‘Secundus erat inter cos qui, me puero, corruptelam de Cœna emendarunt
ac sustulerunt penitus.’—_Ep._ Paxi ad Simler.
Footnote 595:
_Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche in Ungarn_, p. 75.
CHAPTER V.
THE GOSPEL IN HUNGARY UNDER TURKISH RULE.
(1545-1548.)
One characteristic feature of this epoch is the fact that two religions,
two powers, were then dominant in Hungary; Rome and Constantinople, the
Pope and Mohammed. The former persecuted the Gospel, and the latter
granted to it reasonable liberty. Roman Catholicism recognized in
evangelical Christianity its own principal doctrines, the divinity of
Jesus Christ, the expiation of the cross and others besides; while
Islamism was shocked at the idea of the Trinity, of the Godhead of the
Saviour, and of salvation by His expiation, and said haughtily—‘God is
God, and Mohammed is his prophet.’ In the nature of things Roman
Catholicism would surely respect and protect evangelical Christians who
were living under the dominion of the Crescent; and the successor of
Mohammed would as naturally persecute those who, in his opinion,
professed detestable doctrines, as his master had done before him, sword
in hand. The very reverse took place.
[Sidenote: Rome A Persecutor.]
This, however, is easily explained. Rome, by her church system, had
established herself apart from the Gospel. Of course something of the
Christian religion remained in her doctrine; and this Christianity was
and had always been dear to the seven thousand who, in the midst of the
Catholics, had not bowed the knee to Baal. But this _residuum_ was
generally concealed, and what was apparent was something entirely
different. It was the pope, his cardinals, his agents, worship paid to
the Virgin, to the saints, to created beings, numberless rites, images,
pilgrimages, indulgences, and every one knows what besides. The
Catholicism of the pontiffs, not finding these superfluities and
superstitions in evangelical Christianity, was stoutly opposed to it. It
was all the more so because it saw instead the great principles of a
living faith, of regeneration, and of the new birth, of which it knew
not what to make. It therefore waged on its opponents ‘a strange and
long war in which violence attempted to suppress the truth. It committed
frightful excesses against the word of Jesus Christ.’[596]
Ultramontanism in the sixteenth century, as well as in later times,
awoke every morning with sword drawn, in a kind of rage, like Saul, and
wanted to overturn every thing, as has been said of the writer who was
in our own time its most energetic champion.[597] It did as he boasted
of doing, fired _in the teeth of the enemy_.
The position of Islamism was different. In view of the two forms of
Christianity, it despised both and was not at all inclined to place its
sword, as the Catholic princes did, at the service of the pope. In the
Roman churches the Mohammedan was chiefly struck by the images; and
remembering better than the pope the commandment of God—_Thou shalt not
make any graven image nor the likeness of any thing_—he felt a higher
esteem for Protestants who kept it. The judges appointed by the Sublime
Porte often displayed a sense of justice; and they did not think it
their duty to sacrifice good men to their enemies on the ground of their
not acknowledging the high-priest of Rome. While therefore we meet in
these years with instances of the respect shown by the Turks for the
free worship of the Gospel,[598] we constantly find examples and very
numerous ones of Romish intolerance.
Ferdinand formed an exception. He perceived that the Reformation was
making great progress in his kingdom; and, more enlightened than his
brother had been, far from declaring open war on Protestantism, he was
anxious of the two opposing parties to mould one single Church, and
thought that in order to succeed in this he must make important
concessions. He believed, in common with the Hungarian Diet, that a
general council alone, which should take as the basis of its labors the
Holy Scriptures, could bring about this important reconciliation. This
council, which assembled at Trent in December, 1545, Ferdinand called
upon to unite the two parties by effecting a reform of faith and morals,
particularly as regarded the pope and his court; by abolishing
dispensations and simony, sources of so much disorder; by transforming
the clergy, who ought for the future to give themselves to an honorable
and chaste behavior, and to primitive simplicity and purity in their
dress, their way of life, and their doctrine; by administration of the
Supper in both kinds; by urging the pope to take as his model the
humility of Jesus; by abolishing the celibacy of priests, occasion of so
much scandal; and by suppressing apocryphal traditions.[599] These
demands for reform showed plainly enough what strength the Gospel had
gained in Hungary, and the immense benefit which the Reformation would
have conferred on the Church universal if Rome, instead of withstanding
it, had submitted to its wholesome influence. Instead of all this the
council pronounced the anathema against the holiest doctrines of the
Gospel and of the Reformation.
[Sidenote: Council Of Trent.]
If Hungary did not succeed in exerting an influence upon the Council of
Trent, the council nevertheless produced some effect on Hungary.
Evangelical Christians felt the necessity of drawing together, of
concentration, of union. There were in the country, in the fifteenth
century, some Hussite congregations, the organization of which was
Presbyterian in form; and God had just raised up a great number of
Christians who, by means of Devay and others, had been brought into
contact with the Swiss, and had attached themselves to the synodal
system which was flourishing among the confederates. They desired to act
in concert and to help each other under the direction of Christ, the
King of the Church, at a time when the adherents of the pope were united
under his law. The powerful and pious magnate Caspar Dragfy encouraged
them with a promise of his protection. An assembly was held in the town
of Erdoed, comitat of Szathmar, in the north of Transylvania.
Twenty-nine pastors attached to the Helvetic confession met there; and
anxious to set forth the faith which formed their bond of union, they
conversed together of God, of the Redeemer, of the justification of the
sinner, of faith, good works, the sacraments, the confession of sins,
Christian liberty, the head of the Church, the Church, the order which
must be established in it, and the lawful separation from Rome. They
were all agreed; and having embodied in a formula their belief on these
twelve points, they were desirous at the same time of expressing their
close union with all Christians and particularly with the disciples of
Luther. They therefore added in conclusion the following statement: ‘In
the other articles of the faith we agree with the true Church, as it is
set forth in the confession presented at Augsburg to the emperor Charles
the Fifth.’ This conclusion shows that on some points these churches did
not agree with the Confession of Augsburg, and proves the adhesion of
the Erdoed pastors to the Helvetic confession; an adhesion which is
denied by some writers.[600]
It was not long before the Lutherans on their side followed this
example. They were found chiefly in those parts of Hungary and
Transylvania in which German was spoken; while the Helvetic confession
had its most numerous adherents among the Magyars of Finnish origin.
In 1546, five towns of Upper Hungary held an assembly at Eperies, in
which sixteen articles of faith were settled. ‘We will continue
faithful,’ said the delegates, ‘to the faith professed in the Confession
of Augsburg and in Melanchthon’s book.’[601] This assembly laid down
very rigorous regulations. A minister who should teach any other
doctrine, after being warned, was to be deprived of his office; and the
magistrate was to be exhorted not to allow serious offences, in order
that the ministers might not be compelled to re-establish
excommunication. No one was to be admitted to the Lord’s Supper until he
had been properly examined.
Notwithstanding the severity of these principles and the determined
temper of the Hungarians, there were not seen among them at this time
those passionate conflicts which sometimes took place between opposing
confessions. This may have been owing to the difference of
nationalities. For the two races inhabiting the country were separated
by language and by customs. It may also have been the case that there
was a clearer apprehension in this noble country than elsewhere of the
truth that when there exists a unity in the great doctrines of the faith
contention ought not to be allowed on secondary points.[602]
The evangelical doctors did not confine themselves to holding their
regular meetings; but everywhere they preached the Gospel to great
multitudes.[603]
[Sidenote: Szegedin At Temeswar.]
About this time Szegedin was called from Czegled to Temeswar, an
important town situated a little farther south than Szegedin, his native
place, the name of which he bore. This call was sent to him by Count
Peter Petrovich, one of the guardians of the young son of Zapolya, but a
very different man from his colleague, the bishop. Petrovich was the
avowed friend and the powerful protector of evangelical reform.
Szegedin, in his new position, immediately put forth all his energies.
He not only expounded and defended sound doctrine as a theologian, but
he scattered abroad in men’s hearts the seeds of truth and of life. The
count loved and admired him, and countenanced his labors. He protected
him against his enemies, and took an interest in the smallest affairs of
his life. For example, he gave him for winter wear a coat lined with
fox-fur.[604] The glad tidings of the love of God, which save him who
believes, were spreading farther and wider in these lands, when after
three years Szegedin had the pain of seeing the place of his protector,
Count Petrovich, taken by a superior officer of the army, Stephen
Losonczy. If the former concerned himself lovingly about the Gospel of
peace, the latter made no account of any thing but war, cared for
nothing but the soldiery, and was devoted to the Romish party. Losonczy
troubled himself very little about the army of Jesus Christ. He wanted
to hear only of that army which he trained, and which at his command
executed skilful manœuvres; and he was annoyed with those evangelists
who troubled conscience and urged men to think of things above. In this
he could see nothing but a dangerous enthusiasm. He thought it was far
more useful to mind things below. In his view the military art was not
only the most beautiful and the most ingenious, but also the most
essential. Men of truly Christian character have been sometimes found
serving in armies, and even in the higher ranks. But those who, like
Losonczy, look upon religion as a troublesome superstition which must be
suppressed have never been rare, even in religious epochs. The successor
of Count Petrovich, therefore, did not hesitate to expel from the
country those whom his predecessor had called thither; not Szegedin
alone, but also the other ministers, his colleagues. No sooner had he
done this than the Turks appeared, seized the fortress, and massacred
all the Christians they met with, including the unhappy Losonczy
himself. None escaped but the pastors whom the terrible general had
placed in safety by banishing them, with the intent to ruin them. The
merciless Losonczy had imagined that he should defend Temeswar all the
more effectually by getting rid of these tiresome ministers, whom he
looked upon as mere _impedimenta_, quite useless, and, moreover, very
embarrassing. Yet these faithful heralds of the Gospel, by interceding
with God and by strengthening the hearts of men, might perhaps have
saved the town and its inhabitants. They would at least have consoled
them in their affliction.[605]
[Sidenote: The Gospel At Tolna.]
If the Turks were making their conquests, the Christians likewise were
making theirs, even in the districts of Hungary, then subject to
Mussulman authority. Emeric Eszeky (Czigerius), a disciple of Luther and
Melanchthon, having at this period returned to Hungary—Wittenberg was a
fountain from which living water did not cease to flow—made a stay at
Tolna on the Danube, south of Buda. His heart was grieved to see the
population of the town wholly given up to superstition and impiety.
Nevertheless, he was not disheartened; and he began to make known the
Gospel in private houses and everywhere. After fifteen days, three or
four persons had received the knowledge of the Gospel. This was little,
and yet it was a great deal. But desirous of a more abundant harvest, he
left the town and travelled about the surrounding country. Finding the
common people absorbed in the concerns of mere material existence, he
resolved to address chiefly the school-masters and the priests,
expecting to find in them a good soil for the sowing of the word. He was
not altogether mistaken; for if many bigoted priests dismissed him, some
of the ecclesiastics and masters of schools nevertheless gave him
welcome. Arriving one day at the parish of Cascov, comitat of Baranya,
he knocked at the door of the parson, Michael Szataray. He was kindly
received, and they had a long conversation. The priest, a serious and
sincere man, relished the good words of Eszeky, and with all his heart
believed the good news of the Gospel, which hitherto he had but vaguely
understood. He felt immediately impelled to communicate it to others,
and courageously joined Eszeky. The two travelling ministers, filled
with earnestness, succeeded in spreading abroad evangelical light in the
whole of Lower Hungary. They led a life of hardship, and had frequently
to meet with hatred and persecution. But their patience was perfect, and
God kept them safe from all danger.[606]
While Eszeky, accompanied by his fellow-laborer, was thus visiting the
towns and country districts, the seed which he had scattered at Tolna,
and which at first seemed to have sprung up only in two or three places,
had germinated a little everywhere. The field which had seemed barren,
had at length given proof of fertility. Those of the inhabitants who had
embraced the Reformation had built a church at the extremity of the
town; and, two years and nine months after the departure of the
reformer, he received a call to preach the Gospel there again. He
returned to Tolna, proclaimed Christ, and the church was filled with
hearers. But great dangers awaited him there. There were two distinct
parties in the place; and while some of the people attached themselves
to the Saviour, others continued to be thoroughly devoted to the pope.
At the head of the latter party was the burgomaster, who, in the
frequent interviews which he held with the priests, was pressed to rid
the town of the heretics. Unfortunately for the clergy, the magistrate
could do nothing of the sort without the consent of the Turks who
occupied the country. The Ultramontanes thought that they could smooth
away the difficulty by untying their purse-strings. They therefore
collected a considerable sum of money, and handed it to the burgomaster,
who then set out for Buda, the place of residence of the pasha. Having
obtained an audience of the Mussulman, he stated to him the occasion of
his coming, the disturbance which was created in the town by
Protestantism, and presented his rich offering. Confident that this
officer was what is called a true Turk, inexorable and pitiless, and
knowing how offenders, even viziers themselves, are despatched at
Constantinople, he in plain terms requested the pasha to have Eszeky put
to death, or at the least to banish him. The Mohammedan governor did not
think it his duty to proceed without observing judicial forms. He
consulted his Cadis, who informed their chief that the man against whom
the complaint was laid was an opponent of images and other Romish
superstitions. The pasha consequently gave orders that ‘the preacher of
_the doctrine discovered by Luther_ (this was how they described the
Gospel) should freely proclaim it to all who were willing to hear it.’
Eszeky and his companions were delighted to hear that the Turks gave
them the liberty of which the Romanists wished to deprive them. The
evangelical Christians could now without hinderance diffuse the
knowledge of Christ either in the church or elsewhere. A school was
established; and on August 3, 1549, Eszeky applied to his friend
Matthias Flacius Illyricus for books and assistants.[607]
[Sidenote: Progress Of The Gospel.]
The provinces which submitted to Ferdinand were no more forgotten than
those which were under the rule of the Turks. The Reformation was now
making great progress there. The priest Michael Szataray, who was
converted by the ministry of Eszeky, went to Komorn. Anthony Plattner
joined him; and both of them laboring zealously in this island formed by
the confluence of the Danube and the Waag, they laid the foundation of a
great community of the Helvetic confession. At Tyrnau also, to the north
of Presburg, the former teaching of Grynaeus and Devay, and the
evangelical writings which were eagerly read there, led the greater part
of the population to embrace the evangelical doctrines. The five towns
of the mountain region, which were held as allodial estates by Queen
Mary, peacefully enjoyed under her government the blessings of the
Gospel. But the princess having made a lease of them to her brother
Ferdinand, the priests wanted immediately to take advantage of this for
the oppression of these pious people. These attempts rekindled their
zeal; and the churches forwarded to the king’s delegates, at Eperies, an
evangelical confession full of faithfulness and of charity
(_Pentapolitana Confessio_). Ferdinand commanded that they should be let
alone.[608]
The characteristic feature of this epoch, however, was—we say once
more—the progress which the Gospel was making under the rule of the
Turks. Fresh instances of this were constantly appearing. Faithful
ministers proclaimed the consolation and the peace of Jesus Christ to
the distressed and impoverished Hungarians who had remained in Buda
under the Mussulman yoke. The servants of Rome endeavored to gainsay
them. ‘A coarse, papistical Satan,’ wrote some one from Hungary to a
Breslau pastor, ‘opposed with all his might this Christian
ministry,’[609] He brought the subject before the pasha. The latter,
after hearing both sides, decided in favor of evangelical preaching,
‘Because,’ he said, ‘it teaches that one God alone is to be worshipped,
and because it condemns the abuse of images which we abominate.’[610]
The pasha, addressing the accuser, added—‘I am not placed here by my
emperor to busy myself about these controversies, but in order to keep
his empire as much at peace as possible.’ At Szegedin also he protected
the Gospel and its ministers against the violence of the papists. ‘See,’
said the friends of the Gospel, ‘how wonderful and how consoling is the
counsel of God! We thought that the Turks would be cruel oppressors of
the faith and of those who profess it; but God would have it otherwise.
Is it not astonishing to see how the good news of the glory of God is
spreading in the midst of all these wars and disturbances?[611] The
whole of Transylvania has received the evangelical faith, in spite of
the prohibition of the monk and bishop George (Martinuzzi). Wallachia,
which is also subject to the Turks, professes the faith. The Gospel is
spreading from place to place throughout Hungary. Assuredly, if these
agitations of war had not broken out, the false bishops would have
stirred up against us far graver ones.’
Footnote 596:
Pascal. These words immediately refer to the struggle of Roman
Catholicism against the Port-Royalists; but they are far more true
with respect to the Reformation.
Footnote 597:
De Maistre.
Footnote 598:
Gieseler, _Kirchengeschichte_, iii. p. 465.
Footnote 599:
_Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche in Ungarn_, p. 77.
Footnote 600:
Ribini, _Memorabilia_, p. 67. _Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche in
Ungarn_, pp. 75, 76. Guericke, _Kirchengeschichte_, iii. p. 239.
Footnote 601:
This is doubtless the _Apology for the Confession_. Schroeckh,
_Reform._, ii. p. 734.
Footnote 602:
Ribini, _Memorabilia_, p. 66. Gebhardi, _Geschichte des Reichs
Ungarn_.
Footnote 603:
In this place the author wrote on his manuscript as a direction to his
amanuensis, ‘Leave one page blank.’ This _lacuna_ was not filled
up.—Editor.
Footnote 604:
‘Vestem vulpina pelle subductam.’—Skarica, _Vita Szegedini_.
_Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche in Ungarn_, p. 79.
Footnote 605:
Skarica, _Vita Szegedini_. _Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche in
Ungarn_, p. 80.
Footnote 606:
_Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche in Ungarn_, p. 80.
Footnote 607:
Epist. Czigerii ad M. Flacium Illyricum, in Ribini, _Memorabilia_, i.
p. 501.
Footnote 608:
_Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche in Ungarn_, pp. 81, 83. Ribini,
_Memorabilia_, i. p. 78.
Footnote 609:
‘Crassum quendam Satanam papisticum vehementer obstitisse.’—Adalb.
Wurmloch in Bistriz ad Joh. Hess in Breslau. (MS. cited in Gieseler,
iii. p. 465.)
Footnote 610:
‘Approbare evangelium, quod doceat unum colendum Deum reprobetque
abusum imaginum quas Turcæ abominantur.’—(MS. cited in Gieseler, iii.
p. 465.)
Footnote 611:
‘Mirum namque in modum evangelium gloriæ Dei sub istis bellicis
tumultibus quam latissime vagatur.’—Joh. Creslingus ad Ambrosium
Moibanum.—(MS. in Gieseler, iii. p. 465.)
CHAPTER VI.
BOHEMIA, MORAVIA, AND POLAND.
(1518-1521.)
The reformation of Denmark and Sweden proceeded, humanly speaking, from
Luther, at whose feet the Scandinavian reformers had received the
Protestant doctrine. Consequently it was of later date than the
reformation of Germany. But there was one country in which the piercing
tones of the evangelical trumpet had been heard a century before Luther;
and we must not forget this country in the general history of the
Reformation. The discourses of John Hus had resounded in Bohemia and
Moravia. A great number of believers were to be found there at the
beginning of the sixteenth century; but Luther’s reformation gave them a
new life.
[Sidenote: The Disciples Of Hus.]
The disciples of Hus were divided into two distinct parties. One of
these had kept up certain relations with the Government of the country,
and had been weakened by the influence of the court. The members of this
party did not reject the authority of the Roman Catholic bishops of
Bohemia; and their principal concern was to reclaim the cup for the
laity, which procured them the designation of _Calixtines_. But the
majority of the Hussites, who were chiefly to be found among the country
people and the provincial nobility, having entered into relations with
the Wycliffites and the Vaudois, went farther than Hus himself. They
professed justification by faith in the Saviour, and looked upon the
institution of the papacy as anti-christian. This party, distinguished
by the name of Taborites, was not at the time of its origin what it
afterwards became. The waters, far from being tranquil, had then been in
a state of fermentation, ebullition, and violent agitation. These ardent
religionists had uttered war-cries and fought battles. But gradually,
being purified by means of the struggle and by adversity, they had
become more calm, more spiritual; and from 1457 to 1467 they had formed
a respectable Christian community under the name of the _United
Brethren_.
Two different views as to the Lord’s Supper prevailed among them,
without however disturbing their brotherly unity. The majority believed,
with Wycliffe that the body of Christ is truly given with the bread; not
however corporeally but spiritually, sacramentally—to the soul, not to
the mouth. This was afterwards very nearly Calvin’s thought. The most
decided of the Hussites on this side was Lucas, an elder of the church.
The others, fewer in number, bore some resemblance in their views to the
Vaudois, and looked upon the bread as simply representing the body of
Christ. This was afterwards the view of Zwinglius. The two parties were
tolerant of each other and loved each other; and both were strongly
opposed to the notion of a corporeal presence of Christ in the
eucharist.
[Sidenote: Hussites And Luther.]
Suddenly the report of Luther’s reformation reached Bohemia, and there
was great joy among the disciples of Hus. They saw at last arising that
_eagle_ which their master had announced, and a power shaping itself
which would bring them important aid in their struggle with the papacy.
The Calixtines had addressed Luther both by letter and by messengers. He
received these with kindness; but he was not so friendly to the United
Brethren. He would not enter into relation with a sect some of whose
opinions he did not share. One day, in 1520, when preaching on the
sacrament of Christ’s body, he said—‘The _Brethren_ or Picards are
heretics, for, as I have seen in one of their books, they do not believe
that the flesh and the blood of Christ are truly in the sacrament.’[612]
This deeply affected the Bohemian evangelicals.
Oppressed as they were, these brethren were anxious to find support in
the Saxon reformation; and now it repulsed them! It seemed as if the
little relish which they had for dogmatic formulæ, and the altogether
practical tendency of their Christianity, must make it easy for them to
come to an understanding with the Wittenberg reformers. They therefore
sent two members of their body to Luther, John Horn and Michael Weiss,
whose appointed task was, while not in any particular disowning their
own doctrine, to bring the famous doctor to a better opinion of those
whom he called _heretics_. It was not without some timidity that the two
Hussites approached Wittenberg. As members of a despised and persecuted
community, how would they be received by the illustrious doctor, a man
who enjoyed the protection of princes, whose voice was beginning to stir
all Europe, and whose audacious utterances terrified his adversaries?
The interview took place at the beginning of July, 1522. The two humble
delegates set forth accurately their belief respecting the Lord’s
Supper. ‘Christ,’ they said, ‘is not corporeally in the bread, as those
believe who assert that they have seen his blood flow. He is there
spiritually, sacramentally.’[613] It might seem to Luther a critical
moment. He encountered habitually so much opposition in the world, that
he might well ask whether he should go on to compromise himself still
farther by giving his hand to these old dissidents, who had been so many
times excommunicated, mocked, and crushed. Was it his duty, in addition
to all the opprobrium under which he already labored, to take upon him
also that which attached to this _sect_? A small mind would have yielded
to the temptation; but Luther’s was a great soul. He had respect only to
the truth. ‘If these divines teach,’ said Luther, ‘that a Christian who
receives the bread visibly receives also, doubtless invisibly, but
nevertheless in a natural manner, the blood of Him who sits at the right
hand of the Father, I cannot condemn them. In speaking of the communion,
they make use of _obscure and barbarous_ expressions, instead of
employing Scriptural phrases; but I have found their belief almost
entirely sound.’ Then, addressing the delegates at the time of their
leave-taking, he gave them this advice—‘Be good enough to express
yourselves more clearly in a fresh statement.’
The United Brethren sent him this fresh statement in 1523. It was the
production of their elder, Lucas, who, as a zealous Wycliffite, came
near to Luther, but at the same time felt bound to make no concessions.
He had consequently set forth very clearly that there was in the Supper
only spiritual nourishment for spiritual use. He had likewise added that
Christ was not in the sacrament, but _only in heaven_. Luther was at
first offended by these words. One might have said that these Bohemians
took pleasure in defying him. But Christian feeling gained the
ascendency in the great doctor. The discourses of Lucas gave him more
satisfaction than his treatises. He therefore relented, and addressed to
the Brethren his work on the _Worship of the Sacrament_,[614] in which
while setting forth his own doctrinal views he testified for them much
love and esteem. Both sides seem to have vied with each other in noble
bearing. The party which most nearly agreed with Luther became the
strongest; and after the death of Lucas, feeling more at liberty, it
came to an agreement with the Saxon reformer, while those who looked
upon the bread as representing Christ’s body, at the head of whom was
Michael Weiss, entered into relations with Zwinglius.[615] All that we
have just said relates to the Taborites.
[Sidenote: Taborites And Calixtines.]
The Calixtines, on their part, also felt the influence of the movement
which was shaking the Christian world. One tie still bound them to the
Roman hierarchy. ‘Who is it that appoints pastors?’ they wrote to
Luther; ‘is it not the bishops who have received authority from the
Church to do so?’ The reformer’s answer was at once modest and decided.
‘What you ask of me,’ he replied, ‘is beyond my power. However, what I
have I give to you; but I intend that your own judgment and that of your
brethren should be exercised in the most complete freedom. I offer you
nothing more than counsel and exhortation.’[616] The reformer’s opinion
was contained in a treatise annexed to his letter; and therein he showed
that each congregation had a right itself to choose and to consecrate
its own ministers. The modesty with which Luther expressed himself is
something far removed from the arrogance which his enemies delight to
attribute to him. The Calixtines, captivated by the reformer’s charity
and faith, determined in an assembly held in 1524, to continue in the
way marked out by Luther the reformation begun by John Hus. This
decision called forth keen opposition on the part of some of the body,
and its unity was broken. The number, however, of the Lutheran
Calixtines continually increased. They received in general such of the
evangelical doctrines as were still wanting to them; and henceforth they
differed from the United Brethren only by their want of discipline and
more intercourse with the world.
It was not in Bohemia alone that John Hus had become the forerunner of
the Reformation; he had been so in other lands of Eastern Europe. One
country, Poland, seemed as if it must precede other nations in the path
of reformation. But after some rough conflicts with Jesuitism it passed
from the van to the rear. Having lost the Gospel, it lost independence,
and now remains in the midst of Europe a ruined monument, showing to the
nations what they become when they allow the truth to be taken away from
them. Already, in 1431, some of the disciples of Hus had come into
Poland, and had publicly defended at Cracow evangelical doctrines
against the doctors of the university, and this in the presence of the
king and the senate. In 1432, other Bohemians arrived in Poland, and
announced that the general council of Basel had received their deputies.
The bishop of Cracow, a steadfast adherent of the Romish party,
fulminated an interdict against them.[617] But the king and even several
of the bishops were not at all disturbed thereby, and they gave a
favorable reception to these disciples of John Hus, so that their
doctrines were diffused in various parts of Poland. Wycliffe was also
known there; and, about the middle of the fifteenth century, Dobszynski,
a Polish poet, composed a poem in his honor.
Thus Hus and Wycliffe, Bohemia and England, countries so wonderfully
unlike each other, were at the same time, as early as the fifteenth
century, laboring to disseminate the light in the land of the Jagellons.
It was not in vain. In 1459, Ostrorog, palatine of Posen, presented to
the Diet a project of reform which, without touching upon dogmas,
distinctly pointed out abuses, and established the fact that the pope
had no authority whatever over kings, because the kingdom of Christ is
not of this world. In 1500, celibacy and the worship of relics were
attacked in some works published at Cracow. In 1515 Bernard of Lublin
established the express principle of the Reformation—_that we must
believe only the Word of God_, and that we ought to reject the tradition
of men.[618] This was the state of things when the Reformation appeared.
How would it be received?
The common people both in the country and in the towns were in general
dull of understanding and destitute of culture. But the citizens of the
great towns, who by commerce were brought into intercourse with other
populations, and particularly with those of Germany, had developed
themselves and began to be acquainted with their rights. A wealthy and
powerful aristocracy were predominant in the country. The clergy had no
power at all. The Church had no influence whatever on the State, nor did
the State ever assist the Church. The priests themselves, by reason of
their worldliness and their immorality, were in many places objects of
contempt. Sigismund I., the reigning sovereign, was a prince of noble
character and of enlightened mind; and he endeavored to promote a taste
for the sciences and the arts. Such a country appeared to be placed in
circumstances very favorable for the reception of the Gospel.
[Sidenote: Lutheranism In Poland.]
The Reformation had no sooner begun, than Luther’s writings arrived in
Poland, and laymen began to read them with eager interest. Some young
Germans, who had been students at Wittenberg, made known the Reformation
in the families in which they were engaged as tutors; and afterwards
they endeavored to propagate it among the flocks of which they became
pastors. Some young Poles flocked around Luther; and afterwards they
scattered abroad in their native land the seed which they had collected
at Wittenberg.
The Reformation naturally began in that part of Poland which lay nearest
to Germany, of which Posen is the capital. In 1524 Samuel, a Dominican
monk, attacked there the errors of the Roman Church. In 1525, John
Seclucyan preached the Gospel in the same district; and a powerful
family, the Gorkas, received him into their mansion, in which they had
already established evangelical worship, and gave him protection against
his persecutors.[619] This pious man availed himself of the leisure
afforded him by this Christian hospitality to translate the New
Testament into Polish. Alone, in the chamber in which he had been
obliged to take refuge, he accomplished, like Luther in the Wartburg, a
work which was to be the enlightening of many souls.
The Gospel did not stop here. Just as in a dark night one flash which
shines in the west is succeeded by another on the farthest borders of
the east, so the doctrine of salvation, after appearing in the west of
Poland, suddenly showed itself in the north, in the east, even as far as
Königsberg. From the still chamber in which John Seclucyan carried on
his valuable labors the Polish reveille transports us into a great,
flourishing, and populous town, to which foreigners in great numbers
resorted from all quarters. Dantzic, which then belonged to Poland,
became the principal focus of the Reformation in these lands. From 1518,
German merchants, attracted thither by the commerce and industry of the
city, took pleasure in recounting there the great discoveries which
Luther was making in the Bible. A pious, enlightened, decided man, named
Jacob Knade, a native of Dantzic, gave ear to the good news which the
Germans proclaimed and received them joyfully. He opened his house
immediately to all who wished to hear the same. His frank and open
disposition and his amiable address made it easy for any one to cross
the threshold of his abode. He did not confine himself to Christian
conversation. As he was an ecclesiastic, he began to preach in public
his faith in the church of St. Peter. He loved the Saviour and knew how
to make others love Him. To flowers he added fruit, and to good words
good works. Convinced that marriage is a divine institution, the object
of which is to preserve the holiness of life, he married. This act
raised a terrible storm. The enemies of the Reformation, persuaded that
if this example were followed the Church of Rome could not subsist, had
him thrown into prison.[620] Released after six months, he was compelled
to leave the town; and he would have wandered to and fro if a noble in
the neighborhood of Thorn had not offered him an asylum, as the Gorka
family had done to the evangelist of Posen. The nobles of Poland showed
themselves noble indeed; and in practising hospitality they entertained
angels unawares.[621]
The bishop of the diocese, of which Dantzic with its priests was a
dependency, awakened from their slumbers, tried all means of beating
back what they called _heresy_; and for this purpose they founded the
fraternity of the _Annunciation of Mary_, the members of which were
diligently to visit all persons who were spoken of as brought to the
Gospel. ‘Come now,’ they said to them, ‘return to the Catholic and
Apostolic Church, beyond whose pale there is no salvation.’ But the
evangelical work, instead of falling off, continued to increase. Various
divines had filled the post of Knade at Dantzic—the Hebraist
Böschenstein, a Carmelite, Binewald, and others.
[Sidenote: Doctor Alexander.]
The citizens would have no more of the Roman Church, on account of its
errors; and the common people scoffed at it, on account of its petty
practices. In the convent of the Franciscans there was a pious monk,
Doctor Alexander, who had gradually become convinced not only of
evangelical truth, but also of the necessity of preaching it. However,
he was no Luther. He was one of those placid, moderate, and somewhat
timid men who abstain from any thing which may provoke contradiction,
and are a little too much masters of themselves. He remained, therefore,
in his convent, continued attached to the Church, and preached the truth
seriously, but with great cautiousness. The more cultivated of the
inhabitants attended his preaching. There was a crowd of hearers, and
many were enlightened by his discourses. But some could not understand
why he did not separate from Rome. Some pious Christians, occasionally a
little enthusiastic, demanded that every thing should be changed,
without as well as within, and that an entirely new order should be
established in the Church. They were certainly not wrong to desire it,
but they did not understand that this new order must be established by
the faith of the heart, and not by the strength of the arm. One of
these, named Hegge,[622] preached in the open air outside the town. ‘To
bow down before images,’ he exclaimed, ‘is stupidity; nay more, it is
idolatry;’ and he induced his hearers to break the idols. Fortunately,
by the side of these iconoclasts there were some prudent evangelical
Christians who, perceiving like Luther that it was by the Word that all
needful change must be wrought, requested of the council that it might
be publicly preached. The council, which included the aristocracy of the
town, most of them Roman Catholics, and which was controlled by the
bishop, at first rejected this request. But, at length, finding that a
very large number of the inhabitants had embraced the Reformation, it
granted five churches for their use. From this time the two doctrines,
that of the Gospel and that of Rome, were both preached in the town.
Religious liberty existed, and the evangelicals were satisfied
therewith.
But the enthusiasts of whom we have spoken, who had not yet renounced
the intolerant theories which were and always will be held by Rome,[623]
wanted something else. ‘What,’ they said, ‘Christian churches filled
with images of men! A people bowing down to them! All the churches must
be cleared of images, and the Word of God must be established.’ The
council gave a decisive refusal. It appeared to these Christians that
the magistrates were thus placing themselves in opposition to the will
of God. It was, therefore, essential to have others. Although the town
was under the sovereignty of the king of Poland, it enjoyed a complete
independence in the management of its home affairs. Four thousand
Lutherans took advantage of this fact. They assembled, surrounded the
town-hall, and appointed other magistrates from among their own friends.
These officers required the priests to preach the Gospel, and to cast
things defiled out of the sanctuary. As the priests refused to do so,
the new council set evangelical ministers in their place, abolished the
Romish worship, converted the convents into schools and hospitals, and
declared that as the wealth of the church was public property, it should
remain untouched.[624]
[Sidenote: Church Organization.]
The subject of the organization of the Church in conformity with the
Holy Scriptures was now under discussion. These men of action found that
they knew very little about it, and they determined to invite Doctor
Pomeranus to go and perform this task. Pomeranus (Bugenhagen) was the
organizer and administrator of the Reformation. One of the Dantzic
pastors, Doctor John, set out for Wittenberg. On his arrival he betook
himself to Luther, delivered to him the letter with which he was
entrusted, and gave him an account of the reformation at Dantzic, of
course omitting its unpleasant features, and depicting it in the fairest
colors. ‘Oh,’ said the great man, ‘what wonderful things Christ has
wrought in that town!‘[625] The reformer, without delay, despatched the
news to Spalatin, adding, ‘I should rather that Pomeranus remained with
us; but as a matter of so much importance is at stake, for the love of
God we must yield.’ All were not of the same opinion. Pomeranus was so
valuable at Wittenberg. ‘Ah,’ replied the ardent reformer, ‘if I were
called, I would go immediately.’[626] The council of the university then
interfered. ‘Many foreign students,’ said the council, ‘come to
Wittenberg; we must therefore keep the men who are competent to train
useful ministers for other towns of Germany.’ Michael Hanstein was
chosen instead of Pomeranus. ‘If there be any changes to introduce,’
wrote the reformer when dismissing him, ‘images or other things to put
away, let it be done not by the people but by the regular action of the
council. We must not despise the powers that be.’[627]
This prudent counsel came too late. The reforms effected at Dantzic had
thrown the Roman Catholics into a state of distress; and amongst them
were to be found the most eminent men. What! no more images, no more
altars, no more masses, no more churches! Some of the members of the old
council were dispatched to ask aid of King Sigismund. They arrived at
the palace in carriages hung with black; they made their appearance
before the prince in mourning apparel, their heads encircled with crape,
as if the sovereign himself were dead; and on their countenances was the
expression of deep grief. They laid their grievances before the king,
and entreated him to save the town from the complete ruin with which it
seemed to be threatened and to re-establish the old order of things
abolished by the townsmen.
[Sidenote: Severity Of Sigismund.]
The king was struck by the appearance of these men wearing mourning for
the Church. Notwithstanding his remarkable capacities he did not see
that there could be any other religion than that in which he was born;
and he followed in this matter the advice of his prelates. He therefore
summoned the leaders of the reformed party. These men, however, while
professing their loyalty to the prince, did not appear at his call, and
were consequently outlawed. In April, 1526, Sigismund himself went to
Dantzic. Although a Roman Catholic, he was an opponent of persecution on
account of religion. Being urged on one occasion by John Eck to follow
the example of the king of England, who had just declared against the
Reformation, the king replied—‘Let Henry VIII. publish, if he like,
books against Luther; but I for my part will be the same to the goats
and to the sheep.’ But the present case was very different. The
reformers had laid hands on the State; a political body had been
overthrown. Sigismund was pitiless. The heads of the movement were
punished with confiscation of their property and banishment from Dantzic
or death. Every citizen who did not return to the Roman Church had to
leave the town in fifteen days; the married priests, monks and nuns, in
twenty-four hours. Every inhabitant was to deliver up Luther’s books.
The Roman worship was everywhere restored, and the church of St. Mary,
in particular, was given back to the Virgin by a solemn mass. The
Dantzic reformers thus paid dear for the mistake which they had made,
forgetting the great apostolical principle, ‘The weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God.’[628]
This persecution, however, did not extinguish faith in men’s hearts; it
purified them. Three years later, while a terrible epidemic was raging
at Dantzic, a pious minister, named Pancrace Klemme, proclaimed the
Gospel there, with love, power, and sobriety. The king broke out in
threatenings. Klemme declared that he would accept no other rule of
conduct or of teaching but the Word of God; and carrying on his work
vigorously he earned the title of the Dantzic Reformer. Sigismund,
struck with his wise procedure, and fearing lest this and other towns in
his dominions should ally themselves with evangelical Prussia, took no
notice. In the succeeding reign, the Gospel again triumphed in this
city, but without confusion, and without infringing on the liberty of
the Roman Catholics.
Thorn, a town situated like Dantzic on the Vistula, but further south,
and which afterwards played a somewhat important part in the history of
the Reformation, was also among the first to display its enthusiasm for
it. At a Diet held in this town in 1520, the king issued an ordinance
against Luther. In the following year, the pope and the bishop of
Kamienez having determined to get an effigy of the reformer publicly
burnt, some partisans of the illustrious doctor, rather hasty no doubt,
finding that his enemies resorted to fire for the purpose of convincing
them, took up stones and threw them at the prelates and their adherents.
These disturbances were renewed in other shapes, but ultimately every
thing settled down; and a few years later the Gospel was regularly
preached in the churches.
It might have been said that the Vistula bore the Reformation on its
waters; for we have found it at Thorn and at Dantzic, and we find it
also at the old capital of the kingdom, Cracow. A secretary of the king,
named Louis Dietz, afterwards burgomaster of this town, having visited
Wittenberg in 1522, came back full of what he had seen and heard, and
distributed his new treasure freely on his return. Many of the
inhabitants then embraced the doctrine of the Reformation. The
university appears to have been the centre from which the light
radiated. Luther’s works were publicly offered for sale, and every body
wanted to know what was in them. Theologians, students and townsmen
bought and read them eagerly, and the professors did not disapprove
them. Modrzewski, a writer of that time, has narrated what occurred in
his own case. Impelled simply by curiosity, he began to read the books
unconcernedly; but as he went on, the seriousness, the truth, and the
life which he found in them interested him more and more. When he had
come to the end, the opinions of the Roman tradition had given place in
his mind to the truths of the Gospel.
[Sidenote: A Secret Society.]
There was in Poland a party which held a middle ground between
enthusiasm on the one side and opposition to it on the other. The
educated classes were very generally at this time in a state of doubt,
hesitating between the two doctrines. A secret society was formed,
composed of well-informed men, both laymen and churchmen, whose object
was to read and to discuss the evangelical publications. The queen
herself, Bona Sforza, was one of these investigators. She had for her
confessor a learned Italian monk, one Lismanini, who received all the
antipapistical books published in the various countries of Europe, and
transmitted them to the society of examiners. The queen was sometimes
present at the conferences. It was not till a later day, however, that
this association rose into far greater importance.[629]
The number of people decided in favor of reform was continually
increasing. The university, the library, the cathedral, and even the
bishop’s palace resounded with theological discussions between the
partisans of tradition and those of Holy Scripture. The students
especially were enthusiastic for Luther. The bishop, alarmed and bent on
applying some remedy, summoned a professor whose ultramontane orthodoxy
was unimpeachable, and explained his fears to him. The professor, all
afire with zeal, ascended the pulpit and delivered before the students
several very animated sermons against Luther and his Reformation.[630]
But it was to no purpose that he did so. The doctrine thus attacked was
constantly propagated farther and wider. Fabian de Lusignan, bishop of
Ermeland in the palatinate of Marienburg, was friendly to it; and other
bishops besides were believed to have leanings to Wittenberg.
A fresh circumstance occurred to give this doctrine powerful support.
Albert, duke of Prussia Proper, whose seat was at Königsberg, had been
enlightened, as we have noticed, by the preaching of Osiander at
Nürnberg; and he had become the protector of evangelical doctrine in the
towns of Poland in his neighborhood. Luther rejoicing at the news wrote
to the bishop of Samland—‘In Albert, that illustrious hero, you have a
prince full of zeal for the Gospel; and now the people of Prussia, who
perhaps had never known the Gospel, or at least had only heard a
falsified version of it, are in possession of it in all its
brightness.’[631]
Ere long the Reformation reached Livonia, and Luther was filled with joy
to hear that ‘_God was there also beginning his marvellous works_.’
Luther was, so to speak, the bishop of the new churches, and his
powerful words came to them to guide and strengthen. In August, 1523, he
wrote to the Christians of Riga, Revel, and other places in that
country—‘Be sure there will come wolves who will want to lead you back
into Egypt, to the devilish and false worship. From this Christ has
delivered you. Take heed therefore that ye be not carried away. Be
assured that Christ alone is eternally our Lord, our priest, our
teacher, our bishop, our Saviour, and our comforter, against sin,
against sorrow, against death, and against every thing that is hurtful
to us.’[632]
Directing our attention further to the east and the north, we see
Russia, of which we shall have something to say in connection with
Poland, and which did not see till a later day any disciples of the
Reformation, and these almost all foreigners. Nevertheless, at the time
of Luther’s rising against the captivity of the Church, there was also
in these lands a movement in the direction of the Bible. The sacred
writings, transcribed by ignorant copyists, had been gradually altered,
and the sense had been corrupted. In 1520, the Czar Vassili Ivanovich
applied to the monks of Mount Athos to send him a doctor competent to
restore the true text. Maximus, a Greek monk, well acquainted with the
Greek and the Slavonic languages, arrived at Moscow. He was received
with much respect, and he spent ten years in correcting the Slave
version by the original text. But the Russian priests, ignorant and
superstitious, were jealous of his superiority. They accused him of
altering the sacred books with a view to introduce _a new doctrine_; and
the doctor was consigned to a convent.[633] The Greek or Russian Church
unhappily remained outside the circle of the Reformation.
Footnote 612:
Luther, _Werke_, xix. p. 554. (Walch.)
Footnote 613:
Luther, _Epp._, ad Nic. Haussmannum.
Footnote 614:
Luther, _Werke_, xix. p. 1593. (Walch.)
Footnote 615:
_Apologia veræ doctrinæ eorum qui appellantur Waldenses vel Picardi._
(Zurich, 1532. Wittenberg, 1538.)
Footnote 616:
‘Sed liberrimum vestrum sit et omnium judicium.’—Luther, _Epp._ ii. p.
452.
Footnote 617:
Krasinski, _Hist. relig. des peuples Slaves_, p. 114.
Footnote 618:
Krasinski, _Hist. relig. des peuples Slaves_, pp. 115, 116.
Footnote 619:
Fischer, _Reform in Polen_, i. p. 44.
Footnote 620:
Schroeckh, _Reform_, ii. p. 671.
Footnote 621:
Heb. xiii. 2.
Footnote 622:
Hartknoch, _Preussische Kirchenhistorie_, p. 654.
Footnote 623:
See the _Syllabus_.
Footnote 624:
Hartknoch, _Preussische Kirchenhistorie_, pp. 565-568. Krasinski,
_Hist. relig. des peuples Slaves_, chap, vi. p. 119.
Footnote 625:
‘Mira quæ in Dantziko operatus est Christus.’—Luther, _Epp._ ii. p.
642.
Footnote 626:
‘Sed statim irem.’—Luther, _Epp._ ii p. 642.
Footnote 627:
Luther to the Dantzic Council, May 5, 1525.—_Epp._ ii. p. 656.
Footnote 628:
2 Cor. x. 4. Krasinski, _Hist. relig. des Peuples Slaves_, chap. vi.
p. 120.
Footnote 629:
Krasinski, _Hist. relig. des Peuples Slaves_, vi. p. 121.
Footnote 630:
Friese, _Kirchengeschichte Polens_, ii. p. 64.
Footnote 631:
Luther to the Bishop of Samland, April, 1525.—_Epp._ ii. p. 449.
Footnote 632:
Luther to the Christians of Livonia, April, 1523.—_Epp._ ii. p. 374.
Footnote 633:
Krasinski, _Hist. relig. des peuples Slaves_, chap. xiv. p. 261.
CHAPTER VII.
THE POLISH REFORMER.
(1524-1527.)
In Poland, hitherto, it is only secondary workers, if we may so speak,
that we have met with. The country was, however, to possess in one of
her own sons a man worthy to rank with the reformers, and whose ambition
it would be to see his native land enlightened by the Gospel. Unhappily,
during his best years, the storm of persecution drove him to a distance
from her.
[Sidenote: John Alasco.]
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, there was in Poland a noble
and wealthy family, whose rare privilege it was to count among its
members several distinguished men. The foremost of these, John, baron
Alasco, was archbishop of Gnesen (Gniezno), capital of Great Poland, and
at the same time primate of the kingdom. He was a man endowed with a
noble character, a friend of the sciences, devoted to his country, the
legislation of which he had striven to improve, in favor at court, and
an avowed enemy to the Reformation. He had three nephews, brothers, who
were very distinguished men in their day. The eldest, Stanislaus, was
minister plenipotentiary of Poland in France under Francis I.; and he
discharged the same functions at the court of Austria. Yaroslav (or
Jerome), a learned and eminent writer, was active also in political
affairs, and played an important part in the disputes between Austria
and Turkey. The third brother was named John, like his uncle, and was
born at Warsaw in 1499. He dedicated himself to the priesthood, studied
with distinction, under the superintendence of the primate, and
according to some authorities was intended to succeed him.[634]
At twenty-five John was still attached to the Roman Catholic faith; but
he was one of those spirits which are sensitive to the noble voice of
truth and freedom, when once it is heard. The principles maintained by
the Vaudois, by Wycliffe and the Hussites, had prepared Poland, as
already related, for the reception of ideas more Christian and more
liberal than those of the papacy. The young John Alasco had felt this
influence; and although he still held to Roman unity, and was prejudiced
against the work of Luther, he believed, nevertheless, that there was
something good in the movement for reformation which was then stirring
all Europe. He wished to be a nearer spectator of the movement. Erasmus
was at this time his ideal. This great scholar, while remaining in the
Catholic Church, boldly contended against its abuses, and strove to
diffuse everywhere more light. About 1524 Alasco quitted Poland for the
purpose of visiting the courts and the most famous universities of
Europe, and above all Erasmus.
The young Polish noble did not swim with the stream which was at this
time carrying so many young men to Wittenberg and to Luther. He was at
present too much attached to the Roman Church, and his uncle, the
primate, was even more so. He therefore shaped his course at first, as
it seems, for Louvain, which the archbishop must have recommended to him
in preference to Wittenberg. But if he were really at Louvain at this
epoch, the scholastic and fanatical Catholicism of the university led
him immediately to seek more enlightened teaching elsewhere. It is
indeed stated that at Louvain he formed a friendship with Albert
Hardenberg.[635] He might at a later time have learned much from this
theologian, so distinguished for his knowledge, his penetrating
intellect, and his amiable manners. But in 1523 Hardenberg was only
thirteen, and he remained till 1530 in the convent of Aduwert, in the
province of Groningen. It was, therefore, at a subsequent period that
these two men became close friends.
[Sidenote: Alasco And Zwinglius.]
The first reformer with whom we find Alasco brought into connection is
Zwinglius. On his arrival at Zurich in 1525, it was natural that Alasco
should wish to see the Swiss reformer, who was himself the disciple and
friend of Erasmus. It was the time when Zwinglius was resisting Manz
Grebel and other enthusiastic sectaries. This might encourage Alasco,
who was at present a Catholic, to seek acquaintance with him. Zwinglius,
when this young nobleman of the North was introduced to him, lost no
time in pointing out the source at which he must seek for the truth.
‘Apply yourself,’ said he, ‘to the study of the sacred writings.’[636]
Alasco was struck with these words. He had already held intercourse with
many doctors at Louvain and elsewhere, ‘but,’ said he ‘this man was the
first who bade me search the Scriptures.’[637] The more he reflected and
the more he practised this precept, so much the more he began to
discover the new way that leadeth unto life. He felt the power of that
word, and acknowledged that it came from God.[638] Zwinglius went a step
farther. He called upon Alasco _to forsake the papal superstition and to
be converted to the Gospel_.[639]
But the nephew of the primate of Poland was not inclined, at this time,
to follow the advice of Zwinglius. He was desirous of devoting his
powers to the service of his country, in which he was sure to hold an
influential position. It was not the episcopal mitre and its
accompanying honors which attracted him. It was the hope of diffusing in
the Church knowledge and piety. To attain this end he was persuaded that
he ought to remain within the pale of the Church.
However this might be, Zwinglius had given him the first impulse. He had
received at Zurich the touch which comes from above, and which impels
men to seek for the truth in the Bible. He appears to have spent some
time at Zurich. He often remembered Zwinglius with gratitude; and when
he saw the reformer attacked, calumniated, and after his death
represented as the worst of all enthusiasts, Alasco, who had been a
witness of his conflicts with lawless men, bravely undertook his
defence. ‘Doctrines are attributed to him,’ he said, ‘of which he never
had a thought, and which are even contrary to those contained in his own
writings.’[640]
Alasco passed through Zurich, he tells us, on his way to France.[641] It
was natural, however, that on going to Basel he should see Erasmus,
whose acquaintance he had so greatly desired to make. His visit to the
king of the schools, therefore, must have followed immediately his visit
to the reformer.[642]
[Sidenote: Alasco’s Visit To Erasmus.]
Erasmus was highly esteemed in Poland. Several grandees of the kingdom
had shown him marks of their good-will, and had also made him kind
presents. Alasco brought him letters from his friends; and there was in
himself a grace and a modesty which might well have sufficed without any
other recommendation. The scholar received him with much kindness and
even with warm feeling. The young man pleased him, and he invited him to
stay in his house. For the Polish student this was a most tempting
offer, and he accepted it. The illustrious Dutchman might have
entertained some scruples about offering to a young lord from the north
his modest abode, and his manner of life, so plain and devoid of
luxuries. But Erasmus did not think of this; and Alasco saw in the visit
an opportunity of procuring for this eminent man some comfort and
enjoyments. He had been, according to the custom of the church, richly
provided from his earliest years with titles and benefices; and he was
travelling, like the young nobles of the time, with a well-filled purse.
He therefore took upon himself, with true Polish liberality, the
household expenses during the stay which he was to make there; and he
did every thing on a grand scale. He set himself also to provide for the
literary tastes of Erasmus with as much generosity as delicacy.[643]
Alasco thus spent several months in familiar intercourse with this great
man; and, aware of the ties which still bound Erasmus to the papal
system, he gave himself up the more confidingly to the impressions
produced on him by his fine genius in their daily intercourse. He broke
off more and more from that dark Catholicism, that intolerant monachism,
which Erasmus had long before lashed with his biting irony. The
influence of Erasmus was of even higher importance. The Bible, and
particularly the New Testament had been the special objects of his
labors. Observing the serious disposition of John Alasco, he advised him
to study the Holy Scriptures, thus urging him along the same path which
Zwinglius had pointed out.
It is not enough, said Erasmus, in their frequent conversations, to aim
at holding an important place in the church. It is necessary to acquire
fitness for it, to study sound theology, and to seek for true religion
in the Gospel. Alasco gave his complete assent to a truth so just, and
he felt ashamed of himself. He was aspiring to the office of a priest,
of a bishop, probably even of primate; and he had taken little thought
about either the faith or [Sidenote: His Study Of The Scriptures.] the
knowledge which such a position demands. He set to work, and at a later
day he said to a reformer—‘It was Erasmus who led me to devote myself to
holy things; it was he who first began to instruct me in true
religion,’[644] He does not appear, however, to have found at this time
in Holy Scripture the deepest truth of the Christian faith. Erasmus
himself had not completely sounded this depth. He preferred the Gospel
to scholasticism; but he was filled at the same time with excessive
admiration for the Greeks and Romans, and could hardly help, he says
himself, often crying out—‘Holy Socrates, pray for us!’ It was exactly
at this time that this great man was engaged in a conflict with Luther,
and published his _Diatribe on the freedom of the will_, in which he
greatly reduced the power of divine grace. However, no man in his day
had acquired so universal a culture. Being near Erasmus was for Alasco
the best stimulus to progress in his studies. The young man resolved to
begin with Hebrew and the Old Testament; and at Basel he found the
necessary assistance. Conrad Pellican, a native of Elsass, who had
entered at an early age into the Franciscan order, had all alone in his
cell made himself master of the Hebrew language; and in 1502, while he
was still only twenty-four years of age, he had been named professor of
theology, and afterwards warden of his monastery. Light gradually arose
in his mind; and as early as 1512 Pellican and his friend Capito had
arrived at the perception of the simplicity and spirituality of the
Lord’s Supper. In 1523, at the request of some eminent citizens of
Basel, he had substituted, for masses read and sung without end in the
chapel, the daily exposition of the Holy Scriptures; and he had
persevered in this course, in spite of the complaints of the most
bigoted monks, who continually cried out that exposition of Scripture on
weekdays savored strongly of Lutheranism! By this man Alasco was
initiated in the knowledge of Hebrew and of the Old Testament. He
profited at the same time by intercourse with other eminent men who were
then at Basel; among whom were Glareanus,[645] a great master of the
Greek and Latin languages, and Oecolampadius, who devoted himself
especially to establishing the essential foundations of the faith,
without wasting time over subordinate differences. Alasco, on his part,
endeavored to be of service to these scholars. He was their young
Mæcenas, and he particularly encouraged Glareanus by generous subsidies.
To him Glareanus afterwards dedicated one of his books.[646] He found
unspeakable happiness in his intercourse with men at once so pious and
so accomplished; and this communion of mind, of ideas and sentiments
often recurred to his remembrance. ‘It is always with great joy of heart
that I recall to mind our life at Basel,’ he wrote twenty years later to
one of those whom he had known there.[647] Erasmus was hardly less
pleased with the young Pole. This prince of letters used to speak of him
when writing to his friends. In a letter of October 7, 1525, addressed
to Egnatius, we read—‘We have here John Alasco, a Pole. He is a man of
illustrious family, and will soon occupy the highest rank. His morals
are pure as the snow. He has all the brilliancy of gems and gold.’[648]
Charmed with the society of Alasco, Erasmus wrote almost at the same
time to Casimbrotus—‘This worthy Pole is a young man, learned but free
from pride, full of talent but without arrogance, of a disposition so
frank, loving, and agreeable, that his charming company has almost made
me young again at a time when sickness, hard work, and the annoyance
occasioned by my detractors well-nigh made me pine away.’[649] To
Lupsetus likewise he wrote—‘The Polish count, who will soon obtain in
his own land the highest position, has manners so easy, so open, and so
cordial, that his company day by day makes me young again.’
Erasmus evidently had no doubt that Alasco would one day, and that very
soon, be primate of Poland.[650] ‘A glorious ancestry,’ said he further,
‘high rank, prospects the most brilliant, a mind of wonderful richness,
uncommon extent of knowledge ... and with all this there is about him
not the faintest taint of pride. The sweetness of his disposition puts
him in harmony with every one. He has at the same time the steadfastness
of a grown man and the solid judgment of an old man.’ We could not pass
over in silence this impression produced by Alasco on the greatest
critic of the age.
[Sidenote: Alasco’s Return To Poland.]
This delightful intercourse was suddenly broken up. The news reached
Poland that Alasco was living at Basel, not only in the house of
Erasmus, but in the society of the reformers. His friends were alarmed.
It was their wish that he should mix with the fashionable world and
attend king’s courts, rather than the meetings of those who were looked
upon as heretics. He received letters from Poland, enjoining him to
leave Basel, as the king called him to important affairs.[651] Alasco
was deeply grieved. ‘I shall never be able sufficiently to deplore,’
said he afterwards, ‘that the happy connections which I had formed at
Basel were at that time broken off by the authority of my
superiors.’[652] While the young Pole was preparing to mount his
horse,[653] Erasmus wrote to one of his friends, a bishop—‘His departure
is the death-blow to Erasmus and to many others, so many regrets he
leaves behind him.’ Erasmus did not venture to detain him, since the
order was from the king. Alasco at his departure entreated Erasmus to
enter into correspondence with the king of Poland, in the hope that much
good to his country might result therefrom. The great writer could not
be comforted under his loss. To Reginald Pole he wrote—‘The Polish
baron, John Alasco, who made me so happy by his society, at this moment
afflicts me cruelly by his departure.’[654] In March, 1526, Erasmus
wrote to Alasco himself, to whom he gives, in a half-serious,
half-jocose tone, the title of Highness: ‘I have been compelled to make
great efforts for some months,’ says he, ‘to bring back my house,
corrupted by your magnificence, to its old frugality.[655] Through all
the autumn and all the winter I have done nothing but struggle with
accounts and calculations. This is but a small matter. Other
difficulties have beset me in which I could easily perceive that my good
genius had left me.’ It does not appear from this letter of Erasmus that
the great affairs spoken of in the letter to Alasco from Poland had been
entrusted to him. The message was perhaps a mere decoy.
It is supposed that Alasco went next to the court of Francis I., where
his brother Stanislaus was residing, as ambassador of Poland. His own
name, the letter of which he was the bearer, and the amiability of his
character sufficed to ensure him at this brilliant court the most kindly
reception. At a later period he corresponded with Margaret of Navarre,
the king’s sister. Perhaps their acquaintance may date from this period.
We feel some doubt, however, as to the course Alasco took on leaving
Basel. Possibly he made a short stay at Paris, or he may have gone to
Italy. A letter of Erasmus written four months after his departure is
addressed to Venice. The great author tells him that till that time he
had not known where to write to him. ‘Nobody, not even a fly,’[656] said
he, ‘went hence to Venice. We were in complete uncertainty as to what
part of the world contained you, whether Spain, France, or Poland.’ His
family appear indeed to have wished that he should visit France and
Spain; but Alasco himself seems to have been chiefly bent on visiting
Italy. Among his admirers was a distinguished scholar, Beatus Rhenanus,
who, having dedicated one of his works to him, sent the dedication to
him, in February, 1526, to Padua, where he believed him to be immersed
in scientific pursuits. But the young Mæcenas was by this time on his
way back to Poland.
[Sidenote: His Struggles.]
After returning to his native land, Alasco had severe struggles to pass
through. His family were anxious at any cost to turn him away from his
new notions and his new friends. What a scandal, what a sorrow, to see
the nephew of the primate, his destined successor too, uniting with the
sectaries of Zurich, Basel, and other places beside! His kinsfolk
thought that if they could induce him to enter upon the diplomatic
career, this would be the surest way to turn him away from the
evangelical path. It appears, indeed, that he was designated to
undertake more than one mission of this kind; but his fondness for
study, his feeble health, and doubtless the new faith which was
springing up in his heart, prevented him from accepting them. If he
escaped from these temptations he was ere long exposed to others. His
uncle, as we said, was a courtier. Before he was primate he had been
arch-chancellor of the kingdom, and had lived in close intimacy with the
kings Casimir IV., John Albert, and Alexander. People fancied that the
high sphere in which he moved would rescue Alasco from his strange
tastes.
The rank of the young Pole, his family connections, his travels, the
charm of his character and his handsome person not only procured him
admission to the court circle, but made him much sought after. His
forehead expressed decision; his eye was clear and keenly observant; his
lips, curved and slightly parted, expressed a candid and affectionate
nature; a full and elegant beard flowed over his chest. At first the
court had some attractions for him. He mixed there with the first
society, cultivated men and amiable women; but he soon found that this
gay and worldly manner of life was a dissipation to his mind, turned him
aside from higher things, took up his time, and kept him away from
study. The interests, the talk, and the prepossessions of this worldly
company stood in marked opposition to the quiet and studious tastes by
which he had hitherto been influenced. Sometimes nothing was talked of
but Turkish invasions, the dangers impending over Hungary and Austria,
the wars, and the deep-seated uneasiness and agitations of Europe. At
other times it was pleasure, worldliness, and frivolous conversation,
the theatre and the dance, which appeared to take up the whole interest
of this brilliant society. Alasco shrank from the risk of being drawn
away into vanities by these dangerous attractions. He questioned within
himself how it was that these great lords, who were pressing into the
palace of the last but one of the Jagellons, who sought after the good
graces of princes, and took care not to miss a single feast at court or
in the town, took no thought for their eternal warfare. He was not only
struck with the passionate eagerness with which they sought after
grandeur and pleasure, the pomp of an age which passeth away; but,
penetrating more deeply into their minds, he perceived their dissembled
hatred, concealed interests, burning jealousies, treacherous intrigues,
and divisions ready to break out. He took no pleasure in the air, the
tone, or the manner of life which he saw around him. Every one was
outwardly as polished as marble, and inwardly as hard. He had some
difficulty, nevertheless, in tearing himself away from the claims and
the allurements which encircled him. He deeply regretted afterwards
having lost in the life of the court time which, if it had been spent in
study, would have yielded him so much good.[657]
A decay of Christian faith was thus experienced by Alasco. When he
returned to his native land, he had brought there in his heart the
precious germ of a new life, still weak indeed, but which would have
borne fruit if it had been tenderly fostered. Contact with the world
stifled it, as thorns choke the wheat when it begins to form. Alasco
wavered while he was at court. He had all kinds of excuses. He said to
himself that the illustrious Erasmus did not break with old things,
although they did not completely satisfy him; and he wished to imitate
him. The evangelical Church appeared to him weak and contemptible,
compared with the grandeur of Rome.
[Sidenote: His Falling Away.]
One of the causes of his falling away was the reception given him on his
arrival in Poland. In some cases it was cold, in others sarcastic, and
in several instances angry. All sorts of rumors were in circulation
about him at the court, in the town, in the vestry, and the convents.
The most bigoted Catholics took advantage of these reports, and went to
communicate them to the archbishop. It was asserted that he brought back
a wife with him, and of course a heretical wife. His uncle the primate
received him with frowns. ‘I am assured, sir,’ said he, ‘that you have
married in Germany, and have there given your adhesion to the Lutheran
doctrine.’ Alasco was in consternation, and he protested that he had not
even had any thought of marrying.[658] Accustomed to reverence the
archbishop both as a father and as primate, he was intimidated, and he
strove to vindicate himself by going as far as his conscience permitted
him. There was an awakening in his soul, but he had not joined any
definite sect; and, with respect to his marriage, it was nothing but a
ridiculous fable invented by the priests to ruin him. Of this he so
thoroughly convinced his uncle that nothing more was said of it. It was
not so, however, with regard to doctrine. The primate was sincerely
devoted to the court of Rome. He had attended, in 1513, the fifth
General Council of the Lateran, had spoken there in the presence of Leo
X., and had received for himself and his successors the dignity of
legate of the Apostolic See. He had always displayed much zeal as
archbishop and prince, and had convoked not less than six provincial
synods. Various decrees, canons, and writings bore testimony to his
opposition to the Reformation.[659] Hence, the young Alasco, although
Erasmus had characterized him as head of piety, patron of knowledge,
model of morality, and bishop of peace, must expect on his part a
rigorous _surveillance_.
The alleged misdeeds of Alasco had made much noise in Poland. The
primate could not reconcile himself to the thought of finding a heretic
in his nephew. He resolved to subject him to an examination. For this
purpose he judged it proper to associate with himself another bishop, so
that he might not lay himself open to a charge of too much indulgence.
He therefore requested the bishop of Cracow to take part with him in the
investigation.[660]
To Alasco this was the most painful moment of his life. On the one hand,
he knew that the evangelical doctors of Basel would have wished to see
him openly confess evangelical truth. But, on the other hand, he asked
himself whether it was right to go further than his convictions, and
whether he could call for a reformation the absolute necessity for which
he did not yet acknowledge. By these considerations, which partly
originated in respect for men, he was restrained. He did something more
than hesitate; he yielded to the influence of his uncle, the light was
darkened within him, and the world resumed its sway. Surrounded by
zealous partisans of Rome, these men succeeded by their sophistry in
persuading him of the necessity of continuance in the unity of the
Church.
Alasco made his appearance before the archbishop and the bishop; and,
full of respect for these persons of high dignity, he delivered to them
the declaration, in his own handwriting, which his uncle had required of
him, introducing into it, however, some reservations.
[Sidenote: Renunciation Of Reform.]
‘I, John Alasco,’ runs the document, ‘hearing that I have been falsely
represented by my enemies as accepting certain suspected dogmas, foreign
to the holy Catholic, apostolic, and Roman Church, I think it necessary
to declare that, although I have read, with the apostolic permission,
many writings of many authors, particularly some writings of those who
have separated from the unity of the Church, I have never attached
myself to any of their opinions, and I have never embraced knowingly or
willingly[661] any of their doctrines, especially if I knew that the
Roman Catholic Church rejected them. And if through imprudence (we are
all men) I have fallen into any error,[662] which has often happened in
the case of the most learned and the most pious persons, I now fully and
explicitly renounce it. I sincerely profess that I have no intention of
following any sect or doctrine foreign to the unity and the doctrines of
the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church, that I embrace only what is
approved by her, and am willing as long as I live to obey, in all lawful
and honest things,[663] the Holy See and our ordinary prelates and
bishops appointed by it.[664] This I swear, so help me God and His holy
Gospel.’
This declaration Alasco signed. It bears date in 1526. It has been
generally omitted in the narratives of his life, perhaps because it was
considered injurious to him. There was, indeed, a falling back in the
spiritual life of the young man. It must not, however, be forgotten that
he stood at this time not on the pure and steadfast rock of the Gospel,
but at the wavering point of view of Erasmus. However this may be,
historical fidelity compels us to recall this act of Alasco. As soon as
with the heart he believed unto righteousness, he made confession of the
Lord with the mouth unto salvation. But what religion Alasco possessed
at this period was the fruit of knowledge, not of faith. Now, ‘the seat
of faith,’ says Calvin, ‘is not in the brain but in the heart. It is
absurd to look for heat and flame where there is no fire.’
This oath taken by Alasco was, like his worldliness, a real fall.
Alasco, although he spoke of remaining in the Catholic Church, had not
become a superstitious papist. He kept up the most intimate association
with Erasmus. Even after his oath, and although the Rotterdam scholar
was an object of hatred to many in Poland, Alasco boldly avowed himself
his disciple.[665] He even cherished the hope that his illustrious
friend would deliver him from the servitude which he was enduring. One
notion haunted him. He believed that, if Erasmus wrote to the King of
Poland,[666] the prince, who was of a noble character and had an
enlightened understanding, could not fail to deliver his country from
Romish superstition. Alasco therefore urged him to write to Sigismund.
‘He shows so much earnestness about this matter,’ thought Erasmus, ‘that
there must be some reasons for doing it.’ He therefore wrote to the
king, June 1, 1527, but so far as appears without any great result.[667]
[Sidenote: Honors.]
The primate, satisfied with his nephew’s declaration, made him provost
or head of the chapter of his cathedral church, _præpositus Gnesnensis_.
This was a first step towards the primacy;[668] and it was not long
before he was invested with other dignities. But these very dignities,
which placed him in habitual contact with the Roman clergy and Roman
superstitions, made him all the more sensible of the need of
reformation, and he was grieved to see that no one thought of such a
thing. The more he saw of the indifference and even hostility of his
uncle and of the king himself to the pure Gospel, the more he felt the
worth of it. The pomps and excitements of the court, the honor and the
burden of dignities, appeared to have stifled the new life within him.
But no plant which the heavenly Father has planted can be rooted up. On
the contrary, the divine plant, under the vivifying influence of the Sun
of righteousness, was now growing up in Alasco’s heart. He read the
writings of Melanchthon, and particularly his beautiful _Apology for the
Confession of Augsburg_. He entered afterwards into correspondence with
that amiable and learned doctor. He also sent some young Poles to study
under him at Wittenberg. The discussion on freewill between Erasmus and
Luther, the beginning of which he had seen at Basel, interested him
deeply. He wrote to Breslau asking that every work on the subject,
written either by Luther or by Erasmus, should be sent him.[669] One
fact marks a secret advance in Alasco,—that, whereas he had at first
been on the side of Erasmus, he now leaned to Luther’s side. The more
progress he made in the knowledge of his own heart and of the Holy
Scriptures, the more clearly he saw the abyss which lies between a man’s
own righteousness, even in the case of the most moral man, and the
perfect holiness of God. He felt that he was incapable of obtaining by
his own strength the joy of salvation, or even of going to meet the
grace which is given by Jesus Christ. God who had called did not abandon
him. In the midst of all the seductions which surrounded him, he was
brought to place all his hopes and to seek all his strength in the mercy
of the Saviour. ‘The grace of God alone has kept me,’ he said; ‘but for
that, I should have fallen into all kinds of evil, and no human wisdom
would have saved me from it. I should have been the most wretched of men
if the divine mercy had not saved me!‘[670]
In proportion as Alasco attached himself by the strongest ties to the
Gospel, the artificial ties which had drawn him back to the Church, and
those which had united him to Erasmus, were loosened. He was shocked by
this saying of the illustrious writer, ‘that the Gospel in Germany and
in Switzerland rested on bad foundations.’ Even in 1527 Erasmus wrote to
an Englishman, Cox, that the daily experience which he had had of the
character of John Alasco was sufficient to make him happy even though he
should have no other friend.[671] Nevertheless, the continually
increasing decision of Alasco chilled the heart of the scholar. The
recurrence of the name of the young Pole gradually becomes less frequent
in the letters of Erasmus. This coolness must have been painful but
useful to Alasco.
Another circumstance contributed to make him stronger and freer in his
progress and in the development of his faith. His uncle died in 1531.
The primate had exercised over him the authority not only of an official
superior but of a father; and the prolongation of his life might have
delayed the definitive enfranchisement of his nephew. Nothing was said
about making Alasco primate in his stead. He was too young for such an
office, and there were too many prejudices against him.
[Sidenote: Growth Of Spiritual Insight.]
Alasco does not stand in the first rank of the men of the Reformation.
But in one respect he surpassed them all, and this by reason of the
state of life in which it pleased God that he should be born. He knew
better than any one what it was to sacrifice for Jesus Christ the world
with its dignities and its favors; and he did this with a noble courage.
No sooner was the bandage, which for some time had been placed over his
eyes, removed, than he felt abhorrence of bondage. Nothing in the world
could make him bow his head under the yoke; and he became one of the
most beautiful examples of moral freedom presented in the sixteenth
century. It was evident to him that he must give up the thought of
reforming Poland. He saw obstacles increasing, and henceforth
acknowledged ‘that wherever the kingdom of Christ begins to appear, it
is impossible for Satan to slumber or fail to display immediately his
craft and his rage.’[672] He would fain have conquered his native land
for Jesus Christ; but he saw the way barred by fortresses and armies.
His position became intolerable. To be surrounded by abuses which
dishonor the moral teachings of Jesus Christ and to tolerate them was in
his view blasphemy. He would have liked to assail them straightway one
after the other, ‘to seize a powerful hammer and crush those
stones.’[673] The office of the true teacher, he thought, was to
admonish each one of the duty which he was bound to discharge. But, said
he, if the man whom you wish to admonish will not allow you to do so; if
he enjoins deference to his own will, is this fulfilling one’s ministry
with freedom?[674] In Poland, he who gave such commands was the king.
Now, the motto of Alasco was ‘_Liberty_.’
But the greatest temptations were still to come. John Alasco, we have
said, had a brother, Yaroslav, who played an important part in the
affairs of Hungary. Aware of the obstacles which his brother had to
encounter in Poland, and desirous no doubt of keeping him in the church,
Yaroslav conceived the project of settling him on the freer soil of
Hungary, and he got him appointed, in 1536, bishop of Wesprim.[675] But
Sigismund, on hearing this news, stood upon the point of honor. He had a
mind too lofty not to appreciate the fine qualities of Alasco, and he
was not willing that such a man should be lost to his kingdom. As he had
no doubt that episcopal honors would be a bond to attach him to Rome, he
named him bishop of Cujavia. Dignities were showered upon the head of
the young disciple of Jesus Christ. Will he yield, like Roussel
accepting the bishopric of Oléron? Will he bend the knee before the idol
of honor and of power?
The position was a dangerous one. This collation to two bishoprics was a
way opened for arriving at the highest dignities. Called by two kings,
he might easily rise higher. The influence of kings was powerful in the
church. John Alasco was at this time enlightened, and it appears that
some extraordinary grace had been given him from on high. The work
formerly begun in him had been resumed and even accomplished. ‘God in
His goodness,’ said he, ‘has again brought me to myself; and from the
midst of the pharisaism in which I was lost, He has recalled me in a
marvellous way to His true knowledge. To Him be the glory!‘[676] He did
not hesitate. ‘Brought to my right mind by the goodness of God,’ he
says, ‘I will now serve, with what little strength I possess, that
church of Christ which I hated in the time of my ignorance and my
pharisaism.’ He was convinced that he could not serve God while
remaining in union with Rome, and was determined to follow the voice of
his conscience alone. In the same year, 1536, in which Calvin, at
Ferrara, wrote to his old friend Roussel his beautiful letter[677]
pointing out to him the duty of a Christian man and calling upon him to
refuse the favors of the pope, Alasco, at Cracow, was about to take
practically the step which the reformer extolled in theory, and not only
to refuse the episcopal mitres which were offered him, but also to
resign the advantageous and honorable ecclesiastical functions with
which he was already invested.
[Sidenote: Departure From Poland.]
He went to the king, stated to him his convictions, and told him that
they prevented his accepting the episcopal charge of Cujavia and that he
was going to leave Poland. Sigismund, although regretting his loss, does
not appear to have disapproved his plan. The king saw clearly what kind
of doctrine it was for which the young man wished to live, and he would
rather that he should not profess it within his dominions. He even gave
him letters of introduction which were probably never delivered. It was
not Alasco’s intention to renounce Poland forever. He hoped that a time
would come when he might return and freely proclaim the Gospel there. He
tenderly loved his native land, and never settled in any place without
imposing the condition that he should be at liberty to return to his own
country if he might preach Christ there. As he could not labor for the
reformation of Poland by preaching in Poland itself, he labored for it
in foreign lands by prayer.
Having returned from the palace, Alasco made preparation for his
departure. His heart was stirred by the deepest emotion. He saw what he
was going to lose; but he saw also what he had gained in finding Jesus
Christ. A country in which he was about to serve him appeared more to be
desired than all the grandeur and the attractions of his beloved Poland.
The splendor of the Gospel had shone in his soul, and the worldly
splendors which had formerly dazzled him had now vanished. He felt that
even the reputation for nobleness and virtue which Erasmus and others
had given him, hindered him from coming to Christ. He acknowledged that
there were on earth things of great value; but the knowledge of Christ
surpassed in his eyes all that was fairest and greatest in the world. He
therefore did as those do who, sailing over the great waters and seeing
that their vessel is in danger, cast their goods into the sea, in order
that they may come happily into the haven.[678]
Riches, palaces, honors, ancient and illustrious family, a great
future—all these he cast away. He had gained Christ. He wished to be
rich only with his grace, and great only with his greatness.
Alasco left Poland in 1537, and undertook a long pilgrimage in foreign
lands, consoling himself with the thought that the servants of God have
no country on earth, but are seeking a heavenly one. He went first to
Mentz, at this time the home of his friend Hardenberg, who took there
the degree of doctor in theology. From Mentz he went to Louvain in the
Netherlands.
Footnote 634:
The principal authorities for the life of Alasco are—J. a Lasco,
_Opera_, Amsterdam, 1866, passim; Erasmus, _Epistolæ_; Bertram, _Hist.
Crit. Joh. a Lasco_. Gerdesius, _Annales_. Krasinski, _Hist. relig.
des peuples Slaves_, ch. vii. Bartels, _Joh. a Lasko_, &c.
Footnote 635:
‘Lovanii, anno 1523, versatus est, atque cum Alberto Hardenbergio
contraxit amicitiam,’—Gerdesius, _Ann._ iii. p. 146.
Footnote 636:
‘Me per virum illum (Zwinglium) ad sacrarum literarum studia inductum
esse.’—Alasco, _Opera_, i. p. 338.
Footnote 637:
‘Illum primum omnium.’—_Ibid._
Footnote 638:
‘Divino beneficio.’—_Ibid._
Footnote 639:
‘Ut missa superstitione pontificia ad Evangelium se
converteret.’—Gerdesius, _Ann._ iii. p. 146. It is difficult to fix
accurately the times at which Alasco was in the various towns he
visited. Gerdesius says that he was at Louvain in 1523. Bartels
supposes that he passed to Zurich in the autumn of 1524. Alasco
himself states, in his reply to Westphal, _Opera_, i. p. 338, that he
was at Zurich _ante annos quatuor et viginta_. This work, printed at
Basel by Oporin, bears date—_Anno salutis 1560, mense Martio_. This
would fix the removal of Alasco to Zurich in the year 1526. A letter
of Erasmus which we shall quote assigns Alasco’s stay at Basel, after
Zurich, to 1525. This date seems most worthy to be relied on. Alasco
may have been mistaken by a few months.
Footnote 640:
‘Scio viro illi adscribi, de quibus nunquam videtur cogitasse, imo
quorum contraria in ejus monumentis passim habentur,’—Alasco, _Opp._
i. p. 338.
Footnote 641:
‘Cum per Tiguram in Galliam iter facerem.’—_Ibid._
Footnote 642:
Gerdesius, after relating the visit to Zwinglius, says, ‘Deinceps vero
Basileæ moratus.’—_Ann._ iii. p. 146.
Footnote 643:
Krasinski, _Hist. relig. des peuples Slaves_, p. 132. English edition,
p. 140. The French translation is by M. Gabriel Naville, who was too
early taken from his friends. It is preceded by an introduction,
written, at the request of the author and the translator, by the
author of the _History of the Reformation_.
Footnote 644:
‘Erasmus mihi auctor fuit ut animum ad sacra adjicerem; imo vero ille
primus me in vera religione instituere cœpit’—To Bullinger. Alasco,
_Opp._ ii. p. 569.
Footnote 645:
‘Glareanus,’ i.e. of Glaris. His personal name was Loriti.
Footnote 646:
_De Geographia._ Freyburg, 1529.
Footnote 647:
‘Nunquam possum sine magna animi voluptate meminisse consuetudinis
nostræ Basiliensis.’—Alasco to C. Pellican. _App._ ii. p. 583.
Footnote 648:
‘Moribus est plane niveis: nihil magis aureum aut gemmeum esse
potest.’—Erasmi _Epp._ xviii. 10.
Footnote 649:
‘Joanne a Lasco, juvene citra arrogantiam erudito, citra supercilium,
magno ac felici, sed moribus adeo candidis, amicis, jucundis, ut per
ejus amabilem consuetudinem pæne repubuerim, alioqui jam morborum,
laborum et obtrectatorum tædio marcescens.’—_Ibid._ 13.
Footnote 650:
‘Brevique summus futurus.’ (To Egnatius.) ‘Brevique ad res maximas
evehendus.’ (To Lupsetus.)—Erasmi _Epp._ xvii. 11.
Footnote 651:
‘Cum jussu regis ad magna negotia vocareris.’—Erasmi _Epp._ xviii. 26.
Footnote 652:
Alasco, _Opp._ (To Pellicanus) ii. p. 583.
Footnote 653:
‘Dum illustris a Lasco parat equos conscendere.’—Erasmi _Epp._ xviii.
16.
Footnote 654:
‘Tam nunc abitu discrucior.’—Erasmi _Epp._ xviii. 15.
Footnote 655:
‘Sudandum erat ut domum hanc tua magnificentia corruptam ad pristinam
frugalitatem revocarem.’—_Ibid._ 26.
Footnote 656:
‘Hic ne musca quidem quæ peteret Venetiam.’—_Ibid._ p. 26.
Footnote 657:
‘Tempus illud _misere_ mihi totum periit, in cursitationibus, bellicis
tumultibus et _fastu aulico_, quod studiis alioquin meis impende e
multo _felicius_ potuissem.’—Alasco, _Opp._ ii. p. 583.
Footnote 658:
‘Affirmaret se nec duxisse uxorem nec doctrinæ Evangelii
adhæsisse.’—Alasco, _Opp._ ii. p. 548.
Footnote 659:
Sanctiones ecclesiasticæ. (Cracow, 1525.) Constitutiones synodorum,
&c.
Footnote 660:
‘Archiepiscopo Gnesnensi et episcopo Cracoviensi.’—_Ibid._
Footnote 661:
‘Volentem et scientem.’—Juramentum. Alasco, _Opp._ ii. p. 548.
Footnote 662:
‘Quod si, ut sumus homines,’ &c.—_Ibid._
Footnote 663:
‘In omnibus licitis et honestis.’—_Ibid._
Footnote 664:
The text reads _ad ea designatis_. The author appears to have read it
_ab ea_, _sede_ being understood.—(Editor.)
Footnote 665:
Erasmi, _Epp._ xix. 26. Alasco appears to have had some thought of
translating some of the works of Erasmus.
Footnote 666:
_Ibid._ xviii. 26.
Footnote 667:
_Ibid._ xix. 11. To Christopher de Schüdlovietz, chancellor of the
kingdom.
Footnote 668:
Same letter.
Footnote 669:
‘Curares ut quicquid novi post Hyperaspistem prodiit ab Erasmo vel
Luthero, is consilio tuo mea pecunia emat.’ This letter of Alasco,
dated November 17, 1526, is the earliest which has come down to
us.—_Opp._ ii. p. 547.
Footnote 670:
Bartels, _Johannes a Lasco_, p. 8.
Footnote 671:
‘Ut vel hoc uno amico mihi videar sat beatus.’—Erasmi, _Epp._ xix. 5.
Footnote 672:
‘Fieri non potest ut Christi regno exoriente alicubi Sathanas dormiat,
cujus artes et furias,’ &c.—Alasco, _Opp._ ii. p. 555.
Footnote 673:
‘Sed peculiari quodam malleo petras contundente præstandum sane
esset.’—Alasco, _Opp._ ii. p. 557.
Footnote 674:
‘Si te multa simulare ac dissimulare cogat et tu illi obsequaris,
estne hoc _libere_ reprehendisse?‘—_Ibid._
Footnote 675:
‘Cum is, anno 1536, nominatus jam esset in Hungaria Episcopus
Vesprimensis.’—Gerdesius, _Ann._ iii. p. 147.
Footnote 676:
‘Sed bonus Deus me mihi rursum restituit atque ad veram sui
cognitionem, e medio Pharisaismo demum mirabiliter evocavit, Illi
gloria!‘—Alasco, _Opp._ ii. p. 583. To Pellicanus.
Footnote 677:
Calv. _Opp._ v. p. 279.
Footnote 678:
Calvin.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE POLISH REFORMER IN THE NETHERLANDS AND IN FRIESLAND.
(1537-1546).
The Reformation had many friends in the Netherlands, and we shall have
an opportunity afterwards of seeing this; but they were found,
especially at the beginning, among the lowly. The Lollards, the Vaudois,
and the Brethren of the Common Life had circulated the Bible and its
doctrines there. They gained adherents principally among the weavers and
clothiers. True, they had also won over, in the great commercial towns,
some very influential merchants; but at Louvain, where Alasco settled
for some time, it was chiefly among the little ones that the worshippers
of Christ were to be found.
[Sidenote: Alasco At Louvain.]
The sojourn of Alasco in this town, in the midst of these Christian
people, clearly shows the humility of the Polish noble. He might have
received in the Netherlands the honors which he had renounced in Poland.
His brother, Ladislaus, ambassador in Austria, his brother Yaroslav,
then in high favor with King Ferdinand, could have procured for him a
favorable reception at the court of Brussels. He was indeed sought after
by eminent men. The chancellor of Ferdinand and the Margrave of
Brandenburg made him brilliant offers, if he would enter the service
either of the emperor or of the king his brother. But the more the world
seemed desirous of seizing upon Alasco, the more he withdrew into a life
modest, obscure, and consecrated to God. He now definitively separated
from Rome, by placing between them an insurmountable barrier. Determined
upon entering the married state, which God established from the
beginning of the world, and which the Roman Church itself makes a
sacrament, he married, at Louvain, a simple young woman, pious and full
of sociable qualities.
Ere long Alasco resolved to leave this Ultramontane town. A wish to
remove from the court of Brussels, the need of a life humble and hidden
with God, which since his fall he deeply felt, was doubtless the
principal motive which induced him to leave Louvain. Perhaps he was also
desirous of strengthening himself further in the faith before facing
persecution. In search of a peaceful retreat, he went into a secluded
district on the shores of the North Sea, in East Friesland, and took up
his abode in the dull little town of Embden, as if he were determined to
bury himself in this gloomy and lonely place. The first stay he made
there, of about two years, was a rough time for him. The life he led
offered a strange contrast to the luxury of the court of Sigismund. His
life was not only outwardly wretched, without any of the comforts and
conveniences in the midst of which he had been brought up, but it was
drooping and mournful. In those regions bordering on the North Sea,
intermittent fevers prevailed, and these reduced him to a state of great
weakness. If he read a little it brought on giddiness, if he attempted
to write his sight became confused. In the middle of 1540 he said to
Hardenberg—‘I am fatigued with writing to you. I have had much
difficulty in tracing these few words, although I have devoted myself to
it at intervals through the whole day.’[679] His resources were at this
time at a very low ebb, for he was deprived of every thing. He had to
avoid even trifling expenses, and offered to sell his library. But these
adverse circumstances, far from casting him down, produced in him the
excellent fruit of patience. He acknowledged that God transformed for
him calamities into ‘aids to salvation,’ and gave him the courage
indispensable for enduring the trial with constancy. ‘Glory be to God!’
he said to Hardenberg. ‘By these vicissitudes of good and bad health, of
life and death, He puts me in mind that He is the master of our whole
life, and at the same time a most merciful Father, who does not permit
any thing to befall us which is not good.’[680]
[Sidenote: Alasco At Embden.]
The religious condition of Friesland at this period was very sad. The
Reformation had penetrated into the country as early as 1520. Count
Edzard having read some of the writings of Luther, had favored it; and
Aportanus, preceptor to the young count, had publicly preached the
Gospel. But afterwards the work had been thrown back by the disputations
on the sacrament and by the pressure by force of arms of the Duke of
Guelderland, who was a very earnest Catholic. The adherents of the pope,
the zeal of the sects, and the indolence of the pastors, had all
contributed to ruin the Evangelical Church in Friesland. The little
country had become a battlefield on which the Roman Catholics, the
reformed Zwinglians of Holland, the Mennonites of Friesland, and the
Lutherans of Germany waged war. It seemed to be a place where all the
religious denominations of the age encountered each other, tried their
strength and struggled against one another. Many pious souls sighed for
peace, and wondered who could restore it to this distressed land. A way
was at length revealed to them as by a sudden flash of light. Some of
the nobles and magistrates, who bewailed the religious disorders, having
heard that Alasco was in the country, and being acquainted with his
piety, his attainments in knowledge, and his noble character, requested
Count Enno to call him to Embden as preacher and superintendent of the
Church in their country. Alasco had promised his brother Yaroslav not to
lose sight of Poland, and never to settle in a foreign land so long as
Yaroslav was living. Moreover, the language, which he only imperfectly
understood, and his uncertain health were serious obstacles
in the way. His main point, however, was not to engage himself in any
work which might detain him at a time when he should receive a call to
evangelize his native land. He therefore declined to go, and proposed
his friend Hardenberg. But the latter also raised objections; and the
count gave up the attempt.
[Sidenote: Story Of Yaroslav.]
Mournful events were to be the occasion of Alasco’s entrance upon the
active duties of the ministry. He received one day a letter from Poland,
announcing that his brother Yaroslav was dying, and wished him to go to
him immediately. Alasco set out at the end of winter, 1542, and reached
the bedside of his dying brother. Yaroslav had been a clever, active
man, but withal ambitious, and one that would hesitate at nothing that
was necessary for success in his projects, or for avenging himself of
his enemies. Here Alasco learnt things which were before partly unknown
to him. Zapolya, king of Hungary, after the first successes of his
antagonist, King Ferdinand, had fled into Poland. There he had been
received at court and had formed a friendship with Yaroslav. ‘Conclude
an alliance with the Turks,’ said the latter to Zapolya, ‘and they will
restore you your crown. I undertake the negotiation.’ ‘If you recover me
Hungary,’ said Zapolya, ‘I will give you Transylvania.’
Solyman did, in fact, arrive at the gates of Vienna, and restored the
Hungarian crown to Zapolya. But Yaroslav had dealt with an unthankful
man. The king felt uneasy in the presence of one to whom he owed his
crown; and instead of giving him Transylvania he threw him into prison.
Yaroslav, having soon after obtained his release by legal intervention,
swore that he would hurl Zapolya from the throne on which he had
re-established him. He then passed over to Ferdinand’s side, fought
under his flag in several battles, and next went to Constantinople for
the purpose of inducing the sultan to declare against Zapolya. But the
party of this prince was still influential in that city. The vindictive
Yaroslav was imprisoned, and was only liberated after a long
confinement. Disgusted with Hungary and Austria, he returned to his
native land; but ere long he fell sick there. It is asserted that the
partisans of Zapolya, bent on putting an end to a life so restless and
so dangerous for their master, had poisoned him at Constantinople. His
brother now closed his eyes; and, thus witnessing the sad end of one who
had aimed at wearing a crown, he was anew impressed with the lesson that
we ought to avoid, as a deadly poison, every thing which we cannot get
without sinning against God; and that even in the case of such
advantages of the earthly life as may be enjoyed with a good conscience,
we must before all things learn, like Moses, to esteem ‘the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.’[681]
[Sidenote: Alasco And Hardenberg.]
During his sojourn in Poland, Alasco was on good terms with his
fellow-countrymen, and stood also in intimate relations with the bishop.
He appears to have had some thought of getting his friend Hardenberg
called into Poland. ‘You would smile,’ he wrote to him on May 12, 1542,
‘if you knew what I have been doing with our bishops while in my native
country.’[682] As for himself, he went modestly back to Friesland; and
soon after his return his health improved. The journey seemed to have
done him good. He was animated with fresh zeal. Hardenberg was at this
time in the cloisters of the Bernardines at Aduwert, in the province of
Groningen, where he seemed to wish to shut himself up. Alasco,
cherishing the highest esteem for his friend, did every thing that was
in his power to draw him out of the monastery; convinced that this
Christian man, endowed with a most amiable disposition, a most excellent
understanding, and the most profound knowledge—a kinsman, according to
common report, of Pope Adrian—was called to play an important part in
the religious renovation of the age. This was in fact the case at a
later day. But the Cistercian monk, although awakened by the quickening
spirit which then breathed in the Church, remained still tied to his
institution and to the rites of which he acknowledged the abuse. He was
one of those timid souls who can not make up their minds to break their
chains. He had, however, received some emphatic lessons which ought to
have made him understand the impossibility of living with Rome. When in
1530 he made a stay at Louvain, the theologians of the university
denounced him at the court of Brussels as infected with heresy. He was
even on the point of being seized and taken to the capital, when the
students and the townsmen rescued him from the hands of the inquisitors,
and he escaped. They confined themselves to rigorous treatment of his
writings. Hardenberg, instead of retiring to Wittenberg or some other
Protestant city, took refuge in his convent of Aduwert, where the
tolerant abbot placed him in the rank of a professor in the school. His
conscience admonished him that he ought to quit the monastic life; but
he was enveloped in the powerful bonds with which Rome holds souls in
captivity. He tried very hard to convince himself that he need not go
forth from the Roman community. He believed that it was possible for him
to cease to be a superstitious papist and yet remain a pious Catholic.
But sharp pangs of distress tortured him, and he had to sustain terrible
conflicts. ‘I am overwhelmed with shame,’ he wrote to Alasco, ‘with
grief and sadness; and the wretchedness which I experience keeps me in a
state of perpetual torture.’[683] Afterwards he recovered himself and
wrote to Alasco: ‘But I can, I am sure, justify before Christ the
motives of my conduct.’ ‘What!’ replied his friend, ‘thou art at peace
with Christ, and yet with me thou art full of shame and distress.... Am
I then greater than He? No, he who has his rest sanctified in Jesus
Christ will not find it disturbed by men.[684] Since thou art tossed to
and fro by so many conflicting thoughts, I am very much afraid, my dear
Albert, that thou art farther off from the peace of God than thou
seemest to be. What! thou art in doubt whether the life which thou art
leading in the cloister is a blasphemy; but as for those absurd errors
which thou perceivest in the worship in which thou takest part and which
are dishonoring to the merits of Christ, are they not blasphemies?...
Thou sayest that one Babylon is as good as another, and that thou mayest
as well stay in thy convent as come to us. This comparison is unjust. We
have among us no idols; but as for you, you venerate, by offering public
worship to it as if it were God, that abomination whose minister you
are.[685] ... If there be still any idols with us, they are laid aside
in contempt and neglect. Thou art waiting, sayest thou, for a leading of
the Spirit. But what kind of leading? I do not know. Is it not the
Spirit of God who says—“Come out from among them and be ye separate.” My
dear Albert, I love thee, but I do not like thy indecision.’
It was in vain that Alasco thus earnestly appealed to Hardenberg. The
monk clung to the bars of his cloister, and seemed, by the aid of his
monks, to defy every effort. But Christ at length set him free. His
advance in the knowledge of the Gospel did what the persuasions of his
friend had failed to do. In 1543 he quitted the monastery, and betook
himself to Wittenberg, where the reformers gave him the most brotherly
welcome.
Count Enno was now dead. His wife, Countess Anna of Oldenburg, became
regent of Friesland. She was a woman of noble character, pious but
rather feeble. She called Alasco to undertake the direction of the
churches of the country. The Pole had by this time got accustomed to the
climate and had learned the language; and, as his brother was dead, he
was set free from the promise which he had made to him. In reply to the
countess he therefore said, ‘I accept your proposal, but on this
condition—that if ever I am called into Poland for the cause of the
Gospel, I shall be at liberty to go there.’[686] The countess agreed to
this condition; and all those who had at heart the prosperity of
religion and of the country were filled with joy. Alasco lost no time in
writing to his friends of the whole affair. ‘Explain to the king,’ said
he, ‘that although I have accepted a ministerial office here, I am free
at any time, if he should recall me, to return to my native land.’ In
Poland people fancied that he was inclined to come back whatever might
be the nature of the work to which he was called. He therefore received
royal letters inviting him to return, and holding out to him the hope of
some great bishopric.[687] These letters deeply grieved him. His heart
was greatly pained. It was not the king alone who thus misunderstood
him; his relations and friends did the same. ‘What,’ said he, ‘they
would fain have me again enter upon my old way of life, the pharisaic
way. It is asking me to return to my vomit.’ He immediately replied: ‘I
will have no apostleship invested with the bishop’s tiara or the monk’s
cowl.[688] My return is not to be thought of, except it be for some
legitimate vocation.’ Language so decided cooled his friends; nor did
they write to him again for some time.
[Sidenote: Accusations.]
Alasco now applied himself to the work which was allotted to him in
Friesland. The Reformation, it was said, was in need of _the file_.[689]
Exorcism and other superstitious rites were not yet abrogated. Various
questions about the sacraments were disturbing men’s minds. A great
number of sectaries had taken refuge in the country; and many of the
courtiers led a dissolute life, caring least of all about religion.
Alasco displayed admirable prudence, zeal, moderation, and
steadfastness, and thereby excited the more violent discontent. Those
whom he aimed at putting right began to calumniate him. Some said—‘He is
an anabaptist;’ others—‘he is a sacramentarian.’ The countess herself
having vindicated him, they adopted another course for ruining him. They
stirred up the monks against him, which was not a difficult matter.
These men appealed to higher powers than Countess Anna. They carried
their accusations against the new superintendent to the court of the
Netherlands, and this was in fact denouncing him to the emperor. ‘He is
a perjurer and a disturber,’ they said. Ere long the countess received
an order from Brussels to take severe measures against the firebrand.
The order fell upon Friesland like a hurricane. ‘Dost thou hear the
growl of the thunder?’ said Alasco.[690] His friends were alarmed. The
scenes which he had witnessed at Louvain, the burning of men, the
burying alive of women, by order of the same government, were, perhaps,
now going to be repeated. Alasco, however, remained calm, and the Divine
goodness protected him.[691] He appeared before the princes and the
higher orders of the state, and, having asserted his innocence, was
informed that there was no intention of depriving him of his ministry.
He was nevertheless still threatened with great dangers. The government
of the Netherlands was not inclined to relinquish its proceedings. It
was incensed against a man who had rejected the flattering offers made
to him at Brussels, to undertake in Friesland a work so offensive to the
fanaticism of that court. If Protestantism were to be established in
this country, the Protestants of the Netherlands might find there
support and a place of refuge. This was not all. John of Falkenberg,
brother of the late Count Enno, at first thoroughly devoted to the
Reformation, married, at Brussels, Dorothea of Austria, a natural
daughter of Maximilian and aunt of Charles the Fifth. Thenceforth, this
Frisian prince became an ardent adherent of Rome, and labored with all
his might to exclude Alasco and the Gospel from Friesland.[692] Alasco
saw the clouds getting heavy and the waves swelling, but he remained
calm. ‘I know not yet to what conflicts I shall be called,’ he wrote to
Bullinger, ‘but I am sure they will not stop till they have driven me
away. This is not all. The sectaries on one side, and false brethren on
the other, are causing trouble everywhere; but I look upon all these
tribulations as convincing evidence that I am a minister of Christ—of
Christ, against whom the world and the devil point all their warlike
engines. I thank God, our Father, through Jesus Christ, my deliverer,
that my faith is exercised by these trials; and I beseech Him to give me
with the trials the courage I have need of, that I may show forth his
glory whether by my life or by my death. I may expect fresh thunders
from the court of Brabant, but God is mightier than they. It is in Him
that I have believed, and it is also to Him that I entirely commit
myself at this time.’[693]
[Sidenote: Hatred Of The Monks.]
Without delay he put his hand boldly to the work, and endeavored to
clear the country of the last vestiges of the domination of the Pope.
The tide as it ebbed had left there images and monks. Some minds placed
between old things and new wavered between Rome and the Gospel. Others,
more attached to the traditions, said, ‘Do what you will, so long as we
have the monks and the images, the Roman Church subsists among us.’ The
Franciscans of Embden, it is true, no longer said mass; but they
displayed great activity in the endeavor to regain the ground which they
had lost. They preached, baptized, administered extreme unction, paid
visits, and drew up wills by the bedside of sick persons. A decree of
the government, which groped along the border-line of freedom and
intolerance, enjoined them to appear before the superintendent who would
examine into their knowledge and their faith, and would give or refuse
them authority to preach and to administer the sacraments. The monks
were indignant. ‘We have nothing to do,’ they said, ‘with any
superintendent, and least of all with this foreigner and his long
beard.’ Alasco offered them a conference for the discussion of the
principal points in controversy between them. ‘Any thing but that,’ they
answered. And they bestirred themselves to raise up discontent and
murmurings against the reformer. ‘If we keep him in this country,’ they
said, ‘great dangers impend over us. The wrath of Count John and of the
emperor will burst forth against us. Who can withstand them?’
The countess and her advisers took alarm at this argument. What were
they in comparison with the formidable Charles the Fifth? Their zeal was
cooled. They began to wish that some event might rid them of a man who
compromised them in such high quarters. Alasco perceived that the
countess after having set her hand to the plough was looking back. He
saw that the moment was critical, and that if the Reformation was not to
be suppressed in Friesland, he must be quick to ward off the stroke of
the enemy. It is not to be expected that a man of the sixteenth century
would act on the principles of the nineteenth. Alasco, a man of resolute
spirit, appealed to the princess herself, and wrote to her the following
beautiful letter—‘I know, Madam, that you are desirous of promoting
among your subjects the glory of Jesus Christ. But you err in two
respects. You too readily comply with either party in matters of
religion. This is one fault. You act in conformity with the wishes of
those about you rather than with the will of God. This is the second. It
is not your own salvation alone which is at stake, but that of many
churches confided to the care of you and me, of which you will have to
give account to the eternal Judge. It is a magnificent destiny to be a
prince; but on this condition, that you seek the glory of God.... The
monks are guilty of idolatry, and they are its ministers. They lead
astray many of your subjects who offer to idols a forbidden worship. We
cannot endure this. It is commanded us to flee from idolatry. Put away
therefore the idols, and remove their ministers from the midst of us.
How long shall we go on trying to please at once both God and the world?
If God is our master, why not follow Him resolutely? If He is not, what
need have you of me as his minister? I am ready not only to spend my
property in the service of the Church, but to give my life for the glory
of Christ, if only you will consent to be governed by the Word. If you
will not do this, I cannot promise you my services as a minister. Be
sure, I understand how useful the esteem of men is, and especially of
those whose favor is of so much importance. I am only a foreigner,
burdened with a family and having no home. I wish therefore to be
friends with all, but ... as far as to the altar. This barrier I cannot
pass, even if I had to reduce my family to beggary.[694] He who sustains
all flesh will also sustain my dear ones, even though I should leave
them no resources. Never, Madam, would I have said these things to you,
did I not know your piety and your goodness. But I should betray the
cause of truth, if I did not say them to you. It is better to be
unpolite than unfaithful. May God give his Holy Spirit to guide your
counsels.
‘(August 8, 1543.)’
Such was the noble letter written by Alasco to the Princess Anna of
Friesland. She appreciated the piety and the freedom of his words, and
replied to him with much kindliness. She told him that she would give
orders for the removal of the images, but that it must be done
gradually, without noise, and by persons duly authorized, keeping the
ignorant populace from interfering in the proceeding. The work was
begun, but went on very slowly, so that the measure adopted in August
had made little progress in November.
[Sidenote: Progress Of The Reformation.]
At this crisis, arrived Count John, the husband of Dorothea of Austria.
This noble man, earnestly devoted to the Romish system, was immediately
beset by the monks. Greatly provoked by the reforms which he saw in
process of accomplishment in Friesland, he laid before the countess all
the grievances of the monks and said to her, ‘It is absolutely essential
that you should banish this man.’ But the reformer vindicated himself
with so much force and truth that the count was shaken; and when the
countess said positively, ‘I can not do without Alasco,’ John gave way.
This victory hastened on the Reformation. All public worship was
forbidden to the monks; nor were they allowed to maintain any
intercourse with members of the Church calculated to turn them aside
from the obedience due to the Word of God. They were allowed to live at
peace in their convent; but public services of the Roman Church were
even there forbidden. Gradually they took their departure. In the same
way images disappeared. Alasco, a moderate man, did not think it his
duty to precipitate reform. He labored for it persistently and
prudently; and notwithstanding this slowness it made progress. He
believed—and this feature distinguished him from some reformers—that a
Christian is likely to succeed as well, and even better, by gentleness
than by rashness.
Patience et longueur de temps
Font plus que force ni que rage.
[Sidenote: The Protestant Sects.]