A proclamation of the Emperor, convoking a new Diet at Augsburg for

April 8, 1530, seemed now to indicate a more pacific demeanour. For

in assigning to this Diet the task of consulting 'how best to deal

with and determine the differences and division in the holy faith

and the Christian religion,' it desired, for this object, that

'every man's opinions, thoughts, and notions should be heard in love

and charity, and carefully weighed, and that men should thus be

brought in common to Christian truth, and be reconciled.' The

Emperor by no means meant, as might be inferred from this

proclamation, that the two opposing parties should treat and arrange

with each other on an equal footing; the rights of the Romish Church

remained, as before, unalterably fixed. He only wished to avoid, if

possible, the dangers of internal warfare. Even the Papal legate

Campeggio, agreed that conciliatory measures might first be tried;

the arrangements for the visitation of the Saxon Electorate were

already construed at Rome, as indeed by many German Catholics, into

a sign that people there were frightened at the so-called freedom of

the gospel, and were inclined to return to the old system. But

Luther at this moment displayed again the confidence which he always

so gladly reposed in his Emperor. He announced on March 14 to Jonas,

then absent on the business of the visitation: 'The Emperor Charles

writes that he will come in person to Augsburg, to settle everything

peaceably.' The Elector John immediately instructed his theologians

to draw up for him articles in view of the proceedings at the Diet,

embodying a statement of their own opinions. They were also required

to hold themselves in readiness to accompany him on his journey to

Augsburg. There was, however, no hurry about arriving there; for the

Emperor came thither so slowly from Italy, that it was found

impossible to meet on the day originally appointed.

On April 3 Luther, Melancthon, and Jonas went to the Elector at

Torgau, in order to start with him from there. He took Spalatin also

with him, and Agricola as preacher. The 10th, Palm Sunday, they

spent at Weimar, where the prince wished to partake of the

sacrament. At Coburg, where they arrived on the 15th, they expected

to receive further news as to the day fixed for the actual opening

of the Diet. Luther preached here on Easter Day, and on the

following Monday and Thursday, upon the Easter texts and the grand

acts of Redemption.

On Friday, the 22nd, the Elector received an intimation from the

Emperor to appear at Augsburg at the end of the month. The next

morning he set off at once with his companions. Luther, however, was

to remain behind. The man on whom lay the ban of the Empire and

Church could not possibly, however favourably inclined the Emperor

might be towards him, have appeared before the Emperor, the Estates,

and the delegates of the Pope; moreover, no safe-conduct would have

availed him. Luther seems, nevertheless, to have been ingenuous

enough to think the contrary. At least, he wrote to a friend that

the Elector had bidden him remain at Coburg; why, he knew not. To

another friend, however, he alleged as a reason, that his going

would not have been safe. But his prince was anxious to keep him at

any rate as close by as possible, at a safe place on the borders of

his territory in the direction of Augsburg, so that he might be able

to obtain advice from him in case of need. Moreover, he contemplated

the possibility of his being summoned later on to Augsburg. A

message from the one place to the other took, at that time, four

days as a rule.

Accordingly, on the night of the 22nd, Luther was conveyed to the

fortress overlooking the town of Coburg. This was the residence

assigned to him.

His first day here passed by unoccupied. A box which he had brought,

containing papers and other things, had not yet been delivered to

him. He did not even see any governor of the castle. So he looked

around him leisurely from the height, which offered a wide and

varied prospect, and examined the apartments now opened for his use.

The principal part of the castle, the so-called Prince's Building,

had been assigned him, and he was given at once the keys of all the

rooms it contained. The one which he chose as his sitting-room is

still shown. He was told that over thirty people took their meals at

the castle.

But his thoughts were still with his distant friends. He wrote that

afternoon to Melancthon, Jonas, and Spalatin. 'Dearest Philip,' he

begins to Melancthon, 'we have at last reached our Sinai, but we

will make a Sion of this Sinai, and here will I build three

tabernacles, one to the Psalms, one to the Prophets, and one to

Æsop.... It is a very attractive place, and just made for study;

only your absence grieves me. My whole heart and soul are stirred

and incensed against the Turks and Mahomet, when I see this

intolerable raging of the devil. Therefore I shall pray and cry to

God, nor rest until I know that my cry is heard in heaven. The sad

condition of our German Empire distresses you more.' Then, after

expressing a wish that the Lord might send his friend refreshing

sleep, and free his heart from care, he told him about his residence

at the castle, in the 'empire of the birds.' In his letters to Jonas

and Spalatin he indulged in humorous descriptions of the cries of

the ravens and jackdaws which he had heard since four o'clock in the

morning. A whole troop, he said, of sophists and schoolmen were

gathered around him. Here he had also his Diet, composed of very

proud kings, dukes, and grandees, who busied themselves about the

empire and sent out incessantly their mandates through the air. This

year, he heard, they had arranged a crusade against the wheat,

barley, and other kinds of corn, and these fathers of the Fatherland

already hoped for grand victories and heroic deeds. This, said

Luther, he wrote in fun, but in serious fun, to chase away if

possible the heavy thoughts which crowded on his mind. A few days

later he enlarged further on this sportive simile in a letter to his

Wittenberg table-companions, _i.e._ the young men of the

university who, according to custom, boarded with him. He was

delighted to see how valiantly these knights of the Diet strutted

about and wiped their bills, and he hoped they might some day or

other be spitted on a hedge-stake. He fancied he could hear all the

sophists and papists with their lovely voices around him, and he saw

what a right useful folk they were, who ate up everything on the

earth and 'whiled away the heavy time with chattering.' He was glad,

however, to have heard the first nightingale, who did not often

venture to come in April.

As companions he had his amanuensis, Veit Dietrich from Nüremberg,

and his nephew Cyriac Kaufmann from Mansfeld, a young student. The

former, born in 1506, had been at the university of Wittenberg since

1523; he soon became preacher in his native town, where he

distinguished himself by his loyalty and courage. They were all

hospitably entertained at the castle. Luther, in these comfortable

quarters, let his beard grow again, as he had formerly done at the

Wartburg.

[Illustration: Fig. 40.--VEIT DIETRICH, as Pastor of Nüremberg.

(From an old woodcut.)]

In that same letter to Melancthon, Luther mentioned several writings

which he had in prospect. His chief work was a public 'Admonition to

the Clergy assembled at the Diet at Augsburg.' He wished, as he said

in the introduction, since he could not personally appear at the

Diet, at least to be among them in writing with this his 'dumb and

weak message;' which he had expressed, however, in the strongest and

most forcible language at his command. As for his own cause, he

declared that for it no Diet was necessary. It had been brought thus

far by the true Helper and Adviser, and there it would remain. He

reminded them once more of the chief scandals and iniquities against

which he had been forced to contend; he warned them not to strain

the strings too tightly, lest perhaps a new rebellion might arise;

and he promised them that if only they would leave the gospel free,

they should be left in undisturbed possession of their

principalities, their privileges, and their property, which in fact

was all they cared for. This tract was already printed in May.

He now took up in earnest the labours he had spoken of to

Melancthon. His chief work was the continuation of his German Bible,

namely the translation of the Prophets. He had long complained of

the difficulties presented by these Books, and he now hoped to have

the leisure they required. Such was his zeal that, when he came to

Jeremiah, he looked forward to finishing all the Prophets by

Whitsuntide, but he soon saw that this was impossible. He published

the prophecy of Ezekiel about Gog and Magog by itself. His wish was

to treat of various portions of the Psalms, his own constant book of

comfort and prayer, for the benefit of his congregation; and he

began, accordingly, with a Commentary on the 118th Psalm. He

expounded to Dietrich whilst at Coburg the first twenty-five Psalms;

and the transcript of his commentary on these, which Dietrich left

behind him, was afterwards printed.

And to these works he wished to add the fables of Æsop. His desire

was to adapt them for youth and common men, that they should be of

some profit to the Germans.' For among them, he said, were to be

found, set forth in simple words, the most beautiful lessons and

warnings, to show men how to live wisely and peacefully among bad

people in the false and wicked world. Truth which none would endure,

but which no man could do without, was clothed there in pleasing

colours of fiction. For this work, however, Luther had very little

time; we possess only thirteen fables of his version. He has

rendered them in the simplest popular language, and expressed the

morals in many appropriate German proverbs.

Luther thought at first that, with these occupations, he had better

have remained at Wittenberg, where, as professor, he would have been

of more service.

Soon his bodily sufferings--the singing and noise in the head, and

the tendency to faintness,--began again to attack him; so that for

several days he could neither read nor write, and for several weeks

could not work continuously for any length of time. He did not know

whether it was the effect of Coburg hospitality, or whether Satan

was at fault. Dietrich thought his illness must be caused by Satan,

since Luther had been particularly careful about his diet. He told

also of a fiery, serpent-like apparition, which he and Luther had

seen one evening in June at the foot of the Castle Hill. The same

night Luther fainted away, and the next day was very ill; and this

fact confirmed Dietrich in his belief.

On June 5 Luther received the news of the death of his aged father,

who breathed his last at Mansfeld, on Sunday, May 29, after long

suffering, and in the firm belief in the gospel preached by his son.

Luther was deeply moved by this intelligence. He had never ceased to

treat him with the same high filial veneration that had formerly

prompted him to dedicate to his parent his treatise on Monastic

Vows, and to invite him to the celebration of his marriage, made, as

we have seen, in accordance with his father's wish. Since his

marriage, indeed, his parents had come to visit him at Wittenberg;

and the town accounts for 1527 contain an item of expense for a

gallon of wine, given as a _vin d'honneur_ to old Luther on

that occasion. It was then that Cranach painted the portraits of

Luther's parents which are now to be seen at the Wartburg. Luther

had heard from his brother James in February 1530, that their father

was dangerously ill. He sent a letter to him thereupon, on the 15th

of that month, by the hands of his nephew Cyriac. He wrote: 'It

would be a great joy to me if only you and my mother could come to

us here. My Kate and all pray for it with tears. I should hope we

would do our best to make you comfortable.' Meanwhile he prayed

earnestly to his Heavenly Father to strengthen and enlighten with

His Holy Spirit this father whom He had given him on earth. He would

leave it in the hands of his dear Lord and Saviour whether they

should meet one another again on earth or in heaven; 'for,' said he,

'we' doubt not but that we shall shortly see each other again in the

presence of Christ, since the departure from this life is a far

smaller matter with God, than if I were to come hither from you at

Mansfeld, or you were to go to Mansfeld from me at Wittenberg.'

After he had opened the letter with the news of his father's death,

he said to Dietrich, 'So then, my father too is dead,' and then took

his Psalter at once, and went to his room, to give vent to his

tears. He expressed his grief and emotion the same day in a letter

to Melancthon. Everything, he said, that he was or had, he had

received through his Creator from this beloved father.

He kept up his intimacy with his friends at Wittenberg through his

letters to his wife, and by a correspondence with his friend Jerome

Weller, who had come to live in his house, and who assisted in the

education of his son, little Hans. Weller, formerly a jurist, and

already thirty years old, was then studying theology at Wittenberg.

He suffered from low spirits, and Luther repeatedly sent him from

Coburg comfort and good advice. The little Hans had now begun his

lessons, and Weller praised him as a painstaking pupil. Luther's

well-known letter to him was dated from Coburg, June 19. Written in

the midst of the most serious studies and the most important events

and reflections, it must on no account be omitted in a survey of

Luther's life and character. It runs as follows:--

'Grace and peace in Christ, my dear little son. I am pleased to see

that thou learnest thy lessons well, and prayest diligently. Do

thus, my little son, and persevere; when I come home I will bring

thee a fine "fairing." I know of a pretty garden where merry

children run about that wear little golden coats, and gather nice

apples and pears, and cherries, and plums under the trees, and sing

and dance, and ride on pretty horses with gold bridles and silver

saddles. I asked the man of the place, whose the garden was, and

whose the children were. He said, "These are the children who pray

and learn, and are good." Then I answered, "Dear sir, I also have a

son who is called Hans Luther. May he not also come into this

garden, and eat these nice pears and apples, and ride a little horse

and play with these children?" The man said, "If he says his

prayers, and learns, and is good, he too may come into the garden;

and Lippus and Jost may come, [Footnote: Melancthon's son Philip,

and Jonas's son Jodocus.] and when they all come back, they shall

have pipes and drums and lutes and all sorts of stringed instruments,

and they shall dance and shoot with little crossbows." Then he

showed me a smooth lawn in the garden laid out for dancing, where

hung pipes of pure gold, and drums and beautiful silver crossbows.

But it was still early, and the children had not dined. So I could

not wait for the dance, and said to the man, "Dear sir, I will go

straight home and write all this to my dear little son Hans, that he

may pray diligently and learn well and be good, and so come into this

garden; but he has an aunt, Lene, [Footnote: Hans's great-aunt,

Magdalen, mentioned in Part VI. Ch. vii.] whom he must bring with

him." And the man answered, "So it shall be; go home and write as you

say." Therefore, dear little son Hans, learn and pray with a

good heart, and tell Lippus and Jost to do the same, and then you

will all come to the beautiful garden together. Almighty God guard

you. Give my love to aunt Lene, and give her a kiss for me. In the

year 1530.--Your loving father, MARTIN LUTHER.'

The intercourse between Coburg and Augsburg was, as may be imagined,

well kept up by letters and messengers.

But the crisis of importance arrived when now the great decision

approached, or at least seemed to approach, for it was most

unexpectedly delayed.

Though the Elector had entered Augsburg on May 2, the Emperor did

not arrive there till June 15. He had stopped on the way at

Innspruck, where Duke George and other princes hostile to the

Reformation hastened to present themselves before him.

In the meanwhile, Melancthon worked with great industry and anxious

labour at the Apology and Confession which the Elector of Saxony was

to lay before the Diet. Luther warned him, by his own example,

against ruining his head by immoderate exertion. He wrote to him on

May 12: 'I command you and all your company, that they compel you,

under pain of excommunication, to keep your poor body by rule and

order, so that you may not kill yourself and imagine that you do so

from obedience to God. We serve God also by taking holiday and

resting; yes, indeed, in no other way better.' Melancthon had begun

this work at Coburg, while there with Luther, and based his most

important propositions of dogma on the articles which Luther had

drawn up in the previous autumn at Schwabach. His chief efforts,

however, in accordance with his own inclination and line of thought,

were directed to representing the evangelical doctrines as agreeing

with the traditional doctrines of the universal Christian Church;

and the Protestant Reformation as simply the abolition of certain

practical abuses. Never would Luther have consented to submit to the

Diet, and the Papists and enemies of the gospel there present, a

Confession which marked so faintly the gulf of difference between

himself and them. Nevertheless he gladly approved of this

composition of his peace-making friend, which was sent to him for

his opinion by the Elector immediately on its completion, on May 11.

His verdict was: 'I like it well enough, and see nothing to alter or

improve; indeed, I could not do so if I would, for I cannot tread so

softly and gently. May Christ, our Lord, help that it may bring

forth much fruit, as we hope and pray it will.' He encouraged the

Elector, in a letter full of tender words of comfort, to keep his

heart firm and patient, even if he had to stay in a tedious place.

He pointed out to him God's great token of His love, in granting so

freely to him and to his people the word of grace, and especially in

allowing the tender youth, the boys and girls who were his subjects,

to grow up in his country as in a pleasant Paradise of God.

News now reached them of the Emperor, that he blamed the Elector for

the non-execution of the Edict of Worms, and forbade the clergymen

whom the Protestant princes had brought to Augsburg, to preach

there,--a prohibition against which even Luther admitted they were

powerless. On the other side, Melancthon was particularly troubled

and annoyed that the Landgrave Philip would not admit a repudiation

of Zwingli's doctrine in the Confession, to which Melancthon

attached the utmost importance, not only on account of the intrinsic

objections to that doctrine, but chiefly in the interests of

bringing about a reconciliation with the Catholics. He begged

Luther, on May 22, to try and influence Philip by letter on this

point.

Luther appears to have shown but little inclination to accede to the

request. Melancthon, waiting for his assent, stopped writing to him.

Meanwhile Luther's friends at Augsburg were looking with anxiety for

the arrival and first appearance of the Emperor. Three whole weeks

passed by before Luther again received a letter from them; it was

just at this time that he was mourning the death of his father.

Luther was exceedingly indignant at this silence. On receiving

another letter, on June 13, from Melancthon, who said he was

impatiently waiting for the letter to the Landgrave, Luther sent

back the messenger without an answer, and at first was unwilling

even to read the letter. He did, however, now, what was asked of

him. He earnestly but calmly entreated Philip not to espouse their

opponents' doctrine of the Sacrament, or allow himself to be moved

by their 'sweet good' words. And when now Melancthon, whom he had

seriously frightened by his anger, grew restless and desponding and

sleepless with increasing disquietude, through the difficulties at

Augsburg, the threats of his embittered Catholic opponents, and the

anxiety as to submitting the Confession to the Elector, and the

consequences of so doing, and news also reached Luther of the

troubles and distress of his other friends, he repeatedly sent to

them at Augsburg fresh words of encouragement, comfort, and counsel,

which remain to attest, more than anything else, the nobleness of

his mind and character. He speaks, as from a height of confident,

clear, and proud conviction, to those who are struggling in the

whirl and vortex of earthly schemes and counsels. He has gained this

height, and maintains it in the implicit faith with which he clings

to the invisible God, as if he saw Him; and, raised above the world,

he enjoys filial communion with his Heavenly Father.

In answering another anxious letter from Melancthon on the 27th, he

reproved his friend for the cares which he allowed to consume him,

and which were the result, he said, not of the magnitude of the task

before him, but of his own want of faith. 'Let the matter be ever so

great,' he said, 'great also is He who has begun and who conducts

it; for it is not our work.... "Cast thy burthen upon the Lord; the

Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him." Does He say that to

the wind, or does He throw his words before animals?... It is your

worldly wisdom that torments you, and not theology. As if you, with

your useless cares, could accomplish anything. What more can the

devil do than strangle us? I conjure you, who in all other matters

are so ready to fight, to fight against yourself as your greatest

enemy.'

Two days after, he had already another letter from his friend to

answer. He saw from it, he said, the labour and trouble, the

distress and tears of his friends. He received also the Confession,

now completed, and had to give his opinion whether it would be

possible to make still more concessions to the Romanists. Upon this

point he wrote: 'Day and night I am occupied with it, I turn it over

every way in my mind, I meditate and argue, and examine the

Scriptures on the subject, and more and more convinced do I become

of the truth of our doctrine, and more resolved never, if God will,

to allow another letter to be torn from us, be the consequence what

it may.' But he objected to the others speaking of 'following his

authority;' the cause was theirs as much as his, and he himself

would defend it, even if he stood alone. He then referred the

anxious Melancthon again to that Faith which had certainly no place

in his rhetoric or philosophy. For faith, he said, must recognise

the Supernatural and the Invisible, and he who attempts to see and

understand it receives only cares and tears for his reward, as

Melancthon did now. 'The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick

darkness,' 'and make darkness His secret place' (1 Kings viii. 12;

Psalm xviii. 11). 'He who wishes, let him do differently; had Moses

wished first to "understand" what the end of Pharaoh's army would

be, then Israel would still be in Egypt. May the Lord increase faith

in you and all of us; if we have that, what in all the world shall

the devil do with us?'

He hastened to send off this letter, and wrote more again on the

same subject the next day, June 30, to Jonas, who had informed him

of Melancthon's afflictions and of the fierce hatred of their

Catholic opponents; also to Spalatin, Agricola, and Brenz, and to

the young Duke John Frederick. He sought to calm the latter about

the 'poisonous, wicked talons' of his nearest blood-relations,

especially the Duke George. He entreated all those theological

friends to bring a wholesome influence to bear on their companion

Melancthon, and for each of them he had particular words of

affection. Melancthon, he wrote, must be dissuaded from wishing to

direct the world and thus crucifying himself. The news that 'the

princes and nations rage against the Lord's anointed,' he accepted

as a good sign; for the Psalmist's words that immediately follow

(Ps. ii. 4) were: 'He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the

Lord shall have them in derision.' He did not understand how men

could be troubled since God still lives: 'He who has created me will

be father to my son and husband to my wife; He will guide the

community and be preacher to the congregation better than I can

myself.' His letter to Melancthon shows in an interesting manner the

contrast between himself and his friend with regard to cares and

temptations. 'In private contests which concern one's own self, I am

the weaker, you the stronger combatant; but in public ones, it is

just the reverse (if, indeed, any contest can be called private

which is waged between me and Satan); for you take but small account

of your life, while you tremble for the public cause; whereas I am

easy and hopeful about the latter, knowing as I do for certain that

it is just and true, and the cause of God Himself, which has no

consciousness of sin to make it blanch, as I must about myself.

Hence, in the latter case, I am as a careless spectator.' Moreover

he felt himself just now less visited by his old spiritual

temptations, although the devil still made his body weary.

How Luther used to converse with God as his Father and Friend,

Melancthon learned that day from Dietrich. The latter heard him pray

aloud: 'I know that Thou art our Father and our God.... The danger

is Thine as well as ours; the whole cause is Thine, we have put our

hands to it because we were obliged to; do Thou protect it.' Luther

daily devoted at least three hours to prayer. He liked all his

family to do the same. He wrote home to his wife thus: 'Pray with

confidence, for all is well arranged, and God will aid us.' Two

years later he said in a sermon about the fulfilment of prayer: 'I

have tried it, and many people with me, especially when the devil

wanted to devour us at the Diet at Augsburg, and everything looked

black, and people were so excited that everyone expected things

would go to ruin, as some had defiantly threatened, and already

knives were drawn and guns were loaded; but God, in answer to our

prayers, so helped us, that those bawlers, with their clamour and

menaces, were put thoroughly to shame, and a favourable peace and a

good year granted to us.'

Just about this time, as Jonas announced to Luther, Duke John

Frederick had the arms of the Reformer cut in stone for a signet

ring, and Luther was requested, through his friend Spengler of

Nüremberg, to explain their meaning. They were peculiarly

appropriate to the times. Luther, as long ago, to our knowledge, as

the year 1517, instead of his father's arms, which were a crossbow

with two roses, had taken as his own one rose, having in its centre

a heart with a cross upon it. This, he now explained, should be a

black cross on a red heart; for, in order to be saved, it is

necessary to believe with our whole heart in our crucified Lord, and

the cross, though bringing pain and self-mortification, does not

corrupt the nature, but rather keeps the heart alive. The heart

should be placed in a white rose, to show that faith gives joy,

comfort, and peace, and because white is the colour of the spirits

and angels, and the joy is not an earthly joy. The rose itself

should be set in an azure field; just as this joy is already the

beginning of heavenly joy and set in heavenly hope, and outside,

round the field, there should be a golden ring, because heavenly

happiness was eternal and precious above all possessions.

[Illustration: FIG. 41.--LUTHER'S SEAL. (Taken from letters written

in 1517.)]

[Illustration: FIG. 42.--LUTHER'S COAT OF ARMS. (From old prints.)]

Shortly after this, Luther received the great news that the summary

of belief of German Protestants, or Augsburg Confession, had been

submitted on June 25 to the Emperor and the Estates, in the German

language. The Emperor, only the day before, had been anxious that it

should not be read aloud, but only received in writing. Publicly,

and in clear and solemn tones, the Saxon chancellor read the

statement of that evangelical faith, which, only nine years before,

at Worms, Luther had been required to retract. Luther was highly

rejoiced. He saw fulfilled the words of the Psalmist, 'I will speak

of Thy testimonies also before kings,' and he felt sure that the

remainder of the verse, 'and will not be ashamed' (Ps. cxix. 46),

would likewise be accomplished. He wrote to his Elector, saying it

was, forsooth, a clever trick of their enemies to seal the lips of

the princes' preachers at Augsburg. The consequence was, that the

Elector and the other nobles 'now preached freely under the very

noses of his Imperial Majesty and the whole Empire, who were obliged

to hear them, and could not offer any opposition.' How sorry he felt

not to have been present there himself! But he rejoiced to have seen

the day when such men stood up in such an assembly, and so bravely

bore witness to the truth of Christ.

Tidings also now arrived of a certain clemency and generosity even

on the part of the Emperor, and of the peaceful disposition of some

of the princes, such as Duke Henry of Brunswick, who invited

Melancthon to dinner, and especially of Cardinal Albert, the

Archbishop and Elector of Mayence. Luther, unlike Melancthon, was

clear and certain on one point, that an agreement with their

opponents on the questions of belief and religion was absolutely out

of the question. But he now spoke out his opinion most decidedly as

to a 'political agreement,' in spite of their differences of

belief,--an agreement, in other words, that the two Confessions and

Churches should peacefully exist together in the German Empire. This

he wished, and almost hoped, might come to pass. In the Emperor

Charles he recognised--he, the loyal-minded German--a good heart and

noble blood, worthy of all honour and esteem. He did not dare to

hope that the Emperor, surrounded as he was by evil advisers, should

actually favour the Evangelical cause, but he believed at any rate

so far in his clemency. In that spirit he once more by letter

approached the Archbishop. Since there was no hope, he wrote, of

their becoming one in doctrine, he begged him at least to use his

influence that peace might be granted to the Evangelicals. For no

one could be, or dared be, forced to accept a belief, and the new

doctrine did no harm, but taught peace and preserved peace. He

endeavoured further to appeal to the Archbishop's conscience as a

German. 'We Germans do not give up believing in the Pope and his

Italians until they bring us, not into a bath of sweat, but a bath

of blood. If German princes fell upon one another, that would make

the Pope, the little fruit of Florence, happy; he would laugh in his

sleeve and say: "There, you German beasts, you would not have me as

Pope, so have that."... I cannot hold my hands; I must strive to

help poor Germany, miserable, forsaken, despised, betrayed, and

sold--to whom indeed I wish no harm, but everything that is good, as

my duty to my dear Fatherland commands me.'

Luther then would not only not hear of surrender, but looked upon as

useless any further negotiations in matters of belief. He could not

understand why his friends were detained any longer at Augsburg,

where they had nothing to expect but menace and bravado on the part

of their opponents. On July 15 he wrote to them: 'You have rendered

unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that

are God's.... May Christ confess us, as you have confessed Him....

Thus I absolve you from this assembly in the Name of the Lord. Now

go home again--go home!'

But they had still to wait for a Refutation, which the Emperor

caused to be drawn up by some strict Catholic theologians, among

whom were Eck, the old and ever violent and active enemy of Luther,

and John Cochlaeus, originally a champion of Humanism, but who had,

since the beginning of the great contest in the Church,

distinguished himself by petty but bitter polemics against Luther,

and now assisted Duke George in the place of the deceased Emser.

Meanwhile the spiritual and temporal lords caused the Protestants to

fear the worst. For Melancthon, these were his worst and weakest

hours. He even sought to pacify the Papal legate, by representing

that there was no dogma in which they differed from the Roman

Church. He thought it possible that even large concessions might be

made, so far at least as regarded the rites and services of the

Church. For these were external things, and the bishops belonged to

the authorities whom God had placed over the externals of life.

Luther therefore had still to wait with patience. He continued his

encouraging letters, nor did even menaces disturb him. He remembered

that too sharp an edge gets only full of notches, and that, as he

had already been told by Staupitz, God first shuts the eyes of those

He wishes to plague. To begin a war now would be dangerous even to

their enemies; the beginning would lead to no progress, the war to

no victory. To Melancthon he spoke, using a coarse German proverb,

about a man who 'died of threatening.'

He drew his richest and most powerful utterances from his one

highest source, the Scriptures. In his own peculiar manner he

expressed himself once to Brück, the chancellor of the Saxon

Elector, his temporal adviser at Augsburg, and a man who did much to

further the Reformation. 'I have lately,' he wrote, 'on looking out

of the window, seen two wonders: the first, the glorious vault of

heaven, with the stars, supported by no pillar and yet firmly fixed;

the second, great thick clouds hanging over us, and yet no ground

upon which they rested, or vessel in which they were contained; and

then, after they had greeted us with a gloomy countenance and passed

away, came the luminous rainbow, which like a frail thin roof

nevertheless bore the great weight of water.' If anyone amidst the

present troubles was not satisfied with the power of faith, Luther

would compare him to a man who should seek for pillars to prevent

the heavens from falling, and tremble and shake because he could not

find them. He was willing, as he wrote in this letter, to rest

content, even if the Emperor would not grant the political peace

they hoped for; for God's thoughts are far above men's thoughts, and

God, and not the Emperor, must have the honour. In a letter to

Melancthon he explained calmly and clearly the duty of

distinguishing between the bishops as temporal princes or

authorities, and the bishops as spiritual shepherds, and how, in

this latter capacity, they must never be allowed the right of

burdening Christ's flock with arbitrary rites and ordinances.

He now published a series of small tracts, one after the other, in

which, with inflexible determination, he again asserted the

evangelical principles against Catholic errors. In this spirit he

wrote about the Church and Church authority; against purgatory;

about the keys of the Church, or how Christ dispenses real

forgiveness of sins to His community; against the worship of the

saints; about the right celebration of the Sacrament, and so forth.

Regardless of the pending questions of dispute, his thoughts

reverted likewise to the needy condition of the schools: he wrote a

special tract, 'On the duty of keeping Children at school.' His

Commentary on the 118th Psalm was now followed by one upon the

117th. He also worked indefatigably at the translation of the

Prophets. Thus steadily he persevered in his labours, suffering more

or less in his head, always weak and 'capricious.' At the conclusion

of his stay at Coburg he told a friend that, on account of the

'buzzing and dizziness' in his head, he had been obliged, with all

his regularity of habits, to make a holiday of more than half the

summer.

On August 3 the Catholic Refutation was at length submitted to the

Diet. It showed indeed, as did the imperial proclamation convoking

the Diet, that it was far from the Emperor's intention to have the

opinions of both sides fairly heard and judged in a friendly and

impartial spirit: on the contrary, he demanded that the Protestants

should declare themselves convinced by it, and therefore conquered.

The Landgrave Philip replied to this demand by quitting Augsburg on

August 6, without the leave and contrary to the command of the

Emperor, and hastening home, openly resolved, in case of need, to

meet force by force. But the Emperor, though urged by Rome to take

violent measures, was not prepared, as indeed Luther had guessed,

for such a sudden stroke. He preferred to adopt a more peaceful and

mediating course, and to attempt once more to settle the differences

by a mixed commission of fourteen, and afterwards by a new and

smaller committee, in which Melancthon alone represented the

Evangelical theologians.

The Protestants had now to consider seriously the question of a

possible submission which Melancthon had hitherto been anxiously

pondering with himself. Luther's view of the entire standpoint and

interests of the Romish Church was now confirmed by the fact that

her representatives attached less importance to the more profound

differences of doctrine in regard to the inward means of salvation,

than to the restoration of episcopal rights and forms of worship,

such as, in particular, the mass and the Sacrament in both kinds,

which formed the principal difficulties during the negotiations. On

the other hand, no one had taught more clearly than Luther the

freedom which belongs to Christians in outward forms of constitution

and worship, and which enables them to yield to and serve each other

on these very points. But he had none the less earnestly cautioned

against making concessions to ecclesiastical tyrants, who might make

use of them to enslave and mislead souls. In this respect Melancthon

now showed himself entirely resolved. He longed for a restoration of

the Catholic episcopacy for the Evangelicals, not only for the sake

of peace, but because he despaired of securing otherwise a genuine

regulation of the Church in the face of arbitrary princes and

undisciplined multitudes. In fact the Protestants on this commission

were willing to promise lawful obedience to the bishops, if only the

questions of service and doctrine were left to a free Council. As

regarded the service of the mass the point at issue was whether the

Protestants could not and ought not to accept it with its whole act

of priestly sacrifice, if only an explanation were added as to the

difference between this sacrifice and the sacrifice of Christ upon

the Cross. Other Protestants, on the contrary, especially the

representatives of Nüremberg, became suspicious and angry at such a

way of settling matters, and especially at the behaviour of

Melancthon. Spengler at Nüremberg wrote accordingly to Luther. The

situation was all the more critical, since the negotiations,

according to the wish of the Emperor, were to proceed uninterruptedly,

and there was no time to obtain an opinion from Coburg.

Luther now, to whom the Elector submitted the Articles which were to

bring about an agreement, sent a very calm, clear answer, entering

into all the particulars. He gave a purely practical judgment,

though resting upon the highest principles. Thus, with regard to the

mass, he says that the Catholic liturgy contained the inadmissible

idea that we must pray to God to accept the Body of His Son as a

sacrifice; if this were to be explained in a gloss, either the words

of the liturgy would have to be falsified by the gloss, or the gloss

by the words of the liturgy. It would be wrong and foolish to run

into danger unnecessarily about so troublesome a word. He warned

Melancthon especially against the power of the bishops. He knew well

that obedience to them meant a restriction of the freedom of the

gospel; but the bishops would not consider themselves equally bound,

and would declare it a breach of faith if everything that they

wished were not observed. He then quietly expressed his conviction

that the whole attempt at negotiation was a vain delusion. It was

wished to make the Pope and Luther agree together, but the Pope was

unwilling and Luther begged to be excused. Firmly and calmly he

relied on the consciousness, whatever happened, of his own

independence and strength. Thus he wrote to Spengler: 'I have

commended the matter to God, and I think also I have kept it so well

in hand that nobody can find me defenceless on any point so long as

Christ and I are united.' To Spalatin he wrote: 'Free is Luther, and

free also is the Macedonian (Philip of Hesse).... Only be brave and

behave like men!' We have taken this from letters rich in similar

thoughts, addressed by Luther on August 26 to the Elector John,

Melancthon, Spalatin, and Jonas, and from other letters written two

days after to the three last-named friends and to Spengler. He

likewise wrote for Brenz on the 26th a preface to his Exposition of

the Prophet Amos. This preface shows us how Luther himself judged

his own words which he sent forth with such power. His own speech,

he says, is a wild wood, compared with the clear, pure flow of

Brenz's language; it was, to compare small things with great, as if

his was the strong spirit of Elijah, the wind tearing up the rocks,

and the earthquake and fire, whereas Brenz's was the 'still, small

voice.' Yet God needs also rough wedges for rough logs, and together

with the fruitful rain He sends the storm of thunder and lightning

to purify the air.

If, however, Protestantism was then threatened by danger from

mistaken concessions, the danger was soon averted by the demands of

its opponents, who went too far even for a Melancthon. The

proceedings of the smaller committee had likewise to be closed

without any result. On September 8 Luther was able at last to tell

his wife that he hoped soon to return home; to his little Hans he

promised to bring a 'beautiful large book of sugar,' which his

cousin Cyriac, who had travelled with Luther to Augsburg and

Nüremberg, had brought for him out of that 'beautiful garden.' On

the 14th he received a visit from Duke John Frederick and Count

Albert of Mansfeld upon their return from the Diet. The former

brought him the signet ring, which, however, was too large even for

his thumb; he remarked that lead, not gold, was fitting for him. He

only wished he could see his other friends also escaped from

Augsburg; and although the Duke was ready to take him away with him,

he preferred to remain behind at Coburg, in order, as he wrote to

Melancthon, to receive them there and wipe off their perspiration

after their hot bath.

At Augsburg negotiations were re-opened with Melancthon and Brück;

the Nüremberg deputy even thought it necessary to complain in the

strongest terms of an 'underhand unchristian stratagem' against

which Melancthon would no longer listen to a word of remonstrance;

and Luther, who heard of these complaints through Spengler and Link,

expressed indeed his full confidence to his Saxon theologians, and

was particularly anxious not to wound Melancthon, but earnestly and

pressingly begged him and Jonas, on the 20th of the month, to inform

him about the matter, to be on their guard against the crafty

attacks of their enemies, and to renounce finally all idea of a

compromise. While, however, these letters were on their way past

Nüremberg through Spengler's hands, it was already known there that

the new attempt, especially that against the constancy of Jonas and

Spalatin, had shipwrecked, and Spengler consequently did not forward

them to their address. The Evangelical States adhered to their

Protest of 1529 and to the Imperial Recess of 1526.

The Emperor made known his displeasure at this result, but found

that even those princes who were most zealous against the

innovations, were not equally zealous to plunge into at least a

doubtful war for the extirpation of heresy, and the aggrandisement,

moreover, of the Emperor's authority and power, and accordingly he

resolved to put off the decision. On the 22nd he announced a Recess,

which gave the Protestants, whose Confession, it was stated, had

been publicly heard and refuted, time till the 15th of the following

April for consideration whether, in the matter of the articles in

dispute, they would return to unity with the Church, Pope, and

Empire. The Emperor, meanwhile, engaged to bring about the meeting

of a Council within a year, for the removal of real ecclesiastical

grievances, but reserved until that period the consideration of what

further steps should eventually be taken. The Evangelicals protested

that their Confession had never been refuted, and proceeded to lay

before the Emperor an apology for it, drawn up by Melancthon. They

accepted the time offered for consideration. So far then the promise

was given of the political peace which Luther had wished and hoped

for. Referring to the other dangers and menaces before them, he said

to Spengler: 'We are cleared and have done enough; the blood be upon

their own head.'

Yet another attempt at union came to Luther at Coburg from quite a

different quarter. Strasburg, and three other South German towns,

Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau, differing as they did from the

Lutherans in the Sacramental controversy, had laid before the Diet a

Confession of their own--the so-called Tetrapolitana. They too, like

Zwingli, refused to recognise any partaking of the Body of Christ by

the mouth and body of the receiver, but at the same time, unlike

him, they based their whole view of the Eucharist on the assumption

of a real Divine gift and a spiritual enjoyment of the 'real Body'

of Christ. On the strength of this view, Butzer, the theological

representative of Strasburg, sought to make further overtures to the

Wittenbergers. He was not deterred by Melancthon's mistrustful

opposition or by Luther's leaving a letter of his unanswered. He now

appeared in person at the Castle of Coburg, and on September 25 had

a confidential and friendly interview with Luther. The latter still

refused to content himself with a mere 'spiritual partaking,' and,

though demanding above all things entire frankness, did not himself

conceal a constant suspicion. However, he himself began to hope for

good results, and assured Butzer he would willingly sacrifice his

life three times over, if thereby this division might be put an end

to. This fortunate beginning encouraged Butzer to further attempts,

which he made afterwards in private.

The day after the reading of the Recess, the Elector John was able

at length to leave the Diet and set forward on his journey home. The

Emperor took leave of him with these words: 'Uncle, Uncle, I did not

look for this from you.' The Elector, with tears in his eyes, went

away in silence. After staying a short time at Nüremberg, he paid a

visit, with his theologians, to Luther. They left Coburg together on

October 5, and travelled by Altenburg, where Luther preached on

Sunday, the 9th, to the royal residence at Torgau. After Luther had

also preached here on the following Sunday, he returned to his home.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE DIET OF AUGSBURG TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NÜREMBERG, 1532.

DEATH OF THE ELECTOR JOHN.

No sooner had Luther resumed his official duties at Wittenberg, than

he again undertook extra and very arduous work. Bugenhagen went in

October to Lübeck, as he had previously gone to Brunswick and Hamburg.

The most important advance made by the Reformation during those years

when its champions had to fight so stoutly at the Diets for their

rights, was in the North German cities. Luther, soon after his arrival

at Coburg, had received news that Lübeck and Lüneburg had accepted the

Reformation. The citizens of Lübeck refused to allow any but Evangelical

preachers, and abolished all non-evangelical usages, though an

opposition party appealed to the Emperor, and actually induced him

to issue a mandate prohibiting the innovations. To organise the new

Church, the Lübeckers would have preferred the assistance of Luther

himself; but failing him, their delegates begged the Elector John,

when at Augsburg, to send them at least Bugenhagen. Under these

circumstances Luther agreed that Bugenhagen should be allowed to

go, although the Wittenberg congregation and university could

hardly spare him. His friend was wanted at Wittenberg, said Luther,

all the more because he himself could not be of any use much longer;

for what with his failing years and his bad health, so weary was he

of life that this accursed world would soon have seen and suffered

the last of him.

Nevertheless, he again undertook at once, so far as his health

permitted, the official duties of the town pastor, who this time was

absent from Wittenberg for a year and a half, until April 1532;

Luther, accordingly, not only preached the weekly sermons on

Wednesdays and Saturdays, on the Gospels of St. Matthew and St.

John, but attended continuously to the care of souls and the

ordinary business of his office. He would reproach himself with the

fact that under his administration the poor-box of the church was

neglected, and that he was often too tired and too lazy to do

anything. The pains in his head, the giddiness, and the affections

of his heart now recurred, and grew worse in March and June 1531,

while the next year they developed symptoms of the utmost gravity

and alarm.

All this time he worked with indefatigable industry to finish his

translation of the Prophets; in the autumn of 1531 he told Spalatin

that he devoted two hours daily to the task of correction. He

brought out a new and revised edition of the Psalms, and published

some of them with a practical exposition.

In addition to these literary labours, which ever remained his first

delight, Luther's chief task was to advise his Elector upon the

salient questions, transactions, and dangers of Church politics,

which, with the Recess of the Diet and the period thereby allotted

for their consideration, had become matters of real urgency. And, in

fact, it was to his valuable and conscientious advice that the

Protestants in general throughout the Empire looked for guidance.

On November 19 the Recess of the Diet, passed in defiance of the

Protestants, was published at Augsburg. They accepted the time

allowed them for consideration, but the Emperor and the Empire

insisted on maintaining the old ordinances of the Church, and the

Protestants were now required to surrender the ecclesiastical and

monastic property in their hands. The latter observed, moreover,

that the Recess contained no actual promise of peace on the part of

the Emperor, but that the States only were commanded to keep peace.

In fact, the Emperor had already promised the Pope on October 4 to

employ all his force to suppress the Protestants. He immediately

subjected the Supreme Court of the Empire--the so-called Imperial

Chamber--to a visitation, and instructed it to enforce strictly the

contents of the Recess in ecclesiastical and religious matters. Thus

the campaign against the Protestants was to begin with the

institution of processes at law, with reference particularly to the

question of Church property. Furthermore, to secure the authority

and continue the policy of the Emperor during his absence, his

brother Ferdinand was to be elected King of the Romans. John of

Saxony, the only Protestant among the Electors, opposed the

election. He appealed to the fact that the nomination was a direct

violation of a decision of imperial law, the Golden Bull, which

declared that the proposal for such an election, during the lifetime

of the Emperor, must first be unanimously resolved on by the

Electors. The Emperor had a Papal brief in his hands which empowered

him to exclude John, as a heretic, from electing, but he did not

find it prudent to make use of it. The election actually took place

on January 5, 1531.

The Protestants now sought for protection in a firm, well-organised

union among themselves. They assembled for this purpose at

Schmalkald at Christmas 1530.

The more imminent, however, the danger to be encountered, the more

necessary it became to determine the question whether it was lawful

to resist the Emperor. The jurists who advised in favour of

resistance, adduced certain arguments, without, however, stating any

very clear or forcible reasons of law. They quoted principles of

civil law, to show that a judge, whose sentence is appealed against

to a higher court, has no right to execute it by force, and that if

he does so, resistance may lawfully be offered him; and they

proceeded to apply this analogy to the appeal of the Protestants to

a future Council, and the action taken against them, while their

appeal was still pending, by the Emperor. They were nearer the mark

when they argued that, according to the constitution of the Empire

and the imperial laws themselves, the sovereignty of the Emperor was

in no sense unlimited or incapable of being resisted; but then the

difficulty here was, that the right of individual States to oppose

decrees, passed at a regular Diet by the Emperor and the majority of

the members present, was not yet proved. There was a general want of

clearness and precision connected with the theories then being

developed of the relations of the different States and the

interpretation of their rights. Upon this matter, then, Luther was

called on again, with the other Wittenberg theologians, to give an

opinion. The jurists also, especially the chancellor Brück, were

associated with them in their deliberations.

On the question about Ferdinand's election as King of Rome, Luther

strongly advised his Elector to give way. The danger which, in the

event of his refusal, menaced both himself and the whole of Germany

appeared to Luther far too serious to justify it. The occasion would

be used to deprive him of the Electorship, and perhaps give it to

Duke George; and Germany would be rent asunder and plunged into war

and misery. This, said Luther, was his advice; adding, however, that

as he held such a humble position in the world, he did not

understand to give much advice in such important matters, nay, he

was 'too much like a child in these worldly affairs.'

But a change had now come in his views about the right of

resistance; a change which, though in reality but an advance upon

his earlier principles, led to an opposite result. He taught that

civil authorities and their ordinances were distinctly of God, and

by these ordinances he understood, according to the Apostle's words,

the different laws of different States, so far as they had anywhere

acquired stability. With regard to Germany, as we have seen, his

good monarchical principles did not as yet prevent his holding the

opinion that the collective body of the princes of the Empire could

dethrone an unworthy Emperor. The determining question with him now

was what the law of the Empire or the edict of the Emperor himself

would decide, in the event of resistance being offered by individual

States of the Empire, which found themselves and their subjects

injured in their rights and impeded in the fulfilment of their

duties. The answer to this, however, he conceived to be a matter no

longer for theologians, but for men versed in the law, and for

politicians. Theologians could only tell him that though, indeed, a

Christian, simply as a Christian, must willingly suffer wrong, yet

the secular authorities, and therefore every German prince having

authority, were bound to uphold their office given them by God, and

protect their subjects from wrong. As to what were the established

ordinances and laws of each individual State, that was a matter for

jurists to decide, and for the princes to seek their counsel.

Accordingly, the Wittenberg theologians declared as their opinion

that if those versed in the law could prove that in certain cases,

according to the law of the Empire, the supreme authority could be

resisted, and that the present case was one of that description, not

even theologians could controvert them from Scripture. In condemning

previously all resistance, they said, they 'had not known that the

sovereign power itself was subject to the law.' The net result was

that the allies really considered themselves justified in offering

resistance to the Emperor, and prepared to do so. The responsibility,

as Luther warned them, must rest with the princes and politicians,

inasmuch as it was their duty to see that they had right on their

side. 'That is a question,' he said, 'which we neither know nor

assert: I leave them to act.'

Luther gave open vent to his indignation at the Recess of the Diet

and the violent attacks of the Catholics in two publications, early

in 1531, one entitled 'Gloss on the supposed Edict of the Emperor,'

and the other, 'Warning to his beloved Germans.' In the former he

reviewed the contents of the Edict and the calumnies it heaped upon

the Evangelical doctrines, not intending, as he said, to attack his

Imperial Majesty, but only the traitors and villains, be they

princes or bishops, who sought to work their own wicked will, and

chief of all the arch-rogue, the so-called Vicegerent of God, and

his legates. The other treatise contemplates the 'very worst evil'

of all that then threatened them, namely, a war resulting from the

coercive measures of the Emperor and the resistance of the

Protestants. As a spiritual pastor and preacher he wished to counsel

not war, but peace, as all the world must testify he had always been

the most diligent in doing. But he now openly declared that if,

which God forbid, it came to war, he would not have those who

defended themselves against the bloodthirsty Papists censured as

rebellious, but would have it called an act of necessary defence,

and justify it by referring to the law and the lawyers.

These publications occasioned fresh dealings with Duke George, who

again complained to the Elector about them, and also about certain

letters falsely ascribed to Luther, and then published a reply,

under an assumed name, to his first pamphlet. Luther answered this

'libel' with a tract entitled 'Against the Assassin at Dresden,' not

intended, as many have supposed, to impute murderous designs to the

Duke, but referring to the calumnies and anonymous attacks in his

book. The tone employed by Luther in this tract reminds us of his

saying that 'a rough wedge is wanted for a rough log.' It brought

down upon him a fresh admonition from his prince, in reply to which

he simply begged that George might for the future leave him in

peace.

The imminence of the common danger favoured the attempts of the

South German States to effect an agreement with the German

Protestants, and the efforts of Butzer in that direction. Luther

himself acknowledged in a letter to Butzer, how very necessary a

union with them was, and what a scandal was caused to the gospel by

their rupture hitherto, nay, that if only they were united, the

Papacy, the Turks, the whole world, and the very gates of hell would

never be able to work the gospel harm. Nevertheless, his conscience

forbade him to overlook the existing differences of doctrine; nor

could he imagine why his former opponents, if they now acknowledged

the Real Presence of the Body at the Sacrament, could not plainly

admit that presence for the mouth and body of all partakers, whether

worthy or unworthy. He deemed it sufficient at present, that each

party should desist from writing against the other, and wait until

'perhaps God, if they ceased from strife, should vouchsafe further

grace.' The new explanations, however, were enough to make the

Schmalkaldic allies abandon their scruples to admitting the South

Germans, and they were accordingly received into the league.

Thus then, at the end of March 1531, a mutual defensive alliance for

six years of the members of the Schmalkaldic League was concluded

between the Elector John, the Landgrave Philip, three Dukes of

Brunswick Lüneburg, Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, Counts Albert and

Gebhard of Mansfeld, the North German towns of Magdeburg, Bremen,

and Lübeck, and the South German towns of Strasburg, Constance,

Memmingen, and Lindau, and also Ulm, Reutlingen, Bibrach, and Isny.

Even Luther no longer raised any objections.

By this alliance the Protestants presented a firm and powerful front

among the constituent portions of the German Empire. Their

adversaries were not so agreed in their interests. Between the Dukes

of Bavaria, and between the Emperor and Ferdinand, political

jealousy prevailed to an extent sufficient to induce the former to

combine with the heretics against the newly-elected King. Outside

Germany, Denmark reached the hand of fellowship to the Schmalkaldic

League; for the exiled King of Denmark, Christian II., who had

previously turned to the Saxon Elector and been friendly to Luther,

now sought, after returning in all humility to the orthodox Church,

to regain his lost sovereignty with the help of his brother-in-law,

the Emperor. The King of France also was equally ready to make

common cause with the Protestant German princes against the growing

power of Charles V.

As for Luther, we find no notice on his part of the schemes and

negotiations connected with these political events, much less any

active participation in them. There was just then a rupture pending

between Henry VIII. of England and the Emperor, and the former was

preparing to secede from the Church of Rome. Henry was anxious for a

divorce from his wife Katharine of Arragon, an aunt of the Emperor,

on the ground of her previous marriage with his deceased brother,

which, as he alleged, made his own marriage with her illegal; and

since the Pope, in spite of long negotiations, refused, out of

regard for the Emperor, to accede to his request, Henry had an

opinion prepared by a number of European universities and men of

learning, on the legality and validity of his marriage, which in

fact for the most part declared against it. A secret commissioner of

the former 'Protector of the Faith' was then sent to the

Wittenbergers, and to Luther, whom he had so grossly insulted.

Luther, however, pronounced (Sept. 5, 1531) against the divorce, on

the ground that the marriage, though not contrary to the law of God

as set forth in Scripture, was prohibited by the human law of the

Church. The political side of the question he disregarded

altogether. He expressed himself to Spalatin, in a certain tone of

sadness, about the Pope's evil disposition towards the Emperor, the

intrigues he seemed to be promoting against him in France, and the

animosity of Henry VIII. towards him on account of his decision on

the marriage; and added, 'Such is the way of this wicked world; may

God take our Emperor under His protection!'

With Charles V. and Ferdinand the question of peace or war was, of

necessity, largely governed by the menacing attitude of the Turks;

in fact it determined their policy in the matter. Luther kept this

danger steadily in view; after the publication of the Recess he

promised the wrath of God upon those madmen who would enter upon a

war while they had the Turks before their very eyes. Ferdinand in

vain sought to conclude a treaty of peace with the Sultan, who

demanded him to surrender all the fortresses he still possessed in a

part of Hungary, and reserved the right of making further conquests.

He was even induced, in March 1581, to advise his brother to effect

a peaceful arrangement with the Protestants, in order to ensure

their assistance in arms. Attempts at reconciliation were

accordingly made through the intervention of the Electors of the

Palatinate and Mayence. The term allowed by the Diet (April 15)

passed by unnoticed. The Emperor also directed the 'suspension of

the proceedings, which he had been authorised by the Recess of

Augsburg to set on foot in religious matters, till the approaching

Diet.'

The negotiations were languidly protracted through the summer,

without effecting any definite result. An opinion, drawn up jointly

by Luther, Melancthon, and Bugenhagen, advised against an absolute

rejection of the proposed restoration of episcopal power; the only

thing necessary to insist upon being that the clergy and

congregations should be allowed by the bishops the pure preaching of

the gospel which had hitherto been refused them.

About this time Luther had the grief of losing his mother. She died

on June 30, after receiving from her son a consolatory letter in her

last illness. Of his own physical suffering in this month we have

already spoken. On the 26th, he wrote to Link that Satan had sent

all his messengers to buffet him (2 Cor. xii. 7), so that he could

only rarely write or do anything: the devil would probably soon kill

him outright. And yet not his will would be done, but the will of

Him who had already overthrown Satan and all his kingdom.

Soon afterwards, the desire of the Catholics for coercive measures

was stimulated afresh by the news of a defeat which the Reformed

cities in Switzerland had sustained at the hands of the five

Catholic Cantons, notwithstanding that the balance of force inclined

there far more than in Germany to the side of the Evangelicals. The

struggle which Luther was perpetually endeavouring to avert from

Germany, culminated in Switzerland in a bloody outbreak, mainly at

Zwingli's instigation. Zwingli himself fell on October 11 in the

battle of Cappel, a victim of the patriotic schemes by which he had

laboured to achieve for his country a grand reform of politics,

morality, and the Church, but for which he had failed to enlist any

intelligent or unanimous co-operation on the part of his companions

in faith. Ferdinand triumphed over this first great victory for the

Catholic cause. He was now ready to renounce humbly his claim upon

Hungary, so that, by making peace with the Sultan, he might leave

his own and the Emperor's hands free in Germany. Luther saw in the

fate of Zwingli another judgment of God against the spirit of

Münzer, and in the whole course of the war a solemn warning for the

members of the Schmalkaldic League not to boast of any human

alliance, and to do their utmost to preserve peace.

But the events in Switzerland gave no handle against those who had

not joined the Zwinglians, nor were even the latter weakened thereby

in power and organisation. The South Germans had now to cling all

the more firmly to their alliance with the Lutheran princes and

cities; the Zwinglian movement suffered shortly afterwards (Dec. 1)

a severe loss in the death of Oecolampadius. Finally the Sultan was

not satisfied with Ferdinand's repeated offers, but prepared for a

new campaign against Austria in the spring of 1532, and towards the

end of April he set out for it.

This checked the feverous desire of Germans for war against their

fellow-countrymen, and brought to a practical result the

negotiations for a treaty which had been conducted early in 1582 at

Schweinfurt, and later on at Nüremberg. They amounted to this: that

all idea of an agreement on the religious and ecclesiastical

questions in dispute was abandoned until the hoped-for Council

should take place, and that, as had long been Luther's opinion, they

should rest content with a political peace or _modus vivendi_,

which should recognise both parties in the position they then

occupied. The main dispute was on the further question, how far this

recognition should extend;--whether only to the Schmalkaldic allies,

the immediate parties to the present agreement, or to such other

States of the Empire as might go over to the new doctrine from the

old Church--which still remained the established Church of the

Emperor and the Empire in general--and, perhaps further, to

Protestant subjects of Catholic princes of the Empire. There was

also still the question as to the validity of Ferdinand's election

as King of Rome. Luther was again and again asked for his opinion on

this subject.

He was just then suffering from an unusually severe attack, which

incessantly reminded him of his approaching end. In addition, he was

deeply concerned about the health of his beloved Elector. Early in

the morning of January 22 he was seized again, as his friend

Dietrich, who lived with him, informs us, with another violent

attack in his head and heart. His friends who had come to him began

to speak of the effect his death would have on the Papists, when he

exclaimed, 'But I shall not die yet, I am certain. God will never

strengthen the Papal abominations by letting me die now that Zwingli

and Oecolampadius are just gone. Satan would no doubt like to have

it so: he dogs my heels every moment; but not his will will be done,

but the Lord's.' The physician thought that apoplexy was imminent,

and that if so, Luther could hardly recover. The attack however

seems to have quickly passed away, but Luther's head remained racked

with pain. A few weeks later, towards the end of February, he had to

visit the Elector at Torgau, who was lying there in great suffering,

and had been compelled to have the great toe of his left foot

amputated. Luther writes thence about himself to Dietrich, saying

that he was thinking about the preface to his translation of the

Prophets, but suffered so severely from giddiness and the torments

of Satan, that he well-nigh despaired of living and returning to

Wittenberg. 'My head,' he says, 'will do no more: so remember that,

if I die, your talents and eloquence will be wanted for the

preface.' For a whole month, as he remarked at the beginning of

April, he was prevented from reading, writing, and lecturing. He

informed Spalatin, in a letter of May 20, which Bugenhagen wrote for

him, that at present, God willing, he must take a holiday. And on

June 13 he told Amsdorf that his head was gradually recovering

through the intercessions of his friends, but that he despaired of

regaining his natural powers.

Notwithstanding this condition and frame of mind, Luther continued

to send cordial, calm, and encouraging words of peace, concerning

the negotiations then pending, both to the Elector John and his son

John Frederick.

Concerning Ferdinand's election Luther declared to these two princes

on February 12, and again afterwards, that it must not be allowed to

embarrass or prevent a treaty of peace. If it violated a trifling

article of the Golden Bull, that was no sin against the Holy Ghost,

and God could show the Protestants, for a mote like this in the eyes

of their enemies, whole beams in their own. It must needs be an

intolerable burden to the Elector's conscience if war were to arise

in consequence,--a war which might 'well end in rending the Empire

asunder and letting in the Turks, to the ruin of the Gospel and

everything else.'

An opinion, drawn up on May 16 by Luther and Bugenhagen, was equally

decided in counselling submission on the question as to the

extension of the truce, if peace itself depended upon it. For if the

Emperor, he said, was now pleased to grant security to the now

existing Protestant States, he did so as a favour and a personal

privilege. They could not coerce him into showing the same favour to

others. Others must make the venture by the grace of God, and hope

to gain security in like manner. Everyone must accept the gospel at

his own peril.

Luther began already to hear the reproach that to adopt such a

course would be to renounce brotherly love, for Christians should

seek the salvation and welfare of others besides themselves. He was

reproached again with disowning by his conduct the Protestant ideal

of religious freedom and the equal rights of Confessions. Very

differently will he be judged by those who realise the legal and

constitutional relations then existing in Germany, and the

ecclesiastico-political views shared in common by Protestants and

Catholics, and who then ask what was to be gained by a course

contrary to that which he advised in the way of peace and positive

law. That the sovereigns of Catholic States should secure toleration

to the Evangelical worship in their own territories was opposed to

those general principles by virtue of which the Protestant rulers

took proceedings against their Catholic subjects. According to those

principles, nothing was left for subjects who resisted the

established religion of the country but to claim free and unmolested

departure. Luther observed with justice, 'What thou wilt not have

done to thee, do not thou to others.' With regard to the further

question as to the princes who should hereafter join the

Protestants, it certainly sounds naive to hear Luther speak of a

present mere act of favour on the part of the Emperor. But he was

strictly right in his idea, that a concession, involving the

separation of some of the States of the Empire from the one Church

system hitherto established indivisibly throughout the Empire, and

their organisation of a separate Church, had no foundation whatever

in imperial law as existing before and up to the Reformation, and

could in so far be regarded simply as a free concession of the

Emperor and Empire to individual members of the general body; who,

therefore, had no right to compel the extension of this concession

to others, and thereby hazard the peace of the Empire. Something had

already been gained by the fact that at least no limitation was

expressed. A door was thus left open for extension at a future time;

and for those who wished to profit by this fact, the danger, if only

peace could be assured, was at any rate diminished. If we may see

any merit in the fact that the German nation at that time was spared

a bloody war, unbounded in its destructive results, and that a

peaceful solution was secured for a number of years, that merit is

due in the first place to the great Reformer. He acted throughout

like a true patriot and child of his Fatherland, no less than like a

true Christian teacher and adviser of conscience.

The negotiations above described involved the further question about

a Council, pending which a peaceful agreement was now effected. In

the article providing for the convocation of a 'free Christian

Council,' the Protestants demanded the addition of the words, 'in

which questions should be determined according to the pure Word of

God.' On this point, however, Luther was unwilling to prolong the

dispute. He remarked with practical wisdom that the addition would

be of no service; their opponents would in any case wish to have the

credit of having spoken according to the pure Word of God.

In June bad news came again from Nüremberg, tending to the belief

that the Papists had thwarted the work of peace. Luther again

exclaimed, as he had done after the Diet of Augsburg, 'Well, well!

your blood be upon your own heads; we have done enough.'

Towards the end of the month, when the Elector again invited his

opinion, he repeated, with even more urgency than before, his

warnings to those Protestants also who were 'far too clever and

confident, and who, as their language seemed to show, wished to have

a peace not open to dispute.' He begged the Elector, in all humility,

to 'write in earnest a good, stern letter to our brethren,' that they

might see how much the Emperor had graciously conceded to them which

could be accepted with a good conscience, and not refuse such a

gracious peace for the sake of some paltry, far-fetched point of

detail. God would surely heal and provide for such trifling defects.

On July 23 the peace was actually concluded at Nüremberg, and signed

by the Emperor on August 2. Both parties were mutually to practise

Christian toleration until the Council was held; one of these

parties being expressly designated as the Schmalkaldic allies. The

value of this treaty for the maintenance of Protestantism in Germany

was shown by the indignation displayed by the Papal legates from the

first at the Emperor's concessions.

The Elector John was permitted to survive the conclusion of the

peace, which he had been foremost among the princes in promoting.

Shortly after, on August 15, he was seized with apoplexy when out

hunting, and on the following day he breathed his last. Luther and

Melancthon, who were summoned to him at Schweinitz, found him

unconscious. Luther said his beloved prince, on awakening, would be

conscious of everlasting life; just as when he came from hunting on

the Lochau heath, he would not know what had happened to him; as

said the prophet (Isaiah lvii. 1, 2), 'The righteous is taken away

from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in

their beds.' Luther preached at his funeral at Wittenberg, as he had

done seven years before at his brother's, and Spalatin tells us how

he wept like a child.

John had, throughout his reign, laboured conscientiously to follow

the Word of God, as taught by Luther, and to encounter all dangers

and difficulties by the strength of faith. He has rightly earned the

surname of 'the Steadfast.' Luther especially praises his conduct at

the Diet of Augsburg in this respect; he frequently said to his

councillors on that occasion, 'Tell my men of learning that they are

to do what is right, to the praise and glory of God, without regard

to me, or to my country and people.' Luther distinguished piety and

benevolence as the two most prominent features of his character, as

wisdom and understanding had been those of the Elector Frederick's.

'Had the two princes,' he said, 'been one, that man would have been

a marvel.'

PART VI.

_FROM THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NÜREMBERG TO THE DEATH OF LUTHER_.

CHAPTER I.

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 1632-34.

Political peace had been the blessing which Luther hoped to see

obtained for his countrymen and his Church, during the anxious time

of the Augsburg Diet. Such a peace had now been gained by the

development of political relations, in which he himself had only so

far co-operated as to exhort the Protestant States to practise all

the moderation in their power. He saw in this result the

dispensation of a higher power, for which he could never be thankful

enough to God. For the remainder of his life he was permitted to

enjoy this peace, and, so far as he could, to assist in its

preservation. In the enjoyment of it he continued to build on the

foundations prepared for him under the protecting patronage of

Frederick the Wise, and on which the first stone of the new Church

edifice had been laid under the Elector John.

A longer time was given him for this work than he had anticipated.

We have had occasion frequently to refer not only to his thoughts of

approaching death, but also to the severe attacks of illness which

actually threatened to prove fatal. Although these attacks did not

recur with such dangerous severity in the later years of his life,

still a sense of weakness and premature old age invariably remained

behind them. Exhaustion, caused by his work and the struggles he had

undergone, debarred him from exertion for which he had all the will.

He constantly complained of weakness in the head and giddiness,

which totally unfitted him for work, especially in the morning. He

would break out to his friends with the exclamation, 'I waste my

life so uselessly, that I have come to bear a marvellous hatred

towards myself. I don't know how it is that the time passes away so

quickly, and I do so little. I shall not die of years, but of sheer

want of strength.' In begging one of his friends at a distance to

visit him once more, he reminds him that, in his present state of

health, he must not forget that it might be for the last time. No

wonder then if his natural excitability was often morbidly

increased. He always looked forward with joy to his leaving this

'wicked world,' but as long as he had to work in it, he exerted all

his powers no less for his own immediate task than for the general

affairs of the Church, which incessantly demanded his attention.

The mutual trust and friendship subsisting between the Reformer and

his sovereign continued unbroken with John's son and successor, John

Frederick. This Elector, born in 1503, had, while yet a youth,

embraced Luther's teaching with enthusiasm, and leaned upon him as

his spiritual father. Luther, on his side, treated him with a

confidential, easy intimacy, but never forgot to address him as 'Most

illustrious Prince' and 'Most gracious Lord.' When the young man

assumed the Electorship, and appeared at Wittenberg a few days after

his father's death, he at once invited Luther to preach at the castle

and to dine at his table. Luther expressed indeed to friends his fear

that the many councillors who surrounded the young Elector might try

to exert evil influences upon him, and that he might have to pay dearly

for his experience. It might be, he said, that so many dogs barking

round him would make him deaf to anyone else. For instance, they might

take a grudge against the clergy and cry out, if admonished by them,

what can a mere clerk know about it? But his relations with his prince

remained undisturbed. He saw with joy how the latter was beginning to

gather up the reins which his gentle-minded father had allowed to grow

too slack, and he hoped that if God would grant a few years of peace,

John Frederick would take in hand real and important reforms in his

government, and not merely command them but see them executed.

The Elector's wife, Sybil, a princess of Juliers, shared her

husband's friendship for Luther. The Elector had married her in

1526, after taking Luther into his confidence, and being warned by

him against needlessly delaying the blessing which God had willed to

grant him. On what a footing of cordial intimacy she stood with both

Luther and his wife, is shown by a letter she wrote to him in

January 1529, while her husband was away on a journey. She says that

she will not conceal from him, as her 'good friend and lover of the

comforting Word of God,' that she finds the time very tedious now

that her most beloved lord and husband is away, and that therefore

she would gladly have a word of comfort from Luther, and be a little

cheerful with him; but that this is impossible at Weimar, so far off

as it is, and so she commends all, and Luther and his dear wife, to

the loving God, and will put her trust in Him. She begs him in

conclusion: 'You will greet your dear wife very kindly from us, and

wish her many thousand good-nights, and if it is God's will, we

shall be very glad to be with her some day, and with you also, as

well as with her: this you may believe of us at all times.' In the

last years of his life Luther had to thank her for similar greetings

and inquiries after his own health and that of his family.

In the tenth year of the new Elector's reign Luther was able

publicly and confidently to bear witness against the calumnies

brought against his government. 'There is now,' he said 'thank God,

a chaste and honourable manner of life, truthful lips, and a

generous hand stretched out to help the Church, the schools, and the

poor; an earnest, constant, faithful heart to honour the Word of

God, to punish the bad, to protect the good, and to maintain peace

and order. So pure also and praiseworthy is his married life, that

it can well serve as a beautiful example for all, princes, nobles,

and everyone--a Christian home as peaceful as a convent, which men

are so wont to praise. God's Word is now heard daily, and sermons

are well attended, and prayer and praise are given to God, to say

nothing of how much the Elector himself reads and writes every day.'

Only one thing Luther could not and would not justify, namely, that

at times the Elector, especially when he had company, drank too much

at table. Unhappily the vice of intemperance prevailed then not only

at court but throughout Germany. Still John Frederick could stand a

big drink better than many others, and, with the exception of this

failing, even his enemies must allow him to have been endued with

great gifts from God, and all manner of virtues becoming a

praiseworthy prince and a chaste husband. Luther's personal

relations with the Elector never made him scruple to express to him

freely, in his letters, words of censure as well as of praise.

In his academical lectures Luther devoted his chief labours for

several terms after 1531 to St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. He

had already commenced this task before and during the contest about

indulgences, his object having been to expound to and impress upon

his hearers and readers the great truth of justification by faith,

set forth in that Epistle with such conciseness and power. This

doctrine he always regarded as a fundamental verity and the

groundwork of religion. In all its fulness and clearness, and with

all his old freshness, vigour, and intensity of fervour, he now

exhaustively discussed this doctrine. His lectures, published, with

a preface of his, by the Wittenberg chaplain Rörer in 1535, contain

the most complete and classical exposition of his Pauline doctrine

of salvation. In the introduction to these lectures he declared that

it was no new thing that he was offering to men, for by the grace of

God the whole teaching of St. Paul was now made known; but the

greatest danger was, lest the devil should again filch away that

doctrine of faith and smuggle in once more his own doctrine of human

works and dogmas. It could never be sufficiently impressed on man,

that if the doctrine of faith perished, all knowledge of the truth

would perish with it, but that if it flourished, all good things

would also flourish, namely, true religion, and the true worship and

glory of God. In his preface he says: 'One article--the only solid

rock--rules in my heart, namely, faith in Christ: out of which,

through which, and to which all my theological opinions ebb and flow

day and night.' To his friends he says of the Epistle to the

Galatians: 'That is my Epistle, which I have espoused: it is my

Katie von Bora.'

His sermons to his congregation were now much hindered by the state

of his health. It was his practice, however, after the spring of

1532, to preach every Sunday at home to his family, his servants,

and his friends.

But his greatest theological work, which he intended for the service

of all his countrymen, was the continuation and final conclusion of

his translation of the Bible. After publishing in 1532 his

translation of the Prophets, which had cost him immense pains and

industry, the Apocrypha alone remained to be done;--the books which,

in bringing out his edition of the Bible, he designated as inferior

in value to the Holy Scriptures, but useful and good to read. Well

might he sigh at times over the work. In November 1532, being then

wholly engrossed with the book of Sirach, he wrote to his friend

Amsdorf saying that he hoped to escape from this treadmill in three

weeks, but no one can discover any trace of weariness or vexation in

the German idiom in which he clothed the proverbs and apophthegms of

this book. Notwithstanding the length of time which his task

occupied, and his constant interruptions, it has turned out a work

of one mould and casting, and shows from the first page to the last

how completely the translator was absorbed in his theme, and yet how

closely his life and thoughts were interwoven with those of his

fellow countrymen, for whom he wrote and whose language he spoke. In

1534 the whole of his German Bible was at length in print, and the

next year a new edition was called for. Of the New Testament, with

which Luther had commenced the work, as many as sixteen original

editions, and more than fifty different reimpressions, had appeared

up to 1533.

With regard to the wants of the Church, Luther looked to the energy

of the new Elector for a vigorous prosecution of the work of

visitation. A reorganisation of the Church had been effected by

these means, but many more evils had been exposed than cured, nor

had the visitations been yet extended to all the parishes. The

Elector John had already called on Luther, together with Jonas and

Melancthon, for their opinion as to the propriety of resuming them,

and only four days before his death he gave instructions on the

subject to his chancellor Brück. John Frederick, in the first year

of his rule, did actually put the new visitation into operation, in

concert with his Landtag. The main object sought at present was to

bring about better discipline among the members of the various

congregations, and to put down the sins of drunkenness, unchastity,

frivolous swearing, and witchcraft. Luther and even Melancthon were

no longer required to give their services as visitors: Luther's

place on the commission for Electoral Saxony was filled by

Bugenhagen. His own views and prospects in regard to the condition

of the people remained gloomy. He complains that the Gospel bore so

little fruit against the powers of the flesh and the world; he did

not expect any great and general change through measures of

ecclesiastical law, but trusted rather to the faithful preaching of

the Divine Word, leaving the issue to God. It was particularly the

nobles and peasants whom he had to rebuke for open or secret

resistance against this Word. He exclaims in a letter to Spalatin,

written in 1533: '0 how shamefully ungrateful are our times!

Everywhere nobles and peasants are conspiring in our country against

the Gospel, and meanwhile enjoy the freedom of it as insolently as

they can; God will judge in the matter!' He had to complain besides

of indifference and immorality in his immediate neighbourhood, among

his Wittenbergers. Thus he addressed, on Midsummer Day 1534, after

his sermon, a severe rebuke to drunkards who rioted in taverns

during the time of Divine service, and he exhorted the magistrates

to do their duty by proceeding against them, so as not to incur the

punishment of the Elector or of God.

The territories of Anhalt, immediately adjoining the dominions of

the Saxon Elector, now openly joined the Evangelical Confession, of

which their prince, Wolfgang of Kothen, had long been a faithful

adherent; and Luther contracted in this quarter new and close

friendships, like that which subsisted between himself and his own

Elector. Anhalt Dessau was under the government of three nephews of

Wolfgang, namely, John, Joachim, and George. They had lost their

father in early life. One of them had for his guardian the strictly

Catholic Elector of Brandenburg, the second, Duke George of Saxony,

and the third, the Cardinal Archbishop Albert. George, born in 1507,

was made in 1518 canon at Merseburg, and afterwards prebendary of

Magdeburg cathedral. The Cardinal had taken peculiar interest in him

ever since his boyhood, on account of his excellent abilities, and

he did honour to his office by his fidelity, zeal, and purity of

life. The new teaching caused him severe internal struggles. His

theological studies showed him how rotten were the foundations of

the Romish system, but, on the other hand, the new doctrine awakened

suspicions on his part lest, with its advocacy of gospel liberty and

justification by faith, it might tempt to sedition and immorality.

But it finally won his heart, when he learned to know it in its pure

form through the Augsburg Confession and the Apology of Melancthon,

while the Catholic Refutation drawn up for the Diet of Augsburg

excited his disgust. His two brothers, whose devoutness of character

their enemies could no more dispute than his own, became converts

also to Protestantism. In 1532 they appointed Luther's friend

Nicholas Hausmann their court-preacher, and invited Luther and

Melancthon to stay with them at Worlitz. George, in virtue of his

office as archdeacon and prebendary of Magdeburg, himself undertook

the visitation, and had the candidates for the office of preacher

examined at Wittenberg. Luther eulogised the two brothers as

'upright princes, of a princely and Christian disposition,' adding

that they had been brought up by worthy and Godfearing parents. He

kept up a close and intimate friendship with them, both personally

and by letter. A disposition to melancholy on the part of Joachim

gave Luther an opportunity of corresponding with him. While cheering

him with spiritual consolation, he recommended him to seek for

mental refreshment in conversation, singing, music, and cracking

jokes. Thus he wrote to him in 1534 as follows: 'A merry heart and

good courage, in honour and discipline, are the best medicine for a

young man--aye, for all men. I, who have spent my life in sorrow and

weariness, now seek for pleasure and take it wherever I can....

Pleasure in sin is the devil, but pleasure shared with good people

in the fear of God, in discipline and honour, is well-pleasing to

God. May your princely Highness be always cheerful and blessed, both

inwardly in Christ, and outwardly in His gifts and good things. He

wills it so, and for that reason He gives us His good things to make

use of, that we may be happy and praise Him for ever.'

During these years, the negotiations concerning the general affairs

of the Church, the restoration of harmony in the Christian Church of

the West, and the internal union of the Protestants, still

proceeded, though languidly and with little spirit.

With the promise, and pending the assembly, of a Council, the

Religious Peace had been at length concluded. Before the close of

1532 the Emperor actually succeeded in inducing Pope Clement, at a

personal interview with him at Bologna, to announce his intention to

convoke a Council forthwith. He urged him to do so by frightening

him with the prospect of a German national synod, such as even the

orthodox States of the Empire might resolve on, in the event of the

Pope obstinately opposing a Council, and in that case, of a possible

combination of the entire German nation against the Papal see. He

knew, indeed, well enough, that the Holy Father, in making this

promise, had no intention whatever of keeping it. The Pope now sent

a nuncio to the German princes, to make preparations for giving

effect to his promise; the Emperor sent with him an ambassador of

his own, as well for his control as his support.

When the nuncio and ambassador reached John Frederick at Weimar, the

Elector consulted with Luther, Bugenhagen, Jonas, and Melancthon

about the object of their coming, and for that purpose, on June 15,

1533, he came in person to Wittenberg, and had an opinion drawn up in

writing. The Papal invitation to the Council stated that, agreeably

with the demands of the Germans, it should be a free Christian Council,

and also that it should be held in accordance with ancient usage as

from the beginning. Luther declared that this was merely a 'muttering

in the dark,' half angel-like, half devil-like. For if by the words

'from the beginning' were meant the primitive Christian assemblies,

such as those of the Apostles (Acts xv.), then the Council now intended

was bound to act according to the Word of God, freely, and without

regard to any future Councils; a Council on the other hand, held

according to previous usage, as, for example, that of Constance, was

a Council contrary to the Word of God, and held in mere human blindness

and wantonness. The Pope, in describing the Council proposed by himself

as a free one, was making sport of the Emperor, the request of the

Evangelicals, and the decrees of the Diet. How could the Pope possibly

tolerate a free Christian Council when he must be quite aware how

disadvantageous such a Council would be to himself? Luther's advice

was briefly summed up in this: to restrict themselves to the bare

formalities of speech required, and to wait for further events. 'I

think it is best,' he said, 'not to busy ourselves at present with

anything more than what is necessary and moderate, and that can give

no handle to the Pope or the Emperor to accuse us of intemperate

conduct. Whether there be a Council or not, the time will come for

action and advice.' And it soon became clear enough, that Clement at any

rate would not convene a Council. He now entered into an understanding

with King Francis, who was again meditating an attack against the

power of Charles V., listened to his proposal that the Council might

be abandoned, and in March 1534 announced to the German princes

that, agreeably to the King's wish, he had resolved to adjourn its

convocation.

How firmly Luther persisted--Council or no Council--in his

uncompromising opposition to the Romish system, was now shown by

several of his new writings, more especially by his treatise 'On

private Masses and the Consecration of Priests.' Concerning private

masses, and the sacrifice of Christ's Body supposed to be there

offered, he now declared that, where the ordinance of Christ was so

utterly perverted, Christ's Body was assuredly not present at all,

but simple bread and simple wine was worshipped by the priest in

vain idolatry, and offered for others to worship in like manner. He

knew how they would 'come rolling up to him with the words, "Church,

Church; custom, custom," just as they had answered him once before

in his attack on indulgences; but neither the Church nor custom had

been able to preserve indulgences from their fate.' In the Church,

even under the Popedom, he recognised a holy place, for in it was

baptism, the reading of the Gospel, prayer, the Apostles' Creed, &c.

But he repeats now, what he had said in his most pungent writings

during the earlier struggles of the Reformation, namely, that

devilish abominations had entered into this place, and so penetrated

it with their presence, that only the light of the Holy Spirit would

enable one to distinguish between the place itself and these

abominations. He contrasts the mass-holding priests and their

stinking oil of consecration with the universal Christian priesthood

and the evangelical office of preacher. To the principle of this

priesthood he still firmly adhered, faithless though he saw the

large mass of the congregations to the priestly character with which

baptism had invested them, and strictly as he had to guide his

action, in the appointment and outward constitution of that office,

by existing circumstances and historical requirements. Thus he

repeats what he had said before, 'We are all born simple priests and

pastors in baptism; and out of such born priests, certain are chosen

or called to certain offices, and it is their duty to perform the

various functions of those offices for us all.' This universal

priesthood he would assert and utilise in the celebration of Divine

service and in the true Christian mass; and he appeals for that

purpose to the true worship of God by an Evangelical congregation.

'There,' he says, 'our priest or minister stands before the altar,

having been duly and publicly called to his priestly office; he

repeats publicly and distinctly Christ's words of institution; he

takes the Bread and Wine, and distributes it according to Christ's

words; and we all kneel beside and around him, men and women, young

and old, master and servant, mistress and maid, all holy priests

together, sanctified by the Blood of Christ. And in such our

priestly dignity are we there, and (as pictured in Revelations iv.)

we have our crowns of gold on our heads, harps in our hands, and

golden censers; and we do not let our priest proclaim for himself

the ordinance of Christ, but he is the mouthpiece of us all, and we

all say it with him from our hearts, and with sincere faith in the

Lamb of God, Who feeds us with His Body and Blood.'

In 1533 Erasmus published a work wherein he endeavoured to effect in

his own way the restoration of unity in the Church, by exhorting men

to abolish practical abuses and show submission in doctrinal

disputes, professing for his own part unvarying subjection to the

Church. In opposition to him, Luther hit the right point in a

preface he wrote to the reply of the Marburg theologian Corvinus.

Erasmus, he said, only strengthened the Papists, who cared nothing

about a safe truth for their consciences, but only kept on crying

out 'Church, Church, Church.' For he too kept on simply repeating

that he wished to follow the Church, whilst leaving everything

doubtful and undetermined until the Church had settled it. 'What,'

asks Luther, 'is to be done with those good souls, who, bound in

conscience by the word of Divine truth, cannot believe doctrines

evidently contrary to Scripture? Shall we tell them that the Pope

must be obeyed so that peace and unity may be preserved?' When,

therefore, Erasmus sought to obtain unity of faith by mutual

concession and compromise, Luther answered by declaring such unity

to be impossible, for the simple reason that the Catholics, by their

very boasting of the authority of the Church, absolutely refused on

their part to make any concession at all. But so far as 'unity of

charity' was concerned, he held that on that point the Evangelicals

needed no admonishment, for they were ready to do and suffer all

things, provided nothing was imposed upon them contrary to the

faith. They had never thirsted for the blood of their enemies,

though the latter would gladly persecute them with fire and sword.

As for Erasmus himself, Luther, as already stated, simply regarded

him as a sceptic, who with his attitude of subjection to the Church,

sought only for peace and safety for himself and his studies and

intellectual enjoyments. Acting on this view, Luther, in a letter to

Amsdorf, written in 1534, and intended for publication, heaped

reproaches on Erasmus which undoubtedly he uttered in honest zeal,

but in which his zeal did not allow him to form an impartial

estimate of his opponent or his writings. He saw the bad spirit of

Erasmus reflected in other men, who, like him, had seen the true

character of the Romish Church, but, like him also, rejoined her

communion. Instances of this were found in his old friend Crotus,

who had now entered the service of Cardinal Albert, and as his

'plate-licker,' as Luther called him, abused the Reformation; and in

the theologian George Witzel, a pupil of Erasmus and student at

Wittenberg, who formerly had been suspected even of sympathising

with the peasants in their rebellion, and of rejecting the doctrine

of the Trinity, but who now wished for a Reformation after Erasmus'

ideas, and was one of the foremost literary opponents of the

Lutheran Reformation. Luther, however, deemed it superfluous, after

all that he had said against the master, to turn also against his

subordinates, and the mere mouthpieces of his teaching.

In addition to Luther's polemics against Catholicism in general,

must be mentioned a fresh quarrel with Duke George. The latter, in

1532, had expelled from Saxony some evangelically disposed

inhabitants of Leipzig and Oschatz, decreed that everyone should

appear once a year at church for confession, and ordered some

seventy or eighty families of Leipzig, who had refused to do so, to

quit his dominions. Luther sent letters, which were afterwards

published, of comfort to the exiled, and of exhortation and advice

to those who were threatened. Duke George thereupon complained to

the Elector that Luther was exciting his subjects to sedition.

Luther, in reply, spoke out again with double vehemence in a public

vindication, whilst George made Cochlaeus write against him. Further

quarrelling was ended by the two princes agreeing, in November 1533,

to settle certain matters in dispute, and their theologians also

were commanded to keep at peace. With regard to the future, however,

Luther had spoken words of significance and weight to his persecuted

brethren at Leipzig, when he reminded them what great and unexpected

things God had done since the Diet of Worms, and how many

bloodthirsty persecutors He had since then snatched away. 'Let us

wait a little while,' he said, 'and see what God will bring to pass.

Who knows what God will do after the Diet of Augsburg, even before

ten years have gone by?'

Firmly, however, as Luther refused to listen to any surrender in

matters of faith, or to any subjection to a Catholic Council of the

old sort, he desired no less to adhere loyally to the 'political

concord.' His whole heart and sympathies, as a fellow-Christian and

a good German, went out with the German troops in their march

against the Turks, who he hoped might be well routed by the Emperor.

He never reflected how perilous the consequences of a decisive

victory by Charles V. over his foreign enemies would be for the

Protestants of Germany, and how divided, therefore, these must feel,

at least in their hopes and wishes, during the progress of the war.

He only saw in him again the 'dear good Emperor.' He wished him like

success against his evil-minded French enemy. The Pope especially he

reproached for his persistent ill-will to the Emperor. The Popes, he

said, had always been hostile to the Emperors, and had betrayed the

best of them and wantonly thwarted their desires.

Early in 1534 Philip of Hesse set in earnest about his scheme, so

momentous for Protestantism, of forcibly expelling King Ferdinand

from Würtemberg, and restoring it to the exiled Duke Ulrich. The

latter, whom the Swabian League in 1519, upon a decision of the

Emperor and Empire, had deprived of his territory, and transferred

it to the House of Austria, was staying with the Landgrave in 1529,

with whom he attended the conference at Marburg, and shared his

views on Church matters. Since then the Swabian League was

dissolved, and Philip seized this favourable opportunity to

interfere on behalf of his friend. The King of France promised his

aid, and in Germany, especially among the Catholic Bavarians, a

strong desire prevailed to weaken the power of Austria. Luther's

public judgment being of such weight, and his counsels so

influential with the Elector Frederick, Philip informed him, through

pastor Ottinger of Cassel, of his preparations for war, lest he

might otherwise be wrongly given to understand that he was

meditating a step against the Emperor. His intention, he declared,

was merely to 'restore and reinstate Duke Ulrich to his rights in

all fairness,' in the sight of God and of his Imperial Majesty. He

'belonged to no faction or sect:'--this, wrote Ottinger, he was

'instructed by his princely Highness not to conceal from Luther.'

The latter, however, at a conference with his Elector and the

Landgrave at Weimar, protested against a breach of the public peace,

as tending to bring disgrace upon the gospel; and the Elector, in

consequence, kept aloof from the enterprise. Philip, however,

persisted, and carried it through with rapidity and success.

Ferdinand, being helpless in the absence of the Emperor, consented,

in the treaty of Cadan, to the restoration of Ulrich, who

immediately set about a reformation of the Church in Würtemberg.

Luther recognised in this result the evident hand of God, in that,

contrary to all expectation, nothing was destroyed and peace was

happily restored. God would bring the work to an end.

Meanwhile the Schmalkaldic allies clung tenaciously to their league,

and were intent on still further strengthening their position and

preparing themselves for all emergencies. No scruples as to whether,

if the Emperor should break the peace, they could venture to turn

their arms against him, any longer disturbed them. The terms

extorted from King Ferdinand by the Landgrave's victorious campaign,

were also in their favour. Ferdinand, in the treaty of Cadan,

promised to secure them against the suits which the Imperial

Chamber, notwithstanding the Religious Peace, still continued to

institute against them, in return for which John Frederick and his

allies consented to recognise his election as King of the Romans.

And in the interests and for the objects represented by the league,

namely, to oppose a sufficiently strong and compact power to Roman

Catholicism and its menaces, those further attempts were now made to

promote internal union among the Protestants, to which Butzer had so

unremittingly devoted his labours, and which the Landgrave Philip

among the princes considered of the utmost value.

Luther, although he admitted having formed a more favourable opinion

of Zwingli as a man, since their personal interview at Marburg, in

no way altered his opinion of Zwinglianism or of the general

tendency of his doctrines. Thus in a letter of warning sent by him

in December 1532 to the burgomaster and town-council of Münster, he

classed Zwingli with Münzer and other heads of the Anabaptists, as a

band of fanatics whom God had judged, and pointed out that whoever

once followed Zwingli, Münzer, or the Anabaptists, would very easily

be seduced into rebellion and attacks on civil government. At the

beginning of the next year he published a 'Letter to those at

Frankfort-on-the-Main,' in order to counteract the Zwinglian

doctrines and agitations there prevailing. He also warned the people

of Augsburg against their preachers, inasmuch as they pretended to

accept the Lutheran doctrine of the Sacrament, but in reality did

nothing of the kind. He abstained from entering into any further

controversy against the substance of doctrines opposed to his own.

He was concerned not so much about the victory of his own doctrine,

which he left with confidence in God's hands, but lest, under the

guise of agreement with him, error should creep in and deceit be

practised in a matter so sacred and important. He always felt

suspicious of Butzer on this point.

He now saw the evil and terrible fruits of that spirit which had

possessed Münzer and the Anabaptists,--such fruits as he had always

expected from it. In Münster, where his warning had passed

unregarded, the Anabaptists had been masters since February 1584. As

the pretended possessors of Christianity in its intellectual and

spiritual purity, they established there a kingdom of the saints,

with a mad, sensual fanaticism, a coarse worship of the flesh, and a

wild thirst for blood. This kingdom was demolished the next year by

the combined forces of the Emperor and the bishop, but a further

consequence of their defeat was the exclusion of Protestantism from

the city, which submitted again to episcopal authority. About the

Zwinglian 'Sacramentarianism' Luther wrote at that time, 'God will

mercifully do away with this scandal, so that it may not, like that

of Münster, have to be done away with by force.'