(1483-1546)
[Illustration: Luther and a group of men. [TN]]
Martin Luther, the greatest of the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth
century, was born at Eisleben on November 10, 1483. His father was a
miner in humble circumstances; his mother, as Melancthon records, was a
woman of exemplary virtue, and particularly esteemed in her walk of
life. Shortly after Martin's birth his parents removed to Mansfeld,
where their circumstances ere long improved by industry and
perseverance. Their son was sent to school; and both at home and in
school his training was severe. His father sometimes whipped him, he
says, "for a mere trifle till the blood came," and he was subjected to
the scholastic rod fifteen times in one day! Luther's schooling was
completed at Magdeburg and Eisenach, and at the latter place he
attracted by his singing the notice of a good lady of the name of Cotta,
who welcomed the lad into her family and provided him with a comfortable
home during his stay there. Here under Trebonius he made good progress
in Latin. In 1501, when he had reached his eighteenth year, he entered
the university of Erfurt, with the view of qualifying himself for the
legal profession. He went through the usual studies in the classics and
the schoolmen, and took his degree of doctor of philosophy, or master of
arts, in 1505, when he was twenty-one years of age.
Previous to this, however, a profound change of feeling had begun in
him. The death of a friend, and the terror of a thunder-storm, deeply
impressed him. Chancing one day to examine the Vulgate in the university
library, he saw with astonishment that there were more gospels and
epistles than in the lectionaries. He was arrested by the contents of
his newly found treasure. His heart was deeply touched, and he resolved
to devote himself to a spiritual life. He separated himself from his
friends and fellow-students, and withdrew into the Augustinian convent
at Erfurt. Here he spent the next three years of his life--years of
peculiar interest and significance; for it was during this time that he
laid, in the study of the Bible and of Augustine, and with the
assistance of his life-long friend Staupitz, the foundation of those
doctrinal convictions which were afterward to rouse and strengthen him
in his life-long struggle. He describes very vividly the spiritual
crisis through which he passed, the burden of sin which so long lay upon
him, "too heavy to be borne," and the relief that he at length found in
the clear apprehension of the doctrine of the "forgiveness of sins,"
through the grace of Christ.
In the year 1507 Luther was ordained a priest, and in the following year
he removed to Wittenberg, destined to derive its chief celebrity from
his name. He became a teacher in the new university founded there by the
Elector Frederick of Saxony. At first he lectured on dialectics and
physics, but his heart was already given to theology, and in 1509 he
became a bachelor of theology, and commenced lecturing on the Holy
Scriptures. His lectures made a great impression, and the novelty of his
views already began to excite attention. "This monk," said the rector of
the university, "will puzzle our doctors and bring in a new doctrine."
Besides lecturing, he began to preach, and his sermons reached a wider
audience, and produced a still more powerful influence. They were
printed and widely circulated in Germany, France, and England, so that
his doctrines were diffused throughout Europe. His words, as Melancthon
says, were "born not on his lips, but in his soul," and they moved
profoundly the souls of all who heard them. In 1511 he was sent on a
mission to Rome, and he has described very vividly what he saw and heard
there. His devout and unquestioning reverence--for he was yet in his own
subsequent view "a most insane papist"--appears in strange conflict with
his awakened thoughtfulness and the moral indignation at the abuses of
the papacy beginning to stir him.
[Illustration: Luther introduced to the home of Frau Cotta.]
On Luther's return from Rome he was made a doctor of the Holy
Scriptures, and his career as a reformer may be said to have commenced.
The system of indulgences had reached a scandalous height. The idea that
it was in the power of the Church to forgive sin had gradually grown
into the notion that the Pope could issue pardons of his own free will,
which, being dispensed to the faithful, exonerated them from the
consequences of their transgressions. The sale of these pardons had
become an organized part of the papal system. Money was largely needed
at Rome, and its numerous emissaries sought everywhere to raise funds by
the sale of "indulgences;" the principal of these was John Tetzel, a
Dominican friar, who had established himself at Jueterberg (1517).
Luther's indignation at the shameless traffic which this man carried on,
finally became irrepressible. "God willing," he exclaimed, "I will beat
a hole in his drum." He drew out ninety-five theses on the doctrine of
indulgences, which on October 31st he nailed up on the door of the
church at Wittenberg, and which he offered to maintain in the university
against all impugners. The general purport of these theses was to deny
to the Pope all right to forgive sins. This sudden and bold step of
Luther was all that was necessary to awaken a wide-spread excitement.
Tetzel was forced to retreat from the borders of Saxony to
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where he drew out and published a set of
counter-theses and publicly committed those of Luther to the flames. The
students at Wittenberg retaliated by burning Tetzel's theses. The
elector refused to interfere, and the excitement increased as new
combatants--Hochstratten, Prierias, and Eck--entered the field. Eck was
an able man, and an old friend of Luther's, and the argument between him
and the reformer was especially vehement. In 1518 the latter was joined
by Melancthon, who became one of his dearest and most trusted friends.
At first the Pope, Leo X., took little heed of the disturbance; he is
reported even to have said, when he heard of it, that "Friar Martin was
a man of genius, and that he did not wish to have him molested." Some of
the cardinals, however, saw the real character of the movement, which
gradually assumed a seriousness evident even to the Pope; and Luther
received a summons to appear at Rome, and answer for his theses (1518).
Once again in Rome, it is unlikely he would ever have been allowed to
return. His university and the elector interfered, and a legate was sent
to Germany to hear and determine the case. Cardinal Cajetan was the
legate, and he was but little fitted to deal with Luther. He would enter
into no argument with him, but merely called upon him to retract. Luther
refused, and fled from Augsburg, whither he had gone to meet the papal
representative. The task of negotiation was then undertaken by Miltitz,
a German, who was envoy of the Pope to the Saxon court, and by his
greater address, a temporary peace was obtained. This did not last long.
The reformer was too deeply moved to keep silent. "God hurries and
drives me," he said; "I am not master of myself; I wish to be quiet, and
am hurried into the midst of tumults." Dr. Eck and he held a memorable
disputation at Leipsic (1519), in which the subject of argument was no
longer merely the question of indulgences, but the general power of the
Pope. The disputation, of course, came to no practical result; each
controversialist claimed the victory, and Luther in the meantime made
progress in freedom of opinion, and attacked the papal system as a whole
more boldly. Erasmus and Hutten joined in the conflict, which waxed more
loud and threatening.
In 1520 the reformer published his famous address to the "Christian
Nobles of Germany." This was followed in the same year by a treatise "On
the Babylonish Captivity of the Church." In these works, both of which
circulated widely and powerfully influenced many minds, Luther took
firmer and broader ground; he attacked not only the abuses of the papacy
and its pretensions to supremacy, but also the doctrinal system of the
Church of Rome. "These works," Ranke says, "contain the kernel of the
whole Reformation." The papal bull containing forty-one theses was
issued against him; the dread document, with other papal books, was
burned before an assembled multitude of doctors, students, and citizens,
at the Elster Gate of Wittenberg. Germany was convulsed with excitement.
Eck (who had been the chief agent in obtaining the bull) fled from place
to place, glad to escape with his life, and Luther was everywhere the
hero of the hour.
Charles V. had at this time succeeded to the empire, and he convened his
first diet of the sovereigns and states at Worms. The diet met in the
beginning of 1521; an order was issued for the destruction of Luther's
books, and he himself was summoned to appear before the diet. This was
above all what he desired--to confess the truth before the assembled
powers of Germany. He resolved--having received a safe-conduct--to obey
the summons, come what would. All Germany was moved by his heroism; his
journey resembled a triumph; the threats of enemies and the anxieties of
friends alike failed to move him. "I am resolved to enter Worms," he
said, "although as many devils should set at me as there are tiles on
the housetops." His appearance and demeanor before the diet, and the
firmness with which he held his ground and refused to retract, all make
a striking picture. He was not allowed to defend his opinions. "Unless I
be convinced," he said, "by Scripture and reason, I neither can nor dare
retract anything, for my conscience is a captive to God's word, and it
is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. There I take my
stand. I can do no otherwise. So help me God. Amen."
On his return from Worms he was seized, at the instigation of his
friend, the Elector of Saxony, and safely lodged in the old castle of
the Wartburg. The affair was made to assume an aspect of violence, but
in reality it was designed to secure him from the destruction which his
conduct at Worms would certainly have provoked, he having been placed
under the ban of the empire. He remained in this shelter for about a
year, concealed in the guise of a knight. His chief employment was his
translation of the Scriptures into his native language. He composed
various treatises besides, and injured his health by sedentary habits
and hard study. His imagination became morbidly excited, and he thought
he saw and heard the Evil One mocking him while engaged in his literary
tasks; the blot from the inkstand that he hurled at him is still shown
on the wall of his chamber. The subject of the personality and presence
of Satan was a familiar one with Luther, and he has many things about it
in his Table-talk.
[Illustration: Martin Luther before the Council of Worms.]
The disorders which sprang up in the progress of the Reformation
recalled Luther to Wittenberg. He felt that his presence was
necessary to restrain Carlstadt and others, and, defying any danger to
which he might still be exposed, he returned in 1522 to the old scene of
his labors, rebuked the unruly spirits who had acquired power in his
absence, and resumed with renewed energy his interrupted work. He strove
to arrest the excesses of the Zwickau fanatics, and counselled peace and
order to the inflamed peasants; while he warned the princes and nobles
of the unchristian cruelty of many of their doings, which had driven the
people to exasperation and frenzy. At no period of his life is he
greater than now, in the stand which he made against lawlessness on the
one hand and tyranny on the other. He vindicated his claim to be a
reformer in the highest sense by the wise and manly part which he acted
in this great social crisis in the history of Germany. In this year also
he published his acrimonious reply to Henry VIII. on the seven
sacraments. Although he had been at first united in a common cause with
Erasmus, estrangement had gradually sprung up between the scholar of
Rotterdam and the enthusiastic reformer of Wittenberg. This estrangement
came to an open breach in the year 1525, when Erasmus published his
treatise "De Libero Arbitrio." Luther immediately followed with his
counter-treatise "De Servo Arbitrio." The controversy raged loudly
between them; and in the vehemence of his hostility to the doctrine of
Erasmus, Luther was led into various assertions of a very questionable
kind, besides indulging in the wild abuse of his opponent's character.
The quarrel was an unhappy one on both sides; and it must be confessed
there is especially a want of generosity in the manner in which Luther
continued to cherish the dislike which sprang out of it.
In the course of the same year Luther married Katharina von Bora, one of
nine nuns who, under the influence of his teaching, had emancipated
themselves from their religious vows. The step rejoiced his enemies and
even alarmed some of his friends, like Melancthon. But it greatly
contributed to his happiness, while it served to enrich and strengthen
his character. All the most interesting and touching glimpses we get of
him henceforth are in connection with his wife and children.
Two years after his marriage he fell into a dangerous sickness and
depression of spirits, from which he was only aroused by the dangers
besetting Christendom from the advance of the Turks. Two years later, in
1529, he engaged in his famous conference at Marburg with Zwingli and
other Swiss divines. The following year finds him at Coburg, while the
diet sat at Augsburg. It was deemed prudent to intrust the interests of
the Protestant cause to Melancthon, who attended the diet, but Luther
removed to Coburg to be at hand for consultation. The drawing up of the
Augsburg Confession marks the culmination of the German Reformation
(1530); and the life of Luther from henceforth possesses comparatively
little interest. He survived sixteen years longer, but they are years
marked by few incidents of importance. He died at Eisleben on February
18, 1546, and was buried at Wittenberg.
Luther's character presents an imposing combination of great qualities.
Endowed with broad human sympathies, massive energy, manly and
affectionate simplicity, and rich, if sometimes coarse humor, he is at
the same time a spiritual genius. His intuitions of divine truth were
bold, vivid, and penetrating, if not comprehensive; and he possessed the
art which God alone gives to the finer and abler spirits that He calls
to do special work in this world, of kindling other souls with the fire
of his own convictions, and awakening them to a higher consciousness of
religion and duty. He was a leader of men, therefore, and a Reformer in
the highest sense. His powers were fitted to his appointed task; it was
a task of Titanic magnitude, and he was a Titan in intellectual
robustness and moral strength and courage. It was only the divine energy
which swayed him, and of which he recognized himself the organ, that
could have accomplished what he did.
View him as a mere theologian, and there are others who take higher
rank. There is a lack of patient thoughtfulness and philosophical temper
in his doctrinal discussions; but the absence of these very qualities
gave vigor to his bold, if sometimes crude, conceptions, and enabled him
to triumph in the struggle for life and death in which he was engaged.
To initiate the religious movement which was destined to renew the face
of Europe, required a gigantic will, which, instead of being crushed by
opposition, or frightened by hatred, should only gather strength from
the fierceness of the conflict before it. To clear the air thoroughly,
as he himself said, thunder and lightning are necessary. Upon the whole,
it may be said that history presents few greater characters--few that
excite at once more love and admiration, and in which we see tenderness,
humor, and a certain picturesque grace and poetic sensibility more
happily combined with a lofty and magnanimous, if sometimes rugged,
sublimity.
Luther's works are very voluminous, partly in Latin, and partly in
German. Among those of more general interest are his Table-Talk, his
letters, and sermons. His Commentaries on Galatians and the Psalms are
still read; and he was one of the great leaders of sacred song, his
hymns, rugged but intense and expressive, having an enduring power.
As an example of his more tender writing, take his letter to his little
son Hans:
"Grace and peace in Christ. My dear little son, I am glad to hear that
thou learnest well and prayest diligently. Do this, my son, and continue
it; when I return home I will bring thee a fine fairing.
"I know a beautiful, cheerful garden, in which many children walk about.
They have golden coats on, and gather beautiful apples under the trees,
and pears, and cherries, and plums; they sing and jump about, and are
merry; they have also fine little horses with golden bridles and silver
saddles. And I asked the man, 'Whose children are they?' He replied,
'These are the children who like to pray and learn and are pious.' Then
I said, 'My good man, I have a son; his name is Hans Luther; may he not
also come to this garden to eat such nice apples and pears, and ride
such fine little horses, and play with these children?' And the man
said, 'If he likes to pray and learn, and is pious, he shall come to
this garden with Lippus and Just; and when they all come together, they
shall have pipes and cymbals, lutes, and other musical instruments; and
dance and shoot with little cross-bows.'
"And he showed me a fine meadow in the garden, prepared for dancing:
there being nothing but golden pipes, cymbals, and beautiful silver
cross-bows. But it was yet early, and the children had not dined.
Therefore I could not wait for the dancing, and said to the man, 'My
good master, I will go quickly and write all this to my dear little son
Hans, that he may pray diligently, learn well, and be pious, that he
also may be admitted into this garden; but he hath an aunt Lena whom he
must bring with him.' The man answered, 'So be it; go and write this to
him.'
"Therefore, my dear little son Hans, learn and pray with all confidence;
and tell this to Lippus and Just, that they also may learn and pray; and
ye will all meet in this beautiful garden. Herewith I commend thee to
Almighty God. Give greetings to Aunt Lena, and also a kiss from me,
"Thy loving father,
"MARTIN LUTHER."