THE LIFE AND TIMES master.
But I fear that liis delicate frame will be unable to support our mode of living, and that we shall be unable to keep him long on account of the smallness of his salary.
I hear that the. Leipsic people are already boasting of their power to take him from us.
Oh, my dear Spalatin, beware of despising his age and his personal appearance.
He is a man worthy of every honor.'
" Melaucthon began immediately to lecture on Homer, and the epistle of St. Paul to He was full of ardor.
' I will make every eifort,' wrote ho to 'to conciliate the favor of all those in Wittemberg who love learning and virtue.'
" Four days after his inauguration, Luther wrote again to Spalatin ' I most particularly recommend to yoii the very learned, very amiable
His lecture-room is always full.
All the theologians in particular go to hear him.
He is making every class, upper, lower, and middle, begin to read Greek.'
"Melancthou was able to respond to Luther's affection.
He soon found in him a kindness of disposition, a strength of mind, a courage, a discretion that he had never found till then in any man.
He venerated, he loved him.
' If there is any one,' said he, ' whom I dearl}' love, and whom I embrace with m}^ whole heart, it is Martin Luther.'
"Thus did Luther and Melancthon meet; they were friends until death.
We cannot too much admire the goodness and wisdom of God in bringing together two men so different, and yet so necessary to one another,
Lutherpossessed warmth, vigor, and strength ; Mehxncthon clearness, discretion, and mildness.
Luther gave energy to They were like substances in a state of positive and negative electricity, Avhich mutually act upon each other.
Luther had been without Melancthon, perhaps the torrent would have overflowed its banks ; Melancthon, when Luther was taken from him by death, hesitated and gave way even where he should not have vielded.
" Luther did much by power ; Melancthon, perhaps, did no less by following a gentler and more tranquil method.
Both were lapright, open-hearted, generous ; both ardently loved the word of eternal life, and obe^-ed it with a fidelity and devotion that governed their whole lives.
" Melancthon's arrival at Wittemberg effected a revolution, not only in the university, but in the whole of Germany, and in all the learned world.
The attention he had bestowed on the Greek and Latin classics, and on philosophy, had given a regTilarity, clearness, and precision to his ideas which shed new light, and an indescribable beauty on every subject that he took in hand.
The mild spirit of the gospel fertilized and animated his meditations, and in his lectures the driest piirsuits were clothed with a surpassing grace that captivated ajl hearers.
The barrenness that scholasticism had cast over education was at an end.
THE LIFE AND TIMES him/ says an illusti'ious German liistorian, ' Wittenibersr became the school of the nation.'
''It was indeed highly important that a man -who knevr Attic Greek and Hebre^r, shoidd teach in that uniyersity where the new deyelopments of theology called upon masters and pupils to study, in theu" original lauEcuage, the earliest documents of the Christian faith.
From this time Luther labored zealously at his task.
The meaning of a Greek word, of which he had been ignorant tiU then, suddenly cleared up his theological ideas.
TThat consolation and what joy did he not feel, when he saw, for instance, that the Greek word i^rrao'oui, which, according to the Latia church, signifies a penance, a satisfaction required by the church, a human expiation, reallv meant in Greek a transformation or conversion of the heart.
A thick mist was suddenly rolled awav from his eves.
The two sis^iifications given to this word by the two churches suffice of themselves to characterize the difference between them.
" The impulse Melancthon gave to Luther in the translation of the Bible into German, is one of the most remarkable circumstances of the fiiendship between these two great men.
Luther had made some attempts at such a translation.
He had procured as many Greek and Latin books as were within his reach.
And now, with the aid of his dear Philip, he applied himself to this task with fresh energy.
Luther compelled Melancthon to share in his researches the difficult passages; and the work, -SNhich was destined to be one of the great labors of the reformer, advanced more safely and more speedily.
"Melancthon, on his side, became acquainted with the new theology.
The beautiful and profound doctrine of justification by faith filled him with astonishment and joy, but he received with independence the system taught by Luther, and moulded it to the peculiar form of his own mind ; for although he was only twenty-one years old, he was one of those precocious geniuses who attain early to a full possession of all theiii)owers, and who think for themselves from the very outset."*
Philip Melancthon, as di'awn by the pencil of a great hterary artist.
Meantime this illustrious faculty raised the reputation of the Wittemberg university to so high a degree, that it now confessedly stood at the head of the German schools.
An immense concourse of students was attracted thither.
Luther himself tells us that "it was a complete hive.''t An author nearly contemporary says, "I have heard from our preceptors, that students from all nations crowded to "Wittemberg to hear Luther and As soon as they got within sight of the town, they returned thanks to God with clasped hands; for from Wittemberg, as heretofore from Jerusalem, j)roceeded the hght of evangehcal ti-uth, k) spread thence to the uttermost parts of theearth.^+
•D'Aubigne, Yol. L, Chap. m. of Book lY., pp. 356-363.
X Scultetns, annalia, anno 1517.
But Luther did not suffer the inexpressible delights of his friendship with the congenial Melanctlion to divert him from the completion of his preparations for the proposed meeting with pope Leo's legate.
Luther's great fear now was, that he might compromise the elector.
This is shown by a letter Avritten to Spalatin a few days after the advent of Melancthon " I do not require that our sovereign should do the least thing in defence of my theses
I am even willing to be given up, and thrown into the hands of my adversaries.
Let him permit all the storm to burst upon me.
"What I have undertaken to defend, I hope to be able to maintain, v.itli the help of Christ.
As for violence, v,-e must needs yield to that, but without abandoning the truth."* Luther's courage v/as so infectious, that even the timid and pacific vicar-general was momentarily lifted by it into heroism.
Staupitz wrote Spalatin, on the 7th of September, " Do you cease to exhort the prince, your master and mine, not to allow himself to be frightened by the roaring of the lions.
Let him defend the truth without anxiety, either about Luther, Staupitz, or the order.
Let there be one place at least where men may speak freely and without fear. that the plague of Babylon—I was nearly saying, of Rome—is let loose against whoever attacks the abuses of those who sell Jesus Christ.
I have myself seen a jDreacher thrown from a pulpit for teaching the truth.
I saw him, although it was a festival, bound and dragged to prison.
Others have witnessed still more cruel sights.
For this reason, dearest Spalatin, prevail upon his highness to continue in his present sentiments."But at last the citation of the cardinal legate arrived.
In this formidable missive, Luther was summoned to appear at Augsburg as soon as might be, there to undergo an examination before this proxy of the pope.
Luther's friends clamored as vehemently against the idea of his responding to Cajetan's citation as they had previously against his attempting to appear before the ecclesiastical commission at Rome.
They knew well the trickery and the unscrupulousness of the apostolic see.
The partisans of the new-modelled theology dreaded to see their admired chief exposed to the subtle intrigues of crafty Home.
He was safe folded in their hearts and arms at Wittemberg.
It was thought that if he refused to meet the legate, even Leo would pause before venturing to assault him in the citadel of the Reformation.
The imminent danger wdiich now threatened his jyrotege caused poor Staupitz to lose heart.
He became as dejected as he had before been bold.
Writing Luther from his convent at Salzburg on the 15th THE LIFE AND TIMES of September, only eight d&js after his letter to " It appears to me, dear brother Martin, that the whole world is enraged and combined against the truth.
The crucified Jesus was hated in like manner.
I do not see that you have any thing else to expect but persecution.
Ere long no one will be able, without the pope's permission, to search the Scriptures, and therein look for Jesus Christ, which Christ however commands.
You have but fevf friends ; I would to God that fear of your adversaries did not prevent those few from declaring themselves in your favor.
" The wisest course is for you to abandon Wittemberg for a season, and come to me.
Then we shall live and die together.
This is also the prince's opinion.""''
Luther, undaunted by the forebodings of his friends, unmoved by the prayers of Staupitz, determined to face the legate at Augsburg.
This Bayard, this Sidney of the gospel, recollecting that his prince had announced, in his letter from the imperial diet to the pope, that his Augustine professor was ready and anxious to defend his tenets before a competent tribunal, thought it but just now to redeem the elector's j)ledge.
Luther was still more confirmed in this determination by the reception of a note from his court friend Spalatin, in which that excellent man informed him that the prince thought he had best appear at