puerile and useless works, as the custom of chaplets, invocations of saints, monastic vows, processions, fasts, feast-dajs, brotherhoods, abstinence from meat on certain days—all of which the concession repudiated, and placed under the ban of reason—the Protestants added, that as for themselves, while urging the j^ractice of truly Christian works, of which little had been said before their time,
" they still taught that man is justified by faith alone;' not by that faith which is a simple knowledge of ecclesiastical history, and Avhich v.dcked men and even devils possess, but by a faith which believes not only the history, but the effects of history, which believes that through Christ we obtain needed grace and salvation."*
"Such," said Bayer, "is a summary of the doctrine professed in our churches: by this recital it may be seen that we in no respect oppose the Scriptures, the universal church, nor even the Eomieh church as it is described by the fathers ; and since this is so, to reject us as heretics is an offence against unity and charity."'!"
Here ended the first part of the confession, the aim of which was to explain the scriptural grounds upon which the Reformation based itself.
The second portion was devoted to an exposition of the abuses which had occasioned the movement for reform.
These were divided under separate liead^L:
1. The refusal of the cup to the laitj^ in the celebration of the Lord's supper.
« Urknnd. Coiifossio.
2. The celibacy of the clergy, which was pronouucecl to be contrary to the freedom of the gospel, and productive of great evils.
3. The abuses of the mass, " Avhich," says the confession, " we have not completely abolished except as a sacrifice, in which respect it has no virtue for the expiation of sins, unless the sinner performs the conditions enjoined by Christ."
4. Auricular confession, the efficacy of which the Protestants declared to depend entirely upon the faith of the penitent.
5. The abstinence from meats on prescribed days.
Avhich are declared to be dangerous snares to the conscience.
7. The temporal power of the pontiff, and the union of church and state.
" Many," says the confession, " have unskilfully confounded the episcopal and the temporal power, and from this confusion have sprang great wars, revolts, and seditions.
It is for this reason, and to reassure men's consciences, that w^e find ourselves constrained to point out the difference which exists between the power of the church and the power of the sword.
" We therefore teach, that the power of the key or of the bishops is conformably with the written word, a commandment emanating from God, to in-each the gospel, to remit or retain sins, and to administer the sacraments.
This power has reference only to eternal good, is exercised only by the minister of the Avord—does not trouble itself with political administration.
" The magistracy on its part is busied with every thing human, but it may not justly touch the gospel.
The sovereign protects not souls, but personal rights and temporal possessions.
He defends these from all innovating assaults, and by making use of the sword and by punishment, compels men to observe civil justice and to keep the peace.
" It is thus that we distinguish the two governments, and that w^e honor both as the most excellent gifts God has given here on earth.""
Bayer occupied two hours in reading this momentous and unprecedented document, and was listened to throughout with singular patience and profound silence. t
It produced a marvellous effect on the princes who thronged the chapel.
Jonas watched every change in their countenances, and there beheld interest, astonishment, and even approbation depicted by turns. |
They had been so accustomed to hearing tlie wildest and most impious doctrines attributed to the Protestants, that this calm, philosophical, and judicious resume of the reformed faith took them by surprise.
Bayer handed the two copies of the confession to Charles upon descending from the platform, and the monarch retaining the Latin one for his own perusal, handed the German one, which was_re- * Urkimd, Confessio. Augs. f Seckendorf, Melanctlion.
THE LIFE AND TIMES garded as official, to the elector of Mentz.* Then with a whispered request to the Protestant princes that the confession might not be published for the present, and with an assurance of his gracious consideration of their
" apology," the emperor dismissed the assembly.!
« Jonas in Corp. Eef. U., 183.
While these events were occurring, Luther, quietljresigning himself to his prescribed retirement at Coburg, employed his time in alternate study and composition.
He had already translated some of the most important parts of the Old Testament, explaining the text by his commentaries; and he
Avas now engaged in translating the book of When wearied with these grave pursuits, he turned for relaxation to the fables of ^sop, rendering them into German.
The only society he enjoyed was that of Vitus Theodoric, the pastor of Nuremberg; but a guard was kept upon tlie ramparts of the fortress night and day.f
Theodoric recites that not a clay passed in which Luther did not spend at least three hours in earnest praj'er; and though he appears to have suffered occasionally from an intense melancholy, and from depressing conjectures, the inevitable concomitants of his confinement, yet despite this nervous excitement, he enjoyed on the whole great consolations.
Couriers were kept in constant motion between this " Sinai," as Luther termed it,| and the city of The Protestant princes saw to it that Stcbbiiig's Hist, of the Eeformation, Vol.
THE LIFE AND TIMES the absent leader of tlieir liost was apprized of what passed, immediately upon its occurrence.
Luther besides kept up a constant correspondence with Melancthon.
Poor Philip,, unfitted for the responsibility and turmoil of such a scene, was often terribly deiDressed by the care and fatigue of his position, and he poured his woes and Cassandra-like predictions into the ears of his more independent and self-centred friend.
Luther, by way of consolation, rebuked him harshly.
" You talk to me of your labors, your dangers, your tears I, is mine a bed of roses?
Philip, your faith is weak.
In personal temptations I am weaker than you; but in ^^nblic trials you are as weak as I am in my trials at home, if I may so call the temptations with which Satan unceasingly besets me.
You regard not your own life, yet you tremble for the public cause; I look upon the public cause, however gloomy and portentous the horizon may appear, with absolute serenity, and tremble only for my own sins.
Let us exchange natures for this occasion.
I will dwell in this castle as Philip Melancthon ; do you bear yourself in Augsburg as should Martin Luther."
After prolonged consideration, it was at length decided by the emperor, that the Protestant confession -should be submitted to the examination of the papal theologians.
The Romanists consented to waive this right, provided the Eeformers would make certain essential alterations.
There Melancthon again exhibited his weakness.
Luther a tearful letter full of sad presages, and concluded by beseeching his assent to certain modifications of the confession.*
Luther thus responded, on the 20th of Se23tember " Our adversaries will not give way a hair's breadth, while on our side we are not only called iipon to admit their canon of Scripture, the sacrifice of the mass, communion in its restricted form, the old jurisdiction, but likewise it is to be incumbent upon us to avow openly, that their doctrines, their persecutions, all that they have done, all that they have imagined, has been just and legitimate, and that we have been wrong in accusing them; that is, they will us to be condemned and themselves to be justified by the force of our own testimony.
Thus we are not simjjly called on to retract, but ourselves to pronounce a triple malediction upon our own acts.f " But, Philip,'' he adds, in the true spirit of an evangelist,
" to reason with you in this matter is in vain: you are bewildered by your philosophy, by your maxims of worldly prudence
; you believe that these matters depend on human wisdom, and thereby fulfil the proverb. Cum rafione insanit.
You torment yourself with a thousand useless and irreverent anxieties, forgetting that the affair in * Gamer, Vita Melanc. f Luther, quoted iu Slichelet, p. 221.
THE LIFE AND TIMES hand is not ours but God's ; that it is above all human strength to fathom, to defend, or to defeat this business.
Believe me, in this Christ does not desire that success should result either from human counsels or from human power."
By this and kindred epistles, Melancthon's natural timidity was propped up into tolerable boldness, and no concessions -which touched the essential points of the reformed creed could be wrung from the Protestants.
After tedious movings and counter-movings, after incessant consultation, and the exercise of a greater number of ingenious arts than were ever known to Machiavelli, the diet was prorogued, and Charles announced his decision, that he would award six months, or until the 15th of the following
April, to the Protestant princes to repudiate their errors, shown to be such by the papal theologians, and that meantime, they should live peaceably, and observe the existing laws, civil and ecclesiastical.""'
On the 23d of September, 1530, the Protestant princes quitted Augsburg, and Luther exclaimed, as he began his preparations for his homeward journey,
" Thank God that our friends are out of hell."t On the 4th of October, Charles V. MTote to the pope, " The negotiations are broken off; our adversaries are more obstinate than ever
; and I am resolved to employ force and my own person in I beg yonr holiness to demand the support of all Eumors of this martial determination having reached the Protestant princes, they reassembled at Schmulkald, and on the 31st cf December, 1530, entered into a defensive league, thus constituting themselves one united body.f
Luther was at once accused of having persuaded the Protestants to assume this hostile attitude.
He thus responded to the charge : " I did not, as has been asserted, urge resistance to the emperor.
The advice which I, as a theologian, tendered, was this : if the jurists can show that the course proposed is permitted by the law, I also permit them to follow the course of their lavr.
If by the emperor's laws it is established that under such circumstances as these resistance is lawful, then let Charles be amenable to that law v.hich he has himself made."|
In this same year, Luther wrote a powerful and biting pamphlet against a tract published anonymously at Dresden, iu which the Protestants were accused of secretly arming themselves, with the intention of suddenly falling upon the unsuspecting papists, who were in the meanwhile intent only upon the reestablishment of peace and frater- "It is most carefully concealed whence this
* Eobertsou's Life of Charles V. t Seckendorf, Micliclet, Sleidan, and others.
THE LIFE AND TIMES book lias proceeded," said Luther in this memorial.
" Nobody is to knoAv.
Well, I am content to remain with the rest in ignorance.
" I will consent to have my nostrils closed np with rheum, that I may not smell the unlucky pedant.
Nevertheless I shall call into action all my adroitness, and endeavor to strike a blow at the lion's skin, satisfied that if I shall hit the ass who is concealed beneath it, no fault Avill be imputable either to me or to him, but solely to the covering in which he has enveloped himself.
"Be it true, or be it not, that the Protestants are making preparations and assembling together, what is that to me?
I have neither enjoined nor counselled them to do so.
I neither know what they do, nor what they do not ; but since the papists announce, through the jiages of this book, that they believe in the reality of the armaments, I welcome the report with pleasure, and I rejoice in their delusions and alarms.
I would even assist in augmenting the illusive fears, if I only knew how, were it but to make them die of fright.
Abel, if Annas and Caiaphas persecute Jesus, is it not just that they be punished?
Let then God's foes live in perpetual agony ; let them tremble at the sound of each falling leaf; let them behold on every side the i^hantoms of insurrection and death
; nothing could be more equitable.
"Is it not, ye impostors, true, that when our princes presented their confession of faith at Augsburg, a papist exclaimed, 'These fathers have preOF MARTIN LUTHER, seuted a book writteu in ink
; I would answer it with one written in blood?'
" Is it not likewise true, that the elector of Brandenburg and the duke Saxony promised the emperor to supply him five thousand horse if he would sound to battle against the Eeformation?
" Is it not true that a vast number of priests and papists wagered among themselves that before St.
Michael's day it would be all up with the Lutherans?
" Is it not true that the elector of Brandenburg declared publicly that the emperor and all the states would devote themselves body and soul in order to attain that end ?
" Do you believe that your edict is unknown to the world ?
Do you think that people are ignorant of the fact, that by this edict every sword in the empire is unsheathed and sharpened, that every arquebuse is double charged, that every bigot lance is laid in rest to rush down upon the elector of Saxony and his adherents, to spread fire and blood, and to fill the Avorld with desolation and weeping ?"
" Look at your edict.
Look at your own murderous designs, inscriljed with your own seals and emblazoned arms, and then will you venture to call that peace, or dare to accuse the Protestants of manoeuvring to disturb the good and fraternal^ understanding that exists ?
Oh, matchless imjjudence Oh, boundless hypocrisy " But we understand your projects.
THE LIFE AND TIMES our people not to make any preparations for that relentless war with which you have so long menaced the reform, but that they should quietly suffer their throats to be cut, like so many sheep in a slaughter-house, without either complaining or standing on their defence.
.Much obliged to you, good folk.
I, a preacher of the word, might submit to such a proceeding; and perhaps others to whom the grace of God has been given might also serenely accept this fate.
" But I cannot guarantee to tyrants that all will follow my example.
If I publicly advised the Protestants to meet quietly their fate, the t^'rants would doubtless thank me ; nay, perchance, canonize ms
; but I am by no means disj^osed to relieve them of the apprehensions they entertain of our resistance.
Do they seek to win tlieir spurs by massacring our congregations?
Let them gain their honors as it behooves gallant soldiers, by braving real dangers.
Cut-throats by profession, let them at least look to be met as such."-'
In June, 1530, Luther's dear old father died at Eisleben, ripe in years, in honors, and in grace.
" I write to you," he said to a friend, upon learning of his father's decease, " under the depression of heavy sadness, for I have just received intelligence of the death of my father, that good old man whom
And though by my means he passed hence easily and happily into the bosom of Christ, and now, escaped from the monsters of this
• Luther, quoiea in ilichelet. world, reposes iu eternal peace, yet my heart is sad and agitated to think that he is gone from me—ho who gave me birth, and nourished my early years."*
In a letter, written on the same day, June 5th, to Philip Melancthon, he says, " My dear father is now no more.
I succeed to his name and place.
Presently it will be my turn, my privilege, to follow him through the jaws of death to that kingdom which Christ has promised to all those who for his sake undergo misery and opprobrium upon earth."
Luther's mother did not long surviA^e her husband.
Early in 1531 she also died, and Martin was again grief-stricken ; but he rejoiced that she, like his father, lived long enough to see and accept the truth,t
From this time Luther's connection with great public events ceased.
Through Melancthon, he had stood out in bold relief on the grand historic stage at Augsburg, and uttered that confession of faith which justified the Reformation, and which was saluted by Germany at large with boisterous enthusiasm.
The politics of the Keformation now passed into the hands of the princes who had espoused the new tenets.
There was accordingly less occasion than at the feeble outset for a theologian to play the political gladiator, and to struggle in the arena of statescraft witli worldlv cardinals and coroneted emperors.
Luther very gladly availed himself of this opporTischreden, p. 331.
THE LIFE AND TIMES tunity to retreat into the inner sauctuary of the He had never courted distinction or notoriety.
Pushed into prominence by the relentless force of circumstances sorely against his will, beckoned forward by the imperious finger of God, he accepted serenely the necessities of the battle.
But when the battle was fought and won, when Europe recognized the right of Protestantism to breathe, when other champions came forward to defend the political rights of the reformed theology, Luther voluntarily severed the ties that bound him to the leadership, and devoted his whole attention to lucid expositions of the Protestant tenets, and to the settlement of the discipline of the Reformation.
It is eas}^ to conceive what anxiety this occupation must have caused him.
Considerations involving the highest questions of Christian duty arose at ever}^ step.
He could borrow but few ideas from the constitution of the Roman church.
That see whose omnipotence Luther had conquered had been supported for centuries by the mightiest efforts of power, was adorned with the spoils of ages, and had been able to employ in its service the finest and subtlest minds that ever engaged in the task of representing spiritual truths by outward symbols.
The different orders of its clergy were linked together by ties which converted them into a well-disciplined army.
Their means of provision were ample, brilliant rewards tempted the eloquent and accomplished to the highest exercise of their talents, the ambitious had examples to lure tliem ou wliicli might lift the most desponding and skiggish minds into active enthusiasm.
Even the most soaring and sanguine were more than satisfied by their remembrance of the fact that the red hat of a cardinal, nay, the pontifical tiara itself, might crown their efforts with splendid success.
At the same time their influence among the people, their experience in all the methods whereby large masses of mankind are held in awe, enabled them to carry forward with comparative ease whatever j)i'ojects seemed best calculated to increase their emoluments, or to subdue the obstacles which opposed the enlargement of their swelling see.
The reformers had to pursue the objects of external churchmanship under vastly different auspices.
Their revenue was small and precarious ; they were not yet cemented together in the bonds of wellascertained fellowship : whatever rules of discipline they had to institute must depend for their efficiency, not on feelings of awe, or upon deep-rooted, longexisting sentiments of veneration, but upon the calm good sense of the people—upon an intelligence which they had to impart to themselves by conscientious and assiduous labor.'^
This compelled Luther to dive into the depths of his capacious mind, to see upon what foundation the new system should be based.
HajDpily for Protestantism, he lost none of his Titanic -guergy by the increase of years and toil.
Of him, as of others of similar character, it may be said that THE LIFE AND TIMES new light was let in " by the chinks which time had made."
But his bodily health suffered more and more from those distressing chronic diseases to which his otherwise robust physique had long been subject.
Still he w^rote and spoke with the vigor of the opening years of his career.
His infirmities could not bind his soul, nor had they much power to interrupt his labors, so Herculean was his determination.
But while he breathed forth the earnest convictions of a mature spirit—while he hurled defiance at the fortresses of darkness and error, he more frequently than of old spoke as a man who felt that his extraordinary career would shortly be judged, not by his own, of by any human judgment, but by Him unto whom all hearts are known, and from whom no secret can be hid.
In 1536 Erasmus died at Basle, despised by the reformers, suspected by the papists, anathematized by the Sorbonne, and sadly broken in his influence.*
This event, which would have convulsed the learned world had it occurred earlier, caused scarcely a ripple on the European sea, and indeed the sage of Rotterdam had already outlived both his usefulness and his fame.
About this same time Luther's determined and bitter enemy, George duke of Saxony, also died.
He was succeeded by his brother Henry, who had long been a 'declared Protestant, and who upon his accession immediately summoned Luther to Lcipsic—a sphere wliicli, as the ancient seat of George's persecutions, required the most energetic attention.
The reformers of this city and the surrounding territory had h~>ng been compelled to support their faith on the scanty food which they could find under the jealous eye of the late prince.
It was therefore but just that, in these better days, thej should be nourished by a fuller supply of spiritual gifts.* From this busy scene Luther was recalled ere long to his own hearthstone by the dangerous illness of his favorite daughter
But though he travelled post-haste, he reached Wittemberg only just in time to close poor Maggie's eyes.f The loss of this daughter, who died at the early age of fourteen, was felt severely both by Luther and his wife.
But he bore up nobly under the trial, and comforted poor " Ketha" so far as any earthly consoler could.
When his friends came in to remove the body, and expressed their sympathy with his affliction, he replied, " Friends, be not grieved, I have sent a saint to heaven.
Could such a death be mine, I would die joyfully this moment."
Then turning to his wife who stood' weeping bitterly, he said, Catherine, console yourself ; think where our daughter is gone, for sure she has passed happily into peace.
The flesh bleeds doubtless, for such is its nature, but the spirit lives and speeds to the place of its wishes.''^ « Melancthon, Vita Lutlieii.
This bereavement served still further to wean Luther from the vanities of earth.
His mind almost constantly dwelt upon the heavenly beatitudes, and he murmured frequently those words of Simeon, " Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace."
Ho did not take much interest nor put much faith in the several attempts at reconciliation which were made by the Protestant princes at intervals during the years
1540-41, and even up to 1546.
He saw, and had long seen the deadly and irrepressible nature of this ecclesiastical warfare, and he looked upon all further conference with the Roman antichrist as blasphemous.
Accordingly he did not even attend the conferences at "Worms and at Batisbon, but from the outset predicted failure.
" I will anticipate your letters," so he wrote a friend who was bent upon being present at these diets, " and tell you what will pass at Eatisbon before you can inform me.
You have been sent for by the emperor; he has told you to turn over in your mind conditions of peace.
You replied in Latin as well as 3'ou could, all to no purpose.
Eck in his usual way vociferated, ' Most gracious emperor, I will prove against any one that we are right, and that the pope is the infalhble head of the church.'
You will then adjourn in confusion and with augmented bitterness, and that 's all you will tell me."-'
These conferences were o equall}^ futile with those which preceded them.
And he was. still further disgusted with these mock attempts at conciliation, by perceiving that each day the debate assumed more decidedly a political rather than a religious character.'^
He saw that the princes of his time sought, in these august disputes which he had originated for the restoration of the gospel to its primitive purity, only to gratify their own earthly ambition—that they were bent upon making a market of his Christ.
" Our excellent prince," he wrote in April, 1541, " has sent, for my perusal and endorsement, certain conditions which he is about to propose, in order to bring about a peace with the emperor and our adversaries.
I perceive that they all look ujaon this momentous quarrel as if it were a comedy which they are acting among themselves.
Whereas it is a solemn tragedy enacted between God and Satan, wherein Satan triumphs and God is humbled.
But the catastrophe has yet to come, when the AllPowerful, the author of this drama, will assign to us the victory.
Meantime I am utterly indignant to see matters of such moment thus trifled with."t A little later, Luther was informed that Charles had convened at Trent that famous council which he intended should settle definitively all mooted ecclesiastical matters, and that he was enraged at the refusal of the Protestants either to recognize the jurisdiction of his council or to attend it.
" They write me word from the diet," said LuLutlier, quoted in Miclielet, y>. 250.
THE LIFE AND TIMES tlier on the 9tli of Jnl}^ " that the emperor has been urging our people to consent to his council, and that he is much enraged at our refusal.
I cannot comprehend such absurdities.
The pope absolutely refuses to heretics like ourselves any standing in a council, while the emperor wills that we at once consent to its appointment, and obey its decrees.
It is perhaps God who has caused them to become thus foolish, but I can fathom their absurd combination.
As up to the present time they have not been able, under the titles of pope, emperor, and diet, to render their uiijust cause formidable, they now think to clothe themselves with the name of a council, in order to be able to obtain an excuse for accusing us of being so utterly lost and without hope, that we will listen neither to pope, church, emperor, the edicts of the empire, nor even to a council itself, though we have so repeatedly invoked one.
" Therein may be discovered the wonderful cleverness displayed by knowing Satan against poor half-witted God, who doubtless will have great difficulty in escaping from a snare so aptly contrived.
No, it is our God who will mock the designs of those who lay toils for him.
If we are now to consent to the convention of a council entertaining such intentions towards us, why, let me ask, did we not submit ourselves twenty-five years ago to tlie alleged supreme head of all councils, the pope, and his bulls ?""