn from such letters not merely the fact of the +esteem, but what were the characteristics in the man which called it +forth.(175) + +A large part of the evidence comes from the correspondence of educated +men, who, if they were not all Humanists strictly so called, belonged to +that increasing class on whom the New Learning had made a great +impression, and had produced the characteristic habit of mind which +belonged to its possessors. The attitude and work of Erasmus had prepared +them to appreciate Luther. The monkish opponents of the great Humanist had +been thoroughly in the right when they feared the effects of his +revolutionary ways of thinking, however they might be accompanied with +appeals against all revolutionary action. He had exhibited his idea of +what a life of personal religion ought to be in his _Enchiridion_; he had +exposed the mingled Judaism and paganism of a great part of the popular +religion; he had poured scorn on the trifling subtleties of scholastic +theology, and had asked men to return to a simple "Christian Philosophy"; +above all, he had insisted that Christianity could only renew its youth by +going back to the study of the Holy Scriptures, and especially of the New +Testament; and he had aided his contemporaries to make this return by his +edition of the New Testament, and by his efforts to bring within their +reach the writings of the earlier Church Fathers. His Humanist followers +in Germany believed that they saw in Luther a man who was doing what their +leader urged all men to do. They saw in Luther an Erasmus, who was going +to the root of things. He was rejecting with increasing determination the +bewildering sophistries of Scholasticism, and, what was more, he was +showing how many of these had arisen by exalting the authority of the +pagan Aristotle over that of St. Paul and St. Augustine. He had painfully +studied these Schoolmen, and could speak with an authority on this matter; +for he was a learned theologian. The reports of his lectures, which were +spreading throughout Germany, informed them that he based his teaching on +a simple exposition of the Holy Scriptures in the Vulgate version, which +was sanctioned by the mediaeval Church. He had revolted, and was +increasingly in revolt, against those abuses in the ordinary religious +life which were encouraged from sordid motives by the Roman Curia,--abuses +which Erasmus had pierced through and through with the light darts of his +sarcasm; and Luther knew, as Erasmus did not, what he was speaking about, +for he had surrendered himself to that popular religion, and had sought in +it desperately for a means of reconciliation with God without succeeding +in his quest. They saw him insisting, with a strenuousness no Humanist had +exhibited, on the Humanist demand that every man had a right to stand true +to his own personal conscientious convictions. If some of them, like +Erasmus, in spite of their scorn of monkery, still believed that the +highest type of the religious life was a sincere self-sacrificing +Franciscan monk, they saw their ideal in the Augustinian Eremite, whose +life had never been stained by any monkish scandal, and who had been +proclaimed by his brother monks to be a model of personal holiness. They +were sure that when he pled heroically for the freedom of the religious +life, his courage, which they could not emulate, rested on a depth and +strength of personal piety which they sadly confessed they themselves did +not possess. If they complained at times that Luther spoke too strongly +against the Pope, they admitted that he was going to the root of things in +his attack. All clear-sighted men perceived that the _one_ obstacle to +reform was the theory of the papal monarchy, which had been laboriously +constructed by Italian canonists after the failure of Conciliar reform,--a +theory which defied the old mediaeval ecclesiastical tradition, and +contradicted the solemn decisions of the great German Councils of +Constance and Basel. Luther's attacks on the Papacy were not stronger than +those of Gerson and d'Ailly, and his language was not more unmeasured than +that of their common master, William of Occam. There was nothing in these +early days to prevent men who were genuinely attached to the mediaeval +Church, its older theology and its ancient rites, from rallying round +Luther. When the marches began to be redd, and the beginnings of a +Protestant Church confronted the mediaeval, the situation was changed. Many +who had enthusiastically supported Luther left him. + +Conrad Mutianus, canon of Gotha, and the veteran leader of the Erfurt +circle of Humanists, wrote admiringly of the originality of Luther's +sermons as early as 1515. He applauded the stand he took at Leipzig, and +spoke of him as _Martinum, Deo devotissimum doctorem_. His followers were +no longer contented with a study of the classical authors. Eobanus Hessus, +crowned "poet-king" of Germany, abandoned his _Horace_ for the +_Enchiridion_ of Erasmus and the Holy Scriptures. Justus Jonas (Jodocus +Koch of Nordlingen) forsook classical Greek to busy himself with the +Epistles to the Corinthians. The wicked satirist, Curicius Cordus, betook +himself to the New Testament. They did this out of admiration for Erasmus, +"their father in Christ." But when Luther appeared, when they read his +pamphlets circulating through Germany, when they followed, step by step, +his career, they came under the influence of a new spell. The _Erasmici_, +to use the phrases of the times, diminished, and the _Martiniani_ +increased in numbers. One of the old Erfurt circle, Johannes Crotus +Rubeanus, was in Rome. His letters, passed round among his friends, made +no small impression upon them. He told them that he was living in the +centre of the plague-spot of Europe. He reviled the Curia as devoid of all +moral conscience. "The Pope and his carrion-crows" were sitting content, +gorged on the miseries of the Church. When Crotus received from Germany +copies of Luther's writings, he distributed them secretly to his Italian +friends, and collected their opinions to transmit to Germany. They were +all sympathetically impressed with what Luther said, but they pitied him +as a man travelling along a very dangerous road; no real reform was +possible without the destruction of the whole curial system, and that was +too powerful for any man to combat. Yet Luther was a hero; he was the +_Pater Patriae_ of Germany; his countrymen ought to erect a golden statue +in his honour; they wished him God-speed. When Crotus returned to Germany +and got more in touch with Luther's work, he felt more drawn to the +Reformer, and wrote enthusiastically to his friends that Luther was the +personal revelation of Christ in modern times. So we find these Humanists +declaring that Luther was the St. Paul of the age, the modern Hercules, +the Achilles of the sixteenth century. + +No Humanist circle gave Luther more enthusiastic support than that of +Nuernberg. The soil had been prepared by a few ardent admirers of Staupitz, +at the head of whom was Wenceslas Link, prior of the Augustinian-Eremites +in Nuernberg, and a celebrated preacher. They had learned from Staupitz +that blending of the theology of Augustine with the later German mysticism +which was characteristic of the man, and it prepared them to appreciate +the deeper experimental teaching of Luther. Among these Nuernberg Humanists +was Christopher Scheurl, a jurist, personally acquainted with Luther and +with Eck. The shortlived friendship between the two antagonists had been +brought about by Scheurl, whose correspondence with Luther began in 1516. +Scheurl was convinced that Luther's cause was the "cause of God." He told +Eck this. He wrote to him (February 18th, 1519) that all the most +spiritually minded clergymen that he knew were devoted to Luther; that +"they flew to him in dense troops, like starlings"; that their deepest +sympathies were with him; and that they confessed that their holiest +desires were prompted by his writings. Albert Duerer expressed his +admiration by painting Luther as St. John, the beloved disciple of the +Lord. Caspar Nuetzel, one of the most dignified officials of the town, +thought it an honour to translate Luther's _Ninety-five Theses_ into +German. Lazarus Sprengel delighted to tell his friends how Luther's tracts +and sermons were bringing back to a living Christianity numbers of his +acquaintances who had been perplexed and driven from the faith by the +trivialities common in ordinary sermons. Similar enthusiasm showed itself +in Augsburg and other towns. After the Leipzig Disputation, the great +printer of Basel, Frobenius, became an ardent admirer of Luther; reprinted +most of his writings, and despatched them to Switzerland, France, the +Netherlands, Italy, England, and Spain. He delighted to tell of the +favourable reception they met with in these foreign countries,--how they +had been welcomed by Lefevre in France, and how the Swiss Cardinal von +Sitten had said that Luther deserved all honour, for he spoke the truth, +which no special pleading of an Eck could overthrow. The distinguished +jurist Ulrich Zasius of Freiburg said that Luther was an "angel +incarnate," and while he deprecated his strong language against the Pope, +he called him the "Phoenix among Christian theologians," the "flower of the +Christian world," and the "instrument of God." Zasius was a man whose +whole religious sympathies belonged to the mediaeval conception of the +Church, yet he spoke of Luther in this way. + +It is perhaps difficult for us now to comprehend the state of mind which +longed for the new and yet clung to the old, which made the two Nuernberg +families, the Ebners and the Nuetzlers, season the ceremonies at their +family gathering to celebrate their daughters taking the veil with +speeches in praise of Luther and of his writings. Yet this was the +dominant note in the vast majority of the supporters of Luther in these +earlier years. + +Men who had no great admiration for Luther personally had no wish to see +him crushed by the Roman Curia by mere weight of authority. Even Duke +George of Saxony, who had called Luther a pestilent fellow at the Leipzig +Disputation, had been stirred into momentary admiration by the _Address to +the Christian Nobility of the German Nation_, and had no great desire to +publish the Bull within his dominions; and his private secretary and +chaplain, Jerome Emser, although a personal enemy who never lost an +opportunity of controverting Luther, nevertheless hoped that he might be +the instrument of effecting a reformation in the Church. Jacob Wimpheling +of Strassburg, a thoroughgoing mediaevalist who had manifested no sympathy +for Reuchlin, and his friend Christopher of Utenheim, Bishop of Basel, +hoped that the movement begun by Luther might lead to that reformation of +the Church on mediaeval lines which they both earnestly desired. + +Perhaps no one represented better the attitude of the large majority of +Luther's supporters, in the years between 1517 and 1521, than did the +Prince, who is rightly called Luther's protector, Frederick the Elector of +Saxony. It is a great though common mistake to suppose that Frederick +shared those opinions of Luther which afterwards grew to be the Lutheran +theology. His brother John, and in a still higher degree his nephew John +Frederick, were devoted Lutherans in the theological sense; but there is +no evidence to show that Frederick ever was. + +Frederick never had any intimate personal relations with Luther. At +Spalatin's request, he had paid the expenses of Luther's _promotion_ to +the degree of Doctor of the Holy Scriptures; he had, of course, acquiesced +in his appointment to succeed Spalatin as Professor of Theology; and he +must have appreciated keenly the way in which Luther's work had gradually +raised the small and declining University to the position it held in 1517. +A few letters were exchanged between Luther and Frederick, but there is no +evidence that they ever met in conversation; nor is there any that +Frederick had ever heard Luther preach. When he lay dying he asked Luther +to come and see him; but the Reformer was far distant, trying to dissuade +the peasants from rising in rebellion, and when he reached the palace his +old protector had breathed his last. + +The Elector was a pious man according to mediaeval standards. He had +received his earliest lasting religious impressions from intercourse with +Augustinian Eremite monks when he was a boy at school at Grimma, and he +maintained the closest relations with the Order all his life. He valued +highly all the external aids to a religious life which the mediaeval Church +had provided. He believed in the virtue of pilgrimages and relics. He had +made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and had brought back a great many +relics, which he had placed in the Church of All Saints in Wittenberg, and +he had agents at Venice and other Mediterranean ports commissioned to +secure other relics for his collection. He continued to purchase them as +late as the year 1523. He believed in Indulgences of the older +type,--Indulgences which remitted in whole or in part ecclesiastically +imposed _satisfactions_,--and he had procured two for use in Saxony. One +served as an endowment for the upkeep of his bridge at Torgau, and he had +once commissioned Tetzel to preach its virtues; the other was to benefit +pilgrims who visited and venerated his collection of relics on All Saints' +Day. But it is clear that he disliked Indulgences of the kind Luther had +challenged, and had small belief in the good faith of the Roman Curia. He +had prevented money collected for one plenary Indulgence leaving the +country, and he had forbidden Tetzel to preach the last Indulgence within +his territories. His sympathies were all with Luther on this question. He +was an esteemed patron of the pious society called _St. Ursula's +Schifflein_. He went to Mass regularly, and his attendances became +frequent when he was in a state of hesitation or perplexity. When he was +at Koeln (November 1520), besieged by the papal nuncios to induce him to +permit the publication of the Bull against Luther within his lands, +Spalatin noted that he went to Mass three times in one day. His reverence +for the Holy Scriptures must have created a bond of sympathy between +Luther and himself. He talked with his private secretary about the +incomparable majesty and power of the word of God, and contrasted its +sublimities with the sophistries and trivialities of the theology of the +day. He maintained firmly the traditional policy of his House to make the +decisions of the Councils of Constance and of Basel effective within +Electoral Saxony, in spite of protests from the Curia and the higher +ecclesiastics, and was accustomed to consider himself responsible for the +ecclesiastical as well as for the civil good government of his lands. +Aleander had considered it a master-stroke of policy to procure the +burning of Luther's books at Koeln while the Elector was in the city. +Frederick only regarded the deed as a petty insult to himself. He was a +staunch upholder of the rights and liberties of the German nation, and +remembered that by an old concordat, which every Emperor had sworn to +maintain, every German had the right to appeal to a General Council, and +could not be condemned without a fair trial; and this Bull had made +Luther's appeal to a Council one of the reasons for his condemnation. So, +in spite of the "golden rose" and other blandishments, in spite of threats +that he might be included in the excommunication of his subject and that +the privileges of his University might be taken away, he stood firm, and +would not withdraw his protection from Luther. He was a pious German +prince of the old-fashioned type, with no great love for Italians, and was +not going to be browbeaten by papal nuncios. His attitude towards Luther +represents very fairly that of the great mass of the German people on the +eve of the Diet of Worms. + + + + +Chapter III. The Diet Of Worms.(176) + + + +§ 1. The Roman Nuncio Aleander. + + +Rome had done its utmost to get rid of Luther by ecclesiastical measures, +and had failed. If he was to be overthrown, if the new religious movement +and the national uprising which enclosed it were to be stifled, this could +only be done by the aid of the supreme secular authority. The Curia turned +to the Emperor. + +Maximilian had died suddenly on the 12th of January 1519. After some +mouths of intriguing, the papal diplomacy being very tortuous, his +grandson Charles, the young King of Spain, was unanimously chosen to be +his successor (June 28th, 1519). Troubles in Spain prevented him leaving +that country at once to take possession of his new dignities. He was +crowned at Aachen on the 23rd of October 1520, and opened his first German +Diet on January 22nd, 1521, at Worms. + +The Pope had selected two envoys to wait on the young Emperor, the +Protonotary Marino Caraccioli (1469-1530), who was charged with the +ordinary diplomatic business, and Jerome Aleander, the Director of the +Vatican Library, who was appointed to secure the outlawry of Luther. + +The Roman Curia had in Aleander one of the most clear-sighted, courageous, +and indefatigable of diplomatists. He was an Italian, born of a burgher +family in the little Venetian town of Motta (1480-1542), educated at Padua +and Venice; he had begun life as a Humanist, had lectured on Greek with +distinction in Paris, and had been personally acquainted with many of the +German Humanists, who could not forgive the "traitor" who had deserted +their ranks to serve an obscurantist party. His graphic letters, full of +minute details, throb with the hopes and fears of the papal diplomacy. The +reader has his fingers on the pulse of those momentous mouths. The Legate +was in a land where "every stone and every tree cried out, 'Luther.' " +Landlords refused him lodging. He had to shiver during these winter months +in an attic without a stove. The stench and dirt of the house were worse +than the cold. When he appeared on the streets he saw scowling faces, +hands suddenly carried to the hilts of swords, heard curses shrieked after +him. He was struck on the breast by a Lutheran doorkeeper when he tried to +get audience of the Elector of Saxony, and no one in the crowd interfered +to protect him. He saw caricatures of himself hanging head downwards from +a gibbet. He received the old deadly German feud-letters from Ulrich von +Hutten, safe in the neighbouring castle of Ebernberg, about a day's ride +distant.(177) The imperial Councillors to whom he complained had neither +the men nor the means to protect him. When he tried to publish answers to +the attacks on the Papacy which the Lutheran presses poured forth, he +could scarcely find a printer; and when he did, syndicates bought up his +pamphlets and destroyed them. As the weeks passed he came to understand +that there was only one man on whom he could rely--the young Emperor, +believed by all but himself to be a puppet in the hands of his +Councillors, whom Pope Leo had called a "good child," but whom Aleander +from his first interview at Antwerp had felt to be endowed with "a +prudence far beyond his years," and to "have much more at the back of his +head than he carried on his face." He also came to believe that the one +man to be feared was the old Elector of Saxony, "that basilisk," that +"German fox," that "marmot with the eyes of a dog, who glanced obliquely +at his questioners." + +Aleander was a pure worldling, a man of indifferent morals, showing traces +of cold-blooded cruelty (as when he slew five peasants for the loss of one +of his dogs, or tried to get Erasmus poisoned). He believed that every man +had his price, and that low and selfish motives were alone to be reckoned +with. But he did the work of the Curia at Worms with a thoroughness which +merited the rewards he obtained afterwards.(178) He had spies +everywhere--in the households of the Emperor and of the leading princes, +and among the population of Worms. He had no hesitation in lying when he +thought it useful for the "faith," as he frankly relates.(179) The Curia +had laid a difficult task upon him. He was to see that Luther was put +under the ban of the Empire at once and unheard. The Bull had condemned +him: the secular power had nothing to do but execute the sentence. +Aleander had little difficulty in persuading the Emperor to this course +within his hereditary dominions. An edict was issued ordering Luther's +books to be burnt, and the Legate had the satisfaction of presiding at +several literary _auto-da-fes_ in Antwerp and elsewhere. He was also +successful with some of the ecclesiastical princes of Germany.(180) But it +was impossible to get this done at Worms. Failing this, it was Aleander's +business to see that Luther's case was kept separate from the question of +German national grievances against the Papacy, and that, if it proved to +be impossible to prevent Luther appearing before the Diet, he was to be +summoned there simply for the purpose of making public recantation. With +the assistance of the Emperor he was largely successful.(181) + + + +§ 2. The Emperor Charles V. + + +Aleander was not the real antagonist of Luther at Worms; he was not worthy +of the name. The German Diet was the scene of a fight of faiths; and the +man of faith on the mediaeval side was the young Emperor. He represented +the believing past as Luther represented the believing future.(182) "What +my forefathers established at Constance and other Councils," he said, "it +is my privilege to uphold. A single monk, led astray by private judgment, +has set himself against the faith held by all Christians for a thousand +years and more, and impudently concludes that all Christians up till now +have erred. I have therefore resolved to stake upon this cause all my +dominions, my friends, my body and my blood, my life and soul."(183) The +crisis had not come suddenly on him. As early as May 12th, 1520, Juan +Manuel, his ambassador at Rome, had written to him asking him to pay some +attention to "a certain Martin Luther, who belongs to the following of the +Elector of Saxony," and whose preaching was causing some discontent at the +Roman Curia. Manuel thought that Luther might prove useful in a diplomatic +dispute with the Curia.(184) Charles had had time to think over the matter +in his serious, reserved way; and this was the decision he had come to. +The declaration was all the more memorable when it is remembered that +Charles owed his election to that rising feeling of nationality which +supported Luther,(185) and that he had to make sure of German assistance +in his coming struggle with Francis I. A certain grim reality lurked in +the words, that he was ready to stake his dominions on the cause he +adopted. There is much to be said for the opinion that "the Lutheran +question made a man of the boy-ruler."(186) + +On the other hand, it is well to remember that the young Emperor did not +take the side of the Pope nor commit himself to the Curial ideas of the +absolute character of papal supremacy. He laid stress on the unity of the +Catholic (mediaeval) Church, on the continuity of its rites, and on the +need of maintaining its authority; but the seat of that authority was for +him a General Council. The declaration in no way conflicts with the +changes in imperial policy which may be traced during the opening weeks of +the Diet, nor with that future action which led to the Sack of Rome and to +the Augsburg Interim (1548). It is possible that the young ruler had read +and admired Luther's earlier writings, and that he had counted on him as +an aid in bringing the Church to a better condition. It is more than +probable that he already believed that it was his duty to free the Church +from the abuses which abounded;(187) but Luther's fierce attack on the +Pope disgusted him, and a reformation which came from the people +threatened secular as well as ecclesiastical authority. He had made up his +mind that Luther must be condemned, and told the German princes that he +would not change one iota of his determination. But this did not prevent +him making use of Luther to further his diplomatic dealings with the Pope +and wring concessions from the Curia. For one thing, the Pope had been +interfering with the Inquisition in Spain, trying to mitigate its +severity; and Charles, like his maternal grandfather, Ferdinand of Aragon, +believed that the Holy Office was a help in curbing the freedom-loving +people of Spain, and had no wish to see his instrument of punishment made +less effectual. For another, it was evident that Francis I. was about to +invade Italy, and Charles wished the Pope to take his side. If the Pope +gave way to him on both of these points, he was ready to carry out his +wishes about Luther as far as that was possible.(188) + + + +§ 3. In the City of Worms. + + +The city of Worms was crowded with men of diverse opinions and of many +different nationalities. The first Diet of the youthful Emperor (Charles +was barely one and twenty), from whom men of all parties expected so much, +had attracted much larger numbers than usually attended these assemblies. +Weighty matters affecting all Germany were down on the _agenda_. There was +the old constitutional question of monarchy or oligarchy bequeathed from +the Diets of Maximilian; curiosity to see whether the new ruler would +place before the Estates a truly imperial policy, or whether, like his +predecessors, he would subordinate national to dynastic considerations; +the deputies from the cities were eager to get some sure provisions made +for ending the private wars which disturbed trade; all classes were +anxious to provide for an effective central government when the Emperor +was absent from Germany; local statesmen felt the need of putting an end +to the constant disputes between the ecclesiastical and secular powers +within Germany; but the hardest problem of all, and the one which every +man was thinking, talking, disputing about, was: "To take notice of the +books and descriptions made by Friar Martin Luther against the Court of +Rome."(189) Other exciting questions were stirring the crowds met at Worms +besides those mentioned on the _agenda_ of the Diet. Men were talking +about the need of making an end of the papal exactions which were draining +Germany of money, and the air was full of rumours of what Sickingen and +the knights might attempt, and whether there was going to be another +peasant revolt. These questions were instinctively felt to hang together, +and each had an importance because of the way in which it was connected +with the religious and social problems of the day. For the people of +Germany and for the foreign representatives who were gathered together at +Worms, it is unquestionable that the Lutheran movement, and how it was to +be dealt with, was the supreme problem of the moment. All these various +things combined to bring together at Worms a larger concourse of people +than had been collected in any German town since the meeting of the +General Council at Constance in 1414. + +Worms was one of the oldest towns in Germany. Its people were turbulent, +asserting their rights as the inhabitants of a free imperial city, and in +constant feud with their bishop. They had endured many an interdict, were +fiercely anti-clerical, and were to a man on Luther's side. The crowded +streets were thronged with princes, their councillors and their retinues; +with high ecclesiastical dignitaries and their attendant clergy; with +nobles and their "riders"; with landsknechts, artisans, and peasants. +Spanish, French, and Italian merchants, on their way home-wards from the +Frankfurt fair, could be seen discussing the last phase of the Lutheran +question, and Spanish nobles and Spanish merchants more than once came to +blows in the narrow thoroughfares. The foreign merchants, especially the +Spaniards, all appeared to take the Lutheran side; not because they took +much interest in doctrines, but because they felt bound to stand up for +the man who had dared to say that no one should be burned for his +opinions. These Spanish merchants made themselves very prominent. They +joined in syndicates with the more fervent German partisans of Luther to +buy up and destroy papal pamphlets; they bought Luther's writings to carry +home. Aleander curses these _marrani_,(190) as he calls them, and relates +that they are getting Luther's works translated into Spanish. It is +probable that many of them had Moorish blood in them, and knew the horrors +of the Inquisition. Aleander's spies told him that caricatures of himself +and other prominent papalists were hawked about, and that pictures of +Luther with the Dove hovering over his head, Luther with his head crowned +with a halo of rays, Luther and Hutten,(191) the one with a Bible and the +other with a sword, were eagerly bought in the streets. These pictures +were actually sold in the courts and rooms of the episcopal palace where +the Emperor was lodged. On the steps of the churches, at the doors of +public buildings, colporteurs offered to eager buyers the tracts of Luther +against the Pope, and the satires of Ulrich von Hutten in Latin and in +German. On the streets and in open spaces like the Market, crowds of keen +disputants argued about the teaching of Luther, and praised him in the +most exaggerated ways. + +Inside the Electoral College opinion was divided. The Archbishop of Koeln, +the Elector of Brandenburg, and his brother the Archbishop of Mainz, were +for Luther's condemnation, while the Elector of Saxony had great influence +over the Archbishop of Trier and the Count Palatine of the Rhine. The +latter, says Aleander, scarcely opened his mouth during the year, but now +"roared like ten bulls" on Luther's behalf. Aleander had his first +opportunity of addressing the Diet on February 13th. He spoke for three +hours, and made a strong impression. He dwelt on Luther's doctrinal +errors, which he said were those of the Waldenses, of Wiclif, and of the +Hussites. He said that Luther denied the Presence of Christ in the Holy +Supper, and that he was a second Arius.(192) During the days that followed +the members of the Diet came to a common understanding. They presented a +memorial in German (February 19th) to the Emperor, in which they reminded +him that no imperial edict could be published against Luther without their +consent, and that to do so before Luther had a hearing would lead to +bloodshed; they proposed that Luther should be invited to come to Worms +under a safe conduct, and in the presence of the Diet be asked whether he +was the author of the books that were attributed to him, and whether he +could clear himself of the accusation of denying fundamental articles of +the faith; that he should also be heard upon the papal claims, and the +Diet would judge upon them; and, finally, they prayed the Emperor to +deliver Germany from the papal tyranny.(193) The Emperor agreed that +Luther should be summoned under a safe conduct and interrogated about his +books, and whether he had denied any fundamental doctrines. But he utterly +refused to permit any discussion on the authority of the Pope, and +declared that he would himself communicate with His Holiness about the +complaints of Germany.(194) + +The documents in the _Reichstagsakten_ reveal not only that there was a +decided difference of opinion between the Emperor and the majority of the +Estates about the way in which Luther ought to be treated, but that the +policy of the Emperor and his advisers had changed between November 1520 +and February 1521. Aleander had found no difficulty in persuading Charles +and his Flemish councillors that, so far as the Emperor's hereditary +dominions were concerned, the only thing that the civil power had to do +was to issue an edict homologating the Papal Bull banning Luther and his +adherents, and ordering his books to be burnt. This had been done in the +Netherlands. They had made difficulties, however, about such summary +action within the German Empire. Aleander was told that the Emperor could +do nothing until after the coronation at Aachen (October 1520);(195) and +in November, much to the nuncio's disgust, the Emperor had written to the +Elector of Saxony (November 28th, 1520) from Oppenheim asking him to bring +Luther with him to the Diet.(196) At that time Luther had no great wish to +go to the Diet, unless it was clearly understood that he was summoned not +for the purpose of merely making a recantation, but in order that he might +defend his views with full liberty of speech. He was not going to recant, +and he could say so as easily and clearly at Wittenberg as at Worms. The +situation had changed at Worms. The Emperor had come over to the nuncio's +side completely. He now saw no need for Luther's appearance. The Diet had +nothing to do but to place Luther under the ban of the Empire, because he +had been declared to be a heretic by the Roman Pontiff. Aleander claimed +all the credit for this change; but it is more than probable that the +explanation lies in the shifting imperial and papal policy. In the end of +1520 the policy of the Roman Curia was strongly anti-imperialist. The +Emperor's ambassador at Rome, Don Manuel, had been warning his master of +the papal intrigues against him, and suggesting that Charles might show +some favour to a "certain Martin Luther"; and this advice might easily +have inspired the letter of the 28th of November. At all events the papal +policy had been changing, and showing signs of becoming less hostile to +the Emperor. However the matter be accounted for, Aleander found that +after the Emperor's presence within Worms it was much more easy for him to +press the papal view about Luther upon Charles and his advisers.(197) + +On the other hand, the Germans in the Diet held stoutly to the opinion +that no countryman of theirs should be placed under the ban of the Empire +without being heard in his defence, and that they and not the Bishop of +Rome were to be the judges in the matter. + +The two months before Luther's appearance saw open opposition between the +Emperor and the Diet, and abundant secret intrigue--an edict proposed +against Luther,(198) which the Diet refused to accept;(199) an edict +proposed to order the burning of Luther's books, which the Diet also +objected to;(200) this edict revised and limited to the seizure of +Luther's writings, which was also found fault with by the Diet; and, +finally, the Emperor issuing this revised edict on his own authority and +without the consent of the Diet.(201) + +The command to appear before the Diet on April 16th, 1521, and the +imperial safe conduct were entrusted to the imperial herald, Caspar Strum, +who delivered them at Wittenberg on the 26th of March.(202) Luther calmly +finished some literary work, and left for the Diet on April 2nd. He +believed that he was going to his death. "My dear brother," he said to +Melanchthon at parting, "if I do not come back, if my enemies put me to +death, you will go on teaching and standing fast in the truth; if you +live, my death will matter little." The journey seemed to the indignant +Papists like a royal progress; crowds came to bless the man who had stood +up for Germany against the Pope, and who was going to his death for his +courage; they pressed into the inns where he rested, and often found him +solacing himself with music. His lute was always comforting to him in +times of excitement. Justus Jonas, the famous German Humanist, who had +turned theologian much to Erasmus' disgust, joined him at Erfurt. The +nearer he came to Worms, the sharper became the disputes there. Friends +and foes feared that his presence would prove oil thrown on the flames. +The Emperor began to wish he had not sent the summons. Messengers were +despatched secretly to Sickingen, and a pension promised to Hutten to see +whether they could not prevent Luther's appearance.(203) Might he not take +refuge in the Ebernberg, scarcely a day's journey from Worms? Was it not +possible to arrange matters in a private conference with Glapion, the +Emperor's confessor? Bucer was sent to persuade him. The herald +significantly called his attention to the imperial edict ordering +magistrates to seize his writings. But nothing daunted Luther. He would +not go to the Ebernberg; he could see Glapion at Worms, if the confessor +wished an interview; what he had to say would be said publicly at Worms. + +Luther had reached Oppenheim, a town on the Rhine about fifteen miles +north from Worms, and about twenty east from the Ebernberg, on April 14th. +There he for the last time rejected the insidious temptations of his +enemies and the distracted counsels of his friends, that he should turn +aside and seek shelter with Francis von Sickingen. There he penned his +famous letter to Spalatin, that he would come to Worms if there were as +many devils as tiles on the house roofs to prevent him, and at the same +time asked where he was to lodge.(204) + +The question was important. The Romanists had wished that Luther should be +placed under the Emperor's charge as a prisoner of State, or else lodged +in the Convent of the Augustinian Eremites, where he could be under +ecclesiastical surveillance. But the Saxon nobles and their Elector had +resolved to trust no one with the custody of their countryman. The Elector +Frederick and part of his suite had found accommodation at an inn called +_The Swan_, and the rest of his following were in the House of the Knights +of St. John. Both houses were full; but it was arranged that Luther was to +share the room of two Saxon gentlemen, v. Hirschfeld and v. Schott, in the +latter building.(205) Next morning, Justus Jonas, who had reached Worms +before Luther, after consultation with Luther's friends, left the town +early on Tuesday morning (April 16th) to meet the Reformer, and tell him +the arrangements made. With him went the two gentlemen with whom Luther +was to lodge.(206) A large number of Saxon noblemen with their attendants +accompanied them. When it was known that they had set out to meet Luther, +a great crowd of people (nearly two thousand, says Secretary Vogler), some +on horseback and some on foot, followed to welcome Luther, and did meet +him about two and a half miles from the town.(207) + + + +§ 4. Luther in Worms. + + +A little before eleven o'clock the watcher on tower by the Mainz Gate blew +his horn to announce that the procession was in sight, and soon afterwards +Luther entered the town. The people of Worms were at their _Morgenimbiss_ +or _Fruehmahl_, but all rushed to the windows or out into the streets to +see the arrival.(208) Caspar Sturm, the herald, rode first, accompanied by +his attendant, the square yellow banner, emblazoned with the black +two-headed eagle, attached to his bridle arm. Then came the cart,--a +genuine Saxon _Rollwegelin_,--Luther and three companions sitting in the +straw which half filled it. The waggon had been provided by the good town +of Wittenberg, which had also hired Christian Goldschmidt and his three +horses at three gulden a day.(209) Luther's companions were his _socius +itinerarius_, Brother Petzensteiner of Nuernberg;(210) his colleague +Nicholas Amsdorf; and a student of Wittenberg, a young Pomeranian noble, +Peter Swaven, who had been one of the Wittenberg students who had +accompanied Luther with halbert and helmet to the Leipzig Disputation +(July 1519). Justus Jonas rode immediately behind the waggon, and then +followed the crowd of nobles and people who had gone out to meet the +Reformer. + +Aleander in his attic room heard the shouts and the trampling in the +streets, and sent out one of his people to find out the cause, guessing +that it was occasioned by Luther's arrival. The messenger reported that +the procession had made its way through dense crowds of people, and that +the waggon had stopped at the door of the House of the Knights of St. +John. He also informed the nuncio that Luther had got out, saying, as he +looked round with his piercing eyes, _Deus erit pro me_, and that a priest +had stepped forward, received him in his arms, then touched or kissed his +robe thrice with as much reverence as if he were handling the relics of a +saint. "They will say next," says Aleander in his wrath, "that the +scoundrel works miracles."(211) + +After travel-stains were removed, Luther dined with ten or twelve friends. +The early afternoon brought crowds of visitors, some of whom had come +great distances to see him. Then came long discussions about how he was to +act on the morrow before the Diet. The Saxon councillors v. Feilitzsch and +v. Thun were in the same house with him: the Saxon Chancellor, v. Brueck, +and Luther's friend Spalatin, were at _The Swan_, a few doors away. Jerome +Schurf, the Professor of Law in Wittenberg, had been summoned to Worms by +the Elector to act as Luther's legal adviser, and had reached the town +some days before the Reformer. + +How much Luther knew of the secret intrigues that had been going on at +Worms about his affairs it is impossible to say. He probably was aware +that the Estates had demanded that he should have a hearing, and should be +confronted by impartial theologians, and that the complaints of the German +nation against Rome should be taken up at the same time; also that the +Emperor had refused to allow any theological discussion, or that the +grievances against Rome should be part of the proceedings. All that was +public property. The imperial summons and safe conduct had not treated him +as a condemned heretic.(212) He had been addressed in it as _Ehrsamer_, +_lieber_, _andaechtiger_--terms which would not have been used to a heretic, +and which were ostentatiously omitted from the safe conduct sent him by +Duke George of Saxony.(213) He knew also that the Emperor had nevertheless +published an edict ordering the civil authorities to seize his books, and +to prevent more from being printed, published, or sold, and that such an +edict threw doubts upon the value of the safe conduct.(214) But he +probably did not know that this edict was a third draft issued by the +Emperor without consulting the Diet. Nor is it likely that he knew how +Aleander had been working day and night to prevent his appearance at the +Diet from being more than a mere formality, nor how far the nuncio had +prevailed with the Emperor and with his councillors. His friends could +tell him all this--though even they were not aware until next morning how +resolved the Emperor was that Luther should not be permitted to make a +speech.(215) They knew enough, however, to be able to impress on Luther +that he must restrain himself, and act in such a way as to force the hands +of his opponents, and gain permission to speak at length in a second +audience. The Estates wished to hear him if the Emperor and his entourage +had resolved to prevent him from speaking. These consultations probably +settled the tactics which Luther followed on his first appearance before +the Diet.(216) + +Next morning (Wednesday, April 17th), Ulrich von Pappenheim, the marshal +of ceremonies, came to Luther's room before ten o'clock, and, greeting him +courteously and with all respect, informed him that he was to appear +before the Emperor and the Diet that day at four o'clock, when he would be +informed why he had been summoned.(217) Immediately after the marshal had +left, there came an urgent summons from a Saxon noble, Hans von Minkwitz, +who was dying in his lodgings, that Luther would come to hear his +confession and administer the sacrament to him. Luther instantly went to +soothe and comfort the dying man, notwithstanding his own troubles.(218) +We have no information how the hours between twelve and four were spent. +It is almost certain that there must have been another consultation. +Spalatin and Brueck had discovered that the conduct of the audience was not +to be in the hands of Glapion, the confessor of the Emperor, as they had +up to that time supposed, but in those of John Eck, the Orator or Official +of the Archbishop of Trier.(219) This looked badly for Luther. Eck had +been officiously busy in burning Luther's books at Trier; he lodged in the +same house and in the room next to the papal nuncio.(220) Aleander, +indeed, boasts that Eck was entirely devoted to him, and that he had been +able to draft the question which Eck put to Luther during the first +audience.(221) + + + +§ 5. Luther's first Appearance before the Diet of Worms.(222) + + +A little before four o'clock, the marshal and Caspar Sturm, the herald, +came to Luther's lodging to escort him to the audience hall. They led the +Reformer into the street to conduct him to the Bishop's Palace, where the +Emperor was living along with his younger brother Ferdinand, afterwards +King of the Romans and Emperor, and where the Diet met.(223) The streets +were thronged; faces looked down from every window; men and women had +crowded the roofs to catch a glimpse of Luther as he passed. It was +difficult to force a way through the crowd, and, besides, Sturm, who was +responsible for Luther's safety, feared that some Spaniard might deal the +Reformer a blow with a dagger in the crowd. So the three turned into the +court of the Swan Hotel; from it they got into the garden of the House of +the Knights of St. John; and, as most of the courts and gardens of the +houses communicated with each other, they were able to get into the court +of the Bishop's Palace without again appearing on the street.(224) + +The court of the Palace was full of people eager to see Luther, most of +them evidently friendly. It was here that old General Frundsberg, the most +illustrious soldier in Germany, who was to be the conqueror in the famous +fight at Pavia, clapped Luther kindly on the shoulder, and said words +which have been variously reported. "My poor monk! my little monk! thou +art on thy way to make a stand as I and many of my knights have never done +in our toughest battles. If thou art sure of the justice of thy cause, +then forward in the name of God, and be of good courage: God will not +forsake thee." From out the crowd, "here and there and from every corner, +came voices saying, 'Play the man! Fear not death; it can but slay the +body: there is a life beyond.' "(225) They went up the stair and entered +the audience hall, which was crammed. While the marshal and the herald +forced a way for Luther, he passed an old acquaintance, the deputy from +Augsburg. "Ah, Doctor Peutinger," said Luther, "are you here too?"(226) +Then he was led to where he was to stand before the Emperor; and these two +lifelong opponents saw each other for the first time. "The fool entered +smiling," says Aleander (perhaps the lingering of the smile with which he +had just greeted Dr. Peutinger): "he looked slowly round, and his face +sobered." "When he faced the Emperor," Aleander goes on to say, "he could +not hold his head still, but moved it up and down and from side to +side."(227) All eyes were fixed on Luther, and many an account was written +describing his appearance. "A man of middle height," says an unsigned +Spanish paper preserved in the British Museum, "with a strong face, a +sturdy build of body, with eyes that scintillated and were never still. He +was clad in the robe of the Augustinian Order, but with a belt of hide, +with a large tonsure, newly shaven, and a coronal of short thick +hair."(228) All noticed his gleaming eyes; and it was remarked that when +his glance fell on an Italian, the man moved uneasily in his seat, as if +"the evil eye was upon him." Meanwhile, in the seconds before the silence +was broken, Luther was making _his_ observations. He noticed the swarthy +Jewish-looking face of Aleander, with its gleam of hateful triumph. "So +the Jews must have looked at Christ," he thought.(229) He saw the young +Emperor, and near him the papal nuncios and the great ecclesiastics of the +Empire. A wave of pity passed through him as he looked. "He seemed to me," +he said, "like some poor lamb among swine and hounds."(230) There was a +table or bench with some books upon it. When Luther's glance fell on them, +he saw that they were his own writings, and could not help wondering how +they had got there.(231) He did not know that Aleander had been collecting +them for some weeks, and that, at command of the Emperor, he had handed +them over to John Eck, the Official of Trier, for the purposes of the +audience.(232) Jerome Schurf made his way to Luther's side, and stood +ready to assist in legal difficulties. + +The past and the future faced each other--the young Emperor in his rich +robes of State, with his pale, vacant-looking face, but "carrying more at +the back of his head than his countenance showed," the descendant of long +lines of kings, determined to maintain the beliefs, rites, and rules of +that Mediaeval Church which his ancestors had upheld; and the monk, with +his wan face seamed with the traces of spiritual conflict and victory, in +the poor dress of his Order, a peasant's son, resolute to cleave a way for +the new faith of evangelical freedom, the spiritual birthright of all men. + +The strained silence(233) was broken by the Official of Trier, a man of +lofty presence, saying, in a clear, ringing voice so that all could hear +distinctly, first in Latin and then in German: + + + " 'Martin Luther, His Imperial Majesty, Sacred and Victorious + (_sacra et invicta_), on the advice of all the Estates of the Holy + Roman Empire, has ordered you to be summoned here to the throne of + His Majesty, in order that you may recant and recall, according to + the force, form, and meaning of the citation-mandate decreed + against you by His Majesty and communicated legally to you, the + books, both in Latin and in German, published by you and spread + abroad, along with their contents: Wherefore I, in the name of His + Imperial Majesty and of the Princes of the Empire, ask you: First, + Do you confess that these books exhibited in your presence (I show + him a bundle of books written in Latin and in German) and now + named one by one, which have been circulated with your name on the + title-page, are yours, and do you acknowledge them to be yours? + Secondly, Do you wish to retract and recall them and their + contents, or do you mean to adhere to them and to reassert + them?' "(234) + + +The books were not named; so Jerome Schurf called out, "Let the titles be +read."(235) Then the notary, Maximilian Siebenberger (called +Transilvanus),(236) stepped forward and, taking up the books one by one, +read their titles and briefly described their contents.(237) Then Luther, +having briefly and precisely repeated the two questions put to him, said: + + + " 'To which I answer as shortly and correctly as I am able. I + cannot deny that the books named are mine, and I will never deny + any of them:(238) they are all my offspring; and I have written + some others which have not been named.(239) But as to what + follows, whether I shall reaffirm in the same terms all, or shall + retract what I may have uttered beyond the authority of + Scripture,--because the matter involves a question of faith and of + the salvation of souls, and because it concerns the Word of God, + which is the greatest thing in heaven and on earth, and which we + all must reverence,--it would be dangerous and rash in me to make + any unpremeditated declaration, because in unpremeditated speech I + might say something less than the fact and something more than the + truth; besides, I remember the saying of Christ when He declared, + "Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before + My Father which is in heaven, and before His angels." For these + reasons I beg, with all respect, that your Imperial Majesty give + me time to deliberate, that I may answer the question without + injury to the Word of God and without peril to my own + soul.' "(240) + + +Luther made his answer in a low voice--so low that the deputies from +Strassburg, who were sitting not far from him, said that they could not +hear him distinctly.(241) Many present inferred from the low voice that +Luther's spirit was broken, and that he was beginning to be afraid. But +from what followed it is evident that Luther's whole procedure on this +first appearance before the Diet was intended to defeat the intrigues of +Aleander, which had for their aim to prevent the Reformer addressing the +Diet in a long speech; and in this he succeeded, as Brueck and Spalatin +hoped he would. + +The Estates then proceeded to deliberate on Luther's request. Aleander +says that the Emperor called his councillors about him; that the Electors +talked with each other; and that the separate Estates deliberated +separately.(242) We are informed by the report of the Venetian ambassadors +that there was some difficulty among some of them in acceding to Luther's +request. But at length the Official of Trier again addressed Luther: + + + " 'Martin, you were able to know from the imperial mandate why you + were summoned here, and therefore you do not really require any + time for further deliberation, nor is there any reason why it + should be granted. Yet His Imperial Majesty, moved by his natural + clemency, grants you one day for deliberation, and you will appear + here tomorrow at the same hour,--but on the understanding that you + do not give your answer in writing, but by word of mouth.' "(243) + + +The sitting, which, so far as Luther was concerned, had occupied about an +hour, was then declared to be ended, and he was conducted back to his room +by the herald. There he sat down and wrote to his friend Cuspinian in +Vienna "from the midst of the tumult": + + + "This hour I have been before the Emperor and his brother, and + have been asked whether I would recant my books. I have said that + the books were really mine, and have asked for some delay about + recantation. They have given me no longer space and time than till + to-morrow for deliberation. Christ helping me, I do not mean to + recant one jot or tittle."(244) + + + +§ 6. Luther's Second Appearance before the Diet. + + +The next day, Thursday, April 18th, did not afford much time for +deliberation. Luther was besieged by visitors. Familiar friends came to +see him in the morning; German nobles thronged his hostel at midday; Bucer +rode over from the Ebernberg in the afternoon with congratulations on the +way that the first audience had been got through, and bringing letters +from Ulrich von Hutten. His friends were almost astonished at his +cheerfulness. "He greeted me and others," said Dr. Peutinger, who was an +early caller, "quite cheerfully--'Dear Doctor,' he said, 'how is your wife +and child?' I have never found or seen him other than the right good +fellow he is."(245) George Vogler and others had "much pious conversation" +with him, and wrote, praising his thorough heroism.(246) The German nobles +greeted Luther with a bluff heartiness--"Herr Doctor, How are you? People +say you are to be burnt; that will never do; that would ruin +everything."(247) + +The marshal and the herald came for Luther a little after four o'clock, +and led him by the same private devious ways to the Bishop's Palace. The +crowds on the streets were even larger than on the day before. It was said +that more than five thousand people, Germans and foreigners, were crushed +together in the street before the Palace. The throng was so dense that +some of the delegates, like Oelhafen from Nuernberg, could not get through +it.(248) It was six o'clock before the Emperor, accompanied by the +Electors and princes, entered the hall. Luther and the herald had been +kept waiting in the court of the Palace for more than an hour and a half, +bruised by the dense moving crowd. In the hall the throng was so great +that the princes had some difficulty in getting to their seats, and found +themselves uncomfortably crowded when they reached them.(249) Two notable +men were absent. The papal nuncios refused to be present when a heretic +was permitted to speak. Such proceedings were the merest tomfoolery +(_ribaldaria_), Aleander said. When Luther reached the door, he had still +to wait; the princes were occupied in reaching their places, and it was +not etiquette for him to appear until they were seated.(250) The day was +darkening, and the gloomy hall flamed with torches.(251) Observers +remarked Luther's wonderful cheerful countenance as he made his way to his +place.(252) + +The Emperor had intrusted the procedure to Aleander, to his confessor +Glapion, and to John Eck, who had conducted the audience on the previous +day.(253) The Official was again to have the conduct of matters in his +hands. As soon as Luther was in his place, Eck "rushed into words" +(_prorupit in verba_)(254) He began by recapitulating what had taken place +at the first audience; and in saying that Luther had asked time for +consideration, he insinuated that every Christian ought to be ready at all +times to give a reason for the faith that is in him, much more a learned +theologian like Luther. He declared that it was now time for Luther to +answer plainly whether he adhered to the contents of the books he had +acknowledged to be his, or whether he was prepared to recant them. He +spoke first in Latin and then in German, and it was noticed that his +speech in Latin was very bitter.(255) + +Then Luther delivered his famous speech before the Diet. He had freed +himself from the web of intrigue that Aleander had been at such pains to +weave round him to compel him to silence, and stood forth a free German to +plead his cause before the most illustrious audience the Fatherland could +offer to any of its sons. + +Before him was the Emperor and his brother Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, +destined to be King of the Romans and Emperor in days to come, and beside +them, seated, all the Electors and the great Princes of the Empire, lay +and ecclesiastical, among them four Cardinals. All round him standing, for +there was no space for seats, the Counts, Free Nobles and Knights of the +Empire, and the delegates of the great cities, were closely packed +together.(256) Ambassadors and the political agents of almost all the +countries in Europe were there to swell the crowd--ready to report the +issue of this momentous day. For all believed that whatever weighty +business for Germany was discussed at this Diet, the question raised by +Luther was one of European importance, and affected the countries which +they represented. The rumour had gone about, founded mainly on the serene +appearance of Luther, that the monk was about to recant;(257) and most of +the political agents earnestly hoped it might be true. That and that only +would end, they believed, the symptoms of disquiet which the governments +of every land were anxiously watching. + +The diligence of Wrede has collected and printed in the +_Reichstagsakten_(258) several papers, all of which profess to give +Luther's speech; but they are mere summaries, some longer and some +shorter, and give no indication of the power which thrilled the audience. +Its effect must be sought for in the descriptions of the hearers. + +The specimens of his books which had been collected by Aleander were so +representative that Luther could speak of all his writings. He divided +them into three classes. He had written books for edification which he +could truly say had been approved by all men, friends and foes alike, and +it was scarcely to be expected that he, the author, should be the only man +to recant the contents of such writings as even the Papal Bull had +commended. In a second class of writings he had attacked the papal tyranny +which all Germany was groaning under; to recant the contents of these +books would be to make stronger and less endurable the monstrous evil he +had protested against; he therefore refused to recall such writings; no +loyal German could do so. He had also written against individual persons +who had supported the Papacy; it was possible that he had written too +strongly in some places and against some men; he was only a man and not +God, and was liable to make mistakes; he remembered how Christ, who could +not err, had acted when He was accused, and imitating Him, he was quite +ready, if shown to be wrong, by evangelical or prophetic witnesses, to +renounce his errors, and if he were convinced, he assured the Emperor and +princes assembled that he would be the first to throw his books into the +fire. He dwelt upon the power of the word of God which must prevail over +everything, and showed that many calamities in times past had fallen upon +nations who had neglected its teachings and warnings. He concluded as +follows: + + + "I do not say that there is any need for my teaching or warning + the many princes before me, but the duty I owe to _my_ Germany + will not allow me to recant. With these words I commend myself to + your most serene Majesty and to your principalities, and humbly + beg that you will not permit my accusers to triumph over me + causelessly. I have spoken (_Dixi_)." + + +Luther had spoken in Latin; he was asked to repeat what he had said in +German. The Hall had been packed; the torches gave forth warmth as well as +light. Luther steamed with perspiration, and looked wan and overpowered; +the heat was intense. Friends thought that the further effort would be too +much for his strength. The Saxon councillor, Frederick von Thun, +regardless of etiquette, called out loudly, "If you cannot do it you have +done enough, Herr Doctor."(259) But Luther went on and finished his +address in German. His last words were. "Here I stand (_Hic bin Ich_)." + +Aleander, the papal nuncio, who was not present, relates that while Luther +was speaking of the books in which he had attacked the Papacy, and was +proceeding "with great venom" to denounce the Pope,(260) the Emperor +ordered him to pass from that subject and to proceed with his other +matters. The Emperor had certainly told the Estates that he would not +allow the question of Luther's orthodoxy and complaints against the Holy +See to be discussed together; and that lends some support to Aleander's +statement.(261) But when it is seen that not one of the dozen deputies +present who write accounts of the scene mentions the interruption; when it +is not found in the official report; when it is remembered that Charles +could not understand either German or Latin, the story of the interruption +is a very unlikely one. Aleander was not remarkable for his veracity--"a +man, to say the least, not bigotedly truthful (_non superstitiose verax_)" +says Erasmus;(262) and the nuncio on one occasion boasted to his masters +in Rome that he could lie well when occasion required it.(263) + +Several letters descriptive of the scene, written by men who were present +in the Diet, reveal the intense interest taken by the great majority of +the audience in the appearance and speech of Luther. His looks, his +language, the attitude in which he stood, are all described. When artists +portray the scene, either on canvas or in bronze, Luther is invariably +represented standing upright, his shoulders squared, and his head thrown +back. That was not how he stood before Charles and the Diet. He was a +monk, trained in the conventional habits of monkish humility. He stood +with a stoop of the head and shoulders, with the knees slightly bent, and +without gestures. The only trace of bodily emotion was betrayed by bending +and straightening his knees.(264) He addressed the Emperor and the Estates +with all respect,--"Most serene Lord and Emperor, most illustrious Princes, +most clement Lords,"--and apologised for any lack of etiquette on the +ground that he was convent-bred and knew nothing of the ways of Courts; +but it was noticed by more than one observer that he did not address the +spiritual princes present.(265) Many a witness describes the charm of his +cheerful, modest, but undaunted bearing.(266) The Saxon official account +says, "Luther spoke simply, quietly, modestly, yet not without Christian +courage and fidelity--in such a way, too, that his enemies would have +doubtless preferred a more abject spirit and speech"; and it goes on to +relate that his adversaries had confidently counted on a recantation, and +that they were correspondingly disappointed.(267) Many expected that, as +he had never before been in such presence, the strange audience would have +disconcerted him; but, to their surprise and delight, he spoke +"confidently, reasonably, and prudently, as if he were in his own +lecture-room."(268) Luther himself was surprised that the unaccustomed +surroundings affected him so little. "When it came to my turn," he says, +"I just went on."(269) The beauty of his diction pleased his +audience--"many fair and happy words," say Dr. Peutinger and others.(270) + +When Luther had finished, the Official, mindful that it was his duty to +extract from Luther a distinct recantation, addressed him in a threatening +manner (_increpabundo similis_), and told him that his answer had not been +to the point. The question was that Luther, in some of his books, denied +decisions of Councils: Would he reaffirm or recant what he had said about +these decisions? the Emperor demanded a plain (_non cornutum_) answer. "If +His Imperial Majesty desires a plain answer," said Luther, "I will give it +to him, _neque cornutum neque dentatum_, and it is this: It is impossible +for me to recant unless I am proved to be in the wrong by the testimony of +Scripture or by evident reasoning; I cannot trust either the decisions of +Councils or of Popes, for it is plain that they have not only erred, but +have contradicted each other. My conscience is thirled to the word of God, +and it is neither safe nor honest to act against one's conscience. God +help me! Amen!"(271) + +When he had finished, the Emperor and the princes consulted together; then +at a sign from Charles,(272) the Official addressed Luther at some length. +He told him that in his speech he had abused the clemency of the Emperor, +and had added to his evil deeds by attacking the Pope and Papists +(_papistae_) before the Diet. He briefly recapitulated Luther's speech, and +said that he had not sufficiently distinguished between his books and his +opinions; there might be room for discussion had Luther brought forward +anything new, but his errors were old--the errors of the Poor Men of Lyons, +Wiclif, of John and Jerome Huss (the learned Official gave Huss a brother +unknown to history),(273) which were decided upon at the Council of +Constance, where the whole German nation had been gathered together; he +again asked him to retract such opinions. To this Luther replied as +before, that General Councils had erred, and that his conscience did not +allow him to retract. By this time the torches had burnt to their sockets, +and the hall was growing dark.(274) Wearied with the crowd and the heat, +numbers were preparing to leave. The Official, making a last effort, +called out loudly, "Martin, let your conscience alone; recant your errors +and you will be safe and sound; you can never show that a Council has +erred." Luther declared that Councils had erred, and that he could prove +it.(275) Upon this the Emperor made a sign to end the matter.(276) The +last words Luther was heard to say were, "God come to my help" (_Got kum +mir zu hilf_).(277) + +It is evident from almost all the reports that from the time that Luther +had finished his great speech there was a good deal of confusion, and +probably of conversation, among the audience. All that the greater portion +of those present heard was an altercation between Luther and the Official, +due, most of the Germans thought, to the overbearing conduct of Eck, and +which the Italians and Spaniards attributed to the pertinacity of +Luther.(278) "Luther asserted that Councils had erred several times, and +had given decisions against the law of God. The Official said No; Luther +said Yes, and that he could prove it. So the matter came to an end for +that time."(279) But all understood that there was a good deal said about +the Council of Constance. + +The Emperor left his throne to go to his private rooms; the Electors and +the princes sought their hotels. A number of Spaniards, perceiving that +Luther turned to leave the tribunal, broke out into hootings, and followed +"the man of God with prolonged howlings."(280) Then the Germans, nobles +and delegates from the towns, ringed him round to protect him, and as they +passed from the hall they all at once, and Luther in the midst of them, +thrust forward arms and raised hands high above their heads, in the way +that a German knight was accustomed to do when he had unhorsed his +antagonist in the tourney, or that a German landsknecht did when he had +struck a victorious blow. The Spaniards rushed to the door shouting after +Luther, "To the fire with him, to the fire!"(281) The crowd on the street +thought that Luther was being sent to prison, and thought of a +rescue.(282) Luther calmed them by saying that the company were escorting +him home. Thus, with hands held high in stern challenge to Holy Roman +Empire and mediaeval Church, they accompanied Luther to his lodging. + +Friends had got there before him--Spalatin, ever faithful; Oelhafen, who +had not been able to reach his place in the Diet because of the throng. +Luther, with beaming face, stretched out both his hands, exclaiming, "I am +through, I am through!"(283) In a few minutes Spalatin was called away. He +soon returned. The old Elector had summoned him only to say, "How well, +father, Dr. Luther spoke this day before the Emperor and the Estates; but +he is too bold for me." The sturdy old German prince wrote to his brother +John, "From what I have heard this day, I will never believe that Luther +is a heretic"; and a few days later, "At this Diet, not only Annas and +Caiaphas, but also Pilate and Herod, have conspired against Luther." +Frederick of Saxony was no Lutheran, like his brother John and his nephew +John Frederick; and he was the better able to express what most German +princes were thinking about Luther and his appearance before the Diet. +Even Duke George was stirred to a momentary admiration; and Duke Eric of +Brunswick, who had taken the papal side, could not sit down to supper +without sending Luther a can of Einbecker beer from his own table.(284) As +for the commonalty, there was a wild uproar in the streets of Worms that +night--men cursing the Spaniards and Italians, and praising Luther, who had +compelled the Emperor and the prelates to hear what he had to say, and who +had voiced the complaints of the Fatherland against the Roman Curia at the +risk of his life. The voice of the people found utterance in a placard, +which next morning was seen posted up on the street corners of the town, +"Woe to the land whose king is a child." It was the beginning of the +disillusion of Germany. The people had believed that they were securing a +German Emperor when, in a fit of enthusiasm, they had called upon the +Electors to choose the grandson of Maximilian. They were beginning to find +that they had selected a Spaniard. + + + +§ 7. The Conferences. + + +Next day (April 19th) the Emperor proposed that Luther should be placed +under the ban of the Empire. The Estates were not satisfied, and insisted +that something should be done to effect a compromise. Luther had not been +treated as they had proposed in their memorandum of the 19th February. He +had been peremptorily ordered to retract. The Emperor had permitted +Aleander to regulate the order of procedure on the day previous (April +18th), and the result had not been satisfactory. Even the Elector of +Brandenburg and his brother, the hesitating Archbishop of Mainz, did not +wish matters to remain as they were. They knew the feelings of the German +people, if they were ignorant of the Emperor's diplomatic dealings with +the Pope. The Emperor gave way, but told them that he would let them hear +his own view of the matter. He produced a sheet of paper, and read a short +statement prepared by himself in the French tongue--the language with which +Charles was most familiar. It was the memorable declaration of his own +religious position, which has been referred to already.(285) Aleander +reports that several of the princes became pale as death when they heard +it.(286) In later discussions the Emperor asserted with warmth that he +would never change one iota of his declaration. + +Nevertheless, the Diet appointed a Commission (April 22nd) to confer with +Luther, and at its head was placed the Archbishop of Trier, who was +perhaps the only one among the higher ecclesiastics of Germany whom Luther +thoroughly trusted. They had several meetings with the Reformer, the first +being on the 24th of April. All the members of the Commission were +sincerely anxious to arrange a compromise; but after the Emperor's +declaration that was impossible, as Luther himself clearly saw. No set of +resolutions, however skilfully framed, could reconcile the Emperor's +belief that a General Council was infallible and Luther's phrase, "a +conscience bound to the Holy Scriptures." No proposals to leave the final +decision to the Emperor and the Pope, to the Emperor alone, to the Emperor +and the Estates, to a future General Council (all of which were made), +could patch up a compromise between two such contradictory standpoints. +Compromise must fail in a fight of faiths, and that was the nature of the +opposition between Charles V. and Luther throughout their lives. What +divided them was no subordinate question about doctrine or ritual; it was +fundamental, amounting to an entirely different conception of the whole +round of religion. The moral authority of the individual conscience +confronted the legal authority of an ecclesiastical assembly. In after +days the monk regretted that he had not spoken out more boldly before the +Diet. Shortly before his death, the Emperor expressed his regret that he +had not burned the obstinate heretic. When the Commission had failed, +Luther asked leave to reveal his whole innermost thoughts to the +Archbishop of Trier, under the seal of confession, and the two had a +memorable private interview. Aleander fiercely attacked the Archbishop for +refusing to disclose what passed between them; but the prelate was a +German bishop with a conscience, and not an unscrupulous dependant on a +shameless Curia. No one knew what Luther's confession was. The Commission +had to report that its efforts had proved useless. Luther was ordered to +leave Worms and return to Wittenberg, without preaching on the journey; +his safe conduct was to expire in twenty-one days after the 26th of April. +At their expiry he was liable to be seized and put to death as a pestilent +heretic. There remained only to draft and publish the edict containing the +ban. The days passed, and it did not appear. + +Suddenly the startling news reached Worms that Luther had disappeared, no +one knew where. Aleander, as usual, had the most exact information, and +gives the fullest account of the rumours which were flying about. +Cochlaeus, who was at Frankfurt, sent him a man who had been at Eisenach, +had seen Luther's uncle, and had been told by him about the capture. Five +horsemen had dashed at the travelling waggon, had seized Luther, and had +ridden off with him. Who the captors were or by whose authority they had +acted, no one could tell. "Some blame me," says Aleander, "others the +Archbishop of Mainz: would God it were true!" Some thought that Sickingen +had carried him off to protect him; others, the Elector of Saxony; others, +the Count of Mansfeld. One persistent rumour declared that a personal +enemy of the Elector of Saxony, one Hans Beheim, had been the captor; and +the Emperor rather believed it. On May 14th a letter reached Worms saying +that Luther's body had been found in a silver-mine pierced with a dagger. +The news flew over Germany and beyond it that Luther had been done to +death by emissaries of the Roman Curia; and so persistent was the belief, +that Aleander prepared to justify the deed by alleging that the Reformer +had broken the imperial safe conduct by preaching at Eisenach and by +addressing a concourse of people at Frankfurt.(287) Albert Duerer, in +Ghent, noted down in his private diary that Luther, "the God-inspired +man," had been slain by the Pope and his priests as our Lord had been put +to death by the priests in Jerusalem. "O God, if Luther is dead, who else +can expound the Holy Gospel to us!"(288) Friends wrote distracted letters +to Wittenberg imploring Luther to tell them whether he was alive or +imprisoned.(289) The news created the greatest consternation and +indignation in Worms. The Emperor's decision had been little liked even by +the princes most incensed against Luther. Aleander could not get even the +Archbishop of Mainz to promise that he would publish it. When the +Commission of the Diet had failed to effect a compromise, the doors of the +Rathhaus and of other public buildings in Worms had been placarded with an +intimation that four hundred knights had sworn that they would not leave +Luther unavenged, and the ominous words _Bundschuh_, _Bundschuh_, +_Bundschuh_ had appeared on it. The Emperor had treated the matter +lightly; but the German Romanist princes had been greatly alarmed.(290) +They knew, if he did not, that the union of peasants with the lower +nobility had been a possible source of danger to Germany for nearly a +century; they remembered that it was this combination which had made the +great Bohemian rising successful. Months after the Diet had risen, +Romanist partisans in Germany sent anxious communications to the Pope +about the dangers of a combination of the lesser nobility with the +peasants.(291) The condition of Worms had been bad enough before, and when +the news of Luther's murder reached the town the excitement passed all +bounds. The whole of the Imperial Court was in an uproar. When Aleander +was in the royal apartments the highest nobles in Germany pressed round +him, telling him that he would be murdered even if he were "clinging to +the Emperor's bosom." Men crowded his room to give him information of +conspiracies to slay both himself and the senior Legate Caraccioli.(292) +The excitement abated somewhat, but the wiser German princes recognised +the abiding gravity of the situation, and how little the Emperor's +decision had done to end the Lutheran movement. The true story of Luther's +disappearance was not known until long afterwards. After the failure of +the conferences, the Elector of Saxony summoned two of his councillors and +his chaplain and private secretary, Spalatin, and asked them to see that +Luther was safely hidden until the immediate danger was past. They were to +do what they pleased and inform him of nothing. Many weeks passed before +the Elector and his brother John knew that Luther was safe, living in +their own castle on the Wartburg. This was his "Patmos," where he doffed +his monkish robes, let the hair grow over his tonsure, was clad as a +knight, and went by the name of Junker Georg. His disappearance did not +mean that he ceased to be a great leader of men; but it dates the +beginning of the national opposition to Rome. + + + +§ 8. The Ban. + + +After long delay, the imperial mandate against Luther was prepared. It was +presented (May 25th) to an informal meeting of some members of the Diet +after the Elector of Saxony and many of Luther's staunchest supporters had +left Worms.(293) Aleander, who had a large share in drafting it, brought +two copies, one in Latin and the other in German, and presented them to +Charles on a Sunday (May 26th) after service. The Emperor signed them +before leaving the church. "Are you contented now?" said Charles, with a +smile to the Legate; and Aleander overflowed with thanks. Few State +documents, won by so much struggling and scheming, have proved so futile. +The uproar in Germany at the report of Luther's death had warned the +German princes to be chary of putting the edict into execution. + +The imperial edict against Luther threatened all his sympathisers with +extermination. It practically proclaimed an Albigensian war in Germany. +Charles had handed it to Aleander with a smile. Aleander despatched the +document to Rome with an exultation which could only find due expression +in a quotation from Ovid's _Art of Love_. Pope Leo celebrated the arrival +of the news by comedies and musical entertainments. But calm observers, +foreigners in Germany, saw little cause for congratulation and less for +mirth. Henry VIII. wrote to the Archbishop of Mainz congratulating him on +the overthrow of the "rebel against Christ"; but Wolsey's agent at the +Diet informed his master that he believed there were one hundred thousand +Germans who were still ready to lay down their lives in Luther's +defence.(294) Velasco, who had struck down the Spanish rebels in the +battle of Villalar, wrote to the Emperor that the victory was God's +gratitude for his dealings with the heretic monk; but Alfonso de Valdes, +the Emperor's secretary, said in a letter to a Spanish correspondent: + + + "Here you have, as some imagine, the end of this tragedy; but I am + persuaded it is not the end, but the beginning of it. For I see + that the minds of the Germans are greatly exasperated against the + Roman See, and they do not seem to attach great importance to the + Emperor's edicts; for since their publication, Luther's books are + sold with impunity at every step and corner of the streets and + market-places. From this you will easily guess what will happen + when the Emperor leaves. This evil might have been cured with the + greatest advantage to the Christian commonwealth, had not the Pope + refused a General Council, had he preferred the public weal to his + own private interests. But while he insists that Luther shall be + condemned and burnt, I see the whole Christian commonwealth + hurried to destruction unless God Himself help us." + + +Valdes, like Gattinara and other councillors of Charles, was a follower of +Erasmus. He lays the blame of all on the Pope. But what a disillusion this +Diet of Worms ought to have been to the Erasmians! The Humanist young +sovereigns and the Humanist Pope, from whom so much had been expected, +congratulating each other on Luther's condemnation to the stake! + +The foreboding of Alfonso de Valdes was amply justified. Luther's books +became more popular than ever, and the imperial edict did nothing to +prevent their sale either within Germany or beyond it. Aleander was soon +to learn this. He had retired to the Netherlands, and busied himself with +_auto-da-fes_ of the prohibited writings; but he had to confess that they +were powerless to prevent the spread of Luther's opinions, and he declared +that the only remedy would be if the Emperor seized and burnt half a dozen +Lutherans, and confiscated all their property.(295) The edict had been +published or repeated in lands outside Germany and in the family +possessions of the House of Hapsburg. Henry VIII. ordered Luther's books +to be burnt in England;(296) the Estates of Scotland prohibited their +introduction into the realm under the severest penalties in 1525.(297) But +such edicts were easily evaded, and the prohibited writings found their +way into Spain, Italy, France, Flanders, and elsewhere, concealed in bales +of merchandise. In Germany there was no need for concealment; the imperial +edict was not merely disregarded, but was openly scouted. The great +Strassburg publisher, Gruniger, apologised to his customers, not for +publishing Luther's books, but for sending forth a book against him; and +Cochlaeus declared that printers gladly accepted any MS. against the +Papacy, printed it _gratis_, and spent pains in issuing it with taste, +while every defender of the established order had to pay heavily to get +his book printed, and sometimes could not secure a printer at any cost. + + + +§ 9. Popular Literature. + + +The Reformation movement may almost be said to have created the German +book trade. The earliest German printed books or rather booklets were few +in number, and of no great importance--little books of private devotion, of +popular medicine, herbals, almanacs, travels, or public proclamations. Up +to 1518 they barely exceeded fifty a year. But in the years 1518-1523 they +increased enormously, and four-fifths of the increase were controversial +writings prompted by the national antagonism to the Roman Curia. This +increase was at first due to Luther alone;(298) but from 1521 onwards he +had disciples, fellow-workers, opponents, all using in a popular way the +German language, the effective literary power of which had been discovered +by the Reformer.(299) These writers spread the new ideas among the people, +high and low, throughout Germany.(300) + +There are few traces of combined action in the anti-Romanist writings in +the earlier stages of the controversy; it needed literary opposition to +give them a semblance of unity. Each writer looks at the general question +from his own individual point of view. Luther is the hero with nearly all, +and is spoken about in almost extravagant terms. He is the prophet of +Germany, the Elias that was to come, the Angel of the Revelation "flying +through the mid-heaven with the everlasting Gospel in his hands," the +national champion who was brought to Worms to be silenced, and yet was +heard by Emperor, princes, and papal nuncios. Some of the authors were +still inclined to make Erasmus their leader, and declared that they were +fighting under the banner of that "Knight of Christ"; others looked on +Erasmus and Luther as fellow-workers, and one homely pamphlet compares +Erasmus to the miller who grinds the flour, and Luther to the baker who +bakes it into bread to feed the people. Perhaps the most striking feature +of the times was the appearance of numberless anonymous pamphlets, +purporting to be written by the unlearned for the unlearned. They are +mostly in the form of dialogues, and the scene of the conversations +recorded was often the village alehouse, where burghers, peasants, +weavers, tailors, and shoemakers attack and vanquish in argument priests, +monks, and even bishops. One striking feature of this new popular +literature is the glorification of the German peasant. He is always +represented as an upright, simple-minded, reflective, and intelligent +person skilled in Bible lore, and even in Church history, and knowing as +much of Christian doctrine "as three priests and more." He may be compared +with the idealised peasant of the pre-revolution literature in France, +although he lacks the refinement, and knows nothing of high-flown moral +sentiment; but he is much liker the Jak Upland or Piers Plowman of the +days of the English Lollards. Jak Upland and Hans Mattock (_Karsthans_), +both hate the clergy and abominate the monks and the begging friars, but +the German exhibits much more ferocity than the Englishman. The Lollard +describes the fat friar of the earlier English days with his swollen +dewlap wagging under his chin "like a great goose-egg," and contrasts him +with the pale, poverty-stricken peasant and his wife, going shoeless to +work over ice-bound roads, their steps marked with the blood which oozed +from the cut feet; the German pamphleteer pours out an endless variety of +savage nicknames--cheese-hunters, sausage-villains, begging-sacks, sourmilk +crocks, the devil's fat pigs, etc. etc. It is interesting to note that +most of this coarse controversial literature, which appeared between 1518 +and 1523, came from those regions in South Germany where the social +revolution had found an almost permanent establishment from the year 1503. +It was the sign that the old spirit of communist and religious enthusiasm, +which had shown itself spasmodically since the movement under Hans Boehm, +had never been extinguished, and it was a symptom that a peasants' war +might not be far off. Very little was needed to kindle afresh the +smouldering hatred of the peasant against the priests. When German +patriots declaimed against the exactions of the Roman Curia, the peasant +thought of the great and lesser tithes, of the marriage, baptismal, and +burial fees demanded from him by his own parish priest. When Reformers and +popular preachers denounced the scandals and corruptions in the Church, +the peasant applied them to some drunken, evil-living, careless priest +whom he knew. It should be remembered that the character _Karsthans_ was +invented in 1520, not by a Lutheran sympathiser, but by Thomas Murner, one +of Luther's most determined opponents,(301) when he was still engaged in +writing against the clerical disorders of the times. This virulent attack +on priests and monks had other sources than the sympathy for Luther.(302) +It was the awakening of old memories, prompted partly by an underground +ceaseless Hussite propaganda, and partly, no doubt, by the new ideas so +universally prevalent. + +Some of this coarse popular literature had a more direct connection with +the Lutheran movement. A booklet which appeared in 1521, entitled _The New +and the Old God_, and which had an immense circulation, may be taken as an +example. Like many of its kind, it had an illustrated title-page, which +was a graphic summary of its contents. There appeared as the +representatives of the New God, the Pope, some Church Fathers, and beneath +them, Cajetan, Silvester Prierias, Eck, and Faber; over-against them were +the Old God as the Trinity, the four Evangelists, St. Paul with a sword, +and behind him Luther. It attacked the ceremonies, the elaborate services, +the obscure doctrines which had been thrust on the Church by bloody +persecutions, and had changed Christianity into Judaism, and contrasted +them with the unchanging Word of the Old God, with its simple story of +salvation and its simple doctrines of faith, hope, and love. To the same +class belong the writings of the voluminous controversialist, John Eberlin +of Guenzburg, whom his opponents accused of seducing whole provinces, so +effective were his appeals to the "common" man. He began by a pamphlet +addressed to the young Emperor, and published, either immediately before +or during the earlier sitting of the Diet of Worms in 1521, a daring +appeal, in which Luther and Ulrich von Hutten are called the messengers of +God to their generation. It was the first of a series of fifteen, all of +which were in circulation before the beginning of November of the same +year.(303) They were called the "Confederates" (_Bundsgenossen_). The +contents of these and other pamphlets by Eberlin may be guessed from their +titles--_Of the forty days' fast before Easter and others which pitifully +oppress Christian folk._ _An exhortation to all Christians that they take +pity on Nuns._ _How very dangerous it is that priests have not wives_ (the +frontispiece represents the marriage of a priest by a bishop, in the +background the marriage of two monks, and two musicians on a raised seat). +_Why there is no money in the country._ _Against the false clergy, +bare-footed monks, and Franciscans_, etc., etc. He exposes as trenchantly +as Luther did the systematic robbery of Germany to benefit the Roman +Curia--300,000 gulden sent out of the country every year, and a million +more given to the begging friars. He wrote fiercely against the monks who +take to this life, because they were too lazy to work like honest people, +and called them all sorts of nicknames--_cloister swine_, _the Devil's +landsknechts_, etc., twenty-four thousand of them sponge on Germany and +four hundred thousand on the rest of Europe. He tells of a parish priest +who thought that he must really begin to read the Scriptures: his +parishioners are reading it, the mothers to the children and the +house-fathers to the household; they trouble him with questions taken from +it, and he is often at his wit's end to answer; he asked a friend where he +ought to begin, and was told that there was a good deal about priests and +their duties in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus; he read, and was +horrified to find that bishops and priests ought to be "husbands of one +wife," etc. Eberlin had been a Franciscan monk, and was true to the +revolutionary traditions of his Order. He preached a social as well as an +evangelical reformation. The Franciscan Order sent forth a good many +Reformers: men like Stephen Kampen, who had come to adopt views like those +of Eberlin without any teaching but the leadings of his heart; or John +Brissmann, a learned student of the Scholastic Theology, who like Luther +had found that it did not satisfy the yearnings of his soul; or like +Frederick Mecum (Myconius), whose whole spiritual development was very +similar to that of Luther. Pamphlets like those of Eberlin, and preaching +like that of Kampen, had doubtless some influence in causing popular +risings against the priests that were not uncommon throughout Germany in +1521, after the Diet of Worms had ended its sittings--the Erfurt tumult, +which lasted during the months of April, May, June, and July, may be +instanced as an example. + + + +§ 10. The Spread of Luther's Teaching. + + +It may be said that the very year in which the imperial edict against +Luther was published (1521) gave evidence that a silent movement towards +the adoption of the principles for which Luther was testifying had begun +among monks of almost all the different Orders. The Augustinian Eremites, +Luther's own Order, had been largely influenced by him. Whole communities, +with the prior at their head, had declared for the Reformation both in +Germany and in the Low Countries. No other monastic Order was so decidedly +upon the side of the Reformer, but monks of all kinds joined in preaching +and teaching the new doctrines. Martin Bucer had been a Dominican, Otto +Braunfells a Carthusian, Ambrose Blauer a Benedictine. The case of +Oecolampadius (John Hussgen (?) Hausschein) was peculiar. He had been a +distinguished Humanist, had come under serious religious impressions, and +had entered the Order of St. Bridget; but he was not long there when he +joined the ranks of the Reformers, and was sheltered by Franz von +Sickingen in his castle at Ebernberg.(304) Urban Rhegius, John Eck's most +trusted and most talented student at Ingolstadt, had become a Carmelite, +and had quitted his monastery to preach the doctrines of Luther. John +Bugenhagen belonged to the Order of the Praemonstratenses. He was a learned +theologian. Luther's struggle against Indulgences had displeased him. He +got hold of _The Babylonian Captivity of the Christian Church_, and +studied it for the purpose of refuting it. The study so changed him that +he felt that "the whole world may be wrong, but Luther is right"; he won +over his prior and most of his companions, and became the Reformer of +Pomerania. + +Secular priests all over Germany declared for the new evangelical +doctrines. The Bishop of Samlund in East Prussia boldly avowed himself to +be on Luther's side, and was careful to have the Lutheran doctrines +preached throughout his diocese; and other bishops showed themselves +favourable to the new evangelical faith. Many of the most influential +parish priests did the like, and their congregations followed them. +Sometimes the superior clergy forbade the use of the church, and the +people followed their pastor while he preached to them in the fields. +Sometimes (as in the case of Hermann Tast) the priest preached under the +lime trees in the churchyard, and his parishioners came armed to protect +him. If priests were lacking to preach the Lutheran doctrines, laymen came +forward. If they could not preach, they could sing hymns. Witness the poor +weaver of Magdeburg, who took his stand near the statue of Kaiser Otto in +the market-place, and sang two of Luther's hymns, "Aus tiefer Not schrei +Ich zu dir," and "Es woll' uns Gott gnaedig sein," while the people crowded +round him on the morning of May 6th, 1524. The Burgermeister coming from +early Mass heard him, and ordered him to be imprisoned, but the crowd +rescued him. Such was the beginning of the Reformation in Magdeburg.(305) +When men dared not, women took their place. Argula Grunbach, a student of +the Scriptures and of Luther's writings, challenged the University of +Ingolstadt, under the eyes of the great Dr. Eck himself, to a public +disputation upon the truth of Luther's position. + +Artists lent their aid to spread the new ideas, and many cartoons made the +doctrines and the aims of the Reformers plain to the common people. These +pictures were sometimes used to illustrate the title-pages of the +controversial literature, and were sometimes published as separate +broadsides. In one, Christ is portrayed standing at the _door_ of a house, +which represents His Church. He invites the people to enter by the door; +and Popes, cardinals, and monks are shown climbing the walls to get +entrance in a clandestine fashion.(306) In another, entitled the _Triumph +of Truth_, the common folk of a German town are represented singing songs +of welcome to honour an approaching procession. Moses, the patriarchs, the +prophets, and the apostles, carry on their shoulders the Ark of the Holy +Scriptures. Hutten comes riding on his warhorse, and to the tail of the +horse is attached a chain which encloses a crowd of ecclesiastics--an +archbishop with his mitre fallen off, the Pope with his tiara in the act +of tumbling and his pontifical staff broken; after them, cardinals, then +monks figured with the heads of cats, pigs, calves, etc. Then comes a +triumphal car drawn by the four living creatures, who represent the four +evangelists, on one of which rides an angel. Carlstadt stands upright in +the front of the car; Luther strides alongside. In the car, Jesus sits +saying, _I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life_. Holy martyrs follow, +singing songs of praise. German burghers are spreading their garments on +the road, and boys and girls are strewing the path with flowers.(307) +Perhaps the most important work of this kind was the _Passional Christi et +Antichristi_.(308) Luther planned the book, Luke Cranach designed the +pictures, and Melanchthon furnished the texts from Scripture and the +quotations from Canon Law. It is a series of pairs of engravings +representing the lives of our Lord and of the Pope, so arranged that +wherever the book opened two contrasting pictures could be seen at the +same time. The contrasts were such as these:--Jesus washing the disciples' +feet; the Pope holding out his toe to be kissed: Jesus healing the wounded +and the sick; the Pope presiding at a tournament: Jesus bending under His +Cross; the Pope carried in state on men's shoulders: Jesus driving the +money-changers out of the Temple; the Pope and his servants turning a +church into a market for Indulgences, and sitting surrounded with strong +boxes and piles of coin. It was a "good book for the laity," Luther said. + +One of the signs of the times was the enthusiasm displayed in the imperial +cities for the cause of Luther. The way had been prepared. Burgher songs +had for long described the ecclesiastical abuses, and had borne witness to +the widespread hatred of the clergy shared in by the townsfolk. Wolfgang +Capito and Frederick Mecum (Myconius), both sons of burghers, inform us +that their fathers taught them when they were boys that Indulgences were +nothing but a speculation on the part of cunning priests to get their +hands into the pockets of simple-minded laity. Keen observers of the trend +of public feeling like Wimpheling and Pirkheimer had noticed with some +alarm the gradual spread of the Hussite propaganda in the towns, and had +made the fact one of their reasons for desiring and insisting on a +reformation of the Church. The growing sympathy for the Hussite opinions +in the cities is abundantly apparent. Some leading Reformers, Capito for +instance, told their contemporaries that they had frequently listened to +Hussite discourses when they were boys; and the libraries of burghers not +infrequently contained Hussite pamphlets. Men in the towns had been +reading, thinking, and speaking in private to their familiar friends about +the disorders in the life and doctrine of the Church of their days, and +were eager to welcome the first symptoms of a genuine attempt at reform. + +The number of editions of the German Vulgate, rude as many of these +versions were, shows what a Bible-reading people the German burghers had +become, enables us to wonder less at the way in which the controversial +writers assume that the laity knew as much of the Scriptures as the +clergy, and lends credibility to contemporary assertions that women and +artisans knew their Bibles better than learned men at the Universities. + +These things make us understand how the townsmen were prepared to welcome +Luther's simple scriptural teaching, how his writings found such a sale +all over Germany, how they could say that he taught what all men had been +thinking, and said out boldly what all men had been whispering in private. +They explain how the burghers of Strassburg nailed Luther's Ninety-five +Theses to the doors of every church and parsonage in the city in 1518; how +the citizens of Constance drove away with threats the imperial messenger +who came to publish the Edict of Worms in their town; how the people of +Basel applauded their pastor when he carried a copy of the Scriptures +instead of the Host in the procession on Corpus Christi Day; how the +higher clergy of Strassburg could not expel the nephew and successor of +the famed Geiler of Keysersberg although he was accused of being a +follower of Luther; and how his friend Matthew Zell, when he was +prohibited from preaching in the pulpit from which Geiler had thundered, +was able to get carpenters to erect another in a corner of the great +cathedral, from which he spoke to the people who crowded to hear him. When +the clergy persuaded the authorities in many towns (Goslar, Danzig, Worms, +etc.) to close the churches against the evangelical preachers, the +townspeople listened to their sermons in the open air; but generally from +the first the civic authorities sided with the people in welcoming a +powerful evangelical preacher. Matthew Zell and, after him, Martin Bucer +became the Reformers of Strassburg; Kettenbach and Eberlin, of Ulm; +Oecolampadius and Urbanus Rhegius, of Augsburg; Andrew Osiander, of +Nuernberg; John Brenz, of Hall, in Swabia; Theobald Pellicanus (Pellicanus, +_i.e._ of Villigheim), of Noerdlingen; Matthew Alber, of Reutlingen; John +Lachmann, of Heilbron; John Wanner, of Constance; and so on. The gilds of +_Mastersingers_ welcomed the Reformation. The greatest of the civic poets, +Hans Sachs of Nuernberg, was a diligent collector and reader of Luther's +books. He published in 1523 his famous poem, "The Wittenberg Nightingale" +(_Die Wittembergisch Nachtigall, Die man jetz hoeret ueberall_). The +nightingale was Luther, and its song told that the moonlight with its pale +deceptive gleams and its deep shadows was passing away, and the glorious +sun was rising. The author praises the utter simplicity of Luther's +scriptural teaching, and contrasts it with the quirks and subtleties of +Romish doctrine. Even a peasant, he says, can understand and know that +Luther's teaching is good and sound. In a later short poem he contrasts +evangelical and Romish preaching. The original edition was illustrated by +a woodcut showing two preachers addressing their respective audiences. The +one is saying, _Thus saith the Lord_; and the other, _Thus saith the +Pope_. + + + +§ 11. Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt.(309) + + +Every great movement for reform bears within it the seeds of revolution, +of the "tumult," as Erasmus called it, and Luther's was no exception to +the general rule. Every Reformer who would carry through his reforming +ideas successfully has to struggle against men and circumstances making +for the "tumult," almost as strenuously as against the abuses he seeks to +overcome. We have already seen how these germs of revolution abounded in +Germany, and how the revolutionists naturally allied themselves with the +Reformer, and the cause he sought to promote. + +While Luther was hidden away in the Wartburg, the revolution seized on +Wittenberg. At first his absence did not seem to make any difference. The +number of students had increased until it was over a thousand, and the +town itself surprised eye-witnesses who were acquainted with other +University towns in Germany. The students went about unarmed; they mostly +carried Bibles under their arms; they saluted each other as "brothers at +one in Christ." No rift had yet appeared among the band of leaders, +although his disappointment in not obtaining the Provostship of All Saints +had begun to isolate Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt. Unanimity did not +mean dulness; Wittenberg was seething with intellectual life. Since its +foundation the University had been distinguished for weekly Public +Disputations in which students and professors took part. In the earlier +years of its existence the theses discussed had been suggested by the +Scholastic Theology and Philosophy in vogue; but since 1518 the new +questions which were stirring Germany had been the subjects of debate, and +this had given a life and eagerness to the University exercises. When +Justus Jonas came to Wittenberg from Erfurt, he wrote enthusiastically to +a friend about the "unbelievable wealth of spiritual interests in the +little town of Wittenberg." None of the professors took a keener interest +in these Public Discussions than Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt. He had +been a very successful teacher; had come under Luther's magnetic +influence; and had accepted the main ideas of the new doctrines. He had +not the full-blooded humanity of Luther, nor his sympathetic tact, nor his +practical insight into how things would work. He lacked altogether +Luther's solid basis of conservative feeling, which made him know by +instinct that new ideas and new things could only flourish and grow if +they were securely rooted in what was old. It was enough for Carlstadt +that his own ideas, however hastily evolved, were clear, and his aims +beneficent, to make him eager to see them at once reduced to practice. He +had the temperament of a revolutionary rather than that of a Reformer. + +He was strongly impressed with the fundamental contradictions which he +believed to exist between the new evangelical doctrines preached by Luther +and the theories and practices of the mediaeval religious life and worship. +This led him to attack earnestly and bitterly monastic vows, celibacy, a +distinctive dress for the clergy, the idea of a propitiatory sacrifice in +the Mass, and the presence and use of images and pictures in the churches. +He introduced all these questions of practical interest into the +University weekly Public Discussions; he published theses upon them; he +printed two books--one on monastic vows and the other on the Mass--which had +an extensive circulation both in German and in Latin (four editions were +speedily exhausted). The prevailing idea in all these publications, +perhaps implied rather than expressed, was that the new evangelical +liberty could only be exercised when everything which suggested the +ceremonies and usages of the mediaeval religious life was swept away. His +strongest denunciations were reserved for the practice of celibacy; he +dwelt on the divine institution of marriage, its moral and spiritual +necessity, and taught that the compulsory marriage of the clergy was +better than the enforced celibacy of the mediaeval Church. Zwilling, a +young Augustinian Eremite, whose preaching gifts had been praised by +Luther, went even further than Carlstadt in his fiery denunciation of the +Mass as an idolatrous practice. + +The movement to put these exhortations in practice began first among the +clergy. Two priests in parishes near Wittenberg married; several monks +left their cloisters and donned lay garments; Melanchthon and several of +his students, in semi-public fashion, communicated in both kinds in the +parish church on Michaelmas Day (Sept. 29th), 1521, and his example seems +to have been followed by other companies. + +Zwilling's fiery denunciations of the idolatry of the Mass stirred the +commonalty of the town. On Christmas Eve (Dec. 24-25), 1521, a turbulent +crowd invaded the parish church and the Church of All Saints. In the +former they broke the lamps, threatened the priests, and in mockery of the +worship of praise they sang folk-songs, one of which began: "There was a +maid who lost a shoe"--so the indignant clergy complained to the +Elector.(310) + +Next day, Christmas, Carlstadt, who was archdeacon, conducted the service +in All Saints' Church. He had doffed his clerical robes, and wore the +ordinary dress of a layman. He preached and then dispensed the Lord's +Supper in an "evangelical fashion." He read the usual service, but omitted +everything which taught a propitiatory sacrifice; he did not elevate the +Host; and he placed the Bread in the hands of every communicant, and gave +the Cup into their hands. On the following Sundays and festival days the +Sacrament of the Supper was dispensed in the same manner, and we are told +that "hic paene urbs et cuncta civitas communicavit sub utraque specie." + +During the closing days of the year 1521, so full of excitement for the +people of Wittenberg, three men, known in history as the _Zwickau +Prophets_, came to the town (Dec. 27th). Zwickau, lying about sixty-four +miles south of Wittenberg, was the centre of the weaving trade of Saxony, +and contained a large artisan population. We have seen that movements of a +religious-communistic kind had from time to time appeared among the German +artisans and peasants since 1476. Nicolaus Storch, a weaver in Zwickau, +proclaimed that he had visions of the Angel Gabriel, who had revealed to +him: "Thou shalt sit with me on my throne." He began to preach. Thomas +Muenzer, who had been appointed by the magistrates to be town preacher in +St. Mary's, the principal church in Zwickau, praised his discourses, +declaring that Storch expounded the Scriptures better than any priest. +Some writers have traced the origin of this Zwickau movement to Hussite +teachings. Muenzer allied himself with the extreme Hussites _after_ the +movement had begun, and paid a visit to Bohemia, taking with him some of +his intimates; but our sources of information, which are scanty, do not +warrant any decided opinion about the origin of the outbreak in Zwickau. +After some time Storch and others were forced to leave the town. Three of +them went to Wittenberg--Storch himself, the seer of heavenly visions, +another weaver, and Marcus Thomae Stubner, who had once been a pupil of +Melanchthon, and was therefore able to introduce his companions to the +Wittenberg circle of Reformers. Their arrival and addresses increased the +excitement both in the town and in the University. Melanchthon welcomed +his old pupil, and was impressed by the presence of a certain spiritual +power in Stubner and in his companions. Some of their doctrines, however, +especially their rejection of infant baptism, repelled him, and he +gradually withdrew from their companionship. + +Carlstadt took advantage of the strong excitement in Wittenberg to press +on the townspeople and on the magistrates his scheme of reformation; and +on Jan. 24th, 1522, the authorities of the town of Wittenberg published +their famous ordinance. + +This document, the first of numerous civic and territorial attempts to +express the new evangelical ideas in legislation, deserves careful +study.(311) It concerns itself almost exclusively with the reform of +social life and of public worship. It enjoins the institution of a common +chest to be under the charge of two of the magistrates, two of the +townsmen, and a public notary. Into this the revenues from ecclesiastical +foundations were to be placed, the annual revenues of the guilds of +workmen, and other specified monies. Definite salaries were to be paid to +the priests, and support for the poor and for the monks was to be taken +from this common fund. Begging, whether by ordinary beggars, monks, or +poor students, was strictly prohibited. If the common chest was not able +to afford sufficient for the support of the helpless and orphans, the +townsfolk had to provide what was needed. No houses of ill-fame were +allowed within the town. Churches were places for preaching; the town +contained enough for the population; and the building of small chapels was +prohibited. The service of the Mass was shortened, and made to express the +evangelical meaning of the sacrament, and the elements were to be placed +in the hands of the communicants. All this was made law within the town of +Wittenberg; and the reformation was to be enforced. Not content with these +regulations, Carlstadt engaged in a crusade against the use of pictures +and images in the churches (the regulations had permitted three altars in +every church and one picture for each altar). Everything which recalled +the older religious usages was to be done away with, and flesh was to be +eaten on fast days. + +This excitement bred fanaticism. Voices were raised declaring that, as all +true Christians were taught by the Spirit of God, there was no need either +for civil rulers or for carnal learning. It is believed by many that +Carlstadt shared these fancies, and it has been said that in his desire to +"simplify" himself, he dressed as a peasant and worked as a labourer (he +had married) on his father-in-law's farm. It is more probable that he +found himself unable to rule the storm his hasty measures had raised, and +that he saw many things proposed with which he had no sympathy. + + + +§ 12. Luther back in Wittenberg. + + +Melanchthon felt himself helpless in presence of the "tumult," declared +that no one save Luther himself could quell the excitement, and eagerly +pressed his return. The revolutionary movement was extending beyond +Wittenberg, in other towns in Electoral Saxony such as Grimma and +Altenberg. Duke George of Saxony, the strenuous defender of the old faith, +had been watching the proceedings from the beginning. As early as Nov. +21st, 1521, he had written to John Duke of Saxony, the brother of the +Elector, warning him that, against ecclesiastical usage, the Sacrament of +the Supper was being dispensed in both kinds in Wittenberg; he had +informed him (Dec. 26th) that priests were threatened while saying the +Mass; he had brought the "tumultuous deeds" in Electoral Saxony before the +_Reichsregiment_ in January, with the result that imperial mandates were +sent to the Elector Frederick and to the Bishops of Meissen, Merseburg, +and Naumburg, requiring them to take measures to end the disturbances. The +Elector was seriously disquieted. His anxieties were increased by a letter +from Duke George (Feb. 2nd, 1522), declaring that Carlstadt and Zwilling +were the instigators of all the riotous proceedings. He had commissioned +one of his councillors, Hugold of Einsiedel, to try to put matters right; +but the result had been small. It was probably in these circumstances that +he wrote his _Instruction_ to Oswald, a burgher of Eisenach, with the +intention that the contents should be communicated to Luther in the +Wartburg. The _Instruction_ may have been the reason why Luther suddenly +left the asylum where he had remained since his appearance at Worms by the +command and under the protection of his prince.(312) + +If this _Instruction_ did finally determine him, it was only one of many +things urging Luther to leave his solitude. He cared little for the +influence of the Zwickau Prophets,(313) estimating them at their true +value, but the weakness of Melanchthon, the destructive and dangerous +impetuosity of Carlstadt, the spread of the tumult beyond Wittenberg, the +determination of Duke George to make use of these outbursts to destroy the +whole movement for reformation, and the interference of the +_Reichsregiment_ with its mandates, made him feel that the decisive moment +had come when he must be again among his own people. + +He started on his lonely journey, most of it through an enemy's country, +going by Erfurt, Jena, Borna, and Leipzig. He was dressed as "Junker +Georg," with beard on his chin and sword by his side. At Erfurt he had a +good-humoured discussion with a priest in the inn; and Kessler, the Swiss +student, tells how he met a stranger sitting in the parlour of the "Bear" +at Jena with his hand on the hilt of his sword, and reading a small Hebrew +Psalter. He got to Wittenberg on Friday, March 7th; spent that afternoon +and the next day in discussing the situation with his friends Amsdorf, +Melanchthon, and Jerome Schurf.(314) + +On Sunday he appeared in the pulpit, and for eight successive days he +preached to the people, and the plague was stayed. Many things in the +movement set agoing by Carlstadt met with his approval. He had come to +believe in the marriage of the clergy; he disapproved strongly of private +Masses; he had grave doubts on the subject of monastic vows; but he +disapproved of the violence, of the importance attached to outward +details, and of the use of force to advance the Reformation movement: + + + "The Word created heaven and earth and all things; the same Word + will also create now, and not we poor sinners. _Summa summarum_, I + will preach it, I will talk about it, I will write about it, but I + will not use force or compulsion with anyone; for faith must be of + freewill and unconstrained, and must be accepted without + compulsion. To marry, to do away with images, to become monks or + nuns, or for monks and nuns to leave their convents, to eat meat + on Friday or not to eat it, and other like things--all these are + open questions, and should not be forbidden by any man. If I + employ force, what do I gain? Changes in demeanour, outward shows, + grimaces, shams, hypocrisies. But what becomes of the sincerity of + the heart, of faith, of Christian love? All is wanting where these + are lacking; and for the rest I would not give the stalk of a + pear. What we want is the heart, and to win that we must preach + the gospel. Then the word will drop into one heart to-day, and + to-morrow into another, and so will work that each will forsake + the Mass." + + +He made no personal references; he blamed no individuals; and in the end +he was master of the situation. + +When he had won back Wittenberg he made a tour of those places in +Electoral Saxony where the Wittenberg example had been followed. He went +to Zwickau, to Altenberg, and to Grimma--preaching to thousands of people, +calming them, and bringing them back to a conservative reformation. + + + + +Chapter IV. From The Diet of Worms to the Close Of the Peasants' War. + + + +§ 1. The continued spread of Lutheran Teaching. + + +The imperial edict issued against Luther at the Diet of Worms could +scarcely have been stronger than it was,(315) and yet, like many another +edict of Emperor and Diet, it was wholly ineffective. It could only be +enforced by the individual Estates, who for the most part showed great +reluctance to put it into operation. It was published in the territories +of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, of the Elector of Brandenburg, of Duke +George of Saxony, and of the Dukes of Bavaria; but none of these princes, +except the Archduke and Duke George, seemed to care much for the old +religion. In most of the ecclesiastical States the authorities were afraid +of riots following the publication, and did nothing. Thus, in Bremen, we +are told that as late as December 1522 the people had never seen the +edict. The cities treated it as carelessly. The authorities in Nuernberg, +Ulm, Augsburg, and Strassburg posted it up publicly as an official +document, and took no further trouble. In Strassburg the printers went on +issuing Luther's books and tracts as fast as their printing-presses could +produce them; and at Constance the populace drove the imperial +commissioners from the town when they came to publish the edict. + +The action of the newly constituted _Reichsregiment_ was as indecisive. +When the disturbances broke out at Wittenberg, under Carlstadt and the +Zwickau Prophets, Duke George, by playing on the fears of a spread of +Hussitism, could get mandates issued to the Elector of Saxony and +neighbouring bishops to inquire into and crush the disorders; but after +Luther's return and the restoration of tranquillity his pleadings were +ineffectual. It was in vain that he insisted that Luther's presence in +Wittenberg was an insult to the Empire. He was told that the +_Reichsregiment_ was able to judge for itself what were insults, and that +when they saw them they would punish. Archduke Ferdinand, the President, +doubtless sympathised with Duke George, but he was powerless; the Elector +of Saxony had the greatest influence, and it was always exerted on the +side of Luther. + +In January 1522 a new Pope had been chosen, who took the title of Adrian +VI. His election was a triumph for the party that confessed the urgent +need of reforms, and thought that they ought to be effected by the +hierarchy and from within the Church. Adrian was a pious man according to +his lights, one who felt deeply the corruption which was degrading the +Church. He believed that the revolt of Luther was a punishment sent by God +for the sins of the generation. He had been the tutor of Charles V., and +ascended the papal throne with the determination to reform corruptions, +and to begin his reforms by attacking the source of all--the Roman Curia. +But he was a Dominican monk, and had all the Dominican ideas about the +need of maintaining mediaeval theology intact, and about the strict +maintenance of ecclesiastical discipline. He was as ignorant as his +predecessor of the state of matters in Germany, and regarded Luther as +another Mahomet, who was seducing men from the higher Christian life by +pandering to their fleshly appetites. + +The _Reichsregiment_ met with the Diet at Nuernberg in 1522-1523, and to +this Diet the Pope sent, as nuncio, Francesco Chieregati, Bishop of +Terramo, in the kingdom of Naples. The nuncio was given lengthy +instructions, which set forth the Pope's opinion of the corruptions in the +Church and his intention to cure them, but which demanded the delivery of +Luther into the hands of the Roman Curia, and the punishment of priests, +monks, and nuns who had broken their vows of celibacy.(316) Chieregati was +no sooner in Germany than he understood that it would be impossible for +him to get the Pope's demand carried out, and he informed his master of +the state of matters. When he met the Diet and presented the papal +requests, he was practically answered that Germany had grievances against +Rome, and that they would need to be set right ere the Curia could expect +to get its behests fulfilled. They intimated that since the Pope had +admitted the corruptions in the Church, it was scarcely to be expected +that they should blame Luther for having pointed them out. They presented +the nuncio with a list of one hundred German grievances against the Roman +Curia;(317) and suggested that the most convenient way of settling them +would be for the Pope to make over immediately, for the public use of +Germany, the German _annates_,(318) and that a German Council should be +held on German soil, and within one of the larger German cities. + +The practical result of this fencing at the Diet of 1522, repeated in +1523, was that the progress of the Lutheran movement was not checked. How +deeply the people of Germany had drunk in the teaching of Luther may be +learnt from the letters of the nuncio to the Curia, and from those of the +Archduke Ferdinand to the Emperor. Both use the same expression, that +"among a thousand men scarcely one could be found untainted by Lutheran +teaching." + +Adrian VI. died suddenly after a few months' reign, and the next Pope, +Clement VII., a Medici and completely under the influence of the French +king, belonged to the old unreforming party, whose only desire was to +maintain all the corrupting privileges of the Roman Curia. He selected and +sent to Germany, as his nuncio, Lorenzo Campeggio, one of the ablest of +Italian diplomatists, to negotiate with the _Reichsregiment_ and the Diet +which met at Speyer in 1524. + +Campeggio, like his predecessor, found that the German Nation was +determinedly hostile to Rome. When he made his official entry into +Augsburg, and raised his hands to give the usual benediction to the crowds +of people, they received the blessing with open derision. He was so +impressed with their attitude, that when he reached Nuernberg he doffed his +official robes and entered the town as quietly as possible; indeed he +received a message from the authorities asking him "to avoid making the +sign of the cross, or using the benediction, seeing how matters then +stood." The presence of the Legate seemed to increase the anti-papal zeal +of the people. The Pope was openly spoken of as Antichrist. Planitz, the +energetic commissary of the Elector of Saxony, reckoned that nearly four +thousand people in the city partook of the Sacrament of the Supper in both +kinds, and informs us that among them were members of the +_Reichsregiment_, and Isabella, Queen of Sweden, the sister of the +Emperor. + +Yet the experienced Italian diplomatist thought that he could discern +signs more favourable to his master than the previous Diet had exhibited. +The _Reichsregiment_, which had hitherto shielded the Lutheran movement, +had lost the confidence of many classes of people, and was tottering to +its fall. It had showed itself unable to enforce the Lands-Peace. It was +the princes who had defeated the rising of the Free Nobles under Franz von +Sickingen; it was the Swabian League, an association always devoted to the +House of Austria, that had crushed the Franconian robber nobles; and both +princes and League were irritated at the attempts of the _Reichsregiment_, +which had endeavoured to rob them of the fruits of their successes. The +cities had been made to bear all the taxation needed to support the +central government, and the system of monopolies arising from combinations +among the great commercial houses had been threatened. The cities and the +capitalists had made a secret agreement with the Emperor, and von Hannart +had been sent by the Emperor from Spain to the Diet of 1524 to work along +with the towns for the overthrow of the central government. The Diet +itself had passed a vote of no confidence in the government. In these +troubled waters a crafty fisher might win some success. + +His success was more apparent than real. The Diet of 1524 did not +absolutely refuse to enforce the Edict of Worms against Luther and his +followers; they promised to execute it "as well as they were able, and as +far as was possible," and the cities had made it plain that the +enforcement was impossible. They renewed their demand for a General +Council to meet in a suitable German town to settle the affairs of the +Church in Germany, and again declared that meanwhile nothing should be +preached contrary to the Word of God and the Holy Gospel. They went +further, and practically resolved that a National Council, to deliberate +on the condition of the Church in Germany, should meet at Speyer in +November and make an interim settlement of its ecclesiastical affairs, to +last until the meeting of a General Council. It is true that, owing to the +exertions of the nuncio and of von Hannart, the phrase National Synod was +omitted, and the meeting was to be one of the Estates of Germany at which +the councillors and learned divines of the various princes were to +formulate all the disputed points, and to consider anew the grievances of +the German nation against the Papacy; but neither the nuncio nor von +Hannart deceived themselves as to the real meaning of the resolution. "It +will be a National Council for Germany," said Hannart in his report. +Nothing could be more alarming to the Pope. There was always a possibility +of managing a General Council; but a German National Synod, including a +large number of lay representatives, meeting in a German town, +foreshadowed an independent National German Church which would insist on +separation from the Roman See. The Pope wrote to Henry VIII. of England +asking him to harass the German merchants; he induced the Emperor to +forbid the proposed meeting of the German States; and, what was more +important, he instructed his nuncio to take steps secretly to form a +league of German princes who were still favourable to maintaining the +mediaeval Church with its doctrines, ceremonies, and usages. This +inaugurated the religious divisions of Germany. + + + +§ 2. The beginnings of Division in Germany. + + +The Diet of Speyer (1524) may perhaps be taken as the beginning of the +separation of Germany into two opposite camps of Protestant and Roman +Catholic, although the real parting of the ways actually occurred after +the Peasants' War. The overthrow, or at least discrediting of the +_Reichsregiment_, placed the management of everything, including the +settlement of the religious question, in the hands of the princes, none of +whom, with the exception of the Elector of Saxony, cared much for the idea +of nationality; while some of them, however anxious they were, or once had +been, for ecclesiastical reforms, were genuinely afraid of the "tumult" +which they believed might lurk behind any conspicuous changes in religious +usages. Duke George of Saxony, who was keenly alive to the corruptions in +the Church, dreaded above all things the beginnings of a Hussite movement +in Germany. He knew that an assiduous, penetrating, secret Hussite, or +rather Taborite propaganda had been going on in Germany for long. As early +as the Leipzig Disputation (1519), when John Eck had skilfully forced +Luther into the avowal that he approved of some things in the Hussite +revolt, Duke George was seen to put his arms akimbo, to wag his long +beard, and was heard to ejaculate, "God help us! The plague!" A fear of +Hussite revolution displays itself in his correspondence, and very notably +in his letters to Duke John of Saxony and to the Elector about the +disturbances in Wittenberg. It was a triumph for the Roman Curia when its +partisans, from Eck onwards, were able to fix the stigma of Hussitism on +the Lutheran movement; and the career of the Zwickau Prophets, +notwithstanding their suppression by Luther, was, to many, an indication +of what might lie behind the new preaching. When the Peasants' War came in +1525, many of the earlier sympathisers with Luther saw in it an indication +of the dangers into which they fancied that Luther was leading Germany. It +is also to be noticed that many of the Humanists now began to desert the +Lutheran cause; his Augustinian theology made them think that he was bent +on creating a new Scholastic which seemed to them almost as bad as the +old, which they had been delighted to see him attack. + +The Roman Curia was quick to take advantage of all these alarms. Its +efforts were so successful, that it was soon able to create a Roman +Catholic Party among the South German princes, and to secure its +steadfastness by promising a few concessions, and by permitting the +authorities to retain for the secular uses of their States about one-fifth +of the ecclesiastical revenues in each State. The leading States in this +Roman Catholic federation were Austria and Bavaria, and so long as Duke +George lived, Ducal Saxony in middle Germany. This naturally called forth +a distinctly Lutheran party, no longer national, which included the +Elector of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Margraf of Brandenburg, his +brother Albert, and many others. Albert was at the head of the Teutonic +Order in East Prussia. He secularised his semi-ecclesiastical +principality, became the first Duke of Prussia, and his State from the +beginning adopted the evangelical faith. + +It was not until the Peasants' War was over that this division was clearly +manifested. The Reformation had spread in simple natural fashion, without +any attempt at concerted action, or any design to impose a new and uniform +order of public worship, or to make changes in ecclesiastical government. +Luther himself was not without hopes that the great ecclesiastical +principalities might become secular lordships, that the bishops would +assume the lead in ecclesiastical reform, and that there would be a great +National Church in Germany, with little external change--enough only to +permit the evangelical preaching and teaching. It is true that the Emperor +had shown clearly his position by sending martyrs to the stake in the +Netherlands, and that symptoms of division had begun to manifest +themselves during 1524, as we have seen. Still these things did not +prevent such an experienced statesman as the Elector of Saxony from +confidently expecting a peaceful and, so far as Germany was concerned, a +unanimous and hearty solution of the religious difficulties. The storm +burst suddenly which was to shatter these optimistic expectations, and to +change fundamentally the whole course of the Lutheran Reformation. This +was the Peasants' War. + + + +§ 3. The Peasants' War.(319) + + +From one point of view this insurrection was simply the last, the most +extensive, and the most disastrous of those revolts which, we have already +seen, had been almost chronic in Germany during the later decades of the +fifteenth and in the beginning of the sixteenth century. All the social +and economic causes which produced them(320) were increasingly active in +1524-1525. It is easy to show, as many Lutheran Church historians have +done with elaborate care, that the Reformation under Luther had nothing in +common with the sudden and unexpected revolt,--as easy as to prove that +there was little in common between the "Spiritual Poverty" of Francis of +Assisi and the vulgar communism of the _Brethren and Sisters of the Free +Spirit_, between the doctrines of Wiclif and the gigantic labour strike +headed by Wat Tyler and Priest Ball, between the teaching of Huss and the +extreme Taborite fanatics. But the fact remains that the voice of Luther +awoke echoes whereof he never dreamt, and that its effects cannot be +measured by some changes in doctrine, or by a reformation in +ecclesiastical organisation. The times of the Reformation were ripe for +revolution, and the words of the bold preacher, coming when all men were +restless and most men were oppressed, appealing especially to those who +felt the burden heavy and the yoke galling, were followed by +far-resounding reverberations. Besides, Luther's message was democratic. +It destroyed the aristocracy of the saints, it levelled the barriers +between the layman and the priest, it taught the equality of all men +before God, and the right of every man of faith to stand in God's presence +whatever be his rank and condition of life. He had not confined himself to +preaching a new theology. His message was eminently practical. In his +_Appeal to __ the Nobility of the German Nation_, Luther had voiced all +the grievances of Germany, had touched upon almost all the open sores of +the time, and had foretold disasters not very far off. + +Nor must it be forgotten that no great leader ever flung about wild words +in such a reckless way. Luther had the gift of strong smiting phrases, of +words which seemed to cleave to the very heart of things, of images which +lit up a subject with the vividness of a flash of lightning. He launched +tracts and pamphlets from the press about almost everything,--written for +the most part on the spur of the moment, and when the fire burned. His +words fell into souls full of the fermenting passions of the times. They +drank in with eagerness the thoughts that all men were equal before God, +and that there are divine commands about the brotherhood of mankind of +more importance than all human legislation. They refused to believe that +such golden ideas belonged to the realm of spiritual life alone, or that +the only prescriptions which denied the rights of the common man were the +decrees of the Roman Curia. The successful revolts of the Swiss peasants, +the wonderful victories of Zisca, the people's leader, in the near +Bohemian lands, were illustrations, they thought, of how Luther's +sledge-hammer words could be translated into corresponding deeds. + +Other teachings besides Luther's were listened to. Many of the Humanists, +professed disciples of Plato, expounded to friends or in their class-rooms +the communistic dreams of the _Republic_, and published _Utopias_ like the +brilliant sketch of the ideal commonwealth which came from the pen of +Thomas More. These speculations "of the Chair" were listened to by the +"wandering students," and were retailed, with forcible illustrations, in a +way undreamt of by their scholarly authors, to audiences of artisans and +peasants who were more than ready to give them unexpected +applications.(321) + +The influence of popular astrology must not be forgotten; for the +astrologists were powerful among all classes of society, in the palaces of +the princes, in the houses of the burghers, and at the peasant market +gatherings and church ales. In these days they were busy pointing out +heavenly portents, and foretelling calamities and popular risings.(322) + +The missionaries of the movement belonged to all sorts and conditions of +men--poor priests sympathising with the grievances of their parishioners; +wandering monks who had deserted their convents, especially those +belonging to the Franciscan Order; poor students on their way from +University to University; artisans, travelling in German fashion from one +centre of their trade to another. They found their audiences on the +village greens under the lime trees, or in the public-houses in the lower +parts of the towns. They talked the rude language of the people, and +garnished their discourse with many a scriptural quotation. They read to +excited audiences small pamphlets and broadsides, printed in thick letters +on coarse paper, which discussed the burning questions of the day. + +The revolt began unexpectedly, and without any pre-concerted preparation +or formulation of demands, in June 1524, when a thousand peasants +belonging to the estate of Count Sigismund of Lupfen rose in rebellion +against their lord at Stuehlingen, a few miles to the north-west of +Schaffhausen, and put themselves under the leadership of Hans Mueller, an +old landsknecht. Mueller led his peasants, one of them carrying a flag +blazoned with the imperial colours of red, black, and yellow, to the +little town of Waldshut, about half-way between Schaffhausen and Basel. +The people of the town fraternised with the peasants, and the formidable +"Evangelical Brotherhood" was either formed then or the roots of it were +planted. The news spread fast, east and west. The peasants of the +districts round about the Lake of Constance--in the Allgau, the Klettgau, +the Hegau, and Villingen--rose in rebellion. The revolt spread northwards +into Lower Swabia, and the peasants of Leiphen, led by Jacob Wehe, were +joined by some of the troops of Truchsess, the general of the Swabian +League. The peasants of Salzburg, Styria, and the Tyrol rose. These three +eastern risings had most staying power in them. The Salzburg peasants +besieged the Cardinal Archbishop in his castle; they were not reduced till +the spring of 1526, and only after having extorted concessions from their +over-lords. The Tyrolese peasants, under their wise leader, Michael +Gaismeyer, shut up Archduke Ferdinand in Innsbruck, and in the end gained +substantial concessions. The rising in Styria was a very strong one; it +lasted till 1526, and was eventually put down by bringing Bohemian troops +into the country. From Swabia the flames of insurrection spread into +Franconia, where a portion of the insurgents were led by an escaped +criminal, the notorious Jaeklein Rohrbach. It was this band which +perpetrated the wanton massacre of Weinsberg, the one outstanding atrocity +of the insurrection. The band and the deed were repudiated by the rest of +the insurgents. Thomas Muenzer, who, banished from Zwickau and then from +Alstedt, had settled in Muehlhausen, his heart aflame with the wrongs of +the commonalty, preached insurrection to the peasants in Thueringen. He +issued fiery proclamations: + + + "Arise! Fight the battle of the Lord! On! On! On! The wicked + tremble when they hear of you. On! On! On! Be pitiless although + Esau gives you fair words (Gen. xxxiii.). Heed not the groans of + the godless; they will beg, weep, and entreat you for pity like + children. Show them no mercy, as God commanded to Moses (Deut. + vii.), and as He has revealed the same to us. Rouse up the towns + and the villages; above all, rouse the miners.... On! On! On! + while the fire is burning let not the blood cool on your swords! + Smite pinke-pank on the anvil of Nimrod! Overturn their towers to + the foundation: while one of them lives you will not be free from + the fear of man. While they reign over you it is of no use to + speak of the fear of God. On! while it is day! God is with you." + + +The words were meant to rouse the miners of Mansfeld. They failed in their +original intention, but they sent bands of armed insurgents through +Thueringen and the Harz, and within fourteen days about forty convents and +monasteries were destroyed, and the inmates (many of them poor women with +no homes to return to) were sent adrift. + +The revolt spread like a conflagration, one province catching fire from +another, until in the early spring months of 1525 almost all Germany was +in uproar. The only districts which escaped were Bavaria in the south, +Hesse, and the north and north-east provinces. The insurgents were not +peasants only. The poorer population of many of the towns fraternised with +the insurgents, and compelled the civic authorities to admit them within +their walls. + + + +§ 4. The Twelve Articles. + + +Statements of grievances were published which, naturally, bore a strong +resemblance to those issued in the earlier social uprisings. The +countrymen complained of the continuous appropriation of the woodlands by +the proprietors, and that they were not allowed to fish in the streams or +to kill game in their fields. They denounced the proprietors' practice of +compelling his peasants to do all manner of unstipulated service for him +without payment--to repair his roads, to assist at his hunts, to draw his +fish-ponds. They said that their crops were ruined by game which they were +not allowed to kill, and by hunters in pursuit of game; that the landlord +led his streams across their meadow land, and deprived them of water for +irrigation. They protested against arbitrary punishments, unknown to the +old consuetudinary village law-courts (_Haingerichte_). + +They formulated their demands for justice in various series of articles, +all of which had common features, but contained some striking differences. +Some dwelt more on the grievances of the peasants, others voiced the +demands of the working classes of the towns, others again contained traces +of the political aspirations of the more educated leaders of the movement. +Almost all protest that they ask for nothing contrary to the requirements +of just authority, whether civil or ecclesiastical, nor to the gospel of +Christ. The peasants declared that each village community should be at +liberty to choose its own pastor, and to dismiss him if he proved to be +unsatisfactory; that while they were willing to pay the great tithes +(_i.e._ a tenth of the produce of the crops), the lesser tithes (_i.e._ a +tenth of the eggs, lambs, foals, etc.) should no longer be exacted; that +these great tithes should be reserved to pay the village priest's stipend, +and that what remained over should go to support the poor; that, since God +had made all men free, serfdom should be abolished; and that, while they +were willing to obey lawful authority, peasants ought not to be called on +to submit to the arbitrary commands of their landlords. They insisted that +they had a right to fish in the streams (not in fish-ponds), to kill game +and wild birds, for these were public property. They demanded that the +woodlands, meadows, and ploughlands which had once belonged to the village +community, but which had been appropriated by the landlords, should be +restored. They insisted that arbitrary services of every kind should be +abolished, and that whatever services, beyond the old feudal dues, were +demanded, should be paid for in wages. They called for the abolition of +the usage whereby the landlord was permitted, in the name of death-duty, +to seize on the most valuable chattel of the deceased tenant; and for the +creation of impartial courts of justice in the country districts. They +concluded by asking that all their demands should be tested by the word of +God, and that if any of them should be found to be opposed to its +teaching, it should be rejected.(323) + +The townspeople asked that all class privileges should be abolished in +civic and ecclesiastical appointments; that the administration of justice +in the town's courts should be improved; that the local taxation should be +readjusted; that all the inhabitants should be permitted to vote for the +election of the councillors; and that better provision should be made for +the care of the poor. Some of the more ambitious manifestoes contained +demands for a thorough reconstruction of the entire administration of the +Empire, on a scheme which involved the overthrow of all feudal courts of +justice, and contemplated a series of imperial judicatories, rising from +revived Communal Courts to a central Imperial Court of Appeal for the +whole Empire. Some manifestoes demanded a unification of the coinage, +weights, and measures throughout the Empire; a confiscation of +ecclesiastical endowments for the purpose of lessening taxation, and for +the redemption of feudal dues; a uniform rate of taxes and customs duties; +restraint to be placed on the operations of the great capitalists; the +regulation of commerce and trade by law; and the admission of +representatives from all classes in the community into the public +administration. In every case the Emperor was regarded as the Lord +Paramount. There were also declarations of the sovereignty of the people, +made in such a way as to suggest that the writings of Marsilius of Padua +had been studied by some of the leaders among the insurgents. The most +famous of all these declarations was the Twelve Articles. The document was +adopted by delegates from several of the insurrectionary bands, which met +at Memmingen in Upper Swabia, to unite upon a common basis of action. If +not actually drafted by Schappeler, a friend of Zwingli, the articles were +probably inspired by him. These Twelve Articles gave something like unity +to the movement; although it must be remembered that documents bearing the +title do not always agree. The main thought with the peasant was to secure +a fair share of the land, security of tenure, and diminution of feudal +servitudes; and the idea of the artisan was to obtain full civic +privileges and an adequate representation of his class on the city +council. + + + +§ 5. The Suppression of the Revolt. + + +During the earlier months of 1525 the rising carried everything before it. +Many of the smaller towns made common cause with the peasants; indeed, it +was feared that all the towns of Swabia might unite in supporting the +movement. Prominent nobles were forced to join the "Evangelical +Brotherhood" which had been formally constituted at Memmingen (March 7th). +Princes, like the Cardinal Elector of Mainz and the Bishop of Wuerzburg, +had to come to terms with the insurgents. Germany had been denuded of +soldiers, drafted to take part in the Italian wars of Charles V. The +ruling powers engaged the insurgents in negotiations simply for the +purpose of gaining time, as was afterwards seen. But the rising had no +solidity in it, nor did it produce, save in the Tyrol, any leader capable +of effectually controlling his followers and of giving practical result to +their efforts. The insurgents became demoralised after their first +successes, and the whole movement had begun to show signs of dissolution +before the princes had recovered from their terror. Philip of Hesse aided +the Elector of Saxony (John, for Frederick had died during the +insurrection) to crush Muenzer at Frankenhausen (May 15th, 1525), the town +of Muehlhausen was taken, and deprived of its privileges as an imperial +city, and the revolt was crushed in North Germany. + +George Truchsess, the general of the Swabian League, his army strengthened +by mercenaries returning to Germany after the battle of Pavia, mastered +the bands in Swabia and in Franconia. The Elsass revolt was suppressed +with great ferocity by Duke Anthony of Lorraine. None of the German +princes showed any consideration or mercy to their revolting subjects save +the old Elector Frederick and Philip of Hesse. The former, on his +death-bed, besought his brother to deal leniently with the misguided +people; Philip's peasantry had fewer matters to complain of than had those +of any other province, the Landgrave discussed their grievances with them, +and made concessions which effectually prevented any revolt. Everywhere +else, save in the Tyrol, the revolt was crushed with merciless severity, +and between 100,000 and 150,000 of the insurgents perished on the field or +elsewhere. The insurrection maintained itself in the Tyrol, in Salzburg, +and in Styria until the spring of 1526; in all other districts of Germany +the insurgents were crushed before the close of 1525. No attempt was made +to cure the ills which led to the rising. The oppression of the peasantry +was intensified. The last vestiges of local self-government were +destroyed, and the unfortunate people were doomed for generations to exist +in the lowest degradation. The year 1525 was one of the saddest in the +annals of the German Fatherland. + +The Peasants' War had a profound, lasting, and disastrous effect on the +Reformation movement in Germany. It affected Luther personally, and that +in a way which could not fail to react upon the cause which he +conspicuously led. It checked the spread of the Reformation throughout the +whole of Germany. It threw the guidance of the movement into the hands of +the evangelical princes, and destroyed the hope that it might give birth +to a reformed National German Church. + + + +§ 6. Luther and the Peasants' War. + + +The effect of the rising upon Luther's own character and future conduct +was too important for us to entirely pass over his personal relations to +the peasants and their revolt. He was a peasant's son. "My father, my +grandfather, my forebears, were all genuine peasants," he was accustomed +to say. He had seen and pitied the oppression of the peasant class, and +had denounced it in his own trenchant fashion. He had reproved the greed +of the landlords, when he said that if the peasant's land produced as many +coins as ears of corn, the profit would go to the landlord only. He had +publicly expressed his approval of many of the proposals in the Twelve +Articles long before they had been formulated and adopted at Memmingen in +March 1525, and had advocated a return to the old communal laws or usages +of Germany. He formally declared his agreement with the substance of the +Twelve Articles after they had become the "charter" of the revolt. But +Luther, rightly or wrongly, held that no real good could come from armed +insurrection. He believed with all the tenacity of his nature, that while +there might be two roads to reform, the way of peace, and the way of war, +the pathway of peace was the only one which would lead to lasting benefit. +After the storm burst he risked his life over and over again in visits he +paid to the disaffected districts, to warn the people of the dangers they +were running. After Muenzer's attempt to rouse the miners of Mansfeld, and +carry fire and sword into the district where his parents were living, +Luther made one last attempt to bring the misguided people to a more +reasonable course. He made a preaching tour through the disaffected +districts. He went west from Eisleben to Stolberg (April 21st, 1525); +thence to Nordhausen, where Muenzer's sympathisers rang the bells to drown +his voice; south to Erfurt (April 28th); north again to the fertile valley +of the Golden Aue and to Wallhausen (May 1st); south again to Weimar (May +3rd), where news reached him that his Elector was dying, and that he had +expressed the wish to see him,--a message which reached him too late. It +was on this journey, or shortly after his return to Wittenberg (May 6th), +that Luther wrote his vehement tract, _Against the murdering, thieving +hordes of Peasants_. He wrote it while his mind was full of Muenzer's calls +to slaughter, when the danger was at its height, with all the sights and +sounds of destruction and turmoil in eye and ear, while it still hung in +the balance whether the insurgent bands might not carry all before them. +In this terrible pamphlet Luther hounded on the princes to crush the +rising. It is this pamphlet, all extenuating circumstances being taken +into account, which must ever remain an ineffaceable stain on his noble +life and career.(324) + +As for himself, the Peasants' War imprinted in him a deep distrust of all +who had any connection with the rising. He had not forgotten Carlstadt's +action at Wittenberg in 1521-1522, and when Carlstadt was found attempting +to preach the insurrection in Franconia and Swabia, Luther never forgave +him. His deep-rooted and unquenchable suspicion of Zwingli may be traced +back to his discovery that friends of the Zurich Reformer had been at +Memmingen, had aided the revolutionary delegates to draft the Twelve +Articles, and had induced them to shelter themselves under the shield of a +religious Reformation. What is perhaps more important, the Peasants' War +gave to Luther a deep and abiding distrust of the "common man" which was +altogether lacking in the earlier stages of his career, which made him +prevent every effort to give anything like a democratic ecclesiastical +organisation to the Evangelical Church, and which led him to bind his +Reformation in the chains of secular control to the extent of regarding +the secular authority as possessing a quasi-episcopal function.(325) It is +probably true that he saved the Reformation in Germany by cutting it loose +from the revolutionary movement; but the wrench left marks on his own +character as well as on that of the movement he headed. Luther's enemies +were quick to make capital out of his relations with the peasants, and +Einser compared him to Pilate, who washed his hands after betraying Jesus +to the Jews. + + + +§ 7. Germany divided into two separate Camps. + + +The insurrection, altogether apart from its personal effects on Luther, +had a profound influence on the whole of the German Reformation. Some +princes who had hitherto favoured the Romanist side were confirmed in +their opposition; others who had hesitated, definitely abandoned the cause +of Reform. For both, it seemed that a social revolution of a desperate +kind lay behind the Protestant Reformation. Many an innocent preacher of +the new faith perished in the disturbances--sought out and slain by the +princes as an instigator of the rebellion. Duke Anthony of Lorraine, for +example, in his suppression of the revolt in Elsass, made no concealment +of his belief that evangelical preachers were the cause of the rising, and +butchered them without mercy when he could discover them. The Curia found +that the Peasants' War was an admirable text to preach from when they +insisted that Luther was another Huss, and that the movement which he led +was a revival of the ecclesiastical and social communism of the extreme +Hussites (Taborites); that all who attacked the Church of Rome were +engaged in attempting to destroy the bases of society. It was after the +Peasants' War that the Roman Catholic League of princes grew strong in +numbers and in cohesion. + +The result of the war also showed that the one strong political element in +Germany was the princedom. The _Reichsregiment_, which still preserved a +precarious existence, had shown that it had no power to cope with the +disturbances, and its attempts at mediation had been treated with +contempt. From this year, 1525, the political destiny of the land was +distinctly seen to be definitely shaping for territorial centralisation +round the greater princes and nobles. It was inevitable that the +conservative religious Reformation should follow the lines of political +growth, with the result that there could not be a National Evangelical +Church of Germany. It could only find outcome in territorial Churches +under the rule and protection of those princes who from motives of +religion and conscience had adopted the principles which Luther preached. + +The more radical religious movement broke up into fragments, and +reappeared in the guise of the maligned and persecuted Anabaptists,--a name +which embraced a very wide variety of religious opinions,--some of whom +appropriated to themselves the aspirations of the social revolution which +had been crushed by the princes. The conservative and Lutheran Reformation +found its main elements of strength in the middle classes of Germany; +while the Anabaptists had their largest following among the artisans and +working men of the towns. + +The terrors of the time separated Germany into two hostile camps--the one +accepting and the other rejecting the ecclesiastical Reformation, which +ceased to be a national movement in any real sense of the word. + + + + +Chapter V. From The Diet Of Speyer, 1526, To The Religious Peace Of +Augsburg, 1555. + + + +§ 1. The Diet of Speyer, 1526.(326) + + +When Germany emerged from the social revolution in the end of 1525, it +soon became apparent that the religious question remained unsettled, and +was dividing the country into two parties whose differences had become +visibly accentuated, and that both held as strongly as ever to their +distinctive principles. Perhaps one of the reasons for the increased +strain was the conduct of many of the Romanist princes in suppressing the +rebellion. The victories of the Swabian League in South Germany were +everywhere followed by religious persecution. Men were condemned to +confiscation of goods or to death, not for rebellion, for they had never +taken part in the rising, but for their confessed attachment to Lutheran +teaching. The Lutheran preachers were special objects of attack. Aichili, +who acted as a provost-marshal to the Swabian League, made himself +conspicuous by plundering, mulcting, and putting them to death. It is said +that he hung forty Lutheran pastors on the trees by the roadside in one +small district. The Roman Catholic princes had banded themselves together +for mutual defence as early as July 1525. The more influential members of +this league were Duke George of Saxony, the Electors of Brandenburg and +Mainz, and Duke Henry of Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel. Duke Henry was selected +to inform the Emperor of what they had done, and to secure his sympathy +and support. He told Charles V. that the league had been formed "against +the Lutherans in case they should attempt by force or cunning to gain them +over to their unbelief." + +On the other hand, the Protestant princes had a mutual understanding--it +does not seem to have been a definite league--to defend one another against +any attack upon their faith. The leaders were John of Saxony, Philip of +Hesse, Dukes Otto, Ernest, and Francis of Brunswick-Lueneberg, and the +Counts of Mansfeld. Philip of Hesse was the soul of the union. They could +count on the support of many of the imperial cities, some of them, such as +Nuernberg, being in districts where the country lying around was ruled by +Romanist princes. + +The Diet, which met at Augsburg in 1525, was very thinly attended, and +both parties waited for the Diet which was to be held at Speyer in the +following year. + +There never had been any doubt about the position and opinions of the +Emperor on the religious question. He had stated them emphatically at the +Diet of Worms. He had been educated in the beliefs of mediaeval +Catholicism: he valued the ceremonies and usages of the mediaeval worship; +he understood no other ecclesiastical polity; he believed that the Bishop +of Rome was the head of the Church on earth; he had consistently +persecuted Protestants in his hereditary dominions from the beginning; he +desired the execution of the Edict of Worms against Luther. If he had +remained in Germany, all his personal and official influence would have +been thrown into the scale against the evangelical faith. Troubles in +Spain, and the prosecution of the war against Francis of France had +prevented his presence in Germany after his first brief visit. He had now +conquered and taken Francis prisoner at the battle of Pavia. The terms of +the Treaty of Madrid bound Francis to assist Charles in suppressing +Lutheranism and other pernicious sects in Germany, and when it was signed +the Emperor seemed free to crush the German Protestants. But his very +success was against him; papal diplomacy wove another web around him; he +was still unable to visit the Fatherland, and the religious question had +to be discussed at Speyer in his absence. + +When the Diet met, the national hostility to Rome showed no signs of +abatement. The subject of German grievances against the Curia was again +revived, and it was alleged that the chief causes of the Peasants' War +were the merciless exactions of clerical landholders. Perhaps this opinion +was justified by the fact that the condition of the peasantry on the lands +of monasteries and of bishops was notoriously worse than that of those +under secular proprietors; and that, while the clerical landholders had +done little to subdue the rebels, they had been merciless after the +insurgents had been subdued. There was truth enough in the charge to make +it a sufficient answer to the accusation that the social revolution had +been the outcome of Luther's teaching. + +Ferdinand of Austria presided in his brother's absence, and, acting on the +Emperor's instructions, he demanded the enforcement of the Edict of Worms +and a decree of the Diet to forbid all innovations in worship and in +doctrine. He promised that if these imperial demands were granted, the +Emperor would induce the Pope to call a General Council for the definite +settlement of the religious difficulties. But the Diet was not inclined to +adopt the suggestions. The Emperor was at war with the Pope. Many of the +clerical members felt themselves to be in a delicate position, and did not +attend. The Lutheran sympathisers were in a majority, and the delegates +from the cities insisted that it was impossible to enforce the Edict of +Worms. The Committee of Princes(327) proposed to settle the religious +question by a compromise which was almost wholly favourable to the +Reformation. They suggested that the marriage of priests, giving the cup +to the laity, the use of German as well as Latin in the baptismal and +communion services, should be recognised; that all private Masses should +be abolished; that the number of ecclesiastical holy days should be +largely reduced; and that in the exposition of Holy Writ the rule ought to +be that scripture should be interpreted by scripture. After a good deal of +fencing, the Diet finally resolved on a deliverance which provided that +the word of God should be preached without disturbance, that indemnity +should be granted for past offences against the Edict of Worms, and that, +until the meeting of a General Council to be held in a German city, each +State should so live as it hoped to answer for its conduct to God and to +the Emperor. + +The decision was a triumph for the territorial system as well as for the +Reformation, and foreshadowed the permanent religious peace of Augsburg +(1555). It is difficult to see how either Charles or Ferdinand could have +accepted it. Their acquiescence was probably due to the fact that the +Emperor was then at war with the Pope (the sack of Rome under the +Constable Bourbon took place on May 6th, 1527), and that the threat of a +German ecclesiastical revolt was a good weapon to use against His +Holiness. Ferdinand was negotiating for election to the crowns of Hungary +and Bohemia, and dared not offend his German subjects. Both brothers +looked on any concessions to the German Lutherans as temporary compromises +to be withdrawn as soon as they were able to enforce their own views. + +The Protestant States and cities at once interpreted this decision of the +Diet to mean that they had the legal right to organise territorial +Churches and to introduce such changes into public worship as would bring +it into harmony with their evangelical beliefs.(328) The latent +evangelical feeling at once manifested itself. Almost all North Germany, +except Brandenburg, Ducal Saxony, and Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel, became +Lutheran within three years. Still it has to be noticed that the legal +recognition was accorded to the secular authorities, and that a ruling +prince, who had no very settled religious convictions, might change the +religion of his principality from political or selfish motives. It became +evident in 1529 that political feeling or fear of the Emperor was much +stronger than resolutions to support the evangelical Reformation. + +Soon after the Diet, Philip of Hesse committed a political blunder which, +in the opinion of many of his evangelical friends, involved disloyalty to +the Fatherland, made them chary of associating themselves with him, and +greatly weakened the Protestant party. For most of these North German +princes, in spite of their clinging to the disruptive territorial +principle, had a rugged conscientious patriotism which made them feel that +no good German should seek the aid of France or make alliance with a +Czech. Many of the Roman Catholic princes, irritated at the spread and +organisation of Lutheranism which followed the decision of the Diet of +1526, had been persecuting by confiscation of goods and by death their +Lutheran subjects. The Landgrave had married the daughter of Duke George +of Saxony, and he knew that his father-in-law was continually uttering +threats against the Elector of Saxony. Brooding over these things, Philip +became gradually convinced that the Romanist princes were planning a +deadly assault on the Lutherans, and that first the Elector and then he +himself would be attacked and their territories partitioned among the +conquerors. He had no proof, but his suspicions were strong. Chance +brought him in contact with Otto von Pack, the steward of the Chancery of +Ducal Saxony, who, on being questioned, admitted that the suspicions of +Philip were correct, and promised to procure a copy of the treaty. Pack +was a scoundrel. No such treaty existed. He forged a document which he +declared to be a copy of a genuine treaty, and got 4000 gulden for his +pains. Philip took the forgery to the Elector of Saxony and to Luther, +both of whom had no doubt of its genuine character. They both, however, +refused to agree to Philip's plan of seeking assistance outside the +Empire. The Landgrave believed the situation too dangerous to be faced +passively. He tried to secure the assistance of Francis of France and of +Zapolya, the determined opponent of the House of Austria in Bohemia. It +was not until he had fully committed himself that the discovery was made +that the document he had trusted in was nothing but a forgery. His hasty +action in appealing to France and Bohemia to interfere in the domestic +concerns of the Empire was resented by his co-religionists. When the Diet +met at Speyer, the Lutherans were divided and discredited. On the other +hand, the Pope and the Emperor were no longer at war, and the clerical +members flocked to the Diet in large numbers. + +At this memorable Diet of Speyer (1529), a compact Roman Catholic majority +faced a weak Lutheran minority. The Emperor, through his commissioners, +declared at the outset that he abolished, "by his imperial and absolute +authority (_Machtvollkommenheit_)," the clause in the ordinance of 1526 on +which the Lutherans had relied when they founded their territorial +Churches; it had been the cause, he said, "of much ill counsel and +misunderstanding." The majority of the Diet upheld the Emperor's decision, +and the practical effect of the ordinance which was voted was to rescind +that of 1526. It declared that the German States which had accepted the +Edict of Worms should continue to do so; which meant that there was to be +no toleration for Lutherans in Romanist districts. It said that in +districts which had departed from the Edict no further innovations were to +be made, save that no one was to be prevented from hearing Mass; that +sects which denied the sacrament of the true Body and Blood of Christ +(Zwinglians) should no more be tolerated than Anabaptists. What was most +important, it declared that no ecclesiastical body should be deprived of +its authority or revenues. It was this last clause which destroyed all +possibility of creating Lutheran Churches; for it meant that the mediaeval +ecclesiastical rule was everywhere to be restored, and with it the right +of bishops to deal with all preachers within their dioceses. + + + +§ 2. The Protest.(329) + + +It was this ordinance which called forth the celebrated PROTEST, from +which comes the name _Protestant_. The Protest was read in the Diet on the +day (April 19th, 1529) when all concessions to the Lutherans had been +refused. Ferdinand and the other imperial commissioners would not permit +its publication in the "recess," and the protesters had a legal instrument +drafted and published, in which they embodied the Protest, with all the +necessary documents annexed. The legal position taken was that the +unanimous decision of one Diet (1526) could not be rescinded by a majority +in a second Diet (1529). The Protesters declared that they meant to abide +by the "recess" of 1526; that the "recess" of 1529 was not to be held +binding on them, because they were not consenting parties. When forced to +make their choice between obedience to God and obedience to the Emperor, +they were compelled to choose the former; and they appealed, from the +wrongs done to them at the Diet, to the Emperor, to the next free General +Council of Holy Christendom, or to an ecclesiastical congress of the +German nation. The document was signed by the Elector John of Saxony, +Margrave George of Brandenburg, Dukes Ernest and Francis of +Brunswick-Lueneburg, Landgrave Philip of Hesse, and Prince Wolfgang of +Anhalt. The fourteen cities which adhered were Strassburg, Nuernberg, Ulm, +Constance, Lindau, Memmingen, Kempten, Noerdlingen, Heilbronn, Reutlingen, +Isny, St. Gallen, Wissenberg, and Windsheim. Many of these cities were +Zwinglian rather than Lutheran; but all united in face of the common +danger. + +The Protest at Speyer embodied the principle, not a new one, that a +minority of German States, when they felt themselves oppressed by a +majority, could entrench themselves behind the laws of the Empire; and the +idea is seen at work onward to the Diet of 1555, when it was definitely +recognised. Such a minority, to maintain a successful defence, had to be +united and able to protect itself by force if necessary. This was at once +felt; and three days after the Protest had been read in the Diet (April, +22nd), Electoral Saxony, Hesse, and the cities of Strassburg, Ulm, and +Nuernberg had concluded a "secret and particular treaty." They pledged +themselves to mutual defence if attacked on account of God's word, whether +the onslaught came from the Swabian League, from the _Reichsregiment_, or +from the Emperor himself. Soon after the Diet, proposals were brought +forward to make the compact effective and extensive,--one drafted by +representatives of the cities and the other by the Elector of +Saxony,--which provided very thoroughly for mutual support; but neither +took into account the differences which lay behind the Protest. These +divergences were strong enough to wreck the union. + +The differences which separated the German Protestants were not wholly +theological, although their doctrinal disputes were most in evidence. + + + +§ 3. Luther and Zwingli. + + +A movement for reformation, which owed little or nothing to Wittenberg, +had been making rapid progress in Switzerland, and two of the strongest +cantons, Zurich and Bern, had revolted from the Roman Church. Its leader, +Huldreich Zwingli, was utterly unlike Luther in temperament, training, and +environment. + +He had never gone through the terrible spiritual conflicts which had +marked Luther for life, and had made him the man that he was. No deep +sense of personal sin had ever haunted him, to make his early manhood a +burden to him. Long after he had become known as a Reformer, he was able +to combine a strong sense of moral responsibility with some laxity in +private life. Unlike both Luther and Calvin, he was not the type of man to +be leader in a deeply spiritual revival. + +He had been subjected to the influences of Humanism from his childhood. +His uncle, Bartholomew Zwingli, parish priest at Wildhaus, and the dean of +Wesen, under whose charge the boy was placed, had a strong sympathy for +the New Learning, and the boy imbibed it. His young intellect was fed on +Homer and Pindar and Cicero; and all his life he esteemed the great pagans +of antiquity as highly as he did any Christian saint. If it can be said +that he bent before the dominating influence of any one man, it was +Erasmus and not Luther who compelled him to admiration. He had for a +teacher Thomas Wyttenbach, who was half Reformer and half disciple of +Erasmus; and learned from him to study the Scriptures and the writings of +such earlier Church Fathers as Origen, Jerome, and Chrysostom. Like many +another Humanist north of the Alps, the mystical Christian Platonism of +Pico della Mirandola had some influence on him. He had never studied the +Scholastic Theology, and knew nothing of the spell it cast over men who +had been trained in it. Of all the Reformers, Luther was the least removed +from the mediaeval way of looking at religion, and Zwingli had wandered +farthest from it. + +His earliest ecclesiastical surroundings were also different from +Luther's. He had never been taught in childhood to consider the Church to +be the Pope's House, in which the Bishop of Rome was entitled to the +reverence and obedience due to the house-father. In his land the people +had been long accustomed to manage their own ecclesiastical affairs. The +greater portion of Switzerland had known but little either of the benefits +or disadvantages of mediaeval episcopal rule. Church property paid its +share of the communal taxes, and even the monasteries and convents were +liable to civil inspection. If a stray tourist at the present day wanders +into the church which is called the Cathedral in that survival of ancient +mediaeval republics, San Marino, he will find that the seats of the +"consuls" of the little republic occupy the place where he expects to find +the bishop's chair. The civil power asserted its supremacy over the +ecclesiastical in most things in these small mediaeval republics. The Popes +needed San Marino to be a thorn in the side of the Malatesta of Rimini, +they hired most of their soldiers from the Swiss cantons, and therefore +tolerated many things which they would not have permitted elsewhere. + +The social environment of the Swiss Reformer was very different from that +of Luther. He was a free Swiss who had listened in childhood to tales of +the heroic fights of Morgarten, Sempach, Morat, and Nancy, and had imbibed +the hereditary hatred of the House of Hapsburg. He had no fear of the +"common man," Luther's bugbear after the Peasants' War. Orderly democratic +life was the air he breathed, and what reverence Luther had for the +Emperor "who protected poor people against the Turk," and for the lords of +the soil, Zwingli paid to the civic fathers elected by a popular vote. +When the German Reformer thought of Zwingli he was always muttering what +Archbishop Parker said of John Knox--"God keep us from such visitations as +Knockes hath attempted in Scotland; the people to be orderers of +things!"(330) + +Owing doubtless to this republican training, Zwingli had none of that +aloofness from political affairs which was a marked characteristic of +Luther. He believed that his mission had as much to do with politics as +with religion, and that religious reformation was to be worked out by +political forces, whether in the more limited sphere of Switzerland or in +larger Germany. He had never taken a step forward until he had carried +along with him the civic authorities of Zurich. His advance had always +been calculated. Luther's _Theses_ (November 1517) had been the volcanic +outburst of a conscience troubled by the sight of a great religious +scandal, and their author had no intention of doing more than protesting +against the one great evil; he had no idea at the time where his protest +was leading him. Zwingli's _Theses_ (January 1523) were the carefully +drafted programme of a Reformation which he meant to accomplish by +degrees, and through the assistance of the Council of Zurich. His mind was +full of political combinations for the purpose of carrying out his plans +of reformation. As early as 1524 he was in correspondence with Pirkheimer +about the possibility of a league between Nuernberg and Zurich--two powerful +Protestant towns. This league did not take shape. But in 1527 a religious +and political league (_das christliche Buergerrecht_) was concluded between +Zurich and Constance, an imperial German town; St. Gallen joined in 1528; +Biel, Muehlhausen, and Basel in 1529; even Strassburg, afraid of the +growing power of the House of Hapsburg, was included in 1530. The feverish +political activity of Zwingli commended him to Philip of Hesse almost as +strongly as it made him disliked, and even feared, by Ferdinand of +Austria. The Elector of Saxony and Luther dreaded his influence over "the +young man of Hesse." + +Melanchthon was the first to insist on the evil influences of Zwingli's +activity for the peace of the Empire. He persuaded himself that had the +Lutherans stood alone at Speyer, the Romanists would have been prepared to +make concessions which would have made the Protest needless. He returned +to Wittenberg full of misgivings. The Protest might lead to a defiance of +the Emperor, and to a subversion of the Empire. Was it right for subjects +to defend themselves by war against the civil power which was ordained of +God? "My conscience," he wrote, "is disquieted because of this thing; I am +half dead with thinking about it." + +He found Luther only too sympathetic; resolute to maintain that if the +prince commanded anything which was contrary to the word of God, it was +the duty of the subject to offer what passive resistance he was able, but +that it was never right to oppose him actively by force of arms. Still +less was it the duty of a Christian man to ally himself for such +resistance with those who did not hold "the whole truth of God." Luther +would therefore have nothing to do with an alliance offensive and +defensive against the Emperor with cities who shared in what he believed +to be the errors of Zwingli. + +This meant a great deal more than a break with the Swiss. The south German +towns of Strassburg, Memmingen, Constance, Lindau, and others were more +Zwinglian than Lutheran. It was not only that they were inclined to the +more radical theology of the Swiss Reformer; they found that his method of +organising a reformed Church, drafted for the needs of Zurich, suited +their municipal institutions better than the territorial organisations +being adopted by the Lutheran Churches of North Germany. To Luther, whose +views of the place of the "common man" in the Church had been changed by +the Peasants' War, this was of itself a danger which threatened the +welfare of the infant Churches. It made ecclesiastical government too +democratic; and it did this in the very centres where the democracy was +most dangerous. He could not forget that the mob of these German towns had +taken part in the recently suppressed social revolution, that their +working-class population was still the recruiting ground of the Anabaptist +sectaries, and that at Memmingen itself Zwinglian partisans had helped to +organise the revolution, and to link it on to the religious awakening. +Besides, the attraction which drew these German cities to the Swiss might +lead to larger political consequences which seemed to threaten what unity +remained to the German Empire. It might result in the detachment of towns +from the German Fatherland, and in the formation of new cantons cut adrift +from Germany to increase the strength of the Swiss Confederation. + + + +§ 4. The Marburg Colloquy.(331) + + +All these thoughts were in the minds of Luther and of his fellow +theologians, and had their weight with the Elector of Saxony, when their +refusal to join rendered the proposed defensive league impossible. No one +was more disappointed than the Landgrave of Hesse, the ablest political +leader whom the German Reformation produced. He knew more about Zwingli +than his fellow princes in North Germany; he had a keen interest in +theological questions; he sympathised to some extent with the special +opinions of Zwingli; and he had not the dread of democracy which possessed +Luther and his Elector. He believed, rightly as events showed, that +differences or suspected differences in theology were the strongest causes +of separation; he was correct in supposing that the Lutheran divines +through ignorance magnified those points of difference; and he hoped that +if the Lutherans and the Swiss could be brought together, they would learn +to know each other better. So he tried to arrange for a religious +conference in his castle at Marburg. He had many a difficulty to overcome +so far as the Lutherans were concerned. Neither Luther nor Melanchthon +desired to meet Zwingli. Melanchthon thought that if a conference was to +be held, it would be much better to meet Oecolampadius and perhaps some +learned Romanists. Zwingli, on the other hand, was eager to meet Luther. +He responded at once. He came, without waiting for leave to be given by +the Zurich Council, across a country full of enemies. The conference met +from October 30th to November 5th, 1529. Luther was accompanied by +Melanchthon, Justus Jonas, and Cruciger, Frederick Mecum from Gotha, +Osiander from Nuernberg, Brenz from Hall, Stephan Agricola from Augsburg, +and others. With Zwingli came Oecolampadius, Bucer, and Hedio from +Strassburg, Rudolph Collin (who has left the fullest account of the +discussion), two councillors from Basel and from Zurich, and Jacob Sturm +from Strassburg. After a preliminary conference between Zwingli and +Melanchthon on the one hand, and Luther and Oecolampadius on the other, +the real discussion took place in the great hall of the Castle. The +tourist is still shown the exact spot where the table which separated the +disputants was placed. + +This _Marburg Colloquy_, as the conference was called, had important +results for good, although it was unsuccessful in fulfilling the +expectations of the Landgrave. It showed a real and substantial harmony +between the two sets of theologians on all points save one. Fifteen +theological articles (_The Marburg Articles_) stated the chief heads of +the Christian faith, and fourteen were signed by Luther and by Zwingli. +The one subject on which they could not come to an agreement was the +relation of the Body of Christ to the elements Bread and Wine in the +Sacrament of the Supper. It was scarcely to be expected that there could +be harmony on a doctrinal matter on which there had been such a long and +embittered controversy. + +Both theologians found in the mediaeval doctrine of the Sacrament of the +Supper what they believed to be an overwhelming error destructive to the +spiritual life. It presupposed that a priest, in virtue of mysterious +powers conferred in ordination, could give or withhold from the Christian +people the benefits conveyed in the Sacrament. It asserted that the priest +could change the elements Bread and Wine into the very Body and Blood of +Christ, and that unless this change was made there was no presence of +Christ in the sacrament, and no possibility of sacramental grace for the +communicant. Luther attacked the problem as a mediaeval Christian, content, +if he was able to purge the ordinance of this one fault, to leave all else +as he found it. Zwingli came as a Humanist, whose fundamental rule was to +get beyond the mediaeval theology altogether, and attempt to discover how +the earlier Church Fathers could aid him to solve the problem. This +difference in mental attitude led them to approach the subject from +separate sides; and the mediaeval way of looking at the whole subject +rendered difference of approach very easy. The mediaeval Church had divided +the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper into two distinct parts--the Mass and +the Eucharist.(332) The Mass was inseparably connected with the thought of +the great Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross, and the Eucharist with the +thought of the believer's communion with the Risen Living Christ. Zwingli +attacked the Romanist doctrine of the Mass, and Luther sought to give an +evangelical meaning to the mediaeval conception of the Eucharist. Hence the +two Protestant antagonists were never exactly facing each other. + +Luther's convent studies in D'Ailly, Biel, and their common master, +William of Occam, enabled him to show that there might be the presence of +the Glorified Body of Christ, extended in space, in the elements Bread and +Wine in a natural way, and without any priestly miracle: and that +satisfied him; it enabled him to deny the priestly miracle and keep true +in the most literal way to the words of the institution, "This is My +Body." + +Zwingli, on the other hand, insisted that the primary reference in the +Lord's Supper was to the death of Christ, and that it was above all things +a commemorative rite. He transformed the mediaeval Mass into an evangelical +sacrament, by placing the idea of commemoration where the mediaeval +theologian had put that of repetition, and held that the means of +appropriation was faith and not eating with the mouth. This he held to be +a return to the belief of the early centuries, before the conception of +the sacrament had been corrupted by pagan ideas. + +Like Luther, he served himself heir to the work of earlier theologians; +but he did not go to Occam, Biel, or D'Ailly, as the German Reformer had +done. Erasmus, who had no liking for the priestly miracle in the Mass, and +cared little for a rigid literal interpretation of the words of the +institution, had declared that the Sacrament of the Supper was the symbol +of commemoration, of a covenant with God, and of the fellowship of all +believers in Christ, and this commended itself to Zwingli's conception of +the social character of Christianity; but he was too much a Christian +theologian to be contented with such a vague idea of the rite. Many +theologians of the later Middle Ages, when speculation was more free than +it could be after the stricter definitions of the Council of Trent, had +tried to purify and spiritualise the beliefs of the Church about the +meaning of the central Christian rite. Foremost among them was John Wessel +(_c._ 1420-1489), with his long and elaborate treatise, _De Sacramento +Eucharistiae_. He had taught that the Lord's Supper is the rite in which +the death of Christ is presented to and appropriated by the believer; that +it is above all things a commemoration of that death and a communion or +participation in the benefits which followed; that communion with the +spiritual presence of Jesus is of far more importance than any corporeal +contact with the Body of Christ; and that this communion is shared in +through faith. These thoughts had been taken over by Christopher Honius, a +divine of the Netherlands, who had enforced them by insisting that our +Lord's discourse in the 6th chapter of St. John's Gospel had reproved any +materialistic conception of the Lord's Supper; and that _therefore_ the +words of the institution must not be taken in their rigid literal meaning. +He had been the first to suggest that the word _is_ in "This is My Body" +must mean _signifies_. Wessel and Honius were the predecessors of Zwingli, +and he wove their thoughts into his doctrine of the Lord's Supper. It +should be remembered that Luther had also been acquainted with the labours +of Wessel and of Honius, and that so far from attracting they had repelled +him, simply because he thought they failed to give the respect due to the +literal meaning of the words of the institution. + +It must not be forgotten that Luther knew Zwingli only as in some way +connected with Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt. Carlstadt had professed to +accept the theory of Honius about the nature of the relation of the +Presence of Christ to the elements of Bread and Wine--saying that the +latter were _signs_, and nothing more, of the former. A controversy soon +raged in Wittenberg to the scandal of German Protestantism. Luther +insisted more and more on the necessity of the Presence in the elements of +the Body of Christ "corporeally extended in space"; while Carlstadt denied +that Presence in any sense whatsoever. Luther insisted with all the +strength of language at his command that the literal sense of the words of +the institution must be preserved, and that the words "This is My Body" +must refer to the Bread and to the Wine; while Carlstadt thought it was +more likely that while using the words our Lord pointed to His own Body, +or if not, that religious conviction compelled another interpretation than +the one on which Luther insisted. + +The dust of all this controversy was in the eyes of the theologians when +they met at Marburg, and prevented them carefully examining each other's +doctrinal position. In all essential matters Luther and Zwingli were not +so far apart as each supposed the other to be. Their respective theories, +put very shortly, may be thus summed up. + +Zwingli, looking mainly at the mediaeval doctrine of the Mass, taught: (1) +The Lord's Supper is not a _repetition_ of the sacrifice of Christ on the +Cross, but a _commemoration_ of that sacrifice once offered up; and the +elements are not a newly offered Christ, but the _signs_ of the Body and +Blood of the Christ who was once for all offered on Calvary. (2) That +forgiveness for sin is not won by _partaking_ in a newly offered Christ, +but by _believing_ in a Christ once offered up. (3) That the benefits of +the work of Christ are always appropriated by faith, and that the +atonement is so appropriated in the sacrament, whereby Christ becomes our +food; but the food, being neither carnal nor corporeal, is not +appropriated by the mouth, but by faith indwelling in the soul. Therefore +there is a Real Presence of Christ in the sacrament, but it is a spiritual +Presence, not a corporeal one. A real and living faith always involves the +union of the believer with Christ, and therefore the Real Presence of +Christ; and the Presence of Christ, which is in every act of faith, is in +the sacrament to the faithful partaker. (4) That while the Lord's Supper +primarily refers to the sacrifice of Christ, and while the elements, Bread +and Wine, are the symbols of the crucified Body of Christ, the partaking +of the elements is also a symbol and pledge of an ever-renewed living +union with the Risen Christ. (5) That as our Lord Himself has specially +warned His followers against thinking of feeding on Him in any corporeal +or carnal manner (John vi.), the words of the institution cannot be taken +in a strictly literal fashion, and the phrase "This is My Body" means +"This signifies My Body." The fourth position had been rather implicitly +held than explicitly stated. + +Luther, looking mainly at the mediaeval doctrine of the Eucharist, taught: +(1) That the primary use of the sacrament was to bring believing +communicants into direct touch with the Living Risen Christ. (2) That to +this end there must be in the Bread and Wine the local Presence of the +Glorified Body of Christ, which he always conceived as "body extended in +space"; the communicants, coming into touch with this Body of Christ, have +communion with Him, such as His disciples had on earth and as His saints +now have in heaven. (3) That this local Presence of Christ does not +presuppose any special priestly miracle, for, in virtue of its _ubiquity_, +the Glorified Body of Christ is _everywhere_ naturally, and therefore is +in the Bread and in the Wine: this natural Presence becomes a sacramental +Presence because of the promise of God attached to the reverent and +believing partaking of the sacrament. (4) That communion with the Living +Risen Christ implies the appropriation of the Death of Christ, and of the +Atonement won by this death; but this last thought of Luther's, which is +Zwingli's first thought, lies implicitly in his teaching without being +dwelt upon. + +The two theories, so far as doctrinal teaching goes, are supplementary to +each other rather than antagonists. Each has a weak point. Luther's +depends on a questionable mediaeval idea of _ubiquity_, and Zwingli's on a +somewhat shallow exegesis. It was unfortunate, but only natural, that when +the two theological leaders were brought together at Marburg, instead of +seeking the mutual points of agreement, each should attack the weak point +in the other's theory. Luther began by chalking the words _Hoc est Corpus +Meum_ on the table before him, and by saying, "I take these words +literally; if anyone does not, I shall not argue but contradict"; and +Zwingli spent all his argumentative powers in disputing the doctrine of +_ubiquity_. The long debate went circling round these two points and could +never be got away from them. Zwingli maintained that the Body of Christ +was at the Right Hand of God, and could not be present, extended in space, +in the elements, which were signs representing what was absent. Luther +argued that the Body of Christ was in the elements, as, to use his own +illustration, the sword is present in the sheath. As a soldier could +present his sheathed sword and say, truly and literally, _This is my +sword_, although nothing but the sheath was visible; so, although nothing +could be seen or felt but Bread and Wine, these elements in the Holy +Supper could be literally and truly called the Body and Blood of Christ. + +The substantial harmony revealed in the fourteen articles which they all +could sign showed that the Germans and the Swiss had one faith. But Luther +insisted that their difference on the Sacrament of the Supper prevented +them becoming one visible brotherhood, and the immediate purpose of the +Landgrave of Hesse was not fulfilled. + +Undaunted by his defeat, Philip next attempted a less comprehensive union. +If Luther and Zwingli could not be included within the one brotherhood, +might not the German cities of the south and the Lutheran princes be +brought together? Another conference was arranged at Schwabach (October +1529), when a series of theological articles were to be presented for +agreement. Luther prepared seventeen articles to be set before the +conference. They were based on the Marburg Articles; but as Luther had +stated his own doctrine of the Holy Supper in its most uncompromising +form, it is not to be wondered at that the delegates from the southern +cities hesitated to sign. They said that the confession (for the articles +took that form) was not in conformity with the doctrines preached among +them, and that they would need to consult their fellow-citizens before +committing them to it. Thus Philip's attempts to unite the Protestants of +Germany failed a second time, and a divided Protestantism awaited the +coming of the Emperor, who had resolved to solve the religious difficulty +in person. + + + +§ 5. The Emperor in Germany. + + +Charles V. was at the zenith of his power. The sickly looking youth of +Worms had become a grave man of thirty, whose nine years of unbroken +success had made him the most commanding figure in Europe. He had quelled +the turbulent Spaniards; he had crushed his brilliant rival of France at +the battle of Pavia; he had humbled the Pope, and had taught His Holiness +in the Sack of Rome the danger of defying the Head of the Holy Roman +Empire; and he had compelled the reluctant Pontiff to invest him with the +imperial crown. He had added to and consolidated the family possessions of +the House of Hapsburg, and but lately his brother Ferdinand had won, in +name at least, the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary. He was now determined to +visit Germany, and by his personal presence and influence to end the +religious difficulty which was distracting that portion of his vast +dominions. He also meant to secure the succession to the Empire for his +brother Ferdinand, by procuring his election as King of the Romans. + +Charles came from Italy over the Brenner Pass in the spring time, and was +magnificently received by the Tyrolese, eager to do all honour to the +grandson of their beloved Kaiser Max. His letters to his brother, written +on the stages of the journey, reveal as fully as that reserved soul could +unbosom itself, his plans for the pacification of Germany. He meant to use +every persuasion possible, to make what compromises his conscience +permitted (for Catholicism was a faith with Charles), to effect a peaceful +settlement. But if these failed, he was determined to crush the +Reformation by force. He never seems to have doubted that he would +succeed. Never a thought crossed his mind that he was about to encounter a +great spiritual force whose depth and intensity he was unable to measure, +and which was slowly creating a new world unknown to himself and to his +contemporaries. While at Innsbruck he invited the Elector of Saxony to +visit him, and was somewhat disappointed that the Lutheran prince did not +accept; but this foretaste of trouble did not give him any uneasiness. + +The summons to the Diet, commanding the Electors, princes, and all the +Estates of the Empire to meet at Augsburg on the 8th of April 1530, had +been issued when Charles was at Bologna. No threats marred the invitation. +The Emperor announced that he meant to leave all past errors to the +judgment of the Saviour; that he wished to give a charitable hearing to +every man's opinions, thoughts, and ideas; and that his only desire was to +secure that all might live under the one Christ, in one Commonwealth, one +Church, and one Unity.(333) He left Innsbruck on the 6th of June, and, +travelling slowly, reached the bridge on the Lech, a little distance from +Augsburg, on the evening of the 15th. There he found the great princes of +the Empire, who had been waiting his arrival from two o'clock in the +afternoon. They alighted to do him reverence, and he graciously dismounted +also, and greeted them with all courtesy. Charles had brought the papal +nuncio, Cardinal Campeggio, in his train. Most of the Electors knelt to +receive the cardinal's blessing; but John of Saxony stood bolt upright, +and refused the proffered benediction. + +The procession--one of the most gorgeous Germany had ever seen--was +marshalled for the ceremonial entry into the town. The retinues of the +Electors were all in their appropriate colours and arms--Saxony, by ancient +prescriptive right, leading the van. Then came the Emperor alone, a +baldachino carried over his head. He had wished the nuncio and his brother +to ride beside him under the canopy; but the Germans would not suffer it; +no Pope's representative was to be permitted to ride shoulder to shoulder +with the head of the German Empire entering the most important of his +imperial cities.(334) + +Augsburg was then at the height of its prosperity. It was the great +trading centre between Italy and the Levant and the towns of Northern +Europe. It was the home of the Welsers and of the Fuggers, the great +capitalists of the later mediaeval Europe. It boasted that its citizens +were the equals of princes, and that its daughters, in that age of deeply +rooted class distinctions, had married into princely houses. To this day +the name of one of its streets--Philippine Welser Strasse--commemorates the +wedding of an heiress of the Welsers with an archduke of Austria; and the +wall decorations of the old houses attest the ancient magnificence of the +city.(335) + +At the gates of the town, the clergy, singing _Advenisti __ +desiderabilis_, met the procession. All, Emperor, clergy, princes, and +their retinues, entered the cathedral. The _Te Deum_ was sung, and the +Emperor received the benediction. Then the procession was re-formed, and +accompanied Charles to his lodgings in the Bishop's Palace. + +There the Emperor made his first attempt on his Lutheran subjects. He +invited the Elector of Saxony, George of Brandenburg, Philip of Hesse, and +Francis of Lueneburg to accompany him to his private apartments. He told +them that he had been informed that they had brought their Lutheran +preachers with them to Augsburg, and that he would expect them to keep +them silent during the sittings of the Diet. They refused. Then Charles +asked them to prohibit controversial sermons. This request was also +refused. In the end Charles reminded them that his demand was strictly +within the decision of 1526; that the Emperor was lord over the imperial +cities; and he promised them that he would appoint the preachers himself, +and that there would be no sermons--only the reading of Scripture without +comment. This was agreed to. He next asked them to join him in the Corpus +Christi procession on the following day. They refused--Philip of Hesse with +arguments listened to by Ferdinand with indignation, and by Charles with +indifference, probably because he did not understand German. The Emperor +insisted. Then old George of Brandenburg stood forth, and told His Majesty +that he could not, and would not obey. It was a short, rugged speech, +though eminently respectful, and ended with these words, which flew over +Germany, kindling hearts as fire lights flax: "Before I would deny my God +and His Evangel, I would rather kneel down here before your Majesty and +have my head struck off,"--and the old man hit the side of his neck with +the edge of his hand. Charles did not need to know German to understand. +"Not head off, dear prince, not head off," he said kindly in his +Flemish-German (_Nit Kop ab, loever Foerst, nit Kop ab_). Charles walked in +procession through the streets of Augsburg on a blazing hot day, stooping +under a heavy purple mantle, with a superfluous candle sputtering in his +hand; but the evangelical princes remained in their lodgings.(336) + + + +§ 6. The Diet of Augsburg 1530.(337) + + +The Diet was formally opened on June 20th (1530), and in the _Proposition_ +or Speech from the Throne it was announced that the Assembly would be +invited to discuss armament against the Turk, and that His Majesty was +anxious, "by fair and gentle means," to end the religious differences +which were distracting Germany. The Protestants were again invited to give +the Emperor in writing their opinions and difficulties. It was resolved to +take the religious question first. On June 24th the Lutherans were ready +with their "statement of their grievances and opinions relating to the +faith." Next day (June 25th) the Diet met in the hall of the Episcopal +Palace, and what is known as the _Augsburg Confession_ was read by the +Saxon Chancellor, Dr. Christian Bayer, in such a clear resonant voice that +it was heard not only by the audience within the chamber, but also by the +crowd which thronged the court outside.(338) When the reading was ended, +Chancellor Brueck handed the document and a duplicate in Latin to the +Emperor. They were signed by the Elector of Saxony and his son John +Frederick, by George, Margrave of Brandenburg, the Dukes Ernest and +Francis of Lueneburg, the Landgrave of Hesse, Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, +and the delegates of the cities of Nuernberg and Reutlingen. These princes +knew the danger which threatened them in putting their names to the +Confession. The theologians of Saxony besought their Elector to permit +their names to stand alone; but he answered calmly, _I, too, will confess +my Christ_. He was not a brilliant man like Philip of Hesse. He was +unpretentious, peace-loving, and retiring by nature--John the Steadfast, +his people called him. Recent historians have dwelt on the conciliatory +attitude and judicial spirit manifested by the Emperor at this Diet, and +they are justified in doing so; but the mailed hand sometimes showed +itself. Charles refused to invest John with his Electoral dignities in the +usual feudal fashion, and his entourage whispered that if the Elector was +not amenable to the Emperor's arguments, he might find the electorate +taken from him and bestowed on the kindred House of Ducal Saxony, which in +the person of Duke George so stoutly supported the old religion.(339) +While possessing that "laudable, if crabbed constitutionalism which was +the hereditary quality of the Ernestine line of Saxony,"(340) he had a +genuine affection for the Emperor. Both recognised that this Diet of +Augsburg had separated them irrevocably. "Uncle, Uncle," said Charles to +Elector John at their parting interview, "I did not expect this from you." +The Elector's eyes filled with tears; he could not speak; he turned away +in silence and left the city soon afterwards.(341) + + + +§ 7. The Augsburg Confession.(342) + + +The Augsburg Confession (_Confessio Augustana_) was what it claimed to be, +a statement of "opinion and grievances," and does not pretend to be a full +exposition of doctrinal tenets. The men who wrote it (Melanchthon was +responsible for the phraseology) and presented it to the Diet, claimed to +belong to the ancient and visible Catholic Church, and to believe in all +the articles of faith set forth by the Universal Church, and particularly +in the _Apostles'_ and _Nicene Creeds_; but they maintained that abuses +had crept in which obscured the ancient doctrines. The Confession showed +why they could not remain in connection with an unreformed Church. Their +position is exactly defined in the opening sentence of the second part of +the Confession. "Inasmuch as the Churches among us dissent in no articles +of faith from the Holy Scriptures nor the Church Catholic, and only omit a +few of certain abuses, which are novel, and have crept in with time partly +and in part have been introduced by violence, and contrary to the purport +of the canons, we beg that your Imperial Majesty would clemently hear both +what ought to be changed, and what are the reasons why people ought not to +be forced against their conscience to observe these abuses." + +The Confession is often represented as an attempt to minimise the +differences between Lutherans and Romanists and exaggerate those between +Lutherans and Zwinglians, and there are some grounds for the statement. +Melanchthon had come back from the Diet of Speyer (1529) convinced that if +the Lutherans had separated themselves more thoroughly from the cities of +South Germany there would have been more chance of a working compromise, +and it is only natural to expect that the idea should colour his sketch of +the Lutheran position at Augsburg. Yet in the main the assertion is wrong. +The distinctively Protestant conception of the spiritual priesthood of all +believers inspires the whole document; and this can never be brought into +real harmony with the Romanist position and claims. It is not difficult to +state Romanist and Protestant doctrine in almost identical phrases, +provided this one great dogmatic difference be for the moment set on one +side. The conferences at Regensburg in 1541 (April 27-May 22) proved as +much. No one will believe that Calvin would be inclined to minimise the +differences between Protestants and Romanists, yet he voluntarily signed +the Augsburg Confession, and did so, he says, in the sense in which the +author (Melanchthon) understood it. This Augsburg Confession and Luther's +Short Catechism are the symbolical books still in use in all Lutheran +churches. + +The _Augsburg Confession_ (_Confessio Augustana_) is divided into two +parts, the first expressing the views held by those who signed it, and the +second stating the errors they protested against. The form and language +alike show that the authors had no intention of framing an exhaustive +syllabus of theological opinions or of imposing its articles as a +changeless system of dogmatic truth. They simply meant to express what +they united in believing. Such phrases as _our Churches teach_, _it is +taught_, _such and such opinions are falsely attributed to us_, make that +plain. In the first part the authors show how much they hold in common +with the mediaeval Church; how they abide by the teaching of St. Augustine, +the great theologian of the West; how they differ from more radical +Protestants like the Zwinglians, and repudiate the teachings of the +Anabaptists. The Lutheran doctrine of Justification by Faith is given very +clearly and briefly in a section by itself, but it is continually referred +to and shown to be the basis of many portions of their common system of +belief. In the second part they state what things compel them to dissent +from the views and practices of the mediaeval Church--the enforced celibacy +of the clergy, the sacrificial character of the Mass, the necessity of +auricular confession, monastic vows, and the confusion of spiritual and +secular authority exhibited in the German episcopate. + +The origin of the document was this. When the Emperor's proclamation +summoning the Diet reached Saxony, Chancellor Gregory Brueck suggested that +the Saxon theologians should prepare a statement of their opinions which +might be presented to the Emperor if called for.(343) This was done. The +theologians went to the Schwabach Articles, and Melanchthon revised them, +restated them, and made them as inoffensive as he could. The document was +meant to give the minimum for which the Protestants contended, and +Melanchthon's conciliatory spirit shows itself throughout. It embalms at +the same time some of Luther's trenchant phrases: "Christian perfection is +this, to fear God sincerely; and again, to conceive great faith, and to +trust assuredly that God is pacified towards us for Christ's sake; to ask, +and certainly to look for, help from God in all our affairs according to +our calling; and outwardly to do good works diligently, and to attend to +our vocation. In these things doth true perfection and the true worship of +God consist: it doth not consist in being unmarried, in going about +begging, nor in wearing dirty clothes." His indifference to forms of +Church government and his readiness to conserve the old appears in the +sentence: "Now our meaning is not to have rule taken from the bishops; but +this one thing only is requested at their hands, that they would suffer +the gospel to be purely taught, and that they would relax a few +observances, which cannot be observed without sin." + +When the Romanist theologians presented their Confutation of this +Confession to the Emperor, it was again left to Melanchthon to draft an +answer--the _Apology of the Augsburg Confession_. The _Apology_ is about +seven times longer than the _Confession_, and is a noble and learned +document. The Emperor refused to receive it, and Melanchthon spent a long +time over it before it was allowed to be seen. + +After taking counsel with the Romanist princes (_die Chur und Fursten so +bepstisch gewesen_),(344) it was resolved to hand the Confession to a +committee of Romanist theologians whom the cardinal nuncio(345) undertook +to bring together, to examine and answer it. Among them were John Eck of +Ingolstadt, Faber, and Cochlaeus. There was little hope of arriving at a +compromise with such champions on the papal side; and Charles was soon to +discover that his strongest opponents in effecting a peaceful solution +were the nuncio and his committee of theologians. Five times they produced +a confutation, and five times the Emperor and the Diet returned their +work, asking them to redraft it in milder and in less uncompromising +terms.(346) The sixth draft went far beyond the wishes of Charles, but the +Emperor had to accept it and let it appear as the statement of his +beliefs. It made reconciliation hopeless. + + + +§ 8. The Reformation to be crushed. + + +The religious difficulty had not been removed by compromise. There +remained force--the other alternative foreshadowed by the Emperor. The time +seemed to be opportune. Protestantism was divided, and had flaunted its +differences in the Emperor's presence. Philip of Hesse had signed the +Augsburg Confession with hesitation, not because he did not believe its +statements, but because it seemed to shut the door on a complete union +among all the parties who had joined in the Protest of 1529. The four +cities of Strassburg, Constance, Lindau, and Memmingen had submitted a +separate Confession (the _Confessio Tetrapolitana_) to the Emperor; and +the Romanist theologians had written a confutation of it also. Zwingli had +sent a third. + +Luther was not among the theologians present at the Diet of Augsburg. +Technically he was still an outlaw, for the ban of the Diet of Worms had +never been legally removed. The Elector had asked him to stay at his +Castle of Coburg. There he remained, worried and anxious, chafing like a +caged eagle. He feared that Melanchthon's conciliatory spirit might make +him barter away some indispensable parts of evangelical truth; he feared +the impetuosity of the Landgrave of Hesse and his known Zwinglian +sympathies. His secretary wrote to Wittenberg that he was fretting himself +ill; he was longing to get back to Wittenberg, where he could at least +teach his students. It was then that Catharine got their friend Lucas +Cranach to paint their little daughter Magdalena, just twelve months old, +and sent it to her husband that he might have a small bit of home to cheer +him. Luther hung the picture up where he could always see it from his +chair, and he tells us that the sweet little face looking down upon him +gave him courage during his dreary months of waiting. Posts brought him +news from the Diet: that the Confession had been read to the Estates; that +the Romanists were preparing a Confutation; that their reply was ready on +August 3rd; that Philip of Hesse had left the Diet abruptly on the 6th, to +raise troops to fight the Emperor, it was reported; that Melanchthon was +being entangled in conferences, and was giving up everything. His strong +ardent nature pours itself forth in his letters from Coburg (April +18th-Oct. 4th)--urging his friends to tell him how matters are going; +warning Melanchthon to stand firm; taking comfort in the text, "Be ye +angry, and sin not"; comparing the Diet to the rooks and the rookery in +the trees below his window.(347) It was from Coburg that he wrote his +charming letter to his small son.(348) It was there that he penned the +letter of encouragement to the tried and loyal Chancellor Brueck: + + + "I have lately seen two wonders: the first as I was looking out of + my window and saw the stars in heaven and all that beautiful vault + of God, and yet I saw no pillars on which the Master-Builder had + fixed this vault; yet the heavens fell not, and the great vault + stood fast. Now there are some who search for the pillars, and + want to touch and to grasp them; and when they cannot, they wonder + and tremble as if the heaven must certainly fall, just because + they cannot grasp its pillars. If they could only lay their hands + on them, they think that the heaven would stand firm! + + "The second wonder was: I saw great clouds rolling over us with + such a ponderous weight that they seemed like a great ocean, and + yet I saw no foundation on which they rested or were based, and no + shore which bounded them; yet they fell not, but frowned on us and + flowed on. But when they had passed by, then there shone forth + both their floor and our roof, which had kept them back--a rainbow! + A frail, thin floor and roof which soon melted into the clouds, + and was more like a shadowy prism, such as we see through coloured + glass, than a strong, firm foundation, and we might well distrust + the feeble rampart which kept back that fearful weight of waters. + Yet we found that this unsubstantial prism was able to bear up the + weight of waters, and that it guarded us safely! But there are + some who look more to the thickness and massive weight of the + waters and the clouds than at this thin, light, narrow bow of + promise. They would like to feel the strength of that shadowy + vanishing arch, and because they cannot do this, they are always + fearing that the clouds will bring back the flood."(349) + + +The Protestants never seemed to be in a worse plight; but, as Luther +wrote, the threatened troubles passed away--for this time at least. + +Campeggio was keen to crush the Reformation at once. His letters to the +Curia insist that the policy of the strong arm is the only effectual way +of dealing with the Lutheran princes. But Charles found that some of the +South German princes who were eager that no compromise should be made with +the Lutherans, were very unwilling to coerce them by force of arms. They +had no wish to see the Emperor all-powerful in Germany. The Romanist Dukes +of Bavaria (the Wittelsbachs) were as strongly anti-Hapsburg as Philip of +Hesse himself; and Charles had no desire to stir the anti-Hapsburg +feeling. Instead, conferences(350) were proposed to see whether some +mutual understanding might not after all be reached; and the Diet was +careful to introduce laymen, in the hope that they would be less +uncompromising than the Romanist theologians. The meetings ended without +any definite result. The Protestant princes refused to make the needful +concessions, and Charles found his plans thwarted on every side. Whereupon +the Romanist majority of the Diet framed a "recess," which declared that +the Protestants were to be allowed to exist unmolested until April 15th, +1531; and were then to be put down by force. Meanwhile they were ordered +to make no more innovations in worship or in doctrine; they were to +refrain from molesting the Romanists within their territories; and they +were to aid the Emperor and the Romanist princes in stamping out the +partisans of Zwingli and the Anabaptists. This resolution gave rise to a +second Protest, signed by the Lutheran princes and by the fourteen cities. + +Nothing had stirred the wrath of Charles so much as the determined stand +taken by the cities. He conceived that he, the Emperor, was the supreme +Lord within an imperial city; and he employed persuasion and threats to +make their delegates accept the "recess." Even Augsburg refused. + +Having made their Protest, the Lutheran princes and the delegates from the +protesting towns left the Diet, careless of what the Romanist majority +might further do. In their absence an important ordinance was passed. The +Diet decided that the Edict of Worms was to be executed; that the +ecclesiastical jurisdictions were to be preserved, and all Church property +to be restored; and, what was most important, that the Imperial Court of +Appeals for all disputed legal cases within the Empire (the +_Reichskammersgericht_) should be restored. The last provision indicated a +new way of fighting the extending Protestantism by harassing legal +prosecutions, which, from the nature of the court, were always to be +decided against the dissenters from the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the +mediaeval Empire.(351) All instances of seizure of ecclesiastical +benefices, all defiances of episcopal decisions, could be appealed against +to this central court; and as the legal principles on which it gave its +decisions and the controlling authorities which it recognised were +mediaeval, the Protestants could never hope for a decision in their favour. +The Lutheran Church in Saxony, for example, with its pastors and +schoolmasters, was supported by moneys taken from the old ecclesiastical +foundations. According to this decision of the Diet, every case of such +transfer of property could be appealed to this central court, which from +its constitution was bound to decide against the transfer. If the +Protestant princes disregarded the decisions of the central court, the +Emperor was within his rights in treating them as men who had outraged the +constitution of the Empire.(352) + +Charles met at Augsburg the first great check in his hitherto successful +career, but he was tenacious of purpose, and never cared to hurry matters +to an irrevocable conclusion. He carefully studied the problem, and three +ways of dealing with the religious difficulty shaped themselves in his +mind at Augsburg--by compromise, by letting the Protestants alone for a +period longer or shorter, and by a General Council which would be free. It +would seem that at Augsburg he first seriously resolved that the condition +of Europe was such that the Pope must be _compelled_ to summon a Council, +and to allow it freedom of debate and action. Charles tried all three +plans in Germany during the fifteen years that followed. + + + +§ 9. The Schmalkald League.(353) + + +The Emperor published the decision of the Diet on the 19th of November, +and the Protestants had to arrange some common plan of facing the +situation. They met, princes and delegates of cities, in the little upland +town of Schmalkalden, lying on the south-west frontier of Electoral +Saxony, circled by low hills which were white with snow (December 22-31). +They had to face at once harassing litigation, and, after the 15th of +April, the threat that they would be stamped out by force of arms. Were +they still to maintain their doctrine of passive resistance? The question +was earnestly debated. Think of these earnest German princes and burghers, +their lives and property at stake, debating this abstract question day +after day, resolute to set their own consciences right before coming to +any resolution to defend themselves! The lawyers were all on the side of +active defence. The terms of the bond were drafted. The Emperor's name was +carefully omitted; and the causes which compelled them to take action were +rather alluded to vaguely than stated with precision. The Elector of +Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Duke of Lueneburg, the Prince of +Anhalt, the two Counts of Mansfeld, and the delegates from Magdeburg and +Bremen signed. Pious old George of Brandenburg was not convinced that it +was lawful to resist the Emperor; the deputies of Nuernberg had grave +doubts also. Many others who were present felt that they must have time to +make up their minds. But the league was started, and was soon to assume +huge proportions. + +The confederates had confessed the new doctrines, and had published their +Confession. They now resolved that they would defend themselves if +attacked by litigation or otherwise. There was no attempt to exclude the +South German cities; and Charles' expectations that theological +differences would prevent Protestant union within Germany were frustrated. +Zwingli's heroic death at Cappel (October 11th, 1531) softened all +Protestant hearts towards his followers. The South German cities followed +the lead of Bucer, who was anxious for union. Many of these towns now +joined the Schmalkald League. Brunswick joined. Hamburg and Rostock in the +far north, Goslar and Goettingen in the centre, joined. Almost all North +Germany and the more important imperial towns in the South were united in +one strong confederacy by this Schmalkald League. It became one of the +European Powers. Denmark wished to join. Thomas Cromwell was anxious that +England should join. The league was necessarily anti-Hapsburg, and the +Emperor had to reckon with it. + +Its power appeared at the Diet of Nuernberg in 1532. The dreaded day (April +15th, 1531) on which the Protestants were to be reduced by fire and sword +passed quietly by. Charles was surrounded with difficulties which made it +impossible for him to carry out the threats he had published on November +19th, 1530. The Turks were menacing Vienna and the Duchy of Austria; the +Pope was ready to take advantage of any signs of imperial weakness; France +was irreconcilable; England was hostile; and the Bavarian dukes were doing +what they could to lessen the Hapsburg power in Germany. + +When the Diet met at Nuernberg in 1532, the Emperor knew that he was unable +to coerce the Lutherans, and returned to his earlier courteous way of +treating them. They were more patriotic than the German Romanists for whom +he had done so much. Luther declared roundly that the Turks must be met +and driven back, and that all Germans must support the Emperor in +repelling the invasion. At the Diet a "recess" was proposed, in which the +religious truce was indefinitely extended; the processes against the +Protestants in the _Reichskammersgericht_ were to be quashed, and no State +was to be proceeded against in matters arising out of religious +differences. The Romanist members refused to accept it; the "recess" was +never published. But the Protestant States declared that they would trust +in the imperial word of honour, and furnished the Emperor with troops for +the defence of Vienna, and the invasion was repelled. + +The history of the struggle in Germany between the Diet of 1532 and the +outbreak of war in 1546 is very intricate, and cannot be told as a simple +contest between Reformation and anti-Reformation. + +In the sixteenth century, almost all thoughtful and earnest-minded men +desired a Reformation of the Church. The Roman Curia was the only opponent +to all reforms of any kind. But two different ideas of what Reformation +ought to be, divided the men who longed for reforms. The one desired to +see the benumbed and formalist mediaeval Church filled with a new religious +life, while it retained its notable characteristics of a sacerdotal +ministry and a visible external unity under a uniform hierarchy +culminating in the Papacy. The other wished to free the human spirit from +the fetters of a merely ecclesiastical authority, and to rebuild the +Church on the principle of the spiritual priesthood of all believing men +and women. In the struggle in Germany the Emperor Charles may be taken as +the embodiment of the first, as Luther represented the second. To the one +it seemed essential to maintain the external unity and authority of the +Church according to the mediaeval ideal; the other could content himself +with seeing the Church of the Middle Ages broken up into territorial +Churches, each of which he contended was a portion of the one visible +Catholic Church. Charles had no difficulty in accepting many changes in +doctrine and usages, provided a genuine and lasting compromise could be +arrived at which would retain all within the one ecclesiastical +organisation. He consented once and again to suspend the struggle; but he +would never have made himself responsible for a permanent religious +settlement which recognised the Lutheran Churches. He had no objection to +a truce, but would never accept a lasting peace. If the Lutherans could +not be brought back within the mediaeval Church by compromise, then he was +prepared to go to all extremes to compel them to return. Of course, he was +the ruler over many lands; he was keen to extend and consolidate the +family possessions of his House,--as keen as the most grasping of the petty +territorial princes,--and he had to be an opportunist. But he never +deviated in the main from his idea of how the religious difficulty should +be solved. + +But all manner of political and personal motives were at work on both +sides in Germany (as elsewhere). Philip of Hesse combined a strenuous +acceptance of the principles of the Lutheran Reformation with as thorough +a hatred of the House of Hapsburg and of its supremacy in Germany. The +Dukes of Bavaria, who were the strongest partisans of the Romanist Church +in Germany, were the hereditary enemies of the House of Austria. The +religious pacification of the Fatherland was made impossible to Charles, +not merely by his insistence on maintaining the conceptions of the +mediaeval Church, but also by open and secret reluctance to see the +imperial authority increased, and by jealousies aroused by the territorial +aggrandisement of the House of Hapsburg. The incompatibility between the +aims of the Emperor and those of his indispensable ally, the Pope, added +to the difficulties of the situation. + +In 1534, Philip of Hesse persuaded the Schmalkald League to espouse the +cause of the banished Duke of Wuertemberg. His territories had been +incorporated into the family possessions of the Hapsburgs, and the people +groaned under the imperial administration. The Swabian League, which had +been the mainstay of the Imperialist and Romanist cause in South Germany, +was persuaded to remain neutral by the Dukes of Bavaria, and Philip had +little difficulty in defeating Ferdinand, and driving the Imperialists out +of the Duchy. Ulrich was restored, declared in favour of the Lutheran +Reformation, and Wuertemberg was added to the list of Protestant States. By +the terms of the Peace of Cadan (June 1534), Ferdinand publicly engaged to +carry out Charles' private assurance that no Protestant was to be dragged +before the _Reichskammersgericht_ for anything connected with +religion.(354) Another important consequence followed. The Swabian League +was dissolved in 1536. This left the Schmalkald League of Protestant +States and cities the only formidable confederation in Germany. + +The political union among the Protestants suggested a closer +approximation. The South German pastors asked to meet Luther and discuss +their theological differences. They met at Wittenberg, and after prolonged +discussion it was found that all were agreed save on one small point--the +presence, _extended in space_, of the Body of Christ in the elements in +the Holy Supper. It was agreed that this might be left an open question; +and what was called the _Wittenberg Concord_ was signed, which united all +German Protestants (May and June 1536).(355) + +Three years later (1539), Duke George of Saxony died, the most honest and +disinterested of the Romanist princes. His brother Henry, who succeeded +him, with the joyful consent of his subjects, pronounced for the +Evangelical faith. Nothing would content him but that Luther should come +to Leipzig to preside clerically on so auspicious an occasion. Luther +preached in the great hall of the Castle, where twenty years earlier he +had confronted Eck, and had heard Duke George declare that his opinions +were pestilential. + +In the same year the new Elector of Brandenburg also came over to the +Evangelical side amid the rejoicings of his people; and the two great +Romanist States of North Germany, Electoral Brandenburg and Ducal Saxony, +became Protestant. + +The tide flowed so strongly that the three clerical Electors, the +Archbishops of Mainz, Koeln, and Trier, and some of the bishops, +contemplated secularising their principalities, and becoming Protestants. +This alarmed Charles thoroughly. If the proposed secularisation took +place, there would be a large Protestant majority in the Electoral +College, and the next Emperor would be a Protestant. + +Charles had been anxiously watching the gradual decadence of the power of +the Romanist princes in Germany; and reports convinced him that the +advance of the Reformation among the people was still more marked. The +Roman Catholic Church seemed to be in the agonies of dissolution even in +places where it had hitherto been strong. Breslau, once strongly Romanist, +was now almost fanatically Lutheran; in Vienna, Bishop Faber wrote, the +population was entirely Lutheran, save himself and the Archduke. The +Romanist Universities were almost devoid of students. In Bavaria, it was +said that there were more monasteries than monks. Candidates for the +priesthood had diminished in a very startling way: the nuncio Vergerio +reported that he could find none in Bohemia except a few paupers who could +not pay their ordination fees. + +The policy of the Pope (Paul III., 1534-1549) had disgusted the German +Romanist princes. He subordinated the welfare of the Church in their +dominions to his anti-Hapsburg Italian schemes, and had actually allied +himself with Francis of France, who was intriguing with the Turks, in +order to thwart the Emperor! The action and speeches of Henry VIII. had +been watched and studied by the German Romanist leaders. Could they not +imitate him in Germany, and create a Nationalist Church true to mediaeval +doctrine, hierarchy, and ritual, and yet independent of the Pope, who +cared so little for them? + +All these things made Charles and Ferdinand revise their policy. The +Emperor began to consider seriously whether the way out of the religious +difficulty might not be, either to grant a prolonged truce to the +Lutherans (which might, though he hoped not, become permanent), or to work +energetically for the creation of a German National Church, which, by +means of some working compromise in doctrines and ceremonies, might be +called into existence by a German National Council assembled in defiance +of the Pope. + +It was with these thoughts in his mind that he sent his Chancellor Held +into Germany to strengthen the Romanist cause there. His agent soon +abandoned the larger ideas of his master, if he ever comprehended them, +and contented himself with announcing publicly that the private promise +given by Charles at Nuernberg, and confirmed by Ferdinand at the Peace of +Cadan, was withdrawn. The lawsuits brought against the Protestants in the +_Reichskammersgericht_ were not to be quashed, but were to be prosecuted +to the bitter end. He also contrived at Nuernberg (June 1538) to form a +league of Romanist princes, ostensibly for defence, but really to force +the Protestants to submit to the decisions of the _Reichskammersgericht_. +These measures did not make for peace; they almost produced a civil war, +which was only avoided by the direct interposition of the Emperor. + +Chancellor Held was recalled, and the Emperor sent the Archbishop of Lund +to find out what terms the Protestants would accept. These proved larger +than the Emperor could grant, but the result of the intercourse was that +the Protestants were granted a truce which was to last for ten years. + +The proposed secularisation of the ecclesiastical Electorates made Charles +see that he dared not wait for the conclusion of this truce. He set +himself earnestly to discover whether compromises in doctrine and +ceremonies were not possible. Conferences were held between Lutheran and +Romanist theologians and laymen, at Hagenau (June 1540), at Worms +(November 1540), and at Regensburg (Ratisbon, April 1541).(356) The last +was the most important. The discussions showed that it was possible to +state Romanist and Lutheran doctrine in ambiguous propositions which could +be accepted by the theologians of both Confessions; but that there was a +great gulf between them which the Evangelicals would never re-cross. The +spiritual priesthood of all believers could never be reconciled with the +special priesthood of the mediaeval clergy. This was Charles' last attempt +at a compromise which would unite of their own free will the German +Lutherans with the German Romanists. He saw that the Lutherans would never +return to the mediaeval Church unless compelled by force, and it was +impossible to use force unless the Schmalkald League was broken up +altogether or seamed with divisions. + + + +§ 10. The Bigamy of Philip of Hesse.(357) + + +The opportunity arrived. The triumphant Protestantism received its +severest blow in the bigamy of Philip of Hesse, which involved the +reputations of Bucer, Luther, and Melanchthon, as well as of the +Landgrave. + +Philip had married when barely nineteen a daughter of Duke George of +Saxony. Latterly, he declared that it was impossible to maintain conjugal +relations with her; that continence was impossible for him; that the +condition in which he found himself harassed his whole life, and prevented +him coming to the Lord's Table. In a case like his, Pope Clement VII. only +a few years previously had permitted the husband to take a second wife, +and why should not the Protestant divines permit him? He prepared a case +for himself which he submitted to the theologians, and got a reply signed +by Bucer, Melanchthon, and Luther, which may be thus summarised:-- + + + According to the original commandment of God, marriage is between + one man and one woman, and the twain shall become one flesh, and + this original precept has been confirmed by our Lord; but sin + brought it about that first Lamech, then the heathen, and then + Abraham, took more than one wife, and this was permitted by the + law. We are now living under the gospel, which does not give + prescribed rules for the regulation of the external life, and it + has not expressly prohibited bigamy. The existing law of the land + has gone back to the original requirement of God, and the plain + duty of the pastorate is to insist on that original requirement of + God, and to denounce bigamy in every way. Nevertheless the + pastorate, in individual cases of the direst need, and to prevent + worse, may sanction bigamy in a purely exceptional way; such a + bigamous marriage is a true marriage (the necessity being proved) + in the sight of God and of conscience; but it is not a true + marriage with reference to public law or custom. Therefore such a + marriage ought to be kept secret, and the dispensation which is + given for it ought to be kept under the seal of confession. If it + be made known, the dispensation becomes _eo ipso_ invalid, and the + marriage becomes mere concubinage. + + +Such was the strange and scandalous document to which Luther, Melanchthon, +and Bucer appended their names. + +Of course the thing could not be kept secret, and the moral effect of the +revelation was disastrous among friends and foes. The Evangelical princes +were especially aggrieved; and it was proposed that the Landgrave should +be tried for bigamy and punished according to the laws of the Empire. When +the matter was brought before the Emperor, he decided that no marriage had +taken place, and the sole effect of the decision of the theologians was to +deceive a poor maiden.(358) + +Philip, humiliated and sore, isolated from his friends, was an instrument +ready to the Emperor's hand in his plan to weaken and, if possible, +destroy the Schmalkald League. The opportunity soon arrived. The father of +William Duke of Cleves Juliers and Berg had been elected by the Estates of +Guelders to be their sovereign, in defiance of a treaty which had secured +the succession to Charles. The father died, and the son succeeded almost +immediately after the treaty had been signed. This created a powerful +anti-Hapsburg State in close proximity to the Emperor's possessions in the +Netherlands. William of Cleves had married his sister Sibylla to John +Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, and naturally gravitated towards the +Schmalkald League. In 1541 an arrangement was come to between the Emperor +and Philip, according to which Philip guaranteed to prevent the Duke of +Cleves from joining the League, or at least from being supported by it +against the Emperor, and in return Philip was promised indemnity for all +past deeds, and advancement in the Emperor's service. Young Maurice of +Ducal Saxony, who had succeeded his father in the Duchy (August 18th, +1541), and had married Philip's daughter, also joined in this bargain. The +Emperor had thus divided the great Protestant League; for the Elector of +Saxony refused to desert his brother-in-law. In 1543 the Emperor fell upon +the unbefriended Duke, totally defeated him, and took Guelders from him, +while the German Protestants, hindered by Philip, saw one of their most +important allies overthrown. This gave rise to recriminations, which +effectually weakened the Protestant cause. + +In 1544, Charles concluded a peace with France (the Peace of Crepy, +November 19th), and was free to turn his attention to affairs in Germany. +He forced the Pope in the same month to give way about a General Council, +which was fixed to meet in March 1545. The Emperor meant this Council to +be an instrument in his hands to subdue both the Protestants and the Pope. +He meant it to reform the Church in the sense of freeing it from many of +the corruptions which had found their way into it, and especially in +diminishing the power of the Roman Curia; and in this he was supported by +the Spanish bishops and by the greater part of Latin Christendom. But the +Pope was the more skilful diplomatist, and out-generalled the Emperor. The +Council was summoned to meet at Trent, a purely Italian town, though +nominally within Germany. It was arranged that all its members must be +present personally and not by deputies, which meant that the Italian +bishops had a permanent majority; and the choice of Dominicans and Jesuits +as the leading theologians made it plain that no doctrinal concessions +would be made to the Protestants. From the first the Protestants refused +to be bound in any way by its decisions, and Charles soon perceived that +the instrument he had counted on had broken in his hands. If +ecclesiastical unity was to be maintained in Germany, it could only be by +the use of force. There is no doubt that the Emperor was loath to proceed +to this last extremity; but his correspondence with his sister Mary and +with his brother Ferdinand shows that he had come to regard it as a +necessity by the middle of 1545. + +His first endeavour was to break up the Protestant League, which was once +more united. He attempted again to detach Philip of Hesse, but without +success. He was able, however, to induce the Elector of Brandenburg and +the Margrave of Brandenburg-Culmbach and some others to remain neutral--the +Elector by promising in any event that the religious settlement which had +been effected in Brandenburg (1541) should remain unaltered; and, what +served him best, he persuaded young Maurice of Ducal Saxony to become his +active ally. + + + +§ 11. Maurice of Saxony. + + +Maurice of Saxony was one of the most interesting, because one of the most +perplexing personalities of his time, which was rich in interesting +personalities. He was a Protestant from conviction, and never wavered from +his faith; yet in the conflict between the Romanist Emperor and the +Protestant princes he took the Emperor's side, and contributed more than +any one else to the overthrow of his fellow Protestants. His bargain with +Charles was that the Electorate should be transferred from the Ernestine +Saxon family to his own, the Albertine, that he should get Magdeburg and +Halberstadt, and that neither he nor his people should be subject to the +decrees of the Council of Trent. Then, when he had despoiled the rival +family of the Electorate, he planned and carried through the successful +revolt of the Protestant princes against the Emperor, and was mainly +instrumental in securing the public recognition of Lutheranism in Germany +and in gaining the permanent Religious Peace of 1555.(359) + + + +§ 12. Luther's Death. + + +It was in these months, while the alarms of war were threatening Germany, +that Luther passed away. He had been growing weaker year by year, and had +never spared himself for the cause he had at heart. One last bit of work +he thought he must do. The Counts of Mansfeld had quarrelled over some +trifling things in the division of their property, and had consented to +accept Luther's mediation. This obliged him to journey to Eisleben in +bitterly cold weather (January 1546). "I would cheerfully lay down my +bones in the grave if I could only reconcile my dear Lords," he said; and +that was what was required from him. He finished the arbitration to the +satisfaction of both brothers, and received by way of fee endowments for +village schools in the Mansfeld region. The deeds were all signed by the +17th of February (1546), and Luther's work was done at Mansfeld--and for +his generation. He became alarmingly ill that night, and died on the +following morning, long before dawn. "Reverend Father," said Justus Jonas, +who was with him, "wilt thou stand by Christ and the doctrine thou hast +preached?" The dying man roused himself to say "Yes." It was his last +word. Twenty minutes later he passed away with a deep sigh. + +Luther died in his sixty-third year--twenty-eight and a half years after he +had, greatly daring, nailed his Theses to the door of All Saints' in +Wittenberg, twenty-seven after he had discovered the meaning of his Theses +during the memorable days when he faced Eck at Leipzig, and twenty-five +after he had stood before the Emperor and Diet at Worms, while all Germany +had hailed him as its champion against the Pope and the Spaniard. The +years between 1519 and 1524 were, from an external point of view, the most +glorious of Luther's life. He dominated and led his nation, and gave a +unity to that distracted and divided country which it had never enjoyed +until then. He spoke and felt like a prophet. "I have the gospel, not from +men, but from heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ, so that I might have +described myself and have glorified in being a minister and an +evangelist." The position had come to him in no sudden visionary way. He +had been led into it step by step, forced forward slowly by a power +stronger than his own; and the knowledge had kept him humble before his +God. During these years it seemed as if his dream--an expectation shared by +his wise Elector, the most experienced statesman in Germany--of a Germany +united under one National Church, separated from the bondage of Rome, +repudiating her blasphemies, rejecting her traditions which had corrupted +the religion of the ancient and purer days, and disowning her presumptuous +encroachments on the domain of the civil power ordained of God, was about +to come true. + +Then came the disillusionment of the Peasants' War, when the dragon's +teeth were sown broadcast over Germany, and produced their crop of gloomy +suspicions and black fears. After the insurrection had spent itself, and +in spite of the almost irretrievable damage which it, and the use made of +it by papal diplomatists, did to the Reformation movement, Luther regained +his serene courage, and recovered much of the ground which had been lost. +But the crushing blow had left its mark upon him. He had the same trust in +God, but much more distrust of man, fearing the "tumult," resolute to have +nothing to do with anyone who had any connection, however slight, with +those who had instigated the misguided peasants. He rallied the forces of +the Reformation, and brought them back to discipline by the faith they had +in himself as their leader. His personality dominated those kinglets of +Germany, possessed with as strong a sense of their dignity and autocratic +rights as any Tudor or Valois, and they submitted to be led by him. +Electoral Saxony, Hesse, Lueneburg, Anhalt, East Prussia, and Mansfeld, and +some score of imperial cities, had followed him loyally from the first; +and as the years passed, Ducal Saxony and Wuertemberg in the centre and +south, and Brandenburg in the north, had declared themselves Protestant +States. These larger principalities brought in their train all the smaller +satellite States which clustered round them. It may be said that before +Luther's death the much larger portion of the German Empire had been won +for evangelical religion,--a territory to be roughly described as a great +triangle, whose base was the shores of the Baltic Sea from the Netherlands +on the west to the eastern limits of East Prussia, and whose apex was +Switzerland. Part of this land was occupied by ecclesiastical +principalities which had remained Roman Catholic,--the districts +surrounding Koeln on the west, and the territories of Paderborn, Fulda, and +many others in the centre,--but, on the other hand, many stoutly Protestant +cities, like Nuernberg, Constance, and Augsburg, were planted on +territories which were outside these limits. The extent and power of this +Protestant Germany was sufficient to resist any attempt on the part of the +Emperor and the Catholic princes to overcome it by force of arms, provided +only its rulers remained true to each other. + +Over this wide extent of country Evangelical Churches had been +established, and provisions had been made for the education of children +and for the support of the poor in ordinances issued by the supreme +secular authorities who ruled over its multitudinous divisions. The Mass, +with its supposed substitutionary sacrifice and a mediatorial priesthood, +had been abolished. The German tongue had displaced mediaeval Latin in +public worship, and the worshippers could take part in the services with +full understanding of the solemn acts in which they were engaged. A German +Bible lay on every pulpit, and the people had their copies in the pews. +Translations of the Psalms and German evangelical hymns were sung, and +sermons in German were preached. Pains were taken to provide an educated +evangelical ministry who would preach the gospel faithfully, and +conscientiously fulfil all the duties connected with the "cure of souls." +The ecclesiastical property of the mediaeval Church was largely used for +evangelical purposes. There was no mechanical uniformity in these new +arrangements. Luther refused to act the part of an ecclesiastical +autocrat: he advised when called upon to give advice, he never commanded. +No Wittenberg "use" was to confront the Roman "use" and be the only mode +of service and ecclesiastical organisation. + +The movement Luther had inaugurated had gone far beyond Germany before +1546. Every country in Europe had felt its pulsations. As early as 1519 +(April), learned men in Paris had been almost feverishly studying his +writings.(360) They were eagerly read in England before 1521.(361) +Aleander, writing from Worms to the Curia, complains that Spanish +merchants were getting translations of Luther's books made for circulation +in Spain.(362) They were being studied with admiration in Italy even +earlier. The Scottish Parliament was vainly endeavouring to prevent their +entrance into that country by 1525.(363) The Lutheran Reformation had been +legally established in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden long before Luther +passed away. + +Luther was the one great man of his generation, standing head and +shoulders above everyone else. This does not mean that he absorbed in his +individual personality everything that the age produced for the +furtherance of humanity. Many impulses for good existed in that sixteenth +century which Luther never recognised; for an age is always richer than +any one man belonging to it. He stood outside the great artistic movement. +He might have learned much from Erasmus on the one hand, and from the +leaders of the Peasants' War on the other, which remained hidden from him. +He is greatest in the one sphere of religion only--in the greatest of all +spheres. His conduct towards Zwingli and the strong language he used in +speaking of opponents make our generation discover a strain of intolerance +we would fain not see in so great a man; but his contemporaries did not +and could not pass the same judgment upon him. In such a divided Germany +none but a man of the widest tolerance could have held together the +Protestant forces as Luther did; and we can see what he was when we +remember the sad effects of the petty orthodoxies of the Amsdorfs and the +Osianders who came after him. + +It is the fate of most authors of revolutions to be devoured by the +movement which they have called into being. Luther occasioned the greatest +revolution which Western Europe has ever seen, and he ruled it till his +death. History shows no kinglier man than this Thuringian miner's son. + + + +§ 13. The Religious War.(364) + + +The war began soon after Luther's death. The Emperor brought into Germany +his Spanish infantry, the beginning of what was to be a curse to that +country for many generations, and various manoeuvrings and skirmishes took +place, the most important of which was Maurice of Saxony's invasion of the +Electorate. At last the Emperor met the Elector in battle at Muehlberg +(April 24th, 1547), where John Frederick was completely defeated and taken +prisoner. Wittenberg, stoutly defended by Sibylla, soon after surrendered. +This was the end. Philip was induced to surrender on promise of favourable +treatment, made by the Electors who had remained on the Emperor's side. +Charles refused to be bound by the promise made in his name, and the +Landgrave was also held captive. All Germany, save Constance in the south +and some of the Baltic lands, lay prostrate at the Emperor's feet. It +remained to be seen what use he would make of his victory. + +In due time he set himself to bring about what he conceived to be a +reasonable compromise which would enable all Germany to remain within one +National Church. He tried at first to induce the separate parties to work +it out among themselves; and, when this was found to be hopeless, he, like +a second Justinian, resolved to construct a creed and to impose it by +force upon all, especially upon the Lutherans. To begin with, he had to +defy the Pope and slight the General Council for which he had been mainly +responsible. He formally demanded that the Council should return to German +soil (it had been transferred to Bologna), and, when this was refused, he +protested against its existence and, like the German Protestants he was +coercing, declared that he would not submit to its decrees. He next +selected three theologians, Michael Helding, Julius von Pflug, and +Agricola,--a mediaevalist, an Erasmian, and a very conservative Lutheran--to +construct what was called the _Augsburg Interim_. + + + +§ 14. The Augsburg Interim.(365) + + +This document taught the dogma of Transubstantiation, the seven +Sacraments, adoration of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, retained most +of the mediaeval ceremonies and usages, and declared the Pope to be the +Head of the Church. This was to please the Romanists. It appealed to the +Lutherans by adopting the doctrine of Justification by Faith in a modified +form, the marriage of priests with some reservations, the use of the Cup +by the laity in the Holy Supper, and by considerably modifying the +doctrine of the sacrificial character of the Mass. Of course all its +propositions were ambiguous, and could be read in two ways. This was +probably the intention of the framers; if so, they were highly successful. + +Nothing that Charles ever undertook proved such a dismal failure as this +patchwork creed made from snippets from two Confessions. However lifeless +creeds may become, they all--real ones--have grown out of the living +Christian experience of their framers, and have contained the very +life-blood of their hearts as well as of their brains. It is a hopeless +task to construct creeds as a tailor shapes and stitches coats. + +Charles, however, was proud of his creed, and did his best to enforce it. +The Diet of 1548 showed him his difficulties. The _Interim_ was accepted +and proclaimed as an edict by this Diet (May 15), but only after the +Emperor, very unwillingly, declared practically that it was meant for the +Protestants alone. "The Emperor," said a member of the Diet, "is fighting +for religion against the Pope, whom he acknowledges to be its head, and +against the two parts of Christendom in Germany--the mass of the +Protestants and the ecclesiastical princes." Thus from the beginning what +was to be an instrument to unite German Christendom was transformed into a +"strait-waistcoat for the Lutherans"; and this did not make it more +palatable for them. At first the strong measures taken by the Emperor +compelled its nominal acceptance by many of the Protestant princes.(366) +The cities which seemed to be most refractory had their Councils purged of +their democratic members, and their Lutheran preachers sent into +banishment--Matthew Alber from Reutlingen, Wolfgang Musculus from Augsburg, +Brenz from Hall, Osiander from Nuernberg, Schnepf from Tuebingen. Bucer and +Fagius had to flee from Strassburg and take refuge in England. The city of +Constance was besieged and fell after a heroic defence; it was deprived of +its privileges as an imperial city, and was added to the family +possessions of the House of Austria. Its pastor, Blarer, was sent into +banishment. Four hundred Lutheran divines were driven from their homes. + +If Charles, backed by his Spanish and Italian troops, could secure a +nominal submission to his _Interim_, he could not coerce the people into +accepting it. The churches stood empty in Augsburg, in Ulm, and in other +cities. The people met it by an almost universal passive resistance--if +singing doggerel verses in mockery of the _Interim_ may be called passive. +When the Emperor ordered Duke Christopher of Wuertemberg to drive Brenz out +of his refuge in his State, the Duke answered him that he could not banish +his whole population. The popular feeling, as is usual in such cases, +found vent in all manner of satirical songs, pamphlets, and even +catechisms. As in the times before the Peasants' War, this coarse popular +literature had an immense circulation. Much of it took the form of rude +broadsides with a picture, generally satirical, at the top, and the song, +sometimes with the music score, printed below.(367) Wandering preachers, +whom no amount of police supervision could check, went inveighing against +the _Interim_, distributing the rude literature through the villages and +among the democracy in the towns. Soon the creed and the edict which +enforced it became practically a dead letter throughout the greater part +of Germany. + +The presence of the Emperor's Spanish troops on the soil of the Fatherland +irritated the feelings of Germans, whether Romanists or Protestants; the +insolence and excesses of these soldiers stung the common people; and +their employment to enforce the hated _Interim_ on the Protestants was an +additional insult. The citizens of one imperial city were told that if +they did not accept the _Interim_ they must be taught theology by Spanish +troops, and of another that they would yet learn to speak the language of +Spain. While the popular odium against Charles was slowly growing in +intensity, he contrived to increase it by a proposal that his son Philip +should have the imperial crown after his brother Ferdinand. Charles' own +election had been caused by a patriotic sentiment. The people thought that +a German was better than a Frenchman, and they had found out too late that +they had not got a German but a Spaniard. Ferdinand had lived in Germany +long enough to know its wants, and his son Maximilian had shown that he +possessed many qualities which appealed to the German character. The +proposal to substitute Philip, however natural from Charles' point of +view, and consistent with his earlier idea that the House of Hapsburg +should have one head, meant to the Germans to still further "hispaniolate" +Germany. This unpopularity of Charles among all ranks and classes of +Germans grew rapidly between 1548 and 1552; and during the same years his +foreign prestige was fast waning. He remained in Germany, with the +exception of a short visit to the Netherlands; but in spite of his +presence the anarchy grew worse and worse. The revolt which came might +have arisen much sooner had the Protestants been able to overcome their +hatred and suspicion of Maurice of Saxony, whose co-operation was almost +essential. It is unnecessary to describe the intrigues which went on +around the Emperor, careless though not unforewarned. + +Maurice had completed his arrangements with his German allies and with +France early in 1552. The Emperor had retired from Augsburg to Innsbruck. +Maurice seized the Pass of Ehrenberg on the nights of May 18th, 19th, and +pressed on to Innsbruck, hoping to "run the old fox to earth." Charles +escaped by a few hours, and, accompanied by his brother Ferdinand, fled +over the Brenner Pass amid a storm of snow and rain. It was the road by +which he had entered Germany in fair spring weather when he came in 1530, +in the zenith of his power, to settle, as he had confidently expected, the +religious difficulties in Germany. He reached Villach in Carinthia in +safety, and there waited the issue of events. + +The German princes gathered in great numbers at Passau (Aug. 1552) to +discuss the position and arrive at a settlement. Maurice was ostensibly +the master of the situation, for his troops and those of his wild ally +Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Culmbach were in the town, and many a +prince felt "as if they had a hare in their breast." His demands for the +public good were moderate and statesmanlike. He asked for the immediate +release of his father-in-law the Landgrave of Hesse; for a settlement of +the religious question on a basis that would be permanent, at a meeting of +German princes fairly representative of the two parties--no Council +summoned and directed by the Pope would ever give fair-play to the +Protestants, he said, nor could they expect to get it from the Diet where +the large number of ecclesiastical members gave an undue preponderance to +the Romanist side; and for a settlement of some constitutional questions. +The princes present, and with them Ferdinand, King of the Romans, were +inclined to accept these demands. But when they were referred to Charles +at Villach, he absolutely refused to permit the religious or the +constitutional question to be settled by any assembly but the Diet of the +Empire. Nothing would move him from his opinion, neither the entreaties of +his brother nor his own personal danger. He still counted on the divisions +among the Protestants, and believed that he had only to support the "born +Elector" of Saxony against the one of his own creation to deprive Maurice +of his strength. It may be that Maurice had his own fears, it may be that +he was glad to have the opportunity of showing that the "Spaniard" was the +one enemy to a lasting peace in Germany. He contented himself with the +acquiescence of John Frederick in the permanent loss of the Electorate as +arranged at the Peace of Wittenberg (1547). + +Charles was then free to come back to Augsburg, where he had the petty +satisfaction of threatening the Lutheran preachers who had returned, and +of again overthrowing the democratic government of the city. He then went +to assume the command of the German army which was opposing the French. +His failure to take the city of Metz was followed by his practical +abandonment of the direction of the affairs of Germany, which were left in +the hands of Ferdinand. The disorders of the time delayed the meeting of +the Diet until 1555 (opened Feb. 5th). The Elector and the "born Elector" +of Saxony were both dead--John Frederick, worn out by misfortune and +imprisonment (March 3rd, 1554), and sympathised with by friends and foes +alike; and Maurice, only thirty-two years of age, killed in the moment of +victory at Sievershausen (July 9th, 1553). + +It was in the summer of 1554 that the Emperor had handed over, in a +carefully limited manner, the management of German affairs to his brother +Ferdinand, the King of the Romans. The terms of devolution of authority +imply that this was done by Charles to avoid the humiliation of being +personally responsible for acquiescence in what was to him a hateful +necessity, and the confession of failure in his management of Germany from +1530. Everyone recognised that peace was necessary at almost any price, +but Ferdinand and the higher ecclesiastical princes shrunk from facing the +inevitable. The King of the Romans still cherished some vague hopes of a +compromise which would preserve the unity of the mediaeval German Church, +and the selfish policy of many of the Protestant princes encouraged him. +Elector Joachim of Brandenburg wished the archbishopric of Magdeburg and +the bishopric of Halberstadt for his son Sigismund, and declared that he +would be content with the _Interim_! Christopher of Wuertemberg cherished +similar designs on ecclesiastical properties. Augustus of Saxony, +Maurice's brother and successor, wished the bishopric of Meissen. All +these designs could be more easily fulfilled if the external unity of the +mediaeval Church remained unbroken. + + + +§ 15. Religious Peace of Augsburg.(368) + + +The Diet had been summoned for Nov. 13th (1554), but when Ferdinand +reached Augsburg about the end of the year, the Estates had not gathered. +He was able to open the Diet formally on Feb. 5th (1555), but none of the +Electors, and only two of the great ecclesiastical princes, the Cardinal +Bishop of Augsburg and the Bishop of Eichstadt, were present in person. +While the Diet dragged on aimlessly, the Protestant princes gathered to a +great Council of their own at Naumburg (March 3rd, 1555) to concert a +common policy. Among those present were the Electors of Brandenburg and +Saxony, the sons of John Frederick, the ill-fated "born Elector," and the +Landgrave of Hesse--sixteen princes and a great number of magnates. After +long debates, the assembly decided (March 13th) that they would stand by +the Augsburg Confession of 1530, and that the minority would unite with +the majority in carrying out one common policy. Even "fat old Interim," as +Elector Joachim of Brandenburg had been nicknamed, was compelled to +submit; and the Protestants stood on a firm basis with a definite +programme, and pledged to support each other. + +This memorable meeting at Naumburg forced the hands of the members of the +Diet. Every member, save the Cardinal Bishop of Augsburg, desired a +_permanent_ settlement of the religious question, and their zeal appeared +in the multiplicity of adjectives used to express the predominant +thought--"_bestaendiger, beharrlicher, unbedingter, fuer und fuer ewig +waehrender_" was the phrase. The meeting at Naumburg showed them that this +could not be secured without the recognition of Lutheranism as a legal +religion within the German Empire. + +When the Protestant demands were formally placed before the Diet, they +were found to include--security under the Public Law of the Empire for all +who professed the Augsburg Confession, and for all who in future might +make the same profession; liberty to hold legally all the ecclesiastical +property which had been or might in the future be secularised; complete +toleration for all Lutherans who were resident in Romanist States without +corresponding toleration for Romanists in Lutheran States. These demands +went much further than any which Luther himself had formulated, and really +applied to Romanists some of the provisions of the "recess" of Speyer +(1529) which, when applied to Lutherans, had called forth the Protest. +They were vehemently objected to by the Romanist members of the Diet; and, +as both parties seemed unwilling to yield anything to the other, there was +some danger of the religious war breaking out again. The mediation of +Ferdinand for the Romanists and Frederick of Saxony for the Protestants +brought a compromise after months of debate. It was agreed that the +Lutheran religion should be legalised within the Empire, and that all +Lutheran princes should have full security for the practice of their +faith; that the mediaeval episcopal jurisdiction should cease within their +lands; and that they were to retain all ecclesiastical possessions which +had been secularised before the passing of the Treaty of Passau (1552). +Future changes of faith were to be determined by the principle _cujus +regio ejus religio_. The secular territorial ruler might choose between +the Romanist or the Lutheran faith, and his decision was to bind all his +subjects. If a subject professed another religion from his prince, he was +to be allowed to emigrate without molestation. These provisions were +agreed upon by all, and embodied in the "recess." Two very important +matters remained unsettled. The Romanists demanded that any ecclesiastical +prince who changed his faith should thereby forfeit lands and +dignities--the "ecclesiastical reservation." This was embodied in the +"recess," but the Protestants declared that they would not be bound by it. +On the other hand, the Protestants demanded toleration for all Lutherans +living within the territories of Romanist princes. This was not embodied +in the "recess," though Ferdinand promised that he would see it carried +out in practice.(369) Such was the famous Peace of Augsburg. There was no +reason why it should not have come years earlier and without the wild +war-storm which preceded it, save the fact that, in an unfortunate fit of +enthusiasm, the Germans had elected the young King of Spain to be their +Emperor. They had chosen the grandson of the genial Maxmilian, believing +him to be a real German, and they got a man whose attitude to religion +"was half-way between the genial orthodoxy of his grandfather Maxmilian +and the gloomy fanaticism of his son Philip II.," and whose "mind was +always travelling away from the former and towards the latter +position."(370) The longer he lived the more Spanish he became, and the +less capable of understanding Germany, either on its secular or religious +side. His whole public life, so far as that country was concerned, was one +disastrous failure. He succeeded only when he used his imperial position +to increase and consolidate the territorial possessions of the House of +Hapsburg; for the charge of dismembering the Empire can be brought home to +Charles as effectually as to the most selfish of the princes of Germany. + +The Religious Peace of Augsburg was contained in the decisions of Speyer +in 1526, and it was repeated in every one of the truces which the Emperor +made with his Lutheran subjects from 1530 to 1544.(371) Had any one of +these been made permanent, the religious war, with its outcome in wild +anarchy, in embittered religious antagonisms, and its seed of internecine +strife, to be reaped in the Thirty Years' War, would never have occurred. +But Charles, whose mission, he fancied, was to preserve the unity "of the +seamless robe of Christ," as he phrased it, could only make the attempt by +drenching the fields of Germany with blood, and perpetuating and +accentuating the religious antagonisms of the country which had chosen him +for its Protector. + +This Religious Peace of Augsburg has been claimed, and rightly, as a +victory for religious liberty. + +From one point of view the victory was not a great one. The only +Confession tolerated was the Augsburg. The Swiss Reformation and its +adherents were outside the scope of the religious peace. What grew to be +the Reformed or Calvinistic Church was also outside. It was limited solely +to the Lutheran, or, as it was called, the Evangelical creed. Nor was +there much gain to the personal liberty of conscience. It may be said with +truth that there was less freedom of conscience under the Lutheran +territorial system of Churches, and also under the Roman Catholic Church +reorganised under the canons and decrees of Trent, than there was in the +mediaeval Church. + +The victory lay in this, that the first blow had been struck to free +mankind from the fetters of Romanist absolutism; that the first faltering +step had been taken on the road to religious liberty; and the first is +valuable not for what it is in itself, but for what it represents and for +what comes after it. The Religious Peace of Augsburg did not concede much +according to modern standards; but it contained the potency and promise of +the future. It is always the first step which counts. + + + + +Chapter VI. The Organisation Of Lutheran Churches.(372) + + +Two conceptions, the second being derived from the first, lay at the basis +of everything which Luther said or did about the organisation of the +Christian fellowship into churches. + +The primary and cardinal doctrine, which was the foundation of everything, +was the spiritual priesthood of all believers. This, he believed, implied +that preaching, dispensing the sacraments, ecclesiastical discipline, and +so forth were not the exclusive possession of a special caste of men to +whom they had been committed by God, and who therefore were mediators +between God and man. These divine duties belonged to the whole community +as a fellowship of believing men and women; but as a division of labour +was necessary, and as each individual Christian cannot undertake such +duties without disorder ensuing, the community must seek out and set apart +certain of its members to perform them in its name. + +The second conception was that secular government is an ordinance ordained +of God, and that the special rule claimed by the Roman Pontiff over things +secular and sacred was a usurpation of the powers committed by God to the +secular authority. This Luther understood to mean that the Christian +magistracy might well represent the Christian community of believers, and, +in its name or associated with it, undertake the organisation and +superintendence of the Church civic or territorial. + +In his earlier writings, penned before the outbreak of the Peasants' War, +Luther dwells most on the thought of the community of believers, their +rights and powers; in the later ones, when the fear of the common man had +taken possession of him, the secular authority occupies his whole field of +thought. But although, before the Peasants' War, Luther does not give such +a fixed place to the secular magistracy as the one source of authority or +supervision over the Church, the conception was in his mind from the +first. + +Among the various duties which belong to the company of believers, Luther +selected three as the most outstanding,--those connected with the +pastorate, including preaching, dispensing the sacraments, and so forth; +the service of Christian charity; and the duty of seeing that the children +belonging to the community, and especially "poor, miserable, and deserted +children," were properly educated and trained to become useful members of +the commonwealth. + +In the few instances of attempts made before the Peasants' War to +formulate those conceptions into regulations for communities organised +according to evangelical principles, we find the community and the +magistracy combining to look after the public worship, the poor, and +education. Illustrations may be seen in the Wittenberg ordinance of 1522 +(Carlstadt), and the ordinances of Leisnig (1523) and Magdeburg +(1524).(373) All three are examples of the local authority within a small +community endeavouring, at the prompting of preachers and people, to +express in definite regulations some of the demands of the new evangelical +life. + +Luther himself thought these earlier regulations premature, and insisted +that the Wittenberg ordinance should be cancelled. He knew that changes +must come; but he hoped to see them make their way gradually, almost +imperceptibly, commending themselves to everyone without special enactment +prescribed by external authority. He published suggestions for the +dispensation of the Lord's Supper and of Baptism in the churches in +Wittenberg as early as 1523; he collected and issued a small selection of +evangelical hymns which _might_ be sung in Public Worship (1524); during +the same year he addressed the burgomasters and councillors of all German +towns on the erection and maintenance of Christian schools; and he +congratulated more than one municipality on provisions made for the care +of the poor.(374) Above all, he had, while in Wartburg, completed a +translation of the New Testament which, after revision by Melanchthon and +other friends, was published in 1522 (Sept. 21st), and went through +sixteen revised editions and more than fifty reimpressions before 1534. +The translation of the Old Testament was made by a band of scholars at +Wittenberg, published in instalments, and finally in complete form in +1534. + +He always cherished the hope that the evangelical faith would spread +quietly all over his dear Fatherland if only room were made for the +preaching of the gospel. This of itself, he thought, would in due time +effect a peaceful transformation of the ecclesiastical life and worship. +The Diets of Nuernberg and Speyer had provided a field, always growing +wider, for this quiet transformation. Luther was as indifferent to forms +of Church government as John Wesley, and, like Wesley, every step he took +in providing for a separate organisation was forced upon him as a +practical necessity. To the very last he cherished the hope that there +might be no need for any great change in the external government of the +Church. The Augsburg Confession itself (1530) concludes with the words. +"Our meaning is not to have rule taken from the bishops; but this one +thing only is requested at their hands, that they would suffer the gospel +to be purely taught, and that they would relax a few observances, which +cannot be held without sin. But if they will remit none, let them look how +they will give account to God for this, that by their obstinacy they +afford cause of division and schism, which it were yet fit they should aid +in avoiding."(375) It was not that he believed that the existence of the +visible Catholic Church depended on what has been ambiguously called an +apostolic succession of bishops, who, through gifts conferred in +ordination, create priests, who in turn make Christians out of natural +heathen by the sacraments. He did not believe that ordination needed a +bishop to confer it; he made his position clear upon this point as early +as 1525, and ordination was practised without bishops from that date. But +he had no desire to make changes for the sake of change. The Danish Church +is at once episcopal and Lutheran to this day. + +It ought also to be remembered that Luther and all the Reformers believed +and held firmly the doctrine of a visible Catholic Church of Christ, and +that the evangelical movement which they headed was the outcome of the +centuries of saintly life _within_ that visible Catholic Church. They +never for a moment supposed that in withdrawing themselves from the +authority of the Bishop of Rome they were separating themselves from the +visible Church. Nor did they imagine that in making provision, temporary +or permanent, for preaching the word, the dispensation of the sacraments, +the exercise of discipline, and so forth, they were founding a new Church, +or severing themselves from that visible Church within which they had been +baptized. They refused to concede the term _Catholic_ to their opponents, +and in the various conferences which they had with them, the Roman +Catholics were always _officially_ designated "the adherents of the old +religion," while they were termed "the associates of the Augsburg +Confession." + +Luther cherished the hope, as late as 1545, that there might not need to +be a permanent change in the external form of the Church in Germany; and +this gives all the earlier schemes for the organisation of communities +professing the evangelical faith somewhat of a makeshift and temporary +appearance, which they in truth possessed. + +The Diet of Speyer of 1526 gave the evangelical princes and towns the +right, they believed, to reorganise public worship and ecclesiastical +organisation within their dominions, and this right was largely taken +advantage of. Correspondents from all quarters asked Luther's advice and +co-operation, and we can learn from his answers that he was anxious there +should be as much local freedom as possible,--that communities should try +to find out what suited them best, and that the "use" of Wittenberg should +not be held to regulate the custom of all other places. + +It was less difficult for the authorities in the towns to take over the +charge of the ecclesiastical arrangements. They had during mediaeval times +some experience in the matter; and city life was so compact that it was +easy to regulate the ecclesiastical portion. The prevailing type exhibited +in the number of "ordinances" which have come down to us, collected by +Richter and Sehling, is that a superintendent, one of the city clergy, was +placed over the city churches, and that he was more or less responsible to +the city fathers for the ecclesiastical life and rule within the domains +of the city. + +The ecclesiastical organisation of the territories of the princes was a +much more difficult task. Luther proposed to the Elector of Saxony that a +careful visitation of his principality should be made, district by +district, in order to find out the state of matters and what required to +be done. + +The correspondence of Luther during the years 1525-1527 shows how urgent +the need of such a visitation appeared to him. He had been through the +country several times. Parish priests had laid their difficulties before +him and had asked his advice. His letters describe graphically their +abounding poverty, a poverty increased by the fact that the only +application of the new evangelical liberty made by many of the people was +to refuse to pay all clerical dues. He came to the conclusion that the +"common man" respected neither priest nor preacher, that there was no +ecclesiastical supervision in the country districts, and no exercise of +authority to maintain even the necessary ecclesiastical buildings. He +expressed the fear that if things were allowed to go on as they were +doing, there would be soon neither priest's house nor schools nor scholars +in many a parish. The reports of the first Saxon Visitation showed that +Luther had not exaggerated matters.(376) The district about Wittenberg was +in much better order than the others; but in the outlying portions a very +bad state of things was disclosed. In a village near Torgau the Visitors +discovered an old priest who was hardly able to repeat the Creed or the +Lord's Prayer,(377) but who was held in high esteem as an exorcist, and +who derived a good income from the exercise of his skill in combating the +evil influences of witches. Priests had to be evicted for gross +immoralities. Some were tavern-keepers or practised other worldly +callings. Village schools were rarely to be found. Some of the peasants +complained that the Lord's Prayer was so long that they could not learn +it; and in one place the Visitors found that not a single peasant knew any +prayer whatsoever. + +This Saxon Visitation was the model for similar ones made in almost every +evangelical principality, and its reports serve to show what need there +was for inquiry and reorganisation. The lands of Electoral Saxony were +divided into four "circles," and a commission of theologians and lawyers +was appointed to undertake the duties in each circle. The Visitation of +the one "circle" of Wittenberg, with its thirty-eight parishes, may be +taken as an example of how the work was done, and what kinds of +alterations were suggested. The commissioners or Visitors were Martin +Luther and Justus Jonas, theologians, with Hans Metzsch, Benedict Pauli, +and Johann v. Taubenheim, jurists. They began in October 1528, and spent +two months over their task. It was a strictly business proceeding. There +is no account of either Luther or Jonas preaching while on tour. The +Visitors went about their work with great energy, holding conferences with +the parish priests and with the representatives of the community. They +questioned the priests about the religious condition of the people--whether +there was any gross and open immorality, whether the people were regular +in their attendance at church and in coining to the communion. They asked +the people how the priests did their work among them--in the towns their +conferences were with the _Rath_, and in the country districts and +villages with the male heads of families. Their common work was to find +out what was being done for the "cure of souls," the instruction of the +youth, and the care of the poor. By "cure of souls" (_Seelsorge_) they +meant preaching, dispensation of the sacraments, catechetical instruction, +and the pastoral visitation of the sick. It belonged to the theologians to +estimate the capacities of the pastors, and to the jurists to estimate the +available income, to look into all legal difficulties that might arise, +and especially to clear the entanglements caused by the supposed +jurisdiction of convents over many of the parishes. + +This small district was made up of three outlying portions of the three +dioceses of Brandenburg, Magdeburg, and Meissen. It had not been inspected +within the memory of man, and the results of episcopal negligence were +manifest. At Klebitz the peasants had driven away the parish clerk and put +the village herd in his house. At Buelzig there was neither parsonage nor +house for parish clerk, and the priest was non-resident. So at Danna; +where the priest held a benefice at Coswig, and was, besides, a chaplain +at Wittenberg, while the clerk lived at Zahna. The parsonages were all in +a bad state of repair, and the local authorities could not be got to do +anything. Roofs were leaking, walls were crumbling, it was believed that +the next winter's frost would bring some down bodily. At Pratau the priest +had built all himself--parsonage, out-houses, stable, and byre. All these +things were duly noted to be reported upon. As for the priests, the +complaints made against them were very few indeed. In one case the people +said that their priest drank, and was continually seen in the +public-house. Generally, however, the complaints, when there were any, +were that the priest was too old for his work, or was so utterly +uneducated that he could do little more than mumble the Mass. There was +scanty evidence that the people understood very clearly the evangelical +theology. Partaking the Lord's Supper in both "kinds," or in one only, was +the distinction recognised and appreciated between the new and the old +teaching; and when they had the choice the people universally preferred +the new. In one case the parishioners complained that their priest +insisted on saying the Mass in Latin and not in German. In one case only +did the Visitors find any objection taken to the evangelical service. This +was at Meure, where the parish clerk's wife was reported to be an enemy of +the new pastor because he recited the service in German. It turned out, +however, that her real objection was that the pastor had displaced her +husband. At Bleddin the peasants told the Visitors that their pastor, +Christopher Richter, was a learned and pious man, who preached regularly +on all the Sundays and festival days, and generally four times a week in +various parts of the parish. It appeared, however, that their admiration +for him did not compel them to attend his ministrations with very great +regularity. The energetic pastors were all young men trained at +Wittenberg. The older men, peasants' sons all of them, were scarcely +better educated than their parishioners, and were quite unable to preach +to them. The Visitors found very few parishes indeed where three, four, +five or more persons were not named to them who never attended church or +came to the Lord's Table; in some parishes men came regularly to the +preaching who never would come to the Sacrament. What impressed the +Visitors most was the ignorance, the besotted ignorance, of the people. +They questioned them directly; found out whether they knew the Apostles' +Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer; and then questioned +them about the meanings of the words; and the answers were disappointing. + +Luther came back from the Visitation in greatly depressed spirits, and +expressed his feelings in his usual energetic language. He says in his +introduction to his _Small Catechism_, a work he began as soon as he +returned from the Visitation: + + + "In setting forth this Catechism or Christian doctrine in such a + simple, concise, and easy form, I have been compelled and driven + by the wretched and lamentable state of affairs which I discovered + lately when I acted as a Visitor. Merciful God, what misery have I + seen, the common people knowing nothing at all of Christian + doctrine, especially in the villages! and unfortunately many + pastors are well-nigh unskilled and incapable of teaching; and + although all are called Christians and partake of the Holy + Sacrament, they know neither the Lord's Prayer, nor the Creed, nor + the Ten Commandments, but live like poor cattle and senseless + swine, though, now that the gospel is come, they have learnt well + enough how they may abuse their liberty. Oh, ye bishops, how will + ye ever answer for it to Christ that ye have so shamefully + neglected the people, and have not attended for an instant to your + office? May all evil be averted from you! (_Das euch alles unglueck + fliche_). Ye forbid the taking of the Sacrament in one kind, and + insist on your human laws, but never inquire whether they know the + Lord's Prayer, the Belief, the Ten Commandments, or any of the + words of God. Oh, woe be upon you for evermore!" + + +The Visitors found that few books were to be seen in the parsonages. They +record one notable exception, the parsonage of Schmiedeberg, where the +priest had a library of twelve volumes. It could not be expected that such +uneducated men could preach to much edification; and one of the +recommendations of the Visitors was that copies of Luther's _Postils_ or +short sermons on the Lessons for the Day should be sent to all the +parishes, with orders that they should be read by the pastors to their +congregations. + +They did not find a trace anywhere of systematic pastoral visitation or +catechising. + +In their practical suggestions for ending the priestly inefficiency, the +Visitors made simple and homely arrangements. To take one example,--at +Liessnitz, the aged pastor Conrad was quite unable from age and ignorance +to perform his duties; but he was a good, inoffensive old man. It was +arranged that he was to have a coadjutor, who was to be boarded by the +rich man of the parish and get the fees, while the old pastor kept the +parsonage and the stipend, out of which he was to pay fourteen gulden +annually to his coadjutor. + +The Visitors found that schools did not exist in most of the villages, and +they were disappointed with the condition of the schools they found in the +smaller towns. It was proposed to make the parish clerks the village +schoolmasters; but they were wholly incompetent, and the Visitors saw +nothing for it but to suggest that the pastors must become the village +schoolmasters. The parish clerks were ordered to teach the children to +repeat the _Small Catechism_ by rote, and the pastors to test them at a +catechising on Sunday afternoons. In the towns, where the churches usually +had a _cantor_ or precentor, this official was asked to train the children +to sing evangelical hymns. + +In their inquiries about the care of the poor, the Visitors found that +there was not much need for anything to be done in the villages; but the +case was different in the towns. They found that in most of them there +existed old foundations meant to benefit the poor, and they discovered all +manner of misuses and misappropriations of the funds. Suggestions were +made for the restoration of these funds to their destined uses. + +This very condensed account of what took place in the Wittenberg "circle" +shows how the work of the Visitors was done; a second and a third +Visitation were needed in Electoral Saxony ere things were properly +arranged; but in the end good work was accomplished. The Elector refused +to take any of the confiscated convent lands and possessions for civil +purposes, and these, together with the Church endowments, provided +stipends for the pastors, salaries for the schoolmasters, and a settled +provision for the poor. + +When the Visitation was completed and the reports presented, the Visitors +were asked to draft and issue an _Instruction_ or lengthy advice to the +clergy and people of the "circle" they had inspected. This _Instruction_ +was not considered a regular legal document, but its contents were +expected to be acted upon. + +These Visitations and Instructions were the earliest attempts at the +reorganisation of the evangelical Church in Electoral Saxony. The Visitors +remained as a "primitive evangelical consistory" to supervise their +"circles." + +The Saxon Visitations became a model for most of the North German +evangelical territorial Churches, and the Instructions form the earliest +collection of requirements set forth for the guidance of pastors and +Christian people. The directions are very minute. The pastors are told how +to preach, how to conduct pastoral visitations, what sins they must +specially warn their people against, and what example they must show them. +The care of schools and of the poor was not forgotten.(378) + +The fact that matrimonial cases were during the Middle Ages almost +invariably tried in ecclesiastical courts, made it necessary to provide +some legal authority to adjudicate upon such cases when the mediaeval +episcopal courts had either temporarily or permanently lost their +authority. This led to a provisional arrangement for the government of the +Church in Electoral Saxony, which took a regular legal form. A pastor, +called a superintendent, was appointed in each of the four "circles" into +which the territory had been divided for the purpose of Visitation, to act +along with the ordinary magistracy in all ecclesiastical matters, +including the judging in matrimonial cases.(379) This Saxon arrangement +also spread largely through the northern German evangelical States. + +A third Visitation of Electoral Saxony was made in 1532, and led to +important ecclesiastical changes which formed the basis of all that came +afterwards. As a result of the reports of the Visitors, of whom Justus +Jonas seems to have been the most energetic, the parishes were rearranged, +the incomes of parish priests readjusted, and the whole ecclesiastical +revenues of the mediaeval Church within Electoral Saxony appropriated for +the threefold evangelical uses of supporting the ministry, providing for +schools, and caring for the poor. The doctrine, ceremonies, and worship of +the evangelical Church were also settled on a definite basis.(380) + +The Visitors pointed out that hitherto no arrangement had been made to +give the whole ecclesiastical administration one central authority. The +Electoral Prince had always been regarded as the supreme ruler of the +Church within his dominions, but as he could not personally superintend +everything, there was needed some supreme court which could act in all +ecclesiastical cases as his representative or instrument. The Visitors +suggested the revival of the mediaeval episcopal consistorial courts +modified to suit the new circumstances. Bishops in the mediaeval sense of +the word might be and were believed to be superfluous, but their true +function, the _jus episcopale_, the right of oversight, was indispensable. +According to Luther's ideas--ideas which had been gaining ground in Germany +from the last quarter of the fifteenth century--this _jus episcopale_ +belonged to the supreme secular authority. The mediaeval bishop had +exercised his right of oversight through a _consistorial court_ composed +of theologians and canon lawyers appointed by himself. These mediaeval +courts, it was suggested, might be transformed into Lutheran +ecclesiastical courts if the prince formed a permanent council composed of +lawyers and divines to act for him and in his name in all ecclesiastical +matters, including matrimonial cases. The Visitors sketched their plan; it +was submitted for revision to Luther and to Chancellor Brueck, and the +result was the Wittenberg Ecclesiastical Consistory established in +1542.(381) That the arrangement was still somewhat provisional appears +from the fact that the court had not jurisdiction over the whole of the +Electoral dominions, and that other two Consistories, one at Zeitz and the +other at Zwickau, were established with similar powers. But the thing to +be observed is that these courts were modelled on the old mediaeval +consistorial episcopal courts, and that, like them, they were composed of +lawyers and of theologians. The essential difference was that these +Lutheran courts were appointed by and acted in the name of the supreme +secular authority. In Electoral Saxony their local bounds of jurisdiction +did not correspond to those of the mediaeval courts. It was impossible that +they should. Electoral Saxony, the ordinance erecting the Consistory +itself says, consisted of portions of "ten or twelve" mediaeval dioceses. +The courts had different districts assigned to them; but in all other +things they reproduced the mediaeval consistorial courts. + +The constitutions of these courts provided for the assembling and holding +of Synods to deliberate on the affairs of the Church. The General Synod +consisted of the Consistory and the superintendents of the various +"circles"; and particular Synods, which had to do with the Church affairs +of the "circle," of the superintendent, and of all the clergy of the +"circle." + +Such were the beginnings of the consistorial system of Church government, +which is a distinctive mark of the Lutheran Church, and which exhibits +some of the individual traits of Luther's personality. We can see in it +his desire to make full use of whatever portions of the mediaeval Church +usages could be pressed into the service of his evangelical Church; his +conception that the one supreme authority on earth was that of the secular +government; his suspicion of the "common" man, and his resolve to prevent +the people exercising any control over the arrangements of the Church. + +Gradually all the Lutheran Churches have adopted, in general outline at +least, this consistorial system; but it would be a mistake to think that +the Wittenberg "use" was adopted in all its details. Luther himself, as +has been said, had no desire for anything like uniformity, and there was +none in the beginning. All the schemes of ecclesiastical government +proceed on the idea that the _jus episcopale_ or right of ecclesiastical +oversight belongs to the supreme territorial secular authority. All of +them include within the one set of ordinances, provisions for the support +of the ministry, for the maintenance of schools, and for the care of the +poor--the last generally expressed by regulations about the "common chest." +The great variety of forms of ecclesiastical government drafted and +adopted may be studied in Richter's collection, which includes one hundred +and seventy-two separate ecclesiastical constitutions, and which is +confessedly very imperfect. The gradual growth of the organisation finally +adopted in each city and State can be traced for a portion of Germany in +Sehling's unfinished work.(382) + +The number of these ecclesiastical ordinances is enormous, and the +quantity is to be accounted for partly by the way in which Germany was +split up into numerous small States in the sixteenth century, and also +partly by the fact that Luther pled strongly for diversity. + +The ordinances were promulgated in many different ways. Most frequently, +perhaps, the prince published and enacted them on his own authority like +any other piece of territorial legislation. Sometimes he commissioned a +committee acting in his name to frame and publish. In other cases they +resulted from a consultation between the prince and the magistrates of one +of the towns within his dominions. Sometimes they came from the councils +and the pastors of the towns to which they applied. In other instances +they were issued by an evangelical bishop. And in a few cases they are +simply the regulations issued by a single pastor for his own parish, which +the secular authorities did not think of altering. + +Although they are independent one from another, they may be grouped in +families which resemble each other closely.(383) + +Some of the territories reached the consistorial system much sooner than +others. If a principality consisted in whole or in part of a secularised +ecclesiastical State, the machinery of the consistorial court lay ready to +the hand of the prince, and was at once adapted to the use of the +evangelical Church. The system was naturally slowest to develop in the +imperial cities, most of which at first preferred an organisation whose +outlines were borrowed from the constitution drafted by Zwingli for +Zurich. + +Once only do we find an attempt to give an evangelical Church occupying a +large territory a democratic constitution. It was made by Philip, +Landgrave of Hesse, who was never afraid of the democracy. No German +prince had so thoroughly won the confidence of his commonalty. The +Peasants' War never devastated his dominions. He did not join in the +virulent persecution of the Anabaptists which disgraced the Lutheran as +well as the Roman Catholic States during the latter half of the sixteenth +century. It was natural that Luther's earlier ideas about the rights of +the Christian community (_Gemeinde_) should appeal to him. In 1526 (Oct. +6th), when the Diet of Speyer had permitted the organisation of +evangelical Churches, Philip summoned a Synod at Homberg, and invited not +merely pastors and ecclesiastical lawyers, but representatives from the +nobles and from the towns. A scheme for ecclesiastical government, which +had been drafted by Francis Lambert, formerly a Franciscan monk, was laid +before the assembly and adopted. It was based on the idea that the word of +God is the only supreme rule to guide and govern His Church, and that +Canon Law has no place whatsoever within an evangelical Church. Scripture +teaches, the document explains, that it belongs to the Christian community +itself to select and dismiss pastors and to exercise discipline by means +of excommunication. The latter right ought to be used in a weekly meeting +(on Sundays) of the congregation and pastor. For the purposes of orderly +rule the Church must have office-bearers, who ought to conform as nearly +as possible to those mentioned in the New Testament Scriptures. They are +bishops (pastors), elders, and deacons; and the deacons are the guardians +of the poor as well as ecclesiastical officials. All these office-bearers +must remember that their function is that of servants, and in no sense +lordly or magisterial. They ought to be chosen by the congregation, and +set apart by the laying on of hands according to apostolic practice. A +bishop (pastor) must be ordained by at least three pastors, and a deacon +by the pastor or by two elders. The government of the whole Church ought +to be in the hands of a Synod, to consist of all the pastors and a +delegate from every parish. Such in outline was the democratic +ecclesiastical government proposed for the territory of Hesse and accepted +by the Landgrave.(384) He was persuaded, however, by Luther's strong +remonstrances to abandon it. There is no place for the democratic or +representative element in the organisation of the Lutheran Churches. + + + + +Chapter VII. The Lutheran Reformation Outside Germany.(385) + + +The influence of Luther went far beyond Germany. It was felt in England, +France, Scotland, Holland, Poland, and Scandinavia. England went her own +peculiar way; France, Holland, and Scotland, in the end, accepted the +leadership of Calvin; the Lutheran Reformation, outside Germany, was +really confined to Scandinavia alone. + +In these Scandinavian lands the religious awakening was bound up with +political and social movements more than in any other countries. The +reformation in the Church was, indeed, begun by men who had studied under +Luther at Wittenberg, or who had received their first promptings from his +writings; but it was carried on and brought to a successful issue by +statesmen who saw in it the means to deliver their land from political +anarchy, caused by the overweening independence and turbulence of the +great ecclesiastical lords, and who were almost compelled to look to the +large possessions of the Church as a means to replenish their exhausted +treasuries without ruining the overburdened taxpayers. + +When Eric was crowned King of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway in 1397, the +assembled nobles, representative of the three kingdoms, agreed to the +celebrated Union of Kalmar, which declared that the three lands were to be +for ever united under one sovereign. The treaty was purely dynastic, its +terms were vague, and it was never very effective. Without going into +details, it may be said that the king lived in Denmark, and ruled in the +interests of that country; that he also may be said to have ruled in +Norway; but that in Sweden his authority was merely nominal, and sometimes +not even that. In Denmark itself, monarchical government was difficult. +The Scandinavian kingship was elective, and every election was an +opportunity for reducing the privileges, authority, and wealth of the +sovereign, and for increasing those of the nobles and of the great +ecclesiastics, who, being privileged classes, were freed from contributing +to the taxation. + +In 1513, Christian II., the nephew of the Elector of Saxony, and the +brother-in-law of the Emperor Charles V. (1515), came to the throne, and +his accession marks the beginning of the new era which was to end with the +triumph of the Reformation in all three countries. Christian was a man of +great natural abilities, with a profound sense of the miserable condition +of the common people within his realms, caused by the petty tyrannies of +the nobles, ecclesiastical and secular. No reigning prince, save perhaps +George, Duke of Saxony, could compete with him in learning; but he was +cruel, partly from nature and partly from policy. He had determined to +establish his rule over the three kingdoms whose nominal king he was, and +to free the commonalty from their oppression by breaking the power of the +nobles and of the great Churchmen. The task was one of extreme difficulty, +and he was personally unsuccessful; but his efforts laid the foundation on +which successors were able to build securely. + +He began by conquering rebellious Sweden, and disgraced his victory by a +treacherous massacre of Swedish notables at Stockholm (1520),--a deed +which, in the end, led to the complete separation of Sweden from Denmark. +After having thus, as he imagined, consolidated his power, he pressed +forward his schemes for reform. He took pains to encourage the trade and +agriculture of Denmark; he patronised learning. He wrote to his uncle +(1519), Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, to send him preachers trained by +Luther; and, in response to his appeal, received first Martin Reinhard, +and then Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt. These foreigners, who could only +address the people through interpreters, did not make much impression; but +reformation was pushed forward by the king. He published, on his own +authority, two sets of laws dealing with the nobles and the Church, and +subjecting both to the sovereign. He enacted that all convents were to be +under episcopal inspection. Non-resident and unlettered clergy were +legally abolished. A species of kingly consistorial court was set up in +Copenhagen, and declared to be the supreme ecclesiastical judicature for +the country; and appeals to Rome were forbidden. It can scarcely be said +that these laws were ever in operation. A revolt by the Jutlanders gave a +rallying point to the disaffection caused by the proposed reforms. +Christian fled from Denmark (1523), and spent the rest of his life in +exile or in prison. His law-books were burnt. + +The Jutlanders had called Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein, Christian's +uncle, to the throne, and he was recognised King of Denmark and of Norway +in 1523. He had come to the kingdom owing to the reaction against the +reforms of his nephew, but in his heart he knew that they were necessary. +He promised to protect the interests of the nobles, and to defend the +Church against the advance of Lutheran opinions; but he soon endeavoured +to find a means of evading his pledges. He found it when he pitted the +nobles against the higher clergy, and announced that he had never promised +to support the errors of the Church of Rome. At the National Assembly +(_Herredag_) at Odense he was able to get the marriage of priests +permitted, and a decree that bishops were in the future to apply to the +king and not to the Pope for their Pallium. The Reformation had now native +preachers to support it, especially Hans Tausen, who was called the Danish +Luther, and they were encouraged by the king. At the _Herredag_ at +Copenhagen in 1530, twenty-one of these Lutheran preachers were summoned, +at the instigation of the bishops, and formal accusations were made +against them for preaching heresy. Tausen and his fellows produced a +confession of faith in forty-three articles, all of which he and his +companions offered to defend. A public disputation was proposed, which did +not take place because the Romanist party refused to plead in the Danish +language. This refusal was interpreted by the people to mean that they +were afraid to discuss in a language which everyone understood. +Lutheranism made rapid progress among all classes of the population. + +On Frederick's death there was a disputed succession, which resulted in +civil war. In the end Frederick's son ascended the throne as Christian +III., King of Denmark and Norway (1536). The king, who had been present at +the Diet of Worms, and who had learned there to esteem Luther highly, was +a strong Lutheran, and determined to end the authority of the Romish +bishops. He proposed to his council that bishops should no longer have any +share in the government, and that their possessions should be forfeited to +the Crown. This was approved of not merely by the council, but also at a +National Assembly which met at Copenhagen (Oct. 30th, 1536), where it was +further declared that the people desired the holy gospel to be preached, +and the whole episcopal authority done away with. The king asked Luther to +send him some one to guide his people in their ecclesiastical matters. +Bugenhagen was despatched, came to Copenhagen (1537), and took the chief +ecclesiastical part in crowning the king. Seven superintendents (who +afterwards took the title of bishops) were appointed and consecrated. The +Reformation was carried out on conservative Lutheran lines, and the old +ritual was largely preserved. Tausen's Confession was set aside in favour +of the Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism, and the Lutheran +Reformation was thoroughly and legally established. + +The Reformation also became an accomplished fact in Norway and Iceland, +but its introduction into these lands was much more an act of kingly +authority. + +After the massacre of Swedish notables in Stockholm (Nov. 1520), young +Gustaf Ericsson, commonly known as Gustaf Vasa, from the _vasa_ or sheaf +which was on his coat of arms, raised the standard of revolt against +Denmark. He was gradually able to rally the whole of the people around +him, and the Danes were expelled from the kingdom. In 1521, Gustaf had +been declared regent of Sweden, and in 1523 he was called by the voice of +the people to the throne. He found himself surrounded by almost +insuperable difficulties. There had been practically no settled government +in Sweden for nearly a century, and every great landholder was virtually +an independent sovereign. The country had been impoverished by long wars. +Two-thirds of the land was owned by the Church, and the remaining third +was almost entirely in the hands of the secular nobles. Both Church and +nobles claimed exemption from taxation. The trade of the country was in +the hands of foreigners--of the Danes or of the Hanse Towns. Gustaf had +borrowed money from the town of Luebeck for his work of liberation. The +city was pressing for repayment, and its commissioners followed the +embarrassed monarch wherever he went. It was hopeless to expect to raise +money by further taxation of the already depressed and impoverished +peasants. + +In these circumstances the king turned to the Church. He compelled the +bishops to give him more than one subsidy (1522, 1523); but this was +inadequate for his needs. The Church property was large, and the king +planned to overthrow the ecclesiastical aristocracy by the help of the +Lutheran Reformation. + +Lutheranism had been making progress in Sweden. Two brothers, Olaus and +Laurentius Petri, sons of a blacksmith at Orebro, had been sent by their +father to study in Germany. They had meant to attend the University of +Leipzig; but, attracted by the growing fame of Luther, they had gone to +Wittenberg, and had become enthusiastic disciples of the Reformer. On +their return to Sweden (1519) they had preached Lutheran doctrine, and had +made many converts--among others, Laurentius Andreae, Archdeacon at +Strengnaes. In spite of protests from the bishops, these three men were +protected by the king. Olaus Petri was especially active, and made long +preaching tours, declaring that he taught the pure gospel which "Ansgar, +the apostle of the North, had preached seven hundred years before in +Sweden." + +Gustaf brought Olaus to Stockholm (1524), and made him town-clerk of the +city; his brother Laurentius was appointed professor of theology at +Upsala; Laurentius Andrew was made Archdeacon of Upsala and Chancellor of +Sweden. When the bishops demanded that the Reformers should be silenced, +Olaus challenged them to a public disputation. The challenge was refused; +but in 1524 a disputation was arranged in the king's palace in Stockholm +between Olaus and Dr. Galle, who supported the old religion. The +conference, which included discussion of the doctrines of Justification by +Faith, Indulgences, the Mass, Purgatory, and the Temporal Power of the +Pope, had the effect of strengthening the cause of the Reformation. In +1525, Olaus defied the rules of the mediaeval Church by publicly marrying a +wife. The same year the king called for a translation of the Scriptures +into Swedish, and in 1526 Laurentius Petri published his New Testament. A +translation of the whole Bible was edited by the same scholar, and +published 1540-1541. These translations, especially that of the New +Testament, became very popular, and the people with the Scripture in their +hands were able to see whether the teaching of the preachers or of the +bishops was most in accordance with the Holy Scriptures. + +There is no reason to believe that the king did not take the side of the +Lutheran Reformation from genuine conviction. He had made the acquaintance +of the brothers Petri before he was called to be the deliverer of his +country. But it is unquestionable that his financial embarrassment whetted +his zeal for the reformation of the Church in Sweden. Matters were coming +to a crisis, which was reached in 1527. At the Diet in that year, the +Chancellor, in the name of the king, explained the need for an increased +revenue, and suggested that ecclesiastical property was the only source +from which it could be obtained. The bishops, Johan Brask, Bishop of +Linkoeping, at their head, replied that they had the Pope's orders to +defend the property of the Church. The nobles supported them. Then Gustaf +presented his ultimatum. He told the Diet plainly that they must submit to +the proposals of the Chancellor or accept his resignation, pay him for his +property, return him the money he had spent in defence of the kingdom, and +permit him to leave the country never to return. The Diet spent three days +in wrangling, and then submitted to his wishes. The whole of the +ecclesiastical property--episcopal, capitular, and monastic--which was not +absolutely needed for the support of the Church was to be placed in the +hands of the king. Preachers were meanwhile to set forth the pure gospel, +until a conference held in presence of the Diet would enable that assembly +to come to a decision concerning matters of religion. The Diet went on, +without waiting for the conference, to pass the twenty-four regulations +which made the famous Ordinances of Vesteraes, and embodied the legal +Reformation. They contained provisions for secularising the ecclesiastical +property in accordance with the previous decision of the Diet; declared +that the king had the right of vetoing the decisions of the higher +ecclesiastics; that the appointment of the parish clergy was in the hands +of the bishops, but that the king could remove them for inefficiency; that +the pure gospel was to be taught in every school; and that auricular +confession was no longer compulsory. + +While the Ordinances stripped the Swedish Church of a large amount of its +property and made it subject to the king, they did not destroy its +episcopal organisation, nor entirely impoverish it. Most of the +monasteries were deserted when their property was taken away. The king +knew that the peasantry scarcely understood the Reformed doctrines, and +had no wish to press them unduly on his people. For the same reason the +old ceremonies and usages which did not flagrantly contradict the new +doctrines were suffered to remain, and given an evangelical meaning. The +first evangelical Hymn-book was published in 1530, and the Swedish "Mass" +in 1531, both drafted on Lutheran models. Laurentius Andreae was made +Archbishop of Upsala (1527), and a National Synod was held under his +presidency at Orebro (1528), which guided the Reformation according to +strictly conservative Lutheran ideals. Thus before the death of Gustaf +Vasa, Sweden had joined the circle of Lutheran Churches, and its people +were slowly coming to understand the principles of the Reformation. The +Reformation was a very peaceful one. No one suffered death for his +religious opinions. + +The fortunes of the Swedish Church were somewhat varied under the +immediate successors of Gustavus. His ill-fated son showed signs of +preferring Calvinism, and insisted on the suppression of some of the +ecclesiastical festivals and some of the old rites which had been +retained; but these attempts ended with his reign. His brother and +successor, Johan III., took the opposite extreme, and coquetted long with +Rome, and with proposals for reunion,--proposals which had no serious +result. When Johan died in 1592, his son and successor, who had been +elected King of Poland, and had become a Roman Catholic, aroused the fears +of his Swedish subjects that he might go much further than his father. The +people resolved to make sure of their Protestantism before their new +sovereign arrived in the country. A Synod was convened at which both lay +and ecclesiastical deputies were present. The members first laid down the +general rule that the Holy Scriptures were their supreme doctrinal +standard, and then selected the Augsburg Confession as the Confession of +the Swedish Church. Luther's Small Catechism, which had been removed from +the schools by King Johan III., was restored. This meeting at Upsala +settled for the future the ecclesiastical polity of Sweden. The country +showed its attachment to the stricter Lutheranism by adopting the Formula +of Concord in 1664. + + + + +Chapter VIII. The Religious Principles Inspiring The Reformation.(386) + + + +§ 1. The Reformation did not take its rise from a Criticism of Doctrines. + + +The whole of Luther's religious history, from his entrance into the +convent at Erfurt to the publication of the Augsburg Confession, shows +that the movement of which he was the soul and centre did not arise from +any merely intellectual criticism of the doctrines of the mediaeval church, +and that it resulted in a great deal more than a revision or +reconstruction of a system of doctrinal conceptions.(387) There is no +trace of any intellectual difficulties about doctrines or statement of +doctrines in Luther's mind during the supreme crisis of his history. He +was driven out of the world of human life and hope, where he was well +fitted to do a man's work, by the overwhelming pressure of a great +practical religious need--anxiety to save his soul. He has himself said +that the proverb that doubt makes a monk was true in his case. He doubted +whether he could save his soul in the world, and was therefore forced to +leave it and enter the convent. + +He had lost whatever evangelical teaching he had learnt in childhood or in +Frau Cotta's household at Eisenach. He had surrendered himself to the +popular belief, fostered by the whole penitential system of the mediaeval +Church, that man could and must make himself fit to receive the grace of +God which procures salvation. The self-torturing cry, "Oh, when wilt thou +become holy and fit to obtain the grace of God?" (_O wenn will tu einmal +fromm werden und genug thun du einen gnaedigen Gott kriegest?_), drove him +into the convent. He believed, and the almost unanimous opinion of his age +agreed with him, that there, if anywhere, he could find the peace he was +seeking with such desperation. + +Inside the convent he applied himself with all the force of a strong +nature, using every means that the complicated penitential system of the +Church had provided to help him, to make himself pious and fit to be the +receptacle of the grace of God. He submitted to the orders of his +superiors with the blind obedience which the most rigorous ecclesiastical +statutes demanded; he sought the comforting consolations which confession +was declared to give; he underwent every part of the complex system of +expiations which the mediaeval Church recommended; he made full use of the +sacraments, and waited in vain for the mysterious, inexplicable experience +of the grace which was said to accompany and flow from them. He persevered +in spite of the feeling of continuous failure. "If a monk ever reached +heaven by monkery," he has said, "I would have found my way there also; +all my convent comrades will bear witness to that."(388) He gave a still +stronger proof of his loyalty to the mediaeval Church and its advice to men +in his mood of mind; he persevered in spite of the knowledge that his +comrades and his religious superiors believed him to be a young saint, +while he knew that he was far otherwise, and that he was no nearer God +than he had been before he entered the monastery, or had begun his quest +after the sense of pardon of sin. The contrast between what his brethren +thought he must be and what his own experience told him that he was, must +have added bitterness to the cup he had to drink during these terrible +months in the Erfurt convent. He says himself: + + + "After I had made the profession, I was congratulated by the + prior, the convent, and the father-confessor, because I was now an + innocent child coming pure from baptism. Assuredly, I would + willingly have delighted in the glorious fact that I was such a + good man, who by his own deeds and without the merits of Christ's + blood had made himself so fair and holy, and so easily too, and in + so short a time. But although I listened readily to the sweet + praise and glowing language about myself and my doings, and + allowed myself to be described as a wonder-worker, who could make + himself holy in such an easy way, and could swallow up death, and + the devil also, yet there was no power in it all to maintain me. + When even a small temptation came from sin or death I fell at + once, and found that neither baptism nor monkery could assist me; + I felt that I had long lost Christ and His baptism. I was the most + miserable man on earth; day and night there was only wailing and + despair, and no one could restrain me."(389) + + +He adds that all he knew of Christ at this time was that He was "a stern +judge from whom I would fain have fled and yet could not escape." + +During these two years of anguish, Luther believed that he was battling +with himself and with his sin; he was really struggling with the religion +of his times and Church. He was probing it, testing it, examining all its +depths, wrestling with all its means of grace, and finding that what were +meant to be sources of comfort and consolation were simply additional +springs of terror. He was too clear-sighted, his spiritual senses were too +acute, he was too much in deadly earnest, not to see that none of these +aids were leading him to a solid ground of certainty on which he could +base his hopes for time and for eternity; and he was too honest with +himself to be persuaded that he was otherwise than his despair told +him.(390) + +At length, guided in very faltering fashion by the Scriptures, especially +by the Psalms and the Epistle to the Romans, by the Apostles' Creed, and +by fellow monks, he (to use his own words) came to see that the +righteousness of God (Rom. i. 17) is not the righteousness by which a +righteous God punishes the unrighteous and sinners, but that by which a +merciful God justifies us through faith (not _justitia, qua dens justus +est et peccatores injustosque punit_, but that _qua nos deus misericors +justificat per fidem_).(391) By _faith_, he says. What, then, did he mean +by "faith"? + +He replies: + + + "There are two kinds of believing: first, a believing about God + which means that I believe that what is said of God is true. This + faith is rather a form of knowledge than a faith. There is, + secondly, a believing in God which means that I put my trust in + Him, give myself up to thinking that I can have dealings with Him, + and believe without any doubt that He will be and do to me + according to the things said of Him. Such faith, _which throws + itself upon God_, whether in life or in death, alone makes a + Christian man."(392) + + +The faith which he prized is that religious faculty which "throws itself +upon God"; and from the first Luther recognised that faith of this kind +was a direct gift from God. Having it we have everything; without it we +have nothing. Here we find something entirely new, or at least hitherto +unexpressed, so far as mediaeval theology was concerned. Mediaeval +theologians had recognised faith in the sense of what Luther called +_frigida opinio_, and it is difficult to conceive that they did not also +indirectly acknowledge that there must be something like trust or +_fiducia_; but faith with them was simply one among many human efforts all +equally necessary in order to see and know God. Luther recognised that +there was this kind of faith, which a man begets and brings to pass in +himself by assent to doctrines of some sort. But he did not think much of +it. He calls it worthless because it gives us nothing. + + + "They think that faith is a thing which they may have or not have + at will, like any other natural human thing; so when they arrive + at a conclusion and say, 'Truly the doctrine is correct, and + therefore I believe it,' then they think that this is faith. Now, + when they see and feel that no change has been wrought in + themselves and in others, and that works do not follow, and they + remain as before in the old nature, then they think that the faith + is not good enough, but that there must be something more and + greater."(393) + + +The real faith, the faith which is trust, the divine gift which impels us +to throw ourselves upon God, gives us the living assurance of a living +God, who has revealed Himself, made us see His loving Fatherly heart in +Christ Jesus; and that is the Christian religion in its very core and +centre. The sum of Christianity is--(1) God manifest in Christ, the God of +grace, accessible by every Christian man and woman; and (2) unwavering +trust in Him who has given Himself to us in Christ Jesus,--unwavering, +because Christ with His work has undertaken our cause and made it His. + +The God we have access to and Whom we can trust because we have thrown +ourselves upon Him and have found that He sustains us, is no philosophical +abstraction, to be described in definitions and argued about in +syllogisms. He is seen and known, because we see and know Christ Jesus. +"He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." For with Luther and all the +Reformers, Christ fills the whole sphere of God; and they do not recognise +any theology which is not a Christology. + +The faith which makes us throw ourselves upon God is no mood of mere +mystical abandonment. It is our very life, as Luther was never tired of +saying. It is God within us, and wells forth in all kinds of activities. + + + "It is a living, busy, active, powerful thing, faith; it is + impossible for it not to do us good continually. It never asks + whether good works are to be done; it has done them before there + is time to ask the question, and it is always doing them."(394) + + +Christianity is therefore an interwoven tissue of promises and prayers of +faith. On the one side there is the Father, revealing Himself, sending +down to us His promises which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus; and on the +other side there are the hearts of men ascending in faith to God, +receiving, accepting, and resting on the promises of God, and on God who +always gives Himself in His promises. + +This is what came to Luther and ended his long and terrible struggle. He +is unwearied in describing it. The descriptions are very varied, so far as +external form and expression go,--now texts from the Psalms, the Prophets, +or the New Testament most aptly quoted; now phrases borrowed from the +picturesque language of the mediaeval mystics; now sentences of striking, +even rugged, originality; sometimes propositions taken from the mediaeval +scholastic. But whatever the words, the meaning is always the same. + +This conception of what is meant by Christianity is the religious soul of +the Reformation. It contains within it all the distinctively religious +principles which inspired it. It can scarcely be called a dogma. It is an +experience, and the phrases which set it forth are the descriptions of an +experience which a human soul has gone through. The thing itself is beyond +exact definition--as all deep experiences are. It must be felt and gone +through to be known. The Reformation started from this personal experience +of the believing Christian, which it declared to be the one elemental fact +in Christianity which could never be proved by argument and could never be +dissolved away by speculation. It proclaimed the great truth, which had +been universally neglected throughout the whole period of mediaeval +theology by everyone except the Mystics, that in order to know God man +must be in living touch with God Himself. Therein lay its originality and +its power. Luther rediscovered religion when he declared that the truly +Christian man must cling directly and with a living faith to the God Who +speaks to him in Christ, saying, "I am thy salvation." The earlier +Reformers never forgot this. Luther proclaimed his discovery, he never +attempted to prove it by argument; it was something self-evident--seen and +known when experienced. + +This is always the way with great religious pioneers and leaders. They +have all had the prophetic gift of spiritual vision, and the magnetic +speech to proclaim what they have seen, felt, and known. They have all +had, in a far-off way, the insight and manner of Jesus. + +When our Lord appeared among men claiming to be more than a wise man or a +prophet, declaring that He was the Messiah, the Son of Man and the Son of +God, when He announced that all men had need of Him, and that He alone +could save and redeem, He set forth His claims in a manner unique among +founders of religions. He made them calmly and as a matter of course. He +never explained elaborately why He assumed the titles He took. He never +reasoned about His position as the only Saviour. He simply announced it, +letting the conviction of the truth steal almost insensibly into the minds +and hearts of His followers as they saw His deeds and heard His words. He +assumed that they must interpret His death in one way only. This was +always His manner. It was not His way to explain mysteries our curiosity +would fain penetrate. He quietly took for granted many things we would +like to argue about. His sayings came from One who lived in perpetual +communion with the Unseen Father, and He uttered them quietly and +assuredly, confident that they carried with them their own self-evidencing +power. + +So it was with St. Paul. His letters and sermons are full of arguments, no +doubt, full of pleadings and persuasion, but they all start from and rest +upon his vision of the living, risen Saviour. His last word is always, +"When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me"; that was the elemental fact +which he proclaimed and which summed up everything, the personal +experience from which he started on his career as an apostle. The place of +Athanasius as a great religious leader has been obscured by his position +as a theologian; but when we turn to his writings, where do we find less +of what is commonly called dogmatic theology? There is argument, +reasoning, searching for proofs and their statement; but all that belongs +to the outworks in his teaching. The central citadel is a spiritual +intuition--I _know_ that _my_ Saviour is the God Who made heaven and earth. +He took his stand firmly and unflinchingly on that personal experience, +and all else mattered little compared with the fundamental spiritual fact. +It was not his arguments, but his unflinching faith that convinced his +generation. + +So it was with Augustine, Bernard,(395) Francis--so it has been with every +great religious leader of the Christian people. His strength, whether of +knowledge, or conviction, or sympathy,--his driving power, if the phrase +may be used,--has always come from direct communion with the unseen, and +rests upon the fact, felt and known by himself and communicated to others +by a mysterious sympathy, that it has pleased God to reveal Christ in him +in some way or other. + +So it was with Luther and the Reformation in which he was the leader. Its +driving power was a great religious experience, old, for it has come to +the people of God in all generations, and yet new and fresh as it is the +nature of all such experiences to be. He _knew_ that his life was hid with +Christ in God in spite of all evil, in spite of sin and sense of guilt. +His old dread of God had vanished, and instead of it there had arisen in +his heart a love to God in answer to the love which came from the vision +of the Father revealing Himself. He had experienced this, and he had +proclaimed what he had gone through; and the experience and its +proclamation were the foundation on which the Reformation was built. Its +beginnings were not doctrinal but experimental. + +Doctrines, indeed, are not the beginnings of things; they are, at the +best, storehouses of past and blessed experiences. This is true of most +knowledge in all departments of research. We may recognise that there is +some practical use in the rules of logic, ancient and modern, but we know +that they are but the uncouth and inadequate symbols of the ways in which +an indefinable mental tact, whose delicacy varies with the mind that uses +it, perceives divergences and affinities, and weaves its web of knowledge +in ways that are past finding out. We know that logical argument is a good +shield but a bad sword, and that while syllogisms may silence, they seldom +convince; that persuasion arises from a subtle sympathy of soul with soul, +which is as indefinable as the personalities which exhale it. There is +always at the basis of knowledge of men and things this delicate contact +of personality with personality, whether we think of the gathering, or +assorting, or exchanging the wisdom we possess. If this be true of our +knowledge of common things, it is overwhelmingly so of all knowledge of +God and of things divine. We must be in touch with God to know Him in the +true sense of knowledge. At the basis of every real advance in religion +there must be an intimate vision of God impressed upon us as a religious +experience which we know to be true because we have felt it; and what one +has, another receives by a species of spiritual contagion. The revival +under Francis of Assisi spread as it did because the fire flaming in the +heart of the preacher was also kindled in the hearts of his hearers. +Luther headed a Reformation because men felt and knew that he had, as he +said, found a gracious God by trusting in the grace of God revealed to him +in Christ Jesus. It was not the Augsburg Confession that made the +Reformation; it was the expansion of that religious experience which finds +very inadequate description in that or in any other statement of +doctrines. + + + +§ 2. The universal Priesthood of Believers. + + +Luther's religious experience, that he, a sinner, received forgiveness by +simply throwing himself on God revealed in Christ Jesus the Saviour, came +to him as an astounding revelation which was almost too great to be put +into words. He tried to express it in varying ways, all of which he felt +too utterly inadequate to describe it. We can see how he laboured at it +from 1512 to 1517. It lay hidden in his discourse to the assembly of +clergy in the episcopal palace at Ziesar (June 5th, 1512), when he +declared that all reform must begin in the hearts of individual men. We +can see it growing more and more articulate in his annotations, notes, and +heads of lectures on the Psalms, delivered in the years 1513-1516, +struggling to free itself from the phrases of the Scholastic Theology +which could not really express it. His private letters, in which he was +less hampered by the phraseology which he still believed appropriate to +theology, are full of happier expressions.(396) _Justificatio_ is +_vivificatio_, and means to redeem from sins without any merit in the +person redeemed; it takes place when sin is not imputed, but the penitents +are reputed righteous. Grace is the pity (_misericordia_) of God; it +manifests itself in the remission of sins; it is the truth of God seen in +the fulfilment of His promises in the historical work of Christ; Jesus +Christ Himself is grace, is the way, is life and salvation. Faith is trust +in the truth of God as manifested in the life and work of Jesus Christ; it +is to believe in God; it is a knowledge of the Cross of Christ; it is to +understand that the Son of God became incarnate, was crucified, and raised +again for our salvation. The three central thoughts--_justification_, +_grace_, _faith_--expressed in these inadequate phrases, are always looked +upon and used to regulate that estimate of ourselves which forms the basis +of piety. It is needless to trace the growing adequacy of the description. +Luther at last found words to say that the central thought in Christianity +is that the believer in possession of faith, which is itself the gift of +God, is able to throw himself on God in Christ Who is his salvation and +Who has mirrored Himself for us in Christ Jesus. He had trod the weary +round that Augustine had gone before him; he had tried _to help himself_ +in every possible way; he had found that with all his striving he could do +nothing. Then, strange and mysterious as it was, the discovery had not +brought despair, but rejoicing and comfort; for since there was no help +whatever in man, his soul had been forced to find _all_--not part, but +all--help in God. When he was able to express his experience he could say +that the faith which throws itself on God, which is God's own gift, is the +certainty of the forgiveness of sins. It was no adherence to doctrines +more or less clearly comprehended; it was no act of initiation to be +followed by a nearer approach to God and a larger measure of His grace; it +was the power which gives life, certainty, peace, continuous +self-surrender to God as the Father, and which transforms and renews the +whole man. It was the life of the soul; it was Christianity within the +believer--as Jesus Christ and His work is Christianity outside the +believer. + +It is manifest that as soon as this experience attained articulate +statement, it was bound to discredit much that was in mediaeval theology +and religious usage. Yet the striking thing about Luther was that he never +sought to employ it in this way until one great abuse forced itself upon +him and compelled him to test it by this touchstone of what true +Christianity was. This reserve not only shows that there was nothing +revolutionary in the character of Luther, nothing romantic or quixotic, it +also manifests the quiet greatness of the man. Nor was there anything in +the fundamental religious experience of Luther which necessarily +conflicted with the contents of the old ecclesiastical doctrines, or even +with the common usages of the religious life. There was a change in the +attitude towards both, and an entirely new estimate of their religious +value, but nothing which called for their immediate criticism, still less +for their destruction. Faith, which was the Christian life, could no +longer be based upon them; they were not the essential things that they +had been supposed to be; but they might have their uses if kept in their +proper places--aids to all holy living, but not that from which the life +sprang. The thought that the entire sum of religion consists in +"unwavering trust of the heart in Him Who has given Himself to us in +Christ as our Father, personal assurance of faith, because Christ with His +work undertakes our cause," simplified religion marvellously, and made +many things which had been regarded as essential mere outside auxiliaries. +But it did not necessarily sweep them away. Though the acceptance of +certain forms of doctrine, auricular confession, the monastic life, +communion by the laity in one "kind" only in the Sacrament of the Supper, +a celibate priesthood, fasting, going on pilgrimages, not to eat meat on +Friday, had nothing to do with the essentials of the Christian life; still +it was not necessary to insist on eating meat on Friday, on abstaining +from fasting, and so on. The great matter was the spirit in which such +things were performed or left undone. What the fundamental religious +experience had done was to show the liberty of the Christian man to trust +courageously in God and count all things of little moment compared with +this which was the one thing needful. + + + "Out of a complex system of expiations, good deeds, and + comfortings, of strict statutes and uncertain apportionments of + grace, out of magic and blind obedience, Luther led religion forth + and gave it a strenuously concentrated form. The Christian + religion is the living assurance of the living God Who has + revealed Himself and opened His heart in Christ--nothing + more."(397) + + +It was a vital part of this fundamental experience that the living God Who +had manifested Himself in Christ was accessible to every Christian. To +quote Harnack again: + + + "Rising above all anxieties and terrors, above all ascetic + devices, above all directions of theology, above all interventions + of hierarchy and Sacraments, Luther ventured to lay hold of God + Himself in Christ, and in this act of faith, which he recognised + as God's work, his whole being obtained stability and firmness, + nay, even a personal joy and certainty, which no mediaeval + Christian had ever possessed."(398) + + +God Himself gave the believer the power to throw himself directly on God. +But this contradicted one of the most widely diffused and most strongly +held religious beliefs of the mediaeval Church, and was bound to come in +collision with it whenever the two were confronted with each other. It was +the universal conception of mediaeval piety that the mediation of a priest +was essential to salvation. Mediaeval Christians believed with more or less +distinctness that the supernatural life of the soul was _created_, +nourished, and perfected through the sacraments, and that the priests +administering them possessed, in virtue of their ordination, miraculous +powers whereby they daily offered the true sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon +the altar, forgave the sins of men, and taught the truths of salvation +with divine authority. It was this universally accepted power of a +mediatorial priesthood which had enslaved Europe, and which had rendered +the liberty of a Christian man an impossible thing. Everywhere the +priesthood barred, or was supposed to be able to bar, the way to God. The +Church, which ought to have shown how God Who had revealed Himself in +Christ was accessible to every believer, had surrounded the inner shrine +of the sanctuary of His Presence with a triple wall of defence which +prevented entrance. When man or woman felt sorrow for sin, they were +instructed to go, not to God, but to a man, often of immoral life, and +confess their sins to him because he was a priest. When they wished to +hear the comforting words of pardon spoken, it was not from God, but from +a priest that the assurance was supposed to come. God's grace, to help to +holy living and to bring comfort in dying, was given, it was said, only +through a series of sacraments which fenced man's life round, and priests +could give or withhold these sacraments. Man was born again in baptism; he +came of age spiritually in confirmation; his marriage was cleansed from +the sin of lust in the sacrament of matrimony; penance brought back his +spiritual life slain by deadly sin; the Eucharist gave him with his voyage +victual as he journeyed through life; and deathbed grace was imparted in +extreme unction. These ceremonies were not the signs and promises of the +free grace of God, under whose wide canopy, as under that of heaven, man +lived his spiritual life. They were jealously guarded doors from out of +which grudgingly, and commonly not without fees, the priests dispensed the +free grace of God. + +During the later Middle Ages a gross abuse made the evils of this +conception of a mediating priesthood emphatic. The practical evil lying in +the whole thought was not so very apparent when the matter was regarded +from the side of giving out the grace of God; but when it came to +withholding it, then it was seen what the whole conception meant. The +Bishops of Rome gave the peoples of Europe many an object lesson on this. +If a town, or a district, or a whole country had offended the Pope and the +Curia, it was placed under an _interdict_, and the priests were commanded +to refuse the sacraments to the people. They stood between the newborn +babe and the initial grace supposed to be bestowed in baptism, and to be +absolutely withheld if baptism was not administered; between the dying man +and the deathbed grace which was received in extreme unction; between +young men and women and legal marriage blessed by God; between the people +and daily worship and the bestowal of grace in the Eucharist. The God of +grace could not be approached, the blessings of pardon and strength for +holy living could not be procured, because the magistrates of a town or +the king and councillors of a nation had offended the Bishop of Rome on an +affair of worldly policy. The Church, _i.e._ the clergy, who were by the +theory enabled to refuse to communicate the grace of God, barred all +access to the God who had revealed Himself in Christ Jesus. The Pope by a +stroke of the pen could prevent a whole nation, so it was believed, from +approaching God, because he could prohibit priests from performing the +usual sacramental acts which alone brought Him near. An _interdict_ meant +spiritual death to the district on which it fell, and on the mediaeval +theory it was more deadly to the spiritual life than the worst of plagues, +the Black Death itself, was to the body. An _interdict_ made the plainest +intellect see, understand, and shudder at the awful and mysterious powers +which a mediatorial priesthood was said to possess. + +The fundamental religious experience of Luther had made him know that the +Father, who has revealed Himself in His Son, is accessible to every humble +penitent and faithful seeker after God. He proclaimed aloud the spiritual +priesthood of all believers. He stated it with his usual graphic emphasis +in that tract of his, which he always said contained the marrow of his +message--_Concerning Christian Liberty_. He begins by an antithesis: "A +Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none: a +Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to +everyone"; or, as St. Paul puts it, "Though I be free from all men, yet +have I made myself servant of all." He expounds this by showing that no +outward things have any influence in producing Christian righteousness or +liberty; neither eating, drinking, nor anything of the kind, neither +hunger nor thirst have to do with the liberty or the slavery of the soul. +It does not profit the soul to wear sacred vestments or to dwell in sacred +places; nor does it harm the soul to be clothed in worldly raiment, and to +eat and drink in the ordinary fashion. The soul can do without everything +except the word of God, and this word of God is the gospel of God +concerning His Son, incarnate, suffering, risen, and glorified through the +Spirit the Sanctifier. "To preach Christ is to feed the soul, to justify +it, to set it free, to save it, if it believes the preaching; for faith +alone and the efficacious use of the word of God bring salvation." It is +faith that incorporates Christ with the believer, and in this way "the +soul through faith alone, without works, is, from the word of God, +justified, sanctified, endued with truth, peace, liberty, and filled full +with every good thing, and is truly made the child of God." For faith +brings the soul and the word together, and the soul is acted upon by the +word, as iron exposed to fire glows like fire because of its union with +the fire. Faith honours and reveres Him in Whom it trusts, and cleaves to +His promises, never doubting but that He overrules all for the best. Faith +unites the soul to Christ, so that "Christ and the soul become one flesh." +"Thus the believing soul, by the pledge of its faith in Christ, becomes +free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and endowed with the +eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of its husband Christ." This +gives the liberty of the Christian man; no dangers can really harm him, no +sorrows utterly overwhelm him: for he is always accompanied by the Christ +to whom he is united by his faith. + +"Here you will ask," says Luther, " 'If all who are in the Church are +priests, by what character are those whom we now call priests to be +distinguished from the laity?' I reply, By the use of these words +'priest,' 'clergy,' 'spiritual person,' 'ecclesiastic,' an injustice has +been done, since they have been transferred from the remaining body of +Christians to those few who are now, by a hurtful custom, called +ecclesiastics. For Holy Scripture makes no distinction between them, +except that those who are now boastfully called Popes, bishops, and lords, +it calls ministers, servants, and stewards, who are to serve the rest in +the ministry of the word, for teaching the faith of Christ and the liberty +of believers. For though it is true that we are all equally priests, yet +we cannot, nor ought we if we could, all to minister and teach publicly." + +The first part of the treatise shows that everything which a Christian man +has goes back in the end to his faith; if he has this he has all; if he +has it not, nothing else suffices him. In the same way the second part +shows that everything that a Christian man does must come from his faith. +It may be necessary to fast and keep the body under; it will be necessary +to make use of all the ceremonies of divine service which have been found +effectual for the spiritual education of man. The thing to remember is +that these are not good works in themselves in the sense of making a man +good; they are all rather the signs of his faith, and are to be done with +joy, because they are done to the God to whom faith unites us. So +ecclesiastical ceremonies, or what may be called the machinery of Church +life, are valuable, and indeed indispensable to the life of the soul, +provided only they are regarded in the proper way and kept in their proper +place; but they may become harmful and most destructive of the true +religious life if they are considered in any other light than that of +means to an end. "We do not condemn works," says Luther, "nay we attach +the highest value to them. We only condemn that opinion of works which +regards them as constituting true righteousness." They are, he explains, +like the scaffolding of a building, eminently useful so long as they +assist the builder; harmful if they obstruct; and at the best of temporary +value. They are destructive to the spiritual life when they come between +the soul and God. It follows, therefore, that if through human corruption +and neglect of the plain precepts of the word of God these ecclesiastical +usages hinder instead of aid the true growth of the soul, they ought to be +changed or done away with; and the fact that the soul of man, in the last +resort, needs absolutely nothing but the word of God dwelling within it, +gives men courage and tranquillity in demanding their reformation. + +In the same way fellow-men are not to be allowed to come between God and +the human soul; and there is no need that they should. So far as spiritual +position and privileges go, the laity are on the very same level as the +clergy, for laity and clergy alike have immediate access to God through +faith, and both are obliged to do what lies in them to further the advance +of the kingdom of God among their fellow-men. All believing laymen "are +worthy to appear before God, to pray for others, to teach each other +mutually the things that are of God ... and as our heavenly Father has +freely helped us in Christ, so we ought freely to help our neighbours by +our body and our works, and each should become to the other a sort of +Christ, so that we may be mutually Christs, and that the same Christ may +be in all of us; that we may be truly Christians." Luther asserted that +men and women living their lives in the family, in the workshop, in the +civic world, held their position there, not by a kind of indirect +permission wrung from God out of His compassion for human frailties, but +by as direct a vocation as called a man to what by mistake had been deemed +the only "religious life." The difference between clergy and laity did not +consist in the supposed fact that the former were a spiritual order of a +superior rank in the religious life, while the latter belonged to a lower +condition. The clergy differed from the laity simply in this, that they +had been selected to perform certain definite duties; but the function did +not make him who performed it a holier man intrinsically. If the clergy +misused their position and did not do the work they were set apart to +perform, there was no reason why they should not be compelled by the laity +to amend their ways. Even in the celebration of the holiest rites there +was no distinction between clergy and laity save that to prevent disorder +the former presided over the rites in which all engaged. At the Eucharist + + + "our priest or minister stands before the altar, having been + publicly called to his priestly function; he repeats publicly and + distinctly Christ's words of the institution; he takes the Bread + and the Wine, and distributes it according to Christ's words; and + we all kneel beside him and around him, men and women, young and + old, master and servant, mistress and maid, all holy priests + together, sanctified by the blood of Christ. We are there in our + priestly dignity.... We do not let the priest proclaim for himself + the ordinance of Christ; but he is the mouthpiece of us all, and + we all say it with him in our hearts with true faith in the Lamb + of God Who feeds us with His Body and Blood." + + +It was this principle of the Priesthood of all Believers which delivered +men from the vague fear of the clergy, and which was a spur to incite them +to undertake the reformation of the Church which was so much needed. It is +the one great religious principle which lies at the basis of the whole +Reformation movement. It was the rock on which all attempts at reunion +with an unreformed Christendom were wrecked. It is the one outstanding +difference between the followers of the reformed and the mediaeval +religion. + +Almost all the distinctive principles of the Reformation group themselves +round this one thought of the Priesthood of all Believers. It is +sufficient for our purpose to look at Justification by Faith, the +conceptions of the Holy Scriptures, of the Person of Christ, and of the +Church. + + + +§ 3. Justification by Faith. + + +When Luther, oppressed with a sense of sin, entered the convent, he was +burdened by the ideas of traditional religion, that the penitent must +prepare himself in some way so as to render himself fit to experience that +sense of the grace of God which gives the certainty of pardon. It was not +until he had thoroughly freed himself from that weight that he experienced +the sense of pardon he sought. This practical experience of his must +always be kept in view when we try to conceive what he meant by +Justification by Faith. + +As has been already said, Luther recognised that there were two kinds of +faith,--one which man himself begot and through which he was able to give +assent to doctrines of some sort; and another which Luther vehemently +asserted was the pure gift of God. The first he thought comparatively +unimportant; the latter was all in all to him. Faith is always used in the +latter sense when the Reformers speak about _Justification by Faith_; and +the sharp distinction which Luther draws between the two is a very +important element in determining what he meant when he said that we are +justified by faith alone. + +This faith of the highest kind, the true faith, has its beginning by God +working on us and in us. It is continually fed and kept strong by the word +of God. The promise of God on God's side and faith on man's side are two +correlative things; "for where there is no promise, there is no faith." +Luther brings out what this true faith is by contrasting it with the other +kind of faith in two very instructive and trenchant passages: + + + "When faith is of the kind that God awakens and creates in the + heart, then a man trusts in Christ. He is then so securely founded + on Christ that he can hurl defiance at sin, death, hell, the + devil, and all God's enemies. He fears no ill, however hard and + cruel it may prove to be. Such is the nature of true faith, which + is utterly different from the faith of the sophists (the + Schoolmen), Jews, and Turks. Their faith, produced by their + thoughts, simply lights upon a thing, accepts it, believes that it + is this or that. God has no dealings with such delusion; it is the + work of man, and comes from nature, from the free will of man; and + men possessing it can say, repeating what others have said: I + believe that there is a God. I believe that Christ was born, died, + rose again for me. But what the real faith is, and how powerful a + thing it is, of this they know nothing."(399) + + +He says again: + + + "Wherefore, beware of that faith which is manufactured or + imagined; for the true faith is not the work of man, and therefore + the faith which is manufactured or imagined will not avail in + death, but will be overcome and utterly overthrown by sin, by the + devil, and by the pains of hell. The true faith is the heart's + utter trust in Christ, and God alone awakens this in us. He who + has it is blessed, he who has it not is cursed."(400) + + +This faith has an outside fact to rest upon--the historical Christ. It is +neither helped nor hindered by a doctrine of the Person of Christ, nor by +a minute and elaborate knowledge of the details of our Lord's earthly +ministry. The man who has the faith may know a great deal about the +doctrine of the Person of Christ: that will do his faith no harm but good, +provided only he does not make the mistake of thinking that doctrines +about Christ, ways by which the human understanding tries to conceive the +fact, are either the fact itself or something better than the fact. He may +know a great deal about the history of Jesus, and it is well to know as +much as possible; but the amount of knowledge scarcely affects the faith. +Wayfaring men, though fools, need not err in the pathway of faith. + +The faith which is the gift of God makes us see the practical meaning in +the fact of the historic Christ--this, namely, that Jesus Christ is there +before us the manifestation of the Fatherly love of God, revealing to us +our own forgiveness, and with it the possibilities of the Kingdom of God +and of our place therein. The fact of the historic Christ is there, seen +by men in a natural way; but it is the power of God lying in the faith +which He has given us that makes us see with full certainty the meaning of +the fact of the historic Christ for us and for our salvation. Moreover, +this vision of God in the historic Christ, which is the deepest of all +personal things, always involves something social. It brings us within the +family of the faithful, within the Christian fellowship with its +confirming evidences of faith and love. The power of faith comes to us +singly, but seldom solitarily; the trust we have in God in Christ is +faintly mirrored in the faith we learn to have in the members of the +household of faith, and in their manifestations of faith and the love +which faith begets. + +What has been called the doctrine of Justification by Faith is therefore +rather the description of a religious experience within the believer; and +the meaning of the experience is simply this. The believer, who because he +has faith--the faith which is the gift of God, which is our life and which +regenerates--is regenerate and a member of the Christian fellowship, and is +able to do good works and actually does them, does not find his standing +as a person justified in the sight of God, his righteousness, his +assurance of pardon and salvation, in those good works which he really can +do, but only in the mediatorial and perfectly righteous work of Christ +which he has learned to appropriate in faith. His good works, however +really good, are necessarily imperfect, and in this experience which we +call Justification by Faith the believer compares his own imperfect good +works with the perfect work of Christ, and recognises that his pardon and +salvation depends on that alone. This comparison quiets souls anxious +about their salvation, and soothes pious consciences; and the sense of +forgiveness which comes in this way is always experienced as a revelation +of wonderful love. This justification is called an act, and is contrasted +with a work; but the contrast, though true, is apt to mislead through +human analogies which will intrude. It is an act, but an act of God; and +divine acts are never done and done with, they are always continuous. +Luther rings the changes upon this. He warns us against thinking that the +act of forgiveness is all done in a single moment. The priestly absolution +was the work of a moment, and had to be done over and over again; but the +divine pronouncement of pardon is continuous simply because it is God who +makes it. He says: + + + "For just as the sun shines and enlightens none the less brightly + when I close my eyes, so this throne of grace, this forgiveness of + sins, is always there, even though I fall. Just as I see the sun + again when I open my eyes, so I have forgiveness and the sense of + it once more when I look up and return to Christ. We are not to + measure forgiveness as narrowly as fools dream."(401) + + +In the Protestant polemic with Roman Catholic doctrine, the conception of +Justification by Faith is contrasted with that of Justification by Works; +but the contrast is somewhat misleading. For the word justification is +used in different meanings in the two phrases. The direct counterpart in +Roman Catholic usage to the Reformation thought of Justification by Faith +is the absolution pronounced by a priest; and here as always the Reformer +appeals from man to God. The two conceptions belong to separate spheres of +thought. + + + "The justification of which the mediaeval Christian had experience + was the descending of an outward stream of forces upon him from + the supersensible world, through the Incarnation, in the channels + of ecclesiastical institutions, priestly consecration, sacraments, + confession, and good works; it was something which came from his + connection with a supersensible organisation which surrounded him. + The justification by faith which Luther experienced within his + soul was the personal experience of the believer standing in the + continuous line of the Christian fellowship, who receives the + assurance of the grace of God in his exercise of a personal + faith,--an experience which comes from appropriating the work of + Christ which he is able to do by that faith which is the gift of + God."(402) + + +In the one case, the Protestant, justification is a personal experience +which is complete in itself, and does not depend on any external +machinery; in the other, the Mediaeval, it is a prolonged action of usages, +sacraments, external machinery of all kinds, which by their combined +effect are supposed to change a sinner gradually into a saint, righteous +in the eyes of God. With the former, it is a continuous experience; with +the latter, it cannot fail to be intermittent as the external means are +actually employed or for a time laid aside. + +The meaning of the Reformation doctrine of Justification by Faith may be +further brought out by contrasting it with the theory which was taught by +that later school of Scholastic theology which was all-powerful at the +beginning of the sixteenth century. The more evangelical theory of Thomas +Aquinas was largely neglected, and the Nominalist Schoolmen based their +expositions of the doctrine on the teaching of John Duns Scotus. + +It must be remembered that mediaeval theology never repudiated the theology +of Augustine, and admitted in theory at least that man's salvation, and +justification as part of it, always depended in the last resort on the +prevenient grace of God; in their reverence for the teaching of Aristotle, +they believed that they had also to make room for the action of the free +will of man which they always looked on as the pure capacity of choice +between two alternatives. John Duns Scotus got rid of a certain confusion +which existed between the _gratia operans_ and _gratia co-operans_ of +Augustine by speaking of the grace of God, which lay at the basis of man's +justification, as a _gratia habitualis_, or an operation of the grace of +God which gave to the will of man an habitual tendency to love towards God +and man. He alleged that when conduct is considered, an act of the will is +more important than any habitual tendency, for it is the act which makes +use of the habit, and apart from the act, the habit is a mere inert +passivity. Therefore, he held that the chief thing in meritorious conduct +is not so much the habit which has been created by God's grace, as the act +of will which makes use of the habit. In this way the grace of God is +looked upon as simply the general basis of meritorious conduct, or a mere +_conditio sine qua non_, and the important thing is the act of will which +can make use of the otherwise passive habit. The process of +justification--and it is to be remembered that the Schoolmen invariably +looked upon justification as a process by which a sinner was gradually +made into a righteous man and thoroughly and substantially changed--may +therefore be described as an infusion of divine grace which creates a +habit of the will towards love to God and to man; this is laid hold on by +acts of the will, and there result positive acts of love towards God and +man which are meritorious, and which gradually change a sinner into a +righteous person. This is the theory; but the theory is changed into +practice by being exhibited in the framework of the Church provided to aid +men to appropriate the grace of God which is the basis for all. The +obvious and easiest way to obtain that initial grace which is the +starting-point is by the sacraments, which are said to infuse grace--the +grace which is needed to make the start on the process of justification. +Grace is infused to begin with in Baptism; and it is also infused from +time to tune in the Eucharist. If a man has been baptized, he has the +initial grace to start with; and he can get additions in the Eucharist. +That, according to the theory, is all that is needed to start the will on +its path of meritorious conduct. But while this exhibits the ideal process +of justification according to mediaeval theology, it must be remembered +that there is mortal sin--sin which slays the new life begun in baptism--and +the sacrament which renews the life slain will be practically more +important than the sacrament which first creates it. Hence practically the +whole process of the mediaeval justification is best seen in the sacrament +which renews the life slain by deadly sins. That sacrament is Penance; and +the theory and practice of justification is best exhibited in the +Sacrament of Penance. The good disposition of the will towards God is seen +in confession; this movement towards God is complete when confession +stimulated by the priest is finished; the performance of the meritorious +good works is seen in the penitent performing the "satisfactions," or +tasks imposed by the priest, of prayer, of almsgiving, of maceration; +while the absolution announces that the process is complete, and that the +sinner has become a righteous man and is in "a state of grace." + +In opposition to all this, Luther asserted that it was possible to go +through all that process prescribed by the mediaeval Church, embodying the +Scholastic theory of justification, without ever having the real sense of +pardon, or ever being comforted by the sense of the love of God. The +faith, however, which is the gift of God makes the believer see in the +Christ Who is there before him a revelation of God's Fatherly love which +gives him the sense of pardon, and at the same time excites in him the +desire to do all manner of loving service. He is like the forgiven child +who is met with tenderness when punishment was expected, and in glad +wonder resolves never to be naughty again--so natural and simple is the +Reformation thought. That thought, however, can be put much more formally. +Chemnitz expresses it thus: + + + "The main point of controversy at present agitated between us and + the Papists relates to the good works or new obedience of the + _regenerate_. They hold that the regenerate are justified through + that renewal which the Holy Spirit works _in_ them, and by means + of the _good works which proceed_ from that renewal. They hold + that the good works of the regenerate are the things on which they + can trust, when the hard question comes to be answered, whether we + be children of God and have been accepted to everlasting life. We + hold, on the other hand, that in true repentance faith lays hold + on and appropriates to itself _Christ's satisfaction_, and in so + doing has something which it can oppose to the law's accusations + at the bar of God, and thus bring it to pass that we should be + declared righteous.... It is indeed true that believers have + actual righteousness through their renewal by the Holy Spirit, but + inasmuch as that righteousness is imperfect and still impure by + reason of the flesh, all men cannot stand in God's judgment with + it, nor on its account does God pronounce us righteous."(403) + + +Hence we may say that the difference in the two ways of looking at the +matter may be exhibited in the answer to the question, What does faith lay +hold on in true repentance? The Reformation answer is--(1) not on a +mechanically complete confession made to a priest, nor on a due +performance of what the priest enjoins by way of satisfaction; but (2) +only on what God in Christ has done for us, which is seen in the life, +death, and rising again of the Saviour. + +The most striking differences between the Reformation and the mediaeval +conception of justification are: + +(1) The Reformation thought always looks at the comparative _imperfection_ +of the works of believers, while admitting that they are good works; the +mediaeval theologian, even when bidding men disregard the intrinsic value +of their good works, always looks at the relative _perfection_ of these +works. + +(2) The Reformer had a much more concrete idea of God's grace--it was +something special, particular, unique--because he invariably regarded the +really good works which men can do from their relative imperfection; the +mediaeval theologian looked at the relative perfection of good works, and +so could represent them as something congruous to the grace of God which +was not sharply distinguished from them. + +(3) These views led Luther and the Reformers to represent faith as not +merely the receptive organ for the reception and appropriation of +justification through Christ, but, and in addition, as the active +instrument in all Christian life and work--faith is our life; while the +mediaeval theologians never attained this view of faith. + +(4) The Reformer believes that the act of faith in his justification +through Christ is the basis of the believer's assurance of his pardon and +salvation in spite of the painful and abiding sense of sin; while the +mediaeval theologian held that the divine sentence of acquittal which +restored a sinner to a state of grace resulted from the joint action of +the priest and the penitent in the Sacrament of Penance, and had to be +repeated intermittently. + + + +§ 4. Holy Scripture. + + +All the Reformers of the sixteenth century, whether Luther, Zwingli, or +Calvin, believed that in the Scriptures God spoke to them in the same way +as He had done in earlier days to His prophets and Apostles. They believed +that if the common people had the Scriptures in a language which they +could understand, they could hear God speaking to them directly, and could +go to Him for comfort, warning, or instruction; and their description of +what they meant by the Holy Scriptures is simply another way of saying +that all believers can have access to the very presence of God. The +Scriptures were therefore for them a personal rather than a dogmatic +revelation. They record the experience of a fellowship with God enjoyed by +His saints in past ages, which may still be shared in by the faithful. In +Bible history as the Reformers conceived it, we hear two voices--the voice +of God speaking love to man, and the voice of the renewed man answering in +faith to God. This communion is no dead thing belonging to a bygone past; +it may be shared here and now. + +But the Reformation conception of Scripture is continually stated in such +a way as to deprive it of the eminently religious aspect that it had for +men of the sixteenth century. It is continually said that the Reformers +placed the Bible, an infallible Book, over-against an infallible Church; +and transferred the _same kind_ of infallibility which had been supposed +to belong to the Church to this book. In mediaeval times, men accepted the +decisions of Popes and Councils as the last decisive utterance on all +matters of controversy in doctrine and morals; at the Reformation, the +Reformers, it is said, placed the Bible where these Popes and Councils had +been, and declared that the last and final appeal was to be made to its +pages. This mode of stating the question has found its most concise +expression in the saying of Chillingworth, that "the Bible and the Bible +alone is the religion of Protestants." It is quite true that the Reformers +did set the authority of the Scriptures over against that of Popes and +Councils, and that Luther declared that "the common man," "miller's maid," +or "boy of nine" with the Bible knew more about divine truth than the Pope +without the Bible; but this is not the whole truth, and is therefore +misleading. For Romanists and Protestants do not mean the same thing by +_Scripture_, nor do they mean the same thing by _Infallibility_, and their +different use of the words is a most important part of the Reformation +conception of Scripture. + +This difference in the meaning of _Scripture_ is partly external and +partly internal; and the latter is the more important of the two. + +The _Scriptures_ to which the Romanist appeals include the Apocryphal +Books of the Old Testament; and the _Scriptures_ which are authoritative +are not the books of the Old and New Testament in the original tongues, +but a translation into Latin known as the Vulgate of Pope Sixtus V. They +are therefore a book to a large extent different from the one to which +Protestants appeal. + +However important this external difference may be, it is nothing in +comparison with the internal difference; and yet the latter is continually +forgotten by Protestants as well as by Roman Catholics in their arguments. + +To understand it, one must remember that every mediaeval theologian +declared that the whole doctrinal system of his Church was based upon the +Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The Reformers did nothing +unusual, nothing which was in opposition to the common practice of the +mediaeval Church in which they had been born, educated, and lived, when +they appealed to Scripture. Luther made his appeal with the same serene +unconsciousness that anyone could gainsay him, as he did when he set the +believer's spiritual experience of the fact that he rested on Christ alone +for salvation against the proposal to sell pardon for money. His opponents +never attempted to challenge his right to make this appeal to Scripture--at +least at first. They made the same appeal themselves; they believed that +they were able to meet Scripture with Scripture. They were confident that +the authority appealed to--Scripture--would decide against Luther. It soon +became apparent, however, that Luther had an unexpectedly firmer grasp of +Scripture than they had. This did not mean that he had a better memory for +texts. It was seen that Luther somehow was able to look at and use +Scripture as one transparent whole; while they looked on it as a +collection of fragmentary texts. This gave him and other Reformers a skill +in the use of Scripture which their opponents began to feel that they were +deficient in. They felt that if they were to meet their opponents on equal +terms they too must recognise a unity in Scripture. They did so by +creating an external and arbitrary unity by means of the dogmatic +tradition of the mediaeval Church. Hence the decree of the Council of +Trent, which manufactured an artificial unity for Scripture by placing the +dogmatic tradition of the Church alongside Scripture as an equal source of +authority. The reason why the Reformers found a natural unity in the +Bible, and why the Romanists had to construct an artificial one, lay, as +we shall see, in their different conceptions of what was meant by saving +faith. + +Mediaeval theologians looked at the Bible as a sort of spiritual law-book, +a storehouse of divinely communicated knowledge of doctrinal truths and +rules for moral conduct--and nothing more. + +The Reformers saw in it a new home for a new life within which they could +have intimate fellowship with God Himself--not merely knowledge about God, +but actual communion with Him. + +There is one great difficulty attending the mediaeval conception of the +Scriptures, that it does not seem applicable to a large part of them. +There is abundant material provided for the construction of doctrines and +moral rules; but that is only a portion of what is contained in the +Scriptures. The Bible contains long lists of genealogies, chapters which +contain little else than a description of temple furniture, stories of +simple human life, and details of national history. The mediaeval +theologian had either to discard altogether a large part of the Bible or +to transform it somehow into doctrinal and moral teaching. The latter +alternative was chosen, and the instrument of transformation was the +thought of the various senses in Scripture which plays such a prominent +part in every mediaeval statement of the nature and uses of the revelation +of God contained in the Bible.(404) No one can deny that a book, where +instruction is frequently given in parables, or by means of aphorisms and +proverbial sayings, must contain many passages which have different +senses. It may be admitted, to use Origen's illustrations, that the grain +of mustard seed is, _literally_, an actual seed; _morally_, faith in the +individual believer; and, _allegorically_, the kingdom of God;(405) or, +though this is more doubtful, that the little foxes are, literally, cubs; +morally, sins in the individual heart; and, allegorically, heresies which +distract and spoil the Church.(406) But to say that every detail of +personal or national life in the Old Testament or New is merely dead +history, of no spiritual value until it has been transformed into a +doctrinal truth or a moral rule by the application of the theory of the +fourfold sense in Scripture, is to destroy the historical character of +revelation altogether, and, besides, to introduce complete uncertainty +about what any passage was really meant to declare. The use of a fourfold +sense--_literal_, _moral_, _allegorical_, and _anagogic_--enables the reader +to draw any meaning he pleases from any portion of Scripture. + +While mediaeval theologians, by their bewildering fourfold sense, made it +almost hopeless to know precisely what the Bible actually taught, another +idea of theirs made it essential to salvation that men should attain to an +absolutely correct statement of what the Scriptures did reveal about God +and man and the relation between them. They held that faith--the faith +which saves--was not trust in a person, but assent to correct propositions +about God, the universe, and the soul of man; and the saving character of +the assent depended on the correctness of the propositions assented to. It +is the submission of the intellect to certain propositional statements +which are either seen to be correct or are accepted as being so because +guaranteed in some supernatural way. Infallibility is looked upon as that +which can guarantee the perfect correctness of propositions about God and +man in their relations to each other. + +_If_ it be necessary to employ the fourfold sense to confuse the plain +meaning of the greater portion of Scripture, and _if_ salvation depends on +arriving at a perfectly correct intellectual apprehension of abstract +truths contained somewhere in the Bible, then Lacordaire's sarcastic +reference to the Protestant conception of Scripture is not out of place. +He says: "What kind of a religion is that which saves men by aid of a +book? God has given the book, but He has not guaranteed your private +interpretation of it. What guarantee have you that your thoughts do not +shove aside God's ideas? The heathen carves himself a god out of wood or +marble; the Protestant carves his out of the Bible. If there be a true +religion on earth, it must be of the most _serene_ and unmistakable +authority."(407) We need not wonder at John Nathin saying to his perplexed +pupil in the Erfurt Convent: "Brother Martin, let the Bible alone; read +the old teachers; reading the Bible simply breeds unrest."(408) We can +sympathise with some of the earlier printers of the German Vulgate when +they inserted in their prefaces that readers must be careful to understand +the contents of the volume in the way declared by the Church.(409) Men who +went to the Bible might go wrong, and it was spiritual death to make any +mistake; but all who simply assented to the interpretation of the Bible +given in the Church's theology were kept right and had the true or saving +faith. Such was the mediaeval idea. + +But all this made it impossible to find in the Bible a means of communion +with God. Between the God Who had revealed Himself there and man, the +mediaeval theologian, perhaps unconsciously at first, had placed what he +called the "Church," but what really was the opinions of accredited +theologians confirmed by decisions of Councils or Popes. The "Church" had +barred the way of access to the mind and heart of God in the Scriptures by +interposing its authoritative method of interpretation between the +believer and the Bible, as it had interposed the priesthood between the +sinner and the redeeming Saviour. + +Just as the Reformers had opposed their personal experience of pardon won +by throwing themselves on the mercy of God revealed in Christ to the +intervention of the Church between them and God, so they controverted this +idea of the Scriptures by the personal experience of what the Bible had +been to them. They had felt and known that the personal God, Who had made +them and redeemed them, was speaking to them in this Book, and was there +making manifest familiarly His power and His willingness to save. The +speech was sometimes obscure, but they read on and lighted on other +passages which were plainer, and they made the easier explain the more +difficult. The "common" man perhaps could not understand it all, nor fit +all the sayings of Scripture into a connected whole of intellectual truth; +but all, plain men and theologians alike, could hear their Father's voice, +learn their Redeemer's purpose, and have faith in their Lord's promises. +It was a good thing to put text to text and build a system of Protestant +divinity to which their intellects could assent; but it was not essential. +Saving faith was not intellectual assent at all. It was simple trust--the +trust of a child--in their Father's promises, which were Yea and Amen in +Christ Jesus. The one essential thing was to hear and obey the personal +God speaking to them as He had spoken all down through the ages to His +people, promising His salvation now in direct words, now in pictures of +His dealings with a favoured man or a chosen people. No detail of life was +dead history; for it helped to fill the picture of communion between God +and His people. The picture was itself a promise that what had been in the +past would be renewed in their own experience of fellowship with a +gracious God, if only they had the same faith which these saints of the +Old and New Testaments enjoyed. + +With these thoughts burning in their hearts, the Bible could not be to the +Reformers what it had been to the mediaeval theologians. God was speaking +to them in it as a man speaks to his fellows. The simple historical sense +was the important one in the great majority of passages. The Scripture was +more than a storehouse of doctrines and moral rules. It was over and above +the record and picture of the blessed experience which God's saints have +had in fellowship with their covenant God since the first revelation of +the Promise. So they made haste to translate the Bible into all languages +in order to place it in the hands of every man, and said that the "common +man" with the Bible in his hands (with God speaking to him) could know +more about the way of salvation than Pope or Councils without the +Scriptures. + +The change of view which separated the Reformers from mediaeval theologians +almost amounted to a rediscovery of Scripture; and it was effected by +their conception of faith. Saving faith was for them _personal trust_ in a +_personal Saviour_ Who had manifested in His life and work the Fatherly +mercy of God. This was not a mere theological definition; it was a +description of an experience which they knew that they had lived. It made +them see that the word of God was a personal and not a dogmatic +revelation; that the real meaning in it was that God Himself was there +behind every word of it,--not an abstract truth, but a personal Father. On +the one side, on the divine, there was God pouring out His whole heart and +revealing the inmost treasures of His righteousness and love in Christ the +Incarnate Word; on the other side, on the human, there was the believing +soul looking straight through all works and all symbols and all words to +Christ Himself, united to Him by faith in the closest personal union. Such +a blessed experience--the feeling of direct fellowship between the believer +and God Incarnate, of a communion such as exists between two loving human +souls, brought about by the twofold stream of God's personal word coming +down, and man's personal faith going up to God--could not fail to give an +entirely new conception of Scripture. The mediaeval Church looked on the +Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture as a Teacher sent from God; and +revelation was for them above all things an imparting of speculative +truth. To the Reformers the chief function of Scripture was to bring Jesus +Christ near us; and as Jesus always fills the full sphere of God to them, +the chief end of Scripture is to bring God near _me_. It is the direct +message of God's love to _me_,--not doctrine, but promise (for apart from +promise, as Luther said unweariedly, faith does not exist); not display of +God's thoughts, but of God Himself as _my_ God. This manifestation of God, +which is recorded for us in the Scriptures, took place in an historical +process coming to its fullest and highest in the incarnation and +historical work of Christ, and the record of the manifestation has been +framed so as to include everything necessary to enable us to understand +the declaration of God's will in its historical context and in its +historical manifestation. "Let no pious Christian," says Luther, "stumble +at the simple word and story that meet him so often in Scripture." These +are never the dead histories of the mediaeval theologian,--events which have +simply taken place and concern men no more. They tell how God dealt with +His faithful people in ages past, and they are promises of how He will act +towards us now. "Abraham's history is precious," he says, "because it is +filled so full of God's Word, with which all that befell him is so adorned +and so fair, and because God goes everywhere before him with His Word, +promising, commanding, comforting, warning, that we may verily see that +Abraham was God's special trusty friend. Let us mirror ourselves, then, in +this holy father Abraham, who walks not in gold and velvet, but girded, +crowned, and clothed with divine light, that is, with God's Word." The +simplest Bible stories, even geographical and architectural details, may +and do give us the sidelights necessary to complete the manifestation of +God to His people. + +The question now arises, Where and in what are we to recognise the +infallibility and authoritative character of Scripture? It is manifest +that the ideas attaching to these words must change with the changed +conception of the essential character of that Scripture to which they +belong. Nor can the question be discussed apart from the Reformation idea +of saving faith; for the two thoughts of Scripture and saving faith always +correspond. In mediaeval theology they are always primarily intellectual +and prepositional; in Reformation thinking, they are always in the first +instance experimental and personal. In describing the authoritative +character of Scripture, the Reformers always insisted that its recognition +was awakened in believers by that operation which they called the witness +of the Holy Spirit (_Testimonium Spiritus Sancti_). Just as God Himself +makes us know and feel the sense of pardon in an inward experience by a +faith which is His own work, so they believed that by an operation of the +same Spirit, believers were enabled to recognise that God Himself is +speaking to us authoritatively in and through the words of Scripture. + +Their view of what is meant by the authority and infallibility of +Scripture cannot be seen apart from what they taught about the relation +between Scripture and the word of God. They have all the same general +conception, however they may differ in details in their statement. If +Luther, as his wont was, speaks more trenchantly, and Calvin writes with a +clearer vision of the consequences which must follow from his assertions, +both have the same great thought before them. + +The Reformers drew a distinction between the word of God and the Scripture +which contains or presents that word. This distinction was real and not +merely formal; it was more than the difference between the word of God and +the word of God written; and important consequences were founded upon it. +If the use of metaphor be allowed, the word of God is to the Scripture as +the soul is to the body. Luther believed that while the word of God was +presented in every part of Scripture, some portions make it much more +evident. He instances the Gospel and First Epistle of St. John, the +Epistles of St. Paul, especially those to the Romans, to the Galatians, +and to the Ephesians, and the First Epistle of St. Peter.(410) He declares +that if Christians possessed no other books besides those, the way of +salvation would be perfectly clear. He adds elsewhere that the word of God +shines forth with special clearness in the Psalms, which he called the +Bible within the Bible. + +Luther says that the word of God may be described in the phrase of St. +Paul, "the Gospel of God, which He promised afore by His Prophets in the +Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David +according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, +according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the +dead."(411) Calvin calls it "the spiritual teaching, the gate, as it were, +by which we enter into His heavenly kingdom," "a mirror in which faith +beholds God," and "that wherein He utters unto us His mercy in Christ, and +assureth us of His love toward us."(412) The Scots Confession calls it the +revelation of the Promise "quhilk as it was repeated and made mair clear +from time to time; so was it imbraced with joy, and maist constantlie +received of al the faithful."(413) And Zwingli declares it to be "that our +Lord Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, has revealed to us the will of the +Heavenly Father, and, with His innocence, has redeemed us from +death."(414) It is the sum of God's commands, threatenings, and promises, +addressed to our faith, and above all the gospel offer of Christ to us. +This word of God need not take the form of direct exhortation; it may be +recognised in the simple histories of men or of nations recorded in the +Scripture. + +This true and real distinction between the word of God and Scripture may +easily be perverted to something which all the Reformers would have +repudiated. It must not be explained by the common mystical illustration +of kernel and husk, which husk (the record) may be thrown away when the +kernel (the word) has been once reached and laid hold of. Nor can it be +used to mean that one part of the Bible is the word of God and that +another is not. The Reformers uniformly teach that the substance of _all_ +Scripture is the word of God, and that what is no part of the record of +the word of God is not Scripture. Finally, the distinction between the two +need not prevent us saying that the Scripture is the word of God. Luther +is very peremptory about this. He says that he is ready to discuss +differences with any opponent who admits that the evangelical writings are +the word of God; but that if this be denied he will refuse to argue; for +where is the good of reasoning with anyone who denies first principles? +(_prima principia_)(415) Only it must be clearly understood that the +copula _is_ does not express logical identity, but some such relation as +can be more exactly rendered by _contains_, _presents_, _conveys_, +_records_,--all of which phrases are used in the writings of Reformers or +in the creeds of the Reformation Churches. The main thing to remember is +that the distinction is not to be made use of to deny to the substance of +Scripture those attributes of authority and infallibility which belong to +the word of God. + +On the other hand, there is a vital religious interest in the distinction. +In the first place it indicates what is meant by the infallibility of +Scripture, and in the second it enables us to distinguish between the +divine and the human elements in the Bible. + +The authoritative character and infallibility belong really and primarily +to the word of God, and only secondarily to the Scriptures,--to Scripture +only because it is the record which contains, presents, or conveys the +word of God. It is this word of God, this personal manifestation to us for +our salvation of God in His promises, which is authoritative and +infallible; and Scripture shares these attributes only in so far as it is +a vehicle of spiritual truth. It is the unanimous declaration of the +Reformers that Scripture is Scripture because it gives us that knowledge +of God and of His will which is necessary for salvation; because it +presents to the eye of faith God Himself personally manifesting Himself in +Christ. It is this presentation of God Himself and of His will for our +salvation which is infallible and authoritative. But this manifestation of +God Himself is something spiritual, and is to be apprehended by a +spiritual faculty which is faith, and the Reformers and the Confessions of +the Reformation do not recognise any infallibility or divine authority +which is otherwise apprehended than by faith. If this be so, the +infallibility is of quite another kind from that described by mediaeval +theologians or modern Roman Catholics, and it is also very different from +what many modern Protestants attribute to the Scriptures when they do not +distinguish them from the word of God. With the mediaeval theologian +infallibility was something which guaranteed the perfect correctness of +abstract propositions; with some modern Protestants it consists in the +conception that the record contains not even the smallest error in word or +description of fact--in its inerrancy. But neither inerrancy nor the +correctness of abstract propositions is apprehended by faith in the +Reformers' sense of that word; they are matters of fact, to be accepted or +rejected by the ordinary faculties of man. The infallibility and authority +which need faith to perceive them are, and must be, something very +different; they produce the conviction that in the manifestation of God in +His word there lies infallible power to save. This is given, all the +Reformers say, by the Witness of the Spirit; "the true kirk alwaies heares +and obeyis the voice of her awin spouse and pastor."(416) Calvin discusses +the authority and credibility of Scripture in his _Institutio_, and says: +"Let it be considered, then, as an undeniable truth that they who have +been inwardly taught of the Spirit feel an entire acquiescence in the +Scripture, and that it is self-authenticated, carrying with it its own +evidence, and ought not to be made the subject of demonstration and +arguments from reason; but that it obtains the credit which it deserves +with us by the testimony of the Spirit."(417) This is a religious +conception of infallibility very different from the mediaeval or the modern +Romanist. + +The distinction between the word of God and Scripture also serves to +distinguish between the divine and the human elements in Scripture, and to +give each its proper place. + +Infallibility and divine authority belong to the sphere of faith and of +the witness of the Spirit, and, therefore, to that personal manifestation +of God and of His will toward us which is conveyed or presented to us in +every part of Scripture. But this manifestation is given in a course of +events which are part of human history, in lives of men and peoples, in a +record which in outward form is like other human writings. If every part +of Scripture is divine, every part of it is also human. The supernatural +reality is incased in human realities. To apprehend the former, faith +illumined by the Holy Spirit is necessary; but it is sufficient to use the +ordinary methods of research to learn the credibility of the history in +Scripture. When the Reformers distinguished between the word of God and +Scripture which conveys or presents it, and when they declared that the +authority and infallibility of that word belonged to the region of faith, +they made that authority and infallibility altogether independent of +questions that might be raised about the human agencies through which the +book came into its present shape. It is not a matter belonging to the +region of faith when the books which record the word of God were written, +or by whom, or in what style, or how often they were edited or re-edited. +It is not a matter for faith whether incidents happened in one country or +in another; whether the account of Job be literal history, or a poem based +on old traditions in which the author has used the faculty of imagination +to illustrate the problems of God's providence and man's probation; +whether genealogical tables give the names of men or of countries and +peoples. All these and the like matters belong to the human side of the +record. No special illumination of faith is needed to apprehend and +understand them. They are matters for the ordinary faculties of man, and +subject to ordinary human investigation. Luther availed himself freely of +the liberty thus given. He never felt himself bound to accept the +traditional ideas about the extent of the canon, the authorship of the +books of the Bible, or even about the credibility of some of the things +recorded. He said, speaking about Genesis, "What though Moses never wrote +it?"(418) It was enough for him that the book was there and that he could +read it. He thought that the Books of Kings were more worthy of credit +than the Books of Chronicles;(419) and he believed that the prophets had +not always given the kings of Israel the best political advice.(420) + +But while the Bible is human literature, and as such may be and must be +subjected to the same tests which are applied to ordinary literature, it +is the record of the revelation of God, and has been carefully guarded and +protected by God. This thought always enters into the conception which the +Reformers had of Scripture. They speak of the singular care and providence +of God which has preserved the Scriptures in such a way that His people +always have a full and unmistakable declaration in them of His mind and +will for their salvation. This idea for ever forbids a careless or +irreverent biblical criticism, sheltering itself under the liberty of +dealing with the records of revelation. No one can say beforehand how much +or how little of the historic record is essential to preserve the faith of +the Church; but every devout Christian desires to have it in large +abundance. No one can plead the liberty which the principles of the +Reformers secure for dealing with the record of Scripture as a +justification in taking a delight in reducing to a minimum the historical +basis of the Christian faith. Careless or irreverent handling of the text +of Holy Scripture is what all the Reformers abhorred.(421) + + + +§ 5. The Person of Christ. + + +"No one can deny," said Luther, "that we hold, believe, sing, and confess +all things in correspondence with the Apostles' Creed, the faith of the +old Church, that we make nothing new therein nor add anything thereto, and +in this way we belong to the old Church and are one with it." Both the +Augsburg Confession and the Schmalkald Articles begin with restating the +doctrines of the old Catholic Church as these are given in the Apostles', +Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, the two latter being always regarded by +Luther as explanatory of the Apostles' Creed. His criticism of theological +doctrines was always confined to the theories introduced by the Schoolmen, +and to the perversion of the old doctrines of the Church introduced in +mediaeval times mainly to bring these doctrines into conformity with the +principles of the philosophy of Aristotle. He brought two charges against +the Scholastic Theology. It was, he insisted, committed to the idea of +work-righteousness; whatever occasional protest might be made against the +conception, he maintained that this thought of work-righteousness was so +interwoven with its warp and woof that the whole must be swept away ere +the old and true Christian Theology could be rediscovered. He also +declared it was sophistry; and by that he meant that it played with the +outsides of doctrine, asked and solved questions which had nothing to do +with real Christian theology, that the imposing intellectual edifice was +hollow within, that its deity was not the God and Father revealed in Jesus +Christ, but the unknown God, the God who could never be revealed by +metaphysics larded with detached texts of Scripture, the abstract entity +of pagan philosophy. With an unerring instinct he fastened on the +Scholastic devotion to Aristotle as the reason why what professed to be +Christian theology had been changed into something else. Scholastic +Philosophy or Theology (for the two are practically the same) defined +itself as the attempt to reconcile _faith_ and _reason_, and the +definition has been generally accepted. Verbally it is correct; really it +is very misleading from the meanings attached to the words faith and +reason. With the Schoolmen, faith in this contrast between faith and +reason meant the sum of patristic teaching about the verities of the +Christian religion extracted by the Fathers from the Holy Scriptures; and +reason meant the sum of philosophical principles extracted from the +writings of ancient philosophers, and especially from Aristotle. The great +Schoolmen conceived it to be their task to construct a system of Christian +Philosophy by combining patristic doctrinal conclusions with the +conclusions of human reasoning which they believed to be given in their +highest form in the writings of the ancient Grecian sages. They actually +used the conceptions of the Fathers as material to give body to the forms +of thought found ready made for them in the speculations of Aristotle and +Plato. The Christian material was moulded to fit the pagan forms, and in +consequence lost its most essentially Christian characteristics. One can +see how the most evangelical of the Schoolmen, Thomas Aquinas, tries in +vain to break through the meshes of the Aristotelian net in his +discussions on merit and satisfaction in his _Summa Theologiae_.(422) He +had to start from the thought of God as (1) the Absolute, and (2) as the +_Primum Movens_, the _Causa efficiens prima_, the _Intelligens a quo omnes +res naturales ordinantur in finem_--conceptions which can never imprison +without practically destroying the vision of the Father who has revealed +Himself in the Saviour Jesus Christ. His other starting-point, that man is +to be described as the possessor of free will in the Aristotelian sense of +the term, will never contain the Christian doctrine of man's complete +dependence on God in his salvation. It inevitably led to +work-righteousness. This was the "sophistry" Luther protested against and +which he swept away. + +He then claimed that he stood where the old Catholic Church had taken +stand, that his theology like its was rooted in the faith of God as +Trinity and in the belief in the Person of Christ, the Revealer of God. +The old theology had nothing to do with Mariolatry or saint worship; it +revered the triune God, and Jesus Christ His Son and man's Saviour. Luther +could join hands with Athanasius across twelve centuries. He had done a +work not unlike that of the great Alexandrian. His rejection of the +Scholastic Aristotelianism may be compared with Athanasius' refusal to +allow the Logos theology any longer to confuse the Christian doctrines of +God and the Person of Christ. Both believed that in all thinking about God +they ought to keep their eyes fixed upon His redemptive work manifested in +the historical Christ. Athanasius, like Luther, brought theology back to +religion from "sophistry," and had for his starting-point an inward +religious experience that his Redeemer was the God who made heaven and +earth. The great leaders in the ancient Church, Luther believed, held as +he did that to have conceptions about God, to construct a real Christian +theology, it was necessary first of all to know God Himself, and that He +was only to be known through the Lord Jesus Christ. He had gone through +the same experience as they had done; he could fully sympathise with them, +and could appropriate the expressions in which they had described and +crystallised what they had felt and known, and that without paying much +attention to the niceties of technical language. These doctrines had not +been dead formulas to them, but the expression of a living faith. He could +therefore take the old dogmas and make them live again in an age in which +it seemed as if they had lost all their vitality. + + + "From the time of Athanasius," says Harnack, "there had been no + theologian who had given so much living power for faith to the + doctrine of the Godhead of Christ as Luther did; since the time of + Cyril, no teacher had arisen in the Church for whom the mystery of + the union of the two natures in Christ was so full of comfort as + for Luther--'I have a better provider than all angels are: he lies + in the cradle and hangs on the breast of a virgin, but sits, + nevertheless, at the right hand of the almighty father'; no mystic + philosopher of antiquity spoke with greater conviction and delight + of the sacred nourishment in the Eucharist. The German reformer + restored life to the formulas of Greek Christianity: he gave them + back to faith."(423) + + +But if Luther accepted the old formulas describing the Nature of God and +the Person of Christ, he did so in a thoroughly characteristic way. He had +no liking for theological technical terms, though he confessed that it was +necessary to use them. He disliked the old term _homoousios_ to describe +the relation between the Persons in the Trinity, and preferred the word +"oneness";(424) he even disliked the term Trinity, or at least its German +equivalents, Dreifaltigkeit or Dreiheit--they were not good German words, +he said;(425) he called the technical terms used in the old creeds +_vocabula mathematica_;(426) he was careful to avoid using them in his +Short and even in his Long Catechism. But Jesus Christ was for him the +mirror of the Fatherly heart of God, and therefore was God; God Himself +was the only Comforter to bring rest to the human soul, and the Holy +Spirit was God; and the old creeds confessed One God, Father, Son, and +Holy Ghost, and the confession contented him whatever words were used. +Besides, he rejoiced to place himself side by side with the Christians of +ancient days, who trusted God in Christ and were free from the +"sophistries" of the Schoolmen. + +Although Luther accepted, honestly and joyfully, the old theology about +God and the Person of Christ, he put a new and richer meaning into it. +Luther lets us see over and over again that he believed that the only +thing worth considering in theology was the divine work of Christ and the +experience that we have of it through faith. He did not believe that we +have any real knowledge of God outside these limits. Beyond them there is +the unknown God of philosophical paganism, the God whom Jews, Turks, +pagans, and nominal Christians ignorantly worship. In order to know God it +is necessary to know Him through the Jesus Christ of history. Hence with +Luther, Christ fills the whole sphere of God: "He that hath seen Me hath +seen the Father," and conversely: "He that hath not seen Me hath not seen +the Father." The historical Jesus Christ is for Luther the revealer and +the only revealer of the Father. The revelation is given in the wonderful +experience of faith in which Jesus compels us to see God in Him--the whole +of God, Who has kept nothing back which He could have given us. It is very +doubtful whether the framers of the old creeds ever grasped this thought. +The great expounder of the old theology, Augustine, certainly did not. The +failure to enter into it showed itself not merely in the doctrine of God, +but also in the theories of grace. With Luther all theology is really +Christology; he knew no other God than the God Who had manifested Himself +in the historical Christ, and made us see in the miracle of faith that He +is our salvation. This at once simplifies all Christian theology and cuts +it clearly away from that Scholastic which Luther called "sophistry." Why +need Christians puzzle themselves over the Eternal Something which is not +the world when they have the Father? On the old theology the work of +Christ was practically limited to procuring the forgiveness of sins. There +it ended and other gracious operations of God began--operations of grace. +So there grew the complex system of expiations, and satisfactions, of +magical sacraments and saints' intercessions. These were all at once swept +away when the whole God was seen revealed in Christ in the vision of faith +and nowhere else. + +Like Athanasius, Luther found his salvation in the Deity of Christ. + + + "We must have a Saviour Who is more than a saint or an angel; for + if He were no more, better and greater than these, there were no + helping us. But if he be God, then the treasure is so ponderous + that it outweighs and lifts away sin and death; and not only so, + but also gives eternal life. This is our Christian faith, and + therefore we rightly confess: 'I believe in Jesus Christ His only + Son, our Lord, Who was born of Mary, suffered and died.' By this + faith hold fast, and though heathen and heretic are ever so wise + thou shalt be blessed."(427) + + +He repeats this over and over again. If we cannot say God died for us, if +it was only a man who suffered on the cross, then we are lost, was +Luther's firmest conviction; and the thought of the Divinity of Christ +meant more to Luther than it did to previous theologians. The old theology +had described the two Natures in the One Person of the God-man in such a +way as to suggest that the only function of the Divine was to give to the +human work of Christ the importance necessary to effect salvation. Luther +always refused to adopt this limited way of regarding the Divinity of the +Saviour. He did not refuse to adopt and use the _phraseology_ of his +predecessors. Like them, he spoke of the two Natures in the One Person of +Christ. But it is plain from his expositions of the Creed, and from his +criticisms of the current theological terminology, that he did not like +the expression. He thought that it suggested an idea that was wrong, and +that had to be guarded against. He says that we must beware of thinking as +if the deity and humanity in Christ are so externally united that we may +look at the one apart from the other. + + + "This is the first principle and most excellent article how Christ + is the Father: that we are not to doubt that whatsoever the man + says and does is reckoned and must be reckoned as said and done in + heaven for all angels; in the world for all rulers; in hell for + all devils; in the heart for every evil conscience and all secret + thoughts. For if we are certain of this: that what Jesus thinks, + speaks, and wills the Father also wills, then I defy all that may + fight against me. For here in Christ have I the Father's heart and + will."(428) + + +He brings the thought of the Person of Christ into the closest relation to +our personal experience. It is not simply a doctrine--an intellectual +something outside us. It is part of that blessed experience which is +called Justification by Faith. It is inseparably connected with the +recognition that we are not saved by means of the good deeds which we can +do, but solely by the work of Christ. It is what makes us cease all +work-righteousness and trust in God alone as He has revealed Himself in +Christ. When we know and feel that it is God who is working for us, then +we instinctively cease trying to think that we can work out our own +salvation.(429) Hence the Person of Christ can never be a mere doctrine +for the true Christian to be inquired about by the intellect. It is +something which we carry about with us as part of our lives. + + + "To know Christ in the true way means to know that He died for us, + that He piled our sins upon Himself, so that we hold all our own + affairs as nothing and let them all go, and cling only to the + faith that Christ has given Himself for us, and that His + sufferings and piety and virtues are all mine. When I know this I + must hold Him dear in return, for I must be loving to such a man." + + +He insists on the human interest that the Man Jesus Christ has for us, and +declares that we must take as much interest in His whole life on earth as +in that of our closest friend. + +Perhaps it ought to be added, although what has been said implies it, that +Luther always approached the Person of Christ from his mediatorial work, +and not from any previously thought out ideas of what Godhead must be, and +what manhood must be, and how they can be united. He begins with the +mediatorial and saving work of Christ as that is revealed in the blessed +experience which faith, the gift of God, creates. He rises from, the +office to the Person, and does not descend from the Person to the office. +"Christ is not called Christ because He has the two Natures. What does +that matter to me? He bears this glorious and comforting name because of +His Office and Work which He has undertaken."(430) It is in this way that +He becomes the Saviour and the Redeemer. + +It can scarcely be said that all the Reformers worked out the conception +of the Person of Christ in the same way as Luther, although almost all +these thoughts can be found in Calvin, but the overshadowing conception is +always present to their mind--Christ fills the full sphere of God. That is +the characteristic of Reformation thought and of Reformation piety, and +appears everywhere in the writings of the Reformers and in the worship and +rites of the Reformed Church. To go into the matter exhaustively would +necessitate more space than can be given; but the following instances may +be taken as indicating the universal thought. + +1. The Reformers swept away every contemplation of intercessors who were +supposed to share with our Lord the procuring of pardon and salvation, and +they declared against all attempts to distinguish between various kinds of +worship which could only lead pious souls astray from the one worship due +to God in Christ. Such subtle distinctions, says Calvin, as _latria_, +_doulia_, and _hyperdoulia_ are neither known nor present to the minds of +those who prostrate themselves before images until the world has become +full of idolatry as crude and plain as that of the ancient Egyptians, +which all the prophets continuously denounced: they can only mislead, and +ought to be discarded. They actually suggest to worshippers to pass by +Jesus Christ, the only Mediator, and betake themselves to some patron who +has struck their fancy. They bring it about that the Divine Offices are +distributed among the saints as if they had been appointed colleagues to +our Lord Jesus Christ; and they are made to do His work, while He Himself +is kept in the background like some ordinary person in a crowd. They are +responsible for the fact that hymns are sung in public worship in which +the saints are lauded with every blessing just as if they were colleagues +of God.(431) + +In conformity with these thoughts, the Confessions of the Reformation all +agree in reprobating prayers to the saints. The Augsburg Confession says: + + + "The Scripture teacheth not to invoke saints, nor to ask the help + of saints, because it propoundeth to us one Christ, the Mediator, + Propitiatory, High Priest, and Intercessor. This Christ is to be + invocated, and He hath promised that He will hear our prayers, and + liketh this worship, to wit, that He be invocated in all + afflictions. 'If any man sin, we have an advocate with God, Jesus + Christ the righteous' (1 John ii. 1)."(432) + + +The Second Helvetic Confession, in its fifth chapter, entitled, _Regarding +the adoration, worship, and invocation of God through the One Mediator, +Jesus Christ_, lays down the rule that prayer is to be through Christ +alone, and the saints and relics are not to be worshipped. And no +prayer-book or liturgy in any branch of the Reformed Church contains +prayers addressed to any of the saints or to the Blessed Virgin. + +2. The Reformers insist on the necessity of Christ and of Christ alone for +all believers. Their Confessions abound in expressions which are meant to +magnify the Person and Work of Christ, and to show that He fills the whole +field of believing thought and worship. The brief Netherlands Confession +of 1566 has no less than three separate sections on _Christ the only +Mediator and Reconciler_, on _Christ the only Teacher,_ and on _Christ the +only High Priest and Sacrifice_.(433) The _Heidelberg_ or _Palatine +Catechism_ calls Christ _my faithful Saviour_, and says that we can call +ourselves Christians "because by faith we are members of Jesus Christ and +partakers of His anointing, so that we both confess His Holy Name and +present ourselves unto Him a lively offering of thanksgiving, and in this +life may with free conscience fight against sin and Satan, and afterwards +possess with Christ an everlasting kingdom over all creatures." The Scots +Confession abounds in phrases intended to honour our Lord Jesus Christ. It +calls Him _Messiah_, _Eternal Wisdom_, _Emmanuel_, _our Head_, _Our +Brother_, _our Pastor and great Bishop of our souls_, the _Author of +Life_, the _Lamb of God_, the _Advocate and Mediator_, and the _Only High +Priest_. All the Confessions of the Churches of the Reformation contain +the same or similar expressions. The liturgies of the Churches also abound +in similar terms of adoration. + +3. The Reformers declare that Christ is the _only_ Revealer of God. "We +would never recognise the Father's grace and mercy," says Luther in his +Large Catechism, "were it not for our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the mirror +of the Father's heart." "We are not affrayed to cal God our Father," says +the Scots Confession, "not sa meikle because He has created us, quhilk we +have in common with the reprobate, as for that He has given us His onely +Son." The instructions issued by the Synod which met at Bern in 1532 are +very emphatic upon this thought, as may be seen from the headings of the +various articles: (Art. 2) That the whole doctrine is the unique Christ +(_Das die gantze leer der eynig Christus sye_); (Art. 3) That God is +revealed to the people in Christ alone; (Art. 5) That the gracious God is +perceived through Christ alone without any mediation; (Art. 6) A Christian +sermon is entirely about and from Christ. It is said under the third +article: "His Son in Whom we see the work of God and His Fatherly heart +toward us ... which is not the case where the preacher talks much about +God in the heathen manner, and does not exhibit the same God in the face +of Christ."(434) The Confessions also unite in declaring that the gift of +the Holy Spirit comes from Christ. + +4. The conception that Christ filled the whole sphere of God, which was +for the Reformers a fundamental and experimental fact, enabled them to +construct a spiritual doctrine of the sacraments which they opposed to +that held in the mediaeval Church. Of course, it was various theories about +the sacraments which caused the chief differences among the Reformers +themselves; but apart from all varying ideas--consubstantiation, ubiquity, +signs exhibiting and signs representing--the Reformers united on the +thoughts that the efficacy in the sacraments depended entirely on the +promises of Christ contained in His word, and that the virtue in the +sacraments consisted in the presence of Christ to the believing +communicant. What was received in the sacraments was not a vague, +mysterious, not to say magical, grace, but Christ Jesus Himself. He gave +Himself in the sacraments in whatever way His presence might be explained. + +They all taught that the efficacy of the sacraments depends upon the +promise of Christ contained in their institution, and they insisted that +word and sacrament must always be taken together. Thus Luther points out +in the _Babylonish Captivity of the Church_ that one objection to the +Roman practice is that the recipients "never hear the words of the promise +which are secretly mumbled by the priest," and exhorts his readers never +to lose sight of the all-important connection between the word of promise +and the sacraments; and in his Large Catechism he declares that the +sacraments include the Word. "I exhort you," he says, "never to sunder the +Word and the water, or to separate them. For where the Word is withheld we +have only such water as the maid uses to cook with." Non-Lutheran +Confessions are equally decided on the necessity of connecting the promise +and the words of Christ with the sacraments. The Thirty-nine Articles +declare that the sacraments are effectual because of "Christ's institution +and promise." The Heidelberg or Palatine Catechism (1563) says that the +sacraments "are holy and visible signs ordained of God, to the end that He +might thereby the more fully declare and seal unto us the _promise_ of the +Holy Gospel." + +Similarly the Reformers unanimously declared that the virtue in the +sacraments consisted in no mysterious grace, but in the fact that in them +believing partakers met and received Christ Himself. In the articles of +the Bern Synod (1532) we are told that the sacraments are mysteries of +God, "through which from without Christ is proffered to believers." The +First Helvetic Confession (1536) says, concerning the Holy Supper, "we +hold that in the same the Lord truly offers His Body and His Blood, that +is, Himself, to His own." The Second Helvetic Confession (1562) declares +that "the Body of Christ is in heaven at the right hand of the Father," +and enjoins communicants "to lift up their hearts and not to direct them +downwards to the bread. For as the sun, though absent from us in the +heaven, is none the less efficaciously present ... so much more the Sun of +righteousness absent from us in the heavens in His Body, is present to us +not indeed corporeally, but spiritually by a life-giving activity." The +French Confession of 1557 says that the sacraments are pledges and seals, +and adds, "Yet we hold that their substance and truth is in Jesus Christ." +So the Scots Confession of 1560 declares that "we assuredlie beleeve that +be Baptisme we ar ingrafted in Christ Jesus to be made partakers of His +justice, be quhilk our sinnes ar covered and remitted. And alswa, that in +the Supper richtlie used, Christ Jesus is so joined with us, that Hee +becummis very nurishment and fude of our saules." In the _Manner of the +Administration of the Lord's Supper_ the Scottish Reformation Church +directed the minister in his exhortation to say to the people: "The end of +our coming to the Lord's Table ... is to seek our life and perfection in +Jesus Christ, acknowledging ourselves at the same time to be children of +wrath and condemnation. Let us consider then that this sacrament is a +singular medicine for all poor sick creatures, a comfortable help to weak +souls, and that our Lord requireth no other worthiness on our part, but +that we unfeignedly acknowledge our naughtiness and imperfection." + +Everywhere in prayer, worship, and teaching the Reformers see Christ +filling the whole sphere of God. Jesus was God appearing in history and +addressing man. + + + +§ 6. The Church. + + +In the Epistles of St. Paul, the Church of Christ stands forth as a +_fellowship_ which is both divine and human. On the side of the divine it +is a fellowship with Jesus, its crucified, risen, and ascended Lord; on +the human, it is a fellowship among men who stand in the same relation to +Jesus. This fellowship with Jesus and with the brethren is the secret of +the Church--what expresses it, what makes it different from all other +fellowships. Every other characteristic which belongs to it must be +coloured by this thought of a double fellowship. It is the double relation +which makes it difficult to construct a conception of the Church. It is +easy to feel it as an experience, but it has always been found hard to +express it in propositions. + +It does not require much elaborate thinking to construct a theory of the +Church which will be true to all that is said about the fellowship on its +divine side; nor is it very difficult to think of a great visible and +historical organisation which in some external aspects represents the +Christian fellowship, provided the hidden union with Christ, so prominent +in St. Paul's descriptions, be either entirely neglected or explained in +external and material ways. The difficulty arises when both the divine and +the human sides of the fellowship are persistently and earnestly kept in +view. + +It is always hard to explain the unseen by the seen, the eternal by the +temporal, and the divine by the human; and the task is almost greater than +usual when the union of these two elements in the Church of Christ is the +theme of discussion. It need not surprise us, therefore, that all down +through the Middle Ages there appear, not one, but two conceptions of the +Christian Church which never harmonised. On the one side, the Church was +thought of as a fellowship of God with man, depending on the inscrutable +purpose of God, and independent of all visible outward organisation; on +the other, it was a great society which existed in the world of history, +and was held together by visible political ties like other societies. +Augustine had both conceptions, and the dialectical skill of the great +theologian of the West was unable to fuse them into one harmonious whole. + +These two separate, almost mutually exclusive, ideas of what the Church of +Christ was, lived side by side during the Middle Ages in the same +unconnected fashion. The former, the spiritual Church with its real but +unseen fellowship with Christ, was the pre-eminently religious thought. It +was the ground on which the most conspicuous mediaeval piety rested. It was +the garden in which bloomed the flowers of mediaeval mystical devotion. The +latter was built up by the juristic dialectic of Roman canonists into the +conception that the Church was a visible hierarchical State having a +strictly monarchical constitution--its king being the Bishop of Rome, who +was the visible representative of Christ. This conception became almost +purely political. It was the active force in all ecclesiastical struggles +with princes and peoples, with Reformers, and with so-called heretics and +schismatics. It reduced the Church to the level of the State, and +contained little to stimulate to piety or to holy living. + +The labours of the great Schoolmen of the thirteenth century did try to +transform this political Church into what might represent the double +fellowship with Christ and with fellow-believers which is so prominent a +thought in the New Testament. They did so by attempting to show that the +great political Church was an enclosure containing certain indefinite +mysterious powers of redemption which saved men who willingly placed +themselves within the sphere of their operation. They maintained that the +core of the hierarchical constitution of the Church was the priesthood, +and that this priesthood was a species of plastic medium through which, +and through which alone, God worked in dispensing, by means of the +sacraments entrusted to the priesthood, His saving grace. It may be +questioned whether the thought of the Church as an institution, possessing +within itself certain mysterious redemptive powers which are to be found +nowhere else, was ever thoroughly harmonised with that which regarded it +as a mass of legal statutes embodied in canon law and dominated by papal +absolutism. The two conceptions remained distinct, mutually aiding each +other, but never exactly coalescing. Thus in the sixteenth century no less +than three separate ideas of the Church of Christ were present to fill the +minds and imaginations of men; but the dominant idea for the practical +religious life was certainly that which represented the Church as an +institution which, because it possessed the priesthood, was the society +within which salvation was to be found. + +Luther had enjoyed to the full the benefits of this society, and had with +ardour and earnestness sought to make use of all its redemptive powers. He +had felt, simply because he was so honest with himself, that it had not +made him a real Christian, and that its mysterious powers had worked on +him in vain. His living Christian experience made him know and feel that +whatever the Church of Christ was, it was not a society within which +priests exercised their secret science of redemption. It was and must be a +fellowship of holy and Christlike people; but he felt it very difficult to +express his experience in phrases that could satisfy him. It was hard to +get rid of thoughts which he had cherished from childhood, and none of +these inherited beliefs had more power over him than the idea that the +Church, however described, was the Pope's House in which the Bishop of +Rome ruled, and ought to rule, as house-father. It is interesting to study +by what devious paths he arrived at a clear view of what the Church of +Christ really is;(435) to notice how shreds of the old opinions which had +lain dormant in his mind every now and then start afresh into life; and +how, while he had learnt to know the uselessness of many institutions of +the mediaeval Church, he could not easily divest his mind of the thought +that they naturally belonged to a Church Visible. Monastic vows, the +celibacy of the clergy, fasting, the hierarchy, the supremacy of the Pope, +the power of excommunication with all its dreaded consequences, were all +the natural accompaniments of a Visible Church according to mediaeval +ideas, and Luther relinquished them with difficulty. From the first, +Augustine's thought of the Church, which consists of the elect, helped +him; he found that Huss held the same idea, and he wrote to a friend that +"we have been all Hussites without knowing it."(436) But while Luther and +all the Reformers held strongly by this conception of Augustine, it was +not of very much service in determining the conception of the Visible +Church which was the more important practically; and although the +definition of the Catholic Church Invisible has found its way into most +Protestant Confessions, and has been used by Protestants polemically, it +has always remained something of a background, making clearer the +conception of the Church in general, but has been of little service in +giving clear views of what the Church Visible is. From the very first, +however, Luther saw in a certain indefinite way that there was a real +connection between the conception of the Visible Church and the +proclamation of the Word of God--a thought which was destined to grow more +and more definite till it completely possessed him. As early as October +1518, he could inform Cajetan that the Pope must be under the rule of the +Word of God and not superior to it.(437) His discovery that the communion +of the saints (_communio sanctorum_) was not necessarily a hierarchy +(_ecclesia praelatorum_),(438) was made soon afterwards. After the Leipzig +Disputation his views became clearer, and by 1520 they stood revealed in +the three great Reformation treatises. + +Luther's doctrine of the Church is extremely simple. The Church is, as the +Creed defines it to be, the _Communion of the Saints_, which has come into +existence through the proclamation of the Word of God heard and received +by faith. He simplified this fundamental Christian conception in a +wonderful way. The Church rests on the sure and stable foundation of the +Word of God; and this Word of God is not a weary round of statutes issued +blasphemously by the Bishops of Rome in God's name. It is not the +invitations of a priesthood to come and share mysterious and indefinite +powers of salvation given to them in their command over the sacraments. It +is not a lengthy doctrinal system constructed out of detached texts of +Holy Scripture by the application of a fourfold sense used under the +guidance of a dogmatic tradition or a rule of faith. It is the substance +of the Scriptures. It is the "gospel according to a pure understanding." +It is the "promises of God"; "the testimony of Jesus, Who is the Saviour +of souls"; it is the "consolations offered in Christ." It is, as Calvin +said, "the spiritual gate whereby we enter into God's heavenly kingdom"; +the "mirror in which faith beholds God." It is, according to the +Westminster Confession, the sum of God's commands, threatenings, promises, +and, above all, the offer of Christ Jesus. All these things are +apprehended by faith. The Church comes into existence by faith responding +to the proclamation of the Word of God. This is the sure and stable thing +upon which the Church of Christ is founded. + +The Church of Christ, therefore, is a body of which the Spirit of Jesus is +the soul. It is a company of Christlike men and women, whom the Holy +Spirit has called, enlightened, and sanctified through the preaching of +the word; who are encouraged to look forward to a glorious future prepared +for the people of God; and who, meanwhile, manifest their faith in all +manner of loving services done to their fellow-believers. + +The Church is therefore in some sense invisible. Its secret is its hidden +fellowship with Jesus. Its roots penetrate the unseen, and draw from +thence the nourishment needed to sustain its life. But it is a visible +society, and can be seen wherever the Word of God is faithfully +proclaimed, and wherever faith is manifested in testimony and in bringing +forth the fruits of the Spirit. + +This is the essential mode of describing the Church which has found place +in the Reformation creeds. Some vary in the ways in which they express the +thought; some do not sufficiently distinguish, in words at least, between +what the Church is and what it has, between what makes its being and what +is included in its well-being. But in all there are the two thoughts that +the Church is made visible by the two fundamental things--the proclamation +of the word and the manifestation of faith. + +This mode of describing the Church of Christ defines it by that element +which separates it from all other forms of human association--its special +relation to the divine; and it is shown to be visible at the place where +that divine element can and does manifest itself. It defines the Church by +its most essential element, and sets aside all that is accidental. It +concerns itself with what the Church is, and does not include what the +Church has. It therefore provides room for all things which belong to the +well-being of the Church--only it relegates them to their proper +place.(439) + +If the proclamation of the Word of God, and the manifestation of the faith +which answers, be the essence of the Church, all that tends to aid both is +to be included in the thought. There must be a ministry of some sort in +word and sacrament instituted within the Church of Christ in order to lead +the individual to faith. God has created this ministry, and all the +Reformed Churches were careful to declare that no one should seek entrance +into office unless he was assured that he had been called of God thereto; +and as his function is to be a minister of the Church and a servant of the +faithful, no one "should publicly teach or administer the sacraments +unless he be duly called (_nisi rite vocatus_)." Such a ministry has its +field simply in ministering the means of grace. "The Church of Christ," +says Luther, "requires an honest ministry diligently and loyally +instructed in the holy Word of God after a pure Christian understanding, +and without the addition of any false traditions. In and through such a +ministry it will be made plain what are Christ and His Evangel, how to +attain to the forgiveness of sins, and the properties and power of the +_keys_ in the Church." + +All this is matter of administration. Some societies of believers may have +different ideas about the precise form that this ministry ought to take; +but such differences, while they may lead to separate administrations, do +not imply any separation from the one Catholic Church of Christ to which +they all belong. However outwardly they differ, all retain the essential +things--the preaching and teaching of the Word of God and the due +administration of the sacraments. Some may prefer to set forth a creed of +one kind and others may prefer another. The French, the Scottish, and the +Dutch Churches had all their own creeds, and all believed each other to be +parts of the same One Catholic Church of Christ. + + + "When we affirm," says Calvin, "the pure ministry of the Word, and + our order in the celebration of the Sacraments, to be a sufficient + pledge and earnest that we may safely embrace the society in which + both these are found as a true Church, we carry the observation to + this point, that such a society should never be rejected as long + as it continues in these things, although it may be chargeable in + other respects with many errors."(440) + + +Within this Christian fellowship, which is the Church of Christ, the sense +by which we see God is awakened and our faith is nourished and quickened. +The Word of God speaks to us not merely in the public worship of the +faithful, but in and through the lives of the brethren; their deeds act on +us as the simple stories of experience and providence which the Scriptures +contain. God's Word speaks to us in a thousand ways in the lives and +sympathies of the brethren. The Christian "receives the revelation of God +in the living relationships of the Christian brotherhood, and its +essential contents are that personal life of Jesus which is visible in the +gospel and which is expounded by the lives of the redeemed."(441) + + + "The Christian Church," says Luther, "keeps all words of God in + its heart, and turns them round and round, and keeps their + connection with one another and with Scripture! Therefore, anyone + who is to find Christ must first find the Church. How could anyone + know where Christ is and faith in Him is, unless he knew where His + believers are? Whoever wishes to know something about Christ must + not trust to himself, nor by the help of his own reason build a + bridge of his own to heaven, but must go to the Church, must visit + it and make inquiry. Now the Church is not wood and stone, but the + company of people who believe in Christ. With these he must unite + and see how they believe, live, and teach, who assuredly have + Christ among them. For outside the Christian Church there is no + truth, no Christ, no blessedness."(442) + + +For these reasons the Church deserves to be called, and is, the Mother of +all Christians. + + + + + +INDEX. + + +Abbots, election of, 24. + +Absolutism, papal, 14, 265. + +_Acta Augustana_, 233. + +_Address to the Nobility of the German Nation_, 141, 143, 242 _f._, 257. + +Adelmann, Bernard, named in the first Bull against Luther, 249 and _n._ + +Adriatic, the, the boundary between Christian and Moslem, 19. + +AEneas Sylvius, on the wealth of German burghers, 86. + +Africa, North, 18; 85. + +_Against the execrable Bull of Antichrist_, 249. + +_Against the thieving, murdering hordes of Peasants_, 336. + +Agricola, John, 390. + +Agricola, Rudolph, 58. + +Agricola, Stephan, 353. + +Aichili, provost-marshal of the Swabian League, murders Lutheran pastors, + 340. + +D'Ailly, Peter, 199 _f._, 254. + +Alber, Matthew, 310, 391. + +Aleander, Jerome (Roman nuncio),-- + on the devotion of Germany to Rome, 115; + at the Diet of Worms, 261 _ff._; + his education, 262; + his letters to Rome, 262. _ff_.; + his estimate of Charles V., 263; + his task at the Diet of Worms, 263; + his address to the Diet, 270; + drafted the Ban against Luther, 298; 259, 267 _n._, 269, 271, 275 _f._, + 279, 282, 283 and _n._, 285, 288, 291 _n._, 293, 295, 386. + +Alexander of Hales on Indulgences, 219, 221 _f._ + +Alpersbach, Petreius, 66. + +Alstedt, 330. + +Altenberg, 318. + +Amsdorf, Nicholas, 211 _n._, 275, 317. + +Anabaptists, 339, 366; + and Humanists, 156. + +Andreae, Laurentius, 422, 424. + +Angelico, Fra, 49. + +Anhalt, Prince of, 346, 363, 373. + +Anjou, province of, 23. + +Anna, Saint, "the Grandmother," cult of, 135 _f._, 138. + +Annaberg, town of, Indulgence-seller at, 213. + +_Annates_, 12, 17, 24 _f._, 245, 321. + +Anne of Beaujeu, 23. + +Anselm of Lucca, 2. + +Anthony, Duke of Lorraine, 334, 338. + +Anti-Hapsburg feeling in Germany, 350, 370, 374, 376. + +_Apology for the Augsburg Confession, The_, 367. + +_Apostles' Creed_, 365, 468, 484. + +Apostolic Succession, 403. + +Aquinas. See _Thomas_. + +Aragon, 27. + +Argyropoulos, John, 48, 68. + +Aristotle, a forerunner of Christ, 56; + influence on mediaeval thinking, 449; + disliked by the Humanists, 57; + disliked by Luther, 206, 469. + +Armstrong, Edward, quoted, 264 n. + +Art, German, and popular life, 62. + +Arthur, Prince of Wales, 21. + +_Articles_: + _the Twelve_, 331 _ff_., 336, 337; + _the Marburg_, 353, 359; + _the Swabach_, 359, 367; + _the Schmalkald_, 374, 467 _n._, 468; + _the Bern_, 478. + +Artisan life, 80 _ff._; artisan capitalists in England, 21. + +Artists, German, and the Reformation, 307; + belonged to the burgher class, 86. + +_Artushoefe_, 86. + +Asia Minor, 18. + +_Ass, Feast of the_, 120. + +Astrologists in the beginning of the sixteenth century, 129. + +Athanasius and Luther, 433, 470, 471 and _n._, 473. + +_Attrition_, the doctrine of, 201, 219, 222 _f._; + taught by John of Palz, an Augustinian Eremite theologian, 138, 199, + 201. + +Augsburg, city of, 234, 320, 322, 353, 391; + the Humanist circle of, 60 _f._; + the _Brethren_ in, 152. + See _Diet_. + +_Augsburg Confession (Augustana)_, 147 _f._, 363, 365 _ff._, 396, 399, + 403. + +_Augsburg Interim_, 266, 390 ff. + +_Augsburg Religious Peace,_, 395 _ff._; + international consequences of, 398 _n._ + +Augustine, the papal claim to universal supremacy and, 3; + influence on mediaeval theology, 449; + disliked by the Humanists, 167, 185; + his influence on Luther, 203, 207, 211, 433, 436. + +Augustinian Eremites, 137 _ff._, 146; + their theology not Augustine's, 138, 199 _f._, 229; + their chapter at Heidelberg, 230; + most of them accept Luther's teaching, 305. + +Augustus, Elector of Saxony, 395. + +Avignon, the Popes at, 5. + +_Babylonian Captivity of the Church_, 241 _f._, 266 _n._, 282 _n._, 306. + +_Ban, the_, against Luther, 297 _ff._ + See _Worms, Edict of_. + +Barclay, Alexander, the _Ship of Fools_, 17 _n._ + +Basel, city of, 310; + Council of, see _Councils_. + +Baths in the Middle Ages served as a life-school for artists, 88. + +_Bauernmeister_, the, 92. + +Bavaria, the Dukes of, 319, 325, 370, 376. + +Bebel, Heinrich, 67. + +Beer, Einbecker, 277 _n._, 293. + +Beggars, ecclesiastical, 142. + +Begging, a Christian virtue, 142. + +Beguines and Beguine-houses, 116, 142. + +Beham, Hans Sebaldus, artist, 62. + +Beheim, Hans, supposed to have abducted Luther, 295. + +Belgrade, 19. + +Bernard of Clairvaux, 125, 205, 209, 433 and _n._ + +Bessarion, Cardinal, 48 _f._ + +Bible, translations of the, into the vernacular, 149 _f._, 174, 387, 402. + See _Scripture_. + +_Biblia Pauperum_, 117. + +Biel, Gabriel, 55, 196, 199. + +Bigamy of Philip of Hesse, 380 _ff._ + +Bishops, modes of electing, 8, 24. + +Black Death, the, in England, 20, 440. + +Boccaccio, 47. + +Boehm, Hans, and the socialist revolts, 99 _ff._, 135. + +Bologna, University of, 64; + a great Law School, 2; + city of, 360. + +Bonaventura on Indulgences, 221, 224. + +Bonzio, Cardinal, 2. + +Books in the German language due to the Reformation, 300. + +Bosnia, 19. + +Bourges, Concordat of, 11. + +Brand, Sebastian, author of _Narrenschiff_, quoted, 17; + on usury, 84; + on the Niklashausen pilgrims, 102; + on the diffusion of Scripture, 151 _n._; 52, 58, 118. + +Brandenburg, the Elector of, Joachim I. (1499-1535), 341; + Joachim II. (1535-1571), + _Fat old Interim_, 377, 383, 395, 396; + Margrave of, George, 326, 346, 362, 373; + Margrave of Brandenburg-Culmbach, Albert Alcibiades, 383, 393; + Albert of (brother of Joachim I.), Archbishop of Mainz, see _Mainz_; + Albert of (brother of Margrave George), secularises his principality, + becomes Duke of East Prussia and a Protestant, 326; + province of, peasants die of starvation, 111; + secular administration of the Church in fifteenth century, 140. + +Brask, Johan, Bishop of Linkoeping, 423. + +Braunfells, Otto, 306. + +Bremen, an episcopal State, 81, 320, 373. + +Brenz, John, 353, 391, 392. + +Breslau, _the students' paradise_, 53, 378. + +_Brethren of the Common Lot_, the, 51 _ff._; + their relation to the praying circles of the German Mystics, 154. + +_Brethren, the_, mediaeval evangelical nonconformists, 150, 152 _ff._; + distributed devotional literature, 155. + +_Brethren of St. Anthony_, 143. + +_Brethren of St. James (Jacobs-Brueder)_, 134. + +Brissmann, John, 305. + +_Brotherhood, the Evangelical_, 329, 334. + +_Brotherhoods_ in the fifteenth century, the Blessed Virgin, 135; + of St. Anna, the Grandmother, 136; + of the Eleven Thousand Virgins (_St. Ursula's Schifflein_), 145; + among the artisans, 146; + the Holy Brotherhood (_Hermandad_) of Spain, 28. + +Brueck, Dr. Gregory, Chancellor of Electoral Saxony, 266 _n._, 276, 278, + 363, 366, 369. + +Brunswick, the city of, churches in, 116. + +Bucer, Martin, the Reformer of Strassburg, 284, 306, 310, 353, 374, 380, + 391. + +Bugenhagen, John, 306. + +Bulls, papal, _Execrabilis et pristinis_, 5; + _Pastor AEternus_, 5; + _Inter cetera divinae_, 5; + this Bull bestowed the continent of America upon Ferdinand and Isabella, + 5 _n._; + _Unam Sanctam_, 1 _n._, 4; + _Exurge Domine_, the first Bull against Luther, 247 _f._; + _Decet Romanum_, the second Bull against Luther, 267 _n._ + +_Bundschuh League, the_, peasant risings under, 103 _ff._, 110; + the banner, 103, 105; + the watchword of revolt, 296. + +Burchard, John, 16. + +_Buergerrecht, Das christliche_, 350. + +Burgmaier, Hans, artist, 67. + +Burgundy, the district of, 21; + the Duke of, see _Charles the Bold_. + +Burkhardt, George, of Spelt. See _Spalatinus_. + +Burning the Pope's Bull, 251. + +Burning heretics, 248; + heretical books, 259, 264, 299. + +Busch, Hermann von, 52, 67. + +Butzbach, Johann (a wandering student), 55. + +Cadan, peace of, 377, 379. + +Cajetan, Thomas de Vio, Cardinal, 232, 247, 252, 303. + +Calabria, Greek spoken in, 46. + +Calvin, John, and St. Anna, 136; + and Dean Colet, 165; + and the Augsburg Confession, 365; + on the doctrine of Scripture, 462, 465, 467 _n._; + _the impious mysteries of Calvin_, 398 _n._; 475, 476. + +Campeggio, Lorenzo, papal nuncio, 184, 322, 361, 370. + +Canon Law, based on the _Decretum_ of Gratian, 2. + +Canterbury, Archbishop of, 12, 349. + +Capitalist class, rise of a, 83. + +Capito, Wolfgang, 309. + +Cappel, battle of (Zwingli slain), 374. + +Caraccioli, Marino, papal nuncio, 262, 297. + +Carlstadt, Andrew Bodenstein of, 211 _n._, 237, 249, 308; + and the Wittenberg "tumult," 311 _ff._; + dispenses the Lord's Supper in evangelical fashion, 313; + responsible for the "_Wittenberg Ordinance_," 314, 316, 320, 337; + on the Lord's Supper, 356, cf. 313; + in Denmark, 419. + +Castile, consolidation of, 27 _f._ + +Catalonia, 27. + +Catechism of Dietrich Kolde, 126. + +Catechism of the _Brethren_, 155. + +Catechisms of the Reformation: + Luther's Small Catechism, 408, 472; + adopted in Denmark, 421; + Luther's Large Catechism, 472; + the Heidelberg, 477, 479. + +_Catholic Church_, term not conceded to Romanists, 404. + +Celibacy of the clergy, 312, 343. + +Celtes, Conrad, Humanist, 67; + on the diffusion of Scripture, 151. + +Chancery, rules of the Roman (contain lists of prices of benefices), 10. + +Charitable foundations placed under lay management, 143. + +Charity in the Middle Ages, 141 _ff._ + +Charles V., Emperor, 37, 184, 334, 341; + elected to the Empire, 40; + crowned at Aachen, 262; + held his first Diet at Worms, 262 _ff._; + the real antagonist of Luther, 264; + _a good child_, 263; + his confession of faith, 264 _f._, 293 _f._; + his conception of the Church, 265; + differences between himself and the Diet about Luther, 267 _n._, 270 + _f._, 272, 276 _ff._; + asks for Luther's condemnation, 293; + regrets that he did not burn Luther, 295; + his views of the religious question in Germany, 360, 389; + at the Diet of Augsburg (1530), 359 _ff._; + resolves to crush the Reformation by force, 360; + finds it difficult to do so, 370; + his idea of a true reformation, 375; + conquers the Duke of Cleves, 382; + makes peace with France, 383; + forces the Pope to convoke a Council, 383; + defeats the German Protestants, 389 _f._; + his religious compromise, the _Augsburg Interim_, 390; + forced to flee from Germany, 393; + abdicates, 395. + +Charles VI. of France, 22. + +Charles VII. of France, 22. + +Charles VIII. of France, 26. + +Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy 23, 37, 98 _f._, 109. + +_Cheese-hunters_, 143 _f._, 302. + +Chieregati, Francesco, Papal Nuncio, 321. + +CHRIST, THE PERSON OF, Luther adopted the doctrinal definitions of the old + Catholic Church, 468, 470, 472 _f._; + did not like the terminology, 471; + the two Natures in, 474; + Luther put new meaning into the old definitions, 472, 474; + with the Reformers, Christ fills the whole sphere of God, 460, 472 + _ff._, 478, 480; + He is the _only_ Mediator, 476; + He is the efficacy and the virtue in the sacraments, 478; + His divinity to be reached from His work, 475; + a part of the religious experience, 474 _f._, 478. + +Christian II., King of Denmark, 418. + +Christian III., King of Denmark, 420. + +Christendom, small extent at the time of the Reformation, 18 _f._ + +Christianity, the sum of, 430; + how to express it, 431. + +Christopher of Utenheim, Bishop of Basel, 257. + +Chrysoloras, Manuel, 47. + +CHURCH OF CHRIST, _doctrine of the_, a double fellowship, 480; + three conceptions of, in the mediaeval Church, 481, 482; + and priesthood with the sacraments, 482, cf. 438 _f._; + Luther's difficulties in conceiving a, 483; + his final conception of, 484; + both Visible and Invisible, 485; + made Visible by the proclamation of the Word and the manifestation of + Faith, 485 _ff._; + ministry in the, 486. + Mediaeval, 1 _ff._, 31. + _The Pope's House_, 11, 194, 205, 235, 483. + States of the, 32 _f._ + A national German, 36, 324. + +Churches (buildings), innumerable in Germany, 115; + full of treasures, 116. + +CHURCHES, LUTHERAN TERRITORIAL, 343, 387; + principles according to which they were organised, 400 _ff._; + duties belonging to the Christian fellowship, 401; + attempted organisations before the Peasants' War, 401 _f._; + Saxon Visitations, 405 _ff._; + _Consistorial Courts_, 410, 412, 413, 415; + ecclesiastical _circles_, 411; + _Superintendents_, 404, 411; + _Synods_, 413. + +_Civitas Dei_ of Augustine, 2 _f._ + +Claims of the Mediaeval Papacy, 1 _f._ + +Clergy and laity, 243, 443 _f._ + +Cleves, Duke of, 382. + +Coburg, Luther at, 369. + +Cochlaeus, Johannes, R.C. theologian ({~DAGGER~} 1552), 185, 368. + +Colet, John, Dean of St. Paul's, 22, 163 _ff._; + travels in Italy, 164; + lectures at Oxford on St. Paul's Epistles, 164, 209; + rejected the allegorical interpretation of Scripture, 165; + sermon before Convocation, 165 _f._; + his idea of a true reformation, 166; + dislike to the Scholastic Theology, 167; + studies Dionysius the Areopagite, 169; + his views on the priesthood and the sacraments, 170 _f._ + +Collin, Rudolph (at the Marburg Colloquy), 353. + +Cologne, the city of, its churches and ecclesiastical buildings, 116; + Luther's books burnt at, 259. + +Columbus, Christopher, 85. + +_Concord, the Wittenberg_, 377. + +Concordats, 11, 24. + +Concubinage of priests, 246. + +Confession, auricular, 218, 220. + +_Confessions_ of the Reformation, Confessio Augustana (1530) or Augsburg + Confession, 364 _f._, 435, 467 _n._, 468, 476; + adopted in Denmark, 420; + Confession Tetrapolitana (1530), 368; + Zurich Articles (1523), 468 _n._; + Scots Confession (1560), 465, 468 _n._, 477, 478, 480; + First Helvetic Confession (1536), 467 _n._, 479; + Geneva Confession (1536), 468 _n._; + Second Helvetic Confession (1562), 468 _n._, 477, 479; + French Confession (1539), 468, 479; + Belgic Confession (1561), 468 _n._; + Netherlands Confession (1566), 477; + the Instruction of Bern (1532), 478; + the Thirty-nine Articles (1563, 1571), 468 _n._, 479; + Formula Concordiae, 425. + +_Confraternities_. See _Brotherhoods_. + +_Consistorial Courts_, mediaeval, 412. + +_Consistories_ in the Lutheran Church, + their beginnings, 410; + of Wittenberg, 412-415. + +Consolidation, the political idea of the Renaissance, 19, 43. + +Constance, the city, 309, 346, 368; + Council of. See _Council_. + +Constantinople, 19. + +_Constitutiones Johanninae_, 9. + +Continuity of the religious life during the Reformation period, 122. + +_Contritio_, 201, 222 _f._ + +Copernicus, 42. + +Cordus, Curicius, Humanist, 255. + +_Corpus Christi Processions_, 119, 362. + +Cotta, Frau, 195, 427. + +COUNCIL, A GENERAL, the seat of authority in the Church, 265; + demanded, 342; + Charles V. resolves upon a, 372, 383; + of Basel, 6, 23, 140, 254, 259; + of Constance, 140, 226, 254, 259, 268, 290; + of Trent, 148, 225, 383, 455. + +Council, a German, 321, 323 _f._, 379. + +Cradle hymn, a, 121. + +Cranach, Lucas, 63, 308, 369. + +Cromwell, Thomas, 374. + +Crotus Rubeanus (Johann Jaeger of Dornheim), a Humanist, 66, 75, 255. + +_Cujus regio ejus religio_, 397. + +_Cup, the_, for the laity, 343, 437. + +Curia, the Roman, the universal court of ecclesiastical appeal, 14 _f._; + sale of offices in, 15; + counted on the devotion of the Germans, 115; 245, 255, 265 _f._, 321, + 332 _n._ + +Cusanus, Cardinal Nicholas, 57 _f._ + +Cuspinian of Vienna, Luther writes to him from Worms, 283. + +Dalmatia, 19. + +Dante and the Renaissance, 47. + +Dantzig, churches in, 116. + +_Decretals_, forged, 2; Luther studies the, 235. + +_Decretum_ of Gratian, 2, 44. + +Denmark, Reformation in, 388, 418, 420. + +Deusdedit, a canonist, 2. + +_Deutsche Theologie_, 155. + +Deventer, the school at, 51, 64. + +Devotional literature circulated by the _Brethren_, 155. + +DIET, the feudal Council of the German Empire, of Worms (1521), 262 _ff._, + 267, 278, 284 _ff._, 296 _f._, 304, 341; + of Nuernberg (1522-23), 321, 403; + of Speyer (1524), 324, 403; + of Augsburg (1525), 341; + of Speyer (1526), 341, 398, 403, 404, 415; + of Speyer (1529), 345, 396; + of Augsburg (1530), 360, 363 _ff._; + of Nuernberg (1532), 374 _f._; + of Augsburg (1555), 395 _ff._ + +Dionysius the Areopagite, 169. + +_Dispensations_, fees for, 13, 382 _n._ + +Disputations, university, 311 _f._ + +Dominican Order, 70, 137, 306, 321. + +Dominicans demand the destruction of Hebrew literature, 70 _f._ + +_Donation of Constantine_, 49. + +_Dormi secure_, 117. + +Dringenberg, Ludwig, 52. + +Drinking habits of the Germans, 87 _f._ + +Dunkeld, disputed succession in the See of, 10. + +Duerer, Albert, 31, 62, 63, 88, 90; + appeals to Erasmus, 188; + on Luther's piety, 191; + his admiration for Luther, 256; + grief at report of Luther's death, 296. + +Eberlin of Gunzberg, John, controversial writer, 304 _f._, 310. + +Ebernberg, the, castle of Francis V., Sickingen, 262, 273. + +_Eccius dedolatus_, 249 _n._ + +Eck, John, Official of the Archbishop of Trier, 278, 280, 281, 283, 285, + 290. + +Eck, John Mayr of, professor at Ingolstadt, 235 _f._, 247, 303, 368. + +Economic changes at the close of the Middle Ages, 43, 80 _f._, 108 _f._ + +Egypt, 18. + +Ehrenberg, the Pass of, 393. + +Eisenach, 193, 198. + +Eisleben, 193, 385. + +Electors, the German, 35, 270; + accustomed to exercise the _jus episcopale_, 140. + +Elizabeth, Queen of England, 6 _n._, 398 _n._ + +Elizabeth, St., 195, 198. + +Elsass and the Peasants' War, 334, 338. + +Emmerich, school at, 52. + +Emser, Jerome, 185, 337. + +Emperor, the Vicar of God, 31. + +Empire, German, elective, 35; + attempts to frame a Common Council (_Reichsregiment_), 36 _f._; + extent of the, 36. + +England, consolidation of, under the Tudors, 7, 20. + +Eoban of Hesse (Helius Eobanus Hessus), 66, 255. + +Episcopate weakened by the Papacy, 14. + +_Epistolae obscurorum virorum_, 67, 72 _f._, 74. + +_Erasmici_, 255. + +Erasmus, 52, 67, 71, 74, 156, 164, 171, 266 _n._, 273, 288, 299; + a typical Christian Humanist, 172; visit to England, 172, 177; + his conception of a reformation, 172 _ff._; + his _Christian Philosophy_, 173; + desire for the Scriptures in the vernacular, 174; + _Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis_, 175, 253; + dislike to Augustinian theology, 167, 185; + writings in aid of the Reformation, 179; + on saint worship, 180; + on the monastic life, 180 _f._, + estimate of Luther, 185, 253, 301. + +Erfurt, University of, 56, 64; + its foundation, 195; + theology, 196. + +_Erfurt Tumult, the_, 305. + +Eric, King of Denmark, 417. + +_Evangelical Brotherhood_, 329, 334. + +Evangelical life at the close of the Middle Ages, 124. + +Excommunication of princes and its consequences, 6 and _n._, 398 _n._ + +Exile at Avignon, papal, 5. + +Fagius, Paul, 391. + +FAITH, the religious faculty which throws itself upon God, 429, 436, 438, + 458; + an active and living thing, 431; + rests on the historic Christ, 446; + good works are the sign of, 431; + is the gift of God, 429, 430; + depends on promise, 441, 460; + enables us to see the meaning of the historic work of Christ, 446; + what it lays hold of in repentance, 452; + is personal trust in a personal Saviour, 203, 459; + the conceptions of Faith and of Scripture always correspond, 461; + is needed to apprehend infallibility, 464, 465, 466; + creates a natural unity in Scripture, 455, 459; + two kinds of, 429, 445; + mediaeval conception of, _a frigida opinio_, 429; + is intellectual, 430, 461; + and reason in the Scholastic Theology, 469. + See _Justification_. + +Family religion at the close of the Middle Ages, 121 _ff._ + +Famine years in Germany, 110 _ff._ + +_Fastnachtspiele_, 54, 90. + +Ferdinand of Aragon, 5, 6, 27, 29, 30. + +Ferdinand of Austria, 278, 319, 322, 342, 360, 394. + +Festivals, Church, 119 _ff._, 141, 246. + +Feudalism in England, 20. + +Five Nations, the, 19 _ff._ + +Five powers of Italy, 31 _f._ + +Florence, 32 _f._ + +Florentius Radewynsohn, 51. + +Folk-songs of Germany, 67, 90, 94, 99, 109. + +_Fondaco dei Tedeschi_ at Venice, 83. + +Forest laws, severity of, 108. + +Forgeries, papal, 2, 235. + +France, 7, 18, 19, 20, 22 _ff._, 31; + not a compact nation, 25; + trade in, 25. + +Francis of Assisi, 125, 142, 158, 203, 433, 435. + +Francis I. of France, 25, 184, 265, 342, 345. + +Frank, Sebastian, his chronicle, 107. + +Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 40, 87. + +Frederick, Elector of Saxony. See _Saxony_. + +Frederick III., Emperor, 37. + +Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein, King of Denmark, 419. + +Free Nobles of Germany, 83. + +Frundsberg, General, 279. + +_Friends of God (Gottesfreunde)_, 51, 154. + +_Frigida opinio_, 429. + +Fritz, Joss, founder of the Bundschuh League, 104, 135. + +Froben, the Basel printer; printed Luther's works, 256; + printed the copies of Luther's works produced at the Diet of Worms, 281 + _n._ + +Froscher, M. Sebastian, at the Leipzig Disputation, 237, 238. + +Fugger, the, family, 84, 361; + in possession of mines, 85. + +Fulda, monastery of, 46, 75. + +Gaismeyer, Michael, leader in the Peasants' War, 330. + +Galileo, 42. + +Gascoigne, George, 11. + +Geiler of Keysersberg, 53, 59, 118, 134, 310. + +Geographical discoveries, 43, 84 _f._ + +George of Trebizond, 47 _f._ + +George, Duke of Saxony. See _Saxony_. + +Germany, political condition at the close of the Middle Ages, 30; + divided condition and desire for unity, 35; + attempts at unity, 36 _ff._; + connections with Italy, 50; + devotion to the Roman See, 115 _ff._; + multitude of ecclesiastical buildings in, 115 _f._; + grievances against Rome, 233, 243, 245, 270, 288, 21, 342; + divided into two separate camps, 338; + a national Church for, 324, 335; 321, 323 _f._, 379. + +Gerson, Jean, Luther's debt to, 209 and _n._, 254. + +_Gilds_ in mediaeval towns, 43, 81. + +Ginocchino di Fiore, 47, 158. + +Glapion, Jean, confessor to Charles V., 266 _n._, 273, 285. + +_Glossa ordinaria_, 202. + +_Golden Rose, the_, 234, 260. + +Goslar, 374. + +_Gospel, the Little_, 135. + +Gotha, 353. + +_Gottesfreunde_, 51, 154. + +Goettingen, 374. + +Graecia Magna, 46. + +Gran in Hungary, 9. + +Granada, 27, 29. + +Gratian's _Decretum_, 2, 44. + +Gratius, Ortuin, 67. + +_Graubund, the_, 95. + +Greece, 19. + +Greek, the knowledge of Greek in the Middle Ages, 46; + spoken in Sicily and Calabria, 46; + printing press in Paris, 26. + +Greeks, learned, in Italy, 47. + +Gregory. See _Popes_. + +Gregory of Pavia, a canonist, 2. + +Grimma, town in Electoral Saxony, 201, 205, 316, 318. + +Grocyn, 22, 164. + +Groot, Gerard, 51. + +Grunbach, Argula, a learned Lutheran lady, 307. + +Gruniger, a Strassburg publisher, 300. + +_Gude and godlie Ballates, the_, 123 _n_. + +Guelderland, 382. + +Gustaf Ericsson, King of Sweden, 421; + adopts the Reformation, 422 _f._ + +_Haingerichte_, 331 _ff._ + +Hall, a town in Swabia, 353, 391. + +Hamburg, 374. + +_Hanseatic League_, 82 _f._ + +Hapsburg, House of, 35, 37, 345, 350, 359, 370, 376, 398. + +Hebrew, the study of, 68. + +Hebrew books to be destroyed, 69 _f._ + +Hedio, Caspar, 353. + +Hegenau, Conference at, 379. + +Hegius, Alexander, 52, 64. + +Heilbronn, 347. + +Held, Chancellor, 379. + +Helding, Michael, 390. + +Henrique, Don, of Portugal, 84. + +Henry IV. of Castile, 28. + +Henry VII., King of England, 20 _f._ + +Henry VIII., King of England, 21 _f._, 26, 184, 324, 378, 388; + on Luther's condemnation, 298; + orders Luther's books to be burnt, 299. + +Henry, Duke of Saxony. See _Saxony_. + +_Hermandad, the_, in Spain, 28 _f._ + +_Herredag_, 419. + +Herzegovina, 19. + +Hesse, the district, 347, 386, 415. + +_Hierarchies, celestial and terrestrial_, 169. + +_Hoc est Corpus Meum_, 358. + +Hochstratten, Jacob, 70 _f._ + +Hohenstaufen Emperors, the, 1. + +Holbein, Hans, artist, portrait of Erasmus, 177; 57, 62. + +Holy days, ecclesiastical, 141, 246, 343. + +Holy Roman Empire, 31 f. + +Homberg, Synod at, 415. + +_Homoousius_, word not liked by Luther, 471. + +Honius, Christopher, theory of the Lord's Supper, 355. + +Humanists, the Christian, 158 _ff._; + weakness of their position, 186 _ff._, 299; + their ideas of a reformation, 190. + +Humanists in France, 26. + +Humanists, German, 39, 57; + called Poets or Orators, 64; + hatred of Aristotle, 57; + band together to defend Reuchlin, 68, 71 _f._; + societies of, in German cities, 60 _f._; + write in praise of St. Anna, 136; + in the German universities, 63 _f._, 196; + religious eclecticism among, 65; + with Luther after the Leipzig Disputation, 239, 254 _f._; + disliked Augustinian theology, 325; + how far responsible for the Peasants' War, 328. + +Humanists, Italian, 22, 115; + relations with Savonarola, 160. + +Hundred Years' War, 22. + +Hussite propaganda, 98, 196, 238, 309, 325. + +Hutten, Ulrich V., 59, 67, 267 _n._, 269, 273, 284; + youth and education, 75 _f._; + passion for German unity, 76; + admiration for Luther, 77; + at the Ebernberg, 262. + +Hymns, evangelical, in the Mediaeval Church, 121 _f._, 125; + Reformation collections of, 387, 402; + in praise of the Blessed Virgin, 135; + of St. Anna, 135; + of St. Ursula, 145; + pilgrimage, 128, 132. + +Images in churches, 312. + +_Immaculate Conception, the_, 135, 138. + +Imperialism, intellectual, 168. + +_Index expurgatorius_, 185. + +_In dulci jubilo_, 122 _f._ + +Indulgence, an, for the Niklashausen chapel, 100; + for the church of All Saints at Wittenberg, 130; + for a bridge at Torgau, 259. + +Indulgence money went to found Wittenberg University, 206; + had the effect of an endowment, 224; 245, 259. + +Indulgence-sellers, 213, 226. + +_Indulgences_, helped to create a capitalist class, 83; + fostered pilgrimages, 128; + the theory and practice of, 216 _ff._; + earlier abuses of, 219, 223; + did they give a remission of _guilt_, 225; 248, 306. + +Industry and trade in France, 25; + in England, 21; + in Germany, 81 _ff._ + +Innsbruck, 393. + +Inquisition in Spain, 29 _f._, 266, 267 _n._ + +_Instruction_, the, of Frederick of Saxony, 316. + +_Instruction_ of the Synod at Bern, 478. + +_Instruction_ drafted by the Saxon Visitors, 410. + +Insurrections, in England, 20, 21; + in France, 23; + in Spain, 28, 30. + +_Interdict_, 439 _f._ + +Interest on money, 84. + +_Interim, the Augsburg_, 390 _ff._, + the _Leipzig_, 391 _n._ + +_Interim, Fat Old,_ 396. + +Isabella of Castile, 5, 27 _ff._ + +Isidorian (pseudo-) Decretals, 2. + +Isny, 347. + +Italy, political condition of, 32 _f._, 30. + +_Jacobs-Brueder_, 134. + +Jaeger of Dornheim, Johann (Crotus Rubeanus), 66, 75, 255. + +_Jak Upland_, 302. + +James IV. of Scotland, 21. + +Jesus the Judge, not the Mediator, 134. See _Christ_. + +Jews, in Spain, 29; + persecuted, 69; + their literature to be destroyed, 70 _f._ + +John, Elector of Saxony. See _Saxony_. + +John Frederick, Elector of Saxony. See _Saxony_. + +Jonas, Justus (Jodocus Koch of Nordlingen), 255, 273 _f._, 275, 312, 385, + 411. + +Joss Fritz, leader in the Bundschuh League, 104, 135. + +_Junker Georg_, 297, 317. + +Jurisprudence of the Renaissance, 44. + +Jurists, French, of the Renaissance, 26. + +_Jus episcopale_, exercised by secular rulers in the fifteenth century, + 140 _f._, 147, 412; + lies in the Christian magistracy, 401, 412, 413. + +JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH, a divine act and therefore continuous, 447; + corresponds to the absolution by the priest, 448; + word used with different meanings, 448; + mediaeval theory of, depends on initial grace, 450; + is seen in the action of the sacraments, and especially in penance, 450; + Reformation doctrine of, 447, 451; + Chemnitz on the, 451; + reformation and mediaeval theories contrasted, 452. + +Justinian, Code of, 44; 390. + +Jueterbogk, 214. + +_Kalands_, the, 146. + +Kampen, Stephen, 305. + +Karben, Victor V., 70. + +_Karsthans_, 302. + +Katharine of Aragon, 21. + +Kempton, Abbey lands of, 102, 103. + +Kessler, Johann, of St. Gallen, 317. + +_Knight of Christ_ (Erasmus), 301. + +Knox, John, 349. + +Koburgers, the, printers in Augsburg, 151, 155. + +Lachmann, Johann, 310. + +Lacordaire on Protestant idea of Scripture, 457. + +Laity and clergy, 243, 443. + +Lambert, Francis, 337 _n._, 415. + +Landsknechts, 40, 77, 106, 109, 110 _n._ + +Latin, in the Middle Ages, 46, 51; + hymns sung in school, 51, 53; + Luther's studies in, 197. + +_Latin War, the_, 56. + +League of the Public Weal (France), 23. + +League, the Schmalkald, 373 _ff._, 376, 380. + +League, the Swabian, 323, 330, 334, 377. + +Leagues of Protestants in Germany, 325, 347, 350, 373. + +Leagues of Romanists in Germany, 324, 325, 341. + +Learning, the New, 22, 76, 159, 165; + in France, 26; + in Germany, 50, 57, 67, 68; + how used by Erasmus, 179. + +_Leipzig, The Disputation at_, 61, 77, 236 _ff._, 252, 275, 325, 385; + beginning of historical criticism of institutions, 239; + made the German Humanists support Luther, 239. + +_Leisnig Ordinance_, 401. + +Leitzkau, Luther at, 166, 213. + +Leo Alberti, architect, 49. + +Leon, 27. + +_Liberty of a Christian Man_, 192, 240 _f._ + +Libraries, the Vatican, 49; + of San Marco, Florence, 49; + of Cardinal Cusanus, 58; + of a parish priest, 409. + +Lindau, 346, 368. + +Link, Wenceslas, of Nuernberg, 256. + +Literature. See _Popular Literature_. + +_Localis_, 202. + +Lollards, 97, 171, 302. + +Loriti, Heinrich (Glareanus), 67. + +Louis XI. of France, 23, 25. + +Louvain, 185. + +Lund, Archbishop of, 379. + +Luneberg, Dukes of, 341, 346, 362, 363, 373, 386. + +Luther, Hans, 193. + +Luther, Magdalena, 369. + +Luther, Margarethe, 193. + +Luther, Martin, on _wandering students_, 54; + on John Wessel, 58; + the society to which he spoke, 113; + criticism of prevalent preaching, 118; + fondness for St. Anna, 136; + on _Brotherhoods_, 146; + on begging, 143; + debt to the Mystics, 155; + religious atmosphere in which he was reared, 157; + and Savonarola, 163; + and Dean Colet, 165, 170; + and Erasmus, 167, 175 _f._, 179; + why he succeeded as a Reformer, 189 _ff._; + an embodiment of personal piety, 191; + his slow advance, 192; + embodied the Reformation, 193; + youth and education, 193 _ff._; + a _Poor Scholar_, 195; + at Erfurt University, 195 _ff._; + influenced by pictures, 198; + in the convent, 199 _ff._, 426 _f._; + his teachers in theology, 199 _f._, 223; + conversion, 203; + at Wittenberg, 205 _f._; + sent to Rome, 207; + early lectures on theology, 208; + teaches Aristotle's Dialectic, 206; + becomes a great preacher, 207, 212; + issues his _Theses_, 215 _ff._; + his _Resolutiones_, 230 _f._; + summoned to Rome, 232; + appears before Cardinal Cajetan, 232; + interview with Miltitz, 235; + at the Leipzig Disputation, 236 _ff._; + burns the Pope's Bull, 250 _ff._; + the representative of Germany, 252 _ff._; + writings translated into Spanish, 269, 388; + writings in Great Britain, 388; + writings burnt in the Netherlands, 271, + and at Cologne, 259; + at Oppenheim, 274; + at Worms, 275 _ff._; + first appearance before the Diet of Worms, 278; + description of his person, 279 _f._; + second appearance before the Diet, 284 _ff._; + rumours that he would recant, 286; + attitude in speaking, 288; + last words at the Diet, 291 _n._; + last scene in the Diet, 291 _f._; + conferences after the Diet, 294; + report that he had been murdered, 295; + Ban against, 297 _f._; + in the Wartburg, 297; + the hero of the popular literature, 301; + his teaching spreads, 305 _ff._, 322; + back in Wittenberg, 316 _ff._; + hopes of a National Church of Germany, 326; + how far responsible for the Peasants' War, 327 _f._; + how the war affected him, 337, 338; + and Zwingli, 347 _ff._; + at Marburg, 352 _ff._; + his doctrine of the Sacrament of the Supper, 357; + his letters from Coburg, 369; + declared that the Turks must be driven back, 374; + his idea of a reformation, 275; + and the bigamy of Philip of Hesse, 380; + his death, 384 _ff._; + ideas of ecclesiastical organisation, 400 _ff._; + suggested did not prescribe, 402; + proposed the visitations, 405 _ff._; + preface to the Small Catechism, 408; + influence in Denmark, 419; + in Sweden, 422, 424; + his Reformation based not on doctrine, but on religious experience, 426 + _ff._; + on the two kinds of faith, 429, 430 f., 445; + at Ziesar, 435; + on the priesthood of believers, 440; + on clergy and laity, 240, 441; + on _Simple Stories_ in the Bible, 460; + and the _Epistle of James_, 462 _n._; + on theological terminology, 471; + his doctrine of the Church, 484. + +Lyra, Nicholas de, 117, 196, 209, 456 _n._ + +Machiavelli on the condition of Italy, 31. + +Magdeburg, school at, 53; _Ordinance_, 401; + beginning of the Reformation in, 307; 194, 198, 384. + +Magistry, the Christian, possess the _jus episcopale_, 147, 401. + +_Maid who lost her shoe, There was a_, 313. + +Mainz, Albert, Archbishop of, 187, 213, 229, 270, 293, 295, 296, 334, 341, + 378. + +Mansfeld, Counts of, 193, 295, 341, 373, 385, 386. + +Mansfeld, district of, 193, 198. + +Manuel, Juan, Spanish ambassador at Rome, 265, 272. + +_Marburg Articles_, 353. + +_Marburg Colloquy_, 352 _ff._ + +Margaret Tudor, 21. + +Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy, 21. + +_Mariolatry_, 135. + +Marlianus, Bishop of Puy, 185. + +_Marrani_, 269. + +Marriage of ecclesiastics, 343. + +Marsiglio Ficino, 48, 158; + a disciple of Savonarola, 160. + +_Martiniani_, 255. + +Mary of Burgundy, 37. + +_Mass, the_, propitiatory sacrifice in the, 312, 354. + +_Mastersingers_, the, and the Reformation, 310. + +Matthias Corvinus, 6, 9. + +Maurice of Saxony, 382, 384 and _n._, 389, 393, 394. + +Maximilian, Emperor, 31, 37, 39, 206, 232; + the Humanist Emperor, 39, 67, 184; + death, 40, 261; + in folk-song, 67; + and the Swiss, 111; + and the Landsknechts, 40, 110 _n._ + +Mediaeval Church, struggle with the Empire, 1 _ff._ + +Mediaeval Empire, 30 _f._ + +Mediaeval learning, 55, + +Medici, the, rulers in Florence, 32; + Lorenzo de, 49; + relations with Savonarola, 162. + +_Medii fructus_, 12 f. + +Melanchthon, 156, 273, 308, 313 _ff._, 316, 350, 353, 364, 380, 402. + +Memmingen, 333 _f._, 337, 346, 351, 368. + +Marsilius of Padua, 306 _n._, 333. + +Meissen, 208, 234. + +Michelangelo, 50. + +Middle class in England, 20. + +Milan, 32 _f._ + +Miltitz, Charles V., 234. + +Minkwitz, Hans von, 277. + +_Mirabilia Romae_, 131. + +Miracle Plays, 119. + +Modrus in Hungary, 9. + +Moldavia, 19. + +Monasteries under secular control in Switzerland, 349. + +Monastic life, Erasmus on the, 180 _f._; + Luther on the, 211; + Eberlin on the, 304. + +Money exactions by the Papacy, 11, 244 _f._, 268, 304. + +Monks join the Lutheran movement, 305 _f._ + +Monte Cassino, the Abbey of, 46. + +Morals, clerical, at the close of the Middle Ages, 137 _f._, 190, 246. + +More, Sir Thomas, 178, 186, 328. + +Mosellanus, Peter, at the Leipzig Disputation, 237 _f._ + +Moslems, 18 _f._, 26. + +Muehlberg, battle of, 389. + +Muehlhausen, battle of, 330, 334. + +Municipal interference in ecclesiastical affairs, 141, 414. + +Munster, Sebastian, chronicler, 170. + +Munster, town on the Ems, 52. + +Muenzer, Thomas, people's priest at Zwickau, 314, 330, 334, 336. + +Murad I., 19. + +Murmellius, Johann, 52. + +Murner, Thomas, 185, 303. + +Musculus, Wolfgang, 391. + +_Mutianic Host_, 68. + +Mutianus (Mut, Mutti, Mudt, Mutta), Conrad, 52, 64, 185, 255. + +Myconius (Mecum), Frederick, on family religion, 124, 127, 156; + on the Indulgence-seller, 213; + on the _Theses_, 230; + at Worms, 289 _n._; 305, 309, 353. + +Mystics, prayer circles among the, 153; + Luther's debt to the, 209 _n._; 256. + +Naples, 32 _f._ + +_Narrenschiff_, 17, 102. + +Nathin, John, Luther's teacher, 199 _f._, 457. + +National Church for Germany, 36, 338, 389. + +National literature, 44. + +Naumberg, conference of German Protestants at (1555), 396. + +Navarre, seized by Ferdinand of Aragon in consequence of a papal + excommunication, 6 and _n._, 29. + +Neopaganism, 48. + +Nepotism, papal and kingly, 9. + +_Neukarsthans_, 306 n. + +_New and Old God, the_, 303. + +_Nicene Creed_, 365, 468. + +Niklashausen, a pilgrimage chapel, 100. + +Nobility, position of, in England, 20; + in France, 25; + in Spain, 29. + +_Nobility of the German Nation, Address to the_, 14, 242. + +Nordlingen, 347. + +Normandy, 26. + +Nuernberg, 88, 234, 320, 346, 347, 353, 363, 373, 391; + Humanists in, 60, 256; + the _Brethren_ in, 152; + population of, 87; + retained its patrician constitution, 81. + +Nuetzel, Caspar, 256. + +Occam, William of, 55, 196, 199, 254. + +Odense, Danish National Assembly at, 419. + +OEcolampadius (Johann Hussgen), 306, 310, 353. + +OElhafen, Sixtus, deputy from Nuernberg to Worms, 284, 292. + +Oppenheim, Charles V. at, 271; + Luther at, 274. + +Orchan seizes Gallipoli, 19. + +Ordinances for regulating public worship, 404, 414; + Wittenberg Ordinance, 315 _f._, 401; + Leisnig, 401; + Magdeburg, 401. + +_Ordinary_, the Pope's right to act as, 24. + +Osiander, Andrew, 310, 353, 391. + +Ottoman Turks, 19. + +Pack, Otto von, 344. + +Palz, John of, a defender of Indulgences, 138, 223. + +Pantaleone, H., on the state of the peasants, 107. + +Papacy, its claim to universal supremacy, 1; + an Italian power, 7; + superior to common morality, 7. + +_Papal Tickets_, 227, 231. + +Paper, effects of the invention of, 45. + +Pappenheim, Ulrich von, 277. + +Paris, University of, 12; + Luther's writings in, 388. + +Passau, conference of German princes at, 393. + +Passion Plays, 119. + +_Passional Christi et Anti-Christi_, 308. + +Pastoral theology, manual of, 117. + +Pastors, Lutheran, hung, 341. + +_Pater Patriae_, title given to Luther, 255. + +_Patricians_ in towns, 80. + +Patrizzi, master of ceremonies in Rome, 16. + +_Pearl of the Passion, the_, 135. + +Peasantry, the, in England, 21; + in France, 25; in Germany, 89 _ff._; + their condition of life, 90 _ff._; + their diversions, 93; + revolts by the, 95 _ff._; + causes of their revolts, 106 _ff._; + Swiss, free themselves, 44; 103, 105, 106, 109, 111. + +Peasants' War, 296, 325, 326 _ff._, 342, 386; + how far was Luther responsible for the, 327, 335 _ff._; + how far Humanist Utopias, 328; + began at Stuehlingen, 329. + +Pellicanus, Theobold, 310. + +Peloponnese, 19. + +Penance, sacrament of, 201, 219, 220. + +Penances, 218. + +_Penitentiaries_, 218 _f._ + +Petrarch and the Renaissance, 46 _f._ + +Petri, Olaus and Laurentius, the Reformers of Sweden, 421 _ff._ + +Petzensteiner, Brother, 275. + +Peutinger, Dr., Deputy from Augsburg to Worms, 279, 284, 289, 291 _n._ + +Pfefferkorn, John, 69 _f._ + +Pflug, Julius von, 390. + +Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, his peasants did not revolt, 331; + helps John of Saxony, 334; + proposed a democratic constitution for the Church of Hesse, 337 _n._, + 415 _f._; + a leader among the Protestant princes, 325, 341; + deceived by Pack, 344; + signed the _Protests_, 346, 371; + arranges for the _Marburg Colloquy_, 352; + admires Zwingli, 350; + further attempts to unite the Protestants, 359; + signs the _Augsburg_ Confession, 363, 368; + supposed to be ready for war, 369; + at Schmalkalden, 373; + aids Duke of Wuertemburg, 376; + his bigamy, 380 _ff._; + tempted by Charles V., 383; + surrenders and is imprisoned, 389; + liberated, 394; + at Naumberg, 396. + +Pico della Mirandolo, 48, 64; + a disciple of Savonarola, 160; + proposed to become a Dominican, 161; + buried in San Marco, Florence, 162. + +Pictures, the, which influenced Luther, 198. + +Pictures in churches, 312. + +Pilgrim guide-books, 131 _ff._, 226. + +Pilgrim songs, 128 _n._, 132 f. and _n._, 194. + +Pilgrimage places, 194; + Niklashausen, 100 _ff._; + near Mansfeld, 127; + St. Michael's Mount, 128; + Wilsnack, 129; + the Holy Land, 130; + Rome, 131 _f._; + Compostella, 131 _ff._ + +Pilgrimages, epidemic of, 100, 128; + of children, 128, 129. + +Pirkheimer, Willibald, 60 _ff._, 249 and _n._, 309. + +Platonic Academies, 48. + +Platonism, Christian, 48, 64. + +Platter, Thomas, a wandering student, 55. + +_Plenaria_, 149. + +Plethon, Gemistos, 48. + +Podiebrod, George, 6. + +_Poenae eternae et temporales,_ 221 _f._, 225. + +Poggio Bracciolini, 49. + +Poliziano, Angelo, a disciple of Savonarola, 162. + +Pollich, Dr., 205, 207. + +POPES-- + Nicholas I. (858-867), 2; + Gregory VII. (1073-1085), 2; + Innocent IV. (1243-1254), 4; + Urban II. (1088-1099), 224; + Boniface VIII. (1294-1303), 4; + Clement V. (1305-1314), 12; + John XXII. (1316-1334), 9, 10, 11, 12, 13; + Nicholas V (1447-1455), 49; + Boniface IX. (1389-1404), 16; + Eugenius IV. (1431-1447), 23; + Pius II. (1458-1464), 5, 6; + Paul II. (1464-1471), 6; + Sixtus IV. (1471-1484), 7, 29; + Innocent VIII. (1484-1492), 34; + Alexander VI. (1492-1503), 5, 12, 16, 34; + Julius II. (1503-1513), 6, 34, 49; + Leo X. (1513-1521), 5, 16, 22, 25, 34, 187, 229, 231, 240; + Adrian VI. (1522-1523), 16, 320, 322; + Clement VII. (1523-1534), 322, 380; + Paul III. (1534-1549), 378; + Paul IV. (1555-1559), 185. + +_Pope's House_, the Church is, 11, 194, 205, 235, 483. + +Popular literature, on the Lutheran controversy, 300 _ff._; + on the Augsburg _Interim_, 392. + +Portugal, 29. + +_Postilla_, the, of Nicholas de Lyra, 117. + +_Postills_, Luther's, 409. + +_Praemunire_, statutes of, 11. + +_Pragmatic Sanction_ of Bourges, 24. + +Preachers and towns, 310. + +Preaching in the later Middle Ages, 117 _ff._ + +Prices, rise in, at close of Middle Ages, 112. + +Prierias, Silvester Mazzolini of Prierio, 230, 247, 303. + +Priesthood, conception of, in the mediaeval Church, 3, 438; + made clear by an _interdict_, 439; + Colet refused to accept it, 170; + Luther emancipated men from, 193, 444; + the, of all believers, 240, 244, 380, 435 _ff._ + +Priests disliked, 96. + +Princes, the, of Germany represented settled government, 36. + +Printing made art and literature democratic, 45; + in Germany used from the beginning to spread devotional literature, 126. + +Processions, ecclesiastical, 119, 362. + +_Procurationes_, 13. + +Proles, Andreas, 140, 163. + +_Protest, the_, at Speyer, 346; + the second, 371. + +Prussia, East, 326, 386. + +_Rechtern, non fechten sondern_, 372 _n._ + +_Red Cross, the_, 214. + +Regensburg (Ratisbon), conference at, 363, 379 f. + +_Reichskammersgericht_, 372, 375, 377, 379. + +_Reichsregiment, the_, 36, 38, 317, 320, 322, 323, 324, 338. + +_Relaxatio de injuncta poenitentia_, 219. + +Religious background of the claim for papal universal supremacy, 2. + +Religious life at the close of the Middle Ages, 131; + a non-ecclesiastical religion, 139 _ff._ + +Religious pioneers have one method, 432. + +Religious War, the, in Germany, 389 _f._ + +Renaissance, the, period of transition from the mediaeval to the modern + world, 42; + beginning of science, 42 _f._; + geographical exploration, 43; + a revolution in art, 44; + religion of the, 45; + revival of letters, 46 _ff._ + +Rene of Provence, 23. + +_Reservations_, papal, 9, 24. + +_Resolutiones_ of Luther, 230 f. + +Reuchlin, 67 _ff._ + +Reutlingen, 347, 363, 391. + +Revival of religion in the fifteenth century, 127 _ff._ + +Revolts. See _Social revolts_. + +Rhegius, Urban, 306, 310. + +Rhodes, 19. + +Robber-knights, 83. + +Rohrbach, Jaeklein, a leader in the Peasants' War, 330. + +_Roll-Brueder_, 53. + +Roman Empire, Holy, 31 _f._ + +Roman Law and the peasants of Germany, 107. + +Roman lawyers and their influence on theology, 168. + +Romans, King of the, 31, 39, 360, 394. + +Rome, ancient, the Papacy claims to succeed, 1 _f._ + +Rome, Luther in, 207; sack of, 266, 343. + +Rostock, 374. + +Roumania, 19. + +Sachs, Hans, 93, 307 _n._, 310. + +Sacrament of the Supper, 353 _ff._, 377; + Zwingli on the, 355, 357; + Wessel on the, 355; + Honius on the, 355; + Luther on the, 358, _f._; + Carlstadt on the, 356. + +Sacramental efficacy, 232, 248, 478, _f._ + +Sacraments, Colet on the, 171. + +Sacraments, the number of the, 242. + +Safe-conducts for Luther, 267 _n._, 273 and _n._, 276. + +St. Gallen, 347. + +Salerno, University of, 46. + +Salzburg, Peasants' War in, 330. + +Samlund, the Bishop of, a Lutheran, 306. + +San Marino, 349. + +Saracens, 18. + +_Satisfactions_, 216 _f._, 447. + +Savonarola, 22; + youth and education, 158; + sympathy with the New Learning, 159; + disciples among the Italian Humanists, 161 _f._; + a mediaeval thinker, 163. + +_Saxon Visitations_, 405 _f._ + +Saxony. Ernestine (_Electoral_ till 1547, then Ducal), secular + superintendence of the Church in the fifteenth century, 140, + 259; 206, 214, 250, 316, 318, 347, 386, 407. + +Saxony, Elector of, _Frederick_, makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 130, + 258; + collects relics, 214, 258; + obtains an Indulgence for his church, 130, 214; + for a bridge, 259; + his family policy of controlling the Church, 141; + founds the University of Wittenberg, 205 _ff._; + forbids Tetzel to enter his territories, 213; + protects Luther, 232 _f._, 297; + his religious position, 258 _f._, 292; + at the Diet of Worms, 263, 292; + provides for Luther's safety, 297; + troubled at the disturbances at Wittenberg, 316 _f._, 334; + death, 336. + _John_, brother of Frederick, 292, 316, 334, 341, 345; + signs the _Protests_, 346, 371; + refuses the nuncio's benediction, 360, 361; + signs the _Augsburg Confession,_ 363 _f._; + joins the Schmalkald League, 373. + _John Frederick,_ son of John, signs the _Augsburg Confession_, 363; + marries Sibylla of Cleves, 382; + "the born Elector," 394; + deprived of the Electorate and imprisoned, 384, 389; + death, 394; + _Frederick_ (Duke, not Elector), son of John Frederick, 397. + +Saxony, Albertine (_Ducal_ till 1547, then Electoral), 214. + +Saxony, Albertine, Duke of, _George_, at _Leipzig Disputation_, 237 _f._; + desires a Reformation, 257, 203, 325; + gives a safe-conduct for Luther, 273 _n._, 276; + interferes in the affairs of Wittenberg, 316; + published Edict of Worms, 319; + feared the Hussites, 238, 324; + member of the Roman Catholic League, 341; + his daughter married Philip of Hesse, 344, 380; + death, 377. + _Henry_, brother of George, 377. + _Maurice_ (Elector from 1547), son of Henry, married a daughter of + Philip of Hesse, 382; + received the Electorate, 384 and _n._; + took the Emperor's side in the Religious War, 389; + the _Leipzig Interim_, 391 _n._; + attacked the Emperor, 393; + at the Conference at Passau, 393; + death, 395. + _Augustus_ (Elector), 395. + +_Scala sancta_ at Rome, 207. + +Scandinavia, 19; +the Reformation in, 417 _ff._ + +Schappeller and the Twelve Articles of the Peasants, 333. + +Scheurl, Christopher, of Nuernberg, 256. + +Schism, the Great, 5, 136. + +Schlettstadt in Elsass, school at, 52. + +_Schmalkald Articles_, 374, 467 _n._, 468. + +_Schmalkald League_, 373 _ff._, 380, 382, 383. + +Schmalkalden, 373. + +Schnepf, Erhard, Reformer of Tuebingen, 391. + +Scholastic, the New, 325. + +_Scholastic Theology_, 55, 118, 125, 159, 161, 167, 169, 173, 181, 199 + _ff._, 210, 219, 221, 223 _f._, 253; + condemned by Luther, 211; + teaches work-righteousness, 211, 450, 469; + is _sophistry_, 469; + _faith_ and _reason_ in, 469. + +Schools in Germany, 51 _ff._ + +Schott, Peter, endows a people's preacher for Strassburg, 118. + +Schurf, Jerome, professor of Law at Wittenberg, 276, 280, 281, 317. + +_Schwabach Articles_, 359. + +Scientific, the scientific element in theology is the fleeting, 167. + +Scotland, 21; + Luther's books prohibited in, 299, 388. + +Scotus, John Duns, 55, 169, 178, 196, 223, 449. + +_Scripture, the doctrine of_; + Scripture, a personal rather than a dogmatic revelation, 165, 453; + mis-statement of the Reformation view, 453; + differences in meaning of word, 454; + unity in, natural and arbitrary, 455; theory of various senses, 165, 196 + _n._, 456; + faith and, 459, 461; + Lacordaire on the Protestant doctrine of, 457; + gives direct communion with God, 460; + what is the infallibility of, 461 _ff._, 464; + Scripture and the word of God, 461 _f._; + human and divine elements in, 464, 465; + inerrancy, 464; + Calvin on the authority of, 465; + place for the Higher Criticism, 466 _f._; + in the Reformation Creeds, 467 _n._ + +Scriptures in the mediaeval Church, 147 _f._, 454 _ff._; + reading the, a mark of heresy, 149. + +Secular supervision of religious affairs in the fifteenth century, 140. + +Servia, 19. + +Sibylla of Cleves, wife of John Frederick of Saxony, 382, 389. + +Sicily, part of Naples, 33; + Greek spoken in, 46. + +Sickingen, Francis von, 268, 273, 295, 306 and _n._, 323. + +Siebenberger, Maximilian, 281. + +Simnel, Lambert, 21. + +Sitten, Cardinal von, admires Luther, 257. + +Social conditions at the close of the Middle Ages, 79 _ff._ + +Social revolts in the later Middle Ages, 95 _ff._; + not exclusively of peasants, 96; + detestation of priests, 96; + impregnated by religious sentiment, 97; + Hans Boehm, 99; + Bundschuh revolts, 103; + causes of the revolts, 106 _ff._ + +_Socius itinerarius_, 275. + +Spain, 7, 18, 19, 20, 21; + divisions of, 29; + Inquisition in, 266. + +Spalatin (George Burkhardt from Spelt), 66, 185, 232, 250, 274, 276, 278, + 291 _n._, 292. + +Spaniards at the Diet of Worms, 292. + +Spanish merchants at Worms, 269. + +Spanish troops in Germany, 389, 392. + +Speyer, delegates from the German towns meet at, 38; + a National Council for Germany to meet at, 323. + See _Diet_. + +_Spinning-room, the_, 94. + +_Spiritual_, meaning of the word in the Middle Ages, 7. + +_Spiritual Estate_, the false and the true, 243, 441. + +Sprengel, Lazarus, of Nuernberg, 256. + +State and Church, in France, 23 _f._; + in Spain, 29; + in Brandenburg, 141; + in Saxony, 140. + +States of the Church, 32 _f._ + +States-General of France, 25. + +Staupitz, Johann, 163, 185, 202, 205 _f._, 256. + +Stoke-on-Trent, battle of, 21. + +Stolle, Konrad, author of the _Thuringian Chronicle_, 99 _n._ + +Storch, Nicholas, one of the Zwickau prophets, 314. + +Strassburg, Humanists in, 60; + population of, 87; + the _Brethren_ in, 152; + deputies from, at Worms, 282; 111, 309 _f._, 346, 347, 368. + +Stubner, Marcus Thomae, 314. + +Student-hostels, 54, 56; + dress, 56. + +Students, wandering, 50, 54; + Breslau, the paradise of, 53; + burn Tetzel's _Theses_, 233; 251. + +Sturm, Caspar, the herald who conveyed Luther to Worms, 275 _f._ + +Styria, peasant revolts in, 330. + +_Subsidies_, ecclesiastical, 13. + +Sum of Christianity, the, 430. + +_Superintendents_ in the Lutheran Churches, 404, 411. + +Supremacy claimed by the Popes, + temporal, 5 _f._; + spiritual, 7 _f._; + Luther begins to doubt the, 235. + +Suso, Heinrich, 203. + +Swabia, the Peasants' War in, 330, 333, 334. + +_Swabian League_, 323, 340, 376, 377. + +_Swan, the_, hotel in Worms, 274, 276. + +Swaven, Peter, at Worms, 275. + +Swiss, the, popular in Germany, 95 _f._ + +Synods in the Lutheran Churches, 413, 415. + +Syria, 18. + +Taborites (extreme Hussites), 97, 338. + +_Taille_, the, 25. + +Tausen, Hans, the Danish Luther, 420. + +Temporal supremacy of the Pope, 5 _ff._ + +_Tertiaries_ of St. Francis, 116. + +Tertullian on mitigation of ecclesiastical sentences, 217 _n._ + +Tetzel, John, an Indulgence-seller, 213, 229, 235. + +_Textualis_, 202. + +Theodore of Gaza, 47. + +Theodosius, Code of, 44. + +Theological proof of universal papal supremacy, 4. + +Theological phraseology, Luther and technical, 210, 471. + +Theology, Luther's lectures on, 208. + See _Scholastic Theology._ + +_Thesaurus meritorum sire indulgentiarum_, 219, 229. + +_Theses_, Luther's, against Indulgences, 215 _ff._, 350; + make six assertions, 229; + wide circulation, 230; + Zwingli's, 350. + +_This is My Body_, 355. + +Thomas Aquinas, on universal papal supremacy, 4; + his knowledge of Greek, 46 _n._; + studied by Savonarola, 159, 161; + on Indulgences, 221, 224; 55, 57, 167 _ff._, 449. + +Thomas a Kempis, 126. + +Thun, Frederick von, 287. + +Thueringia, Peasants' War in, 331; 193, 208. + +Tithes, ecclesiastical, 12, 97 _f._, 104. + +Tolomeo of Lucca, a canonist and theologian, 4 _n._ + +Tournaments, 371 _n._ + +Tours, 18. + +Trade in England, 22; + in France, 25; + in Europe, 43 _f._, 83 _f._; + perils of, 83; + routes to the East, 85; + more a municipal thing than a national affair, 80. + +Trading companies, English, 22; + German, 85 _ff._ + +_Treatises, the three Reformation_, 239 _ff._ + +Trent. See _Council_. + +Trier, Archbishop of, 35, 270; + head of the commission to confer with Luther at the Diet of Worms, 294; + heard a statement from Luther under seal of confession, 295. + +_Triumph of Truth, the_, 307. + +Truchsess, general of the Swabian League, 330, 334. + +Tuebingen, 391. + +Turkish invasions dreaded in Germany, 19, 129, 374. + +Tunstall, Wolsey's agent at Worms, 298 and _n._ + +_Twelve Articles_ in the Peasants' War, 331, 336, 337. + +Tyler, Wat, 20. + +_Ubiquity_, doctrine of, 357, 478. + +Ulm, 320, 346, 347, 391. + +Ulrich, Duke of Wuertemburg, 37, 376. + +_Unitas Fratrum_ (1452), 154 _f._ + +Universities, of Paris, 12; + of Germany, 53. + +Upsala, 422. + +Urban, Heinrich, 66. + +_Ursula's, St., Little Ship_, 145. + +_Utopia_ of Sir Thomas More, 186, 328. + +Valdes, Alfonso de, on the Edict of Worms, 298 _f._ + +Valentia, 27. + +Valla, Laurentius, 49. + +_Valor ecclesiasticus_ of commuted _Annates_, 13 and _n._ + +Vasco da Gama, 85. + +Vatican Library, 49, 262. + +Venezuela, German colony in, 85. + +Venice, 32 _f._; + Germans in, 50, 83. + +_Vicars of God_, the Emperor and the Pope, 31. + +Vienna, Concordat of, 11; + defence of, 19, 37, 374; + the _Latin War_ in, 56; 378. + +Village, life in a, 90 _ff._; + government, 92; + a, sold to buy a velvet robe, 109. + +Virgin, the Blessed, 123; + the Intercessor, 135; + confraternities of the, 135; + hymns in honour of, 135; + patroness of the Augustinian Eremites, 138; + of the University of Wittenberg, 205; + venerated in the social revolts, 97, 100, 135; + _Immaculate Conception_ of the, 135, 138. + +_Visitations_, ecclesiastical, 405 _ff._; + Saxon, 405 _ff._ + +Vogler, Georg, at Worms, 274, 284. + +_Vulgate, the_, studied in schools, 51; + its use in the mediaeval Church, 147 _f._; + editions in the vernacular, 147, 149 _f._; + the _German_, 150, 309. + +Waldenses, 238. + +_Walfart und Strasse zu Sant Jacob_, 132, 226. + +Wallachia, 19. + +_Wandering Students_, 54. + +Wanner, Johann, 310. + +Warbeck, Perkin, 21. + +Wartburg, the, 297, 402. + +Wealth, based on possession of land, 80; + new sources of, in trade, 84 _ff._; + from farming Indulgences, 83. + +Wehe, Jacob, a peasant leader, 330. + +Weinsburg, the massacre at, 330. + +_Weisthuemer_, collections of village consuetudinary law, 90 _ff._, 103, + 107. + +Welser, the, family of capitalists, 85, 361. + +Wesley, John, and Luther, 403. + +Wessel, John, 58, 196. + +Wiclif, John, 149, 238, 290. + +_Wiclifites_, 150. + +Wimpheling, Jacob, 52, 58, 257, 309. + +Wimpina, Conrad, wrote counter-theses, 229. + +Windsheim, 347. + +Wissenberg, 347. + +Wittenberg, town of, 204, 206, 234, 238, 389. + +Wittenberg, the "tumult" in, 313, 320. + +Wittenberg, University of, 205, 208, 232, 250, 311 _ff._ + +_Wittenberg Concord_, 377. + +_Wittenberg Nightingale_, 310. + +_Wittenberg Ordinance_ (1522), 315, 401. + +Wolfenbuettel Library, Luther's MSS. in the, 209. + +Wolsey, Cardinal, 184, 298. + +Worms, Edict of, 297, 298, 310, 319 and _n._, 342 _f._, 369, 345; + conference with Luther at, 293. + See _Diet_. + +Wuertemburg, Duchy of, seized by the House of Hapsburg, 37; + recovered by its Duke, 376 _f._, 392, 395. + +Wuerzburg, the Bishop of, 334. + +Zasius, Ulrich of Freiburg, 257. + +Zell, Matthew, 350. + +Zerbst, 214. + +_Zimmerische Chronik_, 88, 134. + +Zurich, 350. + +Zwickau, 206, 314, 318. + +_Zwickau Prophets, the_, 314, 320, 325. + +Zwilling an Augustinian Eremite preacher, 313, 316. + +Zwingli, relations with Luther, 347 _ff._; + influenced by Humanism, 348; + social environment, 348; + South German towns under his influence, 351; + at Marburg, 352 _ff._; + his doctrine of the Sacrament of the Supper, 356; + his death, 374; 333, 337, 352, 353, 388, 463, 467 _n._ + + + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + + 1 SOURCES: _Apparatus super quinque libris decretalium_ (Strassburg, + 1488); Burchard, _Diarium_ (ed. by Thuasne, Paris, 1883-1885), in 3 + vols.; Brand, _Narrenschiff_ (ed. by Simrock, Berlin, 1872); + Denzinger, _Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definitionum, quae de rebus + fidei et morum a conciliis aecumenicis et summis pontificibus, + emanarunt_ (Wuerzburg, 1900), 9th ed.; Erler, _Der Liber Cancellariae + Apostolicae vom Jahre 1480_ (Leipzig, 1888); Faber, _Tractatus de + Ruine Ecclesie Planctu_ (Memmingen); Murner, _Schelmenzunft_ and + _Narrenbeschwoerung_ (Nos. 85, 119-124 of _Neudrucke deutschen + Litteraturwerke_); Mirbt, _Quellen zur Geschichte des Papsttums_ + (Freiburg i. B. 1895); Tangl, _Die paepstlichen Kanzleiordnungen von + 1200-1500_ (Innsbruck, 1894); and _Das Taxwesen der paepstlichen + Kirche_ (_Mitt. des Instituts fuer oesterreichische + Geschichtsforschung_, xiii. 1892). + + LATER BOOKS: "Janus," _The Pope and the Council_ (London, 1869); + Harnack, _History of Dogma_ (London, 1899), vols. vi. vii.; + Thudichen, _Papsitum und Reformation_ (Leipzig, 1903); Haller, + _Papsitum und Kirchen-Reform_ (1903); Lea, _Cambridge Modern + History_ (Cambridge, 1902), vol. I. xix. + + 2 "In hac (_sc._ ecclesia) ejusque potestate duos esse gladios, + spiritualem videlicet et temporalem, evangelicis dictis + instruimur.... Ille _sacerdotis_, is manu regum et _militum_, sed ad + nutum et patienciam _sacerdotis_"; Boniface VIII. in the Bull, _Unam + Sanctam_. + + 3 A succinct account of these forgeries will be found in "Janus," _The + Pope and the Council_ (London, 1869), p. 94. + + 4 Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vi. 132 n. (Eng. trans.). + + 5 Compare his _Opuscula contra errores Graecorum; De regimine + principum_. (The first two books were written by Thomas and the + other two probably by Tolomeo (Ptolomaeus) of Lucca.) + +_ 6 Apparatus super quinque libris Decretalium_ (Strassburg, 1488). + + 7 Full quotations from the Bulls, _Unam Sanctam_ and _Inter caetera + divinae_, are to be found in Mirbt's _Quellen zur Geschichte des + Papsttums_ (Leipzig, 1895), pp. 88, 107. The Bulls, _Execrabilis_ + and _Pastor AEternus_, are in Denzinger, _Enchiridion_ (Wuerzburg, + 1900), 9th ed. pp. 172, 174. + + The Deed of Gift of the American Continent to Isabella and Ferdinand + is in the 6th section of the Bull, _Inter caetera divinae_. It is as + follows:--"Motu proprio ... de nostra mera liberalitate et ex certa + scientia ac de apostolicae potestatis plenitudine omnes insulas et + terras firmas inventas et inveniendas, detectas et detegendas versus + Occidentem et Meridiem fabricando et construendo unam lineam a Polo + Artico scilicet Septentrione ad Polum Antarticum scilicet Meridiem, + sive terrae firmae et insulae inventae et inveniendae sint versus Indiam + aut versus aliam quamcumque partem, quae linea distet a qualibet + insularum, quae vulgariter nuncupantur de los Azores y cabo vierde, + centum leucis versus Occidentem et Meridiem; ita quod omnes insulae + et terrae firmae, repertae et reperiendae, detectae et detegendae, a + praefata linea versus Occidentem et Meridiem per alium Regem aut + Principem Christianum non fuerint actualiter possesse usque ad diem + nativitatis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi proximi praeteritum ... + auctoritate omnipotentis Dei nobis in Beato Petro concessa, ac + vicarius Jesu Christi, qua fungimur in terris, cum omnibus illarum + dominiis, civitatibus, castris, locis et villis, juribusque et + jurisdictionibus ac pertinentiis univeris, vobis haeredibusque et + successoribus vestris in perpetuum tenore praesentium donamus.... + Vosque et haeredes ac successores praefatos illarum dominos cum plena, + libera et omnimoda potestate, auctoritate et jurisdictione facimus, + constituimus et deputamus." + + 8 The excommunication, with its consequences, was used to threaten + Queen Elizabeth by the Ambassador of Philip II. in 1559 (_Calendar + of Letters and State Papers relating to English affairs preserved + principally in the Archives of Simancas_, i. 62, London, 1892). + +_ 9 Scottish Historical Review_, i. 318-320. + + 10 The two English statutes of _Praemunire_ are printed in Gee and + Hardy, _Documents illustrative of English Church History_ (London, + 1896), pp. 103, 122. + + 11 For information about the English _annates_ and the _valor + ecclesiasticus_, cf. Bird, _Handbook to the Public Records_, pp. + 100, 106. + + 12 H. C. Lea, _Cambridge Modern History_, i. 670. + + 13 J. Haller, _Papsttum und Kirchen-Reform_ (1903), i. 116, 117. + + 14 Sebastian Brand, _Das Narrenschiff_, cap. ciii. l. 63-66. Barclay + paraphrases these lines: + + "Suche counterfayte the kayes that Jesu dyd commyt + Unto Peter: brekynge his Shyppis takelynge, + Subvertynge the fayth, beleuynge theyr owne wyt + Against our perfyte fayth in euery thynge, + _So is our Shyp without gyde wanderynge,_ + _ By tempest dryuen, and the mayne sayle of torne,_ + _ That without gyde the Shyp about is borne_." + + --_The Ship of Fools_, translated by Alexander Barclay, ii. 225 + (Edinburgh, 1874). + +_ 15 Cambridge Modern History_, I. iii, vii, viii, ix, xi, xii, xiv; + Lavisse, _Histoire de France depuis les Origines jusqu' a la + Revolution_. IV. i, ii. + + 16 SOURCES: Boccaccio, _Lettere edite e inedite, tradotte et commentate + con nuovi documenti da Corrazzini_ (Florence, 1877); _Francisci + Petrarchae, Epistolae familiares et variae_ (Florence, 1859); Cusani, + _Opera_ (Basel, 1565); Boecking, _Ulrici Hutteni Opera_, 5 vols. + (Leipzig, 1871); Supplement containing _Epistolae Obscurorum + Virorum_, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1864, 1869); Gillert, _Der Briefwechsel + des Konrad Mutianus_ (Halle, 1890); Reuchlin, _De Verbo Mirifico_ + (1552). + + LATER BOOKS: Jacob Burckhardt, _The Civilisation of the Period of + the Renaissance_ (Eng. trans., London, 1892); Geiger, _Humanismus + und Renaissance in Italien und Deutschland_ (Berlin, 1882); + Michelet, _Histoire de France_, vol. vii., _Renaissance_ (Paris, + 1855); Lavisse, _Histoire de France_, v. i. p. 287 ff.; Symonds, + _The Renaissance in Italy_ (London, 1877); H. Hallam, _Introduction + to the Literature of Europe during the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and + Seventeenth Centuries_, 6th ed. (London, 1860); Kamptschulte, _Die + Universitaet Erfurt in ihrem Verhaeltniss zu dem Humanismus und der + Reformation_, 2 vols. (Trier, 1856, 1860); Krause, _Helius Eobanus + Hessus, sein Leben und seine Werke_, 2 vols. (Gotha, 1879); Geiger, + _Johann Reuchlin_ (Leipzig, 1871); Binder, _Charitas Pirkheimer, + Aebtissin von St. Clara zu Nuernberg_ (Freiburg i. B., 1893); Hoefler, + _Denkwuerdigkeiten der Charitas Pirkheimer_ (_Quellensamml. z. fraenk. + Gesch._ iv., 1858); Roth, _Willibald Pirkheimer_ (Halle, 1874); + Scott, _Albert Duerer, his Life and Works_ (London, 1869); Thausing, + _Duerer's Briefe, Tagebuecher, Reime_ (Vienna, 1884); _Cambridge + Modern History_, I. xvi, xvii; II. i. + + 17 Symonds, _Renaissance in Italy, Revival of Letters_ (London, 1877), + p. 13. + + 18 There is evidence that Thomas Aquinas was not dependent, as is + commonly supposed, for his acquaintance with Greek philosophy on + translations into Latin of the Arabic translations of portions of + Aristotle, but that he procured Latin versions made directly from + the original Greek. + + 19 He embraced it, sighed over it, and told it how he longed to hear it + speak: Fracassetti, _Francisci Petrarchae, Epistolae familiares et + variae_, ii. 472-475. + + 20 Professor Krauss, _Cambridge Modern History_, ii. 6. + + 21 C. H. Delprot, _Verhandeling over de Broederschap van Gerard Groote_ + (Arnheim, 1856). + + 22 H. Hartfelder, _Der Zustand der deutschen Hochschulen am Ende des + Mittelalters. Hist. Zeitschr._ lxiv. 50-107, 1890. + + 23 Struver, _Die Schule von Schlettstadt_ (Leipzig, 1880). + + 24 Kriegk, _Deutsches Buergerthum im Mittelalter_, neue Folge (Frankfurt + a. M. 1868), pp. 77 ff. + + 25 Boos, _Thomas und Felix Platter_ (Leipzig, 1878), pp. 20 ff. + + 26 H. Boos, _Thomas und Felix Platter_ (Leipzig, 1876); Becker, + _Chronica des fahrenden Schulers_ oder _Wanderbuechlein des Johannes + Butzbach_ (Ratisbon, 1869). + + 27 Scharpff, _Der Cardinal und Bischof Nicolaus von Cusa als Reformator + in Kirche, Reich und Philosophie_ (Tuebingen, 1871). + + 28 Wessel's most important Theses on Indulgences are given in Ullmann, + _Reformers before the Reformation_ (Edinburgh, 1855), ii. 546 f. + + 29 Tresling, _Vita et Merita Rudolphi Agricola_ (Groeningen, 1830). + + 30 Wiskowatoff, _Jacob Wimpheling, sein Leben und seine Schriften _ + (Berlin, 1867). + + 31 Roth, _Willibald Pirkheimer_ (Halle, 1887). + + 32 Krause, _Briefwechsel des Mutianus Rufus_ (Cassel, 1855), p. 32. + +_ 33 Ibid._ p. 94. + +_ 34 Ibid._ p. 93. + +_ 35 Ibid._ p. 28. + +_ 36 Ibid._ p. 427. + + 37 Krause, _Briefwechsel des Mutianus Rufus_ (Cassel, 1855), p. 79. + +_ 38 Ibid._ p. 175: "Non sit vobiscum in castris (nostris) ulla + turpitudo." + +_ 39 Ibid._; cf. especially Letter to Urban, pp. 352, 353, and pp. 153, + 190. + + 40 Geiger in his _Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und + Deutschland_ (Berlin, 1882, Oncken's Series) has given a picture of + the insignia of the poet laureate on p. 457, and one of Conrad + Celtes crowned on p. 459. + +_ 41 De Verbo Mirifico_ (ed. 1552), p. 71. + + 42 Kriegk, _Deutsches Buergerthum im Mittelalter_, pp. 1 ff., 38-53. + + 43 A chronicle and the details of the Reuchlin controversy are to be + found in the second volume of the supplement to Boecking's edition of + the works of Ulrich von Hutten. Good accounts are to be found in + Geiger's _Renaissanc und Humanismus in Italien und Deutschland_, pp. + 510 ff. (Berlin, 1882, Oncken's Series); in Strauss' _Ulrich von + Hutten: His Life and Times_, pp. 100-140 (English translation by + Mrs. Sturge, London, 1874); and in Creighton's _History of the + Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome_, vol. vi. pp. 37 + ff. (London, 1897). + + 44 The second edition is entitled _Illustrium Virorum Epistolae + Hebraicae, Grecae, et Latinae ad Jo. Reuchlinum_; the first edition was + entitled _Clarorum Virorum_, etc. The letters are forty-three in + number--the first being from Erasmus, "the most learned man of the + age." + + 45 The best edition of the _Epistolae Obscurorum Vivorum_ is to be found + in vol. i. of the Supplement to Boecking's _Ulrici Hutteni Opera_, 5 + vols., with 2 vols. of Supplement (Leipzig, 1864, 1869). The first + edition was published in 1515, and consisted of forty-one letters; + the second, in 1516, contained the same number; in the third edition + an appendix of seven additional letters was added. In 1517 a second + part appeared containing sixty-two letters, and an appendix of eight + letters was added to the second edition of the second part. + + 46 Strauss, _Ulrich von Hutten_, 2 vols. (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1874), + translated and slightly abridged by Mrs. George Sturge (London, + 1874). + + 47 SOURCES: Barack, _Zimmerische Chronik_, 4 vols. (2nd ed., Freiburg + i. B. 1881-1882); _Chroniken der deutschen Staedte_, 29 vols. (in + progress); Grimm, _Weisthuemer_, 7 vols. (Goettingen, 1840-1878); + Haetzerlin, _Liederbuch_ (Quedlinburg, 1840); Liliencron, _Die + historischen Volkslieder der Deutschen vom dreizehnten bis zum + sechzehnten Jahrhundert_ (Leipzig, 1865-1869); Sebastian Brand's + _Narrenschiff_ (Leipzig, 1854); Geiler von Keysersberg's + _Ausgewaehlte Schriften_ (Trier, 1881); Hans Sachs, _Fastnachspiele + (Neudrucke deutschen Litteraturwerke_, Nos. 26, 27, 31, 32, 39, 40, + 42, 43, 51, 52, 60, 63, 64); Hans von Schweinichen, _Leben und + Abenteuer des schlessischen Ritters, Hans v. Schweinichen_ (Breslau, + 1820-1823); Vandam, _Social Life in Luther's Time_ (Westminster, + 1902); Trithemius, _Annales Hirsaugienses_ (St. Gallen, 1590). + + LATER BOOKS: Alwyn Schulz, _Deutsches Leben im 14ten und 15ten + Jahrhundert_ (Prague, 1892); Kriegk, _Deutsches Buergerthum im + Mittelalter_ (Frankfurt, 1868, 1871); Freytag, _Bilder aus der + deutschen Vergangenheit_, II. ii. (Leipzig, 1899--translation by Mrs. + Malcolm of an earlier edition, London, 1862); the series of + _Monographien zur deutschen Kulturgeschichte_ edited by Steinhausen + (Leipzig, 1899-1905), are full of valuable information and + illustrations; Aloys Schulte, _Die Fugger in Rom_ (Leipzig, 1904); + Gothein, _Politische und religioese Volksbewegungen vor der + Reformation_ (Breslau, 1878); _Cambridge Modern History_, I. i. xv; + v. Bezold, _Geschichte der deutschen Reformation_ (Berlin, 1890); + Genee, _Hans Sachs und seine Zeit_ (Leipzig, 1902); Janssen, + _Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, seil dem Ausgang des + Mittelalters_, i. (1897); Roth v. Schreckenstein, _Das Patriziat in + den deutschen Staedten_ (Freiburg i. B., no date). + + 48 Daenell, _Geschichte der deutschen Hanse in der zweiten Haelfte des + 14 Jahrhunderts_ (Leipzig, 1897). + + 49 These figures have been taken from Dr. F. von Bezold (_Geschichte + der deutschen Reformation_, Berlin, 1890, p. 36). When the _Chron. + Episc. Hildesheim._ says that during a visitation of the plague + 10,000 persons died in Nuernberg alone, the territory as well as the + city must be included. + +_ 50 Hans von Schweinichen_, i. 185. + +_ 51 Zimmerische Chronik_, ii. 68, 69. + + 52 Ephrussi, _Les Bains des Femmes d'Albert Duerer_ (Nurnberg, no date). + + 53 It has recently become a fashion among some Anglican and Roman + Catholic writers to dwell on the "coarseness" of Luther displayed in + his writings. One is tempted to ask whether these writers have ever + read the _Zimmer Chronicle_, if they know anything about the + _Fastnachtspiele_ in the beginning of the sixteenth century, of the + _Rollwagen_, of Thomas Murner and Bebel, Humanists; above all, if + they have ever heard of the parable of the mote and the beam? + + 54 The most complete collection of the _Weisthuemer_ is in seven + volumes. Volumes i.-iv. edited by J. Grimm, and volumes v.-vii. + edited by R. Schroeder, Goettingen, 1840-1842, 1866, 1869, 1878. + Important extracts are given by Alwin Schultz in his _Deutsches + Leben im 14 und 15 Jahrhundert_, Vienna, 1892, pp. 145-178 (Grosse + Ausgabe). + + 55 In the interesting collection of mediaeval songs, of date 1470 or + 1471, _Liederbuch der Clara Haetzlerin_ (Quedlinburg and Leipzig, + 1840), No. 67 (p. 259), entitled _Von Mair Betzen_, describes a + peasant wedding, and tells us what each of the pair contributed to + the "plenishing." The bridegroom, Betze or Bartholomew Mair, gave to + his bride an acre (_juchart_) of land well sown with flax, eight + bushels of oats, two sheep, a cock and fourteen hens, and a small + sum of money (_fuenff pfunt pfenning_); while Metze Nodung, the + bride, brought to the common stock two wooden beehives, a mare, a + goat, a calf, a dun cow, and a young pig. It is perhaps worth + remarking that, according to the almost universal custom in mediaeval + Germany, and in spite of ecclesiastical commands and threats, the + actual marriage ceremony consisted in the father of the bride + demanding from the young people whether they took each other for man + and wife, and in their promising themselves to each other before + witnesses. It was not until the morning after the marriage had been + consummated that the wedded pair went to church to get the priest's + blessing on a marriage that had taken place. + + 56 Barack, _Zeitschrift fuer deutsche Culturgeschichte_, iv. (1859) 36 + ff. + + 57 Droysen, _Geschichte der preussischen Politik_, II. i. p. 309 ff. (5 + vols., Berlin, 1855-1886); Boos, _Thomas und Felix Platter_ + (Leipsic, 1876), p. 21. + + 58 These quotations have been taken from Seebohm, _The Era of the + Protestant Revolution_, pp. 57, 58 (London, 1875). + + 59 Liliencron, _Die historischen Volkslieder der Deutschen vom + dreizchuten bis zum sechzehnten Jahrhundert_, ii. No. 146 (Leipzig, + 1865-1869); cf. also 131, 132, 133, 136, 137, 138-147. Konrad + Stolle, pastor at Erfurt, collected all the information he could + from "priests, clerical and lay students, merchants, burghers, + peasants, pilgrims, knights and other good people," and wove it all + into a _Thuringian Chronicle_ which forms the 33rd volume of the + _Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart_. It reflects the + opinions of the time almost as faithfully as the folk-songs do, and + contains the above quoted saying of Charles; cf. pp. 61 ff. + + 60 The best account of this movement is to be found in an article + contributed to the _Archiv des historischen Vereins von Unterfranken + und Aschaffenburg,_ XIV. iii. 1, where Hans Boehm's sayings have been + carefully collected. Pastor Konrad Stolle's _Chronicle_, published + in the library of the Stuttgart Literary Society (_Bibliothek des + literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart_, xxxiii.), is also valuable. A + list of authorities may also be found in Ullmann's _Reformers before + the Reformation_ (Eng. trans.), i. 377 ff. + +_ 61 Narrenschiff_, c. xi. l. 14-18. + +_ 62 Die historischen Volkslieder der Deutschen vom 13 bis 16 + Jahrhundert_, ii. No. 148. + +_ 63 Omnium Gentium Mores_, III, xii. (first printed in 1576). + +_ 64 Landsknecht_ or _lanzknecht_ (for the words are the same) is often + transliterated _lance-knight_ in English State Papers of the + sixteenth century. The English word, suggesting as it does cavalry + armed with lances, is very misleading. The victories of the Swiss + peasants, and their reputation as soldiers, suggested to the Emperor + Frederick, and especially to his son, the Emperor Maximilian, the + formation of troops of infantry recruited from the peasantry and + from the lower classes of townsmen. Troops of cavalry of a like + origin were also formed, and they were called _reiters_ or + _reisiger_. These mercenaries frequently gained much money both from + pay and from plunder, and were regarded as heroes by the members of + the classes from whom they had sprung. Liliencron's _Die + historischen Volkslieder vom 13ten bis zum 16ten Jahrhundert_ + contains many folk-songs celebrating their prowess. The history of + the gradual rise and growing importance of these peasant soldiers is + given in Schultz, _Deutsches Leben im 14ten und 15ten Jahrhundert_, + pp. 589 f. (Grosse Ausgabe), and in the authorities there quoted. + + 65 Willibald Pirkheimer in his book on the Swiss war, chap. ii. (German + ed., Basel, 1826). + + 66 Gothein, _Politische und religioese Volksbewegungen vor der + Reformation_ (Breslau, 1878), p. 78. + + 67 To Sources given to Chapter IV. add: Wackernagel, _Das deutsche + Kirchenlied von der aeltesten Zeit bis zum Anfang des 17 + Jahrhunderts_ (Leipzig, 1864-1877) vols. i. ii.; "Rainerii Sachoni + Summa de Catharis et Leonistis" in _the Magna Bibliotheca Patrum_, + vol. xiii. (Col. Agrip. 1618), cf. "Comm. Crit. de Rainerii Sachoni + Summa" (_Goettingen Osterprogramm_ of 1834); Habler, _Das + Wallfahrtbuch des Hermann von Vach, und die Pilgerreisen der + Deutschen nach Santiago de Compostella_ (Strassburg, 1899); + _Mirabilia Romae_ (reprint by Parthey, Berlin, 1869); Munzenberger, + _Frankfurter und Magdeburger Beichtbuchlein_ (Mainz, 1883); Hasak, + _Die letzte Rose_, etc. (Ratisbon, 1883); Hasak, _Der christliche + Glaube des deutschen Volkes beim Schluss des Mittelalters_ + (Ratisbon, 1868); Hoefler, _Denkwuerdigkeiten der Charitas Pirckheimer + (Quellensamml. z. fraenk. Gesch._ iv., 1858); Konrad Stolle, + _Thueringische Chronik_ (in _Bibliothek d. lit. Vereins_ + (Stuttgardt), xxxiii.). + + LATER BOOKS: v. Bezold, _Geschichte der deutschen Reformation_ + (Berlin, 1890); Janssen, _Geschichte des deutschen Volkesseit dem + Ausgang des Mittelalters_ (17th ed., 1897), vol. i.; Brueck, _Der + religioese Unterricht fuer Jugend und Volk in Deutschland in der + zweiten Haelfte des fuenfzehnten Jahrhunderts_; Cruel, _Geschichte der + deutschen Predigt im Mittelalter_ (Detwold, 1879); Dacheux, _Jean + Geiler de Keysersberg_ (Paris, 1876); Walther, _Die deutsche + Bibeluebersetzung des Mittelalters_ (Brunswick, 1889); Uhlhorn, _Die + christliche Liebesthaetigkeit im Mittelalter_ (Stuttgart, 1887); + Wilken, _Geschichte der geistlichen Spiele in Deutschland_ + (Goettingen, 1872). + + 68 Kalkoff, _Die Depeschen des Nuntius Aleander_, etc. (Halle a. S. + 1897), pp. 26, 45-48. + + 69 No fewer than six editions of his _Postilla_ were published between + 1471 and 1508. + + 70 v. Bezold, _Geschichte der deutschen Reformation_, p. 91 f. + + 71 Heinzel, _Beschreibung des geistlichen Schauspiels im deutschen + Mittelalter_ (Hamburg and Leipzig, 1898); F. J. Mone, _Schauspiele + des Mittelalters_, 2 vols. (Karlsruhe, 1846). + + 72 Hampsen, _Medii AEvi Kalendarium_ (London, 1841), i. 140 f. + + 73 Tilliot, _Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la fete dts fous_ + (Lausanne, 1751); cf. Floegel's _Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen_ + (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1886), pp. 199-242. + + 74 The old Scottish version is, "To us is borne a barne of bliss," + _Gude and Godlie Ballates_ (Scot. Text Society, Edinburgh, 1897), + pp. 51, 250. + + 75 This may be translated: + + "Oh Jesus, Master, meek and mild, + Since Thou wast once a little child, + Wilt Thou not give this baby mine + Thy Grace and every blessing thine? + Oh Jesus, Master mild, + Protect my little child. + + Now sleep, now sleep, my little child, + He loves thee, Jesus, meek and mild: + He'll never leave thee nor forsake, + He'll make thee wise and good and great. + Oh Jesus, Master mild, + Protect my little child." + + 76 The old Scotch version was: + + "In dulci jubilo, + Now let us sing with mirth and jo! + Our hartis consolation + Lies in praesepio; + And schynis as the Sonne + Matris in gremio. + Alpha es et O, + Alpha es et O! + + O Jesu parvule, + I thirst sair after Thee; + Comfort my hart and mind, + O Puer optime! + God of all grace so kind, + Et Princeps Gloriae, + Trahe me post Te, + Trahe me post Te! + + Ubi sunt gaudia + In any place but there, + Where that the angels sing + Nova cantica, + But and the bellis ring + In Regis curia! + God gif I were there, + God gif I were there!" + + --(_Gude and Godlie Ballates_ (Scot. Text Society, Edinburgh, 1897), + pp. 53. 250.) + + There is a variety of English versions: "Let Jubil trumpets blow, + and hearts in rapture flow"; "In dulci jubilo, to the House of God + we'll go"; "In dulci jubilo, sing and shout all below." Cf. Julian, + _Dictionary of Hymnology_, p. 564. + + 77 Wackernagel, _Das deutsche Kirchenlied_, etc., ii. 483 ff. + + 78 The song began: + + "Woellent ir geren hoeren + Von sant Michel's wunn; + In Gargau ist er gsessen + Drei mil im meresgrund. + + 'O heilger man, sant Michel, + Wie hastu dass gesundt, + Dass du so tief hast buwen + Wol in des meres grund?' " + + --(Wackernagel, _Das deutsche Kirchenlied_, etc. ii. 1003.) + + 79 Konrad Stolle, _Thueringische Chronik_, pp. 128-131 (_Bibliothek des + literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart_, xxxiii.). + + 80 Kolde, _Friedrich der Weise und die Anfaenge der Reformation_, p. 14. + + 81 Lucas Cranach, _Wittenberger Heiligenthumsbuch vom Jahre 1509_, in + Hirth's _Liebhaber-Bibliothek alter Illustratoren in + Facsimilien-Reproduktion_, No. vii. (Munich, 1896). + +_ 82 Mirabilia Romae_, ed. by G. Parthey: the quotations are from an old + German translation. + + 83 The title is _Hae sunt reliquiae quae habentur in hac sanctissima + ecclesia Compostellana in qua corpus Beati Jacobi Zebedei in + integrum_. + + 84 No. i. of _Drucke und Holzschnitte des 15 und 16 Jahrhunderts_ + (Strassburg, 1899). + + 85 "Zway par schuech der darff er wol, + Ein schuessel bei der flaschen; + Ein breiten huet den sol er han, + Und an mantel sol er nit gan + Myt leder wol besezet; + Es schnei oder regn oder wehe der wint, + Dass in die lufft nicht nezet; + Sagkh und stab ist auch dar bey." + + --(Wackernagel, _Das deutsche Kirchenlied von der aeltesten Zeit bis + zu Anfang des 17 Jahrhunderts_, ii. 1009.) + + 86 The hospital at Romans is much praised: + + "Da selbst eyn gutter spital ist, + Dar inne gybt mann brot und wyn + Auch synt die bett hubsch und fyn." + + On the other hand, although the hospital at Montpelier was good + enough, its superintendent was a sworn enemy to Germans, and the + pilgrims of that nation suffered much at his hands. These hospitals + occupy a good deal of space in the pilgrimage song, and the woes of + the Germans are duly set forth. If the pilgrim asks politely for + more bread: + + "Spitelmeister, lieber spitelmeister meyn, + Die brot sein vil zu kleine"; + + or suggests that the beds are not very clean: + + "Spitelmeister, lieber spitelmeister meyn, + Die bet sein nit gar reine," + + the superintendent and his daughter (der spitelmeister het eyn + tochterlein es mocht recht vol eyn schelckin seyn) declared that + they were not going to be troubled with "German dogs."--Wackernagel, + _Das deutsche Kirchenlied_, etc., ii. 1009-1010. + +_ 87 Zimmerische Chronik_ (Freiburg i. B. 1881-1882), ii. 314. + +_ 88 Ibid._ iii. 474-475 iv. 201. + +_ 89 Predigten_, i. 448. + + 90 Wackernagel, _Das deutsche Kirchenlied_, etc., ii. 554, 1016-1022. + + 91 Schwaumkell, _Der Cultus der heiligen Anna am Ausgange des + Mittelalters_ (Freiburg, 1893). + + 92 xix. p. 397 ff., xx. p. 159 ff., 329 ff., xxi. p. 43 ff. + +_ 93 The Romance of the Rose_, ii. p. 168 (Temple Classics edition). + + 94 v. Bezold, _Geschichte der deutschen Reformation_, pp. 95 f. + + 95 Kriegk, _Deutsches Buergerthum im Mittelalter. Nach urkundlichen + Forschungen und mit besonderer Bezichung auf Frankfurt a. M._, pp. + 161 ff. (Frankfurt, 1868). Uhlhorn, _Die christliche + Liebesthaetigkeit im Mittelalter_, pp. 431 ff. (Stuttgart, 1854). + + 96 Wackernagel, _Das deutsche Kirchenlied_, ii. 768-769; it began: + + "Ein zeyt hort ich mit guetter mer + von einem schyfflin sagen, + Wie es mit tugenden also gar + kostlichen war beladen: + Zu dem schyfflin gewan ich ein hertz, + Ich fand dar yn vil gueter gemertz + in mancher hande gaden." + + 97 The strongest prohibition of the vernacular Scriptures comes from + the time of the Albigenses: "Prohibemus etiam, ne libros veteris + Testamenti aut novi permittantur habere; nisi forte psalterium, vel + brevarium pro divinis officiis, aut horas B. Mariae aliquis ex + devotione habere velit. Sed ne praemissos libros habeant in vulgari + translatos, arctissime inhibemus" (_Conc. of Toulouse_ of 1229, c. + xiv.). The _Constitutiones Thomae Arundel_, for the mediaeval Church + of England, declared: "Ordinamus ut nemo deinceps aliquem textum S. + Scripturae auctoritate sua in linguam Anglicanam vel aliam transferat + per viam libri, libelii aut tractatus" (Art. VII., 1408 A.D.). + + 98 Pope Innocent III. reprobated the translation of the Scriptures into + the vernacular, because ordinary laymen, and especially women, had + not sufficient intelligence to understand them (_Epistolae_, ii. + 141); and Berthold, Archbishop of Mainz, in his diocesan edict of + 1486, asserted that vernaculars were unable to express the + profundity of the thoughts contained in the original languages of + the Scriptures or in the Latin of the Vulgate. + +_ 99 Maima Bibliotheca Patrum_ (Coloniae Agrippinae, 1618), xiii. 299. + + 100 Walther, _Die deutsche Bibeluebersetzung des Mittelalters_ + (Brunswick, 1889). + + 101 Gudenaus, _Codex Diplomatic. Anecdota_, iv. 469-475 (1758). + + 102 Walther, _Die deutsche Bibeluebersetzungen des Mittelalters_ + (Brunswick, 1889). + + 103 Sebastian Brand, _Narrenschiff_, Preface, lines 1-4: + + "Alle Land ist jetz voll heilger Schrift, + Und was der seelen Heil betrifft + Bibel und heilger Vater Lehr + Und andrer frommen Buecher mehr." + +_ 104 Magna Bibliotheca Patrum_ (Coloniae Agrippinae, 1618), vol. xiii. pp. + 290-301. + + 105 SOURCES: Casanova and Guasti, _Poesie di G. Savonarola_ (Florence, + 1862); _Scella di Prediche e Scritti di Fra G. Savonarola, con nuovi + Documenti intorno alla sua Vita_, by Villari and Casanova (Florence, + 1898); Bayonne, _OEuvres Spirituelles choisies de Jerome Savonarola_ + (Paris, 1879); _The Workes of Sir Thomas More ... written by him in + the Englyshe tonge_ (London, 1557); Erasmus, _Opera Omnia_, ed. Le + Clerc (Leyden, 1703-1706); Nichols, _The Epistles of Erasmus from + his earliest letters to his fifty-first year, arranged in order of + time_ (London, 1901); _Enchiridion Militis Christiani_ (Cambridge, + 1685); _The whole Familiar Colloquies of Erasmus_ (London, 1877); + Sir Thomas More, _Utopia_ (Temple Classics Series). + + LATER WORKS: Villari, _Girolamo Savonarola_, 2 vols. (Florence, + 1887-1888; Eng. trans., London, 1890); Seebohm, _The Oxford + Reformers: John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas More_, etc. (London, + 1887); Drummond, _Erasmus, his life and character_ (London, 1873); + Woltmann, _Holbein and his Time_ (London, 1872); Fronde, _Life and + Letters of Erasmus_ (London, 1894); Amiel, _Un libre penseur du 16 + siecle: Erasme_ (Paris, 1889); Emmerton, _Desiderius Erasmus of + Rotterdam_ (New York. 1899). + +_ 106 The Workes of Sir Thomas More, Knyght, sometyme Lorde Chancellour + of England, Wrytten by him in the Englysh tonge_ (London, 1557), p. + 6 C. + +_ 107 The Works of Sir Thomas More, Knyght, sometyme Lorde Chancellor of + England, Wrytten by him in the Englysh tonge_ (London, 1557), p. 13 + C. + +_ 108 Ibid._ 5 A. + +_ 109 Ibid._ 6 B. + +_ 110 Ibid._ 6 C. + +_ 111 Ibid._ 8 D. + +_ 112 Ibid._ 6 D. + +_ 113 The Works of Sir Thomas More, Knyght, sometyme Lorde Chancellour of + England, Wrytten by him in the Englysh tonge_ (London, 1557), 13 F. + +_ 114 Ibid._ 12 D. + +_ 115 Ibid._ 7 D. + +_ 116 Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola_, p. 771 (Eng. trans., + London, 1897). + + 117 Seebohm, _The Oxford Reformers: John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas + More; being a history of their fellow-work_, 2nd ed. p. 125 (London, + 1869). Mr. Seebohm seems to think that the Reformers clung to the + mediaeval conception of the inspiration of Scripture. Calvin held the + same ideas as Colet, and expressed them in the same way. Cf. his + comments on Matt. xxvii. 9: "Quomodo Hieremiae nomen obrepserit, me + nescire fateor, _nec anxie laboro_: certe Hieremiae nomen _errore_ + positum esse pro Zacharia, res ipsa ostendit"; and his comment on + Acts vii. 16: "quare his locus corrigendus est." + + 118 Colet's abstracts of the _Celestial_ and of the _Terrestrial + Hierarchies_ have been published by the Rev. J. H. Lupton (London, + 1869), from the MS. at St. Paul's School. Mr. Lupton has also + published Colet's treatise _On the Sacraments of the Church_ + (London, 1867). The best edition of the works of the + pseudo-Dionysius is that of Balthasar Corderius, S.J., published at + Venice in 1755. The actual writings of the pseudo-Dionysius are not + extensive; the editor has added translations, notes, scholia, + commentaries, etc., and his folio edition contains more than one + thousand pages. + + 119 "The radical conception is most often due to Dionysius; the passages + represent the effervescence produced by the Dionysian conceptions in + Colet's mind.... The fire was indeed very much Colet's. I find + passages which burn in Colet's abstract, freeze in the + original."--Seebohm, _The Oxford Reformers_, p. 76 (2nd ed., London, + 1869). My knowledge of Colet's sermons comes from the extracts in + Mr. Seebohm's work. + + 120 Cf. Mr. Lupton's translation of the _Ecclesiastical Hierarchies_, c. + ii. If it be permissible to adduce evidence from the _Utopia_ of Sir + Thomas More, the anti-sacerdotal views of the Oxford Reformers went + much further. In _Utopia_ confession was made to the head of the + family and not to the priests; women could be priests; divorce from + bed and board was permitted. Cf. the Temple Classics edition, p. 116 + (divorce), p. 148 (women-priests), p. 152 (confession). + + 121 Seebohm, _The Oxford Reformers_, p. 221 (2nd ed. 1869). + + 122 Erasmus, _Opera Omnia_ (Leyden, 1703-1706), v. 140. + + 123 Erasmus, _Opera Omnia_ (Leyden, 1703-1706), v. 26. The sarcasm of + Erasmus finds ample confirmation in Kerler's _Die Patronate der + Heiligen_ (Ulm, 1905), where St. Rochus, with fifty-nine companion + saints, is stated to be ready to hear the prayers of those who dread + the plague; St. Apollonia, with eighteen others, takes special + interest in all who are afflicted with toothache; the holy Job, with + thirteen companions, is ready to cure the itch; and St. Barbara with + St. George figure as protectors against a violent death; cf. pp. + 266-273, 419-422, 218-219, 358-359. + + 124 Erasmus, _Opera Omnia_, v. 35-36. + +_ 125 Ibid._ iv. 465. + + 126 Erasmus, _Opera Omnia_, iv. 481-484. + +_ 127 Ibid._ iv. 471-474. + +_ 128 Ibid._ iv. 445. + + 129 Leitschuh, _Albrecht Duerer's Tagebuch der Reise in die Niederlande_ + (Leipzig, 1884), p. 84. + + 130 SOURCES: Melanchthon, _Historia de vita et actis Lutheri_ + (Wittenberg, 1545, in the _Corpus Reformatorum_, vi.); Mathesius, + _Historien von ... Martini Lutheri, Anfang, Lere, Leben und Sterben_ + (Prague, 1896); Myconius, _Historia Reformations 1517-1542_ + (Leipzig, 1718); Ratzeberger, _Geschichte ueber Luther und seine + Zeit_ (Jena, 1850); Kilian Leib, _Annales von 1503-1523_ (vols. vii. + and ix. of v. Aretin's _Beitraege zur Geschichte und Litteratur_, + Munich, 1803-1806); Wrampelmeyer, _Tagebuch ueber Dr. Martin Luther, + gefuehrt von Dr. Conrad Cordatus, 1537_ (Halle, 1885); Caspar + Cruciger, _Tabulae chronologicae actorum M. Lutheri_ (Wittenberg, + 1553); Foerstemann, _Neues Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der + evangelischen Kirchen-reformation_ (Hamburg, 1842); Kolde, _Analecta + Lutherana_ (Gotha, 1883); G. Loesche, _Analecta Lutherana et + Melanchthoniana_ (Gotha, 1892); Loescher; _Vollstuendige + Reformations-Acta und Documenta_ (Leipzig, 1720-1729); Enders, _Dr. + Martin Luther's Briefwechsel_, 5 vols. (Frankfurt, 1884-1893); De + Wette, _Dr. Martin Luther's Briefe, Sendschreiben und Bedenken_, 5 + vols. (Berlin, 1825-1828); J. Cochlaeus (Rom. Cath.), _Commentarius + de actis et scriptis M. Lutheri ... ab anno 1517 usque ad annum + 1537_ (St. Victor prope Moguntiam, 1549); V. L. Seekendorf, + _Commentarius ... de Lutheranismo_ (Frankfurt, 1692); + _Constitutiones Fratrum Heremitarum Sancti Augustini_ (Nuernberg, + 1504); _Cambridge Modern History_, II. iv. + + LATER BOOKS: J. Koestlin, _Martin Luther, sein Leben und seine + Schriften_, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1889); Th. Kolde, _Martin Luther. Eine + Biographie_, 2 vols. (Gotha, 1884, 1893); A. Hausrath, _Luther's + Leben_, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1904); Lindsay, _Luther and the German + Reformation_ (Edinburgh, 1900); Kolde, _Friedrich der Weise und die + Anfaenge der Reformation mit archivalischen Beilagen_ (Erlangen, + 1881), and _Die deutsche Augustiner-Congregation und Johann v. + Staupitz_ (Gotha, 1879); A. Hausrath, _M. Luther's Romfahrt nach + einem gleichzeitigen Pilgerbuche_ (Berlin, 1894); Oergel, _Vom + jungen Luther_ (Erfurt, 1899); Juergens, _Luther von seiner Geburt + bis zum Ablassetreil_, 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1846-1847); Krumhaar, _Die + Grafschaft Mansfeld im Reformationszeitalter_ (Eisleben, 1845); + Buchwald, _Zur Wittenberg Stadt- und Universitaetsgeschichte in der + Reformationszeit_ (Leipzig, 1893); Kampschulte, _Die Universitaet + Erfurt in ihrem Verkaeltniss zu dem Humanismus und der Reformation_ + (Trier, 1856-1860). + +_ 131 Albrecht Duerer's Tugebuch der Reise in die Niederlande_. Edited by + Dr. Fr. Leitschuh (Leipzig, 1884), pp. 28-84. + + 132 Nicholas, born at Lyre, a village in Normandy, was one of the + earliest students of the Hebrew Scriptures; he explained the + accepted fourfold sense of Scripture in the following distich: + + "_Litera_ gesta docet, quid credas _Allegoria_, + _Moralis_ quid agas, quo tendas _Anagogia_." + + Luther used his commentaries when he became Professor of Theology at + Wittenberg, and acknowledged the debt; but it is too much to say: + + "Si Lyra non lyrasset, + Lutherus non saltasset." + + 133 There is one persistent contemporary suggestion, that Luther was + finally driven to take the step by the sudden death of a companion, + for which a good deal may be said. Oergel has shown, from minute + researches in the university archives, that a special friend of + Luther's, Hieronymus Pontz of Windsheim, who was working along with + him for his Magister's degree, died suddenly of pleurisy before the + end of the examination; that a few weeks after Luther had taken his + degree, another promising student whom he knew died of the plague; + that the plague broke out again in Erfurt three months afterwards; + and that Luther entered the convent a few days after this second + appearance of the plague.--Cf. Georg Oergel, _Vom jungen Luther_ + (Erfurt, 1899), pp. 35-41. + + 134 Cf. above, pp. 127 ff. + + 135 In my chapter on Luther in the _Cambridge Modern History_, ii. p. + 114, where notes were not permitted, I have said with too much + abruptness that John of Paltz was "the teacher of Luther himself." + Luther was certainly taught the theology of John of Paltz, and the + latter was residing in the monastery during two years of Luther's + stay there; but it is more probable that Luther's actual instructor + was Nathin. + + 136 In the _Tischreden_ (Preger, Leipzig, 1888), i. 27, the saying is + attributed to Bartholomaeus Usingen, who is erroneously called + Luther's teacher in the Erfurt convent. Usingen did not enter the + convent before 1512. He was a professor in the University of Erfurt, + not in the convent. + + 137 N. Selneccer, _Historia . . . D. M. Lutheri_: "Jussus est omissis + Sacris Bibliis ex obedientia legere scholastica et sophistica + scripta." + + 138 Modern Romanists describe all this as the self-torturing of an + hysterical youth. They are surely oblivious to the fact that the + only great German mediaeval Mystic who has been canonised by the + Romish Church, Henry Suso, went through a similar experience; and + that these very experiences were in both cases looked on by + contemporaries as the fruits of a more than ordinary piety. + +_ 139 Resolutiones_, Preface. + + 140 Acts viii. 4. + + 141 Rom. xiii. 14. + + 142 Matt. x. 9. + + 143 Prov. ii. 1. + + 144 "If we review all the men and women of the West since Augustine's + time, whom, for the disposition which possessed them, history has + designated as eminent Christians, we have always the same type; we + find marked conviction of sin, complete renunciation of their own + strength, and trust in grace, in the personal God who is apprehended + as the _Merciful One_ in the humility of Christ. The variations of + this frame of mind are innumerable--but the fundamental type is the + same. This frame of mind is taught in sermons and in instruction by + truly pious Romanists and by Evangelicals; in it youthful Christians + are trained, and dogmatics are constructed in harmony with it. It + has always produced so powerful an effect, even where it is only + preached as the experience of others, that he who has come in + contact with it can never forget it; it accompanies him as a pillar + of cloud by day and of fire by night; he who imagines that he has + long shaken it off, sees it rising up suddenly before him + again."--Harnack's _History of Dogma_, v. 74 (Eng. trans., London, + 1898). + + 145 The Wolfenbuettel Library contains the Psalter (Vulgate) used by + Luther in lecturing on the Psalms. The book was printed at + Wittenberg in 1513 by John Gronenberg, and contains Luther's notes + written on the margin and between the printed lines. + + 146 Luther's indebtedness to Gerson (Jean Charlier, born in 1363 at + Gerson, a hamlet near Rethel in the Ardennes, believed by some to be + the author of the _De Imitatione Christi_) has not been sufficiently + noticed. It may be partially estimated by Luther's own statement + that most experimental divines, including Augustine, when dealing + with the struggle of the awakened soul, lay most stress on that part + of the conflict which comes from temptations of the flesh; Gerson + confines himself to those which are purely spiritual. Luther, during + his soul-anguish in the convent, was a young monk who had lived a + humanly stainless life, _sans peur et sans reproche_; Augustine, a + middle-aged professor of rhetoric, had been living for years in a + state of sinful concubinage. + + 147 It is commonly said that Luther made use of the _mystical_ passages + found in these and other authors; but _mystical_ is a very ambiguous + word. It is continually used to express personal or individual piety + in general; or this personal religion as opposed to that religious + life which is consciously lived within the fellowship of men called + the Church, provided with the external means of grace. These are, + however, very loose uses of the word. The fundamental problem, even + in Christian Mysticism, appears to me to be how to bridge the gulf + between the creature and the Creator, while the problem in + Reformation theology is how to span the chasm between the sinful man + and the righteous God. Hence in mysticism the _tendency_ is always + to regard sin as imperfection, while in the Reformation theology sin + is always the power of evil and invariably includes the thought of + guilt. Luther was no mystic in the sense of desiring to be lost _in_ + God: he wished to be saved _through_ Christ. + + 148 Of course, Luther's intense individuality appeared in his language + from the first. Take as an example a note on Ps. lxxxiv. 4: "As the + meadow is to the cow, the house to the man, the nest to the bird, + the rock to the chamois, and the stream to the fish, so is the Holy + Scripture to the believing soul." + + 149 The expression is interesting, because it shows that Luther's + influence had made at least two of his colleagues change their + views. Nicholas Amsdorf and Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt had come + to Wittenberg to teach Scholastic Theology, and Amsdorf had made a + great name for himself as an exponent of the older type of that + theology. + + 150 An illustrated catalogue of Frederick's collection of relics was + prepared by Lucas Cranach, and published under the title, + _Wittenberger Heiligthumsbuch vom Jahre 1509_. It has been reprinted + by G. Hirth of Munich in his _Liebhaber-Bibliothek alter + Illustratoren in Facsimile-Reproduktion,_ No. vi. + + 151 "Amore et studio elucidandae veritatis haec subscripta disputabuntur + Wittenbergae, praesidente R. P. Martino Lutther, artium et sacrae + theologiae magistro eiusdemque ibidem lectore ordinario. Quare petit, + ut qui non possunt verbis praesentes nobiscum disceptare, agant id + literis absentes. In nomine Domini nostri Hiesu Christi. Amen." + + 152 SOURCES: Thomas Aquinas, _Summa Theologiae, Supplementum Tertiae + Partis_, Quaestiones xxv.-xxvii.; Alexander of Hales, _Summa + Theologiae_, iv.; Bonaventura, _Opera Omnia; In Librum Quartum + Sententiarum_, dist. xx.; vol. v. 264 tf. (Moguntiae, 1609); + Denzinger, _Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definitionum, quae de rebus + fidei et morum a conciliis oecumenicis et summis pontificibus + emanarunt_, 9th ed. (Wuerzburg, 1900), p. 175; Koehler, _Documenta zum + Ablassstreit von 1517_ (Tuebingen, 1902). + + LATER BOOKS: F. Beringer (Soc. Jes.), _Der Ablass, sein Wesen und + Gebrauch_, 12th ed. (Paderborn, 1898); Bouvier, _Treatise on + Indulgences_ (London, 1848); Lea, _A History of Auricular Confession + and Indulgence in the Latin Church_, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1896); + Brieger, _Das Wesen des Ablasses am Ausgange des Mittelalters_ + (Leipzig, 1897); Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vi. pp. 243-270; Goetz, + "Studien zur Geschichte des Buss-sacraments" in _Zeitschrift fuer + Kirchengeschichte_, xv. 321 ff., xvi. 541 ff.; Schneider, _Der + Ablass_ (1881); _Cambridge Modern History_, II. iv. + + 153 The use of the word _satisfaction_ to denote an outward sign of + sorrow for sin which was supposed to be well-pleasing to God and to + afford reasonable ground for the congregation restoring a lapsed + member, is very old--much older than the use of the word to denote + the work of Christ. It is found as early as the time of Tertullian + and Cyprian. + + 154 Tertullian was no believer in any indulgence shown to penitent + sinners, and his account of the way in which penitents appeared + before the congregation to ask for a remission or mitigation of the + ecclesiastical sentence pronounced against them is doubtless a + caricature, but it may be taken as a not unfair description of what + must have frequently taken place: "You introduce into the Church the + penitent adulterer for the purpose of melting the brotherhood by his + supplications. You lead him into the midst, clad in sackcloth, + covered with ashes, a compound of disgrace and horror. He prostrates + himself before the widows, before the elders, suing for the tears of + all; he seizes the edges of their garments, he clasps their knees, + he kisses the prints of their feet. Meanwhile you harangue the + people and excite their pity for the sad lot of the penitent. Good + pastor, blessed father that you are, you describe the coming back of + your goat in recounting the parable of the lost sheep. And in case + your ewe lamb may take another leap out of the fold ... you fill all + the rest of the flock with apprehension at the very moment of + granting indulgence."--(_De Pudicitia_, 13.) + + 155 In one book of discipline a man who has committed certain sins is + ordered either to go on pilgrimage for ten years, or to live on + bread and water for two years, or to pay 12s. a year. Detailed + information may be found in Schmitz, _Die Bussbuecher und die + Bussdisziplin der Kirche_. + +_ 156 Summa_, iv. 23. + + 157 Thomas Aquinas, _Summa Theologiae_, iii., _Supplementum_, Quaes. xxv. + 1. + + 158 "Du sprichst 'So ich am letsten in todes not, + Ain yeder priester mich zu absolviren not': + Von Schuld ist war, noch mitt von pein, so du bist tod, + Ja fuer ain stund in fegfeuer dort. + Gabst du des Kaysers guete." + + --(Wackernagel, _Das deutsche Kirchenlied_, etc. ii. 1068.) + + 159 Bonaventura, _In Librum Quartum Sententiarum_, Dist. xx. Quaest. 5. + Alexander of Hales, _Summa_, iv. Quaest. 59; Thomas Aquinas, _Summa_, + iii., _Suppl. Quaest._ i. 2. + + 160 Thomas Aquinas, _Summa Theologiae_, iii., _Supplem._ Quaestio xxv. 1: + "Ecclesia universalis non potest errare ... ecclesia universalis + indulgentias approbat et facit. Ergo indulgentiae aliquid valent ... + quia impium esset dicere quod Ecclesia aliquid vane faceret." + + 161 Cf. the hymn, "Der guldin Ablass," of the fifteenth century, in + Wackernagel, ii. 283-284. + + 162 SOURCES: Koehler, _Luthers 95 Theses samt seinen Resolutionen sowie + den Gegenschriften von Wimpina-Tetzel, Eck, und Prierias und den + Antworten Luthers darauf_ (Leipzig, 1903); Emil Reich, _Select + Documents illustrating Mediaeval and Modern History_ (London, 1905). + + LATER BOOKS: J. E. Kapp, _Sammlung einiger zum paepstlichen Ablass, + ueberhaupt ... aber zu der ... zwischen Martin Luther und Johann + Tetzel hiervongefuehrten Streitigkeit gehoerigen Schriften, mit + Einleitungen und Anmerkungen versehen_ (Leipzig, 1721), and _Kleine + Nachlese einiger ... zur Erlaeuterung der Reformationsgeschichte + nuetzlicher Urkunden_ (Four parts, Leipzig, 1727-1733); Bratke, + _Luthers 95 Theses und ihre dogmenhistorischen Voraussetzungen_ + (Goettingen, 1884); Dieckhoff, _Der Ablassstreit dogmengeschichtlich + dargestellt_ (Gotha, 1886); Groene, _Tetzel und Luther_ (Soest, + 1860). + + 163 The _Obelisks_ of Eck were printed and circulated privately long + before they were published; a copy was in Luther's hand on March + 4th, 1518; it was answered by him on March 24th, and was published + in the August following. + + 164 Koehler has collected together the _Ninety-five Theses_, the + _Resolutiones_, and the attacks on the _Theses_ by Wimpina-Tetzel, + Eck, and Prierias, and published them in one small book (Leipzig, + 1903). It is a handbook of reference, and the text of the documents + has been carefully examined. + + 165 The arguments were all founded on Thomas Aquinas, _Summa_, iii., + _Supplementum_, Quaestio xxv. l. + + 166 Thomas de Vio was born at Gaeta, a town situated on a promontory + about fifty miles north of Naples, and was called Cajetanus from his + birthplace. His baptismal name was James, and he took that of Thomas + in honour of Thomas Aquinas. He had entered the Dominican Order at + the age of sixteen; he was a learned man, a Scholastic of the older + Thomist type, and not without evangelical sympathies; but he had the + Dominican idea that ecclesiastical discipline must be maintained at + all costs. + + 167 Seidemann, _Die Leipziger Disputation im Jahre 1519_ (Dresden, + 1843). + +_ 168 Zeitschrift fuer die historische Theologie_ for 1872, p. 534. + + 169 Petri Mosellani, "Epistola de Disput. Lips." in Loescher's + _Reformations Acta et Documenta_ (Leipzig, 1720-1729), i. pp. 242 + ff. + +_ 170 Zeitschrift fuer die historische Theologie_ for 1872, p. 535. The + diarist is M. Sebastian Froscher. + + 171 Wace and Buchheim, _Luther's Primary Works_ (London, 1896). + + 172 Denzinger, _Enchiridion_, etc. p. 175. + + 173 In a pamphlet written by Eck in 1519, he had asserted that all the + theologians in Germany were opposed to Luther save a few unlearned + canons. This called forth, towards the end of the year, _The Answer + of an Unlearned Canon_, which was generally ascribed to Bernard + Adelmann, a canon of Augsburg, but which was really written by + Oecolampadius. Pirkheimer had written a caustic attack on Eck in a + satire, in which German coarseness was clothed in elegant latinity, + entitled _Eccius Dedolatus_ (_The Corner planed off_, Eck being the + German for "corner"), published in _Lateinische Litteraturdenkmueler + des 15 und 16 Jahrhundertes_ (Berlin, 1891). Carlstadt had opposed + Eck at Leipzig. + + 174 A copy of Luther's notice has been preserved in the MS. "Annals" of + Peter Schumann in the _Zwickau Ratsschulbibliothek_ at Zwickau. It + has been printed in Kolde's _Analecta Lutherana_ (Gotha, 1883), p. + 26: "Quisquis veritatis Evangeliceae studio teneatur. Adesto sub + horam nonam, modo ad templum S. Crucis extra moenia oppidi, ubi pro + veteri et apostolico ritu impii pontificiarum constitutionum et + scholasticae theologiae libri cremabuntur quandoquidem eo processit + audatia inimicorum Evangelii, ut pios ac evangelicos Luteri + exusserit. Age pia et studiosa juventus ad hoc pium ac religiosum + spectaculum constituito. Fortassis enim nunc tempus est quo revelari + Antichristum opportuit." + + 175 Fr. v. Bezold has some excellent pages on this subject in his + _Geschichte der deutschen Reformation_ (Berlin, 1890), pp. 278 ff. I + have used the material he has collected, and added to it from my own + reading. + + 176 SOURCES: _Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Karl __V._, 3 vols. + have been published (Gotha, 1893-1901); Balan, _Monumenta + Reformationis Lutheranae ex tabulis S. Sedis secretis 1521-1525_ + (Ratisbon, 1883-1884); Laemmer, _Monumenta Vaticana historiam + ecclesiasticam saeculi 16 illustrantia_ (Freiburg, 1861); + _Meletematum Romanorum Mantissa_ (Regensburg, 1875); Brieger, + _Aleander und Luther 1521: Die vervollstaendigten Aleander-Depeschen + nebst Untersuchungen ueber den Wormser Reichstag_ (Gotha, 1894); + _Calendar of Spanish State Papers_ (London, 1886); _Calendar of + Venetian State Papers_, vols. iii.-vi. (London, 1864-1884); _Letters + and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the reign of Henry __VIII._, + vols. iii.-xix. (London, 1860-1903); V. E. Loescher, _Vollstaendige + Reformations-Acta und Documenta_, 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1713-1722); + Spalatin, _Annales Reformationis_ (Leipzig, 1768); _Chronikon_ 2nd + vol. of Mencke's _Scriptores rerum Germanicarum praecipae + Saxonicarum_, 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1728-1730); _Historischer Nachlass + und Briefe_ (Jena, 1851); also the sources mentioned under the first + chapter of this part. + + LATER BOOKS: Hausrath, _Aleander und Luther auf dem Reichstage zu + Worms_ (Berlin, 1897); Kolde, _Luther und der Reichstag zu Worms + 1521_ (Halle, 1883); Friedrich, _der Reichstag zu Worms 1521_ + (Munich, 1871); Ranke, _Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der + Reformation_ (Leipzig, 1881; Eng. trans., London, 1905); Armstrong, + _The Emperor Charles __V._ (London, 1902); v. Bezold, _Geschichte + der deutschen Reformation_ (Berlin, 1890); Creighton, _A History of + the Papacy_, vol. vi. (London, 1897); Gebhardt, _Die Gravamina der + deutschen Nation_ (Breshan, 1895). + + 177 Kalkoff, _Die Depeschen_, etc. pp. 46, 50, 58, 69, etc. + + 178 He became Archbishop of Brindisi and Orio, and then a Cardinal. + + 179 Breiger, _Aleander und Luther 1521: Die vervollstaendigten + Aleander-Depeschen_, p. 53 (Gotha, 1884); _non superstitiose verax_, + Erasmus said. + + 180 Kalkoff, _Die Depeschen des Nuntius Aleander_, etc. pp. 19, 20, 23, + 24, 265, 266. + + 181 Brieger, _Aleander und Luther 1521: Die vervollstaendigten + Aleander-Depeschen_ (Gotha, 1884), _Quellen und Furschungen zur + Geschichte der Reformation_, i.; Friedensburg, _Eine ungedrueckte + Depesche Aleanders von seiner ersten Nuntiatur bei Karl_ V., in + _Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven_, i. (1897); + Kalkoff, _Die Depeschen des Nuntius Aleander vom Wormser Reichstage + 1521_ (Halle, 1897, 2nd ed.); Kolde, _Luther und der Reichstag zu + Worms 1521_ (Halle, 1883); Hausrath, _Aleander und Luther auf dem + Reichstage zu Worms_ (Berlin, 1897); Gebhardt, _Die Gravamina der + deutschen Nation_ (Breslau, 1895, 2nd ed.). + + 182 "Reserved as Charles was, the shock struck out the most outspoken + confession of his faith that he ever uttered. Nowhere else is it + possible to approach so closely to the workings of his spiritual + nature, save in the confidential letters to his brother in the last + troubled hours of rule, when he repeated that it was not in his + conscience to rend the seamless mantle of the Church."--Armstrong, + _The Emperor Charles __V._, i. 71 (London, 1902). But we have + another glimpse in the conversation with his sister Maria, in which + he confesses that he had come to think better of the Lutherans, for + he had learned to know that they taught nothing outside the + Apostles' Creed. Cf. Kawerau, _Johann Agricola von Eisleben_, p. 100 + (Berlin, 1881). + +_ 183 Deutsche Reichstagsakten_, etc. ii. 595. + +_ 184 Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, 1509-1525_, p. 305 (London, + 1866). + + 185 For an account of the indirect causes which led to the election of + Charles, cf. v. Bezohl, _Geschichte des deutschen Reformation_, pp. + 193 ff. (Berlin, 1890). + + 186 Armstrong, _The Emperor Charles __V._, p. 73 (London, 1902). + + 187 Charles V. had for his confessor Jean Glapion, who figured largely + in the preliminary scenes before Luther arrived at Worms. He had a + remarkable conversation with Dr. Brueck, the Elector of Saxony's + Chancellor, in which he professed to speak for the Emperor as well + as for himself. Luther's earlier writings had given him great + pleasure; he believed him to be a "plant of renown," able to produce + splendid fruit for the Church. But the book on the _Babylonian + Captivity_ had shocked him; he did not believe it to be Luther's; it + was not in his usual style; if Luther had written it, it must have + been because he was momentarily indignant at the papal Bull, and as + it was anonymous, it could easily be repudiated; or if not + repudiated, it might be explained, and its sentences shown to be + capable of a Catholic interpretation. If this were done, and if + Luther withdrew his violent writings against the Pope, there was no + reason why an amicable arrangement should not be come to. The Papal + Bull could easily be got over, it could be withdrawn on the ground + that Luther had never had a fair trial. It was a mistake to suppose + that the Emperor was not keenly alive to the need for a reformation + of the Church; there were limits to his devotion to the Pope; the + Emperor believed that he would deserve the wrath of God if he did + not try to amend the deplorable condition of the Church of Christ. + Such was Glapion's statement. It is a question how far he was + sincere, and how far he could speak for the Emperor. He was a friend + and admirer of Erasmus; but the Dutchman had said that no man could + conceal his own views so skilfully. The Elector heard that after + this conversation Glapion had got from Aleander 400 copies of the + Bull against Luther, and had distributed them among Franciscan + monks. This made him doubt his sincerity, and he refused to grant + him an audience. Cf. _Reichstagsakten_, ii. 477 ff. + + 188 A study of dates throws light on these bargainings. In Oct. 1520, + Charles issued an edict ordering the burning of Luther's books + within his hereditary dominions. In the following weeks Aleander was + pressing Charles to make the edict universal; this was declared to + be impossible, but (Nov. 28th) Charles wrote to the Elector of + Saxony ordering him to produce Luther at Worms, and to hinder him + from writing anything more against the Pope; as it were in answer + (Dec. 12th), the Pope intimated to Charles that he had withdrawn his + briefs about the Inquisition in Spain. The Emperor reached Worms + about the middle of December. On Jan. 3rd (1521) the Pope simplified + matters for the Emperor by issuing a new Bull, _Decet Romanum_, + containing the names of Luther and Hutten; the Diet opened Jan. + 28th; Aleander made his three hours' speech against Luther on Feb. + 13; Feb. 19th, the Estates resolved that Luther should appear before + them, and not for the simple purpose of recantation--he was to be + heard, and to receive a safe conduct; March 6th, the imperial + invitation and safe conduct, beginning with the words, _nobilis, + derote, nobis dilecte_; Aleander protested vehemently against this + address; the Emperor drafted a universal mandate ordering the + burning of Luther's books; this probably was not published; it was + withdrawn in favour of a mandate ordering all Luther's books to be + delivered up to the magistrates; this was published in Worms on + March 27th, and caused rioting; April 17th and 18th, Luther appeared + before the Diet; May 8th, Charles received the Pope's pledge to take + his side against Francis; Diet agreed to the ban against Luther on + May 25th; Charles dated the ban May 8th. + +_ 189 Calendar of State Papers, Henry __VIII.__ Letters and Papers, + Foreign and Domestic_ (London, 1867), III. i. p. 445. + + 190 Kalkoff, _Die Depeschen_, etc. p. 106. + + 191 This was probably the frontispiece of a small book containing four + of Hutten's tracts, and entitled _Gespraech Buechlin: Herr Ulrichs von + Hutten. Feber das Erst: Feber das ander: Vadiscus, oder die Roemische + Dreifaltigkeit: Die Anschawenden_; with the motto, _Odivi ecclesiam + malignantium_. It is figured in v. Bezold's _Geschicte der deutschen + Reformation_, p. 307 (Berlin, 1890). + +_ 192 Reichtstagsakten_, ii. pp. 495 ff. + +_ 193 Ibid._ 515 ff. + +_ 194 Reichstsakten_, ii. pp. 518 ff. + + 195 Brieger, _Aleander und Luther 1521: Die vervollstaendigten + Aleander-Depeschen nebst Untersuchungen ueber den Wormses Reichstag_ + (Gotha, 1884), p .19. + +_ 196 Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Carl __V._ (Gotha, 1896), ii. + 466; Brieger, _Aleander_, etc. pp. 19, 20. + + 197 Cf. p. 267, note. + + 198 The draft was dated February 15th, and will be found in the + _Reichstagsakten_, ii. 507 ff. + + 199 The answer of the Diet was dated February 19th, and is to be found + in the _Reichstagsakten_, ii. 514 ff., and discussions thereanent, + pp. 517, 518 f. + + 200 The second draft edict proposed to summon Luther to make recantation + only, and at the same time ordered his books to be burnt, which was + equivalent to a condemnation, _Reichstagsakten_, ii. 520. + + 201 The revised draft edict in its final form was dated March 10th, four + days after the citation and safe conduct, and it is probable that it + was finally issued by the Emperor for the purpose of frightening + Luther, and preventing him obeying the citation and trusting to the + safe conduct, _Reichstagsakten_, ii. 529 ff. and notes. + + 202 Luther received three safe conducts, one from the Emperor in the + citation, one from the Elector of Saxony, and one from Duke George + of Saxony. _Reichstagsakten_, ii. 526 ff. + + 203 Cf. Aleander's letter of April 5th, 1521. Brieger, _Aleander und + Luther_, etc. pp. 119 ff. + + 204 Spalatin's _Annales Reformationis_ (Cyprian's edition), p. 38. + +_ 205 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 850. + +_ 206 Ibid._ p. 850. + +_ 207 Ibid._ p. 853, note. + +_ 208 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 863. + + 209 Lingke, _Luther's Reisegeschichte_, pp. 83 f. + + 210 Every monk when on a journey had to be accompanied by a brother of + the Order. Petzensteiner left his convent and married (July 1522), + Kolde, _Analecta Lutherana_, p. 38. For the entry into Worms, cf. + _Reichstagsakten_, ii. 850, 859; Balau, _Monumenta_, etc. p. 170. + + 211 Brieger, _Aleander_, etc. p. 143; _Zeitschrift f. + Kirchengeschichte_, iv. 326. + +_ 212 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 569; Forstemann, _Urkundenbuch_, 68 f., + _Tischreden_, iv. 349; Brieger, _Aleander_, etc. p. 146. + +_ 213 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 514, 519 f., 526. + +_ 214 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 573. + +_ 215 Ibid._ p. 891, where it is said that the imperial entourage and the + dependants of the Curia hated a public appearance of Luther worse + than foreigners dislike "Einbecker beer." + + 216 Cf. Luther's letters to Cranach (April 21st, 1521), and to the + Elector Frederick, De Wette, _Dr. Martin Luthers Briefe_, etc. i. + 588, 599. + +_ 217 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 545. + +_ 218 Ibid._ p. 859. + + 219 The terms _Orator_ and _Official_ have a great many meanings in + Mediaeval ecclesiastical Latin. They probably mean here the president + of the Archbishop's Ecclesiastical Court. John Eck was a Doctor of + Canon Law. Archbishop Parker signed himself the _Orator_ of Cecil + (_Calendar of State Papers, Elizabeth, Foreign Series, 1559-1560_, + p. 84). + + 220 Brieger, _Aleander_, etc. p. 145. + +_ 221 Ibid._ p. 145. + + 222 This paragraph and the succeeding one are founded on the following + sources: The official report written by John Eck of Trier; the _Acta + Wormaciae_, a narrative in the handwriting of Spalatin; and the + statements of fourteen persons, Germans, Italians, and a Spaniard, + all present in the Diet on the 17th and 18th of April 1521. + +_ 223 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 574. + +_ 224 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 547. + +_ 225 Ibid._ p. 549. + +_ 226 Ibid._. p. 862. + + 227 Brieger, _Aleander_, etc. p. 147. + +_ 228 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 632. + + 229 De Wette, _Dr. Martin Luthers Briefe_, etc. i. 589. + +_ 230 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), xxiv. 322. + +_ 231 Ibid._ lxiv. 369. + + 232 Brieger, _Aleander_, etc. p. 146. + +_ 233 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 633. + +_ 234 Ibid._ p. 588. + +_ 235 Ibid._ p. 547. + +_ 236 Ibid._ p. 633. + + 237 The names of the books collected and placed on the table have been + curiously preserved on a scrap of paper stored in the archives of + the Vatican Library; they were all editions published by Frobenius + of Basel (_Reichstagsakten_, ii. 548 and note). It may be sufficient + to say that among them (twenty-five or so) were the appeal _To the + Christian Nobility of the German Nation_, the tract _On the Liberty + of a Christian Man_, _The Babylonian Captivity of the Church of + Christ_, _Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist_, some + commentaries, and some tracts on religious subjects "not + contentious," says the official record. + + 238 This was probably an answer to the suggestion made by Glapion to + Chancellor Brueck, that if Luther would only deny the authorship of + the _Babylonian Captivity of the Church of Christ_, which had been + published anonymously, matters might be arranged. + + 239 The sentence, "And I have written some others which have not been + named," was an aside spoken in a lower tone, but distinctly + (_Reichstagsakten_, ii. 589, 860). + +_ 240 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 548. In Eck's official report Luther's answer + is given very briefly; instead of Luther's words the Official says: + "As to the other part of the question, whether he wished to retract + their contents and to sing another tune (_palinodiam canere_), he + began to invent a chain of idle reasons (_causas nectere_) and to + seek means of escape (_diffugias quaerere_)" (_Reichstagsakten_, ii. + 589). + +_ 241 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 851, 863: "Wir habent den Luther nit wol + horen reden, dann er mit niederer stim geredet" (Kolde, _Analecta_, + p. 30 n.). + + 242 Brieger, _Aleander_, etc. p. 146. + +_ 243 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 549. Aleander, writing to Rome, says that the + Official went on to say in the name of the Emperor that Luther ought + to bear it in mind that he had written many things against the Pope + and the Apostolic Chair, and had scattered recklessly many heretical + statements which had caused great scandal, and which, if not + speedily ended, would kindle such a great conflagration as neither + Luther's recantation nor the imperial power could extinguish; and + that he exhorted Luther to be mindful of this (Brieger, _Aleander_, + p. 147). In Eck's official report these remarks are given as the + opinions of those princes who did not wish that Luther's request + should be granted; but they must have been included in his speech, + for Peutinger confirms the nuncio's report (_Reichstagsakten_, ii. + 589 f., 866). + + 244 De Wette, _Dr. Martin Luthers Briefe_, i. 587. + +_ 245 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 862. + +_ 246 Ibid._ p. 853. + +_ 247 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 549 n.; _Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), + lxiv. 369. + + 248 "I was on my way to the audience to hear (Luther's) speech, but the + throng was so dense that I could not get through" (Sixtus Oelhafen + to Hector Poemer, _Reichstagsakten_, ii. 854). + +_ 249 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 864. + + 250 Walch, xv. 2301. + +_ 251 Ibid._ p. 2233. + +_ 252 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 853. + + 253 Brieger, _Aleander_, etc. p. 172. + +_ 254 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 549. + +_ 255 Ibid._ p. 550. + + 256 Myconius, _Historia Reformationis_ (Leipzig, 1718), p. 39. + +_ 257 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 578. + +_ 258 Ibid._ pp. 550 ff., 557 ff., 591 ff. etc. + +_ 259 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), lxiv. 370. + + 260 Brieger, _Aleander_, etc. p. 152. + +_ 261 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 530. + +_ 262 Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami Opera Omnia_ (Leyden, 1703), iii. 1095: + "Jam audio multis persuasum, ex meis scriptis exstitisse totam hanc + Ecclesiae procellam: cujus verissimi rumoris praecipuus auctor fuit + Hieronymus Aleander, homo, ut nihil aliud dicam, non superstitiose + verax." + + 263 Brieger, _Aleander_, etc. p. 41. + +_ 264 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 860 n. + +_ 265 Ibid._ p. 860. + +_ 266 Ibid._ p. 853. + +_ 267 Ibid._ pp. 550, 551. + + 268 Myconius, _Historia Reformationis_, p. 39. + + 269 Walch, xv. 233. + +_ 270 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 861. + +_ 271 Reichstagsakten,_ ii. 555. + +_ 272 Ibid._ p. 591. + +_ 273 Ibid._ p. 861 n. + + 274 Cochlaeus, _Commentarius_, etc. p. 34. + +_ 275 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 556-558, 581, 582, 591-594. + + 276 Aleander wrote that the Emperor said that he did not wish to hear + more: _et allora fu detto per Cesar, che bastava et che non volera + piu udir, ex quo questui negava li Concilii_ (Brieger, _Aleander_, + etc. p. 153). + +_ 277 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 862 (Dr. Peutinger to the Council of + Augsburg). The famous ending: _Hie stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders + thun, Gott helfe mir, Amen_, which gives such a dramatic finish to + the whole scene, is not to be found in the very earliest records. It + first appeared in an account published in Wittenberg without date, + but which is probably very early, and also in the 1546 edition of + _Luther's Works_, Various versions are given of the last words + Luther uttered--_Gott helf mir, Amen_, in the _Acta Wormaciae_ + (_Reichstagsakten_, ii, 557), which are believed to have been + corrected by Luther himself; _So helf mir Gott, denn kein + widerspruch kan ich nicht thun, Amen_, is given by Spalatin in his + _Annales_ (p. 41). Every description of the scene coming from + contemporary sources shows that there was a great deal of confusion; + it is most likely that in the excitement men carried away only a + general impression and not an exact recollection of the last words + of Luther. If it were not for Dr. Peutinger's very definite + statement written almost immediately after the event, there seems to + be no reason why the dramatic ending should not have been the real + one. + +_ 278 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 636. + +_ 279 Ibid._ p. 862. + +_ 280 Ibid._ p. 558. + +_ 281 Reichstagsakten_, ii. 636. Aleander says that Luther alone raised + his hand and made this gesture; he was not present; the Spaniard who + recounts the incident as given above was a spectator of the scene. + +_ 282 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), lxiv. 370; Wrampelmeyer, + _Tagebuch ueber Dr. Martin Luther, gefuehrt von Dr. Conrad Cordatus_, + p. 477; _et descendi de pretorio conductus, do sprangen Gesellen + herfur, die sagten, __"__Wie, furt yhr yhn gefangen? Das must nicht + sein.__"_ + +_ 283 Reichslagsakten_, ii. 853. + + 284 Selnecker, _Historia ... D. M. Lutheri_ (1575), p. 108. + + 285 Cf. p. 264-5. The complete text of the Emperor's declaration is to + be found in the _Reichstagsakten_, ii. 594; Foerstemann, _Neues + Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchen-Reformation_ + (Hamburg, 1842), i. 75; Armstrong, _The Emperor Charles __V._, i. 70 + (London, 1902). + + 286 Brieger, _Aleander und Luther 1521_, p. 154 (Gotha, 1884): _Dove + molti rimasero piu pallidi che se fossero stati morti_. + + 287 Brieger, _Luther und Aleander 1521_ (Gotha, 1884), pp. 208 ff.; + Kalkoff, _Die Depeschen des Nuntius Aleander vom Wormser Reichstage + 1521_ (Halle, 1897), pp. 235 ff. + + 288 Leitschuh, _Albrecht Duerer's Tagebuch der Reise in die Niederlande_ + (Leipzig, 1884), pp. 82-84. + + 289 Kolde, _Analecta Lutherana_ (Gotha, 1883), pp. 31, 32: "Quare, mi + doctissime Luthere, si me amas, si reliquos, qui adhuc mecum curam + tui habent, Evangeliique Dei, per te tanto labore, tanta cura, tot + sudoribus, tot periculis praedicati fac sciamus, an vivas, an captus + sis." + + 290 Brieger, _Luther und Aleander 1521_ (Gotha, 1884), p. 158; Kalkoff, + _Die Depeschen des Nuntius Aleander_ (Halle, 1897), p. 182. + + 291 Cf. Letter of Cochlaeus to the Pope (June 19th) in Brieger's + _Zeitschrift fuer Kirchengeschichte_, xviii. p. 118. + + 292 Brieger, _Luther und Aleander 1521_ (Gotha, 1884), p. 211. + + 293 The important clauses in the Edict of Worms are printed in Emil + Reich's _Select Documents illustrating Mediaeval and Modern History_ + (London, 1905), p. 209. + +_ 294 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry + __VIII._, III. i. p. cccxxxviii. Letter from Tunstal to Wolsey of + date January 21st, 1521. + + 295 Brieger, _Aleander und Luther 1521_ (Gotha, 1884), p. 263; cf. pp. + 249 ff. + +_ 296 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry + __VIII._, iii. 449, 485. + +_ 297 Act. Parl. Scot._ ii. 295. + + 298 v. Ranke in his _Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation_ + (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1882), ii. 56, and Dr. Burkhardt, archivist at + Weimar, in the _Zeitschrift fuer die historische Theologie_ (Gotha) + for 1862, p. 456--both founding on the confessedly imperfect + information to be found in Panzer's _Annalen der aelteren deutschen + Litteratur_ (1788-1802)--have made the following calculations:--the + number of printed books issued in the German language, and within + Germany, from 1480-1500, did not exceed forty a year; the years + 1500-1512 show about the same average; in the year 1513 the number + of books and booklets issued from German presses in the German + language was 35; in 1514 it was 47; in 1515, 46; in 1516, 55; in + 1517, 37; then Luther's printed appeals to the German people began + to appear in the shape of sermons, tracts, controversial writings, + etc., and the German publications of the year 1518 rose to 71, of + which no less than 20 were from Luther's pen; in 1519 the total + number was 111, of which 50 were Luther's; in 1520 the total was + 208, of which 133 were Luther's; in 1521 (when Luther was in the + Wartburg), Luther published 20 separate booklets; in 1522, 130; and + in 1523 the total number was 498, of which 180 were Luther's; cf. + Weller, _Repertorium Typographicum_ (Noerdlingen, 1864-1874), for + further information. From Luther's Letter to the Nuernberg Council + (Enders, v. 244), it may be inferred that the first edition of each + of his writings was usually sold out in seven or eight weeks. + + 299 It was Luther's appeal to the _Christian Nobility of the German + Nation_ which taught Ulrich von Hutten the powers of the German + language; Strauss, _Ulrich von Hutten, His Life and Times_ (London, + 1874), p. 241. + + 300 A number of the more important of these controversial writings have + been reprinted under the title _Flugschriften aus der + Reformationszeit_ in the very useful series _Neudrucke deutscher + Litteraturwerke_, in the course of publication by Niemeyer of Halle; + cf. also Kuczynski, _Thesaurus libellorum historiam Reformatorum + illustrantium_ (Leipzig, 1870); O. Schade, _Satiren und Pasquillen + aus der Reformationszeit_, 3 vols. (Hanover, 1856-1858). + + 301 Murner was in England in 1523 hoping for an audience from Henry + VIII., in whose defence he had written against Luther. "The king + desires out of pity that he should return to Germany, for he was one + of the chief stays against the faction of Luther, and ordered Wolsey + to pay him L100." Cf. Letter of Sir Thomas More to Wolsey: _Letters + and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry __VIII._, III. ii. 3270. + + 302 Compare chapter on Social Conditions, pp. 96 ff. + + 303 Eberlin's most important pamphlets have been edited by Enders and + published in Niemeyer's _Flugschriften aus der Reformationszeit_, + and form Nos. xi. xv. and xviii. of the series (Halle, 1896, 1900, + 1902). + + 304 Oecolampadius is thought by Boecking to have been the author of the + celebrated pamphlet, _Neukarsthans_ (Summer, 1521), often attributed + to Hutten. Sickingen is one of the speakers; the author shows an + acquaintance with Scripture and with theology which Hutten could + scarcely command; and the idea of ecclesiastical polity sketched + seems lo be taken from Marsilius of Padua. + + 305 Hulsse, _Die Einfuehrung der Reformation in der Stadt Magdeburg_ + (Magdeburg, 1883), p. 46. + + 306 The woodcut was first used to illustrate Hans Sachs' poem, "Der gut + Hirt und der boess Hirt, Johannis am Zehenden Capitel"; and is given + in a facsimile reproduction of several of Hans Sachs' poems, sacred + and secular, entitled _Hans Sachs im Gewande seiner Zeit_, Gotha, + 1821. The poems were originally issued as large broad-sheets + illustrated with a single woodcut, and were meant to be fixed on the + walls of rooms. + + 307 Many of these Reformation cartoons are to be found in G. Hirth, + _Kulturgeschichtliches Bilderbuch aus drei Jahrhunderten_, i. ii. + (Munich, 1896), and one or two in the illustrations in von Bezold, + _Geschichte der deutschen Reformation_ (Berlin, 1890). + + 308 The _Passional Christi et Antichristi_ has been reproduced in + facsimile by W. Scherer (Berlin, 1885). + + 309 H. Barge, _Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt_, 2 vols. (Leipzig, + 1905). + + 310 Cf. Barge, _Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt_, i. 357; the letter is + printed in ii. 558-559. + + 311 The ordinance is printed in Richter's _Die evangelischen + Kirchenordnungen des sechszehnten Jahrhunderts_ (Weimar, 1846), ii. + 484; and, with a more correct text, in Sehling's _Die evangelischen + Kirchenordnungen des 16ten Jahrhunderts_ (Leipzig), 1902, I. i. 697. + + 312 This _Instruction_ will be found in Enders, _Dr. Martin Luthers + Briefwechsel_, iii. 292-295. Its effect on Luther's return to + Wittenberg is discussed at length by von Bezold (_Zeitschrift fuer + Kirchengeschichte_, xx. 186 ff.), Kawerau (Luther's _Rueckkehr_, + etc., Halle, 1902), and by Barge (_Andreas Bodenstein von + Karlstadt_, Leipzig, 1905, p. 432 ff.). + + 313 See his letters to Spalatin in Enders, _Dr. Martin Luthers + Briefwechsel_, iii. 271, 286. + + 314 Johann Kessler, _Sabbata_ (edited by Egli and Schoch, St. Gall, + 1902). + + 315 The edict said: "In the first place, we command that all, + particularly all princes, estates, and subjects, shall not, after + the expiry of the above twenty days, which terminate on the 14th of + the present month of May, offer to Luther either shelter, food, or + drink, or help him in any way with words or deeds, secretly or + openly. On the contrary, wherever you get possession of him, you + shall at once put him in prison and send him to me, or, at any rate, + inform me thereof without any delay. For that holy work you shall be + recompensed for your trouble and expenses. Likewise you ought, in + virtue of the holy constitution and ban of our Empire, to deal in + the following way with all the partisans, abettors, and patrons of + Luther. You shall put them down, and confiscate their estates to + your own profit, unless the said persons can prove that they have + mended their ways and asked for papal absolution. Furthermore, we + command, under the aforesaid penalties, that nobody shall buy, sell, + read, keep, copy, or print any of the writings of Martin Luther + which have been condemned by our holy father the Pope, whether in + Latin or in German, nor any other of his wicked writings." + + 316 The Pope's instructions to his nuncio will be found in Wrede, + _Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Karl __V._, iii. 393 ff. + + 317 Compare Gebhardt, _Die Gravamina der Deutschen Nation_, 2nd ed., + Breslau, 1895. + + 318 The _annates_ were the first year's stipend of an ecclesiastical + benefice, usually reckoned at a fixed rate. + + 319 SOURCES: Baumann, _Quellen zur Geschichte des Bauernkrieges in + Ober-Schwaben_ (Stuttgart, 1877); _Die Zwoelf Artikel der + oberschwaebischen Bauern_ (Kempten, 1896); _Akten zur Geschichte des + Bauernkrieges aus Ober-Schwaben_ (Freiburg, 1881); Beger, _Zur + Geschichte des Bauernkrieges nach Urkunden zu Karlsruhe_ (in + _Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte_, vols. xxi.-xxii., Goettingen, + 1862); Ryhiner, _Chronik des Bauernkrieges_ (_Basler Chroniken_, + vi., 1902); Waldau, _Materialien zur Geschichte des Bauerkrieges_ + (Chemnitz, 1791-1794); Vogt, _Die Korrespondenz des Schwuebischen + Bundes-Hauptmanns, 1524-1527_ (Augsburg, 1879-1883). + + LATER BOOKS: Zimmermann, _Allgemeine Geschichte des grossen + Bauernkrieges_, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1856); E. Belfort Bax, _The + Peasants' War in Germany_ (London, 1899); Kautsky, _Communism in + Central Europe in the time of the Reformation_ (London, 1897); + Stern, _Die Socialisten der Reformationszeit_ (Berlin, 1883). The + literature on the Peasants' War is very extensive. + + 320 Compare above, p. 106. + + 321 Lindsay, _Luther and the German Reformation_ (Edinburgh, 1900), 169 + ff.; Stern, _Die Socialisten der Reformationszeit_, Berlin, 1883. + + 322 Friedrich, _Astrologie und Reformation, oder die Astrologen als + Prediger der Reformation und Urheber des Bauernkrieges_, Muenchen, + 1864. + + 323 Cf. "The Twelve Peasant Articles" in Emil Reich, _Select Documents + illustrating Mediaeval and Modern History_, p. 212. + + 324 After speaking about the duties of the authorities, he proceeds: "In + the case of an insurgent, every man is both judge and executioner. + Therefore, whoever can should knock down, strangle, and stab such + publicly or privately, and think nothing so venomous, pernicious, + and devilish as an insurgent.... Such wonderful times are these, + that a prince can merit heaven better with bloodshed than another + with prayer." + + 325 Luther dissuaded the Landgrave of Hesse from permanently adopting + the democratic ecclesiastical constitution drafted by Francis + Lambert for the Church of Hesse in 1526. The rejected constitution + has been printed by Richter in his _Die evangelischen + Kirchenordnungen des sechszschuten Jahrhunderts_ (Weimar, 1846), i. + 56. + + 326 SOURCES (besides those given in earlier chapters): Ney, "Analecten + zur Geschichte des Reichstags zu Speier im Jahr 1526" (_Zeitschrift + fuer Kirchengeschichte_, viii. ix. xii.); Friedensburg, _Beitraege zum + Briefwechsel zwischen Hertzog Georg von Sachsen und Landgraf Philip + von Hessen_ (_Neuer Archiv fuer Saechs. Gesch._ vi.); Balan, + _Clementis __VII.__ Epistolae_ (vol. i. of _Monumenta Saeculi __XVI.__ + Historiam illustrantia_, Innsbruck, 1885); Casanova, _Lettere di + Carlo __V.__ and Clemente __VII.__ 1527-1533_ (Florence, 1893); + Lanz, _Correspondenz des Kaisers Karl __V._ (Leipzig, 1845); + Bradford, _Correspondent of Charles __V._ (London, 1850). + + LATER BOOKS: Schomburgk, _Die Pack'schen Handel_ (Maurenbrecher's + _Hist. Taschenbuch_, Leipzig, 1882); Stoy, _Erste + Buendnisbestrebungen evangelischen Staende_ (Jena, 1888); _Cambridge + Modern History_, II. vi. + + 327 The Diet was accustomed to appoint a Committee of Princes to put in + shape their more important ordinances. The ordinance was called a + "recess." + + 328 A description of the changes in organisation and worship introduced + after the decision of the Diet of 1526 is reserved for a separate + chapter. + + 329 Ney, _Geschichte des Reichstages zu Speier in 1529_ (Hamburg, 1880); + Tittmann, _Die Protestation zu Speyer_ (Leipzig, 1829). + +_ 330 Calendars of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the reign of + Elizabeth, 1559-1560_, p. 84. + + 331 SOURCES: Schirrmacher, _Briefe und Acten zu der Geschichte der + Religionsgespraeches zu Marburg, 1529, und des Reichstages zu + Augsburg, 1530_ (Gotha, 1876); Bucer, _Historische Nachricht von dem + Gespraech zu Marburg_ (Simler, _Sammlung_, II. ii. 471 ff.); Rudolphi + Collini, "Summa Colloquii Marpurgensis," printed in Hospinian, + _Historia sacramentaria_, ii. 123_b_-126_b_, and in _Zwinglii + Opera_, iv. 175-180 (Zurich, 1841); Brieger in _Zeitschrift fuer + Kirchengeschichte_, i. 628 ff. + + LATER BOOKS: Ebrard, _Das Dogma vom heiligen Abendmahl und seine + Geschichte_, vol. ii. (Frankfurt a. M. 1846; the author has + classified the accounts of the persons present at the conference, + and given a combined description of the discussion, pp. 308 n. and + 314 ff.); Erichson, _Das Marburger Religiongespraech_ (Strassburg, + 1880); Bess, _Luther in Marburg, 1529_ (_Preuss. Jahrbuecher_; civ. + 418-431, Berlin, 1901). + + 332 In the _Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent_ the Sacrifice of + the Mass is defined in the 22nd Session, and the Eucharist in the + 13th Session. + + 333 Schirrmacher, _Briefe und Acten zu der Geschichte des + Religionsgespraeches zu Marburg und des Reichstages zu Augsburg, + 1530_, pp. 33, 34. + + 334 There are several contemporary accounts of this meeting at the + bridge of the Lech, and of the procession; for one, see + Schirrmacher, _Briefe und Acten_, etc. pp. 54-57. + + 335 It was a somewhat doubtful honour for a city to be chosen as the + meeting place of a Diet. The burghers of Augsburg hired 2000 + landsknechts to protect them during the session (Schirrmacher, + _Briefe und Acten_, p. 52). + + 336 Foerstemann, _Urkundenbuch_, etc. i. 268, 271; Schirrmacher, _Briefe + und Acten_, etc. p. 59 and note. + + 337 SOURCES: Schirrmacher, _Briefe und Acten_; Foerstemann, _Urkundenbuch + zu der Geschichte des Reichstags zu Augsburg_, 2 vols. (Halle, + 1833-1835); and _Archiv fuer die Geschichte der kirchl. Reformation_ + (Halle, 1831). + + LATER BOOKS: Moritz Facius, _Geschichte des Reichstags zu Augsburg_ + (Leipzig, 1830). + + 338 Schirrmacher, _Briefe und Acten_, etc. p. 90. + + 339 The threat is recorded in _Archiv fuer Schweizerische Geschichte und + Landeskunde_, i. 278. + + 340 Armstrong, _The Emperor Charles __V._, i. 244. + + 341 Foerstemann, _Archiv_, p. 206. + + 342 Schaff, _The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Christian + Churches_ (London, 1877), p. 3; cf. _History of the Creeds of + Christendom_ (London, 1877), pp. 220 ff.; Mueller, _Die + Bekenntnisschriften der Reformierten Kirche_ (Leipzig, 1903), pp. + 55-100; Tschakert, _Die Augsburgische Konfession_, (Leipzig, 1901). + + 343 Foerstemann, _Urkundenbuch_, i. 39: the worthy Chancellor thought + that the document should be drafted "mit gruendlicher bewerung + derselbigen aus goettlicher schrifft." + + 344 Schirrmacher, _Briefe und Acten_, etc. p. 98. + + 345 Charles knew well that the nuncio would exert all his influence to + prevent a settlement. In anticipation of the Diet the Emperor had + privately asked Melanchthon to give him a statement of the _minimum_ + of concessions which would content the Lutherans. Melanchthon seems + to have answered (our source of information is not very definite): + the Eucharist in both kinds; marriage of priests permitted; the + omission of the canon of the Mass; concession of the Church lands + already sequestrated; and the decision of the other matters in + dispute at a free General Council. Charles had sent the document to + Rome; it had been debated at a conclave of cardinals, who had + decided that none of the demands could be granted. + + 346 One document says: "Es war aber zum ersten die _confutation_ wol bey + zweihundert und achtzig bletter lang gewesen, aber die key. Maej. hat + sie selbst also gereuttert und gerobt, das es nicht mehr denn zwoelf + bletter geblieben sind. Solchs soll Doctor Eck sehr verdrossen und + wee gethan haben."--(Schirrmacher, _Briefe und Acten_, etc. p. 167.) + + 347 De Wette, _Luther's Briefe_, etc. iv. 1-182. + +_ 348 Ibid._ iv. 41. + + 349 De Wette, _Luther's Briefe_, etc. iv. 128. + + 350 The whole time of the members of the Diet was not spent in + theological discussions. We read of banquets, where Lutherans and + Romanists sat side by side; of dances that went on far into the + night; of what may be called a garden party in a "fair meadow," + where a wooden house was built for the accommodation of the ladies; + and of tournaments. At one of them, Ferdinand, the Emperor's + brother, was thrown and his horse rolled over him; and Melanchthon + wrote to Luther that six men had been killed at one of these "gentle + and joyous" passages of arms. + + 351 The Romanist majority had resolved to fight the Protestant minority, + not in the battlefield, but in the law-courts--_nicht fechten sondern + rechten_, was the phrase. + + 352 When the religious war did begin in 1545, Charles justified the use + of force on the grounds that the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave + of Hesse had violated the constitution of the Empire, _had + repudiated the decisions of the Reichskammersgericht_, and had + protested against the decisions of the Diet. + + 353 Schmidt, _Zur Geschichte des Schmalkaldischen Bundes_ (_Forsch. zur + Deutschen Geschichte_, XXV.); Zangemeister, _Die Schmalkaldischen + Artikel von 1537_ (Heidelberg, 1883); _Corpus Reformatorum_, iii. + 973 ff. + + 354 Winckelmann, "Die Vertraege von Kadan und Wien" (_Zeitschrift fuer + Kirchengeschichte_, xi. 212 ff.). + + 355 Cf. Kolde, _Analecta_, pp. 216 ff., 231 f., 262 f., 278 f., etc. + + 356 Spiegel, "Johannes Timannus Amsterodamus und die Colloquien zu Worms + und Regensburg, 1540-1541" (_Zeitschrift fuer hist. Theologie_, xlii. + (1872) 36 ff.); Moses, _Die Religionsverhandlungen in Hagenau und + Worms, 1540-1541_ (Jena, 1889). + + 357 Heppe, "Urkundliche Beitraege zur Geschichte der Doppelehe des + Landgrafen Philip v. Hessen" (_Zeitschrift fuer die historische + Theologie_, xxii. (1852) 263 ff.), cf. xxxviii. 445 ff.; Schultze, + _Luther und die Doppelehe des Landgrafen v. Hessen_ (Paderborn + (1869)). + + 358 Luther's action is usually attributed to his desire not to offend a + powerful Protestant leader. A careful study of the original + documents in the case--correspondence and papers--does not confirm + this view. To my mind, they show on Luther's part a somewhat sullen + and crabbed conscientious fidelity to a conviction which he always + maintained. With all his reverence for the word of God, he could + never avoid giving a very large authority to the traditions of the + Church when they did not plainly contradict a positive and direct + divine commandment. The Church had been accustomed to say that it + possessed a dispensing power in matrimonial cases of extreme + difficulty; and, in spite of his denunciations of the dispensations + granted by the Roman Curia, Luther never denied the power. On the + contrary, he thought honestly that the Church did possess this power + of dispensation even to the length of tampering with a fundamental + law of Christian society, provided it did not contradict a + _positive_ scriptural commandment to the contrary. The crime of the + Curia, in his eyes, was not issuing dispensations in _necessary + cases_, but in giving them in cases without proved necessity, _and + for money_. + + 359 Ranke has an interesting study of the character of Maurice in his + _Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation_, bk. ix. chap. + vi. (vol. v. pp. 161 ff. of the 6th ed., Leipzig, 1882); but perhaps + the best is given in Maurenbrecher, _Studien und Skizzen zur + Geschichte der Reformationszeit_ (Leipzig, 1874), pp. 135 ff. A + man's deep religious convictions can tolerate strange company in + most ages, and the fact that we find Romanist champions in France + plunging into the deepest profligacy the one week and then + undergoing the agonies of repentance the next, or that Lutheran + leaders combined occasional conjugal infidelities and drinking bouts + with zeal for evangelical principles, demands deeper study in + psychology than can find expression, in the fashion of some modern + English historians, in a few cheap sneers. + + 360 Henninjard, _Correspondance des Reformateurs dans les pays de langue + francaise_ (Geneva and Paris, 1866-1897), i. 47, 48. + +_ 361 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the reign of Henry + __VIII._, iii. 284. + + 362 Kalkoff, _Die Depeschen des Nuntius Aleander_ (Halle, 1897), p. 106. + +_ 363 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland_ for 1525 and 1527. + + 364 Maurenbrecher, _Karl V. und die deutschen Protestanten 1545-1555_ + (Duesseldorf, 1865): Jahn, _Geschichte des Schmalkaldischen Krieges_ + (Leipzig, 1837); Lo Mang, _Die Darstcllung des Schmalkaldischen + Krieges in den Denkwuerdigkeiten Karls V._ (Jena, 1890, 1899, 1900); + Brandenburg, _Moritz von Sachsen_ (Leipzig, 1898). + + 365 Schmidt, "Agenda and Letters relating to the _Interim_," in + _Zeitschrift fuer historisch. Theologie_, xxxviii. (1868) pp. 431 + ff., 461 ff.; Beutel, _Ueber den Ursprung des Augsburger Interim_ + (Leipzig, 1888); Meyer, _Der Augsburger Reichstag nach einem + fuerstlichen Tagebuch_ (_Preus. Jahrb._ 1898, pp. 206-242). + + 366 Maurice of Saxony was permitted to make some alterations on the + _Interim_ for his dominions, and his edition was called the _Leipzig + Interim_. + + 367 One of these broadsides is reproduced in von Bezold's _Geschichte + der deutschen Reformation_ (Berlin, 1890), p. 806. + + 368 Wolf, _Der Augsburger Religionsfriede_ (Stuttgart, 1890); Brandi, + _Der Augsburger Religionsfriede_ (Munich, 1896); Druffel, _Beitraege + zur Reichsgeschichte, 1553-1555_ (Munich, 1896). + + 369 These two unsettled questions became active in the disputes which + began the Thirty Years' War. + + 370 Pollard, _Cambridge Modern History_, ii. 144. + + 371 The Religious Peace of Augsburg had important diplomatic + consequences beyond Germany. The Lutheran form of faith was + recognised to be a _religio licita_ (to use the old Roman phrase) + within the Holy Roman Empire, which, according to the legal ideas of + the day, included all Western Christendom; and Popes could no longer + excommunicate Protestants simply because they were Protestants, + without striking a serious blow at the constitution of the Empire. + No one perceived this sooner than the sagacious young woman who + became the first Protestant Queen of England. In the earlier and + unsettled years of her reign, Elizabeth made full use of the + protection that a profession of the Lutheran Creed gave to shield + her from excommunication. She did so when the Count de Feria, the + ambassador of Philip II., threatened her with the fate of the King + of Navarre (_Calendar of Letters and State Papers relating to + English Affairs, preserved principally in the Archives of Simancas_, + i. 61, 62); she suppressed all opinions which might be supposed to + conflict with the Lutheran Creed in the Thirty-eight Articles of + 1563; she kept crosses and lights on the altar of her chapel in + Lutheran fashion. When the Pope first drafted a Bull to + excommunicate the English Queen, and submitted it to the Emperor, he + was told that it would be an act of folly to publish a document + which would invalidate the Emperor's own election; and when + Elizabeth was finally excommunicated in 1570, the charge against her + was not being a Protestant, but sharing in "the impious mysteries of + Calvin"--the Reformed or Calvinist Churches being outside the Peace + of Augsburg. + + 372 SOURCES: Richter, _Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des + sechszehnten Jahrhunderts_ (Weimar, 1846); Sehling, _Die + evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des 16ten Jahrhunderts_ (Leipzig, + 1902); Kins, "Das Stipendiumwesen in Wittenberg und Jena ... im + 16ten Jahrhundert" (_Zeitschrift fuer historische Theologie_, xxxv. + (1865) pp. 96 ff.); G. Schmidt, "Eine Kirchenvisitation im Jahre + 1525" (_Zeitschrift fuer die hist. Theol._ xxxv. 291 ff.); Winter, + "Die Kirchenvisitation von 1528 im Wittenberger Kreise" (_Zeitsch. + fuer hist. Theol._ xxxiii. (1863) 295 ff.); Muther, "Drei Urkunden + zur Reformationsgeschichte" (_Zeitschr. fuer hist. Theol._ xxx. + (1860) 452 ff.); Albrecht, _Der Kleine Catechismus fuer die gemeine + Pfarher und Prediger_ (facsimile reprint of edition of 1536; Halle + a. S. 1905). + + LATER BOOKS: Kaestner, _Die Kinderfragen: Der erste deutsche + Katechismus_ (Leipzig, 1902); Burkhardt, _Geschichte der deutschen + Kirchen- und Schulvisitation im Zeitalter der Reformation_ (Leipzig, + 1879); Berlit, _Luther, Murner und das Kirchenlied des 16ten + Jahrhunderts_ (Leipzig, 1899). + + 373 Cf. for the Wittenberg ordinance, Richter, _Die evangelischen + Kirchenordnungen des sechszehnten Jahrhunderts_ (Weimar, 1846), ii. + 484, and Sehling, _Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des 16ten + Jahrhunderts_ (Leipzig, 1902), r. i. 697; for Leisnig, Richter, i. + 10. An account of the Magdeburg ordinance is to be found in Funk, + _Mittheilungen aus der Geschichte des evangelischen Kirchenwesens in + Magdeburg_ (Magdeburg, 1842), p. 210, and Richter, i. 17. + + 374 Luther's early suggestions about the dispensation of the sacraments + have been collected by Sehling, I. i. 2, 18. A portion of the + hymn-book has been reproduced in facsimile in von Bezold's + _Geschichte der deutschen Reformation_, Berlin, 1890, p. 566. + + 375 Schaff, _The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches_, p. 72. + + 376 Winter, "Die Kirchenvisitation von 1528 im Wittenberger Kreise" + (_Zeitschrift fuer die historische Theologie_, xxxiii. pp. 295-322); + and _Visitations Protocolle_ in _Neuen Mittheilungen des + thuering.-saechs. Geschichts-Verein zu Halle_, IX. ii. pp. 78 ff. + + 377 The Visitation of Bishop Hooper of the diocese of Gloucester, made + in 1551, disclosed a worse state of matters in England. The Visitor + put these simple questions to his clergy: "How many commandments are + there? Where are they to be found? Repeat them. What are the + Articles of the Christian Faith (the Apostles' Creed)? Repeat them. + Prove them from Scripture. Repeat the Lord's Prayer. How do you know + that it is the Lord's? Where is it to be found?" Three hundred and + eleven clergymen were asked these questions, and only fifty answered + them all; out of the fifty, nineteen are noted as having answered + _mediocriter_. Eight could not answer a single one of them; and + while one knew that the number of the commandments was ten, he knew + nothing else [_English Historical Review_ for 1904 (Jan.), pp. 98 + ff.]. + + 378 Sehling, _Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des 16ten Jahrhunderts_ + (Leipzig, 1902), I. i. 142 ff. + +_ 379 Ibid._ I. i. 49. + + 380 The rites and ceremonies of worship in the Lutheran churches are + given in Daniel, _Codex Liturgicus Ecclesiae Lutheranae in epitomen + redactus_, which forms the second volume of his _Codex Liturgicus + Ecclesiae Universae_ (Leipzig, 1848). + + 381 The ordinance establishing the Wittenberg Consistory will be found + in Richter, _Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des sechszehnten + Jahrhunderts_ (Weimar, 1846), i. 367; and in Sehling, _Die + evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des 16ten Jahrhunderts_ (Leipzig, + 1902), I. i. 200. Sehling sketches the history of its institution, + I. i. 55. + + 382 The first half of the first part of Sehling's _Die evangelischen + Kirchenordnungen des 16 Jahrhunderts_ appeared in 1902, and the + second half of the first part in 1904. + + 383 Cf. article on "Kirchen-Ordnung" in the 3rd edition of Herzog's + _Realencyclopaedie fur protestantische Theologie_. + + 384 Richter, _Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen_, etc. i. 56 ff. + + 385 SOURCES: Baazius, _Inventarium Eccles. Sveogothorum_ (1642); + Pontoppidan, _Annales ecclesiae Danicae_, bks. ii., iii. (Copenhagen, + 1744, 1747). + + LATER BOOKS: Lau, _Geschichte der Reformation in Schleswig-Holstein_ + (Hamburg, 1867); Willson, _History of Church and State in Norway_ + (London, 1903); Watson, _The Swedish Revolution under Gustavus Vasa_ + (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1889); Wiedling, _Schwedische Geschichte + im Zeitalter der Reformation_ (Gotha, 1882); _Cambridge Modern + History_, II. xvii. (Cambridge, 1903). + + 386 Dorner, _History of Protestant Theology_ (Edinburgh, 1871); Koestlin, + _Luthers Theologie in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung und in + ihrem innern Zusammenhange_ (Stuttgart, 1883); Theodor Harnack, + _Luthers Theologie mit besonderer Beziehung auf seine + Versoehnungs-und Erloesungslehre_ (Erlangen, 1862-1886); A. Ritschl, + _The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation_ + (Edinburgh, 1872); A. Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vii. (London, + 1899); Loofs, _Leitfaden zum Studium der Dogmengeschichte_ (Halle, + 1893); Herrmann, _Communion with God_ (London, 1895); Hering, _Die + Mystik Luthers in Zusammenhang seiner Theologie_ (Leipzig, 1879); + Denifle, _Luther und Lutherthum in der ersten Entwicklung_, vol. i. + (Mainz, 1904), vol. ii. (1905); Walther, _Fur Luther wider Rum_ + (Halle, 1906). + + 387 Loofs, _Leitfaden_, etc. p. 345. + +_ 388 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), xxxi. 273; in _Die Kleine + Antwort auf Herzog Georgen naehestes Buch_. + +_ 389 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), xxxi. 278, 279. + + 390 Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vii. 182. + + 391 Loofs, _Leitfaden_, etc. p. 346. + +_ 392 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), xxii. 15. Cf. xlviii. 5: "If + thou holdest faith to be simply a thought concerning God, then that + thought is as little able to give eternal life as ever a monkish + cowl could give it." + +_ 393 Luther's Works_ (2nd Erlangen edition), xiii. 301. + +_ 394 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), lxiii. 125. + + 395 The case of Bernard of Clairvaux is especially interesting, for we + might almost call him a _doppel-gaenger_ (as the Germans would + say)--two men in one. In his experimental moods, when he is the great + revivalist preacher, exhibited in his sermons on the _Song of Songs_ + and elsewhere, everything that the Christian can do, say, or think, + comes from the revelation of God's grace within the individual, + while in his more purely theological works he scarcely ever frees + himself from the entanglements of Scholastic Theology. The + doubleness in Bernard has been dwelt upon by A. Ritschl in his + _Critical History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification and + Reconciliation_ (Edinburgh, 1872), pp. 95-101. + + 396 These annotations, glosses, and notes of lectures have been + collected and published in volumes iii. and iv. of the Weimar + edition of _Luther's Works_. The most important phrases have been + carefully extracted by Loofs in his _Leitfaden_, pp. 345-352. + + 397 A. Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vii. 183. + +_ 398 Ibid._ vii. 184. + +_ 399 Luther's Works_ (2nd Erlangen edition), xv. 540. + +_ 400 Luther's Works_ (2nd Erlangen edition), xv. 542. + +_ 401 Luther's Works_ (2nd Erlangen edition), xiv. 294. + + 402 Dilthey, _Archiv fuer Geschichte der Philosophie_, v. ii. 358. + +_ 403 Examen Concilii Tridentini_ (Geneva, 1641), pp. 134 f. + + 404 The mediaeval fourfold sense in Scripture was explained by Nicholas + de Lyra in the distich: + + "_Litera_ gesta docet, quid credas _Allegoria_, + _Moralis_ quid agas, quo tendas _Anagogia_." + + It is expounded succinctly by Thomas Aquinas, _Summa Theologiae_, I. + i. 10. + + 405 Matt. xiii. 31. + + 406 Song of Songs, ii. 15. + +_ 407 Lettres a jeunes gens_, a Eugene l'hermite (Paris, 1863). + + 408 Cf. above, p. 200. + + 409 Cf. above, p. 151. + + 410 Luther is continually reproached for having called the Epistle of + James an Epistle of straw; it is forgotten that he uses the term + comparatively (_Prefaces to the New Testament; Works_ (Erlangen + edition), lxiii. 115): "Summa, Sanct Johannis Evangelium, und seine + erste Epistel, Sanct Paulus Epistel, sonderlich die zu Roemern, + Galatern, Ephesern, und Sanct Peters erste Epistel, das sind die + Buecher, die dir Christum zeigen und alles lehren, das dir zu wissen + noth und selig ist, ob du schon kein ander Buch noch Lehre + nimmermehr sehest noch hoerist. Darumb ist Sanct Jakobs Epistel ein + recht strohern Epistel _gegen sie_, denn sie doch kein evangelisch + Art an ihr hat." + +_ 411 De Libertate_ (Erlangen edition, Latin), xxxv. 222; Rom. i. 1-3. + +_ 412 Genevan Catechism; Institutio_, III. ii. 6: "The word itself, + _however conveyed to us_, is a mirror in which faith may behold + God"; _Second Geneva Catechism._ + + 413 (Dunlop), _A Collection of Confessions of Faith_, ii. 26. + +_ 414 Zurich Articles of 1523_, i. ii. + +_ 415 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), lvii. 34. + +_ 416 Scots Confession_, Art. xix.; (Dunlop), _A Collection of + Confessions_, p. 73. + +_ 417 Institutio_, I. vii. 5. + +_ 418 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), lvii. 35. + +_ 419 Ibid._ lxii. 132. + +_ 420 Ibid._ (2nd Erlangen edition), viii. 23. + + 421 It maybe useful to note the statements about the authority of + Scripture in the earlier Reformation creeds. The Lutherans, always + late in discerning the true doctrinal bearings of their religious + certainties, did not deem it needful to assert dogmatically the + supreme authority of Scripture until the second generation of + Protestantism. The Schmalkald Articles and the Augsburg Confession + expressly assert that human traditions are among abuses that ought + to be done away with; but they do not condemn them as authorities + set up by their opponents in opposition to the word of God, only as + things that burden the conscience and incline men to false ways of + trying to be at peace with God (_Augsburg Confession_, as given in + Schaff, _The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches_, p. 65; + _Schmalkald Articles_, xv.). It was not until 1576, in the Torgau + Book, and in 1580 in the _Formula Concordiae_, that they felt the + necessity of declaring dogmatically and in opposition to the Roman + Catholics that "the only standard by which all dogmas and all + teachers must be valued and judged is no other than the prophetic + and apostolic writings of the Old and of the New Testaments" (§ 1). + + Zwingli, with the clearer dogmatic insight which he always showed, + felt the need of a statement about the theological place of + Scripture very early, and declared in the _First Helvetic + Confession_ (1536) that "Canonic Scripture, the word of God, given + by the Holy Spirit and set forth to the world by the prophets and + apostles, the most perfect and ancient of all philosophies, alone + contains perfectly all piety and the whole rule of life." The + various Reformed Confessions, inspired by Calvin, followed Zwingli's + example, and the supreme authority of Scripture was set forth in all + the symbolical books of the Reformed Churches of Switzerland, + France, England, the Netherlands, Scotland, etc.--_The Geneva + Confession_ of 1536 (Art. 1), _The Second Helvetic Confession_ of + 1562 (Art. 1), _The French Confession_ of 1559 (Arts. 3-6), _The + Belgic Confession_ of 1561 (Arts. 4-7), _The Thirty-nine Articles + of_ 1563 and 1571 (Art. 6), _The Scots Confession_ of 1560 (Art. + 19). It is instructive, however, to note how this is done. The key + to the central note in all these dogmatic statements is to be found + in the first and second of _The Sixty-seven Theses_ published in + 1523 by Zwingli at Zurich, where it is declared that all who say + that the Evangel is of no value apart from its confirmation by the + Church err and blaspheme against God, and where the sum of the + Evangel is "that our Lord Jesus Christ, very Son of God, has + revealed to us the will of the heavenly Father, and with His + innocence has redeemed us from death and has reconciled us to God." + The main thought, therefore, in all these Confessions is not to + assert the formal supremacy of Scripture over Tradition, but rather + to declare the supreme value of Scripture which reveals God's good + will to us in Jesus Christ to be received by faith alone over all + human traditions which would lead us astray from God and from true + faith. The Reformers had before them not simply the theological + desire to define precisely the nature of that authority to which all + Christian teaching appeals, but the religious need to cling to the + divinely revealed way of salvation and to turn away from all human + interposition and corruption. They desire to make known that they + trust God rather than man. Hence almost all of them are careful to + express clearly the need for the Witness of the Holy Spirit. + + 422 Compare especially the discussions in the first part of the Second + Book of the _Summa_. + + 423 Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vii. 173-174. + +_ 424 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), Latin, xxxvi. 506: "Quodsi odit + anima mea vocem homoousion, et nolim ea uti, non ero haereticus, quis + enim me coget uti, modo rem teneam, quae in concilio per scripturas + definita est?" It may be remarked that Athanasius himself did not + like the word that has become so associated with his name. + +_ 425 Luther's Works_ (2nd Erlangen edition), vi. 358: "Dreyfaltigkeit + ist ein recht boese Deutsch, denn in der Gottheit ist die hoechste + Einigkeit. Etliche nennen es Dreyheit; aber das lautet + allzuspoettisch"; he says that the expression is not in Scripture, + and adds: "darum lautet es auch kalt and viel besser spraech man Gott + denn die Dreyfaltigkeit" (xii. 408). + +_ 426 Ibid._ v. 236. + +_ 427 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), xlvii. 3, 4. + +_ 428 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), xlix. 183, 184. + +_ 429 Luther's Works_ (2nd Erlangen edition), xii. 244. + +_ 430 Ibid._ xii. 259. + + 431 Calvin, _Opera omnia_ (Amsterdam, 1667), viii. 38, 39. + +_ 432 Augsburg Confession_, Art. xxi. + + 433 Mueller, _Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten Kirche_, pp. 935 + f. + + 434 Mueller, _Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten Kirche_, pp. 34 + ff. + + 435 Luther's gradual progress towards his final view of the Church is + traced minutely by Loofs, _Leitfaden_, pp. 359 ff. + + 436 Enders, _Dr. Martin Luthers Briefwechsel_, ii. 345. + + 437 Enders, _Dr. Martin Luthers Briefwechsel_, i. 253. + +_ 438 Luther's Works_ (Weimar edition), i. 190. + +_ 439 Luther's Works_ (Erlangen edition), xii. 249. + + 440 Calvin, _Institutio_, IV. i. 12. + + 441 Herrmann, _Communion with God_, p. 149. + +_ 442 Luther's Works_ (2nd Erlangen edition), x. 162. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION (VOL. 1 OF 2)*** + + + +CREDITS + + +August 29, 2012 + + Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1 + Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Jana Srna, David King, + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at + <http://www.pgdp.net/>. 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