Meanwhile Charles of Spain had succeeded Maximilian and became Karl V.
in the list of German emperors. Luther wrote to the new emperor asking
that he might be heard before being condemned. The elector Frederick
also interceded, and the diet of Worms was convened January 6, 1521.
Luther was summoned to appear. “I must go; if I am too weak to go in
good health, I shall have myself carried thither sick. They will not
have my blood after which they thirst unless it is God’s will. Two
things I can not do—shrink from the call, nor retract my opinions.”
The emperor tardily granted him the safe conduct on which his friends
insisted. In spite of all warnings he set out with the imperial herald
on the 2nd of April. On the 16th he entered the city. On his approach
to Worms the elector’s chancellor entreated him in the name of his
master not to enter a town where his death was already decided. Luther
returned the simple reply, “Tell your master that if there were as
many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter.” When
surrounded by his friends on the morning of the 17th, on which day he
was to appear before the august assembly, he said, “Christ is to me
what the head of the gorgon was to Perseus; I must hold it up against
the devil’s attack.” When the hour approached he fell on his knees and
uttered in great agony a prayer such as can only be pronounced by a
man filled with the spirit of him who prayed at Gethsemane. He rose
from prayer, and followed the herald. Before the throne he was asked
two questions, whether he acknowledged the works before him to have
been written by himself, and whether he would retract what he had said
in them. Luther’s address to the emperor has been preserved, and is
a masterpiece of eloquence as well as of courage. The following is a
part of his words: “I have laid open the almost incredible corruptions
of popery, and given utterance to complaints almost universal. By
retracting what I have said on this score, should I not fortify rank
tyranny, and open a still wider door to enormous impieties? I can
only say with Jesus Christ, ‘If I have spoken evil, bear witness of
the evil.’” Addressing himself directly to the emperor, he said: “May
this new reign not begin, and still less continue, under pernicious
auspices. The Pharaohs of Egypt, the kings of Babylon and of Israel
never worked more effectually for their own ruin than when they thought
to strengthen their power. I speak thus boldly, not because I think
such great princes want my advice, but because I will fulfill my duty
toward Germany as she has a right to expect from her children.” The
contemptible emperor, seeing his physical exhaustion, and thinking to
confound him, ordered him to repeat what he had said in Latin. Luther
did so. It was, however, when again urged to retract that we witness
what seems the highest point of moral sublimity in Luther’s career. “I
can not submit my faith either to the pope or to councils, for it is
clear that they have often erred and contradicted themselves. I will
retract nothing unless convicted by the very passages of the word of
God which I have just quoted.” And he concluded by saying: “Here I take
my stand. I can not do otherwise: so help me God. Amen.”[G]
From that day Luther’s life was in greatest and constant danger. The
papal dogs had scented the blood of a heretic, and were on his track.
Leaving Worms, he was seized by friends under the guise of enemies,
as he was passing through the Thuringian forest, and carried away and
hid in the castle of Wartburg. Here, secreted from his enemies for
many months, he busied himself with translating the New Testament
into German. His version proved to be among the most valuable of the
services he rendered. In many respects it is superior to any other
translations yet made. With all his scholarship, he ignored the
theological style of writing, and sought to express the thoughts of
the inspired writers in words comprehensible by the commonest people.
To this end he frequented the marketplace, the house of sorrow, and of
rejoicing, in order to note how the people expressed themselves in all
the circumstances of life. “I can not use the words heard in castles
and courts,” he said; “I have endeavored in translating to give clear,
pure German.”
Luther lived twenty-five years after the diet of Worms—years of heroic
battle, sometimes against foes inside of his movement of reform as well
as against the church, which never gave up the struggle. He wrote many
works, some controversial, others expository of the Bible. His “Battle
Hymn” also revealed him the possessor of rare poetic genius.
He died at Eisleben, February 17, 1546. For some time, under the weight
of his labors and anxieties, his constitution had been breaking down.
The giant of the Reformation halted in his earthly course, but the
gigantic spirit and work moved on. As the solemn procession which bore
his body from Eisleben to Wittenberg passed, the bells of every village
and town were tolled, and the people flocked together, crowding the
highways. At Halle men and women came out with cries and lamentations,
and so great was the throng that it was two hours before the coffin
could be laid in the church. An eye-witness says: “Here we endeavored
to raise the funeral psalm, ‘Out of the depths have I called unto
thee,’ but so heavy was our grief that the words were wept rather
than sung.” Mr. Carlyle closes his “Spiritual Portrait of Luther”
with the following words of noble and beautiful tribute: “I call this
Luther a true great man; great in intellect, in courage, affection and
integrity; one of our most lovable and precious men. Great, not as a
hewn obelisk, but as an Alpine mountain—so simple, honest, spontaneous,
not setting up to be great at all; there for quite another purpose
than being great! Ah yes, unsubduable granite, piercing far and wide
into the heavens; yet in the clefts of it fountains, green, beautiful
valleys with flowers! A right spiritual hero and prophet; once more, a
true son of nature and fact, for whom these centuries, and many that
are to come yet, will be thankful to heaven.”
[To be continued.]