THE LIFE AND TIMES berg, to go and salute, on his part, their countryman, Dr. Jerome Schurff.
On their asking him what name they shoukl mention, he repKed, ' Merely tell him that he who is to come salutes him ; he "will not fail to comprehend these words.'
" When the merchants, on their return to the inn, learned from the landlord that he suspected that the strange cavalier was Luther himself, with whom they had supped, they were inconsolable at not having known it earher, so that they might have shown him greater respect, and saved themselves the shame of making so many indifferent remarks.
" They arose early in the morning to wait upon him, and offered a thousand apologies ; Luther hoAvever only tacitly admitted that it was he.
"The Swiss learned the name of their strange companion from Dr. Schurff, to whom they had gone on reaching Wittemberg ; so that when Luther arrived, they met him most cordially."*
Luther meantime hastened on.
From the neighborhood of Leipsic he addressed a letter to the elector, informing him that he had quitted the asylum which his kindness had provided, and speakins: in the strongest terms of the anxietv which afflicted his mind on account of the disorders into which the university had fallen.
He affirmed that it was not for his own safety that he trembled, but for that of the just emancipated gospel ; and he added, that since he had foimd it vain to make submissions to the pride of his enemies, and to conYince them by persuasion of the rectitude of his conduct, he should for the future pursue his course without regard either to their threats or their wiles.
"I write this, your highness," he concluded, " in order that you may know that my journey to Wittemberg is made under a protection infinitely more powerful than yours.
I am willing that you should abandon me ; the cause for which I struggle has no need of the sword of princes to support or further it.
God will himself defend it without the aid of man.
As for you, remain quiet ; you have already done too much.
If I am taken and put to death, you will be free from blame, for I have refused to obey you.
Whatever befalls, gracious prince, resist not the emperor on my account.
Leave him free to act his pleasure in your dominions ; let him deprive your subjects of their possessions, of their lives
; he cannot command so powerful a prince as yourself to take away my life with your own hands.
But should he even do this, let me only know it, and whether you believe me, or believe me not, know this, that for your love of me, your life, your soul, your possessions shall be safe."'^
On receiving this letter the affectionate and solicitous elector dispatched Schurff to meet Luther and endeavor to persuade him to return* to Wartburg for a little, in order that he might bring his affairs before the new diet, then assembling at Nuremberg, where he hoped that the whole question
* Seckendorf, Sect. CXIX., 295.
THE LIFE AND TIMES miglit receive a careful and more impartial investigation.
Schurff was empowered to demand of Luther bis reasons for precipitation.
Dr. Schurff met the intrepid monk some miles from Wittemberg, on the 7th of March, and strove in vain to prevent his reentrance into the city.
Luther gave his fi'iend, however, his reasons for adhering to his determination : first, that the chui'ch demanded his reaj)pearance
; second, that disorder had crept in among his flock ; thirdly, that he wished to avert, as far as in him lay, the smouldering insurrection which he rightly regarded as threatening the countrj'.
These reasons he wrote out for the elector's inspection, and added, " I have been called, and I will go ;• let destiny be accomplished in the name of Christ, master alike of life and death.
Satan in my absence has penetrated into my fold and committed ravages which my presence alone can remedy.
A letter would not quiet the commotion ; I must make use of my own eyes and mouth to see and speak."
Requesting Schurff to dispatch this missive to his electoral grace with all speed, Luther pressed forward, and reentering Wittemberg that same day, was clasped once more in the arms of his devoted friends.
Nor had he miscalculated the effect of his presence.
The course of sermons which he proceeded to deliver exorcised the devil of disorder, and the new prophets at once quitted the city.*
* ilichelet, p. 120, uotc. was destined, however, to have a severe tussle with Carlstadt, wlio, for the sake of peace, gave way for a time, outwardly at least, to his colleague's impressive exhortations, and resumed his lectures at the university
(jravior sub pace latet—war, bitterer for its disguise, followed presently.
After exorcising tlie spirit of discord, •\vas bis first care on liis return to Wittemberg, Luther sat down at his dear Philip's side, in the restored quiet of the Augustine monastery, where he still continued to reside, though it was optional with others whether they should do so or not, for a final revision of his translation of the New Testament.
It was turned over to the printers, who seemed in their turn to be impressed with its irajDortance, so zealously did they push it forward.
Luther informs us that three presses were constantly employed in pi'inting the German Testament, and that ten thousand sheets were daily struck off,""^ an immense number for those rude typographical days.
On the 2l8t of Se^Dtember, 1522, the first complete edition of three thousand copies in two folio volumes appeared, with tins simple title
Testament—German—Wittemberg.IThis at once brought this portion of the sacred oracles within the reach and comprehension of the common, unlearned people, and was the greatest stride towards success which the Reformation had yet made.
Luther based his whole doctrine on the holy writ ; but while that lay locked up in the Greek o L. Epp. or Latin, the masses were of course unable to decide whether Luther's construction or that of the priests was the correct one.
Luther had created a public opinion to which he might appeal, an opinion as au fait of the facts and of the text in question as the most inflated doctor of them all.
The Testament was sold at a florin and a half a copy, equivalent to about eight dollars of our money, and in an incredibly short time the first edition was exhausted.
A second, a third, a fourth followed, until, by the year 1533, seventeen editions had been printed and sold at Wittemberg, thirteen at Augsburg, twelve at Basle, one at Erfurth, one at Grimma, one at Leipsic, and thirteen at Strasburg'^— fifty-eight editions in eleven years.
Such was the appetite with which greedy Germany devoured the German translation of the Scripture.
" Written," says a competent authority, " in the very tone of the holy writings, in a language yet in its youthful prime, and which for the first time displayed its great beauties, the German Testament moved all classes, the highest equally with the lowest, and it was speedily recognized as a national work.
The Bible thus given to the people recalled the truant mind of man, which had been lost for dismal ages in the tortuous labyrinth of scholasticism, to the divine fountain of salvation."
While the New Testament was going through"the press, the indefatigable reformer commenced a THE LIFE AND TIMES translation of the Old Testament.
This was published in parts as they were finished, and was absorbed as quickly as the gospel had been.
It was not until some years later that the Old and New Testaments were bound together, and the complete Bible was given to the people.
But Avhile the masses received the Bible with joy, the adherents of Bome scornfully rejected it.
Austria—all these states which bowed beneath the Boman yoke, decreed that the Testament should not be sold within their borders, but should be placed in the hands of the magistrates.
" But despite my prohibition," wrote duke George of Saxony, " many thousands of copies were sold and read in my dominions."
Perceiving that it could not suppress this popular work, the Roman see had recourse to stratagem : it published a German version, which it stamped with its own imprimatur.
In reality this was Luther's translation, altered in various places to conform with the Eomish traditions.* Still the people preferred the Lutheran version, and continued to purchase the Wittemberg editions.
At about the time of the publication of the first edition of the New Testament at Wittemberg, Leo X. died suddenly, at the early age of forty-five, and in the full xmov of his faculties.
Dvins; thus in the llower of his age, this pontiff left the Eoman see little edified or profited by the splendor of his reputation.
Those mocking letters which he had so * Eoscoe's liife of Leo X. higlilj valued, found themselves unable to sneer down the Reformation, and Leo dropped the tiara just when the new publication at Wittemberg had smitten the papacy with terrific force. left enormous debts, and his cheated creditors followed him to his grave, loading his name with curses.
The satirical Romans pronounced this funeral oration upon him " Leo, you gained jour pontificate like a fox ; you held it hke a lion
; and you left it like a dog."* His successor was the octogenarian cardinal Tortosa, a native of Utrecht, a conceited pedant, who had been invested with the Roman purple in 1517, through the influence of Charles
V., whose tutor he had been, and he now reigned under the title of Adrian YI.
This election had been manoeuvred by the subtle Cardinal de Medici, afterwards Clement VIII., who, seeing that he had then no chance of clutching the tiara, desired to fill the pontifical throne with a pope whose advanced years might be his title-deed to the succession.
But the election was very unpopular in Italy.
Sleidan relates that the Romans were so exasjDerated at this selection of a foreigner, that the members of the holy conclave thought themselves fortunate to have escaped being ducked in the Tiber.t
But in Utrecht great joy was manifested ; banners were flung out, upon which this legend wasino Eanke's History of the Popes. t Sleidan, Hist, do la Ref.,
THE LIFE AND TIIN^ES scribed ; the emperor gave the increase;" to which a wag appended, " And God had nothing to do with it."*
Meantime the diet had met at Nuremberg, and Adrian had written a very severe letter to Frederick of Saxony, in which he charged him with apostasy, and urged him, as he valued his soul's salvation, to make amends for his past wicked connivance at heresy, by energetically striving to secure Luther's conviction at Nuremberg.t
But though every effort was made by the new pontiff, and by his nuncio in attendance upon the diet, the states of the empire, emboldened by the absence of the emperor, could not be persuaded to pronounce an opinion upon the Augustine further than this collateral one
: they demanded, as Luther had done, the convocation of a free council ; they complained of the grievances under which Germany had labored for centuries, owing to the Roman domination
; and exhibiting to Eome a Hst of evils which needed correction, with one hand, with the other the diet showed Germany its decree
: for the present, no interference with the Reformation. | This decision was regarded as a triumph by the reformers.
Toleration was all that they ventured to demand of the state ; the concession of that exceeded their wildest dreams of success.
Consequently the adherents of reform rent the air with their hilarious shouts.
• Sleidau, Hist, de la Eef., J Meiirer, Sleidan, Mycouius, Van Brunt.
But if Germanj laughed, Italy raged and sobbed in curses.
In the midst of its jubilation, the Reformation beheld a new and mightj champion descend into the arena to combat it.
Henry VIII. of England.
" a prince whose hand was always raised against his adversai'ies, his Avives, or his favorites," greedy for literary distinction, and anxious to attract the notice of the pontiff, wrote in this same year, 1522, a philippic against Luther, entitled, A Defence of the Seven Sacraments, against 3Iartin Lutlier, by the most invincible King of England and France, Lord of Ireland, Henry, the Eighth of that Name."
In this vapid treatise the whole Eomish doctrine is defended, and the crowned theologian asserts that " if Luther," whom he calls the " wolf of hell," the " poisonous viper," the " limb of the devil," and other similarly soft names, gathering the vilest of epithets from the gutter of language,
" cannot be constrained to silence, he should for once be made useful to the world by the terrible example of his death."!The gross adulation of which Henry wa,s the recipient upon the pubhcation of this tract, whose only strength consisted in its scurrilitj', and of which its royal author hved to be ashamed,:): is scarcely credible.§
But the poor king's complacency was short-lived. o Collyer, Eccl. Hist.
Burnet, Hist. Kef. in Eng., f Knapp"s "N.iclilefie," II., 273.