system, which for centuries had dominated the Christian world and had
identified itself with Christianity. The news of it must also have made
the fire which his words had kindled throughout Germany blaze out in all
its violence. He saw now, as he wrote to Staupitz, a storm raging, such
as only the last day could allay, so fiercely were passions aroused on
both sides. Germany was then, in fact, in a state of excitement and
tension more critical than at any other period of her history.
The announcement of the retractation required from Luther by the bull
was to have been sent to Rome within one hundred twenty days. Luther had
given his answer. The Pope declared that the time of grace had expired;
and on January 3d Leo X finally pronounced the ban against Luther and
his followers, and an interdict on the places where they were harbored.
Never did the most momentous issue in the fortunes of the German nation
and church rest so entirely with one man as they did now with the
Emperor. Everything depended on this whether he, as head of the empire,
should take the great work in hand, or should fling his authority and
might into the opposite scale. Charles had been welcomed in Germany as
one whose youthful heart seemed likely to respond to the newly awakened
life and aspirations, as the son of an old German princely family, who
by his election as emperor had won a triumph over the foreign king
Francis, supported though the latter was by the Pope. Rumor now alleged
that he was in the hands of the Mendicant friars; the Franciscan Glapio
was his confessor and influential adviser, the very man who had
instigated the burning of Luther's works.
He was, however, by no means so dependent on those about him as might
have been supposed. His counsellors, in the general interests of his
government, pursued an independent line of policy, and Charles himself,
even in these his youthful days, knew to assert his independence as a
monarch and display his cleverness as a statesman. He saw the prudence
of cultivating friendship and contracting if possible an alliance with
the Pope. The pressure desirable for this purpose could now be supplied
by means of the very danger with which the papacy was threatened by the
great German heresy, and against which Rome so sorely needed the aid of
a temporal power. At the same time, Charles was far too astute to allow
his regard for the Pope, and his desire for the unity of the Church, to
entangle his policy in measures for which his own power was inadequate,
or by which his authority might be shaken and possibly destroyed.
Strengthened as was his monarchical power in Spain, in Germany he found
it hemmed in and fettered by the estates of the empire and the whole
contexture of political relations.
Such were the main points of view which determined for Charles V his
conduct toward Luther and his cause. Luther thus was at least a passive
sharer in the game of high policy, ecclesiastical and temporal, now
being played, and had to pursue his own course accordingly.
The imperial court was quickly enough acquainted with the state of
feeling in Germany. The Emperor showed himself prudent at this juncture,
and accessible to opinions differing from his own, however small cause
his proclamations gave to the friends of Luther to hope for any positive
act of favor on his part.
While Charles was on his way up the Rhine to hold, at the beginning of
the new year, a diet at Worms, the elector Frederick approached him with
the request that Luther should at least be heard before the Emperor took
any proceedings against him. The Emperor informed him in reply that he
might bring Luther for this purpose to Worms, promising that the monk
should not be molested.
The Emperor, on March 6th, issued a citation to Luther, summoning him to
Worms to give "information concerning his doctrines and books." An
imperial herald was sent to conduct him. In the event of his disobeying
the citation, or refusing to retract, the estates declared their consent
to treat him as an open heretic. Luther, therefore, had to renounce at
once all hope of having the truth touching his articles of faith tested
fairly at Worms by the standard of God's word in Scripture. Spalatin
indicated to him the points on which he would in any case be expected to
make a public recantation.
Luther formed his resolve at once on the two points required of him. He
determined to obey the summons to the diet, and, if there unconvicted of
error, to refuse the recantation demanded. The Emperor's citation was
delivered to him on March 26th by the imperial herald, Kaspar Sturm, who
was to accompany him to Worms. Within twenty-one days after its receipt,
Luther was to appear before the Emperor; he was due therefore at Worms
on April 16th at the latest.
On April 2d, the Tuesday after Easter, he set out on his way to Worms.
His friend Amsdorf and the Pomeranian nobleman Peter Swaven, who was
then studying at Wittenberg, accompanied him. He took with him also,
according to the rules of the order, a brother of the order, John
Pezensteiner. The Wittenberg magistracy provided carriages and horses.
The way led past Leipzig, through Thuringia from Naumburg to Eisenach,
southward past Berka, Hersfeld, Gruenberg, Friedberg, Frankfort, and
Oppenheim. The herald rode on before in his coat-of-arms, and announced
the man whose word had everywhere so mightily stirred the minds of
people, and for whose future behavior and fate friend and foe were alike
anxious. Everywhere people collected to catch a glimpse of him. On April
6th he was very solemnly received at Erfurt. The large majority of the
university there were by this time full of enthusiasm for his cause.
Meanwhile at Worms disquietude and suspense prevailed on both sides.
Hutten[29] from the castle of Ebernburg sent threatening and angry
letters to the papal legates, who became really anxious lest a blow
might be struck from that quarter. Some anxious friends of Luther's were
afraid that, according to papal law, the safe-conduct would not be
observed in the case of a condemned heretic. Spalatin himself sent from
Worms a second warning to Luther after he had left Frankfort, intimating
that he would suffer the fate of Huss.
But Luther continued on his way. To Spalatin he replied, though Huss
were burned, yet the truth was not burned; he would go to Worms though
there were as many devils there as there were tiles on the roofs of the
houses.
On April 16th, at ten o'clock in the morning, Luther entered Worms. He
sat in an open carriage with his three companions from Wittenberg,
clothed in his monk's habit. He was accompanied by a large number of men
on horseback, some of whom, like Jonas, had joined him earlier in his
journey; others, like some gentlemen belonging to the Elector's court,
had ridden out from Worms to receive him. The imperial herald rode on
before. The watchman blew a horn from the tower of the cathedral on
seeing the procession approach the gate. Thousands streamed hither to
see Luther. The gentlemen of the court escorted him into the house of
the Knights of St. John, where he lodged with two counsellors of the
Elector. As he stepped from his carriage he said, "God will be with me."
Aleander, writing to Rome, said that he looked around with the eyes of a
demon. Crowds of distinguished men, ecclesiastics and laymen, who were
anxious to know him personally, flocked daily to see him.
On the evening of the following day he had to appear before the diet,
which was assembled in the Bishop's palace, the residence of the
Emperor, not far from where Luther was lodging. He was conducted thither
by side streets, it being impossible to get through the crowds assembled
in the main thoroughfare to see him. On his way into the hall where the
diet was assembled, tradition tells us how the famous warrior, George
von Frundsberg, clapped him on the shoulder and said: "My poor monk! my
poor monk! thou art on thy way to make such a stand as I and many of my
knights have never done in our toughest battles. If thou art sure of the
justice of thy cause, then forward in the name of God, and be of good
courage--God will not forsake thee." The Elector had given Luther as his
advocate the lawyer Jerome Schurf, his Wittenberg colleague and friend.
When at length, after waiting two hours, Luther was admitted to the
diet, Eck, the official of the Archbishop of Treves, put to him simply,
in the name of the Emperor, two questions, whether he acknowledged the
books--pointing to them on a bench beside him--to be his own, and next,
whether he would retract their contents or persist in them. Schurf here
exclaimed, "Let the titles of the books be named." Eck then read them
out. Among them there were some merely edifying writings, such as _A
Commentary on the Lord's Prayer_, which had never been made the subject
of complaint.
Luther was not prepared for this proceeding, and possibly the first
sight of the august assembly made him nervous. He answered in a low
voice, and as if frightened, that the books were his, but that since the
question as to their contents concerned the highest of all things, the
Word of God and the salvation of souls, he must beware of giving a rash
answer, and must therefore humbly entreat further time for
consideration. After a short deliberation the Emperor instructed Eck to
reply that he would, out of his clemency, grant him a respite till the
next day.
So Luther had again, on April 18th, a Thursday, to appear before the
diet. Again he had to wait two hours till six o'clock. He stood there in
the hall among the dense crowd, talking unconstrained and cheerfully
with the ambassador of the diet, Peutinger, his patron at Augsburg.
After he was called in, Eck began by reproaching him for having wanted
time for consideration. He then put the second question to him in a form
more befitting and more conformable with the wishes of the members of
the diet: "Wilt thou defend _all_ the books acknowledged by thee to be
thine, or recant some part?" Luther now answered with firmness and
modesty, in a well-considered speech. He divided his works into three
classes. In some of them he had set forth simple evangelical truths,
professed alike by friend and foe. Those he could on no account retract.
In others he had attacked corrupt laws and doctrines of the papacy,
which no one could deny had miserably vexed and martyred the consciences
of Christians, and had tyrannically devoured the property of the German
nation: if he were to retract these books, he would make himself a cloak
for wickedness and tyranny.
In the third class of his books he had written against individuals who
endeavored to shield that tyranny and to subvert godly doctrine. Against
these he freely confessed that he had been more violent than was
befitting. Yet even these writings it was impossible for him to retract
without lending a hand to tyranny and godlessness. But in defence of his
books he could only say in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: "If I
have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest
thou me?" If anyone could do so, let him produce his evidence and
confute him from the sacred writings, the Old Testament and the Gospel,
and he would be the first to throw his books into the fire. And now, as
in the course of his speech he had sounded a new challenge to the
papacy, so he concluded by an earnest warning to Emperor and empire,
lest, by endeavoring to promote peace by a condemnation of the divine
Word, they might rather bring a dreadful deluge of evils, and thus give
an unhappy and inauspicious beginning to the reign of the noble young
Emperor. He said not these things as if the great personages who heard
him stood in any need of his admonitions, but because it was a duty that
he owed to his native Germany, and he could not neglect to discharge it.
Luther, like Eck, spoke in Latin, and then, by desire, repeated his
speech with equal firmness in German. Schurf, who was standing by his
side, declared afterward with pride, "how Martin had made this answer
with such bravery and modest candor, with eyes upraised to heaven, that
he and everyone were astonished."
The princes held a short consultation after this harangue. Then Eck,
commissioned by the Emperor, sharply reproved him for having spoken
impertinently and not really answered the question put to him. He
rejected his demand that evidence from Scripture might be brought
against him by declaring that his heresies had already been condemned by
the Church, and in particular by the Council of Constance, and such
judgments must suffice if anything were to be held settled in
Christianity. He promised him, however, if he would retract the
offensive articles, that his other writings should be fairly dealt with,
and finally demanded a plain answer "without horns" to the question
whether he intended to adhere to all he had written or would retract any
part of it?
To this Luther replied he would give an answer "with neither horns nor
teeth." Unless he were refuted by proofs from Scripture, or by evident
reason, his conscience bound him to adhere to the Word of God which he
had quoted in his defence. Popes and councils, as was clear, had often
erred and contradicted themselves. He could not, therefore, and he would
not, retreat anything, for it was neither safe nor honest to act against
one's conscience.
Eck exchanged only a few more words with him in reply to his assertion
that councils had erred. "You cannot prove that," said Eck. "I will
pledge myself to do it," was Luther's answer. Pressed and threatened by
his enemy, he concluded with the famous words: "Here I stand, I can do
no otherwise. God help me. Amen."
The Emperor reluctantly broke up the diet at about eight o'clock in the
evening. Darkness had meanwhile come on; the hall was lighted with
torches, and the audience were in a state of general excitement and
agitation. Luther was led out; whereupon an uproar arose among the
Germans, who thought that he had been taken prisoner. As he stood among
the heated crowd, Duke Erich of Brunswick sent him a silver tankard of
Eimbeck beer, after having first drunk of it himself.
On reaching his lodging, "Luther," to use the words of a Nuremberger
present there, "stretched out his hands, and with a joyful countenance
exclaimed, 'I am through! I am through!'" Spalatin says: "He entered the
lodging so courageous, comforted, and joyful in the Lord that he said
before others and myself, 'if he had a thousand heads, he would rather
have them all cut off than make one recantation.'" He relates also how
the elector Frederick, before his supper, sent for him from Luther's
dwelling, took him into his room and expressed to him his astonishment
and delight at Luther's speech. "How excellently did Father Martin speak
both in Latin and German before the Emperor and the orders! He was bold
enough, if not too much so." The Emperor, on the contrary, had been so
little impressed by Luther's personality, and had understood so little
of it, that he fancied the writings ascribed to him must have been
written by someone else. Many of his Spaniards had pursued Luther, as he
left the diet, with hisses and shouts of scorn.
Luther, by refusing thus point-blank to retract, effectually destroyed
whatever hopes of mediation or reconciliation had been entertained by
the milder and more moderate adherents of the Church who still wished
for reform. Nor was any union possible with those who, while looking to
a truly representative council as the best safeguard against the tyranny
of a pope, were anxious also to obtain at such a council a secure and
final settlement of all questions of Christian faith and morals. It was
these very councils about which Eck purposely called on Luther for a
declaration; and Luther's words on this point might well have been
considered by the Elector as "too bold."
Luther remained faithful to himself. True it was that he had often
formerly spoken of yielding in mere externals, and of the duty of living
in love and harmony, and respecting the weaknesses of others; and his
conduct during the elaboration of his own church system will show us how
well he knew to accommodate himself to the time, and, where perfection
was impossible, to be content with what was imperfect. But the question
here was not about externals, or whether a given proceeding were
judicious or not for the attainment of an object admittedly good. It was
a question of confessing or denying the truth--the highest and holiest
truths, as he expressed it--relating to God and the salvation of man. In
this matter his conscience was bound.
And the trial thus offered for his endurance was not yet over. On the
morning of the 19th the Emperor sent word to the estates that he would
now send Luther back in safety to Wittenberg, but treat him as a
heretic. The majority insisted on attempting further negotiations with
him through a committee specially appointed. These were conducted
accordingly by the Elector of Treves. The friendliness and the visible
interest in his cause with which Luther now was urged were more
calculated to move him than Eck's behavior at the diet. He himself bore
witness afterward how the Archbishop had shown himself more than
gracious to him and would willingly have arranged matters peaceably.
Instead of being urged simply to retract all his propositions condemned
by the Pope, or his writings directed against the papacy, he was
referred in particular to those articles in which he rejected the
decisions of the Council of Constance. He was desired to submit in
confidence to a verdict of the Emperor and the empire when his books
should be submitted to judges beyond suspicion. After that he should at
least accept the decision of a future council, unfettered by any
acknowledgment of the previous sentence of the Pope.
So freely and independently of the Pope did this committee of the German
Diet, including several bishops and Duke George of Saxony, proceed in
negotiating with a papal heretic. But everything was shipwrecked on
Luther's firm reservation that the decision must not be contrary to the
Word of God; and on that question his conscience would not allow him to
renounce the right of judging for himself. After two days'
negotiations, he thus, on April 25th, according to Spalatin, declared
himself to the Archbishop: "Most gracious Lord, I cannot yield; it must
happen with me as God wills," and continued: "I beg of your grace that
you will obtain for me the gracious permission of his imperial majesty
that I may go home again, for I have now been here for ten days and
nothing yet has been effected." Three hours later the Emperor sent word
to Luther that he might return to the place he came from, and should be
given a safe-conduct for twenty-one days, but would not be allowed to
preach on the way.
Free residence, however, and protection at Wittenberg, in case Luther
were condemned by the empire, was more than even Frederick the Wise
would be able to assure him. But he had already laid his plan for the
emergency. Spalatin refers to it in these words: "Now was my most
gracious Lord somewhat disheartened; he was certainly fond of Dr.
Martin, and was also most unwilling to act against the Word of God or to
bring upon himself the displeasure of the Emperor. Accordingly, he
devised means how to get Dr. Martin out of the way for a time, until
matters might be quietly settled, and caused Luther also to be informed,
the evening before he left Worms, of his scheme for getting him out of
the way. At this Dr. Martin, out of deference to his Elector, was
submissively content, though certainly, then and at all times, he would
much rather have gone courageously to the attack."
The very next morning, Friday, the 26th, Luther departed. The imperial
herald went behind him, so as not to attract notice. They took the usual
road to Eisenach. At Friedberg Luther dismissed the herald, giving him a
letter to the Emperor and the estates, in which he defended his conduct
at Worms, and his refusal to trust in the decision of men, by saying
that when God's Word and things eternal were at stake, one's trust and
dependence should be placed, not on one man or many men, but on God
alone. At Hersfeld, where Abbot Crato, in spite of the ban, received him
with all marks of honor, and again at Eisenach, he preached,
notwithstanding the Emperor's prohibition, not daring to let the Word of
God be bound.
From Eisenach, while Swaven, Schurf, and several other of his companions
went straight on, he struck southward, together with Amsdorf and
Brother Pezensteiner, in order to go and see his relations at Moehra.
Here, after spending the night at the house of his uncle Heinz, he
preached the next morning, Saturday, May 4th. Then, accompanied by some
of his relations, he took the road through Schweina, past the castle of
Altenstein, and then across the back of the Thuringian Forest to
Waltershausen and Gotha. Toward evening, when near Altenstein, he bade
leave of his relations. About half an hour farther on, at a spot where
the road enters the wooded heights, and, ascending between hills along a
brook, leads to an old chapel, which even then was in ruins and has now
quite disappeared, armed horsemen attacked the carriage, ordered it to
stop with threats and curses, pulled Luther out of it, and then hurried
him away at full speed. Pezensteiner had run away as soon as he saw them
approach. Amsdorf and the coachman were allowed to pass on; the former
was in the secret, and pretended to be terrified, to avoid any suspicion
on the part of his companion.
The Wartburg[30] lay to the north, about eight miles distant, and had
been the starting-point of the horsemen, as it now was their goal; but
precaution made them ride first in an eastern direction with Luther. The
coachman afterward related how Luther in the haste of the flight dropped
a gray hat he had worn. And now Luther was given a horse to ride. The
night was dark, and at about eleven o'clock they arrived at the stately
castle, situated above Eisenach. Here he was to be kept as a
knight-prisoner. The secret was kept as strictly as possible toward
friend and foe. For many weeks afterward even Frederick's brother John
had no idea of it. Among his friends and followers the terrible news had
spread, immediately upon his capture, that he had been made away with by
his enemies.
At Worms, however, while the Pope was concluding an alliance with
Charles against France, the papal legate Aleander, by commission of the
Emperor, prepared the edict against Luther on the 8th of May. It was
not, however, until the 25th, after Frederick the Elector of the
Palatinate and a great part of the other members of the diet had already
left, that it was deemed advisable to have it communicated to the rest
of the estates; nevertheless it was antedated the 8th, and issued "by
the unanimous advice of the electors and estates." It pronounced upon
Luther, applying the customary strong expressions of papal bulls, the
ban and reban; no one was to receive him any longer, or feed him, etc.,
but wherever he was found he was to be seized and handed over to the
Emperor.
JEAN M. V. AUDIN