MARTIN LUTHER AND HIS REVOLT AGAINST THE CHURCH
[Sidenote: Luther's birth and education.]
141. Martin Luther was of peasant origin. His father was very poor, and
was trying his fortune as a miner near the Harz Mountains when his
eldest son, Martin, was born in 1483. Martin sometimes spoke, in later
life, of the poverty and superstition which surrounded him in his
childhood; of how his mother carried on her back the wood for the
household and told him stories of a witch who had made away with the
village priest. The boy was sent early to school, for his father was
determined that his eldest son should be a lawyer. At eighteen, Martin
entered the greatest of the north-German universities, at Erfurt, where
he spent four years. There he became acquainted with some of the young
humanists, for example, the one who is supposed to have written a great
part of the _Letters of Obscure Men_. He was interested in the various
classical writers, but devoted the usual attention to logic and
Aristotle.
[Sidenote: Luther decides to become a monk.]
Suddenly, when he had completed his college course and was ready to
enter the law school, he called his friends together for one last hour
of pleasure, and the next morning he led them to the gate of an
Augustinian monastery, where he bade them farewell and turning his back
on the world became a mendicant friar. That day, July 17, 1505, when the
young master of arts, regardless of his father's anger and
disappointment, sought salvation within the walls of a monastery, was
the beginning of a religious experiment which had momentous consequences
for the world.
[Sidenote: Luther's disappointment in the monastery.]
Luther later declared that "if ever a monk got to heaven through
monkery," he was assuredly among those who merited salvation. So great
was his ardor, so nervously anxious was he to save his soul by the
commonly recognized means of fasts, vigils, prolonged prayers, and a
constant disregard of the usual rules of health, that he soon could no
longer sleep. He fell into despondency, and finally into despair. The
ordinary observance of the rules of the monastery, which satisfied most
of the monks, failed to give him peace. He felt that even if he
outwardly did right he could never purify all his thoughts and desires.
His experience led him to conclude that neither the Church nor the
monastery provided any device which enabled him to keep his affections
always centered on what he knew to be holy and right. Therefore they
seemed to him to fail and to leave him, at heart, a hopelessly corrupt
sinner, justly under God's condemnation.
[Sidenote: Justification by faith, not through 'good works.']
Gradually a new view of Christianity came to him. The head of the
monastery bade him trust in God's goodness and mercy and not to rely
upon his own "good works." He began to study the writings of St. Paul
and of Augustine, and from them was led to conclude that man was
incapable, in the sight of God, of any good works whatsoever, and could
only be saved by faith in God's promises. This gave him much comfort,
but it took him years to clarify his ideas and to reach the conclusion
that the existing Church was opposed to the idea of justification by
faith, because it fostered what seemed to him a delusive confidence in
"good works." He was thirty-seven years old before he finally became
convinced that it was his duty to become the leader in the destruction
of the old order.
[Sidenote: Luther becomes a teacher in the University of Wittenberg,
1508.]
It was no new thing for a young monk, suddenly cut off from the sunshine
and hoping for speedy spiritual peace, to suffer disappointment and fall
into gloomy forebodings, as did Brother Martin. He, however, having
fought the battle through to victory, was soon placed in a position to
bring comfort to others similarly afflicted with doubts as to their
power to please God. In 1508 he was called to the new university which
Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, had established at Wittenberg. We
know little of his early years as a professor, but he soon began to
lecture on the epistles of Paul and to teach his students the doctrine
of justification by faith.
[Illustration: Luther]
[Sidenote: Luther's visit to Rome.]
Luther had as yet no idea of attacking the Church. When, about 1511, he
journeyed to Rome on business of his order, he devoutly visited all the
holy places for the good of his soul, and was almost tempted to wish
that his father and mother were dead, so that he might free them from
purgatory by his pious observances. Yet he was shocked by the impiety of
the Italian churchmen and the scandalous stories about popes Alexander
VI and Julius II, the latter of whom was just then engaged in his
warlike expeditions into northern Italy. The evidences of immorality on
the part of the popes may well have made it easier for him later to
reach the conclusion that the head of the Church was the chief enemy of
religion.
[Sidenote: Luther teaches a new kind of theology.]
Before long he began to encourage his students to defend his favorite
beliefs in the debates in which they took part. For instance, one of the
candidates for a degree, under Luther's inspiration, attacked the old
theology against which the humanists had been fighting. "It is an
error," he says, "to declare that no one can become a theologian without
Aristotle; on the contrary, no one can become a theologian except it be
without him." Luther desired the students to rely upon the Bible,
Paul's writings above all, and upon the church fathers, especially
Augustine.[275]
[Sidenote: Luther's theses on indulgences.]
142. In October, 1517, Tetzel, a Dominican monk, began granting
indulgences in the neighborhood of Wittenberg, and making claims for
them which appeared to Luther wholly irreconcilable with the deepest
truths of Christianity as he understood and taught them. He therefore,
in accordance with the custom of the time, wrote out a series of
ninety-five statements in regard to indulgences. These he posted on the
church door and invited any one interested in the matter to enter into a
discussion with him on the subject, which he believed was very ill
understood. In posting these _theses_, as they were called, Luther did
not intend to attack the Church, and had no expectation of creating a
sensation. The theses were in Latin and addressed only to scholars. It
turned out, however, that every one, high and low, learned and
unlearned, was ready to discuss the perplexing theme of the nature of
indulgences. The theses were promptly translated into German, printed,
and scattered throughout the land.
[Sidenote: The nature of indulgences.]
In order to understand the indulgence, it must be remembered that the
priest had the right to forgive the sin of the truly contrite sinner who
had duly confessed his evil deeds.[276] Absolution freed the sinner from
the deadly guilt which would otherwise have dragged him down to hell,
but it did not free him from the penalties which God, or his
representative, the priest, might choose to impose upon him. Serious
penances had earlier been imposed by the Church for wrongdoing, but in
Luther's time the sinner who had been absolved was chiefly afraid of the
sufferings reserved for him in purgatory. It was there that his soul
would be purified by suffering and prepared for heaven. The indulgence
was a pardon, usually granted by the pope, through which the contrite
sinner escaped a part, or all, of the punishment which remained even
after he had been absolved. The pardon did not therefore forgive the
guilt of the sinner, for that had necessarily to be removed before the
indulgence was granted; it only removed or mitigated the penalties which
even the forgiven sinner would, without the indulgence, have expected to
undergo in purgatory.[277]
The first indulgences for the _dead_ had been granted shortly before the
time of Luther's birth. By securing one of these, the relatives or
friends of those in purgatory might reduce the period of torment which
the sufferers had to undergo before they could be admitted to heaven.
Those who were in purgatory had, of course, been duly absolved of the
guilt of their sins before their death; otherwise their souls would have
been lost and the indulgence could not advantage them in any way.
[Sidenote: Leo X issues indulgences in connection with the rebuilding of
St. Peter's.]
With a view of obtaining funds from the Germans to continue the
reconstruction of the great church of St. Peter,[278] Leo X had arranged
for the extensive grant of indulgences, both for the living and for the
dead. The contribution for them varied greatly; the rich were required
to pay a considerable sum, while the _very_ poor were to receive these
pardons gratis. The representatives of the pope were naturally anxious
to collect all the money possible, and did their best to induce every
one to secure an indulgence, either for himself or for his deceased
friends in purgatory. In their zeal they made many reckless claims for
the indulgences, to which no thoughtful churchman or even layman could
listen without misgivings.
[Sidenote: Contents of Luther's theses.]
Luther was not the first to criticise the current notions of
indulgences, but his theses, owing to the vigor of their language and
the existing irritation of the Germans against the administration of the
Church, first brought the subject into prominence. He declared that the
indulgence was very unimportant and that the poor man would better spend
his money for the needs of his household. The truly repentant, he
argued, do not flee punishment, but bear it willingly in sign of their
sorrow. Faith in God, not the procuring of pardons, brings forgiveness,
and every Christian who feels true contrition for his sins will receive
full remission of the punishment as well as of the guilt. Could the pope
know how his agents misled the people, he would rather have St. Peter's
burn to ashes than build it up with money gained under false pretenses.
Then, Luther adds, there is danger that the common man will ask awkward
questions. For example, "If the pope releases souls from purgatory for
money, why not for charity's sake?" or, "Since the pope is rich as
Crœsus, why does he not build St. Peter's with his own money, instead
of taking that of the poor man?"[279]
[Sidenote: Luther summoned to Rome.]
143. The theses were soon forwarded to Rome, and a few months after they
were posted Luther received a summons to appear at the papal court to
answer for his heretical assertions. Luther still respected the pope as
the head of the Church, but he had no wish to risk his safety by going
to Rome. As Leo X was anxious not to offend so important a person as the
elector of Saxony, who intervened for Luther, he did not press the
matter, and agreed that Luther should confer with the papal emissaries
in Germany.
[Sidenote: The discussion continues.]
Brother Martin was induced to keep silence for a time, but was aroused
again by a great debate arranged at Leipsic in the summer of 1519. Here
Eck, a German theologian noted for his devotion to the pope and his
great skill in debate, challenged one of Luther's colleagues, Carlstadt,
to discuss publicly some of the matters in which Luther himself was
especially interested. Luther therefore asked to be permitted to take
part.
[Sidenote: The debate at Leipsic, 1519.]
The discussion turned upon the powers of the pope. Luther, who had been
reading church history, declared that the pope had not enjoyed his
supremacy for more than four hundred years. This statement was
inaccurate, but, nevertheless, he had hit upon an argument against the
customs of the Roman Catholic Church which has ever since been
constantly urged by Protestants. They assert that the mediæval Church
and the papacy developed slowly, and that the apostles knew nothing of
masses, indulgences, purgatory, and the headship of the Bishop of Rome.
[Sidenote: Eck forces Luther to admit that the Council of Constance was
wrong and Huss right.]
Eck promptly pointed out that Luther's views resembled those of Wycliffe
and Huss, which had been condemned by the Council of Constance. Luther
was forced reluctantly to admit that the council had condemned some
thoroughly Christian teachings. This was a decisive admission. Like
other Germans, Luther had been accustomed to abhor Huss and the
Bohemians, and to regard with pride the great general Council of
Constance, which had been held in Germany and under the auspices of its
emperor. He now admitted that even a general council could err, and was
soon convinced "that we are all Hussites, without knowing it; yes, Paul
and St. Augustine were good Hussites." Luther's public encounter with a
disputant of European reputation, and the startling admissions which he
was compelled to make, first made him realize that he might become the
leader in an attack on the Church. He began to see that a great change
and upheaval was unavoidable.
[Sidenote: Luther and the humanists natural allies.]
144. As Luther became a confessed revolutionist he began to find friends
among other revolutionists and reformers. He had some ardent admirers
even before the disputation at Leipsic, especially at Wittenberg and in
the great city of Nuremberg. To the humanists, Luther seemed a natural
ally. They might not understand his religious beliefs, but they clearly
saw that he was beginning to attack a class of people that they
disliked, particularly the old-fashioned theologians who venerated
Aristotle. He felt, moreover, as they did in regard to the many vices in
the Church, and was becoming suspicious of the begging monks, although
he was himself at the head of the Wittenberg monastery. So those who had
defended Reuchlin were now ready to support Luther, to whom they wrote
encouraging letters. Luther's works were published by Erasmus' printer
at Basel, and sent to Italy, France, England, and Spain.
[Sidenote: Erasmus' attitude toward the Lutheran movement.]
But Erasmus, the mighty sovereign of the men of letters, refused to take
sides in the controversy. He asserted that he had not read more than a
dozen pages of Luther's writings. Although he admitted that "the
monarchy of the Roman high priest was, in its existing condition, the
pest of Christendom," he believed that a direct attack upon it would do
no good. Luther, he urged, would better be discreet and trust that
mankind would become more intelligent and outgrow their false ideas.
[Sidenote: Contrast between Luther and Erasmus.]
To Erasmus, man was capable of progress; cultivate him and extend his
knowledge, and he would grow better and better. He was a free agent,
with, on the whole, upright tendencies. To Luther, on the other hand,
man was utterly corrupt, and incapable of a single righteous wish or
deed. His will was enslaved to evil, and his only hope lay in the
recognition of his absolute inability to better himself, and in a humble
reliance upon God's mercy. By faith only, not by conduct, could he be
saved. Erasmus was willing to wait until every one agreed that the
Church should be reformed. Luther had no patience with an institution
which seemed to him to be leading souls to destruction by inducing men
to rely upon their good works. Both men realized that they could not
agree. For a time they expressed respect for each other, but at last
they became involved in a bitter controversy in which they gave up all
pretense to friendship. Erasmus declared that Luther, by scorning good
works and declaring that no one could do right, had made his followers
indifferent to their conduct, and that those who accepted Luther's
teachings straightway became pert, rude fellows, who would not take off
their hats to him on the street.
[Sidenote: Ulrich von Hutten espouses Luther's cause.]
Ulrich von Hutten, on the other hand, warmly espoused Luther's cause as
that of a German patriot and an opponent of Roman tyranny, intrigue, and
oppression. "Let us defend our freedom," he wrote, "and liberate the
long enslaved fatherland. We have God on our side, and if God be with
us, who can be against us?" Hutten enlisted the interest of some of the
other knights, who offered to defend Luther should the churchmen attack
him, and invited him to take refuge in their castles.
[Sidenote: Luther begins to use violent language.]
145. Thus encouraged, Luther, who gave way at times to his naturally
violent disposition, became threatening, and suggested that the civil
power should punish the churchmen and force them to reform their
conduct. "We punish thieves with the gallows, bandits with the sword,
heretics with fire; why should we not, with far greater propriety,
attack with every kind of weapon these very masters of perdition, the
cardinals, popes, and the whole mob in the Roman Sodom?" "The die is
cast," he writes to a friend; "I despise Rome's wrath as I do her favor;
I will have no reconciliation or intercourse with her in all time to
come. Let her condemn and burn my writings. I will, if fire can be
found, publicly condemn and burn the whole papal law."
[Sidenote: Luther's and Hutten's appeal to the German people.]
[Sidenote: Luther's _Address to the German Nobility_.]
Hutten and Luther vied with one another during the year 1520 in
attacking the pope and his representatives. They both possessed a fine
command of the German language, and they were fired by a common hatred
of Rome. Hutten had little or none of Luther's religious fervor, but he
could not find colors too dark in which to picture to his countrymen
the greed of the papal curia, which he described as a vast den, to which
everything was dragged which could be filched from the Germans. Of
Luther's popular pamphlets, the first really famous one was his _Address
to the German Nobility_, in which he calls upon the rulers of Germany,
especially the knights, to reform the abuses themselves, since he
believed that it was vain to wait for the Church to do so.
He explains that there are three walls behind which the papacy had been
wont to take refuge when any one proposed to remedy its abuses. There
was, first, the claim that the clergy formed a separate class, superior
even to the civil rulers, who might not punish a churchman, no matter
how bad he was. Secondly, the pope claimed to be superior to a council,
so that even the representatives of the Church might not correct him.
And, lastly, the pope assumed the sole right to interpret the meaning of
the Scriptures; consequently he could not be refuted by arguments from
the Bible. Thus the pope had stolen the three rods with which he might
have been punished. Luther claimed to cast down these defenses by
denying, to begin with, that there was anything especially sacred about
a clergyman except the duties which he had been designated to perform.
If he did not attend to his work he might be deprived of his office at
any moment, just as one would turn off an incompetent tailor or farmer,
and in that case he became a simple layman again. Luther claimed that it
was the right and duty of the civil government to punish a churchman who
does wrong just as if he were the humblest layman. When this first wall
was destroyed the others would fall easily enough, for the dominant
position of the clergy was the very corner stone of the mediæval
Church.[280]
[Sidenote: Luther advocates social as well as religious reforms.]
The pamphlet closes with a long list of evils which must be done away
with before Germany can become prosperous. Luther saw that his view of
religion really implied a social revolution. He advocated reducing the
monasteries to a tenth of their number and permitting those who were
disappointed in the good they got from living in them freely to leave.
He would not have them prisons, but hospitals and refuges for the
soul-sick. He points out the evils of pilgrimages and of the numerous
church holidays, which interfere with daily work. The clergy, he urged,
should be permitted to marry and have families like other citizens. The
universities should be reformed, and "the accursed heathen, Aristotle,"
should be cast out from them.
It should be noted that Luther appeals to the authorities not in the
name of religion chiefly, but in that of public order and prosperity. He
says that the money of the Germans flies feather-light over the Alps to
Italy, but it suddenly becomes like lead when there is a question of its
coming back. He showed himself a master of vigorous language, and his
denunciations of the clergy and the Church resounded like a trumpet call
in the ears of his countrymen.
[Sidenote: Luther attacks the sacramental system in his _Babylonian
Captivity of the Church_, 1520.]
Luther had said little of the doctrines of the Church in his _Address to
the German Nobility_, but within three or four months he issued a second
work, in which he sought to overthrow the whole system of the
sacraments, as it had been taught by Peter Lombard and the theologians
of the thirteenth century.[281] Four of the seven
sacraments--ordination, marriage, confirmation, and extreme unction--he
rejected altogether. He completely revised the conception of the Mass,
or the Lord's Supper. He stripped the priest of his singular powers by
denying that he performed the miracle of transubstantiation or offered
a sacrifice for the living and the dead when he officiated at the Lord's
Supper. The priest was, in his eyes, only a minister, in the Protestant
sense of the word, one of whose chief functions was preaching.
[Sidenote: Luther excommunicated.]
146. Luther had long expected to be excommunicated. But it was not until
late in 1520 that his adversary, Eck, arrived in Germany with a papal
bull condemning many of Luther's assertions as heretical and giving him
sixty days in which to recant. Should he fail to come to himself within
that time, he and all who adhered to or favored him were to be
excommunicated, and any place which harbored him should fall under the
interdict. Now, since the highest power in Christendom had pronounced
Luther a heretic, he should unhesitatingly have been delivered up by the
German authorities. But no one thought of arresting him.
[Sidenote: The German authorities reluctant to publish the bull against
Luther.]
The bull irritated the German princes; whether they liked Luther or not,
they decidedly disliked to have the pope issuing commands to them. Then
it appeared to them very unfair that Luther's personal enemy should have
been intrusted with the publication of the bull. Even the princes and
universities that were most friendly to the pope published the bull with
great reluctance. The students of Erfurt and Leipsic pursued Eck with
pointed allusions to Pharisees and devil's emissaries. In many cases the
bull was ignored altogether. Luther's own sovereign, the elector of
Saxony, while no convert to the new views, was anxious that Luther's
case should be fairly considered, and continued to protect him. One
mighty prince, however, the young emperor Charles V, promptly and
willingly published the bull; not, however, as emperor, but as ruler of
the Austrian dominions and of the Netherlands. Luther's works were
burned at Louvain, Mayence, and Cologne, the strongholds of the old
theology.
[Sidenote: Luther defies pope and emperor.]
"Hard it is," Luther exclaimed, "to be forced to contradict all the
prelates and princes, but there is no other way to escape hell and
God's anger." Never had one man so unreservedly declared war upon pretty
much the whole consecrated order of things. As one power arrayed against
an equal, the Wittenberg professor opposed himself to pope and emperor,
giving back curse for curse and fagot for fagot. His students were
summoned to witness "the pious, religious spectacle," when he cast Leo's
bull on the fire, along with the canon law and one of the books of
scholastic theology which he most disliked.
[Sidenote: Hutten's plan for an immediate destruction of the old
Church.]
Never was the temptation so great for Luther to encourage a violent
demolition of the old structure of the Church as at this time. Hutten
was bent upon the speedy carrying out of the revolution which both he
and Luther were forwarding by their powerful writings. Hutten had taken
refuge in the castle of the leader of the German knights, Franz von
Sickingen, who he believed would be an admirable military commander in
the coming contest for truth and liberty. Hutten frankly proposed to the
young emperor that the papacy should be abolished, that the property of
the Church should be confiscated, and that ninety-nine out of a hundred
of the clergy should be dispensed with as superfluous. In this way
Germany would be freed, he argued, from the control of the "parsons" and
from their corruption. From the vast proceeds of the confiscation the
state might be strengthened and an army of knights might be maintained
for the defense of the empire.
[Sidenote: Views of the papal representative on public opinion in
Germany.]
Public opinion appeared ready for a revolution. "I am pretty familiar
with the history of this German nation," Leo's representative, Aleander,
remarked; "I know their past heresies, councils, and schisms, but never
were affairs so serious before. Compared with present conditions, the
struggle between Henry IV and Gregory VII was as violets and roses....
These mad dogs are now well equipped with knowledge and arms; they boast
that they are no longer ignorant brutes like their predecessors; they
claim that Italy has lost the monopoly of the sciences and that the
Tiber now flows into the Rhine." "Nine-tenths of the Germans," he
calculated, "are shouting 'Luther,' and the other tenth goes so far at
least as 'Death to the Roman curia.'"
[Sidenote: Luther's attitude toward a violent realization of his
reforms.]
Luther was too frequently reckless and violent in his writings. He often
said that bloodshed could not be avoided when it should please God to
visit his judgments upon the stiff-necked and perverse generation of
"Romanists," as the Germans contemptuously called the supporters of the
pope. Yet he always discouraged precipitate reform. He was reluctant to
make changes, except in belief. He held that so long as an institution
did not mislead, it did no harm. He was, in short, no fanatic at heart.
The pope had established himself without force, so would he be crushed
by God's word without force. This, we may assume, was Luther's most
profound conviction, even in the first period of enthusiasm and
confidence. He perhaps never fully realized how different Hutten's ideas
were from his own, for the poet knight died while still a young man. And
as for Franz von Sickingen, Luther soon learned to execrate the
ruthless, worldly soldier who brought discredit by his violence upon the
cause of reform.
[Sidenote: Charles V's want of sympathy with the German reformers.]
147. Among the enemies of the German reformers none was more important
than the young emperor. It was toward the end of the year 1520 that
Charles came to Germany for the first time. After being crowned king of
the Romans at Aix-la-Chapelle, he assumed, with the pope's consent, the
title of emperor elect, as his grandfather Maximilian had done. He then
moved on to the town of Worms, where he was to hold his first diet and
face the German situation.
Although scarcely more than a boy in years, Charles had already begun to
take life very seriously. He had decided that Spain, not Germany, was to
be the bulwark and citadel of all his realms. Like the more enlightened
of his Spanish subjects, he realized the need of reforming the Church,
but he had no sympathy whatever with any change of doctrine. He
proposed to live and die a devout Catholic of the old type, such as his
orthodox ancestors had been. He felt, moreover, that he must maintain
the same religion in all parts of his heterogeneous dominions. If he
should permit the Germans to declare their independence of the Church,
the next step would be for them to claim that they had a right to
regulate their government regardless of their emperor.
[Sidenote: Luther summoned to the diet at Worms.]
Upon arriving at Worms the case of Luther was at once forced upon
Charles' attention by the assiduous papal representative, Aleander, who
was indefatigable in urging him to outlaw the heretic without further
delay. While Charles seemed convinced of Luther's guilt, he could not
proceed against him without serious danger. The monk had become a
national hero and had the support of the powerful elector of Saxony.
Other princes, who had ordinarily no wish to protect a heretic, felt
that Luther's denunciation of the evils in the Church and of the actions
of the pope was very gratifying. After much discussion it was finally
arranged, to the great disgust of the zealous Aleander, that Luther
should be summoned to Worms and be given an opportunity to face the
German nation and the emperor, and to declare plainly whether he was the
author of the heretical books ascribed to him, and whether he still
adhered to the doctrines which the pope had declared wrong.
The emperor accordingly wrote the "honorable and respected" Luther a
very polite letter, ordering him to appear at Worms and granting him a
safe-conduct thither. Luther said, on receiving the summons, that if he
was going to Worms merely to retract, he might better stay in
Wittenberg, where he could, if he would, abjure his errors quite as well
as on the Rhine. If, on the other hand, the emperor wished him to come
to Worms in order that he might be put to death, he was quite ready to
go, "for, with Christ's help, I will not flee and leave the Word in the
lurch. My revocation will be in this wise: 'Earlier I said that the
pope was God's vicar; now I revoke and say, the pope is Christ's enemy
and an envoy of the devil.'"
148. Luther accordingly set out for Worms accompanied by the imperial
herald. He enjoyed a triumphal progress through the various places on
his way and preached repeatedly, in spite of the fact that he was an
excommunicated heretic. He found the diet in a great state of commotion.
The papal representative was the object of daily insults, and Hutten and
Sickingen talked of scattering Luther's enemies by a sally from the
neighboring castle of Ebernburg.
[Sidenote: Luther before the diet.]
It was not proposed to give Luther an opportunity to defend his beliefs
before the diet. When he appeared before "emperor and empire," he was
simply asked if a pile of his Latin and German works were really his,
and, if so, whether he revoked what he had said in them. To the first
question the monk replied in a low voice that he had written these and
more. As to the second question, which involved the welfare of the soul
and the Word of God, he asked that he might have a little while to
consider.
The following day, in a Latin address which he repeated in German, he
admitted that he had been overviolent in his attacks upon his opponents;
but he said that no one could deny that, through the popes' decrees, the
consciences of faithful Christians had been miserably ensnared and
tormented, and their goods and possessions, especially in Germany,
devoured. Should he recant those things which he had said against the
pope's conduct he would only strengthen the papal tyranny and give an
opportunity for new usurpations. If, however, adequate arguments against
his position could be found in the Scriptures, he would gladly and
willingly recant. He could not, however, accept the decision either of
pope or of council, since both, he believed, had made mistakes and
contradicted themselves. "I must," he concluded, "allow my conscience
to be controlled by God's Word. Recant I can not and will not, for it is
hazardous and dishonorable to act against one's conscience."
[Sidenote: The emperor forced by the law to outlaw Luther.]
There was now nothing for the emperor to do but to outlaw Luther, who
had denied the binding character of the commands of the head of the
Church and of the highest Christian tribunal, a general council. His
argument that the Scriptures sustained him in his revolt could not be
considered by the diet.[282]
[Sidenote: The Edict of Worms, 1521.]
Aleander was accordingly assigned the agreeable duty of drafting the
famous Edict of Worms. This document declared Luther an outlaw on the
following grounds: that he disturbed the recognized number and
celebration of the sacraments, impeached the regulations in regard to
marriage, scorned and vilified the pope, despised the priesthood and
stirred up the laity to dip their hands in the blood of the clergy,
denied free will, taught licentiousness, despised authority, advocated a
brutish existence, and was a menace to Church and State alike. Every one
was forbidden to give the heretic food, drink, or shelter, and required
to seize him and deliver him to the emperor.
Moreover, the decree provides that "no one shall dare to buy, sell,
read, preserve, copy, print, or cause to be copied or printed any books
of the aforesaid Martin Luther, condemned by our holy father the pope,
as aforesaid, or any other writings in German or Latin hitherto composed
by him, since they are foul, noxious, suspected, and published by a
notorious and stiff-necked heretic. Neither shall any one dare to affirm
his opinions, or proclaim, defend, or advance them in any other way
that human ingenuity can invent,--notwithstanding that he may have put
some good into his writings in order to deceive the simple man."[283]
For the last time the empire had recognized its obligation to carry out
the decrees of the Bishop of Rome. "I am becoming ashamed of my
fatherland," Hutten cried. So general was the disapproval of the edict
that few were willing to pay any attention to it. Charles immediately
left Germany, and for nearly ten years was occupied outside it with the
government of Spain and a succession of wars.
General Reading.--BEARD, _Martin Luther_ (see above, p. 386), is
probably the best account in English of Luther before his
retirement to the Wartburg; KÖSTLIN, _Life of Luther_ (Scribner's
Sons, $2.50), is excellent. An account of Luther and Hutten by a
learned Roman Catholic writer may be found in JANSSEN, _History of
the German People_ (see above, p. 386), Vol. III; CREIGHTON,
_History of the Papacy_ (see above, p. 320), Vol. VI; Chapters III
and V are devoted to Luther and the diet of Worms.