But thoiigli Luther was evidently supported by the secular estate, by the nobles and the great body of the people, a perfect storm of reproaches smote him from every quarter of the ecclesiastical heavens.
He was constantly taunted with the weakness of his cause within the church.
" But who knows," wrote he with i3roplietic sublimity, " if God has not chosen and called me to perform this needed work, and if these babblers ought not to fear that by despising me, they despise God himself?
; no, for Jehovah is with me.
Moses was alone at the departure from ; Elijah was alone in the reign of king Ahab; Isaiah was alone in Jerusalem ; Ezekiel was alone in God never selected as a prophet either the high-priest, or any great personage
; but rather, he chose low and despised men, once even the shepherd Amos.
In every age the saints have been compelled to rebuke kings, princes, recreant priests, and wise men at tho peril of their lives.
" Was it not the same under the New Testament ?
Ambrose was alone in his time ; and Augustine dwelt alone with his brave heart.
I do not say that I also am a prophet ; but I do say that they ought to fear precisely because I am alone, while on the side of the oppressor are numbers, caste, wealth, and mocking letters.
; but I stand serene, because side by side Avith me is the word of God; and' with all their boasted numbers, this, the greatest of powers, is not with them."'^
"I am termed 'heretic,' and 'Hussite.'
I accept these epithets proudly.
I have said that some of the propositions of John ; not some, but all of his articles are wholly Christian.
By condemning John Huss the pope condemned the gospel.
I have done five times more than that sainted martj-r, yet I much fear that I have not done enough.
Huss only said that a wicked pope is not supreme by divine appointment ; but if Peter himself were now sitting at Rome, I should deny that he was pope by divine appointment,"t
Thus closed this momentous phase of Luther's life ; thus were snapped hopelessly and for ever the chains which had hitherto held him bound to the pontifical throne
; thus was the Eeformation definitely unbound—set free, like a strong man, to run its course, conquering and to conquer.
All this was indeed, as Michelet has finely said, something new.
Up to this age most of the sects, schisms, and heresies that had arisen from time to time, had formed themselves in secret—burrowed, like the early Christians, in the catacombs of universal Rome, only too happy if their existence remained unknown.
But here was a simple monk placing himself on an equality with that awful sovereign who was supposed to hold the keysjto the elysian gates of both worlds, and constituting himo L. 0pp. (L.) XVII., 338. f L0pp. (L.) XVII.. 339.
THE LIFE AND TIMES self the judge of that pontiff's heretofore unquestioned actions.
The chain of old tradition was thus broken, its continuity was destroyed, the seamless robe was torn.
Nor can it be believed that Luther took this last decisive step without great pain ; it was tearing from his heart the memory of a past which he had been taught to venerate.
He struggled long to avoid separating himself from the Koman communion.
Every step he took away from the apostolic see, was taken from absolute necessity.
The venomous assaults of baffled and malicious priestpraft forced him to defend himself.
Defence required constant thought, and the most searching examination of principles and authorities.
Thought and examination inevitably meant emancipation from the childish and imreasonable thraldom of the Still separation was bitter
; and though he retained the Scrijoture, it was, after all, the Scripture otherwise interpreted than it had been for a thousand years.
His enemies have often said this ; but none of them have expressed it more eloquently than he himself.
November, 1520, to the Augustines of Wittem-berg "I feel more and more every day how difficult it is to lay aside the scruples which one has imbibed in childhood.
Oh how much pain it has caused me, though I had the Scriptures on my side, to justify • it to myself that I should dare to make a stand alone against the pope, and hold him forth as antiOF MAETIN LUTHER.
What have the tribulations of my heart not been How many times have I not asked myself with bitterness that question which was so frequent on the lips of the papists
'Art thou alone icise ?
Can ever^^ one else be mistaken?
How will it be, if, after all, it is thyself who art wrong, and who art involving in thy error so many souls, who Avill then be eternally damned ?'
'T was so I fought with myself and with Satan, till Christ, by his own infallible word, fortified my heart against these doubts, till it became as a coast of rocks, defying the waves which impotently dash upon it."*
Luther now stood firmly planted on the table- : land of the Reformation.
Against the tradition of the middle ages, against the authority of the church, • he sought a refuge in the Scriptures—anterior to i" tradition, superior to the church itself.
He wrote his postiUa on the evangelists and the epistles.
He translated the Psalms ; his indefatigable pen was perpetually employed.
He found that the young emperor Charles, who had just been crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, had allied himself too closely with the Vatican to listen to any appeal in favor of reform.
Abandoning therefore the hope of securing the imperial assistance, he addressed himself directly to the patriotism, the common-sense, and the religious sentiment of German}'.
In this work he was powerfully aided by the zeal manifested by the booksellers and the i^rinters in favor of the new ideas.
" The books of Luther," says a hostile contemporary, "were printed by the ty230graphers Avith minute care, often at their own expense, and vast numbers of coj)ies w^ere throAvn off.
There was a complete body of ex-monks who, returned to the world, lived by vending the works of On the other hand, it was solely by dint of money that the llomanists could get their productions printed in the empire, and even then they were sent forth with such a host of errors, that they seemed the work of ignorant barbarians.
If any printer more or less conscientious than the rest, gave himself au}trouble with a Roman Avriting, he was tormented to death by all his fellows, and by the people in the public streets, as a papist, and as a slave of the priests."*
Of course these words of Cochlgeus are to be taken in their full scope with hesitation.
But even if this statement contains only a modicum of truth, it still suffices to show what a tremendous hold the Saxon doctor had upon the Avhple German empire.
Though Luther was assailed from many quarters, he answered all his enemies with remarkable fertility of resource, perspicuity, and vigor, as Avell as with great brilliancy of wit and poignancy of sarcasm.
Never was it more trul}' said of any man, that HE WAS HIMSELF A HOST.f It must be said to the credit of the German nobles, that great as was the zeal of the towns for the new theology, they yet surpassed the honest burghers in their service to the reformer
; and indeed Luther was frequently compelled to moderate their Hotspur enthusiasm.
Much anxiety was felt at Wittemberg to learn what Frederick's judgment of the papal bull and of Luther's audacious action would be.
The elector had been absent at the time that the auto dcTfe of the Reformation occurred, being at Aix-la-Chaj^elle, THE LIFE AND TIMES where he assisted in placing the crown of Charlemagne upon the head of the young Spanish king.*
On his return to Weimar, he was much disquieted by the startling aspect of the ecclesiastical horizon.
Learning that Erasmus was sojourning in the neighboring city of Cologne, he sent that old friend word to meet him in the privacy of his own apartments.
Erasmus, in obedience to the summons, hastened to the elector's court immediatel3^ Upon meeting the eminent scholar, Frederick dismissed all his attendants save Spalatin,t and then exclaimed abruptly, "What think you of this Luther?"
Erasmus, true to his hesitating and timid character, endeavored to avoid committing himself, and answered with that witticism which he had already uttered when
Luther's theses on the indulgences first reached him in the Low " This monk has committed two grave errors: he has attacked the pope's tiara, and the monks' bellies."^
But though the oddity of this quaint conceit won the elector to smile, he was not to be put off by such an answer, but fixing his keen eyes upon the face of his illustrious guest, he said gravely,
" I would rather the earth should yawn and swallow me up, than that I should be found favoring false doctrines.
But if Luther has the truth on his side, whatever danger I ma}'^ run, he shall not reckon me among his persecutors.
Keither do I think myself qualified to judge in so important a { See Chap. XIV., p. 171. matter; and for that reason I wish to know the opinion of wise and learned men."
For once Erasmus felt emboldened freely to speak his mind, and he rejoined -with great seriousness, "Luther is right in his animadversions on the ecclesiastical abuses, for a reformation of the church is absolutely necessary; more than that, I esteem
Luther's doctrine to be essentially true; but he lacks mildness.""
After considerable more conversation of the same tenor, Erasmus withdrew; and on reaching his rooms, in a moment of unprecedentedly frank boldness, he sat down and wrote out a detailed account of the interview just concluded, subjoining these axioms, among others, and forwarding the whole manuscript to Spalatin
" A love of tyranny, and a hatred of learning, is the vile source of aU these commotions.
" Persons with the cleanest morals, and the purest faith, are the least offended with Luther.
"The barbarity of this bull against Luther oifends all good men, as it is indeed unworthy of a mild vicar of Christ.
" Only two of the universities,! out of so many, have condemned Luther, and these have not convicted him of error, nor do they themselves agree as to their reasons.
" Luther's proposal to defend himself publicly, or to submit his cause to impartial judges, sSems perfectly fair to reasonable men. t Cologne and Louvain- " This monk aims at neither rank nor profit, and therefore he is the less to be suspected."*
After he had disjoatched the paper to Spalatin, Erasmus' timidity returned, and he urgently solicited that confidant of the elector to restore it, alleging as a reason, " Lest the papal legate should make a bad use of its contents."!"
But whatever the after course of the vacillating Hollander miofht be, it is certain that what he said on this occasion mightily confirmed the elector in his steadfast friendship for Luther and his adherents—a friendship which, despite the open menaces of both pope and emperor, the firm Saxon prince never after allowed to be shaken or intimidated.^
It has been said that anecdotes disclose more of the real judgment of men than whole pages of historical disquisition.
As showing the widcrspread fame of Luther at this period, and the general estimation in which he was held, take these anecdotes.
Aleander, who had been sent by Leo into Germany as Eck's coadjutor, once exclaimed, " It is impossible to soften this Luther by money.
He is a brute who will not look either at bribes or honors ; otherwise he might long since have had mauv thousands paid him at the bankers by the pope's order."||
Shortly after his interview with Frederick of Saxony, the legates of the pope are said to have c Luther's 0pp., II.
J ]Melanctlion's Annals, reflections on Frederick the Wise.
I! Seluecccr, in Scckendorf.