Eric, with his friend, Albert von Otten, arrived unexpectedly one day,
to the Knight's very great satisfaction at Lindburg. The Knight
embraced his son affectionately.
"I have a great many questions to ask, and difficulties for you to
solve, my son," he said, as he beckoned him to come to his room.
"And I, father, have very many things to say to you, so that we shall
have plenty to talk about. Albert will, in the meantime, entertain my
mother and Laneta."
"And now, Eric, what do you think of this Dr Luther?" asked the Knight,
after he had looked along the passage which led to his room, and locked
the door.
"Think, father! That he has brought light out of darkness--that he has
made the boldest stand that ever man has done against the power, the
tyranny, the impositions of the Pope, and the superstitions which he and
his predecessors have ever encouraged for the sake of filling their
pockets, utterly regardless of the souls they led away from Christ and
salvation," exclaimed Eric, warming as he proceeded. "He has done, and
he is doing a glorious work, and though his foes were to burn him
to-morrow, they could not extinguish the light he has kindled. He
teaches that man is by nature sinful and alienated from God, but that
God so loved the world that He sent His Son to become a sacrifice for
man's sins, to suffer instead of man, and thus to enable him, through
repentance and faith in that sacrifice, to be reconciled to Himself;
that Christ is the only Mediator between God and man; neither His mother
Mary, nor the Saints, have anything to do in the matter; that they
required His sacrifice as much as others, and that, therefore, fasts,
penances, invocation of saints, masses for the dead, purgatory,
indulgences, are all the inventions of the popes to put money into their
pockets, or into the pockets of the priests, their supporters, or of the
devil, to lead souls astray."
"I heartily agree with him, Eric. See, I have read something about the
matter already," said the Knight, going to the oak chest in which he
kept his treasures, and bringing out the Testament and some of Dr
Luther's works. "I never found myself a bit the better for fasts or
penances, whenever I thought that I ought, for my sins, to endure them;
and, as for indulgences, I felt very much inclined to kick that
scoundrel Tetzel out of the place when I heard that he had come to sell
them in this neighbourhood. Now, tell me, does your friend, Albert von
Otten, preach? He looks as if he had the gift of speech."
"Indeed he has," said Eric. "He has the power of moving the hearts of
his hearers."
"Then he shall preach in our church next Sunday, and to all in this
Castle as well, in spite of what Father Nicholas may say to the
contrary!" exclaimed the Knight. "I have long wanted you, Eric, to take
Father Nicholas in hand; you may be able to convince him, and your
mother too--she is a good woman, but bigoted and obstinate, begging her
pardon, and I should have had no peace if I had once begun, unless I had
come off the conqueror at once. Albert von Otten will help you."
Eric gladly undertook the task. It was the chief object he had had in
view since he had himself been converted to the truth. He immediately
broke ground. His mother and Laneta were very much astonished at his
doctrine, but they would not acknowledge that he was right. Father
Nicholas had scarcely a word to say in return, so he put on the stolid
look of a schoolboy brought up unwillingly to receive a lecture.
"Young men's dreams," he muttered, "or devices of Satan to draw men from
the true Church. Ah, the Bible is, as I always said, a dangerous book.
Little did those who wrote it dream what mischief it would cause in the
world."
The minds of the whole household were much agitated by the subjects of
which Eric and his friend spoke to them. Still more so was the Knight
himself the next day, when the colporteur, John Muntz, presented himself
at the gate, and, demanding to see him, put into his hand a letter from
his own little daughter Ava. He read it over and over again, and his
countenance beamed with satisfaction. He immediately called Eric to
him, ordering refreshment to be brought in the meantime for John Muntz
in the hall, and desiring him to talk to his people and to sell any of
his books if he could. Ava, after sending greeting to him and her
mother, and love and duty, continued:
"And now, dear father, I must tell you that I cannot longer endure this
life. It was only while I believed that I was doing God service that I
loved it. Now I am certain that it is directly contrary to His law. I
have read the New Testament carefully with prayer, and I can find
nothing there to sanction it. We are told not to bow down to images--
not to use vain repetitions in prayers; we are employed the greater part
of each day in doing these two things. We invoke dead saints, we
worship the Virgin Mary, we fast, we perform penances to merit heaven,
and all the time the Bible tells us that there is but one Mediator
between God and man, Jesus Christ, and that by repentance and through
faith in Him can we alone become righteous and meet to enter the kingdom
or heaven. I cannot tell you one-half of the objections I have to
remain here. There are also eight other nuns who desire to leave, and
they have written to their parents to the same effect, though some of
them tremble as to what will be the answers; others say that there was
so much grief when they went away, that they are certain that there will
be rejoicing to get them back. I know how sorry you and mother and
Laneta were when I left home, that I have no doubt that you will be glad
to have me return. But how are we to get away?--there is the
difficulty. We know that we are watched, and that every effort will be
made to detain us."
"I have no doubt that there will!" exclaimed Eric. "Sister Ursula, as
they call their lady abbess, would move heaven and earth to detain them
if she knew that they wished to escape. Do not write, lest the letter
should fall into the old dame's hands; but let me go with Albert, and
depend on it we shall find means before long of letting out the caged
birds."
The Knight, without saying what Albert proposed, showed Ava's letter to
Dame Margaret. She was horrified.
"What! a professed nun break her vows?" she exclaimed. "A bride of
Christ forsake her bridegroom! Horrible profanity! No. I love Ava as
my daughter, but I can never receive one who is so utterly neglectful of
all her religious obligations. You must write and tell her that is
impossible to comply with her request. I am sure Father Nicholas will
agree with me."
"Dear wife," said the Knight, calmly, "When I allowed our little Ava to
become a nun, it was to secure, as I thought, her happiness in this life
and the next. She tells us that, in one respect, our object has
signally failed, and there is a book I have been reading which convinces
me that it will not advance in one single respect our object with regard
to the other. Therefore, let our dear Ava come home, and do you and
Laneta receive her as should her mother and sister. I mean what I say,
Margaret, and advise Father Nicholas to hold his tongue about the
matter."
The Lady Margaret, watching her lord's eye, and being a discreet woman,
came to the conclusion that it would be wise to keep silent, but she
secretly resolved to use every exertion to prevent so terrible a scandal
taking place in her family. The Knight, however, was an old soldier,
and suspecting what was passing in the mind of his better half,
determined to be beforehand with her.
"She will be writing to that Sister Ursula to keep the poor little dove
under double lock and key," he said to himself. "Eric will have a
difficulty even to get a sight of her. I must tell him what I suspect,
and leave it to him to foil the plans of his lady mother; she is a good
woman though, an excellent woman in her way, but she would have been
much the better it we had never been saddled with Father Nicholas. I
will make him go the right-about one of these days, when he least
expects it, if he does not reform his system. And here, Eric you will
want money. Don't stint in the use of it. It will accomplish many
things. Silver keys open locks more rapidly than iron ones, and I would
give every coin I possess to get our dear little Ava back again."
Eric and his friend, meantime, were making preparations for their
journey, and as soon as their horses could be got ready they rode off.
They were, however, seen by Dame Margaret, who immediately suspected
where they were going. Unfortunately, Father Nicholas had just then
entered the Castle. She forthwith told him all she knew and thought,
and urged him to find a quick messenger, who would outstrip the young
men and warn the lady abbess. Father Nicholas hurried off with a purse
which the lady put into his hand, to find a person to carry his message,
resolving to take the credit to himself of the information he was
sending.
Ava Lindburg and her companions in the monastery of Nimptsch were
eagerly awaiting the reply to the letters they had written to their
homes requesting permission to return. They were all young, and several
of them pretty; but as they had been among the most sincere of the
sisterhood, so they had the most rigidly performed all the fasts,
penances, vigils, imposed on them, and already the bloom of youth had
departed, and the pallor or the ascetic had taken its place.
Poor girls! they had sought peace, but found none; they desired to be
holy, but they had discovered that fasts, penances, and vigils--the
daily routine of formal services--long prayers, oft repeated, had
produced no effect; that their spirits might be broken by this system,
but that it could change their hearts.
"We are shut out from the great world, certainly," wrote one of them,
"but we have one within these walls, and a poor miserable, trivial,
life-frittering, childish, querulous, useless, hopeless set of
inhabitants it contains. This is not the house of Martha, and Mary, and
Lazarus--this is not such an abode as Jesus would desire to lodge in.
If He were to visit us, it would be to tell us to go forth into the
world to fulfil our duties as women, not, like cowards, to shrink from
them, to fight the good fight of faith, to serve Him in the stirring
world into which He came, in which He walked, in which He lived, that He
might be an example to us. Though He has not come to our convent, He
has sent us a message full of love and compassion--His Testament, the
Gospel--and it has given us fresh life, fresh hopes, fresh aspirations;
and through its teaching we are sure of the Holy Spirit which He
promised. Other books have been sent us to assist in opening our eyes.
We are convinced that this mode of life is not the one for which we were
born; that it is a life, not of holiness, but of sin, for it is useless,
for it is aimless, for it is against the teaching of the Gospel."
The answers came at length. Tears flowed from the eyes of some, sobs
burst from the bosoms of others, while several turned paler even than
before, and their hands hung hopelessly by their sides. Many of the
letters were full of kind expressions, while other parents chided their
daughters harshly for contemplating the possibility of breaking their
vows, and abandoning the life of holiness to which they were devoted;
but one and all wound up by declaring that they would not allow such a
stigma to rest on their noble families as would arise were they to
encourage a daughter to abandon her holy calling. Little Ava received
no answer to her epistle sent by the colporteur, and she was eagerly
looking out for his return. He had told her how eagerly her father had
bought his books, and she had still some hopes that the reply would be
favourable. She could not, however, fail to observe the severe look
with which the lady abbess regarded her, and she was still more alarmed
when she found that her Testament, and several books by Drs. Melancthon
and Luther, had been taken out of her cell. In truth, the lady abbess
had received the communication sent by Father Nicholas, and was on the
watch, expecting to see the gay young student, Eric of Lindburg, and his
companion arrive, intending afterwards to commence a system of severe
punishment on the offending Ava. The lady abbess was not aware that Ava
was only one of many whose eyes had been opened, and who desired their
freedom.