GERMANY BEFORE THE PROTESTANT REVOLT
[Sidenote: Two unsuccessful revolts preceded the Protestant revolution.]
133. By far the most important event in the sixteenth century and one of
the most momentous in the history of the western world, was the revolt
of a considerable portion of northern and western Europe from the
mediæval Church. There had been but two serious rebellions earlier. The
first of these was that of the Albigenses in southern France in the
thirteenth century; this had been fearfully punished, and the
Inquisition had been established to ferret out and bring to trial those
who were disloyal to the Church. Then, some two centuries later, the
Bohemians, under the inspiration of Wycliffe's writings, had attempted
to introduce customs different from those which prevailed elsewhere in
the Church. They, too, had been forced, after a terrific series of
conflicts, once more to accept the old system.
[Sidenote: Luther secedes from the Church, 1520.]
Finally, however, in spite of the great strength and the wonderful
organization of the Church, it became apparent that it was no longer
possible to keep all of western Europe under the sway of the pope. In
the autumn of 1520, Professor Martin Luther called together the students
of the University of Wittenberg, led them outside the town walls, and
there burned the constitution and statutes of the mediæval Church, i.e.,
the canon law. In this way he publicly proclaimed and illustrated his
purpose to repudiate the existing Church with many of its doctrines and
practices. Its head he defied by destroying the papal bull directed
against his teachings.
[Sidenote: Origin of the two great religious parties in western
Europe,--the Catholics and Protestants.]
Other leaders, in Germany, Switzerland, England, and elsewhere,
organized separate revolts; rulers decided to accept the teachings of
the reformers, and used their power to promote the establishment of
churches independent of the pope. In this way western Europe came to be
divided into two great religious parties. The majority of its people
continued to regard the pope as their religious head and to accept the
institutions under which their forefathers had lived since the times of
Theodosius. In general, those regions (except England) which had formed
a part of the Roman empire remained Roman Catholic in their belief. On
the other hand, northern Germany, a part of Switzerland, England,
Scotland, and the Scandinavian countries sooner or later rejected the
headship of the pope and many of the institutions and doctrines of the
mediæval Church, and organized new religious institutions. The
Protestants, as those who seceded from the Church of Rome were called,
by no means agreed among themselves what particular system should
replace the old one. They were at one, however, in ceasing to obey the
pope and in proposing to revert to the early Church as their model and
accepting the Bible as their sole guide.[262]
[Sidenote: Revolt against the mediæval Church implied a general
revolution.]
To revolt against the Church was to inaugurate a fundamental revolution
in many of the habits and customs of the people. It was not merely a
change of religious belief, for the Church permeated every occupation
and dominated every social interest. For centuries it had directed and
largely controlled education, high and low. Each and every important act
in the home, in the guild, in the town, was accompanied by religious
ceremonies. The clergy of the Roman Catholic Church had hitherto written
most of the books; they sat in the government assemblies, acted as the
rulers' most trusted ministers, constituted, in short, outside of Italy,
the only really educated class. Their rôle and the rôle of the Church
were incomparably more important than that of any church which exists
to-day.
[Sidenote: The wars of religion.]
Just as the mediæval Church was by no means an exclusively religious
institution, so the Protestant revolt was by no means simply a religious
change, but a social and political one as well. The conflicts which the
attempt to overthrow this institution, or rather social order, brought
about were necessarily terrific. They lasted for more than two centuries
and left no interest, public or private, social or individual, earthly
or heavenly, unaffected. Nation rose against nation, kingdom against
kingdom; households were divided among themselves; wars and commotion,
wrath and desolation, treachery and cruelty filled the states of western
Europe.
Our present object is to learn how this successful revolt came about,
what was its real nature, and why the results were what they were. In
order to do this, it is necessary to turn to the Germany in which Luther
lived and see how the nation had been prepared to sympathize with his
attack on the Church.
[Sidenote: Germany of to-day.]
134. To us to-day, Germany means the German Empire, one of the three or
four best organized and most powerful of the European states. It is a
compact federation, somewhat like that of the United States, made up of
twenty-two monarchies and three little city republics. Each member of
the union manages its local affairs, but leaves all questions of
national importance to be settled by the central government at Berlin.
This federation is, however, of very recent date, being scarcely more
than thirty years old.
[Sidenote: The 'Germanies' of the sixteenth century.]
In the time of Charles V there was no such Germany as this, but only
what the French called "the Germanies"; i.e., two or three hundred
states, which differed greatly from one another in size and character.
One had a duke, another a count at its head, while some were ruled over
by archbishops, bishops, or abbots. There were many cities, like
Nuremberg, Augsburg, Frankfort, and Cologne, which were just as
independent as the great duchies of Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Saxony.
Lastly there were the knights, whose possessions might consist of no
more than a single strong castle with a wretched village lying at its
foot. Their trifling territories must, however, be called states; for
some of the knights were at that time as sovereign and independent as
the elector of Brandenburg, who was one day to become the king of
Prussia, and long after, the emperor of Germany.
[Illustration: GERMANY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY]
[Sidenote: The seven electors and the other greater German princes.]
As for the emperor, he no longer had any power to control his vassals.
He could boast of unlimited pretensions and a great past, but he had
neither money nor soldiers. At the time of Luther's birth the
poverty-stricken Frederick III might have been seen picking up a free
meal at a monastery, or riding behind a slow but economical ox team. The
real power in Germany lay in the hands of the more important vassals.
First and foremost among these were the seven electors, so called
because, since the thirteenth century, they had enjoyed the right to
elect the emperor. Three of them were archbishops--kings in all but name
of considerable territories on the Rhine, namely, of the electorates of
Mayence, Treves, and Cologne.[263] Near them, to the south, was the
region ruled over by the elector of the Palatinate; to the northeast
were the territories of the electors of Brandenburg and of Saxony; the
king of Bohemia made the seventh of the group. Beside these states, the
dominions of other rulers scarcely less important than the electors
appear on the map. Some of these territories, like Würtemberg, Bavaria,
Hesse, and Baden, are familiar to us to-day as members of the present
German empire, but all of them have been much enlarged since the
sixteenth century by the absorption of the little states that formerly
lay within and about them.[264]
[Sidenote: The towns.]
The towns, which had grown up since the great economic revolution that
had brought in commerce and the use of money in the thirteenth century,
were centers of culture in the north of Europe, just as those of Italy
were in the south. Nuremberg, the most beautiful of the German cities,
still possesses a great part of the extraordinary buildings and works of
art which it produced in the sixteenth century. Some of the towns held
directly of the emperor, and were consequently independent of the
particular prince within whose territory they were situated. These were
called _free_, or _imperial_, cities and must be reckoned among the
states of Germany.
[Illustration: Wall of the formerly Free Town of Rothenburg]
[Sidenote: The knights.]
The knights, who ruled over the smallest of the German territories, had
once formed an important military class, but the invention of gunpowder
and of new methods of fighting had made their individual prowess of
little avail. As their tiny realms were often too small to support them,
they frequently turned to out-and-out robbery for a living. They hated
the cities because the prosperous burghers were able to live in a
luxurious comfort which the poor knights envied but could not imitate.
They hated the princes because these were anxious to incorporate into
their own territories the inconvenient little districts controlled by
the knights, many of whom, like the free cities, held directly of the
emperor, and were consequently practically independent.
[Sidenote: Complexity of the map of Germany.]
It would be no easy task to make a map of Germany in the time of Charles
V sufficiently detailed to show all the states and scattered fragments
of states. If, for example, the accompanying map were much larger and
indicated all the divisions, it would be seen that the territory of the
city of Ulm completely surrounded the microscopic possessions of a
certain knight, the lord of Eybach, and two districts belonging to the
abbot of Elchingen. On its borders lay the territories of four
knights,--the lords of Rechberg, Stotzingen, Erbach, and
Wiesensteig,--and of the abbots of Söflingen and Wiblingen, besides
portions of Würtemberg and outlying Austrian possessions. The main cause
of this bewildering subdivision of Germany was the habit of dealing with
a principality as if it were merely private property which might be
divided up among several children, or disposed of piecemeal, quite
regardless of the wishes of the inhabitants.
[Sidenote: No central power to maintain order.]
[Sidenote: Neighborhood war.]
It is clear that these states, little and big, all tangled up with one
another, would be sure to have disputes among themselves which would
have to be settled in some way. It would appear to have been absolutely
necessary under the circumstances that there should be some superior
court or judge to adjust differences between the many members of the
empire, as well as a military or police force to carry out the will of
the tribunal, should one of the parties concerned resist its decrees.
But although there was an imperial court, it followed the emperor about
and was therefore hard to get at. Moreover, even if a decision was
obtained from it, there was no way for the aggrieved party to secure
the execution of the judgment, for the emperor had no force sufficient
to coerce the larger states. The natural result was a resort to
self-help. Neighborhood war was permitted by law if only some courteous
preliminaries were observed. For instance, a prince or town was required
to give warning three days in advance before attacking another member of
the empire.[265]
[Sidenote: The German diet.]
[Sidenote: Effort to better the German government.]
Toward the end of the fifteenth century the terrible disorder and
uncertainty which resulted from the absence of a strong central
government led to serious efforts upon the part of the _diet_, or
national assembly, to remedy the evils. It was proposed to establish a
court to settle all disputes which should arise among the rulers of the
various states. This was to be held permanently in some convenient
place. The empire was also to be divided into districts, or "circles,"
in each of which a military force was to be organized and maintained to
carry out the law and the decisions of the court. Little was
accomplished, however, for some years, although the diet met more
frequently and regularly, and this gave an opportunity to discuss public
questions. The towns began to send delegates to the diet in 1487, but
the restless knights and some of the other minor nobles had no part in
the deliberations and did not always feel that the decisions of the
assembly were binding upon them. Of the diets which met almost every
year during the Lutheran period in some one of the great German cities,
we shall hear more later.
[Sidenote: Contradiction between Catholic and Protestant writers.]
135. It is natural that Protestant and Catholic writers should differ in
their views of Germany at this period. Among Protestants there has
always been a tendency to see the dark side of affairs, for this exalted
the work of Luther and made him appear the savior of his people. On the
other hand, the Catholic historians have devoted years of research to an
attempt to prove that conditions were, on the whole, happy and serene
and full of hope for the future before Luther and the other
revolutionary leaders brought division and ruin upon the fatherland by
attacking the Church.
[Sidenote: Corresponding contradictions in the conditions in Germany.]
As a matter of fact, the life and thought of Germany during the fifty
years preceding the opening of the Protestant revolt present all sorts
of contradictions and anomalies. The period was one of marked progress.
The people were eager to learn, and they rejoiced in the recent
invention of printing which brought them the new learning from Italy and
hints of another world beyond the seas. Foreigners who visited Germany
were astonished at the prosperity, wealth, and luxury of the rich
merchants, who often spent their money in the encouragement of art and
literature and in the founding of schools and libraries.
On the other hand, there was great ill feeling between the various
classes--the petty princes, the townspeople, the knights, and the
peasants. It was generally believed by the other classes that the wealth
of the merchants could only be accounted for by deceit, usury, and sharp
dealing. Never was begging more prevalent, superstition more rife,
vulgarity and coarseness more apparent. Attempts to reform the
government and stop neighborhood war met with little success. Moreover,
the Turks were advancing steadily upon Christendom. The people were
commanded by the pope to send up a prayer each day as the noon bell
rang, that God might deliver them from the on-coming infidel.
Yet we need not be astonished by these contradictions, for history
teaches that all periods of progress are full of them. Any newspaper
will show how true this is to-day: we are, as a nation, good and bad,
rich and poor, peaceful and warlike, learned and ignorant, satisfied and
discontented, civilized and barbarous, all at once.
[Sidenote: Four important characteristics of the time which serve to
explain the Protestant revolt.]
In considering the condition of the Church and of religion in Germany,
four things are particularly important as explaining the origin and
character of the Protestant revolt. First, there was an extraordinary
enthusiasm for all the pomp and ceremony of the old religion, and a
great confidence in pilgrimages, relics, miracles, and all those things
which the Protestants were soon to discard. Secondly, there was a
tendency to read the Bible and to dwell upon the attitude of the sinner
toward God, rather than upon the external acts of religion. Thirdly,
there was a conviction, especially among scholars, that the theologians
had made religion needlessly complicated with their fine-spun logical
distinctions. And lastly, there was the old and very general belief that
the Italian prelates, including the pope, were always inventing new
plans for getting money out of the Germans, whom they regarded as a
stupid people, easily hoodwinked. These four matters we shall consider
in turn.
[Sidenote: Enthusiasm for religious ceremonies and observances.]
136. Never had the many ceremonies and observances of the mediæval
Church attracted more attention or been carried out on a more prodigious
scale than during the latter part of the fifteenth, and the opening
years of the sixteenth century. It seemed as if all Germany agreed to
join in one last celebration of the old religion, unprecedented in
magnificence, before its people parted into two irreconcilable parties.
Great numbers of new churches were erected, and adorned with the richest
productions of German art. Tens of thousands of pilgrims flocked to the
various sacred places, and gorgeous ecclesiastical processions moved
through the streets of the prosperous imperial towns.
[Sidenote: Relics.]
The princes rivaled each other in collecting the relics of saints, which
were venerated as an aid to salvation. The elector of Saxony, Frederick
the Wise, who was later to become Luther's protector, had accumulated no
less than five thousand of these sacred objects. In a catalogue of them
we find the rod of Moses, a bit of the burning bush, thread spun by the
Virgin, etc. The elector of Mayence possessed even a larger collection,
which included forty-two whole bodies of saints and some of the earth
from a field near Damascus out of which God was supposed to have created
man.
[Sidenote: The treasury of 'good works.']
It was the teaching of the Church that prayers, fasts, masses,
pilgrimages, and other "good works" might be accumulated and form a
treasury of spiritual goods. Those who were wanting in good deeds might,
therefore, have their deficiencies offset by the inexhaustible surplus
of righteous deeds which had been created by Christ and the saints.
[Sidenote: Popular reliance upon outward religious acts.]
The idea was certainly a beautiful one, that Christians should thus be
able to help one another by their good works, and that the strong and
faithful worshiper could aid the weak and indifferent. Yet the
thoughtful teachers in the Church realized that the doctrine of the
treasury of good works might be gravely misunderstood; and there was
certainly a strong inclination among the people to believe that God
might be propitiated by various outward acts--attendance at church
ceremonies, giving of alms, the veneration of relics, the making of
pilgrimages, etc. It was clear that the hope of profiting by the good
works of others might lead to the neglect of the true welfare of the
soul.
[Sidenote: Demand for more spiritual religion.]
137. In spite, however, of the popular confidence in outward acts and
ceremonies, from which the heart was often absent, there were many signs
of a general longing for deeper and more spiritual religion than that of
which we have been speaking. The new art of printing was used to
increase the number of religious manuals. These all emphasized the
uselessness of outward acts without true contrition and sorrow for sin,
and urged the sinner to rely upon the love and forgiveness of God.
[Sidenote: The Bible in German before Luther.]
All good Christians were urged, moreover, to read the Bible, of which
there were a number of editions in German, besides little books in which
portions of the New Testament were given. There are many indications
that the Bible was commonly read before Luther's time.[266]
It was natural, therefore, that the German people should take a great
interest in the new and better translation of the Scriptures which
Luther prepared. Preaching had also become common--as common perhaps as
it is now--before the Protestants appeared. Some towns even engaged
special preachers of known eloquence to address their citizens
regularly.
These facts would seem to justify the conclusion that there were many
before Luther appeared who were approaching the ideas of religion which
later appealed especially to the Protestants. The insistence of the
Protestants upon salvation through faith alone in God, their suspicion
of ceremonies and "good works," their reliance upon the Bible, and the
stress they laid upon preaching,--all these were to be found in Germany
and elsewhere before Luther began to preach.
[Sidenote: The German humanists.]
[Sidenote: Rudolph Agricola, 1442-1485.]
138. Among the critics of the churchmen, monks, and theologians, none
were more conspicuous than the humanists. The Renaissance in Italy,
which may be said to have begun with Petrarch and his library, has
already been described. The Petrarch of Germany was Rudolph Agricola,
who, while not absolutely the first German to dedicate himself to
classical studies, was the first who by his charming personality and
varied accomplishments stimulated others, as Petrarch had done, to carry
on the pursuits which he himself so much enjoyed. Unlike most of the
Italian humanists, however, Agricola and his followers were interested
in the language of the people as well as in Latin and Greek; and
proposed that the works of antiquity should be translated into German.
Moreover, the German humanists were generally far more serious and
devout than the Italian scholars.
[Sidenote: The humanists desire to reform the German universities.]
As the humanists increased in numbers and confidence they began to
criticise the excessive attention given in the German universities[267]
to logic and the scholastic theology. These studies had lost their
earlier vitality[268] and had degenerated into fruitless disputations.
The bad Latin which the professors used themselves and taught their
students, and the preference still given to Aristotle over all other
ancient writers, disgusted the humanists. They therefore undertook to
prepare new and better text-books, and proposed that the study of the
Greek and Roman poets and orators should be introduced into the schools
and colleges. Some of the classical scholars were for doing away with
theology altogether, as a vain, monkish study which only obscured the
great truths of religion. The old-fashioned professors, on their part,
naturally denounced the new learning, which they declared made pagans of
those who became enamored of it. Sometimes the humanists were permitted
to teach their favorite subjects in the universities, but as time went
on it became clear that the old and the new teachers could not work
amicably side by side.
[Sidenote: The humanist satire on the monks and theologians, the
so-called _Letters of Obscure Men_.]
At last, a little before Luther's public appearance, a conflict occurred
between the "poets," as the humanists were fond of calling themselves,
and the "barbarians," as they called the theologians and monkish
writers. An eminent Hebrew scholar, Reuchlin, had become involved in a
bitter controversy with the Dominican professors of the University of
Cologne. His cause was championed by the humanists, who prepared an
extraordinary satire upon their opponents. They wrote a series of
letters, which were addressed to one of the Cologne professors and
purported to be from his former students and admirers. In these letters
the writers take pains to exhibit the most shocking ignorance and
stupidity. They narrate their scandalous doings with the ostensible
purpose of obtaining advice as to the best way to get out of their
scrapes. They vituperate the humanists in comically bad Latin, which is
perhaps the best part of the joke.[269] In this way those who later
opposed Luther and his reforms were held up to ridicule in these letters
and their opposition to progress seemed clearly made out.
[Sidenote: Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1467?-1536.]
139. The acknowledged prince of the humanists was Erasmus. No other man
of letters, unless it be Voltaire, has ever enjoyed such a European
reputation during his lifetime. He was venerated by scholars far and
wide, even in Spain and Italy. Although he was born in Rotterdam he was
not a Dutchman, but a citizen of the world; he is, in fact, claimed by
England, France, and Germany. He lived in each of these countries for a
considerable period and in each he left his mark on the thought of the
time. Erasmus, like most of the northern humanists, was deeply
interested in religious reform, and he aspired to give the world a
higher conception of religion and the Church than that which generally
prevailed. He clearly perceived, as did all the other intelligent people
of the time, the vices of the prelates, priests, and especially of the
monks. Against the latter he had a personal grudge, for he had been
forced into a monastery when he was a boy, and always looked back to the
life there with disgust. Erasmus reached the height of his fame just
before the public appearance of Luther; consequently his writings afford
an admirable means of determining how he and his innumerable admirers
felt about the Church and the clergy before the opening of the great
revolt.
[Sidenote: Erasmus' edition of the New Testament.]
Erasmus spent some time in England between the years 1498 and 1506, and
made friends of the scholars there. He was especially fond of Sir Thomas
More, who wrote the famous _Utopia_, and of a young man, John Colet, who
was lecturing at Oxford upon the Epistles of St. Paul.[270] Colet's
enthusiasm for Paul appears to have led Erasmus to direct his vast
knowledge of the ancient languages to the explanation of the New
Testament. This was only known in the common Latin version (the
Vulgate), into which many mistakes and misapprehensions had crept.
Erasmus felt that the first thing to do, in order to promote higher
ideas of Christianity, was to purify the sources of the faith by
preparing a correct edition of the New Testament. Accordingly, in 1516,
he published the original Greek text with a new Latin translation and
explanations which mercilessly exposed the mistakes of the great body of
theologians.
[Illustration: Portrait of Erasmus by Holbein]
Erasmus would have had the Bible in the hands of every one. In the
introduction to his edition of the New Testament he says that women
should read the Gospels and the Epistles of Paul as well as the men.
The peasant in the field, the artisan in his shop, and the traveler on
the highroad should while away the time with passages from the Bible.
[Sidenote: Erasmus' idea of true religion.]
Erasmus believed that the two arch enemies of true religion were (1)
paganism,--into which many of the more enthusiastic Italian humanists
fell in their admiration for the ancient literatures,--and (2) the
popular confidence in mere outward acts and ceremonies, like visiting
the graves of saints, the mechanical repetition of prayers, and so
forth. He claimed that the Church had become careless and had permitted
the simple teachings of Christ to be buried under myriads of dogmas
introduced by the theologians. "The essence of our religion," he says,
"is peace and harmony. These can only exist where there are few dogmas
and each individual is left to form his own opinion upon many matters."
[Sidenote: In his _Praise of Folly_ Erasmus attacks the evils in the
Church.]
In his celebrated _Praise of Folly_,[271] Erasmus has much to say of the
weaknesses of the monks and theologians, and of the foolish people who
thought that religion consisted simply in pilgrimages, the worship of
relics, and the procuring of indulgences. Scarcely one of the abuses
which Luther later attacked escaped Erasmus' satirical pen. The book is
a mixture of the lightest humor and the bitterest earnestness. As one
turns its pages one is sometimes tempted to think Luther half right when
he declared Erasmus "a regular jester who makes sport of everything,
even of religion and Christ himself." Yet there was in this humorist a
deep seriousness that cannot be ignored. Erasmus was really directing
his extraordinary industry, knowledge, and insight, not toward a revival
of classical literature, but to _a renaissance of Christianity_. He
believed, however, that revolt from the pope and the Church would
produce a great disturbance and result in more harm than good. He
preferred to trust in the slower but surer effects of enlightenment and
knowledge. Popular superstitions and any undue regard for the outward
forms of religion would, he argued, be outgrown and quietly disappear as
mankind became more cultivated.
To Erasmus and his many sympathizers, culture, promoted especially by
classical studies, should be the chief agency in religious reform.
Nevertheless, just as Erasmus thought that his dreams of a peaceful
reform were to be realized, as he saw the friends and patrons of
literature,--Maximilian, Henry VIII, Francis I,--on the thrones of
Europe, and a humanist pope, Leo X, at the head of the Church, a very
different revolution from that which he had planned, had begun and was
to embitter his declining years.
[Sidenote: Sources of discontent in Germany with the policy of the papal
court.]
140. The grudge of Germany against the papal court never found a more
eloquent expression than in the verses of its greatest minnesinger,
Walther von der Vogelweide. Three hundred years before Luther's time he
declared that the pope was making merry over the stupid Germans. "All
their goods will be mine, their silver is flowing into my far-away
chest; their priests are living on poultry and wine and leaving the
silly layman to fast." Similar sentiments may be found in the German
writers of all the following generations. Every one of the sources of
discontent with the financial administration of the Church which the
councils had tried to correct[272] was particularly apparent in Germany.
The great German prelates, like the archbishops of Mayence, Treves,
Cologne, and Salzburg, were each required to contribute no less than ten
thousand gold guldens to the papal treasury upon having their election
duly confirmed by the pope; and many thousands more were expected from
them when they received the pallium.[273] The pope enjoyed the right to
fill many important benefices in Germany, and frequently appointed
Italians, who drew the revenue without dreaming of performing any of the
duties attached to the office. A single person frequently held several
church offices. For example, early in the sixteenth century, the
Archbishop of Mayence was at the same time Archbishop of Magdeburg and
Bishop of Halberstadt. In some instances a single person had accumulated
over a score of benefices.
It is impossible to exaggerate the impression of deep and widespread
discontent with the condition of the Church which one meets in the
writings of the early sixteenth century. The whole German people, from
the rulers down to the humblest tiller of the fields, felt themselves
unjustly used. The clergy were denounced as both immoral and
inefficient. One devout writer exclaims that young men are considered
quite good enough to be priests to whom one would not intrust the care
of a cow. While the begging friars--the Franciscans, Dominicans, and
Augustinians[274]--were scorned by many, they, rather than the secular
clergy, appear to have carried on the real religious work. It was an
Augustinian monk, we shall find, who preached the new gospel of
justification by faith.
Very few indeed thought of withdrawing from the Church or of attempting
to destroy the power of the pope. All that most of the Germans wished
was that the money which, on one pretense or another, flowed toward Rome
should be kept at home, and that the clergy should be upright, earnest
men who should conscientiously perform their religious duties. One
patriotic writer, however, Ulrich von Hutten, was preaching something
very like revolution at the same time that Luther began his attack on
the pope.
[Sidenote: Ulrich von Hutten, 1488-1523.]
Hutten was the son of a poor knight, but early tired of the monotonous
life of the castle and determined to seek the universities and acquaint
himself with the ancient literatures, of which so much was being said.
In order to carry on his studies he visited Italy and there formed a
most unfavorable impression of the papal court and of the Italian
churchmen, whom he believed to be oppressing his beloved fatherland.
When the _Letters of Obscure Men_ appeared, he was so delighted with
them that he prepared a supplementary series in which he freely
satirized the theologians. Soon he began to write in German as well as
in Latin, in order the more readily to reach the ears of the people. In
one of his pamphlets attacking the popes he explains that he has himself
seen how Leo X spends the money which the Germans send him. A part goes
to his relatives, a part to maintain the luxurious papal court, and a
part to worthless companions and attendants, whose lives would shock any
honest Christian.
In Germany, of all the countries of Europe, conditions were such that
Luther's appearance wrought like an electric shock throughout the
nation, leaving no class unaffected. Throughout the land there was
discontent and a yearning for betterment. Very various, to be sure, were
the particular longings of the prince and the scholar, of knight,
burgher, and peasant; but almost all were ready to consider, at least,
the teachings of one who presented to them a new conception of salvation
which made the old Church superfluous.
General Reading.--The most complete account of the conditions in
Germany before Luther is to be found in JANSSEN, _History of the
German People_ (Herder, Vols. I and II, $6.25). _Cambridge Modern
History_ (The Macmillan Company, $3.75 per vol.), Vol. I, Chapters
IX and XIX; CREIGHTON, _History of the Papacy_ (see Vol. I, p.
320), Vol. VI, Chapters I and II; and BEARD, _Martin Luther_ (P.
Green, London, $1.60), Chapters I and III, are excellent treatments
of the subject. For Erasmus, see EMERTON'S charming _Desiderius
Erasmus_ (G.P. Putnam's Sons, $1.50), which gives a considerable
number of his letters.