History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume I Part 37

This letter must have been written after some rather keen discussion between Maximilian and Frederick. The same day, the Elector wrote to Raphael de Rovere. He had doubtless learned that the Emperer was addressing the Roman pontiff, and to parry the blow he put himself in communication with Rome.

"I can have no other wish," said he, "than to show myself submissive to the universal Church. Accordingly, I have never defended the writings and sermons of Doctor Martin Luther. I understand, moreover, that he has always offered to appear with a safe-conduct before impartial, learned, and Christian judges, in order to defend his doctrine, and submit, in the event of being convinced by Scripture itself."[497]

[497] Luth. Op. (L.) xvii, p. 169.

Leo X, who had hitherto allowed the affair to take its course, aroused by the cries of theologians and monks, inst.i.tuted an ecclesiastical court, which was to try Luther at Rome, and in which Sylvester Prierio, the great enemy of the Reformer, was at once accuser and judge. The charge was soon drawn up, and Luther was summoned by the court to appear personally in sixty days.

Luther was at Wittemberg, calmly awaiting the good effect which his humble letter to the pope was, as he imagined, to produce, when, on the 7th of August, only two days after the despatch of the letters of Maximilian and Frederick, he received the citation from the Roman tribunal. "At the moment," says he, "when I was expecting the benediction, I saw the thunder burst upon me. I was the lamb troubling the water to the wolf. Tezel escapes, and I must allow myself to be eaten."

This citation threw Wittemberg into consternation; for whatever course Luther might adopt, he could not avert the danger. If he repaired to Rome he must there become the victim of his enemies. If he refused to go, he would, as a matter of course, be condemned for contumacy, without being able to escape; for it was known that the legate had received orders from the pope to do everything he could do to irritate the Emperor and the German princes against him. His friends were in dismay. Must the teacher of truth go with his life in his hand to that great city, _drunk with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus_?

Is it sufficient to ensure any man's destruction that he has raised his head from the bosom of enslaved Christendom? Must this man, whom G.o.d appears to have formed for resisting a power which hitherto nothing has been able to resist, be also overthrown? Luther, himself, saw no one who could save him unless it were the Elector, but he would rather die than endanger his prince. His friends at last fell on an expedient which would not compromise Frederick. Let him refuse a safe-conduct, and Luther will have a legitimate cause for refusing to appear at Rome.

On the 8th of August Luther wrote to Spalatin, praying that the Elector would employ his influence to have him cited in Germany. He also wrote to Staupitz, "See what ambuscades they use to ensnare me, and how I am surrounded with thorns. But Christ lives and reigns, to-day, yesterday, and for ever. My conscience a.s.sures me that what I have taught is the truth, though it becomes still more odious when I teach it. The Church is like the womb of Rebecca. The children must struggle together so as even to endanger the life of the mother.[498]

As to what remains, entreat the Lord that I may not have too much joy in this trial. May G.o.d not lay the sin to their charge."

[498] "Uterus Rebecca est; parvulos in eo collidi necesse est, etiam usque ad periculum matris." (Luth. Ep. i, p. 138.)

The friends of Luther did not confine themselves to consultation and complaint. Spalatin, on the part of the Elector, wrote to Renner, the Emperor's secretary, "Dr. Martin is very willing that his judges shall be all the universities of Germany, with the exception of those of Erfurt, Leipsic, and Frankfort on the Oder, which he has ground to suspect. It is impossible for him to appear personally at Rome."[499]

[499] Luth. Op. (L.) xvii, p. 173.

The university of Wittemberg wrote a letter of intercession to the pope himself, and thus spoke of Luther,--"The feebleness of his body, and the dangers of the journey, make it difficult and even impossible for him to obey the order of your Holiness. His distress and his prayers dispose us to have compa.s.sion on him. We, then, as obedient sons, entreat you, most Holy Father, to be pleased to regard him as a man who has never taught doctrines in opposition to the sentiments of the Roman Church." On the same day the university, in its anxiety, addressed Charles de Milt.i.tz, a Saxon gentleman, the chamberlain, and a great favourite of the pope, and bore testimony to Luther in terms still stronger than those which it had ventured to insert in the former letter. "The worthy father, Martin Luther, Augustin, is the n.o.blest and most honourable man of our university. For several years we have seen and known his ability, his knowledge, his high attainments in arts and literature, his irreproachable manners, and his altogether Christian conduct."[500]

[500] Ibid. i, 183, 184; xvii, 171, 172.

This active charity on the part of all who were about Luther is his finest eulogium.

While the issue was anxiously waited for, the affair terminated more easily than might have been supposed. The Legate de Vio, chagrined at not having succeeded in the commission which he had received to prepare a general war against the Turks, was desirous to give l.u.s.tre to his emba.s.sy in Germany by some other brilliant exploit; and thinking that if he extinguished heresy he would reappear at Rome with glory, he asked the pope to remit the affair to him. Leo felt himself under obligation to Frederick, for having so strenuously opposed the election of young Charles, and was aware that he might still want his a.s.sistance. Accordingly, without adverting to the citation, he charged his legate by a brief, dated 23rd of August, to examine the affair in Germany. The pope lost nothing by this mode of proceeding; and, at the same time, if Luther could be brought to a retractation, the noise and scandal which his appearance at Rome might have occasioned were avoided.

"We charge you," said he, "to bring personally before you, to pursue and constrain without delay, and as soon as you receive this our letter, the said Luther, who has already been declared heretic by our dear brother, Jerome, Bishop of Asculan."[501]

[501] "Dictum Lutherum haeretic.u.m per praedictum auditorem jam declaratum." (Breve Leonis X ad Thomam.)

Then the pope prescribes the severest measures against Luther.

"For this purpose invoke the arm and a.s.sistance of our very dear son in Christ, Maximilian, the other princes of Germany, and all its commonalties, universities, and powers ecclesiastical or secular; and if you apprehend him, keep him in safe custody, in order that he may be brought before us."[502]

[502] "Brachio cogas atque compellas, et eo in potestate tua redacto c.u.m sub fideli custodia retineas, ut coram n.o.bis sistatur." (Ibid.)

We see that this indulgent concession of the pope was little else than a surer method of dragging Luther to Rome. Next follow the gentle measures:--

"If he returns to himself, and asks pardon for his great crime, asks it of himself, and without being urged to do it, we give you power to receive him into the unity of Holy Mother Church."

The pope soon returns to malediction.

"If he persists in his obstinacy, and you cannot make yourself master of his person, we give you power to proscribe him in all parts of Germany, to banish, curse, and excommunicate all who are attached to him, and to order all Christians to shun their presence."

Still this is not enough. The pope continues:--

"And in order that this contagion maybe the more easily extirpated, you will excommunicate all prelates, religious orders, communities, counts, dukes, and grandees, except the Emperor Maximilian, who shall refuse to seize the said Martin Luther and his adherents, and send them to you, under due and sufficient guard. And if (which G.o.d forbid) the said princes, communities, universities, grandees, or any one belonging to them, offer an asylum to the said Martin and his adherents, in any way, and give him, publicly or in secret, by themselves or others, aid and counsel, we lay under interdict these princes, communities, and grandees, with their towns, burghs, fields, and villages, whither said Martin may flee, as long as he shall remain there, and for three days after he shall have left."

This audacious chair, which pretends to be the representative on earth of Him who has said, _G.o.d sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved_, continues its anathemas; and, after having denounced penalties against ecclesiastics, proceeds:--

"In regard to the laity, if they do not obey your orders instantly, and without any opposition, we declare them infamous, (with the exception of the most worthy Emperor,) incapable of performing any lawful act, deprived of Christian burial, and stript of all fiefs which they may hold, whether of the apostolic see, or of any other superior whatsoever."[503]

[503] "Infamiae et inhabilitatis ad omnes actus legitimos ecclesiasticae sepulturae, privationis quoque feudorum." (Breve Leonis X ad Thomam.)

Such was the fate which awaited Luther. The monarch of Rome has leagued for his destruction, and to effect it, spared nothing, not even the peace of the tomb. His ruin seems inevitable. How will he escape this immense conspiracy? But Rome had miscalculated; a movement produced by the Spirit of G.o.d was not to be quelled by the decrees of its chancery.

Even the forms of a just and impartial inquest had not been observed.

Luther had been declared heretic, not only without having been heard, but even before the expiry of the period named for his compearance.

The pa.s.sions (and nowhere do they show themselves stronger than in religious discussions) overleap all the forms of justice. Strange proceedings, in this respect, occur, not only in the Church of Rome, but in Protestant churches also, which have turned aside from the gospel; in other words, in all places where the truth is not, every thing done against the gospel is deemed lawful. We often see men who, in any other case, would scruple to commit the smallest injustice, not hesitating to trample under foot all forms and all rights when the matter in question is Christianity, and the testimony borne to it.

When Luther was afterwards made acquainted with this brief, he expressed his indignation. "Here," says he, "is the most remarkable part of the whole affair. The brief is dated on the 23rd of August, and I was cited for the 7th of August; so that between the citation and the brief there is an interval of sixteen days. Now, make the calculation, and you will find that my Lord Jerome, Bishop of Asculan, has proceeded against me, given judgment, condemned, and declared me heretic, before the citation could have reached me, or at most sixteen days after it had been despatched to me. Now, I ask, where are the sixty days given me in the citation? They commenced on the 7th August, and were to end on the 7th October. Is it the style and fas.h.i.+on of the court of Rome to cite, admonish, accuse, judge, and p.r.o.nounce sentence of condemnation, all in one day, against a man who is at such a distance from Rome, that he knows nothing at all of the proceedings?

What answer would they give to this? Doubtless, they forgot to purge themselves with h.e.l.lebore before proceeding to such falsehoods."[504]

[504] Luth. Op. (L.) xvii, p. 176.

But at the same time that Rome was secretly depositing her thunders in the hands of her legate, she was endeavouring, by smooth and flattering words, to detach the prince whose power she most dreaded from Luther's cause. The same day, 25th August 1518, the pope wrote the Elector of Saxony. Recurring to those wiles of ancient policy which we have already pointed out, he endeavoured to flatter the prince's self-love:

"Dear son," said the Roman pontiff, "when we think on your n.o.ble and honourable race, and on yourself, its head and ornament; when we recollect how you and your ancestors have always desired to maintain Christian faith, and the honour and dignity of the Holy See, we cannot believe that a man who abandons the faith can trust to the favour of your Highness, in giving loose reins to his wickedness. And yet it is told us from all quarters that a certain friar, Martin Luther, Eremite of the order of St. Augustine, has, like a child of malice, and a contemner of G.o.d, forgotten his habit and his order, which consist in humility and obedience, and is boasting that he fears neither the authority nor the punishment of any man, because a.s.sured of your favour and protection.

"But, as we know that he is mistaken, we have thought good to write to your Highness, and exhort you, according to the Lord, to be vigilant for the honour of your name as a Christian prince, and to defend yourself from these calumnies--yourself the ornament, the glory, and sweet savour of your n.o.ble race--and to guard, not only against a fault so grave as that which is imputed to you, but also against even the suspicion which the insensate hardihood of this friar tends to excite against you."

Leo X, at the same time, announced to Frederick that he had charged Cardinal Saint Sixtus to examine the affair, and he enjoined him to put Luther into the hands of the legate, "lest," added he, returning again to his favourite argument, "lest the pious people of our time, and of future times, may one day lament and say, The most pernicious heresy with which the Church of G.o.d has been afflicted was excited by the favour and support of this high and honourable House."[505]

[505] Luth. Op. (L.) xvii, p. 173.

Thus Rome had taken all her measures. With one hand she diffused the perfume of praise, which is always so intoxicating, while the other held terrors and vengeance.

All the powers of the earth, emperor, pope, princes, and legates, began to move against this humble friar of Erfurt, whose internal combats we have already traced. "_The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers took counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed._"

CHAP. III.

The Armourer Schwarzerd--His Wife--Philip--His Genius--His Studies--The Bible--Call to Wittemberg--Melancthon's Departure and Journey--Leipsic--Mistake--Luther's Joy--Parallel--Revolution in Education--Study of Greek.

The letter and brief had not reached Germany, and Luther was still fearing that he would be obliged to appear at Rome, when a happy event gave comfort to his heart. He needed a friend to whom he could unbosom his sorrows, and whose faithful love would solace him in his hours of depression. All this G.o.d gave him in Melancthon.

On the 14th February 1497, George Schwarzerd, a skilful armour-master of Bretten, a small town in the Palatinate, had a son born to him, who was named Philip, and who afterwards distinguished himself under the name of Melancthon. Patronised by the Palatine princes, and those of Bavaria and Saxony, George was a man of unimpeachable integrity. He often refused the price which purchasers offered him, and on learning that they were poor, insisted on returning their money. He rose regularly at midnight, and on his knees offered up a prayer. If on any occasion morning arrived without his having done it, he felt dissatisfied with himself the whole day. Barbara, Schwarzerd's wife, was daughter of an honourable magistrate named John Reuter. She was of a gentle temper, somewhat inclined to superst.i.tion, but otherwise remarkable for wisdom and prudence. From her we have the old well-known German rhymes--

The giving of alms impoverisheth not; Attendance at Church impedeth not; Greasing the wheel r.e.t.a.r.deth not; Ill-gotten gear enricheth not; The Book of G.o.d deceiveth not.

And again--