History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume III Part 29

[404] Ihr sollt sehen da.s.s ich alle Buchsensteine im Ermel fa.s.sen will. L. Opp. xix. 297.

[Sidenote: END OF THE INSURRECTION.]

The landgrave, having a.s.sembled his hors.e.m.e.n, said to them: "I well know that we princes are often in fault, for we are but men; but G.o.d commands all men to honour the powers that be. Let us save our wives and children from the fury of these murderers. The Lord will give us the victory, for he has said: _Whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of G.o.d_." Philip then gave the signal of attack. It was the 15th of May 1525. The army was put in motion; but the peasant host stood immovable, singing the hymn, "Come, Holy Ghost," and waiting for Heaven to declare in their favour. The artillery soon broke down their rude rampart, carrying dismay and death into the midst of the insurgents. Their fanaticism and courage at once forsook them; they were seized with a panic-terror, and ran away in disorder. Five thousand perished in the flight.

After the battle the princes and their victorious troops entered Frankenhausen. A soldier, who had gone into a loft in the house where he was quartered, found a man in bed.[405] "Who art thou," asked he; "art thou one of the rebels?" Then observing a pocket-book, he took it up, and found several letters addressed to Thomas Munzer. "Art thou Munzer?" demanded the trooper. The sick man answered "No." But as the soldier uttered dreadful threats, Munzer, for it was really he, confessed who he was. "Thou art my prisoner," said the horseman. When Munzer was taken before Duke George and the landgrave, he persevered in saying that he was right to chastise the princes, since they opposed the Gospel. "Wretched man!" replied they, "think of all those of whose death you have been the cause." But he answered, smiling in the midst of his anguish: "They would have it so!" He took the sacrament under one kind, and was beheaded at the same time with Pfeiffer, his lieutenant. Mulhausen was taken, and the peasants were loaded with chains.

[405] So findet er einen am Bett.

A n.o.bleman having observed among the crowd of prisoners a peasant of favourable appearance, went up and said to him: "Well, my man, which government do you like best--that of the peasants or of the princes?"

The poor fellow made answer with a deep sigh: "Ah, my lord, no knife cuts so deep as the rule of peasant over his fellows."[406]

[406] Kein Messer scherpfer schirrt denn wenn ein Baur des andern Herr wird. Mathes. p. 48.

[Sidenote: INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMERS.]

The relics of the insurrection were quenched in blood; Duke George, in particular, acted with the greatest severity. In the states of the elector, there were neither executions nor punishment.[407] The Word of G.o.d, preached in all its purity, had shown its power to restrain the tumultuous pa.s.sions of the people.

[407] Hic nulla carnificina, nullum supplicium. Corp. Ref. i. 752.

From the very beginning, indeed, Luther had not ceased to struggle against the rebellion, which was, in his opinion, the forerunner of the judgment-day. Advice, prayers, and even irony had not been spared.

At the end of the articles drawn up at Erfurth by the rebels, he had subjoined, as a supplementary article: "_Item_, The following article has been omitted. Henceforward the honourable council shall have no power; it shall do nothing; it shall sit like an idol or a log of wood; the commonalty shall chew its food, and it shall govern with its hands and feet tied; henceforth the waggon shall guide the horses, the horses shall hold the reins, and we shall go on admirably, in conformity with the glorious system set forth in these articles."

Luther did not confine himself to writing. While the disturbance was still at its height, he quitted Wittemberg and went through some of the districts where the agitation was greatest. He preached, he laboured to soften his hearers' hearts, and his hand, to which G.o.d had given power, turned aside, quieted, and brought back the impetuous and overflowing torrents into their natural channels.

In every quarter the doctors of the Reformation exerted a similar influence. At Halle, Brentz had revived the drooping spirits of the citizens by the promises of G.o.d's Word, and four thousand peasants had fled before six hundred citizens.[408] At Ichterhausen, a mob of peasants having a.s.sembled with an intent to demolish several castles and put their lords to death, Frederick Myconius went out to them alone, and such was the power of his words, that they immediately abandoned their design.[409]

[408] Eorum animos fractos et perturbatos verbo Dei erexit. M. Adami Vit. Brentii, p. 441.

[409] Agmen rusticorum qui convenerant ad demeliendas arces, unice oratione sic compescuit. M. Adami Vita Fred. Myconii, p. 178.

[Sidenote: LUTHER'S SPIRITUAL AGONY.]

Such was the part taken by the reformers and the Reformation in the midst of this revolt; they contended against it with all their might, with the sword of the Word, and boldly maintained those principles which alone, in every age, can preserve order and subjection among the nations. Accordingly, Luther a.s.serted that if the power of sound doctrine had not checked the fury of the people, the revolt would have extended its ravages far more widely, and have overthrown both Church and State. Everything leads us to believe that these melancholy prognostics would have been realized.

If the reformers thus contended against sedition, it was not without receiving grievous wounds. That moral agony which Luther had first suffered in his cell at Erfurth, became still more serious after the insurrection of the peasants. No great change takes place among men without suffering on the part of those who are its instruments. The birth of Christianity was effected by the agony of the cross; but He who hung upon that cross addressed these words to each of his disciples: _Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the same baptism that I am baptized with?_

On the side of the princes, it was continually repeated that Luther and his doctrine were the cause of the revolt, and, however absurd this idea may be, the reformer could not see it so generally entertained without experiencing the deepest grief. On the side of the people, Munzer and all the leaders of the insurrection represented him as a vile hypocrite, a flatterer of the great,[410] and these calumnies easily obtained belief. The violence with which Luther had declared against the rebels had displeased even moderate men. The friends of Rome exulted;[411] all were against him, and he bore the heavy anger of his times. But his greatest affliction was to behold the work of heaven thus dragged in the mire, and cla.s.sed with the most fanatical projects. Here he felt was his Gethsemane: he saw the bitter cup that was presented to him; and foreboding that he would be forsaken by all, he exclaimed: "Soon, perhaps, I also shall be able to say: _All ye shall be offended because of me this night_."[412]

[410] Quod adulator principum vocer. L. Epp. ii. 671.

[411] Gaudent papistae de nostro dissidio. Ibid. 612.

[412] Matt. xxvi. 31. L. Epp. ii. 671.

[Sidenote: CHANGE.]

Yet in the midst of this deep bitterness, he preserved his faith: "He who has given me power to trample the enemy under foot," said he, "when he rose up against me like a cruel dragon or a furious lion, will not permit this enemy to crush me, now that he appears before me with the treacherous glance of the basilisk.[413] I groan as I contemplate those calamities. Often have I asked myself, whether it would not have been better to have allowed the papacy to go on quietly, rather than witness the occurrence of so many troubles and seditions in the world. But no! it is better to have s.n.a.t.c.hed a few souls from the jaws of the devil, than to have left them all between his murderous fangs."[414]

[413] Qui c.u.m toties hactenus sub pedibus meis calcavit et contrivit leonem et draconem, non sinet etiam basilisc.u.m super me calcare. Ibid.

[414] Es ist besser einige aus dem Rachen des Teufels herausreissen.

L. Opp. H. Ed. ix. 961.

Now terminated the revolution in Luther's mind that had begun at the period of his return from the Wartburg. The inner life no longer satisfied him: the Church and her inst.i.tutions now became most important in his eyes. The boldness with which he had thrown down everything was checked at the sight of still more sweeping destructions; he felt it his duty to preserve, govern, and build up; and from the midst of the blood-stained ruins with which the peasant war had covered all Germany, the edifice of the new Church began slowly to arise.

These disturbances left a lasting and deep impression on men's minds.

The nations had been struck with dismay. The ma.s.ses, who had sought in the Reformation nothing but political reform, withdrew from it of their own accord, when they saw it offered them spiritual liberty only. Luther's opposition to the peasants was his renunciation of the ephemeral favour of the people. A seeming tranquillity was soon established, and the noise of enthusiasm and sedition was followed in all Germany by a silence inspired by terror.[415]

[415] Ea res incussit......vulgo terrorem ut nihil usquam moveatur.

Corp. Ref. i. 752.

[Sidenote: TWO RESULTS.]

Thus the popular pa.s.sions, the cause of revolution, the interests of a radical equality, were quelled in the empire; but the Reformation did not yield. These two movements, which many have confounded with each other, were clearly marked out by the difference of their results. The insurrection was from below; the Reformation from above. A few hors.e.m.e.n and cannons were sufficient to put down the one; but the other never ceased to rise in strength and vigour, in despite of the reiterated a.s.saults of the empire and the Church.

CHAPTER XII.

Death of the Elector Frederick--The Prince and the Reformer--Roman-catholic Alliance--Plans of Charles the Fifth--Dangers.

Meanwhile the cause of the Reformation itself appeared as if it would perish in the gulf that had swallowed up the liberties of the people.

A melancholy event seemed destined to accelerate its fall. At the moment when the princes were marching against Munzer, and ten days before his defeat, the aged Elector of Saxony, that man whom G.o.d had raised up to defend the Reformation against all dangers from without, descended to the tomb.

His strength diminished day by day; the horrors that accompanied the peasant war wrung his feeling heart. "Alas!" exclaimed he with a deep sigh, "if it were G.o.d's will, I should die with joy. I see neither love, nor truth, nor faith, nor any good remaining upon earth."[416]

[416] Noch etwas gutes mehr in der Welt. Seckend. p. 702.

[Sidenote: DEATH OF THE ELECTOR.]

Averting his eyes from the struggles then prevailing throughout Germany, this pious prince, who was at that time residing in the castle of Lochau, tranquilly prepared to depart. On the 4th of May he called for his chaplain, the faithful Spalatin: "You do right to come and see me," said he mildly, as the chaplain entered: "for it is our duty to visit the sick." Then ordering his couch to be wheeled towards the table near which Spalatin was sitting, he bade his attendants leave the room, and then affectionately taking his friend's hand, spoke with him familiarly about Luther, the peasants, and his approaching departure. Spalatin came again at eight in the evening; the aged prince then unburdened his soul, and confessed his sins in the presence of G.o.d. On the morrow, it was the 5th of May, he received the communion under both kinds. No member of his family was near him; his brother and his nephew were gone with the army; but his domestics stood around him, according to the ancient custom of those times. As they gazed on that venerable prince, whom it had been so sweet a task to serve, they all burst into tears.[417] "My little children," said he tenderly, "if I have offended any one of you, forgive me for the love of G.o.d; for we princes often give offence to the poor, and that is wrong." Thus did Frederick obey the injunction of the apostle: _Let him that is rich rejoice in that he is made low; because as the flower of the gra.s.s he shall pa.s.s away_.[418]

[417] Da.s.s alle Umstehende zum weinen bewegt. Seckend. p. 702.

[418] James i. 10.

Spalatin did not leave him again; he set before him the rich promises of the Gospel, and the pious elector drank in its powerful consolations with indescribable peace. The doctrine of the Gospel was no longer to him that sword which attacks error, following it up wherever it may be found, and after a vigorous contest triumphing over it at last; it fell upon his heart like the dew, or the gentle rain, filling it with hope and joy. Frederick had forgotten the present world: he saw nothing but G.o.d and eternity.

[Sidenote: THE PRINCE AND THE REFORMER.]

Feeling the rapid approach of death, he destroyed a will that he had made some years before, and in which he had commended his soul to "the mother of G.o.d;" and dictated another, in which he called upon the holy and the sole merits of Jesus Christ "for the forgiveness of his sins," and declared his firm a.s.surance "that he was redeemed by the precious blood of his beloved Saviour."[419] He then added: "I can say no more!" and that evening, at five o'clock, he quietly fell asleep.

"He was a child of peace," exclaimed his physician, "and in peace he has departed."--"O bitter death to all whom he has left behind him!"

said Luther.[420]

[419] Durch das theure Blut meines allerliebsten Heylandes erloset.

Seck. p. 703.