Luther's Departure--Journey from Worms--Luther to
Cranach--Luther to Charles V--Luther with the Abbot of
Hirschfeld--The Curate of Eisenach--Several Princes leave
the Diet--Charles signs Luther's Condemnation--The Edict of
Worms--Luther with his parents--Luther attacked and carried
off--The ways of God--Wartburg--Luther a Prisoner.
Luther having thus escaped from these walls of Worms, which threatened
to become his tomb, his whole heart gave glory to God. "The devil
himself," said he, "guarded the citadel of the pope. But Christ has
made a large breach in it; and Satan has been forced to confess that
the Lord is mightier than he."[577]
[577] Aber Christus macht ein Loch derein. (L. Op. (L.) xvii, p. 589.)
"The day of the Diet of Worms," says the pious Mathesius, the disciple
and friend of Luther, "is one of the greatest and most glorious days
given to the world before its final close."[578] The battle fought at
Worms re-echoed far and wide, and while the sound travelled over
Christendom, from the regions of the North to the mountains of
Switzerland, and the cities of England, France, and Italy, many
ardently took up the mighty weapon of the Word of God.
[578] Diss ist der herrlichen grossen Tag einer vorm Ende der Welt (p.
28.)
Luther, having arrived at Frankfort, on the evening of Saturday, (27th
April,) took advantage next day of a moment of leisure, the first he
had had for a long time, to write a note, in a style at once playful
and energetic, to his friend, Lucas Cranach, the celebrated painter,
at Wittemberg. "Your servant, dear compeer Lucas," said he to him, "I
thought his majesty would assemble at Worms some fifty doctors to
confute the monk off hand. But not at all. Are these books yours? Yes.
Will you retract them? No. Ah well! get you gone! Such was the whole
story. O blind Germans, how like children we act in allowing ourselves
to be played upon and duped by Rome!... The Jews must for once have
their chant, Yo! Yo! Yo! But our passover also will come, and then we
will sing Hallelujah![579]... There must be silence and suffering for
a short time. Jesus Christ says, '_A little while and ye shall not see
me, and again a little while and ye shall see me_.' (John, xvi, 16.) I
hope it will be so with me. I commend you altogether to the Eternal.
May He through Christ protect us against the attacks of the wolves and
dragons of Rome. Amen."
[579] "Es müssen die Juden einmal singen, Io, Io, Io!..." (L. Ep. i,
p. 589.) These cries of joy by the Jews at the time of the crucifixion
represent the songs of triumph by the partisans of the papacy on
occasion of the catastrophe which is going to befall Luther; but the
Reformer discovers in the distance hallelujahs of deliverance.
[Sidenote: LUTHER TO CHARLES V.]
After writing this somewhat enigmatical letter, Luther, as time was
pressing, set out immediately for Friedberg, which is six leagues from
Frankfort. The next day Luther again communed with himself. He was
desirous to write once more to Charles V, being unwilling to confound
him with guilty rebels. In his letter to the emperor he clearly
expounded the nature of the obedience which is due to man, and that
which is due to God, and the limit where the former must stop and give
place to the latter. In reading Luther, we involuntarily call to mind
the saying of the greatest autocrat of modern times: "My role ends
where that of conscience begins."[580] "God, who is the searcher of
hearts, is my witness," says Luther, "that I am ready with all
diligence to obey your majesty, whether in honour or disgrace, whether
by life or by death, and with absolutely no exception but the word of
God, from which man derives life. In all the affairs of the present
life my fidelity will be immutable, for as to these loss or gain
cannot at all affect salvation. But in regard to eternal blessings, it
is not the will of God that man should submit to man. Subjection in
the spiritual world constitutes worship, and should be paid only to
the Creator."[581]
[580] Napoleon to the Protestant deputation after his accession to the
empire.
[581] Nam ea fides et submissio proprie est vera ilia latria et
adoratio Dei ... (L. Ep. i, p. 592.) For that faith and submission is,
properly speaking, true worship and adoration of God.
Luther also addressed a letter, but in German, to the States of the
empire. It was nearly the same in substance as that to the emperor. It
contained an account of all that had taken place at Worms. This letter
was repeatedly printed and circulated all over Germany; "Every where,"
says Cochlœus, "it excited the popular indignation against the
emperor and the dignified clergy."[582]
[582] Per chalcographos multiplicata et in populos dispersa est ea
epistola ... Cæsari autem et clericis odium populare, etc.
(Cochlœus, p. 386.)
Early next day, Luther wrote a note to Spalatin, enclosing in it the
two letters which he had written the evening before, and sent back the
herald Sturm, who had been won to the gospel. Having embraced him he
set out in all haste for Grunberg.
On Tuesday, when about two leagues from Hirschfeld, he met the
chancellor of the abbot-prince of this town, who had come out to
receive him. Shortly after a troop of horsemen appeared with the abbot
at their head. The latter leapt from his horse, and Luther having
alighted from his carriage, the prince and the Reformer embraced, and
then entered Hirschfeld. The senate received them at the gates.[583]
The princes of the Church ran to meet a monk anathematised by the
pope, and the most distinguished among the laity, bowed the head
before an individual whom the emperor had put under the ban.
[583] Senatus intra portas nos excepit (L. Ep. ii, p. 6.)
[Sidenote: LUTHER AT EISENACH.]
"At five in the morning we will be at the church," said the prince,
on rising in the evening from table, at which the Reformer was a
guest. He even wished Luther to occupy his own bed. Next day, Luther
preached, the abbot-prince accompanying him with his suite.
In the evening, Luther arrived at Eisenach, the abode of his infancy.
All his friends in the town gathered round him, and begged him to
preach. The next day they conducted him to the church. The curate made
his appearance, attended by a notary and witnesses. He came forward in
great tremor, divided between the fear of losing his place, and that
of opposing the powerful man before him. At last he said, in a tone of
embarrassment, "I protest against the liberty which you are going to
take." Luther mounted the pulpit, and that voice which, twenty-three
years before, sung in the streets of this town for bread, caused the
arches of the ancient church to ring with accents which had begun to
shake the world. After the sermon, the curate, in confusion, stept
softly forward to Luther. The notary had drawn up his instrument, the
witnesses had signed it, and everything was in regular order to put
the curate's place in safety. "Pardon me," said he humbly to the
doctor; "I have done it from fear of the tyrants who oppress the
Church."[584]
[584] Humiliter tamen excusante ... ob metum tyronnorum suorum. (L.
Ep. ii, p. 6.)
There was, in fact, some ground to fear them. At Worms, the aspect of
affairs had changed. Aleander seemed to reign supreme. "Luther has
nothing before him but exile," wrote Frederick to his brother, Duke
John. "Nothing can save him. If God permits me to return, I will have
things almost incredible to tell you. Not only Annas and Caiaphas, but
also Pilate and Herod, have leagued against him." Frederick, having
little wish to remain longer, left Worms. The Elector-Palatine did the
same, as did also the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne. Princes of less
elevated rank imitated them. Deeming it impossible to avert the blow
which was about to be struck, they preferred, perhaps erroneously, to
abandon the place. The Spaniards, Italians, and the most Ultra-Montane
of the German princes, alone remained.
The field was free, and Aleander triumphed. He laid before Charles the
draft of an edict, which he intended should serve as the model of that
which the Diet was to issue against the monk. The nuncio's labour
pleased the irritated emperor. He assembled the remains of the Diet in
his chamber, and caused Aleander's edict to be read to them. All who
were present, (so says Pallavicini,) approved it.
[Sidenote: CHARLES SIGNS LUTHER'S CONDEMNATION.]
The next day--the day of a great festival--the emperor was in the
church, surrounded by the nobility of his court. The religious
solemnity was finished, and a multitude of people filled the church,
when Aleander, clad in all the insignia of his rank, approached
Charles V.[585] He held in his hand two copies of the edict against
Luther, the one in Latin, and the other in German, and, kneeling down
before his majesty, implored him to append his signature and the seal
of the empire. It was at the moment when the host had just been
offered, when incense filled the temple, when music was still ringing
under its arches, and, as it were, in the presence of the Divinity,
that the destruction of the enemy of Rome was to be completed. The
emperor, assuming the most gracious manner,[586] took the pen and
signed. Aleander went off in triumph, put the decree immediately to
press, and sent it over all Christendom.[587] This fruit of the labour
of Rome had cost the papacy some pains. Pallavicini himself informs us
that this edict, though dated the 8th May, was signed later, but was
antedated, to make it be supposed that it was executed during the time
when all the members of the Diet were actually assembled.
[585] "Cum Cæsar in templo adesset ... processit illi obviam
Aleander." (Pallavicini, i. p. 22.)
[586] "Festivissimo vultu." (Ibid.)
[587] "Et undique pervulgata." (Ibid.)
"We Charles Fifth," said the emperor, (then followed all his titles,)
"to all the electors, princes, prelates, and others, whom it may
concern,
"The Almighty having entrusted to us, for the defence of his holy
faith, more kingdoms and power than he gave to any of our
predecessors, we mean to exert ourselves to the utmost to prevent any
heresy from arising to pollute our holy empire.
"The Augustin monk, Martin Luther, though exhorted by us, has rushed
like a madman against the holy Church, and sought to destroy it by
means of books filled with blasphemy. He has, in a shameful manner,
insulted the imperishable law of holy wedlock. He has striven to
excite the laity to wash their hands in the blood of priests;[588]
and, overturning all obedience, has never ceased to stir up revolt,
division, war, murder, theft, and fire, and to labour completely to
ruin the faith of Christians.... In a word, to pass over all his other
iniquities in silence, this creature, who is not a man, but Satan
himself under the form of a man, covered with the cowl of a monk,[589]
has collected into one stinking pool all the worst heresies of past
times, and has added several new ones of his own....
[588] "Ihre Hände in der Priester Blut zu waschen." (L. Op. (L.) xvii,
p. 598.)
[589] "Nicht ein Mensch, sondern als der böse Feind in Gestalt eines
Menschen mit angennommener Mönchshütten."... (Ibid.)
"We have, therefore, sent this Luther from before our face, that all
pious and sensible men may regard him as a fool, or a man possessed of
the devil; and we expect that, after the expiry of his safe-conduct,
effectual means will be taken to arrest his furious rage.
[Sidenote: EDICT OF WORMS.]
"Wherefore, under pain of incurring the punishment due to the crime of
treason, we forbid you to lodge the said Luther so soon as the fatal
term shall be expired, to conceal him, give him meat or drink, and
lend him, by word or deed, publicly or secretly, any kind of
assistance. We enjoin you, moreover, to seize him, or cause him to be
seized, wherever you find him, and bring him to us without any delay,
or to keep him in all safety until you hear from us how you are to act
with regard to him, and till you receive the recompence due to your
exertions in so holy a work.
"As to his adherents you will seize them, suppress them, and
confiscate their goods.
"As to his writings, if the best food becomes the terror of all
mankind as soon as a drop of poison is mixed with it, how much more
ought these books which contain a deadly poison to the soul to be not
only rejected but also annihilated.
"You will therefore burn them, or in some other way destroy them
entirely.
"As to authors, poets, printers, painters, sellers or buyers of
placards, writings, or paintings, against the pope, or the Church, you
will lay hold of their persons and their goods, and treat them
according to your good pleasure.
"And if any one, whatever be his dignity, shall dare to act in
contradiction to the decree of our imperial Majesty, we ordain that he
shall be placed under the ban of the empire.
"Let every one conform hereto."
Such was the edict signed in the Cathedral of Worms. It was more than
a Roman bull which, though published in Italy, might not be executed
in Germany. The emperor himself had spoken, and the Diet had ratified
his decree. All the partisans of Rome sent forth a shout of triumph.
"It is the end of the tragedy," exclaimed they. "For my part," said
Alphonso Valdez, a Spaniard at the emperor's court, "I am persuaded it
is not the end but the beginning."[590] Valdez perceived that the
movement was in the Church, in the people, in the age, and that though
Luther should fall, his cause would not fall with him. But no one
disguised to himself the imminent, the inevitable danger to which the
Reformer was exposed, while the whole tribe of the superstitious were
seized with horror at the thought of the incarnate Satan whom the
emperor pointed out to the nation as disguised under a monk's frock.
[590] Non finem sed initium. (P. Martyris Ep. p. 412.)
[Sidenote: LUTHER WITH HIS PARENTS.]
The man against whom the mighty of the earth were thus forging their
thunders had left the Church of Eisenach, and was preparing to
separate from some of his dearest friends. He did not wish to follow
the road of Gotha or Erfurt, but to repair to the village of Mora, his
father's birth place, that he might there see his grandmother, who
died four months after, his uncle, Henry Luther, and other relations.
Schurff, Jonas, and Suaven, set off for Wittemberg; Luther mounted his
vehicle with Amsdorff who remained with him, and entered the forest of
Thuringia.[591]
[591] Ad carnem meam trans sylvam profectus. (L Ep. i, p. 7.)
Proceeding beyond the forest to my kindred.
The same evening he reached the village of his fathers. The poor old
peasant clasped in her arms this grandson who had just been showing
front to the emperor Charles and pope Leo. Luther spent the next day
with his family, happy in substituting this tranquil scene for the
tumult at Worms. On the following day he resumed his journey,
accompanied by Amsdorff and his brother James. In these lonely spots
the Reformer's lot was to be decided. They were passing along the
forest of Thuringia, on the road to Wallershausen. As the carriage was
in a hollow part of the road, near the old church of Glisbach, at some
distance from the castle of Altenstein, a sudden noise was heard, and
at that moment five horsemen, masked and in complete armour, rushed
upon the travellers. Luther's brother, as soon as he perceived the
assailants, lept from the vehicle, and ran off at full speed without
uttering a word. The driver was for defending himself. "Stop!" cried
one of the assailants in a stern voice, and rushing upon him threw him
to the ground.[592] A second man in a mask seized Amsdorff, and
prevented him from coming near. Meanwhile the three other horsemen
laid hold of Luther, keeping the most profound silence. They pulled
him violently from the carriage, threw a horseman's cloak upon his
shoulders, and placed him on a led horse. Then the other two quitted
Amsdorff and the driver, and the whole lept into their saddles. The
hat of one of them fell off, but they did not even stop to lift it,
and in a twinkling disappeared in the dark forest with their prisoner.
They at first took the road to Broderode, but they soon retraced their
steps by a different road, and without quitting the forest, made
turnings and windings in all directions, in order to deceive those who
might attempt to follow their track.[593]
[592] Dejectoque in solum auriga et verberato. (Pallavicini, i, p.
122.) Having thrown the driver to the ground and bound him with cords.
[593] Dejecto in solum auriga et verberato. (Ibid.)
[Sidenote: LUTHER ATTACKED AND CARRIED OFF.]
Luther, little accustomed to horseback, was soon overcome with
fatigue. Being permitted to dismount for a few moments, he rested near
a beech tree, and took a draught of fresh water from a spring, which
is still called, _Luther's Spring_.[594] His brother James always
continuing his flight arrived in the evening at Wallershausen. The
driver in great alarm had got up on his vehicle, into which Amsdorff
also mounted, and urging on his horses, which proceeded at a rapid
pace, brought Luther's friend as far as Wittemberg. At Wallershausen,
and Wittemberg, and the interjacent country, villages, and towns, all
along the road, news of Luther's having been carried off were spread,
news which, while it delighted some, filled the greater number with
astonishment and indignation. A cry of grief soon resounded throughout
Germany--"Luther has fallen into the hands of his enemies!"
[594] Longo itinere, novus eques, fessus. (L. Ep. ii, p. 3.)
After the violent combat which Luther had been obliged to maintain,
God was pleased to conduct him to a peaceful resting place. After
placing him on the brilliant theatre of Worms, where all the powers of
the Reformer's soul had been so vigorously exerted, He gave him the
obscure and humiliating retreat of a prison. From the deepest
obscurity He brings forth the feeble instruments by which he proposes
to accomplish great things, and then, after allowing them to shine for
a short time with great lustre on an elevated stage, sends them back
again to deep obscurity. Violent struggles and pompous displays were
not the means by which the Reformation was to be accomplished. That is
not the way in which the leaven penetrates the mass of the population.
The Spirit of God requires more tranquil paths. The man of whom the
champions of Rome were always in pitiless pursuit, behoved for a time
to disappear from the world. It was necessary that personal
achievements should be eclipsed in order that the revolution about to
be accomplished might not bear the impress of an individual. It was
necessary that man should retire and God alone remain, moving, by his
Spirit, over the abyss in which the darkness of the middle age was
engulphed, and saying,--"_Let there be light_."
Nightfall having made it impossible to follow their track, the party
carrying off Luther took a new direction, and about an hour before
midnight arrived at the foot of a mountain.[595] The horses climbed
slowly to its summit on which stood an old fortress surrounded on all
sides, except that of the entrance, by the black forests which cover
the mountains of Thuringia.
[595] Hora ferme undecima ad mansionem noctis perveni in tenebris. (L.
Ep. i, p. 3.)
[Sidenote: LUTHER A CAPTIVE.]
To this elevated and isolated castle, named the Wartburg, where the
Landgraves of old used to conceal themselves, was Luther conducted.
The bolts are drawn, the iron bars fall, the gates open, and the
Reformer clearing the threshold, the bars again close behind him. He
dismounts in the court. Burkard de Hund, Lord of Allenstein, one of
the horsemen, withdraws; another, John of Berlepsch, Provost of
Wartburg, conducts Luther to the chamber which was to be his prison,
and where a knight's dress and a sword were lying. The three other
horsemen, dependants of the provost, carry off his ecclesiastical
dress, and put on the other which had been prepared for him, enjoining
him to allow his hair and beard to grow,[596] in order that none even
in the castle might know who he was. The inmates of the Wartburg were
only to know the prisoner under the name of Chevalier Georges. Luther
scarcely knew himself in the dress which was put upon him.[597] At
length he is left alone, and can turn in his thoughts the strange
events which had just taken place at Worms, the uncertain prospect
which awaits him, and his new and strange abode. From the narrow
windows of his keep he discovers the dark, solitary, and boundless
forests around. "There," says Mathesins, the biographer and friend of
Luther, "the doctor remained like St. Paul in his prison at Rome."
[596] Exutus vestibus meis et equestribus indutus, comam et barbam
nutriens.... (L. Ep. i, p. 7.)
[597] Cum ipse me jam dudum non noverim. (Ibid., ii, p. 7)
Frederick de Thun, Philip Feilitsch, and Spalatin, had not concealed
from Luther, in a confidential interview which they had with him at
Worms by order of the Elector, that his liberty behoved to be
sacrificed to the wrath of Charles and the pope.[598] Still there was
so much mystery in the mode of his being carried off that Frederick
was long ignorant of the place of his confinement. The grief of the
friends of the Reformation was prolonged. Spring passed away,
succeeded by summer, autumn, and winter; the sun finished his annual
course, and the walls of the Wartburg still confined their prisoner.
The truth is laid under interdict by the Diet; its defender, shut up
within the walls of a strong castle, has disappeared from the stage of
the world, none knowing what has become of him. Aleander triumphs, and
the Reformation seems lost; ... but God reigns, and the blow which
apparently threatened to annihilate the cause of the gospel will serve
only to save its intrepid minister and extend the light of faith.
[598] Seckend., p. 265.
Let us leave Luther a captive in Germany on the heights of the
Wartburg, and let us see what God was then doing in the other
countries of Christendom.